When Arienne awoke she found herself curled up next to the android. He was still in the same position, face down into the pillow. During the course of the evening, she had somehow entwined both of her thin arms around his right one, her hand pressed into his. She had gravitated towards his sheer weight, the human shaped space he took up.
She squeezed her eyes shut. There had been a time, such a very short span of time looking back now, when she could wake up in the early morning hours and look over to see her love, her best friend, sleeping soundly next to her. She could stretch out her legs and roll over, spooning him and he would shift, molding his body to hers. It was oh so wonderful to fall back to sleep like that, breathing in his scent. Sleep was better with someone beside her. No, not someone...him. Christian. He'd not been her first lover, or her last. He'd just been the one she'd dreamed of having a life with.
How long had it been? How many days, months, years...centuries...
Breaking out of her reverie, Arienne glanced at the clock. She'd fallen asleep while waiting for Tres' new program to download. There was still a couple of hours left until she had to arrive at work; it would be her last day before her official leave of absence began.
'To take care of some family business' she had said to the colonel. It was a lie, probably an unnecessary one, but she wanted to be sure the request was not refused.
She unwound her arms from his, pressing down and sliding underneath his heavy limb as if not to rouse him and got up from the bed. Her clothes were rumpled from sleep but she had a change of clothes in her car.
"Tres, Universal reboot. Activate program EVR-5."
Arienne was looking into the mirror, absently combing her hair with her fingers when she remembered.
The guns.
She was across the room in an instant, pulling his cloak up, fingers scrabbling to unsnap the holster when -
Father Tres's grip was like an iron manacle.
Without releasing her wrist, Tres got up and stood facing Arienne. She felt intimidated.
"You require my weapons Arienne?" Tres' monotone had been untouched by her programming, however he addressed her with a familiarity that indicated a subtle shift in his protocols. Her program was working.
"Yes Father Tres. I need them for now. Your close combat skills are enough to defend yourself should you encounter any difficulty today."
He acknowledged this statement with a curt nod, dropping his grip on her arm to shed his cloak and unharness the shoulder gun holster.
Arienne nearly tipped over when he handed over the small cannons that passed for handguns.
"Thank you Father. I will...can you hand me that pillowcase...I will return this evening. Please wait here for further instructions." She took the proffered pillowcase and carefully wrapped it around the pair of Jericho M13's.
Arienne thought perhaps she was being overly cautious - but the incredible efficiency of his genocide mode was mind boggling. She didn't want a knock on the door to accidentally trigger a massacre. Her program would undoubtably need a little debugging, a few tweaks here and there, but she would have to leave that for later. Tres would run through a complete system check during the day and have a report ready by evening.
She was partially out the door, pillowcase bundle tucked safely underarm when she turned to look at the android. He was calmly, almost quizzically, looking around the room, deep brown eyes taking in the decrepit surroundings.
I wish I had more time... Arienne thought wistfully, but then thought better of it.
No, I've had time enough. Two more days. Keep it together for two more days and then you can rest.
As it turned out, two days was too much to ask. It would end up being one day, spent mostly in the Albion palace communications department. Unkown to Arienne's superiors, her short leave would actually be a permanent one. Not being one to shy away from obligations, she'd spent countless hours the previous days ensuring that all her projects would run as smoothly as possible after her departure.
The furiously busy afternoon had turned into a quiet early evening by the time Arienne saw the requisition slip on her desk. It took a half hour longer than she anticipated, but she eventually found the requested equipment in a back room, wrapped in a pile of cables that had outlived their usefulness. Although she typically sent items like this through a palace messenger, she decided to bring it up to the Colonel's office herself.
The attending officer upstairs gave a only a cursory glance at the requisition slip before waving her in; apparently the small metal box had been expected much earlier. Arienne paused before the colonel's door and knocked.
"Father Abel, I'm sorry there was no one to meet you at the train station. We've been woefully understaffed today. I hope your trip here was not too uncomfortable, I know how some of those overnight train trips can be."
Colonel Mary Spencer looked tired. Since the death of the Albion queen, the colonel had been the interim governer of the country of Albion. Although she ran things with military efficiency, it was not unlike her to concern herself with details such as the welfare of a humble travelling priest.
"Oh it was just fine, thank you, Colonel Spencer for inquiring." Abel sat in front of the Colonel's large mahogany desk, facing the imposing woman. His train cabin had actually been frightfully hot but that was not germaine to the reason he was in Albion and he thought better of mentioning it. Even though the Colonel was being genial, he knew her time was precious and Abel did not want to waste even one minute.
"As you might know, Father Tres is just not prone to wandering off. The loss of his main tracking signal has been a great cause of concern for my superior at the Vatican. Professor Wadsworth was under the impression that you had a particular piece of equipment we need."
"I understand. The professor has transmitted hardware specifications ahead of time and I've already sent the request down to my communications department. It should be here - "
As if on cue, there was a knock on the door.
"Come in..."
Abel heard the sound of padded footsteps on the carpet.
"Colonel Spencer," said a terse but feminine voice, "I'm sorry for keeping you waiting."
Some old gentlemanly instinct compelled Abel to rise from his seat upon hearing the lieutenant speak. He wasn't sure if he was being sexist - had it been a male lieutenant he would have allowed the Colonel to get on with business as quickly as possible.
"Actually Lieutenant, you are right on time," said the Colonel. "The radio receiver was actually for - "
The shock on Lt. Rayder's face caused the Colonel to stop mid-sentence. Arienne had stopped dead in her tracks and was staring at Father Abel Nightroad with a look of utter terror.
