by Isaac Hooke
"I disagree. In here it's all the same to the mind. Ever since we got rid of the computer virus, and eliminated the 'gol mind disease,' the only way I can tell the difference between a gol and a human is by the symbols on the chests of the gols. And the presence of the collars on the humans. The AIs are complex enough to be indistinguishable from actual human beings. No, this Amoch wants something more than power. I think he really believes he's helping humanity. That he's setting these people free."
"So we have a power-hungry, self-righteous fanatic who thinks he's the savior of humanity on our hands?"
Ari pressed her lips together. "Sounds about right. Basically the worst kind of fanatic."
"Why would he want to trap you in the system?" Tanner said.
"Because he knows it reduces my effectiveness. I can't just jump to any city I want anymore. I have to take the portal hops."
"But that's about all trapping you here does," Tanner argued. "You can still issue instructions in near real-time to the Children, as long as you have at least one Keeper with you whom you can send out. You're still in command, if by proxy."
"Very true," Ari said. "But trapping me here also means I'm at his mercy. He knows I'm stuck on the Inside. He could have someone watching and following me at all times. Maybe one of the birds Jeremy was so fond of using as spies." She searched the smoking ruins of the nearby trees but saw no sign of any ravens.
"Watching you," Tanner said. "Why?"
"Biding his time," Ari explained. "Waiting for that moment when I prove too much of a thorn in his side, that moment when he finally decides to kill me."
15
Ari was surveying the damage to Red Mesa with Tanner and helping the Users flush out the last lightning wielder hold-outs when a new Keeper rushed to join her.
"What is it now?" Ari asked warily.
"I have brought a gift," the Keeper said. He placed a small steel ball onto an intact area of cobblestone. The item was quickly absorbed into the stone: a tracker.
A moment later a pyramidal pile of escutcheons appeared above the spot. On the shields was embossed a common emblem: a raised hand deflecting a lightning bolt.
Ari felt one of her eyebrows rise. "You finally made the lightning shields?"
"We finally made the lightning shields. They deflect flame, too."
"Now we just have to find a place to try these out," Ari told Tanner as she collected a shield. She turned toward the Keeper. "Distribute these to the others."
Ari proceeded through the ruins with Tanner. Renna and Jan joined them, and they made an odd quartet: Renna in her skin-tight outfit and cape, Jan in his farmer's clothes, Tanner in a similar outfit, and Ari in loose-fitting black utilities she had procured from a seamstress. The four carried their shields in one hand and their fire swords in the other. All save for Jan, who in place of a sword wore recently refreshed lightning rings.
When they walked into a deserted square whose buildings were mostly intact, the ambush came.
Lightning erupted from all sides. Ari, Tanner and Renna ducked behind their shields but Jan proved too slow and was struck.
"Back to back!" Ari shouted.
The three survivors pressed their backs to one another and crouched, hiding behind their shields as the lightning came in.
"You wanted to try these shields out so badly?" Tanner said. "Careful what you wish for..."
"I'm going to draw the lightning away from you two," Ari said. "When I do it, step into the open and attack."
"Lightning rod time?" Tanner asked.
"Lightning rod time." Ari agreed. She focused her attention on the sword, pouring vitra into it.
She raised the weapon to draw the next electrical strike. To her surprise the incoming tines completely ignored the sword, instead striking the shield and the ground around her.
"It's not working!" Ari said. "You two try."
Tanner and Renna attempted the defense in turn. The incoming bolts similarly ignored their uplifted swords.
"Amoch must have changed something in the system!" Tanner said.
"Damn it," Ari exclaimed.
During a break in the attack, Ari peered beyond the edge of her shield and unleashed flame toward one of the rooftops. An attacker toppled over the edge, his body on fire as he struck the cobblestone with a sickly thud.
Lightning came in a moment later from another position nearby, forcing Ari to duck.
She heard the eruption of flames behind her as Tanner and Renna similarly attacked targets.
"There are too many of them!" Tanner said. "We have to retreat!"
"We stay," Ari returned. "Too dangerous to move. Let them exhaust the charges on their lightning rings."
"That could be quite a while," Tanner said.
And so they holed-up there in the center of the square, waiting out their opponents. Ari had the trio edge toward a collapsed fruit stand, which they used for further cover. The lightning attacks continued, but so far the shields held.
She noticed motion on the rooftops and realized the attackers were leaping from building to building. She thought they were trying to gather in one place, perhaps to combine their attacks.
She unleashed fire at them, taking down two men before she was forced to duck behind her shield once more.
She heard a yelp from one of the rooftops and a man plunged to the ground; he clutched a bloody wound in his stomach.
"Who did that?" Ari said.
"Wasn't me," Tanner responded.
"Nor me," Renna said.
"Looks like we have a white knight helping us," Ari commented.
Several forks of lightning struck the rooftop area where the dead man had fallen from. A gurgling scream filled the air.
"I think they got our knight," Tanner said.
Several moments of quietude passed.
"You think they gave up and left?" Renna asked.
"No," Ari said. "They're planning on waiting us out." She lifted her head and shouted: "We're going to stay here all day, assholes!"
