Eye of the Abyss

by Michael Formichelli

  “His daughter, Anica Vargas, has taken his place alongside Baron Xitar, and—who was that last one?”

  The smile faded from his face.

  “Baron LeRoux,” Giselle said.

  “Hugon LeRoux.” The baroness’ smile was predatory. “—Or was it just his wife, Delphine?”

  Dorsky paled. “How?”

  Baroness Sophiathena did not answer, but Cygni found herself staring at Giselle, remembering Dorsky freeze up as she used her specialized implants in his office. She must have done more than simply scan the man’s intent. All of his secrets were laid out before her. Giselle met her gaze and formed the barest hint of a smile on her lips.

  “How is not important. What should matter to you is that my sources are vast, and I want in on your conspiracy,” the baroness said.

  Premier Dorsky shook his head, recovering some of his pallor. “All right, you clearly have me at a disadvantage, but I remain Premier. It is something I would see continue despite a certain baron’s intentions. Your entry has a price.”

  “All things do,” the baroness said. “Though I assumed you realized the price is my silence.”

  “First, let me remind you that you are sitting in Solahab Tower, not Elthroa. Second, as Premier I have access to quite a bit more information than you do, and I promise you I will not hesitate to use it. For example, Giselle Tauthe is guilty of quite a few counts of industrial espionage, which, as you recall, carries with it a sentence of life on a penal colony. You’ve maneuvered to shield her from prosecution, but that can be rendered useless with a word from me, and such maneuvering can be considered conspiracy. You might wind up working alongside her.”

  Cygni felt her gut tighten when Giselle flinched. Though she had her misgivings, she had saved her from the interrogation cell and, deep down, she did feel a friendship with the woman. She hoped the baroness did as well—or at least valued her own freedom.

  “And third, you’re talking to someone who can restore your birthright, as I’m sure you knew. Perhaps you would feel better accepting my terms if you were legally able to call yourself Sophiathena Revenant.”

  The baroness shifted in her seat. “What are your terms, then?”

  “Cygni is mine, and so is her team. I’ll have my operatives free of entanglements,” he said, to her surprise. “Second, I’ll have your absolute silence on this matter and all things related, and third, you share what you know of Zalor Revenant and his operations, in its totality, without hesitation. Further terms to remain negotiable later, agreed?”

  Cygni watched Haem Kul’tearae’s red eyes glaze over as she used her implant. The baroness waved her hand at the Isinari and niu stepped back away from her.

  “Giselle is on her team, you’d have her torn from me as well?”

  “I can’t very well dissolve your friendship, now can I? But professionally? Cygni’s team must be bound to me alone, Baroness Revenant.”

  The air was silent for several long moments. Giselle’s eyes fluttered between the baroness and Dorsky.

  “Done,” she said. “On the condition you make good on this promise. Fail, and I’ll have your balls.”

  Giselle’s head whipped around towards the Baroness. “Sophi?”

  “You’re his now.” She rose from her seat. “I see I have some arrangements to make in light of our new agreement. When is the next meeting?”

  “I’ll be in touch,” Dorsky said.

  The baroness snapped her fingers. Haem Kul’Tearae followed her to the lift.

  “I don’t believe it,” Giselle said after the lift doors shut. “We’ve been friends since college. You’d think she would have fought for me.”

  “It’s not in her nature,” Premier Dorsky said. “And neither is allowing herself to be cornered. She’ll have you sabotaging me and my allies in short order.”

  Giselle looked at him, appearing confused.

  “I didn’t become Premier of the Confederation by accident. I intend to make it worth your while not to listen to her. Perhaps you’ll be able to tell me how you knew who I was in league with at some point?”

  Giselle stared at the floor, gritting her teeth.

  [Unable to connect with requested persons,] Cygni’s PLIA informed her. She swallowed. It wasn’t normal for people to be out of touch in a major city like Ikuzlu where the Cyberweb was omnipresent.

  “What is it?” Dorsky asked, looking at her with concern.

