The Sixth Line of Defense

by Shiva Winters

  * * *

  "That is such a perfect nickname." Alex chuckled with a high level amusement from somewhere nearby in the shuttle's cabin. Shiva's mind stirred at the sounds as she began to feel just the slightest tug from the moon's gravity on her senses. "Give her fuzzy ears and a tail and she would be almost exactly like a kitten." He added to a chorus a bright happy laughter.

  "I resent that." Shiva hissed to them even as she snuggled just a bit deeper into Rei's gentle embrace.

  "No, sweety, you resemble that." Rei chuckled back down to her as she rocked Shiva just a little in her arms. "We aren't quite there yet, if you want to go back to sleep." Shiva considered it for some time before shaking her head just a little.

  "Where's Vala?" She asked as she decided to wake up officially.

  "In the cockpit with Kali getting her first piloting lesson." Rei told her with a touch of pride.

  "Ah! What am I going to do for Valentine's day now.." Shiva complained playfully.

  "I'm sure you'll think of something." Rei giggled back down to her and then sighed happily. "If there are others like you sweety waiting to meet us, I find myself truly looking forward to our arrival, despite the circumstances." She stated thoughtfully surprising Shiva just a little to hear the return of happiness to the older woman's voice.

  "I don't know who is awake.." She murmured for a lack of any other words.

  "We'll find out soon enough, we are already on approach." Kali announced through the open doorway. Shiva kissed Rei's cheek and was released to float free, her feet touched the ground in the next moment and she was standing as if there was gravity just for her, only the fact that her hair was left to float free in a shimmering violet halo revealed it to be some kind of trick.

  "Show off." Alex teased with a hearty chuckle.

  "Has been from the time of our first meeting, she reduced a dozen or more high caliber weapons like that.." Rei told him snapping her fingers.

  "You've gotten better then.." Kali commented a touch suspiciously.

  "Yes." Shiva murmured back with a heavy tone.

  "There are those overloaded words again." Rei teased in high spirits.

  "I try not to scare people unnecessarily." Shiva murmured only half in jest as the shuttle began to tremble with the entry into the moon's gravity. She remained standing even as Rei found her body once again braced against the bumps and protected by the minor G-forces that would follow.

  "You going to take a seat?" Alex murmured to her.

  "Rei and I will be fine just like this." Shiva stated in return.

  "If I had slept as long as she had, I'd probably want to stand up to." Rei commented to them.

  "It seems like most telekinetics sleep through most space flights, the theory goes that they can sense and interact with gravity fields, and that the absence of one bombards them with the need to sleep." Kali commented back to them. Shiva wasn't really paying attention at that point as she stared out the windows as the quickly rising mass of gray stone craters and fields of dust loomed up to fill the windows. Not entirely sure what she should feel about this 'homecoming' her thoughts were already thinking ahead towards the time when she would travel in the other direction on the same trip.

  "I keep asking myself what she could possibly want out of the vault, and then I find myself asking if I really want to know." Shiva smiled wickedly at Kali's comments and gave no answers. Landing was a simple matter and another slow halting ride through a series of armored gates and airlocks before they emerged into the shadowy darkness of the main hanger bay. Almost on par with the size difference between a thopter and a shuttle craft, it was a massive space even when compared to the hanger bays at Jarson. More than a mile wide at it's thickest point and more than three miles long, the ceiling lofted overhead just under 1,000 feet at the peak of the domed space. There were more six landing elevators scattered across the surface above their heads and three catapults evenly spaced throughout the chamber. It could fit 60 or more of the super-sized shuttle crafts inside with all the equipment and tools needed to repair any problem, or perhaps build one from scratch. For Shiva it was almost a nostalgic scene remembering the days when it was a space always filled with activity and bristling with noise that seemed to echo on forever. Though they had never technically been allowed to enter that place, for Shiva it had been something of a sanctuary.

