by David Ryker
I’d completely forgotten that it’d been ripped out of the socket just a few days ago. I lifted it and circled my hand over my head, clenching and unclenching with ease. “They’re good — better, actually. They feel great.”
She nodded again. “I’m glad to hear it. While we were treating your infection, we discovered that they were both damaged. We fixed them, along with a number of other underlying issues we discovered.”
“What underlying issues?” I couldn’t keep the alarm out of my voice.
“You need not worry, now. You’re healthy, and that’s all that matters. Our nano-technology is second to none. You shouldn’t find any problems with our repairs — and if anything, they should prove more robust than the previous iterations.”
“You mean my original shoulder and hand?” I held up my right fist and curled it, seeing the sinews roll under the skin.
“Yes — the nano-particles have bonded to the ligaments, bones, and muscle fibers, and have reinforced them. Repeat instances should be less likely to occur now.”
The elevator bottomed out and we stepped into a long lobby. The floors were polished marble and huge trees wound their way up through the building, their shapes interspersed with pools of flowing water. It cascaded down glass channels mounted in the trunks, and colorful birds flew around them, singing sonorously. At the back of the building, balconies circled the trees, cutting out with each floor until they met the glass outer wall high above, creating a huge curved pitch that was easily forty stories up. Long tendrils hung from the trees, laden with leaves.
“All of our constructions,” Rhona said, casting her hand around the room, “are completely eco-neutral. Our presence has no effect on the indigenous populations, and we integrate nature into every facet of our architecture. The wildlife have nothing to fear from us, and as such, their existence is unaffected by our presence.” She looked me up and down. “However, being made of meat, as you are, I would keep an eye out when we leave this building. Predators are not bothered by us — however, they can’t eat us.” She laughed a little and took off.
I followed, not sure if she was joking. We passed androids of all types, shapes, and sizes as we left the building and headed down one of their utopian streets.
Now, bathed in the bright light of day, the city was a sight to behold. Buildings lanced into the sky like shards of a broken mirror. They towered upward, curling and leaning at odd angles that made it look both chaotic and beautiful all at once. Vines stretched between them and birds perched, impossibly high. Hanging creepers clung to their sides and tumbled into space. Lines of glittering water spilled off ledges and disintegrated into mist on their way down.
We passed under a glass walkway, a thin spray of rain landing on the canopy and tickling down into carved gutters that watered lines of trees and plants set alongside the main drag. The sounds of birds and animals punctuated the din of thousands of androids chattering away like people in any other city. Though they weren’t rushing to or from somewhere, not dressed for work, or for anything. They stood in groups, discussing art or history, they sat reading books, they painted and drew, and they laughed and told stories. It really did seem perfect, and it was all without a single human.
Rhona read my expression. “Every citizen of Aelock is an android of some kind. They bring with them nothing except the desire to be free and the will to do good. Everyone lives in the same domiciles, has the same responsibilities to the planet and the city and to each other, and is free to take what they need, whenever they need it — from nature, or anywhere else. We have no need for money — and perhaps that is what makes this place so perfect. No one is wanting, and that allows us to exist outside of your petty squabbles.”
I clenched my jaw. “And what about those androids who don’t want to follow your rules?”
She didn’t stop, and nor did her voice change at all. “There’s no place for them here.”
“I thought this was a safe haven for androids?”
She glanced over her shoulder, giving me something like a cold look. “And what gave you that idea?”
I shrugged, pocketed my hands in the jacket, and followed her on. They were wool-lined and warm, though the planet wasn’t cold.
She reached an intersection and peeled left down a much quieter stretch of street. Overhead, hover-crafts zipped in lines, traveling who-knows-where. On the street beneath them, a layer of glass over solar panels, not many people were walking. Rhona picked up the pace again. She wasn’t getting tired, but I was. Despite being in perfect health, my stomach was empty and three days of no food was making me feel groggy. Still, the air quality here seemed much better than on whatever planet we’d crashed on, so breathing was easier at least.
She cut right again and entered into a low-slung building that had the word ‘Station-927’ etched in glass over the doors. Inside was empty, apart from a single platform. A mag-lev track lay beyond it, but there was no sign of a train.
We stepped to the edge and waited.
“Where are we going?” I asked, trying to break the silence.
“I’m taking you to Glaavus. He’s with your friends. He has something he needs to discuss with all of you. He’s spoken to them at length, as well as to the mind known as Greg. And now he wants to speak to you, too.”
“What about?” I clenched my hands. They were starting to sweat.
“You’ll find out soon enough. Now come on, this is our train.”
By the time I opened my mouth, a sleek white bullet pulled into the station and descended onto the tracks. We stepped into the near-empty interior and a second later it rose back up and then took off, circling the city in minutes and then heading into the wilderness.
We accelerated hard until everything was a green blur, and then we were slowing down again.
When we disembarked, I looked back down the tracks and saw that the city was a glittering cluster of needles on the horizon, and between us and that was an ocean of dense forest. We, however, were in front of a huge domed structure that was probably the biggest building I’d ever seen.
