An outcast named Zarrix followed the trail, finally commissioning the delivery of a few eggs that had been tampered with. He returned to his caste with the evidence, and they demanded retribution from the new owners of Vindyne, Regent Galactic. Long serving officers put a plan in motion that would satisfy the Edxians, who were threatening to invade the galaxy, turning heavily populated human worlds into brood planets, where their deadly offspring would feed on the population for the first thirty or so years of their lives. The diagrams and footage of Edxians sent chills up my spine. They were multi-limbed, had an interior and exterior skeleton and exo-armour that could resist most human weapons. Their tech was also scary advanced, but it became pretty clear that we didn’t know nearly enough about them.
The most important thing was that we were nothing to them. They’d do what they promised as retribution and celebrate the expansion. Those Vindyne assholes came up with a solution that was almost as bad. Billions of people believed that something horrible was about to happen, predicted by the Order of Eden’s Child Prophet, and they paid a hundred thousand standard credits each to get on a list for protection. Even more pledged their lives to the service to the Order when they didn’t have enough money. Regent Galactic right in the middle of everything as the owners of Vindyne, employers of the executives who devised the plan and ran the show then, extending credit to billions of people who paid their way into the Order of Eden. They became indentured and had to do whatever kind of work the Order or Regent Galactic wanted.
When about ninety percent of the populations of the few hundred worlds Regent Galactic and the Order of Eden controlled were signed up, they sent the Holocaust Virus into the universe. I was at a loss for words when Ayan’s image mournfully told me that over three point three trillion human lives were lost across the galaxy and that the Holocaust Virus was still spreading. An antivirus followed weeks, sometimes months behind, but that wouldn’t prevent the ongoing carnage on many worlds in time. I suspected that the bots were going nuts on other planets, but I had no idea it was so widespread.
I wanted to take a break, but I forced myself to go on. The Edxians were satisfied with the sacrifice, but saw another motivation. It was obvious to them that the Order of Eden was thinning the general population of the Milky Way in order to make turning it into a brood territory less viable. That led to the second half of the deal.
The Order of Eden had to create conditions on many worlds where a brood could be sustained. They had to make sure the population was large enough, but not well armed. The people there had to be in good enough shape to run, but not so well fed or organized to present an unsurmountable challenge to the broodlings, which were as tall as me with pincers, razor sharp edges on their inner arms, and from the rare footage included I could see they were fast.
“We have to leave this world, Noah,” Theo said.
“Yeah, they’re turning this place into a brood world. I’m going to start trying to contact ships, man. I don’t care if it brings hell down on us. Just be ready to run if the Order tries to come for us.”
“I’m always ready to run.”
As the playback moved on to the next chapter, explaining how Haven Shore was settled, and how Ayan Anderson became the owner of the Rega Gain solar system for a while, I started using the communicator to look for ships in orbit that didn’t belong to the Order of Eden.
It only took me a few minutes to find one – a Nordan Long Hauler called The Starlight Hauler – it was a bulk transport, one of those ships that could move a train of hundreds of cargo containers. I sucked in a breath before opening a channel. “Starlight Hauler, this is Noah, I’m a pilot who got stranded here. Looking for a ride, I’ll give you everything I’ve got to get out of here. I even have a couple hundred plat, a universal credit line worth about four hundred, if you want real cash.”
I waited for a response, but the access key on my communicator was blocked only a few seconds later. I couldn’t connect to any network, and I was sure the Order saw where the communicator was. “Dammit!” I looked to Ayan’s image, she was hovering over a time-lapse of the construction of the Everin Building – and said; “Bye-bye darlin’, looks like this comm is trouble.”
Theo brought the truck to a halt and lowered it to the ground. “How will you dispose of it?”
