The Goddess Gambit

by B Michael Stevens

  A soaring, wordless soprano voice meandered its way up the scales. Its originator, a small Latina woman-child, possessed of unearthly delicate beauty and innocence, stood on the stage, her visage shown from several angles on the mosaic of holo-vids behind her.

  Jon was slack-jawed. He had never paid much attention to anything Lily Sapphire and certainly hadn’t expected to see what was unfolding before him. That such a small girl could make such a massive sound was surprising enough. He decided, then and there, that if the creation of the entire universe had had a sound, it would be her voice. Jon stood perfectly still, confused by the flood of emotion he was undergoing.

  Lily was physically attractive enough too, but not in an overtly sexual way. Her baby-skin-smooth moon-face was childlike and innocent. She was not so much generic as she was archetypal. She wore a traditional dress, both cute and modest. Lily did not have to behave or dress like a harlot to sell out a stadium. Her presence was primordial, her talent unequaled.

  Lily so enchanted Jon that he hardly noticed the rest of the show: holograms, lights, and other special effects that dazzled the cheering crowd. As the song evolved, she began a cute little dance and was soon accompanied by a troupe of backup singers, presumably the previously unseen choir girls, who performed some excellently choreographed dance routines as well.

  Her opening number wrapped up to a standing ovation. Nobody in the entire stadium had been seated for quite some time. People stood on their chairs and danced in the aisles. Lily smiled and executed a series of short bows in three directions, aimed at the audience. Then, before everyone's eyes, her outfit changed, morphing from the traditional gown to a sporty pop ensemble. Jon was momentarily stumped, quickly realizing that her clothing must be holographic, or made of some kind of smart nanoparticles.

  "Simply amazing," he silently mouthed to himself. Until this moment he had assumed that only the military possessed that kind of advanced tech. Though he shouldn't be surprised, since Lily was the darling of Home, one of the Ziggurat's premier citizens, rumored to live among the upper levels, where the commanding officers and Warbak's administration planted their roots.

  Lily spun on her left heel, striking a pose so adorable it would make baby animals envious, and threw her stage crew a wink over her shoulder. The whole bit was caught by and enhanced on the vid-screens. A split-second later, the next song began—an up-tempo, pop-infused techno track. The crowd animated in sync with the music and the whole stadium began to bounce with the electric energy of a classic, solid-gold Lily Sapphire show.

  Lily skipped across the stage, swaying her hips and throwing backward glances at her captive audience, whipping her shoulder-length obsidian hair. Everyone bobbed their heads in unison to the rhythmic pulse along with her.

  For the last year, Lily Sapphire had been touching the hearts of the people all across the Human Republic. Branching out from the safety and security of the luxurious fortress city known both as the Ziggurat and Home, she had toured the enclaves of the Near Rough the past year, bringing a much-needed morale boost to the people of the Republic. When Warbak's administration had seen the positive influence she and her shows had on their constituency; they had practically given her the keys to the kingdom.

  Republic media coverage that nearly rivaled the Chairman himself constantly kept citizens informed of her doings and lifestyle. Every enclave that she visited boasted sold-out shows and a happier populace. Even in times of war, dimensional plague and reconstruction, people would gladly forget their troubles and dance ecstatically when adequately inspired. She was everyone's sweetheart, the mascot of the people. Jon had been too serious, too caught up in being the best soldier he could be ever to notice before, but now he understood. The war seemed lightyears away when Lily cocooned you in song.

  The next hour was a mélange of song and dance, displaying not only Lily's talents, but also her many personas. She could play up the innocent schoolgirl routine in the cutesy pop numbers, show off her dance skills in the bass-heavy, grittier dubstep tracks, and even reveal a touch of naughtiness without ever going overboard, then turn around and surprise her fans with surprising maturity and depth in her one of her more bittersweet love songs.

  While Carbine whooped and hollered, clapping and dancing the whole time, Jon just stood there, hypnotized, trying to form first a single thought, then many, then trying to sort them out, only to fail. He felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.

