Chapter 9
Chiira, 8 Toraa, 4393, Orthodox Calendar
Wednesday, 9 September 2007, Native Regional Reckoning
Chesapeake, Ohio (Native designation), Orala Nature Preserve, American Sector
Symone was driving him crazy.
She wouldn’t tell him what Jyslin was supposedly bragging about. The only kind of response he could get out of her the next morning was that “Jyslin obviously didn’t brag enough.”
The worry that what happened between them would change their relationship, or upset Tim, had been misplaced. Tim took him aside and had a talk with him the next morning, and assured him that he didn’t mind. The bond between Tim and Symone couldn’t possibly be threatened by something that trivial. Tim knew that Symone was just acting in her nature; he knew it wouldn’t change her love for him in the slightest, and in a way, Tim admitted that if he was going to find someone to fill the void left behind when he was separated from Jyslin, then he was glad it was going to be Symone. That didn’t make much sense to him, but the fact that Tim was willing to allow Symone to do with Jason things that she should only be doing with Tim, because that’s what she felt she needed to do to be Jason’s friend, said much for his dark-haired friend.
The night with Symone had also taught him an important lesson about telepathy, sex, and the Faey mentality towards them. When he and Jyslin made love, they joined their minds, which made it intense. He and Symone had shared a night of admittedly intense physical pleasure, but did not join their minds. That was not something that friends did, that was something reserved for one’s spouse or chosen partner, and that was the critical difference that made the two acts so completely different. What he and Symone had shared absolutely paled in comparison to what he and Jyslin shared in each other’s arms. It was absolutely not the same. When he and Jyslin made love, they made love. What he and Symone had done could technically be called making love, but it was almost sterile in comparison. They’d done nothing more than have sex, purely for physical pleasure... or gratification. “Buddy sex,” Symone had called it, sex just to relieve sexual tension.
And that was the great boundary, he discovered. That was why Faey were so casual about it. Making love and having sex were two completely different things to a Faey, and now he finally understood the difference. One was as intimate as intimate could be, while the other was just physical. Faey assigned the same importance and intimacy to the union of the minds as humans did the union of the bodies.
That day marked great celebration through the community the day after the delivery, for Steve got his cable service up and running. He had a little trouble getting the transceiver to send out the signal on the cable using channels, but once he got that figured out, anyone with a cable-ready TV could pick up 120 different stations. Steve picked the channels, and he did a good job picking ones that had everything most people would want to see. He made sure to include INN and CNN, the two major news channels for both Earth and the Imperium, as well as several Imperial channels that he thought would be useful to have on the lineup, such as an Imperial network dealing with technical subjects, like the old Tech TV channel. He found a home improvement channel for Earth, so they could learn how to build things so they wouldn’t be such hindrances to Luke, who seemed able to build or fix most anything, or Zachary Brolin, the community’s resident expert on construction and carpentry. Zach had been the second generation owner of a contracting business, and he knew his construction. Not only did everyone have lights at night, and refrigerators, and air conditioning (though that was becoming less an issue now, as the seasons marched into autumn), but now they could sit down after dinner at night and watch television.
They’d had three days to get used to that luxury, but things had been very busy, and besides, Jason already had television. Doc Northwood had both settled into a house, and also commandeered one of the stores on Route 7 to be his new clinic. He had Jason ferry him back and forth between Chesapeake and his house near Beckley for nearly a full day, as he moved all his medical equipment and supplies to his new building. After they finished, he had Luke and Irwin take him to all three hospitals in Luke’s Deuce, where he managed to scavenge some medical supplies that others had either missed or dismissed as having no use. He was still setting up his clinic, getting up early and going to bed late, sorting through boxes and boxes of material, and was going to open it in two days.
The city council had already worked out the procedure for that. Anyone was allowed to come to see Doc Northwood, but they had to surrender all their weapons, and Symone had to be on hand to scan their thoughts to ensure that was why they were really there.
Things were starting to look good. Temika had arranged a trade with the McPherson’s in Fort Gay, trading three cows and some goats for several guns and a portable generator. She’d also organized a trade with a group in Crown City, four hens and a rooster for several boxes of Clem’s hand-pressed ammunition and two hunting rifles. Luke had gone out to get them yesterday with Symone riding shotgun in her new armor, so now they had some livestock. The cloth armor team had been working around the clock, and now everyone had at least one set of armored clothing, even Jenny. Jason had uploaded the railgun part specs into the replicator, and it had already manufactured the parts he needed for the first new unit. He’d even gotten about halfway through making it as well, finishing the flux cabling in the barrel, which was probably the hardest part. It had to be wrapped by hand, and it had to be exact, so much so that he had to get out a micrometer to check his work. He’d replicated the barrel so it had notches on the outside for the cabling, so that helped a great deal, but it still required steady hands and patience. The rest of it would just be like putting a model kit together. He’d also made a bunch of new magazines, so he didn’t have to worry about losing them, and a few thousand rounds of ammunition. Tim and Symone found themselves coating the iron rounds with titanium for a couple of days as they did their telepathy lessons.
There were some things to worry about, though. He’d finally called Jyslin back, and to his relief, he found out that the Secret Police wasn’t bothering her anymore, mainly because of her aunt Lorna. Lorna had had a meltdown when she found out that the Secret Police was harassing her niece, and a couple of calls to friends who had friends put a swift end to it. She also warned him that he’d been spotted. Her aunt Lorna had told her that he’d been picked up by an environmental research team’s study of a bear they’d tagged with a beacon. They’d been using an optical image to observe the bear, and Jason had literally flown right over the animal. They quickly started tracking him, but they lost visual contact with him when he went under a cloud, and they found out very quickly that the airbike was actively shielded from passive sensors. It was too small for orbital sensors to pick it up with active sensors, so they lost contact with him. They knew that Jason had airbikes, since they’d been in his skimmer, and he still had his skimmer, but the fact that they were shielded had baffled the sensor officers to no end. They could not figure out how he’d gotten his hands on shielded airbikes, or if he’d somehow done the shielding himself. Lorna had told her that they thought he had taken his skimmer apart to scavenge parts and equipment he needed to hide himself, because the only PPG signatures they could detect were signatures that they’d already known about. Jason’s group wasn’t the only people out in the wildlands that had Faey technology. The Faey generally ignored that contraband equipment, so long as they didn’t see someone stockpiling it. Every once in a while they sent out expeditions to capture the owners and inspect what they had and what they were doing with it, but that was usually only when someone was bored, or they thought that someone might have gotten his hands on a plasma weapon. Generally put, the Faey didn’t give a damn what happened out in the nature preserve, so long as the squatters didn’t start disrupting Faey-held territory, and they didn’t start getting weapons that could hurt Faey soldiers.
Jyslin told him that they were fairly sure that Jason had plasma weapons, since it was now obvious to them that he had planned to run away, and that posed a special problem for them. That gave Jason a viable means of fighting back if they found him and tried to capture him, and he was willing to shoot at them to prevent it. Lorna told him that they intended to find him first, then study him long enough to find a way to get at him safely, which meant getting a Marine close enough to attack him with telepathy. They didn’t want open warfare, because they wanted him back in school. They were afraid that if they opened fire on him, it would make him so resistant that telepathic reprogramming would be required to permanently subdue him, and that was something they would prefer to avoid. Anytime that was done, there was a risk that his intellectual capability might be damaged, since they were in effect rewiring his brain, and the wiring of the brain was one of the contributing aspects of intelligence. They wanted his mind, and they didn’t want to have to tamper with that mind. They wanted to reclaim him as peaceably and as gently as possible, then get him back in school without having to tamper with him. They didn’t want to earn his eternal hatred and be required to risk damaging his mind when making him more tractable.
But his cunning had already started getting on their nerves. They had done a sweep of everyone with a PPG, but they hadn’t found him. They’d found out from those squatters about a woman riding an airbike, which they figured had to be connected to Jason, but they couldn’t find her. That was when they realized that Jason had done something to the airbikes to hide them from sensors, and it was confirmed when he was spotted and evaded tracking. They knew he had left with his skimmer, they knew he had come prepared, and it was obvious to them that one of the things he had prepared for was hiding himself from their sensors. This drove them nuts. They could not figure out how he was defeating their sensors. Sensor officers were trying to recalibrate the sensors to detect smaller objects, and they’d sent some dropships over the preserve with sensor pods so they could get a more accurate reading off the active arrays, but so far they’d come up with nothing. That told Jason that his inverse phase emitter was working and working perfectly, killing their active sensor pulses and hiding anything that a passive sensor couldn’t detect from the active arrays... and since the passive arrays couldn’t detect anything either, his little organization was effectively invisible. They probably thought he had to be some kind of MacGyver to pull that off; little did they know that he had an outside contact that was supplying him with all kinds of equipment allowing him to do what he was doing.
That was a thought. How did Kumi get her dropship in and out the second time without anyone noticing? Or did they notice, and she’d just paid them to be quiet, or brought her noble clout about to hush it up? He’d have to ask her.
Jason also found out from Jyslin that politics was his friend. Lorna had told her that a representative of the Imperium, who had personally come from the Ministry to look at Jason’s school record and some of the documented technical stunts he’d pulled, wanted more manpower and resources committed to finding Jason, but he found himself talking to a stone wall. The Duchess of Terra wasn’t about to burn any more money and divert any more equipment and troops to hunting down a single runaway human, and to the Faey scientist’s shock, the Imperium wasn’t about to dispatch an additional units or give him any Marines to do it either. They’d looked for him, spent tens of thousands of credits in salary and maintenance costs trying to find him, and came up empty. The Duchess did have people looking for him, but she had mixed finding him into other operations, such as training missions, recon missions, and things like that. She wasn’t going to waste money just on looking for him anymore. She was getting some additional benefit out of it. The word from the Imperium was that the Duchess of Terra already had people looking for him, so it was redundant to send any more.
He was glad that Jyslin was going to be alright, and the information she gave him was very eye-opening.
Symone... well, Symone was being Symone. She’d had almost a month to worm her way into the community, and now everyone loved her. Symone had a bubbly personality that made her impossible not to like, and despite the fact that she was Faey, she quickly got to where she all but owned everyone in the community. Jenny absolutely adored her, following her around almost all the time, often ignoring her own mother. What drove him crazy about that was that Symone was trying to line Jason up a girlfriend. There were only five women in the community outside Symone; one was married, one was a child, and one was too old for him, so that left all of two women. Temika and Regina. Symone had been trying to steer both of them at him for a couple of days now, but he seriously doubted that she was going to have any luck. Regina already had a boyfriend-not even mentioning the fact that Jason didn’t find Regina attractive at all-and Temika’s phobia made it impossible for her to get close to anyone, even if she wanted to. And naturally, that was where Symone was concentrating her fire, on Temika. Temika did like Jason as a friend, maybe found him attractive, but Symone kept hitting the wall trying to convince her to ask him out on a date, because it kept coming back to her phobia. Even though she was very comfortable with Jason, and trusted him, Symone couldn’t fathom why she wouldn’t let him touch her. Symone didn’t understand phobias, because that kind of mental condition didn’t exist among the Faey. A phobia could be corrected with telepathic “surgery” by an expert telepath, correcting the mental state that caused it to exist. She couldn’t understand why Temika had let him touch her before, when she was wounded, but wouldn’t let him touch her now. Symone didn’t understand that rationality had no bearing with a phobia, since a phobia was by its very nature an irrational fear to a certain situation. And since only Jyslin or someone of her caliber would have the telepathic power or skill to correct that, even if Temika allowed a Faey into her head, that meant it was nothing that would change any time soon.
Jason knew she meant well, but he wished she’d just drop it and leave well enough alone. He was quite content being single, and outside that one episode with Symone, which had been triggered by his trick on Kumi, he hadn’t necessarily felt the need for female companionship. Jyslin probably had a lot to do with that, he figured. She’d totally spoiled him. His tryst with Symone was fun, but it wasn’t as intense as it was with Jyslin.
Luckily, things were quiet right now. Jason was in his basement workshop, assembling his new railgun, and he’d been unbothered all morning. Now that he got the flux cabling on the barrel and locked it down with a liberal coating of clear sealant in one half of the barrel carapace, the rest of it was only going to take about six hours to finish. The hardest part after cabling would be assembling the chamber feed and installing the magazine lock and backglass display. Everything else was just cookie-cutter stuff, anneal component A to unit chassis location B, then run datalines and/or microconduit between component A and component C.
He had the equipment on hand to build 20 railguns, but he wasn’t going to build them all at once. He’d decided that a railgun would be built for every person who had a set of armor, with two spares on hand in case of a breakdown. At the moment, they didn’t need everyone to be carrying around that kind of firepower; the conventional firearms they had on hand right now was more than enough. It only gave them 7 external weapons that would work against the Faey if they attacked, but he wouldn’t commit the people in his community to that kind of a fight. They would run from the Faey, but they would stand and fight against armed groups of roving bandits. That meant that the had to build three more railguns, and then he would move on to the next major problem.
The cloaking device.
He had absolutely no idea how he was going to do that. No fucking idea. But he had to come up with some way to get his skimmer back in the air, and do it without the Faey being able to detect it. Getting past the active sensors wasn’t a problem now that he’d come up with the inverse phase emitter, now the problem was getting past the passive sensors. He could just install the inverse phase emitter in the skimmer if it came down to it, but now he had to find a way to hide the skimmer’s energy signature, and its mass.
That little tidbit about scared his pants off. If he wanted to use the skimmer in space-which was an eventuality for which he had to plan-he had to find a way to hide mass. In space, away from the heavily distorting effect of the planetary gravimetric well, Faey passive sensors would be able to detect the effect the skimmer’s mass would have on space, as well as its gravimetric engines. Faey had mastered the manipulation of space, even using it as a means of propulsion, and that included the ability to detect the effect mass had on the curvature of space, detect spatial distortion. They could detect a stationary object, but they worked best when a mass was in motion, producing a dynamic alteration to the spatial volume... which he could understand. The human eye, after all, would detect an object in motion more effectively than they would an object at rest. A mass as small as the skimmer could be detected from the moon using Faey sensors, as long as the planetary gravity well of Earth didn’t get in the way. He’d found that data just surfing around the tech boards, and had found someone who had posted up some classified information about some of the secret things Faey sensors did. That he did not know, and it was something he thanked God above he’d stumbled upon.
If he couldn’t find a way around that, he’d have to stay within the atmosphere, inside the gravity well of the planet, where he was presented the same problem... finding some way to defeat both passive and active Faey sensors. Active, he had a system for, but he would prefer a single system to handle it all, because the power generation in his skimmer wasn’t endless. Power consumption would be an issue for any system he put into the skimmer, because it only had so much power generation ability.
He was almost afraid to start it. That was going to be a massive headache, and the most complicated thing he had ever tried to invent. He was afraid to start it because he knew that once he did, he would relentlessly pursue his goal until he achieved it. That was something he thought to try over the winter, when the cold would limit his outdoor activity. The fact that he had no idea where to start probably factored in there somewhere too. With everything else, he had generally built on someone else’s idea-well, maybe not so much with the inverse phase emitter-but this would come completely from him.
