Exigency

by Michael Siemsen

  Tom bolted forward and grappled with the tentacles. He shrieked, “Get off! Let go!” and seized the utility knife clipped to his suit, flicking the short blade open. “I said get off!” he screamed, and swiped the blade across two coiled limbs. Skinny simply unwrapped an arm and whipped Tom in the face.

  “Watch,” Skinny said, and her body trembled for an instant before abruptly compressing, with a muffled crunch, as if an inflated balloon had popped inside her body.

  Aether choked, “No …”

  Angela crumpled to the ground as Skinny unwrapped herself. “Take their weapons!”

  Tom gagged and emit a despairing little squeak as his knees buckled and gave way.

  Seekapock grabbed Aether and Qin, wrapping arms low around the waist.

  Skinny stood tall and walked before them, proudly. “Now here is one less Orange People. Now you help Seekapock kill Threck. You do what I say.”

  Aether glowered at Skinny. Eye and fone blurred with stinging tears, throat so dry and tight it felt like it would turn to dust and drop into her stomach, hands throbbing as they spread wide open at her sides, her locked elbows joined the protests blaring from the rest of her joints. Her captor tightened her grip, and Aether’s fingers began numbing. She wrote to the beat of her pounding temples—one letter per jolt—until the message was complete.

  “Now, we understand the Seekapock struggle. We all agree to join the fight against Threck, and we will happily do what you say.”

  Hysterical, and trapped in an endlessly cycling sob, Tom dragged himself to Angela’s lifeless body, raising a tentative hand above her arm, hesitating there as if a touch might startle her.

  Skinny displayed no outward skepticism at Aether’s reversal. “Good. This is what I wish. Now, we will go to kill Eeahso and loyal four.”

  Aether stood and waited, still restrained by the Seekapock behind her. She glanced down at Tom. His MW remained in its holster on his hip. Behind her, to the right, she caught a glimpse of Qin in the same bind as her, but with fingers wrapped firmly around his holstered MW.

  QIN: The second my arm is free I’m taking out that one.

  AETHER: Not if I get her first.

  Skinny stopped pacing and regarded Aether for a moment, as if there may be some source of concern when she and Qin were freed. “They let you free, what you do?”

  “I follow Skinny to Eeahso and kill Eeahso. When you say.”

  Skinny pointed to Qin. “And this one. Do what I say also?”

  “Yes,” Aether assured.

  Skinny peered down at Tom, face buried in Angela’s side, muttering garbled words. Aether felt a new wave of panic.

  AETHER: Tom, get up right now and pull yourself together. Fake it goddammit.

  He didn’t respond.

  “This one wants that one not dead,” Skinny said, pointing at Tom. “Will it want to kill Skinny?”

  Aether could feel the tentacles at her waist slowly loosening, a tiny bit every few seconds.

  “Absolutely not. Orange People do not think for themselves. We only serve our leader.”

  “You kill for leader. … Who is leader?” Skinny said with a [Thrilled] modifier: I already know the answer, I want to hear you say it.

  “You are leader,” Aether said. Skinny laughed, and Aether felt as though she could almost execute the murderous creature using only the power of malicious thought.

  Skinny pointed at Tom, who lay deflated and hardly moving. “This one say who is leader. Andela say it.”

  Aether winced. “This one is Tom. Tom is asleep now and will not awaken until sunrise.”

  “Yes, Tom. I say this one may sleep.” Skinny pointed over Aether’s shoulder. “This one is Qin … then … Andela is dead one?”

  Aether kept her eyes fixed on Skinny’s. “Yes.” She sent Qin the phrase before he was called to recite the pledge of loyalty.

  Aether’s arms gained more wiggle room beneath the Seekapock’s light grip.

  Skinny stepped before Qin. “Qin say who is leader.”

  Qin sent the message through his PA. “You are leader.”

  “Let them free!” the benevolent Skinny proclaimed.

  The arms around Aether and Qin uncoiled, falling out of sight behind them.

  Aether pumped her hands open and closed. “Let the killing begin.”

  2.8

  Arms free, Aether wrapped her fingers around her MW, felt the rapid double-buzz confirming activation, and pulled it from the holster. A tap of the thumb engaged the lethal setting. She aimed as Skinny began walking away, spouting off magnanimous nonsense that rolled unread through Aether’s Livetrans.

