Zero Site 1607

by Andrew Calhoun

  She shook her head again. “Do you guys trust me?”

  “No,” Dallas responded first.

  “No,” Soup added.

  “Sorry, stupid question. Okay, how about this? Just trust me right now. Trust me when I tell you that I’m going to get Kettle out of there alive.”

  “What are you thinking?” Dallas asked

  “First, I’m going to go kill the guy that’s smacking Kettle around with a sword, and then I’m going to drag Kettle behind the gigantic tree that’s growing in the back of the courtyard. And then, after I’m finished all that, I’m going to scream my bloody head off, and you two boys are going to come in and shoot everybody in sight.”

  “Hold on? You’re just going to walk in there and pick a fight with one of them?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “What’s to stop them from just shooting you as soon as they see you?”

  “Because they’re all men.”

  “And?”

  “And men are simple-minded animals.” She gave an apologetic shrug. “You two being the exceptions, of course.”

  “Well,” Dallas started, “if it works, great. If not, it’s been nice knowing you.”

  Saeliko winked and pulled out her scimitar for the second time today. “Just be ready,” she told them and turned to the gate.

  When she walked into the courtyard, no one noticed her. To a man, they were enthralled with the beating taking place in front of them, hollering their support for every strike against Kettle, who was feebly holding his weapon in front of him and trying to fend off as many blows as he could. Saeliko remedied their lack of attention by putting her fingers to her lips and letting out a shrill, high-pitched whistle.

  A half-dozen men turned and saw her. Their immediate silence caused others to turn their heads, until, after a few moments, everyone in the courtyard was looking at her, including Kettle.

  “Hello, gentlemen,” she called out in Yenshian.

  The response was a sight to behold, and Saeliko recognized it for what it was. Okin was a male-dominated world, a corruption of the natural order, but a corruption that was about to work in her favor. Erain, her homeworld, was matriarchal. If a scimitar-wielding man walked into the Temple of Pedagogues in Mael with the intent to pick a fight against battle-hardened Saffisheen women, the absurdity would have caused at least a few seconds of stunned silence followed by shock, confusion, laughter and possibly anger. The Yenshians before her were just now transitioning from silence to shock. Mouths gaped, unblinking eyes stared unashamedly, arms hung limp and heads tilted. She continued to walk toward them, aiming right for the middle of the pack. She heard one soldier mutter a name, which she guessed was a god or goddess the Yenshians prayed to, and another say, “You don’t see that every day, do you?”

  Saeliko pointed her blade at Kettle and his adversary and said, “I’m here for the big one with the sword.”

  The soldiers in her way stumbled to either side and made a path for her. She paid them no heed and strode into the muddy section of the courtyard where the ogre-like man stood waiting for her with a less-than-intelligent perplexed look on his face. His sword, which he held in his right hand, was a large wide affair that would have been hard for a lesser man to carry. In his bear paw of a hand, however, it looked appropriate. A few trails of sweat ran off his bald head, but other perspiration, it looked that Kettle hadn’t managed to cause the fellow any discomfort.

  Sitting on his ass in the mud six feet away from the giant, Kettle watched Saeliko approach. The Earthling was shirtless, which gave the crowd a free viewing of the numerous nasty-looking welts, bruises and cuts that covered his arms and midsection, the worst of which was a black and purple contusion on his lower-left ribcage.

  Kettle’s face was equally messy, but Saeliko had to credit the poor bastard; he wasn’t showing the pain, much. There was a look of fated determinism in his countenance, but Saeliko also noted a healthy dose of relief at seeing his ex-harker.

  “Hi, Kettle.” She spoke in Yenshian. She was here to put on a show. Speaking in a foreign tongue might have prompted some of the more temperamental louts to react prematurely.

  “Hi, Saeliko,” he said and groaned.

  “Been well?”

  “I’ve had better days, if I’m honest.”

  “Now that you mention it, you do look a bit frayed around the edges. Would you like a hand up?” She stood above him and offered her hand.

  “Oh, yes, that’s very kind of you. Thank you.”

