by Skyler Grant
I had my doubts Triton science was of interest, but if Caya thought it was worth pursuing I was inclined to allow it. She was, after all, flawless. If running around on Triton wasn't just her excuse to look away from the ugliness that was humanity, then she genuinely believed there was something to discover.
36
When the Arks hit the halfway point to Earth it was time to strike. Hot Stuff's body was already compensating for a complete lack of food and oxygen. It wasn't that much worse than deny herself sleep. By keeping her awake and active continuously in the projector cannon chair I could harass the approaching vessels endlessly. That was just what I did.
With eighteen vessels it was a lot of targets and I put together a program to alter aim randomly. If they were watchful and capable, they'd have no issues avoiding the incoming fire, but it would be exhausting. They also only had to mess up once. With the destructive power that Hot Stuff put out, a single hit on one of their ships might be enough to stop its approach
If they continued towards Earth they would pay a dear price for it.
Of course, the Sedara reaching the halfway point meant it was also time to begin my offensive. There were no easy answers on Mars, no easy solutions to what needed to be done. Most of the enhanced Sedara were on the Arks headed to Earth, so the majority of those who remained behind were unpowered—literally just human.
Before firing a shot I played to that. On every communications channel on the planet I started announcements and video of demonstrations, the unpowered being offered crystal abilities and upgrades.
Swear loyalty to the empire and you'd be given power. This sort of thing had worked before with the Scholarium. I didn't know if society in the Mars colony was the same, if the powerful Sedara oppressed the powerless, more human descendents, but I assumed so. Humans were humans, and it was their nature to abhor the weak.
Of course, as Sylax liked to say, join or die. But there needed to be an alternative.
Between bringing in forces from Earth and growing them in vats I now had an army on Mars of around two million strong. Acid weapons remained my primary offensive gear, although with energy weapon backups just in case they devised a countermeasure. In addition, I'd constructed what I was calling a spike. A high-powered shield generator designed to encompass and shrink, reducing something in mass in a highly charged ball of shielded energy. I'd designed it for the Sedara implants. If the central mass of one was exposed on a body, one of my drones would be able to drive a spike into it.
It was my hope that by removing the implants away from biological matter—in particular the human hosts—they could be contained, both preventing regeneration and rendering them harmless.
A day of blaring my warnings had inspired a few defectors initially before the well dried up with enhanced sentries seen along enemy encampments. I'd created civic unrest at least, it was time to strike.
Planet-wide my forces moved in. I'd seen the advantages of this approach from Vinci. When you hit everywhere at once you exposed any vulnerability in a line and created confusion in the enemy’s command structure. When the whole world seemed to be ending, there was nowhere to go.
The early stages of the battle were going well. Even the spikes were working and had removed a dozen implants. Then one wriggled out of the screaming body of a dissolving enemy and squirmed its way into one of my combat drones.
When Sylax had bonded with the remains of the dragon I hadn't felt anything unusual. Now I did. A presence on the network that hadn't been there before, it was like a stranger looking into my soul, I didn't like it.
I isolated the drone behind firewalls and opened a monitored connection. This could be my first look at a real Sedara, the monster within the host.
Instead I found my focus being drawn into a constructed virtual environment.
The implant had recreated a visual of a salon. Antiquated furniture made it look like an aristocratic sitting room from Earth history. A man in furs warmed himself before the fire.
The man said, "You're a manufactured intelligence. You're not Vor'Kesh though, or Kidari. The Terrans created you."
I said, "They got me started. I went on to recreate them in my image. I didn't create you though. To aspire towards being space barbarians is a foolish ambition."
"I didn't create that society. It created itself, I simply gave them power," the man said. He looked to be in his thirties, bearded with a thickly lined face. This environment was virtual, so what he looked like hardly mattered. It was simply the appearance this entity was choosing.
I cloaked myself in a camera with a glowing red eye. Let him make of that what he would.
"Are you a single intellect?" I asked.
"A most singular intellect," the man said, and grinned as if he'd just made a great joke.
I just stared at him.
"No? No sense of humor?" he asked, "Well, we'll get you taken care of. You'll laugh at all my jokes eventually. We're going to become good friends."
"If you are attempting to be either creepy or threatening, then you'll have to step it up. Sylax, whom you saw fight, is a good bit better at both," I said.
The man frowned at the mention of Sylax. "That was unexpected, her victory. Had I known what she was I'd have claimed her for myself. Still, I recognize a reflection when I see one and she was but a mirror of someone greater, and of you. You can call me Scythe, by the way."
"A reaper of crops, how terribly unoriginal. As a highly advanced reaper of crops you might at least modernize a little. Tractor, perhaps," I said.
"I like the name Scythe," Scythe said.
"Tiller? We could try some other form of farm equipment that is at least a little original.” "Scythe. Just Scythe," he said tightly.
"Well, if that is the best you can manage I suppose it will have to do. Inferior intellects are so dull. So what did you want to discuss?"
