All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  ‘But, I thought, well, I’m sure that the, that his Lord Mayorship would allow me a little more time to interrogate these potential enemies.’

  ‘You’re probably right. But the Mayor instructed me to make sure that this happens, and, in my opinion, the quicker the better. The longer you have to think of a way to disobey your orders, the more likely it is that you will let yourself down.’

  ‘But this is preposterous! You can’t talk to me like this! You’re no more than a guard!’

  ‘Beg your pardon, Sir. Did I speak out of turn? Did I raise my head to my superior? How remiss of me. Still, it’ll be dark soon. Might as well just toss them out of the window. What do you say?’

  The big cat didn’t wait for a response from his superior; he grabbed Miles and dropped her through the window so quickly that she hardly had time to squeak. Armstrong leapt to her defence, and a gentle, playful club across the head with a paw the size of a dinner plate left him unconscious.

  Soon all the humans followed Miles into the street, along with Perdus and Deylus, leaving an explosively angry grey and a quite relaxed white in the room.

  ‘You can’t do this!’ Dutis spluttered, ’you should be wary of getting on the wrong side of me. You don’t know what the future holds. One day I could be the Mayor. I have the connections. You are making a mistake you big muscle-bound lump!’

  ‘You are probably right, my future Lord Mayor. It would be very dangerous to offend you in any way. So, I’m sure you will understand that I have no choice but to let you join your friends.’

  Moving so fast that Dutus had no chance of reacting, he gripped his shoulders and pressed him to the ground. Then he clamped his jaws down on the fold of flesh at the back of the grey’s neck and lifted him like a kitten into the air. With a flick of his powerful neck muscles, he tossed him through the window.

  Leaning out of the window, he stared down at the meal he’d left out for the clickerclackers.

  ‘Won’t be long now,’ he said, chuckling to himself as he drew down the shutters.

  Chapter 37

  The rain had stopped and the street glistened in the light from the many lamps. If you could ignore the sewer gutter running down one side of the street, it would be a pleasant time to take a walk. Which was just what the little ape was doing; ambling along, its long arms out to each side as it twisted its short body this way and that, oblivious to the cat that was following closely behind.

  It was already twilight and Lus was quite pleased when he realised that the ape was leaving the town and going back towards the river. The road was quiet at this time of the evening, so it wasn’t long before he was able to take the opportunity to pounce. With a low growl he knocked the poor creature to the ground. As it lay there, stunned, he looked up and down the road to ensure that they were still alone. Then he grabbed the ape by the scruff of the neck between his sharp teeth and carried it away from the road, far from view into the scrubland that bordered the road.

  When he judged that they had gone far enough, he dropped the ape and yawned, stretching his aching jaws.

  The ape curled up into a ball, its hands covering its head and its legs tucked into its chest. Lus nudged it a little with one paw, to see how it would react; there was no obvious response. He had intended just to kill the beast and leave, after he’d devoured its tender flesh of course. But it occurred to him that patience might offer its own reward.

  ‘Don’t worry, little ape. I’m not going to kill you,’ he whispered, his mouth close to its left ear, ‘I just want information, that’s all. Why don’t you sit up and talk to me? If you tell me what I want to know, I might let you go back to the town.’

  The ape adjusted its body slightly to bring its eyes to bear on him. There was a long pause.

  ‘What do you want?’ it whispered.

  ‘Tell me about your stick, and about Beschlick.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I want to know, is all. No harm will be done, trust me.’

  ‘And you’ll let me go?’

  ‘That is entirely dependent on you.’

  The ape unrolled its body and sat up. It began to pick its nose with one hand and scratch its backside with the other. After a couple of minutes of watching this multi-tasking display, Lus nudged him with his nose.

  ‘Lord Beschlick gave me the bow, and taught me how to use it. What else do you want?’

  ‘Where is your bow now?’

  ‘It’s at home, where I live. Just over there.’ The ape pointed towards the river.

