Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10.5: Carnie's Tale

by Randolph Lalonde

  The muscle bound blonde was only hit once. She went down, and I was working to target the two guards when I could see when I was surprised to see her step out from behind cover. Her armour was still smouldering as she raised her intelligent rifle and started firing.

  I only had time to squeeze the trigger once as I dropped back into my seat, leaving the rifle outside, hanging by the strap around my shoulder. Rounds started taking pieces of our hover car’s panelling off like it was made of glass. “Go! Gogogo!” I shouted, dropping as low as I could in my seat while I rolled my transparent metal window down. Three rounds raked the windshield, leaving red hot circles behind, and another hit the passenger side. I looked just in time to see another shot split my new rifle, which was hanging outside by the strap, in half. I unclipped the strap and let the remains of my new toy fall into the water.

  “I said get us out of here!” I shouted, completely panicked. Half the transparent surfaces of the car were covered in red hot bullet hits, and the sound of those rounds exploding against our car was brutal. It sounded like our sensible hover car was about to either let something through and I’d get blown in half or it was about to bite it and just ditch in the water.

  “The accelerator is fully depressed, I can’t go any faster,” Theo replied, sounding way too calm for the situation we were in.

  “We’re going to die, man!” I told him, as though I wanted him to share in my hysteria. If I’m being honest, I think I really did want him to freak out with me.

  “We only have to make it a little further,” he said. Not three seconds later, all the fire and impacts and explosions stopped. “We are out of their range. It is a good thing, since we’re down to four functioning pads. Stability is not a problem, but we are slowing.”

  I peeked over the back of my seat and looked to the yacht. Without a sight to zoom in, I could only see a faint point of light. “Can you tell if they’re following?”

  Theo looked over his shoulder for a long moment then smiled. “They aren’t. I detect many life forms rushing the beach. They are overwhelming the remaining guards. It seems you were correct in your strategy.”

  “All right, let’s go introduce ourselves. Maybe we don’t have to get to the port alone.”

  I sat up as the car turned around and made its way across the waves. I ran my hands through my hair, which had gotten a little long at that point, and started making a rushed attempt at straightening up. “Man, I must look rough. I haven’t seen good people in months, and I smell worse than I can remember, probably have a neck beard.”

  “More like a fuzzy face. It is patchy though. A beard may not be your best look.”

  “You have almost no tactical programming, but you’re full of fashion advice?” I asked, a little hurt about my peach-fuzz beard. “Are you sure we can’t get you an update somewhere?”

  “No, I may be infected if you attempt to update my programming,” Theo said, full-on worried.

  “I’m just kidding. Haven’t seen nice people in a while, I want to make a good impression.”

  “I would say you already have,” Theo replied. The hover car drifted onto dry land and came to a stop in front of the hover yacht. I wouldn’t admit it if you asked me while I was surrounded by pilots, but Theo was one hell of a driver. Smooth, calm, and he had really good reaction times.

  I tried to open my door but it was warped shut. “I’m going to have to get out on your side.” I said. People were coming, they were cheering at me, a few pounded the hood of my hover car, grinning. Theo slipped into the back seat, something he made look easy because his joints bent a lot more than mine and he was thinner than any human.

  I stepped out through the driver’s side and was greeted by a few eager hugs and handshakes. They cleared the way for a couple bug guys led by this bearded man who had a smile that could light up a theatre. “I’m Derro,” he said, offering his hand. I shook it the way I was taught – thrust in, slip the index finger up so it’s crossing the other guy’s wrist, shake firmly, then let go – and that’s when I noticed that the big guys behind him were dragging that blonde, muscle-bound woman who nearly slagged me and Theo. “I’m the leader of our little band here. We were well east of here, where the pulse hit hardest, by Herrod when this bunch came and took us.”