In response, the worst lightning barrage she had experienced yet was thrown from those rooftops. Most of the attackers had gathered in one spot by then, and they concentrated their fire on her. They weren't aiming for the shield. Instead their lighting chewed up the cobblestone in front of her.
Ari quickly lost her balance and fell into the resultant crater.
"Ari!" Tanner shouted.
She narrowly rolled onto her back and deflected the lightning that came in. She curled up her legs, hiding behind the shield—the only object between her and oblivion.
Tanner attempted to come to her but lightning shot out, pinning him in place behind the fruit stand.
"Stay there!" Ari told him. She could see the heads of other attackers on the rooftop above him. "They've left a few men behind. They'll strike you in the back the moment you leave cover."
A yelp arose. One of the attackers fell from the rooftop. An instant later another attacker in the same area was sent flying into the air, his body on fire.
"Looks like our white knight survived after all," Ari told Tanner.
Lightning erupted in droves, none of it aimed at the trio.
Tanner and Renna used the diversion to strike at the attackers with flames. Ari meanwhile leapt to her feet and rejoined them behind the stand.
The lightning focused on them a few seconds later.
"Pinned once more," Tanner said. "So much for your white knight."
"Don't rule him out yet," Ari said.
"Who do you think it is?" Renna asked. "Stanson, maybe?"
"No, he wouldn't come in," Ari said. "I gave him strict orders to remain on the Outside."
"What about Briar?" Tanner said.
Ari laughed. "I don't think he has the heart for this sort of work."
"You would be surprised," Tanner said. "He proved himself when we faced One."
Lightning struck just above her head, forcing Ari to duck.
"Well, whoever he is, let's hope he can help us even
the odds."
More screams came, followed by bodies alternately pierced and burning tumbling from the rooftops.
In moments the square was completely quiet.
Ari scanned the rooftops but didn't see a soul.
"Hello!" Ari said. "Show yourself!"
There was another scream, then a final man was sent flying into the square. His burning body dropped right in front of Ari.
She heard a thud as someone landed on the cobblestone behind the stand. Then the crunch of boots as the individual approached.
"What if he's not on our side?" Tanner said.
"Be ready," Ari told him. She stirred the vitra in her sword.
A man stepped around the collapsed fruit stand. He had a glowing red fire sword resting over one shoulder and seemed oblivious to the searing heat that was no doubt emanating from the weapon. He wore a leather jerkin clasped over a purple silk shirt with ruffled sleeves—the kind nobles favored. His black pantaloons flared above the ankles where they were tucked into black boots. A red bandanna wrapped his head.
As for his face, well, he had sharp, intelligent eyes framed by thick brows. A hooked nose bent very slightly over a mustache and goatee. He was attractive in a roguish way. She'd never seen him before.
"My, but you are a sight for sore eyes," the man said.
"Who are you?" Ari asked. She kept the tip of her blade pointed at the man. She was more than ready to unleash the pent-up flames.
The stranger crooked a grin. "I'm Hoodwink, I am."
Epilogue
In an abandoned corner of Red Mesa, far from any fighting, the ruins of a collapsed building stirred.
A three-fingered fist punched through the wood. The skin was hued red. The talons black.
Another hand emerged, and a third. A fourth. The creature hauled itself from the mess, crudely birthing itself into the street.
It stood and flexed its four upper limbs. It towered over its surroundings.
It touched its naked torso and its face in a probing, exploratory manner, as if it had forgotten what it felt like to have a body. It examined its hands and appeared momentarily surprised: it had expected a different hue to the skin than red, the color of blood. Though that color was suiting, it supposed.
It looked at its belt and regarded the four swords scabbarded there. Its gaze moved downward, past the loincloth, and the red legs muscled like a bull, to the feet and the incongruous fur-topped boots it wore. Those boots might have been appropriate in colder weather, but not the current environment. Not that temperature affected the creature in any way.
It waded through the ruins toward the clear portion of the street, the wood splintering and the stone crumbling underfoot.
It reviewed its internal instructions: seek out the krub-gols who called themselves Keepers and eliminate them one by one. The instructions were an annoyance, because there was only one being it wished to terminate: the krub-gol known as Ari Flanners. She had bested the creature once, long ago. That was something it could not forgive. It swore that when its task was done it would avenge itself on Ari. The others would die quickly, but hers would be a slow, painful death.
The creature stepped into the street and made its way toward the flows of vitra it detected. After crossing four avenues it heard the sounds of battle. Swords clanged. Lightning exploded.
A streak of flame abruptly flew skyward above the rooftops: it was sourced from an adjacent street.
The creature grinned in sadistic delight. Already it had found a Keeper.
It withdrew its four swords at the same time in a deadly smooth motion.
Brute had been reborn.
Part II
Walls of Steel
16
A series of clicks and groans awakened Graol.
His twenty-four eyes focused on the liquid environment, taking in visual information from every direction at once, giving him three hundred and sixty degree eyesight. There wasn't much to see.
He floated in the tight compartment of the life craft that had ejected from the mothership when it exploded. There was no room to swim anywhere. A fleshy umbilical linked him to the local life support system. A small portal near his torso provided a view of outer space beyond.
