Transcendent (9781311909442)

by Halstead, Jason

  “It doesn’t frighten you?”

  “If this was an easy path, I wouldn’t be interested in it. It wouldn’t let me have the same influence that I’m counting on.”

  He stared at her again and shook his head. “You amaze me, Miss Lily. So advanced beyond your years. Are you sure you’re only fourteen?”

  Lily grinned. “Yes, sir. Only fourteen.”

  He turned to Palla. “What do you think, Miss Palla?”

  Palla hesitated and glanced back and forth between the two of them.

  “Go ahead, speak freely. If she’s to understand what she’s getting herself into, she’d best hear it from her friends first.”

  Palla nodded. “I think if there’s anyone stubborn enough to do it, it’s Lily.”

  President Ondalla laughed. “That’s spoken like a true friend!”

  Lily blushed and turned to see Palla beaming at the president. She looked back, her embarrassment fading as her irritation with Palla rose.

  “Perhaps, when you’ve achieved your mastery, your administrative skills might serve your friend well. If she manages to pass the tests needed. Are you up for a challenge, Miss Lily?”

  Lily stiffened. Wasn’t she challenging herself enough already? “Yes, sir!”

  “Let’s see if you can’t pass the prerequisite benchmarks by the time you hit sixteen. Then a year of advanced studies and, if you pass them in the proper percentile, you’ll have the hardware installed and be ready to pilot your first biomech within days of turning seventeen.”

  Palla gasped. Lily stared at him and started to nod until something he said stuck in her head. “Hardware installed?”

  He tilted his head and smiled. “Yes. Biomechs are exactly that, a merging of mechanics and organics. Living muscle tissue provides a means for them to move with the speed and strength necessary to support them. Did you notice the stains and fluids spilled on the display? Much of that was the blood of the biomechs. Not quite the same blood as you or I might have, but an oxygenated and nutrient-rich solution that keeps the muscles healthy and able to repair themselves.”

  “I didn’t know,” Lily whispered.

  “That’s only a part of it,” he went on. “In order for a pilot to merge with the biomech, he or she must have a synaptic adapter installed. You literally plug yourself into the biomech so it can read your thoughts and know how to move. You and the biomech become one.”

  Lily’s eyes widened.

  “Rethinking things?” he wondered.

  “No, sir.” Lily was quick to answer. “It sounds fascinating. Exciting. Cool. Why not a helmet or a wireless connection?”

  He smiled. “Those can be jammed. Hard connections are the fastest and safest.”

  She nodded.

  “Young misses, let me congratulate you both again. I trust I don’t need to remind you that I’ll be watching and pulling for you. As will everyone else.”

  Lily swallowed and shared a glance with the star-struck Palla. She managed, barely, to avoid rolling her eyes at her mentor’s behavior. She turned back to the president and forced herself to think of Krys so she could bring up a smile that she wasn’t in the mood to give. “I won’t let you down, sir.”

  Chapter 21

  Krys looked up from his hands as the door opened. He twisted and saw a woman in a blue and white uniform walk around him and move to sit behind the desk in front of him. She looked him up and down and frowned. “Name?”

  Krys stared back. Her voice sounded familiar. It took him back to a time when the world was falling apart around him. Was it possible? Could she be the same soldier who had saved his life in the forest? He couldn’t tell; she’d been wearing armor and a helmet then. The soldier’s voice had been distorted by the helmet speakers too, but something about it seemed familiar.

  “Look, kid, you don’t want a part of this. Tell me your name, already.”

  Krys jerked. The words and the voice. “You!” he whispered.

  “That’s not your name,” she said.

  “Krys, sorry,” he mumbled. “Krys Evans. You were in the forest. You—”

  She glared at him and stopped him mid-sentence with her intense eyes. Once he’d clamped his lips together, she turned to the infopad on her desk and started tapping on it. She grunted and turned back to him. “Let’s try again. Name?”

  “What? That is my name.”

  “Krys Evans is already accounted for,” she said. “So who are you?”

  “That’s not possible!” Krys’s voice rose a few octaves as he protested. “I’m Krys Evans!”

  She frowned. “Why would we already have you accounted for then?”

  Krys shook his head. “There’s got to be a mistake. I’ve been hiding in the woods since you guys came.”

  She sighed. “By yourself? Aren’t you a little young to survive on your own like that?”

  “I’m almost fifteen,” Krys said. “I grew up here. I know how to get by.”

  “You’ve been stealing from us?”

  Krys shrugged.

  “Your pad had a broken screen but they tell me they found a control program in the memory for a highpicker. The same picker that we were tracking.”

  Krys frowned. He’d been right; they had been tracking the picker. “How? I took the locator out.”

  The soldier smirked. “Young man, there’s hardly any technology on this ball of mud. Tracking energy expenditures is a simple thing.”

  Krys gasped. Why hadn’t he thought of that? It was obvious! Except his group didn’t have the equipment necessary to do something like that. They would have needed access to satellites, or at least the sensors at the village. Maybe a couple of villages.

  “I thought it might be the heartbeat signal,” he admitted. “But then I realized that wouldn’t be running since I put the picker in manual mode.”

