Eetoo

by Robby Charters

  Wait. What was the other one holding?

  It looked like a voltage shooter.

  He stooped to pick it up. It was a hand held tool that would draw the voltage from whatever power cell was attached, and send a lightning bolt to whatever you aimed it at. It could set fire to sticks, or jump start a machine, or -- with a power cell this size -- kill a bionic.

  Clever!

  How much voltage was there left after 12 years?

  Heptosh aimed it at the wrecked vehicle. Just enough to produce a visible bolt and make a black spot on the surface. Then it died.

  It also made Eetoo jump out of his skin.

  'Good weapon,' Heptosh said. 'We just need to find another power cell.'

  The boy looked at him blankly.

  Heptosh pointed to the bionics. 'Have you ever seen people that looked like that?'

  'No.'

  Strange. Apparently no survivors. Perhaps they did a thorough job of exterminating them. But some should have survived, either bionic or human.

  He wouldn't take any chances. He searched the wreckage for any spare power cell. There were none. He put the shooter into his bag and they got onto the scooter once again.

  'What people them?' asked Eetoo.

  'They used to be normal people,' began Heptosh. 'They took an implant -- er -- a very small machine thing that can use what's in the body to make more of itself. It reads the DNA and...'

  Eetoo looked blank.

  'Well -- it just makes more of itself until the whole body becomes bionic. But the soul is dead.'

  'Dead?'

  'Just a machine man without a soul.'

  Eetoo looked at the dead bionic once more with a look of dread.

  Heptosh started the scooter and they moved on.

  They passed more houses in various states of disrepair -- more wrecked vehicles -- bones and bionic remains -- Heptosh searched a few of the sites for power cells and other supplies. Another computer or two would give a fuller account of what happened -- a tragic story, by the looks of it.

  Robbing the dead wasn't Heptosh's idea of a good time, but if it would avenge their death --

  One power cell seemed to have half a charge left -- probably enough to disable three bionics if he set the voltage only moderately high. His bag was weighing him down. If they had to do much walking, maybe Eetoo could carry some of the items into his shepherd bag.

  He took a turn that he judged would take him to the pyramid. There should be an entry to the underground infrastructure. All the human-made planets had a similar architectural design, even if their facial geography varied.

  Though they saw more wreckages and signs of battle, they stayed on course until they came to the foot of the pyramid. Then, they circled it until they found the entrance.

  On the side of the pyramid facing the space port he saw a lake -- rectangular shaped, but it didn't have a proper shore. Some dead trees were sticking out of the water.

  There wasn't supposed to be a lake here, thought Heptosh.

  A road led to the open gate through what appeared to be a park with stone tables in the shade of some big trees. They stopped for lunch before proceeding. Eetoo appeared to enjoy the corn wafer with spinach and chicken filling.

  They entered the pyramid via a downward ramp wide enough for land vehicles. From there, if Heptosh knew internal planetary infrastructure, there would be a road straight to the space port.

  He and Eetoo mounted the scooter, Heptosh lit the lamps and they descended the ramp.

  He turned to the left, the direction of the space port, but suddenly found himself facing a rock wall.

  He turned to move along the wall to look for a door, but he found none, only rubble and broken rock.

  He moved away from the wall, put the lamps on high power to get a better look. What he saw took his breath away.

  The giant slab that formed the roof over the passage had fallen in, blocking off the way to the space port. The two ends of the fallen slab looked as though they had been blasted so as to make it fit precisely into the entrance.

  That explained the rectangular lake up on the surface. The ground had sunken in and filled up with rain water.

  There were other ways of getting in. Heptosh dimmed the lights, and started down the other corridor.

  Several furlongs onward he came to one of the smaller doors into the central area. It was shut, and there were stone beams placed into the aperture, wedging the door in closed position. It was, in effect, locked from outside.

  What about the entrance further down?

  They sped on to that. Same story. Were all the entry points to the central area blocked off?

  Suddenly Heptosh knew. He also conjectured that if he were to go to the surface, he'd find all skylights and vent holes likewise sealed. Probably the entire population of bionics were trapped inside the central area. Without sunlight, their primary energy source, they would eventually go comatose.

