by Chogan Swan
The impersonal hands returned, this time with a knife, cutting off her harness then examining her, traveling all over her body. A hose showered her with a jet of icy water, stinging her skin like a rasp as it rinsed away the slime and mud from the tunnel..
Symbiana moved deep into her mind. It was time to take cover. Time was passing, but she retreated to where she wasn’t helpless. Her inner world.
The pain as a drill bored holes in her skull, eight tiny holes, almost, it pulled her from the sanctuary, but she dug in deeper.
The niiaH climbed on top of her, straddling her back. Filaments pierced her and spread out into the nodes of her central nervous system. It fought to thrust its tail into her bagua, but she clenched her muscles and tilted her hips.
It switched attention to her skull. Finger filaments slid into the holes bored there, exploring her brain. Soon it would have control of her muscle function. It would discover the transponder in her bagua.
Symbiana reached for the deepest folds of her womb for the final escape that would explode and make ashes of both of them. Then felt the thrumming as a magnetic wave activated the transponder. She screamed and tensed her muscles to disguise its vibration from the niiaH. They were close. Whatever the niiaH did to her, she would have to endure so they could find it.
Symbiana tracked the tendrils attaching to her brain by the sparks of sensation they left as they spread through her skull, color, taste, muscle reaction. She fought each incursion. The tendrils withdrew. Had she won?
Her muscles convulsed as tiny electrodes entered through the holes and the current flashed through her brain. The filaments returned and made rapid headway as she reeled from the stun, the rape of her brain. They dug deep, sliding into memory areas. Her memories were eroding, replaced by a horrible foreign presence. She fought back, raging at the violation, strangling the areas stolen, burning the cells removed from her control.
The tendrils moved out.
The electrodes returned, stunning her helpless again. When the tendrils came back, they pushed darkness into her, visions of the niiaH’s crimes, scenes of destroying innocent lives in the bodies it had stolen over millennia. Symbiana pushed back, holding tight to her memories of beauty, love, friendships, moving them to other areas of her brain as she burned the ground behind her.
Again the shocks.
Again the attacks.
Again the fight.
Again the shocks.
It was devouring her.
It had control of her muscles.
From its tail, filaments dug through her flesh into her spine, seizing control of paths from her brain to her body.
Could she still control the explosive and take the monster with her? She reached for death.
Chapter 31 (Darkness)
Seconds ticked by… Tiana kept one eye on Davy while watching ShwydH with the other as he finished putting the parts together then switched to typing into the keypad. Davy jerked in his seat, reacting to his instrument panel.
“One hundred meters that way,” he shouted, pointing northeast. “Ten meters down.”
ShwydH picked up his instrument and walked northeast, head down, watching the screen. Tiana let go of the magnetic wave generator and hurried to catch him. He stopped fifty meters from the chopper and put the instrument on the ground to type on the keypad, fingers blurring.
Upslope from him, a patch of earth shifted, rising, a rectangle of ground—weeds and dirt spilling off the sides. It flipped over, forming a ramp into the hill. Edward caught up to them, breathing hard.
Cool air poured out of the opening; something inside was creating positive pressure, no doubt a precaution against gas attacks. Along with the air, came the odor of the older niiaH with the note of Symbiana in deep distress. The positive pressure meant their scent would not travel back to the enemy, but sound might still give them away.
Tiana spun to face Edward and signed: Stay. She pointed to herself and ShwydH: Fast, Silent, You stay.
He shook his head.
It was no use. Edward would follow. Tiana struck like a snake, burying her teeth in his neck and forcing a knockout dose into his blood. She spun, pulling out her guns. ShwydH was already running into the dim corridor, silent as a ghost. Tiana followed him; the odor of agony poured into her face as she ran.
ShwydH was fast. His slender form, graceful and deadly, moved like a cheetah, bounding along on padded feet. The corridor grew lighter as they came to a corner at the bottom of the slope. ShwydH used the wall to halt himself and raised his gun, pointing it toward the light source. Tiana slid into the wall behind him, staying out of his line of fire.
She looked to see his target. Two dark forms coupled on a table, one behind and astride the other, their heads close… too close. The head on top turned their way. A single shot echoed in the hall. Tiana sprang down the hall; the speed of her passage blew a wind of horror into her face. Blood, bone damage, pain pumped toxins leaching from skin.
The figure on top struggled to disengage from the body beneath it. The side of its cheek was smashed in, and a fresh bullet wound from ShwydH’s 9mm Sig pumped blood from its neck.
Tiana hit the niiaH with a diving tackle that carried it off Symbiana and the table and onto the wet floor. She wrapped her left arm around its shoulders, her right around its skull and wrenched, pulling as hard as she could. The neck bones separated with a snap, and a shower of blood drenched her, the wall and the floor as the head tore away from its shoulders.
Tiana spun to her feet and turned to Symbiana who lay motionless on the metal table. Her bonds were locked by simple mechanical means that Tiana unfastened in seconds. ShwydH plucked away the hair-thin wires attached to Symbiana’s skull.
“Ze drilled into her skull,” he said, voice flat. “If you have the ability, she needs your help to heal and close those.”
