Days of Future Past - Part 3: Future Tense Read online

  I noticed that the pistols and rifles were not in the best of shape. Many had rust and dried blood on them, most looked broken, and none of them appeared to be loaded. The knives all looked to be in fairly good shape, but there wasn't much call for a knife in here, especially not against the laser turrets in the ceiling.

  That was when I saw it, a sword.

  Oh, it wasn't very fancy, it looked rusty, it was definitely covered in filth. The grip looked like it was some sort of rubber and there was no cross guard on it. But it was long, probably close to three feet, with a single edge and a slight curve to it.

  Either someone had found an old katana, or someone had tried to make one. The fact that it was on the wall meant it must have belonged to someone important.

  Which meant that it probably wasn't a piece of crap.

  I'd never used a katana, but I had been a member of the Stanford kendo club for the two years that I'd gone there. Considering all the martial arts training I'd taken since I was a teenager it was only natural that I'd want to check it out. And while I may not have been the best in the class, I was definitely no slouch.

  I looked around the room, I was pretty sure I could get the sword and stay out of the line of fire of any of the lasers, but I didn't want to give myself away until I absolutely had to. I looked down at the shackles binding my wrists. They were metal, so there was no way I was going to cut through them with my little sharp black rock, but they weren't tight, and the chain between them was about four inches.

  That was another reason why the sword attracted me: you did kendo with your hands close together. And it was long enough that I could easily destroy the laser above me.

  I started to take long deep breaths, building myself up for this. I didn't want to hyperventilate, but I needed to get my heart going. The food from yesterday helped in that I didn't feel dizzy at all, but I was far from being in my best shape and I was still black and blue over way too much of my body as well as sore damn near everywhere and my back lit up with pain every time I moved. I did what I could to stretch my legs and arms to work out any kinks without making any noise. When the guards showed up, that would be my cue.

  I didn't have long to wait, maybe a minute later two orcs ran in, with their cudgels in hand. I jumped up and grabbing the rubber-covered hilt of the sword I ripped it off the wall rather easily.

  All of the turrets turned towards me as I did so, both of the orcs making for the equipment racks I was standing behind. Three of the turrets couldn't get a bead on me, because of the equipment, but the one above was depressing and swiveling its barrel around, so I did the only thing I could think of, I got a good hard grip on the sword and stabbing straight up, I tried to drive the tip of the sword into the guts of the unit.

  The first try deflected off, so I grabbed tighter and bent my legs and then stabbed up again, harder, straightening them as I did so. Success! I punctured the unit, and it hesitated a moment, so I pulled out the sword and did it again, twisting it once I had pieced the metal covering as I had gotten closer to the base of the unit where the barrel came out this time.

  There was a bright flash, a loud sizzling noise and suddenly I was rather glad that the hilt was covered with rubber as electricity arced from the sword to the well-grounded equipment rack that was only inches away from the blade.

  One of the orcs coming towards me brushed up against the rack and screamed, his whole body convulsing as he fell down to the ground. The other orc simply ignored what had happened and jumped over him and came at me.

  Yanking the sword down I sidestepped to the right and came down hard on top of his head. I guess he hadn't seen the sword because he made no move to block it as he jabbed at me. He hit me in the gut and I blew out my breath as he did, but I hit him on the top of the head, cleaving it down to his nose.

  Catching my breath I put my foot on his chest and shoved him back, freeing my sword as the blood gushed out of his head, his body briefly entangling his no longer stunned cohort on the floor, who was trying to regain his feet.

  Shuffling forward on my bare feet carefully, I didn't want to slip on all the blood that was quickly spreading everywhere on the floor from the dying orc, I lowered the point and started chopping away at the struggling orc on the floor with the tip of the sword as I started to get a feel for the balance. Whoever this had belonged to had actually gotten a good blade, the balance seemed fine and the blade seemed to be a lot lighter than I would have expected.

