by L B Garrison
A smile flickered across Alex’s lips. That was sort of a win.
“Stop it,” Cisco complained. “I can’t sleep.”
“Be quiet, you,” Mandy said. When did she become so familiar with Cisco?
“Sleep,” Alex insisted. “You’re less threatening that way.”
“Fine.” Mandy curled up with her shoulder against the door and her head on the cool window. The road moved uphill. The lavender trees that Bailey had called Thorn-Marys became prominent. Far above, clouds churned and overlapped, forming waves with feathery, gray-shaded edges. The trees near the forest edge blurred and the tires buzzed on the wet road. She closed her eyes, just for a moment. The T30 rocked gently. Thoughts of home blended together and swirled into darkness.
Mandy stood on a desolate city street in the twilight. A chill wind stirred fires in a shattered church. The stench of charred flesh hung in the air. Flakes of ash fell from a soot-darkened sky, slowly covering the seared corpses scattered about the sidewalk.
Her breathing was rapid and shallow. Even that was too loud. She knelt beside two entangled bodies. The larger one had tried to shield the smaller. Both had burned. She reached out to touch the child, but hesitated. Something glistened in the flickering light. There was blood on Mandy’s hands.
She woke with a gasp, Cisco’s hand on her knee. He withdrew as soon as she noticed.
The dream faded, leaving her trembling. Sweat beaded her forehead, despite the cold inside the T30. Didn’t this thing come with a heater? Rain pattered against the metal roof. Dark clouds wrestled with lighter shades of gray in the stormy sky.
“I debated waking you, but you sounded like you were in pain and I didn’t want it to go on anymore,” he whispered.
Alex was asleep in the seat beside Mandy. They must have already changed shifts.
“It was bad and so real.” Mandy sat up in the seat and tried to slow her breathing. What could the dream mean, if it meant anything at all?
A rifle lay across Cisco’s lap, a bulky black affair, like the one Alex carried.
Mandy nodded towards it. “Is that for me? You shouldn’t have.”
Cisco put one hand on the rifle. His jaw muscles clenched. “With everything going on, Alex thought we needed more firepower and printed this.”
“So it’s not about me?”
He tilted his head to one side. “It’s also to look intimidating. You’ll be happy to know she said I shouldn’t use deadly force unless absolutely necessary.”
Mandy snuggled against the door to make her body a smaller target for the chill air and rested her chin on the window ledge. Frustration tumbled in her stomach, like the storm clouds outside. She had no control over her life and even if she did, she wouldn’t know what to do. How to get back. Tears welled in her eyes. She turned away and wiped her face, hoping Cisco didn’t notice. “At least she’s warming up to me.”
Cisco leaned forward. “Mandy, I’m sorry. I was trying to keep your mind off things. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Mandy glanced at Alex’s sleeping form. “You didn’t upset me. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but I just feel helpless. Crying just happens when I’m emotional. I hate it.”
Cisco watch the rain splatter the windows for a moment. “Alex is cautious. It’s her nature, but no one is against you here. Remember that.”
Threads of metal sparkled through gaps in the forest canopy. The skeletons of enormous buildings rose miles above the thinning trees. Mandy leaned forward.
“We’re here,” she whispered.
The buildings weren’t like any construction Mandy had seen. The frames were delicate webs, with filaments that grew lighter on the higher levels until they all but disappeared at the top.
The road curved and opened into a vast clearing. A wall of woven fiber loomed ahead of them. Careful not to wake Bailey, Mandy used the front seat to pull herself up and watched the approach to Artemis. A security membrane stretched across the road like a thick soap bubble. Rainbow colors danced over its surface. The T30 slowed and squeaked through the membrane. Blue sparks played along the interface of the T30 and the barrier.
Alex woke, stared at the city for a moment and frowned. “I’m not getting any response from my hails.”
Mandy sat back. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll find out soon enough. We’ll head for ACC.”
Mandy smiled. Everything was new and there was so much to learn. “ACC?”
