Chapter 8

Chira, 1 Toraa, 4393, Orthodox Calendar

Sunday, 15 August 2007, Native Regional Reckoning

Chesapeake, Ohio (Native designation), Orala Nature Preserve, American Sector

The rain down in Williamson drifted up to Chesapeake after a couple of hours, but by then it didn’t matter. They were all inside, and Temika had managed to return with Doctor Adam Northwood from Logan. They were both a little soaked, but Northwood wasn’t complaining. Northwood was an older man, around 60, with a full head of silver hair cut in a crew cut and some dark spots on his forehead. His face was gaunt and drawn, but his eyes were lucid and gentle, a pleasing green, and he had a manner about him that put people at ease. The most casual inspection of his thoughts showed him that this doctor was absolutely trustworthy. His lifelong passion was healing the sick and injured, and he held unswervingly to the ideal of the pure doctor…one who heals anything he can, regardless of what the injury is or who had it. Northwood would treat Symone without questions, because she needed a doctor. Jason showed him upstairs to the room where he had both Tim and Symone, and he didn’t bat an eye at seeing a Faey. Jason told him what he’d seen, and he just nodded and sat down to inspect them himself. He took all of ten seconds checking Tim’s arm, then tutted and set it back down gently.

“Clean break of the ulna and radius,” he diagnosed. “Nice splint, it perfectly aligned the break. Who did it?”

“The guy who found him,” Jason answered.

“He’s good,” Northwood nodded. “All we need is a cast on this, and this young fella’s gonna be up and about in no time,” he said with a smile at Tim. “All you need, young’un, is a little something to help take the edge off the pain.” He reached into his medical bag, and produced a single white pill. “This’ll help you get along to sleep, son,” he told Tim. “That’s the best thing for you right now.”

“Okay, doctor,” Tim said, swallowing the pill. He leaned back in the bed and closed his eyes.

Northwood went over and sat down on the bed beside Symone. He checked her pupils and inspected her face and head carefully, then used a penlight to check her pupils again. “Hmm, I don’t see any evidence of trauma,” he announced. “Good pupil response. It’s most likely a concussion. You said she had some burns?”

“Under the armor.”

“Then show me how to get it off, if you know,” he ordered. “I figure you can, if you saw the burns in the first place.”

Jason chuckled and nodded and, with Northwood’s help, they stripped Symone’s armor off her. The two burns on her leg looked bad, but the one on her shoulder looked nasty. It had punched through her armor much harder than the hits to her leg, leaving a charred burn as big across as an orange, charring well into the soft tissue under her skin. By then, Tim was already asleep, so he didn’t see just how badly his girlfriend was injured. “These are pretty bad,” Northwood admitted as he inspected the burn on her shoulder. “I don’t have anything that’s going to help treat this. The best we can do is excise the destroyed tissue, bandage her up, and hope she heals naturally.”

“I have a bunch of Faey first-aid stuff,” he told the doctor. “Do you know how to use any of it?”

“Actually, I do, son,” he said. “Go get it.”

Jason retrieved his first aid kit, and Northwood rifled through it quickly. “Not bad, son,” he said, taking out a bottle filled with powder. “I need a glass of water and something we can use for bandages.”

Jason retrieved the water, and a sheet that they quickly tore up into strips. The doctor poured the powder onto a press then added water to it, which made it start to bubble and foam. He then applied it to her shoulder. There was a strange acrid smell, and smoke wafted up from under that press.

“This is a compound that dissolves away inorganic matter,” he explained. “It’ll also remove most of the charred tissue, since it’s been oxidized. After this, we apply some of what’s in that vial right there, then bandage her up. That’s a bio-organic accelerator, it causes her natural healing mechanisms to go into overdrive. Using that compound, she’ll be fully healed in about six days.”

“They must have trained you in Faey medical technology,” he reasoned.

“A year’s worth, until an argument with a Faey doctor in a hospital sent me to a farm. I didn’t much like it there, so I decided to come live somewhere else. I can assume you have a similar story, just from the technical side, given the toys I’ve seen.”

“The airbike? Something like that,” he agreed. “I was a student in one of their schools, then decided I didn’t want to help the Faey oppress my own people. So I relocated.”

“Some of them are actually quite good people. I think you know that as well,” he said, glancing at Symone meaningfully.

“As long as you don’t piss off a noble,” Jason said bluntly.

Northwood chuckled. “That’s exactly what I did. About half the Faey doctors are nobles, for some odd reason. I guess because it’s a non-com job or something.” He applied another press to each of Symone’s leg burns, then peeled the one on her shoulder up to inspect the progress. “She’s quite the looker, isn’t she?” he said conversationally.

“That’s a strange thing for a doctor to say,” Jason said with a smile.

“I’m a doctor, but I’m also not dead yet,” he grinned in reply. “There’s nothing in the hippocratic oath that says I can’t appreciate the view.”

“As long as you don’t do anything else, I suppose.”

“Exactly, son. Never have, never will, but when I get to treat a woman like this, it’s something of an informal job bonus.”

“Uh, doc, she’s Faey. She’ll know you ogled her.”

“Son, she’s Faey. She’ll take that as a compliment.”

“True,” Jason admitted wryly.

After the dissolving agent did its job, Jason helped Northwood apply the salve to those wounds, which now were pink and raw instead of charred black. The burn in her shoulder almost exposed her collarbone, and looked really ugly. He applied the healing agent, then they bandaged her three wounds and used cloths to clean some of the ash and smoke film from her. Then he injected her with something from Jason’s first aid kit, then pulled up the blankets. “For a concussion, there’s nothing I can do,” he admitted. “We just let her sleep and let her ride it out. Her vitals are strong, I’m sure she’ll be fine. We need to scrounge up what I need for a cast, son, then I can get a cast on that boy’s arm. That’s all he needs. All I need for a cast are bandages and plaster.”

“I don’t have any plaster, so we’ll need to go scrounge for it.”

