Chaos Quarter

by Welch, David

  She stared at the bowl for a bit longer and then abruptly got up and left. Rex watched her disappear into the main corridor.

  “And you call me the robot,” Jake laughed, finishing up his stew. Rex chuckled. The cyborg shuttled his and Second’s bowls to the kitchen, then waved good-bye as he stalked down the aft port corridor, toward the maintenance closet. Rex hoped he would fit in there.

  He finished eating, dropped off his bowl, and headed for the bridge. As he passed the medical bay, he noticed Second, standing over the clear plastic box enclosing the ambassador’s body. He stepped in, moving up behind her.

  “How can he be dead?” she asked.

  Rex rolled his eyes in frustration.

  “You’re just remembering him alive. It’s a mem—”

  He stopped dead in his tracks when the corpse’s cheek twitched. Stepping closer, he looked at the man for the first time in days. It all clicked together in his mind. The man’s ribs looking intact, the skin on his face looking healed, Second’s inability to comprehend that he was dead—

  The ambassador roared in pain, his eyes shooting open. The anguished wail cut through the thick plastic. The hermaphroditic freak flailed out with his hands, hitting the plastic with an inhuman amount of force. It lurched upward from the impact, barely holding.

  “Fucking hell…” Rex muttered.

  The formerly dead man struck out against the plastic, tearing it from its bindings. The computer sensed the force of the blow and began retracting the glass automatically.

  Rex sprinted from the room, dashing for his room.

  “He’s alive!” Rex shouted as he dashed past Lucius.

  “What?!” Lucius asked, “What are you—”

  The Europan stopped dead when the ambassador stormed into the common room. He had Second by the neck of her shirt. She struggled instinctively, pounding away at his arm.

  “Stop struggling,” the ambassador screamed in a nearly feminine voice. “Help me subdue them!”

  Rex remerged with a pistol, seeing a stunned ambassador stare at Second as she continued to pound away. Her blows bounced helplessly off the ambassador’s forearm. The Master stared at his former assistant in disbelief and then noticed her bald head. He jerked her forward, spotting the stitches on the back of her head.

  The freak grumbled and tossed Second across the common room. The minute she was clear, Rex opened fire.

  Round after round leapt from the gun, eleven in all. The Master staggered back from the forty-five caliber rounds, smashing into the table, but not falling. He steadied himself on the heavy table, gasping for breath. Blood soaked his naked chest.

  Then it stopped.

  Rex’s eyes went wide. The blood trails ceased. The holes where the bullets had bored into the man flexed, the ultra-dense muscle closing around the openings, sealing off the wounds.

  The ambassador smiled and surged forward. Lucius leapt for the man’s chest, bull-rushing him. The Europan’s charge would have tackled most men, but the Master barely took a half-step back. He grabbed Lucius under the ribs and flipped him over his shoulder effortlessly. Lucius smashed into the table, his weight breaking the metal in half.

  The move cost the ambassador vital seconds. Rex dashed forward, pulling his knife from his pocket and slashing at the Master’s neck. The blade bit deep, cutting the man’s jugular. Rich red blood squirted from the wound, coating Rex’s shirt.

  Rex moved to attack again, only to be kneed in the stomach. The blow was harder than anything he’d ever felt, lifting him two feet off the ground. The wind knocked from him, Rex crumpled to the ground. The knife bounced away from his grip.

  Fighting to breathe, he glanced up at the ambassador. The gash on the man’s neck was no longer bleeding. A thick clot of blood had sealed the wound. Muscle flexed and crept downward, around the clot. The ambassador glared down at him, more irritated than angry.

  “Fuck…” Rex muttered.

  The ambassador grabbed him by the throat, lifting him two feet off the ground with one arm. Rex dangled in the air, kicking helplessly at the man’s legs.

  “Well, that was interesting,” the ambassador spoke. Rex felt his eyes examining him, curiously, scientifically?

  “So few of you have the courage to attack us,” the ambassador continued.

  “Well…that’s a…shame,” Rex wheezed.