  As the orc finally got free of the body, I carefully shuffled forward in a lunge, and drove the point into his body, all the while trying not to slip and fall. I'd heard that blood was sticky, but not when it's fresh and you're in bare feet!

  I shuffled back, freeing the sword as he came up with his cudgel, but he was already bleeding from numerous wounds himself, especially where I'd stabbed him. I backed up again and let him come at me, and sure enough, he slipped on the blood, and while he was windmilling and trying to regain his balance, I bent my knees to improve my own balance and brought the sword down hard on his arm.

  Which it cut off.

  I looked at the sword in shock, I realized then that the sides weren't rusted; the metal had some sort of coating over everything but the edge. I had no idea what it was, but the blood from the orc wasn't sticking to it. In any case it wasn't important.

  The orc went down with a scream, so I ran him through to shut him up, and then looked around to check my cover and see what Aybem was up to.

  What Aybem was up to was standing up and drawing out some kind of sword of his own. I also noticed that the other three turrets were smoking and no longer moving.

  "Not much of an electrician, are you?" I said, moving back into my cover, "You put all of them on the same circuit? Hell, even I know enough not to do that!"

  I was surprised that he didn't come at me, or even look at me, but instead faced the door.

  A moment later it blew in with a rather loud explosion.

  And standing there with an assault rifle, was Riggs. I could hear the sounds of fighting in the hallway. Aybem may have considered himself a military genius, and maybe back when his human brain was alive he was, but Riggs was the real deal, and for the first time since I'd met him I was actually happy to see him.

  Riggs let off a long burst right into the center of mass of Aybem, who staggered back slightly but then came forward as Riggs changed magazines quickly and let him have another burst, putting another magazine directly into Aybem's face.

  "Son of a bitch," I swore under my breath, what the hell would it take to stop this thing?

  Aybem attacked with the sword he was holding, and Riggs blocked with the rifle, and the fight was joined.

  I was surprised at how well Riggs was able to stand up to Aybem at first, but then I remembered that the gods had given Riggs extra-human strength, as well as made him almost invulnerable. I remembered that last bit when Aybem hit Riggs and knocked him clear across the room, but rather than lie there in a pile of blood and broken bones, Riggs quickly jumped to his feet and drew a bladed weapon of his own.

  Riggs was fast, but Aybem was faster, if only a little. Aybem also seemed to have a lot more experience at fighting than Riggs did, because I never saw Riggs get past his defenses once. The only reason why Aybem wasn't putting a more serious beat down on Riggs, from what I could see, was because the cables hanging from the ceiling that were attached to his head were hampering his motions.

  "You gonna help, or just watch?" Riggs grunted out as he blocked one of Aybem's heavier strikes.

  "As soon as I can figure out how," I said and moved out from behind cover with my sword held out in front of me.

  "Cut the umbilicals!" Riggs said and finally connected with a rather hard slice as Aybem was momentarily distracted by my moving behind him.

  "But they're hampering him!"

  "Exactly!" Riggs yelled at me and dodged a rather vicious swing from Aybem who charged him, and then turned and attacked me!

  I started to parr
y blows and give ground immediately. I may have been the better trained swordsman, but unlike Riggs, if I got hit once, I was dead.

  "Stop drawing him away from me, dammit!" Riggs yelled and I swore and stopped because Riggs was right. I pushed forward and almost screamed as I counter attacked, after a blocking a strike that almost caused me to lose my grip on the blade, the force of the strike stinging my hands and fingers.

  I heard Riggs grunt, and then suddenly Aybem spun around, facing away from me, but not before I got kicked in the gut and sent flying across the room.

  I hit the wall hard, and I felt a dozen stabbing pains along my back as I slammed into whatever the hell was hanging there. Gathering my wits I stepped forward and tried to ignore the rather sickening feeling of something pulling out of my back as I did so.

  Riggs was down on the floor, blocking Aybem's strikes, but I noticed that two of Aybem's cables were now cut. Whatever the hell those cables did, Aybem did not like them being cut.

