by C. Gockel
He plundered his databases. Cutting off communications to the outside was what fascist regimes did. But in successful, long running campaigns of population control, civilians were held in check by propaganda.
Soy milk and peanut butter still in hand, he strode to the living room. It was decorated in rustic chic. There were the wood-paneled walls, recessed lighting in the ceiling, a rug under a chest that passed for a coffee table, and a blue couch. Everything was as he remembered it, and yet it was still dream-like—something was missing.
Shaking off his unease, he went to the trunk and popped it open. He pulled out an ancient-looking device—a chunky flat box the width of both his hands and about three centimeters thick. It was an all-frequency receiver, tuned to the antenna on the roof. His parents kept it around for emergencies. He flipped open the device like a book. On one side was a screen, on the other was a series of buttons with worn letters and numbers on them. He pressed a button that had a barely discernible symbol, and the device—a “laptop,” his father had called it—sprang to life. Or at least it lit up. It took a frustrating few seconds for a menu to appear. James touched the screen and a communications app opened. After a few more touches, the screen displayed a man with too-symmetrical Euro-Afro-Asian features in a neat Luddeccean Green high-necked suit. “Greetings, Luddecceans, this is Bob Wang in the Briefing Room. I have good news and bad news tonight. The good news is that the war with the aliens is going well. We have shut down the entire ethernet network above Luddeccea that was being used by the devil-invaders to spread misleading propaganda.”
James’s eyebrows rose. Aliens? Devil-invaders? That seemed about as far-fetched as archangels.
Dipping his chin, Bob looked directly into the camera. “The bad news is that a dangerous alien sympathizer has escaped from the secure detention center.”
The word “sympathizer” rang in his mind. An image of Noa in her Fleet uniform burned through James’s visual cortex. The image in his mind looked nothing like the holo of Noa that sprang up beside Bob. In it, she appeared skeletal, with dark circles under her eyes, and had mangy, almost non-existent hair.
On the screen, Bob continued. “This is Noa Sato. She escaped detention with alien assistance.”
James turned up the volume with a few keystrokes. Were they calling him an alien, or referring to some other assistance she’d received before he’d run into her?
“The authorities have secured the escape route, and it won’t be used again; but the escapee is now at large in the Northwest Province.”
“Noa Sato is armed and considered extremely dangerous,” Bob Wang said. “If you see her, report her to authorities at once via the new landline network.”
Bob waved a hand. “And now we’ll take questions from civilians in our studio.” The camera shifted to a man standing next to some bright studio lights. He was of average build and appearance, dressed in rough attire. “I’m Jorge Mendoza,” the new man said. “I’m a farmer in the Southwest Province. How do we know an alien if we see one?”
Bob turned back to the main camera and Mr. Mendoza was no longer on the screen. “Well, Mr. Mendoza, that is the truly duplicitous nature of the alien scourge we are up against. It cannot be seen. The alien menaces that infiltrated our time gate and satellites are beings of pure energy, much like the djinn in the Final Book. They almost went undetected. They are capable of seizing and controlling augmented humans.”
James rocked back in his seat … He hadn’t run into Noa. He’d found her. Deliberately. Almost as though compelled … as though he’d had no choice.
Bob took a step closer to the camera. Hands raised to chest level, fingertips together, Bob said, “That is why it is important that you shut off your neural interfaces, lest the djinn hijack your free will, or make you a carrier and responsible for alien assimilation.” Tilting his head, tone conversational, he added, “But not to worry. With your neural interfaces inactive, you are immune to alien influence. All the information you need can be obtained at your local authority and this station. Landlines will be available to all households soon.”
Noa’s voice cracked behind James. “What?” Twisting around on the couch, James saw her in the door frame wearing a pair of flannel pajamas. He blinked. They were his father’s flannel pajamas—his father had let them hang on the back of the bathroom door. There was a new packet of soup in her hand. Waving the soup, the Commander exclaimed, “That was a load of lizzar excrement!”
