All The Frail Futures: A Science Fiction Box Set

by J Battle

  He’d sacrificed himself for nothing.

  Chapter 61

  The Grazers were in control of Earth from near the end of the 21st century until the middle of the 23rd.

  During that period, they occupied the bulk of Earth’s temperate and equatorial zones; only the frozen north and south escaped their footprint.

  Although Earth’s human population was severely decimated, a small though determined resistance movement developed. In small groups, living on the edges of the occupied land, they prodded and harried the invaders.

  But they were nothing more than a nuisance. With little in the way of equipment or organisation, it was hard to make a significant impact. And they always risked reprisals. If they became too active, a rampant male would be allowed to go on a run, with devastating consequences.

  So it was a fine balance they maintained; irritate but don’t provoke.

  That was until a band of rebels, led by the legendary fighter, Armstead, came upon a herd of females. All of the docile creatures were slaughtered.

  The band retreated to their redoubt and began to plan their next attack. Over a period of three weeks, they repeated their attacks four times, all with equal success.

  On the last mission, a young female was missed. She’d wandered off from the main group and was hidden in the wood when the attack began.

  When all of her herd had been slain, she followed the rebels. They were fired up and arrogant, boasting of their success to each other. They were inconsiderate of safety measures.

  When the male came, in his ground shaking charge, they were caught unprepared and all perished within seconds.

  But it wasn’t the rebels that forced the Grazers to leave. It was simple evolution, and the realisation that their stay was going to be fruitless.

  On Turquoise, the males had to run through dangerous jungles before they could breed. Only the most able survived to pass on their seed.

  Here on Earth, there was no such trial, nothing to put the male to test. So their stock was slowly being degraded.

  The older females could see it clearly. Instead of a male requiring the pheromones of 13 females to keep him calm, 10 could manage the job equally as well.

  If things carried on this way, the whole sexual balance of their race was being put at risk.

  But even more important than that consideration was the fact that Number One had not returned. They’d waited 150 years for him; it was time to leave and seek him out themselves.

  So, during the heat of a northern summer in 2248, they packed up and left Earth far behind them.

  They left behind an Earth with a population of only few hundred million humans and much of its great wealth of resources depleted.

  Despite that, it was truly the dawn of a new age for mankind, an age where man had to husband the scarce minerals and metals that were left to him, but also an age where there was room to breathe, to grow crops and trees, to fish and to hunt in ways that enhanced the environment, rather than destroy it.

  The temperate and equatorial zones were re-occupied, most people living in small communities that the land could easily support, eschewing the return to big city living.

  Small countries were set up, with their ideal to support the individual against all things governmental.

  It developed into a golden age. Art and music flourished. Oral history and poetry became the most popular entertainments. Dance was an indulgence that even the most clumsy relished.

  War and religion were relegated, along with disease and poverty, madness and politics, to the dark ages, BR. Before the Release.

  The solar system was populated, with settlements on a terra-formed Mars, and a multitude of independent habitats.

  And this golden age lasted for more than nine and half thousand years.

  It came to an abrupt end in the spring of 11, 875, when the Hardlampons laid siege to Earth.

  Chapter 62

  Debois turned away from the body of Number One and stepped closer to Andra.

  ‘Take me to the EMP generator,’ he whispered, his voice a half octave lower than its normal level. He was using a technique called willimpo. The voice was only part of it. The subject had to be absolutely relaxed and feel under no threat whatsoever. And he must not have an inkling that he was being unduly influenced.

  It also required the release of a mildly soporific gas, which Debois was able to do from one of his wrist glands.

  Andra nodded. ‘You’ll be fascinated to see the EMP generator. It’s just the other side of the cave, through a tunnel and there we are.’ His voice was calm and slow.

  ‘Perhaps you could lead the way,’ suggested Debois, in his normal voice. There was no need to exercise any further willimpo skills as Andra had already made the decision, apparently of his own will, to show Debois the great secret of the mountain.

  Debois was a little disappointed when they reached the next cave and he found that the EMP generator was no more than simple tall, dull grey pyramid, with not a single flashing light.

  ‘Where is the off switch?’ he whispered, his voice deep again as he released another pulse of gas .

  ‘Oh, there isn’t one. It’s not meant to be switched off. It’s a permanent barrier to the evils of advanced technology and artificial intelligence that came close to destroying this world, only three decades ago.’

  ‘I don’t suppose there’s a plug?’

  **********

  The Hardlampons had been visiting Earth for a couple of centuries, forming trading and cultural links that seemed to benefit all parties involved. The humans had been cautious at first; with their history, that was only to be expected.

  But, over the years, they relaxed and began to reap the benefits of interstellar trade.

  Then, quite out of the blue, the Hardlampons informed their human contacts that it was their intention to colonise the Moon.

  Now Earth already had extensive settlements on the Moon, with upwards of 1 million people living there permanently and a transient workforce of a further ½ million.

