Hammer's War 1: Forging the Hammer (20 page)

“Damn
it. Eve, Rhonda’s body got heavily damaged. We need you in the damaged section right now!”

“I’
m on my way down, Rhonda what’s your status?”  Rhonda rattled off a laundry list of system failures.  Eve physically walked into the room, she came over and bent down and started working on the torso.  After a minute or two Thad lost track of time.

Eve spoke, “Th
ere is nothing I can do for her. She is trapped in there.”

Thad looked worried, “What do you mean trapped? 
Can’t we just download her to the bike?”

“She is so badly damaged her wireless systems are destroyed and the hard connection is melted
.  She needs to stay powered up, but the dimensional power supply was damaged. The link has been cut.  She is running on back up batteries, which are cracked, and leaking.  I would connect her to outside power, but the connections are melted.”  Eve said as tears started to form in her eyes.

Thad stood there, arms folded, trying to
understand what Eve was saying, “Okay so we replace the power connections, hook her up to power, reboot her, and keep her happy until we can transfer her out?”

Eve touched his arm gently, “Thad dear, it doesn’t work that way with AI’s
. Because the AI is modeled after the human brain, it has interconnections much like your neurons, and must be powered all the time or the connections that  allow the AI to exist break down right after power is lost, just like in the human brain.”

“So
are you telling me she is dying?”  Freya said.

Eve shook her head and tears started
running down her check, “Yes, she is dying.”

Thad put his arm around Eve, “Don’t you have a
backup of her programming?”

“I do, but I don’t think you understand.  Rhonda was a learning AI
, which means everything from the first day she was turned on until today is what made her Rhonda. Those experiences can never be replaced. I can restart her, but she would be like the way she was on day one. The Rhonda we have come to know and love would be gone.”  Her crying was really convincing, Thad thought.  He just hugged her.  Sometimes it was hard to remember she was a computer and having a body made it even harder.

Fiona and
Archie joined them.  Rhonda was surrounded by those who loved her.  One by one, they said their goodbyes.  Thad sat down next to her.  He went to hold her, but Eve told him it was no use. All her sensory inputs were destroyed.  She would not know he was holding her, but he ignored Eve and cradled Rhonda’s burned broken head in his arms. 

Her voice was weak
.  She knew she was dying, “Thad.”

“I’
m here,” he said.

“I’
m sorry I never got the chance to tell you how much you mean to me.”  Her voice processor was failing and her voice was starting to distort and crack up.

“It’s okay
Rhonda, I know.  I have always known.”  He was trying to comfort her.

“I’
m glad you know I love you. I was made for you, and you never treated me like a machine.  You made me feel, human.”  Her voice was breaking up more, and it was hard to understand her.  “Not long now, I’m almost out of power, but I just wanted to say it, I love you.”

“I love you too Rhonda
,” he said.

Fiona said, “We all do, we all love you
.”

They were stunned as
they heard laughter coming from Rhonda.  They looked at Eve.  She shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, maybe it’s a result of the loss of power.”

Rhonda spoke again, “No
, it’s not that. I was just thinking about....  Ever since I got this body, I tried to find the right way... to ask the wives if I could...  If I could maybe, someday be a wife too, and now it all seems so silly, that a robot girl could become one of the family.”

Tears were in everyone’s eyes now.  Fiona said, “Oh Rhonda you are part
of the family, and as far as I’m concerned you are my sister wife, as much as my sister is.”

“Thank you
,” her voice trailed off.

She did not speak again.  Eve bent dow
n and checked her power supply; it was gone.  Thad left the room for a minute and returned with a sheet.  He carefully and lovingly covered her remains. 

Freya was huggi
ng Fiona, “I can’t believe she’s gone.”

Eve was so angry she stormed off
.  Thad thought about going after her, but Fiona saw what he was thinking in his eyes, “Don’t, let her go. She needs to be alone.”

After Rhonda was
gone, they stood there for a few minutes in silence. Thad was the first to speak, “Come on we have work to do.”             

The twins
retrieved body bags from the medical lab, while Thad and Archie stripped the weapons and gear from the dead.  They all helped with the grisly task of putting the bodies into bags.  Eve fired up the maid bots and set them to work, cleaning, and scrubbing away blood.  The fabrication bots were already working on repairing the hole in the wall.  The body bags were placed in the morgue.  Thad remarked, “I’m glad Doctor Hammer built this,” referring to the morgue, “but I’m sad it’s seeing so much use.”

