"So much for staying here the rest of our lives." The sarcastic voice of Maitland echoed in the common area outside the cell.
"Well, it is true if you think about it, May." Corrected Tabitha in the next cell over. "It will be the rest of our lives."
"But," sputtered Petal, "they wouldn't really kill us? Right? Miss Rose said it was just a trap for the man. So they won't really…" her voice trailed away in a shrill pitch, indicating she had begun to cry again.
"If anything, she won't kill HER." Victoria answered flatly, "SHE is her daughter. If the male doesn't show up one way or another, it's not so likely for us."
Petal released another high pitched whine, "but he's coming, right miss Rose? Charlie will come because he loves you? Right?"
Rose's cell was quiet, then a few very long heart beats later, "I don't know." Replied the depressed voice. "He has no reason to love me. I put him in restraints the moment we met. Dragged him across the wastes just to be locked up and tortured by my mother. Only to be arrested and dragged to another citadel to be tortured by my other mother. Even though I rescued him, that just ended in me sending him alone back into the wastes to die. It doesn't seem that he has any reason to love me, Petal." Her sigh could be heard by the whole room, including their two guards. Then she added, "if he even survived."
"He's probably dead," said one of the guards unexpectedly. "If he died out there, his body would have been eaten long before we could find it." The two guards chuckled at this thought.
Like a switch Rose traversed from depression to anger at the guard's comment. "Then who has been raiding your supplies?" The anger could be heard rising with her voice. What was quiet and crushed quickly became hard and commanding. "Someone brought down a transport. My mother was pissed about it. She is convinced it's Charlie. And I for one think she is right." The guards were silent after her chastising.
"So he is coming then?" Whispered Petal, hopefully.
"Even if by some miracle, Petal, he doesn't hate me," Rose whispered back, "I signaled him through my sister in her hand language NOT to come get me. That it was a trap." Petal could hear Rose start to sob once again. "I'm sorry Petal. No one is coming." She sighed once again and with a loud sniff added, "I'm sorry to all of you. I've cost you your lives."
The ratchet clicked rhythmically as Charlie tightened the last bolts. The modifications were complete and he was excited to begin the glow up. He loved using the handheld printer. He was never an artist. Charlie had to be satisfied most of his life with being a good technical drafter. But this was a game changer for him. An object the size of a tattoo gun that he simply passed over the craft as computer controlled jets painted his preprogrammed image onto the hull of the transport.
"Snazzy," Corsair hooted, as Charlie finished the last strokes. "I love the flames. You do have beautiful vehicles Charlie."
"Oh, this one isn't mine." He smiled back. "The Firebird belongs to you, my pirate queen."
"The Firebird?" She replied with a raise of an eyebrow and in her voice more manly than Charlie's. "Interesting name." She said as she strode down the steps to the hanger floor.
"It goes with the rebranding of Discorda's craft," he drew her attention to the other, heavier transport with a hand flourish. "The Thunderbird."
She saw the heavy transport craft was now decked out in lighting designs. "Not exactly covert, are they?"
"Oh no, we want to draw their attention, that is the plan." Replied Charlie.
"My own craft," she pondered, playing with her whiskers. "I can be the terror of the wastes…"
"Right, but first we have some damsels in distress to rescue." He said with more than a hint of side eye at her comment.
The bearded lady's demeanor turned serious, looking Charlie in the eye, "you know if we pull this off, and I am totally confident that we will, they will put everything into it and they will find this place."
"I know." He replied. "I need to make us our own shield. I have been avoiding it because we don't need it to contain the air, that and I don't know if I can generate the power. But we may need it to defend against retaliation."
"You can do that?"
"It's a major overhaul, but I am familiar with plasma dynamics thanks to A.R.I.A." Charlie shook his head, "the real question, as I said, is can we take the power requirements?"
Contessa stared at the display long after the presentation had ended. It was a lie. All of it. Their whole history was fabricated. But why, what prompted an entire new history to be written?
She flipped between images of news articles. Stories of a virus, of man and womankind both frantic to discover a cure. She stopped on an article about Dr. Lilith McCray who developed a way to fertilize mammalian egg cells without sperm. It would allow human beings to continue without men. But the article even quotes her as saying it was insustainable long term. Too much degradation in the code after too many generations. And they were here, now. No one was still looking for a cure because they thought they had killed the men off themselves. Propaganda, politics, someone's idea of a politically perfect world was going to destroy a scientifically grounded one.
But Contessa knew now, that may be why they failed with the hermans. The virus killed off the males but it may have damaged the females too. That is why they couldn't make them male.
