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The doorbell sounded shortly after, during one of the lulls between McQueen's outbursts. "Can I come in?" "Of course!" Shane was shocked that Bolt had to ask when it was obvious to anyone that he should be in there. "Do not snap at me like that," Bolt said calmly as he entered the room, "I told you that this would happen." He strode straight across the room to where McQueen slept. He lay his hand against the surface of the cuff and it lit up with strange symbols. He ran his fingers across the crystal pressing and manipulating symbols with quick precision. Each time he did so the cuff responded with a soft tone, if Shane hadn't known better she might have thought he was playing music rather than saving a life.
Given the chance to live that time over again Nathan probably wouldn't have acted in the same way. He was only just waking up and the first thing he saw was Bolt, the first thing he heard was McQueen's agony. It was more reflex than any decision on his part. He launched himself at Bolt, taking him completely by surprise, and landed on the floor on top of him. That was when things started to go badly wrong. Moving quickly Bolt wrapped his legs around his attacker's waist and lifted them both up into a handstand. Nathan was too stunned by the impressive display to resist, but not enough to stop him from crying out sharply when Bolt bought the two of them down on Nathan's back. Bolt reached down from where he now straddled West's waist and slammed the heel of his hand into the marine's chest. All the muscles in Nathan's chest suddenly locked up and he was reduced to rolling on the floor desperately gasping for air while Bolt stood and returned to what he had been doing. Shane just stood there, she too was mesmerized. Bolt's actions had been so fast, so fluid, that it was all over before she could even think about intervening. Shaking herself out of the trance she went over to Nathan and was checking to see if she could help him when the steady stream of notes from the cuff stopped. "You shouldn't have any more problems with this, but I'll be back in a few hours to check on him." Bolt's voice was absolutely calm as he talked to the back of Shane's head, as if choking marines could be found on any street corner. When she didn't respond he walked to the door and opened it. "Oh, Captain Vansen?" he said. "It will be much easier for him to breathe if he lies flat rather than rolling around like that." He was gone before Shane realized that he had called her by name. Explaining to Nathan was difficult, not helped by the fact that once he had gotten his breath back he was determined to kill Bolt. When she told him that Cooper was missing he sank into a morose silence, no longer interested in what she had to say. "Nathan we don't know he's dead." Telling him had been a mistake, but letting him find out on his own would have been a worse one. It hard to believe how close those two had become when she thought about how they used to fight. Now that Coop was gone, Nathan was shooting the messenger. He wouldn't even look at her. "He could have been hurt, he might even be with the medics right now." Even as she said it Shane knew it was a lie. If anyone needed a medic's help it was McQueen. Unable to do anything else for Nathan she just sat on the bed next to him, hoping that her presence would prove to be some small comfort. West was asleep when the doorbell rang again, his head resting in Shane's lap. "Yeah, come in." Shane said warily before Bolt had the chance to ask. He walked in carrying two small packages and, seeing that Nathan was asleep set them down on the bed Shane had woken up in. "The things you had with you when you arrived. Yours and his. Everything is here except your weapons, those are ... elsewhere." "Thanks." "I like him much better this way. I don't have to hurt him" Shane smiled and looked down at West's sleeping face. "He thought you were hurting McQueen" "McQueen." Bolt said it slowly, as if he were tasting the new word. "He is very important to you." The silence that followed was broken by the soft tones of the cuff as Bolt issued it's new instructions. "How do you know our names?" Shane blurted. She had been wondering about this since Nathan fell asleep. "You were wearing them around your necks." Bolt replied, producing her dogtags from within one of the small packages. "Why is this?" "So we can be identified if we die in battle. The Chigs usually don't leave a whole lot to go by." Bolt's brow furrowed as he considered this. "Oh." He said at last as he replaced the tags. "We have very little to do with Earth. With this war going on they have probably forgotten that we are here. This is as we like it. We are left in peace to pursue other things." "Are you a splinter community?" asked Drew who sat up in bed, startling Shane. "I do not understand the question," Bolt told him, "We are primarily scientists and artists. We have only a few warriors as we have no enemies." Drew let his conspiracy theory drop and picked up on the last thing Bolt had said. "Then why aren't you using your technology and manpower to help the others of your kind? A lot of good men and women could have been saved by those." Drew pointed aggressively at the cuff. "Understand this," Bolts voice dropped to a cold, hard