  It felt to him as if he had somehow known her his whole life, as if he had dreamt of her when he was still an embryo, that he had known her before he even knew himself, before he had a face and name, known her from before, like God. It was utterly inexplicable and were he able to think about instead of merely feel it, he would have chalked it up to a side-effect of the music on his dopamine and endorphin levels.

  When the current song stopped, Lily just stood there, grinning and flashing a peace sign at the crowd as they cheered, instead of going right into another number. She bowed a couple of times and then gently said 'Thank you' into the microphone. Her speaking voice matched her frame much more closely than her singing voice. Both were angelic, but her speaking voice was soft, quiet, shy and demure.

  "Thank you, people of Home! It's so good to be back in Home again!" Lily proclaimed, prompting another round of cheers. "How about we make a little noise for the graduates? New Breed, eh? Alright!" Had someone asked Jon five minutes earlier if the volume of the cheering could get any louder, he would have said it was impossible. He also would have been wrong. Lily's salutation to the New Breed seemed to double the intensity of her fans' cheers.

  "We need to take a quick break if you don't mind."

  Jon was humbled by her polite and innocent demeanor, asking her audience for permission to take a break after performing non-stop for over an hour.

  "But don't go far!" Lily leaned forward towards the audience over one hip and threw the crowd a wink. "Because we have a special treat for you in the next act!" She quickly stood up, spun on her heels and saluted the audience with two fingers, while simultaneously her nano-fabric outfit changed into a stylized version of the Republic military uniform. To Jon, she looked impossibly cute, like a child dressed in an adult's clothes.

  The dome lights slowly came on, and the magical arena became a dull auditorium, filled with a sea of buzzing fans. Many began making their way to the concession stands, beer gardens, and restrooms.

  Jon was still staring at the stage, lost in some soul-dream. His reverie was broken by Carbine, who had been repeating his name for some time and had finally resorted to shaking him by the shoulders.

  "Jon!" Carbine laughed incredulously.

  "Huh? What?" Jon shook the dream wool from his head and turned to look into the face of his companion. Carbine’s ebony-dark skin hid the ruddiness in his cheeks, but his exertion was betrayed by his heavy breathing and the beads of sweat forming drips on the ends of his short black curls.

  "I said, are you gonna stay here or come with?"

  "Come with... Huh? Where?" Jon mumbled.

  "To go get another beer." Carbine grinned like the devil.

  "Um, Um… I… I, um… guess I will just… stay here," Jon managed to get out.

  "Okay, bud. Be right back." Carbine gestured for Jon to step aside, then made his way out into the crowd. After a moment or two of standing there, staring into space, Jon finally sat down in his chair and stared at his feet instead.

  That girl... who is she...? Jon pondered the feelings he was having. All his life Jon had never allowed himself to be distracted by things like music and sports. He had instead poured all of his time and energy into his schooling and military training. He was a perfectionist, and his dedication had rewarded him with an officer's rank and squad leader position in the 23rd Mechanized Infantry upon graduation from the Academy, just last night. Suddenly, his straight line was askew; he felt that he was in a complete tailspin. Some little girl, some famous singer, some stranger had struck him so hard out of nowhere that he
couldn't even think. He was a soldier, perhaps not battle-tested, true, but trained, and New Breed to boot. Genetically engineered to have the strongest traits, to make for the best soldier. He had been born in a lab, raised by the State and trained in military applications since he could walk. He should not be so weak as to be distracted by a girl. He was distressed by this dilemma.

  Am I becoming Unpure? Why do I feel like I know her?

  The bright overhead lights went out like a reverse flash and were instantly replaced with a deep, dark red glow, giving the impression of a power outage, with emergency generators kicking in. Just as before, a deep bass rumble began to resonate and grow in volume. Jon snapped his head up towards the stage and saw tiny floating balls of blue-white light swirling in a dancing firefly matrix.

  A wavy, fluctuating high note began to bounce around the room through the excellent use of the arena’s surround sound setup. A small spotlight switched on, revealing Lily Sapphire, standing center stage in another dress, this one with quite a bit of flair. Her head was down, prayer-like, and her hands clasped together, palm to palm, fingers pointed towards the floor. Her handheld microphone was not present.

