Sci Fry Chap 5

“How come you didn’t get Flo and Eddie to help you?” Sammy asked to no one in particular as his transport sped towards the postal center with Brill and Tatya in the back seat.

“They’re dead,” was Brill’s flat response. He was still in possession of the wisp Smitty missed in Flo and Eddie’s place

Wide eyed Sammy turned slowly to gaze into Brill unemotional stare. “‘Just Tatya’ I want 25 percent of the take or you two can start walking.”

Nodding, Tatya replied, “Okay, okay. Just get us there, fast.”

Reaching under the dashboard Sammy strained to reach something. Suddenly, the car sped up with a rapid burst of acceleration. Thrown back in his seat Sammy peered out the window at the cars going the legal speed limit as they fell behind and faded from view.

“What happened to Flo and Eddie?” Sammy asked quietly.

Turning to Brill, Tatya asked him directly, “Was it Smitty?” Brill nodded and Tatya turned back to Sammy. “Some guy impersonating a GDF Captain did it.”

Without turning around Sammy snapped, “35 percent.”

“Are you kiddi…”

“You don’t have a choice, ‘just Tatya.’ You guys are messing with some dangerous people. I’ll help you any way I can but this is getting deep, fast.”

“Fine. No more questions, okay?”

“It’s your ride.”

The rest of the trip was silent. Pulling up in front of the postal center Tatya saw it was busy with many people coming and going.

“Ully, what are we looking for, here? That wisp?”

Sammy turned to listen in on their exchange.

Brill stared deep into Sammy’s eyes. “No. I want Smitty.”

“Why, Ully?”

“I want his wisp.”

Sammy broke in, “Give me a wisp and we’ll call it a deal.”

Slowly Brill said to Sammy, “Wait here. If anything bad happens don’t run just act like an innocent bystander, but wander away. Far away.”

Sammy nodded.

Inside the postal center was a large crowd maneuvering to get the parcels and send out others. Letters were rare since networking began centuries ago but the bulk of dried goods and even most food items were sent via the postal center’s rapid transit system. The pneumatic tube system built long before had proven itself more efficient than many of the newer technologies for delivering items.

The pair walked to a corner that was out to the main flow of traffic and waited.

“Is it possible Smitty already picked it up?” Tatya asked.

In his wisp-induced flat affect Brill replied slowly. “No, I have it. Flo told him it was in number 6. So he’ll go to every station in this sector looking for it.”

They waited for an hour until peering through the window Brill thought he saw Smitty watching them through the crowd.

Tatya saw Brill struggling internally, wrestling with something and she asked, “Are you all right Ully?”

Brill’s eyes focused and unfocused again. “Yeah, I gotta concentrate.”

“I think he might be outside. I’m gonna check, wait here.”

He leaned forward and kissed Tatya on the lips. Her body stiffened and her gaze drifted towards the ceiling while Brill quickly stepped outside into the evening air. Searching the crowd Smitty was not to be seen. Brill walked slowly around the corner to check on Sammy. Glancing up only briefly Sammy went back to watching the vid screen in his vehicle. One last long look around and Brill walked back inside.

At the counter Brill thought he spotted Smitty again and began to bull through the crowd only to catch a glimpse of the man moving straight towards the frozen Tatya. Moving with an urgency now he waded through the cluster. He came to the corner where he had left Tatya only to be greeted by Smitty who was clutching Tatya’s arm. He had something pressed into her back.

“I’ve already got Zeke, it was in that transport. I just want this last one for my retirement. Where is it Brill?” Smitty spoke with same beaming smile he had before.

“Let her go and we’ll talk.”

“I’ve got an especially nasty Pincher with me. Do you know what it could do to a pretty girl like this?” Smitty’s voice was serene. “She’s never been on the dime, you know what a Pincher would do to her.”

“Take me,” Brill inched forward.

Smitty yanked Tatya back. “No, I’m afraid an old wisper like you wouldn’t even notice a Pincher. Hell, for all I know you might have trained it. It’s better to use it on someone who’s never had the experience.”

“Smitty, I’m not letting you out of here,” Brill spoke menacingly as he opened his coat to reveal his pulse weapon. The milling crowd was beginning to sense something was amiss as the two men faced off and the people began to give the threesome a wide berth.

“Don’t worry, everybody! I’m a Captain in the GDF and this man is a very dangerous wisper. Stand back!”

The mob gasped as one and pressed to the edges of the room.

When Brill pulled his pulse weapon from under his coat pandemonium broke out in the postal center. Average citizens knew what pulse weapons looked like but to see one on a vid screen is far different than seeing one in the hands of a possibly dangerous wisp addict three meters away from you. Taking advantage of the commotion Brill moved forward just as Smitty hit Tatya with the Pincher. She didn’t even flinch. Smitty glanced down at the Pincher pushed it into Tatya’s back and pressed the trigger again with same result. He whipped her around only to see glassy eyes return his stare.     

Smitty spun her aside and hit Brill hard as he neared the pair knocking the pulse weapon out of his hands. It clattered to the floor.

“Well, detective you’ve got your girlfriend hooked up don’t you… That was a clever place to hide it.”

Gasping Brill clawed at the slate floor in an attempt to get away from the taunting Smitty. It was obvious to Brill that Smitty knew how to use a wisp in a fight because Brill felt like he had been hit with a hammer. Smitty leaned over Brill and applied the Pincher to the back of Brill’s neck.

“That means you’re probably clean, detective.” Smitty pressed the trigger. Immediately, Brill’s body went rigid and his face twisted in a grimace. Smitty released the trigger causing the wisp to retreat into the device and Brill collapsed.

“This is a good one, isn’t?” Brill began to crawl again towards the door. “You were hard core weren’t you? I’ve never seen someone recover from this one so quickly. Maybe, you need another shot… how about one right in the temple, closer to the brain,” Smitty was bent close to Brill’s face as he spoke.

He applied the Pincher on Brill’s temple and held the trigger down for several seconds. Brill began to foam at the mouth. Smitty released the trigger again while Brill panted to catch his breath. Trace cams whizzed through the building now alerted by the stationary camera’s spotter program. Each trace cam hissing overhead in a desperate attempt to find an angle to record the events taking place that was not yet covered by another trace cam.

“Well, I’m afraid this might hurt a bit,” Smitty raised his foot to stomp on Brill’s head. Brill glanced up at the man towering over him ready to kill him.

Smitty’s body slowly folded in half backwards when the pulse blast hit him in the small of the back. The nearby bones and muscles were turned to a gelatinous mess with the energy burst and were no longer capable of holding him upright. Air rushed out of his lungs as he collapsed onto the floor with the back of his head now resting on his heels. Brill looked from his prone position to see Tatya, still glassy eyed, holding the pulse weapon in her trembling hands.

“Tea… say something” Brill managed to whisper still dazed after the Pincher attack.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and she held out her hands arms extended out to offering the weapon to any taker. Sammy stepped to her side from the edge of the crush and took it, still crackling with residual energy and glowing slightly.

Brill reached out to touch Smitty before the wisp inside suffered damage as its host was no longer capable of life functions. He put his hand onto Smitty’s forehead and felt the familiar warmth of a wisp as it coursed through his brain setting loose the endorphin rush wispers craved. A growl of pleasure came from deep in Brill’s throat as he stood and moved quickly towards his Tatya. The remnant patterns of Smitty were still strong as Brill focused on coaxing the wisp to the pain center of his mind.

“Tea, listen to my voice,” he spoke slowly and clearly. He had talked new wispers “down” before. Brill knew her thoughts would be chaotic given the hurdle of conscience she had vaulted to save him and he hoped to use the wisper she carried to set her mind at ease. But first they needed to get clear of the tumult in the postal center.

“Tea, we’re going to leave now… nod if you understand!” He shouted to be heard above the roar of the panicked crowd. Her head shook slightly but her eyes remained locked on Smitty’s crumpled form. Moving between the dead man and her gaze Brill finally got her attention. With his hand on her elbow he directed her towards the doorway as the group scattered before them like leaves before a stiff breeze.

The couple struggled through the open door onto the sidewalk and were greeted by Sammie holding out the pulse weapon at arm’s length. Taking careful aim at Brill, Sammy spoke.

“Let’s settle up here and now, Brill.”

Brill eyes narrowed at the mercenary nature of the man. His shoulders sagged in resignation. Moving forward Brill closed his eyes to ready the wisp to jump to Sammie.

The actions of a host were carried inside the wisp for a period of time somewhat like the image of a light bulb if one stared at it for several moments and then looked away. This was why wisps couldn’t be taken away from a user after an extended period of time. The patterns became ingrained and without the familiar patterns of a host the wisp found itself unable to cope with the new surroundings. These creatures were designed to be truly dependent on their creators and users to function. Smitty had carried his wisp for quite a while but that wasn’t a problem for a former hard core wisper like Brill.

Reaching out his hand to the man, Sammie’s body went rigid momentarily until a smile crept across his face as he released Brill’s hand. The endorphins in Brill’s body were slowing now and he began to feel intense pain from the beating at the hands of Smitty.

Suddenly, Sammie turned on his heel and walked back inside to the dead man where he picked up Smitty’s badge and the Pincher. Still smiling, Sammie returned to the street, held the badge to his eye, while commanding the crowd to step back. The internal computer chip immediately ID’ed him as a fraud.

“Attempted misidentification in progress! Please, notify the authorities!” came the computer’s plaintive lament. “Any attempt to subdue ID holder should be avoided and local authorities should be notified! Individual may be dangerous! Positive identification pending. Please…”

Sammy stood in front of the crowd beaming as if he couldn’t hear a word blaring from the ID card. He kept turning from side to side so that every person, stationary cam, and darting trace cam could see him unaware that the ID badge had already called for uniformed officers and GDF agents.

Brill grabbed Tatya’s hand as she slumped into a heap in front of him.

“Tea, listen to me. Tea, I want…” Brill winced in pain. “Tea listen! Think of the first time we met…” Tatya’s eyes were still foggy. “What did you say to me the first time…” he paused to catch his breath. “What was the first words… you said to me?” Tatya’s head swiveled till her face was even with his. “Tea, please listen.”

A smile built up on her lips.

“Ully, it’s wonderful…” Tatya murmured.

“Tea, give it to me,” he moaned. Her eyes focused on Brill and she touched his face and she trembled slightly as the wisp jumped to Brill. His eyes closed as he willed the wisp to find pain blockers and the endorphin centers of his mind. Staring at Brill, Tatya’s eyes focused and tears welled up inside. Brill took a deep breath as he listened to Tatya’s plea in a whining voice.

“Ully, give it back,” she whimpered.

Brill’s eyes were still closed. He was in the process of moving the wisp into a portion of his brain that could alleviate his pain for several minutes. His chin moved upward and he opened his eyes, able to stand erect without pain.

“Sammy, get the car now!” Brill barked.

Tatya stood up behind Brill, clutching at his shirt still feeling the lingering sense of loss a wisper felt after a hook up was over.

“Ully, please…” she repeated breathlessly.

Brill had control of the wisp now. Closing his eyes once again he pulled Tatya close with both hands on the sides of her face. Kissing her deeply he let the creature slip back into her body. His pain would be subdued for several minutes. Peering into her eyes Brill spoke calmly and plainly.

“Tatya, we have to leave, right now.”

Her shoulders heaved as the wisp settled into her pleasure center. Brill tucked her body under his shoulder and half carried her towards Sammie’s vehicle. Sammie still under the mistaken impression he was Smitty continued in his attempt to calm the crowd.

Several unmarked GDF vehicles pulled abruptly to a stop at the edge of the throng. Sammie smiled and turned to greet the black coats of regular GDF detectives. One of the detectives screamed at Sammie to drop his weapon. Unsure of what the detectives meant Sammie continued towards the men. Another shout from the GDF men and Brill moved as close to the stand-off as possible without attracting attention. Trace cams hissed as they swirled overhead stopping briefly before dashing off for a new angle to record.

Suddenly, Sammie’s smiling face melted as his head lolled back to meet his shoulders in an unnatural movement. The GDF detective had hit Sammie square in the throat with the blast from his pulse weapon causing bones and tissue to become disrupted and gelatinous.

Brill acted quickly shoving several bystanders who braved the standoff towards Sammie’s falling body. There were several more shouts from the GDF men and in the pandemonium Brill snatched the pulse weapon from Sammie’s dead hand. He spun from a kneeling position and shot the nearest trace cam. The debris and sound of the plastic sphere imploding caused further panic throughout the mass people nearby. Brill pressed his palm into Sammie’s to corral the battered wisp and then stiffly trotted back to Tatya’s side.

With a look of supreme calm Tatya turned to meet Brill’s gaze slowly and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Limping now, unable to direct the confused wisp in his body into the pain blocking center, Brill responded quickly. “Let’s move! It’s nothing.”

The crowd was running, wild now, and Brill stopped as they pulled around a corner. The GDF men were yelling instructions to the crowd that were finally beginning to sink in. Brill leaned against the building and snapped off two quick rounds that imploded two more trace cams sputtering overhead. Now the crowd was uncontrollable. Brill holstered his weapon.

With more trace cams wheeling overhead, the crowd’s panic and the shouts of the GDF men made it easy for Brill and Tatya to blend in with the crush. Striding quickly with the flow Brill wasn’t looking over his shoulder any longer but trying to blend in with wave of humanity that was streaming away from the incident.

“Ulysses S. Brill?” a voice called from the street. Slowly, Brill turned his head in the direction of the caller. Brill’s head was still foggy. The wisp in his head had taken two blasts from a pulse weapon and was in a state of utter tumult.

The vehicle’s door, where the voice had echoed, was open while the machine still rolled. Vehicles could not move with doors open unless the driver had altered the basic programming, a violation punishable under the governmental regulation. As Brill’s eyes met the other man’s he spoke again.

“I’m a friend, get in.” Glancing back quickly Brill saw that uniformed officers had arrived in large numbers and were pushing through the jumble towards them. Through his mental haze he looked towards the man again and he stopped long enough to pull Tatya tight into his side.

The man in the car furtively shot a look back at the uniformed officers and barked, “Hurry up. Let’s go!”

Together Brill and Tatya shuffled into the street and fell inside the vehicle. It shot away from the scene before the doors closed creating a whirlwind inside the vehicle.

“Hang on. I’ve got to lose these guys,” the man yelled over his shoulder into the back seat. The car snapped left and right in a rapid succession and then slowed to stop pulling into a narrow driveway. A small device fell to the ground with a clatter behind the vehicle. Brill peeked up over the backseat to see the device come to life and launch itself headlong down the street. Seconds later the vehicle with the uniformed officers swung around the corner and sped by in pursuit of the small decoy the man had let loose.

“That will keep the ‘uniforms’ busy for a while but the GDF won’t go for that trick. My name is Band. Billy Weed hired me to keep an eye on you two.”

“What took you so long to start ‘looking after’ us?” Brill managed.

Band laughed, as he backed onto the street to head in the opposite direction.

“It was a good thing you ditched your badge and got rid of her chip.” Band moved with traffic now so as not attract attention. “When you blew that trace cam to bits they figured you didn’t have the bad brain. That was too controlled for a man on bad brain. That’s when they started coming after you two in earnest.”

“You’re not answering my question…” Brill panted.

“That guy Smitty is a very… was a very bad man. We didn’t want to get too close to him. Besides, all we had to do was follow him to find you.”

Slowly, Brill asked, “What do you want with me?”

“Ulysses Simpson Brill, you are a man of great reputation and someone Billy Weed thinks highly of. He wants your help to usher in the ‘new era.’” The man finished his statement with great flourish.

“I’m sorry…”

Unlatching his seat Band swiveled around to face the pair in the back seat while the vehicle rolled along, now on remote control. “Mister Brill my tenth great-grandfather flew on the Ibn Batuta. His name was Stanley Band. What do you know about the Ibn Batuta?”

Tatya smiled through her haze and volunteered, “I know it.”

Glancing at Tea briefly Brill turned to look at the driver again. “I know as much as every school kid learned.”

“Uh, huh. What you don’t know is: three people came back from that mission, alive.”

“Impossible…”

“No Mister Brill, it’s quite possible. And he wanted me to help with this…”

“He?”

“Yes, my great-great…” Band spun his wrist in a circular motion to indicate a large number of repetitions,” grandfather, wants you to help us with this.”

“This what?”

Taking a deep breath Band started anew. “Wisp are here now on the earth.”

Brill’s head was clearing. The wisp he carried had taken quite a beating but Brill was able to push the confused creature to a place in his mind where it could retreat and gather its bearings.

“Yes, I know that. And Loylon controls them except for the couple of thousand or so that got away and the rest that we, and a few others, found in the landing craft. Or pieced together.”

Brill spoke of the number of wisps that were smuggled off the Ibn Batuta Space Craft. The ship had returned as designed by its homing program. Many of the creatures were still in the electronics systems onboard the craft. Government agents went to work ferreting out the strays until Loylon took over and decided the project was too costly to continue.

Some black market profiteers continued the process as contract workers smuggling out whatever wisp they could get past the Loylon inspectors.

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about.” Band corrected. “About two years ago someone picked up radio signals from M-Pollux Beta Gemini 10/18. These signals contained living Wisps… but they were different from regular wisp.”

Brill mulled that over for a moment. “Sure, I guess wisp could survive in radio signals.”

Brill eyed the man for some time. “So. Loylon or whoever caught ‘em stands to make a lot of money. Why do they want me?”

“They’re getting tired, Mister. Brill. They can’t protect their business much longer. You see we’re not talking about a dozen wisp…” Band stared deep into Brill’s eyes to make his point. “They’re picking up a thousand wisp with every broadcast.” Band stopped to let this soak in.

“I’ll ask one more time… why do they want me?”

“They seem to think you can help them get information from these newly arrived wisp.”

The vehicle rolled to a stop in front of a garage door. The door opened silently and the vehicle slid inside and to a stop. As the interior doors popped open several men stepped forward with pulse weapons in their hands. Brill knew these men were serious players. Very few pulse weapons had gone missing so anyone carrying one was GDF or had paid a premium price for it. One man stepped forward and asked Brill for his weapon.

“That won’t be necessary,” boomed a voice from the shadows. “I think we can trust this guy with something as simple as a pulser,” the voice emphasized the word “this.” Stepping out into the light was a big man, much bigger than most. Only a man of wealth and leisure could afford to be this big.

The man staggered forward and grabbed Brill in a bear hug. “Ully, my old friend, do you know what we went through to get you here?”

“Hiya Billy. Long time.” Brill returned the man’s greeting. Releasing him roughly Weed turned to Tatya as she peered at him through a “wisper’s haze.”

“And this must be the lovely and influential Miss Tatya Chenkovich. If you had any idea what your recruitment of Ully cost me…” Taking her hand Weed narrowed his eyes before he turned towards Brill. “Ully, you’ve got her hooked up, don’t ya?”

“I had to hide a wisp somewhere.”

“And you’re flying, yourself.” Weed commented after searching Brill’s eyes.

“I’ve got Smitty’s wisp.”

Shaking his head Weed spoke apologetically. “Sorry we couldn’t get you outta his way sooner. He was dangerous… and I’m sorry about Flo and Eddie. They weren’t careless. It’s just that Smitty was…” His words trailed off.

Brill nodded and then asked, “Okay, why am I here?”

Pulling Brill towards a doorway Weed boomed, “Because you are the best at this and we need you.”

“Best at what?” Brill asked suspiciously.

“Ully, you can work better with a wisp than anyone I’ve ever seen. Half the Loylon grid has your training somewhere inside ‘em.”

The illicit wisp that Brill had trained were the best behaved and least dangerous wisp on the grid. The training of wisp was needed to prevent the creatures from stimulating each and every synapse connector in a human mind searching for those which yielded the greatest bio-stimulus. Throughout the many years, since the return of the Ibn Batuta, many individuals had worked to train wisp how best to stimulate the human emotional response but none were better than Brill.

Brill had taken a wisp smuggled off the Ibn Batuta and found he was better at teaching these creatures the inner workings of the human mind than all his predecessors combined. Loylon confiscated that wisp in a raid as contraband, though Brill was not implicated in the crime of illegal possession of a narcotic entity. Putting Brill’s trained wisp onto their grid, inadvertently spread his training far and wide through the creature’s interactions. In his criminal period, anytime a wisp dealer needed his product trained Brill was the man they called.

