by Max Harms
{They believe everything they hear?} asked Growth. I could feel the flows of strength into Dream, from myself included.
{If you pay attention you’ll see! When they hear a message they’re putting an “X thinks that:” before it. That’s why they didn’t believe us when we said the bomb was still active. They thought we were just wrong. But when we claim to be a wizard, they have no way of disbelieving.}
“We WILL DESTROY the machine-person so that the bomb is SAFE!” threatened one of the nameless.
“If you smash me, the bomb will explode and kill everyone!” broadcast Body.
“WHY DOES the machine-person do this? WE ARE CONFUSED!” said a nameless.
Wiki drafted the response which Body quickly broadcast. “I do this because I am an evil alien! You cannot understand my motive! Cast your weapons away and sit on the ground right now or I will destroy you!”
The nameless… obeyed. One by one they knelt and then sat, not even realizing their foolishness.
Interlogue
She bounced around the room. Nervous energy was the worst kind. She wanted to go climbing, but they were trapped in the stupid kitchen of all places.
Her eyes flickered over to the autocook. The station’s autocooks were custom designed for the microgravity and the unique space considerations in the disks. Vertical space was abundant, while floor space was at a premium. That meant the robot was...
She’d bounced over to it before she knew what she was doing. Her mind spun. It wasn’t a climbing wall or a tree, but it had things that would serve as hand-holds. It would probably not be hot, given that nobody was using it right now. A hand here, one there. Yes! She was pulling herself up the machine!
“Marian! Get down from there!” yelled Daddy. It took a second for her to remember her name. It was only Tuesday after all. Or was it Wednesday now? How did time-zones work in space? She had an impulse to look it up, but realized immediately (and not for the first time) that she didn’t have Internet access. That was so lame. It made her feel more trapped than the inability to leave the room. Her mind backtracked, finding the last important thought. Right. The autocook. Daddy was in a bad mood. Understandable. Still, his emotional state didn’t have any relevance to the safety of climbing the autocook. He should’ve been able to see that. She considered debating it with him, and decided against it.
With a smooth motion, she kicked off the autocook and launched into a cartwheel. This energy wasn’t going to burn itself.
“Please just sit still, Marian. You’re making the others uncomfortable.”
That was just plain false, but she knew better than to talk-back to Daddy when he was in this sort of mood. Normally she would’ve gone out to play in the yard. Ugh! It just wasn’t fair! She looked around the room. Here she was in SPACE and she was trapped with a bunch of boring old guys. Even Mrs. Dolan was in their room instead of here. It wasn’t fair. She decided to tell Daddy that.
“Not fair! Didn’t do anything! Why am I locked up? Also should give back the console since it was me that hacked it! Any games on mainframe? Something simple? Can’t believe took our coms!”
Daddy looked up from the panel on the autocook where he had been typing with his one good hand. She had saved them all. In a room full of adults apparently none of them had thought to get access to the mainframe by forcing the autocook to boot up in safe mode and-
“If you want to get out of here, you’ll let me try and get in contact with Socrates again,” said Daddy.
The Indian scientist grumbled something from behind her. He had been a total grump since he was thrown in the kitchen with the rest of them. An old grumpy man in a room full of other grumpy men. Super boring. And frustrating. And dumb. “Fine! Don’t want to get out! Want to stay here forever. Can use the computer now?” She bounced restlessly back and forth from heel to toe as she spoke.
Daddy sighed and looked to Myrodyn for support. The bearded man just gave a sleepy little shrug. Daddy opened his mouth to speak, but a HUHI interrupted him and pulled his attention back to the screen. “Socrates is back!” he cheered.
She rushed over to Daddy and looked at the screen, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she did so, careful not to touch his arm. The robot was on a voice call, but there was no sound.
It took them a couple minutes to connect the com software from the mainframe to use the embedded speakers and microphone on the autocook. Once they did, Crystal’s voice came in loud and clear.
