The Shogun and the Scientist
By Tomas L. Martin

Illustration by Nicola L. Robinson

verywhere you go,” Aera told me, “take a piece of me along with you.”

This is easier and less esoteric than it sounds. Aera is a purely digital being of zeros and ones and rather more light to pack than a live human. I take her embedded in the hilt of my sword. Every time it is unsheathed in battle, Aera is with my strike.

With most people struggling to have power and food, it’s unusual to have such a companion on the Plates. But then, my family tree is rather unusual. There aren’t many sons of scientists left – most were killed when the plates broke apart, or have forgotten who they are.

Most men have to serve in the armed service of one of the feudal warlords that occupy the plates – a bracelet of island-sized habitats that once orbited a star. In the hundreds of years since the catastrophe that tore everything apart, the society has gotten...feral. When only a fraction of the 786 plates receive enough light to grow any food, the other plates grow more desperate things. Like war.

The guerrilla radio of revolutionaries on Pyr plate came rushing through my ears as I walked, sword at my side, Aera linking me in to the illegal broadcast.

“The time has come,” a rather rabid radio commentator was saying, “To end the Warlords and their rule, to overthrow the status quo and reclaim our right!”

“Turn if off,” I said. The radio faded away from my ears. I’d heard all of it before. Plus, I had to go see one of the same warlords in the next few minutes and it was probably wise not to fill my brain with anti-establishment rhetoric.

A guard in ornate armour greeted me as I approached the gates of Hauger’s palace. Hauger’s forces controlled 7 plates surrounding their capital.

“I’m Gusev,” I said, “I have an appointment with the Warlord.”

*     *     *     *     *

“I’m told you’re good with technology,” the Shogun stated without any lead-up. He was not one for small talk, it seemed. I nodded warily, for it was true. There weren’t many people left who could operate much of the more complicated stuff left on the plates.

“I’ve got a lot of experience with old tech,” I said, patting the last known AI at my pommel.

“My men have found something,” Hauger said. “You’re here because I’ve been told you might be able to work it.”

“It’s possible,” I told him. “What is it?”

The warlord didn’t answer me or even look at me, merely clicked his ring-encrusted fingers and turned away.

“My technohack will answer any questions,” Hauger said and left the room.

Two guards and the technohack, a nervous looking man in robes and ill-fitting spectacles led me quickly out of the throne room. I eyed the technohack warily. Like most of his kind, he had rudimentary computer interfaces poking out of the skin at the back of his head.

“Not a man of many words, is he?” I said. The guards glared at me and the technohack looked nervous.

“You shouldn’t say such things,” he whispered. “He’s not the kind of man who forgives easily.”

“Hauger’s got a long list of rumours surrounding disappearances of people who disagree with him, as well as numerous torture rooms,” Aera added in a voice only I could hear.

“I’ll bear that in mind,” I said, double-checking that my personal shield was up to full power.

The technohack looked like he might be a victim of Hauger’s torture chambers. A slight, bent figure, the exposed skin on his arms and shaven head were scarred heavily with complicated metal components implanted within angry weals of scar tissue.

“So you’re the scientist,” he said in a scornful voice. I got the feeling my presence here was threatening his job as scientific advisor to the warlord.

“So what have you found?” I asked. His face twisted with distaste and obvious reluctance.

“You need to be careful around this one,” Aera said. “although the technology implanted in him is crude, he may be able to detect me.”

The technohack led me to a cable car station leading out of the palace’s upper levels and out across to one of the nearby plates. I could see five from here, including the gigantic spires of Kohn, the mountainous plate that cleaned much of the region’s water.

Oddly for a defensive stronghold, Hauger’s palace was on the edge of the plate, with one side opening up into space, from which the rest of his little empire could be seen. This part of the Plates had snarled up especially tight during the catastrophe so many years ago. Whereas originally they’d been far apart on a string orbiting our old star, when the string broke the ones that didn’t burn up tangled and collided to form the messy web of plates we have now.

The cable car rocked as it passed through the plate’s atmosphere and shielding and out into the calm of space. I noticed with detached interest that there was a lot of debris and chunks of broken plate beneath Hauger’s plate. Interest because the rebels would pay me a lot to reveal such defensive weaknesses of the Warlord. Detached because of the thing Hauger’s men would do to me if I told anyone.