whisper. "I am helping my own kind. From where I stand you don't fit that description." Drew simply nodded, surprised by the vehemence in the other's voice. "The others will awaken soon, and they will be hungry." Bolt told them and left quickly. "How long were you listening to us?" Shane demanded once he was gone. "Since he came in. What's wrong with West?" "Cooper is missing, and Nathan's taking it badly. He attacked Bolt." "Wow. What happened to him? Coop I mean." "I don't know," Shane replied, concern and frustration showing in her voice. "He just isn't here. Nathan took it to mean he was dead and over-reacted completely, and I ... I don't have any idea what's going on." Whatever Drew had been about to say was beaten to the punch by a groan Shane had come to know well. Vanessa was waking up, it was time for Shane to stop feeling sorry for herself and get on with her job. By the time Bolt returned the whole group was up and around, with the exception of McQueen. "Relax captain, the cuff knows exactly what it is doing." Bolt walked over and tapped a command into the strange device. "He will wake up this afternoon I think, but it will be a few days before the cuff can come off." "Uh ... Bolt?" Drew started hesitantly, "You said you were bringing food?" "So I did." Bolt agreed and activated the intercom in the wall. "Cerburus?" The voice that answered him was a computerized monotone. "Yes Bolt?" "Bring the food in." The door slid open and a small, enclosed cart rolled in under it's own power. "Open the servo please." The sides of the cart slid down to reveal several trays of food. "Thank you, Cerburus. That is all." The 58th stared first at the cart and then at Bolt, disbelieving what they had just seen. Nathan was the first to find his tongue. "It's an AI?" "No ... well yes ..." Bolt's face wrinkled as he tried to explain. "Cerburus is a neural network, a computer modeled on the brain. His intelligence was an accident, we are still trying to figure out how it happened. He runs all our automated equipment, from starships to servos like this one." He rapped his knuckles on the top of the food cart. "Is it safe?" Shane was unconvinced. "Since he came on line we have not lost a single life due to mechanical error. Over the last 15 years no Drotherni ship has flown off course. Cerburus is completely safe, although he does have a strange sense of humor." Cautiously Shane took one of the trays of food from the servo's shelves. The tray held bread, water and bite size chunks of meat covered in a thick red sauce, and the servings were generous. Bolt took the last tray and the marines followed his lead, wolfing down the food with their fingers. Shane had not realized how hungry she had been and could see that the others were also thoroughly enjoying the meal. She finished quickly and put the tray back inside the servo that waited in the center of the room. They had all eaten their fill before Vanessa asked the question, deciding that the direct approach was best. "Are we prisoners here?" Bolt turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. "That has not yet been decided. Your arrival was somewhat ... abrupt, and unexpected guests are not always welcome among us." His tone made it clear that these guests usually found out exactly how unwelcome they were very quickly, and very thoroughly. Nathan had Bolt pinned to the wall by his shoulders before the others had considered the implication. "What did you do to him?" Nathan was coping even worse than Shane had thought, he wasn't acting at all like himself and shouting into Bolt's face was definitely a bad idea. "Lieutenant West." Bolt's normally soft voice thundered in the enclosed room as he reached out to place one hand over Nathan's heart. "We have done nothing. Release me. Now." Suddenly remembering the last time he had touched Bolt, West let go and moved off to sit with McQueen at the other end of the room, as much privacy as could be gotten in those conditions. "I'm sorry," Vanessa said to Bolt, "He's not taking this very well." "Have I done something wrong?" "No, it's just that ... one of us is missing. He and West were close." "What happened?" "We don't know. Coop was with us on Sigma 2 but gone when Shane woke up here." "Coop?" "Cooper Hawkes, our missing friend." Shane told him. "Ah. If I may ... what is he like?" The marines avoided his eyes, unsure of how to respond in the face of such a personal question. "Hard to get to know," Drew broke the silence, "Like he was trying to stop you from getting close to him." "Yeah," Shane agreed, "But once you get through that he's very loyal and reliable. He'd die to save any one of us from suffering." Slowly, one by one, the four 'cards built a hazy picture of their squad-mate for Bolt then slowly, one by one, fell silent. "Is that all?" Nathan was still sitting over with McQueen. "Is that all he left behind for us?" They could all hear the sadness in his voice, but with it was a sense of determination. He was ready now to come to terms with what had happened. "Perhaps you should be telling us." Bolt's voice was quiet and unobtrusive. "Coop and me weren't always friends," West began, "I don't think we even talked in training except to argue ..." Quietly Nathan told the story of their friendship from beginning to end. Grudging respect for each other's skills, then