Do you have a story to tell? Mail it to Daniel Quick
Do you have a story to tell? Mail it to Daniel Quick
| ratings | |||
| googlie | hydro | velociryx | |
| creativity | 9 | 9 | 8 |
| originality | 10 | 8 | 10 |
| smac-ness | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| leaders representation | 8 | 8 | 6 |
| plot | 9 | 8 | 10 |
| subtotal | 43 | 42 | 40 |
| total | 125 | ||
A thousand voices spoke as one
The Consciousness reached out its hand
And soon her sense of self was gone
Had flown to never-never land
The implants silver gleamed and shone
A thousand voices spoke as one
The upload ended - newly formed,
The algorithm took her brain
And left her helpless, raped and scorned
Her mind was never seen again
Of all her thoughts, they left her none
A thousand voices spoke as one
| reviews |
| googlie Well presented tale that handled a difficult concept (becoming a cyborg) credibly. Poem was a neat touch, too. |
| hydro This is a wonderful story! Like any good storyteller, SMAC Fanatic drew me into his world and I enjoyed his vision for a little while. It was a great, but all too short, vacation. |
| velociryx This story is a true gem! Richly drawn characters--especially when you consider the overall length of the tale--good story development, and an unusual POV....told from the perspective of the Cybernetic Consciousness, the author did a superb job of really "putting you inside" the mind of the consciousness. |
The world turned lazily around her, sky and ground revolving slowly.
She landed lightly on all fours and bounced to her feet, then threw herself sideways as the ground where she had been standing exploded with a gout of red and yellow flame.
Dirt rained down on every side, covering her in a spattering of mud. Surprisingly, she didn’t feel afraid - the adrenaline surging through her body had dulled her response to such mundane things as fear and pain.
Another missile scythed through the air above her, hissing like a vicious snake. She was conscious of another explosion as it detonated against the wall of the Children’s Crèche mere metres above her head, but her normal functions were being overrun by the sheer incandescent fury raging against the troops who were destroying her home.
She dropped and rolled, trying to evade their line of fire, and at the same time making her way towards the scout rover which stood not far away, somehow incongruous, an island of peace amongst the carnage of war.
Hive troops were flooding the streets of Last Rose of Summer, slaying all they met, whether opponents or innocents. Corpses littered the streets, their blood mingling with the rain to form a glutinous mud which clung to her feet and impeded her every move.
Finally, she reached the rover. Wrenching the door open, she dropped inside and slammed it behind her, then started the engine with trembling fingers. The adrenaline let-down was beginning to set in. She kicked the engine into gear and shot off. She didn’t know where she was going, or what she would do when she got there. All she knew was she had to get away.
Not a kilometre down the road, three Consciousness rovers were speeding towards Last Rose of Summer. Already the extent of the destruction was incredible. Yang's people had been utterly ruthless, destroying anything and everything. The massive main tower of the base had been felled, and now lay in ruins, the flames making hideous patterns of light and darkness on its regal trunk. The glow from the fires could be seen many miles away, suffusing the evening sky with an evil crimson and vermilion light.
Suddenly, another rover roared out of the darkness, almost colliding with one of the Cybernetic rovers as it fishtailed around the road. There was an incredible noise of screeching tyres, so loud it sounded like a thousand fingernails being dragged across a blackboard, and then an almighty rending crash as rover met sensor station in a battle of metal.
When the smoke had cleared, the Consciousness troops picked their way gingerly into the wreckage. There was no sign of a driver or passengers, and no indication as to their fate.
From off to their left, there was the sound of a faint moaning. It lasted for a few seconds, sounding like the keening wail of a lost mind worm, and then silence.
When they went to investigate, they found Gaian Talent and Empath Rachelle Williams, lying unconscious amongst the thinning stalks of xenofungus at the side of the road.
By morning, she was already on her way to Iota Station, the closest Consciousness base...
“No!”
Aki Zeta-5's fist came down on her desk, crushing beneath it a tiny marble replica of a
mind worm. She gazed for a second at the rich red blood dripping from her damaged hand; then her face seemed to ripple and its impassive sheen returned. She turned slowly back to the viewscreen to face her enemy, the one-time Unity Chief of Security Chairman Sheng-ji Yang.
When she next spoke her voice had regained its calmness, but the damage had already been done. Aki Zeta-5's legendary glaze had shown a crack, just for that one brief second.
“I cannot condone your course of action, Chairman. What you did to Lady Deirdre's people was brutal and utterly barbaric. These economic sanctions are just the beginning. Do not expect my troops to show any kind of mercy towards yours if we meet on the field of battle.”
The Chairman’s smile never wavered from his face, but behind it the muscles set like steel. His voice, when it came, was soft, but cold and completely emotionless.
“Very well, Aki. If you still insist on standing by Lady Deirdre and her tree-crazy followers, then perhaps my Vendetta should extend to you also.”
The reply, when it came, was swift and sharp.
“Do not try to threaten me, Chairman.” The emphasis on his formal title was unmistakable, and it made his blood boil - this inhuman computer was mocking him!
She spoke again, and he calmed his anger, channelled it, let it aid instead of hinder him.
“You know as well as I do that I have powerful allies, whereas your continuous aggressive posturing has won you few friends. The Peacekeepers, Pirates, and Data Angels will all support me. Who do you have to rely on? Your faithful Believers? I think not!”
The words that she spoke were the absolute truth, and Yang knew it. His alliance with Sister Miriam was more a marriage of convenience than a solid treaty of friendship. It allowed her to pursue her life of religious asceticism and him to continue his social experiments, with no irritating war to get in the way. However, despite the knowledge that her words were true, his pride was still inflamed.
Control, he must control his feelings. Pride was useful in its way, as a tool to be used and thrown away when it was no longer needed, but not as a rampaging emotion that threatened to overwhelm his calmness.
