The Trouble With Heroes.... (2 page)

"All part of good old Merrie England," Assam
said.

"Merrie? They used to pour boiling oil down
on the attackers, didn't they, Polly?"

"Well, probably not. Oil would have been
expensive. But water, and sometimes pitch, which would stick."

"Ugh!"

"And the attackers would hurl dead cows back
with catapults," said Assam, clearly enjoying himself.

"Ugh, again. Stop it, Assam! It was bad
enough learning about all this in school."

"But very necessary," said Polly in her best
teacher manner. "Lest we forget."

Then Jenny heard the gates being opened
beneath her and turned. "Are they're letting someone in,
Gyrth?"

"Yes. Must be an Anglian in the family. They
can't keep native Anglians out, or their families."

"Then I supposed I'll be able to go to Erin
if things get bad here.”

"Not unless your mother’s with you," Polly
pointed out. She was always precise about such details. "And would
you really want to leave?"

"Of course not. It was just a thought."

Jenny said it lightly. No one else seemed
seriously concerned, but something was pressing on her mind. A kind
of foreboding that defied words as a half-remembered dream
does.

Assam was still teasing Polly about castles.
He was probably trying to amuse her, but couldn’t he see Polly was
getting upset?

"Talking of hurling cows," Jenny interjected,
"do you still show that film? The grail one."

"Monty Python and the Holy Grail?" Polly
said. "Of course. It's a key work to understanding ancient Earth
warfare."

"The words `Fetchez lavache' illuminating the
strife that arises out of separate languages,” Jenny said, “and the
consequent misunderstandings, and also the instinctive desire for
union in the creation of a blended language, franglois. I got an A+
on that paper -- mainly by paraphrasing the text books."

"If you got an A+, you must have done more
than that."

Jenny shrugged. "I liked the film even though
I didn't really understand it."

"It is deep. I don't think we've truly
grasped the meaning of shrubbery."

"The dark warrior's need for healthy,
beautiful plants rather than destruction," Assam stated. That
certainly was straight from the text book.

"I feel there's more," Polly said. "After
all, we've only just made the connection that explains Monty."

"Which is?" Jenny was glad for the
distraction, even though she was beginning to feel as if she was
back in sixth form history.

"Someone recently found a film on the archive
disks called The Full Monty. Monty," Polly said, with the air of
one sharing an exciting treat, "turns out to mean naked!"

"Monty Python means Naked Snake?"

"No, no! The snake is obvious. It's the
serpent in the Garden of Eden -- and that connects to shrubbery, of
course. And Holy Grail is the ultimate freedom from strife to which
all humanity aspires. But nakedness builds powerfully on the
concept of Eden, don't you see? Nakedness in Eden -- honesty and
openness -- threatened by the python of deceit."

"Ah," said Assam, "but what about the
rabbit?"

Jenny wanted to kick him.

Polly merely gave him a look. "We don't quite
understand the rabbit yet. I think it warns that the threat to the
grail, to Eden, can trick us by appearing harmless."

"Well that rules out the blighters," he
replied. "We've known they were bloody nasty since first
settlement.”

“
I don’t know,” Jenny said. “I think
we’d have mostly forgotten about them if they didn't keep showing
school kids that film of the scout being ashed.”

“
That’s a crucial part of Gaian
history,” Polly protested.

“
Maybe, but it gave me nightmares for
weeks.”

Assam moved closer to the embrasure.
“Anything new going on there, Gyrth?"

"Not really." Gyrth turned and climbed out.
"Let's go to the Merrie. See what people are saying there."

No one argued. They headed out, but Jenny
carried gloom with her, stirred by memories of that scout’s
death.

Settlement was always preceded by exploration
and the first visitors, the scouts, wore full recording equipment
that sent real time data to the ship. New worlds are unpredictable,
after all, and corpses don't tell what killed them.

In this case, the data told the tale but left
a mystery. Even though the sys-suit recorded 360 degrees, it had
shown nothing, absolutely nothing, of what had attacked. The
various sensors had recorded no change in air pressure,
temperature, or radiation.

