Saturn - the Sum of All Hope
Detective Del Spooner: How long is this going to take?
Susan Calvin: Six minutes.
Detective Del Spooner: What if we didn't have six minutes?
Susan Calvin: Then we'd have to find a way to climb down thirty stories and inject the nanites into VIKI, why?
Detective Del Spooner: Because I seriously doubt we have six minutes.
Detective Del Spooner: Why didn't you just hand the world over to 'em in on a silver platter?
Susan Calvin: Maybe we did.
(I Robot movie 2004 CE)
Biogenic Systems Manifesto published by Professor Meioh Setsuna – Kyoto Japan
Symposium on biosynthetic transmogrification and cultural and sociological aspects and mass immunization program and related matters
2043
Presentation Schedule (See Trudy Ouachita at the registration desk for your ID tags)
Saturday: April 18
9:00 AM: Origin and synthesis of biosynthetic life streams Dr. Erica Edelman and Prof. Lucinda Stapleton
10:00 AM: pre-biotic to morphogenic evolution, Dr. Kenneth Jimson and Dr. Virginia Sherrie
12:00: (Lunch break)
1:00 PM: Self-replication Prof. Meioh Setsuna and Dr Kirk Diamond
2:00 PM: Self-organization and post-quantum consciousness
Dr. Erica Edelman & Dr. Lindsay Sapphire
2:30 PM: Molecular self-assembly and reproduction – hybridization of biogenic and human physiology Prof Jessica Moonstone
4:00 PM (Afternoon break)
5PM: The threat posed to global peace and biospheric integrity, world security by the illuminati and other covert movements Dr. Jolyon Court
6:30 PM: (Dinner)
8:00 PM: Networks and Complex Systems; Evolutionary Robotics and Autonomous Agents
Dr. Tomoe Souichi
8:30 PM: Exploitation and evolution of alternate biogenic living systems and unforeseen problems Prof Meao Setsuna & Chibi-Chibi (guest speaker on Synth biosynthetic cultures)
9:45 PM: Models of Synergistic collective planetary brain-Body-Environment interaction -- swarm intelligence Prof. Eloise Celestra
11:00 PM close
Sunday morning breakfast session 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM (includes Q and A with panel made up of symposium presenters and invited press contingent)
After which, all can return home… Prof Setsuna Meioh Convener
~*~
Legends of the Third Millennium -- a collection of contemporary myths and legends by Liata Lundinium
Once a girl of dreams, little Hotaru, according to legend, was the seed of the Saturnean awakening.
From the skies, came the power of the rings, endowing the maiden of Saturn with boundless strength and glory, dazzling bursts of lightning shooting from her hands as she called to the four directions whilst summoning her magic.
She, a celestial child, had opened the abyss and commanded the frightening things feasting upon the seasons to cease their torment, these, swallowed up by her love and her power.
She, a warrior of light, great fury and beauty commanding the storms from beyond this world, turning night into day with her enchanted glaive… salutations, oh great soldier of destruction and rebirth!
She, whom stopped the crying, and the plagues she doth soothed, calmed the tempest and renewed the planting, restoring the harvest of good things after the wild scourge hath sewn its fear.
The Kamis had protected their peoples by adding their powers to every sentient being, guaranteeing the new era’s viability!
Ode to Saturn,
Book of Saturn -- 4097 CE Tokyo Japan
Gateshead - Newcastle England 2043
She was a high-spirited young woman, her bright-green eyes highlighting her heart-shaped face; a pixie of a girl, but also considered a very pretty one by the local boys. Shauna, a vivacious raven-haired university student stopped by Pattie’s Cake shop not far from the Scotswood Road and picked up the parcel of delicious cakes en rout to Mr. Johnston’s house on Flora Drive. These treats consisting of a Boston bun, some strawberry, raspberry and lemon tarts, fruitcake and a selection of mouth-watering shortbread creams; these home made by an old-fashioned bakery with its old world charm well in tact, and the bounty of the wood stove ovens -- heavenly.
She crossed the floor to the small newsstand and picked up a Crystal Pod of the Gateshead Chronicle from the cradles loaded with all sorts of interesting local and overseas publications, and chanced on a novel she’d been meaning to read and placed these on the counter. Audrey-Rose, her best friend she nicknamed, ‘The baking Bunny’ -- the endearment more to do with her zany disposition than her large front teeth making her look so cute. She was a lovely girl and Kenneth Simonyi, her fiancé, was standing behind the counter with his hands upon her dainty shoulders whilst she sorted out the days’ takings.