James stared at her. Not looking at him, she glared at the screen. In a voice several decibels too loud she said, “I’m on more alien subcommittees than I can count on two hands and I can tell you all the top-secret information we have on sentient galaxy traveling ‘energy beings.’” Noa huffed, her nostrils flaring.
James blinked. “You can?”
Noa waved her hands. “Yes! Because there are no aliens! None! Just a whole lot on non-sentient, stupid, heat guzzling, sunlight swilling, and H2O-choking blue-green algae-like organisms.”
Her tirade was oddly comforting. Of course the Luddecceans were being crazy. There were no alien djinn-like creatures hell-bent on controlling humans through their neural interfaces … He knew this like he knew Noa’s name … and when he thought about it, he realized it was so unlikely it was absurd. Humans themselves couldn’t control other humans through their neural interfaces, or even lower life forms. He had a grainy memory of trying to control a cockroach through an interface in a seventh-grade science experiment. It had worked for a little while, but the cockroach had eventually regained control of its tiny brain and started resisting James’s and his partner’s input. Human brains were much more complex than cockroach neural networks. There were neural interface viruses that occasionally snuck by ethernet scrubbers—but none had caused massive epidemics of remote control—just massive epidemics of headaches.
The screen flashed, catching his attention. James turned back to find an advertisement for non-ethernet dependent washing machines. A tiny row of text at the bottom of the screen advertised that a romantic comedy was playing next. He flipped the device back to the menu.
Noa walked over and sat down on the couch. “What were we just watching? Some sort of two-dimensional holo?”
“The frequency was in between the 54 and 216 MHZ range.”
“Which is?” Noa said, bending her head to suck some soup from the packet.
“Television … TV,” James said, referring to the devices that in the past had used those frequencies.
One of Noa’s eyebrows shot up and her lips pursed. “Speak in Basic, buddy.”
James tried to formulate a succinct explanation, and settled on, “A two-dimensional holo.” He adjusted the laptop on his knees. “How much did you hear?”
Noa sagged down at the opposite end of the sofa. “Enough to know that my guardian angel is apparently an alien, and I am an alien sympathizer.”
James suddenly sensed that the laptop was about to fall off his thighs and moved his hands to stabilize it. He felt his nanos jump as he ran his hands over the cool plastic. The device was not unbalanced. “All the talk of demons, djinn, and devils ...”
Noa made a sound like, “Pfft.” His eyes slid to her and she said, “Political and public types here are always putting their speeches into ‘god’ speak. They don’t really believe it.” She winced. “Well, maybe some of the political and public types do, and a large portion of the populace.” Noa shrugged. “This isn’t like Earth. It’s a very religious place … in some ways it’s a good thing.”
Leaning back, Noa put a hand over her eyes. “Solar cores … since before the Luddecceans founded the original colony on this planet, they have been railing against neural networks, and augmentation, and the search for non-human sentience.” This time her voice was softer. Tired. Parting the fingers of her hand, she peered at him and gave a tight smile. “Now they’ve managed to combine everything they hate in order to scare the populace and gain control.” For a long moment she was quiet. “And you’re caugh
t in the middle … I’m sorry.”
James’s brows rose.
“This is my home world.” Noa sighed. “I sort of feel responsible for their craziness.”
“Hmmm ...” was all he could manage. He suddenly knew what was missing from his memories of this cottage. He didn’t remember the smells—the pungent scent of the wood floor and paneling, the natural fiber of the rug that was thrown in front of the couch, the cold ticklish fragrance of stone and ash in the fireplace. And the reason he knew that was missing was because with Noa so close he found himself inhaling the scent of soap, wet hair, and her. She was familiar, and good. It made him feel … hope, anticipation … and the urge to pull her onto his lap. The last realization made him draw back. She was visibly unwell. Her skin was stretched tight across her cheeks and had an unhealthy tinge to it; her body was skeletal, her hair unkempt. Aside from that, she wasn’t his normal type: tastefully augmented, civilized, quiet, erudite …
Noa’s hand slipped from her face and dropped over the edge of the couch. Her eyelids slipped closed. From the rate of her breathing, James realized she was asleep. There was a raspy quality to it but it was steady and sure. He watched her for a few minutes, and then retrieved a blanket from the trunk. He draped it over her and her body relaxed. As she relaxed, he found he did, too. He turned the “television” back on and “surfed” the channels, the steady gentle rasp of Noa’s breathing giving him the same peace he’d had when she’d been asleep in his arms.
