by Vance Huxley
* * *
His tapper made him jump. A very short message followed, preceded by Magpie’s six rapid taps, but the brief shorthand code told him everything he needed. “Contact. Taken objective. Waiting in ambush.” Bobby acknowledged. He would have liked to ask how the two Troopers had run nearly two miles and won a fight in under ten minutes, especially with Magpie dragging her bledrin leg, but didn’t want to warn whoever the ambush had been set for. He wondered if the engine room were nearer, in the middle of the ship. The tapper had jerked him awake again, but then despite Bobby feeling every cut, bruise and ache, his eyelids drooped.
He forced them open, moving a little now and then, turning to inspect the corridor each way and the ladder room. Ropes still hung from the ladder holes. A crumpled body below one showed where Fleur’s plastic buckshot had smashed through his faceplate at point-blank range. The Trooper’s comrades had stripped away the Supervisor jacket and his weapons and clips. Fleur didn’t need a jacket for protection now. Bobby shied away from that thought. Instead he watched the lizards run along the ceiling before coming down to start cleaning up the bloodstains. A different little robot came from a hatch to drag away the damaged one, then three cleaner robots arrived.
“Pepee? Are you fit enough to round up weapons before the cleaners take them?” Down the corridor a robot dragged a carbin into a hatch in the wall. Pepee limped out of the sick bay, cursed in French and began to throw weapons away from the robots. She moved up the corridor, picking up knives, carbins and shotguns and scooting them along the floor towards Bobby. He leant carefully sideways to pick them up, putting them on the bin Bells had used as a seat.
“Sorry, I can’t move away from the wall.” Bobby snorted. “I can’t even bend forwards or I’ll fall.”
“Sit down then. I can’t because I have a solid flechette in mon cul. Siflis put on a dressing but it’s still in there.” Pepee sighed. “I can go on a table, and maybe come out like Fleur, but…” She shrugged.
“I know. I’m still worried about what happened. Look on the bright side, she saved us so whatever she is Fleur is still one of Les Putes.”
“She came to you, not us, to be held. She came for a kiss. That is a better sign, I think.” Pepee looked down, abashed. “I am sorry. You and Fleur, after Magpie killed Raymonde? I wanted to kill you both.” Pepee glanced up to where Fleur had gone into her room. “Now, maybe that was the best thing. She likes you, not for poochy and not for the job, not to kill you easier.”
Bobby tried to keep shock from his face. The women had been friendly to help them kill the Basteds? Then smiled because what Fleur said about doing what she wanted suddenly made sense. “Fleur was going to tell you there was no need now. She told me she wanted an ami but not for the job. A boyfriend.”
“She said boyfriend?” Pepee looked surprised. “Or just ami?”
“She said boyfriend, but not Diva or poochy.” Bobby wondered, then asked. “You and the Super, Raymonde?” Pepee nodded. “Ami?”
Pepee curled her lip and almost spat. “Non. Cochon, pig. But that is how Trooper Chiennes are treated by our officers. For one of each squad, that is a part of our job.” She looked down then away, obviously embarrassed, before moving off quickly to get more weapons. Bobby moved the weapons off the bin and put them inside the ladder room, then sat on the box.
“Beebi?” He looked round and up to the balcony, then kept looking. Fleur hadn’t put on her uniform. Some part of Bobby remembered her Trooper uniform must be in that room with tables, shredded, but most of him just looked. Fleur looked down at herself and smiled, a cautious smile. “You like it?”
“Oh yes.” Bobby wanted to say a few more things but reminded himself Fleur wasn’t a Diva. The short skirt and tight blouse looked very Diva, but the way she swung quickly down the ladder wasn’t. She moved quickly, efficiently, as if she’d climbed the bledrin thing every day of her life, barefoot.
Fleur started forward and then stopped, unsure again. “We brought these clothes for fooling Troopers, a strategic secret, but I am wearing them now so that you remember. I am Fleur, not…” She waved a hand helplessly, unable to find a word she wanted to use.
“A woman who catches flechettes and throws lightning?” Bobby smiled, though it felt a bit forced. “You feel like a woman.” Then he smirked. “That kiss went a bit Diva.”
