Tony Ballantyne - Twisted Metal

Over the years the islands had grown more powerful, the mine shafts beneath the sea had joined together, and alliances had been made, and eventually Wiener State had been formed. The islands had been joined by brass bridges, and a wall of marble and brass had been raised around the landward perimeter of the new state.

Kavan and his robots had breached that wall, though not without losses.

There was an abruptly silenced scream from one of the broken buildings into which the four Artemisian robots had recently entered.

‘Careless!’ said Kavan.

‘They’re getting tired,’ said Eleanor. ‘We’ve been fighting for six days solid now.’

‘Everyone’s tired,’ said Kavan. ‘That’s why this is the perfect time to move.’ He kicked at the metal shell of Arban’s body. ‘You know, we could use this,’ he said thoughtfully. He glanced across at Eleanor. ‘Do you think you can control it?’

The woman put her hands on her hips and tilted her head. ‘I know you’re tired,’ she said. ‘That’s why I’ll pretend I didn’t hear you insult my ability to ride metal.’

Kavan jerked his head at the sudden movement at the edge of the square and then relaxed when he saw two infantryrobots coming back with long strips of electromuscle trailing from their arms.

He turned back to Eleanor. ‘Technically we’re still both infantry, Eleanor. So tell me now; do you think that you would make a better leader than me?’

Eleanor held his gaze. She didn’t reply, though.

‘We’re both Artemisians, Eleanor.’

‘Your mind wasn’t twisted in Artemis, Kavan.’

‘Maybe not. But I was in Segre when it fell, and I saw how the Artemisians fought and I saw how the Segreans fought, and I realized then that the metal of my mind was twisted in the Artemisian fashion. My mother had read the signs, she had followed the propaganda. Artemis is a philosophy, not the place you are born. I am therefore an Artemisian, just as much as you are, Eleanor.’

‘I know that, Kavan.’

‘And yet you still think you would make a better leader than me?’

Again, Eleanor didn’t answer.

‘We both serve the state to the best of our abilities, Eleanor. Tell me now if you think you would make a better leader of this section.’

Again Eleanor said nothing.

‘Go on then,’ said Kavan. ‘Get undressed.’

First there were four robots harvesting parts, then six, then nine. Soon Kavan’s full troop was rebuilt. He took a last sweep through a random selection of buildings, checking on his team’s work.

There was a Wiener family lying dead in the living space of one apartment. Two children, noted Kavan with interest. The Wieners had this thing about building kids in pairs. He never quite understood it. Still, he bent and inspected the little bodies. Interface coils crushed, but brains untouched. It was a neat job. A soldier’s job. The minds in those skulls were still alive, but now cast adrift in eternal darkness and silence. It would be merciful to kill them, but mercy took time, and anyway they weren’t Artemisians. Just metal to be reclaimed by the salvage squads. The railway lines would be approaching Wien even now. Soon these bodies would be crushed, the metal loaded onto flat trucks and taken back to feed the forges of Artemis.

It was time to get back, but Kavan paused just a moment longer. This apartment was unusual. Foreign. Built in the Wiener way, half stone and half metal. There was even biological life growing in it. Deliberately cultivated by the looks of it. Long green strands of – what were they called, leaves? – trailing from pots.

Really odd.

From outside, Kavan heard the sound of unfamiliar voices.

He hurried out to see what was going on.

There were three Storm Troopers out there now. One of them was Eleanor. Kavan deliberately took his time walking up to the group. He could hear Eleanor speaking as he approached.

‘… requisitioned these troops for myself,’ she was saying. ‘I’m taking them out to the islands to sweep and comb.’

‘What did you say your name was?’ asked one of the newly arrived Storm Troopers.

‘Eleanor. What did you say your name was?’

‘Di’Anno. Funny. I don’t remember meeting you before, and I thought I knew most of the STs on this incursion.’

‘You know what, I really don’t care.’

Kavan came to attention by the group. ‘Area’s clear, Eleanor. All ready to move out.’

‘Very good, Kavan. Have the robots form up in two lines.’

‘Kavan?’ said one of the Storm Troopers. ‘You were in Stark. I’ve heard of you. You’re a hero.’

‘I don’t know about that.’

‘You’re also trouble.’

‘Oh, I am,’ said Kavan. ‘You’ve no idea how much.’

The three Storm Troopers were moving swiftly, forming a triangle, Kavan at the centre of it.

‘You are under arrest. We have orders to bring you to field command.’

‘Field command are fools,’ said Kavan. ‘I would have issued orders long ago for my immediate execution.’ He glanced at Eleanor. ‘Okay then,’ he said. ‘Take me in.’

Eleanor

Eleanor had not expected to see so many colours inside a creature. Greased iron alloy plates over brass and aluminium, steel and copper bones steeped in rock oil. The looming bulk of the whale seemed to have been more excavated than disassembled.

The creature had been dragged up the concrete slipway from the water by steel ropes. It lay on its side in the shallow cutting that slid down into the clear water of Wien bay, Artemisian soldiers walking over and around it, inspecting its parts. The top half of the creature was still reasonably intact: General Fallan himself, full of the flush of victory, had invited Eleanor to join him as he picked his way carefully over the greased, interlocking plates of the whale’s flank. They had both watched the troops peeling away copper plate and electromuscle from the exposed interior of the beast. They had looked down into the scratched quartz bowl that protected its eye, seen the faint glow and felt the creature focus on him.

‘It’s still alive?’ he had asked.

At first Eleanor thought he was speaking to her, but then Ruth, the General’s aide, had answered.

‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘The Wieners always preserve the brains. They put them in the support tanks at the top of the towers,’ and she had waved her hand to indicate the few marble towers that still rose from the islands of Wiener bay.

‘General,’ interrupted Eleanor, ‘there is someone below who wishes to speak…’

‘In a moment, Storm Trooper,’ said the General. ‘Look at all this metal. Don’t you wish to rebuild yourself too?’ He waved a hand at the other troops as they swarmed over the half-demolished body, pulling apart the metal of the whale and clothing their bodies in its superior plate.

‘I will, General. It’s just that…’

‘All those marble towers,’ said the General, smooth in his new whaleskin body, ‘They each hold a mind, you know. Ruth tells me that the Wieners allow the whale minds to see by fashioning them eyes set in the windows of the towers. They give them ears to hear.’

‘Really?’ Eleanor had taken a real dislike to this smoothly engineered man. He spent his time dressing himself in whale metal and engaging in discussion while the remnants of the battle still played out around him. In her opinion, he wasn’t fit for purpose.

‘Oh yes,’ he continued. ‘The Wieners suspend these creatures’ non-sentient minds over the city. Tell me, do those whales think they are still under the sea, that the smoke that rises into the sky from the city forges is a new sort of weed, that the robots that walk beneath them are crabs and shellfish?’

‘I don’t know, General.’