Second Contact

by Guerric Haché, Keezy Young

  “Watch it! I almost hit the wall!”

  “Sorry!”

  The tank was remarkably speedy, picking its way through the ruins, past the blast Isavel had left behind and to the wall. The watchers were still abuzz, swarming and staring angrily over the wall, but they turned their glares at the tank as it approached.

  “Erran - Erran, shoot -”

  The tank’s weapons were already chewing away at the watchers, plucking each of them out of the air with a bang and sending bursts of curved metal fragments in every direction. They burst like little blueberries under the gunfire, plump and messy.

  A few of the watchers managed to shoot first, though, and Isavel’s shields proved unnecessary - the beams of heat splashed harmlessly against a shell-like bubble shield, a grid of blue hexagons that flickered into visibility only as the weapons hit, much like a dragon’s. The tank soon picked the last of them off, leaving shattered arcs of metal under an eery silence.

  Isavel stood up, balancing on the tank as it walked towards the wall, and held up a shield. After a moment she saw a shape appear from behind the scorched ruins, and Hail stepped out to raise a hand at her in silent greeting. She didn’t look like anybody had died.

  Still, they were far enough away that Isavel wasn’t sure they would hear her, so she gestured to the side. Hail seemed to get the picture, beckoning the coders out. They were wary, but they were all alive. Good. She leaned down towards the entrance into the tank.

  “Erran, they’re good. Take down the wall.”

  The tank chewed through the wall without much difficulty at all, slamming its way through with its great metal claw-feet. As it did, Isavel looked down into the vehicle and saw Erran sitting there. He was fidgeting, glancing around impatiently even as the tank did its work.

  “Erran.”

  He looked up. “What?”

  She nodded. “Can you slip away before anyone gets here?”

  He blinked, and nodded eagerly. “Uh, yeah, sure. So you’re actually letting me go?”

  “I said I would.” She saw the relief on his face. “And if we don’t have enough people to walk all the tanks back at once, that’ll delay them a bit more. Get out of here and don’t let anyone see you. I don’t want to have to manage your escape in front of everyone.”

  The thousand worlds flickered around him briefly, in an unusually small bubble, and she saw him land on the ground, almost immediately helped up by Tevoria’s waiting hand. Then they vanished, the bubble of the thousands worlds around him disappeared again, and the tank was empty.

  True to his word, then. As far as Isavel could tell, all he had wanted was to not be hurt.

  As the other three climbed down the ruin, cautiously peering around the ruined walls, she smiled. She hopped down and stood before them.

  “Thanks everyone. There are four more of these things, so we’ll need to make two trips since we can’t pilot all of them. Just follow the clawprints, and grab anything else you want.”

  Zoa and Ren were already nodding and moving off together, gingerly stepping through the wall. Hail, meanwhile, looked around. “I thought there were five of us. Where did the ghost go?”

  Isavel heard the edge in the hunter’s voice, and kept her face neutral. “I let him go. As per our deal.”

  Hail glanced at her and nodded. “Of course, I remember. I imagine he wouldn’t want to get too close to the army.”

  “No. Besides, this way we can encourage the army to wait for us to collect the rest of these things.” She grimaced. “And I really don’t want to drive one, at all.”

  Hail laid her hand on one of the six claws planted in the ground. “That makes two of us.”

  “Then we’ll send more coders to get the rest. I like that plan. I’m sure Zoa and Ren will have fun with them, though.”

  “Fun?” Hail grinned. “Whatever works for them, I suppose. We bring these back, test them for a while to hopefully give Ada time to evacuate the city… then what?”

  Isavel bit her lip. “If there’s a battle, we fight. Try to end it quickly, for everyone’s sake.”

  “And then?”

  Isavel didn’t know. She sighed. “The gods told me I’d learn what I needed to learn if I defended the city. I’ll ask them. Maybe I’ll finally figure out… why. Why all of this is happening.”

  Hail nodded quietly. She looked further out into the ruins, where two more of the tanks were slowly ambling through the ruined streets. Once these relics left the ruins, and everything else was pillaged, time would reclaim this place. Without watchers it would fall to decay and the weeds and the tides, one more piece of the past scattered and vanished. Hopefully it would be worth it.