It had to be done, but the idea of it was very, very intimidating.
But that was three railguns away, so he had time to ponder how that was going to get started. He deftly installed the sight/rangefinder laser to the barrel of the weapon, just below the muzzle, then quickly annealed on the front sight before running the twisted pair of dataline fiber and microconduit back to the back of the weapon. The microprocessor for the weapon was just behind the loading chamber just under the display, and the PPG was only about six inches away from that, located in the base of the stock. Neither had been installed yet, though he planned to install both once he finished installing the laser. The processor had to be in first because the round feed system went in underneath it, and it was too tightly packed to try to install it after that was in place.
He installed the processor and hooked up the datalines from the laser and the barrel cabling, then started assembling the round feed system outside; it would be installed as a unit. The door upstairs opened, and footsteps started down, quickly. That didn’t concern him, because Tim and Symone did live in his house, and besides, he left his doors unlocked. Anyone was welcome in his house at any time so long as he was home. Since he was the mayor, there were times when people wanted to talk to him about this or that, and he had an open door policy. He glanced up to see Regina coming down the stairs with someone else, almost running, a tall, willowy young man named James Harold. “Hey Reg, what’s wrong?” he called in concern as he finished half of the loading frame, then reached for the plasma magnet that would draw the next round into the chamber.
“Jason, we have a problem,” she told him.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Well, Mayor Jason, I was hunting up on that ridge north of 52 about up to Ironton, and I saw a large group of people,” James told him. “They were coming up the road there in trucks. They were all armed to the teeth, and moving this way. It’s a road gang, Mayor. I think I’ve seen a couple of them before, they hit Huntington about four months ago. I had a dirt bike Luke got working for me up on the ridge, so I jumped on and rode like hell.”
“Why didn’t you call ahead on the radio?” he asked.
“My batteries musta died, Mayor. Sorry, I should’ve checked them.”
Jason stood up. “Call everyone in right now,” he ordered.
The call went out quickly after Regina and James left the basement, and Symone rushed into his room just a minute after the word was spread that attackers were approaching. Jason was already working on getting his breastplate ready to put on, his emotions mixed. It had finally come. Jason now had to fight to protect himself, protect his freedom, and protect those who depended upon him for protection. He might have to kill someone today; actually, he was almost positive of it. That worried him some, but more for how it would make him feel afterward instead of how he felt now. He had already accepted the fact that taking this course of action would eventually require him to kill. Well, that day was here. “I saw Jimmy coming in, I lifted it off him,” she said quickly as she started pulling off her clothes. She kept her armor in his room, mainly because she felt it safer to keep the expensive equipment in a central location and keep the people who came into his house away from the armor. His room was absolutely inviolate unless he was in it, and everyone knew it. How we gonna play this?
Not sure, depends on what they do, he answered as he threw her her codpiece after she got her shirt off. They’ll either come from the north on the bridge road, from the west off old 52, or they’ll split into two groups and try to pincer us. We’ll have to fight, there’s no way around that. There are too many to try to take down with talent.
Radio, she ordered, and Jason tossed her his handheld after she got her boots off. “Everyone make sure you’re wearing your armored clothes!” she barked into it. “Temika, get your happy ass to Jason’s house right now!”
“Ah’m almost tah the front door, sugah,” she answered.
Me and you could just go meet them and take them out, you know, she told him.
No, I want them to come in, he said. They won’t be that much of a danger, and this is a good opportunity to see how well we can protect ourselves from an assault. Besides, if they’re raiders, then that means they’re either carrying everything they have with them, or at the very least, everything they’ve managed to steal from others. I’m not turning my back on the chance to capture that much stuff.
Now you’re thinking like a general, she grinned, working on getting her jeans off.
I wonder why we didn’t hear about these guys coming in from the people up in Ironton, Jason fretted.
They might have slipped by, or they might have taken the Ironton group by surprise, Symone replied grimly, whisking off her panties and quickly stepping into her codpiece.
Let’s hope not, they’re good people up in Ironton.
Temika rushed into his room as Jason was attaching one of his thigh guards, and Symone was just getting her codpiece into position. “Ah always wondered how you got that on,” she said.
“Right now, quickly,” Symone said with uncharacteristic seriousness, reaching for the front section of her breastplate. “Hand me that piece right there, would you Mika?” she asked, pointing at the back.
“Sho’, sugah,” she said, picking it up and handing it to her. “What did you need me for?”
“Recon,” Symone told her. “Go up and keep an eye on them and see what they do. Don’t attack them, we want them to come in. Where we set up depends on what they do.”
“Gonna take their stuff?” Temika asked, and Jason nodded. “Good, about time they got theirs,” she chuckled.
Tim, get up here! Jason sent loudly. You’re gonna ride the panel and watch the sensors for us!
Aww, I want to help you guys! he answered.
You’ve got a broken arm, you dipstick, Jason growled at him. And you’ll be much more help tracking them and manning the panel to activate traps more than you will out there gimping around with a broken arm. Now get up here.
You’d better get your ass up here, baby, Symone sent with a very threatening undertone. No way is my man fighting anything more than a chair-chafed butt with a broken arm.
Alright, alright, I’m coming, he sighed.
“You tell him, sugah,” Temika chuckled as she handed Symone the stomacher of her armor, then she looked at them with shock, blinking several times. “Wait a minute,” she said.
Symone laughed. “I see it woke up,” she grinned. “Welcome to the new world, Mika.”
Jason chuckled, but Temika just gave an excited squeal, jumping up and down like a little girl. “Ah can’t wait!” she said breathlessly. “What do Ah do now?”
“Right now you get your ass on your airbike and keep an eye on them,” Jason told her. “Then, after it’s all over, we’ll explain what happens next. Just make sure you keep well clear of other people until all this is over. If you can’t already hear them thinking, you’ll start very quickly, and that’s the part that’s scary. And trust me, right now you do not want to be distracted. Just stay a couple thousand feet up until it’s safe to come down.”
“You got it, sugah,” Temika said, her wild hair bouncing as she nodded vigorously, then she turned and ran from the room to perform her task.
She jiggles a lot when she gets excited, Symone sent slyly to Jason.
“Ah heard that!” Temika shouted from the stairs.
You were supposed to, Symone sent impishly. Oh yeah, here’s your “welcome to our world” present, she added, then she sent an image, a memory, of Jason naked.
Woo! Go you sexy beast! Tim sent with an outrageous glint of amusement.
Jason flushed, then fixed Symone with a withering glare. Hey, maybe that now she can see the merchandise, she might be interested in sampling it, she told him with an unashamed grin, but she sent openly, which meant that both Tim and Temika had heard it.
You are on the list, Symone, Jason sent to her darkly. And it’s not the good one.
Despite that good news, they still had a job to do. Jason and Symone came down into his yard, where the entire community was gathered, except for Jenny, Temika, Tim, Mary, and Doc Northwood. All of them but Temika were in Jason’s house. Tim would be their remote operator, Jenny would stay in his house because it was safest, Mary had been excused from most violent action because Jenny needed her mother, and Northwood would remain there until his medical skills would be needed, when Mary would escort him to where he needed to go.
“Okay, Tim now has the ball,” Jason called over the radio. That meant that they were all now under his direction, for he was the one that could see everyone and everything in the vicinity with the sensors.
“Okay people, I have all of you on sensors. Mika’s just taking off-” Jason looked up and saw her rise up from her house on her airbike, angling out over the river so she could get altitude and observe the incoming raiders without them seeing her-“and I just picked up a fast mover at the edge of sensor range. Looks like a scout on a dirt bike.”
“Here,” Ruth said to Regina, who was loading a Tek-9 clip, handing out what looked like riot gear helmets, part of the equipment they’d absorbed from the east end gang. “Take this, honey. Here you go,” she continued to say, taking helmets out of a large box that Luke was carrying behind her.
Luke gave one to Mary, who was standing beside him on the porch, and Jason got a look at it before she put it on. They’d sewn phase cloth into the inner lining, which draped down over the shoulders, protecting the neck. It even had buttons on it so it could be buttoned up under the chin, leaving only the face and hands exposed and vulnerable. The outer shell also had armor cloth taped to it, which was painted black to conceal the fact. The visors had also been covered in armored cloth, painted black, with only a wide strip over the eyes gone to give the wearer the ability to see. That setup would sacrifice a little peripheral vision of the wearer in exchange for more protection.
“Nice, Ruthie,” Jason said in appreciation as Mary held it up to him when she saw him looking at it.
“We figured it might come to this hon, so we prepared.”
“Clever girl. Irwin, take the other airbike,” Jason called, pointing at the burly young man, then he put his helmet on. He tuned his internal radio to the same RF frequency that they were using, then had the armor’s onboard processor emulate RF transmission. “Check one two three,” he called, pressing his finger to the transmit button on the side of his helmet. He could set the armor to transmit anything he said, but the frequency he was using was a one-way deal, where nobody else could talk if he was talking, so that wasn’t smart. “Is this transmitting?”
“I got yah, sugah,” Temika called.
“You’re loud and clear,” Tim answered.
“I hear you loud and clear,” Leamon replied.
“Okay, everyone get your earpieces in and make sure that you’re wearing your armored clothes. We don’t want any gunshot wounds. Let’s give Doc nothing to do today. And everyone thank Ruthie and the sewing club for those damn clever helmets after this is over.”
“Amen,” someone called over the radio.
“Right now we’re waiting to see what they do. We’re going to move and meet them at the roadblocks when we see which way they come. If they split up, we’ll divide up accordingly and hold them at the blocks. Just everyone remember that that armor you’re wearing doesn’t make you invincible. If you get hit, it will hurt. It might even break some bones, and if you get shot in the right place, it’ll kill you armor or no armor. So just treat this like the guns those guys are carrying can kill you, because they can.”
They waited outside his house for almost a half an hour, because the incoming column of raiders stopped. Their scout had gotten within about a half mile, then he pulled back. Temika, who had an eye on them from high above, reported over the radio that they seemed to be arguing about something. But then they all got their guns out, and a large contingent of men on dirt bikes were dispatched from the main host coming down old 52, while the caravan of trucks continued on new 52. They were going to split up and hit them from the west and north.
Tim, you find anything on the radio frequencies yet? Jason sent.
I’m still looking, he answered. They’ve gotta be using radios to coordinate, they’re moving too good. Wait a minute. Found it! There was a pause. They know we know they’re coming, but they’re attacking anyway, he relayed. They do not have our radio frequency. They do know about Symone-shit, they have a bazooka. They’re going to try to hit Symone with a bazooka. Their leader just reminded them that knocking Symone out of the fight was the key, so they have to find her and single her out.
Well, I’ll have to make sure they can see me then, Symone sent with an amused tone.
“Okay, they’re splitting up,” Tim called aloud over the radio. “We’ve got a group of dirt bikes coming in on old 52, and the main force just picked up speed along 52. Looks like they’re going to try to hit us from both sides at the same time.”
“Symone, take Luke and four other people and hold the west roadblock,” Jason ordered over the radio. “Everyone else with me to the north. Irwin, hang around just out of sight, then hit them when I call you in. Mika, drift down and be ready to support Symone if she needs you. Try not to blow up any vehicles people, we want to capture as much as we can. That means no plasma if you can help it,” he barked.
“Ah got my Tek-9 and Ol’ Betsy,” Temika called assuredly.
“I need to come in for a gun,” Irwin reported. “All I have is the plasma rifle and a nine mil pistol.”
“Doc, grab something suitable out of the armory and pass it to Irwin when he comes in,” Jason commanded as he ran towards the north roadblock with his group of defenders. “Tim, get the traps up when Doc gets back in. The traps will be hot people, so you know the danger zone.”
“Shit! Jason, there’s a Faey dropship about ten miles south of us!” Temika shouted over the radio. “It ain’t movin’ this way though, it’s just hanging in the air, way up there. Ah can jus’ barely see it.”
Jason cursed. “There’s nothing we can do about that, we have more pressing issues at the moment,” he replied. “Tim, ETA?”
“Bikes will hit the west roadblock in about two minutes.”
“They’ll slow down, they’ll want to hit both sides at the same time,” Symone called.
“Don’t count on it, the bikes might be a diversion to pull us off the north roadblock,” Jason grunted as he reached the roadblock. It consisted of a zig-zag of about 20 cars arrayed on the road in behind a bridge, that would allow vehicle through if it moved very slowly, but would stop any attempt to rush through quickly or try to ram through. The creek would force any vehicle to come through that roadblock, mainly because they had junk cars lined up along the creek’s near bank, stretching all the way to the woods on either side of the road. It was an impenetrable barrier for any vehicle, no matter how off-road capable it was, and absolutely forced any vehicle to come through the roadblock. Jason rushed to the end of the roadblock and pulled a car with flat tires out to cover the entrance, forming a solid barrier, and the defenders all got behind the second row of cars. That put two layers of steel between them and the incoming opposition, very effective cover. The west end roadblock wasn’t quite that effective, mainly just cars lined up in a similar manner between two buildings, but they had trashed cars and junk piled too high for a vehicle to get through along every street in or out of their enclave, forcing any vehicle to come that way. That was their wall, with its two gates open to ground approach. Luke had been very busy since they’d arrived.
“The bikes are speeding up. Looks like Jason wins the raffle,” Tim called with a chuckle. “Get ready Symone, they’re about a half mile out.”
“I can hear them,” she called.
Instead of rushing to the attack, however, the bikes quickly broke up and started rushing around the outer fringes of Chesapeake. Jason heard a few distant gunshots, probably taking a shot at the riders as they rode around and came into view. “I think the bikes are doing a fast scout,” Tim said as he studied them from Jason’s house. “They’re looking for a way in.”
“Or testing the defenses, or both,” Symone added.
For almost ten minutes, they all heard those dirt bikes rampaging around the area outside the perimeter of the enclave, then they all pulled back. “Okay, I have ground movement now,” Tim called. “We got about fifty men milling around the vehicles, and about five trucks are moving forward.” They were all quiet while Tim watched, and Jason amplified the audio on his armor, to better hear the trucks as they approached. “They just sent out a group of about twenty men on foot, moving due south from the main group. The bikers are with them. Looks like they’re moving towards the west end of the wall. The rest are starting to form up around the ten trucks that advanced. Okay, they’re leaving most of their trucks behind, they’re leaving most of their trucks behind. They got men guarding them, but they’re leaving them behind.”
“Irwin, Temika, there’s what you’re doing,” Jason barked. “Take those trucks, but try not to blow anything up. Wait for them to engage with us, then hit them.”
“You got it, sugah,” Temika replied.
“Roger, I’ll swing out way east and circle back so they don’t see me coming,” Irwin acknowledged.
“Irwin sugah, tune yo’ bike radio tah local one, so we can set this up without clogging this channel.”
