The Ghost and the Machine

by L B Garrison

  Mandy placed her hand in Cisco’s and she held her breath. He tugged. She melted through the membrane and into the hall.

  “Come along, then. I’m starved,” Bailey said, and vanished.

  “Whoa.” Mandy took a step back, bumping her bottom against the membrane.

  Cisco chuckled, again. Such a warm sound. He tugged and led Mandy down the hall. “Bailey is expending a lot of energy right now. If she doesn’t have to physically be somewhere, she uses projections. She’s in the main room.”

  The passageway ended in a square room about a hundred feet across. Transparent cages of various sizes lined the walls. The pen Mandy had been in seemed to be one of the largest. In the middle was an office area surrounded by glass partitions. Next to it was a social area with overstuffed chairs, a couch and a low coffee table.

  Alex and Bailey sat on the couch going through multiple data displays that floated in the air around them. On the table in the middle were four different kinds of pizzas, salad, dressings, shakers of various cheeses and red pepper flakes.

  Bailey smiled with her mouth full and nodded from behind the floating data. A pile of left over pizza crust overflowed from her plate and onto the table.

  Alex looked up as they entered. “Sit down, Mandy. Bailey printed pizzas. They’re best when they’re hot.”

  The floor by the table rose and unfurled into white chairs with red cushions.

  Mandy touched one of the seats. It seemed solid enough and slightly warm.

  “If you would like something else, the printers can produce anything you can imagine,” Alex said.

  “Thanks. Pizza is actually my favorite.” Mandy dropped into one of the overstuffed chairs. She had no way of judging how long it had been since she had eaten. Eight hours for sure. Maybe longer. Cisco sat in the chair beside her and offered her an empty plate.

  The images around Bailey seemed to lack any coherent theme. Graphs showed the progress of something. Bright green lines orbited a cloudy world. Spider like machines spun metal threads to form a tower rising into the stormy night.

  The wonderful yeasty smell of the crust and the tang of tomato sauce filled the air, turning Mandy’s stomach. She touched the edge of the plate Cisco held for her. “Uh, Cisco. Maybe, I’ll just have something to drink. The tea again.”

  Cisco let the plate dip downward. “Sure.”

  A cup bloomed from the table and filled with warm lime tea. Mandy took the cup.

  “I’ll eat later,” she promised. Pepperoni and gooey cheese mocked her from the table. Weird plants, machine animals and floating holograms were one thing, but a world where she could have pizza, but didn’t want it? She must be dead. In purgatory. That could be the only explanation.

  Mandy sipped her tea and arranged condiments into a right triangle. Cisco filled his plate, watching her growing construction.

  Mandy nudged a Parmesan cheese shaker precisely into place. “I arrange things when I’m sad or upset . . . or happy.”

  He reached over and moved the shaker slightly up.

  Mandy moved it back.

  He reached out to move it again and she slapped his hand. “You periwinkle.”

  Alex and Bailey stopped talking and stared at her.

  Mandy’s cheeks warmed. “It’s not a bad word.”

  “We’re through now,” Cisco promised.

  Alex took a cherry tomato from her plate and popped it in her mouth. She chewed for a moment. “So are we. The communication satellites are gone.”

  “What?” Cisco said.

  “Swept from orbit,” Bailey confirmed. “We thought we might use them to call for help, but they aren’t there.”

  Alex swallowed and fixed Mandy with her eyes. “This is looking more and more like a proper invasion.”

  Mandy squirmed under Alex’s steady gaze and pushed her carefully arranged condiments aside. “I’ve never invaded anyone in my life.”

  Alex’s frown deepened. “You haven’t remembered anything else?”

  “Honestly, no. I guess it kind of looks bad me showing up at the same time and place as those things, but I’m not your enemy. I swear.”

  “I believe her,” Cisco, said, leaning towards Mandy. “I saw the determined way she helped Bailey, even when it put her in danger. We’re strangers to her and she did it anyway. That’s who she is.”

  Bailey rocked back and forth, as if nodding with her whole body. “It’s true. We would have had a bad turn, if not for Mandy.”