  “I’m Noah, I was a fighter pilot, I had to make an emergency landing here when everything was going nuts,” I replied. I didn’t want to tell him too much. “You guys all right? There are some medical supplies and a lot of food still in there,” I gestured to the large complex to our left. “I could show you around before I move on.”

  “Are there any bots or anything in there we have to worry about?”

  “None,” I told them. “I scouted it myself, blasted a few too.”

  “Is it true that this is the reserve vault? Billions in platinum down there?” asked someone in the crowd.

  “Yeah, it’s in a pretty heavy vault though. It’s yours if you want to cut through, I’m moving on.”

  “What, you don’t want to stick around for a share?” Derro asked.

  “I want to make sure I’m not missing any of my people. There could be someone trapped in orbit.” That was a half-truth. I knew the chances of any orbiting survivors were next to nil, but I couldn’t help but hope. “I’ll be heading out after that. There’s gotta be friendlier stars out there.”

  “No, I’m afraid,” Derro said. “I’ve spoken to travellers over the last few weeks, and they tell me that it’s like this across the sector, only worse in most places since the bots weren’t shocked. Here we only have to deal with the odd military or heavy security droid, but out there everything with an artificial intelligence has turned on us. Well, not all of us.” He turned to the blonde woman and accepted a blade the length of my arm from one of the big guys holding her. “You saw this coming and warned no one. Instead you paid the Order so you could rule over us, bitch.”

  She looked at everyone in the crowd and struggled. They’d taken her armour, and were holding her muscled arms steady. Someone came from behind and knelt down on the backs of her legs. “You know what we do to anyone who has betrayed humanity,” he said as he settled in behind her, crushing her knees into the dirt.

  “Don’t! I can go places where you can’t!” the large woman screamed. “I can help you!”

  “For betraying humanity, I sentence you to death,” Derro said, raising the long blade and bringing it down. He didn’t slash hard, it was as though he was only notching his starting place, and I stood there, frozen in shock and horror as their brave leader started sawing at her. She managed to squirm free at first, blood oozing from the back of her neck as she screamed and struggled. They got her under control a moment later, and Derro got back to work with a chop.

  I’ll never forget the sounds as screaming turned to choking and gurgling. It took a long time, but he eventually held her head up for a moment before throwing it down the beach. It was then that I noticed that someone got my passenger door open. It took me a moment to make a connection that sent my brain and adrenal system into full-on oh-shit mode. “Hey, he’s got a bot in here!” said the man who got my car door open. “It’s active.”

  “He won’t attack you,” I told him as I rushed in his direction. He was reaching after Theo, who was trying to avoid him and being polite at the same time.

  “Hello, I’m not carrying the same murder disease as other robots,” Theo said. “I’m a nice machine, and can perform many life-saving tasks as well as other less critical duties.”

  “Get away from him,” I said, putting myself between the hover car and half the crowd. My sidearms were both out, pointing at everyone.

  Entertainment doesn’t get you prepared for combat. The bravery that comes to you on stage is pretty different from the kind that gets you through a firefight, but it does train you to recognize when a crowd is about to turn on you. These folks were about to turn, and turn bad. “Now I’m going to get into my car and go. You guys can have whatever’s on that island
and…”

  I heard a car door open then quickly close behind me and glanced over my shoulder. Someone was fighting to open the rear passenger door, Theo was trying to hold it closed. I fell into the passenger side and got the car running in reverse then pushed the accelerator with my hand. A few people were dragged into the water, but I’m sure no one was really badly hurt.

  I slipped into the driver’s seat and made sure Theodore was still in the back. “You all right, buddy?”

  “Yes, thank you Noah.”

  “No problem. Saving each other is what we do, I guess,” I sent the car back across the water, getting as much island shoreline between us and those people as I could, just in case they found any long range weapons aboard that hover yacht.

  “You could have said I was captured, and turned me over,” Theo said as he got into the passenger seat and pulled the door closed.

  “I wouldn’t do that to you,” I told him. “Besides, I don’t think they would have believed me anyway.”

