Sly Mongoose (31 page)

“We don’t know what created us. The counterforce, using us as a limiting mechanism to protect the universe? Or a mightier intelligence that wanted us to slow the spread of intelligents, to limit them to an area and give them more time to develop an awareness, a chance. Both stories had their adherents among my peers.”

Amminapses folded Claire’s arms carefully on her lap. Timas waited several beats before speaking. “The League of Human Affairs, the revolution, the Ragamuffins, and our history on Yatapek all agree that your kind set out to eradicate humanity from the Forty-Eight worlds. How can you defend that? That is not the work of stewards.”

A raised finger. “But it was. You think our methods were harsh, but remember, humanity had several worlds to itself. Earth had been granted emancipation, and it had shut itself behind a wormhole. The birthplace of your species knew the universe was dangerous, and regarded expansion dimly. Chimson remained behind its own wormhole, and for a while, so did New Anegada, until the Ragamuffins colluded with another subject race to reopen the wormhole using very, very illicit technology. It was not an extinction attempt. It was a controlled burn. There are other Satraps, far out there beyond the Forty-Eight worlds. They
have chosen more brutal methods. They alter races, change their genetics to make them docile.”

The sphere cleared the storm. They rose now, headed toward Yatapek. How much time remained before the great Swarm fleet hit?

“It was hard to be so lenient, understand. These impulses are designed into us by the creators. When the revolution swept through humanity we felt our failure down to the DNA. We destroyed technology and factories that produced the tools you’d need to spread faster. We committed suicide, or we ran.

“But this weapon you bring now, it is not Satrapic. It’s a weapon that those forces destroying intelligent life use. It’s made by our creators, who we either worship or fear, we aren’t sure which.

“It is strange to you, maybe, that we do not know what we are. It is strange to us. But understand that I remained the last living Satrap in the Forty-Eight worlds out of a hidden drive, put in me by something outside of my will, to salvage what I could out of the Forty-Eight worlds. This was to be the base on which I planned the repacification of humanity, creating warrens under the surface of Chilo until this planet was all mine. I had a hundred-year plan, and now I’ve seen it crumble in front of me and I realize it is time to let it go. I only ever have acted for the good of all species in the Forty-Eight. This agent, released, will not stop with humanity, it will adapt and set out to destroy all intelligent life here until the creators encounter its spread and deactivate it.”

Timas stared at the alien before him, and it smiled back.

Skizzit broke the moment. “Yatapek is asking who we are, threatening to shoot.”

“Tell them it’s Timas, son of Ollin.”

Once again, Timas had made it home. But how long that home would exist, he didn’t know.

I
totia stood alone in front of the airlock leading out to the rim of Yatapek, her arms folded, dress dirty from dragging through the dirt and corn. She’d run through the fire line that had been set up: a ring of ethanol-drenched ground and dried hay and cornstalks. The smell of the accelerant rolled off her.

Pepper had walked his way across the upper deck slowly, conserving power, muddying himself up as he passed by rows of armed people. The upper deck had a ring of older fighters with their billhooks standing in front of the fire line. After the fire line were the prime fighters, and then in the streets and rooftops, the children. Spears and guns, to cover the others if they fell back into the houses.

“You’re really leaving us.” Itotia’s eyes were red. “I know you are a cold and soulless creature, but I didn’t really think you would flee.”

“I am a man of my word. I can do more, later, with the mongoose-men at my side.” Pepper stopped in front of her.

“Are you even human anymore?”

“You work so hard to keep on my good side, all of you.” Pepper pulled her aside. “But I forgive your grief.”

“Wait.”

“For what?”

“Don’t you wonder how the gods will judge you?”

“Let them come get me,” Pepper said.

Itotia stepped forward. “You have half an hour, still, before you said you’d leave.”

“Is there a point in waiting? I saw you give up down there as well.” Pepper looked down.

“And I was wrong.” Itotia smiled. “Because we just heard that Timas is coming back up. He’s in an alien airship of some make. It’s asking permission to dock. I ran here the moment I got the call.”

Pepper looked past her at the airlock. “What do we know?”

“I don’t know anything yet. But you have a choice in front of you, don’t you?”

