Excerpt: Mercenary Queen

Last week, I had a request from some of my classmates in my workshop to post a bit of—I suppose saga is the correct word to use—a saga that I’ve been working on for some time.  Here I am obeying that request.  This is a science fiction story, one which I am still exploring in the back of my mind.  Set far into the future, the story centers on a young woman, called Ava, who has been submitted against her will to an experimental lab.  In this lab, she became a metalblood: a human with enhanced physical strength and speed, heightened senses, and the ability to heal almost instantly through the use of nanobot technology.  Ava’s creator, Carolyn Goodson, would like to capitalize on the skills of Ava and the others who follow her, creating an industry much in demand in a chaotic world.  Goodson maintains control over the “mercenaries”, as they come to be called, by virtue of her knowledge of their needs, but it is a tenuous control and one that will soon break.  The only real question is when.

My focus in the story is Ava and her emotional state.  She does not remember who she was before the change, but she does remember how it was to be human, and it conflicts jarringly with who she is now.  The changes necessary to create a mercenary have certain mental side effects, including sadism and masochism, as well as a tendency to react on instinct.  Ava has difficulty accepting herself as she is and struggles daily to be a good person.  The story asks the question—and I don’t know if I have the answer—what does it really mean to be good?

Here is the first part of Ava’s “reaction”, her first appearance to the public.  I maintain that all of this is original, and I welcome any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Notes: Gehanna Nine is the central city of Ava's homeland.  It is called such because at one time it was a giant ship with nine decks where all the people of the city lived.  Now the nine levels are metaphorical, implying classes: One being the lowest class, Nine being the highest.

Elyssa is Ava’s only companion at this point, the second created mercenary.

     It was a very thick blindfold, folded over two or three times and covering the entire top half of my head.  My vision was completely blacked out, but in a way I was glad of it, even relieved.  For the first time I was leaving my prison in the labs, and all of my senses were warring for my attention.  Even through the bulletproof glass I could hear thousands upon thousands of strange voices shouting and laughing and arguing, their words blending together into the cacophony of car horns and sirens and footsteps and lift bells and dogs and birds and so many things that I could not recognize.  On the dry filtered air I smelled smoke and sweat and hot metal, tar and steel, as well as dozens of smells that made my mouth water.  The city called out to me, screaming in my ears and nose, and I shuddered, not knowing what to answer.

     I was uncomfortable enough as it was.  Rather than the forgiving stretch fabrics that they let me wear in the labs, I was clad in stiff blue pants and a slinky tunic which smelled funny and snatched at my shoulders when I moved.  My hair had been combed and tied back, the curls heavy on my neck.  They’d given me shoes, but I’d kicked them off: I’d have snapped the spindly things in seconds.

     Only my hands offered anything familiar for me to cling to.  Within the heavily tinted windows of the car, Goodson, Kessoli, and Micah were close enough to touch.  I held on to Kessoli’s hand, memorizing the layout of her bones, the smoothness of her palm.  Better than losing myself in the heady aura of Gehanna Nine.

     The car jolted over a bump and my grip tightened.  Kessoli cried out and struggled to free her hand.  I let her go and cringed back into my seat.  “Sorry, sorry,” I whispered.

     “It’s all right.  No broken bones.”  Still, I could hear the edge of pain in her voice.

     “Moderation, Ava,” Goodson reminded me primly.  “You must always be mindful of your strength near humans.”

     “Unless I’m supposed to crush them.  Am I right?”

     “Of course you must obey the wishes of our clients.”  She was smiling, I knew it.  As she spoke of human death at my hands, Goodson smiled.

     I leaned back in my seat and tugged experimentally at my chains.  Those were all too familiar, and no comfort to me.  Inch-thick and made of cold titanium, they twined around my wrists and arms several times, binding them together.  I could probably break them, but it would take some effort, and with Micah beside me, taser in hand, I didn’t want to risk it.

