by P. T. Hylton
“How is it not a real mission? You owe me facts, Owl!”
The pilot ignored the comment. “Second, I don’t know shit about this place. That’s why we’re here, right? To learn.”
Alex couldn’t argue with that. Instead, she picked up the radio and contacted Agartha. She smiled when the person on the other end handed the radio to Jessica.
“Alex! I can’t wait to see you.”
“Same here. New Haven is falling apart without you.”
There was a pause. “Wait, really?”
Alex laughed. “No. Not yet, anyway. But it will eventually if we don’t get you back there.”
“Roger that, Lieutenant.”
“I’m a captain now. But, listen, I have a favor to ask. I need to speak with Jaden.”
She heard a bit of rustling on the other end, then a male voice came through. “Alex, it’s George. Listen, I’m sure Jaden would be happy to talk to you, but it’s a little sunny for his tastes. He’ll be sleeping until tonight.”
“I get that, but this is important.”
“Really, Alex, I can’t just—”
“George, I’m going to pound on his door until he answers. You might as well cut out the middleman and wake him up yourself.”
She heard Jessica in the background say, “She’ll do it, too.”
George sighed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
An hour later, she was following George down a long, stone hallway. Jaden had agreed to see her, but only in his quarters, and only alone.
George cleared his throat. “It’s really saying something that he agreed to this. He must like you.”
“That, or he’s hungry,” Alex quipped.
“Uh, yeah, about that…”
Alex paused mid-stride. “Wait, I don’t actually have to be worried about him trying to eat me, do I?”
“No, of course not! I just meant… Well, he’s going to have day sickness. He might not exactly be at the height of good spirits. He’d never do anything to hurt you, but…”
“That doesn’t mean he won’t bite my head off.”
George chuckled. “Metaphorically, yes.”
He stopped in front of a steel door with an impressive-looking locking mechanism. “Here we go.”
He rapped on the door three times.
“Come,” a low voice said, through the door.
George pushed the door opened and gestured for her to go inside. “Have fun.”
Alex walked into a dimly lit room. She blinked hard, trying to force her eyes to adjust, but she could only see vague shapes.
“Alex,” Jaden said, in a shaky voice. “I hear you wanted a word.”
“Thank you, I do. Any chance we can get some light in here?”
“Right. Sorry. Light isn’t so necessary for vampires.”
“Must be nice.”
“It has its moments. Daytime generally isn’t among them.”
A light came on, illuminating the small room. It was adorned with nothing but a single bed, a desk, and a chair. Since Jaden was sitting on the bed, she took the chair.
He was shirtless, and he wore loose cotton pants. An odd choice for a meeting, but she couldn’t exactly blame him. She’d woken him at an inopportune time.
“Sorry about all this,” she said. “I needed to talk to you, and I can only come down here during the day, so—”
He held up a hand. “It’s fine. Let’s talk.”
She looked at his face, at first, only to avoid staring at his sculpted chest and solid shoulders. But then she noticed something. The usual look of concentration was gone, as was the hint of laughter that normally lived at the corners of his eyes. He looked to be in a sort of daze. Even the way he moved was odd and exaggerated. Like he lacked fine-motor skills.
Day sickness, she realized.
As if reading her thoughts, he rubbed at his temples. “You’ll have to forgive me for not standing to greet you. I didn’t think you’d want to see me stumble around like an idiot. My legs don’t work so well in the daytime. Or my hands. I can barely hold a pencil.” He glared up at her. “A less trusting man might suspect you’re trying to have this conversation while I’m mentally weak. Perhaps you think I’ll let some useful information slip.” There was a hint of a growl in his voice. “That’s not what you’re up to, is it?
“It’s not like that,” she quickly responded. “I agreed to meet you alone in your quarters. We both know you could kill me in five seconds, flat.”
“I’m tired,” he said. “It might take six.”
“Regardless, I’m trusting you. I’m asking that you trust me in return.”
“Fine. Then talk.”
She swallowed hard, wondering if this had been a mistake. It wasn’t just his movements he was having a hard time controlling. It was his emotions, too. Anger bubbled under his words, like he might lunge at her at any moment.
“I was wondering if you might be able to tell me more about vampires.”
“That’s why you woke me?” he snapped at her. “For a history lesson?”
“Yes. But there’s a reason. The people of New Haven want to resettle the Earth.”
He was silent for a long moment, then he said, “Go on.”
She told him about the mission at the prison, being as honest and forthcoming as she could, in the hopes it would lead him to do the same. Jessica had already told him about Resettlement, so there was no need to hide it.
She told about the way the vampires had first gathered at the doors of the buildings, but had later stopped doing so. And, as painful as it was, she told him about Hope’s death.
“I’m wondering if you can shed any light on what happened. How did the vampires work together so well? How did they know what was happening in other buildings? Why did that vampire start to change when it fed on Hope?”
Jaden was quiet a moment before answering. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For putting your trust in me. I’ll do the same. I’ll tell you what I know.”
Alex leaned forward, and as she listened to him speak, the bit of fear she’d been holding on to at being alone in a twelve-by-twelve room with a vampire slipped away.
