by Lea Tassie
It took everyone's efforts to kill the red Tasker and to stop its violent thrashing, but finally it lay still.
"Hope that's it!" Bill said.
"This time I agree with you," replied Dave as he punched his brother on the arm. "And I hope this room has only one entrance. I say we blow the whole tunnel and seal this thing in here."
The group responded and, within minutes, charges had been laid the length of the tunnel. The soldiers left the building and the tunnel was collapsed.
Elvin's dreams of creating the perfect communal society were finally and irrevocably dead.
***
With the demise of the blood-red Tasker, all hell broke loose. The small group huddling behind the transports fired at the horde of bodies descending upon them from every direction. One by one, the soldiers ran out of ammunition and the job of keeping the raging Taskers at bay now relied on each soldier's ability to fight at close range with knives. The eighty soldiers were soon down to seventy, then sixty, as the waves of Taskers continued undiminished. Although Dave was wounded, he found the strength to organize the fighting in a direction away from the front door of the central complex.
Careful orbital bombardment sent the Taskers into retreat, giving soldiers the opportunity to climb into transports and head south. Racing away from the small city, they hoped to reach an area where a few drop-ships from the orbiting mother ships could land. Their numbers were down to fifty-four. The drop-ships would each contain about twenty fresh fighters, mostly mechanics and cooks, but with ammunition and fresh supplies. Only three of the drop-ships made it to the ground safely. The other four were mobbed by flying Taskers and torn from the skies.
The soldiers in transports arrived at the designated site just as the three remaining drop-ships landed. Everyone quickly restocked weapons and began fighting off the descending Taskers bent on destroying the three drop-ships. Hour after hour the hell raged on, the surrounding area a mockery to life. Humans fell, Hyborgs fell, and all around them, Taskers fell like rain. The fighting raged on well into the night but, as darkness settled in, the number of Taskers dwindled, until finally all was quiet. In the coolness of the night, the barrels of the guns, still glowing red, gave off steam.
It was, amazingly, Jimmy who found the answer.
Badly frightened by the fighting, he had gotten separated from the retreating group, and stumbled around in the surrounding woods, trying to stay out of sight. Crawling on his belly, Jimmy crested a small rise and saw, in a valley below, Taskers marching out from a tunnel in the side of a cliff face. He watched the steady stream of Taskers leaving the hidden base for some time before he tried to radio the orbiting ships. As night fell around him, his luck turned. One of the ships in orbit was close enough to pick up the faint signal from Jimmy and, in a short time, he had relayed all that he saw. His friends were glad to hear from the radio chatter that Jimmy was still alive and fighting, but were also worried about what to do with the information they now had.
The obvious choice was to bomb the site from orbit, leaving no chance for the Taskers to continue the fight. But because nobody knew how the Taskers would counter the attack, it was decided that an assault on the cave location could be done only by soldiers in the field. In total there were now sixty-four soldiers re-armed and refreshed, safe behind the stable cover of the drop-ships. However, sending these battle-weary troops again into the line of fire was risky.
"I will take half, and only my kind. We will move straight to the cave location. You take the rest to the city complex and tell the bugs to surrender or start running," Charger said to Dave, who had now had his wound bandaged. It was not a question.
"Agreed," replied Dave. Charger never said much, but when he did speak, nobody felt like saying no.
Half the soldiers under Dave's command boarded the three drop-ships and the other half, under Charger's orders, stormed from the encampment in a direct line to where Jimmy was situated. Lifting skyward, the three ships fought their way to the city capital, with soldiers firing at advancing flying bugs from gun ports all along the sides of the ships.
In a short time, they touched down again at the steps to the temple complex in the great city. "Deja vu all over again," Bill said snippily.
All fighting was stopped as the soldiers emerged from the drop-ships and stood at the base of the temple's great stairs. A few minutes later the door of the temple complex opened and a lone Tasker stepped out to meet the armed troops.
This new Tasker was Shea, last of the Great Eight leaders, with a bright mind but no longer young. She came cautiously down the steps, holding the railings for support.
Shea faced the soldiers and, from her chest, very slowly and carefully, a small arm emerged, holding the transmitting device they had used earlier to try to communicate with the humans. Shea held it out to Dave, who was closest, and from the clicks she made came the words, "With this talk we can."
Dave boldly stepped forward and retrieved the device, but his boldness caused the Tasker in armor to step back. "It's okay, I won't harm you. We do need to talk," Dave said in a soothing manner. He was not sure if the voice from the communicator was female, but it sure seemed that way.
"Why fight you have? We are you like. My love died. We don't understand your needs." Shea said through the translator.
Bill stepped forward and motioned for Dave to give him the communicator. Dave had never been the smart one. He was good at everyday tasks, but Bill was the smart kid in the family. Talking into the translator, Bill asked, "You know we are here from Earth?"
Shea replied, "Yes."
"You know we came for the ones like us, the ones from long ago?" Bill asked.
"Yes," Shea replied.
"You know what happened to the ones like us, from long ago?" Bill tried, in hopes of getting an answer.
