The Rush's Edge Read online

  “I am inexorable…”

  His hands moved in regulated, almost robotic motions.

  “Hal…” Vivi said, a rising sense of fear in her voice. Was this some sort of sleepwalking episode? She wanted to go up to him and touch him on the shoulder, to try to wake him, but she remembered she had to let him see her first. She stayed put.

  “I am the ACAS!” His last sentence wasn’t exactly a yell, but it was close, in the same way that a soldier in a vid would bark orders.

  He paused a moment, then began taking apart the blaspistol, in the same robotic fashion. He started over with the recitation: “I am the fist of the ACAS…”

  As he continued, she crept closer, terrified to leave him, yet terrified to stay. He continued to take apart the blaspistol then rebuild it. Break and rebuild. Break. Rebuild.

  The panic bubbled inside Vivi until she couldn’t stand it anymore. She edged around him so that he could see her.

  “Hal?” she whispered, reaching out to touch his arm and break him out of whatever this was.

  His reaction was swift and violent. Before she could do anything to defend herself, he had slammed her against the wall, a forearm across her neck and chest, his pistol barrel a cold ring against her forehead. “Who are you?”

  Her breath caught in terror. It was Noah all over again. His eyes had turned dark with the threat of violence as he pressed his arm harder against her throat. Her lips moved, but nothing came out.

  “You’re not authorized to be here. Who the fuck are you?” She could feel the ring of the blaspistol’s barrel carving a dent in her forehead as he leaned in closer. It was then she saw his eyes were entirely black, with only the thinnest ring of blue around the pupils. Just like they’d been when he’d come back from that barfight on Omicron.

  “M- Me. V- Vivi,” she managed in a choked whisper. His arm was beginning to restrict her air supply, but she was terrified to move. “I’m on y- your crew. Pl- Please, Hal?”

  At his name, he tilted his head at her, a shade of confusion ghosting over his features.

  “She’s not the enemy, sergeant. Stand down.”

  Blessed gods, it was Ty.

  “She’s not authorized, sir,” Hal said through clenched teeth, glaring at her again, gun arm still raised. Vivi could see he was gripping the pistol so hard it shook slightly. “She could be an enemy operative.”

  “No, she’s not the enemy. I authorized her. Stand down,” Ty said again, in a level voice.

  Hal lowered the blaspistol and stepped back, his eyes on her right shoulder. Vivi stayed with her back against the wall, afraid to move until she saw Ty’s outstretched hand.

  “Come on,” Ty said gently.

  She held her breath as she stepped around Hal. Ty put a hand on her shoulder, steadying her, but keeping his eyes on his friend.

  “Vivi, this is important,” he said in the same calm voice. “Go get Beryl for me. Tell her Hal’s having an episode.”

  Vivi slipped by Tyce and flew out the door to Beryl’s quarters. She knocked rapidly, instantly bruising her knuckles.

  “Everything OK?” Beryl asked when she came to the door.

  “Ty told me to get you. Hal. He’s… He’s having an episode.”

  “Shit…” Beryl swore. She grabbed a robe and wrapped it hastily around her pajamas. “It’s going to be OK,” she said and turned back into her room. She began going through the storage lockers at the foot of her bunk. “This happens every once in a while.”

  “H- He didn’t recognize me. What’s wrong with him?”

  “It’s a little hard to explain,” Beryl said, finding what looked like a medkit. “Let’s go.”

  They made their way down the hallway. “Might wanna stay at the door, Vivi. I’m not sure he’ll recognize you yet.”

  Yeah, no shit, she thought. Vivi’s eyes were wide as she looked in the room. Hal had turned to face Ty, but he still held the blaspistol in one hand. It wasn’t trained on Ty, but it would be a small movement to lift and aim. Such a small simple movement. Her neck prickled again.

  If Tyce was afraid, he wasn’t showing it. “Hal. You’re OK. We’re on the Loshad, headed out to the Border for a job, remember?” Tyce edged closer and closer to Hal as he spoke, as if he were approaching a wild animal. Slow. Cautious.

  Hal’s head hung low, but he was watching Ty out of the corner of his eye.