“Artemis Construction Command. There’ll be people there. Or should be at least.”
Mandy didn’t like the doubt in her voice. The outer city was a grid of roads and low foundations of assorted shapes and sizes. Many of the side streets were still unfinished. As they moved further into the city, the foundations were populated by Roman-style buildings of marble and glass.
Mandy shivered at the empty silence. “It’s like a tomb.”
Cisco’s hand was pressed against the window. “There aren’t many people here.”
“It’s like a larger version of Skylax,” Alex said. “They drop off a few ingots of metal and other materials, then the machines pull what they need from the ingots, the forest and the ground to build the city. The people are only here to make decisions if something goes wrong.”
Cisco leaned over, looking out of Mandy’s window. “The real question is, where are the machines?”
The T30s slowed and parked by a curb in the shadows of an octagonal building constructed with alternating layers of white marble and golden glass. Pedestrian skywalks connected the building at various levels to adjacent structures. Thunder rumbled through the empty streets and echoed from the unfinished spires. A few large drops splattered against the T30’s windows.
Cisco touched Bailey’s hand. “Hey, Bailey.”
Bailey’s eyes opened just a crack, and she rubbed her stomach.
Cisco smiled. “Hello, sunshine.”
“Cisco? I was ten when my Mum called me that. I’ll never share again.”
“Bailey,” Alex said. “Did you leave a clear space in the cargo hold, where we could print something small?”
Bailey sat up. “Yes, as you ordered.”
“I want you to print a HV6 pistol.”
Bailey leaned towards Alex. “Really?”
“Yes. Keep it holstered unless there is an extreme need and do not draw it if any of us are in front of you. Understand?”
“Right. You won’t regret it.” Bailey bolted out of the door.
“What was that about?” Mandy asked.
Cisco chuckled. “Bailey isn’t a bad shot, but she hasn’t been allowed a gun since the ‘incident’. In retrospect, it’s a funny story.”
Alex gave Cisco a sideways glance.
“Or not.” He quickly opened his door and stepped into the empty street.
Mandy followed him outside, where Bailey was grinning and strapping on a holster.
Mandy tugged at the belt. “Nice fit. It’s not about the gun, is it?”
“No,” Bailey whispered. “I want to be trusted and relied upon.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
The building’s entrance was a pair of golden glass doors at the top of a short rise of onyx steps. Rain darkened the sidewalks, leaving little room between the splotches.
Alex came up behind them with her rifle slung over her shoulder. “Captain Jedidiah Hajjar is the man in charge of construction. The radio silence is concerning, but we don’t know there is a problem. Keep your weapons ready, but holstered. We’re going into a military facility where side arms are part of the uniform. Do not startle anyone. Cisco, you and I will go first. Bailey, you and Mandy follow. Let’s move.”
With Alex in the lead, they jogged up the steps to stand on one side of the double doors. The golden tint of the glass made it impossible to see inside the building. The rain came, cold and hard.
The door opened automatically into a room the size of one of those discount warehouse stores. Only furniture greeted the
m. Rain rippled down five unadorned floor-to-ceiling windows. Two sets of stairs lay across from the entrance. A stylized version of the Orion Nebula dominated the wall between the stairs, like a purple and pink orchid. Under it were the golden words “Orion Union” and something in Latin. Dark blue tapestries hung along the walls on either side of the stairs.
They moved among the tables and chairs. Holograms of open files hovered in the air. Half-filled cups of tea or coffee sat on several of the tables. The rhythm of rain filled the empty space and made Mandy shiver. Whoever had been here had left in a hurry. Alex motioned for Mandy and Bailey to stay near to the desks, while she and Cisco explored the offices along the wall with the tapestries.
Mandy turned around at the sound of paper rustling.
Bailey stood like a blushing gopher, her cheeks full of food. She covered her mouth.
“Breakfast burrito,” she mumbled and swallowed. She tilted the pasty white tube towards Mandy. “Want half?”
