Star of Hope

by Moira McPartlin

  ‘What I don’t understand is why you’re doing this. You aren’t even Noiri,’ I said.

  Merj grinned. ‘No I’m not, but he is.’ He swung round and pointed a gun at Dawdle. But Dawdle casually walked up to Merj and took it from him.

  I heard Ishbel let out a relieved sigh; it was short-lived as Dawdle turned the gun toward us. There was real sadness in his face, somehow. His gun was trained on us all but he only looked at Ishbel.

  ‘Sorry Ish, but this needs tae be done.’

  The Fifth Column

  ‘Have you gone mad, Dawdle?’ I said. Then realisation dawned. ‘Was that the plan all along? The Noiri take over the operation once all the work was done?’

  ‘The Noiri? Is this what this is about?’ Reinya screamed at Dawdle.

  Dawdle dragged his hand through his hair. Even though he held a gun to us his eyes still flickered in Ishbel’s direction. Her skin was the colour of oatmeal but her eyes burned with amber rage and her lips were wording as if she were offering up a silent prayer to her – our – ancestors.

  The robot stood to attention at the top of the stairs as if waiting for the next instruction. What would happen if we turned it all on now? The thought ran through me but the words came from Reinya.

  ‘Traitor.’ She took a step towards Dawdle but Merj brandished his remaining gun in her face.

  ‘Don’t, Reinya,’ Dawdle said. ‘Merj has no conscience. He’ll kill you.’

  ‘So what’re you ‘angin about ‘im for then, Dawdle?’

  For some reason Skelf was smirking but I noticed he’d edged his way closer to the stairs and Noni moved with him.

  ‘OK Dawdle, let’s see if we can sort this out.’ I tried reason.

  Dawdle turned to me and I could see he hadn’t gone mad, there was no malice in his voice or actions. This was business and – what was it Ishbel had said? – wired for profit, that was Dawdle.

  ‘Why don’t we come to some sort of financial arrangement?’

  Merj burst out laughing.

  ‘Listen to the little diplomat.’

  ‘Shut it, Merj,’ Dawdle said. Merj did just that.

  ‘Who’s in charge here?’ Ishbel asked.

  ‘Me,’ Dawdle said.

  ‘Then what about him?’ She made a step towards Merj and no one stopped her. ‘Look at him? Still wearing the uniform of the Blue Pearl. Do you know, Merj, you’ve been the bane of my life ever since you entered it.’

  ‘Didn’t say that when you first met me, lover. Did you?’ Merj blew a kiss at Ishbel.

  She slapped him hard on the cheek and even though he continued to smirk I could see his arm, the mended arm, twitch as if he had a loose wire. She lifted her hand as if to strike again but he belted her face with his gun.

  ‘Don’t,’ Dawdle roared.

  And there was Dawdle’s weakness. I saw it and so did Ishbel. I caught her short glance at Dawdle as she held her hand to her whacked cheek.

  ‘You’re not fit to wear that uniform, Merj,’ Ishbel spat. ‘Sorlie, tell me, how many uniforms have you seen this man wear?’

  ‘Too many,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, that’s our Merj. They used to call them The Fifth Column. Mercenaries from within the ranks who will serve the one who pays the most.’

  ‘That’s not true,’ Merj said but his shifting eyes told another story.

  ‘Yes it is,’ she said. ‘Dawdle’s not the only one wired for profit.’ She held her hands in the air.

  ‘Go on, shoot me. See how many pieces of credit The Military give you for my bounty.’

  ‘No, Ishbel,’ Reinya shouted. She moved forward but I held up my arm to stay her. Ishbel knew what she was doing.

  ‘Go on, Merj. What’s stopping you?’ Ishbel goaded. ‘I don’t want to live in a world where profits rule.’

  Merj lifted his gun and pointed it at her head and I could see in his face that he really wanted to pull the trigger.

  ‘Wait,’ Dawdle shouted.

  Ishbel snapped her mouth shut, clattering her teeth as if catching an insect.

  ‘No, Ishbel, dinnae bite your pill. Let me explain.’

  ‘Why should we listen to you?’

  He looked around. ‘Because ye dinnae ken the full story.’

  ‘We do,’ I quipped. ‘Skelf told us.’

