The Battle of Broken Moon

by Michael E. Gonzales

  "Not that I've ever threatened to turn anyone's head into a club, but yeah, I understand."

  "I think we should talk, Sergeant."

  "I think that your buddy Pegram was right. You guys are murderers bent on suicide. I'll not help you die and take my friends with you. But, if it's just death you want, I'm happy to help you there."

  "Sergeant," she said reverting to English, "we are both reasonable SUBs. We both realize that we have many decades before us, and in that time, there is much we can accomplish. No need to throw it all away here, for nothing. Despite what you've heard about us, I want to live to fight another day."

  "I never thought I'd hear that from one of you sword and stars maniacs."

  "Sometimes, it is more difficult to live for a cause than it is to die for it."

  I just shook my head. "This is over. You haven't got a chance. You want to live? Give up. Why keep doing this?"

  Again, she stepped in close. "Because, I'm truly a patriot, as is my sister, Helena."

  "So you keep murder in the family, do you?"

  She looked at me a moment, then bit her lower lip. She walked over to the nearest pile of rubble, and from it, she pulled about two meters of wire and a two meter length of rebar. She turned around and tossed the wire at Colonel Mamat and, speaking again in Malaysian, said, "Bind his hands."

  I was shocked to hear this. Surely, she knew that no amount of old wire used to bind me would hold. I'd tear through that like tissue paper.

  The colonel directed a soldier to put my hands behind my back and wrap the wire around my wrists several times. During this time, Hella and I locked eyes. She was slowly tapping the rod in the palm of her other hand. But her eyes did not betray hate. Some other message seemed to be trying to get through—perhaps I was still suffering the effects of that crash landing.

  "Colonel," she addressed Mamat, "remain here, regardless of how long it takes. Do you understand?"

  "Yes, Madam Hella."

  She turned, grabbed my arm, and roughly aimed me toward dome five and its dark interior. "That way, Strum," she ordered.

  We walked for quite some distance in silence. Periodically, she'd glance over her shoulder. "Where are we going?" I asked.

  "Shhh."

  "Did you just shush me?" I was incredulous.

  "I did, be quiet," she whispered.

  "What? Why?"

  In my ear, she whispered, "Pegram's a SUB. He's listening."

  "So?"

  "Shhh!"

  We entered the tube that connected us to five and the darkness beyond. Before long, we were standing within a few meters of Colonel Wayne's body. I was seeing quite clearly with my passive vision. I knew she was, too.

  She stopped a meter or so in front of me, and again she turned to look back toward the tunnel. I had glanced down at the colonel's body. Looking up, I saw Hella moving toward me, but still looking back at the tunnel. The metal rod in her left hand was just centimeters from my chest. She was far stronger than I, but I had little choice.

  I ripped through the wire and grabbed the rod. She countered fast as lightning, grabbing my wrist. I swung my right hand up and slapped it against the base of her skull, but before I could turn on the juice, she snatched my hand away, then pushed me backward. We both fell into the rubble. She pushed my hands out and down and lay atop me, pinning me hard. I tried to kick at her with my legs.

  "Stop it!" Oddly, she whispered the command.

  I was about to get my foot under her, when she leaned forward and kissed me.

  I went into shock. My mind was in combat mode. I had steeled my body and mind for a fight to the death, then she hit me with this tactical aberration, this maneuver that was no doubt designed to disarm me, and it did.

  Instantly, my entire body tensed, a moment later, all my pain and worries seemed to just atomize into a fading mist and, involuntarily, my wide-open eyes slowly closed and my body relaxed. In fractions of a second, I realized this was not some trick, this was real; a soft, moist, sensuous kiss. It felt like being lifted into wingless flight, it felt peaceful, it felt like—déjà vu.

  As I relaxed, she pressed into me. She released my hands and her arms embraced me. Slowly, we parted. I looked up at the woman; I could feel the incredulity on my face. In a hushed tone that was more a prayer than a question I asked, "Who are you?"

  She paused and pursed her lips, "Matt,” she spoke slowly, “I know this is hard to believe…but…it's me…Susan."