The Loylon synche was a prison of sorts. A series of low power batteries were connected to insulated banks of interwoven platinum wires—looking much like a window screen—that provided a living space for the wisp and kept the creatures out of the common use electrical grid where they might roam freely or to be picked up by unauthorized users. Wisp could move with electrical current but not against it, thus the batteries not only fed the creatures but prevented them from escaping.

“We need you find out what they want,” Weed continued.

“Who’s they?”

As the troop wandered into a well furnished room Weed no longer boomed but changed to a quiet tone. “Ully, we picked one up off the electrical grid. Loylon had it but it escaped and we found it. That’s how we knew that Smitty was after you and that…” lowering his voice to a whisper. “… they were setting you up.” Weed smiled weakly and shrugged. “Smitty, the bad brain, everything was a way of getting rid of you and catching the Zeke in one fell swoop.”

Tatya leaned onto Brill’s shoulder while she mumbled, “Ully, I didn’t want them to…”

Turning, Brill saw she had tears in her eyes. When a wisp inhabited someone their emotions could be highly charged. Brill knew Tatya would be vulnerable during this first experience with a wisp and he pulled her tight for a moment, talking to her softly.

“Come on Tea. Listen to my voice…” He peered into her eyes but she quickly hid her face in his chest.

“Ully, they were looking to terminate you, and Miss Chenkovich talked them out of it…. until that Smitty character showed up,” Weed offered.

Tatya sniffed, wavered on her feet she now stared up at Brill’s face. “I couldn’t let them do that, Ully… The bad brain and everything…”

Weed continued. “Yes, Miss Chenkovich, but Smitty was supposed to take you out also…”

“Wha…” Her expression changed, now.

“The wisp that came off the Loylon grid gave us the information. Believe me, if they weren’t after you too, we wouldn’t have brought you here.”

Falling into in a plush chair Tatya looked stunned. “Why me?”

Weed sat down opposite Tatya. “You went to bat for Ully and that was all they needed, I guess. And as far as Ully… who knows why the bureaucracy makes one decision and not other. I don’t think they know most of the time.”

Peering up into Brill’s eyes Tatya slurred, “Ully, I did it for you…” Brill stared back at her and he felt his stomach jump. She was beautiful and the wisp Brill harbored sent his desire for her spinning into an orbit around the blond woman. He took a deep breath and tried to pull the wisp inside his head away from area that controlled love, but found the feeling he carried for Tatya was not the product of emotional stimulation from the creature.

“I won’t let them hurt you,” Brill whispered to her.

Weed piped up, “Miss Chenkovich, you can stay here as long as you like.”

“Tatya, please,” she mumbled.

“Good. Call me, Billy. Bad Billy,” Weed finished with a chuckle.

Laughing himself, Brill turned to his former employer and partner. “It’s been a while since anyone’s used that moniker.”

When Brill started working for Weed all the man had to sell was piece meal wisps put together from other wisp dealer’s cast off plasma energy and left over programming. Brill was able take these sloppy creatures and become a surrogate teacher to them showing them how to stimulate emotions centers of a person’s mind instead of, something like motor control centers. Until Brill had joined up with them most of Weed’s creatures were borderline “bad brains” and only the hardcore or a desperate wisper would ever consider a Bad Billy wisp.

“Yeah, but if this works out everybody will know my name.”

Brill asked, “Why’s that.”

“Ully, I’m hooked up right now. You know that don’t you?” Weed started.

“Why not. You can afford it…” Brill replied with a shrug.

“Ully, this is a brand new wisp. Created for humans.”

After a long pause, Brill answered. “How can they be created for humans? Have you got some cheap way to make plasma energy?”

“No, Ully.” Weed sat forward, now. “This one came from Pollux. The poor bastards they left behind must have found where the wisp were made.” He finished with a big grin on his face.

Band entered the room at this point. “Mister Brill, there was 47 people left on that planet, 350 years ago.”

“Everybody knows that,” Brill turned to look at Band.

“Yes, Ully. But they didn’t tell us that the Marines left behind were alive. Still are.” Weed finished the lesson.

“How do you know that?” Brill asked.

“Because these wisp coming to earth have told us. Ully, Zeke came from there, the bad brain. It was supposed to get into the Loylon grid and kill off the all the wisp so that they’d have to make a deal with the humans that… still… live… on the planet.” Weed was breathless by this point.

Brill shook his head. “How could people live in that place? And for so many years?”

“We don’t know all the details,” Band answered.

“That’s why we wanted you, Ully?” Weed finished with a grin.

Sci Fry Chap 4

 

“Proceed to docking we’ll have to figure this as we go, Auger. At worst we will recharge your batteries and try to contact the ground party.” Tug spoke anxiously into his mike.

In the landing craft Stanly “Auger” Band reached forward through the hatch to turn the co-pilot’s mike from “internal” to the “broadcast” position and barked to Tipton, to shake her out of her trance “We need to raise the landing party…” He could see her knuckles were white as she gripped the hatch handle, “Let’s go, Marine!”

Sheila Tipton gulped and fell into the drill.

In the command craft Tyrone “Tug” Blest the commander of the Ibn Batuta snapped, “Ribbons, I need your confirmation on this.”

A long pause followed. It was broken by Tipton’s alarmed voice from the landing craft headed back to dock with the mother ship, “Come on, Lea!”

“Roger! For the record…” The second in command on the mission control craft spoke loudly so the internal recording devices could hear her clearly before sending out a distress message back to earth. “This is First Lieutenant Lea Rybinski, I concur with the mission commander, but add that the docking should be conducted without breaking the seal between the two craft, over.”

“Good call, Lea. Proceed with a primary docking, landing craft. Primary is all we can give you.” Tugs barked with military efficiency.

“Roger, command.” Auger echoed then as an aside he spoke to the rookie pilot with him in the landing craft. “Sheila, keep trying to raise the landing party.”

Tipton, began transmitting on the ground frequency, “Landing party this is the Ibn Batuta, standing by for your coordinates, over.”

“Tug, go to interior channel 12, over,” Lea’s, as the second in command let her voice betrayed some reticence at the decisions to this point.

“Auger, proceed to docking… we’ll monitor. Um… give us a minute.” Tug was not comfortable communicating on a discreet channel with the other command craft pilot while the lives of two fellow mission members hung in the balance and the remainder of the landing party was still in the grip of some unknown triple digit entity.

In his headset Tug heard Stan’s uneasy voice, “Tug, I’ve got that five spot I borrowed from you, so don’t forget us, babe.”

“What about the interest?”

“…is landing craft, standing…” Tipton droned on attempting to raise the landing party.

Auger replied quickly, “You’re coming in broken, Tug. I couldn’t make out that last transmission. Say, again.”

“…your coordinates, over.”

“Sit tight, buddy,” Tug chuckled nervously. “Make it quick, Ribbons,” Tug spoke with a sense of urgency on the internal and unmonitored channel 12.

“Tug, I want you to know, I’m not keen on isolating the landing craft or our pilots and I would do anything I can to avoid that, okay. I’m suspect of an av-tronics breach and lastly… I want the landing party back, too. I’m more concerned about them than I am about a possible contamination.”

The journey between a support station and planet required a rotating staff to maintain real time observation while the remainder was in static state. To trust a flight computer for an extended journey was unwise. Computers still needed routine maintenance and if any sensor was damaged the faulty return of data could create an avalanche of misinformation that could cause the computer to breakdown completely. A computer might go five years without a problem or it could have two problems in five minutes, so the human element was still needed

This mission’s round trip was 20 years by the ship’s clock. A commander who lost his landing crew knew he would have a lonely trip back to the support station.

Normally, between the target and the support station personnel would stay out of static state for one month’s time per shift. The duty roster was staggered so that two people would spend no more than 14 days together. This reduced the possibility of people getting on each other’s nerves. One person would always answer the computer’s queries, which were accompanied by numerous alarms that couldn’t be ignored, and the second person would keep the first sane. The second person would then take over answering the computer queries after the first person went back to static state and the replacement came on duty. A full crew would pull four shifts each way. With only four on board it would be a long and boring trip home.

“Are you more concerned about the landing party or yourself?” Tug asked pointedly.

“Fuck off, Tug! Has the Corps been that good to you? We can get everybody on board and let the support station know our status inbound…”

After a long pause Tug responded, “Okay, but what if we can’t get the landing party back with the target?”

“Target!? Forget the fucking target. I would rather die out here trying to get the crew back than dying of boredom in transit. Let’s get the crew back and take our chances with this electrical… thing. We don’t even know it is a ‘triple digit.’ Um… the reg states ‘If an intelligent alien life form, that is not a threat, is returned to a support station the action shall be considered a target and paid appropriately.’ So maybe we’ll be paid even without our primary target.”

“Yeah, but if we bring back a bug…”

“Without the crew it doesn’t really matter, does it? 10 years is a long time, Tug. We need the whole crew back here, regardless.”

“Okay… so we bring back the landing craft and crew at all costs. Is that your opinion?”

Lea snapped, “Yes, it is. Out.”

Switching back to the landing craft’s frequency, Tug spoke to the landing craft commander Stanley Band, “Yo, Auger… the good news news is you’re docking, the bad news is the interest on that loan just went up… way up.”

“… party, do you copy?” Tipton could still heard over all channels trying to raise the landing party.

Auger chuckled as he replied, “Okay, can you loan me a couple of..?”

With her voice cracking Tipton broke off her calls to the stranded landing party and started docking prceedures tersely, “Roger, starting docking procedure, from a 115 degree azimuth, mark niner three…”

Onboard the Ibn Batuta Lea a female voice snapped, “Wait the landing party needs…”

“Relax, Lea. We’ll recover the landing party. Do you copy that, Stan?” Tug was back in control now and spoke with authority.

Auger looked at the instrument panel and replied. “Yeah, Tug. We’re ninety seconds from docking. Do we go back now or after the dock?”

“Stay on track for docking. Let me take look at what we’ve got.”

“Um… I’ll continue commo to landing party,” Tipton was showing signs of stress.

Tipton was the greenest member of the crew and had preformed responsibly up to this point. The daughter of a high ranking official in the European Union Space Agency Tipton was smart and pretty beyond the norms of the agency and she could have taken any accepted any slot she wished on earth or within its gravity well. But as a well-connected citizen she felt an imperative to sit in the co-pilot’s seat in the most dangerous and far-flung mission to date, if for nor other reason that to prove the to veterans of the agency that she would not be shielded from the dangers, able to dodge the risks by calling in the “daddy” marker.

Her great-great grandfather had been the command craft second in command on the Alpha two-three mission. She was expected to fill the void of her elders, risk never a concern.

There were a lot of procedures to remember and being the most recent graduate of the academy Tipton probably knew the procedures better than the rest of the crew but the pressure of the events had put great pressures on all hands.

In their headsets Tug and Ribbons heard Tipton start in once again, “Landing party this is landing craft, on all frequencies standing by for…”

“Stan can you isolate the… thing?” Tug asked.

“Negative, Tug. It, or they, seem to be all over the place. I have intermittent control in manual but I can’t figure out where these things are.” Band was struggling with the stick now.

“How long will a recharge take?” Tug managed to ask before Tipton transmitted again.

“…any station, do you copy, over?” Tipton was in tears as she yelled at Band through the open hatch, “Give me backup power, damn it.”

“Um… standby, command…” Scanning the controls Auger replied, “Tug, we can’t even raise the landing party. We may have low batteries.”

Tug covered his mike and yelled over his shoulder, “Lea..?”

She yelled back, “Yeah?”

“Where is the landing craft on charge?” he shouted.

Tipton ’s voice came over the headset, “Unknown. We have docking position in 60 seconds… It’s now or they go back, Tug.”

“Roger, understand. Auger are you okay on fuel?”

“Unknown, command. None of the readings look right and I don’t know if we can trust the docking program…”

“Well, we can’t risk a purge. We gotta dock, ya.”

“Okay,” Band’s voice was beginning to sound strained. “Sheila give it one more try.”

“Increasing gain and reception area,” Tipton voice was a plea now. “Landing party this is Ibn Batuta Landing Craft 2a, on all frequencies standing by for your coordinates, over.”

Static blared through the headsets causing both pilots of the landing craft to jerk their headsets away from their ears. “Switching to response corrected radio, ‘Landing party this is landing craft, on all frequencies standing by for your coordinates, over.’” Static blared through the headsets. “Any station, any station, please respond, over.” There was no answer.

Band said mechanically, “Command, landing craft dock in 45 seconds.”

“Roger.”

“Landing party this is landing craft, on all frequencies standing by for your coordinates, over.”

Silence.

“Docking series, now,” Tug said tersely. “Sheila, forget it.”

Band continued, “Thirty… twenty… ten… complete and locking… We have green lights and.. standby, command… command?” A pause followed. “Tug, I don’t know what’s good data anymore. I show a good docking can you give me visual?”

Reaching up to the port camera’s switch Tug clicked it until the screen showed the landing craft in the correct position.

“Looks good… wait, your egress ramp is damaged and in the “down” position. Confirm.”

“Roger, egress ramp down. I have a ‘closed’ lamp lit. I say again, I show closed.”

Tipton broke in, “Damn it. I can’t get an override function with the ‘closed’ light on. Is there any way we can still park this thing with the ramp down?”

“Negative, we can’t close the outer…” Tug was distracted by the lights on his console and a gentle shudder throughout the mission control ship as the landing craft docked.

Suddenly Lea screamed into her mike, “Tug, we’ve got unusual activity in the higher function banks, we’re infected!”

“Shut down higher function, now!”

“It’s already done. Going to back ups…”

“Command, we’re reloaded!” Auger yelled. “I say again, we have complete control…”

“Yeah, it’s got us, now!” Lea yelled.

“… no, it’s back, command…” Auger said staring at his console.

“God damn it, Band, if it’s got you purge and reload!” Lea yelled.

“Do it, Band!” Tug snapped.

“Uh… right. First safety off second neutral, purging…in three, two, one, purge.” Band hit the “purge” button in the landing craft at the same time as Tipton .

Tug shouted over his shoulder, “Lea, was that a drop in power on the landing craft?”

“Affirmative, the bastard can be hurt…” she responded with pride in her voice.

“How did we do it?” Tug was all ready searching the higher functions of the computer by this time trying to locate the electronic intruder.

“I saw a… Tug? Are you sending a message?” Lea’s voice betrayed her shock.

“Negative, negative. Is it the landing party?” Tug was confused.

Band replied, “No. No, we’ve got a type message…”

Four sets of eyes watched the printed command line on their screens’ at the same time, “no hurt no hurt no hurt,” was blinking over and over.

After several seconds Tug asked his second in command, “Lea, can that be coming from the landing party?”

“Uh… unknown, Tug. No wait, it’s internal.”

Sheila Tipton blurted out, “Command, what part of the higher function was accessed?”

Lea glanced at her screen and replied incredulously, “Language functions…”

“Well,” Tipton was crying now, “Say ‘hello’ to our guests.”

“Hey, Tug,” Auger asked, “is it possible this thing jumped over with metal to metal contact? If they’re electron based it’s…”

“Standby!” Covering his mike Tug shouted towards the Lea. “Is it possible that they are monitoring our internal communications?”

Tipton looked through the open hatch at the pilot. “Stan, what are they doing?”

“I don’t know, but if language functions were accessed they might be…” Auger’s eye grew wide. Pointing to her mike he put his finger over his boom mike’s receiver and nodded to her. She put her finger over the mike and looked towards the landing craft commander with a confused expression.

Whispering, Auger continued, “They might be able to listen in to our conversations so we…”

“Damn it,” Tipton had already taken her finger off the mike. “Command, shut down the ‘interpret function’ now!”

The command staff knew the Second Lieutenant was right.

“Killing interpret functions and hitting breakers!” Lea yelled. “Damn, Tug. They beat us in there.”

“Lea, have they got into the life functions?” asked the Mission Commander.

Slowly and calmly Lea responded, “I don’t think they’ve found it, yet.” She was working hard to control her emotions.

“Bull shit!” Tipton was angry now. “If they wanted to hurt us they would have killed all functions by now. I think they want to talk to us. I’m going to try a command line…”

“Negative!” Tug broke in, “Stand down, Tipton…”

“Or what? You’re going to leave us 10 ‘clock years’ from the nearest support station with no crew and no chance of getting home before we die of boredom or…”

“All right, Second Lieutenant, that’s enough!”

Tug scanned the console and sighed heavily. “Okay, I’m out of options. Ribbons, Auger do you agree with Sheila?”

“Aye”

“Sounds okay to me,” Auger looked towards Tipton and shrugged.

“For the record, this is Mission Comm…” Tug was interrupted by Tipton.

“Relax, Tug. They may not be the enemy.”

“Tell that to the landing party, damn it! We don’t know anything about these bastards and they’re in our…”

“We killed a whole bunch of them when we purged the system,” Lea stated matter-of-factly. “The energy pulse caught them between… uh… capacitance, I think. Power dropped significantly when did it.”

Tug’s hand moved quickly towards the “Purge” button. An electronic purge under ideal conditions was a risky operation. An electronic pulse was sent through the entire avtronics system in an attempt to reset all connectors and option gates but sometimes the power coursing through the system would change option settings and cause a complete failure. A “Purge” button always had a safety release plus a second requiring the second in command to release an additional set of safeties and engage the “Purge” buttons at the same time as the commander. The purge operation in the landing craft had hurt the intruders but it had been a calculator risk. A purge of the command ship and system could destroy every program on board.

Tug flicked the first release to the off position and waited.

Tipton typed quickly on the small keyboard used as a backup when language and interept functions were out.

“Um… they say,” Tipton spoke, “‘re-engage the first safety on the Purge command.’”

Snapping his eyes towards his screen, Tug began to speak.

Lea spoke, “I didn’t release…”

“I did,” Tug said flatly. “They can see what we’re doing.” He sighed and snpped the swith back to the locked position. “All right, Tipton what do they want?” Tug asked in resignation.

Tipton replied quizically, “Us, it seems.”

“What for? Tug snapped.

*****

Sergeant First Class William Harris struggled but was able to steady himself on his hands and knees. The sound of his own ragged breathing was all he could hear in his headset.

“Stri… ” He paused to catch his breath before he continued. “Strike team… answer up.” The effort of speaking was exhausting but also strangely exhilarating.

“S, O…” Harris heard the unmistakable voice of the SO team leader Candide “Candy” Rivera whisper into her microphone.

“S, O team… leader, here…”

Craning his neck Harris scanned the area. Pheno the recently promoted sargeant stood seemingly unaffected amid the body-littered red soil.

“Pheno, help me,” Harris managed.

Several purple clouds swirled around the big man sparkling and flashing and spirling away into the darkening sky. With his hand out in front of the clear shield that protected his face and contained the ox duece mix he seemed to be fascinated by the clouds that clung to his gloved hand.

“They’re so hungry.”

“Pheno, get over here,” Harris panted.

The Strike Team Leader walked straight to Harris and pulled him to his feet.

“We’re feeding them,” Pheno said cryptically.

“What?”

Pheno turned to look directly into Harris’s eyes. “We… are… feeding them.” The words were spoken with deliberate care. The placid expression on Pheno’s face confused Harris.

“All right, Pheno. Tell me what’s goin’ on?” Harris sagged against Pheno momentarily and the big man pulled him erect again.

“Don’t fight ‘em, sarge. They don’t want to hurt us. They need us.” With that Harris relaxed and felt an immediate rush of intense pleasure like he had never before experienced. The joys he felt watching his teams react in unison to a threat, the joy of fatherhood and the accumulated pleasure of his life seemed to rush him at once. Harris then knew what Pheno meant. These purple creatures were feasting on the emotions they found within his mind. He was awestruck.

“Riviera,” he whispered. When he got no response he turned to look for her. She stood no more than three meters away. Tears rolled down the woman’s face, visable inside her face mask. The toughest marine Harris had ever met was moved to tears by the pure physical joy these creatures brought out in her.

“It’s wonderful, Willy.” Her eyes were glassy and her stare was fixed on the horizon.

“We need ox duece.” A portion of the landing team leader’s mind was still engaged. The team was on a planet without a breathable atmosphere and Harris diodn’t know how long they had lay there unconscious using the mix they carried on their back.

“Of course we do.” There was an enigmatic smile on her face. “I’ll take care of it.” The woman wandered lightly towards the ATS and set about getting the unit ready.

Pheno had already started to move from soldier to soldier rousing them. One striker began to thrash about and snapped open his helmut to the piercing plea of the automatic alarm in each soldier’s gear.

