Sly Mongoose

by Tobias S. Buckell

  No one suggested he be quarantined. Dockhands and passersby, warriors with guns, and citizens with long curved blades mounted on long poles all lined the walls. And outside the city airships held their positions, getting ready to stand with Yatapek against the Swarm.

  Behind Timas, Skizzit and Claire clambered down. Surprise rippled through the crowd as they spotted Skizzit.

  Heutzin stepped forward with a massive grin. “You did it, Timas.”

  The grin was infectious. Timas grinned back. Before he could reply to Heutzin, though, Itotia and Ollin shoved past the crowds in the large hangar and ran to him.

  Itotia crushed him to her, and Ollin grabbed both of them in a giant hug. Timas pulled away, embarrassed and feeling awkward in front of the crowd. “Mom, Dad, this is Skizzit, and this is Amminapses.”

  No sense in confusing everyone by bringing Claire’s name in just yet.

  “We are pleased to meet you,” Ollin said.

  “The pipiltin will be here soon to meet you,” Itotia added. “We have to hurry, the Swarm is already engaging outlying Aeolian airships, it will be an hour or two before they reach us.”

  The floor beneath his feet shivered. Timas looked over and saw Pepper in his powered groundsuit move quickly through the crowd until he stopped in front of Timas.

  “Well done.” Pepper shook his hand. “Very well done.”

  “It’s good to see you,” Itotia said to Pepper. Timas recognized the triumphant look on her face, as if she’d won an argument.

  Pepper brushed one of his dreadlocks aside. “I will help. But I can always steal that alien airship if things get too bad. Don’t assume I don’t have my own reasons.”

  He pointed at Skizzit. “So, we know at least the Nesaru have hidden down there, who else is dug in?”

  Amminapses stepped Claire forward. “I am Amminapses.”

  Pepper cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

  “You know of me?”

  “I know the name that each Satrap called itself to humans,” Pepper said. Pipiltin arrived on the docks now. “You disappeared, although I do know the League claimed to have captured you at some point.”

  “They lied.”

  Ohtli, Tenoch, Eztli, and Necalli joined them. “Camaxtli is unwell, the stress has left him bedridden,” Ohtli said. “But he promises to abstain on any decisions.”

  “Okay. But it’s too late to get Ragamuffins involved, two hours before the Swarm hits. They won’t arrive in time.” Pepper pointed at the two behind Timas. “What resources do the aliens bring to the table?”

  “Amminapses has something that can attack the Swarm back,” Timas said.

  Amminapses held up the case. “I have a counteragent that will infect and nullify it. But there is the small matter of delivery.”

  Timas, as well as everyone in the tight crowd in front of the possessed human, listened.

  “There is little time to mass produce it. This is enough to inoculate one human, and then that human will need to have contact with the Swarm to infect it. This poses a few problems.”

  “The first one is, who do we inoculate?” Necalli said. “We will need to find a volunteer. Or hold a lottery.”

  “No need.” Amminapses carefully handed the case to Necalli, who held it gingerly, as if it might infect him. “This drone is human, and can serve for the purpose.”

  The pipiltin didn’t understand, but Timas saw that Pepper did.

  Timas shook his head. “No.” It was a firm command. “Claire is the real owner of this body. You just rent it. She should have the right to decide her own fate in this matter. She is not just a receptacle for you to use.”

  “The boy is right.” Pepper backed him up.

  “I don’t ask for your input,” Amminapses said. “This method contains fewer flaws. This body I am controlling will not feel fear, or pain, or change its mind. It will go where I command it. You quibble over one life when so many are at stake?”

  The Satrap had a point. Yet it felt wrong, and Timas couldn’t help that gut feeling. Maybe humans were ruled by their instincts as much as the Satraps by their artificial instincts, laid into them to look at a larger, stranger picture.

  Pepper took the case. If Amminapses thought he would get it from Pepper, the Satrap was mistaken. That Timas knew. “We will find a volunteer,” Pepper grunted. “How long does the infection need to take hold?”