The cable car inched precariously along the cable, which had once been taut and strong connecting two plates but now was unreliable, making everyone in the car look out the shielded windows with apprehension.

“We’re not heading to any of the plates,” Aera said into my ear. “We’re heading out to that piece of debris.”

I followed her guide to the lump of broken plate she highlighted in red on my retina. The object wasn’t unusual, just a quarter of a plate that had sheared into pieces by the collisions following the catastrophe. The shield was gone, leaving the surface blackened and pockmarked by meteorite impacts. The prospect of inspecting a damaged plate excited me, however. I could learn a lot about what happened in the catastrophe from such a place. Hauger’s job had started to become more than just avoiding the wrath of a warlord.

The technohack wordlessly handed me a weary looking spacesuit. Its faceplate was scratched and the material was patched in several places. I didn’t complain. The suit the technohack was pulling his legs into looked worse.

I’d barely finished clipping on the sealed gloves and boots when the cable car clanked into the dock at the end of the cable. A warning light flicked on, indicating the airlock would soon open. Everyone hurried to tighten their helmet on the neck clips and double check their seals and shields. In an emergency, Aera told me my shield could keep me breathing for a minute or so before the energy evaporated into the vacuum. It didn’t make me feel much more comfortable.

The air began to hiss out into storage containers and the airlock doors opened into space, the vast jagged cliff face of the broken plate facing us. Already a number of spacesuits were out working on the plate, an ancient short haul spaceship hovering in the background overseeing things. It appeared to be Hauger’s only ship. Invaders with any kind of space fleet could easily take him.

A small cable was passed into my hands and clipped onto my suit, winching me up to the centre of activity on the broken plate. It had snapped cleanly in half, leaving the many metres that would normally be underground exposed. My heart raced as I saw the sheer number of ancient machinery the damage had exposed.

A cuboid of steel poked out of the centre of the ragged cliff. The underlings led me to an opening in it, torn open by the force of whatever had destroyed the plate. Careful not to cut my suit on any sharp edges, I manoeuvred inside.

“Wow.”

“A control room,” Aera said. “Impressive that so much survived the impact damage.”

Impressive was an understatement for a technophile and Plate historian like myself. I floated in a cavernous chamber of technology, some 50 metres square. Banks of complicated who-knows-what lined the walls and vast cables snaked up the walls and into a central well in the ceiling, up towards the plate. I had no idea what I was looking at but I knew it was more powerful than anything I’d ever seen.

Aera directed me towards a panel in the centre of the room. Hundreds of electronic keys and buttons, matte black and powerless. The technohack hung over my shoulder, peering at my every move. I pushed a hand against the console, using the momentum to rotate slowly and face him.

“Could you get me three shield power packs, two metres of electronic cable and as many hydrospanners as you can find?” I said. The technhack scowled through his visor but nodded and pushed off back towards the cable car.

I didn’t need the parts, of course. I just needed privacy.

“I’ve got rid of him,” I told Aera, taking her unit in my palm and affixing it to the console. “Do your stuff.”

The console flickered and came alive in a myriad of symbols, lights and colours. I smiled. Now we were getting somewhere.

*     *     *     *     *

“Well,” Hauger said, walking with me along his palace corridors, “Can you fix it?”

Twenty-three days had passed since I’d first floated into the abandoned control room. In all honesty the answer to Hauger’s question would have been yes on day two. Thanks to Aera’s amalgamation with the broken plate’s computer, we’d been ready to use it for weeks. The time had been spent figuring out how to display that to Hauger without him finding out about her.

“It’s ready to go,” I said, holding up the compcontroller. I’d spent two weeks designing and building the 4-inch square controller, adding buttons and a screen from parts in Hauger’s scrapyard. The buttons told Aera what to do but made it appear that it was directly controlling the control room computer.

"We’ve found a couple of useful functions,” I said, indicating a bright red button towards the centre of the device. “But there’s one I think you’ll be especially interested in.”

“Show me,” he demanded.

