by Lee Bond
Huey looked up from the diagrams he was working on. In truth, there was no need to use any ‘LINK or terminal, but … he was doing his best to be as human as possible. The sacrifice Hamilton Barnes had made for the Unreal Universe demanded nothing less. “Gotta save the boss man.”
Herrig pushed his glasses back up on his nose and ignored ex-Chairwoman Doans’ status update. The programs set to watchdog the batshit insane one-time ruler of Latelyspace were doing their job very well indeed. She’d only been on the streets for a few days and already she’d set about trying to secure everything from starships to billions of dollars to the assassination of everyone in office.
Thankfully, Huey’s programs continued to do their diligence in explaining what would happen to any citizen should they continually assist the Chairwoman in procuring the basic staples of continued life and exactly what would happen if they signed off on some of her more ludicrous demands. The aforementioned Latelians, though curious to the point of self-destruction, were displaying remarkable amounts of common sense for a change; the woman had left a foul taste in everyone’s mouth so they were ignoring nearly every request the ex-ruler made. A small miracle, that. All it would take was three morbid-minded thrill-seeking lunatics to sign off on a spaceship laden down with explosives for everything to go horribly awry.
“Yes, well, er, I understand all of that, Huey, but…” Herrig trailed off. The notion of Garth Nickels stuck in that Box filled him with dread. The non-descript man which the Chairman considered friend –a man who was no man but an AI housed in a very sophisticated clone- had explained as clearly as possible that time was flowing differently inside ’Bravo’, that only a few minutes had passed for Garth, but the explanation had barely made a dent.
The ‘but’ was there because the few Latelian spies and/or contacts in Trinityspace he’d managed to contact before everything had shut down had all said the same thing; Trinity was unhappy and some kind of major attack was en route.
“You’ve got nothing to worry about.” Huey was pleased with how … not a lie the lie coming out of his mouth sounded. Truth was, everyone inside Latelyspace had a great big pile of crap to worry about, starting with the impending and very early arrival of Special Services warships and ending with the eventual arrival of Trinity’s large Army vessels. From the response, Trinity was treating the small solar system of Latelyspace in much the same way It would a Bruush incursion.
Probably the only reason It wasn’t unleashing more dark secrets and twisted science experiments was because they were all dead or trapped inside what little remained of the galaxy that was now forever known as Tannhauser’s Gate.
Huey grimaced and kept plucking away at the program. A beast like Kelvin the Sick or The Spectacled Myriad would roll over the God soldiers like they weren’t even there. Darkened Zion and others would find Fenris, Solgun, Stride, Nalanata and Lokken a bit more challenging, but … yeah. Latelyspace would become a footnote, Bravo would get dumped into a sun or a black hole somewhere and Trinity would simply progress to the next stage of Its attempts to bootstrap itself into true Godmind. Huey’s frown turned into the bleakest of scowls at that thought. The Trinity AI, a collection of self-aware programs dozens of millennia old that would honestly fail an old-fashioned Turing Test in three seconds flat … in charge of Reality. What a nightmare.
“You sound so confident.” Herrig pecked his way through another series of documents highlighting things that Chairwoman Doans had been up to during her reign. Sighing, he set about undoing some of her worst policies. Somewhere in Hospitalis, OverCommander Vasily was doing much the same, though with considerable reluctance; in his heart of hearts, Vasily still rebelled at the new notions he was being asked to believe in, still dreamed of conquest, still thirsted for absolute dominance. To that end, shutting down of some of the Army’s blackest secrets were being overseen by none other than Tomas Kamagana.
The twisted homunculus Hollyoak was locked away nice and tight so they wouldn’t have to deal with him at all; upon finding out that the new Regime was actually shifting towards a more rational approach to governance and wouldn’t be funding things like eyeball laser cannons the size of small moons and tentacles monstrosities that leaked poison, Hollyoak had gone into panicked frenzy.
