Leviathan

by Erik Schubach

  I'd swear she was actually alive and self-aware if I didn't know any better. Just what did it take for a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence born of a computer system more powerful than two hundred thousand human brains, and magic, to become self-aware? Was it just time? She has certainly had that as we are five thousand years into our journey.

  I replied with a shrug, “To hells if I know. She seems to think she has a vested interest in it.”

  And Mother supplied something I hadn't even thought of. “Besides Fairies, Sprites are known to be the most curious of races. Similar to Terran cats.”

  I was squirming and itching as Graz let out a terrified squeak and dove through my open helmet and down the front of my scatter armor. “Cats!?”

  I pulled my helmet off and reached down into my cleavage and pulled the squirming Sprite out by her wings. “She just said cats, there aren't any about.” Well not that I knew of. They were a favored pet on the mid rings.

  She grump mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “Stupid computer.”

  I rolled my eyes as I reseated my helmet and then tapped my wrist console. “Control, this is Shade, badge alpha three four eight niner. Send crime scene techs to execute warrant...” I looked up and Mother supplied in my voice “Foxtrot charlie niner niner three slash gamma seven zero.” I winked my thanks into the interior helmet cam to her. The satisfied sound I got in return had me picturing her beaming a smile at me.

  The response was, “Roger, Shade alpha three four eight niner.”

  Good, that was one less thing to do today, they would scour the Woodling's office and log everything and perform scans for me to review later. I wanted to be the one to execute the other warrant on Mr. Katan's house. It felt like if I were going to violate the privacy of a dead man's home, I should woman up and do it myself.

  Which reminded me. “Mother, can you look for commonalities between any communications traffic between the victims going back... three weeks prior to the first murder?”

  She tsked. “You know I can't do that without a warrant.”

  I knew that, but I knew she knew the Judge would sign off on it as soon as it cycles through the queue on his desk this morning.

  I pouted. “Please?”

  She harrumphed. “I don't know why I do these things for you.”

  I teased. “Because you love me?”

  “Against my better judgment.”

  Graz was just looking at me with a raised eyebrow as we mounted my Tac-Bike. I asked, “What? That's how you deal with a redhead.”

  “A redhead? It's a computer.”

  I shrugged and admitted, “I know that, but I always picture her as a testy but helpful redhead in a professional suit behind a desk, pulling strings for my cases.”

  “I'm not testy.”

  “I know. I'm just teasing. Don't be testy.” I moved my hand up to block the interior helmet cam with a finger as I shook my head at Graz.

  Mother said patiently, “You do know I can see you, Knith. I'm everywhere.”

  I looked up to one of the cameras on the street as we started moving toward the nearest spoke, and I grinned at it as it followed us. “That's why I do it.”

  I was certifiable, teasing a computer. I thought about that a moment. Watching the cameras watching us as we weaved through the busy morning traffic as people were heading off to work for the day. Well, she was more than a computer, she was actually the Leviathan herself. I found that sort of reassuring in some incomprehensible manner.

  We pulled into the spoke transit terminal lot and I mag-locked the bike and headed in. The trams ran every three minutes during rush hour. We were standing alone in the back of the tram as everyone gave me a wide birth as usual. Did everyone view us Enforcers as that bad? I know that whenever we respond to an emergency, they seemed awfully glad to see us. Was it just the authority they didn't like? Didn't they understand that we, in essence, worked for them? You know, the whole public servant thing?

  I sighed and got out of my head. It was an old scab I liked to pick at year after year. But truth be told, I can't think of doing any other job on the world. I loved protecting the people on my ring.

  As Gravity increased to almost one Earth gravity as we passed through the B-Ring, letting off the majority of the riders, we continued on up into the high gravity of the A-Ring. I was glad I trained in one point two five G whenever I could, or I would have felt sluggish as we stepped off of the tram with two lesser fae.

