by Eric Warren
“Arista,” Blu said, approaching her. “Don’t. We might need him. Killing Jonn won’t make you feel any better. You told me you weren’t like that anymore, remember?” Blu placed her and on Arista’s arm. “You said you had the capability to change?”
“It doesn’t matter anymore,” Arista said. “I’ve lost him, I’m going to lose everything and in the end all I’ll have is my rage.”
“Not if you don’t give in to it.” Her voice softened. “I’m sorry about Frees. I am so, so sorry.”
It began as a well of sadness deep within her, but as soon as she let go of the smallest part of her anger it came bubbling up and she cried out, all the strength leaving her. Blu caught her on the way down as Arista fell into her, sobbing uncontrollably. “Goddammit,” she cried, her anger returning for a moment and mixing in with the sadness, forming a wretched cocktail, “It’s his fault.” She half-pointed to Jonn, then closed her eyes and laid her head on Blu’s shoulder, her whole body shuddering. She couldn’t make it stop; her breaths were ragged and the longer she allowed it to go on the deeper she felt. Everything they’d had had been wiped out in less than a second, and he was just gone. An entire future together erased as if someone hit a delete key.
The anger returned and she let go of Blu, smashing her hand into the mag-lev rail, leaving a sizeable dent. Like when she and Frees had to smash the connections between the subway cars. She hit it again and again, each time harder until the line broke, sending sparks out from the broken metal lines. She screamed again and covered her face, folding into herself. Behind her, Blu wrapped her arms around Arista, holding her while she rocked back and forth on her knees, willing the pain to go away. She didn’t want to feel this anymore. She just wanted it all to go away. But if it did, it meant nothing they had was real and she didn’t want that either. Slowly she began to get the sobs under control.
“We have to go back,” she said. “We can’t just leave him there.”
“I know, we’ll go get him,” Blu whispered, her head on Arista’s back. “But not until things calm down. Charlie might expect you to return for him. We can’t take the chance.”
Arista glanced up through watery eyes at Jonn who remained on the platform, watching them. “We send him back, we don’t risk anything valuable that way,” she said.
Blu let go and moved around to face her, placing her hands on Arista’s face and wiping the tears back. “I know this hurts. This is the worst thing. But we can’t stop and we can’t go back. We have to find Charlie. We have to destroy him.” Her eyes were wet with tears as well.
Arista choked back another sob. “How am I supposed to do that if I can’t even keep my best friend safe? Next time it could be you. He’s just going to keep stripping people away until I’m all alone.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Blu insisted, shaking her head.
“You don’t know,” Arista whispered. “No one knows what will happen.” She dropped her head again and stared at the damage she’d done to the mag-lev line. It was still sparking.
“C’mon, we have to get out of here. We’re too exposed out on the lines,” Blu said, putting her arm around Arista and trying to help her up.
“You just need to go, get away from me,” Arista said, standing on wobbly legs while Blu supported her. “He’ll kill you just to get to me.”
“Jonn, get over here and help me,” Blu hissed.
All she wanted was to curl up in a tiny ball and sleep the next twenty years away. So much lost in a matter of moments. A few, last precious moments and she hadn’t been there, by his side. Instead, she’d had to watch as he was torn apart, unable to do anything about it. She would give anything for only another minute with him. Because when it came down to it, she had loved him, she just hadn’t realized how deeply until now. It had been overshadowed by everything they’d had to do, and everything that needed to be said was put on hold, or ignored because there was supposed to be all the time in the world. There was supposed to be a future after all this, when it was all over and they could talk.
“I’ll never get to tell him,” she said, her voice hoarse from screaming. “He died not knowing…”
Jonn approached, cautiously. “What about her hand?”
Arista felt her wrist being lifted as her thumb and pinkie finger were pressed together. “Arista? Did that work? Is the key off?” Blu asked.
“He’ll never know,” she said. “So little time.”