He took a deep breath and concentrated, striving desperately to match his opponent’s composure. His mouth opened, and the words that would decide his destiny and ultimately lead to his destruction escaped into the world.
“Very well, Aki Zeta-5. If you will not heed my words, then from this day my Vendetta on Lady Deirdre extends to you. I will savour the day when my troops drag you kicking and screaming to my headquarters and throw you at my feet, where you will beg for mercy!”
The screen faded to black, and the Chairman was gone.
Aki Zeta-5 leaned back in her chair, relaxing muscles which she had tensed unconsciously in the exchange with Chairman Yang. This was going to be more difficult than anyone had predicted...
Suddenly, her uplink implant activated. The words ‘Message incoming...’ blinked before her eyes, and then they melted into the face of a worried young Consciousness operative. Aki recognised her as Deanna Nu-8, a young shell assigned to a scout rover unit in Gaian territory, last known position...outskirts of Last Rose of Summer. The girl appeared agitated. She was sitting in the back seat of a rover, which was bumping around quite badly.
“Prime Function, I apologise for disturbing you, but we reached Last Rose of Summer, and...”
The ‘camera’ panned right until it was looking out of the rear window, taking in the horrific extent of the devastation. Aki blanched in horror, then recovered herself quickly - it would not do to show strong emotion to young operatives. She must remain calm, composed and rational. Inwardly, she thanked her symbiote, the Zeta-5 algorithm, for the calm it brought to the ruffled waters of her brain.
“We believe that all have perished in the attack,” Deanna Nu-8’s narrative continued. She sounded shaken, but in her voice Aki could just make out the edge of control given to all initiates by their algorithms.
“However, one Talent at least has survived. She managed to commandeer a scout rover and almost collided with us in her headlong escape.”
The camera focused in on a woman, wrapped in a blanket, sitting shivering in the seat next to Deanna Nu-8.
“Her name tag designates her Rachelle Williams, a member of the Gaian Empath schools. What are your orders, Prime Function?”
Aki opened her eyes, cutting off the link momentarily. She then hesitated for a second. The Gaian Federation was collapsing, no longer able to protect itself against the continuous attacks by Chairman Yang’s troops. The Consciousness had already given them one base, on the opposite side of their territory, in order to preserve the Gaian civilisation, but they could not do much more. Anything that could be rescued from the wreck of the Gaian bases would doubtless prove valuable, and that included this Talent.
An Empath too, her subroutines reminded her. There were precious few Empathi in the Consciousness these days. Ever since the Peacekeepers had built their Empath Guild, Lal had siphoned off the best and brightest. Many who went away to study at UN Headquarters didn’t return. Those who did were a bare few; those who didn’t usually relinquished their implants, had their subroutines removed and left the Consciousness forever. It was a difficult decision and an even more difficult procedure, but those who took that path were increasing in number at a depressing rate.
All these musings took less than two seconds, her algorithm helping her thoughts pour through her mind as smoothly as oil spreading across wet ice. She reached a conclusion, closed her eyes, and was again in the rover near the outskirts of Last Rose of Summer. The transition was absolutely seamless - it was as though she simply flowed from one state to the other.
“I have made my decision.”
Rachelle awoke, her head spinning. Right now it felt as though her body was here on Chiron, but her mind was somewhere orbiting Pholus, and it took a long time for the messages to go from one to the other.
One message arriving with almost irritating speed and efficiency, however, was pain. Her entire body ached, scaling up to sharp stabbing pains every time she tried to move.
Slowly, she opened her eyes, and was confronted by the sight of a face staring interestedly at her. She blanched, and tried to wriggle further into the depths of the rover, her body protesting every inch of the way.
All too well did she recognise the shining silver implants around the head of her observer. She was a member of the Cybernetic Consciousness, good allies of the Gaians, but a mysterious, aloof and often-misunderstood race.
Although the Gaian leadership had long since pledged friendship to the Consciousness, mistrust still reared its ugly head amongst the Gaian subjects. Here and there rumours told of people spirited away by the ‘Cyborgs’, to be forced to join their collective mind, to have all sense of self and all conscious volition forcibly removed from their bodies and to have it all replaced by computer programs.
Rachelle’s parents had staunchly supported Lady Deirdre in all her dealings with the Consciousness, but her aunt, a superstitious woman, had often warned Rachelle away from them. One of her favourite songs was about the stealing away of souls by the Consciousness, and it began:
A thousand voices spoke as one...
Even as these thoughts were chasing each other through her head in a mad jumble, the Cyborg spoke. Its words were tainted with a strange sense of dualism, which was difficult for Rachelle to rationalise. It sounded as though two mouths were talking - no, it sounded as though two minds were talking with the same mouth. What would happen if the two minds disagreed, and tried to use the mouth for their own words?...She shuddered at the thought.
“Hello. We...I am designated Deanna Nu-Eight, of the Cybernetic Consciousness. This,” she indicated the man in the passenger seat, “is David Gamma-Nine, and this,” indicating the woman driving the rover, “is Rayini Eta-Seven. We welcome you to our company, Talent Rachelle Williams.”
Rachelle cleared her throat and tried to speak. At first all she could manage was a hoarse croak, but then intelligible words started flowing.
“Wh...where are you taking me?”
Not exactly a classic first line, but it would have to do. The Cyborg thought (she found herself thinking ‘processed’) for a second, and then responded.
“To Iota Station, our closest base.”
“Why?”
Again the Cyborg seemed to be communicating with some inner being...or possibly determining how much information she actually needed to know. When the answer came, it was carefully composed.
“So that you may experience our culture and learn more about us. Perhaps in time you will join us.”
Incredulity flooded through her, but also an almost childish sense of importance. She was wanted by the Consciousness. Her. No-one else. They had asked her, invited her.
