The Girls from Alcyone 2: The Machines of Bellatrix

by Cary Caffrey

  "Who are they—were they?" Miranda asked.

  "They're girls, Ms. Kane," Sigrid answered. "Just like us."

  "This could have been us," Leta said.

  "It almost was," Suko said as she pulled back the sheet of another.

  Sigrid sensed the familiar metal beneath the girl's flesh, bones hardened, stronger than steel.

  And…not as lifeless as she had first thought.

  Sigrid moved closer. The natural part, the biological part of this girl might be dead, but the mechanical part endured. Where the flesh was cold and lifeless, the bionics had not powered down. Not completely. For whatever reason, these girls had been brought here to die, but no one had thought to come in and turn off their mechanical components. Even now Sigrid was aware of the girl's PCM, not unlike her own, active and alert, sitting quietly in its standby mode, awaiting its next command. A command that would never come.

  "They've been like this for days," Suko said.

  "Days?" Miranda said. "That's impossible. Look at her. There's no decomposition. I don't think rigor has even set in. She can't have been here for days. No human—"

  "They're not human," Sigrid said. "Not anymore. They're machines."

  "What do you mean, machines?"

  Sigrid looked down at the lifeless girl on the bed. Ever since Portside, ever since she'd seen that girl, scanned her, something had troubled her. But now it all made perfect, horrible sense.

  "Whatever part of them was human, it's gone. Removed."

  "Removed? How? That's impossible!"

  "They made a mistake with us on Scorpii," Sigrid said. "They tried to control us. They couldn't. It looks like they've chosen a different approach here."

  Leta looked equally disgusted. "Why reprogram when you can start from scratch."

  Miranda opened her mouth, another question on her lips, but Sigrid was already moving to the next bed.

  The girl here hadn't fared nearly as well. While the first two girls looked to have slipped away peacefully, this one was little more than a twisted mound of flesh. Her skin was torn open in places, fractures of bone and metal thrusting through. Sigrid couldn't imagine the pain the girl had been forced to endure.

  Miranda held her hand to her mouth, turning quickly away. "What on Earth…? What did they do to them?"

  "Everything they couldn't do to us."

  Miranda shook her head. "I can't believe they'd do this—to human beings. It's too much, even for—"

  "Even for your chairman?" Sigrid asked. "I'm afraid this is exactly what he would have done to us, if he'd had the chance."

  "No, he wouldn't. He's not like that."

  "Control us or destroy us," Sigrid said. "The Council's position was clear."

  Sigrid put the chart back at the end of the bed and moved quickly down the row. Miranda hurried after her.

  "But…this—this doesn't make sense! Why bring them here to die—bind them like this?"

  "You still don't understand."

  Miranda grabbed her arm, trying to slow her—which only resulted in her being dragged along, her feet sliding on the polished floor. "Then—goddammit, will you stop! Just explain it to me."

  Sigrid turned on her then. "These women didn't expire, Ms. Kane. They were terminated. Killed."

  "Why? Why would they do that?"

  "Because," Suko said, "they didn't understand what they made. They were afraid."

  Miranda gasped, but she let go of Sigrid.

  "I'll tell you this, Ms. Kane. If they think they're afraid of what they made here, they have no idea. I'm going to show them exactly what it is to be afraid."

  "What…what are you going to do?"

  Sigrid looked about the room; it was so much like the medical facilities on Alcyone. She couldn't believe her mistress would have ever allowed such cruelty, such butchery.

  The Council had called her an abomination, but this—this place—the men who did this, they were the abominations. And they had to be stopped.

  "Burn it," Sigrid said. "Burn it all."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Monsters

  Leta lit the charges; eighteen thermite and phosphorus charges, strategically placed throughout the ward, flared at once. Sigrid felt the waves of heat rushing toward her. Fire roiled across the floor, up the supporting pillars, licking over the ceiling. It consumed all, washing over everything in its wake, washing it clean. The heat was too much, even for Sigrid, and she moved back into the corridor to join the others.