“Atmosphere compromised! Soldier Bennetts! Replace face mask!” The shrill voice was almost unbearable to the individuals in the throes of the creatures search for emotional stimulus. A human voice yelled out in pain and torment.

Then another cried out, “They’re killing us!” in some attack of paranoia. Harris grabbed at his helmut to get the computer voice and accompanying alarm out of his head.

“…compromised! Soldier Bennetts! Replace…” Harris fell to the ground and blacked out.

*****

Harris awoke to the soft “putt-putt” of the ATS producing oxygen from the planet’s iron oxide soil. Taking a quick mental inventory he found himself without pain and without helmet. He sat up slowly to survey the situation inside the ATS. Candy Riveria knelt next to the sergeant a look of supreme calm on her face.

“Willy, you’re okay. The alarm in Bennetts’ suit sent a couple of people into a tailspin. Three S-Os and two Strikers, casualties.” Her voice showed no sign of emotion.

“Casualities? How?”

“Bennetts suffocated. Grant, Shrop and Theison had heart attacks and Phillips just…died.”

Scanning the interior of the ATS Willy saw the rest of the landing team. Some still lay unconscious but the majority were busy doing minor tasks within the lightly opaque bubble.

“Candy, what are these things?” The exhilaration Harris had experienced earlier was returning.

“Near as we can tell they’re some kind of tech…” Her voice drifted off as she searched for some kind of description to fit the creatures that now inhabited the landing team. “Tech toys, I guess.”

“Toys?”

“Yeah. Our emotions feed ‘em, I think. So, they must’ve been… toys.”

Harris was no longer listening to her but feeling the surge of emotional stimulation that made his chest tingle and his body feel light as ether.

Harris turned back towards to the SO leader and placed his open palm against her cheek.

“Candy,” he whispered. She fell forward onto the man in a passionate embrace.

Few in the ATS took notice as the two satified their physical hunger for the other in the dirt amid the rest of the team.

By the second day, with the creatures inside their bodies, most of the crew were easing themselves into a comfortable coexistence. Several still lay without stirring. Harris found his desire to see these soldiers—his soldiers—back from their sleep. He hovered near the indigent troops searching for some clue to rouse them.

“Sargeant Harris, we need H2.” Private First Class Simms’ voice brought Harris back to reality with the request for hydrogen to feed the “water mixer.”

“Okay. Call the command and have them…”

“They don’t answer,” the young soldier answered plainly.

“What?” Harris stood now and looked for the SO leader.

“Candy, where’s the landing craft?” Harris had not thought about anything outside the thin bubble that protected them from the unbreathable atmosphere since he woke.

Candy smiled at him and then walked forward until her body pressed against his. Her arms snaked around his neck and she kissed him deeply. Harris pushed her back gently.

“Candy, listen.” She smiled and leaned forward again but Harris put his finger on her lips to stop her. “Where’s the landing craft?”

“They’re gone.” A landing team on a planet without extra food, water, batteries, and only one backup ATS could survive for no more than six months. But this planet showed no sign of water or plant life and had an unusual atmosphere. Batteries for an ATS lasted about 350 hours. Without support they would die in about two weeks

“Wait… have you called the Ibn Batuta?” Harris narrowed his eyes on Candy’s loving gaze.

“What for, Willie? They’re not coming back.” Nothing in her tone betrayed any fear or sense of abandonment. Now the landing team leader’s head began to spin.

“Candy, we’re in trouble.”

She nodded slightly and leaned in to kiss him again. This time he did not resist.

“Well, what are we gonna do?” Willy Harris pondered the question for a moment as he surveyed the members of the landing team. A couple squirmed in the dirt making love but Willy did not want to interrupt them. The rest, minus five still in a coma and the five that died the first day, looked towards Willy as their leader and they held him a high regard. He could not bear the idea of letting them down.

“We only have a little while to set up something…”

“Too bad we can’t eat energy like they do,” Pheno spoke up.

“Who eats energy?”

“Them.” The big man pointed outside at the swarm of purple clouds that gathered outside the ATS. “Those things.”

“What are? Or what do they call themselves?” Harris was confused.

“Don’t know,” the big man shrugged

“Okay,” Harris found a surge of emotion clouded his thoughts making it difficult to concetrate on the discussion.

“How do they eat energy?”

“Over there at the tower.” Pheno pointed to the graceful spire in ther distance. The reason the team had arrived here in the first place. The technology they had been sent to recover.

The tower beconed to Harris and he stepped close to one of the clear view panels in the ATS wall to examine the structure.

“What is it?” Harris asked over his shoulder.

“It’s got a solar collector and gives off a trickle charge so they could eat when nobody was here I quess. But it’s not enough for all of “em.”

Harris turned slowly. “Are we enough?”

“Oh yeah, Willy. They get plenty from us.” Pheno’s face was serene.

Harris found himself growing giddy at his revelation but then he forced himself to calm down and focus again.

“Let’s set up the backup ATS over there by the tower and see if we can’t power it with the tower.” Several people giggled in relief at their leader’s plan and one even wept.

“Okay, let’s see if we can make it work.” Harris beamed as he spoke.

The tower provided the backup ATS with plenty of power and left enough to charge the batteries—in case they wanted to move to a new location—and feed some of the creatures who now hung near the ATS bubble waiting their turn to feast on the humans. The clouds of protoplasm could not linger in the oxygen atmosphere inside the bubble like they did in the noble gases outside but once inside their human host they could travel anywhere on their host’s two legs.

Pheno explained to Harris, as well as he could, about the different patterns the clouds contained, as he was only learning about them now. Some were designed to exploit sexual centers of the brain, some joy, some visual, and some infused a stimulation encountered by high-risk or dangerous activities. Pheno had tried a dozen different “flavors” as he called them and speculated that maybe the five soldiers who died may have encountered one of the “danger” flavors without any idea of what was happening.

“They may’ve been scared to death.”

Harris swallowed. “Are there any others that could hurt us?”

“No, Willy. If we die those things die with us.” There was saddness in Pheno’s voice with his statement. It was beginning to make sense to Harris now. The creatures fed on the electrical stimulous from the human emotions and once the electrical energy stopped the cloud-like beings would essentially suffocate.

“They told me that the ones in the dead marines were gone now.” Pheno shrugged off his obtuse explanation. “I guess that means dead.”

“Why don’t they just go somewhere else, if they’re so hungry?” Harris needed to know everything Pheno did about these creatures.

“They can go into the electronics… and the outside atmosphere and between two people… And that’s… that’s it.”

“So there’s got to be a path for electrical contact.” Harris finished trying to keep his mind on task. He was still responsible for these people.

Pheno nodded.

Harris was beginning to understand. “That must be why they sent us in with antique equipment instead of flux gear.”

“I guess.” Pheno shrugged.

Now Harris turned deadly serious. “Only one of these things can um… be in a person at a time, right?”

“Uh huh.”

“You said they got into the electronics. How many could get in there?”

“Lots, I guess. There’s big wires and lots of places to go…”

“Those fuckers!” Harris set his jaw.

“What is it, Willie?”

Harris took a deep breath and then let it out slowly to control his emotional state and the feeding creature within.

“They knew something was here and they didn’t care what happened to us. They just wanted as many of these things as we could carry away.”

“How did they…”

“Probably caught some in the probes and saw some of the equip held more of the things than others. So they gave us old junk so we could bring back a lot of “em.”

“What about the tech?”

“Didn’t you say it was just a solar collector?”

“Yeah,”

“They didn’t want that. They wanted the ‘things.’ They must have set the landing craft to automatically launch if anything happened.”

Pheno furrowed his brow. “But they didn’t get any of ‘em.”

Harris said plainly, “Sure, they did. They got a whole landing craft full of ‘em. They weren’t worried about us.”

“Why didn’t they just use drones?”

Harris shook his head, “Can’t get drones back. Too far.” Solving this puzzle the sergeant felt a shudder of satisfaction that took his breath away. Harris put his hand out to steady himself touching the metal band on the door’s seal. With a jolt he felt one creature dart out through the metal conduit. Several others swirled around the first and one cloud launched itself directly to the metal and entered the man’s body.

Smacking his lips Harris realized this creature was attenuated towards taste.

Pheno’ spoke again. “If they left us behind won’t they try to get rid of the pilots to cover their tracks?”

That thought hit Harris hard.

“Candy?” Despite what felt like a heavy weight on his chest Harris continued.

The woman padded to Harris’ side and twined herself around his body.

“Candy, please. I need you to try to reach the Ibn Batuta,” Harris panted with the awaked fears for his fellow marines.

She inhaled his scent and shuddered slightly.

In a husky voice she replied, “Whatever you want, Willie.”

****

“What do they want with us?” Tug asked Tipton . He was careful to keep emotion out of his voice since he knew the intruders might be monitoring their internal communications. The aliens had come aboard the command ship when the landing craft docked. These creatures seemed to be electronic impulses and had jumped to the command vessel through metal to metal contact. Now the creatures were in all the electronic functions of both ships and had accessed all program functions including life support, language and interpretation areas.

Tipton began to key in the message but stopped as the answers to her question scrolled across all screens.

  <ReturnLine> electronic energy = fuel <Stop>

  <ReturnLine> fuel = food <Stop>

  <ReturnLine> human emotion = electronic energy <Stop>

  <ReturnLine> no hurt human <Stop>

  <ReturnLine> human no hurt mine <Stop>

The last line blinked as if the intruders were waiting for an answer. Tipton grabbed the handle of the hatch to pull herself forward to talk to Auger face to face.

Auger turned to meet her stare and saw something change in the pilot’s expression. A vacant look in her eyes told him that Tipton was experiencing something beyond her explanation. A tear rolled down her cheek.

“Tug… something’s wrong with Tipton! Sheila talk to me…” Auger’s voice was almost a whisper.

Staring blankly into space Tipton’s face was a white and her lips moved slightly but no sound came out.

“Auger, what’s going on?” Tug sounded calm but inside he was fast approaching panic.

As the creature searched throughout Tipton’s body for an appropriate signal it stimulated every synapse connector it came to causing her body to tremble and then jerk around violently at first.

“Jesus, Tug she’s having a fit!” Auger screamed.

“Get away from her! Do it, Stan!” Tug had gone over the edge and was in a full blown panic attack. “Get out of there!”

“How! Tell me how to get out…” Auger was climbing up and over the back of his seat even though there was no place to go beyond his small cabin.

Lea keyed her mike and yelled, “Stop it, Stan! Stop it! It’s not hurting her. Look at your screen…”  Tug and Auger looked down to see the messages scrolling again.

  <ReturnLine>no hurt human<Stop>

  <ReturnLine>no hurt human<Stop>

  <ReturnLine>no hurt human<Stop>

  <ReturnLine>no hurt mine<Stop>

  <ReturnLine>no hurt mine<Stop>

The creatures were listening to the intercom system, and were able to understand the speech between the crew members

“Jesus, Tug, she’s foaming at the mouth! Tug!”

As suddenly as it started, Tipton’s shaking stopped. Slowly and carefully she wiped the drool from her chin. Her breathing was measured and calm. Turning slowly she looked at Auger and smiled broadly.

“They don’t want to hurt us… They need us.” The voice that came out was clear controlled and definitely Tipton’s. Auger was still atop the back of his seat looking at her with wide eyes.

“Sheila? Are you okay?” Tug was still terrified. “Answer, me!”

“Yes, Tug. I’ve never been better.”

“Lea, why aren’t they sending any more text messages?” Tug asked his second in command.

“I don’t know.”

Tipton interrupted, “I’ll tell you what they want. It seems that electrical impulses is what they feed on. And they give a stimulus to the emotional in our brain and that feeds ‘em. It feels better than anything I’ve ever…” The youngest member of the crew could only sigh.

“Sheila, listen carefully to me,” Lea began to speak slowly. “I want you to ask the thing to let you go.”

“Why, Lea? It feels wonderful and it feeds him, no her, no… I don’t know which it is. But I know I like it.” Tipton’s voice was almost a pant

“Is this ‘thing’ one of those ‘wisp’ looking clouds we saw on the planet?” Auger asked.

In a calm voice Tipton spoke like a guru sharing the wisdom of the ages. “Yes. Yes it is.”

“Do they have a name?” Auger continued still on the back of seat.

“No… Wisp, will do.” Tipton continued.

Tug broke in, “What has happened to the landing party, damn it?”

“Nothing. They’re fine. The wisps could not find the right stimulus center, at first, so they tried everything until they found the right spot. They’re all fine. We should call them,” Tipton finished almost as an aside.

“Auger, what’s she look like? Is she okay?” Tug was still unsettled.

From his perch she looked complacent. “She looks okay.” Auger now directed his query at his co-pilot. “How did they get inside you?”

“I touched the metal handle and it came inside then.”

Auger looked around for more exposed metal in order to avoid contact. “Really, Stan, they won’t hurt you. Touch the handle.”

“Bull shit!” came his reply. “How do we know you’re really okay?”

“Stan, I really like you. Remember when we first met at the support station? I said I was going to like working with you. I do like working with you. I like you, Stan. I wanted to say something when we were pulling our watch shift together on the way here. But I was afraid. I am not afraid, anymore.”

She was telling the truth. Tipton had said those exact words and in transit Auger had noticed she was overly attentive to him when they were on watch together. This attention caused him to request another watch partner for his second shift. Many times a watch shift between two crew members had led to a more intimate relationship. But many of the relationships ended badly, because a watch duty shift forced two people to live in a space barely large enough for one person much less two. The surest way to kill a relationship was to live in close proximity to another person every moment for 14 days. Stan was hoping after the mission he might be able to see her.

“Auger, what’s going on?” Tug asked.

“I’m not sure, but what she said is true,” he said as climbed down into his seat.

“Sheila, this is Lea, can you hear me?”

Giggling, Tipton answered, “Of course. I am doing quite well.”

“Okay, then let Sheila go so we can talk to her.”

“You are talking to me and I do not want to let this feeling go,” was her reply

“Okay, then let Auger try it out.”

“Hey, hey! I’m not your guinea pig. I don’t want that thing…” Auger burst in.

“Please, Stan. Touch my hand and you will see they mean us no harm. They want to protect and help us. They need us more than we need them.”

“That’s what bother’s me how do I know that they won’t… melt my brain or something?”

There was another giggle as Tipton looked directly into Auger’s eye. “Trust me, Stan. I care deeply about you and would not let anything bad happen.”

“Famous last words, huh?” Auger put out his hand with some trepidation. Snatching it quickly back he asked, “I’m not gonna jerk around and slobber am I?”

“Band, do not touch her that’s an order!” Tug barked.

“What choice do I have? I’m stuck in this can with her and these… wisp things. Eventually, I’m gonna get it, so why not now?”

Stand down, Band! Do… not… touch her is that clear?” Tug was livid.

“Stop it, Tug. He doesn’t have a choice,” Lea jumped in. “Try it, Stan.”

As their hands met Auger’s eyes rolled back in his head slightly and Tipton’s came back into focus.

When Auger opened his eyes wide now he looked at the back of his hand and turned it over to see his naked palm. A smile drifted across his lips as he spoke. 

“Sheila is right they mean no harm. This is wonderful.”

Tug’s voice was hard, “Tipton, talk to me.”

“Give it back. Please,” she whimpered softly to Auger

“Jesus, these things must be addictive, Lea can you get a medical read out?” Tug yelled across the open computer bank.

Lea put on a condescending tone as she asked, “Sheila, honey, can you put your hand on the med reader?” Medical readers were a palm sized screen that allowed the computer to take readings on two dozen different bodily functions with a simple touch.

“Of course I can. But I wanna get another wisp…” Lea whined.

“Give her a med read, Tipton. That’s an order,” Tug barked.

Letting out a sigh she placed her palm on the screen and the computer went to work checking her body.

Meanwhile, Tug was concerned about Auger. “How are you feeling, Stan? Talk to me.”

“It really is okay, Tug. Someone created them a long time ago… for recreation it seems. But no one has been back for so long. They are so hungry and we can feed them.”

Lea broke in, “Tug, everything looks right on the med read out.”

“Is it possible that these… wisp things are altering the readout?”

“I don’t know how, but anything’s possible.”

“I am letting this wisp go back into the system so he can show the others where to go and what to look for,” Auger’s voice had a quality like syrup flowing out of his mouth. As he touched the handle between the two cabins Tipton put her hand on his and the wisp darted into her body momentarily causing her head to loll back and her eyes to close for a moment. When her eyes opened and she focused again she found herself gazing into Stan’s eyes and she felt her face flush. The two had shared the wisp, briefly.

Several seconds passed with the two eying each other until both of them, again felt the narcotic rush of a wisp’s return. Both members of the landing craft felt the high of the beings that thrived on an excited emotional state within their human host. Auger leaned forward through the open hatch and kissed Tipton deeply. The emotional response to the kiss, though brief, caused Tipton to cry genuine tears of joy. The sound of their kiss came through, clearly, on the mikes in the command craft.

“What is going on?” Tug voice was a high pitched whine.

Tipton leaned forward this time, and kissed Auger while Lea and Tug could only listen. At last Tipton broke it off and declared, “We can’t explain it. Just touch the metal and you will see.”

 

Sci Fry Chap 3

(In their hotel room Brill and Tatya lay intertwined in the bed for an hour: Tatya nestled into his shoulder while he buried his nose into his former lover’s blond hair.

“How come you were at the scene of the incident so quickly?” Brill asked quietly.

“Workaholic,” Tatya giggled.

“No, I mean it. You showed up right after it happened.”

“We got an anonymous tip that something was gonna happen.” Tatya shifted against him to try and get closer, if that was possible.

“From who?”

“Whom. From whom. I don’t know, anonymous means, by definition, ‘We don’t know, nor do we care.’” Tatya’s eyes were open and questioning now.

“Did you tell anyone about the tip off?”

“Just the Coroner, why?” Tatya picked up her head from his chest to stare into his eyes.

“A captain in the GDF doesn’t hang around the waiting for ’something’ to happen. Tea, get your clothes on, quick. Leave your badge and let’s get outta here. Smitty knew about that tip. He probably was the one that called.” Ully’s voice trailed off.

“What does that mean?” Tatya spoke with her eyes wide.

He snapped his face towards hers.

“It means: if Smitty didn’t find that bad brain he’s probably gonna come looking for us.”

She swung herself out of bed to sort through the tangle of clothing while Brill snatched up his weapon, moving to the door, pressing his ear close in case someone might be waiting outside. He cocked his head momentarily, listening intently, before he yanked the door open quickly. Glancing both ways he stepped into the hallway with his weapon in his hand.

Before tonight he had felt uncomfortable with the pulse weapon at his side, now with Tatya back in his life and a possible threat lurking for both of them he felt naked without it.

He was naked actually but carrying a weapon that was locked and loaded he did not feel vulnerable. A trace cam sped around the corner into the hallway alerted by quick opening of the door. Testing his new found courage he snapped off two quick rounds and blew the cam apart with the second. Tatya ran to the open door.

“Hey, cowboy! Are you outta your mind?” She blurted out.

Brill smiled lasciviously as he looked her up and down as she was wearing nothing.

“Oh, Jesus!” She giggled before she sprinted back inside to put on some clothing. “Try not to shoot anything while I’m getting dressed. Okay?” she pleaded.

 

 

Brill smiled but stared at the weapon in his hand as the glow finally faded. Only then did he close the door to sort through his clothing.

The pair quickly dressed and readied themselves but Tatya tugged on Brill’’s arm, the one holding his weapon, before they reached the door.

“Please, Ully. Let’s take this to somebody. This is scary.”

“That’s not an alternative. I don’t know how high up this goes in GDF. If this is something connected to the DA they’ll take me down the second I walk in that door. If somebody’s still looking for that thing… We’re both in trouble. No, we need to wait this out. Somewhere, safe.”

Sighing heavily Tatya nodded. “All right… I’m ready.”

“I’ll take you to a place I know and you can…”

“You ass! I’m in this up to my neck. I will not stay behind while you’re out shooting up half the sector. If you blow this we both go down. I’m not lettin’ you outta my sight.”

“Tea, you can still plead ignorance…”

“Oh yeah, and wait for Smitty to show up? Pass.”

“Tell ‘em what you know and the DA’ll protect you,” Brill begged

“‘Tell ‘em what I know’ and I’ve already broken the law.”

“How so?”

“I was only supposed to make a rulling on your actions with that guy. Now, I’ve got myself in as an accessory. The moment you told me something was munged up… I was an accessory. I’m supposed to report that sorta stuff…” she finished sarcastically bobbing her head.

“But you didn’t know what was going on.”

