I laughed again, and again it was one of those ridiculous laughs that you laugh when the only things left to do are to laugh or to cry and crying would hurt too much.
“Patrick Driscoll, are you saying that our entire Empire - and millions upon millions of lives - are dependent on a small, desperate journey made by a handful of people to place an heir on the throne?”
“I suppose I am,” he said, and though I couldn’t see his face in the black of night, I could hear him smiling in those words.
“Well in that case,” I said, “how could we ever fail?”
“How indeed?”
He laughed and I joined him.
“We’ll have to fight through these shadows and rescue Roman,” I said.
“Commandeer a shuttle and fly it to the waiting ship without them suspecting,” he said in turn.
“Commandeer the ship and somehow fly her back to New Greenland, with the crew hostile and no one on our side able to fly a starship. And then in a desperate coupe seize the Empire.”
“Well,” he said, “I think I can help you there.”
I hated thinking about colluding with an actual terrorist, despite the fact that a terrorist would probably have some pretty decent ideas on how to topple an empire, so I went for the other option.
“You can pilot a starship?” I teased.
“Before I was a terrorist, I was a starship captain,” he said, and his words rang with truth and sorrow in equal measure.
I was speechless. Eventually I managed a flippant remark.
“Well, in that case I suppose all we need to do is carry on.”
“But before we do that, I would like to give you something,” Patrick said.
“A marine company?” I teased.
“My vow of fealty,” he said instead.
The hard edge of his voice made me think he was serious. I was so shocked that I was more grateful than ever for the blinding darkness, for I could not school my face into a solemn expression throughout his entire vow. I never would have seen this coming.
“I, Patrick Driscoll, place my vow of fealty before Vera Matsumoto. I pledge obedience, loyalty, and service in all things. In her hands I place my life. If I fail her, may she take it from me in return.”
I answered with the official words, on auto pilot, still too stunned to even know how I felt, but I did think to do one thing for him. I substituted ‘Matsumotos’ with ‘Vera Matsumoto.’ I didn’t think he’d care to have the Matsumotos as a whole promise him anything.
“Enter into our fealty with the blessing of Vera Matsumoto. I will defend you and yours in so far as law and justice allows. I will keep you and yours in the manner of all my sworn vassals. Bound by law, protected by my hand. You shall be my vassal. By the true honour and the seal of my word I bind you to me today.”
It was different than Ian’s vow had been, since his had been for a nation and Driscoll’s was for an individual vassal, but it felt eerily the same. I bit back tears. By all that was holy, I hoped I would do better by him than I had by Ian. It turned out I was a Matsumoto after all. Who would have thought I’d be so good at it?
THE SPLITTING: 32
THE NIGHT WAS LONG, AND I barely kept myself awake. The hours ticked by and everyone else slept. Sometimes one would wake for a while and then another, but eventually they drifted off again. We’d all had a long hard haul on this dust ball, and everyone needed their rest. We rustled through what supplies we still had and ate rations – I ate them, this time, too – and drank water. We were low on both. Fortunately, we would soon reach the shuttles and hopefully be off of Baldric before it became a concern.
My excitement at both Roman’s and Patrick’s vows kept my mind racing as I fended off sleep. I wrestled to think of a way to conquer the Empire. It seemed premature with so much else going on, but I couldn’t help but slip into daydreams about an easy overthrow of the throne. I would be hailed by all as the rightful ruler and bring justice and peace. Daydreams are great distractions. If only they were true.
We were an hour’s ride from the shuttles when Rhinric finally fell. He’d shown no signs of flagging, but just went from his complacent amble to falling over to his side. I scrambled off, and everyone else did likewise, cursing or exclaiming depending on how asleep they had been when it happened.
I spun around, hoping to help our great friend, but as I reached for him, he disappeared into nothing. My sense of loss and sadness was greater than anything I’d ever expect from losing an alien animal that may never have been really alive at all, but I was enormously saddened by his passing. I wiped tears from my eyes, placing my hands on the ground where he had been lying only a moment before. It was like I could still feel him in the warmth of the earth. His soul, drawn into the ground of this world’s gaia lived on to rise again. His echo was hollow in my heart and I clenched my fists with anger at the unfairness of this life.
We hitched our packs onto our backs and unspooled the tangled webbing. Sleep time was over. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, the packs were very light. Only Ch’ng still had ammo in his nettlegun. It was at 5% capacity. The other firearms we had were empty and there was no point cross-loading them from Ch’ng’s with so little to work with. Our packs had so little food and water that we had better get somewhere by nightfall, or we would be down to nil supplies.
We all sighed or grumbled as the party followed me out, stumbling through the darkness. Our speed had just decreased threefold and now we had to march hard to make up for our lost mount.
We’re under attack again, Roman told me through the link. We’re trying to fight our way back to the shuttles despite the dark. How far out are you?
About three hours now that we’ve lost our mount.
Get here as fast as you can. The ship is anxious to see us pull out.
Understood, I said, my feet sliding on an incline I hadn’t noticed ahead of time.
I won’t leave without you, Vera. If we have to, we’ll come find you out there.
