Discovery

by Craig Martelle

  “Thank you. You’ve been very kind.” BA turned to walk away but stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “And can you tell us the way to the surface of this moon?”

  Terry and Char backed toward the entrance. When the door opened, Char headed out and sighed when the next door opened and it was a bathroom. Terry stood where he could see both the corridor and BA.

  “No, I can’t tell you that.”

  “Can’t or won’t? There is a difference.” Bethany Anne began exploring Lucinda’s mind, but hers was different. She was human, but not. Her thoughts were controlled, held behind barriers that seemed not of her making, as if a third party could unlock what it needed upon command. BA’s mind knocked on the doors within the woman’s thoughts, but she couldn’t open them. “’Can’t’ it is.”

  Char returned and stood at the entrance as Terry took his turn.

  BA left the Erthos leader and started strolling but didn’t get very far.

  Lucinda stood with back arched and arm stretched to full length as she pointed at Bethany Anne. “Seize her!”

  There were no other people or hardware that they could see.

  “Good luck with that, dumbass.” BA continued her stroll, her hands clasped behind her back as she looked at various machines.

  Char waited. She leaned into the corridor and yelled, “Put the book away, TH!” She shook her head and mumbled. “Men.”

  Laser beams stabbed across the space and into Bethany Anne. She looked down as they passed harmlessly through her body. She pursed her lips and shook a finger at the Erthos female.

  Char braced herself against the door, ready to go in or out as the situation dictated. Terry finally returned, still fastening his pants.

  “All good!” he declared before asking, “What did I miss?”

  “They fired lasers from somewhere, but they went through BA’s body. She’s ignoring them. I think she’s walking the Etheric.”

  “Is that common?” More lasers fired, which scorched and burned the equipment and wall behind Bethany Anne.

  “I have heard it was possible but didn’t know anyone who could actually do it.”

  “What is it?” Terry asked, grimacing at his ignorance of the Etheric.

  “Take their body into the Etheric and go anywhere they want. I think it’s a higher level of evolution. Maybe Michael can do it, too.”

  Two robots of the type Terry and Char encountered when they first entered the outpost appeared, but before they could get close, explosions sparked from their chests and they tumbled helplessly to the floor. With a final spasm, each bot settled as so much scrap.

  “That was interesting.” Terry craned his head back and forth to see if anything else was coming.

  “She killed their Etheric power sources.”

  “If we only had some popcorn, we could watch this appropriately.” Terry started to walk in, but Char stopped him.

  “We are not invulnerable like she is. As you’ll remember, lasers hurt.”

  “Only too well, my lover,” Terry agreed. When he looked up, BA was nowhere to be seen and the Erthos leader was pointing at them.

  “Seize them!”

  “Shoot her!” Terry replied in the same tone and volume.

  Char raised her laser pistol but didn’t fire. “Maybe we shouldn’t kill her again.”

  She put the pistol into her pocket.

  “She’ll be back when we don’t want her to be. Bring her with us?” Terry asked.

  “I’m not sure how that will work, but we can try it. This place is more like Groundhog Day than Clue, I think.”

  “We’re spinning our wheels, constantly ending up where we started.” Terry pointed toward the first room where he’d been drilled by the robot’s laser. That was where they’d just spent the night.

  “Except we keep finding little tidbits, crumbs that could be leading us somewhere.”

  “Everywhere but out of this fucking shithole.” Terry stormed up to Lucinda and grabbed her by the arm.

  “Seize them!” she shouted in his face.

  “Why don’t you seize me yourself, you miserable woman?”

  “It’s not one of my duties,” she countered, trusting the pragmatism of her argument.

  “You’re coming with us, and you know what? That is in my job description, for right now, anyway. You ever hear of cross-training?”

  “No. It is not one of my duties.” She took a deep breath as she prepared to yell. Terry poked her in the abdomen, driving upward with his finger to force the air from her lungs. The air exploded from her, and she started to cough.

  “Do not yell in my face. Or my ear, or anywhere near me. If you yell, you get poked.” Terry kept hold of her arm and forced her to walk with him as he toured the space, looking for something he might be able to use in his search for an exit.

  Like something to help them move those rocks.

  Char joined them. “Hi, Lucinda,” she greeted the woman as if they were meeting for the first time.

  The Erthos kept her mouth shut, torn between being afraid of Terry Henry Walton and defiant in giving no information to the intruders.

  As they walked, they discovered that few of the machines were running. “That’s why it’s so quiet,” Terry noted.

  “Is this the main manufacturing hub for the outpost?” Char looked at Lucinda for an answer. She kept her mouth shut.

  “Life will be so much better if you answer our questions. We’re not asking you to betray your people or your position. Is there anything in your job description that says you can’t answer questions? What about yelling ‘seize them?’ I can’t believe you have a duty that directs you to yell that.”

  Lucinda looked confused.

  They waited.

  “It doesn’t say exactly that.”

  “Then what does it say, exactly?” Char asked, keeping her voice even and free of emotion.

  “To protect the sanctity of our home...” Her words drifted into obscurity as she couldn’t end her thoughts.