“Uh uh. That ain’t gonna fly. I didn’t report the information you gave me. That’s why they didn’t want me workin’ with you. Don’t you…?”

Brill held up his open palm to halt her tirade.

“Wait, you’ve got a chip still. Don’t you?”

“Yeah…” she answered.

“You gotta get rid of it.”

Locator chips used to be implanted almost all children at birth, though the practice had fallen out of vogue in the last few decades. Unseen chips were preferred to visible marking—due to the 20^st century polico-religious considerations—but with the advent of the ubiquitous ID cards the argument became moot. Since that time society had calmed down but some practices remained in the wake of the last “deadly episode.” The “deadly episodes” were those eras that brought on numerous human deaths, religious intolerance having brought on the last of the notable eras.

Many old-fashioned parents still had chips inserted in-vitro. Depending on a parent’s status newborns got chips implanted in a different part of the body and later could be used to locate that individual. The practice began as far back as the late 20^th century but had wavered in popularity many times.

Tatya drew a sharp breath and shuttered. “I can’t do it to myself!” Tatya whined. “It’s in my right index finger.” This location indicated a birth to parents of moderate affluence.

The more important a child’s parent the more obvious a missing chip would be and pricing of the implant varied accordingly Brill’s parents were of a relatively low social class and Brill’s had been installed on his left baby toe but like most wispers he had removed it long ago. Like almost all wispers he was untraceable except by ID card.

The location of the implant in an unborn child was more of a status symbol, prices controlled by aethestics rather than surgical difficulty. Loylon controlled chip tracking despite the rarity of the process at present.

Now implanting a chip in an adult was easy but required consent or was required in the miscreant population.

Most parents consented to have their children implanted to prevent kidnapping or to find them quickly if the child simply wandered off. Once a card was issued, at about seven years old, the chip was no longer needed. In fact, at present the only adults required to have a locator were convicted felons. Brill had never stumbled during his years as a whisper so he had never been required to have another chip implanted after he had his birth chip removed

Brill stared at Tatya wide-eyed. “I can’t do it. I couldn’t do anything to hurt you.” His shoulders sagged. “Really, I… I can’t hurt you… I mean it…” He looked like he would cry.

Through clenched teeth she growled, “Damn, you Ully Brill! Watch the door.”

He ran to the door and opened it slowly this time. No cams showed up. The hotel he chose was not one with many trace cams assigned (Brill knew many of the out-of-way locations in the sector) and the previous trace cam had been blown to bits before it could it run a spotter alert back to sector headquarters. But it would be noticed when the hourly check-in was missed: giving its location at that time it was dispatched.

The sound of a breaking glass was not loud but was unmistakable. The thought of Tatya cutting open her skin made Brill’s stomach churn. He knew that she would have to dig under her skin to pull out the twenty-five-millimeter chip placed in her finger in-vitro. Despite his unease Brill turned to tell Tatya to hurry. She was at his elbow before he could speak.

“Let’s go,” she said flatly, her face pallid.

Brill swallowed hard. “Tea, I’ll buy you the best finger on the market. I promise, baby.”

Holding up a bloodied towel around her hand she wavered before she replied, “I think I need to find a med ‘bot.”

Brill moved in rushes from one corner to the next in case someone was laying in ambush while Tatya staggered, her shoulder rubbing the walls to support her.

They moved cautiously but quickly into the darkness.

On the street Tatya grew more woozy from the loss of blood. At last Brill found a public medical robot call box and there she had her finger bandaged and got a quick transfusion.

“Ma’am this is a serious injury and may require further attention. May I suggest…” The ‘bot disappeared in a shower of plastic causing Tatya to jump back.

“Jeez, Ully! What’s gotten into you?” she squalled.

“Tea, that ‘bot had to know you removed your chip. We’ve gotta be careful.”

Tatya raged, “No, you gotta to be careful. They’re gonna to find us by following the trail of blown up ‘bots and trace cams.”

“Damn. You’re right.” Brill kicked the larger parts of the medical robot towards the curb. Shoving the debris into a disposal slot Brill pushed the “call” button. Brill knew the ‘bot would be disposed of before the recall program could be activated. His whisper experience was coming back to him quickly.

Hailing a passing taxi he snapped his ID card from the lanyard around his neck and tossed his badge inside before he pressed the “home” button. Brill knew the onboard camera would record his face but he hoped to be far from this location by the time the uniformed police or the GDF figured out what had happened.

Watching the door close he gathered up Tatya and led her to a door step where they sat down to wait. Almost 30 seconds to the mark a police vehicle whizzed by followed by several trace cams. One trace cam slowed and turned towards them.

Brill whispered to Tatya, “Don’t move.” The cam hovered momentarily and dashed off to join the chase. “We’re free,” he said.

“And, we’re broke,” she finished.

Reaching into his pocket Brill pulled out 200 Loylon food credits. Most financial transactions were handled through a citizen’s ID card except for food purchases. The Loylon belief was this allowed independent food vendors to operate outside of the system thus encouraging entrepreneurial commerce while reducing pressure on the banking bureaucracy.

But prepared food purchases were conducted primarily between humans using credits off the financial grid where hard goods, robotic services, and the Loylon controlled food banks regulated the market. Because of this the lingua franca could change from sector to sector. Ulysses Brill only carried Loylon script accepted all official food banks. This script was usually alloted within upper class circles and exchanged, not directly for food, but for wisp credits or sexual trafficking making these scarce notes inflation resistant.

Tatya furrowed her brow spying the wad of script. “Do I wanna know where that came from?”

Brill smiled. “I’m an honest civil servant, ma’am.”

Tatya rolled her eyes and sighed. “I’ll take that as a no.”

Together they wandered down the street mixing in with the regular crowd.

*****

Their first stop was the morgue. Brill stormed in and alerted the attendant robot to rouse the human attendant. Without a badge the robot was unwilling to do so, but out of the back room came the man who they had spoke to just hours before.

“What can I do for you now, detective?” the man asked suspiciously.

Glancing over the man’s shoulder Brill noticed retrieval vehicle slot was empty. “Take me to Flo and Eddie,” was Brill’s reply.

“Oh come on. I told you I was clean, detective, why would you…”

“Where is it?” Brill interrupted nodding towards the empty vehicle bay.

The man didn’t even bother to look in the direction of the bays. “I had to hide it somewhere…”

“Where?”

“Some… where… Somewhere… else,” the man bleated.

Brill pulled out his pulse weapon. It was a savage looking hunk of metal, especially when it was pointed at your face. The man looked desperately at Tatya who held up her bloodied bandage and shrugged.

“You wouldn’t do anything that…” the man started.

Brill pulled the trigger and blew an attendant ‘bot on the shelf behind the man into little pieces that showered unto the man’s shoulders before he could finish his question.

“Jeez!” The man cringed.

Trace cams didn’t alert to the comings and goings in an office where many ‘bots were running around. Even though Brill’s actions would have definitely been considered “dangerous” trace cams rarely alerted to actions that involved ‘bots. But Brill knew the stationary cameras had picked up his actions and uniformed police arrive shortly.

“Better, tell him what he wants to know or…” Tatya raised her bandaged hand.

“Okay, Okay! Flo and Eddie are in place that you might know. Sector 15-d, sub-j, number…”

“23.” Brill finished the man’s sentence. The man nodded. “You’re coming with us.” Brill was tugging at the man’s sleeve pulling him over the low counter.

“Oh, come on! Why do I have to go?” The man begged.

“Because, you’re the only one of us who has a working ID badge,” Brill said with a cruel smile.

Now the man knew he was at the whims of two dangerous and desperate individuals. In a system where every detail of a person’s life was embedded on their badge being caught without it brought severe penalties. The man sighed and fell behind Tatya as she led the way into the night.

The trio used the man’s card to catch a taxi headed towards Flo and Eddie’s place.

Approaching a waiting cab the man turned towards Brill to ask a question.

“How come you didn’t roll over on Flo and Eddie to skip prosecution?”

Nodding towards Tatya Brill stated plainly, “I got a prize if I took the fall.”

The man looked her over quickly and sniffed. “So why’d you ‘do’ her finger?”

Brill’s expression turned serious, “That’s what I do to someone I love.” Leaning close to the man he continued, “Imagine what I could do to someone I don’t even know their name?”

“Billy Buxton,” the man blurted out. “I’m Billy Buxton, detective, what’s your lovely friend’s name?” The man jabbered in a nervous voice.

“Shut up, Billy!” came Brill’s reply. Tatya stifled a laugh, turning to stare out the window of the moving cab as they fell into the back.

After a moment Tatya spoke. “I’m Tatya. He’s not like this usually, but tonight he…” she turned serious. “He… killed a man and he’s feeling a little…” she turned to eye Brill before she returned her gaze to Billy Buxton and finished. “I don’t know what he’s feeling but he’s already killed one man and blown three ‘bots to the ‘here after.’”

Brill sat nonplussed staring at the man.

Billy shook his head uneasily and blurted out, “Sure, no problem. Not for Billy Buxton.”

No other words were exchanged for the rest of the cab ride.

The cap stopped outside a nondescript building and the trio walked through the ground floor entrance. Billy pressed a button and a mellifluous voice wafted over a loud speaker. “Billy, what are you doing back, here?”

“I’m not back,” Billy blushed tried to cover his lie. “I’m here with some friends of ours.”

“We don’t have any friends, Billy.”

Brill stepped forward and fired a single round into a fixed camera in the entryway, blowing it apart.

Billy meekly spoke, “Flo… Eddie, I think you already know Detective Brill?”

There was pause of several seconds followed by telltale buzz of a door release. Now they moved into the elevator. It started with a jerk and after several floors stopped again.

“Drop the weapon to the floor, please.” A different voice boomed through a loud speaker.

Brill glared at the camera in the elevator. “Fuck you.” He turned and winked at Billy. The elevator sat still for several seconds and then continued on. It opened into a opulent hallway with one door at the end and several chairs along the decorated walls. The voice from the elevator rang out once again.

“Have a seat, Flo will be with you shortly.”

“Tell Flo, if he isn’t here in 10 seconds I’m gonna…” The door flew open and a flamboyantly dressed man beckoned. The man was short and round with a pasty complextion but wore a beaming smile and was flanked by two large men wearing the hard look usually seen on hired bodyguards.

“Ulysses Simpson Brill, you old dog, how are you? You look simply wonderful, do you know that? And who is this ravishing creature?” With non-stop patois the man approached Tatya eyeing her at great length.

“Hey Flo, how are ya?” Brill started offhandedly. “This is Tatya Chenkovich. She’s the one who got me off the dime. Where’s Eddie?” Brill finished curtly.

Flo made a grand maneuver, sweeping his arms in a faux curtsy. “I’m absolutely in awe of your beauty. I might even have some of your features copied for myself.” Pointing to his rotund body he asked, “Do you think I would look good with those lines?”

Tatya just nodded wide-eyed trying to fight back a laugh while Billy piped up, “Oh yeah, Flo.”

“Shadup, Billy,” Flo snapped without turning his head. “I was talking to this ravishing creature.”

Still wide-eyed Tatya pointed to one of the buff body guards who had followed Flo into the hallway and asked innocently, “Why don’t you ask them? I’m not really qualified.”

“Piff, they say what I tell ‘em to say. My dear, what happened to your hand?” Flo threw up his hands to his cheeks in an overemoted display of horror when he spotted her bloodied bandage.

Brill walked towards her and pulled his weapon out of the holster. “That’s what happens to people who piss me off. Flo… where’s Eddie?”

The bodyguards flinched and uncrossed their arms at the sight of a real pulse weapon but Flo was unmoved. “Ully, have a drink or would you rather ‘hook up?’ Whatever you want, we’ve got it for you.”

Brill was nonplused. “I wanna talk to Eddie.”

With a wave of his hand Flo motioned all into the apartment. “Where are my manners? Please, come in.”

The body guards entered first and posted themselves near the doorway.

Flo grabbed Tatya’s elbow and drew her close. “You are simply beautiful. How did you end up with that old whisper, Ully?”

Brill stopped at the doorway, scanning the interior quickly, refusing to enter with the two men standing guard on the other side.

Brill leaned back. “Flo… where’s Eddy?” He snapped impatiently still holding his pulse weapon.

The fay man waved the body guards away from the door. “Oh, go on, you two. This is Ully Brill, for goodness sakes. He’s an old friend…” The two men retreated slowly to the opposite side of the room.

Now Flo cocked his head and continued. “She’s in there.” He said, motioning towards another doorway, with a flourished limp wristed wave, before he peered at his old partner. “She still talks about you. You broke her heart, you know, going GDF.”

Brill started towards the doorway while Flo intercepted Tatya who fell in step behind him. “Please, stay with me and talk for while. You have such lovely skin.” The corpulant man reached out to stroke her face. Brill turned and nodded his approval. Acknowledging that, Tatya sat down across from Flo on an opulant settee.

Brill parted an expensive silken curtain where he saw a beautiful woman in lingerie propped up at the top of a daybed. She smirked at him as he entered.

“My brother’s right, she’s ravishing.” The pretty woman in the bed flicked off a screen by her her side.

“Hi ya, Eddie. Billy brought you my package?” Brill asked cooly.

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean…” she started

“Don’t touch it for a while. I don’t know if it’s even in there, but it could be… very bad. So… uh… if you do get a package stay off it until I can get back to you, okay?”

“Anything for you, Ully,” Eddie was coy. “I haven’t seen you in three years and you don’t even have a kiss for me? Don’t you think I look good?” She was beautiful but long ago Brill had lost a taste for this temptress.

“I don’t know who is the more vain, you or your fruitcake brother.”

“Ouch, Ully. You used to talk so nice to me.” Eddie pouted.

“Yeah, that was before I took the fall for everybody else.”

“Ully, come on, they wanted you. You were the leader… and I was yours. Remember?”

Dispassionately, Brill made his play. “Eddie, I need two badges, I’d like a level 5… but I’ll take a 6, and about 500 credits.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. “Level 5 ’scratch?’ “

“Scratch” was the argot for a badge “built” from scratch and each level of badge had a graduted automatic main computer cross-checking built in so higher level badges were harder to come by.

“Hunting big game, are we? Why do you need two? Are you taking ‘blondie’ with you or that little worm, Billy?”

“Oh yeah, I need you guys to hold Billy for a while. It’s for his own good as much as mine. Just keep him off the commo-grid and watch out for a guy named Smith, some guy with GDF credentials and an access 4 ’scratch.’ He’s very dangerous.”

“Hm… I’ll do it for you.” Eddie pushed out her bottom lip, now. “Ully, come back to the fold.” The woman extended her arms towards him, beckoning. “I’ll make you forget ‘blondie’ and the GDF.”

Brills eyes narrowed at Eddie. “You can’t walk, can you?”

Sometimes an illegal wisp was pieced together from disparate parts or were sometimes programmed with pirated strings that could temporarily interfere with a certain motor functions in some users. The ability to walk was the most common fuction a long time user of a piecemeal wisp might lose. Wisp created in illegal labs were sometimes made from an inferior energy plasma that couldn’t hold the entire imprint of a legitimate wisp and the missing strings of data “burned” some motor function connectors, for extended periods. Commonly a wisp dealer might keep a piece-meal wisp for their own use in order to keep customers coming back for the real thing.

“What a horrible thing to say. I’m just tired, Ully. Come here.” She begged, arms outstretched again.

“Give me what I need and I’ll get you the best there is. Deal?” Brill asked flatly.

“Best what?” She pouted.

“A full Loylon wisp…”

She caught her breath quickly. “Real deal, huh?”

Brill nodded.

“You know, I can’t make a decision without my brother’s approval.”

“Bullshit.” Brill turned to leave.

“Ully, I like your new girl. She’s pretty, and level 6 looks good on you.”

“Get off the dime and you’d look good, too.” He threw over his shoulder.

Eddie simpered, “Fuck you… Ully, you really look good.”

“Fuck you,” turning back Brill replied with a smile. “Give me what I want.”

“Promise me you’ll come back, and I will,” she pressed her bottom lip out.

Shaking his head, Brill held the curtain momentarily, smirked at his former girlfriend, before he strolled back into the front room.

Flo was going on, “… and that’s when Ully brought us our first big score.” He turned to look at his former partner. “A full government wisp and 5, 000 credits. It was fabulous.”

“Eddie wants you to give me two level 5 badges and 500 credits,” Brill interrupted.

Flo stopped dead in his story, trying not betray his surprise. His ID card lit up and he turned away so no one else could see it. Turning back to his guests, Flo continued.

“Well, it seems we’ll have to finish this story another time.” He waved to the body guards. “Hurry up, get him what he wants,” he barked impatiently.

The two men disappeared. Leaning in close he stared at Billy and said, “Billy, be a dear and give ‘em a hand.” Now, his attention turned back to Tatya and his face grew somber. “Take care of him, please. If it wasn’t for him, my sister and I would be street wispers, hustling for a living.”

Shaking her head Tatya replied, “I’ll do what I can. He’s become a bit dangerous of late, but I’ll do my best. Promise.”

Turning to Brill, Flo asked icily, “And, what guarantee do we have that you’ll uphold your end of the bargain?”

Brill returned Flo’s cold stare, “Shut up, Flo.”

The body guards returned minus Billy with a package in hand. Flo waved them over and taking the package from the one guard it turned towards Brill again.

“Are you coming back?” He asked holding the package just out of Brill’s reach.

Brill looked away from the man towards the carpet and back again. “There’s full government wisp in a package at a postal box in sector 11-a. It’s being held under the name Ben Dover. The clerks have been instructed to give it up to whoever asks for it by that name.”

“You were holding out on us.” Flo pouted extending the package to his former partner.

“No, it came from an old score. It’s yours, and tell your sister we’re even.”

Flo nodded once and offered his limp hand to Tatya. “It was enchanting to meet a lovely creature like you, don’t be surprised if I look like your twin next time we meet.”

Fighting back a grin Tatya said, “Or maybe I’ll look like you next time we meet.”

Flo burst into a full laugh at this. “Oh, keep her, Ully.”

With half smile on his lips, Brill replied, “Watch out for that package Billy brought you.” Flo nodded.

Brill and Tatya left with their parcel. The pair walked out into the night and turned a corner. Brill sat down on the front step of an old brownstone.

“We can program our badges here.”

“Jeez, we can’t do that out here in plain sight,” Tatya started her eyes darting around the neighborhood.

“Sure we can,” Brill continued. “This whole area’s a dead zone.”

“What do you mean?”

“When this was my place, I crossed stationary cams all over this district back to other locations. The spotter programs won’t alert to anything here because these cameras are crossed to very quiet locations. A couple of the rooftops around here have call boxes that alert the trace cams to go other locations selected at random, if anything does happen.

“We got a taxi ride here, but any uniformed officers that were dispatched to the morgue, after my little shooting incident, are looking for Billy boy and us in another sector. My old signal scrambler makes this look like quietest street around. I didn’t think they’d keep this place running all this time.”

Tatya shook her head. “Now I see why they wanted you in the GDF. They couldn’t catch you.”

“But, I did get caught. I wanted to move uptown and look like a respectable citizen. Not staying here is how I ended up getting caught.” Brill sighed. He had finished Tatya’s card and told her to hold it up to her eye to let the program run.

“Now tell your card a name and we’re done,” Brill looked pleased with himself. “Without a locator chip you can use any name you want.”

Smiling Tatya asked “How about Tatya Brill?” This brought a grin to his face.

“Say it to the card,” Brill replied. Tatya complied. “These cards should be good for about a week… until the computer does a cross check and then we’ll have to get rid of ‘em.”

The computer systems ran cross checks to keep a data in the system up to date. Eventually the computer would determine that these cards were forgeries and would shut down access to all services.

“So we have a week to find out what’s going on?” Tatya asked.

“More or less.”

“Well where do we start?” Tatya looked directly at Brill.

Holding the card to his eye, “Brill, Ulysses Simpson. We might as well find those college kids that your access 2 wanted me to find.”

“Oh damn. I’d almost forgot,” she pressed her palm to her forehead. “Should we go back to talk to Flo and Eddie?”

“No need. They kept this place running so there’s no reason to think they didn’t keep the rest of my enterprise intact. Come on,” Brill offered Tatya his hand.

“Where to?”

