Blocks

by Tara Basi

  “You see that? The gateway’s turned opaque, milky,” Cole said.

  “What’s it mean?” Mina asked.

  She was looking at three images, Cole on the Small Business, the view of the gateway from the Small Business and Anton on the Maxinquaye. She was alone in the comms room of the base under Central Park. Battery Boy wasn’t talking to Mina or showing any interest in the attack. Stuff was trying to keep Battery Boy company and Jugger and Pinkie had gone off alone to explore another part of the base.

  “The oblongs have all stopped dead,” Cole continued.

  The last marine detonated his bomb.

  “My god,” Anton shouted.

  The gateway image went completely white and stayed that way for many seconds. Gradually the image returned. A cloud of red and yellow plasma was streaking away from where the gateway had been, as they watched a glowing halo formed. Cole’s image visibly shuddered.

  “Are you OK,” Mina called out to Cole.

  “We’re fine, backed off quite a bit, everything looks…” Cole started to say and then abruptly turned away from the screen.

  The halo was visibly breaking up. It seemed to be collapsing back in on itself, slowly at first, then at an accelerating rate.

  “Singularity,” Anton shouted.

  Cole didn’t re-appear, the screen just showed a shuddering view of an empty galley. The vibrations were increasing. The gateway view showed only stars, even the plasma had gone. Without warning the Small Business’s external camera started zooming in towards where the gateway had been. Abruptly, static filled two thirds of Mina’s screen, leaving only Anton’s image.

  “What’s going on,” Mina shouted.

  “Cole’s gone, the gateway collapsed into a singularity, probably only existed for seconds,” Anton answered, looking down at his hands, shaking his head.

  All gone, Mina thought, they’re all dead. I’m the only one left. As hysteria started to sweep over her, Trinity spoke.

  “Found Tress, we’ve got to get her now, could lose her at any time.”

  Tress could hear shouting, someone was shouting at her.

  “Wake up bitch, what have you done?”

  Her sight started to catch up with her hearing as a blurry vision returned. She was on her hands and knees staring down at a slowly resolving grey floor covered in slime. The slime was dripping off her naked body. Red swellings covered her thighs, her neck felt stiff and sore. Slowly she recalled the crystal tree in the Yard, and vomited slime.

  “Answer me.”

  Tress looked up slowly, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Tippese was standing over her dressed in the same flamboyant outfit she’d last seen him in. They were in the Heaven House.

  “What? What?” Tress answered slowly, confused. She had no recollection of being brought back from the Yard.

  “What was in that stuff?” Tippese yelled.

  “What stuff? I don’t know. I told you… before,” Tress whispered, her throat was sore and her whole body ached.

  “Shit, shit, everything’s gone crazy. What the hell was Tracy up to?” Tippese screamed in frustration, then waved at the Crawler floating beside him.

  Tress flinched and struggled to scramble away leaving a slimy trail as she slithered backwards across the glassy surface.

  “Get cleaned up, wake up, then you’re going tell me everything you were doing for Tracy, everything,” Tippese shouted angrily after her as the Crawler snatched her ankle, hoisted her up and sank down through a hole in the floor.

  After depositing her back in her old room the Crawler left. Tress limped towards the door. It was locked. She started to cry, and for a long time she couldn’t stop. Looking at the horrible marks on her body made her feel sick again. She stumbled into the bathroom sobbing and vomiting. After a time, just sitting on the bathroom floor, she got some control back. She smelt terrible, her throat was so sore. Struggling painfully upright she dragged herself into the shower. For a while she knelt motionless under a waterfall of pounding hot water, the hottest she could stand. Feeling a little steadier on her feet Tress stumbled over to the desk where a pile of clothes waited. She struggled into the fresh clothes and then collapsed on to the bed. Sleep must have overtaken her; she was woken by the hoisting swing of a Crawler’s snatch. Tress screamed as it fell through the floor.

  It brought her to a familiar looking white corridor with a short flight of stairs leading up to a panel in the roof. Tress was running for the stairs as soon as the Crawler dropped her to the ground. The panel lifted, and she threw herself over the edge rolling out under the door, and lay on her back panting heavily.

