“In fairness, the first two were shuttle groups. It’s only the most recent one that was a starship,” Kitsano said, shooting a look at Roberta. I noticed that both women were obviously not looking at Michael. I filed that away, wondering what his connection was to a crashed starship.
“Even so, a life-supporting planet - even a prison planet, and even one with hordes of hostile natives – is far too valuable to waste. Does all that technology and life mean nothing to them?”
“It’s the Matsumoto way.” Roberta spat on the floor. “One of them got it into his fat head that we should not just terraform this place, but destroy the natural inhabitants and claim it for the Matsumotos. If they thought planet-wide genocide was ok, what are a few civvies, prisoners and marines?”
I gave her a long, hard look. I’m not a Matsumoto anymore, but somehow everyone wants to light me on fire in effigy anyhow. I needed her to see that I don’t burn.
“Go ahead and stare, Matsumoto. I know what’s at your core.”
I shifted my weight and pulled my shoulders back like I wanted to fight, but she didn’t back down. That was interesting.
“I do, too,” said Driscoll, hate leaking from his tone, “And I don’t doubt a word you’ve said. They’d need to cover up to keep their lily white hands clear of blood. Particularly the blood of their own. I saw your faces. She’s not the first Matsumoto sent here to die.”
The Baldric Three – that’s what I was calling them privately – exchanged a loaded glance again, before the Lieutenant replied.
“No. She’s not the first they sent to die.”
I already knew that, so it wasn’t shocking, but Driscoll seemed pleased at the revelation.
“This needs to get out. All of Blackwatch needs to hear your story.”
“Yes,” said Michael, looking up from the screens, his face painted with the light of a true believer. “That’s why we need to get off this planet.”
Driscoll was nodding.
“Yes. As soon as possible.”
“Then you’re with us?” Michael asked, almost smiling.
“I’m with you. If you want off this rock, I’ll come with you and when you do get off of it I’ll help you spread your story to everyone in the Empire.”
I wondered if they would still be half-shadow if they left here. Would they be able to leave if they were linked so strongly to a collective consciousness on this planet? They didn’t seem too worried about it.
“He’s with us!” Michael said, beaming.
Smiles were shared all around, and once again I was the only person not in on things. I was starting to think that I was such a square peg that I’d never find a hole that fit me. Even the hole marked “Matsumoto” wasn’t shaped right anymore, although everyone I met kept trying to hammer me back into it.
“So,” Driscoll asked, turning to me. “What do you need her for?”
My eyes had been scanning the walls of the dwelling as they formed their new bond and they had at last alighted on a pair of scissors. I went over to them and picked them up, opening and closing them to check how they cut. I noticed the Lieutenant’s gun sneak up to track me now that I was armed, but that wasn’t my intent.
I let my eyes focus on Roberta as she spoke, but my hands continued to work on their own.
“We could use her,” Roberta said.
I loosened what was left of my braid, grabbed a handful of hair and cut it close to the scalp as she spoke. Her brow furrowed with confusion.
“She can convince a ship to send a shuttle down, or maybe she can help us access the colony computers.”
Another chunk joined the first.
“With what she has in her head we could take over the computers of the colony and the satellites above and control all the tech on this world.”
I chopped the next handful with my eyes locked on hers. Her eyes were widening by the second and her mouth fell open.
“So far we’ve been unsuccessful,” Lieutenant Kitsano said, studiously ignoring me as if I were a crazy person. “The Javierians know what we are planning and oppose it. They have kept us from entering the colony until today when they thought she was one of us calling for help. We could use that to finally get in for longer than a few minutes. We’ve been fighting both the shadows and our own since we went rogue. Now that we have her we have the bargaining chip and the power we need to make both groups listen.”
I focused on her eyes as I cut the last chunk of my hair off and tossed it on the floor. Her expression didn’t waver, but I saw her jaw clench.
“Do I look like a pawn to you?” I asked.
“Why did you cut off all of your hair?” Michael asked, confused, and a touch appalled. I must look a sight.
“Because it gets in the way when I do this,” I said, and launched myself at Kitsano.
THE SPLITTING: 22
I TOOK KITSANO BY SURPRISE, kicking her legs out from under her with a quick swipe of my own right leg. I followed it up with an elbow to the nose and a quick jab to the solar plexus. I left her gasping on her knees and spun to Roberta next. Her yelp of surprise clued me in to her being my next threat. I snap-kicked her knee, and a left uppercut to the jaw took her out of the fight. I was relieved to note that the fighting program was still working.
I threw Driscoll in for good measure. After all, he was all chummy with them and together they had plans for me. A quick jab to his temple as I spun out of the fight with Roberta took him by surprise, but I think he was feinting when he dropped to his knees, clutching his head. He was too much of a brawler for one blow to make him quit unless he wanted to.
Michael held up his hands in a defensive plea and I didn’t strike him. The sight of the others sprawled helpless on the ground was enough of a demonstration. They needed to know that from now on I wasn’t letting anyone have plans for me unless I was a part of the planning.