  ‘Take me there and show me the bow.’

  ‘Do you want me to show you how to use it? It’s easy to use, but it’s hard to be accurate.’

  ‘For now, just take me to your home.’

  The ape lifted its head a little as it tried to scan the nearby area.

  ‘What are you looking for?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘You’ll find no help here, little fellow. You’ll have to help yourself. By doing as I say.’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’

  ‘That’s better. Shall we move along now?’

  Together they walked in the direction of the river, parallel to the road, and about two hundred legs into the scrubland.

  ‘What is your name, little ape?’ said Lus, to pass the time as they walked.

  ‘It is Aldrich, sir.’

  ‘And are you a male?’

  ‘Yes, I am, sir. You will rarely see any females outside the town walls. It is not considered safe.’

  ‘Well, Aldrich, I think we will be spending some time together, as I want you to teach me how to use this bow thing. What do you call the stick thing that it propels through the air?’

  ‘It’s an arrow, sir.’

  ‘And how many arrows do you have?’

  ‘Just the one, sir. That’s all I ever need.’

  ‘Can you make more?’

  ‘I suppose so, sir. How many will you need?’

  ‘It depends how easy they are to carry. I suppose twenty would be sufficient.’

  ‘Well, it will take me a few days to make that many. You won’t eat me when I’ve made them, will you, sir?’

  Lus merely laughed at the very idea.

  **********

  Jones looked up at the windows. They were above head height and shuttered with material very similar to the stone of the yellow walls and streets. He glanced across the piazza and could see that all of the visible windows were also shuttered, and of course there were no doors. He had his plasma gun in the holster on his belt; the cats had ignored it as it didn’t resemble any sort of weapon they were used to. The gun was designed to fire pin sized pulses of plasma; effective against living flesh but next to useless against the stone shutters. With a considerable amount of concentration and luck, he might be able to use all five hundred shots and make a big enough hole for them to climb through, if he had sufficient time.

  ‘How long before they come?’ he asked Perdus.

  Perdus looked up at the dark sky.

  ‘Any time now, I should think.’

  His answer was superfluous, as they could all hear clearly the sound of a thousand clicks and a thousand clacks as the hopeful diners approached.

  As one, they all ran into the centre of the square.

  ‘How does this set up work? With the streets and the water tanks?’ Helen asked, speaking directly to Perdus.

  ‘The clickerclackers climb the vertical channels until they reach street level. That’s what we can hear now. When they reach the street, they eat whatever they find. At the prescribed time, the water tanks are emptied and wash the clickerclackers away, back down the vertical channels.’

  Perdus had used as many of the human words as he could, but she still had to guess at much of his meaning.

  ‘Show me the channels.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘Don’t argue, Perdus.’

  ‘Captain, the channel is where they will come from. We should be trying to get as far as possible from them.’ Interrupted
Armstrong.

  ‘First, we need to know what we’re up against.’

  Dutus looked back and forward between the speakers. He didn’t understand much of what was being said, but he recognised when someone had a plan, and that was certainly what this looked like.

  ‘Come on, Perdus. Do whatever it is asking,’ he urged.

  ‘Alright. Follow me,’ said Perdus, as he began to walk quickly out of the square. They all followed him, the humans jogging to keep up.

  The street curved in a wide arch, just inside the outer walls of the city. The street didn’t continue uninterrupted, however. Two hundred metres from the piazza, there was a gap across the width of the street. It was fifteen metres across and, when Helen looked over the side; it seemed bottomless. This close to the edge, the sound of the clickerclackers climbing towards them was almost deafening.

  Spanning the gap was a narrow bridge, connected to the street on each side by a thin pole, two metres in length.

  ‘This will do. Can the clickerclackers get onto the bridge?’ asked Helen.

  ‘Not easily. You would probably find that a few might be washed onto it by the water,’ answered Perdus.

