This story is set in the far and distant future but although it has some surface Sci-Fi trappings it is really about the inevitable repercussions of immortality. Please read and review. I would love some constructive criticism and would also like to hear where you think things could go from here. If I can I might even incorporate your ideas.
Staring Angel and a special guest star this opening Chapter is rated G but that will change as the story progresses.
Oh and all the usual disclaimers apply.
Angel woke. The black silk sheets were wrapped around his legs. He looked at the four small photographs framed beside his bed. It was his ritual to say good morning to them, they were all long dead but it was important not to forget because his memory of them was all he had left.
"Morning Connor, Cordy, Buffy, William"
He threw himself out of bed and moved towards the bathroom. He had time for a quick shower before he had to leave for the induction. Water was more rare than blood now and it was a sign of his status that he was allowed a private shower rather than having to use the public baths. On his way to the bathroom he passed the open glass door of the balcony, what the heck he had time to get some air. He stepped out on to the balcony to survey the view. The city of Mons Major stretched to the horizon in front of him. He stood and felt the warm sunshine fall on his face through the pink haze of the Martian atmosphere. After a few moments her turned towards the bathroom.
Fresh out of the shower Angel saw himself in the viewer above the washbasin. He often still did a double take when he caught a glimpse of himself in it. He still had no reflection but when vamps had first started to come out into the open some bright spark had come up with the idea of data screen projecting an image from an embedded camera in the centre. They worked a bit like videophones but allowed you to look at yourself. The image was flipped sideways to give the effect of a real mirror. Angel had still been on earth when he got his first one; he had still cared what he looked like then.
He thought about how the viewer he watched himself in now was hundreds of years more advanced that that first one. God he felt old, and he was. He had even stopped counting decades long ago. When he had been a youngster of two or three hundred years eternity had seemed shorter somehow. Now whole generations passed him by in the blink of an eye. It did not help that he had no connections to the world of humans. He had learnt the hard way that detachment was the only was to survive. He still treasured the memories of those first people he let himself get close too and he kept their pictures by his bed. After them however was a long line of people that had come and gone. Most of them were nothing more than hazy memories now and some were forgotten altogether. It was better that way.
Long ago people had kept their distance because he was dark and brooding now they just kept away because he was an ancient artefact. Like an old marble statue he was marvelled at but not spoken to because they knew there would be no human response. He felt it himself, like a statue in a the centre of a busy city square, he was silent and divorced from the frantic activity that wound around it's feet.
There were even times that the sheer brevity of human life meant that he questioned its value. Like ants they were numerous, indistinguishable and disposable. Then he would see that look of hunger and contempt hidden behind the masked face of a supposedly tame vamp trying its best to suppress the natural instinct to rip out the throats of the people it lived amongst. Then he would remember why each human was important and unique, because unlike him and other vamps they had true and deep feeling.
Angel's lack of feeling was quite different from the other vamps of course. They could not feel, he chose not too. He was cold, physically and mentally. He longed to feel again, to touch a human, to know them and feel their warmth. But when they were inevitably taken from him by the passage of time he was just left feeling that much colder. Better to stay away from the heat and adjust to the cold.
He moved from the bathroom back to his bed. He looked at the faces in the pictures smiling back at him. For a second he felt a glow, was that a smile he could feel. He savoured the moment briefly before the other memories of partings and tears returned to his mind in a torrent of emotion. He withdrew inside himself again. It was safer to be cold.
Angel stood on the podium at the front of the hall with his hands behind his back. He looked at the rows and rows of uniformed recruits sitting waiting for him to speak. He looked down at his own black uniform and wondered how his centuries of life had led him to this point. He had done talk hundreds of times. Every year a new batch of recruits and he had to do the speech again. They all knew him and all knew the history but the induction ceremony was old even before he was signed up. He would start by introducing himself; this was the part that always got their attention and made him feel like an exhibit in a freak show.
Once he got of the subject of himself and on to the history of the force and the colonies he was more relaxed, he could run on autopilot. He would start with the story of how man first came to Mars and the process of teraforming. He would continue with the foundation of Mons Major and the other cities and the success of the colony. Then the story of when the first vampire arrived and discovered that the Martian atmosphere and the greater distance from the earth combined to enable vampires on mars to walk in sunlight. Things then got very dark; the vamps had then come in force and carnage followed, seventy years of bloody warfare between the humans and the vamps. He would talk about the treaty that allowed them vamps and humans to live side by side. A treaty with the devil, but the alternative was horrendous. When it was over he headed back to his office.
