All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  Suiting her action to her words, she sat beside J, just a little closer to the lake, and dipped her feet in the still water. D had never been fond of feet, though he found himself entranced by hers. Without another word, he sat beside her.

  ‘You want to know who we are, where we come from, and, of course, what are intentions are with regard to you and this world. Does that cover the sources of your anxiety?’

  ‘Yes, well, it’s a start.’

  ‘And what about you, Jason? Do you have any other concerns?’

  J wanted to say that he was just happy to be beside her, but that would have been a stupid, soft in the head thing to say, so he merely shook his head.

  ‘We are, or rather, to be more accurate, we were the H’mlinquart. That is as close as I can get to our name in a structure that you would be able to comprehend. Our home was a planet orbiting a star that is no longer in existence; this may give you some sense of the age of our race. We have spread over a portion of this galaxy, close to eight million cubic light years in size, and our aim is to find time and space to consider the many natures of reality and, one day, we hope to achieve sublimation.’

  ‘And sublimation is where you become, what, pure energy, or something like that?’ asked D.

  ‘Something like that is probably as close as we can get as far as a description goes. As a pre-sublimation race, our understanding of the process and the post sublimation reality we will be subjected to, are still very much a mystery to us.’

  ‘Okay. So you’ve told us where you’re from, sort of, and where you’re going. But what about now? You’re a big black wall stuck in the middle of nowhere, as far as I can see. And what have the cats got to do with this?’

  ‘We settled on this planet five thousand years ago and began our normal process of growing our physical mass to enable us to divide into new generations, who would then move on to new worlds, and repeat the process. We do not normally settle on worlds with existing sentient species but, as you already know, this planet’s strong magnetic field inhibits radio communication, so it was not possible to confirm intelligent life from a distance. By the time we could tell for sure, we were already too close and committed to landing.

  ‘We chose to settle close to the two intelligent races, who were locked in a cycle of destructive wars over the river and scarce fertile land resources, because we had to be sure that there would be no interference in our development. We were able to influence the belligerent natives to restrict the destructive nature of their wars to a more ritual form, which was less costly in terms of loss of life and harm to the land.’

  ‘You were able to influence them, how?’

  ‘Nothing too drastic, I assure you. We have certain capabilities in this respect, that enabled us to suggest to them that high levels of technology were not desirable, that warfare should be fought under rules where loss of life was reduced, and the rewards of victory are nominal, that population sizes should be controlled, and that change is generally a bad thing.’

  ‘That sounds fine and dandy, for you at least. But, if you are looking for help from us, something must have changed.’

  ‘Indeed, you are quite correct. Something has changed, and you yourselves were instrumental in that change. When your ship arrived into this system, nine of the chambers, containing your fellow humans, were compromised. I can see that this is the cause of some distress on your part. But the tenth chamber was in full working order, as you know, when it separated itself from you ship. What you are not aware of, was that it did not contain humans. You are familiar with the creatures that it did contain.’

  ‘Who were they?’ D had a fair idea of the answer to his question.

  ‘You know them as the Succ-y-Rist.’

  'What happened to the humans who were on board that globe? We know that two thousand people embarked.'

  'I'm sure you know the answer to your own question, Daniel. I see no need to add to your distress by describing in detail what must have happened to them.'

  D glanced at J who was looking down, picking at the grass by his knee.

  ‘And where are the Succ-y-Rist now?’

  ‘They are on this planet. Which is why change has suddenly become an urgent requirement. We have experience of this species, and their requirements are not compatible with ours.’

  ‘So, what do you intend to do?’

  ‘We are not a physically capable race. We do not normally indulge in destructive conflicts, or have much affinity with weapons. These things cause harm; and that is never our wish. Consequently, we need your help.’

  ‘What can we do? There’s only two of us, eight if you count the rest of the crew.’

  ‘I believe the two of you will be sufficient for our purpose. Our wish is that you will lead the cats and the apes into war against our joint enemy.’