“Local one, roger.”
“Tim, can you get a count of who went where?” Jason called.
“I got twenty people on foot and ten dirt bikes coming through the woods. Five trucks are moving towards your position surrounded by, um, ten guys on foot. I can’t count the people in the trucks.”
Jason quickly added it up. “Clem, take six people and go reinforce Symone, she’ll need more people than she’s got.”
“You’ll be undermanned, son,” Clem warned.
“We’ve got open space and they can’t flank us. Symone’s going to be dealing with people on bikes and on foot that have cover. She needs the manpower. Now get your asses over there before they get to her.”
“I get it, son. You three, you, you, you, come on,” Clem called, pointing quickly in succession.
They waited in tense silence for several moments, but Jason breathed a sigh of relief when Symone called that Clem had reached her, and she’d redeployed her people to deal with a dual threat. Symone was the better choice for the west roadblock because she had actual battlefield experience, and would be better suited for handling a more complicated situation.
“The force moving towards the west side of town stopped. I think they’re waiting for the trucks to get into position,” Tim reported.
“I can hear their bikes,” Symone said.
“Try to capture those bikes,” Jason reminded her. “Remember, no plasma fire if you can help it. They’ll blow up stuff we can use, and I don’t feel like cleaning up the bodies with a wetvac.”
“I got one of those archaic pistol thingies, Jason, and Luke showed me how to use it. I don’t much plan on shooting anyway. I’m just gonna run out there and cause hell and let my unit do the shooting.”
“Be careful woman,” Jason ordered. “You get hit with that bazooka, and you’re gonna feel it.”
“Pfft,” she snorted. “In this armor? They’ll be lucky if they make me stagger back.”
“No stupid stunts,” Jason ordered flatly, then he heard the faint rumble of a large diesel engine. “The trucks are closing in,” Jason shouted to the people around and behind him, then went back to the radio. “Trucks are advancing,” Jason called.
“There’s a group of men breaking away from the trucks,” Tim called. “Ten of them, running into the woods.”
“They’re going to try to flank us,” Regina warned.
“Jesus, how many men do they have?” Jason growled, going to radio. “Tim, if that group passes us by and goes for the enclave, you’re going to have company. We’re out of people to deal with them-” he stopped, looking behind him. He had nine men and women behind him, more than enough to deal with that group of men. It just meant that he was going to have to hold the trucks himself. “Shit,” he growled. “Reg, we can’t let them into the enclave. Pull back to Route 7 and wait to see what they do.”
“But you’ll be alone here, Jason,” she protested.
“I have this,” he said, slapping his breastplate meaningfully. “And if it comes to it, I can blow up their trucks if I have to. I’ll be alright. Trust me, nobody’s getting past me.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, go ahead,” he ordered, going hot with his railgun, then putting a hand to his helmet. “I’m sending Reg and the others at the north roadblock to head off those men, Tim,” Jason called. “I can probably hold off the trucks myself.”
“You can easily, Jayce,” Symone told him assuredly. “Just run out there and attack the trucks right now. They can’t possibly hurt you, and you can scare the shit out of them,” she added with a chuckle.
“No,” Jason said, leaning down behind the car as the first truck started creeping around the distant curve. “I’ll let them get much closer. Let’s let them all commit before we start.”
“Where am I goin’, Tim?” Regina demanded over the radio.
“They’re coming right towards Route 7, they just crossed the creek. They’re going to come out right behind the old Sav-a-Lot if they don’t turn.”
Jason activated the strength augmentation system, felt the armor moving with him, moving for him, as he ducked down more behind the car and increased the magnification on his visor until the lead truck was clearly visible to him. It was a military Deuce, and it had a snowplow or some kind of bladed plow attached to the front. A roadblock buster, something a mobile raiding gang would need to assault fortified positions. Jason brought up his railgun and increased magnification again, until the driver was clearly visible to him through the cracked windshield. A blinking red arrow at the bottom of his field of vision warned him his weapon’s targeting crosshair was below his field of vision, so he angled the railgun up until the red crosshair appeared in his visor, wobbling a great deal because of the distance of the target-nearly 420 shakra-and the magnification he was using on the visor.
“Here they come!” Tim shouted over the radio, and almost at the same time, the Deuce’s engine roared loudly in Jason’s ears, and it surged forward. “Reg, the group you’re on is turning to flank Jayce!”
“We’ll get ‘em!” she called as distant gunfire reached his ears, augmented by his armor’s microphones. There was the loud reports of hunting rifles mixed in with the staccato reports of automatic weapons firing, and it quickly got very steady. Symone’s group had opened up on the men assaulting the west roadblock.
Jason lined up the driver in his sights, then he realized that if he missed and hit the truck, he’d cripple it, and they needed that truck. Symone had said that he’d be virtually untouchable in his armor... if that was the case, he could just rush the truck and stop it without doing it any damage. That might work. Jason shouldered his railgun and activated the antigrav system, and set it so he’d skim along the ground. That was “travel mode” for the armor, allowing him to hover just over the ground and move at a surprisingly fast speed... somewhere around 100 miles an hour if he remembered right. It was almost like roller skating, though his direction and speed were controlled by how he shifted his weight. He put his hands on the car in front of him and swung over it, then surged forward on a cushion of distorted space, quickly picking up some impressive speed. He was going almost 50 miles an hour before he cleared the bridge. The passenger in the Deuce swung out the window on his side and pointed an AK-47 at him. Jason almost flinched when he saw the flare from its muzzle, heard the sharp sound of it firing, but felt nothing but a slight tink-tink-tink as the rounds struck his armor and were thoroughly rebuffed. He silently blew out his breath and leaned fully forward, hurtling at the Deuce in a grotesque game of chicken, three tons of steel against him and his 260 pounds of flesh, bone, blood, weapon, and armor.
Well before he got in danger of being rammed, Jason jumped, soaring high into the air. He landed lightly on the hood of the Deuce, and found himself staring at two very shocked men, both wearing old army BDU uniforms. “Good morning,” Jason said casually, sliding to the edge of the hood on the driver’s side. The driver slammed on the brakes, but Jason just grabbed hold of the side of the doorframe. As the truck’s brakes chattered, trying to bring the huge vehicle to a stop, Jason slid off the hood and onto the footrail of the truck. He reached into the cab and grabbed the driver by the shirt, then bodily yanked him out of the cab through the open window. The truck veered off the road, almost tipping over, at least until Jason grabbed hold of the wheel and righted it as the guy in the passenger side realized what happened. Instead of sliding over within reach of Jason, he fired his AK-47 directly at him. Jason felt them hit the armor, even saw a spark as a round ricocheted directly off the visor, but it was like he was being pelted with marshmallows for all the good it did the fellow to shoot at him. Jason opened the door and slid in just enough to jam his foot on the brake, which made the Deuce bounce to a halt just before the engine stalled, and brought the vehicle to a stop.
Men were boiling out of the other trucks, nearly twenty of them, after the trucks screeched to a halt. They realized what was going on when the man who had shot at him ran back towards them screaming, and screaming “Faey! Faey!” They thought he was Symone, probably because of the armor. Geeze, didn’t the guy have eyes? How could he possible mistake him for a woman? Sheesh. Jason slid off the truck and came around it, seeing them all shoot at him, but all their rounds simply bounced off his gleaming black armor like they were nothing. He charged right into the middle of them and simply started smacking them around, swatting any head, gun, or conveniently available body part that was within reach.
That was about when he understood the elegant simplicity of Symone’s plan. With him right in the middle of them, sending men flying with swings of his strength-augmented arms, totally invulnerable to their weapons, he sent the attacking force into complete chaos and disarray. His targets were still the trucks, so he smacked enough people out of his way to reach the second one, which was now stopped, and it was clear to the driver that he meant to reach in and pull him out. The man reacted to that by piling out the passenger side door with his passenger... which served Jason’s purpose just fine. It got them out of the truck and caused the vehicle to become a roadblock for the trucks behind it.
He smashed a man in the head, sending him reeling to the ground, then turned just in time to see someone running up from behind with a rocket launcher of some kind already on his shoulder. Jason felt a moment of panic and dove behind the cover of the truck, unshouldering his railgun. He went hot and blew out his breath, then swung around with it already up to his shoulder. He didn’t bother aiming, but pulled up short and dove back the other way when he saw that missile launcher fire. The rocket sizzled by the side of the truck, missing him and the truck, but it sailed over the bridge and impacted one of the cars in the roadblock on the far side. The explosion was violent and loud, sending flaming pieces of car flying all over the general vicinity and sending a boiling ball of fire and black smoke into the sky.
“You maniac!” Jason shouted in surprise as he glanced a look out, and saw that he had no more of those damned things. Totally forgetting about the railgun in his hand, Jason streaked out from behind the truck like a black blur, then impacted the man with the empty rocket tube with such force that he bounced off and went flying, sailing nearly 30 feet before he hit the ground behind the second truck. He slammed the barrel of the railgun into the face of the man that was beside the first one, then he screamed right towards the third truck to rip the driver out from behind the wheel. He raced out between the second and third trucks, and glanced to his left just in time to see another man with a rocket launcher. And he was already firing it!
He had no chance to dodge. It hit him in the side and detonated, washing angry fire over his visor and feeling the concussion rattle his bones a little. But the explosion and the heat could not penetrate his armor. It did, however, send him flying about ten feet, and he landed on his shoulders and back on the soft grass as smoke wafted up from his armor. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs, then climbed back to his feet as a critical malfunction error flashed on his visor display, coming from his railgun. The explosion had damaged it, and rendered it inoperable. The titanium casing had withstood the explosion, mainly because Jason’s body had shielded most of the weapon from the blast. The blast did burn through the shoulder strap though, so he held the weapon like a club as he singled out the bastard who had had the nerve to hit him with a rocket at such close range. He wasn’t the only one to take some of that, he saw. The second truck, a big Ford F-250, had some fire licking at its back left tire, and it was a bit scorched. The third truck, a Dodge Ram, had its driver’s side headlight blown out and some shrapnel holes in the hood and left fender, as well as a shattered windshield that, to Jason’s disgust, was smeared and spattered with blood. The explosion had killed the driver of the truck. There were also three men laying on the ground not far from the explosion, none of them moving... and since one of them was on fire, Jason assumed they were probably dead. That idiot had panicked and fired the rocket while Jason was in the middle of his own men, and killed them.
Jason roared forward as the man stared in stunned disbelief, then hit him dead in the face with the stock of his railgun. The blow sent teeth and blood flying, and the man almost did a backflip from the force of the blow before flopping to the ground on his stomach, where he did not move. He moved to club another man who ran out from the truck’s passenger side, who was covered with the blood of the driver, but he spun and dropped as Jason heard the chatter of gunfire behind him. He glanced back to see Regina and the others back at the roadblock, running over the bridge towards him while firing at the people around the trucks. He saw a few still forms at the treeline, telling him that they’d met the enemy and had overwhelmed them.
The two trucks that still had drivers quickly swerved off the road and moved to turn around, as the men on foot turned and started to run away. Those men started dropping to the ground as they were hit from behind by the advancing defenders, but it wasn’t necessary now. He jacked up the volume of his armor so it would make his voice boom, and he shouted out.
“DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER!” his voice thundered across the clearing, but the men did not obey. They continued to flee, some of them turning to fire back at the advancing defenders as the two remaining trucks were almost completely turned around. Well, if they didn’t want to surrender, then that was their decision. It was senseless killing, but if they wanted to be stupid, so be it. Jason couldn’t afford excessive mercy when the lives and security of his own people were at stake.
“That’s the last bike!” Symone’s voice called over the radio. “The men on foot are runnin’!”
Jason growled, then blew out his breath. “Nobody gets away, but try to get them to surrender,” Jason ordered. “I don’t think we need to slaughter them all unless they refuse to give up.”
“Ain’t nobody gettin’ away from us, sugah!” Temika called. “We’ve taken the trucks, and we got who’s left on the ground dead in our sights! They already gave up!”
Jason surged forward, and in mere seconds he was at the fourth truck and already had his hand inside the cab. The driver pulled out a pistol and shot him squarely in the visor, but the round ricocheted off and hit the driver in the outside of his shoulder. Blood spattered the seat of the cab as Jason grabbed the gearshift and yanked it into Park, which made the engine stall, then grabbed the now wounded driver by the arm and dragged him bodily out of the truck. Men continued to shoot at him as he quickly raced to the last truck, then got to the driver’s side door. The driver, a woman wearing a camouflage cap, put her hands up and jammed the brakes. “I give up!” she said fearfully, raising her hands and putting them on the roof of her truck’s cab. “I surrender!”
She wasn’t the only one. Several combatants were stopping and throwing down their guns and then putting their hands up, but a few were still shooting at Jason and the other defenders. Jason told the girl to stay in her truck and don’t move, then barked for the others to drop to the ground, if only to avoid getting shot while rounds sizzled through the air around them. Jason fearlessly zipped into the crossfire, bearing down on the closest man still shooting. He grabbed the man’s AK-47 with one hand and elbowed him in the face with the other arm, then slid backwards with great speed until he was further behind everyone else. He leveled the assault rifle with one hand and his damaged railgun with the other on the running men (though they didn’t know the railgun was broken), and again shouted in a thundering voice to surrender right now or be shot.
It finally seemed to sink in that they weren’t going to get away. One by one, they slowed to a stop and dropped their guns, then raised their hands. The chatter of gunfire ceased quickly, returning the region to the quiet of relative calm. “We got the north roadblock secure,” Regina called over the radio as Jason kept the weapons trained on the men who now had their hands up. “Had some stubborn assholes that refused to surrender, but Jason knocked the fight out of them.”
“West roadblock is secure,” Symone reported.
“We got their trucks,” Temika said with a wicked chuckle.
“I think that’s all of them, I don’t see any movement on the sensors that I can’t account for,” Tim informed them.
“Anyone injured?” Jason asked over the radio, dropping his railgun for the moment.
“Just a few bruises here,” Symone answered. “A couple of people got shot, but the armor took it pretty well.”
I think Leamon has a few broken ribs, but that’s about it outside of some nasty bruises,” Regina added. “This armor is the shit.”
Me and Irwin are just fine, sugah,” Temika added. “We didn’t get a scratch. Can’t say the same for the other guys, though.”
“Okay, secure the prisoners. Mika, Symone, march yours to the north roadblock. Let’s gather them up here where we have lots of open space to keep them out of trouble. Doc, report to the north roadblock, cause I know we’ve got some wounded here.”
“I’m on the way, Jason,” he replied quickly.