There was a long pause, then Shea repeated, "We are you like." This time she motioned for Bill to follow her up the steps to the temple.
Bill lowered his weapon to the ground and, as Dave started to protest, Bill said, "Trust me, bro, I got this." He walked up the long flight of steps to the temple door, following Shea and, at the top landing, was greeted by doors that swung open automatically to reveal the interior.
There was the answer!
In the center of the room was the shell of the cargo ship from Earth.
Bill now understood. "Ah shit!" he said, which apparently did translate to Shea, as she seemed alarmed by the comment. "Wait here, don't move, I got to fix this," Bill said to Shea and motioned for her to stay put. Racing back down the steps, Bill called out to Dave. "Stop them, stop Charger! Tell them to stand down!"
Dave gave the order to stand down. He knew that when his brother was onto something, it was best to trust his judgment.
"They are us, they are us! Don't you get it now? They have been saying they are us, and I don't know how, but these bugs are humans, they are us!" Bill said excitedly, as if he had just deciphered the answer to the meaning of life.
Everyone that heard Bill reveal this truth was shocked and silent as the depth of what had been happening started to sink in. No one fully understood how these bugs could be human, but apparently the war with these Taskers was a war with humanity's understanding of itself.
Charger found it difficult to obey the order to stand down when he received the message from command. He and his vampires and Lycans had been efficiently cutting down all the Taskers emerging from the cave entrance. The small group had dug into a defensive position just shy of the entrance when Jimmy appeared from the tree line.
"Damn good to see you all. We ready to go get these bugs?" Jimmy said, as if he were now in charge.
Charger placed one large hand on Jimmy and pushed him to the ground. "Wait!" Jill moved over to Jimmy. She sniffed and bandaged his wounds, as Mac paced around the two of them anxiously. Jill seemed truly concerned for Jimmy, much as one might care for the well-being of a favorite pet.
On the temple steps, Bill used the communicator to ask S
hea, "Can we stop this? Stop the fight?"
"Yes," Shea replied and, with that, all the Taskers stopped attacking, as if linked to one great mind.
Talks of peace went well into the night, as Bill finally mastered the complex ways the Taskers spoke using the translator.
Back at the cave, a lone Tasker emerged to greet Jimmy, Charger, and the small group, which was still awaiting transport, though they had been informed of what was happening with the peace talks. They were invited into the vast cave complex, which contained the machines of differing designs that produced countless numbers of Tasker drones.
The Taskers, naturally, showed no emotion. They were like a button flipped from the "on" to the 'off' position, from fight to peace.
What passed for a smile lit Charger's face. He found the situation most refreshing. And yet poignant. He understood that he hadn't been adapted to be just a super-soldier, just a lethal killing weapon. He'd also been programmed to protect humans. The only problem was that in both wars he'd been helping humans fight other humans.
Even more ironical, soon all of them would be after his hide.
***
Dart speaks to Reader:
So you want to know what people back on Earth thought of the Taskers? Well, they were very relieved that the war was over. Most of the humans who'd gone to New Eden to fight were dead, though the number of dead humans paled beside the number of Taskers destroyed. There may have been a few people who still thought of the Taskers as 'bugs,' but the technology the Taskers shared was so impressive that such people probably thought of them as 'good bugs' rather than 'bad bugs.'
Yes, much good came out of the destruction. Peace brought new technology to Earth, like the fusion particle drive that carried the soldiers and the Tasker envoys back to Earth in space ships of Tasker design.
Oh, you want to know about the lasers? Of course. The world laser program was the crowning glory of innovative technology gained from collaborating with the Tasker home world. That meant Earth no longer had to fear the possibility of destruction by asteroids. Placed at strategic locations around the globe were powerful lasers that ran on the fusion particle system. These lasers had the power to completely obliterate anything that ventured too close to Earth or her moon.
There was also the free energy, which meant that buildings in cities never needed to be over-built to keep out the cold and every area, no matter how remote, had the ability to provide power.
You're impressed? So were the humans. Advanced knowledge and science reigned and Earth's bond with Neo Terra and New Eden formed a strong chain. Not only was the moon colonized as a space platform, new parts of Mars began to be brought to life. Its mineral resources aided in the creation of super meta-materials and biotechnologies. Humanity finally had a firm foundation upon which to build a utopian society.
Reader, why are you laughing?
Oh, of course. Stupid of me. Utopian societies have never proven workable. Not when they're made up of humans, anyway.
So now where?
Now we're going to see what's happening to Charger, who was ordered back to Mars as soon as the war with New Eden ended.
Chapter 5 Charger on Mars
Ceres was the largest object in the asteroid belt, a ring of broken, rocky planetoids orbiting the sun like a parade of debris between Mars and Jupiter. Ceres was regarded by most scientists of the day as merely a dwarf planet, only some five hundred and eight-seven miles in diameter. The military, with the help of Taskers, established a base on it shortly after the fighting on New Eden ended. They soon discovered that Ceres contained two mysteries. First, one of the bright spots seen by space probes was the metal of an ancient and completely shattered space ship. Second, the lone pyramid-shaped mountain towering three miles into the sky was not a natural feature, but had been constructed.