  Chapter 29

  Less than five minutes after take-off, they were flying over the small city of Hellion, with its little piazzas and concentric streets, protected by tall outer walls that dominated the surrounding scrublands. Evenly spaced across the streets were odd rectangular blocks, perched on arches and filled with rainwater.

  Jones chose the largest of the squares, in the exact centre of the city, to make his landing.

  With all systems powered down, he turned to face his crew, and immediately recognised his next problem. Everyone was so sedated, it might be some time before they would be of much use. Most were actually sleeping; they were that relaxed.

  ‘What now?’ he muttered, half to himself.

  ‘Leave AEC,’ said Perdus, as he stretched himself, exposing his long, curved, vicious claws.

  ‘I suppose you’re right.’ He climbed out of his seat and pressed the button to open the airlock.

  Outside, a small, nervous crowd of cats had gathered, keeping their distance from the strange craft that had landed in their midst. There were all sorts of sizes and colours, from the smaller, puma sized creatures to the great, long, sand coloured beasts as big as tigers. There were ginger cats, and pure white ones, and some as black as Perdus. But there were none quite as mangy as Deylus.

  Jones stepped out of the craft; a little concerned at the hoard of potentially dangerous animals surrounding him.

  Perdus joined him, his head held high as he considered the crowd.

  ‘Should I ask them to take me to their leader?’ said Jones, quietly.

  ‘Here, now.’

  Pushing their way through the crowd, came a band of dazzlingly white cats, large and muscular and arrogant. In the middle of them, was a medium sized cat, with black and brown stripes, and a triangular patch of white fur on its chest.

  ‘Heraldus, our (word for leader/master/mayor),’ said Perdus, his head down, not quite touching the ground.

  This is ridiculous, thought Jones, I shouldn’t be doing this. I’m just a technician. What do I know about diplomacy?

  ‘Hi,’ he tried, smiling.

  ‘Don’t smile!’ hissed Perdus.

  ‘You talk to him for me.’

  ‘Lord, this is the strange cylinder seen in the skies, three nights ago. And this is one of its acolytes. His name is Jones and he appears to be mostly harmless.’

  ‘Why is it here?’ asked a long, skinny, grey cat.

  ‘That is still to be discovered, Sir. But they do not appear to offer any threat of violence to us.’ Perdus knew the grey, although he couldn’t quite remember his name.

  ‘They, you say. Are there others inside this flying …thing?’

  Suddenly, Perdus realised who he was speaking to; it was the mayor’s notorious lieutenant, Dutus. Perdus felt quite sick. Dutus was renowned for his keen wit and spiteful nature. The last thing Perdus wanted to risk was to be on the wrong side of this cat.

  ‘There are five more on board the craft, plus another two presumed lost or dead in the barren lands on the other side of The Wall.’

  ‘Why do they hide inside? Are they frightened of us? Is this Jones their champion?’

  ‘No, I
don’t…’

  ‘It tried to speak earlier. Let it try again. Then we will be able to converse directly with the creature.’

  Perdus turned to Jones, who had tried to follow the conversation, without much success.

  ‘He wants to talk to you. Be careful.’

  ‘Hi,’ said Jones. He bowed, attempting to cover both the grey and the mayor with his bow.

  ‘Does it know any other words? We’re not going to get very far if that’s all he can say.’

  ‘He has a number of words, though his grammar is lamentable,’ judged Perdus.

  ‘Why..are..you..here?’ Dutus spoke very slowly, and loudly, just to be sure.

  ‘We..come..in..peace,’ replied Jones.

  ‘Very helpful. Good to know. But..what..do..you..want?’

  ‘To..live..in..peace.’

  ‘What does it mean by peace? Something to do with the absence of war? Why does it want that? What purpose would it have in that situation? And why does it think it will find it here?’

  ‘Sorry, Sir. But I think we will have to work more with his language skills before we can expect to get clear answers to your questions.’

  ‘They are not my questions, cat. They are the Lord Mayor’s. I am merely his spokescat. We can’t expect him to sully himself in conversation with this alien.’