  Jon quickly glanced up the aisle to see if Carbine was returning or not. Seeing no sign of him, he returned his attention to the singer.

  The rumbling bass drone was resonating deep in Jon's skull. Its harmonics were similar to monastic chant, to the human voice. The drone buzzed in his ears, almost hypnotizing him, lulling him into a trance. Then, once he was entirely in the grip of the tone, Lily began to sing a haunting prayer-song and dance in slow motion.

  Jon wasn't sure how they were doing it, but Lily's voice now sounded like a hundred voices singing in unison, each of them her voice, not background singers. She was somehow harmonizing with herself. The effect was quite eerie and yet thoroughly amazing. The whole routine resembled a ritual more than a performance. She moved like living poetry.

  Moving around and with her were the swirling ghost lights, leaving eldritch tracers in the semi-darkness of the stage’s red hue. The little hairs on the back of Jon's neck were standing up, and he could feel the electric goosebumps all the way to the top of his head.

  The bass moved like wind, Lily moved like water. A polychrome display of self-transforming light-flowers began to appear, float about, and morph from one fractal geometric shape into another. Lily's voice began to crescendo. It seemed she was singing in a language, but it was neither the common trade pidgin, nor Spanish, nor English, nor any other language that Jon recognized.

  As her breath reached the end of the high note she had been holding, the stage was lit up by a burst of exploding starlight, a pseudo-nebula, and a slow, rhythmic beat of traditional drums and symbols began.

  It was then that it happened: special effects the likes of which Jon had never seen or even heard of. The space between Lily and himself suddenly bridged in his mind's eye. Tunnel vision, straight from his eyes to hers, surrounded by a periphery of dazzling lights in all the colors of an exploding star.

  She stopped singing as the music played, her unusual dance halted, and she stared directly into and through his eyes and into his soul. It genuinely seemed like they were face to face, only inches from each other, a trick of his mind perhaps, a trick of the show. She walked to the edge of the stage and bent slightly at the waist, staring at Jon the whole time, a small, satisfied smile forming on her perfect mouth.

  The ghost light fireflies transformed, evolving into a menagerie of exotic animals built from neon light. The light creatures finished their evolution and then took to flight, bursting through the centers of the floating geo-shapes, sailing out into the air across and over the crowd.

  Jon felt something touch him, deep inside, and he heard a voice. Spoken softly by lips that did not move, as if he had a com-piece deep in his inner ear, receiving a transmission from an unseen speaker. The voice was Lily's.

  "I trust you."

  Jon blinked rapidly and shook his head violently. When he stopped, the spatial distortion afflicting him had gone, and he was merely looking at Lily Sapphire standing on the edge of the stage, surrounded by the light show while the neon birds and jungle cats continued to perform their aerial maneuvers.

  She winked at him, smiled broader and then resumed her dance. Background singers picked up the monastic melody as she danced to the end of the song.

  "What did I miss?" Carbine shrieked over the music, having just returned in time to see Lily wink at Jon.

  "I go and get you a beer, and Lily freakin' Sapphire winks at you! I can't believe it! Arrgh! You're not even a fan!" Carbine waved his arms wide, throwing the contents of Jon's new beer across the nearby crowd.

  Jon turned to look at Carbine but was unable to say anything. He did, however, hear the song come to an end, its hymn replaced by the cheers of a very impressed fandom.

  "Thank you! Thank you!" Lily beamed. "You guys have made me the happiest girl on the planet!" As she spoke her dress transformed into another sporty pop get-up. "Now, let's wrap up the night with some serious dancing!" She pumped one fist up into the air and kicked the opposite foot's heel up to her butt.

  The lights changed from the deep red to a more celebratory spread of bright primaries. The next song kicked on and the arena pulsed with the beat and moving bodies.

  Carbine just stared at Jon and slowly shook his head, his famous grin threatening to return.

  "I hate you a little bit right now."

  The next song wasn't even halfway over before Carbine had returned to standing on his seat and yelling his appreciation at Lily.