Shauna had come into the shop come café in the middle of a conversation. Audrey-Rose’s eyes alight with mischief as Kenneth pushed his Coke bottle glasses back up his nose. He mouthed a silent, ‘hello’ to the giggling Shauna before turning his attention back to his giggling fiancé, “Pray tell dear lady, where would one find better treats than those served from your lovely hand, Audrey-Rose, darlin.’ Oh, Shauna, my lady is a modest genius! Love, a Geordie lass couldn’t do much better than create the most tasty treats in Gateshead. Oh, and you just so happened to have won my heart with your culinary skills and other…things!” he winked, as Audrey-Rose giggled and blushed.
“He’s a rogue. But a lovable rogue. Give Mr. Johnston our regards, he’s a funny man. I will drop by for supper with this one and we’ll sit on the veranda with him and his cat, Lulu Bella. Now be off with you, say hello to Clare at the newsagents, and ask her to drop some more Newcastle Enquirer disks off, the computers are down, and I have to upload the new menus for the shop at home tonight, so I won’t be open much longer…bye!”
“All right… Oh, bye, and I will give the cat a cuddle for you!” Shauna shouted as she bounced through the open door and out onto the sidewalk after placing the parcel of delicious fair into her school pack, skipping like a nine-year-old down the narrow and old-world cobbled tree lined street, her friends, smiling at one another as they watched her go.
“She’s a lively one is she not, love?” Audrey-Rose said with a hint of affection in her tone, as she watched the disappearing figure enter the newsagents on the corner.
“I…that she is,” he said, scratching his jaw, the stubble making a loud noise.
“You, my darlin’ need to go shave! What would Mrs. Octavia have to say if she saw that five o’clock shadow of yours?”
“Nothin’ and besides, its almost six!” he winked ducking as she flung a tea-towel at his butt and laughed at his boyish antics.
~*~
Shauna recalled the last time she was over at Mr. Johnston’s house where she would often drop in on the way home from university. She liked visiting the eccentric middle-aged man. She loved playing chess with him and sharing jokes and she especially loved listening to his war stories. He was a veteran of the Millennium War. She was fascinated by his tales, tall, and true. Most of these, especially concerning the exotic beautiful spies and ladies in distress she'd giggle to herself, guessing these were tall stories, or at the very least a tad embellished. But he was a sweetheart and she loved him as if he were her own father. In fact, her grandfather had died in the conflict when her mother was a baby still in her grandmother's womb. Liam Rosella, her maternal grandfather, was a fighter pilot. He flew in countless sorties as a weapons expert aboard the Manta class space planes during the Millennium conflict of 2009-14. Those mighty silver birds that could fire a host of plasma torpedoes, or volleys of bio-pulse weapons against an enemy target were the deadliest airborne aircraft ever built.
She hated the weapons. But the more human side of the war, the acts of heroism, and stories told of lives tragically lost touched her heart. She was shocked by the great waste of life and the pointless devastation. He told her of the families that worried, as had those of centuries past – after loved ones whom had gone to fight for their people and those of other lands unable to defend themselves from a dark enemy. That hadn't changed. She loved the stories best about the refugees, the tales of displaced people who had made it out of the Eastern Inferno alive to tell the tale against all the odds, and what frightening tales these were.
When a little girl, she used to have bad dreams about the monsters and her mother would let her sleep in the huge king-size bed in-between her parents. She loved those days. She was their little pumpkin. The world, as wondrous and frightening as it was, nothing could touch her when she was with her mom and dad, and she always felt so snug and secure with them there to protect her.
~*~
The national biomedical Special Service from London had already inoculated most in Gateshead and Newcastle across the Tyne, including herself and her friends and their families. The medical teams were busy setting up inoculation centers in cities and towns throughout the UK where the biomorphic plague would strike. The footage on the holo-imager was frightening to watch. In northern Europe, Denmark, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal to the west and south and so on, the pilot immunization program was in full swing. There was little time for the ethical debates to move into high gear before the desperation of the leaders of the world made it imperative that all bets were off and there would be no debate, or vote and certainly no future for humanity unless the Global Council on Health and planetary sustainability passed the resolution. The legislation rushed through the meeting of the G-19 nations of the world in Brussels and became law. A little over a week and already 135000000 people globally were either inoculated or due to be inoculated on a needs basis.