  She sent Qin a last-minute order.

  AETHER: Non-lethal on any others.

  QIN: What why

  AETHER: Because I said.

  QIN: Fine

  The multirounds left Aether’s barrel at supersonic speed—three shots in the span of one second. Aether blinked upon firing, and as her eyes reopened, a cloud of blood, organ matter, and endoshell fragments had already sprayed out the other side of Skinny’s face. The macerated body launched forward, legs yanked from the ground, arms flinging backward, trailing Skinny’s descent toward the mud pit like streamers from a kite. A splash. Tentacles floundered and coiled reflexively.

  Behind her, Aether heard rapidfire pulses from Qin’s MW. She spun to see two convulsing Seekapock already on the ground as Qin dove with outstretched arm to reach a third, retreating guard. Two more on the right, near Tom and Angela, hesitated with bronze-tipped Threck weapons dithering before them. The tip of Qin’s MW grazed one of the fleer’s legs, and the shock could be seen traveling up the tentacle like a mouse scurrying through a tube sock. The beneficiary seized and joined her writhing friends on the ground.

  Aether thumbed the toggle and sent a non-lethal round flying toward one of the still-faltering guards. As she’d hoped, the expanded projectile didn’t break skin, impacting between the siphons with what probably felt like the force of a supersonic grape. Another one down.

  “Drop your weapon!” Aether blasted from her PA.

  The last remaining guard tossed the curved spear aside and thrust both arms down and out in a gesture of peace. In the distance, Aether heard the sounds of clanking metal. She peered out beyond the emptying mud pit—panicked Seekapock bathers running wildly from the scene—and saw that even the guards at the far side had given up their weapons, some joining the escaping masses, while others parroted the peace sign.

  Aether’s gaze returned to the frightened one in front of her. What now? She hadn’t thought much about what would happen after killing Skinny. All advice from her beseeching conscience had been thrust aside, eclipsed by pain and rage and blood. Now, the voice of reason slowly emerged, a timid head peeking from behind a wall: May I come out? And Aether felt a rush of fear and doubt. What had she done? What would be the consequences? Again … what now?

  She looked down at Tom and Angela. Tom’s big hand rested on Angela’s blood-matted hair. He stared up at Aether—mystified, lost—a shell-shocked child in the middle of a battlefield.

  And then Aether’s brain kicked in, like a spinning engine wheel catching on a gear, and clarity returned; options and next steps presented themselves, reorganizing into a bulleted list. Her ears reactivated. The docile Seekapock guard stood muttering untranslatable sounds as Qin held his MW muzzle close to her side, his eyes appearing to await some answer from Aether. Her focus returned to Tom and she held out her hand to him. He seemed to ponder the hand for a second, then reached up and took it, long legs unfolding beneath him, boots searching for traction—learning anew to stand in a world with no Angela. Fully upright, he swayed a moment until finding balance, rolling his red eyes and sallow face down toward Aether. A thick bar of Angela’s blood stretched from one of his ears, across his cheek, to a small red circle perfectly centered at the tip of his nose.

  Aether reached up and casually swiped away most of the blood with the back of her glove, then cradled both of his cheeks
in her palms. “We’re going to leave this place now, sweetie. Okay? You stay close to me.” He blinked mechanically and nodded. She turned her head to Qin. “I’m so sorry, honey, but I need you to do something really difficult.” Qin’s face was already wracked, yet compliant. “I need you to take care of her … head, get her wrapped up, and carry her to our EV.”

  “I’ll … Yeah, I can get her … ready, but, I don’t know if I can, um—”

  “I’ll carry her,” Tom said with a soft, shaky voice. Aether looked up at him. “It should be me anyway.”

  Qin used wraps from a medkit to cover Angela’s head, then carefully slid on her helmet, attaching it to her suit and sealing the visor. He took her MW and utility belt, stuffing them in her backpack, and strapped it onto his back. All three helped to tenderly lift Angela up over Tom’s shoulder. Tom wrapped his arms around her dangling legs.

  Aether stepped in front of him. “You sure you can do this?”

  He swallowed and nodded, determined.

