All Fall Down (3 page)

           
The holo dimmed, changed, cut to a medical room. A tube of bubbling fluid distorted the mangled figure within it. The torso and limbs were covered in enormous wounds and burns, and delicate flesh where re-growth was happening. Black carbon nanotubing snaked up into the fluid from the tube's floor
 
and out from its walls, connecting to the figure, which was recognisable as a woman only by its breasts and pubis. The face was puffed and battered. But floating around the face was, unmistakeably, Sophie's platinum hair, here cut short, in contrast to the long hair she had now, worn in a tight bun.

           
The holo ended.

           
Daoud looked at her. “I said you were injured when I found you, and close to death.”

           
“I asked never to see this. I told you I never wanted to know.”

           
The hologram of the medical lab hung between them, “Doctor Currie's research is almost complete. This is lost science,” he nodded at the holo. “The knowledge to re-grow the body will be needed for what is to come. His research will be complete within the year. It will need champions. I need you to be comfortable with your own history. To accept this science has a place.”

           
Sophie held Daoud's gaze, “You intend to use it in battle? As it was in the Corporate Wars.”

           
Daoud nodded, “Saving you with the same science ended those wars.”

           
“And led to the technology being outlawed.” Sophie looked at the holo, the image of her shattered body being re-grown.

           
“Only because it was linked to cybernetics. This is re-growth as nature intended.”

           
Sophie looked at Daoud, “How long?” She nodded at the holo, “How long will your war last?”

           
“Only enough to wake humanity. We've grown soft.”

           
She felt his eyes on her, but looked away. There was something wrong with this. He was promising a short war. That made it a conflict. That was OK, wasn't it?

           
“Well?” He interrupted her thoughts, “Will you put the plan into action? The herald is here. We haven't much time.”

           
“Yes,” she nodded, staring into the holo, “I'll put the plan into action.”

           
They finished their business, went over some Colony operations matters.

           
Sophie left Daoud perturbed. The image of her shattered body was fixed in her mind. For once, she didn't download it to her cybernetic implants. Daoud never did anything without a reason. She had to understand what he intended by showing her her own death.

Chapter 3 – Planet Fall

Kate Leland hung in the air, playing out a rope. Three hundred metres below the giant ocean of the planet Krisa churned in waves ten metres high. The weather was about to turn.

           
“Amazing. Gas filled bladders.” She looked over to her colleague, Win Ho-Yung, who was similarly hanging on old fashioned abseiling ropes. They had to shout to be heard over the howling wind, “Look, they break out here and the spores float through the air filled with hydrogen.”

           
“Unusual,” agreed Win. “No wonder the locals thought they were being invaded by aliens.”

           
Kate rolled her eyes. She was sick of this planet and its panic-prone President. Behind her a small aircraft kept level, ready to snatch them if the wind ripped their support from the flimsy but gargantuan algae they were investigating.

           
The pilot, Djembe Cygnate, opened a channel, “Kate, let me pick you up. You're taking too many risks.”

           
Kate looked sidelong at Win who shrugged. She pressed a button on her wrist pad, “It's fine. Wind speed's barely over a hundred k.”

           
“Still. We're due to meet the President in less than an hour. And I have a priority signal from MI.”

           
“OK, OK.” The wind was louder now and she was starting to get buffeted. She craned her neck and looked through the cockpit to Djembe, “This is because you don't like turbulence, isn't it?”

           
Djembe cocked his head at her, “I don't like unnecessary risks.”

           
Win moved over to her so she could hear him without using the comms, “Race you to the bottom?”

           
She looked from Win to the aircraft and back again. “Probably not what I should do with an application in to become a General.” She looked between her feet at the pounding waves below and the small platform anchored to the side of the giant seaweed frond, “What the hell. It might be a desk job after this.” She winked at Win and released her rappel device.

           
Above her Win released his own rope and rappelled after her. She tuned out Djembe's shouting in her ear.

           
A priority signal meant they should finally be leaving the planet and this extended mission. Maybe the message was even about her application to the rank of General.

As the stormy sea flooded into her vision, she reflected that what she needed more than anything was a holiday. It had been fourteen months since her last one, and this current mission had taken it out of her. They were all tired and they all needed a break.

She engaged her brake a couple of metres above the platform, so that the rope started smoking. She touched down just before Win.

The aircraft drew level with them a few seconds later. “Come on,” she detached herself from the rope and unclipped Win at the same time, “let's get on board. I think Djembe's a bit grumpy with us.”

“How were we to know it wasn't an alien life form?” The planet's President had on her imperious, slightly affronted demeanour. The one Kate had grown to hate over the last few months.

