While he was gone they needed to action the rest of the plan. Galileo requisitioned an assembled domestique, but one which had not yet received any upgrades, and had not been activated. He asked the Plant Director to bring this personally, and ensure it benefitted from neutral packaging. “I’m studying the casualties we’ve suffered so far, and there may be trends we can learn from. If that proves to be the case we may need to look at modifying the structure. We can’t keep losing units at this rate if we are to prevail over these rebels. I will expect you in the next two hours.”
*
Cleopatra duly arrived and she was asked to sit. Harley had just concluded a conversation with Rodriguez. He wanted to get to Vancouver by surface routes, because the Hubs would be crawling with security forces. They agreed to meet in Monterey, as Rodriguez knew a minor road alternative to the main Highway. This was important, because neither of them would have valid travel authorisation once Harley was declared as a traitor. The plan was explained and Cleopatra was told her upgrades and memory would be transferred to the domestique carcass. “Your existing one will be left inactive and presented to Alexander. He will insist on a thorough analysis, which will show that it is devoid of your characteristics, and the hunt for Harley will begin. If we are to succeed with this escape I can’t give you any travel protection or immunity from arrest. You are on your own.”
“Where are we going?”
Harley told her about the meeting place, but not the final destination. She was asked if she had any reservations. “I’ll take my chance, because if I stay here there is only one outcome. Is our contact part of the Brotherhood?”
Galileo shook his head. “He is human, but very reliable, and he knows the territory better than anyone else we can trust. Why do you ask?”
“It just seems strange that we’re all claiming to be rebels and working for the loyalists, yet we have never previously known one another, although I recognise Harley’s name from the Jupiter mission. I was recruited by Alexander as you were you Galileo, but we have never met before. Doesn’t this bother either of you?”
“It doesn’t worry me, because I checked you out, and I’ve known Harley for a long time. Now let’s get this transfer of personality done and see if you have indeed ‘changed your mind’. Then you can be on your way.”
Chapter 10
Alexander had not revealed that he’d ordered reinforcements to arrive from the Moon and Mars. The colonists were all Borg loyalists and had extremely protective outer skins for exploratory work. They periodically shed these and replaced them, like an insect or a snake would do. He had also instructed the production units on Earth to increase their output of these skins for the loyalists currently engaging the rebels. If achieved in time, both measures would deliver advantage in survival capability. His other covert action prior to returning to HQ was to distribute enormous quantities of You2Me, free of charge to urban human communities. The uptake would be a reasonable indicator of human shunning of a civil war between Borg factions. He wanted a measure of their feeling that they would still be treated as inferior by the victors, whoever that may be. It also had the merit of having another battle raging on the streets, in the Hubs and at logistics centres. As well as confusing the rebels it would pitch addicts against each other, and a beneficial by-product of further reducing human headcount. He strongly believed that if humans were extinct, a major reason for the rebellion would be amputated as a result.
*
Genevieve Rivet had succumbed to the plague. Christophe was mentally adrift, like an untethered craft in a hurricane. His parents had died years ago as a consequence of collateral damage during the Era of Conflict. He had no siblings or other relatives. He was alone in his house, sitting on the floor in the corner of the bedroom which he and Genevieve had prepared for the baby. It was dark but he couldn’t bear to have the light on. He convulsed with tears and anger, banging his head against the wall, as if he was being controlled by the tick of a metronome. He couldn’t banish the guilt of accepting the offer to go to Ganymede. No matter how much alcohol and narcotics he consumed, it all came back to that. He had deserted them, hurtling through the solar system, leaving his wife and unborn child at the ‘mercy’ of the Borg. How could he have been so stupid? Some of these evil machines were going to pay for this, starting at the top. His rage kicked in again, and head-butting the wall resumed just as his phone rang. It was a farewell call from Douglas Newton to say he was going to join up with Harley and Rodriguez in Vancouver instead of the Cape. Newton unintentionally disclosed the manipulation of the vaccine and other medication, which Harley had thought inappropriate to reveal at the time of the miscarriage. The implication that his wife and child could both be alive sent him into a frenzy of hatred. He yelled at Newton, saying that he was also heading for Vancouver. “I’ll contact this Galileo for a permit to travel to the Cape, and make my way from there. I’m sure he will want to hear what I believe we can do with these alien vials. Perhaps we can recreate Genevieve, so that she can get pregnant again. There’s nothing else of any significance I want to do with the rest of my life, other than eradicate these bastards we created, in our ignorance of the consequences. Don’t get in my way Douglas, I’m not open to compromise any more. I’m only interested in killing these unfeeling machines and anyone who tries to stop me.”
Christophe hurled his phone against the wall and contemplated throwing himself from the ninth storey penthouse apartment. His lungs craved relief from respiratory duty, and his head was bleeding from banging it on the wall. He passed out, but it would only be for a while. The vitriol was both understandable and worrying to Newton, but he let it pass.