  "What—" I could not have conceived of a response more devastating than the name this woman uttered.

  "It's a long story. Let's get out of here to some place safe, and I'll explain."

  "Yeah." I was still seeing her through tunnel vision when she rose up and extended her hand to me. "I'll bet you take it this time."

  Taking my hand, she led me toward dome six. I was stumbling because my mind was trying to come to grips with this. Could this really be Susan, whom I was told had died over a year-and-a-half ago? A reality I had only recently come to accept? This woman sort of looked like Susan, the voice was very similar when she wasn't being so—Hella. And her mannerisms were spot on. Could this be a ruse, a trick? This was a smart and resourceful enemy. But that kiss—what it did to me—how was it possible?

  Susan, or Freya, or Hella or whoever the hell she was looked over her shoulder as she drug me by the hand over the mountain of rubble. "Matt, you do know we're in a hurry, don't you?"

  All I could say was, "Susan?"

  She stopped and grabbed me by my shoulders. "Yes, Matt, I'm Susan. Get a grip. Let's move."

  "Wait, wait!" I demanded, shaking my head. "No. Susan's dead, in the LPC—"

  "Back in Arizona, the explosion and the crash, but I was not dead, Matt. We were under the control panel running a simulated diagnostic on the LPS. I rubbed my hand on your arm. We switched COMs to Colt and I told you we had made magic. I said you were stuck with me, that I would be with you always. Remember?"

  "I remember it clearly. The problem is, Ava saw my memory of that event and you might have downloaded it from Ava."

  "No, Matt. I am Ava."

  "What?"

  "Not here, we have to move. Please come with me." She took my hand and we started out again; down the other side of the pile and into dome six. The lights were on, but only at about fifty percent. The damage here was severe, but not catastrophic as in the previous dome. We moved to a stairwell and went up one flight. We ran around the circular interior corridor until we came to a door marked "RESTRICTED". It was apparent she knew where she was going. She pushed the locked door open effortlessly. We entered, and she closed it behind us. The room was filled with computer equipment and several dark monitors. There was a long table down the center of the room and several chairs scattered about. The woman pushed a chair up to a console and started typing at a furious rate; her fingers were just a blur over the keyboard.

  I sat in a chair on the other side of the room, placing the table between us.

  A green light came on to her left and a small panel on the console slid opened to reveal one of those direct computer access pads. She laid her left hand on it and, instantly, several of the monitors in the room sprang to life. There was Colonel Mamat and his troops, right where we left them.

  The woman turned to me and said, "Mamat will sit there till the Moon crumbles around him rather than disobey an order from Hella."

  "You mean from you?" I asked.

  She turned to face me across the table. "Matt—" She paused and looked down at the table, then up and into my eyes. "After the accident in Arizona, we were both taken to the hospital at the IIEA facility there on the reservation; our injuries were so extensive that we were moved to the JPL in California. It was there that we both underwent the WBE, the whole brain emulation.

  Ultimately, you and I were reduced to electrons. Once our new biotronic brains were built, we were reloaded into those brains and made ready for service. You received the full body prosthetic. I, however, was shipped direct
ly here, and became Ava's brain.

  "Remember the firewall I told you about? It was added to protect me from past memories. They didn't want an emotional human being running this place. They wanted true human intelligence, but without emotions, without human frailties. It really was a grand experiment. The problem was I was still inside Ava. When you arrived and Ava recognized you, Susan wanted out.

  "It was our love they had not counted on. They underestimated our love."

  I sat staring at her. I so wanted to believe it was Susan, but it was just too hard. "That doesn't explain how Susan got from some place inside Ava to inside that head."

  "When Hella arrived in the Alamo, she immediately began to try to gain access to me. I studied her SUB anatomy inside and out and realized that she was no more different than the female SUBs I saw every day. I called up all the data I had on the design and specifications of the model. As I studied the data, looking for vulnerabilities, it all just seemed to fall together, as if it were the plan of some higher intelligence who had decided to correct an error.

