Phoenix City, Saraya, Standard Year 404

  James and Will exchanged a glance as their guide grew noticeably more nervous. They had only walked a short way down the narrow prison hallway when they heard the sound of additional guards coming their way.

  “Who sent you?” James asked urgently. “What’s the plan?”

  “Summers.” The nervous man replied. “Summers sent me but this isn’t how it’s all supposed to go down. I only get paid if I get you out alive but...”

  But there is no plan, James filled in the blank silently. His best guess was that Alanna’s brother Jonno Summers had sent someone in to help, but the plan was clearly going awry. The rescue team hadn’t arrived yet, and there wouldn’t be much point if James was already dead. When his death was imminent, the nervous man had stepped in. But the timing was off and he clearly wasn’t equipped for contingency planning. “Unlock your wrist comm and give it to me.” James said out loud, laying one barely functional hand on the shoulder of their twitchy guide. “We need a way to maintain contact. And go tell them you’ve already searched this way. We’ll manage from here.”

  “But…”

  “Go.” James repeated, and after only a brief hesitation, the man handed him his wrist comm, remembering to pull his sleeve down so it would not be noticed, and headed away at a fast pace. A moment later, they heard the nervous sound of his voice telling the guards there was no one in that direction.

  “Good.” Will nodded, breathing a sigh of relief when the voices faded. “Good call getting rid of him. He wasn’t that competent. We don’t have much time and we need to talk.” He held out his hand, letting his skin blend with the wooden wall behind them until it was no longer visible.

  James blinked, shaking his head as Will’s hand disappeared. “I don’t…”

  “I’m a chameleon.” Will said. There wasn’t much time. “And I’m not human. Lorelai knows. She used motion detectors to get me. We’re close to the same size. If we both stand still, with you behind me, they won’t see either of us.”

  “Heat signature…” James said automatically. It was the right answer, even if his mind hadn’t quite processed everything he just saw.

  “This is Saraya. I’m not any hotter than the air around us. If you stand behind me, they won’t see either of us.” Will repeated.

  James blinked again. The hand was still gone. Mostly… “It doesn’t work where your skin is damaged.” He pointed out, forcing his eyes to focus. “I can still see parts of your hand.”

  “I know.” Will said, the worry in his eyes unmistakable. “But it’s our best chance. Hope they’re not as observant as you are.”

  “You’re more likely to get noticed with me behind you. If we split up…” James began.

  “No.”

  “You said you had to live.” James said, finally making certain connections in his head. “You said you had to live or everything was going to get blown up. We should split up and…” They both looked up at the sound of footsteps coming towards them.

  “No time.” Will said, pushing James towards a slight indentation in one of the walls. Phoenix penn was housed inside a giant and ancient dead tree. Twisted wood surrounded them. Unlike a typical prison, it had plenty of hiding spots. No one worried much about losing prisoners. The whole place was surrounded by a hundred feet of empty concrete and turret guns. They could hide inside the prison walls, but no one was getting out. And just then, it didn’t matter. Will and James both froze as the guards came closer.

  “Lorelai will not be happy.” James heard one of the guards say. It was an incredibly eerie experience. He could see the guards walking past. He could see their eyes scanning their surroundings, skimming over the place where he leaned… moving on. And then there was silence.

  “Worked.” Will said, his disembodied voice sounding noticeably smug.

  “This time.” James replied. He let the wall support more of his weight. In the far distance, he thought he could hear the faint sound of additional footsteps. Too crowded, too dangerous… and he was too tired. He took a breath, forcing his mind to focus. “Take out one of the guards.” He said slowly. “Wait for one man alone, take him out, and we’ll use his credentials to enter one of the cells. Can you do it?”

  “Sure.” Will confirmed. He was still holding the gun, carefully hidden behind him so that it would not be visible to passing guards. They waited for three more groups to pass before they found their target, a lone officer walking alone at a brisk pace, his eyes focused somewhere in the distance, shoulders tense.

  “Him.” James breathed. The access codes should be especially high level.

  Will gave an invisible shrug and raised his gun, noting the momentary shock on the man’s face as a disembodied gun was raised and pointed directly at him. The man fell.

  James leaned down, helping Will find the access card with stiffened fingers. “Are you well enough to carry the body?” He asked.

  “I got it.” Will said immediately. He leaned down to pick up the body, overbalanced, and fell. His muscles spasmed slightly, unable to handle the strain. “Damn.” Will breathed. “I have it. Give me one more minute. I’ll get it.” He looked up in relief to see that James had already found a cell that the access card would open, and it was nearby. And then he heard the sound of additional footsteps coming their way. Damn. He leaned down again but wasn’t able to move the body until James returned and pushed from the other side. James’s hands weren’t functioning well enough to grip, but he could help by pushing the body in the right direction. Will now had traction he needed to keep moving. They shut the cell door just in time, listening to the footsteps drawing closer and closer.

