by Isaac Hooke
“Why, it’s not like your equipment is going to fail,” Lori said.
Jason nodded. “True. But I mean psychologically. I’ll start getting your names mixed up in bed. And that’ll earn me a few slaps.”
“More than a slap, I’m sure,” Lori said. “Well, okay fine, I guess we’ll keep the rotation thing for now. But I’m not sure it’s going to work long-term.”
“I’m not sure any of this is going to work long-term,” Jason said. “I’ve been taking it one day at a time.”
“That’s somehow not very reassuring,” Lori said. She sat up. “I’m going to go now. Oh, by the way, I hear the dojo is ready. You might want to visit Aria and Xin.”
With that, she vanished.
Well, he figured he might as well check it out while he waited to reach the rift.
He teleported to the forest clearing that Aria and Xin had been using. Sure enough, a Japanese-style building resided before him. Essentially a pagoda, it had two tiers of curving tile roofs nestled one atop the other, with the topmost slightly smaller than the lower roof. The walls were made of wooden panels.
Xin was standing next to the entrance. She was wearing a kimono with a colorful sash.
She bowed wordlessly when she saw him, and held out an arm, gesturing toward the entrance.
“Impressive,” Jason said.
She maintained her bow, waiting for him to enter.
Jason walked inside.
Within, he found a small arena of sorts. A large sparring mat lay in the center of the hardwood floor.
Aria was waiting on the opposite side of the mat. She looked all vampire today with that pale face and red lips. She even had the fangs. She was dressed in a white karate outfit. Her belt was brown.
“Brown, isn’t that the second most proficient, after black?” Jason asked her.
Aria merely held her arms out in front of her, and clasped her hands, then bowed.
She wants to fight, does she?
Jason approached the mat. “Neither of you are going to say a word to me?”
Aria continued her bow, as if waiting.
Jason transformed his clothing to match her white robes. The belt he wore was also white. “Go easy on me. I know nothing about karate.”
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He had some Training AIs that could teach him everything he needed to know.
He pulled up his HUD, and activated Z in hidden mode.
“Hey Z,” Jason thought. “I need you to take over my VR avatar. Looks like I’m going to have a sparring match with Aria, and I don’t want to embarrass myself too badly.”
“You want to cheat?” Z said. Her avatar appeared on his HUD, visible to his eyes only. She waved an admonishing finger. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
“It’s not cheating,” Jason thought. “It’s leveling the playing field.”
“I don’t think I can help you with this,” Z said. “Sorry.”
“What?” Jason thought. “You’re my Accomp! You have to do what I say.”
“I like these girls too much,” Z said. “I’m afraid you’re on your own.”
With that, her avatar vanished from his HUD.
Shit.
“Whining about it won’t change anything,” Z’s disembodied voice said in his head.
He shut Z down entirely.
Aria was still bowing, hands crunched in front of her; Jason mimicked the gesture, and then she assumed a defensive pose.
“This is stupid,” Jason said. He walked up to her. “Go ahead, beat me up. I can’t do anything.”
“At least try to defend yourself,” Aria said.
“She speaks!” Jason said.
Aria’s fist came flying in. Jason dodged to the side, but was too slow; the fist pounded him in the jaw.
Next thing he knew, he was on the mat. He scrambled to his feet, rubbing his jaw.
Aria came in again.
This time she swept her foot along the floor, tripping him, and he was lying on the map once more.
Over the next minute, she constantly knocked him down. Sometimes with her feet, sometimes her hands. He pulled up his Training AI in the background, and ran through some techniques in another VR partition in Bullet Time. That helped a little, but not much.
Finally Aria stepped back; Jason lay panting on the ground, while Aria hadn’t even worked up a sweat.
“All right, are you done making me your punching bag yet?” Jason said.
“That felt really good.” Aria smiled. “Xin? Your turn.”
Xin entered, and when he saw the hungry look on her face, he slumped. Her kimono had transformed into a karate outfit.
