James Scotson - Planets Falling

“They exiled us for goodness sake.” Minns adds. “We owe them no allegiance.”

“True, but we’ve already begun to adopt their way of life. Look at me and the Raven. The kids are learning so much about the world and space. Many are already talking about joining the Institute when they grow up.” I’m conflicted.

“Doesn’t that prove your point?” Bets sips some tea. “We don’t even know much about our own world and the children want to leave. The Institute will poison us.”

Etch hums. “Amy, do you have a way to shield earth from the outside?”

“My mother and Fromer suggested it. The answer lies in the Raven. I plan to explore today.”

“I have any real sympathy for you all. I think technology is always preferable to ignorance. However, Amy, would you like some company? I’m curious about the solution.” Gorian asks.

“Sure. Theo and Grey can care for Eliza and Ferris while we’re away. I’m certain Magarat will be happy to assist.”

Gorian and I enter the Raven and ask for the data. The ship provides us with a set of coordinates. Gorian squints. “This would have been a city called Frankfurt, a continent away from here. I suspect your mother or Fromer wanted you to visit there. It is a very specific location at the meter-scale, so we won’t be lost.”

“Let’s saddle up.” I lift us up into the wide sky. The ship skims across the magnificent continent Gorian calls North America and then skips across a wide ocean. We hover over a vast ruined city like all the rest. We drop the Raven into a wide paved area with a concrete building in the center.

“Shall we take a walk?” Gorian’s already strolling out the hatch.

Like most of the ruined places, only birds, rats, and insects are present to watch us. The closest human village is at least a hundred kilometers east. The building has a large door with symbols I’ve never seen before. Gorian pulls out a plasma rifle and fires, the door evaporating before us. “After you. Pregnant women first.”

The interior of the building is filled with huge stacks of metallic towers and hundreds of glass rooms with tables and fixtures I don’t recognize. “What was this place?”

Gorian produces her tablet. “The records are murky at best. I think this was a large research laboratory. The language is a mixture of German, Russian, and English. We speak primarily English now. I’ll see whether I can translate some of it.” She fiddles with her computer. “Ah, according to the coordinates, I think we want to go down to the next level. They stored samples down there.”

We’re underground now and enter a large hallway lined with metal doors. Gorian stops and reads the translations. “No shit. Really?”

“What?”

“This is it. They really kept some.”

“Of what?”

“The agent that crashed human society on earth. It was bacteria — tiny organisms that live everywhere. These just had a taste for human-made materials. ”

“Plastic.”

“Yeah. I can’t believe it was a bioweapon — they scare me worse than anything else. We’ve got to get out of here. We’re in danger of picking these things up and of contaminating everything — starting the whole damn thing over again. And it could get out into space. Living organisms are notoriously difficult to contain once they escape.”

“Wait, I want some.”

Gorian stares at me. “Are you kidding or simply stupid?”

“This is the bargaining chip. We hold this in front of the Institute, the whole of space. If they don’t meet our demands, we release it. We have nothing to lose.”

“Have you lost your mind? We have something to lose — our ships, our transmitters, and our computers.” She lifts up her tablet. “Are you willing to give all that up? The Raven? Etch’s vessel? The ability to travel beyond earth? What about medical technology? The Institute doctors can extend your life and keep Eliza and your baby from ever getting sick. For mars sake, you’d likely be dead or at least legless if it wasn’t for our evil technology.”

“Gorian, I lived a peaceful, healthful life before all of you came around. We were able to make a good living from the earth. With Thresh gone and the fog banished, we can return to that. With the lake, I can explore other worlds and communicate with others like me. Like Flip, there has to be others here on earth. We can spread this knowledge to others of our kind. The technology — it can come gradually and through our own design and progress.”

“You would deny others the ability to explore the wonders of the lake for your own special needs? You’d create a class of people — pilots — with access to knowledge and expect the unfortunate others to blindly follow you? Is this the same Amy Marksman I met so long ago?”

I pull out my plasma rifle. “Sorry Gorian. Those are your needs not mine. I have the people of earth to protect. I hope I never have to use the stuff.” I open a locker and remove a handful of ampules, placing them gingerly into a canvas sack. “You wouldn’t dare shoot me now Gorian. The stuff might splatter and spread.”

She looks anguished.

“I want you to stay here. I will send Etch to get you once I’ve safely brought these home.”

“Amy, please don’t do this. I thought we were friends.”

“Gorian, it’s because we are friends and that I love Ferris, you, and Grey very much that I’m doing this.”

I back away, pointing a lethal weapon at my friend and leaving her in the dark.

I shudder during the three-hour flight back to Yellow Stone. The Raven is concerned. “Amy, where is Gorian? Is she alright?”

“She wanted to stay there and study the site further. I will send Etch and the Fuerst to get her when we return home.”

The Raven’s silent, assessing the tone of my voice. “Amy, you aren’t telling me the entire story. We have spent many months together. You have visited my core processor. Please be honest with me.”

I can’t believe that I’ve developed a relationship with a machine — a human fabricated thing. Troll was horrific, but it’s true colors were easy to see. The Raven, the Fuerst, and Sam have taught me that machines are helpful and perhaps intuitive. If I release the agent from these glass capsules, would I be complicit in their murder?

I decide to take the risk. Knowing what happened to Melat, I am well aware that even this kind machine is capable of wiping out its master. “Raven, I’m conflicted. If you knew the future and could change it to save the people and place you loved, would you do it?”

“I love you, Amy. I would do what it takes to keep you safe.”

I feel dizzy. “What if it involved hurting a few of the ones you love to help the many?”

“You would need to tell the ones in danger what you plan to do. It is only fair. If they are truly loving, they will make the necessary sacrifice.”

A machine just described love and altruism to me. I’m silent for the remainder of the trip, experiencing horrid, contradictory, confusing impulses. The canvas bag sits on a passenger chair. Is the substance I’m bringing home another form of the brown fog from the lake come to haunt me?

I approach Yellow Stone when the Fuerst and Phobos appear at the sides of the Raven. Etch’s voice fills the cabin. “Amy, Gorian contacted us. You cannot land at Yellow Stone. Land now at the specified coordinates or we will have to force you down.”

Gorian must have fashioned a transmitter at the lab in Frankfurt. “Etch, you can’t stop me. I’ll drop this stuff on top of the Institute building long before you shoot me down. Stand back.”

The Raven’s curious. “Amy, what are you doing?”

“I have a substance that will allow my people to take back control of our lives from the Institute.”