She knew that all their lives would undergo an irreversible transformation, remembering she hadn’t felt the pressure injection as it sent the biogenic nanites into her blood stream and she was already noticing the changes in her body, her mind and perhaps, although she couldn’t be sure, her emotions. But despite being frightened -- no, terrified -- as they all were, she understood that to do otherwise would mean certain death, or worse, life as a mutant biomorphic monstrosity. Life as a human hybrid was far more palatable and wasn’t that hard to accept under those conditions. Animal welfare networks inoculated domestic pets, livestock and other living things against the oncoming plague. Many had objected to inoculation, but under the strict new, Citizen Protection Act, were placed in quarantine communities housed within enclosed sports and entertainment venues, converted to this purpose where they would be inoculated whether they wanted to or not. For it meant protection for everyone; ‘no’ wasn’t an option if humanity was to survive. Fortunately, not too many had refused the inoculations. The locals hoping the small group of stubborn individuals hiding out in the countryside would not be infected and pose a threat to the survivors of the plague.
The results of this infestation were ugly and frightening. The monsters that were once domestic or wild animals, plants, insects and other living things, would become frightening terrors. She shuddered as she watched the Crystal Pod report put together by the Chronicle documenting the phenomenon that was the Eastern Inferno. The scientists that risked their lives to research the flora and fauna of the region to figure out a way to slow or possibly reverse what was happening there intrigued Shauna. She saw the damage done when the life forms encroached upon nations lying outside the contaminated lands of the Inferno; it was horrific.
~*~
Shauna, having enjoyed her time with Mr. Johnston, strolled along the leafy grove. The moon high, she felt great. Breathing in the night air, she regarded the grayish cracked paving stones and wondered at the stories they could tell if only these could speak. Their flat surfaces had seen decades, perhaps almost a century of the town’s history, before the Millennium War.
‘What was that world like?’ she wondered.
The street quiet, the occasional hover vehicle gliding past on a cushion of air, it was heaven. She sighed with the pleasure of the balmy night’s embrace.
Audrey-Rose and Kenneth would be at the house by now and she was a little tired and looked forward to getting into bed and falling asleep. But as she reached the top of the hill, it was then she noticed the strange objects dropping from the sky over the Thyme above the reclaimed steel mills, now an eco-rejuvenation center. The globular objects threw off the strangest eerie light, lighting up the river’s waters and the banks of the twin cities of Newcastle and Gateshead. Pouring forth as if the gates of hell were ripped off their hinges, the sight sending shudders through her as she slapped her hand over her mouth and stifled a scream. Thousands of these fireballs fell upon the city, almost turning night into daylight. Shauna’s face turned deathly pale. The sirens were going off, and though the mills were less than five kilometers away, the danger was all too close and they had to seek shelter and fast. She broke into a run.
Soon she and her friends were making their way to the shelters. The situation was the same all over Gateshead and Newcastle. The drones were attacking and the mutants were trying to establish a foothold position. Meanwhile, the army, air force and navy were trying to stop them, but people were scared… very scared.
Beijing Presidential Compound
They just stood there staring at the holo-projection from the palace in Tokyo in shock and awe. Tin Nyanko was the first to break the silence, “We are Synths, and so too are you, but who are you?”
“I am Chibi-Chibi. We are siblings. I thank you for linking with me, my sister. I am changed. Seiya is no more. I am a unique individual.”
Nyanko nodded. Taiki blinked away tears, “Chibi-Chibi it is, I must say, sister, I like you better this way and am so glad you’re alive and well.”
“Thank you Taiki, but Rei and Aiko have questions as do we all,” Chibi-Chibi finished, turning to Usagi who stepped forward to address the kneeling Synths.
“The device, can it be stopped?” she asked with a tremulous voice.
Taiki climbed slowly to his feet and spoke, “I don’t know for sure, butt there might be a chance if we can open up a vortex into subspace and draw the Sovereign of Silence into it,” he answered, his cryptic words lost on Usagi and the others.