"Charlie!" She cried out suddenly in the silent lab, before feeling silly for the outburst. Luckily there was on one else there. She realized he predated the virus, his DNA was unaltered. Once again Charlie was the key to everything. Inspired to finish what Lillith started, Contessa got to work on the samples Charlie had sent her.
Charlie startled awake when the blanket touched his shoulders. Discorda looked at him over his shoulder and frowned.
'When was the last time you slept?' She signed.
"Can't," he said matter-of-factly, "the execution is in less than a week and I have too much to be ready beforehand if this is going to work." He accentuated the comment by pointing up at his screen to the count down to Rose's demise.
'We will never succeed in rescuing them if you are delusional from lack of sleep.' she gave him a worried look. 'Let some of us help you. There are many clever people here, Charlie. Show us what to do.'
"Yeah, I'll think about it." He sighed.
'And get some real rest' her hands replied before she put a light kiss on top of his head and strode out.
Charlie sat there a moment, staring at the dozen or so projects laid out before him. "A.R.I.A," he said as the pleasant tone of the A.I chimed, "draw up the plans for the shield in as comprehensive, and step by step instructions as you can."
"Yes, Charlie." She replied.
It turned out two of the herman, Mavis and Belle, were artistic geniuses, with a masterful touch of laying out the circuitry for the printers. Not only did the components work, they looked good. And Corsair introduced him to their construction crew from the previous habitats. Turned out they were masters of scrambling up the central maintenance shaft of the building to run the plasma conduits. And by the time Charlie had the displacement dish built they were ready to put it on top of the tower.
It was two days out still when the diode trench was laid around the outside of the hills and the shield was ready to test.
Charlie wanted to be outside, watching the shield form for the first time but he felt he had to be in the power room, watching the consumption.
As the sun rose over the horizon, and the dawn light struck the solar sail sending power to the banks, Charlie spoke into the com, "activate the magneto and start the plasma generation."
The whole tower vibrated. The whine of the emitter could be heard from the top of the spire. Then the power cells began to drop. In twenty seconds the power cells were down to sixty percent power.
"Shut it down, shut it down!" Charlie cried. By the time the magneto whirred to a stop power in the citadel was at thirty percent.
Minutes later the heads of hope citadel were in Charlie's lab around his table.
"Even limping along, by noon we were only at forty-five percent." Charlie announced.
"You said the numbers supported the shield output" countered Corsair.
"Running, yes. But to first form the shield it appears to take about three hundred percent running power." Charlie sat down, closed his eyes and rubbed them with his fingers. "We don't have the reserves and even with the solar sail kick we would have been drained before the plasma formed. I can't risk the rescue operation if it means you all will be at risk if they manage to track us back here."
'We can't abandon the rescue.' Signaled Discorda feverishly. 'I don't have enough trust in my mother to believe she wouldn't do it.'
"We don't have the generation capacity. No power, no shield." Sighed Charlie, "and no shield means we are sitting ducks for the golden guard. We would need our own fusion generator."
"Then we get one!" Corsair cried as she drove her fist down on the table.
"From where?" He asked.
'Concórdia.' Signed Discorda.
"Where?" Was Charlie's reaction.
"The breadbasket, my boy." She replied. "The largest citadel. The bulk of plants and animals we have restored are there. It's also under the largest shield in the world. It takes four generators to keep it up. And they fail regularly." She closed with a wink.
"Great, but we need it now," he replied. "We can't simply wait and hope for the next time it fails." Charlie sighed and slumped back in his chair. He stared at the ceiling for a minute before quickly sitting back up. "Wait, why do they regularly fail? A.R.I.A?"
The tone sounded in the air, and the A.I spoke up. "Fluctuations in the field caused by storms or gravimetric anomalies like solar flares can overtax the over-large shield, causing a generator to fail. Yet they are lax to add another as the necessary materials are rare and have to be dug up at Antiquity Citadel. Having no capacity to fix the generators themselves they send it to Automata Citadel. Automata keeps one in circulation to deliver when they pick up a broken one.
"So we just need to overload the shield?" The others watched as Charlie's face indicated the wheels were once again turning. Discorda and Corsair smiled at each other.
The sun was setting over the retaining wall in brilliant colors as the fading daylight gave way to the blue flow of the plasma shield. Dalcia loved watching this exchange everyday from the top of their containment building. She sighed, sipping her tea as she knew the animals were all in their shelters, settling down for the night. The stillness nurtured her soul, today had been a busy one. Three new sheep had been born, replacing two that had passed last month from old age and one that was nearing her life's end soon. Wool was important for clothes, so as sheep keeper she was able to argue the extra ewe ahead of time. Melody, her significant, was keeper of horses. Horses were a luxury and she had been arguing for ten years to get permission to breed an extra.
