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Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 2 | Mari Moonrazor adjusted her ocular implants to simulate normal human eyesight as she gazed over the forest of evergreens toward the rising sun. Pinks and oranges burnished the blue sky, the sight gorgeous and still novel to someone who'd spent most of her life on spaceships and habitats. She couldn't, however, help but wonder if she was truly seeing the sky as unaltered humans would. Her mother had surgically installed numerous chips and cybernetic implants in her before she'd been a year old, and Mari couldn't remember what it was like to be fully human.
As she watched the sky slowly change colors, an increasingly familiar sense of hiraeth crept over her. Why did she keep coming up to this clifftop to look at the sunrises when they kept stirring up emotions that could only get her in trouble? Emotions that prompted her to take action. To leave.
With her mother's plans to assemble an ancient wormhole gate and lead their people to another system recently thwarted, Mari's life's work seemed insignificant. What need did the astroshamans have for a terraforming scientist, or the technology she made, now that they were hunkered in an underground base on a planet that already had the rich atmosphere, soils, and climates of Old Earth?
Behind her, heavy feet crunched through the foliage on the clifftop. Her augmented hearing had no trouble picking up the noise over the hum of the generator that kept a camouflaging shield over their base to hide it from the network of satellites that orbited Odin. It was her mother's crusher, a huge tarry-black combat robot that could liquefy and re-form into any shape. Its approach had to mean that her mother was also coming.
Concern stirred in Mari's gut, though she wasn't doing anything wrong. Not yet. Surely, even beings who longed to integrate themselves with machines, if not eventually give up their biological bodies entirely, could appreciate the aesthetical appeal of a sunrise.
"It is not the worst view one could have for a secret base," her mother said, stepping around the crusher and up to the edge of the cliff to join her. Her short white hair stuck up in all directions, as if she'd just roused from bed, though it always looked like that, and implants made her eyes appear the same whitish-blue as Mari's. Her skin was bronze, a few shades darker than Mari's, who had the coloring and slim build of the father she couldn't remember, a father long gone. "I should know. I've spent much of the last twenty years hiding in one place or another."
"It's an improvement over the ice base on Xolas Moon," Mari said, "but can we truly consider it secret? The land was a gift, right? At least one person in the Star Kingdom government knows we're here."
"It was not a gift but a prize acquired through negotiations. And it is only temporary, until we can build a gate from scratch with the data we gathered—" her mother waved to the ground, indicating the complex engineering project their people had started in the freshly excavated base built under the cliff, "—and resume our quest to travel beyond the Twelve Systems and find a new home, one not impinged upon by humanity's spread. A place where we will not be judged for seeking the next logical evolution."
Mari didn't point out that astroshamans were as apt to judge normal humans as vice versa. "When? Shall I continue my research?"
"Of course. Our allies in System Geryon are manufacturing an automated ship that will take our finished gate to the new system we've chosen, install it, and link it to the existing network, so we can quickly travel there ourselves. If you've completed work on your prototype terraformer, we can build more of them and send them along on the ship to create a world suitable for biological matter. Since our people have not yet been able to agree collectively to give up our original forms—" Mother waved at her mostly human body, "—for entirely machine-based bodies, that will be necessary."
Mari grimaced. She hadn't yet told her mother that she'd lost the terraforming device. It had been in her lab on the Celestial Dart, one of the spaceships that had battled the Kingdom Fleet in their Arctic Islands and crashed. She'd had instructions to grab everything valuable before transferring to a transport vessel that wouldn't go into combat, but there had been too much to take and not much time. She'd forgotten her prototype.
"Do you think it's necessary for us to leave now that the Kingdom is under more progressive rule?" Mari asked to change the subject. "Perhaps we could stay here and be..."
"What? Welcomed with open arms?" Mother snorted.
Mari knew that was unlikely, but she couldn't help but think of the list she'd made on her eighteenth birthday. The Human List.
It was full of things she had never experienced and only read about in books, things that were frowned upon in the astroshaman community because they appealed to "base human emotions." Drinking caffeinated and alcoholic substances, air-bike racing, hang-gliding, kissing, having sex, eating chocolate, even walking barefoot on a beach with sand squishing between her toes. They were all things she was curious about but had never been permitted to do.
"Even if we hadn't gone along with high shamans Chatelain and Cometrunner," Mother continued, "and attacked this world, the Kingdom never would have accepted us. They never did before. Even those in progressive systems call us freaks and weirdos, always making it clear that we do not belong. If you doubt that, all you have to do is go out among them and walk in their streets with your implants visible."
"Can I?" Mari smiled to make it a joke, but that sense of longing returned. Her mother had never given her or her siblings the opportunity to go out among normal humans. But it would be easy now that they were living on this world. Even though she couldn't see the distant capital of Zamek City, not even with the binocular setting on her implants, she knew it was there, a mere two hundred miles to the east. Mari envisioned Glasnax-windowed skyscrapers glinting pink in the rising sun.
"No." Her mother turned a horrified expression on her. "Especially not now. They're still repairing their cities from the bombings. They would kill you on sight."
That would be unfair. Mari hadn't had anything to do with the bombings, nor would she threaten any humans if she went among them. All she wanted was to experience the items on her Human List.
"Give up such notions," her mother said, as if reading her mind, "and focus on perfecting the terraformer so we can make more of them."
It struck Mari that if she confessed to having lost it, she might have the excuse to leave. If their lost ships hadn't been salvaged, someone could fly up and retrieve the device. She could volunteer. Oh, the frigid Arctic Islands weren't anything she longed to see, but while she was out, maybe she could also visit one of the cities on the mainland. Since her people had few working transport devices, maybe she would even need to go to a city first to acquire a small craft to fly up there.
"I should have told you earlier," Mari said, "the prototype was on the Celestial Dart."
Her mother grimaced. "You didn't take it with you when we left?"
"There wasn't much time, and I didn't even think of it. I left it in a cabinet in my lab."
Her mother radiated displeasure.
"I hadn't truly believed our ships would be defeated."
"They shouldn't have been," her mother growled. "If I had been in charge, I wouldn't have underestimated Casmir Dabrowski and his pesky clone."
"Perhaps I could go up to the crash site and see if the terraformer survived. I had it tucked away in an insulated box."
Her mother squinted at her. A suspicious squint?
Mari raised her eyebrows, turning her expression into what she hoped looked like a desire to be helpful, not a scheme to escape.
"It would be easy to find it," Mari added. "I know you prompted the other ships to self-destruct when you and the survivors fled, so that the Kingdom wouldn't get our technology, but I found the Celestial Dart on their satellite imagery."
"It was also supposed to self-destruct, but the program failed, or the equipment was too damaged by the crash. The rest of us were too injured and concerned about surviving and escaping to go back to finish the job. By then, their troops were crawling all over those mountains."
"The terraformer was locked in a cabinet. Scavengers might not have found it. I can—"
"No. It is too dangerous. They have a military outpost near the crash site, and unscrupulous salvagers are likely still fighting over the pieces." Her mother's mouth twisted in distaste. "I assume you have the schematics. You can build it again."
"The raw materials—"
"Make a list. I'll find a way to acquire whatever you need."
"But Mother. Shouldn't we at least check?"
"It's too dangerous," her mother repeated, her voice hard. "You may not go."
Mari clenched her jaw. She was twenty-four. Had she been a normal human born into a human household on almost any planet or habitat in the Twelve Systems, she would have been considered an adult, free to make her own decisions. Free to go where she wished.
"It is for your own good, Mari," her mother said, her voice softer. "They would see you as a spy if not a saboteur, and they would kill you. If I thought you merely wanted to sneak in and out of the crash site without being seen, perhaps I would say yes, but I believe you want more than that. As you've admitted before, you want to walk among them, a scientist experiencing the culture and curiosities of the indigenous people."
Mari's cheeks warmed, and she looked out upon the forest instead of meeting her mother's gaze. She shouldn't have been so frank about her desires in the past.
"Perhaps they would not kill us," Mari said. "Perhaps one could prove that one had no ill intent and might be permitted to explore their world."
Just proving she didn't have ill intent might not be enough. What if she was willing to share her knowledge about terraforming with the Kingdom? Her prototype was far more advanced and faster working than the equipment they used. If she could find it and show it to them, maybe they would want to hire her. Or even grant her asylum.
"Just because Minister Dabrowski is willing to turn enemies into allies doesn't mean the rest of them will see us as anything but threats to be destroyed. He is not in charge of their people. The very fact that we must remain hidden—" Mother pointed upward toward the camouflaging shield over the base, though it was only visible when Mari shifted the setting of her implants to detect energy instead of light waves, "—is a testament to that. Their military would destroy us if they knew we were here. You will stay here in hiding, as we all will, until it's time to leave the Twelve Systems forever."
Mother glanced toward the rising sun, then turned her back on it and headed to the tunnel that led into their base. A temporary base on a temporary planet.
Forever. The word haunted Mari. If she didn't go out soon and experience humanity and what it was like to be one of them... she would never get a chance.
For her entire life, she'd obeyed her mother and the elders. But as she looked toward the rising sun, she decided she'd had enough. She would take her chances and trust she could keep herself alive among potential enemies. It was time to leave her people.
"I never thought I would rob a greenhouse."
"These buildings are experimental seed and plant germination centers," K-45 said in his robotic voice.
"I never thought I would rob a germination center."
"Are you having misgivings about this mission?"
"You might say that." Kenji Chisaka—who went by Kenji Backer, in the vain hope that neither the Kingdom Guard nor Zamek City Police would find out he was the son of a terrorist—pushed his hands through his hair hard enough to dislodge strands. "When we were robbing from the corrupt nobility, who are hell-bent on keeping commoners enslaved in a backward system, it seemed right and just. But these are Queen Oku's greenhouses, and she's in charge now. By all accounts, she's a progressive academic who remembers the names of the little people, and she's dating a commoner."
Kenji didn't want to rob anyone at all. For the last eight years, he'd been doing honest work, whatever jobs he could find without being chipped and in the system. Just when he'd eked together enough physical currency to bribe a spaceship captain to take him out of the Kingdom so he could start a new life, not one but two invading forces had come to Odin. They'd dropped bombs all over the planet, including onto the apartment building where he'd been squatting in the basement. He'd lost all of his meager belongings; he'd almost lost his life.
"Minister of External Affairs Casmir Dabrowski was cloned from the legendary war hero Admiral Mikita," Kay said, "and, in the aftermath of King Jager's death, was awarded a position in the nobility."
"Yeah, but he was born a commoner and raised in an apartment in the Brodskiburg District. That's as common as it gets."
"I was born in Refuse Collection Bin Thirty-Seven," Kay said, "but I am uncommon."
"That is true. I used to take classes from Minister Dabrowski. He was Professor Dabrowski back then."
"You were accepted into an institute of higher learning?" Why did his robot companion sound surprised?
Kenji wished he could legitimately say yes, but... "I squatted on campus for a while and sneaked into classes in the huge lecture halls where nobody took attendance."
It was unlikely Dabrowski had known he existed.
"Backer!" one of the thieves standing guard outside the greenhouse whispered harshly. "Quit yapping with your junkyard of a robot. This isn't the coffee house. You're supposed to be standing guard. Alertly."
Kenji sighed and focused on the parking lot across the field from the greenhouses. He was stationed next to an irrigation shed halfway to the lot, and his duty was to delay the authorities if any shuttles or ground vehicles flew or drove in.
His stomach growled, a reminder that he had few crowns in his pocket, and it had been more than a day since his last meal. He didn't want to rob anyone, but he needed to eat.
"I am also having misgivings about this mission," Kay said in a lower tone of voice. "My materials may have been acquired in a junkyard, but like human beings, I am worth more than the sum of my parts."
"Yes, you are." Since Kenji had assembled Kay, he wouldn't disagree, though even he admitted his multi-metaled bipedal companion wasn't the most state-of-the-art robot in existence. None of his parts were dented or rusted, but the service panel on his back that allowed access to his internal wiring did not look like anything other than the toaster door that it was. "I'm sorry I let myself get talked into this. If I had money to rent a shuttle, we'd be up in the Arctic Islands, scavenging the wrecks from the big battle there. It's rumored that some of them were astroshaman ships. Even if they've mostly been picked over by now, can you imagine how much we could get for even a few smidgens of their technology?"
Kenji picked up his borrowed DEW-Tek rifle, prepared to do his duty if police or the Kingdom Guard showed up. He tried to hand a pistol to Kay, but the robot closed his mechanical fist, refusing to accept it.
"You're not willing to help out?" Kenji asked.
"You know what my foundational programming is."
Yes, when Kenji had been building the robot, there hadn't been many free options for embedded operating systems. He'd wanted Kay to be able to help him with the mechanic job he'd been holding down at the time, but the only foundational programs that had been available were Kitchen Assistant and Academic Tutor. Figuring the kitchen-assistant operating system would have left Kay prone to chopping and roasting everything in sight, Kenji had opted for Academic Tutor. For the most part, it worked fine, and he'd been able to add numerous engineering and repair programs afterward, but Kay did have a tendency toward lecturing. Even worse, he often opined on philosophical and moral matters. Such as robbing greenhouses.
"I am incapable of acting in a violent manner toward human beings," Kay added.
"You could shoot out their tires."
"I am incapable of acting in a violent manner toward tires."
"I had no idea tutor robots weren't allowed to do that."
"We are programmed to be serene role models for impressionable young humans."
"Will you at least wave a wrench menacingly if someone threatens me?" Kenji asked.
"I will consider this."
A police shuttle flew along the border of the park, its distinctive green and blue lights identifying it even on the dark cloudy night.
Kenji leaned into the shadows of the irrigation shed. Against his advice, the gang of thieves had shot out the lights around the shed and the four big greenhouses before sneaking in, but their flashlight beams were visible through the glass walls as they searched for the "special seeds that would go for a fortune to the right buyer," as the leader had put it.
Kenji held his breath until the police shuttle flew out of view beyond the trees edging the grassy fields. Maybe they hadn't seen anything. Maybe this would work.
So long as shooting out the lights hadn't activated an alarm somewhere. Even though the greenhouses had been secured by nothing more than padlocks on the doors, Kenji had a hard time believing there wasn't an alarm system, not if the contents were as valuable as the gang thought.
"If we make as much as the guys think, our five percent could be enough to finally get us passage out of the Kingdom—and away from my father's inimical legacy." Kenji wiped a hand on his trousers, as if he could wipe away the blood that had once been there, blood of the people he'd been forced, as a boy, to help his father kill. If the authorities ever found him and ran a DNA test...
Two police vehicles swung into the parking lot, lights flashing. Damn it.
"Police," Kenji whispered into his comm unit. "Everyone out."
"We've almost got the seeds. Lay down cover!"
The police vehicle doors flew open, and officers in gray combat armor leaped out. Kenji grimaced. That meant that even if he dared shoot them, they would be protected.
His teammate at the greenhouse door fired at the police and their vehicles, crimson DEW-Tek bolts lighting up the night. As expected, the energy blasts bounced ineffectively off the armor and the armored vehicles.
As Kenji pulled out one of the three grenades he'd been given, the police shuttle flew back into view.
"Abort," he whispered into the comm. "There are more coming. Abort now."
"We only need thirty seconds! Keep them busy!"
The fearless police officers charged across the grassy field toward the greenhouse. Kenji threw one of the grenades, aiming well in front of them. He wanted to deter them, not hurt anyone.
The grenade blew a crater, the boom echoing across the park, hurling grass and dirt in all directions. Unfortunately, the officers ran into the smoke, navigating the smoking crater easily in their armor, and kept coming. They would soon pass his shed on the way to the greenhouses.
"This is unacceptably violent." Soft clanks sounded as Kay did the robot equivalent of wringing his hands. "I do not approve, Kenji. You should not have involved yourself in such a scheme."
"No kidding. You need to run. Get a head start. Meet beyond those trees over there."
The robot didn't need to be told twice. He clanked away from the shed and the parking area. One of the officers must have noticed his movement, for he shifted his rifle in that direction.
Kenji stepped away from the shed and lobbed the second grenade in the officer's path.
Shots fired from another direction, and glass shattered as one of the thieves blew a hole in the back of the greenhouse they were in. Four members of the gang sprang out through it, some carrying sacks of seeds, two carrying what looked like potted ferns with huge balls of fruit dangling from the fronds.
They would have to run hundreds of yards across a field to the trees and the getaway vehicle parked on the road on the other side. Kenji was even farther away from that escape.
Though instincts told him to flee, Kenji knew the thieves wouldn't be able to outrun the authorities, not when the officers' armor gave them greater strength and speed than typical. He had to try to delay them further. They'd gotten out with hopefully valuable goods. This job could still be worth it—if they could escape.
As the second grenade blew, Kenji lifted his rifle and fired at the police officers. He targeted the seams in their armor at their knees, shoulders, and ankles, keeping his aim steady though his heart pounded. If he got caught, he'd be screwed for more reasons than shooting at the police and robbing a greenhouse.
His aim was pinpoint, thanks to his father's training and a few not-quite-legal enhancements his parents had made to his genes before he'd been born, and one of the police yelped and grabbed his shoulder. He stumbled to the side and out of the formation, but two other officers spotted Kenji in the shadows.
"Get that one!"
Two men veered toward him as the others continued after the rest of the gang. As Kenji sprinted away in the opposite direction, he threw his last grenade over his shoulder. It landed by the shed, blowing it to pieces and pelting the men with wood and metal.
Doubting that would slow them for long, Kenji raced across the field, not toward the getaway car but in the direction Kay had gone. Trees loomed up ahead. If he could reach them, maybe he could lose his pursuers and escape.
He had to. He couldn't be captured, couldn't take the chance of being identified and linked to his father. If that happened, he would be charged not with a misdemeanor but with murder, and spend the rest of his short life in the penal asteroid mines.
Kay, who clearly had no objections to fleeing, kept running, his mismatched legs propelling him with impressive speed. Kenji glanced back, worried about the lack of cover as they raced across the open field. But his grenade had either deterred the pair of men pursuing him, or they'd realized the main group was the bigger threat. Maybe Kenji could get away.
As he neared the trees, a dark figure in black armor leaped out of the branches.