Angel sat at his desk and looked a fresh set of secure data files on his desk; it looked like about twenty files. Each file related to the registration of a new vamp. Registration worked for those that were lazy enough to live within the law but most of his work was taken up with the numberless other that chose to exist without registration papers, happy to live among the shadows with the illicit support of the more supposedly tame registered vamps. He had advocated a restraint programme, something like suppression implant or force soul replacement, but objections about these options stampeding over cultural and racial diversity had stooped these proposals dead in their track. The whole incident had made him even more unpopular with the "vamp community" and the politicians they bankrolled. The trouble was that the threat of the vamps natural inclination to violence was still in the back of human's minds. Vamps had long lives to accumulate vast fortunes; this made them powerful and human opinion was that the fear of anarchy destroying these fortunes and the associated power was the only thing that kept from indulging their natural instincts. It was believed that a programme of forced "neutering" would initiate a bloodbath. Angel thought the bloodbath would come eventually anyway.
"Dreaming again?" said a familiar voice.
Angel looked up from his desk and forced a smile for the woman who had spoken. I liked Val but experience had taught him not to get too attached to humans. Even if they had the best healthcare and regenerative work done they rarely lived past 150. He had not always thought like that but he used the simile of a dog or cat owner not wanting another animal after the death of an especially loved pet. You did not want to set yourself up for that much grief again.
"No, I never dream anymore" he replied.
"Well this will probably disturb you sleep anyway" she dropped a paper file on his desk.
He always found it amusing that no matter how advanced human technology became the individual always preferred to see things in black and white on a tangible piece of paper. He had given up trying to persuade his staff of the benefits of reducing paper consumption of using the data readers; they just ignored him and kept printing everything out to read.
Angel opened the file; a single sheet of white paper lay inside. It was a surveillance transcript. There was one short line of text apparently overheard by an operative at a vamp party. He read the text aloud.
"It's due tomorrow, come this time next year we'll all be on free range product".
Angel looked at Val for clarification.
"One of our guys just caught it, the vamp who said it is unknown but we have the ID of the guy he was talking too. We don't know what it means but they both seemed to find it very funny" she said.
"Any other unusual activity"
"Yes, Rouven Hope has booked a cab to the space dock in district twelve for tomorrow"
Angel took some time to consider this. Rouven Hope was a very senior member of vamp society and at 400 years was one of the oldest on Mars. Rouven was rich, too rich to dirty his hands with a visit to the dock without a very good reason. Something was arriving tomorrow, something important enough for Rouven to interrupt his schedule and pick up personally.
Rouven Hope and Angel were the two most famous vamps on Mars. The vamp community perceived Angel as the ancient devil turned traitor who loved humans more than his own kind. Rouven was their leader and benefactor of the community; he was rich and powerful with contacts high up in Martian bureaucracy. The irony was that the two of them had never met. For nearly 300 years they had circled each other like cats waiting a fight, but they had never even spoken to or seen each other in the flesh. It was time for that to change.
"Val, get the hopper ready, I think we need to see Mr Hope"
"Yes Sir" she replied.
Angel watched her run out of his office towards the hopper port. She reminded him of someone, he just could not remember whom. Her red shoulder length hair bounced as she ran. Then is hit him, he knew who she reminded him of.
"Willow" he whispered to himself with a smile.
Val was sitting in the driver's seat with her hands on the neural interface. Her eyes were masked by dark glasses but her smile still obvious. Angel swung his legs over the side of the vehicle and sat next to her. Angel could feel the vibration of the antigravity generator against the souls of his feet. Vampires were not afraid of heights, but Angel did not like hoppers, it was probably something to do with human driving. Even with a neural interface they could still be erratic. The hopper jumped of its platform and hovered for a moment before shooting out of the port and in to the congested skies of Mons Major.
From this height you would have expected to have a clear view of the Martian horizon but the enormous buildings that surrounded him meant that the only view was glimpses of the interiors of offices and apartments as they sped past. The city was massive and even at this speed it would take some time to get to their destination. It would have been faster by transmat, but legislation has prohibited its use for organic materials, including people and vamps, because they were still unstable even after hundreds of years of development.