  “I’m sorry, Premier. Maybe I’m using it wrong, but my PLIA can’t reach my team,” she answered.

  “It can’t?”

  She shook her head, noting that Giselle hadn’t moved. The stunned look continued to dominate her expression.

  He took in a deep breath and sighed. His face glazed over for several moments. “The Abyssian has ordered Cyberweb access shutdown in the Terran sector. She must be moving against the Biodome.”

  “No.” Cygni looked out at the city through the haze of the plasma window. “I have to help them.”

  “There’s nothing you can do. Praetor Prime Augusta will not allow you to interfere,” he said.

  “We have to help them.” She looked at Giselle.

  “Yes, of course.” She shook herself and stood. “They’re our friends. Our real friends.”

  “This is foolish,” he said.

  “We have no choice. I can’t allow them to be captured, and neither can you. They know everything I do,” she said.

  Dorsky sighed. “Do nothing to bring the Abyssians here, and don’t wear your uniforms when you go or you’ll be back in Sophi’s service by morning.”

  “You’ll let us do this?” Cygni asked, surprised her plea worked.

  “They’re my assets now, remember? Go get them for me.”

  Cygni’s eyes scanned the skyline as the air-car flew between the Business District and the Solan Ghetto. The Biodome took up several city blocks, but it was low, and hidden behind the forest of residential towers. It wouldn’t be visible until they were almost on top of it, but that didn’t stop her from trying. Her anxiety wouldn’t let her do anything else.

  “I can’t believe she just let me go like that,” Giselle said from the seat beside her. “Ten-years of friendship means nothing to her?”

  She wanted to ask Giselle what she expected from such a woman, but it was unnecessary, and wouldn’t help her friend come to grips with what happened.

  “I’ve kept that woman’s secrets for years. I’ve been her confidant, and confided in her, and for what? To be traded like some kind of commodity?” She slammed a fist against the dash. It sounded like a painful blow, and her knuckles came away raw.

  “Giselle, she’s a baroness. Isn’t that what they do?”

  Dark eyes searched hers, then dropped downward. “You’re right, but you don’t understand. She meant it. She really meant it. I felt her cut me off like I was nothing. I have been a fool.”

  She nodded. Giselle was right, she didn’t really understand. A woman experienced in the affairs of barons should know what they were capable of, and she thought Giselle would know how Baroness Sophiathena viewed their friendship.

  Giselle slammed her knuckles into the synthetic leather panel twice more. They were starting to seep blood when she stopped.

  “You should expect more from a friend,” Cygni said.

  “You are my friend, aren’t you?”

  “I am.”

  “I haven’t been fair with you. Sophi had me spying on you as well as Rega and the rest.”

  “I expected that.”

  “I don’t think you understand.” She looked out the window, watching the towers slide by.

  Cygni took the opportunity to check in with her PLIA. She was still getting used to having a built-in personal assistant. She had to admit that she kind of liked it already.

  [Unable to connect to requested contacts. Cyberweb connection lost.]

  She looked down and saw the gleaming corporate towers give way to the uniform design of the Solan Ghetto. They were within the Abyssian
’s area of operation. Her stomach fluttered, and she hoped they would reach the Biodome in time.

  “I’ve been spying on your personal lives as well,” Giselle continued after a long pause, though she didn’t turn from the window. “She wanted to know your weaknesses, your thoughts…”

  “My what?”

  “I told you that I have specialized cybernetics to interrogate people, but that’s not exactly true. I’m different from you and the rest.”

  “What?” She licked her lips. “What do you mean?”

  “I—” Giselle hesitated, still refusing to look at her.

  “It’s all right. Take your time.” She squeezed her friend’s hand and looked out the windshield. A trail of smoke rising behind the towers froze her blood. The car came around the last turn, and the towers parted to reveal the biodome at the end of the street. All thoughts of what her friend was about to say fled her mind.