  “I saw you glowing in there, bright white with angel wings.”

  Isavel glanced at Hail and rolled her eyes. “As usual.”

  Hail raised her eyebrows. “You’re something special, Isavel. Something unique. Everyone is unique, of course, but you are… more. I can see why you might struggle with it. I hope the gods give you real answers this time.”

  Her smirk faded, and she breathed a sigh. It was nice to hear that recognition, at least. She didn’t even know what she had done with that watcher - just another thing to give her a title, another random act of the gods. Strange, mystical powers meant little in the face of an increasingly impossible task like preventing a war and saving hundreds of lives, and the shifting, dark uncertainty of the purpose of her new life.

  Still. Did Hail really understand that?

  They climbed onto the tanks Zoa and Ren were commanding, riding along as the relics started clawing their way away from the ruins. Isavel turned to look back. Smoke was still rising from the ruins, but the blue glow was gone, and Isavel was struck by a sense of death.

  Hail frowned at her. “Isavel? What’s wrong?”

  Isavel sighed, shaking her head. “Those watchers maintained the ruins, you know. Kept it intact. They’re gone, now. Like everywhere else. Over time, more and more of it all falls to ruin.”

  Hail pursed her lips. “ They fall to ruin - the ancients. We keep going.”

  She nodded, watching the ruins recede into the past.

  The tanks clawed their way through woods and meadows until they reached where the army was setting up camp. It had been a long and apparently hurried journey, so they would need all the rest they could get before they struck out at Campus tomorrow. The six-legged tanks stomped into view, impressing and frightening people in equal measure, but Isavel stood beside them as she presented them to the elders, and that seemed to calm people. Mother Jera even smiled and patted her on the shoulder, while Dendre looked at the machines with a hint of boyish glee and Elder Magan continued nervously wringing his hands. Nobody was concerned or stand-offish, and they all agreed they should take the time to recover the rest of the tanks.

  Still, Isavel got the impression they were not keen on waiting much longer after that. Dendre’s eyes, when they met hers, spoke similar concerns. Zoa and Ren joined the other coders in search of more pilots - after all, why not let otherwise harmless coders make themselves deadly in the tanks? She hoped they would avoid the field of battle, if there was indeed to be a battle, but after they disappeared she had little say in the matter.

  All she could do was rest, and wait, and hope Ada understood what was about to happen. Hope that tomorrow, if the world was to be a battlefield, they could find each other.

  She and Hail found tent supplies, and Isavel, still a bit leery of the crowds after several days in the forest, moved to the edge of camp. They each set up their separate tents under an oak tree as the tanks spread out, a row of sentinels between the army and the faint, distant lights of Campus finally visible at night. Something frantic and prickling built up in her chest as she looked out into the evening, the laps of a rising tide of chaos slowly drawing towards her from the ocean. It made her thirsty.

  As night pulled in, Isavel withdrew to her tent, alone, and pulled out the locator stone, watching its glow.

  Cha
pter 15

  Ada looked at the locator stone and stood up, shaking a little. The sun was bleeding out into the ocean, the Chengdu ’s maps had the enemy camped just a quick march away, and the alien shuttle was due to land for the first time tomorrow morning. The world was about to change, unmooring everything Ada had known up until now. She would need to escape, to find something new, to rebuild.

  She wasn’t going to get another chance at this.

  She found Tanos and Sam sitting on the city wall, huddled close and quiet in the shadow of tomorrow. She cleared her throat, and they looked at her. “I’m heading out there.” She was holding the stone between her thumb and index fingers, its pale blue glow drawing their gaze. “If I’m not back when the fighting starts, just… get the hell out of here. Okay?”

  Tanos and Sam nodded silently, and Sam offered a gentle smile, reaching out to touch Ada’s hand. “ Good luck .”

  Half of Ada’s mouth curved up into a smile. Good luck for what? She barely even knew.

  She eased herself down the wall, not wanting to bother the gatekeepers, and raised an open palm in goodbye. She hoped she’d see them again, but her concrete plans for the future ended tonight. Tomorrow had gone feral.

