Second Contact

by Guerric Haché, Keezy Young

  Defend this place. I need to defend this place.

  For a long moment, her mind and the golem sigil were in tandem. She gave it its deepest need, trying to impress on it what really mattered.

  I can’t let any harm come to this place.

  She reached around to her back, looking to copy the code there, but her suit was in the way. Slipping back into real time, she tore the suit off, letting it flow and shrink like water into sand. The locator stone dropped down next to it, still pointing north-west. Back in time dilation, her bare back exposed with all its code visible to see, she started copying that too, attaching the same thing to the golem sigil she was working on, connecting the coding powers and the time dilation and whatever else was in there to the giant, writhing mass of black floating in front of her, wrapping it into the sigil in all the places where thought flowed.

  Then she pulled away, back in real time, and heard the gentle thrum of another hauler approaching. She barely had any mind for it, though, instead staring at the thing floating in front of her, a pulsing and moving core, silent and alive.

  “Ada? What the hell are you doing?”

  “Where’s your suit?”

  She turned to see Zhilik, Tanos, and Sam all staring at her. She pointed a thumb at her back. “I needed to see this. To make that .”

  They stared at the floating thing in front of her, and it seemed to twitch and move, almost as though it were looking at them. It had no eyes… did it? Ada wasn’t even entirely sure of all the component parts of the golem signal, but she had given it all the sigils she knew.

  “What is this thing?” Sam asked, but Zhilik was already looking down at the golem sigil in her hand.

  “Did you recreate the golem?”

  “Sort of, yes. I think… I’m hoping it will protect the cherry grove.”

  “Pretty weird thing to make a golem for, Ada.”

  “Fuck off, Tanos.”

  He looked surprised. “Woah - sorry.”

  Ada took a deep breath and let it out through her nose. “No, it’s fine, whatever. This is personal.”

  She felt a sudden discomfort at being exposed. Turning on her heel, she crouched down to pick up the chrome-like vertebrae that housed her piloting suit, and popped it into place on the back of her neck, letting the strange materials of the suit reassert themselves and cover her body in black technology again. Sam and Tanos watched the process with some fascination, having never seen it before. Her skin covered, she felt the pressure of their prying confusion lessen. The locator stone slipped back into its home in her pocket.

  Sam shook her head. “That suit is creepy. So’s your floating code… thing.”

  “Ada likes creepy magic.” Tanos was staring oddly at the golem.

  As though suddenly bored, the golem started to floating away. They all turned to watch, and Ada noticed that it had coded a levitation sigil on its underside, allowing it to float around. It moved, its woven black body churning like a stormcloud, and started crawling up a tree.

  “Gods, Ada, what the hell is that thing?”

  She laughed. “A little piece of me, I guess. I hope it does what I want it to.”

  Tanos rubbed his arms, as though he were cold. “It looks like a demon.”

  Zhilik cleared his throat. “May I suggest a name?”

  Ada raised an eyebrow. “Um, sure.”

  Zhilik gestured towards the retreating golem. “There is an old human word for a vague, supernatural impression of someone - yourself, Ada, in this case. A wraith.”

  “Wraith.” She let the odd word warble off her tongue. “Sounds good.” She looked up at the wraith in the tree and smiled. As it reached the crown it seemed to flatten itself against the bark, clinging to it like a sheen of black smoke. “I feel better now. I think. I - we can go. I’ll bring the other hauler in myself.”

  Zhilik gave her an amused look. “You know, when I told you I did not know what would happen to the grove when we left, I was not trying to make you feel responsible.”

  Ada nodded. “But I have power, and I care. That’s close enough, by my own judgement at least.”

  The rest of them were silent for a moment, and Sam spoke uncertainly. “So you created a… wraith, to protect a cherry tree grove.” She pursed her lips. “Well, that’s great, but what’s next?”

  Ada turned around, looking at Sam and Tanos. She felt the weight of the locator stone in her pocket as she turned, such a small thing.

  “Next? Well, I’ll be needing more blood donors. Any volunteers?”