He looked back down. “What do you mean?”

“You have thirty minutes left. It’s close. Do you run off in your escape bubble, or do you throw your lot in with us? Instead of waiting for some vengeance in the far future with your mongoose-men, stand firm with us.” She walked around him, leaving the way to the airlock open. “You talked about making the Swarm pay so hard it would choose to leave us alone. Why don’t you give it the hurting that you wanted to when you were aboard the
Sheikh Professional
. Or, you can leave us, just like you left those people aboard that ship to deal with the Swarm.”

She started to walk away, and Pepper grabbed the edge of the frame to the airlock.

“Just remember,” she said. “You were wrong to give up hope an hour ago. You might be cold and soulless, but you still make errors of judgment. Think about it.”

Errors of judgment. Like jumping out of a spaceship without a parachute? Pepper tapped the airlock door open and stood at the threshold.

T
imas jumped down out of the alien airship onto the metal grating of the docks. The ship had floated up through one of the large docking doors easily, small enough to fit through and land inside the docks, instead of tethering itself to the outside.

No one suggested he be quarantined. Dockhands and passersby, warriors with guns, and citizens with long curved blades mounted on long poles all lined the walls. And outside the city airships held their positions, getting ready to stand with Yatapek against the Swarm.

Behind Timas, Skizzit and Claire clambered down. Surprise rippled through the crowd as they spotted Skizzit.

Heutzin stepped forward with a massive grin. “You did it, Timas.”

The grin was infectious. Timas grinned back. Before he could reply to Heutzin, though, Itotia and Ollin shoved past the crowds in the large hangar and ran to him.

Itotia crushed him to her, and Ollin grabbed both of them in a giant hug. Timas pulled away, embarrassed and feeling awkward in front of the crowd. “Mom, Dad, this is Skizzit, and this is Amminapses.”

No sense in confusing everyone by bringing Claire’s name in just yet.

“We are pleased to meet you,” Ollin said.

“The pipiltin will be here soon to meet you,” Itotia added. “We have to hurry, the Swarm is already engaging outlying Aeolian airships, it will be an hour or two before they reach us.”

The floor beneath his feet shivered. Timas looked over and saw Pepper in his powered groundsuit move quickly through the crowd until he stopped in front of Timas.

“Well done.” Pepper shook his hand. “Very well done.”

“It’s good to see you,” Itotia said to Pepper. Timas recognized the triumphant look on her face, as if she’d won an argument.

Pepper brushed one of his dreadlocks aside. “I will help. But I can always steal that alien airship if things get too bad. Don’t assume I don’t have my own reasons.”

He pointed at Skizzit. “So, we know at least the Nesaru have hidden down there, who else is dug in?”

Amminapses stepped Claire forward. “I am Amminapses.”

Pepper cocked his head and raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

“You know of me?”

“I know the name that each Satrap called itself to humans,” Pepper said. Pipiltin arrived on the docks now. “You disappeared, although I do know the League claimed to have captured you at some point.”

“They lied.”

Ohtli, Tenoch, Eztli, and Necalli joined them. “Camaxtli is unwell, the stress has left him bedridden,” Ohtli said. “But he promises to abstain on any decisions.”

“Okay. But it’s too late to get Ragamuffins involved, two hours before the Swarm hits. They won’t arrive in time.” Pepper pointed at the two behind Timas. “What resources do the aliens bring to the table?”

“Amminapses has something that can attack the Swarm back,” Timas said.

Amminapses held up the case. “I have a counteragent that will infect and nullify it. But there is the small matter of delivery.”

Timas, as well as everyone in the tight crowd in front of the possessed human, listened.

“There is little time to mass produce it. This is enough to inoculate one human, and then that human will need to have contact with the Swarm to infect it. This poses a few problems.”

“The first one is, who do we inoculate?” Necalli said. “We will need to find a volunteer. Or hold a lottery.”

“No need.” Amminapses carefully handed the case to Necalli, who held it gingerly, as if it might infect him. “This drone is human, and can serve for the purpose.”

The pipiltin didn’t understand, but Timas saw that Pepper did.

