by Mark Lingane
“He has a guard.” He indicated the two youngsters sitting against the stone bench, leaning against the wall.
Isabelle twisted her torso to look, and her stomach muscles flexed. She turned back and caught her commander looking at her waist. He quickly snapped his eyes back to her face.
“The girl?” she said, noting Nikola’s slight blush.
“She’s good. Fierce, unrelenting and unsuspecting. She reminds me of someone I once knew.” He struggled to his feet.
“I trust your judgment.”
“Thank you, Captain. Your confidence and commendation is appreciated.”
“Commander, I have another role to perform now. I shall see you later.” She turned and walked over toward Sebastian.
“You could salute your superior officer,” he called out after her.
“Who says? And in what way are you superior?” She smiled at him back over her shoulder as she walked away. As she approached her son, Sebastian got up and ran toward her.
“Mom!”
“Sebby.”
She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a huge hug. He burst into tears, feeling like he would never be able to stop. She lifted him up and twirled him around until they were both dizzy. She gave him a big kiss on his forehead.
“It’s good to see you. Have you been keeping out of trouble?”
He smiled. It was something she had always said. “You look all muscly and tanned,” he said. “There’s not much of you to hug.” He poked her muscled stomach with his finger. It hurt his finger.
“How have you been holding up?”
“It’s been terrible. Death. Running. Hiding. Explosions. Aunt Ratty’s dead. She tried to steal your earrings.”
“That’s a harsh punishment for a fairly minor misdemeanor.”
“She spent lots of money, and bought a boat for Lincoln Oakley. The cyborgs came and destroyed the town. And I found a lizard in a bottle. I set it free but it bit me.”
“What about the other Oakleys?”
He nodded. “All dead.”
“Wasn’t totally bad then.”
She smiled at him, but he didn’t have the energy to laugh. He watched the desert walkers fade into the distance. The setting sun reflected off their shields, which glittered on the horizon like a band of diamonds.
“How come they have the shiny shields?” he asked.
“They’ve seen the cyborgs for a long time. They’ve watched and learned.”
“And they made you better?”
“Yes.”
“We should do something nice for them.”
“Hopefully we can one day. But how do you repay someone for nursing you back from the edge of death?”
“We could give them the boat Aunt Ratty bought for Lincoln.”
“That would be pretty useful in the desert.” She ruffled his hair. “I’ll think of something.”
They turned around and the spectacle of the burning city loomed large.
“I wondered if I left the stove on when I left,” Isabelle said. “I suppose we should find somewhere to sleep.”
“At least we won’t be cold.” Sebastian wrapped his arm around his mother and they both walked through the city gates.
“But you do need a bath.”
“Mom!”
“And you have to wash your hair.”
“Mom!”
*
The doors had been locked. Most of the city’s survivors had banded together and were alternating between having rowdy celebratory parties, made even better by all the free beer lying around in puddles, and rebuilding their homes. The shouts and cheers could be heard through the doors and filled the congressional meeting with a vague optimism.
The huge oval desk, used only in times of desperation, or for the inter-office table-tennis competition, was surrounded by the city’s dignitaries. There had been moments of shouting. There had been moments of quiet and reflection over those they had lost. There had been passionate debate about the future. There had been reminiscing about the past. But, ultimately, it all came down to one thing.
“We are going to strike back. We have the cyborgs on the back foot. This is what your precious war tomes say. We need to press the advantage.” Thrown was standing up, stabbing his finger toward the assembled group.
“But don’t you think they’ll be ready and waiting like last time?” Nikola said.
“I have my concerns and suspicions over how they knew we were coming. And it was only by Grabthar’s hammer that we’ve survived. If we’ve underestimated them, and they have further forces on the way, then we’re done for. That’s why we should strike now.”
Nikola sighed. He turned to Isabelle. “Captain, what do you think?”
She thought for a few moments then replied. “Thrown is ri—”
“You see?” Thrown raised his hand in her direction.
Everyone muttered. Most nodded.
“But only if we had the people, which clearly we don’t,” Thrown cautioned. “We’re too weak to do anything at the moment other than rebuild. My recommendation would be to scour the surrounding lands and see who we can band together. The farmers are the strongest and most resilient men you’ll find in or out of the force. We should send out scouts to round up a sizeable force, which will strike back in a month or two. In the meantime we fortify the city and rebuild some kind of semblance of city life.”
Nikola nodded. “Reason has spoken. I’m glad you haven’t lost your tactical skill, Captain. Thrown, you have your instructions. Please organize the recruitment party. We’ll need some place for all these farmers to stay, so arrange additional temporary accommodation. You may go.”
Thrown turned and left. Sensing the meeting was over, the various dignitaries followed. Nikola watched them all shuffle out the door, but signaled for Isabelle to stay behind.
“What does Number Two think?” Isabelle asked him.
“I’ll catch up with Number Two later and get a briefing. We take everything one step at a time.”
