by Tal Turing
"He'll be okay, Ed. Its Patron's fault anyhow for trying to make him an officer. We both know he isn't cut out for it. Patron will agree with me. He took control from his dad, you know that, I haven't tried anything different. I would have told you the whole story and after Patron is ousted, we can both run the show. Barrett isn't even family."
As they spoke, Cyn noticed that Steve was inching closer to his brother. He disguised it well, taking two or three parallel steps for each step towards. And as strange as it might be, she had to assume Ed was on her side.
"Eddie, he still has that glove," Cyn said, worried. What was all of this?
Steve smiled at Edwyrd.
"Yep, well I didn't think she would screw me willingly! I'm bored with those hospie assets, Ed, so you can't blame me. Besides remember back we used to all talk about fucking her. You would pick a part of her body and I would pick a part and Brad, well Brad was always too shy to say. I just want to use some Transom property they way she was meant to be used. The way I am sure Patron has used her."
Steve took a step toward Cyn, his glove raised.
"Sit down Steve. Don't move Cyn." Ed's icy voice filled the room.
Steve took a step sideways and then rushed toward Edwyrd. But even as he started forward, Ed's hand make a quicker motion and the Hugger lurched downward and upward. Steve's attempt to push off the floor toward Ed met with air as the floor fell away from him and his head knocked the ceiling; and then, as the Hugger raised up again, Steve's body slammed down hard onto the unrelenting floor of the compartment, his bottom landing on his own ankle.
"Geezus" Steve moaned.
"I can forgive you for your stupid, crazy plots." Ed whispered, "and as you say, it's partially Patron's fault. He gave you the opportunity." Steve started to get to his knees, holding his ankle.
"Don't." Ed spat and Steve stopped. "And I might even forgive you for using Brad in your schemes. But where I have a real problem is not that you hurt Brad, but that you used him to hurt someone else. And that is what is killing him right now. You know that right? You know how badly that hurt him?"
"It's just a game, Ed. It's business." Steve laughed as he crawled to his knees. Suddenly the Hugger dropped again, launching Steve into the air, he slammed against the ceiling before he crashing to the floor once more. This time he screamed and ended up flat on his back, writhing in pain, blood oozing from his head.
"Ed, stop this!" Cyn insisted, her full concentration now on Deputy Harilla. "You might have killed him!"
"Steve," Ed began. "you'll always be remembered for your accomplishments...but you've gone as far as you can. As far as I am willing to let you go. Ask Mom to forgive me when you see her..."
"No Eddie!" her voice rose urgently as she released herself from the harness. He looked at her and she held his gaze as she moved toward the fallen man. "Stop toying with him! You found him out, he's admitted what he's done and you are in control, there is no need for the rest of this."
"Yes, Ed," Steve called, "You really hurt me. Let's sit down with Patron and talk this out."
"Would you please get back into your harness?" Ed urged her, exasperation creeping into his voice.
"I will not. Brad is sick and Steve is a traitor, we can't have you on trial for murder. You know that."
"I'm sorry if you feel like I did something wrong," Steve continued, "You really hurt me. I'm not sure I can walk on this." Steve tried to stand. He looked over at Ed as he tried to rise up; as if to emphasize his pain and helplessness. Cyn walked over to the eldest Harilla, stepping near him.
“Asset, I am ordering you...”
"I won't let you do this," Cyn insisted.
Steve grasped her ankle with the stun-glove and she heard the screech of the capacitors charging. His hand clamped onto her leg ferociously, determine not to let go. He looked up at her and she could see the smile of the clown. In her mind, she could see the seconds count down until the time the weapon would discharge and incapacitate her.
Edward
When Cyn released herself from the harness, Ed realized it was a mistake to have a third person in the room. It should have been just him and his brother, but he had needed Cyn to loosen Steve's tongue. Why did she have to always screw things up with her ideals and her rules?
He knew the best response would be to give the hugger a nudge, enough to throw her to her feet and away from Steve.
But he couldn't do it. With everything she had already been put through. And with what he and Steve had done years ago, he couldn't bring himself to intentionally hurt her again. So he would have to do this a different way. He could handle the much taller brother, but ideally he would get to her before he had incapacitated the asset.
Ed looked down, long enough to release himself from the harness, then he moved forward, lifting his gaze as he moved. But when he finally looked up, things had changed. He stopped and stared.
Steve was still lying on the floor but he had released her leg and now his head rested against the floor, looking in the other direction, not moving, not speaking. Cyn, her ankle free was walking, almost leisurely back toward her seat. As he watched, dumbfounded, she sat back down and patiently began strapping herself back in.
“What are you doing?” he asked, confused.
“You asked me to return to my seat,” she spoke simply, hollowly, before staring straight in front of her, at nothing.
Just then a sharp, cracking sound filled the room, jarring Ed's attention back to Steve's body. He saw it spasm and there was silence again. He looked back at Cyn but she had not reacted to the sound.
