Horseplay

by Cam Daly

  It was also remarkably easy to spot the VSE facility. The Dallas metro area is fairly flat and open, so he could see the well-lit complex of buildings a few minutes before he was close enough to be obvious.

  He pulled over, thankful for the nominal weapons training he had received with his police job, and put the loaded combat shotgun across his lap and the pistol in the center console. The backpack was in the passenger footwell. He had realized while loading the vehicle that his own gear, including the camera which was the last keepsake of his engagement to Amanda, had been left in the cab when the Tumorish tried to abduct him that morning. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was past time to stop lugging that camera around and get a new one anyway.

  The Sneaker phone was in the left breast pocket of his shirt and positioned so that the camera was facing forwards. Its nearly inconspicuous earpiece was in his right ear. He held the correct button down for three seconds on the phone and in the backpack on the passenger side floor, Keryapt’s head powered on. Her voice almost immediately sounded in his ear.

  “Situation?” She sounded tense. He had been getting himself ready for this over the past few hours, but in her subjective time his decision had occurred only a few minutes ago. Since then she had focused on helping him plan out how to get in, but once there he would be mostly on his own.

  He tried to sound confident. “Almost there. I don’t know if you can tell, but the wall is bigger than it seemed in the street view from the web. After the next corner we will be headed towards the front gate to the complex.”

  “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  “Of course I don’t want to.” He knew that if he talked about it more, he might still back out. “How much longer until they could send Mez here?”

  “It would take hours to clean up the damage to my Interloper and install new arms and a head. Annealing the armor will be the most time consuming step, and it won’t be anywhere near as good as if were done in zero G. Farley told you ‘tomorrow’, not ‘tonight’, so I’d say we have at least until dawn.”

  “Let’s assume that dawn is the deadline. I’m taking the drugs now.” His new identity had a wide variety of prescriptions available to it at a national pharmacy chain. He had taken advantage of that by picking up a combination which would make him relaxed, feverish and pain tolerant for a short time. It would help him pass as Tumorish. He gulped them down without water. “Ugh. Those taste terrible.”

  “Better than the alternative. It’s unfortunate there wasn’t anything that could block Tumorish infection without incapacitating you.”

  “Yeah. I hope your Fleet friends come up with some sort of vaccine.”

  “It’s been done before. Given the sudden importance of this world, our xenobiologists will be working on it.”

  “Okay - I feel a little spaced out already. I’m going to drive over while I still can and you still have power.”

  “For the record, it is incredibly brave of you to do this. I wouldn’t have expected this kind of…willingness to risk yourself. I hope to talk to you again soon. Power me off til then.” He did, and noticed the fine beads of sweat starting to accumulate on his finger tips. And his forehead - Kery had told him that the first day or so of conversion would cause a significant fever, which would be obvious on infrared sensors. So he had to be feverish too.

  A couple of minutes of driving later, he turned the communication harness back on. He made sure to mutter his conversations with her under his breath. “Coming up on the guard house. Get ready.”

  He pulled to a stop in front of the wire gate emblazoned with a Veryan Systems Engineering sign. Just on the other side he could see three of the Knight mechs standing watch, then a hundred meter drive to the first large building.

  A human-looking guard leaned out of the windowed checkpoint. “Can I help you, sir?” He was a burly man who didn’t look like he fit especially well in his uniform. His head was covered by a military style helmet.

  Keryapt had coached him on what to say next.“We are eternal!”

  The guard did something with his face that could have been a smile. “Welcome, brother. We weren’t expecting you. Who are you and where are you from?” He casually raised a rifle from below the edge of the window and pointed it in Connor’s direction.

  “James Cooper. Chartoupfel.” The original home world of the Tumorish.

  “I meant…you are some raw meat, aren’t you. Can you tell me where we were after that?”

  The Tumorish equivalent to DNA carried information which the host inherited as memory. Shadow had analyzed the sample that Keryapt retrieved when rescuing Connor. Now Kery whispered in his ear and he repeated it aloud.

  “Perlesc. Bliau 2. The Frozen City. Heee. The…”

  The guard almost laughed. “Enough!” Only a Tumorish would know those places. “I am going to shoot you now. Ready?”

  “We are eternal!” With the drugs in his system, it was almost easy to remain detached and calm. He didn’t even flinch.

  “Bang! We don’t have enough meat here to waste it on tests. What weapons and skills do you possess?”

  “Nine millimeter pistol, 12 gauge shotgun, audiovisual installation and maintenance. Including security systems.” He had passed the first test. As they had suspected, the Tumorish were not expecting infiltration attempts.

  “Park your vehicle in the north lot, James Cooper. Proceed to building 5 for assignment and bring your weapons. Do not interfere with actions of our allies.” The guard pulled the rifle back into the guard house, pressed a hidden button and ignored Connor as the reinforced chain link gate slid open.

  There was just enough space between a pair of the Knight mechs to drive his car through. One of them turned its angular helmet of a face towards him and he studiously ignored it. Facial recognition would be harder if it didn’t have a straight-on view of him. They were similar - perhaps identical - to the units used by ESWAT but painted in a different dark color scheme and missing any sort of identifier on them. Connor didn’t recognize the heavy guns that they were carrying but knew they were definitely not police issue.