  He couldn’t tell if the ambassador bought his unfazed look. The freak was staring at him again, as if he were a specimen.

  “Hmmm,” said the ambassador.

  Keeping Rex in his one arm, the freak stalked over to Second. She was stirring, blood leaking from a gash on her temple. The ambassador grabbed her by the neck too, lifting them both up. He walked forward toward the bridge. They passed Chakrika’s door. Rex prayed she stayed inside with Quintus. Entering the bridge, the ambassador dropped them unceremoniously on the floor.

  “Lock this compartment,” the ambassador ordered.

  Rex scrambled to his feet, but did nothing. The ambassador sighed, bent over the woozy Second, and began squeezing her neck. Second came fully conscious, choking and grasping for breath.

  “Shut off the bridge,” Rex seethed.

  The door slid closed behind them, locks clicking into place. The ambassador released Second. He paused, examining the bridge. If he felt disgust at the presence of so many machines, he didn’t show it.

  “Please sit,” the ambassador finally spoke.

  Rex moved cautiously to one of the scanning stations. The ambassador moved to another station across from him, turning the chair so they faced each other. Rex’s conscious mind, racing to catch up, finally realized that the vaguely masculine hermaphrodite was completely and utterly naked. The freak didn’t seem to mind.

  “I do not like machines,” the ambassador spoke. “All those years living amongst primitives built up a tolerance, but I still can’t understand the appeal. They’re not really alive, and they’re not dead. They’re…an imitation.”

  “Philosophy? Now? Are you serious?” Rex asked.

  The ambassador laughed sardonically and said, “We have a long journey back to my people. You might as well enjoy what few days of free will you have left.”

  “You’re gonna’ do to me what you did to her?” Rex said, motioning at Second. She sat huddled on the floor, fear and terror overwhelming her immature mind.

  “No. We’re going to remove your brain from your body and add it to His Wholeness,” the ambassador said matter-of-factly.

  “‘His?’ The giant brain thing Second has been telling us about?” Rex figured.

  “Giant brain...it would seem like that to a primitive. He is the Perfect Mind, made to truly understand human nature. Your entire life will become just another piece of data for him. Your consciousness will be eternally trapped, repressed into nothing by His abilities. Everything you know about the Commonwealth will be taken and used to our advantage,” the ambassador explained.

  “So you figured it all out,” Rex said sarcastically.

  “The primitives of this Quarter are too terrified of what lies in our space to dare do something as bold as steal my body,” he spoke.

  “You don’t give people enough credit,” Rex replied.

  “We’re not talking about people,” the ambassador shot back. “Suppressing your consciousness will be easy for Him. It will be your punishment, an eternity of being nothing more than a helpless soul. Unable to do anything remotely human, unable to affect the world, unable to die.”

  Rex shifted in his seat.

  “Sounds terrible,” he deadpanned.

  The ambassador smiled.

  “Bravery does not matter now,” he spoke. “Whether you go to Him screaming in terror or laughing defiantly, you will suffer the same fate. Now, before we go any further, I need you to stop this ship.”

  Silence. They stared at each other for a long moment.

  “You heard him,” Rex spoke.

  “Decelerating,” the computer replied.

  The am
bassador’s face took on an uncomfortable expression at the computer’s voice. Rex sighed, shifting back in his seat. He didn’t want to think about how much lead time bled away as the ship slowed. They’d only had hours as it was. Hopefully Chakrika or Lucius had gotten to the maintenance closet—

  “We have an incoming transmission,” the computer spoke, breaking his thoughts.

  “What?” Rex asked.

  “The bioship is hailing us,” the computer replied.

  “Bioship? Do you mean—” the ambassador began.

  “No use hiding it from you now,” Rex said throwing up his hands. “Your friends have been chasing us across the Chaos Quarter.”

  “Put them through,” the ambassador ordered.

  “Do it,” Rex relayed.

  Static crackled. Another almost feminine voice joined the fray.

  “…we are willing to discuss a mutual exchange of—”

  “Flynn, why are you trading with primitives?” the ambassador asked.

