by Jim Melanson
She settled the craft on its antigravity struts, and went to the back of the Dart’s cabin. The Drone was still all trussed up in duct tape and its large eyes were staring at her while its mouth worked silently, gnashing its teeth and looking like it really thought it could bite her through its helmet. Thankfully, the helmet it was wearing meant she didn’t have to listen to the damn thing. She still had her environment suit on, but not her own helmet. The Eridani base had Earth norm air pressure and breathable (though stinky) atmosphere. She took off her environment suit because she didn’t want its restrictiveness if push came to shove; and when confronting the Eridani and their minions, push could quite quickly come to shove.
She picked up the trussed Drone, tossed it over her shoulder and then closing her eyes she thought-commanded the Dart, “Outside”. Closing her eyes usually avoided the nauseating stomach lurch and slight disorientation of the TransMat, when her eyes were open.
The air around her was suddenly different. She opened her eyes and was standing on the Deck just forward of the nose of her Dart. She squinched her nose at the smell. The gathered drones were quickly moving to form a circle around Achael as the five Vesna approached her. She looked at the one in front and thought loudly, MASTER, NOW. Nothing happened right away so she knew the Vesna was trying to communicate with her. She refused to let her mental guards down though because, as previously stated, the Vesna just creeped the hell out of her. She refused to let them communicate with her directly. She adjusted the weight of the squirming drone slung over her shoulder. She thought again, louder if possible, MASTER, NOW.
Still, nothing appeared to be happening. One of the Trigla guards, the guard commander it looked like, stepped forward. She recognized him as someone she had sat at a table with during the last official visit she took part in. He smiled quickly, then went back to looking dour, “Vesna Mahal say down down quanni leave.” His pidgin English wasn’t half bad.
Having dealt with these assholes most of her life she looked right at the creepy Vesna Mahal (title, not a name) and said with her voice, “You bring the Duty Commander here right this minute. You bring him here. I’m not leaving until I speak with him.” She reached out and poked her finger in his chest as she said this. This, of course, caused the circle of drones to rush in tight around her. One of them foolishly grabbed her arm. Unluckily for that particular drone, her lightning Eben reflexes let her withdraw her arm, and punch it in the head hard enough to kill it on the spot. It dropped lifeless and the other drones just stepped on top of it to get closer to her, but none of them touched her. She knew that could only be, because they were under direct orders not to. The dead one just got a little too excited. As far as she was concerned though, the only good drone was a dead drone. Push was indeed, coming to shove.
At this, the five Vesna turned as one, and walked away. She looked at the Trigla guard commander. He just gave her a wry grin and hunched his shoulders, “Wait now HipHip, Voiya come.” (HipHip was what the Trigla called Achael, it meant ‘gift bringer’).
The little trussed up Drone on her shoulder was still wiggling. She could hear some faint sound coming through the helmet; it must have been in quite a state to be able to hear it. She hefted it up and flopped it not too gently onto her other shoulder. The drones circling her pressed closer to her momentarily, but then got hold of themselves and drew back. She had about 30 centimetres of space all around her, and they had to be twenty deep.
Sighing deeply, Achael did all that she could do at the moment, she waited. She amused herself by making sneering faces at the sea of drones, trying to see if she could provoke another one to go to it’s death, quickly. These drones were well-trained though. They gibbered, snarled, and sneered right back at her, but none of them touched her. She really, really hated the drones.
Only three or four minutes had passed when a hatch opened at the side of the hangar bay. Two armed Trigla stepped through, then two Vesna, then the Eridani Master (one of the Voiya), then the rest of the original Vesna contingent, and four more armed Trigla. The last two also carried a lightweight, but ever-present platform between them.
The original Trigla guard commander watched their entrance, then turned back to Achael and said sotto voce with his deep voice, “Little big-big, korumph custy guards, fast move tut-tut.” He had warned her that this was a low ranking Voiya, and that the guards with him would not be friendly to her: so don’t make any sudden moves. She smiled. She could take half a dozen armed Trigla before they knew what happened. Still, she appreciated this one making the effort to warn her. It just strengthened her appreciation of the Trigla she had become friendly with.
