“Please tell me what happened.”
Althea tried to put her hands on Erie’s. The other woman pulled her hands away and said,
“He died. My friend and your new lover died while I watched. Killed by a fucking ’78 cyborg. A fucking borg.”
Erie shook her head and downed a glass of clear liquor. She tossed the empty glass onto the ground where her drone sorted the pieces and carried them away.
Althea felt the effects of the alcohol herself, but as if through a filter. A short consult with Pontikos, who had been acting a bit weird, confirmed that she could purge herself of toxins like a submarine dumping ballast. In less than two seconds, she could be stone cold sober.
Small consolation.
Althea wanted to send the dark thought fluttering away. But when she tried that, the memory of Boris’s body and voice returned to her. Worse, she could replay most of her experience with him from nights before. Her mind seemed to hover over reliving those experiences constantly and she already felt exhausted from it.
The alcohol did not help. But it felt like it helped at the time.
They both stumbled back to the Surge ship together. As they stood in the revolving airlock, Althea said,
“Does this fucking thing have a name?”
Erie nodded and said,
“When she was in service, she was the Caritas.”
“That means… Mercy?”
Pontikos supplied Althea’s drunken mind with the word’s Latin definition.
“Something like that, yeah. The military is big into the Romans and irony. Don’t blame me.”
Erie playfully shoved Althea. It was the first real human contact she had experienced since waking up in her dead friend’s body. She felt the pressure and heat, the way the fabric rubbed against her skin like a thousand tiny thorns assaulting her flesh, but all of it in slow motion and all of it in far too much detail.
Althea staggered for a second and Erie said,
“What’s wrong, did you drink too much? Haha.”
Althea shook her head, though the motion made her want to be sick and said,
“No, that hit felt like… I don’t know, like madness?”
“Oh shit. You need to tune your sensitivities. Have your AI run an auto routine when you’re not drunk.”
“Nice, anything else I should know?”
Erie shrugged.
“If I think of anything, I’ll let you know. I’m still using a Parker mk I anyway. Never needed one of the new upgrades.”
“Does that mean you can just make yourself not drunk too?”
“Sure, but where’s the fun in something like that?”
Erie laughed as a dozen drones of various sized and quality pranced down the hallway after her. The Caritas was large enough that Althea had left behind her old cabins and found a new, bigger space for her temporary home.
This had a kitchenette with a fridge and hot water kettle. A small bench bed gave Althea everything she needed in terms of comfort. She dragged a mass of pillows and blankets from the ship’s fabrication section into her new room and crashed on her bed.
She woke the next morning without a hangover. Blessing her foresight from the night before, she sat up as a kettle whistled its announcement of boiling water.
“Wazzat?”
Erie laughed as she silenced the kettle and walked over to Althea’s bunk.
“This is a common area. Back in the day you woulda been stripped and taped to something unpleasant if you passed out here like that.”
“Oh shoot, should I leave?”
“Naw, there’re several and no one here minds. I’m the last of only two or fewer of my kind on planet.”
“Two? You think there might be another Surge agent on planet?”
The way Erie shrugged and turned away set off red flags in Althea’s mind. Pontikos appeared with a laser pointer and indicated each subtle marker of deception Erie had exhibited as if to reinforce the sea of red flags.
Althea sighed and said,
“Should I stop pressing about the other Surge person?”
Erie said,
“It doesn’t matter really. I should have what we need setup soon anyway. Then we can blow planet no problem. Except.”
“Except what?”
“I think that attack group from the other day was just a scouting force who overreacted to us. Get a strategic analysis from your AI. See what it thinks.”
Althea nodded and Pontikos produced a chart with a map of troop movements from the other day. Pangs of guilt and anger shot through her as she watched the map display where the sniper had lurked. But Pontikos came to the same conclusion as Erie. They hit a small section of an active force, who turned, had their eyes plucked out and then retreated before fully engaging.
As if they had another objective for their attack.
Althea said,
“They’re going to regroup and attack here?”
Erie nodded.