  “Five minutes to drop the individual into a state. Physiological changes take hours, but subject is infectious and no longer conscious as you know it at that point.”

  “Good, that’s all I need.”

  That was that.

  “The Aeolians will want to know about this,” Itotia said. “We should include them, this might change our plans.”

  “The Aeolian avatar arrived and is in the communications room.” Ollin grabbed Timas by the shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be relieved to hear that you made it back.”

  Katerina was back on Yatapek!

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Word had spread rapidly, because Katerina waited at the door with a big smile. “You made it back! It’s good to see you. We were worried.”

  “She came over an hour ago, been in this room since.” Itotia walked past Katerina and smiled. “Katerina asked to continue being the avatar so she could be here.”

  “My friends call me Kat.” Then the relieved Katerina faded. The avatar facade returned. She walked over to a clear pane of plastic mounted in the center of the room. “It’s crude, but it lets Yatapek see what’s happening.”

  A crescent marked the mass of the Swarm and its location. An estimated time of contact had been scribbled at the top. Divisions of Aeolian and Ehactl airships similarly positioned themselves around the small circle at the center. Yatapek.

  Katerina looked like she wanted to talk more, but with the aliens, pipiltin, and Pepper arriving, the room got even busier. The radio operators for Yatapek along the walls dropped their voices, but still passed on traffic and scribbled notes to give to the pipiltin or to commanders.

  “We have two new things to add to our fight,” Katerina told the group. “The first is Renata, who comes back with more of Captain Scar-lett’s friends. The Aeolian fleet is running a poll, but it looks like everyone is in favor of releasing Scarlett so he can lead the pirates. Their city was attacked, these are the survivors. We propose, if we all survive in any intact form, to give them participation in the Consensus.”

  “She made it.” Timas had wondered whether Renata had outrun the pirates.

  Katerina erased the crescent wave of the Swarm, and redrew it a bit closer to Yatapek. “Somewhat. After bubbling us off they got recaptured and their airship shredded. But as prisoners they witnessed the fall of Haven, the pirate city, to the Swarm. They decided to fly back to Yatapek. The pirates released Renata and her squad in the interest of mutual survival.”

  “Wow.” It sounded like they had just as much an adventure getting back to Yatapek as Katerina and Timas had.

  “The pirates also came back with this.” Katerina waved her hand over a tiny box sitting near the center of the room. The air above the box danced and shimmered, then solidified to show the upper layer of a city. “Footage obtained from the attack on a nearby city.”

  It was packed with catwalks, tramlines, tube elevators, and a densely packed honeycomb of houses connected by latticework. It was like looking into a human hive. Some advanced materials, stretching with the city, but holding millions of people in that space where Yatapek had nothing but air and sun shining through the upper layer over its crops.

  “At this point,” Katerina said as an explosion rocked the side of the city, debris falling from the city’s walls, “the citizenry knows what the Swarm is and how it works. The bites, the infection spreading, and so on. A standing security force is defending this city and the upper layer has just now been breached.”

  They watched as robed Aeolians advanced toward the fractured section of the city. The line hit t
he initial wave of Swarm pouring out onto a walkway just under the breach and high over the solid surface of the upper layer. And the Swarm fought back.

  “Notice the initial line of the Swarm has weapons, but the second and third do not. We presume the Swarm does not have much in the way of personal firearms, most Aeolian cities have little if any, only its initial breachers are armed.”

  The initial swarm were not very accurate, either. But the Aeolians fell back, trying to avoid both gunshots and bites. But the Swarm did not rush as a whole, only the armed members moved forward at the Aeolians in the running gun-battle.

  Defenseless Swarm jumped off the edge of the walkway, a waterfall of humanity.

  Some smacked into tubes or catwalks. Others continued to fall until tiny white puffs of cloth opened up.

  “Parachutes,” Katerina said. “A Swarm airborne assault.”

  Down on the street level, a cloud of Swarm landed and moved with single-minded purpose toward citizens. From above, the footage demonstrated a fast pincer developing, herding the city’s people into a large and tightly packed group.

