by A J McKeep
“It’s what I was trained to do. I’m a protector. It’s who I am.”
He felt a tug. He was being pulled away. “How could I not?” he laughed.
More than anything he wanted to touch her face. But he knew it would be too great a risk. In the point of transition, this was where everything could all go horribly wrong. Still, he wanted to touch her, stroke her cheek. Soothe her forehead. Hold her in his arms. Not like he had any right. Just to give her comfort and to make her know that he cared. He was there for her. He cared for her.
Then a weight yanked him forward.
Tracker
“WE HAD TO LEAVE you in her body. It was the only way she would ever have had a chance of surviving. The damage was too great.”
Garrison sat bolt upright. “Where’s Faith? Is she alright?”
“Now it’s a matter of time,” The Gabriel said in his earphone.
Garrison felt like he’d been through a rock fall. He started to move, and he found pains that he’d felt in Faith’s body. Somehow, they had followed him back. He asked The Gabriel of that were possible.
“More likely she brought them with her. The tensions were there when she entered into your body and they could be lingering still.”
“I’m waiting for you to say something like, ‘it’s not uncommon.’ The way doctors always say.”
“You’ll have a long wait. Nobody ever does the kind of thing we just did – that you just did. So, nobody could tell you what’s common. I’m just offering you a theory. It could be that she actually brought her injuries over and you’ll have to be fixed the same way she was.“
“Oh. Well, thanks for that reassurance.”
“It isn’t reassuring. We used up almost all of the drugs in the pod, so if she did, you’ll be what doctors refer to as ‘fucked.’ So, let’s hope that isn’t the case.”
“You sound like you’d almost care.”
“I do. You owe me.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll remember.”
“You don’t need to. Stand.”
Garrison felt like his limbs were snapping as he stood. “Are you aiming to carve out the debt now? Is there a pound of flesh you have your eye on?”
“Not exactly.” The exo stepped over. Held Garrison’s head with one hand and raised a big syringe with the other. It jabbed the syringe into his throat under his ear. It popped. Painfully. His neck hurt like mumps.
“What was that?”
“A tracker. When I need you, you’ll know.”
He considered using the tablet to isolate the exo from The Gabriel, but he figured that wouldn’t work a second time. The Gabriel would surely have patched that hole while he was under.
Maybe he’d try it anyway. First, he had to check on Faith.
She was still wired up with the datacrown, nestled in the pod couch. She was still unconscious, but her breathing was regular. The charts on the screen showed that her pulse, blood-pressure, temperature, and respiration were all normal. Garrison thought the look on her face was more relaxed, but he couldn’t really judge for certain. He was so relieved to see her with healthy charts.
Under her eyelids were flickers. Her eyes moved. Steadily. Not rapidly, but they moved.
He put on the other datacrown and connected through the tablet. He knew it would probably be futile but if he had to wait, he’d wait at Hope’s. Maybe the name made him feel that was where he had to be.
It seemed like he knew the way now. All of the twists and turns, the switches and codes all were familiar. He reached Hope’s quickly and without having to think about it. He waited outside. It was a strange sensation, hanging around in a dimension that was nothing but information and entertainment when he didn’t want to be entertained and there was nothing he wanted to learn.
Marking time there he felt alien. Odd and out of place. A character appeared from inside. A short, round man with blue coveralls, a red cap and a black mustache.
“Boy, oh boy. You again, sucker.”
Garrison just looked at him.
“What are you doing? What’s going on here?”
“I’m waiting for someone. Do you mind?”
Then he saw movement. The little guy said, “Hey! Princess!”
She stepped out of the shadows, fresh and new. “You don’t have to wait here for me.” He wanted so much to touch her face and to hold her.
The little guy said, “Ok, princess, as we say in Brooklyn,” he waved as he spun around, “You,” as he pointed back at Garrison he was changing, into the eyeball in the suit.
Faith was smiling. Garrison asked her, “Friend of yours?”
“Everybody here takes care of everybody else. Kind of.”
“Are you okay?”
“I think I’m going to be. And only thanks to you. I’ll need rest and I have to go back now, but I wanted to say, thank you.”
He watched as she moved back into the shadows. “Talk to the other girls. Hang out. they all want to meet you.” she smiled.
“Why?”
“Everybody loves a hero.”
Over the line
GARRISON PULLED OFF THE datacrown. His face was damp. When he looked at her, she seemed to have the trace of a smile on her face. He stroked her forehead and stepped out of the pod. He hadn’t even noticed that the claw was moving.
“Yeah,” Coke said, “We know that you’ve relocated off planet to the galaxy of love’s young dream, but we still thought it would be a good plan to get away from the forces of Great China before they notice that we’re here behind their lines and come to roast us.”
Garrison frowned. Hershey clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. He’s just as happy for you as I am. We’re both glad you got your girl out. And it looks like she’s going to be okay.”
Coke was bunching his lips. Garrison knew he was fighting to hide a smile.
“So. How far before our own side see the claw and start trying to shoot us down?”
Coke said, “We aren’t far from the line, but we haven’t seen anything of our own forces yet.”
