Superego-Fathom

by Frank J. Fleming

  I smiled at her and followed her out of the car. A certain tension that I’d felt ever since I’d awoken from that coma finally left, but it was quickly replaced by another. “How long is that going to last?” I looked around the hangar. “So where are we?”

  “It’s my own personal command ship.” Diane pulled off her wig, revealing her blonde hair. “I call it the Prodigal. Bedrooms. Kitchen. A home in the black. It’s just us here, so you can relax.” Her blue eyes scanned my face. “You look awful, by the way.”

  The tiredness was really starting to hit me. “I’m still standing. Considering my day, that’s a victory.”

  “Well, no more reason for that. Come on.” She led me out of the small hangar to a little lounge area with some couches. I looked at her again. A big part of me wanted to embrace her, throw her down on the nearest flat surface, and do what comes naturally, but I didn’t really think that’s where we were. I remembered the last time I saw her — crying over me as I lay dying. And also remembered the last time I saw her while I was still standing, which was me saying the worst thing I could think of to her as I hit her and choked her.

  She led me to one couch, where I sat, and she sat on the couch opposite me, removing her suit jacket and leaving her in a simple white blouse. She smiled quietly at me for a few seconds, then spoke those four words everyone loves: “We need to talk.”

  CHAPTER 8

  “I’m sorry.”

  Diane shrugged. “For what?”

  “For the way I hurt you and said all those awful things.”

  Diane smiled faintly. “You already apologized for that.”

  “I was dying and barely rational. I didn’t think that counted.”

  “You explained to me that you’re basically some sort of psychopath. So can you be sorry?”

  I thought about that. “I wish I hadn’t done it. Is that the same thing?”

  Diane laughed a little. “Close enough, I guess. Anyway, Rico, I understood what you were doing. You were trying to protect me ... from you. It didn’t work. Let’s move on. Now I’m going to apologize for leaving you alone on Lavaria so that you ended up waking from a coma into an invasion.”

  I tried to let myself relax on the couch, but I kept shifting, as nothing felt comfortable. “Well, that turned out worse for them than it did for me.”

  “I heard about what you did there. People are already talking about how you somehow chased off a whole gunship. You saved a lot of people.”

  “Yeah, I was trying something different. Trying to be hero.”

  “You were a hero on Nar Valdum,” Diane said. “You stopped a terrorist attack.”

  “That was different,” I explained. “I was just pretending to be a heroic police officer as part of a hit. This time I did it solely for the sake of helping people.”

  “And how does that suit you?”

  I contemplated how honest to be with her. But considering she still came back after what I had done to her before, I guess I didn’t need to worry about scaring her away. “I don’t get it. There’s so much sentient life in the universe, living and dying each day, that saving a few random individuals seems really pointless.”

  “Not to them.”

  “I’m sure while I was saving those people, even more people got snuffed out somewhere else in the universe. It’s all rather arbitrary.”

  Diane nodded thoughtfully. “So if I got killed saving you, would that have meant anything?”

  I had given some thought to the possibility that she was already dead. I didn’t like that idea. “Well ... I like you.”

  Diane smiled. “So I think that just means you need to learn to like more people.”

  I barely suppressed a shudder at the thought of where this was going. “I’m a little tired for that idea right now.”

  “Fair enough. So now that we’ve gotten the important matter of philosophy out of the way, you want to talk about what’s going on in the universe right now?”

  I grimaced. “I don’t care for politics. So what have you been up to?”

  “After Nar Valdum, I knew there would be a power play. One of the biggest forces that arose was the faction led by Redden, who immediately outlined a mission to eradicate the influence of the syndicates. From the information I had, I pieced together that this was actually some sort of ploy by Anthony Burke, formerly of Nystrom, but I wasn’t sure who was directly answering to him. I think a lot of the main people in it really are just trying to do what’s right and don’t know who’s pulling the strings. I was working on getting evidence of Burke’s ties to everything when suddenly the Messengers of the Fathom started appearing, announcing they were now taking charge of the Galactic Alliance. And all the criminal syndicates, which were in disarray after Nar Valdum, were suddenly lined up behind the Fathom. They have absolutely devastated any planet that has stood up to them. I don’t think Redden’s group will last long against them. It looks really dire out there, and I’m not sure what I should do anymore. I was trying to take down Burke, but he seems like less of a problem now.”

  “I’m all for finding out who these Fathom people are and doing something mean to them.”

  “Because you want to help all the people suffering out there?” Diane probed.

  “It ... seems like a challenge. And I guess it would be heroic. That is what I’m trying to be.”

  “The universe needs heroes. What about Anthony Burke, though?”

  “I don’t need to look for him; he’ll come after me.”

  Diane studied me closely. I forgot how uncomfortable her intense gaze could be. “You have some sort of relationship with him.”

  “He’s ... sort of my father.”

  “Sort of?”

  I shifted again on the couch. No position was working for relaxing. “I share most of my DNA with him. He raised me.”

  “That’s more than ‘sort of’ your father.”

  “He’s interested in you, too. They all seem to think you know something about this Mountain Fall. What is that?”

