Chapter 457: Crying Anne (2/2)

”How did you know they wouldn't have replaced the chips and not had your trick in them?” Daxin asked. ”Eight thousand years is a lot of upgrades.”

”Because governments and corporations don't upgrade unless God himself forces them too,” she sneered. ”I could tell you the tale of Darth DFAS, it's not a tale the Jedi would tell you.”

”What does a psyker religion have to do with it?” Daxin asked.

”Nevermind,” Dee said.

On the brimstone plane somewhere else Legion looked up at the heavyset demon sitting on the throne. ”Tell me the tale of Darth DFAS, Dee.”

The demon looked down. ”All right.”

In the heart of Crying Anne, Dhruv caught up to Dee. ”Tell me about it. I want to hear it.”

Dee looked at him and rolled her eyes. ”Fine.”

Dhruv/Legion listened carefully to the story about how a government had tried to upgrade something called the Defense Finance Accounting Service to then modern standards, attempting to upgrade some systems that were over eighty years old. How after billions of dollars and decades, the system didn't work, and the government had been forced to return to the old system.

Dhruv/Legion listened to word choice, sentence structure. He interrupted for clarification, stretching out his questions or rewording them so the two images of Dee telling the stories were out of synch.

When it was over, the demon went back to summoning up particularly difficult SUDS files. Dee herself lit another cigarette.

So you aren't like me. You aren't running quantum entangled or single mind copies, he mused.

”Can you run me through the payment algorithm again?” he asked both.

He noticed the demon gave him the exact algorithm, but slightly slower than the biological Dee in front of him.

It's like I spent all night drinking Legion/Dhruv remembered.

”Well, now that you've been entertained, we're here,” Dee said, pausing at the door the hologram had stopped in front of. She gave a heaving sigh. ”I don't know whether to expect the same hardware that was there when I was there or for it to be upgraded.”

”The Imperium was here,” Daxin said slowly. ”I remember that.”

”Then it'll be different,” Dee said. ”Let's hope there isn't anyone here. Jennifer, open the door.”

”I cannot accompany you any further,” the hologram said. ”Opening door.”

The door slid open and the three humans and one cybernetic canine walked into a massive room. Displays and work stations were everywhere, the far wall was nothing but massive displays. Holograms danced and twinkled.

”Joshua?” Dee asked, moving into the room.

Another hologram appeared, this one of a young human male child. It looked up at Dee and frowned. ”I remember you.”

”And I remember you,” she said.

Dhruv moved over and sat down in a chair, motioning Daxin to do the same.

The chair creaked and groaned as it took Daxin's weight.

”Why are you here?” the holographic boy asked.

”To press a red, green, or blue button,” Dee said.

The boy frowned. ”What? That does not make sense.”

”Nevermind,” Dee said. ”What's the current status?”

”DEFCON Zero,” the boy said. ”COGCON Zero. STELCON Zero. DIMCON Four. TEMCON Zero. CONFEDMILCON Zero.”

Daxin raised his eyebrows and glanced at Dhruv who had raised a single eyebrow.

Dee nodded. ”All right. What's the hangup from lowering the statuses?”

”A temporal attack is currently underway. All elements of the Confederate Armed Forces are engaged across multiple theaters. Humanity has taken ninety-three point six two percent casualties outside of the Sol System. Continuity of Government reports zero percent accountability,” the boy said. ”The temporal and gravitational protective system may not be disengaged at this time without manual command.”

Dee sat down and turned to Daxin and Dhruv.

”Here it is,” she said. She spread her arms out as she held her cigarette in her teeth. ”Right here. Right now. Here it is.”

She spun in the chair and laughed, deep belly laughs with a slight tinge of something that made Dhruv shiver.

Legion watched and saw no change to the massive demon on the throne.

”Here what is?” Daxin asked slowly.

Dee stopped spinning and stared at Daxin. She took the cigarette from her mouth and jabbed it at him. ”I can get you out of the bag. I can restore your wife and daughters to you,” she leaned forward. ”I can even make it so the Immortal system leaves you alone.”

Daxin shrugged. ”All right. So?”

”All you have to do is give me a head start before you tell anyone,” she smiled. She looked at Legion. ”And if he promises to keep his mouth shut and not tell the incredible sobbing idiot and his marionette.”

Dhruv shrugged. ”What do I care?”

”I can get you out too, disconnect you from the Case Omaha, make it so the system never bothers you again,” Dee said.

”And?” Dhruv asked.

”I'll have Joshua maintain the Case Omaha and we make a run for it,” Dee said. She smiled widely. ”Make them figure out how to get out of the bag on their own. Make them grow up. Make them stop being coddled little children who don't have to be afraid for their lives when the thunderstorm's lightning is showing them that the sabertooth cat is outside the cave.”

”Why do you need us?” Dhruv asked.

Daxin snorted. ”She needs us for triangulation. Me, you, FIDO, all have mat-trans beacons that nobody but her can detect. She sends us out of the bag, she can pop right in next to us,” he said. ”Same theory as the Type-I mat-trans they used on Anthill during the war.”