  She cleared her throat and stared him in the eye before asking, “So tell me, who are you, really, and who are your friends?”

  “What? What friends?”

  She raised a questioning eyebrow. “You assaulted one of our workers and, to hear him tell it, you weren’t the one who attacked him.”

  “Must have been another group.”

  She pressed her lips into a straight line as she stared at him. “Young man, are you aware of what’s going on? What’s happened here? Everywhere?”

  Krys shook his head. “The trees get lousy reception.”

  Her lips twitched before she leaned forward. “Look, you’re playing a very dangerous game. This world—all the worlds—are not like they used to be. There’s a new government, run by a man by the name of President Ondalla. Things are going to be different, or at least that’s his pledge that was strong enough to win the support of a lot of people in the right places.”

  Krys listened carefully, excited to get the news and even more interested in trying to understand why the soldier didn’t sound like she was a supporter.

  “All of humanity, from the solar collectors near Mercury to Mars and beyond, is going to live differently. People work for one another, not for themselves. Resources like food and water will be handled differently. They will be distributed where the need is, not where the wealth is. In fact, wealth is a concept that everyone will need to redefine.”

  “Redefine?” Krys asked.

  “Yes. People will earn what they deserve, not whatever they can extort out of the system,” she said.

  Krys grunted. “Seems fair enough.”

  “That’s what it’s based on, fairness.”

  “So part of being fair required all the people who lived here being killed?” he asked. Krys tried to match the earlier intensity of her gaze as he stared at her. “And why haven’t you killed me yet? Since I don’t know anything about anybody else, what’s stopping you?”

  “We follow orders. We all have our place,” she snapped. “As for you, you’re young. Fourteen? That’s the prime age for reeducation.”

  “What’s that?” Krys asked, feigning ignorance. It didn’t take
much acting.

  “We’re loading up freight to send for transport off-world. We get you sorted out and you’ll end up on that ship, bound for a reeducation center. They’ll get you put into the system and teach you how things should be.”

  Krys nodded. “Is that what you did with my friends?”

  “If your friends were children, yes.”

  Krys nodded. “They were.”

  “But first we have to know who you are.”

  “I told you that.”

  She frowned. “And I told you I already have someone with that name. The alternative is that you end up shot. With no name to track you by, I just have to account for the expenditure of ammunition.”

  Krys’s eyes widened. “My father was the maintenance manager for this colony,” he said. “He kept everything here running. That’s how I knew how to do what I did with the picker. I used to work with him.”

  “His name?” she asked.

  “Dunmer Evans.”

  She tapped her pad and nodded. “Son Krys, wife Anna.”

  “My mom,” Krys breathed.

  She stared at him a long moment. “I don’t understand why anyone would pretend to be you. I do understand why you would pretend you’re somebody else, though.”

  “I can’t pretend to be someone else,” Krys said. “I mean, I could, but I wouldn’t know who. I only know what I know!”

  She nodded. “I should probably shoot you and be done with you. You’re already too much of a headache.”

  Krys stiffened and then glanced around. “Should have done that in the forest then.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she nibbled on her lip briefly before nodding. “Fine. Here’s your one chance. Let’s go find something to fix, something only Krys Evans would know how to do. Then we’ll take it from there.”

  Krys swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  “Whoever you are, you’re brave. I’ll give you that.”

  Krys tried to smile. “You’ve taken everything I have. There’s nothing left for me to lose.”

  She smirked. “There’s always something left to take. Be careful what you wish for.”

  She rose and motioned for him to follow. Krys climbed to his feet and felt the stab of pain in his swollen ankle. He grimaced and did his best to limp through the door and then follow her to whatever test she had planned for him.

  Chapter 22

  Krys felt the eyes of everyone they passed on him as they walked through the village. He tried to ignore them and focused on the layout of the colony instead. He felt a nagging sense of familiarity mixed with confusion. The colors and, in many places, even the buildings were wrong. Yet they were all in the right place. Tomlin’s house was where it should be, but it wasn’t his house. Where the faded yellow structure had stood now a smaller building stood. Instead of being painted, it bore the dull gray color of the carbon fiber material used for nearly everything on the planet.

  As Krys looked around he saw that many of the other buildings that had been replaced were identical. It was a modular design and one he could understand. Small and easy to build, he guessed there were only two or three rooms inside. A kitchen, a living area, and a bedroom, by the size of it. He’d read a word once that came to mind to describe the small homes. Spartan.

  “So this is progress?” Krys asked.

  She glanced at him and saw him studying the buildings. “Temporary housing.”

  “You mean you’re going to knock them down and build better houses?”

  She chuckled. “No, I mean the people stationed here aren’t here permanently, so it’s only their housing temporarily.”

  “Oh. How long are they here?”

  She shrugged. “Depends.”

  “On what?”

  “On a lot of things. You sure are curious.”

  Krys fell silent and let her lead him towards the parking area for the farming vehicles. He didn’t want her thinking he was trying to learn as much as he could in case he could escape. Even though that was exactly what he was doing. He smirked and glanced over at her, worried she might have seen him.

  “What now?” she asked when she caught him looking.

