by T E Olivant
“Yes.”
“Well, they seem a good bunch to hand a deadly weapon to.” The Detective stepped closer. He could have reached out and grabbed her stungun in one smooth movement, shooting them both before they even had time to realize what was happening. But he didn’t. He imagined that Macleod was just waiting for a signal. Was he going to give it to her? He genuinely didn’t know.
It was actually quite exciting, not to know what he was doing next. After all, he had spent so long meticulously planning his every move, it was good to be working on instinct. Giving his Godly brain a challenge for once.
The Detective was glaring at him with her usual expression. It seemed to be a mixture of frustration and confusion, and it made her look even younger than she was.
“Why are you telling me about the portal drive? If you planned to give it to the gang members, you wouldn’t tell me, right? You know I’m not just going to give it back to you.”
Lu Tang exhaled slowly. “Do you mind if I sit down?”
“If you like.”
He eased himself onto the bench. One of his legs had started cramping again. His nervous system was in serious need of an upgrade.
“I never intended to give the people from Eritree the portal drive. I needed to show them it because they had something I wanted. I convinced them that I was going to make a trade. I would never have handed over something so dangerous.”
Mackay didn’t look convinced. “What did you want to trade it for?”
“That is not your concern. But for now I would like you to keep it safe.”
“Hang on,” the Detective said, her wide eyes staring at him, “why would you want me to have it? Didn’t you say no human could be trusted with the thing?”
“I did. But the way I see it is: I am your prisoner. Therefore, either you keep the drive or you hand it over to your superiors. As we both know, the motivations of your superior officers in Scotclan is questionable. Who knows what they would do with such a weapon? I would thus recommend that you keep hold of it yourself. And you probably want to keep it out of reach of your crew members. The lesser ranks are often easily corrupted.”
“Thanks,” the tall, handsome engineer said with what was probably meant to be sarcasm.
“I don’t owe you any favors,” Mackay replied. “And I trust my crew. But I will make sure that this drive is kept onboard, for the moment at least. And you might want to remember that you’re a suspect, not a prisoner,”
“And the difference is?”
Mackay pinched the bridge of her nose. “Never mind. If I am looking after the most dangerous weapon in the galaxy for you, do you think you might want to start telling me about the Westward Ho!? I still intend to pass you over to Scotclan if you keep evading the question.”
The Augment closed his eyes for a second. He flexed out his shoulder muscles and Biddy noticed him wince in pain. She had never really thought that the Gods felt pain, but apparently they did. She filed that fact away under the ‘useful’ category.
“I have not told you about what happened onboard the Westward Ho! as there is little to tell. I was travelling on that vessel as a tourist. I received word that my disguise had been discovered and there were agents on the ship who wanted to capture me. I could not let that happen.”
“So you murdered them all?” The tall man said, his face curled in an expression of disgust.
“Not at all. That would have been a waste of a half-decent ship. I merely made my escape. There was a small cruiser docked on the starboard side. I liberated it from the clamps and simply flew it away. It wasn’t until two days later that I heard the ship had crashed.”
“If that’s true then why does every person I’ve met think that you caused the crash?”
“A handy scapegoat? Your Scotclan, the Celtic Alliance, whoever they might be called this century, they want me back in a prison cell where they can keep an eye on me. They make up some charge, get some idiot ‘tec to chase me down and lock me up.”
Mackay said nothing. Instead the tall man stepped forward. “None of this explains what happened to the Westward Ho!. Something brought that ship down. If it wasn’t you then what was it?”
“Engine failure? Bad pilot? I have no idea. I only know it wasn’t me.” Lu Tang’s temple was throbbing. He had to start making some decisions. “Can I speak to you alone?” he asked Mackay.
“I don’t think –”
The Detective held up her hand to silence the tall man. “It’s all right, Elvis. I don’t think the Augment is going to attack me, are you?”
“Of course not,” Lu Tang replied, trying not to smile when he thought of Macleod’s demands.
“Give us a minute, Elvis. But stay right outside the cell door just in case, okay?”
The man called Elvis gave Lu Tang another dirty look, then stepped outside.
Mackay folded her arms. She was so young. And yet, she seemed almost intelligent, for a human. He had placed his faith in a Voice. Now he had to choose whether to trust Mackay or Macleod. One of them had shot Tibo. One was almost certainly out to destroy him.
“I’m waiting.”
And Mackay was incredibly annoying. But yet…
He came to a decision. “I need you to help me complete my mission.”
“Mission? What mission?”
Lu Tang rubbed at his jittering calf. There was pain there now, but it was almost absent from his body, like it was floating above him. Probably not a good sign.
“I did not leave Widdershins 3 because I tired of being imprisoned. Well, that was part of it. But I am a God. I do not make decisions like that for no reason.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
“I left Widdershins 3 because I received some news. Terrible news. I was told that my friends, fellow Augments had been imprisoned.”
“On Widdershins 3?”
“No. In a hidden location. They had been systematically removed from the galaxy over several decades. Kidnapped and placed in suspended animation.”
