by Isaac Hooke
She bashed in the stairwell door and raced up the zig-zagging flights.
I hope he takes the stairs…
She got her wish a moment later, because her assassin was barreling down the steps and she nearly plowed into him. She caught a glimpse of a man in a black robe; the hood was raised so that only his bearded face was exposed. A thick pair of black AR goggles covered his eyes. He had tossed the sniper rifle.
She swung at him with her Ban’Shar, converting them both to swords. But his hands moved in a blur to his waist, fetching a pair of hatchets hanging from his hips that she hadn’t noticed in her first glance. The tips of the small axes lit up as electrolasers activated, coating them in plasma, and he used them to bash aside her swords.
As with Veil’s attack in the caves of the Emerald Highlands, the plasma prevented the blades from disintegrating upon contact with her Ban’Shar. Rhea’s Ganymedean weapon deflected the energy, causing the hatchets to bounce well back, but her foe merely altered the impetus to bring the blades back in from different angles, forcing her to remain on the defensive.
He moved so fast that Rhea could barely keep up, even with her nano-enhanced body, and she was stunned when the assassin cut off her right hand, deactivating the blade it held.
He was just too fast. As her severed hand clattered to the steps, she transformed her remaining Ban’Shar from a blade into a shield. That was better… the circular disk offered a much wider area of defense as compared to the blade, and she deflected the flurry of blows far more easily.
Should have done this earlier…
She retreated down the stairs beneath that attack. Meanwhile, she activated the nano machines in the stump of her forearm, focusing on creating a new blade, one made from the armor of her limb. While she deflected those relentless hatchet attacks, her forearm and bicep shrank as the nano machines transferred material forward, to the tip, where they slowly created a blade.
She retreated two flights before she felt that blade was long enough to be of use. And then she tried to press the offensive.
She shoved forward, slamming her shield into him. He couldn’t stop the rush with his plasma hatchets, which bounced away harmlessly, and it was his turn to retreat. The plasma disk caught the hem of his robe, burning through it and cutting away some of the boot—and likely the toes—within.
She momentarily slid aside the Ban’Shar and lunged at him with her newly created blade, but he sidestepped and bashed at it with one of his plasma hatches, breaking off the upper half.
From around the next flight above him, an octocopter buzzed into view.
He spun around and threw one of his hatchets at it and the drone crashed into the wall.
He turned back to face Rhea, just in time to meet the jagged remnant of the blade that she plunged into his belly. He staggered, and before he could strike at her with his remaining hatchet, she swung the Ban’Shar around in an arc, cutting his head from his body.
She slid the blade free, and the headless form collapsed.
She deactivated her Ban’Shar and dropped to the steps beside the body. She rested her head against the concrete wall and instructed the nano machines to begin retracting the blade.
She realized she’d forgotten to check for security cameras first. In the heat of battle, she’d deployed her nano machines without a care for who might be watching, wanting only to save her life. But now she could afford to be cautious again… she wanted to keep the machines to herself, at least for the time being.
She halted the transformation and glanced at her overhead map. She was relieved to find no security cameras on this flight: her nano machines hadn’t been witnessed by any prying eyes.
She restarted the blade retracting process.
Will and Horatio arrived. Renaldo was behind them, panting.
“Another one of Khrusos’ assassins?” Will asked.
Rhea nodded. “Has to be. This has to stop.”
“It will,” he told her. “You’ll see to that, soon enough.”
She smiled weakly. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. I do appreciate it.” She heard the stamp of robotic feet and the buzzing of drones and raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like you brought company.”
“Uninvited,” Will agreed.
Three octocopters flew into view above, at the top of the flight of stairs. They trained their laser turrets upon her and the others.
At the same time a group of combat robots appeared below, at the bottom landing. They, too, had their rifles pointed at the party.
The nano machines had finished retracting her temporary blade by then, leaving her with an even smaller stump of a forearm than before. She raised it in surrender, along with her good arm.
2
Rhea sat in the confinement area with Will, Horatio and Renaldo. She stared past the bars at the blank wall of the hallway beyond. She considered replacing it with some augmented reality background, but there were none she really liked any more. The Ganymedean lake held no comfort for her—that world was long dead, and she was permanently banned from setting foot on the moon. Nor did she wish to look at the portrait that portrayed her standing victorious atop a pile of dead Hydras, as she hardly felt heroic at the moment. No, a blank wall was just fine.
“Arrested for harboring a concealed weapon,” Will said. “And disturbing the peace. Gotta love it. Considering I didn’t do either.”
“Our charges are slightly different,” Horatio said. “We’re accused of being accessories.”
“Same diff,” Will said. “An accessory to disturbing the peace, and harboring a concealed weapon? Never heard of such a law.” He sighed and glanced at Rhea. “We seem to find ourselves jailed often when we hang around you, Dude.”
She shrugged.
“The Warden has friends in high places,” Renaldo said confidently.
“Also enemies,” Will said, giving her a significant glance.
Renaldo seemed to have missed that glance, because he insisted: “The mayor will get us out.”