What the hell? This wasn't one of the policemen.
A silver logo above the faceplate on the man's helmet gleamed in the night, the letters ME standing out against the surrounding black. Kenji groaned. He'd heard of this guy.
Kay halted so fast that he clattered, his bulbous head jerking forward. He flung up his arms in surrender, but the armored figure grabbed him and hurled him twenty feet through the air.
Kenji pointed his rifle at the man, but he couldn't keep from gaping. Even with strength-accentuating armor, that was an incredible feat. Kay wasn't light.
With a thunderous crash, the robot struck a trunk hard. Kenji gritted his teeth as anger surged up in him. Kay wasn't indestructible either.
"You bastard," Kenji snarled, firing at the man's armored chest. "That's my friend."
He kept himself from saying his only friend, since that was pathetic. Even if it was true.
The armored man focused on him, his face too shadowed to make out behind his helmet's faceplate. As they had with the police, the energy bolts bounced uselessly off him. Kenji shifted his aim to the neck, again hoping to find a seam, but that looked like much more expensive—and higher quality—armor than the police had.
He should have run, but where? His genetic enhancements were modest; he couldn't escape this man. Kenji's only hope was to damage that armor enough to deter him.
But the man sprang at him, powerful legs taking him through the air as if he'd leapt off a trampoline. Kenji jumped to the side, turning his rifle into a club at the last second, hoping vainly to smash through his foe's faceplate.
A hand snatched the rifle out of the air, tearing it from his grip. So fast Kenji didn't know what was happening, he found his legs knocked out from under him. He hit the ground hard, landing on his back, his head thudding against the earth. A weight landed on his chest, pinning him. The armored man's knee.
"I surrender!" Kenji jerked his hands up.
He had no idea if the capital's new self-proclaimed superhero known only as the Main Event killed criminals, but with all the weight on his chest, and his ribcage creaking, Kenji worried the guy would crush him to death by accident. The Main Event was reputedly cybernetically enhanced, giving him strength and agility even beyond what the armor offered, and it would be easy for someone like that to carelessly snap a rib—or a spine.
The man paused, looking toward the police and the other thieves. The leader and someone else had been captured before they reached the getaway vehicle.
"I didn't seriously hurt anyone." Kenji struggled not to panic at the crushing weight on his chest, and the fear that he'd scraped by his whole life only to die helping thugs steal seeds. "I didn't want to do this mission, but I've got no job and can barely buy food. My home and everything I have was destroyed in the bombings."
He doubted the Main Event cared.
But Kenji's captor kneeled back, the painful weight coming off his ribs. He hefted Kenji to his feet, a steel grip not letting him go.
"The city has shelters and offers jobs to those who need them," the Main Event said in a passionless but surprisingly cultured voice. He sounded like a noble.
"Only if you're chipped and in the system."
The Main Event looked at him, his face still too shadowed by the night—or was he wearing a mask?—to see. "You can get chipped and get into the system."
"No, I can't. Uhm, family troubles. That would be a really bad idea for me. I have a father who's, ah, he didn't treat us well." Why was he babbling and explaining this to some justice-fighter? "A real scum. Mom's dead because of him. I don't suppose you know what it's like to come from a bad family?"
Surprisingly, the man barked what might have been a laugh. It also might have been coughing up of phlegm. Something that was hard to spit out when one was in combat armor.
"I also really don't want to have a blood test done by the police," Kenji went on, hoping he could somehow talk his way out of this. "You're into anonymity, right? You've got to get it."
Another firefight broke out in the trees across the park. A couple of the thieves had made it to the getaway car and grabbed bigger weapons. One turned a hand cannon on the police officers. That might be powerful enough to cut through their armor. Kenji willed his captor to go help the police and leave him alone.
An alarmed yell came from the firefight. One of the police? That was the first hint that the encounter might be going poorly for them.
The Main Event released Kenji but only to pick up his fallen rifle. He flexed his armored arms and snapped it in half. All right, that was impressive. Kenji's thoughts of having his spine snapped returned.
A faint rattle came from the other direction—Kay trying to get to his feet. The Main Event glanced at him but only tossed the pieces of rifle to the ground.
"I've dedicated myself to protecting this city, boy," the Main Event said.
Kenji bristled at being called a boy—he'd just turned twenty-four—but if his youth might lead this guy to be more lenient, he would keep his mouth shut.
"I'm watching out for it. Thieves who shoot at police officers aren't welcome. If I come across you in Zamek City again, I'll drop you off at Police Headquarters, and you can burble tales of family woes to them." Without waiting for a response, he took off across the field toward the fighting.
Not questioning his good luck, Kenji ran to Kay and helped him up. His robot buddy was a whiz at repairing everything from kitchen appliances to vehicles to spaceship engines, but his junkyard body, as one of the thieves had called it, wasn't evenly weighted, and he struggled with things like standing up and climbing stairs.
"Are you badly damaged?" In the dark, Kenji couldn't tell how smashed Kay was after being hurled against a tree.
"My housing is dented in numerous places, but my circuitry and skeletal framework appear sufficient for fleeing this odious place, which I dearly hope is next on our agenda. I will do a full diagnostic scan shortly."
"Yes." Kenji helped him through the trees and away from the park, frowning at the robot's lopsided gait, though his hip ached, and he was also limping after being hurled to the ground. "When I get some money, I'll buy you better parts."
Whenever that would be.
"Most thoughtful, but unless I am mistaken, you will not be receiving a five-percent stake from tonight's mission."
"I know, but there's something else I've been thinking about. Something that could be more lucrative."
"You are not going to sell me, are you?"
"No. Friends don't sell friends." Kenji didn't point out that he would have had to pay a junkyard owner to take an ancient K-45 off his hands, especially one with toaster parts.
"Excellent. I concur. What is your new plan?"
"Since we can't stay in the city..." Kenji glanced back, but neither the police nor the Main Event were in sight. "Maybe it's time for that salvage mission in the Arctic Islands that I've been dreaming about."
"You said you couldn't afford to rent a craft to take us up there."
"We'll borrow one."
"From a friend?"
"From a shuttle-rental service with lax lending standards."
Kay rotated his bulbous head, his oval-shaped optical sensors looking at him. "I am concerned for your future, Kenji."
"It'll work out."
"Who will I converse with if you end up in a detention center?"
Kenji didn't mention that, as his personal property, Kay would end up deactivated and stuffed in a storage locker in the same detention center. "We're going to make it work this time, Kay. We're going to make enough money to get out of the Kingdom and start new lives. You'll see."
"I do hope so. I believe one of my toes just fell off."
"I'll build you a new foot. Once we're on the way to the Arctic." |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 3 | The wan sun did nothing to warm Mari as she sped over ice fields and away from the military outpost on a rented air bike, the wind needling her even through multiple layers of clothing. Her fingers were numb inside her gloves, and she could barely feel her toes, but she didn't care. She had done it.
She'd sneaked away from her mother's base, sabotaging the security system long enough to slip out without leaving a trace. After a few miles of walking, she'd found and taken over an automated logging vehicle, altering its programming to give her a ride to a mill on the outskirts of Zamek City. Once in the capital, she'd located a rental shop with a clerk willing to take her money without asking for identification. She'd checked out a bike from him, ridden to a military base near the city, and used a couple of her hacking programs to unlock a hatch on a cargo ship heading to the Kingdom outpost in the Arctic.
Mari smirked as she imagined what her mother would think of her using the engineering and computer knowledge all of her people were educated with to become a serial stowaway. It had been easier than she'd expected. Oh, she'd expected to be caught at any point along the way, but after dealing with her people's ultra-secure networks, getting into and navigating the Kingdom networks, even the private ones, hadn't been that difficult.
The harder part had been avoiding scrutinizing stares from people in the city who'd noticed her implants and must have wondered if she was an astroshaman. Normal humans sometimes got cybernetic upgrades, and most of them had embedded banking and network chips, but few people had their working eyes replaced with implants or the equivalent of a circuit board with ports and an extra bank of chips stuck in the side of their head. Mari had kept her shoulder-length blonde hair combed over that the best she could, but it was noticeable.
She hadn't dared shop for food or to experiment with any of the items on her Human List. Once she had her terraforming prototype and could offer it and her knowledge in exchange for asylum, she could explore the world. She just had to hope it was still in the wrecked ship and that it hadn't been destroyed. And that the Kingdom government would want what she offered enough to overlook that her people were their enemies.
Jagged white mountains rose up ahead of her, the sun glinting on their frosty slopes. According to the satellite imagery, the Celestial Dart had crashed on a cliff on this side of them.
She increased the magnification of her ocular implants, looking for any hint of a ship's hull amid the snow and ice. Also searching for signs of people—especially the soldiers from that outpost. Hopefully, they didn't run patrols out here, but she didn't know.
Even though her mother had negotiated something of a truce with Minister Dabrowski, and he apparently owned the land they'd constructed their new base on, Mari doubted the planet's military had instructions to leave astroshamans alone if they saw them. More likely, they would try to capture and interrogate her.
As she tilted back on the handlebars to lift the nose of her air bike and climb up into the mountains, an alert blinked in her vision, a silent ding sounding in her mind. Her implants had detected an anomaly in the terrain. It was atop a cliff, as she'd expected. The wreck.
She sped up. This was it.
An unexpected tangle of emotions filled her as she came upon the wreck, what had once been a great spaceship capable of housing hundreds of engineers and researchers now buried under numerous feet of snow. The Celestial Dart hadn't been her only home, but it had been the ship she traveled on when her people were not staying on one base or another, doing their best to avoid human civilizations. She'd studied and researched aboard that ship, been raised with her siblings, and learned the religious and secular ways of her people. It had been a more permanent part of her life than most of the homes they'd fleetingly lived in.
Loss and regret and sadness made her slow down as she surveyed the mess. Moisture filmed her eyes and dampened her lashes until they froze, little crystals battering her cheeks every time she blinked. Since her tear ducts had never been altered, she had no trouble crying, but she rarely did. As her mother and others had told her so often, intense human emotion was a reminder of their biological evolution and a sign that one was regressing toward a more primitive state. Rational computer-like beings did not cry.
"Just be glad you weren't on board when it crashed," she muttered, navigating around the snow-covered wreck and looking for a spot where she might gain access to the interior.
In addition to a few weapons for protection, she'd brought a toolbox that included a plasma cutter, but as she eyed the white drifts piled atop the mangled remains of the hull, she wondered if it would be enough. She navigated toward a spot on the windward side of the cliff where the mounds of snow were less substantial and lucked across a hatch. Scorch marks marred the hull around it, as if some scavenger had tried to force his way in but failed.
"Open," she told the hatch and wasn't surprised when it didn't budge. There wasn't likely any power left to run the computer system.
Mari removed a glove and rested her hand on a panel, resisting the urge to jerk it back at the icy chill. The hatch hissed open with the breaking of a seal. At least the battery-powered mechanisms still worked.
The hatchway led into a corridor near the crew cabins. Would she be able to find an intact route to the laboratories? And would they be intact? They were in the interior of the ship, next to sickbay, and well-protected, so maybe. But finding a navigable route to them would be difficult.
After putting her glove back on, Mari pulled out her plasma cutter and nodded to herself. She could handle difficulties. If she wanted asylum here in the Kingdom, she had to have something valuable to offer in exchange. She would find her terraformer and also take any other valuable technology she came across that she might be able to trade. At least, unlike the scavengers who had already been here, she had a rightful claim to the devices inside the ship.
The wind howled across the cliff, tossing snow over the side. Before climbing through the warped hatchway, Mari scanned her surroundings to make sure no soldiers or other craft were nearby. She also guessed that her mother had found out she was missing by now and might have sent someone after her. Hopefully not that crusher. With her tools and weapons, Mari believed she could defend herself against most humans, but a nearly indestructible combat robot was another matter.
Fortunately, the barren landscape was empty. Good.
Mari climbed inside, grunting in annoyance when a collapsed ceiling and caved-in bulkheads stopped her right away. She ignited the plasma cutter. This was going to take a while.
"Have you previously been educated on how to fly aircraft?" Kay asked from the copilot's seat of the shuttle.
It was Kenji's first time traveling out of Zamek City in years—and his first time taking Kay anywhere. He assumed the robot's skepticism had more to do with their conveyance than his piloting skills. As they'd entered their seventh hour of flight, an ominous rattle and a puff of black smoke had come from one of their thruster housings. A readout next to a flashing yellow light on the navigation console kept insisting they service the engine. Earlier, Kenji had commed the rental place about the alert. The man working there had said it was fine and to ignore it.
"My father taught me how to pilot everything from a flyer to a galaxy charger spaceship. I'm a little rusty, but if we crash, I won't be the reason for it."
Per the man's instructions, Kenji tried to ignore another puff of smoke wafting from the thruster. Since they were flying over an iceberg-filled sea, there was no place to stop and do maintenance.
He'd been so pleased to find a rental service clerk who would wheel and deal with him that he hadn't questioned his luck. He'd promised to pay after he got back and sold some of the salvage he was determined to find. Surprisingly, the man had agreed, so long as he brought double the usual fee. Maybe he'd only agreed because he'd known the shuttle would crash, and he hoped to make an insurance claim.
"You have not spoken of a father," Kay said. "Are you close?"
"No."
"If he taught you to pilot, that suggests an interest in your education and ability to care for yourself as an adult."
"He wanted me to be able to fly the getaway craft after he bombed buildings, stations, or habitats."
Kay's bulbous head rotated toward him. "Did you say bombed?"
"Yes. He's a terrorist. He wanted me to be his little acolyte." Kenji didn't mention that he had been his father's acolyte, or at least his assistant in his vile endeavors, until he'd turned sixteen and mustered the courage to stage his death and run away. To this day, he didn't know if his father truly believed he was dead or simply hadn't cared enough to track down a son who didn't want to serve him and therefore had no purpose.
"I thought you said you came from a noble family."
Had he told Kay that? Maybe one night when he'd been drunk. Drinking took the edge off. "My mother did, but she's been gone since I was eight. He might have done it. I never had any proof, but she kept trying to keep him away from me. He didn't like that. I'd been his idea, you see, the gene cleaning and enhancements and everything. A little scion to the business. You want to know the funny part?"
"This is a funny part? I am not an expert on human emotions, but your tale appears to lack in humor."
"No kidding. But he hated King Jager and having a senate comprised of nobles. He always railed about all that, and how the common man had no power, and also the idiocy of genetic engineering being outlawed in the Kingdom. He was trying to make statements, blowing things up as a way of fighting the system." Kenji eyed another puff of black smoke and checked to see how far they were from land. "That was how it was in the beginning anyway, at least according to my mother. I guess she silently supported him back then. Even though she was a noble, she didn't approve of the system. But later..." Kenji shook his head, memories popping up of dead people—murdered people—and blood everywhere, including on his own hands. "I think he liked it. Likes it. He's still alive out there somewhere, but not in System Lion, I think. He had a couple of close calls with knights who'd been sent to hunt him down, and it's been a few years since anyone saw him here. He's reputedly a thief, bounty hunter, and who knows what in another system now, but the Kingdom hasn't forgotten his crimes. They want him dead."
And they would happily take out the son who'd assisted him too. Kenji had to get out of System Lion. He couldn't keep flirting with the authorities. And now that damn self-proclaimed superhero.
When Kenji had checked the news, he hadn't been surprised that the rest of the greenhouse-incursion party had been arrested. He was still shocked that the Main Event had let him go. He wouldn't press his luck and return to the capital longer than it took to drop off the shuttle. Even though he'd lived in Zamek City for years and knew it well, Kenji could make the money he needed to charter a space flight elsewhere.
"Such as right here," he murmured, spotting white land coming into view on the horizon. "We're going to make it."
"I am most relieved," Kay said.
"Me too."
The trip back might be dicier, but while he searched for valuables, Kenji would have Kay perform any repairs that might be possible without spare parts. Earlier, he'd seen a toolbox in the back.
"There is a military outpost on this island," Kay said as they flew over a glacier, a herd of walruses near the water, startled by the shuttle's passing—or the plumes of smoke. "Will they not object to salvage operations taking place near their compound?"
"We're not going to ask for their permission. And we're one man and a robot, not a salvage operation."
"Do you seek to acquire more trouble for yourself?"
"No. We'll be circumspect."
"I have concerns."
"If anyone asks, we'll say we came up here to hike," Kenji said.
"Robots do not participate in recreational physical activity."
"You can fix the shuttle while I recreate. Don't worry. I think the wrecks are several miles from the outpost and in the mountains." Kenji banked to head toward the snowy peaks on the horizon.
He had been doing research on the network, learning everything he could about the battle and the likely locations of wrecks. Too bad there wasn't more information. Reports that Military Intelligence and Royal Intelligence had filed about the conflict had been classified, leaving the media outlets to share only opinions and guesses. Kenji hoped what he'd gathered from those sources would be enough.
He fished his glasses out of his pocket and put them on, activating the network interface and display to bring up the maps and data he'd bookmarked. The research would have been easier if he'd had a chip in his temple wired directly into his brain, as was typical for people in the Kingdom and most of the Twelve Systems, but the government could use such devices to locate a person, so his father had never had Kenji embedded with one. And after Kenji had run away from the old man, it had seemed wise to continue to stay off the grid.
"Watch the scanners, will you?" Kenji asked. "Let me know if any other ships are in the area."
"Certainly." Kay tilted his body forward at the hip to peruse the limited instrumentation. They would be lucky if the dilapidated shuttle could detect obstacles in their flight path, much less other ships in the area, but maybe the scanners were more advanced than they looked. Kay scraped at something brownish and gunky on a display with a finger. "I believe this is food detritus."
"Looks like mustard. The last copilot may have been into ham sandwiches."
"Did he not grasp the merits of cleaning up after himself? This is a societal courtesy that those of us in the tutoring industry are programmed to impart to our charges."
"Not everybody has a robot tutor when they're growing up."
"Very unfortunate. Still, one would think that sanitation protocols would be implemented between one rental party and the next."
"Not when one doesn't pay in advance or share his identity with the clerk."
"I do hope you will succeed with this mission and achieve your goal to reach a more financially elevated rung of society."