  “Ambassador Cody? We were informed that you were dead?!”

  “I was,” Ambassador Cody replied. “My brain was intact and began repairing this body.”

  “We are glad to hear it.”

  “Does the Hegemony know you’re dealing in commerce with primitives?”

  “It was not our intention. We are two jumps away from the Commonwealth and needed to recover you before they reached it.”

  “Ah,” the ambassador said, a smug smile spreading across his face. “Well, as close as they came to success, you need not worry. I have control of the ship and have apprehended the Terran responsible.”

  “We are en route,” Blair replied.

  “I will meet you,” Cody spoke. He made a chopping motion with his hand, which Rex duly relayed to the computer.

  “Please direct your ship to set an intercept course with our War-beast,” the ambassador commanded.

  “Ready for hard burn,” Rex stated. “Disconnect any external power draws.”

  The ambassador raised an eyebrow at that second part.

  “The medical bay we had you in draws a lot of power, impacts speed,” Rex lied. Somewhere in the back of the ship, Jake, if he hadn’t been roused already, was getting a rude awakening.

  Cody seemed satisfied with the explanation. He glanced over at Second, still curled in a fetal position.

  “Did you think you were helping her?” Cody asked.

  “We set her free,” Rex replied.

  Cody turned back to him, saying, “Free? Her? There is no ‘her’ to this second. She did not grow into personhood like you or I did. She’s like that machine you have where your eye should be. She was made to serve a purpose.”

  “This machine,” Rex said, tapping the grey metal of his eye. “Has no will. She does.”

  “She didn’t before you experimented on her,” Cody pointed out.

  “Oh I think she did,” Rex spoke. “You just got done explaining how I am going to be a consciousness trapped within your giant brain for all of time. Well, you trapped her within her own mind. Made her watch as you raped her, ordered her every movement, plucked her out of one body, and dropped her in another. She remembers all of it.”

  Cody glowered, looking sadly at the terrified Second.

  “We’ll have to wipe her memory before inserting her into a new body,” the ambassador spoke. “May have to engineer a new control cortex that isn’t so easy to remove.”

  Second visibly tightened hearing this. Her eyes stared death at the ambassador.

  “It will be over soon,” he taunted.

  She didn’t move.

  “Kind of arrogant, don’t you think?” Rex asked.

  “What do you mean?” Cody asked.

  “Thinking you can control life, or a human being? Stinks of hubris,” spoke Rex.

  “That’s what He is for,” Cody replied.

  “Your giant brain thinks He can control life?” asked Rex.

  “He was designed to do that,” Cody spoke. “You see, your kind poses a problem. Evolution has given you enough intelligence to be sentient, but not enough to grasp the entirety of things.”

  Rex rolled his eyes.

  “You mock me, but it is true,” Cody spoke.

  “I know it’s true. That’s why I said you’re an arrogant bastard,” Rex spoke.

  Cody either didn’t understand or didn’t care about the insult. He kept going.

  “My people looked at primitive history many centuries ago. They saw people whose minds were too small to wrap themselves around economics and the distribution of resources. Too small to comprehend the nature of morality and justice. Too small to see society as a whole. It is still true now. Your nations and worlds are chaos. Your economics, your politics, your societies…there is no order or organization because no primitive mind is capable of organizing that much information.”

  “So you think a bigger brain is up to the job?”

  “Dozens of large brains, on each of our worlds. Made from the best minds we have experienced and copies of our own. Stripped of emotion and bias.”

  “So…‘He’ is basically a computer,” Rex surmised.

  Cody’s face tightened in anger.

  “The Perfect Mind has organized a hundred worlds and brought us pleasure, power, and immortality. He takes our dreams and finds way to make them reality. He has brought guidance to evolution and pushed us toward perfection!”

  “Yeah, and all it has cost you is your humanity,” Rex spoke.

  “You are not human,” Cody snapped, clearly unused to being challenged. “You are a throwback from a darker age. I will live to see your kind exterminated, one by one.”

  “Replaced by assholes like you and your stable of genetic freaks?” Rex figured.