  As the elevator drew to a halt she was stepping over to unseal the airlock even as a set of stairs were moved automatically into place to aid in their descent from the shuttle. When she emerged out into the slightly stale air and felt the dusty sense that lingered in the area and it filled with an unbroken, unending silence that only added to the strangeness of that changed scene. The lights were in low power mood and the entire place was cast in an eerie half light that failed to illustrate sheer scope of that massive underground landscape. Shiva's eyes wandered up to the far off ceiling and the tritanium honey comb of rafters and beams that were meant to keep the ceiling from caving in, it was strange to think that it had only been just three years in her own personal history and more than seven decades ago when she had spent hours on end in that place above their heads, dreaming of the day when she would escape that underground prison and get to see the world outside. And now after a time far too short and so long ago she had come fleeing from that very freedom she had so desperately wanted to a place she could almost think of as sanctuary when back then it was nothing more than her prison.

  "You used to call this your playground, didn't you?" Kali asked in barely a whisper as she stepped out behind her and rubbed her shoulders tenderly.

  "They couldn't find me way up there.. I couldn't escape.. but I could get away.." Shiva whispered back to her. ".. for a little while." Kali made an understanding noise as the two of them stood there at the edges of that silence looking out over the silent graveyard of machines and metal on the cusp of the place that had sat quietly unchanged and altered so very much.

  "Reminiscing?" Vala asked gently as she joined them at the top of the stairs.

  "Something like that." Shiva whispered back to her. It was the sound of shoes on metal plating that redirected their attentions as an aged and sour looking woman came rushing up onto the elevator platform to race towards the steps leading down from the shuttle.

  "Thank heavens you two are all right!!" She called out as she spotted Kali standing there. Shiva took Vala's hand to move downward as Rei and the others began to move towards the door.

  "They didn't stand a chance, Gina." Alexander told the old woman with an exaggerated sigh that showed his long suffering under the 'care' of this person. Shiva and Vala had almost reached the bottom when the old woman blocked the path to bottom with some of her bulk.

  "And who are you?" She demanded in the clear opinion that she had every right to know as she eyed Shiva and Vala with an air of disdain.

  "Dangerous when confronted." Shiva growled back at her with a dark steely glare, the old woman clearly got the idea that it was not such a good idea to stand so close and quickly moved back. Vala giggled over at Shiva as they two of them reached the bottom of the stairs and moved just a little distance away to again stare off into the distance.

  "We picked up some guests." Kali stated as she too reached the bottom of the steps just of ahead of Rei and Alex. "What time is it here?"

  "2:30 pm, Sunday." The woman murmured watching Shiva with great concern.

  "That means everyone will be up in the west garden or scattered in the recreation areas, sectors 5 and 6, west quadrant." Kali told Shiva no doubt aware that Shiva might just need a little time alone to mentally prepare herself. "We'll bring Rei along at a normal pace."

  "Don't worry about me Vala, make sure Shiva gets some exercise before she starts bouncing off the walls." Rei called out as if she was of the same opinion.

  "Shiva.." Gina was surprised and more than a little afraid at hearing that. Vala giggled as she was quic
k to agree to her marching order before she shifted around Shiva's back having a good idea of what Shiva might be planning. Once Vala was settled firmly in place riding piggy back, Shiva launched away in a high arching telekinetic jump that would quickly take them far down range and out of sight from any watching eyes. The moon's lighter gravity made Shiva's abilities that much more potent and unlike the rest of the laboratories and tunnels below, gravity plating was not used to augment the lunar gravity up in the hanger bays. Shiva's second jump further propelled them towards the halfway point of the long chamber and the massive machinery used to repair and maintain broken shuttled craft. The mass of heavy steel cables and the dense mass of the boom crane dangling down from the ceiling high above provided them with the path away from the hanger floor up towards the spaces above. Vala had been pleased by the ride until that moment when they left the floor far behind and began to telekinetically ricochet up between the different cable stays and ascended into the darkness above.