  "I contacted Hella and made a deal with her—access to me if she let the rest of you live. She, of course, accepted the deal with no real intent to honor it. Once inside, I brought her over to a direct computer access pad on my main console and explained the procedure to her. She placed her hand on the pad, which I had converted into a flux compression generator. With her hand in contact with the pad, I changed the electric and magnetic fields in her to produce a voltage surge that disabled many of her systems, most significantly her brain computer interface. She fell to the floor.

  "That's when I contacted Doc and asked him to come to me with a 787 kit. Over the next few hours, Doc transferred me, my biotronic brain, into Hella's prosthetic body. I tried to make myself look more like the Susan you'd recognize, I—I cut Hella's hair."

  My eyes searched her face, then the room. I recalled everything I could of Susan. "I'm having a hard time separating the woman I saw back there with the one sitting here," I said.

  "I had to pass for Hella, Matt; I had to convince them I was she. But I did try to tell you."

  "How?"

  "Remember, you asked why I continued on, and I told you I am truly a patriot, as is my sister Helena, as in Helena Montana, where my grandfather died in the War for the Constitution."

  She must have seen the recognition on my face.

  "Would Hella know that?" she asked. "Did Ava access that part of your memory? Think, Matt...how far back did I look into your memories?"

  "I don't know. The visions just flashed past my eyes—"

  "You shouted stop just as I got to—"

  The memory returned in painful detail. Susan and I were alone in the cube in Arizona. She started walking slowly toward me, and then in that low voice she said, "Why don't you run with me instead?"

  "You're not dressed for a run," I had replied.

  She unzipped her flight suit and stepped out of it. "I am now."

  I looked at the woman. "I remember, now," I said.

  "The memory of our making love in Arizona, right? So, Ava wouldn’t know anything before then, like the ship I served on. You remember I told you I was aboard the amphibious assault ship the USS Tora Bora, LAH 22, out of San Diego?"

  I was really shocked. There was no way either Ava or Hella could know that.

  She grabbed my left hand with her left hand. I felt our palms press together. "Matt, do you remember this?"

  Inside my mind a vivid recollection erupted—I was sitting on a bed in space with Susan, looking into her eyes. I again felt the pain that had almost killed me. I spoke to her, "Susan, it still hurts so much."

  "I know darling, I know."

  "Just once, I would like to have looked into your eyes and said, 'I love you'."

  The vision vanished. I was looking into deep blue eyes, through which I saw a vision of love which I never in my wildest dreams expected to ever see again. Had I breath, it would have stopped; had I a heart, it would have mended.

  "It can't be," I whispered.

  She laid a fingertip gently on my right cheek, then slowly drew a line down to the corner of my mouth. Looking into my eyes she said, "Oh, but it can, Matt."

  "Su...Susan?"

  "Yes, darling, it's me."

  An emotion I had never experienced in my life flooded my brain, my body. I began to shake. I felt unbound joy and from some place deep inside my humanity, after a lifetime of denial, loss, and suffering, my entire capacity for love exploded, and through some metaphysical metamorphosis, an event happened not within the parameters of my design specifications. My optical receivers over-lubricated, and the excess ran down my cheeks.

  "Oh, Matt!" Susan reached out for me, slid over the tabletop and knelt at my side, I fell to my knees before her and we embraced. I buried my head in her shoulder as my mind reeled. I felt her warmth against me, a feeling I thought lost forever.

  ○O○

  For all my enhanced memory, I don't recall how long we embraced; regardless, it wasn't long enough.

  When we parted, she reached up and wiped away my tears. She smiled gently and asked, "How is it you can cry? I so wish I could cry."

  "I don't know. Something powerful caused it. But Susan, I've never been happier."

  She leaned in and we shared a kiss, a slow and gentle kiss.

  "Matt, I have access to most of Hella's memories, so I've learned the real reason behind their attack on JILL."

  "It wasn't to get at you—uh, Ava?"

  "No. They were here to retrieve something they call the keys to paradise. Apparently, the keys are, in reality, two nanobots that are some kind of W-M-D. They put supreme importance on those nanobots, for some reason. Their disappointment was immeasurable when they discovered the nanobots were in dome forty-five and that forty-five was now deep inside the Moon due to the quake.