  Once he was vertical, she brushed a few stray clumps of mud off his forehead and cheeks. He winced when she got close to a gash above his left eye. “Happy to see me?” she inquired in a quiet voice so that only he could hear.

  “Happiest I’ve ever been to see you, and that’s the honest truth.” His eyes relayed the sincerity of his statement. He was a man that until a few seconds ago had thought himself on an unavoidable path to a grisly fate.

  “I see your cutlass lessons have come in handy.”

  “Very. I was just about to finish him off before you showed up. And the rest of this lot as well.”

  “I can see that. The old give ‘em a false sense of confidence routine. That’s a classic.”

  A weak smile crossed his lips. He glanced over at the watching soldiers, who were beginning to mumble and show other signs of restlessness, and then at the big bald-headed mountain of a Yenshian with the sword, who was starting to twitch as well. Finally, he looked at Saeliko again. A shift in his expression suggested he was done trading sarcasm. “Saeliko, can you kill that guy?”

  She nodded. “Gladly.”

  “And Saeliko?”

  “Uh-huh?”

  His voice dropped to a whisper. “We need to hurry. Haley was here, but they took her . . .”

  “I know. We’re working on it. Hold tight. This’ll just take a minute.”

  “Hey, Saeliko?”

  “Uh-huh?”

  “I’m not sure why you came here, but thank you.”

  “Well, let’s just consider it my way of saying thanks for killing Janx.” She smiled, turned on her heel and eyed the brute. He leered back at her and hocked a healthy dose of yellow spit out the side of his mouth. Some of it dribbled down the stubble covering his chin. Saeliko twirled the scimitar around in her hand just once and tightened her grip.

  “Honey, I don’t know who you think you are,” he told her in a deep, guttural voice, “but you just walked into a world of trouble, so how about you sit your pretty little ass over by the tree and wait for me to fuck your boyfriend up. And when I’m done with him, I’m going to take you and . . .”

  “What is this?” Saeliko asked, cutting him off and gesturing toward the mud pit and onlooking soldiers. “Is this a game for you guys? You like to beat people up with your swords?” Even as she asked the question, she made a mental note of the irony. After all, when she first met Kettle and his companions in the Sollian, that’s exactly what she did to them. She seemed to remember stabbing Soup.

  “This is ohnkashi.”

  “Ohnk . . . what?”

  “You don’t know ohnkashi?” He chuckled. More spittle drooled down his chin. “Stupid girl, you’re not from around here, are you?”

  “Humor me.”

  “Ohnkashi is Yenshian sword fighting. All men learn the blade. All men learn how to kill with steel before they can kill with bullets.”

  “And you were going to kill my friend? Right here?” She pointed to his comrades. “Just for amusement?”

  “I’m not going to kill him. Just soften him up before the real torture begins.” He smiled at that. “Maybe cut off a limb. Maybe two. Then I’ll cut into you, too. But not before I shove my spear in your ass.”

  “All right, let’s see what you’ve got.” She advanced and then stopped when he put a hand in the air to halt her progress.

  “Women are not allowed.”

  “Why not?”

  “Women are forbidden from ohnkashi. This is known. And you shou
ld know this: I’m going to punish you just for holding a blade.

  “You’re afraid of me, aren’t you?”

  He paused for a few heartbeats before letting out another hearty guffaw. “Know your place, girl. Put that toy down, take off your clothes and go wait for me over there.”

  Saeliko addressed the crowd. “He is afraid of me.” To a man, they said nothing. The improbability of the situation continued to hold them in dumb silence.

  “I’m afraid of nothing,” the brute said rather predictably.

  “Then fight me.”

  “All right, honey. You want a spanking? Fine. Come here and I’ll give you a spanking.” He patted the flat of his broad blade for emphasis. “Dumb shit,” he added.

  “Hey!” Kettle shouted at the giant.

  The only response was a third spray of spit and a “Hell you want?”

  Kettle grinned. “To say goodbye. You’re a dead man, asshole. You just too stupid to know it yet.”

  He only grunted in reply.