It wouldn’t have gone down so smoothly if they had expected the fight. I could still hear that wine-bottle pop that had to have been Dr. Daniels’ spine. No one really expects violence from a Matsumoto, though, and I fought dirty. The program had been designed to win, not to play by any rules of honor – a feature I was rather glad it employed. I liked to think that the hair cutting thing had unnerved them, too. I must look downright terrifying with my hair shorn haphazardly and only one eye showing. If I was going to make it on this planet I was going to need all the respect I could forge into people. And if I couldn’t get respect I’d be fine settling with terror.
“You really should think about keeping me alive,” Patrick said between grunts of pain. He held his head in both hands, but his eyes were on me.
“And why’s that?” I asked, studying my bloodied knuckles.
“Because when you decide to become Emperor – and you will – you’re going to need me.”
I raised an eyebrow, and I would have replied, except that my implant swept me into Roman’s world, leaving my own a faint ghost overlaid on my vision.
In this world I was on the receiving end of a beating, rather than the giving end. I thrashed in Roman’s body, feeling the sting of a whiplash across my back. My wrists and feet were shackled in leather and strung taut to opposite walls. Blood dripped around my back, hugging the curve of my ribs and spattering to the floor.
I was in a square, steel room, riveted along the seams. The door was a hatch. It screamed ‘starship’ to my experienced eyes. Before me a marine officer stood.
“Your punishment is for failure to the Matsumotos. As you know, in the marines we do not use corporal punishment for failures. This is the one exception. You have failed our Dynasty. Your failure has caused the death of one of the blood. For your failure you shall receive forty lashes. Consider it a light punishment.”
I reeled in pain as the next lash cut across my back. My head thundered with my blood racing so fast to the tune of my beating heart. My vision was blanking and returning with each lash stroke. The pain was intense – so intense I didn’t know why Roman wasn’t screamin
g. I was pretty sure I was, back in my body.
The terrible things inflicted by my family, or in the name of my family, were more and greater than I had ever imagined. Despite the intense pain, I could still think clearly enough to contemplate this. I knew that somehow the Matsumotos had to end. But who can end a disease that ran this deep into our society? The only one who could put an end to them was someone on the inside and I wasn’t inside anymore. I wasn’t even a Matsumoto anymore.
“When your punishment is over,” the officer continued, “You will continue on to the mission you were briefed on. You know as well as I do that no marine assigned there has ever returned. Don’t think of it as a death sentence. Think of it as a way to regain our confidence in you as a marine. Good Luck.”
I wanted to spit at the marine’s sanctimonious speech. They were going to send Roman – my Roman! – to his death with the pathetic covering that it was a chance to prove himself loyal and capable after a devastating failure. It was as false as it was cruel, and I hated them for doing it to him.
The officer left, but the whipping kept on coming. The pain, the pain, the pain was endless.
Roman, I screamed through our connection. Please, please hold on. I’ll find a way to save you. I promise.
My tears were hot on my cheeks back in Baldric, and my connection was fading to Roman.
Please, hold on! I won’t abandon you. I’m here.
The pain came back strongly one more time as I surged back into his world.
Vera? Are you alive.
Be strong. I’ll find a way.
Behind me the man administering the whipping leaned in close and said, “It was an impossible task, but now the only Matsumoto alive is the Emperor, and that’s your fault.”
Not true. I said.
Not true? Roman echoed, and then the pain began again and I faded back to my own body.
I was screaming in my own body with the pain still washing over my mind. Someone was sitting on my chest.
The pain left suddenly with a wash of relief so strong I was almost giddy from it. Someone was cursing loudly. I looked up. It was Roberta sitting on me and cursing while the Lieutenant had her nettlegun centered on my forehead and the men each had one of my arms pinned down.
This wasn’t what I’d hoped for when I turned the tables, but at least they clearly saw me as someone to worry about.
My chest heaved as I sucked in cool ultra-rich Baldric oxygen. For the first time since leaving the installation I wondered if that was okay. Was I going to start suffering from oxygen toxicity now?
Symptoms of oxygen toxicity?
Disorientation, breathing problems, myopia, collapsed alveoli, retinal detachment, seizures…
Well, so far so good, except maybe for the disorientation.
“What was that, Matsumoto?” Driscoll asked.
“What was what?” I asked.
Kitsano jabbed the barrel of the gun into my forehead and I grunted.
“I was trying to show you all that I can’t be maneuvered like a pawn and then I blacked out. All this ultra-rich oxygen isn’t good for me.”
The Baldric Three exchanged glances while Driscoll said, “You grabbed your head, started screaming and then keeled over.”
“Oxygen toxicity,” I said, sticking to my far-fetched story.
“Maybe,” Michael said, answering an unspoken question from Kitsano. “Unlikely, but maybe. They don’t have our protection.”
“What protection?” Driscoll asked.
“The original scientists weren’t just tinkering with our ability to communicate. They gave us nano-bots that triggered mutations to adapt to the atmosphere after they terraformed the planet. Together the results are enough that we can live without supplemental air.”
“But we’re going to go crazy?” Driscoll asked, pointing at me. “Like she just did?”
“You’re going to have lung and eye troubles after prolonged exposure. Disorientation maybe, or worse symptoms later on, but I wouldn’t have expected this kind of outburst,” Michael said.
