by Dani Kollin
Everyone laughed. “Honey,” she said, “I love you just the way you are.” There was a chorus of exaggerated “ahs” and a roll or two was thrown at Lee, who protested that as the only man present he was being treated with great injustice. This caused even more dinner rolls to be thrown his way. Then Ashley said something odd. “Maybe we should wait until after the war ends, Lee.”
“What war, Ashley dear?” Augustine cleared her throat. She’d made sure her world was the perfect bastion of peace. “There is no war.”
“Sure there is, Mom,” said Emily almost too cheerily. “You know … The war against the Alliance, don’t you remember?”
“Ogner!” shouted Augustine, using the code word she’d created to end her program. She didn’t know what was going on, but she would not have a war here. She couldn’t even think about it. She didn’t know how to repair one of these things, but she’d find out soon enough or pay through the nose to get it done. Augustine needed her world the way she’d made it. She saw to her great relief that the VR world was beginning to fade away. She was only moments away from waking up cold and naked on the floor of her son’s empty, wretched apartment—in and of itself always a bitter rousing. But something happened … or more precisely didn’t happen.
Instead of waking up in the usual place she found herself strapped into a combat transport filled with UHF marines. The transport was shaking violently and the marines were terrified. Many of them had not belted in properly and were being flung about the compartment being battered senseless and bloody by the ferocity of the shaking.
Augustine saw that she was in a simple environment coverall, barely suited for a five-minute space walk, but somehow the flinging bodies kept on missing her. Everyone seemed to be crying out in fear and panic. All except for a soldier who kept staring at Augustine, seemingly not surprised she was there. He had a strange, almost malevolent look and was oblivious to the terror going on around him. In fact, Augustine would say he appeared to be enjoying it. She was wondering if he was some kind of inbuilt program fail-safe when suddenly she recognized the shrill voice of the woman screaming next to her.
“Emily, Emily!” cried Augustine, shocked. Her daughter was scared stiff. This wasn’t the confident, precocious child Augustine had always known. She was clearly in far over her head. Emily’s eyes were red from crying and her voice was raw. She had a crew cut, but she was covered in sweat and smelled of fear and even, thought Augustine, vomit. It took a moment for Emily to recognize her own mother.
“Mommy,” shrieked Emily, “I don’t want to be here!” The ship shook again, this time even more violently. “Mommy,” Emily managed to yell through her tears, “what’s happening out there? I can’t look.”
Augustine saw a tactical on-up display that could be toggled on. She did so and saw abject hell. The ship she was in was part of an armada of hundreds, even thousands, and they all seemed to be heading toward an elongated asteroid not all that far ahead. Oh Damsah, Augustine realized, it’s Anderson’s Farm. She saw many of the ships around hers exploding and realized her daughter’s transport was flying straight through a minefield and was being pummeled by the remains of other ships, none of which had even gotten close. The ship’s external visual let Augustine see that it was not only the remains of ships they were smashing through to get to the enemy-held asteroid. Thousands of lifeless bodies and limbs floated freely around them as well. But they were still managing to push ahead when the orbital guns of Anderson’s Farm opened fire. The effect on another assault transport a mere hundred yards in front of theirs was impossibly worse than what she’d already seen. A blinding white flash of light struck the transport head-on, tore right through the back, and kept on going. It looked as if the blast had pulled the ship inside out like some metallic sock taken off too quickly, but it was a sock made of metal, plastic, flesh, bone, and blood.
Augustine couldn’t watch anymore. She snapped off the display.
“Mommy,” Emily sobbed, “I don’t want majority anymore; I just want to go home. Can’t we go home? Please, I’ll never complain about being a penny again.”
“I’ll try to get you out of here, baby,” said Augustine. “Mommy’s here, baby … Mommy’s here.”
Emily grabbed her mother’s arm. “Mom, we don’t know what we’re doing. They were supposed to give us six months of training; we only got two! None of us know what we’re doing … don’t even know how to strap in … aren’t over space sickness.” Almost on cue a man near her started puking and this caused other people, including Augustine, to puke as well. It was obvious that the others had gone through the motions often, as almost nothing came out. She could see that many of the marines were so useless that they wouldn’t be able to move even if the ship had managed to land somewhere. Augustine felt the transport fire off a grappling line from below the deck. The transport had locked onto the spinning asteroid and was now pulling herself toward the surface. As she slowly made her way down, she took multiple hits from defensive fire below and with each hit was made to swing wildly on her tether. After a few minutes the transport hit the ground, shuddering with a massive thud.
The marines’ visors automatically crashed down and the air, vomit, piss, and blood were sucked out of the compartment. A crackled voice came over the comm to let them know that they’d successfully landed on Anderson’s Farm and they were to proceed to their assigned attack area. They felt gravity return, but instead of it pulling them toward the floor it was pulling them up toward the ceiling. Some of the marines looked around in confusion. The ship had attached to the outside of a spinning asteroid and so had assumed its centrifugal gravity. Some of the marines released their restraints only to fly with blinding speed into the ceiling. Then the ship started to shudder again.
“We’re under attack!” yelled the sergeant. “Get out or we’ll be killed in this can!”