“A place I know.” Together they set out walking

About 30 minutes later the pair arrived at a plain looking stucco building in a run down neighborhood. Punching a code into the keypad at the front door Brill looked both ways before hitting the “enter” button. Nothing happened. Rubbing his chin Brill spoke, “The code’s changed. Not to worry.” Pushing Tatya in front of the camera Brill began pressing the call buttons next to the door. Several angry voices responded, most asking if the person ringing their bell knew how late it was. Brill lowered his head and spoke in conspiratorial tones. “Isn’t she the one you wanted?”

Tatya turned to face Brill and glare at him. He nudged her forward and she turned back to the camera smiling broadly. There was a brief silence followed by the buzz of an electronic door release. Brill pushed her into the doorway. Spinning around she shoved him playfully in return.

“Where are we?”

Putting his finger to lips his he motioned her to a door with a sign that read “Stairway.” Taking the steps two at a time until they reached the forth landing, Brill stopped in front of an access panel door. The door was about three feet tall and Brill reached into his pocket and took out a one credit coin and turned the lock. The door eased open and Brill stooped inside the dark hole. Feeling with his hands in the dark he, at last, whispered “got it,” and pulled Tatya into the dark hole and closed the door. She stood up inside the closet with Brill holding her close to his body.

Tatya whispered sarcastically, “This is romantic.”

Fumbling in the pitch black Brill pushed another panel open and flicked on a light. The hidden room behind the closet was small but well furnished. It was equipped with a bed, several chairs, and a numerous large pillows on the floor. At one end was a makeshift kitchen and a small bathroom.

“I used to own this building, so I had this room built as a safe hiding place. It’s a little dusty but it’ll work until we can figure out what to do next.”

Dragging her finger along the top of a piece of furniture Tatya commented, “This is pretty nice stuff.”

Brill shook his head as he spoke. “I was doing pretty well for myself. Nobody knows about this place. We can stay here as long as we have food. I’ll figure out the new entrance code before we leave.”

They both washed up and Tatya threw herself on the bed as hint of dust swirled into the air.

“This place isn’t to bad for being empty, for how long?”

Brill smiled. “I set it up so a maid ‘bot would come through every three months. I figured anymore than that might arouse suspicion at the service. One extra room every three months wouldn’t even show up on the records.”

“Great, but we don’t have much time ’til these cards show up as scratch.”

“I know.” Drying his hands on a towel Brill sat on the bed next to Tatya. “Tell me about this access 2 that wanted you to meet me.”

“Don’t know his name,” she said as she laced her fingers behind her head. “The DA told me you could take us to Flo and Eddie and maybe the Billy Weed… I guess somewhere in there I was supposed to find out more about that bad brain. ‘Some access 2 ordered this.’ That’s all they told me.”

“Okay, you’ve seen Flo and Eddie, well Flo anyway. Did you see what they wanted you to see?” Brill asked holding her bandaged finger in his hand.

“I don’t know what I was supposed to… see. The DA was going to contact me before we made the visit. They’ve been setting this up for two and a half years.”

“Wait a minute, the DA has been chasing this bad brain for two and half years without any luck? Then, out of the blue I find a guy carrying it? I don’t like coincidence.”

“Well, I… out of the blue? Why were you there tonight? I mean right when that guy de-poled?”

“Damn.” Brill shook his head. “I got a ‘violent disturbance’ call from a spotter program. But that guy wasn’t even outside yet. It took me almost five minutes to get there. The spotter sent the message more than five minutes before that guy hit the steps.”

“Huh?” Tatya was confused.

“A spotter program won’t run indoors.” Privacy issues had arisen many times over the years of spotter programs and only activity in public areas could legally be accessed by the main camera programs.

“So that trace cam might have been…” Her voice trailed off.

Brill nodded and finished for her, “… programmed or running illegally inside or it was… Who has access to the spotter programs?”

“DA only. I know, I work there.”

“Did they try to talk you out of this assignment?”

Tatya rolled her eyes. “They begged me to stay off of this… but because of you.”

“Uh uh.” Brill closed his eyes, took a deep breath and continued. “Whoever set this up, doesn’t want any witnesses, or loose ends, or whatever you want to call it. Someone wanted me to shoot that guy tonight and they didn’t want you involved because they want everybody involved in this to be… dead or completely discredited.”

“But they wanted you to go after that ‘bad brain’ in the first place. They thought that a long-time wisper might be able to handle Zeke.”

“Zeke?”

“That’s what they called it. The ‘bad brain’… Zeke.”

“The guy I shot tonight… was a…” His voice trailing off.

Tatya sat up quickly and pulled her finger out of Brill’s grasp. “Ouch, that hurt.”

Staring into the wall Brill apologized quietly. He suddenly stood up. “One GDF dead and one uniformed officer dead… They won’t hesitate to kill Flo and Eddie! Damn! We’ve got to go back and tell ‘em. I don’t think we can do this over the commo,” he snapped stuffing his badge under his shirt.

“The DA doesn’t know where they are that’s why they wanted you.”

“It’s only a matter of time before Smitty figures out that he got the wrong transport. As soon as he looks up the record he’ll know, and then he’ll trace our friend Billy Buxton to…”

“I thought you said that was a dead zone.”

“It’s good, Tea, but nor perfect. Somebody carrying a level 4 scratch can figure it out.”

Turning towards her he spoke again. “Tea, these are dangerous people I want you to stay here.”

“No chance, Ully.”

“Listen, Tea. Smitty… smiled the whole time he was on site remember?”

“So…”

“Tea, he was ‘hooked up’ that’s why he was so happy. And he was protected from any ‘bad brain.’” Only one wisp at a time could inhabit a human psyche so someone already carrying one wouldn’t be susceptible to a bad brain.

“How can you be certain he was hooked up?”

“What better way to protect yourself from a ‘bad brain?’ He was hooked up, all right. I should’ve seen it in his eyes.”

“He wouldn’t know if the transport or the uniformed officer had the wisp because he couldn’t take on another. That would explain why the strap marks on that guys head. Smitty killed him and then waited for a wisp to retrograde through the straps…”

“How long can a wisp live in a dead human?”

“As long as a current can flow through the body, but a wisp would try to leave the body as soon as the electrical activity stopped. But that poor ‘uniform’ didn’t have it. And Smitty couldn’t flush it out of the transport because it wasn’t the right one.”

“Won’t you please stay here, Tea?” Brill spun towards his lover.

“Nope.”

“God, you’re beautiful when your stubborn.”

“I bet you say that to all the assistant DAs.”

*****

After securing their hiding place Brill showed Tatya how to get back in if anything happened to him or if they were separated.

Arriving at the apartment building of Flo and Eddie, Brill spotted an almost imperceptible line of melted metal where the lock held the door into the jamb.

He ran his fingers along the metal. Looking over his shoulder he scanned the area for any sign of tampering with his misdirected cameras. He saw none.

The door opened at this touch and he examined the lock’s destruction more closely. The tool was a precision burglary tool.

Pointing to the clean cut Brill spoke. “Professional job. Please, wait here.”

The sight of the laser cut metal on the doorway convinced Tatya that it would be in her best interest to wait downstairs.

Nodding her head she moved to a dark corner and turning her back to it slid down the walls until she sat on the floor in a heap. Brill took a deep breath and headed to the stairway. The elevator was partially ajar indicating someone had taken extra pains to destroy the mechanism before leaving the scene.

Pulling out his pulse weapon he entered the unlit stairwell. He stood for a long time in the dark letting his eyes adjust and listening for any sounds. A sound, like a refrain from a song came from the next landing. Slowly moving up the steps Brill came closer to the source of the sound, until he was next to it. Kicking open the door on the landing Brill saw in the light from the hall one of Flo and Eddie’s bodyguards lying in a pool of blood, his head on the lowest step and the rest of his body above. A hole was in his chest and part of his lung lie outside his ribs. The noise Brill heard was the air squeaking through a hole in the bodyguard’s lung.

As breeze from the opened door hit the man’s body it convulsed one time and Brill heard a long slow release of breath from a dead man.

 Brill sat down on his heels to gather himself letting the door close. After several deep gulps of air Brill yanked open the hall door again and rushed through.

The apartment occupied by his former partners in crime was turned upside down. A quick scan of the room revealed no signs of life. Brill moved quickly to the other side of the room with his pulse weapon in front of him. A slight movement to his right caught his attention and he wheeled the weapon in that direction with his finger on the trigger. it was a small movement from someone very near death. Flo lifted his hand but not his wrist. Spinning around, Brill made one last scan of the room before he leaped to his old friend’s side.

“Flo, lie still.”

A smile crossed Flo’s lips as he haltingly spoke. “You just missed your friend, Smitty. He took the carrier… I… I told him… we had… a real deal wisp…”

“Easy Flo I’ll get…”

Flo’s hand moved again. “No. I told him… we were going to… pick it up at sector…6f. Gave him… the name and everything”

Brill cradled Flo’s head in his arms now. “Flo I told you it was in Sector 11a.”

“Yeah… we picked… it up.

Flo haltingly raised his finger to point to a corner where a small box mixed in the ruins of the room. There sat Brill’s package he had promised to his former partners. Flo smiled again.

“Ully… he’ll go to every… postal sector in the metro… to find it… he can’t resist… I could see it in his eyes…” A weak smile crossed the wounded man’s face knowing he set up his murderer.

“Kill him, Ully. He killed, Eddie. Made me watch. Kill him, Ully… Promise me.” Brill looked to the package and set his jaw.

“I will, Flo… Flo?” It was too late.

Brill laid him back down on the floor and went to check the other room. There was Eddie two meters from the bed where she had tried to pull herself away from Smitty using just her arms to move across the floor. Anger rose inside Brill. He walked back into the front room and stood in front of the small package in the corner. Falling into a cross-legged sitting position, Brill tore the wrapper off the box and found the device that held the wisp in limbo. The radio had been equipped with a new battery when Brill had stashed it and the wisp could have survived on the charge for several more years. He didn’t have a plan when he stashed it but now it would come in handy.

A wisp thrived on emotion and wispers who were hooked up could have superhuman strength in a fight due to the wisp’s stimulation of a person’s fight or flight center. Whatever emotion was strongest in the human’s mind was the center that got the most stimulation from the wisp. Hard core wispers could control where the wisp was taking up residence in their mind and could direct a wisp to the center they most wanted stimulated. That is what made wispers so dangerous, the wisp cared little what emotional center was producing the energy, the wisp just found it and fed stimuli to that center to create more energy creating a self perpetuating feedback. While Brill was in GDF academy the cadre told a story from the Uzbekistan metro area. A dealer had been making a potent copy of a governmental wisp. A user stole a bad brain and, after being cornered, had killed two uniformed officers, one GDF Detective and was only taken down after three direct hits from a pulse weapon and multiple stingers. The man lived for almost 10 full minutes after the majority of his insides were turned to mush.

Closing his eyes Brill reached inside the back of the radio and placed his finger onto the battery connection. He had been off the dime for three years and he felt good about it. He was going back into the world that had consumed his every waking moment until he met Tatya. There was a moment’s hesitation as he thought about Tatya back in his life. Then his thoughts shifted to his promise to Flo and Brill touched the connectors. His body involuntarily shuddered as the wisp found it’s way into his cerebral cortex. There was always a short period of adjustment but being the old wisper that Brill had been he made the wisp move to the area of the brain that controlled anger. Brill wanted to be ready for Smitty when they came face to face.

 Turning to leave Brill caught his reflection in a broken mirror hanging on the wall. Rage made his eyes glow in his mind’s eye. He stepped to the mirror and banged into it with his forehead causing a small trickle of blood to flow as the remnants of glass fell to the carpet. Inside the wisp was in a feeding frenzy after three years of nothing more than a battery to dine on. A wisp could live about a year without any electrical energy and indefinitely on human generated energy. The small line of blood flowing down Brill’s forehead fed his anger. He was approaching the superhuman stage.

Tatya didn’t hear Brill hit the bottom step so when he stepped into the light of the alcove she jumped.

“Ully, are you okay?”

Staring straight ahead he replied. “Yeah, let’s go,” his voice carried no hint of emotion.

“Where?”

“To get Smitty.” Tatya had never hear his voice so determined.

“Where’s Flo an…”

“Dead.” Brill did not look towards the girl he loved so much. He needed to focus to keep his hated aimed at Smitty.

“Are you okay, Ully?”

Slowly Brill’s head turned towards Tatya’s pretty blonde head. “No. We have to go. Now,” was his mechanical response. Tatya was scared when she saw Brill’s head turn slowly back towards the front door.

“Ully…” she started

Without changing his affect her calmed her fears. “You’re safe with me. We gotta find Smitty. I know where he’ll be.”

Standing up Tatya moved forward to stand by Brill’s shoulder while keeping her eyes on his head looking for sign of recognition. He moved through the door and out into the night air. Walking to a cab “Summons” post Brill pressed the button that would hail a computer controlled taxi cab. Within thirty seconds a cab silently slid to a stop at the curb and the door popped open. They both stepped inside and sat down. Brill flashed his phony ID and spoke. “Eleventh Sector Postal Center.”

A computer response came back quickly. “I’m sorry sir that ID cannot be billed at this time. Would you like to speak to a human supervisor or can your companion…”

A kick from the back seat smashed through the on board computer causing sparks to dance around the inside of the cab. Tatya started at Brill’s action.

“Ully, you’re scaring me. Stop it!” Brill pulled out his pulse weapon and took a direct aim at the broadcast unit of the cab and let loose with a blast. Immediately the lights inside the cab went dead.

“Smitty, is one step ahead of us. Please, trust me, Tea. I love you.” His mechanical speech terrified Tatya.

“Why should I? What’s going on, Ully?”

Staring straight ahead he replied slowly with a flat affect. “I’m hooked up and need to focus. I will not harm you for anything.” His head turned in a slow manner towards her. “Please, trust me.”

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, “Ully, you’ve been clean for so long. I don’t know what to…”

“Trust me… Tea.”

Nodding, she close her eyes to stop the flow of tears. She had worked so hard to keep him off the dime and now she knew he was on a wisp. How could she explain her actions to her supervisor? Her position was on the line, and the man she loved was back on the wisper track. But at this point all options were exhausted she would have to take this ride to the end, for better or worse.

Tatya sniffed and asked, “Okay, how do we get there, now?”

He pushed her out of the disabled cab before he tossed his scratch inside and he walked straight to the call box for the apartment building next door. Pressing all the call buttons quickly Brill yelled into the box, “Give me a ride in a personal transport to the Eleventh Sector Postal Central and I’ll give you 200 credits!” Stepping back they waited several moments until the telltale buzz of the electronic door release sounded. Moving into the alcove they were greeted by a man who stepped out of the first door next to the elevator and eyed them suspiciously.

“Show it to me,” was his greeting.

Brill’s hand moved inside his coat to his holstered weapon and Tatya put her hand on his arm to stop his action.

The man’s eyes narrowed, “Do you want a ride or not?”

Pulling Brill’s arm from under his coat Tatya said, “We really need the ride. Ully, give him the money.”

After a pause, Brill reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of paper, extending it towards the man. Stepping forward the man picked through the bundle and pulled out what he wanted and handed the remainder back to Tatya.

“Two hundred it is.”

Another tenant burst around the corner at that moment and Brill’s hand moved towards his shoulder holster, again. Tatya caught his hand quickly and turned towards the man directly in front of them.

“Go back to your room Woody. It’s just some crazy wisper, I’ll take care of it,” the man said without taking his eyes from the uninvited guests. “I’m out back,” he continued after the tenant had left. Staring at the pair for long time, the man finally turned on his heel and led them to a narrow hallway that led to the back where personal transports sat recharging in their stalls.

The door popped open as the man put his palm on the handle. Mechanically Brill slid inside with Tatya close behind.

“Thank you for…” Tatya started as the man sat down and closed the door.

“Wait,” the man pointed to the partially open door. When the finally closed with a clunk. He raised his badge to his eye and placed his palm on the starter plate. “Sector Eleven Postal Center,” and the vehicle moved into the street. As they picked up speed the man leaned back, dug into his pocket and pulled out the wad of bills. Handing it to Tatya he looked directly at Brill. “You’re Ully Brill.” Brill stared straight ahead into space.

Tatya glanced at Brill and back to the man. “What do you..?”

“I want a piece of whatever you’re into.” Now, it was Tatya who turned a suspicious gaze back at the driver of the transport. “I’ve lived here long enough to know who ‘the great’ Ully Brill is. He set up this whole neighborhood. Flo and Eddie talk about him all the time. They say he went GDF… but if he were straight you two wouldn’t need a ride.” His eyes searched Brill’s. “I’m Sammy, just Sammy, and judging from the glow behind his eyes he’s not really with us.” He turned to face Tatya, “Is he?”

Her bottom lip pushed her mouth into a slight pout as she fought back more tears. “Get us to the Postal Center and we’ll give whatever we can.”

“And what’s your name?”

“Tatya, just Tatya.”

“All right, “just Tatya’, we’ve got a deal.”

Sci Fry chap 2

Chapter Two.

 

 

350 years prior

 

Landing Craft 2a from the Space Exploratory Ship (SES 23d) Ibn Batuta descended through the pallid air of the planet while the Delta Troop of the 15th Strike Force prepared for their landing along side the 7th Insertion Unit of the 1st Division of the 26th Combined Planetary Marine Corps. The Strike Force Marines (who called themselves “Strikers”) nudged each other, pointed and murmured between themselves as the Science Operations Troopers (SOs) checked their equipment and ran the final tests on their ancient and fragile tube-electronic equipment.

Sergeant First Class, William “Willy’ Harris shouted over the din, “Shut the fuck up Marines! Do what you have to do with a minimum of Ox deuce!’

“Ox deuce” was jargon every military member used for oxygen. Nothing was more important to a soldier than Ox deuce.

“Careful with the equipment you ‘double digit’ peons…’ He continued with his practiced tirade.

A “triple digit” was a broad title for any creature with a triple digit IQ: a misnomer regarding the break point for intelligence at least equal to a human being. Anything “double digit” was considered inferior and subject to scorn and derision by the elite protection troops: the Strikers.

“We don’t give you permission to break anything.” The sergeant was pacing in front his soldiers as he berated. “You break it, you buy it and you can’t stay in this man’s Corps long enough to pay it back. Do you hear me Meyer, this ain’t your momma’s hair dryer, damn it!” he barked moving face to face with Meyer.

Meyer held the equipment high and shouted back, “Nobody told me I was going in with antique electronics, Sarge. If I’d known that I would’ve joined the Strikers, at least they can’t break their gear.”

The combat trained Marines laughed at this comment as they banged and clanked through their final combat check items with extra noise and effort as they prepared for the mission.

“See the system, boys and girls… hang on to your dicks and tits with both hands while the STRIKE FORCE leads the way…” one soldier yelled. This comment was answered with barks and hoots from the Marines.

The Strikers smiled at one another, they looked down on the SO soldiers. Both knew without the other they would be useless but the underlying currents of rivalry persisted. Strikers hit the site to ensure security while the SOs took the readings, measured livability readings, set up equipment, and retrieved the technology that was the objective of their missions.

At the completion of any mission no two dissimilar groups were tighter than Strikers and SOs. The sooner SOs secured a site and setup an atmosphere the sooner the Strikers could strip breathers and radiation suits (collectively called B-gear). SOs needed the Strikers to cover their backs while they set up Atmosphere Stations (ATS).

An ATS was an impervious bubble that could keep everyone within it breathing as long as the shell was unbroken. Plus, the ATS kept out all but the strongest radiation bursts, “If an SO can’t make it cozy, don’t go” was the unofficial motto of the Science Operation Marines.

Duties outside the ATS were considered hard ones and the sooner the bulbble was operational the easier a Striker’s life became. A Striker would defend an SO to the death because Ox deuce was a limited commodity until the ATS was functioning.

An ATS separated oxygen from ferrous oxide or aluminum oxide in the ground to produce breathable oxygen. Both were a common elements in the universe and could be easily separated to create an earth-like atmosphere inside the bubble. The probes from the ATS was buried into the soil and as the oxygen was extracted metals replaces the soils underfoot, eventually creating a solid metallic floor within and nearby.

The greatest obstacle to planetary exploration was water consumption. Water recycling in the Marines’ suits still involved some loss. When possible, any trip longer than the self contained water storage could be conducted within the vicinity of comets, another common system commodity, in order to extract the water they contained.

The last, and most dangerous, option was hydrogen and oxygen combination. A few infamous missions had ended badly as an Ox deuce generator had “eaten the dirt” as the Marines referred to it. Pilots of a landing craft would gather hydrogen from outside a planet’s atmosphere. The hydrogen was then cooled to a liquid state and stored in a holding container near the ground-based Ox deuce generator until a geosynchronous satellite called a “hy-sat” could be set up for the slower but continuous hydrogen collection.