  She turned to the Seekapock prisoner, still standing stiff, eyes hiding every few seconds. It was time for the next step. “Do you know where Eeahso is?”

  “Eeahso leave.”

  “Yes, I know. Do you know where Eeahso go?”

  “Away.”

  Aether sighed. “Away to where?”

  “No.”

  “You don’t know, or you won’t tell me?”

  “No know.”

  “Do you know where Eeahso goes sometimes? Where Eeahso can sometimes be found?” Vapid eyes. Pulsing siphon holes. “Have you ever seen Eeahso at a place many times? Where Eeahso stays, rests, lives, hides—”

  “Eeahso rest beach.”

  “Yes! Take us there. Now. Go.”

  Without hesitation, the Seekapock turned toward the mud pit, marching as if programed, in a straight line from the bank, splashing through mud, stomping over piles of fish bones, brushing through thorny, arm-slicing plants, as hiding Seekapock leapt, frightened, from cover, scurrying from the undergrowth. Aether had to call after her repeatedly to slow down until they finally reached the beach.

  Arriving on the dune-covered shoreline, their steadfast guide cut left, scaled a sandy ridge, and halted, facing up the coast. The team trudged up the hill, finding at the top a panoramic view of the brightening horizon, low-breaking waves, and a lone EV nestled in a sandy rut.

  Their escort pointed to the threshold of beach and jungle beyond the EV. “Eeahso rest.”

  Aether pointed, too. “Lead on. Go.”

  Along the sand bar they walked until it sloped down to the beach level, leading them right to the EV.

  With no sign of their guide slowing, Aether turned back to a beset Tom. “Why don’t you go ahead and set her in the EV. Think you can prep the skimmers for us?”

  “Yeah,” he said, and headed toward the sealed hatch.

  Aether and Qin kept pace with the Seekapock as Qin called back to Tom. “Stay on guard, man. Maybe setup prox alerts, too.”

  Tom didn’t reply, but he appeared relatively lucid.

  Ahead, a pair of Seekapock huddled in wet sand, wrestling with a large, zeppelin-shaped shell. They shot looks at Aether and Qin as they passed.

  “We catch! We eat inside!”

  The pair returned to their labors, unconcerned with the passers-by.

  The guide stopped a short stretch later, pointing to the dark space between a tall cone-shaped plant, and a three-story-high rock face. “Eeahso.”

  Aether flipped through optics, spotting a layer of discarded seashells and bones fanning out across the sand from the gap. Beyond the conical plant, her fone highlighted the distinctive outline of a one-armed Seekapock, eleven meters in from the entrance, lounging inside a small alcove in the rock, legs dangled over the edge. Aether could see no one else anywhere near the area.

  “You can go,” Aether told the lingering guide. She pointed farther down the beach, the opposite direction of the EV. “That way.”

  “Yes,” she said, and traipsed off.

  “Lethal or non?” Qin asked as he readied his MW.

  “Non, but put it away. We’re not here for a fight. We’re here to try and avoid creating enemies in our new home.”

  “We? … We’re not! They are! Don’t you think it’s a little late?”

  “Obviously, I don’t. Put it away.”

  Qin sighed and holstered the weapon, though kept his hand resting on it.

  Aether walked to the dark gap, crunching over shells and bones. “Eeahso? It’s Aether and Qin of the Orange People. May we speak with you?”

  A brief pause. In thermag view, Aether saw Eeahso’s shape slowly rise in the alcove, legs drawing up from where they’d hung.

  Aether took one step into the gap, opting for candor. “We killed Skinny. Skinny is dead.” Still no reply. She could see one of Eeahso’s arms reach above to another, deeper ledge in the rock, returning with a thick club. “You can put the weapon down. We aren’t here to hurt you. When we refused to help attack more Threck, Skinny killed one of our people, then tried to order us to come help kill you.” Aether didn’t bother with the gestures Howard the Threck was demonstrating as Eeahso couldn’t see her from around the passage’s bend. She hoped the message was still clear enough.

  She watched Eeahso’s shape discard the club, climb down from the nook, and walk cautiously to the edge of the cone plant. One eye and arm end appeared. “You kill Skinny?”

  “Yes. We refused to be involved with anymore killing. We stopped Skinny from coming to kill you.”