I did. The button depressed under my gloved finger.

“Well,” Hauger said, “I don’t see anything.”

I smiled and stopped walking, turning to the windows of the corridor, which looked out into space. I indicated that the warlord should follow my gaze.

“There’ll be a slight delay as the computer adjusts.” I grabbed hold of the window frame as a klaxon cut through the air. Recessed red lights in the roof, unused in centuries, flashed, casting dangerous shadows across the warlord’s face.

“I’d hold onto something,” I said, as the world began to move.

There came a rending sound of tortured metal and the corridor shook beneath us. The Warlord and his guards stumbled and fell against the wall. Outside, the view into space shifted violently.

“What have you done!” the warlord shouted above the din of complaining parts. “Stop it at once!”

“As you wish,” I said, letting go of the joystick. The movement and vibrations died away with numerous crashes and the assorted pops and groans of tired machinery. The warlord looked at me with wild eyes, his crisp demeanour thoroughly rattled.

“What...” he panted, steadying himself and patting down his jacket, “Was that?”

“I just rotated your plate by three degrees.” I gestured out the window. The view of the nearby plates had noticeably changed. Not by a huge amount, the same plates were still there, but shifted upward. Hauger stared. After a long moment he turned to me.

“And you can do this for any plate?”

“No,” I said, “Only this one and about ten others, those close enough for this control room to be in charge of them.”

“And you can position them better to receive light?”

“Certainly,” I said. “It’s not perfect but for most plates it could definitely improve their power supply.”

When he smiled, Warlord Kito Hauger was not pleasant to look on. The scar across his cheek twisted his face, but it was the utter lack of emotion in his eyes that disturbed me. He reached out and took the controller from my hand.

“You’ll have to teach me how to use this,” he said. “I think you’ll be substantially rewarded for this.”

He looked back out the corridor window. “Yes, substantially rewarded indeed.”

I followed him back to his quarters to teach him how the ‘controller’ worked. What else could I do?

*     *     *     *     *

"Ivan.”

Aera’s sharp call shook me from sleep. I groggily lifted my head from the soft pillow and stumbled upright.

“What?” It had been a while since I’d slept properly and the Warlord’s luxurious bedsheets had done me no harm.

“Ivan, there is a problem.” Aera said. It was rare for her to say it. She was far more powerful than I. A problem usually meant a moral, rather than physical, problem. She just wasn’t equipped for that kind of emotional reasoning.

“Aera,” I said, “What kind of problem?”

The shaking of the ground beneath me threatened to throw me down but told me exactly what the problem was.

"Sunshine is not the only advantage to repositioning a plate,” Aera told me above the din of the reposition. “Hauger is attempting to use the device to destroy Derrigner Plate.”

“What?” I said, steadying myself as the vibrations subsided. “So why is this plate shaking?”

“I’m misinterpreting his button presses in an attempt to delay him.” Aera voice was monotone but her words were impish. “I will not be able to delay him much longer without risking exposure.”

“Alright,” I said, pulling on my shield belt and my sword. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Hauger can’t destroy Derrigner, there are thousands of people living there.”

“Six thousand, seven hundred and thirteen.”

“Like I said, we can’t let him destroy it.” I rubbed my chin.

“I can destroy the control centre,” Aera said. “It will take no more than a minute to render it useless.”

“No,” I said. “We can learn so much from it. It could revolutionise the plates. If we’re to do anything, it’ll have to be stopping Hauger.” I thumbed my shield on. The crackle of ionised air indicated I was safe from fast moving objects.

“Contact the rebels,” I told Aera. “On the clandestine frequencies you keep tapping into. Give them the plans to the warlord’s palace, the safe route underneath the plate where there’s no debris and the codes to all the doors. If Hauger won’t behave with the controller, we’ll just have to take it off him.”

“It’s done. The rebel leader is preparing a force now,” Aera said after a minute’s pause. “It’ll take at least an hour before we see them arrive.”

“Then I’ll just have to distract the warlord until then, won’t I?” I patted the hilt of my blade and walked out of the room to meet Hauger.