“That’s fine, son, I have some at home. Someone just needs to take me there. Now, care to explain how she got injured by MPACs? Or is her being here the only explanation I need?”

“More or less, doc,” Jason replied as he showed him out. “They’re both friends of mine from outside. I’m not entirely sure on the details yet, but it must have been ugly. Symone and Tim are virtually married, doc, nothing will separate them. I’d guess that when Tim decided to run after whatever happened happened, Symone decided to come with him.”

Northwood whistled. “That’s some loyalty.”

“Symone’s like that,” he nodded in agreement. “Tim is more important to her than her own people. Something really bad must have happened, and she must have fought her way out. From what I heard from the people who found her, and what Tim told me, they were shot down not far from here by the Faey. I guess the Faey figured they were dead, because they didn’t check the river where their skimmer crashed to make sure.”

“They were coming to find you?”

He nodded. “I have a contact in the Imperium that knows more or less where I am, and another friend that knows about her. They talked to a friend who knows that person, and they found out generally where I am. They were coming here to join me.”

“You still have contacts in the Imperium?” Northwood asked in surprise.

He nodded. “Yeah, and they’re trustworthy,” he said as they opened the front door to his house. The rain had stopped, but the skies were still heavy and threatening, introducing a heavy mugginess to the air that made it unpleasantly warm. Temika, Kevin, and Willy were waiting out by the curb, talking with each other, and Luke and Clem had joined them. “They’d never turn me in. They’ll still help me as much as they can get away with it, if I need it. But I have most everything I need now. Like you said, doc, some Faey are good people.”

“So I did, son,” he agreed with a warm smile.

“Temika,” Jason called. “Doc Northwood needs to get some plaster from his house. Can you take him?”

“Sure can, sugah,” Temika said with a grin. “If the doc promises not to try tah squeeze me in half this time.”

“Then you should learn not to ride that thing like a bat of hell, girl,” Northwood said accusingly.

“Slow is borin’, sugah,” she winked.

“Then pick, dear. A fun ride and bruised ribs, or a safe ride and no nagging pain.”

Temika laughed and mounted her airbike, then turned and patted the seat behind her. “Jump up, doc. Ah’ll have you back here in an hour.”

“Then I hope you like purple ribs,” he said as he climbed on behind her.

Jason sat with Tim and Symone while Temika went for the plaster, wondering what had really happened. Tim had mentioned messing up in school, so Jason could only guess that Tim had accidentally done something in class that made the instructor realize he had talent. He’d said that Symone was on campus, so odds were she picked up on the sending chatter and barged in to collect him up before they could secure him. After that, he could assume that they’d managed to get away, hide somewhere long enough to contact Jyslin and have her find out from Kumi where they’d delivered his goods, then they’d managed to steal some kind of transportation. They got made during that, and were chased with some determination from the Faey. They’d even called in fighters to shoot their skimmer down.

That was probably about their whole story, in a nutshell.

He pondered the problems it might cause. They probably thought that both were dead, since they didn’t bother to land and search for bodies. Jyslin might have some problems, because now that was three people she personally knew that had either gone missing or went crazy and rebelled. He had little doubt that she was going to get a little visit from someone in the Secret Police soon, but that in itself wasn’t too much of a worry. Jyslin was more than a match for almost anyone out of that little organization, they wouldn’t get anything out of her she didn’t want them to get in the first place. Jyslin really was that strong…sometimes he wondered how she’d managed to avoid being drafted into the Secret Police in the first place. For him, there might be some problems. Some of the squatters around here might not like the idea of a Faey being out here, and might actually forget who was protecting her and come after her. Well, that wouldn’t last long, that was for sure. After all, they’d better not forget just who it was they were dealing with. Symone wasn’t going to be their problem…Jason was. He now had three mouths to feed, so he wasn’t going to be able to live off his stores for very long. It was now seriously time to learn to hunt, or fish, or find some way to trade or barter with some of the squatters, through Temika, to secure food. That last option might be harder if they refused to deal with him, because of Symone.

Then again, if worse came to worst, they could always just go buy food from the Faey. Symone being with him might actually make that easier, at least as long as they didn’t recognize her.

His mind circled those same trains of thought over and over, until a knock at his door brought him out of it. It was Temika and Northwood, carrying a cannister of plaster powder, a large plastic bucket, and a pair of old sheets. “Okay, son, let’s get that arm fixed,” he announced.

Jason helped Northwood make that cast, which was actually a simple process. A cloth lining wrapped around the arm was covered over in strips of sheet dipped in plaster, then it was smoothed out and allowed to dry. It took Northwood all of about a half an hour after they got the plaster mixed, leaving behind a very professional-looking cast. “Give that cast about an hour to set, then he’s all done,” Northwood told Jason. “He won’t need a sling, but don’t let him stress his arm, which is just common sense. As for her, you won’t have to use the inorganic dissolver again, but you will need to change her bandages twice a day. Apply the healing agent to the bandage press and she’ll be fine, it has a built-in antibiotic that will prevent infection. She stays in that bed until at least noon tomorrow,” he ordered. “If she’s not awake by tomorrow morning, get on the CB and have them relay me a message. She might experience dizziness, disorientation, or loss of memory when she wakes up, and might have vertigo issues when she stands for a couple of days after. If she’s still suffering from vertigo after three days, I need to know. Make sure she drinks at least twenty glasses of water a day,” he ordered. “She also has to eat at least five times a day. That biometric stimulator’s going to wreak havoc on her metabolism, so she has to eat and drink a lot while she’s healing.”

“I’ll take care of it,” he said with a nod. “Temika said you deserved some kind of compensation for coming out here, doc. So, what do you take? I doubt you’ll accept Visa anymore.”

Northwood laughed. “Well, I heard that you managed to pick up some guns from one of the Huntington gangs,” he said. “Have any good hunting rifles?”

“I got a few,” he answered immediately.

