“Not pride. Just . . . confidence in your idea. It shines through,” I told her. She beamed at me, then put her arms around me for a brief hug.
“Thank you,” she whispered, then drew away, pulling her goggles down as the outer doors began to open at some silent command.
Sunlight seared my eyes, then my ‘bots adjusted, and I saw forest from a different vantage point than when we entered.
Six soldiers stood before us, rifles at the ready, neither pointing at us nor entirely away. When they saw Aristine, they snapped to, and the weapons vanished around their backs.
“At ease. Let’s get right to it, shall we?” she asked. “This is Jack Bowman, whom we’ve been waiting for. He’s ready to move on The Outpost, and we’re going to help make it happen. Questions?” Her voice crackled with authority, far different from the woman who’d been writhing with pleasure under me the night before.
There were four men and two women, all similar to Aristine—tall, rangy, and capable looking, but they had the addition of dark goggles and a spray of reddened skin across their faces. They’d been topside for some time.
“Jack Bowman,” I said, stepping forward, but the tallest soldier held up a hand.
“No names. I don’t know you yet, and it isn’t critical to our mission,” he said, his voice barely concealing his disdain for me. I saw how he looked at Aristine, and decided he didn’t like me for several reasons, but taking the woman of his dreams to bed the night before had to be near the top.
I looked to Aristine, who was preparing an order that would have correctly embarrassed the man, then put a gentle hand on her arm. “General, if I may?”
She thought about telling me to let her handle it, then amended her decision when she saw no anger in my eyes, only the sincere wish to help her. I knew soldiers. I knew men. I understood jealousy, and I’d brought the moment on myself, despite the wrinkle Aristine added the night before. Just then, the doors opened behind us, and Yulin stepped out, goggled and smiling. Her face fell when she saw the expression on the man speaking to me, and I made my second snap decision of that minute. I knew I would not regret either, because there are some things that must be handled sooner rather than later.
“Yulin. Nice to see you . . . again,” I drawled.
She smiled awkwardly and stepped beside her sister, who seemed, for a second, to be anything but a general. She was smart, and she would figure out what was happening soon enough.
“General, do I have your permission to teach this prick a lesson in manners?”
“What?” Aristine barked. Yulin looked stricken, and the soldiers reached for their weapons, then withdrew their hands at Aristine’s murderous glare.
I rotated to face her, close enough that I could feel her breath on my face. “We seem to have two problems that can be solved with one small demonstration.” I lifted my voice to include everyone. “The issue at hand is not discipline. It isn’t even anger, or a need to understand our role as allies. It comes down to a simple, critical quality that we must share with each other if we’re gong to make this work. Honesty.”
“I—of course. But how—” Aristine began, but I moved away, into a patch of sunlight pouring through the trees.
“You,” I said to the tallest soldier who was bathing me in a hateful stare. “You first, or two at time. Whatever. You have ‘bots in your blood?”
He fell silent, then nodded, his skin flushing red.
“Good. Then you’ll heal quickly after the lesson. The word here is honesty. You can approach, boy,” I said, watching the insult hit home. There was only so much he could take, given the circumstances. I had found his button and pushed it.
He lost his fucking mind and charged me, cat-quick and leading with a hand extended toward my throat. A killing blow for most men, but I wasn’t going to fight like most men. I leapt forward with a kite strike of my own, sliding inside his arm and sending his hand past my ear with a hiss. My fingers struck him in the neck, deadening nerves just long enough for me to continue my movement with a good old-fashioned uppercut that splattered his nose in a shower of blood. He crumpled without a sound, unless you count the thump of his body hitting the ground.
The second and third soldier were on me in a blur, but I’d seen them coming and went low, tripping one and punching the other in the balls hard enough that he would be hugging an icebag for the foreseeable future. He staggered, then I drilled him in the temple, rolled across his shoulder, and just because I believe in equal rights, kicked the taller female soldier in the ass, sending her sprawling. She was up instantly, her face black with anger when Aristine shouted a single word.
“Enough!”
