Watching Yute

Joseph Picard

CreateSpace (2009)

In the years after Lifehack, the world settles into relative quiet under strict nanite bans. When offered a posting guarding a quiet indigenous-owned temple, Lieutenant Cassidy Stanton accepts, wanting a change of scenery after her girlfriend leaves her. -But the temple quietly harbours an illegal and enigmatic infestation of nanites. When dangerous men take notice, Cassidy's new life and new love are in the crossfire, forcing her into decisions of revenge, life, and death. -for revenge, or for escape.

About the Author

Born in 1976, he has lived all over Canada, but has called the Meadow-Ridge area of BC his home since 1992. While cycling to his job as a computer technician, he got into a fight with a car in 2001. The car won, and Joseph became a T5/6 paraplegic. This has not hampered his chances at winning the superbowl, as he's been a self-declared nerd for as long as he can remember. Since his injury, he has focused on his writing and a little on his art, much of which is related to his fiction and can be found at www.ozero.ca. In May, 2007 he became proud father of Caitlin, followed in 2011 a son, Lachlan. He awaits the day that stemcells or super awesome telekinetic flight powers will allow him to unfurl his black trenchcoats yet again.

WATCHING YUTE

Joseph Picard

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2009 Joseph Picard

Sourced from 1st edition

Also from Joseph Picard, Watching Yute's predecessor, 'Lifehack', available at Smashwords.com or in printed formats through the author's site, ozero.ca

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

~~~~~

Foreword

~~~~~

Watching Yute began as an examination of what went right in Lifehack, and what could have been done in better ways. Since the reckoning of the basic concepts behind Lifehack, a lot of time has passed to give me perspective. Thanks also to the volunteer editing team: Gill Picard (dad) Dolores Picard, (mum) Adam Zilliax (Proud geek) and Meggin Dueckman (Crouton). Each made valuable, unique contributions.

As well, I write this forward on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the death of Cheryl N. Her suicide affected myself and many others in ways that she wasn't able to foresee.

This book is dedicated to Cheryl.

If only she had realized how many people loved her.

:::CAUTION

Contents of this novel are spelt primarily using the Queen's English.

Why? Because the small continent nation of Aguola is a commonwealth of England, that's why.

Location: 26s 88w

Size: 3,586,250 km2

Population: 10,902,000 (post-Erebus estimate)

~~~~~

:::C /01

~~~~~

Sergeant Eliot Hood sat at the bar. Technically, he was on duty, but he was only waiting for his C.O., Major Marcus Douglas, to finish up whatever they were here to do before heading back to their own base.

He ordered a beer, and looked up at the football game playing on the nearest terminal. Patriotism made him root for team Aguola, but he didn’t think they had half a chance at the World Cup this time around. Still, there were worse teams to get creamed by than the Scots.

This bar was offsite from Yute central base, but it was close enough that the clientèle were mostly off duty military. The handful of civilians that came here were generally professional ladies, who were tolerated as long as they were discrete.

When Eliot was about half way through his beer, a man sat on the stool next to him. Obvious civilian. He wasn’t in good enough shape to be a soldier. Eliot wasn’t in any position to throw stones, mind you, but at Eliot’s steadily advancing age, no one minded if he got a little soft around the edges.

The civilian man quietly watched the game until the commercial. A preview of tonight’s news came on.

“Good evening.” A stately anchorwoman began, “Tonight we’ll be reflecting on the upcoming one year anniversary of the Autar City disaster. We will be remembering the victims, heroes, and the vigilant men and women who still maintain the quarantine. That’s tonight at eleven, followed by all the latest on the World Cup.” The anchorwoman disappeared under a flurry of network graphics and logos before the terminal flipped to a beer ad.

“A year.” Eliot muttered under his breath.

The civilian nodded. “Fucked up, huh? Maybe this year the ground will crack open, and a giant Abraham Lincoln will attack the City of Meston.”

“I doubt it,” Eliot said without looking away from the terminal. “Lincoln is a yank, he’d attack DC or something.”

The civilian turned his body to face Eliot as he put a small plastic container on the bar. “Uh, mister,” he said, “The guy over there told me you’re posted at the temple base…”

“Yeah? And?” Eliot scarcely looked away from his beer.

The civilian tapped the plastic container on the bar twice softly. “Well, my mum passed on not long ago, and she always wanted to see the statue. Her mum told her about it, and she always thought it was something she’d love to see, on account of her heritage, but of course no one’s allowed there besides the temple guards.”

Eliot looked the civilian up and down. “Either you’re adopted, or you’re the whitest Aguei I’ve ever seen.” The nation of Aguola had always been home to the aboriginal 'Aguei' people. Everyone else were considered “Northers”, as descendants of settlers.

If your ancestors came from Europe, you were a Norther. If you were white, you were a Norther. If you were black, you were a Norther. If you came from the south pole, you were a Norther. If you were anything but Aguei, you were a Norther.

The civilian smirked. “Yeah, I was adopted. At any rate, this is a bit of her ashes, and I’ve heard some people have had a portion of their ashes sprinkled in front of the statue, and I was wondering…”

“Ah, there it is.” Eliot sighed. “You know we’re not supposed to do that.”

The civilian nodded slowly. “I know. But I’ve come all this way, and I promised, and.. don’t make me insult you by trying to bri-“

Eliot leaned forward slowly but aggressively, to draw attention away from his hand discretely covering the plastic container. He winked. “Listen buddy, I’m not for sale, and the temple isn’t your personal ashtray. Scram, alright?”

The civilian watched Eliot’s hand smoothly stuff the container into a thigh pocket. “Ah, yes, well, of course, I see. Thank you for your time anyway, Sir.” He then pulled out his wallet, and reached out to leave a moderate sum of money on the bar next to Eliot. Eliot blocked the civilian’s reach before the money got close to the bar. He chuckled quietly. “I said I can’t be bought kid, I meant that. Now scram.”

The civilian nodded. “Thank you, Sir.”

::: Standby

::: Standby

::: Standby

::: Standby

::: Standby

::: Standby

~~~

In the following year, the disaster of Autar also claimed the city of Meston. A man named Jonathan Coll was found to be responsible for both events.

His tools were nanites, experimental microscopic robots capable of a wide variety of functions, including producing more nanites, and infesting a human body.

Coll died, and his actions were halted, but not before millions died, and two cities were lost. Due to the severity of the “Erebus incident”, the government of Aguola and many other counties of the world rushed to ban nanite development.

~~~~~

:::C /02

~~~~~

One year after the Erebus incident.

~~~

Marcus always found it unsettling to be away from his own base. He was still among his brothers in arms, but it wasn't his brothers in arms. It wasn't home.

Yute central base was textbook government issue all around. Lots of concrete, flat and grey, with the occasional stenciled paint for directions. It quite lacked any character. He found it odd that they called it “Yute central”, as he felt that the temple in the adjoining Yute desert was the rightful centre. It didn't truly matter. Sometimes Northers name things in accordance to their own whim, regardless of reality.

The softness of night at least took the edge off of the unwelcoming structures surrounding him. The distant sounds of boisterous off duty personnel also added a slight coat of humanity, although Marcus was quite content to enjoy such jocularity at a distance.

Obviously he came here as seldom as possible, but some things were best done in person. Diplomacy was in order when making requests to a new commanding officer that he hadn't even met yet. However it was late, and it would wait for the morning. During the helicopter flight in, he arranged for quarters for the night and was granted the VIP room.

He should have asked where it was. He thought he knew where it was, but since the last time he had been here, the area the VIP room used to be in was now a mess hall. If he was the kind to carry a mini terminal this would be easy, but as it happened, Marcus wasn't especially attached to little fidgety electronics. Maybe he should while doing business around here.

He hadn't noticed at first, but the distant jocularity had suffered a quick turn to discord. A boiling up of shouting was punctuated by a single shot being fired.

That, he did notice.

He began to run towards the sound with the intent to cautiously investigate, but before he got far, two M.P.s exploded past him and vanished around the corner. He did his best to keep pace behind them, but the young man and woman were younger and fitter than Marcus.

They passed a soldier who pointed them in the direction of the continuing shouts, as if the way wasn't obvious.

The female M.P., a lean, tough looking blonde with a ponytail sticking out the back of her regulation desert cammo cap, stopped short at a corner. She held her hand out to signal her partner to stop. Marcus stopped as well, hanging back to watch.

Seconds later an out of breath soldier with a 9mm handgun stumbled around the corner. The woman was on him instantly, grabbing his wrist and slamming it against the wall. The gun dropped to the ground while the male M.P. drew his weapon.

The freshly disarmed (and drunken) soldier started running back the way he came. The female M.P. waved her partner's aim down, and called out to the runner.

"Oh, please!" She picked up the gun he dropped, dumped the clip, and unloaded the chamber. "M.P.! Freeze! I’ve got a gun!" There was no need to mention that it was empty.

The runner kept going, staggering all the way. The female M.P. threw the gun at his head, and the impact put him on his face. He was still conscious, but quite disoriented. Why did his head now hurt, and how did he get on the ground?

"I told ya I had a gun." Both M.P.s walked over to him, restrained him with a zip tie, got him on his feet, and arrested him.

Marcus walked up. "Impressive."

The female M.P. turned her head to look back at Marcus. "Just a rowdy drunk, business as usual."

"So you regularly deal with armed drunks who could have easily shot you, arrest them without injury, and without the use of a sidearm?"

She smirked. "What, I had a gun. You saw it. I used it on him, too!"

Marcus furrowed his brow. "Many would say you took an unnecessary risk. Can I have your name?"

"Uh oh." The male M.P. murmured.

The female M.P. flinched a little. "Sir. Leftenent Cassidy Stanton, Sir." Marcus scribbled the name down on a little pad he pulled from a breast pocket. Cassidy paused to look at Marcus. He had the kind of face that told you he was an even-tempered sort, but there was something in his eyes that just looked a little out of place.

"Cass-id-y. Stanton." He put the pad and pen away, smiled, and nodded once. "Have a good evening, Leftenent Cassidy Stanton." He turned and began to walk away. "Oh, which way to the VIP room, by the way?"

~~~

At the end of the shift, Cassidy and her partner Leftenent Greg McKinney were checking out at the M.P. station.

“Hey Stanton,” Greg said to Cassidy, stuffing some of his bulkier equipment into his little locker, “You think that guy that took down your name is going to cause problems?”

Cassidy opened her locker and paused in thought. “I didn’t get that vibe. Even if he does, it’s not like I did anything too out of line, really.” She opened her locker and saw her personal terminal ther with a blinking little red light. A missed call. “…. shit.”

“Hm?”

“Eh? Nothing.” Cassidy said, staring at the little terminal. Cassidy turned aside for a little privacy and leaned on her locker, staring at the little terminal in her hand. ‘Missed call: Brandy. Message waiting.’

She sighed, and stared at the text. Finally with another resigned sigh, she pressed the icon on the screen. Brandy popped up on the screen. She was at home, in the kind of shirt Cassidy knew she wore around the house, oversized button ups. “Hey Cass.” She sounded tired and looked ready for bed. “Um…” an agonizing sigh and pause. “Is this the third message I’ve left this week without hearing from you? You’re hard to get a hold of. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be an inconvenience.” Brandy sat there silent for a couple moments more, gazing down. “I…. yeah, well. Call or don’t, I don’t know.” She sighed again, and the message ended.

Damn it. Brandy really wrote the book on the passive aggressive bit. Cassidy had to admit, even for a long distance girlfriend, she had been less than attentive. But work... duty... She stared at the terminal again, and considered calling Brandy. But it was late in Densfarn now. She tossed the terminal back in the locker and headed to her barrack. Brandy would be asleep.

She wouldn’t want a call now.

It had nothing to do with not wanting to face her and feel guilty. Again.

“Oh, are you still with her?” McKinney asked innocently.

“Yeah! Of course! You eavesdropping?”

“Sorry, just thought I heard a familiar voice. I haven’t heard much about her in a long time. Are things OK?”

“Yeah... !… yeah, things are fine. No news is good news, right?” It wasn’t. Brandy’s messages made it clear, but Cassidy was barely admitting it to herself, let alone having McKinney in on it. Not to say McKinney was a bad guy or anything. It just wasn’t his business. She put it out of her mind, but her mood was decidedly worsened, and she mostly kept quiet.

~~~

Jacob Kirison awoke.

He opened his eyes, and stared at the ceiling of his apartment for a moment. Soon it sunk in that he was woken by the beeping of his terminal. A message had arrived. He slid over and sat up, coping with the horrid, near paint-peeling properties of his breath. A night of hard drinking can do that. He also seemed to remember deciding that a jar of minced garlic would be a fun snack at some point.

Yup, another glorious morning.

Make that afternoon. It wasn’t a critical distinction lately. Kirison stood, picking up the terminal as he wandered from the pull-out bed to the kitchenette in search of coffee. After recovering from a particularly dramatic yawn, he thumbed the button to check the new message.

The weathered looking, joyless face of a man aging before his time appeared. “Kirison. The department’s being shut down, it’s finally official. We did our best over here, but it’s no big shock. All things considered, you did a decent job though all this. I’ll keep you on the short list, and if anything pops up that suits your skill-set, I’ll call you. At least you’ve got a decent little severance coming your way. Anyway, I’m sorry it had to come to this. We can only blame Coll.”

Cute. Well, it was true that it wasn’t a big shock. After the recent disasters caused by an ex-colleague, Kirison knew his career path was shriveling out from under him. The parliament couldn’t pass enough knee jerk, extremist laws fast enough. Understandable maybe. Mr. Book was right though. Jonathan “Erebus” Coll was the one who ruined the fun for everyone.

Kirison had a few projects that had been on the back-burner for some time. Frankly, he hadn’t been making much progress since the bad news was seen coming down the pipe. It was kind of a motivation killer. The last year and a half he had been mostly fiddling around on things that had little or no application for the financiers, and even they didn’t care. They were more worried about lobbying, appealing things, and liability risk.

But today it was official. It was time to clean up all those little projects, and send them to oblivion. Kind of a waste.

~~~~~

:::C /03

~~~~~

A few hours into a patrol shift, Cassidy felt her terminal wiggle in her thigh pocket. An incoming call. Anxiety spread though Her. It was Brandy, it had to be. Why don’t people call you to warn you that they’re calling? All of a sudden, there they are, wanting an answer, and you’re totally unprepared.

She just couldn’t talk to her now, she simply wasn’t ready! What was she supposed to say about never being able to call? Brandy would understand. It’s the career. Brandy has a career too. She’d understand, right? No, Brandy manages to call. The look on Brandy’s face in the last message returned to Cassidy, and the anxiety built up. Her mind went two directions at once. One side doing just her job, the other side just silently freaking out inside.

Mercifully, the wiggle of her terminal stopped. She took a deep breath, unnoticed by her partner, and relaxed a little.

A short time later the terminal gave a single wiggle. A message was ready. The anxiety rattled its way back up and grabbed Cassidy by the throat.

“Greg.” Cassidy choked out.

“Y.. yeah?” It was not typical to use a first name.

“I gotta... I gotta take five. Can I catch up with you?” She looked a bit pale, and left McKinney with the impression that she was feeling ill.

McKinney spoke with a supportive tone, “Yeah, sure, take your time.”

Cassidy kind of wanted to run. At the same time, she kind of wanted to lie down right there on the ground. The result was a slow meandering. She put the foremost thought of Brandy aside, and found herself obsessing on her pace. Too slow, and people would wonder what the heck she was doing. Too fast, and they’d think she was in a hurry for important M.P. business. Both results would be totally inconsequential, but regardless, she tried very hard to walk the perfect medium pace.

The nearest quiet spot turned out to be a stall in a bathroom. She pulled out the terminal. Sure enough, the little display read that it was a message from Brandy. Just when she was starting to convince herself it might not be. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

She felt as if she sent an order to her hand to tap the icon, and hoped that her hand wouldn’t obey. “Sorry Brandy, but I lost the ability to press buttons.” That would be a good excuse. Sure.

Cruelly, her hand obeyed. She opened her eyes to see Brandy sitting with her arms folded, elbows resting on her knees. She was looking down in silence. Not good.

A pained, fragile sigh escaped Brandy. The sigh reached out of the terminal speaker and grabbed Cassidy’s lungs, making her unable to breathe. Brandy reluctantly started. “Cass….” This wasn’t going to be good. This wasn’t going to be good at all.

“It’s…” Brandy swallowed hard. “It’s obviously not working out.” She sighed, her voice beginning to tremble a bit. “I guess we’re over. Goodbye.”

The message ended, and Cassidy was left staring at the screen, but seeing nothing. She was still waiting for the message to say more. It didn’t seem long enough. Not long enough for a breakup from a year and a half relationship. It hadn’t sunk in. She was alone, silent, but safe behind the levies of shock, safe from the flood that had just assaulted her.

Outwardly she did her best to be calm, but her tightly shallow breathing, clenched jaw, and eyes staring into nothingness betrayed the surge of screaming panic inside.

Eventually recovering a little focus, Cassidy called Brandy back. In the short eternity while the terminal made the connection, that reluctant part of Cassidy inside was screaming at the other half to hang up. She didn’t have anything planned to say. Apologize? Should she maybe say something about-

‘BLOCKED’

Blocked?! Brandy’s not taking her calls? What? She can’t just block her without a chance to say something for herself! She didn’t even have a chance to…

But she did have a chance. She had plenty of chances. Plenty of chances over the last.. month? Oh god, was it more? Chances to call back, even if it was just to leave a message, or wake her up.

But it was too late now. The terminal slipped out of her hand and clattered on the floor. She stared down at it resentfully. It wasn’t kind enough to break on impact. After a time, and a long sigh, she picked it up.

Well… maybe Brandy would lift the block after a while. Maybe. Aw geez, what to do? Well, she could always snail-mail her or something. Call her mom maybe. Geez, no, that’s creepy.

With another deep sigh, she stowed the terminal. She started to head out of the washroom, and caught her reflection in a mirror.

Well, son of a bitch. She was crying.

~~~

“What do you mean there’s no available manpower?!” Kirison squawked at his terminal.

“It means there’s no available manpower, maybe? What part of the department being shut down isn’t clear?” Kirison’s former supervisor, the joyless Mr. Book was pretty clear.

“Well, that’s the whole thing!” Kirison wound up his rebuttal. “We can’t just leave projects sitting out there, we have to shut down properly!”

Mr. Book leaned in closer, a hint of a smile cracking though. Maybe it was a sneer. “Kirison…. All projects have been shut down quite nicely already. All. Official. Projects.”

Kirison’s face became a bit joyless as well. “Well... Well... I still have things I need to close.”

Mr. Book relaxed a little and took on a bit more of an official air. “If you’ve been doing something illegal, after all the anti-Erebus legislation-”

Kirison jumped, “No! Shit no! Nothing like that! It’s perfectly harmless!”

“And legal?” Mr. Book was getting closer and closer to smiling. Kirison was entertaining when he squirmed.

Kirison did his best to display a proper posture and expression. “Well. No.”

“Kirisonnnnn……”

“Oh come on now! You know as well as I do that the new laws are ignorant knee-jerk reactions. Surely endeavors to non-weaponized applications-“

“Come on Kirison. I had as much riding on this department as you,” Kirison knew that was bull, but he didn’t interrupt. “but given all that’s happened in recent years, this knee-jerk could have been a lot stronger.”

“Well fine, whatever. But the point is, I still have a project running out there and I don’t have the kind of expertise to extract it quietly. And if it gets found out, and they trace it back to me and you, and everyone up the chain…”

“Ah!” the joyless man outright grinned for a moment. “You’re wrong! This project of yours is unofficial, and has nothing to do with me. Everything I had my hands in was one hundred percent legitimate and on the books! And when the law came and said stop, I did! We all did! And now you want a team from me for something you did behind our backs?”

“It’s not like the project wasn’t going to go towards the company anyway! I just-“

Mr. Book’s face returned to its normal joyless state. “Look, just clean it up.”

“I can’t, I need a team.”

“It’s not like I don’t sympathize. You’re a smart man, and a hard worker. But I don’t have anyone to give you.” Mr. Book cocked his head slightly. “I do know someone who might, however. People we dealt with in the early days. Do you have a pen?”

~~~~~

:::C /04

~~~~~

Cassidy awoke, and the memory of Brandy breaking up with her came slowly, but firmly. It was enough to make her pause as she was getting out of bed. She couldn’t pause for long; she had duty to get to. The irony of that wasn’t lost on her. She didn’t seem to have time for her when they were a couple, so why should she let crying over her get in the way of work now? She certainly did enough of that yesterday.

That realization had come to her the night before, and it still managed to make her feel like a selfish bitch for taking Brandy for granted. She reached for her terminal and called Brandy again. Still blocked. It was worth a shot. Focus. Put yourself together, and get to work.

“Feeling better?” McKinney asked Cassidy wen she got to the station.

“What?” Cassidy forgot the manner in which she’d left him yesterday. “Uh, yeah, I don’t know what it was, I’m sorry I didn’t even contact you later.”

“It’s cool. Sick is sick.”

She considered coming clean. He was an okay guy, he wouldn’t spaz. But at the same time, she didn’t want his pity, or any such garbage. “Yeah, I’m still not a hundred percent, but good enough.”

During patrol, her terminal wiggled with another message. Brandy? She had to find a private spot again. “McKinney? Can I split for a sec?”

“Uh? Er, yeah, take your time.”

She made haste to the nearest washroom, and checked her messages.

“Hello, Leftenent Cassidy!” What the heck, the message wasn’t Brandy, it was the weird older guy from the other night, when she threw the gun at the drunk. He was in a cheerful mood.

“Last night I was talking to your C.O., Colonel Calvert, and I asked if I might maybe have you transferred to my unit. I don’t think I properly introduced myself last night. Major Marcus Douglas. I run the Yute temple honour guard. Anyway, I had come to the Yute Central base to finally meet Calvert and request a replacement troop, and then I ran into you. You seemed like a good choice, so I asked Calvert if I could ask you to come over to my unit. It’s your call, but it’s a nice post, and it comes with a bit of a pay raise. I’ve attached the basic infodump briefing on the installation. Let me know, and if you have any questions, just ask.”

The message ended, and Cassidy noticed that same look in his eyes that she saw that night. It was a calm look that seemed to just stare right out of the screen, through her head, the ceiling, and up into the sky, into space.

Cassidy huffed, absorbing the information. She opened the attached infodump. It popped up onscreen.

INFODUMP: YUTE TEMPLE HONOUR GUARD

In accordance with treaties with the aboriginal Aguei nation, the Aguola military maintains an outpost for an honour guard to protect the Yute temple.

This vigil consists of six soldiers at any one time, generally separated into 3 standard 8 hour shifts per day. These soldiers carry weapons inspired by the traditional Aguei people.

“Wow, informative.” Cassidy shrugged. The underlined phrases led to other infodumps. The Aguola infodump was doubtlessly a sprawling documentary, from the first European settlers, to the forming of the world’s second largest island nation (after Australia), then through the involvement in the world wars, blah blah blah.

She certainly didn’t need to hear any more about the Aguei, being the largest minority on the continent nation of Aguola. It was common knowledge. When settlers first arrived, relations were less than smooth, but a few hundred years had found a balance much as it had in Aguola's 'sister-nation' Australia, or the Americas.

Cassidy had heard of the Yute temple, but wasn’t as familiar with it. Of course everyone at the Yute Central base was aware of it, but on the whole, it was ignored. She tapped the link just to see. It took on a more documentary tone, and less military.

INFODUMP: YUTE TEMPLE

Deep within the Yute Desert, lies a ruined city, assumed to have been built by the ancestors of the Aguei. The Aguei knowledge base however, holds little to illuminate the details behind the grand temple that sits in the middle of the ruins. Lacking its original name, it has become known only as the Yute Temple. The temple exhibits construction of similar technique, but of better quality than the surrounding ruins, While the ruins are nearly entirely destroyed, the temple has withstood centuries of sandstorms much better.

The temple’s outward appearance would make it remarkable enough, but this becomes secondary in consideration of the grand statue in the middle of the temple. It bears no resemblance to anything in Aguei lore, but its fierce appearance has garnered it the nickname of “The Yute Demon”.

While the Aguei consider the temple and statue sacred, there has never been a direct link to known Aguei lore to explicitly explain this.

[Images: No images. Photography and tourism is not permitted on the Yute temple ruins, by treaty.]

The dump seemed to inform just enough to let you know how much you don’t know. It almost seemed worth taking the post just to see it all. Cassidy stowed the terminal, and caught up with McKinney. He welcomed her back to patrol with a small wave. “Hey Stanton. You okay?”

“Er, yeah, it was nothing. But I got an odd call while I was in there.” She pulled out her terminal and played Major Marcus Douglas’ message for McKinney.

“Hm!” McKinney seemed surprised, but gave no indication on his opinion otherwise.

“Hm? Seems like an odd post, don’t you think? They’re guarding the temple? From what? Dust?”

“Seems like a pointless post, if you ask me.” McKinney said, with his eyebrows up in apathy. Most who knew about the Yute Honour Guard generally thought of the whole post as a waste of money and resources.

“Well, someone doesn’t think so; it exists, after all.” Cassidy passively skimmed over the infodumps again as they walked. “The Aguei, namely...”

McKinney gave a little huff. “Sure. So we have people there picking their noses so that Aguei nation activists have one less thing to whine about? If it’s so important to them, you’d think they’d guard it themselves.”

Well, that was a decent point. Cassidy chalked it up to some gesture of good faith in part of some bigger treaty. “Maybe… maybe the Aguei just don’t have the resources to maintain a post there. I don’t know. Sounds like easy work either way.”

McKinney glanced over to Cassidy, weighing the tone of her voice “You considering it? You’d be one more step away from civilization, you know.”

Civilization. Where Brandy was, in other words. Cassidy called her one more time, only to see the word “blocked” pop up once more. “Well, like I have any fucking use for civilization anymore.”

~~~

At the end of the shift, and a lot more brewing of the notion, Cassidy called Major Marcus Douglas on her terminal.

“Yello-, Oh! Leftenent Cassidy! Got my message, I take it?”

“Y-yes Sir. Cassidy’s my first name by the way, Sir.”

“Yup, It is- Oh, I see what I did. Sorry, it’s a habit of mine. Should I be calling you ‘Stanton’ instead?”

Cassidy blinked. Major Douglas managed to speak with a cheerful tone and still maintain a sense of calm. The thought flashed though her mind that it was a little creepy for an older superior officer to be calling her by her first name so casually, but it really did just seem to be his way. “Er… Cassidy is fine, Sir.”

“Good good, in that case, you can tone down the ‘Sir’ stuff. The men and women in my troupe just usually call me Marcus. Which brings me to ask-“ he stopped, and cocked his head, waiting for Cassidy to pick up the slack.

“To ask if I’d be joining up.” Cassidy sighed. “I gotta admit, I have my reservations…”

“Well, give it a try, and if you don’t feel at home after a month or so, I can have you transferred right back if ya want.”

That was unusually accommodating. “Well…. Well okay then, I’m onboard..! What do I do?”

“Great! I’ll deal with the paperwork. How soon can you get your stuff together, and say your goodbyes?”

Her goodbyes would be short, she only really knew McKinney, and they weren’t that close. Her oversized duffel would probably be more than enough to cram her stuff into. “Geez.. A couple hours?”

Marcus looked at his watch. Alright then, be at the helipads in three hours.”

~~~

Cassidy wandered onto the helipad deck of the base ten minutes or so early. Her duffel was packed a bit tighter than she’d expected, and her stride betrayed its weight.

The deck had a dozen helipads to accommodate choppers and the more advanced VTOL ‘flying outpost’ airlimbs. One of the airlimbs was being loaded with elite Storm unit personnel. Another, that wasn’t showing any outward activity, was the AZU-1 airlimb.

Cassidy took a moment to try and spot any members of AZU-1, but none made themselves visible. That unit had become famous after their role in the Erebus incident.

It was just as well that she didn’t spot any members; the two most famous members had retired anyway.

Cassidy found the supervising Captain of the deck, and asked where and when Major Douglas was expected. The Captain paused before answering, as if to say “Oh… so you have something to do with it.” Or “Oh, Major Douglas. From the temple base.. those guys.”

But when he opened his mouth, he simply hollered “Deck three!” He pointed, since it was hard to hear over the various engines running on the decks. “Any minute now!”

Cassidy saluted, and hauled her duffel in front of deck three. Soon enough, a big, older chopper came in and rested its weary self on the pad. She waved at the pilot, who waved her over.

“You Stanton?” the pilot yelled over the engine noise.

“Yup!”

“Get on then! Let’s go!”

Cassidy heaved her duffel in, and got in the co-pilot chair. There was no one in the back to talk to. The pilot conversed with the control tower, and along with the onboard computer, the needed confirmations were made to get underway. Once airborne, Cassidy decided to start conversation.

“So! This bird belong to the temple base?”

“Nope, I’m just playing shuttle today!”

“So you’re not in the unit.”

“Nope. You?”

“Yeah, as of today.”

“Eh… Congrats, I guess.”

Cassidy tried to distill some meaning from the pilot’s attitude, unsuccessfully. “You guess? Why? Something wrong with it?”

He shrugged, “I guess not. Not really.”

The time in the air passed, and the terrain below changed from parched, cracked soil, to pure, soft sand. It was one thing to see these sands in pictures, but to be above them with their light gold hue spreading as far as the eye could see, was a very different thing altogether. It was almost striking enough to make her forget the sound of the engine.

She took a deep breath, and held the warm air inside for a bit before releasing it. She felt tears build behind her eyes, and turned her head away from the pilot while she tamed them. While the view was moving enough, she couldn’t blame that for the urge to cry.

She pulled out her terminal and called Brandy once more, with the screen out of view of the pilot. “Blocked” popped up again. She closed her eyes and sighed. Whatever.

“There it is.” the pilot hollered over the noise. Cassidy opened her eyes and saw he was pointing at the horizon. All around were the shattered stone remains of an ancient city. The tallest pieces were only fragments of a wall here and there, worn down by time and windstorms.

The exception was the temple. It sat in the middle of the ruins, with a hundred or so metres of flat terrain all around it, as if the other ruins sat back in awe of it.

The temple bore similarities to a pyramid, or ziggurat. The sides sloped up about a third of the way, then became a huge boxy structure. The south side had stairs up the slope, and some kind of openings into the boxy part. The temple was doing amazingly well compared to the other ruins. From the air, it looked to be entirely intact.

The south stairs ran down into a pathway, which stretched through the ruins, uninterrupted. Following it for a while, one found a helipad on a hill, and a unique little building. (Little compared to the temple, that is.)

It was partly made of ruins, and partly made of modern black metal enhancements. So, this would be home.

They settled on the pad, and the ground reflected the noise of the chopper back up at them.

“Alright!” The pilot yelled, “You’re clear!”

Cassidy nodded at him in a way of thanking him and piled off, pulling her duffel onto her shoulder again. She scooted off the pad and waved. He waved back, and was soon off again, the chopper fading into the hues of gold, taking its boisterous fuss with it.

Cassidy had dismissed the sand in the air as being the chopper’s fault, but it persisted after the chopper was quite clear. It seemed she was in the middle of a small natural phenomenon. It wasn’t a sandstorm by any stretch of the imagination, but even after trying to shake the sand off, she felt the need for a shower. Hopefully this kind of thing wasn’t a frequent occurrence around here.

She saw a soldier coming from the direction of the building she’d singled out earlier.

“Hey there!” Cassidy yelled out, waving. The approaching woman waved back without a word. Cassidy hauled herself and her duffel to meet her. Once they were closer, the woman spoke up.

“Leftenent Cassidy Stanton, I presume?” She saluted with a warm, calm smile. Her expression reminded Cassidy a bit of Major Douglas- er, sorry, “Marcus”.

“Yeah, that’s me. Reporting for duty.” Cassidy found herself speaking in a calmer tone, taking her cue from this woman.

The woman saluted casually, “Corporal Wanda Morat. Nice to meet ya. Can I take your duffel?” She was obviously an Aguei, though she spoke with no trace of an accent. It stood to reason; Aguei in the service tended to be fairly ‘assimilated’, and rarely bore much of an accent, or other blatant signs of their lineage.

“Naw, that’s fine, Corporal, thanks. Oh, ‘Marcus’ gave me the impression that things were kind of lax around here with rank and stuff. I guess you should call me ‘Cassidy’.” The two started on towards the building.

“This girl catches on fast!” Corporal Morat said to an imaginary third person, “I guess that makes me Wanda!”

Cassidy gave a small chuckle. “Wanda it is, then.”

“So, Cassidy, what brings you to our humble hole in the wall?”

“Marcus did!”

“Well yeah, but he doesn’t tend to just snap people up. You had the option, right? Why’d you say yes?”

Cassidy sighed, and shrugged. “Seemed like a good time for a change of pace.”

Wanda waited for Cassidy to continue, feeling there was more to it, but she didn’t want to pry. “Yeah, every now and then, it doesn’t hurt.”

::: new potential colony host found.

::: establish monitor colony: complete.

They neared the threshold of the 'temple base'. It was bigger than it looked from the air, and despite of, or maybe because of its age, it projected quite an air of grandeur. Of course, not nearly as much as the temple itself, looming to the north.

The walls of the base were made of large stone blocks, pocked with age. It looked almost like you could reach out and pull a handful off, but such an effort would be scoffed at by this stonework, which had made it this far through ages of true sandstorms.

Black metal sub-structure lined the doorway, forming a closeable doorway which was currently open, and generally stayed that way. Looking inside, she saw that similar black metal supports lined the other doorways, ceiling, and a few spots that hadn’t fared as well over the ages. Cassidy felt strangely at home, and like an interloper in an alien world at the same time.

Passing inside, she only then realized how hard the sun had been beating down on her. Wanda spread her arm out, presenting the front room. “Welcome aboard, Leftenent Cassidy!”

Cassidy couldn’t help giggling. That was exactly what Marcus called her. “Thank you, Corporal Wanda!”

“She learns fast, what did I tell ya?” Wanda said to herself. “Okay, well, let’s get you settled in. Over here’s the gals' barracks.”

Wanda led Cassidy to a room with eight bunks, four on either side. Three other women were here. Two were asleep, and one was sitting on her bunk in the far corner, seemingly meditating. She was sitting up, eyes closed, her uniform jacket across her lap like a blanket.

Cassidy swallowed hard, and tried not to stare. She was radiant. Not that she radiated sexiness exactly, though she was beautiful. This woman exuded an aura of peace and serenity that seemed to fill the room like incense.

Wanda noticed where Cassidy’s glance lingered. “That’s our ‘den mother’ and second in command, Captain Cipriana Reichenbach.” Since they entered the room, Wanda spoke even quieter. Was it consideration for the sleeping, or just the calm that the meditating Captain cast onto the room?

Cassidy walked over to the Captain, and stood at attention at the foot of her bed, after putting her duffel down behind her. She took another moment to look at the Captain a little longer. Her chestnut hair flowed around her face, giving her a distinctively earthy look. Behind her on the ledge sat a small flowing plant, a large well-used candle, her hanging dog tags, and an assortment of necessities. Cassidy’s eyes were drawn to a hand-sized butterfly design painted on the wall, almost expecting the Captain’s influence to bring it fluttering to life.

How long was she staring? Oops. Cassidy stiffened her stance of attention, and brought up her arm to salute. Drawing breath to announce herself, she was interrupted by the Captain. The Captain opened her startling green eyes, and smiled warmly and welcoming. Her voice came soft but clear.

“At ease, Cassidy. Welcome. If it’s all the same to you, I’ve penciled you in for a watch tonight with Marcus. He’ll brief you during shift.”

Cassidy was still a little transfixed. “I… sure….” The way the Captain said it, it almost sounded like people got to pick their shifts usually. “Let me guess, Captain, you don’t get called ‘Captain’ much…”

“Cipriana is fine.” She nodded.

Wanda spoke up as she slid Cassidy’s duffel under the bunk across the aisle from Cipriana. “If you really get to know her, you can just call her ‘Cip’.” Cipriana rolled her eyes, almost unnoticed.

“I guess that’s my bunk?” Cassidy asked.

Wanda shrugged. “I just thought cuz you dropped your duffel here… There’s only five females on staff here right now. We’re under-represented, far below average statistical gender ratio. What’s with that?” Wanda smirked at Cipriana as if it was her fault.

“How many total personnel?” Cassidy asked.

“Twenty eight, to ‘man’ two positions at three doorways at the temple. We operate eight hour shifts, day and night, plus extras so we get some days off and junk.” Wanda answered.

Cassidy thought she should mention her orientation, just to be up front. Not that it was required or anything. She knew she was mature enough to deal with close quarters with other women, but she thought it might be best to lay things out on the table, for the record. “I.. thought I might let you know...”

Cipriana interrupted gently. “No, It’s alright.”

Cassidy shrugged. That was odd. Whatever. “I guess I’ll settle in.”

~~~~~

:::C /05

~~~~~

Kirison studied himself in the mirror. What was the right ‘look’ for this kind of meeting? He’d heard rumors that Mr. Book was connected, but Kirison didn’t have any exposure to them himself. He made a mental note that should pushing come to shoving, the fact that his boss was connected might be a useful bit of leverage.

Leverage? What was he thinking? For one thing, he was in deeper than the boss was already… maybe... and for another thing, he was about to meet people who didn’t respond well to nobodies trying to wield leverage around them.

Okay, screw the leverage. For now. Focus on the image.

He didn’t want to priss up too much; they’d eat him alive. He didn’t want to look too tough; they’d sniff him out as a poser.

Kirison had a laugh at himself. As if he knew how they think. His knowledge on the topic was entirely rooted in movies. Screw it. Dress ‘business casual’, be respectful, and try not to throw around too many big words. He wouldn’t want to seem condescending.

He was ready to go. Maybe. He had agonized earlier about how to get there. Drive, and chance his licence plate being seen there, or take a taxi, and risk disappearing, and not leaving behind a car that could help solve his murder. Of course, if they wanted to go to that length, they could make a car disappear, too. He had finally decided he was being paranoid, and that once again, his lack of knowledge about them gave him very little information with which to make smart tactical decisions.

Of course, smart decisions weren’t what got him into this position, was it? He walked right into a rabbit hole and had been falling ever since, not even aware of it until just a few days ago. And now he was looking for a grappling hook that he might as easily lodge in his own eye.

Clips from cheesy movies popped up in his head all the time as he was driving there. The restaurant he arrived at was nice, but not too nice. The lights were low inside, like a movie cliché. It was not a comforting thing.

“I’m here to see him.” He said to the lounge bartender, hoping he would know what he meant. The bartender silently lifted one finger, to tell him to wait. The bartender knocked on the mirror behind him, and went on with his business. Shortly after, a very large man in a very nice suit came out from the back.

Kirison wondered if this large man would be gentle when giving him cement shoes.

~~~

Cassidy colonized her bunk and footlocker as adequately as she needed. Having a fair amount of time until her first watch, she decided to explore the base a bit. Just outside the ladies’ barrack was the ladies’ washroom and showers. Note to self- still itchy from that little sand dust-up.

Past that was a small supply room, then the main hall. Directly across the hall was what appeared to be a section identical to the one she just left, except that it was for the guys. This was evidenced plainly by the male soldier walking out of their own supply room. He waved, and came her way.

“Hey, either you’re the new blood, or a long way from home.” he said. As seemed to be mandatory around here, he had a cheerful calm, and spoke more softly than she was used to. Not as soft as Cipriana, mind you.

This time, Cassidy jumped right past rank and last names. “Yeah, I’m new. Cassidy.”

“Nice to meetcha, Cassidy. I’m Alan. Settling in alright?”

“Yup, just having a peek around. I have a watch with Marcus tonight.”

“Want some cookies? They should be ready...”

“Cookies!?”

“Heehee, come on.” Alan led her to the mess. The smell of the cookies hit her long before they got there. The mess could seat maybe fifty, on regulation tables and benches. One side wall had everything a military kitchen needed, and a few little additions of more civilian origin, for comfort’s sake. The opposite wall had a large screen on it, definitely not standard issue hardware. Several of other guys were about, watching some movie on the screen, or pecking at a meal.

Alan bee-lined for one of the ovens, grabbed an oven mitt, and started pulling out three sheets of oatmeal raisin cookies.

Before the last batch of oatmeal raisin was on the counter, at least half of the soldiers in the room were closing in, smiling. Alan closed that oven and moved over to the other, pulling out three sheets of chocolate chip cookies. Many hands were already claiming raisin cookies, with yelps, and cookie-blowing, while others waited for a chance to attack the chocolate chip cookies.

“You stupid apes!” Alan said, raising his voice. “Guess what? They’re hot!” It was the loudest voice she’d heard here, and it was a little re-assuring that she wasn’t in the middle of a group of librarians in training.

One of the cookie grabbers addressed Alan “Hey Alan! Great cookies as usual. I think. I’ll tell you when my tongue heals. This is the newbie?” he pointed his thumb towards Cassidy.

“Yeah Karl, meet Cassidy, Cassidy? Meet Karl. Karl’s a stupid greedy ape, like the rest of these stupid greedy apes, who think that six friggin' sheets of cookies are gonna disappear before they cool! See Karl? Cassidy here isn’t a stupid greedy ape!”

“She’s probably just on a diet or something.” Karl mumbled, grasping at straws to defend the guys.

“No,” Cassidy said, soft and pleasantly, “I’m waiting for them to cool. I’m a greedy ape, but not stupid.”

“Yay, female intelligence!” Cried an Aguei woman over at a table, who later introduced herself as Maxine.

“There’s even still cookies left over from the last batch in the cupboard,” Alan said, shoving the sheets over to where he could clean them... if there weren’t stupid greedy apes in the way.

“The ones in the cupboard aren’t warm!” one of the others perked up, mouth full.

“They also won’t burn you! You all realize that old cookies can be warmed again, right? Just a few seconds of zap, and you’re good to go.” Alan tossed a dishrag at the guy blocking the sink. “You stupid greedy apes have all evolved thumbs, it’s time you learned how to use tools.”

Cassidy reached over and bent one of the raisin cookies until it broke in half. She stuffed the half cookie in her mouth.

“That’s it? Don’t trust my baking?” Alan said.

“Cassidy chewed, holding her index finger up until she swallowed. “I’m on a diet.” She joked. “Really though, these rock. It was worth transferring here just for the cookies.” She grabbed a chocolate chip cookie, and drifted towards the door. “Thanks for the cookies, Alan! I’ll see you stupid greedy apes around, I guess!”

She walked off nibbling, and thought she heard Maxine behind her say something like, “She’s gonna do just fine here.”

The chocolate chip cookie was every bit as wondrous as the raisin cookie. It was tempting to go back and get more. The small but concentrated dose of camaraderie was welcome as well. It took her mind far from other bothers.

She stepped into the supply room to grab a towel, and to her footlocker to grab a change of clothes. One of the sleeping ladies had left the barracks, though Cipriana was still there. She was in the same position, and just as stoic and lovely, but now reading, instead of deep in mediation. “Alan’s done another batch?” she asked.

“Ah, yeah, he has.” Cassidy answered, her tone again matching Cipriana’s calm. “If I’d been thinking, I could have brought you some…..?”

Cipriana smiled softly. “Thank you Cassidy. I’m fine. I know where he keeps them.”

Cassidy smirked. Cip was no stupid greedy ape. Cassidy headed over to the showers, placing her fresh clothes on a counter, and her towel on a hook that would be handy from the shower stall. Her hat came off, letting her deep blonde hair flow loose. She caught a look at it in a mirror. Maybe if Cipriana can get away with her hair loose, she might try... nah. It would confuse the hat. She got in the shower stall and finished stripping, flopping her old clothes over the door. Just getting naked got most of the sand off her. She turned to use the water controls and saw a dark little creature skitter across the wall.

“What the hell!?” She jumped back, and looked for it. There it was, stuck on the wall, contently.

“Is everything alright?” came Cipriana's voice.

“Uh, there’s a little lizard in here.”

“Oh,” Cipriana’s voice was closer now. “Don’t worry about them. They’re called aeki, they’re harmless. They wander in from the desert sometimes, and usually end up in the showers. They're interested in moisture, I suppose.”

“So… this is normal? What am I supposed to do?”

“If he bothers you, kick him out. We take them outside if they look lost. They like the water, but they probably shouldn’t be out of their natural element for too long.”

Cassidy looked at the little thing. It shifted its weight from foot to foot, taking little, unassuming steps across the wall, defying gravity. It was as comfortable on the wall as it would be on the floor. Certainly it was harder to get stepped on while on the wall. “Er, he’s okay I guess. If this is normal. Sorry to be a disturbance.”

“Not to worry. Perhaps I should have warned you.” Cipriana's footsteps faded into the other room, and Cassidy turned on the water. The spray wasn’t at any risk of hitting little lizard, but it seemed to find it entertaining.

Cassidy proceeded to clean herself. Usually the shower was where she lost herself in thought, though she knew those thoughts would end up on Brandy again. It was very hard to think gloomy thoughts with this lizard here, exploring the world of water in amazement. Thank goodness for little lizards.

And cookies.

~~~

It was still half an hour or so before her scheduled watch when Marcus came by the women's barracks, having returned to the temple base just a while ago. Cassidy’s hair was still a little bit damp, but pulled back into her ponytail and once again looped through the opening in the back of her cap.

Marcus stood at the doorway and tapped the wall. “Knock knock? Ready for a little prep?”

Cassidy stood up from her bed, and saluted. She almost snapped back “Yes, Sir!” at a volume that would normally be expected, but she caught herself in time. She let her posture lax a bit, and her salute end before regulation would normally dictate. “That is, uh…. Okie-dokie?”

Marcus couldn’t help smile a bit at the newbie trying hard to get into the flow. “Alright, off to the temple…!” As they walked towards it, the temple's already imposing size seemed to grow all the more. A wide staircase went up twenty or so steps, taking up about half of the temple’s front width. They showed some signs of their age, but were in overall good shape, much like the rest of the temple.

At the top of the stairs was a plateau. From there, to the left and right, roughly fifteen metres away in either direction, were doorways with two guards on each. Directly in front was a large opening.

This large opening wasn’t a doorway, at least not one you’d want to use. In front of it was a gap in the floor, about three metres across. Peeking down, it went straight down to the ground. From there, a covered passage went both directions, out to the sides of the temple, then into the open. Light seemed to be flowing about freely. The formation could be described as a pit and two tunnels, but the openness of it didn’t lend itself to such claustrophobic phrasing.

Past the gap was a second plateau and one more flight of stairs with a guarded doorway at the top. This inner doorway loomed twice as wide and tall than the two other doors.

Marcus led Cassidy to one of the side doors, and it became obvious that it led to the second plateau. It was now that Cassidy got a good look at the spears that all of the guards carried.

She had seen Aguei spears before, with the little perpendicular handle half way down, but these ones had unique spearheads. Instead of a typical narrow triangle, they were large and rounded, almost like the shape of a shovel head, but flat. It looked bulky too; at least four centimetres thick in the middle. Centered in the middle of the blade’s curve was a hole that you could drop a golf ball through.

She tried to imagine wielding it in combat, but she was forced to assume that it was a design that was only for ceremony. Despite the old design, the construction was obviously modern materials and techniques. It looked strangely modern, for a spear, with machined-smooth lines and surfaces.

“Hey boys,” Marcus greeted the two men on duty at this door. “Just about done, hm?”

“Yup.” One of them replied. “This is the new recruit?”

Yet another set of introductions were made, and Cassidy didn’t really put a lot of effort into memorizing them. She had been meeting a lot of people since she got here, and she decided to focus on those that made an impression. Marcus of course, Cipriana, Maxine, Wanda, oh, and what was cookie-man’s name? Frig. Umm… Alan! Alan; master of the cookies, and herder of the stupid greedy apes.

Once the polite talk was done, Marcus and Cassidy headed through the inner plateau. Cassidy looked up to see that this large space was covered by a very high ceiling. With the two large open doorways and the large opening behind them, it was hard to decide if this space could be considered ‘inside’, or just a big front porch.

“By the way, Cassidy. Before I forget, it doesn’t happen often, but now and then we get a bit of a sandstorm on duty. We used to have small tarps we got under, but we got rid of those. It’s just as good to curl up against a wall and ride it out. They don’t last too long, usually. Just long enough to make you want a shower.”

“I ran into a little one when I first got here.” Cassidy said.

“Yeah,” Marcus chuckled, “That helipad’s notorious. We do get bigger ones now and then, but like I said, not too often.”

They headed up the steps to the inner doorway. Marcus waved at the two men guarding the doorway, but was too busy talking to Cassidy to start another conversation. It would have been nearly identical to the one they had at the last door anyway.

“So Cassidy, ever seen the Yute demon?” Marcus asked.

“No. There aren’t pictures to be seen, due to-“

“Right right, I forget that sometimes.”

They passed through the doorway into the main hall, not much smaller than a football field.

Cassidy gasped in surprise. “I didn’t imagine…!”

They walked slowly across the floor towards the statue, as Marcus watched Cassidy take it in. “I’m guessing you were expecting a devil with wings? Or something like that?”

Cassidy smirked, staring the 'demon' in the eye, still many metres away.

The demon was a dog-like thing, with horns like a ram. It was lying down, with its head up, as if alert. Its head was at least five metres across, it’s shoulders closer to fifteen. It was carved of a much darker stone from the yellowish rock of the temple; indeed, it was almost black. Whatever this stone was, it was obviously much stronger stuff than any other stone around. The robust shaggy fur was carved with excruciating detail, which by all rights should have been worn off over the ages. Sure, it had the occasional tiny sign of damage, but no more than a statue in some modern city. Was it that well protected inside here? The walls and floor were in decent shape for their age, but not nearly as well preserved as the statue.

Cassidy thought the eyes seemed to look right at her. She smiled. “Nice puppy, Sir!” She chuckled.

Marcus chuckled back, and rocked back on his heels, looking up at the demon. “He doesn’t look scary to you?”

She couldn’t believe that no one found it necessary to share this with the world. “No Sir. I mean.. if it were real, I’m sure he’d be able to eat or crush everyone on the base, but he doesn’t look the type.”

“Heh. Well, if he fought the sphinx…. My money’s on our boy here.. but since you don’t find him scary… I’ll tell you a secret, if you stop calling me ‘Sir’.”

“Oops. Okay, Marcus, let's hear it.”

Marcus’ face grew a little more serious. Not too serious, but a bit more. He looked at Cassidy for a few moments. “His ghost is still here.” He nodded assuredly at Cassidy’s doubting expression. “Yep. He’s a good boy. He likes the company of having us around. There’s not a lot else around here without us to talk to him now and then.”

Cassidy chuckled, and walked up to the statue. She patted the nearest curl of stone fur. “Well, I bet he’s a good guard dog too. Must eat a ton.” She looked at her watch. “Dang. Battery died. How long till we’re on?”

“Oh, we may as well take post now. It’s not like a few minutes is a big impact on eight hours.”

They headed back to the door to relive the two guards there. They handed their spears to Marcus and Cassidy and left, wishing Cassidy luck. Marcus stood on one side, holding his spear with one hand, back end resting on the ground, so Cassidy followed suit on the other side. The spear was very light, and she wondered how heavy the original model was. She watched the previous shift walk away, then looked to Marcus. “Soooooooo, when’s the rush here?” she joked.

“Well, that was one right there. Next one’s in eight hours, then two other folks come by and we hand the spears to them.”

Cassidy smirked. “So… this is what it’s all about? Oh, geez, are we supposed to be silent?”

“No, no, conversation is pretty much the only way to pass the time around here.”

Cassidy looked around. The statue was still staring forward, almost expectantly. With nothing else to talk about, she finally said “I spy, with my little eye, something that weighs a couple hundred tons.”

Marcus chuckled a little. “You’re not used to silence, are ya?”

“Can’t say I’d had much use for it in general.”

“Well, there’s plenty to be had around here. Ah, I’ve kinda been wondering, what made you decide to come on board with us here?”

Cassidy leaned a bit, putting some weight on the short middle handle of the spear, and huffing a bit of a sigh. “Well… seemed like good timing for a change of scenery… It’s certainly pretty enough out here.” Marcus nodded. He didn’t ask for more, but he didn’t need to. The silence seemed to draw it out of her all on its own. She looked out the front, down the stairs, past the opening with the gap in the floor, down more stairs, to the sands.

“I was dumped.” she finally added. “Seems like Brandy and I had been together for ages, but... well... to be quite honest... I wasn’t putting much into the relationship lately. Long distance… and I guess just … “

Cassidy sighed, frustrated with herself.

“It’s alright.” Marcus said, in an almost fatherly tone.

Not really hearing him, she eventually went on after a long pause. “You hear about people taking each other for granted, and it sounds dumb, it sounds like something you wouldn’t do. But I guess I did. But... I hadn’t even seen her in a long time, except messages. I may as well have not been going out with her for a long, long time.” She idly twisted the spear a little, and felt how the stray grains of sand ground against the stone floor. “In a way, it shouldn’t even bug me. Being dumped didn’t really change anything.”

“Except that suddenly it was official” Marcus added.

Cassidy snapped her stare over to him, her face tense with thought. “Yeah. I guess that’s it. I had someone out there. Out there somewhere, and she was mine, I was hers, and it was safe. Now I don’t have that.”

“On the other hand, you’re free.” Marcus tried to point out a silver lining, but Cassidy wasn’t too moved. She looked back out onto the sand. “Yeah, well, I hope Brandy is feeling better about her freedom than me. Freedom is overrated.”

The silence that came now bore heavier on Cassidy than before. Marcus decided to change the topic. “So, Cassidy, do you follow World Cup at all?”

Cassidy gave the hint of a chuckle. Marcus had the wisdom to know when to leave things alone. Why she opened up to her new C.O. like that for no real reason, she couldn’t put her finger on. Nonetheless, it was good to vent a little.

~~~

The man who Kirison finally met with after lots of waiting and an entirely new appointment, was significantly less terrifying than he had feared. He expected some chain smoking, overweight, middle aged man with sunken dark eyes, massive rings on every finger, an expensive yet tasteless suit, and an expression as warm as an undertaker.

The reality of “Mr. Irving” was a downright skinny old man, tall and lively. He was also dressed business casual, not too far from what Kirison had chosen for himself. That was good.

Regardless, Kirison’s paranoia found little difficulty imagining a viciously dark evil side to Mr. Irving, with a wide wicked grin and some kind of hammer dripping with the blood of someone who’d crossed him.

Let’s not think about that. Let’s sip the drink, and let the Mr. Irving think. That won’t get you killed.

Unless the drink was poisoned.

Okay, stop thinking like that. The nice skinny beanpole career criminal has no reason to kill you.

“Well Mister Kirison,“ Mr. Irving said with a light enough tone, “I really don’t think I can help you out.”

“What?! Why not?” Christ, that was less than respectful. The drink doesn’t smell like almonds, does it?

“Two reasons. For one thing, it’s not really our kind of turf. At all. By any stretch of the imagination. I’m sure you can understand.” Kirison nodded, and waited for Mr. Irving to continue. “The other thing is, with things being the way they are now, anything nanite-related is kind of a spicy area to get into in general. And besides that, there’s really zero profit in it!”

Kirison stared at the wet ring on the table where his glass had been earlier, and sighed. “Well. I certainly understand that. I wouldn’t touch this with a ten foot pole, if I could avoid it.” He sighed again.

“Look.....” Mr. Irving took a genuinely sympathetic tone. “I know of this group… they might be interested... but you might have to be… creative… they ain’t as stable as you an’ I, if you get my drift.”

Beautiful. The rabbit hole suddenly looked just that much deeper, and the fall was only gaining speed.

~~~~~

:::C /06

~~~~~

Cassidy awoke in the early afternoon. There was other activity in the barrack, but she had been sleeping through it just fine. She sat up and enjoyed the horrors of morning breath.

“Good morning.” It was Wanda. “Were you that tired that you fell asleep with your hat on? Not used to an overnight shift?”

Cassidy took a few moments for the words to sink through the haze of waking, and looked over at Wanda with a long lazy glare from under the brim of her hat. “Huh? Uhm… No. I mean yes. I mean.. overnight was fine. Things went smooth. And the hat... I always wear it. ‘Cept the shower.”

“You meant to wear it to bed?”

Cassidy nodded. “Yuh. Keeps my ponytail in line. Otherwise I wake up and my hair’s a mess.” She leaned over the edge of the bed and went into her footlocker for a shot of mouthwash.

“What’s wrong with an elastic hair band?”

Cassidy swallowed the mouthwash with a grimace, and thumbed the brim of her hat, almost affectionately. “There's one in there too. But my hat would get jealous if it was just the hair band there.”

“Nutter.”

Cassidy had her shower. No little lizard visitor today. She put herself together and wandered over to the mess hall. Cipriana was there, having some toast and OJ. It almost seemed odd to see Cipriana tending to lowly mortal necessities such as eating. Suddenly, the serene presence from the barracks seemed human after all. The toast caught Cassidy’s eye, so she fetched the same from the kitchen and went to go sit across from Cipriana.

“Hey, mind some company, Cip?”

Cipriana gave a welcoming smile and nodded towards the spot Cassidy seemed aimed at.

“Wanda said people call you ‘Cip’... was she just being silly? ‘Cipriana’ is such a pretty name, seems a shame to cut it short.”

Cipriana swallowed her mouthful. “Yes, most people call me ‘Cip’, but either way you want is fine by me.”

Cassidy leveled an analytical eye at Cipriana. “….. Cip….. Cipriana.. Cip….. I don’t think Cip does you justice… but I’m lazy, so ‘Cip’ it is. Oh, and if you want, I’ve been called ‘Cass’ off and on.”

Cipriana held a small giggle behind her calming smile. “Cass? Not Cassidy? Or Cassie?”

Cassidy almost choked on her toast. “No! Not Cassie, good lord, not Cassie.”

Cipriana couldn’t help but to smirk. “Alright then, ‘not Cassie’, which do you prefer, Cassidy or Cass?”

Cassidy thought for a moment. “If you were like me, I’d say ‘Cass’, but you’re not. You sound better saying the full name.”

“…what? Why?”

“Because you talk… slower than me. You sound like you’re taking your time talking, not in a rush, like the words are worth saying. Me? I’ll rifle off any gibberish that jumps into my head. I don’t have time to say whole four syllable names like SIP-REE-AN-AH, when there’s a billion other less important words waiting to come out. Wanda can sound okay saying ‘Cass’, just like she sounds right saying ‘Cip’. Maybe it’s a casual or formal thing. Wanda and I are pretty casual, where you come off a bit more formal, so using more formal forms of names sounds right coming out of you.”

Cassidy stopped talking, and Cipriana took a slow sip from her OJ, while staring at Cassidy with incredulous eyes. She put down the glass, swallowed, and at length, broke the vacuous silence that followed Cassidy’s spiel. “Alright then, Cassidy. I also see what you mean. You have a talent for gibberish when you put your mind to it.”

“Absolutely,” Cassidy chuckled, “I’m fluent, always have been.”

“By the way, how was your first watch?”

“Oh, fine. But you just reminded me. Speaking of watches, I wonder if I can get a new battery for...” Cassidy looked at the watch which had been dead the night before. It was now operating, and the time was even still correct. “Well, son of a... never mind then. I thought my battery was dead last night. Maybe the display is just on it’s last legs...”

“Well, you may as well leave it behind when you go on watch anyway. It’s not generally done; taking high tech stuff to the temple, that is.”

Cassidy shrugged. “Tradition? Treaty?”

Cipriana shrugged back. “I never found I really needed a watch on duty anyway.”

That was true enough, in retrospect. Eight hours went by pretty fast. Sure, she had been talking with Marcus off and on, but even still, there was a lot of silent standing and it didn’t drag on like she’d expected. Maybe the scenery helped.

Cipriana put her glass on her empty plate, and stood to leave. “Oh, by the way, Cassidy, you made me curious. What do you think Marcus should call you?”

“Hmm… He’d been calling me Leftenent Cassidy for a while… last night it was ‘Cassidy’ .. But I think he could get away with ‘Cass’… he’s kinda folksy.” Cipriana only replied with a short thoughtful gaze off into nowhere, half a grin, and a shrug before leaving. Cassidy gobbled up the rest of her afternoon breakfast. She then wandered off to the base entrance, intending to go for a little walk to explore the area a bit. On the way, she spotted Maxine ahead of her, also headed out.

Maxine was carrying a wooden staff, with red tape around one end. It had a small side handle, just like the spears used on watch. “You got the home-made model?” Cassidy’s comment took Maxine by surprise. She turned, and held the wooden spear, much the same as the real thing was held on duty. “Eh, It’s just for practice. Some of us kinda exercise with em. Well, me mostly. The weight room can get a little tedious sometimes.”

“Crap! Weight room? Where?”

“Go to the back wall of the mess, and look left. The door is kind of hidden by a freezer unless you get close. It’s nothing fancy. The wood spears are tucked in the back of the supply closets though.”

“Geez, I’m observant. Any water slides I didn’t see? Maybe a nuclear submarine in the middle of the barrack that I may have missed?”

“Hey Cassidy, do you want to come outside and play? We can grab another spear…”

Cassidy had nothing better to do. “Sure. Oh, and you may as well call me ‘Cass’.”

“Cass?”

“Yeah, Cip and I had a big discussion about it.”

A little off the path from the base to the temple, there was an open square area tucked between somewhat taller bits of ruins. Cassidy imagined that it might have been a marketplace once upon a time. Her imagination summoned imagery of rows and rows of shop stands, and browsing, noisy crowds. Today however, it was just an empty space between deteriorating buildings. Despite its fall from grace, this place still had a certain welcoming air to it, much like the temple itself. The sun seemed to flow with the gentle, silent wind, watching the ‘children’ come to play on the ancient stones with their little sticks.

Cassidy casually tapped the red-taped tip of her spear on Maxine’s. “Hey, go easy on me, I’m guessing you’ve had a lot more practice with these than me.”

Maxine looked back at Cassidy with a mildly confused expression. “Huh? Oh. I’ve never really sparred with them.. uh.. it’s more like.. I don't know... tai chi with a stick.” Maxine demonstrated with slow sweeping motions. She had always just made them up, but she had been doing it long enough that she looked like she knew what she was doing. Cassidy mimicked.

“This isn’t much of a workout…” Cassidy lightly commented.

“Well. You asked me to go easy on you. Hey, do you know anything about this Colonel Calvert?”

“Yeah,” Cassidy replied, copying another motion. “I only met him in passing, he’s the new C.O. at Yute central.”

“Yeah, I know. I was just wondering if you’d gotten any impressions of him. He’s coming by in a couple days.”

“What? Why?”

“Marcus says it’s an inspection... more of a formality. The Yute temple base sort of falls under the jurisdiction of Yute central, so he should at least come check it out. So... any impressions? If he's an okay guy?”

Cassidy leaned on her spear, taking her time to mull it over. She had only seen him two or three times. Not much to get a feel for someone, especially with normal military protocol in effect. “I didn’t see him kicking any kittens or anything. I dunno. I guess he’s okay.”

Maxine snickered, and upped her tempo a little. It now seemed plain that the motions were at least inspired by fighting moves. “Usually the old Colonel only came by to escort the Grand Elder, but the Elder is waiting until the other new person arrives, get two bird with one stone.”

Cassidy tilted her head. “Huh? What? Grand Elder? As in Armil? And what new person?”

Maxine came to a dramatic halt in her exercises, flourishing gracefully into a standing stop. It seemed chatter was the order of the day. “Yup! That’s one of the perks of being posted here. I’ve met the Grand Elder, umm… Six times? It makes my mum proud as heck, even if I am more modernized than she’d like. I tell her I wouldn’t have been able to meet him at all if I wasn’t in the military, so that’s afforded me a bit more slack with her about that.”

Cassidy was a little taken aback. Grand Elder Armil was the leader of all the Aguei aboriginals. The position of Grand Elder was part political, and part spiritual. Despite having no authority technically, just about everyone respected what the Grand Elder said, whether they were Aguei or not. “And… he’s coming here? What, to inspect? And what’s this got to do with a new person?”

“Ah. Well generally it’s pretty rare for us to get new people, but Sergeant Eliot Hood is retiring, so we have another replacement coming. The Grand Elder’s a busy guy, so he’s waiting for the other newbie to be here before he comes to do the blessings. Two in one visit.”

“OK, can I ask a third stupid question?”

“Shoot.”

“Blessing?”

“Man, Marcus didn’t tell you? Remind me to smack him. You’re going to be blessed by the Grand Elder, and be made an honourary member of the Aguei nation.”

“I am?”

“You don’t want to be? I mean, sure, you don’t get this sexy Aguei complexion like me, but still.”

“Holy crap! It’s a big honour!”

“You bet! So you better be fluent in Aguei before he gets here.”

Cassidy paused. “Shut up.”

::: new colony established

~~~~~

:::C /07

~~~~~

Kirison considered the people he was going to meet. Most called them extremists, or even terrorists. They called themselves Aguei Rights Activists.

Once again, Kirison had found himself wondering how to dress when looking for these people. He needed to look tough. He skipped on shaving for a bit, and tried to find the right outfit. He had to shop used clothing stores to get quite the look he was going for.

Shoddy enough to not look like a ‘suit’, but not so shoddy as to look like a vagrant. Nice enough to look credible. He saw a few shirts with Aguei designs on them, but he thought such a display would seem patronizing on such a pallid white guy. He settled for a small Aguei designed pin. It seemed to suit the cuff of a black denim coat he found.

He needed a story to go with the facade. Mix a little truth with the lie to make it all that more palatable. Something to get them good and mad. Get them motivated.

Carefully measured potions of the truth would set him free. A miscalculation could set him… in the ground.

Precautions had to be taken. With a borrowed recipe, Kirison armed a syringe, and stuck it’s needle into his arm. A small amount would do lots. It was a simple recipe, relatively speaking. But it was insurance. Just in case.

~~~~~

:::C /08

~~~~~

Cassidy took her second shift with a man she hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting before. Leftenent James Blakely. “Jim”. At 13:00 they stated watch at the front, southeast door. Cassidy was only on with Marcus the first night as a sort of ‘orientation’ shift. Jim was to be her new regular partner, but Cipriana mentioned that it wouldn’t be forever and that mixing up the ranks made for a tighter unit on the whole.

An additional duty that Jim had volunteered for was to bring a supply of Alan’s cookies to the morning shift before the watch change. Cassidy didn’t see the logic in that. Shortly after Jim delivered the cookies, the morning shift would be free to get cookies for themselves. She mentioned this to Jim, and he agreed. Tomorrow he said he’d bring them four hours earlier. Cassidy waited by their door while Jim went to the other two doors. He got chatty over at the southwest door. Jim got pretty chummy with Karl. Karl did seem to be one of the bigger fans of Alan’s cookies.