Augustine, forgetting she was in VR, started yelling at her still-strapped-in daughter, “Get out, baby; please get out.” Suddenly a wide hole was blown into the side of the ship and three more figures expertly rappelled in—but they were not marines. They moved as one and used the gyro rockets on their suits to stabilize themselves as each took up position in the crippled assault transport.
“Listen up, gravity dogs,” shouted one of the assault miners. “We’re the Alliance and you’re on our rock. Surrender now; this is your one chance.”
Oh, thank Damsah, thought Augustine. But someone, through either stupidity or knee-jerk fear, fired off a round while still strapped in their seat. “No!” screamed Augustine, but the Alliance miners were not taking chances and started to shoot with expert precision at every single person in the transport. They moved quickly after each shot, never being in the same place for one second. They also never once got in one another’s line of fire and they never seemed to miss. Augustine realized to send her daughter against people this well trained was nothing short of murder.
“Mommy,” pleaded Emily, knowing what was about to happen, “take me home.” An explosive round attached itself to Emily’s space suit and then proceeded to blast a large hole, causing Emily’s air, blood, and guts to pour out from her now-lifeless body. Augustine could not hear anything as she screamed and cried, trying to unstrap herself and save her daughter. Then Augustine felt a bullet smash into her own suit and explode. The pain was excruciating, but then, thank Damsah, she felt nothing.
Augustine came to crying through frenzied gasps of air. She’d had no idea Emily’s death had been so hideous. She should have done more. But now she was fully awake again. She saw that she was in full battle armor with the visor down. She was in the same transport and the display was toggled on. It was the same damned asteroid they were heading for. But she saw that it was not the same. The asteroid was obviously much damaged and the debris field they were flying through almost seemed solid, it was so thick. The inside of the assault ship was not filled with the same panic as before. These marines were calm and they seemed to be checking their weapons and
quietly talking to one another even though the outside was filled with the same thunderous pounding and destruction as before.
Then she saw the two marines sitting across from her. It was her daughter Sally and ex-husband, Thomas. They looked so much alike. She could also see how much love her ex had for their daughter. It was at that moment that Augustine realized that it had been her daughter who’d signed up first and that Thomas had immediately followed the foolish, vengeful child to look after her. Augustine tried calling out to them but with the visor down wasn’t able to do anything but listen.
“Hey, Cookie,” Thomas said, calling Sally by his nickname for her, “don’t forget we may come in upside down. Do you remember how to detach and flip?”
“Yes, Dad,” she groaned. “You only made me practice it a dozen times … yesterday. Stop worrying.”
“That’s Corporal Dad to you, Private Daughter, and considering what happened at the last rock we took, I don’t think you should complain about practice.”
“Dad, that is so unfair!” she protested. “I saved your life there.” It broke Augustine’s heart to hear her daughter because it sounded so much like her. Even in battle armor with the hard look that only experience can give you, with her dad she was still very much a teenage daughter arguing with her father.
“Only after I did a proper flip from the harness and saved yours,” he chastised.
“You’re just not going to let me forget that, are you?”
Thomas pointed to the extra stripe on his armor. “Corporal.”
“Fine, Corporal Daddy. I know how to flip from the harness. I’ve practiced it so much I can do it forward or backward. I could do a double flip in armor and fire from a prone position, I am so good at the flippin’ flip!”
Thomas smiled in contentment. “That’s all I wanted to know.”
Their transport shook violently as they got hit by pieces of a sister ship, meaning none of that transport’s supremely trained marines would ever get a chance to fight for the UHF.
Sally was suddenly stone-faced. “This is where Emily died.”
“I know, Cookie,” said her father, “but it won’t happen to us.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Thomas put his hand over his daughter’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Because we’re so much better trained than the marines were at the first battle. Because we have actual battle experience and none of those poor bastards thrown in back then did. And most important of all …” He paused until she looked up with a flash of annoyance.
“And what, Daddy?”
“I’m your father and I have not given you permission to die. You may think you’re an adult and all grown up, but I’ll find a way to ground you if you make me.”
“OK, and thank you, Daddy.”
“You’re welcome, Cookie.”
Augustine looked around, wondering what the other marines made of a scene she couldn’t possibly imagine taking place on something so rough-and-tumble as a marine assault transport in the heat of battle. But what she saw was that the other marines seemed to be giving the father and daughter their space. No comments were directed to them while they were having their heart-to-heart, and suddenly Augustine realized that this group was very protective of her ex-husband and her daughter. Augustine realized her ex and her daughter had a relationship she could never hope to understand or match. All her foolish dreams in VR of having a closer relationship with Sally than Sally had had with her dad now seemed hopelessly pathetic. It made Augustine feel lonely in a way she couldn’t begin to describe even as she took some solace in how lucky her daughter had been to have a father like him. Augustine tried to remember why they’d divorced in the first place, but all of the reasons that seemed to make so much sense back then now seemed petty and almost heartless when she saw what devotion this man had shown to his family.
“Forty-five seconds to landing!” was barked over the comm.
Augustine felt the familiar tug of the grapple pulling the transport slowly to the surface.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, Cookie?”
