Cisne spat out a bland description which included the location’s address and a brief history of its existence. The only thing missing was an actual explanation of what purpose it served. Gallego clarified.
“What is this location’s official designation?”
“Unknown,” replied Cisne. Gallego’s eyebrow arched involuntarily.
She looked around at her surroundings. While the neighborhood was rather quiet, it was hardly what she would describe as a blackout zone. A quick pull-up of an overlay confirmed that every other building had a designation. Only this building diverged from the norm.
A blackout site? she wondered. And she was supposed to go into it?
Apparently so, because she didn’t doubt that it was the right place. Gallego moved towards what resembled a door, though it looked more like a panel, a few barely-visible lines separated from the rest of the façade. When Gallego was within a meter of it, it peeled back to reveal a dark interior. She pulled back at this, and her bio monitors immediately alerted her of a spike in her heart rate and adrenalin production.
“Oh, fuck off,” she muttered. Calling up her bio monitor settings, Gallego reduced the alert threshold temporarily. The next few minutes were likely to be characterized by elevated stress and the occasional heart flutter. She didn’t want alerts popping up into her field of view every time something startled her.
Finished making the adjustment, Gallego took a deep breath and put one foot through the doorway. Nothing happened. From where she stood, Gallego could see a dividing line that marked the boundary between light and dark. It was like looking at a terminator from orbit, the stark boundary between night and day as it cut across the surface of a planet. On one side, things were all lit up. On the other side, there was total blackness. Only a tiny boundary separated them, a thin boundary where things looked all inky and grey.
Her sense of trepidation increased, though not enough to trigger another alert. The building wasn’t only unregistered but was protected by an electromagnetic dampening field. No forms of external radiation, not even the light of day, were permitted to pass beyond the doorway. She understood now just how much of a blackout site this was. Nobody on the outside was permitted to know what was happening within.
While it felt futile, Gallego called out into the dark.
“Anybody here?”
No answer. She took another deep breath and moved the rest of her body inside the doorway. It was like stepping from perfect day to perfect night, blackness folding around her like a blanket. Her heart was pounding loudly, and her next breath caught in her chest. The sensation of stepping into total blackness felt like diving into water. Her instincts were unsure that there would be air to breathe on the other side.
The darkness didn’t last long. As soon as she stepped inside completely, black turned to malachite green. It was bright enough to see by, and enough that she could make out the corridor extending before her.
Gallego realized she was still holding her last breath and let it out. She felt a small pang of relief knowing that she was standing in an actual structure and hadn’t walked face first into a singularity.
[Down the hallway,] said a voice in her head. Gallego gasped. She pulled up an overlay to check on the path of the signal. She got nothing. The source was unknown and the ID on it was blank. Whoever they were, they had her location pinged, and were able to connect with her. Yet another unsettling revelation in a day that was filled with them.
Gallego did as she was told and followed the corridor. Her steps produced no noise. Her feet landed on a surface that looked like it too was made of marble. But every step was somehow cushioned, absorbing all her force and buoying her along. She reached a junction, one hallway extending to her right and the other continuing forward.
[Take a right,] said the voice. Gallego obliged, turning the corner and spotting a door coming up on her left-hand side. It was a non-descript as the one she used to enter the building, almost seamlessly merged with the wall. She paused at it, sensing that what she was looking for was on the other side.
In that, she appeared to be correct. The moment she came to a complete stop, the voice returned with further instructions.
[Place your hands on the door.]
Gallego hesitated. While she trusted that Elenko wouldn’t send her into a harmful situation (at least, not yet), she found the idea of touching her flesh against any of the buildings surfaces to be disquieting. For all she knew, the material would merge with her, or try to swallow her whole. Nanomaterials, pictomaterials, and femtomaterials were funny like that. Even small children knew that unless you were aware of how they were programmed, you weren’t to touch them.
When the voice came back, it sounded surprisingly calm and mannerly.
[Please.]
Gallego took a deep breath and placed her hands, carefully, on the door. At first, it felt cool to the touch, but quickly warmed next to her skin. She then got the strangest sensation, as if the material was moving beneath her hands. Gallego tried to withdraw but found herself falling forward before she could.
“What the he-!”
Her words were muffled by the sudden addition of material around her mouth. When she regained her footing, she realized that applied to her entire body. From head to toe, she had acquired a second skin, one that was gunmetal grey and flexible, and had no joints or segments. Her vision was also augmented, staring through new filters and layers that weren’t the product of her neural implants.
Beyond her own body, the scenery had changed as well. Gallego was no longer standing in the hallway. Now she was standing at the far end of a strange room, columns distributed throughout that reached about two meters in height. The malachite lighting was still there, and there was a fine mist covering the floor.
She tried to speak aloud but found it difficult. On the second try, it got easier. Something in the skin shifted, allowing her the ability to speak. “What is this? Where are you?”
No answer. But she became aware of a loud tapping noise coming from the other end of the room. The din slowly grew louder, and a figure emerged from the mist. It eventually came close enough to be clearly visible, and then stopped.