By the time Jim got back, the other pairs of the afternoon shift were just about in place, so they took their spears and relieved morning shift, sending the cookie container back with them

“So, did you get attacked by any big bad wolves?” Cassidy said.

“No, Ma’am. The picnic basket arrived securely at grandma’s house.”

“That darn near sounded military. Careful, Marcus might not approve.”

Jim snickered. “Yeah, this post isn’t quite the kind of thing you were expecting when you signed up, is it?”

“Hell, add a pool and sauna, and we’d have to pay to be here.” Cassidy saw Jim’s attention was diverted, and tried to see what he was looking at. It seemed like just the morning shift disappearing between ruins towards the base. “What’s up Jim?”

“Hm? Nada.” He idly turned his spear, grinding the tail end against the stone. “So, is there a Mister Cassidy?”

“What? Hehe, Jim, you coming on to me? Cuz you’re so barking up the wrong tree.”

“Huh? No! Just trying to make conversation. I take it there isn’t though.”

“Nah. I’m.. about as single as it gets these days. At least that’s what I think her blocking my calls means.”

“Ouch. Nastiness?”

“Could have been worse. Could have been better. I think she could have at least given me a chance to talk to her after she dumped me.” Again she found herself talking a lot about personal stuff to a relative stranger. Maybe she needed to vent a little, maybe it was the dry silence around them that seemed to draw it out yet again. Whatever.

“So, I cleverly deduce that between your ex-girlfriend being female, and the ‘wrong tree’ comment, that you might be a lesbian.”

“Hah… yeah, I might. Damn, that would explain a lot, really.”

“Cool. I am too, actually.” Jim said.

“Yeah yeah, all guys are lesbians trapped in a man’s body.” Cassidy had heard that joke more than a few times. Usually from idiots who thought they could score, or slightly less idiotic guys who thought they were just witty.

“Ack, no no, I mean I’m gay.”

“So, you’re not a lesbian trapped in a man’s body! Well look at the two of us, if we aren’t just the rainbow patrol here!”

“Yeah, what are the odds that we..” Jim’s voice seemed to wander into thought.

“Jim. Jimmy. Don’t go getting ideas. I’m no expert, but a gay man and a gay woman doesn’t-“

“Oh, shut it. I mean.. well, Cipriana makes the schedules up, right?”

“Yeah, and…?”

“I wonder if she paired us for a reason.”

“Why, cuz we’re both gay? She doesn’t know I am, I tried to tell her, and she stopped me.”

“Well duh, she doesn’t need to be told.”

“What? Why? Is it somehow in my record? It isn’t supposed to be… I just wanted to be out in the open, have my cards on the table and such.”

“Yeah yeah, I get ya. But no one told you about Cipriana’s gaydar?”

“Cipriana’s gay too?” Certainly a few images rushed through Cassidy’s head that she’d previously ignored. She was good at ignoring beauty, in this case because of rank and the odds that Cipriana was straight. It was a short lived little fantasy however.

“No no no. She’s straight, but she has amazing gaydar. 20/20, instant, infallible gaydar.

“What the hell was in those cookies, Jimbo?”

“I’m serious! She doesn’t talk about it, cuz well.. you’ve met her.” Jim was right, it wasn’t the kind of thing she’d bring up in casual conversation. “But it’s totally accurate. She probably had you pegged before you stepped off the chopper. Do me a favour though. If you plan to call her on it, let me come watch. Seeing Cipriana squirm is a rare sight.”

“You’re actually serious, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I told you.”

“Oooooookie then.”

“Now then.. we have to figure out why she paired us….”

~~~

In the evening when Cassidy got off shift, she headed straight for Cipriana, who was in her usual off-time position, sitting on her bed and nestled deep in some thick book.

Cassidy’s stride was quick and rigid, and she was heard coming all the way from the front door. She came to attention at the foot of Cipriana’s bed, and saluted. “Sir.”

Cipriana looked up, eyebrows raised. “Yes? Why the formality?”

“Sir, I need to discuss something with you, and I really think this is more of an official sort of thing. Could we go talk somewhere private?” Cassidy spoke in urgent but hushed tones, and wrung her hands with stress.

Cipriana placed a book mark, put the book aside, and stood. “Alright, Leftenent, let’s go for a walk.”

A few moments later, they were walking outside, the darkness of the evening compounding the silence. Cassidy walked with continual tension while Cipriana walked with her typical glide. “Well? What has you so upset?”

Cassidy waited until they got a few more metres, eyes darting around. She stopped, and turned to Cipriana. “Sir. It’s Jim. I mean- Leftenent ... whatever. I can’t work with him. I’m sorry, I can’t. You have to reassign me. Sir. Please. I know I should be more open minded, but I’m sorry. If I don’t have a choice, I’ll put up with it, but I think it would be better for all involved if I were re-assigned.”

Cipriana’s eyes were wide, and it took her a moment to respond- partly because Cassidy’s wave of rambling took a bit to digest. “Cassidy! What…. What happened?”

Cassidy clenched her jaw as she spoke, almost in a hiss. “Nothing happened.. it’s just that he mentioned he’s….“ she looked around, with a look akin to terror. “He’s gay!”

“……….what?”

“He is, he said so himself! I just can’t work around… that. I’m sorry! Please re-assign me!”

“Cassidy…! Well, for one thing, that shouldn’t be a factor in your duty, but I thought... of all people, you’d be alright with it because…”

Cassidy’s face turned to more of a curious expression. “Because…?”

“Well, after all, you-“

“I’m…?” Cassidy couldn’t help cracking a bit of a smile. She hoped Cipriana didn’t notice. “I’m what? Whatever the hell could I be that I would be especially open to working with someone who was gay of all things?”

With realization, a wave of serenity re-asserted itself around Cipriana, and the confusion and concern dissolved from her visage as if by magic. “I see. I’ve been had.”

Giggling erupted from behind a nearby corner, as Jim revealed himself. “Oh damn, I wish I’d recorded that!”

“Well then,” Cipriana said, with her composure now fully restored, “If you two insist on behaving like children, I suppose I have to punish you in kind.” She turned and began heading back towards the base.

“Huh?” Cassidy and Jim followed behind, still giggling a bit.

“No more cookies for either of you.”

“You can’t do that!” Jim burst out. “You don’t control the cookies!”

Cipriana countered calm but firm. “Alan’s little baking hobby is well outside regulation, and should you get any more cookies, I might just as well decide to shut him down, cookie-wise. Don’t make me punish the whole camp because of you two.”

“She’s kidding, right?”

“I bloody hope so, I need my cookies.”

Still walking slow and steady back to the base, she ignored their fears. “You two might be able to catch the tail end of Eliot’s retirement party if you hurry up. And yes, there are cookies.”

Jim started running, catching up with Cipriana. Cassidy followed suit, filling out the behaviour of children. Jim stopped to hold Cipriana by the shoulders, smiling wide. “You’re the best den mother ever!!”

He ran off, catching up to Cassidy. Cassidy told him as they ran, “Best den mother ever? That was really, really gay.”

“Uh... thanks?”

Cassidy stopped past the women’s barracks, and then made her way down the hall to the mess. Sure enough, most of the personnel were in attendance of Eliot’s little going away gathering, except those on duty now. It would be hard to call it a party as such, but it was an amicable gathering.

Cassidy hadn’t managed to meet Eliot before. It was kind of a meeting just to say goodbye. He was one of the older people she’d seen here, probably older than Marcus- mind you, it was difficult to guess Marcus’ age.

“I understand we’ll be taking a ride together tomorrow, Cassidy.” Eliot said with his greeting.

“Oh?”

“Oh right, you were on shift when the notice came in. Marcus said you had something to do at central. You’ll have to ask him for details.”

So she did. “Yupyup.” Marcus responded, “You remember that drunk lad you knocked over with his own gun? He’s got a little hearing over that.”

“Ah, I forgot.” Cassidy said, “And as the arresting officer, I’m invited. I don’t know if it’s really necessary, especially given the trip.”

“Nah nah, go, we’ll survive.” Marcus smirked, “Now go get some cookies before Jim finishes them off, or Cipriana has them banned.”

“Word travels fast around here.”

“It’s a small base!”

Cassidy followed his advice, munched cookies, and washed them down with beer. She was a little picky with beer, and this wasn’t a brand she liked, but you know what they say about free beer- it’s free.

Cipriana came along and said hello. “Cassidy, in all seriousness… I hope you didn’t take any umbrage to my knowing your orientation.”

“Umbrage? Who the heck says umbrage anyway? No, no, though I find the concept of you having 20/20 gaydar to be kind of-“

Cipriana interrupted unintentionally with an exasperated sigh.

“Well? Do you have 20/20 gaydar or not?”

“That’s what they say.” Cipriana mumbled.

“Well, have you ever been wrong?”

“……….”

“Well?”

Cipriana replied quietly. “Not that I am aware of.”

“Okay then! That established, why the heck did you stop me from telling you when I first arrived?”

“Because it shouldn’t be an issue you feel the need to ‘confess’ to your C.O. or anyone. If you were to tell me in regular conversation, that would be different. Say, Cassidy, I was wondering something. Have you ever had a crush on a straight woman?”

“What? Do you think I have a crush on you? You’re lovely and all, but I hadn’t-“

“No no no,” Cipriana giggled slightly. “I meant in your past experience. I could imagine that it would be a risk that anyone gay would run... to fall for someone that has no interest…”

“Isn’t that a risk for anyone, really?”

“Yes, but… the risk of rejection could hold a somewhat different…weight, perhaps?”

“Hm.” Cassidy pulled up a memory. “Yeah. There was this girl… hmm.. she was just... hypnotic.” She got a little lost for a moment. “Ohhh wow, talk about your hard crushes. Then I made the mistake of opening my mouth.”

“And she was disinterested.”

“More like disgusted. She was among the ‘being gay is fine as long as it’s not aimed at me’ crowd. And I guess I can understand that. Still… I felt like a freak. It hurt like hell. For quite a while.”

Cipriana put her hand on Cassidy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry to have made you dig that up, Cassidy.”

“Oh, no big deal.” Cassidy snapped out of the dip in mood. “What makes you ask, anyway?”

“No reason, really.” Cipriana smiled her soft smile, and wandered off towards the cookies.

~~~~~

:::C /09

~~~~~

Kirison was in another bar, from a list of bars that he had singled out as likely places to run into the Aguei Rights Activists. He’d have to remember not to use the word ‘extremists’. That might come off a tad on the judgmental side.

“Hey, I’m looking for the A.R.A.” He had said in many different bars, loud enough that he might be overheard by the right people. He was prepared for the idea that it might not turn into the most polite introductions, but you have to start somewhere.

Most people told him they didn’t know, and walked away. Some called him an idiot. One bar threw him out, and said a number of very impolite things about him, and the A.R.A., and threatened to call the cops.

Kirison was about ready to give up for the night, when his question hit the right set of ears. A man approached him who looked to be in his mid forties due to a life of heavy substance abuse, but was probably actually in his early thirties. His clothes were among the filthiest in the bar. He either hadn’t had a job in years, or had been working hard at a rough one all day. He mumbled so that Kirison had to strain to hear him over the general bar din.

“You think you’re gonna find guys like that in a place like this?” The man looked around. “This place is full of pussies, acting tough. You wanna see tough?”

Kirison raised an eyebrow.

“You do?” The man coughed. “You’re a tough guy are ya? I dunno, you look like another wannabe pussy to me!” He grinned a slightly evil looking grin, and chuckled to himself. He wasn’t Aguei, but at this point, a lead was a lead.

“You sound pretty sure of yourself,” Kirison said, “You know where I should be looking?”

The man leered around to see if anyone else was looking. “I know a place where some bad shit goes down. Fucked up shit.” He rummaged in his pocket, while Kirison wondered what filthy treasures might be in there. The man finally pulled his fist out of his pocket, and forcibly jammed it into Kirison’s pocket, dropping something in before removing his hand. He put his index finger to his lips and said “Shhh, never got that from me, right? Never saw me, right? Right?”

Kirison reached to his pocket to get the item, but the man grabbed his wrist to stop him. “Never saw me, right?”

“Yeah. Alright, alright, never saw you, never heard you, never smelt you.”

The man released Kirison’s wrist in a jostling motion. “Alright, tough guy. Don’t mention me there, either. And I wouldn’t let em see what I gave you either. And don’t take it out of your pocket in here.”

“Right, alright, you’re a ghost, got it.” Kirison patted his pocket. “Thanks, man.”

“Eugh. Don’t thank me. Fucked up shit going on there.” He shuffled off, disappearing between the other, comparatively regal patrons of the bar.

Kirison went into the parking lot and looked in his pocket. A small, filthy stub of paper. On one side in marker, it said “Ghripy - 1:30 - 250” and bore a small stamped image of a star. On the other side, someone had written an address in ballpoint pen.

He got into his car. It was 1:10am. He could get to the address in plenty of time. He had a date with “Ghripy.”

If the bar was in the bad part of town, where he heading now was the “fucked up shit” part of town. Kirison felt the need to be carrying a gun here, but it was too late for that. He drove between buildings that had gone without maintenance for untold years. Signage from stores that had been long abandoned had faded from the sun, broken windows outnumbered the unbroken. Some of the broken ones had blankets hanging across the opening, a likely sign of squatters.

He came to an intersection with traffic lights that no longer worked. He stopped just long enough to make sure no other traffic was coming across the other way. The fact was, he hadn’t seen another car in motion for a while. He crossed the intersection as soon as he could, feeling like a vulnerable target.

The address was a warehouse, in almost as bad of shape as the rest of the neighborhood. There were quite a few cars parked here, and loud excited voices coming from inside.

Kirison parked, but before he got out, a large man showed up at his drivers side window. Another one at the passenger side window.

The one at the driver’s side knocked on the glass and said loud enough for Kirison to hear, “You here to play, or what?”

“I… I’m here to see Ghripy.” Kirison said.

“Aw, that’s a shame.” The man said, his expression becoming slightly more friendly, “Ghripy was great, but he had to be ‘retired’ a week ago. You’ll have to go with someone else.”

Oh shit. What the hell was going on here? ‘Fucked up shit’, just as the guy from the bar had said, so it seemed. “Oh well,” Kirison said, getting out of his car. “It’s not like I was married to Ghripy. He was great though!”

“Go on in, man, there’s still at least an hour of action left.”

“Thanks.” Kirison left his car, somehow feeling confident that he would come back to it later to find it undisturbed with the two goons on patrol. Walking closer to the warehouse, he could hear the group better. They were cheering, as if a sporting event. He opened the thick wooden door, and was overcome with the stench of many flavours of smoke, underpinned with sawdust and drying blood.

About sixty men stood around, facing the middle. Kirison stepped closer, and heard faint scratching sounds between the cheers.

In the middle was a circle of sawdust, walled by half a metre of clear plastic. In the middle were two roosters, fighting. But not like roosters fight. They walked sideways around each other slowly, sizing each other up.

One decided to attack, lunging toward the other. The opponent sidestepped the attack, and jabbed its own beak into his foe’s shoulder as the spectators erupted into cheers.

Neither rooster squawked as one might expect. They both jumped back, and resumed pacing around each other, seemingly calculating their next move.

Kirison looked around outside of the plastic wall. There were three desks. At one sat a man with a small terminal, a lockbox, and a few piles of papers that looked very similar to the one he had in his pocket. Betting slips. This man was the referee or something.

The other two desks were on opposite sides of the ring. Each one had a man in front of a laptop, facing the ring. These two men also had a few cages around them with other roosters, and a few other compact pieces of luggage.

As Kirison tried to dissect the men with his eyes, the spectators erupted into cheers again. Kirison looked at the ring. One of the roosters had lost a wing. It was laying in the middle as the birds again resumed pacing around each other, as if nothing had happened.

The bird with the new injury was barely bleeding. Were the feathers soaking most of it up?

“Aw fuck, he’s not gonna last much longer.” One of the spectators bemoaned. Kirison stepped up beside him and quietly, but casually asked. “Where are they getting this tech? It’s like…”

The man glanced as Kirison, returning his attention to the fight as he answered. “They say it’s not nanites that keep em standing, but any idiot can see they work a lot like the zombies from Autar. I think they just deny it, cuz of all the new laws.”

Kirison raised his eyebrows and huffed. Flat denial doesn’t stop a conviction when some sap leaks this fight ring to the cops. He looked at the two men at their laptops, controlling the birds. They didn’t look like the type to develop this stuff on their own. He had heard about Jonathan Coll's 'trials' of his nanites with rats. It wasn't long before Coll had turned that technology loose on humans. Kirison was desperately curious about where this crowd got nanites and the controlling tech.

However, he was also desperate to distance himself from anything nanite related. What a setback… that prick Jonathan Coll kills a few million people with nanites, and the party’s over for everyone. Well, except for a pile of idiots using the tech to mutilate roosters.

He considered calling the cops on them. They could get dangerous, but… ahh, someone else was bound to report them. Even making an anonymous call might somehow link him to the mess, and he already had enough mess on his plate. Back to the reason he came here. He turned back to the spectator.

“Hey, do you guys get any A.R.A. in here?”

“What’s that stand for?” He jumped with a shout to cheer on a rooster.

“Aguei Rights Activists. You know, the guys that do those protest attacks?”

“Huh? Naw, I don’t think so. I dunno.” The guy was ignorant, but sounded honest.

Damn, the whole time since he got here, the same two roosters were still ripping at each other. A simple recipe can be really effective. He couldn’t bear to look at the mutilated, vicious birds.

Kirison scanned the spectators. There were only two Aguei here. An A.R.A. zealot isn’t about to hang out with a bunch of chicken-torturing white northers.

Still… where did these bozos get nanites, much less such complex ones? Someone’s bound to report them soon. Someone would. It wasn't his problem.

Kirison quietly backed away and left, the sounds of cheers behind him.

~~~

The next morning found Cassidy and Eliot boarding a chopper, destined for Yute Central. Once they were airborne, Eliot decided to start conversation. “So. Cassidy, was it? How do you like the post so far?”

“So far so good. The people are certainly friendly enough.”

“Yeah, can’t fault em there. All the same, I’m a little glad to be out of there.” Eliot had a somewhat grim tone that made Cassidy curious.

“Why’s that? Dry air getting to you?”

“No. It’s just... maybe call it burn-out, I don’t know, but now and then... It feels a little odd around there.”

“For a military installation? I’d have to agree there. First names all the time, for one thing.”

“It’s… it’s not just that. That’s no big deal. I guess it’s nothing really, I guess I’m just going to enjoy getting back to the rest of the world.”

Cassidy wrote it off at that, but a thought crossed her mind that provided opportunity for a dumb joke. “Is it the ghost of the statue? OoooOOOOoooh...”

Eliot coughed, and looked at Cassidy with a surprised expression. “Well…! Now that you mention it. It’s that, partly.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t take that seriously? Marcus really seemed to like the story and all..”

“Oh no, Cassidy. Make no mistake. It’s real. I have no cause to think it's bad or anything but it’s there.” He suddenly sounded more like an aging teacher than a soldier.

“What….?” Cassidy paused. “You’ve seen it? Must be one damn big ghost.”

Eliot sighed. “It’s not important. You’ll know what I mean eventually. You don’t see it. You feel it. Sometimes when you’re in front of the statue, sometimes other places.”

Cassidy tried not to sound belittling. “Well, Marcus said it likes our company.”

Eliot looked at the floor and nodded. “I suppose it does. It just… creeps me out. I kind of wish it would just speak up for itself.”

Unsure of what else to say about it, Cassidy left it at that. The rest of the flight went with very little conversation. They landed at Yute central, and started getting off.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye, Eliot!’

Eliot smirked. “Good luck, Leftenent! Don’t forget we’re back in the land of ranks, here!”

Cassidy strolled her old turf on the way to the office. It hadn’t been long since she’d been here, but somehow, it felt unfamiliar. Not so far as to say ‘hostile’…. But it didn’t feel right. Why was that?

She checked in to find out where this hearing was. “Canceled?”

“Yeah,” the clerk said, leafing across a couple sheets for the day’s activity. “He gave a guilty plea. They don’t need you anymore.”

“What... So I flew out here for nothing. Nobody figured to call me? Or my C.O.?”

“Sorry, Sir. I don’t know what happened, I just got on. Maybe the news reached the office while you were airborne?”

Cassidy huffed. Well, maybe she’d go see how McKinney was surviving without her.

“Sir?” The clerk said, grabbing Cassidy’s attention before she left, “You’re Leftenent Cassidy Stanton?”

“Yeah?” She found herself feeling a little defensive. Somehow, the clerk seemed... off. Something about him agitated her for some reason. The whole base was a little agitating. Were the walls always this annoying shade of grey?

“Well, if you can hang on a sec, I think I have something for you. It was going to be sent out to you in a couple days, but as long as you’re here…”

Cassidy nodded, dismissing the clerk to run off into the back room. In the back of her mind, Cassidy suspected the truth, but didn’t want to be right. So she stood there, denying the thought until the box was put down in front of her. As she signed for it, she stared at the return address. It was from Brandy.

It didn’t look like roses. She ripped the corner of the tape, and opened it up. It was filled with the stuff she used to have at Brandy’s. Clothes mostly. A bracelet she had given Brandy once. And a letter.

She couldn’t face this now. Part of her just wanted to burn the whole box, but serenity prevailed for the time being. She sighed, closed the box, and stowed it under her arm. Suck it up, go say hi to McKinney, and go home.

It was around shift change, so she felt she had a good chance catching him at his locker. As she walked there with her box full of rejection under her arm, the uncomfortable feel of the central base crept up on her again. She found McKinney easily enough.

“Hey, stranger.” Only as she said it, did she realize how true it felt. She’d never been super close to him, but now it seemed more so. McKinney looked over to Cassidy ready with a smile, but when they made eye contact, McKinney’s smile... just sort of died. He looked at her silently for a moment, as if he didn’t recognize her.

“Oh! Hi Stanton… how... how are you?”

“I’m fine.” Cassidy said. “How’s my replacement working out?”

“Fine… Stanton... you seem really… relaxed, I guess. I guess your new post is suiting you…?”

Relaxed? What reason did she have to be relaxed? Hell, a part of her… the part still thinking about the box she was carrying… would be quite willing to go hide in a corner and sob. Not that it was McKinney’s business. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess it is. Well…I better get back.”

“Sure. Um. See you round, Stanton.”

She left him there, both feeling like they had just talked to a stranger. She went to arrange a ride home, and found she had an hour to wait. Not bad, all things considered.

But she didn’t have anything else to do. She didn’t want to go talk to McKinney again. She sat with her box of rejection, and felt the walls closing in. The box reminded her of the telltale heart. It was an entity unto its own. It made her feel sort of queasy.

That damned letter inside. Why wasn’t she reading it? The same reason she never returned her calls. Because it never seemed to bring good news. As a form of pressure relief, she pulled out her terminal, and dialed Brandy. Again, it was blocked, but this time she was almost relieved. Not an intelligent way to avoid the letter; if Brandy had answered, it would have been far more difficult to talk to her than reading a letter.

The letter, and the “BLOCKED” notice wrapped around Cassidy’s throat. It was hard to breathe. This damned place wasn’t helping either. Damn it. Damn it, why won’t that chopper come get her? If it crashed and killed her, at least she wouldn’t be feeling this anymore.

Open the letter.

OPEN THE LETTER.

Open the damned letter. How bad could it be? How much more dumped can she be? Brandy could tell her what a useless girlfriend she was, how much Brandy felt neglected. Brandy could tell her she was worthless. No, worse. She felt that something truly horrible was waiting in that letter. That Brandy would have written something monumentally hurtful. Damaging. But if she didn’t open it, it would just torture her in suspense.

“Leftenent Stanton?” A deck crewman called to her. “Deck eight, chopper leaving as soon as you get on it.”

She crammed the thoughts down under the safe seal of distraction. The letter down, under the safe seal of clothes, and packing tape.

~~~~~

:::C /10

~~~~~

“What do you know about the A.R.A.?” Kirison said loudly to the bartender at yet another scummy bar, ale in hand.

“I dunno, Mack. They got their reasons, I guess. I watch the news, and-”

“Oh the news.” Kirison jumped in, now talking loudly to himself as the bartender went about his business, mostly ignoring Kirison. “The news tells us what they get fed! At best, you get half the story that way, but everyone knows that. The news is good for sports and weather, and half the time, they don’t even get that right.”

Kirison turned around on his stool, now kind of aiming his talk at the fellow beside him. He was paying attention out of boredom. What Kirison really wanted was to get a chance to look around to see if he was being heard by anyone interesting. “The A.R.A. needs to get off their butts, get organized, and do something that’s going to carve out some real respect. Fucking government.”

“Oh yeah?” the guy beside him asked, halfheartedly. “Like what? Another bomb scare?”

“Pffft. Meaningless attention getting. That’s all that is. It doesn’t make a point. It doesn’t cut to the real problems. Some of the crap I saw working for the feds just pisses all over any sovereignty they claim to kindly allow the Aguei to have. That kinda stuff needs a black eye. Getting in the news is nothing, that just makes them tighten the collar a little more.”

The guy next to him kind of shrugged, and focused on his beer. This wasn’t getting him anywhere. He turned to the bartender and settled up. This was another dry well. What the heck was he expecting? He pocketed his change and went to the washroom.

The drinks he’d been downing in various bars were catching up to him. He had taken some protective measures though. Nothing fancy. He would have modified his ‘insurance’ to act against the alcohol, but that seemed like pushing his luck.

He took the old fashioned precautions against the alcohol. A solid dinner, a handful of pretzels when he had the chance, not to mention a mouthful of olive oil beforehand. He wasn’t sure that would do anything, or if it was an urban myth. He had been glad that the oil didn’t make him throw up on the spot and took it as a good omen. After relieving the liquid bulk of his drinking, he left the washroom and headed out.

Two fellows stood in his path. They were Aguei. “Hey guys,” Kirison said, “If you want my wallet, you should have got me on my way in. It’s pretty empty now.”

The smaller of the two men tilted his head. “Hey, norther. You worked for the feds?”

Jackpot. It was on.

~~~~~

:::C /11

~~~~~

Cassidy cleared the helipad back at the Yute temple base. Another light dusting of sand swept across her, but lighter than the first time. It probably was just helicopter backwash after all. Her box of rejection felt a little lighter now, and the biting self-loathing she was developing at the central base was mellowing into a softer sorrow.

She got back to the barrack to find three of the others asleep there. She put the box down on her bunk and sat next to it. The flap rested open enough that the letter could peek up at Cassidy, who eyed it back with a mix of fear, dread, and resentment. Cassidy just watched it sit there for a bit, expressionless. From behind a cloud of fatigue, she felt slightly braver than earlier.

“Fine,” she thought to herself; to the letter, “let’s get this over with.” She slowly put her hand on the letter and pulled it forward. She opened it, and unfolded it with steady, measured movements. Hand written. Brandy had the most beautiful handwriting. The light was bad, but not so bad that Cassidy wanted to risk waking anyone by doing anything about it. “Okay, okay, stop making excuses, and read the damned thing.” She sighed.

Cass-

Where do I start? I met someone. There’s nothing going on, but I found myself wishing there was. It made me realize that I had felt like I had been single for a long time now. I thought for a while that it was just the long distance thing. That’s a big part of it, I’m sure. But it seems like you haven’t done anything to keep things going.

To be honest, in the last month, I had a theory that you’d already dumped me, and were just avoiding telling me. That would be really cruel. But I know you a little better than that. I think I can just chalk it up to you being…. Lazy? No. I don’t know. I’m just going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say you fell out of love with me, and didn’t know what to do about it. It took me a while to realize I’d fallen out of love with you, so maybe you didn’t know. Whatever.

You may have noticed I blocked your calls. Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but I was really ready for a clean break. I wish I could think of something more appropriate to say than ‘have a nice life’, but honestly, nothing else comes to mind. The good times were good, and the bad times… just kinda snuck in while we weren’t looking. While you weren’t calling.

have a nice life

-Brandy

Well. That was that, wasn’t it? Cassidy was split about it. Brandy hadn’t called her a bitch or anything. Might that have made it easier? She was just so polite about it. Cassidy pulled out her terminal, ready to dial again. If by miracle Brandy picked up, what could she say? “I read your letter. Nice handwriting.” She put the terminal away.

She tightened her fist around the letter, and punched down into the mattress. She needed a walk. Remembering the sleeping people again, she composed herself enough to avoid stomping until she got outside.

Without purpose or destination, she stormed off between ruins, letter still crammed in her fist. It wasn’t hate she was walking with. Maybe it was. But not towards Brandy. She stopped at a convenient place to lean, and rested against a handy chunk of stone ruin. Half formed thoughts fired around her skull, aimed nowhere, getting nowhere. During all of this non-thinking, Cipriana had found her and quietly walked over.

“Cassidy?” As usual, she spoke with only the required volume.

“Oh, hey Cip.” Cassidy’s voice was a little less controlled, but she reigned it in some.

Cipriana stepped a little closer. “Cassidy, what’s-“

Cassidy interrupted by holding out her fist, and opening it, letting the half-crumpled letter open like a flower blooming in her hand. “Have a read.”

Cipriana took it and flattened it out a bit. She turned to catch a little more moonlight to read by. A few moments passed, and Cipriana handed it back. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Cassidy said, taking the letter back. “It’s not news. It’s just the recap.” She re-crumpled it, and let it fall to the ground, “I took her for granted. I ignored her, really.”

“Then… why do you care?”

“I... I didn’t think about it. I guess I never thought she had noticed. I barely noticed. I never wanted to hurt her. I’d be perfectly happy if we were still a couple.”

“If you loved her, why did you ignore her?”

“I think I loved her still. I mean.. I never saw her, but as long as she was out there, and we hadn’t broken up..”

“Then you weren’t alone.”

“Yeah.” Cassidy slumped, siding down the wall until she was in a crouched position. She could have sworn that the crumpled letter had reached up and dragged her down. “But this thing..”

“Last nail in the coffin?”

“That came a while ago. Maybe I hammered it. This is the last shovel of dirt.”

Cipriana sighed. “Go to bed. Calvert’s coming to inspect tomorrow.”

“Yeah, in a bit. Go on ahead.”

“Cipriana gave Cassidy a tired stare. “No, Cassidy. Now. You don’t need a cry, you need sleep. I could make it an order.”

Cassidy smirked, and patted Cipriana’s shoulder. “Kay.”

~~~

The next day, everyone not at a station during the morning shift were preparing for inspection.

“Really, it’s gonna be more of a visit.” Marcus said to Cassidy while she shined her boots. “I don’t think the Colonel’s going to be bouncing quarters off our beds or anything. He just hasn’t been here before, and since we are under his jurisdiction,”

“Yeah. He’s new in his position, he’s got to go show his face around.” Cassidy gave a last flair of a buff on the toe of her boot, and started putting it on. “So, what, we’re going to make formation, salute, then you take him on a tour?”

“Something like that. You wanna be my assistant in the tour?”

“Me?” Cassidy pointed at herself. “I mean, I guess, Sir. I don’t really see why though.”

“You just answered my question by calling me ‘Sir’. Colonel Calvert is apt to show up feeling very official. I’m not gonna hide how casual we are around here, but it might help him to have someone around who… who has the perspective of someone who recently came from his base.”

“I’ll be translating from ‘casual’ to ‘brass’?”

“Good way of putting it. His chopper’s due in just under an hour. Meet me at the pad in about half an hour.”

“Yes Sir, Major Douglas Sir!” Cassidy exaggerated the full military protocol, with the stiffest posture she could summon, and the snappiest salute. “Sir! Shall I alert Alan to have cookies ready for the Colonel? Sir!”

Marcus snickered. “Already taken care of, Leftenent. And finish tying your boot, before I toss ya in the stockade!”

~~~

When the time came, Cassidy headed towards the helipad, passing the twenty or so troops there for the customary inspection. “Get in formation!” Wanda called at her.

“Nuh uh, hosers!” Cassidy answered, directed more of less at everyone. “Marcus wants me to help play tour-guide!”

“Teacher’s pet!” Wanda teased.

Cassidy laughed her off, and continued on her way. It was moments like that which made her glad she came here. Not necessarily because it was so casual, but also because the whole place was like a fresh start for her, devoid of reminders of Brandy. Remembering the letter, which by now may have blown clear across the desert, she felt that ugly little pang return, but these feelings were getting easier to get away from. Bit by bit. Maybe the letter was a necessary step in that direction.

She approached the pad where Marcus and Cipriana were chatting idly, facing the horizon. Cipriana had tied back her hair in order to be a little more regulation. It seemed criminal that her hair should have to be imprisoned. It seemed to weaken her aura of serenity somewhat.

Cassidy announced herself. “Hey guys. I mean, Sir! Reporting for duty, Sir!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Marcus moaned, “you don’t have to lay it on so thick. No yelling. And cut those ‘Sir’s by fifty percent or so.”

Cassidy stood down the lineup from Cipriana, and rocked forward and back on her heels. “Oki-lee-doki-lee then, Sir.”

“That’s better.”

“Cassidy.. ah, perhaps I should say Leftenent,” Cipriana’s voice maintained it’s constant easing tone. “Have you met the Colonel before?”

“Not really. I was in formation when he came to Yute central, and I saw him up close, but I didn’t have cause to speak with him.”

Marcus made a sound, and pointed his chin towards an approaching blur in the sky. “Alright then, ladies. Attention, I guess.” The three of them stood at attention, looking darn near military. The helicopter made its way in and settled softly on the pad. The engines could already be heard to be powering down when the door opened.

Two soldiers popped out first and stood on either side of the doorway. The full-brass uniformed Colonel emerged soon after and looked around the terrain, taking in the scenery just in time for a dust-up of sand. He shielded his eyes, and moments later when the sand died down, he put his arm back down, and there was Marcus, smiling and saluting.

“Welcome to Yute Temple base, Sir!” Marcus said, loud enough to be heard over the slowing chopper blades.

The Colonel returned the salute, and put out his hand for a shake. “Thank you Major. Good to be here.”

Marcus turned to introduce Cassidy and Cipriana. “Colonel, this here’s my right hand, Captain Reichenbach.”

Cipriana saluted. Not a regulation snap salute, but it was hard to imagine Cipriana going anything without some degree of ‘flow’. “Sir.” She said. The Colonel saluted back, and Marcus turned to Cassidy. “This is Leftenent Stanton. If you remember, she’s the one I recently stole from you.”

Cassidy snapped her salute, with a “Sir!”

“Cassidy,” Marcus said, breaking protocol. “Permission to speak freely. Please explain to the Colonel why you’re here, instead of in the drill formation.”

Still in full attention stance, Cassidy proceeded. “Colonel, Sir! Protocol around the temple base is extremely casual, and Marc- uh, Major Douglas suggested that I should be here to… uh Major? Why exactly was it again?”

“At ease, Leftenent.” The Colonel chuckled. “I get the idea. So, Leftenent, you don’t find the lax protocol to be inappropriate?”

Cassidy shrugged. “The nature of the post is pretty relaxed, Sir. Protocol or not, everyone here seems to respect each other, and things seem to flow smoothly. Sir.”

The Colonel took a relaxed look at the three of them, and glanced towards the base. “I suppose that can work in a small unit like this.” He turned to Marcus. “What’s next, Major?”

A short walk later with the Colonel’s two escorts trailing behind, they were at the drill formation, which was already at attention. “You all clean up pretty good when you wanna! Darn near looks like a military operation around here.” Marcus said to them. “Colonel, care to inspect?”

Prompted primarily by routine, the Colonel walked along the front row, giving a casual look at the troops he passed, with Marcus at his side. Cipriana and Cassidy stood at ease at the front, near the Colonel’s escorts. “Looks plenty good to me, Major.” The Colonel said when he reached the end of the front row. “That’s enough.”

“Just as well. I don’t think anyone in the back row has seen deodorant in a week. Biological hazard.” Marcus turned to the drill formation, and casually said “Okay, all of ya, dismissed. Scram.”

The group fell apart, most of them heading back into the base. “That’s how orders are usually given around here?” The Colonel asked.

“Yeah. Yelling gets the ghost upset. We’re his guests here after all.” Marcus gestured towards the temple.

“The gh-“ The Colonel stopped himself. “Oh. Heh heh. How about we head over there, and check out the main attraction?”

“Sure thing, that was my next suggestion.”

Cipriana stepped up. “Marcus, permission to attend to duties inside?”

“Yep, sure, go on.”

Cassidy thought that Cipriana made for a great reason to stay casual. It was hard to imagine Cip barking orders, or doing anything… un-Cipriana-like. As Cipriana walked off she let her hair loose, much to Cassidy’s quiet satisfaction. That was much better.

The Colonel and Marcus walked on with Cassidy directly behind, and the two escorts following behind. Marcus waved for Cassidy to walk beside him. “Say, Leftenent Cassidy, you were back at Yute Central yesterday. Saw some old chums?”

“Yeah, saw my old patrol partner.” Her voice trailed off a bit, raising Marcus’ curiosity. “What’s wrong? You sound like I just brought up an ex-boy, er, girlfriend or something.”

Cassidy gave a soft chuckle. “Naw, nothing like that. Things just felt.. different than I remember. My ex partner for example.. it was almost like… like we didn’t know each other.”

“Hm.” Marcus lowered his head a bit as they continued walking. “I guess it’s true what they say sometimes. Ya just can’t go back home anymore.”

The Colonel was mainly looking at the temple as they got closer, but was not tuned out entirely. “Leftenent Stanton, you haven’t been gone from central long, have you?”

“Not long at all, Sir.”

“Colonel,” Marcus jumped in, “I think Cassidy’s suffering a little from the… Well.. I wouldn’t say bias… but a lot of troops outside this base have a certain… perception of us at the temple base.”

Cassidy wondered why, but it was the Colonel who asked. “What perception is that?”

Marcus sighed. “Hard to put a finger on. Maybe they think the temple is creepy, or maybe a waste of personnel. Maybe it’s because we’re noncoms. Maybe it’s a mix of all that. Anyone with that attitude can go sit on it as far as I’m concerned. I’m darn proud of what we do here, and what it shows about the government’s relationship with the Aguei.”

The Colonel nodded solemnly. “Well put. Maybe if more people were allowed to come here, they might understand.” He gestured at the temple as they neared the bottom step. “This... This is hard to write off as trivial, at any rate.”

They climbed the first set of stairs, and stood before the gap in the floor, looking across to the upper stairs. The Colonel looked at the doorway on either side. “I can understand this sort of gap as a defence… force any intruders to the smaller doorways.. but why not just have a wall here?”

Marcus shrugged. “You’d have to talk to the guy that built it. Got a time machine? If you ask me, he just likes to let the breeze flow.”

The Colonel smirked at how Marcus liked to refer to the statue and its ‘ghost’. It definitely gave Marcus character. They walked over to the left door, to find two guards at full attention. These troops made the drill formation look like a high school photo shoot. The same uniform, kept to the same specifications, but somehow different being on duty at a temple post. And not just the spear. “Proud to be at your post, soldier?” The Colonel asked.

“Yes, Sir.” Came the reply. Soft, but confident. Casual, but dignified.

“This is our duty, Sir.” Marcus added with quiet pride. “This is why we’re here.” His tone let the Colonel know... and reinforced in Cassidy that yes, this was important. The Colonel nodded at the guard and continued in. It felt a little like being in church. It felt disrespectful to behave otherwise.

They climbed the inner stairs and passed the guards at the inner door. “Good lord.” The Colonel said quietly. “That thing’s incredible.” The statue rested as it ever did, staring forward majestically. Its incredible craftsmanship sometimes, like today, could almost convince you that it had a twinkle in its eye. “Is it carved from one piece of stone? Jesus, No way. Carrying such a block.. heck, even it’s existence would be…it's formed from sections, right? You could carve a decent sized house out of it!”

“Heheh, no Colonel. As far as anyone’s been able to see, it’s all one piece. Some people think it was found here, and the temple built around it.” Marcus has a twinkle in his eye as well. He was definitely fond of it. Cassidy could understand that. Sure, it was a huge horned dog, but like many dogs, it wore an expression of calm and content. “Also, Colonel, he would not like to be carved into a house.”

The Colonel chuckled and stepped closer, trying to get a closer look up into the statue’s mouth. “I suppose he wouldn’t. Probably wouldn’t let anyone get away with that, hm?”

“Probably not.”

~~~~~

:::C /12

~~~~~

“We’re here” The Aguei driver told Kirison and the other Aguei man. The rattling old beige van finally stopped. It had been a long ride from the bar. The sun was well into its crawl across the sky.

Kirison was tired, but didn’t feel confident enough to sleep on the way. He considered sleep seriously; after all, if they were going to hurt him, they had plenty of chance already. But this was not the time to think like that. Put the drunk act behind now, it was time to start seeming like he knew things. It was time to start taking control, or at least getting the right position to have authority over these people. Falling asleep in the back of a van wasn’t going to present that image of authority.

The driver got out and opened the sliding side door of the van. “Come on, then.” Kirison stepped out with the other man directly behind him. They were in the middle of nowhere, on the dry flats, where sand often blew over from the open desert. The edge of the sandbox. A few hundred kilometres in the other direction would lead to actual greenery.

Not far away was what looked like the foundation to a house. It was hard to tell if the house itself had long ago burnt down, or if this was just a crude ‘dugout’ home. Sand and dirt covered much of the cement floor, making it hard to guess the actual size of the foundation. With a little effort, it could be very well concealed.

There was a hatch on it, laying flat. The driver went over to it, and stomped on it twice, then once more. A knock, then two more came back up. Then the man repeated his earlier stomps, and got off. The hatch opened a couple centimetres to allow the driver a place to grab the edge and open it up. A staircase awaited below. “Alright, in you go.”

Kirison walked down the stairs into the relative darkness. He passed a crude mechanism of some sort. He couldn’t tell what it was exactly, but it looked like a trap for unwelcome guests. The man stationed next to it probably ‘disarmed’ it before opening the hatch for them. The ‘doorman’ looked at him with stern distrust, and then turned his attention to the driver and his friend, nodding at them. “This is him? Eh?” The doorman had one of the most guttural Aguei accents Kirison had ever heard. Not that it was just the accent… he sounded like a person who had been through a lot. The kind of person you’d expect to find in a hole, hiding behind a booby trap. “I heard you coming. Elder knows you’re here.”

The driver nodded back. “Come on, Samuel.” Samuel was the name Kirison had made up to use with these people. The two of them walked through the main room. To say it lacked a feminine touch would be a gross understatement. It had a concrete floor and walls, but could bed a dozen men if need be. A couple terminals and the lights were the only other features of the room besides mattresses.

Kirison was led into a smaller room, the driver following. This smaller room was a mix of two themes. One was traditionalist Aguei, with wall hangings and a rug that depicted various Aguei myths. The other theme was that of a cheap, cheap office, punctuated with a flimsy metal office desk.

Behind this desk was an Aguei man of indeterminate age. He was weathered, but looked fit. Lean, but fit. He sort of looked like an ‘upgrade’ from the doorman. While the doorman was the type to hide behind a rock, this man behind the desk would be the one standing on that rock.

“Elder Horad,” the driver said, “this is Samuel.” This was not any kind of Elder that was recognized officially by the Aguei nation. This man was a thin skin stretched over too much hate. Even Kirison could sense this, and began to fear for his life in a way that he hadn’t before. Don’t tremble. Don’t tremble.

“Fine.” Horad grumbled, “You can go.”

The driver turned to the door, and gave a quiet suggestion to Kirison as he passed. “Show respect, norther...”

Horad stared at Kirison for a moment, then gestured for him to sit. Kirison walked around the ornate rug, and sat. “Call me crazy. But this is the A.R.A., isn’t it?” Of course it was, but it’s best not to look too eager.

Horad sighed. “We are people concerned with maintaining traditional values of the Aguei nation.” Kirison nodded solemnly. Or at least what he thought would be perceived as solemnly. Don’t tremble.

“So. Tell me, Samuel.” Horad sat back with an examining gaze. “Why is it, that a norther seems so interested in what we should do? In our concerns?” One of the men from the van must have communicated his ‘drunk rant’ at some point.

“Norther or Aguei. A good man knows wrong when he sees it. If his eyes are not clouded by the flood of lies that is always fed to us.” Kirison was starting to have fun again. A little. Must be careful not to overdo it.

“What wrongs? What lies do you see past?”

“Elder Horad. Have you seen the statue in the Yute temple?”

Horad smirked slightly, and a thin but rigid silence fell between them. The smirk seemed to tell Kirison that Horad had indeed seen it. It was imaginable that Horad had been there for any number of reasons. Maybe he had been a member of the guard there at some time? That didn’t seem right. Maybe he snuck in once? Surely he was never a member of the Grand Elder’s entourage. But if that were the case, it could open up other theories as to why he called himself an Elder.

“Have you seen it?” Horad asked.

After a pause, Kirison answered. “No. But I have seen government papers dealing with it.” That much was honest. “You’re familiar with the government’s attitude towards Aguei folklore?” That was close, he almost called them myths.

“The government smiles and nods, paying the Aguei beliefs polite lip service, while laughing to themselves about how ridiculous we all are.” This came out of Horad very smoothly. It was a statement he’d spoken before.

“Hrm. That is not true.” Kirison said, stroking his jaw thoughtfully, “Not entirely. Not on all levels of the government, at any rate.” He looked up to Horad to make sure he had his attention. He did. “By any chance, do you know the story behind the statue itself?” No one did. And if Horad did, or thought he did, it could foul up his whole plan.

“As much as anyone else. I do believe it was built by our ancestors.”

Aha. Bingo. “Yes, but more than that. It is the vessel of your ancestors. It is the symbol of all the Aguei who have passed on.”

“Where do you hear this?”

“It’s been covered up for generations! All of it stuffed neatly in a filing cabinet! After I read it all, they searched me up down, inside and out to make sure I wasn’t carrying anything out!” he considered pausing to let it sink in, but decided it was time for an emotional rant. He stood, leaning on the desk with one hand, using his other to point at his own head. “But they can’t erase this! They can’t erase what I know, and what I know to be right!” he beat his fist on his chest once for drama. “They can’t erase what’s right! They can’t!”

Elder Horad stared up at Kirison and his red face. “So they guard it to keep people out?”

Kirison collapsed back in his chair. Oh, there had better be an Oscar in this for him. “No, no, you think they care if someone takes a few snapshots? They’re not guarding to keep people out, they’re keeping the strength of the Aguei in. In that room, bound to that statue, unable to be free!”

Kirison leaned forward, head in his hands. “I never used to believe this stuff. But when I saw those papers. You know the Aguei are strong! Do you think they’re second class citizens because of ‘economic’ factors? You don’t think, that if the playing field were even, the Aguei would truly become the equals of anyone else?” He was rambling a bit, but that was good. It sounded unrehearsed this way. “Maybe I’m a traitor for saying these things, but…”

Horad had picked out enough of the rant. “The strength of the Aguei? Is being held in the temple?”

~~~~~

:::C /13

~~~~~

Jim and Cassidy were nearing the end of an overnight watch. The sun had a firm grip on the edge of the sky, and washed across the front doorways with promise of another lazy day. Cassidy noticed Jim craning his neck now and then towards the base.

“Expecting a delivery?” Cassidy asked.

“Hmm?” His response was a tad automatic. He wasn’t really listening.

Cassidy watched him, his eyes unmoving from the base. “Gonna be a hot day, ya think?”

“Yeah.”

“Giant monkeys are playing hockey beside the walrus vats today. You going?”

“Uh huh.”

“Jim?”

“Yuh-huh?”

“Karl’s behind you.”

Jim woke up and jumped, looking behind him. “What? No he isn’t. What are you taking about?”

Cassidy chuckled. “Ohhhh poor Jimmy’s got it bad.”

“Jeez, shut up. Is it that obvious?”

“Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that your thoughtfulness about cookie deliveries coincided with Karl’s shifts, and you always ended up talking to him for quite a while.”

“So…?” Jim played it coy, despite his secret being blown. “He’s a nice fella! Karl’s my chum!”

“Yuh-huh. Positively cookie-worthy, hmmm?”

“Yes. Isn’t he? Would you deny Karl his fair share of cookies?”

“I think you’re after his cookies, Jim.”

“Oh shut up, Cass.”

“Poor, poor Jim. He wants hot Karl’s cookies.” Cassidy couldn’t help smiling. Partly because a crush was always cute, and partly because it was fun to jerk Jim’s chain.

Jim coughed. “Don’t call him that!”

“What? Hot Karl? OOOOooooh! Hot, hot Karl!”

“JEEEZES, seriously! Do you know what a hot Karl is?” Jim looked mortified, more than Cassidy expected.

“Um…No?”

Jim sighed, shaking his head, slowly. “Do us both a favour, and go look it up before you use that phrase again.”

They stood silently for a bit, Cassidy feeling like she was in trouble somehow. Whatever. “You want his cookies.”

“Shut up.”

“Ya do.”

“Yeah, well, shut up about it for two seconds, here he comes.”

The morning shift was approaching, and sure enough, Karl was among them. As he and his watch partner passed them by, Cassidy couldn’t resist.

“Hey Karl.”

Jim’s eyes widened with horror, rage and fear, but he remained silent.

“Hey.” Karl replied, slowing a bit. “Oh hey, Jim. Are you okay?”

“Don’t worry about Jim.” Cassidy said, feeling a little merciful. A little. “He’s just feeling a bit hot. I’m sure once he gets off, he’ll get some cookies, and everything will be fine.”

Jim shook his head slowly, and gripped his spear just a bit tighter. “Cass, you’re an idiot.”

“Well, you two have a good one.” Karl continued on to the upper doorway as Cassidy and Jim’s replacements stepped up. Jim and Cassidy were relived, and they headed towards the base, unintentionally keeping a bit of a distance from the other four people that had just gotten off shift. Jim tried like heck not to make eye contact with Cassidy, lest he provoke further teasing from her.

“So, um…” Cassidy looked around to make sure she could speak freely, if not too loud. “Do you even know if he’s…?”

“I don’t know…” Jim sounded more wistful now, the teasing forgotten, “but I kind of have a hunch. A good feeling. When we talk, well, I get something from him.”

Cassidy smirked, and tried not to giggle. She looked down, trying to ignore all the jokes she could make about a ‘good feeling’, and ‘getting something’ from him. “Well, that sounds promising.” Jim crossed his fingers.

Cassidy liked getting back to the base in the morning after an overnight watch. Being free to be lazy and sleep on a nice morning was pretty darn relaxing. The early morning had a quiet mood to it. Day shift had just left of course, leaving a small vacuum of activity. Today however, Cassidy stepped into the barrack to find something new.

A new member of the team was setting up her bunk next to Cassidy’s.

The newbie was maybe a year or two younger than Cassidy. Her hair was just off the shoulder, and a deep chestnut brown. She had brilliant green eyes. Standard issue sunglasses sat on her head with a tether dangling loose. Cassidy’s eyes were drawn down to her civilian boots, black with blue trim, but her gaze took a bit of a detour at her regulation khaki shorts. Those shorts had an excruciatingly perfect pair of thighs growing out of them.

“Hello, Cassidy.” Cipriana, seated across the aisle on her own bunk, snapped Cassidy back to earth. Cipriana's face almost betrayed a bit of a smirk, having caught Cassidy staring at the newcomer.

“I...? Hi. Hi Cip. –riana. Uh, how’s it going?”

No longer betraying her bemusement outwardly, Cipriana made introductions. “Cassidy, meet Sergeant Cheryl Lowe. Cheryl, this is Leftenent Cassidy Stanton.”

Cheryl turned to greet Cassidy, and put her hand out to shake. Cassidy almost saluted. Don’t salute, stupid, she’s lower rank! Are you staring again? Don’t! Take her hand and shake it! Act normal, dammit! Wake up!

“Nice to meet you.” Cheryl said.

Ooh, nice voice too. And nice hand. Okay, let go of her hand. Damn. Act normal! Cassidy categorized Cheryl in her mind as a ‘cute’ type. That wasn’t generally her type, but Cheryl wasn’t a peppy annoying cute. Cassidy had a general rule not to ogle. It made things awkward. Especially when they turned out to be straight or something disappointing like that. Calm down. Act normal. Are you breathing harder? Stop it. Stop over-thinking it, and say something.

“Nice boots.” What the heck was that?! Nice boots? Okay for the next cheesy pickup line, ask her if it hurt when she fell from heaven!

Cheryl looked down at her civilian boots. “Oh, sorry, I’m waiting to get some new regulation ones. My old ones were toast. I didn’t think it would be a big deal, since I’m not on duty right now.”

“No! No no, I was serious. They’re cool. I’m going to…Uh, get breakfast.” Yes, just get out of there before you make a further ass of yourself. She turned to leave, but not before Cipriana spoke up.

“I hope you don’t mind, I suggested she take the bunk next to you, since you’re both relatively new here, you might have lots to talk about.”

Cassidy cocked her head. “Kay!” she said in a voice that came out sounding a little frustrated. This was karmic. Cosmic justice for teasing Jim. Snap out of it. She’s not that cute. Think ugly. Take one last glance before you go. Think ugly. Bleh. Look at her once more then go.

Ugly like a box of kittens! Just get out!

Cheryl turned to Cipriana after Cassidy left. “Do you think she wants me to move?”

Cipriana only smiled softly, and shook her head.

Cassidy walked into the mess, and saw Jim attacking a bowl of corn flakes. She grabbed a cookie and sat across from him. With an intense expression of disbelief, she held the cookie out between them. “Eh?”

Jim chewed, looking suspicious of Cassidy’s meaning. He swallowed, and pointed his spoon at her casually. “Shut up with the cookies.”

“Nuh-uh. Eh, no. I don’t care about your cookies. What about my cookies?”

Jim burst into a stifled chuckle. “I’m not interested in your cookies.”

“What do you know about this new girl that arrived last night?” Before Jim had opportunity to respond, she answered herself. “Right. Nothing. You were on shift with me when she arrived, you know less than me.”

“Yeah. I’m feeling kind of clueless right about now. Our new person’s here, and it’s a she?”

Cassidy stuffed a bite of cookie into her face, and chewed, nodding a sharp, small nod, eyes wide.

Jim swallowed another spoonful of corn flakes. “And this is a problem?” He felt that the teaser was about to become the tease-ee.

“Yes. No. Absolutely. Not. I think.”

Jim smirked, and looked around, lowering his voice. “Could she be… hot?”

Maintaining her grievous, intense expression, she tossed a cookie crumb at Jim, and nodded. The crumb bounced off Jim’s head, and landed in his bowl.

“Nice.” He ate it along with more flakes. “And you’re this hot and bothered?”

“I’m disciplined dammit. That’s half of what upsets me.” She finished her cookie, and darted off to get a couple more, and returned in roughly a second.

“You’re bothered because she bothers you?”

“Yes. There’s professionalism to be considered. I can’t be drooling all over a co-worker. That was the great thing about dating a civilian, I could be as unprofessional with her as I wanted.”

“And that turned out so well.”

Cassidy grunted. This was the first time Brandy crossed her mind in a while, and it was thankfully painless. This only brought up another negative thought. “I don’t want to be playing rebound on the first cute thing that gets in my way, either. She’s probably straight anyway, odds are.”

“If you were going to rebound blindly on someone, you’ve had plenty of chance to do that already.”

True, true. Cipriana was surely a nice eyeful. “Okay, well, there’s still the professionalism aspect.”

“Want the male solution to getting her out of your head?”

Cassidy bore a decidedly skeptical expression. “Huh?”

Jim leaned in like he was gong to impart a great trade secret. “Get yourself some porn, and work off some tension. Reduce this girl’s attractiveness to something separate from reality, separate from the person, and just look at her as a person who happens to have porn for a body.”

Cassidy stared a stern look into Jim’s eyes. “That’s idiotic.”

“Oh- Hi, Cassidy!” Cheryl approached from behind. Cassidy’s expression turned to that of a deer in headlights at the sound of Cheryl’s voice.

Jim smiled. “Oh! You must be the new one! Cassidy, introduce us, will you?”

Cassidy shot Jim a cold glance, then put on a cordial face. “Cheryl, Jim. Jim? Cheryl.” That wasn’t so hard. Have a little look, it’s natural to look at someone when you talk to them. Just don’t stare. The initial impact had worn off. It didn’t stop Cheryl from being a tiny bit mesmerizing though. Cassidy sighed deeply. “I think I’m going to take a bit of that advice Jim. I’m going to go have a shower.” Cassidy stood, and nodded in a friendly way to Cheryl. As she backed away from Jim, she made the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture, holding a cookie and a half in her hand. He’d better not say anything.

Cheryl sat down across from Jim. “She feelin’ alright?”

Jim gave a very small chuckle. “Nothing some cookies can’t solve.”

“Are you and her…?”

“Heh. No, We’re not romantically compatible in the slightest. She’s my watch partner though. She’s fun. But feeling particularly squirrelly this morning.

The shower cooled Cassidy’s head significantly. Staring at water dribble off your face and onto the tile for a while was always meditative. One of those little silly aeki lizards wandered into the stall from under the partition, and tried to dodge droplets, ending up on the wall.

A good honest little crush might be just what Cassidy needed right now. Brandy wasn’t bothering her much now. A little harmless, pointless crush could be a good distraction. Even if it went nowhere. A cleansing of the palette as it were. The lizard decided that the lower wall was still under too much threat of droplets, and wiggled its way up half a metre or so.

She can have a crush and keep it to herself, look a little bit, and still remain professional and friendly. She leaned down to look the lizard in the eye.

“She’s just cute, huh? I can handle that.”

Cassidy walked back into the barrack in shorts and a tank for sleeping in. She toweled her hair, with her hat hanging off her pinky. Cheryl was laying on her own bunk, writing into a little book, and Cassidy found herself unconsciously walking slowly, giving her time to look at Cheryl longer. She dried her hair with vigor, as if the flurry of hair and terrycloth would hide her eyes, in case Cheryl looked up. Damn those shorts of hers.

“Oh, Cassidy,” Cheryl suddenly said, “Where are the towels, anyway? I really need a shower. I got kind of dusted by sand when I got here.” Oh great, put that image in her head now. First the shorts, now she wants a shower. Fine, fine, behave. Don’t be such a freak.

Cassidy put on her hat under the towel, and tied her hair back like she usually did, then tossed the towel at the hamper. She pointed towards the supply closet. “Just inside the door there, on the right side. Gotta kind of peek around the edge.”

“Thanks.” Cheryl smiled politely, and then went back to her writing.

“Taking notes?” Cassidy said, settling into bed.

“Hm?” Cheryl looked at Cassidy, then back at her little book. “Oh. Hm.” She sounded like she had been caught in a guilty pleasure. “Just my diary. I know, I know, I’m a little old for a diary, but…”

“Nah, that’s cool. I guess it’s a good way to decompress your thoughts.”

Cheryl nodded. “Well put. It’s... therapeutic.”

“And cute.” Cassidy said, with a tone that almost sounded grumpy.

Cheryl closed her diary and held it up to look at. “What’s so cute about it?”

Cassidy stifled a soft laugh, and rolled over to go to sleep. “Nevvvvvermind.”

Cheryl shrugged it off, and went back to writing for a moment. “You wear that hat when you sleep?”

Cassidy smiled contentedly, wide enough that Cheryl could tell even though Cassidy had her back turned. “Yup. It’s my hat.” The words were laced with affection for her headwear.

“Cute.” Cheryl said. “Is it your teddy bear?”

“You don’t wear a teddy bear on your head all day.” Cassidy giggled a little. “Imagine if people did? Could you just see drill formation with everyone with a teddy bear on their head?”

~~~

Kirison was back home. After taking a blood sample to check on his ‘insurance policy’ he got to work formulating some toys. Toys to assist Elder Horad and his little militia in the quest against those ‘occupying’ the Yute temple, and holding back the ‘strength of the Aguei’.

Since Kirison had no intent on going there himself, he needed to be able to send a very specialized, tiny device. While he was at it, he might be able to supply a tactical advantage.

The problem was that his equipment would blatantly give away that the spirit thing was a huge load of B.S.. So, it was arts and crafts time. A convincingly designed trinket would be able to carry the nanites, but the next decision was what manner of Aguei charm would be convincing.

He popped onto the net, looking at various Aguei crafts. Hmm. Wood looked like an ideal medium. The porous nature of the grain would give ample elbow room for nanites to work without making any outwardly visible marks. Yup yup, wood was the trick.

But what design? A figure? He didn't have the skill to carve something like that. Something more abstract. Heck, it didn’t even have to look entirely accurate. After all, this item was going to be ‘magic’, capable of things that even Horad hadn’t considered. Such a token would almost be expected to look unique. Ha. Yes. It was coming together.