  “Hand me the weapon, sergeant.” Ty held out a hand.

  “No, sir… I have to be ready, sir…” Hal muttered. “I have to…” He began to look confused as he glanced around him.

  Vivi’s gaze slid to Beryl, who was readying a medjet injector over by the bunk.

  “It’s OK. You can stand down now, sergeant,” Ty said easily.

  Hal finally met his eyes and Vivi saw some of the nightmare he’d been immersed in begin to dissolve. Hal’s grip on the gun loosened, and Ty gently plucked the blaspistol from his hand.

  “OK, Hal. Good.” Tyce sighed with relief as Hal slid down the wall and pulled his knees up against his chest. Vivi’s heart twisted as she saw Hal’s hands going to his head as if it hurt.

  “I don’t understand…” he groaned between labored breaths. “Nothing makes any s- sense…”

  Beryl came over and knelt beside him. “It’s OK,” she said, pressing the injector to his bicep. Vivi could hear the hiss of the medjet from where she stood. “You just need to sleep a while, Hal.”

  “Sleep?” Hal turned to look Beryl in the eye.

  She put a hand on his hair and smoothed it down, all the while holding his wrist and taking his pulse with the other. “Yeah. You’ve just had a bad dream, that’s all. Let’s get you back into bed, OK?”

  “It’s… hard to sleep,” Hal said thickly; it was evident that whatever had been in the medjet was starting to take effect.

  “I know, Hal. It’ll be so much easier now.” She soothed him with another hand through his hair, as gentle as any mother with her child. Beryl glanced at Ty and nodded when Hal’s breathing softened and the mass of tension in his body began to melt away.

  Vivi didn’t know how to feel about what she’d just witnessed. On one hand Hal scared the shit out of her – he’d just jammed a blaspistol against her forehead, she thought with a thudding heart. It was like he hadn’t known who she was at all. On the other hand, she knew Hal had a good heart. He was a little rough around the edges, but the way he watched out for her and the gentle way he’d treated that vat addict on Omicron said that he cared about people. What was wrong to cause this change in him?

  Together Tyce and Beryl helped Hal to the bed. He was already asleep by the time they pulled the covers over him. “He’s good for six hours, at least.” Beryl told Ty. They lowered the lights completely, but not before Ty picked up Hal’s blasrifle, viblade, and sidearm.

  “Come on, Vivi,” Ty sighed. “We need to talk.”

  “How about some tea?” Beryl asked, once the three of them had reconvened in the galley.

  “Sure,” Vivi nodded.

  While Beryl worked in the kitchen, Ty sat beside Vivi. “I know you don’t know much about the ACAS and the vats.”

  Vivi shook her head looking from Beryl to Ty. “No. Not a lot. J- Just… just I guess what everyone else knows. The ACAS and the vats protect us by patrolling the Edge. M- Most of them are… created to serve. Like Hal. But they get to have their own lives after the ACAS, right?”

  Tyce nodded slowly. Vivi didn’t seem to have the negative attitude that so many others had toward vats, so he pressed on. “Hal was born in a facility on Chamn-Alpha. Vats… are grown rapidly and trained subliminally… then ‘born’ four years later at a developmental age of twelve or thirteen. After that, they’re educated until ready to start their tour of duty in the ACAS. But, it’s not like the education that we got as natural born. Everything they learn is to prepare them for their seven years of service.

  “Hal has an interface,” Tyce tapped his temple, “here, implanted into his brain. From what I understa
nd it’s more extensive than a tecker node. They used it for teaching and training purposes… as well as programming, even before he was born.”

  “When I walked in his room, he was saying something over and over. ‘I… er… I am the fist of the ACAS.’ Something like that,” she murmured.

  Ty nodded somberly. “The vat’s creed. He had to memorize it as part of his training. It was probably reinforced thorough his interface thousands of times while he slept.”

  “He was experiencing a flashback from that… like a memory,” Beryl added, coming over with their tea. “Think of it as a nightmare that you have trouble shaking off.”

  Vivi stirred sugar into the cup, a crease of worry on her brow. “How often does he have these episodes?”