  So taking a deep breath I charged across the room, sword in hand and jumping up onto Aybem's desk I launched myself through the air and bringing my sword around in an arc I hacked at the cable bundle where they were still all gathered together, coming off of the arm attached to the ceiling that allowed him to move around the room.

  I was rather amazed to see how easily the sword cut through all of the cables. Whatever the hell this thing was made out of, it was sharp!

  I was equally amazed at the fist that hit me in the face. It was huge, and while my body continued forward, my head most definitely did not.

  I came to, lying on the floor. I could feel the blood flowing down from my nose over my mouth, as I was gasping for breath. I blinked a few times to try and get my eyes to clear. When they did I slowly looked around me. My sword was lying nearby, so I rolled over and as I slowly crawled towards it, my wits began to return.

  I could hear fighting.

  And Riggs swearing.

  Grabbing the sword, I shakily got to my feet, my wrists were both pretty bloody now, the shackles I was wearing had left quite a few deep gashes I noticed.

  Standing up I tried not to sway as I looked around. Aybem had Riggs cornered and they were both duking it out pretty hard. But Aybem didn't look so good anymore. He didn't seem to be dodging all of Riggs' moves like he had been earlier and he was definitely moving a lot slower.

  I guess Riggs had been right about the cables. Either they'd been giving Aybem power, or maybe information that was telling him how to fight, I didn't know.

  Riggs, however, looked even worse. He was bloody and his sword was broken.

  "Coyote," I gasped, "Right about now I could really use a nice big hit of something. tsurupe, adrenaline, speed, I don't care what. But if you want to win, you had damn sure better help me. If you've got any markers left to call in, you damn well better do it!"

  Raising my sword took effort, I felt weak, and my head was still spinning, if a lot more slowly now than when I'd opened my eyes a moment ago when I'd come to lying on the floor.

  I took a step towards the two of them.

  "Hey, asshole," I grunted then spit out some blood and coughed. "Aybem! Asshole! Come and get some you lousy tinplated, brain-dead, prick!"

  As I watched, Aybem grabbed one of the machine racks and pulled it down, on top of Riggs, then a second one for good measure.

  Then he turned to face me, as Riggs struggled to free himself.

  It was just me and Aybem. Yeah, I was so dead.

  "Colonel Young, you are a fool if you think you can defeat me!" Aybem said, moving forward, a lot more slowly than he had been before.

  "My fucking name is Paul, asshole! There hasn't been a United States or an Air Force for over three hundred fucking years! If your brain hadn't died and rotted away you'd know that by now!"

  "None of that matters, Colonel Young, and now you shall die."

  He raised his arms then, grabbing his sword in a two handed grip. I was surprised at just how beat to shit the sword looked. Whatever they'd done to Riggs, it must have been pretty tough to have done that.

  And that was when I saw it, on his chest, right above where Riggs had put all those bullets and made a rather nice dent.

  It said 'IBM'.

  "IBM?" I said surprised and took a step back and looked up at Aybem's now ruined face. IBM - Aye Bem, Aybem. It made sense now. "IBM made you? Well have a god damned blue screen of death!" I yelled and charged him, point first, aiming at that damn IBM logo. I was dead, I knew it, there was no way I was going to last even a moment against him and it would take several of those before Riggs could free himself.

  Aybem came at me as I charged, but for once I was moving faster than he was, and I hit him before he hit me, I watched as the point pierced his chest, and the sword slid in an inch, then a few inches, then another six. It stopped momentarily but the pommel drove back into my own chest as his momentum brought him forward. I felt the sword start to push forward again then as the pommel of his sword came down and hit me on the head, driving me to the floor as I let go of my sword.

  I blinked and looked up at him, his body was jerking, almost like he was having a seizure as he tried to lower his sword and skewer me.

  I looked back at my sword was sticking out of his body; there was a black, foul looking liquid running down the length of it and dripping off the pommel to the floor. I could also hear the crackling of what sounded like electrical shorts.

