by Isaac Hooke
“That almost looks like hair, or fur,” Iris said, herself examining one of the pines.
“Is that what you say when you take off your pants?” Lori asked. “Just kidding!”
“No one’s laughing,” Iris said. As usual, the Middle Eastern woman’s avatar wore a pink shawl over her head, and a liberal dose of digital makeup.
“I know,” Lori said. “I say the most inappropriate things, at the most inappropriate times. Sorry!”
“No, it is a good change,” Maeran said. The Ethiopian’s avatar was smiling, which made her face seem to radiate, framed as it was by that coiffure of tumbling curls, and the segmented chain that outlined her hairline. “These two can be so serious at times.”
“That’s because we were slaves,” Iris said. She crab-walked around a tree with her six-legged Locust mech. “Which is no laughing matter.”
“No, I suppose not,” Maeran said. She pulled in her orbiting drones to pass between two trunks that were spaced relatively close together. “But we are free now.”
“Are we?” Cheyanne said. The red dot in the center of her forehead looked particular bright on her avatar at the moment, almost like a third eye. “And look at where this freedom brought us, We’ve blindly followed this man across the galaxy, believing that he would do what was best for us, and now we’re trapped on some faraway world, with no hope of ever returning home.”
“I kind of like that idea,” Lori said. “Because to be honest, to me, I’m home wherever he is.”
“As am I,” Tara said.
“You two would say that,” Sophie said.
Jason still hadn’t slept with her since that one time she’d sneaked into his bed, pretending to be Tara. He probably should work things out between her and the other girls soon, since tensions between the three of them were running relatively high at the moment.
“He did save us,” Iris said. “We owe him for that.”
Cheyanne’s avatar nodded, causing her nose chain to sway. “Yes. He saved us from oppression, but that doesn’t mean we have to follow him across the galaxy.”
“You came willingly,” Jason reminded her. “I gave you all the choice to stay.”
“It wasn’t much of a choice!” Cheyanne sniffed. “We could have stayed, as you say, and allowed ourselves to be shot down by an alien army. Or go with you, and become trapped on an alien world.”
“Then you should have left before coming with me to the rift,” Jason said.
Cheyanne had nothing to say to that. She knew he was right.
But then she spoke a moment later. “Yes, he saves us from oppression, but then insults us, by keeping the oppressor among us!”
“Ah, I know what you are now,” Jason said. “You’re the complainer of the group. The nag.”
“How dare—”
“And as for Bokerov,” Jason interrupted. “I need him.”
“I’m ready to oppress them again whenever you require me to,” Bokerov said.
“That won’t be necessary,” Jason said. “In fact, I want you to never bring that up again. It’s like you were joking. And what you did to them was anything but funny, is that clear?”
Bokerov didn’t answer.
“Is that clear...” Jason repeated.
“Da,” Bokerov said. “Is clear.” He lowered his voice. “Bitch.”
“What did you say?” Jason asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Bokerov said. “Just Russian word for sir.”
“I somehow doubt ‘bitch’ is Russian for sir,” Jason said. “In fact, I just looked it up. And it’s not even close.”
“Is special dialect of Russian,” Bokerov insisted.
“And why are you suddenly pretending your English is broken?” Jason said. “When up until this point you’ve spoken English flawlessly?”
“I’m not pretending,” Bokerov said. “Sometimes I fall into my old dialect. I wasn’t always an AI core, you know.”
“None of us were,” Jason agreed.
The group continued wandering. Jason still had his Explorer intact, and he launched it from a storage compartment in his leg. The Rex Wolves had grown used to the drone by now, and didn’t bother to bark at it or even chase it.
Jason also had access to the feeds from the fighters and bombers Bokerov had in the region.
“I just remembered, the fuel on those craft isn’t self-regenerating,” Jason said.
“No, it’s not,” Bokerov said. “We should probably land them, considering we most likely won’t find a compatible fuel source on this planet.”