  ‘So if we can get on it we’ll be more or less safe? If we can deal with those few.’

  ‘When the tanks have emptied, the bridge will flip over. It’s a device to get rid of the last of the clickerclackers.’

  Helen looked to Jones for clarification that she had understood Perdus correctly. He nodded.

  ‘How long between the tanks being emptied and the bridge being flipped?’

  Perdus and Jones consulted for a moment, along with Dutus; then Jones answered.

  ‘He’s not sure. He thinks there’s a gap between the last of the water flooding through and the bridge flipping, but he doesn’t know how long the gap is. It might be just a few seconds.’

  Helen leaned over the edge again; she could still not see them, although they were getting louder. She turned to Jones.

  ‘Use you plasma gun on any of them that reach the top. The rest of you, follow me. We’ll get onto the bridge and wait for the water to come. Then we’ll jump back onto the road when the water’s drained away. I’ll go first.’

  She took a step towards the pole supporting the bridge. It was connected to the street’s surface by a small rectangular block. She bent down and wrapped her fingers around the pole. It was too narrow to walk across, or sit down on it and slide across. She straightened and considered her options; aware of the crew’s eyes on her.

  Taking a deep breath, and without looking at her companions, she placed her right foot half a metre along the pole, taking care to keep her weight on her left leg and with her arms outstretched for balance. She looked ahead and focussed on the block connecting the pole to the bridge; there was nothing else to grab hold of.

  She took another deep breath, exhaled slowly, then filled her lungs again. With a yell, she threw herself forward, swinging hers arms ahead of her and pushed off with her right foot. She almost missed the block, as she flew past it; banging her hip against it as she landed. There was a subdued little cheer behind her which she did not acknowledge. Fighting the sudden urge to cry at the pain, she called back, ’next.’

  Then she moved a couple of metres away from the edge and turned, to be in a position to provide any necessary assistance to the next leaper.

  ‘I can’t do that,’ whispered Miles, to Armstrong.

  ‘Nonsense! You’re younger and fitter than the captain, and much prettier.’

  Deylus, who had been unusually quiet, watched the whole performance. He didn’t really understand what all the fuss was about. He strolled up to the pole and leapt casually across the gap and then settled down for some grooming.

  ‘We’d better get a move on,’ said Jones, pulling the gun from his holster, ‘I think I can see one.’

  As he began to pick off the leaders, the rest of the crew began to follow their captain’s lead, and soon the bridge was getting a little crowded, with four humans and three cats. Sure that they were all safe, Jones holstered the gun and, with a short run up, leapt across to the bridge.

  He was barely in time as a torrent of black clickerclackers poured over the edges on both sides of the bridge and began their search for flesh.

  Chapter 38

  Beschlick was dressed in his finest skirt, with the most subtle of colours enhancing his appearance, and his clean-shaven chin almost glowing in the low lights of the audience waiting room at the palace. This was an important night for him and he fairly quivered with the tension. This was the very thing that he lived for; wheeling and dealing with the most important of apes, and he wasn’t going to let the absence of that little ape spoil his night. He had given Aldrich clear instructions to be here at the palace at this particular time, with his bow and arrow for a demonstration before the king.

  The little ape’s brain, it seemed, was in direct proportion to his size and he had clearly forgotten. A wall of woe would collapse onto him when he finally exposed his ugly little face; Beschlick would make sure of that.

  Due to the king’s well known habit of keeping everyone waiting for his early evening audiences, Beschlick had the time to send a minion to fetch his own bow and arrow from his home. Whilst not at the standard of Aldrich, he was fairly certain that he would be able to demonstrate the wonderful benefits of the weapon, and hit whatever he aimed at.

  But that was just one of the things he was planning to display tonight. In the heavy sack at his feet was something so revolutionary in concept and application that he didn’t even have a name for it yet. He decided to use the time whilst he waited to remedy that situation.