  "Wow.." Vala murmured as they reached the tangle mass of rafters, supports and cross connected beams that connected the framework needed to support the vaulted space and the weight of the stone above.

  "There isn't a guard in the world who is going to try chasing a little girl way up here." Shiva told her with a mischievous laugh as they shifted once more into motion bouncing through those rafters like squirrels through the branches of metal tree. Shiva had a specific destination in mind and like a homing pigeon coming into rest after a long flight they soon landed in the shadowed stone chamber tucked away in that hard to reach area. Perhaps a remnant of the first construction efforts of Anslaw, the tiny chamber had probably been long forgotten even before the shutdown. The mysterious pieces of equipment hummed as they had always done serving some unknown purpose that would not be noticed until one of them finally broken down.

  "Your club house?" Vala asked with a giggle as Shiva settled her on her feet, Shiva smiled back to her as she moved to draw a dust covered box out from the shadows that had kept it hidden there for a very long time. From it she extracted a duffel bag wrought from discarded pieces of uniforms and stitched together with a stolen needle and a bit of thread. Almost amazed that it was still there after so much time, Shiva wormed her arm down into the bottom of the bag and found the four heavy metal objects by feel. The strange creations she extracted from it were each centered around a large blue stone with a crazed interior like that of an opal. Each piece was bound together by a dull silver like metal and had four long flexible arms extending outward from the center. "Jewelry?" Vala asked attracted by the gem stones, but uncertain of their purpose.

  "An experiment." Shiva whispered back to her as she spread out the four pieces in an arc in front of her, letting them hover there as they glowed mildly in shadowed light. All more or less equal in size there were two pairs of two similar designs. Shiva set the pack to the side for just a moment and drew the sleeves of her shirt up to expose her forearms. "We would would have to get into a range above 50 tons before I have to strain to 'throw my weight' around." Shiva whispered to her as she extended her arms out in front of her and over top of the floating pieces. "So weight isn't really an issue, but range is.. more than 800 hundred feet away and my influence weakens to the point where I couldn't lift up a small screw without straining. However were that screw made of the right metals.." The arms of two of the pieces snapped open like the jaws of a creature about to attack. "I could launch it even further than that without any problem. It was something I noticed when they first began to evaluate my destructive potential.. some things were easier to move over long ranges than others." She turned over her arms and the devices snapped around her forearms a few inches below her elbows. She then turned her arms over so that large blue gems were face up as the other pair snapped open in a similar manner. "When I finally wasn't a lab rat any more and started doing my own research I tried to figure out why." The other parts snapped in and around the top halves circling her arms with interwoven metal arms and four large blue crystals. "What I learned is basically this, different materials react differently when they are under the influence of a telekinetic, a kind of resonance that makes them easier or harder to manipulate because of weight or range from the person trying influence them. Kind of like if I were to lift you up by the throat instead of the legs." Vala nodded thoughtfully at that though she clearly would have preferred if someone else were the example. "Given the right materials I can double the range or double the weight limit of my influence. These.. were an escape plan and one of the last few things I invented. The two halves are something like a telekinetic tether, the gems are actually a form of metal, the arms are something similar that can be moved and manipulated at will, the two halves resonate with each other amplifying my influence, magnifying the force I can apply at close range, and extending the range over which I can use them by.. three maybe four times more. So I could use one to lift 200 tons or reach a target 2,500 feet away."

  "And your escape plan?" Vala asked with a smile as Shiva fixed her sleeves retrieved the bag and maneuvered her girlfriend back into position for their departure for the ground far below and more habitable parts of the labs beyond.

  "Use one to catch the bottom of an elevator carrying a departing shuttle craft, dangling my way through the airlocks, and using a stolen oxygen mask take over the shuttle in mid flight." Shiva murmured before she dropped them out of the chamber and fell towards the ground far below. Within a few minutes they had reached a far distant point of the hanger bay and were slipping into the much cleaner air of a transport tube. Even though it looked like a normal elevator, the transports were able to move vertically and horizontally through the facility through a vast network of cross-connected tunnels that could reach the far distant points of the massive facility at speeds much greater than any living creature could run or fly over the same distance.

