“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. . .”
“No,” she said, sniffing, “it’s okay. It’s nice to hear, actually. At least when you say it.” She wiped the tears from her eyes, smiling. “Come on.”
They walked through the front doors and, once inside the foyer, Jav saw the bald man, this time standing next to an ancient man bent under the weight of his own voluminous robes. The stooped man had a long smoky wisp of beard and either nodded in acknowledgment of Jav’s arrival or bobbed with palsy.
“Jav, this is my teacher, Master Chun Chekkai,” Mao said.
Jav put his hands together in salute and bowed deeply before Chekkai. “It’s an honor to meet you, Master Chekkai.”
Chekkai bowed and said quietly, “Welcome.”
Mao gestured towards the bald man, “This is Kenas, the top student.”
Jav bowed again.
Grinning widely, Kenas returned his greeting. “After the competition I should think that every fighting man in the Empire knows your face and that of Forbis Vays. Welcome, Specialist Holson. If it isn’t too much of an imposition, perhaps a friendly match later?”
Jav nodded, smiling. “Okay.”
In his soft, tremulous voice Chekkai said, “You honor us with your presence, Specialist Holson. This school is open to you. Please make yourself at home here.”
“Thank you, Master Chekkai,” Jav said.
Chekkai and Kenas bowed to Jav as Mao tugged at his arm, pulling him along. “I’ll give you a quick tour,” she said.
Jav bowed hastily in return before being drawn out of their presence.
Mao took Jav around the school. The ceilings were high, but there were columns everywhere, and though he was by no means claustrophobic, Jav couldn’t help feeling boxed in. Something kept catching his eye and making him jumpy. He began to realize that seeing the columns in series, when their edges seemed to touch, produced the striking and eye-tricking effect of being in the guts of an antiquated clockwork machine with oddly moving gears. At first, whenever the angle was right, the sensation would intrude upon his mind in flashes. Cracking a grin, Mao watched as Jav began to understand.
Examining a single column revealed nothing, not even a suggestion of the overall effect, but the effect was undeniable and drew one in to its hypnotic reality with ever-increasing force. The illusion maintained the tight, oppressive atmosphere that the physical presence of the columns created and intensified it. The impression of being chewed to bits by the phantom cogs was impossible to ignore, and Jav at last truly understood.
“This is how you train!” he blurted.
“It’s like this everywhere in the school. The Eight Elbows is necessarily a short range style,” Mao said.
“This is a fantastic way to practice!” Jav was still marveling at the trick, being careful not to bump any of the grinding gears.
Mao stepped in front of Jav, grinning more sharply than before. “Um hmm,” she said and then proceeded to assault him with the Eight Elbows style.
It was true to its name with elbows coming and going, jabbing, slashing, and crossing. Jav felt trapped by the clockwork illusion and struggled to stay clear of Mao’s sharp, prodding blows. She had improved in this new style beyond her ability with the Eighteen Heavenly Claws, and her knowledge of the latter gave her an unprecedented advantage over Jav. Moreover, she was used to practicing here in this living, churning forest of imaginary, aged steel. She appeared to toy with him for a time, but he began to read her better and better and close the skill gap between them. She lured him into a final trap and drove a rising elbow up into his stomach that hurt and knocked the wind from him. Jav stumbled back from the force of the blow, smacking into a column and taking a sharp breath, more from the psychological impact than the physical. There were no tearing metal teeth, but the image was still strong in his mind.
Mao stood up straight, frowning.
Jav caught his breath. “That was incredible Mao. You’ve gotten so good.”
She sighed. “It’s not enough. It’ll never be enough.” She turned and walked away.
Jav was confused. Not knowing what else to do, he picked up his things and followed after her. She walked fast and he thought she might have started crying. Allowing her some distance, he followed her up the stairs to what may have been the top floor, it was the fifth anyway and no more stairs led up from here. Doors marked the halls at regular intervals and Jav thought this must be where the students roomed. Mao disappeared behind one of the doors, leaving it open behind her. There was light inside, but it was dim. Mao stood next to the bed, facing the far wall. She was holding her arms, and Jav knew for sure now that she was crying. He stepped into the room and gently closed the door.