  Someone pulled her up. Her arm was draped over a shoulder and then they were running towards a brightly lit doorway.

  Chapter 14 – Unnaturally Happy

  It was the middle of the night and Battery Boy was wandering aimlessly around the park. He couldn’t be anywhere near Mina, he wanted to kill her, but he needed her and her crazy machine to get him back into the Block so he could look for Tress. He slashed at the undergrowth harder than was necessary, venting his rage on the vines and tall grass. A coughing roar from overhead startled Battery Boy out of his single minded attack on the park’s vegetation and he looked up to see the bruised Piglet slowly descending on a pillar of flame and smoke. He turned back towards the cleared path and ran towards the landing area. It had to be Mina, he was going to force her to take him back to the Block.

  As he approached, the ship’s back door swung open and he saw two figures silhouetted against the bright light, one leaning heavily on the other. Battery Boy dropped his machete and ran to help.

  “Tress, Tress,” Battery Boy called out as he saw who Mina was supporting.

  “BB,” Tress answered weakly.

  “Are you OK, what happened?” Battery Boy asked, his words tumbling over themselves as he draped one of Tress’s arms over his shoulder and took her by the waist.

  “She’ll be fine, we need to get her inside,” Mina replied breathlessly.

  Battery Boy knew it wasn’t the time for questions. He helped Mina get Tress down the rusty ladder and into the complex. It seemed to take forever before Tress was finally inside one of the medical machines.

  “She’s just a bit anaemic and bruised, looks like those giant insects have been biting her,” Mina explained to Battery Boy as coloured lights flowed up and down Tress’s body inside the machine.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were going for her?” Battery Boy angrily asked.

  “There was no time, I didn’t know where you were. Or what mood you’d be in,” Mina answered quietly, smiling as she spoke.

  “Thanks. Sorry,” Battery Boy answered, feeling a little guilty. The old brown woman probably hadn’t deserved his anger, he needed to keep it for the Blocks.

  Once the machine had finished Tress was a little weak and sore but otherwise, just as Mina had predicted, fine. Battery Boy helped Tress into the buggy and the three headed back towards the main part of the complex.

  “Tress, you need to get some food, rest-up for a bit. I’ll round up the others and then we can talk,” Mina said, and then burst into tears.

  “What is it?” Tress asked, taking hold of Mina’s hand.

  “Later, in the conference room,” Mina answered, wiping her eyes. She turned and walked away.

  Tress looked at Battery Boy, “Is it Sara? Grain, what happened?”

  “I don’t know, we haven’t talked much, got a bit, you know,” Battery Boy sheepishly replied, feeling ashamed he hadn’t been around to help Mina.

  He was glad Tress didn’t press him on the subject. The two hugged for a while and then they headed off together to get some food. While Tress slept Battery Boy went to help Mina find the others.

  A couple of hours later everyone was assembled in a bland meeting room. A screen on one wall showed a life-size image of Anton linked in from the Maxinquaye. It almost looked like he was in the room with them. Jugger and Pinkie sat together, looking disinterested. B
attery Boy, Tress and Stuff listened intently. All the while Mina paced back and forth as they talked.

  “The Small Business is gone, the gateway too. I’ve searched, there’s nothing out there but trace gases,” Anton said, his gaze turned down, looking at his hands.

  “What about the Block ships, the oblongs?” Mina asked, squeezing her elbows with white knuckled hands.

  “Everything’s changed in the last twenty-four hours. About twenty are in geo-stationary orbit circling the planet. I think they’re acting like satellites so all the Blocks can talk to each other,” Anton answered, looking up now.

  “Can you detect a signal?” Mina asked.

  “No more than we could between the Blocks and the gateway. The rest of the little Blocks are all commuting to a big Block in Iowa,” Anton explained.

  “What does that mean?” Battery Boy asked, confused by Anton’s last statement.

  “They’re doing what they used to do at the gateway, fly there, go inside, come back. Every Block is sending its ships to Iowa,” Anton said.

