Laughter.
Bremusa laughed, choking on her own blood.
“What is it that amuses you, student?” Theseis said towering over her.
“I-” she coughed out blood. “I figured out a pun for this. It’s perfect. See, I’ve brought tranquilisers to a lightning-spear fight!”
Theseis stared down at her fist.
Then she wobbled a step back, steadying herself.
“I knew you’d do that exact same grapple! You taught me, but you never learn, Daskala,” Bremusa said bemused, grabbing her belly. “Melousa said, skin-temperature hypercondria…”
“Hyperconductors,” added Melousa helpfully over the comms.
“-Hyperconductors are neat and all, but they don’t do shit for subdural injections.”
“I would never say bad words like that, dear,” Melousa corrected.
“I’m paraphrasing. Sue me,” Bremusa coughed.
Theseis the towering ex-Amazon blinked and fell on the floor, unconscious.
Aura jumped up in the air and spread her arms. “That was amazing! Woo hoo, team Aura for the win!”
Bremusa crawled on the white floor, pulling herself towards the exit and leaving a trail of blood behind. “Oh, it’s team Aura now? Since when?” she grumbled with effort.
“Yes, it sounds good. What is it with you and clean floors?” asked Aura as she got beside her and helped her by the shoulders.
“I hate them,” Bremusa said through her teeth. She must have been in a lot of pain.
“I can see that, but what did squeaky clean floors ever do to you?” Aura said. She was carrying on the banter as she carried her teammate, to help her keep her mind off the pain.
Then she looked up and came face to face with the angry Kallipolis once more. Aura was startled and yelped.
“Citizen! I told you to leave this place,” the avatar said and whirring metal spun and thudded from the room with the walkers.
“Hurry up dears! I’ve been holding her back but not for long,” Melousa said.
Aura looked back at the Fates, sitting and weaving on their pedestals. Then she looked the other way at the exit, the room with the two killer drones, the far metasteel security-door.
Melousa was locked in a hacker fight with an AI and wasn’t confident of her chances. That was apparent by her attitude. Bremusa was barely moving and was making jokes. Aura thought that meant she was in agonising pain. Aura, the only member left standing, was unarmed, didn’t have hacking skills and could barely pull and carry her injured mate out to relative safety.
Plus, the room she had to cross was about to become a chopping block. Those things were scary. How could someone even build such a thing? Autonomous devices that could maim and tear apart human beings?
The walkers stood up and turned towards Aura in unison.
Aura could see a repeat of the scene in which Orosa was killed. Heck, she was even recording this with her glasses. The only change was the indoor scenery. She could imagine the projectile screaming through the air in a few seconds, ripping a hole into her body and dropping her dead on the floor. The one Bremusa hated so much. Then the projectile would tear out of her wound and walk with those skittering legs on her body, and burrow in another place to maximise damage.
Aura shuddered.
The walker pointed his enormous weapon at her.
Playlist: Video 65/67
And then it’s specifications popped up in view.
“Oh great! I’m gonna die but I sure as hell will know the diameter of the firing barrel,” she mumbled to herself. “Oh look, it’s so energy efficient too.”
Then Aura glanced at the AR data and noticed something. She darted towards the door, slapping the panel and the mechanism closed it shut.
“What are you doing dear?” Melousa asked over the comms.
“I saw their specs. The walkers don’t fire unless they have a clear line of sight. It’s part of their urban deployment specs, to avoid civilian casualties,” Aura explained. “Keep my door closed at all costs!”
“Oh!” Melousa said and noises came from her comm. “But you’re trapped now.”
Bremusa winced on the floor, keeping up with her shallow breaths. She wasn’t moving, and she seemed semi-conscious.
“The mission isn’t done yet,” Aura said and turned to the Fates.
Aura walked around the pedestals, examining the strange women. They were aware of her, turning their cloudy eyes towards her as she walked but their hands were always in motion, weaving.
The data trail glowed and got passed on from one another.
Aura focused on the middle one, Lachesis.
She stood in front of her and leaned down, right on her face. The woman was frail, her hair white, her skin pale, untouched by the sun. Blue veins throbbed beneath her skin. The bundle of cables came up to her pedestal and vanished underneath her white dress, at the low of her back.
Her hands were moving, delicate and mesmerising.
Aura grabbed Lachesis’ wrist and realised she was furious. “Are you the one who decides on someone’s fate?” she snarled.
Lachesis wheezed as if her throat was unused. She swallowed and said, “I am.”
“And what gives you the right?” Aura screamed in her face and twisted her wrist.
It snapped.
The three Fates wailed out in unison.
Aura stared wide-eyed down at her hand, not really believing what had happened. She let go. “I… I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. Oh god, I didn’t mean to…”
After a few seconds of otherworldly wailing all three of them stopped at the same time. Lachesis was keeping her broken wrist on her lap, working on the data-trail with the other.
“It… It is what I do. What else is there?” Lachesis said, effort behind each word.
Aura slapped her face.
Stupid, stupid Aura. Stupid. She was so hell-bent on confronting this woman that she didn’t even stop to think if she was ever given a choice.