"So you don't have to scrape week-old mustard off the consoles of future aircraft that we rent?"
"Precisely."
Kenji piloted them past the small military outpost, staying well south of it, and continued west until they reached the mountains. The chain ran roughly north-south, and he turned them north, assuming most of the fighting had been near the outpost. The shuttle hiccuped and spat another plume of black smoke.
"Another aircraft is entering the local airspace," Kay said.
"Military?"
"This equipment is not sophisticated enough to differentiate between military and civilian vessels, but it is coming from the southwest rather than the outpost. It is possible it is flying to the outpost."
"What's off to the southwest?" Kenji mentally retraced their route. They'd come up the coast from Zamek City and flown northwest over the sea. There were a few towns in the inland mountains of the northern continent, but the majority of the population centers were along the eastern and southern coasts. The far distant western coast was prone to tsunamis and had few towns of size.
"Little," Kay said.
"Hm."
They flew over a snow-blanketed cliff with a lumpy surface that might have been rock or might have indicated something buried under the snow. The scanners were ineffective at determining if wreckage lay underneath, but the equipment did detect one anomaly. Kenji squinted over at Kay's console.
"Is that an air bike parked on top of that cliff?"
"Actually, that is a large mountain directly ahead of us." Kay pointed at the forward display.
"Don't tell me someone else has already been here scavenging."
"I will tell you that you must veer to the side promptly." Kay's hands twitched toward the navigation controls, as if he meant to take over.
"I see it. We've got plenty of time." Kenji adjusted their course to swing around the mountain, so he could come back and check on the air bike.
"Few humans would consider 4.3 seconds until impact plenty of time."
"And few robots, apparently."
"Indeed."
As the shuttle flew around the mountain peak, the scanners detected the air bike flaring to life behind them. Kenji adjusted the display to bring up a visual off the shuttle's rear. A white-cloaked figure who almost blended in with his or her surroundings jumped onto the air bike and flew down a steep slope and toward the east.
Toward the military outpost? To report him?
No, that cloak wasn't a part of any military uniforms he'd seen. It looked like it had been chosen specifically for camouflage. The white backpack the figure wore also blended in but not so much that he couldn't see it bulging. As if with choice scavenged parts plucked from a crashed astroshaman ship.
"Someone beat us here," Kenji grumbled.
"Given that the battle was weeks ago, it is likely that many people—or salvage operations—beat us here."
Kenji sighed. Well, he wouldn't chase someone off across the ice to mug him. Just in case it mattered later, he used his glasses display to record a video of the bike, including stickers on the back that read Lease to own! and Blazing engines! Someone else was making use of rental vehicles for the trip up here.
"I'm going to see if I can find a stable place to set us down." Kenji flew toward the clifftop, activating the shuttle's hover feature. The craft shuddered and bucked before obeying. "Let me know if that other ship you detected comes this way. I hope it doesn't. It's hard to believe this place is so delightful that everyone is visiting it at once."
"If the wreckage contains a plethora of valuable materials to salvage, would that not cause a human to find it delightful?"
"I suppose it might." Kenji frowned as they descended, noticing a lot of boot prints and evidence of landing skids from numerous types of vehicles in the snow. "It definitely might."
Had he been delusional to think that this was an original idea? Maybe a steady stream of salvagers had been up here since the battle.
"There might not be anything left inside," he admitted, guiding the shuttle gingerly down next to the snow-covered wreck. There wasn't a lot of space between it and the edge. "Let's hope they overlooked something, and we'll get lucky. If we even found enough to cover the rental cost and the supplies we bought for the trip up here..."
He wouldn't say that would be enough. It wouldn't. Why couldn't he catch a lucky break?
Wherever his father was skulking these days, Kenji hoped some Kingdom agent would soon capture him and deliver him to a penal asteroid for years of arduous mining by hand. Possibly while being beaten up by prison toughs who didn't like terrorists.
"You may wish to hurry," Kay said. "The other aircraft is continuing in this direction."
"Wonderful. While you wait, see if you can give the shuttle a tune-up, will you?"
As soon as Kenji stepped outside of the climate-controlled interior, he realized how ill-prepared he was for an arctic excursion. The sun was bright, almost blinding as it glinted off the snow all around him, but the air wasn't remotely warm.
He should have brought cold-weather clothing and emergency camping gear, but he didn't own either of those things, nor would his meager funds have covered their purchase. He would have to work quickly and hope the shuttle didn't break down fully and lose power. If it did, he would be forced to trek to the outpost and beg for shelter.
"This is why I'm a city boy," he said, teeth chattering as he walked along the wreckage. "A city boy from a temperate climate zone."
His boots crunched on detritus in the snow as he walked around the area. Pieces of warped metal from a spaceship hull. This was the place.
The snow was packed from other people's feet, so Kenji didn't need special shoes to get around, but he grimaced at this further evidence that this spot had already been thoroughly scavenged. He stopped at a hole in the hull, the dark interior warped and broken with pieces torn from the ceiling to dangle down. It reminded him of a stalactite-filled cavern he'd once seen on a vid.
Most of the boot prints led to this spot. Kenji continued around the wreck, hoping to find a less obvious place where he might enter and find choice items that hadn't yet been looted.
His comm beeped.
"Already?" he answered.
"If you wish to know if that aircraft is already approaching," Kay said, "the answer is yes. It is coming here, not to the outpost."
The breeze shifted, carrying the distant roar of an engine. Frustration bubbled up inside Kenji as he glowered at the southern sky where an unremarkable gray shuttle had grown visible. It did appear to be heading for this clifftop.
"Do you wish to flee?" Kay asked.
"No, damn it. We just got here, and this is Kingdom land, a park open to the public. We're hikers exploring an interesting wreck in the middle of these geologically interesting mountains that naturally draw tourists such as ourselves. We're not doing anything wrong." His self-righteousness might have been less pronounced if that had been a military or Kingdom Guard shuttle approaching.
"Do you want to know if I wish to flee?"
"Not really."
"Your disregard for the feelings of robots is noted."
"Just watch my back if a bunch of thugs in combat armor spring out of it and attack me."
"Do you wish me to wave my wrench menacingly at them?"
"Yes." Kenji continued to tramp around the wreck, but he tugged a rifle off his shoulder, an old-fashioned firearm full of gunpowder cartridges. It had been all he could scrounge up after the Main Event snapped his previous rifle like a stale breadstick. "And then pilot the shuttle over to land on them."
There were fewer footprints on the back side of the wreck. Only one set, small and maybe belonging to a woman. They appeared fresh, and he looked in the direction the air bike had gone, but it had disappeared from view.
The shuttle continued its inexorable approach. Kenji hoped he wasn't being an idiot for staying, but the incoming craft didn't have weapons or appear that threatening. It might even be another rental shuttle. If it carried another scavenger—or hiker—maybe they could share the wreck.
Kenji spotted an open hatch and climbed up a drift toward it. A gust of wind kicked up snow—the shuttle was hovering right over the wreck now. He eyed it warily, hoping it didn't have weapons that he'd missed on first glance.
In case the pilot was looking down at him via a display, Kenji smiled up and waved. "Might as well be friendly with the competition, right?"
"Was that question for me?" Kay asked, reminding Kenji that their comm link was open.
"No, but I trust you agree."
As he scrambled up to the hatch, the gray shuttle landed not far from Kenji's rented craft. It was about the same size, its sides dented and its paint faded with age. The name of a competing rental company stamped the side above a picture of a shuttle flying toward a sun with a comet streaming from its backside.
Kenji had reached the hatch and thought about flinging himself inside, but the twisted mess of a corridor promised that he wouldn't be able to advance into the interior quickly. Fresh snow prints dotted the tilted deck—from the woman? He was surprised drifts of snow hadn't made their way in. Maybe the hatch had only recently been opened.
"The limited scanners of this vessel are not allowing me to determine how many people are aboard that shuttle," Kay said.
"So it could be an entire mercenary company, or it could be an old man with a divining rod?"
"That is correct."
The new shuttle powered down, and its hatch opened. Kenji shifted his rifle so it wouldn't be visible and waited to see who or what would come out.
Two people in civilian parkas with the hoods pulled up stood on the threshold. If they carried weapons, they weren't as obvious as a rifle. Steps unfolded from the craft and lowered to the ground. The pair descended in tandem, stopped, and peered straight at him.
"Hello." Kenji offered his best friendly wave again. "Are you here to explore this fine mountainous park?"
They looked at each other without speaking. He trusted they were communicating chip-to-chip. Even if he'd avoided the technology all of his life, he was familiar with it. His glasses replicated it, for the most part, though he had to speak queries or laboriously enter them via the eye movement reader. He couldn't simply think commands into a chip attached to his brain.
"What are you doing here?" one of the figures finally spoke, looking at him again. It was a woman. She sounded young.
He supposed women could lead scavenging careers too. He'd certainly come across female thieves.
"Exploring," he said.
"You seek to steal from the Celestial Dart?" the other one asked, another woman with a young voice.
Kenji could make out a wisp of blonde hair escaping from her hood.
"The Celestial Dart?" He pointed at the wreck. "I don't know if that was its name, but I think it's just a hunk of metal now."
"It belongs to our people." One of the women pushed back her hood, revealing fingernails that looked like chips of metal, cold mechanical eyes, and a strange implant at her temple that ran halfway down the side of her face.
Astroshaman.
A chill ran through Kenji as the other woman also pushed back her hood, both of them oblivious to the cold, and gazed at him with the same inhuman eyes. The astroshamans had been responsible for the second invasion fleet that had bombed Odin.
Kenji swallowed. He would rather have dealt with soldiers or the police.
One woman drew a small metal box from a pocket. Kenji started to swing his rifle toward them, but astroshamans or not, he couldn't shoot women his age. Instead, he sprang through the hatchway so he wouldn't be in their line of sight.
But whatever that box was sent a blue beam of energy arching around the hull of the ship and through the hatchway. It slammed into his chest like a lightning bolt.
Pain ricocheted through his body as he lost control of his limbs and almost his bladder. His heart throbbed, threatening to explode in his chest. Terror clenched him, but he couldn't run away. He couldn't do anything at all except drop to the deck and flop around like a dying fish.
The beam winked out, but his body kept twitching, his heart beating hard and erratically against his ribs. The pain faded slowly, but many long seconds passed before his spastic tremors subsided. He gasped in air, only realizing then that his lungs hadn't been working, and he hadn't been breathing. A headache pulsed behind his eyes.
"I take it back," he groaned, rolling onto his side and hunting for his rifle. "I can shoot women."
As he wrapped his hand around the barrel, a shadow fell across him. One of the women had climbed up and stood in the hatchway. With that little metal box in her hand, her thumb on the button. Hell.
Kenji had little doubt that it could kill him.
"I think there's been a misunderstanding," he said.
"You are not a lowlife opportunist attempting to capitalize on our people's misfortune by scavenging what your kind may deem valuable technology from our ship?"
"No, noooo. Of course not. Is that what you thought?" Kenji clutched a hand to his chest, in part to feign innocence, and in part to massage his heart back into a normal rhythm. He didn't have the medical background to know if that would work, but soothing rubbing seemed like a good idea. "This is a misunderstanding."
"What is your purpose here?" She eyed his rifle.
Kenji crossed hiker and tourist off his list of possible answers. They would never fall for it.
"I'm a bounty hunter." That would explain his rifle, anyway. "I'm up here after a fugitive. He's a lowlife opportunist scavenger. Very bad man. You should appreciate that I'm trying to capture him and turn him over to the law."
She squinted suspiciously at him. "What is his name?"
Uh, good question.
"Tenebris Rache." Kenji used the name of the first criminal who wasn't his father that popped into his mind. "I trust you've heard of him? He used to be a pirate captain loathed by the Kingdom, but now he's lost his ship and his crew. He supposedly died in the very battle that crashed these ships, but rumors suggest that he may have survived. Lots of people are willing to pay for his head." All that was true, at least according to the news and all the press coverage there had been after the battle. Kenji had no idea what had happened of late to the infamous pirate, but he wagered the astroshamans didn't know either. "I believe that he's out here and has resorted to scavenging. Opportunistically. Like the lowlife that he is."
She kept squinting at him. Was she buying any of this?
Maybe he should have chosen someone who wasn't known and detested in all of the Twelve Systems. Someone that a young guy like him could reasonably capture. Given that she'd taken him down with a button, she probably doubted his ability as a bounty hunter.
The silence stretched. Her metallic irises appeared glazed and unfocused, but she was likely communicating with her twin out there. Why astroshamans didn't get implants and prosthetics that looked like normal human bits and bobs, he didn't know, but it was like they wanted to appear freaky.
"You seek out and capture people?" she finally asked. "For a living?"
"Absolutely. I'm not a veteran, admittedly." As in, he'd never collected a single bounty. His father had trained him well enough that he probably could become a bounty hunter—so long as he could avoid people with metal boxes of death—but it wasn't a career he'd ever longed to pursue. "I'm out to make a name for myself by getting Rache."
He kept an eye on her as he sat up.
A clink-clunk came from somewhere in the depths of the wreck. Kenji hoped that was an icicle falling or the ship settling and not another scavenger to deal with. There weren't any more ships or air bikes parked out there, so it shouldn't be, but well-off people sometimes had slydar hulls that camouflaged their craft, so he couldn't assume that they were alone. And where was Kay? He hadn't spoken for some time, despite their comm line being open. Was he waving a wrench at the other woman, or had she pressed a button and zapped him?
"It is unlikely you will find Tenebris Rache," the woman said. "If you do find him, he will kill you. The Kingdom and countless bounty hunters have attempted to capture or slay him for many years. However, should you succeed, our people would reward you. He has vexed us."
"He's vexed a lot of people."
"Yes, but we believe he is dead. There is no need for you to seek him. But we are seeking someone. How much do you charge to find a person? This person must be captured alive."
"Er, what?"
"One of our kind has escaped with knowledge that is important to us. It is, however, difficult for us to go among your people. In other systems, humanity lets astroshamans pass with only wary glances and snide comments. Here, in the xenophobic Star Kingdom, it is a different matter, and we find it difficult to enter your population centers without costumes. If you are a bounty hunter, you must have ways to track people down and find them."
"Yes, of course." Kenji pushed himself to his feet, slowly picking up his rifle so she wouldn't find the movement threatening. He was careful not to aim it in her direction. "But I'm already on a mission."
"A suicidal mission that you will fail."
"But if I succeed, I'll make a lot of money and, even more important, make a name for myself."
"You will not succeed."
Kenji opened his mouth to argue further, but what was the point of defending his fictitious story to death?
"Despite the recent thwarting of our plans, we are not financially insolvent or without means," the woman said. "What payment do you require for finding a fugitive?"
"Some guy has committed a crime against your people?"
"Some woman. As I said, she has escaped with knowledge."
"Epically criminal."
She squinted at him again. "It is considered so among our people. She had no right to take the knowledge. It is also possible she means to betray us in some way. We must have her back. We will pay fifty thousand of your Kingdom crowns for her to be returned to us alive."
"Fif—" Kenji choked on the amount. "Fifty thousand, you said?" He'd never had even fifty hundred crowns. Right now, his net worth was closer to fifty.
"Yes. We will pay you five percent up front and ninety-five when you return her to us. I assume physical currency is acceptable?"
Hell, yes, it was. That would be enough to pay the shuttle owner back with plenty to spare.
Once more, she delved into her pocket. He tensed, hopeful that she was pulling out money and didn't intend to zap him again. She withdrew a wad of Kingdom crown bills and a compact comm device.
"We must have her back within the month. If you agree to the terms, you will take this and contact us when you have captured her. We will meet you at a designated area to pay the remainder of your fee and pick her up. Do you agree to the terms?"
Uh, did he?
He'd never bounty hunted before, and these astroshamans were no slouches, but what if their missing person was the woman he'd seen flying away on the air bike? He might be able to find and capture her before sunset. It could be the easiest money he'd ever earned, and it wasn't as if he cared one way or another about astroshamans hunting other astroshamans. For all he knew, these people had been the ones to bomb his last home.
"You came up here looking for her?" Kenji asked. "Was she in the battle?"
"She was in one of our ships in orbit, as were the rest of us siblings, during the fighting on your planet, but..." The woman glanced at her twin, who was doing who knew what outside—Kenji couldn't see her from the corridor. "Our leader thought she might come here. This ship has meaning to us."
Kenji thought about telling them he'd seen her, but he didn't know that he truly had. That could have been any woman on an air bike. This was clearly the hot spot of the Arctic Islands. Besides, it would be better to catch her himself. And collect the bounty. With fifty thousand crowns, he could finally buy passage on a ship heading out of the Kingdom. A luxury ship. He and Kay could head off to a new life, to a system where nobody had heard of his loathsome father.
"I can find her," Kenji said. "What's her name, what's she look like, and I'll take any other information you can give me."
"Her name is Mari, and she looks like us. We are sisters, all born of genetic material from the same mother and father."
"Bunch of test-tube twins, huh?"
"There are more than two of us, so that term is inaccurate, but as I said, we share identical genetic material. We are, however, all very different." She sniffed. "Tari and I would never leave our people."
"I'm sure your parents appreciate your loyalty."
She stepped outside, waving for him to follow. "Loyalty is expected among our people."
Before Kenji could step out of the corridor, a clatter-clank came from behind him, followed by a buzz. He whirled as he sprang out of the hatchway, anticipating weapons fire.
Four drones flew around obstacles in the corridor toward the exit. Kenji raised his rifle but hesitated. Were these astroshaman devices? Drones made from the very technology he sought to find and sell?
No, they looked like typical Kingdom drones, and each one was carrying either a bag or some device clutched in mechanical graspers. They had to be someone's remote scavenging tools. Which meant that he and the astroshamans weren't alone out here.
As the drones buzzed out the hatchway, the sister, who hadn't yet given a name, ducking, Kenji lifted his rifle to fire at one of them. But his brain caught up with his reflexes and reminded him that he had a new gig. He didn't need to worry about another scavenger taking things from the wreck. Besides, someone in a nearby ship would be irked if he fired at their drones.
But it didn't matter. The astroshaman produced a pistol and shot.