“She’s still in shock,” Blu said, helping her along. Beneath her, Arista’s feet moved, although slowly and without precision. They made it to the platform but she stumbled getting over the threshold. “And her refractor isn’t working,” she added, fumbling with the device on Arista’s jacket.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Jonn asked. “She’s the only one who knew these people. How are we—?”
Arista stiffened, reaching over with her artificial hand and grabbing Jonn by the neck, her anger back in full force and fueling her. “Shut up, shut up, shut up!” she yelled, pushing him away. “Don’t say another goddamn word. If I hear so much as a peep from you until we find Charlie, I will tear your head off. You are here for one reason: to kill that motherfucking machine. And you’re gonna be silent until you do it, do you hear me?”
Jonn’s eyes narrowed, but he nodded.
“Arista,” Blu said, reaching out for her.
She bent at the waist, her stomach roiling at everything that had just happened. But she managed to keep from vomiting. She took three deep breaths, then stood again. Jonn was still off to the side of the platform. Good. That was where he needed to stay. She wasn’t about to let Frees have died for nothing. Jonn would fulfill his purpose to destroy Charlie then they’d be done. Then she could grieve in whatever way she wanted to. Until then nothing else mattered. “C’mon,” she said. “We have to reach Hogo-sha’s tower and it’s a bit of a walk. They’ll be in there.”
Blu and Jonn followed behind her as she focused on steadying herself. They just had to make it to the tower. Despite her exhaustion, she wasn’t going to be deterred.
They made their way down the fifteen floors of stairs Arista was struck by just how quiet things were. The last time she’d been here the skies had been filled with PTD’s and the trains running all the time. The streets had been packed with people with barely enough room to move but now… Now it was all empty. Just like it should be. If people had been walking around, going about their lives as if the worst possible thing hadn’t happened she wasn’t sure she’d have been able to stomach it. She might have snapped, killing people left and right. But the only sounds were the buzzing of all the electronic signs that adorned the buildings.
“This way,” she said as she left the last of the steps behind, moving along the same streets she and Frees had been on when they’d had to run from Hogo-sha’s “Peacekeepers”. She didn’t let the memory linger, instead she pushed it away.
Arista had a job to do, and she meant to see it done.
TWENTY-SIX
“Try it now,” David said, staring at the station in front of him.
Jill turned the scanner on and by some miracle it stayed on this time. “Look at that. I’ll be damned.”
“Working?” David asked.
“Yeah,” she admitted, begrudgingly. She’d spent close to two days trying to get this scanner to work on Arista’s parents but it had cut out on her each time. David had it for three hours and it was good as new. Damn technical genius he was. He was also a quiet man, consumed by his work. And for that she had to respect him. It meant she didn’t have to listen to hours of small talk. Jill had always been of the opinion if you were going to say something, make it worth saying or keep your trap shut.
“Great, the scan should only take a few minutes.” He tapped a few more buttons then made his way around the console.
Jill left the scanner above Arista’s mother’s tube to do its work. “So,” she said. “You’re the daddy, huh?” When Arista had told her what had happ
ened on the other side she’d about fallen out of her chair. And to think, an exact—or close approximation—clone of this man had been working in the same place they’d been holding Jill. She never met that David so it was strange to meet a man who was part Arista’s biological father and part not at all.
David looked up a moment with an amused smile. “I guess you could say that. Though technically I’m not a true father to either one of them.”
Jill made her way over to one of the other consoles in the room, trying to make herself look busy. She didn’t need David thinking she was lazy. “I haven’t met many humans,” Jill said. “But you’re more like Arista than not. You might not be her biological papa in this world, but you prob’ly are in a lot of others. It’s not somethin’ you should take lightly.”
“I don’t, believe me.”
“Good,” Jill said, turning around. “Cause that girl has been through more than enough hurt in this world and she don’t need no more.” Ever since Arista had left Emily and Carver in her care, Jill had worked tirelessly to save them. But nothing had worked, and she’d been so afraid of killing them by opening or removing something she hadn’t been able to dive deep into the problem. Part of that was lack of a working scanner. But the whole time, in the back of her mind, had been the conversation she’d need to have with Arista if she failed. That, more than anything else kept her going. But in the end, even it wasn’t enough.
