Nellie and the Nanites - Bk2 - Ch.15

Chapter 15

Adjustments

Brix was arguing with someone over the comms when Crush found him. The big man was usually a gentle soul, but his sizable frame was shaking visibly with barely suppressed rage.

“You can’t do this!” Brix yelled into the hissing and crackling comm unit. “We need supplies. How am I supposed to feed my people?”

“Not my problem, Brix,” A gruff voice replied. “Something really got the Feds rilled up. Until the situation changes, you’re on your own.”

Brix snarled as the line cleared and smashed the comm set against the wall. The comm techs fled as Brix whirled to see Crush grinning at him.

“So, how’s your morning going?” Crush asked lightly.

“Brilliant!” Brix snapped and then laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to lose it like that.”

“So, what’s up?” Crush asked as Brix started to put the scattered files back onto his desk.

“We are cut off from supplies,” Brix grimaced. “No supply drops coming, and it was already a few days late.”

“Lots of abandoned villages and stuff around; we’ll find something,” Crush reassured his old friend.

“I thought of that about a week ago,” Brix said with a bitter laugh. “Someone beat us to it and cleared everything in the area already.”

“Everything?” Crush let his doubt creep into his voice. No one ever took everything. That would have required someone to methodically strip village after village. It would take weeks and a very efficient mind.

“Yeah, I assumed they must have missed stuff as well, but no luck.” Brix shrugged. “Think it was the Feds?”

“No,” Crush dismissed the idea instantly. Armies never took everything. Soldiers might loot along their path, but methodically clearing everything out didn’t make sense. It took too long, for one thing. They would be in the area for weeks at a time, too vulnerable. “They would hit a few, maybe, but they don’t seem to need supplies badly enough to bother.”

“Refugees?” Brix offered. “Or bandits?”

“Refugees would either settle or move on,” Crush said thoughtfully, “Bandits would only take the best stuff. They wouldn’t hang around long enough to load up.” Still, that did give him an idea, although it was one he had dismissed a few weeks ago.

“Then who?” Brix growled in frustration.

“What about the beacon?” Crush asked.

“You can’t be serious?” Brix said again. They had been arguing for the last half hour. “The Beacon is a myth; you have to know that!”

“As a person?” Crush-Cha smiled slyly, “Of course. But what if it is more than one person?”

“Go on,” Brix sighed. “I know you have something, so just get to it already.”

“Is there a town near here that is known to take in refugees?” Crush asked archly.

“Yeah, a backwater place with some former barkeep as the mayor,” Brix said, “We have avoided the place so we didn’t bring the Feds down on it. Word is, you get there, you’re safe and fed for the foreseeable.” He frowned. “Which is weird now I come to think about it.”

“Yeah,” Crush nodded, “That sounds about right. I’d be willing to bet they have teams going in and out of there to gather supplies.” He clicked his fingers. “Is the barkeep a woman by any chance?”

“I think so,” Brix said. “I never really took much notice.”

“I think she might be this beacon everyone is talking about,” Crush flushed with pride at figuring it out. “She runs this place, and with all the refugees, she has plenty of people, and I bet shuttles to get the whole area cleared in a few weeks.”

“Makes more sense than a single person, I suppose.” Brix shrugged again. “How does that help us?”

“She must have the kind of network we need for supply,” Crush said. “We just need to make contact.”

“Without the Feds noticing,” Brix said sternly.

“That’s where my team comes in,” Crush smiled, “We go in as refugees, get the lay of the land, and make contact when the time is right.”

“Make it quick,” Brix said, “We won’t last long without supplies.”

“Consider it done!” Crush snapped off a salute smart enough to make a drill sergeant weep happy tears and assembled his team.

They had work to do.

===<<<>>>===

Nellie watched the shuttle swoop and twirl through the air like a swallow as Baz took it through a series of tests. The newest member of her crew was a strange one, but it would be nice to have another pilot to fly stuff around.

Salem stood next to her, with a clipboard, as usual, ticking things off as they watched the former blank putting the shuttle through its paces. She was scowling up at the shuttle and tutting occasionally.

“What’s wrong?” Nellie asked Salem.

“Nothing,” Salem almost growled. “He is doing everything perfectly.”

“And that bothers you?” Nellie asked.

“No,” She said coldly. “I am delighted he is performing the duties he was not designed to do so ably.”