  Tyce shrugged. “Every month or two. Sometimes less, sometimes more. Vats typically have trouble with civilian life. Without the structures and format of the ACAS, they struggle with attention, decision-making, and dealing with things like what we saw tonight. They aren’t trained for the civilian world. Hal struggles just like the rest of them.”

  “Ty, he didn’t recognize me. What would he have done if you hadn’t come in?” Vivi asked.

  Ty could see her fear. “He just hasn’t had enough time to recognize you as part of his unit. Vats protect others in their unit, and that’s what he considers us,” he gestured between himself and Beryl. “He’ll come to see you that way if you give him the chance.”

  There was a pause as Ty watched her digest the information.

  “So… will he be OK tomorrow? What do I need to do?”

  “I gave him a sedative,” Beryl replied. “So that he can sleep, that’s all. In the morning he may or may not remember anything about what happened. We don’t usually mention it. If you see he’s quiet, just give him some space.”

  “Right. Sure,” Vivi said, nodding.

  “Vivi, I know this was probably a bit frightening,” Ty said. “But I hope you don’t let this change your view of working with us. I think you’ve done a fine job so far and I really hope you’ll stay on.”

  It was good for Hal to have connections with others. Too often, he’d seen vats who lost the camaraderie of the ACAS turn inward as loneliness ate them up inside. It made sense. Vats were raised communally – they ate together and bunked together. They were trained to depend on each other. Being alone was bad. Often lonely vats turned to drugs or alcohol to cope. Ty had kept Hal from such a fate so far, and he intended to keep doing that for however long Hal would be with them.

  “I think… I think I’ll stay for now,” she said, quietly. “And, er, if there’s anything I can do to help–”

  “You already have,” Ty cut in. “Get some rest. Feel free to sleep in. We always do after a night like this.”

  After she had left, Ty remained staring down into his cup moodily. “He scared her pretty badly, huh?” Beryl asked.

  He nodded, frowning, as he met her eyes. “She might not stay, Beryl. It was the worst I’ve seen him in a while…”

  The next morning, Vivi was awake early. Finding her way down the hallway to the common area, she decided to put on coffee since she guessed she was the first one up.

  Coming into the kitchen, she caught sight of Hal. His hair was ruffled, and he was still wearing the same black tee and sleep pants he’d had on the night before. She took a breath, reminding herself of what Ty and Beryl had told her, then entered the galley.

  Hal was leaning back against the counter and facing her as the coffee maker burbled and hissed behind him. He was fiddling with a spoon in his hands as he lifted his head and his eyes met hers. There was a vulnerability there that she wasn’t used to seeing.

  “Hi,” he said simply, testing out the waters between them.

  “Hi,” she replied. Did he remember any of it? Was he embarrassed or angry over losing control? She had no idea of where to start, but she knew this was not the same man who had put a weapon to her head and threatened her last night.

  “I…uh…” he said, closing his mouth and clenching his jaw before trying again. “I’m sorry if I woke you last night with… with all of that.” His voice was low and halting.

  She decided she could lie and act as if she had heard nothing or be brave and choose to be honest. As a friend would. “Hal, there’s no need to be sorry.”

  His blue eyes were still a little glassy from the medication, and his features held a mix of fear and anxiety. Instinctively, she wanted to take it away, despite her fear. But she didn’t know how.

  Vivi turned to get two steel mugs out of the cabinet. She filled both with coffee, added a lot of sugar to Hal’s cup, and handed it to him. She turned around and rested against the counter in a similar pose beside him while sipping at her cup. “Alright,” she said lightly, “you’re making coffee from now on. This is much better than Ty’s.”

  A half smile broke through the clouds that hung over him. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.” She elbowed him gently. “But don’t tell Ty, OK? It’s our secret.”

  They stood there a few minutes longer, during which the silence became comfortable. Finally, he spoke again. “Veevs?”

  “Mm? Yeah?”

  “Thanks,” he said simply, daring to meet her gaze.

  “Anytime, Hal.” Impulsively, her hand reached for his, and she squeezed his fingers. She was surprised to find that it felt right. He leaned into her, and they stayed that way for a long time.

  EIGHT

  K-245j hung in space like a green and amber jewel, as the Loshad made its approach, four days after its departure from Omicron.