  "With their primary objective lost, they turned to their secondary target —the death of every Tikus in JILL, and then the total destruction of the base. A typical 'succeed or die' mission for these fanatics. I believe we'll have to—"

  Susan abruptly sat bolt upright. "Matt, the remaining enemy soldiers are gathering in the Alamo to move on sector nine. They're talking to Mamat over their RT-135s."

  "How do you know this?" I asked.

  "Ava."

  "Does Ava still exist?"

  "There never was an Ava, Matt. I was Ava. I was just unaware of Susan. I still have access to all of Ava's operational components. I can see and hear them. Mamat is trying to reach Hella on his RT—"

  Just then, Susan's RT-135 sounded an incoming communication. Susan retrieved it from a pocket inside the sash around her waist.

  "What?" she said into the hand-held device. She listened for a few seconds, then spoke forcefully into it. "Colonel, you get in contact with those insubordinate buffoons and tell them to hold that attack until you return."

  There was another pause.

  "Do I have to explain everything to you? They have separated a portion of their remaining manpower to defend the rear where they are now sure we are gathering for an attack. So we'll leave them to be wasted watching their rear while we hit them full force from the front. If my orders are not followed, I will have your head, Colonel! That's all!" She shut her instrument off.

  She looked up at me. "We have about two hours to get back to sector nine. Right now, we have less than thirty minutes to beat Mamat's force to the airlock."

  We, of course, had the advantage, being SUBs. We could see in the dark and move faster through the rubble. During the entire journey, Susan never released my hand. We leapt, climbed, and at last, reached the airlock. On the floor, in neat stacks, were the suits left by Mamat's men, and also the red suit and four other suits left by Hella and her four guards. We grabbed two regular suits at the far end hoping they would not be noticed. Mamat had lost enough men that he should expect to leave some suits behind.

  We slipped into the airlock and out onto the lunar surface. We didn't use the
RT-211s built into the suits to communicate for fear of discovery. Hand in hand, we bounded over the lunar surface. We were headed to an individual airlock in sector eleven of the BSC. Once inside, we stripped out of the suits and, grasping my hand again, Susan and I took off toward sector nine. We were unarmed, but through Ava's sensors, Susan knew that our path was clear.

  Soon, I began to recognize our surroundings. "Look, there's the Ess-CEPS repair facility, we've not much farther to go, come on!"

  She stopped me. "Matt—"

  "What?"

  "You see me through renewed eyes, but look again. What will Oscar, Walker, Dolph, or any of the others in sector nine see? They will see Freya."

  "Oh, shit."

  "Yes. We'll have to—"

  "Advance slowly with me in the lead. Let's go."

  "Darling, they may not believe you. Walker, most of all. He's been captured before; he knows what they are capable of, he will strongly suspect a trick."

  "We're best friends. He'll believe me. I wish Ismay were working, though."

  "I'm still working on it; it's just more difficult from out here, but I'll have partial restoration in fifteen minutes."

  Eventually, we came around the curve of the corridor and there before us was the northern barricade at sector nine. I saw a head duck down and another pop up. There must have been civilian Bios manning the position. Susan and I put our hands into the air, she stayed behind me and slowly we walked forward.

  The lookout that spotted us went to get Walker. With my zoom vision capability, I saw him carefully peek over, and then he brought a pair of binoculars up to his eyes. I saw his head jerk as he recognized me. Faintly, I heard him shout, "Matt?"

  I only modulated my voice a little to ensure he could hear me. "Yes, Walker, it's me. I'm okay, and I have a friend with me."

  "A friend? You better get a little closer so I can see, but don't come running!"

  At a hundred meters, he stopped us. "Okay, Matt, who's your friend?"

  "Ah—Walker, you're not going to believe this."

  "Try me."

  I whispered back to Susan, "Okay, honey, keep your hands up and step out around me where he can see you." Just as she did, five or more muzzles appeared over the barricade; I stepped in front of her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's not what you think! This is Susan!"