“Good, my Winchester is starting to get a little old, and nobody has any they’re willing to part with. Let’s go take a look at them.”

For his trouble, Northwood left Jason’s house with two hunting rifles. Jason didn’t use them, so it wasn’t like he was giving him anything absolutely critical. Temika took Northwood home, Tank and Willy retrieved Tank’s motorcycle and they started back home, and Clem and Luke went back to working on something over at their house, leaving Jason’s house unpopulated. Jason moved a TV up to the room and watched it for a while, waiting for them to wake up.

The first to wake up was Symone, not long after sunset. She groaned quietly and shifted, and immediately he felt her mind reach out. She didn’t bother to open her eyes, just sighed in relief. Thank the Trinity, you talked to Jyslin.

“Good morning,” he said quietly, looking at her. She opened her eyes and regarded him. “Feeling better?”

You can send, hon, she told him. I’m better. She winced and put a hand on her shoulder. At least mentally, she amended. I’m surprised you found us so fast.

I didn’t, he answered, getting up and sitting on the bed beside her. A couple of squatters did. Tim was awake and told them they were looking for me, and word reached me. I went down and got you.

How is he? I can’t get any sense of him at all.

Broken arm, the doctor that bandaged you both up gave him something to make him sleep, Jason answered, pointing to the bed across the room.

That musta been one hell of a sleeping pill. It knocked him completely out. There’s not even a sense of him sleeping, it’s like he’s not there.

It was for pain, he told her.

Ah. That’ll do it. How bad am I off?

You were hit three times, he answered. The two burns on your leg aren’t bad, but the one on your shoulder wasn’t pretty. The doc that came had Faey training, he used the medical stuff I brought with me to get you pretty well patched up. He said you should be fully healed in about six days.

That’s good to hear. Tim?

Broken arm and that’s it, he answered.

He musta broke his arm when we went down, she grunted mentally, squirming up to a half-seated position. I didn’t think either of us were going to make it there for a minute. One of the fighters sent a plasma bolt right through the cockpit. That blew out the whole ship, and we dropped like a rock. Thank Trelle for crash foam, she sent fervently.

That might be why they didn’t bother looking for you, he reasoned. If one of them aced the cockpit, they probably figured they took both of you out. What happened?

Worst possible scenario, she sent heavily. Tim expressed the day before it all went to hell, but he had to go to school. He slipped up, an instructor caught it, and she called in a containment team. I got to him first though, and all but stole him. We managed to get out of town, and hid down in Crown City long enough for Jyslin to talk to someone that knew generally where you were. We stole a skimmer and got chased, then they called in fighters. We didn’t last long after they caught up with us.

Well, you made it. That’s all that matters.

That is so true, she sent fervently, closing her eyes. With nothing but the clothes on our backs…or armor in my case. Guess I get to cavort around naked for a while.

You’ll fit in some of my clothes for now, he told her. We might have to bargain with some people for things like underwear though.

Speaking of my armor, how bad off is it?

Just those three holes, and one murdered paint job, he answered. I have some carbidium and phase cloth, we should be able to patch it decently enough.

Yeah, that’ll do it. Part of what that Faey noble sent you?

He nodded. Let me get you some food and water. The doc told me to make sure you eat at least five times a day, and drink lots of water.

Yeah, sounds like he’s got me on bio-accelerant, she noted.

I think that’s what he called it, but I’m not sure. That stuff, he said, pointing at a large vial on the nightstand between the two beds.

That’s it, she affirmed. I’ll eat and drink like crazy until I’m healed. She moved her arm, and winced. Ugh, this won’t be fun. But it doesn’t feel like it’s too serious.

Not life threatening, but it certainly looked nasty.

Burns usually do, after they dissolve out the crap. It’s not the first time I’ve been tagged by an MPAC.

You’ve been shot before?

Yeah, an accident during basic training, she said, holding up her right arm. Everything from here down isn’t what I was born with, she explained, pointing just under her elbow. They regrew it.

I didn’t know they can do that.

Faey doctors can regrow almost anything, she answered. It wasn’t pretty, and it hurt. I was in a flex-cast for a month. She grinned at him. You’re really good at this now. Tim would never understand you, you go too fast.

I actually prefer it to speaking, he shrugged. It seems simpler, easier.

You’ve been converted, she winked.

If that’s what you want to call it. Let me get you some food.

After feeding her a healthy meal, he left them to sleep out the rest of the night, though he didn’t sleep well at all. He spent most of that time down in the basement, planning on moving his room back up to the master bedroom, then watching for any Faey dropships as he listened in on the traffic frequency for any hint that they were moving through the area. There were none, at least during the times that he was awake. He woke up from an unplanned nap and realized it was past sunrise, then wandered upstairs. He was greeted in the kitchen by Tim and Symone both, Tim sitting at the table with a bowl of oatmeal in front of him while Symone rooted through the refrigerator. Tim was in his boxer shorts, and Symone hadn’t bothered putting on anything but a sling for her arm.

“That’s not quite how I’d like you wandering around the house, Symone,” he said evenly as he stepped past her. “It’s not that it’s not pretty, but I do have neighbors.”

I met one of them. Mary, wasn’t it? she sent absently. She seemed a bit surprised to see me.

“That’s not a surprise,” he noted as he sat at the table, which made Tim chuckle.

I had a robe on, silly, she chided him. You find me some clothes, and I’ll be happy to put them on. But that robe wasn’t mine, so I’m not going to risk getting it stained with food.

“That’s good to hear. You feeling alright, Tim?” he asked.

“Yeah, just a little sore,” he answered, clumsily trying to bring a spoon of oatmeal up with his left hand. “And this cast already itches. Symone said she told you what happened.”

He nodded. “So…what do you think?”

“I think I’m scared as hell,” he answered immediately, understanding what he meant.

“It’s not as bad as you think. Actually, you might start to like it after you get a handle on it.”

“Do you?” he asked.