  “Huh? Oh, um, nothing,” he stammered. “I mean, I was just wondering who you are? Your name, I mean?”

  “First Lieutenant Shelby Riggs,” she said.

  “You’re an officer,” Krys said before he realized it.

  “Does that surprise you?”

  He shook his head. “Sorry. I thought—I mean, I didn’t think officers were in the field. Oh wait, you weren’t with the tanks hunting me.”

  Shelby laughed as Krys fumbled his words. “I was in charge of a platoon when we landed. Earned a promotion after the colony was secured. Now I’m in charge here.”

  “Oh.” Krys glanced at her a couple of times while he tried to collect his thoughts. The parking lot, as they called it, was fast approaching. “So you’re in charge of all of Venus, or just this ag colony?”

  She chuckled. “Just this colony. Commander Breslin is in charge of the planet.”

  He nodded.

  “Disappointed?”

  “No!” Krys blurted out. He studied the ground in front of him, searching for something to say. “I, um, you just seem kind of young, that’s all. That’s a good thing, though, right?”

  “It’s a new world, Krys. Ours for the shaping.”

  “Ours?”

  “Yes. You, me, anyone young enough to dream of how things can be better than they were. People are recognized for their abilities and potential now, not for who they know or who their parents are.”

  Krys shrugged. His parents hadn’t been anybody special. Special to him, maybe, but that was about it. He followed Shelby onto the grounds of the parking lot and saw her wave towards a man in a blue and white uniform.

  “Lesk, how are you?” she greeted the man who had taken to standing stiffly beside the harvester.

  “Lieutenant,” he greeted her. His eyes flicked down to Krys. “Who’s this?”

  “I’m trying to find out. Says he knows how to handle just about any of the machinery you’ve got here. Is there anything giving you some trouble?”

  He snorted. “Pick one.”

  She frowned and spared Krys a glance. “Really? That much trouble?”

  “Half these rock-humping machines only work when they want to and the other half are breaking down almost faster than I can send ’em out!”

  “Language, Mr. Vicker,” the lieutenant warned. “Would you mind if my young friend took a look at one of them?”

  He gestured at the harvester beside him. “Be my guest,” he grumbled. “It can’t seem to figure out what to do with the crops. One minute it’s treating it like corn, the next beans and the following wheat. Damn sensors are just out of whack.”

  “Lesk, that’s enough.”

  He mumbled an apology and stepped aside as Krys stepped up to the harvester and peered into the open access hatch. Krys pushed a few cables out of the way before crying out. He turned and looked back at Lesk. “There’s a wire that’s shorting. It needs some covering and tape to secure it.”

  “Why not replace it?” Shelby asked.

  Krys and Lesk both looked her way. Krys noticed and glanced at Lesk before he grinned. Lesk ignored him and said, “The only thing we’ve got enough to spare is crap from those animals and all the food that these da—um, machines can’t pick fast enough to keep from spoiling in the fields.”

  Krys nodded. “Some tape will do just fine. Keep it from getting corrupt signals and secure it so it doesn’t rub itself raw again.”

  Shelby twisted her lips to the side and nodded.

  “I’d have found it soon,” Lesk assured her.

  She offered him a smile and motioned for Krys. “Stick around and see what else you can help with.”

  Krys tilted his head and then saw Lesk looking equally confused.

  “Keep an eye on him,” she said. She paused before adding, “If you’d
prefer, I can send some soldiers by instead?”

  Krys thought back to how he’d been tracked with thermal imaging in the woods. He shook his head. “I’ll stay put.”

  She nodded.

  “Lieutenant, I—”

  “You’ve got a lot of work to do, right?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Seems like having an assistant would come in handy.”

  “An assistant?” Krys and Lesk both asked.

  “It’s too late to send him to the starport,” she said. “Maybe next day cycle we’ll be able to do it.”

  Krys stared at her. “You’re not—”

  “I have to figure out who you are first,” she snapped. “So make yourself useful so I can justify the loss of resources for feeding you.”

  Krys nodded. “Yes, ma’am!”

  Lesk grunted and shook his head. He shrugged and looked around. “Most everything on this side needs work. Take your pick. Tools are—”

  “In the shed, I know,” Krys said with a grin. “I, uh, used to spend a lot of time here.”

  Lesk snorted and turned away.

  Krys glanced at Shelby and saw her watching him before she turned and walked away too. He stood still a moment and then realized he needed to get to work. Maybe later he could try to make sense of things. Like why the strange woman had saved him twice now. But that would be later. For now, he needed to get busy.

  Chapter 23

  Lily paused as Palla held the button to keep the door into the lift open. She stared at the group of boys walking down the hallway in the boys-only section of the habitat ring. Several of them looked to be her age but she didn’t spot Krys.

  “Lily, you’re going to be late!”

  Lily nodded and joined Palla in the lift. She offered her a smile but didn’t explain herself. She’d buried herself in her studies for months now, learning everything she could and consistently outscoring her older peers on tests. Her instructors were catering to her needs, which didn’t seem fair, but she used it to her advantage. Unfortunately, most of them were running out of things to teach her.