*     *     *     *     *

“Ah, my friend the scientist.” Hauger beamed as I entered, holding up the controller. His throne room was filled with his generals and aides. A sense of coming bloodlust seemed to be on every face. The technohack skulked in the corner, away from the main group. Shunned.

"My generals and I are very hopeful you can help us fulfil the potential of this new device.

“My Lord,” I said, bowing low. “I was hoping to have your permission to take the controller back to the workshop. There are a number of improvements and problems to be worked on.”

Hauger held the controller closer, like a baby to his chest. He bristled, eyebrows knotting.

“As laudable as that sounds,” he said, “the device as it is now seems more than adequate, does it not?”

The generals around us nodded and murmured vague agreements. I chewed my bottom lip, reverting to a nervous tic. The rebels had better come soon.

“Well,” I began. Hauger raised a threatening eyebrow.

“It does do what you said it does?” He said, making obvious glances to the armed guards lining the walls. “You told me I’d be able to control many of the nearby plates with this little box. Is that not true?”

“No, no,” I stalled. “It’s true. There are just a number of teething problems, as with any new device. The interface could be better – the controller is still often misinterpreted by the plate computers.”

“That’s certainly true.” Hauger sniffed. “Why, we were attempting to move a plate just now and it completely failed to respond! It was almost as if it was ignoring my commands!”

“That’s not possible,” I said, trying to keep a straight face. The technohack stared intently at me from the corner and I avoided his eyes. It was unlikely he knew enough to contradict me but with the dogmatic way the technohacks considered religion he definitely had the potential to be a problem.

“The computer is a dumb machine.” I said, staring intently at the technohack, daring him to contradict me. “It has no more intelligence than a shield generator.”

“Very well.” Hauger thrust the controller into my hands. “If it’s not broken and it’s not ignoring me, it must work. You can operate it.”

I fumbled the controller in my hand, knowing his next words.

“Target Derrigner Plate,” the Warlord said. A couple of the seated generals leaned forward to watch me. I flicked the controls around aimlessly. Aera wouldn’t do anything unless I asked. Nevertheless, Hauger smiled.

“Now,” he said. “Crash it into the adjacent plate.”

“I can still destroy the control centre,” Aera reminded me.

“No,” I said, to both of them. The Warlord’s thick eyebrows shot up in surprise and anger.

“NO?” He said. “Who do you think I am? Do it!”

“I mean to say,” I said quickly, eyeing the armed guards that clustered around us, “If you want to destroy Derrigner Plate, there are other methods to consider. Ones that might be more... beneficial to you.”

“Oh?” Hauger subsided, a little. “Like what?”

The guards stepped back. I let out my caught breath. I waved a hand across the controller, hoping I could stretch out this moment.

“This button does as you say,” I told the Warlord. “But in the process it would destroy anything useful on Derrigner or Gyasi Plates, and the impact could damage some of your own land.”

Hauger coughed sceptically but let me continue with a wave.

“This button,” I said, “shuts down the Derrigner shield, venting your enemies into space. It too, though, would cause a lot of damage to the plate and its contents.”

“What do I care of their plight?” Hauger boasted, showing off for his men. I shrugged.

“You care about the territory and possessions?” I said, placing my finger across another button. “It’ll take a little longer but this would pump the oxygen out of the Plate’s atmosphere, leaving everyone dead but nothing damaged, ready for your troops to take it over.”

Hauger got that smile that powerful people get when someone else comes up with an idea that they could steal. I knew I had him.

“How long will it take?”

“Forty minutes,” Aera whispered in my ear, having contacted the rebel leader. I repeated the time to the Warlord, who nodded with satisfaction. I pressed the button.

“My lord,” the technohack said, sweeping forward with a twisted grin on his face. “This man is a traitor.”

Everything in the room stopped. The buzz of conversation amongst the generals stopped abruptly. Hauger took one look at me and then turned to face his old advisor.

“What?”

There was a cry in my ears that no one else heard. The technohack stepped forward, the lights in his implants blinking crazily. Aera cried out, betraying emotion and pain I never thought she possessed.

“Ivan,” Aera said. “He’s trying to take me over. You can’t let him.”

“You won’t have her,” I promised the technohack, raising my sword and facing his weak frame.