Questions about the mysteries remained unanswered. However, the micro-planet was an ideal outpost for conducting military exercises and training space-borne soldiers in the combat skills they needed. The authorities decided that these relics of some past civilization were far too ancient to raise any fear of being confronted by real aliens.
After forty-five years, the military decommissioned the base and, for a short time, it became home to cadets. These young men and women maintained the base until costs became prohibitive and the government decided to sell the planet.
There was always money to be made out of the real estate. A small group of people, who shared both wealth and a common religious belief, purchased Ceres and renamed it Meshed, after an ancient Persian city. Meshed quickly grew in population as people of similar beliefs, discontented with the liberal attitudes of Earth authorities, boarded ships en masse to travel to this micro-world.
"I don't understand, father. Why do we have to move?" Melody asked as she pulled hard on her father's arm, trying to prevent the family from boarding the transport to Meshed. The line to the gate was growing shorter and her father replied, "It is not right for a young one, especially a female, to question the wisdom of her father. Hold your tongue, or by Asha, I will have it cut off."
Melody's shoulders slumped and, like a small trailer in tow, she was pulled along into the ship. Sitting with her mother, Melody asked, "Why does father hate me so much?"
"Hush now, child," her mother replied. "We must never question our men. They are and will always be, all-knowing, as it is written in the Cochrane."
Her mother, like Melody, wore a tightly fitting helmet with a black glass plate that revealed only her eyes. With the flick of a switch on the helmet's chin guard, the screen on her mother's helmet cleared momentarily, revealing her face. She smiled at Melody and said, "Behave now, and I will reward you later."
"But I'm not misbehaving," Melody whined.
Melody's older brother, Marcus, reached over and flicked a switch on Melody's helmet chin guard that could only be activated with the correct fingerprint. This turned off the face plate, putting Melody into darkness. On the inside screen she now faced, a cartoon started playing and, for several hours, she watched the familiar propaganda figures of her family's religion. Her favorite character was a small gray cartoon cat, with ridiculously large ears, that won every argument, but only if the cat obeyed all the cartoon world rules.
After several hours, Marcus again pressed the button on Melody's helmet, revealing her eyes, and asked, "You want something to eat? The flight attendants have started bringing food."
Melody adored Marcus. Though he too was restricted in life by rules and regulations, she knew he genuinely cared for her and made every effort to look after and talk to her.
"Yes, please," Melody replied softly.
Marcus was worried, for soon his little sister would be wed to a man of this new world they were approaching. After all, Melody was almost twelve now and the family could wait no longer. "I do not wish you to be punished, Melon." Melon was Marcus's pet name for her. He rapped his knuckles lightly on her helmet. "But you have to remember that a proper woman never speaks unless spoken to."
The ship docked on Meshed and the surface transports delivered the arrivals to the new homes they had purchased. Melody's people were shocked when they entered their domicile. This was certainly not the grand home they had left behind on Earth, but more like a military barrack. Before Melody could express her discontent at being in a place with no friends, no horses, and no toys, Marcus pressed the button on her helmet, again placing her into darkness.
Soon Melody and Marcus faced their first day at the school they would now attend. The other children who had relocated to Meshed also struggled with life on this new world and, as children often do, found new and creative ways of getting into trouble.
One young girl in Melody's class was different from the other kids and quickly became Melody's new best friend. Elsa had long fiery red hair. In fact, she seemed to be almost all red hair and little else. She was also twelve and soon to be wed to a baker in the new community. Elsa was not required to wear the helmet, for her family's bel
iefs were different from Melody's. Often Melody wished she could switch families.
"I'm not letting him push me around," Elsa stated forcefully. "Be damned if I ever take orders from such an old geezer."
"But Elsa," Melody pleaded, "we have to listen and do what we are told. If we don't, the screams of the helmet cause great pain." They both hung upside down from the school's playground gym set. Elsa stopped swinging and placed her index finger hard onto the face plate of Melody's helmet, leaving a finger print on the glass where her nose was.
"See, that's the problem with you Rungs," Elsa said harshly, using the slang word which was a derogatory term for Melody's people. "You got no backbones, you're like those jellyfish of Earth. How pathetic!"
"I know," Melody said. "Wish I was a Gong like your family, they're so nice."
"Well, what are you waiting for then? Just take the helmet off. Geez, you are such a Rung," Elsa prodded.
"I can't, my dad would find out," Melody replied sadly.
"Well, your loss, I guess. I'm going home for supper, see you tomorrow." Elsa hopped down from the gym set and skipped off toward her home.
As the little redhead disappeared from view, Melody decided to go home herself, hoping she wouldn't get punished again for playing at the school grounds.
Two months passed and it was graduation day for the girls of Melody's class. They had finished grade six, as required under a law imposed on the planet Meshed by Earth. In order to get the support they needed to continue living on the dwarf planet, they had to agree to some of Earth's demands. After all, as the government of Earth put it, this was the enlightened future. What kind of barbarians would not educate their girl children? Though this opinion was not shared by the government of Meshed, it had to be tolerated.