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As if on cue, Melody reached the top of the stairs with a bottle of wine and sat down next to her.
"Ready to unwind before winding us up later?" She flirted.
She was about to open the cork when a popping sound drew their attention behind them. Flashes of light danced across the shield and a loud crackling could be heard.
"What is that?" Asked Dalcia.
"The shield!" Cried Melody, as the crackles coalesced into streaks of light racing from the closest of the four towers toward one particular spot on the retaining wall. The two watched in shock as the field seemed to bow out in that spot like a finger pushing into thin plastic. It expanded out and toward the ground until one massive bolt arced down the stretched shield and the field disappeared.
Immediately klaxons blared the warning that soon the toxified air from the wastes would be pouring into this quadrant of the citadel.
Dalcia hustled down the steps behind Melody and punched the button closing the animal habitat to the outside. She was grateful that whatever the cause of the failure happened now, when the animals were already in the habitat and they weren't trying to wrangle them all inside.
"So much for our sunset time." Sighed Dalcia as she slid to the floor. "We'll be here all night until a new generator is delivered."
Melody sat beside her lightly laughing, "at least I saved the wine." She added, holding up the bottle.
Charlie watched the shield deform and pull itself toward the dynamo installed on his harpoon. It was creating an induction field many times stronger than the shield itself, around the harpoon driven several feet into the wasteland dirt. Soon the power coursing through the plasma coalesced onto the quicker path to ground the harpoon provided and discharged its entire charge directly to ground. Charlie's visor instantly darkened, protecting his eyes from the arc flash of the artificial lighting bolt he had just created. Still, he couldn't help but smile. It reminded him of his school days when they would overload systems on purpose to test what they could take.
As he suspected, the loss of an entire shield's worth of energy that quickly tripped a safety mechanism in the fusion generator, shutting the reactor down. After his visor cleared, Charlie deployed his arm, unfolded a claw grip on it and yanked the still warm spear from the ground. Even so, the suspension on his bike groaned from the effort. As he prepared to leave, he heard screams over the wall. Cries from both women and animals panicking at the sudden loss of their protection.
Guilt stabbed at Charlie aa he kept trying to reach for the throttle to drive away, only to pull his hand back.
He looked at the screen on his forearm, "A.R.I.A, pull up the specs for the fusion generator again please." The schematics and related articles scrolled by for Charlie to examine once more. "Can you get me a channel to the Magistrate of Concórdia?"
"Of course, Charlie." Chimed her soothing A.I voice. Three minutes later A.R.I.A added, "you are now connected with Magistrate Aisha of Concórdia."
"Hello?" Spoke the confused voice over the bracer.
"Good evening Magistrate." Charlie began with all the charm he could muster. "I noticed part of your shield is down and I was thinking you would like to know how to remedy that."
"And I assume, by your voice, this is the male known as Charlie that the Grand Magistrate is turning the world upside-down looking for." She replied sarcastically before continuing, "we have a replacement generator already in route, thank you. While I appreciate the offer, your aid is suspect given that we don't know why it failed in the first place."
"Well if I had to guess, I'd say your diode chain grounded out given the flash I witnessed. I could not only fix that from out here but offer you a way to reset your current generator so you would be back up in, say twenty minutes rather than several hours. And for your information, I am not the threat Celeste makes me out to be. I don't want anyone hurt, I am just finding my place in a new world. And I am able to help you if you wish. If you will allow me."
There was a long pause on the com before she replied, "what would this cost us, your most charitable offer?"
"Just a small favor," Charlie said before adding his own pause, "when you are up and running again if you would NOT cancel the order of your new generator."
"Can you do what you have promised?" She asked with a hint of curiosity that told Charlie she might be willing.
"I have already removed the problem with your diode." Which was true since he removed his field generator. Charlie pulled up a program on his screen. "Slot this code into your generator and it will reset the safety." He touched an icon and sent it to Aisha.
"And I just let the delivery proceed as planned?" She asked hesitantly.
"Just don't cancel it." Replied Charlie, "and if Celeste asks, if you don't mind, you never talked to me."
"Between you and me," Aisha added, with not an inconsiderable amount of enjoyment, "she HAS seemed a little off lately."