  It was a good-news-bad-news situation. They probably didn't have to worry about the bionics, but the only way to the spaceport now was through the mountain range -- a long way. The scooter wouldn't be able to navigate the whole route.

  What about approaching the space port from the surface?

  If he were a lot younger, he could have tried scaling the face of the great wall to reach the spaceship entrance. Eetoo could do it, maybe, but how would he get Heptosh up?

  They'd have to go the long way. If they rationed wisely, the food would probably last.

  'Come Eetoo. We have a long way to go,' he said.

  7

  sunlight filtering from openings high above illuminates stalactites and stalagmites that time has glazed over the human-hewn cave walls

  the sound of running water echoes through the caverns

  This trip is really taking a long time. I'm sure the sheep will have scoured the ground bare by now.

  We stopped twice to eat. His crispy bread is nice, but I think I'll go back to my normal bread with cheese next meal. I'll offer him some.

  We're walking now. The 'scooter' thing won't fit through all these places we have to go. We've crossed one underground stream.

  At least we don't need the torches on all the time, there's just enough light coming through from up there.

  I can hear water up ahead. Probably another stream we have to cross. There's also more light coming from that way.

  Hang on! I smell something cooking! There's a bit of smoke in the air. Heptosh smells it too.

  'Fish?' he says.

  Everyone we've found so far is dead. Who could be cooking fish?

  We're up to the stream now. There's the mouth of a cave where the stream goes out, and there I see a fire. Someone's sitting beside it -- a kid, he's got no clothes on.

  He's looking at us, like he's scared.

  Wait! I know him! Ni Gwah? It couldn't be! He's dead!

  He's standing up. It is him! He's turning to run away.

  'Ni Gwah! Stop! It's me, Eetoo!'

  He stops, and turns about.

  'Eetoo?'

  'Ni Gwah! How did you get here? We all thought you were dead!'

  'I think I am dead! How did you get here? Did you die?'

  'You look alive to me.'

  'But this is the place of the dead. Everywhere I go I only see people's bones!'

  'No. It's Kalodzuland. All the Kalodzu's died or something. Some of them started to turn into funny machine things, and they all killed each other.'

  'Who's this man?'

  'That's Heptosh. He's going to take me to the Planet of Nephtesh to find the golden tablets...'

  'Huh?'

  '..and he speaks Nephteshi. Try talking to him.'

  Heptosh just stands there looking at us. I think he doesn't have any idea what we're talking about.

  I tell him, 'This is my friend, Ni Gwah. He go down a -- er -- water go around and round -- not come up again. We not find him. We think he dead, but I find him here.'

  'A whirlpool?' says Heptosh. 'Ask him
where he came down.'

  Ni Gwah understands him. 'There,' he says. He points upstream. 'Water come down -- er ...' then he says to me in Fa-tzi-zhi, 'a long slide, I thought I was sliding into hell. Then I landed in the stream and I followed it until I came here.' Then he says in Nephteshi, 'Water go whoosh!' He makes a motion with his hand.

  Heptosh looks like he knows. 'So,' he says, 'The head of this stream is in the Famtizhi area. You must be a very good swimmer to survive being sucked into a whirlpool.'

  'Yes,' I say. 'He very good.'

  'How long have you lived here now?'

  'I don't know,' Ni Gwah says.

  'One year,' I say.

  'It's been a year?' he asks me in Fa-tzi-zhi.

  He takes us to the mouth of the cave. There are his fishes cooking on the open fire. He turns one of them over.

  Outside, I see we're on top of a waterfall. Down there, there's a pool, and a stream that goes on through a canyon. I guess it must lead into the flat lands, but we see only steep cliffs from here. There's a vegetable garden next to the pool.

  'Did you plant that?' says Heptosh.

  'I find herbs and plant garden,' he answers him. Then to me, in Fa-tzi-zhi, he says, 'I found all sorts of vegetables growing wild near dead people's houses. I take them and plant them here, so I never have to go off and look at people's bones and stuff.'