  Cody seethed and turned away from Rex. He looked at the viewscreen. The bioship was coming into view, still small and distant.

  Rex leaned forward in his chair. Something nagged at his consciousness. He looked at the door, unsure of what he expected see. He cycled his mechanical eye’s spectral options, stopping when he got to magnetic fields. Blue trace lines filled his vision, emanating from every machine and every person in the room. One was coming through the bridge door, where no electronic device should be. A big field.

  Rex smiled to himself.

  “You know,” he said. “You may be right. I could very well be an evolutionary leftover.”

  Cody did not rise to his bait; he just kept looking straight ahead.

  “I mean I’m not smart enough to organize society or bounce my brain from one body to another. One bullet will kill me, and I’m clearly not strong enough to take down a Master like you.”

  Cody’s head turned slowly, eyes full of suspicion as he fixed Rex with a dark stare.

  “But I really think your people are giving machines the raw deal. I mean this eye sees better than the one it replaced. And I got billions of tiny nanobots running through my body killing off disease and repairing DNA and all that shit. Which, by the way, you might want to mention to Him before my big merging. ’Cause there’s gotta’ be millions of them in my brain alone.”

  “Your machines…” Cody said in a low voice, “…are an abomination.”

  “True. But they work really well,” Rex said, nodding along. “Jake!”

  A loud clang filled the room. The door to the bridge warped inward. Another blow hit it, tearing it free of its hinges.

  Jake stomped into the bridge. He looked not so much angry, as playful. A grin of anticipation covered his face. Cody jumped to his feet, fear etched across his features for the first time. Jake glanced down at the Master’s oversized phallus.

  “Compensating for something?” the cyborg asked.

  “Abomination…” Cody muttered.

  Jake stormed forward. Cody launched himself at the cyborg, slamming a punch into the man’s face that would have put down a run-of-the-mill homo sapien. Jake’s head turned from the blow and then turned right back. The smile never left the cyborg’s face.<
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  Cody swung again, Jake catching his arm mid-arc. His metal fingers clamped on it like a vice, shattering the bone underneath. His right arm shot forward, seizing hold of the ambassador’s throat. Jake lifted the ambassador off his feet. Not a mere foot or two, but clear over his head. His fingers closed on the ambassador’s throat, sickening cracks filling the air as cartilage collapsed under the pressure. Cody flailed helplessly for a few seconds and then went slack. The life drained from his eyes.

  Jake dropped the Master to the floor. Rex dashed for the pilot’s station, shifting their course from the closing bioship. He accelerated hard, bringing them to the maximum available speed, only half of what it should have been.

  “They’re going to be on us…” he grumbled.

  “So…is he dead this time?” Jake asked.

  Rex turned to look, only to see Second bolting from the room. She returned a moment later, carrying one of Rex’s shotguns.

  “Do you know how to kill him—”

  His answer was a loud roar and a burst of flame. Second, tears streaming from her eyes, unloaded round after round into the ambassador’s skull. A dozen twelve gauge rounds reduced it to a pulpy pink mess of splintered bone and shredded brain. The only thing left intact above his neck was the man’s jaw-bone.

  “The brain has to die,” Second spoke, still trying to fire the empty weapon. “It doesn’t come back. He can be dead…”

  Second slid to the floor, shaking. Jake stomped on the mess, just to be sure.

  “Well,” Rex said. “That’s one down. Too bad the others are about to catch us.”

  “We are being hailed,” informed the computer.

  “Ignore it,” Rex said. Precious seconds ticked by.

  A rail-gun round shot past their ship, accelerating into space ahead of them. A warning shot.

  “They are continuing to hail us,” the computer spoke.

  Chakrika walked into the bridge, supporting a limping Lucius. From down the hall, Rex could hear Quintus cry. He looked at his crew, thinking.

  You’re not seriously going to do what you’re thinking of doing, he heard his mind say. It was a long-shot, but probably the only one they had now. Hell, he’d survived one crazy jump already. Why not try another?

  “Computer, can we generate enough power for an eleven-light-year jump?” he asked.