Gudsriki (39 page)

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Admiral Turunen, you will remain in your office, monitoring the topside war as necessary, and as is your duty. Unless there are any objections?”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Lastly we have the matter of Lieutenant Pytten. Admiral, you have stated that he disobeyed your orders regarding your brother, brought both of the assailants into Itämeri, and did not supervise the assailants while they were in the atrium, resulting in its destruction. I believe a most severe punishment is in order.”

Risto began to speak, “However, your honors—”

“Agreed, Honorable Justine,” interrupted Honorable Keskeytys, “he should be punished in the extreme. If there are no objections?”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

Risto began again, “Honorable Kes—”

“Yes, I believe ten years is appropriate.”

“Very good, ten years, and shall we suspend the possibility of parole?”

“Yes, I believe that's appropriate.”

“Then I don't see any reason Lieutenant Pytten shouldn't begin a ten-year-long term in the stockade forthwith. If there are no objections?”

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

“Agre—”

“I have an objection, your honor,” said Risto loudly.

Honorable Häkeltynyt seemed taken aback. But she was obligated to hear the man's objection. “You may proceed.”

“Thank you, your honor. If I may, Lieutenant Pytten acted solely with the intent of delivering extremely important intel to myself and, by proxy, this council. As this intel is, as you've declared in this hearing, of ‘world changing' importance, I believe extenuating circumstances are in effect.”

The honorables had little patience for Risto. “Thank you Admir—”

“
Furthermore
,” Risto continued, “Lieutenant Pytten, who is neutrois by the way and should not be referred to as ‘he' or ‘she,' has served in a fashion so admirable and above reproach as to render your intended punishment an atrocity.”

The assembly was stunned.

“I should then say that I would be forced to resign in protest if you were to attempt to declare such a punishment, and in fact, if the assembly does not choose to rescind their comments on Lieutenant Pytten made thus far, I shall still resign in protest. Moreover, if the assembly should attempt to go through with their intended punishment, I must explain they would find themselves at the center of a military coup led by myself enacted solely on the purpose of freeing the aforementioned lieutenant, because the fact is, Pytten is a better person than any of you, and despite their flaws and mistakes, I'd sooner see the lot of you thrown in prison to rot forever than let Pytten spend one second in the stockade, your honors.”

The assembly stared at Risto with their mouths hanging open for a full two minutes before any of them could manage to speak.

“I… uh… in that case, Admiral, I uh… feel we should rescind our prior comments regarding Lieutenant Pytten and uh… consider the previous demotion sufficient punishment. For the Lieutenant. Unless there are any objections?”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

“Agreed!”

Risto nodded his head politely and departed from the chamber.

 

 

“T
OPSIDE
,
EH
?”

“Leave me alone.”

“I never will.”

“Why?”

“I've been thinking about you. I think I had you all wrong.”

“I'm sure that's true, but I fail to see its relevance.”

“Don't you get it, Nel? You and I are the only full Niide cyborgs in existence. You and I are meant to be together. Together we can rule this waste of a world.”

“Yeah, that's great, one problem—I fucking hate you and you hate me.”

“I don't hate you. I underestimated you. Thought you were a toy. You're not. You're the only thing good enough for me.”

“From Violet's memories alone I know you better than that.”

“You don't know me at all. I've changed. Changed since meeting you. Everything is different now that you exist.”

“You're deranged.”

“You're ideal. Maybe this is out of line, but I think Violet died for a reason. She died so I could have you. See, there was no woman out there who could love me after what I'd become. Skadi killed herself right in front of me. She was weak, Nel, but you're not. You're strong, stronger than Violet, as strong as I am. And literally cut from the same cloning program. We're the monster and his bride.”

“I am not, and will never be, your bride.”

“Do you think Vibeke will ever satisfy you? She can't, she can't do what I can do. You've reviewed your body, you know what it's capable of. Imagine the sex we could have!”

“I have enough nausea from the radiation, thank you.”

“It's meant to be, Nel. The world ended for us. Violet ended for us. It was all set up for you and I to be together, to reign in this new frozen hell!”

“Veikko, not even if you were a girl.”

 

 

T
HE
G
EKI
jumped to Valhalla. Veikko screamed a mouthless scream. Varg and the elder recognized him immediately.

“Veikko?”

“Don't kill me!”

“You killed my master!”
shouted the elder.

“Fuck your master! Fuck you!”

“Fuck you, Veikko, you dick!”
shouted Varg.

“Now, you will die.”
The elder raised his hand.

“You can't kill me. I'm the only thing holding the ravine up!”

The elder produced a flame in his palm.

“If I die, it collapses into the rampart void and the Ares hits the ocean.”

The flame began to reach for Veikko.

“It's active! Kill me and you end the world!”

They considered it. From a cursory look, he was telling the truth. Logically he'd not be there alone in a stinking pit unless he was bound there. The elder lowered his hand and extinguished the flame.

“Enough! How did Mishka get the implant?”

“Skadi had it.” Veikko gestured to a rotten body. “Mishka just took it. I couldn't stop her. I wasn't as assembled as I am now.”

Varg looked at him with utter repulsion.

“Where are all the Valkyries?”

“How the fuck should I know? I've only seen Vibs and her robot.”

“Where is she?”
asked the elder.

“Begging the fish to come get me!”

“Robot?”
asked Varg.

“Violet! A fake Violet.”