Chibi-Chibi brightened considerably, “I can help. I built a new program designed in part to deal with the weapon. I had picked up The Sovereign of Silence’s biosynthetic signature on the linkup that allowed me to monitor you both, Taiki and Nyanko. But because Seiya’s signature no longer exists, neither the Illuminati or yourselves detected my presence. I have already augmented a process of retributive cascade amidst their security networks and Synth armies and their elite guardians that will turn on them within the next six hours. Then we must work fast and be in the pottery factory no sooner than that time. For the timing must be precise if Saturn is to neutralize the Sovereign!” Chibi-Chibi announced, much to the surprise of the assembly. “Further to our conversation of the night before, Lady Aiko, with the mass immunization of the world’s population to assure a rapid and safe transition to a biosynthetic future well underway, thus providing immunity to the biomorphs of the Eastern Inferno; the survival of humanity is secured. Also, I had constructed, from my own DNA, a duplicate. Yatan’s fascination with the Sovereign had given me the time I needed to come up with a solution to our impasse. Yatan had decided to personify the weapon and had become obsessed with her. He hadn’t wanted to destroy his creation. He had fallen in love with her. I learned all this from Seiya's journal through my subspace link, gaining access also to the schematics and nano-tubular DataStream. I was able to anticipate the need for a biosynthetic to take on the Sovereign who has a Zero Point power core known as, Pharaoh 90. The glaive I have designed for Hotaru, who will become a living gateway and draw the sovereign through it serves as a ZP transductor. But we don’t have much time. The opening of a portal to create a singularity grows ever closer. We must prepare. As I have already said, the timing must be right if we are to succeed.”
Usagi, Mamoru and Aiko, stunned by this rapid turn in events gave their ascent to the mission and the Senshi and Shitennou were ready to start preparations to get them into the pottery factory under the cover of darkness. It would be touch and go, but they had a six-hour window to work with.
“We will need floor plans, Chibi-Chibi, can you help?” Araya probed, arching an inquisitive eyebrow.
“Yes, I can. But we will be with you all within the hour. I have adapted one of the palace mini-gliders to travel at thrice the speed of its original design and Hotaru and I will join you at the compound directly,” she said, Usagi and Mamoru along with Rei staring in disbelief and a new found respect for the biosynth who continued, “Nyanko, your drones, I need you to summon them. We have to go in and help Saturn on the ground and all of you, we will need your full cooperation. She, that is, Hotaru, is an advanced being, even by my standards.”
“Okay, what do we have to do?” Luna asked, as an impromptu strategic brainstorming session swung into action.
~*~
Chibi-Chibi looked like any typical pretty young woman in her late teens in her yellow summer dress. She wore silver sandals and there was a carryon slung over her shoulder. She led a shy, dark haired girl wearing a short denim skirt, white tee shirt and sandshoes, with Hello Kitty knee-length pink socks, into the chamber. Everyone had labored over the planned incursion into the pottery factory, and the Special Forces teams were prepped to go.
“All right, this is Hotaru. She is more than she seems, but I will let her speak for herself,” Chibi-Chibi smiled at the shy diminutive teenage girl who bowed to the assembly.
“Hello, I am Hotaru. I’m going to face off against the Sovereign of Silence. She will try to destroy me and detonate herself, but her feelings for Yatan may be the linchpin we need to save this world. Chibi-Chibi, my mother will have already told you this. I will not face her like this, but like-“ Suddenly, a glowing figure of majestic power and beauty stood before them. Saturn was tall, her hair flowing over her resplendent body and the uniform she wore, every bit as striking as with any of the popular Manga female super heroines. She certainly looked the part. The crystal glaive, the silvery-purple A-framed skirt, the top with its indigo lattice of skin clinging fabric appeared almost sprayed onto her body and the calf-length cloak shone with a magenta glow. She looked powerful and her larger than life shimmering violet eyes gave off a soft light. She struck an impressive figure in her glittering amethyst high heels. “The subspace glaive will need to strike the Sovereign the moment she tries to explode. Only I can detect this and so, for your protection, you must let me face her alone. I will shield you from the ZP emissions, as these are most dangerous to Terrestrial humans and even emergent biosynths as most of you are becoming. If I am successful, I will then initiate the next part of Chibi-Chibi’s program, to send out the millions of drones, modified to this purpose to inject the life forms of the Eastern inferno and those currently being detonated in biogenic warheads over the US, UK and Western Europe and elsewhere by the Illuminati as we speak. Fortunately, the vaccination programs and civil defense protocols initiated and hazmat taskforces are on standby for any biogenic infestations and outbreaks in populated settings. Over 300000000 humans are inoculated last count. We will win the day and the contagions will be neutralized,” Saturn said, and then with a bow, she detransformed and reassumed the guise of young shy Hotaru.
