Sentients in the Maze

by Chogan Swan

  She pulled the valve in her helmet that let in unfiltered air and took a deep breath to sample the odors for herself.

  “The ordering principle is chaos!” she swore in Nii.

  Jonah, the only one to understand her words, wavered between worry and amusement but then settled on shock as Tiana took off her helmet and gloves.

  “Leave yours on, Jonah,” Tiana said, unzipping her suit’s outer fastenings, popping off the airtight closures, but leaving the suit still draped on her body. She pulled a lightweight tactical outfit from her pack. “Jonah, you’re with me. Amber, you're in charge here. Wait for my call. Have everyone stand down for now.” Tiana marched into the woods, Jonah followed, trading incredulous looks with Amber as he went.

  When they were out of sight of the team, Tiana stopped and stripped off her odor-containment suit and let it fall. With abrupt, wordless efficiency, she put on the tactical clothes and weapon harness, slipped her tail out of the kilt and wrapped it around his wrist. Even knowing what to expect, Jonah nearly fell—still unprepared for how fast she accelerated with him in tow. Jonah was just thankful she made sure he stayed in one piece on the leaping, ducking final mile. They walked the final yards to the front door of the two-story log cabin. Jonah was working too hard on getting his breath back again to worry about confronting two hostile niiaH—almost.

  Tiana walked straight to the door and pounded on the frame. The building shook, sounding like someone was pounding on it with a trip-hammer. Jonah reached for the Glock 40 at his belt, but stopped when Tiana held out her palm to him.

  “Open this door right now or I will break it down, Mother,” she snapped in nii.

  Jonah mouthed the word incredulously.

  Mother?

  Chapter 22 (Family Reunion)

  As the door opened, Tiana turned her head to Jonah and moved her lips to form words.

  Jonah registered them and nodded.

  A sturdy security chain arrested the door after allowing it to open five inches. From his angle, Jonah saw nothing, but he heard a man’s cultured southern accent call back into the house, “It’s for you, my dear.”

  “Just open the door, Edward,” snapped Tiana. “Don’t think I’m not pissed off at you too.”

  The chain rattled, and the door swung open. The man in the doorway was tall and sandy-haired. He grinned at them through a trim goatee then stepped back as Tiana pushed her way past him.

  “You, sir, are wearing a space suit,” he said to Jonah and chortled.

  “Also sprach Captain Obvious,” Jonah muttered, following Tiana.

  “Where is she?” Tiana said.

  The man with the goatee—Edward he gathered—walked past him, pointing down the hallway that faced the entrance. Jonah glimpsed a large, empty room with cathedral ceilings to the left of the front door, but he followed Tiana and Edward down the hall.

  Edward paused and turned to Jonah and held out his hand. “I’m Edward Winfield,” he said.

  “I’d that much figured out, Edward,” Jonah replied.

  “She seems a might upset,” Edward said, nodding towards Tiana.

  Jonah, gave him a tight grin. “Well,” he drawled. “Ya’ll might have considered writing every decade or so.”

  Edward shrugged. “Not my call though, eh?”

  Jonah shrugged and stepped into the rustic, eat-in kitchen.

  A tan-colored female nii sat behind the eat-in counter wearing traditional nii garb—nothing. She was shorter and heavier than Tiana, and Jonah sensed the power in the dense muscles that rippled beneath the swirling skin patterns on her body. Her face melded strength and beauty in Eurasian features that would blend into a crowd in almost any country without sacrificing its appeal. He detected a familiar personality in its construction, but this nii had never met him. Instead, she had gained over 120 years of Earth experience while his Tiana had slept.

  Tiana stepped up to the other side of the counter and put her hands on the black, polished-stone top. “Well, what have you accomplished in the last century and a quarter, Mother?”

  “You can call me Symbiana.”

  “Fine, Symbiana, do you have an answer to my question?”

