The Battle for WondLa

by Tony DiTerlizzi

  None of the other gondolas are operating, Eva thought. Why aren’t they evacuating? She circled the fiery ruins of Attican Hall. Even if Cadmus survived this, there may be no way to get to him . . . but I need to know for sure. She remembered something her sister had told her about level one being occupied by Cadmus’s relatives and children.

  Gen.

  Cadmus’s prodigal daughter would know where her father was. The gondola rose back up toward the outer walls of the city. High above and far from the devastation was a ring of spacious housing units. Eva quickly flew around the perimeter, searching for Gen Pryde’s homecube. Sheesa! Where is it? In the dark, every unit looks the same.

  By the headlights Eva glimpsed of a knot of people fleeing into their homes. From one home two identical girls scurried out in matching black Emote-Attire. With their palm-implanted Omnipods they began taking holo-pictures of the wreck in the center of the city. Eva’s gondola zipped past them as they finished, then continued along the perimeter walkway. Eva turned the gondola around just in time to see them dash inside the open door of one of the homecubes. She brought the craft into a hard landing on the vacated walkway and hopped out. Before leaving the gondola, she slung the strap of the boomrod’s charger over her shoulder and grabbed the weapon.

  “Gen?” Eva called from the open door of the home. “Gen Pryde, it’s Eva. Are you in here?” The firelight from outside flickered erratically throughout the dim house, making it hard to see. Eva stalked past the pristine furniture of a minimally decorated white living room.

  “YOU!” a voice screeched from a back room. Gen Pryde came out from her bedroom. Her hair was disheveled, and dark mascara tears smudged her cheeks. “GET OUT!” she shrieked. The other two Gens stood alongside her.

  “You don’t understand. I—”

  “I understand perfectly,” said Gen.

  “Yeah, you work with the Toilers!” the second Gen spat.

  “So you decided to destroy my father’s beautiful city because you were jealous of what we had.” There was venom in Gen’s voice.

  “That’s not it at all!” Eva retorted. “I am here to save you and your father.”

  “Right!” Gen yelled. She picked up a crystal vase and threw it at Eva. “Get out of here!”

  “You’ve done enough damage already, you short-out!” The third Gen began hurling items at Eva.

  “Listen to me. I know this is scary, but there is a lot you don’t know!” Eva dodged the projectiles.

  “I know that in the next few nanos, I am going to push you out that door and over the balcony if you DON’T LEAVE NOW!” Gen screamed.

  Eva fired the boomrod at the ceiling. Debris and dust cascaded down from above. Under the cover of the billowing dust, Eva marched over to the cowering Gen Pryde and seized her by the wrist.

  “The Arsian who works with your father is going to betray him,” Eva barked. “I have to see Cadmus so that I can warn—” Eva stopped talking when she realized Gen wasn’t listening. Instead Gen was pointing, mouth agape, at something outside beyond the open front door.

  “What is that?” one of the Gens cried. They ran to the doorway.

  Eva turned to see the squadron of warships enter the skies above the city, their searchlights beaming down onto the citizens below. The cargo bay ramps of each ship opened, as if choreographed, and out dropped a torrent of warbots. Each ebony orb body descended by means of small hover boosters. Before each orb touched down, three tall stilt legs unfolded, and an arsenal of weapons prepared for use.

  “Wha-what’s happening?” Gen stammered. She activated her Omnipod and began a holo-recording. Down below in the park the towering warbots unleashed swarms of SHOCdarts in every direction, felling entire crowds of people. The Gens gasped. One of them cowered behind Eva.

  “Everyone in this city is about to die.” Eva swallowed down the icy fear that was constricting every muscle in her body. I have to remain calm or I won’t make it out of here. She looked at the Omnipod embedded in Gen’s hand.

  “Gen, I need you to call Evan Seven.” Eva tried to hide the waver in her voice.

  Gen looked at Eva with wild fearful eyes. Her skin looked deathly pale against the black of her Emote-Attire. “What? Who?”

  “Just call him! Do it NOW!”

  Gen did as she was told. A hologram of Hailey’s head appeared over the palm of Gen’s hand.