Jason nodded immediately. “I actually prefer it over speaking, but there’s more to it than that. Guess you get to be the teacher, Symone.”

I know…I don’t think I’m going to be as good at it as Jyslin was, she sent.

You’ll be better at it than I would be, he told her. I’ll probably have to take lessons from you too. Jyslin didn’t finish teaching me.

I think she taught you well enough, she answered. You can just wait until I get Tim up to that level, then you can sit in. By then, I might be good enough at teaching to not look stupid.

Tim chuckled. “You’d never look stupid, honey,” he told her.

“You’re just being sweet because I’m naked, Tim-Tim,” she said audibly with a wink.

“You certainly don’t have any trouble hearing,” Jason noted.

“No, but not hearing is the trick,” he grunted. “That’s what got me caught. I got all disoriented in class because of all the voices, and got so confused that I made the instructor worried. She used sending to call for a nurse, and I told her I didn’t need one. That did it. She was all over me in a heartbeat. After that other girl expressed in class, I guess they were told what to do if it happened again.”

Probably, Jason agreed with a nod. Since both of you are awake, you need to understand how things are around here. First off, they do not know I have talent. That’s a secret. He went on to tell them about the gangs in Huntington, Temika, his stuff and his defenses, and Clem and his family. Now that you two are here, draining my food reserves, we’ll have to either start gathering it, or I finally go with Temika to breach the border and buy some from the outside.

That might not be a good idea, Symone warned. They’ve been looking for you,hard. You get picked up on any camera tied to Milnet, and they’ll know exactly where you are. That’ll bring a capture squad down on you in a matter of minutes.

When did they start implementing face recognition? he asked in surprise.

Since forever, she chided him. Your best bet is to send that Temika woman after it. It’s too dangerous for you to do it. Just give her money and a shopping list.

Temika…might not be the best choice, he sent hesitantly. She’s got a temper.

Something tells me you’re not saying everything.

I’m not. Why Temika’s not a good choice is something you two don’t really need to worry about, he send bluntly.

“Couldn’t we just take someone up there and have them do it?” Tim asked.

“I think we need to start looking into being self-sufficient,” Jason told him. “You ever do any hunting, Symone?”

“Not religiously, no,” she answered. “But I do love to fish.”

“That’s a start. Clem said he’d teach me how to hunt, and Mary wants to help me put in a garden. I have the guns I took from the gangs to use to buy some food—“

“Do they have any more?” Symone asked with a wicked little smile.

“What?”

“Guns. They’re obviously enemies, Jayce. When I heal up, I’ll put on my armor and go over there and take anything we need.”

“I’d rather not start a war, Symone,” he told her sternly. “As long as they stay on that side of the river, as far as I’m concerned, they don’t exist.”

“That’s not smart, Jayce,” she said seriously. “You don’t leave an enemy around to bite your ass when you’re not looking. Want to make them go away? You and me put on our armor and make sure they can’t do anything.” She pulled frozen pancakes out of the freezer. “Besides, they have stuff we can use. This isn’t civilization, cupcake. It’s there for the taking.”

“Then we’d be no better than they are,” he said with an edge to his voice.

“Of course we are. We’re cuter.”

He gave her a dark look. “So, we go over there and take everything they own. Then what do we do about the people?”

“They can join us or take their chances,” she shrugged.

“I won’t trust any of them.”

She tapped her forehead. “We can weed out the fakers, and with me here, you don’t have to give yourself away.”

“And what about the others?”

“Hey, they’re on their own,” she shrugged.

“Okay, we clear out downtown. Then the gangs on either side take it over, and we’re back to square one.”

“Then we take them out,” she said with a short sigh of exasperation. “You’re not a military woman, Jayce.”

“I should hope not.”

She laughed. “Sorry, you know what I mean. Leaving them out there isn’t smart, especially since they don’t like you, they’re armed, and you have to go to sleep sometime.”

“They’ve tried, they failed, they haven’t been back in almost a month. Everyone who’s come over here got sent back naked. They’re very much afraid of me.”

“Well, are they that afraid of Clem?” she asked pointedly.

Jason fell silent, frowning at her.

Think about it, she sent with a seriousness in her thoughts, sticking the frozen pancakes in the microwave. “I see you got power and water going,” she remarked.

“It took a while,” he told her. “Especially with the water. Just for this house, though.”

“You should set up water for Clem,” she told him. “And power.”

“I don’t have the material,” he told her. “Besides, I don’t do that kind of thing. Clem just happens to live close to me, that’s all. I’m not protecting him, Symone, he just lives close to me because the gangs are afraid to come here.”

She gave him a sly look as she retrieved her pancakes, then slid past his chair and sat down. “Think about it, Jayce,” she said. “We clear out the gangs, and we seriously reduce the threat level. Maybe that would convince more people to come here.”

Why does that interest you, Symone? he sent curiously.

Simple, Jayce. I probed Mary when she came over, so I have an idea of what’s going on around here. I may just be a house soldier, but I do understand basic military tactics. We’re living in a lawless area, so the only way to ensure our safety is to establish our own law. You did that over here on this side of the river, but it’s not enough. Those gangs over there will take a shot at Clem, and I don’t know about you, but I rather like Mary. She’s a sweet girl. I see no reason why we should make them fend for themselves when we can do something to make sure that raid never happens in the first place. You can’t afford to be reactive about this, Jason. We have to be pre-emptive. And it goes beyond that. We have limited supplies and limited resources. To better ensure a decent long-term solution, it’s only logical that we try to pool our resources with other people out here, people we can trust. Clem’s a good start, because Mary thinks he’s the water of Miri when it comes to those old ballistic weapons they use out here, and her husband can fix almost anything. Get a few more people to fill critical roles, like that doctor that treated me and Tim, and you can build a foundation that will attract people to come here, people who have things that we don’t. That way we can all live in one place that’s relatively safe and share our resources, making everyone’s lives better.