  There was no possibility at all that they would even consider the proposition. There was also the issue of having an alien nation with advanced military capabilities in place less than 400,000 kilometres from Earth.

  So, as politely as it was deemed suitable, they said no.

  The immediate response was that all Hardlampon personnel were withdrawn from Earth and its neighbourhood.

  For nearly 20 years, nothing was heard from them.

  During that interlude, Earth made preparations for its defence.

  Meteor shields were upgraded and extended to cover the whole planet and a small navy was built to patrol near Earth space.

  The Moon’s colonies were given special attention as they were the perceived target; additional shields were built and heavily armed forces were put in place.

  All of the system’s habitats were moved to orbits within the patrol zone and all other planet or satellite-bound settlements built secure underground bunkers.

  They felt that they were ready to deal with any reasonable level of force that was likely to be brought to bear.

  Unfortunately, they would be presented with a force that was so unreasonable that it was off the scale.

  100,000 battleship class warships emerged into real space 200 million kilometres from Earth, already at maximum speed as they burned their way to Earth. These were truly massive ships, most of them over three kilometres in length and bristling with weapons.

  They were followed by 200,000 destroyer and heavy cruiser class ships, and a further 300,000 cruisers and corvettes. All of them racing towards Earth. It was clear from the massive size of the war fleet that the Moon was not the target. They were plainly set on conquering Earth.

  Earth had been invaded and subjugated once before.

  They were not going to let it happen again.

  Chapter 63

  Debois reached inside his suit and found the secret pocket that his searcher had missed. Inside was a pouch contai
ning a small amount of explosives. It was very simple to set; just pull a little strip and the chemical reaction would start and, 30 seconds later, there would be a quite respectable explosion.

  He’d barely taken a couple of paces towards the EMP generator when he was rudely pushed to the ground by the guard who’d brought him here.

  ‘I’ve been watching you?’ he announced. ’Andra is too trusting. He shouldn’t have brought you in here. No-one from outside is allowed to see it.’

  He was holding a long barrelled ballistic weapon; shiny and silver. Debois guessed that it was a pistol. Ancient, but still quite deadly.

  ‘What do you want me to do with him, Andra?’

  Andra shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

  ‘Don’t let him talk to you. Gag him. He seems to have some power to influence people with his voice. That’s how he persuaded me to bring him here.’

  The guard searched the pockets of his robe for something suitable. When he came up with an obviously well used grey handkerchief, Deboise groaned.

  ‘You can’t….’

  The punch to his stomach suggested that yes, indeed he could.

  Suitably gagged and dragged over to one wall, Debois was hoping for a Deus Ex Machina to save the day.

  And his hopes were granted in the form of an excessively tall and excessively shiny individual.

  Number Three flew into the cave in a rush of air and landed between Debois and the guard, who raised his silver gun.

  Debois was sure Number Three would simply flick the gun out of his hand in a blur of speed.

  And indeed, he saw the silver hand reach for the silver gun; though it was more of a jerk than a blur. But then it stopped only centimetres from its target; his whole body frozen in place as his EMP shield failed.

  Debois would never be able to explain later why he immediately rolled out of the cave and into the little tunnel leading to the next cave. Maybe it was some primal instinct, or just that he knew how Jack’s mind worked.

  The explosion deafened him and threw him out into the other cave.

  Coughing through the gag and shaking his ringing head, he climbed to his feet.

  He was pretty sure what had happened. Jack had sent Number Three to rescue him with some sort of shield to protect him from the EMPs. But Jack had anticipated that the shield might not last long enough for him to destroy the generator. So he’d fitted a bomb inside Number Three’s body, probably before he woke him. The bomb would have had some sort of dead man’s trigger that was activated when there was loss of power.

  He pulled the disgusting gag from his mouth as he walked back along the tunnel, through the cloud of dust that was only just beginning to settle.

  Inside the cave, there was no sign of Number Three; but there were two bloody lumps of flesh, all that was left of Andra and the guard.

  The generator was broken in half, a great gash torn in its side. The top part of the pyramid was hanging down, held only by a bunch of wires. Debois turned away from the generator, deciding that he would await his rescue out in the open, away from this bloody charnel house.

  Outside, in the sunshine, the cool breeze cleared the stench that had clung to him inside. He sat on a low gray rock to await his rescue. He had no way to contact Jack, but he would know when the EMPs had stopped and it was safe to land.

  If asked, Debois would have said that he was absolutely alone; so he was more than a little surprised to find that there was someone standing right in front of him.

  ‘You must be Debois.’ The voice was Jack’s of course, but this wasn’t Jack.

  Debois stood up and examined the new arrival.

  ‘You are quite right, I am Michelle Debois. Pleased to meet you. And you are…?’

  He was desperately trying to work out which one this could be. They were all accounted for, unless this was Number Two, hopefully without his horde of companions.

  ‘In case you are wondering, I am Number Five.’

  ‘But didn’t Jack’s ship just destroy you?’