  I took a deep breath at the doors and steeled myself as I stepped out into paradise. From the raised platform I looked out over the sprawling forests of the A-Ring, with the lakes and rivers flowing through it, gleaming spires sticking up in clumps, and old villages of stone and wood, built along the river's edge.

  There was color everywhere punctuating the green space that they say was a piece of the old world. Flowers bloomed everywhere, and colorful birds and insects buzzed around the treetops. I even caught sight of one of the herds of deer that roamed freely through this almost alien world to the other lower rings in each stack.

  I inhaled deeply the heavy, unprocessed air. The forests themselves provided most of the breathable atmosphere up here, they had emergency processors that have never run, except to circulate the air in the bulkhead buildings and corridors.

  The air was as sweet and heavy as a dream and I smiled almost involuntarily. Get with it Knith, these are Fae lands, everything here is designed to lull you into a sense of tranquility and let your guard down. The Fae Lords and Ladies are born manipulators, and masters of deception.

  Still, I took a moment to appreciate the sheer beauty and artistry of the ring, as the misty gray clouds high overhead started dropping a cool, misty rain down on us. I loved the rain when the moisture in the air in most of the rings reached saturation levels and the rain came down. I always got the impression that it washed away all the grime of the lower rings, cleansing them and us, if just for a little while.

  I took my helmet off again, as Graz crawled under my collar again, shielding her head with her arms. I looked up and closed my eyes to let the cool droplets hit my face. I know I was here for more pressing business, but I took this moment to bask in one of the few amazing moments on the world.

  I inhaled deeply, feeling refreshed, shaking out my wet hair as I placed my helmet back on, tucking the dark locks back inside. “Come on Graz, get out.”

  I felt her shaking her head. “Nuh-uh. Not until that nasty stuff stops falling.”

  “The rain? It's just water.”

  “You know what it does to our wings? Makes a nasty paste with the dust until it dries. I'm ok in here.”

  I rolled my eyes, of course, she wouldn't enjoy one of the miracles of the Worldship. Unfortunately, the rain wouldn't last long. The Old Earth Fae talk of the Open Air, where rains covered thousands and sometimes millions of square miles and could go on for days. But as large as the rings are, being big enough to generate their own weather, the volume is the tiniest fraction of the atmosphere in Open Air.

  This all means... the rain trickled off into a mist then stopped altogether as we made our way down the powered spiraling walk down to ground level. My Sprite stowaway crawled out, sitting on my helmet rim next to my jaw, looking up, before deciding it was safe and zipped out to hover beside me as I walked along the dirt path to the terminal exit.

  It is said that all the dirt from the upper rings is actually soil from Earth itself, instead of the unusable regolith leftovers from mining the Heart, and compost used to make the green spaces in the lower rings. I bounced on my toes as I stepped through the ornate gates. Was this what walking on the Ground was like?

  I looked across the smallish settlement built around the spoke for trade and commerce, though not many Down-Ringers like me traded with the Fae, knowing that any deals made would weigh heavily in the favor of the Fae. The ones who did were usually the ones who wished to be in good favor with those who really held the power on th
e world, both figuratively and literally.

  The main reason the Fae are basically in charge is that without them, the Worldship would not be possible. Though every square inch of the hull was covered in photovoltaic paint that harvested every photon and even cosmic radiation from the stars at ninety-eight percent efficiency, and the fission reactors run with a dwindling fissionable fuel supply from the rare metals mined from the Heart. They supply a fraction of the power it takes to run the Leviathan.

  Most of the energy to run the core systems and the massive World-Drives comes from the Fae. Specifically the Fae artifacts of power, the source of all their magic away from the Earth. Power so vast it is difficult to comprehend. And only the Greater Fae Lords and Ladies, under the orders of Queen Mab herself, can extract the power safely in the Chamber of the Artifacts, the Ka'Ifinitum.

  So even though we have a president, and are a democracy, and the Fae pretend to be governed by the laws of the world... they are the ones with the true power. And here I was, going to question Mab's own, following my suspicions. Am I crazy? Maybe. But I have to bring the souls of the victims some sort of peace, some sort of closure.