Jason had to admit, much as he didn’t want to, that she did have a point. The idea of trying to start a community of trustworthy people, helping each other make a better life for themselves out here in this lawless wilderness, had merit. Jason couldn’t hunt, knew nothing about gardening, but he could invent things, and what he had here would provide real protection for anyone who lived here. If Clem was here to maintain their weapons, Luke here to fix things, and maybe get Doc Northwood and people who had livestock, and people who knew how to farm, and people who had things that they could use in a way that would help everyone, while they shared the responsibility of keeping the violent people away from their borders….

It wouldn’t be easy, that was for sure. It wouldn’t be that hard to evict the gangs, but defending their claimed territory from mobile gangs of thugs was an issue. And attracting trustworthy people and finding a way to get everyone down here and set up also would not be easy. It would take a hell of a lot of hard work, for one of the main keys of attracting and holding people would be the promise that living here would be in some way better than living where they were now. The promise of something as simple as power, or running water, might be enough to attract a great many people.

Power. Could he find some way to restore power to a large area? Probably. The PPG running his generator could easily power something much larger, since it wasn’t even running at 2% maximum running his home generator. He could clamp that bad boy onto a real generator, something capable of powering several city blocks. Two of those huge generators in a hospital or other power-critical buildings could probably do it, but it would be safest to get three or four. He’d have to come up with some way to get a single PPG to power all of them, though.

Water. Now that wasn’t going to be easy, no matter what he did. Supplying clean water would mean tapping into the current water system, which would mean that he’d have to design a system that pushed around 100,000 gallons of water a day, and deliver it clean through a water pipe system that had been neglected for three years. The easiest approach would be to try to utilize the city’s water treatment plant and find some way to get it running. That would be doable if he could get power back to it, but he’d need some people who knew what they were doing to try to get the thing back online. To put out enough pure water, and have enough pressure in the pipes to move it, he’d have to use the current facility. There was nothing that he could easily design or build that could accomplish that task, not that wouldn’t take at least a year to get up and running.

Water…that might not be a go. But power, power he could handle.

“What are you thinking about, Jayce?” Tim asked.

“I’m mulling over Symone’s idea,” he answered. “I have to admit, it’s not a bad idea. I don’t much like the idea of becoming the police around here, but I have to admit, just the possibility that we might attract just a few people who have what we lack and are willing to join the community makes it an idea worth thinking about.”

“You just have to think like a general, Jayce,” Symone winked at him.

“And you’re what, a corporal?” he asked with a sly smile.

“I’m a general now,” she said impudently. “General Symone, thank you very much.”

“Fine, let me go find a star to pin on you,” he said, looking at her bare breasts deliberately.

Symone laughed. “It’s six days til I’m up and running, Jayce, so that gives you six days to think it over. I just need you to patch my armor sometime in there, no matter what you decide. I don’t want to go out in a situation with my ass hanging out the back of my armor.”

“At least I’d love marching behind you,” Tim grinned.

Six days. Jason thought about it almost continuously while Symone rapidly healed, thanks to that compound he applied to her bandages that rapidly accelerated her healing process. She ate like a rabid wolf the entire time, putting a huge dent in his food reserves, so much so that Jason had to put himself and Tim on a rationing schedule to make sure they had enough food to last til the end of the month.

Symone certainly didn’t just lay around. She spent almost every waking moment with Tim, starting to train him in the basics of his talent, which was how to close his mind, and how to open it to varying degrees to leave himself able to hear sending, or hear the thoughts of just one person in a group, and so forth. That took him three days to master to the point where Symone was satisfied, then she moved into the next stage of the training, the basics of sending.

While Symone and Tim did that, Jason attended to a few chores, the first of which was to patch her armor. The laminated yterium armor she had didn’t like being patched with raw carbidium, but Jason more or less rammed the patch down its throat regardless of how it might feel about it. He had trouble getting the metals to anneal together, and spent almost a day melding the phase cloth he had with the synthetic phase barrier layer in the armor. Jason had the organic version, but what was in the armor was the inorganic version, which was actually much stronger than what he had, and they didn’t like being fused. It took him two days to complete the repairs, which included buffing out the dings, painting the patches so they matched the surrounding armor, and putting some soft cloth padding inside to replace the gel backing that had been blasted away where the holes had been. He had no spare gel backing, so Symone would just have to make due with the cloth.

After he got that done, he went on a hunting trip with Clem and Luke, learning the basics of hunting. They didn’t bag anything, but Clem and Luke were very skilled hunters, and they taught him quite a bit about the basics of hunting deer. Jason had other ideas about how to go about it, though, which basicly revolved around firing on deer he spotted from the back of his airbike, but he had to learn how it was done the normal way.

That gave him three days to consider the benefits and drawbacks of Symone’s idea. The benefits were obvious: gaining access to resources and people with skills that would better his situation and the situation of those within the community as a whole. Securing a section of the wilderness and turning it into more than just a mad competition to survive, a place where people could live in safety and security, and help restore civilization to the wilds, and dignity to the citizens.

The drawbacks were also obvious: lots and lots and lots of work, on everyone’s part. The knowledge that he would be taking on responsibility for others in addition to himself. The requirement to secure the territory, which meant that he might find himself in a position where he would have to fight…for real. There was a chance he might have to kill someone.

In a way, that scared him…but in a way, he’d accepted that the instant he decided to abandon the safety of living in Faey society. He didn’t like the idea of killing, and he hoped it would never come to that, but he had left New Orleans with a determination to be free that went so far as to defending that by any means necessary, even if it meant killing. He’d always imagined that the first life he’d take would be a Faey, killing one of them when they finally tracked him down and tried to take him, but more likely was the prospect that the first blood he would shed would be human.

Was he willing to kill to protect himself, protect this place, protect the people who came here to seek out a better life? Was he ready to take that ultimate step? Was taking a life worth that?

He looked into his heart and found the answer, late that night as he stared up at the full moon, then saw the shimmering light that was the reflection of the sun off a Faey battle cruiser in orbit.