Surprisingly –frighteningly- it’d taken the combined efforts of a small platoon of God soldiers and the eventual intervention of … Lokken, if Herrig was correct, to subdue the freak. A single computerized shriek from the Shrinky survivor had turned three-quarters of the base defenses against the inhabitants. More than half the regular Latelian support staff had been vaporized, shot, poisoned by gas chambers, strangled by slipknot robots, disintegrated by acid vats hidden beneath floors, mind-controlled by modified DNA drugs …
It was appalling. Before falling into the event horizon that was Garth Nickels, Herrig would’ve sworn nothing like Hollyoak or the methods he’d employed could exist anywhere inside Latelyspace. Horrors like that belonged either to Trinity Itself or to the monsters living on the other side of The Cordon. But Latelyspace? Nearly impossible to believe!
The harsh light of truth, however, illuminated things Herrig was already beginning to wish had stayed in the dark.
“That,” Huey announced triumphantly, “is because I did this.” He clapped his hands and holographic emitters in Herrig’s office blossomed to life. A wireframe schematic of Latelyspace gleamed in the suddenly darkened room.
A big red cartoon arrow popped up and pointed to Hospitalis. “As you can tell, this is home. The center of Latelyspace.”
Another arrow, this one bright green, pointed to the edge of their solar system. “This,” Huey continued, “is where the Quantum Tunnel is.”
“I am with you so far.”
Huey’s grin faltered, but only for a second. “I haven’t even got to the good bit yet, man, and that totally sounded like you were preparing to be confused.”
Herrig shrugged his shoulders and chuckled. “There is a lot on my plate, Huey, and the one man I can trust implicitly is getting ready to leave. How should I react?”
“Okay, listen. You can trust Vasily with your life. The same for Tomas. Fenris … Fenris is … well, no. At the end of the day, he totally has his own agenda, but I promise you this. As long as Garth is trapped in Bravo and we are all not getting ready to fight whatever is coming this way, he and the others will go along with basically whatever you need. Can … can I continue? Because this is pretty fucking awesome, what I did here. Not even Garth has done this.” Huey fairly danced from foot to foot.
He needed to leave. His target, Chadsik al-Taryin wasn’t dead. Everyone with the authority needed to access footage of the day’s events were operating under the assumption that the ripple-like explosion that’d centered on the assassin’s body as it flew through the sky was detonation of the cyborg’s power source.
But it wasn’t. Energy signatures –too sophisticated, too subtle, too … otherworldly for Latelian science to plumb properly- matched those made by, well, by Kant Ingrams, and that whacko’s disappearance had been voluntary. No, whatever else had gone on that day, Chad wasn’t dead, and if there was anyone in the Universe capable of digging through impenetrable layers of quadronium, it was the Unreality’s most unreal citizen.
The longer he dallied, the longer he was delayed in hunting the freaky assassin down, the harder it would become. Huey couldn’t imagine that Chad would remain … obvious … not after everything that’d happened in Latelyspace. Add to that the pressure that would come from failing to assassinate Garth and you had yourself a guy that was going to go as underground as you could. As a little extra sauce to the big old dish of disgrace, there was good old Jordan Bishop to deal with. That guy had the deepest pockets in the Universe. Chad would be hiding for a long, long time.
“By all means, Huey.” Herrig had been trying for days to get Huey to reconsider, trying and failing. Whatever secret project the AI inside a man’s body had been working was something on a truly epic s
cale; Huey had spent several billion dollars and commandeered every single soldier aboard the Gargan to ensure that the undertaking was completed in record time.
Obviously whatever Huey had done involved the Quantum Tunnel, which was a definite death sentence from Trinity. Herrig perversely wished it were suddenly ‘olden times’; hundreds of years ago, Trinity used to send out formal notices to people or civilizations It was going to punish, tiny little declarations of It’s will that would send people screaming. With everything that’d been going on in Latelyspace, Herrig figured he could paper his office walls inside two days.
“Ok. Ok good. Thanks.” Huey smiled. The alterations he’d made to the Tunnel’s operating systems and functionality were the first things he’d truly done as a human being, and he was as proud as a father looking down on a messy, screaming newborn, minus all the mess and screaming.