The Geki looked to each other.

“Get out of here! Leave me in peace!”

“You deserve fear. You deserve pain!”

“You deserve a kick in the fucking balls you fucking assholes!”

“Fuck you, Veikko, you fucked up the whole fucking planet!”

“Odin's left nut, just leave!”

“You fucked shit up!”

“You let me!”

“You killed one of us!”

“So did Varg, go kill him!”

“I only cut him in half!”

“Goddamn it, Varg, you—”

“Varg?”

“Silence!”

“Let's get out of here!”

“Now we have to kill him!”

“We can't if he's holding up the—”

“He's lying!”

“No I'm not!”

“Yes you are!”

“Varg, have I ever lied to you?”

“Yes! Like every damn day!”

“Well, I'm not now! Fucking shit can you at least turn the fear off?”

“Oh sure let me just pull the pulse gland out of my neck. No we can't turn it off!”

“Then go!”

“I swear to fucking Odin I'll come back for you.”

“Fine, just go!”

The Geki turned to each other.

“Where do we go?”

“To Risto Turunen. If Vibeke has been with the Cetaceans, he's the likeliest way to find her.”

The Geki jumped to Risto's office. He was caught off guard but quickly regained his outward composure.

“Risto. We have reason to believe a woman named Vibeke—”

“Yes, she just escaped. Your treaty is not to ‘fuck shit up,' is it not?”

“Yes, do you—”

“She has fucked shit up beyond any shit that has ever been fucked in all of Cetacea.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“She escaped to the surface not thirty minutes ago. She'll be near the gate. Please burn her to death for me.”

“We'll… see what we can do.”

They jumped topside and scared the hell out of the masses.

“A woman just burst from here. Where is she?”

“I saw them!” shouted a scared sailor.

“Where are they?”

“They took an Ulver boat, headed to the coast!”

“Thank you.”

The rushed gratitude hit the sailor like any other Geki words and reduced him to a shivering, weeping mess. They jumped into the satellite overhead and scanned the seas below for Vibeke and…. Had Veikko really said a fake Violet?

 

 

T
HE
FAKE
Violet sat under scrutiny of the Valkyries. She envied them. Their training, their camaraderie, their power. She knew she had greater power and all the benefits of Valkyrie training, but she lacked the name, and she was certain that, excepting Vibs, she lacked the camaraderie. K and T teams were clearly disgusted by her. By Vibs for making her. Offended by her very existence.

She had been about to kiss Vibeke. The thought was beyond impossible now. She could tell that Vibeke was ashamed of having made her, at least in the presence of the Valkyries. She wanted to forget Vibeke's disgust with her. She wanted anything else to be on her mind.

“When you were a kid, wasn't there anything that made you happy? Any escape from it all?”

Vibeke stared at her. “Violet asked that before. Don't you remember?”

“I remember she liked your reply. I want to like it too.”

Vibs looked her over. Turned away as if not to indulge her. But then she spoke.

“Model kits. I used to build model kits.”

“Why didn't you in Valhalla?”

“Violet didn't ask that.”

“Guess I'm more curious.”

Vibeke sat for a moment, looking at the water. “Had people to kill. It's better than model kits. And has fewer repercussions.”

“Fewer?”

“You kill someone as a Valkyrie and that's that. You build a model kit, and you have to give it shelf space. Have to worry about its well-being. Have to defend it when people attack.”

“Who attacked your model kits?”

“State review. When they came to the house, they saw my room full of tanks and armored cars covered in swastikas. Didn't care I built Deutsch World War II stuff because I like the angular armor, weird shapes and shit. Just saw swastikas. Pestered my mom, said she was raising me to be a Nazi. They took me and interviewed me, asked me about racism and fascism and other shit I never even heard of because I was like seven. Told me I was ‘Aryan.' I dyed my hair black for the first time the next night. Got rid of all my old Deutsch kits, built boring American planes and good moral Norsk defense satellites after that.”

Nel looked her over and felt empathy again but didn't shy away from it. She let it wash over her and tweak the way she saw Vibeke.

“I tried to get into it again in prison. They had a model club there, contests and shit. Friendliest people I ever met, in prison or out. I mean, I've never seen such supportive people; they always jumped on board each other's projects and complimented every build, gave friendly advice and tips. Deutsch kits were banned of course, all military. Anything violent.”

“So what did you build?”

Vibeke spat angrily, “Ponies and snot! What the fuck are you asking for?”

“Just wondering.”

Vibeke huffed. Nel thought she was disgusted with her all the more for her attempt at conversation. She didn't know how to backtrack. Vibeke stared at her. Nel couldn't figure out what she was thinking. The fear of disgust still plagued her.

She asked Vibeke, “What do I give you that makes you keep me around?”

Vibeke thought. “The humanity I lost.”

“But I'm not human.”

“I think you're more human than most of the real species right now.”

“How so?”

“Humankind was intelligent once. Homo sapiens, ‘wise man.' We're not anymore. We used to be curious, used to explore, used to care. We haven't since the war. Haven't since before then, not for a hundred years. Homo stagnans. Homo putridus. Now we're Homo peritabamur. You're the only thing on this planet that has a chance. That has any hope.”

“Do I give you hope?”

“If anything did, it would be you.”

“But nothing does?”

Vibeke sat still, looking at the garbage and bodies in the water as they sailed past.