Her face lit up, and Fleur closed the distance in swift strides. “Maybe my kiss will be more ami now I have clothes?” She bent and yes, Bobby agreed the kiss felt more ami than Diva, but not much more, not in a skirt. He’d never kissed a woman in a skirt, well he had but only a Diva. Though Divas didn’t do much kissing because a Trooper went for the pooching and there’d be other Troopers waiting outside.
Bobby shook himself. Fatigue and Fleur in a skirt with real legs had really messed up his concentration. “Magpie says they’ve got there. Where did they go?”
“To the main engine rooms, at the other end of the ship. There were two waiting there, and the other two were moving as fast as they could to join up.” Fleur cocked her head slightly to one side as if listening. “One enemy is dead. The last two are getting close to Ecarlate and Magpie.”
“How do you know?”
Fleur looked almost guilty, and definitely worried. “The ship, it showed me. Not the people, but a map with dots. Purple for us, yellow for the enemy.” She frowned. “One dot is blue, the one with Magpie and Ecarlate and still alive.”
Bobby skipped past the ship talking to her, in her head. If a woman could throw lightning that seemed almost reasonable. “So how did Magpie and Ecarlate get there so fast? Are there cars?”
Fleur giggled. “No. Better.” She started to bend and stopped. “Let me bind your arm first. Then I can show you, if you trust me?”
“You saved my life then kissed me, all while you were stark naked. I can manage trust.” Fleur laughed and bent helped him off with his jacket. The uniform looked fairly ragged and spattered in blood but he put it back on afterwards because it would still help to stop plastic. Bobby managed not to tense as she bent and picked him up before walking into the ladder room. He did tense as she kept walking, towards the hole in the middle of the floor at the back. “Fleur?”
“Instant, a moment.” Fleur stepped into the hole, Bobby heard the whoosh from before but louder, and the walls blurred. He thought they were falling and held tighter but they slowed, coming up through a hole into what must be the floor above. “We have a lift.” She stepped forward, off thin air onto the floor.
“How did you do that?”
“In my head. I asked the ship, or maybe the lift.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m not sure. I am frightened, Beebi.”
Bobby smiled. “No, the Rangers and Shivas are frightened, scared shiteless. You were going to show me how to run two miles with a stiff leg in about five minutes?”
She set him down and giggled. “They didn’t run.” A door in the wall opened as Fleur approached to reveal a wide walkway, two walkways when Bobby looked properly. His eyes tried again because now each part seemed to move faster than the one next to it, with the slowest next to the door. “The further across the strip, the faster the floor goes. Ecarlate and Magpie stood on there, moved across to the faster part and went most of the way very quickly. They came out behind the enemy, around three corners from them.” Fleur shrugged. “I told them exactly where to go.”
“That door opened without using the controls. Did you ask it?”
“I might have, or the ship might. I don’t know.” The last came out plaintive, a cry of bewilderment and maybe fear. “What am I Beebi?”
“One bledrin sleek amie from where I’m standing.” Bobby started forward, tottered, and Fleur leapt to catch him. “Fast and strong as well. It’s a pity that table can’t repair metal.” Bobby reached down to tap his leg.
“I will ask.” Fleur’s head tilted slightly in the listening posture, her forehead furrowed a little. “Ship says no. The table will replace your legs and me
nd everything to make you like me, but not repair your metal.” She fell silent again while Bobby tried to decide if he should risk the table. He couldn’t even walk right now. “Ship says if we open your metal legs, maybe I can fix them so they work better?”
Bobby sighed in relief. “That will do for now. Sorry Fleur but I don’t want ship in my head until the reinforcements get here. Can the ship give me coms, so I can talk to it?”
“Not yet because ship says most of it is still asleep. The ship will not wake properly until the captain comes.” She listened again. “I am an emergency Internal Security Officer? Oh.” Fleur looked shocked as she kept listening. “My job is to stop further damage inside the ship.” She swallowed. “One of the other operatives will assist me, and one will operate ship defences against the fleet of spacecraft closing with us.”
“Other operatives?” Then Bobby realised, ship must mean Hood and Bells. Bells with blue lighting? Shite!