Without even looking, a wedge of open space formed within the ring of drones. The ring itself pulled back a bit more, leaving Achael standing in a clear circle about five feet across. Clear that is, except for the body of the dead drone that had mistakenly touched her. She looked at the circle of drones and knew that they were the only thing she really had to worry about. A dozen or so of them would be no problem but there had to be at least two hundred of them around her. She wasn’t entirely sure that she really could defeat that many of them on her own.
The two trailing Trigla guards scurried to the front of the pack and set down a wide three step platform, then retreated while bowing. The Voiya slowly climbed the three steps of the platform in front of her. He then stood there smugly, his head height above her eye line. He wasn’t saying anything out loud, he was just staring imperiously down at her. She watched his forehead rise, his eyes widen, and nostrils flare. The Eridani Master was trying to communicate with her but she had her mental blocks up.
She said, “Speak to me, I won’t hear your thoughts”.
The Voiya recoiled like it had been slapped, the drones pressed closer again, and the Master’s guard force unshouldered their weapons. Achael just smiled and waited.
“IMPERTINENT HYBRID!” it screeched in its whiskey and cigarette voice. All the Voiya on Mars spoke flawless English, it was just hideous to listen to. “KNEEL BEFORE YOUR MASTER!!!”
Achael laughed, “Like that’s going to happen. We have business to talk about, Voiya, let’s get on with it”.
The Voiya fumed, she could see his fists clenched, he let out a yell of frustration and stomped around the small platform in a circle. He stopped, looked at the dead Drone on the hangar deck and screeched (they were always screeching), “WHY DID YOU KILL MY DRONE??”
“It touched me without permission.”
The Voiya stared at her for a moment, and then screeched, ever the imperial host, “FOR THIS YOU HAVE MY PARDON.” The Voiya looked at the lead Vesna, the lead Vesna made a hand motion. Four of the drones in the pack broke away, picked up the dead drone’s body, and then carried it to a large metal tub in the far corner of the hangar deck, one of the acid vats used to rid themselves of dead or disobedient drones. Within a few minutes it would be nothing but liquefying grey goo.
Screeching at her again, “WHY ARE YOU HERE??”
Achael took the duct taped Drone off her shoulder and tossed it on the floor in front of her. “That thing attacked a human”.
“HUMAN NOT WELCOME”.
“That thing attacked a human on Mars, you do not attack humans on Mars.”
“IT DID NOT ATTACK YOUR HUMANS. IT ATTACKED THE UNWELCOMED HUMAN. THE HUMAN GOVERNMENTS KNOW NOT TO SEND HUMANS TO MARS”.
She took a step closer to the Voiya. As he raised his head imperiously, the Master’s guard brought their weapons to bear on Achael. Achael put one foot on the squirming Drone on the floor and leaned forward with her arms crossed on her raised knee. “Who do I have the … honour … of addressing today?”
If possible, the Eridani Master drew himself even higher, with a face full of self-righteous, self-importance, and screamed, “MASTER BLITOWYN OF CHERNASAI”
“Master Blitowyn?” She smiled.
“YES.”
“Of Chernasai?” She smiled broader. She could tell the smile was getting to him.
> “YES!”
She chuckled, making the Eridani Master almost vibrate with rage, “Aren’t you Master Rillixiwen’s little brother?”
The drones pressed closer.
“I AM THE MASTER OF THIS BASE. I AM THE MASTER OF THIS PLANET.”
Achael stood upright and did a bit of yelling herself, “You are the Duty Officer! You are not the one in charge! You’re not the Master of anything except your own ass!” The Voiya screamed with rage and pointed at her. So far the encounter had been proceeding just about the way she had anticipated it would.
Before the Master could say anything, she went on, “However,” she sighed. “I don’t have all day to argue with a petty functionary,” her inner eyelids slammed shut, “so let’s just get this over with.”