He closed his eyes as he spoke, as if relaying this information clearly was taking all his concentration.
“Vampires have a sort of a psychic link,” he said. “We can’t communicate mentally with words, but we can share emotions. General concepts. For example, if you were to attack me right now, assuming I felt I was in danger, every vampire in Agartha would sense it and come running.”
“I wasn’t planning on it before,” Alex said dryly, “and now I’m really not.”
He opened his eyes and looked at her. “We can also communicate slightly more complex concepts. For instance, if I wanted the vampires to meet me in the control room, I could communicate that mentally, as well as a general notion of how urgent the request was.”
“Huh. And Ferals can do this too?”
His face darkened. “Before this conversation, I wasn’t sure. But from what you’re saying, the answer must be yes. It could be even more powerful in Ferals than in true vampires. Their minds aren’t clouded by complex thought. They live purely by emotion and instinct. It would make sense that they would be able to work as a group even more effectively. As to your other question, Ferals who feed can return to true vampire form.”
Alex frowned. She’d suspected as much, based on what she’d seen in prison. “Have you or the other vampires here ever been Ferals?”
“No,” he answered quickly, almost as if the question offended him. “Let me ask you something. Do you know how the vampires overtook humanity so suddenly?”
Alex shrugged. “They’re stronger and faster than us. And we’re very tasty, apparently.”
A hint of annoyance crept into Jaden’s eyes. “You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to keep humanity alive.”
Now Alex frowned. “Okay, so tell me. Only one of us was there.”
/> “That, I was. In fact, I’m over one thousand years old.”
She watched him for a long moment, trying to tell if he was joking. “Bullshit.”
“It’s not. The reason vampires never overran humanity prior to the infestation is due to a curiosity of our genetics. A vampire has complete control over any human they induct into the vampire race.”
“Wait, like mind control?”
“Of a sort. It fades over time, but for the first one hundred years or so, the new vampire is under the complete control of its master. I look at it as a defense mechanism built into our species. It prevents overpopulation. No young vampire can create a new vampire of his own unless his master allows it. We managed to keep the vampire population to exactly one hundred for centuries, only allowing a new one to be inducted when another died.”
“So how did it go wrong? How did it go from one hundred to eleven billion?”
Jaden considered that a moment. “That’s a very long story and it includes many small errors by many people, including me. And one massive error, committed by someone I trusted.” He looked up, meeting her eye. “I’ll tell you sometime, but not now. Not while I’m day sick. The important thing to know is that if a Feral turns a human, it will be under the complete control of that Feral.”
“Holy hell.” Alex considered the ramifications. “So, if you were to turn me right now, you could make me radio New Haven, have them send a transport into a trap, give them false information, anything.”
Jaden nodded. “Now you know the real danger of humans coming to the surface. There were leaders on your ship with all of this information, and in a few generations, you have all but forgotten your lessons. It’s insane. The good news is, the Ferals have been starving for so long, there is almost no chance they would have the restraint to turn a human. It’s much more likely they’d drink them dry and leave them dead. Turning a human is difficult for any vampire; you have to fight the instinct to drain them fully.” He said it flippantly, as casually as a human might talk about the weather.
In that moment, Alex could no longer ignore what he was. In a thousand years of life, how many humans had he killed? Hundreds? Thousands?
He looked at Alex, seeing the disgust on her face. “You are so very young, but I like you. Your heart is in this thing, I can tell. I am your ally in this mission to save the human race. Now take this information back to New Haven, and make your leaders see. I need to sleep."
13
“You wouldn’t believe it. It’s like they’ve had this technology so long, they don’t even realize how incredible it is. It’s like if someone from a city without electric lights came to New Haven and we were like ‘yeah, electric lights, no big deal.’”
“Yeah, Jessica, sounds fascinating.” Alex looked at Owl and the two exchanged a glance, confirming that Jessica’s monologue about Agartha’s use of electromagnetics was going over both their heads.
They were on their way back to New Haven, and Jessica was talking a mile a minute, beyond excited about the things she’d seen in Agartha. The three of them were crammed into the cockpit, Owl in the pilot’s seat, Alex in the copilot’s seat, and Jessica in the rarely used jump seat that was normally folded into the wall.
“The electromagnetic elements they use for railguns have so many other uses,” Jessica said. “The fact that they haven’t considered how it could be used to increase the efficiency of motor relay systems is just silly.” She let out a laugh, as if she couldn’t believe the ridiculousness of it all.
“Yeah, it’s so obvious,” Owl said.
Jessica didn’t seem to notice her sarcasm.
Owl tapped Alex on the arm. “Hey, you okay? You’ve been staring off into space for twenty minutes.”
Alex looked up and forced a smile onto her face. In truth, she’d been lost in thought, only partly paying attention to Jessica’s techno-babble. “I’m fine.”
For a moment, it seemed like Owl was going to accept that answer. Then she said, “No you’re not. What did Jaden tell you?”