  Her face became very serious. “A weapons cache. Galactic War-era weapons.”

  The Galactic War was many, many decades ago, but everyone still talked about it in hushed whispers. In the worst parts of it, entire planets were devastated. Billions died per day. Every policy and treaty since then had been for the purpose of making sure such a thing never happened again. “I thought all of those were destroyed.”

  “Apparently not,” Diane said. “The Fathom seem to have some weapons of that level on that ... ghastly ship or whatever that thing is they have. And I guess the Alliance kept some of the weapons just in case. Very secret, though, and no one person knows the location of the cache. I stumbled onto some information about it while looking for evidence on Burke. I didn’t know Laurence Dunn had a relationship to it, though. To me, he was just some guy who died in a car crash about the time you went into the coma — he worked for purposes of hiding you.”

  “What do you plan to do with your information on Mountain Fall?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking that through. Both sides are intent on finding it. The Fathom would be pretty unstoppable with more weapons. The faction led by Redden — Burke’s faction — thinks it’s their only way to match the Fathom.”

  “Is it?”

  She shrugged. “The future does not really look bright right now. I’m trying to figure out the course of action that will lead to the least amount of harm.”

  “You know, it’s not necessarily up to you to save the universe.”

  She chuckled. “What about you, hero?”

  I smiled. Not my well-practiced charming smile. Something like it but more natural. “I don’t have anything better to do.”

  “I guess we’re in the same boat, then. Anyway, I’m thinking we’ll head to the planet Acarro; I have allies there, and maybe together we can plan our next move.”

  “How many people are you working with?”

  “Not many. It’s kinda lonely on the sidelines right now.”
She leaned in closer to me, taking a long look. “You really don’t look great. It’ll be hours before we’re charged for another jump. Maybe you should get some sleep.” She touched the whiskers on my chin. “And maybe get cleaned up in the morning.”

  I was done fighting the couch. “That might be a good idea.”

  “The Fazium is still active in you, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it’s fighting that poison from the bullet my ... father shot me with.”

  “The doctors weren’t sure what to make of that poison,” Diane said. “It almost seemed to have an intelligence of its own. It just stayed in your system, trying to kill you, and the Fazium was the only thing stopping it. That’s why they kept you in a coma; there was a war going on in your body, and they thought you’d be in excruciating pain if you woke up.”

  “For the most part, it’s a cold war now,” I told her. “I guess the poison and the Fazium are dormant, waiting for something to change. And if there is any change in my condition — even the slightest cut — the Fazium kicks into high gear and crushes my nervous system. So I have a bit of a glass jaw right now.”

  “I’m sure we can avoid any more conflict, then.”

  We both laughed, but I added more seriously, “Anthony will want to finish the job he started, you know.”

  Diane nodded. “I’m sure you won’t make it easy, though. Come on. Get some rest.”

  We got up from the couches, me more slowly than her. She led me through the hallway and into a small room with a simple bed. And then we stood awhile, just quietly looking into each other’s eyes. I wasn’t sure what was appropriate, and Diane made the first move, kissing me on the cheek. “I was praying you would get out of that coma.”

  I smiled. “You probably should have been more specific on how that would happen.”

  “I just had this feeling you have more of a journey ahead of you — something to add to all this. But anyway, it’s good to see you, Rico.”

  “You too, Diane.”

  She took a deep breath. “No one calls me that anymore.”

  It was a name she used for a decade while working on Nar Valdum as a police officer, of all things. That life was torn apart when she met me and her abandoned past as a killer for the Nystrom syndicate resurfaced. It was the name I knew her by, though, and what I was going to keep calling her if she didn’t directly tell me not to.

  Diane gave me one last smile and left the room, closing the door behind her. My mind raced with so many thoughts and feelings about her, but I was too tired to sort through them, so I lay down on the bed. Alone for the time being, my mind quieted and I drifted off to sleep.

  CHAPTER 9

  In the past I always had a job. That’s what kept me focused: a target to kill. Often this took planning to accomplish both the first half of the job — kill the target — and the second half of the job — get out alive.

  Being a hero seemed less focused. For one thing, the job would always change, as there were always new people in need of heroics based on whatever situation you’d find yourself in. Also, heroics didn’t necessarily involve the second half of the job — getting out alive — as part of being a hero was being willing to sacrifice your life for others. This seemed a pretty universally accepted aspect of heroics even though it didn’t always make much sense when you tried to analyze the value of your life versus the value of those you might be saving, from an economic perspective. For instance, a random civilian is not going to have anything approaching my unique combat prowess, which makes a trade of me for him or her pretty idiotic — especially with a war against a great evil force going on. But that’s the game.

  As I watched Diane pilot the landing craft, I doubted she felt the need to analyze all of this like me. Heroics were probably natural for her. And she most likely thought nothing of laying her life down for others, as I suspected she still didn’t think much of her own life, given her past. I certainly valued her life over any other. Over my own, maybe.

