The General's War

by Michael Poeltl

  Ginny is kneeling with him. She places a hand on SENTA’s head while her other offers reassurance upon his shoulder. “Let me take her from you,” she gently submits.

  “She was only a robot. It was not my mother,” he submits, unable, or unwilling to look away from her brown, soulful eyes. Not soulful, he remindes himself. Fake. Like the rest of her. Like her memories. Faked and artificially downloaded into the machine’s data banks. Nothing more. She played a role and got them this far. Confusion. Upheaval. War. An ignorant pawn in a much bigger game.

  “Perhaps,” he starts. “Perhaps we should not have used the memory of my Mother in this way.”

  “It is done, Tobias. It is done and there can be no regrets,” Ginny tells him in a soft voice. It is the softest tone he’s ever heard her use. It was unbecoming of her. As his pining for a mother he’d said goodbye to ten years ago is unbecoming of him.

  Tobias releases his hold on SENTA’s crown and it drops with a thud upon the steel plating. He lifts himself up with the assistsance of the counter and Ginny, brushing himself off. He inhales deeply and exhales with a shudder, shakes his head and rakes his fingers through his short beard.

  “Have they located my uncle yet?” Then a scream echos through the ship. Tobias looks at her and they rush out of the kitchen and into the great room.

  “Where are all the Hosts?” Ginny asks him, a look of fear betraying her.

  “That might have been the chancellor,” he proposes, not convincing himself, let alone Ginny.

  “The Hosts are taking this opportunity to single out Chimera.” She tells him, eyes lit in anger.

  “They wouldn’t dare,” he assures himself.

  “They’ve been quietly waiting for an opportunity. They know we are stronger even though we are less then half of them aboard,” she submits.

  “We came with eighteen.”

  “Yes, and they with forty-five.”

  “We can’t beat them if they have three to one odds against Chimera, if we’re not united in numbers.” He flies up the steps to the catwalk and into the control module, turns on the ship com and announces for everyone to return to the great room immediately. He and Ginny brace themselves and wait for their tribe to return.

  ______________________________________________________________________

  It’s gotten very hot in the crawlspace leading up to the weapons generator room. Once inside, Raymond determines it is roughly three metres’ square. A number of exhaust fans situated around the room’s central power source hum lightly.

  “Do you think you could shut it down, Chancellor?” Labyrinth asks as he crawls on all six appendages to investigate the generator.

  “Let’s leave that answer until I have looked at what we’re dealing with.” Raymond wipes his brow for the tenth time in the last minute and stands in the small room. “Can you link with the source and download any useful information?”

  The Host inserts a wireless probe into the appropriate port and is silent for a moment. “There are many security protocols to by-pass if we attempt to shut it down through authentic login procedures.”

  “Unless you have those in your back pocket, I don’t see how we’re going to accomplish that.” The heat is making Raymond irritable.

  “I was outfitted with code-breaker software to augment my stealth in breaking and entering. I will apply it here.”

  The chancellor is nervous, but glad they’ve made it this far. Disrupting Tobias’ ability to make war is essential, and if Quinn has taken command of the ship, Raymond doesn’t want Hosts running around with an energy weapon either. In memory of Samantha, his sister, he vows to work towards a non-violent end to this war.

  But Samantha is gone, again. Was it ever really her? If this is all some grand design to take down civilization, it was an especially cruel one.

  “Chancellor,” Labyrinth says. “I have made some headway here, though I calculate another hour or more if indeed I can continue along this path to success.”

  “I think we’re safe here for the moment. Continue your work and I will keep an ear to the floor.” There were no windows or vents in which he could see beyond the room situated six metres above the ship’s mid-deck. Labyrinth relays to him that they are directly beneath the control module. Listening for trespassers was all he could hope to manage. They were in no way prepared for whomever might discover them and breach the weapons room. There was precious little either could do to fight them off.

  Then Raymond hears a call for the Chimera to return to the great room over the ship’s com. They’re calling the search off, he thinks. But why? Have they located his position through other means? Was it only a matter of time now before they arrive to stop this act of sabotage?

  “Did you hear that?” He asks his Host counterpart.

  “I did. I’m also listening in on House Quinn’s conversations - they have decided to return as well so not to seem suspicious.”

  “That should prove interesting,” Raymond suggests.

  “They’ve eliminated three Chimera,” Labyrinth explains, nimble fingers still working at his task.

  “That leaves fifteen, and what, forty-four of you?” The chancellor does the math.

  “Two have perished, so forty-two without me.”

  ______________________________________________________________________

  “Welcome back,” Tobias greets his tribe, counting each as they emerge. The Host’s trail behind. He doesn’t like being out-numbered like this, but considering his recent history, he has beaten worse odds. “We are missing some of you.” The Chimera look about their ranks and agree with their leader’s count. “Perhaps they are lost.”

