Emerald Sea

by John Ringo

  There was a mutter from the crowd at that. Even in the years after the Fall the Wolf 359 Terraforming Project was remembered, like a good dream at the end of the night. If there was anything to look forward to it was that at the end of the war they, or their children or their grandchildren, could continue the millennia-long project to create a new, livable, planet.

  "Lies and damned lies," the orca said smoothly. "Show me proof of this. I would be very surprised if there was any."

  "Well, I'd have to have access to Mother, wouldn't I?" Edmund replied. "And if I did, you would question the access. But I was there when Dionys McCanoc destroyed himself in a rush of power. It was I that put him in his prison of energy, a prison that was breached with the power equivalent of a nuclear weapon. Of course, he'd neglected to shield himself, so the prison became his tomb. Where, I wonder, did he get all that power? He, the New Destiny tool, who was the sole surviving member of the Project council. All the other members suffered mysterious, or not so mysterious, deaths just prior to and after the Fall."

  "You call innuendo and supposition proof?" the orca asked with a blatted chuckle. "But we stray far afield. You want these good people to risk themselves in a doomed gamble. We but wish them to maintain themselves in neutrality. In proof of our goodwill we had brought goods to help them, nets, fishhooks, traps and harpoons. Unfortunately, all of them were destroyed by the Freedom Coalition. This is proof, not innuendo."

  "And, as I said, I'm sure that it was just a friendly meeting on the sea," Edmund replied. "That your ship did not, for example, attack an unarmed clipper."

  "And if it was unarmed," the orca snarled, "how did it sink our ship?"

  "That, I'll admit, is a puzzler," Edmund said. "Honestly."

  "All I know is that they fired some sort of device off of the clipper," the orca replied. "Black and small as a yellow snapper. But the ship stopped and the scuppers ran with blood."

  Edmund turned as he heard a liquid chuckle and looked at Bast, who was staring at him with merriment in her eye.

  "Are you not glad, Duke Edmund," she said, still chuckling, "that I brought that bedamned rabbit?"

  Edmund started chuckling and ended up laughing heartily.

  "You think?"

  "Aye, methinks. A small object? Scuppers running with blood?"

  "Poor doomed bastards," Herzer said, chuckling as well. He turned to Jason and grinned. "Let's just say that we have a secret weapon. It won't usually work, but when it does . . ."

  "Scuppers running with blood?" Jason said, gulping. "I don't know."

  "You haven't been through territory that New Destiny has ravaged," Herzer replied. "You haven't stood before their Changed orcs, come upon the ruins of buildings, and people, that they leave behind," Herzer said, trying to check himself but realizing that the fury that lurked always just below his calm exterior was coming to the fore. "You haven't seen the feeding pots, with the legs of children turning in the boiling water."

  "Lies and damned lies!" the orca bellowed, looming over the unChanged human. "Recant those untruths!"

  "When you recant your lies, you . . . you . . . I can smell the flesh of dolphin on your breath like the evil stench of the lies you have been spouting!"

  The orca blatted him with sound and hooked his tail around, hitting the lieutenant with a blast of water that struck like a full body hammer. Herzer was thrown backwards through the water, half stunned. But he was used to fighting half stunned and before he had ceased to tumble his knife had appeared in his hand and he circled up and to the right, turning to try to get in on the flank of the orca.

  Suddenly the orca found two strong fingers pinching his blowhole and a long, slim, dagger pointed at his eye.

  "Take a bite out of my boyfriend," Bast purred, "and I'll drive this all the way to your brain."

  "You wouldn't dare," the orca said.

  "I've killed better orcas than you," she whispered, staring him in the eye. "And what you are is a psychopathic monstrosity. But, then again, so am I," she added and took a deep breath, letting it out in a long, unearthly sonar scream that echoed off the walls of the square.

  Herzer shivered and froze as the reverberations of the unholy, multitonal shriek washed through his body. It was the most gut-wrenching sound he had ever heard, including the death shriek of horses, which was as close as he could come to identifying it with a known sound.

  "Enough!" Bruce yelled. "Herzer, Bast, you're no longer to come into this town! Ambassador Shanol, I am forced to permit your continued presence, but one more such outburst and I will have you barred from the village as well, and your pod with you. Is that clear?"

