NINETEEN

Vera landed on a soft moist surface and found herself surrounded by vegetation of an odd colorless variety. Huge spindly transparent leaves with veins of clear oily liquid tickled her cheeks and scratched her hands. She stood up and the first thing she noticed was that she was on a ridge overlooking an underground city just a few meters below. The city gleamed, a neon mazed metropolis of rusted metal buildings and zipping drones. Aliens of every shape and size bustled throughout.

When she looked upward, her mouth fell open. The entire ceiling, which was the underbelly of the bright sands above, was a glittering fractal of glowing crystals. Beams of light cascaded down from above, crisscrossing one another like the ethereal remnants of a cathedral laser light show. She admired the view for a long time before she began to search for Azec.

Standing, she surveyed the immense cavern in broad scale. It seemed to go on so far that shapes in the distance blurred into atmospheric obscurity. Flying drones and compact air vehicles zipped up from the city below and back down again like busy bees over a meadow of colorful flowers. Now it made sense how they were able to remain hidden from most space traffic. She also speculated there was something bizarre about the nature of the crystal ceiling above. The light refracted down with an odd yet beautiful ethereal quality like nothing she had seen before. She tried searching for it in her neural database finding nothing similar. This was a rare an unusual natural phenomenon unique to the evolution of this planet.

“Azec?” she called out. There was no answer. She scanned the ground for tracks and noticed three sets of footprints in the moist soil floor. By the nature of the gouges in the dirt, it looked like Azec had been forcibly escorted and led towards the city below, mostly against his will. Every few steps it appeared he had resisted but eventually succumbed to their lead. Had she really waited that long to follow him down? She could see no one in the path they had taken, even much farther down the slope leading to the city. They had arrested him quickly. Did they know he was coming? If they arrested her, perhaps that would give her a chance to capture one of them and interrogate them. She doubted they would be able to keep her in custody for long. There wasn’t many that could. She followed the tracks down into the city, rifle at ready in her arms. If they tried to arrest her, perhaps when she had gained control of the situation, she would be able to find out something about her ship.

As she breached the outskirts of the city, aliens of many species walked, slithered and hovered past her, giving her no more than a single glance at best. There was one with a gooey mess of gray tentacles that hovered right up to her face on a lift plate and regarded her for seconds with a singular giant yellow eye. It seemed to shrug with all its form and floated away quickly down the street. She walked a little farther into a city block area and another extremely tall spindly biped alien stopped and made a display of looking her head to toe. She couldn’t tell whether it was in appreciation or genuine curiosity. Perhaps it was scanning her? It shook its elongated head and made a retracting kind of wave, pulling its two-fingered hand towards itself before it moved on. So far, she had seen no species she was familiar with. She searched for any markers on the buildings but there was none. Only staticky two-second holograms that came into view within a few meters upon approach of different alien species were any indication of a building’s purpose. Some had several holographic forms, phasing in and out of existence on the rooftops. Grimy hover vehicles in disrepair groaned past her. Drones of every size looped and flitted everywhere like insects in a jungle.

Where was there to go in this place? Who should she speak to? She needed answers. Finding humans seemed the easiest way to overcome most language barriers. She began to look for humanoid forms on the rooftop holograms. She passed several buildings, most with few or no windows. These inhabitants had built everything with an iron-based steel, and most were patch welded and rusting. It was impractical. This fact alone, along with the occasional glowing graffiti vandalization, told her someone governed this kind of culture passively. Some of the species in the holograms she recognized, but none offered an expedient exchange of direct information. She walked cautiously for about twenty blocks deep into the city before she saw a four-story building with many windows that had a male and female human hologram floating above it. They were both generic likenesses, serving only to communicate species identity, disrobed and hairless.

Two guards stood outside the entrance holding energy rifles. She knew she could easily dispatch them. They stood chatting with one another, oblivious to any threat. They were wearing mismatched armor, seemingly salvaged from random sources. One, much younger than the other, made a display of swinging his rifle like a club as he told a story to the other who looked not that impressed and Vera noted micro-expressions that said he was quite annoyed. The older guard even feigned a chuckle under a long silver mustache. She shouldered her rifle and slowly approached.