     "Nearly there,” Goodson hummed.  She reached out to toy with my hair, ignoring me when I flinched from her hand.  “They will be amazed by you, Ava.”

     “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me who it is that will be amazed?”  Not that the name would mean anything to me, but I hated her secrecy.  What difference did it make?

     “You’ll see soon enough.”  She laughed.

     I hunched my shoulders and longed for Elyssa with every bit of energy I had.  I couldn’t crush her fingers.  She would comfort me, remind me that I was not alone.  But while she was progressing fast through her training—almost as quickly as I had—she wasn’t ready to meet the public.  I was on my own.

     The car, already moving slowly, decelerated further, coming to a near standstill.  Aroused by curiosity, I straightened as Goodson slid open the little window in the division that hid us—well, me—from the driver.  “What’s going on?” she demanded.

     “Don’t know, ma’am,” the driver answered, his voice muffled.  “Traffic’s backed up pretty far.  Something going on up ahead.”

     “Well, then, take a different route.  We have an appointment that we cannot miss, as I told you.”

     “The only other route through is Level Two, ma’am, and I don’t want any trouble.  I could go around, if you’d like—”

     “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, that would take hours!”  Goodson slammed the window shut and sat back, huffing irritably.

     “I wonder what’s going on,” Kessoli murmured.

     I closed my eyes, though it made not a whit of difference under the blindfold, and listened.  Far ahead I could hear crackling noises, and the smell of smoke wafted faintly in, stronger than any other scent.  Loud voices were shouting, and sirens droned from far away.

     “I think it’s a fire,” I said slowly.  “But a huge one—larger than the labs.”  It was so strange—why start a fire so large?

     There was a stiff silence.  Then the door opened, and Goodson called out to someone, beginning to question him.  Through the open door, the noise and smells streamed around me.  I hadn’t thought they could get stronger, but now it was difficult to focus.

     I heard Kessoli murmuring to herself—praying for protection for someone.  She was worried—I could hear her heartbeat quicken.  Were we in danger?  I tensed, ready to fight though I knew I had nothing to fear.

     “What is it?” I asked Kessoli in a low voice.  “What are they burning?”

     Kessoli didn’t answer for a moment; I guessed that she was staring at me.  “Ava,” she said in a low voice, “no one started this fire on purpose.”

     “What?”  For a moment, I didn’t comprehend what she was saying.

     Then a scream arced through the air, and I understood far too well.  Wherever the fire was, whatever its cause, there were people inside it.

     I remembered the blistering white heat of flames on my skin, the fear as I felt hungry fire devour me.  Pain and terror were both familiar to me, and now innocent people were becoming familiar with it as well.

     My chains snapped far more easily than I had expected.  Before Micah could move I was out of the car, startling a group of young voices who cried out at my appearance.  I straightened up and dragged off the blindfold.

     For a moment, I thought it was a mistake.  Light pierced my eyes, reflecting from metal and glass all around me.  The buildings loomed oppressively overhead, but between them I could see a small piece of empty blue air.  Nearby there were humans, two men in suits, a lady and a dog, and a group of teenagers, all gaping at me, and beyond them were others, dozens and hundreds and thousands of others.  The sensations and emotions of freedom nearly crippled me in that moment.

     “Quickly, Micah!” Goodson cried.

     I dodged Micah’s taser by a bare inch, swinging around a street light to escape him.  He came at me again and I leapt up to catch the neck of the lamp.  I swung myself up and perched on the curved lamp, chains dangling from my wrists.  Several people below me shrieked, and I wasn’t surprised.  I was a monster, after all.

     Or perhaps not.

     I froze for an instant as a new and shocking idea struck me like cold steel.  Perhaps I could do something to help, something that no one else could.  Maybe these suffering people would be saved because I was what I had become.

