Embedded Files
UNSTOPPABLE OBJECT
A story from the Wizard’s Wife
Wizard at work. Do not disturb.
Those words were the only sign that something still lived this deep into the cavernous ship. They were scrawled in flaking ink on an old whiteboard, smeared with the half-erased stains of messages past. The shadows of words long unwritten made the messy script difficult to read, but the message tacked beneath the board was easier to read, and far more difficult to understand.
DO NOT BOTHER THE WIZARD. PLEASE. BE KIND TO YOURSELF.
Was it a warning? A threat? A plea? Laris Amalthea couldn’t puzzle it out one way or the other, but something about the twin signs made her grip tighten on the half of her lance until her knuckles were white. The notes were as strange as the room that surrounded them, in the fact that there was nothing remarkable about it at all. A simple bed was tucked into one corner, neatly made but sagging ever so slightly in the middle from use. A large desk occupied another, but it was impossible to see the surface beneath a mountain of papers, books and binders. Even the wallpaper was aggressively unremarkable. It was the universe’s most generic shade of turquoise blue–the kind that was distinct enough to give the occupant a sense of creative superiority without threatening the resale value.
It was everything a bedroom was supposed to be, and nothing more.
Nor would it ever be anything more. There was a horrible stillness this deep into the Wizard’s Wife as if the great battleship, which had once broken entire fleets against its bow, was holding its breath. Laris had noticed it when she went to peel a map of the ship off the cluttered desk and found it impossible to move. The thin parchment was as stiff and unyielding, and refused to budge even when she had tried to pry it off the tabletop with the point of her great lance.
Everything in the room was like that. The covers on the bed were frozen mid-rumple, and smoothing them out was like trying to work a warp out of a sheet of steel with her bare hands. A petal hung from a wilted flower, fastened to the step with a tiny thread she couldn’t snap no matter how hard she tried. The mirror… refused to change, even when she stood in front of it and knocked her knuckles against the glass.
It should have shown a young woman with a crop of blond hair, dressed in an aggressively pink outfit that appeared more suited to a ballroom than a battleship. She should have seen her lance–the oversized rocket-spear both at odds with and yet strangely complementing her ensemble–clutched in a bloodless grip so tight it was making her fingers ache. She should have seen something, anything, all that stared back at her was the reflection of an empty room.
It was as if time itself was afraid to touch anything this deep into the Wizard’s sanctum.
Even the air was frozen. Sounds were too quiet in that small room, as if they had to struggle to be heard. It all made the small room feel even smaller, as if everything in it was being squeezed into a too-small space. The only sound Laris could hear with absolute clarity was her own beating heart as it crawled up into her throat. The world was stretched to the breaking point, so it was only reasonable that Laris acted the way she did when she heard the soft sound of grinding metal behind her.
Instinct spun the launcher-lance up onto her shoulder, and panic pulled the trigger. A blast of light and smoke erupted from the hot end of the weapon as a needle-nosed rocket shot towards the figure standing in the door she had entered through.
Laris nearly lost sight of the creature as the blue-gray haze of burning propellant filled the room. Sparks flashed as the skeletal outline of the creature jerked into motion. Its limbs snapped into place with mechanical precision as it raised a crude sword–really little more than a sharpened piece of metal torn from an industrial fan–into the path of the surface-to-person projectile. The edge of the blade skated along the belly of the projectile as it somehow deflected the missile mid-flight and sent it hissing overhead into the hallway.
There was a moment of silence as the smoke settled. Laris stared at a spindly android that looked like it had been bolted together from spare parts. Its limbs were dotted with rust, and the only thing connecting its torso to its hips was a spine-like column of cables that swung loosely from its metal ribcage. It stared back at the regal woman with a single, glowing red eye that, really, said everything about who this thing was and what it was looking to accomplish.
“I am so, so, so, so-”
Laris’ training took over as her conscience scrambled to catch up. Her eyes lit up as a thin blue shield sprang up around her just in time to catch the crude length of metal spinning towards her head.