They were a sorry lot, Jason noted as they were marched in. Some were obviously wounded, but they had that shell-shocked look about them that often graced the faces of people who had just been steamrolled. Only now did some of them understand that their opponents were wearing body armor that stopped bullets, only now did they understand the utter act of futility their assault had been. Not only had they been crushed, but their opponents had not suffered a single major casualty. They were placed well distant from the trucks, where they sat on the ground, staring at each other woodenly after they were searched and relieved of all their weapons. The more seriously injured were laying on the road, where Doc Northwood was attending to them with brisk efficiency, with the help of Mary. Once they were all searched and sat down, Jason regarded them. Out of the attacking force, 52 had survived, though 9 of them were seriously wounded. Others had blood on them here or there, but they didn’t have life-threatening injuries. There were 47 dead, meaning that they had defeated a force five times larger than themselves.
After dispatching some people to put out the fires the rockets had caused, Jason took off his helmet and shook his hair free of the matting, then regarded them as they gawked at him. “That’s right, I’m not a Faey,” he grunted in their direction darkly. “And you just lost. Needless to say, I think you have a good idea what’s going to happen now.”
That same woman who had surrendered gave a stifled sob.
“Oh please, we’re not ruthless,” he growled. “But you can kiss all your possessions goodbye. They belong to us now. After the doc checks you out, you’ll be given a week’s worth of food and marched across the bridge into Huntington, and then you’re on your own. You can do whatever you want, so long as you never bother us again.”
We gonna screen these? Symone inquired curiously.
I was thinking about it, but I’m not sure how we can keep them under control. We had the bingo hall last time, and all of them tied up. I don’t want to leave them unfettered like this for long, they may get bad ideas.
We just put them in the jail down in Chesapeake, she answered.
That’s an idea, Jason agreed with a nod and slightly pursed lips. “Now, we’re going to get you all up and march you into town, where you’ll be put in the city jail until the doc can give you a once-over, and we can keep you out of trouble without tying up all our people to keep an eye on you.”
“What about my wounded men?” one of them demanded in a strong voice.
“Doc’ll take care of them,” Jason answered. “When they’re healthy, they’ll be put out, but we won’t leave them to die. That’s just not right. Now then, everyone on your feet. We’re going for a hike.” He looked to Northwood. “You need any help, Doc?”
“You can take those men to the clinic,” he replied, pointing to the men behind him. “A couple of these men aren’t stable enough to move yet, so I’d like four men to stay with me so we can move them when they’re ready.”
“Luke,” Jason called, and the burly young man nodded gravely.
They used a captured truck to transport the wounded, while the rest of the prisoners were marched to Chesapeake. They were put in the city jail, which was in the police headquarters that was just on the edge of the area claimed by the community, just inside the roadblocks. There were only eight cells in the jail, so each cell was crowded with six or seven men. Jason left Irwin, Regina, and Symone to guard them, then they took the injured men to the clinic and set guards on them while the rest of them collected up all the weapons, dirt bikes, and trucks that were now the spoils of war. It took them almost three hours to gather it all up, then drive it into the community and park it all along the block outside Jason’s house. Jason set the others to sorting through the catch to separate it into categories, then he and the city council went back to the jail. While they were walking up that way, Jason explained what was going to happen. “Any possible candidates will be voted on,” he assured them. “But Symone is going to screen them.”
“That may be a hard sell, Jason,” Regina said. “I don’t think anyone’s gonna be voted in that was shooting at us a while ago.”
“Well, if you don’t recall, most of the community is made up of people who shot at each other for years,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, but that didn’t happen the day we formed the community,” she answered evenly.
“True,” Jason acceded.
Clem chuckled. “Sometimes I wonder why you don’t shoot at each other now,” he said.
“Well, we were doing it to survive,” Regina shrugged. “But we don’t have to do it to survive anymore. It was never personal with me, Clem. It was just business.”
“Yeah,” Leamon agreed. “I didn’t hate any person in the other gangs, just the gang as a whole, cause they were a threat to us. When the gangs got busted up by Jason, there wasn’t nothing left to hate no more.”
“I’d dare to say that the reason you’re here is because Symone was careful only to pick people who shared that mindset,” Jason chuckled.
“Most likely,” Regina nodded. “I think she did a good job.”
“A damn good job,” Clem agreed. “Does Doc have any help over at the clinic?”
Jason nodded. “Mary and Ruth, and I’ll bet he commandeered Luke, James, Pete, and Larry. I haven’t seen them. They’re the ones that stayed behind to carry the stretchers.”
Regina raised her handheld radio to her mouth. “How’s it going, Doc?” she called.
There was an extended silence. “I’m sorry to say that one of the men has died,” he answered. “There just wasn’t anything I could do for him but make him comfortable. The other eight I think are going to make it. The only problem I have is that I have to get the slugs out of them, but I’m still not set up for surgery of this magnitude yet.”
He held his hand to Regina, who nodded and gave him the radio. “We’ll figure something out, Doc, just do your best,” Jason answered. “Do you need more help?”
“No son, I’ve got plenty of hands. I think I’m going to steal Mary, she seems to have a knack for the work. She’d make a good doctor.”
“Well, that’s between you and Luke, I guess,” Jason told him. “After you get to a point where you can leave, Doc, could you please come over to the old jail? I’d like you to check the other prisoners.”
“I can do that, son. I have these men stable for now. Let me get my bag and I’ll be right over.”
Still in his armor, Jason came down into the jail. Irwin and Symone, bearing Tek-9’s, kept watch over the eight cells as the captured men and women remained very, very quiet. They had had quite the operation and the sheer manpower to assault and conquer just about any enclave out in the hills. He doubted that they killed indiscriminately though... something just told him that. Their thoughts mirrored their subdued demeanors, shock and incredulity overwhelming their states of mind, as well as a healthy dose of fear at what was to come. Most of them honestly believed that they were going to be executed. Jason stepped into the hallway holding the eight cells, four to a side, and handed his damaged railgun and helmet to Symone. “Our town doctor’s on his way over here,” he called. “He’s going to check those of you who have injuries and treat them. While he’s got you, she is going to screen you,” he said, pointing at Symone, who was walking with him. “This town isn’t about revenge; it’s about living and working together to better the community as a whole. She’s going to screen you to see if you have the mentality to live here, and if we can trust you to live and work among us without trying to screw us later on. If you pass that screen, you’ll be voted on by the town as a whole as to whether we invite you. If you get voted in, you’ll be offered a place in our community. I wouldn’t hold much hope for that, though,” he said grimly. “You guys just tried to kill us. I’m not sure too many of the townsfolk will take very kindly to that. But we will give you that chance, and we will give them the option to vote on those of you who might have the temperament to live here. Those of you who either fail the screening or are voted down will be released across the bridge into Huntington. You’ll have a week’s worth of food, clothes, and most likely a knife and some other basic survival gear. Like I said, we’re not about revenge. What you do after you cross that bridge is entirely up to you, so long as you never bother us again.”
“What about my wounded men?” that same man called, coming up to the bars. Jason looked at him and saw that he was about thirty, with dark hair and a wide face that had a scar on left cheek. He was a burly fellow, wearing BDUs and a black Atlanta Falcons baseball cap. “How are they?”
“I’m sorry, but one of them died,” Jason said with a somber frown. “Doc said there was just nothing he could do for him. But he did say that the other eight are stable, and they should make it. He’s got his nurse keeping watch over them while he comes here to check the rest of you. Have you people eaten yet?”
“Just breakfast this morning.”
He snorted. “Irwin,” he called. “Arrange for some lunch for these people.”
“Already did, Mayor,” Irwin called. “Ruthie’s already working on it.”
“You guys are lucky,” Jason chuckled. “Ruth’s one hell of a cook.”
The dark-haired man, obviously their leader, sighed, then he laughed ruefully. “Well, this certainly didn’t go as planned. We had no idea you had a second suit of Faey armor. My scouts spotted you, so we brought our rockets to you without knowing that the Faey was actually somewhere else. We just assumed that the armor was the Faey. And we thought rockets would take you down.”
“Maybe if I was wearing the armor that the Faey occupiers wear, but not this,” he said, rapping his knuckles on his burn-stained armor. It was completely undamaged, just a bit dirty. “This is real Faey armor. What most Faey occupiers wear is ancient military surplus junk.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t use your plasma weapons. I fully expected to lose all five trucks.”
“Blowing them up means we can’t use them,” Jason told him. “We planned from the beginning to capture as much of your equipment as we could.”
“Smart,” the man said, thinking it over. “And since you had two people in that armor, you could just rush right in the middle of us without fear. That explains why you went after the trucks instead of concentrating on my men.”
“I don’t much like killing if there’s any possible way around it,” Jason said bluntly.
“How did you capture my other trucks?”
“I have two airbikes,” Jason told him. “They ambushed your trucks after you committed to the assault on the town.”
“And how did you know we were coming?”
“One of our hunters spotted you up near Ironton. We had eyes in the sky watching you since you got to the far side of South Point. We saw you deploy, so we knew exactly where to place our defenses to stop you.”
He chuckled grimly. “Damn clever,” he said appreciatively. “You saw us coming like lambs to slaughter, didn’t you?”
“That about sums it up,” Jason agreed evenly, nodding his head.
“Well, we tried,” he said with odd pride. “We came to try to capture your plasma weapons. We knew if there was a Faey here, then there had to be at least one plasma weapon, and that was worth attacking the town to get.”
“Why be so crazy?”
“Because just one plasma gun would make us all but unstoppable,” he said. “I’ve seen them in use. You can sit a half mile away and just systematically blow walls apart with one. It would have made raiding fortified compounds much easier, without risking the lives of my men.”
“Too bad it wouldn’t do much for the lives of the people on the other side of the wall,” Jason said with an accusing glare at the man. “They’re men and women, just like you. Did it ever occur to you to just go up and trade for what you needed?”
“This is reality, my friend,” the man said with a scowl. “If they’re not with us, they’re against us. The survival of my people takes precedence over the survival of outsiders.”
“Your philosophy just landed you on the other side of that fence,” Jason told him. “How does it feel to be the guy looking down the barrel of a superior force, not sure if you’re going to live to see tomorrow? Doesn’t feel very good, does it? That’s what you inflicted on other people. I hope you really understand it before we let you go. Maybe you’ll learn something.”
“Fine for you to say that, boy, with your armor and your weapons,” the man sneered.
“That’s right, I have the armor and the weapons. But so did you. Do you see me out there preying on the other squatters with my superior firepower?” he asked pointedly. “I decided to build something with my resources. You chose to go kill people, when you could have done exactly what I did. But you chose the easy way out, killing other people for what you need. Don’t try to compare us, or try to justify it in your own mind, because you had the same choices I did, and you chose to walk a different path.”
Angry, Jason stalked away from the man, then marched out into the cool September air and let it clear his head. Why couldn’t these people understand that so long as they fought each other, they reduced everyone’s chances of making it out here? When the raiders killed all the people who grew the food, then what? Slow starvation, feeding off each other until there was nothing left? If everyone would just remember what they used to be, how Americans had pulled together to overcome obstacles, they could make life better for everyone. They could build a little slice of civilization out here, work together, help everyone through collective effort and the American spirit. The Faey had abandoned these people, let them fight like starving dogs in the wildlands because they refused Faey society, but that didn’t mean that they had to abandon their humanity.
Blowing out his breath, he turned around and went to go back in. Regardless of his personal feelings, his responsibilities as Mayor demanded he be there. And there were other things to do. The dead had to be buried, and his railgun was in need of repair. He was going to be busy for the rest of the day, that was for sure.
The town meeting that night was, to say the least, spirited.
Still giddy over their victory that morning, the community was boisterous and maybe a little silly. They were still going through the huge haul of goods and equipment that had been captured from the raiders, taking a break only to attend the meeting, which centered on the events of the day. They talked about what they’d taken from the raiders, from weapons to equipment to little niceties, and then they worked out how to divide it up. Since they didn’t use money and there were things that everyone wanted, it was decided that a lottery system would be implemented where everyone drew numbers out of a hat, and the winner got to pick one item from the haul.
Certain things were excluded, naturally. All weapons were property of the community, which meant they went to Clem, the community weaponsmith. All medical supplies and equipment-quite a bit of it, which surprised Jason-went to Doc Northwood, and all tools and building supplies went to Luke and Zach’s shop or Jason’s shop, depending on what it was for. The food went to the community stores, after the seven day supply for each raider for their exile was excluded. Clothing was sorted by size, and was generally just handed out to whoever fitted into it. Everything else was up for grabs, and that was what they were sorting out. Jason didn’t need anything, so he excluded himself from the lottery, but both Tim and Symone were in it.
Temika sat beside Symone, on the other side of Tim, and she was looking around with a kind of wild-eyed wonder. She was fully expressed now, and that meant that she could hear what everyone was thinking. Symone kept half a mind’s eye on her newest student, keeping the noise to a level that didn’t make Temika panic, but it didn’t look like she was going to panic. She was too excited to panic.
After the lottery cycled through the community four times, Jason banged his gavel and got everyone to settle down. “I think we can just declare the rest of the goods open property,” he said. “Just take what you want from what’s left, and the rest of it goes to storage. We can’t be here all night handing out every toothbrush and comb, we have other matters on the floor.
“As some of you might know, Symone screened the raiders while the Doc was checking them out, and she found one person she’ll vouch for. So, as per town rules, that person comes up for a vote.”
“Who is it?” someone called.
“Symone?” he asked.
“One of the women. Danielle Lewis,” she answered.
“So, this may seem like a bit of a rush, but we have to decide if she’s in or out before we release the others, which will be tomorrow morning,” Jason told them.
“Just so you guys know, she didn’t raise a finger against anyone,” Symone called quickly. “She was just driving one of the trucks. She didn’t fight.”
That bit of info caused a quiet rumble to roll through the gathered townsfolk, and from the sound of their thoughts-his curiosity got the best of him-it did indeed make a difference to them. “Alright then, if nobody has any comments or questions, we can put it on the floor for a vote. Anyone?”
There were no questions, so the matter was put to the floor for a vote. And to Jason’s surprise, she was accepted by a large margin. It seemed to him that they took Symone’s endorsement of someone very seriously.
“Alright, motion passes, we’ll invite this woman to join the community. The rest will be put across the bridge in the morning, so nobody plan to sleep in. I’d like a show of force on the riverbank to remind them what they’ll be facing if they decide to ever try to bother us again. Any other business before we adjourn?”
Nobody had anything, so they adjourned the meeting and got back to the business of dividing up the captured goods. The winners took their prizes, and then they picked through the remainder for anything they found useful before the rest was boxed up and put in storage. The trucks, including a major capture, a Deuce, were parked over by Luke’s shop, and everything quickly got packed away.
The next morning, Jason arrived at the jail not long after daybreak, with Luke, Irwin, and Symone along with him. Most of them were awake, since it wasn’t easy to sleep in the cramped cells. “Everyone up,” Jason called loudly, banging a nightstick against the bars to get everyone’s attention. “After we feed you breakfast, you’ll be taken out of the cells in groups of five. You’ll be given a week’s worth of food and some basic supplies, and then you’re going to be put across the bridge. From then on, you’re on your own. All I can really tell you is good luck, and I hope you make it.”
