by Alex Deva
A door opened.
“Permission to come aboard,“ he said stiffly and saluted, as soon as the door to One, the control room of the starship, opened in front of him.
“Permission granted,“ said the little girl, smiling. She bowed to return his salute.
Captain Toma, however, came to attention and saluted smartly. “Colonel Tiessler, sir,“ she said. He completed his salute so she could finish hers.
“Miss Doina. Captain. It’s very nice to be back,“ he said.
“Good to have you back, colonel,“ said the girl, smiling warmly. “How are you?“
Dead tired and trying to save my planet, thought the German, and said: “Very well, thank you. How are you?“
“A little worried, but otherwise fine. Do you have any news about Mark?“
For God’s sake, girl. Is that why you summoned me here? To give me flak for Gardener?
“Mr. Aram came up with a few very interesting ideas, and we were just discussing their feasibility.“
“Yes. He told me.“
“Hello, colonel,“ said Aram’s voice. “Greetings from Berlin. I understand you know the place.“
The girl gestured and Aram’s projection filled a rectangle on the curved wall. It came from a human device — what an odd thing to remark, thought Tiessler — and he could see the conference room behind the Dacian, just where he’d left him an hour before. The man was now alone in the room, and had obviously been talking to Doina since before Tiessler’s arrival.
“Hello, Mr. Aram.“ He tried his best to sound amiable. “Yes, I am familiar with Berlin. Under better circumstances perhaps I can be your guide through the city.“
“Yeah. I told Doina about my plan,“ said the Dacian.
Your plan to end all our hopes for Earth in order to recover your friend. “Oh?“
“I hated it at first, of course,“ said the girl. “But I think it just may work. Half of it, anyway, although I really do not like the idea of Mark nearly dying. But so it can be, sometimes.“
She nodded sagely. As if you know what the hell you're talking about, thought Tiessler.
What Doina said next caught him completely, one hundred percent, unreservedly unprepared.
“Why did you ask to talk to me in person, colonel?“
For the first two seconds, he froze. The implications of the question simply refused to compile. His mind — a proper pilot’s mind, always double-checking, never overconfident — simply found no drawer in which to accept the conclusion and store it. It simply did not have any such drawers left to fill. A chill went through him as his face turned white and his heart started pounding ever louder: ba-boom, ba-BOOM, BA-BOOM.
Slowly, as if the air had become honey, he turned towards captain Ileana Toma. His gaze followed his body as he did not dare look before he finished the turn. A million thoughts exploded in his head, about five hundred thousand of which had to do with the chip gun he’d left on his Pinion.
The woman smiled at him in no way a Eurasian Union officer ought to smile at her commander. To Tiessler it felt as if she’d revealed a mouthful of sharp, red teeth. He swallowed dry.
“Colonel, are you alright?“ asked the girl, suddenly worried.
He tried to speak, and couldn’t. He croaked something, as he began to point at Toma. Doina’s smile vanished completely and suddenly, as the final piece fell into place.
“You didn’t… Oh, no… No…“ she whispered.
There were maybe five steps between Toma and Tiessler, seven steps between Toma and Doina, and only one step between Toma and the wall of Room One.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tiessler saw Aram standing up, the chair tumbling down behind him. He began to yell something in a language Tiessler didn’t understand, and then Toma touched the wall.
There was a black flash which hurt Tiessler’s eye for an instant, and then every available space on the yellow-lit circular wall was covered with black, dancing symbols. There was another black flash, and the space in front of Toma filled with even more glyphs, floating in the air, exactly as they did for Doina, only there were many, many more.
Doina’s mouth fell open; her eyes grew, and she backed up one step, then another one. Her gazed was fixed on the Romanian captain; she began shaking her head in unmistakable, white terror.
In the wall projection, which was now covered with animated glyphs, Aram was screaming, red-faced, cursing incoherently, his sound almost completely muted.
And then, from everywhere, came the genderless voice of the ship’s Automated Decision Maker. In pure, unaccented English, the ADM said:
“Welcome back, fletcher Keai.“
XXIX.
“Who are you?“ asked Tiessler.
“My name is Keai, and I built this ship,“ said captain Toma, gesturing around herself.
She smiled again, and it was another smile. It wasn’t the friendly, open smile which she’d kept around Doina, but it still felt genuine. Inhuman, but genuine.
“She’s a Builder,“ said Doina. “I can suddenly… feel her. She… Doi… She… made Doi.“
“Of course, she wasn’t called Doi when I built her,“ said Keai/Toma. “It was just a Blank, until you came along, Shipmistress. Ah, and I didn’t happen to be female at the time.“
Shipmistress. That was the name by which Five had addressed the girl.
“You were here all along, and Doi hid you from me.“
“Yes. You see, at first, I merely wanted to meet you one more time. But then, after Five came, I thought I might be needed, so I decided to stick around.“
“Are you… inhibiting captain Toma’s body?“ asked Tiessler.
“What? Of course not. I’m not a parasite, colonel. But it’s kinda hard to blend in looking inhuman, so I chose Ileana Toma as my temporary identity.“
“How did you infiltrate my crew?“ he asked, hoarsely.
