“Our six hours are almost over.” Enoa stood in the Earthship’s garage, cloak around her shoulders. She’d attached her retracted staff and the stun box to her belt, but there’d been no sound from the Earthship’s alarms since Orson and Cathy returned.
Jaleel was also armed, his bow at his back. Even Dr. Stan wore a borrowed blaster, the one that Orson had used in his reclamation crew disguise.
“Nothing on your house monitoring system, Ted?” Orson helped Teddy and April’s packing, stacking notebooks in boxes and gathering April’s chemistry glassware in padded red cases.
“Nope,” Teddy said. “But that’s okay! It took longer to pack than I thought. We haven’t even done the gifts yet.” He forced a piece of tape around the last box of gathered recipe notes.
“Gifts?” Orson asked.
“It was just my birthday,” Jaleel said.
“You need to give gifts when your guests are questing, man.” Teddy walked back to the door into the rest of the house. “That’s the tradition, and we gotta observe the rituals.”
“You wasted time on us when we’re trying to get you out of here?” Orson asked.
“He’s been working on this all week,” April said. “Don’t spoil this for him, Orson. He’s very excited.”
“I’m not…” Orson watched Teddy disappear down the hall. “It’s just not right, giving us more when we put him in danger. But that’s always what he does. He saved my life and hid me from the Blitzkrieg when he didn’t even know me. He won the sword with me. He went to Norlenheim with me. I don’t have a blood brother, but I have him, and now he’s homeless because of me. You’re homeless. But he’s still giving us gifts.”
“We knew what we were getting into having you here.” April smiled. “He feels the same way about you, even with the size of his real family. But it’s not like you’re one of his baker friends. This is kind of a career hazard for you.”
“It is,” Orson said. “But it shouldn’t be a hazard for everyone else.”
April took a seat on the pile of luggage – multiple suitcases and cases of packed food, her red research away-kit, all the boxes of Teddy’s notes and recipes, and the cats’ carrier. She reached through the bars at them.
They began to croon sadly. Enoa heard Wesley’s faint, chattering reply from his own pen inside the Aesir.
“Did Wesley say good-bye to his new friends?” Orson walked back to the ship.
“He did,” Jaleel said. “We’ll have to come back, once this is all over, so he can see them again.”
“Maybe he’d be better off with Teddy and April.” Orson spoke under his breath. “We’re bringing every living thing near us into danger.”
“But we’re still learning about him,” Jaleel said. “Only that one lady in Littlefield had the aeropines with her other pets. I’m not leaving my little buddy behind!”
“I know you’re not.” Orson nodded and leaned back against the Aesir’s hull. “But maybe you should go with Teddy and April too.”
“Ugh!” Enoa groaned. “Haven’t we been through this enough times already, Orson? I’m in just as much danger as you are. They’ll never let Sucora Cloud’s heir get away.”
“I didn’t mean you,” Orson said. “We’ve got bulls-eyes on us. But everyone else can probably get clear of this.”
“I think, Captain,” Dr. Stan said. “You have a distorted vision of this situation, and you have for some time now. This Liberty Corps response was triggered by you, but it is certainly also a reaction to Cathy, her people, and any of their allies. Even if you and Enoa are significant enough to draw the Liberty Corps immediately, it’s not true to say none of us would be targets. They may have attacked my laboratory and my work when you wanted my help, but they would have done so in time, regardless. If I truly blamed you for what happened, even by negligence, I would not be here. This is bigger…”
“The rituals begin!” Teddy held a stack of boxes that rose above his head. Cathy followed after him, still in full armor, pulling a sled holding a complex framework of piping.
“I’ll secure what I can in the side car,” Cathy said. “And I’ll be back to take the rest. Once we have your spare set ready, we’ll start moving plants.” She guided the wagon toward her bike.
“Thanks, Cathy.” Teddy set the boxes down in front of the Aesir crew. “Okay, gifts for the questers.” He moved the smallest box and set it off to the side. Then he lifted the second, a long rectangle. “This is for you, Doctor.”
“Thank you.” Dr. Stan accepted it and slid her thumb into the tab at the top of the box. She pulled it open and removed a data tablet, set inside a thick black case.