“Do you think Thrown was happy with the outcome?” Isabelle asked.
“I think so, but he won’t show it. Being outsmarted on tactics by a woman will be eating at him. But he’s getting his battle so he’ll be happy about that.”
Isabelle sat down in the head chair and looked out the window to the distant mountains. The day had started out bright and clear, but clouds had rolled in and stifled the land in a dense humidity. She leaned on an elbow and sighed. “It’s been a tough year.”
“I’m sorry for your loss. We didn’t expect side effects.”
“Alex was a good man. I do miss him, but I need to remind myself that it was duty.”
“Did you love him?” he asked. There was hesitation in his voice.
“I think so. It hurt when he died. We were together ten years. That kind of time together has an impact.”
“Let’s hope it hasn’t all been in vain.”
Isabelle turned around and focused her attention on Nikola. “Does he know?”
“No. And hopefully he never will. But if the cyborgs capture him, and they’ve been getting closer, then they will tell him. Of that, I’m sure.”
“What will happen then?” She looked down at her hands. They were heavily tanned from weeks in the sun spent traveling to the city. She examined the back of her hands, noting the sun damage, and rubbed her thumb over them, stretching the skin.
“He’ll probably destroy us for lying to him.”
“Then I’m worried.”
“So am I.”
She raised her eyes and glared at him. “But he’s not your child.”
*
The sun was setting. Nikola and Isabelle had walked the streets, issuing instructions, praising efforts, and comforting tears. They had met up with Sebastian at a makeshift mess tent and now were having a light dinner. The rain had been pouring for several hours and was beginning to make its way through the thick tent material. Several buckets had been scattered around the area, mainly to g
ather drinking water.
“Are you going to eat the rest of your sandwich?” Isabelle asked Nikola.
“I guess not.” Nikola started to hand it over, but she grabbed it from him and munched heavily into it.
“Mom!” Sebastian said. “We’re at home to Mr. Manners.”
“I’m hungry. I’ve been living off lizard blood, snake venom, and kangaroo poo for months.”
“Kangaroo poo?”
“Okay, maybe not that one, but I can tell you the first lot aren’t too pleasant.” She took another bite. “Oh, the glory of bread. Is there anything better?”
“A dry roof?” Sebastian hazarded, looking out at the eternal dark sky.
“When the war is over, life can get back to normal,” Nikola said.
“Will it ever be over?” Sebastian said.
“We’ll be counterstriking in the near future. We think the cyborgs are weak now and we can end this for once and for all.”
“Oh, cool. Can I go?”
“No.”
“But you’ll need a tesla to guide you, and there aren’t many left.”
“We’ll send Gavin.”
“Gavin! But he’s, well, he’s, you know. Melanie will completely flip out.”
“Gavin’s seen the horrors of war. It’ll be less of a confrontation for him. He’s the best person for the task at hand.”
“But you can’t send him out. He won’t be able to survive them again.”
“He’s the best tesla we’ve got.”
“Really?” Sebastian said. “Then I think we’re in deep trouble.”
“Would it surprise you if I agreed?”
“You know he isn’t the best.”
“Symbolically he’s the best,” Nikola said. “Everyone knows him as the best. He’s the one we can afford to lose. Sometimes we have to hide away our most valuable things, because their loss would be too much.”
“So you won’t send me because I’m too valuable? That’s not fair. I want to go.”
“But you can’t. You’re forbidden to go. You don’t know everything that’s going on. You don’t know the implications if you get caught. We wouldn’t worry if anyone else in the entire world was captured by them, but you—you would change everything.”
“Why?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“That really isn’t fair.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to be.”
Sebastian threw down his food and ran out into the rain. Nikola went to chase after him, but Isabelle placed a hand on his arm.
“Let him have the time to get his head around it. It’s a confusing time for him. We need to keep him close but give him some space.”
“You know that if he stays here the cyborgs will come. I don’t know how long we have. And when Thrown and the others catch on it’ll be very hard to convince them.”
“Would you would prefer it if he walked the deserts alone to be taken on the first night he sleeps?”
“You know I wouldn’t, but we have to come up with some kind of plan.”
*
Sebastian wandered the streets. He should have been happy, he knew that, but there was something sitting deep within him that was keeping him on edge. He wondered what Nikola and his mother were hiding from him. There must be somewhere in this place he could find information about himself. He knew he was important. Why wouldn’t they tell him why? What was the big secret?
Okay, he was a tesla, and a good one, but there were heaps of teslas. Or there had been. In the end being a tesla got you dead. He tried to put some of the pieces together. Nikola had said his mother had been here before. She was obviously in the army, but what happened for her to end up in Talinga on a farm? This city was all about recording and maintaining history. Surely they would have records. But where?
He turned around and greeting him was the sole remaining edifice. It contained the offices of Albert and Nikola. It was the administration building, the tower of power. It had been battered by many attacks, but had stood against them all. It was a strong building. He wondered what was on those levels above Nikola’s office.