  Saeliko began moving forward again, and this time, the Yenshian did nothing to protest. He held his sword out in front of his body like a chef getting ready to poke a dead pig with a roasting spit.

  She knew that time was important and that it would be better to just kill the man and be done with it, but her sense of honor, as diluted as it was, told her that it would be opprobrious to dispatch a man in a swordfight who didn’t have a clue as to the danger he was in. So she gave him a taste of her venom.

  She sped up, offered him a false lunge to the right and instead darted to the left. His swipe was well off, which provided her with all the time in the world to speed by him and leave a long slash down his right thigh as an opening gift.

  The Yenshian hollered in pain and turned to find her. His character rapidly changed. The condescending sneer evaporated. The scorn in his eyes turned tail and run. The confidence morphed into anger and confusion.

  Now he knew; now she could proceed.

  She came in again. He brought his sword about in a wide arc from one side to the other as if he could ward her off. She planted her feet and let the steel pass by harmlessly before sliding in and bringing the Sage-perfected scimitar across his right wrist. The cutting edge sank into bone, causing the wrist’s owner to scream in agonized horror and the sword to fly harmlessly into the mud.

  Saeliko’s left hand terminated the scream with a fast jab to the throat. His body froze, allowing her to leisurely pull her scimitar hand back, cock her arm and ram the whole blade point-first into his gut.

  The screaming started again, albeit half-garbled by the damaged throat, and he slumped onto his knees. She planted one foot on his chest and used the leverage to yank the blade out with a trail of blood and intestine following. This done, she raised the scimitar and brought it down for the killing blow. The Yenshian was a corpse before he hit the mud.

  The utter speed of their hero’s destruction kept the remaining soldiers planted in their boots. Not a single one even raised a rifle when Saeliko calmly walked back to Kettle, grabbed his arm and escorted him to the big tree on the opposite side of the makeshift battleground.

  Once behind the thick trunk, she maneuvered Kettle so that his back was up against the bark and none of his limbs were exposed. “Don’t move.” She pressed herself against his body, and once she was convinced they would be out of the firing range, she yelled out, “Dallas! Soup! Now!”

  A few seconds later, bursts of rifle-fire rang out.

  3.3 ELISKA

  “Just try to relax,” she told Sergeant Vasper, who was sitting in one of the Cloudrunner’s chairs with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. “You’re dehydrated, sleep deprived and, according to this,” she held up the onboard medical diagnosis tool for him to see, “your heartbeat is showing irregularities. Given the distance you covered, I’m not surprised.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “You’re suffering from the aftereffects of . . .”

  “No.” He swiped a hand in the air as if he could swat her comments out the back end of the ship. “What’s going on? Why am I in a Cloudrunner? Who are you people?”

  “Ah, right.” Putting the tool back in its pouch, she sat down beside him and put her hands in her lap. She considered taking one of those hands and putting it on his shoulder. Did soldiers like to be comforted that way? She decided against it. She sensed Vasper needed answers more than empathy. “Do you want the long version or the short?”

  He breathed sharply out his nose. “Just give me the important bits.”

  “Okay.” She readjusted her hands, clasping them together. “That’s a little tricky, but, well, here’s the gist. Zodo betrayed you. The QMs, including Brennov, have no interest in finding a cure to the Zero virus or reopening the gates to VGCP One. They’d rather create an interplanetary empire – an empire of the totalitarian variety, free from moral oversight. Brennov’s agents planted a bomb on your Kye-shiv to kill Kettle and Haley just in case there actually is a cure inside Zero Site 1607. He was going to blame the explosion on a Yenshian anti-aircraft missile.” She pointed to Mr. Toad, who was sitting in a chair opposite Vasper. “Sage Systems discovered the plot via a high-level mole. A warning was sent out to Colonel Caurfo just before you hit Yenshian airspace, as you’re aware. My name is Doctor Eliska Tannishoy, and I’m the second mole. I was . . . recruited to . . . Well, maybe convinced is a better word. I was convinced by the information Sage gave me to take action, so I rounded up the three individuals in ARCOB that have the ability and motivation to rescue Kettle and Haley, and, I suppose by extension, you.”