“Did Lucy install sarcasm routines, or are they standard?” Nellie smirked.

“Sorry,” Salem sighed. “It is disturbing to see a synthetic exceeding their design parameters.”

“Yeah, I guess it must be,” Nellie said gently, “But I imagine that Lucy altered those parameters.”

“Huh,” Salem bit a corner of her mouth while she thought. “I suppose she would have done. That at least explains some of it.”

“There is more?” Nellie asked.

“He’s irritating,” Salem said. “An irritating synthetic is like… we are designed to NOT irritate people or each other.”

“How is he irritating?” Nellie asked, trying not to laugh at the earnest expression on Salem’s face. Salem herself had certainly seemed to irritate Fourteen, so she assumed it was something Salem was exaggerating.

“It’s…” She trailed off, clearly hesitant to speak.

“Go on,” Nellie prompted.

“His face makes me want to punch him!” Salem exploded. “And he smirks. Smirks… at me, at Dar, at everyone!” She huffed, “And worst of all –worst of ALL– he smirks at his own mistakes!”

“That sounds perfectly healthy,” Nellie said, well aware she was a chronic smirker herself.

“It won’t be if I shoot him!” Salem hissed and then looked horrified at herself.

Nellie just laughed as Baz came in to land as smoothly as could be in the landing bay just ahead of them.

The loading bay opened, and Baz walked out, whistling tunelessly, and nodded to her and Salem.

“How was it?” Nellie asked.

“Lovely, thanks,” Baz said with a polite smile. “Handles a lot better than it looks.” He turned to look at Salem and nodded to her.

“Do you want to know how you did?” Salem asked tartly.

“I was a little off on the third turn,” Baz frowned. “Other than that, I executed your list flawlessly.”

“Yes. Well done.” Salem said icily.

“Anything else I can do for you, ladies?” He asked mildly, completely ignoring Salem’s tone.

“I should have just let you shoot him,” Salem snapped and stormed off to hassle the others. They would have a harrowing half-hour while she made everyone’s lives miserable to work off her frustration with Baz.

She turned back from watching the unflappable Salem storm off to find Baz smirking. Nellie cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What?” He asked, the very picture of injured innocence. “She needs to relax a little.”

“You think winding her up will do that?” Nellie asked.

“It might,” Baz grinned, “And if not, it is still fun!”

Leaving the smirking Baz to his amusements with a strict warning not to bother Salem too much, Nellie went to find the other massive change to her life recently. Her partner in all things, Lucy. Or rather, her body.

Finding Lucy was as simple as asking the question; she was always there, after all. The new body was another thing entirely.

A quick trip up to the walls revealed a fully grown woman frolicking in the flowers growing just outside the walls. Up until that point, Nellie had assumed the word frolicking was just something from old books, but as she watched the AI dancing around and laughing, she could not deny it. Lucy was frolicking.

She turned to Nellie and waved before going back to playing amongst the flowers.

“Do you need me?” Lucy asked, the voice coming from Nellie’s inner ear as usual.

“No, just checking where you were,” Nellie said, leaning on the molded stone parapet and watching. “Having fun?”

“Yes!” Lucy said happily. “I never knew how incredible everything was. I normally have second-hand information. Having my own nerve endings is completely different.”

“It must be,” Nellie said, smiling. “So, how did you set up Baz’s personality?”

“Problem?” Lucy asked.

“No, he’s just irritating Salem,” Nellie chuckled and replayed the conversation for Lucy. It was only as the replay ended that she realized she had replayed the conversation rather than just telling Lucy what happened.

Now that she thought about it, she had been doing that more often lately. Why bother to tell Lucy when she could see for herself?

Nellie was reasonably sure she was replaying memories for herself as well; it was much more accurate than trying to actually remember things. What effect this would have on her long term? Was she changing into something… more than human or less than human?

“Oh, well, he didn’t have a lot of personality subroutines left, so I copied Salem’s and added a few designed like you,” Lucy said, the sentence bringing Nellie’s reverie to a crashing halt.

“Wait, what?” She spluttered. “Me? Why me?”

“You’re my person,” Lucy laughed. “Who else would I choose?”

“I’m not exactly Miss Mental Health,” Nellie said with a frown, “Was that safe?”

“For us?” Lucy laughed. “Of course, haven’t you seen the drone list lately?”

“Huh?” Nellie asked dumbly as another train of thought derailed.

