The distance from the private docking port to the meeting locations wasn’t much. But the troops arrived aboard more than a dozen of the invisible flying spheres, each of which had to connect with the airlock and unload its passengers in turn.
Once they arrived, Mary and Sheila would meet with them, providing for them a map to the rendezvous point. They had only two copies of the map, neither of which were permitted to leave the landing area, lest it fall into the hands of someone outside the team who might become curious exactly why people were meeting in a data center devoid of any active computing equipment. The new arrivals had the advantage of long centuries of experience with the nano swarms, though they’d had little need of late to use the more clandestine features. Once provided directions, most were able to find the location without much difficulty. Micah, a passenger aboard the first sphere, stood watch at the door of the final meeting place. At the sound of the designated tapping sequence upon the door, he’d pull it open, count to five, and then close it again. It was the responsibility of the traveler to ensure there were no eyes monitoring the hallway before announcing their arrival.
In a few cases, confusion arose as to the exact path; two people got lost. Mary and Sheila took turns acting as escort and locating those who’d made a wrong turn.
As each group arrived, John generated a batch of access key cards using a system he’d broken off from the main system. The primary station system would still work… in theory. But none of the access requests for people using John’s cards would find their card entry logged in to the larger system; John’s intercept signal would only pass along those not part of his system. He’d also disabled the logging of the door being opened; the frequency and quantity alone would raise alarm, given the fact that the meeting room hadn’t been used in months.
John noted, with irony, that the prior use of the room involved the collection of information about those on the surface, cataloguing and tagging those deemed worthy of survival. With the Ravager scourge well on its way to completion, they’d shelved the room and left it dormant. “I guess, in a sense, we’re doing the same thing?”
Micah shook his head. “We’re on the side of eliminating the few so as to save the many, not the other way around.”
“Good point.”
Once they’d smuggled the entire team aboard and into the meeting space, John projected names and images up on a pair of screens. On the left, he showed those they were targeting for termination: the Thirty. On the right was list of those who’d be doing the fighting. “We’ve already eliminated, or have seen eliminated through means outside our control, a material percentage of our list. That’s the good news. The bad news? There are still a lot of them left. And I’ve been asked to tell you all this: Energy works aboard this space station. We are outside the range of the weapon that suppresses everything on the surface. You should be able to operate as you once did, without restriction.” He paused. “But so can they.”
“It is worth noting that Oswald Silver has recently left the space station,” Sheila said. She had no trouble commanding attention from this group when she spoke; her Hope Stark disguise gave her an unnatural authority. “We have reason to believe he is heading to a place called New Phoenix.” She moved to the screen and tapped the images of those affected as she spoke. “So we have seen four already eliminated in New Phoenix, five more in New Venice, three at the Elite Enclave, and Delilah Silver and two others during the recent attacks here.” As she finished speaking, half the images on the screen were blurred out by large red Xs. For the remaining survivors, John repositioned the images above a large map of the station, showing where each officially lived.
“Fifteen left,” Miriam said. “Fourteen here. One en route to New Phoenix.”
“We’re certain those on the surface are deceased?” Mary asked.
“Yes. The nine at the two fortresses are confirmed dead by assets friendly to our side in each location. We aren’t clear if our assassins remain alive, though we’re more inclined to believe our person in New Phoenix survived than the one in New Venice.”
“Shouldn’t we let the asset in New Phoenix know that Oswald Silver is en route?”
“She is already aware.” Miriam frowned. “It remains to be seen if she can handle this particular assignment.”
Micah tilted his head. “Why should that be an issue? Who is your asset in New Phoenix?”
“Deirdre Silver.”
Groans erupted from Mary and John. Micah arched an eyebrow. “You trust her?”
“My ability to read people—with or without my original enhancement—is exceptional, if I do say so myself. Deirdre was sincere in her desire to perform her assignment, but also honest in informing us that she did not believe she would be able to act directly against her parents.”
“Is the larger threat that she can’t eliminate Oswald… or that she allies with him and lets him know about our existence, location, and plans?” Sheila asked. “Do you trust her word that she’s taken out the four in New Venice?”
“Separately and independently verified,” John said, looking up from his computer terminal. “I was able to tap into internal social networks at both fortresses. Lots of talk about four visiting dignitaries being found dead in their beds overnight. Looks like Deirdre kept her word thus far.”
Miriam smirked. “We, ah, may have given her a nudge to act as she promised as well.”
John arched an eyebrow. “So she’s a puppet under your control.”
“We tweaked only her motivation. Her direct actions in following that motivation are entirely at her discretion.”
“You couldn’t make her want to kill her father?”
“She already wants to kill him. She just doesn’t think she can do it. And if she suddenly woke up and discovered she had no qualms, she might manage to override our other suggestion.”
“Interesting.”
“Do we need to send someone else to New Phoenix, then?” Mary asked. “To make sure that Oswald is taken care of? And Deirdre, too, if she turns against us?”
“Covered. Roddy’s relative power on the surface is far greater than any of ours here; he is the perfect candidate to send on such a mission. He’s a trained member of the Special Forces, he’s aware of all threats, and he hates Silver with a passion.”
