Swarm

-21-

Alliances are always forged in the fires of necessity, rather than poured from the sweet wine of love. I recalled having read that quote somewhere and it seemed particularly apt today.

The truth was when I first met with Senator Bager, face-to-face, neither of us was terribly happy about the situation. I considered her an accomplice in the assassination of a man who had been a comrade in battle if not exactly a friend. We had fought together and somehow, when you fight alongside another man in deadly combat, you are forever connected with them at a primal level. Pushing all that aside for diplomatic purposes involved a level of emotional control and detachment I was unaccustomed to dealing with.

“Senator, welcome aboard my ship,” I said.

Bager looked at my proffered hand apprehensively. After taking the ride up via the ship’s long, black arm, people were never in a happy mood. I suppose my appearance had something to do with it. I’d thought about rigging up an eye-patch, because my left eye was still—odd-looking. The nanites hadn’t finished their repairs upon my body in that spot yet. But Sandra had rejected the idea, pointing out that I would truly resemble a pirate if I started wearing an eye-patch. So, I’d opted for a pair of sunglasses.

Bager finally seemed to take a breath, stepped forward and took my hand. I shook it with every ounce of gentleness I could muster. It wouldn’t do to accidentally rip the arm off the Senator upon meeting her. I could see what she was thinking as we touched. Her lips smiled, but her brow was frowning. She was talking to a reputed killer of government agents who wore sunglasses in dimly lit rooms and who barely moved a muscle while shaking hands.

“Thank you—Commander Riggs?”

“Yes, that’s me.”

Sandra made an appearance then, popping in through a door that wasn’t there a second ago. The opening vanished behind her just as quickly as it appeared.

Senator Bager looked at Sandra and the surroundings. “This is quite different than Pierre’s ship.”

“Structurally, it is identical,” I said, “but I’ve furnished it in a manner that’s more natural to me.”

“I see,” she said, eyeing Sandra.

Sandra didn’t like Bager. She had told me as much quite clearly before this meeting began. I’d told her she could wait in her room, if she liked. I hadn’t held out much hope that she would do as I asked. She stood with her arms crossed, leaning against a wall now. She hadn’t said a word. She wasn’t exactly glaring at the Senator. It was more of what I would call a flat stare.

“Senator, would you like a refreshment? We have a large variety of drinks. Pretty much anything that comes out of a can.”

“Oh, certainly,” said Senator Bager, throwing a smile and blinking at Sandra.

“This is Sandra, a companion of mine,” I said, gesturing to both the women hopefully.

“Nice to meet you, Sandra,” said the Senator.

Sandra continued with the arms-crossed staring.

“Maybe you could get us all a drink, Sandra?” I asked. She slid her eyes over to me, then back again to fixate upon the Senator.

“Never mind,” I said, “I’ve got something right here. Have a seat, Senator.”

“Call me Kim,” she answered, seating herself on the far end of the couch. She had taken the spot as far away from Sandra as it was possible to be on my bridge.

I dug out the cans and carried them to the coffee table. The cans were warm, but I didn’t want to leave these two women alone long enough to get ice.

My coffee table caught the Senator’s attention. It was dramatically different than Pierre’s. Instead of teak and gold, it was really a computer system, one of those multitouch jobs we’d picked up while foraging for equipment. We used it to work on the web.

“I’ve never worked on one of these,” she said, tapping at it.

“Here, you can pull up a browser like this,” I said, showing her the finger motions.

She mimicked me and made appreciative sounds at the results. “I need to get one of these for office conferences.”

I sat down across from her. The bluish light of the tabletop computer between us lit up our faces with a soft blue glow. “Senator, let’s get down to business.”

She nodded. “You said you had something to show me?”

I smiled at her. It was hard, but I did it. She gave me a shaky flash of her teeth in return. I wondered if she believed I was about to kill her. Perhaps she suspected that my surprise was going to be violent in nature. Certainly, my odd appearance and Sandra’s hostile attitude wasn’t putting her at ease.

I pulled out the laser unit the ship had fabricated and placed it gently on the glowing surface of the computer between us. The tabletop computer was set to notice objects and react to them while idle. It made rippling, glowing waves pulsate away from the laser, as if it had been placed into a pool of virtual water.

“What is it?”

“It’s a miniature version of one of the lasers that arm this ship.”

She looked at me, flicking her eyes to my face. “Why are you showing it to me?”