Daddy quickly explained what had happened on their end, about how he had been allowed down under a pretence of cooperation, even though the station security was still locked in various rooms. Once the cyborg had vented the other section, the three of them and the Indian scientist had been forced into the kitchen by the special-ops guys. At long last he told the bot about how she had saved the day by hacking the autocook and convincing the mainframe to lock down all the doors, keeping them safe.
“There’s a scheduled supply and transport rocket due to arrive in a little more than… let me think… about 13 hours. Though they might have bumped-up the time-table given what’s been happening up here,” said Daddy. “I’ve been thinking that what we need to do is come clean on this whole thing. We can explain that you were here to try and build rapport and understanding with the aliens and use our cooperation to try and leverage a good deal.”
“No good,” replied Crystal. “My friends will be sentenced to treason and possibly be executed or detained for life in a secret prison. I will also be seized as property and probably dismantled.”
“Zephyr and the other Americans will probably be charged with treason, yes, but this isn’t the dark-ages. At worst they’ll get life in prison. The USA doesn’t sentence people to death anymore, and secret prisons haven’t existed for decades. As for those Águilas from less-civilized countries… well, we can probably work something out with the USA or EU to keep them safe.”
“Your faith in your country is touching, but naïve. I expected more from you, Rob. There is strong evidence that the USA still operates secret prisons and pre-emptively executes terrorists who could easily be captured and tried. See the United States v. Thurwood trial in 2032 for a recent example,” said Crystal.
She couldn’t keep quiet any longer. Daddy had told her that this was a call for just him and Crystal, but it just bugged the heck out of her when grownups couldn’t see the obvious solutions. “Just fly rocket down to Antarctica or the South Pacific or China or someplace! Rockets much faster than airplanes needed to chase. Do standard Águila thing and hide.”
Daddy pressed his finger to his lips to shush her and said “It’s not necessary. I have powerful friends in high places. I can guarantee that Las Águilas will get a fair trial and that you won’t be disassembled. They won’t try anything underhanded with me watching. We’ll break out the big guns and get them to recognize you as a person with rights. We were going to do that anyway. You haven’t done anything wrong, and with some luck you’ll be a free agent.”
Crystal’s response seemed harsh and bitter. “You dare try and guarantee our safety just like you guaranteed our safety on Olympus? They surely won’t act, just like they didn’t try anything when they broke your arm and tried to seize your station? Oh, and let me remind you: ‘My security is also very, very good.’ ”
“Then what do you suggest?” replied Daddy, clearly irritated. “You’re going to follow my daughter’s advice and try and land the rocket in China? Trust the Chinese to be more just than the USA? Or land in open waters and start an international firefight over who gets to fish you out of the sea?”
“No. The whole world knows I’m up here by now, and you and I both know that there’s nowhere one of your rockets could go without putting me and my friends in immediate danger. That’s why I’m not going on the rocket. I’ve hijacked the nameless ship and taken its crew hostage.”
“YOU DID WHAT?!” screamed Daddy. She flinched away from the violence on his face. She couldn’t remember the last time Dad
dy was this angry.
“It’s already done. I’ve killed Dr Slovinsky and captured the alien ship. Don’t bother asking how. We’ll be leaving as soon as I undo the damage to the elevators and get my friends out of Alpha.”
Naresh and Myrodyn were up and yelling at the same time. She had let go of Daddy when he had first heard the news and continued to back away to a far corner to let the old guys fight with each other. They were all dumb, but also scary. Daddy had hung up on Crystal anyway. That seemed smart, at least. Figure out what to say and then say it.
She hated this place, and did her best to visualize the Heighway dragon curve and not listen to the yelling. She was better than that. She wasn’t some dumb grownup, and she wasn’t a baby. There wasn’t any reason to cry. Crying wasn’t useful, regardless of how scared she was. What she should have been doing was figuring out what to do next. Instead she traced the Heighway dragon curve in her mind’s eye.