  The others don’t buy into that explanation any more than he does and turn to look at the Hosts. The rebel Hosts spread out to fill the back of the great room.

  “Why do you look to us?” Quinn asks.

  “We look to you because there was a cry for help earlier and it wasn’t one of yours.” Accuses a stout Chimera outfitted with an artificial chasis of his own, housing twin canons, which Tobias has witnessed blasting a hole through thirty centimetres of steel plating.

  “If one of yours has fallen from a height it was not Host who pushed him.”

  “Three are abscent from my count,” Tobias shouts from overhead. “Are you suggesting three have fallen and then disappeared? I pray your House has played no part in this, Quinn.”

  “You are in no position to accuse, Tobias,” Quinn asserts. “You murdered an important member of our House in plain view, and we are many more than you.”

  Tobias’ back goes up and he spreads his wings, travelling down to meet his adversary with a whoosh of air. His wings retract and implants cause his eyes to glow red.

  “You do not frighten us, Chimera,” Zander steps in front of Quinn. He is a towering Host, an F-class reinforced to take serious punishment. Tobias breifly entertains the thought of whether he could beat him in a fight.

  “What happened to your mighty horn, Zander? Did you bump your head on something?” Tobias waves where the absentee horn ought to be.

  “Poor workmanship,” he growls back. Tobias smiles at that. An insult meant for the Shadow Brokers who helped reimagine his form.

  “All the same, you look cock-eyed, Zander, and I know how Host appreciate symmetry. Can we help you find it? Where did you lose your horn?”

  “It is lost, Tobias, that is all you need know.”

  It is obvious to him now that Host has murdered Chimera, but in the interest of maintaining the façade of their alliance until the destroyers and goliath-class vessels arrive, he bows out.

  “If you do not want our help, I retract the offer.” He turns and again is airborne. He looks to his Chimera. “Host is our friend. Do no harm. Go to the galley and eat, but do not drink the wine. Our celebration arrives in three days’ time.”

  Tobias catches Zander’s eye and winks at the massive Host. He determines Zander to be the strongest of House Quinn, and should like an opportuni
ty to test his own strength and skills against him soon. In three days, perhaps.

  “Let the chancellor run, there is nowhere he can go. In a few days, he will look for food and water. Let him come to us.” Tobias lands again on the catwalk and watches as Hosts mingle and his tribe flood the kitchen.

  Ginny approaches and places a hand on his arm, smiling up at him. Her other hand falls playfully over her small breasts, supported by just a black cloth, wrapped tightly around her torso. The image of Chimera is branded into her pale skin above the left breast. He reaches for it and caresses the symbol. Then he takes her chin and pulls her mouth to his. They kiss for a long while. Deeply. Passionately. He knows his will commands her heart. He is comfortable with that. She is young. Eighteen, maybe. They’ve never discussed it. They met in the Shadow net and spoke often over a two-year period. When she decided to begin altering herself and upgrading, he walked her through each painful experimental proceedure. She boasts several implants. Most are unseen, Nano-tech, under the skin. She is a pretty little thing, and Tobias likes that about her. He didn’t want her looks spoiled as some have done.

  “You don’t believe we are friends with them, do you,” she states.

  “No, Ginny. They are pawns, and you are my Queen.”

  ______________________________________________________________________

  “How much longer must we play this game, Quinn?” Zander is furious.

  “I have located our friends in the new corvettes via the Shadow net. They are orbiting the moon now. It would appear they are on the opposite side, blind to us.”

  “So, blind to Chimera,” Zander deduces. “We need them now, Quinn. We have no use for these Chimera, and should take this ship before the destroyers arrive.”

  “I have also been in communication with our fellow Hosts on the other corvettes under Chimera control.”

  “Why haven’t you shared this with the rest of us?”

  “I did not want to disrupt the status quo just yet. A plan is being considered. They know what we’ve done; that three Chimera are dead. They know that the new corvettes have arrived. Now we plan a coup.”

  “Bring the new corvettes to us! Have them engage our ships, and in the fight, we can cut them down from within.”

  “That has been considered, Zander, but rejected, for now. The new ships are not as robust as these. Their construction was quick, and the armour not as layered as are ours. An open confrontation could destroy them all.”

  “So, we wait?”

  “The new corvettes have a compliment of one-hundred-thirteen rebel Hosts. We are forty-three. The other Chimera-controlled ships include seventy-seven Host.”

  “Two-hundred-thirty-three Hosts,” Zander says with a grin.

  “Correct. Chimera numbers are just sixty-four. Fiftteen here, and the remaining forty-eight between the other corvettes.” Quinn states triumphantly.

  “Then we sabotage these ships, render their weapons useless; the others could board our ships and we could take them in hand-to-hand combat.”

  “Yes. We have the numbers, but not the ships.” Quinn reinforces. He appreciates Zander’s enthusiasim, but not his impatience.

