by Justin Sloan
“We’ve got an in. The fourth elephant, look for the weeping willow.”
Alice pulled up her wrist map. The fourth elephant meant quadrant E-4, and weeping willow was code for WW—West Ward, a section among the elite part of the station. Perhaps Alice would’ve eventually found herself there in an alternate life, one where her husband was still at her side and they lived up there together, under a New Origins that actually was the wonderful corporation it claimed to be.
Not in this world.
“Be there shortly,” Alice replied into her earpiece. “Keep in with Intrepid and Yerbuna. I want this all to go down smooth as pumpkin ice cream.”
“Pumpkin?” Swinger’s voice came from across the room and in her ear. “I was always partial to pralines and cream.”
“Bah, that’s old school,” Oliver said. “You know they serve modern stuff now, right? Tried the new flavors on deck six? They have horchata with a swirl of raspberry, or you can do ginger and mint. Now that’s a combo.”
“Eck,” came more than one response, though it sounded damn good to Alice.
“Can we all focus?” she said, shaking her head but unable to hide the smile.
She turned to the team, picking up one of the small devices they called ‘the eyes.’ It was devised to block local signals and enhance outer ones, giving her team priority on the inside. She hoped to get one close enough to the enemy servers to allow her team extra access.
“Each of you has your role to play, just be ready. Eyes and ears, right? Find those leeches if you can, clear whatever firewalls you discover, and get all the information we can.”
“Count on us, boss,” Swinger said, pulling a pack of caffeinated gum from his shirt pocket and setting it beside his keyboard. His trademark move. She’d almost forgotten how tired she was.
“I know we’re exhausted,” she continued. “The last twenty-four hours have been intense. But remember, this isn’t just one job. This is the start of a war.”
“Is she always like this?” Yerbuna asked with a laugh.
“Usually she has Scorpio here to cheer her on,” Intrepid replied.
“Screw you all, just don’t mess this up.” Alice finished suiting up, putting on a uniform of blue and gray, the closest she could get to what the PD forces wore under their armor. If she were spotted in this, at least they wouldn’t be immediately suspicious of her.
With that, she gave them a nod, then headed out. As much as breaking into a place like the dome worried her, walking through the West Ward felt worse. The memories it could recall weren’t welcome at a time like this.
15
Stealth: Taipan Chambers
Having found the training room empty, Stealth had ended up spending much of his evening training by himself. He worked his way across the various pillars at first, where Tropical had challenged him, and then found a weight room complete with sparring dummies to practice his hand-to-hand combat.
When he was worn out and his forearms hurt from working the wooden dummy—having taken his gear off to train his body without the rest of the equipment—he geared back up and started over in the main room again. Halfway across, the lights went out and the space simulation turned on. He spun, eyes searching, and then spotted Nightshade at the entrance.
“Don’t let me stop you,” she called out. “But you should be training with the full sim.”
“Yes, sir.”
He turned and was about to jump, when he heard her land on a pillar and shout out, “Let’s see if you can make it to the end before me.”
“Roger that.”
Even though he was halfway across, he didn’t doubt for a minute that this would be a challenge. A spaceship surged up and shots pierced the darkness, narrowly missing Stealth’s chest as he threw himself to the side. Next he was pouncing up to grab a rope, which he used to run along the simulation wall in the form of an asteroid. He leapt to the next pillar, releasing the rope and using thrusters to push himself the last couple of feet.
He looked back and realized checking on her status was a mistake. She was already only two pillars behind him, dammit. He flung himself forward with less regard for his safety, eager to make a good impression. More shots barely missed his head, but he wasn’t worrying about them now. If he moved fast enough, they wouldn’t be able to track him.
Scrambling at the edge of a pillar that was too far out there, he pulled himself up and then heard a crunch before he felt the pain. A boot was on his finger, he realized. And then he was falling before he had time to register the laughter.
That evil bitch.
He fell and landed in the puff of air, hovering for a moment before shaking it off and leaping up to continue the course.
“Do try to keep your hand out of my boot’s way next time,” Nightshade called out. “Oh, and by the way…” As soon as Stealth had reached the top of the closest pillar, the lights went on. She was standing at the end, hand on her hip. “… you lost.”
He ran and jumped, barely touching down on the next pillar to get just enough momentum to make it the rest of the way.
“Not by much,” he replied.
“Not by much out there still means you’re dead.” She took off her helmet, not at all what he’d expected. He wasn’t sure what he had expected, but not the woman in her mid-fifties, or maybe even early sixties, who stood before him. She had brown hair pulled back in a bun, hard features that were both pretty and intimidating at the same time, and wrinkles around the eyes and neck that gave away her age.
“Thank you,” he said with a bow of his head. “For training me, I mean.”
“And thank you for doing your job,” she said with a confident laugh, nodding for him to join her as she walked, “since you thanked me for doing mine.”
He glanced over again, and she raised an eyebrow. “Don’t think you’re the first to be surprised by my age, son. Not many kids nowadays equate age and wisdom with prowess on the battlefield, but that’s because they’re young and stupid. With modern technology like the enhancements and these suits, wisdom often becomes the deciding factor in a fight.”