"Those are our belongings!" she yelled, pelting the rearmost offender with energy blasts similar to but different from DEW-Tek bolts. The drone exploded like a grenade going off.
The other sister was at the base of Kenji's shuttle—with Kay flat on his back at her feet.
Kenji cursed and ran down the snow drift, hardly caring about the drones. "That's my robot. Back away from him!"
The three remaining drones flew past the shuttles, then over the cliff where they descended out of sight.
The astroshaman woman next to Kay frowned and faced him, one of the metal boxes in her hand.
Kenji ground his teeth, lifted his hands, and made himself politely say, "I would prefer it if you not damage my robot, ma'am."
Was it too late? Kay wasn't moving. Maybe he'd also been zapped with that current, and it had fried his chip.
"Especially if I'm going to be working for you," he finished.
"The robot was going to attack me," the woman said.
"That's not in his programming. I assure you it was a bluff, that he waved nothing more menacing than a wrench, and only because he thought it would protect me."
The astroshaman he'd been making deals with ran past Kenji to peer over the side of the cliff. She was still clenching her pistol, her mouth twisted in righteous anger. Kenji was glad she'd believed him when he'd said he wasn't a scavenger.
"Repairing him will be a simple matter," the closer woman said.
Kenji shook his head, lifted the inert but heavy Kay, and dragged him into the shuttle. The roar of an engine came from somewhere below the edge of the cliff. The drones' owner? And his ship?
As Kenji settled Kay on the deck, the faint buzzes of weapons fire came from outside. Something slammed into the side of his shuttle, knocking him into a wall.
Cursing, he ran to the hatchway, though he wasn't foolish enough to go back outside. A huge black vulture-shaped ship hovered over the cliff, casting a winged shadow. A railgun mounted on its belly swiveled toward them. It fired at the astroshamans' shuttle, blowing a hole in the side.
The women ran for cover by the wreck, but the railgun swiveled to follow them. It fired again, blasting a blizzard's worth of ice and snow into the air.
Kenji had no idea whose ship that was, but he felt it his duty to try to protect the women, astroshamans or not. He fired at the hull, realized his bullets would do nothing against the armored vessel, and targeted the railgun. Maybe he would get lucky and blow it off.
But it was one of the twins who came up with an effective attack. She dipped into that pocket of endless wonders, threw something at the ship hovering over them, and dove away before a railgun blast slammed into her.
The projectile she'd thrown looked like little more than a large marble, but it splatted against the hull instead of clanging off. A field of sizzling blue energy spread from the device like wildfire ripping across a prairie. The railgun stopped firing, nothing but popping and crackling noises coming from its barrel.
The winged ship wheeled away, soaring over the cliff. Kenji stood on tiptoe, hoping to see it crash in the foothills far below, but after a few wobbles from its wings, it recovered and gained altitude. Before it had gone far, it disappeared from sight. He blinked. He knew about slydar hulls, and their ability to camouflage spaceships except from very close up, but he'd never witnessed such a craft before, never watched a ship disappear before his eyes.
He tensed, afraid it would bank and come back to attack again. But the clifftop grew silent.
The astroshamans tugged at the hems of their parkas, then smoothed them, the gestures so similar that Kenji was sure the word twins applied just fine to them. Even if there were more than two. They weren't quite identical, but they were very similar. If this Mari looked like them, identifying her wouldn't be a problem.
"Is the woman you want to catch armed as well as you two are?" Kenji asked.
"She did not leave our base without resources."
He'd been afraid of that. |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 4 | From the icy tundra behind the military aircraft hangar, Mari sat on her air bike and contemplated the gray smoke rising from the mountains. Unless she was mistaken, it originated from the clifftop she had just searched. Was someone bombing the wreck? Whoever had been approaching in a shuttle as she'd left?
When she'd heard the craft flying in, she'd hurried to leave, not wanting anyone to spot her up there. She had no idea if the Kingdom military had placed some claim on the wreck and would drive off—or shoot—trespassers. Someone had spent a lot of time up there, scavenging and looting the remains.
Fortunately, they hadn't thought of the science labs as places that held valuables. Mari had found some of her equipment, including her prototype terraformer. The compact spherical device didn't look like much from the outside, but it held a tiny fusion reactor and had the power to break down the surface layers on a hundred square miles of land, creating rich fertile soil and depositing seeds and growth-enhancing enzymes. Essentially, it could turn a portion of the inhospitable surface of a moon or planet into a thriving garden in a much shorter time period than traditional terraforming technologies.
She was proud of the work she'd done on it and relieved she'd found it still tucked in a cabinet in her lab. By offering this technology to the Kingdom, maybe she truly had a shot at winning asylum. A place in their world and protection from her family, who would doubtless prefer Mari shared nothing with humanity.
The hangar door rattled and started rolling open.
Mari hit reverse on her air bike and nudged it back around the corner. She pulled out a device that activated the same astroshaman stealth technology that hid their base in the Kingdom forest. The air shimmered faintly to her energy-detecting implants as a flexible camouflaging shield enrobed her and the bike. Unless someone came very close, they shouldn't see her.
Though the technology was powerful, it was good not to move when it was activated, so Mari put the bike on idle as the first of two aircraft roared out of the hangar. Their hulls were painted gray and blue, Kingdom military colors.
As soon as they took off, heading to the mountains to check out the smoke, Mari rode her bike into the hangar. Two aircraft remained parked inside, with voices coming from the other side of them.
She nudged her bike into a corner near stacks of supply crates so she could wait for her opportunity to catch a ride back to the mainland. Earlier, she'd spied on the soldiers and read their schedule, so she knew the same cargo ship that had flown up here to deliver supplies should have been emptied and would be heading back soon.
The voices, both belonging to women, continued on, talking about a mess needing to be cleaned up. At first, Mari took it literally and assumed some chemical spill might be endangering the hangar, but she didn't smell anything, nor did the women or any cleaning robots come out to attend to messes.
She nudged the bike forward, glad the battery-powered craft ran silently, and found the women—two soldiers in parkas and uniforms—pointing at a wall display. It showed the gray smoke wafting from the snowy clifftop.
The feed had to be coming from the camera of one of the aircraft flying closer, for it was a much better view than Mari had gotten from outside the hangar. Now, she could make out a gray shuttle perched on the cliff—surprisingly, not the one she'd seen arriving as she'd taken off on the bike. It was smoking, recently damaged by weapons fire. More damage appeared to have been done to the Celestial Dart too, though she couldn't imagine why.
Two figures in parkas came into view. They were working inside an open panel on the back of the shuttle, probably trying to repair it for flight. An uneasy feeling came over Mari. Even though she couldn't see their faces, they oozed familiarity.
One turned toward the camera, a pale face coming into view for a second, before poking the other. They ran inside, closing the hatch, and an instant later, the shuttle took off.
Mari sank low on her bike. That had been one of her sisters. No, two of her sisters.
How had they known she would come here? Mother must have sent them—and mentioned their sunrise conversation. If their shuttle—that was some rented Kingdom craft, not astroshaman technology—hadn't been damaged, would they have already found her?
Mari closed her eyes. Her escape had barely begun. She couldn't let them drag her back.
Now that her mother knew she wanted to leave the community, she wouldn't let Mari out of her sight again. She would never get another chance at freedom. She hadn't even done anything on her list yet.
She'd meant to acquire chocolate for her trip up here, or some other delectable human pastry or dessert she'd read about, but she'd received so many odd looks from people in Zamek City that she hadn't dared do something as prosaic as grocery shopping. On top of that, there were so many people in the Kingdom's capital. Millions of them in the streets, on the magtrains, in the subways, walking along sidewalks, shopping in stores. And all speaking. So few had communicated with each other via their chips. It had been overwhelming to her senses.
"Didn't know this duty station would have so much action," one of the women said, still watching the display.
"The only action I've gotten is in Sander's bunk."
"Lucky you. He's a cutie. So earnest, so handsome."
"He's earnest in bed too. If I had to get stuck up here in this armpit of an outpost, at least it was with someone with a squeezable ass."
They shared snickers.
It took Mari a moment to realize they were talking about sex. Even though she'd read books and seen vids, she hadn't been around people in sexual relationships very much. There were others like her in their teens and twenties who'd been birthed and raised in the astroshaman community and had an interest in such things, but far more were oldsters who'd been born into a normal human existence and come to the Advanced Path later in life. None of them seemed like promising partners, and most of them considered themselves above human biological needs now that they were ascending up the Path. They were experts at frowning with disapproval when any of the youths experimented with amorous activities.
"Be glad you've got a bed buddy. All I've got are my Moon Melters, and I'll have to ration my stash." The soldier rattled a bag of what must have been a food item, for she dug out a piece to toss into her mouth. "If what we unloaded from the supply ship is any indication, we're not getting anything good for our entire tour of duty."
"You don't think the crate labeled firm cakes sounded promising?"
"Not when I dropped it on my foot and it weighed fifty pounds. No good cake could be that heavy."
"Military rations are meant to be filling. And firm."
"Like cement bricks."
The ding of a comm unit came from another room, and the women trooped through a doorway and into a corridor of offices. They'd left something on a table under the display. A package. The aforementioned Moon Melters? What was that? Candy? Chocolate?
Mari eyed the cargo ship she needed to sneak into with her bike. The hatch was closed and likely locked. Her software for thwarting electronic locks would take a minute or so to run, and the soldiers might come back any second, so she shouldn't dawdle. She knew that, but her curiosity turned that package of candy into a neodymium super magnet.
With great willpower, she made herself ride over to the cargo ship first. She rested her hand against the lock while running a program to find the right combination of electronic signals to order it to open.
From her spot, she could see the label on the candy bag. It was the package of Moon Melters.
The women hadn't returned yet. Maybe she could—
A breeze whispered through the hangar door, bringing the distant sound of an engine. The soldiers returning?
The lock thunked open, the hatch unsealing and rising as a ramp lowered. She drove her bike inside, a much easier feat than it had been when the cargo area had been full of crates. Only a few crates remained to be unloaded—or maybe they were going back to the mainland for some reason.
Mari tucked her bike against the wall beside them, stepped off, and trotted to the open hatch. She paused on the ramp to look back.
Since she was carrying her cloaking device with her, the bike was now visible. Visible and blatantly out of place in the cargo hold. Any soldier peeking inside would be puzzled about where it had come from. And the sound of an approaching engine was getting louder. The aircraft had to be angling for the hangar.
"This will just take a second," she whispered, trusting her cloaking technology would continue to make her hard to detect.
As Mari hopped to the ground and ran across the hangar to the table, the display continued to show footage of the cliff. At least one of the military aircraft remained there, recording the area around the wreck. Her sisters must have repaired their shuttle well enough, for it had successfully taken off. Was it possible they knew where she was and were heading here?
"Can't dawdle," she whispered.
Mari picked up the package of Moon Melters. It was nearly full. Another reason not to linger. The soldiers would surely return soon for their prize.
She dumped several of the items into her palm. They were brown lumps and didn't look as appealing as she had expected. They reminded her of animal droppings more than moon rocks. She sniffed the open package, debating if the faintly waxy scent promised something delicious. The contents did smell sweet. Wasn't there a human expression about appearances—and perhaps scents—being deceiving?
The engine roared closer, and she spun, about to run back into the shuttle with her prize, but she realized she was stealing candies without paying for them. A twinge of guilt came over her. It was a small theft, but...
As she fished into her pockets, depositing the candies and seeking some barter of equal value that she could leave, the pitch of the engine changed. It was landing outside instead of flying into the hangar. Maybe she had a couple more seconds.
She couldn't leave any of her weapons or various tools behind as payment. They had far more value than lumpy brown candies, and she would need them in her adventures. Her fingers brushed a wrapped rectangular item. Ah ha.
She laid a ration bar on the table. Her people made them out of the edible mushrooms and algae they could easily grow on their spaceships. They weren't particularly appealing, but they were nutritionally substantive. A soldier would appreciate such a gift.
Mari turned to run back but spotted someone standing in the hangar doorway, someone with a rifle pointing at her. The young man with bronze skin, short black hair, and intent brown eyes wasn't what she'd expected. He definitely wasn't an astroshaman or anyone her sisters or mother would have sent. Judging by his mishmash of clothing, none of it appearing warm enough for this climate, he wasn't a soldier either.
With her camouflage activated, he should have struggled to see her, but that didn't seem to be the case. He was looking right at her.
Only then did she realize she was standing in front of the display. Her technology could hide her effectively against stationary objects, but the movement on the display had to be a challenge for it to match itself to. He was squinting, so she doubted he could see her well. She risked sliding to the side.
His eyebrows flew up, and the rifle followed her, but its aim was less certain once she was out from in front of the display.
"Stop right there!" It was a whisper instead of a shout, immediately making her positive that he'd sneaked into the area too—and that the soldiers would object to his presence. "I need to... talk to you."
Sure, he did. With a firearm.
Was this another scavenger who wanted some astroshaman technology? Mari had the urge to sprint toward the cargo ship, but fast movement would also make it difficult for her cloaking technology to compensate. She made herself ease soundlessly toward the open hatch.
He glanced at the door leading to the offices, frowned briefly at the bar on the table next to the rest of the candies, and stepped warily into the hangar. He murmured something into a comm link too quietly for her to hear the words, then trotted in her direction. Though he kept his rifle up, he didn't fire at her.
She pulled out a compact stunner, opting for that instead of the more painful—and potentially deadly—arc blaster, one of her people's favored defensive weapons. Thus far, she didn't know who this man was, but if she started killing Kingdom citizens, the probability of her gaining asylum on their world would plummet.
Unfortunately, he headed straight for the cargo ship and the open hatch. She picked up her pace, but he got there first, springing lightly onto the ramp and glancing inside. His glance turned into a second look, and she knew he'd spotted her air bike. She had no choice but to stun him.
But a second before she squeezed the trigger, he stepped inside. She was off to the side and couldn't see into the hold yet.
The sound of another engine grew audible. The display on the wall had turned off. The aircraft that had been recording the clifftop had to be flying back. Had the second one chased off her sisters? Mari hoped so.
She hesitated beside the cargo ramp, debating if she wanted to leap inside and stun the man or simply wait for him to come out. If the soldiers returned and found an unconscious body in their ship, they might start searching for her. Her cloaking technology fooled human eyes well, but it wouldn't stand up well to a hangar full of soldiers with scanners.
A soft clack came from inside. Was he messing with her bike?
Mari leaned around the corner of the hatchway, finger on the trigger, but he startled her both by being right inside and by throwing something at her. A gritty brown powdery substance struck her full in the face and plastered her open eyes and mouth. Whatever it was surprised her with a sweet taste, but that didn't keep her from stumbling back.
She heard a thump as he leaped down from the ramp, and she fired at him. But with the gritty stuff tearing her eyes, she missed and hit the side of the cargo ship. Her attacker bowled into her, probably seeing her easily in the middle of a brown cloud of powder that hadn't yet dissipated. Before she could shoot again, he caught her around the waist and knocked her to the ground.
A strong hand tore the stunner from her grip and flung it across the hangar. It clattered far out of her reach as it bounced across the cement floor. He wasn't a huge hulk of a man, and Mari tried to buck him free, but he was strong, tenacious, and had the body weight advantage, so he succeeded in pinning her to the floor. As she squirmed, she maneuvered her hand toward a pocket, not the one with the candy but the one with her arc blaster.
"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered, squeezing her tightly as he tried to flip her over and pull her arms behind her back. He managed to get her onto her side, but she fought mightily. She needed to free a hand to grab her weapon. "But your sisters hired me," he added. "They said you went rogue with their information."
"I don't know what that means," Mari growled, jerking her arm free, "but it's not true."
"They said you're a fugitive. They're paying to get you back."
"I'm not a fugitive. You don't know anything about it. Let me go."
Mari managed to clip him in the stomach with her elbow. Judging by his gasp and pained grunt, that might have been lower than his stomach. His grip loosened enough for her to grab her arc blaster.
She spun onto her back, startling him, and for a moment, they were face to face in some parody of a lovers' embrace. He must have realized she'd pulled her weapon free, for he grabbed her wrist. But she fired first, the burst of energy slamming into him like an electrical current and knocking him back.
"Not again!" he gasped around jaws spasming open and closed.
Mari scrambled away as he rolled on the floor, his entire body jerking and flopping about, his face contorted in pain. If he hadn't just tackled her, she might have felt sympathy for him, but anyone willing to hunt someone down for money, not knowing if they were innocent or guilty, deserved some pain.
Aware of the roar of the engine growing ever louder, Mari sprinted for her stunner. She released the button on her arc blaster as she picked up the less lethal weapon.
The spasms of his body lessened, and from flat on his back, he managed to say, "Thank God. That thing is horrible."
She stepped into his view and pointed the stunner at his face. "I am not rogue."
"Uh." His bleary eyes focused on the muzzle of the weapon. "You didn't run away from your people with top-secret valuable information?"
"I did not run. I walked away with only the information in my brain."
"Is it top-secret and valuable?"
She opened her mouth to deliver an indignant answer, but Mother and her siblings might genuinely feel that way. It had been almost ten years since she'd finished her schooling and moved from the derivative work of replicating others' experiments to running her own and creating devices such as the prototype terraformer.
He must have found her pause condemning, for his wary gaze turned into a suspicious squint, and she could see him trying to figure out how to relieve her of her weapon. She stunned him. He only had time to get half a curse out before losing consciousness.
"Of course the information in my brain is valuable, you idiot." She should have said that before she shot him.
Alas, there wasn't time to pin a note with the message to his chest. The engine was roaring closer, and she had no doubt that the aircraft would swing into the hangar. And find the stunned man and start a search unless she could hide his inert form quickly.
Mari grabbed him under the armpits and leaned her body weight into pulling him across the floor. The upgrades to her skeletal system and a few muscular enhancements that Mother had given all of her children helped, but she was not some cybernetically enhanced supersoldier. With much grunting, under-her-breath swearing, and straining of muscles, she dragged him toward the closest stack of crates. As she got him tucked out of sight, the aircraft she had expected roared into the hangar.