  “Then we need to move against the ship first, then the Chimera.”

  “Exactly. Sabotage is our next move,” Quinn reveals.

  A rumble from beneath their feet brings the Hosts and Chimera to the viewing ports as they watch in disbelief as bright flashes of light appear all around them.

  THE GREAT ESCAPE

  “I believe I have done it, Chancellor,” Labyrinth exclaims. “The couplers which deliver the energy to the weapon have been uncoupled. I am developing a new passcode to protect it from being reactivated. Any energy produced upon command will be radiated into space via the cooling system, rather then transferred to the weapon.”

  “Excellent work, Labyrinth!” Raymond congratulates the squat, faceless Host. “Now, if only there were a way off of this ship.”

  “But there is Chancellor,” Labyrinth replies. “Each corvette is fitted with six life-ships. Each can carry a dozen humans.”

  Raymond is thrilled wth this news. “Can we get to one unnoticed?”

  The Host is silent a moment as Raymond imagines he is calculating a path. “Yes, in fact they are just two levels below us.”

  “I’m surprised Tobias did not use them in his assault against the earth defences,” he states.

  “They are not fitted with any weapons, nor could they be. They are simple cylilndrical ships with little more then a thruster and navigation system. Currently they are programmed to return to Luna Base.”

  “That’s a stroke of luck.” The chancellor feels a sense of relief wash over him. “Well, if we’re done here, let’s make our way to the shuttles.”

  “I won’t be joining you, Chancellor.”

  “Labyrinth, we want the same thing; peace. We can help each other achieve that.” The idea of making this trip alone frighten Raymond.

  “I will help you achieve that, but I will not go with you. I will offer my concerns to Quinn. I will continue what SENTA began. I will do my part here.”

  “But you said he may decommision you.”

  “He may, he does not respect me as he did SENTA. I must try though. For Host, for humanity. I may get through to him.”

  “And if you can’t?”

  “Host has not killed Host in this fight yet. Perhaps Quinn will continue this pattern. Perhaps he won’t. In my past life, I was a good person, Chancellor. I carry that morality with me now, as SENTA had in Samatha’s memory. I cannot ignore it. I can do the most good here. On Luna Base, you will be able to do more good there.”

  “Very well, can you get me to the shuttles?”

  “Follow me.” Labyrinth crawls back the way they’d entered the weapons generator room and climb down a ladder to find themselves just one floor above the shuttle bay. The chancellor is weak from little sleep and no food the past seventy-two hours or so. His mouth feels like a desert and his muscles ache. His Host guide opens a hatch in the floor and urges Raymond to enter. He does.

  Inside the shuttle bay six torpedo-like ships, each six metres long and two wide, line either side of the room. They are black, metallic and carry no insignia. Each face outward, where a circular gate must spiral open before launch.

  Labyrinth climbs inside the nearest shuttle and initiates the launch sequence. “Get in, Chancellor.”

  Raymond does not hesitate, the sooner he is off this ship the happier he will be. He pulls the safety bar over his chest and nods to his Host friend.

  “Good luck, Labyrinth. Thank you for your help.” He mops up the sweat again gathering at his hairline.

  “Thank you for your dedication to your sister’s vision of a peaceful resolution, which will see Host and human sharing a world, and the stars.” He closes the hatch and Raymond watches as the counter moves from thirty to twenty-nine, twenty-eight, and so on. Looking back, he see’s Labyrinth setting the remaining shuttles to launch as well. Clever, he thinks. Even though Tobias is weaponless, the other two corvettes could still target his shuttle. With all six heading for the moon, his odds of a safe landing will increase.

  His shuttle launches at incredible speeds and Raymond feels G’s on his body. The gate opens and there are two seconds where he is in a long, dark tube before being spit out into space. The ship corrects its course abruptly, and then reaching a constant speed eases gravity’s push, and he is in-line for Luna Base. Looking back, he watches as the other five shuttles burst from the corevette’s belly.

  “Arrival time – Three-minutes.” A computerized voice announces. Raymond’s heart is pounding. Then he is hailed on the com.

  “Identify yourselves.” It must be Luna Base, he realizes.

  “Chancellor Raymond Bellows,” he responds, unsure of whether just shouting out his name will enact some voice recognition system.

  “Chancellor?” The voice says back. “Is anyone else with you?”

  “No, I’m alon
e - the other shuttles are decoys.”

  “We’re tracking you. You’re heading straight for our east pad. I will have a team waiting to retrieve you when you land.”

  “Thank you. Is that Commander, Darla?”

  “The same, Chancellor. Good to speak with you again.”

  “I hope to see you very soon.” He’s nervous, and feels his voice rattle as he speaks. The ride is not as smooth as the shuttle’s shape suggested. A bright flash interrupts one anxiety for another as he witnesses three of the decoy shuttles burn along the moon’s horizon behind him.