“It’s probably not as good as your last one,” Teddy said. “But it’s waterproof, and there’s another little something there in the bottom.” Dr. Stan probed the bottom of the box. When she pulled her hand back, she held a black bracelet. “It’s a re-gift, but I didn’t go anywhere while you were here and you need to have that more than we do.”
“The wrist band is a direct pulse beacon,” April said. “As long as both have power, you’ll always know where the tablet is. You can start rebuilding your work.”
“And if you’re really, really unlucky and you lose this one in a river,” Teddy said. “You’ll be able to track this one down, no problem.”
“Thank you so much.” Dr. Stan smiled. “You are wonderful hosts. The highlight of this ordeal has been meeting you. I will cherish it.” She slipped the pulse band onto her wrist.
“I’ll let you know what happens with the Salt Lake project.” April walked to Dr. Stan. They clasped hands. Teddy hugged them both, and Dr. Stan patted him on the shoulder.
Teddy then lifted one of the large bottom boxes. “Food and recipes for the new wayfarers!” He handed the first to Jaleel and the other to Enoa.
“Thanks so much, Ted!” Jaleel said.
“Thank you!” Enoa could barely wrap her arms around the bottom of the package. She eased it back down onto the garage floor and opened it.
Enoa found a cooler inside her box. She saw the imitation ribs Teddy had made for her yesterday and the vegan sausages from the day before, but she also saw aluminum-foiled pouches and sealed plastic bowls of soup and chili.
“You made so much food for us!” Enoa hugged Teddy. He laughed and returned the gesture. He wore a heavy down jacket over his chainmail and his embrace was like being cushioned in a giant marshmallow.
“Did you do more cooking for these gifts?” Orson asked. “You took the time for that?”
“Well, yeah,” he said. “The greatest gift I can give is my culinary expertise. Enoa, I’m sorry I didn’t try any Nimauk recipes. We’ll have to talk about your family food next time! If you look in the bottom there, I have some lists of the other protein sources I used for your recipes. You might like that.”
“I definitely will!” Enoa saw Orson’s expression. After all the fights, the exhaustion she’d seen him endure, the times he’d been genuinely wounded, she’d never seen him so miserable. He looked almost deflated, with his shoulders slouched and his eyes downcast.
“I don’t have as much extra food for you, Jaleel,” Teddy said. “I do have the other couple casseroles you didn’t choose for your birthday, the apple biscuit and the bacon mac and cheese, but I printed out my little guide to replicating tastes in your cooking. It might help you find some of the recipes you don’t know.” He hugged Jaleel as well. “And you both need to fill out your recipe surveys. I have to get my feedback. You can send it with the Typewriter.”
Teddy turned last to the final box, the small square one. “Orson,” he said.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“You didn’t have to do anything for me, Ted,” Orson answered.
“I knew you’d say that no matter what,” Teddy chuckled. “But don’t worry. This one’s for the whole quest, but I’m giving it to you because you’re the big adventurer captain now.”
Teddy moved to pass the box to Orson, but before he could, a voice spoke from all around them, one voice spoken everywhere, sudden and energetic. The sound blasted, even with them under the ground.
“HELLO! YOU ARE DETAINED! PREPARE TO RECEIVE JUSTICE! INCOMING MESSAGE FOR HIDING TRAITORS!”
Enoa pulled her staff from her belt. There’d been no sound from the house’s defenses. There’d been no sound at all.
Someone was out there – something – the machines pretending to be humans, the creatures they’d been talking about?
“Ted.” Orson didn’t take the box. “Can you check your sensors in here or only in the house?”
“I can check.” April raised an old cellphone. “This has to be some kind of trick. How… No one could be out there. We have all of the sensors working and Cathy’s and…”
Enoa half-ignored everyone.
She forced herself to breathe, forced herself to recognize her sudden adrenaline, the fear of their last escape returning full force. She needed the focus of adrenaline, not the panic. She needed that focus to tune the one sense that only she had.
She looked at the world with her Shaping, felt the world through the remaining hard crust of ice on the ground.
Then she noticed them, sensed what Teddy’s and Cathy’s devices could not. There was weight on the snow, the weight of bipedal shapes standing outside, all around the Earthship. She felt ten, twenty, thirty, forty – but then she lost count.
Some of the shapes stood close to the Earthship. Distances were indistinct, when viewing the world through ice and snow. This new technique offered little clarity, but she knew the shapes were within firing distance or sprinting distance, close enough to reach them before they could flee.