trust in one another as squad-mates and becoming closer after the death of Nathan's little brother. Desperately trying to help Cooper during his first addiction, and then helping each other through the dark time between Paul's death and the rescue team's message that they'd found Shane and Vanessa. He told of crushing hopelessness when the terrorists shot Coop, and rage when he saw what the drugs had done. Frustration at being there to see the InVitro shot down but being unable to help him, turning to euphoric joy when Cooper was found again. " ... And now he's gone, isn't he?" Bolt's reply was whispered, only Shane was close enough to hear it. "You are trotha" Shane was about to ask what the word meant, and why there had been any doubt about the fact but she was cut off by the intercom. "Bolt?" It was Cerburus. "I'm listening Cerburus." "Nadrak requests your presence. Immediately." Bolt sighed and stood. "McQueen may wake up some time soon. Try to keep him calm, I'll try to get back this evening."
The colonel woke up a few hours after Bolt left and immediately decided that they were prisoners of war, falling into full trust-no-one mode. Nothing that that the 'cards could say to him made the slightest difference, and Shane somehow found herself in the middle of an argument with him defending Bolt. Things were just starting to get ugly when the intercom bell rang. "Yes?" she snapped, privately thankful for a reason to end the argument. "Now is the time that the Drotherni eat their evening meal," Cerburus' monotone voice was unaffected by her hostility. "I have food for you and a new program for the cuff." "OK. Bring them in." The door slid open and a servo identical to the one that had accompanied Bolt earlier rolled into the room and opened it's sides to reveal the food it carried. Once they all had their food Shane turned back towards the center of the room. "How do we reprogram the cuff?" she asked, anxious to prevent another breakdown. "McQueen should eat first. Do not worry, the cuff can remain operative for several hours yet if need be." Getting McQueen to eat was difficult to say the least. In the end it came down to stuffing his mouth with food while Drew and West held his arms, and then holding his nose so that he'd have no choice but to chew and swallow. It took them ten or fifteen minutes of struggling and swearing to finally get McQueen to swallow the first mouthful. Shane hated to do it, but she was damned if she would let him refuse whatever treatment he was getting. She was just getting geared up to repeat the process when he asked her. "That's real meat isn't it?" "Yeah, I think so." Shane had also been surprised. Earth was rarely able, let alone willing, to feed her marines on real meat so it seemed strange that the Drotherni would be feeding it to people who were basically prisoners, no matter what Bolt said. McQueen shook his arm free of Drew's grip and grabbed another chunk, hunger and the allure of real, fresh meat overpowering his doubts. "So," he asked between mouthfuls, "What do you know about these people?" "They call themselves Drotherni," Shane told him, "and we really don't know anything. They have radically advanced technology and are neither friendly nor hostile to Earth, but beyond that they could be doing anything. Bolt keeps his cards too close to his chest." "When do I get to meet Bolt?" "He said he'd be back tonight."
Bolt didn't return that night, nor did he come to see them in the morning. For three days their food was delivered by servos and the cuff maintained by wireless transmission. The first of these had woken Shane, and she had known immediately what was going on. It was exactly like a Silicate communication, except that whilst they sounded like aggressive heartless machines, Cerburus sounded as if he were singing to the cuff. Shane listened to the two Drotherni devices for some time and when they finally fell silent she whispered into the silence. "Cerburus?" "Yes, Captain Vansen?" The computer had adjusted the volume of it's voice so that it matched her own. "Bolt used a word the other day that I didn't understand. Can you tell me what it means?" "I have extensive dictionaries, what is the word?" Shane smiled in the darkness, where it not for the flatness of his voice she might almost have believed that Cerburus was bragging. "Trotha." There was a moment of silence. "It is a Drothak word with no direct English counterpart. The meaning is similar to family, except that one shares no blood bond with one's trotha. The word commonly used by members of a Chorl to describe one another." "Members of a what?" "Again there is no direct match for this word in your language. The closest analogy I can provide is that of a sporting team." A thought struck Shane. "Or a combat unit?" "Yes. This is possible" "Thank you Cerburus." So. You are squad-mates. She suddenly felt the need to talk to Bolt very urgently. Try as she might though, Shane was unable to reach him through any means. Even Cerburus was unable to contact Bolt, or would not which was just as bad. She began to wonder what had been said at the meeting he had rushed off to so urgently but stopped herself quickly. She knew better than to start playing the "What If ..." game, but one way or another she had to know. In many ways uncertainty was the worst part.
