The Broken Third (Digitesque Book 4)

by Guerric Haché

  Something came to mind, something from dinner last night. The way the delegates had talked about things. “Do you have an afterlife?”

  They both stared at her. “What?” Elsa blinked. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “When you die, what happens to you?”

  Sanako gripped her head in her hands, looking supremely uneasy. Elsa held out both her hands, as though to stop her. “Ada - there’s nothing afterwards. Not that we know of. I don’t know what you believe on Earth, but -”

  “No, it’s not a belief.” She pointed to the sky, but as she looked out the window across Daneer, and the surface of Freyja itself, she remembered there was no ring here at all. The sky was barren. “On Earth, after death, you live in another world. A place called Elysium. Sometimes they come back after they die, too. It… happened to a friend of mine. It’s ancient technology. Something the gods called uploading.”

  Sanako tilted her head. “ Mind uploading? Like in science fiction?”

  Ada frowned. “What?”

  Elsa stared at Sanako as well, and Sanako looked to her fellow colonial. “It’s like in Sands of Persephone , where - ”

  Elsa grimaced. “Woah, I don’t watch that stuff.”

  Ada snapped. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Sanako is talking about shitty movies.”

  “It’s really not - Ada -” Sanako was clearly exasperated. “Look. You die, it’s over. So this is serious.”

  Oh, hell.

  She felt into her memories, through the echoes of the golem Venshi’s own memories of the world before the Fall. These claims were familiar to Venshi - the afterlife was a new creation, something fresh and the latest stain in how she had seen humanity. Venshi had wanted to destroy that, too, but settled for civilization itself instead.

  Out here on the colonies, it seemed they had never built an afterlife in the first place. Somehow, she had assumed they must have.

  “Well, fuck.”

  Ada turned around, walking through the morning-lit room towards the window, and stared out at millions who would vanished into the dark, without a trace, when they died. Her mind raced, flicking through her own memories, looking for a way out of this, a way to at least cope with what this meant.

  She was so far from Earth - if she died here, she might well join them.

  She turned back to the others. “This is a lot to think about.”

  They exchanged glances and Elsa made a bitter face, but Sanako spoke up. “Do you need help? Ada, Elsa - you two don’t have a lot of time.”

  She sighed. “The mirrans I came with. Where are they? I want to talk to Zhilik.”

  Sanako glanced at Elsa. “He’s in this building, further down.”

  Deep breaths. “Okay. Let’s go, then.”

  Elsa and Sanako exchanged glances, and the ensign shook her head. “He’s on the twelfth floor, room 1208. Elsa can take you. I have to leave. This is all the help I can give.”

  Ada nodded. It was just enough help for her to know she needed more. “Fine. Thanks.”

  “It’s… I think it’s the right thing to do.” Sanako stepped out of the room, rubbing the back of her neck as she went, and Ada turned to Elsa. The colonial was leaning against the wall, staring at the floor wide-eyed. Thinking. It couldn’t be easy, to hear how disposable she was to her leader.

  It didn’t escape notice that this was Ada’s fault. She tried to calm her nerves with deep breaths, and stepped towards Elsa, resting a hand on her shoulder.

  Elsa tried to knock it away, but didn’t push it very far. “Damn it, damn it, damn it -”

  “Elsa. I’m sorry I got you into this. Somehow.”

  “No, it’s - they picked me. They decided from the start I was expendable. That’s on me.”

  “That’s not fair.” Ada shook her head. “They shouldn’t -”

  “Well, they did.” Elsa raised her head, staring out the window, her jaw shuddering a little. “What now? If we want to live - I sure do - we need a way out of this.”

  Ada narrowed her eyes, and looked at the door. “I promise you, Ashur will regret this.”

  “What can you do? You’re just one… person. Even if you are transhuman.”

  Ada chuckled, an evil sort of mirth curling through her veins as she imagined all the ways she could end Ashur’s life. “I’m more than they know and more than they can handle. But right now, I need to see my friends.”

  Elsa nodded, making a strange gasping sound. “Okay, just let me get my things. Don’t leave me here.”

