Time Siege

by Wesley Chu

  “What is Luxe whiskey doing in a dump like this?” James’s breathing became labored and he squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Why indeed, James.”

  This had to be a dream. A bottle of Luxe whiskey would cost more than this bar was worth. He turned from the counter and studied the rest of the Tilted Orbit. Now that he looked more closely, everything felt off about the whole place. Yet it wasn’t like the vivid dreams he often suffered through where he couldn’t tell reality from constructs in his head.

  The bar, while loud, felt dead, flat. The patrons were darkened, as if shadows that had come to life. They all sat alone or in small groups with their heads down. He couldn’t see anyone’s eyes, nor could he hear voices speaking above the chatter. Where was the noise coming from?

  “The real question is,” Smitt said, pouring more of the precious Luxe-era whiskey into the glass, “if you know this is a dream, and now know this wondrous Luxe whiskey in front of you isn’t real, would it hurt to have a sip? Is it cheating still?”

  James looked down at the brown aromatic liquid calling to him. Beads of sweat dribbled down the side of his face. He gulped and stared. It didn’t matter. His mind was as sick as his body. Just because this was a dream didn’t make it any different, make him want the whiskey any less. He backhanded the glass, spilling its precious contents onto the counter. He jumped off the stool and stormed out of the bar. James kept walking until he was fifty meters outside the entrance. He hunched over and threw up.

  Smitt materialized next to him, patting him on his back. “Well done.”

  “That was cruel,” James choked, spitting out whatever was left in his mouth.

  “You needed to realize what this is,” Smitt said, pointing at their surroundings. “How what’s happening here can affect you just as much as when you’re awake.”

  “So that was a test?” James scowled. “Asshole.”

  “Oh, lighten up, James.” Smitt shrugged. “Besides, I’m just a construct of your imagination, so technically, you’re the asshole.”

  “No one ever argued against that.”

  “Come on,” Smitt said cheerfully, pulling him up by the elbow and pointing straight at the wall.

  He snapped his fingers, and suddenly they were standing in front of Earth Central. It had been nearly a year since James had seen the behemoth facility, and he was struck by how different it looked from what he remembered. Director Young had always prided himself on keeping ChronoCom’s primary facility in relatively good shape. This was unlike him. Like everything else in this dream, Earth Central looked drab, dark, and dirty, as if they were in the future and Chicago, which wasn’t very clean to begin with, had finally succumbed to Earth Plague.

  “Why are we here?” he asked.

  “I want to show you something.”

  The two continued down the once-familiar hallways. James had spent much of his Tier-2 and Tier-4 days at Earth Central. He recalled the first time he had stepped foot here, after his first transfer to Earth. Back then, he was still innocent and believed in the agency, believed in its noble goals. He remembered how he stood in awe of the facility, and how after spending most of his life on space stations and in underground colonies, he had reveled in Earth’s openness. That was a long time ago. He was quite the idiot back then.

  Now, as they walked through the main halls of the agency, past the Watcher’s Board, which kept count of all agency personnel, through the ship hangar, and past his old quarters, the memories rushed back to him. Everything was a lie. This agency had long been corrupted, tainted by the influences of the megacorporations and their greed.

  They entered the Hops, where the handlers babysat their chronmen. James saw another Smitt working furiously at one of the stations, sweat pouring down his face. His face was bloated and his clothing unkempt. Well, more unkempt and wrinkled than usual. He appeared skittish, continually looking over his shoulder. James looked to his left at the Smitt he had walked here with. They were definitely the same person, but not. The Smitt working at the console looked like he had gained fifteen kilos and hadn’t slept in six months. James turned to the Smitt standing next to him. “Is this the future, because that you over there looks like shit.”

  Smitt rolled his eyes. “How can it be the future when I’m already dead?”

  “Then what’s wrong with that you over there?”

  “This is the past after you defected from the agency.”

  James made a face. “Damn, Smitt, you gained a lot of weight while I was gone.”