The body system readouts, however, had
charted extreme stress -- a racing heart, rapid breathing, and
sky-high adrenalin and blood pressure. The scout had gasped and
expressed terror, but she'd screamed only once, at the point of
death. The oblivious sys-suit had kept on recording even when the
person inside had become a pile of ash, but it had registered as
little after the event as before.

Hostile Amorphic Native Entity.

Jenny could imagine how often that data disk
had been viewed and reviewed, but in the end Gaia had been approved
for settlement. There'd been no further incidents, and in all other
respects it was the best EPP -- Earth Potential Planet -- ever
found.

Climate, air and water needed little
amendment, and it was rich in rare earths to provide economic
security. It had even been strangely free of anything close to a
sentient species that might complicate ownership. It had no large
native species at all.

That still puzzled the scientists, but it had
made Gaia perfect.

Yes, Gaia was perfect, but when they returned
to the space and bustle of High Wall Street, Jenny sucked in a deep
breath. She’d not thought she was claustrophobic.

“
Does anyone smell anything funny?” she
asked.

“
Just the chip shop fat,” Gyrth said.
“Look, there’s Dan.”

Jenny turned, suddenly breathing more easily.
Dan, and looking normal. Not worried at all. Everything must be all
right.

He was in his fixer uniform of brown shirt
and trousers, with assorted badges and braid of significance to
those who understood, but there was nothing special about his
looks.

He was in his fixer uniform of brown shirt
and trousers, with assorted badges and braid of significance to
those who understood, but there was nothing special about his
looks. They’d been alike all their lives. Average build, average
height. Brown hair and blue eyes in an average face.

But not anymore.

Since he’d returned, something drew people to
him like flies to jam. A fizz in the air, a brighter light, an
energy that meant there was never a dull time when Dan was part of
a group.

Jenny could feel the fizz now, even though he
seemed relaxed, as if this were just another evening in Anglia.

Work over.

Time to play.

"I wondered where everyone was. Poking around
down cracks between buildings?"

"Peering out through arrow slits," Jenny
said, hooking arms with him as they all turned to do down the
circular staircase to ground level. "And re-analyzing Monty Python.
Polly, tell Dan about the monty stuff."

That kept things light and away from
blighters for a while. Now, with Dan by her side and showing no
sign of concern, Jenny wanted to forget about it all.

But it wasn't so easy. Despite the chatter
and laughter that something grated on her like an off note in
music. When she and Dan ended up together behind the others, she
had to ask. "Are there really more blighter attacks near the
equator?"

His look was quick, and perhaps guarded.
"Yes, but don't worry. It's all under control."

Leave it. Leave it. But she couldn't. "Then
why are people pouring north?"

She thought he wasn't going to answer, but he
pulled a face. "You'll hear it on the news soon. Central has
recommended that everyone in the affected areas leave until the
hellbanes are stamped out. After all, one person ashed is one too
many."

He declared it as a trite motto, but Assam
caught it and turned back. "Damn right. But the problem won't reach
here, will it? Polly can't travel now."

Polly and Gyrth stopped to listen as well.
Perhaps they weren't as unconcerned as they looked.

"Blighters have always been more active near
the equator," Dan pointed out. "That's why Hellbane U is there,
which means there are plenty of fixers on the spot, including the
most skilled and experienced. They’ll deal with it."

Jenny relaxed, and Polly said she was too
tired to walk and wanted to take a tram and Gyrth went with
them.

Jenny and Dan strolled along in comfortable
silence for a while, but she had questions, and this seemed the
time to ask them. "Fixers can feel blighters, can't they? That's
how you hunt them."

"I wouldn't exactly call it hunting. Just
stand around and they come."

"I thought you had trouble finding them for
training."

"True, but the only way we know is to bait a
trap.”

“
With what?”

“
With ourself. We go to a place where
they’ve ashed animals and wait for one to turn up.”