  “For a minute there I thought he was going to shoot you. Nice work.” Kery was more nervous than he was. “You are officially a moronic alien super soldier. The next step is up to you.”

  “Thanks.” He reached for the controls on the Sneaker phone to shut off the harness power.

  “Wait!”

  “What?”

  “I’m not ready. I just need a second. I don’t want- no, no, no. Okay. I just keep thinking…I was just right there, with Ormlan in my hands, and things were going perfectly, the pieces were falling into place, then suddenly I’m just here. With you. Shadow doesn’t even know. I don’t feel like me.”

  “Kery…you’re freaking me out a little. But remember what you said to me? It might get a little bumpy, like one of your amusement park rides. Try to focus on staying calm.”

  “Ha! You’re right. We can get through this. You can get me through this.” She sounded more calm as she talked. Connor realized that her lack of breathing made it harder to tell her mental state. A flesh and blood person would probably be hyperventilating.

  “That’s right.” There would only be a minute or so of power left and he wasn’t sure when he might be able to recharge it. “I need to park.”

  “Okay. Shut me off. I’m ready.” He pressed the button. “By the way, we don’t have amusement-.” She powered down and a wave of fearful loneliness swept over him. He knew he would be killed if he tried to just drive back out, but it was a struggle to not do just that.

  He followed the driveway to the left and headed towards the parking lot. As he drove, he passed a shipping container sitting by itself on the side of the road. It wasn’t near any of the lights but the moon allowed him to just make out the VSE logo on the side in huge letters. Farther around the perimeter of the fence he could see a few more of them, each placed by itself far from the building and out of the lights. If they were regularly spa
ced then he estimated there must be at least eight or ten of them.

  His was the only vehicle moving inside the fenced-in area so it was easy to park in the half full lot there. After a moment of adrenaline-fueled shakes had subsided, he got out of the car. At least sixty or eighty vehicles of various makes and models were there, some with a layer of dust that must have taken a few days to accumulate. There were streaks of dust and grime on his car as well, although the pattern it created on his roof was not a random act of nature.

  He strapped the backpack with Keryapt’s head on and cinched the straps as tight as possible. Carrying her around would be dangerous, but without the information she had it would be hard for him to pass as one of them.

  He inhaled deeply, exhaled and headed towards the closest of the large industrial buildings. There was a “5” stenciled next to a giant loading bay door and a smaller person-scale one, which he headed for.

  “Once more unto the breach, dear friends.” He wasn’t sure why he said it, but knew that it was from one Shakespeare play or another. He hoped that it was one in which the good guys survived.

  CHAPTER 11

  The noisy, sprawling interior of building 5 was clearly being used as a warehouse and barracks at the same time. At least a dozen men were busy sorting out stacks of everything from computer parts to canned goods. Most of them wore hard hats, but when one paused to take off his hat Connor shuddered to see a pattern of cuts that resembled a tic tac toe board.

  “James Cooper. Welcome!”

  Connor turned and saw a tall, ebony-skinned man come towards him. He had a camera headset like the one that the Tumorish Briggs had worn at the Transbay Tower that morning. Kery had told Connor that the camera could be monitored by the Craven himself, but it would be hard to tell when it was active or not.

  “I’m Harris. They told me you are raw, so we will keep things simple. Put your human weapons in the lockers here by the doors.”

  A haphazard collection of long guns and pistols had been shoved inside. The Tumorish didn’t seem to worry much about neatness. Connor added his.

  “Our real armory is in building 3, but I don’t want you on patrol until you are more settled.”

  Harris put a hand on Connor’s shoulder and steered him towards one side of the cavernous space. He pointed out a door, one of many on the same wall. “Through there are our food and rest chambers. We are keeping ourselves separate from the humans. If they enter our area, remind them to stay in buildings 2 and 4 for their own safety. Under no circumstances should you harm them. Their master is this man.”

  He brought up a hand tablet and swiped to an image of a tall bald man. Somehow Connor wasn’t surprised to recognize the man.

  “His name is Jason DeVries. He is an ally, but not one of us. Follow his instructions if they do not conflict with your assignment.”

  The leaden hand finally fell from Connor’s shoulder, but its smell lingered. The Tumorish hadn’t mentioned showers.

  “Finally, watch out for this Fleet agent.”

  Another image was brought up, this time of Kery wearing her dark gray combat mask. Connor recognized the background as the elevator lobby where she had rescued him.

  “If you see her then report immediately. Our allies have informed us that she might be heading here but her position is unknown.”

  So the Molu hadn’t told the Craven about the events at the airport. Kery was right about Ormlan’s plan.

  “Cooper. Pay attention.”

  He had missed what Harris said after the part about Kery. “We are eternal!” A few others in the area mindlessly echoed his statement. Somehow that scared him more than anything else he had witnessed so far.

  “You are assigned to this loading area. You won’t need that backpack, so just put it in the rest chamber in case it is needed by another.”

  Oh shit. He hadn’t thought they would care about what he wore or carried. He couldn’t just leave Kery sitting around for someone else to find.