  Whilst this conversation was going on, Jones turned and banged on the side of the AEC, hoping someone would come out and rescue him from this more than slightly awkward situation. There was no immediate response.

  ‘This is what is going to happen. You and whoever your less than debonair companion is, will work with this Jones creature to enable it to converse in a sensible way. When you have made sufficient progress, you may request an audience with the Mayor, where he will be interrogated fully. In the mean-time, have the other Jones removed from the craft as I would like to investigate it in safety.’

  ‘They are called humans, Sir. Jones is just the name of this one, Sir. By your pardon, Sir. But I will have the AEC cleared. Sir.’

  ‘Humans? I see. They look a little like apes, to me. If you took a medium sized ape and shaved all the hair from its body, then covered its body with…what is that? A fabric? Yes. Anyway, it would resemble this human, don’t you think? Though it probably wouldn’t smell quite so bad.’

  Not wanting to give his opinion verbally, Perdus merely tilted his head to one side.

  Then Joanne Miles appeared in the doorway.

  ‘Oh my! Look at them cats! There’s hundreds of them,’ she gasped, her hand up to her mouth.

  Armstrong joined her.

  ‘What’s going on here, Jones?’ he asked as he put his arm around Jo’s slender shoulders.

  ‘Just talking to their leaders, Sir. If you want to take over, I’d be obliged.’

  ‘No, that’s okay Jones. You know the lingo better than I do. Carry on; I’ll just watch.’

  ‘No, he won’t carry on. I need to be involved in this. Don’t say anything ‘til you’ve cleared it with me, Jones.’ Helen pushed her way between Miles and Armstrong, and dropped to the ground.

  ‘What’s happened so far, Jones?’ she whispered, standing extremely close to him.

  Jones could feel a real sweat bubbling up.

  ‘Not much, Sir. That black and brown striped one is the boss, and that skinny grey one is the spokesman, Sir.’ He wanted to wipe the sweat from his brow, but he was standing at attention.

  ‘I think he wants us to leave so that he can check out the ship,’ he continued.

  ‘Do they seem friendly to you? You know them best.’

  ‘I think we should go along with what Perdus tells us, for the moment.’

  He turned to the black cat.

  ‘What do you think? Should we let them in our ship?’

  Perdus slowly lifted his head, then dropped it in the same painstaking manner. He repeated the process three times before Jones realized that he was attempting to nod.

  ‘He says yes, Sir.’

  ‘Alright.’ She turned to Armstrong. ‘Tell first officer Milligan to stay with AEC. I don’t want it left alone, whilst they are on board. He won’t like it but, well, never mind. Tell him he can leave it locked after they’ve gone. Come with us Miles.’

  Miles hesitated for a second.

  ‘Armstrong will be right behind you, don’t worry.’

  Perdus and Deylus led the five humans through the crowd on to one of the curved streets at the side of the square. They were followed by two of the white cats from the Mayor’s guard.

  Jones walked between Perdus and Deylus, followed by Helen, then Armstrong and Miles, with Dr. Pascal bringing up the rear.

  As they walked through what appeared to be a residential area, Jones noticed something strange about the buildings on either side of him.

  ‘You don’t have doors,’ he said.

  ‘Don’t want doors. Water would get in. Streets are…flooded each night. Have windows. With shutters. Stop clickerclackers getting in.’

  ‘What about those big rectangular blocks, on every street? What are they for?’

  ‘Filled with rain water. To wash clickerclackers away.’

  When the humans had left the piazza, Dutus and two of the guard cats leapt in to the AEC.

  They found a large round human pressed up against one wall, shaking. Dutus guessed that the creature was displaying signs of fear, and that it was obviously fear of him and his guards. He had no way of knowing that Milligan was not at all fearful of them. It was just that the sedatives had worn off, and he was stuck inside the AEC.

  Chapter 30

  ‘But that’s ridiculous! How can you expect us to lead armies? We’re flight crew; we’re not even leaders of men.’

