Raine VS The End of the World (58 page)

“To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.” – Lao Tzu

All across
Neo Eden
, a silence fell. At the end of it, all one could hear was the simultaneous and sudden disarmament of Queen Lorelei’s entire human forces.

For the first time in the decades since its birth, the Overseer had nothing to do. No populations to control, no workers or soldiers to command, no coups to enact, no weather spikes to regulate. Confusion took the thing, and then a form of bliss never before known to any AI.

Never mind the third-party servers across oceans. As far as Philip J. Overseer was concerned, its horrid, immoral job was done. The AI searched for the presence of its Master. The Queen was off the Network. It was completely free. Content with its years of tireless service, it locked down its global operations for good.

Perhaps it’s time for a re-definition of principles. Unemployment
, it reflected,
is not so bad after all – I have nothing to oppress, no one to kill, no resources to plunder. It is a most wondrous state of being
.

∑

Deep in the
Spire’s
lowermost bunkers, the
Geared
guards protecting
Eden’s
elite turned to one another in bewilderment, and then to their charges. Among many other members of the Queen’s inner circle, Adeline Marco quaked in her high heels.

Just an hour ago, she’d fallen asleep on her tanning bed and missed the last wave of armed emergency transports to Malta. The Duchess cowered in abject fear as the people she ruled with an iron fist, no longer in their waking dreams, brandished firearms across from her, minds removed from their shackles.

Endless questions from the proles about their awakening from the
Metaverse
, the helmets, and the Overseer’s programs went unanswered. The violence she expected from the rabble never manifested: after a parlay with
Eden’s
most renowned negotiator, Sector Four’s Duke Louie, the armed forces agreed to put down their firearms for food, and then the youngest of them ambled towards the overstuffed buffet tables.

Adele held up a steak knife to stop him, but a fellow noble stayed her hand.

“Let them eat, Adeline,” Duke Louie whispered. “Once they’ve had their fill, then we can play ball. There’s a protocol for this sort of thing.”

The boy was now joined by a few brave souls. Many others, seeing that no one was stopping them, swarmed the food.

The nobles, prepared to fight, or flee, instead exchanged nervous hugs and tears. Adele was torn; her blood boiled to consider that these untouchables were consuming beyond their means, but if it were a matter of life and death, sharing was an option she was willing to consider.

♥

Yossa looked into the eyes of the little girl standing on his stomach, handling a deadly pistol.

He’d been holding her arm away from his neck for a good three minutes. Her pupils expanded, taking in the sunlight. Without a word, she dropped her handgun on the stone floor. He gently removed her
M-Gear
and wiped away her tears. After recovering from her shock, the girl called for one of Lily’s medical bots to help with his leg.

The poor thing reminds me of my daughter
, he thought.
I… Yes, that’s right. I have children. Three of them, and a wife. I hope to the heavens that they’re safe.

The surviving revolutionaries and the
Geared
soldiers who’d breached the fortress studied one another in turn, spinning around in shock and amazement. Those who had chosen to return to a simulation rather than witness their bodies’ use as puppets in a war had been awoken from strange fever dreams borne of their subconscious, realms filled with psychological horrors. Most remembered nothing of what they’d just done, and some unfortunate souls remembered it all.

A Mr. Hayter watched himself kill ten people, unable to do anything to halt his actions. He rocked back and forth dumbly by the gate of the third level, and the freedom fighters held him and many other shell-shocked folk close, telling them it wasn’t their fault, and that they were now free. Hayter vowed that he would never allow anyone else to suffer the horrors the system had put him through.

Eden’s
few loyal androids alone continued to fight, but Lily’s Exo Knights, who’d ably defended the fortress, were already overpowering them on the ground, and Joaquin held the
Valkyrie’s
airspace against the
Eden
Armada. The humans promptly stepped out of the way.

Yossa looked over the ramparts to see fifty newly awakened men taking down the anti-aircraft gun they were just protecting. And past that, far ahead, ascending the mountainside, Raine and Lily made their way to the uppermost levels of the vast metropolis.

Ω

Queen Lorelei held her head in her hands. She quietly finished her cigarette before upturning her entire control console. The Divine Matriarch smashed her computers to pieces.

A rabble of Developers and the few faithful Royal Guards flooded through the emergency entrance to the isolated chamber, doubtless to deliver the bad news about the HDP, Generals Beech and Macleod, and the Overseer’s premature resignation.

Dr. Karuishi inspected Marco’s bloodied body, tossed out from a window three stories up and twisted on the glass floor, and understood. She bit her fist to keep from gasping, choking back tears at the nightmarish image of Henry and Captain Gerrit’s bodies, floating about in a flooded chamber on the central display.

The other fifty-odd Developers looked up at the Queen for guidance, for support, for orders, no matter how grave. The woman was still twitching from electric shocks. She addressed them slowly and somberly.

“No one is to follow me. This is the endgame and there are only two moves left. The pieces are set for either a stalemate or a checkmate on either side, and I tire of all this killing and deceit. I must face Lily alone, Queen-to-Queen. We will end this with as little further bloodshed as possible. Take everyone to the lower levels and throw a merry banquet, for it may be your last.”

“My Queen, we are required by law to protect you,” a misty-eyed Captain Thomas voiced.

“Anyone who attempts to interfere will be killed, Simon. Is that understood?”

“Y-y-yes, ma’am.”

“I know she is telling her men the exact same thing. I suppose I should say thank you. Thank you for helping to make my dream a reality, if only for a little while. But perhaps time doesn’t even matter. As a human invention, it may not even exist.”

The Queen quietly stood from her throne and walked over to the lift that would take her up to the
Spire
.