“I must mend your legs quickly before Hood and Bells are fixed.” She held out her arms and Bobby nodded, he didn’t mind being carried now. Moments later, after another dizzy ride, Fleur stepped out into the ladder room. A cleaner robot tugged at the pile of weaponry.
“No, stop.” Fleur raised a hand, then stopped because as she did so a line of lights ran down the robot and it backed away.
Bobby laughed, “Did you tell it bad dog?”
Fleur sniggered. “No, I meant to stop it but then it knew. Should I tell it good dog?” The robot turned and set off out of sight. “My Anglic is much better.”
“Don’t lose your accent, I like that.” That seemed to call for an ami kiss as Fleur set him down on the bin at the entrance. Then she set off purposefully down the corridor at the opposite side of the ladders to the hospital, towards the armoury. Bobby listened intently but heard nothing until Fleur strode back round the corner. She wore a belt with a holstered weapon. “The lasers let you in?”
“I am security.” Fleur pulled the weapon and as she did so two small wires or tentacles extruded from her wrist and plugged into the sides. Lights rippled on the weapon and a small screen lit up. “Oh.” Fleur seemed taken aback, then she concentrated. “This is more powerful than my hand, or will do less, just stun. I wondered what to do if Bells wakes up and goes viral because a carbin won’t stop him. The ship says this will, and we can fix him again if he is damaged.” She listened for a moment. “There is time to mend your legs, or the ship will keep him asleep until then. I’m not sure which.”
“So where do you start?” Bobby looked at the jagged holes in his calves and lower thighs, four in one leg and three in the other. “It’ll have to be here because you can’t climb ladders and carry me at the same time.”
“No need.” Fleur didn’t even look down to slip the weapon back into the holster. As she did so the two wires disengaged and retracted. She showed Bobby her wrist and there wasn’t a trace. “I am worried, Beebi.”
“Concentrate on fixing my legs, and we can talk about your new talents at the same time. Your mind is still Fleur, or the bit that counts.” I hope, Bobby added mentally. “Your body feels like Fleur, especially your lips.” This time Fleur managed a smile. “We can work the rest out.” Her smile strengthened as Fleur plucked him off the bin and set off towards the wall underneath their room. As she approached a hidden door slid aside. Fleur stepped into the hole inside without hesitation, then whoosh and she stepped out into their room. “Sleek. That saves climbing.”
“The ship only told me when I thought of coming up here. It doesn’t seem to know what to do, not until I want to do it.” Fleur put him down on the bed, then sat beside him. “Am I still human, Beebi?”
Bobby didn’t think words would do it, and anyway she’d sat on the bed next to him. The ami kiss deepened a bit as Fleur clung to him which reminded Bobby of what a boyfriend could stroke. When the kiss ended she smiled, a really bright happy smile. “Merci, Beebi, mon ami.” She knelt to pull Bobby’s legs round onto the bed. “Now I will mend you, and talk.”
The talk turned out to be about how worried Fleur felt about what happened in her head, and the things her body did. She felt normal, human, the same as before she had any metal at all, but then her body did strange things. Bobby tried to reassure her, but found that touch, even holding or stroking her hands or shoulders, worked best. Being treated as something weird, deadly and untouchable frightened Fleur more than what the ship had done. The talking and touching helped Bobby as well because Fleur looked, sounded and felt like a woman, not an alien machine that threw lightning.
The talking came in bursts in between Fleur ‘talking’ to the ship. She did that in silence, then explained to Bobby, then tried to carry out her instructions. He found out how bledrin strong her fingers were when she peeled off the damaged plates on his legs and used both hands to smooth the ragged edges of the holes. Bobby stared at the insides of his legs, at the wires and rods and motors, none of which he understood.
Fleur touched various parts inside the metal legs, as instructed, and Bobby’s legs flexed obediently or in some cases jerkily or not at all. Fleur used her fingers to straighten metal rods, and Bobby felt sure he saw the metal glow cherry red at least twice. Then she twisted steel wires together and this time Bobby saw her finger ends, held just apart, glow with the blue lightning to melt the frayed ends into one. Fleur also stripped the covering from electrical wires before melting broken ends together. Finally, she smeared sealant, the suit repair stuff, over the bare copper.