  James breathed in relief as the footsteps continued on, without pause. He glanced around the cell. “Well that’s a bit of good luck.” He said, half sitting half collapsing onto the floor. It was the first time he sat down in god knew how many days. On the other side of the small cell hung a dead body. The cell was otherwise empty.

  “And not too old either.” Will said, doing his best to put a cheerful spin on things. “Hasn’t started to smell yet.”

  “You are an absolute ray of sunshine, Will.” James said with a nod.

  “That I am.” Will agreed, sitting down next to James and finally, finally leaning against a wall. Sitting down was the best feeling in the world. Absentmindedly, he reached out for a roach that was crawling along the floor, and ate it. He was starved.

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  James closed his eyes, torn between starvation and disgust.

  “Want one?” Will offered, reaching out lazily.

  “I honestly don’t know.” James said, watching Will pick up another one of the brown insects, legs wriggling.

  “You don’t like bugs?” Will asked. It was a human thing. Will thought bugs were fine. He smashed the insect, making sure it died instantly before he ate it. There was no need for it to suffer.

  “Instant death.” James said out loud, his exhausted gaze on the bug.

  “Sure. Least I can do.”

  “As quickly and painlessly as it is possible to kill fish.” James murmured.

  “What?”

  “Oh. Nothing. Nothing at all.” James forced his eyes open. His mouth was painfully dry from thirst, and talking was hard.

  “I’m going to get us water.” Will said, getting up abruptly.

  “Will.” James began, stopped. He needed water. Desperately.

  Will nodded, disappearing as he headed towards the door.

  ---

  James blinked in bemusement, watching as a cloth bag filled with supplies floated back into the cell. Will was a good friend to have. He accepted the water bottle Will handed him gratefully, pouring the precious liquid into his mouth.

  Will rematerialized, taking the filter off one of the bottles and tossing it into a corner of the cell before draining the bottle.

  “Really?” James said, watching curiously. “You’re immune.” Vibrio angerona bacteria gathered in any standing water on the planet of Saraya, and for humans it was deadly. James needed to filter so that the water didn’t become poison. Apparently, Will did not.

  “Completely immune.” Will said, leaning his head back against the wall and taking another long, luxurious drink of water. It tasted glorious.

  “I’m going to give you a contact.” James said, his mind back on business. “Can you send a text? We need a distraction. A big one.”

  “Sure.” Will agreed, pulling out the unlocked wrist comm their mysterious rescuer had given them. And then he paused. “Is this distraction going to involve nuking my factory?” He asked.

  “Well aren’t you well informed.” James murmured, taking another sip of his filtered water.

  Will winced, but otherwise remained silent.

  “If we nuke the factory, Lorelai will tell everyone it was me and they will tear this place apart. So no, it shouldn’t be that. We need a distraction, Will. We need help or else they will find us. Or at least they’ll find me.”

  “All right, what do you want me to send?”

  “Escaped but still inside the prison. Hiding. Need a distraction.” James dictated. And then he gave his father’s contact information.

  “You asking daddy for help?” Will couldn’t help asking.

  “You bet I am.”

  “I’m texting President Hawk.” Will shook his head, bemused. “You know, I can’t believe your people came for you first. Where the fuck is my cavalry? I’m supposed to get rescued by now.”

  “I’ll give you another contact for the message.” James offered, watching Will closely. And then he read out Robert’s contact info. Will was tired, and didn’t even come close to masking his reaction. Will recognized Robert’s contact information, and he knew exactly who he was texting. And that, James thought silently, is how Will knew that his factory was going to be nuked. Mystery solved, for whatever it was worth to him. He snorted quietly.

  “I reacted didn’t I?” Will said, looking up from the wrist comm.

  “Yeah.” James nodded. “You did. Maybe Robert will send you your cavalry.”

  “He bloody well should.” Will hissed with some annoyance. He reached into the bag he managed to bring with him and handed James a sandwich. “Here.” He offered. “Since you refuse to eat roaches.”

  James reached for the sandwich eagerly, closing his eyes in frustration as his hand failed to grip. It took him four more tries to bring the food awkwardly to his mouth. His left hand was entirely useless after he pulled it out of the manacles and his right was barely functioning. Some of the nerve damage would be permanent without treatment.