“Ah, shit,” Jason said.
He did a little better, thanks to the moves he was absorbing in the other VR partition, but in the end she still kicked his ass. It was obvious by then that both of the girls had dialed up their strength settings, because he should have been able to catch some of those blows. He didn’t amp up his own settings in return—he figured he’d give them this one chance to kick his ass. Because the next time he came down here, he’d be wearing a black belt, he swore.
So once more he found himself lying panting on the mat, with Xin hovering above him, untouched, and breathing normally. She offered him a hand. Jason took it, and she helps him to his feet.
“Thank you for that,” Xin said. She glanced at Aria. “This was a great idea.”
“Did you guys really build this by hand?” Jason said, examining the space around him.
“Mostly,” Aria said. “We did resort to some digital touch-ups, to make it perfect.”
“All right, so I guess you’ve finally forgiven me for my earlier gaffe about you guys showing me loyalty?” Jason said.
Xin nodded.
“Seems like you spent a lot of work to build something that you’ll only ever use once,” Jason said.
“Oh don’t worry, we’ll bring you back here when you make your next mistake,” Xin said.
“Great, I get to look forward to an ass kicking each time, huh?” Jason said. “I have to warn you, next time I won’t be so easy. I’ll be trained up, and ready.”
“We look forward to it,” Xin said.
Aria stood beside Xin, and licked her lips as she looked down at him. “Why does he seem so cute when he’s lying there defenseless like that.”
Aria opened up the black belt at her waist, and then opened up her robe and untied her pants, letting both fall to the ground. She was completely naked.
Xin did the same beside her.
“Oh, crap,” Jason said.
“Make up sex?” Aria asked.
He teleported them to a private VR partition, duplicating the dojo. Then he had sex with the two of them right there on the mat. He even kept his anatomy the same this time, trying out different positions he’d thought of. They worked like a charm.
He lay back between them when it was done. He was going to be very careful with what he said.
“Thank you,” Aria said.
“You’re welcome,” Jason said.
“Oh, not for the sex,” Aria said. “But for being who you are.”
“That’s a compliment, I guess,” Jason said.
“Yes,” Aria said. “We could have been trapped here with any other man. Instead, we got you. I used to pine for my husband. I’ve completely forgotten him, thanks to you.” Her gaze became distant, pained.
“You haven’t forgotten the children, though,” Jason said.
“No,” Aria said.
Xin rubbed her arm. “We’re here for you.”
“I know,” Aria said. She smiled at Xin. “You’ve helped me forget my old life, too. Honestly, I can’t imagine going back.”
There was still a slight sadness to her voice, and Jason knew her words weren’t entirely true.
He decided to try changing the subject. Jason rubbed his neck, and when he removed his hand, he saw blood on his fingers. “Why did you have to draw my blood during sex?”
“I dunno, I thought you’
d like it,” Aria said. She still had her vampire fangs grown out.
“It certainly turned me on watching you do that,” Xin said.
“You would get turned on from that,” Jason said.
She shrugged.
“So we’re almost home,” Aria said.
“Don’t jinx it,” Jason said.
“Oh, we’ll make it, I’m sure,” Aria said. “Believe it or not, I’ll kind of miss this place. Earth, and humanity… well, they don’t really mean as much to me anymore. Because truthfully, we take our real homes with us, up here.” She tapped her head. Then she gestured to the dojo. “This is our true home, now. And it doesn’t even matter where our robot bodies are physically. At least not to me.”
“I’d have to agree with that,” Xin told him. “If you decided to stay here, on this world, I wouldn’t actually mind. We could explore the planet, document the different bioweapons, and enjoy our lives inside VR in between doing that.”
“She’s right,” Aria said. “Think about it, we’d be safe. Under the protection of a queen who rules the entire planet. We wouldn’t have to worry about humanity one day trying to capture or destroy us.”