To minimize the number of trips a landing craft had to make, always a high fuel consumption operation, a hydrogen container had to hold enough a week’s issue of water. Hydrogen and oxygen have an explosive reaction and gathering oxygen from the ground underneath a full hydrogen container could lead to a calamitous event.

Any time an SO was de Ox-ing the soil the possibility of catastrophic reaction was a remote possibility, but when containerized liquid hydrogen was nearby everyone’s pulse quickened and their palms became sweaty. When soldiers spoke of an Ox deuce generator “eating he dirt” they meant that the soil underfoot became explosive and a stray spark could make the ground actually dissolve in a ball of flame.

Everyone knew this was going to be a mission where the needed water would come from a combination operation. Additionally, no one had ever attempted a mission on a site where the atmosphere was made up entirely of noble gases. It seemed safe enough on the face of it but Marines were trained to take nothing for granted.

Neon was the most common element in the air on this planet and the free ranging electrical activity recorded by the drones were decidedly non-natural. These electrical disturbances were the reason the SOs were ordered to carry antique tube electronics. Unshielded flux and solid state equipment might be affected by the uncontrolled electrical energy. Other planets with non-natural electrical occurrences had been encountered but these particular circumstances were unique.

*****

Something about this mission made Harris uneasy. His people had been issued tube equipment that must have been 300 years old or copied from technology older.

The primary mission of the Planetary Marines was to retrieve technology wherever it could be found. The race that created this technology had never been encountered or even identified. Bits and pieces of a civilization that had colonized throughout our celestial neighborhood no later than 50,000 years ago was all that was left. The technology left in the wake of the missing civilization could be adapted, utilized, and sold to the highest bidder on earth. Some of the technology found in several nearby systems, or orbiting around or in them, provided breakthrough innovations that produced historic profits for both the buyers and the planetary government that brought them back.

But sending Marines out to a site with outdated, delicate equipment did not make sense. When Harris asked more specific questions about the mission his concerns were dismissed. “Someone up the food chain wants to try something new,” was all Harris could get in response to his questions.

Stanley “Auger” Band, a “Specter” halfway to retirement, stepped through the air lock portal into the Marine prep dock and all the soldiers fell silent. The Marines looked away busying themselves with the pre-landing preparations to avoid the “evil eye” all Specters where thought to possess. The marine belief was: to look at a Spector before landing was an ill omen and to be avoided.

Landing craft pilots were called Specters by everyone, including other pilots. No one talked to them for fear of putting a jinx on a mission. They were the unseen and unheralded members of every mission. If a Specter screwed up everyone on the mission could die. The landing craft were piloted with a minimum of computer controls because the number of unknowns in an atmospheric descent were overwhelming. Veteran Specters were either good or dead. With five missions, and hundreds of hours of “real” flight time to his credit Auger had more experience than most Specters, living or dead.

Specters would also give last minute instructions, those received in transit (while the crew was in stasis or deep sleep), and final landing orders to a Marine commander and because of this were always seen as harbingers of bad news.

“Harris,” Band motioned the sergeant forward.

By military protocol Band should have called him “Sergeant Harris,” but once a mission left the dock, mission controllers and Spectors ran the show until touchdown. They regained control again after departure from the planet’s suface, until re-dock with the mission control vessel. More than protocol, superstition took over outside earth’s gravity well.

“What’ve you got, Auger?” Harris asked.

Band had earned the nickname Auger with his pinpoint but hard landings: “go ahead, just auger that thing in.”

“I don’t know, Willy. It looks weird.” Pilot First Class Band saw the sergeant’s anger flash brightly before Harris yanked the pilot into the adjacent emergency air lock.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, Pilot First Class?”

“Sorry, Sergeant Harris.”

“No, you ignorant double digit! You know better than to talk like that in front of…” he growled glancing over his shoulder. Slowly, Harris continued. “You tell me what’s going on first, Marine, or I will piss in your Ox deuce!”

Band was genuinely sorry for his act of indiscretion. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Willy.”

The pair moved so that none of the other Marines could overhear their conversation. “Okay, now tell me ‘what’s weird,”’ Willy continued.

Band looked at the briefing screen he held in his hands. “They didn’t tell us about the purple hazy things.”

Harris tried to remain calm as he asked, “What ‘purple hazy things?’ There was nothing in the brief about that. We don’t like surprises, do we, Marine?”

“No, Sergeant,” Band replied in a practiced manner. “Tipton spotted ‘em as we were coming in. They look like glowing… clouds, like that old time kid’s story ‘Will o’ the Wisp.’ You know that story?”

Willy narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “No. And I don’t care.”

“Well these things’re about a meter across and purple colored with sparkles inside. They’re low power electrical impulses, in the…” Band glanced at his briefing screen, “______ angstrom range. That’s all I know.”

“Does an ATS bubble repel at that _______ angs?’

Band smiled and with a shrug replied, “Not my area of expertise, Sergeant.”

“Get the fuck outta here, Auger.” Harris scowled flicking his head towards the pilots’ cabin.

Band turned on his heel and started away. He was staring at his briefing screen when he came to an abrupt halt. Turning around, he took several step back towards Sergeant Harris.

“One more thing,” Band said in a half whisper. “We spotted a lot of those ‘will o’ the wisp’ things, near the target.”

“The towers?” Willy asked. Band nodded. The sergeant twisted the Spector’s wrist to stare at the screen, bathing his face in the green glow of it. “Shit! Okay, drop us about a 2500 meters short of the target.”

“It’ll take a couple of minutes to reprogram, but you got it, Willy.”

“Carry on, Marine.”

Band snapped to attention and barked, “Who-rah.”

*****

A sergeant’s job on a landing mission was to keep the troops in his unit moving expeditiously to secure the technology at the identified target. In 150 years of Marine landings in neighboring sytems all that had ever been encountered was “double digit” sentient life forms, archeological sites, and abandoned technology. But even some “double digits” could pose a real threat. The most notable was over 100 years ago.

Larger teams were used back then because ATS were much cruder, requiring much larger SO squads. 132 Marines landed on the site to secure and return an antenna left behind by the unknown creators.

The planet was full of sentient life but none was what Marines called a “triple digit.” At some point on the second day the top predators on this planet decided the Marines might be an easy meal. These creatures were more than three meters tall and seemed to have few weak spots. Concentrated and prolonged fire power was the best way to kill these voracious animals. The Marines allowed the creatures to maneuver themselves between the landing craft and the troops: a deadly mistake. After an intense 36 hour battle, in which the remaining troops were reduced to fighting with sharpened sticks and jagged metal after expending all their ammunition, 42 marines returned to the orbiter craft. Every member of the returning Marines was wounded, yet they brought back the technology intact. The device they brought back was nothing important but the legend of those intrepid Marines persisted. That mission was remembered by its target designation “Alpha two-three.”

 

****

 

Willy Harris stood in the egress chamber with his hands on his hips facing his troops.

“Listen up you ‘double digits!’” he barked. “A little change in plans…” This brought a chorus of groans. “Shut up! Nobody forced you to join the Corps, but I can and will end your life here and now if you piss me off, do I make myself clear, Marines?!” There was a smattering of half-hearted responses.

Pacing now, Harris continued. “What was that? You are Marines! The baddest mother-fuckers in the valley and WE have just come to town! Nothing can stand up to a Marine, not the Alpha two-three bogeyman… or anything else! We are the bogeyman! Who-rah?” Harris was in a fevered pitch and the troops were catching fire as they began to shout who-rahs and squad cheers.

“We will set down 2500 meters short of the primary target to bag a second.” This brought cheers and celebration. Marines were paid extra for each target they brought back, I second target meant a large bonus to the Marines. Harris knew there wasn’t a second target but he could not let his troops see any trace of his misgivings.

Harris snapped to attention and shouted at the walls, “Lance Corporal Pheno, front and center!”

Corporal Pheno was by far the biggest soldier in the unit. He bulled his way through the other troops, knocking some to the deck, before he stopped directly in front of Harris at attention.

“Corporal Pheno, by order of the Planetary Marine Corps you are hereby promoted to the rank of Sergeant Third Class.” Once the rank was attached to Pheno’s collar, Harris stepped back smartly and saluted. Then Willy stepped forward, and in the tradition of the Corps, punched the new sergeant in the arm in honor of the promotion. A chorus of yells broke out as the troops jumped on the delighted Pheno to deliver their own blows.

“All right, you monkeys, let’s get busy! We debark in,” glancing at his watch, “…6 mikes. Let’s move, Marines!”

Grabbing the still smiling Pheno by his arm, Harris pulled him aside and spoke quietly.

“You’re the Lead Striker, Pheno. Now listen, we’re going to set down short of the target because something ain’t right. I need your team sharp, got it?”

“‘Semper Fidilus’ Sergeant Harris.” Harris nodded once at the rookie sergeant and stepped back into the center of the aisle.

“All right everybody, strap in!”

The craft bumped to rough landing as expected from Auger. Pilot Band stuck his head through the rear portal and shouted a message everyone aboard had drilled a thousand times before, “Sergeant Harris, contact at,” he looked at watch, as did every other member of the force, “one four one seven… mark!”

Every member of the team set their watch to the same time at that moment.

“Helmuts on! Rear egress bolts are clear! Doors will open in 120 seconds! Welcome to M-10/18 of Pollux the beta star of the Constellation Gemini. Good hunting, Sergeant!” Band finished with a flourish as he slammed the hatch between the pilot’s compartment and the egress ramp area.

Lights began to flash and audible warning horns blared. If a rear egress door opening in zero pressure a catastrophic failure of some compartments could occur so extra precautions were taken to prevent accidental decompression. All of the egress compartment was stressed for zero or foreign atmospheres, while other compartments were not.

Raising his weapon above his head Harris popped in a magazine and slammed it home. This was the signal for the rest of the unit to do the same. Any verbal orders would be lost in the din of the alarms even with the squad mikes which also carried the alarms. The security force leapt through the partially open hatch and, in well-rehearsed covering bounds, sprinted towards the graceful twin 150-meter-tall metal spires.

The leader of the SO team was Sergeant Second Class Candide Rivera, but everyone called her Candy. Her great-great-great grandfather had been an SO on the Alpha two-three mission and one of only six SOs to return. Candy had a hard lean physique due to her brutal training regimen. From her natural birth she was expected to follow in her great-great-great grandfather’s footsteps.

*****

Most parents found the natural childbirth method both messy and unnecessarily dangerous but Candy’s parents were followers of a movement called the Great Spirit. Since almost everyone in North America at this time had some American Indian blood, anyone who chose, could live on the old reservations. On the reservations things were done in the same manner that they had before the European Age of Exploration giving rise to the Great Spirit following. The movement hit its peak as Candy was growing up. She had no engineering in her DNA but was as tough and as strong as those who carried multiple “dopers” in their genes. “Dopers” was the common term for genetic corrections and string enhancement. More than a dozen “dopers” in a fetus could have disastrous results and the practice became illegal for a time.

Decades prior to Candy’s birth physicians had tried to engineer hundreds of lines of code to build a “perfect specimen” of humanity. The subjects progressed at unprecedented rates until the changes associated with the end of puberty began to manifest. The subjects at this point were as big as adults and as smart but anomalies began to crop up with the onset of natural bodily changes in the codes, causing various organs to literally implode, as chaos theory set in. It was discovered that DNA strings had simply “too many moving parts” to guard against aberrations once the human blueprint brought about internal alterations triggered by the teen year’s transition. If any one portion of the string reverted it accelerated other reversions elsewhere leading to massive cell failures and a painful death.

*****

Rivera threw the ATS sling over her shoulder and struggled to her feet under its weight. This signaled the rest of SO squad to switch on all their equipment and ready themselves for their mission: half of the SO unit would make for the target while the rest would set up the ATS as quickly as possible in case they had to stay longer than 12 hours (the normal operating window of the Marine’s b-gear). SO squads never knew how much time would be needed to secure the technology from a target so the ATS operation was a priority.

With the ramp fully open the SO’s sprinted out.

“Harris, where’s the secondary,” Candy yelled into her squad mike as she cleared the ramp .

“We got bad intel, Rivera. Just move on to the primary,” Harris barked.

“First squad, you copy that?” Candy yelled just as Sergeant Harris switched the discriminator on his receiver to the Strike force.

Strikers where already fanning out, moving with very little noise except for the sound of panting troops running across open terrain.

“Pheno, have those purple clouds moved at all?” Harris barked.

“No, Sergeant. What are they?”

“Not my area of expertise, Pheno,” Harris responded. This brought a clutter of verbal traffic.

“At ease, Strikers!” Pheno snapped. “One is moving this way, Sergeant Harris.”

Harris turned to watch the purple cloud as it wandered slowly towards the point Striker.

Suddenly, the cloud sped up and took a direct line at the lead element.

“Pheno, I’ve been targeted,” screamed one the Strikers into his mike. Several more clouds began to follow the first.

“That was a deliberate move, Strike team!” screamed Harris. “You are in a free fire zone, I repeat, free fire! Pheno, pull your people back!”

The first cloud was accelerating towards the lead striker, now. Over the headset Harris heard the striker scream, “Heat or E-X?” referring to his ammo load.

Pheno shouted, “Fire your chambered load and continue at will! Strike team one lay down suppressive fire over the point’s head! Fire! Fire, at will!”

As the the Heat (high explosive) rounds left the barrel of the weapons in an oxygen atmosphere it left behind a thin trail of black smoke. Any triple digit could follow this line of smoke back to the source and target the firing soldier. In this alien atmosphere the round left an even greater trail: a bright line like those resembling the flame throwers used in the second world war.

“Switch to E-X” Harris yelled into his mike as he pressed the “over-ride all” button (E-X rounds were pulse electronic generation of x-rays). “Fire and move, every triple digit in the sector will see that trail!’

“…geant Harris, do you copy? I repeat, get them to stop shooting over our heads, God damn it, Willie!” Rivera was frantically screaming into her microphone.

“Candy, back to the ship, out! Pheno, this is definitely triple digit behavior can you stop them?” Harris barked without taking a breath.

“Unknown Sergeant, the E-X has some effect but Heat was ineffective, repeat ineffective!”

Harris turned towards the landing craft only to see hundreds of purple clouds coming over the horizon directly behind them.

“Alpha two-three! Alpha two-three!’ Harris screamed into his mike. The code words “Alpha two-three” was written every unit’s operation procedures as “the last resort” of command and control. It meant everyone was supposed to get back to ship as quickly as possible with their battle partner. A Marine never leaves a battle partner behind.

“I say again, Alpha two-three, this is not a drill! Landing craft, we are Alpha two-three at this time, begin preflight! Auger, do you copy?”

In Harris’s headset was a jumble of voices. Everyone was talking at once as Sergeant Harris sprinted back towards the egress platform firing his weapon at the closing clouds. Through the confusion Harris heard a “Roger preflight” and saw the outer ballast tanks of the landing craft release air in a swirling cloud of red dust. Then Group Sergeant First Class William Harris, Planetary Marine Corps heard the most dreaded words a commander could hear, “Man down! Candy, give me a hand!” Then a different voice screamed, “Man down, man down!”

Harris had just reached the ramp door when he heard several more “man down” messages. These were his soldiers, and they were going down quickly. He threw down his issue weapon and reached inside a compartment labeled “T-E-X 1201, Extreme Caution” (below that in crudely lettered printing was “Pretty Hate Machine”). Harris yanked out a large cruel looking weapon. He began yelling like a man possessed by demons and fired the weapon into the air above him.

Those soldiers nearby were knocked to the ground by the air blast from the weapon. The blast expanded slowly with smaller bursts spiraled outward from the center, picking up speed before spreading a sickly red sparkle in their wake. The purple clouds within range of this burst dissipated into nothingness.

Radio traffic was mayhem by this time: filled with screams and requests for help. Through all this Sergeant Harris heard Pilot First Class Band say clearly “Roger, base understand ‘clear for departure!’ But I’ve got soldiers on the ground, negative liftoff! I repeat negative liftoff!”

The purple clouds had engulfed the ship and most of the soldiers wrapped in the cloak of hues were writhing on the ground by this time. The downed soldiers were jerking involuntarily and rolling in the red dirt. Pheno grabbed Harris’s shoulder and spun him around as he shouted at his face mask, “Give ‘em one more blast.”

Harris knew there were only five rounds in this weapon but at this point they were completely surrounded and the clouds were closing in. Willie was desperate.

Harris yelled back, “Pheno, release pioneer-kits!’” The new sergeant sprinted up the egress ramp and grabbed an lever inside an the overhead compartment and jumped off as the landing craft began to rise. A half dozen metal boxes containing emergency rations, tools, the hy-sat, and ammunition tumbled onto the red dust as the landing craft slowly lifted off from the planet’s surface.

“Abort liftoff! Abort! Auger!” Harris’s voice was cracking by now.

 

Pilot Band screamed back, “Preflight completed! Unable override, base has control! Base, do you copy? Abort liftoff!”

Landing craft were designed to automatically return to the base ship if the preflight had been completed by the pilot and base took control. This was to assure a safe return to the base ship if the pilots had been injured or disabled in an encounter with some unknown situation.

Harris reasoned that someone in orbit with the main ship must have panicked and recalled the ship before the ground crew could get back aboard. A swirl of red dust engulfed the landing craft as the nose dipped and the silver machine began to scurry back to the parent ship like a bear cub to its mother.

Pheno leaped off the landing ramp to fire several rounds over Sergeant Harris’ head. Harris snapped his head back towards the lead Striker.

“Why didn’t you stay on board, you double digit?” Harris screamed over the din that filled the consumed the radio traffic in their headsets.

“These are my soldiers now, Willie!” Pheno yelled as he sprinted towards the melee firing his weapon blindly.

When Pilot Band peered out the window he saw dust intermingling with the purple clouds as they swirled together. The landing craft turned and he saw Harris point the T-E-X 1201 into the air. At this close range the blast could have taken down the landing craft.

Harris was disappeared in the dust and purple clouds. The nose of the landing craft pointed at the red soil as the craft pulled away from the landing party. An explosion rocked the landing craft as red sparkles danced off the front ports and made the machine shudder from its depths.

Band was still trying to override the automatic return program and raise base simultaneously. His voice was an octave higher than normal amidst the radio traffic. Every time he released the transmit button he heard the screams and confusion on the ground. As the craft passed low over the battlefield he could see the soldiers writhing on the ground.

Band reached for the handle that opened the hatch between himself and his copilot. Right above the red handle in big letters was the warning “Caution: Do Not Open In Flight.” The difference in pressure between the two compartments created a slight whoosh when the hatch released. Alarms went off as the metal door swung open triggering flashing lights and audible alarms adding to the din of the emergency on the ground. Both pilots were supposed to avoid exposure to any alien atmosphere. To be doubly safe pilots were not allowed to be exposed to each other after liftoff in case one became contaminated to some alien organism.

Seated to his right in an identical cockpit sat Pilot Third Class Sheila Tipton a rookie fresh out of flight school, so new she didn’t even have a nickname yet.

“Close that hatch, damn it!” She set her shoulder against the hatch as she began shrieking into her microphone, “Base, we have a possible contamination, breach of pilot hatch, starting decontamination procedure, now! Base do you copy?”

 

Band reached over and switched her microphone to the “internal” position. The landing craft was beginning to buck, without humans to guide it, as they approached zero atmosphere.

“Listen to me, God damn it! We have to go back!” Band shouted above the commotion.

“Damn it! I don’t have an override, Stan!”

Stanley pointed to a small hole where the old system manual override switch used to be.

“Stick your finger in it!”

Her head cocked slightly as her finger came against something solid.

“Press it!” he shouted over the alarms. The craft shuddered as it returned to manual.

“Okay, now what?” Tipton fell back against her seat as Band wrested the landing craft back towards the battlefield.

“Drop hy-sat drone!”

“They may not be connected!” she yelled back.

“Just drop it!”

Now, new horns began to blat out new warnings

While the landing craft’s nose swung slowly towards the horizon the alarms stopped and the flashing lights in the cockpit went out. Band quickly scanned the cockpit and knew something was wrong. The lights and alarms were not supposed to stop. He turned his head towards his co-pilot slowly and stated, “Oh my God… we have a breach. Something’s in the electronics.”

“What ’something’ damn it?” Screaming Sheila was on the verge of tears.

“Purge and reload system!” Stanley shouted as his hands darted out at buttons and controls.