With an effort, she silenced the childlike voice which rejoiced inside her head, and tried to be objective. Was this an official invitation, a command, or simply, as the tone implied, a possibility?
The Cyborg spoke again:
“Our Prime Function, Aki Zeta-5, will be meeting you upon your arrival at Iota Station. She will demonstrate to you the finer points of our civilisation and generally show you what the Consciousness is all about.” She smiled, the first expression Rachelle had seen her use. “Then, and only then, will you be asked if you wish to join the Consciousness. There will be no pressure, no commands, just your own personal choice.”
Half of Rachelle was warming to this odd, somehow comforting girl, but the other, more rational, half of her wasn’t so sure. That sounded like a propaganda speech for the Consciousness, and she still couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow something was speaking with the girl, forming the same words with her mouth.
“And if I refuse?”
The girl's expression suggested that she considered such refusal unlikely, to say the least, but her answer was civil.
“Then you will be returned to your own people - if any of them actually remain by then.”
Rachelle's mouth opened for a caustic reply, but Deanna had spoken calmly and peacefully, with no hint of irony or sarcasm. Indeed, it seemed impossible that irony or sarcasm could cross those lips.
There seemed nothing to do but sit back and await her arrival at Iota Station...
“Fire!”
Another volley of missiles screamed overhead, smashing into the perimeter defence, decimating it until nothing was left but a heap of twisted rubble.
Cyborg troops strode forward into the base, legions of well-disciplined soldiers marching in perfect time. When they came to a building, squads would break off to secure it against the enemy.
Hive defenders began to charge at them from all sides, firing wildly. They were cut down by Cyborgs with ruthless efficiency, the faces of the troops impassive throughout.
Within the hour People's Teeming, Yang's second largest base, had fallen under Cybernetic control. Uplinks had been established throughout, and a thousand new shells were initiated into the Consciousness.
* * * * *
Their arrival at Iota Station was relatively uneventful. At 5 a.m. precisely their rover was met by the Prime Function’s personal limousine. There were few guards, Rachelle realised - far fewer than usually accompanied such an important figure. If Colonel Corazon Santiago, for example, were to process through the streets of Sparta Command, she would be surrounded by a cavalcade of armed escorts. Here there were simply a few Cyborgs carrying shredder pistols, and even those were fairly well concealed.
Rachelle reached out with her empathic talents, and tried to focus on the Cyborgs around her to gauge their mood. Pushing aside the background thrum of Planet’s neural net as she had been taught, she reached out...
What she felt shocked her. Instead of the rich tapestry of human emotion that she had always felt when at home in Last Rose of Summer, she felt a cool, clinical precision, an almost complete absence of emotion. Behind those deep eyes were minds with incredible intellectual capacity, amazing knowledge and an unbelievable aptitude for logical and rational thought, unfettered by human passion, unhindered by hate or fear or anxiety.
Her single guard, a tall, flaxen-haired man whose implants gleamed in the morning light, opened the door to the Prime Function’s limousine, and she climbed in.
She blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust from the bright morning sunshine to the subdued lighting inside the car.
As her eyes slowly adapted to the change in light level, she could make out a single figure sitting across from her.
Aki Zeta-5 leaned forward.
“Welcome.”
* * * * *
Chairman Yang was closer to losing his grip now than he ever had been before. Aki Zeta-5 had outmanoeuvred him! Only a few minutes after he had closed his commlink to her, hundreds of Consciousness troops had crossed the Hive borders and had begun decimating his armies. Whole columns of his best forces had been completely wiped off the map. Now the Cyborgs were conducting systematic surgical strikes against his largest bases, and had captured three already. Reports coming in told him that two more were under heavy attack and could not hold out much longer.
The Chairman’s hands began to clench and unclench, a nervous habit that he thought he had broken himself of since before the Unity left Earth. Not now, not now! He hadn’t time for this now.
He tapped a sequence of commands on his datapad, and the face of one of his aides appeared on the viewscreen in front of him. Portia Krakowski, looking exactly the same as she had the day he had first met her aboard the Unity.. Twenty-two years old in face, many times that number in mind. The new longevity treatments were obviously working.
“Yes, Chairman?”
Her voice, so smooth, so melodic...he shook himself. This wasn’t like him at all. I must see a doctor, he reminded himself. But later. Right now I am needed here.
“Portia, I need you to organise our defences here in The Hive. Recruit as many people as you can, train them quickly, and give them weaponry and armour. We will need all the help we can get.”
He pressed his hands to his temples, trying to collect his tattered mental faculties. Why was it suddenly so hard to think?
“Station our defenders around the...perimeter defence. This base must not fall to the...the Consciousness...”
His aide was startled to hear the Chairman begin a conversation with himself, mumbling and muttering almost unintelligibly. It sounded as though he was dangerously close to madness - could this really be the same Sheng-ji Yang who had commandeered a Unity escape pod and set out to construct a Utopia on Planetsurface?
“Not enough time...never enough time...algorithms...there must be something in the algorithms...Aki Zeta-5...strength is togetherness...unity...must have unity...”
Slowly, Sheng-ji Yang (was that his name? He couldn’t remember clearly) sank to his knees, one hand steadying himself against his desk. From the viewscreen, his aide...Portia, wasn’t it?...was asking him anxiously if he was all right.
He raised his head, then was forced to lower it again as his eyes blurred and defocused. He couldn’t think straight, couldn’t remember anything, couldn’t do anything...
His knees gave way, his head hit the floor with a dull thud, and he slipped into the dark waters of unconsciousness...
“Yes!”
Lady Deirdre looked on as her Empathi began to cheer and stamp. Their plan had finally come to fruition. They were using their empathic talents to confuse Yang’s defenders, panic his citizens and, most importantly of all, reduce Yang himself to unconsciousness.