  And then the catwalk the Aeolian forces fought on exploded, three precise detonations in the middle of the Swarm.

  As the long ribbons of metal failed, the Aeolian defenders fell out of the sky along with debris.

  “There is more, but it’s much the same. The Swarm is able to adapt to varying situations, as you just saw. It does not rely on infection and vectors anymore, it is using pincer movements, feints, weapons if it can get its hands on them. Obviously, since it waited for the parachuted Swarm to check in, it’s using radios or equipment to communicate, not just the touch communication we’ve seen. That means it can spread out further and talk between itself faster. Which brings us to the next order of business.”

  Katerina addressed the pipiltin. “The Consensus has something else it would like permission to use. One of our defense airships has a nuclear device it managed to get off one of the cities. We include you in the discussion because your city is the dominant part of this action. We are not sure how to include your votes, so it was decided to let the pipiltin speak for all Yatapek.”

  “You have nukes?” Pepper was impressed. “I never heard that.”

  “Sometimes, even the Consensus can keep a low-level secret.”

  Amminapses looked distressed. “A nuclear device? Brutish, yet worthwhile. The Swarm uses touch for higher bandwidth, its effectiveness is reduced when separated. The electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear charge would prevent it from having high bandwidth communication. But it would also sever my ties to this drone. That is unacceptable. I need to be here to help coordinate against this threat.”

  “It would affect us as well,” Katerina noted. “The Consensus is held through this. We understand what we are asking. If it slows down the Swarm, then it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “Still unacceptable.” Amminapses shook Claire’s head.

  Pepper crouched down and opened the case and looked at the small vial with a tiny injection cap on it. He shut it again and addressed the Satrap. “We’re not asking you, the pipiltin will decide. Unless you have a compelling force that can take to the air? I see just one Nesaru warrior with you, hardly a compelling force. We have the antidote, we’ll deliver it.”

  He looked satisfied with what he held, and a large bit of the tension in Timas’s posture dissolved. They had some sort of chance against the Swarm. Sure Amminapses believed that they were fighting to slow the Swarm down, but Pepper now held the tool that could defeat it.

  “You all frustrate me,” Amminapses said.

  “You have less to lose,” Timas said. “Right now you have a wormhole down in the underground chamber. You’re getting ready to sneak back down it to safety somewhere else. We’ll be the ones left up here.”

  “There is a second wormhole? On the surface?” Katerina was shocked. As was everyone else. It was news to everyone in the room.

  “There is no way to evacuate you all.” Amminapses saw what sprung into everyone’s minds. “We don’t have the capacity.”

  “Some of the Aeolians have craft that can get down there, some could be saved,” Katerina said, her head cocked, listening to commands. “The Consensus sees this as an interesting development.”

  Amminapses backed up slightly. “I have hundreds of thousands to get out to safety. They are my responsibility.”

  “There are children that deserve the right to escape this final showdown.” Katerina’s voice sounded gritty as she channelled the anger of the thousands of people in airships all around the city, the remnants of the once millions of the Aeolian Consensus. Timas watched as she stepped in front of Amminapses. “You are telling us you will leave us against the Swarm.”

  “You are ungrateful.” Amminapses drew itself up, regal, arrogant, and sounding like they’d just confirmed a deep suspicion it had about humans.

  “We’re the ones dying.” Katerina stood up just as straight to the Satrap.

  “If you insist, then keep the counter-infection and fire your nuclear device. We will warn the cavern and I will take my drone and move back far enough that my equipment isn’t hurt. I will return to observe.”

  Timas wondered why the Satrap was not as upset as Timas expected it would be at being defied. He’d seen it react down in Hulbach. Angry. Here it seemed to expect a script, almost.

  Maybe Timas had been thinking wrong, assuming Yatapek was the most important section of this creature’s plan to delay the enemy. They had been given the counteragent, but what if Amminapses had lied, and had made more?

  Timas slowly backed out of the room as Katerina updated the clear screen to represent the Swarm’s continued approach.

  Outside Timas ran for the docks, sliding down rails and tearing across gantries until he got to the sphere.

