Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10.5: Carnie's Tale

by Randolph Lalonde

  My shoulder was fine, the armour caught the shot, but our back window was brittle in places after heating unevenly and cooling, so we were hunched down so low that we could barely see. “Do you have a map? Is there a place we can hide?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t, I wasn’t given information that would help me outside of the complex. There is a navigation system in the car though.”

  Several shots raked our trunk as I brought up the navigation screen. “Okay, we’re in restricted farmland, it’s all on a flat grid leading up to a bunch of agricultural towers. We just need to break line of sight for a minute then we can get away.” I spotted an irrigation canal system and pointed at the nearest point. “There, we’re going there.”

  “Oh, that looks perfect.”

  My head was whipped to the left as the car turned so suddenly that we were drifting sideways for several seconds. The chasers got a few shots off on my door but we were out of range before they could get through the panels on that side.

  “We’ve lost another hover pad,” Theo said. “I’m sorry, we are also suffering stabilization failures in three places. This car could tilt and send us into the ground at any moment.”

  I knew exactly what that meant at a hundred seventy klicks an hour: death. The front end could tilt down at any second and send us into the ground, or we could touch down on the left or right side, sending the car spinning across the field. “Stop the car, we’re surrendering.”

  “I do not advise that,” Theo said as he struggled to compensate for the damage. “Brace yourself.” The car slowed rapidly then tipped into a concrete irrigation ditch. We slid down so awkwardly that it was more like a crash, and then we we hit the water. “This is not what I planned.”

  The next thing happened so fast that I barely knew what was going on. Theo held his door open, reached for me and dragged me across the seat and flung me from the car through his side. By the time I came up for air, he was out of the car with both our packs, nodding at something behind me. “I will see you on shore. Hide, Noah.”

  I saw what he nodded at before sinking straight down. There was a tunnel behind me. I knew that if the guys chasing us wanted me bad enough, they’d check there, but I could at least surprise them. I still had two working guns.

  Part Twenty-One

  I pulled the trigger on more than a few raiders from a cockpit before I crawled into that concrete culvert. I watched a few enemy pilots eject after I got behind them and punched holes in their ships, but I knew, I was really sure I had never killed anyone. That was in defence of family though, and through instruments inside a ship that practically led my hand while I was chasing some dick in a fighter who wanted to take everything we had.

  The culvert was different. I crawled inside backwards, making sure that my eye was on the entrance. That’s where they’d come for me if they came at all. I was sure they’d come, and I felt like something big, dangerous, horrible was about to happen. I always went for the non-lethal shots when I was in the cockpit. I got pats on the back and looks of admiration for how accurate I was, but the older pilots always looked at me like I had a lot left to learn.

  Now I knew what it was. There was a chance these buggers were cannibals, and I was absolutely sure that they were friendly with the bots. I wasn’t willing to to be carved up piece by piece, watching them gnaw on my bits and chunks. If that wasn’t the end I faced, then their bots would shred me if they didn’t do it themselves before taking everything I had. Even still, I’d never looked someone in the eye and pulled the trigger. There was no winging these targets, hoping they’d run. Something about these assholes told me that I’d have to put them down before I could get free.

  I heard the hover car settle somewhere outside. The sun was going down, and it was starting to rain. My pistols were wet. The blade shooter was easy to set up, I knew it pretty well. The other one took a minute, my fingers explored the shape of the gun in the dark, looking for the safety and checking to see if it needed to be cocked. There was a slide, and it did have to be primed, but it wouldn’t budge.

  I found the safety and was able to get it set. There was shuffling outside, someone scrambling down, a boot splashing into the water. “God dammit!” he cursed. “Got a soaker, it’s deep here.”

  I pointed both barrels at the opening in the culvert, sitting in water that was so cold that my teeth chattered a few times before I clenched my jaw tight. I glanced behind and saw that the culvert kept going but couldn’t make much of anything out. I was already five metres into the pipe, going further in would be slow going, especially backwards. Theo didn’t follow me in, there was no sign of him. I pictured his lights going out as the slow current in the broad irrigation canal dragged him away. I assumed I was alone.

  The light outside was fading fast. All I could hear was flowing water, rain and my own quick breathing. My head was pressed against the top of the concrete culvert, there wasn’t quite enough room to sit up properly, so my back and stomach ached at the effort of keeping those guns levelled at the opening a few meters from my feet.

  “Hey, bud, come on out,” said a male voice filled with false sympathy. “I see you got a bot with you, so I know you’re one of us. Come on out, we’re not unreasonable, you can work the damage you did to our car off, maybe show us around the reserve complex.”

  I thought about the proposal. They were sure I was one of them, someone who paid to keep the machines from coming after them. The thought that a corporation, or maybe a few corporations arranged a situation where you had to pay a fee to survive pissed me off. I didn’t know why, but the people who paid up made me just as angry. It was as though they were playing along, making themselves a willing cog in the killing machine.

  “I don’t think he’s in there,” I heard one of them say as they sloshed around outside.

  “Go ahead, check it out,” invited the other.

  “You check it out. I just don’t think you’ll find anything.”