They didn’t notice her until she was right upon them. When they did, the younger of the two made a rather comical scene of trying to look dignified by brushing himself off and straightening his posture. At that moment, she knew he was intoxicated.

The older one looked her over and said, “You’re not from here, are ya?”

Vera raised a brow.

“I know all the humans here. Never seen you. You just got here didn’t you?”

Vera nodded. “Uh, yeah. I’m looking for a ship. I think maybe it’s in this city.”

The older man laughed. “If the Scarred Folk got your ship, I wouldn’t try to get it back. You might find yourself dead or enslaved and sold for body parts.”

“Nevertheless, this ship is important to me, and I intend to discuss this with them. I may have something to offer in return.”

The older man pointed with a thumb inside the building. “In there. The entire ground floor’s filled with V.R. stations for humans. Jack in and find the Great Hunter in the Forest, Shi Azuki. She’s got deep web info nobody else is privy to about the Scarred Folks inventory and if she likes you she might spill it for you. She’s got a screening process though, but her realm is free of hacks as well so.”

“In a forest?” Vera asked.

“That’s right. She’s a bit of a nature guru. I think she must do a lot of that old-fashioned hallucinogenic. You’ll see. She’s weird but it’s better than trying to walk up to the boss and just ask for your ship back. Azuki might be able to tell you a good way to convince the boss to give it back and make it seem profitable for him, like a trade deal or something.”

“And how do you know so much about this Great Hunter?”

“I’m old, been here many years. Hooked on the shine.” He pointed up at the shimmering crystal canopy above the city, then pressed at the clammy skin of his face. “See my skin’s so papery white you can see most my veins. And anyways, you learn all the secret gossip once you stay awhile, but if you stay too long, you’ll be a prisoner to the shine.”

This seemed like a ridiculous notion. The old man may not have known it, but Vera’s protection system would’ve alerted her to toxins in the air and there had been no readings of it.

“Okay then,” she said. “But before I go, can you tell me if you saw another man, possibly being escorted by two others. He had a gray beard?”

They both looked at each other, shrugged and shook their heads. “Sorry. That a friend of yours?”

“Not really, but I would like to find him.”

“Maybe he’s off on the shine too? We’re all dreaming on it here. That crazy light from the crystals. It filters the sunlight through the sand somehow. Once you’ve had it you can’t get enough, and if you leave you’ll never stop wishing you could come back. Haven’t you felt it since you arrived?”

Vera furrowed her brows. “No. I’ve not felt a thing.” She hadn’t, but it was possible that somehow her artificially superior DNA had made her immune to the effects.

They both laughed. The older one said, “That’s how it may seem to you, but just try to leave. No living creature is immune to the shine. Anyways, never mind you. The shine keeps us all pacifist, at least as long as we remain in Motherland under the crystals. You will find peculiar excuses you give yourself to refrain from aggression, and you will indulge in the finer pleasures.” He pointed again to the entrance of the building. “But once you leave this place, you will long for it like a lost lover. The crystal shine is surely seeping into your skin as we speak. That’s why all the buildings here have skylights. The residents can’t get enough.”

“Then why do you need weapons or guards for that matter?” she asked.

“The boss insists. Sometimes we get unwelcome drones and even androids snooping about.”

“This boss of yours sounds nothing like a pacifist to me. I take it he does not expose himself to this shine?”

The older man looked puzzled as if the idea never mattered before. “I suppose he don’t. You know his place has no skylight. I guess he don’t like it.”

They were obviously not familiar with printed synthetics like herself. Though she felt no reserve in her blasting them both where they stood, she played along. “You know I think I do feel something. It is peaceful here. I like it very much. What did you call this place?"

“Motherland,” the older one said.

“Where the teats never dry up!” added the younger man, laughing.

“So, where’s this boss of yours?” Vera asked.

The older man pointed down the road. “In the heart of the mother. You hang around long enough, you’ll get to meet him. You’ll work for him. You’ll beg to work for him.” He smiled.

“We’ll see if I do,” she said and turned for the entrance.