Yes.

He had been willing to die to be free. Now, he knew that he was willing to kill to keep the freedom he had won for himself.

But he saw much more, laying on his roof and staring up into the shimmering light that was the cruiser slowly traversing the heavens from horizon to horizon. He saw that no matter what they built here, it could be destroyed by that one Faey cruiser up there. They were utterly at the mercy of the Faey, and no matter how free he remained out here, he would forever enjoy the false sense of freedom a gerbil might feel inside a large cage. Spacious and the occupant wanting for nothing, but still trapped within boundaries that made that sense of freedom a lie.

But there was very little that could be done about that. He would be a single man challenging the might of an empire that spanned 72 star systems, armed with little more than the proverbial stick while they had plasma weaponry. The only equalizing factor he possessed was his own telepathic ability, which would not allow them to take him without a real fight. If they wanted him, they had to come down here and battle him with real weapons, putting real lives on the line. So long as the Faey held the advantage of telepathy, they would retain control over Earth.

He heard Tim’s voice down in the front yard, as he and Symone sat on the porch and chatted with Clem and Luke. Clem and his group didn’t seem to mind Symone at all, part of her bubbly charm that just made everyone like her. Then again, her being out here probably told them everything they needed to know about where her loyalties were.

Tim. Tim was another telepath Temika had the potential. There was that other girl too. There were human telepaths on Earth.

For the first time, Jason understood just what that really meant. Oh, he knew what it meant to the Faey, but he had never seen it from the other side before.

Telepaths threatened Faey dominance over Earth.

Telepaths threatened Faey dominance over Earth.

Telepathy was the only weapon against which the humans had absolutely no defense. Now that humans had reasonable access to Faey technology, now there was only that one advantage separating humans from the Faey.

Talent.

And that was no advantage if a Faey came up against a human telepath who had sufficient training.

So, the playing field was technically even now. The only disparity came with numbers and training. There was all of one trained human Telepath that Jason knew of on Earth…himself. The Faey vastly outnumbered him, had superior technology, nearly endless resources…and here he was pondering trying to start a rebellion against them.

Could it be done? Probably. It would, however, require three critical things to happen, though:

First, there had to be many more telepaths. Jason could probably protect three or four people from telepathic attack if they were close to him, so that meant that it would be five people against the world. Any reasonable attempt to rebel would require them to field enough telepaths to make an operation successful.

Second, there had to be some way to establish a home base and have it be either unassailable or totally unable to be found. That wouldn’t be easy considering the enemy could see everything from orbit, and he couldn’t even power up his skimmer without it getting located, since they were now actively looking for it. He would need to equip that base with enough resources to carry out a campaign against the Faey, from vehicles and weaponry to food and other essential supplies, and find some way to prevent that line of supply from being disrupted.

Third, they had to come up with a plan that would succeed in freeing the human race without having Earth break away from the Imperium. The Faey were now almost dependent on the food grown on Earth to feed their colonies, and any rebellion that threatened that food supply might cause the Faey to destroy the human race out of retaliation. That would be a very, very, very tricky proposition. On the other hand, now that the other spacefaring races knew about Earth, they were probably going to need the Faey’s military protection, or they’d just replace one conquering race with another. The human race was now, for better or worse, bound to the Faey by ties that neither side could afford to have broken. What the human race could only hope for in that situation was to win the right to govern itself, but still deliver the food that the Imperium desperately needed and be subject to the Imperial crown. A subject principality, autonomous to a point yet still answering to another government.

Three nasty little problems, any of which was by itself a monkey wrench in the gears. But everything else hinged on the lack of telepaths.

If he could get the telepaths, he would need to find an untouchable base. If he could find the base and man it, they could rebel against the Faey. And if he rebelled, he would walk a razor’s edge trying to balance the severity of the attacks against angering the Empress Dahnai. Be a thorn in the side of Trillane, but not so greatly disrupt things that Dahnai sent in Imperial troops to deal with him. Keep it against the humans and House Trillane, try to make them look so incompetent that Empress Dahnai would take Earth away from them, then try to convince her to give the humans a chance to do it themselves.

In the short term, the heavily outnumbered humans would need a edge, an aspect that made them exceptionally dangerous to the Faey who would be opposing them. The railgun he designed would help arm them, if he could mass produce it, and would be effective enough to put them on an even footing. But he had to plan for when Trillane brought their real military equipment, the exomechs and the fighters and the hovertanks and the autonomic battle robots. They needed weapons against those, not against the small numbers of infantry holding the planet, who were outfitted in obsolete gear made for a war some century ago.

He had several ideas. Jason had researched those military machines—at least as much as he could find out in the public domain—and though they were formidable, they were not invincible. With some ingenuity and some experimentation, he could devise counters to them. But to do that, he needed real equipment, he needed more information, and he needed the ability to move heavy equipment around without detection.

He already had his skimmer and his airbikes, and that was a start. The skimmer could be his means to the outside world. The skimmer was parked because he couldn’t move it without detection…so he figured that was his first major objective. He had to find a way to be able to move the skimmer without the Faey picking it up.

He needed…a cloaking device.

Corny as it may sound, that was what he needed. But, since there were no Klingons around to show him how the ones from the old Star Trek universe worked, he needed a way to figure out how to make one for himself, something that hid the skimmer from sensors, and even from the naked eye. If he gained the ability to move at will, undetected, it would open up the entire world to him, maybe even the entire universe. After all, that stargate was out there, just beyond the orbital track of the moon, and it never closed. Any ship could go through it, and that stargate went directly to Draconis Prime. Off of Earth, he could buy things they needed, using what money he had left, things Kumi wouldn’t buy for him when she realized that he was actively opposing her noble house.

Houses. The nobles houses of the Faey didn’t like each other. They were a feudal society, where each house looked after its own, then worried about Imperial concerns. If he could find another noble house that might help him overthrow the Faey, believing that they were going to get Earth, he might be able to trick one of them into helping him evict Trillane, then backstab them when he tried to get the Empress to give the human race the chance to run their own world.