  I can see beans, cabbages, a few gourds, and carrots.

  Then, he says, 'Come!'

  He jumps off the edge into the pool below.

  The water looks good. We've been walking a long way. I throw off my tunic, put it beside the fire, and jump in myself. Heptosh walks down the path on the edge of the cliff. He watches us for a while, swimming and splashing. The, he carefully takes off his clothes and gets in.

  He has a lot more to take off than me. There's a cloth he wraps about his shoulders, and then a leather belt with pockets and lots of stuff stuck in it, and then a cloth that he wears about his waist, and then his shoes. Even then he's not totally naked. He's still got something wrapped about his waste and strung between his legs, but I guess he doesn't mind getting that wet.

  We have a good time in the water.

  Heptosh says we'd better spend the night here. Ni Gwah spears some more fish with his stick, and cooks them for us. He's also made a blowgun, and he says he catches rabbit and squirrel sometimes.

  * * *

  Heptosh looked about as much as he could in the morning light. The mountains blocked any view and it would be a long walk to the mouth of the canyon -- Ni Gwah said it was three furlongs. He was beginning to suspect that Famtizhi people could only count up to three. He decided that the best thing would be to continue through the underground passages.

  The new boy, Ni Gwah, could come with them. They would get him home where his parents and relatives would certainly be happy. Ni Gwah could probably use some clothes. He'd obviously been sucked down the whirlpool while swimming naked in the stream, and hadn't seen any clothes since, except those draped about dead bodies.

  Heptosh fetched his extra toga from his carry bag and helped Ni Gwah put it on. He didn't look bad in it, though it wasn't the sort of thing he was used to wearing.

  Then, they were off. This time, their food supply included some cooked fish and various vegetables from Ni Gwah's garden plot.

  Later, they lunched on some of Eetoo's bread and cheese, and some cabbage and cucumber. The cheese tasted rather nice, Heptosh thought.

  By evening, they had entered an area with wider passages. The scooter could have been useful here. They finished Ni Gwah's fish with some of Eetoo's bread, and settled down for the night.

  They drifted off to sleep.

  8

  Heptosh was abruptly awakened by a kick to his ribs. There were people walking about, holding weapons. He heard a scuffle next to him, and looked just in time to see a human figure grabbing a toga, while Ni Gwah escaped its folds, running off in the direction they had come.

  The human figures -- three of them, Heptosh counted -- forced Heptosh and Eetoo to their feet and they walked down the corridor in the opposite direction from the way Ni Gwah escaped.

  There was a conveyance waiting for them. As soon as they were seated and flying down the wide corridor, Heptosh tried to catch a glimpse of their captors by what light was available.

  It was too dark. He could only see that there were three of them, plus himself and Eetoo.

  Good luck, Ni Gwah, He thought.

  Soon, they came to a more well lit area.

  These were bionics.

  They came to a stop, and the bionics escorted the two off the conveyance, up a narrow corridor, and into an office.

  There, they met a stout gentleman dressed in his human clothes, but with bionic skin. Most bionics Heptosh had known hadn't bothered with clothes after their transformation.

  He said something to the escorts, and they bowed and left the room.

  'Don't be alarmed, gentlemen. I have a glitch in my programming that prevents me from pretending to be a self conscious living human. Please sit down. Welcome to Kalodzuland. My name is Shan. That is, my late human host was known as Shan, the son of Khong.'

  Heptosh sat down in one of the chairs. Eetoo followed his example. Shan also sat down.

  This was unlike any bionic Heptosh had ever heard of.

  'You are confused, no doubt,' Shan went on. 'Before we succumbed to the final stages of bionic transformation, the human Shan gave himself a bio-media upload. Are you aware of that process?'

  Heptosh was aware. It was the only known process of uploading information to the human brain. But it had a downside: anything input into the mind in this way became extremely vivid, like a phobia, or an obsession. It would be easier to jump off a cliff in ignorance of the law of gravity than to unlearn something thus uploaded to the brain, so unless great care is taken in the selection of information, an upload could lead to obsessive behaviour or a neurosis.