  She wasn’t sure what else to say, so she pursed her lips together and waited for Vasper to digest everything she just told him. Admittedly, it was a lot. It wasn’t every day that you found out your employer tried to kill you, or, for that matter, had no interest in curing a virus that threatened the lives of billions.

  “Okay,” he said.

  “Pardon?”

  “I understand.”

  “Really?”

  He lifted his head out of his hands and looked at her. His dark brown eyes scanned her face, and Eliska felt her cheeks flush. His sharp features intimidated her. Some men looked more dangerous than others, and Vasper looked like the most dangerous man she had ever seen. Everything about his features seemed, for the lack of a more expressive term, hard. “I get it,” he said.

  “Umm, all right. Do you . . . ah . . . Do you have any questions?”

  “Can I sleep? Do you need me for anything else right now?”

  “Yes, and no. In fact, you really should sleep. I’m surprised you’re still awake after all you’ve been through.”

  Eliska pointed Vasper to a spot on the floor near the back of the Cloudrunner where he could sleep undisturbed. She even found a pair of spare shirts in one of the compartments that she could roll up and let him use as a pillow. He gave her a quick “Thank you,” and was fast asleep in under a minute.

  Mr. Toad ordered the pilot to take off and plot a course that would steer them well clear of the incoming Kye-shivs without taking them too far away from the five individuals they were monitoring on the ground, which Eliska guessed was probably easier said than done. The ship subsequently eased out of the vale it had parked in to pick up Vasper and began skimming the treetops on a path that would bisect the Zero site and Kettle’s position.

  They were in radio silence with Dallas, Soup and Saeliko, so the interior of the Cloudrunner was quiet. Eliska and Mr. Toad both had nanotech in their ears to keep in touch with the ground crew, but they’d also given Dallas the control to shut down communication when it wasn’t necessary. There was no point listening to the three of them huff and puff their way across Yenshian territory.

  “What do you think of him?” Mr. Toad asked once they were underway.

  “Sergeant Vasper?”

  “Umm-hmm.”

  She cast her eyes on the sleeping soldier. “I’ve only known him for ten minutes. Kind of hard to
say.”

  “I read Zodo’s confidential assessment of your personality profile. It said that you were an excellent judge of character, that you could see through people’s BS with relative ease.”

  Eliska rolled her eyes. “QM Brennov told me the same thing. Said that’s why he chose me to interrogate Saeliko.”

  “Well, I’m sure he had other motives, too, but he was probably right about your abilities.”

  “So you think I can tell if Vasper is a stand-up guy after a few minutes with him?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I was only wondering what your first impressions were. Whether you trust the guy. You know, I don’t think my superiors would approve of me picking up armed Zodo warriors and giving them a free ride in a Sage Systems Cloudrunner.”

  “Oh.” She hadn’t thought of that. Vasper could have posed a serious security threat. “Oh, right. I see what you mean.”

  “Do you think I made the right decision?”

  “To rescue him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Absolutely. And no, I don’t think he’s dangerous. Well, at least he’s not dangerous to us. He seems more the strong silent type. Thinks before he acts.”

  “He did abandon Kettle and Haley,” Mr. Toad pointed out. “Which doesn’t say much about his character.”

  “We don’t know that. But we do know he got them this far despite being hunted. They were within a couple kilometers from the Zero site, which means that he had to make a series of hard decisions under constant pressure for hours on end. That tells me he’s a critical thinker and a problem solver, not your average musclebound grunt with a gun.”

  “Which means?”

  “Which means that he’s not going to do anything rash. After he wakes up, he’s going to process everything we told him.”

  “And, assuming he’s rational and realizes he can never go back to Zodo, what do we do with him?”

  “I don’t know. Can’t you take him back to Sage? Wouldn’t he be . . . like . . . an asset or something.”

  “That’s not how assets work. Assets provide us with some kind of knowledge or skills that we don’t have. Sergeant Vasper, as talented or smart as he might be, can’t benefit Sage in any way.”