  “No, dummy. That’s your psyche imagining that I fell apart without you here.”

  “Well, did you?”

  Smitt frowned and then shrugged good-naturedly. “I honestly don’t know, because you don’t know.”

  “I’m going to assume yes because he looks awful. Why are we here anyway?”

  Smitt pointed at the door as a squad of monitors walked in. “Just watch.”

  The monitors made a beeline to the Smitt at the console and surrounded him. A second later, the unhealthy-looking Smitt made a move as if to flee the room and was roughly taken down to the floor. James averted his eyes as one of the monitors put a knee on Smitt’s back and cuffed him. The two monitors pulled him to his feet, and one of them punched him in the stomach, doubling him over. Then they dragged him out of the room.

  “Is that what happened?” James said softly. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”

  “That’s what you think happened,” the Smitt standing next to him clarified. “But then, you think the worst about everything. Personally, I think I was arrested all dignified-like.”

  The two of them left the room and followed the monitors, though James already knew where they were heading. He knew what happened next.

  “Do we need to see this?” he said softly.

  “It’s your dream,” Smitt said. “You can stop it anytime. Maybe this is what you need right now.”

  James tried to change the scenario, change the story, or just teleport somewhere else. He concentrated and tried to will Elise here. To have Smitt and Elise meet would warm his heart. That could never happen in real life, but in his dreams, it would mean so much to him. Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried to control his dream and have that scene unfold, he stayed following twenty steps behind the two guards carrying a half-conscious Smitt to interrogation. Part of him wanted to jump those assholes and bust his friend out. However, the more pragmatic part of him knew that it would be a pointless exercise. It was more important for him to see what happened next.

  They walked into a bare room with three metal walls and the fourth a reflective mirror. Only a table and chair served as its furnishings. This was the ChronoCom interrogation room. A huge ugly man, face crooked and scarred, wearing a Valta uniform, looked up cruelly at Smitt and licked his lips. “Tie him up.”

  “Who is that supposed to be?” Smitt asked.

  “That Kuo asshole who killed you,” said James.

  “You know Kuo’s a woman. Levin’s told you several times.”

  “Oh, yeah.” For some reason, James often forgot that fact. To be honest, he had heard this story a half-dozen times now from Levin, but he couldn’t ever seem to remember any of the details. Now, however, he would have to live them. The giant ugly man morphed into a giant ugly woman, though not much else about her body changed.

  Smitt gave James a sheepish look. “I guess accuracy isn’t important.”

  James held up a hand and pointed at the imaginary Kuo. “I never met her before, so I guess she could look like that.”

  The Smitt tied to the chair whimpered as the imaginary Kuo cracked her knuckles. Immediately, James wished he knew how to change her so that she was small and harmless. He didn’t, and winced as she raised an arm and struck his best friend in the face. Blood splattered against the wall.

  “Where is James Griffin-Mars?” she asked in a low voice.

  A white glow appeared around her body as she began to torture him, burning his hair and skin, even a
s she pummeled him. James felt his stomach knot up; he was torn between stopping this brutality and needing to know why he was witnessing this. He bit his lips and clenched his fists as Kuo picked up a scalpel and cut into Smitt. He felt sick as she burned Smitt’s body with her exo, broke his fingers with a chisel, and electrocuted him until he went limp. Still, James couldn’t move to stop her or look away.

  He didn’t know how long he witnessed this atrocity, and he wept as he stayed rooted in place, never having felt so helpless in his life. He turned to the Smitt next to him, but his guide was no longer there. Instead, he saw the Smitt he remembered walk up to the other Smitt and their two bodies merged.

  Kuo cupped Smitt’s chin in her hand. “This is your last chance, handler. Why are you protecting him?”

  “James is my friend, that’s why.” Smitt looked straight at James. “He has more important things to do right now.”