The forest was quiet except for low groans of pain. I eyed the remaining upright Daymares with naked disdain. “I’ll stop for you, even though you don’t deserve it. Not as an ally, and not as a woman.”
“What the—what are you talking about?” Aristine spat. Yulin was in shock at the speed of the violence, so I lowered my voice as I came toward them
“You took me to bed, and I was willing and even honored. You explained your needs, and despite my reservations, I saw the logic of it, and I appreciated your candor. And then, you lied and sent Yulin to the bed, and for that, you will either apologize or this alliance will go nowhere. You have my promise on that,” I said in a cool tone that invited no argument.
“You—” Yulin began, but Aristine stilled her with a wave.
“He knows,” Aristine said.
“Of course I knew. You should have had some rum, Yulin. Your breath was sweet like herbs when you were caught up in the moment, kissing me.” I looked at them both, then at the Daymares, who still simmered with rage, but were listening. “I would have given myself to you freely, if only you had asked. But you lied. Do you understand what that means?”
Yulin touched her lips, eyes gone sad. Aristine stepped to me and took my hands. “I am sorry. I will never be—I will never lie to you again. Please consider that my word, if you’ll have it.”
I looked at her and weighed the value in anything other than an alliance, and then I judged her as she stood there, offering something to me I should have had from the beginning. “I believe you, and I’d like to never mention this again. I’m sorry,” I said to the Daymares, who were still bewildered and pissed by the entire event. They couldn’t understand my motivation, and I wasn’t about to share. I needed to make Aristine understand that I was no fool, and the Daymares had to respect my ability to fight. It was a gamble, but when I saw the expression on my opponent’s faces, I knew it worked.
“We’ll get over it,” the guy with the broken nose said, then looked at Aristine. “Eventually.” He was a pro. He knew what his mission was. And mine.
Aristine took my arm, and her face was somewhere between relief and shame. “Then let’s get out of this fucking sun.”
30
The air inside felt cool enough to calm the lingering effects of my fight, and Aristine dismissed the Daymares to get medical care. To their credit, none of them spent the elevator trip doing anything other than checking on each other; a testament to the overall professionalism of them as soldiers, or maybe they just respected Aristine too much. The fight had, in a sense, been due to her failure as a leader, and I knew she was already thinking about how to win back their trust as well, simply by the thoughtful look she wore.
Yulin was a different story. She regarded me through half-closed eyes, and when the three of us, including her sister, were left standing at the base of the fish ponds, I spread my hands, asking her what was up.
“This might be the wrong time, but think you know any more men who can rise to the occasion?” Yulin asked, her lips pulled to the side.
“It’s always the quiet ones who are dirty, isn’t it?” I said to Aristine, who responded by rolling her eyes and snorting in a noise that was nothing like a commander.
“Your first mistake was thinking she’s quiet, but I’m glad to see we’re on the path to some kind of forgiveness. Thank you, J
ack. Again, I’m sorry,” Aristine said.
“I’m the aggrieved party, if you can call it that, and I know there are issues here. Serious question. When was the last baby born here?” I asked.
That brought the room to a halt. Both women looked at each other, then to me with eyes that were pained by a hard truth.
“Five months ago. A girl. She didn’t survive,” Aristine said.
“I’m sorry. Truly.” I put my arm around both of them and stood in silence, thinking of the fear they must feel individually and as a people. Without children, not only was the Chain at risk, but the rest of humanity. Aristine was committed to the restoration of our world, and she couldn’t do it without another generation. I began to understand her motivations a lot better, so I made a decision.
“This might not be the right time, but if you have a bay, I humbly request that you name it anything but Chad, okay?” I said.
Yulin gave me a stare, then broke into laughter. “What kind of a name is Chad?”
“Um, let’s just call it a tradition I wouldn’t like to bring back. Sort of like bellbottom jeans and low-fat foods in general. There are some things that should be left in the depths of time,” I said.
“Low-fat foods?” Aristine asked, bewildered. She pointed to her and Yulin’s bodies and said, “Why?”