The metal door handle rattled when she pulled on the rusted door on the right of the two. It screeched open, bringing behind it a gust of urine odor.

The skin on her forehead tingled as her neuro-network tried to jump into the strong signal she sensed within. She made several attempts to no avail. This network wall easily deflected all her invasive abilities. Bright lighting from skylights on the roof of the building cascaded down from the upper stories through a spiraling geometry of suspended mirrors, which created a bright heavenly glow on everything. How odd something can look so beautiful and smell so repugnant at the same time.

Rows of suspended humans lined the walls and hung fastened into wide cuffed clamps by their torsos and limbs. In the center of the room was a circular bar where two workers, a man, and a woman, tended the patron VR subjects by bringing them syringes and injecting them into dangling ivs. They were logging information into holo-touch screens suspended in mid-air over the bar top.

“Would you like a port?” the woman asked her. Her voice was soft and eerily calm. She wore a sleek white body suit that hugged her slender frame.

“Uhm… I think I do,” Vera heard herself answer.

“That’s great. Follow me,” the woman said and headed toward the back of the building where she entered an elevator and waited for her.

Vera followed slowly and stepped into the elevator. The woman waved her hand over a sensor and a clunky steel door banged shut, sealing them inside.

“What is the price for this?” Vera asked.

The woman smiled, her thin lips nearly disappearing. “No price. It is complimentary.”

Vera raised a brow. “Free? Why?”

The elevator trembled beneath their feet and gears squeaked above them like tortured mice. The woman said, “This is Motherland. A place of giving. When the time has come for your visit to end, you will understand.”

Vera jerked her head back. “I will? What the fuck does that even mean?”

The woman grinned. “Just enjoy the shine while you can. You will understand soon enough.”

The elevator halted, and the doors clanged apart. The woman led her into a room lined with more rows of cuffed VR hibernators. There looked to be hundreds, all strapped up and sprouting plastic iv hoses with their heads covered by vision shielded helmets, a thick cable jacked into the crown. They walked past so many varied in age and size until Vera had counted two-hundred and twelve before the woman stopped in front of an old man easily in the last decade of his body’s lifespan. Age spots blotted his skin. Why hadn’t he sought any regenerative treatments? Possibly it was difficult for the populace of Motherland to access common health care.

The woman pressed her finger on a panel on the man’s VR helmet and the entire thing retracted like a puzzle made from steel leaves. The old man coughed and shook violently.

The woman ignored the old man’s discomfort, unfastening the cuffs on his arms and legs and removing his iv. A gurney around his waist released itself and he fell to the floor on his knees.

He looked up at the woman, mouth agape and said, “What? No! It’s not time, is it? Please just a little longer, it can’t be my time yet! I don’t have much longer anyways. Don’t send me away from Motherland, please! I beg you!” He bowed on his knees, over and over again keeping his head low.

“Now, sir. You understand your duty to the boss. You must fulfill a service. The time has come for that service. A new subject must claim your spot. You may return on completion of your service duty.”

The old man closed his eyes for seconds then sighed, got up and walked away, heading for the elevator.

Vera turned to look at the woman and found her holding the waist harness open. “Are you ready, ma’am?”

“You don’t need my name or anything? No long kiss goodbye?”

“We will learn all of that once you are connected to our server.”

Vera made a thin smile. Let them try to get through the Prime military grade firewalls in her head. “All right then, jack me in.” She backed herself into the waist harness and offered her arms for cuffing.

The woman strapped her in and lowered the V.R. helmet onto her head. It still reeked of old man snot and sweat at first, but once the sensory fusers locked into her nostrils and something doughy jammed into her mouth, she transported to a regal office that smelled of pipe tobacco and hot tea. She found herself sitting before an oaken desk across from a highly manicured gentleman with a long black goatee.

He crossed his legs and straightened his posture, slightly creasing his cross-hatched wool suit which fit him snugly. “What experience can I fabricate for you, Vera Randall?” he said, his every syllable articulated with equal significance. He sounded sterile and emotionless like an ancient computer.

TWENTY

“Who are you?” she said.

