During the third seemingly endless test, Jalen began passing judgement, once again, on Yalsa 5’s lasball team. Some of the players were fine specimens, for humans that is, but they weren’t very good and were likely to lose to Yalsa 3’s team next week. Bored, and having no opinion to offer, Fei let her eyes slip shut. Her head, cradled by her hand, drooped, but never made it to the desk.
Because a screeching alarm chose right then to start drilling into her temples.
Yalsa 5 was under attack.
Fei jerked out of her hoverchair. Propelled by the sudden movement, the chair sailed backwards and collided with a desk on the other side of the techroom.
‘What’s happening?’ Fei demanded.
Jalen wordlessly pointed a tentacle at the thin vidscreen that ran the width of one of the walls. Usually Jalen had the feed set to replays of old lasball tournaments, but the game had been interrupted by a Webcast that was showing a very familiar sphere of sand hanging suspended in space — Yalsa 5. Fei realised she recognised the mediaist on screen and might even talk to him sometimes, if BozzMed hadn’t been lying to her about who he was.
‘TerraCorp has refused to answer any questions about why they are doing this without the authorisation of its former client, Governor Bock Atsason, who my sources tell me recently received a refund due to non-delivery…’ Ton Tinel paused, his gaze growing sorrowful, as though some great tragedy had occurred. ‘It seems TerraCorp has decided to send its machines in. They claim this job was requested by a new anonymous client. So far neither TerraCorp or those on Yalsa 5 are willing to tell us what led to this conflict.’
Fei grabbed her techpad, flicking through various messages on the Webchat feed until she found him. BozzMed, CC here. I’m on Yalsa 5. And I know who the anonymous client is. It’s GLEA.
She still had her doubts about his identity, even when she saw one of Ton Tinel’s hands disappear from view as he continued to speak. Her techpad lit up with BozzMed’s — and apparently the mediaist’s — response. I have long suspected that there is a connection between TerraCorp and GLEA. Can you tell me what you know about it? Don’t feel you need to answer if your job remains at risk.
Fei laughed as she typed her next message. Don’t worry. I quit my job. I have no proof but I saw the files — TerraCorp is part of GLEA. The Agency created the company centuries ago as a way to supplement the donations they receive. So TerraCorp will do whatever GLEA wants them to. And that includes eradicating deserts and rainforests because they’re afraid of other gods.
Tiny cracks began spidering over Ton Tinel’s face as he glanced down at something out of sight — his techpad, Fei hoped. He was saved from having to explain his uncharacteristic silence to his audience when a member of his crew shouted something at him off-screen.
Tinel’s grin snapped back into place. ‘Ah. The general heading the flotilla of GLEA vessels that just dropped out of leapspace has informed me that TerraCorp is helping the Agency deal with some sort of criminal element in Atsa City. Could GLEA be the company’s anonymous client? If so, this does make you wonder why GLEA has decided to deal with lawbreakers by terraforming an entire planet — and without consulting the planet’s governing body.’
With one hand cupped to an ear in a futile attempt to block out the blaring alarm, Fei used the other to hammer out several more lines of text. I can send you the message I got from Mozel Zan, a manager at TerraCorp. Basically it says that we’re to turn the whole planet into an ocean. This will wipe out the city and anyone living in it.
They have a shield down there, don’t they? was BozzMed’s response.
Jalen, who had also left her seat, leaned over Fei’s shoulder, her beady eyes now fixed on the techpad. Fei was trying to think of an explanation for having this unauthorised contact with someone off-planet when her colleague said, ‘Yeah, but the shield’s pretty old. And it doesn’t extend below the surface of the roads. So we’d still get flooded in from underneath even if we didn’t get hit with waves. The buildings here are gonna topple over since their foundations aren’t built for that.’
Fei provided BozzMed with this information in the Webchat. Moments later, the vidscreen on the wall was filled with the message Fei had received from Moz — along with additional notes that outlined what would happen to Atsa City. Ton Tinel was delightedly drawing conclusions about who this TerraCorp manager meant when he said ‘our friends’. GLEA was Tinel’s best guess.