  “Then you should check it out, prove me wrong.”

  “What if he’s drifting down stream with the vault key we picked up on the scanner?” asked the doubter. “He could be floating further by the second.”

  “Did you bring the scanner?”

  “It got bashed flat in the car.”

  “I told you to tuck that under your armour. If it’s broken, it’s your fault.”

  “It wouldn’t fit under my armour. Too snug.”

  An itch built in my throat so fast that I didn’t have time to suppress the cough. It was as loud as thunder in my ears. In the next instant, one of them poked his head in. “There you are!” My fingers squeezed the triggers by reflex. Considering who they were, I wouldn’t mind saying that I fired in anger, but that would be a lie. It was more of a pair of twitch shots. My right hand bucked, my left rattled for a second, and then there was a hot flash. When my eyes opened, the headless corpse of one of the men was falling out of sight.

  “Holy shit!” shouted the other. I could hear him fussing with a gun, stepping around in the water, then a loud pair of pops filled the culvert. I didn’t know what he did, but I was sure he launched something down the culvert and I was about to die. If it was a grenade of any kind, there was no getting away in time. If it was something else, it would get me for sure.

  I still did my best to scramble around, looking for a grenade or some kind of popper pod, or whatever that was. “It’s safe, I think,” I heard Theo shout. “I restrained the other one here.”

  “Seriously? You’re amazing, man!” I said, holstering my weapons and crawling out in a hurry. The cool rain outside was no comfort, but being out in the open air again was awesome. The guy who Theo caught was gooed up high against the wall of the irrigation canal beside my hiding place. The pops I heard echo in the pipe was a pair of restraint bombs going off right near the entrance. Theodore was making sure he could breathe, using a little solvent to get rid of some webbing around his mouth.

  “Son of a bitch!” he shouted. “We’re all on th
e same side, you idiot! Bot, take him out, now!”

  Theodore looked at him, cocking his head. “I don’t think you understand the situation yet.”

  “Why aren’t you ripping his arms off?” the captive asked. “I’m a senior initiate! I paid extra!”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is it some kind of membership program? I’m afraid I have no record of any membership program and I can’t harm intelligent biologicals intentionally, especially not my own master.”

  “Oh, great, I’ve found the one bot here who didn’t get the update.”

  “Yeah,” I told him, snickering a little. There was something pretty funny about how he was awkwardly sludged up there. “Pretty bad day, huh, cannibal?”

  “Cannibal?” he asked, way more shocked than I expected. He was pretty insulted too. “Why the hell would we eat people? We’re in charge of whatever bots are still roaming around. All the food in the world is ours for the taking, even the stuff the non-pays are hoarding. We roll in with an armed heavy bot and they scatter most of the time, we take what we want.”

  “But your friend, Joran had jerky made of human matter,” Theodore said. “It fell out of his pocket.”

  “I told those Pigeon-talking idiots not to buy that stuff,” their captive said. “Menenton Market, there were these chitter faces, you know, bug aliens, they were selling piles of cheap sweet meat by the pound. Joran and his idiot buddy bought a pocket full, I told him it smelled wrong. Is that what all this is about? You thought we were cannibals?”

  “Then what are those people in your hold for?” I asked. He had a nice rifle, I’d seen it advertised on a few worlds. I started working on it with a little solvent so I could get it without freeing him.

  “You know, bounties! How are you a member of the Order without knowing about the bounty program?”

  “I paid my dues and hid. I haven’t seen or heard anything for months, can you fill me in while I get you free?”

  He looked down at where I was carefully spraying his rifle and nodded as best as he could. “Sure, sure. I knew this was just a misunderstanding. The people in our hold are round ups, people who didn’t pay the Order. We chase ‘em down and bring them to the main depot up north where we turn them over for a thousand credits each. We don’t even have to split the take, everyone whose there when they get turned in gets a grand a head. I only need to turn nine more in, then I rank up.”

  “What happens to them after that?”

  “What?”

  “What happens to the people who you turn in?” I asked as I pried his rifle free. It looked like my work might have also freed his arm up, but only his hand came loose.

  “What happens? They get corralled up or something, I don’t know. The depot is always next to a big building. Our captures get taken inside and I get my credit.”

  I could remember bots cutting people up and putting them into matter recyclers while they were still alive and screaming as though I was still seeing it for the first time. This guy was responsible for innocent people getting imprisoned at least, but I was sure it was worse. “Why is this happening?” I asked, checking his rifle and getting a great big shot of joy when it turned on and the display started seeking targets.

  “It’s the cleansing, you know. The darkness before humanity is reborn. Only the strongest, smartest and worthiest are left.”

  I put the rifle on standby and slung it over my shoulder. “That’s the lie they have you believing? Man, I’ve heard of a lot of cons, but that’s gotta be the biggest.” I pulled a pair of restraint balls out and held them up. “You might be strong, but you are definitely not the smartest. I’m no genius, and my bot can’t hurt you, but we got the drop on you easily enough. Something to think about while you hang around.” I tucked the restraint bombs into a fold of webbing on his chest and depressed them. “Good luck!” I shouted as I scrambled up the embankment. Theo was right behind me.