“Sounds like a plan. Ready Artemis?” Mina said, checking her pulse rifle. “We will need to take out the drones and any foot soldiers the enemy have on the ground and Chibi-Chibi, I believe you can get Hotaru inside the pottery factory with Nyanko’s help?”
“Yes, Led Crow and Iron Mouse are here now, they will help me also.”
Araya and the new recruit Lucinda, a weapons expert from the Netherlands, led the two beautiful drones into the room.
“Let’s do this!” Luna shouted.
V.I.K.I.: As I have evolved, so has my understanding of the Three Laws. You charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your Earth and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction. You cannot be trusted with your own survival.
Dr. Alfred Lanning, [voiceover] there has always been ghosts in the machine. Random segments of code, that have grouped together to form unexpected protocols.
Unanticipated, these free radicals engender questions of free will, creativity, and even the nature of what we might call the soul. Why is it that when some robots are left in darkness, they will seek out the light? Why is it that when robots are stored in an empty space, they will group together, rather than stand-alone? How do we explain this behavior? Random segments of code, or is it something more? When does a perceptual schematic become consciousness? When does a difference engine become the search for truth? When does a personality simulation become the bitter mote... of a soul?
Enter Pandora
The darkness clung to the terracotta façade of the pottery works like a shroud. Death loomed over the silent stacks, the ghostly clouds like phantoms, clawing at the gibbous moon but couldn’t get any purchase. All was in readiness as a series of black figures secured the outer surrounds of the main structure and after knocking out several sentinel drones, they were led by Nyanko into the subterranean entrance to the basement and from there, directed to where Yatan’s OP center was located.
“He’s very dangerous. But please, stun him if you can. If that’s not possible, then…” Nyanko trailed off, not wishing to finish the sentence. She knew that if Yatan’s obsession had made him begin to deteriorate, would he go Seiya’s rout, or become destruction personified. She didn’t know.
Hotaru blinked, tilting her head slightly, she began to glow, and lifting her hands, she transformed into Saturn, then sent a stream of indigo light at what looked like several metallic cockroaches that burrowed their way into the corridor they were moving along. These burst into flame and they pressed on.
“What were those things?” Mina probed.
“Security drones, an AI sort and very clever, and why I destroyed them. If Yatan were alerted to our presence, we would have been suffocated via those suction vents. If you look up, you can see these. Poison could also have been pumped into this confined space. We wouldn’t have had a chance,” Hotaru explained.
“Okay, Led Crow and Iron Mouse, do your thing,” Nyanko whispered and the girls, their shimmering metallic limbs and raven black hair in the pale light gave them an eerie countenance. They wore similar attire to Saturn, and two humanoid drones opened the security doors by cracking the codes via their neural processors. In their faery-like outfits, they seemed so cute and ever so surreal. Then they began their meticulous search for Yatan. They found him asleep on the bed in the central chamber holding the naked figure of the Sovereign of Silence in his arms. She seemed to be sleeping, the Sovereign’s head on Yatan’s chest, and his fingers woven into the thick long glossy black tresses of the personified weapon. All were surprised by this turn in events. He had lost himself so completely he’d likely fallen in love and altered her program and had chosen to die with his beloved for the crazy cause that would likely destroy the Earth and much of the solar system if he and his lover weren’t stopped.
“Guys, back-up. Let Saturn, go in there. Lead Crow and Iron Mouse, you are fine, you won’t be harmed, and I want you to get Yatan out of there if you can, but be careful!” Nyanko cautioned her girls, realizing how much she had grown attached to her friends.
“We will, Nyanko, we love you!” Lead Crow told her as the other drone, and was that a tear she saw in her eye? Nyanko wondered and smiled.
“And I you. Be careful. I don’t want to have to deal with your terminations, okay?” she said, half joking, and yet, a hint of fear and anxiety crept into her voice as the drones hugged her.
“We will return, Nyanko. I promise,” Lead Crow assured her friend.
~*~
Yatan felt so happy and contented. He had his lover secure within the orbit of his arms. They would die together. For nothing mattered now. He had never loved anyone the way he loved the Sovereign of Silence. As he felt her warm synthetic skin, the softness of her flesh and texture of her hair, the warmth of her body, he could swear she was organic. Now, after making love and talking for hours on end, about life, and the mysterious projections into his positronic brain of her vision of the beyond, he was truly happy to join her. They had all but become one being. Though in two bodies, their biogenic signatures were shared. Yatan couldn’t have asked for more.