“A lot, actually.” She gave them a summary of what she’d learned about the vampires’ mental connection, the way Ferals return to human-like form, and the way that masters could control the former humans that they turned.
“Damn,” Owl said when Alex had finished. “That all sounds like information that would have been good to know before we went on our first mission to the surface.”
Jessica chuckled. “Would you still have joined the GMT?”
“And risk being some vampire’s mind-controlled puppet?” She shrugged. “I don’t know. But I certainly would have more seriously considered my mother’s recommendation of going into agriculture.”
Alex forced a laugh.
“We have to tell Fleming,” Jessica said. “We can make him understand.”
Alex shook her head. “We should try, but I’m not hopeful. Fleming sees himself as this great savior of humanity. We can throw all the facts at him we want, but he’s still going to go forward with Resettlement. We can’t trust him to stop it. It’s up to us.”
Owl glanced at Alex nervously. “How the hell are we supposed to do that?”
“CB and I have a plan, but we have to play our cards right. The two of you are going to be key to pulling this off.”
Two hours later, Alex, CB, and Jessica sat down in Fleming’s office in the Hub for Jessica’s debriefing. They were seated around a large round table.
It took all of Alex’s willpower to not let out a laugh when CB took the seat next to Jessica.
“Should we get started?” CB asked.
“Not yet,” Fleming said. “We’re waiting for one more.”
Alex and CB exchanged a curious glance, both wondering who it might be.
A moment later, the door opened, and Firefly walked in.
“Sorry I’m late.” He nodded hello to Alex and CB.
For the second time in a minute, Alex stifled the urge to laugh. This was the first time she’d seen Firefly since his promotion. The captain’s uniform looked odd on him, and he had an air of formality that didn’t seem to fit with the man she knew.
“How you been, Firefly?” Alex asked.
He glanced awkwardly at Fleming before answering. “I’ve been good. But I’m, uh, not going by Firefly anymore. Call me Garrett.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Garrett?”
He smiled weakly. “That’s my first name.”
“Huh.”
Fleming rapped a knuckle on the table. “As fascinating as this all is, I’d prefer we spend our time talking about the city of intelligent vampires. Jessica, give us the rundown. What did you learn in Agartha?”
Jessica smiled. “A lot. Agartha has an electromagnetic component they’re using for weapons. I believe we could use the same technology to improve the efficiency of our motors up to twenty percent. And that’s just the start. The agricultural techniques they use could allow us to increase our crop output and actually use less resources and square footage.”
As she spoke, Fleming’s face darkened. “I’m sorry, maybe I didn’t state my question clearly. I’m glad you learned about some new technologies, but that’s not what I was asking. In case you hadn’t noticed, our focus isn’t on improving the ship; it’s on getting off it. What did you learn about our potential enemies?”
Jessica blinked hard, taken aback. “I am telling you what I learned. And you might think of them as enemies, but they don’t see us that way. They were happy to share.”
“How very naive of them,” Fleming commented.
“Regardless, we should learn everything we can. We have to get Brian down there as soon as possible. It would blow his mind. He might never sleep again, he’d be so excited.”
“I don’t think we should put the greatest mind in our community at risk by sending him to a foreign and possibly hostile city.”
Jessica’s face reddened. “Yes, but you’ll gladly send your top engineer.”
Fleming paused, gathered himself. “I a
pologize, Jessica. I didn’t mean to imply you are expendable.”
“That’s okay,” Jessica replied. “I didn’t mean to imply ‘fuck you.’”
CB cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s all focus on why we’re here.”
“Yes, let’s.” If Fleming was thrown by the comment, he didn’t let it show. He’d lost control of the conversation for a moment, and it had clearly rattled him. But he was back now. “I don’t mean to diminish the engineering marvels, but what other, non-technological information did you learn? Tell us about the city.”
Jessica hesitated, her face still flushed with anger.
Alex tried unsuccessfully to catch her eye, willing her to keep things civil. They needed to keep the peace with Fleming. At least, on the surface.
After a moment, the engineer spoke. “The people in the city seem happy. They interact with the vampires as much as their conflicting sleep schedules allow. The vampires feed off blood donated by humans, never directly from the people.”
Firefly leaned forward. “Did they give any indication of their feelings toward New Haven?”
“No, they didn’t reveal any secret plans to attack us, Firefly,” she snapped.
“It’s Garrett,” he reminded her. “Do you really think they have our best interests in mind?”
Fleming held up a hand, stopping his captain. “No need to speculate. If they were planning something, they wouldn’t be dumb enough to share it with someone from New Haven. What I’m more curious about is their defenses.”
Jessica hesitated again, but not as long, this time. “Their security is insane.”
“Care to be more specific?” he asked.
“Sure. Fifty-caliber railguns around the perimeter. Cameras everywhere. The place is built into the side of a mountain. And if you somehow did manage to get inside, you’d have one hundred intelligent vampires waiting to rip out your throat.”
Alex looked at Fleming. “Tell me you’re not considering an assault on Agartha.”
“Of course not, but it is smart to be prepared for all possibilities.”
CB turned to Jessica. “What’s your gut feeling on the city?”