  The massive dome smoldered through a huge, star-shaped hole in its lattice superstructure that made it look like the top of a broken egg. Dark specks swirled in the air above it, their tips flashing as they dove and turned in a parabolic course that took them back up into the sky. Cygni didn’t quite know what she was looking at, but she did recognize the orange and yellow glow coming from within the dome’s clouded windows. The jungle was burning.

  “By the Will, what are they doing?” she whispered.

  Giselle didn’t respond.

  She directed the air-car’s AI to head for the dome, but it balked.

  ABYSSIAN OVERRIDE, THIS IS RESTRICTED AIRSPACE, REDIRECTING… scrolled across her vision.

  PLIA, can you fly this car?

  [Affirmative. Commence override?]

  Do it. Her heart up in her throat. Take us into the dome through that crack and get us to its center. If they were still alive, that’s where Biren, Boa, and their mother would be—she hoped.

  [Confirmed. Override successful. Plotting course. Execute?]

  Do it. There was no dramatic shift or wobble. The evidence that her PLIA did as asked was their continued flight towards the biodome. She allowed herself a moment of relief as they passed over the police line holding back the mob of spectators clogging the streets.

  “Attention unidentified air-car, this is a restricted area. Turn around by order of Praetor Augusta, the authority of Daedalus, and the Confederate Space Authority,” came an aggravated male voice over the air-car’s speakers. Cygni touched the holographic controls over the dash and switched off the radio.

  The dome loomed large through the windshield ahead. She could now see that the area around its base was thick with humanoid forms covered by banded armor. They charged into the Biodome through the open airlock. One of them broke away from the group. Something on its shoulders moved and the air-car jolted to the side.

  “What the hell?” she shouted.

  The air car shook again, and its engine’s steady pulse changed to an aggrieved whine. Indicator lights went red around her, and she felt her stomach start to press up against her diaphragm as the car fell.

  “They’re shooting us down,” Giselle said without passion. She looked more puzzled than anything else.

  The car shuddered again and the whine became a scream. She felt her body slam up against the restraints and the biodome grew larger through the windshield at an alarming rate. She gritted her teeth, keeping her eyes on the jagged lip of the smoldering hole before them. The car was drifting down towards it as though in slow motion.

  [Controls have stopped responding] her PLIA reported.

  Great, thanks. I know that, she thought as her heart raced. She could make out sparks of light dancing below the dome’s surface and even scratches on the triangular glass panes. Fuck me, I don’t want to die.

  [Armacorium active: Full Armor Mode.]

  She felt its flow upon her face and neck as her clothing turned sliver and shifted into a skin-tight coating. Would it be enough to compensate for the impact? She didn’t know, but her self-concern faded when she looked at Giselle and realized her friend had no such protection. Her eyes widened a moment before they hit the edge of the gap and her seat slammed up against her body with bone-breaking force. The car screeched and its controls faded from view as they spun through the air with the world a blur through its windows. The crack of exploding wood sounded through the cabin accompanied by the crunch of metal. An alarm blared in her ears, and then they struck the ground with a jolt that knocked the breath from her lungs.

  She blinked. They were on the ground, upside down, but alive.

  “Giselle?” she said, seeing her body dangling from the restraint straps.

  Her friend stirred and her dark eyes flew open. She gasped in breath and spent the next ten seconds coughing before regaining herself.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I think so. Ugh, fuck me, that hurt.”

  Cygni tried to deactivate her restraints, but nothing happened. Frowning she reached down and pulled the manual override lever on the side of the seat. The spring-loaded blades in the belt housing tore through the material, and she found herself dumped down onto the cabin’s ceiling. Giselle did the same and fell beside her.

  “Are you okay?” Giselle asked.

  “Fine, I think,” she replied, surprised.

  Giselle laughed. “You’re silver, sexy, and well armored.”

  She felt herself blush. “Flirting at a time like this?”

  Giselle tried to smile but winced instead.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Just sore. The straps dug into my shoulders pretty bad. Thank the Will for crash-safety technology. Where are we?”