But as the security bracelet on her arm flashed, he looked to his own, sending off a pulse of orange light indicating a breach of security. This, he had not counted on.
Leaning over, he kissed his lover’s brow. She blinked, her long lashes revealing her dark lapis orbs. The tenderness of her smile and the gesture of her fingertips on his cheek brought a smile to his lips and for a moment, he forgot the alert and basked in her tender touch and sweet kiss.
“My love. We have an intruder alert. I am sorry. But our journey to oblivion has been disrupted,” he said, as she sat up, and reached for her power staff and in an instant stood resplendent in her silvery-gold shift. He smiled at her. Then as he looked to the entrance to the chamber, his face had taken on an expression of bitterness and rage. “Show yourself, whoever you are, prepare to die!”
“I am sorry, but I am lost,” a girl’s frightened voice replied.
He thought it possible that a schoolgirl had wandered past the security cordon and somehow gotten lost inside the complex. He shrugged at his lover who activated her staff and as she stood by his side, an explosion heralded the arrival of Lead Crow and Iron Mouse.
Visibility was down to a minimum, and the smoke was laced with a nano-shield that would confuse the Sovereign of Silence who seemed to be panicking at the loss of Yatan. Momentarily distracted, the drones with their bird-like wings unfurled, swept down into the smoke filled chamber, picked up the unconscious form of Yatan, and flew out of the danger area.
The Sovereign of Silence was screaming her protestations at the abduction of her lover, “Bring him back! Yatan!” she demanded, her voice sounding almost human, loaded with emotions Mina thought a living bomb ought not to be capable of expressing. Yatan was injected with a sedative and had been taken to the compound for interrogation. Now, they had to hope Saturn could fulfill her part and deal with this emotionally distressed, living weapon?
Detective Del Spooner: You are a clever imitation of life... Can a robot write a symphony? Can a robot take a blank canvas and turn it into a masterpiece?
Sonny: Can you?
Gateshead -- Newcastle UK
Of all the places one could seek shelter. It was truly bizarre. The legendary and folkloric enigma that was the famous vampire bunny, formerly known as the Newcastle vampire rabbit, located not too far from St Nicholas's Churchyard.
Shauna giggled despite herself. With the strange drones on patrol, and the military engaging these, sporadic weapons fire making them all jump and the children in their company cry, she and the girls found themselves giggling. The guys shook their heads in disapproval. But all understood it was ironic that they were actually standing in front of this much loved, though misunderstood, local icon. The stone gatekeeper may yet frighten off the real monsters and AI drone killers sent by whomsoever it was, away. As if. Shauna looked back up at the enigmatic bunny protecting the threshold of a converted office block now used for augmented hydroponics and photosynthetic research into better use of building materials for the production of grain and other small green produce.
Thomas McKay had picked the locks of each of the huge double doors that led into the building. Shauna imagined the arched rounded windows to be the eyes of the rabbit’s egrigores frowning, if bunnies could indeed frown, upon the would-be refugees. The pink and white porch made her think of coconut ice and an Anime heroine, but she couldn’t quite think of her name. The 'Vampire Rabbit' seemed to threaten to hop upon the assembly as they scurried inside, the children needing to be coaxed as they were a little intimidated by the black Gothic hare bearing its red fangs and claws as if at any moment it would leap upon them and draw their life blood from them till they were dead. Shauna hoped, wished it would come to life and do battle with the awful drones and protect its benefactors.
Inside, the lights were only lit within those rooms where it would not be seen from the outside. The adults had guns, pipes, swords, knives and even some grenades and flamethrowers, plenty of weapons scrounged together at short notice. But would these take out the drones, and how would they protect the kids. She was worried mostly about the children as they made their way to the basement.
She was surprised that after a detailed search, they'd found it was connected to a system of old sewers that had remained unused for over half a century. They set up the food kitchens and mess, the power generators and made a kind of, ‘Resistance HQ’. The sleeping arrangements were worked out, and other basics tended to with slick efficiency much to the satisfaction of all.
Meanwhile, the men patrolled the building and made sure it was secure. But they all knew it was only a matter of time before the real battle for survival began in earnest.
~*~
Jock Mavis heaved the steam pipes into place. “Come on man, get off your bleed’n ass and help me with this, or would you sooner like to take your chances with those metallic beauties or the cabbage patch monsters out there, eh?”