  "Yes," the ambassador said, blowing out bubbles as a sort of throat clearing. "I . . . regret my outburst. But the statement that I would eat the flesh of my good friends the dolphins . . . you understand."

  "Fighting will not be tolerated," Bruce said. "That I understand. Duke Edmund?"

  "Herzer is one of my staff," Edmund replied. "And, I might add, has made valuable contributions to this community. But I accept that he is not to come within, say, one hundred meters of the town square. That means if we need to meet, it is a reasonable swim for one or both of us. As for Bast," he sighed. "She goes where she wills."

  "I'll not come back to this town until invited," the elf said. "But those reshanool had better stay far from me or I'll teach them what the myth of the food chain really means."

  "Agreed," Bruce said. "And Ambassador Shanol, you and your pod are to stay away from the visitors from the mainland. The first sign of any further conflict and I am going to expel both groups."

  Herzer had already sheathed his knife and now nodded at Edmund, then turned and swam towards shore followed by Bast. As he passed over one of the canyons, Antja and Elayna popped out of a swim-through and Pete and Jackson popped out of another.

  "This sucks!" Pete said angrily. "That damned dolphin-eater turns up and you just get tossed out. It's not like you struck the first blow; he hit you solid."

  "Yeah," Jackson added. "You okay?"

  "I've had worse," Herzer said.

  "I'd noticed the scars," Antja said. "But I hadn't wanted to ask. Or about the hand."

  "Well, I think it's time to tell you all about it," Herzer said. "But not here. Up on shore where fish-face can't come."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Herzer was actually glad to get out of the water. He had been losing weight, too, on the high-protein diet and constant cold. The warm sun of the Isles felt good on his back.

  "After the Fall, I fell in with a guy named Dionys McCanoc," Herzer said as the group dragged itself onto the shore.

  "Met him," Bast said. "Bastard." She sat down behind Herzer and started massaging his neck. "Let me handle the orcas, lover. But if you have to fight one, remember they're really sensitive about their blowholes. Get them by that and it's like holding a man's balls. I mean, in a fight, not, you know . . ."

  "I know," Herzer said, smiling. Bast could make everything a joke, which was just about the only way to live life he decided. "Anyway, McCanoc."

  "Didn't Edmund mention him?" Pete asked, as Jason dragged himself out of the water.

  "This sucks," Jason said, crawling over to the group. "I wanted to stick a spear in that arrogant New Destiny fisker."

  "Didn't we all," Jackson replied. "Bast, that was unbelievable. I never saw you move, you were just there."

  "Bast is an elf," Bast said, then raised a hand to forestall comment on the apparent non sequitur. "Everyone seems to think that elves are human. Not. Elves were constructed from ground up. No haphazard evolution for us. Look, somewhat, human, but are not. Better, stronger, faster, which is a very old joke. But also . . . happier. Less . . . serious than humans. Humans with their short lives always live in the now, which is good in a way. But elves are half the time in Dream, only way to spend a millennia or so. Me, I tend to spend most of my time in the now. Sometimes it hurts. I'll live on when Herzer gets gray and dick goes all flabby and then he dies
. And I'll remember him, as I remember scores, hundreds, of others. And love them all. As long as Bast lives, they live on in one heart," she said, tapping her chest.

  "But Bast is not a human, nor a Changed human. Bast is an elf. And what is impossible, even for most Changed, is normal to elves. Be glad elves so happy. If not, there be no more humans on earth."

  "So you're not a Change race?" Antja asked. "Like the mer or the delphinos?"

  "No," Bast said, shaking her head. "We're a made race, like the dragons. And, like the greater dragons, we have abilities that were, finally, recognized as just too dangerous to let breed unchecked. So most of us retreated to Elfheim and live in Dream."

  "What abilities?" Jackson asked.

  "That is for elves, and Mother and the Council, to know," Bast said with a grin. "But know this, I can take an orca, any single orca and probably more than one, in the water, mask or no mask. I'll give you one: I can hold my breath as long as delphino. Mask is really unnecessary so far."

  "Damn," Jason said.