And then the peace abruptly shattered.
Chapter Four
Noa’s back was pressed against a wall. Timothy was leaning into her, his lips meeting hers. A bright light shone behind his head, and somewhere Kenji was screaming. In the twisted logic of dreams, Noa could see her brother, head bent, at the same interrogation table she’d been at, but this time they were using the pliers. She knew it was a dream—a nightmare—but she screamed, “Kenji!”
Her own voice woke her. Her ribs ached with the force of her breathing, and she felt soft cushions behind her back. She found herself staring at Tim. She screamed again, her legs bunching beneath her and pushing her backward. Tim reached toward her, lips parted, his eyes soft and worried. The expression was familiar, but his skin gave him away. It was nearly the same shade as Timothy’s … except that it didn’t change. Timothy was so expressive that even his skin betrayed his feelings. He’d flush when he was worried or happy, turn completely scarlet when laughing, or when he was angry, or in the heat of passion. The not-Timothy had a boxy contraption on his legs. “I think you were dreaming … about someone named Kenji?” he said quietly, carefully, in his highbrow Earther accent.
And it struck her—he, the not-Timothy, wasn’t a dream. She sagged into the cushion, recent events coming back to her. “My brother,” she said. “They’ve got him, too.” She bit her lip. She had to save him. And then she remembered Ashley and everyone else at the camp. She had to save them all.
From the “television” came the tinny sound of, “Update from the Briefing Room. The rebels in the Northwest Province have almost been neutralized.”
Noa huffed softly. “Well, that’s a load of lizzar droppings.”
James’s eyes slipped back to the screen. He put a hand beneath his chin and then self-consciously touched the edges of his lips. He’d said they were numb earlier … maybe they still were.
“It’s difficult to say.” He shifted in his seat. “It might be true, or may just be propaganda to dissuade others from going to the Northwest.”
“It’s propaganda,” Noa said confidently. “The Northwest has been home to a lawless element since the third-wave settlers arrived. The mountains there are filled with caves. Even dropping a nuclear bomb on the region wouldn’t take out the rebels.” She frowned. “Although, I wouldn’t call them rebels, so much as bandits.”
Eyes on the screen, she said, “We might go to the Northwest … there have to be some dissidents making their way there.” Among them she might find someone skilled at hacking into data. She might be able to find where Kenji was held and alert the population about the camps via the landlines Bob Wang had mentioned.
“Do you think a landline could sync up with the population files somehow?” As she asked the question aloud, she tried to access the ethernet for information—and failed. She immediately sent a query to her own data files, but drew a blank.
“A landline could be used for data access,” James said. “The original internet utilized landlines.”
Noa blinked at him.
“The internet was the precursor to the ethernet,” he said.
Noa gave him a smile. “I never realized how helpful it could be to have a history professor on hand.” He turned toward her, brows still drawn together. He looked as though he was about to say something; but then, shaking his head, he turned away. Outside, the wind howled. She wondered if he was in shock.
Cocking her head toward the window, Noa mused aloud, “Of course, how would I get there? The bike’s probably out of power.”
“There is a hover in the garage,” James said. “We could use that.”
She didn’t miss the word ‘we.’ It was the response she’d been fishing for, but still. “We? You’ll come with me so easily?” she said with a bemused grin.
James was staring back at the screen. “I’d like to stay alive. I’m safer, the further I am from Luddeccean authorities.”