  “Hailey! It’s Eva. You need to get here right now and evacuate as many people as you can. Do you hear me? Get over here now!”

  “Evacuate? Isn’t the fleet there? I’ve got the entire camp on board as it is. We are just waiting for you.”

  “Don’t wait for me. I still need to find Cadmus. Just get here and help these people,” said Eva.

  “I’m not risking dragging all of my friends into that fiery hailstorm.”

  Eva’s tone was adamant. “I need you to be the retriever that I know you are. Bring your people here and have them help evacuate the survivors.”

  Hailey’s hologram was silent for several moments. “Fine. We’ll land in the park. You better hurry up. We won’t be able to wait around forever.” Hailey’s face disappeared.

  “You!” Eva pointed at the other Gens with her boomrod. “Get down to the ground level as fast as you can and hide. When you see Hailey’s warship land, get to it as fast as possible. You do not want to be caught by these warbots. Tell everyone and help as many on board as you can.”

  Tentatively the Gens tiptoed past Eva. One of them spoke. “What about you, Gen? What are you gonna do?”

  “I’ll take her to speak with Father,” Gen Pryde answered. “I’d do what she says—go with the pilot.”

  The Gens scuttled out of the house and out of sight.

  “Okay. Where is he?” Eva asked.

  “I can show you, but I can’t get it to work,” Gen said. She led Eva down a darkened hallway and into the grand master bedroom. A gigantic white plastic egg sat in the center of the room with round openings leading to the cocoon bed within. Next to it were three floating cushions covered in fuzzy cloth. Standing at the back of the room was a master console for the house, which featured controls to regulate temperature, play entertainment, and order food. Gen dashed around the darkened console and pressed on a panel mounted on the back wall. Quickly she spoke her name, but nothing happened.

  “What is this?” Eva asked, anxious.

  “That’s what I’m saying. I was trying this before. There is supposed to be an exit here.” Gen spoke as if reciting memorized lines, “In an emergency I state my name and pass code; then the panel will open. I’m supposed to follow the lit arrows that lead to Sanctuary one. But it won’t work! The console won’t work! Nothing works!” With her hand she banged the panel in frustration. “I don’t understand. Why isn’t it working?”

  The problem dawned on Eva. “There is no power. That’s why the gondolas aren’t working. That’s why Loroc crashed the ship into Attican Hall. It crippled the city’s main computer.”

  Gen was trembling. “What are you talking about?”

  “Stand back!” Eva pushed Gen behind her and fired the boomrod. The panel buckled and fell down a dark shaft behind the wall.

  Eva poked her head into the darkness. She heard the clang of the panel hitting the walls and ground below. The dark shaft reminded Eva of the exhaust vent she had used to escape her own Sanctuary. Like that, this one had rungs for climbing. Eva strapped the boomrod over her shoulders. “Is your father down here?”

  Gen wiped her eyes. “I think so.”

  Eva stepped inside the cramped space and began to descend the rungs as fast as she could. “Okay, then. Let’s go find him.”

  “This is the emergency escape. I’ve never been allowed in here unless there is an emergency.” Gen’s voice echoed down from above. Her black-and-white robotail hung limp from underneath her dress.

  “I think this qualifies as an emergency.” Outside, a large explosion shook the entire shaft. Eva looked up, half-expecting fire to rain
down or warbots to tear through the walls. “We should probably be quiet until we get where we are going. I don’t want our voices to give us away. Okay?”

  “Okay,” Gen whispered.

  CHAPTER 18: TWENTY-THREE

  The climb down was long. Eva’s muscles burned from the rigorous descent. Finally they arrived at the bottom of the stairwell, sealed by a heavy ply-steel door. Eva banged on the door with the palm of her hand.

  “Can’t you just blow it open?” Gen pointed at the boomrod.

  “There’s not enough room for us to back up,” Eva said. “Use your Omnipod to call your father.”

  Gen wiped her runny nose. “I tried him already, but there was no answer.”

  Above, Eva could hear the clangs of the battle. “We’ve got to hurry!” She banged the door with the hard muzzle of the boomrod. She could hear a wrenching sound beyond it.