Angel took a moment to watch Val in the rear view mirror, safe in the knowledge that his lack of reflection would prevent her from returning the look. There was a definite resemblance but Val did not seem the type of person to have ever suffered from self-doubt or to be prone to the weaknesses that so nearly destroyed Willow. Val had been assigned as his assistant for five years now and this was the first time he had taken the time to actually look at her. He felt slightly ashamed when he noticed he could not remember if her hair had always been red or even what her second name was. It was nothing personal of course he could not even remember the gender of her predecessor.
"How's things?" he said guiltily trying to make up for five years of neglect.
The hopper came to a sudden and violent halt. Angel turned to see Val looking at him; her glasses perched on the end of her nose and a look of total shock on her face. Val was shocked; Angel trying to engage in polite conversation was unheard of. When she had been training at the academy she had met a 125-year-old vet who had worked for Angel over 70years before. He had said that the only thing he had ever heard Angel say that was not work related was "excuse me" when he was trying to get past him in an unusually narrow corridor at a crime scene. A couple of minutes had passed and neither driver nor passenger had moved or spoken. Val shook herself out her surprised state. She carefully considered what was the best way to respond to such a momentous moment.
"Uhm, OK" she mumbled before restarting the hopper.
Angel was relieved they were moving again. He returned to surreptitiously watching her reflection.
Even in the new terraformed atmosphere dust was still everywhere on Mars. When Angel jumped out the hopper on the landing pad a cloud of red dust curled up around his ankles. After a while even the regulation polishes black leather of his boots took on the reddish hue of the planet. He strode towards the entrance in to the building only briefly glancing at the sheer drop down to the surface. The bay where the hopper had landed half way up the structure but the ground was distant enough to be a pencil line at the base of the surrounding buildings.
Val and Angel sat quietly together in the waiting room. Val was happy with that it was the way things usually were. When she had first started working for Angel she had tried to get close to him but he had only seemed to notice her when the topic of conversation was work. If she started a conversation about life in general he would simply become silent as though his mind was on another plane. Val was worried, what had made him suddenly try to get friendly?
Angel felt very uncomfortable. He wished he had never noticed Val this morning. He wished that he had remained detached. But it was now too late and his curiosity was starting to swell. He was turning over tactics in his mind on how to start a conversation. He remembered people often asked after the health each others family.
"How's um.." he started.
He stopped when he remembered he did not even know if she had a partner. He thought for a moment, it was probably best to be direct. Before he could open his mouth though Val started talking.
"Listen" she blurted "I do not know what is wrong with you this morning. For five years you've not even asked me the time of day and now all of a sudden there's this thing between us"
"What thing?" he asked.
"This thing" she squealed, waving a finger between herself and Angel.
"What thing?" he asked again, now even more confused.
"You talking to me like you know me"
"Oh" he said "Has you're hair always been red?"
Val went silent, her hand apprehensively reaching for her hair. They were both now aware of a new presence. A silver humanoid android stood beside them apparently waiting for the right moment to interject. They looked at the android. Val was always curious about how the featureless faces of androids still always managed to appear bemused.
"Excuse me" it said, "Master hope is free to see you now".
The droid turned and indicated for them to follow him. Angel led the way. As she followed Val noticed something different about Angel; his walk seemed to have acquired a slight swagger.
Angel was pleased with himself. He felt that last conversation with its confusion and misunderstanding was the closest he had come to engaging the outside world in centuries. What really surprised him though was that he now had a smile on his face. Twice in one day, had to be a record. It was like he was remembering how to be himself again. He had two choices, retreat or advance. The way he had been doing it was safer but he felt a spark now. He decided then and there to go with it, what was the worst that could happen?
The android led them in to a large round office. One half of the wall was taken up with a large window offering a view of the city outside. The only furniture was a desk strewn with papers and a leather swivel chair. Two small padded chairs had been placed the other side of the desk facing the window. The android invited them to take a seat before quietly leaving through the door they come through.
Angel looked at the desk carefully. Other than the papers there was only a simple silver letter opener on the surface. Angel stretched to pick it up but as his fingers brushed its cold surface he heard a voice.
"How can I be of assistance?" asked a smooth English voice.
Rouven Hope moved round from behind his guests and sat in the chair in front of the window. Val bit her lip as she tied to measure the vamp up. His body appeared to be that of a tall young man in his early twenties. His hair was a silvery blond and his features were delicate, almost feminine. He pushed his long fringe out of his eyes with his long white fingers. They voice had been rich and deep and did not seem to match the body. She had to remind herself that he was a beast with 400 years of undead life behind him.
