by JA Huss
I lie on the grass in what seems to be the late afternoon sun and after a few minutes Kush finds me. I look up at him as he approaches and pat the ground next to me. "You looked good today, Kush."
He smiles as he sits down. "Where did you and Ashur learn that stuff, Junco?"
"What stuff?"
"Those fighting moves?"
"Oh, it's a specialized art on Earth. You don't have jujitsu here?"
He shakes his head. "Never heard of it."
"Well, shit. You guys should get some teachers. It's pretty fucking useful for close combat like that."
"Where did Ashur learn it?"
I shrug. "I dunno." I puff on the cigar and then blow out some rings. "Watching me, I guess."
He's silent for a while so I fill in the gaps. "The 039 were my watchers on Earth." I look over at Kush to gauge his reaction but he's a blank. "He had years to see what I was up to, so I guess it just interested him and he decided to teach himself."
"Hmmm."
"What?"
"He's pretty infatuated with you, Junco."
"Kush, he's my captain. I'm his nine. He certainly loves me, but he's not in love with me if that's what you're getting around to."
"He definitely could be, that's all I'm saying. One word from you would be all it takes."
I shrug and blow smoke rings. I'm not even remotely interested in having this conversation with Kush and I let the silence hang until I hear Isten calling me to come back upstairs from the door.
I leave Kush out there on the grass.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Later, Ash and I are sitting in the lounge as we watch a horror screen. "Go take a shower, Junco. What are you waiting for?"
I look back at the showers and shake my head. "I don't like to shower with people here. It feels weird. Especially with Isec and Kush, ya know?"
"You're suddenly shy?" He grins at me and laughs. "That's a first."
He's right, too. I've never been shy about my body before. "I know. I just don't feel comfortable with these guys. It's too personal."
"I was gonna take you out to dinner."
"I'll eat later, I want to go look at the church again. Wanna come with me?"
"No, I'm hungry and I'd rather go out to dinner."
"No one's stopping you, go."
He looks sideways at me. "Why do you want to go up there?"
"Because it's strange, why is it here? I asked Isten but he ignored my question." I pull out the prayer card that I've been keeping in my pocket and hand it to him. "I went in there that night that you programmed my com. I followed Isec up there and I found that prayer card."
He reads the poem. "Huh. Never heard of this one before."
"No? It's an old Earth poem, Ashur. Don't you think that's weird?"
He flips it over to look at the syrinx on the front. "Is it a famous poem?"
I shrug. "Not really. Maybe it was once, but it's a few hundred years old or something."
"How did you know it, then?"
"See, that's the thing. I had to memorize this poem in school, Ashur. Was assigned it in sixth year, right before I went off to cadets."
He hands it back to me and I pocket it. "Well, you don't ever want to ask Isten about the syrinx, Junco. He's worthless about religion. Refuses to even talk about it. But the syrinx was an ancient…" He looks up and struggles to find the correct word. "I guess the only proper way to describe her is the Fallen Archer."
I stand up and grab his hand. "Come up there with me."
He scowls. "Will you take a shower and go eat with me afterward?"
I smile and nod and he gives in.
Ashur stands behind me as I bend down to pan my fingertips across the ancient markings around the wooden door frame.
"Well, are you gonna go in?"
I look up and shake my head. "No, it scares me."
"Junco–"
"I just want to see if I can read this." I point to the markings.
"It looks like chips in the wood to me."
"It's not, it's ancient Sumerian cuneiform."
"Oh, well that explains it." He shakes his head and laughs.
My finger traces the various images, ticks, and lines one graphic at a time and I reach back in my memory to find the key. It's far back, from grade school, year three or four maybe, but it's there.
"Junco, can you really read that shit?"
I open my eyes and Ashur is bent down next to me, his face right up to mine. "I could, if I had enough time. I have the key in here." I say, tapping my head. "My father took me to the British Museum once, for birthday week. His friend was some big-shot curator guy in the Ancient Near-East section and he gave me this book that had worksheets and stuff."
Ashur looks at me strangely.
I shrug. "I can't help it, I just remember weird shit like that. Plus, we had like a whole semester on it in regular weekday school. Learning gods and goddesses and stuff. Like we do the Greeks. But this door is odd, because these markings are a mixture of several different forms. It encompasses the entire span of ancient Sumerian writing stretching over a period of almost four thousand years."
"What's it say?"
I smile because he's interested now, he can't help it. "I don't really know, I'd have to decipher each one, then try and apply it in context. I'd have to go back and read the books about the mythology to make sure it was correct. It would take months, years maybe."
His fingers pass over the carvings. "Oh, well, it is kinda cool."
"Don't you have anyone who can read this, Ashur? I mean, surely you must have some book or something that tells what it says."
He shrugs. "Yeah, maybe. I could look into it if you want."
"I do," I say as I look into his eyes. They are green like Tier's and they glow a little as we stare at each other. I break away first. "The thing is, Ash, when I went in there to pray, I prayed to be brave when the time comes. I said, Please let me accept my fate with courage. Let me be brave in the end. And I got an answer."
I watch his eyes again as it sinks in. "From who?"