  She did her best to be quiet, picking her way west through the meadows and forests and ruins, towards the dying flickers of the day and the locator stone’s pulse. Following the light. She crept along the ruins of the southern shore, caught between the living breath of the sea and dead echos of the old world. As she moved further west, her stone slowly started pointing north. She followed. By the time she was within sight of the army, night had fallen.

  Strange, ancient silhouettes with heavy metal legs stood watch in a clearing, so Ada kept her distance. Pathfinders and hunters alike were on the lookout, but her suit shifted colours to match the terrain around her, with a turquoise armband for good measure. Still, she shrouded herself in dark code to be safe. The code did nothing, but the cloud of sigils it broke her shapes and hopefully absorbed some of the heat that might otherwise give her away. She walked barefoot, feeling the cool grass and the hard rocks and roots, unwilling to risk the crunch of a boot.

  She had no idea how she was going to reach Isavel, in the middle of that army.

  As she approached, having circled wide around a line of sentries that only really stood between the army and Campus, she started to see the locator stone grow more sensitive. To the left, to the right. As she came within sight of tents and the flickering of fire, within earshot of the shouting and laughing, she watched the indicator point to her left.

  Not in the army? She looked left and saw two tents, widely spaced and far from the rest, under the canopy of a broad oak. The locator stone pointed her to the one furthest from the army. Perhaps she wouldn’t need to endanger herself after all.

  Her heart was racing. Why? It was Isavel. She was safe. She shouldn’t be nervous.

  As she approached, the awkward lumps of rock and dirt under her bare feet suddenly ached, and the faint padding of her feet beat like drums. She checked the locator stone again, just to make sure. Heat flashed across the back of her neck. She crouched down quietly by the tent, trying to listen.

  The tent flap immediately pulled back, and Isavel stared Ada in the face. Ada almost burst out laughing. “Gods! I should have known.”

  Isavel flashed a confused smile, keeping her voice low. Right, the other tent. “Known what?”

  “That I couldn’t fucking sneak up on you.” She still felt startled and outwitted, but found herself smiling. “You’re too good.”

  Isavel grabbed Ada by the wrist and pulled her in, closing the tent flap behind her. Ada knelt down on a fur that covered the ground, a perfunctory concession to civilization. There was little else here, and Isavel knelt back down in front of Ada, deeper in the tent. Their eyes met, and the lines around Isavel’s face relaxed. “I was hoping you’d find me.”

  Ada smiled. “I know.” Wait, what? “Wait, I mean - er - me too. You have my gun, and it looks like there will be fighting.”

  Isavel’s grin faltered a bit. “Right, of course.” She reached into a pack behind her and pulled out the weapon. “Here. Sorry I didn’t return it to you earlier.”

  Ada’s eyes only briefly touched on the gun, travelling instead up Isavel’s muscular arms, to her solid shoulders, her brown mane of hair and… her expression was much softer, almost ashamed. Ada’s cheeks heated up a bit, and she laughed nervously.

  “No, I don’t - ” She reached out, grabbed the gun, and set it aside. “I don’t care about the gun, you idiot.”

  Isavel looked briefly stunned, and then laughed and suppressed that laugh in almost the same breath. “You’re jittery. Is everything okay in Campus? I thought you would have left by now, but… it was too fast, wasn’t it?”

  Ada heard plenty of Isavel’s own jitteriness in those words. “I don’t know. According to their plans, it’s all fine, and they’ll be gone within the day. But I don’t know if that’s fast enough, and I don’t know what to do when this is over.”

  Isavel bit her lip and reached out to lay a hand on her knee. “I know how you feel.”

  Ada could believe it. If anybody could understand, who else but Isavel? Isavel’s eyes looked tired, but Ada knew she could handle whatever was happening to her.

  The stone that held the technophage cure on it shifted in her suit, and a part of Ada’s mind skirted practical matters. How was she supposed to code something onto Isavel? How should she ask that?

  Maybe that could wait, for now. “Isavel, are you okay? You look tired.”