“You’re right, though,” Hershey told him. “We’ve been trying to make contact for just that reason.”
Murphy
THE ONELINE WAS FROM Murphy. The subject heading surprised Garrison, though. ‘Friend! Great News! Join me! Help Celebrate!’ He was sure Murphy had never used an exclamation in a message in his life. That set an off a sense of alarm he felt deep in his gut.
The message confirmed the feeling.
GREAT news! I was lucky enough to take an EARLY iMortality!
My family and friends may already be benefiting from the salvage funds and I have an Enduring Domain. I do hope you’ll come visit soon!
Maybe you’ll be lucky, too, and have the same GREAT opportunity!
Faith asked him what happened. He showed her the message.
“I don’t understand, what does it mean?”
“He’s taken an early salvage. USAi has a version called, ‘iMortality.’ To make it easier to swallow or something, I guess.”
“What’s your legal age?”
“Thirty five. Military service can get you deferment, eight months for every year served. Only up to four years total, though.”
“Oh. Our maximum age is thirty three. I never heard of any kind of deferment except for party members. Party Systems Admins and Analysts can claim they’re essential to the AI.”
“Up to what age, do you know?”
“Any age, I think.”
“But that’s crazy. They must have to be sterilized, surely.”
“I don’t know. Nobody talks about the plague much. Anything that happens, someone gets quarantined or taken away, everybody just accepts you won’t see them again.”
“So, you don’t have anything like these ‘Enduring Domains’?”
“What is that?”
“Supposedly, it’s where the ‘essence’ of your consciousness is uploaded to a space on the infranet. Friends and relatives can visit. They see a talking h
ead that’s modeled on yours and they talk to a voice that sounds like yours. Supposedly, your ‘essence’ lives on. To me it just seems horribly creepy.”
“You don’t believe they can do that?”
“I seriously doubt whether they can, and I sure as hell don’t believe that they do.” Garrison chewed his cheek. “My mom took what was called an early ‘relief’ back then. I went to see what was supposed to be her. It was just horrible. Like a video collage mash up,” He looked away. “You know like the VideoMorphi thing you can get to make a celebrity or a politician read out that stuff you’ve written? It looks and sounds like they’ve got a tin twin.”
He pressed his lips together, “I could have dealt with that alright, but the thing kept on pretending that it actually was her.” his eyes misted, “It demanded that I call it ‘mom’ and it told me to come back soon and it messaged asked every fucking day me afterward. It kept asking me to visit and bring it news of family things.”
“So, you won’t go and visit your friend’s domain?”
“No, I have to. I promised him that I would.” Garrisons eyelid twitched. “He helped me find you. Him more than anyone.”
“We don’t have this idea of ‘iMortality.’ Maybe it’s a religious thing. All we have apart from the mandatory age is people start contacting our relatives and kids from when we’re about twenty-five offering juice to the family. They try and get the family to persuade us to take salvage. They’re all con artists though. My mother and father took it to get me the juice to finish school.”
“What happened?”
“I got told their parts and fluids weren’t of high enough quality and I would have to pay for their disposal.”
“So, you didn’t get any juice for your school fees?”
“No. I worked to get myself through, though, honestly, if they hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have bothered. It wasn’t worth it.”
“Couldn’t you get any work with the grades you got?”
“No, I had no chance. Except for the work I did get, but that wasn’t based on my education and I didn’t exactly go looking for it. No, I wouldn’t have gotten much of a chance, even if my grades had been great. But, as it was, I was so tired at school, it was hardly worth me going at all.”
The right thing
THE IMAGE ON THE screen of Murphy’s face unsettled Garrison. He’d never seen him that clean-shaven or neatly groomed. It wasn’t his style. The voice, though. That sounded so like him it hurt.
“Hey. How are you man? It’s great to see you.”
“I’m good.” Garrison shifted in his seat. “It’s good to see you, too.”
“Listen, man, don’t be downhearted. I made a choice we talked about it, right? It was the right thing.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“So, I was able to get some help for my sister. Man I was glad about that.” Murphy’s grin looked just the way Garrison remembered it. “And, honestly, man, I’m happier now.” Garrison tried to keep a straight face. If Murphy really was in that spooky avatar, he didn’t want to be giving him reasons to be suffering. If he says he’s happy, he must be happy. He must be happy. Garrison thought that sounded like a song.
“So,” Murphy’s smile gave him a mix of feelings. Some of the feelings were good, but the mix wasn’t. Murphy’s avatar told him, “You should come up.”
“I’m here, aren’t I?”
“I mean get in a suit and a visor. Or a datacrown even. Come up in virtu. We can hang. Play Call of Booty. You know.”
“Yeah. Okay, man. I will.”
“Tell me some news. How did you get on with that girl?”
Had he really remembered, or was that a cold-reading trick like an old school stage magician? “You were looking for a girl. Seemed to me you shouldn’t have been, but I told… You know, I told a friend to help you out.”
It made sense, if it really was Murphy that he wouldn’t let on to Si Kho’s name, or to any other details that would place him or Garrison in time or at any particular place. Not from inside the AI, which was pretty much where he was.