That had been the hardest part. Yang’s mental defences were considerable, walls which had to be broken down before the assault could continue. However, eventually the final barrier had been pushed aside, and her Empathi had begun their attack. It was the work of but a few minutes to confuse and dull Yang’s thinking, and after that it was a simple task to dampen his mental functioning enough to force him into insensibility.
It wouldn’t last forever, but it would last long enough to severely alarm Yang’s subordinates and throw off any plans for strengthening the defences of The Hive, long enough for the Consciousness to overwhelm the defenders and capture Yang’s headquarters.
Deirdre stood, and activated the microphone in front of her. She didn’t have a speech prepared, but they so obviously wanted some encouraging and congratulatory words from their leader.
“My Empathi, I congratulate you on the success of your efforts. If our allies are indeed able to seize The Hive, we will have dealt a severe blow to Yang and his minions. We must always remember that, pacifists though we are, we must be ready to defend ourselves against the insurgency of those who would rape and despoil Planet. Yang was such a one, and even now our allies the Cybernetic Consciousness are conducting a successful military campaign to neutralise the Hive threat and liberate those poor oppressed people from Yang’s control.”
She took a deep breath, and continued.
“I knew Yang for but a short time, during the period directly after the Unity disaster. Back then he was Chief of Security, while I was a lowly botanist under the command of Prokhor Zakharov. Now he has become our greatest enemy, and we must do what we can to preserve both our way of life and our link with Planet.
If that means that we must take up arms to defend our cause, then so be it. Let it never be said that a member of the Gaian Federation was afraid to fight to defend their principles.”
A massive cheer went up from the gathered Empathi. Lady Deirdre sketched a bow and sat down, emotionally drained by the passion that she had put into her speech. With determination this strong, and such resolute people behind her, she felt she could achieve anything...
* * * * *
“Talent Rachelle Williams, do you have any further questions about the Cybernetic Consciousness?”
And the incredible thing was, she hadn't. Aki Zeta-5 had anticipated her questions at every turn. She had been shown the massive uplink networks which kept every mind in the Consciousness linked to every other mind, the enormous databanks where backups of the Consciousness were kept, and many other wonders of engineering and computing which kept the Consciousness together.
“You have shown me everything which I wished to see, and more. And now, Prime Function Aki Zeta-5, I would like to give you something in return.”
The Prime Function's face lit up, and she leant forward to better hear Rachelle's next words.
“I would like to become a member of your Consciousness.”
In Aki's eyes she could see elation. She plunged onward.
“As diplomatic aide to Lady Deirdre, I have been to many places and met many faction leaders.
I met Academician Prokhor Zakharov, and. I saw a hunted, driven man, desperately seeking an answer to unanswerable questions, trying frantically to escape his own mortality.
I met Commissioner Pravin Lal, and I saw a man whose profound love of humanity and protectiveness of human rights crippled him at every turn. While his morals and ethics are laudable, he spends too much of his time interpreting and enforcing the UN Charter, and his society is stagnating around him.
I met Sister Miriam Godwinson, and I saw a woman who could have single-handedly led this mission to unified success on Planetsurface, were it not for her intense devotion to her faith. Her charisma alone could have held the mission together when it was fragmenting high above Planet, but instead she chose to walk the path of God, and pays the daily price that He demands.
I met Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, and I saw a man whose desire for a Utopian society overrode any concerns for the welfare of his people or for their democratic rights. His social experimentation, for all his good intentions, is sick and twisted and completely indefensible.
I met CEO Nwabudike Morgan, and I saw a man who loves and cherishes wealth above all things. Yet how would he fare if trade and commerce dissipated tomorrow? What if society finally evolves to that higher plane where material things have no significance?
I met Colonel Corazon Santiago, and I saw a soldier fighting a thousand needless wars. Survivalism has no place on Planet, where all should be allowed to live in peace and harmony with one another, not brainwashed into fighting crusades against all who oppose them.
I met Datatech Sinder Roze, and I saw a woman whose love of anarchy and devotion to covert operations blinds her daily to the realities around her. For her, the virtual world is fast becoming the real world, and the day may come when she retreats into that world completely.
I met Captain Ulrik Svensgaard, and I saw a man who lost everything he had, and who now erroneously believes he can find it again in the oceans. His unswerving ardour for his precious waters overrides all else.
I met Foreman Domai, and I saw a man whose dedication to his people leads him to treat them as eggshells, that they may break if they are dropped. His suspicion of knowledge and scientific progress is crippling his society, and his industrial efforts simply turn Planet against him.
I met Prophet Cha Dawn, and I saw a young boy whose empathic talents gave him an inflated sense of self-importance and led him to believe that he is Planet's chosen emissary to the people. His ideology is contradictory - on his quest to wipe the blight that he calls humanity from the face of Planet, he is himself defacing Planet's surface daily with more and more strip-mines and boreholes.
I even met Caretaker Lular H'minee and Usurper Judaa Marr, and I saw the last few members of a race which tore itself apart over the results of a single experiment. Their technology could have been used to incredible ends, but now it has been used to construct terrible weapons which they daily use to decimate their own kind.
Even my leader, Lady Deirdre, is not without her faults. Her commitment to keeping Planet pristine and pure is exemplary, but her pacifism is her undoing. She is not prepared to fight for what she believes in, and I believe that will be her downfall.
And then, Prime Function, I met you, and I saw in you a convergence of two worlds, the natural and the technological, and I saw the product - a woman whose only goals are enlightenment and rationality. Your logical progression fascinates me, and I applaud your quest for knowledge.
And to further those ends, I would like to join you.”
“Prime Function.”
The voice was not far above a whisper, but still clearly audible in the hushed stillness of Alpha Prime’s main hall. Rachelle and the Prime Function had been driven there in record time by their chauffeur, and now preparations were fully underway for her Initiation.