“Assuming she took us in,” Jason said. “And doesn’t betray us. And also assuming that she survives whatever attack this Prince Amadan makes. And the eventually assault from the empire.”
“We could help her in the defense of the planet,” Xin said. “Further securing our position high in her favor.”
“Or we could simply take the planet for ourselves,” Aria said. “Depose her, and make you king.”
Jason glanced between the two of them in disbelief, and then he sat back, chuckling.
“Why do I get the sense that you two planned all of this?” Jason said. “As part of some attempt to convince me to stay?”
Xin snuggled against his left side, while Aria did the same on his right. They both traced finger patterns across his chest.
“Maybe we did,” Aria said. “But you can’t say you didn’t like our attempts to convince you.”
“You’re right at that,” Jason said. “But we are going back. We’ll be safe on Earth. That’s where we belong. We’ll work out a treaty with the humans, somehow. I know we will.”
“All right,” Aria said. “Whatever you say, Boss.”
Jason looked at her. “I like it when you call me Boss.”
Aria grinned seductively. “You also like it when I do this.”
He definitely liked what she did next. And he took the two of them all over again.
18
Jason advanced near the head of his army.
Shaggy walked close to his side, limping slightly. The animal had injured one leg, and Jason had formed a splint out of two spare rods and a canopy one of the tanks had carried. Runt had a similar splint, while Bruiser and Lackey only suffered superficial cuts and scrapes from the battle. They were in relatively good spirits—in addition to the life-giving sunlight that constantly shone down from the sky, Jason and the others had fed them some of the spare meat from their storage compartments. It was a reward for fighting so well.
They were still in that sprawling forest whose trees reached well above their mechs, including the Cataphracts; he had yet to reach the region containing the smaller pine trees, closer to the rift. According to his overhead map, he still had quite a distance to go before the trees transitioned. His Explorer traveled near the forefront of the group, and acted as a scout, keeping that map updated. The Modlenth were not with them: they had stayed behind to protect the city from the coming attack that was expected when the prince returned.
There were still a few units undergoing repairs among Jason’s army. Dismantled tanks were dragged along at the rear of the army for spare parts.
As he marched, Jason received a call request from Bokerov on a private line and accepted.
“Hey, Shit Eater,” Bokerov said.
“Don’t call me that,” Jason said.
“Come to my VR,” Bokerov said.
“Why?” Jason said.
“You want to see what I look like, don’t you?” Bokerov said.
“Not particularly,” Jason said.
“Just come,” Bokerov said. “You’ll want to see this.”
“You’re up to something…” Jason said.
“Nyet,” Bokerov said. “I am a good boy, as you Americans like to say.”
Jason muted Bokerov, and looped in Lori.
“Hey, Babe!” Lori said. “What is it?”
“Bokerov wants me to enter his VR,” Jason said.
“Why?” Lori said.
“He doesn’t want to say.”
“I’d avoid it,” Lori said. “It’s possible he figured out how I cracked his VR code, and he wants to do the same to you.”
“That’s what I thought,” Jason said. He unmuted Bokerov, and muted Lori in turn. “Sorry, Bokerov. I’m staying where I am.”
“That’s all right, I got everything I needed from you,” Bokerov said, and immediately closed the line.
He unmuted Lori. “What the hell is he up to? Did you detect anything usual in the data packets he sent my way, or vice versa from my end?”
“No,” Lori said. “Everything seems fine. Maybe he’s just trolling you?”
“That’s a possibility,” Jason said. “I want you to keep an eye on him. Watch out for any strange transmissions. And if you can, grab his activity log from the past twenty-four hours.”
“The former is easy, the latter, not so much,” Lori said. “I left a bunch of my own backdoors in his code after I escalated my privileges, but he’s closed them all up. So it’s going to take some time.”
“Can’t you force him to re-open them?” Jason said. “We have Containment Code control over his mind, after all.”
