Rennin gets back to his apartment in the Godyssey complex to find Carla bundled up on the couch playing some of his most violent video games. She’s chosen to fight on the aliens’ side and is butchering the human side. Clearly she hasn’t quite dealt with being a military target for execution.
She looks over to him and he sees the veins in her face and most of her neck have returned to normal. He is about to say hello when the power goes out.
7.
Mettle Skin
Pharaoh Drake wasn’t paying attention when the citywide blackout hit Raddocks Horizon. The entire grid went down at once, and has remained out for nearly two hours. The backup power supply hasn’t even kicked in. There was no warning, no backup and there is no power at all.
Drake is strapped to a chair, deep scratches running down the sides of his face. Serro is outside his observation room, looking at his friend’s fingers that are caked with his own blood.
He hasn’t recovered from his first hit mission with the Tasker child and mother. Before being sent on a second mission, Serro advised Captain Kowalski not to assign Drake until he’d been counselled and properly evaluated. Unfortunately, time was of the essence. Drake made it as far as the target’s house before he went berserk. In his mad panic he shot Mia Saker, before attacking the rest of his team. If it wasn’t for her body armour she would have been killed.
He was wrestled down and put back in the RV, but once alone he began tearing at himself as if his skin wasn’t his. He broke every window and mirror, fracturing his own wrist in the process. Sedation has left his head is lolling from side to side. Serro sighs and looks across at Mia. “What would you do?”
Mia huffs, her pale brown eyes quickly appraising Serro. They are sharp as a knife. “Drake is one of those moral unfortunates. Might have been kinder to shoot him.”
Despite her relatively young appearance, Mia Saker is well into her thirties and is extremely pragmatic, certainly well chosen for the HolinMech Program. Serro can’t help but wonder if she’s being serious about executing him. “Would you do it?”
She pauses for a moment looking at Drake through the glass. “No. But looking at him is just… shit. Look at him,” she gestures with her hand, “he’s gone.”
“Did you know Caufmann wants him taken to the lab immediately?”
Mia’s head cocks slightly, her eyebrows pressing together to make a face that challenges Serro’s question. “Why?”
He shrugs, “He didn’t say. You ever met him?”
“Caufmann? No. Don’t want to.”
“Well you’re taking Drake over there.”
“No I’m not.”
“I’m not going there. I’m your superior, so get moving.”
Mia glares at him, “I can shoot your nuts off from three kilometres away.”
“Only because it’s a big target.”
“Anything looks big in 3000x zoom, Hopper.”
Before long she’s driving through the streets. Without power it’s like travelling through a ghost town. The streets are deserted. In the darkness, all the looming buildings make it look like some kind of gothic nightmare. Mia can’t remember ever being in a blackout.
All vehicles in the city are usually connected to the electrical grid. Without the power signal to tell the organic compound engines to run, all cars are useless without an alternate power source. There is only a limited amount of petroleum left that is capable of running vehicle engines the old fashioned way, and Mia has been allotted a single tank of it.
She’d only ever smelled real petrol once before, when cleaning out her grandfather’s garage after he died. She doesn’t miss the aroma at all. She can’t stand colognes either. As far as she’s concerned, they all stink like embalming fluid.
It is well into the night by the time her RV pulls up at the Godyssey Laboratory gates. The lab has emergency lights on, so obviously has it’s own generator. The watchman is waiting. He approaches the gate, one eye glowing unsettlingly. “Yes?”
Mia sticks her head out the window. “Open up! I’ve got Drake in the back.”
“That’s wonderful.”
This must be Rennin Farrow, Mia thinks with a mental sigh. “Caufmann ordered him here.”
“Does he come with chips?”
“Open the gate.”
“Identify yourself.”
“Mia Saker, Beta HolinMech.”
“Serial number?”
“What’s the point of that? No electrical equipment is working citywide, you can’t verify it.”
“I suppose only military are capable of driving around. I’m just not thrilled about having to open the gate with this,” he holds up a crank.
“Well I’m not thrilled about being here at all.”
As Rennin begins winding it open he eyes the car, “Is that a combustion engine I smell, or are you just wearing unleaded as a deodorant?”
“Unleaded?”
“The last time I remember smelling that shit was years ago at the Fusion Grand Prix. Couldn’t you guys afford hydrogen?”
“Apparently this stuff is easier to synthesize, it’s not actually fossil fuel.”
Rennin laughs, “Yeah, hydrogen is really hard to get being the most common element in the universe.”
“The fuel is easy enough but when was the last time you saw a hydrogen engine?” asks Mia.
“To be honest I don’t know.”
“That’s because they’re two centuries out of date, a little on the dangerous side in a firefight since hydrogen explodes when it contacts oxygen. We’re not sure of the extent of the blackout or even how it happened. And these old engines aren’t connected to a grid and they’re impossible to remotely hack,” she says, clearly losing patience.
Rennin grins, “I like you.”
Mia winces.
“Not like that. I’m spoken for.”
“Lucky her.”
A moment later, the gate has been cranked open, allowing Mia to drive in. She takes Drake out of the back of the RV. He’s been strapped to a wheelchair, and is luckily still sedated.
Wheeling him in the front doors and through the front foyer of the lab complex, she finds Doctor Jellan Roths waiting. The surgeon is looking a little pale. Mia has heard she is infected, but rumours aren’t to be trusted.
The Beta HolinMech nods a greeting before Roths leads her to an observation room deeper in the lab, where Caufmann awaits in a room that looks more like a cell. It’s lined with soundproofing soft pads. Mia stops for a moment wondering what Caufmann has in mind for Drake.
He waves her in with some kind of faux-smile, some mock attempt to settle her doubts. This is the first time she’s ever seen him.
And she can already feel her trigger finger twitching.
Rennin walks back up the clock tower where Wayne Carr is sitting with Carla. He knew he had to get back to the lab as soon as he could when the blackout hit. All the doors have to be open and closed with manual latches. Wayne looks up, “Look, Rennin, I don’t think you should have brought her here,” he says, turning to Carla. “Nothing against you, it’s just against the rules.”
Carla smiles. She tries to make it as polite as possible but every time she looks at Wayne’s nametag, she can’t help but smirk.
Rennin arches an eyebrow, “Jeez, Wank, I didn’t think you’d pass up the opportunity to talk to a woman that doesn’t require inflating.”
“We could get in trouble.”
“Actually we can do anything, there isn’t a surveillance camera up and running anywhere in this stinking city. I mean honestly, just listen,” he makes a sweeping hand gesture.
A long pause ensues.
“To what?” Wayne eventually asks.
“Exactly, Tonnes of Fun. Nothing. No hum of electricity, no buzz of technology, no car engines whirring, not even the barely perceptible drone of wireless signals, radio waves and all that other stuff flying around we don’t consciously notice.”