A Broken Machine (Part Two)

Silver descended to the forest and enjoyed the clear breeze, the smell of the young trees making their way towards a new sun. He had grown up in the woodlands, ancient compared to these but the sense of forever hung thinly in the air around the groves. From the top of the hillside, he could see figures carefully planting off into the far distance.

His musings were interrupted when he half-fell, half-dropped into a combat form after a collision with a tree branch. Then the branch slapped him behind the ear and said, “What the hell?? Can’t you see I’m holding a child? Bloody fool!” The voice was young, female and angry. He withheld the blow that years of ingrained training had already begun and stood up to his full height. His Ambassador tags were still shiny on his collar, his face cold and sharp. His Augments threw information at him quickly: Human, female, arboreal (identitynotfound)young. ‘Holding a child’. Searching: A sapling. Early-stage arboreal. Delicate cargo. Appropriate defensive behaviour: Apologies. Diplomatic damage is possible.

She stopped, appalled by what she had done. She had used violence on a stranger and worse, now she saw the gold flashes on his uniform. What had she done? She was about to speak when she saw his eyes and found herself frozen. They were calculating, they held a capacity for violence that seemed infinite. His face was old, wrapped in calculation…

And then it melted into an apologetic smile, “I’m sorry, I’ve been cooped up in my ship for far too long. I forgot to look where I was going. Is the child alright? I can summon help if you wish.”

The dangerous stranger disappeared, leaving only a friendly and helpful face. She bowed, “I’m sorry, Sir, you caught me by surprise. I regret the violence I offered you. Please forgive me.” She caressed the sapling, “I’m afraid I get a little overprotective of the young ones. It's time for his planting and I was given the honour.” She pulled the bundle tight, “I’m afraid I wasn’t paying enough attention either. We haven’t introduced predators to this world yet, I wasn’t expecting to be interrupted. Let us forget this ever happened and return to our tasks.”

Silver returned the bow, “Well if all is well with you, I will be on my way. Congratulations on the new sapling, a good start to this new world.” He moved past her, the event receding in his mind as the Council loomed ahead.

She hurriedly moved down the path, away from the stranger and tried to calm herself by clearing the space prepared for the sapling. She sprayed the soil with the bots it would need to bring the sapling into true childhood and, mostly out of habit and a lot of nerves that needed to settle, chatted to it, “Well you had a good start! I nearly died of fright and slapped an ambassador right across the back of the head. You should have seen his face, I thought we were going to die on the spot.”

She settled the sapling, “Now, I’ll be back to check on you.” She checked the sun, “and you have a few hours before you need to sleep.” She pulled out one of her leaves and left it on the soil, “There, if you need anything you can scent me. I’m Rowan and I’ll be looking after you.” The leaf disappeared below the soil and a gust of contentment came from the sapling, a warm spring scent that made her work worthwhile.

He stepped down in the open council room, occasionally nodding to the important-looking ones. He was still trying to get a grip on who was who around here...or was it whom? His augment was silent on the question, perhaps it needed a little more silver. It had started as a joke but he had measured a real improvement when he had started ‘spoiling’ them with a cool look. Maybe someone had gold or jewels handy.

His searching glances had obviously made his arrival clear and one of the arboreals stood and waved to him. Silver had to admit that he was an impressive sight, over five meters tall and covered in silvered bark. “Welcome, Ambassador. I am glad to see Earth is here to make good on its promises.” There was a slight pause and a rustle of leaves, “I thought there were two of you? Are we less important than I was led to expect?”

Silver silently cursed Tolin, committees, diplomacy in general but particularly hard-asses that looked for a row where none existed. He nodded, “Indeed, two envoys. However, Earth felt that you deserved a full and permanent ambassador, particularly since you have utterly failed to negotiate your own settlement with the other applicants.” He didn’t bother to pretend to be nice, that was a diplomatic left hook to the balls. Diplomat speak for, “You’re being assholes and now I’m here to take away your toys.”

He continued, pretending to ignore the sudden rustling and growling around him, “It’s in the small print, as are your expectations that the orbital hub would be built at our expense. That your weather sats would be our responsibility, that your seismic mapping would continue free of charge…shall I go on?”

