Second Lives

by Scott K. Andrews

  Jana stared into Quil's familiar face and realised she'd known ever since a vision of her older self had appeared to her as she recuperated in Kinshasa. She'd written it off as a drug- induced hallucination and in the absence of proof she'd refused to believe it, suppressing the truth as if her life depended on it.

  The voice had given her away. The Quil she had met at Sweetclover Hall had been badly burned, her vocal cords damaged, so she spoke in a kind of hoarse rasp. The version she'd met in Kinshasa - and she was now certain that it had been Quil, not a dream of any kind - had not suffered such damage and although her accent was different from Jana's, she had the same voice. So when Jana met Quil in the suite to pass on the warning about the assassin, she had recognised the voice, even from behind the mask. She had realised who was behind it, and with that understanding, the reason for Quil's mask became obvious. She was wearing it for the same reason Jana was - she didn't want to be recognised. Jana

  imagined she'd remove the mask at the moment best calculated for impact, probably on camera, with the president kneeling before her in defeat. That's what Jana would do.

  The screams and the gunfire, the trampling feet and the crashing camera drones, made it impossible to hear or be heard. Quil, unmasked by Jana's rescue, scrabbled on the floor and retrieved her mask, snapping it back across her face.

  Tall back, and bring the prisoners!' yelled Quil as one of her guards handed her a gun. There was no return fire, and the crowd were all running in the opposite direction, so they were safe for now but the peace talks were over before they'd begun, that much was clear. Jana cursed Kairos and his insistence on giving them so little information. The assassination attempt had happened and it seemed unlikely that Jana and Kaz had changed anything. In fact, it looked like their presence here, and Dora's carelessness, had created exactly the situation they had been sent here to avoid. It was Beirut all over again. Jana felt trapped by the implacable inevitability of time itself.

  She needed to jump away, get out of here as soon as possible. There was nothing to be gained by staying around. The sooner she got back to the quantum bubble the better. She rose to her feet and was immediately grabbed by two Godless soldiers and hurried through the ballroom doors into a leafy atrium. Quil was ahead of her, leading the way with her personal guards, who scanned through 360 degrees as they ran, alert for snipers or threats of any kind. Jana turned to look behind her and saw Dora was no longer in the wheelchair; a soldier had thrown her over his shoulder and was carrying her with little effort. All Jana could see were Dora's foreshortened legs dangling over the soldier's chest. She did a double-take and realised that Dora's feet were missing. She barely had time to process her horror and disgust before the realisation hit her - the only way to get off Mars was if all three of them were together.

  'Gunfire in the plaza,' shouted one of the Godless. 'Earth forces trying to storm the building.'

  'Tell them to hold the line as long as possible,' yelled Quil, still running. 'We need them to cover our escape.'

  There was a bright flash ahead of her and a laser beam lanced past Jana's head. She turned to see who the Godless were firing at and fancied she caught a glimpse of Kaz diving behind a fish tank, but it was hard to be sure.

  Quil led them out through the atrium into the conference centre, hurrying past the tables laid out to welcome delegates and journalists, down a corridor and through the rear doors into a wide boulevard. A tram was approaching.

  'Secure that!' shouted Quil, and her soldiers moved to block the rails, weapons raised. As the vehicle ground to a halt and frightened passengers disembarked, Quil turned to Jana.

  'I don't get it,' she spat. 'You warn me about Dora and then save my life back there. But you're a time traveller, like your footless lady-friend. What's the play? What's she planning? Why are you here?'

  'There is no play,' said Jana, pleadingly. 'Honestly, we came to try and save your life. It was Earth that was trying to kill you, not us.'

  Quil stepped forward, her mask inches from Jana's face. 'Then why is it you? Of all people, why you? You must be working for her; it's the only thing that makes sense. Who better to anticipate my actions, to identify my weaknesses? I should have realised.'

  'I promise, I'm not your enemy,' said Jana. 'I'm not working for her. I've got just as many reasons to hate her as you do.'

  'What do you know about my reasons?5 hissed Quil.

  'More than you'd think.'

