Chains of Freedom (32 page)

"Where are the troops?" David asked.

"He IS the troops." RJ shook her head, hardly believing her own words. She found a blank piece of console and sat down. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"You seem to have solved all my puzzles," he said, putting on his best pouty face.

"Does it do all that I think it does?" she asked, looking around at the huge computer. She was all but drooling.

"Yes . . . and probably more."

"There is no one else here?" Whitey asked in disbelief.

"Just me," he smiled. "Sorry."

"Sorry!" Whitey boomed. "You cracked little creep! I oughtta . . ."

"Calm down, Whitey." RJ patted his back. "You know my name, and these are David, Whitey, Levits, Mickey, my brother Poley, and that stupid crawling worm is Alexi." She pointed at each of them as she spoke. "And you are?"

"Topaz."

"That's an odd name."

"I took it from an old Hitchcock movie."

Not only did he speak with a strange accent, he used strange words. "And all this is?" she asked, indicating the computer with a wave of her hand.

"Marge."

"What does that stand for?"

"A girl whose company I once enjoyed," Topaz said with a laugh. These young ones thought everything had to have a reason.

"Who built it?" RJ asked. "And for what purpose?"

"I built it because I was bored, and because I could," Topaz said with a huge smile.

RJ looked around her. He didn't seem to be lying, and he wasn't shielding. That much she was sure of. Still . . . he might truly believe what he said even if it weren't true. If he were "cracked," as Whitey had suggested, this was a possibility. His having built all of this himself didn't seem logically possible.

"By yourself?" She gave him a cynical look.

"By myself."

RJ wiped some water off her face. She looked again at the computer. "You lie. This could not be built in one lifetime by one man."

He burst into maniacal laughter. "Quite true. Quite true." He quit laughing, and jumped out of his seat, oblivious to Mickey and the laser he still had trained on him. He started to pace back and forth. They all kept a wary eye on him. Finally, he stopped in front of RJ, and tapped his chin with his finger. "It's a rather long story. Do you care to hear it?"

"Yes, please," RJ said as patiently as the situation allowed her to be.

"Well, it all started some time ago, when I used to be a guy called Bob. After the first five centuries, I got tired of being Bob, so I changed my name to Topaz—it being one of my favorite movies, don't you see. It's not my birthstone, if that's what you were thinking."

"See, I told you . . . cracked," Whitey whispered to RJ.

"Shh!" RJ ordered. He wasn't lying—or at least he didn't
think
he was.

"There was a crash and a ray of light!" Topaz started to ramble.

"So, Topaz. You have lived a long life. Long enough to have built Marge. How and why?"

"You are a very suspicious young woman. Are you married?"

"No," RJ answered with a sigh. It wasn't going to be an easy task to get anything of value from Topaz.

"In that case, how would you like to . . ."

Whitey interrupted him with a growl. "She's my woman."

RJ temporarily forgot all about Topaz and Marge and the Reliance. She turned and gave Whitey a cold look. "Your woman?" she spat."
Your woman!
"

Whitey smiled and pushed a strand of wet hair out of her face."My woman," he said lovingly.

RJ took a deep breath. This had been a very trying day, and it wasn't over yet. "I'm no one's woman," she grumbled.

Turning to Topaz, she resolutely pushed Whitey out of her mind and asked, "Could you please continue?"

"Well, to make a long story short, in 1986, or was it '68? Maybe it was '2002 . . ."

"Please," RJ begged.

"Anyway, I was a biochemist . . ."

"Biochemist?" RJ asked, looking around the room again.

"Computers are a hobby," Topaz explained. "Anyway, I was looking for a cure for a disease called AIDS. It was being called the 'plague of the century.' Since initially it affected mostly homosexuals and needle users, at first it was vastly ignored by the government and became rampant in this part of the country. See, San Francisco . . ."

"San . . . fran . . . cisco?" David stumbled through the strange name.

"
San Francisco
. That's the real name of the town you live in. When the Reliance came into power, they changed all the place names, often distorting them. Alcatraz. That used to be the name of this island. They distorted the name to Alsterase, and it became the name of the town, not just the island." He had everyone's attention now. He sat down in his chair and felt rather like a father telling his children a bedtime story about the days of his youth. "Anyway, the disease was greatly ignored until it started to affect the heterosexual community. By the time they started to try to really cure the disease, millions had already died. I jumped on the bandwagon early and started experimenting with real cures. It wasn't easy. You see, AIDS – which stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome—destroyed the victim's immune system, so I was trying to create a vaccine that would make the body regenerate itself. Everyone said I was mad. They were right, of course, but I didn't like the way they said it. I worked day and night trying to prove them wrong. What I wound up with was something that caused near total regeneration. I gave it to a rat. I cut its leg off, and it grew a new one. I fed him deadly poison, and he got fat and healthy. I kept him up for days on end, and he didn't even get tired. I blew enough smoke into his lungs to corrode them six times, and he didn't even cough. Finally, I cut it in half . . ."

"And it lived?" David wondered in awed shock.

"No, it died. But I thought I'd never kill the bastard. Hell, I didn't even
like
the bloody thing. Had a dog I loved once, it caught cold and died, but this thing I couldn't kill . . ."

RJ coughed.

"At any rate, I took the stuff . . ."

"And became immortal," RJ said.

"I wanted to say that," Topaz said with a pout. "Unfortunately, I couldn't reproduce the drug."

"Why not?" David asked.