Seeing this, the Eridani Master’s guards actually took a step back from her. The Voiya screamed with rage and reached forward for Achael out of instinct. She was too far from him for him to actually reach her. She held perfectly still and smiled. The army of drones pressed closer again, some of them standing unsteadily on the trussed up, one in front of her. The Voiya’s guards held their new position and kept their weapons trained on her. Now that she was in battle mode, they actually looked a bit nervous. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the original guard commander casting a very wary and experienced eye on the Master and the hybrid as the drama unfolded. The Guard Commander looked nervous. That suddenly made her a little less certain about her position. Something else was going on here, but she had no clue what it was. She wondered why would Rillixiwen, the senior House brother, send his youngest sib to meet her?
As the Voiya got control of himself, the drones held their position. Two of them suddenly fell over from the movements of the squirming Drone bound and laying on the floor. The Voiya looked down at it, as did the Vesna. Again, without any words, four of the drones picked up the duct taped Drone and carried it over to the acid vat. Just before tossing it in, they removed the helmet and Achael could finally hear its screams of failure, angst, and rage. Thankfully she hadn’t had to listen to that the whole way here. The screams were extinguished by a bubbling sound as the still bound Drone was tossed in the acid vat. She could just imagine its flesh and body dissolving into the grey goo, and actually felt kind of queasy about it. She didn’t show that on her face. She remained impassive to the Voiya and the Vesna.
“Why did you attack the human?”
“YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO QUESTION ME ON DEFENSIVE MATTERS!!”
“Defensive? Did you watch what took place? The human defended himself with rocks!”
“I DETERMINE WHAT IS DEFENSIVE AND WHAT NEEDS DEFENDING!!”
“You had to defend yourself from a lone human who fought with rocks?”
“YES!!”
“The great and mighty,” she almost spat it out, “Bsirutaeben, so weak and scared they have to try to kill a man armed only with rocks?”
“YES!”
She said nothing. She just smiled.
“NO! NOT WEAK! NOT SCARED!” Master Blitowyn paused, “DEFENDING OUR BASE, DEFENDING OUR PLANET!”
She said very quietly, “Like I said, it’s not your planet. You are guests here. We’ve been here far more than a human millennia. You have only been here seven hundred and three human years. My people laid claim to this place long before you arrived. Now you try to kill a human. Our humans are protected. You cannot kill humans.”
“NOT YOUR HUMAN, YOU HYBRID. NOT PART OF YOUR BASE. IF THE HUMAN ISN’T PART OF YOUR BASE, THE HUMAN IS NOT PROTECTED”, he paused, “IT WAS A DEFENSIVE MATTER, BY THE TERMS OF THE ACCORD WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND OUR BASE”.
Something about his tone, about how he had said that, gave her pause. Then she asked, “Who gave the kill order for this human?” She cocked her head to the side, and folded her arms.
There was a longer pause, then, “I DID. I GAVE THE KILL ORDER. I DEFENDED OUR BASE, AND I GAVE THE KILL ORDER. I WAS THE ONE!!”
She unfolded her arms and her inner eyelids opened. She stood there with her mouth open. “I can’t believe it. You didn’t give the kill order, did you?”
“I GAVE THE KILL ORDER. OF COURSE I GAVE THE KILL ORDER.” He paused briefly then continued, “DRONE CANNOT KILL WITHOUT A KILL ORDER!! I GAVE THE KILL ORDER!!”
Achael looked over at the acid vat, and then looked back at the Voiya, “You didn’t. You didn’t give the kill order. The little fraker in the ship went rogue, didn’t he? Didn’t he?”
The Eridani Master just seethed and stared at her. It was much more acceptable to admit to giving an order that he never gave, rather than have it known that the Drone had indeed gone rogue, against its Master’s actual orders. He looked at the Vesna, then looked back at her. The Vesna Mahal and the Master exchanged another glance and obviously, some unheard psychic chatter.
“WHAT YOU SAY IS NOT POSSIBLE!!”
“Yes, yes I believe it is. That little Drone went rogue, and now you have to cover it up. You don’t have absolute control over your drones after all.” She was enjoying pushing him around.