Noa’s blood went cold looking at his chiseled profile. She remembered what they’d done to Ashley. What would they do to someone as augmented as James? Give him a quick death—or slowly take him apart bit by bit? Before she realized what she was doing, she’d sat up and put a hand on his arm. “We won’t let them get you,” she said.
James’s gaze dropped to her hand. Staring at her fingers, he said, “I sent the bike we were on to a settlement about 100 km from here. It should run out of fuel just before arriving in town. Hopefully, that will distract the authorities and keep them looking for us there.”
Not sure if her proximity was making him uncomfortable or just her, Noa leaned back. Her eyebrows rose. “That’s a nice bit of subterfuge, James.”
He glanced at her. “I learn quickly.”
She coughed involuntarily, not at his words.
His eyes dropped to her mouth. “We should probably pack and be prepared to leave.”
Pounding her chest, Noa said, “Yes, you’re right.” She moved to throw her legs over the edge of the couch, but James dropped a hand on her knee. She looked down. Not on her knee—his hand was on a thick white duvet covering her knee. “Stay here and sleep,” he said. “You don’t sound well.”
“I’m well enough,” said Noa, but she felt tired. Exhausted, for no real reason. She’d slept, eaten. In irritation, she tried to move. But his hand was heavy. She scowled up at him. He leaned back slightly and his jaw moved side to side—as though he couldn’t quite control it. One of his eyebrows rose, and he dipped his chin. “You don’t know where anything is.”
Noa took a breath, about to protest, but her lungs hurt and so did her injured side, and she was tired. She slumped back into the couch. He was right—she didn’t know where anything was, she’d get in the way—getting some rest would be a better idea. She closed her eyes, and tried to relax, but consciousness was a buzz of static sizzling down her spine, refusing to let her drift off. As James walked away, her eyes slid to a dusty hologlobe in the corner, and to the cable he’d used to jack into the tel-ee-vision. After Tim died, she’d gotten in the habit of going to sleep with holos on.
She started rifling through the entertainment files in her neural apps. She’d watch Lightyears! —the sixty-three episode, true-life adventure, romance, drama of timefield pioneers Dr. Chandi Sood and pilot Raymond Bautista was practically a religion in the Fleet … it made even the toughest grunts get weepy.
Noa sat up, reached for the cable—and realized she couldn’t access any of her entertainment files—she couldn’t even listen to the story in her head. Her han
ds flew to her data port. Did she feel bent metal, stressed edges? She almost cried. The stupid screw they’d put in her! She fell back in the pillows, and felt the sting of tears in the corner of her eyes. They’d taken Lightyears! from her.
She put her hand over her eyes, and tried to breathe deeply. It was this sort of addiction to technology that her Luddeccean priests and teachers had always lectured against … She blinked at the dark ceiling. She tried to close her eyes, but she knew sleep wouldn’t come.
Noa awoke on a sunny cloud. For a moment, the room was dim. She heard a tinny voice in the background say, “It is too late for that, my son.”
Noa tugged at the cloud, and found herself on James’s couch. The cloud was the duvet. The “laptop” was open on the ottoman-coffee-table-trunk. Noa put a hand to her head and grimaced. Her hair felt like it had been sheared by a blind barber. Dropping her hand, she stretched. At least she had slept. After finishing his packing, James had found her sitting in front of the laptop desperately trying to find something to listen to that didn’t feature augments possessed by aliens murdering their families. She’d needed background noise to sleep and James hadn’t even watched Lightyears! , but he had these “move-ees” in his data banks. Apparently, he’d made his name as a history professor by finding an abandoned town littered with time capsules. Time capsules were sort of a misnomer. They weren’t like the time bubbles created by time gates, but some low-tech things old Earthers used to do. They had put their favorite things in a box and buried it in the backyard. Noa had asked for something with space, adventure, and romance, and a lot of the capsules had the particular movies he’d selected in them—which was odd, because Noa hadn’t been particularly impressed. The hero had some sort of hover car that would have sucked his head off in the jet engines. But James insisted the move-ees were very popular. He’d rattled on a bit to her about papers he’d written on “hero arcs.”