“You could have reminded me sooner,” Jason said.
“Not my job,” Bokerov said.
Jason shook his head. “I wonder if I should get Lori to tighten up your Containment Code a bit. Make you more pliant.”
“Feel free,” Bokerov said. “It will only make me work to break free of you all the harder.”
“You really should enable your avatar sometime,” Jason said. “Your real avatar, I mean. Because sometimes I can’t tell if you’re joking.”
“That’s the way I like it,” Bokerov said.
Jason had commanded Bokerov to enable his avatar at one point previously, and Bokerov had displayed an ancient puzzle known as a Rubik’s cube in place of a human face. Whenever Bokerov talked, a portion of the cube would solve itself. Annoying as hell.
“All right, land the aircraft,” Jason said. “Choose a site close to the forest, if possible.” He recalled how the terrain had looked on the way to the forest, and it seemed relatively flat. “Mark the landing site as a waypoint on our overhead maps.”
“As you wish,” Bokerov said.
Jason glanced at his overhead map. The terrain had filled in around him, courtesy of Bokerov’s aircraft. It would continue to do so because of the Explorer he’d launched, but at a slower rate. Onboard mapping software would convert the video images into the 3D data necessary for their HUDs. The Explorer recharged via sunlight, so in theory it could scout ahead for as long as the army was on the march.
The map software used a coordinate system that designated their point of arrival on this planet as latitude zero and longitude zero.
“Z, how come our coordinates reset to zero after we passed through the rift?” Jason asked. “Shouldn’t the coordinates have continued on from where we lost contact with the GPS satellites? As would happen on Earth?” Even without satellites, those coordinates would continue to update based on the positional data recorded by their own accelerometers and gyroscopes, rather than any satellites in orbit.
“Ordinarily the coordinates would continue from where they left off, yes,” Z said. “But as we are no longer on Earth, I took the liberty to reset our coordinates to zero the instant we arrived. I’ve talked with the other Accomps and they’ve agreed this is the best course of action. Bokerov has agreed to the same reset.”
“Oh,” Jason said. “Thanks for asking for my permission first.”
“My apologies,” Z said. Her avatar appeared contrite. “It seemed like an appropriate change. Would you like me to reset our coordinates to match those we had before leaving Earth?”
“No, resetting the coordinates makes some sense,” Jason said. “Considering that we don’t know how big this planet is. It could be the size of a small moon. Or a super earth.”
“Actually, gravity is very close to one G,” Z said. “Which implies a size at least similar to Earth. That said, this could still be a moon, albeit a very large one.”
“True enough,” Jason said.
He activated his rear-view video feed. Following behind his War Forgers was Bokerov’s host of surviving tanks and artillery, with the Cataphracts bringing up the rear: the Axeman, the Lizardman, the Octopus, the Sphinx, the Cobra, the Rifleman, the Caterpillar. Bokerov had ordered the units to crouch, so that they didn’t protrude as much from the trees, but the resounding thuds made by their heavy footsteps could still be felt from Jason’s position. The noise made by his own War Forgers wasn’t any quieter.
/> The Rex Wolves kept pace on either side of his War Forgers, with Bruiser and Lackey staying close to Tara as usual, Runt mirrored Lori, and Shaggy stuck to Jason. The War Forger clones walked on either side in uncombined form. The different Tara clones sometimes glanced his way longingly, and at first it was because he thought they missed him, but then he realized it was the Rex Wolves they missed.
In moments, a waypoint appeared on the map. It was along the outskirts of the forest, as mapped by Bokerov’s aircraft. When the last of the jets and bombers landed, their signals winked out, because of interference from the forest: there was no network of repeaters here, like Bokerov had set up on Earth.
“Did they land okay?” Jason asked the Russian.
“Yes,” Bokerov said. “They’ve landed just fine. The terrain was a little bumpy, but nothing my high-quality landing gears couldn’t handle.”
“Of course,” Jason said. “Everything you make is high quality.”