  ‘What he told ye wis his version.’ He ushered us into the corner, herding Skelf and Noni back from the stairs with his gun. ‘Sit down.’ He waited till we sat. ‘Skelf wants this operational so he can go back to bein king again. But before ah go on there’s couple of folk who can tell ye better.’

  He signalled to Merj who left the hall, returning a couple of minutes later. He stepped aside and swept an arm into the room with a flourish, allowing the party to enter.

  ‘Vanora!’ I was astounded.

  She wore a lightweight scarlet cloak with matching heels that clacked across the floor. She batted her eyelids at me.

  ‘Sorlie, my darling boy.’

  Then she turned and swiped Merj across the chest with a large ornamental fan. ‘How could you leave us outside so long in that unbearable heat?’

  Dawdle stood to the side, gun still drawn, while Merj set up a comms. While he was doing that Monsieur Jacques joined us. He towered over everyone.

  ‘Wait a minute, my pa is being transported by the Noiri. Does this mean he’s being kidnapped?’

  Monsieur Jacques shrugged his shoulders. ‘If kidnap is the word you want to use, go ahead. I don’t think your pa believes that. We are simply helping him out.’

  ‘Where is he?’ I looked to Dawdle for an answer.

  ‘The Noiri are transportin him tae the Capital.’

  ‘Oui, it is most fortunate that his Transport was inoperable and he put his trust in the Noiri.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I tried hard to keep my voice calm but I could hear the shit whiney kid of old return. ‘You sabotaged the Transport, didn’t you?’

  Monsieur Jacques held out his hand in a gesture of innocence. ‘Your pa is too trusting to make a great leader. He just expected my men to take him to the Capital with that virus. No questions asked.’

  ‘Untested virus,’ Vanora chipped in.

  ‘Oui, untested. To destroy my beautiful city. With that virus. So reckless. So careless.’ He shook his head. ‘We are lucky it is contained in Esperaneo Lesser. Your pa is a madman, the same as all the others who tried to destroy the Capital in the past. All those who get a taste for power go mad eventually.’ He inclined his head towards Vanora and she chose not to see.

  ‘Speak for yourself,’ I said. ‘My pa only wants what’s best for Esperaneo.’

  ‘Sorlie, as Dawdle should have told you, your pa only wants access to the servers so he can be repaired. Become a cyborg,’ Vanora explained in the sanest voice she could muster.

  ‘That’s not true.’ But I couldn’t hear any conviction in my voice. All the pieces were slotting together and I felt lost.

  Vanora pointed up to the bot that still stood sentry at the top of the stairs.

  ‘Look at this thing.’ The robot blinked as if it knew Vanora talked about it. ‘Look how beautiful it is, look how much like a human it is. Look how smooth the hands are, how dextrous it is. This is what they could do before the Switch-Off. This is what nearly destroyed us before and this is where your pa wants us to return to.’ She moved to Merj and patted his arm.

  ‘Now look at Merj here. He was repaired wonderfully by my technicians who worked in this field before the Switch-Off.’

  ‘My technicians,’ Skelf whispered.

  Merj’s arm twitched as if in response to Vanora’s words.

  ‘Now, didn’t they do a good job?’ She patted his arm then brushed imaginary dust off her hands as if wiping away the past. ‘What’s wrong with sticking to what we have?’

 
‘What about all the natives who are starving?’

  ‘They don’t need a Switch-On,’ Vanora said. ‘That won’t feed them. Anyway, they aren’t starving.’

  ‘They are,’ Ishbel said. ‘I found cannibals up north.’

  ‘Tch.’ Vanora dismissed her daughter as usual. ‘Isolated incident. If we allow the illusion to break, for the natives to realise their lives are in their own hands, it will lead to chaos.’

  ‘How?’ I said. ‘I don’t understand. They’ve already proved how resourceful they are. Think what they could do with electric power and information. The Star of Hope. This is the power they need.’

  ‘The power, yes, maybe,’ said Vanora. ‘But we will need to establish the government before we can allow them the knowledge.’ Monsieur Jacques didn’t look so convinced.

  ‘But isn’t this what you wanted, Vanora?’ Ishbel implored. ‘To free the natives. All your money and effort. All your coverts, the organisation you set up.’ Vanora narrowed her eyes at her and I could see the old jealousy still there, cementing her resolve against Ishbel.