  Her eyes flickered north, and something like fear crossed her eyes. “The gods promised me I’d understand my place in the world if I protected people, and I’ve been trying , but… there’s only so long I can work against people for their own good. I’m frustrated. I need to know what I’m here for.”

  Ada scowled, remembering how callously the gods had treated even her, their supposed Arbiter. “Fuck the gods. They’ve done nothing but get us into trouble from the start. They’re picking on us.”

  Isavel looked delighted and horrified at once. “I - well - I can see why you’d say that. You’re not exactly pious.”

  “Hell no. Unlike you, Holy Sister Isavel of Earth and the Moon.”

  Isavel snorted in laughter. “The moon? Seriously.”

  “Why not?” When it came to religion, it was all the same as far as Ada was concerned. “Are you sure that’s not in there somewhere already? Gods, I can’t even get them all straight.”

  Isavel sighed. “Saint Herald Isa -”

  Ada reached over and tapped her leg. “I didn’t come out here to see the Glorious Angelic Herald of Ghosteating - Dragonblood - whatever.” She bit her lip. “Just Isavel.”

  Isavel laughed at the procession of absurd titles, genuinely, looking away and trying to muffle it. “Why come all the way out here to see just Isavel?”

  Ada thought about the stone, the code, and how she could possible say it. She could - maybe she could just slow time down and code it onto her, without -

  She stopped herself. No, that was ridiculous. That wasn’t why she was here. She took a deep breath. “This is going to sound weird, but I… I want to code something on you.”

  Isavel’s mouth hung open for a bit, her smile turning to a frown. “Um. What?”

  “I - there’s a… a weapon that lives in every human in the world. Except me. It brings us all kinds of problems, like overwhelming children. It’s a curse. And I - well, because I don’t know what’s happening to me tomorrow, I want to make sure somebody else is free of it, too.”

  Isavel looked down. “So you are here for the Saint Herald.”

  Ada’s eyes widened, and she reached out to grab Isavel’s hand before it was pulled away. “No! I barely even know what any of those titles mean. I’m here for you, Isavel.”

  They locked eyes. “Why me, Ada?”

  “Because I trust you . And if I die, or if I fuck this up… I trust
you’ll be able to use this, somehow, to help people.”

  “I see. Well, what do you want me to do?”

  “I - well - it’s complicated.” Her eyes followed the curves of Isavel’s neck and shoulders. “I’ll need to code it somewhere you can hide it, so people don’t ask you awkward questions.”

  Isavel raised an eyebrow, a hint of a smile returning. “Our little secret.”

  “Yeah.” Ada swallowed. “If you’re okay with that.”

  Isavel bit her lip. “I could stand to have a few secrets with someone.”

  “I’m open for secrets.” For a moment Ada didn’t even realise the oddness of the phrase, but she soon saw Isavel’s bemusement. “I mean, you know, I’d be happy to -” She blinked. What the hell was she trying to say? “I love, you know, secrets, they’re very interesting -”

  Isavel was laughing again, her eyes squeezed shut and her fist covering her mouth, trying not to make any sounds. Ada’s entire face was on fire. She was such an idiot. If she could avoid eye contact, it would be okay. She would calm down. She just had to avoid looking at Isavel’s eyes, or her legs, or her - well -

  Isavel took her hands.

  Ada looked up.

  “Ada, you’re ridiculous.”

  She laughed nervously, looking up and down Isavel’s face. Looking someone in the eyes wasn’t usually comfortable, but Ada didn’t want to look away. She could feel sweat in Isavel’s palms. Why? “I know.”

  Isavel’s eyes flicked up and down. “So, before we inevitably die tomorrow, you want to code something on me? Is that really all you’re here for?”

  Ada’s eyes dropped, sliding down Isavel’s neck, to the pathfinder brace that held her breasts in place, to her bare midriff, and the slightly loose fabric around her waist. Isavel had a hand on her arm, squeezing her bicep a little.

  “Well, I -”

  Ada looked up, and saw Isavel’s eyes also rise to meet hers. For a brief moment she felt like she was looking at a wild animal, about to pounce.

  Then Isavel had thrown her flat against the ground, and was hovering just barely above Ada’s face. She looked her in the eyes. “Tell me I’m right.”