Mandy held up her hand and whispered, “I’m good. It’s too creepy to eat here anyways.”
“I got collywobbles too, but I’m still starved. Would you mind terribly, turning round? I’m too famished to be dainty.”
Mandy faced the other way. “It’s the machines again, isn’t it? The ones you’re carrying around.”
Bailey gulped. “Yah. I’m easily going through four thousand calories a day.”
“Some girls would like that. You could eat cannolis for every meal.”
“It’s different, wanting to eat and having to. I’d love curves and other attributes like you, but I can scarcely keep up with the demand. Instead, I’m all knees and elbows, like a boy in a dress.”
“You’re cute Bailey, really.”
“Cute? Oh, that’s grand coming from a girl, isn’t it? It’s one step up from, ‘Bailey has a lovely personality, hasn’t she?’.”
Mandy grinned. “I can’t vouch for your personality.”
“You’re horrid. All right then, turn round.”
Bailey was smiling and folding the burrito wrapper into a butterfly.
“Oh. I do cranes.”
Bailey ran her thumb along the side, finishing the wing. “I’ve always fancied butterflies, though there are none on Alora Lux. I’ve only ever seen pictures and simulations.” She peeked into a cup. “Oh, tea.”
She took a big gulp and sputtered. “Not tea. Cold, weak coffee. It’s dreadful,” she said as she took another drink. “Don’t look at me, I’ll chortle and choke.”
Mandy tried not to smile. “Well, don’t drink it then.”
“It’s full of cream and sugar and I need calories. I can’t let you lot down, now can I?”
The building rumbled. It was like standing on a rippling pond. Cups spilled and dust floated down from the ceiling. Mandy grabbed a desk until the trembling stopped. “Earthquake?”
Bailey watched the dust settle. “Not likely. The nearest fault line is two thousand miles offshore and it has power shunts to release the stress slowly.”
Alex came out of the last office and hurried back to the central area. She had her rifle in hand. “Bailey, I need recon.”
“Coming.” Bailey took a deep breath and downed the rest of the coffee. She walked to a clear spot in front of the rows of desks and threw out dozens of displays. For the first time, several of them were filled with static.
“Maybe you should slow down,” Mandy whispered as Alex approached.
Bailey opened more displays. “It’s no different than it’s ever been. You just know some of the cost now.”
Alex paused by the desks. “I need to know where the people are and what caused the quake. Also check the communication status. I’ve tried and can’t call beyond the city. ”
Bailey frowned. “The comm towers are down here as well. Strange. The machines are chatting up each other with damage reports, but there are no people online. The utility platform is collapsing in several areas. That’s causing the tremors.”
“What is a utility platform?” Mandy asked.
“The Orion Union’s capital is built on a mesa,” Alex said. “It’s in vogue to build cities on flat platforms to mimic the capital’s look. Water, power and sewage are routed under the platform. How bad is it, Bailey?”
Another display went to static and Bailey closed the rest. “The security cameras are so sparse in the construction zone, I can’t get a clear view of what’s happening, but I can outline the affected area by the missing cameras. It’s primarily in the northeast section of the city.”
“That’s near the area we came through,” Cisco said.
Alex looked towards the set of stairs by the windows. “Yes. Let’s reconnoiter from the upper floor. Same formation.”
Bailey and Mandy fell in behind Alex and Cisco as they moved through the lobby and up the stairs. The building trembled in an aftershock, sending vibrations through Mandy’s feet and into her stomach.
Bailey trailed behind. “While I was in the city network, I found a quantum lattice at the Southeast Biblioteca in Eden Park. These steps are steep, aren’t they? Anyhow, the lattice is under lockdown to prevent logic attacks through the net. It’s likely I could break the encryption. ”
“At least it is locked down,” Cisco said. “That means someone knows there’s trouble.”
Mandy slid her fingers along the lacquered wood handrail. “So, is that some kind of internet connection or what?”