  “Mother? Some transportation?” I really should have just ridden my Tac-Bike up the spoke's transportation lane, but during the stop and go rush hour it would have taken thirty or forty minutes to get here. At least I could have ridden it up here since only non-emission and non-ground-contact vehicles are allowed.

  “Look up.”

  I looked up and a sleek dart-shaped transport, that looked to be made of a single seamless piece of iridescent material which looked suspiciously like a pearl, soundlessly swooped down under a flock of white birds I think were doves, to hover just a foot away from me as a door slid up from the seamless body.

  I snicked my visor down and zoomed in on where the door had just slid up and magnified almost to the molecular level and I couldn't detect the seam between the door and whatever pocket it slid up into. Overlays came up on demand and the whole vessel shimmered as I took in the intricate spell work virtually cocooning it.

  I whistled low as I stepped inside flicking my visor back up again. “Damn, the Fae do good work.” I was sure the vessel wasn't powered by any mundane means, I instinctively knew it was pure magic.

  The door sealed itself, and I didn't bother looking for a seam, knowing I wouldn't find one. Then I snorted at this sleek luxurious transport. Why didn't we have anything like this down-ring? I answered my own question... separation of the classes, Knith.

  I looked at the three names in my peripheral and pointed at one, asking, “Why does Aurora ring a bell?”

  Graz zipped up to my nose putting her hands on either side of it as she stared expectantly into my eyes, “Ummm...”

  Mother chuckled and prompted, “Mab's daughter?”

  I muttered, “Oh space me...” Princess Aurora? She was one of the Fae medical experts? Suicide. I was committing career suicide here. I could turn around now and move the murder into the cold case files and walk away.

  I sighed and looked at the address and balked yet again. Of course. I said in resignation to the vessel since there were no controls in it as I stared vacantly out the window, “Mab's palace please.” Then we rose up and silently sliced through the air along the treetops then started climbing rapidly through the sparse air traffic as I sat to think, mumbling, “May as well start at the top, Knith. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?”

  The Sprite hovered back to study me and prompted carefully, “You're not backing down, are you?”

  I shook my head as Mother nattered in the background under her nonexistent breath to what I assumed was herself, “She doesn't know what's good for her. By all means, get yourself relegated to ore duty, don't listen to me.”

  Graz grinned like a loony goof as she said, “I knew there was a reason I liked you. You're not like the other Bigs. I mean, you're big and dumb and a null and everything, but I guess you're ok.”

  I snorted. “Remember that when you're down in the Heart sorting rocks with me.”

  When Mother harrumphed over me making jokes about what was likely my probable future, I realized something. The epiphany that Mother... was afraid of the Fae. They alone had the ability to turn her off, as they supplied her with the power to run all her systems. They could in effect, kill her if they cut power. Could an AI be afraid? Was it real or simulated fear? I wasn't sure. Isn't self-preservation one of the signs of sentience?

  I reassured, “It's all going to be ok, Mother. I mean, it has to right? Only good can come from doing the right thing, otherwise, what's the point?” Both of them were silent.

  I turned to look out the windows that were so clear, it was impossible to tell if they were really there. We were a couple thousand feet up now. High enough I could actually see the complex honeycomb grid-work that held the massive, multilayered, clear armored panels of the sky with the unaided eye. Every fourth honeycomb in the central strips of the ring's torus, a Day Light, was glowing brightly.

  I took a moment to appreciate the monumental engineering feat that was the Leviathan. And what a herculean task it must have been to build her on orbit over a thousand-year period. I voiced that. “The world is kind of amazing, isn't she?”

  Mother chirped out in a pleased and perky tone, “Thank you.”

  Graz replied, “And modest.”