“I did not infiltrate anything. I went to the Naval Academy in Prague, graduated in Biology, joined up, passed the tests, had that interview with you, and you signed me in. I didn’t cheat anything. Well, except that I already knew most of the stuff in the books, if you want to call that cheating. Ah, I see Aram’s calmed down.“
“I will break your fucking neck and feed you your own brains,“ contradicted Aram, from the screen. “Just wait until I get back there.“
“Right. I may have spoken too soon. But listen to me, Dacian. You were my first arrowhead. I chose you because you were unique among your kind, and you have already proven me right more than once. I fully expect you to keep your promise, but before you decide to try, consider the following.“
Keai gestured, and the symbols vanished from the air and from the walls. Doina flinched visibly.
The Builder continued:
“You are smart, strong, loyal and level-headed. Well, except in exceptional exceptions, such as just now, which was very understandable and even expected. You have earned my respect as a Eurasian Union officer, and as a Builder fletcher.“
“Fletcher! So we’re your arrowheads!“
“In a manner of speaking. When I came to Earth, the HR business wasn’t particularly well-developed, so the most appropriate term in the contemporary language was ‘fletcher.’ It was the Stone Age, you understand. But I still think it sounds better than ‘human resource recruiter’.“ She smiled again.
“How… old are you?“ asked Doina.
She turned towards the girl. “I’m coming up to forty thousand years,“ she said simply.
Tiessler’s brain worked in overdrive. He quickly postponed coming to terms with the fact that he had been working with an alien for ten months, and focused on the practical.
“You can help us,“ he said. “You truly control this starship.“
“Yes, and yes, but so does Doina. She only has to learn a little before she can have complete control.“
“That’s why you brought in Greene.“
“The soldier. Yes. Mark is the stake upon which Doina will grow.“
“And me?“ asked Aram.
“You are the Cub Tamer. You are literally the only being in the Universe who can fly this ship’s Cub — whom you call Effo. But you are much more than that. You are the concrete that keeps this crew together. You, Aram, are this ship’s Source of Truth.“
“Trying to talk your way out of a broken neck?“
Keai laughed, and again it seemed genuine, but not quite human.
“You’re welcome to try, my friend.“ And there was no threat implied, only playfulness, like a grandfather might joke with his grandkids.
“Help us,“ said Tiessler, again. “Will you help us?“
“Of course,“ she said, pleasantly. “But there are some non-negotiable limits.“
“What does that mean? What limits?“
“I will not start a galactic war on account of Earth,“ Keai said, and this time there was no playfulness in her voice. “I will not engage the Five. Nor will I engage the Squares, because that amounts to the same thing. The chaos that would bring is unimaginable to you… and yes, even to me. The innocent deaths would be in the trillions of trillions. Understand that I am prepared to destroy your planet, and even this starship, myself included, before I let that happen. Is that absolutely, crystal clear, colonel Karl Tiessler? Ist das eindeutig klar?“
“You would never let that happen,“ the German counterattacked. “You would never destroy your own creation. This starship…“
“I can make another. I can mine another civilisation. The Universe is a bigger place than you think.“
“But you have a way to avoid it.“
“Yes. Of course I do, or I wouldn’t be here. But first, I need to know that you understand what I just said. Sind wir uns einig? Are we in agreement?“
“Ja,“ said Tiessler. “Wir sind vollkommen einverstanden. We are in complete agreement.“
Keai watched him for a few seconds. Then, with a quick nod of her head, as if concluding that a deal had been made, she said:
“Shipmistress, you bear witness of our agreement. Aram, I hold you witness as well. This call is recorded on your end, in Berlin, so you have your own copy. Of course, you will keep it secret; my true identity must not be made into a public matter. That would severely limit my options. Part of my solution relies entirely on the fact that almost nobody knows I am here.“
“Almost?“ asked Tiessler.
“You three. And,“ smiled the alien, “my contact on my home world. I think she had a heart attack when I broke my cover. Or…“ she leaned her head on a side, as if listening to something, “…no, she’s still there. She sends her greetings, or surely intends to, as soon as she stops screaming at me.“
“Your contact sounds very human,“ observed Tiessler. “You mentioned heart attacks and entirely human reactions.“
“She was required to adopt human form, in order to facilitate contact with me,“ explained Keai. “That is how we always do these things. But enough about that. I have told you too much already, even to my very liberal standards.“
“Not according to mine,“ said Tiessler.
She smiled again. “Come,“ she said. “Let us talk strategy. Doina was right — half of Aram’s plan is good, but I can improve on the other half.“
XXX.
In the endless field of aliens, another infinitely tall pillar had appeared, and it did not take long until it coagulated the amorphous masses towards it. And then another, and another, as the keepers of the Complex, the ones that the alien fondly baptised Rrapi fondly referred to as “my people“, fought to recover after the cybernetic attack on their transponders.
Because they were the only points of reference in their entire universe — albeit virtual, but to many a much more important universe than the real one (if indeed there was such a thing) — the pillars worked as confluence and meeting points. Urgent diplomatic and commercial deals could not wait on accommodations, and they continued taking place in the open.