Timas shook his head. “No.” It was a firm command. “Claire is the real owner of this body. You just rent it. She should have the right to decide her own fate in this matter. She is not just a receptacle for you to use.”

“The boy is right.” Pepper backed him up.

“I don’t ask for your input,” Amminapses said. “This method contains fewer flaws. This body I am controlling will not feel fear, or pain, or change its mind. It will go where I command it. You quibble over one life when so many are at stake?”

The Satrap had a point. Yet it felt wrong, and Timas couldn’t help that gut feeling. Maybe humans were ruled by their instincts as much as the Satraps by their artificial instincts, laid into them to look at a larger, stranger picture.

Pepper took the case. If Amminapses thought he would get it from Pepper, the Satrap was mistaken. That Timas knew. “We will find a volunteer,” Pepper grunted. “How long does the infection need to take hold?”

“Five minutes to drop the individual into a state. Physiological changes take hours, but subject is infectious and no longer conscious as you know it at that point.”

“Good, that’s all I need.”

That was that.

“The Aeolians will want to know about this,” Itotia said. “We should include them, this might change our plans.”

“The Aeolian avatar arrived and is in the communications room.” Ollin grabbed Timas by the shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll be relieved to hear that you made it back.”

Katerina was back on Yatapek!

W
ord had spread rapidly, because Katerina waited at the door with a big smile. “You made it back! It’s good to see you. We were worried.”

“She came over an hour ago, been in this room since.” Itotia walked past Katerina and smiled. “Katerina asked to continue being the avatar so she could be here.”

“My friends call me Kat.” Then the relieved Katerina faded. The avatar facade returned. She walked over to a clear pane of plastic mounted in the center of the room. “It’s crude, but it lets Yatapek see what’s happening.”

A crescent marked the mass of the Swarm and its location. An estimated time of contact had been scribbled at the top. Divisions of Aeolian and Ehactl airships similarly positioned themselves around the small circle at the center. Yatapek.

Katerina looked like she wanted to talk more, but with the aliens, pipiltin, and Pepper arriving, the room got even busier. The radio operators for Yatapek along the walls dropped their voices, but still passed on traffic and scribbled notes to give to the pipiltin or to commanders.

“We have two new things to add to our fight,” Katerina told the group. “The first is Renata, who comes back with more of Captain Scar-lett’s friends. The Aeolian fleet is running a poll, but it looks like everyone is in favor of releasing Scarlett so he can lead the pirates. Their city was attacked, these are the survivors. We propose, if we all survive in any intact form, to give them participation in the Consensus.”

“She made it.” Timas had wondered whether Renata had outrun the pirates.

Katerina erased the crescent wave of the Swarm, and redrew it a bit closer to Yatapek. “Somewhat. After bubbling us off they got recaptured and their airship shredded. But as prisoners they witnessed the fall of Haven, the pirate city, to the Swarm. They decided to fly back to Yatapek. The pirates released Renata and her squad in the interest of mutual survival.”

“Wow.” It sounded like they had just as much an adventure getting back to Yatapek as Katerina and Timas had.

“The pirates also came back with this.” Katerina waved her hand over a tiny box sitting near the center of the room. The air above the box danced and shimmered, then solidified to show the upper layer of a city. “Footage obtained from the attack on a nearby city.”

It was packed with catwalks, tramlines, tube elevators, and a densely packed honeycomb of houses connected by latticework. It was like looking into a human hive. Some advanced materials, stretching with the city, but holding millions of people in that space where Yatapek had nothing but air and sun shining through the upper layer over its crops.

“At this point,” Katerina said as an explosion rocked the side of the city, debris falling from the city’s walls, “the citizenry knows what the Swarm is and how it works. The bites, the infection spreading, and so on. A standing security force is defending this city and the upper layer has just now been breached.”

They watched as robed Aeolians advanced toward the fractured section of the city. The line hit the initial wave of Swarm pouring out onto a walkway just under the breach and high over the solid surface of the upper layer. And the Swarm fought back.

“Notice the initial line of the Swarm has weapons, but the second and third do not. We presume the Swarm does not have much in the way of personal firearms, most Aeolian cities have little if any, only its initial breachers are armed.”