by Isaac Hooke
He advanced, concealed by the effluence, using the blueprints to guide him. His accelerometer updated his position as he swam so that he was aware of his location at all times. His internal AI had marked the spot where the Banthar had fired its energy beam. It had probably backed away since then, so Jain had decided to surface only when he was right up against the sealing wall.
He moved slower than he would have liked, because the effluence was so thick, and it took several swimming strokes to make any decent progress, but finally he reached it. He turned around so that he would be facing the Banthar, and then set his feet down on the hard surface that served as the sewage bottom. He raised his plasma rifle, deactivated his headlamp, and the weapon light, and slowly stood up.
He emerged from the effluence, feeling the cold air as the liquid slid away from his forehead, and then eyes and nose. He opened those eyes, but couldn’t see a thing. It was too dark.
But he could hear a very subtle squishy sound. That would be the rise and fall of the Banthar’s chest as it inhaled through its gill system.
Satisfied that the creature didn’t know he was there, he lowered the rifle, and slid it over his shoulder. Then he felt along the wall until he found the edge of the walkway behind the Banthar, and then hauled himself up very slowly, and very carefully. He was worried about slipping, so he squeezed extra tight with his grip. It caused the metal to bend, and it creaked beneath him.
That squishy sound beside him paused for a moment, as if the Banthar was holding its breath, listening, and he froze.
The noise resumed a moment later, and he soundlessly hauled himself to the top, using the successive squishes to mask any of the whisper soft sounds his own movements made. When he stood on the walkway, he visualized the Banthar in front of him in his mind. Its head, its thorax and the eight prehensile limbs attached to it, the twin shells lower down, and finally the tail. The latter was the only thing Jain was concerned about at the moment. That tail should be directly in front of him, assuming the Banthar was still facing the far side of the tunnel.
Jain reached out in accelerated time, estimating the position of the tail, and activated his headlamp. He was close, but not close enough; he leaped forward before the Banthar could react to the light, and wrapped his hands around the tail. He lifted, hauling the Banthar into the air. It tried to point the two small energy pistols at him, but he knocked them away with two well-placed kicks, and they splashed into the effluence.
The creature was too heavy to lift entirely off the ground, and it flailed frantically in his grasp, almost dragging him off the walkway and into the effluence. He tightened his grip, and gave it a couple of good wallops with his boot—not too hard—until the creature calmed down.
“That’s better, big fella,” Jain said. “Is this him?”
“I recognize the unique spiral patterns on its shells,” Eric sent. “It’s him. Paisley, the ringleader.”
Jain pressed his back against the wall, away from the sewage, and swiveled the Banthar in front of him to switch positions with Paisley, that way Jain was in the lead. He continued down the passageway, dragging the creature along the walkway behind him.
Jain collected his repeaters along the way back. Paisley occasionally struggled, but a few more kicks was usually enough to quiet it down. As they neared the entrance to the sewage, those struggles became more frantic, and not even the kicks could calm the creature down.
“Do you have any Banthar sedatives?” Jain asked Eric.
On cue, drones descended from the overhead entrance and applied sonic injectors to the Banthar. The creature quickly ceased struggling.
Robotic tentacles dropped down from above, and Jain fed the body to them. Those appendages curled up, drawing Paisley away.
“Kind of creepy, but effective,” Jain said.
“Just the way I like it,” Eric said. “Well, thanks for your help. With Paisley’s capture, the uprising is officially over.”
“Glad to be of service,” Jain said.
“All right,” Eric said. “As soon you’ve got your android and skirmisher back aboard, would you mind taking the Devastator into orbit? Having that Nurturer hovering over the city is spooking my Banthar. No offense.”
“None taken,” Jain said.
He wiped the Banthar goo and excrement from his body as best as he was able, and then climbed the wall toward the opening above. There were no rungs, so he had to form his own by pressing his fingers hard into the metal wall.
The things I do to help secure an alliance.