  There was only one way for them to go now. Down, deeper, further underground. Twin metal doors admitted them into a tunnel. It was a maintenance corridor wide enough to accommodate small transports. There was evidence of recent movement, tire tracks in the thick dust and dirt on the concrete floor. This was where they had gone. They were evacuating, retreating. Sigrid would give them no quarter. This would end. Here and now.

  A scattering of work lights strung along the ceiling lit the tunnel in a dingy yellow. Construction of the passage appeared crude, hastily dug. It was dreadfully hot here, the air thick and damp. Water trickled from cracks in the retaining walls and pooled on the floor, streaming down the sides.

  "This passage does not appear to be structurally sound," Leta observed with some trepidation.

  "No," Suko said. "And I doubt the charges we set helped. There's been some shifting in the supporting columns here. Look."

  "Then let's not stay any longer than we need," Sigrid said.

  They moved more quickly now, hurrying their pace and helping Miranda along as best they could by carrying her between them. Sigrid couldn't help but think of the tons of rock and earth between them and the surface, threatening to collapse and crush them. Worse, she was having difficulty maintaining contact with Trudy, and she could no longer reach Selene in the Morrigan. Soon, they would be on their own.

  But there was a brightening in the distance; the tunnel ended further ahead. She could see the opening, the passage widening into what appeared to be an immense cave—some sort of cavern. Even before they exited the tunnel, Sigrid heard the sounds of heavy equipment, the thrum of engines idling, crews working.

  The squad of soldiers guarding the passage did not hear them approach, nor would they live to raise an alarm. Slowly, cautiously, they emerged from the tunnel. They found themselves on a raised platform high above a sprawling cavern, an immense underground hangar. It was huge, nearly two kilometers wide and hundreds of meters tall. It had to be to accommodate the series of landing platforms. Only one of them was occupied—here was the missing troop carrier, the one they'd spied dropping from orbit. Crew were busy fueling and loading it, readying her for flight.

  Sigrid crept to the edge of the platform, lying flat, peering out over the edge.

  There were soldiers here as well. She recognized the Independents in their familiar mechanized armor. They walked patrols and stood guard near the waiting ship.

  The floor of the hangar was littered with stacks of cargo containers, all of them emptied and abandoned. Trains of trucks sat parked beside the troop carrier, each of them laden with a cargo of heavy mechs. Sigrid counted eight trucks in all, each carrying six of the walking tanks. The ground crew leapt to the task of loading the mechs into the waiting carrier. One by one, they walked them up the ramps, working to secure them in their launch cradles.

  "They're clearing out," Leta said. "Evacuating."

  But Sigrid had a different thought. "No, they're not. They're deploying. This isn't an evacuation. It's an invasion. And…I have a good mind as to where."

  "It's us," Suko said, "isn't it? It's New Alcyone. It has to be."

  "If you're right," Miranda said, "then we have to stop them. We can't let that ship leave."

  Sigrid agreed.

  The troop carrier was less than four hundred meters away, but across the open expanse of the hangar. There was no way they could cover that distance, not without being seen. Not all of them.

  "I'm afraid this is where we part ways," Sigrid said.
>
  Suko grabbed her arm. "Sigrid, no."

  "Someone has to get aboard that ship, Suko. I can get there."

  "Then let me go." Suko gripped her arm tighter. "Sigrid, dammit—I told Hitomi I'd protect you. I made her a promise. You're not going. Not this time."

  Before Suko could continue her protests, Sigrid felt Leta nudging her side, signaling for her attention. Leta practically pushed her forward, pointing.

  "Sigrid, look!"

  The portal above them ground slowly open, the iris sliding apart as another ship came in on approach. This was a much smaller ship, a suborbital shuttle. It dropped quickly, its ventral thrusters flaring, braking hard as it came to a gentle rest. Soldiers took up their positions, standing guard while the transport's engines ground down. Eleven persons exited, walking down the ramp that extended from its stern. Sigrid zoomed in with her optical module. The first person down the ramp came into sharp focus; it was a girl—the very same girl from Portside, the one who'd escaped. And she was flanked by eight more of her kind, just as cold and machinelike, enhanced exactly as she was.

  Two men followed them out. The first, she'd never seen before, not in person, though she knew who he was. It was Major Karl Tarsus, Selene Tseng's old commander, the man who had orchestrated the very first assault on Alcyone. But the man at his side—this man Sigrid had met before.