“She’s very resilient,” David admitted. “I hope coming here was the right thing to do. I left a lot behind.”
Jill scoffed. “What, a couple hundred followers and a bunch of money. What’s that in comparison to your actual daughter? An’ I mean the other one. The miniature genius.” She’d managed to get a look at Blu’s prowess in the short time they’d had before she, Arista, and Jonn had left. Blu had managed to encrypt Trymian’s systems so if Charlie tried to cut the power or otherwise infiltrate he’d run into nothing but electronic walls. The shield did a fine job of keeping the husks out, but Blu wanted to make sure to keep anything else out as well. “I’ve never seen Arista respond like that to anyone. Not even Frees.”
“Blu has always been a lot smarter than I am,” David said. “And she’s had the confidence to use it. I can’t help but think if she’d been born a hundred years earlier she could have had an amazing career. Before everything went to shit.”
“Tough times over there?” Jill asked, curious about the other side. She hadn’t had time to interrogate Arista about it, not with Frees out there needing to be rescued as usual. And she’d told her she expected a complete report when she got back and Charlie was offline. Imagine, a world where sentient machines were outlawed. She wouldn’t mind dipping her toes in that sand; giving the humans over there a little scare. Just for fun.
“No tougher than here I imagine, just different,” David said. “Everyone is competing for a limited amount of resources, and most go to the ones with the money. But it’s not like we’re slaves; we’re—well we’re as free as we can afford to be.”
“It’s a dark reflection,” Jill observed. “Here people are as free as their programmin’ allows ‘em to be. But because of that we don’t have a resource problem. I’m not sure what’ll happen if everyone gets their autonomy. Things’ll be hard for a while.” She glanced away, staring at the frozen forms of Arista’s parents.
“I understand you’re the one who designed Frees’ energy system,” David said, perking up.
“Sure did.” Jill crossed her arms.
“Great system,” David replied. “Versatile. For a while I thought we were going to lose him on the other side, but as soon as I figured out how it worked I managed to get him up to almost a full charge again. That kind of adaptability in technology is rare.”
“Why, thank you,” Jill said, taking a small bow. “It’s nice to know someone appreciates my work around here. You shoulda seen Arista and Frees when I showed them my chargin’ cubes. ‘was like I’d just shown them a sunny day.”
“She told me about the charging cubes,” he replied. “Very—”
“Ahem.” They turned to see Trymian standing in the doorway, leaning on his cane. “I’m here to check your progress. Any luck with the scanners?”
“They’re repaired,” David said, moving back over to his station. “And the scan is just about done. Maybe we can finally see what’s going on here with these two.”
“I hope you have better luck than I did,” Jill said. “I’ve been workin’ on them for weeks with little to no results. If I could open them up an’ get in there, I might be able to figure out what’s goin’ on. But I know if I open those tanks, we’ll lose what little is left of their cognitive patterns.”
“Not to worry,” David said. “With the improved scanner we should get—yes, the results are coming in now.” He furrowed his brow. “Jill…perhaps…”
She approached him, mirroring his facial expression. What was he seeing? When she finally got a look at the data on the screen it took her a moment to figure out what she was looking at.
“Well,” asked Trymian. “Anything conclusive? Anything we can use?”
“I don’t understand this,” Jill said, studying the diagrams on the screen. “Emily’s cognitive functions, everythin’ that makes her who she is, have been separated from her body. But not disconnected. It’s like openin’ someone up for surgery and removin’ their heart, but keeping it attached to all the vessels inside. Why would they want to do that?”
“Can you think of any possible uses for keeping a sentient host in stasis this way?” Trymian asked.