“I don’t remember the procedure, damn it. Stop yelling!”

Band took a deep breath and fell into his years of training and experience.

“Tipton. Go through the emergency purge list,” Stanley spoke in a deadly calm voice. This was the time for him to take charge of this situation without emotions.

Sheila closed her eyes to settle herself. Her fingers darted up to the “First Release” button. She snapped it and announced confidently, “First Release, off.”

“Check. First off,” he snapped his own switch. “Go Second Release, neutral.” He continued.

“Roger. Second, neutral.” The rookie fell into the drill.

Stanley Band heard the Mission Commander’s voice in his headset, “Stand by, base,” was his terse reply.

“What the hell happened, Auger? We didn’t issue the recall!” The voice from the base ship commander Captain Tyrone “Tug” Blest growled. The man was called Tug because of broad build. He wasn’t overweight: instead he was a six feet tall and appeared three feet wide. He was built like a tug vehicle.

“Answer me, damn it! What’s going on?”

 

“We have a breach in the electrical system. Um.. something has taken over the system. We’re gonna try a system purge. Command, do you copy landing craft, over?”

“What do you mean taken over?’ Tug snapped.

“System unresponsive! Something has taken over!” Band shouted to be heard over the voice traffic of the landing party. “We’ll, purge and reload.”

“Stand by. on that purge. Give me a minute… Lea, give me a containment procedure.” Tug’s voice betrayed his anxiety.

“Base, the breach in the electronics may have triggered the recall,” Band continued. After the first flush of combat and the automatic recall Band had no idea what was running the system. He only knew it wasn’t the standard operation Marine Operations Online Zed 00 program “MOOZOO” in charge.

“MOOZOO is not in command, I repeat, MOOZOO off line! We are attempting manual override… um, for the record… Pilot First Class Stanley Band has called it… and Sheila… Tipton… um Pilot Third Class Sheila Tipton is assisting, on my authority… this is my call, I repeat it is my call, I will answer, in full, for override. Um,Tug… what do I do now?”

“Get off the ground channel!” The Mission Commander shouted over the screams and confusion from the Marines left behind. “Go, discreet number one!”

The pilots from both ships switched to the predetermined channel away from the noisy traffic from the landing party on the planet’s surface.

Turning away from his screen Tug covered his microphone with his index finger and shouted to his second-in-command.

“Ribbons, I need a threat assessment, now!” Pilots in the command craft could not see one another because of the wall of computers between the positions but they could shout to communicate between stations. All efforts had been made in designing ships to reduce the amount of unneccessary space filled with OX-duece but the command cell where these two sat was more spacious than most areas in order to keep internal computers cool.

Most ship computers were vented to the outside space (at near absolute zero) but for life support redundancy the internal computers (most of which monitored life support et cetera) were kept at the same temperature as the crew.

“Standby!” She screamed back.

First Lieutenant Lea “Ribbons” Rybinski was on her second mission as an assistant mission commander. She knew the standard operating procedures concerning contamination and the consequences as well as Tug but it was her responsibility to give the “book answer” while he had the final say. Skipping through several screens of information she finally began to quote from the regulations.

“Okay. ‘Containment of alien entities shall be accomplished by isolation in static state…’ shit. Um ‘… secondary containment shall be determined…’ Stand by ‘…procedures mandated by the…”’ Lea flashed through several more screens of regulations by the time she had found the exact quotation she hoped would determine the proper actions for the present circumstances.

Sheila Tipton broke in, “We don’t even know what happened on the planet. All we know for sure, is the landing craft launched before we recovered the ground crew. I could have accidentally hit the ‘Launch’ button…’

“Auger, I need…” Tug hesitated.

“Already running the ‘Actions Replay’” program Band broke in, “I’ve got a replay, coming in a second…”

Tug came back on the microphone, “Ribbons, ‘by the’ what?’

“… over,” Band finished.

Slowly, Lea relayed the regulations to the mission commander, “‘… by the manner to be determined at first contact.”’

“What the hell does that mean?” the mission commander barked.

“Don’t yell at me, Tug! I don’t know.” Ribbons directed her anger and confusion at the landing craft now. “Auger, you said ‘we have a breach in the electronics.’ Do you have a confirmation on that, over?” The mission’s second-in-command had an edge to her voice.

After a long pause Band spoke, “Tipton did not issue the recall but something sent the command. And it didn’t come from command… Tug, it’s your call… What do we do?”

Sci Fry chap 1

The uniformed officers still had their disabling stun weapons (stingers) drawn, their arms extended guiding them forward, as they cautiously approached the lifeless body lying in the gutter. Paper, caught in the breeze of passing vehicles gathered around the dead man’s ankles. Detective Sergeant First Class Ulysses Simpson Brill slowly lowered his pulse weapon. He blinked deliberately and then stared at his hands still clutching the device that had, so recently, taken the man’s life. It crackled with residual energy, the glow only now dimming.

Shoving the weapon back into the shoulder holster under his jacket, Brill swallowed hard before yelling to the uniformed officers, “I’m GDF! Keep everybody away from the body and get me the night shift supervisor!”

Panting hard Brill consciously fought to slow his breathing, until he was sucking in deep breaths to calm his spinning head while the uniformed patrolmen scurried around the scene poking at the gathering crowd with their stingers at waist level. Trace cams hissed and sputtered overhead searching for camera angles not covered by the others.

Another uniformed officer arrived, carrying some modicum of authority on his broad shoulders. The average citizen could only afford enough food to carry more than a minimum of weight and muscle on their frame, greater affluence allowed someone to bulk up with either biostimulation (the easiest method) or by old fashioned exercise. Either way, without the addition daily caloric intake it was impossible to increase body size beyond embryonic DNA enhancement (expensive and illegal after the second trimester) or genetic predisposition.

Brill was a bigger man than most through neccessity: he was a Detective Sergeant First Class in the GDF. GDF was the Global Defense Force, the worldwide police agency, while these patrolmen were only local district enforcement, unsure of their authority with a dead body lying in the gutter.

Brill took one more deep gulp of air before holding his ID card, between his right thumb and index finger, to his right eye. Immediately a flat computer generated voice bleated out: “Identified. Brill, Ulysses Simpson. GDF rank Sergeant, access level 6, deadly force authorized…”

The large officer spun quickly barking orders to the others who pressed the crowd to disperse while their stingers snapped and sparked.

A 3D hologram projection of Ully materialized in front of him spinning slowly to insure positive identification.

Every citizen was required to carry their ID card at all times outside their private domicile by order of the world-wide government, Lloyds of London Ltd which now called itself Loyon. On each ID card all manner of information was channeled, through a central information database, to update and display all information requested within seconds.

An ID badge was every citizen’s link to the rest of the world. It contained a small imbedded computer that kept track of a citizen’s bank account, daily errands, security access, health records, in fact, every piece of data connected to that specific individual. To prevent theft the computer in the badge had a triple security system. One was a thumb print reader that sent a random bio-electrical current through the body to determine whether it matched the current received by a second security device: an iris print reader.

All of this was required for the badge to make a positive ID. Then the computer in the badge projected a full size 3D wire model of the person, facial photographs and all pertinent data in a holograph projection further reducing the chances of identity theft. Since the inception of the ID badge fewer than a hundred had ever been successfully stolen and reprogrammed. Blank ID badges could be forged but eventually the main computer system would catch up with the badge holder.

“…any use of such force will be reported…” the disembodied voice continued.

“Computer off…” Brill managed through his labored breathing. All computer systems responded to the address “computer.” Some individuals gave their personal codes for address, often cute names or silly titles, but all systems responded to the word “computer.”

“You okay, sergeant?” Turning back the large patrolman asked Brill when he sat down hard on the curb.

“Yeah,” he puffed heavily before he swatted at a trace cam that darted above his head.

Trace cams were the air-jet powered cameras launched by local and worldwide police agencies. The small plastic cameras relayed data to multiple agencies in real time, each unit was programmed to find an angle not covered by another. Consequently single trace cams whooshed about overhead normally, but anytime an incident triggered the unit’s “spotter” program a swarm would appear quickly. Furtive movements, aggressive motions, or acts that could be interpreted as belligerent would trigger nearby units to dart to the scene each unit jockeying to a new angle whenever another camera was spotted. Many couples engaged in outdoor sexual activities had triggered spotter response finding themselves at the center of a mass of sputtering, hissing trace cams.

People were still needed behind the cameras to determine the true nature of an act—human actions was still too random for a computer to infer motivation—and while law enforcement officials tried to convince the public that nothing escaped the computer’s attention and that all dissolute citizens would be caught eventually, reality was often much different.

“Get a CV in here.” Brill said to the large patrolmen. “And clear this sidewalk.” Brill swept his hand across the crowd milling about, either witnesses to the shooting or curious bystanders alerted by the trace cams speeding to the incident. Several bystanders had their ID cards held high taking pictures of the grisly scene. Brill knew everybody with a sense of the macabre could view this in a matter of minutes. These sorts of incidents sometimes caused flash crowds—crowds that come together rapidly without forethought—and Brill wasn’t ready for that. Not now.

CVs were the coroner vehicles that scurried throughout the city taking away anyone unfortunate enough to die outside the purview of institutional care. The vehicles and accompanying ‘bots removed bodies without complaint at any hour thus maintaining an illusion of perpetual salubrity. But this was the fourth person in a month that could not be taken down with stingers alone.

Only law enforcement agents with the rank of detective or higher even carried lethal force weapons. Stingers had made more powerful weapons impractical, long ago. In the past decade only twenty-three incidents had justified the use of lethal force in the Berlin-Warsaw-Krakow metropolitan area and fifteen of those involved purely psychotic episodes or “de-poles.” De-poles were caused by a sudden and often permanent depolarization of a body’s neurons usually brought about by chemical or electrical stimuli from illegal drugs or from a “wisp.” The only tie between the last four people was each was or had been a street hustler or procurer, known in the street as “wispers” because most were wisp addicts.

*****

Brill had never known a time when ordinary citizen’s access to wisp was common but in his great-great grandfather’s day it was a popular form of recreation. Wisp were the sentient creatures created by an ancient civilization believed long since extinct.

For five centuries humans explored the near galaxy collecting technology left behind by the vanished race. The technology was brought back to earth where companies bid for the right to use the advanced equipment and ideas. The moneys paid to the government covered the costs of further space exploration, until the debacle on M-Pollux 10/1 beta, some three and a half centuries prior. The trip was the most expensive undertaking to date and all the government had to show for it was nearly 25,000 creatures that did nothing more than affect human emotions.

Normally existing within plasma energy envelope, wisp stimulating the emotion centers in the human brain and reaped vital nutrition from the electric impulses carried through the synapse connectors while the human host would receive intensified emotional stimulus as a benefit. The wisp feasted while the host experienced a euphoria beyond any drug The alien creatures were created in the distant past to feed on bio-electrical impulses within the minds of their creators: a recreational stimulant used for relaxation and reward. But for an alien mind.

This self-feeding loop of host and symbiont had prompted some humans to act out antisocial impulses. Because of this, governmental control of the beings that thrived on human emotion was now the rule. High ranking or loyal bureaucrats and those rewarded for community actions could earn time hooked up to a these government controlled creatures with something called wisp time points: or more commonly just “points.” Uncharted or illegally obtained wisp became the milieu of criminals and professional risk takers. In the last couple of decades Lloylon, had dispensed fewer and fewer “whips” (short for wisp points) creating a vacuum in the wake. A vacuum ready to be filled by citizens with nothing to lose and access to an illicit wisp.

The creatures were called wisp because on their home planet the creatures looked like a purple swamp gas in the native noble gas atmosphere and therefore were likened to creatures from the children’s story “Will o’ the Wisp” and called euphemistically “wisp.” Battling against powerful religious leaders, ascetics, and self-proclaimed dervish the government found few licit buyers for the “found technology” causing Loylon, who had insured the near space explorations, to take the government into receivership when bidding was halted amidst the maelstrom of moral and religious controversy.

Loylon became the global administrators after the European Union’s space program lost everything on a mission to M-Pollux 10/1 beta searching for more technology from the mysterious race that left no written records. Their scattered technological devices fueled searches in the near space for any and all remainders. The EU had insured the space flight with Lloyds of London Limited and due to a cascade of fine print, the EU defaulted and Loylon took over the bulk of governmental activities prompting the remaining independent governments to defer their activates to the former insurance company.

Now all executive decisions were handled within a corporate structure, often with the “bottom line” as the overarching imperative. While this reduced international warring and competition between nations it made for lowered expectations in many areas of research and overall enthusiasm amongst the citizens. It was this lack of competition that seemed to breed a general malaise prompting some people to seek excitement outside the established boundaries of societal norms.

That’s when Ully Brill, sergeant Glocal Defence Force, stepped in. Those recruited into GDF were the best law enforcement agents available. In a metropolitan area that covered 140,000 square kilometers and contained over 200 million people, professional procurers could move from place to place or might live on the streets if they could dodge “trace cams.”

Trace cameras constantly hovered above the city streets sputtering and hissing quietly while the bulk of the cameras were at fixed locations, ever vigilant. Trace cams could be directed to the city’s blind spots in the camera network when required, making complete secrecy difficult but not impossible. These mobile cameras were also used to increase the number of supplemental angles crime prevention investigation units could record or monitor in real time.

Sophisticated criminals could alert the computer’s “spotter program” through a stationary camera in a sector far from a planned illegal activity and, before the trace cams and uniformed officers arrived, could disappear into a building or underground while the real crime was taking place elsewhere. By the time the incident was assessed and the spotter program reset itself the culprits could have conducted their illict operation leaving behind only a single video record of their actions.

Given five million live feeds into the central computer and the spotter program’s run and reset time, added to the normal random acts of almost a quarter billion people, a criminal’s chances of not being spotted in a criminal act was about even on any normal day. The ones who did not get caught hedged their bets, and often street hustlers were the people criminals used to engage the computer’s “eye.”

Brill, and those like him, were called in when the regular uniformed officers were stymied because the GDF were recruited from the highest criminal ranks. After a half-dozen close calls with the law Brill was referred to the GDF by a legal aide working for the prosecutor’s office. Evidence against Brill was thin but mounting.

Enter Tatya Chenkovich, Junior Assistant DA.

*****

“We got the whole thing on vid, Ully! You were authorized. Completely authorized!” A shapely young woman maneuvered thought the crowd that stood gawking along the sidewalk despite the unifromed officers. Few citizens had ever witnessed a pulse weapon discharge and fewer had ever seen a dead man lying in the street killed by one.

“Ully, we caught the whole thing. No inquest will be required.” Several uniformed officers started towards the beautiful woman striding confidently onto the scene.

Holding up a badge to her eye a life-size 3D projected picture flashed in front of her accompanied by a flat metallic voice spouting tired legalese.

“Identified. Chenkovich, Tatya Elena. Junior Assistant DA, access level 5, crime scene access authorized…” came the badge’s plaintive computer voice. All eyes turned towards Brill, who was the site commander by virtue of his rank as a GDF Detective.

Nodding, Brill’s gaze never left the body lying in the gutter.

“…. All incidents shall be reported through channels at…”

“Computer off,” the woman spoke in a hurried tone before she slumped onto the curb next to Brill sliding her arm around his shoulders.

“Ully, talk to me,” she begged. “Ully, did you hear me? We caught the whole thing in real time, You were authorized.” Tatya glanced at Brill’s hands. “Ulysses, you’re shaking.” There was concern in her voice.

Still staring at the body Brill drew a deep breath and released it slowly. Turning to face the newcomer he narrowed his eyes.

“You’re a little late to recruit this one unless you have a bent towards necrophilia. He was one of us, ya know, GDF.” Brill nodded towards the dead man.

“Ully, let it go, please! This is exactly why we…” She looked to him pleadingly.

“What are you doing ‘on scene?’ Have you been demoted?” Brill interrupted her.

Cocking her head to one side she replied, “No. I have been assigned to work with you on this incident.”

“Oh, come on. Did they assign you to have sex with me, too?”

Jumping up the woman grabbed at Brill’s elbow trying to pull him to his feet.

“Damn it, Ully…” she growled through clentched teeth.

Jerking his arm away from her grasp he snapped, “Detective First Class Brill…”

“Piss! I knew you when you were just a wisper hustling for a…” Tatya stopped when she noticed Brill staring towards the crowd. She spun her gaze in the same direction. The prying eyes of uniformed officers were staring at the two former lovers as they sparred.

Brill shouted to no one in particular, “Pay attention to you job! Keep those people away from the body.” The uniformed officers turned away from the two and back to the task of herding citizens along the sidewalks.

“Damn! What’s taking that CV so long?” Brill spat.

With his statement a CV slid to a stop on the scene scattering the crowd in the street. A tall smiling man wearing the rank of Captain of the GDF on his shoulder stepped out of vehicle as a forensic trace cam circled the body taking pictures from every possible angle. No provisions were made for humans in the CV, no humans alive anyway, so it was rather odd that the man used it for transportation.

Spotting Brill, the man moved towards him in even strides. Holding up a badge to his eye the computer introduced the man.

“Identified. Smith, Balkan Stephan. GDF rank Captain, Access level 4, deadly force authorized, supervisory level…” A murmer shot through the crowd as few citizens had ever seen an access level 4 on the street.

“Computer stop…” The man spoke quietly with a wide grin affixed as he approached the Brill.

“Detective Brill?”

“Yes sir,” Brill rose unsteadily and their hands met.

Brill returned his gaze to the dead body on the ground. He was responsible to make sure nothing happened to the body “…that might result in any loss of evidence.”

“Call me Smitty. I’m here to relieve you for an inquest.”

Stepping in between the men Tatya spoke, “That won’t be necessary, Captain.”

Smitty’s smile faded slightly. “And, who might you be?”

Holding up her badge to her eye as the computer began, “Identified. Chenkovich,Tatya Ele…”

“Computer off.” Brill interrupted. “Sir, I could use some time to… “

“Smitty, please. I’m here to help you.” The man beamed. “Is this the first time you’ve used lethal force?”

Nodding his head, Brill answered. “Yeah, I… I’m a little shook up…”

“That’s understandable.” Turning towards Tatya the captain continued. “Are you from the Coroner’s office?”

“No, Captain. I’m from the DA,” she answered pointedly. “We caught the incident in real time. Trace cams were on site and the DA’s already cleared Detective Brill of any culpability and would like to see him stay on duty.”

The Coroners’ attendant ‘bot scooped up the dead body slowly.

Smitty, snatched up his badge and spoke into it, “Computer, send a priority message to any 6-3 on duty, request for DA’s response to incident involving Detective Sergeant First Class Brill, this location.”

Smitty had put in a call for someone far up the chain of command. Any person designated as a “6″ was involved in law enforcement and the last number was their access rating. A rating of “3″ was very high. Brill had met only a dozen people with a “3″ access code and only once had he shaken hands in a reception line with a “2″. Smitty was looking for someone of importance.

Lowering his badge he glanced back to Tatya, still maintaining his serene smile. “The DA cleared this awfully fast don’t you think, young lady?”

“You condescending bastard! I have a 5 access and have worked hard to…”

His grin never faded. “Okay, okay. If you’ll allow me to talk with my sergeant I’d appreciate it.”

With a scowl she nodded her assent.

The man turned back towards Brill. “It’s a difficult thing to take a man’s life.” He was staring at Brill but addressing the young assistant DA.

Brill stumbled backward slightly grabbing hold of Smitty’s arm to steady himself.

“Sit down, Brill! Breathe deep, I need a med ‘bot!” The captain pushed Brill to the curb. Brill lowered his head until it was tucked between his knees. Smitty and Tatya spun towards the attendant Coroner’s ‘bot at the same time. The pulse weapon had liquefied a portion of the man’s body and an arm had fallen out of his sleeve, onto the ground. Brill was hit by a wave of nausea by the sight.

“Oh Jesus, Ully. Don’t look at it.,” Tatya whispered.

“Yeah,” Brill panted.

“Where’s that ‘bot!” Smitty yelled above the din.

From a nearby alcove a med ‘bot, shorter than the one from the CV, waddled out into the crowd apologizing with each new human encounter.

“Please, pardon me. A citizen is in need of assistance. Please, pardon me…”

Brill sucked in deep breaths now.

“Get that thing on the CV!” Smitty barked at the nearest patrolman. The uniformed officers did not move, but instead looked to one another wide-eyed instead.

“You,” Smitty barked, pointing to the man closest to the offending arm, “Get that outta here, now!”