“Mao?” he said softly. “What did you mean back there? What isn’t enough?”
She spun around, her eyes puffy and shining with tears. She held her fists up and squeezed them with a grimace of visible effort, then slapped each elbow roughly with the opposite hand. “None of it!” she said savagely.
“You’ve gotten so good in so short a time. Why are you so upset?”
She rolled her eyes, her patience past the breaking point. “Couldn’t you feel it? Couldn’t you tell? I could. And you’re just like her.” She shook her head in disgust.
“Mao?” Jav shook his head in total confusion.
“Your F-Gene, Jav!” she snapped. “I could almost see it moving, winding up, improving you.”
“Mao, you did. . . you did a fabulous job.” Jav was beginning to lose patience himself; he wanted to understand.
Mao sniffed through her tears. “It doesn’t matter. I guarantee you, if we fought again I would start with no advantage and we would finish with me looking like an inept child. . . Which is all that I am.”
Jav just gawked at her, the look on his face demanding an explanation from her.
Her eyes shifted guiltily. “I, uh, did some research. My father’s name still counts for something with some at the Palace. I got a look at your dossier. Hers, too.”
“My dossier?”
She nodded. “F-Gene, Superior Grade. That’s what it says. I didn’t really need to check with you, though, right? I mean we trained together, and despite my head start you quickly and easily surpassed me. Made me feel like a kid all over again, but in a good way, you know? You always tried so hard. And you were so good to Mai. . . and to me. I love you for that. It’s not your fault, but I’ll always be that little girl, looking up to you.
“I shouldn’t have been surprised about her, either, I guess. She was our teacher, a famous Shade.” Mao stared blankly at nothing with a look of increasing hopelessness.
“Mao. . .”
She sniffed back her tears and composed herself a little. “The discrepancy is too great. I’ve trained harder in the last seven months than I ever have before. I told you that Kenas is the top student, and it’s true, but only with regard to seniority. The only one I can’t beat here is the old man, but even he concedes that that will change in a few months. He and I are peers. As far as potential goes, we’re close. But you, you’re like her and fighting you makes it obvious just how futile it would be.”
“You want to challenge Laedra Hol?”
Mao folded her arms abruptly and her lower lip quivered as fresh tears flooded her eyes. “What else can I do?” Her voice broke on the last word. “She killed my sister!”
Jav took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. “I know she did. I loved your sister, Mao. I miss her every day and every day I feel cheated.” Jav’s eyes lost their focus for a moment. “I’ll never see her face again. I’ll never feel her arms around me or be able to put mine around her. . . But,” he said looking at Mao again, “I can’t blame Hol alone. Maybe you hate me for that. Maybe you even blame me. You’d be well within your rights if you did hate me. Think about it, though, if you haven’t yet. Retired or not, Hol is a Shade. Under Imperial law she’s blameless. If you fail as you think you might, the Pardines die out with your father. If you
’re successful—if you’re successful—you become a fugitive, hunted and condemned and ultimately put to death. There is no positive in this. Do you think Mai would like to see you die simply because she did? You two were close, but Mai was never so selfish.”
“Then tell me what I should do, Jav! Tell me how to make things like they were! Tell me how to get my sister back!”
“You can’t get her back! She’s gone! It’s not fair, but she’s gone.”
“That’s not good enough,” she said through clenched teeth. “I want a real answer. Tell me what to do!” she screamed.
“Live!” he cried in return, grabbing her by the shoulders and trying not to match her volume. “Tragedies happen every day to all kinds of people. You think Hol hasn’t had her own tragedies? I’m pretty sure she’s got several lifetimes’ worth. That doesn’t absolve her or make it any easier on you, but it means that you’re not alone. You won’t be betraying your sister if you choose to live, Mao. Living may be the more difficult choice, but it’s the best choice. For your sake, for Mai’s, for mine. It’s the best choice. Give up your revenge. It’s a one-way trip. Mai and I broke the rules, Mei revealed us, and Hol punished us. There’s blame to go around.”