“Exactly. No need to resurrect things with no place in this new world,” I said smiling. We were making headway and building a Chad-free world. I felt hope.
My locket chirped with Andi’s voice just then. “Jack, you around?”
“Here,” I said.
“Printing will be done later tonight, and I’ll be back in the morning. There’s still a lot to learn. Years, in fact, but there are some things we can integrate as we expand that will give us a huge advantage. You saw how they irrigate?” Andi asked.
“I did. It extends the range of the water by half, at least. We’ll need that going forward. Come back soon, we’ve got a warlord to crush, okay?” I said.
“See you in the morning,” Andi said, and we ended the connection.
“I have until tomorrow to work out a plan with you, but as it stands, I can’t take those Daymares with me. They’re pissed, and they’ll have a grudge no matter how professional they are,” I said.
Aristine was quiet, working through her decision tree as both commander and integral part of the situation. When she spoke, it was with the clarity of a leader. “Right. This is on me, so the options are simple. Noble, Yulin, and I go with you, and the Daymares stay here. We goggle up, go at night, and fight like hell to neuter Wetterick and his cadre before dawn. Then, we use your truck to get back here and open communications and trade within a day.”
“Yulin can fight too? And Noble?” I didn’t ask about Aristine. I knew she wasn’t a paper tiger, based on how comfortable she was with a rifle in hand.
“No one is better than Noble at hand-to-hand, and Yulin is lethal with knives as well as her guns. In the Chain, we have mandatory service for everyone who can go topside,” Aristine said.
“Knives are my thing,” Yulin said simply.
I gave her a nod of respect. It took guts to use a knife. It was personal, unlike a distant rifle shot.
“Then we leave in the morning after a plan based on your aerial images,” I said. “Hey, how many people are in the Chain?”
“Nine thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine,” Aristine answered immediately.
The number was staggering for a population without enough children, and the seed of an idea took hold in my mind. “When this is over, I have an idea how we can advance together, as a unified force.”
Both women looked at me with interest, and I smiled with relief, because my plan would achieve three goals with one act. That kind of opportunity was rare, so the decision was easy.
“We have until tomorrow to talk this through, but tonight, I think it’s time you had some fun,” Aristine said.
“So last night was a civic duty, but naked?” I said with as much innocence as I could muster. It wasn’t much.
“Hush, you. That’s not true and you know it,” Aristine said. Yulin merely smirked, which was somehow both irreverent and honest. I could appreciate that kind of attitude.
“We’re takin you to the Stump,” Yulin said. “Show you the other side of our lives. I promise, you’ll love it.”
“I’m game. What’s the plan until then?” I asked.
“Weapons technology. It’s time to see where our ideas diverged, and where they might be lacking. I’m not so arrogant as to think our closed research has all the answers, and you’re a direct source to what happened in our military before and after the virus. We’re going to E2, to see Pisarno. He’s forgotten more about weaponry than I’ll ever know, but he has some quirks that make him better suited to, ah . . . not being around people,” Aristine said.
“Got it. I’ll move slowly and speak low,” I said. Yulin snorted, and we began our trip in a new direction, toward the wall but ahead of the fish farms. “Where to now?”
“It’s a hike, unless you’d like the exercise. We were going to grab a cart. Also, you might want to bring some gear back, and by that I mean you’ll have your choice of weapons from the armory. I want our partnership to be without reservation, because I believe we want the same things, Jack,” Aristine said.
“Thank you. I accept,” I said, and I meant it. We were on the same mission, and it was nothing less important than saving the world.
The cart wheels hummed quietly as we slipped through the tress on a path without any other people. “I can’t get over how quiet it is here,” I said.
“Don’t get used to it,” Yulin said. “The Stump is anything but quiet.”
It took fifteen minutes of travel along what felt like a forest path, then a long, wide corridor of flawless design. We passed several other carts, earning waves and stares as other people went about the business of running the Chain. Emerging into E2, there was a subtle shift in the air. Somehow, it was even more fragrant.