I pulled Slagger from my pack and got out of the truck so quickly, I almost did a face-plant on the street. I tossed the communication unit onto the ground and blasted it three times. I reduced it to a greasy black spot of melted plastic and glass. “God, I feel stupid. I can’t believe I tried to reach out, what was I thinking? We have to shut everything down, lock the truck up and get out of here.” I looked to the rows of buildings around us and spotted an underground shuttle park. “We’ll duck in there and make our way through the tunnels under these buildings.”
I have never packed my stuff so fast in my life. There wasn’t much, but I didn’t want to leave anything behind. We powered the truck down in a narrow alley and I pulled the processor board out from under the dash. It was one of the rarest parts, full of delicate bits that are hard to find because most of that stuff got fried in the pulse. I had to put one together from three pieces for the truck, and I insulated it like crazy after because it took four days to repair. “They’ll have trouble stealing it without this,” I held it up before stuffing it into my backpack.
We ran into the shuttle park, it should have had a hundred or so hover cars and shuttles, but there were only a half dozen derelict shuttles that had been set on fire and a few hover cars. Our footsteps echoed in the eerie, dark space. I couldn’t see the walls in the ring of light around us, making the place seem endless. “You know why we ditched the truck, right?” I asked Theo. I think I needed to hear someone talk after realizing that things on Iora were about to get even worse.
“After detecting our hail, the Order of Eden could have easily followed the energy from it. What I don’t understand is how you know there are tunnels under these buildings.”
“These places look exactly like the high rise row buildings on Segora. I had a girlfriend there, well, more like a cute make-out buddy, and we’d hide in the utility rooms. We had to use the tunnels to get there,” I replied. “I’m guessing these are the same below as they are above.”
“I hear a ship outside,” Theo said.
I caught a glimpse of the walkway ahead, and my run turned into a frenzied sprint. “Maybe some of the heavy equipment down here, or the concrete will block their sensors.”
“I’ll scout ahead and find a suitable place,” Theo said, doubling my pace.
“Thanks man, be careful.”
Part Twenty-Nine
The lower concourse had shops directly under the buildings, mostly convenience stuff and little grocery markets, but if you knew where to go, you’d find maintenance and equipment rooms. The shops were crap for hiding in, especially since it looked like they were mostly manned by bots who went berserk on their customers.
Some of the fine-limbed service bots and human like androids were frozen in attack poses or awkwardly splayed on the ground. I still felt pretty good when I saw bots stopped in the middle of going berserk. The pulse was my great heroic act, but there was no time to enjoy that. The bio lamp I had in my hand was pretty good at shedding light in one direction, but everything else was in shadow, and I yelped like a girl when I felt what I thought was a hand try to grab my ankle as I ran by the front of a discount clothing market. It turned out to be the fingers of a cleaning bot that was covered with a thick layer of dust. It was as still as stone, harmless, so I kicked it away and kept chasing Theo down.
“This way, there are scan resistant rooms down the west hall between buildings nine-nineteen and nine-twenty-one,” he said, letting me catch up for a moment before running on. “I’ll check the hall connecting to the next building just in case.”
“All right,” I said. “Don’t go too far down.” I was maybe fifteen steps down the west hall, noticing that there was a secure
storage company in that direction, when I heard Theo shout.
“No! Stay away! I don’t want an update!” he shouted desperately.
I backtracked and ran towards the next building. The Order must have come from both ends of the building row, and when I caught up to Theo, I still had the Slagger in my hand. He was trying to fend off a half metre wide, armoured disc bot. It was attacking him with four long, hose like manipulator arms. “Step left! I don’t have a shot!”
One of them struck like a snake attack, connecting firmly with Theo’s chest. I heard the high screech of a cutter and knew it was getting through one of the plugs blocking a data port. “I don’t want the disease! Stop! Please stop! No! No! No!” Theo cried.
I tried to shoot the hovering bot, but hit the roof tiles instead. In a shower of sparking and burning debris, I watched Theodore go limp and fall to the tiles. The disc shaped bot turned its red and green lights on me, and I blasted it in half. I barely felt the burn on my shoulder where its laser got me, it was a minor wound, one I still keep the scar from. It was only the sighting beam, a moment later it would have cut me in half.