Only one flew in, hopefully meaning the other was indeed chasing her sisters out of the area. Mari didn't want them to be harmed, but if they were driven all the way back to their forest base on the mainland, it might give her time to reach Zamek City again and speak with people who could grant her asylum. And if they refused... she could leave the Kingdom and try another system. Somewhere far away from bounty hunters, or whatever this man was, and her oppressive family.
Mari made sure her camouflaging device was active again and crept out from behind the crates. The pilot was hopping out of his aircraft, and she grimaced. He'd landed close to the cargo ship with its suspiciously open hatch and the also suspicious pile of brown powder that had settled to the floor.
The pilot glanced at the cargo ship, but he must have assumed that one of his fellow soldiers had left it open. Without checking inside to see her damning air bike, he trotted toward the offices.
Just as she thought she was in the clear, he paused at the table and stared down at the ration bar and the package of candies. Mari slumped against a crate. Would her guilt and need to deliver a fair trade result in the search she'd been trying so hard to avoid?
He reached for the goods but grabbed the package of candies instead of the bar. He tilted his head back, dumped the brown Moon Melters into his mouth, shoved the now-empty package in his pocket, and continued toward the offices.
Not questioning her luck, Mari made sure the bounty hunter was still unconscious, then ran toward the cargo ship. She hoped he was a criminal bounty hunter and that the soldiers would find him and have a lot of questions for him. No, maybe she didn't. That could lead them to realizing she was stowing away on their cargo ship.
The thought made her halt, run back, and find a tarp. She draped it over him like a blanket. Better they not find him at all.
With that accomplished, she hid in the cargo ship and closed the hatch. One of the crates was open that hadn't been before, and she peeked inside. The bounty hunter must have done that. A canister was open with a label that read cocoa drink mix powder.
Was that what he'd thrown at her? She wiped her face, finding some of the gritty stuff still on her nose and in her eyelashes. Someone had written past the expiration date on the top of it and several other food containers in the crate.
As minutes passed, Mari debated what she would do if the bounty hunter woke up from the stun before a pilot came back to fly the cargo ship to the mainland. But the engine soon reverberated through the deck, letting her know that it was being made ready to fly. Another minute, and it navigated out of the hangar and took to the air. Nobody had checked the cargo hold.
Thankful, Mari leaned against her air bike and pulled off her pack. She hoped the bounty hunter hadn't damaged any of her equipment, especially the terraformer.
A couple of the favorite tools she'd collected from the lab had been bent in the skirmish, and she frowned. It didn't seem right that they had survived a crash only to come to a bad end in her backpack. Hopefully, she could fix them. At least the terraformer was in an insulated box. She let out a relieved breath when she pulled out the dormant sphere, flicked it on, and the glowing indicators came to life. It was ready to terraform a planet, or at least a hundred square miles of a planet.
Who in this planet's government would appreciate such technology? Mari had been reading about the new Kingdom queen, Oku, and knew she was a scientist. A botanist by training who engineered seeds to grow plants that thrived on space stations. She would appreciate terraforming technology; Mari was certain of it. But how to get it to her?
The queen would be in her castle, guarded by hundreds of trained men and security robots who would forbid an astroshaman—or even an unknown Kingdom subject—from entering the premises. She highly doubted she could send a contact request direct to Queen Oku's chip and that she would accept it.
As she put away her device, she pulled up a digital copy of the recent bestselling novel by Kim Sato, wondering if it might have any clues as to how she could get an audience with the queen. Mari had already read it, since it was the Kingdom's rendition of the events that had led up to the battle between the Kingdom Fleet and the astroshamans, but it was mostly about Sato, Casmir Dabrowski, a couple of knights, genetically engineered cat women, and a crazy bounty hunter lady from another system. The mercenary Tenebris Rache had also featured in it. A strange collection of characters. Her mother had called it propagandistic drivel and forbidden Mari to read it. Naturally, she'd read it three times.
It occurred to her that the author was good friends with Minister Dabrowski, the man who was now dating the queen. Could he be a possible route to Oku?
No, Dabrowski also knew Mari's mother. They might have started as enemies, but now they had a truce—he'd even given her that crusher—so he might tell Mother that Mari was in his city.
Maybe Kim Sato was a better option. The novel had mentioned her home, a cottage on the Zamek University campus. Was it possible she still lived there? The book hadn't been written that long ago. A university campus would be easier to gain access to than a heavily guarded castle. And this Kim Sato was also a scientist, perhaps someone who would see the merits of a terraforming device... and an astroshaman looking to defect.
"That's the plan," Mari whispered. "Find Kim Sato, show her my equipment, show her my earnestness, and see if she can get me an audience with the queen."
Nerves tangled in her belly. It was quite possible this path would lead her to an audience with a dungeon—or a torture chamber. What if neither the queen, Sato, nor anyone else in the Kingdom believed Mari was what she said she was?
She poked into her pocket, determined to put the worries out of her mind. It would be hours before she got back to the capital, and she had a plan to follow. There was little point in fretting.
Most of the Moon Melters had fallen out during her skirmish, and she found only two sad brown nuggets with lint attached to them. She wiped them off and stuck her tongue out to taste one. The coating wasn't that appealing—she remembered the waxy scent she'd detected—and if she hadn't seen the soldier scarf down the entire bag, she might have tossed the candies away, but she plopped one into her mouth and chewed with determination. She had left her people to experience life as a human, and humans ate Moon Melters.
The candy was sweeter than the scent led her to expect, and under the layer of coating, there were crunchy pieces mixed into a gooey substance that pleased her taste buds. It took a few seconds of analysis before she decided she liked the combination.
She ate the second candy slowly, knowing it was her last. When it was gone, she was disappointed that she hadn't managed to keep more of them. If she ran into that bounty hunter again, she would let him know how inconsiderate he'd been to tackle her and send her Moon Melters flying. And then she would shoot him again. Possibly not with the stunner. |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 5 | Kenji woke on his back, his vision blocked by something blue. He was shaking—no, shivering. The chill from cold hard cement seeped through his clothing and into his stiff body.
Before he figured out where he was, someone lifted the blue blanket off him. A tarp, he realized, feeling like a pile of lumber covered in someone's backyard.
He lifted his hands protectively, expecting soldiers with rifles or the woman—Mari—with her horrible astroshaman weapons. Kay stood looking down at him, the tarp in his metal hand, the open hangar door behind him.
"Where are the soldiers?" Kenji rolled gingerly onto his side, his entire body aching, both from the aftereffects of the stun and because he'd been left lying on a freezing floor. "And who repaired you?"
Since he'd been hoping to catch up with his prey, Kenji hadn't taken the time to run a diagnostic on Kay. When last he'd seen his robot buddy, Kay had been dented and offline, lying on the deck of their rented shuttle. He'd had a hunch Mari might plan to stow away on a military vessel heading back to the mainland—the only other place on the island where one might find a ship was a harbor that supported only ocean-going ships—and he'd been right. For all the good it had done him. He was lucky she hadn't killed him.
Some bounty hunter. Less than an hour into his mission, and his target had electrocuted him and stunned him. His father would have been so proud to see the results of Kenji's childhood training and gene enhancements.
"I waited until none of them were present in the hangar," Kay replied, "but they left the rolling door open, so it is likely they expect another aircraft, which could arrive at any time. I suggest you move swiftly and we retreat before they come out to investigate the shuttle that you opted to land distressingly close to their base."
"I didn't realize my parking spot caused you discomfort. I thought it was clever feigning mechanical failure and landing behind their satellite dish. It's about the only cover out there." Kenji stood up, wobbled, and caught himself on a nearby crate. Had Mari dragged him back here all by herself? Strong woman. He'd been foolish to take her on without more of a plan than, Stop! I want to talk! But he'd been afraid she would get out of the Arctic and be much harder to track if he didn't act quickly.
"It was not clever," Kay said. "It was brazen."
"In some contexts, the word brazen would be considered complimentary."
"Not in this context. You can imagine my alarm when I came out of my repair cycle and noticed I had not only been left on the deck of a shuttle by myself but that said shuttle was parked less than a quarter mile from the military outpost we have been seeking to avoid. Of course, as an innocent robot, I should have nothing to fear from Kingdom soldiers, but since I have been associating with a thief of late, one never knows what kind of retribution might be in store."
"I doubt they'd zap you worse than the astroshamans did." Kenji hadn't seen Kay's zapping but trusted it had been as unpleasant as the not one but two zappings he'd now received. He rubbed his aching chest at the memory.
Kay's head swiveled on its neck mount. "An aircraft has come within range of my auditory detectors."
"We should leave then." Kenji hobbled toward the door, his legs like jelly. If he had to run before the effects of the stun wore off, he would end up face-planting.
"Precisely what I've been saying. You are fortunate the soldiers have not come out to investigate our shuttle. Perhaps they have been distracted by the winged ship at the wreckage."
"Let's hope."
As they left the hangar, hustling across the packed snow and around the corner of the building, Kenji also picked up the sound of an approaching aircraft. Probably one of the two that had flown up to investigate the skirmish atop the cliff. He and Kay needed to get to the shuttle, but he worried about being spotted by the incoming pilot.
"As for repairs," Kay continued, "it is within my base-level programming to run a diagnostic via my backup CPU, should my main CPU ever be knocked offline, and issue any repairs necessary to my software and operating system before attempting to come back online. Unfortunately, I must rely on humans to hammer out dents and repair wiring."
Kenji could hear the aircraft getting closer, so he tugged Kay to the side of the hangar. They could run for the shuttle after the military craft landed inside.
"I trust you will repair me fully on the way back to civilization," Kay said. "As if being electrocuted by a crabby astroshaman wasn't bad enough, this cold is gnawing away my lubrication like a flesh-eating bacteria."
"Thank you for the imagery." Kenji pressed his back against the hangar as the aircraft flew inside. He noticed a camera on the wall above them and wondered anew how the soldiers hadn't spotted them—or their shuttle.
"Did I mention the snow? When the wind blows, the tiny crystals embed themselves in my seams. This is particularly noticeable on my left side where the gaps between my shoulder, arm, and torso panels are greater than on my right. I am not ungrateful to you, since you did bring me to life from scrap, but I do admit to a longing for a slightly more refined body."
"Many humans long for that. Join the support group."
Soft clanks sounded as the hangar door rolled closed.
"Is there a network address you can refer me to?" Kay sounded serious.
Kenji imagined an online forum where robots bitched to each other about their assembly deficits. "I'll look it up later. Come on."
He pointed toward the satellite dish and their shuttle parked behind it, hoping he could take off again without being noticed.
He and Kay made it to the dish without anyone running out of the hangar to ask who they were, and he was almost laughing at how easy it had been to get in and out—given that two different women had kicked his ass today, he decided smugness wasn't called for—when they rounded the shuttle and came face to face with two soldiers in parkas. One of them, a man, had forced open the hatch and was about to step inside, and his cohort, a woman, was pointing a rifle right at Kenji.
Kenji halted so quickly that Kay bumped into him. The armed woman scowled at them.
Panic flashed through Kenji, and he jerked his hands up as he groped for a way to save himself.
"Oh, there you are," he blurted loudly over the woman's demand to know who they were. Kenji pretended he hadn't heard her question and pointed to the hangar. "We were looking for someone in there. I was hoping one of you fine soldiers might be able to help us. We came up for some sightseeing, but the shuttle we rented in the capital is flying terribly. All the way here, it was making noises and spitting plumes of black smoke like the Castle Tower geyser on its hourly eruption."
The soldiers blinked and looked at each other. Whatever they'd expected him to say, that wasn't it.
"This is one of the shuttles that was at the wreck," the woman told the man. "Sightseeing."
"Yes." Kenji could hardly deny it when they'd likely been caught on camera by the military aircraft. "But I barely got it back in the air. It's just a rental, you see. Not reliable. I'm concerned it won't make it back to the capital. Is there any chance you have a mechanic or someone here who can look at it? I can pay."
"This isn't a service station," the male soldier snapped.
"We are the only facility for a hundred miles in every direction," the woman said.
"If people wouldn't fly up here, they wouldn't need the use of facilities."
"I didn't intend to bother you," Kenji said. "As I said, I'll pay of course."
"I could use some more Moon Melters," the woman grumbled. "Someone slurped up all of mine like a vacuum robot with its nozzle stuck on turbo-suck."
Kenji was familiar with the candy—he remembered finagling some from an elderly vendor in one of the public markets when he'd been a boy—but he'd been thinking more along the lines of the crowns the astroshamans had given him for his five percent. It also crossed his mind to bribe them to let him go. Would that work?
"Let's see the problem," the man said, eyeing Kenji suspiciously.
"It'll be apparent if you turn it on. And you're welcome to do that. You know the old saying. He who has the biggest gun does whatever the hell he pleases."
"If only that were true." The man climbed inside, leaving the woman still pointing her weapon at Kenji.
He kept his hands up and attempted to look innocent.
A gust of wind sent snow skidding across the tundra. Kay sighed.
"Uneven gaps?" Kenji asked.
"You know my difficulties well."
"Especially since you've been so kind as to make me aware of them. Repeatedly."
The shuttle started up with a hiccup, two shudders, and an uneven rumble. A vent spat enough black smoke that the woman stepped back, as if afraid the craft would explode. It did seem to be a possibility.
"You flew here in this thing?" She pointed her rifle at it. "You must have really wanted to sightsee."
"I find astroshaman technology fascinating. They're a strange but interesting people, don't you agree?"
"They can all go to hell," the man called from inside the shuttle. "They demolished entire blocks in several of our cities while trying to steal an artifact that was rightfully ours. If I ever see one of their kind again, I'll shoot 'em between the eyes."
"You might want to be careful calling them interesting." The woman was less vitriolic, but her eyes were cold, their focus back on Kenji.
"Yes, of course. It's really more their technology that calls to me than them per se." Though one was calling to him now. The one worth fifty thousand crowns.
More plumes of black smoke came out of the exhaust vent. The male soldier leaned out to look at it. "Guess the kid isn't lying after all."
"We believe in being forthright and honest and doing the right thing," Kay said.
Kenji nodded. "It's true."
"Uh huh. Bunch of scavengers." The man hopped out with a toolkit and scanner, and opened the engine panel in the back of the craft.
"You're lucky," the woman said. "In addition to being an expert candy thief and a mediocre pilot, Corporal Sock is our aircraft mechanic."
"I don't know how you're so sure it was me," Sock said, his voice losing the frostiness from the astroshaman discussion. "There aren't even any working cameras in the hangar."
"You'll eat anything sweet. Even the rock-hard and rock-heavy military firm cakes that keep coming with our rations."
"The chocolate chunk cakes aren't so bad."
"True. I used one to squash an arctic wolf spider in my shower the other day. Loathsome thing. You wouldn't think the original colonists would have felt the need to bring the embryos of so many of Old Earth's species to Odin."
"I'm sure arctic wolf spiders fulfill an important ecological niche," Sock said.
"The niche under my five-pound firm cake, yes."
Kenji looked at Kay, amazed at how chatty these soldiers were—and that the corporal was actually doing some repairs to the shuttle. He'd been certain they would throw him in whatever the tiny outpost's equivalent of a jail was. Probably a storage closet full of these dubious firm cakes.
If they truly helped him and let him go, he would have to reassess his opinion of the military. As someone who'd grown up on the wrong side of the law—thanks, Father—he was predisposed to mistrust and dislike anyone in a uniform.
"They shouldn't be renting this thing out to anyone. The parts are older than I am." Sock pulled out an air filter choked with black particles and crud. "Possibly older than anyone is."
"The life-extension treatments available in other systems mean there are some pretty old people out there," the woman said.
Sock blew off the filter the best he could and inserted it again. "I stand by my statement."
He tweaked a few more things, grumbling about the lack of replacement parts, then closed the panel. "It might get you back to the capital. Fly slow. Don't stop to sightsee along the way."
"Did he steal anything from the wreckage?" the woman asked, cocking an eyebrow toward Kenji.
"Not that I saw," Sock said.
Only then did it occur to Kenji that his invitation to have the soldier repair the shuttle had also allowed him to snoop inside.
"All right. You and your dilapidated robot can go." The woman pointed toward the hatch.
"Dilapidated?" Kay protested. "I am a perfectly serviceable robotic companion. The dents I have received while assisting my human creator in battle are badges of honor."
"Is that corrosion?" She waved at the piece of copper that made up his abdomen.
"It is a patina that adds character to my housing that other robots lack."
"Uh huh."
Kenji patted Kay, whispered a low, "Sh," then told the soldiers, "Thank you for your help."
"You're lucky it was a slow day," the woman said. "We only had four scavenger ships to chase off. I recommend you don't come back. It can be dangerous up here."
"Just ask the spiders." Sock winked at Kenji before putting away the toolkit and walking toward the hangar with his colleague.
"We got lucky today," Kenji said when he and Kay were back in the shuttle and taking off.
"That is an interesting statement from a man I recently found unconscious under a tarp."
"You didn't find me dead under the tarp. I consider that lucky." Kenji rubbed his achy chest again. "I may have underestimated this Mari. Given the reputation astroshamans have, it's surprising she didn't kill me."
"Will you continue to pursue her?"
"For fifty thousand crowns? You better believe it. That's life-changing money for someone like me." And, dear God, how he wanted his life to change. "We are going to have to get some better weapons before confronting her again." He wondered how much it would cost him to get a stunner, energy nets, and whatever might be out there for thwarting the fancy astroshaman technology that could make her invisible to the naked eye. Had he truly been a bounty hunter, he would have had all of those things and more. "It was rash of me to try to capture her without even a stunner."
"Some would even say foolish."
"But my loyal robot companion wouldn't be so insulting."
"Hm."
Kenji set course for the mainland and eventually Zamek City. Maybe it was his imagination, but the shuttle seemed to jerk and wobble less after the mechanic's brief tinkering.
He wondered what the soldiers would have done if his story about needing repairs hadn't been as convincing. Or if they'd caught him and Mari fighting in their hangar. Their frostiness toward astroshamans might have made them shoot her outright and not with a stunner. Since she'd had the opportunity to kill him and hadn't, he wasn't inclined to want her dead. Also, her sister had stipulated that she be brought back alive for the knowledge in her head. If Kenji wanted his reward money, he couldn't let anyone kill Mari.