  Chapter 12

  Elysium was quiet and warm in the mid-morning as the hauler crossed a sea of aquamarine grasses. It even looked like Hail was starting to like the place. Isavel smiled.

  A bright flash of light struck the side of the hauler, ripping into the metal and sending everyone flying. The world dissolved in a smoky haze of blue-green latticework, Isavel’s shoulder thunked against a tree, somebody was shouting. Screaming. She let the dragon’s gift lighten her, bringing her gently to the ground. Shooting, flashes of hard light slipping through the woods towards them. Erran cried out in pain as Isavel crawled towards him, shield up to protect them both. She dragged him back into cover where Hail was hiding, scanning the gaps between the trees.

  The hauler had twisted to its side and slammed through an old, mossy tree trunk, and the wreck and the deadwood now lay clogging up a stream. She couldn’t see the coders.

  Who was firing on them?

  Her hunter’s instincts told her they were to the north-east. She kept shields up on both arms, trying to keep Erran and Hail covered as they cowered behind a stone outcropping. “Hail! North-east -”

  “I saw them!”

  She leaned down to look at Erran, but he seemed alright except for some scratches. She didn’t have the medic’s gift, though, so it was impossible to know for sure.

  Something burst with orange light. Another blast from a heavy weapon struck the downed vehicle, shattering the carrying platform in the back and spraying water from the stream all over them. Isavel hissed. “Hail, hold cover! I’m going for the coders.”

  Hail pulled Erran up next to her and ducked behind the stone. Isavel pulled off her tunic, trusting in her skin’s shifting textures and colours and her pathfinder’s brace to help make her a more difficult target. She darted through the woods towards the wreckage.

  Another shot zipped towards her. Damn it. She called up a shield to ward it off. If they didn’t know she was the Saint Herald before, they must now. Any element of surprise was likely gone.

  When she reached the hauler, she found the door twisted and partway open, and heard panicked voices inside. She set a foot against the hull and grabbed at the metal with dragon claws of hard light, keeping her skin safe from the damaged metal. She yanked, and the metal screamed. She pulled again, again, ripping it open, and the coder siblings scrabbled out at her feet.

  “Zoa, Ren, are you -”

  Ren pulled up a gun and fired blindly into the woods. Isavel yanked him down just as a hunter’s blue shot passed where his head had been. Zoa wrestled the gun from his hands and started shouting at him. “Ren stay down! Don’t try to -”

  His eyes widened and he turned to Isavel. “Zoa’s hurt!”

  The blue-haired coder hit him, then groaned, blood dripping down from a gash on her shoulder. It didn’t look as dangerous as the enemy shots probing their position. “Keep her here! She’ll be fine!”

  Another heavy blast struck the hauler. Metal fragments flew through the air. She hauled both of them back as fast she count, flaring out light wings to ease the weight and get them behind more solid cover. Smaller hunter blasts zipped back and forth between Hail and the attackers, but even Isavel could only tell the general direction the shots were coming from.

  Whoever was attacking them might try to flank them. She looked around, keeping her eyes on the woods, and thought she saw human shapes in the distance. Isavel reached over to grab Ren, staring him in the eyes and pushing his gun
back in his hands. “Hold your position! Watch the trees!” She pointed at the attackers. “Just stick the gun out from cover and shoot that way, don’t stick your head out. Keep your sister safe!”

  She scrabbled through the underbrush back to Hail. Bright lights crisscrossed the forest in a narrow webwork spanning the mossy ground and the towering trees. Isavel kept her shield down and took on those barky, mossy textures for herself, crawling as fast as she could along the ground to where Hail was hiding. She flowed over branches and rocks, let leaves and fronds rustle around her, and finally rose to a crouch next to Hail.

  “What have you seen up there?”

  “Almost nothing.” Hail backed up against a tree trunk. “I think they’re in at least four different positions, and I’ve seen them, vaguely, but they’re far off and I can’t get a clear shot through the damned trees.”

  “I’ll handle this.”