  Ada shook her head. “I won’t.”

  When Elsa was ready the stepped out into the hall and made for the elevator. When she reached it, though, she blanked. How did this thing work again?

  Elsa reached out and hit a button. “This one.”

  A number lit up on the side of the door frame, and they waited for the elevator to crawl up the building. Ada watched the numbers grow. “Elsa, what does Senjat want with Earth?”

  The bodyguard shrugged. “Technology, probably? Weapons? You think they tell us these things? They didn’t even tell anyone they had gone until they were already on the way back.”

  That made Ada feel uneasy. This world, this Union, seemed filled with secrets - gnarly and deceptive secrets crafted with purpose, not lost and tragic secrets that yielded to persistence or cunning. Not Earth’s kind of secrets. These secrets were alive and well, coiled snakes hiding in grasses, and Ada was starting to worry they mistook her for prey.

  The elevator brought them down to Zhilik’s floor, and they found him sharing the room with Jhoru. Ada hadn’t expected to see Jhoru here, but what did she know? The two seemed to have grown close, especially since leaving Earth. Zhilik looked tired, his off-white fur uneven, but his ears perked up when she walked in and they embraced warmly. “Zhilik, you look like crap. What’s wrong?”

  He looked out the window, pointing to Daneer. “The city is fabulous, but speaking with the mirrans here is difficult, and adjusting to their life is… well, we have much to learn.”

  “More than you know.”

  He grinned. “There is a small animal on Freyja considered a delicacy. I was invited to eat it at dinner last night, but it was so sour I almost choked. It was difficult to pretend to be grateful.”

  Ada scoffed. “I feel for you. But…” She glanced at Jhoru. “Look, I’m in trouble, Zhilik. And so is Elsa.”

  “Who?”

  Of course - Ada had completely forgotten. She tried for quick introductions, switching between the languages as appropriate. “This is Elsa, my, well, bodyguard. Elsa, this is my friend Zhilik, and his friend Jhoru.”

  Jhoru sniffed, even as Elsa sat down on the couch next to her. “Am I not also your friend, Ada?”

  Ada felt her face redden. “It takes me a while to call someone a friend, okay?”

  Zhilik nodded, and turned to Jhoru as well. “It took her a remarkably long time to finally approach Isavel, remember.”

  That wasn’t fair at all. Her eyes widened. “Hey! There were other factors -”

  “I know.”

  She bit her lip, and sighed, stepping to the window. She pressed her palms against the glass. “Zhilik, there’s no afterlife here.”

  He followed her over. “Welcome to the rest of the world.”

  “And I’m not human, either.”

  He glanced at her. His triangular ears twitched a bit, but he betrayed no other emotions, and she was never very good at ear reading. “What do you mean?”

  “Sanako - she brought me voices from a military… institute or something. They tested skin samples they took from me, they looked at something called DNA, and apparently they couldn’t tell I was human at all. I’m… a completely different animal.”

  Zhilik gave her the mirrans’ bobbing nod. “The ancients did a great many things to themselves that live on in your blood today. I would not have thought it was so different, but… we know so little.”

  “Well, you’ve certainl
y dropped hints, I guess. But you could have just said as much.”

  He shrugged. “I did not know what to warn you about. Remember, we had no idea what the colonies were like, either. All I knew was that humans had changed, somehow.”

  “Fair enough.” She sighed, and sat down on the other couch, facing Jhoru and Elsa. “Zhilik, that human admiral Senjat - he wants to kill me and study me, and he wants to kill Elsa so nobody finds out. They’re thinking of going back to Earth.”

  Zhilik’s ears flattened. “Back to Earth? What for?”

  “It didn’t sound friendly.”

  His muzzle furrowed. “Much as I would like to imagine they are rescuing my kin from other settlements, I fear they may be after advanced military technology. But you… Ada, you need to leave.”

  “Yeah, I’m getting that. But where am I supposed to go? It’s not like there’s anybody on this planet that -”

  Elsa spoke up, and Ada realized she had been talking with Jhoru on the couch while Zhilik and Ada maintained a conversation in Earth’s languages. “Jhoru says you need outside help? The only person you’ve met outside the military is Chiu Turou. I have some contacts, even people that might help us disappear, but they probably have a file on everybody I know already and are watching them.”

