kaolin fire presents :: writing :: fiction

"Treason.0"

words

http://www.rustybarnes.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5128

Lily clipped the probe to her ear, and stepped forward; the sky was light, but the moon stood high, and it was under its watchful gaze that she pressed her palm against the alabaster tomb.

Nothing happened, and her heart started to race. This many joules into the process was not the time to learn their information was wrong.

Gravel poured through her bones--"They were artists, Lil, and full of themselves. Try your other hand." Radiation in the atmosphere made for a poor conductor, and she shivered, thinking about the nanites coursing through her, searching for damaged cells.

She pressed her left palm against the tomb, but still nothing. The stone was surprisingly warm to her flesh--she remembered how cold stone used to feel, or she thought she did. Thirty years was a long time to forget things.

And the voice startled her again--"Try it crosswise, other side of the door. That's a good beginning for a puzzle, right?"

She blinked and did as Samuel suggested, cozy and unperturbed in his office. Jealous, too, she was sure. He could have made those suggestions before she left--no, she had to give him credit. You didn't know what the answers were until you really saw the puzzle. But if they'd trusted the joules to spoof his RNA, well--they hadn't. They hadn't trusted the process well enough, and weren't sure what military secrets lay locked in the tomb to boot, so it was just going to have to be her, true descendant.

The stone cooled quickly under her flesh, then, as if the wall itself was shrinking from her--and she heard a soft click that she would almost have guessed was a twig behind her. Holding her left hand there, she pushed her shoulder against where she had to assume the door was. Nothing budged. Samuel was silent, as well.

She moved to step back, but her suit was caught to the wall. "Well, well," she muttered. "A tarbaby?" She moved her hand from the panel, and the wall let go. "Everything's got to be cross-wise, huh. This would actually be easier with another person."

"We'll take that under advice for next year, if that's all you can do." His voice was tired with a tinge of excitement. Yes, yes, he did want to come. But would they find the joules for another trip in just a year? Not a lot of people were interested in what they saw as a vengeance geas. Lily set her jaw--she was not going to be turned away now.

"What's something flat and sturdy that I can really get a grip on," she asked--herself, some, and Samuel as well.

Samuel was the first to voice what they were both thinking--"Maybe if you apply a large enough surface area of yourself?"

"Maybe. You just want to catch me nude in your pick-ups when the suit rips."

"The suit's probably stronger than your flesh is, Lil. It shouldn't rip."

It shouldn't. She knew it shouldn't, but she still felt uncomfortable about possibly damaging equipment at this early stage of her physical reconnaissance. And even with the nanites, she didn't want bare skin getting direct scrutiny of the sun. And what would he think, being wakened by--

It shouldn't. She knew it shouldn't. She squared her back and buttocks against the assumed portal, and twisted her palm around; the stone under it cooled again; her back itched uncomfortably, and she twisted her right hand around as well to push herself off.

Both she and the wall pulled against her clothes, and she was sure her collar would choke the life out of her. Lily felt her face slowly change from its traditional pale white, to a warm ringing red, and then a chilling, numbing blue. Her pineal gland screamed for release, and with one final shove--the wall moved, just the slightest bit, and let go.

She nearly broke her nose on the ground, saved that large and painful indignity by her jutting chin and years of training. Turning back to the wall, she couldn't see a change, and the only movement was the spots in her eyes from oxygen deprivation.

Lily waited a moment to see if Samuel had anything to contribute, but couldn't quite bring herself to prompt him.

She sighed, then walked around the building, hoping for inspiration. To her surprise, a portal opposed from the wall she'd been attacking had opened up. To her greater surprise, a figure was standing there, pistol ready. "Father?"

"Li--Lily? What happened--you're so old. Dressed so oddly." He put the pistol down, inside the tomb. "What year is it?"

"Thirty."

"Thirty?"

"Since the reckoning."

"You mean--"

She pulled her own pistol from her uniform, thinking to take him by surprise--but he was canny still, after years of sleep. She should have worked his trust more. Should have, would have, could have, of course. Lily dove into the tomb after him, hoping that he would aim his first shot out the door.

"Who are you?" he grunted. "What--" Following her roll, she swept his legs and angled to catch the gun from his hand.

"I'm Lily, father." She tossed the gun and braced his head in a sleeper. "I'm here to take you to justice."

"Justice? What justice? Win or lose, that's all there is, win or lose. Will my words be remembered, or my enemy's?"

"That's where you're wrong, father. You and your enemy--you both lost. And we, the survivors--we're taking you to justice."

She felt his head slump forward, and held it just a bit longer--perhaps he faked it. Then she quickly rolled him onto the ground, and whipped her ties around his wrists. "I'm sorry," she whispered, and used her palm to access the tomb's secrets.

She jumped again at the static that erupted over her earbud--"sskkkkkKkkT Good job, Lil. The information's pouring out, so you might as well just pull him back."

"Thanks, Samuel. I'll see you in a few hours."

She looked down at her father, now her own age for all intents and purposes, and wondered at how his last thirty years of life had shaped him so differently from her own. "All we have is our context," she muttered, and dragged him back to her landing pod. Soon, he would serve trial for the near-destruction of the human race.