Well, hopefully it wasn’t for nothing.
19
With the dual threats of invasion and insurrection abated for the moment, Eric concentrated on repairs. He sent termite swarms to the neighborhoods where the fighting had been the worst. He had the Banthar vessels direct their own swarms to repair the damage taken in the space battles. He transferred some termites from those ships to the damaged defense platforms in orbit to effect repairs there, and even dispatched a few to the broken rift gates, just in case he decided to remotely pilot the Bethunia II in another system again.
For all that, he couldn’t spare any resources to repair Little Earth at the moment.
But he was still able to hang out with Bambi and Crusher in virtual reality. He needed to. They helped him relax. Sort of.
He was lying in bed with them after a particularly intense lovemaking session. Bambi snuggled against his left side, Crusher his right. Bambi traced circles on his chest.
“You’re thinking about going with him, aren’t you?” Bambi said.
Eric didn’t answer.
“He’s repairing the rift gates,” Crusher said. “Of course he’s thinking about it.”
“How long will it take?” Bambi asked.
“Until we have a gate up and running?” Crusher replied. “A day, if that.”
“So we have one more day together, until we have to fight again,” Bambi said.
“Yeah, about that,” Crusher told Eric. “I’m sick of being a bystander. If we’re going to do this, I want my consciousness transferred into a starship entirely.”
“Mine as well,” Bambi said. “The Bolt Eaters had a few discussions while you were busy fighting in orbit. They’re all going to want the same thing. We want what Slate has. We’re all going to have our own Bug Killers.”
Eric shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
“When he agrees without a fight, you know something’s wrong,” Crusher said.
“I’m not sure we can leave,” Eric said. “Look at what happened last time? I was away only for a little while, and I almost lost my planet. Well, and my mind, too. I could have been destroyed.”
“I’m not sure it would have mattered if you were here,” Crusher said. “The councilors would have still plotted against you with the Link. But hopefully you’ve remedied that now.”
“The new councilors won’t plot against me,” Eric agreed. “But there are still a few of the old ones at large. Even though I’ve sent out notices on all the Banthar streaming equivalents warning that I’ll execute their families if they don’t surrender. I might have to follow through on that threat if they don’t start coming in.”
“Maybe you should bring down the whole tyrant act a few notches,” Bambi said. “It just stirs resentment among the populace. Every time your Essential simulacrum makes an announcement on the streaming networks, it only drives fresh recruits to the rebels. Dee’s shared some of the videos she found on their Internet equivalent. The councilors used all your broadcasts in their recruitment drives.”
“Yeah, well, no one said ruling was ever easy,” Eric said. “I’d love to make this a democracy, but then they’d all vote in the old councilors, and then probably vote to rejoin the Link again. And we all know where that leads: invasion of Earth.”
“I’m just saying, try to treat them nicer,” Bambi said.
“Nicer,” Eric said. “You don’t know their culture the same way I do. There’s nothing nice about them. They
’re a brutal race of snails.”
“See, right there,” Bambi said. “Thinking of them as snails, even when you’re talking about them in private, you’re denigrating them to the status of a lesser species.”
Eric sighed. He pushed Bambi and Crusher away from him, and sat up. “I have work to do.”
“What work?” Crusher said. “The termites are rebuilding. Your unconscious subroutines are handling the day-to-day operations of all the cities. There’s nothing pressing… why can’t you just relax, for once?”
He stared at her. “I guess I’m always used to being on the go. I… I just… I’m tired.”
He collapsed back onto the bed.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” he said. “Leading a species. Especially against the Link. If I lose… we lose… the Banthar will be wiped out. Without a space navy, this world stands no chance.”
“Maybe we could try to negotiate peace with the empire instead of fighting them,” Bambi said.
“We’ve already talked about this,” he said. “The Link negotiate only on their own terms. And I doubt very much they’ll offer a second chance, after this. The Banthar failed twice now. First by failing against us, conquered by those they intended to invade. And second by failing to restore themselves to power, just now. No, the Link is through with the Banthar.”