‘And while my sources cannot provide proof of this link between TerraCorp and GLEA,’ Ton Tinel went on, waving a hand towards his ship’s viewport which showed the TerraCorp vessel dropping small, compact machines towards the planet, ‘it does make you want to ask more questions, doesn’t it? Wiping out a city without even offering the so-called criminals a chance to surrender…? How curious. More updates to follow. Thank you for watching Ton Tinel.’
Fei released the breath that had started to ache inside her lungs. ‘God, I’m glad I took the shield off the Web. GLEA might have hacked it by now and shut it off.’
‘I ain’t disagreeing there,’ Jalen said. ‘But I’ll tell you what needs shuttin’ off. That starking alarm. Gimme a sec.’
This done, Jalen dropped back into her chair and swore at the vidscreen. It gave them an uncomfortably good view of GLEA’s ships using their weapons to shred the space-based defences that Bock kept in orbit. Several mediaists were now in the system and the Web was full of images of the destruction. Fei was wondering if she should call Bock or Ala when heavy boots stomped their way down into the techroom. She swung a wild look over to the door just in time to see Ala march in, her expression thunderous.
‘Are their terraforming machines on the Web?’ Ala asked. ‘Hack ’em if they are. We need to shut those fuckers down.’
Fei’s fingers flew across the keys on her desk as she opened her preferred hacking program. ‘At least I never warned Moz to take those machines off the Web. I’d have grabbed our proof by now if I’d kept my mouth shut and let the servers at TerraCorp headquarters stay connected. Maybe that should be a requirement of every company; all your files must be hackable, just in case I need something to hand over to Ton Tinel.’
‘Yeah, good luck getting Bock or Ala to agree to that,’ Jalen said with a series of clucks.
Ala made no comment on that, her frown deepening with each charged second that passed them by. Finally, she said, ‘Fei. If you stop these douchenozzles, I’ll give you a raise on what we’re already payin’ ya.’
Fei didn’t mind the incentive. But it wasn’t going to help against the resistance her hacking program was encountering. The terraforming machines kept on coming.
‘Oh my God, Moz’s work isn’t this good, it’s never this good!’ Fei cried, dismayed. ‘The machines are protected by a firewall that I…I’ve never had to go up against something like this. My program is useless — I’m going to have to use a command-line interface to dig into their code!’
‘But you can do it,’ Ala said. It was not a question.
Fei flicked her a frantic look. ‘I don’t know!’
‘You don’t know that you can’t, so try,’ Ala instructed, placing her hands on Fei’s shoulders and shunting the hoverchair forward so that the armrests hit the desk. ‘Because if you don’t, we’re all dead.’
Fei’s eyes danced frantically between lines of complex code, trying to find a weakness to exploit. She was tempted to call for Bagara but stifled the urge. Yalsa 5 might want to be part of his domain, but there were other planets who already worshipped him, planets that might need his help more far more urgently.
All she had to do was break through a firewall.
TerraCorp’s machines were red-hot streaks in the atmosphere now. Their brakes were being applied, slowing them down so that they could hover above the surface of the planet without hitting it. Soon they would start to convert the planet’s climate.
Bagara, I might have to use you as our Plan B, Fei thought, panic rising.
You won’t need to, he
said. But I’m here. I’m here for you.
That gave her the burst of confidence she needed. Fei funnelled all of her attention into her task and the techroom blurred into nothingness around her. Time became meaningless. Code became obstacles that she could hurdle or brittle shields that she could slash her way through. The growing ache in her fingers was irrelevant. She had more important things to worry about.
Fei jolted when Ala rained heavy slaps down on her shoulders. Jalen whooped enthusiastically. It took Fei a moment to realise she had managed to shut the machines down, causing them to drop gently onto the planet’s sandy surface. She quickly began building up a firewall of her own — the machines were hers now and she wasn’t going to make it easy for anyone trying to take them back.
‘I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.’ Fei nibbled on the inside of her cheek. ‘We’re not out of danger. Even my firewalls aren’t hackproof. And the machines are still functional and intact. Removing even just one in the chain would have rendered them all useless.’
