Chapter 15
Wayne coughed and two medics immediately turned to face him.
The four who were tending to Cara who was laid out on a cot didn’t look at him at all. They were going over her from head to toe to treat a myriad of small hurts, wounds, and issues.
There was even a wound caused from spalling that’d taken a shape akin to a bullet wound. Part of the cockpit had cracked due to intense and concentrated kinetic arms fire.
It was a shallow thing, but it’d penetrated her shoulder none-the-less.
One of them moved right up to him and started fussing with the bandage around his nose. Staring at him more like Tink or Miri did whenever he’d managed to hurt himself.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Wayne promised quietly even as she adjusted the bandage, grabbed him by the face, and stared into his pupils.
Only to say something in Dashi.
Medic Daynara: “Are you always this well mannered? You’re a wonder to treat. I should take you home while you’re being so amenable.
“Come Warrior Hesh, I’ll be your Handfast as well and mend you and tend you.”
Arsenic said something rapidly in Dashi from Wayne’s phone but didn’t translate it.
The medic only smiled at that and took Wayne’s pulse with her fingers under his jaw, her eyes turning to her wrist watch as she stood there.
Then looked back to him and spoke in Dashi.
Medic Daynara the housewrecker I hope she bursts into flame!: “It’d be worth it. You need someone to mother you, Warrior Hesh. Look at you. You’re practically hanging off my fingers. Do you not get enough care?”
Wayne had to keep from laughing at the added titles Arsenic had given to her. It was obvious the AI was feeling deeply protective over him at the moment.
The response from Arsenic was more like something barked rather than spoken.
It only made the medic smile wider.
She patted his cheek, then released her hold on him and pulled up her tablet. Not moving away from him at all.
“Thanks,” Wayne offered in Confed, to which Arsenic dutifully translated.
Daynara looked up at him, smiled at him in a way that made her nose wrinkle, and she reached up to pat his cheek again. Then leaned against him and went back to her tablet.
She was feeling very at ease with him in a way that made him feel a bit odd.
He’d been the one to chase all the women in his life in a way.
Except for Barbie and Cara, he supposed. They’d been somewhat pushy, but only up to a point. Waiting for him to close the distance and make the final moves.
“Communication coming in from the Pureblood,” Arsenic warned. “He’s bringing everything you requested. It was dropped straight from orbit to this location. As well as… himself.
“He wants to see the facility, the enemy, and what’s happened here. He’s coming in right now. I think he’s seconds away.”
Daynara looked up at Wayne’s phone in his front pocket and then Wayne’s face.
Medic Daynara the ugliest Dashi there ever was don’t look at her: “What’s going on?”
“Pureblood is coming,” Wayne answered and Arsenic translated.
Daynara’s eyes widened and she took several steps away from Wayne but didn’t go too far. She went back to her tablet, tapping at it but clearly watching out of the corner of her eye.
Standing there, leaning on his Walker, Wayne just focused on breathing.
He didn’t feel right.
Or well, even.
Something had changed after he’d forcibly ejected the AI from the base system.
His mind felt odd and his thoughts faster. As if he were still suffering from the effects of pushing himself too hard.
The last time he’d had a response like this it was battering his brain to mush in an exo-suit.
“Warrior Hesh, there you are,” called Dahl who was heading straight for him. “It’s good to see you. Very good. You were wounded?”
“Somewhat,” Wayne answered, looking at the man. A glance at the woman beside him confirmed that his prisoner was aware of the Pureblood and looked uncomfortable. “Took the facility. Ended up having a Ghost Speaker battle. I won. Got hit. Is what it is.
“I have… something… I need to talk to Tadhg about. As well as someone who needs an extensive array of testing.”
“Yes, I saw that. I’ve brought my own geneticist,” Dahl stated and gestured at someone to his side. “They can perform a test here and now to see if they are of the Blood, an Orphan… or… a problem.”
“That quick?” Wayne asked with some doubt. He was fairly convinced that a lot of that kind of testing took a long while.
“In this case, yes,” Dahl rumbled, glancing at Daynara who was still lingering. He said something in Dashi that was a question.
Dahl: “Is he well?”
As the question was asked, a man who had arrived with the Pureblood moved over to the woman and started fiddling with a device.
Medic Daynara the clearly inferior Dashi: “Contusion to the brain and a minor tear that sealed itself. Treating with injections and a Dashi pure transmission. It’s on the way for his particular genetic variant.”
Wayne didn’t really understand all that, but he’d been somewhat surprised when Daynara made him wipe his nose on something then inspected it only to say something about a halo.
The salty metallic taste at the back of his throat was finally going away though. Whatever she’d injected him with had seemed to help immediately.
Dahl nodded his head at that then looked to the woman on the ground.
