by Ari Bach
Bingo. Violet did so, delighted to hear the words. She squeezed Vibeke hard enough that the shivering in her arms refocused into her grasp. It was the closest Violet could get to anything physical with Vibeke so suddenly she didn’t mind the cold. She considered pressing against Vibeke’s chest, but she’d no doubt know why and might make her stop, brush her off into the cold again. Violet wouldn’t feel much under the Thaco fur anyway.
She focused on the gory surroundings to eradicate any desire. She listened to the drip of blood and fluids from the inside of the beast, felt how it matted down on her armor’s fur. Despite using oxygen prongs, she could smell the guardthing’s blood and fat, iron and a sickly sweet stink. She tried to smell Vibeke’s neck to no avail.
“Do you….” Violet linked.
“Do I?”
“Do you have any regrets about the trip?”
“No, I thought it was lovely. Do you?”
“No, no, of course not.”
Vibeke said nothing. She thought of the awkward moment in the sparring ring.
Violet thought of her resolution to tell Vibeke everything. Cut off only by Veikko and Varg. Not by anything else, she told herself. They were alone now. She had no excuse. She was courageous in the extreme, or she wouldn’t be a Valkyrie. She had to tell herself that five times before she was able.
“It is me, isn’t it? That you’re afraid of?”
Vibeke said nothing.
“Then tell me it’s not, because it would be a real load off. Tell me nothing could ever happen between us, that you don’t want what I want. And you know what I want, you have to. Tell me you don’t want it too, that you don’t wish we’d locked ourselves in that berth and locked lips for thirty days.”
Vibeke found herself angry at Violet’s forwardness. “Which lips are you wishing we’d locked?”
“Wow, I meant kissing, but since you mention it—”
“Stop.”
Violet cringed, letting guardthing blood into the corner of her mouth. She knew Vibeke was angry. Well, if she’d pissed her off anyway, there was no sense in stopping there.
“Look, I have something I have to get off my chest.”
“Unless it’s your Tikari, now’s not the time.”
“There will never be a good time.”
“I’m tired, Violet.”
“Me too, Vibs. I’m tired of the charade that we’re not in love. And if it’s because you’re scared, then I’m tired of you, a Valkyrie, not conquering your fears. I’m tired of wasting time, because every second I’m not holding you is a waste. I’m tired of wanting you from afar. Staring at you, listening to you, getting myself off to you—”
“Stop, now.”
“Stop what? It’s a compliment.”
“Right, that’s all, a compliment.”
“Exactly. Like your perfect arse and succulent tits.”
“And your complete lack of decency.”
“And the way you sleep sometimes with your hand on your—”
“And the way you’re too fucking stupid to know when to stop.”
“And the way you’re too fucking smart to do what would make you happy.”
“Well, thanks for the fucking compliments, Vi.”
“You too, cunt.”
Violet felt a prick of something that wasn’t entirely negative, as she’d expected rejection to be. Something like sparring, it hurt to get hit, but it felt good to fight.
Vibeke felt only anger at Violet’s tactlessness. She’d just said it, openly. She resented Violet above all because she hadn’t had the guts to say it openly herself.
“You’re a crude one,” said Vibeke.
“I mean it complimentary like.”
“I’m glad we’re so complimentary.” Not what Vibs wanted to admit. “I mean—”
“We are perfect for each other, you know.”
Vibeke couldn’t deny that. Lying about it would send her stomach through her throat, and Violet would know it. That would encourage her even more. But nothing could happen. They were on the same team. They had to put each other’s lives in their hands daily. She was afraid of what might happen, of being betrayed again by the last person she could take it from. But that was a fear, and Violet was right about fear. She could admit the truth. She had to.
“…Yeah, I know.” She said it so begrudgingly it was like Violet asked her to clean a plumbing fixture. She knew why, Vibeke was a slave to protocol and logic. She thought it best to put her at ease.
“But nothing can ever happen because we fight together, because you’re afraid of being betrayed like before. But I won’t. I’ll never, ever betray you like that. I’m not capable of it. Vibs—”
“No! You want to know why I don’t want you? Because I can’t trust you. Because you would be Mishka all over again.”