I scratch my head and think of a good way to put it.
"Junco, from who?"
"My vision screen."
"What vision screen?"
"Huh?"
"What vision screen?"
"That shit that scrolls across my vision, the data."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"You can't see stuff on your field of vision? Stuff like documents and your personal biogs, or the injury status of an opponent?"
He stares at me, his eyes glowing like fuck, and I feel my heart stop. "You're not supposed to have a vision screen, Junco. That has to be gifted to you by the– ."
He stops mid-sentence and stays quiet. Like he's said too much.
I let out a breath. "Well, I have one."
"What did it say to you, Juncs?"
"She said–"
"She?"
"Yeah, she said, do you wish to accept the sacrifice? And I stalled, and she asked if that was a no, and I said wait, yes, I do. I'll accept the sacrifice. And then she was gone."
"Is this the only time she's talked to you?"
"No, when I was giving testimony, she was the one telling me what to say."
"What?"
"I woke up after talking to Tier and she was on my vision screen, she typed out word for word what I should say. And I did. She said they would knock off that charge if I said what she told me to."
"You did lie."
I nod. "Tier did break the treaty. I lied. Are you gonna tell Lucan?"
He looks at me. "No, of course not, Junco." His hand wraps around my head and he pulls me into his chest as he slumps back against the door. "What the fuck is going on, though?"
"Did Lucan or Layla tell you what they found inside my body?"
He huffs out some air. "There's more?"
"I'm part machine, Ashur. I'm littered with circuits all through my body. And when Layla explained what she saw she said th
at there was AI code inside me, but that it was inactive and inert."
He snorts. "Some fucking scientist she is."
"I know, right? When she told me that I immediately thought of my HOUSE back home. You know we had an AI running our house?"
He nods. "Arel corrupted her once, so we could get inside. But I don't know anything about it, really."
"So there's something inside me. Are you sure we shouldn't tell Lucan?" I pull back and look at his eyes.
"Has it done anything bad to you?"
"No, she shows up in stressful situations and helps me."
"Let's just wait."
"Sure, I'm fine with that." But not really. I'm worried, I want to say. I'm a little scared even.
"Back to the Fallen Archer and your original question. The church is here because she's like the equivalent of your Jesus on Earth. The sacrifice, to let everyone else live, right?"
I nod. "Yeah, that was his purpose, his death saved the rest of us."
"The syrinx isn't that magnanimous, she's here to remind you of your sacrifice."
I look up at him, my eyes wide.
He nods. "Yeah, funny timing. The purpose of the church is to make you ask if you're good enough to live. Can you contribute, can you help, can you save others. Like the stuff I was saying to the pledges today."
I let out a little laugh. Synchronicity.
"Anyway, by the time you get to Fight Six, you're supposed to reflect on this and then make a decision. Either say you're worthy and prove it, or give yourself up for the good of the others. That's her purpose."
I'm silent as I consider what my acceptance of the sacrifice means, but it's not particularly attractive. "So why is she called the Fallen Archer?"
"She gave herself up so we could live too, way back, like when we were still on Earth. Self-sacrifice is her thing."
"But why did she have to?"
He smiles down at me as his fingers absently play with my hair. "I thought you hated the myths?"
I shrug. "It's hard to ignore this one."
"Yeah, well, it's complicated because we have so many different mythologies that it's hard to keep straight. But the Fallen Archer, even though the Seven Siblings has Old Crage in it in some versions, is one of the twelve original myths. Which means it's way older than Crage.
"So anyway, the story goes, the avians were getting ready to leave Earth to go find the Seven Siblings but they" – he stops and bends his head over to look at me – "I'm improvising here, Junco, I haven't read this myth in like twenty years so don't quote me or anything – but they needed stuff they didn't have. From what I can remember they needed to reach escape velocity and plot a course, and build the habitats out here in the Band, and all the technology we'd need to leave Earth and survive. And the story says she gave herself up so that we could get that from the High Order."
"What's the High Order?"
He shakes his head at me. "For this you do have to go to Lucan. I'm not allowed to tell you this part, sorry. He's the Archer."
"Oh. Well, since I have to go to him anyway, should I tell him everything then?"
"If you trust him."
"Do you trust him?"
"Unconditionally."
I nod. "OK."
We stay that way for a few more minutes and then he pulls me to my feet. "Time to shower, I'm fucking starved." He pushes me off the ledge and we soar down to the dorm.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The tubes we are placed in for the Sixth Battle are upright and in the shape of a streamlined bullet. There are so few of us now, only thirty, that we all approach the circle of cases together. The transparent doors slide open simultaneously, and we all take a step forward and turn around.
The case slides shut and the only sound I hear is my own breathing. It has not been possible to predict the moment the fight starts for some time now, and I shuffle my feet with impatience. Somewhere deep below in some hidden layer of the habitat a mechanical ratcheting vibrates and then I am accelerating upward.
The top end of the bullet slides back in anticipation and then the case abruptly stops.
But I don't.
Momentum propels me up and out onto the field of battle. I am sailing through the air and then my upward acceleration reaches zero and I hang there for a fraction.