“I don’t want Holly or Lee to join the military.”
“Don’t worry, Cookie. Your mom and I may have had our differences, but I know this: She will not allow anything to happen to your sister and brother. Now look sharp, Private.”
She took on a hard look. “Yes, Corporal.”
The ship hit the asteroid and locked onto its surface. The second the lock was secure the marines released their harnesses as one and dropped, flipping upside down to end up crouching the right way up. The door burst open and the nearest marines fired hooked wires into the asteroid and then began pulling themselves onto the surface. As soon as they were secure they covered the next group out. Augustine was filled with pride as she saw how gracefully her daughter did her job, and was comforted by how her ex-husband watched over Sally. Then the world turned white and everything, including Augustine’s family and herself, burned. The searing pain and putrid smell of charred flesh was more intense and even more excruciating than the last death. But like the first, this one didn’t last long either. However, the grief did.
Augustine never wanted to wake up again, but her vision cleared and she saw she was on another ship. She knew where she was. She knew what would happen. She was in the engineering section of Admiral Tully’s flagship and it was the Battle of Jupiter’s Eye. She saw Holly and begged her to get to an escape pod, but it did no good. She was a little surprised to see her mom, but not shocked. Holly assured her mom that she’d be safe and if she could “please take a seat.” It was true that there was a battle about to be fought and J. D. Black had surprised the admiral, but Holly was certain they could fight the Alliance now that it was ship-to-ship and no tricks.
No matter how much Augustine pleaded, she could not get her daughter to understand. Holly refused to leave her ship and her crewmates. Augustine stayed until the end, when the hull burst apart like tissue paper and the prow of J. D. Black’s stolen War Prize tore through and smashed into her daughter and herself, turning both into pulverized jelly instantly.
Augustine was barely able to move. Her body hurt and her mind could not take much more. She knew she was somewhere but didn’t care anymore. She refused to open her eyes.
“Hey, Mom.”
She opened her eyes instantly at the familiarity of the voice. It was Lee. But he looked so different. He seemed taller and more confident. It struck her how much like his father and sister Sally he looked. It was not so much a physical appearance, though there was that too, but the easy, confident manner he had. She was on the bunk in a ship. But it was a quiet ship and there was no battle going on anywhere. Her son was sitting in a chair with its back reversed, his arms resting comfortably on the chair’s spine.
“You looked like you could use some rest,” he said. “I didn’t want to wake you.”
“Oh, Lee, you look so good. How are you?”
“Well, I’m pissed, Mom. My buddies are still fighting this war and I have to go home because of a note from Mommy.” He sighed. “I love you, Mom, and I know how much losing Emily, Sally, and Holly hurt.”
“I miss your dad, too.”
“Then why’d you leave him?”
“I don’t know anymore. You’re right; I shouldn’t have gotten you transferred from your unit. It was stupid and desperate and selfish.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear you admit it at least.” Her son laughed and some of the buoyant humor returned. “You know this is going to sound weird, but one of the reasons I didn’t want to leave is that I had a dream that if I wanted to survive the war I’d need to stay at the front. It was a silly dream, but because of it I was never afraid. Nothing ever happened to me either. Lost a lot of friends, but me?” he said, looking at himself. “Not a scratch.”
“Lee,” pleaded Augustine, “listen to me: You have to get off the ship. I know it sounds crazy, but you have to get off.”
“It’s weird,” he answered, not panicking
at all, “but I don’t think it sounds crazy. Something’s going to go wrong, isn’t it?”
“Lee, oh, my baby,” she said through tears, “the ship’s going to blow up, something to do with containing the fusion reactor, too many ships, not enough safety checks or trained personnel. Just please go to the escape craft.”
Lee smiled sadly. “Mom, there are no escape craft. This is a basic cheap-built transport. All it has are environment bubbles with a transponder. But if you’re right it won’t matter if we’re in the ship or floating next to it. Either way we’ll be dead when it blows.”
Augustine got up and stumbled to her son, who left the chair to hold her. “I’m so sorry, Lee; I’m so sorry; please forgive me; please tell me you forgive me, Lee.”
“Mom, I’m not sure if …” He paused. “What’s that noise?” There was a loud rumble, and then a blinding flash. The last thing Augustine ever remembered was pleading with her phantom son for a forgiveness she would never be able to obtain.
Al suddenly reappeared next to the scout. He had the look of a rabid dog set to pounce. “What happened? Why am I back here?”
The scout checked the readings on the helmet. “She’s dead, sir. Wasn’t that the point?”
Al was shocked. He’d known the human was going to die the moment he’d entered her reality. But he’d planned on a much longer experiment. Though influencing her VR within the construct of her son’s apartment was doable, it certainly wasn’t preferable. She’d had the place calibrated to her brain waves and designed to her specifications. Manipulating that type of environment required much more work on Al’s part. Fortunately, it had been pathetically easy to get her to cancel out of the program and enter constructs of his own imagination. After that she was all his.
“How can she be dead?” he said, flabbergasted. “Are they really that fragile?”
“You’d be surprised, sir. I was observing. I must say, masterful work. Where did you come up with such creative ways to apply stress?”