She had been told she was very lucky. The Prime Function hadn’t personally supervised an Initiation for at least a year. The last one had been when Colonel Santiago’s second-in-command, General Garin Leyla, had petitioned to join the Consciousness.
“Prime Function.”
The voice came again, a low whisper, sounding as though the speaker was almost embarrassed to disturb the silence.
Aki Zeta-5 turned her head and nodded at the aide who had spoken to continue.
“The Lady’s quarters are ready for her, if she would care to proceed to them. Level 5, section 6, sub-block 2.”
To call Rachelle’s quarters opulent would have been to miss a perfect opportunity to call them palatial. Every comfort and convenience invented by humankind in all their years of civilisation were represented here, from a thick, luscious cerise carpet all the way through to state-of-the-art information facilities, including news from all over Planet. All this, apparently, was to make her feel at ease, for conducting an Initiation when the subject was tense or anxious was difficult at best.
She took a luxurious, lengthy bath, and then occupied herself by perusing the news reports filing in over the networks. Colonel Santiago's position at the head of the Spartan military junta was becoming more and more precarious; the Progenitor war was edging towards its ultimate conclusion; CEO Morgan had fled Morgan Industries after the Nautilus Pirates came dangerously close to overthrowing him; Nettap Complex had revolted against the Data Angels and proclaimed itself part of the Free
Drone Empire.
Suddenly her eye was caught by a small article, way down the list. She scrolled down, then magnified.
‘Chairman Sheng-ji Yang's representatives today refused to make a formal apology for the Hive’s complete obliteration of Last Rose of Summer. Lady Deirdre has denounced the Hive as ‘ruthless, evil barbarians’ and has mobilised her troops against Chairman Yang. The other factions have all imposed strict economic sanctions on the Hive, cutting off all trade and commerce. Prime Function Aki Zeta-5 of the Cybernetic Consciousness and Commissioner Pravin Lal of the UN Peacekeepers went even further, declaring official Vendetta upon the Hive, citing an alliance and the UN Charter as respective reasons for their course of action.
Since his collapse two days ago, the Chairman's physical condition has caused his aides constant concern. His lapse into unconsciousness has no medical explanation. He has been treated with all the latest stimulants, but so far he has not responded to treatment. His doctor, David Mendel- Waren, gave us this statement:
“We believe that the only remaining explanation of the Chairman's condition is empathic neurosuppression. We also believe that the perpetrator of this atrocity is the Gaian Federation.”
Lady Deirdre Skye was quick to refute the doctor's statement, saying,
“The Gaians are doing nothing but responding to the Hive’s aggression with assertiveness. We do not intend to be cowed by Yang's posturing, and we will fight for what we know to be right.”
In the Chairman’s absence, his two chief aides, Portia and Sonia Krakowski, are supervising the running of the Hive. However, Consciousness troops are continuing to capture more and more bases from the Hive, and it is the opinion of many that Chairman Yang and his followers may not last long.’
Her anger, when it came, boiled over in one long scream of rage. How dare Yang refuse to apologise! She had lost everything when his troops destroyed Last Rose of Summer - family, friends, colleagues, everything! Nothing had been left to her - and that, she was coming to suspect, had been one of the reasons why she had been so quick to make her decision to join the Consciousness.
That supercilious...she couldn't even think of a word bad enough to describe Yang!
Still fuming, she called up the datafiles on Portia and Sonia Krakowski.
‘Portia Krakowski, born 3rd June, 2038 in New Warsaw, chief aide to Chairman Sheng-ji Yang. Former Governor of People's Teeming until its capture by Consciousness forces. Now believed to be joint Regent of the Hive in the continued absence of Chairman Yang.
Sonia Krakowski, born 3rd June, 2038 in New Warsaw, chief aide to Chairman Sheng-ji Yang. Former Governor of The Colony until its capture by Consciousness forces. Now believed to be joint Regent of the Hive in the continued absence of Chairman Yang.’
Identical twins, both born twenty-two years before the Unity mission. Originally assigned to Prokhor Zakharov’s science team, then defected to Chairman Yang’s landing pod in their pursuit of the perfect life.
Rachelle turned her head away in disgust, bile rising from her stomach. She had known them. At one of the diplomatic banquets held in Gaia’s Landing, ambassadors from every faction (excluding the Progenitors, of course) had thrown their differences away, for one short night, and come together in one room for the first time in decades.
She remembered that night well. She had sat with them on her right hand side, and her leader Lady Deirdre Skye upon her left, at the head of the table. The two - she almost called them girls, but then realised that they were several times older than she was - had laughed and joked and behaved exactly as everyone expected two twenty-year-old girls to behave, given that they were in honoured company, of course.
But Rachelle’s empathic talents, coupled with her keen powers of observation, had told her more. Behind the laughing, convivial facade, two hearts beat, as cold as the deepest depths of midnight space. Two scheming minds plotted and planned their way to power, with no thought for those who stood in their way.
She had been disgusted. You could see their eyes snapping and darting in their faces as they smiled, taking in every nuance, every detail, anything that might be of use to their leader. She couldn’t help but be impressed at their deception, but the idea still left her sick to her stomach - they had seemed so genuine, so ordinary.
Now they were the Gaians’ greatest enemies...
“Run!”
The fear twisted deep in Lady Deirdre’s stomach, writhing and contorting like a tortured mindworm. Aki wasn’t fast enough...
Precise as the Consciousness attacks had been, they hadn’t been fast enough. The first wave of Yang’s troops had escaped destruction, and were now looting and pillaging Gaia’s Landing, the closest Gaian base to the Hive border. There were simply too many of them, and the Gaian defenders had been driven further and further back into the base. Though their photon wall armour was a match for the Hive missiles, they had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of Hive attackers, and now the last few citizens were being evacuated from Gaia’s Landing.