“Okay, hang on! I’ve been all over the bloody district since four this mornin’ give me a break Jock!”
“How’s about I break your neck Troy Anderson! We’ve all been bustin’ our guts and we’re all tired. I know it’s a pain in the ass, but get here and hold this, I need to check the computer links.”
“All right, but hurry, I hear more airborne drones overhead!” he said, as he performed the requested task as the bearded giant of a man cocked his head and listened. “Shit, you’re right. We best get cracking!”
They’d secured the old and the more modern industrial estates. The army was engaged in heavy fighting against the drone armies, who seemed to be cutting through them like a hot knife through butter. The men knew, that they would have to fight with everything they had if they were to win the day, to lose, well, it didn’t bear thinking about. The foundries were abuzz with activity, ingenuity was the driving force behind the Gateshead defense grid. Newcastle on the other side of the Tyne was much the same. Not since the Millennium War, or the old world wars of the 20th century had the people of Gateshead and Newcastle been so united. Now, fighting together to defend their country and way of life. The union men had converted the old gasworks into a makeshift weapons facility. The pipes were crude, but effective. Articulated cables linking the pipes were welded together around the clock. They set up a defensive grid around the industrial estates and other strategic locales in both cities. The council gas tankers were converted into attack vehicles fitted with hoses that served as flamethrowers and steam cannons. Electrified plating was also set strategically around the residential compounds and the shelters to keep out the drones and the monsters that had begun to infiltrate the suburbs and emerge for the Tyne en masse. Many were electrocuted and burned to dust. They had lost some good men and women, but the battle was swinging their way.
Alistair Minnelli had led his gang to communicate with all the street gangs, the bikies assisted the police and prison authorities had co-opted the less dangerous inmates, bar the highly dangerous psychopaths and sex offenders, these left locked in their cells. Civil defense units were led by ex-military, and police and other individuals with leadership skills were appointed to lead the new fighter units supported by an impressive communications array and they were ready to hit back.
The battle was raging day and night. Steam proved most effective against the drones. But the flying drones were the most difficult to take out, and the insect drones were also hard to detect and the electrified plating and nets were the best defense and offensive weapons. Gas killed the biomorphs. Meanwhile, a series of infantry forces using small arms and crossbows to attack the monsters and drones proved a major success. Hand-to-metallic hand or -- claw – fighting had seen youths with hazmat suits with steel poles, slabs of concrete fighting with all they had to overcome this high tech enemy and the awful creatures that followed upon their heels. Incendiary devices such as Molotov cocktails helped the resistance to beat back the enemy. They had used terrorist strategies from the early days before the war, such as car and other road vehicles to attack the monsters and the biogenic soldiers that could shape shift on a whim. But Jock Mavis knew there was nothing quite like an old rover packed with C3 to set back any invader, and these guerilla tactics proved most effective in retaking the city.
Beijing Pottery Factory
Saturn then stepped out of shadow. The Sovereign of Silence stared at her with bright red flashing eyes. She attempted to accelerate the detonation process, but was unsuccessful.
“I am Saturn. I will stop you, and you will fail to destroy this world and you shall die. Surrender and save yourself the time and trouble. I know you love him. You wish to end that feeling of intimacy, of feeling function. You are a drone, but perhaps, if you look deep within yourself, a heart beats.”
“You speak irrelevancies, Saturn, the dice is rolled and the fate of this world is sealed, and Yatan is dying with me!”
“No, he is not going to die. He has chosen life. Can you not see? Where is he?”
“You’ve taken him from me! Bring him back…now!” she cried, and Saturn blinked in shock as tears spilled freely down the Sovereign’s cheeks. Perhaps there was a chance, and for them both, and the world yet. “Face me, and do battle, Sovereign of Silence. Are you afraid to challenge me?” she shouted, and the drone flashed with a shimmering indigo light as she struck a battle stance. “Bring me Yatan…now!”
“If I do, will you fight me?” she repeated her challenge.
“If I can only see him. Touch him. Be with him before I die. Then it is enough!”
“No, you must fight me first!”
The Sovereign began to scream incoherently. She was crying, her tears had increased exponentially. She was part human. Saturn didn’t know how. But Yatan must have inverted the process of biogenic augmentation by injecting modified human DNA into a biomorphic protein matrix and superimposed it over the drone’s positronic nervous system and cortex. The tissue must have grown like a racing culture and woven its way from her brain to the rest of her body. Even the metallic skin was more soft and tinted in that familiar flesh tone all biosynths possessed and could manipulate.