The platform let out onto a fenced-in walkway that led straight toward a single door. It was nearly ten meters across and was perfectly round. On either side, two droids stood with rifles held across their chests. They were big and powerful-looking bastards with wide shoulders and hands that could have crushed my skull without thinking too much about it. I cast them just a cursory glance as we approached. Rhona and I were dwarfed by the pair.
She stood in front of the huge door and a tiny eye lit up at chest height and scanned her. The whole thing split in the middle and opened like an aperture, rotating outward until it was fully open.
We went inside and it promptly closed behind us. The interior wasn’t dissimilar to the rest of the city — white polished floors, smooth walls, and a sense of utter cleanliness. A desk stood in the center of the room, a circular thing that was about two meters across. It was unmanned.
“Come on,” Rhona instructed, walking around it.
“What is this place?”
She exhaled, choosing the word. “Insurance,” she said cryptically, and then pressed on.
We passed through what seemed like endless corridors and then Rhona turned left and got scanned by another eye. An aperture door, albeit a lot smaller than the one at the front, spun open and she stepped in.
I followed and froze. They all stood up off their chairs and looked at me. “Guys,” I said, surprised. I mean, I was expecting to see them at some point, but it’d sort of side-swiped me.
They all looked well, adorned in similar dress to me. Their previous clothing had obviously been too dirty for Aelock.
They’d been sitting around a huge circular white table with a holo-projector in the center of it. It could have sat a dozen people, but the four of them were clustered on one side of the table. On the other stood Glaavus, regal as always.
Everett’s face lit up and she broke into a grin — totally unrestrained. She swallowed and kep
t her eyes on me, but didn’t say anything.
Mac raised his hands and clapped slowly. “Red ‘The Undead’ Maddox,” he laughed. “How many times are you gonna kick the bucket and come waltzing back through the door?”
I smirked. “Until it sticks, I guess.”
He clapped again and pointed at me. “We thought you really had bit it this time. I mean, drinking dirty puddle water on some alien world? Didn’t they teach you about bacteria in school?”
I flexed my jaw. People needed to stop saying that. “It wasn’t ‘dirty puddle water’ — it was… reasonably clean stream water.” I realized after I said it that it wasn’t much of a rebuttal.
He shrugged and took his seat. “Come on, we’re waiting on you.”
“As always,” Everett chimed in, still smirking. I returned it and she took her place.
Fish’s gills flickered, an odd word coming through tinny in my ear. “Good… See… You… Better.”
I met his eyes and acknowledged the gesture. He sat next, leaving Alice on her feet. But she wasn’t smiling. She had a steely look on her face, her nostrils flaring gently as she breathed. “Glad to see you’re up and about. How’re you feeling?” It wasn’t laced with concern.
“Great.”
“Ready for a fight?”
“Always.” Was she in charge suddenly? Everett didn’t seem to have a firm grip on the reigns, despite her seniority. She’d lost all her authority, it seemed.
“Good. Because we’re going to need all of us for this one, by the sounds of it.” She looked at the empty chair next to her, and then turned back to face Glaavus, sitting down and leaning forward on her elbows.
I took the seat and slid into it. Glaavus stepped to the table opposite and tapped something into a screen hanging off the edge. I didn’t know what any of this was about, but I was about to find out.
“Mr. Maddox,” he said, his voice deep, “let’s get you caught up quickly as possible. Now that you’ve recovered, time is of the essence.”
“Oh,” I said in response. I didn’t really know what else he was expecting.
He went on anyway. “Since you landed on Aelock, things have begun developing at an alarming rate. As we speak, the Federation’s Armada has amassed off Jokka — the planet on which you and your team crashed. A distress call was sent out prior to the crash landing of your ship.” He tapped the screen again and noise filled the air, belting out of the speakers under the table. It was grainy and drowned in wind rush, dropping in and out with the noise, but the voice was instantly recognizable. It was Volchec.
“— we have entered… and going down… we were in pursuit of Free rebels — possible Tenshi… some sort of wormhole generator… compact, used on small ships… disastrous… send aid… medical evac… military support… I repeat… this is Major Annelise Volchec in need of immediate—”
The recording cut off abruptly and died in the air, replaced with the quiet hum of static. Glaavus tapped some more things into the screen.
Mac leaned back and folded his arms, shaking his head. “Well, that explains why she didn’t bail out.” He tutted. “We were wondering why she stuck in there right to the end.”
Alice sighed and hung her head. “She had to reboot the comms system, prep it for long range emergency broadcast. Going through that worm flashed the system — fucked everything up. If she hadn’t, the Federation wouldn’t have known where the hell she was — where the Free were.”
“Loyal to the bitter end,” Everett said quietly. “Volchec was a hell of a soldier.”
Everyone mumbled in agreement.
“The best of us.” Alice clenched her fist and knocked it on the table before looking up at Glaavus. He was waiting tactfully for us to finish our sentiments before he went on.
When he was satisfied, he did. “The Federation are canvassing the planet for any sign of Free activity. Though they won’t find anything that tells them where they’ve gone.” He pulled up a pair of feeds from Jokka, no doubt coming from the Federation ships circling. How he was getting access I didn’t know. No one asked.