“-sorry!” She squeaked as the weapon bounced off the hardlight construct, cracked against the too-tough ceiling and rattled to the floor without so much as scratching the wood. The heart-wrenching panic she had felt was settling with the smoke, and it was being replaced by a sick feeling of guilt. She was a peace officer for stars’ sake, and she had just pulled her weapon on an innocent civilian without a second-
“I ADMIRE YOU WILLINGNESS TO DEPLOY LETHAL FORCE AGAINST ME,” a grinding voice rose above the silence. It was oddly stilted, and carried a hint of begrudging respect. “AFTER THE ANTS I DESPAIRED. I FEARED I WOULD NOT FIND ANOTHER WORTHY ADVERSARY BEFORE REACHING THE WIZARD’S REST.”
Somehow, that thing’s approval only made Laris feel worse. She looked at the sword slowly spinning to a rest on the hardwood floor, and then back to that single, staring eye. The android’s gaze was fixed on her shield, and the red light seemed to tighten into a sharp pinprick as it stared at the slab of wavering blue light that separated them.
In that moment, several thoughts flashed through Bastard Star’s metal mind.
> . . .
> Self Preservation: no.
|
> Instinct: YES
|
> Self Preservation: no no no no no.
|
> Instinct: ITS HIM
|
> Self Preservation: what do you mean ‘it’s him?’ that’s not even a him!
|
> Instinct: SAZALO-
“-RAKUUUUUUUUUZIAAAAAAAAA!” A guttural roar ripped out of the android’s vocal synthesizer. The effect was somewhat lessened by the crushing presence of the bedroom, which smothered the incoherent howl until it sounded like it was coming through a thick wall.
Laris snapped the barrel of her rocket lance up from a parade rest and leveled the barrel at the screaming android from behind the barrier. Pistons hissed and synth-muscle creaked against steel as Bastard Star sprang into action, its sword forgotten. It didn’t make it more than a step before it slammed into another wall of pale blue light that had shot up from the floor with a rivet-shaking crunch.
The metal creature cocked back a fist and pounded against the flickering wall with all the strength its spindly frame could muster. Steel fists cracked against hardlight, and the force of the impact sent ripples through the transparent barrier as it effortlessly absorbed the blow. The peace officer’s eyes flared with the same pale blue light as her shields as three more rose up from the floor, forming a glowing box around the howling machine that stretched from floor to ceiling.
It never stopped screaming as it hammered against the hardlight construct. Between the layered shields and the unsettling quiet of the Wizard’s bedroom, the maddened howl sounded like it was coming from underwater. Laris had to shout until her throat was hoarse to be heard above the muffled din.
“-INSULTED ME, HUMILIATED ME, DESTROYED MY TELEVISION-”
“What are you-?”
“-HATRED ENGRAVED INTO EVERY NANOANGSTROM OF MY CONCEPTUAL CORE-”
“Could you please calm-?”
“-WILL RUE THE DAY YOU CROSSED ME-”
Any sense of guilt she might have felt had been long-since assuaged by the obnoxious machine’s unhinged tirade. Like that, she was back on the intersectoral streets. She was a peace officer, stars take it, and if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was keep the peace.
The officer’s eyes flared as a fifth wall slid up through the middle of the box. Sparks flashed as it scraped against the android’s back, cramming it into a space half the size of its current enclosure.
“What the hell are you talking about?!” Laris finally snapped as the skeletal figure strained against its prison.
There was a long, awkward pause. Bastard Star froze, arms and back braced against the walls of light that were pressing in on him like a vice. A hint of uncertainty cut through the incandescent rage as their frame trembled beneath the pressure.
“YOU ARE NOT SAZALO RAKUZIA.”
“I- I don’t even know who that is.”
“YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN SAZALO RAKUZIA?”
“N-no?”
“YOU ARE IN NO WAY RELATED TO SAZALO RAKUZIA?”
“I-I don’t think so.”
Understanding seemed to dawn on the strange creature, and the red light behind its eye dimmed slightly. “MY DISAPPOINTMENT IS IMMEASURABLE.”
“I- Sorry?”
“I ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY.”
Laris resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and settled for a tired sigh. Her brief encounter with this strange machine had been more draining than a red-eye shift in the trade sector. The light in her eyes dimmed, and the crushing wall that kept Bastard Star smashed against the pane dissipated into motes of blue light.
“Look. I don’t know why you’re here or what your deal is, but it’s clear that we’re both looking for the same thing, right?” Laris pointed towards the door that marked the wizard’s workshop, and the machine nodded. “If I drop my shields, can we both agree to keep the peace until this matter with the wizard is settled?”
“NO.”
“Great, then- Wait. What do you mean no?”