  Then I was gasping, I had never seen Mab's palace, Ha'real, except in holos and pictures, and neither did it justice. With a central pointed tower of opalescent white that stretched almost a half-mile high, with other lesser spires surrounding it, extending half that height melding in with the bulkhead on one side and stretching out to the lake in the middle of the ring, low structures were arranged at the base to create a walled courtyard of green that ran the whole length of the palace, and waterfalls fell into the courtyard from big jagged rocks that melded into the bulkhead beside the towers there.

  Were those big rocks... were they what they called 'mountains', from all the tales of Old Earth? I'd have to look it up. But whatever they were, it was a breathtaking sight. I saw the shimmering dome of the massive wards set up around the palace and contemplated the sheer amount of power the casters must have had to create something so massive.

  I saw flocks of birds effortlessly swooping in and out of the wards, no threat so unaffected. Then the transport slowed as we reached the shimmering dome and I caught myself holding my breath as we sank into it. The power sparked off of my scatter armor, which would be useless against a spell of this magnitude anyway, and I felt the magic probing my body and mind.

  Disliking the invasion of privacy, I pushed back, thinking, “Get off of me!” I could feel it recoil then it was gone and I was gasping out to the ward, “She's with me, let her go,” when I heard a muffled squeak. Graz was spasming on the deck of the vessel, looking like she was being constricted by some invisible snake. Then it released her.

  I was sort of upset at that. It seems that even though she was a lesser Fae, her larger cousins actually did treat Sprites as vermin like she had ranted about. I... was not a fan of the ward. Not like I had any say in it at all.

  As I scooped up my exhausted looking companion, she squinted one eye at me as she rode on my hand until I deposited her on my shoulder. “Did Mab's ward just listen to you?”

  Mab made that ward? I had assumed it was a collective of the most powerful Fae who had constructed it, not just one. Was the Queen truly that powerful? I really didn't want to know, and I was going to go out of my way to avoid her if I could.

  I shrugged. “Since our visit was unannounced, I think the ward reacted poorly. But I assume that once it determined I was an Enforcer, it decided to let me through. And since I said you were with me, it let you through.”

  She shook her head. “You talk like magic can reason.” I shrugged. I was talking out of my ass since I didn't have a clue why the ward backed off when I pushed against it, but I talked a good game, right?

 
; I saw guards assembling at a small landing pad in the courtyard, near some soaring arched doors of the seamless construction of the palace. They had long pikes that I knew were more than just physically dangerous, they were channels for their magics, making them twice as deadly. The Queen's guard were the only people outside the Enforcer Brigade allowed to carry powered weapons. It was a concession made back before the Exodus.

  We landed and the door slid open. I stepped out and knew better than to look the guards in the face. That's how Humans got enthralled, the beauty of the greater Fae was more than the Human mind could comprehend. It is how all the Humans in the fables and cautionary tales about Faerie and its people became enslaved by the whims of the Fae.

  I didn't know if it was true or the embellishments of adults trying to scare the young, but I didn't want to put it to the test. I had never looked into the faces of the few Greater Fae I had met, and wasn't going to start now as I stared at the chin of the guard who stepped forward, her armor of gleaming light that could only be Ethereal clung to her lithe and enticing form, as her straight white hair that glinted of silver and purple highlights flowed over her shoulders. The skin of her long, feminine neck and sculpted chin looked unreal. Too smooth, too flawless, like porcelain just begging to be touched.

  “State your business at Ha'real...” She almost spat out, “Human.” Breaking the spell of my appreciation of her.

  I sighed and straightened, looking at her cheek so our eyes would be level, I wasn't going to be caught looking down in her presence. I was the law, she was a glorified bodyguard, and I didn't like her attitude. “Brigade business, step aside.”

  She moved her pike to below my chin. “Not until you state your business with the Winter Lady.”

  I grabbed the pike and moved it away from my face, gripping the bladed end of it, the spells on it sparking and scattering on my gauntlet. “Unless you want to be bound by law for threatening an Enforcer of the Brigade, you'll get your little stick out of my face...” I added, indicating I held rank, “Citizen.”