“
Then you zap it. Before it ashes you.
Do fixers ever fail? I mean, die?”

“
Very, very rarely.”

But he could have died. She’d never imagined
that.

They paused to let a tram pass, and Jenny
thought about what he’d said.

When they were across the tracks, she asked,
"What does it feel like? A blighter, I mean."

He pulled a face. "It can't really be
described. Like a nightmare, the awareness evaporates before we can
find words to describe it."

She started at how that mirrored her
feelings.

"Can non-fixers sense this? At a distance, I
mean?"

His look was quick and sharp. "You're sensing
something now?"

“
No! I’m not a fixer, Dan. Don’t even
think it.”

"You don't want to be able to fix things?
It's an honorable calling."

"I know. It's the years away from home I
couldn't take."

He touched her face. "Don't worry. Some
people have a trace, but not enough to be taken seriously. What are
you picking up?"

She tried to explain, but it was as he’d
said. Words evaporated.

Even so, her efforts seemed to make sense to
him. Though she felt incoherent, it seemed to make sense to
him.

She tried to read his expression. "You're
feeling the same thing, but much stronger?"

"I assume so."

"So they are coming?"

"No, seriously, there's no need to worry,
Jen. The action is all in the hotter lands."

She stopped to stare.
"
What
action?"

He sighed. "The blighters and the fixers
dealing with them.” He grabbed her hand and tugged. “Come on. The
others will be there long before us." But three steps later he
stopped. He muttered something, but he pulled the fine wire from
his earring to his mouth. "Fixer."

After a moment he pushed it back. "Kid fallen
off High Wall near Watling. Luckily, only a broken leg. Want to
come, or do you want to go on to the Merrie?"

"Come." She rarely got a chance to see him
work, and it always delighted her.

Hand in hand they ran across to the nearest
tram line and Dan waved one down, his uniform his authority. He
seemed to have the lines in his head and they jagged rapidly across
town to the west wall, where they found a boy on the ground with
two nurses in attendance and a small crowd of gawkers.

The patient was about thirteen with freckles
and ginger hair. A tubby dark haired lad hovered, looking more
shocked than his injured friend. It turned out that the patient had
already had something for the pain.

"Right leg," said the nurse who was kneeling
beside him. "Tibia and fibula, I think. Might be spinal, too.
Name's Jeff Bowlby."

"Thought you could fly, Jeff?" said Dan,
sitting cross-legged beside him.

"Just fell. Will it hurt?"

Dan smiled at him. "Not at all. Relax."

He put his hands on the boy's leg, which was
still covered by his jeans. Jenny knew the rules. Everyone did. In
case of an accident do nothing except pain relief until the fixer
comes, unless it's necessary to prevent death.

The youth tensed anyway, but then his eyes
widened. "It tingles."

Dan didn't say anything. There really was
nothing to see of what he was doing except a stillness that was
very unDanlike. But this time, Jenny realized, she too could feel
something.

Tingling? That was one way to put it. What
she felt was in the air, or in her mind, or rather, in a part of
her mind she hadn't known was there. Oh, she didn't like this. She
didn't like it at all. She wasn’t a fixer!

A man rushed up. "Jeffy?"

Jenny and the second nurse took an arm each
before he could interfere.

"He's fine," said the nurse, his voice
steady. "Mr. Bowlby, is it? No great harm done and it's being
fixed. We'll just need some details from you."

The young man led the father away to comfort
him with record taking, and sting him with a bill. Co-payment for
foolishness.

"All right?" Dan asked.

Jenny turned back to see a slight shudder
pass through him as he raised his hands from the boy's leg. "That's
good as new, but take care of my work, okay, Jeff? Let's see if
you've done any other damage." He passed his hands over the boy,
pausing for a moment in one spot, then rose easily to his feet.
"All clear."

The boy started to sit up but the nurse
beside him held him down. "Oh, no you don’t. We'll help your father
take you home and keep an eye on you until the shock and medicine
wear off." She looked up at Dan as if he was a miracle worker.
"Good job, Fixer."