  “They have some kind of heavy weapon, I can’t see it clearly.” Hail turned to Isavel, her eyes wide with fear. “Isavel - they must have seen you. They were shooting right at you. Who in their right mind would do that? Even ghosts know to be afraid of you.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they don’t know me. We need to end this either way. I’m going in alone.”

  Hail shook her head. “I swore to protect you; you can’t keep running off. I’m coming too.”

  Isavel hesitated. She trusted Hail, of course, but something was off about this ambush, and she wanted to be able to make critical decisions alone if need be. “Hail, I don’t want you getting yourself killed -”

  Hail cocked her head towards the walker, who had stopped groaning and was fearfully looking up at them both. “I don’t think that would be so bad.”

  Isavel instinctively reached out and grabbed Hail by the jaw. She jerked the hunter’s face forward so her eyes were staring directly into Isavel’s. “Don’t you dare start talking like that. I need you here .”

  “If you need me, let me follow you. If there are too many of them, wouldn’t you rather have me at your back?”

  Isavel would, in fact, rather not have anyone at her back. She didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s death. Perhaps that was her problem, though. She didn’t want to be responsible for anyone or anything, and in trying to keep herself separate she had lost her chance at preventing another war. If she was to do what the gods wanted, if she wanted to get them to finally explain themselves to her, she might need to learn to do things differently.

  She sighed, shaking her head. “Come on - let’s get Erran to the coders. They have weapons.”

  Hail shook her head. “Not that they can use them effectively.”

  “Erran - can you bring us through the walk safely, somehow?”

  He shook his head. “All they’d have to do is aim at the middle of the bubble, even if they can’t see us somehow.”

  “Fine - the hard way, then. Stay behind my shields.”

  Isavel let a shield blossom on her back, a wide interlocking set of hexagons that made her feel like a turtle, grabbed Erran by one shoulder while Hail grabbed the other, and together they hauled him across the forest floor to the coders, heavy weapons bursting electric against her shell. She felt each impact as a flash of fire in her blood, too hot to handle at length. When they reached cover, she let the shield fade and took a deep breath, leaning against the rocks and stuffing a ration into her mouth.

  As Ren and Zoa blindly fired their weapons over the edge of the rockface, Hail looked at Isavel. They had to move fast, or the enemy would advance - if they weren’t doing so already. But Hail was no pathfinder - how were they supposed to do this?

  As weapons continued to rain light down towards them, she grabbed fistfulls of dirt, wet them in the stream, and smeared Hail’s shirt, arms, and face in the stuff. The hunter stayed still and quiet, though goosebumps shivered up her skin and the expression on her face spoke of discomfort. As Isavel camouflaged her, she silently spoke to the gods, keeping the words in her mind.

  Gods on the ring, please keep her safe. I have so few people left.

  She reached up to tie Hail’s golden hair into a muddy bun, stuffing it with leaves.

  “You’re no pathfinder. That’s the most I can do.” Isavel looked over the mud-smeared hunter. “You’ll need to stay low, stay quiet, and not do anything until I start attacking.”

  Hail touched her arm. “I understand. Lead the way.”

  Isavel hesitated for a moment before nodding. She hoped she didn’t regret this. “Okay. Follow me.”

  Even as they slunk through the woods, they had to keep out of the way of stray shots from either side. She could only hope the coders’ erratic gunfire would keep the enemy behind cover for long enough for them to close the distance. Of course, the attackers might be sending warriors or armed pathfinders of their own to close the same distance; things could get ugly if they crossed paths. Tension tingled down her arms to her fingers, to her hunter’s killing gift.

  She darted ahead of Hail, circling around the line of fire, trying find that heavy gun. A tree cracked and toppled as the gun’s operator started trying to blow the coders’ cover away, making it all the more urgent that Isavel reach it. Once they were far enough from the line of fire that the enemy would likely not be looking in their direction, she looked back at Hail and nodded, moving in.

  She came across one of the enemy hunters crouched behind a log, but the hunter didn’t see her approach. People were painfully rigid thinkers - pathfinders never approached for combat, so few bothered keeping a close eye out. It was a lethal mistake; Isavel swept up behind him and pierced him through the chest with a thin white blade of light, catching him as he fell to lower him quietly to the ground. She backed off into the woods. His companions further uphill didn’t seem to notice; she let Hail catch up, speaking once they were in whispering range.