  'Clear!' a Godless soldier shouted from the tram and the group hurried aboard, Jana being dragged, Dora being carried. The driver sat in the cabin at the front, terrified, with a gun to his head.

  'Does your route take you by the spaceport?' Quil asked him. He nodded. 'Then take us there as fast as you can.'

  The tram began moving as Jana was forced down into a seat by her escort, who sat next to her with his gun jammed in her belly. She turned to look for Dora, but the soldier grabbed her head and forced it forward. Quil remained up front, crouched beside the driver.

  'Update!' she yelled over her shoulder.

  'Forces in the plaza are falling back into the hotel and fortifying their positions,' yelled a soldier. 'Earth forces appear to be concentrating there, doesn't look like they know we've left yet.'

  'They know all right,' replied Quil ruefully. 'There must have been five separate security cameras watching us take this vehicle. They'll be deciding where to put the roadblock already. I don't think—'

  Quil didn't get to finish her sentence. The tram had hardly travelled 100 metres, but there was already a tank ahead of them. Jana saw it in the distance, hovering above the ground, weapons pointed straight at them. She felt a chill as she recognised the war machine - it was the same one she'd seen on her first jump through time. She was catching up with herself. Which meant any moment now she was going to get a nasty gash across her head.

  'We need to get out of here!' she yelled, but she was too late.

  A thick white beam of light lanced out of the tank, slicing into the tram. The heat was intense, the light blinding, the noise overwhelming. Jana lost all sense of up and down, left or right. The world became a senseless jumble, and she felt herself falling slowly towards the ground, objects smashing into her as she fell, something heavy catching her across the forehead. She felt herself land, felt something land on top of her and gradually, as she lay there, her senses returned one by one. She was lying in the twisted wreckage of the tram, the air smelled of burned metal and cooking flesh, her vision was blurred but gradually she was able to make out shapes. As her eyesight cleared she could see a face, close to hers. She gasped as she realised it was Dora. Her face was covered in blood, her eyes were closed, and she was pinned to the ground by a heap of assorted metalwork. Jana tried to reach for her - if only she could make contact, she might be able to jump them away. But it was hopeless; there was too much debris in the way. Knowing that this might be her only chance to escape, Jana gritted her teeth and pushed as hard as she could, trying to rise from the ground and topple the wreckage off herself. She screamed with the effort, felt things popping in her back and her chest, where it felt like the wound she'd sustained from the knife at Pendarn was ripping itself back open. She gave thanks for Mars's lower gravity as she felt herself rising free; she didn't think she'd have been able to escape so easily on Earth. Wreckage tumbled off her with a crash and she made to rescue Dora, but directly in front of her another pile of debris shifted and one of the Godless soldiers began to rise to her feet, blocking Jana's route. Jana saw two guns lying discarded beside her, so she grabbed them. She had no choice but to run, so that's exactly what she would do.

  Taking to her heels, Jana fled the smoking ruin of the tram, running at right angles to the tracks, heading for a side street where she could shelter.

  She heard cries and screams from behind her, but did not turn to see.

  She just ran.

  Kaz saw Jana make a break from the burning tram and hared after her.

  The boulevard stretched ou
t either side of him, curving away in the distance. The boulevards of the city formed a series of concentric circles widening out from the conference centre like ripples on water. Straight roads also radiated out from the plaza, like the spokes in a giant wheel, cutting across the circles as they ran to the edge of the dome. Jana was running for the nearest spoke road, limping and awkward in the light gravity. Kaz ran more easily, and they met at the junction. It sounded like the tank was firing again, and he could hear the buzz of small arms returning fire. There were more distant explosions too, coming from the hotel and conference centre.

  Kaz skidded to a halt beside Jana and they crouched in a doorway. She had a nasty gash across her forehead and blood was dripping down into her eyes. She wiped it away with her sleeve, wincing, then handed a gun to Kaz.

  'Where's Dora?' asked Kaz, all business.

  'In the tram,' said Jana. 'Couldn't get to her. Unconscious.'

  'We need to get her out of there,' said Kaz. Without waiting for a reply, he scurried out into the street and back to the corner, craning his head around to see what was going on. The wreckage of the tram was on fire, and a group of Godless soldiers were exchanging fire with the tank as their comrades struggled to free someone from the wreckage. He figured it was Quil. There was no sign of Dora.