  The king’s afternoon dalliances were legendary; it was said that, through them, he had sired his own Thousand, and that a team of ten soldiers was required to carry the succession of exhausted females from his bedchamber.

  Beschlick allowed his mind to wonder what it must be like to be the king, not only for the afternoon benefits, but for the glory of war, and to be first amongst all the apes. Perhaps, one day, the role might suit him. The king was no longer young; in the next few years there would be a vacancy. And, of course, the king’s blood ran through his veins; though that could be said of all of the courtiers and many of the citizens of this great city. It was just a case of making the appropriate councillors want to vote for him, or, if he couldn’t manage that, make them too frightened not to vote for him.

  When the double doors opened, and a completely shaved young ape summoned him inside, he was brought back to reality with a jolt. Gathering his bags together, and more than a little peeved that there was no-one to do this for him, he followed the denuded ape into the audience chamber.

  As he walked past an array of finely coloured dandys, he couldn’t help checking to be sure that his own carefully chosen and applied colours were peerless among the company.

  At the end of the long, narrow room was, of course the throne; a relatively modest affair made from the local yellow stone. The ape planted on it was rather less than modest, in every conceivable way. He was grossly obese and his flesh seemed to flow over the edges of the throne. He affected a shaven chest and belly, with great loops of shiny silver metal resting on the pale naked flesh. His fingers could hardly bend with the clusters of brightly coloured gemstones and his feet rested on the backs of nubile females.

  Beschlick kept his head low and his knuckles close to the ground as he approached the throne, noticing now that it was flanked on each side by one of Elmdor’s super-apes.

  When he stopped at a respectful distance from the throne, the king ignored him for a couple of minutes as he picked his teeth, then he waved vaguely in Beschlick’s direction for him to begin.

  ‘Your Regal Highness, I am honoured that you have, in your unmatched generosity, allowed me these few moments to present my ideas and suggestions for…’

  ‘Yes, yes, carry on with the demonstration. Not so many words, if you don’t mind.’ The king seemed to notice some food on
one of his fingers then, so he shoved it into his mouth and began to suck enthusiastically.

  ‘You are quite correct, my King. Deeds, not words, are the order of the day.’ He held up his bow and arrow.

  ‘With this weapon, we can strike our foe from a distance.’ As he spoke, he set the arrow and drew the bow. With an extravagant gesture he released the arrow and sent it thudding into the closed door of the chamber. The noise caused one or two of the courtiers to yelp.

  The king nodded his great head. ‘If that hit a cat, I can see that it would do considerable damage.’

  ‘Yes, Your Highness. And from a distance, so that the smallest ape could defeat the mightiest of the cats, without risk to himself.’

  ‘And when would we use this fabulous weapon?’

  ‘During the next war. I can see a team of one hundred arrowers firing into the cat Thousand and defeating them entirely without one drop of our own blood being spilt.’

  ‘I hardly think that would fit within the rules of combat, do you? It seems to me to be a dishonourable way to behave, and I will not have my reign tarnished by such treachery. What else do you have in your bag to show me?’

  Beschlick flushed with anger; he came so close to saying that the arrow had already won a war for him, but common sense prevailed.

  ‘Your Highness, you have spoken truth when you say that the arrow is a weapon of treachery. If we cannot countenance killing at a distance, surely my next weapon will be more acceptable.’

  With a flourish, he pulled the metal disc from his bag and held it aloft. Then he slipped one arm through the armbands and adopted an aggressive stance, with disc across his chest.

  ‘This is my blocker. It will prevent blows from a sword from harming my body. It can also be used like this.’ He swung the blocker away from his body. ‘To knock your opponent’s sword to one side; to make him vulnerable to a blow from your own sword.’ He jabbed forward with an imaginary sword.

  ‘So, let me get things clear in my mind. You either want to kill cats from a distance, which would dishonour us, or you want to prevent the cats from using their swords against us in the traditional manner, which would also dishonor us. Am I correct?’