  "I am as fast as a mer in the water," she added. "And can keep it up as long or longer." She nodded at a rock in the sand by Jackson. "Throw rock."

  "This?" Jackson said, picking it up.

  "Throw. Hard. To hit."

  "I don't want to hit you," Jackson temporized.

  "Won't," Bast said. She waited, leaning on one arm, the other hand languidly at Herzer's side, until Jason threw. She caught the hard-flung rock out of the air and, in turn, tossed it against the bluff so hard it cracked and left half of its mass buried in the limestone.

  She stood up and pointed about a hundred yards down the beach.

  "See big rock?" she asked and took off.

  Her speed was phenomenal, especially since she was running on sand. The sand flew up behind her like a rooster-tail and by the end of the run she was striding nearly five meters at a time, bounding more like a gazelle than anything human. But she slammed to a stop at the end and then began cartwheeling and back flipping nearly as fast back to where the group was sitting with open mouths. She ended in a multiple flip and twirl that had her lowest point no less than two meters off the ground; she had jumped nearly twice her own height into the air.

  "Not human," Bast said, dropping back to a lotus position and not even breathing hard. "Look, somewhat, human, but less human than chimpanzee." She smiled at Herzer. "Will not comment on what that means for mating, morality wise."

  "The elves were created as super-soldiers, by the North American Union," Herzer amplified. "Bast . . ."

  "Bast was created by Nissei Corporation during height of AI war," Bast said. "Is old joke, old even then, 'cheap Japanese knockoff.' " She grinned at the joke. "But not so bad knockoff, no?"

  "Not bad at all," Jason said. "Jesus."

  "Bast, I've got a question," Herzer said. "What was that . . . horrible sound you made when you were holding Shanol."

  "That was the hunting scream of an orca," Jason said, shuddering. "I've heard it before."

  "There are two types of orca," Antja amplified. "There are pods that generally stay in one area and hunt fish. And then there are nomad tribes, which hunt marine mammals. They're practically identical, but the nomads use that . . . sound when they are hunting. And for all they look the same, they're pretty much two distinct subraces of orca. And that sound . . . it's eerie as hell."

  "It is indeed," Bast said. "Often thought that it was original of banshee's cry. But Herzer was explaining some of what Edmund and dolphin-eater were talking about."

  "Yeah, Herzer," Antja said. "I want to know what he said that set you off the first time. Something about Doctor Daneh."

  "As I said, I fell in with Dionys McCanoc," Herzer said, for a moment reliving those days and seeing the house-broad McCanoc as if he were alive. "This is . . . I have to give you the background, sorry. I . . . knew he wasn't the greatest guy in the world. No, I'll be more honest. I'd discovered shortly before the Fall that he was a bug-house nuts bastard. But . . . when I was growing up, I had a genetic problem that screwed up my nerves. I shook all the time, had a hard time speaking. And it was just getting worse and worse. So I didn't have many friends. And when it got worse I ended up with almost none. McCanoc . . . picked up on that and drew me into his circle. Generally as the butt of his jokes. But when I got better, when Dr. Daneh cured me, finally, I still hung around with him. Right up until just before the Fall, when I decided to give him a wide berth."

  "What happened?" Elayna asked, cocking her head to one side.

  "Dionys-fisker set up rape of homunculus," Bast answered. "Little girl homunculus, program to hate and fear sex."

  "And . . . he invited me," Herzer said. "The problem being, as he had realized, I was . . . very tempted." He looked up at the group around him and saw responses ranging from disbelief to anger. "As I said, I have my demons."

  "And very fine demons they are," Bast said, patting him on the leg. "Love it when you let them off leash."

  "Bast!" Antja said.

  "Hey, is fun play rough sometimes," Bast said. "Herzer very gentle lover when wants to, right Elayna?"

  Elayna blushed bright red but nodded.

  "Very nice," was all she said.

  "Everyone demons have," Bast said, looking off to sea. "Question is, do we run demons or demons run us?"

  "Don't get too angry with Herzer," Jason said, looking at Antja. "Unless you've never thought about some of the play that we do. 'Who's my pretty little baby?' with her hair tied up in pigtails?"