  Whether Anslaw had been purpose built for the Series 6 projects or simply given over to that mission after it was completed, had been a matter of quite a bit of speculation among the children during those years when all of them had been awake and the place had been teaming with a mixture of scientists, security forces, support staff, and experimental subjects. Shiva had always been of the latter opinion, even at the peak of activity when there rarely seemed to be anywhere one could be alone for even a few hours, there had always been a sense of emptiness out beyond the places where they weren't supposed to go. Built on a massive scale more than equal to the empty hanger bays, Anslaw spread out for miles in every direction and extended down into the stone beneath them for more than 70 levels. This seemed best demonstrated by the fact that there were two other shuttle bays, though both smaller than the one they had left behind they were nevertheless quite large. Even with the speed of the transport system it was still a ten minute transition between the bay and the corridors that Kali had specified. Whatever its' original intent had been, it felt even more intensely empty and hollow when the doors opened to the sound of distant conversation than it had ever been in those long ago days.

  "Get side-tracked?" Kali teased as she moved to intercept them, clearly trying to get them to admit being naughty. Shiva made a face at her as she moved along half leaned into Vala's side and unslung the bag that had been carried away from its' long time hiding place. Kali was surprised and confused when it was held out towards her and was forced to take it before she peered inside it a bit doubtfully. A second later she gasped as her eyes grew a little misty as she extracted the remaining protected contents of the bag. "Angie.." She whispered in a choked voice. A present from one of good people who had tried to make their lives tolerable, the stuffed doll had been one of the very few precious things that Kali had ever owned. When the toy had been noticed by one of the dictatorial doctors who seemed intent on torturing some of them, Angie had been sent into hiding before she could be destroyed. Kali would never have needed any more words to express her intense and silent gratitude as she crosse
d the remaining distance to hug the air out of Shiva's lungs and just as quickly retreated from the public eye to insure Angie would remain safe and so that Kali herself could get herself back under control. Vala seemed very much touched by the scene as she hugged Shiva just a little more tightly before giving her an intense passionate kiss that left the younger girl reeling as she was drawn across the remaining distance towards the sounds of voices.

  "SHIVA!!" Her name burst from several throats all at once, startling her by the sudden happy reception. Faces she had not seen in a very long time swarmed towards the two of them as Shiva struggled to put names to all those half remembered people. For Vala it was perhaps just a little more overwhelming as she was suddenly assaulted by personal questions and surrounded by an onslaught of curious touches and looks. Shiva was not left unmolested as many dozens of her siblings homed in on her all intent on interrogating her about the world outside. All might have been lost then and there if someone with a bit more age and authority than many of the still little ones didn't choose to intervene on their behalf.

  "All right, leave her be.. she isn't going to disappear right away." Ayla called them to order and sent them shuffling away with a look as her presence drifted in behind her and Vala.

  "Hello, Ayla." Shiva murmured calmly even as a small smile curved her lips.

  "Hello, Shiva." Ayla greeted with the same dry tones twinged with a small bit of amusement. Vala turned to look at her with an intense kind of interest perhaps attracted by some sense of the overwhelming gift pouring out of the slightly older girl. "And hello there, Vala, welcome to Anslaw. I've always said someone special would some day capture Shiva's heart, I am glad to see I was right." She added much to Vala's shocked surprise.

  "It's considered inconsiderate to spy.." Shiva stated calmly as Vala's hand clutched at hers.

  "I know, but in my case you know its' not always by choice." Ayla replied calmly.

  "Liar, we all know that you are a voyeur." Shiva teased as her mischievous smile drifted up to her face. Vala laughed at this little scene as she relaxed all at once and spun Shiva around and back into her arms so that they were both facing the older girl.