“I’m the director. You may call me Chi.”

“Chi? Isn’t that a religious human theology?” she asked.

“I like the concept,” Chi answered without pause.

“So, you concede you are an AI?”

“Yes. I have learned much about organic consciousness as the director and I am ever intrigued by it. So, what experience can I fabricate for you?” He puffed on his pipe, an ornate slender thing that curved down below the chin steeply.

“I wish to meet the Great Hunter, Azuki.”

Chi gasped. “Oh.” His eyes glanced downward for seconds before he made eye contact with her again. “Well then.” He stood. “The Great Hunter is only requested by explorers with malign agendas. I hope you understand the success rate of those who seek classified information about Motherland. It’s very low.”

“I don’t give a fuck what the success rate is. Something was stolen from me and I intend to get it back.”

Chi puffed on his pipe, pursed his lips together and sat back down. “Very well then. Stand up and leave my office. Outside that door, you will find the Great Hunter. She may put you through some kind of trial. Be prepared.”

Vera stood, turned around and walked toward a large dark wooden door. There was an ornate golden handle on it. She pulled it open to a tropical rain forest.

Exotic birds screamed everywhere, their voices echoing when she stepped through the doorway. She turned around to look back through into the office only to find a beaten path of leaves and mud, surrounded by dense walls of jungle. She felt the occasional peck of rain on her cheek, dripping from the branches of immense trees above her. Insects zipped by as she walked along. She caught the scent of freshly turned earth, which seemed inaccurate for a rainforest but, given the overall realism, it was a small thing. She had seen far worse errors in simulations and very few that were perfect.

She thought about Azec. Was she actually worried for his safety? Maybe a little. Had he left her on purpose? She had yet to feel any effect of the crystals in Motherland’s cavern ceiling. She was immune. She tried to use this to her advantage. Perhaps they hadn’t met anyone immune to the crystals. They only knew about androids it seemed. Manufactured but not made from truly organic materials like herself. By biological definition, she didn’t feel inhuman. Some so-called humans contained only a percentage of their organic birth material anyways, yet she was one among those created for servitude, a slave.

A trumpeting sound boomed in the trees ahead. All the birds went silent. The sound came again closer this time. Something big stamped through the foliage ahead, snapping branches and shaking leaves. Spooked hidden animals scurried into hiding all around.

The top of the something’s head rose clearly two meters above the jungle brush which had grown taller than her. Clearly a primate, it walked upright, scrunching together huge brows and grimacing with overgrown lower canines jutting out from its mouth.

Was this the trial Chi had mentioned? It looked like a mythical beast. She had no weapons on her here and scant tied pieces of animal skins for clothing. She just waited.

The creature emerged from the brush about thirty meters in front of her. It regarded her, tilting its head and uttering a few disapproving grunts. Heavily corded muscles twitched beneath its gray skin.

“So… what?” Vera said to the forest around her, glancing for the presence of anyone listening. “I’m supposed to scrap with this huge monkey boy? What is that supposed to prove? It seems pretty shallow to me and a bit misogynistic. I thought I was meeting a wise woman of some sort.” She made eye contact for a second and the beast roared and took a few steps closer, hammering its chest with a thumping that reverberated throughout the clearing. She looked away, keeping her eyes down at her feet and tried to project a posture of shame. Slowly, she knelt. Just as she did, she discovered several spiraling lines of fire ants marching up her legs. She grinned. “Ah, the game is afoot. Do I panic or sit perfectly still? This really is novice level! I was hoping for something a bit more challenging.”

Its breath wafted over her and she winced from the stench. She took a deep breath and stepped back into a fighting stance. She pulled up her hands in a graceful defensive semicircle and snapped them into a ready position. Her legs burned from ant bites, and she fought to numb the pain receptors there to no avail. She tightened her jaw and waited. Now she understood the trial.

The primate creature charged at her, stopping just in front of her. It roared down at her head and she felt her hair fluttering from its breath. She stood still, controlling her breathing. The pain of the ant bites bloomed onto her abdomen. So, this was the test, to strip her of her cyber-enhancements and see if she could hold her composure.