Look after yourself, Roman.
There was a long pause while he clearly was busy with other things.
Don’t worry about me.
I was worried, though. Strain came through with his thoughts. The shadows were pressing them hard, and I knew exactly how hard they could press. If Kitsano was right, then they were testing them so that they could see which marines were worth absorbing. I needed to stop daydreaming about a potential future and remember that the present was precarious enough. The worst thing I could think of was facing the shadows with Roman as one of them.
My vision was deteriorating from the oxygen poisoning. It happened very slowly, but I could tell my eyes were becoming more myopic. A thought occurred to me.
Run a vision filter to compensate for vision degeneration.
I was surprised by the result. My vision was back to full function and I could even see a bit better than I could before the myopia set in, despite the half-light we were walking in. Why didn’t I rely on my implant more to help with these things when it so clearly had capacities I needed to discover? Years of keeping it hidden and reflexively downplaying it had left me with a mind incapable of wringing its best use out. I needed to think more carefully on how it could help me.
Track movement of marines and work on a communications uplink to their shuttle. Attempt interface with their communications.
Communications interface attempt failed. Continued attempts will be made at two minute intervals.
There was a new inverted caret on my map glowing the fierce green of allies as my map program managed to track Roman’s marines. They were being driven in our direction, away from their shuttles.
We, on the other hand, still had seen no attacks from the shadows, but their forms were very near. My vision was so full of red inverted carets that I considered asking the program to remove them, but thought better of it.
It was close to dawn, and the sky was starting to grey as the planet spun towards a view of the sun.
“How much
further?” Kitsano’s acid voice spoke from behind us.
“To the shuttles, or the marines fighting on-planet?”
“Both, and thanks for keeping us in the loop on potential allies,” she said sarcastically.
“We’re just shy of three hours of hiking from the shuttles, but the marines are being driven in our direction by the shadows. If we both keep our current pace and trajectory I would guess we will meet in approximately one hour,” I said, ignoring her sarcasm.
She’d been clear that she was no friend of mine. Exactly what did she expect in return? I wasn’t a sweet princess who sang to birds and thought everyone was her friend. These days my appearance alone told that much.
I felt a stab of worry when I was reminded of my appearance. Would Roman even recognize me when we met? I hoped so. I hadn’t seen a mirror since my face began to heal. It was probably still a sight. My scar itched like crazy. Self-consciously, I peeled the last remnants of bandage off of the healing skin and massaged the tight, puckered flesh. It felt alien and made my stomach churn just thinking of it.
“So, around dawn, then?” Ch’ng asked.
“By my reckoning, yes.” I agreed, still frowning as I felt my face to see how far the numbness of nerve damage went.
“Around dawn,” Driscoll agreed. “And do the shadows say anything that you can hear, Kitsano?”
“She’s coming. That’s all they say. She’s coming and she’s coming to judge.”
“Do you know who she is?” I asked.
Kitsano was silent. I turned around and looked at her, noting the defiant gleam in her eyes. I had just about had enough of that.
“Don’t tell me, Kitsano. Keep the information that might keep you alive to yourself. You should know, though, that if you do anything else to hamper us in our escape, we’ll leave you here.”
“Since when do you speak for everyone?” she asked.
“I’m an Ambassador of Blackwatch. They call us the Emperor’s Voice, but they also call us Blackwatch’s Voice. Speaking for everyone is something I’ve been doing for a while,” I said, turning my back to her and continuing on. They loved throwing who I was in my face. Apparently they didn’t like it too much when I threw it right back at them.
We kept hiking. The pace I set was hard and had everyone breathing too hard to talk. The green inverted caret of the marines drew closer as the minutes passed, but the red inverted carets were still getting thicker, and now their rushing sounds had grown, too. The intensity of their voice seemed to be picking up and deepening. Whoever they were waiting for was coming soon.
What’s your status? I asked Roman.
Running battle. Unit down to 25% strength. We’re barely holding our own.
Why are you still maneuvering in our direction? You should be going back to the shuttles and setting up a defensive perimeter if they are pressing you so hard!
While I appreciated the sentiment of a knight riding to my rescue, my own particular knight was far too valuable to risk himself for me.
Mission Objective states to locate and assist any civilian or military personnel from the planet of Baldric on their requested evacuation.
As your liege lady I demand that you return to the shuttles. We are not under attack and we will join you there.
Nice try. I’m dirt-side. Determining how to fulfill my orders depends on my own initiative here. And guardians don’t always listen to Ambassadors. You of all people should know that.
Didn’t I just. It seems someone was always disobeying my orders in order to save my life.
Can you loop me into your communications so that I can hear your progress?
Again, that would be contraindicated. Any distraction to you while you work towards our rendezvous could impair the implementation of my orders.
Don’t try to fend me off with formality.
I was feeling more than a bit pouty after that brush off. Using formal words to bind others to my will was my prerogative!
I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I left it at that. We were coming up to some rough terrain. I zoomed the map closer. Roman’s unit was very close. Separating us was the river that had kept us from the main company when we were running so frantically after the El Dorado crashed. There was one wide bridge, clearly of modern construction. It lay ahead of us. Looking at it on the map made chills run down my spine.