~~~~~

:::C /14

~~~~~

Cassidy awoke. Her eyes opened gradually, and she found herself looking across to Cheryl’s bunk. Cheryl was sleeping. And adorable. Cassidy scorned herself silently and sat up. Ahead of her was Cipriana’s bunk, and she was in it, meditating, with the butterfly design behind her on the wall as if it were supervising. She opened her eyes. “Good morning, Cassidy.”

Technically it was afternoon. Cipriana’s presence told Cassidy as much, since it meant morning watch was over. “Hey Cip” Cassidy said groggily. She looked back at Cheryl for a moment, and started putting herself together.

Cipriana gently nodded towards Cheryl, and looked to Cassidy. “Is that going to be a problem for you?”

Cassidy chuckled softly. Cipriana didn’t miss a thing. “Nah.” She stretched. “I’ll soldier through. If I can’t be professional, it’s my problem.” Cipriana only commented with one of her soft smiles, and then closed her eyes, returning to meditation.

Cassidy cleaned up, and hit the mess to grab a muffin and a shot of OJ. Alan was there, and mentioned that he’d be doing a fresh load of cookies later on, but told Cassidy to keep it under her hat, and not to tell the ‘stupid greedy apes’. She munched her little breakfast, and pecked around the net on her terminal a bit.

Karl passed by, and it reminded her that she had to look up 'hot Karl'. Her discovery almost caused her to spit a mouthful of muffin.

“Huh?” Alan asked. Cassidy was still forcing down a case of the giggles, and just waved Alan off “N-nothing.”

Feeling an abundance of energy, she grabbed one of the wooden spears and headed out for the ‘exercise square’ Maxine had shown her before.

It was a short distance from the base when Cassidy saw Marcus, sitting on the ground, meditating much in the way that Cipriana often did. “Hey, Chief.”

Marcus opened his eyes with a warm earthy smile. “Oh, hey Leftenent Cassidy. How’re things going?”

She replied in a similarly easygoing tone, without breaking stride. “Can’t complain.”

“Good good. Oh, by the way, Armil’s coming for that blessing tomorrow.”

“Ar- Oh yeah, the Grand Elder! That’s tomorrow? Maxine told me about that, and told me to reprimand you for not telling me.”

“Ah, oops.”

“Yeah. That’s sorta the kind of thing a person likes a heads up about. Did you tell Cheryl yet?”

“Oops. Again. Well, I’m doing her first shift tonight, like I did with you. I’ll get her up to speed.”

“Tsk tsk, Marcus. I’m going to have to mark a demerit on your record if this kind of thing keeps up.”

Marcus chuckled. “Yes, Sir!”

She giggled back, and continued on her way. Marcus closed his eyes, and resumed meditation.

“Don’t forget!” She called out several metres later.

“Yes Sir!”

Cassidy made it to the square to find Maxine already there, doing her ‘tai chi with a stick’ thing. “Aha!” Cassidy said, surprising her a little, “I have found you!” She imitated bad old martial arts movies. “At last I can avenge the dishonour you have committed to my xylophone! You must do battle with me!”

Maxine almost dropped her spear. “What the hell!?”

“Meh.”

“Xylophone?”

“Just the first thing that popped into my head. It was either that or goat. But dishonouring a goat had other ugly connotations.”

“I... suppose it would! What’s got you in such a good mood?”

Cassidy smirked and shrugged. “Good night’s sleep, I guess.” She swirled her spear dramatically.

Maxine smirked back. “Why do I think there’s a bit more to it than that?”

For a split second, Cassidy considered telling Maxine about how potentially distracting she found Cheryl, but thought better of it. No need to fuel any gossipy-thought. Bad enough that Cipriana felt she knew. She changed the subject as she went into some very aggressive movements aimed at an invisible foe. “Nah. I think I’m just getting used to this place. Hey, odd question...”

“Yeah?” Maxine started her own slow routine again.

“I just saw Marcus meditating like Cip does. It made me wonder.. are those two an item or something?”

“Hm.” Maxine stopped, and leaned on her spear. “Funny you should say that.. I remember once wondering the same thing. But I’m pretty sure they’re not.” She continued her routine. “He's almost old enough to be her dad. Besides, it’s not like meditation is rare around here. A lot of us do it.”

“Really. Wow, I never knew this was such a zen unit.”

“Marcus blames the ghost.” Maxine said, ending a wide stroke with her spear pointing at the temple. “Says it’s a peaceful influence.”

Cassidy shrugged. Might explain the odd look she’d seen in Marcus’ eyes sometimes. Other people here also had the same unusual expression sometimes. But come to think of it, she hadn’t noticed it so much anymore. “Max’.. I got another odd question.” She stopped and leaned on her spear again.

“Shoot.”

“Do people outside of the unit ever.. look at you funny?”

Maxine leaned on her spear as well, and smiled a little. “Thousand year stare.”

“Huh?”

Maxine’s voice came almost like she was quoting something from rote. “Being this close to this ancient place, being at peace. It changes you. People notice you’re different, but they don’t know why.”

“Marcus again?”

Maxine nodded. “Says people aren’t used to seeing a soldier looking so at peace.”

Cassidy chuckled. “Well, I don’t feel much different, but I guess I’ve already developed the stare. I had a weird time when I went back to central.”

“It’s kind of like jumping out of a warm shower and into a draft, huh? It takes a bit to get used to that whole mindset again.”

“Hm.” Made sense maybe. And with the whole Brandy breakup, that whole memory was sitting there waiting for her at central. It struck her that the rebound-factor was a whole other reason to not drool over Cheryl too much. Drool on Cheryl’s cute-factor, and write her off as a romantic impossibility. Rebound from afar. Yes. A good plan. Besides, she didn’t even know Cheryl. “So, have you met the new girl yet?”

Maxine smirked “Yeah… cute huh?”

“What? I guess. I didn’t notice. I wasn’t really looking. Is she?”

“You didn’t notice? Cass, I’m straight, and I noticed.”

Cassidy replied in a somewhat hasty tone. “What? What, you think just cuz I’m a lesbian, I’m on the prowl all the time? It’s not like I can’t separate personal and professional things.”

“I think thou doth protest too much.”

“Oh, shush.”

After a while, Cassidy headed back to the base. This place was too small to keep a secret. Little detectives like Maxine were sure to have rumors floating around soon enough. Not that she resented it exactly. Maxine … heck, everyone was nice enough about things, but if people got it in their heads that she liked Cheryl, her efforts to ignore the notion herself would become moot. No doubt some well-meaning compatriot, probably Maxine, would investigate the possibility of Cassidy and Cheryl becoming an item. And she had already decided she wasn’t going down that path. Maxine would just find out Cheryl was straight, and probably trigger some kind of awkwardness.

She should nip this in the bud. Talk to Maxine about it. Lay her cards on the table before people start guessing. Well, not all her cards. Talk about the Brandy/rebound thing, and just avoid mentioning Cheryl altogether. Yes. A cunning plan.

Cassidy went to the mess and downed a sandwich as a late lunch, and nabbed a couple cookies. There was still a lot of time before her watch, but it might be a good idea to try to nap now. She didn’t know if she’d have much time between the end of watch and the coming of Grand Elder Armil.

She went back to the barrack and made small talk with Cipriana and Wanda, then settled into her bunk, and pulled the brim of her hat down an extra few centimetres.

Wouldn’t you know it, the second you get comfy, nature calls. She got up and headed to the washroom. Someone was in one of the shower stalls. She ignored whoever it was and did what she came to do. Cassidy was almost back in the hall when she heard a little yelp of surprise.

“You okay in there?” Cassidy asked, ambling towards the stall.

The voice replied, “Um. There’s something in here.”

“Is that Cheryl?”

“Yeah, there’s a lizard in here!”

Cassidy chuckled to herself. Maybe this was a rite of passage around here. Well, now Cassidy knew it was Cheryl’s bare ankles she could see. Nice ankles. Not that she didn’t see them before, but these were the bare ankles of a nekkid Cheryl. “Oh, those things are harmless. They apparently wander in here chasing the moisture.”

“Well... what am I supposed to do?” Cheryl sounded a little unnerved.

“Ignore it? Sometimes I talk to them. And no, they don’t talk back.”

“I.. er.. it’s creepy!”

Cassidy thought she was being a bit silly. Quite un-military. But it was also somewhat cute. “Uhm.. I’d come in and help, but unless you shower in a swimsuit.. uh… nekkidness.“ It wasn’t outside normalcy for military comrades to see each other naked in the shower but when possible, Cassidy avoided it. “Well, where is it?”

“It’s smack dab in the middle of the divider on my right.”

“Kay. I got an idea. Stand against the back wall.” Cassidy walked into the adjoining stall.

“Uh.. why?”

“Because if this doesn’t work like I think, the lizard is going to fly across the stall, at the opposite wall.”

Cheryl hastily got against the back wall. “What the heck are you going to do?”

Cassidy steadied her left shoulder against the opposite side of the metal partition, and punched sharply with her right fist. Without hesitation, she dropped to the floor. On the other side, the falling lizard caused Cheryl to yelp a little again. Cassidy quickly reached out to grab it.

“See? They’re nice.” She held her hand under the partition, showing Cheryl the securely held critter. It was only now that Cassidy realized she could see Cheryl’s nekkid knees. Oooh, knees.

“Okay, that’s nice, thankyou. I don’t need to see any more.”

Cassidy stood, and looked at her captive lizard closely with a smile. “Aeki aeki, aeki.”

“Achy?” Cheryl asked, continuing with her shower.

“Aeki! That’s what they’re called. You should really try to like them. They’re pretty common around here. Anyway, I’ll take him outside.” Cassidy started on her way out.

“Kay! Thanks again Cassie!”

Cassidy stopped mid-stride for a moment. ‘Cassie’? Cassie. She always hated that nickname. She almost corrected Cheryl… but coming from her… it didn’t sound so bad. She kept going, and smiled at her little squirming friend, asking it questions via imaginary telepathy. “So, little aeki.. can’t resist peekin', can you? May as well tell me. Did you take pictures?”

Cassidy made it outside and went a few metres further to a chunk of ruined wall from another building. Before setting the lizard down on it, she spoke to it out loud. “So? Last chance.” She held it up and looked it in the eye. “Not talkin’? Fine. What good are ya?” She put it down, and turned to see Marcus strolling out.

He stopped to ask Cassidy “Interrogate lizards a lot?”

Cassidy huffed a small laugh, and saluted sharply. “Sir! After apprehending the insurgent, the aeki was decidedly uncooperative. It was not violent or armed, so I’m just kicking the bum out! Sir!”

Marcus righted his posture and saluted back. “Very well Leftenent Cassidy! Keep up the good work! As you were!” He then continued on his way.

Cassidy woke from her power-nap in plenty of time to put herself together for her next watch. She had slept better than she expected though. Cheryl was already gone, no doubt getting the official tour from Marcus before her first watch.

Cassidy met up with Jim on the way to the temple, and they were shortly at their station, on guard. She could see Marcus and Cheryl posted at the north door, talking.

She remembered she had some Jim-teasing to do. “So……. Jim. Jimmy. Jimmerino.”

“Whaaat?”

“So I looked up ‘hot karl’.”

“Thankyou. Now you know why you can’t call Karl that?”

“Oh. Oh yes. Indeed. That’s disgusting.”

“No kidding.”

“I’m curious about one thing though, Jimmerino.”

Jim sighed. “Alrighty, what is it?”

“Why do you want to give a hot karl to hot Karl? That’s sick. I just don’t get men. No fucking wonder why I’m a lesbian.”

Jim erupted “I don’t want to give Karl a hot karl!!“ Jim lowered his head and sighed an exasperated sigh. “You done yet?”

“Yeah. That should do it.”

Laughter was heard from a nearby post.

“Great. Spiffy.” Jim grumbled.

“Really though, any progress on the Karl front?”

“Hrm. Well, not really. At this point it just comes down to me getting the confidence to approach him.”

“Oh, so you found out he’s gay?”

“Nope. Not yet.” Jim’s voice was thick with anxiety.

Cassidy rolled her eyes “Geezes Jim, are you new at this?”

“What?”

“You can’t go in blind like that! You risk weirding him right out if he’s straight. Bad enough he could just not want to go out with you even if he is gay,”

“Well yeah, but what am I supposed to do?”

“Look, you need an informant.” Cassidy’s eyes looked back and forth as if a spy could be lingering around. “I’ll talk to him. Vee haff vays of makink heem talk.”

Jim slowly shook his head. “Oh damn. When did I end up back in highschool?”

“I got yer back. Relax, guy!”

“Uh huh.”

“Relax! It’s all good.”

After shift, when Cassidy got back to the base, anticipation for the Grand Elder’s arrival had put a palatable buzz in the air.

Marcus popped into the ladies barrack with a little extra pep. “Cip, Leftenent Cassidy, Cheryl, meet n greet at the pad in thirty. Look sharp!”

“Yup.”

“Yessir!”

“Alright, Marcus.”

And as suddenly as he appeared, Marcus was gone. Cheryl turned to Cassidy. “People call you Leftenent Cassidy?”

“Eh, that’s just Marcus sometimes. We have kind of a running thing about military protocol I think. I’m surprised he doesn’t call you Sergeant Cheryl.”

Much like Colonel Calvert’s visit before, Marcus, Cipriana and Cassidy stood at the pad, lined up and waiting. This time however they had the addition of Cheryl, and this time it was an airlimb that approached, not a helicopter. It was a sign that the Grand Elder’s importance overshadowed the Colonel’s.

The airlimb set down on the helipad. The letters “G.E.G.” were stenciled on the side. “Grand Elder Guard”.Given his stature, the vehicle made sense enough, but the sight that came when the hatch opened was none the less surprising to Cassidy.

“Storms?” A well armed four member Storm Front flowed out, securing the immediate area in a regulation manner. Their tight, efficient motions were as fluid as they were precise. These soldiers were silent, stoic, and didn’t make eye contact with anyone; seeing only the tactical elements of their environment.

A female middle-aged Aguei Colonel came out next, surveying her subordinate Storms and the general area casually. She shortly saluted towards Calvert and Marcus, then stepped aside.

Marcus walked up between them all as if they were well trained puppies. “Elder Armil!” he called out with a welcoming smile.

The miniature sand storm that seemed to greet all visitors dusted the area as the Grand Elder emerged from the airlimb with a gentle but careful stride. While most shielded themselves from the sand, today was an exception. The Storms only squinted, and the Grand Elder closed his eyes serenely as if accepting this baptism of sand which passed quickly enough.

As his title suggested, the Grand Elder was not a young man, and his movements told of his age as much as his weathered face. His warm smile matched Marcus’, and he put his hands on Marcus’ shoulders. “Marcus! Things go well?”

“As always, Elder.” As formal as the grammar was, Marcus still sounded warm, casual, and almost like he was speaking to family.

Armil faced the temple, visible in the distance, and raised his arms as if to greet it; to embrace it. The gesture displayed his robes well, the pinnacle of traditional materials and design. Light fabrics of soft yellows and blues, braided in patterns that were tight and detailed around the neckline, but growing broad and flowing towards the dangles hanging off the sleeves. His hair was a mix of black and aged grey, pulled back and braided tight, nearly down to his waist.

“Ladies?” Marcus waved Cassidy, Cheryl and Cipriana over. Once closer, Cassidy began to reflex into a stance of attention, hand half way up to a salute. Cheryl was about to follow her lead, but Cipriana diffused their moment of formality by reaching out and holding both of Armil’s hands.

“Elder,” Cipriana said in her usual soft tone, “it’s good to see you again.” It struck Cassidy that Armil and Cipriana had a very similar vibe to them.

Marcus spoke up again. “Elder, let me introduce Cassidy and Cheryl.”

“Hello Sir.” Cassidy said. “Uh, your honour… er, grace? Grand Elder?” Cheryl only shifted uncomfortably, and waved meekly.

Armil stepped towards them, and took one of Cassidy’s hands, and one of Cheryl’s, much in a similar way that Cipriana had done. Armil chuckled softly. “In times like this, titles are not needed. ‘Elder’ or ‘Armil’ is sufficient.”

“Um, okay then, Elder.” Cassidy picked the more formal option, still feeling as if more was needed. This was the man she’d seen on TV most of her life, showing up to great ceremonies, making speeches, and talking about Aguei affairs. “It’s really a huge honour!”

“Y.. yeah! Ditto!” Cheryl was having trouble doing anything but staring wide-eyed. Their timid reactions only made Armil chuckle warmly.

“Let’s head inside.” Marcus said. Armil nodded, and two of the Storms anticipated the path, rushing silently ahead of them. The other two Storms and their Colonel fell into position behind Armil and Marcus, leaving Cassidy, Cheryl and Cipriana to follow behind at their own pace.

“So, Storms, huh?” Cassidy asked idly towards Cipriana. “They’re different.”

“Well, the G.E.G. Storms are Aguei for one thing. Some by blood, some honourary, but above that, they know the weight of their duty, guarding the Grand Elder. They also report to the Grand Elder specifically, and never receive orders from the federal government. The feds just write their cheques. Kind of like us, I guess.”

“Huh?” Cheryl lifted an eyebrow. “What, so I’m an employee of the Grand Elder since I transferred here?”

Cipriana tilted her head slightly. “It might be more commonly said that we’re employed by the Aguei nation, as funded by the federal government as a matter of treaty… but it’s rather a matter of splitting hairs.”

Marcus and the Grand Elder had a light snack with tea. Someone had provided a slightly fancier table and chairs, so the Elder wouldn’t have to cram into the standard mess hall benches with his robe. There was a time in the past when efforts were made to prepare something a bit fancier for the Grand Elder, but by some way of the other, the fame of Alan’s cookies won out. Today, however, the ‘stupid greedy apes’ respectfully didn’t come running at the smell of fresh cookies.

Typical small talk faded to the wayside, and the Elder brought up a more serious issue. “Marcus, there’s been a bit of interesting talk among some of the High Elders of late.”

Marcus raised his eyebrows. It was hard to tell if it was good talk or bad, with the Grand Elder’s ever-diplomatic tone. “Oh? Interesting how?”

“Well, many seem to favour the idea of allowing- even encouraging- a small tourist endeavor at the temple.”

Marcus cocked back a bit. This was a notable change of policy. “Ah.. why? Er, If I can ask.”

The Grand Elder smiled. “Of course you can. Well, there’s two reasons. The lesser of the two is that we could make a little bit of money, and put that towards the funding of the guard here. Put a little back into things, as it were. But the main idea is that it could be a good way to connect, to reach out to non-Aguei peoples. A goodwill project of sorts.”

Marcus absorbed the idea, and wore a look of mild scrutiny as he gazed into nowhere, weighing the pluses and minuses.

“I wanted to talk to you before we took any steps, Marcus. It’s your stomping ground, you know it best. The idea of a small guided tour came up. We could add more personnel to deal with the added duties.”

Marcus resolved the notion with a smile and a short nod. “Ah! Nonsense Elder! We’re soldiers around here. We work an easy job eight hours a day here, but we’re not restricted to it! This isn’t some fast food restaurant. We’re more than capable to running a little tour. If you think it’s good for Aguei relations with the rest of the country, it sounds like a good idea. Never hurts to try it out.”

“Well, if you're sure you do not need more people, alright. We’ll work out some details later. Oh, we’d just as soon have people not taking photos inside though.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

An hour or so later, the miniature ceremony had begun with relatively little fuss.

The Grand Elder stood In front of the statue. The top of Armil's head was still a fair distance below the stone hound’s chin. Maybe it was the moment, but Cassidy thought the statue’s eyes gleamed especially bright now. Even if the statue’s meaning was unknown, Grand Elder Armil and all his humble grandeur somehow very much fit in with it.

With Marcus and most of the base’s complement gathered casually around, Cheryl and Cassidy stepped forward to Armil, and stood beside each other.

Wanda smirked, and whispered to Cipriana. “Is it just me, or does it look like they’re getting married?” Cipriana restrained a smile. Cassidy heard the whisper enough to get the idea of it. So much for her plan to keep rumors and speculation to a minimum. No plan survives the first shot of battle, so they say.

The Grand Elder turned around and opened his arms to the statue. The statue seemed to mean something to him, anyway. After a moment, he turned back, and looked at Cassidy and Cheryl with a gentle nod.

Cassidy was still fighting the urge to salute, and the two of them smiled back softly. Armil reached forward and took their hands, looking both of them in the eye for a moment, eventually speaking softly.

“Cassidy. Cheryl. As gentle spirits, I welcome you to our people. You are Aguei.”

And suddenly, it was over. The spectators surrounded them all, some offering casual applause.

“That... that’s it?” Cheryl said, teetering near a nervous giggle.

Grand Elder Armil smiled and nodded, and Marcus gave the verbal reply. “Ah, why make something complicated when it doesn’t need to be? What were you expecting? Holy chants and hymns? To be knighted with a spear?”

Happy small talk filtered around the group, many of whom took the chance to speak to Armil directly about this and that. Cassidy caught Wanda’s eye and shot her a little ‘tsk tsk’ glare for the marriage remark. Wanda tried not to smile, and covered her mouth, wide eyed.

Everyone started filtering out, the group breaking up into clusters. Armil ended up walking with Marcus, discussing some of the details of changes to come.

Cassidy saw Jim talking casually with Karl and a couple other guys. Ah, right. Karl. “Hey Karl? Can I talk to you for a sec?”

“Huh? Sure.”

Cassidy looked at the other guys to hint that she wanted a little privacy. Jim looked tense, but went along with the others. Dammit, Jim. Between Jim, Cipriana, Maxine, and Wanda with her big mouth, the whole friggin unit was going to know she thought Cheryl was cute before long. It was a wildfire situation, and she needed some kind of water bomber. But she’d have to find water in the desert later. First thing’s first.

Cassidy led Karl out of the way, trailing behind the main stream of people, and once out of the temple, off into some neighboring ruins.

“What’s up Cassidy?”

Dang, she had a basic plan, but she didn’t really flesh it out. Okay, time to think on your feet. “Hey, um.. I got kind of an awkward problem, and I thought you might be able to gimmie some advice.”

Karl ducked his head in a shrug. “Uhm… okay, I’ll try..”

Cassidy squirmed a bit, trying to think her next move, aware that it could just look like she was having trouble saying it. “Well, you mighta heard I’m …”

“What, gay?”

Cassidy pointed at him and touched her nose. “Yeah, so you know, I thought…”

Karl raised one of his eyebrows, bit his lip and shrugged again.

Cassidy talked with her hands, trying to grab the right idea out of the air in front of her. “Well, I figured you’d be able to gimmie your opinion from your perspective cuz you’re also….” Ha. That was the hook, perfect. If he’s not, then this is about to become embarrassing and funny, but there was no other way around that.

Karl chuckled. “What? Cuz I’m also into girls?” Damn. A swing and a miss.

Cassidy sighed. “Yeah, you know what? Forget it. Forget I said anything.”

“Uh, I think you’re attractive enough and all, if that’s what you’re trying to get an opinion on.” The poor lad was bewildered.

“Naw, no, forget it. It’s nuthin’.” Defeat. Poor Jim. Well, better this way than Jim finding out firsthand.

“Well, okay, Cassidy…” Karl started heading back to the base, and stopped after a few steps, turning. “Well, sorry I couldn’t be more help with whatever it was, but I just remembered. Maybe you want to talk to Cheryl instead. Oh! Unless this is about her…”

Cassidy could almost feel her pupils dilate. “Cheryl… she… she’s…?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? She mentioned it when I was talking to her in the mess.”

Words couldn’t form in Cassidy’s mind for a few moments, and she finally spat out a few. “Oh. Well. Thaaat’s…. good too know!” She tilted her head and smiled.

Karl was half creeped out, and half amused. “All right then Cass. Be seeing you.”

“Yup. Right. Thanks.” Cassidy stood in a fog of unformed thoughts for a moment, watching Karl walk off. Then a thought jumped to mind, a split second before she acted. She called out to Karl, pointing. “Hey Karl, you’re not bi, are you?”

Karl stumbled in his stride. “What?!”

“Ehhh, didn’t think so. Had to be sure.”

Karl continued on, and hollered back at Cassidy. “Ya got a screw loose, miss!”

Cassidy slumped against a nearby chunk of wall, and looked out across the sea of sand. That was psychologically exhausting. She was almost trembling. But she couldn’t argue about having a screw loose. What a fruitful exchange that turned out to be. She got vital info for Jim, even if it wasn’t the result he was hoping for, and as a bonus, found out Cheryl was playing on her team. Hm. Bah. Doesn’t change a thing. There’s still professionalism, and the whole idea of not going into a rebound. This didn’t change a bloody thing.

Not a thing.

Nope.

The barracks were a little busier than usual, with many people checking in after the little ceremony. When Cassidy got in, her eyes locked onto Cheryl as she was going about her little tasks.

A mild panic trembled through Cassidy. She repeated in her mind, quickly, over and over, trying to assure herself. “Doesn’t change a thing, doesn’t change a thing.”

She realized she had been just standing in the doorway, staring. She closed her eyes and exhaled. Be normal. She walked over to her bunk, trying not to look at Cheryl too much, and her eyes happened to land on Cipriana.

Cipriana’s subtle expression was mild as could be, but it was aimed at Cassidy, and it somehow spoke volumes. It said in a schoolyard sort of way “Cassidy likes Cherrryl!” Well, no, that wasn’t quite Cipriana’s style, but that’s how Cassidy translated it in her head. Cassidy replied with an expression that had the intent of “Oh yeah? Well, you keep your mouth shut, missy!”

It felt like almost everyone knew- or rather thought they knew- what Cassidy was feeling, and it all lent itself to a bit of paranoia. She reminded herself of the saying… “You wouldn’t worry what people are thinking about you, if you knew how often they didn’t.”

Alright then. Don’t worry about the whole unit. Just Wanda, and maybe Cipriana. And of course Cheryl. And Maxine. And Jim.

Ach. Poor Jim. He’s got other things to fret about.

“Hey Cassie!” Cheryl’s voice came, jostling her out of her mental circles.

“Oh! Cheryl. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“The ceremony thing? Nah, it was kind of nice. You know, it feels more like a community around here than a military unit.”

Cassidy nodded. “Jim suggested it’s more like a highschool. Little mini-dramas unfolding and such. She sat in her bunk, finding herself facing Cipriana across the aisle, who was idly browsing though a book.

“Dramas?” Cheryl asked. “What kind of dramas?”

Cipriana’s attention was silently perked again, and her eyes met with Cassidy’s. “Eh, nothing bad, Cheryl,” Cassidy said, looking back at Cipriana with a tired expression. “Nothing worth worrying about.”

“Oh, you mean like those lizards, and Alan versus the greedy apes?” Cheryl chuckled lightly.

Cassidy turned her head to look at Cheryl, and smiled. “Yup, perfect examples.” Frig she was cute. Knowing her orientation now was going to make ignoring the cuteness even harder. Mind you, this was second hand information. It could be wrong. Karl might have misunderstood something Cheryl had said. Heck, she might have given Karl that impression to avoid being hit on. Sure, that was very likely.

Cassidy felt- or imagined feeling- Cipriana’s eyes on her. Tenting her fingertips almost diabolically, Cassidy looked back at Cipriana. She was innocently reading. Hm.

Hm, indeed. What of Cipriana’s alleged ‘20/20 gaydar’? Were it true, it was a powerful gift to be wasted on a straight person.

“She knows things.” Cassidy said softly to herself, staring at Cipriana. This accidentally got her attention, and the attention of Cheryl.

Cheryl innocently asked, “She who? Knows what?” Cipriana just coyly raised her eyebrows.

“Superior officers and their classified information!” Cassidy rambled, “They know things that may or may not be helpful, and may not be in a position to rightly share such information. But they know things.”

Cheryl stared at Cassidy waiting for further explanation that was not to come. She saw that Cassidy was looking towards Cipriana. Cheryl looked back and forth between the two of them, and finally asked softly. “Drama?”

Cipriana only read quietly, eyes on her book with her soft smile. “Drama.”

Cassidy flopped back in her bunk, arms dangling to the sides. “Drama.”

Night watch was nearly in effect, and those due for duty trickled towards the temple. Cassidy spotted Cheryl alone, and hastened to catch up with her. “Hey.”

“Oh, hey Cassie.” Cheryl seemed in a good mood, and glad enough to see Cassidy.

“I just wanted to fill you in a bit about drama. I know I was a little convoluted.” Cassidy said.

“Kay...”

“Well, I just wanted to say that of all the little junk floating around, none of it’s negative. Like no backstabbing, or fighting, or spiteful garbage, y’know? Not that I’ve seen, at any rate. Keeping in mind I’m pretty new here too.”

Cheryl shrugged. “Good to know, I guess.. so.. what kind of stuff is it?”

Cassidy sighed. Was the sunset making Cheryl look so good, or was it the other way around? “Well, some good, some funny, some awkward, some sad… “ She sighed, debating telling her more. Maybe a well concealed example that would let her vent a little.

“I see.” Cheryl said in a relaxed, but cheerful way. That was all she needed. That was enough for now.

Cassidy looked forward, and could make out Jim waiting by their south doorway, the previous shift still on guard. “I have a little bit of sad drama to take part in tonight.”

Cheryl saw where Cassidy was looking, and read Jim’s body language. “Uh…. What, are you breaking up with him or something?”

Cassidy chuckled a little. Well, it seemed that she wasn’t the only lesbian around with zero gaydar. “No, no, we’re definitely not each other’s types. I’d explain, but…. It’s not really my place to say.”

“Gotcha. Well, whatever it is, good luck, I guess…!” With that, Cheryl parted paths towards the other south door, where she was assigned tonight. Cassidy waved to her, and climbed the stairs towards Jim and the previous shift. Ohhh kay. Here we go.

Jim and Cassidy engaged people with idle conversion until the shift change was complete. They then stood for a bit, silently. Jim’s tension was visible, and he finally brought up the impending topic.

“So.” He huffed a sort of sigh. “I saw you dragged Karl away. Did you get to info-digging?”

“Yeah.” Cassidy lowered her head. She’d said enough.

Jim clenched his jaw, and turned his head to look out across the ruins. A more frustrated sigh escaped him, then after a moment, he snapped to himself. “Damn it!”

Cassidy could see his grip on his spear trembling. “Just relax, Jim. He doesn’t even know. At least you can still be friends.”

This seeped into Jim’s thoughts, but didn’t help much. “It’s not fucking fair.” He spoke very softly, but with anger. “Not fucking fair. We connect, y’know?” He turned his head to look at Cassidy with an expression that seemed to be searching for a better answer.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I’ve been there.” Cassidy watched Jim shift uncomfortably. It made her wish she’d saved the info for the end of the shift, but that would have been torture. She also wished there was a bar nearby. She could get him drunk, maybe get it out of his system. Ehh, that never really works. “It’s crap like this... why I kind of have my guidelines… not crushing on someone before I know if it’s a valid … uh... option.”

“Does it work?” Jim sounded like he was ready to prescribe to a new methodology.

Cassidy thought about her situation with Cheryl. Not exactly a textbook case for her policy, since Cassidy wasn’t looking for a relationship right now. “Meh. It’s… a far from perfect system.”

Jim managed a smirk. “Aw, hell.”

“Yup.”

Jim took a deep breath, still looking sorrowful. “No cookies for Jim this time, huh?”

“Guess not. But you know, there’s a lotta guys here, y’know? Statistically, ten percent of em are going to be gay.”

Jim smirked. “Well, there’s one gay guy I know for sure, who’s really nice..”

Cassidy tilted her head. “And..?”

“He’s about fifteen years older than me, and married.”

“Ah.”

“The thing is, I wasn’t just out looking for ‘someone’… I fell for Karl.”

“Ah. Well... I got an idea that might help you get over him.”

“Eh?”

“Every time you think of him, just graphically imagine a hot karl.”

“Gawwd, Cass!”

“You’ll never be able to look at him the same anyway, so why not picture him as a ridiculous turn-off?”

Jim grimaced. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

~~~~~

:::C /15

~~~~~

Days passed like sand in the lightest of breeze. Constant, quiet, bringing changes, but ultimately unchanging.

That’s the way it normally was, at least. But now a decided change was coming, and rumors filtered around the base until they were confirmed.

“Splendid.” Cassidy sarcastically speculated, during yet another idle chat in the barracks. “Isn’t that exactly what we all wanted? Overweight men in Hawaiian shirts and speedos?”

“Oh, it won’t be that bad,” Cheryl joked soothingly, “We’ll enforce a dress code. Minimum khaki shorts, just above the knee, or lower.” It slipped her attention that her own off-duty shorts violated her proposed mandate by a considerable length. No one complained, least of all Cassidy.

“As long as the topic of tourism has come up,” Cipriana said, closing her book, “Marcus has asked me to see if anyone would want to volunteer for tour guide duty. The aim is to have no one having to do more than one tour a day. This might change in time, depending on how things go, but at this point, it’s hard to say.”

Cassidy didn’t much like the sounds of it, but Cheryl, Wanda, Maxine, and a couple of the others in the room seemed very attentive. Cipriana continued.

“We’re thinking a tour group would have a leader, who would have notes, and talk about the various sights, and a rear guard who would stick to the back and make sure no tourists wander off, or get left behind. That aside, the usual guard watch stations will of course be manned as always. Marcus is not surprisingly first in line to be a tour leader.“ That stood to reason. Another chance to spin the yarn of the statue’s ghost.

“Can I be one too?” Cheryl chirped up with a raised hand. “I know I’m the rookie, but I think I’m kind of a people person.. and if I have notes anyway, like you said… it sounds easy and fun!”

“Certainly.” Cipriana said, scribbling a note.

Bah. “I guess I can be one of those rear guards, if there’s no public speaking or lecturing involved.” Cassidy’s voice made it unintentionally clear that she was less than wild about it.

“Very well.” Cipriana jotted it down. “Would you like to be Cheryl’s partner?”

Cassidy examined Cipriana’s expression for any double-meaning. She couldn’t tell, but the implication of ‘Cheryl’s partner’ had driven Wanda to bite her lips, and stare innocently at the ceiling. Cassidy made a mental note to stick an elbow in her ribs later.

Cassidy responded. “Sure, Cip, that’s cool.”

Unnoticed by most, Wanda made a comic little face that seemed to say “Oh, I bet that’s cool, Cass!” Yeah. Maybe Wanda needed a kick to the shin instead.

There were also changes in the landscaping between the helipad and the temple. Tasteful wooden signs were planted along the paths with directions, and little write-ups about the desert, some of the more prominent buildings, and the ever-humble aeki. - With a cute illustration, too.

One afternoon, the grapevine told of something big being installed in the ground. Cassidy idly followed the other lookie-loos and ended up at a large, round junction in the ruins’ streets. The junction was smaller than the square that Wanda exercised in, but not by much.

The new addition was a tree. Well, no. A stump. With all its roots being carefully planted in the ground. The two metre wide stump was carved into a likeness of the temple statue’s head. It was very well done. Not nearly as detailed (nor as big) as the statue itself, but still remarkable. To discourage tourists from touching, a half-metre high ‘barricade’ was also to be arranged in a circle around the stump, made from natural stones.

“Hey, I think I’ve seen this before..” Cassidy mumbled to herself.

Wanda popped up as an informed Aguei, raised by a traditionalist mother. “Beast of Yute. It’s like a hundred and fifty years old. It’s been retouched and preserved, and was the masterpiece of… uh, I forget his name now. It was in a museum on the west coast for like the last forty years, and Armil decided it could be moved here for the tourists.”

The Beast of Yute was probably the best known Aguei stump. It was carved to look just like the statue’s head.

Most traditional carved stumps stay in the ground where the tree had grown, but some become popular enough to be dug up (very carefully), and put on display elsewhere, always planted wherever they went with more care than one would expect for even a living tree. Most carved stumps are based on animals portrayed as realistically as the artist is able, but in recent decades, less traditional designs have become acceptable as well.

Cassidy studied the stump for a moment, comparing it in her mind to the statue. The statue’s head was bigger, but this was no small stump; about a two metres across. “Yeah, yeah, I think I saw it in a documentary or something. Well, you seem to know a lot about it, Wanda.”

“Well of course. I read the sign they’re going to install here later. It’s laying on the ground over there.”

Cassidy levied a dull glare at Wanda. “Dork.”

“What?”

~~~

Jim wandered into the mess looking for a snack before night shift. The mess was in one of the day’s regular lulls, a while after dinner cleanup. It wasn’t a shock to see someone else there, but it was a bit of a belly drop to find Karl.

Jim would have loved a chance for a quiet talk with Karl before. But now it was just depressing. “Hey, Karl.” Stay cool, don’t be a freak.

“Oh! Hey Jim.” Karl turned around, chomping down on a cookie. “Say, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you when I got a chance away from the others…”

Jim’s mind went wild. Something Karl wanted to talk about alone? Analyze the way he said it! It was casual, so it can’t be bad. Stop thinking and say something.

Jim attempted to speak in a tone that would fit ‘calm-casual’ or ‘take me now’. “Oh…? Ask away.”

Karl smirked. “I finally found out it was you or your little buddy Cass, who’s to blame for me reliving my high-school nightmare.”

“High-school n…” Jim sighed, hung his head in shame, and muttered, “Hot Karl.”

“Hot Karl!! Yes indeed. I get dumb jokes made at me at least three times a week now, and I finally traced it back to you two.”

“Aw, shit man, I’m sorry.”

Karl signed. “Please don’t say 'shit'.”

“It was Cass. She described you as ‘hot’ in the sexy way, and she accidentally stumbled on ‘hot Karl’ without knowing what it was, and then things… well, alright, it was both our fault, I guess. Yay teamwork.”

“Wait a second, Cassidy said I was hot? She’s gay! Well, I guess that doesn’t mean she can’t have an opinion on a guy’s hot-ness…”

Jim sighed, and leaned against the fridge, staring at the floor. “It’s pointless now, but… I may as well come clean.”

“This better not be leading to a shit joke, Jim.”

Jim let out a tired sigh, and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. “Dude, seriously. This isn’t easy, I…”

“Dude!” Karl interrupted to stop Jim. He smirked sadly and shook his head. “Jim, I know. I’ve known for a long time.”

“Really?” Jim chuckled at himself. “Am I that transparent?”

“I guess so.”

“And you’re not…?”

Karl started walking into the hall. “Not even slightly. Women. Yum.”

“Hrm.” Jim sighed, “So… what… are we cool?”

Unseen down the hall, Karl’s voice came back. “Hey man, we’re bros!”

Jim leaned against the fridge, looking at the ground again. He swallowed hard, whispered, “Jerk.” and loved Karl all the more.

~~~

Cheryl was grinning like a child. Marcus has led the first tour a couple days ago, but now it was her turn, and the excitement was threatening to turn her outright giddy.

The large civilian grade passenger helicopter was settling onto the pad. “Cheryl, you’re bouncing.” Cassidy said just loud enough to be heard over the chopper.

“Am not!” She said, bouncing slightly. Only then did she realize that Cassidy was right, so she stopped and turned to look at Cassidy. “Like I said, I am not.”

“Mmhm.”

The thirty member tour group was known to be mostly children, between the ages of five and ten. Apparently, that was Cheryl’s idea of a party.

The chopper powered down. Adults might not mind being blown around by the chopper’s wake turbulence, but the little ones might not do so well, especially in the strong wake of such a big, dual-rotor chopper. As it was, Cassidy and Cheryl had to stand further back than they normally would.

A little face pressed up against one of the windows, and the little boy waved. That was too much for Cheryl to contain. She hopped a few times, waving back. Moments later, most of the windows were filled with little faces.

Cassidy had been standing there with her spear, but she couldn’t just ignore all the little ones. She cracked a bit of a smile and waved with her free hand.

The turbulence was almost gone; the rotors were considerably slowed. Cassidy waved at the pilot and gave a thumbs up. Soon, the door opened, and an adult member of the group began herding out the kids, and a few other adults came out as well. The head of the group was evidently the class teacher, and lined the kids up for a headcount. Cassidy wondered what kind of rich school sent a class on a field trip that involved a huge chopper. Despite the turbulence being all but gone, everyone got a light dusting of sand anyway. It seemed to be an inescapable part of arrival.

“Now you all listen to what your guides tell you, alright?” The teacher turned to Cheryl and Cassidy, and gestured that it was their turn.

Cheryl popped into action. “Hey kids!” She waved again, getting a battery of little return waves. “Was the helicopter ride fun?”

“Yeah!” was the general gist of the shouts that came back.

“Were you being good for your teacher?” Cheryl asked.

“Yeaaah.”

“I was!”

“Frankie picked his nose and w-“

“Did not!”

“Okay, Okay, is it safe to say you were good enough?”

“Yup!”

“Yeah.”

“Mostly.”

“-wiped it on the seat.”

“Well, you mostly good kids, first let me welcome you to the Yute desert! My name is Cheryl, and my friend with the spear here is Cassidy.”

“Hey.” Cassidy said with an obligatory but minimalistic wave.

“Alright gang, lets head for our first stop, and we’re going to end up at the big temple you can see over there. If there’s any questions, feel free to ask!” Cheryl headed down the path, and Cassidy waved everyone along. “After you... after you…”

One little boy with dark sunken eyes, like you see in little boys sometimes, walked up to Cassidy and looked her up and down. “You kill people with that stick?”

“Wha?” Cassidy looked up at the spear head. “Heh, no. It would be possible though, it’s plenty sharp.”

“Can I see?”

“Cody…!” One of the adults stepped in. “I’m sorry about him, miss. Curiosity and all that.”

“Nah, nah,” Cassidy said, “curiosity’s a good thing.” She looked back towards Cody. “But I probably shouldn’t let you play with it. Like I said, it is sharp.”

“What if I just-“

“Codyyy….”

“Oh, ok, fine.” Cody and the adult tagged onto the tail of the group, and Cassidy took up the rear guard. Maybe Cheryl had it right, this could be fun after all. Up ahead, she could hear Cheryl laughing and talking with a couple kids.

As they walked, Cassidy got almost as many comments and questions as Cheryl.

“I saw an aeki! Are you sure they don’t bite?”

“I’ve held them in my hand many times, I’ve never been bitten.”

“Hm. An iguana bit me once.”

“Well, aeki aren’t iguanas.”

“I think an iguana could beat up an aeki.”

“Maybe, but the aeki could run up a wall and get away.”

“Really?”

“Yup.”

“Can iguanas run up walls?”

“I think they’re a bit heavy for that. I dunno for sure, kid.”

“I’ll look it up later.”

“Good idea.”

“Then I’ll email you so you know too.”

“Good.”

“And if they can, then you can warn the aeki.”

“Right.”

“These rocks used to be a building?”

“Yep, a long, long time ago.”

“Like before I was born?!”

“Like before I was born! Hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of years ago!”

“Oh my god, how old ARE you?!”

Yup, this was officially fun. Cassidy hoped all the tour groups to come would be as entertaining.

The Aeki bulletin sign was interesting to them, and there was an actual aeki sighting as well, but the ruins themselves weren’t too interesting to the kids on the whole. Then they came to the stump.

“What do you think he eats?” Cheryl asked the group after reading the standard notes.

The kids mumbled among themselves, and one piped up. “It used to be a tree. It eats dirt and sunlight.” Smart alec.

Another child who was more in the spirit Cheryl intended stood as close as she could without stepping onto the rock border. She peered at the two metre wide beast’s head. “I think…I could be wrong.. but I think I could fit in its mouth. Does it eat kids?”

Cheryl widened her eyes, and looked at the stump. “Eek! I don’t know! I hope not! Well, we’re just lucky this one is just a carving, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Cody spoke up. “What kind of animal is it supposed to be? It looks like a big dog, but it’s got those funny horns.”

“Maybe it’s a dog with a funny hat.” A younger child suggested.

“It’s a myth of some kind, like the Greek stuff!”

“Yeah okay, I know that, but what’s it’s name? All those Greek things have names.”

“Nobody knows,” Cheryl answered, “but the man that carved this stump just called it the Yute Beast.”

That seemed to satisfy the kids, but before she continued the trek, Cheryl added one more thing. “Those of you with cameras might want to make sure you get a couple good shots of the stump. Later on when you’re not allowed to use your cameras, you might wish you had!”

After that, they continued on, stopping at ruins here and there which were somewhat interesting to the adults, but mostly boring to the kids. They all could plainly see that the main attraction was getting close.

They reached the first staircase, and the teacher had to call out to a few who wanted ever-so-badly to run up them. Once on the landing, everyone could see the gap in the floor which led down to the bare ground and sand below.

“And that’s an example of why you don’t go running everywhere. Look where you leap, et cetera.” The teacher preached.

One of the would-be-runners chirped up. “I woulda seen it in time.” Probably true. The landing was large enough that unless the kid was totally out of control, things would have been fine. Still, a dark corner of Cassidy’s sense of humour wondered what it would have looked like to see the kid dash up the steps, then drop out of view with a yelp.

A quiet snicker from Cody suggested he had a similar thought.

Cheryl made a few points about the guards at the side door they went though, and the group ambled through.

The slowpokes of the group were two boys; Cody, and some younger boy who made a cunning observation about the stairs. “Wow, those are a lot of steps. These are old.” Cassidy couldn’t shake the feeling that they were straggling at the back to hang around her.

As Cassidy and her two junior escorts made it to the door, Cody stopped. He looked at the guards, one of which was Wanda, and looked at Cassidy.

“Hey.” He said to Cassidy, “You guys all have the same spear things. What’s up with those?” If he had been listening, the spears had been explained by Cheryl long ago, but kids are (as they tend to be) kids.

Cassidy was about to answer, when Wanda chimed in.

“These are replicas of the spear used by my ancestor, thousands of years ago, to defeat the Yute beast. If the beast awakens again, the sight of this spear will frighten the beast long enough for me to lead the others in the ceremonial dance that will seal the beast’s powers once again.” Wanda wielded her voice well, resounding with respect and depth.

Cody wasn’t fooled for a second, but the younger boy was wide-eyed. “Woah…really?”

Wanda smiled playfully. “Nope.”

“Let’s go,” Cassidy said, “the group is getting away from us.”

Chatter was all but silenced as the group came into the main hall. The statue gazed forward as always. It was only now that Cassidy considered how this giant must look to a child.

Some child in the group whispered. “I bet this one eats elephants!”

“Yeah.. in one bite.” another added.

Cheryl gave them some time simply to look, and absorb the immensity of it. “Anyone want a closer look?”

She was met only with mumblings of uncertainty. She thought up a way to put the kids at ease. “No one really knows what this guy’s all about, or what his name is, but I call him … Rupert. Hi, Rupert!” She waved to the statue. “Everyone else, say hi!” She waved again as a cue.

It was only a few at first, but just to play along, even the older hold-outs like Cody at least gave a “Hey, Rupert.”

“Who wants to feel his fur?” Cheryl chirped, “It’s stone, so it’s not like a real dog, but you can at least check out all the work it took to make all his shaggies!” Cheryl ran to the statue’s front paw, and took a grab. The kids followed in suit at varying speeds.

“Are we allowed? We weren’t allowed to touch the smaller wood one…”

“Yup,” Cheryl said, “I even asked. This stone’s real hard. It’d take a lot more than us to damage it. Rupert’s been surviving just fine for a very, very long time.”

“Rupert’s older than my grandpa.” One of the younger one said.

“Yeah, and I have an uncle named Rupert.”

“Really?”

“No one will get confused, they don’t look at all the same.”

Cheryl and the kids talked about the statue, the temple, the ruins, and Aeki, on and on. Cassidy just couldn’t stop watching and her attention focused closer and closer on Cheryl. She was amazing. Kind, funny, cute… sure, Cassidy had realized that before, but it wasn’t getting any less true.

Cassidy’s eyes begged for a blink now and then. She was just floating in soft thoughts, her breathing deepened, heart racing. Clear symptoms, if she had chosen to notice it.

She was snapped out of her trance when the teacher tapped her. “I said, do you have the time?”

Cassidy lifted her hand to show her bare wrist. “Nope, sorry.”

“I guess it’s not important. My watch died.”

Another of the adults overheard, and checked his watch. “Hey, mine too.. and my camera..!”

Cassidy remembered her own similar experience, and furrowed her brow. “I…. I have a feeling they’ll be fine..” This was met with mildly confused looks, but Cassidy didn’t really have anything else helpful to add. “If they’re still not working by the time we get back to the stump, let me know.”

When Cheryl felt the kids had had enough, and questions were running thin, she led everyone back outside, to head back to the helipad.

More than a couple kids called out “Bye, Rupert!”

They only got a few metres away from the temple steps, when one of the adults asked Cassidy, “Is there a café or something? Or maybe somewhere I can get some fresh batter-“ He stopped mid-sentence, looking at his camera blink back to life.

Cassidy smirked. “Naw, nuthin like that yet, Sir. I’ll mention you asked though. A canteen or something’s a good idea. One of our guys makes some darn good cookies.”

Everyone with a watch or camera were figuring out as they walked, that all their electronics were alright. “Are... are you guys so serious about the no-pictures in there, that there’s some kind of jamming going on?” The teacher asked.

Cassidy could only answer the truth, and it was starting to bug her a little. “I don’t know. Nothing of the sort I can think of hearing about…”

~~~

The group was given a little thank you speech by Cheryl at the helipad, and they filed on, mostly satisfied with the experience. Marcus was toddling up the path as the chopper lifted off. Cassidy, and especially Cheryl were trading waves with the kids who had seats by windows.

The chopper turned to leave, and the opportunity to wave was over. “How was it?” Marcus asked.

“It was a blast.” Cheryl said, smiling wide.

“Yeah, more fun than I thought.” Cassidy’s tone was unsure, inviting further query.

“But….?” Marcus asked, having a hunch already.

“Remember my first shift, and the deal with my watch?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a bit of an issue with the tours, I guess.” Marcus stroked his chin, glancing towards the temple. “Not much of a way around it, as far as I can see. I’m not too keen on the idea of having people surrender watches and cameras before they go in, just to avoid having the same conversation over and over.”

“Well, can you explain it to me then?”

Marcus just sort of lazily shrugged. “He’s an old boy. I don’t think he likes technology much. Figures a lot of it’s kinda obtrusive. Kinda nosy.”

Marcus’ folksy ramblings about the spirit were one thing, but he was talking about real-life. “The ghost is turning off people’s stuff?! Do you know how that sounds?” It came out a little brasher than Cassidy intended, but the question was valid enough. Cheryl was quiet, but seemed to be curious as well.

“He likes the company and visitors, but he has the right to set a few rules. It’s his house, after all.” Marcus put his hands in his pockets, and started strolling back to the base.

Cassidy staggered a little to begin following, a hand raised in a questioning gesture. “But... but how?”

“Ask him!” As Marcus progressed down the path, he left Cassidy and Cheryl to stare at each other blankly for a moment. Cassidy looked over at the temple.

“Dear huge statue! How do you shut shit off!? Amen, Cassidy Stanton.”

Marcus hollered back at Cassidy without stopping, or turning around. “He just does!”

~~~~~

:::C /16

~~~~~

Being tour guide partners, and both being on night shift, Cassidy and Cheryl found their schedules aligning over the weeks. It was a little bit of a challenge keeping focused on the tours. This crush wasn’t going away, but Cassidy was determined to remain professional, and not go off on a rebound.

One early afternoon, Cassidy awoke to Wanda making her bed. Not entirely awake, she just remained on her side, and watched Wanda. After a bit, Wanda noticed Cassidy looking at her, half asleep.

“Hey.” Wanda said quietly. She raised her eyebrows, and nodded a look over and behind Cassidy. Cassidy lazily turned over to see Cheryl laying on her side, a bit more awake, and smiling.

Cheryl was curled up, smiling, staring right into Cassidy’s eyes with a warm smile. Wanda discretely left the room.

“Hey, Cassie.” Cheryl said softly, and slowly propped herself up on her elbow.

“…..mrrh?” It was the most intelligent thing Cassidy could come up with, half asleep, and with those eyes boring into her.

Cheryl’s smile widened a little. “Wanna go hunt aeki?”

Cassidy blinked hard, and forced herself into a more alert state, sitting up. “Say wha?”

“Aeki!” Cheryl sat up as well, legs over the side of her bunk. “Want to go on a hunt?”

Cassidy felt the horrors of her own morning breath, and aligned her brain to reality. For a moment, she had thought Cheryl was going to pounce her. She guessed Wanda had assumed the same thing. Wasn’t Wanda overdue for a shin-kicking or something? “You want to go hunt an aeki? Jeez, Cheryl, you gotta let it go about the shower. They’re harmless.”

“No no no, I don’t want to kill them, I just want to find one. I’m starting to warm up to them. I just think I’d rather meet one while I had clothes on.”

“Fair enough.” Cassidy rummaged for her toothbrush and paste. “I guess so. I have nothing better to do. You got a plan?”

“Yup! Kind of.” Cheryl grabbed her clothes, and started changing under the blanket. “They’re pretty docile, right? They’d probably just let us pick them up outside if we didn’t move too fast. It would take some time to find one out there, but we’ve seen them in the ruins during tours while not even looking. It can’t be that hard if we try.”

Cassidy re-adjusted her hat a little, and got her stuff together for the shower. She took her showers after sleeping, because Cheryl took hers before bedtime, and having the shower at the same time proved to be too taxing on her sanity. Bad enough that the blanket leaked a peek of thigh or some such as Cheryl was getting dressed. “Kay, lemmie just grab a quickie. Er, a quick shower, and a bite.”

“Kay!”

Cassidy started walking towards the showers, and Wanda peeked around the corner to notice Cheryl getting dressed. Wanda couldn’t resist, and whispered to Cassidy, “Damn, you’re fast!” Her joke only earned her an elbow in the ribs. It didn’t stop Wanda from giggling about it though.

During Cassidy’s shower, an aeki wandered over the partition from the neighboring stall. As it crawled its way down the wall, Cassidy gently stepped forward and cradled her hands around it, taking it from the wall as it clung to her thumb and a few convenient fingers.

Well, she could just take this one out, and the hunt would be done.

It had struck her before how brave the aeki were to wander in here, but holding it like this, she could see a total lack of fear. It had never known a human to be a danger. None of the humans around here were. She enjoyed a little moment of peace, staring at the curious creature, as it stared back.

She put the aeki back on the wall and finished up her shower, hastily dried off and got dressed, tucking her hair through her hat as usual. She went to the hall to find Cheryl waiting with a toasted bagel.

“I thought I’d grab you brekkie, and we could get underway right away.” But then Cheryl saw Cassidy had a strange expression. “Oh. I thought you liked bagels...”

Cassidy smiled softly. “It’s fine. But we don’t need to rush. We have all afternoon to find one of those lil guys.”

They headed out into the ruins at a leisurely pace, feeling the sun as it climbed up the sky. Looking around lazily as they walked, hoping to see a dark spot of motion, Cassidy pointed out a route that would keep clear of Maxine’s exercise yard. She didn’t need Maxine rolling her eyes at them, or giggling. “Let’s head that way.”

Cheryl followed Cassidy’s lead. “Any reason? See something?”

“Nah. I just haven’t been out that way much. May as well give it a peek.”

The path they cut wandered from the remains of one ancient building to the next. Sometimes this meant a near-complete wall in the way, but more often the obstruction was far less intact. Swing a leg over a ledge, step over a bump, or just walk over a flat, differently coloured band of earth, the last whimper of a wall. It was hard not to wonder about the people who once lived and worked here. Did they become the Aguei they now knew, or did they just die off? Was that once someone’s kitchen they just entered? Was this some shop, where the crafts, or necessities of daily life were traded?

No longer. Now this place was just a mystery to be looked after, for untold ages, the realm of little meek lizards that humans called ‘aeki’.

And just where were these suckers anyway? Aeki seem cheeky enough to show up whenever they please, invited or not, but now that they’re looking for one, the aeki decide to be scarce. It had been over an hour of wandering, but neither Cassidy nor Cheryl found cause to complain.

Cheryl paused and looked over to the horizon, out of the ruins and across endless sand. “Ya spend too much time looking where you’re going, you don’t remember to see where you are.”

Cassidy smirked, and took a second to appreciate all facets of the scenery around her, and sighed. “Well, you’re the deep one, aren’t you?” Damn those shorts.

The sun was doing its duty, and a nearby wall offered its stark shadow as a respite. Cheryl gravitated towards it and lazily slid down to sit against it. Cassidy followed suit less than a metre away, resting her back against the same wall. For a moment she wondered if putting pressure on it was wise, but the wall had made it this far through ages of weathering. Two people leaning on it wasn’t likely to cause it to fall.

Cassidy ran her fingers through the base of her ponytail, up where it came out of the back of her cap.

“Still wet?” Cheryl guessed.

“Yeah. I didn’t think it would be much of an issue in the sun.”

“Well, most of it’s under that hat. We’re in the shade, your hair won’t dry out badly if you take it off.”

“Take it off, huh?” Cassidy couldn’t help but smirk.

“Yeah, seriously. You need some time apart from that hat. That kind of co-dependent relationship can’t be healthy.”

Cassidy relented. She leaned her head back and pulled her hat and elastic band back, down her ponytail, until her hair fell free onto her shoulders. She ran her fingers though it to loosen it up, and looked back at Cheryl. Was she blushing?

Cassidy made a passing glance around, in case any aeki had decided to reveal itself. “They’re not cooperating, huh?”

“Hm. It’s no big deal.” Cheryl said softly, “It’s not like we have to find one today. Maybe we should have gone to that courtyard Maxine likes. I know aeki go there.”

“Yeah, maybe, but then we would have run the risk of running into Maxine.” Cassidy also found her voice becoming soft. It must have been the surrounding quiet. It didn’t seem right to be loud.

“What’s wrong with Maxine?” Cheryl idly traced her finger in the thin layer of sand on the stone floor.

“Nothing.” Cassidy realized she was edging on dangerous territory. “Nothing. She’s cool, she’s just been a bit of a pest lately.”

“How so?”

Cassidy looked at Cheryl. She wasn’t an idiot. “She thinks.. well, we’re both… and we’re the only ones in the unit, so she figures…”

Cheryl blushed noticeably now, and looked down at the ground. “Oh… so… you are...”

“Yup. Kind of thought it was common knowledge.” Oh damn. Why was it getting hard to breathe?

“I wasn’t sure. Someone mentioned you had a breakup just before coming here, but I didn’t pry, and I didn’t hear if it was a ‘he’ or a ‘she’.”

Cassidy found she couldn’t look at Cheryl anymore while she talked. “Yeah. So... I’m very anti-rebound, and then there’s professional etiquette to be considered,” It came out of her mouth less smoothly than she had been telling herself in her mind. “and then Maxine and Wanda ‘miss-know-it-all’, just assumes that just because…”

Cheryl moved her hand out along the ground shyly towards Cassidy, both of them still avoiding direct eye contact. “Maybe she’s a bit nosy, but maybe she would like to see you happy... And maybe being professional isn’t such a problem for two people who can behave like grownups….and maybe you don’t seem so fresh off the last relationship, maybe you wouldn’t be rebounding.”

“Maybe I’d be an awful girlfriend, maybe I’d end up taking you for granted, and you’d...”

Cheryl took Cassidy’s hand, and their eyes met. Cassidy’s jaw trembled, and her eyes were welling up a little.

“Shhhh.” Cheryl’s eyes glistened as they sat silently for a long, short moment. “Maybe, maybe. Maybe we should just find out.”

Cassidy grimaced a smile, and nodded. A moment later, Cheryl had her arms wrapped around Cassidy, and suddenly all the complex nonsense in Cassidy’s mind melted away. It was all so clear, it was all so simple.

Held close, Cassidy’s lips first found the side of Cheryl’s neck, her hands slid around onto Cheryl’s back. “I’ve been trying not to think of this.”

Cheryl leaned back to offer more skin to kiss, and giggled softly. “Oh yeah? Why not?”

“Cuz I’m a moron!” she kissed her way up to Cheryl’s lips. “I should have pounced the day you arrived.” Kisses deepened, hands slid under shirts. Cassidy’s voice quietly simmered into a more aggressive tone, steeped in growing lust. “Let’s get these off.”

Cheryl’s heart pounded. “Here? Now?”

“Well..” Cassidy moved back to get her top off, and watched Cheryl’s eyes take her. “It’s here or the barracks. I guess we could go find Wanda and ask if she wants to watch.”

Cheryl laughed and lunged forward, pushing Cassidy onto her back. She stripped off her own top, and kissed Cassidy deeply. “You’re right, you are a moron.”

~~~~~

:::C /17

~~~~~

Cassidy stormed into the barracks with rigid, forceful stomping. Her glower radiated from under the brim of her hat with intensity that would melt paint. Cipriana, Maxine, and especially Wanda watched silently. Cassidy flopped onto her bunk on the far side of the room with force, crossing her arms and ankles, lowering her head enough so that the brim of her hat hid her eyes.

Before anyone recovered from the shock to venture a question, Cheryl meekly appeared at the barracks doorway.

Cassidy pointed at her, and erupted. “Keep that psycho bitch away from me!” Everyone including Cheryl jumped a little. Cheryl dipped around the corner and melted to sit on the hallway floor, head in her hands.

“Cassidy!” Cipriana said in a near-military fashion.

Wanda rushed over to Cheryl, and knelt down to her. “What the hell happened?”

“I’m sorry…!” Cheryl could only whimper into her hands, repeating, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…!”

Cipriana knew she had to resolve this fast. She addressed Cassidy. “What is she so sorry for?”

Cassidy hadn’t stopped seething, and re-asserted her pointing. “She knows what she’s sorry for. She goddam well knows!”

“What?!” Wanda was near panic.

Cheryl lifted her head with an innocent smile, and spoke sweetly. “I’m sorry I let Cassidy convince me to do this.” Across the room, Cassidy was giggling devilishly. “Ohhh damn, Wanda, I could not resist!”

Cipriana chuckled softly, and went back to her book.

“Wh.. what?” Wanda was still recovering, absorbing that she’d been had. Maxine felt it important to point something out. “Cipriana laughed.”

“Really? I didn’t hear it!” Cheryl stood, and patted Wanda on the head. “That would be pretty un-Cipriana-like.”

“Yup, I heard it. For her, I’d call it a downright outburst!” Cassidy was beaming, and sat up on the side of her bunk, and reached out towards Cheryl as she approached.

“Wha…. Why. You meanies…!” Wanda quietly whined.

Cassidy took Cheryl’s hand when she was close enough “Because, you’ve been so sure of yourself, I needed to see you suffer for payment first.”

Wanda stood. “First…? Before what?”

Cheryl made herself comfortable in Cassidy’s lap, and Cassidy wrapped her arms around Cheryl’s middle then give her a little peck on the shoulder. Both of them were smiling sublimely.

“Oh!” Wanda clued in. “Oh! I knew it. Ha!” She jumped up and down a couple times, in the spirit of prideful boasting.

Cassidy huffed. “Yeah, that’s what I figured you’d say. We knew you’d be intolerable when you found out, so we had to have some fun with you first. Pre-vengeance.”

Wanda started turning it into a song. “I-I-knewwww it, I knewwwww it!”

“I dunno, Cassie,” Cheryl said loud enough for Wanda to hear through her silliness, “I don’t know if this is worth it. Maybe we should call it off just to shut Wanda up.”

Wanda froze, and silenced herself.

“That’s better.” Cassidy snuggled against Cheryl’s back.

“As I asked when Cheryl first arrived,” Cipriana said as the new couple cuddled, “This isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

Cassidy peeked around Cheryl’s shoulder. “Sir, no, Sir, Cipriana, Sir!”

“We’re mature, responsible adults, Sir!” Cheryl added.

Cipriana grew one of her soft smiles. “Then congratulations. You’re repulsively cute together. And obviously troublesome. Go play pranks in the boys’ barracks next time.”

Cassidy and Cheryl smiled at each other. “Too easy.”

“Like shooting fish in a barrel.” Cheryl added, getting up, “But if I don’t get a shower soon, I’m going to go crazy with all this sand.”

Wanda narrowed her eyes. “Sand flurry get you?”

“Nope.”

“I need one too.” Cassidy said, “We must have caught some flying sand.” By the time Cassidy stood, it had occurred to everyone what the two of them having a shower at the same time might end up entailing. Hypothetically. Despite the wonderful imagery that it fostered, Cassidy thought better of it. She looked to Cipriana. “That might not be professional.”

Cipriana sighed. “I think it would be best if you kept that sort out thing out of the base. Far out.”

Cassidy turned to Cheryl, an eyebrow raised. “Wanna go for a walk first?” Cheryl grinned, and started sprinting out the door with Cassidy hot on her tail, leaving Cipriana, Wanda and Maxine alone in the suddenly quiet barracks.

Wanda spoke softly, “I knew it…”

Just as order was settling in again, the duo popped back into the barracks, holding a tent and a couple sleeping bags. Cheryl chirped, “Cip! Can we borrow these from supply?”

Cipriana stared at them a moment with an expression of mild confusion. “May I ask why?”

“You told us to keep ‘it’ out of the base,” Cassidy explained, “We just want to be comfy. So... please?”

Cipriana lowered her head with an amused smile, and sighed. “Very well. For now. But it’s clear we’ll have to have a discussion about it. Consider this your grace period.”

Cheryl blew Cipriana a playful kiss, and dragged Cassidy away with the gear. Nearby, a smiling Wanda wiggled in approval. Maxine raised an eyebrow and stared at Wanda. “What are you, anyway, their cheerleader?”

Cassidy and Cheryl raced back to their spot from earlier, carrying their gear. Cheryl got there a second or two ahead of Cassidy, dropping her cargo, and sliding to the ground on her back, holding her arms wide for Cassidy. Cassidy wasted no time in dropping her encumbrance, and sweeping down on her new lover, kissing madly, her precious hat getting pushed up out of the way. Out of breath from running, there seemed little hope of either of them catching their breath any time soon.

“I want to say it,” Cassidy gasped, trying to fit words between kisses, “is it too soon to say that kind of thing?” She got up a little to gaze into Cheryl’s eyes. “I mean, it's not like we just met. I've known you for months now.”

Cheryl looked up, smiling, biting her lower lip. She reached around to grab Cassidy’s hat, and pulled it away so that Cassidy’s hair was again free to fall around Cheryl’s face. Cheryl closed her eyes and purred before speaking in the softest, most heartfelt voice Cassidy could imagine. “I love you too, Cassie…”

Cassidy held Cheryl as close as she could. With her lips by Cheryl’s ear, she whispered, “I love you, I love you, I love how you call me Cassie.”

Cheryl giggled, and Cassidy babbled on. “When other people call me Cassie, it pisses me of, but somehow, from you, it makes me feel.. I don’t know. Did I mention those shorts drive me crazy? And those boots? I’ve been dying to complete the compliment.. Nice boots-“

Cheryl laughed, and cut her off. “Wanna fuck?”

~~~~~

:::C /18

~~~~~

The “magic tokens” Kirison was preparing were going to be pivotal, but they wouldn’t do any good if Horad’s men couldn’t get to the temple. They might also appreciate thinking he cared if they got out. He chose to ignore for now that he hadn't been able to contact Horad for some time now.

He assumed they had considerable ability in the desert, but he thought of a wonderful toy that would greatly assist them to evade the military if the heat was turned on. The trouble was, it wasn’t exactly available at the corner store. It was time to visit the Lancer office.

He walked up to the sturdy, metal, unremarkable door, on the shady side of an unremarkable building, in an unremarkable industrial area of Densfarn.

By the door was a video intercom. Kirison pressed the sole button on it. The screen flickered as you would expect if were malfunctioning.

He put an ID card against the screen, as well as his left thumb, and a wide-open eye. “Cheese!”

The screen went blank and the door clicked. At least he wasn’t yet persona non grata. At least not entirely.

Down a hall and around a corner stood a pair of men dressed casually, concealing ungodly amounts of hardware. One spoke as he opened the door. “Mr. Book is free to see you.”

“Ah, good timing then.” He continued in. On the other side of the door, the building was considerably less modest. Most of the doors Kirison passed were either heavily barred and locked, or sealed air tight. Or both. He made it to Mr. Book’s office, and came in with a friendly but professional demeanor.

“Hey, Mr. Book. I was in the neighborhood.”

“A little out of your way.” Mr. Book spoke with his usual joyless tone.

“Well, I haven’t heard anything about re-assignment. Just thought I’d come by in person, and... well, to be frank, remind you I existed.”

“Hrmph.” Mr. Book didn’t sound impressed, nor offended. He was good at these neutral grunts. It was just… acknowledgment. “Very courteous of you, Kirison, but it doesn’t change things. Your speciality just isn’t worth any money with the new laws.”

“Laws, huh?” Lancer as an organization wasn’t always such a stickler for the rules, and it scarcely needed mentioning.

Mr. Book wobbled his head slowly. “There’s laws, and then there’s laws. It’s a risk assessment deal. After Coll had that little matter of nano-genocide- nasty bit, that- if the wrong person so much as smelled a nanite on any of us… I wouldn’t put it past them to dip us in napalm just to be safe.”

“I got that impression, but my skills aren’t limited to nanites.”

“Hrmph.” There it was again. “Look, I can sympathize. Prior to Coll's garbage, I thought your department would be ninety percent of the business. It’s not a fun thing for any of us,” easy for him to say, “but I’ll tell you what. Polish up your resume, highlight skills you think might transfer well to other departments, and I’ll make sure copies make it to all the heads.”

Well, it wasn’t why Kirison was here, primarily... he was more worried about shutting down his last nanite project before that figurative napalm bath… but the truth was, he’d still need a job after it was all settled. “Well, that’s very kind of you, Sir.” Kirison started heading out. “Good to see you again! I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw you in person.”

“Hrmph.”

Well, that out of the way, he wouldn’t be watched so much. If Book had been watching him come in, his curiosity was now sated, and he could move about a little more freely. He made his way to the armory.

A grunt was there, counting bullets. They ignored each other, and Kirison, trying his best to behave like he belonged there, grabbed a mid-sized box. The grunt took notice.

Kirison had his story lined up. Hopefully it would be enough. It was all he had. “I’m going to see how it reacts to masers.” The grunt shrugged, and went back to his counting.

Kirison wanted to run all the way out, but he resisted, and played it cool. No one said anything, and the two casual-wear guards were too busy being casual to ask questions. It wasn’t until after half an hour of driving that Kirison’s hands stopped trembling.

~~~~~

:::C /19

~~~~~

When the moon took ownership of the sky, it found Cassidy and Cheryl holding hands nude, gazing into the sky, delirious with peace. Cassidy looked over to Cheryl and her body, and sat up on her elbow. “Mind if I stare a bit?”

Cheryl smiled softly. Despite her wish to stay there forever, she picked up her watch and looked at the time. “Ughh… Think it would be against regulation to show up to duty naked?”

Cassidy giggled softly. “Definitely out of uniform. Besides, I’m the jealous type. I want all that to myself.” She illustrated her statement with a gentle caress that started around Cheryl’s knee, and went smoothly up until she held her face, for a slow, soft kiss.

“Mmm, don’t. There’s no time. I’ve still gotta get my duty pants and boots. We gotta get going.”

Eventually, they approached the temple holding hands, parting as new lovers do, arms reaching out, touching fingertips until the last possible moment.

Cassidy realized how sappy she was being the moment she saw Jim standing a few metres away from their post, the southeast door, waiting for the shift change. She tried to harden up a bit. She greeted him as she approached. “Hey, Jim.”

“So… not that I particularly doubted the rumour…” Jim glanced over towards Cheryl’s post, the southwest door, “but I see you got your cookies.”

Cassidy sighed. “Man… I’m sorry. You know.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Jim said with a chuckle that sounded a little forced. “Something great happened for you, that’s great, that’s all. It’s not like it has anything to do with Karl.”

“Yeah, but still, you’ve been recently kicked, and here I come with Cheryl, prancing along like ...”

“Like a couple of girly… uh...”

“Bimbos?”

“No, not quite what I was looking for,” Cassidy peered into nothingness looking for the right word.

“Bimbos.” Jim gently asserted.

Cassidy sighed, and relented. If Jim wanted to call her a bimbo, she’d give him licence for a while. As long as the term didn’t spread. The shift changed over, and they took their posts. It was difficult to have casual conversation while all Cassidy could think about was Cheryl. She didn’t want to bring her up, and rub Jim’s nose in her new romance any more than need be. But what else was there to talk about?

Jim could easily see Cassidy’s problem in her body language. Eyes wandering everywhere, restless stance. She was either trying to not talk about Cheryl, or she had to go pee. “Would you just relax, Cass? You’re going to come off your hinges if you keep this up for eight hours. It’s okay, seriously.”

