Only Human_The Themis Files

by Sylvain Neuvel

  The soup kitchen is closed, crawling with security. My guess is they’re searching the place for proof. I’m sure they’ll find some. If they’re willing to destroy a school just so they can frame us for it, I don’t see why they wouldn’t go the extra mile and plant some evidence.

  Now the Imperial Guard is pounding at the door. My father is with them. He has been chasing me, hunting me down, for about a week. We used to be so close. It wasn’t that long ago, he’d have faced an entire army just to protect me. That’s what fathers do, right? Now…Well, now he’s brought the army with him.

  I wonder why the Imperial Guard is here instead of local security. The empress has no power in the regions. At least, she’s not supposed to. It doesn’t really matter, I guess. We’re still screwed. Ityets has disabled the door. It’s basically a solid metal wall now, but they’ll break through it soon enough.

  Why would anyone want to pin this on me? I’m probably the least important person here. I don’t know anyone. I have like five friends. I can’t even vote. Why would my father help them? This doesn’t make any sense. None of it does.

  What do you think they’ll do to us? Do you think they’ll kill us?

  [Ops! Vincent, eyet ops ekuktyek atast!]

  I don’t know anymore, Ityets. I didn’t think he’d be the one hunting us either. What are you doing?

  [Ast eyoptet.]

  You can hear them? What are they saying?

  [Eps eyonats itont ikt.]

  Step away from the door? Yokits, Ityets! Get back! Get back!

  FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)

  MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV

  Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea

  —What the hell just happened?

  —They shot us in the back, or kicked us. I don’t know.

  —Can you see them?

  —No. Push up, Alex, we need to get up!

  —I am! What the hell are they doing?

  —They’re rolling us over! Grab his leg and throw him to the ground! Alex! Grab his leg before he can pin us down!

  Oh shit!

  —I can’t move my arms!

  —Eva, don’t do this!

  [Did you stop when I told you not to drag Ekim into this? Now take this you yokits ass! UGH! How’s that feel?]

  —AAAAGH! What do I do?

  —I have no fu—AAAAAGH! Stop it, Eva! AAAAAARGH!

  —MY ARM!

  —Alex?

  —I think I dislocated my shoulder.

  —You broke his arm, Eva, now stop this!

  [Tough luck. He shouldn’t have come with you if he didn’t want to get hurt.]

  AAARGH! Screw this! I’m beaming us out of here!

  —We’re on our back, Vincent! Where can we—AAARGH!

  —UP, ALEX! WE’RE GOING UP!

  …

  —Where are we?

  —About five hundred feet in the air.

  —You’re insane!

  —Maybe. We’re falling. Brace yourself, this is gonna leave a mark!

  —FUUUUUUCK MEEEEEE!!!!

  FILE NO. 2196 (CONTINUED)

  MISSION LOG—WARRANT OFFICER EVA REYES AND LT. BARBARA BALL, U.S. MARINE CORPS, MECHA DIVISION

  Location: Aboard Lapetus. Seoul, South Korea

  —MOVE, BARBARA! THEY’RE ABOVE US!

  —Abo—AAAAAAARRGH!

  —…

  —Eva, I need help.

  —Aagh…

  —Eva?

  —My…My left arm’s broken.

  —Eva, I need help. I—

  —I’m here, Barbara.

  —I don’t know what happened. My legs…

  —They fell on top of us, Barbara. They beamed into the yokits sky. Are you OK?

  —I can’t move my legs.

  —Get out of your station, Barbara. I’ll come down and beam us away.

  —I can’t get out. That machine I’m in. I think it broke, crushed my legs inside it. I can’t feel them. I can’t feel anything from the waist down.

  —I’ll come help you!

  —No, don’t. You’ll do more harm than good. They’ll need to take this thing apart to get me out of it.

  —Your face is bleeding.

  —Oh…I might have broken my nose on the console. Where’s Themis?

  —She’s on her back right next to us.

  —What are you doing, Eva?

  —I’m dragging us on top of her.

  —I won’t be able to get up, Eva. It’s over.

  —Give me the weapon.

  —Eva. No.

  —Fine. I’ll hit with my hands. I’m not giving up, Barbara.

  —Jesus Christ, Eva.

  [Eva, are you there?]

  —Fuck you, Dad.

  [Eva, you have to stop! We have to stop!]

  I won’t stop! I won’t do what you want.

 

  I’m done listening to you.

 

  My whole life, you tried to tell me what to do. Yokits, that hurts! Well, not anymore, Dad. You’re done ruining my life. You’re—

 

  WHAT, Central? What do you want?