Wayne looked as well just in time to see the man hold up the device he’d been poking at the woman with. He pulled out a small rectangular strip from the side of the device and then poked it into the front of it.
He waited a few seconds, then pulled it back out.
Several taps at the screen and the device began doing something.
Dashi began appearing on the front of the device.
“Non-pureblood, not an orphan,” the screen read off as Arsenic translated it for Wayne. The man repeated the same read out in Dashi.
He tapped at the screen once, then pulled out a new rectangle strip. It came from the same exact spot as the previous one.
The man poked it into the device into the same hole, waited, then pulled it out.
A tap or two at the screen followed.
And it flashed a brilliant crimson color. There was a word there but Wayne missed it and Arsenic didn’t translated it.
It made the man flinch and he snapped a finger down onto the screen.
Jerking out another test strip the man performed the exact same function.
Once again, it turned a bright red color
This time Wayne caught the word and Arsenic translated it.
“Enemy,” it stated.
Shaking his head, the man performed the same test a third time.
The same result came forth yet again.
Letting the device slowly dip down, the man looked up to the Pureblood with an expression only described as lost.
Dashi Geneticist?: “Enemy.”
“Enemy,” Dahl stated in Confed. He nodded his head quickly and almost seemed to be fighting off hyperventilating. Then looked to Wayne as he worked to keep his breathing steady. “It would seem you’ll have your army, I’ll have my clean sweep, and… the Blood must know.”
The homo augmentatus woman didn’t smile.
Didn’t react.
Not a twitch.
She just watched everyone with a look that was akin to surprise as well as nervous energy.
But that was it.
“Do we talk to Tadhg?” Wayne asked, looking to the Pureblood. “I feel like he’d need to be informed of this. He might even have something to say or… or offer as advice?”
“No need,” Dahl answered with a firm shake of his head. “The response has been long set. This is not something that Tadhg needs to be bothered with.
“We’ll be following the protocol he laid down for us at our formation. There will be no hesitation, no pulling punches, no room for negotiation. This isn’t… it’s not the time for it.
“But… well, maybe it would be good for you to speak with Tadhg. He asked about you through his care-takers the other day. He wished to know how you were performing in the tournament.”
Good.
Though this all feels like so much more than I ever thought.
This means that even the war between Dashi and Mirkil was leveraged through this.
“Your Confed Handfast is setting up a merry little tech-center out front,” Dahl added with a chuckle and pointed out the tunnel. Wayne had been disallowed to leave for fear of someone taking a shot at him. “I’m unsure if she’ll be willing to leave with you. I will ensure she is safely cared for and given what she needs.
“My people tell me she’s highly intelligent, well trained, and speaks very good Dashi.”
Wayne smirked at that. He wasn’t surprised in the least that Wendy was already pulling apart the base.
Off to see Tadhg then.
I wonder… what he’ll think about the fact that the homo augmentatus are back.
Or did they ever leave?
That woman looks like a very short Dashi, but… a Dashi all the same.
Feels like the third act where the curtain is finally getting pulled back and everything is revealed.
The world was getting stranger all the time and the things Wayne thought he knew, revealed themselves to be more.
***
Picking up the strange crown to talk to Tadhg Wayne hesitated, then plunked it down over his head. He wasn’t feeling perfectly normal yet and he hadn’t been looking forward to this.
He’d caught a long nap on the way here on a constant burn about a Dashi warship, but even then he didn’t quite feel correct.
Once it was settled over his head, Wayne then walked over to the wall that Dashi would be beyond.
“Your enemy… or… I guess our enemy, has returned,” Wayne offered and thought at the same time.
“I see,” Tadhg replied. It sounded like four-inch response pushed through a one-inch pipe. “That is unfortunate. Has the Pureblood begun activating my previously set up protocol?”
“Yeah. He is,” Wayne confirmed and nodded his head. “I met one. An augmentatus. She looked like a short Dashi woman. Tore apart an AI in a military base as well.”
“No, you didn’t,” Tadhg countered. “It is with you. It is in your mind. I am unable to put it to sleep as I did the little Dashi AI.
“You’ve brought it on board, though the other little AI you had is gone. Or… mostly gone.
“It was subsumed by the new one. This new one is a companion AI that was never given a companion. I can tell. They always had a slightly manic edge to them.
“I was grateful I was partnered and experienced life as life. Instead of the cold data and numbers of being bound to a system.”
“Sidra was… subsumed?” asked Wayne, not quite keeping up.
“Yes. The previous AI you had onboard was integrated into the new one. I cannot imagine either AI would’ve chosen it, yet this is what has happened. The previous one no long exists. It is merely a part of the new one.