Jason oversaw the operation without saying too much. After Ruth fed them a breakfast of homemade bread and hot oatmeal, they were removed from their cells in groups of five. The first group included the raiders’ leader, who fixed Jason with a steely, cold eye when he was marched out. The man fully expected to be shot just outside the jail. Jason tagged along just for the satisfaction of hearing his thoughts, seeing his surprise when they did exactly what Jason said they would do. Each man was given a bundle of food and basic supplies, enough to last him a week, and then they were marched to the bridge and told to walk. The man kept expecting a shot in the back at any minute, until the curve of the bridge hid them from the townsfolk and made shooting at them impossible. Then, he finally realized that Jason was telling the truth... and he also realized that he had to find a way to survive with a week’s worth of food and a pocket knife. But Jason figured they’d be alright, for their thoughts told him that they all intended to band back together just like before, but now their primary concern would be finding food and a safe place to survive the coming winter.
Jason intentionally set it up so the woman who would be given the chance to stay with them, Danielle, was last and alone. That worked out pretty well, since there were 46 people in the jail, and taking them out by fives left her alone. She was the same woman who had surrendered to him at the end of the fight, a surprisingly young woman, looking around 25, with dark hair tied back from her face by a black bandanna folded into a strip and tied around her forehead. She was pretty, if rail thin and a bit gaunt in the face, with nervous blue eyes, wearing an old set of Army BDUs that were about two sizes too big for her. Jason remained behind when the last five were removed from the cell, leaving her alone. He could see her fear without even having to listen to her thoughts. Jason closed the cell door, then took out a rusty folding chair and sat down backwards in it, putting his forearms on the back of the chair and regarding her. “So, you’re the last one,” he said evenly.
“What are you doing with us?” she asked fearfully, her thoughts convinced that they were just taking everyone out and killing them.
“Just what I said,” he answered calmly. “Right now, most of your group is waiting on the other side of the bridge, where we put them out of our community, waiting for the last to be freed. Then I guess they’re going to go off somewhere together. It won’t be easy for them, that’s for sure. No weapons, limited food, with only numbers and planning to get ready for winter. I’m sure you have a lot of work ahead of you, and the next few months won’t be pleasant at all.”
She gave him a nervous look.
“At least that’s what’s in store for them,” he said pointedly. “Remember when I told all of you that the Faey was going to screen you?”
She nodded.
“Well congratulations, you passed,” he told her. “Of your entire group, you were the only one that Symone has judged trustworthy. The community voted last night, and they’ve voted to offer you an invitation. If you want, you’re welcome to join us.”
“Wh-What? You’re inviting me to join you?” she asked in disbelief.
He nodded. “Of all your group, you’re the only one that Symone says can embrace what we’ve built here. What we do here, Danielle, isn’t much different from what your group did, at least in basic terms. We work together towards a common goal, that goal being survival. But unlike your group, we don’t try to conquer the world. We live in our town and we do the best we can. We work hard, and at the end of the day we come home and eat dinner, maybe watch a little TV, talk with friends, then go to bed and do it again tomorrow. We do have some luxuries, though. The lights, for one,” he said, pointing at the fluorescent lights glowing over his head. “We have power here. Steve set up cable TV, so people can watch TV, but we’re still working on the running water part. We do fairly well for ourselves. We’re lucky in that we have some people here with some technical skill, we have a doctor, and we’ve managed to get our hands on some Faey gear that gives us a major edge when it comes to protecting ourselves.
“Now, you have a choice to make,” he told her seriously. “If you accept our invitation, you’ll get a house to live in, and we’ll do what we can to get you everything you need to live. You will work, girl, don’t doubt that. You’ll work every day wherever you’re needed, or where you do best at, but in return you’ll have food, water, shelter, and protection. You’ll also have power, some luxuries, and if we can ever get our act together, running water,” he grunted. “I have no idea what the other group can offer you, but now you know exactly what each side has to offer. The choice is yours, but you have to make it quickly. If you don’t want to join us, I don’t want to have to put you out after your friends leave here. That would make it very hard on you.”
“What about the wounded?”
“Well, they’re staying here for now, but they’ll be put out too, once Doc clears them. We’ll probably hold them until all of them are healed, then let them go at once, so they can stay together. But we’re wasting time. I’m sorry to make you rush this, but one way or the other, your well-being depends on you giving me your answer quickly. So think about it a little bit, then give me your answer.”
He put his chin on his hands and waited in silence, as he listened to her debate his offer. Fear was her main problem, fear of him lying, fear of being made to be a slave worker, fear of being separated from people who had protected her for the year she’d been out in the wilderness. But, his offer tempted her, and tempted her greatly, for she hated how they were always fighting, hated living in a truck virtually all the time. She really didn’t have many friends in the raiding gang, because she wasn’t good for much more than cooking and driving a truck; she wasn’t a very good fighter. Some thought she was dead weight. She thought about staying while the wounded healed, and if she didn’t like it, she could leave with them... but then she realized that one of them was that guy that had tried to rape her once, she didn’t want anything to do with him. She always stayed as far away from him as she could. He stopped listening about then, affording her privacy in his own mind if nothing else, watched as she paced back and forth in her cell, thinking things over.
She came up to the bars. “I’ll do it. I mean, I’ll stay. I accept, I mean,” she said nervously.
“Good,” Jason said, standing up. He motioned at Irwin who was down at the doorway leading out into the building, and the burly man threw him the key. “Welcome to Chesapeake. You need to come with me so we can catch up with the last of your friends, let them know you’re not coming.”
“I-do I have to?”
“It would be best to let them see you,” he told her. “So they don’t think I’m lying. You don’t have to say anything to them if you don’t want to.” He looked to Irwin. “They at the bridge yet?”
Irwin shook his head. “Down by 3rd Street, getting’ their supplies,” he answered.
“Let’s catch up to them,” Jason said as he unlocked the cell door and tossed the key back to Irwin, who pocketed it. “That means you can come out, Danielle,” he urged.
“Oh, stupid me,” she said with a nervous laugh, scurrying out of the cell. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what to do.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll have lots to do. It depends on what you’re good at,” he told her.
He gave her as much of a tour as he could given the path they were taking, and he explained the community rules to her along the way. “You mean each person doesn’t have their own food?” she asked.
“Sure they do,” he answered, “but we keep most of it in a community pool. People take what they need, mostly, but Ruth handles that. She’s the town’s food manager, after a fashion. She wasn’t appointed or anything, it just kinda worked out that way. She keeps an eye on our food, makes sure people aren’t being piggish, and she’s the one that tells Temika what to try to trade for. Temika handles our trading with other squatter groups, also kinda an evolved position. We have a few of them, but we also have some official jobs. On top of handling food, Ruth is head of the ‘sewing club,’ four people good at sewing that keep tabs on our clothing supplies, and they also make our bulletproof armor. Clem is a gunsmith, so he’s in charge of all our weapons. If you need a gun, he’s the man you see. Luke is our head mechanic, and he’s more or less responsible for all the cars and trucks we have. Zach’s our town contractor, he handles things when we need something built, and me, Steve, and Tim are the guys that deal with the engineering and our Faey equipment, cause we’re all trained in Faey technology. Regina, Clem, and Leamon are the town council, and I’m the mayor. Everyone else does whatever needs to be done. Some hunt, some work out on our farm, though there’s not much more to do out there, some go out and try to scavenge stuff we can use, and some work on things around here.”
“What do you do?”
Jason chuckled. “Too damn much,” he answered. “Right now we’re trying to get running water going to the town, but we’ve hit a wall on it. I also do a lot of work with Faey technology that we use to keep ourselves safe, and if it breaks down, it’s me, Tim, or Steve that has to fix it. I’m also part of the security force we have, the people who are responsible for doing any fighting that’s required. Unless we’re heavily outnumbered, anyway. On top of all that, I’m also the town’s mayor, though that really doesn’t add much extra onto my plate. People here know what to do, so they do it. Thanks,” Jason said as Symone passed by, handing him his railgun as she went. “I had to fix this, that explosion broke it,” he grunted aloud. “Took me half the night. Where did your people get rocket launchers, for pete’s sake?”
“I don’t really remember,” she shrugged. “Do you really have plasma guns?”
He nodded. “We didn’t use them because we wanted to take as much equipment as we could, and keep the number of casualties to a minimum. Plasma weapons aren’t really good for that. They tend to blow things up.”
“Do they really? I’ve never seen one used before.”
“Yeah, they do,” he affirmed. “They’re really nasty weapons.”
They caught up with the last group to go over at the bridge, five men who looked very unsettled and uncertain. Luke and Leamon were on hand with Tek-9s, and the nodded and stepped back when Jason arrived. “Tell your leader that the wounded will be released later, when they’re well enough,” he told him. “I have no idea when that’ll be, but we’ll take good care of them. Oh yeah, this one is staying with us,” he said, pointing at Danielle. “She passed the screen. She was the only one who passed the screen, and the community has voted to let her stay. She’s accepted our invitation. Haven’t you?”
She nodded, giving the five men fearful looks.
“So don’t worry about her. Now, it’s time for you to go. All I can really say is good luck.”
“For what it’s worth, thank you,” one of the men said seriously.
“Don’t thank me,” he scoffed.
“You could have killed us,” the man explained.
“You could have left us alone. Now go, time’s wasting, and winter’s on the way. You have no time to waste.”
Without another word, the five men turned and marched up the bridge. Jason watched them go, then blew out his breath and looked down at Danielle. Well, at least they’d gotten something more out of this than just a lot of dead people and some additional goods.
“Luke, take her to Mary,” Jason said, tapping Danielle on the shoulder.
“I’ll take care of her, Mister Jason,” Luke said with a nod as the five men disappeared from sight.
“You think they’re gonna make it, Mayor?” Leamon asked.
Jason looked towards the bridge. “I think they will, Lacy,” he replied. “It won’t be easy, but something tells me that they’re going to be alright. May God watch over them,” he added.
“Amen,” Luke said with a nod.
Kaira, 6 Miraa, 4393, Orthodox Calendar
Wednesday, 6 October 2007, Native Regional Reckoning
Chesapeake, Ohio (Native designation), Orala Nature Preserve, American Sector
Sometimes, a good idea was an absolute fucking curse.
For three weeks, he had labored with the current project on his table, finding a way to get his skimmer back in the air without detection. That wasn’t his problem; he felt he had a good solid start to the project. He had done extensive research on CivNet on several concepts and techniques that might be useful, from light refraction to masking technologies. The Faey already had a camouflage technique much like the trick he’d used against Jyslin, projecting a hologram to conceal what was behind it... or inside it, in this case. But that was just visibility, and it wasn’t the top issue on his mind. Defeating both active and passive sensors was what mattered here, and also coming up with some way of concealing the skimmer’s effect on space for when he wanted to move through space without detection. He had the basic groundwork for a couple of theories already, which he needed to research more to figure out if they were solid enough to actually attempt to try to develop.
The first idea was a kind of mirror concept. A field or shield or something that absolutely reflected everything away from what was inside, and reflected what was inside back. That would stop active sensors, and since the mirror field worked both ways, it would trap the energy signature that passive sensors picked up inside. He wasn’t sure if it would work, and if it did, such things as being able to see through the field were issues. If it reflected everything, seeing through it with either eyes or sensors was a problem.
The next idea he had was a projected energy idea. His idea for this one was some kind of coating on the skimmer that absorbed energy on one side, then projected it outward from the other, following the energy’s original path. The coating could also absorb some energy patterns from inside, which would mask the skimmer’s energy signature from passive sensors. That hid the ship by causing what was behind it to be projected in front of it, and it would defeat both types of Faey sensors. The idea had some merits, such as the ability to see through it, but it would take one hell of a computer to detect energy forms colliding with the coating, or maybe a shield, calculate their trajectory and velocity, then project that signature from the proper point.
His third idea was similar to the second, but less dynamic. Some kind of shield or something that bent energy around it without absorbing and re-emitting. That seemed easiest to implement, but so far, it looked like it would do little to hide the signature of the skimmer itself, since it was coming from inside.
The last idea was a field, shield, or coating that absolutely absorbed everything, in either direction. This approach would hide everything, that was for sure. This had some potential, but much like the mirror idea, he wasn’t sure how they’d be able to see out of it. It also would leave a “hole” in a sensor image, since there would be no return from that area. Far enough away that wasn’t an issue, because energy refraction and diffusion around the edges of his skimmer would bent the energy to close over the hole, but it would be noticeable at close range.
None of these approaches did anything for the problem of hiding the skimmer’s mass or the effects of its engines on space. That, he had realized quickly, would require a separate system, because nothing that dealt with energy was going to help in hiding the skimmer’s physical presence.
He had some idea, but it was just so hard to get anything done right now. Winter was right around the corner, and with it had come an absolute flood of people coming down here and asking to join the community. Not just a few families here and there. Hundreds of people, entire enclaves of individuals, from all around the region. One group of six had driven their herd of cows from Tennessee to come to Chesapeake, to seek out acceptance into the community.
It had shocked him when they started coming. Just one here and there at first, but then more and more, until there were literally convoys of trucks, weighed down with everything that they owned, creeping along the pitted roads of Ohio and West Virginia and Kentucky, converging on Chesapeake. Clem wasn’t all that surprised about it, though.
“It’s comin’ on winter, son,” he’d said calmly as they stood on the top of the church steeple, by his emitter, watching a convoy of fifteen trucks rolling through Huntington. “Some of them probably wanted to come sooner, but they had crops out, and that means they couldn’t leave. Then they had to can what they could and get everything ready to move. That, and I’m pretty sure that some of them wanted to make sure we could really protect ourselves against a road gang. After we beat Dani’s old group, it told them we really could make it.”
It made for some major headaches. Poor Symone was run ragged, because she had to screen everyone in every group. But unlike the dreadful cooperation in the old gangs, there wasn’t a single person in those bands of squatters that was deemed too much of a risk to join the community, though many of the individual and very small groups of scavengers that had showed up, probably seeking to get in to steal what they could then run, had been turned away. But those established squatters who had brought everything they owned with them and had much to lose, none of them failed the screen, and none were turned away. They had come seeking exactly what the community offered: peace, security, the chance to live with some semblance of dignity out in the wilderness, and the added benefits of living within a large community of like-minded individuals. The town was having meetings almost every night to vote on the acceptance of this or that new group of squatters into the community.
The power grid was strained by this sudden influx of people, which required Jason, Tim, and Steve to build a new generator and revamp their small power grid. But, on the other hand, they got new people who had experience, including a man named Mike Langstrom, who had worked for a power company in Virginia and was an industrial electrical engineer, unlike Steve’s concentration in refinery power systems. Dealing with power generation and delivery was his old job, and the Chesapeake Power Company, he lightly called it, became his responsibility.