The warlord and his generals stared in confusion at the two of us whilst the battle between the technohack and Aera raged unseen across the air. Hauger didn’t seem to know which of us he trusted less. The guards hung around our standoff, waiting to pounce when the warlord made up his mind.

The technohack’s face was a twisted knot of concentration as his implants fought Aera’s tough defences. I didn’t expect he’d get far – she was too strong for him. The technohack sagged and pointed a wrinkled finger at me.

“My lord,” he said. “I've been picking up transmissions from him over the past few days. I couldn't work out where it was going to so I contacted some of the members of my order. They confirmed my suspicions. He's been using some kind of implant to contact the rebels!”

The warlord made up his mind. Strong hands gripped my shoulders, wrenching my sword and the compcontroller away from me. The technohack leaned in closer, squinting his ugly face into mine. His hands pawed across my clothes.

“Where is it?” he said, grasping at every pocket and bulge of my jacket. I kept silent, hoping that Aera would too. If I lost her, I’d be finished, a heathen no better than the technohack currently roughing me up.

He got angry and punched me in the jaw. It was a weak punch and didn’t do much damage but the surprise hit me more than anything. Hauger stalked around the pair of us, watching with a grim grin.

“I don’t know anything!” I said. “I’m here to help you, remember!”

The technohack picked up the compcontroller and twisted some of the controls. Some of the guards and generals braced themselves but nothing happened. The technohack tossed the device aside.

"This doesn’t do anything, does it?” he asked me. His eyes lit up. “The only way you could have done what you did was with the help of some massively powerful computer. Where is it?”

I spat at him. It was cheap but with both hands held behind me I could do very little else.

“Enough of this.” Hauger strode forward, barging the technohack out of the way. He took two quick steps and punched me in the gut. This punch packed more than enough strength for three. I choked and sagged around the impact.

“Where is this device?” Hauger said.

“Go to hell,” I said but the inevitable happened. My eyes flicked for a splitsecond towards my sword. The technohack saw my look and leapt forward with glee towards the guard holding it. My heart sank as he picked up my blade, studying the hilt.

“An AI?” he said, the lights on his implants flashing in overtime. He looked at me with incredulity. “Is this really what I think it is?”

I didn’t answer but the technohack smiled anyway.

“Oh,” he said. “This is going to be fun.”

His right hand gripped the hilt. From the metal on his forearm he pulled a cable which he jammed towards Aera’s casing.

“Ivan!” Aera cried into my ear. “He’s got some kind of worm program into my processing space. I think I might be able to—“

There was a cry of victory from the technohack as Aera’s voice in my ears cut off. The diagnostics in my vision disappeared and a connection I’d known for thirty years severed abruptly.

“Aera!” I cried. Hauger and a couple of his generals laughed as I struggled against my restrainers. The technohack calmly detached Aera’s node from the hilt of my sword and stood up prouder than I’d seen him.

“Too late,” he said, his inflection noticeably changed by the processing power added to his implants. “She’s all mine now.”

“You idiots!” I said. “Aera was the last AI on the plates! Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”

Another of Hauger’s sucker punches to my solar plexus shut me up without another word. Hauger made a gesture to get the guards to start hauling me away and addressed his newly powerful technohack.

“Can you still operate the device?” He asked. The technohack blinked and his eyes rolled back into his head a little. Then he nodded, beaming with power.

“I can do anything,” he said, in awe of himself.

“Do it,” Hauger said. “Finish off Derrigner plate whilst I deal with this traitor. We’ll use his plan though, it was a good one. Get the troops ready.”

A general left the room to sort out the troop movements. Hauger opened his arms to the roof and faced his generals.

“You see,” he said. “Now, we are unstoppable. The rebels have been shown that if they show resistance, they and the plate that harbours them will fall. With this new weapon, we can forge an empire that will no one on the plates can stop.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” said the rebel leader. He stood in the doorway to the throne room, his sword to the throat of the general who had left the room. The rebel soldiers, their tired work clothes completely clashing with the Warlord’s smart uniformed guards, filtered into the room, swords drawn.