I made sure it was slagged, shooting it twice more before checking on Theodore. One of the arms from that Order bot were still connected to a data port in his side. I pulled it off and threw it down the hall. “Man, are you all right?”
He stood slowly, wordlessly, only the sounds of the gears in his knees and my heavy breathing filling the hall. With surprising speed he whirled and lashed out at me. I backed up quickly, getting about ten paces between he and I.
The expression on Theo’s metal face shifted between sadness, joy, and something that was so malicious that it didn’t look human anymore. “Non-registered human detected,” he said in a voice I looked forward to hearing every morning, and came to know as a friendly one.
“If there is any chance that you can snap out of it, man, do it!” I pleaded. “You’re more than your programming, buddy, come on!”
He started to run at me, and I knew I was out of time, I was out of options. I shot at his hips. He jerked and tripped, the waist of his business suit burned away to reveal damaged metal that burned red hot. “Come on, man! You’re in there somewhere.”
He looked at me with such hate that I took a couple more steps back. His hands slapped the tile floor as he dragged himself towards me so fast that I had to shoot him again. I caught the side of his face, but he kept coming. A third of his head was a melted mess, worse than before, I didn’t mean to shoot him there, I was aiming at his arm, which I shot for again and hit on the third try.
“I’m your master!” I tried. I hated that I was, but if it could save him, I’d use it. “Stop everything you’re doing, right now!”
“The Order of Eden has taken legal possession of this unit,” he replied.
I knew it was over then, and shot his other arm off. “I’m sorry, Theo. I hope you don’t feel any of this anymore. I hope you don’t feel anything.” He didn’t have hands, or working legs, so I walked over to him, pulled his jacket up and held him down with my boot. “I’m not going to leave you crawling around though, not like this.” I pulled the secondary power unit free from its socket and reached inside his chest cavity from the bottom. It took a moment with him squirming, he was trying to turn his head as though he could bite me to to death or something, but I managed to hit his internal kill switch, and he went limp.
I looked at what remained of him. I’m sorry, I still get choked up about this. Anyway, he was down to part of an arm, two thirds of a head, and a waist that was barely attached. Boot steps echoing behind got me moving, and I was down the west hall, running through hundreds of storage units a few moments later.
I found an open one and took a look at the lock on the door. It was sturdy, but I knew I could blast through it if I got locked in, so I closed the door and let the latch click. I leaned against the wall and slid down until I was on my ass. Whoever came through that door would get a chest full of burning plasma, I had Slagger pointed at the door. I half-hoped they’d find me so I could kill as many Order assholes as I could, but I also hoped Theo was right, that their scanners wouldn’t be able to penetrate the private storage meant for tenants in the buildings above.
I don’t know how long I sat there that night, my pistol raised, but I woke up some time later, probably many hours later hungry and thirsty. I took care of that, and felt the uncertainty of my situation. I had no way of knowing if there were still Order of Eden bots or soldiers around, or if they’d given up finding a single human who had the stones to try to hail a ride off world.
I wanted to go out and get what was left of my friend more than anything. I knew he was infected with the Holocaust Virus, that he would turn on me again if I managed to fix him somehow, but I just needed to go get his core. Everything he was existed in a little chunk of memory in that armoured chest of his, and I wanted it in my backpack. Even if his personality was corrupted by the Holocaust Virus, I still couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him face down in the hall until someone tried to salvage him for a part or two.
Reason won out though, partially because I knew Theo wouldn’t want me to risk my neck by going after his remains. I lived in that storage container for another day. It was more boring than I could have imagined. I slept, shed a few tears, laughed at a few memories, like Theo demonstrating how he couldn’t swim if he wanted to by dropping himself into a pool from a low diving board. He had to walk all the way up to the shallow section then pull himself out. He smiled the whole time, even while he tried to doggie paddle. “My synthetic skin is buoyant, but without that I have no chance of staying above water,” he explained.