  ‘Enough,’ Vanora said. ‘If the servers are activated the truth will be out and everything will be ruined. Normal natives don’t know how to manage their lives. They should be kept ignorant.’ She spread her affected benevolent smile around the room. ‘My technicians have worked wonders. I…’ she stabbed her own chest with her painted fingernail. ‘I – built a great army. Do you think Dougie Mayben can waltz in and take that from me?’ She cleeked arms with Jacques. ‘We have formed a coalition. NFF and Noiri. We will run the underground networks.’ She glared at us all in turn with a withering look. ‘There will be no Switch-On. There will be no Star.’

  If she was looking for applause, her hope fell flat. I was still transfixed on the shooters.

  Noni moved up behind Dawdle. He whipped round at her. ‘Start onything funny, Noni, and ah’ll kill Reinya.’

  ‘He won’t,’ Ishbel said.

  ‘Maybe he won’t,’ said Vanora. ‘But Merj will.’

  ‘Vanora…’ I began. But she stayed my words with a raised palm.

  ‘I’m not listening to you, Sorlie,’ Vanora said. ‘You have failed me as a grandson and heir apparent. Useless soft warrior! You can do as you please once this is all over. Go back to your pa.’

  ‘Once what’s all over?’

  She smiled at me with that horror mask smile. ‘The demise of the server.’

  ‘No!’ Skelf wailed. ‘That can’t happen, there are safeguards.’

  ‘Yes it will. We will hook up the comms to link to The Prince. We don’t want him to miss the show. What show, you wonder? Merj has fixed the fuses so they won’t blow. Then we’ll just sit here until the power surge blows the lot into orbit.’

  Jacques stood by the reactor, nodding, obviously in complete agreement.

  Vanora turned to Skelf. ‘You are not the only one with a robot. Where do you think we found the instructions for you to start up this facility? We’ve set the power to surge into the server farm as soon as the Star reaches critical and then we will be rid of that horrible data for ever.’

  ‘The State went to sleep on this one,’ Jacques added.

  ‘You can’t do it. It’s barbaric,’ I shouted. ‘It’s like burning all the books and the histories. Backward tribes destroying artefacts.’

  The two old people stood together with conviction and zeal shining from their faded smiles.

  ‘So be it, it’s for your own good,’ Vanora said.

  ‘Now sit down and be quiet,’ Dawdle barked, waving the gun in my face.

  ‘Not so rough, Dawdle. He’s still my grandson.’ She smiled at me. ‘As I said, once this is done you will all be released to go back to whatever you like. Ishbel, I trust you will return to Freedom with me.’

  ‘Oh, I’ll return, but not with you.’

  A waft of warm air filled the hall and the aircon boosted.

  ‘What’s that?’ Merj shouted.

  ‘Somebudy’s left,’ Dawdle said. ‘Where’s that bloody Neanderthal?’

  ‘Doesn’t matter,’ Merj assured him. ‘She’ll probably get caught up in the blast.’

  At that moment a bang shattered the air. I threw myself to the ground. At first I thought it was the installation going up but when I looked I saw Vanora sprawled on the ground. At the door stood Kenneth, holding a gun. Another shot cracked when I dived for Merj’s legs. As I toppled him two more shots rang out. I couldn’t see what was going on. Merj had me round the throat in a stranglehold with an arm so strong I thought my neck would break. When I thumped the arm it was so hard I nearly busted my knuckle.

  ‘You won’t get away this time, boy,’ he whispered in my ear.

  Reinya was screaming. Why was no one helping me? My lungs burned as I tried to breath. He was choking me. I scrabbled my legs in mid-air and hooked one around one of his, and my feet touched the ground. I propelled myself forward and down, trying to roll into a ball and throw him off me. As I fell I caught sight of Kenneth, slumped and bloody. The weight of Merj on my back buckled my knees. At least the pressure released on my throat enough to allow a gasp of breath. He recovered quickly though and the grasp tightened again. As I whipped round, red flashed and I got a sense of a scene of bloody carnage before I was under him again. His other hand grabbed my face, my mouth, my nose. My thrapple burned and I gasped to get another morsel of breath. My chest screamed. I scrabbled my legs again, toes touched floor, then slipped on something slick, I guessed blood. I was pumped empty. I slumped, stars burst in my head and my ears were ringing. This was the end, I was drowning.