“Really?” Will said. “How do you know her mayor friend hasn’t been mind-jacked by some other crime lord? Aradne is chock full of them, I hear, and Veil was only one of the major players. If you thought Rust Town was bad, try looking up some of the outstanding arrest warrants in the Aradne police database.”
“Last time I was in a cell like this, I was scheduled for a mind jacking myself…” Rhea commented.
“Ah, the good old days, huh?” Will quipped.
She shifted, putting her arms down to reposition herself, momentarily forgetting that one of those arms ended in a stump. She glanced at it. Still wanting to keep her nano machines hidden, she was waiting until she returned to Rust Town to initiate repairs.
“The mayor will get us out,” Renaldo said again, more for his own benefit than anyone else, Rhea thought. “She was acting in self-defense. There’s nothing illegal about that. And besides, the Warden eliminated a dangerous assassin for the city!”
“An assassin that she drew here by virtue of her mere presence,” Will said. “And killed with a concealed weapon. We’re lucky she’s not charged with manslaughter. She might be, yet. Then we all become accessories to that.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t frighten the human,” Horatio said. “You’re causing his stress levels to spike.”
Will glanced at the Wardenite. “Sorry bro, wouldn’t want to make you feel stressed out or anything.”
Renaldo wiped the sweat from his forehead, revealing wet underarm circles. “Stressed? Who’s stressed?”
Rhea heard the thud of hard soles on the laminate floor.
Mayor Grandas appeared. He was accompanied by two robots.
“Disable recording,” he told the robots.
The machines nodded.
The mayor was dressed in his usual expensive-looking, perfectly fitted suit. His well-groomed black beard seemed shaved a little shorter, while his hair was longer, though still combed backward and impeccably coiffed. His too smooth, flawless features
reminded her of a cyborg’s—or a man who had undergone rejuvenatics a little too often.
“You’re free to go,” Grandas announced as the bars slid aside. “I had them release you on a technicality.”
Rhea raised an eyebrow. “Oh really. Well, I’ll take it.” She stood.
“Yes, because technically, you didn’t harbor a concealed weapon,” Grandas continued. “It was hidden inside your body. So in essence, your body was the weapon. And that’s hardly concealable.”
“That’s the same as open carry, isn’t it?” Rhea asked.
“Not really,” he replied. “But that’s where the technicality comes into play. Body parts and AR goggles are the only electronics devices allowed. Since your body was the actual weapon, and the robot sentries authorized your entry, they essentially granted their seal of approval for the ingress of a deadly weapon.”
“I have a feeling the laws are going to be changed shortly…” Rhea said.
“There’s actually a law already in place regarding the concealment of weapons inside one’s body,” the mayor admitted. “But again, the onus is on the security guards to detect it. Besides, you didn’t harm anyone, except the cyborg sent to kill you; indeed, you wouldn’t have used your weapons at all if the attack hadn’t occurred. Since intent plays a big factor, it wasn’t difficult for me to convince the judge to let you off.”
“So, we just had a trial we weren’t a part of…” Will interjected.
Grandas shrugged. “It happens more often than you realize. We’re working on judicial reform, but it’s a slow process. Though I admit, the current system was useful for jailing the councilors who helped plan the bioweapon attack against Rust Town. We’ve begun paying reparations to the settlers for that attack, by the way.”
Rhea nodded. “Renaldo filled me in. Every bit of money helps.”
The mayor bowed his head, interpreting her words as a thank you.
“He also mentioned that you were doing it mostly to win votes in the coming election,” Rhea finished.
The mayor shot Renaldo a dark look and the Wardenite shifted uncomfortably beneath that gaze.
Finally, Grandas sighed. “I’d be lying if I claimed my intentions in the matter were completely humanitarian.” He paused. “You know, you could have asked me to help you with whatever it is you needed to do in that parliament building.”
“You did help us,” Rhea said. “By granting us the tour in the first place.”
“It was something illegal, wasn’t it?” Grandas said.
Rhea didn’t answer.
Grandas smiled nonchalantly. “Well. I just hope you don’t get yourself into trouble deeper than you can handle.”
“Who me?” Rhea asked innocently.
The mayor turned to go.
“What about my Ban’Shar?” Rhea pressed.
The mayor paused. “Oh. You mean these?”
He reached into his pocket and retrieved the pair of knuckles. He dropped them into her extended hand.
“Thank you,” she said.
“How did you conceal these inside your body, by the way?” he asked, his gaze drifting to her torso as if searching for hidden panels. Or perhaps using it as an excuse to admire her lithe figure.
She shrugged. “I didn’t conceal them. I simply used my womanly charms.”
He smiled, returning his eyes to hers. “I’m sure you did. Well, cyborgs have all sorts of hidden chambers in their bodies, so I suppose it’s not surprising. This is why robot and cyborg visitors are usually denied entry to the parliament, even among diplomats. Either way, I suggest you hide them the same way on your return trip. Otherwise, they’re likely to be confiscated, either here, or on the city streets: they’ve been entered into the database of disallowed weapons.”
“Noted.” She glanced at Will and Horatio.
The pair stood in front of her to shield her from the mayor and his robot companions. At the same time, Renaldo stood up to block the security camera in the cell. Rhea had the nano machines prepare the compartments in her thighs, and when the slits appeared, she stuffed them inside, and the armor sealed.