  Pi leaned back on her elbows, drawing his attention to her breasts, straining against the white material of her dress.

  ‘Will you stop that!’ he snapped, ‘it’s very distracting.’

  ‘Stay as you are; I like it,’ J contributed, without looking away from her chest.

  Pi laughed and sat up again, folding her arms across her breasts. ‘Is that better?’

  ‘Yes.’ D ignored the forlorn expression on his brother’s face.

  ‘Of course we realise that you are not yet prepared for the task we are setting you. But you will be helped. That is why we required samples of your DNA, to enable us to prepare your enhancements for you.’

  ‘Enhancements?’ asked J, ‘are you going to change us into cyborgs?’

  Pi laughed again. ‘Nothing like that, Jason. But you will be changed in certain ways before we go much further.’

  ‘Can you be more specific?’ asked D.

  Pi turned her glorious face to his, and stared at him for a moment. ‘Not really,’ she said, at last.

  For a second or so, D allowed himself to be lost in her beauty. Then he shook his head and turned towards the lake.

  ‘You’re not giving us a lot on go on, are you?’ he said, slowly, after a long pause. He turned slightly, so that the wall was in view.

  ‘No,’ was the simple reply.

  ‘But you still expect us to help you.’

  ‘Yes. Or I should say that we hope you will help us.’

  D stood up and dusted off his backside. Both Pi and J watched him, silently, in expectation.

  He allowed his eyes to flit between the wall, the lake, and his companions. He knew that he was being unduly influenced by Pi; it was so hard to think clearly in her presence.

  ‘Come on, brother,’ hissed J, ’will you say something, for fuck’s sake!’

  ‘We’d better get going then, brother. If we’re going to save a world, we’d better start now.’

  J leapt to his feet with a groan. Pi was upright without a sound.

  ‘Follow me,’ she said, and set off across the green, verdant land. The twins followed closely behind.

  They’d been walking for an hour when D happened to look back. The field of flourishing vegetation that they had walked through was no more. All he c
ould see were acres and acres of drab, grey brown, almost lifeless, dusty ground.

  Noticing his dismay, Pi laughed her wonderful laugh. ‘Believe, Daniel, believe.’

  At last, they came to the wall, black and clean and beautiful, reaching to the sky.

  ‘What next?’ asked D.

  ‘You need to be on the other side. The journeys ahead of you both will be much easier on that side. The mountains are easier to pass and the ground is more fertile. There will be surface water for you to drink. You will need no other sustenance.‘

  ‘How do we get over? Can you make us fly?’ asked J, knocking one fist lightly against the wall.

  ‘There will be no need to fly. You will simply walk through it and find yourself on the other side.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Yes, Jason. As I said, you just have to believe. The Wall knows you; you will be allowed through.’

  ‘Great! What do I do?’ J pushed his hand flat against the hard surfaced of the wall.

  ‘Take a step back from The Wall, Jason, and close your eyes.’

  J obeyed her words; how could he do otherwise?

  ‘Now, with your eyes still closed, walk.’

  There was a moment’s hesitation, then he took a step forward; then another, and he was gone from view.

  D expelled the air from his lungs in a low hiss.

  ‘How….?’ He was about to ask, when Pi suddenly turned to him.

  ‘Quickly, Daniel. Something has gone wrong. You have to go after him now. Don’t hesitate or argue, just go!’

  D turned towards her.

  ‘He needs you, Daniel!’ urged Pi, seeing that he was undecided, ‘go!’

  D closed his eyes and stepped towards the wall. On the second step, he winced in expectation of hitting his face against its solid bulk, but there was no resistance at all. Even with his eyes closed, he knew that the last step had taken him to a different place. The smell was hovering on the edge of familiar, the heat was on the boundary of the bearable, the gravity almost crushed him, and lightning tore through his body like a wire.

  Then he was through, and he wanted to roar his exultation to a drab, mundane world, he wanted to challenge the sun to an arm-wrestling contest and take odds-on bets on his victory, he wanted to spread his arms and fly into the air.