  I tried to move out from under him as he slowly started to lean forward, his body starting to shake and convulse faster and faster. I could actually hear the whining of the servos, the shaking of his frame as the body began to keel over. I wondered just how much this was going to hurt, when someone pulled me out from underneath as Aybem hit the ground with a rather loud crash and the body started to smoke.

  "Damn, what the hell happened?" I said.

  "You must have shattered the brain case and shorted out the cpu," Riggs said, helping me to my feet rather carefully. He almost looked as bad as I did.

  "Its brain was dead," I said watching it as it gave one last massive shudder and then laid there, smoking. "Probably has been for centuries."

  "Guess that's why it smells so bad then," Riggs said and winced as I looked at him.

  "Thanks for saving my life," I told him.

  "I'm not so sure who saved who," Riggs replied, shaking his head.

  "If you hadn't gotten here when you did, I was a dead man," I sighed, "For once, I actually owe you one."

  "Well, you're the big hero now," Riggs said with a soft laugh, "you killed Aybem."

  "Oh no, even I'm not that big of an asshole," I sighed swaying a little on my feet and then coughed, and then winced; I guess I'd broken a few ribs somewhere during the fight.

  "What happened?" someone said.

  Looking up I noticed several Navajo warriors, had entered the room, two of which I recognized as Riggs' senior officers. Behind them, several more were looking in.

  "Aybem is dead," Riggs said, motioning over towards the body.

  "The Chosen One killed him in single combat!" I said and raised my still shacked wrists for all to see. "It was glorious! He ran him through with one of Aybem's own weapons that he took off the wall after a long and grueling fight!"

  Riggs started to open his mouth to say something, so I kicked him in the shin and he just glared at me instead.

  "What are you doing here?" one of them asked.

  I smiled wavering a little on my feet, "I helped!" then I laughed and held up my hands a few inches apart, "A little. It was the Chosen One's plan that I be here to distract Aybem's forces at the right moment so that he might fight him unhindered," and I motioned first towards the bodies of the dead goblins, and then pointed at the ruined laser turret.

  "I'll get you for this," Riggs whispered in my ear.

  "Oh, trust me, you earned it," I snickered back and then promptly fell over and passed out.

  - 8 -

  I woke up lying on a cot, it was dark
and I was inside a tent. The only light seemed to be the flickering glow of a fire that was coming in through the hanging tent flaps. I could hear the sounds of chanting and singing. I even recognized some of it from my time with the Navajo.

  They were celebrating.

  "Well somebody seems happy at least," I sighed and raised my now unshackled hands to my face, my nose felt normal. I checked my wrists then, they were sore, but I didn't feel any cuts or bandages. Someone must have healed me.

  "So why'd you do it?" I heard Riggs' voice and turning slowly I could see his outline, sitting on a stool next to me.

  "Do what?" I asked and slowly got out from under the blanket someone had put over me and started to sit up as well. I felt pretty weak, and I was sore all over, but at least I wasn't in pain.

  "Why'd you tell them that I killed that monster? Why didn't you take the credit for yourself?"

  I shook my head, "Because you're the hero? Because without you none of this shit would have been possible? I don't like you Riggs, probably never will. But like I said back there, I'm not a big enough asshole to even try and take the credit for this.

  "Not that anyone would have believed me," I shook my head, "I'm the faithful servant who struggles to see his master successful. The spear-carrier who hands the hero his spear so that he may kill the beast. God, I've fucked up so many things in my life, most without even realizing it, so why should I change now?"

  Riggs nodded slowly, "Yeah, I guess you're right, they probably wouldn't have believed you. And I have to admit, after all the work I did to get here, I kind of like getting the credit, even if I may not deserve it."

  I shrugged and looked down at the floor, "Oh, you deserve it. I just got lucky. For once."

  "You know, Paul, I'm actually starting to like you. I don't know what you did to make the powers that be back home want you out of the service, but I can honestly say that they made a mistake. I couldn't have done this without you."