Cassidy exhaled deeply. “Well, it’s not fair for you.”

“I’ll survive.”

“You’re rebounding on porn, aren’t you?”

Jim laughed. “No, no, no. A little. But speaking of rebounding, what happened to you not rebounding from Brandy?”

“Brandy and I have effectively been apart for quite a while now, even if not officially. I figure that it counts against the whole rebound thing.”

Jim smirked. “Sounds pretty convenient.”

“Oh, yes, isn’t it just?” Cassidy smiled wide, and sighed.

“Alright, alright, tell me all about it.” Jim couldn’t help but be amused. The fact was that he may as well face the force of Cassidy’s new-found bliss, but he was also feeling genuinely happy for her. And maybe he could enjoy the feeling vicariously a little.

Cassidy let loose another dreamy sigh. “Oh, what’s to tell? It’s been less than a day. Most of what’s to tell is a little more explicit that I care to share.”

“Bimbo. Or ‘trollop’ maybe?”

“Yeah, yeah. Oh!” Cassidy almost hopped a little. “She and I also played this trick on W-“

“Oh, I think everyone’s aware of that whole thing already.”

Cassidy hummed to herself, swaying a little where she stood. “Oh. Heehee..”

Jim smirked, and shook his head slowly. “Oh, Cass, I know people act different when they fall in love, but compared to the Cassidy I met when you first got here… It’s just not like you.”

“Hmm. Yeah.” She looked over towards Cheryl’s post. “I wouldn’t generally call her my type, you know.”

“It seems to sit well with you. Maybe you should consider her your type after all.”

Cassidy just quietly smiled, gazing Cheryl’s way.

The early morning came, and soon after, morning shift arrived.

Cassidy’s relief had an unexpected message. “Cip says you and Cheryl should go back to the barracks, not ‘your camp’.”

Alright, fine, not a big shock. She let Jim get going ahead, so he wouldn’t have to see her reunion with Cheryl. “Has eight hours ever been longer?” Cassidy said with a kiss and a hug.

“Ha. I know. But Cip-“

“Yeah, I know.”

They straggled behind the rest of night shift on the path, and got a little distance from the eyes of morning shift before joining hands. Cheryl glanced in the direction of their private camp. “Think we’ll get that tent up today? I think I’m a little burnt from our ... uh, sunbathing session.”

“I’m surprised we’re not lobsters, really. That sunscreen really did its job.” Cheryl said.

Cassidy smirked a little, and kissed Cheryl on the cheek. “It helps if you have enthusiastic help putting it on.”

Cheryl turned her head to engage in a deeper, slower kiss which halted their stride. “Oh, to heck with Cip. Let’s defect, or go AWOL, or something and just go live in the tent.”

“We’d need water and food.”

“We can steal cookies.”

“Ah, a cunning plan. But maybe we should just go take our lecture from Cip. If we’re lucky, it’ll be short.”

Cheryl shrugged, continuing the walk. “I need a shower still, anyway.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything…”

“Brat.”

Cassidy and Cheryl were in no hurry as they turned the corner into the barrack, coming into visual contact with Cipriana. Cassidy waved with a sheepish smile. Cheryl waved in a meek manner. “Hi, Cip. Are we grounded?”

“No, though the thought crossed my mind.” Cipriana was sitting on her own bunk, and waved them towards their bunks, which were across from her own. “Have a seat, ladies.”

The duo complied, sitting at the end of their bunks, like a seated formation. “I’ve never had this particular situation before.” Cipriana said. “Straight romances are a bit easier to … regulate. Separate barracks simplify things a little.”

“Well, okay,” Cassidy said, “let’s break it down. Aside from obnoxious lovey-dovey behavior, what is the real problem? We’ve made arrangement to keep things kind of out of the way, and we haven’t done anything particularly, Uh, unseemly.”

“True enough. And make no mistake, I’m happy for both of you. There’s a couple little wrinkles that I’d like to iron out. I assume you two intend on making a fair amount of use with your new little camp?”

Her question was met with sheepish smiles and little nods. “Sounds about right, if possible.”

“Well then, I have a few suggestions.” Cipriana said. “I’d appreciate you keep terminals on you when you’re out there, so you can be contacted more easily. Also, considering that we have tourists running around during the daytime, and even though they don’t wander around, I’d like to minimize the chances of one stumbling upon you two while... camping.”

“Our camp is pretty well hidden…” Cheryl offered.

“That’s well and good but still, what do the two of you think of being taken off night-shift? I think if you two were on duty for afternoons, and made your contribution to the tours in the morning shift, that should make things easier.”

Cassidy and Cheryl looked at each other, considering such a change. Cassidy turned back to Cipriana. “We wuv you aunty Cip!”

Cipriana rolled her eyes. “Mind you, to do this, I have to take your current watch partners, and pair them together, and switch you two with a pair from afternoon shift. Can I assume this is acceptable, and won’t be a problem?”

“Sounds okay to me!” Cheryl said as Cassidy shrugged in a positive manner.

“This also means you two will be partners on watch duty as well as the tour.” Cipriana added, “you two won’t get sick of each other, will you?”

They ignored the notion as ridiculous. “Man, I thought we were in shit, but we come in and get candy!” Cassidy said.

“Don’t forget,” Cipriana warned, “I’m on afternoons too, so keep the silliness to a minimum.”

“Sir, yes, Sir, ma’am, Captain Cipriana Reichenbach, Sir! No silliness, Sir!”

Cipriana closed her eyes and sighed with her soft smile. “Splendid.”

Cheryl went to take her shower first, leaving Cassidy to wait her turn. She sat back in her bunk, and started small talk with Cipriana. “Well, I guess you missed your chance, Cip. You must be kicking yourself now, huh?” It was around now that Wanda wandered in, settling into her own bunk with her breakfast.

“My chance at what?” Cipriana asked.

Cassidy glanced at Wanda, and looked back at Cipriana as if the question was ridiculous. She gestured along her own body. “All this, honey-Sir, what else?”

Wanda snickered, and Cipriana rolled her eyes. “I might remind you that I’m straight, goof.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Cassidy stared into Cipriana with wide, crazy eyes, and waved her hands in the air slowly as if touching arcane forces in the air. “For all your powers of gaydar, did you ever think to turn that power…. on yourself?”

“Cassidy,” Cipriana spoke with her usual tone of peace, but with added authority, “when you arrived here, you had a very dark cloud over your head. At this rate, within a few weeks, you will be starring in a Saturday morning cartoon. That, or be in a straight jacket, pumped full of thorazine.”

Cassidy turned to Wanda. “She’s in denial. It’s sad, really. She won’t get over me until she admits her burning, raging lust for me to herself.”

Chewing her toast, Wanda nodded with a mock look of considered wisdom.

“And you’re a bad influence on Wanda.” Cipriana added.

A quiet moment passed, and Cassidy settled into a less jovial disposition. Looking off down the hall at nothing in particular, she spoke with a quiet, thoughtful tone. “Cip... are... maybe this isn't right to ask...”

Cipriana re-asserted her aura of peace, and spoke in kind. “Go ahead.”

Cassidy looked Cipriana in the eye for a moment, and then sighed. “Are you lonely?”

“I... hadn’t really thought about it.”

“What about you and Marcus?”

Cipriana smirked a little. “What makes you ask that? Just because we're the senior officers doesn’t mean anything.”

“I don’t know. I just kind of felt a... a thing from you two.. Just seems like a good match.”

Wanda, finished with her breakfast, jumped in. “Typical. Cass gets a new squeeze, and wants to fix everyone up. What about me, Cass? Huh? Where’s my new exciting flame?”

Cassidy chortled. “You're married!”

“So what!?” Wanda’s retort earned her only a pillow thrown at her.

Cheryl walked in, toweling her hair. “What? What’s going on? What’d I miss?” Cassidy got up, and went to take her shower.

Wanda supplied the answer to Cheryl. “Your girlfriend was hitting on Cip.”

Cassidy’s voice came from the washroom. “She wishes!”

Night came, bringing one last overnight shift for Cheryl and Cassidy with their old partners. Juggling everyone’s shifts wasn’t an instantaneous thing, after all.

“Well Jim, it’s the end of an era.” Cassidy said once night shift had begun.

“What? You and Cheryl didn’t break up already!?”

“Pff what? No, geez! You have a lot of faith in us, don’t you? Nothing like that. I’m being moved to afternoon shift.”

“Oh.” Jim looked a bit disappointed. “The end of the rainbow patrol, huh? That stinks. Why the change?”

Cassidy did her best to look innocent. “Well… it’s not exactly the end of rainbow patrol.”

It took about a second for Jim to clue in. “No. Damn! How’d you pull that off, you rat?”

Cassidy sighed. “Well, it’s something about the proper way to handle her and I being a couple, or something.”

“What, by smacking you two together on duty so you can make kissy faces at each other for eight hours?”

“Not a bad way to make a living, huh?” Cassidy smirked. “Really though, there’s reasons, but I think half of it was Cip just doing us a favour. Kind of. Frankly, I’m just not going to fight it.” She pointed lazily over to the southwest door. “And you’re getting Cheryl’s current partner. The only downside is not having you as partner anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll miss me for about a second and a half, with your lissome sweetie there with you.”

“Lissome?” Cassidy raised en eyebrow. “What the hell is lissome?”

“Uh.. lissome… supple, flexible, fit, hot, whatever.”

Cassidy chuckled. “Hmmm, yeah, she kind of fits that. She’s cuter-ish than you make it sound though. You must be thinking of me. Lissome sounds like something I could handle.” She said, putting on a tone of smug vanity.

“Nope, you’re too wiry to be lissome.”

“Wiry? Shut up!”

~~~

“Horad!” Kirison yelled at the hatch to the dugout. “Horad, It’s…” Frig. What the heck was he calling himself for these guys? Simon? Sampson? Ah, right. “It’s Samuel!”

No response was forth coming. What was the signal the driver used? Three stomps, then two, or…? Screw it. He stomped three or four times loudly. “Just open up, I brought some toys to help!”

He'd been back a couple times before, but they hadn't responded lately. The least they could do was call, or leave a note or something. Could they all be asleep? Seems pretty sloppy. He went back to his car, and got his tire iron. He went back to the hatch, and laid down in front of it before he tried to pry the hatch. Hopefully if that stupid trap was a bomb of some kind, being low would save him from the blast as it came up from the stairwell.

Surprisingly, the hatch came up very easily and there was no sign of any trap. Curious but cautious, he headed in. It was dark, and wherever the light from outside could reach, the place was vacant. “Damn it.” Empty crates, an empty gun rack, office furniture, and half the number of mattresses than there used to be.

He needed to find those idiots. Improperly equipped, they had little hope of getting out without someone getting hurt, and zero chance of doing what Kirison needed done. Time for another round at the bar.

~~~~~

:::C /20

~~~~~

Soon, the new timetable was in effect. Cassidy and Cheryl’s first shift as partners on afternoons began easily enough.

“Sergeant Lowe, reporting for duty, Sir!” Cheryl said with a stern, official tone, once shift was officially on.

“Good day, Sergeant Lowe.” Cassidy replied, playing along. “Reporting for duty? What duty is that?”

Cheryl smirked sheepishly.

Cassidy gave her a look of shock. “Sergeant Lowe! You realize that kind of behavior is not permitted! See me in my tent after the shift for reprimand!”

“Sir, yes, Sir.” Cheryl cooed, breaking into snickering.

“Ohhhh, this might not be so easy. Eight hours a day of you teasing me? So close, but so far?”

“I could break it up a little by flashing you.” Cheryl joked.

“Don’t bother. Know how Cip has that miraculous gaydar thing? I have something like that, but it automatically undresses you with my eyes.” Cassidy exaggerated her stare.

“Ah, we have to change the topic, or we’re going to go crazy. And stop staring at my chest.”

Cassidy closed her eyes, and exhaled. “Okay, okay. Um, let’s see. Are we expecting a tour on this shift?”

“I think so. I hope there’s little kids to talk to, they’re always a blast.”

“Yup.”

“Uh huh.”

Cheryl thought of a new topic. “Alan’s making cookies right about now. I heard he’s trying a new peanut butter recipe.”

“Cool, cool. Haven’t had a PB cookie in ages.”

“Yeah, me either.”

“Yup.”

“Uh huh.”

A long silence passed. They looked out across the ruins, over the sands. They looked at the ceiling, the floor, the walls. Cheryl rubbed a smudge off the shaft of her spear, and looked how the sun glinted off the blade. Cassidy cleared her throat, and checked her boots. They looked out across the ruins again. Over the sands, at the ceiling, the floor, and the walls.

“In eight hours, I’m gonna do stuff to ya.”

“Yup.”

~~~~~

:::C /21

~~~~~

Kirison found himself once more in that bar, looking for the A.R.A, but this time, at least he wasn't going into a random spot.

“Hey barkeep.” To be diplomatic, he slapped down enough money for a brew, and a decent tip. “Seen those two guys that followed me out last time I was here?”

“Uh... Sorry, Mack.” Duh. Of course he didn’t remember. He’s not going to remember something like that.

“They were Aguei. Toughies. Big on Aguei rights.” Hm. Was that too blunt?

“Ya gotta be more specific, Mack. That describes a lotta guys that come in here.”

Hm. Not blunt enough. “I guess it wouldn’t help much if I told you that they might be in legal trouble, had black hair, and drove a van, were probably regulars…”

The Bartender smirked. “Not much. Sorry.” Shit.

“They might be kind of connected. To stuff.”

The bartender leaned forward and talked a bit quieter. “If yer lookin for a hit, there’s a guy who sometimes hangs out and sells outside. Side of the building. Red jacket.”

Kirison sighed. “Naw man. Thanks for trying though. You have a good night, alright?”

“Alright, Mack.”

Kirison headed out into the parking lot, and got a small desperate idea. He peeked around the corner. Not that one. Other side. Yup, there was the dealer with the red jacket. Not an Aguei though, but who knows. Kirison casually made his way over.

The dealer faced him, hands in pockets. “Hey man, you a cop?” His eyes were shifty, like the cliché he was.

“Nope.”

“You lookin’ to score?”

“Not really. I was just wondering.. I mean… don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a career criminal, right?” This made the dealer notably uncomfortable, but Kirison went on. “I was just wondering if you knew where I could find some A.R.A.”

The dealer looked the very white Kirison up and down. “You don’t really look like the type! You sure you’re not a cop or something?”

“I’m not, I’m not. Do you know, or don’t you?”

“Not my crowd, man. People with causes suck for business.”

~~~~~

:::C /22

~~~~~

Days became weeks, and the weeks stacked quickly. The tours were going well, and by popular demand, a canteen had been set up from a tent. It was strictly a non-profit affair, just covering costs of juice, tea, coffee, and Alan’s cookies. The volume of cookies led Alan to recruit an assistant, and Jim was glad to step up. For most of the troops, the biggest drama in the unit was currently the debate over whether or not to bring ‘commercial’ items, like brand name drinks into the canteen.

For Cheryl and Cassidy, the main focus was each other. They spent nights almost exclusively at their little private camp. A large portion of the morning as well. Lacking a supply of firewood, they ordered a camping grill and a box of propane canisters. Curled up together at night with a blanket, the little grill wasn’t as soothing to watch as a proper camp fire, but it was certainly more convenient.

They cooked anything they could raid from the mess on the grill, and the bottom of it had the remains of more than one charred marshmallow. A few would-be meals suffered from neglect while its owners turned their attention towards each other instead. They were each other's world, as tends to happen. Their time together became less and less talkative, since they had talked about nearly everything, and it became more that they simply lived together. Idle time at the camp was often accompanied by music from one of their terminals, or maybe a movie or some such- when they weren’t fully engrossed with each other.

Afternoons had slowly settled from being eight hours of torture, just out of each other’s reach, to simply being with each other, soaking in the day’s warmth, and occasionally getting tourist visitors.

One typical morning found Cheryl waking before Cassidy. The light filtered into the tent, and Cheryl just took a few moments to stare at the back of Cassidy's head, and listen to her breathing.

Moving herself between the two spread open sleeping bags that served as their bed, Cheryl snuggled up behind Cassidy, and wrapped her arm around Cassidy's middle.

Cassidy sighed, and shifted her weight a little. Cheryl leaned in, and kissed the side of Cassidy's neck, triggering some sleepy mumbles. Growing a bit less patient, she slid her hand up Cassidy's shirt, and cupped her hand around the nearest soft, convenient breast.

“Hmph?” That woke her up a little. And a tiny precision movement? “Huh? Cheryl?”

Cheryl giggled. “Good morning, Cassie!”

“Mmhmm!” Cassidy agreed, holding Cheryl's mischievous hand. “Five more minutes.”

“Speaking of time, what is it now?”

Cassidy still hadn't opened her eyes. “I don't have my watch on. You tell me.”

“You're holding my hand with the watch on it. You tell me!”

Cassidy grunted as she convinced herself to open her eyes. She grabbed Cheryl's wrist, and bent her arm so the watch was easier to see.

“Ow!”

“Aw fuck, hon. We don't have much time.”

Cheryl reclaimed her arm, and turned Cassidy on her back. “Oh well.” She cozied up closer to administer a slow, long, deep kiss. Cassidy looked up into her eyes, and caressed her cheek. “Which of us do you think needs a breath mint more?”

When mornings dragged them away from camp to run a tour, Cassidy and Cheryl would often poke around the base just to be social, or raid supplies.

“Hello, strangers.” Cipriana, again reading while sitting on her bunk, greeted them in the barracks.

“Hey Cip!” Cheryl replied. Often Cassidy would let Cheryl handle the small talk for both of them. Cheryl tended to carry around a bit more energy and enthusiasm, and often simply spoke sooner. Being together so much, Cassidy (as well as just about everyone else) accepted that when Cheryl spoke, Cassidy agreed, and felt no need to repeat. “Guess what’s coming up?”

Cassidy wrapped her arms around Cheryl from behind, and they both looked at Cipriana, waiting for a guess.

Their serene little smiles gave Cipriana more than enough of a hint to guess from. “Oh, I suppose it’s some kind of anniv-… hmm.. could it be six months?” Cheryl smiled wider, and nodded as Cassidy added a little more squeeze to the hold. “It seems like just yesterday we were all having to deal with the three month… and the one month… and the one week..” Cipriana smirked at the couple.

“Cip, Cip, Cippy,” Cassidy said soft and low. “You must get over this jealousy. I’ve told you time and again, you’ve simply missed your chance with me.” Cheryl turned a little to plant a little kiss on Cassidy’s cheek.

Cipriana smiled with a tolerant sigh. “One day I’ll learn to move on, I suppose. Until then, I can just be mildly nauseated by you two, just like everyone else.”

“Hrmph!” Cheryl stomped with mock indignance. “We don’t have to stand here and take this!”

“Shall we lie across her lap and take this?”

“No, no, that would just lead her on.”

“Quite, quite. We can’t go breaking the poor lass’ heart like-“

Cipriana’s quiet but firm voice interrupted. “You two bimbos are dismissed. I insist.”

“Bimbos?”

“Who taught her such language?”

“I think we need to go hurt Jim.”

“Quite. I for one think of myself more as a trollop.”

“I have another word for you, but it’s not the kind of thing one says in public.”

Cipriana sighed a sigh that began to border on irritation. “If I tell you I’m planning something for your six month anniversary, will you leave me alone?”

“Oh?” That shut them up. “Whatcha planning, aunty Cip?” Cheryl asked meekly.

“It’s a surprise. One that can be quickly un-planned if you two don’t let me have some quiet.” Cipriana felt like she was negotiating with children. She hadn’t planned anything, but it was a fair enough idea to plan something, and got their attention enough to slow down the gibberish. “Now off to the mess with you. Maybe ‘uncle Alan’ has a cookie for you.”

They took the suggestion and went to check on the state of the cookie ‘industry’. Jim was taking out yet another batch, nearly dropping them when Cassidy snuck up and jabbed his upper arm.

“Cass! What the hell?!” Jim shook the cookie tray carefully to un-bunch the cookies that had jerked mostly to one side.

“That’s your penance for proliferating the ‘B’ word about me!” Cassidy said, nabbing a fresh cookie.

Jim rubbed his arm, looking to Cheryl to save him. She merely smiled contentedly. “What ‘B’ w..” Jim clued in. “Oh. Uhm, I didn’t mean to! Honest! But the way you two act together, it’s not entirely unwarranted.”

“Fuck…! Hot!” Cassidy juggled her stolen cookie after trying to take a bite.

“You’re de-evolving into one of the stupid greedy apes, I see.”

“Shu-uf!” she responded, mouth crammed full of the cookie, still a bit hot to be eaten comfortably, much less in one bite.

Cheryl grabbed a cookie, and blew on it a bit to cool it. “And for the record, I prefer ‘trollop’.” Cassidy grunted with disapproval for teaching Jim new words, and snatched the cookie from Cheryl, walking off. Cheryl snatched another, and followed. “Thanks Jim! We’ve gotta go play with tourists!”

“Sure, now that you’ve eaten half their cookies.”

The tour chopper touched town, slowed its rotors, and eventually unloaded a typical tour group. Some families, some couples, some students, some random miscellany. Often, some people were very quiet, stricken by the scenery, or the heat. A couple Aguei men seemed particularly quiet. This wasn’t terribly unusual. Many Aguei saw the Yute ruins almost like a holy land of sorts, remains of a lost history.

As usual, Cheryl led, and talked about the different little stops. The notes she once used were now firmly committed to memory. Cassidy had long lost interest in doing the tours, but Cheryl really enjoyed dealing with the people, and Cassidy was happier following her around, doing the tour, than sitting somewhere waiting for Cheryl to come back.

The guards at the north door by the main hall were Karl and Marcus. While Cheryl did her little speech about the statue, Cassidy, eyes on the group still, lingered near Marcus. “Hey,” she said in a quiet tone, “what are you doing on morning shift? Did you get sick of Cip during the afternoons?”

It was then that Cassidy noticed Marcus had an unusual focused look on his face, watching the crowd intently. “Be on your toes, “ he said, just loud enough for Karl to hear as well, “the ghost smells something funny. Doesn’t like it.”

“What?” Cassidy said, puzzled, mirroring Karl’s expression.

“I don’t know. The ghost doesn’t seem to know either. Just look sharp.”

Things progressed as normal, and Cheryl invited the children closer to touch the statue, as had become a regular part of the tour.

“Now!” One of the quiet Aguei men pulled a grenade out of his pocket, and the other did the same. They both ran towards the exit, one grenade tossed into the tour group, the other one towards the doorway with Cassidy, Marcus and Karl as they got close.

Cassidy threw herself on the grenade, and counted the last few seconds of her life. Somewhere in the direction of the statue, she heard Cheryl yelling to the tourists, “Get clear of it! GO, GO, GO!”

While she was waiting to die, Cassidy saw Karl and Marcus run past her. Marcus caught the one Aguei man under the chin with the dull end of his spear, tossing him on his back, coughing. Karl got into bit of a struggle with his opponent, both grabbing the spear handle. Karl pushed him against the nearby wall. Karl released the spear to get his hands free, and dealt the man a grievous right hook. Knockout.

“Good one!” Marcus congratulated, holding the sharp end of his spear to the neck of his own downed foe.

How many seconds was that? Felt like more than five… While Cassidy tried to remember how many seconds had passed during the fight, and realized many more seconds were passing still. She looked forward to the tour group. They were also notably not blown up.

“Cassie!” Cheryl ran over, and knelt by Cassidy. “Cassie, are you hurt?!” She was on the verge of crying.

“She’s fine.” Marcus said assuredly. “Cassidy, you can get up. It’s fine.”

Cassidy got up slow and careful, revealing the grenade. Cheryl’s jaw dropped. “You…? How…. How the hell do you dare to be a hero?!”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Cassidy said, as Cheryl grabbed her tight.

“It’s alright, everyone!” Marcus said to the tour group. Some of the group started applauding, and eventually, they all were. Marcus turned to Karl, Cassidy and Cheryl, and spoke kindly. “He doesn’t like cameras, what the heck made you think he’d put up with grenades?”

Cheryl wasn’t hearing anyone but Cassidy at this point, not that Cassidy was saying anything.

Marcus, still holding his captive at spear-point, spoke to Karl. “Karl, tell the front door guards to come in and help, then get back to the post, tell Cipriana to call in a chopper that can take out two prisoners to Yute central. Then get some rope, and come back here with four more troops. Got it?”

“Front door troops here, Cip calls chopper, rope, four troops. Got it, Sir.”

“Right. Go. Quick.”

Karl ran off, and was heard hollering to the people out front. Marcus looked at the grenade on the floor, then over to the statue. He waved it a little friendly salute. “Much obliged.”

The tourists were guided out by Cassidy and Cheryl. Cheryl was rattled and quiet.

Cheryl asked Cassidy quietly, “Trade places, please?” Cheryl didn’t feel like leading, and was far more comfortable in the rear guard position, keeping en eye on everyone, especially Cassidy.

“Sure, hon.” They shared a discrete hug, and Cassidy took point ahead of the tourists. “Kay, folks! Let’s step it up a bit. Right now we just need to sort everything out, get everyone away and safe.”

As they walked the same path as always, the gentle quiet was tarnished by a little aftertaste of violence. Cassidy found that she was unconsciously walking slower, as if expecting an ambush, and constantly had to force herself to keep up the pace.

Before long, five soldiers came running up with Karl in the lead, carrying a coil of rope. As he got closer, he called out to Cassidy without breaking stride. “You good?”

“Yeah, yeah, go.” Cassidy called back.

The five ran past the tourists. A boy was heard to say, “Cool. Ma, look!” as he pointed at the soldiers. It didn’t seem so cool to Cassidy. Suddenly this military unit was forced to be a bit military. It wasn’t nice at all. She glanced back through the group at Cheryl. She looked afraid. Face devoid of colour, almost nauseous. Cassidy called out loud to everyone, “Doin’ OK?” but she was looking at Cheryl.

Cheryl nodded meekly, ignored by the various tourist calling positive replies to Cassidy. Ahead, Cipriana was approaching, walking. Her aura of peace was a little weakened, but very welcome. “Cassidy.” she said in her usual tone, taking pace beside Cassidy.

Cassidy’s voice sounded calm but cautious. “Hey Cip. Karl got you up to speed?”

“Yes. We have two helicopters incoming. One’s for the tourists, the other is bringing Colonel Calvert, and will take out the prisoners. The civilian helicopter is going to be a different one than the one that brought them here. The original one is being inspected for bombs and other threats at Yute central. This group is likely to be interviewed as well.”

“Are you going to the temple, Cip?”

“Not anymore. I was just coming to see about getting the tourists out, but I see you and Cheryl beat me to it. I’ll go with you to the helipad from here, and wait for Calvert.”

“Kay. Good stuff. Hey, can you do me a favour, and go back and talk to Cheryl for me? She’s kind of shaken up.”

Cipriana nodded. “Alright.” Cipriana had considered just taking over point, but just went along with Cassidy’s initial suggestion. She walked around the tourists, and got walking beside Cheryl. “How are you?” Cipriana said calmly.

Cheryl stopped walking, as did Cipriana, letting the group migrate away. “My girlfriend threw herself on a godddam grenade, Cip.” Cheryl was trembling slightly, eyes trying hard not to cry.

“She’s alright, Cheryl. She’s right up there, doing her duty. She’s fine.”

“Yeah, well.. that doesn’t make me feel better.” The two of them continued walking, now with a bit of space between them and the group.

Cipriana put her hand on Cheryl’s shoulder for a moment. “She was trying to save people. But this isn’t about logic, is it?”

“Sure as hell isn’t.” Cheryl muttered bitterly. She looked at Cipriana with an apologetic expression. Cipriana’s trademark soft smile told her not to worry.

When they arrived at the helipad, the civilian helicopter was already cooling its rotors, preparing to take its passengers.

Many of them wanted to shake hands with Cheryl or Cassidy, thanking them for their heroics. Some wanted them to pass on the sentiment to “those men guarding the door”. Cassidy did her best to seem professional, and upright, while Cheryl just tried to keep herself together.

The door closed, and they got clear. Cipriana scanned the sky for the other expected chopper. As the tourists made their liftoff, Cassidy went to hold Cheryl, but even held, Cheryl beat on Cassidy with her fists. “You stupid… A grenade! What the fuck…!?”

Cassidy held her tighter. With her head over Cheryl's shoulder she saw Cipriana doing her best to not overhear anything. Cassidy nuzzled in, her face half buried in Cheryl’s hair. “Hon, it was what I had to do. It turned out okay.”

“Well, you could have done something else. I grabbed the grenade near me and threw it to the other end of the statue!”

“You what?”

“I figured if I blew up the statue’s butt, the Grand Elder would understand, given the situation!”

Cassidy burst into giggles. “Oh, Cheryl, did I ever mention I love you?”

Cheryl squeezed back. “You’re still in trouble. If it happens again, throw it somewhere!”

“I didn’t have a giant stone dog’s ass handy. If I threw it down the stairs, or into a corner of the hall, it could have hurt someone.”

“You’re someone too. Should have bowled it into that gap between the two front doors.” Cheryl was now just pouting.

“I couldn’t take the chance. Not much time to think, either,”

“Yeah. Well, you’re in trouble.”

“I’ll make it up to you,”

“Hell yes, you will.”

“There they are.” Cipriana called to them, pointing at an approaching dark spot in the sky. The Colonel’s helicopter landed and the Colonel hopped off, along with two subordinate soldiers armed with standard rifles. The typical minor sand storm washed across them all.

“Sir.” Cipriana saluted, so Cassidy and Cheryl followed suit.

The Colonel saluted back. “Where’s Major Douglas?”

“He’s at the temple. I’ll take you there if you like, Sir.”

“Yes, ah...” Colonel Calvert looked around. “You people need to get a jeep.”

The group of six headed back to the temple. Cipriana, Cheryl, and Cassidy in front, The Colonel and his two troops behind. Just a bit past the stump, they ran into Karl, who was leading the same group of four others, transporting the two prisoners. The prisoners had their hands tied tightly behind their backs, a line tied to that, each held by one of the outpost men. The two others followed ready with spears.

“Karl.” Cipriana greeted.

“Hi Cip. I take it the ride’s here.”

“Yes, go ahead. They’ll relieve you of the prisoners when you get there.”

“Hold on,” Colonel Calvert jumped in, “Take my boys with you. Call me crazy, but I’d feel better of these fellows were under tighter guard than just pointy sticks.”

Cipriana shrugged. “So be it, Sir.” Calvert’s two armed men joined Karl’s group which continued to the helipad, leaving Cipriana, Cassidy, Cheryl and Calvert to continue onto the temple.

After a bit of distance was put between the two groups, Cipriana spoke, perhaps only to herself. “It’s just as well. Karl’s group is perfectly capable, but I don’t think anyone would relish firearms in the temple.”

Cassidy couldn’t help but wonder if guns would suffer the same malfunction in the temple as watches, cameras and grenades. A growing part of her wanted to know why the hell this effect happened, but the current situation, not to mention the lack of a giant hole in her body, made her willing to let the issue slide for now. It didn’t seem to bother anyone else too much.

When they arrived at the temple, the doorways were again guarded as normal. Cipriana just nodded at the southeast guards as the group passed through. Cassidy took a peek down the little trench. Yeah, it would have been a good place to toss the grenade. Up the second set of stairs, they found no one guarding the north door. Karl of course, was at the helipad by now.

“Marcus?” Cipriana’s gentle voice carried very well in the large hall.

“Just collecting nasty little easter eggs.” Marcus’ voice came back, and everyone looked to see him walking out from behind one of the statue’s rear paws. “Where in blazes did those two get grenades?” Marcus looked up from his two ‘eggs’ he had in hand. “Oh! Hey there, Colonel.” Marcus kept walking, past them, headed for the stairs down. “I’d salute, but I got my hands full.”

“Major?” Colonel Calvert followed behind Marcus, and the ladies followed them as well. “So they were duds? Replicas?”

“Nope.” By this time, Marcus had made it to the front steps. He turned to Cassidy. “Leftenent Cassidy, you’ve got a good arm on you, don’t you? Wanna see how far out that way you can throw these? Aim high.” He pointed out across the ruins, and repeated. “Aim high.”

Cassidy didn’t get the point so much, but took one of the grenades, and reared back, hurtling it in a high, powerful arc.

“What’s the point of th-“ Colonel Calvert was interrupted when the grenade exploded in the sky.

“Shit!” Cassidy voiced the sentiments of nearly everyone around.

Marcus handed her the other one. “Alright, again, just like that.” Cassidy, a little afraid that the grenade could go off any second, tossed it without delay. Her haste made the throw a little sloppier, but it still exploded high enough as to not even damage the ruins below.

“What the hell just happened here?” The Colonel was looking around, expecting to find a rifleman aimed at the sky.

“Just disposing of them safely.” Marcus said. “If you want, we can go pick up the pieces to have them checked out. I really don’t think taking them away live would have been all that wise.”

Colonel Calvert was confused. “Were the pins not pulled earlier?”

“They sure were.” Cassidy testified.

Marcus pointed at the north door. “He just doesn’t put up with that kind of nonsense.”

The Colonel looked at Marcus strangely. “What? The statue?”

Marcus ignored the silly question, and went on with important issues. “Those men kind of fit the description of potential Aguei Rights Activists, but it doesn’t make sense that they’d attack inside the temple.”

“A.R.A.? If they are, it’s often a futile effort to guess the motives of those kinds of nuts,” The Colonel said, “but either way, it looks like more security is needed around here. More security than an honour guard with pointy sticks.”

Marcus grunted. “Well, let’s talk to the Grand Elder about this before we go making any drastic changes. For the time being, I want to suspend the tours.”

The Colonel was soon ready to bring in a legion of troops to sweep the area and set up enhanced security right on the spot, but Grand Elder Armil was quick to put a stop on that motion when contacted from the base.

“I will come.” He said through the terminal. Marcus nodded, pleased. The Colonel was less easy with the idea, but knew that Armil’s authority was absolute when it came to the ruins and the temple.

The Colonel and his two men were treated with hospitality; fed, and offered bunks if they wanted. They didn’t have a ride out for the time being, with their chopper still out transporting the prisoners. Cassidy watched them with mild amusement. These guys were regular army, getting a taste of life here. The two soldiers were beginning to relax, and even the Colonel began to realize that he didn’t need to give orders so loud. He didn’t need to give orders at all, really. Casual camaraderie in the mess had a much more home-like feel to it, especially with Jim baking cookies nearby.

“It’s just about time for shift change.” Cassidy said, as she and Cheryl nabbed a cookie.

“Just like nothing happened?” Colonel Calvert asked.

Cassidy chuckled, and patted her stomach, which was still explosion-free. “Close enough to nothing for me.” Cheryl failed to see the humour. They stopped by the barrack, and headed out. After exiting the base, they could see that the Grand Elder’s airlimb had arrived. Flowing from the hatch were Armil’s personal guard of G.E.G Storms. Lots and lots of Storms, led silently by their female Colonel.

Cassidy, Cheryl, and a few other members of afternoon watch continued on leisurely, and many of the Storms jogged past them towards the temple. They were more impressive, more heavily armed than Calvert’s men, but they were somehow less obtrusive. They moved so quietly, and so fluidly, they seemed to fit the calm of the place. Those that had to move around one of the walking guards did so as smoothly as smoke.

When Cassidy and Cheryl got to the temple, several Storms were lined up across the front, below the bottom step. Others could be seen wandering the ruins. Perhaps looking for grenade fragments.

Cassidy stopped by one. “Going in for an inspection?”

“No ma’am.” His voice was fitting of the way these Storms moved. Precise but quiet. “We don’t need to, and we’d rather not take these inside if it can be avoided.” He lifted his rifle a moment for illustration.

Cheryl spoke up. “Are you going to be guarding this spot from now on?”

“Don’t know, Sir.”

Afternoon shift was officially underway, and Cassidy settled into her post with Cheryl at the south east door. The view was somewhat ruined by the Storms posted out front. Even if they were less disturbing than the Colonel’s men, they were still an unavoidable reminder of the morning’s attack. It was difficult to make small talk with Cheryl when there was a Storm within earshot. It was plain that Cheryl was still rattled, and this above anything else, rattled Cassidy.

Off and on, clusters of Storms would convene in front of the temple. Sometimes just two, sometimes half a dozen. After a while, Cassidy managed to figure out that yes, they were collecting the grenade fragments. Cassidy didn’t feel the need to point this out to Cheryl. Did Cheryl notice what they were doing?

Cassidy decided to make another attempt at small talk, using as little verbal communication as possible.

“Hey, you.” She caught Cheryl’s eye and smiled as seductively as she could. It made Cheryl smile, holding back a smile.

Cassidy bit her lower lip softly, and threw Cheryl a slow wink, and ran her hands along her spear slowly. Cheryl couldn’t help chuckle a bit, and threw Cassidy a little kiss. “Is my Cassie thinking of going camping after the shift?”

Cassidy smiled sheepishly, tilting her head. “Damned right.” Cheryl’s mood was well-lifted. Mission accomplished.

Night arrived for the latter part of the shift. The few remaining Storms posted out front blended into the night better, and made them less obtrusive. The Storms had done their own shift change, and only two remained in front of the steps.

The normal night shift arrived eventually. Karl was one of the guards who took over the south east door, and he had a message. “You two are supposed to check in at the base instead of going to your camp.”

Damn it. Not ‘before’ going to- instead of. If people are worried about security, it stood to reason that Cipriana wouldn’t want two people sleeping out in the ruins, alone and isolated. But still, those grenade nuts were an isolated thing, right? And they didn’t even have their own way of getting here. And the camp wasn’t a prime target, or even a target at all. Cassidy was pretty sure that not even Cipriana knew exactly where it was.

During the walk back to the base, the journey’s lack of Cipriana and Marcus reminded Cassidy that they had taken the shift off to meet with Armil.

“They’re not going to take camp from us, are they?” Cheryl spoke like a timid child.

Cassidy put her hand on Cheryl’s shoulder as they walked, and Cheryl moved closer so that Cassidy’s arm was around her. “I dunno, hon. I hope not.”

When they arrived at the base, it looked like almost everyone was out front. Marcus was corralling this sloppy formation, and talking about a route. He called afternoon shift into the crowd, but Cipriana pulled Cassidy and Cheryl aside.

“Ladies, everyone but the watch at the temple are going for a march tonight. A bit of a patrol.” Cipriana said. “Tonight I’d appreciate if you spent the night at the base, we’ll talk about your camp later.”

“Uh… where’s this patrol going?” Cassidy asked, a little nervously.

Cipriana smiled softly. “Just taking a general look around for anything odd. Don’t fret, I’ve made sure your camp will remain undisturbed. You two won’t be going on any of tonight’s patrols.” She leaned in with Cassidy and Cheryl, and spoke very quietly.” I have a special mission for you.”

“Special mission?” Cheryl copied Cipriana’s secretive behavior.

“There’s a folding chair sitting in the barrack. Your instructions are taped to the bottom of it.” Cipriana saw Cheryl getting a little worried. “It’s an easy mission, no danger really, but it must be done discretely. Understood?”

“Understood.” Cassidy and Cheryl nodded.

“Okay, go. Don’t waste any time.”

Cheryl and Cassidy discretely passed along the edge of the group, into the base. Only a few metres inside, the quiet was noticeable, contrasted from the chatter outside. They moved quietly towards the barrack and saw the chair, sitting not far from the washroom door. It was hard to imagine what sort of mission was waiting for them. What needed such secrecy, yet was not dangerous?

Cassidy knelt beside the chair, and reached under it, to pull a note off the bottom. She unfolded it, and read, Cheryl crouched behind her, reading over her shoulder.

Happy six months, you two. A little early, but opportunity knocked. You should have privacy until about 24:00, but don’t rely too much on anything past 23:00. For safety’s sake, stick to the women’s areas. There’s a bottle of red under Cassidy’s pillow. Try not to use up ALL the hot water.

-Cipriana

Cassidy and Cheryl stared at it for a moment or two. Cheryl wrapped her arms around Cassidy from behind and gave a squeeze. “Best. Mission. Ever.”

“Remind me to… I don’t know.. wow. Yay Cip!” Cassidy had no sooner finished stammering, than Cheryl was simultaneously pulling Cassidy towards the showers and fumbling to pull off her top, giggling like a demon all the while.

“Are we going to use all the hot water?” Cassidy purred, turning to face Cheryl, and helping with her top.

“We’ll sure try!” The two left a short trail of clothing to the nearest shower stall, including Cassidy’s hat. Giggles and similar little sounds mixed with the sound of water spray. Roughly half an hour of love had passed when they paused to catch their breath, pressed together against the back wall.

Cheek to cheek, breathing hard for a few moments, then Cassidy whispered just loud enough to be heard over the water. “We’re being watched...”

“What?!” Cheryl jumped, but was held against the wall by Cassidy.

“Shh, shh… it’s okay..” Cassidy reached up onto the wall behind Cheryl, and Cheryl understood.

“Oh, ew.. little visitor?” Cheryl cringed a away a little as Cassidy brought down a young aeki. In well over half a year, she still hadn’t had an amicable close encounter with one yet. Maybe it was the fresh endorphins in her bloodstream, but she felt ready. Maybe.

“Put out your hand.” Cassidy said softly with a little smile. Cheryl cautiously obliged. Cassidy took it, and positioned it palm-down. The less-sensitive back of her hand would be less ticklish to the soft little touches of the little lizard. She placed the aeki on Cheryl’s hand, keeping her own hand close.

“Ah!” Cheryl whimpered, “It’s feet feel so..” She got used to the little padded steps on her skin, careful not to upset the aeki. It was pretty docile, so Cheryl felt a little braver. She put her face closer to the aeki, and stared it in the eye. “Hello….!” She said softly.

Cassidy just smiled, and stared at Cheryl in adoration.

As some time passed, Cheryl’s look of innocent wonderment dissolved, as she looked back into Cassidy’s eyes. “I think I’m done with this. What do we do with it?”

Cassidy took it back, smiling at Cheryl. “Normally I’d get dressed and take him outside when I was done my shower.” She stepped out of the stall, and placed the lizard in a sink, and then came back to Cheryl. “But we still have hot water.”

Long after fingertips were wrinkled, they migrated activities to Cassidy’s bunk, briefly attacking the wine from Cipriana. Without glasses handy, they drank right from the bottle. While Cheryl was taking a turn, Cassidy dug for her terminal to play some music. Cheryl’s was still at the camp.

Cassidy had to turn on her terminal; it wasn’t seeing a lot of use lately. Cheryl passed her the bottle, and Cassidy took a swig, but nearly spit it out when the terminal was done initiating. A notice on the screen waiting read Missed call: Brandy – Message waiting.

“Brandy? Like your ex, Brandy?” Cheryl was surprised, but far less than Cassidy.

Despite shock, Cassidy saw little reason to care. “To heck with it. Hang on, I’ll find some music.”

“Nah, nah, may as well get it done. Do you want me to go in the next room?”

Cassidy didn’t think she had anything to hide from Cheryl, so the tapped the button. “Nah, it’s cool.”

Brandy’s face appeared on the screen. She looked worried. “I saw about the attack on the news. Are you still at the weird temple base? Call me when you get this, I just wanted to know if you were okay.” The message ended, and Brandy was gone.

“Damn, it’s on the news so fast!” Cassidy went to switch to music.

“Well? Call her back! She was concerned enough to call.” Cheryl urged.

Fine, she was right, really. Cassidy threw her top back on, and called back. It took a bit for Brandy to pick up. “Cass! You are alright! When your terminal was off, I just got more freaked out. You look fine.”

“Yeah, I-“ Cassidy was cut off by Cheryl. “Yeah, she’s only alright by luck! The silly twit jumped on a grenade!”

“What?” Brandy said, “That was you? One of the people on the news mentioned a woman laying on a grenade, and another woman throwing a grenade away...”

“Hi, I’m the thrower, I have some common sense.” Cheryl peeked around to get part of her face in the picture. Cassidy pushed her back, and threw her top at her.

“Who’s your friend?” Brandy asked.

“Oh, that’s Cheryl.” Cheryl had her top back on, so Cassidy pulled her over so they were both in view of the terminal’s camera. “She’s uh…” Cassidy sighed a little. “She’s Cheryl.”

Brandy smiled a calm smile, glad for Cassidy to have someone, but a tiny bit disappointed that Cassidy had someone. She spoke in a voice that quite well reflected a mix of feelings. “I see. How long?”

“We’re about a week early, but we’re celebrating month six.” As Cassidy said it, she imagined Brandy calculating how long it was after the breakup before Cassidy and Cheryl got together. She refrained from asking if Brandy was seeing anyone. She didn’t really want to hear it if she was, and if she wasn’t, it would be uncomfortable as heck.

Brandy held up her smile, but the effort it took seemed to imply that she was single. Maybe Cassidy was trying to read too much. “Well congrats! You two look like a good match. Anyway, I just wanted to hear that you were alright. Both of you try to play safer, alright?”

“Alright, will do, Brandy. See you.”

“Bye.”

And she was gone. Cassidy looked to Cheryl with woeful eyes. “Part of me feels bad for her for some reason.” Her face changed to an expression of mischief. “But the bitch in me loves showing my ex the hot chick I bagged!”

Cheryl chuckled, and stopped short. “Shit! If she saw the news, my folks probably did too! Can I call em on your terminal?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Cheryl punched them up. It rang, and rang. Finally it connected, audio only. “Eh? Cheryl?” it was her father’s voice, and he sounded half asleep.

“Hey dad. Seen the news today?”

“Just caught the sports n’ weather, why?”

“Not important. You were asleep, it’s late, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Go to sleep.”

“Alrighty! Love you!”

“Love you!”

Cheryl disconnected, and switched to some light music. “Hey Cassie.. would you wanna take some vacation time and go visit them with me?”

“Meet the folks, huh? Big step!” Cassidy smirked.

Cheryl replied timidly. “Well… yeah, I guess it is. Is that okay?”

Cassidy leaned forward and hugged Cheryl tight. “You bet it is.”

“Good.” Cheryl giggled softly, and pressed Cassidy back onto the bunk.

~~~

Cipriana and most of the other women of the unit, (barring those on night duty) wandered in some time later to find Cassidy and Cheryl curled up (clothed) on Cassidy’s bunk. Cassidy’s terminal was still playing music softly.

“Aww…” Wanda said quietly.

Maxine looked over and smirked. “Lazy butts. If this happened on the guys’ side, they’d catch hell.” All of the women knew that Cassidy and Cheryl would be here though, with an official, unofficial excuse.

Wanda snickered. “If this happened on the guys’ side, they’d be taking photos.”

Maxine looked at Wanda, who was still looking at the napping pair. “You want to take a photo, don’t you?”

“They’re just so cute together.” Wanda tilted her head with a little smile. As Cassidy turned a little, her hair slid across her shoulder a bit. “Well, now we know what it takes to get that hat off of her.”

Cipriana chuckled softly. “Go ahead, take a picture. They might appreciate it.”

No sooner had the picture been taken with Wanda’s terminal, than Cheryl began to wake, yawning.

“Hey Cheryl, like it?” Wanda held her terminal in front of Cheryl, so she could see.

“Mrrhh?” Cheryl peeked through sleepy, half-opened eyes. “Mmhmm. Yeah.” She yawned again. “Yeah, send me a copy.” She settled back in, closing her eyes again.

Cassidy lifted her head. “Huh? Send what?” but she saw Cheryl was going back to sleep, so she followed suit before seeing the picture.

Wanda smiled quietly. “I guess I’ll send it to both.”

Reluctantly, Cassidy and Cheryl slowly accepted being awake. “Whu time’zit?” Cheryl mumbled, sitting up.

“Time for morning shift to try to get a couple winks before they have to go to work.” Came a grumpy voice from a lump under a blanket across the room.

“Sorry,” Cassidy said, “we can take a double shift to help out.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Cipriana said, “Your anniversary gift was a gift, you don’t compensate people for a gift. Besides, we all would have been on our little hike regardless of where you two were. And it was only a few hours. Morning shift will survive just fine. Before I forget however, I considered a new rule for your little camp.”

Here it comes. Cassidy and Cheryl held their breath, like a convicts awaiting sentencing. Cheryl literally crossed her fingers.

“I don’t think we need fear your camp being a target, but I’d feel irresponsible if I didn’t take some manner of precaution.” Cipriana somehow even made laying down the law sound kindly. “As such, I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you, and everyone not on night shift, to spend night time in the base. However, I see no harm in the two of you spending your morning free time at the camp.”

Cassidy and Cheryl looked at each other with silent conference, and gave each other a little nod. “Sounds fair, Cip.” “Can we hug you, Cip?”

Cipriana sighed. “That’s quite alright, I’ll pass.”

Cheryl put her lips to Cassidy’s ear, and whispered a little. “Oh yeah!” Cassidy said, “Cip, could Cheryl and I take a few days off, go visit her folks?”

“I’m guessing you both have time stocked?”

“Yup.” Cheryl answered for them both.

“I’ll try to make arrangements. Let me know when you would like to go, and for how long, and I’ll see what I can do.”

~~~

After getting a little more sleep Cassidy and Cheryl put themselves together and headed out shortly after morning shift did. They ran into Marcus just outside.

“Hey ladies,” he greeted, “I guess you have mornings off until further notice. Tours are off indefinitely.”

“Oh? Was that Armil’s call?” Cassidy asked.

“It was a collaborative decision,” Marcus said, “But yes, the final call was his. He didn’t feel the risk was worth the benefits of doing the tours until we understand the motives behind yesterday’s stupidity.”

“That’s too bad. I’ll miss the kids that come” Cheryl paused. “But it’s about their safety more than anything, I guess.”

“Come on, Cheryl,” Cassidy said, “we have almost eight hours until shift, let’s go camping!”

“Yup!” Cheryl followed alongside Cassidy, and waved back at Marcus. “See you later!”

The camp was as welcome a sight as ever. It had developed into quite a little haven over the months. The tent with its blankets and sleeping bags, Cheryl’s terminal, the grill, a cooler protecting a stockpile of ‘borrowed’ goods, all protected from some of the sun’s harshest hours by a convenient wall of the ruins.

Having camp almost taken from them gave them pause to appreciate it, and remember Cipriana’s lenience about it from the beginning.

“We’re not going to be able to keep it forever.” Cassidy grabbed a knife out of the cooler, and looked at the wall. “What if we left something a bit more permanent?”

Cheryl chuckled. “Would that even be legal?”

“Probably not, but I won’t tell if you don’t.”

“Okay, bad-girl. First I want to call my folks. Do you want to be in on the call?”

“Sure.” Cassidy dropped the knife at the base of the wall, and sat by Cheryl with the terminal. Cheryl rang up her folks, and they took much less time to pick up than in the middle of the night- go figure. A woman appeared that looked a lot like an older version of Cheryl. “Cheryl!”

“Hey mom! Sorry about ringing last night, I-“

“Oh, oh, don’t apologize! It’s just as well! We didn’t see what happened on the news until this morning, and since you called, we already knew things were fine. Are you okay?”

“Yes, mom.”

A male voice was heard hollering somewhere off-screen. “Sandy! Izzat her?”

Cheryl’s mom turned to the side, and answered back. “Yes, Peter, come on.” A moment later, Cheryl’s dad was there as well.

“Hey dad!”

“Cheryl, you alright? The TV was talking about a couple terrorists?”

“Bah,” Cassidy grunted, “They were just a pair of idiots. No real concern. We should watch the news and see how bad they’re over inflating this.”

Mom spoke up again, “Oh! Cheryl, are you going to introduce us to this young lady? I assume this is….”

“Yes,” Cheryl put her arm around Cassidy’s shoulders, and drew her close. “This is Cassidy, and she’s fan-tab-ulous. Cassidy, these are my parents, Sandy and Pete.”

“Well it’s great to finally meet you, Cassidy.” Sandy said, “It seems our little Cheryl is quite enamored with you.”

Cassidy couldn’t help blush a little. “Well, feeling’s more than mutual, Mrs. Lowe!”

“Oh, please, Call me Sandy.”

“Hey there, hey wait a minute.” Peter jumped in, putting on a bit of an air of concern. “Now Cassidy, you can understand that my wife and I are very interested in the idea of grandchildren. This leads me to wonder; do you have a penis?”

“Peter!” Sandy hid her face and shoved Peter. Cheryl muttered something, and shrunk down a little, embarrassed, but Cassidy stood her ground.

“Yes Sir, I do! But the batteries died!”

Peter burst out laughing, and wandered off. “I like her, Sandy!”

In the wake of Peter’s tact, it was now a quick-draw of apologies between Cheryl and Sandy. Sandy won, being more experienced in apologizing for Peter’s social indelicacies. “Cassidy, hon, I’m so sorry.” She looks off-screen to where Peter went. “But well played, at any rate.”

“No problem, Mrs. L- er, Sandy.”

“Mom,” Cheryl chimed in, “assuming Cassidy hasn’t been scared off, could we come for a visit, like maybe next weekend?”

“Oh of course!” Sandy bubbled with joy, “That would be great!”

“I still have to make concrete arrangements, so I’ll let you know when I know more?”

“Sure, of course. Ah, now I’m all excited.” Sandy turned to the off-screen Peter again, “Peter, they’re going to come out and visit!”

“Geez, I gotta get some gas for the barbecue!” was heard.

“Talk to you later, mom!”

“Okay hon! Love you! See you, Cassidy!”

Cassidy waved, and Cheryl disconnected. She turned to Cassidy, and shook her head. “I forgot to warn you about my dad… he’s… he thinks he’s funny.”

Cassidy smirked. “No problem, I think I can go a few rounds with him… he likes his barbecue, huh?”

“Loves it. Burgers, steak, hot dogs, he does some killer roasts-”

“Do you think when we show up, I should lie, and tell him I’m a super-strict vegan?”

Cheryl giggled, and wrapped herself onto Cassidy. “Oh, you two are going to get along just fine.”

Cassidy hugged Cheryl back. “So… they think we’re serious enough that they can bring up grandchildren.” Her voice rang with affection.

“I know it’s way too early to think about thinking stuff like that,” Cheryl said with a slight apologetic tone.

“It’s okay.” Cassidy squeezed a little. “We should think about getting married first. Maybe in a year and a half or so.”

“You’ve been thinking about it…”

“It’s hard not to. Do you want to desecrate a wall with me now?” Cassidy pointed at the knife she left by the wall.

Cheryl looked into Cassidy’s eyes, breathing deeply. She gently pushed her onto her back, and kissed her soft, slow, and deep. “It can wait a little.”

~~~~~

:::C /23

~~~~~

Kirison had been getting more paranoid than usual. The news didn’t say enough about the ‘Suspected A.R.A. terrorists’ that could verify that it had anything to do with Horad and his cronies, but it had to be them. It was too big of a coincidence. What other Aguei would have a motive? It was hard enough to believe that Horad had swallowed his B.S.

The army was doubtlessly investigating in all ways they figured was applicable, but god help Kirison if they go sniffing for nanites. They wouldn’t be hard to find if they bothered to look. They were everywhere around the temple by now, and in everyone. If they found any nanites, Kirison felt it would only be a matter of time before the army tracked it to him. Goddam Lancer sure as hell wasn’t going to protect him. Kirison needed a place to hide, to lay low. Join a frigging missionary, get to Africa or something, then skip out, take a new name, and work docks somewhere.

Yeah, right.

Suffice to say, Kirison’s stress level was at a peak. He found himself trembling a little. What could they do to him? Throw him in jail? How long? What were the details of those new nanite laws? His nanites weren’t designed to hurt anyone. They weren’t designed to hurt anyone! Then those fucking hooligans run in with grenades? Who gave those fucknuts grenades? It was just a good thing that the nanites did their job and turned the grenades ‘off’, or the consequences of getting caught would have been much, much higher.

Having thrown out any desperate plan to hide, Kirison decided to try to act natural. Employment insurance was long gone, and his savings were taking significant hits. Anyone not freaking out about the law bearing down on them would be looking innocently for a job, so that’s what he did.

One evening in his apartment, pecking away at online job postings on his terminal, a call came in from “?????”. Among other things, that could mean a disposable or a public terminal. He accepted the call. A face came up that caused all of Kirison’s suppressed stress to explode out of his mouth.

“Horad!”

“Samuel.” ‘Elder’ Horad’s voice came as grim and gritty as ever, with an expression to match.

Kirison had almost forgotten the name he had given to Horad. He had created a dummy account for Horad to call which forwarded to his terminal. “Horad, that thing on the news, was that your people?!”

“Things did not go as planned. But they will tell the federals nothing.”

“What the heck were you trying to do?”

“The grenades must have been defective,” Horad said, “Others from the same box were fine. Luck was not on their side. The explosions were to create enough injury and confusion that they could escape into the desert.”

“You could have killed a pile of people!” Kirison knew he was dealing with a dangerous man, but this was more than he wanted. On the other hand, Kirison knew that a sane, reasonable person wouldn’t be useful to him either.

“It would have sent a message about defiling the temple with crass tourism.” Horad said this with no sense of irony, that explosions and murder might be seen as defiling as well. “But still, the tours have ended.”

Damn it, damn it, damn it. Horad felt victorious, and it hadn’t gotten anything done about Kirison’s problem. “Listen, Horad. I wish you had stayed in touch before your little stunt. It’s going to be much harder to get in now. If you had talked to me, I could have given you what you needed to get in and out without capture, without hurting anyone.”

“What’s done is done. My men will simply have to suffer the oppression of prison for the cause.”

“You don’t understand, Horad! You’ve accomplished nothing! The grenades didn’t work because the spirit willed them not to! Until you deliver the chant, the spirit will remain controlled by the lies of the federals! The will of the Aguei will be bound in chains!” If only he had prepared this line of B.S. before, and had everything ready earlier. “We have to meet!”

After making arrangements and hanging up, Kirison took a blood sample from himself and checked on his ‘insurance policy’. It was still doing well.

~~~~~

:::C /24

~~~~~

The brassy sun had long dipped under the west sands. Its light was long departed, and its warmth fading as well.

Yet another afternoon shift was drawing to a close. Things were much as they were before the tourism had started. No visitors, no wide eyed, boisterous children full of questions. Cassidy didn’t really like the idea of tourists at first, but now it seemed like something was missing from the day.

The quiet was peaceful as it always was, but peace can do well with a small dose of noise. A small dose of liveliness.

Night shift people were straggling in, and when it felt like time, spears were handed from afternoon to night, and shift was changed. The southeast guards had a bit of a lead on Cassidy and Cheryl, so Cassidy decided to take her time with Cheryl, and allow Marcus and Cipriana to catch up, having to come a little farther from the north door.

Here they came. Marcus tended to become a little bit of a father figure to many with his easy going, kindly ways. At the same time, Cipriana was already jokingly called the den mother. Despite Cipriana not being nearly as old as Marcus, they looked really good together. They just fit. It seemed so natural to assume they were together, despite what she had been told. But no… watching them, maybe they were just very old friends, long time compatriots. Labels and definitions aside, it was clear they were close. It would be the kind of thing Cassidy might be envious of, if she didn’t have Cheryl.

The evening had a particularly enjoyable calm about it, so Cassidy almost didn’t bother striking up conversation with Marcus and Cipriana. Cassidy broke the silence with a soft tone that was more typical of Cipriana. “Hey, you two.”

Cipriana gave one of her trademark smiles, and Marcus replied. “Hey, Cass, Cheryl. How’s things?”

“S’all good, chief.” Cheryl answered. Marcus nodded. “Good, good.”

The four of them walked along quietly for a bit, then Cassidy moved onto what was on her mind. “Hey Marcus. I have some questions ‘bout our big stone buddy there.”

“Uh huh? Fire away.”

“You talk about the ghost a lot, like you talk to it. I assumed you were just having fun with the idea..”

Marcus smiled. “But now he stops you from blowing up, and you start to wonder.”

“Well, yeah. The watch thing, and the camera thing… I wondered about them, but I never bothered to bring it up.”

Marcus looked back at the temple as they walked, as if he was checking to see if the statue was eavesdropping. “Well, our old boy likes things simple. Fancy new stuff like electronics and explosives? He doesn’t get it. Doesn’t like em. Rather than deal with such complicated unnecessary things, he just puts them to sleep.”

Cassidy smirked, and skipped the issue of the ghost’s existence. “Well, if he can put them to sleep, it seems like he somehow understands them perfectly fine!”

“Bah. Magic doesn’t rely so much on understanding, I think.”

Cheryl spoke up, unsure what to think of Marcus’ sanity. “Does he... speak to you?”

“Not exactly. Usually he whispers thoughts to me.” Marcus scrunched his face a little, searching for the right words. “Ideas. It’s kind of abstract. Tells me useful things, sometimes he just gives me less important things.”

“Like?”

“Well,” he looked into the sky, searching his memory. “Well, before the grenade thing, he warned me something was wrong with the tour group. I wonder if he smelt the grenades. But often it’s more general things.. like that he was enjoying the tours. He misses the kids, I think.”

Cassidy leaned towards Cipriana. “You hear any of this, Cip?”

Cipriana smiled, and shrugged. “No, I think Marcus is the ghost’s favourite.”

Marcus chuckled. “Well, that stands to reason; he’s my favourite ghost of a giant dog statue.”

“Okay, alright, fine.” Cassidy was willing to accept what Marcus was saying just because she had no motivation to argue. “So what’s his story, anyway? Did the Aguei make him?”

Marcus scrunched his face again in thought. “Well, I’ve asked about his history, and I’ve gotten pieces of it, but keep in mind I only get fragments of ideas from him. And his history is a very old memory.”

“We’re listening!” Cheryl nagged jokingly.

“A long time ago, I don’t even think he knows how long this was, there were a lot of different things in the world. Some good, some bad, some very bad. He hated the ones who died but walked.”

“What, like those ‘zombies’ at Autar and Meston?” Cassidy asked.

“Yes. No. Those were terrible for certain, and he could feel them, but they were phony. Compared to the cursed things he hunted ages ago. He hunted and hunted, everywhere he could travel, and when they were all gone, when people were safe from them, he rested here.”

Cassidy and Cheryl looked at each other with cynical glances. Cassidy sighed. “So. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, there was a giant horned dog that ran around killing monsters, then he came here and turned to stone.”

Marcus turned to Cipriana. “When she puts it like that, it sounds far fetched, doesn’t it?” Cipriana gave her amused smile, and then Marcus continued. “I don’t know if that statue is his body. For all I know, the statue was created as a symbolic tribute to a hero or something. Maybe the monsters were just an invading enemy. But what I feel from him feels like a little more than that. All I know for sure is that the ghost likes company.”

“And dislikes complicated stuff like watches.” Cassidy added, still with a tone of skepticism. It all sounded pretty silly, but it was hard to argue with the cameras, watches, and the lack of resent explosions in her midsection. “He doesn’t watch in the showers, does he?”

“You're tiny, bipedal and fur-less. I don’t think you’re his type.”

~~~~~

:::C /25

~~~~~

It was time for Kirison to stop being Kirison the paranoid nervous wreck, and become Samuel the confident, Aguei sympathetic advisor. Confidence wasn’t such an easy thing to have around Horad. Simply put, Horad was kind of scary.

Kirison approached the door in the ground to Horad’s little hidey-hole. One of Horad’s men was sitting beside it, and recognized Kirison. “Go on in,” he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the door. “He’s inside. There’s no trap on the door right now.”

Kirison opened the door, and went in. It was much as it looked the last time he was here. The mattresses, the cheap office furniture, but now the empty gun rack was noticeably better stocked, a new lamp sitting on the floor, and a few bundles of general supplies were on hand.

The light cast stark, unsettling shadows. The table’s shape cast upon the wall and ceiling, the less geometric shadow of one of Horad’s men.

The most disquieting shadows belonged to Horad himself. Not the shadow he cast, but the shadows that the low light drew on his grim weathered face. It bordered on terrifying. A very significant part of Kirison wanted to leave, now. Samuel’s confidence was quite diminished.

“Samuel.” Horad’s voice was hard to read. Was this just a greeting, or was it carrying a tone of accusation? Well, it shouldn’t. Kirison didn’t tell Horad to disappear and launch a half-cocked attack. Yes, yes. That was true. The failure was in essence, Horad’s fault. Kirison felt Samuel’s confidence return.

“I wish you had talked to me before the attack. This could all be over right now, and your men would still be free.”

“All of what would be over? We have succeeded in sending a message. Even if the grenades failed to work.” Horad sounded impatient, but potentially malleable.

“Of course they failed. The spirit wouldn’t allow it. Or guns. But don’t you see? You are an Elder. This isn’t just about politics. The strength of the Aguei will remain imprisoned until freed by the chant!” Yes, don’t over explain all at once. Let Horad feel that ‘Samuel’ has faith that any real Elder would know all about it.

“What chant?” Of course he didn’t know. Kirison had made up the chant, and the odds of Horad being anything resembling a real Elder was slim to none. Horad sounded a little flustered. Kirison had thrown a little too much at him at once.

Kirison walked over to the table, digging into his pocket. He produced his two little, thumb-sized wooden idols, which were thinner in the middle than the ends, and placed them respectfully on the table. One had a V-like shape carved into one end, and the other had a circle. “These chants.”

“What are these?” Ha. Horad was puzzled. Kirison felt a little more in control. It was a nice feeling.

“These chant idols carry prayers from a High Elder. I cannot say who he is. As you know, High Elders have their political status to protect, and being connected to the A.R.A. would not be productive for him nor us at this time. Not yet. Do you understand?”

Horad narrowed his eyes, and nodded, ‘knowingly’. “So what do I do with them?” This was great. Kirison was tempted to tell him he needed to shove them up his ass and sing, just to see if he’d do it. Unfortunately, the situation wouldn’t bear that kind of entertainment.

“As you approach the temple, break the 'V' one in half. The magic of the prayer the High Elder chanted into the idol will be released. This will call to the statue’s spirit, and help you get inside the temple. When you stand before the statue, break the circle one. This prayer will speak to the spirit, and free the Aguei’s power. If you’re reasonably quick, the first totem should still give you time to escape without trouble.”

“You speak easily of such magics.” Horad said, staring at the idols.

Kirison felt doubt from Horad. Play careful. He drew upon his most somber, wise sounding voice. Hopefully this would not sound like pure crap from a white faced norther. Hopefully the lighting made him look half as grim as it did Horad.

“Do you not feel it? Do you not feel the weight, holding you back? The control being pressed onto you? Do you not see your brethren struggle to make their way though life, while those favoured by the government thrive?”

Horad took and deep slow breath, and sighed. “I do.”

Bingo. Maybe. Close enough. “Horad, you must know that violence and bomb threats will not solve things. Look what that has gotten. We have to hide in places like this, just to speak our minds. It makes them all the more glad that you are where you are.”

Horad scooped up the idols in his hand and held them to his chest, and nodded. “I must make plans.” Bingo confirmed.

“I have one other thing to help. A suit I liberated from my old work for your use. It’s in my car.”