  Terry stopped and pointed at the laser scorch marks on one of the machines, following them across to where they left a pencil-thin line along the wall. “Who caused that damage?”

  “The security crew.”

  “On your orders, which means you caused the damage. We haven’t harmed anything. What are you doing by damaging your home?” Terry urged her to find an answer that would help them escape the outpost. He didn’t mention the robots they had killed in self-defense.

  “Are you a dog?” Lucinda suddenly asked.

  Terry pointed to himself and shook his head. Char knew who the Erthos leader was talking about.

  “I believe you see who you’re talking to. Do I look like a dog?”

  “No,” Lucinda conceded.

  “What makes you ask that? Do you remember what happens to previous versions of yourself? Our impression was that you do not.” Char analyzed the Erthos clone clinically, seeking scientific information. She treated her like an experimental subject and not a potential friend.

  They had already killed her more than once so they couldn’t begrudge her animosity.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about. Claymore told me that I should ask.”

  Terry and Char’s ears both perked up. “Who is Claymore?” Char inquired as Terry studied their captive.

  “Claymore directs all for the Erthos.”

  Char chewed on the information. Terry jumped in. “Can we speak to this Claymore?”

  “You may not. He won’t allow it.”

  “How do you speak with him?” Terry asked.

  “I just know what he says. It’s like he speaks to me in a dream.”

  “How does he know what a chocolate milkshake is?”

  “I don’t understand the question.”

  Terry wanted to get Char alone so they could discuss their strategy. “I think we should take Lucinda for a bathroom break.”

  “It is not my time,” the Erthos replied.

  “That’s okay. If th
ere’s a will, there’s a way.” Terry turned Lucinda toward the door. With Terry and Char each taking an elbow, they hurried from the room. A quick left, a wave of the wristband, and they shoved Lucinda through the open door. “Don’t come out until we tell you we’re ready for you.”

  When the door closed, Terry was first to blurt what was on his mind.

  “What the fuck?”

  “I wish I knew,” Char replied. “She must have a chip in her brain, but I’m not going to crack her skull to look for it. We’ll assume she does and that Claymore is the computer.”

  “Agreed.” Terry started to pace, something he did when deep in thought. He also liked to talk through things, even if only with himself. “Claymore knows things and shares select memories with the reincarnations, but usually shares nothing. Since we’ve arrived, they’ve probably gone through more bodies than they’ve used in hundreds of years.

  “Machines that make stuff, same as the War Axe. Food that’s the best we’ve ever had. How does it know, and how is it fooling our senses?”

  “Maybe it is that good?” Char suggested.

  “I can’t believe that. It simply knows how to tickle our pleasure centers. Well, mine, anyway. That was the best burger and curly fries I’ve ever had, or at least I was convinced of it. The burger even looked and smelled exactly like I thought it would.”

  “Can I come out now?” a voice said from the bathroom.

  “Not yet.” Char’s lips turned white as she pinched her mouth shut, not expanding on Terry’s thought.

  “Everything goes into the shredder for recycling, so don’t use the cleaning bot tunnels. For our own health.”

  “What’s that have to do with anything?” Char wondered.

  “That’s where my thoughts went after the burger.”

  “But they have plumbing, too.”

  “Yes. Plenty of water, it seems, along with plenty of foodstuffs.”

  “That doesn’t answer our main question.”

  “How do we get out of here?” Terry ventured.

  “Then our second main question. How can we talk to Claymore?”

  “Claymore will be able to show us the way to the surface. He might be the one giving the orders.”

  “What if he’s related to Ten?” Char didn’t look happy thinking about the AI they had chased beyond the frontier and fought at his home base of the ubiquitously named “Homeworld.”

  “Then we will defeat him like we defeated Ten.”

  “Ted and Ankh defeated Ten. Aaron and Yanmei defeated Ten. We fought the preliminaries, but they handled the title fight,” Char replied, using vernacular that resonated with TH.

  “Then we’ll have to step up our game. I blew up an engine with us in the room.”

  “I’m not sure I’d claim that as a victory. Ted was furious.”

  “It was Ted’s fault. He told me to hit it but then failed to mention what ‘it’ was when there was a shiny thing right in front of me. He can be such a dumbass!”

  “He expects people to follow along with his train of thought.”

  “No one can do that beside Ankh and their AIs.”

  “Artificial Intelligence. Being an AI doesn’t mean they are smart. I’m wearing an old Lucinda wristband, yet it still works. Is there a problem with this AI? What if it’s studying us through the mean Erthos woman?”

  “Can I come out?” she asked right on cue, almost as if she were listening.

  “Fine!” Terry yelled at the closed door. Lucinda opened it and walked through. She looked far different from the person who had gone into the bathroom. She didn’t look angry or mean. She looked contrite. Terry had a hard time recognizing the emotion for what it was since he had killed her once and so had Char. Her sneer was forever etched in his mind. It had been the last look on her face when he grabbed for her throat.

  But this was a different Lucinda. He had to keep reminding himself of that.

  “Help us find a way to leave here. This place isn’t for us. We live out there among the stars.” Terry pointed to the ceiling.

  Lucinda looked up.

  “If I help you and you are able to leave, we will be secure once again and won’t incur any more damage to our home. The logic is undeniable.”