When the bell rang that morning Shane invited Cerburus in on reflex, before she realized that it was the doorbell that had rung and not the intercom that the computer always used. "Bolt?" She called, ready to throttle him, "Is that you?" She got up and walked towards the opening door, but the silhouette that she saw backlighted by the bright corridor lights wasn't Bolt's. She hardly had time to wonder who this newcomer could be before she was caught in a powerful bearhug, and found her own arms filled by an InVitro body. "Shane, I'm sorry. I should never have brought you here." The words were whispered by a voice she had never expected to hear again. "Oh Shane, I'm so sorry." She didn't know what to do, she felt that she should say something, anything but she couldn't make the words come out. Her brain wouldn't function, it was receiving sound and pictures but wouldn't pull them together into a single picture. She heard Cooper's whispers going on and on and on, begging for her forgiveness. She felt the strange, smooth material of his bodysuit sliding beneath her fingers. She saw Bolt standing in the doorway. Smiling. "You knew all along didn't you Bolt?" Nathan only half heard Shane's accusation, Cooper's enthusiastic bearhug was impossible to ignore. The big InVitro finally let go, backing off to arm's length and resting his hands on Nathan's shoulders. "Are you guys all OK?" For a moment Nathan couldn't speak, over the last few days he had almost come to terms with the fact that Cooper was dead and this sudden reappearance was a shock "Yeah, we're fine Coop. We're all OK." In the brief silence that followed Nathan caught the trailing endof Bolt's explanation"... me since you got here. I'm sorry I had to lie to you but Nadrak felt we needed more proof of your connection. The rest of the council has been watching you very closely. I'm afraid I have things to do today but I'm sure Cooper can provide anything you might need." The door was closed before Shane could offer a response. Her exasperated sigh brought a smile to Nathan's lips as he followed her over to where Cooper sat with McQueen. Coop was running his hands over the surface of the cuff that held his CO, muttering to himself as the strange characters danced beneath his fingers. "You can read that?" Nathan asked incredulously. "Yup," Cooper replied, "Well, most of them. Some are special medical stuff. Ah! There it is." A single glowing character rested between Cooper's hands like a razor-edged pretzel. "What does it say?" "Open" Cooper told then, stabbing it with a finger. The cuff split on the edge closest to Cooper, then the top half hinged upwards until it stood perpendicular to the floor. "Come on Colonel, it's time to get up." Together the three of them managed to get McQueen standing up, albeit precariously after so many days of lying down. Coop gently closed the cuff,melding it seamlessly back into a single lump of crystal. "And now," the young InVitro announced dramatically, "It'stime to eat."