Tiana moved to Symbiana’s head and viewed the damage.
“Symbiana,” she said softly. “I’ll heal the bones of your skull and see what can be done about the damage. Can you hear me? Are you ready?”
“Yes,” whispered Symbiana.
Tiana slid her filaments into the holes, shuddering at the cruelty of the attack.
“What was it doing?” she whispered, turning her head to ShwydH.
“Trying to steal her body… ze must have been desperate, using electric shocks to subdue resistance. Doing this to an entity with a strong sense of self would be impossible otherwise. I doubt it would even work, but I believe DuGwaedH was insane, and must have been closer to the end of hir life cycle than I thought. Ze intended this trap for me. Ze would have tried jumping to my body to buy time for hir offspring to mature. Your mother was unlucky to arrive first.”
ShwydH walked around the table and surveyed the carnage on the floor. “I want to burn the body,” he said. “To destroy every bit of genetic material. Can I drag it outside where there will be enough oxygen to reduce it to bones that I can grind to dust and throw into a furnace?”
“Wait,” whispered Symbiana, struggling to rise from the table. “I need to watch. I need to watch it burn.”
Epilogue One (Jonah)
Jonah stretched his arms above his head as he walked out of the cabin. Soon Amber emerged behind him and they set out for a long run through the autumn woods. The air was crisp and dew dripped from the vivid leaves along their way.
Three weeks had passed since the raid on the niiaH headquarters. Local police investigating the disturbance had uncovered nothing. None of the niaaH’s slaves had come forward. Most of them had gone to ground. ShwydH, unexpectedly, had forwarded severance pay to all of his team’s bank accounts. He’d emptied the money he’d siphoned from DuGwaedH’s holdings into a trust fund for dependents and victims of niiaH actions. Four of his bodyguards had asked to continue working for him.
Since her rescue, Symbiana had not spoken with anyone except Tiana and Edward. She’d taken over responsibility for ShwydH, seeing that he received the substance that would keep him alive. For all
Jonah knew, she was communicating with him too.
Edward wasn’t happy about the arrangement. He was still angry with Tiana for preventing him from coming along on the final rescue. Jonah sighed. Actually, the better word was furious. What happened in DuGwaedH’s trap had created a distance between Edward and Symbiana that Edward couldn’t understand and Symbiana wouldn’t explain. The easy target for Edward’s pain was Tiana, and hatred for ShwydH clearly ate at him.
Bandit looped back to the trail and ambushed them from the bushes, laughing at their feeble pace then forging ahead on point. Jonah looked up, hearing a tiny whirring and continued running. It was only Jacksie’s drone, scouting the terrain to the right, as Austin was no doubt doing on the left.
Jonah had only returned his attention to SimSociety Turbo yesterday. The most important development since he had last checked in was the launch of the world financial sub-model. In reaction, all the original organizations that had risen from the Occupy movement had endorsed the goals and methods of SimSociety’s models. They had signed a pledge to support and promote SST.
Well…, the organizations who were really part of the movement had. The political shills using the word ‘Occupy’ the way start-up companies had used the prefix ‘E’ during the dot-com bubble opposed it. But, a referendum of the rest had denounced and distanced themselves from those, decimating the ranks of the bandwagon Occupistas.
The only historic protest movement honest enough to admit that they didn’t yet have the answers were serious about finding them.
In addition, Finland's Pirate Party announced their support and had made overtures to XYMBI to partner on their internet-based polling initiative to incorporate a model like SimSocTurbo.
SST had just finished production on a video for online release, parts of which were filmed at the San Francisco Bay Model Museum. The video explained—for people with no previous experience with modeling—the significance of the role of modeling in saving the San Francisco bay from a disastrous policy idea in the 1950s. It used the visual physical model to explain modeling and went on to share how computer modeling had later been used in the 1970s on non-physical systems to amicably settle a contract dispute between a ship-building contractor and the Navy worth over one-third of a billion in 1970s dollars. It ended by showing how the idea of stopping disastrous plans by using the same science in policy decisions could build amicable solutions for society. The video had gone viral overnight.
He smiled. It gave him hope that humans might survive.
The foundation lawyers were still debating whether to request that people not violate graffiti ordinances if they chose to promulgate the Who is Jonah Galt? tag. Most felt that saying anything about the matter would be tantamount to taking responsibility for the actions and lead to trolling by those who opposed the movement in order to further nuisance lawsuits against SST.
Jonah sighed. He was looking forward to returning to the desert. The feasibility study on the salt-water pipeline from the Gulf of California was looking very positive, and the solar desalination facility and hydroponic farm might be a winner. The models looked strong so far, and there was strong support for the idea among the tribal nation. Negotiations with Mexico were favorable since the project would provide benefits to the local economies on both sides of the border.
Amber cut ahead of him and turned off the trail. With a whistle to Bandit, Jonah followed her.
Where are we going?” he called.
“Austin found boulders with his drone. I thought we’d take a look.”
“Any big enough to climb?”
“He doesn’t think so, but he says the opportunity for parkour is target-rich.”
Jonah smiled at the excitement in her voice and picked up his pace.