God, this was insane. Even if he tried, the chance of him pulling it off was virtually infentismal. It would take wild luck, dedication, and an unswerving dedication to independence. It would take years, it would take patience, and it would take a willingness to sacrifice his life if need be to further the cause.

But what else was there? Life inside the gilded cage? He’d rather die free than live in this glass bottle.

Symone appeared in front of him, climbing up the ladder. Her wounds were almost completely healed, just a small sore in her shoulder now. They did leave very faint scars on her legs, and there was going to be a noticable scar marring the blue skin of her shoulder, but it wasn’t going to be disfiguring. It was too bad that healing compound wouldn’t work on Tim, but they had no way to apply it to his broken bone short of injecting it directly in there…and they didn’t have the equipment to do that. They certainly did in a Faey hospital, but not out here. They wouldn’t do that anyway, they’d just use a bone fuser. Five minutes, bone mended, just like that. She sat down beside him, then flopped on her back as he was and looked up at the sky. So, tomorrow you answer me, she sent.

We’re doing it, he replied without much enthusiasm, his distaste of it clearly in his sending. But it will not be a bloodbath. Do we understand one another?

We won’t have to fire a shot, Jayce, trust me, she answered. I don’t like killing people when there’s no need for it, you know me better than that. We just slip in, track them down, then capture them and strip them of their weapons. Remember, they’re humans, totally defenseless against our talent. We don’t even have to get within sight of them, just doink ‘em and that’s it. We have Clem or Tim or someone watch over the ones we catch until we have them all, then we lay down the law and let them go. We’ll be done by dinner.

I hope it’s that easy, he sent with an audible sigh.

Something else is bothering you, cutie. What’s wrong?

He got up on his elbows and looked at her. She saw the grim look on his face, and the playful smile faded away as she sat up as well. Symone, he sent soberly, then he blew out his breath. How far would you go to protect Tim?

That’s a stupid question, hon, she answered. My being here should answer that question. I faced that decision already, and I chose Tim.

I know. You were willing to fight your own people to protect him. But the question is, Symone, would you fight your own people if they weren’t threatening him?

What do you mean? I don’t understand, Jayce.

You said it youself, Symone. We need to be pre-emptive. I guess I’m asking you just how pre-emptive you’re willing to go.

You just lost me.

Okay, let me put it this way. If I found a way to take on House Trillane and drive them off Earth, would you help?

She gave him a very long look. Jason, that’s treason! she gasped audibly.

And what you did with Tim isn’t? he asked. And if you’ll note, I didn’t say rebel against the Imperium. I said rebel against Trillane. There’s a difference.

What kind of difference is that? she asked.

Jason explained his concept to her via sending, using images and feelings as much as he did using words. When he was done, she was quiet for a long time. Shit, she sent absently. Okay, cutie, I’ll grant you that it could work, but it depends on so many things to happen just absolutely perfectly that it’s really infeasible. It could work, but I could grow hair on my chest and start cracking kobo nuts with my pinkie.

Jason laughed audibly. Point taken, but, you know, I—

I know how you feel. If I were a human, I’d probably feel the same way you do. You want things the way they were. But think about it, cutie, even what you’re thinking of doing doesn’t make things the way they were. They won’t ever be again. Besides, what you’re talking about is virtual suicide, and let’s not even talk about the kind of force you’d need. There are a million or so Trillane troops on Earth, cutie. To face them, you’ll need, oh, about half that number of troops, since you’re going to be fighting a guerilla war. Now, not every one has to have talent, but about one out of three does, so they can protect the others. That’s a hundred thousand or so trained telepaths, Jayce. There’s like no possible way to find that many, train them, then hide them. Then consider that there are about fifty thousand Imperial troops here, and they will fight. It would be really, really hard to run by an Imperial Marine and tell her that your fight isn’t with her, cause she’ll shoot you in the back. And if you do fight her, you just got Empress Dahnai pissed at you. It makes it really hard to plead your case with her when you’re shooting her troops.

But, I’ll tell you what, some of your ideas make sense to work for even if you never go to that next step. Faey-proofing a piece of this place is a good idea. Being able to move around in the skimmer is a great idea. Arming some people we can trust out here with weapons that my old house will respect is another good idea. Creating a hiding place to use as a last resort in case we have to run is another very good idea. Inventing a few new things to whip out as surprises is a good idea. This is our turf now, cutie, and we should defend it, even from my former house. If they poke their noses around, they get them shot off. After we give fair warning, anyway, she sent with a wink.

Jason sighed. He didn’t consider some of those possibilities, and she was more or less right. Okay, so it is a bit far-fetched, he admitted. But I won’t ever give up on the idea of it, Symone. Even if it’s utterly hopeless, I’ll still work towards it, because so long as I do, then I haven’t given up, and I’ll be able to look at myself in the mirror every morning.

Nothing wrong with that, cutie, she sent quite seriously. Nothing wrong at all.

Thanks, Symone. I didn’t realize you were so military-minded.

I did manage to stay awake during basic combat training, she grinned, looking over at him. Actually, I’m pretty good at it. I have my first class sniper ribbon, I’ll have you know.

Have you ever fought anyone?

Sure, she answered. House soldiers fight a hell of a lot more than a Marine does. I’ve been involved in four separate incidents between my house and another. Basicly all four were just skirmishes, but we did shoot at each other. The Empress frowns on it, but it goes on.

What kind of skirmishes?

Just basic stupid shit, she answered. Defending my post from raids. Once they slated me to go on a raid, but it got called off.

Raid?

When one house sends soldiers to attack a position belonging to another house, she explained. This military position, that factory, just idiotic stunts the nobles pull to piss each other off and get commoners killed. The Empress doesn’t like houses to raid each other because she says it weakens our overall defense and industrial output. Personally, I think she’s right, but they should stop it just because it’s damn silly. So you didn’t like what that Countess in that other house said, fine, but that’s no reason to send a dropship of armed women down to a hovercar windshield factory and blow it up. That’s just stupid.