  He hurried back to Jana. 'I would say that we have to regroup,' he said. 'Jump away, take some time, strategise, return with a plan. But I don't think you'd go for that somehow.'

  'Damn straight,' Jana replied with a grim smile. 'We can't risk it. We need to grab Dora first. We can't leave her here.'

  A huge explosion rocked the ground.

  'That came from the conference centre,' said Kaz. He rose to his feet again and hurried back to the junction. Godless troops were backing out of the conference centre on to the boulevard, firing back into the building as they did so. There were multiple explosions inside the building and Kaz could see flames licking at the wooden structure of the atrium that linked the centre to the hotel.

  He was about to turn and run back again when a bright flash of red caught his eye. He squinted through the smoke and for a second, through the haze, he saw a familiar figure sprawling on a fresh pile of rubble - was that Dora? He squinted. Yes, it was, but younger, as she'd been when he first met her.

  He sprinted out of cover. With gunfire to his right and ahead of him, he was behind two lines of Godless, both firing away from him. If he was quick, and kept low, he might be able to pull this off. He ran into the smoke and was instantly blind. Making a best guess of where he'd seen Dora, he ran on until he literally stumbled across her. She was flailing and screaming, utterly beside herself with fear and confusion. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her towards him, trying to turn her so he could look her in the eyes and reassure her. He briefly wondered why she was soaking wet. Dora screamed even louder when he touched her and lurched forward, away from him, crawling away. He grabbed her feet and pulled her back to him, ignoring the kicks. In one smooth movement he hoisted her up and over his shoulder, marvelling at how light she seemed. He turned and ran with her, still kicking and screaming, punching his back and crying out, back to where Jana was waiting. She had relinquished their doorway and was now sheltering behind a small wall outside a restaurant on the junction of the boulevard.

  With laser beams whizzing all around him, Kaz concentrated on running straight and not falling over. After what seemed like a lifetime, but was probably only a few seconds, he dumped Dora at Jana's feet and took shelter behind the wall himself.

  He stared in amazement at the young girl, hyperventilating, face a mask of terror, dressed in simple seventeenth-century clothes that were soaking wet and plastered to her thin frame. Kaz reached towards her and put his hands on either side of Dora's head, holding it steady so she was looking up at him.

  'Calm down, Dora, breathe,' said Kaz. 'It's OK. You're all right. It's a lot to handle first time. I remember. But you need to concentrate, you'll only be here for a moment. I need you to listen, yes?'

  Dora nodded and Kaz let her head go.

  'Don't,' he heard Jana yelling behind him. 'You mustn't tell her—'

  A series of small explosions blossomed across the street as the Earth forces within the conference centre tossed grenades at the Godless.

  'There is one thing you need to know,' Kaz said, leaning forward to whisper in Dora's ear, but then there came the familiar red flash and she was gone, jumping away back through time on her maiden voyage.

  'What the hell was that, Kaz?' yelled Jana. 'Were you seriously about to tell Dora her future?'

  'For all we know she's lying dead in that bloody tram right now,' Kaz yelled back. 'Of course I was trying to warn her!'

  Jana lowered her head for a moment, then looked up at him. 'You're probably right,' she said. 'Now, assuming she's still alive, how do we get to our Dora?'

  They peered over the wall. The Godless soldiers had formed a defensive knot at the junction of the adjacent street. It looked like a small group were holding position, which probably meant that the larger group were falling back down the street that ran roughly parallel to theirs. The Earth troops had taken up position in a number of places - including behind the wreckage of the tram - and were streaming gunfire at the clones. The tank was level with the tram now, rotating slowly to bring its main gun to bear on the barricade. Meanwhile, the Godless fire was concentrated on the soldiers behind the tram, the smoking carcass of which was being sliced and diced a hundred ways.

  'If Dora's still in there, she's dead,' said Kaz bluntly. 'We have to hope the Godless have still got her.'

  'You're right, come on,' agreed Jana, turning and running down the street away from the fighting. Kaz followed.