“Well then, my merry men, let’s be off,” she said.
“I’m not a man,” Horatio said, sounding miffed.
The mayor smiled knowingly. “Good luck to you, whatever you plan. I have a feeling you’ll need it.”
Rhea sat in the conference room of her headquarters in Rust Town. Renaldo, Miles, Brinks, Jairlin, Horatio, and Will were present. DragonHunter was also present, joining the conference in person, rather than via his usual remote hologram.
Now that she was away from prying eyes, and in the company of her most loyal, faithful men, she reached behind her with the stump of her hand and rested it on the wall of the cargo container. She willed the nano machines to emerge, and tiny vents opened in the skin-like alloy of her forearm. The machines crawled out, skittering across her stump like ants until they reached the wall. At that point they dispersed, burrowing into the metal surface, cutting out the shape of a handprint in the process. A soft sound, halfway between a chitter and a tinkle, emitted from the wall as the nano machines worked: they were smelting and reforming the metal, creating internal circuitry and servomotors while at the same time continuing to extrude the base handprint, shaping it in three dimensions. Her stump gently moved away from the wall as a wrist formed underneath, along with a section of her forearm that was missing.
It took a minute or so until she had a fully formed hand, which appeared to be embedded in the wall. She could wiggle the fingers and thumb and feel the cold metal surface of the cargo container underneath, but when she tried to pull the hand free, she could not: it was still attached somewhere at the palm. So she waited.
She heard a soft snap and the nano machines began retreating across her hand toward the forearm. Small vents began to open, not just in the forearm, but the hand itself. The nano machines retreated into these vents as she removed her fully formed appendage, leaving behind a three-dimensional handprint in the metal wall.
The join between her forearm and the new hand section was seamless—it was impossible to tell where she had taken damage. She lifted her hand to her face and squeezed it into a fist. She opened it to examine fingers, and when she was certain all the nano machines had crawled inside, she rested her arm on the table. She was a bit leery of this new technology still, and didn’t want to accidentally loose any of the nano machines into a world unready for them, even though she knew it was essentially impossible for the technology to escape her body, let alone reproduce on any sort of exponential scale.
“Those things still disturb the heck out of me every time I see them,” Jairlin said. “It’s like creepy crawlers coming right out of your skin. Doesn’t that bother you at all? That you have all these tiny, squirming things living under your skin?”
“No,” she said. “Strangely, it’s almost comforting. Natural even, like a part of who I am, or who I’m supposed to be anyway. It’s not all that different from a human body, which is inhabited by all sorts of microorganisms, both inside and outside, not all of it as beneficial as my nano machines.”
“I usually try not to think about my gut flora,” Jairlin said.
“Just as I don’t think about my equivalents,” she said.
“I wonder if you can use them as a weapon?” Brinks said. “I mean, imagine if you rested your hand on someone’s face, and ordered the nano machines to rearrange it?”
“They’re designed not to harm living tissue,” Rhea explained. “One of the failsafes the Ganymedeans programmed in.”
“What’s to stop you from simply absorbing an entire ship and making it your body?” Will nodded at the three-dimensional handprint in the wall. “The same way you turned that section of metal into your new fist. Am I correct in assuming the nano machines can self- replicate?”
“You are, but that’s where the second failsafe comes into play,” Rhea explained. “There’s an iteration limit built into the machines. This limit preve
nts them from reproducing past a set number. Basically a check the Ganymedeans put in to prevent the tech from running amok and devouring their whole moon.”
Miles seemed unconvinced. “So you say. But how can we be sure the failsafe is working?”
“Because you’re not dead yet,” Rhea stated.
DragonHunter sat back. “All of this begs the question: what if these nano machines can be hacked, and their failsafes disabled? Theoretically, you could cause the end of the world. It’s a dangerous technology.”
Rhea stared at him in shock, because in that moment she realized what weapon was used in the Great Calming. It wasn’t conventional explosives or nuclear weapons, it was nano machines run amok: programmed to terminate after reaching a certain radius and level of destruction, selectively wiping out cities across the planet.
She wasn’t sure how she knew this, or why, but it meant there was a chance she had indeed participated in the Great Calming.
If that was true, she reminded herself she wasn’t that person anymore. She could never do such a thing, not now.
“What’s wrong?” Miles asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
She forced a smile, and when she realized her hands were shaking, she hid them under the table.
Will leaned in. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “I just… I guess seeing those nano machines made me feel kind of queasy after all.” She turned her attention back toward DragonHunter. “So. You said you had news?”
“Yes,” DragonHunter said. He glanced upward. “Have you activated the Faraday cage?”
She nodded. “No signals are getting in or out of this room.” She was used to this behavior from the hacker. He was very paranoid when it came to signals security.
DragonHunter slumped slightly in relief at her words. “Okay. Good.” He swallowed. “So then, the news. I already have Khrusos’ ID.”
Will arched an eyebrow. “Really? I’m surprised you were able to contain your excitement. You have a predilection for showing off to the Warden here. You know, proving how good you are and all.”