“I’m not showing it to you. I’m giving it to you.”

“Alien technology?”

“Yes, alien weaponry. It’s not terribly exotic, but it is better than anything we can make yet. I think that if we manufactured enough of these and we had power-packs for troops—I think these things can damage the Macros more than we’ve done with mere explosives.”

“On behalf of my government, I thank you for this gift. I must say, I expected to hear a list of demands and recriminations, not receive an invaluable gift.”

“I’m happy to surprise you, Senator. My purpose is to demonstrate we are an organization that does more than raid the planet. I would urge you to make this gift public.”

“For PR purposes.”

“Correct.”

“Could you do something for me, Commander Riggs?”

“Name it.”

“Would you show me what’s behind those sunglasses?”

I looked at her for a moment. While we stared at each other, Sandra slid from the wall she’d been leaning against. She’d stood there quietly throughout the conversation. She sat in my easy chair now. She still had her arms crossed, but she looked faintly pleased. I suspected she wanted a better view of the shock on the Senator’s face when I revealed my face.

“Are you sure you want that, Senator?”

“I’m old-fashioned. It’s hard for me to deal with someone whose eyes I can’t see.”

Sandra laughed at that. Senator Bager flashed her an odd look, then went back to staring at me.

I sighed quietly and removed my sunglasses. Part of my eyelid had regrown, and I was able to close that bizarre left eye. Not completely, however. It still showed a very odd slit of silvery-purple madness.

The Senator sucked in her breath. “Did our agent do that?”

“Yes,” I said, replacing my sunglasses. “I’m afraid so.”

“I would like to personally apologize for that ugly incident, Commander. Let me assure you, there won’t be any repeat of that sort of action.”

“That’s good to hear, Senator.”

“Please, call me Kim. And let me reassure you, that I had nothing to do with that misguided decision.”

“I understand you, Senator,” I said. And I did understand her. But I didn’t believe her.

“Is there anything else besides this artifact you’d like to show or tell me?”

“Yes,” I said, “I want you to study that thing. Tell me what kind of power it requires, what voltage, amperage, etc. I want to create a portable power supply for it. Then I want to manufacture thousands of these weapons. An army equipped with these units can fight the Macros on much better terms.”

She tilted her head, as if in disbelief. “How can you make thousands?”

“Each of our ships has self-repair and fabrication capabilities. Given enough of the right raw materials, every one of the Nano ships can produce those weapons, quickly.”

“What do you want from us in return?”

“Besides a treaty outlining an alliance, we want peace and respect. And one more big thing.”

“Name it.”

“A base of operations. A home for supply, personnel recruitment, etc. And a budget, of course, to purchase our requirements. We have to end our raiding. It’s not good for PR.”

Senator Bager looked down at the tabletop computer, eyeing the laser unit, which still sat there untouched. She was thinking hard.

“A sovereign territory? Where?”

I threw up my hands. “Legally, I think it would be something like an embassy or the UN building. As far as where to put it, how about on a tract of Federal land in the Midwest? Or probably better, an island base no one really needs?”

She nodded. “If we need to bring you mass supplies, an island with a port would work best. I’ll look into it. You realize, I don’t have the authority to grant you any of this. I have to talk to the administration.”

“Of course.”

“One more question from my side. Why did you choose me? Why did you insist that I come here?”

“We know you. It would be hard to send a double who was really an assassin. Also, because I wanted to change your mind about us. I wanted you to see you made a mistake, that you need to work with us, not try to coerce us.”

She nodded slowly. “Okay Commander. Do you have any more questions from your side?”

“Yes. You are on the Foreign Relations Committee. I want to know the inside story on the ground war in Argentina. I’ve seen the propaganda, and hysterical internet claims. Both contradict one another. How is the war really going down there?”

She licked her lips. “We’re losing. Every day, we lose more land. There are more of the machines coming out of those domes every day as well.”

“Tactical nuclear weapons?”

“We killed a few dozen, but then they put up some kind of field or something. They shoot down everything we throw at them now, sometimes even artillery shells. We are building nuclear mines, but...”

“How fast are they advancing?”

There was a long silence. She stared at the laser on the tabletop. It was still giving off glowing blue waves. She never even looked up as she answered.

“They will be in Brazil in three weeks. They will take all of South America in three months, maybe less.”

I nodded. No wonder the Macros hadn’t come back with more ships. As far as they were concerned, they’d already won.