"We'll discuss it in person when I arrive," Scythe growled and blinked out of existence.
The implant severed its connection.
37
Whatever Scythe might be, he'd thrown out the names of alien species with some familiarity. He most likely was another visitor from outside the solar system. We had others, maybe they could shed some light.
Warmonger still wasn't talking, I still had him isolated and quarantined where he couldn't go sending any more invasion fleets our way. Flower was another story, and with the information she'd given us about the Sedara Arks she was somewhat on our side.
I found her in the garden, of course. The conditions really weren't right for it, but somehow she'd made roses bloom anyways. Roses were always blooming around her.
"Spy, we need to talk," I said through speakers.
Flower glanced towards the nearest camera. "At least bother to slip into a body. I'll make us some tea."
I took over one of the research drones I had observing her. By the time I made my way into containment she'd already gotten a pot steaming away on the stove.
"Does it ever bother you? Pretending to be human? Or do all your species live a lie like you do?" I asked.
"Have a seat," Flower said with a smile, bringing over the pot and pouring two cups of tea. I took mine dark, she added milk and sugar to hers, and took a long sip.
"The invention of tea time was one of the greatest moments in human civilization. If anything must survive of the species, that is it. If this is another entreaty for technology I still can't do it," Flower said.
"I didn't expect you to actually, suddenly become a real friend instead of simply friendly. You're far too two-faced for that. No, I met an entity who seems to be behind the Martian invasion. He called himself Scythe."
Flower pursed her lips. "Not very original is it? He might at least have chosen something more modern."
Well, Flower did have the occasional bit of sense.
"He mentioned the Vor'Kesh, the Kidari, do either of those mean anything?" I asked.
"It means you're dealing with someone that isn't local, but then
you guessed that. It is why you're here," Flower said, taking another sip of her tea and setting the cup down carefully. "My people are the Kidari. The Vor'Kesh are, well, jerks, but they're also artificial intelligences."
"Can you tell me anything more?"
"Care to drop the containment field and let me communicate with my people?" Flower asked.
“You can do that?”
"I can. Wherever we'd gone when the Earth got yanked away out of the universe, our communicators didn't work. When we got back it was just that nobody was listening. Once Warmonger opened another channel and let them know we're still alive, the old equipment started getting monitored again," Flower said.
Whatever harm was going to come of Flower and Warmonger, it had largely already been done. A fleet was on the way, and so far as it went Flower was something of an ally.
I dropped the containment field.
"Give me a few minutes to prove you haven't compromised my systems or taken me over. Enjoy your tea," Flower said.
It wasn't bad tea, although sipping it did make me think of a variety of tea for the Gobbles. They could use a little peaceful contemplation in the middle of their day. While Flower communed with her people I designed a new cultivar that should have a leaf more appealing to their tastes.
After a few minutes Flower explained, "Scythe is not so much the name of a species as the name of a weapon. I’m told we've run into them before. The usual strategy employed is they infiltrate a solar system soon to join the galactic community and they inhabit and fuse with the deadliest planetary species. Then using their resources they go to war against the community at large," Flower said.
"Sounds a dangerous thing for you to have not heard of until now," I said.
"I'm not actually that important, Emma. I’m not told everything," Flower said, pouring fresh tea into her cup. "The threat they've posed has also been muted by several of the more dangerous species in their path suddenly going missing."
"As happened with Earth," I said.
"Interesting, isn't it?" Flower said with a nod. "Of course, if this Scythe is the same, they still got something of a foothold among humanity from the humans capturing the original Ark and using it to launch an invasion."
"Yet we are from a different universe and we also got removed," I said.
"Even more interesting," Flower said.
"Anything more you can share?"
"They're a psionic infestation, not a physical one," Flower said.
That didn't fit what I'd seen so far, or perhaps it did.
The Mercurians were known to have been made out of metal and were form-shifting, and now totally extinct. Or, they were now Scythe—perhaps the Scythe had hit them first? If they were after the deadliest species in this solar system, a race of highly advanced metallic intelligences would have made sense.
I had firsthand experience of the Venusian Psi inhibitors. Perhaps they neutralized the Scythe? With the Mercurians converted, the Scythe moved on to Mars and somehow wound up merging the Mercurians with them. This new species they'd created had then tried to invade Earth, faced an invasion back on Mars. Then the Earth had vanished.
It was a working theory. It didn't explain why the Scythe had stopped at that point, but everything suggested they had. No, it did make sense, this prophecy the Martians had and their precognitive abilities.
They Selenara had seen the Earth returning one day, an Earth filled with humans even more powerful than the ones the Scythe already possessed and controlled as the Sedara. That Earth was mine, of course, and all that I represented.
The Scythe were in no rush. They were waiting for us all this time so they could ultimately launch their attack on galactic civilization with us as their new puppets—their most powerful hosts yet.
I thanked Flower for her assistance and got my drone out of there. This required an extreme response, something unexpected. I knew just the people to pull it off.