This time it was a real lesson, so he nodded his appreciation. “I’m not exactly a kid.”
“It’s all relative, but no, you’re not. You’ve been through your share of battles. I read your file, naturally.”
“I… have a file?” He wanted to kick himself for sounding like such an idiot. “I mean, where? I haven’t seen my own file, you know.”
“And you won’t, for various reasons. Did you know they won’t even let me see my own file?” She laughed, though this laugh had a hint of scorn in it. “Hell, I’m leading the elite of the elite up here, and they don’t even want me to know what I was before this. I’m supposed to feed you all this story about how it’s not where you’ve been. You know all that, though, right? It’s where you’re about to go, what you do next. What you help accomplish for Earth’s destiny, for New Origins. But I’m a straight shooter, and I’ll tell you right now that I don’t buy into that for one minute. There isn’t much I remember from before signing up, but I’ll tell you for damn sure that I didn’t agree to having my memory taken away.”
This type of honesty was certainly a welcome surprise. Still, that didn’t mean he could trust her. He decided to throw out the bait and find what he could.
“So, if given a chance…?”
“Would I what?” She led him out of the training room, removing her exoskeleton, and gestured for him to do the same. “Would I go against orders to learn what I think should be mine to begin with?” She shook her head. “I’m a soldier, Stealth, as are you. Duty to Earth and New Origins above self, right?”
“Yes, sir. Of course.” He tried not to let the fact that he was let down show on his face. Was he such a bad person for wanting answers? For craving the truth?
Now that they both had their exoskeletons off, she gestured toward a circle on the floor and smiled.
“You want to spar?” he asked, eyes darting over to her exoskeleton.
“Sir—”
“Just get in here and do your best, that’s an order.” She held out her hands, leaving herself exposed, and said, “Try and hit me. I mean to prove to you the value of the advanced enhancements you’re about to receive. Show you the difference, so you can see firsthand why you need them.”
“And the memories, sir?”
She shrugged, then stepped up and said, “Doesn’t matter. Hit. Me.”
Remembering who he was and who it was he was up against, pushing the fact that this could be his mother out of his mind, he took up an offensive stance and began circling her.
When he came in with a left jab, she knocked it aside. Again he struck, this time with a one-two combination.
“For all of our sakes,” she said as she swatted the first and blocked the second, then followed it up with a punch to his gut that sent him stumbling back, wheezing, “I hope you’ve got more than this when up against an enemy.”
“But, sir…” he started, only to see the anger flash in her eyes.
Dammit, he wasn’t going to let her think he was a better fit outside of her unit. Standing tall, he moved to the balls of his feet and came in with a fake kick that he readjusted and brought around to land a strike on her thigh. Then he caught her with an elbow before she blocked and swept out his legs.
He landed with a thud on the floor, and she was on him in an instant, moving faster than most soldiers in their twenties were capable of. Pinning his arm into a side-armbar, her own arm pressed up against his head, she smiled.
“Not bad, but you’ll have to do better than that.”
“I will, sir. Let me show you.”
She laughed. “Please do, but you’re already mentally gone if you think I’m just going to release you. First escape, then by all means, show me.”
He thrust with his hips, grunting, and tried to roll into the armbar to break free. She moved to his back, instead wrapping his neck in a chokehold, then pulling him up and over when he tried to counter that.
Again he hit the ground with a thud, but this time he rolled aside, breaking free before she had a chance to act again.
“There we go,” she said, leaping up and into a take-down stance, “thinking with your head. Keep it up.”
The choice of words sent him back to the shower and Trish, who had ended with the words ‘Keep your head up.’ He blinked, trying to push the thought aside. Too late. Nightshade was on him, lifting him up to slam him back on the ground.
“Dammit!” he shouted on instinct, as she worked his arms and then his legs for locks. Every time he broke from one, she had another, until he gave up and went for the strike. She pushed his arm aside and dodged away from the kick, then brought her leg up swiftly and down, right for his groin.
CRACK!
He froze, staring at her, then slowly lifted his head. Her boot was on the floor between his legs, a dent in the wood made from the impact.
“Out there,” she said, with a nod to let him know he could stand, “you’d never have a chance at having kids again.”
“That was terrifying,” he admitted as he stood, hand checking down there to ensure he had all of his pieces still.
“You need more?” she asked.
He shook his head, very aware of the drops of sweat moving down his temples. A phantom pain hit his stomach, even though he hadn’t actually been hit in the groin.
“I believe you.”
“Good. Trish will handle you, then. I actually came looking for you to tell you it was time, but this way was immensely more fun. I might make it standard practice.”
“Please do, so I’m not the only sucker to be put through that.”
She laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll do fine here with the Taipans, Stealth. Keep up the good work. When you’re done with Trish, hit the rack for the night. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“Roger that, sir.” He saw Trish approaching, and when he looked back, Nightshade was already walking off through the door.
“Having fun, or nearly getting yourself killed?” Trish asked.
“Both.”
She smiled at that and nodded. “Sounds like the boss. Come on, we’ve got a room up here. No need for heading over to medical for this.”