It was exactly like pain training—a punch in the stomach that ruptured the lining. Violet didn’t speak.
“Nothing to say now? No sex jokes? No innuendo? Then you know how I feel. I don’t want you because the one time I fucked a girl like you, it was her. Yeah, I love you back. Almost as much as I loved her. Her strength, her wit, the way she held me, exactly like you’re holding me now. But I loved her like I’ll never love you because I wasn’t afraid back then, and I paid for it. Got that? I will never, ever love you the way I loved her.”
Violet was shaking and not because of the cold.
“Stop.”
“You never stop. You flirt and fidget every goddamn second, and you’ve done it for a year now, and I put up with it. I’m not going to anymore. Whatever you think can happen between us wouldn’t be what you want. I’m damaged goods. I’ll never trust anyone enough to love them. I’d be faking it with you.”
Vibeke stewed. Violet wouldn’t care if it were fake. She was too thick, too single-minded. And Vibeke was too tired to fight her anymore. She gave up.
“You want something to happen between us? Fine. Plow away. Spit out the blood and fuck me right here in this fucking corpse. If that’s what you want, take it. Just don’t expect me to like it because you can tongue and finger any spot you like, and I’ll be thinking about killing Mishka. If that gets you off, go for it.”
Violet didn’t move a centimeter, or say a word. She was horrified. Vibeke was suddenly far too human to objectify easily. She wished desperately that Vibeke had told her long ago how Mishka had truly hurt her. She was furious at her for not telling. And deeper down was an animal inside her that didn’t care. Vibeke said it in anger, but she said it. Fuck me. That overrode any sympathy Violet might have felt. If Vibeke told her before, if she hadn’t told her in spite, she might not have done a thing. But Vibeke was fighting her. Tempting her. Part of Violet wanted to stay noble and be a friend for Vibs after her admission. But a bigger part wanted to grab her tit.
Violet reached over Vibeke’s side and pressed her hand down. Vibeke didn’t move. Didn’t object. Didn’t say a thing. Violet held on more firmly, squeezing harder and harder. Still Vibeke didn’t move, wouldn’t even give her the satisfaction of objecting. That’s how it was to be. Not a word. Violet grabbed harder. And harder. Nothing. She grabbed as tight as she could, angry and taken aback that Vibs would rather go into full pain training mode than let out a gasp or tell her to stop. Violet had never felt so worthless or ashamed. She let go and sniffled.
“Fuck you, Vibs. Just fuck you.”
Vibeke ignored her and tried to sleep. Violet never learned she had in fact been groping the guardthing’s kidney.
IN THE morning they shook the innards from their suits and walked on. They encountered no more guardthings, but robots became a problem. The Yakuza had several monitoring the landscape and reporting back. The landscape offered little cover so they kept Tikaris at high altitude, as high as they could fly in the thin air, to watch for the robots.
Violet and Vibeke said nothing to each other. And nothing felt different. For all that had transpired in the night, neither wanted to admit any of it happened. So they wa
lked on side by side, both burning too deep inside to let a thing show. As they plodded through the monotonous landscape, the buried anger and lust absorbed into their aching legs and didn’t register at all.
They had to constantly adjust their course to stay out of the treaded wanderers’ field of vision. Vibeke estimated it added another half day to the journey. They looked into Nelson’s feed. The Yaks had built up something around the Ares tanks, along with a network of building pods and modules. They were serious about taking the Ares, unlike the Wolves.
The security perimeter wasn’t too bad. More robots but not enough to form a complete line. Eight more guardthings, but only the three they’d killed would be on their path inward. Dozens of Yakuza. Vibs counted forty-three unique outdoors, likely seventy-five or more total present. They walked closer.
Finally they came to the plateau overlooking the Ares zone. The Yaks were building a rocket right around the tanks. It was short, only tall enough to encase them. It had small fuel tanks, enough to lift off but nowhere near enough to get to Earth.