  Jana stopped at the next junction, where another wide circular boulevard cut across the road. This road, which was mostly lined with three- or four-storey residential blocks, still had civilians on it. People were evacuating their homes carrying their most prized possessions, many dragging or carrying crying children. All of them were running away from the explosions and gunfire that echoed up the street.

  'Those soldiers back there can't be the only Earth troops in the city,' said Kaz breathlessly. 'They're going to cut Quil off sooner or later.'

  'There!' Jana pointed down to the next junction. The Godless came running fast out on to the boulevard, firing back over their shoulders down the street.

  Kaz watched them intently. 'There's Quil,' he said, pointing her out; she was easy to spot because of her height.

  'And there's Dora,' said Jana, pointing to a Godless soldier who had their friend slung across his shoulder.

  'Thank God,' breathed Kaz.

  'They're not safe yet, look!' yelled Jana.

  Kaz looked where she was pointing. A tank was floating round the curve of the boulevard ahead of them. Before the Godless party could make it fully across, the tank's main gun fired into the blocks they were running towards, slicing into them and bringing them tumbling down in a cacophony of screaming wood. The structures of the organic residences caught light, while the bricks that had formed some of the internal structure spilled out on to the street. Kaz looked on, appalled, as he saw burning bodies tumbling from rooms suddenly exposed to the open air. The Earth tank had blocked the Godless escape, but only by knowingly killing civilians. The pragmatic ruthlessness was breathtaking.

  A similar sound began building behind them and Kaz looked across to see clouds of dust and smoke billowing upwards from the street the Godless had just run down.

  They're boxing them in,' said Kaz in disbelief. 'Literally demolishing the city around them to make a cage.'

  'And we're going to be trapped in it too,' said Jana.

  'But that means . . .' Kaz turned to look down the boulevard in the other direction. Sure enough, he could see another tank rounding the curve in the road.

  'We are so screwed,' he said.

  Jana stared at the approaching tank and experienced a moment of deja vu.

  'Uh, Ka
z, I think . . .' but before she could say it, she saw the tell-tale red flash of a time traveller's arrival about forty metres away and she knew what she had to do.

  She broke cover and ran towards the flash. Nobody was firing in this direction - the Godless hadn't yet realised there was another tank outflanking them. She heard Kaz yell in alarm as she ran, but she ignored him. The tank fired as she ran, slicing through the row of buildings to her right. Dust and smoke bloomed into the street, shards of rock, brick, metal and burning wood rained down on her, but she kept running. A laser beam zinged past her shoulder - the Godless had noticed the tank.

  Keeping low, Jana hurried on and nearly tripped over the terrified girl lying in the street, looking away from her towards the approaching tank.

  Jana reached out and grabbed the girl's shoulder, turning

  her round so she could look into the eyes of her younger self. The fear and confusion in them made her heart ache. Did she really look like that? She always pictured herself as strong and capable, in control at all times, and meeting Quil had done nothing to dispel that self-image. But this younger version of her - and not that much younger, only a few weeks - looked out of her depth, scared and desperate.

  'You'll be all right,' said Jana, instinctively trying to reassure. 'I can't tell you how or why, but you'll be all right. I promise.' Her younger self stared up at her in amazement. 'Oh, and—'

  Her vision flared with red and the world around her dissolved, spun and then resolved itself into a familiar pattern of brick.

  She was back in the quantum bubble.

  'Shit!' she muttered. And then louder, 'Shit! Shit! SHIT!'

  How could she have been so stupid? In all the confusion, the noise, the flashes of light, the crashing and screaming, she'd somehow not realised that her hand was still on her younger self's shoulder and the red fire was building between them. She'd inadvertently jumped through time, abandoning Kaz. She stood alone, furious at herself, feeling freaked out and anticlimactic - thirty seconds ago she'd been in the middle of a firefight and now she was full of adrenalin that she had to burn off. It only took a second to come up with a way of doing that. She spun on her heels and ran to the stairs, clattering down them and hurrying between all the rooms of this odd subterranean maze until she found Kairos, humming to himself, drawing equations on a screenboard.