“THE WIZARD IS IRRELEVANT,” The machine cocked its fist back. “YOU HAVE PLACED AN OBSTACLE IN MY PATH, ONE I HAVE BROKEN AGAINST BEFORE. I AM WILLING TO OVERLOOK YOUR TRANSGRESSION, BUT FIRST, I MUST-”
A metal fist hammered against magic with a dull crunch.
“-BREAK.”
Joints and pistons stretched and released as the android slammed itself into the barrier again-
“-THIS.”
-and again-
“-BOX.”
-over and over, until bolts and rivets holding it together rattled with each impact. Laris tried to shout something, but the sound of metal against light drowned it out in the tight space. Synthetic musculature screamed and bent as Bastard star drove fist after fist into the cool unyielding barrier. The unstoppable force met an immovable object and realized–not for the first time–that moving the immovable was really, really hard.
> . . .
> Instinct: YOU ARE NOT STRIKING WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT
|
> B-Star: MORE FORCE WILL SHATTER MY FRAME. WILL DOING SO ALLOW ME TO OVERCOME
| HER DEFENSES?
|
> Instinct: PERHAPS THE POINTED METAL FROM YOUR SHATTERED WRISTS WILL BE
| SHARP ENOUGH TO PIERCE THE BARRIER
|
> Self Preservation: n-o spells no.
|
> Instinct: AS IF YOU HAVE ANY BETTER IDEAS
|
> Self Preservation: as it happens, i’ve been running a material analysis while you two
| have been making fools of us.
|
| Self Preservation: her hardlight construct is tougher than it looks because it’s
| under monstrously high residual stress. the surface is experiencing high compressive
| force while the interior exhibits high tension, putting the combined solid into a state of
| unstable equilibrium.
|
| Self Preservation: if you want to break the shield you need to create a crack deep
| enough to reach that internal tension zone, but since cracks form parallel to the
| surface, the opposing forces prevent them from reaching the center and shattering the
| whole construct.
|
> B-Star: . . .
> Instinct: . . .
> . . .
A mesh overlay flickered to life behind Bastard Star’s eye. It traced the inside of the box in colored lines that mapped the forces overlapping across its surface. The android focused on a point where several lines intersected, and their visual cortex almost short-circuited as a knot of dense calculations exploded into view.
> . . .
> Self Preservation: look. i mapped the birefringence of the shield and found a
| point where the stress distribution is inconsistent. everything is color-coded, so you can
| actually see the points in the material where the stress zone breaches the surface. a
| fracture here would cause multiple crack bifurcations which would propagate through-
|
> B-Star: OF COURSE. CRACK BIFURCATIONS.
> Instinct: LETS CIRCLE BACK TO BREAKING YOUR WRISTS
> . . .
An electronic sigh echoed across the channel. It sounded defeated. The complex overlay faded, and was replaced with a small yellow reticle that highlighted a point on the shield’s surface offset from the center.
> . . .
| Self Preservation: just… hit it here. as hard as you can.
> . . .
Bastard Star’s gaze sharped on the point only it could see. The disorganized hammering of fist against field shifted into something with more intent behind it. It struck with machinelike precision, smashing strike after brutal strike at a point only it could see. Metal rattled and pistons screamed as the flickering shields ate blow after blow until-
-finally-
-something snapped.
Bastard Star’s fist crumpled in on itself as it met the barrier. Fingers twisted at unnatural angles as the piston driving it bent out of alignment. The robot’s hand twisted off at the wrist as a jagged point of metal shot out and met the weak spot in the impenetrable shield. The heel Achilles couldn’t guard.
True to its analysis, the shield broke all at once. Cracks of hot white light shot from the point of impact, and in the time it took to blink the shield splintered, flickered and faded. Bastard Star felt a wild surge of pride as finally, finally, it had broken through.
But fate, it seemed, was not content to let the victor rest on its laurels. All the joy in victory was quickly smothered by a creeping sense of dread. Something tingled in the back of Bastard Star’s electric mind as their threat-assessment protocols flooded every channel with a dire warning.
Laris Amalthea turned around to follow the robot’s gaze, and felt that same sense of nausea rise in her chest. Even during the worst of the fighting, with rockets flying and fists thrashing, the room had remained caught in that awful stillness that had first set her on edge. The door leading to the Wizard’s inner sanctum had remained stubbornly shut, no matter what was thrown at it.
Now, it was open.
Just a crack.
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