  “I guess kings don’t eat roaches.” Will said with some bemusement.

  James finally managed to take a bite of his sandwich before looking up. “What are you talking about?” He asked.

  “Nothing.” Will shrugged, reaching for another roach.

  “You can have the sandwich.” James offered immediately, pausing before he took another delicious bite.

  “I’m good. Better protein anyway.”

  James frowned, watching Will more carefully. It occurred to him that the roaches never came near him. It was true earlier as well, even back in their old cell. As if they sensed a natural enemy. “Why are you here, Will?” James asked.

  “Huh? We’re getting philosophical now?”

  “Was I?”

  “Weren’t you?”

  “No.” James said, his sharp gray eyes studying Will intently. “I wasn’t being philosophical. I was asking for your mission objective.”

  Will nodded, leaning his head against a wall for a long minute. He was tired. The silence stretched on.

  James waited. After all, he had known Robert a long time. He knew the drill. Will wasn’t sure if he wanted to answer. So he would think about it. For as long as it took.

  “It wasn’t Robert’s fault.” Will said, somewhat abruptly. “You getting caught. It wasn’t his fault. He never betrayed you. None of us did.”

  “Robert told you about the attack on your factory.” James said bluntly. “He told you I was coming. The factory was shut down. Deserted. Because you already knew what would happen. And so did Lorelai. You want to tell me that was a coincidence?”

  “She took me down too!”

  “She’s not what I would call a loyal ally.” James agreed.

  “She was never an ally!” Will said, turning towards James angrily. “None of us told her you were coming. And I made up an excuse to evacuate my factory. Claimed there was a reactor leak. It shouldn’t have had anything to do with you.”

  “You protected your people.” James said quietly, watching Will closely.

  “Yeah. And Robert told me not to. Robert told me not to do any of it. I just ignored him.”

  “Someone told Lorelai.” James mused.

  “Not me. And it sure as hell wasn’t Robert.”

  “Then who?”

  “I don’t… I don’t know.” Will admitted.

  “Do you know how she knew about you?”

  Will hesitated. “There are records. Old earth records.”

  “Your people came to old earth.” James said quietly, trying to imagine it. “They were already there. By the time our ancestors left, your people were already there. And what did they do over all these centuries? All this time… and we never hear from old earth.”

  “That was their choice. They chose not to contact you.”

  “Why?”

  Will sighed. “It’s complicated.”

  “Kings don’t eat roaches.” James said, quoting back Will’s words as he studied the other man closely. “That’s what you said. But I’m no king. I’m just Jim Hawk’s son. I’m a captain. Why would you call me a king?”

  Will opened his mouth, closed it, and drank his water.

  “What did Robert do?” James said, all thoughts of aches and pains gone as he zeroed in on Will.

  “Not much.”

  “He did something.”

  “He made you more like us. That’s all.”

  “How?”

  “Genetic engineering. A prompt to an AI system that wrote the genetic code that became you.”

  “Am I human?”

  Will laughed. “Of course you are. That’s why you can’t drink the unfiltered water. The code we used is human DNA. The result – is someone more like us. You’ll understand me, James. You’ll understand Robert. Better than most. That’s all.”

  “That doesn’t sound like a whole lot.”

  Will laughed harder. “Should we have programmed you to act upon our orders? Put in a trigger word or two?” He shook his head. “That’s human thinking. No. We made you more like us. That’s all we needed to do.”

  “And what do you expect me to do?”

  “Be an ally. When we need one. You’ll understand.”

  “And it will be my choice.”

  “Of course.” Will said, as if anything else was unthinkable.

  James nodded. Maybe to Will, it was. “What’s the mission objective, Will?” James repeated.

  “Preserve life, preserve resources, observe.” Will answered.

  “That’s all?”

  Will shrugged. “That’s all.”

  “And old earth?” James asked quietly. “What was the mission objective for old earth?”

  Will opened his mouth, seemingly about to answer, when the buzz of a wrist comm interrupted his train of thought. He frowned, sitting up. “It’s not just me.” He said, tension running through his voice. “It wasn’t just me. It was all of us. Someone went after all of us. That’s why my cavalry is delayed. Everyone was attacked at once.”

  “You, Robert, others like you…” James paused “and me.”

  Will looked up. “And you.” He said, puzzlement in his voice.

  “What did Lorelai find, in these old earth records?”

  Will shook his head, looking back down at his wrist comm. “I’m told your distraction is coming.” He said instead. “This will be interesting. Let’s see Jim Hawk in action.”

  James nodded, leaning his head against the back wall. He was tired, but he was pretty sure that his cavalry, was on the way.