He knew what it was. It was the sound of the stun glove's capacitor discharging. He walked forward, toward the prone body. As he drew closer he saw the stiff limbs and unnatural angle of the head on the body. Eventually he saw the lifeless eyes, wide open.
“What did you do?” he asked, incredulous. He took another final look at the corpse before turning once again to the olive skinned asset. She did not look back at him.
“Really?” he began, as the weight and reality of the situation sunk into him. “This was your solution? This was your alternative to me sending his idiotic head through the ceiling?”
“Is that really what you were going to do?” She asked, still looking away.
“I'm pretty damn sure, if I'd gotten the chance. I didn't realize I had competition.” He blurted his annoyance. What had she done?
“Well, if he's right, if Patron is to be removed, if he entire executive is expelled, then there has to be some choices. But if you killed Steve, no matter if he is a traitor, it...it would be hard for them to accept. Even here.”
Ed sat and leaned back into his chair, stunned.
“You really gave him much more credit than he deserved. His talk about Patron means practically nothing. Why do you think it somehow looks better that you did it?”
“I'm just an asset, maybe they'll just send me away as punishment.”
“I told you, they are sending you back. Patron has already released you.”
But she had a point. Steve was a traitor, that was clear and Transom hated traitors more than anything. But Ed killing Steve might be hard for them to accept, even for Patron to accept. And Cyn wasn't even New Berlyn property.
They sat quietly in the compartment, not speaking, as the hugger continued on. Ed looked at the body and realized it was time to go back.
He rose and fetched a storage bag and then placed the body of his brother inside it. He tried to picture the corpses of the many raiders with whom he had done the same thing over the years. He hoped his Mother couldn't see him now.
He opened the cockpit door and got ready to return to manual controls. He wanted the practice. Turning back to the girl, he saw that she was still staring straight ahead.
“Hey, do you want a lesson?"
Now, Cynnamon looked over at him. He was relieved that she was not as catatonic as he had thought. She seemed puzzled. That was a good sign he supposed.
"Wh...what?"<
br />
"The Hugger. Do you want a lesson in how to fly one? Or do you really want to sit back here with Steve's corpse for the next forty minutes?”
She only looked at him.
After ten seconds without any response from her, Ed shrugged, turned away and entered the cockpit. He had taken control of the vehicle and made one course change before he heard her voice.
"Okay, sure,” Cyn spoke.
He kept his eyes forward, watching the instruments and the devastated valley before him until he sensed that she had entered the cabin. He waved her to the other seat.
“Actually, I've always dreamed of flying a Hugger,” she began, some of the normal tones returning to her voice as she looking around at the various virtual dashboards that her AI was now allowed to show her.
Ed started to explain the basics, slipping into his teaching mode which made him feel less uncomfortable.
“These readings all have to do with the depth of the AGP beams relative to the surface, generally deeper is better but energy expenditure increases with the length of the beam, so...”
He looked up at her, his eyes quickly accessing her expression. She was not relaxed but neither did she seem scared and the blank look had not returned. It was good enough. His eyes moved past her to an outside view port before her eyes could try to find his.
“So you wouldn't be able to keep the same altitudes,” she finished.
He nodded. It wasn't his style to praise or scold students over every correct or thoughtless answer. He had a goal in mind, to get through all the introductory material before they arrived. It would keep both their minds off of what came next.
“And this reading is a measure of the rigidity of the ground at the beam endpoints. The quality is color coded for each beam, with green being ideal, red being insufficient and yellow in the middle. The average is the most important readings...by the way, have you ever heard of a hugger train moving over a lake or a pond?”
“No. I don't think it could, the water wouldn't be rigid enough...”
“It could, in theory, but you'd have to keep your speed up and that makes turning difficult so it's just not advisable. Now over here is the amount of power to the main, supporting beams, the ones which tether us to the ground. If I cut that power...”
And he did. Just like that.
The Hugger trembled, softly and he saw Cyn look out the view port.
“Well, the field is inertial, so we shouldn't just fall, but we'd start to lose altitude at some rate. Not sure how fast...”
He flipped the power back on, it wasn't necessary to get too carried away with the demonstrations.
“At this height, we'd have about ten minutes, almost enough time to reach the fields outside New Berlyn Domes, but the variations are high.” He turned to her, on a whim. “I don't remember they offered AGP mechanics when you were going through training, it was still quasi-classified. Where did you pick any of this up?”
“Museums, what else would I do with my one Sunday off a month?”
“You must be very popular,” and he couldn't keep himself from grinning.
Second Meeting
When the Top Five reconvened later, only Transom executives were permitted to attend and thus Steve was not there. He had other matters which required his attention. However the meeting did not go as anyone had planned.
"We would like to be recognized, Matron Ezra," the voice of Daneel Tech filled the room. "The other members of the council have had their say."
"Of course," the SkyTran Matron replied as she looked around at the other members of the board, confident that most of them were with her. She needed only a majority.