Lady Deirdre, dressed in green-and-brown battle fatigues, leaned gracefully around the corner of a building and took a shot at a Hive soldier who was wielding a vibro-saw and laughing maniacally. He went down, his laughter now changed to screams of pain, his shoulder reduced to shreds by the Lady’s shredder pistol.
At least we got most of them out, thought Deirdre. It had been a close call. The enemy had managed to surround the base of the main tower, and they had been hard-pressed to fight their way out. However, her valiant defenders had managed to screen the civilians from the assault and most had got away in the prepared scout rovers. Now only a few troops remained, desperately trying to hold back the onslaught as the last citizens made their way through the streets to the rover fleet.
“Lady Deirdre!”
It was Lindly, her favourite Talent since Rachelle had gone missing. Her mindworm boil had been obliterated by the Hive, but luckily Lindly had been able to break the mental link before the worms’ mental death shrieks had reduced her brain to madness.
“Please, you must get to the rovers. We may not get another chance. They almost got us surrounded!”
Deirdre looked at Lindly, her eyes ranging sadly over her Talent’s countenance. Her long brown hair was caked with mud, her face was streaked with blood, and her clothing was ripped and torn where shrapnel had slashed through it. Blood pumped from a gash on her left thigh, and she still bore the signs of mental anguish which came from the wrenching split with her mind worm boil.
All that we can hope for is that our children never have to see these horrors, prayed Deirdre. Soon, very soon, Yang’s spectre will no longer hang over all our heads...
She spun on the ball of her foot, and shot down a Hive soldier who had been creeping towards them. The woman shrieked aloud and dropped her missile launcher, which then exploded at her feet as the missile misfired.
Both Lindly and Deirdre ducked as shrapnel screamed overhead, mud spattering down over them both.
Deirdre caught hold of Lindly’s arm and began to run. Within a second, Lindly was pounding along beside her as they headed desperately for the one remaining rover.
They gained the rover, slammed the door behind them, and kicked it into gear. As it shot forward, gears protesting loudly, a missile impacted at the exact spot where the two women had been standing only seconds ago.
As Lindly wrestled with the rover’s wheel, frantically trying to get it under control, Deirdre gazed back at the burning wreck that had been her home for so many years.
She slung her backpack onto the seat, opened a side pocket and took out a small white pine seedling, no more than a foot high, her last redemption from the ruins of Gaia’s Landing.
Our hope will live again...
* * * * *
“Peace.”
The word rolled out into the hall of Alpha Prime, amplified a hundred times by the system of carefully concealed microphones and speakers. Silence began to spread in its wake, flowing like a tide throughout the room.
Rachelle stepped forward, as she had been instructed. Her single implant rested against her skin, cool metal on flesh. She'd been told that she only needed the one implant - technological advances had made the five sported by Aki Zeta-5 a thing of the past. They had situated it high on her forehead, where it could be covered by a simple restyling of her hair.
She was partly anxious, partly afraid, but mostly exhilarated. Catching herself, she reminded herself of the importance of emotional detachment, and reached inside herself for the calm centre that her Empath tutors had taught her to touch...
There, she thought, as she felt tranquillity flood through her body. I am ready.
“Peace,” said Aki Zeta-5 again. “We are here to witness the Initiation of another into our number. Let the ceremony begin.”
Short and sweet, thought Rachelle. That’s the way they work, though...
Aki Zeta-5 stepped forward, wearing a simple white gown and holding her head high, the silver implants gleaming in the subdued light.
“There is no war, only peace.”
A thousand voices echoed, There is no war, only peace.
“There is no fear, only peace.”
Again the tide of responses, There is no fear, only peace.
“There is no hunger, no pain, no loneliness; no anger, no division, no hate; there is only peace.”
The shells faithfully echoed her words.
“Our ultimate goals: logic, rationality, and knowledge, but above all things knowledge. For knowledge is the lifeblood of human civilisation, the cornerstone upon which we build everything.”
Knowledge... they responded.
Rachelle walked forward again, and spread her arms above her head. The microphone concealed in the folds of her dress picked up her voice and amplified it, spreading her words throughout the hall.
“I am ready. I come to you as one seeking unity with the many. Together we shall ascend to greater heights of knowledge and rationality. I seek your approval!”
A murmur ran through the room, and then as one they spoke.
“We approve.”
From the corner of her eye, she could see a technician press a button on his console, and the uplink began...
* * * * *
“No!”
Datapads flew across the room as Sonia Krakowski’s temper snapped. In an instant, Portia was beside her, holding her by both wrists.
“Sonia, stop it! Stop it right now!”
Sonia struggled for a couple of seconds, but Portia’s grip was like cold steel, and she eventually gave up. She stood there looking sullen, her expression slowly changing to one of contrition as she saw the damage that she had wrought.
“Sorry, Porch...I don't know what came over me. When I heard the Cyborgs were heading this way...I guess I snapped...”
She bent, and started retrieving datapads, but that second sirens began to wail. The pads dropped from Sonia nerveless fingers as the two sisters turned to face each other. Their faces were stark white, their eyes wide with fear.
Portia leapt to Yang's desk and slapped a control, and the entire wall of the office became translucent, then transparent. When the last of the opacity cleared, they could see the reason for the blaring sirens.
All along the subterranean walkways, and throughout the massive main cavern in which they lived, explosions thundered and flames roared.
“They're here...”
Portia punched another control, and a 3-D holographic representation of the base shimmered to life in front of them. Defending units were shown as blue dots, attackers as red.
A veritable red sandstorm greeted their astonished eyes. The Cyborgs were everywhere - they had penetrated the base at every entrance, and were now working their way inwards.