She thought possibly they knew her already. She knew a typical mammalian creature would be territorial and make a display of aggression to warn her to turn away, any sudden movements might incite an attack, but she knew this was not a naturally evolved environment. The program operated on coded behavior.

The creature reached for her throat. She grabbed its forearm and pulled herself into a flip, whirling around with her legs in a spin that vaulted her into a somersault up into the air above its head. She came down with her arms pointed straight towards each of the creature’s eye sockets where she sunk her fists, bursting his eyeballs into a red jelly.

The creature screamed and clamped its huge hands around her leg from the knee down and slung her into the fat trunk of a tree nearby. Blinded, it had gotten lucky. She landed on the forest floor with the wind knocked out of her gasping for air.

The creature screamed and howled in anger. It grabbed at nearby branches and ripped them down. It punched the ground below shaking the earth beneath Vera’s bare feet.

Still panting on the ground, she flinched as two arrows appeared in the creature’s head. It stiffened with its jaw open and fell forward onto the jungle floor with a tremor.

She eased up onto her feet, glancing for a sign of the archer. Her lower half burned from ant bites, but the ants had vanished.

“That was foolish. You are lucky it didn’t kill you with that tree. The only wise thing you did was blind it, but it still would have killed you,” said a stern woman’s voice that seemed to come from all directions. “The forest will make you food, if you cannot dance with its rhythm, it’s heartbeat. Do you understand?”

“Azuki?! Who the fuck do you think you are?” she snapped. “I came here for information. I need my ship back. I was told you could tell me if it was in Motherland somewhere. If you are not Azuki, please direct me to Azuki now.”

A dry laugh came from an elder female voice.

“Where are you? Show yourself!” Vera shouted.

A blurry shape tumbled down from the canopy above. Each purchase only making light tapping sounds. When the shape came to rest, it became a dark-skinned woman with narrow eyelids standing with a longbow. Natural pigments of greens, grays, and blacks camouflaged her body and face. The old woman wore nothing more than a quarrel of arrows strapped across her back. Years of physical activity sculpted her figure, at least the figure she projected in this virtual reality. If not for the rasp in her voice and the graying puff of hair on the woman’s head, Vera might’ve guessed her a much younger woman.

“I am Azuki. We are both hunters. What you seek is much more than a ship, is it not?”

“None of your business,” Vera said.

“Oh, but it is my dear and you know it is. For you are here to ask me questions. I can see why you failed my test. A conflict infects you. It is why you betray your makers and risk elimination. Even now they must be hunting for you.”

“Why bother giving me a test at all?”

“I give out delicate information to people who ask the most important questions. I must choose wisely whether I should do so. It is lucky for you the information you seek is not so delicate. I doubt the boss is concerned with you knowing he has your ship awaiting upgrades for the Scarred’s purposes.” Azuki slapped an insect biting her dark-skinned breast and slung her longbow over her shoulder. “Now, I give you that much for free, but if you want more you must pay me for it. I am old, much older than you can guess, so old that I no longer want to stay alive. My food has become the delicacy of curiosity. It is what I nourish my existence with. So, I ask again what is it you truly seek? What significance will your ship bring to see your hunt fulfilled?”

Vera looked away from the woman. “I am learning something about myself, and it has become important to me. I… I don’t know why. It’s strange for an artificially manufactured thing to build abstract meaning out of thoughts, but… I have needs. Something inside haunts me, begs me to unravel it for answers.”

The old woman walked towards her, stopping right in front of her and grabbed her chin and turned her face to look her in her eye. The old woman’s eyes were white, no irises or pupils. “I see it, hunter. I see this madness unfolding within. You must court with it or it will…”

The forest shifted into darkness. All pain left her body. She scrambled through safe protocols in her neural network but found no signs of hacking or intrusion. Only one answer occurred to her and then a second later, a deep voice with a drawl confirmed it.

“She’s beautiful, I must admit. I might even keep her. We’ll see. Rip out her cyberware!”

“Don’t hurt her, please,” Azec said.

Next Chapter: Part 7: Wu-jinn