 

  Good question, Central. What is our status? That contraption of yours crushed the lieutenant’s legs. We can’t walk. I have one good arm.

 

  Retreat? I’m losing you, Central. The signal’s bad. Real bad.

  [Eva, my copilot’s unconscious, maybe dead. I’d leave if I could, but you have to stop.]

  You stole my yokits life, Vincent!

  FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)

  MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV

  Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea

  —Eva, my copilot’s unconscious, maybe dead. I’d leave if I could, but you have to stop.

  [You stole my yokits life, Vincent!]

  Eva, I’m sorry.

  [You stole my life just so you could get back here! To your life in this…cesspool!]

  Oh God, Eva. You don’t know what I did, what we had to do to get you back here. You have no idea.

  [Who is we? What did you do?]

  Rose and I, after Eugene died, we swore to each other we would get you back home safe. We thought we could do it, find a way home, but we didn’t. We couldn’t. We…I gave up everything, Eva. I gave up everyone.

  [What does that mean? What did you do, Vincent?! WHAT DID YOU DO!]

  The empress, she offered us a way home. But she…She wanted to take over, she needed to make arrests.

  [Oh, no! No! No! No!]

  I did it, Eva. I gave up everyone, all our friends.

  [YOU MOTHERFUCKER!]

  AAAARGH! I did it Eva! I killed them. I gave her Esok’s name. She’s dead because of me.

  [I’LL KILL YOU!!!]

  DO IT! Do it, Eva! If that’s what you want, keep punching! AAARRRGH!!!!

  …

  [They didn’t do anything, you stupid yokits asshole! They didn’t do it! We didn’t do it! There was no Hand of Yetskots!]

  I know!

  [What?]

  We knew, Eva. We knew from the beginning it was all a sham. We knew the minute the empress told us about the Hand, the minute she said she wanted to swoop in and save the day.

  [And you gave up all our friends anyway! IIIIII HAAAAAATE YOOOOUUUUU!]

  AAAARGH! Do you think the empress fucking gave a shit whether you did it or not? AAAAGH! COME ON! You can hit harder than this! She was going to get them. She had all of their names! She was going to kill you! I did i
t, Eva. I gave up everything. I gave up who I was. I turned on everyone I loved. I betrayed an entire fucking planet to save you, Eva.

  [I hate you—]

  I know you do, Eva. If you want to kill me, go ahead! Do you think I care if I live or die after all that? I don’t have anything left. I lost you! I was willing to lose you if it meant you could live. I was willing to lose everything. And I have. But you’re alive. You’re alive, Eva. I don’t give a shit what happens to me now.

  …

  Do it, Eva! Finish this!

  FILE NO. EE463—PERSONAL FILE FROM ESAT EKT

  Personal Log—Dr. Rose Franklin and Vincent Couture

  Location: Assigned residence, Etyakt region

  —I did it, Rose. It’s done.

  —Where’s Eva?

  —Eugene’s house. I didn’t want to bring her back to our place.

  —The Imperial Guard?

  —They left with Iyets right after we found him.

  —I was hoping they’d escort us to Themis. I suppose we’ll have to get there without them. We need to go, now.

  —Now?

  —Yes, now. Enatast was just here. The insurgents, or so we’re told, seized control of…hundreds of robots. They’re marching on Osk right now. There are hundreds more lining up to stop them.

  —How can they do that? Take control of the robots?

  —I don’t think they can.

  —It doesn’t make any sense, Rose. The empress can put up signs, blow up a few buildings, but I can’t imagine the Imperial Guard fighting against itself just to put on a show.

  —I don’t know, Vincent. All I know is we have to leave before this turns into a full-blown civil war.

  —All right, I’ll go get Eva. Then we grab Ekim and go. I know where we can find him.

  —Do you think he’ll do it?

  —He doesn’t have a choice. I can’t fly Themis through space, and I wouldn’t know where to go if I did. We’re not going anywhere without him.

  —This is it, Vincent. It’s really happening. Are you OK with all this?

  —I don’t regret anything if that’s what you’re asking. Are you OK?

  —I’m scared. I’ll be honest, I’m having second thoughts. I’m not so sure we’re doing the right thing. Maybe we could have stopped this.

  —You know what, Rose? We didn’t start it. We couldn’t stop it, but we didn’t start it. That’ll have to be enough. I’m sure the Ekt will forgive us for not trying to intervene.

  —Haha! Must be really nervous. That’s not funny at all. What is that?

  —It’s a gun. One of the guards gave it to me.