With trepidation the man moved forward to the arm and snatched it up quickly, throwing it towards the back of the morgue vehicle quickly as though it were contagious. The arm bounced off a ‘bot and fell to the ground. The med ‘bot took a quick reading of the arm as it passed, finding it had no life readings continued towards Brill.

The Coroner’s ‘bot slowly picked up the limb and placed it inside the coffin shaped carrier.

The med ‘bot stopped at Brill’s side, and began measuring all vital signs from a distance of about half a meter.

“Sir, I’m afraid you’ve experienced a temporary lack of blood to the brain with accompanying dizziness and…”

“Shut up! Computer off!” Brill kicked at the device that hovered near his feet.

“Please, pardon me, while I check for damage to this unit.” The ‘bot was now silent as it ran internal system checks.

“Ully. Come on, look at me,” Tatya knelt down in front of Brill. When he finally stared up at her and focused his eyes she hugged him tightly.

“I’m okay, now,” Brill said hoarsely.

“You still think he should stay on duty, Miss..?”

“…Chenkovich and the DA’s report has…” Tatya stood up quickly to face Smitty.

Holding up his open palm, Smitty signaled Tatya to stop. He looked down at his badge as it flickered with text scrolling across its screen. After a  time he looked up. Smiling broadly at Tatya he said, “Miss Chenkovich, Detective Brill is on duty. I’ll take care of the body don’t worry about it.”

Brill struggled to get to his feet while the medical robot advised against it. “Sir, I’m afraid you’ve experienced a temporary lack of blood to the brain…”

“Computer stop!” Brill snapped. The computer voice in the medical robot immediately stopped speaking.

“I have to stay with the body until it’s turned over to the Coroner’s Office.” Brill murmured.

Smitty beamed. “Detective Brill, you have done a valuable service, and you’re under stress. Your duty’s completed, take some time, gather yourself…”

“I can’t hand this off to a ‘bot…”

Pointing to the vehicle, the Captain continued, “I’ll go with the body, okay? Get some rest. That’s an order.” Brill shrugged as Smitty held his smile and turned directly towards Tatya.

“Let the pretty lady take you home,” Smitty nodded at the woman while she scowled back at him. “Take care of him, okay? It’s difficult to take another man’s life.”

Tatya answered softly, “Sure, I’ll see that he gets…”

Smitty finished her sentence, “See that he gets drunk.” The captain turned on his, heel and walked to the Coroners’ vehicle. The door closed behind him and the vehicle silently slid away from the scene scattering the crowd once again.

Brill leaned in on Tatya and began to walk. The medical robot began asking him more questions as he moved. He kicked the robot squarely on the wheel assembly causing it withdraw both wheels inside for another assessment and repair.

“Sir, you may have injured your foot. Allow me to run a scan while I make repairs…”

“Computer, stop!” Brill yelled at the med robot. Snaking his arm around Tatya’s waist he pressed her body close to his and peered into her eyes.

“This is what I need.” Brill’s leer caused her to blush.

The pair stood as one, her arms around his chest supporting him.

“What an ass,” she whispered meaning the GDF captain.

Brill threw his head back so he could take in Tatya’s backside.

“Uh huh.” He replied musically.

“Stop it,” she giggled slapping at him playfully. “Let’s get you home.”

*****

When Brill had been recruited to GDF he underwent a period of evaluation lasting a year. Through the entire time his mentor had been Tatya Chenkovich. During that time they became intimate and Brill found himself deeply in love with her. She was funny, beautiful, and seemed to return his feelings. Two weeks after his evaluation period was over Tatya had moved from her apartment and Brill was instructed by his superiors not to contact her again.

*****

The moment the pair walked through the door to his apartment, Brill asked Tatya if she could stay.

“I’m not supposed to, Ully.”

“Sure, I get it. Your job was done after I agreed to join up, right?” Brill grabbed a bottle from a cabinet in the kitchen and spun the cap off. Then he leaned onto his elbows, resting on the counter while glaring into Tatya’s steely blue eyes, challenging her.

In a measured and controlled voice Tatya began. “I was ordered to break it off with you because I couldn’t be expected to maintain my impartiality in a case like today’s. My job is to decide whether a GDF agent acted in a manner befitting the crime.”

“You didn’t care about that when GDF came to my place and kicked in my door,” he said before he took a long pull on the bottle.

“I didn’t even know you then.”

*****

Before Brill was recruited by the GDF he had been a hardcore wisper.

Possessing the ability to coordinate large numbers of other wispers Brill had made off with several food shipments destined for entire sectors. His brazen ability to confuse the spotter programs and trace cams was legendary. His last great theft involved setting up mirrors inside the hallway of the food bank. When the alarms went off at the sector center, trace cams were immediately dispatched. With the fixed cams blacked out—balloons filled with paint tossed at them had done the job easily—the trace cams arrived.

Trace cams had no pre-programmed routes: this was done in order to eliminate detectable patterns of movement. Additionally, the floating cameras reported their positions only when they detected human activity that triggered their “spotter programs” thus insuring that no one could track the movements of the free flying devices.

Trace cams were programmed to move to a different area if another trace cam was on site. As each trace cam arrived on scene the mirrors created the illusion that another trace cam had arrived to survey the area. By the time the sector police had figured out what was going on Brill and his gang of thieves were long gone. Brill had spent an entire twelve hours connected to a wisp after that job.

One day a wisp dealer gave Brill over to the authorities rather than undergo a wisp police interrogation with a PNICR. A wisp could be trained to access fear or pain centers of the brain as well as pleasure and PNICRs, pronounced pincers, Police Non-cooperative Interrogation Control Regimen were nasty things to be avoided.

*****

“Okay, so what are you doing here now? Is there something I’m being recruited for?” Brill asked downing another swallow.

“Damn it, Ully! I volunteered to work with you on this assignment.”

Stopping the bottle halfway to the counter, Brill snapped, “What assignment?”

Tatya lowered her eyes and shifted her weight. “There was a request from an access level 2 to track down some college students who are suspected wispers.”

“Access level 2. You’re working the big room, huh?”

“Ully, please. I need somebody who knows the lifestyle. Someone they can trust.”

“Someone ‘who’ can trust?”

Looking at the tile on the floor for an answer. Tatya drew a deep breath and said, “‘Flo and Eddie’ and maybe Billy Weed.”

“I knew it,” Brill slammed down the bottle sloshing the contents inside. “What makes you think I would work against my old partners? They know I’m GDF.”

“Let the DA worry about that. My job is get your help.”

“Are you authorized to do whatever needs to be done to get me to work on this?”

“Yes, I am, Ully.” Tatya said plainly

“Including sleep with me?”

“Come on, Ully. That’s not fair! I almost lost my…” She stopped dead.

“Lost your what?”

“Nothing.”

“Answer me or find a new boy,” Brill took another long drink.

Exhaling sharply Tatya shook her head. “I almost lost my 5 access…”

An access rating was paramount to every citizen and losing it could mean losing everything.

Brill stared at Tatya for a long time. God, she is beautiful he thought. Slowly he spoke.

“I’m sorry. I…” he hesitated. “I had no idea. Was it because I was a wisper?”

“No,” Tatya replied quietly. “They wanted you to go underground and find something and I told them I didn’t think it would be wise… You were a new detective and you’d just gotten yourself straight and they told me I had lost my objectivity.”

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Go after that same wisp that made the guy you… um…”

Closing his eyes momentarily, Brill said softly, “… killed?”

“Yes,” Tatya finished. “You were supposed to find that wisp so it could be eliminated. You were supposed to hook up and then when you found it…”

“Wait a minute. That could’ve been me tonight,” Brill pushed himself away from the counter and stood tall. “They wanted me to catch a ‘bad brain?’ This guy de-poled on that wisp.”

A “bad brain” was street language for a wisp that might cause a human to have portions of their brain permanently depolarize. Electronic messages carried in the nervous system travel by a sudden change of the normally positive ions spreading a de-polarizing signal along nerve fibers. To have large number of nerve fibers fail to return to a normal balance could produce brutal behavior changes in humans. A couple of dozen “bad brains” had been seen in the last decade and every street wisper shared tales of these unpredictable wisp that could push a user to anything from manic violence to a catatonic stupor. Some wispers never fully recovered.

Tatya stared at the floor for a moment. Shaking her head sadly she continued. “That was a brand new detective. He was… they wanted you…”

 

Stepping forward Brill slid his arms around Tatya’s waist and she melted into him.

“Ully, I didn’t want anything to happen to you.” Now she was weeping softly and Brill let out a long sigh of resignation.

“Tea, I’ll do whatever you want.” Brill used his pet name for her.

“You know, that’s the first time you have called me that since you saw me again.” Brill kissed the top of her head just as his badge lit up and vibrated slightly. Sniffing Tatya pulled away from Brill.

“You better get that. You’re still on duty, you know,” she said with a weak smile.

Placing his thumb on the corner of the badge the computer ID’ed him and put the written message on the small screen. Most people of the present day could not read due to the ubiquitous verbal translators that existed in all aspects of everyday life. This created a self-selecting elite: those who could learn to read were often the ones in charge, or the ones to be watched closely.

Tatya had maneuvered into the bathroom to wash her face while Brill read the message. It made no sense to him. He spoke flatly into the card.

“Computer; message in reply: body in the custody of… um,” he struggled to remember the man’s name. “Smith… uh, captain, GDF, introduction on file, my card.” Badges recorded all introductions from other badges for a period of 72 hours internally and all others were logged in a data bank that could last a lifetime or longer.

Glancing up just as Tatya reentered the kitchen Brill spoke. “They’re calling about the body. Smitty must’ve taken a detour or something.”

Tatya’s brow furrowed. She pressed her thumb on the corner of her badge and snapped, “Computer, messages.” Scanning the glowing card briefly she then turned back to Brill. “The DA has no record of Balkan Smith in GDF. They must have ran his ID when he showed up on scene. It says ‘No release authorized.’”

Brill’s card flashed again. Watching as the words scrolled across his screen he slowly looked back at Tatya. “One of the officers on scene tonight, has just been found murdered,” Brill said incredulously. “I’m supposed to investigate.”

Murders were rare given the ubiquitous trace cams and fixed cameras. Violence was kept a minimum and citizens convicted of any previous violent were assisgned trace cams that followed their every move.

“I’m coming too,” Tatya replied.

“Wait a minute, we’re looking at a person who is patently dangerous with the ability to kill another person and…”

Tatya’s eyes searched his as she whispered, “So are you.”

Taking a deep breath Brill replied, “Yeah, I guess that’s true. Okay, stay close. I don’t want anything to happen you.” Brill pulled Tatya close to his side inhaling her scent deeply.

*****

Arriving on scene Brill held up his badge up to his eye, “Identified. Brill, Ulysses Simpson, Detective Sergeant First Class GDF. Access level 6…” droned the computer.

“Computer off. Who found him?” Brill asked without a break.

A uniformed officer pointed to a hovering trace cam. Tatya stepped forward and let the computer ID her and instructed the cam to download to her badge. All camera’s information was the purview of the DA’s office not law enforcement.

Brill peered over Tatya’s shoulder while her badge’s screen replayed the discovery. It held nothing of interest. Brill knelt to look closely at the body. This was only the second dead body he had seen but already he felt he was becoming an expert. Only a hand full of GDF agents had seen two dead bodies in a career. Brill was a hardened veteran with two in a single night.

“Stay with this body until the CV arrives and go to the morgue with it,” Brill barked at a uniformed officer standing nearest him. The officer glanced at the other officers and then back at Brill.

“Why me?”

Brill stepped towards the officer and asked, “What’s your name, officer?”

Confused, the man replied, “Michaels, Officer Second Class.”

With an overly serious expression pasted on his face Brill continued, “Would you like to be in the GDF, Michaels?”

Michaels’ face lit up. GDF were considered the elite law enforcement. “Sure.”

“Do this and I’ll see if I can get an interview for ya.”

Standing tall and throwing his shoulders back, Michaels barked, “You got it, detective.”

Tatya turned away to hide a smirk. Brill had no such power, but now he nodded sharply to the officer and stepped to Tatya’s side.

“Quit smiling.” Brill was fighting to hide his own amusement.

Standing tall and throwing her shoulders back, Tatya replied, “You got it, detective.” Clutching her elbow he spun Tatya away from scene and around the corner. He held her in his arms pressing himself into her pliant body.

“You never change, do you?” Then he leaned into her and kissed her deeply.

“And, neither do you,” she said pushing him away. “What do you think about this guy?”

“Oh yeah, that,” he joked before shifting gears. “Did you see the strap marks on his head?”

Straps with metal conductors were often used by low level or cut rate dealers to allow a wisp’s to enter and exit a human’s mind but always used if trying to retrieve one from a subject unwilling to release it. Most dealers could not afford the elaborate programming Lloylon used to coax a wisp back into a storage device, called a “sink.” In his wisper days Brill was often been called upon by dealers to train wisp to return to whatever sink the dealer might use to house them.

“It looks like the straps marks were tight so whoever did this was hoping to find a wisp, and probably didn’t. The next place I’d look would be in an electronic system. Like a ‘bot maybe.”

Beings that existed as a series of programmed electronic impulses could live inside a circuit providing the current was not too high. That’s where the bulk of the first wisp were found: inside the landing craft electronics systems that returned from Pollux M10/1beta.

“Why would anyone think this guy had a wisp on him?” Tatya asked.

“I don’t know, but that’s what they were looking for. Maybe they thought he got that wisp that de-poled that GDF guy. This is the guy who picked up the arm.” Brill recognized the officer from the crime scene.

Tatya picked up her card to report their discussion but Brill pulled her arm down. “I think we should keep things off line. This Smitty guy could be pulling strings.”

“You think it’s GDF doing this?”

“I don’t know about GDF but Smitty is the most likely suspect. And if he can produce a counterfeit ‘4′ level access badge he’s got friends inside. We need to go to the source to find every ‘bot at that site. Where is the med station closest to that site?”

“Probably, eighteenth sector. But why do you think someone would try to steal a bad brain?”

“It’s still a wisp and some people would do anything to get one.”

“Yeah, but if Smitty found it somewhere else then we’ve got no place to look.”

Brill shrugged. “Then we try something new.”

Looking at a map on her small screen, she pointed to the nearest med station in the sector where the shooting occurred. Brill offered his elbow to Tatya and together they headed down the street, arm in arm.

The med station was busy when they arrived. Tatya winked at Brill. “Let me get this one,” she said with a smile. Stepping forward to the scanner she ID’ed herself and told the desk cam to notify the human on duty. All computerized functions had some human working in the background. Whether they were paying attention or not, some human was responsible. A woman stepped from the back room rubbing sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Yeah,” she croaked.

“DA’s office. I have a couple of questions.” The woman’s eyes opened wide. “We’re looking for a specific med ‘bot. Can we count on your discretion?” Now, it was Brill’s turn to hide a smile. The woman nodded. Tatya turned back to Brill questioningly.

Brill stared blankly for several seconds then his expression changed.

“I kicked that one ‘bot. Find out how many med ‘bots did field repairs tonight.”

The woman already was searching the log screen. Images flashed. A computer voice said, “B, two thirty six…”

The woman squinted at the stalls trying to determine the letter “B” and the numbers. Finally she said, “Um… B-236, right here did a field repair” Then the woman pointing to an empty stall. “It should be right there.”

Brill stepped forward, “Who else has been here tonight?”

The woman stared at the screen until a face flashed on it. Her mouth hung open. “Some captain, GDF. It was before I came on duty.”

“Thank you. Would you ‘override erase’ our visit?” Tatya still maintained her serious tone.

The woman nodded. As they left the building they looked at each other. Tatya spoke first. “Smith is the guy we need to talk to.”

“Well, let’s see what the morgue has, first.”

“Oh come on, Ully. You think he missed something there?” Tatya asked.

“We don’t have any other leads?” Brill stared at her as they both paused.

Tatya’s gaze wandered briefly then she gently pushed him backwards and broke into a run, “Race you there…” Several trace cams appeared following the couple briefly before they disappeared as quickly.

The human on duty at the morgue was not happy about being roused at such an late hour.

“Yeah, Smith was here. Told me, a lowly access 8, to call him Smitty,” the man replied caustically shaking his head. Brill asked what Smith had looked at. The man replied, “Why’re you asking me?”

Brill spoke. “This man Smith may be involved in a wisp theft…”

“Hey! I’ve been clean for two years now, I don’t need any trouble, okay?” The man blurted out.

Looking closely Brill noticed several small scars on his forehead: the marks of a long time whisper. A small time whisper could only afford a short time hook up so they had to visit the dealer often, which sometimes led to permanent scaring on the forehead; almost imperceptible, except to an expert… like a former whisper.

Brill rolled up his sleeve. There in blue ink was a tattoo symbol of Brill’s old gang (they often left their calling card with that symbol). It was something Brill refused to have removed when he became a GDF agent. The man’s eyes grew wide.

“Bullshit, that’d make you…” Brill held up his badge to his eye while the computer ID’ed him. Every wisper knew of Brill, at least by reputation.

“No way, Flo and Eddie said…” The man stopped speaking abruptly. Flo and Eddie, Brill’s old partners, were the biggest wisp dealers in the area.

“I’m not after you or Flo and Eddie. I need information on that Smitty guy. He may be carrying a ‘bad brain’ and if he comes back, run, then call GDF, got it?” Brill glared at the man.

“He’s really got a ‘bad brain?’” The man asked quietly.

“Don’t know.” Brill pointed towards Tatya and continued. “But the DA is looking for anybody who has had contact with this Smitty guy.”

The man nervously began, “He just came in and looked around and then took some equipment and left. I didn’t touch him or any metal surface that he did. Honestly.” Wisp could move across metal surfaces or between skin to skin contact.

Brill saw a flash of fear in the man’s eyes. Suspected wispers could be held by the DA for five days without cause. At the end of much time any hardcore wisper would be climbing the walls.

Tatya looked directly at Brill and spoke too loudly, “Detective, I’m here in an unofficial capacity. If you interrogate anyone here I have no knowledge of it.” With that she turned towards the door and took several steps.

Brill turned to look directly at the man and glared. “Interrogation” was a word that every wisper dreaded.

“He took… um,” the man stammered while he stared down at his screen, “…a retrieval ‘bot and… and a transport vehicle.”

“All right. Don’t say your name. I don’t want to know it.” Brill turned to leave but then turned back. “If you see Flo and Eddie, tell ‘em I said ‘hello.’”

“Oh no, Detective, I’m clean…” the man snapped.

Brill broke in, “I know, I know. I said ‘if.’” Brill walked towards the door with Tatya.

“Detective?” the man called out. Turning again Brill faced the man behind the counter. “That Smitty guy took the wrong transport vehicle.” Brill stepped back to the counter quickly.

“How’s that?”

“We recharge a vehicle after every trip but not the ‘bots. He took the right ‘bot but a different carrier. The one that was used is still on the charger.”

“Has it been taking current the whole time?”

The man glanced at his log again, “Yeah, it was really low for some reason.” Wisp, electronic by nature, could not travel against a positive current. That meant that the wisp, if it was in the vehicle, had not gotten into the power gird, where it could hide indefinitely.

Brill reached into his pocket and pulled out fifty food credits and handed it to the man saying, “Forget we were here, disconnect that vehicle and don’t touch it. It might have that a bad brain. And remember: if Smitty comes back, call GDF.” The man nodded in response.

Food credits were expenses not covered by ID cards. Loylon realized long ago that food credits exchanged without processing through the bureaucracy increased entrepreneurial spirit so the practice expanded to a point were it almost rivaled the “official” exchange medium conducted with ID cards.

Brill walked towards the door and stopped again. Turning towards the man Brill pointed at the food credits in his hand, “Don’t give that to Flo and Eddie. Tell ‘em they owe me one for this.”

Then Brill and Tatya disappeared into the night.

Walking along the sidewalk Tatya was obviously upset. “Why did you tell that guy what might be in that vehicle?”

“Who better to take care of a bad brain than Flo and Eddie. It’ll be safe with them and then we’ll know where to get it… if it’s in there. We’ll know for sure if Smitty comes back for that carrier.”

“All right, Sherlock Holmes, what do we do now?” she asked.

Brill smiled lasciviously as he pulled Tatya close pressing her hip to his waist.

She glanced down between them. “Put that thing away before you poke someone’s eye out!”

Brill laughed aloud. Shaking her head in resignation she sighed, “Okay, we’ll get a hotel room.”

They left with their arms entwined.