  Ada paused. Turou, who had seemed perfectly pleasant, and interested in speaking to her about Earth. He was from an entirely different world, Chang’e. Perhaps it was far enough that she might flee there and hide. Formulate a plan. Something . She switched back to the colonial tongue. “Maybe. Okay, that’s an option.”

  Zhilik’s ears lowered slightly. “Who is this Turou?”

  The fact that he and Elsa had little overlapping language was quickly becoming a problem. “Some kind of… scholar. I don’t know. But I might be able to disappear for a while, with his help. I’ll have to ask.”

  He nodded, and reached over to give her a hug. “Very well. Do what you must, Ada. You will succeed.”

  She hugged him back. “What makes you say that?”

  “You are the heiress of the ancients. Their legacy is one of triumph.”

  Ada grimaced. “Zhilik, you’re talking about a civilization that wiped itself off its own home planet.”

  He gave her a hissing laugh. “Yes, well. Even the triumphant do not win every battle.”

  “You only really need to lose one.”

  “I am not so sure of that.”

  She punched him on the shoulder. “Cryptic bastard. You don’t even have any secrets, do you? You’re just saying that to annoy me.”

  “It does amuse me.”

  Elsa suddenly stood up, apparently responding to some cue from her headpiece. She looked concerned. As she watched her go, Ada looked at Jhoru. “Are you two going to be okay?”

  “We will be fine. We are much less…” Jhoru made a wavy four-fingered gesture up and down her body. “Medically interesting than you.”

  She hoped that was true. If she was going to fight back against these people, she couldn’t afford to have to look out for the outers at the same time. “Be careful, okay? You’re all I’ve got left.”

  “For now.” Zhilik looked at her impassively, but she understood what he was getting at.

  “Zhilik, just… Let me do my thing. You know how I work best.”

  “Yes.” He glanced at Elsa. “In the arms of a strong woman.”

  She scowled and kicked his foot. It was too soon for jibes. He winced even as he hissed in laughter. “Really not funny.”

  Elsa walked back over just then, and sighed heavily. “I got a call from my SO, Ada. They’re putting the meetings with the delegates on hold. They want to have you interviewed on a live feed tomorrow, and they’re giving you the day to rest and ready for it.”

  She didn’t understand the exact meaning of what Elsa was saying, but she got the jist. “Get ready? What should I do?”

  “I don’t know, that’s literally all he said. Listen, I think that we should -”

  “Elsa, can you contact Turou?”

  The bodyguard nodded after a moment’s recall. “Yeah, I can call him.” She fiddled with the gadget on her wrist, then hesitated. “Ada, they record just about every call. I’ll tell him you want to meet him and talk about old Earth, as soon as possible. Today, before the live feed thing. We can’t mention any of this.”

  Ada nodded as Elsa put in an earpiece. After a moment Elsa greeted Turou, though nobody else could hear him, and she repeated the request, and relayed his responses out loud.

  “He says tonight would be fine. He asked where; I don’t imagine you -”

  Ada shrugged. “Take me out for drinks, Elsa.”

  Elsa smiled faintly and nodded, giving Turou the name of some place they must both be familiar with. “Okay, Ada, we’ve got about eight hours.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What now?”

  Ada looked out the window, and took a deep breath. “If things are about to get dangerous, I want to practice.”

  “Practice what?”

  She slowed time and called up a sigil in front of her, one she had seared into her mind quite effectively. A blank golem sigil, the core of the wraiths she had unleashed all over Campus. “This.”

  Elsa blinked. “So it’s a stay-at-home kind of day, then.”

  “Yes. So long as we have food.” She looked to Zhilik. “Do you mind if I lounge around on your couch all day?”

  He chuckled. “You have never asked for permission before; I do not see why you should start now.”