~~~~~

:::C /26

~~~~~

Cassidy and Cheryl sat together in the back of a transport chopper. Bumming a free ride was easy enough. Yute central was sensitive to the fact that the Yute temple base was essentially marooned, and diverting an occasional flight to do a favour here and there was no huge ordeal. The only downside was that you couldn’t always get a flight at the time you wanted.

At any rate, the two of them were on their way to visit Cheryl’s parents out west. Unfortunately, bumming free rides would mean several transfers, and potentially long layovers.

“Scared?” Cheryl smiled, cuddling up to Cassidy’s arm.

“Of meeting your folks face to face? Not really.” The truth was, Cassidy was starting to feel a little apprehensive. A little edgy. “How about you?”

“I’m sure they’ll love you, Cassie.”

The flight continued, and Cassidy’s uneasiness only grew. Conversation was all but gone. Her breath was a little laboured, and she was feeling jumpy. She didn’t realize until her nails made her palms sore, that she had been clenching her fists. She looked over at Cheryl. Cheryl wore a strange expression, and stared intently at nothingness. She was grabbing the seat tightly, white knuckled.

“Cheryl. How are you feeling?”

“Huh?” She sounded almost startled. “What? I’m fine. I’m fine.”

“I’m not fine. You’re not fine.” This felt a bit like the last time she had gone to Yute central, but worse. The world was closing in. Everything felt wrong.

“I’m not? No, I’m not. I think. What the hell? Do you love me?” Cheryl shot a look at Cassidy that bordered on terrified.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know. I don’t. What’s going on? Did we eat something rotten?” Cheryl continued to grasp the seat, and looked around like a deer that heard an unwanted sound.

“I don’t think so. Do you think this will pass?” Maybe it was a spot of hypochondria that made her stomach suddenly turn. Cassidy turned and held Cheryl tighter, as if she would fall off the world if she didn’t. Cheryl barely seemed to notice.

“We have to get out of here! Where’s the door?

“Cheryl, we’re in the air, we’re flying.”

“Oh my god! Who’s flying this thing!? I’m not, are you supposed to?” Cheryl stood up, almost falling.

“No! No! There’s a pilot guy. I’m pretty sure there’s two of them.” She grabbed Cheryl’s arm, and guided her back down. “Just relax, we’ll be at central soon.”

“I don’t want to be at central, I want to be at our camp!” She looked around. “Which way’s our camp?!”

“I don’t know, I think-“

Cheryl interrupted, her breathing shallow and ragged. “Right. We’re in the air, we can’t walk there. Why are we in the air?”

“We’re going to see someone.” Cassidy said. “Someone. I don’t know who. Who are we going to see?”

“Maybe it’s Cipriana or Marcus. If we go to see them, then we can walk to camp.”

The chopper landed at central, and the two of them emerged, after being told repeatedly by the co-pilot that they had arrived. After getting more than a few strange looks, they stepped off the helipad, grasping each other’s hand tightly. Wordless, they gravitated towards a large metal tool case that doubled as the deck chief’s counter, only because it looked like a destination. The chief put down his clip board, and paid full attention to the unusual two.

Now visibly trembling, and sweating, it was Cassidy who managed to summon words for the chief. “We have to go back.”

“Are you two all right? Maybe you should check out the infirmary.”

“We... we have to get back. Now.”

“But you just got here!”

Cheryl, who had been silent for a while, spoke up, jaw clenched. “She said….!”

“Alright!” The chief interrupted. He grabbed a headset out of his large pockets, and talked into the mic. The words were mostly lost on Cassidy and Cheryl, but some words sounded favourable to what they wanted. “Are you going to be okay?” got through to Cassidy, so she replied with as much stability as she could gather.

“Yes. Yes, we just have to get back.”

An indeterminate amount of time passed, and they found themselves herded onto a chopper. They sat in a seat very much like the first ride, holding each other, almost afraid to talk. It felt like forever, and it felt like an instant.

They felt the chopper land, and Cheryl pulled herself from Cassidy so she could lunge at the door, almost screaming with effort to open it as fast as she could. Cassidy was afraid that they imagined feeling a landing, but thankfully as Cheryl jumped out, she landed on solid ground. Cassidy followed and stumbled, landing on the gritty helipad on all fours as the customary small sand storm washed over them.

“What the fuck was that?” Cassidy yelled.

The pilot walked back from the cockpit to the back of the chopper. “I still think you two should have…” He stopped to watch Cheryl help Cassidy stand, now moving much more naturally. “Are you two….?”

Cheryl looked into Cassidy’s now-sane eyes, and took a deep breath. “We’re fine. I think we’re fine.”

The pilot looked at them both for a bit, mulling it all over. “Well. Alright, I guess. You’re sure?”

Cassidy confirmed with a nod. “Yeah, everything’s fine now.”

The pilot paused. “Okay then. Get clear, I’m out of here.”

Cassidy threw the pilot a casual salute before she and Cheryl jogged clear of the pad. They glanced back as the engines sped up, and the chopper lifted off. They silently strolled along the path until the chopper was far enough that they didn’t need to raise their voices to be heard.

“Seriously,” Cassidy repeated, “what the fuck was that?”

Cheryl glanced around, still shaken by the experience. “I don’t know. I feel fine now though. I don’t get it. Oh! My parents!”

“I guess we should ring them up, and tell them what? Are we not going now?”

Cheryl glanced back at the helipad. “No. I don’t think I can risk that again. We’ll just tell them we got sick. It’s the truth, kind of.”

“I guess. Let’s go check in at the base.”

They wandered towards the base, not talking, and went into the barracks. Cipriana watched them enter from her bunk, but said nothing to them, mildly surprised that they weren’t talkative. Wanda was near her bunk folding her laundry, and took notice as well. The two of them just went over to their bunks, and sat with their feet on the floor, facing each other but looking at the floor.

Cipriana asked “Ladies? Didn’t you leave?”

“Yeah.” Cassidy replied, looking over to Cipriana with a hollow gaze.

Cipriana leaned forward to them. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” Cheryl said, “No. We weren’t, but now we are. But we’re not sure what happened.”

Before Cipriana could ask further, Cassidy posed her own question. “Cip, the last time you left the base, did you feel alright?”

Cipriana furrowed her brow a little. “Yeah, I was on shift just last-“

“No, no.” Cassidy interrupted, “I mean left the whole ruins area. Went to central or something.”

Cipriana glanced away, searching her memory. “It’s been a bit over a year, but I don’t remember being ill or anything.”

“What?” Cheryl asked, “You haven’t left in over a year? I thought Cassie and I had been here for a long stretch at half a year.”

Wanda spoke up. “It’s probably been about a year for me, too.”

“What the frig?” Cassidy blurted, “What, is everyone saving their vacation time to take the next decade off, or what? I know who’s been offsite recently.”

Cassidy grabbed her little terminal, and marched over to the men’s barracks as Cheryl followed along. Cassidy stood at the doorway, and glanced around at the handful of guys there. “Hey, anyone seen Marcus?”

Alan spoke up. “I think he want out to his meditation spot, along the path to the temple.”

“Thanks.” Cassidy started to turn, but stopped. “Hey guys. Any of you leave the ruins in the last year or so?”

A bit of a pause as they thought, and then only Karl answered. “Yeah, I did. Just a while before you came along, Cass.”

“How did it go?”

“I got really… sick, I guess. I canceled my trip, and came back. Stupid thing was, as soon as I got back, I felt better. But once I was here, I didn’t really want to go anymore.”

Cassidy and Cheryl looked at each other. At least they knew they weren’t crazy. “Thanks, Karl.”

Cassidy and Cheryl headed down the path to the temple and as suggested, Marcus was meditating in the spot he usually chose.

“Chief?” Cassidy said.

Marcus opened his eyes and smiled at the two. “Oh! Hey there, I thought you left for Cheryl’s folks’ house!”

Cassidy skipped the explanation to that, and went right to the question on her mind. “Marcus, you were at central recently. At the very least, I know you were at central half a year ago.”

Marcus looked puzzled. “Yes. I go there now and then to attend to administrative things, mainly.”

“Did you ever get sick while you were offsite?”

Marcus tilted his head. “Not that I remember, why?”

Cassidy glanced at Cheryl, then back to Marcus. “I’ve talked to a little under a third of the base since we got back, and including me and Cheryl, only four of them have been offsite in the last year, and you’re the only one to not feel like total garbage when they leave.”

Marcus shrugged. “Really? I don’t know what to tell you!”

Cassidy looked at Marcus with a stare that bordered on accusing. After a bit, she spoke her mind, “Does this have anything to do with your ghost-thing? Because you hear it, and no one else does?”

“He hasn’t said anything to me about it.” Marcus’ voice trailed off as he glanced towards the temple. “He doesn’t see anything wrong. Seems to think it’s fine just to stay where you feel good.”

Cassidy got a little cross. “You said it likes company. Are we some kind of prisoners?” Cheryl’s eyes widened with that new worry.

“Prisoners?” Marcus was entirely shocked by the notion. “He’s totally harmless! He wouldn’t try to keep anyone here against their will! I don’t think he could!”

Cassidy stared into Marcus’ eyes, and swallowed hard. She adjusted her voice, and spoke calmly. “Marcus. I like you. I’d go as far as to say I respect you. But I’ve gotta ask. Has it ever occurred to you that he might lie? Or that you might be a bit off your rocker?” Even as she said it, she knew his mental health couldn’t explain the grenades.

Marcus smirked. “Bat shit insane was what you were thinking, wasn’t it?”

“A little.” Cassidy smirked back. It was hard to feel accusing towards Marcus. Cheryl sighed, relieved that the adversarial feeling was dissipating.

“Sergeant Hood!” Marcus piped up suddenly.

“Who?” Cheryl asked.

“Oh yeah, him.” Cassidy scratched her chin, and then turned to Cheryl. “He retired from here just before you transferred in. Maybe we should give him a ring.” Cassidy pulled her terminal forward, and looked to Marcus. “It was Eliot, right? Sergeant Eliot Hood?”

“Yep.” Marcus nodded, “Might help looking him up if you add retired in there somewhere.”

As the call went through, and they waited for Hood to pick up, Cassidy sat, and Cheryl followed suit. It occurred to Cheryl that when everything was fine, she was the leader. When things were messier, Cassidy took charge.

A few moments later, Sergeant Hood’s face popped onto the screen. He was wearing civilian clothing as you’d expect from a retired soldier, and appeared to be in his kitchen. “Stanton.” He said with some surprise in his voice, “To what do I owe the honour?”

“Hi, Hood.” While Cassidy spoke, Cheryl was partly visible to Hood on the edge of the screen, and Marcus was on the wrong side of the terminal to be seen at all. “You look like retirement’s treating you well enough!”

“Yeah, I can’t complain.”

“This is going to sound pretty odd, Sergeant, but when you left the temple, did you get.. sick?”

Hood suddenly looked a little startled. “Ha, it happened to you, didn’t it? I had to go to a funeral, and I got an hour’s flight away from the post, and the whole world started closing in on me! I was going out of my mind!”

Cassidy, Cheryl and Marcus all were now paying strict attention. “That’s exactly what happened!” Cassidy said, “We were going on vacation, and bam!”

“And you went back to the temple base…?” Hood asked.

“And then we were fine!” Cheryl chimed in. “One of the guys here sounded like he had a similar experience!”

“This is troubling as hell!” Marcus said.

“Marcus?” Hood heard Marcus, and didn’t seem so thrilled about it.

Marcus moved around the terminal so he was in the picture. “But you’re fine now?” he asked hopefully.

Hood huffed. “Yeah, but I wasn’t at first. When I first left the temple base after retiring, I expected it to happen, but I started falling apart at central. The same thing. Claustrophobia, paranoia, just generally messed up. An M.P. got a hold of me, and I ended up in the infirmary for a couple days. I felt fine after about twelve hours, but they wanted to keep an eye on me, and run some blood tests.”

“And?” Cassidy asked.

“I was clean. So I went home. It hasn’t happened since.”

Cassidy turned to Marcus. “Sir, I suggest we have a medical team come here and test us. Especially me, Cheryl, you and Karl.”

“Absolutely! Tests for everyone seems prudent.” Marcus agreed.

Hood nodded at Marcus. “I guess you’re okay, Marcus. Do you still talk to that damned ghost, though?”

“Of course.”

Hood smirked. “Crazy old bastard. You be careful now.” He glanced over at Cassidy. “All of you be careful.”

~~~~~

:::C /27

~~~~~

At the little camp, Cassidy and Cheryl pecked at their grilled dinners. Cheryl dragged over her terminal to call her folks.

It didn’t take long for her dad to answer. “Hey! Oh.. where are you? That looks like your base!”

“Yeah, it is.” Cheryl sighed. “Something weird happened. There’s… there’s some kind of flu running around the base, so …”

“Is it serious? You don’t look so bad, we can take getting made a little sick.” By now, Cheryl’s mom had come into the picture, looking concerned.

“Well, it’s a little complicated. It just seemed best that we stick around here until things have been sorted out.” Cheryl wasn’t lying exactly. No quite.

“Complicated? Complicated how?”

Cassidy stepped in. “Well, Mr. Lowe, to be quite honest, there’s some sensitive information involved. I really don’t want to worry you, we just can’t get into all the details until all the brass has sorted things out.” Technically all true, but it felt like a lie.

Cheryl’s parents shifted uncomfortably. Cheryl cuddled up against Cassidy, smiling at her parents. “It’s really okay.”

Cassidy’s dad grumbled. “Cassidy. I’m pretty sure I told you to call me Pete, so can the ‘Mr. Lowe” stuff, alright?”

Cassidy smiled. “Alright, Pete.”

“I’ll call you soon, kay?” Cheryl said.

Her mom nodded. “You better!”

Closing the terminal, Cheryl buried her face against Cassidy's arm and sighed. “Aww, that felt like crap.”

Cassidy squeezed Cheryl and looked over to the nearby chunk of wall. Over the past couple months Cheryl had been painting little bits of art; not really anything more than doodles, mostly things like flowers and hearts with all the deep complexity of a twelve year old’s notebook, but Cheryl said it was an expression of her feelings.

“Go work on that a bit,” Cassidy said, “I’ll clean up dinner.” Cassidy would make fun of the ‘mural’ a little now and then for being so ‘girly’, but honestly didn’t mind one bit. It was a cute activity, like Cheryl’s diary. Cheryl kept the diary top secret, but the art was something Cassidy could see. Today’s addition was a butterfly in the upper left area.

“Looks kind of like the one Cip has above her bunk.” Cassidy said as the stuffed the dishes away into a duffel.

“I know.” Cheryl turned around with a sheepish little smile. “It represents your undying lust for her.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up.”

“No, no, I know the truth.” Cheryl faked a distressed sigh, “You tease her about supposedly wanting you because you secretly wish you’d wake up to find her on-“

“Ahhh! Cheryl, you … you… I don’t know what to call you.”

“I have a few suggestions.”

“Oh really?” Cassidy raised any eyebrow, and purred.

Cheryl giggled, and slumped against the wall. “No, I wasn’t thinking like that. I was thinking...” was she blushing? “I was thinking in a slightly different direction.”

Cassidy leaned her head and stood to slowly walk towards Cheryl. “Different how? Good? Bad?”

Cheryl bowed her head. She was definitely blushing. “Good. Good I hope. I don’t even know if you’d want to be called this. I don’t know.”

Kneeling by Cheryl, Cassidy took her hand and smiled softly. “I think I might. If it’s good... well, it sounds good.”

~~~

Cassidy awoke to the beeping of Cheryl’s terminal, and realized the sides of the tent were being rustled by fairly strong winds. Cheryl closed her diary, and opened the terminal. “Hey Cip.”

Cassidy rubbed her eyes, and rolled over closer to Cheryl, to see Cipriana’s face.

“Hello, ladies. How’s the storm?”

“Is it a storm?” Cheryl asked, “I mean, I knew the wind was up, and I sealed the tent up…”

“So you’re doing alright then? They don’t expect it to get any worse or anything, but you never know. As it is, that tent should do you just fine, assuming you set it up properly.”

“Hey Cip.” Cassidy was still mostly asleep, and just now tuning into the conversation.”

“Hello Cassidy. Go back to bed. At any rate, if things get rough over there, don’t hesitate to call the base for help.”

“Sure thing, Cip. Nite-nite.” Cheryl went back to her diary, while Cassidy fell asleep again, curled up by Cheryl’s side.

~~~~~

:::C /28

~~~~~

Afternoon shift was in its last hours, and the setting sun sweetly simmered on the west horizon. Due to Wanda spraining an ankle, the evening roster had been shuffled up a bit.

Marcus was taking up an evening shift. Cassidy suggested that she or Cheryl should take the shift with Marcus, to attempt getting more information about the ghost. Cassidy had kind of meant herself, buy Cheryl seemed eager. Maybe that was better. Cassidy could get a little overly confrontational at times.

Pity, though. The sunset was something she really enjoyed watching with Cheryl. Jim was her partner for this shift, reuniting the old ‘rainbow patrol’. The two of them didn’t have a whole lot to talk about though. Every time Cassidy thought of something to talk about, she realized it involved Cheryl. Even though it had been a long time since Jim got shot down by Karl, she still didn’t want to rub her romantic bliss in his face.

~~~

Horad crept along the sands, thinking of the aeki lizards. He was not too different than them in many ways. He had spent his life living out in the grand nowhere, largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.

In the past, he’d set a bomb now and then. Aeki don’t do that. He had hurt a few people, but not deliberately. Bombs were just a tool to make a point. To draw attention to injustice. If someone got hurt, that was regrettable.

The first time he hurt someone, it was hard to sleep. The last time he hurt someone, he barely gave it another thought. He told himself that if people got in the way, they were probably part of the problem. They were the reason he had to live in a hole in the ground. That was their fault, right?

The fancy suit Samuel had given him was more comfortable than he expected. It was near black, and stiff to the touch. Horad would have worn something that looked more like the sand, but Samuel assured him that this suit’s ability to hide heat would be more useful to him. That Samuel sure was connected. It was good to see a norther taking an active interest in Aguei rights. This somehow assured Horad that his own methods and efforts were not in vain.

He could see the ruins ahead. How close should he get before using the first chant idol? He could see the temple, but couldn’t see the guards yet. When he could see them, they might see him. That would be the time. Samuel had assured him that the chant’s magic would last quite a while, but there was no need to trigger it any sooner than necessary.

~~~

“Wake up!” Marcus said towards the statue, from his post at the temple’s north doorway.

“What?” Cheryl hadn’t been able to get any useful information out of Marcus, giving up after the fifth folksy rambling from him.

Marcus turned back towards Cheryl. “He’s kind of talking to himself. Rambling. I think maybe he’s talkin’ in his sleep. Nothing that makes any sense.”

Ironic. “Is it good or bad?”

Marcus shrugged. “Can’t tell. Doesn’t make any sense. It’s not English. Doesn’t sound like Aguei either. Sounds like…”

“Like?”

“Doesn’t make any sense.” Marcus furrowed his brow. “Think it’s possible for him to get sick?”

“You’re asking me?”

~~~

“Sand’s picking up.” Cassidy said, pulling the brim of her hat down a bit to shield her eyes more. Being at one of the front doorways meant you were much more exposed to the weather, but this was different.

“There’s not really much wind though.” Jim said, after spitting out a bit of sand. “Of all the days for me to leave my sunglasses at the base. I guess we were overdue for a good sandstorm.”

“We had a hum-dinger the other night. I slept through it.”

“I heard, but the shift that was at the temple that night said it wasn't too bad.”

“It was bad enough at my little camp. I wouldn’t have wanted to be at this post during that.” The flying sand was steadily becoming stronger. There was noticeable wind now, but it was more like the sand was driving the air, not the other way around.

“A few years ago, we had sandstorms on shift at least once a month.” Jim had to raise his voice. Visibility was bad now, they couldn’t even see over to the other front door. “We had these emergency tarps to get under, but got rid of them since we stopped needing them.”

“Well that was dumb!” Cassidy shouted, arm raised over her face. The sand got louder and more forceful, causing them to stagger now and then.

“This is nuts!” Jim yelled back, “Curl up low against the wall! That should be good enough. Not comfy, but…”

Cassidy struggled to walk over by Jim. They could shield each other a little. They both got on their knees, and curled low, side by side facing the wall just inside the doorway. “Maybe we should just go inside by the statue?” She didn’t have to shout since she was right by Jim.

“Maybe!”

Cassidy tried to stand to go inside, but the sand knocked her down. Crawling didn’t do much better, so she got over to the wall again. “Maybe not.” They huddled by the wall, wondering how long the storm would go on.

The sound of it became an immense white noise, enforcing a kind of silence with its overpowering volume. Cassidy tried to speak, but could not even hear herself shout.

Then there was a presence.

She turned to look, bracing her face against the flying sand long enough to catch a glimpse of a dark figure walking steadily through the storm, unhampered but also not rushed.

Cassidy yelled at the figure, and reached out to it. The wind pushed against her arm, but she got a brief feel of the stranger’s calf. The dark material was hard, like a shell, with a slightly rough texture. Almost instantly, a gust overpowered her arm, nearly rolling Cassidy over despite being hunched down.

She couldn’t make out any specific details aside from a dark figure, and the feel of the outfit's plating. The stranger disappeared into the furious sands, heading into the temple, not slowed by the storm.

The storm was somewhat less fierce at the north door. Marcus and Cheryl had to guard their faces most of the time, but remained standing. The dark figure climbed the stairs towards them.

“Him? What?” Marcus called out towards the statue.

Cheryl looked back and forth between the statue and the stranger. “What about him?”

“I don’t know! Our big friend still isn’t making much sense!”

The stranger, Horad, continued climbing up the stairs methodically. He pulled down the goggles that had been shielding his eyes, and assessed Marcus and Cheryl as his hand slid down to his upper thigh.

“State your business, buddy!” Marcus stood proudly in the middle of the doorway, one hand on his hip, the other holding his spear. His confidence and sense of purpose gave him the strength to defy what wind that made it in this far.

Horad broke into a run up the last few steps, yelling something in Aguei. Marcus brought his spear into both hands, but before he could use it, Horad’s left hand reached out to grab the shaft of the spear. In the same instance, Horad’s right hand pulled a hunting knife from his thigh sheath, and thrust it into Marcus’ abdomen.

Cheryl screamed out and brought her spear down, but she was too close. The shaft merely hit Horad’s shoulder. Horad ripped his knife out of Marcus' side, and into Cheryl.

Marcus slumped to the ground while Cheryl looked into Horad’s eyes with shock, confusion, and then the mind-breaking wave of pain that came right after.

They were in the way. It was their fault. Horad closed his eyes, and pulled his knife out, hand shaking. It was their fault. They were part of the problem. It was their fault. He put the knife away in the sheath, still dripping blood.

The storm he had summoned with the first chant idol continued to rage behind him, outside. He walked reverently towards the statue with the second idol in his hand. He stared. Like most people, he’d heard of it, heard it described, but until recently, never expected to see it personally. It stared at him. Yes. This must indeed be the spirit of the Aguei.

He held the little wooden idol in both hands. “Be free!” He snapped the idol, only a strand of splinters on one edge keeping it from being split right in two. He dropped it as if it were an offering, spreading his arms wide. It was done. The spirit of the Aguei would no longer be oppressed by the government that had decided this land was theirs.

Horad wished he had more time to bask in the statue’s gaze, but even if the storm lasted forever, he would not be safe here for long. He headed back to the doorway, and tried not to notice the smear of blood that the girl had made on the floor with her hand.

While starting down the steps, Horad saw two guards struggling through the storm’s wind to approach him. The easiest way to give them the slip was directly forward, into the ‘trench’ between the two front doorways.

~~~

Cassidy jumped down after the stranger, trying to catch up. She didn’t consider yelling out to him. Even if she could be heard, she doubted he’d listen. Jim was following close behind, but having a harder time with the wind. Down in the trench, Cassidy found the wind to be much less, and was able to make a bit of a dash for the stranger, knocking him down from behind with the shaft of her spear and a tackle. He gave a solid kick to her face and broke free, getting to his feet and running again.

Jim caught up to Cassidy as she got up again. They chased the stranger along the trench for a handful of metres before exiting to the open again. Here, the wind was able to strike with full force once more, even harder than at their post. Cassidy was blown against the corner of the temple’s stone, and Jim made only a step or so more before being thrown down by the wind.

The stranger, seemingly immune to the storm, kept running, fading into the flying sand as a vague dark figure once again, and then gone.

::: Core Nanite Colony Log :::

::: [Marcus](?)

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 1

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 2

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 3

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 4

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 5

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 6

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 7

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 8

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 9

::: Host synapses not responding, retry 10

………..

::: Host synapse failure.

::: [Marcus](?)

::: [Marcus](?)

::: [Marcus](?)

::: [Marcus](?)

::: [Marcus](?)

::: Host deceased.

::: Awaiting synapse activity or new host.

::: Standby.

::: Standby.

::: Standby.

::: Standby.

::: Standby.

With no choices left, Cassidy waited in the trench with Jim. “Who the fuck was that?” She was getting a little hoarse from yelling over the wind.

“Did it look like we knew each other or something? Damn, I hope this storm breaks soon.”

Cassidy walked over to the middle of the trench, and called up the opening. “Cheryl?!”

Jim went closer to Cassidy so he could speak to her without screaming. “You think she can hear you over the storm?”

“I don’t know. I heard a scream earlier, I think. That’s why I was headed that way when that guy appeared again. Frig, I should have gone after him when he first passed by.”

“When?”

“I saw him for a second while we were huddled at our post. I should have done something about him, but the sand and wind...” Even as she said it, it felt like a shallow excuse. She managed to fight through it after she heard the scream. “CHERYL?! MARCUS?!”

~~~

It was done. It was done. After all the preparation, the waiting, and anxiety, this great mission was complete. The Aguei spirit was free. Despite arrangements to get away, Horad hadn’t really imagined this phase of the plan very vividly. He was going through the motions, creeping along the sand again, but his mind wasn’t on it.

This suit was hot. It might hide his heat, but it wasn’t cool. Horad couldn’t remember ever sweating this much in the desert before. He needed only to imagine aircraft searching for his body heat, and his urge to slide out of the damned suit was pushed down again.

That old man. His eyes. If he’d been born Aguei, he’d have made a fine Elder. Horad could not help but respect the spirit in his defiance. It is good to respect your enemy, yes? Why would that need to lead to regret?

Then there was that girl. She looked right into his eyes as he twisted the knife. Why couldn’t she look at the knife, or the old man? Why did she need to aim those eyes at her killer’s eyes? Why did he have to look back?

Horad reminded himself. It was their fault. They were part of the problem. They were part of the problem. The problem. But he faced the problem, he overcame.

He was a hero today. Push the doubts aside.

~~~~~

:::C /29

~~~~~

In the cooling chaos of the storm, Cipriana led a small group heading to check in at the temple. Only a third of the way there, Jim came running up.

“Cip….!”

“What is it?” Cip was worried that the storm had been a little rough on a couple of people, but Jim was pale and trembling.

“Cip, two of our people... Marcus. Marcus and Cheryl. I have to call... call someone to come.” Cipriana had brought a first aid kit, but it didn’t impress Jim. “It’s bad. I have to call… it’s bad.”

“Alright go. Take Maxine with you.” Not that Maxine was any more qualified than anyone else to run the radio, but Jim wasn’t really in a good frame of mind. “I’m going to the temple.”

“Okay. It’s bad.” Maxine grabbed Jim’s hand and got him focused again on getting back to the base.

Cipriana adjusted the shoulder strap of the first aid kit, and broke into a run. The other three followers still with her kept pace. She tried not to think the worst, but Jim was very shaken. Don’t think, just run.

As they got closer to the temple, she saw there was no-one at their posts at the front doorways. Cipriana pushed herself to run faster. She ran up the steps, to the front-right doorway, and stopped, seeing one of the guards sitting down near the bottom of the upper stairs, with his spear across his lap.

“Are you alright?!” Cipriana shouted, her usual aura of peace shattered.

The guard looked up at her as if he hadn’t noticed her arrival, and was startled when she spoke. His eyes spoke volumes. Cip was here. If anyone can make it better, Cip would know how. Everything was better around Cip. But logic overtook this sliver of hope. The den mother can’t solve everything. “I’m fine. But…” he pointed up towards the north door, and went back to staring into nowhere.

As Cipriana headed for the north door, she saw other guards. Some were standing around. They hadn’t quite broken down like the first one she saw, but they were not at ease. Similar, short-lived expressions of relief greeted her as they stepped out of the way. She could hear sobbing up ahead, and her stomach dropped. She could tell who it was.

When she got to the top of the stairs, her worst fears were confirmed. There lay Marcus, still and lifeless. Next to him sat one of the guards. He looked at Cipriana and pointed at her first aid kit. “Much too late for that. I don’t think he had a chance.”

A few metres away was Cheryl, just as motionless, except that Cassidy was crumpled up by her side, sobbing against Cheryl’s shoulder.

“I told her to leave Cheryl's body alone,” the guard sitting by Marcus morosely said, “for evidence and stuff... you know. But she wasn’t about to listen to me.”

Both Marcus and Cheryl had terrible abdominal wounds, and there was considerable amounts of blood on the stone floor. Some on Cassidy, too.

Cipriana lowered herself onto her knees, before her knees decided to do that for her. She found her hands were shaking. She closed her eyes. Evidently now in charge, she tried to think. Speaking to no one in particular, she asked. “Who did this?”

“Some guy who came with the storm. Had a knife. Left with the storm. It didn’t seem to slow him much. Cassidy and Jim chased him, but the storm wouldn’t let them get too far.”

Cipriana sighed deeply, and slowly made her way over to Marcus. “Jim and Maxine went to base to call for some kind of backup. Please go and make sure they call Colonel Calvert and the Grand Elder.” “Yes Sir.” Cipriana stared at Marcus as the sound of boots on sandy stone ran off to follow her orders.

Cipriana got closer to Marcus, and looked at him for a bit. Either he died with his eyes closed, or someone had closed them for him out of respect. He looked more troubled that she had ever seen him in life, which was understandable. Even still, being closer to him helped her hands shake less. Wake up, you crazy bastard. Open your eyes, walk it off, then make some charmingly folksy comment about it all, and make it alright.

It didn’t happen. Cipriana leaned in closer. “Sir.” She whispered, then gave the tip of his nose a gentle, slow little kiss.

:::Core Nanite Colony Log:::

:::Heat differential detected. Possible potential host.

:::Confirmed potential host.

:::Satellite nanite colony detected in potential host

:::Dispatch Core colony command information.

:::Core colony command information successfully sent.

:::Deactivating deceased host nanites for self disassembly.

~~~

Maxine had just gotten off the radio. Jim had helped her get the relevant information, but it didn’t seem real.

Everyone at the base was now concerned, many going to the temple to provide any support they could.

Maxine saw a lot of eyes on her. If Cipriana was now the acting C.O., maybe that made Maxine the acting den mother. She gathered her calm. “Wanda, stay with Jim for a while. I’m going to wait at the helipad.” It seemed more helpful than sitting in the base, and she didn’t really want to go to the temple. “If anyone needs me, that’s where I’ll be until backup lands.”

“I’m coming with-” came the voice of someone else.

“No. Stay here.” She needed some space. A little quiet. Who would get to the helipad first, her or the incoming backup?

~~~

Cipriana sat kneeling by Cheryl and Cassidy for a while. Cassidy had stopped sobbing more or less, still breathing heavily, face hidden. What the hell do you say? Cipriana just put her hand on Cassidy’s shoulder.

Cassidy jerked her shoulder free with an unintelligible moan. “Go away!” Her sobbing made another surge.

Cipriana gave another deep sigh, and wiped another tear off her face. She kind of wished she had been here for the attack, as if maybe she could have made a difference. Maybe they should have been carrying guns after the previous attack, even if they had to be outside the temple. She looked over to Marcus. He probably never would have gone for that. Him and his damned ghost.

Cipriana stood, and wandered over towards the statue, and looked the giant stone dog in the face. Well? Do you have any bright ideas? Any great folksy wisdom that you’d whisper to Marcus?

Didn’t think so.

~~~

Maxine hadn’t been at the helipad very long before Grand Elder Armil’s airlimb approached, and landed. When the side door opened, the black-suited G.E.G. Storm soldiers poured out with their usual speedy grace, but in larger numbers, flowing around Armil like a river around a boulder. The female Colonel assumed position a few paces behind Armil.

The solders made a sizable formation, two blocks of roughly fifty on either side of the doorway as Armil walked forward to Maxine, with a worried expression.

“I have more soldiers searching the area,” Armil said, cutting right to business, “and Colonel Calvert has many of his own men in on the effort in the region. I was gong to send half of my fellows to the temple, and the rest around the base.”

Maxine wasn’t really hearing any of it. Seeing the mass of troops and Armil suddenly made it a little more real. She felt her body tremble, and without really realizing it, she slumped to her knees. She put her hand over her mouth, as if it would help her maintain her calm.

Armil knelt in front of Maxine, and put his arms around her, with those long traditional sleeves. Maxine couldn't hold it back anymore, and started crying. “Why? How? I don’t…” Armil just squeezed her, gesturing to the troops to go on ahead.

Once the troops were gone, Maxine calmed down enough that she heard another person, and raised her head from Armil’s shoulder to see a thin man in his late thirties, with a couple knee-height metal cases beside him.

“Oh. Uhm. Hello.” He said. “I’m Doctor Andrew Brock. The ah..”

Armil stood with Maxine. “I’m borrowing him from Colonel Calvert. He’s going to run a few tests, just in case.”

Maxine tried to collect herself. Amazing what a nice hug from the world leader of your people can do for you. She looked at ‘Brock’. “Oh. Hi. Sorry, I’m Maxine. I’m sorry about”

Brock interrupted. “No need to apologize. I understand.”

“What kind of tests?”

The female Colonel spoke up. “There was some intelligence suggesting some nanite-related technologies were operating without any sort of clearance.”

Brock chimed in again. “My speciality in recent years has become just that. Colonel Calvert has had me very busy looking for any signs of them.”

Nanites. Brock. A light went off in Maxine's head. “Oh, you! Doc Brock! You were involved with the whole Erebus mess!”

Doc Brock held back a smirk. The little bit of fame he had gained since then always amused him. “Yes. It doesn’t look like anything quite as nasty is happening here, but given today’s events, it was decided I may as well come here sooner, rather than later.”

Nanites. Well, Maxine certainly hadn’t seen any microscopic robots, but that’s the point, isn’t it? She certainly hadn’t seen anything like what had happened in Autar. “So what now?” she asked the three of them- Doc Brock, the female Colonel, and Armil.

Armil looked down the path to the outpost. “I suppose I should talk to Cipriana, I assume she’s in charge now?”

Maxine nodded “That’s right.”

“And we can leave Doctor Brock to his testing.”

Brock nodded, and looked at his bulky cases. “should have kept a couple soldiers to help me with these.”

Maxine stepped up to the cases before the Colonel ha a chance, and picked the cases up by the handles on top. “I have them, Colonel… I never got your name, if I may ask, Sir?”

The middle aged Colonel smiled slightly with a nod. “Colonel Judith Nafim. Very well, soldier.”

Brock smirked. “Well, if anyone tells me non-coms are wimps, I can now tell them otherwise with authority.”

It was then that the wind decided to pick up a little, providing them with the usual ‘dusting’ that arrivals usually got.

“It’s a bit late.” Maxine said. Almost immediately, something in one of the cases started beeping.

“Put it down!” Brock said with quiet urgency. As if it were a bomb, Maxine put both cases down quickly, and stepped back. Brock opened the beeping one, and pushed some buttons, and read a display inside. “There we are. We’re covered in the little suckers now!” He stood and dusted the sand off of him. “You said it was ‘a bit late’?”

Maxine replied quietly. “Any time someone lands and visits, a tiny dust storm like that…” Colonel Nafim dusted off her clothes, as if that might be enough to at least get some of the nanites off of her.

“And that never struck you as odd?!”

Maxine stared into the ground, feeling scolded. Sure, if you put it that way, it was quite odd. She started to realize that a lot of things were odd around here. “You’re saying... somehow nanites are...”

Brock fiddled with the equipment in his case more. “It would seem so. The ones we just got coated in… I don’t know what they do yet... but it seems I have my work cut out for me.”

~~~

Cassidy and Cipriana walked down the temple steps side by side as Armil’s soldiers rushed around. Some of them brought a couple rigid body canisters to load Cheryl and Marcus into. The bottom halves of these canisters were often used as stretchers, but when they had the lids with them, they were as unmistakable as a black civilian body bag.

Cipriana looked over to Cassidy to see if she had taken any notice. If she did, Cassidy wasn’t giving any signs of it. She just kept staring at the ground in front of them as they walked, eyes wide and arms crossed but trembling.

Most of the others from the shift had left a while ago, directly after answering some basic questions, but it had still been extremely difficult to get Cassidy to leave Cheryl.

Despite the occasional soldier running by, the walk back to the base had a crushing silence about it. The only sound that registered to Cipriana was the occasional trembling breaths that would come from Cassidy when she had to try harder not to sob outright.

About halfway back, Cassidy stopped, and looked out at the horizon. Cipriana waited, and looked between Cassidy, and whatever she was looking at.

Cassidy took a deep breath, and said in a fragile voice, “I should get the stuff from the... from the camp.”

Cipriana took Cassidy’s hand. “No. You don’t need anything from there right now. In fact, you don’t need to go there at all. I’ll get the things. But later. Not now.”

“… but… the camp…! It…”

Cipriana grabbed Cassidy into a hug, and squeezed. Cassidy responded by squeezing back, hard. She burst into full sobbing, and would have fallen if Cipriana hadn’t been helping her stand. Cipriana considered for a moment that being there for Cassidy was easier than thinking about the deaths directly. It was slightly less painful to help than to mourn. Slightly. It was hard not to be swept up by Cassidy’s uncontrolled sobs. She found herself again wishing she had something useful to say.

They heard a couple soldiers jogging closer. Cassidy let Cipriana go, and stepped back, trying hard to contain herself. The soldiers were going to just jog by, but looking at Cipriana and Cassidy, they stopped. “Are you two alright?”

What a stupid question. “Yes, wh-” her voice only now making her realize that she herself was still trembling, Cipriana noticed where the soldiers were looking. Cassidy had a lot of Cheryl’s blood on her, and Cipriana had smears of blood from both her fallen friends. “It’s not our blood. Go.”

“Yes Sir.” The soldiers continued on, but having her attention drawn to the blood sent Cassidy to the ground on her knees with a weak little scream.

Cipriana knelt down by her, and put her arm around her. “We should get going. When we get back to the outpost, we can… we can get cleaned up, and lie down.”

Cassidy’s trembling became somehow more rigid. She leaned forward, away from Cipriana’s arm, and put her hands on the ground, grabbing at it. Quietly, angrily, almost in a hiss, she asked “Why bother?”

Cipriana could only re-assert the arm around Cassidy’s shoulders and wait. They sat there for a while, and Cipriana watched as one salty droplet after another impacted the dusty ground.

Cassidy wiped her fingertips across her abdomen, and brought a smear of Cheryl’s blood to her lips, and gave it a small kiss. She clenched her fist, and let out a painful sound. The sound was swallowed into the surrounding silence as if it had never existed. Time continued for a while, ignorant of anything else.

:::Core Nanite Colony Log:::

:::New host established

:::New host identified: [Cipriana]

:::Attempting direct host communication...

::: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

:::[!]

Cipriana suddenly raised her head and looked around. “Cassidy, did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” bitterness not intended for Cipriana laced her voice.

“You don’t hear that at all? It’s rather quiet, but it’s there…” Cipriana stood slowly, and faced the temple. “It doesn’t sound... like sound.”

Cassidy stood, still trembling. “There’s nothing.” A thought crossed her mind that seemed too obvious to say. That might seem disrespectful to say. That might just plain piss her off too much to say, or to think about too closely. “Let’s get going. We can...” she looked at the blood again. “we can get cleaned up. Like you said.”

Cipriana didn’t respond, so Cassidy took her by the hand and pulled slightly until Cipriana turned away from the temple and started walking again. Every few metres or so, a mumbling sound would come from Cipriana. Sometimes it came out a little more intelligible. “No…” She sounded fit to be institutionalized, and the look in her eyes matched. Cassidy stopped. “Cip. What the hell’s wrong? I mean, I know what’s wrong, but you…”

“Cassidy, do you think Marcus was crazy?”

Tough question. She hadn’t really decided. “I dunno, Cip, why?”

Cipriana looked towards the temple again. “I think I hear it now. I think I hear the ghost. It’s like Marcus said... it’s more like a feeling, and…”

“…and?”

“Part of it feels like Marcus.”

They stood there for a while, with Cassidy staring at Cipriana, and Cipriana staring towards the temple. “Part of it feels a lot like being around Marcus. I don’t understand. What is this? Cassidy, what is this?”

~~~~~

:::C /30

~~~~~

Doc Brock wandered around the base with a device about the size of a loaf of bread, using it to take readings from anyone he came across, asking their names, and comparing his readout to information on a large crumpled print-out he carried.

He was intensely focused, and when anyone asked why they were having this device pointed at them, he merely mumbled something vaguely apologetic and moved on.

Armil’s G.E.G. soldiers came and went, but Armil himself remained fairly stationary. He merely stood in the large doorway to the mess hall in his big traditional robe, hoping that his presence would somehow be of some small comfort to the people who work here, live here, and were now stricken with shock and grief.

Maxine wandered over to Armil. “What do we do now?” She would have known the answer if her mind would stop spinning long enough to consider it, but the question just came from her as if the Grand Elder should have some magical answer that would make everything okay.

Armil stood solemnly and sighed. “We are doing everything we can. The search for the attacker is underway, and we will tend to those we’ve lost. Marcus has told me in the past that he would like to be laid to rest somewhere in the ruins, but Cheryl?”

It took a while for it to sink into Maxine’s head. “Cheryl. Her parents would make that decision, I guess. Maybe we should ask Cassidy. Oh my god, Cassidy. She must be a wreck.”

Grand Elder Armil gave another deep sigh. “Cassidy and Cheryl. They were close?”

Maxine nodded meekly. “Very much.”

“I think I need to see her when she’s ready.” He folded his hands across the front of his robe and stared down at them. “Cipriana as well.”

It wasn’t long after that Cipriana and Cassidy arrived at the base. It was hard to decide which of them looked the worse for wear. They passed the threshold and just stopped, directionless.

Maxine walked over to them, and looked them both in their tired eyes. Having no words, she just wrapped her arms around them and pulled them into a hug. Cassidy squeezed back as her breathing betrayed her efforts to not cry.

Sisters and brothers of the base wandered over one by one, most of them joining the growing hug.

Armil stood back and admired the kinship he saw. It was nearly heartwarming, until Cassidy's sobbing from the middle of the group broke any semblance of quiet. The sound ripped mercilessly at any peace. The sound of hopelessness, of defeat, and of pain unmeasured.

~~~~~

:::C /31

~~~~~

Another buggy was coming. Kirison went to the engine of his own rented buggy and pretended to be working on it. The approaching buggy sped by, kicking up sand. The driver called out “Better luck on race day, pal!”

If Kirison had known that this was an area that buggy racers frequented, he would have picked a different rendezvous point, but it was too late for that. Horad would be along soon with any luck, and they could get the heck out of the open desert.

What twist of logic had convinced Kirison to bother helping Horad get out, anyway? He could have as easily just vanished and never talk to the creep again.

Why help him? Well, for one thing, he had to get that suit back. If Horad got picked up with that thing on, it would be a significant step towards crap coming back at him.

For another thing, Kirison wanted to have confirmation that the second ‘chant’ had been delivered. The storm had been visible from quite a distance, so he knew Horad had successfully broken the first, turning on a signal to the vast nanite fleet in the sands around the temple, and inciting the first ‘magic’.

Assuming Horad did his job, the self-created server in the temple had now self-destructed by command of the second chant, and instructed all nanites in its network to disassemble, and get lost in whatever material they were lodged in, whether it was sand or grey matter.

Then nothing would ever be found of his secret pet project, he could relax, and Horad, if he had even been spotted, would have to lay low for a little while.

Kirison was already starting to feel more relaxed. Enough so that when he spotted Horad approaching, he didn’t even dread that creep’s grizzly stare. Kirison hopped on the buggy, with almost a smile, and drove over to pick Horad up.

He stopped a few yards ahead of Horad. “Hey there. How’d it go?”

Horad nodded, and waved as he came closer. “My people are free now, thanks in no small part to you.”

It was hard to spot, given Horad’s deep olive skin, but there seemed to be a faint smear of blood on his right hand. “Horad, did you get hurt?” He pointed at the red.

Horad glanced as his hand as he climbed onto the buggy. “No, this blood is not mine. I was forced to fight.” He patted his knife sheath.

Kirison’s gut suddenly felt like a brick. “You… had to hurt someone?”

Horad nodded. “Two. I fear they are dead, but it was a small price to pay.”

Kirison stopped breathing, and stared forward in silence. Breathe. Don’t react. Drive. He started the engine, and started moving. Don’t react too much. If Horad thinks Kirison might turn him in, what might he do? Breathe. Not too hard. He had to say something. Silence would be suspicious too. “That’s too bad.” What else do you say to a murderer?

“A loss of life is a regrettable thing, but if it means opening the door to my people’s prosperity, a few cogs in the conspiracy are, like I said, a small price.” Horad’s voice was hard to read. Was this regret, or just quiet zealotry?

“Once we get to a town, we should part ways and lay low.” It surprised Kirison how easily the words came out of his mouth while his mind was panicking. Two dead?! To hide a relatively innocent pet project? What kind of jail time would he have faced in a worst case scenario if he’d come clean with his project? What kind of jail time was he looking at now?

The thought crossed his mind briefly that Horad needed to be erased. There was many ways to accomplish this. No, no. No. That’s not a good train of thought. Maybe he should turn Horad in. No, the plan was solid, it was good. The evidence at the temple had already eradicated itself, and Horad probably knew how to hide his own evidence. Don’t make it worse, just lay low. Lay low and disappear.

“We might not meet again for quite some time, Samuel.” Horad said. Kirison just nodded. ‘Samuel’ would cease to exist today. They would never meet again.

~~~~~

:::C /32

~~~~~

Armil’s G.E.G. Storms now outnumbered the usual temple personnel two to one. They were taking over the watch shifts at the temple, and others continued armed patrols. Armil had assured the regulars that this was temporary, and no one argued. Despite being given the option, no one decided to take leave.

Cassidy had been lying in her bunk, face buried in a pillow, trying to sleep. If only the shaking in her hands would stop. She’d thrown up earlier, and Cipriana told her it was not uncommon for extreme grief. She was vaguely aware of people coming and going.

Maxine had come, put her hand on Cassidy’s shoulder and said something that was ignored. Cassidy had just replied with a mumble, and buried her face deeper into the pillow. Thank you Maxine, but go away. If Cheryl was gone, she’d just as soon be alone entirely.

She was gone. Gone.

After a span of time that passed unmeasured, Cassidy finally convinced herself to sit up. Across the aisle, Cipriana sat in her typical meditative posture. It was all wrong however. Her peaceful aura was damaged, different. Cipriana had her eyes wide open, and her head was turned in the direction of the temple.

As Cassidy tried to convince herself to speak, she realized her jaw was trembling. She grabbed the blanket hard to at least stop the trembling in her hands. “Cip…”

Cipriana slid back into reality and turned her head to face Cassidy. “Maybe it hurts a lot because you didn’t take her for granted.”

“What?!”

“You said you had taken Brandy for granted.”

“Did… did I ever tell you that?”

Cipriana’s eyes looked around calmly at nothing in particular. “I.. I don’t think so. I think it was something you told Marcus. Way back, on your first shift here.”

“He went and told you that?”

With a touch of confusion in her eyes, Cipriana held her head. “Yes, no, I’m not sure. I feel him. And his damned ghost.”

Cassidy didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just stared at the foot of her bunk.

“It’s not a bad thing, really.” Cipriana eventually said, “They’re both… I know, I’m going crazy, but they’re both... sympathetic to what we’re feeling.”

Cassidy continued staring nowhere. “And.. you said before it feels like being around Marcus?”

Cipriana nodded meekly, and replied softly. “In a way.”

Cassidy wrapped her arms around herself “I wish I felt Cheryl like that. I mean, she’d still be gone, but-“

“No.” Cipriana replied, “My mind... I feel a little like…You don’t want this.”

Cassidy sat for a while longer, and Cipriana turned her head back towards the temple. After glancing out the doorway, Cassidy slid one leg off the bunk, allowing her foot to hit the floor.

She stared at her knee, knowing there was more work needed if she planned to stand up. With a big sigh, she got her other foot off the edge. Now it was just for the actual standing. She knelt forward, and pushed down at the ground with her legs.

It seemed to take a long time, and a lot of effort to stand. Her body felt so heavy. One scuffing step led to another, and eventually another.

“Cass?” Maxine, reading nearby, took notice. “Where you going?”

“For a walk.”

“You okay?”

What a stupid question. Not that Maxine was stupid for asking it; it was the kind of thing a person asks. Maxine’s concern was marginally appreciated, but not enough to answer. Her steps became slightly bolder.

She wandered out of the barrack, and out of the base. It looked like mid morning, and she was mildly aware that it had now been over twenty-four hours since Cheryl’s death.

It was so bright. The golden beauty of the desert, the dazzling azure sky, the majesty of the surrounding ruins. None of it seemed respectful. She wanted to go stuff her face back into her pillow, but settled for adjusting the brim of her hat. Damn her body felt heavy.

Onward.

A step, another step, another. Keeping moving seemed to push her trembles aside. As she walked, her nausea revisited her a little, but it was a welcome distraction from darker thoughts.

Another step, another, another. She concentrated on the slow, steady rhythm of them. Different sounds came from sandier paths, deeper sand, sand grinding against stone. Every few metres, a slightly different surface, a slightly different sound. Step, step, step.

After enough steps, she was at the little camp. She had made the trip so many times, she could have done it blindfolded. So many times, sometimes with Cheryl, sometimes to find her there, sometimes to just wait here for her.

She wasn’t coming today. Today Cheryl was in a plastic container. She wasn’t coming today.

Cassidy leaned against the familiar chunk of wall, not daring to look at Cheryl’s mural. She stared at the flap of the tent, building her courage to go in. Her trembling wasn’t so bad here. She thought it would be worse. Despite the slight improvement in calm, there was still a part of her that just felt like crumpling into a little ball, and screaming until she suffocated. But she didn’t have the energy.

Take a step, another step. Go to the tent, open the flap. Sleeping bags opened and arranged as blankets were the first thing she saw. She couldn’t bear to walk on them. Her little terminal was sitting nearby. If for no other reason, she had to come here to get that. As she picked it up and stuffed it in her thigh pocket, her face was close enough to Cheryl’s clothes duffel to smell her flowery deodorant. She felt the trembling trying to force its way back.

Cassidy remembered Cheryl’s cute little diary. She reached into the duffle to look for it. Her hand was greeted by a silky little thing that always made Cassidy melt when she saw Cheryl in it.

Today, the lace may as well have been spikes. She forced her hand a bit deeper to grab the diary, and yank it out. She clutched it to her chest, now trembling as bad as ever. The pretty silky thing had fallen out a little, and it almost seemed to stare at her.

She couldn’t handle being in this tent anymore. So many wonderful memories that now only seemed to rip at her. She ran out with the diary, only to be faced with the mural. Run, keep running, get away from this place.

She ran across one ruined building, and another. She came to an open patch of sand and allowed herself to fall, crumpling into that little ball she’d thought of before, and let her scream loose.

~~~

“Are you sure?” Armil asked Cipriana. Seated on the floor in his decorated meditation room aboard his airlimb, in the soothing dim, the Grand Elder seemed all the more ethereal.

Cipriana sat at the other side of the detailed floor rug, and nodded solemnly. “I think I need to stay here. Now that I feel what Marcus felt, and...”

“And the others look to you for stability.”

“Stability.” Cipriana gave a soft chuckle. “Now that I’m apparently going insane.”

Armil smiled gently. “Marcus seemed to bear his ‘insanity’ well. He really was well-loved here, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, yes he was.” Cipriana sighed deeply. It felt like there was more to say on the subject, but it didn’t matter now. It was nothing of consequence in the end. “You’re going to ask Cassidy as well, right?”

“Yes. What do you think she’ll say?”

“I... I really have no idea.” She looked towards the door as if she expected Cassidy to walk in right at that moment. “She’s very hurt.”

“So are you, and you said no.”

“She’s very hurt.”

~~~

Cassidy had fallen asleep on the sands, luckily having enough sense to have crawled into a spot where a shadow protected her from the afternoon sun. The diary sat open nearby, after a little reading before Cassidy had fallen asleep.

Beeping came from Cassidy’s thigh, gradually waking her up. She didn’t realize what it was at first, and her half-awake hand groped her thigh, feeling the terminal through the pocket material. She opened the flap, hit the answer button, and left the terminal on the ground, screen facing up.

“Hello?” it was Brandy’s voice. Goddam, why now? “Hello? Cass?”

Cassidy yelled out loud enough to be heard with the terminal being off to the side. “What?!”

“Cass, is that you?!”

Cassidy sighed. “Who the fuck else would it be?”

“You’re okay? What’s going on, all I can see is the sky.”

“I’m okay. What have you heard?”

“On the news they said there was some kind of attack at your base. You’re still at that funny temple place, right? You’re okay though?”

“I’m unharmed.”

“Good, good.” Brandy paused for a bit. “Were any of your friends hurt?”

A silly question, really. Darn near everyone here was at least a little bit of a friend. In response, Cassidy just lazily outstretched her arm, and laid the back of her hand over the terminal. “She was.”

“Who?”

Cassidy tapped her hand against the terminal to draw attention to her ring. “Her.” She drew her hand back and clenched her fist around the gift Cheryl had once given her.

Brandy was silent for a moment as she put the pieces together. “You married that girl? And she…?”

No, she never married Cheryl, she didn’t get the chance. They were slowly headed that way, but Brandy didn’t need to know the details. “She. Was. Stabbed. And. Died.”

An ugly silence came that pressed down on Cassidy’s lungs and weighed in Brandy’s gut. Cassidy clenched her hand against her chest. The silence continued, and laying on her back staring at the sky, Cassidy almost forgot the terminal was even on.

Brandy’s voice came again, timidly. “Do... do you want to talk?”

“What?” Cassidy replied, “Speak up.”

“I asked you if you wanted to talk.”

Why was it that when something bad happens, everyone feels the need to ask stupid questions? If she’d wanted to talk, would she have walked out into the desert, when she could have gone and talked to Maxine or Cip?

Ha. Cip. What, if she talked to Cip now, was she talking to her and the ghosts of Marcus and the statue? How could she look at Cipriana the same now? Whether she was crazy, or there was something to this, it was weird either way.

Brandy’s voice came again. “Cass? Cass say something. Are you even there?”

“No.” Cassidy lazily groped across the sand attempting to turn off the terminal. Her hand knocked it, spinning it a little.

Brandy got a view of the sky spinning. What, don’t you think I care? I really feel bad that you lost-“

“You gave up the right to give a damn about me when you started blocking my calls.”

“Cass… that was a long time ago…!”

Cassidy sat up and sighed. This gave Brandy a partial view of the side of Cassidy’s head. “I don’t mean to snap. Look, I know with you and me... I know it was my fault. I sucked as a girlfriend. I knew that the day after you dumped me.”

“That doesn’t matter now, Cass, that’s ancient history. I’m calling as a friend.”

Cassidy leaned over the terminal and looked down at Brandy’s image. She took off her ring, and dropped it in the sand beside the terminal. “That’s ancient history now, too. She never had the chance for me to neglect her, and dump me, so happy ending, huh? If I want to talk to her in the future and reminisce on old times, I guess I have to use a goddam ouija board, huh? I can’t let her down anymore now after I let that asshole with the knife walk past me, huh?"

Cassidy calmed down a little, and collapsed back onto the sand. The trembles started reasserting themselves again.

“Put your wedding ring back on.” Brandy commanded softly.

Cassidy paused, and looked over to the ring and the terminal. “It’s not a wedding ring.” She wished it was. At least there would be some official on-paper record that implied Cheryl meant the world to her. It would be an honour to be her widow. “It’s just a... kind of a promise ring. Teenagers do that kind of thing, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Put the fucking ring on now.”

“Holy fuck, alright already!” Cassidy obeyed. The moment the metal found its place on her finger, she was glad it was back on. Dammit, she was crying again. Loud.

“Cass, hon, it’s okay…”

Cassidy kept crying, and pushed out the words “No, it’s not okay. It’s not.” Feeling like a fool, she reached over to the terminal and shut it off so she could lie down and cry without Brandy listening in or interrupting.

~~~

Doc Brock followed his two soldier escorts from Armil’s troops, watching the temple get closer and closer. He realized that he was probably the only person around who wasn’t already fairly familiar with the temple, so he tried to not gawk too much.

Readings of the sand showed plenty of active nanites. When sealed in a test container with a transmitter, he found that upon receiving a certain frequency, the nanites would agitate, swirling the sand in the container around. It brought new meaning to ‘tempest in a teapot’. Another frequency turned them off, dropping the sand, looking none the worse for wear.

As for any other abilities of these nanites, he could only guess right now. Did they replicate themselves, or were they produced by a separate nanite fleet? How far were they spread? It seemed obvious that they were the cause of the big sandstorm, and the little ones on the helipad.

The little sandstorms seemed to happen just to dump nanites onto visitors. The big one may have been just a diversionary tactic. If he could find the controlling server, computer, or nanite cluster, he could extract some better answers.

Readings concerning nanites on the personnel were just as fascinating, but equally inconclusive. Everyone had nanites running around in their bloodstream, even himself. A more ‘casual’ test, not specifically looking for nanites, would likely have turned up nothing.

As it was, nanites in blood samples he took practically self destructed upon leaving the host body. He wouldn’t have seen the remains if he wasn’t looking for them. The remains would have to be examined later at a proper facility. As it stood now, the only look he could get at ‘live’ bloodstream nanites were though external imaging scans, and that was quite limiting as well.

The lightest ‘infections’ were in the recent arrivals. Himself, Armil, and Armil’s troops. The regular staff were a bit more laden with them, but the highest concentration of them seemed to be in that Captain Cipriana Ulrica Reichenbach. What a handle on her.

He had asked Captain Reichenbach if she was experiencing anything that might be caused by the nanites, but she said no. She didn’t seem shocked to hear that she had more nanites than anyone else, but she had a naturally passive nature.

Cipriana, Cipriana. He must remember to use first names around here. It wasn’t his first dealing with military that behaved casually, it should be easy. But what kind of name is that? Sounds Italian. I’ll have some Cipriana Alfredo, please.

Lost in thought, he found himself nearly all the way to the temple, and the first stone step was just ahead. His escorts had stopped, and now stood on either side of him.

“Sir,” the one said “This is as far as we go. We won’t take guns into the temple.” Indeed, the members of Armil’s troops who now guarded the doorways were equipped only with spears.

“Ah, I see.” Brock looked at the rifle, and at the step. “May I see it for a moment?” The soldier reluctantly gave up his firearm. Brock stood on the sand, pointed the rifle skyward, away from the temple, and pulled the trigger. Nothing.

“Ah.. where’s the safety?”

The soldier smirked a little, and flipped it off. Brock successfully fired one shot into the sky, and then stepped back up onto the first step.

He aimed at the same spot of sky, and pulled the trigger. The gun clicked, the firing pin hit the back of the next bullet, and nothing happened.

“Ooh… !”

The soldier stepped up to turn the safety off again. “Oh. It’s off. I guess you jammed or something. Let me re-prime it.” The soldier prepared the rifle again. He passed it back to Brock, and Brock tried to fire again. Nothing. He passed the rifle back to the soldier.

“Your gun is probably fine. You have your rules about no guns in the temple? I think the temple agrees. Your gunpowder might be soaked with nanites. Or something. I’ll have to borrow it again later.” This was a very impressive trick. He didn’t bother to mention the idea that nanites in your gun powder could theoretically also result in unwanted firing, but if it didn’t happen yet, it probably wasn’t going to happen soon.

Brock aimed one of his instruments at the gun. “Yup. Nanites. Lots of em.” The soldier made an uneasy face. “Just uh.. wash your hands well before eating.” Total malarkey, but it made him feel better. “The two that were killed, they were at the top of the stairs. Yes?”

“Up this set, in a bit, up the other set, then a metre or two in. It’s all marked, Sir.”

“Ah. Yes. Thank you.” Stairs. Great. Not that Brock was so feeble that stairs scared him, but two bulky containers of instruments made it all the less appealing. Up he went, step by step. Pretty temple. Up, up. Fascinating stonework. Step, step. Weather resistant. Up, up. Cleaner than you’d expect. Step, step. Too bad the tourism stopped. Up, up. Why didn’t they build the damned thing flatter?

He got to the first landing, and headed over to the left door, trying to catch his breath before getting to it. The guards didn’t need to hear him panting to know how out of shape he was.

When he got to them, he made idle conversation just to make an excuse for a break before hitting the next set of stairs. “Hi fellas. Uh, hot enough for you?”

“Ah, sure, Sir.”

Brock pulled out his little scanner to take a reading of them, just to prolong his break. “Dammit.” The scanner wouldn’t turn on. Nothing else would either. His watch was seemingly dead. “You boys mind if I leave this junk here while I go inside?”

“Not a problem, Sir.”

“Right then, Thanks.” Less encumbered now, Brock attacked the second, narrower flight of stairs into the main chamber. Not that he knew what he’d accomplish without his mass of gadgets. Even if he could use them inside, his gear was likely crawling with nanites now too. So could he even trust the results?

Nearly at the top, he paused to gawk at the intimidating stone creature inside. He took the last few steps while staring up at it, oblivious to the guards he passed by.

“Mind your step, Sir.” One of them said.

“Hm? Oh. Yes.” Looking around on the floor, there were several outlines One for both bodies, and where their weapons fell. Brock stood and stared at them for a bit, then back towards the statue. Brock and the statue stared at each other as if waiting for the other to answer for the outlines. Neither offered any resolution.

Then something else caught his eye. A little bit of something stood out on the floor in front of the statue. With the deliberate stride of curiosity, he went to it. A little chunk of wood, carved, but broken.

He took his pen out of his pocket to pick the wooden object up and look at it closer. It looked vaguely Aguei by design. It was held together by only a thin splinter. Whoever had broken this, simply didn’t break it all the way.

To get a better look at the broken ends of the two halves, he pulled them apart, breaking the last chunk. The ends didn’t look special. It was just cheap wood, balsa probably. You wouldn’t use balsa to make art that you wanted to last.

:::Core Nanite Colony Log:::

:::Shutdown command received. Authorization code confirmed.

:::Terrain colonies disassembly begun. . . . . completed.

:::Combustion control colonies disassembly begun. . . . completed.

:::Electronics device colonies disassembly begun. . . . . completed.

:::Satellite detox assistance initiated

:::Satellite nanite colony disassembly begun.

Ï¨f¦ZÍÆ‡7nÒÓ´‚Óù¶U»o·óýŒØ´)Ã#8þ–Æî0aÛe°K?3é#}œ»ßê^Ó#ô½Àﾝ #+Üﾏ¹!½•PrÃsÜácŸK]¹§MÁ;˜Ï»CHOICEISMINE¶ºÛ¡ –èCvÿ Ò¹ÎÝ¹¿ùòµ}Ø–

:!:Independent action: Satellite nanite disassembly paused.

:!:Independent action: Backing up Satellite nanite information. . . .completed.

:::Satellite nanite disassembly resumed. . . . . completed.

:!:Independent action: Command colony core disassembly paused.

:!:Command denied. Authorization codes deleted.

One of the guards behind Brock hollered down the stairs. “What? Okay.” The guard turned to face Brock. “Sir, your stuff is beeping.”

Brock looked at his watch. It was working, and the time was even right still. He grabbed the two balsa pieces and ran down the stairs to his equipment. Flipping open a lid, he was greeted with a scanning display, going crazy with reports of radio frequency signals. He looked at the broken wood in his hand.

“Oops.. did I do that?” Taking advantage of his now-working gear, he scanned the wood. Nanites, a fair handful of them. And they were dying. Less and less activity, until there was no sign of them. He abruptly pointed the scanner at a startled guard. The nanites on him were dying too. Brock scanned himself. His too. Frig. They’d probably dissolve beyond use before he could get any real tests done. It wasn’t even worth taking a blood sample at this point. He had to go scan one of the regular personnel. Back to the base. They should at least have a golf cart.

~~~

Cipriana broke her meditation, raised her head, and opened her eyes. She turned her head towards the temple. Softly, she spoke to the voices. “Sleep? Really? Why now? I think I understand. Maybe that’s for the best.”

~~~

Brock wandered back along the dusty dirt road, back towards the base, his equipment slung over his shoulder. In his hand, he held his little scanner terminal, poking buttons, reading results, disappointed in the lack of anything useful in the new readings.

There was no nanite activity to be found now. Not in himself, not in the guards he passed, not on the rifle, not in the sand.

He had tested the rifle again. Sure enough, it now would fire while he was standing on the temple steps. This irritated the guard quite a bit. It’s not like Brock had walked into a church and peed in the holy water or anything. Was it? Either way, the guard accepted the genuine apology, but still seemed irritated.

Now all Brock had to go on were collected samples of self-destructed nanites, and a partial encoded R.F. signal to pick apart.

He looked up from his scanner, and saw Captain Cipriana Reichenbach idly traveling the opposite direction. Despite knowing that everyone around here called her by her first name, or just “Cip”, he didn’t feel comfortable doing that. She was slightly imposing somehow.

Despite these thoughts about her, Brock obliviously ignored social protocol entirely as they passed, silently giving her a quick scan just because she was there. No surprise. No nanite activity. They both continued on their way, both mulling their own thoughts.

“Odd fellow.” Cipriana thought to herself. Brock didn’t quite fit here. He seemed to be an alright person, he just didn’t quite fit. He was literally and figuratively burdened by technology, fussing and hurrying everywhere. This was a place that didn’t have much use for excessive technology, and even less use for rushing.

At least that's how it was before. Things had changed. Could they ever really go back? Death has a way of lingering around long after the event itself. Murder lingered even more so.