Hauger’s look of incredulity didn’t last long. He drew his long double-edged blade and strode towards the intruders. His guards followed, rising up to meet the incoming rebels and within moments the room had descended into the chaos of a pitched sword battle.

The grip of the distracted guards holding me weakened. I leaned forward, dragging one off balance as the fighting drew nearer. He stumbled and I ducked down, twisting out of the grip of the other. They began to shout but my foot swept around in a low circle, tripping them both.

The hum of personal shields filled the air. Near me a guard swung at a rebel too fast and the rebel’s shield repulsed the movement, sending the sword out of the guard’s hand and spinning across the floor. The rebel showed how it was done, bringing his sword slowly through the disarmed guard’s shield to deliver the killing blow. I ran forward and picked up the dead soldier’s blade.

A couple of the rebels edged my way, indicating to each other that they were going to take me together. I drew my sword and sliced at the undefended backs of two palace guards near me, to prove my allegiance. The rebels stopped short to look at me with blinking eyes. I threw them a mock salute and joined them in defending a new wave of guard attacks as the battle lines blurred.

More rebels came from one door, more guards from the other, meeting in a morass of bodies and smaller conflicts reflecting the bigger one. Many of the guards hadn’t realised my allegiance but the more I parried their attacking blows and dispatched their comrades, the more of them got the picture. Soon I was enveloped in a sea of enemies.

Three guards with heavy blades surrounded me, raining slashes and jabs that I had to draw all of my training to parry. The air within my shield grew hot as it absorbed and reflected attacks I couldn’t block. I was backed into a corner, with nowhere to go.

I lunged anyway, ducking one blade to thrust my sword into one of the guards, leaving myself exposed to the other two for a split second. I twisted away from one but the other, who should have stuck me, fell dead to the ground.

“You the scientist fellow?” A shaggy-haired rebel dispatched the other guard and cracked a smile at me. “I hear you’re to thank for all this VIP access?”

I nodded to both questions, blocking another guard’s wild swing. The rebel held off another guard with one hand and quickly patted me on the back with his other.

“You’ve done a great thing.” He smiled. I started to return it but my face quickly turned to horror as I saw Hauger’s onrushing figure behind the rebel, sweeping up a giant battleaxe, his face a mask of fury.

The rebel turned too late. His shield was penetrated by the curved arc of the axe, which left him collapsing to the floor with a huge rent in his side. Hauger faced me, sweat pouring down his face and the dark fury of murder in his eyes.

“You,” he said. “You betrayed me.”

“I’m a scientist,” I said, raising my blade and balancing my stance. “I’m not one of your lackeys. I wasn’t going to sit back and let you murder thousands with a technology that could be used for the good of everyone on the Plates.”

Hauger snorted, and scraped his battleaxe across the floor. “You’re as deluded as you are optimistic.”

The conversation ended abruptly as the battleaxe’s head left the floor and arced up towards me. The swing was powerful, slow and inexorable, passing through my shield and barely missing my chest as I stepped backward, trying to feint a slash with my sword.

Sweat was pouring down my brow—the repeated attacks were causing my shield to output vast quantities of heat. I parried another blow from the axe, feet grinding backward as Hauger pushed at my parry. Around us the battle was slowing, partly because the rebels were winning and partly because many eyes were turning to my battle with Hauger.
I paced around Hauger, my nimble fast shortsword style contrasting with his bullish display of sheer force. I reached in past his slow sweep, nicking him on the arm. The wound only enraged the warlord, who forced me back against a low wall with a barrage of powerful strokes I could barely deflect. I caught another blow and our weapons locked together.

“You see,” Hauger said, as my sword arm struggled to hold his axe pressing down. It had passed into my shield and the curved blade inched closer to my ear as Hauger’s strength ground my arm lower. “You may say my methods are barbaric, compared to your scientific methods. But as you see, they are effective.”

“But one dimensional,” I said and dropped my arm, stepping aside as Hauger’s axe came crashing down into the wall, knocking him off balance. I took another wide step behind him and my sword slipped through his shield.

He was too quick for me, slipping beneath my would-be killing stroke to pummel another axe blow against my block. I ground my feet into the floor, pushing against his wave of attacks, knowing he was the better fighter than me.