  FILE NO. 2195 (CONTINUED)

  MISSION LOG—VINCENT COUTURE AND SERGEANT ALEXANDER VASILIEV

  Location: Aboard Themis. Sinuiju, North Korea

  —Finish it, Eva! Just keep hitting if you hate me so much.

  …

  [I can’t hit you anymore, Dad.]

  Eva, I love you. You have no idea how much I—

  [I said hit, Dad, not hate.]

  I know, Eva.

  [I mean I literally can’t hit you. I can’t lift my arm anymore.]

  That’s a start, Eva. That’s a start. Can you get up?

  [No. My copilot’s legs are gone.]

  Mine’s unconscious. Does that mean we’re done killing each other?

  [Dad, I…Yes, we’re done killing each other.]

  Good.

  [We’re in trouble. I’m in trouble. The—]

 

  Hold on a sec, Eva. I gotta talk to Moscow.

  We’re on our back, Katherine. Lapetus is lying on top of us. I think that about sums it up.

 

  Then why are you asking me?

 

  Well, like I said, we’re on our back.

 

  Maybe, if Alex ever wakes up. He looks pretty banged up.

 

  I’m not even sure he’s alive, Katherine.

 

  That’s sweet of you to worry about me, I—

 

  Poor you.

 

  I can’t get up, Katherine. You need a new plan.

 

  Hold them off? You mean kill them?

 

  Not helpful. I can’t aim from here without Alex. I can fire a blast all around us, but that’s pretty indiscriminate. Let me see if Lapetus can do anything.

 

  Well, I doubt they’re looking forward to whatever is in store for them if they get caught, and I don’t think the US will be too happy to lose Lapetus either. Right now, I’d say we’re allies. You said Beijing wouldn’t talk to you. Try Washington. I’m sure they’d be happy to carpet bomb this place for you if they have planes nearby. For that matter, why don’t you? Warn the Chinese beforehand, they’ll leave, and we can all have dinner together. I’m starving.

 

  I’m disappointed in you, Katherine. Now I feel like I picked the wrong country to be blackmailed by.

 

  Gotta go. I can see the Chinese Army.

  Eva?

  [What took you so long?]

  Meh, just Moscow telling me the Chinese are coming, so are the Koreans, and that they’ll kill us the minute either of them reaches Themis. How’s your day?

  [They just told me the same thing. The US did. They’ll blow my head up, Dad. Can you get us out of this?]

  I’m gonna try and send a small blast around us without killing everyone. Maybe they’ll keep their distance.

  [You’re worried about the Chinese Army?]

  I’m not going to kill a million people just to save the two of us, Eva. Sorry.

  [I get that. But I can learn to live with myself if a dozen of them don’t make it and my head doesn’t explode. Yokits! The North Koreans are closing in too. I don’t think we can save everyone, Dad.]

  No, we’ll both burst if they start shooting at us. We need to take the Koreans out. C
an your robot fire at all? Those big bolts of light would come in pretty handy right about now.

  [My copilot’s passed out. I’ll get out and see if I can wake her up.]

  All right. I’ll send a small blast. Maybe they’ll get spooked.

  [Whoa!]

  What?

  [Our leg’s gone. You obliterated our leg.]

  I’ll buy you a new one. That thing was ugly as hell anyway.

  [She won’t wake up, Dad. There’s a pool of blood under her legs. She needs help.]

  There’s nothing you can do for her, Eva. Not right now. Look at the console. Find the button that looks like an equal sign with a dot above it.

  [There isn’t one. They’re coming, Dad. The Koreans are coming.]

  I’ll send out another burst. There. Did they stop?

  [I don’t think so, no.]

  You need to find that button, Eva. Themis hasn’t had a lot of time to recharge. She’ll run out of energy real quick. You’ll have to do it after that.

  [There’s no equal sign!]

  Look closer, Eva. It should be on the right.

  [It’s not! There isn’t one, Dad!]

  There has to be!

  [The console’s different! I see the numbers you showed me, but there’s no yokits equal sign! Dot, or no dot.]

 

  Yes, Katherine, we can see them too.

 

  No, they’re not. I could be wrong, but I’d say you just lost a friend. It looks like the Koreans are going for Lapetus. They’re bringing in a bunch of trucks. I see large spools of cable.

 

  Best guess is they want to drag him away from Themis.

 

  So they can get to us. Themis is on her back. They can’t access the hatch unless they flip us over. They can’t do that with Lapetus on top of us.

 

  You mean alive, right? Because they’ll “take me” regardless. I can slow them down, but you need to do something.

 

  [Dad!]

  Oh, shit. I see it. They’re tying cable around Lapetus’s leg and arm. Eva, I’ll send out another burst. That should get rid of those cables, but you need to get back to your station.