Users

by Thomas R.

Table of Contents
Part 1 appears
in this issue.

conclusion

Ana grew reflective, “We Uma began many centuries ago in the time they call decadent. However we know that age as the Golden Age. Back then they did wonderful things and created us. Now they persecute us and consider tolerance to be decadence. It’s just terrible.”

“Created? Do you mean your people are genetically engineered?”

Ana stated proudly, “Yes. The Uma are the ultimate in advanced human engineering. Our minds can work as fast as any Artificial Intelligence and be as creative as Da Vinci. We have control over our bodies unlike any animal in existence. Our strength is unheard-of. Unfortunately they grew resentful of us and stopped making us. As we’re sterile, that led to the end of us and the Golden Age.”

Lemel considered that, “Are you saying you come from that era? Ana, that happened twelve centuries ago.”

She shrugged, “Then don’t believe it. So what about this Confederacy you come from?”

Lemel, “It would take too long to explain, but essentially it’s a voluntary association of worlds. Much of the actual running is in the hands of AI’s and post-humans.”

Ana nodded, “That’s wise, as most humans are weak and foolish.”

Lemel frowned, “Well, the frameworks of the human element is decided by elections among humans.”

Now it was Ana’s turn to frown, “The system does benefit the elite, though?”

Lemel smiled, “You won’t have to worry about any tyrannical elite. All elements of society have rights and privileges. Some may do better in life than others, but it’s a fair society for the most part.”

Ana seemed annoyed. “I guess you misunderstand. Giving the fools rights just encourages foolishness and mediocrity. The Übermenschen must have a superior place, or it means our talents and will are oppressed.” Then she gave a girlish laugh, “I’m sorry, it’s certainly better than back home, though. We had implants put in to us so we’d be blind and deaf. They thought that would make us harmless. I mean, I think your way is wrong, but it’s certainly not as bad as Cam.”

“I agree our way is better than Cam.”

Lemel felt herself becoming slightly uneasy with Ana, though, and that night decided to read up on this term “Übermenschen.” While she researched terms related to “Übermenschen” the computer told her Ana was studying all she could on the Confederacy’s politics and history. According to the ship she could read at an even faster pace than Lemel herself, but the computer could not be certain of her retention rate. It seemed natural for the girl to want to understand her new home, but it also filled Lemel with foreboding.

4: Unexpected visits

The next day they had dinner. Ana began by asking, “Where are we?”

“We’ll be at Tertullian in four days.”

Ana nodded, “Tertullian is where the local office of Lost Colony studies is. It was named after an early Christian apologist.”

Lemel smiled, “Correct, Ana. I see you’ve been doing your research.”

Ana seemed briefly frightened, but then smiled. “It’s just fun to learn. I’d really love it if I had access to the navigational information.”

Lemel frowned, “I can’t give that to passengers.” then she sighed, “I’m not even supposed to have passengers, especially not from Lost Colonies.”

Ana looked sad, “You couldn’t have just left me there, could you?”

“No, of course not. I could never allow an execution, especially of a juvenile.”

Ana’s voice became hard as she silently muttered, “I am 698 years older than you, child. I am as far beyond you as you are beyond the Cam. Patronize me at your own peril.”

Lemel’s advanced hearing devices meant she heard each word crystal clear, but she acted as if she didn’t. Instead she changed the subject. “I had never heard that word ‘Übermenschen’ before you used it. It turns out it’s from an ancient Earth philosopher named Nietzsche.”

Ana looked confused, “I saw that too, but I’d never heard of that guy before. To us ‘Übermenschen’ is just the ‘u’ in Uma. Originally Uma was an acronym, you know.”

Lemel stayed pleasant, “Oh really? What did the other two letters stand for.”

Ana brushed that off: “It’s not important. It’s a shame, though, that you won’t let me have the navigation records. I would love to be a space pilot some day and so I’m curious.”

Lemel waited as the plates evaporated then stated, “It’s just the rules, dear. I can’t help the matter.”

Ana said pointedly, “You didn’t care about the rules of Cam, but I guess that was different.”

That night Lemel slept in the cockpit. She had this odd sense Ana would try to break into the cockpit, but on that she proved mistaken. She almost felt embarrassed about her paranoia until she realized Ana had broken into the medical lab to study all information she could on toxins and their treatment.

Dinner the next day proved quiet. Ana briefly asked, “When I get to Tertullian? How do you think I’ll do in their society?”

“That depends on your effort, talent, and ability to work with people, I guess.”

She frowned at that, “I’m more interested in how people will work for me.”

Lemel glared at her and began to prepare in case her suspicions proved correct.

5: Confrontation.

The poison Ana had put in her food should theoretically have kept her asleep until 1500 hours. Lemel had of course known of the poison and treated it immediately. Still she wanted the girl to believe she’d been poisoned. This gave her time to put in extra security systems and some booby traps. She had the computer analyze Ana’s biology until 1200. At 1200 her connection went haywire and when it returned, she disconnected. Ana had gained control of the ship, but soon she’d know she was too late.

Lemel had little problem entering her cockpit despite Ana’s blocks. She had certain devices embedded in her that she had kept secret from Ana and that were also not recorded even by the ship. To her displeasure, Ana was not surprised to see her, although her facade had clearly vanished.

Ana said, “I am pleased to have a worthy adversary. What gave me away?”