“They had cyborgs and air support. We’re screwed if they’ve figured out how to neutralize the Caritas’s defenses.”
“Why attack us out in the wastes and then retreat?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Erie shrugged and said,
“Depends on a lot of things. What if what they really want is here? Or if they assume we would leave it here?”
Althea paused as she regarded Erie’s folded arms and worried expression.
“Just say it.”
“Unless they were after the ship, which is possible, I think they were after you, Althea.”
Even before Erie finished speaking, Althea had started nodding.
“Yeah. What do we do about it?”
Erie sat down at the table in the middle of the common area facing Althea and said,
“Aside from me, Jericho and Telly are the best trained people on the shelf. Boris taught those two himself. We can bring them into this discussion if you want.” Erie held up her hand and said, “There are two dangers: one that they take over strategy and second, they learn the truth about you and decide to throw you to the wolves.”
Althea took a breath and nodded. What Erie said made sense and when she brought up the last point, Althea said,
“Why don’t we just leave?”
“Because there is a chance the Shelf gets attacked anyway. Unless you’re planning to hand yourself over to the cannibals, I think we should make our stand here.”
Althea considered Erie’s points. The risk that staying would result in the kids’ death made Althea want to escape through the front gate more now. As if Erie were reading Althea’s thoughts, she said,
“And keep in mind if you leave the whole city and the cannibals attack, they’ll be worse off anyway. It’s not like the cannibals will be nice if you’re not around.”
Althea felt sick and low from the discussion. At the same time, she knew she could not put this off. Failing to plan for the impending attack would only hand the city over to the attackers.
“Contact Jericho and Telly. See what they think.”
Erie nodded and said,
“We should move to a planning room for this.”
Half an hour later, the four people reconvened in a room with a long ovular table and a plain white wall at the end. Now Erie wore a small grey suit that made her look like a junior debater or parliamentarian. Althea schooled her face to neutrality upon seeing Erie in that outfit.
Erie pointed to positions on the map and discussed their troop disbursements. Jericho interrupted, pointing to Althea.
“I get why you’re here, Erie. And I get why dingus is here,” she pointed Telly sitting on the opposite side of the table, “but I don’t get why she’s here. What’s she gonna do for us that she’s not already done to us?”
Erie sighed, but before she could answer, Althea found herself rising out of her seat.
“You haven’t liked me since I showed up here.”
Jericho started to interrupt Althea, but Althea felt anger and shame facing the people who were closer to Boris than her. She put her finger in the big woman’s face and said,
“Shut up! You asked a question, I get to answer it.”
Jericho’s nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed at Althea, but she nodded her head toward the other woman. Althea said,
“Good. I am here because I have skills that can help, even if I am not sure how to use them. None of you have the implant skill protocols I possess and none of you have the battle conditioning this frame is capable of. I don’t know why they stuck me in this body, and I am sorry for it…”
Erie raised her hand and said,
“Sorry to cut you off, hun. But Boris himself requested that you get this body if or when he did not need it anymore.”
Althea smiled at Erie, and almost missed the look of fury that budded and then blossomed over Jericho’s face.
She stood, pushing Althea out of the way and said,
“I don’t think the fact that you stole his implants gives you any rights here.”
A high pitched whine seemed to cut off Althea’s retort, making both of the women currently posturing at each other pause. The small silver quadcopter that hovered to the side of the two women pointing a spray canister’s tip at them.
Althea and Jericho both rotated their heads to look at Erie while trying to remain harmless. Erie folded her hands and said,
“This is a planning meeting. If you two ladies can’t get along, then you can beat each other up after. But for now, the question of who stays and who goes is a closed one. Althea is going to remain here whether you like it or not. And she is going to keep her cybernetics.”
Jericho mumbled,
“I don’t see why you get to make this decision.”
Erie offered a curt reply,
“Because I am armed and I have the control codes to this spaceship. In other words, I am the boss so sit down and shut the fuck up.”
Jericho looked at Althea, who glared at Erie for her own reasons. When she noticed the glance from the large woman, Althea stared back at Jericho who shrugged at flicked her eyes at Erie and then back at Althea.