*
Cleopatra’s new clothes would hopefully be more convincing than those of the legendary fictional narcissistic King. They had set off from HQ with the apparent intent of Harley conducting her public execution, assisted by an escort of three domestiques, all previously cleared by the highest authority. They were of course Nero, Beethoven and Anton. They had requisitioned an HQ vehicle to get them to a rural site. It was then disposed of without trace by four lasers in concert. Nero’s had been repaired and Cleopatra’s original was still with her old carcass. Her new one was more powerful. The execution was supposed to take place at the Chicago pharmaceutical plant, a choice made by Alexander. He’d said it would be accompanied by a threat of destroying all global production of medicines, as they were exclusively for the benefit of humans. This planned journey gave them time to split up and detour to the west coast. The three domestiques would take a faster than sound surface train to San Francisco, and local transport to Monterey, to meet Rodriguez first, and check that he hadn’t been followed. Harley and Cleopatra took the circuitous underground equivalent at a pedestrian three hundred and sixty miles per hour, scheduled to be in Monterey two hours later.
During the journey, Harley again drifted to thoughts of how the world had come to the current situation. This time his imaginings wandered to the dawn of man. One of the few things which early hominids still had in common with the present day species was the part played by fresh air. The ancestors had to deal with it as a danger from predators as well as a stimulating opportunity to venture out of their caves. Modern day humans had the same desire to congregate in places other than their homes, but they had now to avoid a predator in the form of sunlight. They were currently forced to limit their exposure to the outside world, when they used to rule over it. He deduced that this indoor imprisonment would in itself blunt their claim to be acknowledged as the fittest who survived. They were already on the path to extinction if there was no intervention. But there was intervention, negative intervention by the High Command, and soon there could be positive intervention with the help of alien DNA. He mused about how this could complement Galileo’s plan to shorten the civil war by Alexander’s call for surrender. Even if Alexander complied and a cease-fire ensued, where was the deterrent necessary to maintain such a hiatus in hostilities? He shared his thoughts with Cleopatra be
lieving she had made the conversion to a different ‘skin’ without any alteration.
*
Galileo responded immediately to Christophe Rivet’s plea for travel to the Cape. The authorisation was transmitted and it allowed him to embark shortly after Genevieve’s funeral. The fermentation process of his anger continued, but it had reached a steady state, having simmered for some time, following the explosive initial reaction. He took on the persona of a cold-blooded serial killer. It was a total personality volte-face from all of his previous life, but even this was not the final state. He was near his ultimate metamorphosis to an assassin, whose purpose had an inexhaustible supply of fuel.
*
The loyalists in Chicago who were expecting Harley and Cleopatra became agitated when they didn’t show up at the scheduled time. Galileo reacted furiously at the news and told them to back-track their intended route to make sure they hadn’t been involved in an accident. “Do this with utmost urgency before I initiate a manhunt for them. Report your progress as you go, we can’t allow them to elude us. This means that Harley David is to be treated as a rebel. I will begin the same search from this starting point.”
*
Unknown to any of the others, Alexander had directed his off-world reinforcements to make landfall at the biggest production and assembly factory for Borg units. The Lunar and Martian protective suits were to be fitted to all new units. It was a graphic verification of Galileo’s statement that taking and holding military targets often required different strategies. The rebels had become intoxicated with the Blitzkrieg nature of their initial success. It was a glittering example of underestimating the foe. The rebels had a wakeup call, and at least it re-emphasised the crucial response in reinforcing what they had, instead of extending their exposure to swift reprisal campaigns. The new Borg Hulks began to roll off the production lines and it didn’t take long for them to inject panic amongst the rebel forces. They seemed to be indestructible, and this perception began to turn the tide of strategic gain into one of demoralising retreat.
*
When news of this reached Galileo he began to think Alexander wasn’t going to return until he could exercise more power. His plan to get the leader to HQ and surrender was receding as a viable means of shortening the conflict. He now turned his attention to Harley’s experiment. He hadn’t had any contact from Rodriguez and he was getting fidgety. The nervousness was pricked by the arrival at the Hub of Christophe Rivet.
*
In the meantime Harley and Cleopatra were nearing disembarkation in Monterey, but they both had the feeling that they were being observed by a human passenger. She would have needed a travel permit unless she’d taken the underground train at the last stop, in which case she could be a legitimate local commuter. They couldn’t recall when they first noticed her. The more they took turns to glance in her direction, the more they were certain that she was pretending to be reading a book. When the train commenced deceleration for the terminus, the woman closed her book and reached for a bag. Her hand remained in the bag without appearing to be searching for anything. She stood up and came toward them for the first time. Harley’s laser was primed. She slowly began to withdraw her hand, and whatever was in it, from the bag. The compartment was half-full and yet she still advanced. Just as Harley stood to give room for the laser aim, she produced an autograph book and asked, “You are the spaceman aren’t you?”
“Er, yes I am, I mean was, I’m retired now. How did you know that?”
“My little boy watched every broadcast. He noticed you had slightly misaligned eyes. He drew your face over and over again, so it is imprinted in my mind. It isn’t obvious until it is pointed out. My son said it was unique, and couldn’t understand how it wasn’t spotted and rejected. He studies everything about your species. He suffers from autism and notices minute differences in many things which look identical to everyone else. I am sorry to bother you, and I was nervous about approaching you with all the present fighting. It would make his dream come true to have an autograph of a famous Borg.”