He waited as no one had an answer. “Good. I’m just here to sort out those minor issues. Oh, and I have already agreed with the Chionate on their terms. Since Earth still holds sovereignty here we- I - am empowered to make such decisions. Congratulations, there are two beautiful new moons on their way and a population of nearly sixty of their people. To make such an effort is extraordinary and you should be proud. Although, frankly, I could give a shit about what you think after listening to your moronic bullshit in the last council session. Am I making myself absolutely clear? I can draw pictures if you like.”

This diplomacy gig was easier than he had thought.

The growling grew until the silver-barked giant slapped his fist to his chest, “I am Master Oak, Speaker for the Forest, and you dare! You dare give away what we have built and speak to us as children! I have spent years, years beyond your understanding, to make this planet a reality. To make my people a reality! And now you stand here, a small thing with your tech ruining your body, with your petty ideas and fears. We stand on the edge of creating something better than you and you would poison it with your broken idealogy.” He slammed his chest again, the boom filling the room, “We will not accept those terms. Keep your orbital, keep your satellites and keep your icicles and the other broken humans away from here!”

Silver stood for a moment and in a calm tone answered, “Seen and witnessed.”

He turned and began to leave even as the rest of the council absorbed what had just happened. He figured that they wouldn’t want him around for the next bit.

Surely they hadn’t left humanity so far away that he couldn’t find a coffee? Before someone came running after him anyway. Fuck it, they could find him on the Mist.

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Back on Earth his project manager was watching the vid, trying to put into words what to say when the Director pushed a call through, “Hannah…did you train him at all? I have a forest up in arms right now. This has gone Shakespearian on us and a little information would help.”

She pulled herself together, “Sir, Silver is good. I have the clip he wanted everyone to see… however it discredits Master Oak completely. He is revered by his people but this will ruin him. It was seen and witnessed, he declared it as Speaker for his people. It is his true agenda made clear and it is far worse than I suspected. The man is a complete bigot, he hasn’t been trying to create a variant of humanity, he's been trying to build a master race. If it were you or I then it would be exile at best.” She sent the clip that ended with Silver declaring the meeting Witnessed. It was beyond recall now, forever on the record. “Sir, I suggest you show that to whoever is leading the charge and let Silver carry on. I have every faith in his ability to plan for this.”

The call cut off and she sat back. Fuck. She hoped she was right because she would be mining the same damn asteroid if he got this wrong. Worse, that prick Tolin would be right beside them. Speaking of which…she ran through her reports and found a simple “Collection Failed” from security. More fucking paperwork...she decided to face it in the morning if she still had a job.

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Tolin moped around the station, his gear piled on a seat. There was no comfort, no respect and the few that passed through were uninterested in hearing his story of betrayal and woe. One guy had abandoned his coffee rather than listen to another word. The office wasn’t taking his calls, not after a brief message that his job was gone and ‘someone’ would be along ‘soon’ to collect him. He had been waiting for nearly two days. He had thought about just calling a few of his allies and arranging a lift but they weren’t picking up either. Bastards the lot of them.

When he heard the alarms chime in the empty building he hoped that his transport had finally arrived. He would have a lot to say to them, but then the chimes turned louder and an automatic voice told him to ‘Seek Shelter’ or ‘Depart Immediately’. Shelter where? Depart on what? He went to the large window that overlooked the empty landing spots and sipped his nearly cold tea. He couldn’t see what all the fuss was about so he decided to go and take a look.

From behind the station, from the deepest of cold space, he could see glitter, a golden rain that seemed to sweep across the emptiness of space. Tolin thought it was probably some gaudy alien shit, but why do it out here in the middle of dumb-fuck nowhere? He watched as it began to hit the shields, flaring a little and passing through and on. It didn’t seem to have any interest in the station, just another rock in the way. Until something in that rain sensed him and slowed down for a moment.

He watched as a tiny fleck of gold began fluttering down, like a broken butterfly, and he raised his hand to catch it. If part of him remembered that this thing had just passed through the industrial shielding of a supply station, that part was silent.

It cut straight through the palm of his hand and before he had a chance to shout in pain, even as he opened his mouth to complain, a thousand more dropped down on him. A thousand burning knives cut him apart and devoured the resulting mess. Once nothing remained except his shattered and shredded clothes and equipment, a few of the golden specks few around the station and found nothing else of interest. They returned to the swarm.