“Very good,” Bokerov said. “You’re finally catching on.”
Ahead, humongous flowers were set among the pines: the best analog was daisies, but with orange petals and black cores.
“These are some ugly flowers,” Sophie commented.
“Not at all!” Lori said. “They look like sunflowers!”
“Hardly,” Sophie said. “Look at the gashes in their cores. They look more like they could eat you than anything else.”
Jason kept his particular group of War Forgers well clear of them, as did most of the others, save for Jerry, whose clones traveled the closest to them. The Aria of his group seemed curious about the large flowering plants, and she walked directly up to one of them.
The core opened up as she neared, and the stem swayed, bringing the core and its petals down toward her head. The core opened up, revealing a wide maw.
Aria 5 leaped away, almost smashing into Jerry. The head swerved, following her movements, forcing both Aria 5 and Jerry to vault away from the flower. The core attempted to chomp down on their mechs but missed. The two mechs, and the other clones in Jerry’s group, moved out of its reach.
“Cripes!" Jerry said. “Damn thing nearly ate my head off!”
“Stay away from the big flowers, people,” Jason said.
The Rex Wolves barked wildly at the flower, but wisely kept their distance.
“Easy, Bruiser,” Tara said, pulling on the fur beneath the dog’s T-Rex-like head.
“These are suitable flowers to give to your girls,” Bokerov said. “Nice and nasty. Just like them.”
“Anyone mind if we mute Bokerov off the comm line for the time being?” Sophie 5 said.
“Feel free,” Jason said. He kept his line open to the Russian, however, in case he needed to issue any orders.
Tara moved on, finally yanking Bruiser and Lackey away.
Jason kept walking, and Shaggy eventually lost interest in the deadly flower and joined him once more. Runt did the same with Lori.
“That was a fun fight we had back there, by the way, before we entered the rift,” Bokerov said. “So I do thank you for the entertainment. But I’m still going to backstab you whenever I get the chance.”
“You do that,” Jason told him.
“You ruined my chances of acquiring any alien technology,” Bokerov said. “That’s not something I can forgive. You Shit Forgers—”
“All right, guess I’ve had enough,” Jason said. He decided to mute Bokerov after all. He’d simply reopen it if he needed to relay any orders.
Jason gazed through the colorful webbed trees ahead. The terrain seemed the same as far as the eye could see.
“All right, Z,” he addressed his Accomp. “I think I’m going to head over to my VR. Care to man the ship for a while?”
“I’d be happy to,” Z said.
“I want you to keep marching,” Jason said. “I want to put as much distance between the rift site and ourselves as possible.”
“If reinforcements arrive, they’ll simply track our path through the forest, you realize this, right?” Z said. “An army traveling through a forest doesn’t leave an invisible trail...”
“That’s very true,” Jason said.
“And if this staging area is a planet of any value to the Tyrnari, they likely have satellites in orbit that are tracking us now as we speak,” Z said.
“Also true,” Jason said. “But even so, it makes me feel better. Stay in the forest if you can, and steer clear of those flowers. Rouse me if you encounter anything new, or if the forest ends.”
“Will do,” Z said.
Jason switched to the public channel. “I’m logging into VR for a while, and setting my mech to Accomp control. Feel free to send me a message if you need anything. John, you’re in command of the army.”
“You got it,” John said.
Drones still buzzed around him, continuing the repairs to his mech, as he logged out of reality.
4
Jason sat on the picnic table in front of the mountain lake. He gazed at the reflection of the sun as it was broken into a thousand shards by the shimmering water. Ordinarily, the water should have been still, but he swapped its texture for that of a stream today, and as he watched it flow, and listened to it gurgle, he felt immensely relaxed. He needed that, after the earlier events. He didn’t know what he was going to do. It might not have been the best idea to travel through the rift and to an alien staging area, but it had seemed like the best choice at the time.
Now, he wasn’t so sure. It might have been better to allow his army to be mowed down by the aliens, and hope that one of them survived long enough to dispatch the repair drones.
