The Oldest War

by Matt Snee

  “Because I can still fight.”

  “When you can't fight anymore, will you admit defeat?”

  “Never.” Jennifer clenched her teeth.

  The monkey-door thought to itself for a few moments. Then it threw its thick voice around again.

  “Okay, second question: how did your parents really die?”

  “Why do you ask questions such as this?'

  “I can ask questions about whatever I like,” the monkey-door responded.

  “Even if they hurt?”

  “Especially if they hurt.” The door smiled ferociously.

  Jennifer looked down at the ground. “We were all arguing. And then it just happened. My mom pushed me out of the way. The walls came down. Afterwards they did not answer.”

  “Because they were dead, am I correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “I tried to reach them. It caved in more, almost killing me. What could I do but leave them?”

  “And where are they now?”

  “They are still there. The cold probably… preserves their bodies.”

  “When you tried to reach them again you didn't get close to them at all?”

  “No—I got to my mother. She was dead. Her eyes were open. I took her necklace.” Jennifer placed her hand at her neck where she kept the ranaadamtrix.

  “She 'gave' it to you, right?”

  “Right.”

  The monkey-door laughed loudly. “Okay, now for my final question: What did you do next?”

  Jennifer hesitated. “That is not your business. That is someone else's secret.”

  “It's not! I suppose it isn't…”

  “Then can I pass, my lord?”

  The monkey-door considered the possibility. “There's only one way through: a bonus question. To pass through you must crawl into my mouth.”

  “But what if you eat me, my lord?”

  “I would never do such a thing!”

  “That is kind,” she said. “But I am still afraid.”

  “Never be afraid,” the monkey-door instructed, a strict tone in its voice. “If you want to pass, then you have to answer one more question: the question of my mouth and my teeth. Perhaps they will chomp you to pieces. Or perhaps I will let you through.”

  “Which one is it?” Jennifer was truly afraid, deep down in her heart. It was not a good or thrilling fear. She realized she had no choice; the future was set—she just did not know what it would be. All she could do was go through the motions. For some reason, she rolled up her sleeves. She licked her lips and shivered.

  “Ready?” the door asked, sick of its earlier games, now that it had this one.

  “Yes,” she breathed. She walked up to the door. It opened its mouth wide, revealing a pink stone interior complete with stone tongue and sharp stone teeth. It was divinity trapped in the shape of rocks. Few gods were granted bodies; the monkey-door was one of the lucky ones.

  It opened its mouth to the size of a dryer door. She lifted her foot onto its lip, climbing up into its jaw. The stone was wet, slippery, with a kind of oil tracing its blemishes. Her hand took hold of the stone teeth, keeping her balance as she pulled her other leg up and ducked her head in. The mouth was a tiny compartment. She could be crushed without a thought. She was claustrophobic by nature. This test was more dangerous than any other. She went to it willingly, with no escape plan.

  If this is it, this is it. Will I die like this? The universe could be like that. Am I ready to die? Will I return to the Cosmic Garden? Will I rise further?”

  She had all but forgotten about the Shard now that death confronted her. All she could think of was the pain, and what it would feel like to be crushed by the stone of the monkey-door's mouth. Crushed, like—

  The way her parents had died.

  There was no choice now. She pulled the rest of her body into the monkey-door's mouth and it suddenly closed behind her. Everything was darkness.

  Please, she thought. Please don't let me die.

  * * *

  She thought of the wish jewel now, as she lay there. It chose which wishes it would grant, and what wishes it would not. Would it get her out of this, as it had saved her from so much else? She did not know. The truth was this, even when she had given it to Plerrxx, the clone-warps had not stopped. Right now she thought of her father – he had not been here; she was sure of it.

  A truth passed through her - her mother had been. She considered and immediately knew it was true. Her mother had never said anything—but Jennifer could feel her presence near. Kitty Pichon and her indomitable soul trembled not far away.