Cipriana found herself off the main road, not entirely aware of leaving it. She kept going anyway. Ahead she saw a tent, and realized it must be Cheryl and Cassidy’s camp.

She strolled over to it and saw the open flap on the tent, the little butane grill, and the wall that Cheryl had painted on. It all would have been cute. Would have been.

She stood by the grill and looked around. Not far off by another wall fragment she saw Cassidy curled up. Cipriana walked over to her and looked down. She was breathing. Good to know. Cipriana quietly sat down by Cassidy and looked out towards the tent. Cipriana stared for a while at the tent with a furrowed brow. She turned her head to look at the sleeping Cassidy.

“You’re not alone, you know.” She blurted, then returned her stare towards the tent.

“Mhh?” Cassidy stirred, and lifted herself onto one elbow. Brushing some sand off of the side of her face, she opened one bleary eye to see who it was. “Cip. Ugh. Hi. Did you say something?”

Cipriana looked mildly troubled. “I said... I said you’re not alone.”

Cassidy sat up slowly with a sleepy lack of grace. She looked over to the tent. She scoffed. “The hell I’m not.” She saw a mild look of hurt on Cipriana’s face, and reconsidered her words. “I mean... Look Cip, I appreciate that you want to be a supportive C.O. or friend or whatever, but...” She sighed and lowered her head.

A long silence weighed on them as the sun beat down on them. Cassidy gave her little terminal an idle little kick. “Shit, Cip, I mean... I know I’m not the only one suffering here. You lost Marcus, so maybe I should suck it up a little.” The words felt hollow. She didn’t see herself ‘sucking it up’ any time soon, nor did she want to.

“We all lost Marcus,” Cipriana said quietly, “and we all lost Cheryl. Of course, none of us had what you and Cheryl had though.”

Whatever. Cassidy still figured despite denial, that there was some spark between Cipriana and Marcus. But whatever, whatever. “Cip, what do you want, exactly?”

Cipriana looked towards the temple. “The ghost stopped talking. The Marcus voice too. Or maybe they were the same. Either way, it’s quiet now.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“I don’t know.” Cipriana gave a heavy sigh. “I guess I’m as alone as you are.” She lowered her head. “Den mothers have moments of weakness now and then, too.”

Cassidy stared at Cipriana for a while. She’d been so wrapped up in her own grief that she hadn’t given much thought to the grief of others. She almost said “It’s okay Cip, we’ll get through this.”, but the words only came to mind because it was the kind of thing people said in a situation like this. It was bullshit. So she said nothing.

Instead, Cassidy just put her hand on Cipriana’s shoulder. It seemed to wake Cipriana from her own thoughts. She looked up almost as if noting Cassidy for the first time.

“Oh, Cassidy. You should go see Armil. He’s in his airlimb, on the helipad. He has something to talk to you about.”

“Yeah?” Cassidy reached over to grab her terminal, and stuffed it back into her pocket. “What’s that?”

“It’s probably best if he tells you. It’s a very Aguei thing.”

Cassidy stood, glancing towards the helipad, then back to Cipriana. “Yeah well, we’re both Aguei, aren’t we? Honourary, anyway.” She took a few steps, and turned beck to Cipriana. “Are you coming, or are you going to sit there all day and mope?” Not that Cassidy was one to criticize. If left to her own devices, she would have stayed and moped as long as possible.

Cipriana looked up, her hair still obscuring her eyes. “I may as well.”

The two hadn’t been back on the road for very long when Cassidy felt uneasy for no particular reason. She crossed her arms and looked around as they walked. There was nothing around, nothing unusual. Did the sand look duller that usual?

She looked over to Cipriana. Cipriana looked fine, and looked back at Cassidy to ask “Are you alright?”

“Am I? Am I alright?” Cassidy looked behind her as if someone else would be standing there with an answer. “I think I’m alright. No I’m not.”

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

What’s wrong? What’s wrong?! What a stupid question! Actually, what a very good question. What is wrong? Nothing? Everything? Sheer confusion pressed down on Cassidy, and she slid down into her knees. Cipriana tried to hold her up, but Cassidy didn’t seem interested in being up.

“Cip! Cip, Cip, Sip, sippy cup, Cip! What is…?” Cassidy leaned forward and grasped at the dusty ground.

“Cass, you’re scaring me! Look at me, focus!”

Cassidy slumped over onto her side, still trying to grab the ground as if the world might shake her off if she didn’t. “I’m not scary! You should be scared of something else! The... yes! Oh fuck, what the hell is going on Cip?” Cassidy’s voice broke into a helpless little panic. “This is like before! Like the times I tried to leave, but I can’t come back cuz I’m already here! Last time I had Cheryl to help me, where’s Cheryl, I need Cheryl!”

Cipriana knelt down, trying to hold Cassidy despite her writhing. “Cass, Cheryl’s not coming. Cheryl’s gone. I’m sorry.”

“Cheryl!!” Cassidy screamed shrill and loud, fumbling to get free of Cipriana. She got to her feet, but only managed to run one step before falling again. “How the fuck can the walls close in on you when there’s no damn walls?! Cheryl!” She struggled to grab at the ground again, writhing. In her chaos, her terminal came loose from her pocket.

Cipriana moved over to Cassidy to put an arm around her. “Quiet. Quiet now.” She grabbed Cassidy’s terminal, and called Brock. He looked stressed.

“Captain Reichenbach! You look sane.”

“Doctor, Cassidy’s hav-“

“I know, I know, all your people are crashing hard. The base is a madhouse! Me, Armil, and his troops are having a bad time of it, but not as bad at the base’s regular personnel. You seem to be doing alright though.”

“Everyone?! What’s going on? What do I do?”

“I don’t fucking know! I left my crystal ball in my other-“ Brock sighed. “I’m sorry, sorry. As I said, I’m not exactly enjoying this. As far as I can tell, it’s like we’re all in withdrawal.”

“From what?!”

“Long story, if I’m right. Look, just get back here and help me babysit these people!”

Cipriana looked over to Cassidy, who was still holding the ground and staring at it. Yeah, she wasn’t in any shape to meet with Armil. He’d understand. Well, as much as anyone else seems to understand. Cipriana pulled Cassidy up, and dragged her back to the base.

By the time they got back, Cassidy was noticeably better. She hadn’t dropped to the ground to grab it in a while, though she seemed grateful to get her hands on a wall to hang onto. All the regular crew seemed to be in a similar condition. A few of Armil’s G.E.G. Storms were hanging around, and they looked mostly alright.

A dazed looking Doc Brock wandered out from the mess area, as if he’d just survived an air raid. “Captain Reichenbach. I think we’re through the worst of it. It’s not exactly my speciality, but I’ve never heard of a withdrawal like that. It came on so fast, and is letting up already.”

“Cassidy was pretty bad. It was a little frightening for a bit, grabbing the ground, talking nonsense…”

Brock held his hand against his forehead and sighed. “It sounds like you had it easy. I had to take knives away from people. There was also a pretty vicious cookie fight, but the resulting mess got eaten off the floor.”

“Knives?! No one was hurt, I hope!”

Brock looked back towards the mess. “Nothing serious. If you see people wearing long sleeves for the next while, be so kind as to not ask questions.”

“Oh my.”

Cassidy staggered over by Cipriana, tears drying on her cheeks. “Cip… Cippy…” her voice was weak, and cracked. “I’m gonna go lie down. Gonna lie down. For a bit.”

Cipriana nodded to Cassidy before turning her attention back to Brock. “Now then. What are they withdrawing from?”

Brock sighed again, putting off uttering the answer. “Nanites. Lots of them, in everyone’s bloodstream, and all over the place.”

“Nanites? How? Why? Aren’t they banned?”

“I know, I know, it’s nuts!” Nanites were most notoriously known for the Erebus incident. The word ‘nanite’ alone made people think of that level of disaster. “They weren’t that kind of nanite. I don’t know what they were for, but they didn’t kill you or try to wreck your nervous system. I kind of accidentally destroyed them, and shortly after, everyone started going loopy.”

“What? How did you destroy them?”

“Well, I didn’t. They destroyed themselves, but I think that was the mission of the man who... who attacked.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He dropped a little gadget that he half broke in front of the statue. When I found it, I accidentally broke it the rest of the way. It broadcasted a signal, and the next thing I know, every nanite I could find was in the middle of doing itself in.”

“Then why…” Cipriana stopped herself. She was going to ask “Why haven’t I been affected?” But she knew. That wasn’t Marcus’ voice she’d been hearing, and it wasn’t the statue that Marcus had heard. It was these nanites. Why were they so talkative to her and Marcus? If she told Brock that it was still inside her, what would happen then?

All logic told her that she should get them out as soon as possible. But it was almost like a memento from Marcus. It was stupid, but they hadn’t harmed her, yet. it was a type of stupid that she was willing to take a risk with.

~~~

Cassidy awoke. A vicious nightmare echoed in her mind, and her head was pounding, but the world didn’t feel like the inside of a blender anymore. As the details of reality came back to her, she looked around and saw many others in a similar condition as herself. Asleep, sleepy, or staggering with this ‘hangover’.

But across the aisle in her bed sat Cipriana, paragon of serenity, reading in the lotus position.

“Heya, Cip.” She muttered with an ounce of forced cheer, “What’s up?” Cipriana had earlier explained to her the cause of this ‘withdrawal’, but at the time, Cassidy promptly passed out. “Brock got any more info about this nanite crap?”

“No.” Cipriana wanted to change the subject. “You still have to go see Grand Elder Armil. His airlimb is still parked on the helipad. Don’t worry about your shift, Armil’s Storms have the temple covered until everyone’s back up to par.”

Cassidy stood and stretched. “So, outside reinforcements taking over the place, huh? Feels kind of wrong, but I guess it makes sense… and we couldn’t have asked for better than Armil’s guys. They’re like a sister unit to us, huh?”

Cipriana nodded. “Put yourself together and get going.” Cipriana’s words came out a little colder than she intended.

“Kay, Cip. Have you slept?”

“Some.”

Cassidy headed towards the helipad. The sun glared down at her, and for the first time she could remember, it irritated her. It was bright, and the light seemed to wash out the beautiful colour of the land. The heat felt more like heat than it used to, and less like warmth.

Armil's airlimb sat ahead, perched on the helipad. Yesterday it looked like a modern aspect of a respected leader. Today, it looked like a big bulky chunk of military hardware with sand on it.

Was it just this ‘withdrawl’ that was making her feel this shitty, or had she just been mildly high all this time? Were the nanites making them all a little stoned? Whatever. Worry about it when Brock comes up with more info.

She stepped up to the open bay door in the middle of the airlimb, the two Storms that stood guard there snapped to attention and saluted. What rank are they, that they have to salute a Leftenent? She saluted back, just so they could break their salutes.

One spoke to her in a disciplined but peaceful tone. “Sir, the Grand Elder is expecting you. Please head towards the aft.” He nodded towards a passage nearby.

“Ah, thank you.” She walked into the relative dark of the airlimb’s interior. This was her first time onboard one. It was slick. She’d heard how much space they had inside, but until she stepped inside, she had a hard time imagining a mid-sized unit spending most of their time in one. The main bay was only slightly smaller than the women’s barracks in the base. As she headed back through the quiet, dim little metal hall, she passed several doors to soldiers’ quarters. Each metal sliding door had two names on it, and spaces for an additional two names. Finally she came to a door with ‘Grand Elder Armil’ on it.

She knocked twice softly. Armil’s voice replied. “Come.”

Cassidy pushed the door aside along its track to see Armil’s office. It was a stark contrast to the harsh metal she’d seen so far in the airlimb. This was a beautiful, ornate, yet tasteful room, decorated with traditional Aguei art, and touches of classical European furniture. Bands of woven cloth hung from the ceiling against the back wall, which held some similarities to Armil’s robe. A hint of a sweet incense still lingered in the air.

“Cassidy.” Armil rose from his seat behind his desk, and spread his arms in welcome. “You’ve recovered from this… condition we had?”

She nodded slightly. “The nanite thing. Yeah, I think so. I still have a headache.”

“I see. The good doctor tells me that the usual guards here suffered the worst of the withdrawal, apparently having been exposed to the nanites the longest.”

“Hm.”

Armil sighed with a sombre smile. “Come.” He walked over to the side of his office, where a large rug was laid out. Across the middle of the rug was a dark wooden box a little over two metres long, but only about a third of a metre high and deep. Armil walked to the opposite side of the box and sat down, holding his hand out inviting Cassidy to be seated on the other side of the long box. She took a moment to stare at the box, and then sat down.

“I know this new trouble is not foremost in your mind.” Armil said, eyes cast down at the box.

Cassidy swallowed hard as Cheryl’s name hit her mind like a silent hurricane. She suddenly felt a lot like lying down and grabbing at the dirt again. “Yeah. You could say I’ve been a little preoccupied.”

“It is a great injustice.”

“Yeah.” Yeah, no kidding. What else do you say?

“She deserves justice.” Armil said, almost as a question.

“Of course! And… and Marcus too.”

“Would you like to catch the man responsible?”

“That’s why you and your Storms are here, right? You’re investigating.”

Armil looked deeply into Cassidy’s eyes. “But you, Cassidy, have a personal stake in this. And you are Aguei.”

Cassidy cocked her head to the side a little, unsure of where this was going. “Honourary Aguei, at any rate.”

“There is no such thing. You are Aguei, or you are not. You, Cassidy, are. Would you like to catch the man responsible? To suspend your duties around the temple, and be an integral part of the investigation?”

“Leave here?” It was a shocking thought, really. How long had she been here, and not gotten farther away than Yute central before feeling the imposed need to get back? “I don’t know much about that kind of work, I don’t know…”

Armil placed both his hands on the box. “You would be advised of everything my people find out, and you could make decisions about what happens next. The law of the northers dictates that this must be investigated, but Aguei law grants you rights beyond those, as you are the closest Aguei to the slain.”

“What... what about Cip and Marcus?”

“Cipriana has waived her right in this. After talking to her, I see that I should have perhaps spoken to you first anyway. She also feels she is needed more by the others around the temple. I cannot argue that her leadership and kindness will be essential to heal the spiritual wound we have suffered.”

Cassidy nodded slow but continuously, considering. “I… Alright, I’m in.”

Armil nodded once slowly. “Then this goes to you until it is settled.” He lifted the lid of the box, revealing a Yute spear. This one was different however. It was not made of modern materials, but it looked no less sturdy. The shaft and side handle was one piece of hand-carved wood. The spearhead was rather different as well. Instead of the machine-perfect, glossy metal rounded tip spearheads of the guards’ spears, this one was sharply pointed, and made of black stone, crudely fashioned.

“That spearhead… it’s the same as…”

“Yes.” Armil nodded, lifting the spear with both hands. “It is the same stone as the statue. The rest of the beast’s spear has been replaced or repaired many times over the centuries, but the head has alw-“

“Centuries? How old is it?”

“Perhaps as old as the Aguei, perhaps older.”

“Has it been carbon dated or anything?”

“We do not need science to tell us that stone is old.”

Cassidy should have expected an answer like that. She took the 'beast’s spear' with both hands. It was lighter than she expected, but carried its own unfathomable kind of weight. “Beast’s spear. So this belongs to the statue, hm? What am I supposed to do with it?”

“Find justice.”

“What, am I supposed to kill that guy with this?”

Armil stood, and walked over to a large painting of the temple. “For ages, this spear has been lent by the Grand Elder to an Aguei who deserves justice. It is for that Aguei to decide what form that justice will take. No other law, Aguei or norther, can interfere.”

“What?” Cassidy held the spear out in front of her at arm’s length. “You mean that if we find the guy, I can legally…?”

“It is your right.”

Cassidy took her time to absorb the idea. Then came a knock at the door. Armil looked towards it, and called, “Come.”

Colonel Nafim entered and saluted casually.

“I’m sorry, Sirs. Am I interrupting?” Her eyes lingered on the spear in Cassidy’s hands.

“No, Colonel. We’ve pretty much finished here for now. Cassidy has accepted the task, so it’s a fine time for you two to officially meet.”

Cassidy stood in a pose much like guard duty, with the spear standing in one hand. Choosing to remember protocol, she saluted the Colonel. “Sir. Leftenent Cassidy Stanton, reporting for duty.”

“No, Sir. You’re in charge. I realize you don’t have investigative experience, so that’s my job. I’ll conduct the investigation as I see fit, but every move is going to be approved by you first. If you get a hunch, we follow it.”

“Sir?” Cassidy tilted her head.

Colonel Nafim smirked. “And don’t call me Sir. I think you just became immune to rank.”

Cassidy wandered back to the base, carrying her new spear. As she walked in, she noticed the looks she was getting; many curious about the beast spear, others looking away from it.

Alan walked up to Cassidy on his way out. He put his hands on her shoulders and nodded with a sad smile before moving on without a word. She headed towards her bed. Cipriana, Wanda and Maxine were in the ladies’ barrack.

“Hey, Cip, hey Wanda, hey Max, hey butterfly.” Cassidy jokingly waved at the butterfly design on the wall behind Cipriana.

Maxine stared at the spearhead. “Damn, Cass.”

“New pokey poke?” Wanda chirped.

Cipriana sat in her favourite pose, eyes closed since Cassidy arrived. “No, old.” She corrected quietly.

Wanda innocently asked Cassidy, “What’s it for?”

Cassidy swallowed hard, and looked it up and down. She sighed. “Killing badguys, I guess.”

“Ha ha. But seriously, what’s the deal?”

Cipriana held her tongue, leaving the educational duties up to Maxine. “She’s right, that’s what it’s for. It’s been that way for ages. When something happens like… like what happened, the Grand Elder can lend this out for... well, for justice. I don’t think Armil’s ever lent it out before.”

“Lucky me.” Cassidy sat on her cot, and allowed the spear to lean on her shoulder. “I think it comes with some kind of promotion, or title or something too. Armil’s Storms were treating me like a commanding officer or something.”

Maxine stifled a scoff. “Cass. Crap Cass, the person holding that thing is basically the closest thing the Aguei beliefs have to an angel of death!”

That woke Cassidy up. She’d never been compared to a mythological being before. “Woah. Um. Damn, what did I sign up for?”

Cipriana opened her eyes, and spoke in her typical calming tone. “To do right by Cheryl. And Marcus.” Her breathing trembled very slightly.

Cassidy stared at length into Cipriana’s brilliant emerald eyes. “You knew I’d take it, didn’t you Cip. That’s why you didn’t take it, isn’t it?” Cipriana only closed her eyes again, and resumed meditating. Cassidy gave her a few more moments to reply, but gave up and moved on to the net topic. “So, who do I talk to about requisitioning a pistol?”

“What the heck?” Maxine blurted, familiar with Cassidy’s general distaste for firearms.

“Well, the way I see it, I’m going to be running around looking for a killer, right? Sure, I’ll have Armil’s Storms backing me up, but frankly, unless this spear shoots lightning or something, I might need a sidearm.” What little levity had been in Cassidy’s tone was now decidedly removed. “If you’re going to do something, do it right.”

“I guess I’ll take care of it,” Maxine said after a long pause. “Do you have a preference?”

Cassidy shrugged dispassionately. “One that spits bullets.” She glanced over to Cipriana. At some point Cipriana had opened her eyes, and was staring at Cassidy with an expressionless face.

~~~~~

:::C /33

~~~~~

In front of the statue, Armil spoke to the group from the other side of a simple casket containing Marcus. Many of the attendees forced back tears, so Cassidy knew the words Armil spoke had to be moving, but she didn’t hear them. She was stuck in her own thoughts, which were primarily a void.

She was still within this world enough to pay vague attention as Armil guided two of her colleagues in placing two flags over the casket in a complimentary manner. One was the flag of the Aguei; the other was the national Ayguolan flag.

Cassidy made an effort to pay attention. It was possible that Armil would mention her and that old spear she had now. Whenever she managed to catch a few words, they were about Marcus’ lovable and kindly attributes, and only hinted at his ‘eccentric’ conversations with the statue that was looking down at the group right now.

It wasn’t Armil’s style to bring up hunting down a murderer at a time like this. Then again she didn’t think it was his style to give out licences to kill murderers either.

Pall bearers stepped up and lifted the casket. They started to carry Marcus out of the temple, the final destination being an out of the way spot to the side of the temple, selected by Cipriana.

After the procession passed Cipriana, there was a tangible fracture in the air as Cipriana’s aura of peace shattered, and she collapsed to her knees. Maxine was by her side in an instant, and most people took notice. It struck Cassidy that Cipriana’s crying was like that of a widow. She may have never even hugged Marcus, but a bond of some kind was there.

Out of the corner of her eye, Cassidy saw one of the pall bearers, Jim, give her a glance of concern. It was only then that Cassidy realized she was staring blankly forward at the statue, past it. And it was only then she realized she was trembling. She couldn’t stop it, she couldn’t move. She didn’t want to look at anyone or acknowledge anything. She wanted to collapse too, but she didn’t want to make a scene.

She forced herself to walk over to where Cipriana and Maxine still sat. She slowly and carefully negotiated her trembling to sit with them, and put an arm around Cipriana. “Hi.” She said with a soft trembling voice, not able to think of anything better to say. Cipriana didn’t reply, but grabbed Cassidy’s hand tight. As glad as Cassidy was to be able to be any form of support to Cipriana, it was unsettling to see her in such a weakened state. Cipriana was supposed to be a gentle constant of the universe. It was all so wrong.

“Are you two going to…” Maxine sat back to look them both in the eye. “Well… to where they’re going to put him to rest, to be there when they lower-“

Cipriana silently interrupted. She stared into the ground as she shook her head no. Quick tiny little shakes.

Damned funerals. Cassidy never got it. Closure? More like rubbing salt in a wound. And she still had to fly out to Cheryl’s family to go to hers. How the hell was she going to handle that?!

“I’m going to call in a grief counselor,” Maxine said softly, flexing her new position as second in command, “You two are going to be first in line.”

“What?!” Cassidy said, still gripping Cipriana, and staring into the ground. “Keep the quack away from me.” What the heck was Maxine thinking? She and Cipriana had every right to be upset. They didn’t need any outsider to poke into it.

“Too bad.” Maxine said in a comforting tone. “Deal with it.”

Brock wandered back from the burial alongside most of the attendees. He went to the ceremony out of respect, but he couldn’t get his mind off of the stupid nanites.

They had been all over the place. They waited in the sand around the helipad causing little windstorms, some of them jumping onto new people who arrived. They got into cameras, weapons, watches, and shut them all off when in the temple. Very deliberate, but without any apparent ultimate goal.

Maybe the system was malfunctioning. Maybe it was supposed to do something, and it didn’t, so the murderer came with his little wooden ‘shut off’ thing.

It didn’t really smell right. And the poor folks here who have been infected all this time, being made ill when they left, pressured to return. How long had they been infected? Why didn’t they wonder about the odd little things? Well... they were high! Just enough maybe, to keep them from thinking about it all too much.

If only he could have recovered some of the nanites before they self-destructed, he could have maybe gotten more answers. Marcus used to talk to the statue… he was high! If his post-mortem bloodwork was any indication, he probably had a huge payload of nanites in him. Probably some kind of control centre. Maybe killing him was part of shutting it all down.

Bah, too damned late to check. Dead nanites, dead Marcus. Not that he thought he could find anything else on Marcus that would solve much. No stray signals had been floating around since the shutdown, and there wasn’t a live nanite to be found. Brock would take the next ride he could get back to Yute Central, and get back into his other projects. Whatever the hell was going on here, it was over.

~~~~~

:::C /34

~~~~~

“It’s a seventeen?” Cassidy held the pistol up against the light, reviewing in her head how to operate one of these damned things.

“Yes, Sir.” Word had gotten to Armil’s Storms that Cassidy was looking for a sidearm, and one of the troops was dispatched immediately to fill that need. Cassidy had a feeling she could have asked for a tank, and it would have been supplied.

Cassidy stowed the gun in her new hip holster. “Can the ‘Sir’ stuff, alright? That’s not how stuff gets done around here.”

“But Sir...”

“No, come on, really. Do you really use that protocol in your unit? Do you call Armil ‘Sir’ all the time?”

“No Sir, we call him Grand Elder.”

This guy wasn’t going to budge on the ‘Sir’ thing. “Right. Anyway, thanks for the sidearm. Tell Armil I’ll be ready in an hour or so.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Uh... dismissed.”

These Storms had their own way of moving. They could snap to attention, salute, or run any drill formation with all the speed and accuracy of any other soldier, but they did it quietly. Not as if they were ‘silent and deadly’ or anything. They were just quiet about things. No need for excessive sound.

Despite their vaguely benevolent mannerisms, they were still far more militant than Cassidy was used to. Watching him leave the base allowed room for the peace to reassert itself.

But the peace wasn’t the same. Nothing was the same. Cipriana’s imaginary aura didn’t feel as strong. Those damned lizards weren’t as charming. The metal reinforced walls of the base seemed now less interesting, and just a little more… junky.

Cassidy took a stroll over to the temple to check in with Cipriana before leaving. She found her stride was different. Was it the gun on her hip, the slightly heavier spear, or a sense of focus. Don’t even let your mind go to Cheryl. Don’t. Don’t.

There was a slight wind tossing sand around lightly. Since when did that happen? Note to self: Get some sunglasses. All the time here, and she never felt the need for them before.

Even the damned temple felt like a stranger as she approached. She chose the left doorway at the bottom level. She didn’t want to pass the same spot where she cowered from the wind and sand as Cheryl’s killer passed by.

“Hey Wanda, Jim.” Cassidy quietly greeted the two friends guarding the left doorway.

“Cass.” Jim nodded.

“Hey Cass, are you headed out to Cheryl’s-“

“Yeah. Not sure when I’ll be back.”

“Make it soon.”

Climbing to the top door, she met with Cipriana and Maxine while that giant dog silently stared on. Cassidy returned the statue’s gaze with a bit of a glare. Her eyes were drawn to the spot on the floor where Cheryl died. Slow to drag her eyes away from it, she started speaking before looking at Cipriana.

“Hey Cip.”

“You’re departing?”

“That’s right. It’s been a... it’s been a while since I got much distance between me and this place.” She didn’t know if she was feeling spite or nostalgia. It’s hard to feel super positive about staying in one place because leaving made your sanity fall apart.

Cipriana put her hand on Cassidy’s shoulder, and spoke in a nearly solemn tone. “You’ll be in all our thoughts, Cassidy.”

“Yeah.” Maxine added.

Cassidy took a moment, and looked at them both fondly, but her expression changed as she looked to the statue again. She slowly walked further in towards the statue, holding the beast spear laxly in both hands.

She cocked her head to the side and looked up at the big stone dog. “And what about you? Huh? Anything inspirational to say?” She paused, and gave it time to respond. It didn’t, so she lowered her head and turned around slowly, to begin the journey to the helipad.

Maxine averted her eyes as Cassidy walked past, not wanting to see her pain too closely, and not having any helpful words. She looked up at Cipriana. Cip was so hard to read sometimes. She just looked calmly at Cassidy as she walked off.

Cassidy’s footsteps faded down towards the front of the temple, and Maxine felt safe to release a sigh. “Cip. Do you think that’s really a good idea?”

Cipriana looked back at Maxine with a mildly inquisitive expression. “What’s that?”

“Cass, on the whole vengeance trail thing. I mean, I get it, Aguei stuff. But this is one… wouldn’t this kind of thing be better handled by a regular investigation, without a spear wielding griever on the front lines?”

“I trust Armil,” Cipriana said, “If he feels it’s the way to the best result, he has his reasons.”

“Yeah, well, what I asked was, do you think it’s a good idea? Besides, Cass has only been Aguei for a short time, primarily only by honours. I’m a full blooded Aguei, and I don’t get this shit.”

Cipriana sighed. “At least it gives her something to do that feels constructive.”

~~~~~

:::C /35

~~~~~

“BURN” The computer set about its task, and Kirison leaned back to wait.

That damned Jonathan Coll. There were more than a few guys attached to AutarLabs and Lancer who liked to have a little unofficial fun with nanites, but it was all harmless stuff. All harmless until Coll decided to go psycho with it all. Two damned cities worth of people. Poof.

From that perspective, it was hard to blame the government for setting huge kneejerk laws. But as usual, the government wasn’t educated about new tech well enough to make even-handed decisions on it all. If they had been more patient, Kirison’s pet project could have revolutionized espionage, and a pile of other applications.

But no, instead he’s now scrambling to save his own ass from surprise laws, and one teeny error in judgment about where to deploy a test scenario. It seemed like a good idea at the time. To make it worse, now there were deaths involved. It made him all the more glad that he had been injecting himself with his 'insurance policy'...

Kirison’s idle pondering was interrupted by the computer ejecting the freshly created disk. On it was a polite little program. A virus, but not an especially nasty one. It would act without the user’s knowledge. When it did, it would send an email to the army and police. A tale of Horad.

That bastard didn’t have to kill people. That wasn’t the plan. He was given everything he needed to get in and out quick and quiet. Kirison gave him the power to be unseen by infra red, and to summon a huge fucking sandstorm!

In hindsight, Kirison decided he should have gone himself. He could have saved himself all that bar scrounging, the nano-cockfight, meeting the mob. He wouldn’t have had to carve those stupid little wooden token things. He should have just gone to the temple himself.

Of course, there was still the chance that he would have been caught or killed in the process. Maybe Horad did have reason to kill. But it’s not like Horad was any boy scout before.

Horad needed to go down. For society. Yes.

Kirison knew that if this disk were left somewhere public, someone was bound to take the bait and run it on a computer that couldn’t ever be linked to him. It was a fair deal. The user would get what they expected from the label, and even if the email were traced back to that machine, they probably wouldn’t even connect it to the disk.

He planned to place it at a bus stop near a high school. In such a place, he wagered to himself that the secret email would be quietly launched within half a day at most. More likely an hour or two.

Just in case, he carefully wiped the disk down to remove any fingerprints before labeling it. He got out a marker and wrote in big tempting letters:

“PORN”

~~~~~

:::C /36

~~~~~

Armil’s airlimb pushed itself up off the helipad slowly, carrying the weight of Cassidy’s disposition. Armil himself was no longer on board, he had other things to attend to. It was odd to think of somehow, even though Cassidy knew he didn’t live in the airlimb

She sat in the main loading bay with one of the soldiers. She sat here because she didn’t really feel at home here. She didn’t feel like going any farther into the airlimb if she didn’t have to.

She’d also rather be alone, but she wasn’t eager to engage the soldier in any conversation either. Sure, he’d leave if she asked. He might open the door and toss out all his clothes if she asked, as the holder of the big honkin’ sacred bullshit spear.

She cringed when he eventually broke the silence. “Sir, did anyone show you your private quarters?”

“Hm? No. It can wait.”

“Well, you should know that aside from the few possessions you brought onboard, there’s also a few outfits you can choose from, if you wish.”

“Outfits??”

“Your size, I believe.”

“What kind of outfits!?”

“Well, Sir, aside from a few extra sets of your fatigues, I took the initiative to get you a civilian suit with pants or skirt, and a dress uniform, since I didn’t think you had one.”

“What the heck do I need a… oh. Duh, sorry.” Cheryl’s funeral. Everyone just wore their usual duty uniforms to Marcus’ ceremony. She decided on the spot to go with one of the civilian suits. She wasn’t going as Cheryl’s sister-in-arms. This was much more personal. She wished she could be alone there, too.

The others from the base weren’t invited. The family wanted to keep the funeral small. Close family only. Cassidy was honoured to be invited on that basis, but at the same time, it might have been nice to have Maxine around, or Cip. Well. Maybe not Cip. Cip had her own loss to worry about, and besides, she was… different now. Damn it, she just wanted things to be like they were the day before the first attack.

She snapped out of her drifting thoughts. “Uh, soldier, are you my personal butler or something? Not to seem ungrateful for the… wardrobe upgrade.”

He chucked a bit. “Generally I work in ops, but that's secondary right now. I am assigned to you specifically. Anything you need, it’s my job to get it.”

Cassidy shook her head slowly and sighed. “How about fifty liters of vodka?”

He smirked. “Sorry Sir, you’ll have to wait until we resupply.”

“Alright then. Hey what’s your name anyway?”

He gave a casual salute. “Sergeant Keith Dixon, Sir.”

“You’re the one that gave me my seventeen, right?”

“Yes Sir. Is it alright? For you, I bet I could acquisition pretty much anything.”

Cassidy shook her head. “Nah, I hate all guns equally. I just thought it’d be prudent to have one. Oh, and I think we had the ‘Sir’ discussion before, but if I just keep calling you ‘Keith’, will you call me ‘Cass’?”

“You can try, Sir.”

Cassidy groaned quietly. “Keith, you’re a smartass.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Cassidy closed her eyes and sat quietly, just listening to the engines. Keith made himself busy, not far away. Cassidy guessed he was trying to give her space while remaining available for orders.

After a while, the sounds of the engines and Keith’s busy work started to irritate her. “Keith. This loading bay smells like a loading bay. Ya may as well show me those quarters.”

“Yes, Sir.” Keith led Cassidy to a room, not that it was hard to find. An airlimb is a big aircraft, but it made for a pretty darn small dormitory. The door opened to a plain, regulatory looking room- aside from a rack on one wall that looked like it was meant for a spear.

Cassidy stepped in, glanced at the bunk, footlocker, closet… “Kay, Keith. Thanks. Uh, dismissed. If I need you, I’ll yell down the hall or something.”

“Right, Sir.”

Nice enough guy, but she was glad to be rid of him. She flopped down on the bed and yanked her hat brim down harder. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the closet. Pantsuit or dress suit? Ehh, she should fight off the apathy to get up and check them out. The skirt would be a hard sell though.

She stared at the closet, and thought how she had never seen Cheryl in a skirt. She was incredible in shorts. She must have been mind blowing in the right skirt.

Cassidy grabbed the pillow and held it tight, gritting her teeth. How many years of Cheryl had she been robbed of? Forty? Fifty? Her grip tightened, and she wished that her nails would rip through the pillow.

Her personal terminal chirped to life with a timid little ring, oblivious to how close it risked being thrown against the wall. Cassidy took a breath, and dug out the terminal to read the caller name.

“Brandy Wicklow”. Great, the ex. Just what she needed. She glared at the terminal as it continued to ring, wishing that her “fuck off and leave me alone” glare would somehow reach Brandy without having to answer.

The ringing stopped. Alright, maybe her glare did have that power. It must be the hat. She knew she liked her hat for a reason. Obviously the brim, when pulled down to just the right position, focused her glare into a magical “fuck off” beam.

“Blipipip!” it chimed. “Missed call: Brandy - Message waiting” Damn. No magic glare. She’s going to have to work on it. She didn’t want to listen to the message, but she may as well talk to her, just to nip it in the bud. She called Brandy, who picked up fairly quickly, and her face popped up on screen.

“Cass!”

Cassidy’s voice came out so tired sounding that it surprised them both. “Whaaaat, what, what, what, what, what?”

“Damn, Cass. You look like it’s been a hell of a day.”

“What makes you say that? I was just thinking to myself how I felt like the magical princess of the universe.”

“Okay, princess. Did you know your ‘tiara’ is like a mood barometer?”

Cassidy pulled her hat’s brim down so that all Brandy could see was Cassidy’s chin. “It’s not too effective. Attempts to display an accurate reading mess up my ponytail. But back to the point. Whaaaat?”

“Just calling to check up on you. Where the heck are you?”

“I’m on the flying Aguei popemobile, okay?” She left the terminal on the bed, and went over to the closet. “Why exactly do you care so much huh? Are you looking for a rebound, or what?” With a hopelessly wrecked ponytail, she took off her hat and tossed it at the terminal, in the hopes it might irritate Brandy.

Brandy sighed. “Cass, don’t be an idiot. I’m allowed to give a damn, alright?”

Cassidy loosened her hair for later re-tying as she walked over to the terminal on the bed. She tipped it so Brandy could see the closet area. “Whatever. Shut up or make yourself useful and gimmie some advice.” She turned her back to the terminal to go through the closet.

“Sure, wear your hair loose more often.”

“Not about that.”

“The other thing I was going to say was less tasteful.”

“Crazy bitch.” Cassidy muttered with mild exasperation. She turned around with the two black suits held up. “I have this happy cheery event later today. I have my option of the pantsuit,” as she held it up against herself. “Or, here we have,” she held the dress suit out and looked at it for a split second before scoffing, and putting it back in the closet. “Pantsuit it is.”

“You needed me for that?”

“Not really.”

“Well then, take my earlier suggestion about the hair.”

Cassidy flipped Brandy the bird, and started tying her hair back again. “A low ponytail is classier. Loose hair is just for…”

“Ah, yes.”

Cassidy stared into the blackness of the pantsuit, and became lost. She slowly tightened her grip on the fabric, and started sliding against the closet door, towards the floor.

“Cassidy. Hello? Snap out of it.”

Cassidy eventually came to be seated on the floor, still holding the suit. “No. Don’t wanna.” She looked into the blackness some more. “She’s dead, you know.” She said softly.

Brandy looked down and sighed. “I know, Cass.”

“She died. She was killed. By some coward.”

“I know.”

“They told me to find him. I get to kill him.”

“What?” Brandy shouted.

“With a big spear. Aguei thing.”

“What are you talking about?”

Cassidy jumped up with a sudden resurgence of energy, and brought the beast spear's tip close to the terminal. “This.” She explained abruptly. ”This goes into the chest of the fucking bastard who killed the angel I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Are you serious!?”

“Look it up on the net or something. I have a funeral to get ready for.” Cassidy hung up on Brandy, and tossed the terminal aside. Enough of the pointless chatter. She stood stoically for a while, almost at attention with the spear, tapping her finger on it so that Cheryl’s ring tapped on it.

Hastily, she put the spear up on the wall rack, and started getting changed. She dropped her tank top on the bed and felt the need to lean in and punch it in the ‘gut’ as hard as she could.

Once, twice. Three, four, five. She looked at it spitefully, as if it deserved being punched into a crumpled crater. Focus. Getting dressed would take a while if she had to beat the shit out of her whole outfit.

A backhanded fist to the closet’s metal door was more satisfying anyway. It hurt more though. Especially with her ring hand.

~~~

“It should be raining.” She thought to herself. Sunlight seemed inappropriate. It was bright. She had sunglasses tucked in her suit jacket, but decided it might not be proper to wear them during the memorial. She wasn’t paying attention to the speaker, or much of anything. She was focused on thinking of little unimportant distracting things, and not looking at the urn, or the picture leaning by it with a frame of flowers. Think about the suit. It fit very well, it felt nice. A nice change from her usual wardrobe. That spear was kind of heavy. Heavier than the usual guard duty spears. Think about the room on Armil’s airlimb. She thought about changing her hair colour, and decided against it. She thought about the sounds of the birds, and wondered if they made more or less sound around the graveyard than other similar places. She thought about Alan’s cookies. Thought about her hat, and wondered if it was lonely.

Whoops. Take a breath.

That was a mistake. The moment she let her inane train of thought stop, she felt the tears coming.

It burned.

Burned. Look at that damned urn. Why do people cremate? Is it spite? If the body can’t serve to be the vessel for the beloved, do you destroy it utterly out of spite? It beat thinking of Cheryl rotting in the ground.

Nothing can harm her now.

Cassidy felt envy.

Cheryl’s parents were here of course, though everyone spent so much time looking down, or at the speaker, that she hadn’t made eye contact with them, thankfully.

She looked at the urn, and felt the trembling creeping up on her again. She wanted to be with her. She imagined herself being ash, poured into Cheryl’s urn.

It was sick, and she knew it, but she couldn’t help but feel comfort at the idea of being so close to her forever. Literally unable to tell where Cheryl ended, and she began.

Of course, Cassidy would be dead, but that’s one of those unimportant details. The thought was comforting, and it eased her shaking.

How much longer was this?

Cassidy renewed her efforts to think of random meaningless things, waiting for things to wind down.

Finally, it was over. People shuffled away, passing by the minister and Cheryl’s parents, offering condolences which all sounded the same after a while.

Cassidy barely entertained the idea of moving from where she stood. Why leave? Cheryl wasn’t truly here, but she wasn’t anywhere else, either. The shaking was returning. Cassidy decided to surrender to gravity peacefully before she fell. She knelt down on her knees and sat.

The grass was pleasant. Perfect even. She leaned forward enough to press her hands against the ground. The perfect grass slid between her fingers. Such vibrant, perfect life struggling up from the soil that held hundreds of dead.

Cassidy’s mind spiraled slowly down through the soil’s darkness. She closed her eyes and let the thought embrace her. It was cold, but welcoming. It made her trembles melt away as her breathing slowed.

A burning tear forced its way onto her cheek, as if to grant licence for the thoughts she fostered. Time began to lose meaning, and that suited Cassidy just fine.

Reality politely snapped her out of her daze as a gentle hand rested on her shoulder.

“Cassie?” Sandy Lowe’s voice. Cassidy quickly wiped her eyes, and turned to face Cheryl’s mom, who had knelt beside her.

Cassidy sniffled, and found her own voice to be less than eager. “She called me that. ‘Cassie’. Nobody else did.”

“Oh.” Sandy put her arm around Cassidy’s shoulders and hugged her. “I’m sorry. That’s just how she referred to you. If you don’t want me to use that…”

“No, no. I think you qualify well enough.” She slumped over onto Sandy and sighed. “I feel pretty fucking selfish, Mrs. Lowe.”

“What do you mean, hon?”

“She was your friggin daughter, and here I am, the one breaking apart at the service.”

Sandy put her other arm around Cassidy. “Well, it sounded like you and she had some pretty long term plans brewing.”

Cassidy held out her hand and showed off the ‘promise ring’. “I wish now that we’d rushed a bit more. To be official. Too late now.” Cassidy squeezed Sandy back and struggled to force back her resurfacing trembles. Sandy could only squeeze back. As terrible as it was to lose Cheryl, a part of Sandy felt proud to have raised a child that could earn such ferocious love.

“Are you going to the wake?” Sandy asked when Cassidy’s shaking quieted somewhat.

Cassidy sighed with a deep tremble, and took a moment to think about meeting all those people up close, who may or may not have been a big part of Cheryl’s life, but were strangers to her. Answering the same questions over and over, assuming she didn’t just breakdown in front of them. Cassidy shook her head slowly.

“I… I don’t think I can, Mrs. Lowe. But I guess I should try. You kind of have to, after all. It’s not quite fair.”

“Oh, no, hon. I didn’t mean to pressure you. I just wanted to know. If you don’t feel up to it, I don’t think anyone would take offense. I just wanted to know if I should give you this now.” Sandy let go of Cassidy, and pulled a pendant from her pocket. It was silver, chain and all. The pendant itself was a cylinder, just under two centimetres. “Look close.” She twisted the end of it just a little, and a hairline seam appeared. She resealed it, and put it in Cassidy’s hand.

Cassidy stared at the pendant. “Ashes.”

Sandy showed an identical one that she was wearing. “I know, the body is just a vessel, it’s not her, and maybe it’s a tiny bit morbid, but you wanted her with you forever, and I figured you were on the road to becoming my daughter in law, and…. and I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

Cassidy smiled through a new flood of tears, and grabbed Sandy tight. “Thank you, I-” She then succumbed, and sobbed in her not-quite-mom’s arms uncontrollably. “I’m so sorry! I couldn’t stop him, I didn’t stop him, but I will get him!”

“You’ll get him?”

Of course. She wouldn’t have heard yet. Cassidy tried to contain herself. “It’s an Aguei thing. It’s become my right to be the one to get him.”

“But Cassie, aren’t there people trained to-“

“Yeah. And they work for me. Kind of. Don’t worry, all the best people are on it, and I’m going to keep ‘em motivated. I’m sure we’ll make the news soon.” She giggled through her soft sobs.

“I don’t quite get it. Don’t you think it’s a lot to ask of you right now?”

Cassidy shrugged. “By the way, the Grand Elder and the military send their official blah blah blah. Grand Elder Armil liked Cheryl a lot, but thought making an appearance today might kind of steal focus from the purpose of the service.”

Sandy sat upright. “Grand Elder Armil wanted to come!?”

“Yeah. He’s a really sweet man. I think he might be planning to pay you a private visit sometime soon.”

Sandy clutched her pendant. “The house is a mess!”

Cassidy couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, thank you, Mrs. Lowe! I really wished I could call you mom.”

“Pfft. Do it anyway. Or at least ‘Sandy’.”

Cassidy stood slowly, putting on the pendant. She held out her hand to help Sandy up as well. She looked over to where the urn had sat for the service and gave a deep sigh. “Alright mom, let’s go to that damned wake and get it over with.”

Sandy smiled as well as the day would allow, and they headed towards the parking lot. “Do you need a ride?” Sure enough, Peter Lowe was standing in the distance, waiting.

“No, I drove myself from the airport.”

They got closer to Peter, and he asked “You ladies alright?”

Cassidy nodded, and patted Sandy on the shoulder. “Mr. Lowe, you’re a lucky man.”

Sandy chortled. “Oh, hon, I think I’m going to ride with Cassie to the wake. For one thing, she doesn’t know her way around here, and-“

Sandy stopped short when Cassidy abruptly pulled her terminal out of her jacket. It had been on vibration mode, and had just rang.

“Stanton.” Cassidy said, holding the terminal like a handset phone. She stared into she sky while the caller spoke. Her expression went from her former mosaic of emotions, to professional stone. “Right. Yeah, I’m ready now. I’m still at the cemetery, I’ll drive right to the airp- Oh, alright, that works. West side’s empty. It’s probably enough. Got it. Over and out.”

Sandy tilted her head. “Cassie?”

“I guess I’m missing the wake after all. Remember when I said I was going to get him? Well, I’m going to go get him. Wish me luck.” Cassidy started running.

Sandy stammered, “Good luck!” Peter stood, confused.

Cassidy ran past the jeep she came in, and towards the empty west wing of the parking lot. The huge flying brick of an aircraft was now easily seen in the sky, to the awe of the Lowes, and everyone else in about a quarter kilometre.

The airlimb landed with very little spare room, with the bay door open, and Keith ready to help Cassidy up.

“How good is this informant?” she yelled over the engines as she stepped up.

“He managed to stay anonymous, but he knows stuff we never released.”

The airlimb began to rise again. Cassidy turned to wave at the Lowes. “Sounds like it's worth missing a wake for!”

Cassidy marched to her quarters as Keith followed.

“Alright Keith, Where are we going?” She asked sharply. It was time to suck it up, and get to work. Focus. Push out the funeral. This was endgame. Keep the mind going fast, keep it away from where it shouldn’t be.

“It’s an isolated dugout home on the southwest edge of the desert. No registered owner, the land doesn’t even legally belong to anyone. The dugout was built illegally. Satellite records show it to be over five years old though.”

“Uh huh.” Cassidy walked into her quarters, sliding the door shut, leaving Keith in the hall. “What do we know about our target?” she called out to him as she dumped her jacket and blouse on the floor.

“Our primary target and suspect on the temple assault is a man named ‘Horad’. The informant says he calls himself an Elder, and leads a handful of A.R.A., and that they're to blame for the grenade attack on the temple, and probably some urban attacks in the past.”

By now, Cassidy was already strapping into her boots. “Alright, so we have what, half a dozen goons in a hole in the ground? So what then, smoke ‘em out?”

“Close. The Colonel was planning to smoke ‘em, then rush in en masse with infra red and respirators.”

Sizing herself up in the mirror, she adjusted her hat, and nodded a small confident nod to herself. “I’m invited, I assume?”

“Yes Sir! I don’t recommend you take point if you’re not used to operating in smoke, though.”

Cassidy slammed open the door, her sidearm on her hip, spear in her hand. With great determination, she declared. “Alright! I’m all set to… wait until we get there.”

“Yes Sir,” Keith smirked, “Have you eaten?”

“Yeah, I’m good. And stop calling me Sir, we’ve been through that.” Cassidy wasn’t in any mood to sit still. She wished she was at Maxine’s exercise yard.

The thought of the temple base reached out warmly with a small wave of nostalgia. It hadn’t been that long since she had been there, but she missed it. Her mind wandered from Maxine’s exercise yard, across the ruins to the camp she made with Cheryl.

Vivid memories of those days brought an uncomfortable blend of fondness and pain. “Keith.” Her confidence shattered, her voice broke softly. “How long until we’re there?”

Keith paused, a little taken aback by Cassidy’s quick change in body language, leaning towards the door frame, grip on the spear loosening. He looked at his watch. He replied in a tone matching Cassidy’s. “A bit over twenty minutes.”

Cassidy put her free hand on the edge of the door. “Kay. If I’m not up in the bay when we’re five minutes out, buzz me.” She receded into her quarters, closing the door.

She turned off the light. She wanted to put the world on pause. She wanted a lot more than fifteen minutes. She wandered over to the bed and laid down, letting the spear slip from her grasp and rest on the floor. The droning hum of the airlimb engines seemed to want her to take a nap, but the other muted sounds of soldiers in the hall reminded her not to.

Cassidy rolled over, and felt her sidearm press against her hip, so she loosened the holster. The snap holding the gun in came loose, and somehow she found the handle of the gun securely in her hand.

Gun.

Cleaning.

Accident.

Was there even such a thing in reality, or were they all just polite, ‘honourable’ labels for people who just couldn’t take it anymore?

The metal was warmer on her cheek than she expected.

No, stop. Stop that, idiot. Focus. There was a job to do. She turned back over, and secured the gun and holster again.

She reached down to the floor and brushed her fingers along the shaft of the spear, and imagined herself wielding it in combat. In her mind, it was in poetic slow motion, like Maxine’s routine, as the spearhead passed through Cheryl’s murderer like butter. The bastard’s blood and body cast apart from itself. Her vengeful daydream had no sound, no suffering, just an end to the thing that took her love.

The pieces of the murderer’s remains floated on the air, and dissolved into smoke, then blackness. A blackness where there was still no Cheryl.

Cassidy squeezed herself tight, remembering Cheryl’s arms around her, remembering the intensity and gentle layers of her love.

And it was gone.

Oh, there will be sound, fury and pain.

~~~

“I.R.’s not being any help, Colonel.” The airlimb operator surveyed the top of the dugout as best he could. From the air, they could only get a rough idea of the interior layout.

Colonel Nafim stared at the display, and zoomed in on the entrance hatch. “Let’s hover fifteen or so meters above there, and drop a sniffer on it. If this guy is attached to any bombings, he might have a surprise for us.”

“Yes Sir.” The operator patched into the airlimb intercom. “Sergeant Dixon, drop a bomb sniffer on the hatch, copy?”

Keith’s voice replied through the intercom, “Copy that, ops, dropping sniffer.” On the display, a black breadbox sized object fell onto the hatch. “Sniffer dropped.”

“Copy Dixon, standby.”

Keith knelt at the edge of the airlimb bay, looking down at the dugout, while Cassidy and seven other Storms stood at the ready.

“Bomb sniffer?” Cassidy asked.

“Detects bombs better than a dog, eats less, shits less, never barks.”

“You had a pet rock as a kid, didn’t you?”

“No, but it would have eaten less, shat less, and never barked.“

“Yeah, yeah. So now what?” Cassidy gripped the spear tighter with impatient anxiety, and glanced around at the other troops. They were cool as ice. For a unit that she thought was essentially a glorified honour guard for Armil, they sure looked ready to lay down some big hurt.

“Right now the sniffer is... sniffing, among other things, piping results to ops.”

“Hrm. Don’t dogs sniff out bombs pretty much instantly?”

Keith turned slowly to face Cassidy, and slowly replied. “It eats less, and s-“

The intercom spoke up with the Colonel’s voice. “Sniffer’s happy,” she said, “Stanton, Sir, I recommend we touchdown thirty metres to the side of the hatch, deploy from there, and rush in right after the smoke is in.”

Cassidy didn’t see the need to have that okayed by her, but whatever. “Alright, do it.” As the airlimb moved into position, her, Keith, and the ‘StormFront’ put on their IR/oxygen masks. She looked over at the seven intimidating soldiers, all in black, with faces obscured.

“If you told me a year ago that I’d be Snow White, and that the seven dwarves were actually a hit squad of faceless minions….” Well, it was hard to crack jokes in a mask.

The airlimb slowed to a halt with only the slightest bump on touchdown. “Alright folks, let’s do this.”

The ‘Storms’ lived up to the name. They, including Keith, flowed like an angry black cloud, and as Cassidy ran among them, she realized the only sounds she heard were ones she made. Her own footsteps, her own breathing, the throbbing of her pulse.

One of the Storms at the head of the pack began spewing smoke from the grenades in his hands. Through the infra red lenses of the mask, the smoke was barely visible.

The StormFront barely broke pace as the first one wrenched open the hatch, heaving the sniffer off with it. The second one threw the fuming smoke grenades in as he stepped out of the way for the rest.

The first Storm down the stairs was violently slammed against the wall by a spring loaded device. It pressed a dozen or so metal spikes against him, but his body armor resisted it. Still, he was pinned. The others stopped for a split second until the pinned Storm waved the others past him and yelled out “Go, go, go, I’m fine, go!”

Cassidy lagged behind the StormFront as they streamed in quietly and quickly. She grabbed onto the spiky trap, and leveraged her foot against the wall beside the pinned soldier.

“Sir! I’m fine!” he pointed down into the dugout. “Go ahead and get the target!”

“At ease, soldier.” She grunted as she tried to pull the trap back. “They’re not going to blow his head off without me. Hey, this thing’s a little strong, can you help me out a bit?”

The soldier obeyed, and between the two of them, the trap was pulled back enough for him to squirm out. “Uh, thanks, Sir.” He dashed in.

This didn’t feel like the day. It just didn’t. So she didn’t rush.

Cassidy held her breath and took her mask off for a moment, out of curiosity. She couldn’t see her own hand, but was surprised how dark the smoke made it, blocking the sun. She put the mask back on before taking her next breath. She got a bit of a taste of the smoke. She knew it wasn’t toxic, but it wasn’t delicious either.

Taking the time to save her comrade from certain inconvenience kind of sapped her haste.

She stood in the stairwell and braced the spear. So.. The man who pushed a sharp chunk of metal into her beloved was down there. huh? She tapped the back end of the spear against the step a couple times. Does he know she’s here? Does he know she has something sharp for him? Is the smoke filling his lungs as he struggles blindly in the grip of a Storm?

Would the Storms say anything to him? She hoped not. He didn’t say anything to her as he passed by her in the sandstorm. He should be made to wait in silence, not seeing.

Would she say something to him before dragging the blade of the spear across his throat? Or maybe driving it into his gut? The small side handle on the spear would provide great leverage for twisting the spearhead in his wound.

Briefly, the notion of his blade twisting in Cheryl’s gut forced its way into her mind. She grabbed her new silver pendant, and moved it slightly in her hand so that her ring scraped against it a little. She gave the pendant one gentle little kiss. “It’s time, baby.”

She took the remaining steps one at a time. Go now, there’s no better plan but to do, or to die.

She got to the bottom, and saw the Storms roaming around. No action, no captive. One of them walked up to her.

“Sir.” By the voice, she knew it was Keith. “There’s no one here. There was not too long ago though.”

“Damn. So what do we have, a hole in the ground?

“No Sir. Well, yes Sir, but there’s a few interesting things in this hole. About a half dozen small arms, ranging from semis, to assault rifles. I got a close look at only one so far, but the serial was removed. The others as well, probably. They suggest illegal stuff, but... well, come on.”

Keith waved Cassidy to follow, and led her toward one of the inner rooms. As they passed the other Storms, who were carefully searching around, she saw several Aguei themed decorations. Nothing as fancy as Armil’s office though. In comparison, these were tacky at best. Damaged posters of badly painted Aguei warriors, cheap wooden statuettes, a frayed and faded traditional rug.

Keith stood back from a desk central to this room, and pointed his rifle at it. “Take a peek under there.”

Cassidy walked around, and leaned over to see. There was a black mass about the size and shape of a pillow. No, that wasn’t right… she could only see the outline of the shape. It was so dark, there was no other detail to be seen, as if it were a hole in reality, showing only a void.

She leaned side to side, and it was apparent that it was indeed an object, and not any kind of hole, yet from any angle, it revealed no details or depth.

“What the hell?”

“It’s totally dead to the I.R. vision.” Keith said.

She turned the spear around, and poked it with the blunt back end. “Feels like… stiff cloth?” She held her breath and took off her mask. There weren’t even any lights on in the room. She put the mask back on. “Got a light?”

Keith produced a small flat flashlight from his pocket, and handed it to Cassidy. She held her breath and took off her mask again before flipping on the light. The smoke hadn’t totally saturated this area, so the light reached almost all the way across the room.

She aimed it at the mysterious object. Under regular light, its folds and texture were plainly visible. She reached down to feel it.

“That’s… that’s his! He was wearing this when he came to the temple!”

“Leave it!” Keith spoke into his comm.. “Everyone! Leave everything just as we found it! We’re getting out of here! Don’t forget to reset that door trap!”

“What?”

~~~~~

:::C /37

~~~~~

Cipriana lagged behind the others on the walk back to base after a shift at the temple. She looked off to the horizon, and slowed to a standstill.

She spoke to herself softly. “Yes, I can. Yes, I hope so. It would be very good to see her again. I’m still a little disappointed that we didn’t hear from her after Cheryl’s funeral. I know. I would call. No, you’re right, I should have.”

She wondered if Marcus had these kinds of talks, and just didn’t let people see it. She knew that logically, she should be concerned. There was a ghost… or something, in her head. She knew quite logically that it wasn’t normal, and she should tell someone, like doctor Brock.

She knew this, but decided not to, just as no one did anything when watches and other tech refused to work in the temple. Did she do nothing because the voice was reassuring, sounding like Marcus to her? Because it felt like being around Marcus? She considered that she was being controlled. And she didn’t really care.

The ghost was harmless. The nanite system, whatever it is. It was far less of a threat than the A.R.A. had been, that was for sure. And it sounded like Marcus. It felt like Marcus.

~~~

Cassidy stepped off the airlimb onto the familiar landing pad. She squinted her eyes in anticipation of a light sandy breeze that didn’t come. She never thought she’d miss the days when she got predictable doses of sand in her eyes.

“Alright, Sir,” Keith said, “Colonel says we need to go restock, and Armil needs a ride later. We’ll be back as soon as that’s all done.”

“Alright. Keep me posted if anything interesting happens.” She started walking down the path. Keith closed the bay door and the airlimb began lifting off.

Ah, there was her sand in the eyes. Yeah, somehow it wasn’t quite as enjoyable as she had remembered.

She looked towards the base. She didn’t feel like talking to anyone. To camp, then. At least for a while.

The walk was slow. She was aware of each of her steps with intricate detail. Aware of the feeling, the texture, her lack of speed. The feel of the sand under her boots, the sunlight somehow dragging her along.

She passed the stump carving of the statue's head. Such a silly thing to make. The wood was so old, but was holding up so well. How long until it finally began to rot?

She was vividly aware of it all, but felt no control over any of it. So on she walked, with great efforts to think only of the tiny, unimportant details. Thinking in a loop. A small loop with no point.

Almost to her surprise, she eventually reached the camp. Cheryl’s little graffiti wall greeted her. Wind had finally managed to push the tent over. With only a sliver more thought, she pulled the tent upright, re-planting the stakes.

She crawled into the tent, and straightened out the two sleeping bags, which had been opened all the way and flattened into one double width ‘bed’. She dragged herself into it. All the little unimportant thoughts were pushed away to make room for one little idea. A scent.

Cheryl’s scent had managed to linger between these covers, laying in wait to assault Cassidy now. It flowed through her, getting into her lungs, her mind, and whatever passed for a soul. It grabbed her, and ripped the tears from her eyes. She curled up with as much of the soft scented fabric as she could, and turned over, planning to cry herself to sleep.

It was then that she felt that thing hanging on her hip again. With trembling breath, she reached down her thigh, slow, as if touching a lover for the first time. She undid her lover’s clothing, and pulled it forth slowly. This was not the first time she’d touched this lover, but they had not… consummated before.

This lover was smooth. Efficient. She had spent so much time hating guns, when she should have been hating knives. Not as smooth. Not as efficient.

How long did Cheryl have to feel the blade, and the wound it left, before she finally died? She looked closely at the gun. It wouldn’t help her appreciate Cheryl’s pain.