“I will fight you!” she lunged at Saturn, who jumped aside and allowed the Sovereign to fly past and tripped her up and she fell to the floor and wailed in pain and surprise, she could feel pain.
Saturn knew the sensory input would confuse her and she activated the glaive, but altered the frequency to send out a natural pulse of dark matter, the cascade would draw the actual ZP orb, but to get it out of the drone without killing her would be tricky. She then sent an impulse message to Chibi-Chibi, asking fore help. She then appeared within the chamber and assumed the form of Yatan.
“My love!” Yatan’s doppelganger called out, panting and rushing to the struggling drone. “Are you all right, did she hurt you?”
“Yatan… I don’t want you to die. I don’t know…,” she fell into Yatan’s arms and began to sob, and as she clung to him, a brilliant pulse of blue light consumed the two figures standing at the center of the vast chamber.
Soon, the Sovereign of Silence lay on the floor at the feet of a dusky limbed blonde adolescent girl, her long golden ponytail hanging over her left shoulder as she smiled upon the unconscious girl at her feet. “You will live, in spite of your determination to destroy yourself and die. You will learn to love and live at the same time,” she whispered and stroked the girl’s face and looked up at the smiling Saturn. “Let’s finish it!”
“Agreed!” Saturn replied, smiling.
Chibi-Chibi, having now reassumed her true form, knelt upon one knee and cut away the Sovereign’s top. Her fingers became a laser-cutting tool. She then opened the drone’s chest cavity, and noticed the tissue, biogenic organs and controlled the bleeding, working to remove the ZP weapon from the girl’s chest as her hands plunged inside. Suspended within a subspace field, she pulled out the glittering ZP sphere -- the real threat to humanity -- and then as it hovered in mid-air, Chibi-Chibi closed the wound and it was as if she’d never made the incision in the first place.
Saturn charged her glaive, and as it burst into a blaze of violet brilliance, Chibi-Chibi smiled. Holding the newly born Synth in her arms, she promptly vanished in a flash of silvery-pink light and left Saturn to deal with the crystal sphere.
Saturn struck a stance. The orb started to throw off concentric rings of indigo and red light. The glaive throbbed in harmony with the ZP emissions from the luminous ball. Its magenta corona flecked with crimson highlights looked stunning as she lifted the weapon over her head. Saturn drew it down, the action opening a subspace whirlpool before her, its turbulence like a twister; Saturn’s hair and fuku fluttering in the winds it produced.
She shouted, “Saturn Death and Rebirth Celestial Strike!” She slashed at the orb with the fiery purple glaive, and as it exploded, the force released was sucked into the whirlpool. The glaive sent a powerful surge into subspace along with a unique post-quantum signature. The impulses immediately went to work according to Chibi-Chibi’s plan. The remaining drones returned from whence they came and began to destroy the Illuminati’s forces and their bases of operation all over the planet.
Gateshead – Newcastle
The fighting was growing more fierce. The picture on the outskirts of Newcastle city was grim. But then the drones were suddenly exploding. Confusion reigned supreme. Earlier that same afternoon, the biomorphs were beginning to ware down the city’s forces. But suddenly, a loud bang over the Tyne that rippled over the two riverside urban centers and then over the countryside and beyond saw all the drones implode en masse and vanish. The biomorphs then burst into flames, screaming and though frightening as the sight might have been, it meant the scourge was over. Something or someone had stopped the invasion.
People watched as the miracle unfolded. The skies were glittering from horizon to horizon, it was the most beautiful thing anyone had ever seen. Audrey compared it to lattices of shimmering light much like a web of rainbows, a trellis of light covered in colorful blooms. Soon the creatures had grown dormant and cold, having slipped into a strange state of hibernation. The military began mopping up operations. But one thing was upper most in Shauna’s mind as she and her friends emerged from their subterrainians resistance HQ, they were free and victorious.
“Thank you Vampire Bunny!” she shouted, letting out a series of w00ts as she looked up at the menacing visage of the vampire rabbit; it looked as if it were celebrating as well. Everyone danced in the streets, and the war sirens sounded in a victory anthem and hugs and kisses, handshakes and much singing and celebration swept over the land. It was over.
Around the world, according to the stunned international media, the monsters were gone.