And fall.
My feet slam into the metal grate that pops out from the side of a deep well about the width of my arms. My ankle twists a little as it gets stuck between the metal crosses and I fall backwards.
"Shit!"
"You OK, Junco?" Kadian is on my coms but I ignore him and look around at where I am. It's obviously another personal challenge because there is no one else in the pit except me. I try my wings to see if I can fly, but the space is too tight. A sudden memory of Tier fighting nightdogs in the cave comes back and I push it down.
"Junco?"
"Kadian, one more fucking word from you and I'll cut the transmission. I'm motherfucking serious, seal your fucking mouth shut."
I stand and wince as my ankle cries out in pain. Just fucking great, I have to climb out of a pit with no rope and my ankle is fucked.
A timer beeps on the side of the ragged sandstone walls and begins to count down from three hundred seconds. A rush of water fills the chamber below my feet as I hear the snapping of jaws and almost pee myself.
I look down.
Crocodiles.
I scan up the side of the wall and spy another timer, about twenty feet vertical, then see the mechanism that will close another grate over my head and trap me down here if I don't start climbing now. I reach up for a handhold and pull up, find a foothold with my good foot, and repeat. The timer races down but I put it out of my mind and find another handhold and pull.
I am almost to the first gate and still have a full sixty seconds to get past the mechanism when the first grate below me slaps open. The crocodiles claw at the sides of the pit and jump at me. I lose purchase and slip a few feet backwards, my feet kicking out as the crocs jump into the air to grab a foot.
I try again, the timers down to forty-five seconds now, and pull. My ankle screams at the strain of my weight, but I force it down and climb. I reach the grate with fifteen seconds and use it to haul myself up quickly. I push my back and legs against the opposite sides of the pit wall and rest as the gate below me slams shut.
I put my feet down and take a real rest as the water is funneled out through some unseen drain and the crocodiles disappear. The bottom grate slides back in and becomes solid just as the side of the pit opens up and nightdogs are released below me.
Shit, they probably took that fear straight out of my mind. Dammit, Junco, push that shit down!
A litter of pups appears in the side of the pit wall next to me and they begin screaming for their mothers. I study the wild dogs below me and see that they are all bitches, their teats swollen from recent birth and nursing. They jump up and almost snap my fingers off that are clutching the grate. I pull back and get to my feet in a panic as the pups continue their call for help.
The timer for this phase beeps and starts counting down from two hundred forty seconds. I put a hand up and climb, trying my best to block out the vicious growl of dogs. I get a few feet up and the grate below me slides back into the wall, exposing my legs to the wild animals below. I let out a whimper and scramble up the wall as they jump and gain a hold of the boot of my drooping leg. I shake hard and pull the foot away, find another handhold and pull. They jump again and take a chunk of my pants with them as they fall, and I cling hard to the wall, then watch the timer begin counting down my final minute.
"Fuck!" I reach again and pull, the cries distract me and I slip as my foot falsely assumes the porous rock will hold my weight. The dogs jump again as the pups in the small nook on the side of the wall scream for attention. I watch the milk drip off the bitches, their need to nurse and fight driving them upwards towards my body.
The timer is at forty seconds and I reach up again, pull, find a spo
t for my foot, test, reach up, pull, find a foothold, test, and make it to the third gate and scramble my ass off as the timer says I have five seconds before I will be chopped in half. The thought of the nightdogs getting to eat my legs as a reward pushes me up just as the grate slams out below and I drop and rest.
I don't watch as the pups and bitches are removed from the pit, but I listen for the silence. It is a short reprieve, because the nasal growl of a pack of prairie lions echoes in my ears. They fight and claw at each other for a second and then the timer beeps and begins to count down what may be the final one hundred and eighty seconds of my life. I scramble up the pit wall, one hand over the next, one foot in, test, next foot, test, and repeat. The timer is at one hundred twenty when I hear the mechanism for the grate begin to slide.
I calculate the distance between myself and the prairie lions and know with surety that they can leap far higher than that short distance.
My ankle is not only burning, it swells against the side of my boot and the heat threatens to make it burst. The gate slides open and the hissing begins as the pride realizes they can get me. They leap and I scream and pull myself up, trying not to look down. I feel the claws scrape the flesh off the back side of my calf as I pull my ankle from their reach. Pull, Junco! Pull!
I do, but they figure out that the soft sandstone is perfect for long sharp claws to gain purchase as they try and catch a good meal.
I scream, "Fuck!"
One gets close and I have to stop and kick out to knock it back as I hold on desperately by one hand. The rocks begins to slide and loose bits of wall crumble beneath my fingers.
I reach up with my other hand and grab, then shake my head and think.
"Stop fucking thinking, Junco, and climb!"
For a minute I think it's me talking, but it's not. It's Kadian on the coms. "Climb, you stupid girl, climb!"
I do.
I climb and I ignore my ankle and after what seems like too many kicks at the leaping prairie lions my hands reach the lip of the pit and I haul myself up and over, struggling mightily in the sudden increase in G. It is so thick I immediately feel exhausted.