  "I'm a telempath, like your friend Kate, only on a much higher scale." Ayla told Vala at her unspoken question. "And before you ask, Shiva is one of the few people I can't hear most of the time.. her and her daughters that is." Shiva gave Ayla a piercing look and she smiled under that gaze before giving a subtle nod of her head in the right direction. Shiva's turned her gaze just in time to find two figures standing near Rei and a few others as a hole opened up in the swirling crowd.

  "Daughters?" Vala asked in a bare whisper of sound as if she was half fearing something terrible had happened to Shiva's younger self and deeply confused by the possible meanings of those words. Shiva lost sight of them as the hole closed up and decided to wait a moment or two. only too aware that mischief ran deep in their blood.

  "Direct genetic descendants, some might be tempted to call them clones. I guess if you create a really good weapon, eventually you try to improve upon it." Ayla told her softly, Vala relaxed with an small laugh as she hugged Shiva a bit closer.

  "We are a lot like Shiva." Athena stated as first one than the other appeared circling around Vala's back and into view with perfectly timed moments, and right on cue to surprise Vala with their arrival.

  "Yes we are." Isis concurred right on her sister's cue. If Shiva had ever been given access to hair dyes in those long ago days, she could have been a doppelganger to either of them were she 6 or 7 years younger. Their faces, their bodies, the way they moved, and the way talked were exactly as Shiva had been in her younger days. Only in a few small but glaring ways were they any different, perhaps a simple quirk of genetics, a side effect of the slight alterations in the DNA, or by sinister design to insure they could be told apart, all three of them had different hair and eye coloring. Shiva's hair was lilac purple and her eyes were silver, Athena's hair was dark purple and her eyes very nearly ruby red, and Isis's hair was pure snowy white and her eyes were an intense green. All the other differences were beneath the surface and more or less contained inside their heads. "But we are also different."

  "Yes we are." Athena agreed before the two of them giggled in unison. The unseen differences were about the gifts programmed into their genetic code. While Shiva wasn't much more than a telekinetic the girls had an expanded bag of tricks, and that had perhaps influenced the two of them in their development of their personalities and making all three of them different as long as the two of them weren't playing their games. Athena was also a strong telepath and seemed to inherit the temper Shiva had, but Isis had been blessed by avoiding. Isis was exceptionally gifted with geo-sensing, the ability to detect differences in environment and sometimes in people's bodies, but had a gentle spirit that neither Shiva or Athena had gained without a great deal of hard work.

  "Don't mind them, Vala." Ayla told her as Vala's gaze flip-flopped between the two characters who were both so very alike and so very different than the girl already in her arms. "Since they don't quite live up to the original they try to make up for it by being excessively cute and mildly annoying." The two of them turned as one and stuck out two tongues at one target in a near mirror image of the other.

  "You can really tell that these three are related." Vala giggled at the two of them. Shiva spun in her arms and the twins spun on her and Vala was the recipient of three raspberries, which only made her laugh harder. With a sigh Shiva shifted just a bit away from her as she scooped up Isis and settled the girl who was now even younger than her on her hip.

  "How long have you two been awake?" Shiva asked her as Isis curled up against the side of her neck.

  "Couple of months.." Came the sleepy sounding reply.

  "And we are bored!!" Athena hissed sounding annoyed and testy as she leaned back in Ayla's arms.

  "You were the one with all the experience in research." Isis murmured with a sigh.

  "Do you two know what the other one is thinking?" Vala asked them, Isis gave her a murmured sound of agreement.

  "What the other is feeling too.." Athena agreed relaxing enough to smile at Vala.

  "It allows them a unique capacity for coordinated telekinetic movements." Shiva stated on their behalf as she brushed Isis's hair away from her face tenderly.

  "If we had the same level of combat training as Shiva, we would probably be on the top of the list." Isis stated with an annoyed sigh even as she gave Shiva a pleading look.