Lemel, “I had suspicions from the beginning. Your behavior on Cam seemed calculated. You clearly tried to reach out to me in hopes I could do something. But why me? All anyone knew was that I was a Northerner, and a Northerner of Cam would not save a UMA. That you clearly thought I could save you made me suspicious. You knew I wasn’t of Cam even then, didn’t you?”

She smiled, “Oh, much earlier than that. See, I had hoped that a large ship could arrive that the UMA could take over. However, I trained my sense of smell for simply anything not of Cam. As I’d been deaf and blind for centuries, I had time for such training. Anyway, weeks before the History Singing I noted the house you rented had smells not of Cam. After breaking into it, DNA analysis from saliva found on your bed confirmed the hypothesis that you came from beyond my world.”

Lemel felt slightly ill at ease, “You broke into my house? How come no one saw you?”

Ana laughed, “I have ways. As for the break-in, of course I did it. I had to make sure I could use you. Dear, I lived on Cam for centuries, so I learned how to avoid Uma accusations. So did you honestly think I’d do something as risky as mock their history singing if I had no ulterior purpose?”

Lemel shrugged and tried to regain her composure. “The thought had crossed my mind. Now, who are you really?”

Ana seemed bored. “No, my dear, I’m in charge now. So you answer my questions. What have you done to the FTL engines?”

“I jettisoned them and then set them to implode.”

Ana fired back, “You’re lying. At light-speed it would take us two years to get to the nearest planet. There’s no way you’d strand yourself like that.”

“I have ways of contacting help,” Lemel replied. “Anyway, Ana, I’m getting tired of this.” Then she made a sound like a whale song and the ship’s systems shut down. “You have about two hours of air and I’m calculating your ability to alter your respiratory rate. However I have certain devices that would allow me to survive even in a vacuum. So I suggest you talk.”

Ana chose instead to use a hidden energy weapon to re-power one system and then copy the prairie dog call needed to turn everything back on. After that she copied Lemel’s voice and told the ship to accept no further instructions from Lemel Sarah Ara Slem-El. Finally she used the energy weapon on Lemel, but in this case she failed. Lemel’s devices deflected the beam to the hull causing a rupture. After this Ana fled.

Lemel released a spray to deal with the hull breach and then turned to chase Ana. She finally caught up with her in the communications room. Ana held an old-fashioned gun in her hand. “I put synthetic pellets in this thing. I know none of your devices can deflect that.”

Lemel looked at her, “I don’t know if it’ll even fire synthetic pellets.”

“Do you want to find out?”

“Why are you doing this? Do you want to conquer Cam? Is that it?”

Ana smirked, “I have much greater ambitions than that now. Your worlds are full of advanced beings, but they are weak and full of altruistic naivete. The surviving members of the Übermenschen Militant Alliance can easily manipulate them to our advantage. Why settle for a single planet when the Galaxy is wide open and full of fools who’d buy our sob stories about repression?”

“It won’t work. We don’t save people from Lost Worlds. I expected to get disciplined for saving you.”

“Then why did you?”

Lemel shrugged, “My disdain for the place clouded my judgments on their actions. However, in the end I made a mistake, but it’s a mistake that soon will be corrected.”

“Oh really?”

She nodded, “I released a spray to widen the hull breach. You should asphyxiate a full 24 hours before anyone can respond to any message I send. Now, then: what message do you want me to send?”

An enraged Ana pulled the trigger, but the pellets jammed. Lemel sprang at her, but Ana proved to have the advantage in strength and knocked her unconscious. Before she passed out she told Ana it didn’t matter, as she had already lost.

* * *

In the hospital bed on Tertullian City the man in charge of the Cam assignment came to see her. Edver Nun was a short, stalky, furry little man, like most Tertullian men. Like many of the older ones his back had started to go bald so he tended to wear a shirt. Unlike most people on the planet he had a high-pitched nasal voice, “You had an exciting mission I see.”

Her neck still felt sore, “The mission was boring, it was the return trip that got me.”

“Yes, yes I know. That Ana was quite a little witch. You probably checked this yourself, but she basically had the Zeta modification 114. How a backward planet like Cam ever created one is beyond me, though. It makes pretty impressive people, but they had to quit making them because of their tendencies to psychosis and megalomania. She certainly had that.

“Her group believed it was their duty to use their talents as best they could. They added the best thing they could do with those talents is control a weak and foolish humanity too stupid to know best for itself. Until then, the only moral things were what gained them power, because the only true justice could come from them alone. Freaky huh?”

“Indeed. How did you learn that?”

“She wrote down their manifesto before asphyxiating.” Then he added, “That’s not the worst part, though. The little hellion actually severed your head from your body after you went unconscious. She didn’t know that was one of the few things that would automatically trigger your Dirac communicator to contact us.

“What’s even worse, she then dragged your body to the hull breach, cut it up, and threw it into space.”

Lemel looked at him, “Damn it, I hate switching bodies. How long did it take for you to find me one?”

He looked down, “Well, on Tertullian we disapprove of waste and, well, we use what we can.”

She looked down at her body and then looked angrily at him. She had screwed up, and Ana would be reminding her of it for all eternity. She hoped in her next assignment a Nun wouldn’t be in charge; he and his whole family had a streak of cruel humor like that. She also hoped that assignment would not be for a very long time.