  “Thank you, Ms. Spock,” Terry said, earning himself a punch in the arm. Char gave him a two-second stink-eye, and he took that as an appropriate comeuppance. “Thank you.”

  Char didn’t know if he was talking to her or Lucinda but accepted it at face value.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere. Can you have some construction bots meet us at the stairway?” Terry looked hopeful. “We’d love to dig farther. I think we’re close, and a mechanical assist would be greatly appreciated.”

  She nodded but didn’t say anything.

  Char shrugged, winced and grabbed her head before heading down the corridor, left, then left, and left again...

  Chapter Fourteen

  Efluyez Homeworld, Alganor Sector

  “I love these helmets,” Kai whispered into Christina’s ear before giving it a kiss.

  “Is that your way of saying you should have gone to Ted first?”

  “Maybe, my feisty love muffin.”

  Christina pushed him away and held him at arm’s length. “I’m nobody’s love muffin.”

  “I was... I just... I only...” he stammered.

  She cocked one eyebrow and crossed her arms.

  “Fuck!” He finally settled on the one-word answer to all the universe’s problems.

  “Now that we know our mutually respectful places, shall we continue?”

  Kai grumped and scuffed his boot on the non-skid surface of the hangar bay.

  “How many helmets are done, and when will we have them all?”

  “One-third. These have technical components we don’t need for this parade, but Ted locked the design so neither Smedley nor I can make any changes.” Kai watched the warriors marching in formation. Kimber guided them from a column left—a left turn of row by row—to column left, marking a continuous square on the hangar deck. “If there are no problems, we’ll get the final helmet four hours before the parade kicks off.”

  “One day to show time, and twenty hours until we’re ready.” Christina chewed her lip for a moment. “I don’t like the time crunch.”

  Kai had no answer for her. The ballistic cloaks had been ready on time, and the helmets were being churned out at the rate of two per hour. There was no way to speed up the process.

  Plus, Ted had locked them out of the CIC. They had gotten all they were going to get from their resident genius.

  “But they are damn good helmets!” Kai offered. Christina rolled hers over in her hands. Streamlined, integrated heads-up display, and ballistic protection around the head with a secondary piece to cover the wearer’s neck. The screen was something neither of them had ever seen before.

  “Our ship is capable of making something like this?” Christina asked.

  “Ted is capable, but no one else. I need that material structure so we can put it in other things. Maybe in all the things.”

  Christina gestured for Kimber to take a break.

  “Company! Halt,” she commanded. The unit came to a stop, and the warriors remained locked at the position of attention. “Rest in place.”

  They remained where they were and shook out the aches and tightness from their bodies. The warriors kept their left feet planted so if Kimber called them back to attention, they would immediately assume the tight formation that they had when they stopped.

  The Bad Company was going to be parade-ready, and the helmets would be ready in time.

  Everything was falling into place, which worried Christina. She started walking toward the formation and Kimber met her halfway.

  “Looking good, Kim.”

  “We’ve seen the parade field. We’ve met the lackeys.” Kimber threw her hands up in frustration. “Where is an ambush going to come from?”

  “I wish I knew.” Christina wore a troubled
look as she scanned the faces in the formation. If she failed them, warriors would die.

  Even with their ballistic cloaks and helmets.

  “So we have to be ready for everything. Black Eagles overhead. The War Axe ready to crash-dive the planet. Mechs fully armed and weapons-hot with sensor systems working overtime,” Christina added.

  “If there is anything to see, our people will see it.”

  “Maybe practice scatter-and-cover?”

  “Railguns all the way around, and no matter what the Flayse think, we’re going in fully loaded.”

  “What are the rules of engagement?”

  “Isn’t that the million-credit question?” Christina looked back and forth between Kim and the company. “Let’s see what our people think.”

  Together they strolled to the front of the formation, where Kimber brought the company to attention.

  Christina took a deep breath and spoke loud enough for all to hear without yelling. “We’ll reconvene in the chow hall in fifteen so we can talk about what tomorrow will look like. We only have one chance to get this right. We don’t know what’s going to happen down there, but we have to be ready for all contingencies.”

  “We’ll rip their fucking heads off and shit down their necks!” someone shouted.

  “Yeah! Fuck those asswipes!”

  “Bint-hole-sucking, ball-slapping, pustule-infested...”

  “Hold on!” Christina yelled into the cacophony of insults. “Who are you going to beat up?”

  Silence. Until one lone voice. “The enemy?”

  “Yeah!” The insults started afresh.

  “SHUT UP!” Christina’s eyes started to bulge and veins throbbed in her neck as she fought to stay in control. “We are going down to a parade. We’ll be marching. The enemy is hidden, and may never reveal himself. All of a sudden, it could be chaos. Then what? Are you going to shoot some bystanders?”

  The big mouths remained shut under Christina’s withering glare. She softened and let out a breath she’d been holding.

  “We are one of the best and most experienced fighting units in the galaxy. All of you are professionals. This gig is different. I wanted to talk about it over chow, but we’ll do it here. You need to know what I know. I don’t have the answers, but whatever we do, we’re all going to do it together.