  “You will be hunted by Order people no matter what, but you have a chance at meeting friendly humans if you stop travelling with me. I am causing problems for you now.”

  “Man, I wouldn’t ditch you,” I told him. I really meant it. I didn’t see him as some bot that made it through the madness, but a friend. My only friend. “We’re just going to get to a port where we can get a ship flying and find a place where there’s less trouble.”

  “That could take quite some time if you’re alone.”

  “I’ve got you, buddy. Besides, I’m used to being outcast, that’s the life of a carnie.”

  Part Twenty-Three

  On her second night in Paradise Landing, Alice donned the short green dress with long sleeves. It suited her more than expected, and after tweaking the colour so it was a little darker, she was happy with the look. She left her hair loose and carefully used an auto-colour applicator to put on some makeup.

  The first two attempts were too dramatic for her tastes, and she ended up going with the lightest setting. “When are we going to outgrow makeup as a species?” she asked her reflection.

  “In Nihilist and Purist cultures, makeup is avoided at all times,” Roomie replied.

  “Nihilists are boring and I haven’t heard of a Purist on Tamber,” she said. Alice wouldn’t admit it aloud, but she did like the way she looked with extra colour. “I hope Titus appreciates this.”

  She looked at the heels that were supposed to go with the dress for a moment and shrugged. After stepping into them and walking around for less than a minute she laughed ruefully. “No, no torture devices, please.”

  “Your feet have never been in that type of shoe before,” Roomie commented. “Common perception suggests that women get used to them over time.”

  “Convert them to a flat sole or they’ll get lost in the jungle.”

  “Perhaps a two centimetre heel?” Roomie countered.

  “I’m gonna delete your fashion routine first chance I get,” she warned. “But fine, I’ll play along. Two centimetre heel and loosen the fit on the toes. It feels like this shoe is made for someone with only two.”

  “It is your size,” Roomie countered.

  “Revise it or I switch to combat boots,” Alice countered. The shoes adjusted according to her specifications and she sighed. “Okay, I can walk in these.”

  She was out the door and down the suspended walkway leading to one of the main social hubs next. The lights strung above illuminated the wooden walkways and the trees all around gently, so there were no problems seeing where she was going, but not so she felt like she was aboard a well-lit ship. The atmosphere was definitely relaxing, even though she found the air was a little hot for her taste.

  “Alice?” Iruuk said, meeting her on a large platform. People from the fleet were dressed up for the evening, making their way to any of the many entertainment areas that were just opening. He was out of uniform, his sisters at his side. One was caramel and black in colour, the other was silver and blue – obviously colour shifted. She couldn’t remember their names, so she hoped it didn’t come up. “You look so cute,” one of them said, covering her snout for a moment before giving her a warm hug.

  “I think she’s sharing a meal with Titus tonight,” Iruuk told them.

  “Oh, I thought she was on her way to an official function,” said the blue and silver sister. “The way she was marching.”

  “No, it’s date night,” Alice admitted. “Titus invited me to Lezorno’s.”

  “Oh, you’ll like it there,” the caramel and black furred sister said. “I enjoyed the crab.”

  “Speaking of which, I’m hungry,” the blue and silver one said, tugging on her sister’s arm. “Brownies and ice-cream now.”

  “You two go ahead, I’ll be there soon,” Iruuk said.

  “Hey, you said no fleet stuff,” the caramel and black one said, her eyes, which were blue like Iruuk’s, were big and pleading.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll catch up,” Iruuk said. “It’s going to take you two twenty minutes to find what you really want anyway.”

  “Okay, see you later. Come see meet us if Titus is boring,” the blue and silver furred Nafalli said.

  “Don’t be rude,” her sister admonished as the pair walked away, hand-in-hand.

  Iruuk turned back to Alice and shook his head. “They’re almost in their last growth spurt, one is rebelling a little and the other just wants to stay a child.”