  “We made it inside the dome.” She paused to listen. The animals and insects that made so much noise the last time she was here were absent. What she could hear was the hissing of some broken valve or pipe in the car, the crackle of the trees burning, and the distant sound of screams punctuated by gunfire.

  “We have to get to the village. Can you move?”

  Giselle nodded and drew her pistol. A serious look descended on her face. “Let’s get going.”

  Cygni hit the emergency door release, but they didn’t open. She frowned and kicked a silver foot at the polymer-enhanced window. Her foot impacted the glass, but did little aside from rocking the car around them. She tried twice more before her PLIA interrupted.

  [Recommend using armacorium to enhance strength.]

  She didn’t know it could do that. Activate it.

  It felt like the armacorium pushed her leg when she made her next kick. It was poorly aimed, striking the door frame as well as the window. The glass shattered and the door blew off its hinges, landing somewhere in the underbrush with a crash.

  “Holy shit,” she said.

  The smell of smoke filled her lungs as she crawled out of the wreck and offered a hand to Giselle. Ash rained down on them from above like gray snow as they got to their feet.

  “Keep an eye out for DS-109’s,” Giselle said as they moved deeper into the flaming jungle.

  “What’s that?”

  “Combat drones. Star Corps uses them, but they’re the model I saw heading into the dome before we crashed,” she explained. “The DS stands for Daedalus-System.”

  “Never knew that.”

  “Now you do.” She sighed. “Sorry.”

  “What for?”

  “Just—never mind.”

  Cygni gave her a look, intent on asking, but was distracted when a sound like rolling thunder followed by screams came from just in front of them. She froze and realized they couldn’t risk trying to circle around whatever it was without chancing running into a group of combat drones, so she forged ahead.

  The tall trees and thick underbrush gave way to a clearing where drones were locked in a firefight with groups of heavily tattooed Gaians, both human and Isinari, blasting away with gauss rifles. Tens of trees lay on their sides, their trunks and branches aflame as the two groups shot it out. Bubble-shaped drones with triangular wings swooped dow
n, strafing the ground with a rain of glowing bullets. Several Gaians lay torn to pieces among the debris, their burning bodies adding to the thick black smoke rising to the sky.

  Cygni dropped to her knees behind a tree, taking in the horror around her. The smell of charred meat choked her nostrils despite the filters, and the sight of the bodies littering the ground, of exposed organs, bones, and so much blood flooded her senses. She felt her eyes sting as she glanced back to check on Giselle. Her friend had taken cover in the underbrush nearby.

  “We have to move,” Giselle said into her head.

  I know, she messaged back using direct transmission. She tried willing her numb limbs to move but they failed to respond. It was as though the gravity was ten-times what it should be. Looking up at her friend, she shook her head. I can’t.

  Giselle came to her side a moment later. “The drones will detect us after they get done cutting down those Gaians.”

  “I—What do we do?” She’d never been in a battle before, and she found herself short of breath as she watched it unfold.

  Giselle pressed her lips together for a moment. “Hang on.”

  She fixed her gaze on one of the Gaians, and her face became a mask of strain. Cygni saw him twitch and look confused a moment before a bright spot appeared on his head and burned a hole straight through it. He fell to the ground with his hair on fire, and Giselle jerked, dropping to her knees.

  “Shit,” she said, rubbing her forehead. “I’ve never had a subject die while we were linked before.”

  “What?” Cygni frowned at her.

  Her dark eyes looked up in alarm. “I—I’ll tell you later. There’s a shortcut to the village this way. Come on—and if you can, maybe set that thing to chameleon mode or something. Reflective silver tends to stand out.”

  “Giselle, I—“

  She was cut off by the woman’s stern glare. Strangely, she felt something inside her shift and she had control of her body again.

  “Ready?”

  “Right, yes. I am.” Cygni watched her hand as she commanded PLIA to camouflage her. It vanished before her eyes.

  [Stealth Mode active. Warning: This mode will deplete the power supply in two-hours ten minutes.]