"You have set course for Zamek City," Kay said. "Do you believe she will go there?"
"I'm guessing the military cargo ship she's stowing away on is going back there. They have a huge base north of the city, between the urban area and the launch loop. I think most of the military supplies for the continent—and the arctic outpost—are distributed from there."
"Since she has an air bike, could she not open the hatch and let herself out at any point along the way? There are numerous cities along the coast north of the capital, as well as towns inland."
"That's a good point."
Kenji thought of her rental bike and the stickers he'd seen on the back. He'd gotten a picture of them, so he brought them up on his glasses display and murmured a search query to look for matches on the public network.
"That blazing-engines sticker is from Rent the Stars." Kenji laughed. "She got her air bike from the same place we got our shuttle."
Maybe, when he turned in his shuttle, he would see if he could ask—or bribe—the clerk for the ident chip of Mari's air bike. With the right software, he might be able to track her down with that.
"An interesting coincidence," Kay said.
"I think it's just that we both found the only place in the city that would rent vehicles to people without banking chips or proper identification. That's implied by the sign out front. We take gold, silver, jewelry, and trade. No questions asked!"
"Yes, but why do you think an astroshaman would have traveled to such a populated place as Zamek City? It is as likely that the police will apprehend her as they would you."
"Maybe she planned all along to get a ride on a military cargo ship leaving from Zamek City. Also, the police shouldn't have gotten a good look at me at the greenhouses. There shouldn't be a warrant out for my arrest." Or so he hoped.
"The Main Event got a good look at you."
"True, but I think he's an independent, not someone who works alongside the police. His methods are unorthodox. Meaning often illegal. They should be trying to arrest him."
Kenji rubbed his hip. Though he had bigger bruises elsewhere now, he hadn't forgotten being knocked to the ground by the over-muscled superhero. It worried him that he was heading back to the city the Main Event had told him to leave.
Only long enough to capture Mari, he told himself.
"Perhaps the police do not wish to be thrown against trees." Kay mirrored his gesture and rubbed one of the dents in his metal torso.
"We'll use some of the money the astroshaman gave me to pick up weapons and supplies so that such things will be less likely to happen in the future." Kenji started some new searches, specifically for energy nets and other tools useful for bounty hunters who didn't like to be bested by their prey.
"Are there supplies that can keep one's robot from being smashed against dendritic obstacles?"
"I think so. This catalog I dug up on the network has everything from caltrops to stunners to police flex-cuffs to armored tanks and drones to historically accurate landmines from the era of the World Wars on Old Earth."
"I believe tanks and landmines would be more likely to result in robots being smashed into dendritic obstacles than less."
"That's true. We'll stick with the stunners and flex-cuffs. Besides, tanks and landmines are out of my price range."
"As a robotic tutor designed to encourage good social development and acceptable law-abiding behavior from his charges, I won't mention my concern at the chagrin in your voice."
"I'm your creator, not your charge, so I don't think you need to feel responsible for my social development."
"That's a relief." |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 6 | Mari did not find it difficult to locate Kim Sato's address in the directory of Zamek University's student and faculty housing, nor was there a security checkpoint that she had to navigate through to get onto the campus. But as she drove the air bike through the streets to the residential area, she noticed law-enforcement drones with cameras flying about in threes and fours.
Were they on the hunt for a criminal? Mari pulled the hood of her parka up to hide her face.
The night air wasn't as cold here as in the Arctic Islands, but it was damp and misty, so she didn't think her disguise was that out of place. Perhaps the drones disagreed. A group of four of them started following her, having no trouble keeping up with the air bike.
Maybe she was exceeding the speed limit. She forced herself to slow down, though she had the urge to crank it to top speed to evade them.
A teenage girl peddling a wheeled bicycle came from the opposite direction, several boxes and bags from shopping destinations piled precariously on a perch behind the seat. The drones buzzed off to follow her.
Odd but fortunate. Mari's plans would be seriously derailed if she were captured by the authorities. If she had any chance at being believed as someone who wanted to help the Kingdom, she had to approach the government first.
Queen Oku would never believe her story if she shared it from behind bars, even if she volunteered to be questioned with truth drugs. Judging by the general opinion on their public networks about astroshamans, they would think she had some technological—or magical and mystical—ability to thwart drugs. Which was silly, since her biological body worked the same as that of a normal human.
A scream came from behind her, and Mari halted her bike to look back. A few other students were out walking or riding in the rain, and they also froze to peer toward the noise. The girl had fallen off her bicycle, and the drones were buzzing away from her, carrying the boxes and bags that had been stacked behind her seat. How strange.
The girl sprang to her feet, shouting that the drones were stealing from her, and rode her bicycle after them, yelling for help. For a second, Mari was tempted to lend assistance—with her faster air bike, she might be able to catch up with the drones, and she did have weapons that could knock them out of the air—but that would draw attention to her. Besides, for all she knew, the girl had stolen those items, and the drones were returning them to their owners. Given that they had Campus Security written on the sides, that seemed more likely than a random theft by robots.
"I've got to stop drinking after classes," a young man nearby muttered and continued his trek to wherever he'd been going.
Once the bicyclist and the drones were out of sight, the rest of the pedestrians returned to their business. Mari brought up the campus map on her ocular implants again, the information feeding through her cranial nerves to form the image in her mind. Only six blocks to Sato's house. Good.
She rehearsed what she would say when she arrived. Greetings, I'm Mari Moonrazor—no, she had better not mention her surname. The Kingdom soldiers who'd battled the astroshamans had interacted with High Shaman Moonrazor and might not think favorably of her.
Greetings, I'm Mari, an agronomist researcher and terraforming expert who wants to defect from her people and seeks asylum in the Kingdom.
That was better. Agronomists were unthreatening and had no link specifically to high shamans. Should she tell everything to Kim Sato? She was the only conduit Mari could imagine that might lead her to the queen, but Mari suspected she would have to convince her of a lot before Sato would consider making that introduction.
Another pair of drones whizzed down the street as Mari was about to turn onto the dead-end road that led to Sato's cottage. They slowed down and hovered in the intersection. They had cameras at four points on their disc-shaped bodies, so it was only her imagination that they were watching her specifically.
Or was it? The pedestrian traffic had diminished as she'd moved into the residential area, and nobody else was around.
Reluctant to have them track her to the house, Mari drove the bike past the turnoff. They spun to follow her.
She grimaced and kept driving, hoping they would find some other more interesting target to stalk. They couldn't be after her because of her backpack, could they? She'd passed a lot of students with such packs. Granted, hers bulged with the box, tools, and equipment she had jammed inside, but it didn't look anything like a stolen shopping bag.
But the drones continued to pursue her, even as she drove down a side street. Maybe they had scanners more sophisticated than the simple visual recording cameras she'd noticed. If so, they might know she had more cybernetic parts than the typical human. But that wasn't a crime. Even here in the somewhat backward Kingdom, a place that frowned on mechanical enhancements to the body outside of prescribed medical uses, people had cybernetic parts.
Two more drones flew out of a side street ahead. They turned and flew straight toward her. Not sure if they would try to halt her or fly past, she veered into the parking lot of an apartment complex. All four drones followed her.
What was this? Mari had picked Kim Sato as a first point of contact because she'd assumed it would be easier to get onto a campus than into the queen's castle. Maybe that had been a mistake.
As she drove under trees with leafy branches extending over the sidewalk and pavement, she hoped the drones would be deterred, but she doubted it. She braced herself for them to voice orders for her to halt for a search or some such. With one hand, she surreptitiously drew her arc blaster from her pocket. It was designed to work on humans, but the electrical shock could short-circuit robots as well. And drones.
But they all had cameras, with footage that could likely be recovered even if they were wrecked, and what were the chances of her making it through a skirmish without her hood falling back?
She sped back out of the parking lot. Her bike was meant to be steered with hands on both handlebars, and it wobbled as she tried to follow a bend in the road while holding her weapon.
Without warning, all four drones zipped at her. They dove under tree branches or around the trunks like dire wolves attacking prey in the forests of Algar Nine.
Ready for them, Mari fired at the closest two. Her first shot connected, blasting the drone across the street with a satisfying zap of electricity, but her bike wobbled again, and she missed the second one. Something thumped her in the back—one of the other drones. She spun to shoot at it but pitched sideways, almost falling out of her seat.
Cursing, she halted the bike and jumped off, crouching beside it for cover as she fired again. She'd caught the first drone by surprise, but the remaining three had enough intelligence to be ready for her attacks. Her target anticipated her and zipped sideways as her blast sizzled through the air, hitting a tree branch instead. The branch cracked and fell to the street, twigs snapping and leaves flying. The scent of burning wood stung her nostrils.
Two drones flew at her from the front while the third circled behind her. She crouched low, putting her back to the bike, bumping her pack against it, and fired at that one. For some reason, they wanted to hit her from behind. She was surprised they didn't have stunner technology to deal with people they wanted to arrest. Maybe they did and they just hadn't used it yet.
She fired, her target too close to evade her in time. Her shot only clipped the drone, but that was enough to knock it ten feet. It crashed into a block of mailboxes and fell lifeless to the ground.
While she was distracted, the two others swept in again. They bumped her, one thudding against her shoulder and one the back of her head. It was so puzzling that she didn't react for a moment. Was this truly the arrest protocol here? She knocked one aside with her elbow, though striking its hard carapace hurt her more than it deterred the drone.
"Cease and desist," came a call from farther up the street.
"They're attacking me!" she blurted, bewildered as she imagined some scenario where she got in trouble for being a victim.
The two drones backed off as two wheeled security robots with humanoid torsos, heads, and arms whirred down the street.
"You are malfunctioning," one stated, speaking not to her but to her flying assailants. "Return to the drone depository."
From behind her bike, Mari watched the robots approach. The drones flew off between the trees and then over the rooftops of houses, but she wasn't convinced she would be safe from these new robots. She gripped her arc blaster, then realized they might be sophisticated enough to recognize it as astroshaman technology. She stuffed it in her pocket and groped for a story to explain what she couldn't begin to explain.
But the robots were focused on the retreating drones rather than Mari. Once they disappeared, they wheeled around and rolled back toward the main street.
Mari's mouth dangled open as she watched them go. A breeze blew the mist onto her cheeks, making her realize that her hood was down. She swore, yanking it back up. Had the robots identified her as anything other than a typical human? Had the drones?
She glanced around, hoping there weren't any pedestrians on the street. It was night, but copious street lamps illuminated the neighborhood. She didn't see anyone outside, but lights were on in several houses, and a couple of faces peered through curtains at her.
"Great."
She climbed on the air bike and drove slowly back to the main street, not wanting to catch up to the robots. With her ears straining to detect the whir of more drones, she returned to the intersection that led to Sato's cottage. It was clear of drones. Warily, she turned down the street toward the home at the end. A giant zindi tree in the yard partially blocked the cottage, but she could tell that the lights were on inside. She could also tell that a hulking black robot stood in front of the door.
No... She squinted. That wasn't a robot. It was a crusher.
It was identical to the one her mother had and, knowing how formidable the constructs were, Mari had no idea how to bypass it. The arc blaster wouldn't work, nor did she have anything else that could damage one. Even if she'd had a grenade and could blow it up, the nearly impervious crushers were capable of reassembling themselves within seconds. Not that she would have hurled explosives at the door guardian of someone she hoped to befriend. But what was she supposed to do?
Mari stopped her air bike on the sidewalk several houses away.
Since she'd read Sato's novel, she knew that a crusher was a constant companion for Minister Dabrowski, but Sato hadn't mentioned having one of her own in their adventures. She'd given the vibe, through the text, that she wasn't enamored with the killing machines, even though Dabrowski's apparently had personality and had been programmed to be a bodyguard rather than an aggressive killer. That didn't mean the one at the door was his. In the months since the book had been published, Sato might have gotten one of her own. An aggressive one.
Mari rubbed her face, wondering if this was worth it. Maybe there was someone else connected to the queen who would be easier to visit. Such as the knights that had also been a part of the events depicted in the book. Or even the genetically engineered cat woman or bounty-hunting pilot. But she had no idea if any of those people were on the planet right now. Besides, Sato was a scientist, like her, and Mari thought they would be more likely to form a kinship. Or at least an understanding. And a scientist should be rational and not as prone to jump to conclusions about astroshamans.
But this scientist was under the protection of a crusher. Mari stared glumly at the black robot, its face indistinct, only vague orifices where a human's eyes, nose, and mouth would be. She didn't know how to proceed.
The shuttle was smoking again by the time Kenji flew over the rental shop toward the landing and parking area behind the building. A crater—damage from the attacks on the capital that hadn't yet been repaired—ensured nobody parked out front. The bomb that had left it had also taken out what had once been a house-cleaning service on the same property. The sign out front had survived, but the building was missing. Meanwhile, a vehicle maintenance facility at the far end of the property had been left unscathed. The vicissitudes of the universe.
With the front parking area out of commission, the rear lot was packed. Kenji landed gingerly, setting the shuttle down among other aircraft, ground vehicles, racks of air bikes, and a random bratwurst vending cart. He eschewed the auto-park and guided them into a narrow slot, glad for his piloting skills even if he resented the man who'd instructed him. He'd only been nine or ten when he'd learned to fly, but he well remembered his father watching from the copilot's seat with his disapproving nothing-is-ever-good-enough glower firmly affixed.
"It is fortunate the shuttle is handling better," Kay said.
"If you don't mind the smoke billowing out of the back."
"Robots are indifferent to airborne particulates and gases."
"Unless they signal a swift and rapid hurtling to the ground from great heights?"
"They are concerning when they lead to that, yes," Kay said, "but our flight back to the city was without difficulty. I was able to run further diagnostics and download software updates over the network."
"It's good to be updated."
"It is. I trust you'll need my assistance to locate the astroshaman woman."
"I will." Kenji turned off the shuttle, looked for belongings to unload, and remembered that he had none. At least the wad of bills in his pocket ensured that he could buy the gear he needed to finish his task. "I'm prepared to bribe the clerk, if necessary, but the advance the astroshamans gave me won't last forever. The less I spend on bribes, the better. Let's plan for me to distract the clerk while you sidle around the counter, plug into his computer, and find out if Mari's air bike has been returned. If it hasn't, get the ident for its locator chip."
"Do you not think we could simply ask the clerk for that information?"
"The guy didn't even let me use the lavatory the last time we were here."
Kay looked over at him. "This indicates an unwillingness to share data?"
"If you're not willing to share your toilet, you're definitely not going to share data. Come on."
Kenji led Kay to the cracked and pitted walkway that took them past the crater and to the front entrance of the rental shop. One would have thought the owner would have put some caution tape around the great hole to keep customers from falling in, but other than an amusing orange cone ten feet down in the center, there were no warnings.
The buzzes and whirs of drills and other shop equipment came from the repair shop on the other side of the crater, and a surly-looking man in coveralls stood in an open side door, glaring at Kenji and Kay.
Kenji faltered, wondering if the man somehow recognized him—he lived in fear that he would come across some of the people his father had tormented in the past—but the glare seemed to be for the building behind them. Maybe the clerk had also rented him a faulty shuttle.
When Kenji stepped inside, two other people were waiting in front of the chipped counter, their shiny black combat boots contrasting with the stained and cracked floor tiles. Their backs were to him, leaving him a view of utility belts bristling with weapons that ranged from DEW-Tek pistols to stunners to knives, and each had flex-cuffs dangling in between the armament. Despite the combat boots, they didn't look like soldiers or police officers, not with their distinctly civilian attire, the oddest combination of camouflage and... was that purple fur trim? And were those... sequins?
Even though they had long black hair, one with it in a ponytail and one in a braid, it took him a moment to realize they were women. Maybe because they were significantly taller than he—at least six-feet-two—and had the powerful builds and broad shoulders of bears.
The clerk wasn't behind the counter. Maybe they'd scared him off.
One of the women glanced back at him, and Kenji nearly fell over. They had pointed ears and... was that fur? Not on the trim for their clothing but on them.
He gripped the doorjamb for support, inadvertently blocking Kay, who bumped into his back. The woman smiled at him, which was almost as alarming as the fur—she had fangs—and turned back to the counter. That was good, because he realized he was gawking. Rudely.
Kenji closed his dangling jaw and swallowed. She wasn't entirely furry. Her face was mostly normal, aside from the fangs, and feminine despite the large muscular frame. And her hands only had a light dusting of fur on the backs. The rest appeared almost normal except for...
He swallowed again. They had claws. The other one was tapping a rhythm on the counter with a claw painted purple to match the fur trim on her jacket. Kenji caught his jaw dropping again.
Maybe they'd eaten the clerk.
No, they wouldn't be standing there impatiently if they had recently been sated by a tasty meal. Kenji resisted the urge to flee and stepped into the lobby. They were obviously genetically engineered women from another system. He'd read all about such creations after he'd learned that his genes had been altered before his birth. Maybe he should be relieved that his father hadn't made him fanged and furry.
He reminded himself that the Kingdom was turning more progressive and allowing foreigners of all types to visit, so he should expect to see more beings—people—like this. The queen had even put out some incentives, giving bonuses to tourist businesses that brought in foreign crowns and Union dollars. Since Zamek City was the capital, and the closest major city to the launch loop, it made sense that these foreigners would be popping up here.
Kenji glanced at Kay as he clanked in behind him, wondering if this might be their opportunity to snoop in the computer system. Would the large women object if they ambled behind the counter and helped themselves to some data?
But he must have stepped inside far enough to trigger the door chime, for a soft bing echoed through the building. The same clerk Kenji had dealt with before—wearing the same grease-stained shirt with a hole under the armpit—walked out of an office. He jerked in surprise when he saw the women.
"You're still here," he blurted, stepping back, his shoulder clunking against the doorjamb.
Kenji imagined a lot of people ran into doors when they saw these women.
"Yes," the one who'd smiled at Kenji said. "You said you would let us know what you found."
"I meant in general. At some future date. Actually, that was a brush off. I thought you would take the hint and leave."
"At least he's honest," the other one said. They had pleasant voices, though they would definitely be singing alto in the cat-woman choir, should such a thing exist.