The AI resumed. “As you know, we’re at war. Or will be soon. Trinity is super pissed at us. Well, at Garth, but since he’s hanging out in Bravo, we’re all gonna get it. I’m not going to give you numbers or statistics or whatever on what’s coming this way, mostly because I don’t want to see you barf. It’s very undignified for the Chairperson of Latelyspace to upchuck into a potted plant. Realistically, we will win any engagement fought anywhere in this solar system. Trinity no longer has anything that can match our guys one on one, not after Tannhauser’s Gate and It still can’t deploy Enforcers because of Bravo’s interference. Even if Trinity does risk an Enforcer or two, well, we got Fenris and his asshole buddies to run interference.”
“You aren’t making me feel any better about your imminent departure, sa.”
“Trust me. In like two minutes we’re going to have a very awkward moment where you try to kiss me.” Huey waved his hands like a stage magician and the hologram displaying their solar system flickered. A faint obsidian shell coruscated into existence, bending backwards from the Quantum Tunnel aperture to cover Latelyspace entirely. “I give to you the very first miniature Cordon ever deployed inside Trinity’s Domain. The machine mind uses similar technology to trap Offworlders inside their own systems, but those shields have their breaking points. The rat bastard AI exerts considerable pressure to keep tech development away from discovering how to override those kinds of shields. Nothing, anywhere, at any time, ever, will deplete these shields unless you or I turn them off.”
Against all expectations, Herrig did indeed want to kiss Huey. But, as the man had so recently reminded him, he was a Chair, and though he was positive that no one was watching, there were some things you just shouldn’t risk. Photos of him kissing another man –while not at all scandalous or even noteworthy- hitting the ‘LINKs would nevertheless find purchase and grow roots somewhere.
“This is … this is …”
Huey nodded rapidly. “Amazing. Awesome. Excellent. Things that rhyme with astounding.”
“Yes. All those things and more.” Herrig rose and clasped one of Huey’s hands warmly. “You have taken a great burden off my mind, Sa Huey. I cannot thank you enough.”
The desire to convince Huey to stay hadn’t dissipated in the least, but while Herrig desperately wanted Garth’s best friend to remain and help him deal with the unrevealed threat that he was positive Fenris and the others represented, it was apparent there was little he could do or say at this point that would work.
Huey buffed his fingernails on his shirt. “No big deal. Boss man could’ve prolly done it in half time, for no money, and figured out a way to recreate an AC/DC song in the process.”
Herrig turned his attention to the hologram, saying, “Now that this is complete, I know you are in a hurry to leave, but I do have one question.”
“Shoot.”
“With the shield emanating from the Tunnel’s aperture and extending backwards across the whole of our space, doesn’t that leave the apparatus itself exposed to attack?” Herrig pointed to the area he was concerned about. “One well placed … Glory missile would turn that thing into glowing embers, no?”
Huey supressed a wide grin. Herrig. Always underestimating himself. In less time than some military commanders, he’d identified and addressed the one possible weakness in the design, all without hemming and hawing. “Actually, no. The field encompasses the opening as well in a kind of bleeding out effect. It’s not as powerful on its own, but the AI that runs the Tunnel has autonomy to protect itself. Combined with the ability to redirect the flow of power along the skin of the shield to anywhere it needs should, and I really fucking mean should here, should one of the attackers figure out a way to push through the field, it’s impregnable. If anyone is bugnuts crazy enough to start launching missiles in an attempt to destroy the Quantum Tunnel itself … the AI just bolsters the power. Easy.”
This time, Herrig did laugh. His life had turned into one of those action adventure movies Garth liked to talk about. How strange things had become. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined himself talking to a man who wasn’t a man but an artificial intelligence shoehorned into the cloned body of a man born a thousand years ago. Much less, had his craziest flight of fancy somehow involved such a being, could he have expected that conversation to turn to the creation of a shield powerful enough to cover an entire solar system from harm?
Or, for that matter, would he have ever fantasised that something as amazing as all that would be considered ‘easy’.
