“If I isn't Miss Destructo. Damn it Shade, this is the second set of SA's this year. You don't have to put yourself in danger every second to keep up with the Paras. You're gonna get yourself messed up worse than you mess up my equipment one of these days.”
He picked up a trash bin, and instead of sifting through the remains of my Scatter Armor for anything salvageable, he just slid it all in. “If you insist on taking so many chances, you could at least get augments. The new cybernetic implants are amazing, direct neural link.” He flexed the fingers on his new left arm. “Zero response lag and ninety-eight percent touch receptors, body temperature magi-tech circuitry. You can't even tell it's cyber. It's how I did fifteen tours in the Brigade and kept up with all the other races before they sat my ass down here on gear duty for daring to get old.”
I smiled at the man. He was always trying to get me to get augments. But I kept up just fine being unmodded. Rough on equipment and myself, sure, but my arrest and case closure records were on par or above my more physically, and magically inclined contemporaries.
Sighing I said, “Sorry Zak, it just sort of shorted on me. I need a new set of SA's... and wrist console... and standard Tac gear... oh and my MMGs are toast too. I'm sort of in a hurry, brass wants me like five minutes ago.”
His sigh eclipsed mine as he turned back to his shelves and must have sent the code with a thought, to have the bins start cycling through on the railed shelves. He stopped on some ancient-looking armor that didn't even have scatter plates. Scratches and even some oxidation buildup at some cracks. Oh lord, not even hard contact points for a skin suit, it would be rubbing through the skinsuit and my skin in no time.
The smile he shot me was positively evil. “Oh come on, Zak... don't do that to me.”
He smirked, rolled his eyes and then grabbed the bin beside it, with new SAs in vacuum-sealed bags, and armament, and Tac gear. I told him, “I love you, man.”
He snorted and then grabbed a helmet in a box on his desk and sighed heavily, hesitated, then handed it to me. “Newest experimental model straight from R&D. Predictive and adaptive circuitry with surface thought synaptic scanning. Direct multiphasic link to Mother, giving her access to your auditory and optic nerves. And some stuff you can't use since you don't even have a com jack, you Luddite.”
He held onto it when I tried to take it. An ancillary arm shook a finger at me. “I'd be giving you the shit armor and telling you to suck vacuum if you complained, and if I didn't need a lab rat. You need to log your experiences for all the systems on a daily basis. That is if you're still an Enforcer after the Commander and President are done with you.”
What? The President? What does she want with me?
He chuckled at my confusion. “You really don't know what a shit-pile you just kicked, do you? Keep frosty or I'm sure you'll be begging to go suck hard vacuum.”
Well, fuck me sideways. I knew the fallout was probably going to be bad, but I'm only going where the evidence takes me. I sat at the bench outside supply after I synced the new gear with my retina and DNA lockout codes with Zak. Then I geared up.
I almost shuddered as the new skinsuit adapted to my shape, burning off the molding spell infused in the fibers. After having every nerve in my body shorted out by Mab's magic, my skin was more sensitive now, like it was recovering from frost burns. Then I slapped on the SA, and they reconfigured to my form but I didn't feel any spells cooking off.
I looked up to see Zak watching smugly. “That's Mark-6 gear, all reconfigurable nano-panels instead of the magi-tech fitting.” I nodded in appreciation, that meant if I gained or lost mass, I wouldn't have to bring it in to have it re-fitted.
After I put the helmet on, and the moment it registered me, by imprinting to my DNA scan and mating with my armor, I was panicking as the visor shut and polarized without me telling it. And systems powered up and down at random, and I saw flashes of light in my head and snaps and crackles of sound being amplified, then cut off in privacy mode, leaving me reeling.
I took a deep breath and realized I couldn't, the re-breathers were locked down.