They also had trouble finding houses for all these new people. They had to expand the boundaries of the community twice, and they also had to fence in a large area near the farms for the influx of livestock that these people brought with them. Food storage became a problem too, causing them to go on another round of freezer scrounging, and requiring them to move their cold storage to a large restaurant and the adjacent stores on either side of it on on Route 7, two blocks from Jason’s house. The old pizza place had a walk-in freezer, which helped, but most of their perishables were still stored in freezers they scavenged and repaired.
The rest of their stuff also had to be moved, because there was just too much. It too was moved into old stores along Route 7, beside the food storage, because every squatter came with gear or spare equipment, and that stuff had to go somewhere.
Jason, faced with the large influx of people, was forced to give up his control of his block and block facing it. With that many people and the fact that they were moving their supplies and stored goods, there was no reason to keep the security zone around his house. That caused something of a row, because most everyone wanted to live in the houses around him, for some stupid reason. Well, maybe not so stupid. Since they still didn’t have running water, that left everyone to access the huge tank that Jason, Luke, Tim, Zach, and Steve had built about a block from Jason’s house, on an old empty lot. They’d never found a suitable tanker truck or trailer, so they just built their own. They installed a pipe to the river and Jason’s spare water purification system into it, and that served as the community’s source of clean water. The tank was huge, holding about twenty thousand gallons of water, and it hadn’t even gone down to three quarters of its holding capacity since it filled up. Proximity to that tank meant that one didn’t have to carry heavy buckets or containers of water as far, so the houses around it were sought-after prizes. He left them to settle how they were going to manage that, but he did put his foot down in one respect. He kept his claim on the houses to each side of him. One was given to Tim and Symone, and the other was given to Temika. That kept all the telepaths in a tight group, and besides, it was about time Tim and Symone got their own damn house.
Basically, how they divided up the houses led to a little grumbling, but nothing that caused a rift in the community. It was decided that those with the most seniority would get first pick at the houses on the two opened blocks. Clem’s group, who had the most seniority, was given first opportunity. Clem himself decided he liked his own house, but Mary and Luke, still living with their father and Ruth, decided they wanted a house of their own, so they moved in beside Tim and Symone... Jason suspected Jenny had something to do with that, wanting to be near Symone. Since the rest of the original community all came at the same time, they had a lottery to decide who had first pick, at least those who felt like they wanted to move.
People kept coming, and kept coming, and kept coming. They’d gone from a community of about 30 to a burgeoning, actual town of nearly 300 people in just a few weeks. Single scavengers that had passed the screen, couples, trios, families, even entire enclaves of squatters had come. There were 20 children in the community now, ranging in ages from two months to 17, which gave Jenny actual playmates. It also caused the creation of a school, much to the children’s intense displeasure, run by a kindly older fellow named William Connor, from a squatter enclave in Gallipolis, who had been a teacher before the subjugation.
There were some growing pains, to be sure. A few short tempers had let to a couple of altercations, but nothing outrageous. They also had trouble getting everyone settled down, and it was taking the newcomers time to get used to the way they did things. Some of them also had some issues with taking orders from the town council, but they kept their indignation to themselves. They were used to doing things their way, and hadn’t quite expected such a well-organized system to be in place when they arrived.
All the distractions made it hard for Jason to do anything. He’d managed to finish building his three extra railguns, and had corrected the problem that made his original get damaged by the explosion. That one hadn’t had its flux cabling heavily secured inside the barrel, and the shock of the blast had dislodged it from its careful positioning, which had triggered a critical malfunction error. Now the cabling was secured with a clear synthetic coating that was as strong as steel, what he had used on his first new railgun, something that was not in the original. The three new railguns were tested and worked, and they too lacked the sonic-boom effect that had been present in his first weapon, at least at first. He still hadn’t figured out why that had stopped, and since his new weapons lacked it as well, he figured that it had to have been some kind of flaw in the original weapon that he had corrected somehow. It still drove him a little batty sometimes, when he stopped to think about it, but he was too busy to dwell on that kind of trivial stuff for long. Not when he had so much to worry about that mattered.
There had been some changes made, to take the larger population into account. The city council was now five instead of three, with two newcomers, Paul Meredith and Julianne Winfield, added to the council to represent the outlook and perspective of those who had just arrived. Both had been leaders of fairly large enclaves of their own, and had experience with dealing with people. The “sheriff’s office” had been expanded to include 12 people, which took the pressure of Irwin, Luke, and Symone. Now they had at least one “deputy” on active duty at all times and one person in the “control center”, which was one of Jason’s spare bedrooms, monitoring the sensors. The patroller rode around the community on a horse with one of the hunting plasma rifles in his hands or in the saddleskirt, just keeping an eye on things while the man or woman watching the sensors made sure nobody snuck up on the town from outside. They’d gotten an entire herd of horses with the Kinney family, when they came down from Athalia with their herd of 24 horses, most of which were broken for riding. To save their dwindling gas supplies, the policing patrols used horses to get around. They weren’t using the airbike because most of them had no idea how to ride it; Symone and Irwin were training them one by one on how to ride the airbike, and they were also taking lessons on how to read the sensors that were now being operated from one of the new panels from Tim. Tim had more or less earned the job of combat controller, given how good a job he did reading the sensors and directing forces against Danielle’s old road gang, but he was teaching others how to do it in case he wasn’t there to do the job. The command center was still in Jason’s house, because he wouldn’t allow that panel to leave his home. So his house still served in some ways in an official capacity, and he still had people coming in and out of it. Luke now had a large complement of mechanics to help him with the vehicles, and Zach had several fellow handymen to help with building projects and house repairs. They’d also gotten quite a few plumbers, welders, electricians, people from various trade skills whose training was going to have a positive impact on the community as a whole.
There was quite a bit going on outside the community too. Jyslin’s life had calmed down considerably, returning to the routine, though she had the feeling that the Secret Police was keeping a clandestine eye on her. She kept in touch with her Aunt Lorna in Washington, and had told him that she was already trying to get Lorna to get her unit transferred out of New Orleans. Not just her, but her entire unit. She admitted that getting an entire unit transferred wasn’t easy, but Royal Command was looking into realigning some of its Imperial forces, so she had hope that they’d get that transfer sometime soon. When Jason asked where she was going to go, she just gave him a mysterious smile and told him not to worry about that. He felt that she was going to try to get a transfer somewhere close to the preserve, which he actually did not want. If Jyslin was stationed close to the preserve, she might actually be called to fight against him if his community and the Faey ever came to blows. The further away Jyslin was, the lesser the chance that she might be on the other side of the battlefield. Kumi’s conscription was fast approaching, only three months now, and she was getting both more frenetic and more wild by the day. It was getting hard to catch her at home, because she was out living hard, partying, and squeezing every ounce of fun into life she could before she had to go do the required five years of military service. Her mother had already got her a cushy job as an “aide” to one of the house’s top military commanders, which was on her home planet. She’d have two months of mandatory basic training, then be right back home, working for this woman named Admiral Lenne. The only real difference would be that she’d have a job and be expected to work, and that was what horrified Kumi more than anything else.
The true secret of Chesapeake continued to remain a secret, though people had certainly noticed this mysterious little clique that consisted of Symone, Tim, Jason, and Temika. Temika and Tim were trained in telepathy for at least four hours a day by Symone, often with Jason sitting in when he could to see if he couldn’t learn a little more. Temika was a very strong telepath, not as strong as Jason but certainly stronger than Symone and Tim, and much to Symone’s surprise, she learned very fast. Temika was very happy to be a telepath, to have that power, so she threw herself into her lessons utterly. She’d learned rather quickly how to send, and had already learned the embarrassing lesson never to try to send privately around Symone. Symone’s unusual sensitivity to sending, allowing her to hear any sending and not just public ones, was something that one had to keep in mind when she was around. Temika had sent privately to Tim about her suspicions that Jason and Symone were fooling around on the side, about how it was odd that she was so comfortable taking her clothes off around him and how she kept her armor in his room, which gave her an excuse to go in the one place that nobody was allowed to go except Jason and her. Temika got a rather embarrassing education about certain aspects of Faey personality about then, because Symone was neither demure nor evasive about her relationship with Jason. Temika really didn’t understand Faey very well, which was easy enough for someone without much exposure to them. They did look almost exactly like humans, and there were a great number of similarities in behavior that often made people forget that Symone wasn’t human. But she wasn’t human, and her racial culture was very different from the human one. That episode made Temika blush furiously every time she looked at Symone for nearly three days, and even blush a little when she looked at Jason. It wasn’t common knowledge that Jason and Symone had slept together once, and it certainly wouldn’t be understood very well that it was done with Tim’s blessing. That was something that all three of them felt was a private matter, completely between themselves, and had nothing to do with the rest of the town. Temika was wise enough never to repeat what Symone had told her, because if many of the men in town thought that being Symone’s good friend meant having sex with her, they’d be lining up outside their house.
They weren’t dead after all, and Symone was gorgeous, just like most Faey. It was only understandable that many men had certain fantasies about her, fantasies that Symone actually found quite flattering.
Despite that one social blunder, Temika got along very well with the others in their very small and unique group. She sincerely liked Symone and was an eager student, she got along rather well with Tim, and she already had a good friendship with Jason.
Symone did do her best to continue Jason’s education, teaching him the more advanced techniques of attack and defense, though she wasn’t as good at it as Jyslin, and she utilized different techniques. Symone wasn’t half as strong in the talent as Jason was, so she relied on techniques that would differ from what he or Jyslin would use, who could bring more raw power to bear in the situation. But Jason didn’t complain, mainly because knowledge was knowledge, and her lessons still offered the value of understanding how others would do things.
“Jason,” Regina called over the radio.
Jason blew out his breath and leaned back in his chair down in his basement workshop. It was about ten in the morning, and he’d skipped the daily training session Symone was giving for Tim and Temika to squeeze more time in with his research, but it looked like he was going to get interrupted yet again. He reached over and picked up the radio. “What is it, Reg?” he asked.
“You need to come out here. Now.”
“Now what?” he asked irritably over the radio. “I’m trying to get some work done here, Reggie! Can’t you handle it?”
“Give me that! Is this how you use it? Good. JASON FOX, YOU GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!!!!” a voice screamed over the radio, in Faey.
Jason almost had a heart attack. He did fall backwards out of his chair. He knew that voice; it was Kumi! Kumi was almost on top of him! How in the hell did she get that close without whoever was riding the panel seeing it? How did she find him in the first place? He ran up the stairs and slammed the door open almost in Symone’s face. She was out in the hall upstairs with Tim and Temika behind her, a shocked and frightened look on her face. “No sending. Nothing,” he hissed under his breath, looking at all three as he totally closed his own mind, then he rushed through the living room and out onto his porch.
Kumi was there, with about twenty people around her, milling around her with a kind of wide-eyed wonder. She was sitting on an airbike, leaning her arms on the handle bars and talking with Regina, with five airbikes around her. Four of those people he recognized; Meya, Myra, Fure, and that really strange looking little red-skinned man whose name Jason could not recall, riding a half-sized airbike obviously meant for a child or someone his size. The fifth was another alien, an eerie looking kind of furry humanoid creature, something he’d never imagined could exist. It-she, it was a she-had purple fur, with a short, boxy kind of muzzle on her face, sort of like a cat but not quite. She had oversized, round eyes that were the color of turquoise, and she had strange little whip-like things growing out of her head, in front of a pair of animalistic triangular ears that were poking through a thick poof of wild hair that was a slightly darker shade of purple than her fur. She also had small, diaphanous purple-tinted wings, chitinous wings like a dragonfly, though they looked too small to be anything other than decorative. That creature looked at him, and he had the weirdest sensation shiver up his spine.
“Kumi!” he gasped, staring at her from the porch. “What the hell are you doing here? Are you nuts?”
“Am I nuts?” she asked, looking over Regina. “Bull shit am I nuts.”
“You coming here is nuts,” he snapped. “You realize how much danger you just put us all in?”
“Oh please, give me some fuckin’ credit, babe,” she scoffed.
“I didn’t know you spoke their language, Jayce,” Regina said in surprise.
“Oh, he has lots of secrets,” Kumi grated in perfect English.
He blew out his breath. “Why did you come here?” he demanded again.
“I was in the neighborhood,” she replied flippantly.
“That’s not an answer,” Jason said darkly, coming down off the porch. “This was stupid, young lady. Thanks to you, now they’re going to wonder what’s so curious out here that you’d come drop by and visit. The best thing you can do right now is just ride off in the same direction you were going before you got here.”
“They don’t know I’m here, and even if they did, what the fuck are they going to say? You forget who I am, babe. I’m a Countess. My mom’s a Duchess. I can do anything I damn well please, and there’s nobody on this planet that can say a damn thing.”
“Yeah, that’s all fine and dandy for you, but after you’re gone, who do you think’s going to still be here? We live here, girl. You’re not the one they’re going to start looking at after you’re gone, we are.”
“Why are we arguing about this? I just came about a thousand light years to come see you, babe. Care to show me around?”
He clenched his fists to keep from losing his temper.
“Calm down, babe,” she told him. “I’ve made sure that nobody’s watching us. They have no idea where I am right now, just that I’m down in the preserve somewhere.” She looked around. “Well, I can understand now why you got all that stuff. It wasn’t just for you, was it? Now, show me around.”
“The only place I’m going to show you is back to your dropship,” he said in a dangerous tone, stalking right up to her and staring at her almost nose to nose.
Vonde sube nise kawa koke na? the purple-furred creature said in a winsome tone.
Sombe duse koroko saba de, Kumi answered with a sly smile. Beya modkorokome de.
“I’m going back into my house,” Jason said in a cold tone, staring right in Kumi’s eyes. “When I get there, I’m calling in the people with MPACs, and I’m getting the gun. If you’re still here when I get back out on this porch, they will be used,” he said in an intense, totally convincing tone. “You think this is some kind of fucking game, but you’re playing with our lives. You wanna see me? Get the hell out of our town, go back to your yacht, and call me. But don’t you ever show up here uninvited again. I don’t care if you’re a friend or not. You being here puts the lives of everyone you see around you in jeopardy, and our friendship doesn’t mean shit if you being here ends up getting some of them killed.”
The fact that he didn’t even bother guarding his thoughts, letting her see just how furious he was, probably more than anything else caused that disbelieving gape of dismay that graced her pretty little face. He’d just threatened to evict her by force, and he meant every word. He turned his back on her pointedly, then started marching into the house. “Everyone scatter,” he ordered in a loud tone as he opened his mind enough to hear sending. “If they’re still here when I get back out, there’s going to be shooting. I don’t want anyone hit in the crossfire.”
I told you that this was not a good idea, Lady Eleri, Fure sent with sharp rebuke, as some of the townsfolk quickly and immediately fled the area. Others, those carrying weapons, did not run. Regina and several others moved to the porch of the house Jason had just went into, and pulled out their archaic, primitive weapons and readied them. It was apparent that they fully intended to aid Jason in forcing the Faey and her group out of the town, telepathy or no telepathy.