  This thought made her lose her fear quickly. As soon as she did, the mouth opened on the other side, revealing a gray mist that poured into the enclosure. She crawled out, finding herself at the front of a stone maze contained inside the mausoleum. There were three entrances; all bidding her to enter. Seeing a flicker of light in its corners, Jennifer chose the middle door, knowing that this was just another riddle.

  She began the maze, following the light. It flashed pale, in a color she knew could come from only one source. She found her way through multiple passageways, the light steering her. I know what you are, she thought. I know you're here.

  The light brightened until she came to a courtyard filled with flowers—and a clone warp. It was indeed her mother. Kitty was young, perhaps just seventeen years old. Staring down the maze before her. She questioned if she had made the right choice. Jennifer wondered the same. There was no answer.

  Kitty had contact with the Delphiniums. They knew her—she had been from one of the richest families on Jupiter. How far had their relationship gone? What had the Delphiniums meant to her mother? Had she been one of them?

  No, she thought. Kitty Pichon would never have joined an organization like that. She had been too willful to let others tell her what to do. She hadn't known how to compromise. She had been a tigress as a teenager, just like her daughter.

  Jennifer watched her mother. Did she do nothing? Say nothing? The clone warp seemed to loop back to where her mother first peered into the passage in front of her. She saw the end. Her mother frowned and lifted her hand to her chest, taking her necklace in her fingers. Although Kitty was young in the clone warp, she was old enough to know Marty Pichon, seven years her senior. He had escaped Earth and presented her the necklace. Her mother had told Jennifer the story.

  What is it? Jennifer's mother had asked Martin.

  The rarest jewel in the Solar System, he had answered.

  Is it for me?

  He had nodded. Yes.

  She had turned around and lifted up her hair, letting him put it on her.

  There, he had said once it was fastened around her neck and shoulders. He had been so confident and worldly to Kitty, unlike anyone else. She had loved him before the jewel. It had just been a present, an exclamation point placed on their relationship, a promise.

  The clone warp looped back to the beginning, where her mother had taken her first eager steps toward the deeper maze before clenching her necklace in her fingers. The moment replayed, and replayed, and replayed.

  Jennifer walked around it as its electricity bubbled. A slight wind blew from the manifestation. She passed to the other side of the light, back into the maze. This was the way her mother had gone.

  What would come next? She went slowly through the maze—there were no forks, only a narrow winding path that turned this way and that. After a few minutes she came to a choice: go left, down a slope, or right, up a slant. There was no hint. I will go down, Jennifer thought, and let gravity guide me.

  She took small steps down the hill, through the new corridor. Here the stone was darker, mimicking the look of hedges. It was hot to the touch. She must have been close; she hurried. She came to another fork. She chose left again. A new wall rose higher than the others, protecting some kind of inner room where the Shard probably rested. Jennifer pondered the wall carefully. It was slippery and warm, not
easy to climb. There must be a way around it.

  She walked up and down the wall, looking for a passage. When that failed, she did so again, this time letting her hand glide across the rock, looking for some secret. There was nothing.

  “I've reached a dead end,” she said to herself.

  Looking up to the sky, she could see the sunlight pouring in through the mist. Beyond she saw the flashing burst of Jon Jason's dream ship, fast approaching. She realized he could be only minutes away. She must have made an error.

  She turned around and hurried back to the last fork, going right this time. She went down a steep slope into a long roofed-passage that led underneath the structure. She came to another slope. She took the slope leading to the other side of the main wall.

  The central area was housed behind four curved walls which spread for a hundred feet. Little heaps of rocks littered the ground; above was only sky and the light of the dream ship as it slowly descended. At the intersection of the room stood a single thing: The Shard.

  It was a plain thing; rough, triangular, but held upon a glowing pedestal whose brilliance was almost blinding.

  She crept toward it.

  The dream ship continued to flood light into the maze. She could hear its growing hum above her. The wind picked up.

  “Stop!”