I was deaf, blind, and gasping. Shit, I needed to breathe. And the re-breathers started cycling air to me as I inhaled deeply at that thought. Then the visor depolarized and I could see again. I gave blink commands and nothing. I just wanted the damn visor to raise and it did with a snick. Then I got it. He did say surface synaptic scanning, so just think it... and... Mother said, “Hello Knith.” But not through the helmet, nor the earbuds which I realized this helmet didn't have.
I whispered as Zak chuckled, “Mother? Are you in my head?”
She chirped out in a happy tone, “I have direct access to your auditory and optical nerves. I can see and hear what you do and can feed you audio or...” The clearest heads up display bloomed around me in my head-space and the peripherals readjusted as my eyes focused on different things.
This was incredible. Then I freaked the hells out when Mother said, “Thank you.”
I thought “You can hear my thoughts?”
“I'm interfacing with the neural net scanning from the helmet and can... sort of. Just the surface thoughts if you are intent on something.” Did I really want an AI poking around inside my mind? I trusted Mother but resolved to keep my thoughts to myself as much as possible so I could pretend I had some privacy.
I stood finally and packed my Tac gear in the belt pouches, then took the harmonica from my shoulder bag, examined it for any damage from Mab's magic, but it was surprisingly in pristine condition, so I slipped it into a pouch on my waist. I don't know why. I think I just liked the nostalgia and the fact that it was possibly as old as the Leviathan herself.
“Hey, I'm not old, I'm...”
I muttered, “Mother, can you just pretend to not poke around in my thoughts?”
“You're loud. You need to learn to keep your thoughts deep.”
I sighed, I'd never win.
“Good girl.”
“Go space yourself, Mother.”
She actually giggled?
I stood and told Zak as I handed him all the vacuum bags to be recycled, “Thanks for this. I'm not sure about this gods be damned helmet though. I'll catch you later.” I lifted a hand as I walked past his window, and he held out his four hands and I high fived them all.
He called after me as I marched to my probable doom. “Do I get your things if they space you, Shade?”
I just flipped him off as I walked toward the lifts.
Then when the doors closed, after the three occupants saw me step on and they all but ran out of the car, I took a moment to run a gauntlet along the armor. It fit better than a glove and seemed to move with me organically, were the nano-panels reconfiguring with the flexing of my muscles? This was nice.
We shot up to the upper level and I hesitated. I looked out the clear outer wall of the lift car to see the yellow air quality and circulation lights flashing along the bulkhead for the interior corridors. I added that to all the other things not working and I felt the blood draining from my face. Mother Fairy humper, this was punishment by the Fae, wasn't it?
To keep my mind off of all the repercussions of the Fae restrictions on all the amenities that make life comfortable on the world, and knowing I was likely the most hated human on board just then, I tried to concentrate on the case.
Something simple... the Woodling horns. Why would the killer take those if they were after the magical organs of those rare races? Did they have some significance or some value?
“Woodling horns are a potent aphrodisiac for the greater Fae. Woodlings sell horn shavings to the Fae Lords and Ladies for ten thousand chit tokens an ounce. And adult horns weigh an average of three pounds each which they shed once every hundred and fifty years.”
I squeaked in surprise, “Mother! Out of my head.” Then I asked right after, “An aphrodisiac for greater Fae? What about for other races?”
“It has no effect on other races ex
cept through a Fae who ingests it, who can share the experience of it through their magic with anyone they have sexual relations with.”
Ah... so basically if they want to whore around and have others share the heightened experience. I chuckled. “If it didn't just work for Fae, it would be in high demand at the adult sections of the supply and provision shops. Or at the brothels on the world...” I trailed off as I added in a whisper as my gut told me, “Or off the world like a certain Fae Lord that Mac had told us about.”
Did he know something? I thought it odd for him to bring it up when he did. I felt as if everyone, in this case knew things I didn't, and were trying to give me clues instead of speaking plainly.
“Mother?”
“In contact with the Underhill Brothel to see when he is next available. I just booked you an hour with him tonight, at eight PM.”