  Everything turned red. For a second, James glanced in the mirror and saw Levin’s face staring back at him, and then he charged Kuo. The glow of the exo burst around him until it filled the entire room. Everything became blindingly orange and then white.

  * * *

  James leaped out of bed. He willed his exo to expand to its fullest and tried to create a dozen coils. Nothing happened. It took a moment to realize that his chest was heaving, his face wet with exertion. It took him a few more seconds to get his bearings and realize that he was back in his room. James dropped to his knees and stared at the quiet emptiness. Somewhere, deep within the recess of his head, he could still hear Smitt’s screams.

  Behind him, someone spoke. “I think I was completely justified in losing my shit back there.”

  James looked behind him and saw Smitt sitting in the chair on the balcony, looking out into the heavy gray mist. One leg was propped up on the railing, and he held something in his hand. James wiped his face, now shiny with tears, and decided to join him.

  He walked onto the balcony and leaned on the railing. He thought better of it when the rusted black metal shifted under his weight. He looked down and to his right as Smitt took another sip from what looked like a tin of beer.

  “Is that what really happened?” he asked.

  Smitt shrugged. “Does it matter?”

  “No. I guess not.” The two stayed silent for few minutes longer. James watched the roiling fog float on the wind as if it were alive. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”

  “That’s the wrong takeaway, my friend.”

  James squeezed his eyes shut. “I know, but I am anyway. I’ll get that monster if it’s the last thing I do.”

  Smitt took a sip from his tin. “Again, wrong takeaway. While I appreciate the gesture, I couldn’t care less about revenge.”

  James tried to recall the already-fading dream. He relived the rage that coursed through his body as he stood helplessly and watched the torture unfold. “I have something better to do.”

  His best friend nodded. “Worry about the big picture and the people you love who are still alive. Focus on them. The rest is irrelevant. Let me go.”

  James looked at the tin of beer in Smitt’s hand. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Smitt held it up. “The same discount sludge from the Fresh Fish back when we were initiates. Barely drinkable, but does the job. Here, you want some?”

  James did. He would always want some. However, for the first time that he could remember, while awake, that is, he had more pressing desires. “No thanks.”

  Smitt grinned. “That’s my boy.”

  There was a knock on the door. James looked back across his residence and then back down at Smitt. His best friend had disappeared. He looked up at the sky. “Be well, Smitt. I never got you to Europa, but I’ll do you one better here on Earth.”

  James checked the time and then went to answer the door. His eyes widened. Maanx and Chawr were here for their early-morning training. What surprised him, though, were the twenty other guardians and fights standing behind them, including all the flyguards.

  “You said I could invite others,” said Maanx.

  James buried the smile creeping up his face. His masters at the Academy rarely smiled. He walked into the middle of the waiting crowd. They all looked at him expectantly, hesitantly. Some of them bowed. Others saluted. More simply averted their gazes. No one knew what to expect. Neither did he, to be honest. James scanned the crowd and spoke in a clear voice. “From now on, you scrubs address me as Master, got it?” He was met with silence. “Do you understand?” he barked in a louder voice.

  “Yes, Master!” the chorus replied.

  James nodded. “Let’s get started. I want four lines…”

  FORTY-SIX

  FROM WITHIN

  Julia Gaenler-Phobos checked the levels of her bands, as she always did, as the two-hundred-year-old elevator raced up the floors of the Auditor Tower. She had to be careful in case the elevator malfunctioned or the cable snapped. It had broken once when she had first moved in. She wasn’t wearing her bands at the time, so probably had been at risk of plummeting to her death. Fortunately, she was on the ground floor and the car dropped only a few meters. That would have been the ultimate insult, to work so hard to become an auditor at ChronoCom and then die in a freak elevator accident. No, Julia remembered to always have her exo powered on whenever she stepped foot in here.

  The funny and slightly sad thing was, this potential death trap was newer than her personal collie, the one she took to space. Something about that didn’t sit right with Julia, but it was what it was. Worrying about the present wasn’t her job; making sure the past was pure was. It was a responsibility she was increasingly tiring of lately.