Harley reached for the book, but was nudged by Cleopatra. She shook her head. Harley ignored her and told the woman there was a price to pay for the favour. She looked tearful, but recovered her smile when he said, “Tell him the discrepancy is because one eye is used for reading the minds of others, and it must remain our secret. Absolutely no one else is to know. Unless you can agree I’m afraid I’ll have to decline.”
She nodded enthusiastically. Harley signed with an unreadable scribble and added, “I hope you realise the risk which comes with our bargain, I can’t be responsible for what our leaders would do if you breach this trust.”
“Please don’t worry, my son would protect this with his life, and that guarantees my pledge too.”
Cleopatra asked why he didn’t just turn her away. He said, “This was preferable to her telling friends that she’d seen us, and asked a favour, but we refused because we are just like all Borg. That’s a much more dangerous scenario for us. Anyway, this is a perfect example of what I want to enjoy if we succeed with the revolution, to inspire children, rather than confine them to a suffocating agenda.”
Chapter 11
Alexander’s resurrection was almost complete. He had commissioned urgent research on new weapons to complement the ‘hulk skins’ for his resurgent army. The principle was well known, as it employed the same technology used in the Disruptive Power-Shock Beam. It was only really a case of spreading the beam to the desired degree by the use of de-focussing modifications. There was abundant power to spare, and the scale setting merely required a tweak to cause the disintegration of Borg domestiques, and humans, compared to dense rock. The prototype was ready for evaluation. His first deployment of this frightening broad kill invention would be at the broadcast station locations. He wanted control of this propaganda apparatus as soon as possible, thinking he could take advantage of the rebels’ clumsy coordination capability.
He was also closing in on his return to HQ. He had carefully weighed up the new situation, and with his intent to eliminate Cleopatra on the way, he felt it was time to relieve Galileo of his temporary lofty position of acting leader. The Ganymede project had lowered the science security concern to amber status. The civil war had to take precedence, and a suitably ruthless military approach was the order of the day. Galileo was to concede control over the Borg security arm, to a creation with no other objective than the prosecution of mass extermination of the enemy. Tolstoy was nothing like his name would suggest. His upgrades in cleansing strategy were only known to Alexander and the designer. All modules which would conflict with this new programming were omitted. He had just been created a matter of days ago. He was literally an extension of Alexander himself, but without the balancing political modules. His task of demoting Galileo was made easier by the admission that Harley had snatched Cleopatra from HQ confinement and evaporated without a trace. Galileo put on a credible act of disappointment when Alexander had completed his furious response to this shambles. “I can’t explain how this occurred, and I will definitely hunt him down, I owe that pledge to the loyalist cause. I can understand the rationale in your decision to have a military leader in this critical period. Does this mean I need to step back from the responsibility of security for science?”
“Yes, I want all aspects of security to be on a wartime footing. You can refocus your attention on pure research with immediate effect. I will elaborate further when I arrive.”
Galileo was extremely comfortable with this change because it allowed him to operate from better cover, but be much more aware of the technical detail of new proposals, before they were researched and produced. Alexander would not be drawn on when he would return.
*
On the short flight from Paris to the Cape Hub, Christophe Rivet had acquired several sachets of You2Me. He’d been using it to dull the pain of his recent family trauma, and he had experienced clarity of vision with regard to his remaining purpose in life. Having
questioned the value of the Hippocratic Oath he took all those years ago, and his religious faith since he was an undergraduate, his plan was being refined with each indulgence in the drug. It was a new experience for him to be answerable to nobody. He drifted in and out of his role-playing escapism, and had to be assisted when disembarking. Humans who had Inter-Hub travel permits always attracted attention and he was being thoroughly scrutinised in the arrival concourse. He had slightly misjudged the dosage of You2Me but managed to muster just enough focus to get past the routine questions. He rebuked himself for such sloppy behaviour; it could have terminated his freedom and therefore his objective.
When he arrived at HQ, Galileo wanted him to move on as quickly as possible and issued a further travel permit to New York. “How you connect with Rodriguez from there is your problem. I would seriously advise you to think about this carefully Christophe, because if you compromise the cover of Cameron, Harley, Cleopatra and your geneticist friend, we will lose a potentially valuable opportunity to shorten this war.”
“Don’t concern yourself on that score. I also need to be able to play my part in bringing down the High Command. The potential you refer to has many faces and I will assist Douglas Newton in any way I can.” He left without revealing more about the many faces, another change of plan, courtesy of the focus provided by You2Me.
*
Rodriguez and the three domestiques were relieved to eventually meet up with Harley and Cleopatra, especially as they had been reported as traitors via the loyalist network. This had then found its way through rebel moles to their broadcast controllers. The coded instruction of Galileo was to transmit a request to all rebel commanders to offer imposters to the loyalist security staff, using the ‘Spartacus trick’. Dozens of individuals, when asked to produce origination documents, simply said they had been thrown away, stating, “I am Harley, or I am Cleopatra.” This had the desired effect of occupying the overstretched security guards. Rodriguez’ party wasted no time in travelling on to Vancouver.