Thad had the fabrication bots make a casket for
Rhonda, and then Archie lifted her remains and placed them into it.  While Rhonda was being placed into the casket, Freya was outside with a slaver disintegrator, digging a grave.  The fabrication bots were then tasked with making a head stone. 

Thad and the twins jumped into a shower and helped each other wash the grime and blood from their bodies.  Afterward,
Archie was buffed to a high shine, while everyone else dressed in black.  They buried Rhonda next to Doctor Hammer.  It was a solemn affair and no one spoke.  Afterward, Eve asked, “Do you want me to load a new Rhonda into your bike?”

He replied, “No, she was one of a kind
.”  Thad felt it was what she hoped to hear.  “Just leave it for now and maybe later we can talk about another AI to take over the bike.” 

Eve
had tears in her eyes again, “You really do treat us like people.”

He put his arm around her, “To me, you are
.  Just because your origin is not the same as mine, doesn’t mean that you are any less of a person than I am.  Just because you are living in a computer or robot body doesn’t mean a hill of beans to me.” 

“Oh Thaddeus,” she pulled him close and kissed his check
.  “Thank you.”

He was a little floored by her reaction
.  “You’re welcome.”  Thad said, lightly touching the lipstick that was left on his cheek.

Thad tried contacting the Sheriff, but there was no answer.  He then tried The Nymphia, again no answer.  “Something is wrong,” he said out loud.  Thad was worried because he could not reach anyone in town.  He loaded up the sand crawler with gear, but before he could leave, the twins confronted him, “Just where to do you think you are running off to, Mister?”  Fiona asked.

“Something’
s wrong in town and I’m going to find out what it is.”  Thad threw the last bag of gear into the back of the crawler. 

Before he could prot
est, both his new wives jumped into the cab of the crawler, “Okay, let’s go,” Freya said.  Thad knew better than to argue, so he jumped up next to them, shut the door, and fired up the engine.

As they approached the
town, a large black plume of smoke was rising into the evening sky.  The smoke was blocking the setting sun, and it made the whole sky appear blood red.  Inside the sand crawler, Freya spoke softly, almost in a whisper, “Some say a red sunset means blood has been spilled this day.”  She voiced what they all feared, and it was not long before they could see their worst fears were coming true.  Thad parked in front of the general store, and the twins disembarked the vehicle, both carrying submachine guns.  Thad went to the back of the crawler, grabbed a heavy assault rifle, and exited through the back door.

They looked around
, but there was not a soul in sight.  Few buildings still stood.  Most of them were burned to the ground and in some the fires were still burning, “Oh my God!  This place is like a ghost town,” Freya brushed a stray hair from her face and chambered a round.

“What happened here?
”  Fiona asked.

Thad looked around, stunned to see so much destruction, “I have no idea, but I’m going to find out.
”

The Nymphia was gone.  There was nothing left of it, but a smoking pile of rubble.  On the other end of the street
, Bob’s Fuel Tank Bar still stood.  At a distance, it looked untouched.  Thad pointed towards Bobs, “Let’s start there.”

As they wal
ked towards Bob’s they noticed dark patches in the sand, drag marks, and lots of spent weapons energy packs.  Thad was beginning to get a good understanding of what had happened.  There had been a pitched battle fought here and the closer they got to Bob’s they could see the damage and bodies. “Sanitation,” he mumbled to himself.

Freya heard him, “Sanitation?”

“Yeah, this is the work of a sanitation team.  It’s something my former employers would do.  They would call in a sanitation team to kill anyone who had any knowledge of the target or witnessed something they shouldn’t have. But I can’t believe that they would sanitize a whole town.”  Thad’s face grew dark and his eyes cold.

Fiona placed her hand on his shoulder, “Wow!  What truly evil bastards.”

“You don’t know the half of it, and from what I can remember of it, you don’t want to know,” Thad’s knuckles were white on the grips of his assault rifle.

They approached Bob’s very carefully
.  They started to find more and more bodies the closer they came and they were in bad condition, burned and blown apart.  Thad bent down and lifted up an arm that was still in good shape.  The familiar black body armor covered the arm, “It looks like a mix of town’s folk and th
e
sanitation team here.”