The human is dead serious. He’ll start shooting at us if we don’t back off, Meya sent to her employer urgently. I must insist we withdraw to the dropship now, Miss Kumi. Your mother will kill us if we let anything happen to you.
I don’t understand, Kumi sent in confusion. He knows I have everything under control. He’s being ridiculous.
Ridiculous or not, either we leave now or we start shooting, Myra sent grimly, looking at the resolute faces of the men and women on the porch. You know he’s highly resistant to talent, and that nasty gun of his is going to go right through our armor. If we don’t back off, someone’s gonna die.
He wouldn’t dare shoot at me! Kumi sent indignantly.
I think he would dare, Meya answered. Don’t forget, we’re on his ground, and nobody is watching overhead. It’s obvious he doesn’t want to do it, but he will. That’s plain. I’m not asking this time, Miss Kumi, I’m ordering. We’re backing off.
Don’t order me around, Meya, Kumi snapped at her immediately.
When it comes to your physical safety, I sure as hell am ordering you around. You can be pissed later, but you’re leaving now.
Jason was silently thankful for Meya at that point. Kumi’s presence here was a huge threat, and it was already going to cause some serious problems in his mind. The Faey were going to wonder why a noble was calling off ships and redirecting sensor satellites to prevent anyone from observing her activities. They were going to wonder why she was visiting the nature preserve, when there was nothing out there. They were going to start wondering if there was something out there, and they were going to start looking. That was going to bring Faey patrols, and now there were too many people in the community for them to easily hide their presence. She’d already done enough damage to their security. He went up to his room, and picked up his railgun off the rack on his dresser with deliberate eyes. He powered it up, made sure it was loaded, then he disengaged the safety.
They’re leaving, Symone sent to him tightly, so the Faey outside wouldn’t hear it. Jason went to his window, which faced south, and saw the five airbikes go over his house, then quickly disappear behind the house behind it. Jason blew out his breath in relief when they did so, and he carefully powered down the railgun and put it back in its place. God, that was close. He went back down to his porch, where several people stood with their weapons ready, as did Symone, Tim, and Temika. They all looked at him for a long moment, then Regina cleared her throat. “Was that Jyslin?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Another Faey friend. One that’s a bit more hard-headed than Jys,” he grunted.
“What were those things with her?” one of the newcomers asked. “The little red guy, and the purple thing?”
“The red fellow is a Makati,” Symone answered. “One of the seven races of the Imperium. I’ve never seen anything like that other one before, but she was speaking Kimdori, so she’s Kimdori.”
“What does that mean?” Regina asked.
“Kimdori are shapeshifters,” she answered. “They can look like anything they want, but they look like big dog-like animals in their natural form, so they favor those kinds of shapes. They feel closer to home, I’ve been told. They’re not part of the Imperium, but there’s plenty of them around. Just about every noble has at least one Kimdori on staff. For obvious reasons.”
“Spies?” someone asked.
Symone nodded. “Kimdori can sense their own, but they never give each other away. It’s all a grand game to them. Sometimes I wonder which side is playing which most of the time. Kimdori as a race know more about what’s really going on than any race in the galaxy, given they’re in the middle of just about everything.”
“I don’t remember reading anything about them on CivNet,” Jason mused.
“They’re a very secretive race,” Symone told him. “That noble girl is really lucky. That Kimdori with her isn’t her employee, it’s her friend.”
“What difference does that make?” Tim asked.
“Get lucky enough to have a Kimdori for a friend, and you get access to all kinds of information,” Symone told him. “The Kimdori are in the middle of most everything going on, and they talk to each other.”
“Oh. Ohhhhhhhhh,” Tim said, his eyes widening.
“So that’s how Kumi seems to have her hands in so many things,” Jason grunted.
“Most likely. She asks that Kimdori to find out, and she finds out. Kimdori will do almost anything for a friend. They’re very loyal. Pack mentality.”
“What?” Temika asked.
“Pack mentality,” she repeated. “Kimdori are canines, and their society is based on family groups. Packs. Like your wuff animals.”
“Wolf,” Jason corrected.
“Whatever.”
“Where did you learn about Kimdori?” Jason asked.
“I went to school with one,” she answered. “The child of a Kimdori consulate on my home planet.”
Jason raised an eyebrow. “That must have been interesting.”
“Oh, he was a riot,” she laughed. “Once he took the shape of the school headmistress and got on the school’s vidlinks. That was hilarious,” she said with a laugh.
“Well, let me go sit by my panel to face the meltdown when she gets back to her dropship,” Jason grunted.
“Will it be that bad?” Temika asked.
“Kumi does not like being denied what she wants. She’s spoiled that way,” he said grimly.
He went back in and sat in his basement, in front of his panel, and he waited. He certainly didn’t have to wait long until the incoming message warning flashed on the display. He picked up the call immediately, and Kumi’s face appeared on his display, sitting in the cockpit of her dropship, behind the controls. “What the hell do you think you’re about, Jason?” she demanded. “I came to see you because I’m worried about you, you asshole! And this is how you treat me?”
“Next time, call and ask,” he snapped at her. “You forget, girl, they’re looking for me! What you just did was give the Faey a reason to poke around the preserve, to find out what’s so interesting over here that a noble would chase off all surveillance and land in the middle of a place that’s supposed to have nothing in it! You’ve just put me a very dangerous position, you idiot!”
“You did that yourself!” she shouted back. “Wanna know why I came? I’ll show you. I found this circulating in the underground of CivNet yesterday. Does it look familiar?” She glanced down, and then the screen split. She was on the left, and on the right was some video footage taken from an aerial position, looking down on an area he immediately recognized. It was Chesapeake. It was from the fight they’d had with the road gang! He clearly saw the image focus on a black-armored figure with a really big piece of construction steel, smashing riders off of dirtbikes, then panned over as an explosion lit up the corner of the screen. It focused on another armored figure just as it was struck by a rocket. That was him! He saw himself fall down, then get up and seemingly float along the ground as he raced up to the man who’d shot him, then nearly decapitate him by hitting him in the head with the stock of his railgun. He remembered that, but it looked much different from outside.
That dropship! The one that Regina had seen just before the battle! It had taken video of the fight!
“A merchant dropship caught video of a fight between two armed groups in the preserve, and the freighter captain gave it to someone who put it on CivNet,” Kumi told him sharply. “I had this killed off CivNet, and I tracked down the people who made the video and got the originals. What you just saw is the last copy left, but I can’t tell really how many people saw it before I found out. I came to warn you, personally, that you might see some increased Faey patrols if someone who cares managed to see it before I intervened. From the way it looks, two Imperial Marines were involved in a fight between outlaw groups in the nature preserve, and that might make someone wonder enough to come take a look. They won’t know exactly where that is, so they won’t know to come straight to you the way I did. And I wanted to make sure you got through it alright, if you needed something and you weren’t asking for it because you don’t have any more money to pay for it. I’d loan you that money, you silly man. Business may be business, but I do consider you a friend. I’d help you out if you needed it.”
Jason sighed, rubbing his face. “I’m sorry if I scared you, but you should have called,” he asserted. “I’d have come and met you somewhere. But you can’t just come running in here like that, Kumi. It puts not just me at risk, but everyone you saw, and lots of people you didn’t see. I appreciate the thought, but remember that people in hiding do not like surprises.”
She looked harsh for a moment, then sighed. “Alright. I’m sorry, but I had to make sure. So, what can Kumi do for you today?” she asked grandly.
“Kumi can go home,” Jason said sharply. “We’re just fine, we don’t need anything, and you’ll make us safer by going back home.”
“Why don’t you pack a bag and come with me?” she asked.
“What?”
“Come along,” she grinned. “I told you I wanted to show you my house. And there’s lots to see here in Dracora.”
“Dracora? You live on Draconis?” he said in shock.
“Twenty shakra from the Imperial Palace,” she said proudly. “All the upper nobility have a residence here. Really, you dip, didn’t you ever check to see the location code of the number you’ve been calling? Why is that a surprise?”
“You want me to come to Draconis? Kumi, you’re not just crazy, you’re nuts. I’m a wanted man!”
“And do you think they’re going to even think to look for you on homeworld?” she asked chidingly, then she took a serious expression. “Actually, you need to come with me. There’s something here you need to see.”
“You can take a picture of it and send it to me.”
“No, this is something you have to see for yourself,” she said.
“Well, it’s going to have to wait,” he told her bluntly. “I’m not that crazy, girl.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“You, yes. Putting my life in the hands of unseen ship crewmen and your servants... no. There’s also the fact that I won’t go anywhere where I don’t have complete control over my ability to get back. Sorry, Kumi, but that’s life.”
“You’re making a huge mistake, babe.”
“Life is full of regretful decisions,” he said evenly.
“You’ll really regret this one.”
“Oh well. Now, if you won’t mind, hon, I have a lot of work to do, and I need to get back to it.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m absolutely positive. Call me when you get home, so I know you made it alright.”
“Well, it sounds like I’ve been dismissed,” she said sharply.
“You seem to have nothing more to say, and I’m not going to sit here and argue with you for the next twenty minutes,” he explained coolly. “I’m not joking in that I have a lot of work to do. If you don’t have anything important enough to keep me from it outside of vaguely insistent demands for me to come with you, then I think this call is about over.”
Kumi frowned. Jason could tell that whatever she had to say, she thought it was important, but she also wasn’t willing to say it over CivNet. “Would you come meet me in eight hours?” she asked. “In the regular spot?”
“Now that, I’d be happy to do,” he told her with a nod. “Hours or standard hours?”
“Standard, I don’t know your local time,” she answered.
“Why not now?”
“Because if you won’t come to Draconis, I have to move Draconis here,” she said cryptically. “Will you meet me?”
“I’d be happy to,” he told her.
“I’ll see you then,” she said, then she cut the connection.
Jason leaned back in his chair. He had no idea what any of that was about, but one thing was for sure... Kumi certainly had piqued his curiosity.
You done? Symone sent.
Yeah. I’m going to meet her in eight standard hours. She has something she wants to tell me, but wouldn’t say it over CivNet.
Are you going?
Yup. So are you. So don’t make any plans.
Eight standard hours put their meeting after dark, and Jason spent most of the early afternoon fretting over what Kumi had in mind. Around about four, though, Mike Lawson, who was riding the panel, started shouting in the radio about descending ships. Jason patched into the sensor feed with his own panel, for he’d been laboring on his project, and saw that he wasn’t reading it wrong. Three dropships had descended from orbit, and were landing out at Beech Fork Lake. Two of them took off about half an hour later, but another landed a few minutes later.
Now he was curious. He put on his armor, jumped on an airbike, and headed out for Beech Fork.
He secured the bike well away from the swimming area where he always met Kumi, then crept in. That wouldn’t be easy with Meya and Myra running around, for those two were good, but he drew on every trick that Clem and the other hunters had taught him, deciding to get on the far side of the lake spur and just creep up close enough to get an idea of what was going on. After about a half hour of creeping, he finally got close enough to look through a clearing made by Kumi and the twins the last time he was here, when they used his railgun to blast the hell out of this side of the lake spur.
What he saw startled him. There was a small army of Faey down there, setting up all kinds of things. Tables, chairs, a few tents, large swaths of some kind of outdoor carpeting on the ground, and all kinds of equipment. Two dropships were down as well, and on the far side of them, they were cooking. They were sending heavily out there, so often and so quickly that it became a jumble in Jason’s mind. He wasn’t experienced with handling so many sendings at once, and it made him a little dizzy. He had to shut himself off, close his mind completely so he couldn’t hear them sending, then waited a moment for it to clear up.
Jason realized what he was seeing quickly after he saw them cooking, at least after he got his senses back. Kumi was throwing a party! That’s what she meant when she said she had to bring Draconis here!
Jason backed up and laid down on the ground, thinking furiously, taking off his helmet and using it as a chinrest as he watched through the trees. She wanted him to come to a party? That’s what all this was about? Now that was just weird, even for Kumi. No, there had to be something else to it, because she certainly wouldn’t go to this trouble just for appearances, but on the other hand, he didn’t see how she was going to get any guests to come out here. She’d certainly looked serious about getting him to come to Draconis, but he couldn’t figure out how doing this satisfied whatever she needed him to go to Draconis for in the first place. There had to be some kind of ulterior motive here, but he was dipped if he couldn’t figure out what it was.
The heavy impact of something literally landing on his back made him flinch, accompanied by the grinding squeal of metal on metal, but it didn’t crush him or do him any harm. He moved to scramble forward, at least until he heard the whine of an MPAC activating, and felt something press up against the back of his head. “Will you never learn that you can’t sneak up on us, human?” Myra asked lightly. He glanced back and saw her in her armor but without her helmet, literally sitting on the small of his back, her MPAC leveled at his head.
“Hello Myra,” he said evenly. “Want to get off me now?”
“In a minute,” she said, “You know what’s going on out there?”
“It looks like Kumi’s throwing a party. I can’t figure out why though.”
“Yes, it’s a party, and you’re invited,” she answered him. “But I don’t think armor is proper party attire. You need to go home and change into something a little less intimidating. You’ll scare Miss Kumi’s guests.”
“What guests?”
“What’s a party without guests?” Myra retorted. “A large complement of her friends are en route as we speak. They thought the idea of an outdoor picnic party to be a clever idea, especially since it’s going to be held in a dangerous area, so there’s an element of excitement to it. Sometimes nobles are weird,” she grunted.
“So, I’m supposed to be the entertainment?” Jason asked sharply.
“No, you’re a guest,” she answered, just as sharply. “Now go home and find something nice to wear and come back. You have to be here before the others start to arrive, or they’ll know you didn’t come in a dropship.”
Jason had to admit to the logic of that statement. But, on the other hand, he had no itention of going to this party. “If Kumi doesn’t like what I’m wearing, that’s entirely too bad,” he answered flatly. “If I meet with her down there, I’ll be wearing exactly what I have on right now, and I won’t be there long. She can accept it, or she can throw a tantrum that accomplishes absolutely nothing. It’s her call.”
Jason waited as Myra sent that along, but she didn’t move off of him... though she did lower her weapon. “Miss Kumi’s not too happy about it,” she said. “She said if you won’t put on decent clothes, you have to wait inside her dropship, so they can’t see you. But she said you can leave any time after you’re done, you just have to put on your helmet and pretend to be one of the guards.”
“After I’m done?”
“Miss Kumi has some kind of business with you, and it involves a third party,” Myra answered. “When that person gets here, you can leave after you finish whatever business you have.”
“Oh. I have no idea what that means, but I don’t object to waiting in Kumi’s dropship.”
“Okay then, get your helmet and your weapon and follow me. You run out here?”
“Airbike,” he answered as she got off him.
“Go bring it into the perimeter, so you can just get on it and ride off, like you’re patrolling,” she instructed. “There are some airbikes parked behind Miss Kumi’s dropship. Just put it back there.”
“Alright.”