Jericho said,
“Fine. But I don’t have to like it.”
Erie turned around as she said,
“And I don’t have to care. Let’s talk strategy.”
Althea’s head felt pregnant at the end of the briefing. She now knew how long the ship’s weaponry reached, both in terms of raw meters from the turrets as well as in terms of how effectively those weapons could be brought to bear against attackers. Further, Althea learned of the nearly half-dozen hidden or secret entrances leading into the complex that the security forces controlled. Still though, Jericho and Telly seemed unwilling to bring up the exact number of defenders their group could field.
The only bit of comforting information Althea received that day was that most of the residents of the shelf had high quality cybernetics and organ-supporting implants. None of them possessed Althea’s suite of battle protocols or cybernetic battle enhancements, except the remaining people in the room.
Modern weapons, plasma casters and laser rifles ran in short supply in the camp. Erie had some of the only plasma weapons and miniature lasers in the camp, but all of those were mounted on her drones.
Telly raised his hand and spoke with a soft baritone that would have been hard to hear in a crowded room.
“What about comms. Whatever opfor was into during our last fight, they scrambled our radios but good.”
Telly looked quiet and laid back. That had been only third time the slim man had spoken.
Erie nodded and said,
“We should be fine here on the shelf. Not only does the ship had its own transmitters, but I’ve spent a day running retransmitters all over the shelf and fairly far outside the walls.”
Telly nodded and looked less dissatisfied than he did when he asked.
Erie could feel the conference wrapping up. Telly and Jericho both had their assignments. The former would start patrol rounds with selected shelfers while Jericho passed their decisions down the ranks and made an effort to coordinate the defense. Unlike the others, Althea felt like she had no unique skills to offer for the purposes of strategy. Her battle skills would help, but she did not think they would have much value outside of a fight. Besides that, she knew practically nothing about preparing a city for assault.
Erie took command of reinforcing the city and setting up perimeter defenses. Althea ended up subordinate to her.
Jericho ended the discussion with a question.
“Why are they going at us so hard now? Those cannibals have corp support for years, why turn on us now?”
Erie and Althea exchanged glances, but Jericho seemed to miss the exchange. Erie said,
“We’re looking into it. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter so much. The fact is I think we should count on being attacked in the next few days. If I’m wrong, then we can treat this whole situation like a drill.”
Jericho eyed Althea, who smiled sweetly at the woman, trying to look as innocent and ignorant as possible. The large woman shrugged and said,
“That’s fine. It would be nice to see if we can’t stop them from attacking in the first place. I mean, if that’s possible at all.”
Erie opened her hands and said,
“Maybe? I am looking into it. Let’s get started with the defenses.”
Jericho and Telly rose from their chairs. Telly looked passive, neutral in his expression. For all his face said, they might have been discussing switching insurance providers. But Jericho looked suspicious and irritated as she left.
Once both had turned down the hallway, Erie closed the door. Althea said,
“Well, that went better than it could have gone. Do you really think it’s a good idea to leave out our theories as to why the camp is being attacked?”
Erie shrugged and said,
“I don’t know. But that doesn’t matter. If you want these people to defend this place without trying to toss you over the wall, we keep this from them for now.”
“And if the cannibals roll up and ask us to bring me out?”
Erie said,
“A good deal of my planning involves making it very, very difficult for them to stop and send us a message.”
Althea let her fingers drift over the map, watching as the contours rippled over the back of her hand as she did.
“You’re sure they’re coming for us again?”
Erie nodded and said,
“Sure is for idiots. But my confidence is high. Like I said, even if we’re wrong, defensive drills are good for morale and for safety. Preparation is a win-win.”
Althea nodded and paused before opening the door,
“That’s not how Jericho sees it?”
Althea walked back to her communal sleeping room and reviewed the briefing with Pontikos’s assistance. Nothing seemed amiss to her layman’s eyes. The fact that Pontikos confirmed her amateur assessment set Althea’s mind at ease as long as she did not pay too much attention to the thought.