  “I drew the niiaH away from the crèche so you might emerge. That was my highest priority. But as to the rest, I haven’t conceded that you should be trying to hold me accountable for my actions. In fact, it’s time you returned my resources so we can get somewhere in this fight instead of waiting for you to grow up first.”

  “That’s not an option, Symbiana. They are my friends, my organization, our plans in place, not yours. You abdicated your position. You can’t come back from the dead and expect to pick up where you left off, leaving my work unfinished. If you have helpful information, we can work together, but you can’t go AWOL then come back and expect to be in charge.”

  Symbiana sighed. “You act like they aren’t my friends too. I suppose we must settle this before we can move on then. You’re holding the resources. I challenge as the prior holder of the memories with over a century more experience in this world.”

  “Yet I have experiences you lack as well. Experience is a funny thing. Perhaps, you’ve had the same year of experience 125 times since you disappeared. Even if you learned much more from your experience than you seem to have accomplished, 125 years represents only a small percentage increase in experience. You may have been the prior holder of the shared memories, but we both have those. I have no desire to take your other memories, nor will I give you mine. I assumed my current resources legally to fill the void you left. Since you challenge me, I decide the format. I choose non-lethal combat with knives—the two of us against the two of you.”

  “What? You—barely out of the crèche for two years and Major Tom here?”

  Tiana’s face twisted with an expression Jonah had never seen her make before—an inhuman expression. She looked like a panther snarling—challenge, defiance. Her response in nii was a growl, “We found you didn’t we? You were sloppy. If you consider yourself decrepit and outmatched, I’ll allow you to concede.”

  Jonah sighed. Well, he’d come expecting a fight. At least this was non-lethal.