  Mandy’s cheeks warmed. She hadn’t expected anyone to stick up for her, but the power rested with Alex. Somehow, Mandy had to convince her.

  “Then what is the explanation for Mandy’s appearance?” Alex asked, almost to herself.

  Bailey cleared her throat. “I’ve got a theory. Mandy might be a mem-wraith.”

  “A what?” Mandy asked.

  Bailey closed the displays around her and sat back into the couch. Despite her appetite, she weighed so little, she sort of floated on the overstuffed cushions. “There is a black market for memories, first kiss and that sort of thing. Addicts can lose their way in another’s past. It may take some time for your memories to come round.”

  The implications of Bailey’s words punched Mandy in the gut. She sat her cup down. “Meaning what? Everything I remember is fake? A fantasy?”

  “This is reality, Mandy.” Alex’s tone had an edge. Impatience?

  “I don’t deny that.” Mandy touched her wrist where her tat should have been. Her pulse thump beneath her fingers. Being here didn’t invalidate her past. Did it? The warm embrace of Sage’s friendship. The stirring in her stomach when Landin brushed against her. The cold shocked when Daddy left. How could those be someone else’s feelings?

  She must have the color of a trauma victim. Cisco and Bailey stared at her like she was a half-drowned puppy. Alex’s expression was more like an accusation of insanity.

  Cisco reached out, but stopped short of touching Mandy’s arm. As if an invisible force field surrounded her or something. “It will be all right.”

  Mandy wound her hair around her fingers. Her stomach constricted, threatening to squeeze out the few sips of tea she had swallowed. “Of course it’ll be alright. You’ve just confused me. That’s all.”

  Bailey sat up and swished a few icons around. “The antenna is complete.”

  “Finally,” Alex said, taking a green case from her jacket pocket and opening it. Inside lay four necklaces, like dog tags with onyx pendants. She offered the case to Cisco. “Before we break up, I want each of you to take one.”

  Cisco took a necklace. At his touch, colors streamed across it. Bailey watched Cisco don the necklace, with her hand over her mouth.

  Alex held the case up to Bailey.

  Bailey took a necklace. Colors flowed as she quickly slid it over her head. “Are our circumstances so bleak?”

  “Not bleak. This is only a precaution.” Alex held the case out to Mandy. “You too.”

  Numbly, Mandy took a necklace. It was surprisingly heavy and remained dark in her cupped palm. “What is it?”

  Bailey stuffed the pendant down her front. “A Tamashii. The pendant records your brain twenty times a second. Most humans have something like this implanted at birth. Orions are a little more—suspicious.”

  Mandy touched her nose. Bright blood had speckled her hand. She had lived through that for sure. “Oh, brain scans and I don’t get along. At all.”

  Alex took the last necklace and closed the case with a snap. “Mandy, it’s simple. Your body can be put back together, but if you have a brain injury, it’s more complicated. This would let them remake your whole mind, if need be.”

  “Then it wouldn’t be me, would it?”

  Cisco nudged Mandy with his shoulder. Apparently, the force field didn’t work when he was joking. “The Tamashii is for rebuilding speech centers, memories and that kind of thing. When you get back home, you want to recognize your boyfriend, don’t you?”

  Mandy slipped the necklace
on. It was cold against her skin. Had Bailey told him about Landin or had she? So much had happened. “I’m doing this because of peer pressure, not because you’re manipulating me.”

  Alex put her necklace on. “Bailey, you have a mission critical task assigned. Cisco, go with her and render any aid you can. Mandy and I are going to have a talk.”

  That put a lump in Mandy’s throat.

  Bailey got up quietly, icons buzzing around her. “I’ll pop by your room later.”

  Cisco stood with Bailey. “We’ll both be there. This time, we’ll exchange stories. If you’re up to it.”

  Mandy smiled. “I’d like that.”

  Alex waited until the others left. She sat back, bringing the tips of her fingers together. Steepling was a gesture people use to convey power or the importance of a message. Usually, it was unconscious, but Alex might be employing it for intimidation.

  “You’ve made some allies,” Alex observed.

  Mandy shrugged. “I like them. I think we’re all good people here. How can I convince you of that?”