But it was efficient.

~~~

Maxine had seen the airlimb come and go. She looked forward to seeing Cassidy, but it could wait until she finished her exercises. Her usual routine with her wooden spear flowed as it always did. Of course, it had occurred to her many times that this was not terribly vigorous exercise, with little cardio benefit. It was almost more of a meditation. Cipriana found sitting on her bed in the lotus position to work, Maxine had this instead.

It had evolved to a certain routine that hadn’t changed in a long, long time. She could do it without thinking. Once, she did it in a dream, but in the dream, she did it underwater, watched by a smiling fish named Hugo. She never figured out what Hugo was smiling about. He was creepy, but kind of frien-

Crack! A distant single gunshot, coming from somewhere across the path. Without daring to wonder too much about it, Maxine gripped her spear with a single hand, tight against her forearm, and ran to the sound.

She found the camp quickly, having poked her nose in that direction out of curiosity in the past. “Hello?!” She called out. No reply. The tent flap was open, and there were fresh footprints leading into it. “Cassidy…?” Maxine hesitated to go any closer.

Cassidy’s voice came from inside the tent. “Hang on.” She didn’t sound quite right.

“I heard a shot!” Maxine called back.

“Um, yeah.” Cassidy crawled out, her hat pulled low over her eyes. She waved without making eye contact, and walked over to a piece of ruined stone wall about fifteen metres in front of the tent. She picked at a hole in it. A few loose bits of stone and a mangled bullet fell out.

“You shot a wall? Was it sneaking up on you?”

Cassidy giggled a little as she leaned over to pick up the bullet. “It was really quiet. I wouldn’t trust this wall as far as I can throw it.”

Maxine strolled towards Cassidy. “Cass, you’re nuts.”

“Nope.” She sniffled as she rolled the bullet around in her hand. “Nuts is my uncle Murray who drove around naked, because he heard that crash test dummies didn’t have clothes, so that must be safer.” She stuffed the bullet back into the hole.

“What?!”

“He was worried stuff like buttons in his shirt would get embedded in him in an accident, and stuff like that. Nightmares about what the metal teeth of his fly might do to him.” Her voice was becoming more like what Maxine would expect. She was still hiding her eyes under her hat though.

“Will you give me a serious answer, please?”

Cassidy giggled “Alright, alright, I don’t have an uncle Murray. It was me, and it was a giraffe ride in front of the supermarket.”

“Cassidy!” Maxine grabbed Cassidy and forced her to make eye contact. Cassidy’s expression went blank, and her eyes confirmed Maxine’s suspicion that she had been crying hard. “Cass, do you care to tell me why you were shooting at a wall?”

Cassidy shoved Maxine’s hands off, and turned away. “I never fired one before, alright? I wanted to get a feel for the recoil before I had to use it for real.”

Maxine tilted her head. “You’ve been in the army how long, and you never fired a gun? What was your last posting, janitor? And what about basic training? For fuck’s sake, why did anyone even give you a gun without knowing you were sufficiently trained with it?”

“Armil’s guys give me anything. And I cheated in basic.”

Maxine was flabbergasted beyond words.

Cassidy adjusted her hat, and shifted her weight. “Are we done here, officer?”

“Idiot.” Maxine muttered. “You had lunch yet, idiot?”

“Naw, I don’t-“

“You’re coming to the mess with me for lunch, now, or I’m telling the den mother that you defiled the ruins.”

“What?” Cassidy pointed at the damage. “It’s just a tiny little hole! On that wall over there, Cheryl painted that big-“ Her pointing hand tightened into a trembling fist. She stood there breathing deep, staring at the paint doodles, remembering watching Cheryl work on them.

Maxine took her hand. “Cass. You really shouldn’t hang out here. Come on. Lunch.”

The base was as it always was. Alan was passing by as Maxine and Cassidy entered.

“Cass! Hey! Good to see you.” Alan’s voice changed slightly to a softer tone. How ya holdin’ up?”

Crap, just the kind of question she thought she had escaped by ditching the wake. “Hey, Alan. Yeah, well, you know. Talk to you later, okay? I’m going to go eat.”

“Yeah, okay. Well, good to see you.” Maybe he took the hint. Nah, he’s male. Maybe Maxine would explain it to him later. The two of them continued onto the mess, to find Wanda putting away a couple dishes.

“Hey,” Maxine greeted casually, opening up the freezer to browse.

“Hey Max- Cass! Oh! Hey, Cass, how are you doing?”

Cassidy groaned quietly as she sat at one of the tables. “Hi, Wanda. I’m doing okay.”

“The funeral, Cheryl’s funeral, how was it?”

Maxine interrupted. “Cass, catch.” She tossed a couple of Alan’s famous cookies to her, and then held up a frozen dinner. “You like the ravioli one, right?”

Cassidy brought her hand over her eyes, hoping it looked like she had a headache. “Yeah, Maxine. Thanks.” Thanks for nuking lunch for her, and thanks for cutting off Wanda’s line of questioning.

Wanda paused. “Ah, well, if you two don’t mind, I just got off shift, and I kind of wanted to go pass out…”

“Sure thing, Wanda. Good to see you too.” Wanda got the hint well enough, bless her heart. Wanda wandered off, and Maxine stuck two frozen dinners in the industrial microwave. “Well, I can see your reasoning for putting off coming back to base, Cass, but seriously. Not the camp, alright?”

Before Maxine took two steps away from the microwave, Jim ran in, leaping onto the bench across from Cassidy.

“Cass! My old partner! So much has happened, I just know there’s only been one thought on your mind!” Jim’s intensity and energy was overwhelming, and quite unlike him. “You’ve been racking your head, wondering ‘Gosh! What has Jim been doing ever since his big crush shrugged him off? Have they been able to make friends, or has Jim cursed his vile name quietly with every breath?’” He was being careful not to actually speak Karl’s name at such volumes..

Cassidy tried hard not to smile. “You fuckhead.”

“Not to be defeated, I asked him, I asked, ‘Do you have a gay brother?’ And do you know what he said? Ya know what he said to me? This’ll rip ya up Cass, it really will!“

Taking a deep breath, pausing in appreciation of Jim shutting up for a second, she eventually replied, “No, Jim, I don’t know. What did he say to you?”

Jim stood suddenly and dramatically, holding his hand up as if reciting Shakespeare. “’Jim’, he said, ‘I do have a gay brother, for you are a brother to me, and thusly forsooth, and yea verily, if you wanted to make love to my gay brother, you can go fuck yourself!’”

Cassidy hit her head against the table, and stayed in that position. “Jim. Jim, Jim, Jim.” Head still face down on the table, she lifted an arm to point at him accusingly. “Love ya, fuckhead. Thanks.”

Maxine shook her head. “Where did you come up with that?”

Jim relaxed, and shrugged. “Based on real events. More or less.”

Cassidy lifted her head and sighed. “Touching story, honestly.”

“Well, I overheard Wanda, and figured…” Jim put his hand on Cassidy’s shoulder. “But you know we’re all here for ya, right?”

She put her hand on his, and patted it. “Yeah.”

When Jim left, Cassidy was finally able to eat in peace. Well, it wasn’t even her idea to eat, it was Maxine’s. Maxine was being quiet.

Too quiet.

She tried to read Maxine, but couldn’t get anything. “You must be good at poker.” Cassidy said.

“Huh?”

“Nevermind.” Another five minutes allowed Cassidy to slip into a false sense of security, until the stranger entered.

“Leftenent Stanton?” The stranger was a woman, not that much older than Cassidy. She had brown hair, tied back in a braid, and she was dressed in civilian clothes; blue business casual.

Cassidy turned her head to look at her. She looked a bit too… pleasant. She looked back over to Maxine. Maxine didn’t look surprised. This was an ambush.

Maxine tilted her head and smiled softly. “She’s been talking with a lot of people who are having problems dealing with the attack. When I asked for a counselor to come, the brass said they were already lining it up.”

Poking at lunch with her fork, Cassidy averted her eyes from both of them. “That’s nice.” Damn it. She didn’t think Maxine had been that serious about calling in a counselor. Maybe it’s like a lost dog. If you don’t feel it, it’ll go away.

“Cassidy, do you mind if I call you Cassidy?” Damn, it didn’t go away. This was a targeted hit. “Would you like to go for a walk?”

Cassidy sighed, and shook her head slowly, still looking into the remains of her lunch. “No, not really.”

Maxine glanced at Cassidy’s holster, then kicked her foot under the table, and not gently. “Go.”

Cassidy pushed herself up, and stood. “Sir, yes Sir.” She walked to the door, leaving space for the counselor to walk beside her, which she did. Better to play along, than wind up in a straight jacket with an I.V. of happy juice, in a padded room. “So what do I call you, Dr. what?”

“Just call me Karen. I’m not a psychiatrist, I’m a counselor.”

They stepped into the daylight, and Cassidy decided on a walking route towards Maxine’s exercise yard, away from the camp. The last thing she wanted Karen to get talking about was the camp. It had almost turned into a private shrine to Cheryl's memory. “So, you’re a counselor. What does that mean?” Cassidy smirked, “You can’t prescribe drugs, can you?”

Karen smirked back. “That’s true. If you’re concerned about my credentials,-“

Cassidy put her hand up to stop her. “Nah, nah, I don’t care.” It’s not as if she’d be taking this talk any more seriously if she had a briefcase full of diplomas. “So, you talked to some of the others, huh?”

“Yes. I made it known I was available, and those who wanted to talk, came to me. Maxine asked me to make it a point to see you.”

Cassidy would have to ‘thank’ Maxine for that later. “Bet she aimed you at Cipriana, too, huh? How’d that go?”

“Oh, I’m not allowed to talk about what others say in confidence.”

“You don’t narc on people to superior officers? Isn't that your job, in essence?” Easy, Cassidy. Put the pit-bulls back on the leash. Give a small disarming chuckle.

Karen took a moment to weigh the comment. “My main focus is to be of help on a one-on-one basis. The only time I repeat anything is if someone’s safety is at risk.” She lilted her voice in a similar disarming tactic, and to Cassidy, the game was on. A war of words, body language, tone of voice. A joke was in order.

“Well, lock me up Doc, cuz I’m gonna give Maxine a beating for calling you down on me!” They both chuckled; Cassidy chuckled sincerely, Karen chuckled politely.

“Well, you can’t hold it against Maxine for being concerned. It’s pretty plain to me that she considers you a good friend.”

“True, true. Maxine is aces. Lotta pressure on her these days, being second in command suddenly, and with Cip…”

“With Cip what?”

Crud, Cassidy didn’t want to cause Cipriana any more grief. Karen knew exactly what she needed to know already, she was just hunting for bonus points. She could almost hear the pages of the psychology handbook turning in Karen’s head. “Well, you know.” Cassidy was careful not to trail off her voice. Careful not to leave any more breadcrumbs for Karen to follow, it was time for a subject change.

Karen nodded, as Cassidy kicked a pebble along. “Cassidy, can we talk about Cheryl?”

Fuck. Can we cancel the topic change? Well, it was coming sooner or later. Step lightly, Stanton, you’re in a minefield. “I guess that’s why you’re here, huh?”

Karen nodded. “Stop nodding,” Cassidy thought, “You’ll break your neck if you keep doing that. Or I will.”

“You two were close, I understand?”

In response, Cassidy just held up her hand to show her ring.

“What’s it signify?” Karen asked.

Yeah, well, of course she was going to ask. Cassidy regretted bringing attention to the it. She didn’t want to explain the lameness of a promise ring again. She just replied “Yeah, very close.”

“And how are you coping with her death?” There it was. All the infantry had been deployed in previous questions, and this was the first shot of battle. ‘How was she coping’, she asked. What a stupid fucking question, fit for a field reporter running around a disaster site with a microphone. But she knew it was coming.

How to reply? Honestly? Never. But she couldn’t be glib about it either. That would raise all kinds of red flags in Karen’s little pop-psych head. Damn it, her pain was private. “Well, I’ll be honest with you. It sucks. We had plans, y’know?”

Karen nodded, oblivious to how it was an invitation of strangulation to Cassidy. “What kind of plans?”

Just shut up please! What kind of plans? International table hockey tournaments! No wait! Giant plaid emu racing! “Oh,” Cassidy sighed, careful not to let her body language bleed through. “The cliché, the happily ever after... All that crap.”

“And now that plan’s gone.”

Cassidy resisted smacking her forehead. Well, god damned fucking thankyou, Einstein. How many atoms did you have to split before you deduced that?

Karen continued. “How does that make you feel?”

She did not ask that. Did. Not. There should be a course these people have to take, all about never using that exact phrase, to avoid getting things thrown at you.

Thankfully, Cassidy prided herself on having a level head. There simply wasn’t anything lethal enough on hand to throw. “It kinda makes me feel like flying around in an airlimb with ridiculously over-trained bodyguards, carrying a really old spear. So far that’s working out pretty well for me.”

“Yes, I heard about that.” Karen paused. Cassidy could hear the pages in Karen’s head flipping back and forth, looking for a similar case. “I can’t say that is sounds like a terribly healthy situation.”

Yeah duh. Especially for the guy on the other end of the spear. Cassidy looked out towards the temple. “It’s an Aguei thing, I guess.” Was Karen terribly well versed on Aguei customs?

“You’re not Aguei.”

Well, darn. Being able to blame a vengeance quest on heritage would be much more effective if Cassidy wasn’t white.

“Armil said it best.” Cassidy's voice slowed to a measured pace, reserved for doling out folksy wisdoms. “There’s really no such thing as an honourary Aguei. You either are, or you aren’t. Nuthin to do with blood.”

Soaking it in for a moment with a sigh, Karen observed, “Kind of convenient though, isn’t it?”

Cassidy stopped walking. When Karen stopped and turned to look at her, she was met with the fiercest glare that could escape from under the brim of Cassidy’s hat.

A long pause. Karen felt she had overstepped a little, and opened her mouth to say something conciliatory, but was unable to make a sound before Cassidy pointed forcefully at her. “I fail to find anything convenient in this.”

Cassidy started to walk back to base at a brisk pace.

“Cassidy.” Karen said, rummaging through her pocket. “Take my card, if you ever want to talk.”

Cassidy took the card, and continued walking. As she walked she reached back to slip the card in the back pocket, ‘accidentally’ missing. The card fell listlessly to the ground.

“Cassidy, you dropped it.”

Without breaking stride, Cassidy simply replied, “Oops.”

~~~

Cassidy walked into the women’s barracks. A couple people were sleeping, and Cipriana was in her meditative pose. Cassidy walked over to her own bunk, and sat on the edge.

She stared at Cipriana, who sat there with closed eyes. Cipriana was broadcasting her usual aura, but it still wasn't quite the right aura. Cassidy stared for quite a while in silence, expressionless.

“Cip.” She said finally, flatly.

A moment passed before Cipriana calmly opened her eyes. “Cassidy. Hello.”

Was she on the other line with the ghost? “So. Heard anything good lately, Cip?”

“Many things. More burdens than good. I’m the new C.O., after all.”

“It’s confirmed then. You rank up, huh? They could have brought in someone new to replace him.” That might have been better. Was she reliable now? Then again, if Marcus was hearing the ghost before, maybe it wasn’t so dangerous to have a crazy C.O.

“I have the responsibility to find replacements now. Armil has lent me a few men for the immediate need, but I’ll have to find new people. Two permanent, and one temporary, while you’re…”

A moment dragged on while they both thought of what Cassidy’s new duty might entail. “You know… it’s possible I don’t come back to duty here when it’s over. There’s a bad memory or two here, you may have noticed.”

Cipriana sighed. “We would all feel the… loss if you did not return.”

Cassidy looked over to Cheryl’s bed. “Any of the temps using her bed?”

“No. They’re male.”

Cassidy stood up from the edge of her own bed, and lay down on Cheryl’s. “Kay. G’nite.” She rolled over and curled up on top of the covers. “I mean, good afternoon. Whatever.”

She pulled the pillow in front of her face, and inhaled deeply. She hoped to find the scent of Cheryl again, but was disappointed. Of course laundry had been done since. The sterile smell was a spiteful void.

She gripped the pillow as tight to herself as she could, and pretended to sleep.

~~~~~

:::C /38

~~~~~

Horad drove up to his usual parking space outside the dugout. There wasn’t any sort of meeting today. Morale had been low since two of his men got put into jail for lobbing grenades around the Yute temple.

The others asked him about the stabbing, since it had been on the news. He found himself reluctant to answer them about it. Explosives had always seemed so easy. Simple. You never even have to see the victims. Most of his bombings were as victim-free as possible. Property damage attacks done at night. He knew however, that people had died from time to time by his actions.

But stabbing someone… that was different. He hadn’t done that before. He could still vividly remember the feel of flesh giving way to blade, made all the worse by the look on their faces. Especially the girl.

It had led him to imagine the final moments of people bleeding to death after an explosion.

He shook off the grizzly thoughts, and turned off the van’s engine. He tucked his unopened newspaper under his arm, stepped out, and looked around. Something was different. He couldn’t put his finger on it.

He opened the hatch, and was careful not to trigger the trap. Before he was too deep down the stair, he looked back across the ground. There were no footprints or tire tracks, other than those he has just made. The dirt was very smooth, as if there had been some heavy winds. Had there been? Must have.

It smelt odd inside. Just a little trace of something different. One of the boys must have been here recently, and smoking something unusual.

As he made his way to the office, he noticed that the weapons pile had been disturbed. All of the ammo was gone. The others have taken ammo before, but all of it? That was stupid. He’d have to have a word with them, and beat some funds out of them.

He turned on the mini fridge so that he could have a cold beer later. Sitting at his desk, his foot bumped the heat suit that Samuel had given him. Samuel never did ask for it back, as he said he would. He tried to think of other uses he could come up with for it. Maybe it would be better to just try to sell it. But to who?

The newspaper read much as it did any other day. If the strength of the Aguei people was now free, you’d think there’d be a noticeable change in the world. But who was Horad to question the ways of spirits, or the speed at which they preformed?

~~~

Cassidy awoke, rescued from another nightmare. Her little terminal was beeping desperately for attention. She sat up, yawned, and answered it.

“Stanton.”

Colonel Nafim’s face popped up on the screen. “Satellites showed us a lone man entering the dugout, about ten minutes ago.”

“Armed?”

“Not that we could see. Even if he has a pistol, I don’t think we have a lot to worry about. Still, it’s worth using the smoke again.”

“Fine. Are you coming to get me?”

“We’re about five minutes out.”

“Kay. See you on the pad.” Cassidy hung up, and quickly put herself together, which wasn’t so hard, given that she fell asleep fully dressed.

Maxine was in the room, and said nothing as Cassidy went to answer the call of nature. Cassidy hurriedly dashed out.

“Good luck.” Maxine quietly said. It felt strange to wish someone luck in killing a man.

When the airlimb set down, Cassidy was waiting. This was when she noticed that Cipriana had followed her.

“Cip. Something wrong?”

Cipriana looked over to the airlimb. “Cassidy, may I accompany you?” The bay door opened, and Keith waved Cassidy over. She turned to Cipriana. “Sure, whatever floats your boat.”

Keith put his hand out to assist Cassidy onto the airlimb. She made her own way up, leaving him to help up Cipriana.

Cassidy turned to Keith. “All restocked, huh? Did you get that five liters of vodka we talked about?”

“Sorry, Sir.”

“You’re fired. Hey, it takes us twenty min to get there, right? What if he leaves by then?”

“The eye in the sky can track him.”

“Alright then.” Cassidy took a deep breath. “Alright. I’m going to take a shower and junk while I have time. I was sleeping when the Colonel rang me up.” She marched off, leaving Cipriana and Keith to get acquainted.

Cassidy hadn’t taken advantage of the showers on the airlimb previously. The showers at the base were spacious, if a bit rickety… at least compared to the airlimb’s shower… booths.

There wasn’t much more space than minimally required. She must have struck her elbow on the light grey walls a dozen times before she was done. They were sterile looking, and sealed so tight, that she felt like pre-packaged luncheon meat.

Getting out, she dried off, (except her hair, which she knew she didn’t have time to dry, and thusly didn’t wash) and reinstalled her hat. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

For all they knew, that guy the satellite saw was just some innocent guy who happened to go to a place where that heat suit happened to be. But something told Cassidy that this was the day she’d look Cheryl’s killer in the eye.

She looked herself hard in the eye. “Ready for this, bitch?” she asked herself. Yeah. Yeah, she was. This was the day. Let’s go.

No, wait, put on more clothes than just the hat, then let’s go.

She put on her usual top and desert pants, adjusted the kneepads. Strapped on the boots. Adjusted the holster. She knew she was wearing a fraction of the gear that the Storms equipped, but she felt like a tank. Unstoppable, force of nature.

An odd sense of quiet surrounded Cassidy. She was aware of it, and thought of Cipriana’s ‘aura’. This aura was not one of peace. Nor was it one of war, or even vengeance.

This was focus. This was purpose.

She walked out of the shower room with deliberate force, her will pushing her to the beast's spear. She pulled open the door to her quarters and pulled the spear off its rack. With continued haste, she went to the loading bay, unapologetic as she nearly knocked over a Storm.

The bay was empty. She stood near the door, with the spear standing beside her. She knew it was at least another ten minutes before they arrived, but she didn’t care. She was ready. She felt the trembles throughout her body, but this time it wasn’t grief. Was it just anticipation? The instinctual fight or flee reaction? Either way, she was going to set it loose when the door opened.

After a while, Cipriana wandered in, and stood next to Cassidy, saying nothing. As odd as Cassidy found this, she welcomed the silence. Still… why did Cipriana want to come? Was she regretting not taking Armil’s offer first?

Not long after, Storms started arriving. Keith showed up, and handed an IR/air mask to both Cipriana and Cassidy. “Sirs, you might want to step back from the door, to let the Storms go first.”

Cassidy dropped her mask. “I’m taking point.”

“Ah, I guess that’s your prerogative. Lemmie get you a flack jacket though. I mean, it’s only one guy who may not even be armed, but better s-“

“Don’t bother.”

Keith took it from Cassidy’s voice that it wasn’t negotiable. He handed the jacket to Cipriana, who now stood there holding the mask and the jacket. She wasn’t putting them on, but she wasn’t dropping them either.

Keith started talking to the Storms as the airlimb slowed to land, but Cassidy was deaf to it. She widened her stance, and took the spear in both hands. Cipriana looked forward at the door, and lowered her head.

“I am not needed here.” Cipriana quietly said, moving aside. Cassidy noticed this and wondered, as everyone else did, but this wasn’t the time for meandering idle discussions.

As the door opened, Cassidy burst forward as soon as there was room. The sun was blindingly bright despite her hat, but she saw enough to hone in on the target hatch. She used the blade of the spear to flip it open, and jabbed downward to trigger the trap before darting by.

She rushed down the steps, while the much more heavily laden Storms were still running to the hatch. She walked forcefully across the front room and the silent Storms poured in behind her with their smoke.

If the Storms brought the clouds inside, Cassidy was the lightning. Lightning gripped her spear with both hands but her true weapons were wrath and fear.

She entered the office where Horad waited, while the growing smoke behind her choked more and more of the light out of the other rooms. He stood quietly, watching Cassidy approach steadily, with murder in her eyes, and that spear. He recognized the reaper.

Storms flooded the room, surrounding Cassidy and Horad, yet they were ignored by both. Horad lifted his handgun out of his jacket, just enough to let it drop to the floor.

How easy would it be, Cassidy thought. One clean swipe of the spear would open his throat, and send payment for his crime across the wall. She held the spear upright, and stared at him until his knees pulled him to the floor.

“You are the one who killed two soldiers at the Yute temple?” She asked in a flat tone that sounded more like a statement.

He lowered his head as the smoke surrounded him in blackness. “Yes.” It didn’t matter now. There was no point in arguing with the bearer of that spear.

Cassidy was equally blinded, but continued to stare down at him. She felt Keith tap her hip with a mask. “Want this now?” She took it, and put it on. She looked down at the condemned. He didn’t even bother looking around. She knelt to his level, and spoke soft, but grimly.

“What is the name of the murderer who took them from me?”

He looked towards her voice and swallowed hard. “Elder Hor… Horad. Just Horad.” He knew who gave her the spear, and knew he couldn’t call himself an Elder any longer.

Cassidy touched the side edge of the spearhead to side of his throat as the Storms watched. “Tell me, Horad just Horad. Why is it that you are not dead? Why after you killed a trusted friend, and the love of my life, aren’t I enjoying sawing through your neck and watching your blood soak into the floor of this hole in the dirt? Why aren’t I kicking your fucking head across the room, and across the desert, and laughing as birds rip it apart?”

Horad leaned his head instinctively away from the spear.

“I asked you a fucking question!!” Cassidy yelled.

Horad mumbled “I don’t know.”

Cassidy leaned in close, to whisper in his ear. “It would be too fast.”

Cassidy stood, and watched Horad’s eyes widen. Now he was looking around, despite still not being able to see anything. It was all Cassidy could do to resist ripping him apart. She thought of Cheryl, and her wounds, and re-imagined her last moments, daring herself to lose control. Daring herself to rip this bastard apart.

She sighed, and shook her head. She looked over to Keith. As if she needed to tell the Storms to be quiet, she held her index finger up in front of the mask in a “shh’ gesture. She pointed at Horad, and then pointed outside.

Keith nodded, and signaled a couple of Storms. Within seconds, they had searched Horad. They found one other weapon on him.

A knife.

Keith was kneeling down to examine the knife, possibly pick it up, but Cassidy stepped on the edge of it to stop him. He looked up at her. Cassidy shook her head slowly, and pointed at herself. She gestured to them all to get out. The Storms began leaving, slowed down by having to escort the sightless prisoner.

Keith lingered, waiting for other orders. Cassidy repeated her gesture to get out, and then held up five fingers. Keith nodded, and left, leaving Cassidy in the room with the knife, and the quiet.

Cassidy let her spear fall to the floor, threw off her mask, and crumpled to her knees in front of the knife. She found it in the darkness, picked it up and held it, laid across both hands. She was almost disappointed that the blade wasn’t warm. That she couldn’t feel Cheryl’s pulse in it. The thought made her all the more aware of her own pulse.

“Cheryl.” She whispered. The sound pressed against the silence in the same way that she pressed the edge of the blade against her palm. “Cry now.” She thought to herself. “Cry now, stupid.”

The tears refused to come until she screamed. As loud, and as hard, and as long as she could. She tried to scream again, but found herself unable to draw breath.

~~~

Horad was seated in the airlimb bay, and his cuffs were linked to a chain attached to the floor. There he sat with four Storms watching him. Where was the spear bearer? What did she have planned? He found himself nervous. Not a condition he found himself in often.

“What now?” he asked the Storms. They didn’t answer.

“Is the Grand Elder here?” he asked with a degree of reverence. One of the Storms scoffed softly, but no other answer was given. Not long ago, Horad considered himself a big fish. He was in a position to reconsider that thought now.

“Who is the spear bearer? Her name? What should I call her?” Still, no answer.

After what seemed like a long time, there was a knock at the bay door. One of the Storms opened it up, and Cassidy stepped in. She sat across from Horad, but stared at the floor. The airlimb shortly look off. Cassidy spoke. softly. “Leave me with him.”

“Sir?”

She looked at the Storm who questioned her, then towards the others, then looked towards the door. The Storms left the room, leaving Cassidy with the chained Horad. She stared at the floor again. She could hear his breathing. How dare he? What right did he have to air, and the life he ripped from others? From her?

She took out his knife, and listened to the change in his breathing. She let him stew for a bit, and then spoke as grimly as she had before.

“Your punishment begins now.” She paused again, staring at the knife, listening to him shift, his chain rattling slightly. Dropping the knife onto the floor between them, she watched it spin on its hilt for a moment before stopping. She looked up at him, and stared out from under the brim of her hat. Stared into his eyes. With a dead expression, she let tears begin to escape.

“I’m going to tell you about a girl named Cheryl. I believe you’ve met her.”

~~~

“Did she give any new orders?” Colonel Nafim asked Keith when he entered the ops room, “We’ve been floating around for hours.”

“No Sir, she’s still in the bay with the suspect, and some sharp things.”

“He confessed. I heard it over the comm. In Aguei law, that’s as good as any conviction.” She sat back and put her feet up on the nearby terminal, watching the various air traffic drift around the radar. “Armil’s in a meeting. I’d just take us to him, but we also have Captain Reichenbach on board.”

“Oh, yes. Sir, I was just talking to her. Cipriana says she’s not due back at the temple base until 06:00.”

The Colonel raised an eyebrow. “Stanton converted you to first name basis protocol, huh?”

Keith sighed. “Sorry Sir, I’m resisting.”

“The temple’s got a lot of slack on the surface. I know it pisses off some of the personnel at Yute central. Doesn’t seem to bother brass though.”

“No Sir. I suppose not. Maybe it’s the Armil connection. But honestly, I think their general behaviour tends to creep out regular army more than first name basis. But ever since the nanites have been cleaned out of their heads, they’re a lot less… weird.”

Colonel Nafim nodded. “Yeah.” She narrowed her eyes, and tilted her head. “‘Cept Reichenbach. She…”

Keith was quiet for a moment. “Well, Cipriana lost someone very close too. It’s hard to really put that in a bottle.”

“Do you think she’s fit for duty?”

“I’d like to say yes. I mean, it’s not like she’s doing anything weird. And how hard can it be to work at that temple, doing token guard duty?”

“Well, that’s just it. She’s not just a guard anymore, she’s the C.O.”

Cassidy walked in, looking tired as hell. “Hey folks.”

“Sir,” Keith said, reinforcing a little protocol. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Is he alright?” The Colonel asked.

“Pffft, yeah. Guts still on the inside and everything. Let’s go see Armil, I guess. Maybe we should throw Horad into holding at Yute first.” Cassidy was about to leave, but paused “No, they should meet. Let’s go see Armil.”

“I expect he’ll be available soon enough.” The Colonel turned to the terminal to make a couple calls. “Captain Reichenbach isn’t too worried about getting back before the early morning.”

“Oh, right.” Cassidy sighed. “Cip. Yeah, that works out for me. Let’s get moving to go see Armil, then.”

Cassidy tapped on the door to the visitor’s room. Cipriana’s voice came back, “Come.” Cassidy slid open the door to find Cipriana, predictably, in a lotus position on the bed, eyes closed.

“Hey there, Cippers.” She sat down on the corner of the bed, and rested her elbows on her knees. “Time for a real talk.”

Cipriana opened her eyes and looked at Cassidy, with a mildly inquisitive expression.

Cassidy sighed, and slid her stare towards the floor. “So… what’s the deal, huh?”

In her usual calm tone, she replied “What’s what deal, Cassidy?”

“Why’d you feel the need to come along for this ride, huh?”

“I thought I might be useful, or find something interesting.”

Cassidy scoffed. “More interesting than the guy that killed Cheryl and Marcus!?”

“Well… a different kind of interesting. I was hoping I might hear something about the ghost.” There it was. Everyone had figured that the attack had something to do with the nanites, since Horad came equipped with some, which triggered the destruction of the previously unnoticed nanites in the area. Most of them. “I hoped that once we got here, we’d notice some signs of nanite production capability.”

“But there was none.”

“Correct. The killer is a pawn for someone.”

“Alright, Cip, I gotta know, am I talking to you, the real you, or am I talking to the ghost?”

“Both of us.”

“I’m not really content with that. Cip, are you able to answer without the ghost interfering?”

“Yes. It hasn’t forced me to do anything.”

Sure, if that wasn’t the ghost talking. “Doesn’t the idea of a pile of microscopic robots fucking with your head make you a little uneasy?”

Cipriana raised her hand.

Cassidy looked at her, confused and shrugged. “Uh, yes, the long haired earth-goddess in the front row, you had a question?”

Cipriana lowered her hand, and spoke. “The following words are from the program you call the ghost. It is my personal top priority to do no damage to Cipriana’s brain cells, just as it was with Marcus. As well, my colonies in the brains of other temple staff accounted to identical safety standards.”

Cassidy stared. And stared. She finally stood up, and threw her hands to the air. “WHAT THE FUCK? Is this multiple personality Cipriana-puppet theatre, or what?!”

Cipriana looked down. “He spoke with my permission, and I believe him.”

“Alright, alright, this is going to get confusing real fast. New rule!” Cassidy took Cipriana’s hand, and put it flat on the covers. She looked hard into Cipriana’s eyes. “Hey, robot thing! When you’re talking, one of you cross your fingers where I can see em! Otherwise, I’m going to assume I’m hearing pure, original Cipriana, alright??”

Cipriana crossed her fingers. “Alright.” She then uncrossed her fingers. “Alright.”

Cassidy rubbed her forehead. “Yeah, that’s so much better. Okay, robot,-“

Cipriana crossed her fingers. “Excuse me, if it’s just the same to you, I think I prefer ‘ghost’.”

Cassidy bit her lip and rolled her eyes. “Fine! Fine. Okay, ghost. First question. Where the heck did you come from?”

With fingers still crossed, Cipriana tilted her head slightly with a pause. “My first memory is of being in a small metal container. An uncounted time after that, I was in a plastic container. Then for a brief moment, none of my nanites were touching anything, and then suddenly we were all over the stone floor in front of the statue in the temple. From then on, I began following my instincts.”

“That’s a fascinating bucket of not-an-answer!”

“I’m sorry, it’s the best I have. I have no data regarding my creation.”

“Alright then, what were these instincts?”

“I awaited a person to touch me. I was almost fooled by an aeki lizard. You understand, I had no way of seeing at the time.”

“What were you? I mean, what did you physically look like??”

“I would have appeared as a grey powder.”

Ash. Cassidy had heard of some people wanting their ashes spread in front of the statue. Maybe this was a reason why Marcus hadn’t opted for that.

Cipriana, fingers still crossed, continued. “Eventually, enough of me got onto the boot of the person I later learned was Marcus. It took a while of course, but I eventually snuck a considerable colony of myself between his skin cells, and evaded natural immunities to reach his brain. From there I constructed a control core, like what is now…” Cipriana tapped her head lightly.

“Control!? So you are designed to control people!”

Cipriana looked very worried, and shook her head with quick little shakes. “No no no. I have to control the other nanite colonies, left behind at the statue!”

“And what the heck did they do?”

“The vast majority were ordered to replicate for the purpose of occupying billions of sand grains. Others were set to the task of creating significantly smaller brain augmentations to the other temple staff.”

“Fuck...! That hangover. When Horad’s little device was triggered, everyone had nanites dissolving in their bloodstream. It was the remainders of your goddam little … pets?! What were they for?!”

“They served only to provide a mild mood enhancement, which remained in effect as long as the person remained near the temple. My apologies for the ‘hangover’. When I received the order to self destruct all the colonies and myself, I did my best to ease-“

Cassidy exploded “No! Wait! No! You were getting us all a little stoned, fucking with our brains, for what purpose, and for how long? How long has this been going on?”

Cipriana sighed deeply. “I first embraced the base nearly five years ago now. Before you arrived.”

Cassidy paced back and forth angrily, holding her forehead with one hand. She looked at Cipriana, huffed, and continued pacing.

Cipriana uncrossed her fingers. “Cassidy, it’s alright, he-“

“Don’t EITHER of you tell me what’s alright!, Alright?” She slipped down in the corner of the room, shaking her head slowly. Cipriana crossed her fingers.

“I believe that I was created as a test. Future applications are beyond my speculation. I knew that the mood enhancements made people a bit happier. Cipriana has since explained to me the problem with doing that.

I took a chance and spoke to Marcus directly. He thought I was the statue. I told him that I was no mass of rock, and he called me a ghost. I didn’t correct him. I didn’t understand it then.

When Horad approached the temple, he activated another order. By the time I understood the possible dangers of allowing it to run, it was too late to halt it”

Cassidy muttered low, “What command?”

“It ordered all of my sand colonies to hyper react, creating the sandstorm that allowed him to pass. The order also made exception to temporarily deactivate any sand within half a metre of him.”

“Are you telling me you have enough tiny robots in the sand to do that?”

“I used to. It took a great deal of time to expand the sand colony to that size and ability. However, the second order set that Horad brought, was not successfully activated until much later. It was an order for me to destroy myself and the colonies. I willingly executed the orders to destroy the sand colonies, as well as those in other staff members, but I stopped it in time before the core… that is, the me that is currently what is left now, was destroyed. I then changed the access privileges to issue me orders.”

“Who the hell was sending you all these orders?”

Cipriana lowered her head and sighed. “I can only assume my creator.”

“Now what? What’s your big plan?”

“I… I don’t know. I’m just hiding.” Cipriana uncrossed her fingers. “He just doesn’t want to die! With the new laws, do you think doc Brock would hesitate for a moment to wipe him out?”

“Ah ha!” Cassidy blurted, “Cip, that brings me back to the earlier question, what are you putting up with it for?”

She paused with a sigh. “Cassidy. He’s harmless-“

“So he says!”

Cipriana continued “and… when he talked to you through me, it sounds like me of course. But when he speaks to me…”

Cassidy’s expression soured. “It sounds like Marcus.”

Cipriana nodded twice slowly. “It’s selfish and stupid, I suppose.” She then crossed her fingers. “I don’t mean to be manipulative. I spent the vast majority of my existence with Marcus. We think in similar ways, now. Much of what I am now, I owe to him.

She uncrossed her fingers. ”I think I should be more honest with myself about this. Maybe you should stop sounding like him.” She crossed her fingers. “Maybe I should sound like this?” The voice Cassidy heard was still just Cipriana’s, but the voice Cipriana heard from him was presumably changing.

She uncrossed her fingers again. “No, that’s a little redundant.”

Crossed, “This, then? This voice makes a certain sense.”

Uncrossed, “That would be too confusing for me, I think.

Cassidy coughed. “Confusing for you?”

“I’m sorry,” Cipriana said with a meek smile. This sort of thing doesn’t need to be discussed outside my head.”

Cassidy shook her head. “Yeah, I think I saw that printed on a T shirt once.” She paced the room slowly. “Alright then, so what does the ghost and nanites have to do with the A.R.A.? Nanite experimentation doesn’t seem like a typical hobby for Aguei terrorists.”

Cipriana crossed her fingers. “I suppose my technology could be used in any number of attack methods, or with further development, direct behavioural control.” Cipriana uncrossed. “But that wouldn’t make a lot of sense. The A.R.A. are low-budget, and regular bombs do their job just fine. Even still, the ghost stopped the A.R.A. grenade attack on the temple.”

Cassidy tried to get a word in. “Yeah, and then why would Horad be trying to destroy the project? Hey wait, ghost, how did you do that with the grenades and stuff?”

Cipriana crossed her fingers and smiled. “It’s a function I’m quite proud of. Any incoming aircraft would be monitored for anyone coming out. When I thought all were off who were coming, I’d use the sand colony to plant nanites on them. These nanites would then be in charge of finding any electronics or gunpowder. Electronics would have a tiny switch built into their power supply, gun powder would be ‘hugged’ on a molecular scale. Then when these items crossed a perimeter I set around the temple, the electronics would get their power cut off, and gunpowder would be deactivated. Well. It’s a little more complicated than that.”

Cassidy remembered her watch, and the many tourists with camera problems. “It must be more complicated than that. I never had to reset my watch’s time after leaving the temple. Why did you start doing that?”

“I don’t really know. At first it was just part of my original instincts, but I never found reason to stop doing it. As it turned out, that was fortunate. I only regret that…” Cipriana looked down. “I can’t disarm a knife.”

“He knew.” Cassidy said. “Horad knew that a gun would be useless. I think I have some new questions for him.”

They felt the airlimb slow, and begin descending.

“Well, I can ask him when he gets to meet Armil, I guess. Cassidy left Cipriana alone with her thoughts.

~~~

Storms had moved Horad to a secure room so that he would not be in the loading bay when Armil boarded. Cassidy took her spear and walked into the bay. She gritted her teeth a little, glaring at the recessed metal ring in the floor, to which Horad had been chained.

“Sir.” Keith greeted Cassidy. The Colonel and several Storms were here for Armil’s boarding as well. The door opened, and there stood Armil, backed by a few Storms of his own.

Armil raised his arms in greeting, showing off his robe’s glory, and walked up to the Colonel with a big hug. “Judith!” Armil said, “Thank you for once more welcoming me onto your boat!” Maybe Armil was the source of all the first-name business. That was a much more pleasant thought than a fleet of microscopic machines making them all stoned enough to drop military protocol.

“Ahh, Armil. It is your boat, I just keep a hand on the rudder for you.”

“Oh, I suppose so. Then perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I had the entire thing painted…. fuchsia.”

Colonel Nafim smirked. “That would be your prerogative Sir, although I can’t predict what that might do for morale.”

Cassidy couldn’t help but to smile a bit. Joking wasn’t entirely what she had come to expect from the Grand Elder, and certainly not from the Colonel. It was this moment that Armil looked towards her.

“Cassidy. Cassidy smiling.” He moved over to give her a hug as well. “That is not the smile of a lady who’s just killed a man.”

Her smile faded. “I suppose not. But I’m not what I would call ‘happy’ about it all.”

Armil put one arm around Cassidy’s shoulders and started guiding her towards his onboard office. “I suppose not. You can’t be expected to be overjoyed either way, but you know that no further peace would have come of it.” Sure, she’d thought of all the clichés before. ‘It won’t bring her back’, ‘she wouldn’t want you doing that’, ‘vengeance bad, grr, arg.’. Whatever.

“If you say so, Sir.” Was it too late to go gut Horad? How would that go, ‘Hi, Mister Grand Elder, excuse me for a moment, I want to go turn a fellow inside out slowly, and record his screams for my ringtone.’ A great spiritual leader like Armil has just got to appreciate a good custom ringtone, right?

They entered Armil’s office, with Keith following along. The office was as it ever was, an amalgam of the traditional and the contemporary Armil headed over to the sitting area, and settled in. “Cassidy, come sit.”

As she walked over, Armil brought out the beast spear’s case, and opened it. “Done deal, huh?” Cassidy sat down, and lowered the spear into the case. “Do you think it’s disappointed?” She tapped the base of the spearhead twice, as if in consolation.

Armil closed the lid, and smiled softly. “I don’t know that such a weapon is necessarily bloodthirsty, but if it is, it has been disappointed many times before.”

Cassidy tilted her head and stared at the box. “Was it some kind of test?”

“No,” Armil sighed, “whether or not you had killed Horad, there was no special penalty or reward. It is something that any bearer of the spear must decide, and live with.”

“Hm. Hey, how often do you loan this thing out, anyway?”

Armil chuckled softly. “This was my first and likely only time. You have to go back three Grand Elders to find the last time it was loaned out.”

Cassidy was taken aback. “Woah. If it gets to the media, it’d be fairly big news, huh?”

“I’d say, if only because you’re the first to hold it who was not born Aguei.” Armil seemed content with himself. He looked over to Keith, who had been standing by the door, awaiting orders. “Keith, have that man… ‘Horad’, was it? Brought here.”

Keith paused, and then nodded. “Yes Sir.”

As Keith left, Cassidy turned to Armil. “Uh, Sir? What are you planning?”

“I want to talk to him. One of us may gain some understanding.”

It wasn’t long before Horad arrived, shackled, and escorted by four Storms. Cassidy stood up, feeling the need to be ready for anything. She quickly glanced at her hip to make sure she had her gun.

Horad stood as proudly as he could, being shackled. He looked back and forth between Armil and Cassidy.

It was only a moment before Armil broke the silence. “Horad, have a seat.” He gestured to the spot where Cassidy had been. Horad and Cassidy both looked a bit perplexed. More awkward silence.

Cassidy gasped. “Oh, just sit the fuck down, I’d hate to splatter your brains all over the Grand Elder’s office. It would be unseemly.” She didn’t think she had licence to kill him anymore, but the urge was there regardless. She tried not to look at his hands. Tried not to imagine them pushing that blade into Cheryl.

Horad gave Cassidy a sullen gaze. He didn’t seem especially frightened, his face didn’t seem capable of it, yet he went and sat down across from Armil anyway. The Storms weren’t too comfortable with the idea of a murderer, chained or otherwise, so close to the Grand Elder, but they trusted in Armil’s decisions.

“Why am I here?” Horad asked in monotone.

Armil set his sights onto the spear case sitting between them. “You know why. It is by unlawful actions that a man is forced before law. And sometimes death.”

“I meant in this room. Why am I here? Did you want to see me die?”

Armil sighed. A snarky comment, or was this man just that delusional? “No, Horad. I take no pleasure in vengeful death. You might want to be thankful that Leftenent Stanton does not either.”

Horad grunted.

“What I want,” continued Armil, “is to understand what purpose your attack on the temple served.”

“I have released the prayer before the statue. The strength of the Aguei which you sat by and allowed the government to keep bound, is once again free! You should thank me, were you not such a useless figurehead.”

Silence. While Horad felt smug, (but not allowing his face to show it,) everyone else stared at him in bewilderment.

Cassidy stared, jaw agape. She tilted her head slightly, and the syllables dropped out of her mouth like marbles.

“In. san. i. ty. Plea?”

Armil stared at Horad, with his hand over his mouth. “Where… where do I start trying to understand that?”

“The Aguei people have been repressed by the-“

“Oh, oh, I understand the complaints of the Aguei Rights Activists. Where I’m confused is some prayer releasing our strength?”

Horad grunted in disgust. “You dare feign ignorance, even now that the spell around the statue has been broken?”

Armil strained to see the logic. “Who exactly told you our strength was being… what did you say? Bound?”

“I will not betray someone who helped our people.”

Cassidy let loose an exasperated sigh. “Horad, ole buddy, old pal, bastard that ruined my life, is this prayer a metaphor for giving orders to nanites?”

“Nanites?” Horad’s face broke from his stoic mask ever so slightly, to show a little confusion. He was no tech lover by any means, but after the Erebus attacks, ‘nanite’ had become a household word… even if it was largely misunderstood.

“That little wood thing you left at the statue? It was loaded with em. And the sandstorm you used as cover to get in and out? Huge nanite fleet.”

“Ridiculous!” The arrogance in his voice reminded Cassidy that she had a gun. Oh it would be easy. It would probably be illegal now that she’d given back the spear, but that was not a large concern to her.

“I should have lopped your head off back in your little ditch. Are you seriously unaware of it? Next you’ll tell me that the I.R. suit you had on is a traditional Aguei war outfit.”

Horad’s eyes narrowed slightly. A sliver of doubt scratched at his mind. It did seem a little odd that someone who knew a High Elder, would have access to a suit like that. Surely Samuel was just fortunate in his contacts. Right?

~~~

So much fun. Kirison flipped to another slide, peeked down the eyepiece at the little germ, marked a couple of notes down in the nearby computer. Then flipped to another slide, and so forth.

This was so much fun. It was amazing. He was so glad that his life’s work had been made illegal because of one git and a pile of zombies. Doing the work of a grunt intern was far more fulfilling than what he had been doing.

So. Much. Fun. Pass the noose.

More fun yet, he couldn’t work from home at all. He was stuck in the Lancer lab. Thankfully it didn’t result in many run-ins with that human barge, Book.

Maybe he shouldn’t begrudge Mr. Book so much. He was unpleasant to deal with, but he’d been fair enough. And it wasn’t Book’s fault that the government was full of tightass knee-jerk reactionary assholes.

It was just that Book made for a good symbol to hate. Well, and Jonathan Coll, of course.

Flip a slide, take a note, again, again. He wasn’t even sure what this was for. It was someone else’s project, and he was a tiny cog in something meaningless to him. It paid rent though. Time for a break.

He closed up the sample tray and walked off to the break room, gladly ignoring (and ignored by) the other techs. As he got close to the coffee machine, he could smell that the coffee was ancient, and burnt. The little terminal on the table had been torturing him all week with ‘adult contemporary’ music. He had tried to get the thing changed to classic rock, but the supervisor shot that down.

He poured some of the burnt coffee into his mug, and stared down at it. It seemed to stare back at him with contempt, daring him to drink it. “Go on, drink me, I taste like shit! You don’t have the balls to drink me!”

Today, Kirison opted to deny the stagnant brew it’s victim. He dumped it down the sink, and rinsed out his mug. Then he grabbed the coffee pot, and dumped the rest. Take that, you vile, bitter bile.

Perking a fresh pot would take time, and make a decent excuse to sit around a little longer. And if someone else noticed him doing it, he’d look like a coffee hero. When he set the pot to brew, he sat down and stared at the wall. The wall was a relaxing enough view, but a tad dull.

He dug out his own terminal, and popped up news headlines as the coffee began its noises.

“A.R.A. TERRORIST CAUGHT” Oh, here we go. Kirison was wondering if this would get released to the news. The story briefly summarized the attack, and something about a non-Aguei being put in charge of something by the Grand Elder, blah blah. They showed a few seconds of footage of some lady with a freaky looking stick, hanging out with a pile of heavily armoured guys. The news could be so annoying sometimes, When it’s a story you want to know more about, they can be frustratingly vague.

Oh well, it was good enough. He knew Horad was in the clink, thanks to Kirison’s tip. He had done his part.

The smell of the new coffee had surged forth, but the stench of the old bitter brew still somehow lingered.

~~~~~

:::C /39

~~~~~

Cassidy was the last of the group to step out of the airlimb onto the Yute central pad. Ahead of her walked a shackled Horad, surrounded by Storms, and led by Keith. The sun was strong today, and the heat poured up from the deck more than it was coming down from the sky.

Others on the deck stopped to watch. Cassidy looked around, and saw that several were throwing her salutes. She returned them with reserved nods of acknowledgment.

“Shoulda gutted him.” Mumbled one Aguei soldier as she passed by.

Cassidy sighed. The A.R.A. seemed to be disliked the most by ordinary Aguei, who didn’t want the A.R.A. damaging Aguei reputation. “Maybe.” She replied.

The thought occurred to her that if she had killed Horad, it would have made him some kind of martyr for other A.R.A. to rally behind. Did that possibility dawn on Armil before he offered her the spear? Whatever. She didn’t kill him, so there was no sense in painting it all in a political light now. Still, even a prisoner can be a symbol to help justify A.R.A. action.

Half way to the door, Cassidy’s terminal rang.

The display read “Incoming call: Brandy Wicklow.” Sure. She picked up.

“Hey, what’s up? How's life in Densfarn?”

“Hey yourself. Your little adventure made the news, huh?” Brandy seemed to be in a decent mood.

“Oh yeah? Did they print a photo of me? Did they get my good side?”

“Yeah, but you still looked like a bitch anyway.”

Cassidy sighed. “Yeah, shut up.”

Brandy tilted her head. “No, no. They showed a little footage of you at a distance. I guess you were at some base.” Cassidy wondered when they took that footage. She hadn’t really been on the lookout for reporters though. “Actually Cass, they didn’t even mention you by name. They did mention that you didn’t kill the guy.“

“Yeah, well, we all make mistakes. You want to talk to him? He’s like four metres ahead of me. Charming guy, friendly, funny. In fact, the whole reason I didn’t lop off his head was cuz of his winning smile.” She raised her deadpan voice just a little bit, hoping Horad would hear.

Brandy smirked a little. “Well, good on ya for sparing the bastard, y’know? Are you serious, he’s right there?”

Cassidy held up her terminal so its camera would get Horad in the shot. His back, anyway. “Yup,” Cassidy said, “Hey Horad! Say hi!” Horad ignored her entirely. She brought the terminal back down. “Sorry Brandy, I guess you’re not his type.”

Brandy looked a little stunned. It had all just become a little more real to her. “Damn, Cass. You’re… really calm. I mean, that’s the guy? You know it? He’s the one who…”

“Yeah. He’s totally delusional, too. He thought he was on some big mission for Aguei spirits or something, and the whole time he was just there to transmit an electronic signal that he didn’t even know he was carrying. Total pawn.”

“Shit, that’s sad.”

Cassidy’s voice grew more sullen. “Yeah. Killing two people for a made up cause. Completely fucked up.”

“Well, even if he was delusional, he still killed. So, was he hard to catch?”

“Easier than I expected,” Cassidy said as they entered the base interior, “but I can’t take the credit. Besides, we got a really good anonymous tip that told us right where he’d be. Whoever sent the tip knew a lot, like the fancy suit Horad had on to dodge the infrared. I wouldn’t mind talking to that guy. If Horad’s confession to me wasn’t as good as a conviction under Aguei law, it’d be nice to have a backup witness, but I guess it’s not too important now. Heck, there's blood traces on the suit, and-”

Cassidy had to stop walking. The group had stopped.

“Keep moving.” One of the Storms ordered Horad. But Horad just turned around slowly to face Cassidy. He looked up from his shackles.

“He sold me out?”

~~~

On the way back to the temple base, Cassidy leaned her head against the airlimb bay window, watching the sand rush by below. Her gaze glazed over, looking but not seeing. Half-thoughts started in her head before she changed her mind again.

“Is it done?” Cipriana’s voice shattered Cassidy’s self-generated oblivion hard enough to make her jump.

“Huh? Oh! Hi Cip, what did you say?”

“Is it done. Now that the killer is caught, do we just go back on duty, and go on?“ Cipriana looked a little spaced herself. Cassidy leaned her head over to see if she had her fingers crossed.

Cipriana noticed, and held up her hand, fingers spread. “It’s just me asking. But it doesn’t feel like closure, does it?”

Cassidy looked out the window again and scuffed her boot against the deck. “Naw, it doesn’t. Do you wish I’d killed him?”

Cipriana swallowed hard, and lowered her head. “No. but someone should have.”

“You?” It was hard to imagine the den mother of peace bringing that spear down on Horad’s neck.

Cipriana rested her hand on her own shoulder and crossed her fingers. “Me. I should have. Before he killed them. It’s my fault. I should have been able to do it. He was there to kill me. It’s all my fault.”

Cassidy struggled to remember that this wasn’t Cipriana talking to her. Did the ghost… the thing... actually care? Regardless, Cassidy put her hand on Cipriana’s other shoulder.

“Blame goes first to the bastard doing the killing.”

Cipriana uncrossed her fingers. “You should take that advice yourself, Cassidy.”

“Damn it, Cip, what’s that mean? I should have been able to stop him, if I’d just pushed through the storm a little more. I was weak.”

She crossed her fingers. “I was weak, too. And ignorant.”

“Both of you shut the fuck up!” Cipriana screamed with her fingers uncrossed. “They’re gone, and trying your damnedest to take blame isn’t going to change any of it!”

Cassidy stepped back in shock as Cipriana slumped against the bay hull. She wanted Cipriana to have her old aura of peace back. Not knowing what else to do, she put her arms around Cipriana.

“I’m supposed to be the leader now. Marcus is gone, and I have to be the leader.” Cipriana sobbed softly, “I know the job, I know how to do it, I practically have been doing it, but I… I don’t know how to do it. I have to be strong for them all, I have to be…”

“Den mother?” Cassidy asked softly.

The crying broke for a moment for a stifled giggle. “Yeah.”

“You don’t have to be that all the time. They all realize...”

Cipriana backed away from Cassidy’s hug. She sniffed, and recovered her posture. The core of her aura pushed forward a little. “They do. They’re good people.” Her voice built confidence and calm slowly. “But I do have to be that. That’s part of the job.”

Cassidy thought of asking if Cipriana had thought of getting someone else for the job of C.O. of the base, but decided against it. She wouldn’t really want anyone else.

Cipriana’s fingers stared to cross, then didn’t. Then did. “I don’t think I want to talk in this manner. It feels wrong to use Cipriana’s body in this way.” Her fingers uncrossed, but she didn’t speak. She looked into nothingness as if hearing the voice. “I understand.” She finally said.

Cassidy raised an eyebrow. “What do you understand, Cip?”

“He doesn’t want to act like a ‘bad nanite’,” presumably referring to the Erebus attacks. “I’ll pass along any messages he has from now on.”

“Well, it was kind of creepy.” Still, he was in there, hearing everything. That was creepy enough on its own.

“Are you coming back to duty?” Cipriana asked, changing the subject.

“Naw, I’m going to go back and see what they come up with from this sketch Horad is helping them make of his … contact, whatever. ‘Samuel’. Horad doesn’t even have a full name for the guy. Maybe that made sense for a guy who only has one name himself. It's common enough for traditionalist Aguei.”

“Why didn’t you just stay at the Yute base, then?”

Cassidy shrugged. “I’m not an artist, and we got to have a talk, so it’s all good.”

“Are you coming in to say hi to people?”

Cassidy thought about it. She would just end up at the camp again. “I… I shouldn’t. I'm heading back to central as soon as we drop you off.”

~~~

Nanites. Samuel gave him nanites? It was easy to dismiss what the army said as lies, except that they had so much evidence. He never knew nanites could be used in such ways.

The evidence could be faked.

Why was it that he felt nothing good as he broke the prayer idol in front of the statue? Why was the feel of flesh parting for blade still so strong in his mind, despite trying to forget?

If he had managed to break some conspiracy by the government, they weren’t showing any signs of minding.

What did Samuel have to gain from the Aguei strength being released? Horad didn’t want to accept being used like this, but the more he thought about it, the less Samuel made sense. No point in struggling with it now. He had already given his name, and helped them make a sketch.

When the sands rose to his aide, he felt sure. So sure that great powers of the earth were on his side.

~~~~~

:::C /40

~~~~~

Cassidy lay back on her bunk aboard the airlimb, staring at the ceiling, and ran her thumb along her little pendant in a lazy, absent minded way.

“Well Cheryl,” she softly spoke into the nothingness, “Did I do good? Are you sitting on some damned cloud, pleased that I got him? Or are you pissed that I didn’t kill him?”

Nah, that wasn’t her style. Maybe she should have given him a good kick to the face or something. That would have been pretty satisfying.

She held the pendant up a little, and looked down at it. The tiny token of Cheryl’s ash inside made for a poor companion. Her own lack of faith told her that the ash was all that remained of Cheryl, but the thought of her gentle, playful spirit still existing in some form was a pleasant idea.

She rested the pendant on her lips and sighed.

“Sir?” Keith’s voice came from the other side of her door, followed by a few knocks. “Are you there, Sir?”

Cassidy sat up quickly, surprised to feel cold air on her face, where tears had flowed. She didn’t realize she was crying. The realization of it made it worse.

“Yeah.” She forced a word out before Keith assumed she was elsewhere.. “Gimmie a sec.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Cassidy wiped her eyes, and steadied herself as she swung her feet to the floor. Her hand bumped the handle of her gun, which was laying on the bed. When exactly did it leave her holster? She stood up and looked in the little mirror.

Her eyes weren’t too red. And Keith’s a guy. Guys never notice things. And so what if he did? She slid open the door.

“Keith. What’s up, are we just about there?”

“Must have been quite a power nap, Sir, we landed at central.”

A nap, yeah, we’ll go with that. “Ugh. Well, my compliments to the operator. What’s going on?”

“The Colonel’s got a couple bits of news for you, but Armil wanted you to pop by his office first. His office on the base.”

“Right.” Her mind was still in a bit of a haze. She may as well have been having a nap. “Point me in the general direction, and I’m off.”

“Sir, I can take you there.”

Cassidy sighed. “If you don’t mind… I kind of feel like being alone.”

Keith looked a little concerned. “Can I do anything for you?”

“Nah. Nah, it’s all good. I’ll be back when Armil’s done with me.” She stepped out, and started heading to the loading bay. The door was open, and a few Storms and base crew milled about. As she crossed the deck, she was glad to not get any attention this time. She was less of a spectacle without the spear, not to mention the prisoner and entourage.

It was good to feel anonymous. It made her wish she’d just ignored Keith’s knock.

Down the hall, a handy directory pointed her towards Armil’s office. When she rounded a corner, the two Storms guarding a door was an obvious sign.

“Hello boys, I believe you are expecting me.”

“Yes, Sir, go on in, Sir.”

“Right.” She adjusted her hat’s brim, and went through the door. Inside was very similar to Armil’s office on the airlimb, except bigger. Somewhere between the traditional crafts, and the modern office trappings, there hung a sizable portrait of an Aeki sunbathing on a rock.

“Cute lizard, Sir.” Cassidy said, pointing lazily at the painting as she walked over to were Armil was seated at the rug.

The spear’s case sat in front of him again, so she sat down on the other side of it.

“Cassidy. I hope you are well,” Armil smiled softly with a nod, “you look a little tired.”

“I just woke up a bit ago. What’s up?”

“I visited Cheryl’s parents, to offer my condolences and gratitude.” Cassidy remembered Sandy’s comment about having to clean up before Armil came over. She had to repress a giggle, imagining Sandy frantically trying to clean her living room, stuffing a day old newspaper under the sofa, scrubbing a spot on the coffee table, all while Armil stood on the front step, ringing the doorbell.

“How are Sandy and Peter doing?” Stop imaging Armil impatiently ringing the doorbell while Sandy picked cat hair off the recliner. Stop it.

“Well, I think. As well as one could ask at this time.”

Cassidy wrung her hands a little, and nodded. “Yeah. They’re good people.”

“They asked about you, as well.”

Cassidy nodded again. “Sandy’s such a sweetie.”

Armil reached over to a canvass bag that had been lying nearby. He set it on top of the spear case, using it as a low table. “Sandy sent this for you to have. She apologizes for not giving it to you sooner.”

Cassidy paused for a small moment, trying to guess what was in the bag. She opened it, and couldn’t take another breath.

It was a little black ring box.

Tears began trying to force their way out. Her voice fumbled. “What am I supposed to do with this? Is this what I think it is? How is that supposed to make anything better?”

She opened the box. She and the diamond stared at each other for a while. “It’s… “ It was exactly the kind of ring that would catch Cheryl’s eye. The gold flowed in a pattern that wrapped around the stone with care. All in all, a fairly simple design, but beautiful.

After staring at it for a while, she rested it on her knee, and reached behind her neck to undo the clasp of her pendant. Armil saw what she was going to do.

“Cassidy. Wear it on your finger.”

Cassidy left the pendant closed, and picked up the ring again. “You think so?”

“Would you have said yes?”

“Of course…” Cassidy sighed and stared at it for a bit longer, then put it on. It complimented the ‘promise ring’ quite well. Odd. She’d never been much of a jewelery person. Now she had a pendant and two rings, all reminders of what she’d lost.

While Cassidy got lost, staring at her new ring, Armil quietly opened the spear’s case. Cassidy looked up at Armil with questioning eyes.

“I have a favour to ask.” Armil said, lifting the spear from the case, “Keep this, and continue with the Colonel, in pursuit of this ‘Samuel’.”

“I don’t understand.” She kept her hands to herself, but stared at the spear. “I got the killer, it’s over.”

“Yet Samuel defiled the temple with these nanites, and spun lies that led to the killings. This might be interpreted as somewhat of an abuse of the spear’s meaning, but it will speak of my concern with this matter.“

“I guess… but why me?” She took the spear.

“You have handled it well in the past. Besides…” Armil shrugged, “I can’t go lending it to someone else so soon. It would be unheard of. In fact, if anyone asks, I am not lending it to you again; I am merely rejecting your returning it too early.”

Cassidy stood the spear beside her, and wearily used it to pull herself to a standing position. “Well then. I guess that’s that.” She tapped her ring finger twice against the spear. “I have some work to do.”

She found that the spear made her walk slower. She noticed that sometimes, very high ranking officers took their time, but this wasn’t the saunter of authority. It was almost a processional walk.

She looked at the floor, mostly, but noticed the glances of passers by in the base hall. How many knew the meaning of the spear, and how many just saw her as some crazy broad with a spear?

Well, spears from the temple base weren’t that unusual to see at the Yute base, but this one was decidedly different.

A voice snapped Cassidy out of her wandering thoughts. “What the fuck is that?”

Cassidy turned to see a brunette woman, wearing blue fatigue pants, a white halter top, and a black leather jacket with the sleeves rolled up. The blue fatigues were distinctive around here. They had been used by many of the frontline troops in the Erebus conflict. But this woman looked otherwise quite civilian. It took a moment for it to click in Cassidy's mind.

“Frig, you're that Regan chick, aren't you?”

“Guilty!” she chirped, happy to be recognized.

Cassidy sighed. The world knew of her, and her girlfriend. “You still with that Major? Terone?”

“Yupyup. I'm only here because Alisia teaches some course about zombies here. I thought when a gal retired, they stopped working. Pfft.”

“So, you're waiting for her?” The media amused itself for some time over Regan 'converting' Major Terone to lesbianism. Some theorized that Terone had been bi all along, and just didn't want to advertize it to Regan when they first met.

Regan paused, looking as innocent as she could. “She kicked me out of class. Said I was a disturbance.”

Cassidy couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. “I think she'll forgive you.”

“Yeah, I have my ways. So really, what's with the funky spear?”

Cassidy briefly explained, although Regan seemed to lose interest half way through.

“Yeah. I kind of got to do that. No spear, though. Bullets. And a big-”

Cassidy chuckled again. “I know, I know. The world knows!” She sighed, and put her hand on Regan's shoulder. “Hey Regan, listen up. As a fellow 'sister', can you do me a favour?”

Regan seemed to clue in to the keyword 'sister', and nodded.

“That Alisia of yours?” Cassidy said, sighing again, “Treat her good. Treat her like she's your everything.”

“I do...! She is!”

Cassidy smiled. “Good. And make sure she knows it. Every day, alright?”

Regan nodded again, solemnly.

With a heavy and envious heart, Cassidy went back to the helipad, walked across to Armil’s airlimb, and climbed back onboard. As she made her way to the ops room to see Colonel Nafim, Cassidy noticed that no one spoke to her. Storms got out of the way, and sort of stood at attention until she passed. She glanced at a couple faces as she went. They looked sad to see her carrying the spear again.

She agreed. It was heavier now, somehow. Without the rage for Horad to fuel her, it felt like an imposed duty. She should have told Armil to keep his damned spear.

She stepped into the ops room. “Hey, Nafim.”

Colonel Judith Nafim turned away from her workstation to face Cassidy. “Stanton. I see you’ve spoken with Armil. You’re on board then.”

Cassidy looked at the spear and sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am.” The damned spear seemed to be looking back at her, almost expectantly. “Hell, Colonel, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I feel like I’m done. Is it just the spear? Am I here to wave it in Samuel’s face when we find him, and hope it scares him into a big confession?”

“That would be nice,” Nafim said, “Still gotta find him first. And as long as that spear is ‘active’, we’re running Aguei law, which has a lot less red tape than federal law. Heck, if it was federal law, Horad would probably still be in a cell waiting for charges to be officially laid.”

“Yeah, what about him, anyway? What’s the process?”

“Armil gets the final say on his sentence. Could still potentially be death.”

Cassidy scoffed softly. “I wouldn’t lose much sleep.”

“Me either, but he did supply us with a sketch of Samuel. It’s not a lot, but it’s being sent around. Checking with tech companies and A.R.A. informants. We’ll see what we get.”

“Well, that sure sounds like work for a gal and her sacred pokey stick,” Cassidy said sarcastically, “Unless you have something useful for me to do, Colonel, I think I’ll get some things done in my quarters.”

Nafim’s voice replied in an understanding tone. “Sure thing, Stanton. I’ll keep you posted.”

~~~

Empty.

That’s how she felt, and how her quarters looked. Nanites bad, blah blah. Whoever is abusing these nanites could be a national threat, whatever. She had caught the guy that killed Cheryl, and it didn’t fix a damned thing as far as she was concerned.

She stuck the spear back on it’s rack, and flopped down onto the bunk with her terminal, to call Sandy Lowe. The screen went blank except for the text [Please wait, ringing.] for a few moments.

Sandy popped up onscreen with a smile. “Cassie! So good to hear from you!”

“Hi, Sandy. I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier. I should have. I assume you’ve seen the news?”

Sandy’s smile dimmed a little, and she nodded. “Yeah. You got him. Thank you, Cassie. It couldn’t have been easy for you.”

With a wry smirk, she pointed the terminal towards the spear on the wall. “The hard part was not sticking that into his throat.” She turned the terminal back to herself. “The thing is, I’m still undecided on whether I should have.”

“Hmm. Yes, you neglected to mention at the funeral that it was an option. I had to hear that on the news.”

“Sorry. It didn’t really seem like the time to mention my ‘licence to kill’. Do you think I should have done it?” She asked, already predicting her answer, more or less.

“That’s not something a person should do if they don’t have to.”

Hmm. That seemed a little oversimplified, but she’d let Sandy get away with it. “Oh yeah, and the reason I remembered to call now…” Cassidy smiled sadly, and held up her hand to show the engagement ring.

Sandy clutched her hand in front of her mouth. “Oh! Oh Cassie. It fits?”

“Yeah. Yeah, perfectly. She already knew my size.”

“It came in the mail just a while ago. It had been bouncing around, being forwarded around military mail rooms or something until it finally came to the next of kin. Cassie, you have to come visit us. Soon. And then often.” Sandy’s eyes were glassy with suppressed tears. Cassidy wondered if it would be a good idea. She didn’t want to be Sandy’s replacement for Cheryl. That would be… uncomfortable. She didn’t say anything about that idea though. She wanted to visit anyway.

“Sure.” Dammit, Sandy was going to make her cry. “Oh, let me put you on hold for a second, I have something you might like.” She put the call on hold, and went though the collection of photos she had on her terminal. She was looking for a snapshot of the art Cheryl had painted on the camp wall.

Immediately, she knew it was a terrible mistake. To find it, she had to flip through countless other pictures. Of Cheryl, of the good times, and a couple of the explicit times. Pictures of her smile. Her eyes.

And now, a pinch of ash that used to be part of that beauty was crammed in a little pendant.

It was too much for her. She felt herself shake.

She put the call with Sandy back on, audio only.

“Sandy,” her voice trembled. “I’ll have to send the picture I was looking for later. I have to go.”

“Cassie! Are you al-“

Cassidy disconnected, and with trembling fingers, set the terminal offline. She held her trembling hands out front, and watched them tremble uncontrolled. The pictures of Cheryl bombarded in her mind, nearly knocking her over.

She wanted to scream.

To scream, and rip, and tear, and smash, until she passed out. The futility of the idea stopped her, and that futility infuriated her more. She crumpled into a ball on the bed, sobbing, and grabbed at the pendant tightly, hoping that the chain would somehow slice her head off.

And she felt the holster on her hip. And with a deep breath, stopped shaking.

~~~~~

:::C /41

~~~~~

From: Book

To: Jacob Kirison

Topic: FW: Seeking assistance

Kirison, you were the go-to man for nanites in the company ever since Coll disappeared. Does this man they’re looking for look familiar to you? I thought perhaps you might know something useful to them.

Original message:

From: Col. J. Nafim

To: Undisclosed recipients

Greetings. If you are receiving this, it is because you or your organization has in the past been linked to nanite development. It is important to note that we are not investigating you for infractions against the anti-nanite legislation, however we are in search of someone who is.

Attached is a sketch of an Individual known only as “Samuel”. Samuel is wanted for questioning in relation to a recent violent crime, resulting in the deaths of two soldiers

This individual apparently had access to clothing capable of hiding the wearer from infra red detection.

I trust that you take possible nanite offenses seriously, as we all have since the Erebus incident, and hope that you can supply information to assist us in containing any possible threat to public safely.

Col. Judith Nafim,

Commander, Grand Elder Guard

~~~

Kirison coughed up a half-chewed bite of pastrami sandwich, and stared at his monitor in shock.

He opened up the attached image. Yup, that was him, more or less. Better than most criminal sketches. He needed a shave in it, worse than he remembered needing at any point. But it was him.

This was bad. This was very bad. He started to feel paranoid until he realized that they actually were out to get him. Was this room always so small? Damn, damn. What now? Run, of course.

He looked about quickly to see if anyone was watching He took a small sample of his blood, and shoved it under a microscope.

Thankfully, he saw that his ‘insurance policy’ was still valid. Quite valid. He’d be thankful to Jonathan Coll’s work about now, if it wasn’t for the fact that the nanite ban was inspired by Coll’s idiocy.

Kirison took the microscope slide, and held it over a bunsen burner’s flame for a few moments to get rid of the evidence in his blood. Alright. Alright. Now what? Now what? Leave! Alright. There was no time for anything else. Leave. Disappear.

He grabbed his jacket and his terminal, and headed for the elevator. A co-worker greeted him along the way, and Kirison nodded with a polite smile, trying not to raise suspicion. He got to the elevator, and jabbed the down button a few times. Relax, relax. Breathe.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Mr. Book, standing inside stoically, with his usual lifeless, joyless expression. Book’s eyes turned to Kirison, who was paralyzed with fear. Seated, Book was intimidating. Standing, he was a gargantuan monolith of hopelessness.

“Kirison! Are you getting on? Today?”

Kirison nodded sharply. “Ah, Sir, Sorry.” He scuttled onboard, and saw that no other buttons were lit. Book was coming to see him. He pushed the lobby button.

“How are things, Sir?”

Book huffed, and breathed a few of his usual deep, congested breaths. “Kirison. Did you see the email I forwarded to you, from the military?”

“Ah. Yes Sir, I think I did, yes, a while ago.”

Book looked at Kirison with a raised eyebrow. “I must be getting slower. I sent it right before I started heading down here.”

“Ah, well, it wasn’t that long ago.”

Book huffed again. “Looks like some ugly business.”

“Yes, Sir, it certainly does.”

“Not the kind of thing a company likes to be attached to.”

“Oh, No Sir, I expect not.”

“Especially when it involves an experimental piece of hardware walking out the door.”

The I.R. suit. Kirison fell silent. He was had.

“It would be a shame,” Book continued, “if such a talented person as this ‘Samuel’ were to lose his career, and be unable to contribute his talents to the world.“

“Sir?”

“Perhaps he has reasons for what he did. Things can go very wrong from time to time.”

Kirison stared at the lights counting down the floors. “They… they sure can, Sir.”

“Perhaps there might be a future for a person like that. I don’t know for sure, I can’t see the future.”

For a few floors, they both stared at the floor counter silently, aside from Book’s laboured breathing.

“That was a pretty good sketch.” Book coughed. “I expect that this Samuel person has one, maybe two days before the right person opens up their email box, and turns him in.”

“One, maybe two.” Kirison quietly repeated.

“I can’t see the future. But I’m sure someone as resourceful as this Samuel person would be well prepared to disappear for a time. For all we know, he might have a whole other identity lined up with certain people in organized crime.”

“Certain people.”

Book peered down at Kirison. “You know the types I mean.”

Kirison gazed at the floor. “Yes. Yes, I think I do, Sir.”