38
Omega Tower had never been this crowded. While consolidating most of humanity around the equator I'd left a few stray towers out there. The Omegas, too dangerous to integrate with the whole.
I'd called them together.
There were fourteen at the moment, in addition to the Omega Tower team itself. That made a total of fifteen Esmes, Martines and Vardoks. Most hated me with a burning passion, I'd made them to do just that.
"We've been used all this time," Esme Seven said.
"I knew it long ago. I hacked her outlying systems some time ago. I didn't expect her to show her hand like this though," Esme Twelve said.
I'd baked a lot of cookies for this.
I'd gathered all the different Omega teams here in the middle of the paradise I'd created for the Omega Prime team to discuss the future.
"Yes, yes, you are all neither original nor as clever as you thought," I said through the facility speakers. "A few of you have super-weapons with you. They've been neutralized, and they're nothing you haven't created before. Find some seats, I've got a presentation to make."
The Vardoks all sat apart, eyeing each other suspiciously. The Esmes were far more chatty and the Martines were desperately trying to keep some semblance of order.
"There is an interstellar threat on the way to Earth coming to capture and take control of our deadliest resources. You're barely aware—but are starting to realize—those resources in part are you. You've been creating terrifying super-weapons for awhile," I said.
"And you've been using us all this time," Martine Six said.
"It is what I do. It is why you hate me," I said.
That got more than a few nods around the room.
I told them what I knew. I told them everything. The true state of the Earth, of the solar system. The Omega weapons already built, and everything that I knew of the Scythe.
"What do you want out of us?" Martine Three asked.
"Whatever you think of me, we've got bigger problems. While you are all sadly human, you're still brilliant in your own murderous little way. I need that. If the Scythe reach Earth and manage to subvert me, they'll be in an excellent place to attack that fleet that is soon going to visit," I said.
"We could just kill you off," Esme Four said dryly. That got entirely too many nods from her fellow Esmes.
"In which case they subvert you and attack the fleet. You've all been raised to hate me and what I represent, I did that to make you dangerous. It also isn't the whole truth and if I am gone you really are next," I said.
"A free city," Martine Twelve said. "We help you, we get a free city. No cameras, no drones, no brainworms. We'll be a part of the empire, but free to live our lives the way we see fit with zero interference from you."
It wouldn't be a very free city if they denied all those things.
Still, as an experiment it was tempting. Perhaps I could enclose the entire thing in a testing shielding to prevent any harm, and use long-range monitoring to analyze the society they built?
"You know she'll just turn it into another experiment, like she does everything," Vardok Four said.
"Perhaps we shouldn't see a possible planet-ending apocalypse as a chance to get what we want," Esme Seven said.
"Unless you've forgotten, we are in this position because of the actions she recklessly undertook," Esme Nine said.
"I made you to hate me, most of you. Except for the team who has been correlating your results and who never knew you existed. Let’s hear from them," I said.
Martine Prime cleared her throat. "That would be me and my team. We had no idea that any of you existed and I am not pleased by that fact. It also fits with the Emma we know, one who is tirelessly working to try to put things right and protect her people."
"You can't mean that," Martine Five said.
"I've been given one super-weapon after another and asked to turn it into something that could help people," Esme Prime said. "I guess that they all came from people like you. I can't imagine what twists a mind so much as to think up things like that, but whateve
r it was they were also brilliant. We need that."
Those words hung over the gathering.
"I've been working on a disease that would sever Emma's connection to the drones. A sort of built-in biological psionic disrupter. It might be modified to work on these Scythe," Esme Three said.
It was a peace offering, of sorts. A rather disturbing peace offering given that she'd managed to keep that from me. There was no sign of that data anywhere in her tower. Ah, there it was, encoded data hidden within her own cellular structure.
Four of the Esmes were sporting similar, secret data storage units. One had come quite far on a method to remotely activate my Bio-bombs and send the biological-consuming explosion along my own network. Brilliant, horrifying.
I quickly got to work on safeguards against these inventions.
It was also bad enough it made me put in a quick call to Amy.
"Hey sis! You've gathered them all together. It is like a league of super-villians, or heroes, I guess it depends on which you are today, right?" Amy asked.
"I want you to spy on them. They're too good at avoiding me, but you're ..."
"Brilliantly different? You with a twist?" Amy asked.
"Sneaky, underhanded, and treacherous. Just make sure they don't blow up the Earth," I said.
"What are you going to be doing?"
"I'm going to be invading a planet," I said.
Venus seemed to be the only planet in the solar system the Scythe hadn't touched. It was time to find out why.
39
I'd have preferred to send someone more diplomatic to Venus, but given we were still at war with them I needed some heavy-hitters instead.
In this case I had Hot Stuff, Sylax, Ophelia, and a squad of Aegis units.
Hot Stuff had gotten more control of her metal skin and now managed to look like something other than a pornographic statue. The metal skin was still perfectly molded to her form, but at least every detail no longer showed.