He squeezed his torso in the Satori equivalent of a sigh. He had been enjoying a pleasant mind dream, living in a palace of coralline with a harem of tentacled females fulfilling his every desire. He had almost forgotten about the real world, and that he had ever been human. And yet, he glimpsed hints of his humanity even in the dream. Sometimes, when he would look out past the coralline walls into the bright ocean, he would remember the faces of Ari, Tanner, Stanson and the others. He would see his own reflection and remember his human name: Hoodwink. But then his favorite mate would wrap her tentacles around him in pleasurable bliss and the memories would vanish.
The dream was undoubtedly part of the conditioning performed by the local AI, in what the Satori called Return therapy. It was supposed to help an alien quadmind forget the years of immersion spent in a human surrogate. The dream was just one part of the therapy, but a potent one. Normally it was used in the latter stages of the process, however: he could only imagine how the other surrogates involved in the mission must have felt, awakened after all those years as human beings to bodies that were entirely foreign to them. The alien dream world wouldn't have helped them in the least. One of those surrogates was a human named Jeremy, who had programmed the computer virus that had nearly destroyed the human colony ship on Ganymede. Jeremy's alien name was Javiol. He was very likely insane at the moment.
Graol wasn't entirely certain about his own sanity. Now that he was awake, his humanity had reasserted itself stronger than ever. He had been human far too long for his sense of self to change so quickly. He didn't think he would ever truly be Satori again. He wanted to close his eyes, wanted to forget what he was, but his lidless vision organs allowed him no such luxury.
He flexed his body, pressing against the extents of the compartment. Before he had gone into hibernation, four of his eyes had been crushed, yellow blood had seeped from his lower appendages, and his torso had bled black ink. Apparently all of those injuries had regenerated during the journey. The Satori body was remarkably resilient.
The pops and high-pitched moans came again, transmitting directly into his quadmind. It took a moment for him to understand the meaning.
"Nearing Earth colony."
It could be only the local AI of the life craft. For a moment he considered overriding the nav controls: he was afraid of returning. But the time for course changes had long passed. If he had wanted to remain in orbit above Ganymede, he should have done so before entering hibernation. He couldn't simply fly back to the moon, not anymore, at least not without attracting unwanted attention. Besides, without a surrogate body, he had no means to interact with the humans. There simply was no way for him to go back.
He reached out, searching for other quadminds. He found several. The overall sentiment seemed to be one of confusion, though there was also much fear. Most of the Satori colonists wouldn't have awakened when Graol had arranged for the destruction of the mothership. It must have come as an unpleasant surprise to be unceremoniously hauled from their dreams by the AIs only to find themselves trapped inside small life crafts on the way back to Earth. The awakening would be even worse for the lower classes, who were packed into the crafts eight at a time. Not like Graol, who had one all to himself.
Through the portal, he watched the green and white ball of Earth grow until it consumed the view. He spotted a few small Satori vessels in orbit, but was troubled when he saw another, far larger vessel.
It looked like a massive saucer joined to an inverted cone. Smaller rectangular sections protruded from the saucer, while canals crisscrossed the cone. At the bottom tip, pipes of varying heights vented black mist.
That ship hadn't been there two hundred years ago. The Satori had been busy: they'd built another mothership. Had the pod decided to move on to a diffe
rent part of the galaxy already, in search of a new species to extinguish? If so, they would undoubtedly swing past Ganymede to finish the last remnants of humanity.
The outside was swallowed in bright orange as the craft began reentry. Graol was momentarily jostled about in the liquid. Then the portal cleared and he was through.
The craft approached one of the greenish-tinged oceans. The surface came up faster than he expected, and when the vehicle struck, his body was jerked about as the inertial compensators struggled to absorb the blow.
The outside quickly became dark. Several moments passed. He perceived only the tight, mostly featureless confines of the craft around him, dimly lit by the algal glow of his own body. The portal remained a black hole in the side of the craft, the waiting darkness impenetrable, suffocating. Graol experienced a sudden moment of claustrophobia. He doused the fear by remembering Ari, Tanner and the others. He missed them terribly, and hoped they fared well.
Static constellations of light began to float past in the distance. He couldn't tell if they were Satori or other alien species. Those lights momentarily faded as the craft passed through a seething cloud of blackness; when it emerged, he began to see hints of the massive structures of coralline that were around him. Slowly, the ocean outside brightened. The craft had entered a massive underwater valley.
He spotted pods of the Xeviathi slave class, the great iridescent gill-whales. Large, fleshy gills lined their baleen-jawed heads. Xeviathi were engineered to have no consciousness of their own. Every whale that Graol saw out there served as a surrogate, housing the consciousness of a Satori master.
As the valley became a complex series of tunnels and caverns carved into the alien coral, Graol spotted some satoroids—robots that vaguely resembled Satori with their metallic tentacles and immobile torsos, though they possessed a spinning rotor in the place of a tail. They also could serve as surrogates, but mostly they were the direct embodiment of a central AI, termed The Shell, allowing said AI to interact with the oceanic environment. For that reason the satoroids were called the Servants of The Shell.