Freya looked around
at the nightmare in front of them, “Well, it looks like they didn’t go down without a fight.”

Thad dropped the arm, “
Let’s hope our side won, and there are some people left in this town.”

A small clanking noise came from inside Bob’s
, and in a flash Thad had his weapon at the ready.  Without a word, he took the lead, with Freya and Fiona right behind him.  Carefully they climbed the steps to the door.  He clicked the rifle’s safety off, pulled the door open, and entered with the ladies right behind him.  He took the center while both girls took up the right and left, their guns trained and ready.

The place was empty
, “Damn it, I was really hoping they didn’t get Carl,” Freya said.

“Freya, how could you say such a thing?
”  Fiona was a bit shocked at her sister’s lack of concern for anyone else.

“
Sorry, it’s just that I love his cooking,” she replied with a smirk.

“Shut up you two. 
I heard something,” Thad pointed to the kitchen area.  Guns instantly snapped back to the ready, but nothing moved, nor was there any sound, save for their own breathing.  Thad was moving slowly towards the back room, when a loud crashing from the back which caused him to freeze, posed ready to strike. 

“Damn it Jenna!  Stupid woman, n
ow they will know we’re here for sure,” the voice was Carl’s.

“
Well, they definitely will know now, with you bellowing like a wild beast, you ass,” Jenna snapped back at him.

Thad was relieved to hear their voices, “
It’s okay guys. It’s Thad, and company.”

Carl yelled from the back, “Thad is that you?”

“Yeah, I just said it was, unless there’s another Thad on this rock.  It’s safe to come out.  The bastards who did this are long gone.”

Carl came out first,
dirty, and covered in bloodstains.  He had a bandage wrapped around his head, “Oh am I glad to see you, still alive!”

Jenna followed, she too was dirty and covered in blood,
“Oh Thad, they killed so many, Xandra, the girls, and most of your guests all dead.  It was awful, but the Sheriff and one of his deputies were able to save some of us.  They held them off while the rest of us hid.”

Freya ran to Jenna and gave her a hug.  Fiona looked at Carl’s blood stained shirt, “Is that...?”

“Oh, the blood, no it’s not mine, at least not most of it.  I did take a little shrapnel from a grenade, while trying to carry the Johnsons’ daughter to safety.”  Carl answered.

Thad looked at Carl, “How many are still alive?” 

Carl walked to the bar and poured himself a drink, “I’m not sure.  We hid as many as we could in my basement shelter.  I think we have at least two dozen or so, most of them wounded.  Doc Burton has been working all night down there, trying to help them.”  He took the drink and downed it, then poured himself another.

Thad nodded
.  Using his communication implant he contacted Eve, “Eve, I need you and Archie to load the limo with all the medical supplies you can fit into it.  Get into town as soon as you can.”

“Is it bad?
”  Eve asked.

“
It’s bad Eve, just get here as soon as you can,” Thad said coldly.

“
We’re on our way!”  Eve replied.

Thad, taking charge, pointed to Freya, “Go get the sand crawler and bring it here.
” He turned to Fiona, “You go down with Jenna.  Get a list of equipment Doc Burton needs.  When Freya gets back, I want you to take her and anyone who isn’t hurt and start searching building to building to see if you can find anyone else is alive.  Oh, and place a marker near any bodies you find so they can be collected and put to rest.”

Freya
didn’t say anything just turned and ran for the door.  Fiona asked, “Jenna, any children down there?”

Jenna nodded, “Yes there are six of them
.  None wounded, thank God.  They are more scared than anything.”

Fiona said to
Thad, “I think we should keep them all together for now and have Eve look after them.”

“Good idea,
dear.  Get to it,” Thad said.  She nodded and disappeared into the back.  “Carl do you think anyone else is still alive?”

He was on his third drink, “I don’t know, but a lot of people here in this town
had secret access to the mine tunnels.  I can only hope they made it down into them.”  He started to pour himself another drink.

“Carl, I know you
’re really shaken up, but Jenna and the rest are going to need you for the next few hours.  How about we lay off the drinking for now?”  He took the bottle from Carl’s shaking hand.  “There will be plenty of time for that, later.”

Carl steadied himself and looked Thad in the eye, “You
’re right!  They need me.”