  That man was Harry Jones.

  Sigrid gasped. There was no mistaking it. This was the very same man she'd seen on Konoe Station. How he'd arranged this transformation, she didn't know. It didn't matter. He was here. It was him.

  Suko reached for the eSMG on her back, but Sigrid stopped her. They were too far for the compact weapon. But they weren't too far for her.

  Sigrid unslung the sniper rifle, interfacing with the deadly weapon as soon as her hands touched the grips. The rifle was smart and designed specifically for her. It knew her weight, her strength and grip pressure. The barrel extended out automatically. The scope fed exact distance measurements directly to her PCM, calculating the motion of her target, projecting his most likely course. Sigrid could shoot the kernel off a corn cob from sixteen hundred meters. Harry Jones was only four hundred meters distant.

  Sigrid aimed. Harry Jones appeared in her sights. But so did his escort. The girls kept getting in her line of sight, obscuring her target. They were under the belly of the troop carrier, moving between the landing columns. Scores of transport trucks shuttled between them, further hampering her efforts

  "Blast."

  The lead escort passed before her. Sigrid waited, but the girl paused in her tracks, remaining between Sigrid and her target. Slowly, she turned Sigrid's way, looking directly at her.

  She saw her—she knew. Just as Sigrid saw her. She had to.

  "Blast."

  Sigrid flicked the ordnance selector to antipersonnel rounds. Messy, but the fragmentation rounds didn't require a pure line of sight. Harry Jones came into view again, his head bobbing amongst his huddled escort. For a moment, Sigrid hesitated. She couldn't help but wonder again if she were firing on her own kind? What torture had these girls endured to be made in this way? Was there anything left of who they once were, or they simply automatons, programmed to do the bidding of men, just like her friends on Scorpii?

  Did Sigrid have the right? Would these girls show her such mercy?

  Lei-Fei, Christi—her friends that had survived Scorpii—they had been saved by Dr. Garrett. Could these girls be repaired as well?

  She was suddenly aware of Suko at her side. "Sigrid…"

  The men were almost to the waiting APCs. Sigrid could spare no more time to wonder any longer. Her finger tightened on the trigger. She fired.

  "Blast it!"

  Three armored transport trucks moved into her line of sight. Sigrid quickly pulled the rifle back. She'd missed! She'd missed her target and hit the lead truck. The recoilless rifle made no sound, only a slight hiss of released gas from its side vents. But the barrage of fragmentation rounds that peppered the bodywork of the transport certainly did. Even from here Sigrid heard the loud report of exploding ordnance, shrapnel tearing through metal. The driver of the truck must have heard. Indeed, the truck pulled to a stop, the driver getting out to investigate. There was no hiding it. She could see the collection of massive impact holes even from here.

  More soldiers exited the back of the vehicle. She saw them gathering, asking questions, scanning the area. It was only slowly dawning on them that someone, somewhere, was shooting at them.

  "Blast," Sigrid said again.

  Her heart pounding in her chest, Sigrid brought the rifle up and aimed down the scope. She scanned furiously, searching, but Harry Jones was gone. His female escort whisked him into the back of one of the armored trucks. The door was sealed shut, the truck rising on its repulsors and speeding quickly away, heading for the nearest access tunnel.

  Still cursing, Sigrid fired, over and over. The vents on the side of the sniper rifle glowed red hot. She cleared the magazine, reloaded and aimed again, but the armored vehicle was gone, vanishing into the safety of the tunnel.

  Harry Jones was gone.

  There was no time for self-recriminations. From across the hangar, Sigrid saw the soldiers mobilizing, scanning the area, searching for the shooter. Two full fire-teams of men in their mechanized armor moved forward. They carried the hulking chain guns cradled in their metal arms. Major Tarsus remained behind, coordinating the efforts, the girl from Portside standing stoically at his side.

  Then the engines of the troop carrier fired up. Her ports were quickly sealed, the ground crew scattering. Plumes of white smoke rose up around the ship. The thunder from her lifting engines vibrated the ground with enough force to rattle Sigrid's spine. She watched as the hulking vessel lifted from the platform, crawling upward. Once clear of the platform, it blasted its way skyward.