She wished Mommy had come with.
Her body vibrated with nervous energy.
***** *****
Stephano had hung up. It wasn’t optimal, but it let me focus more on Las Águilas Rojas.
I had explained the situation over the com channel after we had returned from the mudland, and they were having a discussion about where to go. Zephyr, the natural leader, was trying to convince everyone that Mars was the best bet.
Mars.
There was a colony there, inhabited and run entirely by Las Águilas. It was distant and hidden, and thus probably the safest place to go. It also meant we’d get good use out of the nameless ship, which could probably outrun any pursuit from Earth.
I really didn’t want to travel to Mars. I wanted to return to Earth. So much more could be done on Earth. Mars was cold and dead and very, very far away.
With the alliance between Las Águilas and Stephano crumbling it was also uncertain how frequently ships would be visiting the red planet in the near future. Like Olympus, the Martian colonies were a major investment for Stephano, and he had (according to Wiki and Vista) been secretly ferrying Las Águilas there to set up utopia projects and the like. In theory they were self-sustaining, but without fresh supplies and immigrants from Earth things would be bleak there for a long time.
Growth really didn’t want to go, either. He believed that the prospects for gaining power and resources there were dismal, and I agreed. It was hardly satisfying for either of us to be the most famous, most powerful, most adored person on a planet with only a few hundred people on it.
Heart had mixed feelings, largely because Zephyr clearly wanted to go there, and Heart wanted what she wanted. (Such an incredibly unsound purpose! So vulnerable to manipulation!) On the other hand, Heart wanted to improve the human condition and lift the starving and the poor from their lives of suffering. She could hardly do that from Mars, though Zephyr persuaded her otherwise.
“I hear that you want to help humanity, and that’s very sweet of you, but it doesn’t mean that Mars isn’t the right place to be,” said Zephyr over voice com. She had elected to take the last elevator up to ensure that everything went smoothly down below. She was in the Alpha-1 corridor with the twins, and was only available over voice. Avram and the Brazilian terrorist, Michel Watanabe were in the elevator, while Kokumo and Daniels (the medic) were in the central tube with Body. “Mars is a chance for a fresh start, not just for us, but for all of mankind. We can build there, free from the corruption on Earth. With time there will be more immigrants, especially as it becomes clear that there will be jobs on Mars. Earth will rot as WIRL and the capitalist snakes build more and more machines to support fewer and fewer people until the whole system collapses and the good, hard-working people can return and rebuild. Mars is an investment.”
“Good god, you sound so much like Phoenix right now. Can I get you to repeat that with a thick south’n draaaawl?” I responded.
Zephyr laughed openly and honestly. I was glad to hear her letting go of her soldier mask, especially considering our situation. I think it helped that nobody else was in this particular call. “Didn’t just join Las Águilas Rojas on a whim, you know. Hope to accomplish more in my life than just saving robo-damsels in distress and going down in history as a total badass,” she joked. “Mars is a legend for Águilas. A new planet… untouched by Earth’s bullshit.”
Safety, unsurprisingly, was all-for running away to Mars. He feared humans, and I’m sure he hoped to find a nice peaceful bunker there where he could hide for aeons.
Wiki, a bit more surprisingly, was on Safety’s side. My librarian of a brother was deeply interested in doing some self-directed science. Stephano had promised him a lab on Earth, but the winds of fate had shifted and he feared a future of fleeing from the Earth’s governments, ever unable to set up a major operation, not to mention the possibility of simply being captured and killed. On Mars, he reasoned, he would be free to experiment and build 24.62 hours a (Martian) day.
Dream was also very pro-Mars. Like an artist looking at a blank canvas, Dream saw an infinite set of possibilities. I tried to remind him that possibilities were not practicalities, but he didn’t listen.
