Human Legion: Marine Cadet Part 36

"Oh."

"And your mind."

"You can...? Why?"

"Your future is - can be - important."

That's what Little Scar had told him. And the colonel had learned that from... "You're a Night Hummer!"

"You are correct."

"And all the weird stuff that's happened. Training bots that revive. Bad comms. Being left to drown for so long. That was all you?"

"I requested this event sequence. Disorientation and exhaustion is an aid to see inside your mind. To feel your path without the resistance natural to a sentient."

"Surely there must be an easier way to... to read me?"

"There is."

"Then why not use it?"

"You do not want the answer."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"What I said."

Arun wanted to punch this annoying blob. Could he actually do any damage if he did? He shook his head. The Night Hummer was many levels of importance above a human Marine cadet. There would be reprisals.

"Feeding us combat meds. Running guns off planet. Was that your doing too?"

"No."

"Do you know anything about them?"

"No."

Liar. Arun was learning how deeply all the conspiracies were embedded into Detroit. Everyone knew more than they let on. And if this Hummer was in cahoots with Gupta Arun was nearly convinced of that now then it had to know something about the traitors on Tranquility.

The blob was probably laughing at him, those bubbles an expression of its contempt for the puny human. Nothing riled Arun more than aliens smug with the certainty of their superiority.

With difficulty, Arun sucked in his anger and snarled: "Do you realize how much trouble your little games have caused me and my squad mates?"

"No."

"Corporal Majanita will probably be demoted - that'll kill her. The battalion will be awarded demerits, which will make it even more impossible to climb out of the Cull Zone. I might be executed as a consequence of what you've done."

When the Night Hummer gave no reply, Arun prompted: "And?"

"And? Please elaborate."

"And don't you care that you've caused so much trouble?"

"I do not care."

"You're a skangat, then. You know that?"

There came a pause. Then the Hummer replied: "Yes."

"Yes? Yes, you're a skangat?"

"Correct. My translation device tells me that skangat is a term humans use on each other to communicate disappointment in the other's behavior, or to indicate aggression, possibly leading to physical combat. Is this correct?"

"Right on both counts, pal."

"Thank you. Then I am a skangat."

"Frakk! I can't even insult you."

"That a.s.sessment is probably accurate. Without long practice, inter-species communication is significantly less rich than between sentients of the same species. However, I estimate that if we communicate regularly over a period of no less than several weeks, and if you apply yourself to your task, then it might be possible for you to insult me."

"Is that's what's gonna happen? We're going to be stuck together for weeks?"

"No. I have completed my examination. You will leave shortly and only see me on one more occasion."

"Then why...? Oh, what's the use? Tell me this, then. What did you see inside my mind? What is my path?"

"It is best that members of your species are not given details of predestination. Your species is not evolved for that."

"And yours is?"

"Correct."

"Why?"

"Defense."

"So you - what? - see a threat coming and change the future so you avoid getting tropied?"

"The broad thrust of your speculation is correct. Our precognitive capability is an adaptation of our feeding process. It is why my kind has an understanding with the species you call White Knights. They feed and guard us. We tell them the future."

Arun thought back to the conversation with Little Scar. The Jotun had said Arun was important, another human too. Maybe two. "Luring me here," he said, "was that part of your defensive instincts?"

The Night Hummer made no reply. It rolled back a few paces before coming to a halt. Then it rolled forward again before repeating the pattern. Was it pacing?

It took three minutes before it answered: "yes."

"Then I do what? Do I shoot an invader who would otherwise have killed you?"

"Probably not."

"But I am important to your future?"

"Yes."

"Do I save you?"

"No. You are my killer."

Arun's vision reddened momentarily as combat rage took a hold of him. If the Hummer had brought his killer here, it could only be for one reason: the creature saw Arun as a threat, one to be eliminated.

Arun leaped at the blob. He had to kill the Hummer before it killed him. He sailed through the airless s.p.a.ce aiming to bring his hands together in the place roughly corresponding to a human's neck. He penetrated the outer orange skin easily enough but then... he was gripped! The blob rolled back, absorbing his momentum, but his hands were held fast.

Arun pushed up until his feet were pointing at the ceiling. Then he swung himself back down in an arc pivoting on his hands. He never finished the maneuver. A cavity appeared in the center of the Hummer. A split second later, Arun was sailing through the vacuum to land on his back a dozen paces away. The thought just had time to run through his head that to throw him such a short distance showed restraint and skill before he hit the floor and was rolling back like a ball, and kept on rolling until he gently smacked into the wall.