  She turned. It was Jon Jason. He stood in a synthetic dream suit on the opposite side of the chamber, holding a gun low in his hands—not a laser gun like Jennifer's, but a cowboy-style revolver imported from Earth. Jennifer turned back to the Triborg, which continued to sleep.

  “I said stop,” Jon Jason raised the gun.

  “You won't shoot me,” Jennifer argued.

  “Yes, I will,” he replied. He aimed the gun and fired. The bullet screamed off the rock beneath her feet and ricocheted into infinity, without touching either of them.

  She caught her breath, “How could you do that?”

  “I'm serious here, Jenn.”

  “So am I.”

  Jon Jason continued to point the gun at her.

  “You're going to have to kill me, Jon Jason.”

  “I know I will,” he said. “But not yet.”

  “No—now!” Jennifer dashed around a large rock, hoping for defense. Jon Jason fired again, the bullet whizzing past into the rock behind her.

  She pulled out her laser gun and fired back, casting a harsh pink laser at his thigh. He grunted and fell forward onto his belly. She had cut him deep.

  “You!” he barked. “I'll kill you, Jenn!”

  “No you won't!” She aimed again and pulled the trigger. He rolled out of the way, behind a small pile of rocks. The laser hit the stones uselessly, ripping a blue smoke from them.

  “Jenn!” It was Jon Jason, shouting from behind his shelter. “Don't touch it! Don't you understand? I'll kill both of us if I have to!”

  She frowned. If that was true, then it was too late. But she didn't care. She held tighter to her laser gun, ready to fight.

  Volunteers flooded into the chamber, pointing rifles at her.

  She lowered her laser gun. She couldn't kill them all. She felt her defeat.

  “There,” said Jon Jason, limping toward her in pain, taking the laser gun from her hands. He hit her with the butt of his pistol; there was nothing but darkness.

  18. Failure

  Nature is made up of spheres, laid to sleep, like slow voices no ear can hear. This, the last of reality's barbary, clung to him like steel armor. It would protect him, fuse him to the future, and maybe, just maybe – bring her back.

  –Lewis Darby, “I, Ape”

  The Captain watched from his canoe as Jon Jason's dream ship ascended into the air and blasted off into the clouds, leaving only a dwindling flashing light. Horror gripped his heart. Jennifer better not be on that thing, he thought.

  He paddled faster, only sixty feet from the shore. He listened to the sound of the paddles striving through the slush. Around him the Delphiniums followed, with Plerrxx behind them. They had paddled for hours and their arms were tired. The black slush slipped between them shimmering, similar to an oil puddle.

  The Captain called out to Jennifer before they reached the shore. His voice echoed sickly in the “air”. There was no answer. Once he reached land, Captain jumped out of the canoe and ran up the glassy beach toward the structure.

  “Jennifer!” he cried out again.

  The monkey-door, its smiling countenance lilting gaily in its frame now, swept open. The Captain approached carefully. Once he was within reach, it slammed shut in front of him, giggling.

  “Oh—no!” The door roared gleefully.

  “Let me pass!” The Captain could only think of Jennifer's safety.

  “I do not think so,” said the monkey-door. “You are not permitted into these sacred grounds.”

  “Did Jennifer come through here?”

  “She did… she did.”

  He gestured to Tess, who had arrived behind him with Plerrxx, Courage, and Calm. Tess nodded and pulled out her plasmid whip. She thrashed violently at the door; the energy splash had no effect. The monkey-door laughed again.

  “Nice try, but you'll have to do better than that to hurt a god!”

  “Let me pass!” The Captain growled. He would tear down the door with his bare hands if he had to.

  “It's no use,” Tess told him. “She's not here. Can't you feel it? She's on the dream ship.”

  He ground his teeth together, clenching his fists. What now?

  “Jennifer Pichon still lives,” said the door. “I'll tell you that.”

  “Where is the Shard?” the Captain demanded.

  “Gone too, young lad. It has gone toward its destiny now. Until it returns…”

  The Captain turned back to Plerrxx. The cat-man grimaced, baring his fangs.