“As we go further up the Chain, it feels more natural. By E5, you’d swear you were in a rainforest,” Aristine said.
“That’s because you are,” Yulin said as we pulled in to a long, low alcove that hugged the right wall. “We’re here,” she said, then jumped out before the cart stopped moving.
Security was unmanned, with a direct DNA scan of Aristine’s finger. A wall slid inward, then to the side without a sound. Light flared to life above us as we entered, but I drew up short at the sight.
“Holy shit. This isn’t real,” I heard myself say.
“It’s real,” Aristine assured me, walking forward to a nexus with six distinct corridors branching off.
There weren’t just guns. There were weapons I’d never seen of designs I couldn’t imagine. There were packs, impact vests, and items that looked like they might be thin pressure suits, all in a fabric so muted as to be almost invisible.
“What is this?” I asked, touching a hanging suit, it’s color difficult to determine. It wasn’t gray, and it wasn’t black. It simply was, and even looking directly at it, I had trouble focusing.
“Frictionless fabric extrusion. Works to confuse the eye, and damned close to invisible in most combat situations. The rifles and sidearms can be matched, too, but the concussive weapons are mostly black, as they’re kept in the packs until field use. You like our toys?” Aristine asked.
“Like? That’s an insult to your advances. I love them,” I said.
“Then take a look around and ask questions, because this is your future, but reshaped by ours, Jack. This is where we start together as a team, to rebuild so much of what was lost,” Aristine said, urging me forward into what was like a candy store of futuristic technology. As I wandered, the sisters answered questions, demonstrated, and even explained some of the changes on items I’d been around my whole life—like guns—but now found to be on the edge of my understanding. Weapons had become more organic and lethal over the centuries. Wetterick
was in deep shit, and that was before a weapons officer came in to do a systems check. His name was Pisarno, he could have been Aristine’s brother by his looks, and he knew every piece of hardware in the entire Chain.
He also understood the concept of maximum damage with minimal fuss.
He gave Aristine a questioning look, then at her nod, led me to the fourth corridor. Three transparent cases held heavy duty shotguns with barrels that looked slightly off. The finish was matte black with little distinct outer action; if anything, the guns looked like smooth mockups of weapons still in the design stage.
Then Pisarno took one out, handed it to me, and motioned to Yulin. “How long will you be topside?”
“Three days at most,” she answered.
“Targets?” he asked. His words were crisp; his eyes never leaving mine. He was measuring me, which was okay. I was doing the same.
“Human, no more than fifty. Armor light or nonexistent. Tech level a blend of reclaimed and primitive,” Aristine said.
“Take three cells for his rifle, and use whatever you deem necessary. I’m off. Have to be at E6 for the topside sweep when the new Daymares go up. The ones without broken noses, that is,” Pisarno said, giving me a nod of respect. He was a professional. I shook his hand, and he vanished, muttering into his locket.
“What did he give me? Heavy as hell,” I said, hefting the weapon.
“It’s a synth of three techs, some as old as before your time. What you’re holding is an Oerliken shell modded to fit a railgun. Those darts that your drone shoots? Think of them in bursts of three, but from a rifle. You can tear any—and I mean any—organic target apart with a three-round burst. One will do it, most of the time, but it’s best to be sure when dealing with our usual issues, like beasts. For humans, we’ll go to single shot because the rounds will play havoc with anything behind the target.”
“And beyond,” Yulin added, checking the cells and putting them in a field pack.
We continued our tour, because it was a lesson I’d been waiting to learn since coming alive for the second part of my life in The Empty. After several hours, I had three weapons and a greater understanding of who the Eden Chain people were. We rode back in easy conversation, taking a longer route through E2 and meeting some of the residents, who were thrilled to see both Aristine and Yulin. They warmed up to me, too, though it took a moment of patient explanation from their commander, which spoke to her power and capability—as well as their genuine respect. When we pulled in to the space near Aristine’s home. I had no concept of the time, but my stomach was empty and letting me know.
Future Reborn Box Set Page 58