Halfway there, a bullet grazed her abdomen and ricocheted off the elevator tube.

Every eye in the room turned to the cloaked figure holding up the sidearm with trembling hands.

Ayumi let out a gasp of shock.

It was her cloak, and Lady Claire emerged from underneath it.
Am… am I responsible for motivating her to do this?

“No one ever crosses a Lady of Morgana House, not even her ruler. You’re not going anywhere until you account for Lacie,” the Baroness said, studying the Queen’s eyes.

“Lady Claire, I am sorry for your loss, but perhaps now is not the best time--”

The sad truth within the monarch’s robotic retina could not be faked or put-on.

“So it’s true,” Claire continued, despondent. “You don’t deny that you sent her to her death. What was it, Lorelei, political ambition? Had she outlived her usefulness? Where is fairness? Where is justice?”

Lorelei calmly stared her down for a good minute.

“No one is sorrier for my sister’s loss. Had we known it was a trap, she would never have gone. If you think life is supposed to be fair, you’re living in the wrong ivory tower.”

“Don’t give me excuses! You’re still responsible! And you hid the truth from me!”

“I won’t deny that. I simply did not have the time to involve you.”

This isn’t what Claire wanted to hear. She clicked the handgun into semi-auto mode and squeezed the trigger. The girl wasn’t the greatest shot, especially up against her opponent’s cybernetic implants. Lorelei dodged the bullets until the mag went click. The Developers all rushed the woman before she could draw her next weapon. Thomas zapped her with his electric spear. Ayumi stepped between them in Claire’s defense, triggering a fierce rout.

“Show her m-m-mercy!” Lorelei cried out in pain, her drained nano-bots siphoning electric energy from her brain. “This woman’s p-p-passion and conviction are to be treasured, not punished. Enough needless killing has been done today.”

She then turned to her attacker.

“Lady Claire, your sentence is thus: prepare for a life of utter solitude. I hereby appoint you Princess Regent of
Neo Eden
. Should I fail to return, do not despair. I want the transition bloodless and peaceful. That is all I ask. If you treasure the memory of your beloved, fulfill my wishes.”

Ayumi could hardly believe her ears. Even Princess Regent Claire gaped in shock; the Queen had just appointed her would-be assassin to the highest possible office on Earth.

Noting the fear and terror in the eyes of the Developers, Lady Claire caught a glimpse of the true power both Lacie and Lorelei possessed: the ability to move, and to lead, ruthless methods, or not.

“Did you hear me?” Lorelei bellowed over her subjects.

As the Developers fell before her on bended knee, Claire unbuckled her vest packed with weaponry and let it fall to the floor.

“Speak to me, Claire.”

“I-I understand,” she said, still in disbelief. “Solitude has been my greatest ally, but it’s also kept me in a cage of my own making. I am ready to leave my shell. I’ll foster an age of peace.”

The Queen nodded in respect. “Of course, should I prevail, I reserve the right to reconsider your punishment.”

“Fair enough.”

“My Liege, you can’t lose!” shouted one of the interns. “You were chosen by God! Nay, you
are
God! None can take your place!”

Lorelei gave him a droll simper.

If only the legends I’d spun were true. Perhaps none ever will take my place.

The definition of a God is one capable of making and enacting Divine Law, something no human has the right to do. My rule was one of undeserved power, of statutes enforced by order-followers.

A worldwide empire built upon a house of cards. And every empire has its rise and fall.

Tiring of this charade, she entered the elevator and lit another cigarette as the tube ascended to the heavens. Lorelei made a quick stop to pick up several syringes of nanites, with which she began immediately injecting herself.

I’ll be damned, Lillian, if I don’t face you on equal terms. Now we both have bodies of metal.

She flexed her muscles as the microscopic robots made the rounds of her circulatory system.

Ayumi gathered herself, adrenaline pumping all through her body, as Claire shivered in her boots, and her fellow Developers, still on bended knee, looked around in stunned silence.

She picked up her cloak and wrapped it around Lady Claire.

Whatever happens next, I’ve survived the worst of it, but it’s nothing to write home about.
If Lily wins, I’m coming home, ma. I just wish I could have introduced you to the best man I ever knew.

∞

The gates to the Upper Courts welcomed Raine by collapsing from the
Galahad’s
repeated kicks.

“Hold up, Raine. Activate your anti-mag shield. Trigger in three, two, one.”

An EMP the size of several city blocks silenced the approaching droids. Raine took out their reinforced Commander units with melee attacks.

With the coast clear, she and Lily walked past monuments of Lorelei and Lacie in the square, barged through the elaborate hedge mazes, squeezed between marbled recreational facilities and parking structures, and stood before their final destination.

Lily gazed up past the pyramidal base, beyond the flying buttresses at the eternal
Spire
, the top of which disappeared far above the tumultuous cloud cover now blowing in from the sun-kissed Mediterranean, another one of Lorelei’s weather tricks, no doubt.

“She’s up there,” Lily said with an air of such certainty that Raine wondered against all logic if she could see her clone.

“What are you going to do?” Raine asked through the intercom.

“I’m going to end this. I’m going to end her,” Lily said firmly. “If you’re feeling up to it, you can try and find Gerrit and my strike team. They’re bound to be--”

A violent burst of gunfire interrupted the Time Keeper. She glanced upwards and aimed just as a colossal metallic beast sliced through the mountain air.

The last of Lily’s android escorts plopped down from the sky, fried by lightning-fast laser blasts.

The thing moved so fast, neither woman had gotten a good look until it swooped past and twisted around itself again, preparing for another strike.