He relaxed his grip on her shoulders. “It will get easier with time, I promise. It’ll probably hurt until you’re old and ready to die, but it will get better. Give it a chance. Live your life if only because Mai couldn’t live hers. Live it for both of you. Become the kind of person that would have made her proud.” He pulled her close and held her in a tight, protective embrace. She resisted perfunctorily for a moment, feebly pounding her tiny fists against his chest.
“It’s not fair,” she sobbed. “Everything—everything—is Mei’s fault and there’s no way to punish her. Always angry, always pouting, always brooding. I hate her. She’s dead and I still hate her. I want so bad to rip her apart, to make her feel what she made us feel. She was such a coward.” Mao looked up at Jav, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. “I can’t go home anymore. My father. . . he wasn’t there, he doesn’t know. All he knows is that two of his girls are gone. I can’t stand that he tolerates Mei’s memory. He can’t stand that I won’t.”
“You don’t have to go home if you don’t want to. Your father can never understand what you’ve been through. It would be a shame if you two never spoke again, but in spite of my bias, I think your position is justified.
“What happened wasn’t fair. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t right. But, Mao, you’re not the little girl you think you are. Because it did happen, you’ve been forced to grow up too fast. There are people you can turn to, though: your friends here, the girls from 1287, me. . . But, if you wanted to try to forget, to leave everything behind and start fresh, I’d understand. Now, I have until the end of the week. What would you like me to do, Mao? Stay? Go?”
Mao’s lower lip quivered as the full implication of Jav’s words sank in. “Stay,” she said.
“Okay,” he smiled.
“Jav, do you think she’s sorry?”
“Hol? I think she might be now.”
16. THE EXPERIMENT
10,688.171.1000
Bristling with sensor-tipped wires leading off to recording equipment and clad in the Kaiser Bones, Jav stood expectantly upon a small, raised platform. “Let me know when you’re ready,” he said.
Gilf Scanlan was busy at a nearby terminal and muttered a noncommittal response.
Jav looked over at Karza who was leaning against the wall opposite him. She looked both nervous and impatient. “You’re going to love this,” he said to her.
She said nothing. She had no idea what to expect, but had been unable to think of anything else for the past week. She wanted to know what this was all about.
“All right, then,” Scanlan said, coming away from his terminal. “Hand him the device.”
A technician placed a pole sword, the one Jav had taken to Planet 1105, into Jav’s hands. The weapon, too, was attached to several leads.
“Hold it anyway you like, Mr. Holson,” Scanlan said. “It won’t have any bearing on the procedure.”
As Scanlan finished his sentence, Witchlan entered the room. “I’m not too late, am I?” Witchlan asked.
“No, Minister. Just in time in fact,” Scanlan said, smiling.
“Excellent. By all means, please proceed.”
Jav held the pole sword out before him, half expecting it to do something, maybe pop like a balloon or pulse suddenly with electricity.
Scanlan chuckled. “It’s not going to bite you, Mr. Holson.”
“Okay, okay,” Jav said embarrassedly.
“Ready now? Here we go.” Scanlan finished pushing a sequence of buttons and the pole sword in Jav’s hands disintegrated, sending the attached wires clacking to the floor.
“Stage one, complete,” Scanlan said.
Karza gawked. Was that all? She knew it wasn’t, but nor was she in the mood to share Jav’s excitement. She didn’t like secrets of any kind, and she especially didn’t like being made to wait a whole week to have this one revealed after Jav had been so flippant about it. She chastised herself repeatedly about her attitude, but she couldn’t ignore what she felt, unreasonably or not, were stabs of ridicule.
“Prepare for stage two.”
At Scanlan’s words two men pushed a big, open container loaded with soil into the room. Karza noted a few ivory shapes poking out through the dirt.
“There should be sufficient materials in that container, Mr. Holson. Please proceed when ready.”
Jav nodded and seemed to go inert, achieving the stillness usually associated with the dead. His breast finally swelled back to life, but everyone’s attention was now on the container where a racket had started.