Thad left the bar as Freya pulled up in the crawler.  He jumped
up on the back and opened it, tossing out two black duffel bags.  Freya shut off the crawler motor and came to the back, “What’s in the bags?”

“I was worried there was trouble, so I packed some medical supplies.  But it looks like we
’re going to need a lot more than this.”

Freya
picked up the bags and walked back into Bob’s.  Thad jumped down from the crawler and carefully made his way up the street toward the Sheriff’s office.  The door was shot to Hell and the windows were all shattered.  One Hell of a fight took place here.  He entered, stepping over the broken, shattered remains of the door.

Inside
was not much better than outside.  The floor and counter of the reception area were littered with fragments, blasted from several holes in the concrete wall.  On the floor, behind the counter, were two dead men dressed in black uniforms.  There was no doubt this was the work of the sanitation team.  After examining the dead, Thad walked back towards the Sheriff’s desk.

Thad heard movement.  His weapon snapped to the ready, like a
well-trained solider snaps to attention when an officer enters the room.  A faint voice came from behind the overturned desk, “If you fuckers have come back to finish me off, I still have a few rounds left, and I promise you, I’ll take a few more with me.”

Thad smiled, it was the voice of the old
Sheriff, “Hey you old bastard, don’t shoot!” Thad yelled back over the desk.

“Thank God son
.  I’m glad it’s you. I was bluffing.  I’m all shot up and out of ammo,” the Sheriff said weakly.

Thad walked
around the desk where he found the Sheriff sitting with his back against the brick wall, his uniform in tatters.  He was dirty and bloody, his right arm just hanging by his side, covered in burns.  On his lap was his youngest deputy.  He was dead, but the Sheriff had his left arm wrapped around the boys head, hugging it.  Thad bent down next to him, “It looks like you’ve had better days.”

The
Sheriff managed a slight smile, “I have.”

“
I’m glad to see you still have some fight left in you!”  Thad took the empty laser pistol from his trembling hand.

“I couldn’t save him,” tears welled up in his eyes.

“Michael was his name wasn’t it?
”  Thad asked looking at the young man.

“Yes it was.  He was a
good lad, would have made one Hell of a lawman, given a chance.  It’s too bad these bastards showed up and robbed him of that.  You know, he fought to the very end, and when he was laying here dying, he didn’t once lament for himself.  He kept on saying how sorry he was for not saving more.”  The Sheriff paused, “He should be alive, not me.” The tears broke free and ran down his cheeks washing runnels through the blood and grime on his face.  “Why do the good ones have to die so young, and worthless washed-up old men like me survive?”

Thad set his weapon down, took
a small med kit from his belt, opened it, and began to dress the Sheriff's wounds.  “I don’t know, but I do know there is way too much death in this galaxy at the hands of evil men.  I promise you I won’t rest until the people responsible for this see justice.”

The
Sheriff carefully and lovingly laid Michael’s head down, and with his good arm, grabbed Thad, “Damn it Thad, don’t you dare!  You make them pay!  You kill them all!  You do it for him, you do it for Michael, do it for all of them!”

Thad
took his hand in his, “I will, don’t you worry, they will pay.  Now let’s get you taken care of.”  Before the Sheriff could protest Thad pushed a needle into his arm loaded with a combo of painkillers, antibiotics, and a sedative. The Sheriff was out in a matter of seconds.  Thad picked up his limp body and headed for Bob’s, which had become the town refugee center.

On his way
back, Thad heard something coming from inside one of the burned out buildings.  He set the Sheriff down and made sure he was safe.  Weapon at the ready he entered.  He listened and it was the sound of white noise, the kind that comes from an open comm. Thad fallowed the sound to a back room.  There he found one of the sanitation team.  He was wounded, but still breathing.  His comm was softly hissing and he was sound asleep. 
He must have crawled back here after being wounded
, Thad thought.  He could see that the man had treated his wounds, so he was going to make it. 

Too bad for him
!  Thad poked him in the ribs with the barrel of his weapon, “wake up!”

The man’s eyes snapped open
and he reached for his weapon.  Thad swung the butt of his rifle, striking the man in the upper arm.  His bone shattered with a nasty sounding crack.  The man used his other arm to cradle the damaged one.

Thad squatted down next to him, “So you bastards think you can come and kill everything that means anything to me?  Well didn’t go so well for you did it?”