Moving up a set of white stairs that slid out from the wall, he felt an urge to run out of there and abandon all of this. That happened, sometimes. Usually he did his best to ignore it, but more than once he had found himself standing at the edge of the platform that led to the space elevator down to Tokyo. Of course, with the robotics and advanced policing network in Japan these days, defectors rarely made it. If he were going to run someday, being smuggled out on a ship was a more likely route.
But run to what? He had no answers to that question. And like Nightshade said, when he wasn’t full of doubt, he remembered that he must have signed up for this for a reason. He knew that much. He sensed the thrill that still lingered in his heart at the idea of being part of this space endeavor, at having the opportunity to be one of the first to know what they found out here.
If they ever found anything, anyway.
The room she took him to was like he was used to, with a see-through pod that had various plugs going into it from the sides. He’d be punctured, he knew from witnessing it more than once, but he would also receive one of the benefits of the enhancements. By the time he exited the pod, he would be healed up. Good as new, and stronger in many ways.
“Go ahead and undress,” Trish said, starting to fidget with the machine, checking the settings on a screen that appeared where his face would later be. He was glad to see that the glass was fogged over in the places that mattered, but still sighed as he began to undress. It wasn’t that he was shy, but that this particular woman had already noticed and commented on him being nude once today. Doctors and nurses at least pretended not to notice, and certainly didn’t say anything while you were there. The moment you left, though, who knew what they would say.
But another teammate? At least in the Marines, everyone had talked, joking and playing around. For some reason, that memory hadn’t left. Maybe only the important ones did?
Up here, it wasn’t such a crude group. Or at least the other PD section hadn’t been.
He finished undressing, all but his boxer briefs, and set his folded uniform on the chair nearby. When he turned to her, ready to go, she gave him a look and sighed. “Really, you’re going to make me say it? Can’t have fabrics interfering. Not like I haven’t seen it all before, and hey, I showed you mine.”
“To be fair, I wasn’t looking,” he said as he turned and finished stripping bare, then turned back to her, standing with his hands at his side.
“You had your chance and, for the love…” She shook her head, then pressed the rim of the pod so it opened. “Stealth, it’s not an inspection. You can cover yourself with your hands if you really want to. Until you’re in the pod, at least.”
“Why is it you have such a skill at making me blush?” he asked as he covered himself and stepped into the pod.
“It isn’t a crush thing,” she replied with a wink, “or you would’ve been checking me out more back there. I also noticed a clear decline in arousal when I entered the showers. Nude, I might add… Gotta say, you confuse me.”
“Do we have to talk about it?”
She laughed. “Better to address the elephant trunk in the room.”
“Oh my God.” He hung his head, biting his lip to not laugh. “Did you just…?”
“Not talking about it, roger that.” She held a finger to her lips, then checked over the screen at her wrist—a holographic image that emerged with a motion. She touched several buttons on it, then turned to him again, serious now. “Ready?”
“Am I going to remember who I am when this is over?”
She frowned. “You mean, remember wh
o you are as much as you remember at this moment, or what you might have once remembered?”
“Either?”
“Sorry, probably not.”
“Didn’t anyone ever stop to ask if all of this is safe?” he asked. “I mean, what if we’re causing irreversible brain damage here? Is that the price of a super soldier? Make us faster, stronger… without emotion, thoughts, or feelings?”
“You might be without emotions, but not me.” She started to close the lid, but paused. “That was it, huh? You were thinking about someone from before. You actually remember.”
“Not entirely,” he admitted, feeling the chill of the room come over him. “And you? Nothing at all? Maybe… blurry somethings?”
She shook her head. “Well, actually… cherry blossoms.”
“Cherry blossoms?”
“Yes, and sunlight, arms wrapped around me. I think it was my mom, wishing me off. Even that, though, I don’t fully recall. What if I promised them I’d call every day, and now I can’t because I don’t know they exist? What if…. Oh, God, I’m so sorry.” She looked at his chest, bare but for his light hair. His nipples were hard from the cold, little goose pimples all over. “You’ll be warm when the process starts. I’d better—”
“Wait.”
She paused. “Yeah?”
“Is there a way?” he asked. “A way to get access to our files?”
A look of worry crossed her face and her eyes darted to the door. “Tell you what, if you remember this conversation when you wake up, come find me. But not in here… during break, maybe. In the main hall.”
He blinked at that, wondering what she might know and wanting to keep the conversation going, but she had the pod door closed. Her blue eyes stared at him and he thought he saw a hint of a tear form just as he smelled the aroma he’d grown used to from these pods—mint, almost. Maybe a hint of licorice. And then he was out.
16
Alice: The Dome
Clear of the Titanian hideout and well around the station so as to avoid suspicion, Alice hopped onto one of the space station’s travel pods. These were floating, magnetized connected ovals that made the rounds, dropping people off at their jobs or taking them home. They had ones for the miners and others for the groups that went to places like the West Ward. She was riding in the latter at the moment. It carried its passengers past the vast windows that showed views of space, and they were lucky enough to be in a rotation that showed Earth, at the moment.