‘So, what, we take out one of the starkin’ things and we’re good?’ Ala asked her.
‘No Webattack can get around a physical problem like that!’ Jalen exclaimed.
But Fei hesitated. ‘It would mess up the current simulation program they have, yes. But they could make a new program that works with one machine less. I was one of TerraCorp’s best so I can do it, but my colleagues could also manage it, given enough time.’
‘Alright,’ Ala said with a sharp nod. She tapped the tiny earpiece that served as her communicator. ‘Bock. You got Vom and his lot together? Yeah? Okay. Tell them to use that “Magic” of theirs to see if they can’t take out one of the machines.’
Fei blinked. She knew there were followers of the Desine in Atsa City, but it hadn’t occurred to her that they would be any use in a situation like this.
Bock’s voice in Ala’s earpiece was loud enough that even Fei could hear it, though the pitch sounded a good deal higher than usual. Fei saw Jalen hiding a triangular smile behind a tentacle. Ala’s face, however, remained entirely blank as she waited out the governor’s squawking. Then she said, ‘I get that ya want to capture the machines so we can do the terraforming ourselves. Fei can make it work with one machine less. So quit arguin’ and do it.’
The three women waited there in the techroom, so far removed from what was going on. The vidscreen didn’t show anything useful — most Webcasts were focusing on GLEA’s ships as they set up their blockade. The vessels were a lot easier to locate with vidcams than the compact terraforming machines.
Ala tapped her silver nails along the desk, causing a cascade of metallic chinking. Fei wasn’t sure if the governor’s wife was doing it to express nerves or impatience.
‘It’s done,’ Bock announced.
Ala slapped her earpiece, cutting the connection. She held up two fingers and jabbed them in Fei and Jalen’s direction. ‘Make a simulation program that works with one machine less.’
Then she swept out of the room.
Fei slumped in her chair. ‘Great. More work.’
‘Stop moping — you stopped an attack on an entire planet!’ Jalen said, bounding over to drop a mug of something that smelled far too strong in front of Fei. ‘Time to celebrate, Defender of Worlds.’
Defender of Worlds? No, you’re more than that, a voice mused inside Fei’s head. She didn’t think it belonged to Bagara, because it sounded a lot like Kuja this time. But he wasn’t there. He couldn’t be. Even if she could have sworn she felt him…
Shaking her head, Fei reached for the drink.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It spread like wildfire, stripping each and every nutrient from the soil, choking shallow-rooted plants and rotting trees from the inside out until they could no longer cry out for their god. Kuja crouched, a hand on the ground to brace himself as he sought out the source of the rainforest’s pain. Its attacker had been born over a century ago and, if left unchecked, would take over every micrometre of Saren, a small but inhabited moon.
The virus was a natural, living thing and part of Kuja’s domain. It even greeted him warmly, like an old friend. But within months it would invade the moon’s only town, where buildings had only stood for two decades. The virus would not negotiate with something as temporary as a breeze fluttering its way through the leaves.
Kuja stood and walked over to the tree line to have another look at the town. It was nestled in a tiny valley, on fertile farming land that was not native to Saren. The settlers had barely been able to afford the small terraforming job that had granted them this sanctuary. If they’d had any coin-chips left, they could have charted a vessel to take them elsewhere or even rehired TerraCorp to eradicate the virus from the moon’s surface. But they didn’t. And couldn’t.
While Kuja could halt the virus with his powers, a moment’s distraction on his part would allow it to grow again. The energy he’d need to devote to this fight might very well result in him being unable to save lives elsewhere, lives that might be in more immediate danger.
Kuja held out a hand, teleporting a communicator at random into his palm — he would have to return the device to its owner when he was done with it — and typed in Gerns’ details. Though the Jezlo had spoken to Bagara once already, he knew she was far more comfortable with speaking to a human.
‘Gerns,’ he said. ‘Bagara needs your help.’
‘Now me, I just got rudely woken up, but I’ll hear you out, Kuja,’ the botanist grumbled on the other end and Kuja grimaced, remembering that it was night-time in Bagath. He had left the village weeks ago with an excuse about needing to see the galaxy. Truthfully, there were too many memories of Fei inside those palisade walls.