  A muffled voice called from other side. “Gen? Gen Pryde?”

  “Yes! Yes it’s me,” Gen shouted. “Help us!”

  The door heaved open to an underground bunker. A Muthr with the number twenty-three printed on her torso greeted the girls. “Gen, you are okay. This is very good news. Who is this with you? She is not identifying.” The Muthr spoke in a familiar dulcet tone. Eva looked down, away from the robot’s warm amber eyes. It was almost too much to deal with at this moment.

  “Twenty-three, this is Eva. She rescued me and my two friends.” Gen brushed past the robot. “Where’s Father?”

  “The fugitive?” The robot rolled behind Gen and turned her head back to examine Eva. “You have brought her here?”

  “Yes. She needs to speak with Father immediately. Where is he?”

  “Follow me,” Twenty-three said.

  Eva trailed behind the robot that led the girls into a wide room with a low ceiling. The décor was typical for the city—an all-white lab room with bright lighting that gave an overall antiseptic feeling. Terminals were stationed in rows under a myriad of holographic charts, readouts, and diagrams of the city. Robots of various shapes and sizes conferred with human controllers who manned these stations. Several doorways opened to unknown corridors, which offered passage to those allowed in this secret place. Eva passed a triage area where an automedic cared for human patients. She tore her eyes away as one of the medics draped a white sheet over the torso of an unmoving patient.

  “It would be best to stay put in one of the relaxation chambers for the time being,” Twenty-three said. “We have got quite a situation on our hands with this airship malfunction.”

  “This was not a malfunction.” Eva snorted.

  “It is a malfunction, and we shall determine its cause after we tend to the people.” Twenty-three led the girls to an alcove adjacent to the bunker. She opened an access panel and paused. “I am told you may enter, Gen, but Eva is to remain here.”

  Across the room a low hiss gave away the location of a concealed hatch as it slid open. An authoriton, a sleek polished robot from the city police, exited. Several controllers looked up from their terminals and watched as it rolled in Eva’s direction. She started charging the boomrod.

  “Don’t!” Gen placed a hand on the muzzle. She addressed Twenty-three directly, “Open this door and take me to my father. You will allow Eva to accompany me. Is that understood?”

  Twenty-three did not reply. Lights blinked on the robot’s torso. Blinking lights mean it’s communicating . . . probably with Cadmus. He must be finally coming to his senses, Eva thought. The authoriton’s motor whined as it rolled toward her. Eva gripped the handle of the boomrod tight. It would be messy if she had to engage with the authoriton in here. She didn’t want any more people to get hurt, but she would not be stopped, not this close to Cadmus. Not this close to ending the battle.

  “You are dismissed,” Twenty-three ordered the authoriton. “You may return to your post.” Without a word the authoriton stopped, rotated, and rolled away. Twenty-three placed her mechanized hand on the panel, causing another hatch to hiss open. Beyond the hatch lay inky darkness. Headlights flicked on from the body of Twenty-three, illuminating a path as the robot led Eva and Gen down the winding corridor.

  “Your father has been critically injured,” Twenty-three reported in her metered tone. “Automedics have attempted to heal him, but he insists that he be left alone during this moment of crisis. He has just finished conferring with his council and is now in his private chambers.”

  At the end of the corridor was another access panel. Once more the robot placed her hand on the panel, and a second door opened.

  “Will he . . . survive?” Gen asked.

  Twenty-three patted Gen on the back. “Of course. Your father will never truly perish, as I am sure he will explain to you in due time.” She gestured for the girls to enter.

  Gen and Eva stepped through the second doorway into a dimly lit room. Out in the corridor Twenty-three closed the door behind them.

  “Father? I’m here now, thanks to Eva Nine. Where are you?” Gen’s voice sounded like a lost child’s as she called out into the dark.