“Then that means there will be no more attacks in orbit?” Bambi asked.
“Maybe not now,” Eric said. “But at some point in the future. Unless we destroy the Link.” He exhaled. “It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? The Link. We can’t let them exist. And yet, I’m unwilling to lead the Banthar to their doom.”
“It sounds like you’ve made up your mind,” Crusher said. “We’re not going.”
“I haven’t completely made up my mind,” Eric said. “But I’m leaning towards not going, yes. We’re just not ready. I’m not.”
Bambi cuddled against him tighter. “Thank you! I was willing to fight, but I’d rather not. I’m a lover. You know that.”
Crusher seemed disappointed.
“I thought you’d be happy, too,” Eric told her. “You were never a big fan of humanity.”
“It’s not humanity I’m worried about here,” Crusher said. “It’s us. You just admitted that we can’t allow the Link to exist. And yet here you go and say you won’t lead the Banthar to their doom. But by not acting, you’re doing that very thing. You’re just prolonging it a little.”
Eric waited a day for more attacks to come, either in space, or on the surface, but no further incidents occurred. He was right about the Link giving up on the Banthar. No more attacks would come, at least in the short term, because the Link knew they weren’t going to be able to overthrow him, and they certainly weren’t going to give any second chances to the councilors who had failed them.
So he had no real excuse to stay anymore. And yet…
He stayed up all that night, unwilling to sleep, and received the call from Jain he was dreading the next morning.
“It’s time,” Jain said. “The Link have given up on the Banthar. No more ships will be coming here to support the insurrection. They’ve lost enough.”
Though Eric had come to the same conclusion earlier, he kept quiet.
“You’ve already repaired a few rift gates in orbit, I see,” Jain said. “That means you can control the fleet remotely.”
Eric nodded, still saying nothing.
“Come with me to find Jason,” Jain said. “Help me to convince the Tyrnari, through him, to rejoin the alliance. To go all-in this time, instead of sending only twenty ships. You can do that by showing the Banthar commitment to the alliance.”
Eric stared at Jain’s hologram. “I shouldn’t have accepted your help. I feel indebted to you now. Like I have to do this, regardless of my own feelings on the matter.” It was a weak argument, and he wasn’t sure why he was making it, but there it was. He supposed he was just trying to buy himself time.
“You don’t owe me a thing,” Jain said. “I helped you because I wanted to, not because I expected something in return. I want you to decide to join of your own free will. I want you to choose what’s best for your people.”
“Best for my people?” Eric said. “That’s the thing, I don’t know what’s best. If we stay, eventually the Link will come to destroy us. If we go, there’s a good chance we’ll be destroyed anyway. At least if we stay, I’ll grant them a few more months, maybe years, of bliss. Whereas if I go, that end will likely come a lot sooner.”
“You’re assuming we’re going to lose,” Jain said. “Look, I figured you might be having second thoughts about the alliance. It’s why I came here in the first place. I mean who wouldn’t? But listen, we’re so close here. We can win the war against the Link. With your fleet, the Tyrnari, and the Mimics joining the last vestiges of humanity, we can do this. We have to try. We can’t give up now, not when we’re so close.”
Eric closed his eyes for a moment. He wanted to say no, but he knew Jain was right. If they had a chance, even a small one, they had to try. No matter the cost.
“You don’t have to commit fully, not yet,” Jain said. “All I’m asking is that you come with me to find Jason. We can’t leave him. He’s an outcast Mind Refurb, much like us. Doesn’t fit in on Earth, or the military. Went through the same hells as we did. At the very least, we need to help him in whatever way we can. Before he left, he told us the Tyrnari detected the Link gathering on staging planets near their borders. Well, I have a sneaking suspicion the Link have probably attacked by now. So we’ll probably have to fight… but once we’ve repelled whatever threat is posed to the Tyrnari, if you still don’t want to commit, I’ll let you go, without a word more.”