He needed an accomplice.
“Isaac!”
The boy was huddled in the medic building, or at least its remains. He had been hit by wall fragments, which had broken his arm. A cyborg had grabbed him by his legs through the rubble as he had scrambled from his hiding place until it had identified that Isaac wasn’t the person it was looking for. As a result he was battered and bruised, covered in cuts, had his arm in plaster and a sling, and limped. Also, his eyes were sort of … not looking in the same …
Sebastian ran up to him and nearly gave him a hug, then realized it was both uncool and possibly excruciatingly painful. He went for a high five. Isaac responded, only to wince as his arm stung badly.
“How are you doing?” Sebastian tried to sound upbeat.
“Oh, you know, major pain, fractured bon—”
“Yeah, great, great. Hey, you want to break into a top-secret place?”
“I don’t know. The doctor said I should take it easy with my arm and everything.” He waved it then winced as pain shot up his arm.
“Pah, what does the doctor know?”
“Well,” Isaac said, “will it be dangerous, involving possible disaster and bodily harm? Deep trouble that could land us in jail for the rest of our lives?”
“Probably.”
“Cool. Let’s do it.”
“We’ll meet up when it’s dark.”
33
THE LIGHT WAS fading as the day drew to an end. The clouds had kept the evening cool and gloomy, and the rain had been a relief against the humidity. Nikola sat behind his large desk, still surrounded by piles of books.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked when Sebastian walked in.
Sebastian nodded.
“Where did you go?”
“Nowhere.”
“Fair enough. It’s been a tough time. Tell me what happened with the master GSFB. I saw you up behind Gavin on the dish ledge. And I saw where the master beast was looking, even when no one else did.”
“I’m not sure. Ever since the cyborgs turned up in my town I’ve been able to do something, send out something, a kind of energy that seems to confuse or disable them.”
“What does Albert think?”
“He thinks I can control the flow of electrons, as most teslas should be able to do. But this is more. I think I can send out an electromagnetic wave, but only if there’s a nearby power source. Most of the time it’s them, the cyborgs, that are the power source.”
“So you’re using their own power against them?”
“I think so. But I need to be near another kind of power source to confirm it.”
“Possibly. I’ve been thinking about it, watching and making observations, and researching. Unfortunately there’s nothing in the library that documents something like this. I’ve found some information explaining the same effect but from different things, and nothing like this from an individual person.”
“So is the electromagnetic-wave thing right?”
“If I had the time I’d perform extensive tests, but since I don’t all, I can do is make assumptions from observations. I think you’re partly correct, but you’re more than what you describe. You’re a source of power, a radioactive generator. I was able to pick up a strong reading from you when we first met with my Geiger counter. You emit a force strong enough for those who spend too long with you to become sick.”
“But I spend a lot of time with Melanie.”
“At the same time, sometimes radioactivity can cure some people of particular sicknesses. In the same way that you made your mother sick, you cured Melanie. It’s an interesting curse. How far has Albert taken you with the controlling of electrons?”
Sebastian looked around the room. In the corner there were several metal bars and two swords. He got up and retrieved the smaller sword. He held it in his hands and memorized its weight and the way it m
oved in his hands. He swung through the air. He dropped the sword and it clattered to the ground. He stood there motionless, with his eyes closed.
After a minute, Nikola said, “Are you planning on doing anything?”
“I’ve duplicated the sword.”
“I can’t see it.”
“It’s made up of particles.”
“That’s not possible.” Nikola reached into the empty space in front of him. “Ow.” He shook his hand. Blood was dripping from his finger. “No. That’s not possible.”
“It’s possible because of those ideas Albert’s been telling me.”
“Are you saying it’s made up of electricity?”
“Something like that. I’m transmitting the electrical currents from the molecules in the sword to the air in front of me. It’s no different to the way the tesla towers transmit electricity through the air.”
“Yes, with a machine. But you’re willing it. It’s teleportation.”
The sword crumbed to dust and disappeared. Nikola stared at it. “I guess if atoms aren’t being bound together by the electrons they drift apart.” He turned to face Sebastian. Who was still pretending to hold the sword. “You have a handful of energy.”
“What?”
“The energy you’re using to create your air sword has been taken from the real sword. The real sword no longer exists. So where will the energy go when you stop concentrating?”
Sebastian shrugged. He moved close to the metal bars in the corner and a huge spark arced from his hands, earthing on the largest of the bars. There was a loud clap and Sebastian was thrown across the room against the far wall. He got up, dazed. His hair was standing on end, smoking lightly.
He brushed himself down. “I planned to do that.”
“Yeah, you may have to learn to control that. Are you all right?”
Sebastian was massaging his head. “It hurts a little when there’s electrical current around. There wasn’t much, so it’s just a minor ache.”
“What else can you do it to?”
“Screws. We haven’t actually tested it that much. More like just examined the theory.”
“Pah, there’s no fun in that. Sit and try this.” Nikola placed some paper on the table.
