Into the lounge.
‘Shit!’
Three bodies on the floor. One: a naked boy, his left pectoral muscle in tatters, forming a crater around the hole the micro-missile had torn on its way to his heart. Two: Ollie, on his back, legs missing below his hips, a wide smear of pulped meat across the carpet where the wyst bullet had unleashed its deadly fibres, pureeing his bone and muscle from the inside. Blood was still pulsing weakly out of the broken femoral arteries. Beyond Ollie, Nikolaj was body number three. There was a neat hole in her temple where the organ-buster kinetic had penetrated her skull, leaving a soup of mashed alien brain to leak out from ears, nostrils, and mouth. Micro-missiles had detonated in her hips and elbows, severing her limbs from her torso.
Kohei’s helmet visor slid up as he knelt beside Ollie. He struggled for something to say. ‘You got the bitch.’ Cursing himself for such inanity. ‘You saved London, Ollie.’
The paramedics started shoving emergency modules on Ollie’s ragged leg stumps. Kohei had seen enough injuries in his time to know their efforts were all useless.
Ollie’s jaw moved laboriously, releasing a gurgled whisper.
‘What?’ Kohei leant down, straining to hear.
‘Fuck you.’ A last grimaced smile.
The medical kit started emitting shrill warning tones. Kohei sat back, letting out an abject sigh as he closed his eyes. ‘Chief, whatever you’ve planned, it better be goddamned spectacular.’ He gave the order for his tactical teams to intercept the sabotage operations Nikolaj was running against London’s shields. ‘With extreme prejudice, every motherfucking one of them.’
Gox-Nikolaj Quint
Salvation of Life,
11th December 2206
Fuuuuck! As always, the pain of violent body death was excruciating. Our human Nikolaj body was struck by so many weapons; Ollie Heslop had five peripherals secreted in his flesh. They must have been of Neána design, for the house’s sensors had missed them completely. That doesn’t surprise me. Neána treachery is a constant in this universe. I’m sure the God at the End of Time will deal with them severely for their defiance.
I knew something was wrong with the encounter. Ollie Heslop was tense with worry when he entered my office. I acknowledge that was to be expected. Like so many humans, he was badly traumatized by the impending kindness of our purpose in elevating his species. However, his mind was also tainted by the events of Lichfield Road and Kou-Jade’s last fight. We would all be very interested to know what happened to Kou-Jade’s human body. The human team that assaulted the house were clearly trying to capture her.
Ollie Heslop had many tells. After all my time spent among humans, especially those of disrepute, I knew something was wrong. Emotional association is an alien trait that I’ll have to purge after the elevation is complete, but until then it allows me to operate efficiently on Earth.
Then Ollie Heslop spoke his lie. Those were not Kou-Jade’s last words. I assumed he was nerving himself up to enact some pitiful act of vengeance, as so many humans do. Naturally, I instructed Joel to shoot. The shot would maim Ollie Heslop to a near-fatal degree. He could then be subdued, and we would embrace him lovingly.
Then the little shit went and –
No, that is badthought. That is human thought, contamination from the emulation we use to mask our identity in Nikolaj’s body. It is expelled now. I am Gox. I am Quint. Not human.
Ollie Heslop used his hidden peripherals. I felt agony in my shoulders and hips. Horror flooded my unified mind at seeing our human limbs being blown off my torso by micro-missiles. Human bodyshock overwhelmed all my bodies. Damn, I hate such weakness.
Ollie Heslop was lying on the floor, looking at me as I wailed helplessly. His lips parted in a vicious sneer. A peripheral in his right wrist tracked around until I was staring directly into its narrow muzzle. There was a flash –
It took too long to recover equanimity. Every time it is longer than before. All my bodies feel discomfort at this, as if letting go of a human emulation is somehow a bad thing.
My remaining bodies were still for a moment. Taking a breath – if we were human.
Desist. There are no emotion-triggering floods of neurochemicals in my four remaining quint brains. They are perfect. I am not subject to random, animal bursts of chaos. Quint superiority is paramount.
The Salvation of Life’s onemind became aware of my disquiet. ‘Explain what has occurred,’ it required.
‘I have reverted to four Gox. My human Nikolaj body was eliminated.’
‘How?’
‘It was shot by a human: Ollie Heslop. The only surviving member of the Southwark Legion street gang.’
‘Identity correlated. He was used to attack the London power supply grid at Croydon.’
‘I confirm. Humans of his low status are easy to mislead. They are greed-susceptible.’
‘Why did he kill your Gox-Nikolaj body?’
I paused, considering my response. Ollie Heslop’s fervour provides testimony to his mental state, the driven fury of vengeance lust. A so-human trait. And yet – there was something wrong about the act. Something intangible. ‘His given motive was that he sought retribution on Nikolaj. He considered himself betrayed by Kou-Jade, her ostensible colleague in the crime family contracting the Legion. Such a reaction is common with humans. With the eradication of their society’s strictures, similar altercations are becoming common.’
‘Explain your doubt.’
‘I. Have . . . Definition in this instance is complicated and tenuous. It is my instinct. I have experienced more time in association with humans than any other quint. I have witnessed them in extremis. I have a large familiarity with them. Something about this encounter does not play right.’
‘In what way?’ the onemind asked.
‘There are behavioural indicators that indicate excessive stress.’
‘Ollie Heslop managed to intimidate and protest his way inside your heavily protected building. He went there with the express purpose of killing Gox-Nikolaj, knowing he was placing himself in considerable danger. That would cause any human to be stressed.’
‘The London shields are about to be eliminated. I find the