“Hope he hates her with a passion as well,” Mary muttered.
“Roddy will do fine,” Micah said. “He’s well aware of who and what Deirdre is, and there’s no chance he’s swayed by anything she might say or do.” He happened to catch Mary’s glare. “Especially not anything she might try to do. We need to trust him to do his job, just as he’s trusting us to do ours here. He has the proper motivation to finish the job.” He held up two fingers. “You know who I mean.” The last words were directed at Mary, whose eyes lit up at the reference to their children. Though she wasn’t fully comfortable with anything to do with Deirdre Silver, she nodded. “Let’s focus on the dangerous mission at hand, shall we?”
Mary nodded.
“Good.” Micah nodded as well. “We need to keep something in mind. If large numbers of the Thirty have begun dying en masse, under curious circumstances, we must assume that those still here have noticed, and are on high alert for anything out of the ordinary, no matter how minor. We must take special care to do nothing to raise suspicions, to keep our presence and aims quiet as long as possible.”
All of them jumped as an unfamiliar voice broadcast over the comms nanos in their minds. It’s too late for that, Micah Jamison. We know where you are. And we know what you’re doing. The question is: what are we going to do to you?
Miriam’s eyes were closed, and Mary, Sheila, Micah, and the others all watched for her reaction. A smile spread across her face, and when she opened her eyes, they shone with a light Mary and Sheila had never before seen. “It’s back, isn’t it? It’s all the way back. And I do mean… all the way.” Her smile was gleeful, far more than one might imagine possible when an entity that had just annihil
ated most of the world’s human population had just announced impending doom. “We can finish what began at the island centuries ago, friends, before we ended the battle and left our enemies alive.”
She paused for a moment, as if only then realizing that not all understood her words, and turned her attention directly to Mary, Sheila, John, and Micah. “I mean you no offense by this. But you will not be able to compete in this fight. You must stay hidden, stay silent, and do not engage the enemy. They will not fight as you expect they will fight. We will return as we are able, keep you aware of the goings-on, and the survivors will find you when the battle truly ends.”
And with that, everyone in the room vanished, leaving only a confused quartet behind. “Anybody have a clue what that meant?” Mary asked.
“Somewhat,” John replied. When the others looked at him, he looked up from the screen and his fingers stilled. “Roddy. Your children. Your in-laws. They have a type of power in them. It shows up differently in each of them. But it’s the same base.”
“What does that have to do with—?”
“They all had it at one time, centuries ago. Like what your husband and children can do, but… super-charged. Things Roddy couldn’t even imagine at this point. Both sides, both factions, both wary of the other, fighting for different things in the larger world.”
“Right, one side eventually became Phoenix, right? And Miriam’s group was from the other side?”
“More philosophies than sides, per se. People switched. People were forced to switch, in some cases. At any rate, the inevitable battle finally raged. The anti-Phoenix side won. But… they handled victory in a curious fashion.”
Micah nodded. “They stopped, once it was obvious they’d annihilate the other side. There was evidence of mental alteration in their enemy, that they were acting not of their own free will. The anti-Phoenix side didn’t want to commit mass slaughter of people who weren’t acting of their own free will.”
“Noble of them,” Mary said.
“Perhaps. Some would say foolish; Miriam seems to be one of them.” John shrugged. “At any rate, the leaders of the victorious side worried that the future would see ever greater concentrations of that power in individuals in the future, that another charismatic leader might rise and abuse that power… and the result in such a future might not be so favorable.”
“Reasonable logic,” Sheila said.
“So… they set off a weapon. Few ever knew exactly how it worked. They knew only that the power many had possessed for literal centuries just stopped. Without warning. In an instant.”
“That would suck,” Mary said.
“There was a lot of bitterness and anger.” John shrugged. “The record suggests a lot of infighting in the early years. But they managed to put aside those issues at some point, and propel humanity into what we call the Golden Ages.”
“So… that makes sense, I guess,” Mary said. “What did Miriam mean just now? And where did they all go?”
“The weapon only seems to impact the surface, inside the atmosphere. Here?” John shrugged. “It’s like it was centuries ago. They’ve been given the most amazing gift. And they’re going to use it to end this age-old battle for good.” He tapped the keys.
“So… we’ve won, then?” Sheila asked.
“The other side has the same power,” Micah said quietly. “It will be a fair fight.”
“Except for us,” Mary said, her tone bitter. “We’re rendered impotent. Aren’t we?”
“Bluntly? Yes.” John said. “We can do little here but wait, listen, perhaps tend to any wounded who return. We are ants fighting elephants; nothing we do will make a difference.”
Micah looked thoughtful. “John, how much control do you have over the station-wide controls here?”
John smirked. “If I don’t already have access to something, I can get it pretty easily.” He tilted his head. “Why do you ask?”
“I think I know how the ants can help the elephants.”
John’s eyes lit up. “Tell me more.”
Mary held her hand up. “Aren’t you forgetting something, ant man?”
“Ant man?”