  Then I felt fresh fingers digging into my throat, scratching, releasing Merj’s grip on me. The weight fell off me. I coughed, dropped on my knees, gasping air, spewing and spitting, snatching air, sweet, sweet air. Doubled over, my forehead to the deck, my ribcage a concertina, working jigtime to keep that sweet air. What the snaf had happened? Sounds came back to me first. A familiar sound of a keening so awful it wrenched my gut. I was scared to lift my head but knew I had to face the worst.

  Vanora lay right beside where I’d landed. A smear of her blood reached me where my boot had caught it. Her red cloak stained darker, making her face paler than any other corpse I’d seen. Her eyes were open but glazed in death. I looked to the sound of Reinya’s keening. She huddled in a ball on the floor, Scud had his arm around her. Scud?

  Ishbel was on her knees beside Dawdle who was sprawled in a puddle of blood.

  ‘Dawdle,’ I whispered.

  Monsieur Jacques knelt on his other side, holding a blood-soaked jacket to Dawdle’s stomach. Ishbel performed CPR. Tears tracked down Jacques’ face. I began to crawl towards them, past Kenneth slumped at the door. Blood traced a line from his erupted eye socket. No one needed to attend to Kenneth. Poor Kenneth.

  Ishbel

  Vanora fell to the ground.

  ‘Kenneth,’ Ishbel called. She rushed to him but before she could get there, Merj fired, then Sorlie dived for Merj. Although hit, Kenneth fired again. Ishbel grabbed Reinya on the way down. Scud huddled both women into a scrum. Another shot fired and then nothing but the sound of the grunts from Sorlie and Merj’s wrestle.

  ‘Ishbel, please.’ It was Jacques.

  She lifted her head. Both Vanora and Kenneth were dead. Jacques clutched Dawdle’s belly, blood squelched through his fingers. Ishbel crawled over.

  Dawdle smiled up at her.

  ‘Sorry, Ish.’ His voice wet with blood.

  ‘Shhh.’ She yanked off her jacket and pushed it to Jacques.

  ‘Try to stop the bleeding. Scud, try and find a first aid kit.’

  ‘Sorry, Ish. It could’uv been so good.’ He swallowed.

  ‘Shhh.’ Her heart was thumping.

  ‘You and me, could huv…’ He winced. His smile slipped. ‘Dinnae cry, hen. Ye’ll be… great. You…alwa
ys… wis the best.’

  ‘Please, Dawdle. Hang in,’ she choked. Her heart ripped apart. ‘Stay,’ she begged.

  His smile was crooked. ‘That’ll dae me.’ He closed his eyes. A breath bubbled in his chest.

  ‘No,’ Ishbel whispered.

  She racked her brains for her first aid training. She put her lips to his. They were warm but tasted of blood. Why hadn’t she given her lips to him before? She blew in a breath and began to pump his chest. Why now? she thought.

  She blew another breath, pumped his chest one, two, three. She checked his pulse, nothing. Breath, pump one, two, three. She didn’t know how long she did this.

  ‘Come on, damn you. Breathe.’

  Jacques wept noisily, but still held the soaking jacket to Dawdle’s belly. Reinya was keening and Ishbel tried to shut out their dreadful noise. She breathed again and began pumping. She felt her strength slip and still she worked until a hand took both of hers away from Dawdle’s body.

  ‘He’s gone, Ishbel.’

  She tried to shove Sorlie away but he held her tight and pulled her into him and hugged her in the grip of a man. A huge wail escaped her and he let her cry into his chest in the same way she had let him cry when she’d told him he was an orphan so long ago.

  The pain in her chest was unbearable. She’d always thought it was an exaggeration but she physically felt the shredded pieces of her heart shrivel within her before growing cold. She sniffed back tears and let Sorlie hold her for a few more minutes then pushed him away.

  ‘It’s OK, I’m OK.’

  Jacques body folded like his power. He dropped his head to kiss Dawdle’s forehead.

  ‘My son,’ he wailed. His eyes were red when he looked at Ishbel. ‘He was like my son.’

  ‘I know. I’m sorry.’

  She crawled away from them and sat on the floor to survey the scene of carnage. It seemed to Ishbel quite symbolic that Vanora and Kenneth lay only feet apart, both unmourned, whilst the weeping crowded around Dawdle’s body. Despite appearances, he was one of the good guys all along.

  ‘What are we going to do with him?’ Sorlie said, pointing to where Merj lay struggling while Noni sat on his chest, restraining him.