Popping, cracking, sifting, crushing: bone fingers grew like weeds up from the soil, returned to find purchase, and worked to pry the rest of a bone frame from the makeshift grave. The skeleton climbed out of the container and in one hand it held a pole sword. Refusing to be impressed, Karza wondered idly if the weapon had been buried along with the bones.
“Stage two, complete,” Scanlan said.
Jav regarded the skeleton standing before him. “Can you speak?” he asked.
“Yes, sir.” The skeleton’s voice was dry and rasping, but somehow not altogether unpleasant.
“Excellent. What shall I name you then?”
“Name me? I am Rommel, sir.”
Jav flinched at the unexpected response and then began to nod. “Well, you know your own name. What else do you know, Rommel?”
“I was created on this day, the one hundred and seventy first of the ten thousand six hundred and eighty-eighth year of the Viscain Empire by the Kaiser Bones at your summons. I am to perform any task to which you set me. I am proficient in the Secret Track Pole Sword system and am able to transmit that proficiency to any others of my type that you summon. I am able to instruct you or someone you choose in this system by physical demonstration.”
“Thank you, Rommel.”
“Sir.”
Jav felt a connection to Rommel, and the truth of his words came over him like recalled memories, but while with the other summoned skeletons he experienced complete rapport, there were dark spots with Rommel. He didn’t know but thought that this might be a function of Rommel’s unique individuality. Regardless, as far as Jav was concerned, this experiment was a complete success and he took to questioning Rommel once more.
“Rommel, if I dispel you or you are destroyed, what will happen to your accumulated memories and knowledge?”
“Though I appear to exist before you physically, all that I am is a pattern stored within the Kaiser Bones. My true existence lies there. As long as the Kaiser Bones remain intact, all that I require are the raw materials for a body.”
Jav turned from Scanlan to Witchlan. “Well?”
Witchlan stepped forward. “We haven’t the raw materials for a full-scale test of transmission, but do what you can with the leftovers he
re, will you?”
Jav nodded and from the container three more skeletons rose erect, disgorging chunks of ore from the dirt. These chunks and the soil itself began to disappear before everyone’s eyes, becoming complete pole swords in the skeletons’ hands, looking manufactured and identical to Rommel’s. The skeletons stepped down from the container and stood behind their sentient captain.
“Rommel,” Jav said, “please lead them in a demonstration of the Secret Track style’s first form.”
“Yes, sir.” Rommel did as instructed. They all performed the movements with identical skill, precision, and power.
Witchlan sighed with satisfaction. “This was a good choice, Mr. Holson. Your skills are exceptional, but not even Scanlan’s brilliance can emulate the F-Gene. This weapon is simple yet gives your troops added range and power. What is your summoning limit?”
“Twenty thousand, sir.”
Witchlan nodded. “This is the future. Let us use the dead where we find them to fight our battles. Rather than our own young men and the biologically engineered troops upon which we have so far relied, let us instead rely upon the truly disposable waste that invariably hides in the ground beneath every civilization. Surely the psychological effect alone will prove devastating.
“And you, Scanlan! We are most pleased with this development. It is impossible at present, but in the future, to preserve your genius, you may be gifted with an Artifact. Keep in mind that this is a possibility—no, let us be honest, it is an eventuality. Continue to boon the Empire with your fantastic creations and you will be well rewarded. Thank you both. That is all.”
Witchlan strode out of the room, not the least bit put off by Scanlan’s shock-induced silence.
The technicians began removing the wires from Jav. When they were finished, he stepped down from the platform. “Not bad, eh Director?”
“What?” Scanlan said, snapping out of his reverie. “Oh! No! Not bad at all. Not bad at all.” He joined his technicians in tidying up their stations.
Jav sent the Kaiser Bones away and flashed a grin at Karza. He willed the three skeletons to return and they climbed back into the heap from which they’d come, their pole swords crumbling to elemental dust. He moved over to Rommel and stood close, examining him.
The Gun Golems (Approaching Infinity Book 2) Page 15