"Miss, are you alright?" Father Abel asked, taking a step closer towards the lieutenant. She flinched, snapping her head away as if he had made a move to hit her.
"Yes. I... I didn't realize you had a guest with you, Colonel." Arienne said shakily. She closed her eyes. Abel could see here eyes move furiously behind fluttering lids. Her hands were visibly trembling and the metal box made a rattling noise in her hands. After a long pause, she opened her eyes and trained them on the floor.
Arienne spanned the two steps between them and held out the metal box for Abel. He accepted it and watched the lieutenant turn on her heel and walk out the door as swiftly as possible without breaking into a flat out run.
The Colonel and Abel were left in stunned silence.
"Father Abel, I'm so sorry, I have no idea what that was about," said the Colonel, the surprise audible in her voice. "Do you...know Lieutenant Rayder?"
"No, I've never seen her before just now," said Abel, thoughtfully shaking his head. "It appears as though she's mistaken me for someone else. Dear me, I do hope she will be alright."
Abel's lie was buried between two truths.
Abel knew, she hadn't mistaken him for anyone else.
She had looked at him like he was a monster.
Arienne pulled the door open and tried to run away before the flood of tears erupted; running down the hall, past the main entrance, past the palace gates...
Marseille, France - 2123 A.D.
"Cap, you can't do this. Just a couple more hours - you'll see. You said yourself, their troops are dispersing. Without their weapons link, their ground troops will have no support." She was pacing impatiently in front of a large visual communications screen.
The viz transmission fuzzed in and out. She thought for a moment she lost contact until she heard his voice again and a worn, chiseled face of came into view. He was a handsome man, or had been in his day, with dark brown eyes and salt and pepper hair. He wore a navy blue uniform dress jacket that was open slightly at the collar.
"I'm sorry Major, we can't risk another catastrophe like Prague. Look, I know you've been working at this but it can't be resolved this way. They're way ahead of us. They've got too much technology, too many advanced resources on hand. God knows what they have access to in the ARK. I'd rather lose the battle and win the war."
"Lose the battle? Lose the freaking battle? They're going to kill her Cap! You know that. Everyone knows that. She's the only reason those crusniks haven't bombed us to oblivion. They want her back. She's the only reason we're still here and you're telling me you're going to deliver her to them?"
"Ambassador Sahl doesn't need my permission to -"
"She's the queen Cap. You KNOW THIS," she screamed. "You can't sacrifice the queen or the game is OVER!" She violently kicked the console in front of her.
Torin, the heavily armed soldier who until now had been lounging near the bunker entrance, rose from his chair.
She raised her hands, as if to say 'I'm done, it's fine." He eased somewhat, but remained standing.
"Look, I've gone over and over this," she said facing the communications screen again. "The launch...Cap, it was textbook. Everything went perfectly. The program to disable the link is solid. You just need to give it time." She looked at her watch, 2 hours, seven minutes until the Nightlord's satellite was useless. The rest of team had departed Marseilles a day earlier to establish a new unit in Valencia, she and Torin were the only ones left in the control room.
"Listen to me, whatever happens -" said Cap. Suddenly there was some commotion. In the background there was shouting in German. The viz transmission fuzzed out to black. Panicked, she starting flipping switches on the console but found that all military transmission had been jammed.
The screen sparked to life and the visual coalesced again, only this time it was of a young blonde man with astonishingly blue eyes.
"General Capriotti," he said. His lips formed a sharply curved smile that was both sinister and beautiful. "I'd like to commend you for allowing this little reunion with my sister, Ambassador Lillith Sahl. You'll have to trust that I will give her the welcome she richly deserves."
"You know General, I've quite enjoyed myself these past few years. It's sad that this will all soon be coming to and end after what I'm sure will be successful negotiations with Lillith. I was going to save my surprise until after her arrival but it seems someone has launched a projectile to intercept the orbit of our main weapons satellite. This new development has moved my timeline up a bit. Unfortunately, I can't allow the smaller cities you've been using as cover for your military bases to remain standing. Toulouse, Marseille, Brno, Dover, Belfast, Milan, Valencia and...hmmm, which city are you in again? Ah yes. Dresden. You understand, this isn't personal. After all, we still are at war for the time being. Forgive me, General. I'm afraid this is a final good bye. I speak for both my brother and myself when I say it's been an honor." As the young man bowed slightly the screen fuzzed out.
Ari stared aghast at the blank black screen. Suddenly the bunker shuddered.
"Oh god, the city..." Ari looked at Torin.
"We have to warn them -" she started to the door but he blocked her path, catching and holding her small shoulders. At six feet, he was not a overly large man but he was fit, and easily outweighed her by double.
"Warn who? Major, it's already started. There's nothing we can do."
"I have to try. There's dozens of bunkers across the city. I just need to get to a general broadcast center and -"
"My orders, Major, were to keep you here no matter what."
"Orders? Last time I checked, Majors outrank Lieutenants."
"General Capriotti asked -"
"Cap can go to hell, Torin. Get your hands off of me."
A blast hit the bunker again and threw them to the ground.
By time her run had slowed into a hobbling walk, she found herself lost in the twisted maze of the Londinium.
She stopped and leaned her back against the cold surface of a brick building. A fine night mist was turning into a light rain. She closed her eyes and tilted her face up towards to the sky, letting the droplets slide down her face.
Oh god, I've screwed up...everything.