Enoa extended her staff. There would be no escape without a fight.
“We’re surrounded,” Enoa said. “They’re everywhere. I don’t know why the alarms didn’t go off, but I know they’re out there. There are so many of them, bipedal shapes, and they’re not moving like humans. They’re not people.”
“Are you sure this isn’t some trick?” Cathy asked. “My alarms were taken from the Mojave Tramway. There are none better than that.”
“Then none could find these things,” Enoa said. “But I can. They’re real, and they’re out there.” Outside the shapes moved, shifted around, forming wide rings around the house, grouped in clusters of three or four. She tried again to count them, but it was still too much, trying to judge the world second-hand. “They’re surrounding us better, but they’re not coming any closer.”
“It’s a whole flock of Jims, man!” Teddy said.
“Everyone on the Aesir,” Orson said. “If nothing else, we’ll blast our way out. We’ll check our sensors and defenses once we’re inside. Grab your boxes and your things.”
“Should I power up the guns?” Jaleel asked.
“Don’t power on anything,” Orson said. “Not yet. Just get secure.”
“I’m needed back at the Council,” Cathy said. “I can’t run away with you.”
“We’ll hook your bike to our hull with the clamp,” Orson said. “We’ll take you anywhere, but we can’t fight if we don’t know what’s going on and only Enoa has any idea what we’re dealing with here.”
“What clamp?” Jaleel ran April’s suitcases inside while she carried the cats. Teddy joined in, gathering their food, her research, his notes, and hauling it all toward the ship.
“I haven’t used it in awhile,” Orson said.
“How long is a while?” Cathy asked.
“Good evening.” The new voice that boomed from the distance didn’t shout. It spoke at a controlled, easy volume, loud only because it was projected from every direction.
“This is R.K. Helmont, Lord of the Liberty Corps Western Barony. I know this residence is providing aid and comfort to thieves, murderers, and traitors. I come with simple terms for all of you.”
“I can’t wait for your clamp,” Cathy said. “I have to go now.”
“We’re all going.” Orson waved to Jaleel and Dr. Stan. They joined Teddy and April inside the ship. “Get them belted in at the armchairs. Doc, take the sensor seat if you will. Jaleel, take the guns, but don’t power on anything. Enoa, keep… See what’s happening.”
“To any present members of the Ookelthorpe family,” Helmont continued. “Leave the dwelling unarmed and with your hands raised. No harm will come to you. I value the works your entrepreneurial line gave to the old society. And I know there are traitors, even among your most illustrious family, but I will, on this one occasion only, ignore their support for the turncoat Enigma Guard during the Thunderworks Campaign. All traitors will face justice, in time. But today, anyone with Ookelthorpe blood may leave here with their life and their freedom.”
Enoa heard Teddy bellow inside the Aesir, but not his words. She heard April respond and Dr. Stan, but only the inaudible murmur of voices. She paid it no attention. The Groom Lake Neighborhood watch – if that’s what they really were – had finally stopped moving. She counted sixty-four automatons gathered in small groups, gathered in three circles around them.
Then she counted more. At the dimmest, farthest edges of her senses, she felt a fourth circle and a fifth. And she felt machinery too, broad shapes resting on the frost-bitten ground, indistinct at the edges of her Shaping sense.
“To April Bean,” Helmont said. “You are a true bystander in this situation. It would be a terrible shame to throw away six years of fine education in senseless bloodshed. I’m aware of your ambition to earn a Ph.D. Wouldn’t it be terrible to die as collateral damage in a struggle you don’t understand and that never will affect you? Come out peacefully and you will receive the same treatment as your Theodore and his family.”
“Once you have everyone secured,” Cathy said. “Lead the way with your ship and strafe them. Make an opening for me and I will take it.” She laid her gauntleted arm on Enoa’s shoulder. “Is this possible?”
“It would be tough.” Enoa tried to strengthen her senses, to feel clearer, to count the last rings of automatons and what lay beyond, but she couldn’t. They remained hazy shadows in her mind. “The first circle of fifteen is really close, maybe… maybe less than ten feet from the house. And there might be more than a hundred and they have big… big things. I can’t tell what they are.”