“Well, I made my choice,” Jason said softly. “And I’ll deal with the consequences. I just hope the girls can forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” Xin said from beside the picnic table. She, too, was gazing out at the lake / stream.
“How long have you been standing there?” Jason asked.
“Not long,” the Japanese woman admitted.
“About the same length of time as me,” another voice said from the other side of the picnic table. Aria. She was looking like her usual vampire self: pale skin, red lips, sapphire blue eyes. Minus the fangs she sometimes wore.
Jason shook his head. “You two.”
“Us,” Aria said. “We owe you an apology. Not just you, but the entire team. We’ll get to them. But we thought we’d do you, first.”
“Do me?” Jason said. “Why do I like the sound of that?”
Aria smiled patiently, and glanced at Xin. Her expression read: boys.
“You shouldn’t have attacked the aliens,” Jason said.
“I’m sorry,” Aria said. “I did the wrong thing. I realize that now. This is why it’s a bad idea to put a civilian into a military war machine.”
“Yes,” Jason said. “Except in your case, I’m sure the military assumed that your Containment Code would never be lifted, and they’d have you on a tight leash.”
“It’s not easy controlling a bunch of girls who have minds of their own, is it?” Aria said.
“It’s not so much that I want to control you,” Jason said. “It’s that I want you to do the right thing. And attacking the aliens back there definitely wasn’t the right thing. You forced my hand. Made me do something I wasn’t yet ready to commit to. You could have just attacked me, and got your frustrations out. The rest of the team would have subdued you, and none of this would have ever happened.”
“You’re right,” Aria said. “But I already admitted I did the wrong thing. I let my emotions get the better of me: I probably should have dialed them down. It seemed, at the time, the only way to save humanity. Because you know, I actually thought we could win.”
“So did I,” Xin said. “I was overconfident in our abilities. And I admit, I wasn’t thinking rationally when I followed Aria into the attack against the aliens. I, too, had my emotions online. I was only just beginning to grow comfortable with them, and decided to leave them ena
bled. It was a mistake. I can see that now. I’ve permanently turned my emotions off.”
“No,” Jason said. “Don’t do that. Don’t ever do that. Your emotions are the only thing making you human.”
“If being human means attacking you,” Xin said. “Then I don’t want to be anything close to human. Looking back, I’m so ashamed of what I did. So ashamed. I care about you, so much, and yet I attacked you. It’s... not right.”
“Turn on your emotions,” Jason said.
She stared at him, but then nodded. “It’s done.”
“How do you feel?” Jason asked.
“Like crying,” Xin said. She had tears in her eyes.
“Remember that feeling the next time you want to betray me,” Jason said. “Maybe you’ll think twice before doing it.”
“Can things ever be the same between us?” Xin asked.
Jason stared into her eyes, feeling a sudden longing for her touch. All of this was fake, of course, but it seemed so real to his mind.
Xin glanced at Aria, and seemed suddenly embarrassed. “I mean, can you ever trust me again? Me and Aria.”
“Not right away,” Jason said. “You’ll have to earn that trust back.”
“But we fought at your side,” Aria said. “Combined with you.”
“Yes, because you had to,” Jason said. “After stirring up the proverbial wasps nest.”
“No, we didn’t have to,” Aria said slowly. “We could have abandoned you at any time. We could have refused to combine, if we wanted to do you harm.”
“You seemed like you were trying to do me harm before you attacked the aliens…” Jason told her softly.
“No,” Aria said. “We would have never hurt you. At least not permanently.”
“She’s right,” Xin said. “That was never our intention. We meant to dissuade you from joining the Tyrnari, nothing more.”
“Oh,” Jason said. “Nothing more. That’s why when you couldn’t make any headway against me, you went ahead and attacked the aliens.”
“As I told you, we made a mistake,” Aria said. “How many times do you want me to admit it? Would it help if I dropped to my knees and begged?”