Epilogue Two (HumanaH)
Behind the ostensible government, sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”— Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, An Autobiography, 1913 (Appendix B)
Tiana finished checking her email and closed her computer. She needed to check on Symbiana. Except for herself, ShwydH and Symbiana, the cabin was empty. Jonah and Amber had gone for a run and Jacksie and Austin were working from the RV parked by the garage. She wasn’t sure where Edward was; he wasn’t talking to her.
Symbiana had been trying to map the damage done to her memory. One of the bigger blank spots for her had been the period of her arrival on Earth. She’d asked Tiana to recount the events in detail, and Tiana had talked for hours, every day since the rescue, stopping only to answer questions and go into details.
What did the island look like? Tell me more about the leopard seal. Who were my friends on the boat?
She’d lost so much, just a few years, but such important ones.
Two weeks ago, she’d realized she couldn’t remember learning Spanish. Even her grasp on the language was shaky. Tiana took her through the steps Marcos had led her on so long ago. Even so far as to have Amber’s copy of Don Quixote, the one Marcos had given her, flown from Morocco. The original leather-bound edition arrived in a hermetically sealed case. Symbiana had opened it, breathing in the aroma.
“Oh God,” she cried. “I smell him. I remember how I loved him, but I don’t remember him.” Her voice rose in a howl. “There’s nothing there.”
Edward ran into the room, freezing when he saw Symbiana’s contorted face.
Symbiana bent over the book, took a deep breath of the lingering odors and began to laugh, soft at first, almost noiseless. Then—as her breathing deepened—the sounds grew louder, rising into something more akin to a stuttered wailing than laughing.
Tiana flashed to her memory of Marcos in the cabin of La Nina Bonita saying, Laughs are not always happy. There are many kinds, Tiana, even laughter that can come when hope is lost—a sound that would drive you mad if you listened long.
Edward put his hands over his ears and ran.
Tiana reached out for Symbiana and put her hands on her shoulders, but the sound traveled up her arms and into her chest, strangling her breathing. Tiana stepped back, looking at ShwydH who looked back with grim, dark eyes.
“Help her,” she begged, mouthing the words.
ShwydH nodded, and Tiana covered her ears. She left the house and ran until she was miles away and the laughter no longer assaulted her, but the memory of it lingered.
Tiana remembered Marcos; joy at his friendship, faith in his courage, his wisdom and humor always amazing her. To remember the feeling—when robbed of the reason—was horrible to contemplate. She couldn’t step nearer the house until Jonah texted and told her Symbiana was sleeping.
Tiana walked away from the memory of two weeks ago and down the hall toward Symbiana’s room. ShwydH opened the door, coming out of the room.
“How is she today?” said Tiana.
“Quieter,” said ShwydH, as he stepped out the back door. One of his bodyguards waited for him, her odor betraying arousal.
When Tiana stepped into the room, Symbiana was sitting on a chair looking out the window. “I want you to do something for me,” she said.
“Of course, what is it?”
I want you to go to my crèche and awaken the child there. I refreshed the memory crystal the day before the assault on the niiaH compound. Edward misses Symbiana, and I haven’t the heart to deny him. I’d like you to take me with you when you return to Arizona. I want to go as soon as possible.”
“But he wants you.”
“No, he wants someone I was.”
“Who are you now then?”
Dark eyes gazed at her. “My last memory before the three-year gap was pursuing the niiaH to this world. Do you remember what we thought when giving the order to pursue?”
Tiana nodded. “That we couldn’t let them destroy this world.”
Symbiana whispered, her eyes haunted, “I believe they were here already, the niiaH. They don’t have tails. They don’t look like us, but they’ve been here. Here all along.”
Symbiana pointed to her head. “And now here too. I tried to burn away the things it put in my head—the village, the people they ate when they landed, and more, much more, but I can’t get it out. When it devoured the mind of the child in the body it stole nine hundred years ago, I was there. I remember; I keep coming across other things too. It may drive me mad. I may be mad already. How many more will there be?”
“Symbiana—”
“That’s not my name!”
“Who are you then?”
She wrapped her arms around herself and rocked slowly.
“I don’t know. Inside I’m dark, dark like they are. Only glimpses of light, but the dark is always there.”
She took a shuddering breath. “HumanaH,” she said. “My name is HumanaH.”
Tiana reached out and put her hand on her shoulder, controlling her urge to shudder at the dark final aspiration. “I’ll call you Sister,” she said.
The anxious rocking stilled.
“Will you say goodbye to Edward at least?” said Tiana.
“No,” HumanaH whispered.
Tiana nodded. “Then I’ll call a chopper and tell ShwydH to get ready. I’ll do what you ask for Edward and follow you to Arizona soon. Max will go with you.”
“All right.”
Tiana stepped out of the room. ShwydH met her in the hallway.
“Will you need anything from here before leaving for Arizona?” she asked. “And will you want to bring your bodyguards?”
ShwydH hesitated. Kate’s perfume lingered on his body, drenching him with her dependence and longing. He shook his head. “No, I suppose not. Perhaps it would be better to start fresh.”