  Jon for his part resumed his trance of contemplation and would have remained that way until the show had ended, were it not for the rude awakening he suffered upon noticing soldiers patrolling the aisles. Not just any soldiers either, but Scrubbers.

  Despite the curveball Lily had thrown him, his soldier's instincts for a quick assessment of the situation prevailed. His eyes narrowed as he studied the troops and went on high alert, watching to see what the trouble may be, or become. He reached out and nudged Carbine to get his attention.

  For a split second, Carbine was irritated at the interruption, but quickly realized what Jon was concerned about.

  "Scrubbers? What the heck are they doing here?" Carbine shouted over the noise.

  The two friends watched as several packs—each consisting of one Handler and three Sniffers each—spread out and began to circle the perimeter of the auditorium.

  Other than within the confines of their Ministry, the Scrubbers were seldom ever seen inside the Zigg. They spent most of their time keeping the Invasives and Unpure in check out in the Shanty.

  Their presence here at the concert only meant one thing: someone had been shaping Strange.

  One of the levels’ Strange sensors must have gone off. To think a possible esoterrorist is right here alongside us, me, here in the crowd.

  Jon watched as a pack drew closer to the area he and Carbine stood in. They came down the same aisle that Carbine had just returned from with the fresh beers. Up until this very point in time, Jon had been undecided as to whether or not the fact that the Handlers carried no weapons made them more intimidating or less. Now, seeing them up close, personal and in action, he decided that they were most assuredly more fearsome. The cold, mysterious demeanor of the Handler, perpetually hidden behind his closed faced helmet; the array of tubes and antennae jutting at odd angles from the armored head like some kind of robotic starburst; the way the cyborg canines seemed to hear unspoken commands, obeying their master telepathically—this man was in charge of his situation. These guys didn't mess around. One thought, just one split-second thought from a Handler, and his pack of Sniffers would pounce upon you, rending flesh from bone by way of their flat and pointed sharpened steel teeth.

  Several of the armored hellhounds had spread out in the arena, patrolling every aisle, pausing now and then to sniff the air. Jon knew there was more going on than met the eye. The massive beasts'
eyes and snout were completely enshrouded in metal, an array of Strange sensors built in. Representing the perfect amalgam of machine and flesh, the designers behind the Scrubber units had taken full advantage of the canines' instinct and knack for hunting and coupled it with the latest, cutting-edge, Invasive hunting technology and a telepathically enhanced, military-trained Handler. The result was both efficient and extremely deadly.

  Jon felt his pulse quicken as one of the Sniffers began to approach the row he and Carbine occupied. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong, however being this close to one of the ruthless killing machines was enough to make anyone question whether or not they had. Once the Sniffer was close enough, Jon’s gaze was drawn away from the blinking lights in the animal’s smooth, curved black screen that wrapped around its face, serving as eyes, to its paws. With each slow, deliberate step it took, the robotic feet flexed like the hydraulic shocks in a Heavy Mech's legs. Jutting out from each paw were a set of thick titanium claws that looked as if they could part steel as easily as flesh. The grace of the Sniffer’s locomotion was hypnotizing, its gyros and pistons working as flawlessly as the canine’s muscles and bones once had before its enhancement.

  Suddenly the smooth, fluid motion of the Sniffer’s patrol stopped, and Jon realized the machine-beast was looking directly at him.

  What the…?

  Several more blinks occurred behind the dark mirror lens that wrapped around the beast's face, then they too stopped, along with Jon's breathing. Again, slower this time, the Sniffer resumed its walking, although now it had ended its patrol down the central aisle and was instead coming directly towards Jon.

  Jon's confusion quickly turned to worry and was threatening to become full-blown panic as the Sniffer came to within five feet of Jon and opened its jaw in a rictus grin of over-sized, flat square metal teeth that all came to a uniformed and laser-sharp triangular tip. The teeth began to blur as they vibrated back and forth along imperceptibly small tracks in the jaw at several hundred oscillations per second. Jon shuttered involuntarily as he began to realize he may soon be on the business end of those technological terrors.