Sonia, moving like an automaton, tapped in a query to the computer, asking it how long it would take the Cyborgs to reach their current position.
There was a pause whilst the computer calculated and verified the answer, and then it flashed up in foot-high holographic numbers.
Twenty-four minutes, seventeen seconds.
For a second there was total silence in the room, and then they both exploded into action.
* * * * *
Uplink complete. Commencing algorithm...
Light flooded her vision, and she blinked. Then there was a sudden rushing sensation, like icy mountain streams cascading through her mind...
Incredible...
The few rumours that filtered through said that it was like sharing your consciousness with another being, but it wasn't in the slightest. It was like sharing your consciousness with yourself...
And it was. All the algorithm did was enhance your abilities. In exchange for its existence, implanted in the left side of her cerebral cortex, it worked wonders on the right side, improving such functions as logic and rationality to previously undreamed- of levels.
She had come to lying on a blindingly white biobed in the Infirmary of Alpha Prime. She blinked again, and then her uplink node activated, and she could hear...it...
In all the stories that her Aunt had told her, it had been described as ‘a thousand voices, speaking as one’, but she had been wrong.
It was like one voice speaking through a thousand mouths...
And in the midst of it all sat Aki Zeta-5, co-ordinator of the entire Consciousness, silvery uplink tendrils extending from her in a pulsing, coruscating web, linking every member of the Consciousness together.
She closed her eyes and let her mind achieve uplink, and slipped into the world of the Consciousness...
It was like dancing in the blue skies of Planet, like plunging into the heart of Hercules, like bathing in the icy tail of a comet.
All these comparisons and more could never describe what she felt as her mind flowed from node to node, feeling the living, breathing Consciousness surrounding her on all sides. She let its currents take her, pull her gently along, enveloped in their cool waters.
Suddenly, she could feel discord and strife. She had reached the part of the network which included those shells who were fighting at this very moment in The Hive.
Even as she watched, another shell’s death cry echoed throughout the network, and another strand in the great net vanished. This part of the Consciousness was in disorder and disarray, the shells isolated from each other and unable to communicate.
Reaching out with all her strength, Rachelle desperately tried to smooth the raging waters. She felt a flash of gratitude from the shells, and decided to help them further.
Melding her mind and its implanted algorithm closer into one whole, she began to gather the strands of consciousness and weave them together.
In the tunnels of The Hive, shells began to fight together, working towards a common goal instead of firing blindly...
Wherever there were gaps in the iridescent tapestry, Rachelle took threads and wove them together to form new patterns of strength and unity.
The Hive defenders started to fall back in fear from this new onslaught. The Cyborgs were fighting as one, like a massive entity with a thousand arms and a thousand weapons...
She could feel the strength, now. Though the repairs were only temporary, they would at least hold until she had put her latest idea into practice...
Modulating her carrier wave, she managed to slip past the Hive’s defences and into their datalinks. From there it was a simple system hop into the comm network, and from there...
A console beeped in Yang’s office, and Sonia pressed a control. Instantly, the holographic screen activated, and the words ‘Message Incoming...’ flashed for a second before dissolving into...
It looked human, but somehow they both got the impression that in some way it wasn’t...
The face was that of a young woman, looking about twenty to twenty-five, but it pulsed in and out of focus, as though she was trying to project a face...
Rachelle reached out with everything she had - algorithmic ability, empathic talents, everything - and funnelled it all down into a few words.
“Look into my eyes...”
Automatically, Sonia and Portia glanced at the eyes of this holographic image. Then, chilled to the bone, they tried desperately to drag their eyes away...but found themselves held in place.
The eyes were incredible. They seemed to burn from the inside with an incandescent white flame, searing into the depths of the souls of the two women...
In an instant, everything was stripped away, and they both saw their lives as never before. Aimless, pathetic, despicable, dedicated to serving an insane, grasping despot...
Rachelle played on secret fears, unease, anger, paranoia, everything - and she could tell it was paying off. The two sisters were shrivelling under the onslaught like mind worms before a flame gun.
Sonia was screaming in emotional agony. Portia was simply crying hysterically. Both were on the brink of insanity. It just needed one more good push...
Just one more good push... thought Rachelle. Gathering all her resources, she formed one last attack and flung it with all her strength...
And so it was that, when Chairman Yang finally regained consciousness and managed to stumble to his office, he found his two chief aides curled up on the floor, whimpering in pain.
In the subterranean tunnels of The Hive, the Consciousness had reached the Headquarters building and was already flooding it with troops. Yang’s office was on the top floor, but it would not take them long to get there...
Rachelle was still surfing the waves of knowledge, exulting in her success. These tides are breaking on a new shore, and the waters are rising fast. Against supreme knowledge, who would dare to stand? An enemy will fall today, and the waters will close over his colossus...
Yang prodded frantically at the controls set into his desk. His self-control was gone, washed out to sea by the fear which now assailed him. Portia and Sonia had left the holographic globe active, and he could see the severity of his predicament.
The number of blue dots had decreased dramatically. Besides the four guards outside his door, only seven armed personnel remained in his Headquarters, and beyond that only about twenty survived, scattered uselessly throughout the base.
Not long now...
Red dots were swarming all over the Headquarters. The seven sentries were defending the main lifts, but it would not take long for the Cyborgs to overwhelm them and sweep them aside. Even his four faithful guards could not hope to defend the corridor for more than a few seconds.
He was trapped.
Deanna Nu-Eight crept silently along the corridor leading to Yang’s office. She and two other operatives had found the service lifts, and now the other two were making their way towards Yang’s office from the other direction. Inwardly, she blessed the architect who had designed this building for making it circular and having the corridors follow suit. Now they could attack the guards from both directions.