When you are being forced in a particular direction by the landscape, while surrounded by enemies, and that landscape bottlenecks suddenly, that should make anyone nervous. When the same enemy is forcing your only allies towards the same bottleneck that can only mean one thing: they are planning to pin you down and slaughter you.
The path leading to the bridge was widening. In the distance the sky lightened further. Dawn was close. The massive trees were spread wide apart here, but they were bigger than any I’d seen so far. Two people could stand on either side, wrap their arms around those trunks, and still not touch. Vines clung to their sides, dripping thick over branches above. Leaves crunched softly under our feet, their pleasant smell of citrus wafting up as we crushed them underfoot. The horizon, opened up by the vast ravine of the river, showed a rolling forest vista. Mist rolled in the ravine, thick with the cool of morning, and waiting for the sun to rise and burn it off.
All at once, the sun peeked over the horizon. A golden stripe edged the trees and rocks on the other side of the bridge. It flooded over the bridge and natural shadows streamed behind the thick trees.
Moments later, an entirely different type of shadows flooded into the wake of the dawn. On either side of us, shadows rushed to pen us in.
We froze, our breath quick and faces tense in the dappled golden light. On my right and left shadows were so near I could have reached out and touched them if I dared. They loomed, tall and deadly beside me, their faces grim and their eyes unfocused. Unlike yesterday, they carried small shadow spears, with a single feather affixed on a cord to each spearhead. They seemed more ceremonial than like actual weapons, although who really knew with these guys?
I glanced behind me. Ch’ng and his friend brought up the rear. I still hadn’t caught his name. They were hemmed in behind by a wall of shadows. Shadows rushed to fill the space between us and the bridge, leaving only a narrow corridor for us to proceed through.
Well, there sure are a lot of them, I said to Roman.
They’re sticking to herding us, now. They only attack if we try to go any other direction.
I saw a flicker at the end of the bridge, and I squinted to make out what it was. Imperial Marines scrambled through the tree line and onto the clearing in front of the bridge. They were surrounded, just like us.
Is that you over the bridge? I asked.
Vera! He’d caught sight of me.
Roman!
My heart swelled with joy. He was here. Regardless of what happened next we would face it together. I quickened my pace, purposely ignoring the phalanx of shadows on either side. I saw a marine on the other side break off from the rest, racing towards the bridge.
Roman. Roman. Roman. My heart was pounding in tune with his name.
A small black figure slipped up the side of the bridge. Where had it come from? Had it crawled along the underside? It flipped over the rail like a Galactic Olympian, landing precisely between us and blocking Roman from my view.
There was something terribly familiar about the shadow blocking my path. She stood, graceful, but sunk into a combat position, facing me. A flood of other shadows raced to fill the bridge behind her.
I can’t get through! They aren’t fighting me, but they have me blocked, and they’re like a brick wall.
I think she wants to talk to me.
She?
“She looks familiar somehow…” I said, both aloud and in the channel.
“She should,” Kitsano said from behind me. “She’s a Matsumoto. Your bloody-handed kin.”
My kin, whoever she was, motioned for me to walk forward. I took a step, Driscoll h
ard on my heels. Two shadows shoved him back and jammed themselves between us. A flood of them surged forward, pinning him in place as effectively as they had pinned Roman.
Apparently, this war was between Matsumotos. I felt a strange sense of peace at the thought. Somehow I had always known it would come to this, from the moment I had seen Sammy square off to fight them.
It was sad that I would die before I got to see Roman up close. It was sad to die on such a gorgeous spot, but here I would either become a shadow or a fungus, and only their judgement of my fight would determine that. I would prefer the fungus. I had no desire to become one of them, regardless of their lineage and any blood we might share.
I should have known all along that they would be led by a Matsumoto. After all, I had known there were Matsumotos sent here, and somehow we always rise to the top. It was our talent - or our curse.
The crap always rises.
Nice, Roman. He was always good at putting things into perspective.
I heard a gasp from behind me. I thought it was Driscoll, but I didn’t turn to look.
“Do you know who that is?” Ch’ng asked.
“A Matsumoto. They’re all the same,” Kitsano replied.
Driscoll’s reply was almost reverent.
“It’s Zeta Mastsumoto.”
My chest erupted in fire at his words, and my vision swam. Zeta Matsumoto? But it couldn’t be. She should be dead. The video footage showed her gunned down by terrorists. I must have seen it a thousand times before Edward found out and blocked the feed on every device I had access to.
Zeta Matsumoto.
My mother.
THE SPLITTING: 33
I SQUINTED AND STRAINED MY eyes as I glided forward, trying to see if I could see any resemblance to my foggy memory of her. She had always been a distant figure to me even when she was alive, but I had loved her as every child loves her mother, and I had ached for her when she died and left me to Edward.
If this was really her, even disembodied into a shadow that led a global consciousness, wouldn’t some small part of her remember me? Could any part of her remember? For how many years had she led an army of shadows as they wreaked vengeance upon their enemies on this planet? For how many years was I missing her, thinking her dead while she was here all along?
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