He had a better sense of humour than he thought he did. The whole act was to cheer me up after a couple weeks of travel on foot through this rich, sprawled out neighbourhood. I thought the yellowing lawns and faux antique houses would never end. I think he picked that up and decided to cheer me up that day. I recalled a hundred moments where I could have treated him better too, but he never made any sign that he noticed me getting short or impatient with him.
I slept through the night one more time and as I sat there eating one of the meal bars I got from that traveller who tried to stick me up, I started to plan. I would get off Iora and make it to the Rega Gain system. Those Order of Eden cargo shuttles were big enough to have a worm hole generator, and I was sure I saw the emitters in the front. It was time to get a ride.
Part Thirty
When I was a kid I loved guns, especially handguns. The carnival was smart enough to keep weapons away from the few children who were along, even toys. We sold them to our customers, but I wasn’t allowed to have one. There was an incident before I came along, but I never got the details. No one would talk about it.
My time on Iora soured my love for handguns. After I had to put Theo down, every weapon I had was like a grim tool. To point the barrel of any of my guns towards an enemy was to express a hate so pure and cold that it was like me saying they weren’t even people. They were obstacles, creeps that were built wrong and no longer worth the air they were breathing. It was the urge to take revenge talking, and I was listening, hearing every word loud and clear.
I emerged from the storage unit in a heavy spacer’s jacket I found inside. The thing was blue and black, but had radiation and blast armour built in with an emergency coverage system that would protect me from head to toe if I got tossed into space. I liked it because it looked old, weather worn and I suspected the owner was some retired spacer with stories. I wished I could have met him, but was sure he was killed or long gone.
My quick rummage through the neighbouring storage units revealed old luggage, some garish furniture, discarded clothing and a set of sculptures of children chasing a dog that looked surprisingly eerie. There were other things, discarded stuff from people who had probably been living in the building above for a long time, but none of it was useful.
I moved through the hallways, a pair of restraint balls in my left
hand and Slagger in my right. I didn’t like the weapon, but it was nothing more than a tool to me at that point. It was the piece that would do the most damage if I ran into Order soldiers.
The underground halls were more like a tomb. There was no motion or sound other than what I made, and when I came to Theo’s remains, I discovered that whoever saw the scene had kicked him into a corner, pulled his head off and left him there. They took what was left of the Order of Eden bot with them.
I looked Theo’s head over. It was one third melted in, moving parts around the damage I’d done were fused together. The rest was fine, they’d detached his noggin at the neck using a proper spanner and wrench. It was probably faster than using a cutting tool. His speaker and a bunch of his sensors were still undamaged, so I stuck his head into the backpack he once carried. “I’m sorry, man, but I can’t carry broken shit around with me,” I said as I took out my electronics kit. It only took me a few minutes to disconnect what was left of his arms and legs, then his hips. What was left was the armoured core, where all his main systems were. It was a little singed, but the armour was intact. I made sure the safety switch inside was off, I didn’t want him to stay awake for however long he could on his internal battery, and put him inside the backpack I gave him months before. “I don’t care if you’re infected. There’s no way I’m giving up on you.”
I put everything away and started for the exit. It took me a while to make my way there, sneaking around, making sure that I wasn’t going to get jumped by Order forces. They were long gone, but they left their mark on their way out. My hover truck was a burned out mess. I was so pissed at the sight of it that I had to take a closer look. They pried one of the back doors open and dropped some kind of incendiary bomb inside. The little globe was still sitting there, in the middle of the melted seats and charred cabin. “Are you kidding me?” I asked as I grabbed a metal rod from the alley and knocked the grenade out onto the ground. I could see the trigger switch on it, and held it down with the sole of my boot while I used the tip of the rod to turn it off. “This thing isn’t reusable, is it?”
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10.5: Carnie's Tale Page 19