  This time it was Antja's turn to blush but she just nodded at Herzer to continue.

  "Anyway, that was when I started avoiding McCanoc. Up until the Fall," Herzer sighed. "I found him, or he found me maybe, shortly after. And . . . we were wandering with a group. No, not even wandering, waiting for something. McCanoc was always talking about his friends coming for him. And then we ran out of food and McCanoc decided that we needed to . . . take some from passersby."

  "Bandits," Jason said.

  "Oh, yes," Herzer replied. "He almost made it sound romantic. If it hadn't been for the constant rain and the hunger. I was thinking more in terms of begging food from them until whatever manna McCanoc expected dropped from heaven. Or, probably, just leaving the group, although McCanoc had said he considered that desertion. But before I could decide, one of the lookouts caught their first passerby. Who happened, by awful coincidence, to be Dr. Daneh."

  "Oh, shit," Pete said. "What did you do?"

  "Well, McCanoc, big-hearted guy that he is, offered me first rape," Herzer said, his face hard and cold. "There were eight of them, McCanoc was armed with a sword, others had knives. I was unarmed. So I did the only thing a true hero would do in the situation; I ran."

  "Damn," Jason said, shaking his head. "Not much else you could do. Except die pointlessly."

  "You didn't tell us about this," Antja said, looking at Rachel. "This was when you were on your way to the town, Raven's Mill?"

  "Yeah," Rachel replied, tightly. "I didn't tell you. It's not something I tell everyone I meet. Even people I like. And . . . it took me a long time to admit it, but Jason's right, there was nothing that Herzer could have done except die and maybe get Mom dead in the process. In a way it took more courage, more sensible courage, to run and try to find a weapon than to stay and die."

  "I guess we both had our secrets," Elayna said, looking at Herzer oddly.

  "Yeah, but it doesn't make it a lot easier in the deeps of the night," Herzer said, his jaw working. "I was looking for a weapon, anything solid, but I got back after they were . . . done. I helped Dr. Daneh, and Rachel, on the way to Raven's Mill and then joined the Raven's Mill military at the first chance I got. I've always been into war games; I used to do enhanced reality before the Fall. But . . . I won't say that my demons weren't on my back about it, either. I'd gotten very good at being angry at that point. I wanted to kill something, to gut something, preferably McCanoc, but anyone like him would do.

  "A few months later, lucky
me, McCanoc turned back up at the head of a small army. We'd been training hard, but we were still outnumbered ten to one and most of the army was Changed, who are no joke to fight. They're strong, aggressive and very hard to kill. But we beat them, mostly by maneuvering them onto fixed positions and slaughtering them; McCanoc was no tactician. In the end, though, he attacked, himself, and he had powered armor and some sort of draining nannite field. I tried to stop him, and got this," he said, holding up the prosthetic, "for my pains."

  "I tried to stop as well," Bast said. "Armor was too tough. Sword, any sword, just bounces off field. I hate powered armor. Unless I'm wearing it."

  "Anyway, Edmund took him out," Herzer said.

  "How?" Jason asked. "Powered armor, nannite field? What the hell did he do, drown him?"

  "Ever hear of Charles the Great of Anarchia?" Herzer asked with a sly grin.

  "Took over Anarchia, oh, a hundred years ago or so?" Jason asked, to a nod. "Ruled in peace for ten years, set up a representational government and left, disappeared?"

  "He didn't disappear," Herzer said. "He took his dead brother's name. Edmund."

  "Holy shit," Jackson said. "You're joking!"

  "Nope, you've been dealing with him every day," Herzer chuckled. "Let's just say that the greatest master-smith in the world was not going to be fighting with unpowered armor and weapons. Bast, how would you take out Duke Edmund?"

  "Strong crossbow," Bast replied seriously. "Two hundred meters, minimum. From behind. Only way be sure to live."

  * * *

  "Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into," Daneh said.

  "That it is, love," Edmund muttered, "that it is."

  They had parked themselves in one of the swim-throughs and now watched the suddenly much more nervous mer moving around in the square as the antenna of crayfish waved at them from just too deep under the ledges to reach.

  "The ship's late," Rachel said.