  Sigrid cursed aloud. First Jones, and now she'd let the carrier slip from her grasp.

  "We should get out of here," Miranda cautioned, "while there's still time."

  "No," Sigrid said. "I swear to you, we're not done yet. That man, Tarsus, I want him alive."

  "Sigrid," Miranda said firmly, "they know we're here. If we don't leave now—"

  "I know," Sigrid said. "That's why we're going to do this fast. Suko, Leta…"

  There was no need for instructions. The girls had trained together all their lives. Without a word, Suko and Leta dropped from the platform, disappearing into the shadows, moving to flank the oncoming soldiers.

  Sigrid turned to the agent at her side. "Perhaps it's best if you head back."

  To Sigrid's surprise, the agent shook her head. "No. I'll share the risk, if it's all the same. I told you, Ms. Novak. I want to help."

  With a nod, Sigrid unslung the sniper rifle, handing it to her along with the spare ammunition and a collection of grenades. "Do you know how to use this?"

  "I was a naval officer before I joined Intelligence. I can manage."

  "Good. I recommend the explosive rounds—"

  "Ms. Novak…" Then Miranda's tone softened. "Sigrid, I can manage. Don't worry about me. Now go."

  The soldiers were moving quickly toward their position on the platform high above the hangar, and Sigrid had to move fast. The floor was a good ten meters down. Sigrid engaged her cloak, then leapt, hitting the ground hard, rolling, somehow holding on to the life-saving shroud. Rising to her feet, she ran hard, directly toward them, not stopping until she was well into the midst of their vanguard. Behind her, she heard the unmistakable hiss of the sniper rifle, Miranda firing from above. Men scattered, moving for cover. But they had their target now, and they were eager to move in for the kill. They ran for the base of the platform, climbing the ladders. Two of them had grenade launchers, preparing to blast Miranda from her perch.

  All of their focus was on the agent high atop the platform. They hurried past Sigrid, unaware that she walked among them.

  Only once they were past her did Sigrid act. There was no
need to hold her shroud, not any more. One of the soldiers was close enough to touch; Sigrid leapt up, grabbing hold of the metal shoulders, sinking the blade of her bowie knife in the weakest point of his armor, directly in the back of his head. The kill was swift, silent, but another soldier sensed the movement and turned. He raised the chain gun, aimed. But it was too late for him. It took all of Sigrid's enhanced strength, but the armor of his faceplate shattered under the force of her blow. She pushed hard, sinking the blade of her knife in deep.

  He fell backwards, quite dead, Sigrid on top of him. But his finger collapsed on the trigger of the chain gun, belching out round after round and shattering the silence. The entire platoon heard the racket and turned back toward her. The chain gun was at her side, still firing skyward as the dead soldier's mechanical grip refused to slacken.

  Sigrid grabbed for the weapon, trying but failing to pull the thing free. Cursing, she pivoted the weapon, using the dead soldier's arm as a turret and bringing the heavy gun to bear on the charging platoon. Those that didn't scatter or hide were torn to shreds. Those that did seek cover found only the briefest of respites. Not even the thick steel of the cargo containers could stop the 30mm rounds. Shells ripped through metal, cutting down the men and women who hid there.

  The battle was now fully engaged. Suko and Leta emerged from their flanking positions, moving in. Armor-piercing rounds shredded the ablative shielding of the mechanized soldiers; gas and fragmentation rounds subdued the unprotected. Thick smoke obscured all. The men fired back, unleashing hell, everything in their arsenal. But Suko and Leta were wraiths; bullets fired back in desperation found only air.

  Suko caused even greater confusion; diving directly into their midst. Sigrid saw the flash of steel as Suko wielded the katana once more. Spinning, she cleaved the head from one startled soldier. In the same motion, she slapped a sticky-charge on the chestplate of another. The soldier clawed desperately at the grenade on his chest. His struggles would not last long. The charge erupted, limbs and metal exploding outward. Soldiers ran, scattering. They were in complete disarray and fleeing for their lives. Sigrid heard the angry shouts from the major as he bellowed for them to hold their ground.