  “I’ve never seen a blue Nafalli before,” Alice said.

  “Childish, I know,” Iruuk said with a shrug. “Are you all right, Alice? You have that look that you get when you’re about to do something you really don’t want to.”

  “Do I?” she asked. “Maybe, I guess. I think I’ve been on the couch for too long, researching, listening to playback for the report.”

  “Do you not like Titus? He seems like a good man,” Iruuk asked, concerned.

  “I think I just have to unplug for a while. All I want to do is run back to my sofa and dig into the data files about Iora. Keep summarizing what I’m seeing.”

  “My report is finished, but I admit it was difficult to complete. There was a lot of personal testimony from the refugees I studied, and I had to meet two of them for an interview to clear some details up.”

  “I didn’t know that was something we had to do.”

  “From what I’m hearing, now that we have clearance, only a few of us have to do the extra investigation work, but I thought it was rewarding. Still, maybe Titus isn’t very practiced at dating. If he can’t entice you away from writing a report, then perhaps he has a lot to learn. Maybe you should cancel tonight so he tries harder, it’s what many Nafalli women would do.”

  “Really?”

  “If they are uncertain about their suitor, or not excited by him, they’ll tease to see if he’s interested enough. No, not interested enough, that’s not the right phrase.” Iruuk thought a moment. “Driven enough, you know? Courtship should be a celebration of the couple, most Nafalli songs are about pursuit and love.”

  Alice couldn’t help but smile at the mental image of a male Nafalli crooning at the upper window of some Nafalli lady’s upper window. “That sounds like fun.”

  “It looks fun, from what I’ve seen.”

  Alice noticed Titus coming around the corner. “Looks like I won’t be seeing my couch for a while tonight.”

  Iruuk looked over his shoulder and noticed Titus. “Good luck, Alice. Don’t tease him too much.”

  “I won’t, see you later, fur-face,” Alice said as she started walking towards Titus. He was in a tightly fitted dark shirt with long loose sleeves and more formal black trousers. She did her best to put on a smile and greet him properly. “Hey there, how’s leave treating you?”

  “Good, I’m climbing the walls a bit, if I’m being honest,” Titus said. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and a brief one-armed squeeze. “Hello Iruuk,” he said afterwards.

  The Nafalli was just about to turn aw
ay. “Hello, Titus. I was just leaving, I have to catch up with my sisters. Have fun tonight.” He was on his way before he finished speaking.

  “You look lovely,” Titus told her, taking her hand and leading her into a leisurely walk. His fingers were thick, but not as calloused as hers were by far. There was something she enjoyed about his confidence, even though she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with hand-holding, but she let it go on.

  “Thank you,” Alice said. “I’ve never seen the style you’re wearing before, it looks good on you.”

  “Ah, it’s outdated even where I come from, but I always liked it.”

  They walked through the sparse crowds along the imitation wood walkways between giant tree trunks without speaking. At first the quiet companionship was nice, but then the silence stretched on so long that Alice was almost afraid to break it. She thought of talking about training, about the cadets she was monitoring and advising until recently, about fleet news, but none of those topics seemed like a good idea for a relaxing night out.

  At long last, a wooden sign with Lezomo’s written across it marked a circular building as their destination. Titus opened the door for her and they were led to a table right away. The restaurant – decorated in red and dark blue colours with classical wooden furniture – was mostly empty. “I suppose most of the fleet personnel who are scheduled to move in won’t be getting here for a while,” Titus said. “Then again, there’s a lot going on in system right now.”

  “With operating systems upgrades hitting millions of systems, I don’t think a lot of people will have time to come here any time soon.”

  “Oh, I got an early look at the new systems and interfaces on my first day here. I visited the beach, tried reading a bit, explored the concourse here, and by the time I was finished it was noon and I was so bored I couldn’t believe it. I bothered Captain Sima’s staff until I got myself an invitation to a prototype mock-up. Her core crew are already training there, and I got to join in.”