  “Trinity, picking up anything from the worm?” Mina asked, her voice trembling.

  “It’s dead, like all our friends, the Small Business, my dad, everything. Happy now?”

  “Fucking bastard machine,” Mina screamed at the little box and threw it at the wall. She ran, sobbing, out of the room.

  “Sorry,” Anton said, and the screen went blank.

  Battery Boy looked around the room, Jugger was his usual blank self. Pinkie looked nervously away. Stuff was staring down at his hands, shivering. Only Tress returned his gaze.

  “Go after her,” was all Tress said.

  Battery Boy hesitated, then picked up the undamaged Trinity box and went out to look for Mina. He wandered amongst the anonymous kit buildings, many he’d never been inside before, but there was no sign of Mina. He was about to give up and return to Tress when he heard sobbing coming from somewhere inside a huge warehouse they’d visited often since arriving. It was filled with food, water and other goods he didn’t recognise. Battery Boy wandered amongst the floor to ceiling metal racks, getting closer to the sound. Turning a corner he found Mina sitting on the floor. At her side was a ripped open carton. She was holding a half-filled bulbous bottle containing a honey coloured liquid.

  “Why’d you run?” Battery Boy asked.

  “They’re dead, all dead,” Mina whispered.

  “So?” Battery Boy responded, still not understanding.

  “Heartless bastard. What about you and Tress? They were my friends, my only friends,” Mina yelled back, looking up for the first time.

  “Sorry. Sara, Grain, they seemed nice, and they helped Tress. Sorry,” Battery Boy answered, understanding the Tress connection at least.

  “Damn right, even that cold hearted bastard Grain turned out to be OK, you know. And Cole, he was stiff, a bit awkward, but he was a good man. Greg, poor Doug, both went a little crazy. Who wouldn’t,” Mina whispered, and took a swig from her bottle.

  “What about the Blocks?” Battery Boy asked, wishing he didn’t need this crazy old woman.

  “What about them?” Mina shouted.

  “What? What are you saying?” Battery asked, starting to get angry.

  “I’m done. I’ve got no more… it didn’t work,” Mina whispered, and went to take another drink.

  Battery Boy grabbed the bottle out of her hand and smashed it against the wall, “You giving up? After what Tress did? You shit, you said we were fighting to win, we gotta smash the Blocks,” Battery Boy yelled, trembling with rage.

  “How?” Mina whispered, starting to cry.

  “We don’t give up, that’s how you… fucking coward. How long you been here, a couple of weeks? We’ve been doing this for years. I ain’t giving up. I ain’t letting you give up. I ain’t never giving up. You understand, you understand, you hear me,” Battery Boy screamed at Mina.

  “Yes. I understand. You’re right. I just…. I just need to be alone… To say goodbye to my friends. Tomorrow, OK? Tomorrow we’ll go get the bastard Blocks,” Mina said quietly, looking up at Battery Boy, and smiled.

  Battery Boy didn’t say anything, just took a long deep breath and smiled back. He dropped Trinity in Mina’s lap and turned away to go and find Tress.

  The next day they were back in the little conference room with a nervous looking Anton staring out from the screen.

  “We’ve got a lot of weapons in this base, we can attack the Blocks, maybe the one in Iowa, stir things up some more. What do you think?” Mina asked, looking around the room.

  “Listen, the Blocks won the war a long time ago, we lost. Me and Pinkie ain’t going up against the Blocks. We’ll fight to survive, that’s it,” Jugger said quietly, before pushing back his chair, standing up and walking towards the door.

  “What about the people inside the Yard, what about the Vat,” Mina shouted at Jugger’s back.

  “Old woman, they’re good as dead. Dead ain’t coming back,” Pinkie answered, and turned away to follow Jugger.

  “You were saved, Tress, we’ve got to try,” Mina yelled after the retreating pair.

  “Wait,” Trinity suddenly squawked “Wait, the worm’s transmitting. On screen.”

  Battery Boy looked up the screen. The view had changed. Anton’s face could be seen in a small box at the bottom left hand corner, the rest was filled with a fat nose and a pair of beady eyes Battery Boy didn’t recognise.

