Chains of Loss (2 page)

Why?

[Scanning.  The wound looks recent, and also included the dye that colors that half of her face.  It doesn’t look like a tattoo of anything I’ve ever seen.  Just looks like some kind of splotch on her face.  It was uncommon, but not unknown, for primitive cultures to include ritual self-mutilation as an expression of personal fortitude.  Or it could have been accidental.]

Derek had no response to that other than shocked disbelief.  He picked up the gun and checked the clip, finding enough gel for fifty flechette rounds, plus six high explosive bolts.  He put the weapon down and swallowed hard.  Technically, every citizen of New Athens was a soldier.  He had basic weapons training, but he’d chosen the common route of opting to get his pilot’s license for his advanced studies.  He knew he could use the gun, but he wasn’t sure that he could actually shoot someone with it.

[Derek, she’s here.]

What? How did she know we were here?

[Well, either she’s tapped into a satellite feed and has been watching us the entire time, or it’s the fact that we’re sitting in a giant smoking crater.]

Oh.  Uh…let’s see her.

The strange woman was studying them, biting her lip.  She circled the crater carefully, examining the craft from every angle.  She looked back at the trees that had snapped as the craft landed, then, shrugging, examined the ground around the craft.

What is she doing?

[I am not sure, but she looks…uneasy.]

Well, I’d better let her know that I come in peace.
He hesitated briefly.
Her presence and those plants imply that I can breathe the atmosphere, and I have to make first contact one way or another.

[Go ahead.  Probably safe, all things considered.]

He broadcast the manual release for the craft’s side door.  The woman crouched, her weapon raised into ready position as the door slid open.

For a moment, Derek and the woman looked at each other wordlessly.  He estimated her height at about a meter and a half, and probably a third of his mass.  She had dark brown hair reaching a little past her ears in the back and drifting down on the right side of her face, which was streaked with purple around the eyepatch.  Derek smiled and sent out a standard greeting broadcast.

The woman did not respond. 
Did we get a ping off of her?

[Negative.  Scans are revealing that she has absolutely no cybernetic hardware whatsoever.]

Well spreck.  Going to have to do this the hard way. 
Derek turned off the suspension system, took a deep breath, cleared his throat, and froze.  He quickly dialed back his perception of time.

So.  I talk to her...but what do I say?

[How do I know?  I've never talked to anyone in the flesh before.  People have done it for millennia.  Figure it out.]

Derek settled on something to say and popped out of the rush.

“Uhm.  Hi.  Could you tell me what planet this is?”

The woman raised an eyebrow.  “Earth,” she said tersely.

Shadow called him back into the rush.  [Great, great!  Now, ask her what year!]

Why would I do that?

[Well, you're trying to figure out what happened to us, so that might just help.  Remember, we just apparently traveled faster than light – which is supposed to be impossible.  Theoretical physics says we might've gone through time
and
space.]

Fine.

“Th-thanks.  What year is it?”

“Six ninety-four.”

[Oooh, good good good!]

Why?  We're apparently in the distant past!

[No, we're not.  They didn't speak English in six ninety-four, and actually didn't widely use the common era year system until seven thirty-one.  But, if you assume the people of Earth adopted a new calendar after something big happened, and go back about seven hundred years, we get back to what event...?]

Derek didn't need any further prompts. 
Last Transmission.  Something must've happened.

[No spreck.]

So, what do I ask next?

[Hrm.  Probably no point in asking why she speaks English – seven hundred years is a long time for language to change but she’s understood us so far.]

Why not?

[Just a hunch but she doesn’t strike me as a linguist.]

…fine.  What to ask next?

[Your turn.  You figure it out.]

“I was wondering if you knew what happened that people set the calendar after?  I mean, it was a while ago but I thought...”  He trailed off.  The woman was glaring at him with one green eye.  It was the grumpiest look Derek had ever seen, and it set him back for a moment.

“I'm sorry,” she started, her voice thick with sarcasm and a slight accent Derek had never heard before, “but it sounds like you fell out of the sky in order to ask stupid questions.”

“Stupid questions...?  Well, what would be a smart question, then?”  Derek tried to disarm her glare with a friendly smile.

“Where am I?  Are we safe here?  Are flesh-eating monsters coming to burn me to death or is it safe to sit around talking?  Of those questions, only the third's important because the answer is
yes
and we should get going before they show up.”

He stared at her dumbly as she scowled.  “You've heard of orcs, right?”

“No...”

[You really never read that much mythology, did you?]

Why?  You know what she means?

His perceptions slowed again as Shadow uploaded information to his brain.  [Depends.  Orcs are fictional, but that doesn't mean that people who encounter something similar won't use the name.  Considering her agitation, it's probably based on their attitude.]

They're not nice?

[You're so cute when you do understatements.]  Shadow closed the connection and the world returned to normal.

“How about gnokla?”

Derek queried his dictionary.  No hits.  He shook his head.

“It's what they call themselves...anyway.  Less talking.  More running away from burning crater.”

Our physical status, Shadow?

[We still have two fractures remaining.  Our right arm and leg both are being worked on as we speak; they'll be ready in a moment.  We could just have the suit bolster us, but it would be best if we used that time to grab supplies.]

“Give me two minutes,” he said.

“Why?”

“My leg is broken.”

The woman stared at him for a moment, then started muttering as she turned away into the forest.

[We may have a problem.]

What?

[Something else is approaching.  Scans just picked them up…and we have bad news.]