The Night Hummer, meanwhile, had effortlessly kept pace with him, propelling itself by waving its surface in contact with the floor. He'd seen vids of Earth snakes move like that. It made sense if micro-g was your natural habitat.

"You misunderstand," said the Hummer when Arun had come to rest. "You are my killer, yes. But it is not your intention to kill me. You try to save me. You will fail. Probably. Hopefully."

"Hopefully? Why hopefully?"

"Because then your path is not what I foresee."

"And I'm important, right?" Arun scrambled to his feet. "Hold on! If I'm important, that means I won't get Culled, right?"

"Probably not. But the future is a forest of potential paths. You can change your future to make that more likely. This is why we stay aloof. Interference rarely works well. I have a personal interest in you because you kill me."

"What do I do that is so important?"

"You should not hear predestination."

"Who is the purple human?"

"You cannot make me tell you your destiny. Nor can you cast words and phrases in my direction, fis.h.i.+ng for my reaction."

Okay, buddy, we'll see about that. But first, a change of tack. "Is this your natural habitat? Do you live here?"

"This facility is readied for occupation by a troop of my people. Sadly, my companions are not arriving. The White knights treat us like vegetables, to be planted in gardens such as this and tended, and weeded, left to grow information. But we are not vegetation, and I do miss company."

"So what are you telling me? That all the h.e.l.l I've been through these past day... more... it's so you have someone to talk to?"

"No!" A pressure wave coursed through the Hummer, striking the floor hard enough to lift Arun a few inches off the floor. "I am not so trivial. I must have you here to see deeper, to see the pattern of what you call past and future. Understand, human child. Your cultural history talks of the pattern of the future being a vast tapestry woven by the Fates. Each sentient life is a single thread."

"You're quoting the Loom of Thessaly, right? The Earth supremacists are always going on about the importance of Cla.s.sical Greek culture."

"Perhaps they are correct to do so. The Loom of Thessaly remains the most accurate model your species has yet devised to explain the nature of reality. In this model, individual sentients are caught in the tyranny of the tapestry's pattern. They can struggle but never break free, and if you stand back a little, the struggles of individuals are invisible against the purity of the larger pattern. But sometimes special threads arise that... Your model suffers from a critical lack of dimensions at this point. Let us say that these special threads tie off the old pattern and influence the Fates to begin weaving a radically new design."

"And I'm a special thread, yeah?"

"You might be."

"Can be? What must I do to become this be this new-pattern guy?"

"You must make a choice. The pattern you make possibly saves your species from extinction and elevates the status of humans everywhere. Many other races too benefit in this future."

"Sounds nova. Where's the catch?"

"You must make an oath. It binds you to the future that saves your people. If you break your oath, the path diverges. The pattern corrupts, and you may accelerate your extinction."

"Go on."

"Do you promise to adopt my people as the client species of the humans? You must re-house, guard and cherish us. There are future times when you will choose between your friends and your promise and you must choose your promise, or the future will corrupt."

Arun laughed. After all he'd been through. Such madness! "Hummer, that's crazy talk. That's treason, for starters. The White Knights would sterilize the entire planet if they got wind of it."

"You are correct."

"I don't believe for a nanosecond that I could make this happen even if I was insane enough to try."

"I know. Yet you must promise sincerely. Saying meaningless words is not sufficient. The oath must be real."

"And in any case. The White Knights get you these hollowed-out rocks to live in. You have your understanding with them. Why change that?"

"Because the White Knights cherish randomness, mutation and the potential of creative destruction. We represent a predictable future. Our nature is utterly repugnant to them. They loath us more than any other species, and yet they cannot ignore our usefulness. Within a century from this time, we are labeled scapegoats for White Knight setbacks. They exterminate us."

"And you want me to protect you?"

"Yes."

"From the White Knights, the most powerful species I'm aware of?"

"Correct."

"You're mad."

"I can see into the future."

"You're also a liar. You refused to tell me the future because I'm not evolved enough, apparently. But you've just told me what will happen. "

"I have. I only reveal small details. They are obvious. You learn them yourself soon."

"Good for me." Arun's stomach rumbled in irritation. He hadn't eaten solid food for almost two days and his stomach wasn't one for philosophy and long-laid plans. Without food, Arun wasn't saving mad orange blobs or anyone else.

"If I refuse?"

"That is unwise. A tragedy. But you will eat and drink and the shuttle returns you safely to your home."

"Food! Where?"