Dhruv shook his head. He had forgotten FIDO had one.

”Perfect,” Dee said. ”We all need each other. I can keep the system from bugging you, you can get me out.”

”Why?” Daxin asked. ”What's your master plan after you get out? It's not like law enforcement or any government body knows you exist or cares one iota about you. They aren't going to chase you. You could board a luxury liner and cruise off into the sunset. Why all of this?”

Dee stopped moving her chair back and forth. She blinked several times. ”I... I hadn't thought of that,” her face suddenly hardened. ”No. Sooner or later someone will come looking for me. Want to take from me what I know.”

She stood up, her fists clenched.

”ISN'T IT ENOUGH THEY TOOK YOU, TOOK MY BOYS, TOOK MY WORK?” she suddenly shrieked. ”ISN'T IT ENOUGH THEY EVEN TOOK MY NAME!”

She grabbed a monitor and threw it across the room. It bounced twice, shattering, and landed on the floor.

”THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMETHING ELSE THEY WANT FROM ME!” she screamed.

The monitor melted away and reformed on the desk behind her.

She began stalking back and forth. ”That glittering pansy brought me back from the dead to help Pinnochio, but that wasn't enough,” she snarled. ”Even after I died for the last time, he 'fixed' me, packed my brain full of cotton by making a cheap Memorex copy of me, and had me weighing the sins of the dead to help them reach the afterlife.”

Dee turned and faced the two men. ”It's always more more more with them. It's NEVER enough! NEVER!”

Daxin nodded slowly, reaching out carefully, deliberately, to scratch FIDO's warsteel skull. ”You're right.”

Dhruv nodded. ”Mortals always want more,” he said.

Dee nodded, staring at them. ”And when I provide it, they take it, claim they did it, and shove me into a hole, their boot on my face,” her face purpled. ”AND THEY WONDER WHY I KILL THEM!”

Daxin nodded. ”Yup. Every war. Every fight. Oh, no, Daxin, save us, liberate us, protect us, help us,” he said, his voice hard. ”Never... hey, Daxin, how about a beer? Hey, Daxin, are you busy, I'm throwing a party.”

Dhruv kept the look of disbelief off his face, knowing good and damn well Daxin would never take anyone up on any kind of offer like that.

”Then they made it so we could hear their prayers,” Dhruv added. ”Please, Vat Grown Luke, help me. Give me courage. Give me wisdom. Give me strength. Night and day, asleep or awake, we could always hear them, begging, pleading, beseeching us.”

Daxin nodded, putting his feet up on the desk, pushing his legs out until the monitor fell to the ground and cracked. ”It wasn't enough we were the Apostles of the Digital Omnimessiah, no, they had to take us here and craft us into the Immortals, binding what our Digital Father had done to their own desires.”

Dee's hands slowly unclenched.

”Did you know that Rigellian ducks teach the ducklings a song called 'Luke loves the little ducklings' when they're tiny? That even, right this second, I can hear them singing it?” Dhruv asked. He closed his eyes and cocked his head for a moment. When he opened his eyes he shook his head. ”Right now, on Rigel, a little duckling is cuddling up under its daddy duck and peeping the song in his sleep. He's warm, safe, and his mother is less than ten feet away, doing bench press reps.”

Dee picked up her cigarette, never taking her eyes off of either of the men.

Daxin just shrugged. ”Right now, there's a soldier, a Telkan Marine, calling out to me, asking me to witness him as he stands against incredible odds with an overheated and slushed out creation engine, asking me for witness, to know he existed, and what he is trying to do.”

”They always ask for more,” both men said at the same time.

”Before the Digital Omnimessiah was assassinated and we were remade into the Immortals, I might have appeared next to the little duckling to stroke its feathers and smile at it,” Dhruv admitted.

”I would have joined his fight, lifted his body from his enemies once he had died and I had vanquished his foes, and vanished into Hellspace with it to return it home,” Daxin said.

”What...” Dee said. She stopped and sat down, her hands shaking, her face still red, sweat on her face. ”What changed?”

”Time? Betrayal?” Dhruv shrugged. ”Who knows.”

”The Imperium,” Daxin said. ”When they betrayed us, it broke the conditioning,” he stared up at the ceiling. ”We just wanted to be left alone. To grow old, maybe, or maybe just be forgotten.”

”Being forgotten is a bitch,” Dee said softly.

”What are you going to do when you leave, Dee?” Dhruv asked.

Dee stared at the floor. ”I don't know.”

Dhruv looked at Daxin for a long moment, then to Dee.

”What if I told you there could be a place for you?” he said. Dee looked up. ”A place where scientific advancement and research is priority. Where you get everything you need. Where questions are answered and all oversight is for is to make sure you can work unimpeded.”

Dee snorted. ”What if we went to Neverland?”

”Not Neverland,” Dhruv said, shaking his head.

”A Black Box.”