“We’re going to head for the conveyor and get ourselves home before these eggs die off,” said Weasel.
Veikko nodded. Neither the PRA nor Valkyries were prone to long good-byes, so after Varg snogged Spit for a solid five minutes, the rebels left for home, leaving V team alone on the plateau. Nelson returned to Violet shortly after they left. She felt whole again with her Tikari back in her chest after so long. Nelson recharged greedily.
They elected to wait for nightfall to make their incursion into the Yak base. They were close enough to venture a hack into the Yakuza network, so each went for a different Yak. The first few Violet found were hack armored and would need bores to read, but one technician was wide open. His mind gave some idea as to why the rocket was so simple. The team shared their findings at dusk.
Violet spoke first. “They’ve carved out Enyo, a tiny natural satellite. This rocket will only take the tanks up into orbit where they’ll put them inside. Enyo has been fitted with the thrusters necessary to take it into Earth orbit. I’m sure they have something ready to take them over there.”
Vibeke had hacked a communications officer. “There’s concern about that. The Unspeakable Darkness are attacking Yak interests on Earth. They expect they’re going to attempt to steal the Ares when it comes into orbit. Both are UNEGA, but the political situation down there must be going berserk. If we set off the nuke, there’s almost no question there would be an intra-UNEGA war.”
“Also it would vaporize us,” added Varg.
“The sabotage option seems our best approach,” said Vibeke. “We keep them from taking off. No nukes, no risk.”
“Agreed,” added Varg, “but I caught something else from my hack into one of the security team. The UD isn’t just attacking on Earth. They think they have a platoon on Mars.”
“The Darkness on Mars?”
“They may try to take the rocket here and bring it back themselves with Yak equipment.”
“That would certainly complicate matters.”
“Yes, it would. But it can work to our advantage. When the UD come, we’ll have a chance to destroy the thrusters, security will be occupied, and it’ll be the perfect distraction for the rest. All we have to do is survive the attack.”
“I’m still not convinced,” said Veikko. “No battle will end this. Even breaking open the tanks wouldn’t stop it. They’d just ship the mud back to Earth. The Ares water seems determined to stay existent. All we can do is delay, and with the UD coming, there’ll be two major forces trying to bring it home. We’d have to stay here indefinitely to keep each new threat from securing the water. I say we get on the conveyer and nuke the thing from Barsoom. It’s the only way to be sure.”
“It’s not an option anymore,” said Varg. “The Geki would kill us all.”
The four considered it; it seemed likely. They’d have to find a way to permanently sabotage the Yakuza efforts.
Mishka’s eye left their conversation and returned to her in the abandoned Wolf stronghold.
Chapter VI: Vastitas Borealis
V TEAM prepared a simple Mug-For-Disguise incursion. They’d knock out a couple periphery guard teams of two and, once in their uniforms, start by checking out whether the nuke was still intact.
On one hand there was no reason it shouldn’t be. The organic warhead would simply appear to be part of the Ares tanks to anyone who didn’t know what the tanks were designed to look like. On the other hand, a simple alpha scan would reveal there was an atomic bomb strapped to the things. There was far too much built up around the tanks to see from a distance and too many people working there to send a Tikari, so Yak suits were the order of the day.
The four descended from the plateau and lurked just outside of the guard perimeter. The first couplet of guards was rotating in to place. They matched Varg and Violet in stature so they headed out first.
Vibeke and Veikko monitored with microwaves ready in case their teammates’ stuns were ineffective and the guards had to be killed. Vibeke moved in closer for a better shot and hid behind a large rock. There she saw two corpses.
Violet and Varg moved closer, microwaves at the ready, sticking to the blind spots afforded by the guards’ breathing apparatuses.
Vibeke examined the bodies. Both had Yakuza tattoos. Both had public link labels as guards 37 and 38. Vibeke looked at the guards Violet and Varg were about to stun. Publicly labeled as guards 37 and 38. She linked immediately to her team.
“Those aren’t guards, someone beat us to it!”