How can today get worse?

[You should know better than to ask that.  First, we know what orcs look like now.]  A still image appeared in Derek's view.  Derek stared at the creature for a long moment, taking in its inhuman features.  Its face had large, bulging eyes, a wide mouth and a pair of tusks that pointed down from its snout.  It wore leather armor over a scaly hide, and carried things that were similar to the woman’s gear, but, though it hardly seemed possible, cruder.

[We need to get going as soon as possible.]

What? Why?

[That thing detected my scan.]

WHAT?

[The orc is some six hundred meters away and closing.  I switched to passive scanning the moment it reacted, but it definitely felt something and is on its way.  ETA is between three and five minutes.  More of them have entered my scan radius.  Time for some quick thinking; better go to full rush.]

Derek complied, slowing his perception of time to its greatest extent.  Despite his faster thought processes, no solution was coming to him.  A full minute passed in his altered perception as the situation hung over them. 
I don't know what to do.

[It's okay, I'm...]  Shadow broke off in mid-sentence. 

What?  What's wrong?

[Reality.  I have to stay with the ship.  You have to go.]

Derek took a moment to absorb the statement.  His mind shied away from  the idea.  When he did respond, even his thoughts stammered. 
You – I can’t – don’t leave me alone!

[No choice, friend.  If an orc can detect my scans, what else can it do?  Can it transmit and interface with the ship?  Can it
hack
?  The ship’s just a drone and there’s no time to give it a
good
mind.  Even if I install some security, the whole ‘infinite monkey-descendants’ thing kicks in; they’ll break through eventually, and have a full 34
th
century factory at their bidding, which I think we can assume is a bad thing.  If we turn it off, it won’t finish repairing itself or defend itself if they decide to rip it open – and they still get some of the tools inside.  And if they move it, how will we ever find it again?  We
can’t
leave it unguarded, on or off, and you can’t stay, either.  If they have some method of realizing you’re inside, they might find you and pull the ship apart to get you.  Right now, we have no good way of stopping them short of killing them.]

[On top of that, we have to think about humanity as a whole here.  It’s possible that you’re the only New Athenian to make it here; as far as we know, you could be the only one left anywhere.  That means this data is irreplaceable.  I can fit in the ship.  If I make a copy of everything essential and compress it, I can send it along with you.]

Shadow finally stopped.  Derek pushed his way out of the rush and slammed straight into a moodcrash.  His body was calm, but his mind was in a blind panic, and the dissonance threw him into complete chaos.  He gasped, trying to fill lungs that were already full, and blinked through tears that weren’t actually there.  His vision flickered for a few seconds as his cybernetics recovered.

[Derek?]

I – I’m okay. 

[You know better than to do that, man.]

I know.
  Derek finally got his breathing under control.  He could taste blood but didn’t know where it had come from. 
Start the transfer.

[I’m sorry, Derek.]

Save it.
 

[Okay.  I’ve dusted off the mediceps and I’m bringing it back online.  The suit can brace your limbs until the patch job finishes.  If you don’t have further questions, then you’d best get moving.]

Okay.  I’m on it.
 

Derek forced himself up.  He had no empty bags, but the suit formed a belt that the ration packs could clip onto.  He grabbed a couple dozen packs, then thought furiously.  What else in the ship would be useful?  He split open a pack and dug in vigorously as he thought.

He should have had plenty of time to think, but his moodcrash prevented him from using the rush.  Still, what here would be useful, anyway?  Most of the craft was full of modular industrial equipment; things that nanites couldn't easily replicate.  Some of it could be carried, but why?

He considered integrating the gun with his flight suit, but it was bulkier than a standard sidearm, so he placed it against a convenient spot at his side and formed a holster.  Most of the suit's core functions were designed around keeping its occupant alive when crashed on an unknown planet.  It would make survival much easier.  Derek had even augmented it with a few hobbyist's tools, including industrial and medical shrouds.

He worked his way onto his feet.  His legs felt shaky – Shadow had given him full sensation back when he had left – but the suit bolstered him.  

Shadow?

[Yes, Derek?]

Derek was at a loss for words.  The AI had been part of him—literally—since childhood. 
Stay safe. 

[Me stay safe?  Me?]  Shadow's laughter echoed in his mind.  [I've moved out, now.  You're the one keeping your brain inside a
bone
case
.]

The machine's voice took a more serious note.  [Take good care of our body, okay?  I want to move back in when I can.  Maintain radio silence except in emergency.  I will work on finding a system of communication that they can't detect, and on repairing the ship.  The orc will be within line of sight in one minute, forty-five seconds.  The woman is twelve meters away, off to your left. Derek’s Shadow, out.] 

Derek gave a curt nod, then turned and took a step.  The craft’s door closed behind him as he fell on his face.  He scrambled to his hands and knees, aghast; the gravity was lower here, but the ground itself refused to support his weight.  He ran a hand across the dry earth and saw how it cracked under him.

I can compensate.  I have to,
he thought, but nobody was listening.  He staggered to his feet and stumbled in the direction the woman had gone.  He was watching his step so intently that he nearly ran into her. She had been heading towards the ship with a stout branch in hand.  She scowled at him. 

“I thought you said your leg was broken!”

“My Shadow fixed it!”  The look on her face went beyond incredulity, and Derek realized the width of their cultural gap.  She didn’t
have
a Shadow.  Well, neither did he anymore.  “Never mind, it got better, but we have to go now!  There’s orcs back there!”