  Edward spoke up from behind Jonah, “I hate it when they speak that language from the old country, but aren’t family reunions fun?”

  ~~~{Tiana}~~~

  Tiana tossed her black tactical kilt on the pile with the rest of her clothes then picked up her harness. She pulled her twin kukri knives from their sheaths and examined the room again. The martial arts room she’d seen as they entered was crude but adequate. It was certainly big enough. Jonah, stood next to her, making sure the edge and point guards lashed to his blades were secure. Edward—practice blades already wrapped—warmed up across the room. Jonah didn’t need warming up after his morning. As she’d asked, he still wore the odor-blocking suit. His water supply was running low. He’d made progress at controlling his internal temperature, but the suit was still stuffy for him.

  Tiana turned to watch Symbiana coming down the hall. The emotional turmoil this encounter stirred was the other subject of her thoughts—staying detached but not denying it. She was angry, furious, at Symbiana for leaving her to enter a new existence alone and vulnerable.

  Tiana knew herself and her own capacity for ruthlessness. Yes, she cared about the risks she took with other people’s lives, but that never stopped her from going forward when she thought it necessary. Being on the receiving side of that ruthlessness was galling. It wasn’t only her who’d been in danger; Jonah, Charlie and the entire response team who’d rescued them had been at risk.

  Symbiana had used them as bait for a gambit she’d not yet revealed, and if Tiana could manage it, she would make her pay. Tiana wasn’t giving up command without doing everything possible to keep it. Right now, she didn’t trust Symbiana enough to hand control over to her.

  Tiana studied her older self to see what had changed since 1895. The face had changed drastically, but that was a given for hiding her identity. Sy
mbiana had also put on weight, all of it muscle. Ages ago, she'd decided her body needed more strength for the fighting and other situations she found herself in most often. That decision had guided later decisions—finally producing the body coming across the room now. Explosive power and endurance built over ages, but Tiana also understood what it had cost.

  When Tiana emerged from the crèche, she’d decided on a different path this time, pursuing balance, speed and exact control of movement to a point she’d never before reached. Remembering Symbiana’s capabilities and looking at her, she recognized that her fledgling skills, still developing and untested against a strong challenger, wouldn’t be enough by themselves. Her only advantage was that Symbiana didn’t know what Tiana and Jonah had become together, but Tiana understood well what Symbiana was. It wasn’t much to count on, but it wasn’t nothing.

  Symbiana walked to the center of the room, naked with blades ready. Tiana sensed Jonah’s presence behind her on the left. His awareness of her will and intentions seemed to settle on her like a cloak. She wasn’t sure if the sensation was her mental construct or something more, but it helped clarify the mindset she needed to make the best use of his talent.

  Edward stepped up next to Symbiana. He had stripped down to gym shorts and martial arts shoes. Tiana noted that he had grown more muscular and defined. He moved with the same careless grace she remembered, but she sensed he was stronger, faster and a great deal more experienced than he’d been in 1895. When this was over, maybe she would forgive him.

  “Is everyone ready?” Symbiana said, spinning her knives lazily.

  At their nods, she said, “From five then. Five… four… three… two… one.”

  Tiana felt Jonah anticipate her first move, so his feint toward Symbiana came at the same time as Tiana’s. Jonah had sparred with Tiana so many times he’d picked up a handful of tricks that might actually work against a nii warrior. So, his feint towards Symbiana’s knee was good, even better, it was effective. When Tiana started her feint simultaneously, Symbiana skipped backwards to clear her guard.

  Jonah dropped his knee to the ground and rolled left, clearing himself from Edward’s attacking lunge and offering Tiana the revealed attack she’d intended. Edward got a blade up, blocking her first thrust, but Jonah’s kukri smacked Edward’s hamstring as Tiana captured his left-hand blade, pulling her knife across his throat. Edward was out.

  Poor Edward.

  Humans, always so vulnerable to distractions, could only handle so many demands on their attention. A double feint drawing him in was too much to process. She and Jonah had tag-teamed him perfectly.

  Jonah moved around, to Symbiana’s right.

  “That’ll do, Jonah,” Tiana said.

  Jonah popped the seal on his helmet and tossed it aside, taking the cue she had given him when they came in the door. As his odor poured into the room, Tiana watched for Symbiana’s reaction.

  Symbiana’s eyes darted toward Jonah. Tiana detected the startle reflex as the odor matching a male nii to 98% of all pheromone markers crashed into Symbiana’s olfactory receptors. Jonah charged and Symbiana couldn’t help but divert her attention to the attack—giving it far too much credence as a threat. Tiana whipped her arm forward; her thrown knife nearly connected with Symbiana’s back, but she twisted, managing to avoid it.

  Jonah’s threw his knife too—in anticipation of her attempt to dodge Tiana’s blade. Symbiana twisted again. Tiana accepted the knife Jonah had thrown as the gift he’d intended, snatching it from the air while Symbiana attempted to avoid yet another missile—Tiana’s second thrown blade.

  Symbiana knocked that one wide, but Tiana now had Jonah’s knife and Symbiana, still descending from a twisting turn, couldn’t avoid it. Symbiana managed a partial block, but Tiana drove through, punching the point past the deflection and catching Symbiana’s skull in the one-inch kill zone behind the ear.