Helmont’s voice returned. “To the local Shoshone people and their allies: flee this place. Your law has no authority here. Your law is no law, but the Liberty Corps will allow you to play at running your so-called nation, for now. If you do not interfere in this matter, your petty chiefdom will be allowed to stand. This land, this continent, is the destiny of the Liberty Corps, and I am poised to take it. I will decapitate your so-called nation, unless you leave this property. And to Ms. Catherine Hawkins, you may have chosen to keep your family name, but this will protect no one. Your husband and your children will be considered political targets if you resist us.”
“I need to know!” Cathy grabbed Enoa by both shoulders. “We can’t see them! You’re the only one who can know what’s out there!”
But the grip from Cathy’s fingers broke her concentration. It was like the other woman’s fear leeched into her. Enoa lost all sense of the machinery, of the fifth row and then the fourth. Her sense receded until even the third row of thirty-two figures was vague and hazy and she could no longer be sure of her earlier count.
“Cathy,” Orson said. “Let her go.” He laid his hand on her wrist. “We’ll get you out of here. I’ll fly you wherever you need to go. What defenses does your council have?”
“To their guests,” Helmont said. “Dr. Sophia Stanislakova, I once applauded your story, an immigrant fleeing from Communism. You’ve led a riveting life. But perhaps your parents fled the Soviet Union for no idealogical reasons. Perhaps they were merely the proverbial rats fleeing the sinking ship, driven only by self-preservation to wherever the tides might take them. Let me be clear, the United States fell. The IHSA fell. But their heir, the Liberty Corps, is ascendant. The Liberty Corps is law, and there will be no defections from us. Surrender, and we will allow you to work in peace. Resist, and you will die a nationless rodent.”
“We have U-cannon turrets,” Cathy said. “Two of them. And sensor traps. But if we can’t detect those androids, what can we do? Are they really all cloaked? Is that even possible?”
“I don’t know,” Orson said. “But we’ll get you there.”
“To Jaleel Yaye, the Liberty Corps has need of industrious young boys. There is much to be done rebuilding this world. You have fallen into a lawless life, like many your age. First you were a thief, now apprenticed to a true outlaw. Accept custody, and you will have all the work you could ever dream of. Build a nation, not your playthings and crude weapons. If you resist us, think of the horror of your parents and sisters when we display your body among other outlaws.”
“Orson.” Jaleel stood at the Aesir’s open doorway. “I’m going to write to your friend. If Franklin’s close, we need to plan with him. Maybe he can see what’s up.”
“That’s a great idea.” Orson nodded. “Yeah, write to Franklin. Please – let him know we’re surrounded, to be careful, and get us any information he can.”
“To Enoa Cloud,” Helmont continued. “Your mind is now filled with knowledge rightly owned by the Liberty Corps. Sucora’s work belongs to us. Her Anemos technique is ours. We will learn it in time, but we prefer a live specimen. The Neighborhood Watch has been ordered not to kill you, but to take you alive. I guarantee you would prefer to be a willing participant in our research. Surrender to us yourself and Sucora’s effects, and you will be taken to a place where your talents can truly be studied.”
Enoa’s senses retracted to the first row of automatons. She could feel no farther. Her clarity of sense was dulled and numbed by a new burst of adrenaline. Then she couldn’t hold back the panic. She thought of all the shapes in the darkness trying to take her, all for what she’d learned.
“To Orson Gregory,” Helmont said. “You will die. Your fate is written, but the manner of your death is still to be decided. You are a magpie and a crow, preying on the weak and the dying, stealing relics and inventions for your own ends. You have lived as an outlaw too long to be anything more, and so you will die an outlaw. You are a man of no nation, and the vessel Aesir, the sword Thousand Destiny, and all your innumerable trophies belong to us. If you surrender and all of your companions surrender, you will face a quick execution.”
“But resist, and we will keep you in public torment, as a sign to all others that there is no place for the lawless in the new world.”
“Are we powering on now!” Jaleel called.
“Yeah.” Orson walked to the ship’s door. “Power on. It might be time for you to get flying. I’ll need my I.F. maker and the lantern, and I’ll stay here. I’ll keep them here. You can get everyone to the Shoshone Council. Can you do that?”
But Helmont answered before Jaleel could speak, before the Aesir could come to life.
“Since we have received no response,” he said. “Very well. Begin.”
Enoa’s foggy, diminished sense was clear enough to feel the first ring of figures race toward the house.