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Fusion
Page 14
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“It turns out they, the
Deep Ones, have been manipulating the villagers with chemical messages
implanted in the fish which compel the little buggers to build this
structure which is not a totem at all – it is a data relay, cleverly
fashioned from common, organic materials which provide the Deep Ones
with information offshoot from the global data transmission line
without disrupting its flow. Global espionage disguised as third world
piety.
“See, if the Deep Ones had built the thing
themselves, or even had it built in the same manner but with
electrometallic components then it would have been noticed by the
Preservation Union surveillance satellites and been duly thwarted.
“Once
they deduced what was going on with their data relay, put out the fire
and had the situation explained by the village elder who came up with
the plan, the Deep Ones explained to the villagers that they must keep
the totem and continue adding to it however they feel compelled to do.
They saw my unconscious body lying on the beach, and by some incredible
stroke of luck one of the agents recognised me. So then they tell the
villagers that our coming there was a test of faith. Then they left and
hauled my ass back to their outpost with them where they contacted
FutureShock and had us picked up.”
“That’s damn lucky,” said Takagi.
“No
kidding,” said Fish. “The rest is history. In exchange for retrieving
our miserable hides FutureShock agreed to not disclose information
about the Deep One data relay to the Preservation Union or any other
third party. Couple of heliojets dropped a serious charge into the
vortex at the bottom of the big whirlpool, blew it apart. It had
started to wind down by then anyway.”
“It feels good to be back in my own skin. I was afraid it was never gonna happen.”
Fish said nothing but took another large mouthful from his steaming tray of food.
“You
know, gorging on all that fish on the beach back there, just cramming
it down so your body wouldn’t die there was a sensation like…” He
couldn’t find the words.
“Satisfaction?” Offered Fish, through a mouthful.
“Yeah.
Satisfaction. Satisfying the hunger – there’s nothing really like it
for me. I recharge from time to time, sure, but if I get low on power I
can leech electrons off just about anything. Eating is different. Maybe
I’ll start doing it again, you know? Regularly I mean. All that viscera
was revolting, make no mistake, but breaking that hunger felt good. I suppose I owe you organics some respect for living like that.”
Moore entered the mess hall. Fish waved her over.
“Big
leave coming up for you two,” said Moore. “Any plans?” She sucked on a
milkshake. It hit Fish how much he had missed the sight of Moore in a
casual context like this. Business was good but downtime was fantastic.
“Nothing specific,” said Fish, vaguely.
“I
keep thinking about going back to that little corner of the world with
the hallucinogenic seafood,” said Takagi. “Feels like I should visit
that tribe again, find a way to apologise for stomping on their little
village.”
“Actually I’m not sure that’s necessary,” said
Moore, “I’ve been monitoring their progress since the Deep Ones left
and they’re not a gibbering terrified mess, if that’s what you’re
worried about. Some of the folks are practicing what look markedly like
some of your fighting moves. I’ve kept the uplink open if you want to
take a look.” She took out her personal console and tapped a few
commands into the touch-screen. A live-feed image appeared on the
monitor providing a top-down view of two neat rows of figures on a
sandy beach. They all seemed to be practicing a sweeping kata involving
kicks, punches and spearwork in addition to quick ducking and
sidestepping movements. Their actions were all perfectly synchronized
with each other but for a few of the smaller participants, which were
most likely young children.
“Wow,” said Fish.
Takagi laughed. “I guess I gave them the greatest gift of all,”
“What’s that?” asked Moore.
“I taught those peaceful little tribesmen kung-fu.”
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