  Alex pushed her plate away. “You aren’t harmless. I’ve seen what you can do. Cisco and Bailey have never known a time when the various star nations of humanity weren’t united under the Grand Confederation. They’ve never known war. Most people today are engineered to be agreeable. Even crime is virtually unknown. All this makes people careless. I come from a time when humanity nearly destroyed itself, before sanity saved us from the brink.”

  Alex didn’t have a single wrinkle around her eyes and her ruddy complexion was silky-smooth. She couldn’t have been older than early-twenties. “I don’t get it. You’re about four years or so older than them.”

  “I fought in the Annexation War five hundred years ago.”

  “Five hundred years. How?” Mandy whispered.

  Alex held Mandy’s gaze with her own intense stare. “You don’t know, do you? People live as long as they have a purpose. Currently, mine is the safety of my students. Fortunately, the base is still under construction and I only have Cisco and Bailey to worry about. I will do whatever is required to protect them. Do you understand?”

  Mandy had already seen Alex in action a few times. The lieutenant was absolutely deadly. A chill washed through her. “Yeah. I understand.”

  “Bailey’s mem-wraith theory doesn’t explain the most troubling part of your appearance.”

  “How I got into the middle of the Wilds—the middle of the invasion. Alone.”

  “Exactly, and why there is no record of you.”

  “I don’t know how I got there, but I haven’t lied to you.”

  “I have many enhancements. If you lied, I would know, but if you didn’t know you were lying. If your memories had been altered . . .”

  “I’ll see your accusation and raise you a fact. If I was some kind of spy, I would have a convincing backstory, not one that invites suspicion. So, there.”

  Alex actually smiled. “Touché, Mandy. So now we are back at the beginning.”

  Mandy knit her fingers together, a subtler form of steepling. Hopefully, Alex would understand she was sincere. “I won’t cause you any trouble. I’ll go back to my cage without a fuss and obey your orders. But, I don’t buy the mem-wraith idea either and as soon as this is over, I’m going to find a way home.” She touched the spot where her tattoo wasn’t. “Or find the truth, at least.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  A

  tropos paused, sinking into the mire of mud and ash. Planets were such filthy things.

  This is where it happened. The prodigy had fallen here, but instead of a crater miles wide, there was only this scar in the wilderness and no body. She had expected a more satisfactory conclusion. Lightning, rendered ocher by the neon in the atmosphere, cut a jagged path through the turbulent clouds.

  Atropos expanded her consciousness to search among the Kinderen debris in orbit. Jazz-mir was there someplace, making a final sweep for active enemy ships. Atropos frowned. Had Jazz-mir found living Kinderen among the wreckage?

  “Are you ignoring me?” Trident asked.

  Trident was a single mind inhabiting three bodies shaped like nine-year-old girls. They stood in a cluster, as they often did, their black and emerald flight suits sparkling in the flashes of lightning. They had made slight modifications to their hair and taken on the individual names of Kolme, Eins and Jaiden to make interaction with others easier. Kolme knelt at the crater’s edge. “I was talking to you. Why wouldn’t Rin call for help? Or tell us she’s all right.”

  Trident wasn’t going to be silent, unless Atropos interacted with her.

  “I can’t fathom why she left the crash site. If we ever locate her, you should inquire as to her motives,” Atropos said.

  Shadows blurred, followed by a soft whoosh as air filled the vacuum where the triplets had stood. With a flash and a pop, they reappeared, surrounding Atropos. The girl in front had flakes of teal in her black hair, identifying her as Kolme. She fixed Atropos with her violet eyes and stood straight, making herself appear as large as possible for a machine with the frame of a child. The wind tossed her messy, dark curls. “When we find her, Atropos. When. We aren’t going to lose anymore friends today.”

  Atropos completed the near-orbit scan and found no sign of Jazz-mir. She reached further out. “What are you talking about?”

  “Razor and Hex are dead! We worked and lived with them for months and Razor was only my age. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

  Atropos paused her scan. Should it mean something? “No.”

  Kolme’s eyes widened. Another of the girls, Jaiden, stepped back. Trident’s third body, Eins, wrapped her arms around Jaiden in an odd self-assuring gesture, the way a human might wring their hands.