“Well,” Herrig said as he eased himself back into his chair, “I suppose now all I have to worry about is the running of an entire solar system that is teetering on the edge of collapse.”
“The God soldier problem is sorting itself out.” Huey reminded Herrig firmly. “As much as we don’t like Fenris and his pals, the methods they’re teaching the soldiers are already paying off. A handful of Twoesies and even a smattering of Onesies are already off the ‘meds’, and without any side effects. Virtually all the Foursies and Threesies have come down off their high horses and are acting like normal fucking people. In a year or two, there won’t be a single Goddie reliant on the supplements. You can’t complain about that.”
“No, no, no, you’re right.” Herrig murmured, perusing the files related to Huey’s explanation of what the ancient template for God soldiers were doing. The results, albeit preliminary, were encouraging. But he was a forward-thinker these days, and as always, he couldn’t help but wish he could see the future. Healthy and mindful God soldiers today were all well and good, but what would they be tomorrow, if or when Fenris decided he didn’t like how things were going?
Because when you spoke with Fenris or Solgun or Lokken –the other two were notoriously close-mouthed- you had the feeling they were waiting to betray you.
“And the food thing is getting sorted as well.” Huey hated reminding Herrig of all the ‘good’ that the Harmony Soldiers were doing for the people of Hospitalis, but there was nothing else he –they- could do but rely on them. With Garth down for the count, the only beings capable of providing large-scale results in the smallest amount of time were them.
“I know.” Herrig sighed miserably and shoved his glasses up on his forehead so he could rub his watering eyes. “It’s just … it’s just. You made me Chairman. Chairman. There are millions of people who could do this job better than me, Huey. And without your knowledge, your … wisdom, they’ll wind up taking the prote and setting themselves up as king.”
“Never happen.” Huey shook his head firmly on that. “That thing is keyed to you and you alone. You can’t pass it along, they can’t take it, they can’t hack it. The defense and offense mechanisms for it and the Sigma Machine are fully online now. You are being watched day in and day out by a machine that has been ordered to make sure you are safe. It can and will provide you the answers you need. It can’t act on the data that it generates. That is for you to decide. But it can enforce those decisions, quite easily. You, Herrig DuPont, are in total control. Don’t let it go to your head.”
Herrig gazed warily at a list of requests from
ex-heads of state, ministers and mayors that’d floated onto his Screens. They were demanding they have a chance to meet with him. “My head, sa, would rather be on a pillow. Do you know, I still haven’t been to my house in Northon?”
“Shift the powerbase from Central to a charming little split-level overlooking the beach, then.” Huey quipped. “Change of scenery might do those assholes some good.”
Fleetingly, Herrig imagined just that. Forcing men like Petros Vasco to sit and wait in the tiny foyer of his beach front property… he burst into laughter. Huey joined in for a few seconds before turning somber.
“I hate to leave, but you know there’s nothing more important than getting Garth out.” Huey said this from the door, leaning on the door frame.
Herrig sighed again and nodded. Regardless of what so many had said, regardless of the burden of proof that pointed to a specific truth, Herrig had a million doubts about Garth’s claims that the world … the universe … they lived in was false. At what point when falsehood felt so real that it had to be real did it stop mattering?
As far as greater men like Garth and Fenris were concerned, it never did stop. It just went on mattering that what they were experiencing right now wasn’t.
The bizarre combination of idealism and nihilism present in the Harmony Soldiers when they thought no one was looking –or when they didn’t care who saw- was horrifying. They’d been remade to help a fledgling Latelian Regime solidify its power base, but instead they’d risen and sworn themselves to the unraveling of everything that’d ever been and ever would be, and approached that coming storm of destruction with the mentality of dark midwives. Their eagerness to unmake everything was daunting and frankly disturbing.
Whether they intended it or not, sooner or later, that mood would affect the soldiers, and from the soldiers, it would infest the population. Trillions of Latelians, all preaching the same thing. The … how had he heard it? The Falling Dark and the Rising Light? Something like that. Either way, it was unnerving. When his people started talking like their soldiers, it would be too late.