‘Sorry,’ Kuja said. ‘But I was visiting Saren, a moon orbiting the gas planet in the Junim system, when Bagara came to me. He said you wanted to help and this is how.’
‘What does he need me to do?’ There was a crash; Gerns had knocked something over on her way out of bed.
‘We have to find a way to stop a rainforest-based virus that will destroy the only piece of arable land on Saren.’ Kuja paused for effect. ‘And I think you’re the only one both qualified and willing to do something about it.’
Gerns grunted, her tiredness causing her to think unsavoury things about him. ‘Huh. How about that. Bagara using science. Gimme three days, tops. I’ll meet you at the spaceport — or landing pad, whatever they’ve got. Saren…now me, I think TerraCorp did a job there once. Doesn’t GLEA have some sort of presence on the moon?’
‘There’s a small Chipper outpost. Saren was never deemed populated enough for a temple.’
‘You should talk to the agents,’ Gerns suggested. ‘See if they’ll evacuate the locals.’
Kuja ground his teeth together. ‘They’d love to move people away from Bagara’s domain, wouldn’t they.’
‘Now Kuja, I say this to you, you should ask the settlers what they want. It’s their choice.’
I know that, Kuja wanted to snap. But then he thought of Fei — and the choice he never gave her. The choice he couldn’t give her.
‘Just get here as fast as you can,’ Kuja told Gerns before he cut the connection.
• • •
‘You could be lying about this catastrophic virus in an attempt to force GLEA off Saren,’ Major Laura Minsra said, eyes narrowed. ‘Why should I believe you? You’re one of those Bagara degenerates.’
The GLEA outpost on Saren stood out amongst the cluster of silver shelters that made up most of the town. It was a stone building with a white exterior that needed to be scrubbed clean every morning — and it was also a lot larger than it needed to be to house the three Chippers stationed on the moon.
Kuja sized up the woman seated across the desk from him. Major Minsra wore a crisp purple jumpsuit with its long sleeves pulled down as far as possible; she clearly relied on the climate control system in her office to keep cool. The other buildings in the settlement had no such luxury, but Kuja could see
in her mind that the major didn’t know that. She rarely left her stone sanctuary to converse with the townspeople she was meant to be protecting.
He kept his voice calm and free of judgement. ‘Unlike followers of the Creator God, we don’t feel threatened by people of different faiths. And if my honesty really is a concern to you, I have an accredited botanist arriving in three days to inspect the virus.’
‘Very well.’ Minsra dusted her fingers over the golden strokes on both shoulders of her uniform. ‘But what if this botanist of yours can’t stop the virus entering the town?’
‘I am painfully aware that the settlers cannot afford to put any more money into your coffers by paying for another terraforming job.’ Kuja held up a hand to stop her denying it. ‘I know where you get your funding.’
‘Clearly not from this lot — they don’t even donate,’ Minsra said, blowing out a gusty sigh. ‘And they’re not the only ones. The whole galaxy’s full of people like them. TerraCorp’s profits are a lot more reliable than their sporadic donations.’
‘I don’t suppose you’d be willing to say that again and let me record it so the mediaists can use it against you,’ Kuja said, fiddling with a thread that had escaped the hem of his shirt.
Minsra’s expression soured. ‘You will treat me with respect. I am a representative of the Creator God — the first god, the only god — and I’m much closer to him than you will ever be.’
Kuja swallowed the laugh and didn’t correct her. ‘Whatever god you or the Sarenites want to worship, that’s not up to me. But Bagara doesn’t want anyone to suffer.’
‘Then he should stop the virus, shouldn’t he,’ Minsra remarked, smirking.
‘Bagara won’t just stop natural disasters.’ Kuja shut his eyes briefly. ‘Not in the way you’re suggesting.’
‘Even if it’s to save his worshippers?’
‘If the best thing for his people is to beg GLEA to evacuate them, then Bagara will tell them to do it,’ Kuja told her.
The Twisted Vine Page 18