I smiled, she's always been on the same page with me whenever I was brainstorming. I felt like she had my back.
She chirped, “Always.”
I sighed at the thought butinski, then stiffened as the lift finally slowed and stopped. I took a deep breath and stepped out into the waiting lobby for the Commander's office and froze. By the gods! Commander Reise was standing by his personal assistant's desk, having a heated discussion with President Yang! Her half-elven features making her look elegant, even with the searing look she was directing toward me.
They were surrounded by the Presidential Security Unit in their heavy armor and heavily modded cybernetic bodies. Then everyone stopped and turned to look at me, and I felt suddenly two inches tall.
That's how I found myself demoted down two ranks and pay grades, down here in virtual zero-G in the guard booth at the mines of the Heart just two hours later. The three other human Enforcers in the pressurized booth wore exoskeletons, telling me they have been down here a very very long time. And the odds of me ever getting out of here and back patrolling a beat up-ring were negligible.
I've never been dressed down by a President before. And boy could she yell, and cuss, in six languages, only four of which I understood. And the damn gorgeous middle-aged halfling looked fabulous while making me feel like the worst human being who was ever born for questioning a Fae Princess in a murder investigation.
It seems eight systems, two critical had started malfunctioning the moment I left the A-Ring, and all but two magically started working again the moment I was sent down here to my own personal hell. The Fae apologize for any inconvenience the unfortunate malfunctions have caused, and should have hot water and Day Lights restored in a week.
But... I was positive I did the right thing. We shouldn't give the Fae a free pass just because they hold the literal power on the world. I was feeling defiant as I thought, “Mother?” She anticipated that and my playlist started pounding in my ears, filling my head like I was sitting in a concert hall for the performance of “Rebel Yell” by a man named Billy Idol.
I smirked and pulled up a downlink from the core to check out the other questions that were raised from my ill-fated visit to Ha'real. As I watched the vac-suited prisoners through the windows, heading into the unpressurized mines for ore processing, I twitched my fingers slightly on the virtual keypad to pull up population and Equilibrium records which I had thought I knew all about. I mean everyone did and it was all common sense.
How wrong I was.
Chapter 9 – Wake Me Up Inside
What I found out would have had my jaw on the floor if I wasn't in virtual zero G in the microgravity down here. Hells, I needed the mag-circuits in my boots powered just to keep my feet on the floor. Every child is taught the history of the Leviathan. And about population Equilibrium. The Worldship can only sustain a specific number of souls, with an acceptable safety margin, or the whole delicate ecosystem on the world could be thrown out of balance.
So by the charter, population levels for all races are to be kept at the same levels as they were upon Exodus. Which, is why I exist. During a period of low Human or other race's birthrates, the Reproduction Clinic will either gestate or clone babies to replenish numbers. It is why the Clinic exists.
And the fluctuations in populations has remained static since launch, with acceptable fluctuations within a tenth of a percent over time. The most noticeable was the Human population that seems to be in chaotic flux all the time, as we are such a short-lived species. For every thousand humans who die, every year, only three or four citizens of other races die.
Every few years, we lose some lesser Fae who die in accidents or something similar. There was even a lesser Fae illness that swept through the stacks seven centuries ago that actually killed off a significant number of lesser Fae including Sprites and Pixies. But their numbers are almost back to Equilibrium now.
I had to smile at that, Graz's children were the latest Sprites born, and that brings their numbers up to just shy of launch day numbers.
And I figured that is was just common sense that the Greater Fae were eternal, so their numbers were unchanging. But I was shocked to find that since Exodus, the Leviathan has actually lost twenty-five Greater Fae over the eons of her journey. It seems they are not immune to freak accidents either... and even one murder in the early years.