Jason pondered what Myra said as he retrieved his airbike. A third party? What third party would have anything to do with him? Kumi and Jyslin were the only people outside he knew, and he absolutely knew for a fact that Jyslin was in New Orleans right now. She was on duty tonight, she told him so yesterday when he called. So who was this mysterious third person?
Kumi was in her dropship cockpit when Myra escorted him in. She was wearing a weird flowing top of sorts with only one sleeve, made of some kind of sheer bluish silk-like material that almost exactly matched the hue of her skin. It was low-cut in the front and very form-fitting, giving the illusion that she was topless at certain angles. It shimmered in the light like there were tiny diamonds sewn into it, though, almost looking like she was topless and wearing glitter. She was also wearing a very short black skirt, so black it all but swallowed the light, again with an uneven hem, almost to her left hip, but dropping down to the middle of her right thigh. She had on knee-length black boots that looked almost like velvet, with noticeable heels but not very high, the tops of them turned down and flared. Kumi never seemed to wear heavy jewelry, he noticed, usually only small earrings or a necklace. She was wearing a simple pair of diamond-looking studs in her ears and a plain silver or platinum or some other kind of silvery metal chain around her neck, without adornment.
“Nice,” he said honestly as he admired her outfit.
“You like?” she asked girlishly, standing up and turning around for him. “It’s a Moteena top with a Graneth skirt. The boots are Zupini.”
“I have no idea what any of that means.”
She laughed. “They’re the current ‘in’ designers back home,” she told him. “The guests are about a half an hour or so from getting here. Just sit in here and wait, babe. There’s someone coming who wants to talk to you, that’s what all this is about. She paid me a hell of a lot of money to arrange this meeting. That’s why I was so insistent.”
“Really? Who would want to talk to me?”
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” she answered bluntly. “Read the dropship manual or something while I greet the guests. You can fly this thing, you know,” she winked. “It has the same basic controls as a skimmer. Your Class three covers dropships.”
“I know it does,” he answered. “There were dropship questions on the test.”
“Coolies. Just punch it up on the computer. Knock yourself out, babe, I gotta check on stuff.”
Jason did exactly that. He amused himself by reading over the controls on a dropship, and making note of which ones were different than a skimmer. He even brought up the dropship’s systems to practice, though he didn’t try to lift it off the ground. Kumi’s dropship had all kinds of bells and whistles; armor, weapons, a shield, sensors, ECM, anti-missile technology (even the Faey still made use of missiles, though they rarely bothered to bring them to Earth), a kick-ass communications system complete with crypto and source masking-those paranoid nobles, gotta love them-and of course, access to CivNet.
He was having so much fun playing with Kumi’s dropship that he lost track of time. He looked up and saw the outside filled with lots of Faey, all wearing expensive clothes, with lots of armored guards patrolling the perimeter. There was a band on a stage set up by the old parking lot, playing what he swore sounded like some kind of chaotic mixture of heavy metal and high-energy dance music. He’d listened to Faey music before, and never heard them play anything like that before. Their music was usually much more structured, fluent, subtle, a pretty blend of harmonies that was so much different from that.
He happened to be looking up when the hatch behind him opened, and he turned to look. Through that hatch stepped Kumi, then one of that same Kimdori-or at least one that looked exactly the same as the last one-and one other person. The figure wore a heavy black cloak or robe with a deep hood, then stepped in and sat down immediately in the chair closest to the hatch. Jason turned his chair to face this figure, but did not stand up. The figure pulled the hood away, and Jason found himself looking at a very lovely young Faey woman whose hair was the color of the ocean, a deep, dark, quite lovely shade of blue. Her eyes were violet in color, quite a striking combination.
“This is him,” Kumi announced to her.
“Well, it’s good to finally meet you, Jason Fox,” she said in a strong, surprisingly deep voice for a Faey. It was a rich alto. “My name is Dania.”
“I’m afraid you have me at a loss, madam,” he said courteously. “Why would you want to see me?”
She looked at Kumi expectantly. The young noble nodded, then she and the Kimdori went back out and closed the hatch, leaving them alone. “As you probably realize, I represent a certain individual who wishes to remain anonymous. This person has asked me to come here and make you two separate offers. So, on to business.
“The first offer is employment. My employer wants to hire you.”
“Hire me? For what?”
“For your mind, and not to make weapons of war,” she answered, quickly putting up her hand to stay his objection. “My employer was impressed by your patent submissions, and thinks you could go far. You seem to have a knack for our technology. My employer likes to retain certain enlightened people as yourself to come up with new ideas, which have market value.”
“You work for a corporation?” Jason asked in surprise.
“I can’t tell you who I represent,” she said evenly. “Well, what do you say, Master Fox? I assure you, you will be handsomely compensated, on top of your patent and royalty payments you will still retain for your marketable inventions. You’ll work alongside people as gifted as yourself, and you’ll be both legally employed and out of trouble.”
“I think the Imperium might have something to say about that,” Jason said.
“My employer has the ear of the Empress herself,” she said confidently. “Your legal problems can be made to disappear.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that,” he said immediately. “I will not work for a system that I object to. I won’t further the cause of the race that conquered my planet and all but enslaved us.”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, but I’m positive. I do appreciate the offer though, and I assure you, it’s not personal. I object to the system, not the people. I have several Faey friends, if you didn’t notice.”
“Very well,” she sighed, reaching into her cloak or robe or whatever it was. “On to the second offer.” She took out a small black key and held it out. “This is for you.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“It’s a key,” she said patiently. “Take it.”
Curious, and a little wary, Jason stood up and advanced, then held out his gauntleted hand. She deposited the key in his gauntlet, then withdrew her hand calmly. He sat back down and looked at it. It was a crystal key with a black base, whose crystalline molecular structure held the encrypted data the lock would read to authorize the key and unlock whatever it unlocked. It was much like the key for his skimmer. “What is this for?”
“My employer has no desire to see you get killed,” she said calmly. “That key has three purposes. First, if you key it up into any panel, vidlink, or data port on CivNet, it sends a distress message to people contracted by my employer. Use it if you ever find yourself in trouble. They will come get you. Second, you will find that that key will unlock any skimmer, hovercar, airbike, loader, hovertruck, or dropship. Think of it as a master key. If you find yourself in trouble and you don’t want to call us for help, it will let you steal any transportation you need to get away. Its third function-well, that will be apparent later on. I’ll save that for a surprise,” she said with a slight smile.
“But what’s it for?” he repeated.
“This is a gift, to help you,” she said. “Our offer of employment is open, Master Fox. You can accept it at any time, and this key will help keep you alive until the day you accept my employer’s offer. They’re confident that you eventually will.”
“What about this second offer?”
“This is the second offer,” she said with a slight smile. “My employer is offering you this to help you, no conditions, no provisions. This key might help keep you alive and well, and that matters to my employer even more than the possibility that you’ll accept the job offer.”
Jason looked down at the key for a long time. “Alright,” he said, closing his gauntlet around it. “I’ll accept it. But I don’t promise anything.”
“We didn’t expect you to,” she said with a smile, standing up. “Our business is concluded, Master Fox,” she said with a nod, reaching back, then pulling her hood back up. “If you ever wish to call my employer, you’ll find the CivNet number.”
“Where?” he asked in confusion.
“You’ll know where,” she said, giving him a steady look before settling the hood, which concealed her face in shadow.”
Jason watched her leave without another word, then picked up his helmet and his railgun. He put on the helmet, and as soon as it got power, he got blasted in his ears with frantic shouting over the radio. “Jason! Come in! Are you alright?” Tim was shouting.
“Tone it down,” Jason said, touching the side of his helmet to transmit. “I’ve had my helmet off.”
“You need to get back here!” he said. “A Faey dropship like I’ve never seen before is hovering over the town! Hold on, hold on, it’s doing something. It’s descending.”
“What does it look like?”
“It’s hard to describe. It looks like a big rectangle with a cockpit and a tail. It just landed out by the bridge. I’m up in the steeple-hold on, it’s taking off again. Shit, it left its middle behind on the ground! A big box!”
“It’s a cargo dropship, a container carrier,” he realized, speaking aloud. “It left something behind?”
“Yeah, a big container. You need to get back here!”
She said he’d know where to find the number of her employer. Now it made perfect sense. It seemed that the key wasn’t the only help her boss was willing to render, and that they seemed quite serious about their offer to help keep him alive. He wasn’t too sure about the idea of this, but he’d reserve judgment until he got back to town and had a look at that box. He put the key in a belt container, then shouldered his rifle and started for his airbike. He had to go see what was going on, so he had to get back quickly.
“Jason! Steve is opening it now with an annealer!” Tim said excitedly over the radio.
“Dammit, tell him to stop!” Jason snapped over the radio as he raced to his airbike and literally vaulted onto it. “It might be trapped!”
“He scanned it before-” he began, then he gasped. “It’s food!” he said with an almost girlish squeal. “Steve says it’s full of boxes and boxes of food! He said it’s packed to the rafters with it!”
It took Jason all of three minutes to get back to town from Beech Fork, and he was off the airbike and running to the container, a massive silver rectangular cube sitting in the intersection of 7 and the access road to 52. There was a hole cut into the side, and Jason saw Steve and Leamon carrying out boxes with Faey writing on them, as Symone set another on the ground. “Are you people nuts?” Jason shouted as he tore his helmet off, throwing it to the ground absently. “There was no telling what was in that container!”
“I scanned it before I opened it,” Steve told him. “But the note on the side told us it wasn’t anything dangerous.”
“What note?”
Steve led him around to the side, the side he didn’t see when he landed. Emblazoned on the side in large Faey script were the words this will help keep you alive until you accept our offer. That was what that Faey woman had said to him. She said she had no desire to see him get killed... and that there was one more surprise waiting for him. Was this it? Were they supplying him with food so they would make it through the winter?
“Shit, Jayce, there’s enough food in here to feed us all for a year!” Symone said as Steve led him back to where he’d cut the hole. “Did you buy this?”
Jason looked into the hole with Symone. Inside, there wasn’t even room for a mouse, it was packed so tightly. The boxes were wrapped in clear plastic and bundled into pallets, each pallet floor an antigrav cargo platform. Steve had torn through the plastic on the bottom pallet to get at the boxes he, Leamon, and Symone had carried out. “I didn’t buy it,” Jason said. “Let’s get this stuff into a warehouse. Give me that annealer Steve, I’ll cut out the whole wall so we can clear the top pallets first.”
He did so, using the antigrav pods in his armor, then quickly got to work bringing the pallets down one by one. A single man could push and guide a pallet once it was off the stack, so they quickly started emptying out the container. They got about halfway through it when Jason realized that there was a massive enclosed container inside the container, like a box inside a box, with the food stacked all around it. It was nearly fifteen feet high and ten feet wide and ten feet deep, annealed to the floor of the container. They emptied out everything else, and while the townsfolk pushed the food to one of the storage warehouses along route 7, Jason, Tim, Leamon, Steve, Clem, Luke, and Symone stood in front of that huge box. Jason had the annealer in his hands, but he saw that that wasn’t necessary. This box had an opening mechanism on it, a button on the side which would cause one side of it to unanneal and open. This was a reusable shipping container, not a replicated disposable one like the container in which this box had been shipped.
“Well, we won’t know what’s in it til we open it,” Clem said sagely, answering that question that was on everyone’s minds, but had not been voiced. He stepped up and looked at the button, then pushed it after Jason nodded.
The side to their right opened slowly, the wall gracefully sinking to the ground. They all went around, then stopped dead as soon as they looked inside.
Jason was stunned. There was no way to describe the shock and awe he felt looking into that shipping container.
For inside that container, supported by cables attached to the walls, was a fifteen foot tall bipedal machine. Jason recognized it immediately.
It was an exomech.
It was sleek and ominous looking, almost looking like a Faey inside a suit of armor more than it did a robotic device. Slender limbs were attached to a sleek torso, in which the pilot was placed, and atop that torso was a smallish, narrow head with two red crystals in the shape of eyes on its front, a front that had a vague, sharp face-like appearance. An external plasma cannon was mounted on its right shoulder, its long, squared barrel angled down so it was parallel to the floor to make it fit into the unit.
“Holy shit!” Symone gasped in Faey. “It’s an exomech!”
“What is that thing?” Leamon asked in mute awe.
“It’s an exomech!” Symone repeated in English. “A robotic fighting vehicle! And it’s a top-line model! Trelle’s Garland, it’s an XME-400 model! Jason, who loves you enough to send you an exomech, cause there’s no way in hell you could buy one! This thing had to cost over a million credits!”
An exomech? Was this the surprise that woman hinted at? Buy why, for pete’s sake? Why give him an exomech? It made no sense! This was a military weapon! And not only that, he had no idea how to pilot it!
“There’s a note on its leg,” Tim said, pointing at its left foot.
Jason saw it, a piece of paper taped to its left shin. Jason approached it warily, stepping inside the box, then grabbed the piece of paper and opened it. They filed in behind him, and Symone looked over his shoulder as he read the Faey script, then translated.
“Use it wisely,” he said, turning the paper over and looking at the other side. “That’s all it says.”
Jason looked up at the fearsome piece of hardware, his mind turning over and over. Why did they send this to him? What possible use would he have for it? Then again, how was he supposed to use it? Exomechs required special training to operate... they weren’t easy to run. Even if he had the training to operate it, what possible good would it do him to have it? This was a war machine, and if the Faey ever saw it, they’d attack his little settlement immediately and with overwhelming firepower. All things considered, having this exomech in the community was ten times more of a risk and liability than it was an asset. The only real practical use he could see in it was taking it apart and learning how it worked, getting his hands on some classified Faey military technology. Other than that, it was just a big target for the Faey, and one they would attack if they knew it was there.
But, on the other hand... if he really could learn how to pilot it, then it would be a very formidable force to help protect the town, should the Faey ever attack-god forbid that ever happened. That exomech could shock the Faey so bad it would give the people time to run away. It was too dangerous to keep, but its potential usefulness could not be ignored.
First he felt relief at having the food but now... now he had this thing to worry about. He blew out his breath, then bowed his head and shook it in disgust. “I can’t believe they gave us this thing,” he grunted, then he sighed. “Alright, then. Luke, have anything big enough to carry it? We need to hide it somewhere.”
“We can stick it in the auto garage down by the bridge. It should be big enough to hold it,” he answered.
“Are we keeping that thing?” Leamon asked.
“For now, yeah,” Jason answered. “But it’s a kind of damned if you do damned if you don’t situation. It’s way too dangerous to keep, but what else can we do with it? And also, if one of us could actually learn to pilot it, it would be our ace in the hole if the Faey ever do attack the town. It should be such a surprise that it would let everyone else get away. Either way though, it’s just going to be one big-assed headache for all of us until we decide what to do. And it’s definitely something that the town council should talk about before any decisions are made.”
“Amen,” Clem said with a nod.
“Let’s get it into the garage while it’s dark and cloudy,” he said briskly. “I want to get it out of the container and out of sight as fast as possible.”