  From the shadows came a cough. As Eva’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could make out a claw-foot floor lamp with a stained-glass shade placed near a small end table. A figure was seated in an armchair next to the table, but the face was shadowed. “Eva, you say? The imago has returned? Very interesting. Come, my daughters,” a whispery voice said. “I am here, contemplating.” A trembling hand turned up the brightness of the lamp. Cadmus Pryde laid his hand back on the ornately carved armrest of the chair. In his lap he held a browned human skull. As the girls neared, it was apparent that the room he was in was large, much larger than any room in an ordinary Sanctuary. Behind Cadmus an entire wall was lined with shelving filled with row upon row of human skulls.

  “Father!” Gen rushed up and hugged him. “Where is everyone? What is this place?”

  “Welcome to the first Sanctuary ever built by the Dynastes corporation,” said Cadmus. “Welcome to my birthplace.”

  CHAPTER 19: PRYDE

  Mine was nicer,” Eva said.

  Cadmus chuckled, but it became a cough. “My father, Leonardo Pryde, created this prototype Sanctuary sometime before I was born.” Cadmus remained seated in his chair. His aged eyes focused on the skull in his lap. “He had led the Historical Holography Project many years earlier but was frustrated at the limitations of information that could be programmed into each historical figure. They were simply living databases of gathered fact and speculation. But if he could record every waking second of someone’s life, well then, he would create the perfect hologram.”

  “So you’re just a hologram?” Eva reached out to touch Cadmus.

  He waved her away. “I am the inverse. Holography ensured that my upbringing was pristine.” From a pocket in his robes, Cadmus pulled out a tarnished Omnipod with a dingy strap. He activated a program, then turned off the antique lamp. Descending from a mount on the ceiling, a large holo-projector flickered on, and the dim room began to glow. “See here how the past prescribes the future.”

  Eva and Gen found themselves in an illusion of a small sunlit library of an old Victorian-styled house. Where skulls had lain in rows on shelves, now holograms of books were stacked in heaps among holographic models of buildings and spaceships. Soft music played from unseen speakers, the same sort Eva had heard when she’d first ventured into New Attica. Outside the window a wind chime tinkled in a gentle spring breeze. In the window box bees and butterflies danced from flower to flower. A hummingbird shot up from the garden and hovered in front of Eva, startling her.

  “Cap? Cap, are you downstairs?” called out a voice that sounded much like Cadmus’s. Eva turned to see the actual Cadmus still in his seat, his eyes closed as he stroked his long mustache. He opened his eyes and pointed down the hall to whoever it was who had spoke. Eva and Gen wandered down the holographic hall and into a brightly colored kitchen. In an open doorway stood a portly man with bushy gray eyebrows and a beard. In the garage behind h
im a pristine polished hovercar floated silently. Eva recognized the man.

  “That’s my grandfather,” Gen said, and poked the hologram, though the man did not respond.

  “I think he’s in the library studying,” a lithe dark-haired woman said from the kitchen sink. She was dressed in dirty dungarees and a wide straw hat. Gardening gloves hung from her back pocket, and Eva could see that she was washing freshly cut flowers. Holding her arrangement, the woman walked gracefully from the kitchen toward the library, passing right through Eva.

  “Grandma,” Gen said.

  “Cap dear, your father is going out to run errands. Do you want to go with him?” Mrs. Pryde’s voice carried down the hall.

  “No thank you, Mom,” a child’s voice replied. “I’m busy working on my new invention.”

  “Okay, fine. I’ll be back later,” Leonardo said with a smile, and exited into the garage.

  “Grab some apples if you can,” Mrs. Pryde called out. “They’re in season now.”

  “They ate actual fruit back then?” Gen’s eyes were wide.

  The girls walked back to the library. The real Cadmus remained slumped in his chair while the hologram played on around him. Eva noticed holographic building blocks and drawings spread out on the intricately patterned carpet.

  “What are you inventing today?” Mrs. Pryde arranged the flowers in a crystal vase set on an end table.

  “Robots,” the child’s voice said. Eva watched Cadmus mouth the words in sync with the recording. “I’m building robots.”

  “That was this Cadmus here,” Cadmus interrupted the hologram and held up the skull. “Cadmus zero-one. He was but ten years old during this recording. Every Cadmus since has agreed that this was one of the best times of our lives.”