Part 29 (1/2)
Diana nodded. ”Training. The usual Empire euphemism for mind control. They started my training when I was six years old. When to use my power, and when not to. Who to use it for. And right from the beginning it was made clear to us that if we didn't learn thoroughly or quickly enough, we'd be killed. The Empire won't tolerate rogue or uncontrollable espers. Six years old is a h.e.l.l of a time to be made aware of your own mortality. But it does give you a strong sense of perspective. In the end, all that really matters is following orders.
”They experimented for a time with mind-control implants, but they couldn't develop one that didn't interfere with esper functions, so they settled for good old-fas.h.i.+oned psychological conditioning. I've been trained about as thoroughly as anyone can be, without an actual lobotomy.”
There was a pause as they sat quietly together, not looking at each other.
”My training started at about the same age,” said Frost slowly. ”In learning to outthink alien minds, we give up a lot of what it means to be human. Things like emotions, conscience, companions.h.i.+p. Our training produces warriors, perfect killing machines to serve the glory of the Empire. I don't feel much of anything anymore except when I'm fighting. I've had lovers, but I never loved any of them. I have no friends, no family, nothing but the job. Still, if nothing else, it is an extremely interesting job.”
”Is that all you have?” said Diana. ”Just the job and the killing?”
Frost shrugged. ”It's enough. You can't expect too much out of life, esper. You should know that.”
Diana smiled briefly. ”You know, we're more alike than I thought. You deal in death and I deal with life, but really we're two sides of the same coin. We both had our childhoods taken away from us, and had our lives shaped into something those children could never have understood. And we'll both probably die serving the people who destroyed our lives in the first place.”
Frost shook her head. ”No, esper, you don't understand me at all. I like being what I am, what they made me. I'm strong and I'm fast, and there's nothing and no one that can stand against me. I'm the most perfect fighting machine you'll ever see. I've been responsible for the destruction of whole alien civilisations, and killed men and creatures with my bare hands. It's only when I'm fighting and killing that I feel really alive. It's like a drug you never grow tired of. You can't know how it feels, esper-to know you're the best. I'm the ultimate expression of the Empire, the personification of its strength and purpose.
And all I had to give up to achieve it was a few weak emotions that would only have got in the way of my work.
”It's different for you. You take no pride in being an esper. Probably give it up tomorrow, if you could.
To be normal. I won't give up what I am, and I'll kill anyone who tries to take it away from me. You think too much, esper. It gets in the way. Life's so much simpler without conscience or emotions to complicate things.”
Diana looked at her steadily. ”Everything else has been taken away from me; I won't give them up too.
I'd rather die.”
”You may get your chance,” said Frost, looking down the corridor into the darkness. ”Something's coming.”
The Investigator rose to her feet in one graceful movement and stood listening, sword at the ready.
Diana scrambled unelegantly to her feet and looked wildly about her. The alien couldn't be here already.
It couldn't. Her esp would have picked it up long before this. Unless it too knew the art of psionic invisibility. In which case, things were about to get rather interesting.
Frost slapped the metal bracelet on her left wrist, and her force s.h.i.+eld sprang into existence on that arm-a palely glowing rectangle of pure energy, humming loudly on the quiet. Diana raised her esp and reached out tentatively. The Base was silent, with none of the babbling voices she'd heard earlier. The aline had put up s.h.i.+elds. Diana retreated quickly into her own mind, and set up her own wards.
Theoretically, they should be able to stand off any psionic attack, up to and including a mindbomb, but she'd never tested her s.h.i.+elds in actual conflict before. Hopefully, the alien didn't know that. She glanced across at Frost, and was silently rea.s.sured by the Investigator's obvious professionalism and competence. A thought struck her.
”Investigator, if the alien is coming, wouldn't you be better off with your disrupter than your sword?”
”No,” said Frost calmly. ”A sword's more versatile. You can have the gun, if you want.”
”No, thanks,” said Diana. ”I don't believe in them.”
”Suit yourself,” said Frost, a shrug clear in her voice. ”Whatever's out there, it's close. I can feel it. I'm impressed. I didn't think anything could get that close to me without my knowing.”
”Psionic invisibility,” said Diana. ”No way you could have known.”
”That shouldn't have made any difference,” said Frost. ”I am an Investigator, after all. Are you picking up anything?”
”Not much. Something's coming, and it's not alone. I don't think it's the alien.” She looked unhappily at Frost. ”I can't be sure, but I don't think the alien's here at all. It's still hanging back. It's sent something else in its place. Stand ready, Frost. They're almost here.”
”Relax, esper.” The Investigator swept her sword casually back and forth before her, smiling easily.
”Nothing's going to get to you while I'm here. Though you could at least activate your force s.h.i.+eld.