“Either way, we can’t trust her now. Either she’s out of her mind or out to get us.” Roberta sure was a ray of sunshine.
“Let her up for now. I have her covered,” Kitsano said, and I was eased up into a sitting position.
I was grateful to have Roberta off my chest. I wasn’t feeling very fond of her at the present.
But what did I do now that the tables were turned again? The combat programs could probably take them back down, but what if I dropped into Romans mind again? I was going to need allies to fulfill my promise to him. Maybe these renegades were my best option. They were certainly my most immediate option.
Something had changed inside me as I felt Roman suffering, yet again, at the hands of my family - or at least at the hands of the people representing my family. This had to end. I was beginning to realize that I might be the only one who could end it. Roman had been right all along, and so had Driscoll. It was time to start thinking about claiming the Empire myself.
I couldn’t help but laugh internally. Here I sat, one eye patched up, my hair a ruin, without allies or weapons and held prisoner on a planet of hostile aliens with no way to leave or to communicate with the outside world, and yet I had decided that I would be Emperor. Maybe I really was going crazy.
I remember the day I lost my mind. It was a Tuesday on Baldric.
THE SPLITTING: 23
SO, YOU WANT TO BE Emperor, I thought, as they trussed me up like a pig they were going to roast. You want to right all wrongs and fix the world. I would have thought you were too cynical for that.
I didn’t ask to be a crusader and rescuer of my people. I didn’t ask to overthrow my cousin, but I felt horribly responsible for Roman’s fate. His life was hanging by a thread because no Matsumoto has found and ended the poison flowing through our heritage. I was deeply marked by the devastation I saw here on Baldric. It was because of us that genocide was perpetrated here.
I could leave it to terrorists like Driscoll, but while terrorists are great at destroying systems they don’t have a great track record for putting them back together. Neil Matsumoto was an exception, but a rare one.
It seemed that like it or not, I was the last person left who could heal Blackwatch from within without spinning her into utter chaos.They bred us Matsumoto cousins for many things – non-violence, obedience, loyalty, yes, but also for responsibility and duty. It was my turn to step up to my duty, even if it meant my death.
I would save Blackwatch.
I would save Roman.
I let out a deep breath, relieved at the certainty that came with purpose. I hardly noticed the argument between Kitsano and Driscoll in front of my face. I had just finished a difficult battle. It was the very first of what would hopefully be a long string of victories, but there was no time to rest on my laurels.
Search all downloaded databases for references to Matsumotos in relation to Baldric.
Four hundred and thirty-two references found.
Sort out the references in official signatures and stick with references in video logs and reports.
Four references found.
Play logs in sequence.
The first showed a scientist in the video log. He was giving a report.
“We have informed Ambassador Matsumoto of the possible consequences. Genocide and destruction of the fauna and ecosystem of Baldric are almost certain if this line of terraforming continues. Our orders are to continue by order of the Emperor and of Ambassador Matsumoto.”
It cut off as the computer played the next snippet. A man in a marine’s uniform spoke.
“The current batch of prisoners includes the prisoner we have been instructed to refer to only as a number. She is a personal prisoner of the Matsumoto Dynasty. I must stress that I cannot reasonably obey my orders while detaining her and I would ask that I be relieved of the command of this colony.”
The next scientist appeared in a split screen with a starship officer. It
seemed like a remote communication. Her eyes were wide with terror.
“It’s her. She’s with them. Somehow they listen to her, but we don’t know why. She wasn’t a shadow before she joined them, but now she’s their leader and she’s out for revenge.”
“Who is?”
“Matsumoto,” she whispered, and her eyes whipsawed back and forth as if she could watch every direction at once.
He hissed, “Don’t say that name. It’s classified.”
The recordings faded out. I could go back and listen to them in context, but I’d gleaned what I’d hoped for. As I had suspected, we were responsible for what had happened to this planet, and as I already knew, I was not the first Matsumoto imprisoned here. It was time to make a plan and to do something about this.
I let myself fade back into the world my body was in.
“No, this just happens sometimes. She fades out for a few minutes,” Driscoll was saying to Kitsano. She still had her gun braced against my forehead.
“It’s happened before?”
“Yes, and then she goes off and does something crazy, like riding a shadow beast, or saving all our lives, or calling you guys. I don’t know how she does it, but she does. It’s something about her, but I’m telling you that if you want off this planet she’s your ticket out. Don’t kill her.”
“I thought you hated me,” I said.
He looked at me, relief flooding his face, “You’re back.”
“I had work to do,” I said with a frown.
“Well we kind of needed you here,” he said in a tight voice.
“Looks like you had it covered,” I said.
He’d said he hated me. Why did he fight so hard to save my life? Was it just to use me to get off-planet? My gut was roiling. It had all kinds of reservations about Driscoll.
“Now that we’re done playing ‘happy reunion,’ why don’t you tell us why you should live?” Roberta said.
“Because I didn’t kill you when I could have,” I said. She was really getting on my nerves.
“Matsumotos don’t kill,” Kitsano said dismissively.
The Matsumoto Trilogy: Omnibus Edition Page 38