Established diplomats had no great trouble recovering their appointments, nor did famous merchants finding their customers again. Auctions, barters and commercial deals re-emerged; financial gamblers haggled — business was back to usual.
A tall, blonde human appeared in the middle of this strange bazaar, looking around apprehensively. A few of the creatures in the immediate neighbourhood took note of his arrival, but none of them paid him much mind. About a second later, a complicated mixture of limbs and joints popped up next to him.
“Blerch,“ muttered Aram. He really did not care for that coffin at all, but he knew that it had to be done. He looked around; yes, the walls appeared to have disappeared.
“I apologise for being so late,“ machine-gunned Rrapi. “I have been trying to locate your friends, but unfortunately our location databases have been corrupted in the attack attempt.“
“Wouldn’t call it an attempt,“ commented the Dacian. “More like a general fuck-up.“
The fact that the alien took an entire tenth of a second before reacting spoke volumes.
“Things are getting better, but I waste precious time staying in slow-down. I shall monitor your back channel, so I shall know if you manage to find them. Your avatar will then act as a beacon.“
“I’ve been called worse things,“ said Aram, but Rrapi was already gone.
— What now? he sent. Do I just go around asking people?
— That’s the best idea we could come up with, came the answer from Jessica Lawry.
At an alert pace, the Dacian walked towards the nearest group of beings. He inspected them with the non-judgemental eye of somebody who had, at some point, been forced to admit that ridiculous little men wearing skirts and feather hats somehow turned out to have the world’s mightiest army. He didn’t care about the shapes and forms that the creatures had. He understood that they came from different worlds, very far away from his own, but so what? Life was full of surprises. If one stopped and gaped like an idiot every time one heard that some new people had just been discovered, one stood to waste a lot of one’s life, and Aram was not about to act like that.
He picked up somebody who might have been an oversized crab made of glass. He touched it, and the wrong part of the crab turned towards him.
“What?“ the crab asked.
“Have you seen two guys who looked like me?“
“And what the hell are you?“
“I’m a Dac… A human. I’m a human.“
“Never heard of your kind.“ And, with that, the glassy crab turned away and returned to its own business, leaving Aram standing with his mouth half open. This isn’t gonna work, he decided. He cleared his throat and yelled:
“Hey! Has anybody seen two humans like me around?“
Many, but not all creatures turned towards him. Some answered; nobody in the affirmative, it seemed. A few looked positively annoyed by the interruption. Aram took the hint, backed off, and picked another small crowd, a few hundred metres away.
He sprinted to it, and arrived quickly. This time he proceeded directly to the yelling, and was rewarded when a long, colour-shifting pancake asked him: “Exactly like you, or approximately like you?“
“A lot more like me than like you,“ answered the Dacian.
“I’m asking because you look a lot faster than them.“
“Thanks. So you’ve seen them?“
Ignoring the question, the pancake asked instead: “Are you one of those species that has sentient races with different LSC?“
“You should see our sheep,“ said Aram. “They even come in different colours. Which way did they go?“
A streak appeared on the pancake, pointing to Aram’s left. He thanked, and took off in that direction.
The next group of aliens confirmed having seen Mark and Zi, and someone else remarked again on the speed difference, which lead Aram to understand that his two friends must have been barely crawling. Just as he was about to leave, he heard an angry voice:
“Hey! Are you idiot a human, too?“
Aram turned slowly. “That depends. Why do you ask?“
“This whole complex has been ruined by the damned humans. Look at it! All our business is ruined. I’d give half my quota for a chance to raid planet Human, if someone told me where it is.“
The other aliens did not need long to catch on. “Is he a human?“ “He looks just like those two.“ “He’s human.“ “Good-for-nothing pests. Should be banned forever!“ “Should have their quotas revoked!“
And so it wasn’t long until one of the creatures employed a more direct approach. It turned towards Aram and, from a star-shaped hole in its middle, it shot a spiked ball that met Aram right in the cheek, then retracted back.
Aram had no time to react. His head went backwards and he nearly lost his balance. Fiery pain exploded in his face, bringing tears to his eyes. Dazzled, he didn’t notice the other two creatures that approached him from behind.
One hit him in the middle, and managed to find a spot right under the ribs that made Aram see entirely new constellations of stars. The other swiped his legs from under him. He fell on his side, trying to protect his head, already out of breath.
— Damn, he mouthed, silently. Help, I guess.
And then suddenly it was dark again.
The good thing was that all pain was gone. The bad thing was that everything else — literally everything — had gone with it. He braced mentally for the wait; the complete lack of anything, the isolation that he really hated, perhaps even more than he hated being beaten by indescribable aliens.
After what seemed like hours and hours, he began to feel again. But instead of finding himself wet and naked on that chair in a laboratory in Berlin, he discovered himself back on the endless field, right next to one of the pillars.
— What the fuck? he sent.
— Aram, listen, said Lawry. We’ve had an idea here. Can you do something for me?
— What?
— Punch yourself.
Aram frowned, contrived.
— Are you serious?