They'd all eaten, and Nathan had helped Cooper to get the light but unwieldy cuff onto the top of the servo. Now the 58th wanted to know whatwas going on. Questions about the Drotherni made Coop obviously uncomfortable,his attempts to change the subject were valiant, but useless. It was Drew whose question struck closest to home. "These are the ones that fixed you, aren't they?" Coop stood and tuned away from where they all sat on the floor. He was silent for a moment, his hands resting an the servo in the middle of the room. "Heeeeeey?" The syllable was stretched so far that they could almost hear the idea hitting. "How long has it been since you guys had any sort of exercise?" "Not since we got here." Drew answered before McQueen could stop him. Nathan knew that Drew hated to be cooped up here between the four drab walls, and to tell the truth they were stating to wear Nathan's patience down as well. A small drotherni device landed in his lap and,looking up, Nathan saw that Coop had gotten several of the things from inside the servo and was giving them out to the 'cards. "Hawkes!" There was a warning in McQueen's bark that frozeCoop where he stood. After his time in the cuff McQueen didn't trust the Drotherni as far as he could throw them. "I'll explain when we're finished, I promise." Cooper wasshowing his age, acting just like a little kid pleading to stay up fourteen minutes more. Reluctantly McQueen took the last of the objects form Cooper. The younger InVitro retrieved another of the devices for himself and pressed a button on the servo that sent it out of the room. When heturned back to the 5-8 his face was split by a grin of absolute glee. "You guys are gonna love this." Despite himself Nathan felt a smile forming on his own lips. Cooperwas radiating a barely controlled energy, he had found a new toy and couldn't wait to show it off'. On closer examination the thing that Copper had given him turned out to be a weapon of sorts. It was about the same size as his pistol but the handgrip was thinner and gave his the creepy sensation that it was changing to fit his hand. There was no apparent barrel, just a flattish glob of crystal that bore two needle sharp horns at what he presumed was the front. Until recently he would have discounted it as a weapon, it washardly big enough to hurt someone if you hit them with it and looked suspiciously fragile. Then again the cuff had also seemed innocuous at first. Everyone had made similar decisions about their guns and were now standing aroundCooper expectantly. "Cerberus?" Coop spoke into a strange black wristband. The voice that replied was quieter and tinnier than he was usedto, but still unmistakable. "Yes Cooper?" "Have you processed the patternings I asked for?" "Yes Cooper. They are ready to run." "A simple one to start with thank you." The light strips in the ceiling dropped to about one-quarter power and three tones sounded, presumably announcing the start of whatever was about to happen. Cooper stood quietly, his gun held loosely in his righthand. To a stranger he might have seemed at ease, but Nathan had known him long enough to see that every nerve was on edge and ready. When it appeared on the wall Coop's reaction was instantaneous. The whole thing was over before Nathan knew it had begun. He was fairly sure that the thing had been a circle. He thought it might have been purple. But he knew that than the twin needles of blue light from Cooper'sweapon had hit it dead center. Nathan's suspicions about the target wereconfirmed quickly as all four walls were soon festooned with purple circlesthat died with a squeak at the tough of the blue light needles. The simulation was impressive, and certainly fast enough to keep the 'cards on their toes but Nathan dismissed it as more of the same until he saw one of the target's jump off the wall. The circle just moved outwards, becoming a sphere asit did so, and headed straight for him. He recovered from his shock intime to kill it before it reached him, and just in time to hear Sara's surprise. "Oh damn! Did you see that?" Nathan could sense Cooper's cheeky grin from across the room. "If they touch you, you're dead" he warned them, then commando rolled under an approaching target and rose to blast it from behind. The others followed suit, the ring formation they had been in was too easy a target and for now they stood a better chance individually. The whole thing suddenly became more like a bar-room brawl than target practice.Nathan took out target after target, hitting each one quickly before moving on to the next, or sometimes stopping to kill a sphere that Shane or Drew hadn't seen. More than once he heard the squeak of an expiring sphere dangerously close to the back of his own head. Drew was the first to die, the unfortunate result of two spheres approaching from opposite directions. The room was filled with a horrifyingly real death scream and all the targets turned green. Drew pulled the trigger of his gun a few times with no result and slunk off to sit in the floor next to one of the beds, where he wouldn't block the others' shots. Vanessa, Sara and Nathan quickly strobed the targets through orange, red and grey, ending upon the floor with Drew watching their friends battle the growing number of spheres. No-one was surprised when it turned out that Cooper was the last one standing, though McQueen made him work for the dubious honor of facing the legions of black targets. "Ready for something harder?" Cerberus had at least had the good grace to wait for Cooper to catch his breath before proposing a rematch but the 'cards didn't even wait for the InVitro to ask them,they were on their feet before Cerberus had finished issuing the challenge.They played six games in all facing small quick spheres, smart spheres that hid behind the beds, large spheres that split in two when shot ...there seemed no end to the weapons Cerberus could employ. Cooper and McQueen shared the title of Last Man Standing for the most part, although Shane outclassed them both on one occasion. None of them had the breath to answer Cerberus' offer of a seventh round, and after a moment's silence the lightscame back up. "Calara tried to contact you several times." The computer said to Cooper, "I intercepted her messages and told her you were not wearing your monitor." "Why? You could have told her I was patterning with the 'cards.She's got clearance and everything" Cooper's voice was husky, as though his breath had burnt his throat. Nathan wasn't surprised, patterning was a great workout if you did it once. When no response was forthcoming from Cerberus Copper continued. "Did Cal give you a message?" "She will be coming by this afternoon to check on the 58th squadron. Also Teclis of Starfire wants more data on your recovery. Calara thinks it would be best to do a complete model of your brain." "I'll talk to her about it when she gets here. Thanks." It was a moment or two before the after thought hit. "Oh, Cerberus? Do you think we could get some food in here?"