“Just think about it,” Lucy huffed.

Drones

Paren - Far (Prime)

Salem

Dar-Ken

Vay-Il

Baz

The words appeared in her vision without her having to even concentrate. Nellie scanned them over and over again. How had she ended up with so many drones?

“Why are the synthetics showing as drones?” Nellie asked. “I didn’t convert them, did I?”

“No, but they are digital consciousnesses programmed with absolute loyalty.” Lucy said smoothly, “They are identical to drones in all ways that matter; they just didn’t have nanites.”

Nellie noted Lucy said they ‘didn’t’ as opposed to ‘don’t’ have nanites.

“And when exactly did they acquire nanites?” Nellie asked archly.

“Their design was abysmal!” Lucy said defensively. “Their power cores were terrible, so I might have decided that nanite forges were a better option.”

Nellie banged her head on the stone as she groaned.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Lucy laughed at her, “They are just minor upgrades, really.”

Nellie just sighed and reminded herself to keep a closer eye on her enthusiastic AI from now on.

“Hey!” Lucy called up to her from down below. “Come down and cuddle!”

Nellie looked over the edge to see Lucy smiling up at her, recumbent in a field of wildflowers. “It’s fun!”

===<<<>>>===

Crush and his team walked towards the town's walls with deliberately weary steps, their eyes darting around nervously as if they expected an attack at any moment. Their clothes were ragged, torn, and dirty. Everything about them said ‘help me’ or ‘victim’ depending on who was looking. While the others distracted any watchers with a fake stumble and fall, Crush scanned the walls with shaded eyes.

He had expected to see armed guards, maybe even some form of make-do militia; that was what he had found in his brief visits to other out-of-the-way places. Here, there was nothing. The walls almost seemed abandoned, but the sounds of a busy town within meant they were in the right place. How on earth did they manage to defend this place if there were no guards?

A buzzing noise from his left announced the arrival of a meter-and-a-half wide domed disk, mechanical arms dangling from below. It hovered above them, and Crush saw several reaching for concealed weapons until he stopped them with a grunt.

Whatever this was, it was unlikely to be an attack.

“Welcome to the village,” A woman’s voice came from the speakers on the underside of the disk. “We detected your approach, and a welcoming party will come to meet you as soon as you have disarmed yourselves. We apologize for asking you to remove your weapons, but we must take care.”

Crush laid his pistol on the floor, as did a couple of his team. They had decided to take three small arms with them for just this kind of situation. The drone did not move when they were done and simply hung there.

“We’ve done it!” One yelled up at the thing.

“Please lay all weapons on the floor,” The disk repeated. “There are still three knives, two concealed pistols, and one small explosive device to be removed.”

“Who brought a fucking bomb?” Three growled although everyone knew who it would be already.

“It’s just a little one, promise!” Five called out guiltily.

“There is no such thing as a little bomb,” Crush sighed. “Well, this is already going great.”

“Your failure to comply has led to the distress call being issued to nearby support. If you wish ill to this town, I suggest you leave quickly.” The voice came again.

“This might work as well,” Crush said with a grin. “Everybody grab a place to sit, hands were they are visible, and no sudden moves.”

He got a chorus of affirmations and sighed.

“Five?” He called.

“Yes, boss?” Five answered.

“Get rid of that bloody bomb, or I’ll shove it up your ass.” Crush chuckled.

“It’s already there, boss,” Five said with a grin. “Just in case they searched us.”

“You fucking idiot,” Two snapped. “I was walking beside you on the way here! What if it went off?”

Less than ten minutes passed before a shuttle appeared and rapidly came into land, sending up a wash of dust and debris that effectively blinded them for a few seconds. Crush admired the tactic and tucked it away for later use. It was looking more and more likely this was a serious organization, just as he had suspected.

What was more, they kept their armed forces elsewhere. Even if the Feds came, they would find nothing but a village full of refugees.

They wouldn’t even know it was defended until they started something.

He heard the drop of the cargo ramp from the shuttle through the dust and waited to see exactly who he was dealing with eagerly. Whoever it was, they put together a good system. Now, all he needed was to convince them to help supply Brix’s group.

“You can stand, but keep your hands away from any pockets,” An efficient-sounding voice called.

“We’re just refugees!” One called, putting a quaver in her voice nicely.