In the early hours of the morning a cargo transport from Automata was gliding over the wastes en route to Concórdia. The two technicians on board had made this trip many times and knew they still had another four hours to reach their destination. The route and trip were routine to the point of boredom. So when the lights from another transport came into view speeding directly toward them, it was difficult to react to it as a danger rather than a curiosity. Until that is, it buzzed past them, with their hulls a scant few feet from each other. The displaced air from the rapidly moving, flame painted craft shook the transport.
"There's an unlimited amount of sky!" The pilot yelled, swerving the craft away even though the offending transport had already passed them by a second or two ago. "Did they have to pass us so close?"
She did not however immediately realize the swerve placed them over a gully where they passed directly atop Charlie. The harpoon pierced the rear cargo hatch and extended its hooks. When the cable reached its limit the boulder he had affixed the other end to tore the hatch from the transport.
The technicians screamed as the wind from outside howled in the cabin until a thump from above shook the craft, and them into silence.
The whirr of servos accompanied a mechanical arm that entered the hatch, grasping the reactor and quickly retreated with it. In moments it was gone, leaving only the whistle of the wind in the back hatch to fill the transport.
"Um," began the copilot, "how do we explain that we lost an entire generator?"
The three vehicles returned to the citadel. The gathered citizens that stayed up to wait for their return, cheered as the fusion generator was unloaded. The construction crew whisked it away to the bottom of the utility shaft. Charlie had it wired into the tower within the hour. Corsair was there as he wiped his hands on a rag and sighed.
"Why so glum, my friend?" She asked with a smile behind her whiskers. "You have done it. You found a way to keep us all safe. You should be cheering."
"It is past midnight already. We don't have time to test it, we don't have the sun to back us up if it doesn't work because we have to leave within the hour if we are to make it to Justice before she…they are executed. Killed because they believed in me." He tossed the rag down and squeezed both temples with the heels of his hands. "And I'm about to lead a group of you all to possible capture and death because you, for some reason, believe in me too. I feel… I feel like I am making such a mess of your world. What right do I have to gamble with your lives?"
She strode over to Charlie and stood over him. She wasn't as massive as Discorda, but she was, to Charlie, far more manly than he was. But she took his chin in her hand with a gentle firmness, and pointed his eyes up at her's. "You saved my people from dying, starving and powerless out in the waste. Out there in exile. And not because you wanted to subjugate or rule us, but because you were just nice enough to give a home to people who needed it. Those people whose order you are making a mess of would stand by and watch as we wither and die. They didn't even consider us people. So if their world gets a little messed up so be it. Maybe it deserves to.
We will follow you Charlie Ellis, because we know if you are doing something, it is probably just and worthy and usually the right thing to do. That what we risk in following you will, in our minds, will undoubtedly make this world a better place." She wiped a tear casually from her eye, "now, I have our crews hand picked, so you go gather what you need and on your way take time to look around at what you created, talk to these people you have touched. You might realize then, why we have decided to put our faith in the last man on Earth."
As Charlie walked through the quiet halls of the citadel, most of its people had gone to bed earlier and the rest after he returned. But a few he did pass were busy making improvements and upgrades to the tower.
"Charlie!" One called to him, a particularly petite herman. Not many of the herman were smaller than him. She was up on a scaffold in the tower's ceiling, apparently running new cables. "I found some old tanning beds in one of the sections that I scrapped out." She said in rapid fire succession as she scrambled down to the floor. "I figured I could install them in the garden to extend our growing times for the crops and maybe germinate our food supply to harvest faster. What do you think?"
She stood panting in front of him, from both exertion in descending and the chatter on the way down. "Sounds brilliant, Moni"
"Thank you," she smiled big and nearly tackled him in a hug. "I know I am supposed to be getting rest, because I got the honor of flying the Thunderbird for Discorda on the mission, but I was so excited that I wanted to finish this before we left."
"Well finish up, we leave within the hour." He said in a calm and gentle voice. She hopped up and down with a squeal, squeezing him in another hug. "Thank you Charlie, for what you taught me. I never thought I'd love engineering so much." She added softly before dashing off. A teacher was never something he figured he would end up doing. But the people in the citadel were voracious about learning anything Charlie or A.R.I.A could teach.
As he walked through the building every herman he passed called his name and waved. Always happy, always with a smile.
Corsair was right, they believed in him. To them he wasn't an opportunity to get close to someone better. He wasn't just useful, to be toyed with just to get something he could provide. They appreciated him, they wanted to be around him for him, and in a broad human sense, loved him. He had what he wanted his entire life and it didn't come from some romantic connection, some girl fawning, doe eyed over him. It certainly was not achieved by "sealing the deal" as Todd would put it. It came from just being accepted, wanted and thought of, not just when he was around, when something was needed from him, but all the time. He slept five hundred years from the time he was born to awake in a time he belonged. For the first time Charlie was content, happy even, with his life and with who he was.