The thought that an Eridani Master did not have control over his drones was unthinkable. To actually say this out loud was an insult that went to the core of who they were (pretentious airheads with a Jovian sized ego). Questioning an Eridani Master’s ability to control his drones was an incredible insult from an outsider. If true, it brought into question that particular Voiya’s ability to rule and control effectively. It brought into question their right to have responsibility and power within the Eridani Dominion. It called into question the absolute right and power of all the Eridani Masters everywhere, because having lack of control over one drone meant they may not have absolute control over all drones, over all their Vesna, over all their Trigla. It called into question the nature of their very existence.
Having someone or something out in the Verse with the ability to correctly question this power was unconscionable. Having an outsider know for a fact that a drone had gone rogue could undermine and eventually destroy the whole Eridani sphere of influence … or so this Master thought.
In reality, outsiders only submitted to the Eridani because of their large number of drones and the sociopathic viciousness of the Vesna. None of the power races believed the Eridani were as in charge and in control, as the Eridani thought that others thought they were. In fact, when the Drone went rogue, all the Voiya on the base went ballistic. The Drone’s actual Master was Rillixiwen who along with several other Voiya Masters at the moment, lay dead in his chambers after a blood bath amongst the Voiya had ensued. Master Blitowyn was only one of three surviving Masters on their Martian base, and he was now in the hangar bay because he was low man on the remaining totem pole.
However, that’s a subject for another day. For now, the Eridani had almost reached a very terminal decision for Achael. In interest of political détente, it was going to give her a chance to save herself.
A Vesna Mahal was sort of like a leader, but more like an elected group representative, but only with co-operative decision making ability. Nothing was ever simple with the Vesna. The Vesna Mahal looked at the Trigla guard commander. The guard commander stepped forward and said, “Vesna Mahal say no say what you say. Say that is bad bad. For you.”
Achael was never one to respond well to passive-aggressive. She looked at the guard commander, looked at the Vesna Mahal, and then looked at the Eridani Master. Her inner eyelids slammed shut again, filling her face with two black orbs and then she burst out laughing. Probably not the best response given the situation. The Vesna Mahal jerked his head, the drones swarmed her and grabbed at her arms and legs. The Master’s personal guards all pressed in with their weapons pointed at her head and chest. She ignored them and started killing the drones two at a time; no one there really cared about the drones. There would be lots more where these came from.
Achael was in a tough spot and she knew it. She could have taken the Trigla without the drones. She could have taken a lot of the drones on
their own, but if (when?) the Master gave them a kill order, then she couldn’t hope to take this many without some protective armour. Not wearing armour on this mission had been a mistake. She chalked it up to being blinded by rage and anger when she departed the hybrid base. As she struggled against the press of the drones she didn’t let any of this show on her face. She couldn’t lose face in front of a Voiya, in front of the Vesna.
The Voiya gave what could only be interpreted as a smile. He sneered and screeched, “I GAVE YOU A CHANCE HALF-BREED. YOU HAD A CHANCE TO RECANT.” He folded his arms across his chest and continued screeching, “AND NOW YOU WILL DISCOVER WHAT …”
As she shook off drones and killed one after another, the Master stopped mid rant and looked up. The Trigla guards looked up behind her, and the Vesna contingent looked up behind her. Even though she was struggling with and killing drones, most of the drones were all looking behind her. She could see a look of surprise on all of their faces. She saw the Trigla ground crew running full tilt for the hatch at the back of the hangar bay. The Master stepped backwards and fell off the platform. His Trigla guards stood around him, and were now pointing their weapons behind Achael, not at her. The drones all went into a frenzy, looking behind her and looking towards their Master on the floor. They had stopped tugging and pulling at her, and she stopped killing them. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the Trigla guard commander with his hands in the air. Half his platoon also had their hands in the air, the other half had rushed around to surround the Master as he stood up and stepped back up on the platform. Even though answering the perceived call to duty, these inexperienced guards were looking mighty uncertain about having done so. The Master’s personal guards had closed in tight around him. She could have turned around to see what they were all gawking at, but she didn’t. She was in fighting mode and was keeping an eye on the Trigla with the weapons in front of her.