"I'd be happy to help you if you want to rent something," the clerk said. "We'll rent to anyone. No questions asked. As long as you've got money."
"As we said, we're interested in buying the lot next door, not renting a shuttle. Our real-estate developer friend did some research and learned that you own this building, the now-empty lot, and the repair shop on the other side of it. All the taxes have been paid, and you seem to be doing well despite the disrepair here."
She eyed the floor tiles and then the armpit hole in his shirt. His hand was up to scratch his head, so it was easy to see.
"I don't waste needless money on frivolous things. Look, I don't know if you noticed, but the lot next door is now a crater. I'm still waiting for the insurance money. There have been a lot of claims, and they're backed up. Do you... women need air bikes? A way to get around town? Like I said, I don't discriminate." He eyed their pointed ears with the same dubiousness that they were eyeing his armpit.
"We know that it's a crater. That's why we're interested. Our friend said we could get a good deal, fill it in, and build on it."
"What do you want to build? A cat cafe?" He snickered at his wit.
The women did not.
Kenji groped for a way to butt in to the conversation. For his distraction, he planned to ask the clerk to come outside to see the repairs needed on the shuttle. Before Kenji got a word out, the rumble of a hover van came from out front. Instead of parking in the back, it floated a couple of feet over the crater, not far from the front door.
"This isn't a very good part of town," one of the women said. "We understand there's a lot of crime. We plan to open up an office so people can visit us and inquire about our services. We're bounty hunters, and we're going to branch out into private investigations and possibly hiring ourselves out as bouncers. There are quite a few of us, and my captain doesn't need all of us all the time when she flies."
"Bounty hunters?" Kenji asked, considering their weapons again. Maybe they knew where to get good deals on the right kind of gear.
Both women turned to face him and smiled, one hiding her fangs with her lips, the other revealing them and the rest of her teeth. Hers was a brazen smile, and she looked him up and down with a speculative gaze. It took him a long moment to realize she was checking him out.
"Yes," she said.
"Are you in need of our services?" the more subtle one asked. "I'm Liangyu Qin Three. You can call me Qin."
"Or you can call her Squirt." The flirty one winked.
"That doesn't seem like a bounty-hunter name," Kenji said.
"We gave it to her when she was six. She was a runt."
Kenji eyed Qin's substantial height and muscles and found that hard to believe.
"I'm Tigress. I was never a runt."
"This is true," Qin said. "She was always a big brute."
"A big sexy brute." Tigress looked Kenji up and down again. "What's your name, Cutie? For select customers, I might be willing to throw in certain bonus services alongside the bounty hunting."
"Uh, I was actually going to ask where you got your weapons or if you have any used gear for sale. I'm getting into the business myself, but I don't have a lot of start-up funds yet."
"That female is looking at you with the alarming mien of a predator," Kay whispered. "Perhaps you shouldn't engage them in conversation."
"It's all right." Kenji hoped.
"You're going to be a bounty hunter?" Tigress raised her eyebrows. "You look like a Squirt yourself."
Qin elbowed her. "Don't assume that. Kim isn't very big, and she kicked Rache's mercenaries across a submarine."
"Rache?" Kenji mouthed as the clerk did the same thing.
"The lot isn't for sale," the clerk said firmly.
A clank came from out front—the sliding door on the hover van being thrown open. Six men in camouflage uniforms with masks covering their faces sprang out, landing at the edge of the crater. They carried DEW-Tek rifles and charged straight for the front door of the rental shop.
"Move, Kay." Kenji grabbed the robot and tugged him over to a corner as the men charged inside.
"No freaks!" They yelled and opened fire at the counter—no, at the women.
But Qin and Tigress had leaped into action before the men made it through the door. Instead of running away, like the clerk did, they charged their assailants, knocking aside rifles and bowling them over.
Energy bolts hit the ceiling and the walls as the women put themselves back to back, kicking and punching rather than drawing their weapons. That didn't keep the attackers from using their weapons, but the women were close enough—and fast enough—to knock aside the men's arms and the barrels of the rifles, sending the shots flying.
Kenji, afraid random fire would take him down, looked for something to hide behind. The only thing in the lobby was a fake rubber-tree plant in a cracked plastic pot. He ducked behind it, intending to drag Kay with him, but Kay headed for the counter. A stray bolt clipped his metal shoulder, burning a hole in his housing and almost knocking him over.
"Get down, Kay! Or run into the back with the clerk." Kenji wished he'd done that.
But Kay went behind the counter as the fight escalated, more energy bolts slamming into walls—and people. Yelps of pain sounded amid the thuds of fists hitting flesh. Kay disappeared with a clank, and Kenji worried he'd been struck with a more damaging attack.
Something slammed into the base of the potted tree. A rifle that had been ripped from someone's hands. One of the men followed, flying through the air and slamming into the wall a few feet from Kenji. He thudded down with a groan.
One of the women grunted in pain. Kenji wondered if he should help them, but he had no idea what this was about. If he got involved, it would only be in the hope of stopping the fight so innocent bystanders wouldn't be killed.
An energy bolt blasted through the trunk of the faux tree, dropping plastic leaves on his head. He also wanted to stop the fight so innocent lobby decorations wouldn't be killed.
The man crumpled next to him grabbed his rifle, rose to his knees, and aimed at one of the women. They were busy dealing with the other attackers and didn't seem to see him.
"Look out!" Kenji barked and lunged over to kick the man's rifle aside.
He was in the nick of time, and the man's shot went wide. The women glanced over. Unfortunately, the attacker growled and swung the rifle toward Kenji.
Kenji jumped up, fear making his second kick lightning fast. His toe connected with the barrel an instant before the man fired. The rifle flew out of his hands and struck the ceiling.
Before Kenji had to defend himself further, one of the women sprang over, landing beside the man. She hefted him from his feet as if he weighed twenty pounds instead of two hundred, lifted him over her head, and threw him across the lobby.
Kenji glanced around, afraid someone else might be targeting him now that he'd picked a side, but the battle was winding down. Four men lay groaning or unconscious—hopefully not dead—on the floor. The other two, realizing the odds had rapidly gone out of their favor, glanced at each other and sprinted out the door. They leaped into the van, and it took off, not waiting for the other four.
The women dropped their fists to their hips.
"As we said," Tigress said, "this isn't the best of neighborhoods."
"But that makes it the perfect place to start a business for hunting criminals," Qin said. "We'll have to set up a network site, so people who are afraid to visit the area can reserve our services online."
"Good idea. Maybe Casmir would help."
If the clerk was listening from the back, he didn't reply. Kenji eased along the wall, stepping over one of the crumpled men, to check on Kay.
Other than the melted blast hole in his shoulder, Kay didn't appear damaged from the battle. He had tilted over at his trunk crease and was accessing the shop's computer, which was tucked into a nook below the counter.
"Are you almost done?" Kenji whispered.
"There was a passcode to bypass that delayed me, as well as weapons fire squealing over my head, but I have almost achieved the objective."
"Good work." Kenji turned and leaned an elbow casually on the counter to hide Kay from view if the clerk walked in.
One of the downed men tried to belly-crawl toward the door. Tigress plucked him up and shoved him against the wall, his boots dangling six inches above the floor.
"Why did you attack us?" She pinned him in place with one hand against his chest while she searched him with the other.
"Because you're freaks." He tried to kick her, but she lifted a knee and blocked the attack while removing laser cutters, pistols, and even a grenade from his pockets. "Nobody wants you here."
"That's not true." Qin picked up one of the rifles and held it on the other three men. "No fewer than seven people are quite tickled to have us on this planet. Did someone pay you to attack us? How'd you know we would be here?"
The clerk stepped into the doorway and peered warily around. Kenji put a hand on his hip to take up more room and block his view of Kay. The clerk looked at the women and the men on the floor and barely noticed Kenji. He didn't seem to see Kay at all. Good.
A boom and a flash of light came from outside. It startled everyone, and Qin stepped outside to peer down the street.
"That's unexpected," she said. "I believe that's their getaway van. It was their getaway van."
"What happened?" Tigress asked.
"I'm not certain, but the remaining pieces are scattered up and down the street out there for a block."
Kenji didn't know what was happening either, but he couldn't have hoped for a better distraction. So long as the clerk didn't glance over and notice Kay.
"Maybe whoever hired them turned on them when they failed," Tigress said.
"That's murder." The man she'd pinned craned his neck to peer out the door.
"You needn't sound so affronted," Tigress said. "Weren't you going to murder us?"
"Yes, but you're freaks. We're Kingdom subjects."
"This planet is so backward, Squirt. Are you sure you want to set up a shop here?"
"You said yourself that it has nice trees."
"It does, and like you said, your captain doesn't have enough work for all of us, so it makes sense for half of our sisters to find work here, but..."
"The Kingdom will get better for people like us. Queen Oku is making improvements." Qin smiled brightly. "Casmir is advising her."
"I thought they were just snogging on the sofa."
"I'm sure he's taking his duties more seriously than that."
"While snogging."
"Ha ha."
Kenji ignored the bewildering conversation and resisted the urge to look over his shoulder to check on Kay. He didn't want to risk bringing the clerk's attention to him.
Qin picked up another man trying to crawl for the exit. "Look, you can leave if you tell us who hired you. You didn't kill anyone, so we're not terribly upset with you. We just want to know."
"I'm terribly upset," Kay muttered. "I lost my shoulder plating."
His words drew the clerk's attention. "What are you doing back there?"
"Hiding from deadly weapons fire." Kenji shifted to further block Kay's activities as the clerk tried to peer around him. "I started out behind that fake tree over there, but it was a frequent target. You can see that it's been terribly defiled." He pointed emphatically at the topless tree, willing the man to look at it. To look at anything except the robot fiddling with his computer. "You may need to order a new one. Perhaps an entire forest of potted trees, thus to provide cover for innocent patrons needing to hide from firefights in the lobby."
Frowning, the clerk stepped toward him and lifted a hand.
"Were there any injuries in here?" a new voice said, a man in black armor and a mask striding through the front door.
Kenji barely kept from shouting a curse. It was the Main Event again.
He crouched so quickly he cracked a knee on the floor. Kay was now visible to the clerk, but Kenji couldn't do anything about it. If the Main Event recognized him after warning him to stay out of the city...
"These men are somewhat battered," Tigress said, not sounding even minutely surprised by the appearance of the would-be superhero. "And that plastic plant has taken grievous damage."
Kenji eyed the corridor leading to the offices and maybe a back door, but the clerk blocked it. He was looking at the Main Event instead of Kenji cowering behind his counter, but how long would that last?
"Their getaway van also took grievous damage," the Main Event said dryly.
"That was you?" Qin asked.
"It may have been."
"Where did you come from?"
"The nightmares of criminals hell-bent on mayhem and violence."
"Did Casmir give you that line?"
"He's been advising me in the ways of superhero speak. Apparently, one must have memorable one-liners available to trot out in case reporters are within earshot."
"You want reporters to... report you?"
"I need the populace of Odin, preferably of the entire Kingdom, to realize that I am on their side. A protector of the average citizen. An inexorable force for justice in the city. Then one day when Queen Oku pardons me, there will be no question that it was the right thing to do."
"You're a strange man."
"I'm strange? Did you know that your pointed ears twitched when you said that?"
"They do that."
Even more bewildered by the conversation and the odd assortment of people in the lobby, Kenji looked back at Kay. They had to get out of here.
Kay withdrew from the computer and turned without lifting his upper body into view. This time, he kept from speaking and drawing attention to himself. Maybe he remembered his recent encounter with the Main Event—and that tree.
"Where did you come from?" the clerk asked. "And who are you?"
"A concerned citizen across the street called the police," the Main Event said. "I was in the area and arrived sooner than they, though I suspect they'll toddle along soon. I saw that these two warriors had the attack under control but noticed that a man in the repair shop over there was watching the goings on with binoculars while getting updated by someone on the comm. I have enhanced hearing and heard the van driver delivering the updates." He looked at Qin. "It seems that your inquiries into buying the adjacent real estate alarmed the mechanic enough to take matters into his own hands."
"He hired thugs to attack us so we wouldn't buy the crater next to his shop?" Qin asked.
"That is what I gathered from my eavesdropping. You're welcome to question him yourself."
"We didn't even make an offer," Qin said in a sad, hurt tone.
Kenji would have felt for her if the hard floor hadn't been grinding into his knees and he hadn't been afraid of being caught.
"We were just trying to get some information," Qin added.
"Kingdom subjects sleep with their prejudices cuddled close at night," the Main Event said. "You may have difficulty finding neighbors hospitable to a pack of feline bounty hunters."
"Are you done?" Kenji mouthed to Kay, hoping the robot had a program downloaded for lip-reading.
Kay's metal fingers curled into a fist, and he poked his thumb up.
"We're not felines," Qin said. "We're genetically engineered women with dreams, goals, and feelings."
"We're also not properly called a pack," Tigress said. "Viggo calls us an ambush."
"You know that's a gathering of cats, right?" the Main Event asked.
"Of tigers," Tigress said.
The clerk cleared his throat. "I have a business to run here. And a mess to clean up. I believe I hear police sirens. Maybe you'd all like to leave the premises. And take those creeps with you." He waved at the remaining attackers.
Kenji nodded firmly, though he expected the Main Event to object. He worked with the police, didn't he?
"The police can gather the rest of these miscreants," the Main Event said. From his voice, it sounded like he was turning to leave. Dare Kenji hope? "My work here is done."
"Maybe we can find another crater to buy," Tigress said. It sounded like they were leaving too.
"They are proliferating this city currently," Qin said, "and I've got another week before the captain plans to leave again. We can keep shopping."
"Or maybe we could save money by setting up an office by the street on Asger's property. He's your boyfriend. Boyfriends are supposed to let you use their property for the dreams and ambitions of you and your sisters."
"I don't think you can have a bounty-hunting office on a nobleman's estate."
"Why not?" Tigress asked, their voices growing quieter as they walked farther away.
"Zoning rules."
"Huh."
Kenji carefully poked his head over the counter, worried the Main Event might still be standing there with his arms folded across his chest. But he and the fearsome women had departed. They had neglected to take their assailants with them, but the men had recovered enough to crawl to the door by themselves.
Kenji grew aware of the clerk frowning down at him.
"Sorry." Kenji straightened and put the key fob for the shuttle on the counter with the money he owed. "I came to return that, pay you, and thank you for the shuttle. It served its purpose, and I believe we're done here." He waved for Kay to follow him around the counter and to the exit.
"Hold on." The clerk grabbed his arm.
Kenji tensed, prepared to rip his arm free and sprint for the door.
"You owe me another hundred crowns," the clerk said.
"For what?" Kenji glanced at the holes in the walls and the broken rubber-tree plant. "I didn't engage in the fight."
"Mileage charge." The clerk tapped the spot on his temple where people's chips were embedded. He must have already gotten a report from the odometer system in the shuttle. "You flew way more than the two-hundred-and-fifty miles allowed for a one-day rental."
"Was a mileage allotment in the contract?"
"It was in the fine print." The clerk released him but held out his hand and rested his other hand on a bulge under his shirt. A weapon?
Kenji didn't think the very brief and indifferent digital contract he'd signed had mentioned miles, but since he'd just stolen information from the man, and his shop had taken more than a hundred crowns' worth of damage, he decided to pay without argument. As soon as he captured Mari and returned her to her people, he wouldn't have to worry about such small amounts of money.
Once he and Kay stepped outside, finding—to their vast relief—no sign of the Main Event, they headed off the property and toward the nearest public transportation system.
"You got the locator chip number?" Kenji asked.
"I did, and I have already downloaded a program to tap into the vehicular database to make use of it."
"That's amazing. Where's her air bike?"
"It is amazing, especially given the trying and bizarre circumstances I had to endure while working."
"Tell me about it."
"I am. The air bike is currently parked in a residential area on the Zamek University campus."
"That's less than ten miles away." Kenji clenched his fist. "This is it. We can capture her tonight."
"Do not forget to purchase used bounty-hunting supplies on the way."
"I won't. We can find a weapons shop easily in this neighborhood."
Youths in black leather scurried around, scavenging valuables from the van that had blown up, even as a police vehicle descended into the rental shop's parking lot.
"I believe we'll easily find ten or twenty weapons shops in this neighborhood," Kay said.
"Good." Kenji thumped him on the back. "Let's do this, my metal friend." |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 7 | While Mari was debating if the crusher would allow her to stroll up and knock on the door, it surprised her by leaving its post on the single step that led up to the cottage. It walked across the grass and around the home to a fenced backyard. She leaned off to the side to see it spring over the fence and disappear into the yard.
"Hm." Mari waited a minute to see if it would return, but it did not.
A faint whir sounded behind her at the turn-off for the street, and she glanced back in time to see a drone buzz past. It wasn't safe to stay outside on the sidewalk.
Taking a deep breath, Mari drove the bike to the yard, parked it, and walked up to the door. She lifted a finger to press the chime but hesitated. After being attacked by drones, Mari was flustered and struggled to remember the words she'd been rehearsing.
"I came to see if you are in need of protection," a male voice floated out an open window. "I did not know you would have a crusher poised to protect you from campus hooligans."
"Zee is here to protect Casmir from campus hooligans," a woman said, "though I suppose he is programmed to protect me from danger as well. Also, according to the news, the crimes have been committed by drones that are malfunctioning, not hooligans. Are you allowed to use your superhero crime-fighting powers to thwart one-foot-wide drones primarily used for pizza delivery purposes?"
"I fight crime wherever it originates and in whatever shape it appears, but I'm sure someone is behind the drones' actions. Probably a younger, less rectitude-conscious version of Casmir."
"That seems likely." The woman had a flat almost monotone voice. Was this Kim Sato?
Mari shouldn't eavesdrop, but she had hoped to speak with Sato alone and was hesitant to ring her chime when an unknown man was present. Perhaps it was one of Sato's brothers. Mari's research revealed that she had half-siblings that lived in the city. Or perhaps a lover? No mention of marriage was listed on her network profile.
"And since when do the campus-security drones deliver pizzas?" the man asked.
"Casmir reprogrammed one to be at his beck and call for deliveries."