           
“Madam President,” Kate sat at the Presidential table with Win and Djembe on either side. They were dressed in formal MI uniforms now, black trousers and blue tunics. She made sure her insignia were on display. It seemed the only thing that gave her any authority here. “We all know that humanity left Old Earth nine hundred years ago. And the only thing we've ever found,
anywhere
, is algae. Very simple plant cells. It spread through the galaxy by being knocked off worlds during asteroid collisions. Here it evolved these huge marine tree structures.”

           
“And what about the land creatures?” The President was on the verge of acquiescing, losing her panic.

           
“Part of the sexual cycle, as it says in the report. The spores are released high in the atmosphere, where they drift on air currents. They land and become jelly-like. They then seek water through simple electrical conductance. It's not an animal behaviour, it's a simple plant response to water and nutrients.”

           
“We are a young Colony. This is a new sector. It could easily-”

           
Djembe interrupted, “We are all mature enough to know that we are alone in space. Shouting loudly and exaggerating wildly does not get you extra attention. We would have come to investigate all the same.”

           
“Certainly we continue to learn lessons, Lieutenant Cygnate,” the President emphasised '
Lieutenant
'.

           
“If I could interrupt?” Kate stood to ensure she drew attention, and walked to a window, “Our job here was to provide the experience of nine hundred years of colonisation. This we have done.” She smiled, scanned the faces of the officials surrounding the President, many on craned necks, still shifting in their seats, “We also cannot ignore the technical breaches of the various codes and edicts you've made.” She looked at Djembe, then to the President, “My report makes recommendations about those, which yes, include temporary sanctions.” She turned side on, letting people look past her. The suite looked onto the sea. “However, look out there. The cultural development we've left you, if followed properly,” Kate looked at the President to emphasise the point, “secures you a place in the Settled Quarters' imaginations. This is a relatively new spatial sector. There's little tourism. These giant fronds are unique, they should last a few years. Time enough to encourage sports, entertainments. Enough SysNet interest to secure some extra resource allocation from tourism requests, which should more than make up for the sanctions.” She looked around the room again, met everybody's eyes, finally returning to the President's. The President cocked her head; Kate thought she must be receiving advice from someone outside the room, through an earpiece or aural implant. “See it as an opportunity.”

           
The President stood, her formal robes falling in ruches to the floor, walked forward and made a rare gesture, “Very well, we are... satisfied,” and held out her hand for an old-fashioned handshake.

           
Kate took the offer, holding her eye as she shook the President's hand. “Thank you, all, for your hospitality. Me and my team will leave now. I hope we can return one day to experience the more relaxing features the planet has to offer.”

           
The President smiled, “You are always welcome on Krisa.”

           
Kate and her team made their formal departure. The planet would be fine, and they were glad to see the back of the population. The panic about aliens was already dying, and the planetside media was already re-interpreting what had happened, reinforcing the truth, that humanity was alone in the universe.

           
Most of Kate's team left in separate transports, assigned to new missions, shore leave or to return to their base Habitats around distant suns. She and Win and Djembe left on their own transport ship, heading back to their base Habitat for debrief before shore leave.

           
When their ship had reached orbit and was en route to the system's wormhole, Kate made her way to her quarters to receive the priority signal. She walked with Win from the take-off seats along a corridor.

           
“Do you wish it had been first contact?” Win looked at her as they walked.

           
“There's no use continuing to hope for the impossible.” They arrived at the door to her quarters, “My dad still believes, you know. I thought getting into Military Intelligence would let me find out the truth. And I suppose it has.”

           
“The missions don't hold much challenge any more, do they?”

           
Kate sighed, “No.”

           
“Any word on that application?”

           
She shook her head. “Didn't you think it would be exciting? Joining MI?”

           
Win looked into space for a moment before focusing back on her face, “At the start. But since I had my son, all I've wanted is a quiet life. I haven't seen him for months.”

           
Kate nodded, “It must be hard. Well, we're due some serious R'n'R now. I know Djembe could use it, he's becoming quite irritable.”

           
Win laughed, “Yes, the way he spoke up to the President.”

           
“Anyway,” Kate stood formally, “Lieutenant Win, you are dismissed.”

           
She watched him walk away and then opened the door to her quarters and sat at her desk. “Let's see what this priority message is.”

           
On the desk an icon unfolded, an official seal unwrapping like a slowly opening eye. Out of its centre a life size head appeared, showing an older woman’s face. The name ‘Admiral Kim’ appeared underneath. White hair was piled on the Admiral's head, held in place by two black sticks. The Admiral's eyes, even in the hologram, gripped Kate’s gaze.