  Eeahso emerged a little farther, both of her eyes and siphons now visible. “You avenged death of Orange Person.”

  “That too.”

  “And what you want from me in return?”

  “Only peace,” Aether said, taking another step forward, her hands outstretched at her sides. “We’re now leaving your beach and going to our own Orange People camp, far away.”

  Eeahso moved the rest of the way out from behind the bend. “Far from Threck?”

  “Far from everything.”

  “Take me with you?”

  “Uh …” Aether stammered aloud.

  “Say what?” Qin said. “Is he asking if we planned to, or asking if he can?”

  Eeahso went on, “Threck are coming. They care nothing for Seekapock, but they will see me dead for this. They will never stop hunting me.”

  Qin murmured, “Then why the hell would we want him with us?”

  Aether pushed away her knee-jerk rejection of the idea and considered for a moment. She had questions. “You say the Threck don’t care about Seekapock, but they know of you?”

  “Yes. I’ve always limited the raids on Threck resources to ensure they didn’t escalate from mere annoyances to intolerable harassment.”

  “Your speech sounds to be improving,” Aether said.

  “I speak to the level of the listener,” Eeahso replied. “Orange People clearly have an impeccable handle on City dialect.”

  “No insult intended toward your people, but you seem much more intelligent than the others.”

  “That’s because they’re not my people,” Eeahso said. “They’re Seekapock. I am Threck.”

  * * *

  Warm wind belted Aether’s chest and neck, circulating into her helmet, around her sides and back, drying her sweat as her half-open suit flapped in the salty torrent. Beneath her skimmer, early morning swells and whitecaps zipped by in streaks. Yesterday, after streaking violently across the sky, her EV had drifted down and landed on this water—not far from this spot—with an anticlimactic clunk. She hadn’t even seen a full day here, but she’d already lost one of her babies.

  To her left, across 5K of open sea, Threck City’s tower appeared as a misty, dreamlike painting. Within those walls lived people who could potentially help save her three loves beyond her reach. But why would the Threck possibly assist after the previous night’s atrocities? And without their aid, what was the backup plan for rescuing Ish, John, and Minnie?r />
  Aether glanced at the transparent floor panel behind her. Eeahso was still losing it—siphons pressed up, fogging the hatch, as tightly confined tentacles writhed around the corners. She looked like an octopus crammed in an ill-fitting aquarium.

  You said you wanted to come, Aether snarled inside. You who created Skinny the monster.

  A tone sounded from the skimmer’s panel.

  SP: 110 – DTD: 5K – ETA: 2:58

  ALERTS: Direct Connect request from Pablo.

  The instant they’d entered range … Pablo must have setup a constant ping. Aether accepted.

  Qin’s voice in her ear, “DC from Pablo.”

  “Yup, got it too. Let me answer.”

  She sent Pablo an M:

  AETHER: Team inbound to rally point. < 3 mins. We have a casualty and a “guest.”

  PABLO: Got it. Prepping for trauma inbound.

  PABLO: Who? And what/how?

  PABLO: As many details as you can provide.

  AETHER: Angela. No prep req. We lost her.

  PABLO: Just get here fast.

  PABLO: How long flat vitals?

  AETHER: No, sweetie. She’s really gone. I’m sorry.

  AETHER: < 2 mins.

  Aether gazed to her right. Qin stood at the other skimmer’s helm. At Qin’s feet, she could see only Tom’s legs extending out from behind the curved, opaque windshield. Angela’s body sat on the opposite side of Qin, out of view. Tom had wanted to sit with her, but the skimmer would’ve struggled with balance. Aether felt as though Tom’s anguish was reaching out through the air between them, breaching her flesh, and wrapping around her already-crushed heart, squeezing the last bits of life from it.

  PABLO: Tom?

  AETHER: Shattered of course. Residual shock, imminent guilt, rage. He’s going to need you, okay? We can’t lose him too.

  PABLO: Yeah

  PABLO: And I’m here for you, too.

  Aether clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut—another shot behind the ribs. She knew what she was trying to do with her feelings, and she knew it was typical behavior—especially for a shrink—but it was a grueling fight to discard the sudden misguided anger toward Pablo.