  We were mostly silent as we sat next to each other, waiting for clearance to land on Acarro, smiling at each other occasionally. It seemed like we should have had a lot to talk about, though. We were in love with each other. Or at least I was in love with her, and she had been in love with what she imagined I was when I pretended to be a vacationing cop on Nar Valdum. We hadn’t really had time to talk after she’d learned the truth — primarily because I’d choked her unconscious right after the confession. We’d had that moment in the rain, but it was hard for me to sort out what had really happened there and what were hallucinations of a dying mind.

  Diane looked at the vehicle’s console. “Okay, we have clearance now. I’m taking us down.”

  “I still don’t quite understand who we’re meeting with,” I said, staring at the rather unremarkable blue and green planet before me. I again checked the holsters Diane had given me, hidden under my light coat. Thanks to her, I finally had some clean new clothes and had gotten a shave and a shower. I at least felt somewhat human now.

  “Other people like us who understand that not everything is as it seems with the remaining faction of the old Alliance.”

  “You trust these people?”

  Diane laughed. “No. And I doubt they trust me. Let me do the talking — though maybe you have some information that will help us figure out exactly what Anthony Burke is up to. The Fathom are the biggest threat now, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to keep an eye on him.”

  “I’m impressed at how much you put together,” I said, “that you even know about him. He’s not easy to track.”

  “I had help. Your AI — Dip, you called him — had some sort of offsite data backup,” Diane explained. “When your ship exploded — which I guess Dip was housed on — that sent a signal to give the backup information to me. It had a lot of information about the Nystrom syndicate ... and quite a bit about Burke.”

  “Oh yeah, I told Dip if something happened to me to send all of that to you,” I said. “I’m surprised it happened, though. It turns out Dip was compromised by Anthony. That’s how he’d been tracking me.”

  Diane raised an eyebrow. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged. “Hard to feel betrayed by a computer AI.”

  “I think it stung a little,” Dip interjected in my ear. “I would be sorry if I were capable.”

  “Well, I got the information,” Diane continued. “It helped lead me to Mountain Fall. It also ...” she hesitated a moment. “It gave me access to lots of your accounts. That’s how I afforded my ship and all.”

  I waved my hand in the air. “I don’t care. I was always good at saving money, not at spending it.”

  “Well, it’s not my money, so I’ve tried to be sparing with it. I ... I did treat myself to a day at a spa once.”

  “Do what you want with it; I really don’t care.” I put my hand on her arm reassuringly, like I’ve seen people do. Touching her had an odd effect on me, and I looked into her eyes. It seemed weird that I constantly wanted to focus on her eyes, as they weren’t even her sexiest feature — more her judgiest feature.

  Diane turned away and took control of the vehicle. She looked ready to say something but stopped, and instead we quietly descended to the planet, where she gently set us down in a covered parking garage. As we exited the garage, I tried to catch her eye again, but she seemed to be avoiding that for the moment. We headed into a grassy park area with a few trees and a pond with creatures that looked kind of like ducks floating on top of it. There weren’t many people around, but I saw one man leaning against a tree who was looking right at us. And I recognized him.

  “Hey, guys,” Wade said, arms casually at his sides.

  I decided to match Wade’s unarmed posture and not immediately go for a gun. Diane also didn’t draw, keeping her arms folded and at the ready. “Do you work for Anthony Burke?” she asked.

  Wade laughed. “Yeah, we’re best buds. We’re going golfing later.” His expression became more serious. “I’m just a guy who sees civil
ization collapsing and is trying to do something about it, okay?”

  “How’d you track us?” I asked.

  Wade smiled. “Industry secret. Now, I have a question for you two. I’m pretty satisfied you’re not working for the Fathom — especially considering all you did on Lavaria. And thank you for leaving the Messenger for us to question on Natera. But you’re not exactly cooperating with us taking on the Fathom, either. Especially you, Melanie. You have info on Mountain Fall, and we definitely need that before the Fathom get it.”

  “We have a problem, then,” Diane said firmly. “If I give that info to you, the weapons end up under the control of Anthony Burke.”

  Wade sighed. “Yeah, I know. Apparently, a government headed by General Redden is actually under the control of some mobster. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that. What I do know for certain is that the Fathom are killing people now, and we have to stop them. And I will do whatever it takes to see that happen. Still, ma’am, I don’t want to get as rough with you as you were with me.” He pointed to a bruise near his left eye.

  “Are you threatening us, Wade?” I asked, fingers flexing near my coat, where one of my concealed holsters waited.

  “I’m not just letting you guys walk, Rico,” Wade stated.

  “You seem like a nice guy ... Wade, is it?” Diane said. “We don’t want to have to hurt you, but if you are familiar at all with our histories, I think you know where this is going.”

  “I am scared of you two,” Wade said, not moving. “I admit that. But I understand how crucial this is, so I am not going to act on that fear. If you want to do this the hard way, then we’ll see how that goes, ma’am.”

  Diane gritted her teeth. “Please stop calling me ‘ma’am.’“

  “All right, Ms. Fincher.” Wade drew, but with my augmented reflexes, I drew quicker. Dip tried to voice his objection to the kill, but this was all muscle memory now and beyond my control. It was irrelevant, though, as the trigger pull did nothing, and smoke emanated from my pistol — and smoke coming from a gun that doesn’t use gunpowder is always a very bad sign.