Jason chuckled absently. “I guess it is at that,” he agreed aloud. “So, we have a date tomorrow. You feel like you’ll be ready?”

Hell yes, she answered, putting her hand on her injured shoulder and rotating her shoulder a few times. The only place it hurts is right on my skin, everything else is healed up. There wasn’t any permanent damage, and what little’s left’ll probably be healed by tomorrow morning. I already tried on my armor, and those patches you did really look good. Those cloth swaths inside feel weird, but until we get some extra gel-back, I can live with it. How we gonna play it?

Disarm, round up, then lay down the law, he answered. No killing unless they start throwing explosives at us or something, you know, like using weapons that might actually hurt us. I want this to be as bloodless as possible.

Aren’t we chasing them out?

He nodded. But we’re not throwing them out with nothing. We find their food storage and split it up evenly between them, then let them leave with it. We’ll hit the west end gang first, then hit the downtown, then hit the east end gang. With some luck, we’ll have all of Huntington cleared out by sunset.

We giving them any warning?

And ruin the surprise? That’s not smart, he smiled. You’ll use the hoverbike, I’ll use the antigrav pods in my armor. That way we can move fast if necessary.

Trelle’s Garland, I’d love armor like yours, she said with a lusty sigh. That’s what we get issued when we’re just about anywhere other than here. Most of the career types buy their own armor. I think now I wish I would have done that, but a good suit of armor costs about a year’s salary.

What, about thirty thousand or so?

Try about fifty thousand.

Hmm, he mused. I think I need to find a way to get access to my bank account without anyone noticing. They’re still sending royalty payments to it.

Call that overly clever Trillane. I’m sure she knows someone that knows someone that can pull it off. She’ll probably keep half of it, but getting some of it is better than getting none, she added with a wink.

That’s an idea, he sent with a nod. In fact, I’ll do that now.

Cool, I’ll go make something to eat .

He went back down into the house using the attic window, then went to his bedroom. He moved everything back into the master bedroom, mainly because the itcher wasn’t in use anymore. Now all he had were his street mines and proximity sensors, but with Clem here, that was enough time to get back to the house and get weapons. His panel was open and up, currently just showing a map of Chesapeake and the status of his sensors and traps, for the panel now ran the defenses. He put that process into the background and brought up the comm, then called Kumi’s private number.

She appeared wearing a floppy shirt of some kind, and the room was dark. Jason cursed to himself and blew out his breath. “Damn it, I’m sorry Kumi,” he said before she could say a word. “I misread the time.”

“Not a problem, babe,” she answered alertly. “I was about to go to bed. If you’d have called twenty minutes later, then I’d have been mad.”

“What time is it there?”

“Midnight,” she answered. “I’m turning in early. So, what’cha need, babe?”

“How hard would it be to find someone to make the royalty payments I’m getting from the Ministry of Science to go to another bank account?”

Her eyes brightened. “I’ve been waiting for you to ask me about that,” she grinned. “Hold on a second.” She vanished from in front of her vidlink for almost two minutes, then came back and furiously typed something. “Okay, babe, thumb your panel.”

“Why?”

“Just do it, nit,” she told him brusquely.

Uncertain over her motives but trusting her, he did as she asked. “Okay, babe, there should be an account file uploading to your panel.”

He looked down, and saw that there was indeed. He also noticed that their comm session had shifted into a secure mode, something he’d never seen before. “Yeah, welcome to Trillane’s Goreda Security Protocol,” she winked. “Not even the Secret Police can track what we’re doing now. Okay, that account file is a bank account out of Moridon. The First Bank of Moridon, to be precise. It’s a neutral planet, sovereign, that specializes in banking and finances. Nobody conquers them because most governments in the galaxy use Moridon as a kind of neutral meeting place.”
“And I bet that’s where you have that secret bank account you have set up,” he smiled.

She nodded. “Moridons don’t tell anyone shit about their customers,” she told him. “And their computer security makes us look like we’re still using electricity. Now, open the file.”

He did so. It was a bank account file, and to his surprise, it had his name on it. “You already set it up?” he asked in surprise.

“I set up that part of it,” she answered. “When you thumbed up, you activated the account. I can’t fake that, like I said, Moridons have pretty strong security. Now, just give me a few minutes. Those royalty payments right now are being channeled to my account,” she admitted with a grin. “I figured what the hell, you couldn’t use it, and the Ministry won’t stop sending the payments unless you’re confirmed dead. That’s the law. Even if you were in prison, they’d still pay you.”

“You were stealing my money?” he asked, then he laughed. “Kumi!”

“Hey, I never said I was nice,” she winked. “I’ll give it back to you. Minus a twenty five percent fee, of course,” she said with a smirk.

“Kumi, you’re evil!” he laughed.

“I know,” she admitted. “Hold on, I gotta remember how to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Redirect the money. Someone else did this for me, and he left me instructions on how to change it if I ever wanted it to go to a different account. He’s a computer wiz, someone I met at one of my parties. He’s a zarinen in House Trefani. Trefani’s infamous for being the main house behind organized crime,” she told him. “Here it is. Give me a few minutes. I have to go to the Ministry and change the account number. Hold on a few.”

Jason wasn’t sure whether to be mad or amused. Kumi had had that friend of hers hack the Ministry and redirect Jason’s royalty payments to her own account, and hadn’t said anything. She could have offered to do it for him, but had instead kept quiet. But, on the other hand, the instant he asked about it she came clean. So, it wasn’t like she was going to be deliberately deceptive…she was just seeing how much she could get away with. He watched her face as she typed on the keys of her comm panel or panel or whatever she was using, and decided that he’d forgive her this time. “Okay, I’m done. The contact info for the bank is in that file, you just connect to them through Civnet or call them.