  “No ships in the surrounding area,” Beryl reported from her station at the sensors.

  “Good. Let’s do a flyby,” Tyce said, easing the ship into an orbit. “Look for life and habitation signs. Hal – stay on weapons in case we need them.”

  “Got it, Cap.”

  Vivi glanced at Hal settling into the weapons station. He had stayed close to her the day after the episode, a second shadow, but seemed to be more himself now. She had begun wondering about his past again and resolved to ask Tyce some more pointed questions when they had a chance. Now, however, it was time to focus on the planet below them.

  “I’m observing the usual weather patterns for this class planet,” Beryl said, reading the sensor feed. “It has forested continents and rich mineralogical deposits, which confirms Fortenot’s info. I’m not detecting any humanoid lifeforms on the surface, although there is evidence of previous human habitation near the foot of a mountain.”

  “At least we don’t have colonists to deal with,” Ty murmured. “Let’s move closer.” He moved his hands over the helm, and the Loshad dropped lower into the atmosphere. “Beryl, keep an eye on the sensors. If there’s anything down there to salvage, it should show up at this level.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Vivi remarked as the Loshad zoomed over a row of mountains.

  “Tyce, I’m picking up something else. Small bits of refined allenium alloy on the planet’s surface,” Beryl announced. “Not far from the deserted village.”

  “Could have been a crash site,” Hal said.

  “I’m taking us down. I see a spot where I can land,” Ty said.

  Vivi watched as Tyce piloted the ship toward a tan, sandy beach near a small lake. The shores were wide and there was a grassy area under the shade of some tall trees where he set the Loshad down.

  “Looks like the possible crash site is 1,200 meters north. Straight up the mountainside,” Hal said, eyeing the info feed at his own station. “Gonna need the hiking equipment for this one.”

  “Let’s get a move on, then,” Ty said, standing up.

  “Come on, Veevs,” Hal said as he headed for the equipment room.

  Leaving Beryl on the ship, Ty, Hal, and Vivi walked along the lake, then found a trail to the mountain. They explored for an hour, passing several domed dwellings at the foot of the mountain before locating a path up. It was eerie, seeing the buildings slowly deteriorating as nature took the
m back over. The sun through the trees created a quiet green twilight which draped them all in a funereal silence. Vivi and Hal peered through the windows of one of the houses, but there was nothing left inside. Apparently, these colonists had been able to take most things of value with them when they left, fleeing what Vivi could only assume was the Mudar’s advance.

  They passed through the simple streets and into a forest leading up the side of the mountain. Ty guided them using scanners. After a while, they saw what almost passed as a path through the trees, rocks shining as the sun reflected off the flecks of crystalized minerals contained within. Tyce took the vanguard, and Hal took the rear with Vivi in the middle. They all wore headsets to keep in communication with the ship.

  The late afternoon was warm, and the cries of birds echoed among the trees. As they made their way along the ridge, Vivi looked up to see a large hawk, sitting in a nearby tree, its feathers shining like bronze in the sun. It was two feet tall, peering at her with its great, yellow-eyed gaze. She stopped, transfixed, as it cocked its head at her, seeming to decide whether to eat her for lunch or leave her alone.

  Hal came up behind her. “Shake a leg, Veevs – woah!” he said, catching sight of the bird.

  At the noise, the hawk flapped and rose from its perch; there was a swishing sound when its wings beat the air. Hal threw his arms around Vivi to protect her as it dove toward them, but it only swooped over them and sailed up above the tree line. Its wide wingspan was both impressive and intimidating.

  “Wow. Did you see the size of that?” Hal laughed, clearly enjoying the excitement. But seeing her face, he instantly sobered. “You OK, Veevs?”

  She nodded, looking past him to see where the bird had gone. “Yeah. Just startled I guess.” She laughed nervously, trying to hide the fact that it was his sudden movement toward her that had frightened her more than the bird.

  “I’m not gonna let anything hurt you,” he said.

  She nodded and was about to reply, but Ty’s voice came in over their headsets. “You guys alright?”

  “Yeah,” Vivi called. “Sorry. There was this huge, er, bird.”