  Several Jaguar scouts had it surrounded, rifles slung at the ready. But they recognized him.

  “I left my timer in there. It was a gift from my father when I became xocoyotzin,” he said. A lie, he’d left the timer down in Hulbach. But they didn’t know that, and let him through.

  The hatch had shut, but Timas closed his eyes and mentally ran back the numbers he’d seen Skizzit tap to open the hatch.

  It worked.

  The hatch rolled open, and Timas pulled himself inside and let the hatch close. There were places under the seats to store things. Maybe Skizzit, or another drone, had hidden something there.

  He slid doors open and checked under the seats, moving quickly.

  The hatch opened and shut behind him.

  Timas turned around to face Skizzit. The Nesaru’s quills prickled up. It very deliberately blocked the way out. “What are you looking for?”

  The hatch hadn’t, Timas saw, shut all the way. If he could run, it would just pop open.

  “My timer, I left it here. I had it on my neck, it had sentimental value.”

  Skizzit cocked its head. “You lie. You left it in Hulbach, and did not seem overly emotional about it. I repeat, what are you looking for?”

  “Nothing.” Timas tried to dart around the alien. It slapped him with the side of its flat arm, driving the edges of the quills into his shoulder.

  Timas dropped to his knees. Blood dribbled down his chest and arm as Skizzit forced Timas to sit down. “I think,” it said, “that you are up to no good. Again, what are you doing here?”

  The hatch flung open and the entire craft rocked as a pair of giant metal hands grabbed Skizzit. Pepper hunched in the opening, not able to fit through to get inside. The Nesaru twisted, writhing to get away. It threw quill-backed punches at Pepper, who fended them off with his armored limbs.

  Skizzit aimed higher, for Pepper’s unprotected face. Pepper yanked the alien out, leaving Timas holding his shoulder alone inside the craft.

  He stumbled forward to see Pepper and Skizzit face each other.

  Skizzit pulled its gun free of the pouch and Pepper leaped into the air, higher than a person stood, and slammed both f
ists down on the alien’s torso. He crushed the alien, stomping on it with metal boots, once, twice, and then one last time for good measure. Clear fluids and entrails burst across the grating and dripped down between the metal slots. A hand jerked, a foot splayed out at a right angle from the destroyed torso.

  Pepper stood up, shaking goop off a metal hand.

  Amminapses appeared at the edge of the dock. “You killed one of my vassals, why?” Its angry voice projected across the entire dock.

  Pepper stepped backward to stop it from getting into the craft and near Timas. “Your pet Nesaru tried to shoot me.”

  “It probably had a good reason.” Amminapses stepped over the corpse without a second glance and folded its arms in front of Pepper.

  “Timas, you mind explaining why Skizzit just tried to kill us?” Pepper asked. Timas faced the back of the man’s dreadlocks, and looked directly over at Amminapses.

  “Why only one dose of counter-infection? I don’t trust Amminapses. I wanted to see if there was more in this ship. Maybe it plans to use some of us, like Katerina, who can access lamina, to be its drones to go forward and infect the Swarm.”

  Pepper grabbed Amminapses. “Is there a second cure?”

  Amminapses struggled to get free. “Let go.”

  “Where is it?”

  “You think you accomplished anything, boy?” The Satrap froze. “I am, right now, launching three more craft into the sky, all loaded with counter-infected drones. The Swarm needs to be infected early, not late in this stand. Before it gets over the storm. You are being too tentative.”

  “We infect them once we get into hand-to-hand combat,” Pepper said. “That way the Swarm can’t blow the counter-infection out of the sky before it even reaches it.”

  “You still dream that you will all survive it. I doubt this will happen.” Amminapses shrugged. “We have chosen our directions. I have maximized my chances of spreading the counter-infection, with you as backup. Yes, there are extras. Take them. It means little in the end.”

  Pepper waved at the nearest soldier. “Tie it up, put it in a cell, whatever you have, make sure the Satrap’s ‘representative’ doesn’t go anywhere.”