“I know you, Aura,” Lachesis said. “You have such an interesting life. I wish I had one such as yours.”
“Me? I’ll switch with you any time,” Aura said. Then she looked at the pedestals and the bundles of cables that vanished on frail bodies. “Okay, maybe not.”
“You can’t change fate,” Atropos said with a raspier voice than the rest.
Aura pointed a finger at her. “I’ll get back to you, oh-creepy one.” She turned back to Lachesis with a pained expression, “I’m really sorry for your wrist. Honest.”
“I do not feel it anymore,” Lachesis said and kept on allotting.
“That’s super weird. Anyway, listen to me. I know you think that what you see is the only reality there is, but I’m sure you’ve never been out in the real world. Not your fault, I get that now. Misplaced anger and all that. But please, our mission is to change the fate of the orphans in the SOS Children’s Villages.”
“Yes, I see them now.”
Aura hesitated. “Good, I guess? Okay, now, I want you to see them getting adopted by Artemis and Apollo. I want you to see them getting well fed, under a roof, safe and happy among others like themselves. Then I want you to see them receiving education, getting opportunities. Doing great stuff for the world. Becoming doctors and teachers. Can you do that?”
“Yes. I can see it,” Lachesis wheezed.
“Great! Now… I dunno. Save that. That file, that fate, whatever that is. Make it real.”
“No.”
Aura was taken aback. “Why the hell not?”
“I want…”
“Yes?” Aura said gesturing to move it along.
“I want you to sing for me, Aura Nightingale.”
“Is that all? Okay, but why? You’re the one who decided that I was never going to become a singer like my dad.”
“I know. You defied that. I want to hear you sing with my own ears,” Lachesis said with excitement in her face.
“Fine. Which one do you want to hear?”
“Oh, �
��Daughter don’t scold me’ of course. It is my favourite.”
“Of course it is,” Aura sighed. Kallipolis appeared right next to her and Aura jumped up at that. “Seriously?”
“Citizen! You have vandalised government property!”
Aura stood there with her mouth open. “I… don’t even know where to begin. So you admit that the government is treating these women as property and illegally feeding every bit of personal information to them so they can predict and control people’s lives?” She tapped her glasses, pointing at the embedded microcamera.
Kallipolis raised an eyebrow and corrected her virtual glasses. She said, “No comment. Ignore that last statement.”
And she vanished.
“That was easy,” Aura said in suspicion, looking around the room.
“Kallipolis has stopped controlling the walkers dear,” Melousa said on the comm. “Come on out fast.”
“Can’t. I got a fan to please first,” Aura said, and then she sang for an audience of three.
Playlist: Video 66/67
Aura squeaked like a rat.
Melousa yelped and screamed, throwing her gear off her hands and letting a tubular thing roll at the far end of her workbench.
“Haha!” Aura laughed. “Never gets old.”
“Please dear, don’t scare me like that. I hate rats, can’t stand the thought of them,” the sweet Amazon said, looking at the dark corners of the garage. “How did your your driver’s test go?”
Aura lowered her head and pursed her lips. “They didn’t let me drive my own bike,” she said with dismay.
“That would be cheating, not that they would know anything about it,” Melousa said. “So? Did you pass dear?”
Aura looked up at Melousa with teary eyes. After a pause she threw her arms up and yelped, “I passed!”
She hugged the chubby Amazon and squeezed her hard. Melousa congratulated her.
“What’s the occasion?” Bremusa asked walking in the garage space. She was moving slowly and with minor movements, but she was getting better. Her torso was bandaged all around.
“I passed my driver’s test!” Aura yelped in the same way and jumped towards Bremusa to hug her.
A raised palm stopped her. “Congrats.”
“Oops, sorry. How’s the ribcage?”
“I’ll live.”
“That’s good,” Aura said and realised she meant it.
Two Amazons crossed the parking space with their bikes, and as they got near they slowed down and looked at them. Looked at Aura, she noticed. They rolled away and parked somewhere out of sight.
“What’s with them?” Aura asked pointing a thumb backwards.
“Didn’t you hear? You are a celebrity,” Bremusa said, leaning back with a wince to steady herself on a concrete column. She corrected, “Again, that is. You are a celebrity, again.”
“About what?”
“About that mission dear,” Melousa added. “Artemis allowed some of the footage to get uploaded. The description is very much altered of course, and you need to keep it a secret, but all the girls know you led a successful operation and have the video to show for it! Sometime next year the massive corporate adoption will take place and everyone knows they have you to thank.”
Aura blinked at that.
“Whaddaya know. I finally managed to get something right,” Aura mumbled to herself.
“Yes! Let me show you to your celebrity bed,” Bremusa said and stood up wincing.
She led her, slowly, up to the barracks area. It was another floor, one Aura hadn’t been in yet. But it was similar to the one below, where Bremusa and Melousa slept.
Girls were everywhere. Leaning back, talking in groups, sleeping. They were all sixteen, one year younger than Aura. All of them, at the sight of Bremusa tensed.
Can’t blame them, Aura thought, after that little display at the lobby.