Dis was waiting outside his quarters when he arrived, 'you look happy.' She signed, 'you're not scared anymore?'
"No, I'm terrified still," he said with a slight chuckle, "But, I guess I'm not afraid for this place anymore. No matter what happens tomorrow, this place is safe. What we built will survive."
They entered his workshop, and Charlie closed the map of Justice Citadel as he passed the center table. The plans were made and the crews were set, Charlie began gathering up projects he had been working on. "Does your new armor fit? And you are comfortable with the pack?" He asked, and she nodded to each. "And you're confident in your crew?"
'We are all set, Charlie. Stop worrying.' She communicated.
"Well, if we want to reach Justice by sunrise we need to leave soon." He said, grasping her forearm as she grabbed his. As he tried to release she yanked him into a hug that he warmly returned. "Go," he said, "I'll meet you in the hangar." As she left Charlie said to her solemnly, "we'll get her back tomorrow, no matter what I have to do."
Contessa compared the data, stopped and ran it again. When the computer spit out the same results for the tenth time she called out to her assistant, "Beulah!"
"Yes, magistrate?," she answered, stepping out from behind the analysis equipment with her tablet in hand. Contessa expected an answer over coms, but once again the girl was already in the room.
"I need to dictate a paper. Now. Are you prepared?" She asked, even though she knew the girl was always prepared. She adjusted herself as Beulah raised the tablet.
"Ready, Ma'am" she replied as the tablet began recording.
"Analysis of both the sperm from subject; Charlie, and several samples of our own and various animal eggs, confirm that the virus Charlie's data suggested is not only real, but has ravaged our DNA preventing our chromosomes from forming the Y necessary to generate males. Even when manipulated into forming Y the chromosome degenerates. It is even beginning to degenerate the X chromosomes of our newest generations. The virus that wiped out all of the male vertebrates on Earth is now rendering even the females non-viable. This might have been our extinction. But Charlie's DNA shows no damage from the virus. His chromosomes, both Y and X, are healthy and are capable of generating stable children, both female and male. He is our salvation and must not be destroyed." She paused for a moment, thoughts and regret visible on her face, "even despite this, or perhaps more so because of this, he does not deserve punishment for crimes that never happened. There WAS no war, there WERE no war crimes and there was no treason for releasing him from unjust incarceration and torture. The Grand Magistrate has committed grave injustices and must release the prisoners she is holding without merit and make amends for her crimes. Please Celeste, before it is too late, you must see reason." Contessa sighed, passing her hand in front of her neck, indicating to Beulah to stop filming. "Please edit the last part out for the official archive, dear. I'll send you the data to embed in the file." She paused again before continuing, "But please send a full version to the Grand Magistrate with the end part intact."
"The analyzer is connected to the server, Ma'am. I can get the corresponding data off it there later." Beulah replied, "but you need to rest. And you should go to your daughter. She hasn't much time"
"Celeste won't admit me into the citadel." She answered her aid, beginning to sob, breaking her stoic veneer once again, "she expects me to watch my daughter die from a screen." The dam of willpower that had been holding back her sorrow finally burst. And she wept, openly in front of her subordinate in a crass breach of decorum.
Beulah held her superior's head against her chest as she cried. She did not hold the tears of a mother in her situation inappropriate. And as the head of Enlightenment wept, Beulah thought, and when an idea bloomed said, "then maybe you need to find a method to break the door down."
The assault team was gathered in the hangar, grouped around their craft, Corsair and her copilot, Discorda with Moni and her five troops. Charlie saw them brandishing their upgraded weapons and armor. And while none of this was something Charlie wanted to do, he couldn't help but feel proud of his army. An intrusive thought penetrated his mind. He never cared what his father thought but even he couldn't deny Charlie had a squad of crack troops at his command.
"Last chance." He began, "none of you have to come. You don't have to risk anything. You don't have to fight, you can stay here, safe. The choice is yours."
It was quiet for a moment. Then he heard a tiny voice chanting. It started low but as it grew in volume more and more voices joined it. Moni, whose small voice had been first, was pumping her fist in the air. And more and more did as well as the chanting grew. "Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight! Fight! Fight! FIGHT!"
"Celeste thinks she understands war. She has no idea. With your help ladies, tonight she will understand how men do war!"
Charlie hopped on his trike, and the others boarded their craft.
"Reactors to power, turbines to speed," he muttered before gunning the throttle. And the assault force tore out of the building towards Justice Citadel.