     This thought, this instinctive hope was what drove me forward.  I leapt from my slender perch to the top of a delivery pod and made my own path down the crowded street over the roofs of cars.  I could hear the reactions of those watching from the sidewalk and within the cars, but my focus was on the sound of the fire: the crackling roar, the shouts of fear, and the occasional painful scream.  I drove myself on, elated by the thought of the people who needed me.

     The street curved, and so as I went the flames came into view, entwined around a tall apartment building.  Bright yellow vehicles circled the inferno, and men swathed in protective clothing shot streams of water into the maw of the burning building.  Civilians clustered in the street anxiously, blocking my path.

     Pausing atop a blue van, I scanned the surrounding buildings.  To the right of my target was a larger building with small balconies on each floor.  They’ll do, I thought, grinning.

     "Hey!  What are you doing up there?”

     I was already in the air, ignoring the gasps and cries of shock.  From the van I swung onto the rod supporting the traffic lights.  Running along it, I bent my knees and jumped, higher, farther than any human could have done.  Seizing the base of a railing, I hurled myself around and over onto the balcony.  There was an open window to the burning building only a few feet away—it was a sign, a promise.  Laughing, I threw myself into the fire.

     It curled around me like an embrace, sharp, hotter than a human’s pulse.  The answering rush of the nanos within me felt good, transforming me into a column of ice, unmovable despite the force of the flame.

     There was a crash within the roar, and someone shrieked.  Focus, I told myself sternly, even as my heart shivered with delight.  There was work to be done.

     I made my way swiftly through the fire, following the scent of human sweat and fear.  The smoke made it difficult, which only pumped the adrenaline faster.  I’d never had a challenge before.

     There was no one on the floor where I had entered, but the two below were full of people.  Were they trying to get themselves killed?  I shook my head, baring my teeth as I leapt into the gap between the stairs.  I would save them—I knew I would.

     I can imagine how I looked—a slim, small figure falling out of the smoke, burns rippling across my skin like living things.  Someone shouted in surprise, and I turned with a grin to see one of the firemen, shadows playing over his face.

     “How many people are still in the building?” I asked him.

     He stared at me through his mask, frozen in the act of pulling a beam off an unconscious man’s leg.  Then he shook his head and frowned.  “You shouldn’t be in here!” he shouted, beginning to haul on the beam again.  “Hurry, get out!”

     His voice was very loud, even over the roar of the flames.  It made me realize that he hadn’t heard me, and his weak senses must have seen only a slight oddness in me, not the drastic contrast that was between us.  My grin widened.

     I reached down and buried my fingers into the wood of the beam.  The fireman shouted as I lifted the broken beam with one hand and tossed it away.  Then I picked up the injured man with one arm, lifted the fireman in the other, and dashed to the nearest exit.

     Out in the open air, I gently set the unconscious man on the ground.  There was silence around me as I straightened and turned.  My fireman friend had torn off his helmet and mask and was staring at me as if he had never seen anything like me before.  Likely he hadn’t.

     “How many people are inside?” I asked again.

     He and dozens of others stared at me, taking in the broken chains dangling from my wrists, my singed clothing and unmarked skin.  Under their unnerving scrutiny, my spine straightened and my fingers curled.

     “How did you get in there?” the fireman asked breathlessly.

     I took a step back, clenching my hands around the cool metal of my chains.  “Through the window,” I answered, keeping my voice from shaking.  “Third floor.”

     “What—”

     An explosion deafened me, and black smoke leapt from the windows above, sending hot glass raining down on us.  I heard screaming from inside and outside the building, testimony of suffering and fear.

     “How many?” I cried, tensing to leap.

     “Nine!” the fireman answered.

     I was in the air, driving my hands into the stone, clambering up to one of the windows.  “Get your people out!” I cried down to him, and dove through a window.

     Glass bit into my skin, but I ignored the sharp heat of pain.  I could hear the building beginning to crumble around me and knew that I had only minutes.  I followed the sound of heartbeats, leaping through the roar of an orange and gray torment.  There were two people on this floor—I could hear them talking to one another in fear-soaked tones.  Darting through a crumpling wall, I found them, a man who was shielding his wife from the falling embers.  She was the first to see me, and she screamed.