They didn’t get up, they didn’t salute. This wasn’t an army. But if she were to give an order, nobody would dare dawdle about it.
“You,” Bremusa said to a scrawny brunette.
The trainee stood up at attention, “Yes ma’am?”
“This is Antioche,” Bremusa said presenting Aura at her side.
“Um… My name isn’t-”
“Your name,” Bremusa said firmly and met her gaze, “is now Antioche. The one who confronts the city. It is an honour. Wear it well and make me proud.”
“Yes ma’am…” Aura said quietly.
“What’s yours trainee?”
“Glaukia, ma’am.”
“Glaukia, get this princess to an empty cot and show her around. She is as of now part of your group,” Bremusa said.
“Ma’am?” bellowed Aura like a good soldier.
“Yes trainee Antioche?”
“I thought I was in your team ma’am!”
Bremusa laughed and winced at the pain. “Don’t make me laugh trainee. You lack training, you lack discipline. Glaukia here will help you catch up.”
“Yes ma’am!” both Aura and Glaukia said.
“Stop yelling, my head hurts,” Bremusa groaned and left.
“Call me Kia,” the brunette said and pulled Aura by the arm. “You’re Aura Nightingale, aren’t you?” She was way too excited.
“Not anymore, it seems,” Aura said and frowned at the room-full of girls.
Playlist: Video 67/67
Aura leaned back and lay on her cot, her hands behind her head.
This was it. What she wanted.
This was her life now.
She had changed her fate, but it was all getting a bit blurry after a few days. It was all too…
Weird.
Oh, and she’d have to respond to Antioche now. That was her new name. She mouthed it a few times, Antioche, Antioche. Aaantiiioche.
She guessed she should think of it like a stage name. She was still Aura.
Had she done good? Would her family be alright? Her mom seemed fine with the mess Aura, sorry Antioche, had made. Her dad seemed to take it a bit harsh. She hoped she would be allowed to see him sometime. And her little brother. She missed him the most, hadn’t seen him for months.
She also missed Orosa.
She wished now she have kept that rag, the one that reminded of her. But it was fine where it was. Antioche promised herself she would visit their spot up on the hill as soon as possible.
It pained her not keeping that stupid rag. She had needed to pay tribute, and it had to be something she would miss. That rag was the only thing in the world that fit that description for her. How else would she be safe in this crazy mess of things?
The End
Names and Meanings
Aura: The soft summer breeze.
Bremusa: The raging female.
Melousa: The sweet one.
Antioche: She who confronts the city.
Orestes: One who can conquer mountains.
Moirai: The Fates.
Klotho: The weaver of fate.
Lachesis: The measurer of fate.
Atropos: She who cuts the weave of fate.
Theseis: She who lays down the law.
Deinomache: Fierce warrior.
Parthenope: Virgin voice.
Moiragetis: Zeus’ name, the fate giver.
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Aura’s, or rather Antioche’s, journey doesn’t stop here. She still has a big role to play in the future of Athens.
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Aristotle's Recipe for Disaster
On Egersis
They claim the corporations had legitimate reasons for
bringing their headquarters to Greece. Post-bankruptcy opportunities, privatisation of public services, real estate fillets, the euro finally stabilising…
But we know better than that. Underneath the PR lies and bullshit and pretty graphs and market projections, we know that there is something so weird that it cannot be anything other than the truth.
Long before my time, when computers were still a new thing and corporations only had just begun reigning on monopolies larger than countries, there was a text auctioned off at Christie’s. An ancient Greek text that no-one took special notice of.
Sure, it sold for a few dozen thousand pounds and it had some fragments of a debate of some sort. In it two people, maybe philosophers, debated on the origin of ichor. The actual surviving text had no part of the younger member’s speech, but it is clear that the older member is answering to the theory brought on the table by the youngster. The reply is literally the same as any other ancient Greek text, in that it is philosophical in nature and meant to be heard by an audience, insinuating that the members were not alone and thus had a certain degree of status, instead of just being two babbling drunks I guess.
The text is called many things but it has come to be known as egersis and that is what we will call it for ease of reference.
Egersis takes its name strangely from the last word on the text, which is precisely that one. The old member’s argument finishes with a warning that what the youngster is suggesting would lead to egersis. I suppose it is something along the lines of, “and those are all the reasons why it is dangerous to attempt egersis.”
Yes, I said suppose. No actual text has ever been leaked, no photographic evidence of egersis’ existence is out there or is no more. The whole thing has been propagated by people working on various projects, by linguists called to translate fragments and by wild speculation.
But I am ahead of myself. The text’s modern history is quite as interesting as its content. As I said, the egersis text was sold at an auction for a moderate sum of money (moderate to rich people) and was simply vaulted away at a private collection by the father of a man named Arturo Eagler. I talk about the son because the father, though rich and accomplished himself, pales in comparison to the ego of the son. As soon as Arturo took over the family business, Eagler Oil and Gas, he started selling off all the “excess fat,” as he called it, that his father had accumulated over the years.
MOAB � Mother Of All Boxsets Page 59