And two are marked as inactive. After some digging it seems they are still alive, just as ice sculptures, engaged in the act of coitus, adorning the Winter Lady's bedchambers. One had been a lover who was dallying around with one of the palace staff behind Mab's back. She... 'sentenced' them to that fate, to be frozen on the cusp of release just as she had found them the day she walked in on them, until the day of Land Fall, when the Fae walk on the Ground again. She was truly wicked.
I shivered, my breath fogging on my lips as I decided I had gotten off easy. Maybe I should send her a fruit basket or something for sparing me. Or would that be too close to a thank you?
The more striking information is that no Fae children had ever been born to take the place of the ones lost, and maintain the Equilibrium. Though many mating and breeding attempts were made, it was determined that the Greater Fae were incapable of producing new progeny. The deeper I dug, the more shocking it became.
A researcher in Ha'real, a certain Winter Maiden I am acquainted with, Princess Aurora, had determined that it was tied to the nature of the Fae. They, though they looked and felt and lived and laughed like any other living beings, were actually magic incarnate. Their very cells, down to the DNA were constructed of magic made physical.
This is why she had asked me what I knew of their DNA. And it seems that their power came from the very Earth itself. But now, on the ship, the only pieces of Earth that remain is the soil and stone on the upper rings, and the artifacts of immense power the Fae used to run the ship.
Since there is so little actual 'Earth' and most of the power of the artifacts are used to keep us all alive, there isn't enough new magic available for two Fae to conceive a child. And they didn't know if the problem would solve itself when we reached our new home, and the new planet would share its magic with the Fae.
Two teams, one from the Unseelie Winter Court and one from the Seelie Summer Court have been researching a means to restore Equilibrium, to allow for new Greater Fae to be born.
Aurora has led the Unseelie Court team and has had many spectacular failures over the centuries, nothing promising except almost fifty years ago, she had some sort experiment going on at the Beta-Stack Reproduction Clinic with human embryos.
I swallowed as I typed out a query. And Mother asked instead in a small voice, “Are you sure you want that information?”
I exhaled in a huff, causing my fellow Enforcers to turn to me. “What, Freshie? The boredom at this posting beneath you? Should have thought of that before you committed career suicide with the Fae Bitch Queen.”
My lips pulsed, and I felt more of my skin icing. I silently pleaded with whatever spell it was that I hadn't said it... well I thought it but didn't say it. Doh! The ice spread a little more. Ok,
think happy thoughts. I said hoarsely, “You best not let Mab hearing you say that. And my name is Shade, not Freshie, Harris.”
He shook his head and Andrews told me in a voice full of exhaustion, “Names don't matter, we're all nobodies down here. The sooner you learn that the sooner you'll accept that you'll never get another posting. Take my advice and just quit the Brigade now or you'll end up a lifer down here like us. Needing an exo-suit just to walk up-ring.”
I was never going to quit, the Brigade was my life, where I could make a difference. I looked out the window to the constant stream of prisoners moving ore. A lot of difference I could make here. I sighed then smirked as I said, “You're right Andrews, I'm Nobody.”
With a silent plea, Mother had more of that anthropological music playing inside my head, “Wake Me Up Inside” by a group called Evanescence, as I continued my covert research. I was quickly becoming addicted to this new helmet's interface. It was like nothing I had seen before. Those geeks in R&D were going to be getting a fruit basket from me too.
I tried to think a scolding look, and that got Mother to unlock the information I wanted... no, needed to see. And there was my name... the only name listed in a failed test group of one hundred test inseminations in one of Rory's tests. I wound up being the only embryo to be produced, and after I didn't show the expected results, she had moved her research on to attempts to clone Fae DNA structures as biological instead of magical for the past forty-plus years.
So... I was what? Some sort of failed attempt to breed a new Fae child? I was a failed experiment? Well, the joke is on them, I'm one hundred percent, red-blooded human. Congratulations Winter Maiden, you made a null.
I don't know why I was so angry and frustrated just then. I was what I was. Now her recognizing my name made sense.
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