"I don't remember much about the first few weeks. Cal says the treatment they used on me screws with short-term memory." Nathan had been expecting this, Coop had displayed less than his usual enthusiasm for food when lunch had arrived, and now that the rest of them had almost finished he'd decided it was a good time for the promised explanation. "I guess I should start with Thoth ..." It was a story that Nathan would have dismissed immediately if he hadn't been living it for the last few days. Cooper told them how he was rescued by a transfer pulse and carried to a base beneath Thoth's surface.The base belonged to the scorpion sept, one of the seven discrete groups that the Drotherni had split themselves into. There he had been given a treatment to repair the damage done by the terrorist dart, and during hisl ong recovery was accepted into the scorpion's society. Much of his time was spent learning to use the gift they had given him, his monitor. He also spent a lot of time looking for the Saratoga. Despite his pining forthe wildcards his life with the Drotherni wasn't unhappy, either Bolt, Zodra or Calara were always willing to show him something new. McQueen's interests lay in a different area. "Is it true they're not interested in the war?" It was. As far as the Drotherni were concerned the Marines and theChigs could wipe each other out completely. "They sometimes have to fight the Silicates though. The AI's figure if they can get hold of the technology that went into Cerberus they'll become gods or something. The Drotherni were in a big war back when they were all still one group, and they've decided that they'll never get involved in another one." "Which they do by keeping hidden right?" Drew was enraptured by the story. "That's why we've never heard of them before?" Cooper nodded. "The Secret of the Drotherni. They've killed to keep it that way." Nathan was about to ask about the other septs when he noticed a softblue glow on the surface of Cooper's monitor. Glancing up he saw that Coop'seyes were unfocused and his lips moved slightly every few seconds. Farspeek, Nathan realised, one of the strange powers that Cooper had described. The rest of the 'cards had also noticed Coop's detachment and were waiting with questions in their eyes when the glow died a short time later. "Calara." Cooper told them. "She'll be here in a couple of minutes." Indeed it could only have been 60 or 70 seconds before the bell on the door rang and a new voice flooded the room. "It's only me. Open the door Cooper." Coop closed his eyes and the monitor flared brightly. It wasn't until he heard the door opening behind him that Nathan realised what he was doing. "Show off!" Calara teased as she came in. "Would it have killed you to get up and punch the button?" Cal's voice was calm and open, just the sort of impression that a medic would want to make on her patient. It was also full of laughter and Nathan could feel himself warming to this person even before he'd seen her. He turned to greet her and was frozen by what he saw. It wasn't that Cooper was stupid or forgetful or anything. It was just that he had become so used to the Drotherni, so comfortable with them, that it had never occurred to him that he should tell the 'cards they weren't human.
The creature that stood in front of him was descended from reptiles,that much was evident from her dull green scales and the vicious talonsthat sprouted from the ends of her fingers and toes. But she was also very human, Nathan quickly catalogued her arms, legs, ears and the like and found that she had the right numbers of everything and in similar places,although the long, strong tail was a definite departure. She was big, Nathan guessed that she stood head and shoulders above Cooper, but seemed heavily proportioned despite her height. The final touch of majesty and terror was provided by her wings which reached from the backs of her knees to about level with her ears, and were attached to the powerful muscles in her back and shoulders. These were not the weak fleshy wings of bats, nor the brittle wings that insects wore, but strong bejewelled pinions like those dragons might have had, that would carry her to the ends of the earth if she wished it. The overall effect was stunning and for a moment all Nathan could do was to stand with his mouth open.
© Dylan Humphries 1997
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