  “When I flash red, start shooting.”

  Hail nodded and Isavel was off again, circling around the back while Hail kept a healthy distance. A wild shot from the coders downhill splintered a branch just above Isavel’s head, raining her with chips of wood. She froze, waited, slowly started moving again.

  She saw human shapes as she approached, quietly and carefully picking her footing. There weren’t many of them, but that gun was still dangerous - a great, flat barrel lined with boxy protrusions, sitting on top of a tripod for stability. A tall man was wielding it, firing into the woods at Isavel’s companions, and three more people were standing by.

  The gunner grumbled something. “I don’t think they’re gifted for this. You two, get ready to go down there. Stay low - I think I saw a warrior.”

  One of his companions shook his head. “Warrior. Right.”

  This agitated the gunner. “Listen, it doesn’t matter - we need to end this. There’s a walker down there!”

  Isavel hurried around to avoid being between Hail and the enemy, and she soon spotted another stray hunter off to the side. Six, one down already. She extended her palm and lanced bright white, striking the woman down.

  “Shit, what was that?”

  “Elora? ”

  Isavel called up a tall shield and a sword, letting red seep into both and casting the wood around her in a fiery gloom. Hail would see it.

  They turned to raise their hands and gifts, but they froze to gape at her for a moment. Even as they did, Hail stood up in the distance and shot two of them in the back at once. The two survivors spun in confusion as Isavel charged in, and she caught the last hunter on her blade as he tried to raise his hand to fire. Hail’s shots rippled off the last warrior’s shields, though, and when he realized he was surrounded he tried to bolt away from them into the woods, shields on both arms.

  Isavel took a deep breath and roared, dragonfire splashing through the woods and enveloping him with a howl. By the time she reached him, a burnt and broken body was all that was left. She didn’t flip him over, lest she see past the charring.

  Silence rushed in all around them.

>   Hail hurried over to her, inspecting the scene and the gun that remained intact. She looked down the hill and shouted. “Hey, all clear!”

  Isavel turned to look at the bodies. Who were these people? She knelt down next to one of them, trying to figure out who might be attacking her in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, with such an ancient weapon at their disposal. As she turned the body over, though, something sprung out at her.

  “Oh shit.”

  Hail frowned and knelt by her. “Isavel? What’s wrong?”

  She pointed down. “Look.”

  Hail’s eyes widened as she saw the turquoise armband on the man’s arm. The colour of Glass Peaks. A quick look revealed they were all wearing them.

  “This can’t be the army.” The thought of it filled Isavel with horror. “We just saw them . They’re too far away.”

  Hail sat down, her eyes wide. She was clenching and unclenching her fist, her face contorted. “They saw you, but they still attacked. They saw you .”

  They had, but that still didn’t explain what they were doing here. Unless they had gotten here before the army. She groaned. “This is why Ada attacked. They must have already been on the island, hunting outers and anyone they thought was a ghost.”

  Suddenly Isavel realized Hail was breathing heavily.

  “Hail?”

  Suddenly the hunter closed her fist and slammed it down onto the dead man’s chest with a dull, wet thunk. Cauterized wounds cracked and spat blood to the side. Hail didn’t care, growling under her breath. “They knew what they were doing -”

  Suddenly they heard voices from lower down the hill. “Everything okay? Can we come up?”

  Isavel and Hail froze, staring at each other. They had both shot these people, humans from Glass Peaks for all they knew. The coders, thanks to their terrible aim, hadn’t.

  Hail was moving before Isavel could even form thoughts about this. She stripped the armband off this corpse and went back to the others. “Let’s hide these.”

  Hide them? Something about this felt more disingenuous than anything else she’d done so far - but Hail’s words were seasoned and her motions fluid. Isavel started cutting one off another body, and raised her voice. “Just let us sweep the area one last time! I thought I heard something.”