Whoever they were, they were wearing a metallic suit like hers. It looked like a one-piece suit with metallic skin. Their arms hung down by their sides, and she could see that the right one ended with a five-fingered hand. But the left arm ended in an elongated stump.
In her visual field, a reticle formed over this stump. Alerts blared at her, telling her that what she was seeing was a Directed Energy Weapon. The alerts also indicated it was charged and ready. These alerts were coming from her, but they were piggybacking on her neural implants’ signals. The suit had augmented her senses and was letting her know she was in danger.
Gallego called out. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The figure raised the stump at her. A bright light formed at the end of it and a small cloud of plasma took shape. Gallego drew a short, sharp breath as she realized the obvious.
Oh shit!
The plasma cloud traveled towards Gallego at what felt like a vastly decelerated rate. Again, it was the suit. It had activated her defense protocol and had added some enhancement layers of its own. As the ball approached her, she was fed a stream of data on its trajectory, velocity, and energy level.
Gallego’s reflexes were also sped up considerably. She had barely enough time to move out of the way of the plasma cloud’s path. The maneuver she executed sent her diving to her left, head over heels, until she had done a full flip and was crouching on the floor, feeling mildly surprised.
Gallego’s equilibrium recovered instantly, and she felt noticeably energized and exhilarated. It wasn’t just her medimachines that were doing it, either. She was genuinely beginning to enjoy herself.
She looked back at her attacker.
In the place where they had been standing before, there was now nothing. Just a thick cloud of mist. Gallego got to her feet and moved
about, hoping to get a better look behind the columns that lined the room. There was no sight of the person. Whoever they were, they must have engaged a stealth layer. Either that, or they were well-concealed.
She ducked behind the nearest column, breathing heavily. Her bio machinery didn’t have to be told to get to work. Thanks to the suit, it was now working at double capacity, regulating her heart rate, adrenalin levels, and ensuring peak blood-oxygenation. She also felt the familiar tinge of endorphins coursing through her system.
Gallego had to admit, it felt good. Every instinct and cell in her body was now being directed towards the same task: survive. Given that her opponent had several tricks up her sleeve, courtesy of her suit, Gallego decided to take the opportunity to check out what hers could do.
Her attacker had been able to transform her own limb into an energy weapon. Gallego didn’t have the first idea of how to do this herself, but she looked at her left hand intently. She wondered: if she thought it might turn into a plasma gun hard enough, would that work?
A sudden blast to her right put an end to that thought. She looked around the left side of the column, saw her attacker approaching again. Another cloud of blue light formed and Gallego ducked back behind the column just in time.
[Move,] urged the voice in her mind. [You’re not going to win this by hiding.]
Gallego wanted to tell the voice to help or get lost. It wasn’t doing her much good now, and despite her heightened state, she wasn’t about to risk emerging from her cover. She looked once more at her arm. She tried again, narrowing her eyes and thinking hard about producing a weapon. Try as she did, her clenched fist wouldn’t turn into anything other than a fist.
[Don’t try to force it,] said the voice. [Just let it happen.]
Gallego frowned angrily. But under the circumstances, she wasn’t about to argue. She relented and simply looked at her hand. Just like that, a series of options filled her visual field. All over her arm, there were small hexagons indicating various options. The option for a plasma-casting was in the center, surrounded by various other DEW options and ballistic weapons. There was also a range of blunt and edged weapons, and some non-combat options for interfacing with machines.
Gallego selected the one that appealed to her most.
Ballistic autocannon. Hypervelocity setting. Osmium alloy rounds.
In nanoseconds, she had a cannon where her left hand had been. The weapon loaded itself, and she was ready to emerge.
She waited for another plasma burst to come and took a deep breath.
Things once again happened in slow motion. She moved out of cover, spotted her foe, and leveled the gun. Three bright bursts erupted from it in the space of a heartbeat. The hot glowing rounds were downrange an instant later, slicing towards Gallego’s opponent.
The first caught her attacker square in the chest. This caused their suit to ripple from the force of impact, which threw them backwards, spinning through the air. Gallego realized that this was no accident. They had deliberately taken the first round and used its ballistic energy to execute a tight flip through the air. This had the effect of letting her attacker dodge the second and third round and deposited them on their feet - crouched and ready to spring.
The next attack came like a flurry. Her opponent’s limbs had turned into an elongated blade on one side and a hooking claw on the other. These tore at Gallego’s body as her attacker fell on her, the first few slashes catching her on the arms. Small pieces of mercury-colored flesh were torn away, turning into globs of grey goo that fell to the floor. Gallego stepped backwards, dodging left and right to avoid the line of attack.
The final stab went directly for her chest. Gallego stepped aside and the blade was driven into the column behind her. She paused momentarily to make sure the blade was stuck, and the attacker was still attached to it. Gallego looked to her right arm and sorted through her options for a blunt attack as fast as she could.
High-yield shock stick.
A fork with two tines formed, the ends heavily electrified. Gallego drew it back and plunged the tip towards her opponent’s flank. It came too late. Her opponent detached the blade and swirled away in one fluid motion. The shock stick passed by their midsection and they were behind Gallego in an instant. She felt her feet swept out from under her by a swift kick. Another blow came from above, her opponent’s hand coming down onto her stomach.