  Julia had thought things would be different when she was raised from the tier to the chain, that once she went from the recovery side of the agency to standards, her perspective would broaden, and she would feel more fulfilled by her life’s career. Instead, all it did was make her more aware that the ship flying her through space was older than some colonies, and that the universe was slowly falling apart.

  The elevator jerked to a stop, and the doors opened, about a half meter below floor level. Julia sighed. This elevator car was waiting to kill an auditor in the most unglamorous way possible. Keeping her exo fully powered, she climbed up the ledge and pulled her bag of canned foods—her dinner for the night—out with her.

  The Auditor Tower was one of the shorter buildings on the ChronoCom campus, only thirty-eight floors tall with two residences per floor. There really wasn’t need for more than the seventy-six units. With approximately two hundred or so auditors in the entire solar system, more than half of the Auditor Tower on Earth was uninhabited. It was one of the rare wastes of space the agency allowed.

  They were auditors, after all. Auditors mattered; they were important.

  That phrase was the first words the High Auditor—former High Auditor—of Earth said to her when she first reached the chain. She didn’t know why, but more and more of his little bits of wisdom were filtering into her psyche lately. She shook her head. The encounter in Spain was still fresh in her head. Not only was it the only blemish on her record in three years, it’d left her with several sleepless nights.

  The selection of the new and current High Auditor of Earth was something of a scandal. Julia was of the twelfth, which, while moderately high in the hierarchy, would have given her only outside consideration for the office. Julia didn’t mind being overlooked. The high auditorship was a stressful and thankless job. All she had to do was look at what happened to the position’s predecessor for assurance of that.

  Imagine everyone’s surprise when Miri, only sixteenth in the chain, somehow leapfrogged over everyone to become the High Auditor of Earth. It didn’t take long to deduce what had happened. It was a badly-kept secret that Auditor Miri was Director Jerome’s goddaughter, and was closely aligned with all the senior administrators. She would force Earth’s auditors to walk in lockstep with the rest of the agency in the outer colonies instead
of allowing them to be the independent and unbiased entities that they should be. To the abyss with the politics. To be honest, Julia was surprised it had taken Jerome so long to get Earth’s auditorship under his thumb. It was because of Levin. He had prevented it.

  Julia slung the pack of cans off her shoulder, listening to their dull thunk as they banged together, and opened the door to her residence. The first thing she did was undo her bands and put them on their charger. She flexed her fingers and stretched her arms, feeling how free they felt without the fourteen metal rings that almost never left her skin. Unlike most of the tier or the chain, she disliked wearing bands and took them off at every opportunity.

  She placed the bag on top of her kitchen counter and pulled the cans out one by one, stacking them in a neat row. She had the option of eating at the Earth Central cafeteria, but much preferred to make her own meals instead of consuming the machine-processed standards. Cooking was becoming a lost art now that food had become all about efficiency. Some of the poorer colonies had reduced their daily consumption entirely to protein gel packs. Others provided just the bare-minimum options, rotated quarterly. In almost all cases, very few civilized colonies cooked anymore.

  Julia looked at the books stacked neatly on shelves against the wall, a smile appearing on her face. She had broken the Time Laws only once, during a Tier-4 job in the late twentieth century. She had jumped into a public consumer facility that housed hundreds of small shops and had an hour to recover a long list of items before an electrical fire razed the place to ashes. That one time, she had stopped by a store that sold books and swiped three dozen on cooking.

  She had by now attempted a third of those recipes. Many of the rest were impossible to cook due to some of their ingredients being extinct in the present. When her time with the agency was completed, she was going to spend the rest of her years trying to complete all the recipes she could. Her eyes followed the long line of books lovingly until she reached the end of the shelf. Her gaze continued across the room, hesitating for just a brief moment. Keeping her body relaxed, she walked over to where her auditor bands were charging and reached for her exo.