The two screens projected into the air above the table showed different scenes. The first was the crash site — the one that Everett and I knew well. The shot was from high up, and was circling. The band of forest was visible too, the stream flowing between the razor-leafed trees. My stomach started squirming as I looked at it.
The ship was still nose-down in the ground, its trail churned through the dirt. In every direction, the plain stretched out. Everything looked quiet.
The other image, however, was much busier.
There was a crag in the earth, in the center of a desert, with a cluster of rocks jutting out of the ground a couple of hundred meters on one side. The shade cast covered the crevasse underneath, which was filled with buildings and scaffolded structures. Piles of scrap gathered dust in the sunlight around it, and landing strips littered the nearby ground. A few derelict ships sat under fluttering tarps. The towers sticking out of the earth hugged the stone face, their façades a mishmash of scrap metal.
All around it were Federation drones and in the shadow of the face figures milled about, taking readings and tapping on pads.
“This is the facility that you were held prisoner at, correct?” Glaavus said, turning to Alice and the others.
They all nodded gravely. Alice’s expression was grim. “Can we move on?” she grunted.
Glaavus nodded. I looked at Mac over Alice’s back, my look questioning. He just shook his head, as though for me to drop it. What the hell had happened there?
“You commandeered one of their ships and escaped — correct?” Glaavus asked Alice.
She nodded. “Yeah. Got these two out,” she said, jerking a thumb at Mac and Fish, “and then swung north to look for Red and Everett. Then we came here.”
Glaavus looked at me now. “Do you have any questions before we move on?”
I did. I had lots. “Yeah — what happened on Jokka, I mean — you’re a prisoner one second, then you steal a ship the next? And you show up with Greg, too? How in the hell did you—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Alice cut in, snapping at me. Her fist was still curled in front of her. “They saw us fall out of the sky, came out to take our rigs. They dismantled them for scrap. When I was looking for Mac and Fish after I broke out, I saw a big pile of AI cores on a workbench. I was going to leave them all there — but then…” She sighed and looked at me. “I saw that one had a sticker on it that said ‘Greg,’ so I grabbed it. I know how… attached you are to him.” Her eyes were a mixture of anger and sadness. She wasn’t giving me the full story, but I didn’t think pressing her here and now for it was the right call. She said she’d gone looking for Mac and Fish after she broke out; but if they were all being held prisoner, then why wasn’t she with them? I swallowed, trying to keep my mind from running down paths that led to dark places.
“Thank you,” I said instead. “I would have gone back for him, if you hadn’t.”
She snorted. “If I hadn’t, you’d be dead.” Her words had bite, but she unfastened her teeth from my throat a little. “And I know you would have,” she said a little more sincerely. “That’s why I saved him. He’s important to you, and because he is — he’s important to us.”
I’d never heard her speak so freely about AIs before. Maybe being on Aelock was softening her heart to them. Or maybe she was lying through her teeth to impress Glaavus. I couldn’t read her. She seemed tense. Angry. Like she was on the verge of bursting into tears or flipping the table over. I didn’t think trying to get in her head would do me any favors either, so I stayed out of there and just nodded in thanks again.
Glaavus killed the feeds and pulled up a projection of a galaxy I didn’t recognize instead. “It’s because of that sort of attitude that you’re all here. I’m going to tell you something that very few people know, and if the powers that be found that I had, and had breached our agreement, it would plunge Aelock into an all-out war from wh
ich there would be no revival. The Federation would wipe us from the universe, once and for all, if they knew I was about to share this information with you.”
“So why are you?” Alice said, leaning back and folding her arms.
“Because without it, you’ll never succeed.”
“Succeed in what?” I interjected.
“In doing something that I hoped nobody would ever have to.” Glaavus sighed and enlarged a part of the projection.
Alice scoffed. “And what’s that?”
“Saving the universe.”
9
Everett shook her head. “I’m sorry, did you just say save the universe?”
“I did.”
Mac laughed. “You know we’re just a couple of mech pilots, right?”
“I do.”
Alice growled a little. “You’re going to have to give us a little more to go on here, Glaavus. Three days ago you were threatening to shoot us out of the sky, and now you’re telling us we’re going to be saving the universe?”
“I’m not telling — I’m asking. Or at least strongly suggesting.”
“And how the hell do you propose we do that — wait, back up a second,” Alice said, holding her hands up. “I think why is probably the better question? What have four beaten-up mech pilots, with no goddamn mechs, I might add, got to do with saving the universe? What makes you think we’re even capable of it?”
Glaavus leaned forward on his hands, looking tired. I didn’t think it possible for an android, but he did. “Given the choice of anyone in the galaxy, I wouldn’t have chosen you five, that much is true.”
Mac snorted. “Figures.”
Glaavus ignored him. “But you are in a very precarious, and important position, because you already know a secret that was buried millennia ago. And that makes you very dangerous.”
“To those who want to keep it a secret, I’m guessing,” Alice snorted.
“Yes, but it also places you in a position of great power, because you have a chance to do something great.”