“It’s done nothing but prolong her life,” David replied. “As soon as the elements are re-integrated and she’s back in one piece she’ll still experience body lock and will be dead. There’s nothing we can do for the mind. The body will send the shutdown codes to her consciousness when they’re whole again.”
“Not sure why the humans would want to do this,” Jill said. “Seems like a waste of time and energy to me. They’ve done enough to keep her ‘alive’ without killin’ her. But any move we make completes the circuit. Eventually the tanks will run out of power or stop functionin’ and that will be it.”
Trymian leaned forward on his cane, his face like stone as he watched the tubes containing Arista’s parents. “Humans are irrational at times, but not like this. They had a reason; whatever it was. Perhaps it was a failed experiment or perhaps it was something still in the process, but they wouldn’t have done something so delicate and difficult without a reason.” He turned back to them. “Can you continue to work on it? See if you can come up with anything else?”
Jill huffed. “Might as well. Not like we got anythin’ better to do, is it? Not like I could be out there sharpshootin’ any husks that happened to come around. Nope, ol’ Jill’s gotta stay in here where it’s safe. Where everybody an’ their brother can make things work.”
“Would you prefer—?” Trymian began.
She raised her hand. “I’m just pissed ‘cause I’m stuck here and I’m not out there helpin’. I don’t trust Jonn an’ I’m worried about Frees. We should have heard somethin’ by now.”
David’s head snapped up. “You don’t think Jonn would have turned on them?”
“That’s exactly what I think,” she said. “And you would too if you’d been there when I first met Arista. After Jonn blew up Frees’ apartment. You should’a seen them, lookin’ all raggedy showin’ up on my doorstep. Like wet dogs comin’ in from the rain.”
“Then why did you let him go with them?” David asked.
“Cause leavin’ him here was riskier. Plus, Arista ain’t the kind of person you say no to. If she’s fixed on doin’ somethin’, she’s gonna find a way to do it with or without you. I know from experience. She’ll be fine, she’s got that—what is it?”
“Croden’s key,” David said.
“Key, right. She’s got that. I don’t think he’ll be able to hurt her or Blu, I just don’t think things’re goin’ to plan.”<
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“What should we do about it?” David asked.
“We sit here an’ do what we agreed to do ‘til we hear different. Last thing we need is to go out there an’ get ourselves in a compromised position.” She paused, staring at the far wall. “Still wish I had a sniper rifle, though.”
“Maybe I can assist with that,” Trymian replied.
TWENTY-SEVEN
They had been moving along the streets for no more than ten minutes when they came across the first body. It was a standard husk, a person in regular street clothes, no one fancy. Arista lifted the woman’s hoodie up to reveal a mangled face destroyed by some kind of energy blast that had melted her primary components and burned a large hole right through the middle of her head. Perhaps the human’s drill weapon? Though she’d never seen it create additional damage like this before.
“Careful,” she said. “I think we have a human contingent close. They won’t hesitate to kill us all.” As she glanced to the side, she caught the shapes of three more bodies, lying haphazardly on the ground in different places. It looked like there had been a small skirmish between Charlie’s forces and whoever owned those weapons. “Blu, activate your refractor, I don’t want you to be such an easy target out here,” Arista said, scanning the streets.
“If you’re not using yours then neither am I,” Blu replied.
“I appreciate the support but you’re not helping. If you don’t activate—” Movement to her left caught her off guard until the butt of something hard and metal smashed into her cheek, sending her sprawling to the ground.
“Arista!” Blu yelled.
White dots peppered her vision and the world had taken on a faint haze like a soft filter. She could barely make out the different figures emerging from the darkened buildings, but it wasn’t difficult to tell they weren’t friendly. They each carried a weapon and had them drawn and ready to fire.
“Anatahadare? Anata wa koko de nani o shite iru no?” Arista glanced up at the imposing figure standing beside her, a pistol in his hand. He had dark brown hair and a very angular face, but his eyes were a bright red. Not human. And not husk. He was a Peacekeeper.