Midway through the repair Bobby’s tapper started up when Magpie reported mission accomplished, one prisoner. Fleur surfaced from her latest talk with the ship to report that all the yellow dots were dead, Magpie and Ecarlate were alive, and the blue dot still lived. Bobby sent back a consolidate and hold order, while Fleur carried on with her repairs.
At the last she went to an invisible hatch, the small one for the cleaners, waiting until a robot came out carrying two components. Fleur clipped those into Bobby’s legs, ran through some tests, and announced that the legs were mended. She clipped the cover plates back on, and Bobby stood.
“Stiff, not quite right, but bledrin sleek. You could get a job fixing cars and washing machines with hands like that.” Bobby held out his hands and Fleur reluctantly put hers in them. He inspected her fingers. “No, these are much too soft and delicate to get dirty and calloused fixing motors.” Bobby had wondered if he could see where the lightning came from but her hand looked human, even down to the fingerprints. Though the callouses she should have from using weapons had disappeared, as had any trace of sealant or the melted insulation.
Fleur looked relieved. “Are you ready to meet Bells and Hood?”
“Can we talk to Hood first?” Fleur consulted with the ship.
“Yes. Can you climb, or shall we?” She gestured at the hole in the floor inside the alcove.
“Hold me tight.”
“Always, mi copain.” Bobby wondered what difference copain made, then gulped as he shot down the tube.
* * *
Hood climbed off the table in a daze and sat on a small padded seat that had been extruded or uncovered by the room. He shook his head as if just waking up, sharpening up suddenly to look around with real alarm. “Where is Magpie?”
“Calm down. She’s got a stiff leg from a bullet in the metal and the usual flesh wounds but otherwise she’s Oke. Maybe you should get dressed first, before going to look?” Bobby frowned. “Can’t you tell where she is? Fleur can.”
Hood looked around baffled. “How, where?”
“In my head Hood.” Fleur fell silent, and then Hood jumped.
“How did you do that in my head?” He looked at Fleur properly. “I thought you were, that the flechettes, there was so much blood….” He took a deep breath, then looked at the tables and the one still hidden behind some sort of screen. “This fixed you?” Fleur nodded and Hood looked down at himself, shock on his face. “How bad was I?”
“At least two solid flechet
tes in the back, and a lot of blood, and we didn’t look closer. Fleur told the machine to fix you.” Bobby debated then pushed on. “Ask the ship.”
“Ask the ship? Oh.” Hood looked panicky, then he froze before listening intently. “Nine spacecraft approaching.” An expression of pure wonder spread across Hood’s face. “I can see them and the asteroids all around, and the first rocket and capsules and Aggie. Oh man, I tell you, this is so sleek. Rifle?” He paused. “Ooh, someone is pooched. That is one hell of a bledrin rifle! Let me know if they don’t play nice, Beebi.” Hood shook himself and grinned. “I can use some of those beams, the ones we saw, and bullets the size of Aggie. Ship wants to me to protect us. Ship?” The grin disappeared and Hood looked stricken with sheer terror. “Immortal CEO protect us; I’ve got a computer in my head!”
“No, no, just coms. No computer.” Fleur looked at Bobby and shrugged, so she wasn’t that sure.
Bobby reverted to Trooper, using his best sergeant voice. “Hood!”
“What?” Hood leapt to his feet, his eyes centred on Bobby.
“Welcome back, Hood. Put on your pants, then go and get a weapon in case Bells goes viral.” Hood spun, looking for his weapons.
Fleur pointed at her gun, then crooked a finger and Hood followed. Bobby walked around the room marvelling at all the lights and screens, about half of which were alight and not one of which he understood. It didn’t seem long before a bemused Hood followed Fleur back into the hospital room, dressed in shorts and a tee. “Hey Beebi, look at this.” Hood drew his new sidearm and by the time it cleared the holster the two wires had slotted home.
“What are those wires for?” The weapon looked lethal, the beautiful sort of deadly, but those wires flicked something in Bobby and made him uneasy. He hoped they were wires, then wasn’t so sure because that meant Fleur’s arm had wiring.