“How many?”
“I’m not sure.” Lu Tang looked at the floor. “Half a dozen, maybe? When you live for such a very long time you lose track of people. I assumed they’d died or just… faded away. That happens to Gods, you know, when those of the Faith forget about you.”
“Uhuh.”
“I’m still not sure who sent me to Widdershins 3. But after I’d been locked in that cell for a decade, I received a message. A Voice. Someone was going to help me escape, but they wanted me to help them rescue the others. Well, I was hardly going to refuse. The other Gods are the only family that I have left. I have to help them. And I need you to help me.”
The young woman’s mouth was a thin line. “Impossible.”
“Hardly. It is very possible. You just need to agree to my requests.”
“Why on the galaxy would I do that?”
Lu Tang felt his irritation rise. It was so demeaning, having to explain himself to a mere chit of a human girl. And yet without her he would fail.
“Because this is not about your silly little ship or the planet or anything else around here. It’s about the future of the galaxy.”
“The future of the Augments, you mean?”
“They are one and the same. Consider the portal drive. A terrible weapon, and the most sophisticated energy source there has ever been. This is just one of the many inventions of the Gods. Fast light, medi-pods, synth-metal, even delorium. Without them humanity would barely have left the solar system, let alone colonized other worlds.”
“And we have the Gods to thank for this, right?”
“Of course. Doesn’t your Faith tell you that?”
The Detective chewed her lip. “You really think I’m going to trust you?”
“Would you trust your God?”
The Detective flinched, but he couldn’t have resisted even if he wanted to. It was just too easy to annoy the human.
“All right,” Lu Tang continued in what he hoped was a conciliatory tone. �
�Would you trust someone with the experience of multiple centuries? Because that’s all we are, after all. The sum of our experiences. And I have a hell of a lot more of them than anyone you have ever met.”
“That doesn’t mean that you’re a good guy.”
“A good guy? I certainly never claimed to be one of them. But you serve justice, do you not Detective? A long time ago something very unjust occurred. You have the chance to help me to make it right. And, I would argue, you owe it to me to do so.”
Mackay massaged her temples. “And if I got in touch with Scotclan and told them everything that you just told me? Would they allow this to happen?”
“No. Because, like all large organizations, they fear change. But that is not a reason to let bad things happen.”
Mackay stared at him. Her large eyes trying to look into his soul. Well, they wouldn’t have much luck there. If he’d ever had one it had long since shriveled and died. Still, he met her gaze. He had nothing to fear from the truth, and that was what he had told her. Most of it, anyway.
“You’ve got five minutes to tell me your plan,” the detective said. “And if you can’t convince me you’re on the next shuttle to Scotclan.”
“It’s a deal.”
Chapter 31
Biddy watched the Augment carefully for any sign of deception. He was the most difficult suspect to read that she had ever met. Possibly because he wasn’t completely human. Possibly just because he was very, very weird. He seemed to be developing a new twitch every ten minutes. Along with his hand continually rubbing his calf, the muscle under his eye was vibrating at an alarming rate.
“My plan is very simple,” the Augment explained. “I intend to free my people. I know that the Gods are imprisoned on Eritree, that is the reason I ended up here.”
“How do you know that?”
“The Voice told me.”
Biddy could hear the implied capital letter in his tone. “The Voice?”
“The one that released me from Widdershins 3.”
“And how can you trust this Voice? I’m guessing you don’t know who they are?”
“An Augment. A very old one. I have my suspicions, but… No, I can’t be sure. But they know things about me that no one else in the system could know.”
Biddy glanced at the door. She knew Elvis would be pacing outside, worrying about her. But there was something about the Augment’s story. She could usually tell when someone was lying to her, and the Augment seemed to be telling the truth. He, at least, believed his own story. Was she starting to believe it too?
“One thing I want to know before you tell me any more about this plan. Who are you? No false identities, no made up stories. Just tell me your name.”
“I have had a hundred names over twice as many years. I go by Lu Tang now, but I can tell you that I was once called Kepler. I’m not sure if anyone remembers that name.”
“Were you ever on Saturn?” Biddy said, remembering her research.
The Augment raised his eyebrows. “I’m impressed. Perhaps you are not as useless as you seem. I nearly died there, a long time ago. But Augments are more resilient than the humans imagine. We are not easy to kill.”
Biddy stared at him, trying to remember her research on the Augments. “If you were on Saturn then the radiation burns would still show.”
Lu Tang touched his left cheek. “Years of surgery. The best of Augment technology. If you had seen my face before… well, it would give you nightmares.”
Biddy rubbed her chin. Elvis would be getting nervous outside. She needed the Augment to get to the point, and fast.
“Go on with the plan,” she told him.
“It’s simple. I have the location of the prisoners. They are in suspended animation. I go in there and wake them up. Then I take them home.”
“Which is?”
“Mars. That planet is still the home of the Augment Council, in name if not in practice. They will have to take them in.”