“It’s not as easy as that,” Lori said. “Things like software patches aren’t covered by Containment Code. We can order him to rollback those changes, but he can veto the request if he wants. And I can’t force him to send me his activity logs, because he doesn’t have any. He claims he turned off logging. I’ve already ordered him to turn it back on. But some sort of activity log should still be stored in a backup subsystem, one that his consciousness mind wouldn’t have access to. Which is why I say it’s going to take me some time to get those logs.”
“Do what you can,” Jason told her. “And take whatever precautions you can. I don’t want you exposing your own code to him. Last thing we need is him taking over your AI core in a fight.”
“Don’t worry about me,” Lori said. “I can hack my way out of any sandbox. For the most part.”
She disconnected.
Jason continued the march. He was considering going back to his VR, if only for a break from the monotony, when his Explorer sent an alert.
He glanced at the overhead map, and saw that five red dots had appeared, moving above the treetops.
“Tangos sighted!” Jason said.
As he watched, more dots appeared as the Explorer detected others, so that in moments there were forty-three of them.
Jason zoomed in on the objects using the Explorer’s camera. He spotted white, elliptical shaped aircraft.
“We’ve got alien flyers,” Jason said.
“Imperial?” Sophie asked.
“That’s my guess,” Jason said.
“That was fast,” Tara commented. “The queen was right about the Imperials wanting payback.”
“Or maybe it’s just power they thirst for,” Iris said. “They want to attack now while Risilan’s army is still weak.”
Jason recalled his drone and had it fly just below the tree line. “Just our luck that their rift happens to materialize in our path.”
“Maybe it’s not luck,” Tara said. “Maybe Risilan knew they’d return this way, via the original rift site.”
“She told me it was random,” Jason said.
“But that’s exactly my point,” Tara said. “It might not be. Maybe she hopes that by sending us this way, we’ll
buy her some time.”
“She wouldn’t sacrifice us like this!” Lori said.
“Oh?” Tara said. “How can you be so sure? None of us really know this queen very well. She could be the meanest bitch in the galaxy for all we know.”
“Wait, have the aliens seen us?” Jerry asked.
“Don’t think so,” Jason replied. “Which is why we’re changing directions immediately. Heading south, perpendicular to the direction of those scouts. Bokerov, turn your Cataphracts and tanks to the south. Same with the tanks under your command, Aria. The rest of you, with me.”
Jason turned to the south, but before he had walked three paces, the Rex Wolves abruptly darted west into the trees.
“No!” Jason said. “Tara, catch the dogs!”
“Bruiser!” Tara shouted. She teleported ahead, grabbing onto the scruff of Bruiser’s neck, but it was too late to catch Runt, Shaggy, and Lackey: they vanished into the undergrowth.
“Damn it,” Jason said.
He spun west. “Originals, with me! Clones, stay here with Bokerov.”
Jason darted forward, and he’d gone maybe ten meters when the Rex Wolves returned. They dove through the undergrowth, appearing beside Tara, who still had Bruiser.
Jason heard a crunching sound behind them.
And then towering, four-legged beasts burst through the undergrowth. They vaguely resembled huge rhinoceroses because of their thick, folded skin, except their heads were small nubs containing a single big eye, and they lacked horns of any kind. They carried weapon turrets slung over their backs so that they were like armed gunships.
“Looks like the Imperials have been augmenting their army since they left!” Aria said.
“Rhinoeyes!” Lori said.
“You and your wacky names,” Maeran said.
Since Tara was the closest, she immediately attacked. She stepped to the side and swung her sword down, cutting off the small nub the lead Rhinoeye used for a head. The eye, along with that head, dropped to the ground. Blood squirted from the injury, but the animal blindly ran on.
Tara leaped behind the thick trunk of a tree as the weapon turrets of other Rhinoeyes opened fire on her.
As the other creatures raced past her, they too opened fire, this time targeting the other War Forgers. Different Arias swung their ballistic shields into place. The Sophies activated their localized energy fields. Maeran launched her three drones and formed a shield in front of herself.