  “Tippese,” Tress gasped.

  Jugger and Pinkie stopped and turned to stare at the screen.

  “Can you see me, one, two, three… testing, hello. Oh, I see you. Can you see me? Is that you Tress?” Tippese called out, looking distressed and flustered.

  “Trinity, what’s going on?” Mina whispered.

  “Tippese, you pompous, sick bastard,” Tress shouted back at the screen.

  “The signal’s coming from Block Seven, I’d listen and learn,” Trinity said quietly.

  “Right, just a second,” Tippese said, ignoring Tress’s insults and turned his back to the screen and walked away towards a chair somewhere in the Heaven House and wearily sat down.

  “What do you want?” Mina asked.

  “I’m sorry, I’m just a bit surprised, I was expecting more. You all look like Tress, really, very ordinary,” Tippese muttered, almost to himself.

  “You monster, what the hell do you want?” Mina asked, arms tightly folded across her chest.

  “You win, the Blocks have lost contact with the owners and everything’s gone crazy. The Blocks want to leave and let us go. It doesn’t make any sense,” Tippese explained, all the while shaking his head as if he didn’t believed what he was telling them

  “Us?” Battery Boy asked, suspicious already.

  “Humanity, everyone, in every Block,” Tippese continued.

  “You’ll let everyone go?” Tress asked, looking dazed.

  “Not me, Reference. Up to me you’d all be dead and things would be… normal. None of this craziness,” Tippese answered, staring at his feet his head still gently swaying from side to side.

  “When, how?” Mina asked, sounding just as suspicious as Battery Boy felt.

  “Tomorrow, we’ll start, it’s going to be terrible,” Tippese said, looking up at the screen his eyes filled with fear.

  “Terrible? Why?” Battery Boy asked.

  “Do you know how many people we’re talking about, in all the Blocks?” Tippese asked.

  “Why? What difference does it make?” Battery Boy asked, trying not to get angry when he remembered what Tippese had done to Tress.

  “Boy, its over twelve billion people, do you know what that means?” Tippese replied.

  “Twelve, twelve,” Mina whispered to herself.

  “It’s Battery Boy, you don’t get to call me boy. It means a lot of people, so?”

  “Tress, and you, old woman, you understand, right. Block life may be shit but they’re alive, they get fed, watered. Can you do the same? With no Block control
s, no earrings, no Bands, it’ll be chaos. We’re all going to die,” Tippese said.

  Battery Boy watched Mina and Tress exchange worried glances, looking confused, undecided.

  “We’ll work it out, call us tomorrow, same time,” Jugger said and without any hesitation walked to the front of the room and switched off the communications gear.

  “What did you do,” Mina shouted, completely taken by surprise.

  “He’s right, we need to time to think this through,” Battery Boy said, surprised that he was agreeing with Jugger over Tress and Mina.

  “Billions of people, billions. How many’s a billion?” Stuff asked, open mouthed, still trying to catch up with the conversation.

  “Shit. Billions, how?” Mina whispered, as she slumped in to a chair and held her head in her hands.

  “I do so wish I worked for Jugger,” Trinity said. “Listen, you emotional train wreck, this can be done. You need to think, plan. First things first. It’s time to put on your poker face. You’re playing for billions of lives, again.”

  “Old woman, you afraid? I ain’t,” Pinkie said, “If them Blocks is running scared it’s time for some action.”

  “The slightly psychotic one is right. Get a grip,” Trinity added.

  And the room went very quiet for a while.

  “Did we win?” Stuff asked.

  “Yeah, I guess we did, we won,” Mina said quietly, looking up at the small boy from her seat. “That’s right, we won! We did it!” Mina squealed as she jumped up from her seat and hugged Stuff.

  “Damn right, and we’ll get everybody out. We’ll do it, we’ll all help, right?” Tress said, looking around the room.

  Mina smiled at Tress and said, “Yeah, I’ll get you all trained up, we’ll start small, organise logistics, staging areas. It’s the only way.”