"I withdraw my statement about his dedication to rectitude."
"Pizza delivery isn't immoral. Where is your crusher?"
Mari glanced back, worried that a second one might show up.
"Ordering more flex-cuffs and a new stunner for me," the man said, "while wallowing in depression over the execrable state of my soul."
"Did you revert to your old ways and do something villainous?"
"I was in fact delivering miscreants to the police headquarters in the Temple District. A gang of youths were stealing from the offering boxes in one of the churches. They deserved to be dropped on the lawn in front of the police building."
"What was Amit's objection?"
"That the dropping was literal. And from a height of twenty or thirty feet. Bones may have broken."
"Ouch."
"I would find it easier to assist with crime fighting if the police weren't attempting to arrest me themselves to find out who I am. I'm forced to fly past swiftly when dropping off criminals. Can you believe that they and some of the crusts on the senate object to my tactics for halting crimes?"
"Your tactics aren't always legal."
"But they are effective. I employed similar methodologies as a mercenary."
"Yes, I believe that's the problem. Just be glad nobody seems to have associated you with—"
Someone grabbed Mari under her armpits and hefted her off her feet. She couldn't stop herself from blurting a startled squawk, and the conversation in the house halted.
She tried to wrench herself free, but her captor's grip was like steel. When she kicked backward, her boot connecting with something solid, she only hurt herself. Her captor didn't budge.
As she tried to wriggle a hand into the pocket with her arc blaster, she glimpsed the tarry black body of the figure behind her and groaned. There was no point in using her weapon. The crusher had her.
It hadn't made a noise while sneaking up on her. She would have expected it to stomp around with the subtleness of an elephant.
The crusher extended a finger to reach past her shoulder. If she hadn't been aware that it could liquefy and reshape itself, she would have found that disturbing, since the two hands gripping her hadn't let go. The finger rang the chime.
The door opened promptly, making Mari suspect the people in the cottage had already been on their way to check on the situation.
Surprisingly, only Kim Sato stood inside. Given human cultural customs, and beliefs that men were more capable of dealing with dangerous threats than women, Mari would have expected the man to answer.
Sato regarded Mari calmly, her face surprisingly non-emotive given the stranger dangling a foot above the ground in front of her, though her dark eyes were curious. She wore exercise clothing, with her black hair back in a ponytail, and had come to the door without a weapon.
Wonderful scents wafted out of the house from a meal cooking in the kitchen. It smelled far more appealing than the chocolate candies, though Mari had enjoyed those. This was exactly the kind of exotic human fare she'd hoped to sample. She supposed, given the circumstances, Sato would not invite her in for dinner.
"I have apprehended an eavesdropper, Kim Sato," the crusher said in a monotone even flatter than hers.
"I was about to ring the door chime," Mari said, though she couldn't legitimately deny that she'd been eavesdropping. It wasn't her fault that a window had been open. It was chilly and drizzling. Who left windows open in such conditions?
"You are not a reporter," Sato said.
Had she expected reporters? Maybe the success of her novel had made her a Kingdom celebrity.
"Uhm, no. I'm a scientist."
"She was studying the house for several minutes before she approached," the crusher said. "I saw her but could not legally constrain her before she stepped onto the property. I believed she would approach, if not for my formidable presence, so I hid in the backyard, thus to lure her closer. My ruse was successful." Did the crusher sound... smug?
"You are an effective crime fighter, Zee. And the legality of your tactics is admirable." Sato glanced back into the house—at the man she'd been speaking with?—but he didn't comment.
"Yes. I am an admirable crusher." It was definitely smug.
"I'm not a criminal." This introduction wasn't going at all how Mari had rehearsed it. "As I said, I'm a scientist. I admit I was deterred by the crusher's, ah, formidable presence, and that is why I paused. I didn't have anything criminal in mind, Scholar Sato. I came here hoping to speak to you about a private matter."
"Are you an astroshaman?"
Mari squirmed as much as she could. The steel—no, that was an alloy much stronger than simple steel—hands holding up her weight from under her armpits were not comfortable. "Yes."
"Did High Shaman Moonrazor send you?"
"No." Not even close...
"Do you wish to speak to me?" Sato touched her chest. "Or Casmir?"
"Uhm, I had thought you might be most interested in my work." And least likely to turn Mari over to her mother. "I've come to offer my services, and also my prototype terraforming device, to your queen, or whoever in your government might deal in such matters, in exchange for asylum."
"Terraforming device?"
Mari had assumed Sato would ask first what she had done and why she wanted asylum, but perhaps because she was also a scientist, the promise of useful technology interested her more. Mari hoped that was the case.
"Yes, I'm an agronomist and also have some modest engineering capabilities. The terraformer is in my backpack. I can show it to you if you like." Mari gestured over her shoulder at the pack, inasmuch as she could while she dangled in the air. "If your door guardian will set me down."
"I object to releasing the intruder," the crusher said. "The humans Kim Sato and Casmir Dabrowski, as is the case with many others of their kind, have had numerous hostile interactions with astroshamans. The eavesdropping nature of this astroshaman suggests inimical intent."
"I wasn't eavesdropping."
"Please put her down, Zee. She looks like she's in pain."
"This prisoner should be held captive while she is searched. If my grip is painful, I can modulate the surface tension of my hands so that they have a cushioning aspect to them. I have grown quite skilled at this."
"Yes, I've seen you become a couch for Queen Oku's dog. Put her down, please. You know Casmir likes to give people the benefit of the doubt."
Did he? Maybe Mari should talk to him.
"This is true, but I am a bodyguard. I must regard all strangers from enemy nations warily." Despite his objection, the crusher set Mari's feet on the ground. Unfortunately, it didn't let her go. The crusher did soften its grip, but it remained in place, as unyielding as before. "Casmir Dabrowski is returning now from the carbohydrate retrieval mission. Perhaps he will search the prisoner."
"Casmir's too shy and polite to pat down a strange woman," Sato said. "What did you say your name is?"
"Mari." She didn't know whether to be relieved or not that Sato didn't want to search her. She had nothing to hide, but she was armed. Only because she'd believed she might have to deal with situations exactly like the one with the strange bounty hunter in the Arctic. It hadn't occurred to her to remove her weapons and stash them somewhere before coming to Sato's home.
"Just Mari?" Sato frowned slightly. Indicating suspicion?
"Yes. Since I am leaving my people, I have no need of a surname that indicates astroshaman origins."
"You mentioned wanting asylum." Sato's gaze shifted past Zee toward the street. Someone was riding up on an air bike. "Have you committed a crime among your kind?"
"No, but it is not encouraged to leave our society, especially if you are young and were born into it. It's possible they will send someone to retrieve me." Not just possible; that man who'd attacked her ensured people were hunting her right now. She trusted her sisters hadn't given any bounty hunters orders to kill her, but what if she inadvertently caused Sato or some other ally of the queen's to be injured? Her chances of being offered asylum would plummet.
"Are you saying you ran away from home?" Sato asked.
"Who ran away from home?" the newcomer asked, parking the air bike on the walkway and trotting up to join them.
He carried a long narrow loaf of bread in a brown bag, the fresh scent of warm sourdough filling the air. It was so enticing, especially compared to an algae ration bar, that it momentarily distracted Mari from answering.
"I perpetrated a ruse to capture an eavesdropping astroshaman who may have inimical intent," Zee said.
"Good work, Zee." The newcomer patted the crusher on the shoulder and looked curiously at Mari.
"I do not have inimical intent. I am seeking asylum." Mari, assuming this was Minister Dabrowski, looked at him with equal curiosity.
Even though she'd seen pictures of him, she'd expected him to be taller and more physically formidable. She wasn't sure why, since he'd earned her mother's respect by hacking into a highly secure astroshaman network, designing the crushers, and somehow winning the trust of the AIs that had settled Verloren Moon, but it startled her that he was no taller than she, with skinny arms and shaggy brown hair that hung to his eyebrows. He wore a T-shirt with a cartoon character on it. She'd envisioned someone with a title like Minister of External Affairs wearing expensive and fashionable clothing when running errands.
"Apparently, she left the cult," Sato said.
Mari frowned. "We are not some strange religious sect. Astroshamans believe in using advanced biotechnology to meld our bodies and consciousnesses with computers to allow us to achieve greater intellectual feats. We seek to live in a state less reliant on and motivated by biological frailties while we partake in the journey to humanity's ultimate fate, becoming one with the machine."
"Cult," Sato mouthed to Dabrowski.
"I know," he mouthed back.
Mari resisted the urge to argue further. After all, hadn't she left because she wanted to experience more than her people's strict lifestyle within a community that frowned upon any experimentation that wasn't in line with its goals?
"Perhaps I can show you my prototype terraforming device," Mari said, "as an example of what I can offer. I do not expect anyone to grant me asylum without a reason. I am prepared to trade my knowledge and my abilities for a place where I can work and experience your Kingdom culture."
"Wait, are you looking for asylum with us?" Dabrowski pointed the tip of his bread loaf at himself, then at Sato. "It's only a two-bedroom cottage, and the couch isn't that comfortable."
"Or typically uncluttered and available to sit on," Sato murmured.
"My tools aren't clutter," Dabrowski said.
"What about the comic books and dolls?"
"Those are limited edition collectible action heroes, not dolls. I'm waiting for someone to make one of the Main Event. That's when he'll know he's made it."
"Hm."
Mari didn't know what to make of these two. They weren't at all what she had expected, nor did they seem to be taking her offer seriously.
"I am not looking for refuge here," she said, "but perhaps in a secure location unknown to my people where I could pursue meaningful work that would help your people. I have much to offer, and I believe this would make the exchange equitable."
"Let's see this device," Sato said.
Mari attempted to pull her backpack off, but she couldn't manage with Zee still holding her. As she shifted, something clunked to the ground—a pistol that had been in her pack. Strange. That shouldn't have been able to fall out.
Sato and Dabrowski looked down at it.
"That's not it." Mari hoped they didn't recognize the astroshaman pistol as a weapon. It didn't look much like their DEW-Tek pistols. "I can't reach it."
"Zee." Dabrowski wiggled a finger in what might have been a let-her-go gesture.
"That is a weapon," the crusher said. "She may have other weapons on her person. I have not performed a body search yet."
"Let's save that fun for later. I trust you can stop her if she tries to shoot us."
The crusher gazed at him. Since it took Zee a moment to comply, Mari suspected a text exchange over the network. Finally, the crusher released her, though it remained nearby, blocking her escape should she wish to run.
But running wasn't her intent. She slung the pack off, alarmed at how light it felt. She patted the bottom and found a hole ripped in the fabric. Her shoulders slumped as she looked down at the weapon and back toward the street, hoping to spot not only the case for the terraformer but the other laboratory tools she'd taken from the ship. Almost everything had fallen out of her pack. She poked her hand inside, as if she might be mistaken, but only small items stored in inner pockets remained.
"The drones." Mari looked back toward the intersection, half expecting to see the pack of four hovering there, her items dangling in their mechanical grips as they taunted her. "I was attacked by drones. They must have cut my pack and taken my device."
That sounded ludicrous as soon as it came out, and she wished she could explain further.
Dabrowski's eyebrows rose. "They usually deliver pizza when they visit me."
Sato lifted a hand. "There has been a rash of drone attacks and thefts on campus today. It's in the news. Ra— someone came over to protect me tonight."
"Is someone here now? Should I have brought more bread?"
"Yes, but you know he rarely eats anything as devoid of nutrients as bread."
"Right, only superfoods for a superhero."
"Who controls the drones?" Mari asked. "My device represents a great deal of work and is valuable." Not to mention it was her bargaining chip.
"Usually some nerd in the computer lab," Sato said.
Red lights flashed at the intersection, and a municipal police van rolled down the street.
Mari tensed, afraid the authorities were here for her. She wasn't the one mugging people, but as long as the Kingdom considered astroshamans to be enemies, she was in danger of being reported for her mere existence in their city. Her hood had fallen back more than once since she'd arrived on campus—it dangled around her shoulders again now.
Zee, who'd released her so she could search her pack, clamped down on her shoulder again. Mari caught herself before reaching for a weapon but barely.
"Kim?" Dabrowski asked.
"I have not messaged campus security or the police, but it is possible someone else did, especially if they saw Zee apprehend our visitor." Sato looked toward other houses on the cul-de-sac, lights on in the homes. More than one face was pressed curiously to a window, and at one property, a couple stood outside, openly watching the exchange.
"I haven't done anything wrong," Mari said.
"As High Shaman Moonrazor was told," Dabrowski said, "her people have free reign of the thirty-thousand-acre parcel in the forest two hundred miles to the west of the capital, and they—you—are welcome to have deliveries made for projects, but I haven't yet been able to finagle the senate into giving astroshamans permission to walk freely on the rest of the planet. Relatively few people even know you're there, and it's probably a good idea to keep it that way for now. For your own safety more than anything. There are a lot of people who lost family in the bombings. I know your people had nothing to do with the first set of bombings, and you even helped me deal with the person responsible, but... our people are kind of fuzzy on who to blame, and there's a lot of blanket hatred toward astroshamans right now."
"That means you believe I have done something wrong?" Mari asked. "By leaving the forest?"
The police van stopped in front of the cottage, the doors slid open, and two policemen jumped out. They carried flex-cuffs and stunners instead of deadly weapons and wore uniforms instead of combat armor, but Mari didn't know if she could overpower them, especially now that many of her tools and weapons were missing.
"I don't think so." Dabrowski touched his chest. "But the police may insist on questioning you. I wish you'd gone through High Shaman Moonrazor. Maybe she could have messaged me, and we could have worked out permission for you to visit other places on the planet with some kind of diplomatic passport."
Mari looked bleakly at him as the policemen walked up with their stunners drawn. "She wouldn't give me permission to leave. She's the person I'm seeking asylum from."
"Oh," Dabrowski said. "Why?"
"She's my mother."
He mouthed another, "Oh."
"Minister Dabrowski?" One of the policemen stopped, looking warily at the crusher. "I'm Sergeant Schutze. Are you all right? An astroshaman spy on campus was reported. It's possible she's here gathering intelligence that may be used in a raid." He eyed Mari darkly. "Military Intelligence has warned our department to watch out for their kind. They may be angry that we thwarted their plans and could be plotting vengeance against our people."
Mari shook her head. Her mother had been annoyed to be defeated, but she hadn't been the high shaman behind the attack on Odin. She'd never wanted to kill people, only to seek technology that could help the astroshamans further their goals of leaving the Twelve Systems and finding a new home, one where they wouldn't be shunted off as kooky cult members by the rest of humanity. The two high shaman leaders who had pressured her into the invasion had died in the attack. None of the astroshamans who'd settled in the forest here wished the Kingdom ill will. Few of them had warm, adoring feelings for the locals, but Mari didn't think any of her people were plotting against the Kingdom. That would be a foolish thing to do while they were living on the planet that was the seat of the Kingdom.
"That's what Military Intelligence is warning?" Dabrowski scratched his jaw.
"Yes, my lord. We have orders to apprehend any astroshamans and question them under the influence of truth drugs."
Mari's insides knotted. She personally didn't have anything to hide, but what if they took the opportunity to ask all about her people? About their command structure and their technology? And what they were up to on the land they'd been given? Nothing Mari would consider nefarious, but would the Kingdom military agree? And what would her mother and sisters think if she allowed herself to be questioned in such a way?
"Is there any chance I can override those orders and send you off to find the drones that are robbing people on campus?" Dabrowski offered an easy smile, but his eyes were intent.
"Ah, no, my lord. It's my understanding that the Minister of External Affairs is a diplomatic position. You can only order diplomats around."
"Which has indeed been satisfying, but..." Dabrowski gestured at Mari. "I don't suppose you'd like to change up your story and say you're here on a diplomatic mission for High Shaman Moonrazor, thus falling more into my domain?"
"I..." Mari couldn't tell if he was serious—would that actually work?—or if he was humoring her. Surely, he had to be on the same side as his law enforcers, not trying to work against them for her sake. "I would rather not get her involved."
"If only you knew someone with broader authority," Sato murmured to Dabrowski.
"She's on one of the lunar bases, currently in a meeting with several of the nobles who rule over the habitats. They're discussing the crown's authority over them and how much leeway they have to set trade tariffs and the like. These meetings tend not to be short. Much to her consternation."
"Ah."
The sergeant cleared his throat. "Minister, if we may take the prisoner?" He eyed the crusher again, as if he didn't want to tangle with it. "For your safety and that of your neighbors. And for Kingdom security."
Dabrowski hesitated, and Mari held her breath, thinking he might object and that the crusher would keep the policemen from hauling her away. Maybe it wasn't too late for her to feign diplomatic status and hope that would protect her. But no, that would only end up with them contacting her mother to verify it—and thus letting her mother know where she was.
"Of course," Dabrowski said. "But be nice, eh? We have a treaty with the astroshamans, and we're not at war with them right now."
"Certainly, my lord. We are not brutes."
"Good to know. Mari, ah, it's probably best if you cooperate with the police. If nothing untoward comes up, maybe I can get you a diplomatic passport, and then you can make your proposal when the queen returns."
Mari feared whatever help he could offer—if he truly meant to follow up on her case—would come too late. Soon, she would be questioned under those drugs and would blab all of her people's secrets to government agents with recording devices. Mari also worried that Dabrowski would let her mother know she was here and that she would mount a rescue mission to retrieve her before any such secrets could be sucked from her brain. Such an action, especially if it couldn't be done without violence, might start a war.
"Thank you," Mari made herself say, but bleakness filled her as the crusher stepped aside, allowing the policemen to snap flex-cuffs around her wrists. |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 8 | "Kenji crouched in the shadows behind a tree several houses down from the cottage of Professor Dabro(...TRUNCATED) |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 9 | "Mari wanted to leave the university campus, having found nothing but trouble here, but she needed t(...TRUNCATED) |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 10 | "Kenji woke up in a brilliantly lit cell with the municipal police logo on a white wall, and he groa(...TRUNCATED) |
Asylum - Lindsay Buroker.txt | 11 | "Two hours passed before Lieutenant Hanabusa returned to Kenji's cell, not with the doctor but with (...TRUNCATED) |
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