Eric hesitated. “The Link could come to this system as soon as my space navy leaves. Attack while we’re gone.”
It was unlikely and Eric knew it. Yet he couldn’t help the words. The fact was, he was afraid of going. Afraid of losing.
Why have I become this way? What happened to me? I was never like this before…
And then he realized it was because of his near loss of the main data center. If Jain hadn’t been there with the Devastator, the skyscrapers would have been destroyed. The knowledge of how close he had come to losing had caused him to doubt himself, and his leadership abilities.
I’m missing the overarching lesson here. If anything, what happened shows me that Jain is right. That we’re stronger together, rather than apart. That’s the lesson.
“If the Link come, you’ll be alerted, and you can jump back if necessary,” Jain said.
“Unless we find ourselves in a system with rift jammers, blocking the way back,” Eric said. He wasn’t sure why he was still fighting him. He’d already decided he was going. He supposed he was just trying to convince himself why it was a bad idea. He realized that he’d already made the decision much earlier, when he’d made up his mind to repair the rift gates, when there were higher priorities.
It felt like a sudden burden had been lifted.
“There is that,” Jain agreed. “But you don’t have to bring your whole fleet. Leave a defense force behind.”
“I’ll definitely have to,” Eric said. “Considering all the defense platforms are still under repair. Twenty ships, maybe. The rest will come with me.” Yes, he could definitely feel it now. He seemed lighter. Freer. “I’ll go with you to find Jason. But screw this bullshit about not committing. I can tell you here and now, I’m your man. I’ll see this through, to the end. No matter the cost.” He reached out, and clasped Jain’s hand in both of his. “We’re going to help Jason, and then secure an allegiance with the Tyrnari.”
20
Jason collapsed in grief next to the burning form of Tara’s mech.
He’d fought so hard to avoid this moment. And now it had finally happened.
He’d lost one of the women.
The Shadow Hawk mech suddenly stirred beside him.
“Tara?” he asked.
“That’s War Bitch to you,” Tara replied, standing. “Come on, what are you doing standing around for? I’m a lot stronger than you give me credit for. These flames are like jellied gasoline… sticky, but otherwise can’t even penetrate our armor! I was just stunned when that bioweapon rammed into me after.”
Another of the fire-breathing bioweapons came in; she dodged the flames it launched, and then teleported onto its back. Jason couldn’t tell what she was doing, but he thought she was trying to somehow exert her will over the creature.
Well, whatever she was doing, it wasn’t working. The creature swerved to and fro, trying to knock her off its back. It struggled beneath the weight of her heavy mech, and Jason expected those wings to give out any second now.
He couldn’t watch for long, however, because another bioweapon came straight for him. These creatures essentially looked like giant dragonflies with the heads of lions. Oh, and they could breath fire. Sophie had called them Dragonlionfires, or Dragonlions for short.
He quickly aimed his energy cannon, and fired before it could let off its fiery breath. The head exploded in a gory mess.
Cheyanne moved from Dragonlion to Dragonlion overhead, slicing away with her twin blades.
Iris flicked out her energy whips, cutting off body parts.
Maeran spat that binding substance from her mouth, and gummed up the wings of her targets so that they crashed.
From the top of a nearby building, plasma bolts shot forth seemingly from empty air. That would be Lori.
Jason wanted to transform into a Cataphract, but Queen Risilan had explicitly forbidden Combining on the city grounds: she didn’t want to damage her precious home. He tried explaining that the enemy would destroy all the buildings at this rate anyway, but she remained adamant. Well, despite her wishes, Jason planned to Combine if the situation warranted it, her precious city be damned. But so far those buildings were providing much needed cover against the enemy, cover that would be lost in the larger Cataphract mode, as the combined mechs would tower over the structures. So he was content to remain in this form. For now.