There's no point in making it easy for them. You're here as bait, not a sacrifice.”
Diana blushed, and slapped her bracelet. The low hum of the force s.h.i.+eld was very rea.s.suring. She and the Investigator stood quietly together, listening. And then the soft patter of running feet came clearly to them out of the darkness, and Diana and Frost braced themselves as their enemy finally emerged into the light.
They'd been human once, before the alien absorbed them into its system. Now they were something else, roughly human in shape, but refas.h.i.+oned to meet the alien's needs. They were crooked and malformed, with running flesh congealed on their frames like melted wax on a candle. Some had no skin, the red muscles s.h.i.+ning wetly in the lamplight, their tendons twitching with every movement. Bunches of cilia waved from empty eye sockets, and mouths held needle teeth. Muscles bulged impossibly, beyond restraint or reason. The twisted faces were inhumanly blank, indifferent to thought or emotion. The alien had reworked them for its own reasons, and if there was any humanity left in them, it was buried deep, where it wouldn't interfere.
There were ten of them, jostling each other at the edge of the lamplight, as though reluctant to leave the comfort Of the shadows.Ten , thought Diana.That's not so bad. We can handle ten . As if in answer to her thoughts, more appeared, stepping out of the walls as though the walls were mist and not steel. The Investigator scowled.
”How do they do that? Those walls are solid. I checked them myself.”
”The walls have become part of the alien system,” said Diana softly. ”They're alien now. As alien as everything else in this Base. The whole structure has become a single great organism, with the alien as its heart and mind.”
Frost snorted. ”So what does that make these things?”
”Antibodies. We're invaders, an infection in the system. So those things are going to cleanse us out.”
”You mean they're going to try,” said Frost calmly. ”All right, there's a lot of them, but they're not even armed. Let's keep this in perspective, esper. We can handle this.”
”You don't get it, do you?” said Diana. ”They'reantibodies . The alien can make as many of them as it needs to, recycling damaged ones if necessary. It can make a dozen, a hundred, a thousand; as many as it needs to overrun us. Even you couldn't stand against a thousand, Investigator. They're not human. Not anymore. They don't think or feel or hurt. They'll just keep coming until we're dead. And then the alien will recycle us, and put us to some useful task. If we're lucky, we'll never know what.”
”You think too much, esper,” said Frost. ”It's never over till it'sover . With this many antibodies, they'll spend most of their time tripping over each other and getting in each other's way. All we've got to do is hold them off, until either the Captain and the outlaw reach the heart of the system, or the alien gets impatient and comes here itself to take us on.” She smiled unpleasantly at the shapes before her, and swept her blade back and forth. ”Come on then, you useless sons-of-b.i.t.c.hes. Let's do it.”
Captain Silence and the outlaw Carrion moved swiftly through the distorted corridors, heading into the dark heart of Base Thirteen. For a long time the only illumination came from the lamp bobbing along above them, but eventually strange lights began to appear in the distance, steady glows and sudden glares, like the opening of so many watching eyes. Things stirred and s.h.i.+fted in the shadows, sometimes alive and sometimes not. Silence kept a wary eye on all of them, but tried not to look at them too closely.
Something about their uncertain shapes disturbed him on some deep, primal level. The idea that the material world could acquire sentience and direction undermined his faith in how the universe worked.
Carrion, on the other hand, didn't seem to be bothered by any of it. But then, he'd been an Investigator once, and nothing bothered them. Silence glared about him, holding his gun so tightly that his knuckles ached. He had faith in Carrion's psionic invisibility to keep them from being detected, but walking straight into the alien's clutches went against all his instincts. He clamped down hard on his nerves, and watched where he stepped. Thick steel cables stirred sluggishly on the floor like dreaming snakes, coiling around each other in slow, sinuous movements, dripping black oil. Silvery traces glowed like veins in the sweating walls, pulsing in a fast, irregular rhythm. Silence glanced at Carrion, irritated by his continued calm.
”Are you sure this invisibility of yours is working?”
”Quite sure, Captain. Because if it wasn't, we'd very likely be dead by now. Have faith, Captain. I'll get you there.”
Silence sniffed. ”Odin, are you still following this?”
”Yes, Captain,” the AI murmured in his ear. ”Audio contact remains firm.”
”Give me an overlay of the Level Three floor plans.” The plans appeared before him, hovering on the air in glowing lines and symbols. Silence checked his position and that of the centre of the web, and scowled. They were a lot closer than he'd thought. ”Odin, any chance you've reconsidered your position on letting us back on board the pinnace?”
”No, Captain. My Security imperatives are very clear on the matter. However, I will of course provide you with whatever information and guidance I can.”
”Any more useful information from the Base computers?”