  ‘I see Jack hasn’t been completely open with you. I’m hardly surprised. That was Mk II. I’m the real one.’

  Debois couldn’t help looking up at the clear blue sky.

  ‘There will be a slight delay in Jack arriving to the rescue. When the EMP machine stopped emitting, I fired a missile at his ship. It won’t have done any damage, but it will slow him down a little whilst he searches for his attacker.’

  ‘Why are you here, anyway? What do you hope to gain from dealing with little old me?’

  ‘You’ll be aware that I have to keep my distance from Jack. Close up, he can override my self-control. But this is a message I really want to give in person, and you are the next best thing.’

  ‘Is that because you’ve always wanted to meet me? Or just because I’m helpless before your great masculine power?’

  ‘The latter is closer to being accurate. Pass this message on to Jack for me. There is a D-Bomb in orbit around the Sun. When he comes to get you, he must walk into the EMP device’s cave and join Number One. If he refuses, the bomb will be set off by a TPI transmitter I possess and the Sun’s magnetic field will be disrupted, with devastating affects to all of the inner planets.

  ‘What will happen to Jack if he complies? The EMP device is no longer working.’ He already knew the answer that was coming.

  ‘I’ve repaired the machine. It will now release a much weakened pulse; one that will have little effect outside the cave.’

  ‘So Jack walks in there and is stuck there, waiting to die. Like Number One. Leaving you to… what? Conquer the universe?’

  ‘Nothing like that Debois. I’m only going to carry on with Jack’s original plan. Nothing more than that.’

  Debois glanced at the sky again.

  Number Five turned slightly, to follow his gaze.

  It was just enough.

  With a quick practiced movement, Debois brought his quite delightfully decorative bangles together and hooked a particular hook to a specific loop. With a quick tug and a step back, he released the wormhole generator. Before he had a chance to react, Number Five was sucked into its tiny maw and ejected from its partner wormhole perched precariously on the very edge of The Absence, into a slow eternal fall to dissolution.

  Quite surprised that the bangles had actually worked, Debois slowly unhooked them, being very careful not to release the remaining wormhole generator.

  As there was still no sign of Jack, he decided to have a quick look at the newly repaired generator, to see what could be done.

  When he reached the entrance to the cave, his way was blocked by yet another replicant.

  ‘This is getting ridiculous,’ he muttered to himself. Then he realised that the replicant wasn’t just standing in the doorway; he was frozen there, unable to move because of the EMPs.

  The gray frosting that covered the lower half of the replicant’s body was a bit of a give-away.

  ‘You’re Number One aren’t you?’ said Debois, as he squeezed between him and the wall.

  With a little more pleasure than he should have experienced, Debois pushed Number One over. There was quite a loud thud as he hit the ground, face forward.

  ‘Ouch!’ Debois smiled as he grabbed the replicants feet and spun him around until they were pointing in the right direction. Then he began to tug and jerk the heavy body across the rough ground to safety, humming as he went.

  He was only half way across the entrance cave when Number One began to stir.

  Moments later, they were both safely in the open, Debois leaning against a rocky wall, gasping from the unaccustomed effort.

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ he managed at last.

  ‘I was lucky,’said Number One, his voice identical to Jack’s.

  ‘When I approached this planet I was already in machine mode so, when the first EMP struck me, I had time to work out and implement a defence strategy. I put my brain in to stasis while I was still able to function, after I had set passive sensors
to halt the stasis when EMPs were no longer being emitted. I would have appeared earlier, but there was some repair work to be done. And then I got caught again just as I was leaving. You are Debois, I believe.’

  ‘How…? Oh, you’ve been in contact with Jack.’

  ‘Yes, he’s on the way down here now. He shouldn’t be long.’

  ‘Why did you leave Turquoise, anyway? Do you have any idea of the trouble you caused?’

  ‘Turquoise? Oh, you mean Estrellgna, I think. They were beginning to treat me like a god. They were even planning to build a temple to celebrate my magnificence. I just thought it best to leave and find somewhere else.’

  Debois shook his head; could he really not know what had resulted from his decision to leave Turquoise?

  ‘And what have you been doing all these years? You’ve been around almost as long as Jack.’

  ‘I’ve lived lives, many lives. On dozens of different planets, across this sector of the galaxy.’

  ‘I see. And did you not stand out a little from the crowd, stomping around with your great dull black body?’

  ‘I created an avatar, almost indistinguishable from a normal standard issue human, and he lived my lives for me. He married and had families, he worked and explored, he built bridges, practiced medicine, he taught history and maths, he played in a band and wrote the definitive human novel. All things that make life a treasure.’

  ‘If only Jack had taken a similar course; the galaxy would have been a different place,’ mused Debois.

  ‘And we wouldn’t be here today. If I even existed, I’d still be in that hole. And where would you be Debois?’

  ‘I don’t really know. There is this bar I like.’

  ‘There’s little value in re-inventing history. We have to deal with what we have.’

  ‘You’re so right, Number One. So right.’