  Jonah gasped as Symbiana landed limp on the wood floor. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Yes, don’t worry, Jonah,” Tiana said. “I’m not committing matricide today. The blade is padded. She’ll have a sore head and be pissed off when she wakes up, but she was cocky and she paid for it.”

  Edward chuckled ruefully. “I’ll end up paying for it too.” He shook his head. “You two took us apart like we were children. How did you do that?”

  “Do you mind if I use your shower?” asked Jonah.

  “Down the hall on the right,” said Edward with a sigh.

  Jonah ambled down the hall, doubtless happier to get out of the suit than about winning the fight. Tiana smiled.

  Tiana went over to Edward and offered him a hand. That smack on the hamstring had to hurt. He took her wrist and stood.

  “I’m not offering help with the bruise because you aren’t my partner,” she said. “Though I will tell you I was sad when I came out of the crèche and thought you were dead.”

  Edward nodded. “You are different, and it’s not just the extra time she’s had here. You aren’t like she was in 1895 either.”

  “Someone wise told me once that who we are is determined by the choices we make. I think how we interpret what’s happened in our past can change us too. Two years can make a difference. A lot has happened since I woke and I’ve had time to review my memories fresh. I saw a movie last year entitled—Everything is Illuminated in Light of Our Past. If you accept the notion, I’ve inherited centuries of past to illuminate who I’m becoming, though I’ve only been in this body for two years.”

  “I see you’ve become more self-reflective,” said Edward, raising an eyebrow.

  Tiana shrugged and nodded toward the path to the bathroom. “Partnered with an introvert.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Oh yeah.”

  “Are you going to tell me how you found us?”

  Symbiana groaned, pushing herself up slowly to a sitting position. “They used dogs,” she growled. “Noses not as good as ours, but adequate.”

  “Obviously,” Tiana said. “Perhaps we do take on the attributes of our partners, Edward.”

  “Ouch… again,” said Edward. “I’ll get you some ice, my dear.” He limped into the kitchen.

  Tiana heard him muttering as he left.

  “Also sprach Captain Obvious, indeed.”

  Symbiana rubbed her head then placed her fingertips on the spot behind her ear, sending her filaments into the area. “I wasn’t going to take back control of XYMBI. I was only testing you to see what you’d do,” she said.

  “Well you found out then.”

  “When I heard you coming, I was expecting a fight, but ….” She pulled her fingertips away from her skull. “How did you two do that?”

  Tiana shook her head. “It’s your turn to tell me everything. I’ll decide what to tell you. I’m responsible for people you don’t even know, so you can start with what you learned from hanging us out as bait when I went to see Charlie.”

  “Okay, but I was responsible for the team who attacked you being short-staffed.”

  “Well thanks for that much, I suppose, but Jonah was the one that saved my life that day. I nearly died, and so did he.” Tiana fought her anger down all over again.

  Symbiana paused for a few moments to wait out the sudden upsurge in anger signals from Tiana. “I hope you can forgive me at some point. At the Allied Arts Building, I thought I smelled one of the niiaH, but I couldn’t spot it. It’s possible, what I thought was the niiaH was actually your partner though."

  Symbiana started to rise, but quickly returned to her seated position. "Since I had eyes on their observer and didn’t want to lose him I stayed on his trail. The observer reported to a secure building in Maryland. I later smuggled an empty specimen container into the building, making it look like a postal package that had come to the wrong address. I designed the seal to open while it was in the building so it would take an air sample then reseal itself. An x-ray of the package would only show an empty specimen container from a medical laboratory."
r />   She looked at Tiana, a glint of triumph in her eyes. "When the package came back in the mail, I had it intercepted. The scents of two different niiaH were in the sample. I've been trying to learn more before I contacted you, but here is the bad news. One of them has been transforming itself into a female, and it’s close to succeeding.”

  “Acta Vila,” Tiana breathed. “No more long-term strategy.”

  Chapter 23 (Weaponized Sporotrichosis)

  Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it. — Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, The New Freedom, 1913

  The evening seaside breeze of mid-September in Charleston drifted across the seawall and into Battery Park, drying the sweat where the ballistic vest didn’t cover Jonah’s body. The early evening sun warmed the side of his face as he lengthened his stride to stay with Amber.

  Bandit, the Operation Dog Pound reject, followed at his heels.

  It wasn’t Bandit’s fault he didn’t fit in. He was a good learner, provided you could exercise away his excess energy first. It was just that he had lots of energy, too much for the prospective XYMBI owners. The young Belgian malinois graduated at the top of his class, but still failed to find a home.

  Amber had suggested they use his boatloads of energy and sensitive nose for alien attack warnings while they continued Jonah’s ‘run like hell’ program. After an intelligence upgrade from Tiana, Bandit could differentiate between her, Jonah, and ‘other aliens’, as long as she didn’t use pheromones or change her scent. And, after a few days, he’d accepted the rubber-soled doggie boots Tiana insisted he wear in the house to protect the hardwood floors. Maybe he liked the improved traction. So, Bandit joined their security team.