The message hit Violet the same instant she fired a stunning beam at the first. It had no effect. The guard’s replacement turned around, and Violet saw its face. It looked like four black hands opening up to reveal a single bloodshot eye. Violet stumbled back. She set her microwave to kill and fired again. It burned off the front of the suit’s chest, but the creature was undisturbed. From the hole came two tentacles with spiked suckers, reaching for her face.
Varg’s sword chopped them off. The thing let loose a howl that sent a shiver through Violet’s chest.
The Unspeakable Darkness. Bodies modified to the point of inhumanity and beyond.
Varg swung again to behead the monster but only shattered its helmet. The second guard impostor broke out of its suit and grabbed him with the taloned claw it had in place of a head. Its true face became visible as its suit tore off, four eyes in its chest with a gruesome toothed set of three flaps for a mouth. Two legs unfolded from each leg of its suit, two arms from each arm. The thing had made a spider of itself.
Varg ran it through with no effect. There was no telling where an Unspeakable kept its vital organs. It pushed him off, throwing him past Violet. She fired again at the center of the thing that threw Varg. Her beam hit its “face,” and she could see its eyes burn. She was certain she’d blinded it. She turned to the other Unspeakable. It had torn out of its suit to reveal that it was two bodies, one on top with the bloodshot eye and one below with no eyes, just a mass of limbs. A question shot through her head of what kind of human beings would modify themselves into such abominations. She fired again at the top Unspeakable at full strength.
Vibeke’s microwave hit it too, and then Veikko’s. The crossed beams resulted in a protonic reversal, and the Unspeakable exploded. They realized what happened and fired again at the lower beast, vaporizing most of its torso.
The spidery creature grabbed Violet with the claw it had in place of a head. She ejected her Tikari and sliced at its “neck.” The segments were armored, and she couldn’t get her knife between them.
Veikko and Vibeke fired again at its back. Its skin boiled and puckered, but it remained. Varg’s sword emerged from the face on its chest, run through again but to no avail. It began squeezing Violet’s head. The crushing force was immense, seconds from knocking her out or crushing her skull completely.
Veikko ejected his Tikari and rammed it down the creature’s throat, then let go. He set it to berserker
mode and let it wreak havoc inside the thing. Slowly it let go of Violet and collapsed to the ground. Veikko recalled his Tikari and wiped it off on the guard suit’s sleeve.
A massive blast hit one of the Yakuza barracks. The shockwave knocked V team off their feet. Violet looked up for the source of the blast. She saw a contrail leading to the destroyed building. It came from a flying bundle of worms.
The UD ship was massive and grotesque. At first glance it looked like worms tied together with more worms, but from within the mass came spines like an urchin’s. It had a shield, a shell of some sort on its front, rendering it completely unaerodynamic and asymmetrical. It was slick black but painfully visible in the Yakuza’s bright work lamps. Violet almost wished it weren’t. Something about its appearance got under her skin the same way as the Unspeakables themselves. Their ship hurt to look at, to think about. It fired again.
One of the spines bloated and disgorged a missile that armed and flew for another structure, demolishing it in a colossal red blast.
All hell broke loose as the Yakuza shuttles unleashed projectile fire at the Unspeakable ship. The construction site was now an inferno, burning dim in the oxygen-poor air. Only the rocket under construction seemed untouched. Both sides were avoiding harming their prize.
“Mission’s still on. Confirm the nuke. Sabotage the rocket,” Veikko shouted. And they ran.
Violet found herself dodging shrapnel and corpses alike. Running as fast as she could for the rocket, her suit’s breathing apparatus spraying mist up toward her eyes. Another blast from the UD knocked them all back, but they scrambled to their feet and kept running.
Yaks stampeded around them, running from the Unspeakable ship, for cover, in any direction they thought would save them. Except for one guard. Violet knew from its stance it was another Unspeakable in disguise. She drew her microwave again and fired. The others took her cue and fired, disintegrating its suit. That left a horrible sight, a burning monster, this one with an elongated double-lobed head that split in the front to reveal long, spiny teeth.