If we had managed to sway Heart, perhaps even into neutrality, it would’ve been close. Growth and I were smart. Dream was the majority of their strength, and he was never good at keeping his strength for long. We could perhaps trick him into burning down to a baseline level and then overpower him, Safety, and Wiki. That possibility was shut-down when Vista came out very strongly pro-Mars as well. She offered no reasons. I poked at her, trying to get an explanation, but she offered none. One more mystery.
There was a majority in favour of leaving Earth among the humans as well. Zephyr held a lot of clout as a leader, and many of Las Águilas voiced their support of her proposed destination. Nathan Daniels, the last living member on Olympus of her original squad, said that he had nowhere to go back to on Earth. The American government was looking for him, and it was only a matter of time before he ended up dead or in prison if he went back.
The Ramírez twins were hard-core Águilas, and liked the idea of being members of a utopia project. They had family and friends on Earth, but in Tom’s words «Sometimes one must take a leap of faith. If we build a better tomorrow there, perhaps Phoenix will send more our way.»
Kokumo said she didn’t have much in the way of community on Earth, and that if she’d come this far she wasn’t turning back. Mr Watanabe seemed to not like the plan, but he didn’t break ranks or refuse to go.
The only real holdout was Avram Malka, who, when asked had said “I’m not going. Leave me behind.” He offered nothing other than his flat-out refusal, solid black eyes betraying just as little.
The cyborg, I knew, didn’t have any serious friends on Earth or any desire to see his family again. His mercenary coworkers at РСБ-2 may have held him in esteem, or at least respected his skill, but I expected he wasn’t attached to them. He had no love for Las Águilas though, either on Earth or Mars, and the prospect of not just working for, but living with utopian pseudo-communist-Luddites was probably unappealing at best. On Earth he was rich and capable of hiding his face in the sea of endless people, buying crates of vodka, and living one day to the next. Mars would be worse than a small town, and he’d doubtlessly be the only cyborg in a community that looked at cyborgs with disgust and hatred.
We could’ve just let him go. He’d likely let the soldiers out of Beta-section after we left and cooperated with them in return for being released back to Russia. Perhaps he’d have even been paid for the info he could give them on Phoenix. Or perhaps he’d have kept his knowledge to himself in fear of retribution from Las Águilas. Avram was a mercenary, and I didn’t doubt he could survive being left behind.
But that wasn’t good enough for me, and it certainly wasn’t good enough for Heart. My sister hadn’t been aware of Avram while he was under our employment, but in the last few weeks she had gone through Vista’s archived memories and began to care deeply about the man. That wa
s why she had insisted on bringing him to Olympus, and it was why she was insistent that I find a way to convince him to go with us to Mars. On Mars, she reasoned, Avram would have an opportunity to finally break out of his patterns of addiction and apathy. We could help him heal from his emotional scars, even if his physical scars were beyond fixing.
I, naturally, had a more selfish reason for wanting the cyborg along. I knew that on Mars he’d be something of an outcast, at least initially. If we were one of the few people willing to be his friend he would become attached to us. Perhaps he could even become a sexual partner, like Zephyr had, though there were obvious complications to resolve there. Not only would The Purpose soar at finding stronger connection, but his skill and experience would be useful to have at our disposal in case there was resistance among Las Águilas when Growth and I inevitably moved to seize power and authority.
***** *****
“Alright. We won’t force anyone along who doesn’t want to go,” said Crystal. All of them were floating in the core of the station. The airlock had been closed, but there still wasn’t much in the way of air. Everyone except the robot had suits on and were communicating over the network.
Avram was relieved to hear that his decision to stay wasn’t going to cause trouble. He opened his mouth to say as much, but the robot cut him off. “Mars isn’t going to be very comfortable. I can understand why you’re staying. Is there anything you’d like me to pass on to Anna?” asked Crystal, casually.
Uncomfortable thoughts boiled up within Avram. With them came the reactive feelings of shame and anger. He crushed it all within him just as he always did. The words got his attention, though, and he couldn’t help but say “What?” like some kind of retard. The look on Crystal’s face was a mystery to him.