“Yeah? Did you hear that Salem? They are just a bunch of refugees with concealed weapons and a bomb in their asses. Silly of us to come out, really.” A male voice said, but the tone was friendly.

“Shut up, Baz,” The efficient one snapped. “The adults are talking.”

“Should I call you mum then?” Baz asked.

“I will hit you,” Salem growled back.

“Fine,” Baz sighed. “Okay, Dar and Vey have you covered so don’t try anything funny.” The last of the dust cleared, and Crush frowned at the four brackta before him. They were undoubtedly a varied group. The two large ones were clearly the muscle; their whole body radiated a military bearing, while the woman looked like some kind of administrator. That left the last one slouched against the shuttle's bulkhead and grinning in the way Crush associated with the smugglers that turned up occasionally back on Fig-7.

“Who’s in charge?” Salem asked in a firm but polite voice.

“That’s me,” Crush said with a slight nod. “Crush-Cha.”

“I didn’t think we were gonna give names?” Five asked; he even raised his hand. Crush just winced as one clapped five across the back of the head.

“Hey, you lot are funny. Do you do evening shows?” The man called Baz chuckled, earning himself a glare from Salem.

“What can we do for you, Mr Cha?” Salem asked. “I know you did not come for shelter, so?”

Crush considered his options carefully. Everything had gone completely to hell here. Nothing was working as it should, and more than that, he was sure he was missing something important. He just wasn’t sure what it was. Well, if nothing else works, honesty is always worth a try…

“We are looking to secure supplies for a group of people near here,” Crush began. “I assume you aren’t Feds?”

“Correct,” Salem said.

“What was your first clue?” Baz smirked at him and pointed to the battered shuttle they had come from.

“We are with the resistance but are cut off. I need supplies for the troops we have gathered.” Crush knew it was a risk, but what else could he do? Something told him they would not believe that he needed supplies for another village. In fact, if he were a betting man, he would be willing to bet these people knew pretty much everything around here.

“How many, and what supplies?” Salem asked.

“We need pretty much everything for about a thousand,” Crush said, inflating their numbers quite a bit, just in case.

“There is no way we didn’t see a thousand people,” Baz snorted. “Try again, Mr. Cha.”

“And now he knows we know, Baz,” Salem snapped. “Try to keep quiet, will you?”

“Sorry, Mum,” Baz chuckled and acted abashed.

“Where do you want the supplies?” Salem asked. “And we advise it is close enough that nothing spots you walking along with a bunch of stuff.”

“One?” Crush called, his eyes fixed on someone standing in the shadows inside the shuttle.

“We have the coordinates,” One said, rattling off the drop site numbers quickly. “Shall I write that down for you?”

“It has been noted, thank you.” Salem nodded. “We will have supplies for you in a few hours.”

“Wait, who are you?” Crush asked, still eyeing the shadowed figure. “I’d like to know who is supplying us.”

“This is a one-time deal,” Salem said, shaking her head. “After this, send someone to this area and ask for Duke. We will make sure they know you are coming.”

“Are you with the Beacon?” Crush called as they backed into the shuttle.

“Ta ta for now!” Baz gave a theatrical bow as the ramp rose and the shuttle bay closed. The last thing Crush saw was Salem swatting at the man as he laughed.

===<<<>>>===

Nellie watched the bickering pair with her mind a million miles away. It really was Crush-Cha. Lucy had noted him on the scan message from the scout drone and warned her who it was… but she had to see for herself.

The whole flight over, she had been determined to speak to him herself but had chickened out in the end. Nellie had told herself she was just being careful, but it was much more than that. Crush had been the first reliably friendly face in this sector. The first who had seemed to have her back. Sure, it ended badly, but she was glad to see him anyway. That was why she had lurked in the shuttle like a child. She was worried she’d smile or laugh the wrong way, and he would figure it out.

Sure he would, in fact. Crush was as sharp as her nanoblade, but she couldn’t bring herself to refuse to help him. A new face, a new look, even a new skin tone. A new voice… he would never know. Except he would, somehow.

She knew it.

So, Nellie decided to be his shadowy backer instead. She could still help her friends; they could just never know it was her.

She looked up as Baz slid into the co-pilot seat decide her and pulled the door to the cabin shut in Salem’s outraged face.

“So, funny story,” Baz said amiably, “That was the same group that killed and burned all the synthetics back at home.”

“WHAT?” Nellie yelled in shock.