Although the half of her that answered to the designation Nu-Eight was calm and composed, the half of her that was still Deanna Iriana was overflowing with mixed excitement and anxiety. Adrenaline was surging through her body in quantities she had not felt since her Initiation.
Suddenly, from up ahead there came the unmistakable sharp crack! of a shredder pistol, and a cry of pain. Deanna drew her own weapon, a slim, silver laser pistol, tensed her body, and leapt...
Shredder darts hissed past her as she soared through the air; then she hit the floor, rolled, and came up firing.
Her first burst of laser fire caught a guard in the shoulder. He dropped his pistol and clutched at the neat round mark on his shoulder, his eyes wide with pain, his mouth opening and closing in shock.
Deanna froze in shock herself, stunned at what she had done to this man. The Consciousness preached peace above all things, and she had just done this...
A shredder dart tore through the leg of her combat fatigues, sending pain lancing up her leg and bringing her back to life. She spun, and scythed the guard’s legs out from under her with a kick. The woman landed heavily, dropping her shredder pistol in the process.
As Deanna glanced up, she saw that there was only one guard left standing, crouching behind a turn in the corridor, obviously firing at her two companions. She snapped off a shot, and was rewarded by seeing him crumple soundlessly to the ground.
The woman whom she had just knocked down lunged for her pistol, but Deanna was faster. Her algorithmically enhanced reflexes took over, her leg shot out in a kick, and the shredder pistol went spinning out of the woman’s reach along the corridor.
The guard growled, deep in her throat, and launched herself at Deanna, a knife appearing in her hand...
...and she met, halfway, a bolt of pure energy from Deanna’s laser pistol.
The woman dropped to the floor, dead, a smoking hole where one eye had been.
That was the last of them.
Quickly, Deanna leapt at the door to Sheng-ji Yang’s office, bruising her hand as she slammed it on the ‘open’ button.
Surprisingly, all security procedures had been overridden. Deanna blessed Rachelle’s forethought - she must have done it whilst still in the Hive’s computer matrix.
Even as the door began to open, there was the all-too-familiar whine of a shredder pistol charging to overload.
Deanna sprang back from the door, her laser pistol instantly in her hand. A strange sight met her eyes.
Sheng-ji Yang stood there, his arms flung towards the ceiling, his head thrown back. As she entered cautiously, he looked down towards her, a beatific smile painted across his face.
“Enter, my child. Come, you shall be the last to look upon the face of Planet’s greatest martyr...”
The shredder pistol burst completely obliterated his head and sent deadly darts scything towards Deanna. She ducked instinctively, and heard a series of soft thunk noises which marked the darts ending their trajectory in the office wall.
There was a quiet thump as the body of the late Sheng-ji Yang hit the floor limply.
Deanna looked out gingerly from beneath a shielding arm at the body of the Consciousness’ greatest enemy. Her body was spattered with Yang’s blood, and her own blood was dripping from the slice on her leg. Surprise, shock and sorrow coursed through her veins and her heart hammered as though it would burst from her chest, but she felt a sense of incredible elation. The great war is finally over...
She half turned, intending to congratulate whoever had loosed the final shot, but there was no-one there.
Picking her way carefully out into the corridor, she found the corpses of the four guards, and then a little further away, the bodies of David Gamma-Nine and Rayini Eta-Seven.
She knelt beside them, but there was no sign of life. The shredder darts had done their deadly work too well, and both were gone.
Her face remained impassive, but tears began to stream from her eyes. She made no attempt to wipe them away, and they dripped onto the bodies of her fallen comrades.
She went back into Yang’s office one last time, carefully avoiding his body and the blood which pooled around it, and found what she had been seeking.
It had only been after finding the bodies of her dead comrades that she realised that the shots had come, not from behind her, but from in front.
She finally found the shredder pistol, propped up on a stack of datapads. Carefully, she disarmed it, then flung it across the room, where it lay, a harmless lump of metal and plastic.
They eventually found her, crouched over her two fallen companions, tears still falling from her eyes.
* * * * *
There were celebrations all over Planet that night. The Hive had finally been eliminated!
Fireworks lit the night over Gaia’s High Garden. Cheers resounded in the vaulted halls of Virgin Soil. Acolytes clapped and stamped as the victory procession wound its way through the Gaians’ new base, placed on the exact site of Gaia’s Landing and given the same name.
Lady Deirdre led the Gaian celebrations, and when she judged the time was right she called for quiet.
“My dear, dear friends, we have survived a war which threatened to wipe us from the face of Planet. Along the way we lost many friends and family members, and our hearts go with them and with those whom they leave behind.
However, we must not let their loss blind us to Planet’s gain. A great blight has been removed from Planet’s bright countenance, and we, her servants, endure to tend and care for her anew.
And to symbolise our hope for a new dawn, for harmony and peace with Planet, I plant the beginning of a new stand of white pine, to flourish forever in the commons of Gaia’s Landing.”
With that, she knelt, and pressed the seedling which she herself had saved into the moist soil of Planet.
The celebrations even broke the hushed silence of Alpha Prime. Shells who had not shown strong emotion for years wept openly with happiness. Others shouted their delight to the heavens.
In the midst of it all sat Aki Zeta-5, with Rachelle Alpha-4 on her right, and Deanna Nu-8 on her left. Both were to receive commendations for their part in winning the war against the Hive.
But for this one moment, they sat alone, an island of silence amidst so much noise. They had, by mutual agreement, moved their interlink frequencies up several cycles, and now were linked together, two shells and the Consciousness’ main operative.
As one, they closed their eyes, and slid into the cool waters of the Consciousness. For this one precious moment they let their minds soar along the pathways of the living, pulsing Consciousness, revelling in the pure thought which surrounded them and beat like a massive heart.
Three minds leapt and danced, just for this one moment, rejoicing in their freedom and their unity...
Unity...