“Okay,” Garrison said, “I did get some help. It worked out, in fact. I’d love to tell you about it.”
Murphy’s expression didn’t change but he said, “We’ll find a time for that. A time and a place. I really do want to know, okay?”
“Sure.”
“But I’m glad it worked out for you. If it was appropriate, I’d love to meet her.”
“Yeah…” The avatar tilted his head to stop him.
“If it works.” Like he was telling him they were on the same page. Not now. But maybe we’ll find a time.
“Yeah. Okay, man. I’d like that.” It was true. He still didn’t believe it but if there were a way, he’d be able to thank him, introduce him to Faith. He’s just some code, man. What are you thinking?
“Anyway, for her to have had that effect on you, she’s got to be something pretty damned special. Tell her I said ‘Hi,’ okay? For real.”
When he said, “Sure,” Garrison’s throat was thick and tight.
“Listen, you’ve got to get along. I know. It’s good of you to stop by. I hope you’ll do it again. Soon, alright?”
“Yeah. Okay, man. I will, I promise.”
“Take it easy, bro.”
“Yeah.” Garrison turned from the screen.
His head shook. His eyes were down. He’d maybe talk it though with Faith. Perhaps she wouldn’t understand. Hershey might, though. He’d talk to Hershey first. He stood. Then he spun back.
“Hey,” Murphy’s face was darkening. The avatar lit back up when Garrison spoke. It smiled. It looked like Murphy’s smile.
“Hey, I was thinking, as I was coming to see you,” Garrison said, “I was trying to remember the name of your dog.”
Murphy blinked. His mouth crinkled. It sure looked like him. “You’re kidding me, right?”
“Seriously, man.”
“How would you ever forget Chop?” Murphy’s head shook. “Only regret I have is that I couldn’t get old Chop to join me up here.”
“Chop.” Garrison said. “Right. Of course. How could I ever forget?”
“Was that really it?”
The ‘good’ side
LANDING ON THE ‘GOOD’ side of the front line in a massive enemy craft turned out to be a challenge. As soon as they approached the line, Hershey or Coke sent an all-frequency call out to say they were friendly. A message came back from a voice-bot “Your approach is acknowledged, and your course is logged.” Then, when they were less than half a mile away, a twenty-strong salvo of rocket fire blazed up to greet them.
The girls huddled in the corner and shrieked, covering their heads.
Going by what Faith had told him, Garrison could only imagine some of the kinds of things they’d been through. If it was half as bad as the image in his mind, he couldn’t blame them for being fearful. He was only surprised Faith wasn’t jumpier herself.
She told him, “I’ve got nothing to worry about while I have you to protect me.” But he knew that wasn’t it. She said that to be cute and he appreciated it, but panic wasn’t in Faith’s responses and he knew it.
The claw’s counter-measures defeated half of the rockets. The dome swung and lurched as it evaded the rest, but they steered South afterward, anyway.
“You’d think they’d be pleased to see us.” Coke growled. “We’ve brought them a nice captured fighting vehicle. What’s not to like?”
Hershey chuckled. “Maybe they all feel the same way that you do about machines with too many legs.”
“If there were any actual humans in those defensive positions, it would probably be a different story, but these are just AI responses.”
They flew farther South, but only encountered the same responses at every attempt they made to cross the line of defense.
“I can see two choices that we have.” Hershey said. “Either we put down a couple of miles from the line, then try walking across.”
Coke sho
ok his head, “With all of these girls, none of them trained, and nothing to protect them? No armor, not even suits? I’m not liking that.”
Faith said, “What’s the other?”
“We keep going South until we get to the Himalayas. Cross over the mountains.”
Garrison asked him, “Why will that be better?”
“Both sides figure that the mountains are enough of a defense. There isn’t much protective armor or artillery on either side.”
Hershey said, “There’s a reason for that.”
“Hannibal did it,” Coke offered, “With elephants.”
“Those were the Alps.” Hershey grinned.
“Are they different?”
The real thing
THE AIR INSIDE THE claw was needle-pricking cold as they swayed high over the massive jagged peaks.
Garrison took a pull on a beer. “Booze is cheaper this high up.”
“You do get more bang for your beer.” Coke agreed.
Garrison and Faith huddled around the makeshift bar with Hershey and Coke.
Faith asked him about Murphy. “If it wasn’t him, how did it know to ask about me? How did it react the ways that it did?”
He looked into the glow of her face. “When he was in preparation, they will have asked him a whole lot of questions. I’d bet they got the most information in the times when he thought he was waiting. They’d have someone chatting, conversational. All the time they’d be recording and he would be giving responses, the voice print, all that stuff they took from him to make that fucking fake. Everything they needed to fool him and to fool any casual visitor.”
He tugged on the stick. He had to get it out, at least this one time. Then maybe it would be done. “All that before they ripped him apart to monetize his components, he put in something to ask me to say hi to you. He didn’t say your name, or the guy who helped him to help me.”
“Nor ours?” Coke said,