  'Because the upload so vividly imprinted actual facts onto my brain which Shan had carefully selected, it overrode the programming that was built into the bionic chip. Whereas most bionics are programmed to portray themselves as intelligent living beings, my understanding of the true state is the same as that of my human host before the transformation.'

  'So you actually found a creative use for bio-media upload!' commented Heptosh.

  'Indeed. Oh! I'm sorry for being such a bad host. I haven't even asked you your names!'

  'Ah, yes,' began Heptosh. 'I'm Heptosh, this is my young companion, Eetoo. I'm afraid Eetoo hasn't been able to follow all you've said.'

  'Yes. From the Famtizhi area, I see. Their tribal culture is probably their best protection from bionic take-over.'

  'How so?'

  'Bionics are incapable of cultural adaptation,' explained Shan, 'and therefore would be unable to relate to their values in a way that would persuade them to accept a bionic implant.'

  'You seem to understand it quite well,' said Heptosh.

  'I was programmed by the bio-media upload to learn as much as I can about bionics, and to pass that information on to humans as soon as the opportunity presents itself, as it has just now. Besides that, I've been doing my original job of maintaining the internal infrastructure of this planet until such time as humans arrive to relieve me. Is that your purpose in coming?'

  'I'm only on a fact finding trip' replied Heptosh. 'I'm sure something could be arranged later on, when the sector council has had a chance to review all these facts. My biggest problem right now is getting off this planet. My relocator engine isn't functioning properly.'

  'Then take my ship. I have no use for it.'

  'You're a lifesaver!' exclaimed Heptosh.

  Heptosh told him about Ni Gwah.

  'I was told there was another human. I'll send him on his way to the Famtizhi area as soon as my bots find him. I do wish I had something to offer you by way of refreshment. We bionics only consume sunlight.'

  'Oh, don't worry about us. We b
rought plenty of food for ourselves.'

  'So,' Shan went on, 'What did you learn of our situation from the refugees?'

  'The -- refugees?'

  'Yes. We sent seven large transport ships, filled to over-capacity with those not yet infected by a bionic chip, including many orphaned children.'

  'Ah -- they did say something about ships of refugees, but no such ships have been seen.'

  'Oh!' There was a pause, as the the bionic displayed a remarkable show of uncertainty.

  Heptosh spoke: 'But, please tell me about the state of the subterranean city. It appears that the entire city centre has been sealed off.'

  'Ah! That was a part of our strategy. All bodies not implanted with the bionic chip, including all the children, were to be evacuated. The rest would stay to prevent the bionic army from gaining access to the Famtizhi area, and wreaking havoc there as they had done here. I was to have seen them off, as the others made the last stand. Our sources told us that they would seek entry to the capitol city via the subterranean portion of the city. They sprang a trap for them, by setting explosives to go off in strategic places that would trap them inside. They could have dug their way out, if they had the time, but, deprived of sunlight, their only source of energy, they couldn't last long enough. The surviving, but infected humans did a mop-up operation, eliminating all the bionics that did find their way into the city, and then went, each to their home, to end their own lives.'

  'So, all the bionics are eliminated from the planet -- except for these?'

  'There are yet a few bionic communities still functional in the Kalodzu area, but not in large enough numbers to do anything. There are a few isolated human communities as well. Some are well armed and prepared to resist any bionics that approach their villages. Others are so far away they don't know anything of what's happened.'

  'I must pay posthumous compliments to your host, Shan, in succeeding to form you into a safe bionic.'

  'I'm not one hundred percent safe, I'm afraid. From studying myself, and the others (as Shan programmed me to do), I have been able to discover that there is a control circuit in each of us bionics. By targeting that circuit, I'm able to control the others -- but only when they're close by. Furthermore, I am only able to access a peripheral command level. There is a deeper command level which I have not been able to probe neither in them nor myself. I don't know who holds the command key to that level, but whenever such a person shows up on this planet, he or she will have complete control over me, even to the point of overriding Shan's bio-media upload.