  Kolme crossed her arms. “You’re a cold toad, Atropos. You don’t care about anyone else, but we have to work together to find Rin and if I think you’re not doing your best—”

  Atropos pressed her fingers roughly against Kolme’s mouth, pushing her back and silencing her. Atropos smiled at the tremble in the girl’s plump lips. “Your fear is as blood in the water and the shark is upon you. There are three of you, but don’t suppose you can threaten me.”

  Kolme smacked Atropos’ hand away and stepped back.

  The sting in her hand made Atropos smile. The girls might make stimulating opponents after all.

  All the Tridents looked to the jungle where the air shimmered as random possibilities aligned. “I’m not as afraid of you as you think.”

  Reality shifted. Near the jungle’s border, Jazz-mir’s slim form appeared with a flash of deep purple.

  “Jazz!” The girls squealed.

  Kolme stayed by Atropos. The other two swarmed Jazz-mir, clinging to her waist. The statuesque woman with coffee-and-cream skin gathered them up in her arms and hugged them tightly.

  Kolme closed her eyes and took a deep breath, apparently reveling in the warmth she shared with the other two.

  Atropos swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. Just five years ago, Jazz-mir had held her like a loving mother. So much had changed. “I was concerned about you.”

  “Your concern is appreciated, but unnecessary.” Jazz-mir turned her golden eyes to the crater, her expression neutral.

  A giggle threatened to bubble from Atropos’ lips. She clenched her jaw. The others could never know she had neglected to intercept the Kinderen hyper-kinetic barrage that had downed Rin. A tingle ran down Atropos’ spine as quantum communication pathways opened. Reluctantly, she focused on the comm channel. “Incoming message.”

  An image of Admiral Pillado appeared among them. The immortal was physically thirty, but had added touches of gray to his dark hair. It was something humans of rank did to show they deserved respect. Atropos thought it foolish.

  He straightened the folds of his green and black Enforcer Corp uniform. “Report. What of the Mark II?”

  The children stood at attention, but still very close to Jazz-mir. Atropos had to look away.
/>   “Rin is not here,” Jazz-mir said, “The Kinderen fleet is neutralized, however nanomechs from the wreckage have begun to fall across Demeter.”

  Pillado’s gaze turned to the flaming purple debris raining from the sky. “Yes. Mother estimates they’ll devour this continent within twelve days and the planet soon after.”

  “If Rin is in human form, she will be difficult to find among the feral people of this world,” Atropos said, though she knew he wouldn’t be dissuaded from his search. A quick glance confirmed the statement annoyed Trident. That was all she had hoped to accomplish.

  The admiral’s image walked to the edge of the crater. “This first war with aliens is an opportunity. Whatever has happened to the Mark II, the Kinderen won’t be in a position to overcome it for a several days. In that time I intend to show the worth of the Mobius program to the Confederation.”

  “I have the best sensor package,” Atropos offered. “Send me to quest for Rin. The others can begin the offensive.”

  The Tridents stiffened.

  The Admiral put his hands together, steepling his fingers. “Agreed. I’ve also ordered the full host to rendezvous with you here in four days. Thirty-two Mark I Mobius ships will be more than sufficient. Mother is also in route. She should arrive the day before the fleet. Rin is our trump card, but if she can’t be recovered, the rest of you will be our backup. You understand, the Mark II cannot fall to the Kinderen.”

  Atropos attempted an expression of surprise and concern, but it proved too complexed. She decided on a concerned frown and nod. “Understood, sir.”

  The Admiral looked skyward. “I will see the Kinderen removed from Demeter. Jazz-mir, you and Trident will cooperate with the Orion military’s defensive operation. I’m transmitting the details.”

  Pillado vanished.

  Jazz-mir faced the swaying trees, where Kinderen watched. “When you find her, report directly to me.”

  Atropos brought her will to bear. A wave of jumbled possibilities rushed outward towards the forest, whipping virtual plasma from empty space as it went. The conflicting realities obliterated the scorched trees at the forest’s perimeter. The shockwave shredded matter a thousand feet into the woods. The survivors retreated. The forest burned.