  “I think we are stuck,” Plerrxx thought to them. He swiveled and looked up at the sky.

  “But look!”

  Jon Jason's dream ship was far away already. On the other side of the clouds there was a new flashing light, brighter, approaching—another dream ship? The Captain squinted his eyes, wondering what this meant.

  “It's Douglas Daniel,” Tess announced.

  The Captain looked her in the eyes, furious but hopeful.

  “How do you know?”

  The future queen of the Delphiniums looked down at the ground, the few visible parts of her face behind the mask turning a cold blue. “Jennifer made a deal. We made a deal.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “She didn't tell you anything… I don't know why.”

  “Slow down and explain,” he commanded.

  “Jennifer negotiated a deal between Douglas Daniel and the Delphiniums. Douglas Daniel is coming to help us. This is his ship, the Phantom Ray.”

  The colors of its lights were different than Jon Jason's, more organic and beautiful.

  “When did this happen? Why didn't she tell me?” The Captain was both scared and angry with Jennifer. Why hadn't she told him this?

  “Not even I knew that,” Plerrxx interjected. “She hid it from my mind.” He peered at Tess. “And so did you…?”

  “We're female,” Tess explained. “We can disguise our thoughts.”

  Plerrxx nodded. The Captain's mind raced with thoughts of Jennifer in danger. What would Jon Jason do to her? Did she leave of her own free will? No. She would not have. Would she? He did not know. As much as he cared for Jennifer, she frustrated him with her secrets.

  Tess stepped toward him and placed her hand on his shoulder.

  “I'm sorry,” she said. “But we will save her. And if not, then she will be avenged.”

  These words did nothing to calm the Captain. He fell into a sitting position completely exhausted. He brought his hands up to pull off his mask, but thought better of it. Instead, he dropped his arms to the sand. Was there no hope?

  Plerrx followed suit, sitting beside the Captain.

  “I'll stand guard,” Tess said, crossing
her arms and settling her feet. The Captain moaned, inadvertently, feeling ashamed for displaying his feelings to the others in such a way. No one said a word, and even the monkey-door was silent.

  * * *

  The Captain watched as the light grew in the sky. It took hours, almost a day. When the dream ship finally descended, they saw it was balloon-shaped, hyper yellow, with swooping wings and a long tail.

  Captain was fatigued, hungry, and scared for Jennifer. All he could think of was what Jon Jason would do to her… Would he hurt her?

  The dream ship landed and its long door opened into the surrounding iron casing. Douglas Daniel appeared and stepped out of the Death Dream in a protective bionic suit that clutched him like an insect grasping its prey. The Dunleavy patriarch was followed by a Shadow Puppet; its black cape fluttered in the wind while its golden shell looked damp in the lingering mist. Its ruby red eyes glowed darkly.

  “And the Shadow?” The Captain addressed Tess, upset in a new way now. “What is it doing here?”

  “Maybe that's why she didn't want you to know,” said Tess. “She knew you would object. But it's the only way.”

  “There's never only one way!” the Captain argued. “Fate is determined, not woven.”

  “Though the universe is woven beneath us,” Tess finished. It was a line from one of the Captain's books; how did she know it? She answered his curious glare. “I read books.”

  Did his books reach this far into the Solar System? Geez, he thought. Where are the royalties for that? His mind crossed back into the present. Douglas Daniel and the Shadow Puppet came toward them, protected by a squad of armored soldiers. The soldiers did not look alive, but rather like constructions. Whose army is this? he wondered.

  “Tess! Captain! What has happened?” Douglas Daniel was panicked. The Shadow Puppet stood quietly beside him.

  “They took Jennifer and the Triborg!” Tess exclaimed, before anyone else could talk. It was important for the future queen to be assertive around the Dunleavys and the Shadows.

  Douglas Daniel repeated what she had said, “The Triborg?”

  “It's gone!” the Captain shouted. “And so is Jennifer.”