"Because apparently it wasn't my genius that created the serum in the first place, but the will of God. To be more specific, somehow something got into it that I didn't put in it. Something fell into it, or the weather caused an unrecorded reaction. Or maybe I
did
do it during one of those sleep-walking stages I drove myself into, and I didn't record it. I don't know. I only know that I was never able to reproduce the shit. And believe me, I have tried many times. It's just as well, I suppose. Man was never meant to live forever." He paused. "Although they used some of my research when they created the first GSHs. So, how mad was I?

"As for why I built Marge. Well, that is very simple. When one lives forever, one is constantly bereft of loved ones. I have watched friends, lovers, even my own children die of old age. Marge can't die. So, I can have a fondness for her without fear of loss."

RJ had no problem knowing what he was talking about.

"There is another reason." He looked at RJ. "I don't like the Reliance; I never have. I don't like what they've done to the world. I have been waiting for you or someone like you for five hundred years. The computer and this base, as well as my services, are at your disposal," he finished with a grand flourish and a bow in RJ's direction.

"You have a funny way of displaying your eagerness to help," Whitey said angrily.

"Letting Marge fall into the hands of an unorganized rabble would have been the same as letting the Reliance have her."

"You would have let us drown if Mickey hadn't shown up when he did?" David asked, accusingly.

"If he hadn't shown up, you would have flunked the test," Topaz said simply.

RJ caught Poley running his hand over the computer's console lovingly, and wished she could crawl under a rock somewhere.

Topaz saw where RJ's eyes rested and gave her a big grin, his teeth shining.

"Rather appropriate, really," he said.

So, RJ thought uncomfortably. He knows what Poley is. Well, of course he does. With this thing on deck he could probably reproduce old Tin Pants. It might even have told him what I am.

"Am I to be trusted? Before you ask, perhaps I should tell you that Marge has localized armaments. If I had wanted to kill you, all I would have had to do was say the word."

"I never doubted that."

RJ looked at Mickey and nodded her head. He put away his laser reluctantly.

"Come then, let us retire to some more comfortable surroundings. Marge, prepare the viewing room."

"As you wish, Master," the computer cooed.

RJ grimaced.

"I did that voice myself," Topaz explained. "I wanted it to be female, but didn't have a woman at my disposal, so . . ."

"I understand."

They followed him to a large room. Plush couches and chairs lined the walls. The floor was covered in elaborately decorated rugs. The walls were covered with tapestries depicting forest scenes as well as some depicting ancient forms of battle in which men wore metal suits and fought with all manner of sharp metal objects. On one wall was a huge viewing screen.

"I managed to save a great deal of our old culture by putting movies onto laser disks. I think you will enjoy it. Before the Reliance, we used viewing screens for entertainment purposes. Marge, put something on for our guests, and bring us some drinks." Then as an afterthought he added. "And do bring our friends some dry clothes. I'm afraid I find the nakedness of this young man," he pointed at Poley, "to be quite intimidating."

"As you wish, Master," Marge responded sweetly. In a matter of seconds, the wall lit up with an ancient movie about warriors like the ones depicted in some of the tapestries hanging on the walls around them. The men were immediately captivated. RJ had seen something similar at the pleasure station in Vector 6. Of course, the satellite in orbit around the planet Deaka was strictly off-limits to anyone who wasn't high-ranking Reliance personnel, so it was all new to the men.

A drone hustled in carrying a stack of khaki-colored clothing. RJ went through the clothes, sorted them by size, and handed them out. Poley dressed as she, Whitey, Alexi, Levits and RJ stripped. Mickey and David looked at each other and then at Topaz.

Topaz smiled indulgently. "There's a room right down the hall and to your right," Topaz said.

RJ looked up from where she was finishing wrapping the chain around herself.

"Oh for shit's sake," RJ said, a bit disgusted with them. "Look, I'll turn around and close my eyes."

When she did, Mickey and David quickly changed. Of course even the smallest clothes Topaz had on hand didn't fit the midget, but he was used to having to modify his clothing, and after a few rolls and tucks he wasn't tripping over them anymore.

"All right," David said when they'd finished dressing.

RJ turned around, mumbling something about the stupid modesty of civilians.

A second drone rushed in carrying a load of bottles and glasses. It went to Topaz first, and he grabbed a bottle and a glass and poured. He set the bottle back down, and took a sip.

"Ah," he smiled in pleasure. "Nothing quite like seven-hundred-year-old Scotch."

The drone stopped next in front of RJ, who was the only one who still hadn't sat down. She took the bottles one by one and read the labels. Topaz wasn't kidding. Some of this liquor was hundreds of years old. She finally settled on the bottle of whiskey and took the whole thing.

RJ took a seat somewhat removed from the others and was joined by Topaz.

"So, now that the others are busy, perhaps we can talk."

RJ nodded, but said nothing, waiting with interest for him to start the conversation.

"The Reliance is an unholy abomination. I would have thought there'd have been an uprising long before this. But I guess humankind sort of lost all its spirit." He got off the couch, and started to crawl around on the floor on his hands and knees.

"Can I help you?" RJ asked, intrigued.

"Do what?"

"Look for whatever it is you've lost."

"I haven't lost anything yet. I just want to be prepared when I do. You know, make a list of places to look. Did you ever wonder where those little balls of lint that get under everything come from?" he asked seriously.

"No, I really can't say I have. You were saying something about human kind losing its spirit?"

Topaz got up and sat back down on the couch next to her. "Well, the trouble all started with Earth's not having enough countries . . ."