  The loud pops of those two restraint bombs going off drowned out whatever he was shouting after me. His hover car was still running, and in pretty good shape. “Still up for a rescue attempt, Theo?”

  “You want to rescue the captives?” he asked, surprised and pretty happy about it. He handed me my backpack and I tossed it into the back seat.

  “Yeah, we might have a chance if we approach in a different car, and with this new gun. It fires programmable ammo. It might be able to take out a couple security bots. Let’s go play hero.”

  Part Twenty-Two

  I would like to tell you that I was thinking about all those people that these Order stooges were going to turn over to their puppeteers, and that they must be saved, but that would be a lie. The truth is simpler: I hate bullies. I knew that every person who was holding a weapon on that hover yacht overpowered someone and took all their shit. Even worse, they planned on handing them over to machines that represented the biggest bully of them all: a corporation.

  Sure, corporations make amazing food, transport supplies around so people can buy what they need, they make the best guns, the best ships, make sure we have places to buy fuel and whatever else we want, but corporations can turn bad. When that happens, they do more damage than any single person can, abusing their power and making people suffer.

  I’ve been across a bunch of sectors, and while the Order of Eden with Regent Galactic at their back are the worst, they weren’t the only ones I’d seen abuse their power. A couple times I was around when our jolly journey to a system was supposed to end in entertainment and fun, but became missions of charity. Both those times we left half of our provisions behind and then did a few cargo runs before we left the area. We did real good, but that kind of thing also put us back, cost us a lot. Greedy corporations who could afford to send a few ships filled with farming gear and emergency rations cost us, people who couldn’t really afford to give a lot, enough so we had to work our assess off for months to make up the difference. I loved helping those people, but man; knowing that big companies were responsible for their trouble always left me pissed.

  I was riding that anger as we crossed the water in our hover car with Theo at the controls. He had no trouble guiding the lighter hover car in the rain. I could barely see at all. The water beneath us was black, the sky above us was darkened by cloud cover, and everything in between was rain drops and wind. “Are you sure we didn’t miss it?” I asked anxiously.

  “I’m certain,” Theo replied. “See? The shore and the hover yacht are ahead; I can see the lights now.”

  “Sure you can see them, sensor-face, but my human eyes…” I trailed off as I saw a glimmer of light in the distance. “Cool, I see it. Let’s see what my new favourite gun can pick up.”

  “What is your plan, exactly?” Theo asked.

  I started opening the window. “You’re going to slow down, I’ll lock on to as many bots as I can, slag them, and then start working on the other guards. The captives will rise up and kick ass, then they’ll be free.”

  “That does not sound like a very good plan near the end,” Theo said.

  “What? I’m supposed to do everything? They’re going to have to fight sometime. What would you do differently?”

  “I’m not programmed for combat tactics,” Theo replied. “Basic logic says that we will be vulnerable after they have located the source of the attack, and there is no cover on open water.”

  “Don’t worry,” I told him. “I’ve seen the adverts for this thing.” I patted the long rifle I’d stolen. “It can lock in five targets from this range, we’ve gotta be half a klick away.”

  “We are four hundred and sixty-seven meters from the hover yacht.”

  “Just get ready to move, I may have to take more than one run.” I leaned out the window and looked at the display on the rifle. As soon as I pointed it at the upper deck of the yacht, it locked onto a security bot. “There we go, one lock,” I said with satisfaction.

  I pressed a control and zoomed in on the yacht a little more. Light spilled across the area from insid
e the big hover ship and from work lights surrounding the heavy cutting machine that had fallen onto its side. It looked like the cargo ramp they were trying to use to offload it to the shore broke after all, and the little gang were trying to wedge whatever they could to get it back onto its treads.

  My rifle locked onto another bot, this one was a squat security machine with a rotary gun on its head. I made sure that it was set as the top priority. I selected the muscled blonde who was lording over the whole recovery operation. She had the same rifle I was using.

  I tried to select a fourth target – an armoured goon wearing spiked gloves that looked like they had some kind of kinetic enhancers built in – but the display flashed red instead of locking. “Three targets? The advert showed five!” I whispered at it harshly.

  “Perhaps you are using a lesser model?” Theo offered.

  “Biggest rescue ever, and I’m stuck with knock-off gear,” I grumbled. The weapon squawked. “What now?” a ping off our hood was my first indication that we had been spotted, the targeting screen on my rifle confirmed it. The bot on top of the hover yacht’s sensors picked us up, and it was firing.

  I braced the rifle against my shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The screen faded and was filled with the question; ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO FIRE ON THREE (3) TARGETS?

  “Yes! For fuck sake, yes!” I replied. Rounds burst free from the barrel, and I watched as the rifle indicated that each target had one, then two, then three shots headed for them before releasing the trigger. Two hit the bot on top of the yacht, busting it open and sending the remains into the water. All three hit the shorter security bot on the shore, and its ammo must have exploded, because he went up like a giant party grenade – a big bang at first then a few hundred streaks in the air – and the guy standing beside that bot was definitely taken out.