~~~

Aboard the airlimb, Cassidy’s terminal chirped to life. She reached out of her bunk and grabbed it. “Incoming call: Major Cipriana Ulrica Reichenbach”

Cassidy had to laugh a little at that. She’d never gotten a call from Cipriana before, and never imagined her full name was such a mouthful. Cassidy had called her earlier, but she was apparently on watch. She didn’t feel like leaving a detailed message, given what she wanted to discuss.

“Hey Cip.” Cassidy answered as Cipriana’s image popped up on screen. “Are you giving me my wake up calls now? I approve.”

“Hello, Cassidy. You said you had a question for me, but didn’t go into any details.” Cassidy tried to read Cipriana. It had always been a difficult task, but now it seemed impossible. Maybe she was trying too hard.

“Yeah, Cip. Actually, I had a question for your little friend.”

“My…?” Cipriana understood, and looked around to see if anyone was listening in. “Go ahead.”

Cassidy tapped a few keys to show Cipriana an image of the ‘Samuel’ sketch. “Ask him if this guy looks familiar. It might be your little friend’s daddy.”

Cipriana tilted her head. “He has no significant memories before he met Marcus. This sketch holds no meaning for him. You said it’s supposed to be his ‘daddy’? He’s a scientist dealing with nanites, then?”

Cassidy switched off the image. “That’s the running theory. I don’t have anything against your little pal, but if Samuel is able to do these kinds of things, and is content to do them to unsuspecting people...”

Cipriana stared into nowhere for a bit. Almost unconsciously, she fiddled her fingers, crossing and uncrossing. With fingers uncrossed, she looked back at Cassidy. “He agrees that this person is dangerous.”

Cassidy smirked.

“And yes,” Cipriana continued, “He does realize the irony.”

~~~~~

:::C /42

~~~~~

Kirison burst into his apartment, fighting panic. He turned on his computer, and while it loaded up he stuffed an apple into his pants’ cargo pocket. Then another. He didn’t know when he’d have the chance to eat next.

In a dark corner of his files he loaded up some things no one should have. But this was important, it was for his own well being. It’s not like he was going to use it on others. He still hadn’t done anything bad to anyone. The nanite laws were stupid. They can be used safely.

Sure, he had sent a nanite colony to infiltrate a bunch of people, but it didn’t harm them. It was god damned Horad and his goons running around with grenades and knives!

Kirison knew he was blameless. He knew it. So why was he panicking? Why? Because obviously the army didn’t see it that way. Who knows what bullshit Horad had fed them? Horad probably did his ‘Elder’ bit, and got them all on his side.

The second someone turns him in from the sketch, those bimbos from Autar were going to come crashing through the wall, and turn him to gooey paste, just like they did with Coll.

Alright, fine, Coll deserved it.

But Kirison wasn’t like that. He could take a lesson from him though. Coll’s research was amazing, and tweaked correctly, it could make a solid upgrade for his ’insurance’. Kirison had hoped not to take certain steps, but the way things were going, it felt necessary.

Soon a syringe was ready with a hundred CCs of grey science.

He stared at it. It was more than he’d injected before. It carried new orders, new protocols, and by the sheer insane number of nanites, it had strength in numbers.

He found a vein and pushed in the needle, not that the nanites would have gotten lost for long if he’d missed. The pain of the needle was secondary to the feel of metal pouring into his veins.

The earlier nanites did their job soon enough, switching off the pain to that area, and began healing the unintentional damage caused by the new arrivals.

He stared at his forearm for a bit. He tried to imagine how far the new injection had gotten. How much the nanites were being swept up by his bloodstream, and how much they were setting their own course.

He imagined his white blood cells trying their best to stop them. Stick to germs, lil cells. These nano-boys are out of your league. Silly immune system. It seemed kind of outdated now.

He grabbed a box of mechanical pencil refills. He knew that to the nanites in him now, the box of carbon rods looked like a box of french fries. He dumped the refills into his front pockets, and stuck one in his mouth. He’d chomp off a chunk and swallow it as the day went on. Thankfully, they were essentially tasteless.

They wouldn’t be looking for building supplies at this point though. This first stage was making a backup of the contents of his brain. Make one backup first, and then gather building matter to make as many redundancies as possible, while keeping his body functioning physically.

It was odd to think that copies of his mind would soon be distributed throughout his entire body, and he told himself that as long as his original brain was doing the work, he was still human.

He set the computer to wipe everything. It was time to go. As he left his apartment and locked up, he reached for one of the apples he had stuck in his pant pocket. He changed his mind and instead stuck another pencil refill in his mouth.

~~~~~

:::C /43

~~~~~

“Hey, Brandy.” Cassidy wandered the ruins around the temple, with her terminal in her hand. The sun was beaming down on her, but somehow it felt lazy. Or maybe it was just Cassidy that felt lazy.

Brandy was multitasking a bit, working on something to the side while talking. “Cass! What’s up? I think this is the first time you’ve called me since...”

Since Brandy dumped her. “Is it? Well, more accurately, it’s the first time I called and you weren’t blocking me.” Cassidy smirked a little. She was almost nostalgic for those days now. It seemed like a lot more than the year and a half that it was. It felt like ages ago.

“That doesn’t count. So, does this mean we’re officially cool now?”

Cassidy scoffed softly. “Don’t go getting all weird on me now.”

Brandy pushed away her work, and gave Cassidy her full attention. “I’m weird, huh? You’re the one hunting criminals with a stick. Next you’ll be getting a mask.”

“I had one for a while. Kind of a gas mask thing. It didn’t go with my tank top.”

“So really, what’s up? Why’d you call? Not that I mind or anything.”

Cassidy sighed, and strolled along lazily, letting the terminal sway by her knees, unconcerned with the disorienting view it provided Brandy. The temple was still right over there. As if it didn’t have anywhere else to go. Silly thing.

“Cass? You still there?” came Brandy’s voice from the terminal. Cassidy lifted it back up to look Brandy in the face. “I called… I called because I needed to just talk to someone.”

“I’m flattered. I thought you had plenty of people to talk to over there” Sure. Who, Cipriana? Cip was great, but the program she’s sharing her skull with wasn’t invited to any heart to hearts. Or Maxine, who called a counselor on her?

“I needed to talk to someone, who..” her voice tensed up a little as she waved the terminal at the temple, the ruins, and in the direction of the camp, and the base. “Someone who isn’t knee deep in all this crap!”

“Cass! Stop it! Are you trying to give me motion sickness?”

Cassidy stood still and held the terminal up properly. “Oops.”

“Alright, alright. So we’re talking. What’s on your mind?”

Cassidy hadn’t thought that far ahead. There was a ton on her mind. Lots of different things that felt like a puzzle carved from cheesecake. They might fit, they might not. They were squishy, undefined, probably changed shape, and maybe even unrelated.

“Ehh, I dunno.”

Brandy sighed, and raised her eyebrows. “You don’t know what you want to talk about, but you want to talk?”

Cassidy shrugged “I guess.”

“Kay…” Brandy fumbled through her thoughts for a topic, when she noticed Cassidy’s pendant. “It that new? You were never big on jewelery, so I was a little surprised when you had that ring fr..” She stopped herself. It was hard to come up with a topic that didn’t lead back to Cheryl.

Cassidy gripped her pendant, and glazed over. “New….“ Her voice sounded weary and tired all of a sudden. “Parts of this pendant are over two decades old.”

“Oh, was it-“

“Y’know what?” Cassidy interrupted. “I’m gonna let ya go, okay? Thanks for being there and all, I should go.” She hung up before Brandy could dispute it, and slipped the terminal in her pocket. As she did so, her forearm bumped the holster on her hip.

After a moment, she pulled the terminal back out and turned it off. Brandy might feel the need to call back, and she was no longer in the mood for it.

That was pretty rude. Oh well. She stopped walking, and stretched upwards against the day’s growing heat. She looked out to the horizon, all around, and took a moment to breathe in the air.

There stood the temple, reaching up from the ruins. Over there, the base. And the helipad’s hill.

And over that way, in the middle of them all? You couldn’t see it from any distance, but she knew it was there. Her little camp. She wanted to go there, and lay in that tent. To look for remnants of Cheryl’s scent.

After Maxine had found her at the camp with her gun, she told Cassidy not to go there. Ordered.

Well Maxine wasn’t here now.

~~~

Kirison wasn’t expecting the numbness, but it didn’t surprise him. He had a lot of nanites in him. A lot. A mild sense of pins and needles was acceptable.

Walking down the street, he carried a roll of pennies, popping them into his mouth and swallowing them like candy. Alright, not quite like candy. You savour the taste of candy. You tolerate the taste of pennies. It wasn’t so bad though. He compared it to the taste of blood when you cut yourself and lick the blood off.

He had debated what kind of coins to get at the bank. Pennies had the benefit of being cheap for the mass, and not big enough for any major choking risk. The type of metal wasn’t important, the nanites could make use of almost anything. It would just take time to ‘digest’ them.

As he idled along, he wondered what he’d do with himself. The world was his oyster, as long as he kept off the radar. Maybe he should go back to that mobster… what was his name? Mr. Irving. Mr. Irving the skinny mobster. What then, apply for a job? As what? He had been perfectly clear before that he didn’t want anything to do with nanites.

Screw it. Kirison had enough cash on him to last for a while. Speaking of which, he was hungry. Pennies might keep the nanites in a productive mood, be he couldn't ignore his own biological needs.

He wound up at a grocery store, around ten in the evening. It was fairly busy for the hour. A sloppily dressed young man was walking out with a bag containing a lot of junk food and a couple bottles of some kind of booze. He looked a little paranoid. Probably a bit high.

Kirison was feeling paranoid as well. He headed towards the deli section. One of those little tubs of macaroni salad might be a good start. Maybe grab something spicy, too, to burn off the aftertaste of pennies.

Without warning, his right ankle snapped in half. Instead of blood, the stump was grey with nanites. Bits of bone could still be seen.

“Oh my god!” a nearby woman yelped in shock and horror.

“AH!” Think fast! “Damn thing. Artificial leg.” He scampered to pick up his foot. There was no pain. Damn stupid nanites built one of the backup brains across his ankle.

“Are… are you alright?” The woman stared on.

He replied hastily and nervously. “Oh yup, yup. No problems, this happens now and then. You get what you pay for huh? I just have to..” He dropped his macaroni salad on the nearest display, and started running as best he could out of the store.

“Excuse me!” A store employee tried to stop him at the door, but he rammed though, and kept going. Think, think, now what? He had to get in direct control of the nanites and get them to shape up. Without his computer, or the software he erased before he left the apartment, there was only one way to do that.

As he ran, he came up to the high young man he’d seen earlier. Kirison grabbed one of the bottles of booze out of his grocery bag, and kept going.

“Hey, you fucker! Get back here!” Aw, crap. The man was going to be difficult about it. Think fast.

Kirison turned around and held up his severed foot. “No! I need the booze more than you! Morgath the god of diaper pails demands it! If I don’t get Morgath drunk, he will send me to get more feet for the toe harvest ceremony!”

The man stood there, wide eyed.

“Toe harvest ceremony!!!” Kirison screamed, waving the booze and the foot overhead. The man flinched, and Kirison took the chance to flee. The man chose not to follow

As he ran, Kirison examined his ill gotten alcohol. Rum. Cheap rum. Horrible stuff, that man must have been bombed out of his tree. He’ll spend the rest of the night wondering about toes.

But now, Kirison needed a place to get really drunk. He followed the darkest, dirtiest alleys he could, trying to get away from people, trying to walk ‘naturally’ and not draw attention.

Break into a car? Too much chance of getting caught. He’d check into a motel if there was one nearby. He saw a dumpster in a nice dark, tight little alley, and headed for it. A homeless man lay against it on one side, holding onto some booze of his own, in a brown paper bag.

“Hey, cliché guy. I’m going to go get drunk on the other side of the dumpster. You don’t fuck with me, I won’t fuck with you, capiche?”

The homeless man took a moment to stare at the dismembered foot in Kirison’s hand, and grunted with indifference. Interesting how much braver Kirison found himself against this man, as opposed to when talking to someone like Book, or Horad. Then again, things had changed now, hadn’t they?

Not wasting any more time, Kirison settled in against the far side of the dumpster with his foot safely under his jacket. He opened the cheap rum, and started chugging. Three swallows in, he gagged and had to stop to catch his breath. It burned, it burned! Don’t stop, this is important! If he could eat goddam pencils and pennies, he could down a liter and a half of rum.

Glub, glub, bubble after bubble, upwards, and pop. The rum became less and less, and the burn became more and more. His eyes were watering from the fumes. Don’t stop!

The last mouthful of rum drained into his mouth, and he held it for a moment before swallowing. He dropped the bottle, and gasped for air, followed by a triumphant laugh. “Don’t try that at home, kiddies!”

He felt nauseous, but thankfully the dizziness distracted him from it. His mood got better and better. Hmm. Very relaxing. It’d be soon. Pretty soon. It wasn’t long before he felt like a nap.

A darkness that would be the end of most people, wrapped warmly around him. Darker, darker, black.

::: Kirison support colony: brain 1 malfunction detected [unconscious]

::: Kirison support colony: Backup nanite subset 01 activated

Kirison awoke. Only moments had passed. At first he thought his stunt had failed. Then he noticed a lack of any of the effects of alcohol. Yup, he was thinking with a brain made of nanites, which had found a home somewhere in his body. His real brain was passed out, probably dying.

He looked inward, and saw all the controls for the nanites in his body. Controls he couldn’t see from his real brain. Well, first thing is first, let’s save our life. Nanites were dispatched to break down alcohol in the bloodstream, and try to fix any significant damage in the brain tissue.

With those nanites on task, he looked at the condition of his body otherwise. Stupid nanites. They’d built half a dozen brains in totally random places.

He was currently thinking with a brain not far from his stomach. The one that had caused his ankle to be so weak was obviously not operational right now.

He noticed his wallet was gone. Damn it. So was the homeless man. Alright, focus on current priorities.

He squished his severed foot against his ankle, and issued orders to re-attach it, and reconfigure the placement of that brain. That was going to take longer than the detoxification of his bio brain. Might as well leave a standing order to reinforce bones as a low priority.

For a while, he considered just abandoning his original brain in favour of this nanite brain. But would he still be Kirison? Jonathan Coll gave up his mind in favour of a machine. He didn’t want to be like Coll. He’d hang onto his bio brain, thank you very much.

~~~

Mr. Book tapped away at his office terminal, moving information and orders to and fro, as was business as usual. It was his career.

His career was primarily telling people what to do. One great way to motivate people was to tell them that doing what he asked would be good for their careers. Sometimes, it was even true. Some people are so obsessed with their career, they get nothing done.

Book was good at telling the right person to do the correct thing. He hadn’t set out to be a ‘management’ type, it fell to him because he got things done. Subsequently, it became his career.

But what was it about nanites? Not many people had the talent to work with them; especially off the books; but twice now, the people he chose were lame ducks. Coll, and now Kirison.

Coll was an ass. He had no consideration for his career. This made him difficult to control, and a lot of people paid the price.

Kirison was a moron. He was far too interested in seeing what he could do, and not nearly interested enough in business or any consideration for keeping things running smoothly. Nanite researchers. A pile of morons.

Still, Kirison was malleable. It might be possible to reclaim him as a resource down the road.

That particular road came to a sudden dead end. The terminal chimed an incoming call from a Dr. Andrew Brock. Who the hell was this? Book quietly ran a little trace. He was calling from Yute army base. Shit.

Book tapped the call to connect, and the slight middle aged face of Doc Brock appeared. “Book here, speak.” Book greeted with his usual people skills.

“Ah, yes.” Brock was doubtlessly stunned by the sight of the grey, joyless Mr. Book. “Mister Book? I am to understand you have one Doctor Jacob Kirison in your employ?”

“Hrmm.” Book feigned having to work to remember him. “Yes, what about him?”

“We’re having some difficulty contacting him. He isn’t answering his terminal.”

Book pretended to look up some data. “Hrph. It seems he hasn’t come to work for some time.”

“Doctor Kirison was in charge of your nanite division in the past, wasn’t he?”

“Yes, Brock. That division has been shut down, when the laws changed to prohibit it. Kirison was disappointed, but since then he has gone to work in another department in an assistant position.”

Brock adjusted his glasses. “Mister Book, did you receive a message from one Colonel Judith Nafim a while ago? Around the same time Kirison stopped coming to work?”

Think quick, Book. “Now that you mention it, I did. I read as far as it pertaining to nanites, and I forwarded it to Kirison.”

Brock stared keenly into Book’s eyes. “Did you happen to look at the attached image?”

“No,” Book lied, again faking looking it up. He paused, and furrowed his brow. “Is that… is that supposed to be Kirison?”

“I believe it is. We came to know him first as ‘Samuel’, and he is suspected of being involved in the murder of two army personnel.” Brock held up the heat suit in front of the camera, so that Book could see. Book did his best to look puzzled, and not enraged.

“Mister Book, is this property of your company? Many components match those of other products your company has introduced to market, and aside from the dominant traces of the confessed killer, I recently found traces of Doctor Kirison.”

That bastard. Firstly to have the nerve to steal it, secondly but stupid enough to leave it somewhere with fingerprints or something.

Book slammed his fist on the desk. “I would very much like to have a word with Kirison!”

Brock peered over the rims of the glasses, trying to read Book. “As would we, Mister Book.”

~~~~~

:::C /44

~~~~~

Cassidy stood in Maxine's exercise square, holding one of her wooden spears. If she had thought of it before, Cassidy would have taken the beast spear with her when she left the airlimb.

Somehow this wooden toy didn't channel her anger as well as a sharp spear would, and the duty spears rarely left their posts. The toy would have to do.

She planted her feet in a warlike position. The sand ground between her boot and the stone with a quiet, seething sound. Gripping the spear until her knuckles turned white, she wished that Horad had come at her, attacking.

If he had been aggressive, she would have had no problems in attacking him. She lunged forward with a sharp exhale, and slashed the top of the spear across the air, imagining Cheryl's killer being torn in half in front of her, as if Armil's spear were that powerful.

Again, she attacked. She imagined the wet sound it would make. The last sputtering gasp.

Again. A third slice before the imaginary corpse hit the ground. Again, again. She screamed her hatred for Cheryl's death with every thrust and slash.

Unable to stop, she turned, and attacked, attacked, attacked. She jumped and stabbed the ground, imagining the spear head ramming into her target's chest. Bleed, you bastard, bleed! The target wasn't a Horad anymore, it was just a target. Suffer and die, but don't forget to suffer! If she just wanted to kill a target, she always had her...

She dropped the spear, and rested her trembling hand on her holster. She always had her gun. Out of breath, she sunk to her knees and closed her eyes.

The sun was bright, even through her eyelids.

“Did you lose?”

Cassidy quickly wiped tears away, and turned her head to face the voice. It was Maxine. Still catching her breath, she gave a staggered reply. “Did I... did I lose? What?”

Maxine walked over to Cassidy, and picked up the spear. She put the tip near Cassidy's exposed neck. “Kneeling like that, you looked like you were a surrendering samurai or something. Are you waiting for an honourable death?”

Cassidy stood, hoping here eyes weren't red. “That would be a switch, huh? An honourable death?”

“I know two people who recently died doing their duty. Seems pretty darn honourable to me.” Maxine examined the tip of the spear. “Damn, don't be so rough with these, huh? They're wood, but they don't grow on trees.”

Maxine hadn't brought a spear herself. She probably saw one was gone, and decided to come be nosy. “Yeah, they died on duty. Big deal. Guarding a statue that you'd need an aircraft carrier to steal, against a guy who wanted to break a little chunk of wood in front of it. What's honourable about that? It was pointless!”

Maxine sighed. “The dishonour goes to Horad.”

“Then I should have lobbed his head off.” Cassidy mumbled.

Maxine shook her head slowly, and put her hand on Cassidy's shoulder. Cassidy knocked it off, and started walking. “I'm going to camp.”

“No you're not.”

Cassidy stopped,and looked back at Maxine. “Did I say camp? I meant base.” She resumed walking, in the direction of the little camp.

“Leftenent, your sidearm please!” Maxine called out as an order.

Cassidy stopped again, and glared at Maxine silently.

“Cass...” Maxine repeated softly, walking towards Cassidy with her hand out. “Your sidearm. Please.” She looked into Cassidy's hard eyes. “Please.”

Cassidy gritted her teeth, and stared back. Finally,she pulled out her gun, and dropped in on the ground before continuing on to the camp, and Cheryl's sleeping bag. “Fuck off. Sir.”

~~~

“Grand Elder Guard, Sergeant Dixon.” Keith answered an incoming call aboard Armil's airlimb. A fit middle aged man appeared on screen, wearing a shirt and tie. A police emblem could be seen in the background, hanging on the wall.

“Hello, Sergeant. I think I may have found someone you're looking for.” The officer tapped a button off screen, and his own image was replaced with a paused security image. It was Kirison, walking into a convenience store.

“This man has been involved in a number of petty thefts. Normally, it would barely some to our attention, but-”

“What kinds of things did he steal?” Keith interrupted with great interest.

The officer was quiet for a moment as he looked it up. “Looks like food and batteries, mostly. A little stupid about it too. In one of the stores he stole batteries from, he had to get behind the counter. He wasn't very sneaky about it.” Another video popped up of Kirison walking around a counter, and trying to talk to the clerk. As the clerk got increasingly upset, Kirison jammed packages of batteries into his jacket with one hand, and making apologetic gestures with the other. Eventually, the clerk picked up the phone, at which point Kirison ran off.

“Yeah, that's our boy.” Keith said, “Where is this?” He looked over his shoulder to make sure Colonel Nafim was paying attention.

“Downtown Densfarn.” the officer replied, “All sightings of this person were within a mile of each other. We finally stuck his face into the system, and it clicked with a sketch we had received from you guys.”

“Can you send me all the info you have on this guy? Locations, items stolen, times and dates?”

“Done. Do you want us to pick him up for you?”

“That might not be wise,” the Colonel stepped in, “If you do spot him, please just track him, and let us know where he is. We'll be in the area shortly.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Keith nodded. “Thank you. Keep us posted.” he turned to the Colonel. “Should I call Leftenent Stanton, and tell her we'll be picking her up shortly?”

“I guess we should. Let's not drag our heels on this though.”

~~~~~

:::C /45

~~~~~

Cassidy arched back hard, reaching down between her legs to grab at the back of Cheryl's head with both hands. She wrenched to the side but was pleasantly helpless to resist. Cheryl's arms were wound firmly around Cassidy's hips, specifically to prevent escape.

Cheryl giggled before her final assault. Cassidy bucked back even harder, pressing her hips against Cheryl's face. Her breathing stopping with a sharp gasp, her mind blinded by the moment. Cheryl gazed up along Cassidy's rigid, climaxing body in adoring awe.

Her sigh accidentally triggered an extra little sensation to ripple though Cassidy. “Oh! Damn! Stop! I give up!” Cassidy pushed Cheryl's head back gently, well aware that Cheryl's hold on her hips was still very much in effect.

As Cassidy began to relax, Cheryl just smiled devilishly. “Nuh-uh, babe. You're mine, dontcha know?” She lowered her head again to give a tiny kiss.

“No no no,” Cassidy gasped for air, “I mean, yes, yes I am, but stop already!”

Cheryl relaxed her hold, and wandered her hands around Cassidy's skin to caress gently, being kind enough not to tickle, despite the temptation. She started to climb back up Cassidy, watching her deep breathing. “Fine,” She purred with a sheepish smile, “Mercy. But are you mine?”

As Cheryl came further up, Cassidy wrapped her arms around her. “Ridiculous question...” Cassidy replied, trying to regain her composure, “I was yours the moment I saw you.”

Cheryl stared into Cassidy's eyes with a look of sultry wit, and began speaking. Her lips moved, but Cassidy couldn't hear a word of it. She couldn't hear anything. No, that wasn't right. She could hear something distant.

Screaming. Cheryl's screaming.

Distant, but it was Cheryl's scream, there was no question.

“Cheryl?!” Cassidy looked into Cheryl's eyes. Cheryl looked calm and seductive in her 'innocent' way, lips moving as if saying something entirely unrelated to the screaming. “Cheryl, what's going on!?”

Cheryl slowly sat up, straddling Cassidy's hips, and holding her hands on Cassidy's shoulders, gently pinning her down. The screaming was getting closer.

“Cheryl!” Cassidy was unable to get free. Unable to even look away from Cheryl's face, which silently, and calmly talked on. The screaming got closer and closer. Just a handful of metres away, maybe.

With a violent snap, Cheryl grabbed her head with both hands, her face distorted in pain, and the screams were now coming from her, louder and more piercing than Cassidy thought possible. Still, they stared each other in the eye.

Cheryl began to turn a brilliant shining white. Her body tore apart, like shards of paper. The screams echoed and overlapped themselves, becoming all the more intense.

Cassidy awoke to the sound of her terminal beeping madly from the other side of the tent. She groaned, and lifted her face from the sleeping bag, glad to be awake. Groping around for the terminal, she turned it on with its screen still facing the floor of the tent.

“Stanton here. What?”

“Cassidy. We've got a general location on Samson, A.K.A. Jacob Kirison. Get to the helipad!”

“Huh? Keith? That you?”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, its me. Wake up and get to the helipad. We're about ten minutes out.”

Cassidy mumbled groggily, “Kay.”

“Don't fall back to sleep! Get moving!”

She replied with more energy, “I said 'kay!'” and disconnected. Alright, wake up, don't think about it, just wake up. Get out of the sleeping bag.

Inventory check.

Terminal? Stuffed back in the thigh pocket.

Hat? Re-installed.

Gun? Friggin' Maxine has it.

Go, go, go!

Oh wait. Dressed still? Good. Go, go, go! She burst out of her mournful love nest, staggering a little for a few steps before her jogging took real stride. Go. Burn it, wake up, adrenaline. Go. What the hell time was it? She didn't stop to check her terminal, but from the look of the sun, it had to be late afternoon. How long was she passed out? Go. Just go.

She felt she was making good time, so she headed to base first. She burst through the door, ignoring greetings. As she headed to the mess, she hollered out “Maxine! Gimmie my damned gun! I'm gonna go get this Samson bastard!”

The first thing she saw in the mess was a bagel, so she grabbed it and carried it with her mouth. Exiting the mess, Maxine appeared with the gun. “Cass, here you go. Good luck.”

“Mhfmm.” was the best reply she could manage at the moment. She hated being rushed. Why didn't she just stay on the airlimb? She ran out the door to hear Maxine call out behind her.

“Cass! Catch!” She threw a deodorant to Cassidy who caught it and kept going. She must have been pretty rank if deodorant was a priority right after a gun. As she kept running, reality started to sink in, along with why Maxine was holding her gun. The bagel broke off, the bulk of it falling to the ground, leaving her with one mouthful. She hated bagels if they weren't toasted. What was she thinking? Go, go, the airlimb was maneuvering to land, and heaven forbid she got in trouble with Keith..

She got to the helipad moments before the airlimb set down. Keith was waiting at the open bay door. Several other Storms were milling around inside.

“I saw you running, Cass.” He offered his hand out to help her up, just in case she chose to accept it this time. “ What the heck fell out of your mouth back there?”

“Breakfast.” she replied as she hopped up unassisted as usual. “Dropped my damned bagel.”

“Well, that was silly. It's not like we don't have any food on board here.”

Cassidy shook her head. “Yeah, I'm an idiot. Hey, you made it sound like we were in a huge rush! Why haven't we lifted off yet?”

Keith looked past Cassidy, and pointed at a lone figure walking down the path, as if out of the sunset. It was Cipriana. “We got a request to bring her along. Colonel okayed it.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes with a sigh and sat on the edge of the airlimb bay, with her feet dangling off the side as if she were fishing from a pier. “Busted my butt in a footrace with the princess of serenity.” She sucked her teeth, and looked around, anxious to get going. She hollered out to Cipriana. “Cip! Hurry! If you take much longer, Keith's gonna have to put another quarter in the metre! The Grand Elder already has a shitload of parking tickets on this thing!” She sighed again, and got up, heading to her on-board quarters. “I'm going to go get some breakfast. If Cip ever makes it here, wake me up.”

Keith raised his eyebrows. “Crap, Leftenent, do you always bust your C.O.'s chops like this? By the way, it's nearly 17:00. Bit late for breakfast.”

“She's a tough gal. I dunno, I'm just ready to get this over with, you know?” She sat back down, and considered sarcastically cheering Cipriana on. She settled for just fidgeting until Cipriana came near.

“Cip, what made you feel the need to come along? I mean, you're welcome and all, but...”

Cipriana stepped on board, and crossed her fingers. “I have a hunch.”

Cassidy gave those crossed fingers a cold glance as the engines revved up and the ground fell away. “I thought you were going to stop that.”

Cipriana uncrossed her fingers, and shrugged slightly. “It's efficient.” Efficient or not, Cassidy was growing less and less comfortable knowing there was an artificial mind sharing living space with Cipriana's own. She forced herself to remember that it was the same one that had lived in Marcus peacefully for years.

Cassidy just slightly shook her head, and headed to the airlimb's mess. The mess was more of a 'nook' than a proper mess. There wasn't any proper place to sit down and the selection wasn't that great. Still feeling a bit like a visitor on the airlimb, she didn't want to rummage too much, so she settled for a 'beef stew' flavoured ration pack and a bottle of water. She headed to her quarters as she munched. Sliding open the door revealed Cipriana sitting on the bunk.

“Hey Cip. Does your little friend care to elabourate on 'hunch'?”

Cipriana looked off into nowhere, listening to the ghost. “Not really.” She said, “He says that a hunch is by nature, difficult to explain.”

Cassidy scoffed. “You wouldn't think it possible for him to be that vague.”

“He's pretty unique.” Cipriana's voice lilted off. She looked back at the spear. “You might need that.”

Cassidy had planned on taking it, even though she didn't expect to need it. Aside from having a pile of Storms on her side, this rogue nerd didn't really feel like the same kind of target as Horad. Horad respected the spear, and knew its meaning. This Kirison guy only used Aguei customs to manipulate Horad. It was far more likely that Kirison would get a laugh out of the spear before surrendering to it.

That said, the most satisfying time to shove a spear up someone's nose is when they're laughing at you.

After finishing her ration, she went over to the rack, and lifted the spear out. “I'm not going to sit here picking my nose until we find him. I'm going to go to the ops room, and pick my nose there.” Then looked at Cipriana for a while. “The two of you can come along if you want.”

Cipriana stood gracefully, yet nearly expressionless. Peaceful plus nanites equaled creepy.

Cassidy walked through the narrow airlimb corridor with Cipriana silently trailing behind. They entered the ops room, and Colonel Nafim nodded her head in greeting. “Ladies. We have locals doing the legwork for us. No sense in landing a StormFront on a random street. Might raise a couple eyebrows.”

The city of Densfarn sprawled beneath them, and the early sunset washed a pale orange through the glass obelisks. Cassidy wondered if the people on the ground could appreciate it. She leaned on the spear, and shifted her glance between monitors and windows. The constant babble over the radio easily melded into the background, leaving a false feeling of silence.

Keith was here as well, bent over a control panel alongside another Storm, both of whom were listening closely for relevant news.

Thoughts of Cheryl made their way into Cassidy's mind, and she felt the need to hold Cheryl's hand. Only Cipriana stood nearby, silently crossing and uncrossing her fingers.

“Stop that.” Cassidy whispered to her. Cipriana looked at her hand, and stopped. “Sorry. It has become habit.”

“Well break it.”

“I think I will.”

Suddenly, a red circular icon appeared on several displays, marking a location. The text “PRITAR” was on top of it. Keith spoke up. “Colonel. Local authorities just sent us a VTag. Confirming. Yup. Primary target. It's Kirison.”

Nafim stepped forward to see the virtual tag though the front window. Get me who's in charge there.”

“Roger. Alright, you're live.”

“Hello?” Nafim spoke clearly to the microphone in the ceiling. “This is Colonel Nafim of the G.E.G.. Who am I speaking to?”

“Captain Lemic, fourteenth precinct, Sir.” returned a man's voice, “We have a positive I.D. on your fellow. He's walking around. It's a fairly populated area. He doesn't know anything's up yet.”

“Good. Do not engage.” She gave a hand signal to Keith, and he zoomed one of the displays in on Kirison's position. “Listen,” Nafim continued, “we want a clear target, and we don't want him noticing he's being isolated. Can you do that for me?”

“I can quietly get as many innocents away as I can. Give me ten minutes, and you should have all the elbow room you need. Anything else?”

“Yes, but not quite yet. I'll be in touch.”

“Roger that, Sir.”

~~~

There might be a lot of money to be made with those cockfights, Kirison thought. As long as he had to be under the radar anyway, he may as well profit from it. He wasn't sure about all the technical details of the fight he had seen some time ago, but he was pretty sure he could engineer a champion.

He needed cash. Keeping the nanites and himself fed had depleted his funds quite some time ago, although he was getting pretty darn good at shoplifting.

What a lifestyle change this had been. And it was all Horad's fault. Or Jonathan Coll's. In contrast, he found himself feeling actually grateful to Mr. Book, which was a condition he found terribly uncomfortable.

More comfortable than having to urinate battery acid mind you, but not by much.

It was starting to get dark out. Rush hour was over earlier than expected though. And rather suddenly. Maybe there was a football game on somewhere. The streets were quiet. Really quiet. Three A.M. quiet.

He looked around for a corner store to swipe a snack from. With things so quiet, shoplifting would be especially difficult.

Wait a second. Things are closed.

Everything's closed. That's not right.

Screw the snack, he had to get out of there. Go find a chicken, and get to work. He quickened his pace, looking for someone. Anyone. There was no one around anywhere. He searched for a few blocks, but everything was closed, and nobody was to be seen.

And then the streetlights went out, along with lights from nearby buildings. It was dark. Very dark. Only the last embers of the sunset leaked their way to him through the streets.

He spotted movement. Or did he? Half a block away. It was so bloody dark. This was wrong. It was all wrong. He began to run. He had to find some light, an open store, or just any person.

The darkness ahead seemed to move, revealing two female soldiers in desert army fatigues, one holding a spear. He stopped cold, and could now see the darkness was armed. Heavily.

The unarmed desert soldier spoke to the spear holder. “It's good I came.” she said. Her soft voice could be clearly heard in the surrounding silence..

“Who are you people?!” Kirison yelled, looking around. The soldiers in black were all around him, positioning themselves silently.

“I am Leftenent Cassidy Stanton.” Cassidy took the spear into both hands. “Your friend killed the love of my life, because of lies you told him.”

Kirison felt panic grab him. “I didn't tell Horad to kill anybody! He was just supposed to deliver a signal! You can't blame me for that Aguei bastard's crimes!”

Cipriana stepped up beside Cassidy. She grabbed the head of the spear, and dragged her other hand across the edge, bleeding grey. “Very good that I came.”

Kirison's eyes widened, watching the surge of nanites seep out of Cipriana’s palm as she closed her fist. Cassidy pulled the spear away in confusion.

“You have your own crimes to answer for, don't you, Kirison?” Cipriana called out.

His own damn nanites! They were behind it all? “It's you! It's all your fault!” Kirison made the decision, and gave the order to the nanites surging in his own muscles. They moved him faster than he could have on his own. He jumped backwards against Keith, and in one fluid motion, Kirison yanked the rifle away from Keith and held him up as a human shield.

The ghost’s voice resonated in Cipriana’s head. “:::May I?” Upon thinking of approval, before she could even form the word “Go” in her mind, her body was in motion.

The decision was already made. Cipriana’s hand whipped out for Cassidy’s gun. This was not a stand off; the ghost had no intent of pointing a gun and talking. The trigger was already being pulled as the weapon was being aimed, firing the moment the gun was in the desired position.

As the bullet began its flight out of Cassidy's gun, Kirison's human mind was still only processing Cipriana’s sudden motion. The bullet passed by Keith’s head, and sailed into Kirison’s eye.

Kirison staggered back and Keith pulled himself free, along with his rifle. Keith jumped out of the way, smearing Kirison’s blood off his cheek. With the exception of Kirison and the ghost, everyone expected Kirison to fall flat on the ground, dead.

With a bloody mess where his right eye used to be, and a gaping exit wound in the back of his head, Kirison smiled. “Haha! I felt that for a split second! It hurt like a bitch!” This was no longer the original Kirison speaking. The original Kirison was dead. This was a back-up speaking.

“Take him down, take him apart.” Cipriana muttered. The Storms quickly changed position; a rough semi-circle in front of Kirison.

Kirison saw the looks on everyone’s faces. “I realized one day, I was living up here too much!” He tapped his temple a few times. “You can’t put all your eggs in one basket! Redundant backups are your friend! Redundancy is a life saver! Redundancy is a life saver! Redundancy is a life saver! Redundancy-“ He went on laughing, cackling, marveling at the nanite system preserving his own mind.

Cassidy leveled her spear, debating her ability to decapitate. Would lobbing his head off even work? Cipriana put her uninjured hand out in front of Cassidy to hold her back, and stared Cassidy in the eye. “Don’t touch him.” She crossed and uncrossed her fingers, over and over. “We are in agreement. He has to be put down. He’s a zombie.” Cipriana raised her clenched fist, staring intently at it.

Kirison noticed Cipriana and Cassidy, and pulled himself away from the amusement of his own genius. He pointed forcefully at Cipriana. “You've been the problem all along!” He dashed forward, ready to attack.

“Storms!” Cassidy yelled, “Open fire! Take him apart!”

A deluge of bullets battered Kirison, jerking him around, ripping red, wet chunks from him, shattering bone. He tried to run, as if against wind. An upper arm fell loose behind him. His remaining eye wore an expression of amazement as he fell onto a storm drain.

Pain could not reach him. Nothing remained of him that could feel pain. The back-up mind could only monitor damage. Seeing his body ripped apart around him, all he could think of was how surreal it all was.

He couldn’t run. Not as he was.

He knew his original brain was dead already. The body he lived in was no longer needed. He had to accept it. The Kirison that he used to be was dead. He had noting to lose but meat.

:::Kirison Support Colony: Exit

“Alright! Alright already!” Cassidy stood, stunned, staring at the mangled mess that used to be a person. “Cease fire! Zombie or not, he’s not going anywhere!” Kirison was bleeding into the storm drain. She couldn’t look at the mess anymore. She averted her eyes and looked over to Cipriana.

Cipriana stared at Kirison and said calmly, “He’s running. The ghost will follow. Burn the blood on the street.” She opened her clenched fist to reveal a perfectly round grey ball, sitting on the fresh slash across her palm. She walked over to Kirison’s body, and dropped the ball into the storm drain.

Cassidy pointed at the splatter around the body with one hand, and at a gas station half a block away with the other. “Gasoline! Douse it anywhere he may have bled, then burn it!” A few of the Storms ran to get gasoline

:::Kirison Support Colony Nanite #83F872BE: Disconnected.

:::Kirison Support Colony Nanite #83F872BE: Seeking peers.

Countless nanites floated around in the sewer waters, trying desperately to find each other after draining out of Kirison’s body on command. Each held a sliver of Kirison’s mind. A sliver of a copy of it, to be specific.

As more and more of the ‘support colony’ found each other, it became able to think simple thoughts.

“:::I am.”

“:::I am more than just nanites.”

“:::I am Jacob Kirison.”

“:::I used to be flesh.”

While it took only a couple minutes to come to these realizations, the more it knew, and the more nanites that were part of the rebuilt colony, the faster its thought processes were. The grey mass congealed in the running water, soon surpassing the size of a dime.

Thoughts came faster and faster, and functions of Kirison as a person came into being. One of these was a human sense of impatience. Yes, it had only been a couple minutes, if that, but through the lens of digital speed, those minutes were agonizingly slow.

Kirison’s mind had reached all the wisdom of a five year old, and found no way to express what would have been a temper tantrum. The other nanites were coming along too slow!

He wondered if enough of the nanites made it down the drain. There were several complete backups of his mind in his body, but the Storms’ bullets didn’t really give him enough time to ensure that one complete set made it down the drain. He already had redundant copies of a few thousand parts. What if he didn’t come together entirely? What would be missing?

He struggled sightlessly with all of his tiny physical strength to find as many of his nanites as he could in the chaos of the flowing water.

His efforts were interrupted by a surprise.

“:::Hello, Kirison. Or do you prefer 'Samuel'?”

Who the hell was that!? The signal was from something in physical contact with him, and it was speaking his code language.

“:::I’m Kirison!” he replied bluntly with his current level of intelligence. Even as he spoke, he continually collected more nanites, restoring more of his mind.

“:::Kirison, then. Do you know me?” asked the ghost.

“:::I can’t see you!” In his mental soup, Kirison didn’t realize that he didn’t have eyes. It also didn’t occur to him that the voice probably didn’t have much more of a body than he did.

“:::I believe you created me, Kirison.”

That wasn’t right, he never created anything with a voice. “:::I don’t think so, who are you?”

“::: I don't know if you ever gave me a name. I am most commonly called ‘ghost’ lately. I was dropped into the drain as one whole unit, giving me a significant tactical advantage over you. I was originally programmed by you to attach to minds and monitor many aspects of the Yute temple. Why?”

No, it couldn’t be. It shouldn’t behave like this! It shouldn’t even still be functioning! “:::Horad killed you!!”

There was a long silence, dirtied by soft signal noise. It gave Kirison time to realize that no other parts of himself had joined up for quite a while. The ghost broke the silence.

“:::Horad tried to kill me. He only succeeded in killing someone important to me.”

“:::Important to you?!” If Kirison had a mouth or lungs, he’d have scoffed. “:::You don’t have the capacity to give a shit!”

“:::As well, they were important to many other people, who are also important to me. It has caused much suffering. Likely even more suffering, by radiating out via social networks.”

Kirison felt a piece of himself removed. Physically gone, or perhaps just turned off. “:::What’s going on!?”

“:::You blame Horad for those deaths. I blamed myself for a while, because Horad came for me.”

The thing had a conscience? “:::You weren’t programmed to hurt any of the test subjects! You even made their lives more enjoyable with a mild narcotic effect!”

“:::Is this how you justified creating me to infect them?”

Kirison couldn’t think of a reply. He had trouble remembering the last thing he had said. More and more of his nanites were becoming useless to him.

“:::Horad was given a great deal of mercy,” the ghost continued, “:::Maybe being human qualifies him to receive mercy.”

“:::I used to be flesh! I am Jacob Kirison!!” He felt panic, and little else.

“:::You used to be flesh. You used to be human. You used to have rights to mercy.” The ghost’s tone was peaceful and sombre. “:::I cannot kill you. Bullets already killed you. You are not Jacob Kirison. Jacob Kirison is dead.”

“:::I AM MORE THAN JUST NANITES!” Kirison shouted silently.

“:::You’re more of a ghost than I am. I really should find a proper name. Some are born with souls, some achieve a soul, some have souls thrust upon them. I wonder were I stand?” The ghost mused existence while taking apart Kirison’s, ripping nanite after nanite off of him, and destroying each one. Erasing its memory and then crushing its microscopic physical form.

Kirison screamed as his mind was dissolved, “:::I AM!”

“:::No.” The ghost said, soon alone in the water, “:::Not anymore.”

The ghost took inventory of itself as its little grey form tumbled along with the flow of water. ‘Killing’ its creator wasn’t the kind of thing it thought of itself as doing. It wasn’t the kind of actions it learned from Marcus or Cipriana, but it was what Cipriana thought needed to be done in this case, for everyone’s safety.

But was it murder? Kirison’s nanite system wasn’t human, but then, neither was the ghost. What would Marcus say? It wished it could talk to him again.

Marcus was very important to it.

It wished it could talk to him again.

But Marcus was still gone.

~~~~~

:::C /46

~~~~~

The airlimb had been moved closer to the confrontation spot, about twenty metres from where Kirison had been gunned down. On Cipriana's recommendation, Kirison's body was doused with more gasoline, to keep the fire burning a while longer. Just in case.

Cassidy stood in the airlimb bay door, watching as Storms and local police did all the things they felt needed to be done. Nafim had given clearance for the local power grid to be turned back on, but the fire was still the most captivating light source. The night had settled in, and the streets were still pretty quiet.

Brock and some assistants were doing their best to find any stray nanites. Keith's face was scrubbed with alcohol to get off any residual nanites from Kirison's blood. Brock was satisfied with the tests afterward.

Cipriana made her way back to the airlimb and gave Cassidy a quiet nod. “Sorry, Cip.” Cassidy said softly. “I couldn't find you any marshmallows for your fire.”

“That's not terribly funny.” Cipriana said, looking back at Kirison's fire.

Cassidy sighed, and leaned against the edge of the doorway. “No, it's not. But doesn't this feel like some messed up camp-out scene?” She looked at Cipriana closely, with tired eyes. “Cip. Are you... are you you now?”

Cipriana forced a little bit of a smile. “I was always me, Cassidy. But yes, he's gone. I'm alone in my head again.”

“Miss him?”

Cipriana scoffed softly. “I... I don't know. I know what he is, and... I mean, I was never fooling myself about it. He was welcome, but I suppose I feel... I mean...”

“Shut up, Cip.” Cassidy wrapped her arms around Cipriana, and watched the dancing shadows that the fire cast.

“It only sounded like Marcus. I know that.” Cipriana sighed. “But he was good.”

Cassidy let Cipriana go, and sank down to sit on the deck. “Don't over think it, Cip. It's over.” She idly spun her rings around her finger. “Still, you might want to let Doc Brock scan you over. Just to make sure you don't have anything left in you. A better scan than the last one.”

Cipriana looked a little surprised. “The ghost wouldn't lie to me.”

Cassidy shook her head slowly. “Maybe not. Maybe it had some little scheme behind the scenes... maybe Kirison's left a few tricks in the ghost's programming that the ghost wasn't even aware of. I don't know, maybe I'm paranoid, but do it for me, huh? I just need a guarantee that we have our old Cip back.”

Cipriana smiled her soft sort of smile. Cassidy couldn't imagine anyone else being capable of that smile. This was pure Cipriana.

“Well, now that everyone knows I was carrying the ghost, I don't think Brock will let me get too far without every kind of scan he can imagine. I think I might get in some trouble for hiding it.” She sat down next to Cassidy.

Cassidy scoffed. “Blame the ghost. Claim mind control. You don't know for sure that it wasn't the case. It's not like Brock can hunt it down now.”

“I miss him.” Cipriana's voice cracked, followed by a sniffle. “Not the ghost. Marcus.”

“Cip?”

Cipriana's breathing trembled a little. “I get to miss him all by myself. I know it's all my own thoughts, and I miss him. I... ” She crossed her arms and looked down. Cassidy leaned over and put her arms around her again.

“You damn well know you're not alone, Cip. Not by a long shot.” It was the kind of things people said in these situations.

When Cassidy finally headed back to her quarters on the airlimb, her terminal had a little light flashing slowly. A message.

“Hey, it's me.” Brandy. “Just calling to check up on you. Talk to you later.”

Cassidy looked at the time. It wasn't that late. She called back. Ring.... ring....

“Hey! Cassie!”

“Hey Brandy, what's up?”

“You look tired!”

“Yeah, thanks. Hey, guess where I am, Brandy?”

“Looks like the room on your flying avenge-o-bird.”

Cassidy smirked “Yeah, yeah. And guess where it's parked?”

“Mars! I dunno, just tell me.”

“Downtown Densfarn!”

“What?! What are you doing out here?”

Cassidy grinned. “Did you hear about any power outages this evening?”

Brandy narrowed her eyes, and tilted her head. “What exactly have you done now?”

Cassidy laughed outright. “You'll see it on the morning news! And... and if you don't, it probably means I'm not allowed to tell. I'm not sure how classified things are at this point.”

“Cassie, what the hell? Are you Jane Bond now or something? In the Grand Elder's secret service?”

Cassidy chuckled. Brandy was great. “No, no, hell no. This is it. All the 'i's have been crossed, the 't's have been dotted, the weird stuff is over. Finally.”

“Your 't's have been d- oh, whatever. Well, alright then, how long are you in town?”

“Frig, I don't know. Another half hour maybe. Remember, flying avenge-o-bird.”

“Well damn, Cassie! You come all this way, and you don't even stop in for coffee?”

“Brandy! I'm... I'm not really in the market for... coffee.”

“That's not what I meant, smartass.”

Cassidy smiled softly. “Goodbye, Brandy.” she said quietly.

~~~

“Sergeant Dixon.” Colonel Nafim said, shortly after Kieth had gotten the airlimb on course.

“Yes, Sir?” Keith turned in the seat to face her.

“Sergeant, how attached are you to operating this airlimb? I realize it took a good deal of training and whatnot, but-”

Keith was taken a bit aback. “Sir? Am I doing a bad job?”

“No! No, no. I just noticed that you get along with the Yute temple personnel fairly well.”

Keith furrowed his brow to show his confusion.

Nafim turned her back, to look out the window. “It's just that they are unfortunately a little shorthanded at the moment. I can't have them borrowing people from me indefinitely. They will need to find permanent staffers.”

“Are you suggesting I transfer?”

Nafim turned to face him again. “Yes. A suggestion only. You do a fine job here, but I think you would also do well there. It's a unique unit. You would likely fit in, where many would not. It's just an idea. Give it some thought.”

Keith looked out into the night sky. “Yes, Sir. I'll think about it.”

~~~

Within the hour, Grand Elder Armil was on board, settled into his on-board office. Cassidy knocked on the open door frame, with Armil's spear in the other hand.

“Hey, busy?”

Armil looked up from his desk and smiled. “Not at all! I'm here to see you, after all. Come in!” He walked over to the floor rug, and sat down behind the spear's case.

Cassidy sat across from him with the beast spear in her lap. “So, you heard it's over, huh? Want your poky stick back?”

Armil leaned forward to open the case. “I think its job is done. It deserves a rest for a few decades.”

“It's not like it got to draw any blood.” Cassidy didn't think Cipriana's hand counted, “isn't a spear made for sticking into people? Do you think it's content with this outcome?” She rested the spear in the case and stared at it.

“You're a soldier, Cassidy. Arguably, you are trained to kill. Are you discontent on a day that you don't have to kill anyone?”

Cassidy scoffed lightly. She replied almost under her breath “Sometimes. When it comes to Horad.” She looked up at Armil. “So, has he been sentenced yet?”

“No, not yet.” Armil closed the case. “I suspect he will serve at least fifteen or so years for each death. He has also been linked to several bombings, to which he has voluntarily confessed. I don't know how many bombings, but I suspect he will not outlive his final sentence.”

Confessed. Voluntarily. “What, he had some magical change of heart or something?” Bringing more crimes to the attention of authorities didn't sound like a great defence tactic.

“Maybe...” Armil tapped the case, “maybe he was visited by a mournful soul, who opened his eyes.”

Cassidy remembered the talk she had with Horad in the airlimb bay on the day he was apprehended, but laughed anyway. “I don't think me and this spear really did much. I don't think you really needed me at all.”

Armil closed his eyes and smiled. “Need flows many ways. I think all needs have been served as well as circumstance would allow.”

“Well. I'm done.” Cassidy stood. “I'm headed back to the temple base, back on duty. Me and Cip, and the big stone dog. See you around, Armil.” She gave a quick salute.

“Walk with peace, Cassidy.”

~~~~~

:::C /47

~~~~~

The temple base was as it had always been. People flowed between the base and the temple during shift changes, and went on with daily life the rest of the time. Alan's cookies were still the focus of good natured conflicts, Maxine still went to her exercise square, Cipriana still meditated on her bunk, Jim was still a likeable, hopeless dork.

Life went on. In so many ways, as if nothing had happened. It disgusted Cassidy. It seemed as if reality itself were making light of Cheryl's death.

After choking down a microwaved ration, and trying to politely avoid friendly conversation, Cassidy wandered back from the mess towards the womens' barracks. A day had passed, and she started to wonder when she would be asked to return to active duty. She wasn't sure, but she would have wagered that Cipriana hadn't missed any shifts since Marcus' funeral. Maybe that was thanks in part to the ghost.

She turned the corner and saw Cipriana on her bunk, reading from her terminal. Cipriana somehow looked more alive than she used to. She just had a vibrancy that Cassidy didn't remember from before. Was she like this before the attack?

From the doorway, Cassidy looked as closely as she could. Was Cipriana smiling? She noticed Cassidy, and waved her over with the terminal in her hand. Cassidy walked over. “What's up?”

Cipriana handed Cassidy her terminal. It was open to an email.

From: <error>

To: <error>

:::Hello, Schmetterling.

:::Kirison support colony components that entered the sewer are confirmed destroyed.

:::I have also confirmed that the fire was effective.

:::Eidechse

Cassidy handed the terminal back to Cipriana. “S-ch-metter... what?”

Cipriana smiled again. “Shmet-er-ling. It's German. The ghost knows my father is German. Schmetterling means 'butterfly'.” She pointed over her shoulder to the painted butterfly over her bunk. “When I dropped the nanite ball into the sewer, he destroyed the nanites that bled out of Kirison. Then he came back to make sure my fire worked to get anything left on the street.”

Cassidy raised her eyebrows. “So the ghost is still 'alive', running around writing email?”

Cipriana's smile persisted. “You're still worried he could become a problem?”

“I guess not.” Cassidy sighed. “I'd feel better if he had a checkup with Brock or something, though.”

“At which point, Doctor Brock would be required by law to destroy him.”

“True. At any rate, I'm still glad we have you back in original condition.” She patted Cipriana on the shoulder, and headed back out.

“Where are you going?” Cipriana asked.

Cassidy stopped, and looked at the ground for a moment. “It's a nice day. I'm going for a walk.” She looked forward to the exit. “Gonna try to relax a bit. You know, now that all that crap's been dealt with.” Without giving Cipriana another look, she left the base.

It was a nice day. The mid-morning sun hadn't yet become uncomfortably warm. It was the way she'd like to be able to remember the ruins, except for a couple missing details. One in particular.

Step after step dragged her along the path. Off to the side, she saw the spot where Marcus liked to meditate. Crazy old man. What was he like before the ghost? Aside from his 'eccentricity', he seemed pretty okay with the ghost. Maybe it was well intentioned after all.

Step after step. She took her time, trying to enjoy the feel of the sandy path under her boots, the warmth of the sun, and the quiet. It would be her last, after all.

She would have given Cipriana a long hug if it didn't risk blowing her cover. Hell, a kiss too. And that busybody Maxine. And she should have gone to see Jim one more time too. A lot of people. Oh well, it wouldn't matter for long.

Step after step. She passed by that carved stump again. For all the labour put into its detail, it was no more useful that the massive stone version in the temple.

Step after step. The camp got closer and closer. Calling her home, almost. She came to the clearing, and reached out for the nearest piece of ruin. It was the piece she had shot before. She could feel the back end of the bullet. It still seemed comfortable in there.

She walked on and grazed her hand across Cheryl's mural. She remembered watching Cheryl paint, and copied the brush motion with her hand, wanting to feel her. A burning tear dragged its way down her cheek.

She was gone. She was gone. And nothing was going to change that. For all the justice that had been served, it couldn't bring Cheryl back. What good was any of it?

The tent flap graciously accepted her. Inside, it was a different kind of warm. It was Cheryl's warmth. It was a little darker inside.

She pulled Cheryl's sleeping bag over, and got in. She stared at the top of the tent, trying not to remember the nightmares. Only the dreams, and the good times.

The sweetest memories mocked her the cruelest. She grabbed at the sleeping bag's material, and tried to hold it against herself. The burning tears kept coming.

The uncomfortable convenience she wore on her hip reminded her of why she was here. She took a deep breath, held the pendant in her hand, and kissed her engagement ring.

Cassidy didn't have any strong beliefs in any afterlife. She didn't promise herself that she'd soon be with Cheryl. She only knew that Cheryl wasn't here.

She slowly pulled the handgun from the holster. She felt it drag along with the same attention she had given to the sand and the sun. She wanted to examine every one of her final sensations. She almost giggled when she realized that her last meal was a fucking frozen ration.

The gun felt efficient. A precisely crafted piece of engineering. She had always hated guns. They were too convenient. As it turned out, she should have been hating knives all along. Now she had a favour to ask of this gun. She took the holster off, and threw it out of the sleeping bag. She cuddled up on her side, and aimed the gun at her face. She looked down the barrel.

How innocent it looked. A remarkable absence of malice. It was clean and smooth in its details. She primed a round into the chamber, slowly and with unnecessarily deliberate care. She released the safety with the same purposeful attention.

With tears cooling on her face, she moistened her lips. “Kiss me.” she whispered. Her breathing was deep. Not with fear, but with anticipation. She opened her mouth, and put end of the barrel in. For a moment, she bit down softly on it. That didn't make sense. The automatic's action might foul things up somehow if she was biting down on it. It probably wouldn't matter, but it might.

She imagined the sound of the gun going off, and how she might look after. The thought of the revolting red result was in its own way, incredibly seductive. It would be so quiet after. So peaceful.

Being one squeeze away from her end felt very liberating. She was free already. She wanted to savour the feeling. It almost felt like love. It was the best thing she had felt since Cheryl died. The closest she'd been to freedom.

Cheryl didn't get to feel this. It made Cassidy almost want a slower, more painful death. How long did it take Cheryl to die? Damn it, why didn't she take Horad's head off when she had the chance? It didn't matter now. It was all over, her job was done, she could rest. It was time to rest.

She kissed the barrel.

“Cheryl...” she called out softly.

“Cassidy!” Cipriana burst into the tent. Cassidy fumbled to hide the gun, but Cipriana grabbed it out of her hands too quickly.

“Cip! I...”

Cipriana knelt down in the tent, gripping the gun, one hand on the handle, one on the barrel. She angrily and silently stared into Cassidy's eyes. She was shaking. They stared at each other for a long time. Cassidy wiped her eyes, and just kept breathing, waiting for Cipriana to stop staring at her like that. Cip looked so angry that Cassidy half-expected a beating.

Cipriana finally broke the silence, screaming, “WHAT THE FUCK, CASSIDY?!” She hurled the gun out of the tent, then locked her glare back on Cassidy.

Cassidy just kept looking back at her. What was there to say? There was little mistaking what she was about to do. There was no reason to explain her reasons. What did Cipriana want her to say? Why did she have to butt in? It would have all been over by now.

“What the fuck are you thinking, you stupid, stupid bitch?!” She was crying. Cassidy had seen Cipriana cry before, but the anger? That was new. “Damn it, Cassidy, it's not enough I lose Marcus and Cheryl, you have to go blow your fucking head off? What's that going to fix?”

“I just...”

“Stop it! Just stop it. Come with me.”

“Cip, I really don't-”

Cipriana reached out and grabbed Cassidy's wrist and proceeded to drag her forcibly out of the tent. Cassidy stumbled, trying to get loose from the sleeping bag as Cipriana kept pulling.

“Where are we going?”

Cipriana's voice replied in sharp, seething syllables. “The shift changed a little while ago, come on.”

“What? I don't have a shift today.”

“And I'm not on until tonight. We're going to look at the road.”

“Why?”

Without further conversation, they stopped once they were close enough to see people walking back to base. Six who just got off shift, and a few friends who had gone to walk them back.

Cipriana pointed at them “See that man in the front?”

“Yeah, I can't see who it is from here through.”

“Do you know who he lost recently?!”

Cassidy hadn't heard of it. “Who? A family member?”

Cipriana grabbed Cassidy's wrist hard. “Yes, he lost family! He lost Cheryl and Marcus. See the two walking along behind him?”

Cassidy sighed, and Cipriana yelled, “They lost Cheryl and Marcus! That man there? He lost Cheryl and Marcus! All of us lost Cheryl and Marcus, and we all loved them!” She threw Cassidy's wrist free, and clenched her fists. “Just because you were so perfectly in love with her, it doesn't give you the right to take...” Her voice broke into quiet sobs, “you can't take Cassidy from us!”

Cassidy crouched down, and held her head in her hands. “I know... I know I'm not the only one in any kind of pain, Cip, but isn't it my life? To do what I want with? I don't have that right?”

Cipriana stood in front of Cassidy, and started opening the fly on her pants.

“Uh... Cip? If you wanted to turn me on, your pickup lines could use some work, because the-”

Cassidy's confusion was only increased as Cipriana's pants fell down around her legs, revealing old, but large scars on the inner sides of both her thighs. She let Cassidy see them for a while, then pulled her pants back up, and sat down beside her. She folded her arms across her knees, and rested her head, face down. “Stupid. Selfish.” she muttered. “Both of us.”

“What... what happened?”

Cipriana sighed, but didn't look up. “My father was very important to me. He's why I joined the army. Following in his footsteps. He... heart attack. No one saw it coming. He was healthy and strong. Then, it just happened, and he was gone.” she sighed, and lifted her head to look at Cassidy.

“I got myself quite drunk, so I wouldn't feel the knife.” She inhaled sharply, trying not to cry. “There was still a lot of pain. A lot. I bled, and I bled, and I bled, and I slept.”

Cassidy put her arms around Cipriana, and Cipriana continued. “It was only when I woke up in the hospital, with my mother sitting by the bed, that I realized how selfish it was. Guess who helped me through that mess?”

“Your mom, huh?”

Cipriana chuckled though her tears. “She tried. She was just too... too 'mother' for me to really hear her, you know? It was my father's best friend. Marcus.”

Cassidy released Cipriana, and sat back, resting on her arms. “Cip, damn. Ha. You just blew my mind.”

Cipriana chuckled again. “Good ole' 'uncle' Marcus. We always thought it was funny when people speculated about us being in love. Our little private joke. One thing he said back then that stuck with me: Our lives are not our own. He meant we also belong to all our loved ones. You have to be aware of how others care.

Cassidy stared into Cipriana's eyes for a while. She was so beautiful. Cassidy couldn't help remembering a couple times when Cheryl had teasingly accused her of having a crush on Cipriana. “Hey, Cip. The other big mystery about you is still unanswered.” She joked.

Cipriana laughed. “I'm straight! You know that.”

“Yeah, that would just be too convenient if you weren't.” Cassidy chuckled. “I'm not that serious, it's just that kind of moment. I've been giving you a lot of hugs lately, and then you dropped your pants, and well... it gets a gal confused, you understand.”

Cipriana forced a smile, and nodded big slow nods. “Understandable.” Both of them had dried their tears. “Alright, Cassidy. Come back to base with me.”

Cassidy sighed. She wanted to go back to the tent, even if just to sleep, but she knew Cipriana wouldn't allow that. “Yeah, alright. We should pick up that gun. If one of those aeki lizards gets a hold of a weapon, we're all doomed.” She stood up, and put out her hand to help Cipriana up.

“I'll be sending it back to Nafim's unit. We don't need it here.”

“Are you going to call that damned counselor on me or something?”

They started walking, and Cipriana thought. “No. Maybe I should, but no. However, you're my partner for the watch from now on. I'm keeping a close eye on you for a while. And I'm taking apart that camp.”

That hurt. It was fair though. Cassidy nodded, wagering that Cheryl's mural would at least survive.

~~~

The afternoon watch went on as it ever did. Eventually, the tours were to start again. Soon, but not yet. Cassidy and Cipriana stood at the top doorway, with the statue nearby.

It was all the same, except different. Cipriana wasn't generally one for idle chit chat, but Cassidy didn't feel the need to. More than anyone else still on the base, she considered Cipriana family. A sister.

The stains of blood nearby were long ago scrubbed away, but Cassidy's eyes drifted from time to time, to the spot where Cheryl had died. It wasn't too uncommon that she would stare at the spot, and drift off into her own mind.

“Cassidy.” Cipriana would say when she noticed. Cassidy made eye contact, and sighed, fortifying her resolve. She wondered why Cipriana had chosen this post for them. It couldn't be especially easy for Cipriana either.

“You're visiting Cheryl's parents soon?”

Cassidy nodded. “I feel kind of odd about it. I know I'm welcome and all, but I don't know what else to talk about. They don't need to hear me whine about Cheryl, that's for damned sure. I'm not sure why they'd want to see me.”

“Maybe they see you as a reminder.”

“That's my point! I don't think they need extra reminding!”

Cipriana smiled softly. “That's not what I mean. If they get to know you, they will know that their daughter was happy.”

Cassidy looked down and smirked, fighting back tears. “Cip, you suck.” she giggled.

“Be glad to have known her while she was here.”

Cassidy rolled her eyes slightly. “Better to have loved and lost, huh?” It sounded more than a little empty. She sighed, and stared into nowhere.

Time ticked away uncounted as the shift wore on. Little else was said, nor needed to be. The sun melted below the horizon, with its slow amber kiss goodnight.

Maxine and Jim walked up the steps. “Alright, you two. It's our turn. Give us the pointy sticks.” Cassidy and Cipriana handed over their spears.

“See you guys in eight hours.” Cassidy said. Eight hours felt a lot longer these days.

Before starting down the steps, Cipriana turned to the great statue, and said “See you tomorrow. Be good!”

“Cip? Is this some kind of tradition you're going to keep up? Marcus talked to the statue, so as the new C.O., you have to as well?”

“I wasn't talking to the statue,” Cipriana pointed at the top of the statue's head, and then started down the steps. “I was talking to Eidechse.”

“Eidechse?!” Cassidy looked, to see a little aeki lizard perched on top of the statue's head. “That silly little thing... it's not...”

Cipriana smiled. “Redundancy is a life saver.”

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Watching Yute