Alex rounded the first landing and started up the next flight of steps. “We could use it to get a message through. It’s a faster than light communication device. They’re vital for keeping the worlds connected, but because of licensing fees, they’re very expensive, so there aren’t many of them.”
“That’s how my family became so wealthy—” Bailey clamped a hand over her mouth.
Alex paused. “I knew there was more to the story.”
Bailey slid her hand to her chin. “It’s best you forget that. I’m contractually obligated not to mention it.”
They moved quickly and quietly after that, pausing at each floor. There were no people in the building.
And that wasn’t all. Something inside Mandy was wrong too. She tried to deny it at first, but the longer they went without seeing people, the louder the clamor became. Soon the static in her head became murmuring voices. She paused and listened. She couldn’t make out the words, but the tone was angry. She leaned against the wall, her breath coming in short burst. Her stomach tried to crawl into her throat. Am I waking up?
“Mandy?” They were all staring. She wasn’t sure who had spoken. The voices in her head hushed.
“Sorry, I . . . I’m sorry.” She panted and swallowed her stomach.
“Mandy, are you afraid of heights?” Cisco asked, reaching out, coming close to touching her arm, but not quite.
Mandy could only manage to shake her head, which triggered a spell of dizziness.
“It’s just one more floor,” Alex said. “You could stay here with Cisco.”
Mandy pushed off from the wall. “No, I want to see too.”
The drizzle was a continuous drone against the windows of the sixth floor. Dim sunlight, punctuated by flashes of orange lightning, leaked through the sheets of rain. Mandy stood in the middle of the group by the windows opposite the stairs.
The construction was sparse on the north side, which allowed a clear view of the swirling purple mist in the distance. One of the skeletal skyscrapers wading in the mist began to twist and fall in slow motion.
“Lovely,” Bailey said.
Mandy touched the cold glass. “The void followed us?”
Bailey pulled up an area map. “We moved too quickly. This is likely a second void.”
“I was afraid of this,” Alex said. “It’s why I wanted to warn the Orion Military.”
Mandy swallowed. “The streets must be full of hunters. We saw them come out of the voids.”
Alex stepped back from the window. “The hunters are a byproduct. I’ve seen somethi
ng like this during the Secession War. It’s called a geo phage.”
The warmth seeped from Mandy’s palm through the glass and into the gray world beyond. “An earth eater.”
“That’s right,” Alex said. “The fog will spread, making more of itself until there is nothing left.”
“What can we do?” Cisco asked.
Alex turned to the stairs. “If things had been different, we could have gone to the naval base at Persephone’s Landing—it doesn’t matter, now. If this enemy seizes the quantum lattice and breaks the encryption, they would have access to our communications. We’ll have to recover the lattice.”
The voices were back, nibbling at Mandy’s mind and making it hard to think. She touched her forehead against the glass and focused on the cold.
“Oh, what do you want?” she whispered.
Cisco’s warm touch on her shoulder contrasted with the chill of the glass. No tingles this time, just reassurance.
She looked into his brown eyes and tried to smile.
“We need to go,” he said.
Mandy turned and took the lead back to the stairs.
Cisco caught up and walked beside her. “You’re starting to scare me, Mandy.”
“I’m scaring me too.” Something flickered across the glass. A shiver spread down Mandy’s spine. At the top of the stairs, she whirled around to face the windows.
Alex frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Against the backdrop of the cityscape, stood the reflection of a girl Mandy’s age in a uniform of shimmering black and green. Her honey-blonde hair flowed in a halo around her head as if the girl was in an underwater current, but she wasn’t in the room. The reflection stood where Mandy’s should have been.
Mandy didn’t breathe. Her heart didn’t beat. There was only the chill spreading down her shoulder to her arms.
The rumbling started again. A cloud of dust burst from the building across the street as it split and crumbled. The lights flickered and failed, plunging the room into gray twilight. The walls around them cracked. Beams buckled and windows shattered. Broken glass spilled across the writhing floor. The reflected image of the girl leaped from one shard to the next, rushing at Mandy.