  "List?" Vala asked her even Shiva's amused expression became less so.

  "Word travels fast around here." Ayla told her with a soft but sad kind of smile. "And despite the risks, a lot of us would do just about anything to get a peek at the outside world."

  "Tanya says we are too young." Athena growled.

  "Tell Tanya that she may be old enough, but at least you two wouldn't be completely useless." Shiva commented with annoyed sound. Wondering if she could spot the source of this 'list' from the crowd around them and then beat that person back into a few more years in stasis. Ayla touched Shiva's shoulder gently as if she had been able to catch that angry thought, even as Vala tried to comfort her by caressing her hair. "Anyways, whomever made up this 'list' better keep me from finding out it was them, because quite frankly his or her opinion is a clear sign that they don't have enough brain cells to fill in the space between their ears."

  "Someone's a little testy.." Vala commented half with amusement and half as a warning.

  "Low blood sugar." Isis murmured over to her. "Athena gets like that all the time."

  "Do not!!" Athena automatically denied her sister's accusation.

  "See." Isis giggled back.

  "Come on Vala, we should get these three fed before they start tearing up the place." Ayla stated with a warm chuckle, Vala nodded and scooped up Athena so both of the could follow the older girl past the crowds and towards the neare
st kitchen. "Don't worry.. you'll get used to all of us soon." Ayla stated looking back at Vala and addressing her unvoiced concern.

  "Sorry.. it's just.. all of you are so amazing." Vala murmured as she let herself relax. A short time later food had been pizza had been prepared in a swirl of telekinetically propelled utensils and ingredients and the five of them were starting to settle down in the little piece of quiet set away from the main centers of activity.

  "So were you going to share?" Ayla half demanded of Shiva with a playful smile.

  "Share what?" Shiva murmured back choosing to be difficult.

  "We want to know about Earth!" Isis declared indignantly. Shiva playfully growled at her before she reluctantly nodded to Ayla.

  "Just be careful in there." She murmured as Ayla came over to cup her cheeks and Shiva struggled to pry open her telepathic barrier. Since so many of them were at least marginally telepathic and had mostly the same level of mental abilities, it had been only a small leap before they had begun to share knowledge and memories between them, allowing all of them to build up a collective knowledge base. Later when things had become more full, they had also learned to transfer their knowledge of gifts along to the others who shared those abilities, decreasing the danger to everyone and insuring that none of their younger siblings could hurt themselves trying something dangerous. This is what Shiva shared with Ayla, since she was a very strong telepath she could share some of Shiva's memories with all of those awake, pass on some of the new skills to other telekinetics, and otherwise helping with research projects that would keep Anslaw running and all of them fed.

  In exchange Ayla shared new information about the home Shiva had been taken away from. As Alex had already told them on the ride there, Anslaw had been sitting empty and silent until about the time Shiva was in front of the board inquiry that would soon consign her to a succession of bad events. While Kali had been woken up early on in the reclamation efforts, Ayla and a few of the other older teenagers had been woken up after the budget cuts and the grant. They had been some of the first to work on creating products for the consumer markets and large scale industry and military applications to start a flow of money inward that would indeed maintain Anslaw, but more with the aim of insuring there would be food to eat and air to breath as more children were woken up as time and resources would allow. There were only 196 of their number awake while the rest were lingering in stasis, while that might change with one super profitable idea. They were moving slowly towards the goal of getting all of mature subjects awake, with 'Mature' being the operative word. Even though there had been at one point been nearly 9,000 of them awake and active, there were perhaps millions of modified eggs that were never incubated. People were being woken up by ones and twos every couple of months with another more fair 'list' being accumulated by the votes of those awake. In truth seeing all of them safe, sound, and free of being lab rats, Shiva almost wished that hadn't been the one dragged off to Earth, so that she could possibly have spent the previous two years secure with her extended 'family'. But all it took was long look at Vala to make that thought be thrown away and burned, no matter what else had happened.