  Chapter 5

  Ada stood in the middle of a dark forest, every branch and twig a knotted tangle of code she had grown herself. Time shied away from the brambles; sounds here were dull and drawn out across the creaking of black sigils growing intertwined. Everything about her gift Ada knew, everything she could remember. All the principles the Institute had called heresy; all the sigils she had learned from them, from Cherry, from old technology. All the strange things her gift helped her learn and remember. She was a tiny scrap of Earth spat out light years into the unknown. But code, dark and writhing and alien to the Union, would be her greatest advantage, and she took comfort in it while she could.

  She knew she couldn’t any longer when she heard a voice seeking her out, and she let time slip back to normal.

  Isavel’s eyes were barely visible through the tangle of code, looking at her. Except they weren’t; those were Elsa’s eyes. Without the rest of her face… no, they still didn’t look the same. Ada shook her head. Maybe she was going mad out here; or maybe spending too much time at once in time dilation was more tiring than she thought.

  “What, Elsa?”

  Elsa moved her head, and now the code that dominated half the living room had obscured her eyes. “We need to leave.”

  Of course they did. She stepped away from her work. “Okay. Anybody have any food?”

  Zhilik hefted something in his hand. “I thought you might need something.”

  As Ada grabbed the dark brown bar from him, Elsa eyed it. “Energy bars? Is that tiring?”

  “Sort of.” Ada munched on the ration, interestingly bitter yet energizing. “When I, uh, make time faster. It’s hard to explain.”

  “No shit.” Elsa glanced at the corner of the room, where most of the forest of code had collapsed, leaving only the golem sigil. The crumbling code looked like dust, but none landed on the ground or walls. It simply disappeared. “What is that stuff?”

  “We call it code. It’s one of… we call them the gifts. I don’t really know what it is, exactly, but it can control things, make things happen. It’s what runs the machines on Earth.”

  Elsa repeated Ada’s native word, then substituted a similar one. “Like… computer code?”

  “I don’t know what that is. Maybe.”

  Elsa frowned down at her hands. “From your fingers?”

  “Yes, well, it’s a gift.”

  “You keep saying that. What’s a gift?”

  Ada frowned. “You… r
ight, of course you don’t have gifts.”

  “I literally don’t know what you’re talking about.” Elsa raised an eyebrow. “I get plenty of gifts during holiday season.”

  Ada blinked away the meaningless words. “Little things in our blood. There are different kinds, but people either get one or none at all. Usually, anyway. I have this one. Warriors can make swords and shields out of light to fight with, and they’re strong and heal faster. Hunters are able to shoot from their hands like guns, and they can see movement and motion really well. Pathfinders -”

  Elsa held up her hands. “Woah, there are people on Earth who can shoot from their hands? Without any kind of training or weapons? Like, shoot to kill?”

  “Sure. The gift helps them see and aim.”

  Elsa’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, that must be dangerous. Put a weapon in a room and it shortens people’s tempers real fast.”

  Ada frowned as she chewed the rest of the food. She hadn’t really thought of it, but in a way that made sense - every gifted person had moments when they tried to solve problems with their gifts first, and it was said hunters and warriors reach for violence sooner. “Well, I’d be lying if I said Earth was peaceful.”

  “So I saw from the video. You’ll have to tell me how you ended up in a warzone like that.” She checked her wrist. “But we should go. It’ll take time to get there.”

  Ada nodded, ready to mentally review her code again on the way there. “So if his first name is Turou, why do people call him Chiu Turou?”

  “Some people’s family names come first.” Elsa shrugged, and nodded at the door. “Come on, I called a cab.”

  Ada embraced Zhilik once more. “Watch your back, friend.”

  “I will.” He patted her back. “I am not alone.”

  Ada turned to Jhoru and awkwardly clasped her furry forearm. “Watch him.”

  “I don’t need to be told what to do.” The outer sounded a bit miffed, but there was a hint of amusement there as well, so Ada grinned as she left the room. Standing in the hall outside, with only Elsa by her side, she felt the smile fade.

  “So, uh, what’s a cab?”

  They reached the elevator. “It’s a car someone drives for us. I’m sure as hell not teaching you how to ride a bike.”