Most of the members of the council were represented by the image of a single person, the matron or patron of the respective corporation. In the case of Daneel, the corporation which monopolized artificial intelligence and navigation, an empty chair was shown instead. When the voice of the collective spoke, it was always as 'we' and always in a disturbing and strange plural tone, as if multiple people were reciting the same words.
"We do recognize the grave situation in which we and the entire corporate community of New Berlyn now finds itself," began the unsettling sounds of the Daneel Tech collective. "But we are not convinced that this fire was started by Transom itself.
As Transom has testified, they have opened all their encryption keys to us upon learning of the charges against them. We have autopsied all of their communications and do not find any indication of maleficence by the executiveship of either corporation. However it is clear that very egregious criminal actions were perpetrated by officers of both corporations and all of that action was against Transom and served to benefit the smaller company. Thus we were confused at the board's antagonism toward Transom. After a broader investigation we feel that the plot is part of a wider conspiracy and that the actions are being followed to benefit members of the Top Five.”
The room was silent.
"You are entitled to your opinion, Daneel," the Matron continued, "but we have all heard the details, it is a matter of judgment now, so let's consider the options and vote."
"It is not our intention to convince you Matron," The hollow voice of the collective continued, "but since the board is proceeding in a manner which benefits itself, we have been forced to move in our own self-interest. And we feel that our position is now very strong.
We are satisfied to end this inquisition without further investigation on the condition of a change in the proposed resolution: stronger punishments on the remaining Humantis officers and retention of the Transom executive with some minor punitive changes."
"You may advocate all you wish," began the Matron of Skyline.
"Wait," interrupted Urbanic's Patron, an unhappy frown on his face. “I don't like it when he..when THEY talk like this. I still remember the last time.
Daneel, tell us what is this new position of yours?"
"You would not believe us until you heard for yourself. We would like to invite an outsider to explain matters."
"Who?"
"The Speaker of the Valley of New Berlyn"
“Villagers? What speaker? Which villages?”
"All of them, Matron. We are advocating on their behalf, as they have no formal representation here."
"Why didn't you tell us there was such a representative?"
"It is a recent development. We are bringing it to your attention now."
The old man was dressed simply in black when his avatar entered the virtual chamber. He was introduced to the board members and given the privilege to address the council.
"First," began Pol, "I would like to thank you."
The room was silent as Pol paused. His body language showed all the poise and control of an experienced orator.
"Thank us?" asked a confused Patron of Urbanic Corp.
"Yes, all my considerable life I have urged the various tribes of settlers and scavengers to work together rather than always competing for your favor, to speak as one on matters of common importance. But they could never bring themselves to do so, such is our innate fear and distrust of anything that reeks of the yoke of government.
Then, inside one week, you all have brought my greatest dream to fruition, a uniting of the villages, albeit a very angry unification. So thank you for giving an old man his dream, even if it doesn't last long."
Pol stopped speaking and waited. The room was silent again, anxious to hear what he would say next. Pol took his time and when he did speak, he simply repeated. "Thank you."
The silence continued but Pol seemed nonplussed.
"You are welcome, Mr. Gente" spoke the SkyTran matron. Pol responded immediately as if the response triggered the start of his speech.
"Oh, I doubt very much if any of you will derive any happiness from what I will say next!" he declared looking around at each virtual avatar, his old eyes dark and intense. "We are not a corporation and so we do not have corporate contracts but we do have a covenant, a covenant that we deem to have b
een broken.
This is our valley. We chose it from among hundreds of candidates; a topological configuration ideal for resisting the sustained hurricane force winds that have ground away the prairies of this continent; a topology which lent itself to diverting rain water and valley plumbing. We chose a location that was far from the old urban settings and the roads that connect them; a valley that is difficult to approach and has many observation points to identify any who would try. We excavated the hillsides so that the torrential rains would drain away rather than pool and flood. We scavenged ruined cities for raw materials and antiquities, bringing them to this valley as if they were plundered gold.
The same features which make this place so 'livable' in an unlivable world also allow you to operate your domes with minimal energy draw and you have done so with maximum help from our workers. Even now the food grown in your domed farms is done so only with the expertise of our people. And all that you have built, all that you have came only after we were already here, preparing the way."
The chairwoman's face was without expression.
"Mr. Pol, we certainly appreciate and.."
"We don't believe you do. How could you? You didn't build the tunnels or divert the waters or construct hydroponic farms within insect-infected swamps. You, Madam Matron, grew up in Techview. You have lived in a dome all of your life.
Still, despite the popular rhetoric, we don't begrudge you your choices or your priorities; up to now, with a minimum of bickering, we have all lived symbiotically: we have provided labor and local expertise which have made your domes and your industries thrive. You have provided capital and protected farmlands which allow our populations to grow. You enjoy the perception that your life is the better one and we feel the same about ours. We even tolerate your Sponsorship laws which allow you to appropriate our young into your society.
So if you want to fight and plan and betray each other, well that is not our concern. But now, one of yours commits unspeakable crimes against our people and worse against our sisters, wives and daughters..."