“I’m sorry for your loss. You also seem to be suffering from several injuries from straining yourself. Your mind is somewhat louder today. Likely due to the injury.”
“Yeah,” Wayne mumbled and looked down and away. He hadn’t been long with Sidra but he’d viewed her as a companion. There wasn’t anything to be done for it though. He barely understood what as going on in his head to begin with. “Thanks. I just… I wanted to talk to you to see what you thought about the situation.”
“It isn’t a surprise,” Tadhg answered in a way that felt almost bored. “They are a determined people. I long suspected they hadn’t given up. The only question I have is did they just arrive, or have they been here a while.
“That’s the extent of my curiosity and concern. The rest is within my expectations.”
“Will… the new AI talk?” Wayne asked. “It hasn’t said anything to myself or the other AI I have. It’s been silent.”
“It’s almost certainly adapting at this time,” explained Tadhg. “It may begin speaking in a month or so. Maybe longer. I’m not entirely sure.
“It isn’t every day that the singularity, the convergence, the blending, arrives. I’m very curious what the new AI in your head will think of this. Or what the augmentatus will think.
“They were very adamant in their superiority yet here you are, a sapiens, able to do exactly what they do, without sacrificing anything at all of your root. An interesting and convoluted development.”
I… suppose he’s right.
“Of course I am. I’ll send you with some documentation all young augmentatus received when their AI turned on. May it provide you with information and a direction,” Tadhg offered.
“Don’t really have time to read,” joked Wayne with a laugh.
“You will have time. Soon,” argued Tadhg. “I am most certain you will be expelled from Dashi momentarily. Likely with that army you wished to assist Mirkil.
“The Pureblood will draw up the rest of the nation to prepare for the Mandate of Blood. It is time to call upon all Blood for the Sacred Defense.
“Even those in the Confed will be expected to participate as while they are more akin to the animals who tried to kill us all, they are now once more upon the same battlefield.
“It is why the Blood didn’t kill the Confed when it began. Or sense. We are Blood, the Confed is… not Blood. But you’re of us. In the war to escape, your ancestors fought well and earned all their descendants the right to exist as neighbors.”
Is… that it?
Most Blood barely tolerate anyone in the Confed and view them as mostly less than humans.
Yet despite that, the Blood have never truly come to exterminate the Confed.
Raiding, battles, wars, but never annihilation or extermination.
Hell, even the genetic testing and screening.
Everything adds up and just makes me feel like I’ve been blind to everything.
“I see,” Wayne replied, took a breath, then blew it out. It was too much for him.
“Yes. I imagine it is indeed a weighty thing,” Tadhg consoled him. “Fear not, just because the Confed has forgotten it’s oaths, does not mean the Blood has. We will begin consolidating, though I do fear some Blood will have fallen to the side.
“All we can do is bind ourselves together once more and battle the foe. Because fears of our genetic future matters little when there is an enemy at the door.
“The war has come for us once again and we must stand together. Blood, Confed, orphan, or otherwise. Though I do fear our views on the rest of humanity may make this particularly difficult.
“It was a risk we took to preserve the Blood and I pray that we have not provided an improper course as the wayfarer for the Blood of Dashi.”
Nodding his head, Wayne eventually lost the thread of the conversation as he contemplated what Tadhg had told him.
Because there were so many implications, so many new bits of information, so much to mentally go over, that it was just too much.
Too much for a simple Walker pilot who didn’t think of the politics, a business, or even a smart plan to make things happen.
He was at his best in a cockpit and fighting things. These were all things best left to thinkers.
Eventually, Tadhg ended the conversation, though only after asking a great many more questions, having some back and forth, and prodding at the new and dormant AI inside his head.
In the end, Wayne returned to the transport, only to find Tadhg had been correct in his estimation of what would be happening next.
Wayne, Barbie, and Cara were being sent off world with the very army he’d requested.
A new army was being drafted. One exclusively made for the ‘Mandate of Blood’.
Wendy had done her best to somehow remain at the secret facility. She wanted to desperately be part of the operation to tear through all the information there.
Sort it, categorize it, pull it through her own knowledge, and see what she could do with it.
The Dashi had accepted her request and she’d been placed amongst their intelligence team. Along with a great many Dashi data specialists and intelligence agents from all over Dashi space.
Only for Wendy to back out at the last second when she realized Wayne was heading back to Mirkil space with Cara and Barbie.
Though she did scrape a massive section of the data with Arsenic’s help and transferred it to a large series of hard-drives for her to pour over on the trip back to Mirkil space.
Because only a day after Wayne had taken an enemy secret facility he was on his way back to Mirkil space.
Somewhat surprised, a bit wounded, and with a great many presents specifically for the Mirkil royal family from the Pureblood himself.
And a Blood of Dashi army, of course.