On another attempt to outflank him he had me. I dropped one knee and spun to the side, sword switching hands. He had me pegged, though, and a quick jab from the butt of his axe pushed my sword arm away. I lost my grip on the weapon and it fell from my clutching hands.

A booted foot kicked into my chest, knocking me over. The Warlord smiled, kept his foot pressing me to the ground and hefted his weapon.

“You know,” he said, axe raised high above his chest, “you weren’t a bad fighter, for a scientist.”

I wriggled but the force of his boot yielded me no room. I had betrayed a Shogun and I was going to die for it.

A shape appeared in the corner of mine and the Warlord’s vision, barrelling into him. The technohack had a blade in each hand, slashing at his master with astonishing pace and skill.

The warlord grunted in surprise and turned away from me to ward off the whirling blades of his traitorous aide. The pressure eased from my chest and I rolled away, watching as the previously bent form of the technohack now unnaturally fought with all the grace of a master.

The technohack’s blades taunted the Warlord, inviting an attack. Hauger snarled and swept his axe into his scientific advisor. The blow struck, carving into the side of the technohack. He didn’t cry out, though half of his side lay exposed. Instead I saw something totally unexpected.

The technohack winked, despite the grievous wound and the axe still trapped in his body. He winked at me, even as his free hand snuck around the Warlord’s vision to slide precisely into the vulnerable flesh of his heart.

The Warlord cried out and arched his back then was still. The technohack’s eyes closed and he slumped over his previous master. Both their shields, sensing the death of their owners, popped and turned off, wafting the smell of warm ozone across my face as I stood confused behind the bizarre tableau of death.

I stepped forward and leant down to look at the technohack’s body. He was dead but the metal implants across his skull and arm danced with electronic lights. When I reached down to Aera’s node, she spoke.

“Hello Ivan,” Aera said as my fingers brushed against the metal.

“Aera!” I breathed out relief. “I thought he’d killed you.”

“He tried to wipe me,” Aera said. “I had far too many places I could hide. I transferred myself inside his implants, where I couldn’t contact you but even he couldn’t spot me. Then when his guard was down, I took control.”

“I’m glad,” I said.

“That I’m alright or that I saved you and killed Hauger?”

“Both,” I said, not sure whether this was a joke or her being literal. “I’m not much without you.”

“Well I’m glad it’s done,” Aera said. “Controlling that weakling was incredibly limiting. His circuits were clogged.”

I pulled the technohack’s cables out of Aera’s node and starting searching the dead-filled floor for my sword.

Around me, the battle had all but finished. The guards nearby were surrendering and a shout of victory went up from the rebels. Some sense of calm began to drift back. One of the rebel leaders came over, holding the controller I’d built. He looked at the body of the warlord, and blinked.

“You’re the scientist?” He said. I nodded. “I’m told this is your design?”

I took the controller from him. Someone’s boot had crushed it in the melee, cracking the sides and spilling the components out.

“Can you fix it?” the rebel said. “Some of the guards said this made the plate move!”

I looked around at the carnage of battle and the hungry, post-battle faces of the rebels as they herded captive guards about. I looked at the rebel leader and his eager dreams of power. I imagined this all happening, over again.

“It’s broken,” I said. “I can’t bring it back.”

The rebel’s face fell but then he kicked the dead body of Hauger.

“Shame,” he said. “Still, it’s a great day for all of us. You have our thanks.”

“Sure,” I muttered, and wandered away. Revelling in their victory, no one missed me.

*     *     *     *     *

“It’s done,” Aera said. “The charges will go off in five minutes.”

I manoeuvred my way back to the cable car, the last of the explosives set into the door of the control room. Soon, no one would be able to use it, for good or evil. I took one last look at the equipment, the big screens, the communications desk...

“Wait.” I stopped. “Before it explodes, can you send a message over the radio?”

“We’re millions of miles from anything that’ll receive it.”

“That’s ok,” I said. “Just send this: We’re here and we could use some friends.”

I pushed out of the control room as Aera sent out a message across space. I might not have been able to use the place to revolutionise the Plates, but perhaps that message might, in its own way, eventually.

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