“The voice said they knew where we were and could get here. Miriam said we should hide. If I’m an ant, and an elephant is threatening to step on me, I’m bailing out.”
“Good point.”
“I know a place we can hide,” Sheila told them. She tracked down a scrap of paper and pen, and drew a simple map with two words written on the slip of paper. Once the others nodded, she wrote down the words two knocks, one knock, four knocks.
Then she ripped the paper into tiny portions and vanished, hidden by the nano swarm she controlled. After John permanently erased the contents of the terminal, the remaining trio vanished as well.
Thirty minutes later, they’d convened inside Ashley Farmer’s old room.
John’s eyes lit up at the sight of the computer terminal. “It’ll take me a few minutes to re-establish control and connections. And then, Micah, I’d love to hear your ant-level counterattack plan.”
Mary asked who Ashley Farmer was, and Mary filled her in. The two continued chatting when Micah slipped away and explained his idea to John. John listened intently, and then his eyes widened. “Yes, I think I can do that… and it just might work, Micah.”
He lowered his head and his fingers danced over the keyboard while Micah explained the idea to Sheila and Mary; both agreed it should work, but worried it might take too long to make a difference in the battle.
But they’d still try.
Sheila found blank sheets of paper and they wrote out the names of the remaining Thirty. They then tried to remember as many of their side as they could.
John’s hacks produced the best updates they could get, mostly from coded language sent through the space station’s social media system. People moving at untold speed, seemingly vanishing from one point and reappearing elsewhere. People dying, blood pouring from wounds, with looks that suggested they hadn’t known death to ever be a possibility.
Micah thought of something, and realized it was important enough to risk communication. Miriam, did you bring any flimsy weapons with you? He included John, Mary, and Sheila in the communication.
A moment later, they got their reply: Oh, hell, why didn’t we think of that?
“Is that question a genuine revelation to her, or is she being sarcastic?” Sheila asked.
“And what flimsy weapons are you talking about?” John asked.
Micah glanced at him. “You’ve clearly studied the great battle from the past; what type of weapon would seem flimsy, but would make a major difference here?” He arched an eyebrow.
John’s brow furrowed. Then smoothed as his eyes lit up. “Oh!”
“Anybody want to fill the rest of us in?” Mary asked.
“In the old days the groups made nets of a material that would suppress the powers of the person trapped in the net,” Micah explained.
“Isn’t throwing that idea out a way to give the enemy the same idea, if they’re listening in?” Sheila asked.
“It was a risk worth taking. Everyone here in the space station would be on the same side, so they’d have no need for the nets. If Miriam and her team had any in storage and brought them, they’d be the only ones who did. It would make a difference.”
“What if they didn’t have them?”
Micah grinned. “The enemy wouldn’t know that until it’s too late, would they?”
Mary and John laughed.
The chatter started coming in, erratic reports every five to ten minutes, spread out over the course of long, agonizing hours. They crossed off names of the Thirty reported down, but had to cross of more of their own, some they hadn’t put on their handwritten list. Their side had started with more people, more by a long shot. They still had a numbers advantage, but the trend in deaths wasn’t promising.
New reports came in. Members of the Thirty being “frozen” and the executed. Then reports that th
e nets had been stolen by members of the Thirty off the bodies of colleagues before their enemies could retrieve them. Miriam’s team started suffering losses due to the stolen nets.
Twenty remained on Miriam’s side. Eight remained of the original Thirty aboard the station. And that didn’t count the unsettled situation with Oswald Silver heading back to the surface and the New Phoenix area.
“What happens if all of them die?” Mary whispered. “Will it be worth it?”
“It has to be,” John murmured. “I hope we never find out, though.”
And then, suddenly, the chatter changed again. The nets weren’t working. The combatants were moving at the speed of normal people. One side was dealing with that change in circumstances far better than the other.
The tone of the incoming communications switched sharply.
It was all good news for the anti-Phoenix forces.
The Thirty dropped quickly to five.
Then four.
Three.
Then two.
Miriam’s voice came over the comms nanos. Mission. Accomplished. All enemy targets eliminated.
A cheer erupted over the comms after the announcement, and the four ants in the room couldn’t help but join in.
John, Mary, Sheila, and Micah helped the wounded get safely back to the original meeting room; even with their reduced numbers the entire force wouldn’t fit safely in Ashley’s quarters. The injured would announce their location if unable to walk or nano-fly back, generally in cases where blood loss made the required levels of concentration difficult. John disabled the security systems at the nearest infirmary, allowing his colleagues to “borrow” mounds of bandages, ointments, needle and thread to sew closed the multitude of knife wounds. And pain relievers, lots and lots of pain relievers, which were administered as needed.
As things calmed down, an exuberant but exhausted Miriam limped over, eyes red from tears shed over friends lost in the last few hours. “Something changed. We all lost our power, just like we did at the great battle on the island so many years ago. Do you know what it was?”
Micah and John exchanged a glance and then laughed. “When all of you showed up here, you said you felt your old powers returning. John had done research on the Great Battle and the aftermath, and noted that the weapon, whatever it was, didn’t seem to work here.”
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