     My heart sank—I could imagine what they must be seeing—but there was no time to reassure them.  The ceiling was breaking up, splinters leaping from the thick beams.  One of the beams snapped, and I leapt to meet it in midair.

     Wood plunged into my fingers, raining down on my head and shoulders.  Deflected, the beam struck the stone wall with a force that made the room shudder.  Hands bleeding and full of ice, I seized both man and woman and dragged them out of the room.

     The woman would not stop screaming.  Breathing hard, I looked back and saw her uselessly pulling to be free of my grasp.  With a gut-sinking horror, I realized that I had broken her arm.  I released her immediately.  Abruptly I recognized my wild excitement for what it was, the recklessness of an adrenaline high, and I was sickened.  There was death in this place, and it could easily be waiting to use me as its instrument.

     A small explosion shook the floor and sent plumes of black smoke through the air.  I clenched my hands, healed now, into fists.  I had to focus.  “Forgive me,” I shouted, too loud for my own ears, and I snatched them up again, struggling to balance speed and gentility as we fled.

     Somehow, I found the stairs before they collapsed, with both of my captives shouting and struggling against my hold.  I nearly dropped the man once, afraid to grip too tightly.  I growled under my breath, cursing Goodson for thinking more of my strength than my control as I leapt out a window into clearer air.

     It was a relief to see my fireman, standing next to a man who was obviously his leader.  More firemen stood around, being bandaged or given oxygen.  I laid my burdens down next to a stunned medic, too busy counting to notice his stares.

     Four fireman covered in soot aside from the one I’d pulled out.  Two more people made six, which left three still inside—

     A shrill scream sounded, not from the building.  I turned and saw a young woman struggling in the arms of a fireman.  She seemed to be fighting to go back in, into that place of agony and fear.

     Had I really once been a human?  I could not understand them at all.

     “You can’t go back!” the fireman cried, restraining her as she fought.  “That building is going down any second!”

     “My children!” she screeched, beyond hearing.  “My children are in there, let me go!”

     Children.

     The word struck a chord within me.  Children…small, delicate…vibrant, lively, beautiful…screaming.  Hurting.

     I remembered children.  Somehow, from an ended life, I remembered children.

     I ran through the crowd, trying to ignore those who cringed back from my swift passage.  “Where are they?” I asked the woman, ready for her answer.

     She looked at me, half-seeing me, eyes overflowing.  Crying.  I couldn’t remember having ever cried, though I had wanted to.

     “On the third floor,” she whispered.  “Please help them.  Please.”

     I turned, tensing to leap as I looked up at the fire.

     “Whoa, hold up!”

     A hand wrapped around my arm, squeezing tightly.  I stopped and looked back at the fireman coldly, adrenaline pumping through me again as the scent of challenge touched me.  I fought it back, knowing that if I jerked free of this strong man, I would break his fingers.

     "Release me,” I said, fixing him with my gaze.

     “What’s going on here?”  The leader had arrived, and with him came the fireman I had helped.  His eyes stayed on me, wary and curious.

     “You have to save my children,” the woman gasped, throwing herself at the leader.  “You have to save them, they’re dying!”

      The man closed his eyes.  “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but the fire’s too far gone.  We can’t risk anyone else.”

     “You can risk me,” I insisted, tugging—gently—to be free.  “Let me go!”

     “You’ll die in there!” my captor snapped.

     I looked at the man who had stood with me among the flames.  “You know,” I said to him.  “You know that I am different.  I won’t die.” 

     He stared at me for four long seconds, his eyes narrowed.  Then his eyes shifted.

     “Let her go, Kyle,” he said.

     My heart jumped, and I grinned at him.  He took a step back, but that might have been a reaction to my sudden leap as his friend released me.  Free, I vanished into the fire, leaving them behind in safety.

Next part tomorrow!