No number of enhanced reflexes could stop Gallego from hitting the ground. The suit cushioned the blows, but she still felt deflated when she landed on her back. The room shook perceptively. Gallego recovered enough to roll away before her opponent could catch her with the heel of their foot. Their stomp came slamming down on the floor and the room shook again. All their blows were now delivering enough power to smash solid rock.
Rolling towards the wall, Gallego kicked out against it with one foot and sent herself into the air. She kicked out with the other foot, catching her opponent square in the face. Once again, they used the force to propel themselves, flipping backwards and catching Gallego on the underside of her leading leg.
Both fell to the ground at the same time. They landed hard but recovered again quickly. As they got to their feet, the respective pieces of their suits that had been lost - small bits of Gallego’s armor and her opponent’s broken blade - migrated back to merge with them again. By the time they were up, both suits had fully recovered and were ready to fight again, like the people who wore them.
Gallego and her opponent were now separated by less than a meter, and both stood in defensive posture. Gallego braced for the next attack, but nothing came. Her opponent dropped her hands and came to attention.
[Hello Veronika,] said the voice in her mind. [Pleased to make your acquaintance.]
Her opponent reached up to their face and tapped at the spot located behind their right ear. The suit retracted from their face, revealing a woman with a deep complexion and a wide smile. Gallego noted that her hair was different than it had been in the pic attached to her file. But it was clearly Adelaide Cheboi.
Gallego straightened up. She made the same gesture and tapped at the space behind her ear. The suit retracted to reveal her face, which was now covered in sweat. Once her mouth was free, she took a single deep breath and asked the obvious question.
“Cheboi, I presume?”
“Yes,” she said, smiling to reveal two rows of pearlescent teeth. “To your credit, you did quite well. You demonstrated flexibility and the ability to adapt. And that wasn’t because of the suit, either. You have had some combat training.”
“Was that what this was about?” Gallego demanded. “Seeing if I could handle myself?”
Cheboi shrugged. “The Councilor emphasized that you were capable, but I wanted to see for myself. You also needed to be cleared on the use of a Xolotl-grade exosuit. This felt like an opportunity to do both at once.”
Gallego looked down at the skin she wore. Knowing it had a name didn’t change it in her eyes. It had saved her life just now and managed to enhance her abilities exponentially. Knowing that the entire exercise was nothing more than a test didn’t improve her mood though.
Gallego’s face turned hot. Since Elenko wasn’t present, Cheboi would have to stand in for her. She would make a point of messaging Elenko later.
“I have to say, that was the most misguided test I’ve ever been put through. What if you had killed me? Or I you?”
Cheboi found this amusing. “If you had sustained serious injury, the suit and your own bio machinery would have saved you. Besides, I’m an expert at this, and I wouldn’t have hurt unless I tried.”
Gallego nodded. “Okay, and what if I had killed you?”
Cheboi didn’t smile at this, but she clearly wanted to. “Also, not likely.”
Gallego wasn’t sure what to say next. She had a lot of free-floating anger, but not much more to say. There was also the small matter of their mission and the preparations that still needed to be made. Gallego decided to cut right to that
.
“All right, fine. Got any more tests in mind, or can we get ready to go?”
Cheboi’s pearly smile returned. “Oh, no. I’d say we’re ready to go. Elenko chooses her people wisely, and I can see I’ve got little to worry about accompanying you.”
Cheboi extended her hand. Gallego looked at it for a second and hesitated. She couldn’t help but feel anxious about touching someone who had moments earlier been attempting to seriously harm her. But now wasn’t the time to be petty or hold a grudge. She took Cheboi’s hand and shook it firmly.
For better or for worse, they were partners now.
THIRTEEN
ADLER’S ARRIVAL WAS announced by the small hissing sound made by the door. The fact that there were two sets of footsteps indicated to Emile that Chaput was with him. And last, but not least, was the tempo of their footfalls, which were rapid and close together. These let Emile know that Adler wasn’t in a good mood, and Chaput didn’t want him bursting into the briefing room alone. Perhaps he feared the mercenary might do something rash.
The thought made Emile smile as he rotated his chair around to look at both men. As expected, Adler didn’t look pleased and Chaput looked bewildered. Luckily, Adler’s steely expression indicated that his emotions were contained, at least for the moment.
Emile smiled and adopted a conciliatory tone. “Mr. Adler, welcome back. How was your time on Ceres?”
“Disappointingly short,” he replied. “But your messages were rather clear and insistent.”
“Yes, my apologies. But as I said, there has been a development.”
Emile indicated the vacant seats on the opposite side of the table. Adler looked in their direction, grudgingly making his way over to claim one. As soon as he sat down, Chaput moved to the seat next to Emile. Once they were all settled, Adler made his displeasure known.
“So, what was so important that you couldn’t send it in a message, or by a proxy-courier?”
Emile placed his hands together in front of him, in prayer-like fashion. It was an instinctive reaction, one he usually did whenever he was trying to be diplomatic or convey something delicate. It was a habit he desperately wished he could rid himself of.
The Jovian Manifesto (The Formist Series Book 2) Page 9