  “Get food if you need it then find work that needs to be done.”

  He left without waiting for any sign of consent. The Tumorish way didn’t seem to involve a lot of debate or discussion.

  Connor tried to act as uncurious as possible as he headed towards the food chamber. There were a few electric carts parked near the large doors at the far end of the loading area, which clearly led to other buildings. He could overhear a few utilitarian conversations coming from the workers in this room but nothing that provided much information. The “humans” that Harris had mentioned must be the VSE staff, so he needed to find a way to building 2 or 4.

  The food chamber turned out to be a storage room with a pair of refrigerators and a microwave. Shelving units contained enough packaged food and energy drinks to feed an entire college dorm. Clothing and various pieces of equipment lay on the floor and in the chairs around a large table in the center of the room. A single door led farther away from the loading bay, but Connor didn’t want to waste the moment of solitude.

  He wasn’t feeling even vaguely hungry but grabbed some sort of frozen dinner and shoved its contents into a microwave to buy a few minutes. While it heated, he found a cluttered spot half hidden by the shelves with a power socket nearby. He hid the backpack at the very bottom of a pile of clothes and plugged in the cord for the communications harness. Hopefully none of the Tumorish would decide that he needed a backpack. There wasn’t enough charge to even warn Kery what he was doing.

  The microwave gave a half hearted ding and he took the food to the table. He had just started to gulp down some when the door on the far side of the room banged opened and a man walked out from the darkness within. Connor coughed and sputtered, drawing a glance from the newcomer. He croaked out the standard Tumorish greeting and the man continued on to the main work area.

  After a moment to compose himself, Connor peeked into the darkened room. A line of a dozen or so cots were half filled with sleeping workers. He closed the door carefully and turned back to his meal. He decided to just throw it away but noticed there were only empty packages in the trash bin. Apparently the Tumorish didn’t waste food. He forced down more of it as another worker came through from the loading area.

  “I am Martinez. What skills do you possess?” He didn’t stare at Connor but instead began rummaging through the food.

  “I did home theatre and security system installation.” He tried to keep his voice level. “I have not yet reached full integration so the extent of my skills are unclear.”

  “Yes, Harris mentioned that you were raw meat. If you don’t get recycled then we may have work for you in the tunnels. Some of the collider pathways are operating below desired efficiency.” The man took a bowl of something from the refrigerator and started eating it by hand. “Report to your assignment for now. If you have reached full integration when I check back then you can help me.”

  Connor threw his food away and walked out the door, leaving the concealed backpack behind. He hoped fervently that no one would find it. Harris had seen him with it, so if Kery’s head was discovered then he would be exposed. It would be impossible for Connor to find a private moment as long as he was in the cavernous loading bay, so there was no way to communicate with Kery. He tried not to imagine what would happen to him if he was found out.

  #

  Unfortunately for him, over the next two hours there wasn’t a lot else to occupy his mind. He was told which boxes or crates to move or unpack and did so without response. The drugs in his system helped him suppress his revulsion to the Tumorish around him, but he still regretted eating the food. Most of them were apparently converted only recently, as they seemed to interact in only the most mandatory fashion when told to carry things together.

  A few of the more verbose ones acted as bosses and talked amongst themselves, with Harris coming through from time to time to verify progress or issue new instructions. Thankfully he was the only one with the camera headset, as Connor felt like even more of an impostor whenever Harris happe
ned to be looking in his direction. Trios of Knight mechs patrolled through the loading area a few times over the course of his shift, but they didn’t come close to him or interact with the Tumorish in any way.

  He hoped that Martinez would return sooner rather than later and give him an excuse to get out of the loading bay, but there was no sign of him. The work in the loading area was unending and the other workers all seemed to be able to lift more than he would have expected. The parasite in their brains didn’t feel fatigue or pain the same way that Connor did. He was starting to feel weary from the stress as well as the constant work.

  He finally decided that he had to have a break. He was mortally afraid of sleeping amongst the Tumorish but was contemplating going to the rest chamber to fake sleep when Harris come over to him again. “Cooper. You seem to be tiring very rapidly. Is your body damaged in some way?”

  He knew that there was no equivalent to medical treatment amongst the Tumorish, just recycling to new host bodies. “No. I will rest soon.”

  “There isn’t enough time left for that now. Your lack of conversion marks makes you useful for certain tasks, so I will give you an easier assignment. Take that food to building 2 and deliver it to the humans there.” He pointed to a stack of canned goods next to an electric cart.

  Connor was so relieved to be getting out of the loading bay that he almost replied “thank you” but caught himself. That would have gotten him killed. Or worse.

  Just as he finished loading the food, another Tumorish come through the hall which led to the rest of the complex. Martinez.

  “Harris! I need this one in the tunnels. There is a problem with assembly 223. He has experience with cabling.”

  Connor’s heart fell. He had read enough about this place to know the basics of a particle accelerator. The arrays of magnets in the tunnels were used to guide the particle beams towards their targets. The tunnel for the main ring was originally supposed to be nearly 90 kilometers around. Assembly 223 could be anywhere down there. He could be down there for hours, out of range of Keryapt.