Val could sense the tension in the air between the two ancient vampires. There was almost a perceptible smell of supernatural hormones. Rouven's piercing blue eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Angel. She turned to look at Angel; he was smiling like a benign uncle at an unruly child. A shiver ran down her spine.
"Hi, Rouven it's a pleasure to meet you at last" said Angel "this is my assistant Val".
Rouven's eyes did not move from Angel.
"I had a bit of a revelation this morning, I've isolated myself for too long and it's no wonder the vampire community doesn't trust me. I'm here because I think it's time I got to know my fellow vamps as a way to improve relations between the community and the force. You seemed the best place to start"
Nobody in the room believed this for a second. This was a charade, Angel was here to let Rouven know he was watching him. Val did not know if that was sensible, surely it would have been better to keep an eye on him quietly. That was what Angel would normally have done. Why was this time different?.
Rouven sighed and relaxing back into his chair smiled at Angel.
"Well Mr Angel it would be a pleasure to reintroduce you to the traditions of our people" he said.
"I will be hosting a party tomorrow night as a welcome to a visiting friend and you are welcome to come"
"I would be delighted" replied Angel.
The two vampires stood and moved towards each other hands outstretched for a goodbye shake. Val thought a stranger would think them old friends but she could feel the undercurrent of suppressed feral aggression. Angel turned to leave.
"Come now Val Mr hope has work to do".
The district twelve space dock was a dumb. Val looked around at the bustle of the traffic of people and machines. There were hovercars moving in all directions and as fast as the law would allow them just missing killing the odd pedestrian. She and Angel were positioned behind a row of metal crates close to the edge of the dock. They had chosen the spot carefully because it offered a clear view of the whole area from relative cover. They had been waiting there for an hour amidst the grease and grime and the unending noise of constantly battering machines and engines. Val had been relieved when Rouven had arrived at exactly 12 o'clock.
The cab had stopped at bay 96 and Rouven had got out with two other vamps. All three of them were dressed in expensive formalwear.
"Who are they expecting, the King of Neptune?" Val had quipped.
Angel did not en notice she had spoken. They had been siting in silence ever since and Val nearly leapt out of her skin when Angel grabbed her wrist and spoke.
"It's coming"
Val could feel a slow rumble climbing up her body from the ground. She looked up and saw the source of the vibration. An enormous freighter was descending from the sky. It had a massive reflective black body that almost blocked out the sun and the intensity of the vibration continued to increase until with a tremendous thud it landed in bay 96. Right in front of Rouven Hope. When then ship had powered down an Erie silence seemed to descend across the whole dock. Val looked around, where had everyone gone? She surveyed the whole dock it was nearly empty. The occasional figure could be seen running for the exits as fast as their legs could carry them.
Val looked back to the vessel as the sound of groaning hydraulics drew her attention back to hole opening in the side of the ship. Something was emerging from its airlock.
Yellow light burst out from of the ship's airlock as a long black box emerged. The box was about six feet long and four feet wide with a polished metal surface. The box was floating Val thought that it must be moving on some sort of automatic hover mechanism, as nobody seemed to be piloting it. The airlock slammed shut without anyone or anything else leaving. Val turned to speak to Angel but his attention was fixed firmly on the box and she turned back to watch herself.
The box stopped in front of Rouven, settling on the ground in front of him. A faint hiss escaped from it as an opening appeared in the top. Slowly and silently a hand appeared from inside to clasp the edge of the opening. The hand was silky white with long claw-like black painted fingernails. The hand was followed by the slender female body that owned it. The woman had long ebony black hair and was dressed in a rippling white silk gown. Val thought it looked like something a character in Pride and Prejudice would wear. The woman elegantly stepped out of the box to be greeted by smiles and kisses from Rouven and his attendants. She accepted the greetings as though they were her birthright and happened every day. Then as Rouven bent to kiss her hand she turned and looked directly at whereVal and Angel were hiding. No, she was looking right at Angel as though she knew he was there. The woman spoke but she was too distant for Val to hear what she had said. But trying to read the words on her lips Val could have sworn the woman had said, "Daddy".
Val turned to look at Angel his face was frozen in an expression of horror. When he spoke he only managed one word.
"Drusilla".
To be continued…….