“Mmn.” Biddy didn’t share the Augment’s optimism. Mars had changed hands more times than she could count. She knew there was still a temple for the Faithful there, but as for any actual Augments… well, they might be less welcome. Not everyone liked their Gods to turn up at their Church begging for a place to stay.
“Why do you need my help?”
“I would have thought it was obvious. I’m stuck here. I need you to let me go and help my friends. After that you can turn me over to your Scotclan or anyone else for that matter. I just want to complete my mission.”
“Can’t your Voice help you out?”
“Not in this. Look, I think you’re a pathetic, underaged human who would be better playing at home with her toys. But you’re the only person here who seems willing to talk to me.”
“I can’t imagine why. You have such outstanding social skills.”
The Augment blinked once, then carried on. “When the Augments have awoken they will be able to make their own way to Mars. I do not intend to follow them. My work will be done.”
“And what will you do then?” Biddy asked, ignoring the fact that he would most likely be sent to a Scotclan prison cell.
“I will rest.”
Lu Tang’s head hung low. He almost looked like he had fallen asleep. Biddy stared at him, watching his shoulders raise and fall with each breath. What the hell was he? A God? A murderer? Or a victim, trying to help others?
“I don’t think I can make this decision,” Biddy said, shaking her head. “I need to speak to Scotclan. Your friends are not my responsibility.”
“You have the Faith?” The Augment said, lifting his head to meet her eyes.
“I was brought up in it. But since then I have found other interests, I guess you could say.”
“Your Gods were there for you, weren’t they?”
“Umn, well, it’s not really my place to say. I know the Faithful think that they were,” Biddy said hesitantly. It was very difficult to be a cynical atheist when speaking directly to one of your Gods.
“We looked after you!” Lu Tang’s voice was raised now. The twitch under his eye was like an insect crawling under the skin. “We gave you life on that miserable little mining planet. Without us looking out for the congregation you would have perished a hundred times. And what did we get in return? A few decades of worship and then you forget all about us.”
“That’s not true.”
“Really? My friends have been missing for decades. Did no one ever wonder what happened to the rest of the Augments? I mean, they were your Gods!”
Biddy shrank backwards over the force of his fury. She was beginning to wonder if he had lost his mind. Had there ever been talk of missing Gods? She tried to remember the stories of her childhood, but she had never really believed in them. Now she wished she had listened a little more carefully.
While Biddy tried to recover long-lost memories, Lu Tang had stood up and was practically vibrating with rage.
“I mean, I know that humans are stupid, but I would have thought that you could at least count!”
“Hey,” Biddy said, “that’s enough. Any more insults and I’ll call up Scotclan right now, okay?”
The Augment took a couple of ragged breaths. “I… lost control. But you can understand why, can’t you? I mean, if it was your family involved…”
“I understand. Now tell me the rest of the story. I need to understand why the Augments were imprisoned. Otherwise how will I decide whether or not they should be released?”
“It’s hard to compress three centuries of history into a single line of narrative. For me, this whole situation began with the advent of Fast Light.”
Elvis would be breaking down the door in a minute. “Perhaps we could skip a little bit ahead. Say, a century or so.”
“All right.” The Augment closed his eyes in concentration. Biddy was seriously concerned about his mental state. He seemed to veer from manic energy to lethargy within an instant. It made it very hard to trust anything he said.
“When the Augments invented the Fast Light engine they got greedy. They sold the plans to the humans and soon every planet was manufacturing their own interstellar craft. It made the Augments rich, but there was a problem.”
“What?”
“Money doesn’t last for ever. You can be rich for ten years. Fifty even. But the money runs out in the end. So the Augments built something new.”
“The portal drive?”
“Correct. But when they discovered that it could be used as a weapon, they refused to hand it over to their prospective buyers.”
“Who were?”
“The biggest mining gang in the Fuller system. The ones that eventually pretended they weren’t just a bunch of criminals and called themselves the Council of Eritree.”
“And they imprisoned your Augments? Why would they do that?”
“To try and force the others to give them the portal drive. But the other Augments refused. They were willing to let their friends rot in some hidden prison if it meant stopping the humans from getting hold of the portal drive.”
“You think that was the wrong choice?”
“I don’t think they should have just handed over the device. But should they have abandoned their fellow Gods for decades? Left in the hands of their enemies? No, that I cannot forgive.”
Biddy really wanted out of the cell. The Augment’s pain was clear to see, but she didn’t want to get involved with this cause of his. It had disaster written all over it.
“Why does it have to be you that saves them?” she asked. “What about the other Augments? That one that’s always on the news, Tolly, isn’t it?”
Lu Tang actually hissed at her. “The worst of them all! A hypocrite and a thief. I tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He didn’t even care!”
“All right,” Biddy said, in what she hoped was a soothing voice.
“Do you know when the humans started to think we were Gods?”
“Ummn, not really.” Biddy did know, or at least she thought she did. Only her version of the story was wrapped in the language of the Faithful that her grandmother had taught her. When looking a God in the face it seemed pretentious to talk in such a way. And bone shudderingly embarrassing.
