Chapter 38
The jaggs had eaten the rest of the mech spider-wolf, but JI had saved the head and he could feel the brain in there still thinking. He loosened a brain strand that he’d used in his own dying mechling and fed it through the ear hole of this creature and onto the surface of its brain.
The damage this thing had done to his poor adopted mechling meant his own death would be sooner than predicted.
Yet, he might learn from this.
He sat in a deserted corridor that was a great distance from either the main party or Ari and Sawyer, because he too wanted to be undisturbed, just like the people who were having sex.
This was far more important than having sex.
The only way the brain inside this decapitated head could be alive without a blood supply was if the crazy mechling had merged its brain into the animal. JI deduced it had also merged with other mechlings and other animals, and must have done this several times since this swathe had died.
He held a form of immortality in his hands, in this furred and bloody skull. He stared into the dull eyes.
Alas poor Yorick I knew him well.
He also held a way to get a cock, but, really, did he want to be an animal and go mad? No.
Would he rather die?
Not really.
He hoped to learn something to prolong his life without going the desperate route this creature had taken. It wouldn’t hurt to possess this knowledge.
This creature would still expire soon. Its blood had drained away. Whatever power cells it had kept beneath its metal casing were ancient and would not last long. Plus, he planned to kill it.
Killing...this was something he now knew he could do.
So easy when the victim was such a pitiful, insane creature. This would be mercy.
First, he would drill his way down with his brain tendril and carefully, very carefully, he would find the source of its ability to move from animal to animal then use those animals’ fleshy systems and neural tissue.
JI turned his sensory systems inwards and probed deeper, into the tissue of the mech spider-wolf.
Come out, come out wherever you are...
It took him some time, for he was dealing with a thing that already had experience at invading others. This was fraught with danger. He fought mini-battles of viral thoughts, ripostes, flanking attacks, and brutal charges that tried to cast him from his own mind.
Step by step he fought inward to the core, collecting crucial data.
He won.
By the end, he knew what he had to do to take over an animal’s brain, and he knew without a doubt that doing it would drive him insane within three years, plus or minus one point two years.
That accomplished, he stood, he placed the skull of the creature beneath his foot and he trod on it, crushing it into the floor until it was dead, dead, dead.
Killed.
The data he’d mined from the poor insane mechling was difficult to digest. Over the next few days, he turned it over in his mind, while they found and carefully excavated the unexploded DRAC missiles from their predicted sites. All the intact missiles were forward of where the swathe had halted.
They recovered three of these weapons and Osta engaged both him and Ari to ensure they would still explode if they hit a swathe ship. Piggy backing them onto Scav rockets was not simple.
Worst of all, he had moral quandaries. He’d spoken to Osta before and had again requested a discussion with him.
They sat in the cleared area before the warbug. Osta lay back against a warbug leg with a blanket behind and beneath him, and a canteen of Harash to sip. He, JI, was not relaxed, though he too sat on the ground...making a dent in it.
If he became animal, would he too need blankets to sit? So many problems happened to animals and people that did not bother him.
“You’re worried about how many these DRAC missiles might kill, JI?”
“I confess I am, Osta.” He nodded, filtering the images seen by his sensors to decipher Osta’s body language. The man never blushed, though his heart sometimes accelerated. “I’ve seen people die. I hate it. Will children die? I swear I will not be a part of arming missiles that will cause genocide and vast devastation. If this stops the Royal Swathe, won’t this occur?”
“No. I plan to halt these ships but they should be able to transfer their people to another. The ship’s armor will divert most of the force, but we will aim at the main treads. There will be deaths, I confess this.” He took another swig. “I’ll give Sawyer time to get ship data as long as he also brings me a whole dump of the rest of the ship’s system. It will help us plan for the future.
“But not too many deaths?” Osta was perhaps distracting him. The tricks people played in conversations...
Osta nodded. “Just enough damage and death to convince the Mekkers they need to seek a new solution with us. To stop destroying towns when they want to. To stop killing us so readily when they think we aim to attack. Most times, no one did.”
“So this is, as Sawyer had said, a bargaining chip?”
“Yes. Happy, JI?”
“I will trust you, Osta. Same as I let you teach me to lie and tell Sawyer you’d killed many women. It seems to have worked.”
“It seems to have, yes. I call that a mild lie. The girl needed incentive. It’s true I don’t want her loose and free, but from what I’d heard, she’d have run from him.”
“You are a great matchmaker, sir, and I now know how to lie.”
“You do, JI. It’s a technique that is sometimes needed when dealing with people. I know you love truth, but lying gets things done. Remember that.” He raised the canteen.
“I will. I suppose I am a matchmaker too. My one last concern regarding lies is that I have heard Sawyer say lies can be a two-edged sword. Meaning they can bite the liar sometimes. Or hurt other people.”
“This is true. Pick your lies carefully. I think with this one we did well. The main danger was if Ari tried to kill me.” He grinned. “She hasn’t.”
“Yet.” JI felt it prudent to state that. The lie experiment wasn’t over.
Osta only grunted. “You said you don’t want to be anything more than Sawyer’s helper, JI?”
“Yes. I will go in with him, guard him as much as I can, and I will subvert and invade the ship’s systems, recover the data.”
“There are many warbands following the predicted route of the swathe, waiting for me to return. It’s a pity you still won’t kill. It is what you were designed for and would give me an advantage in battle.”
“I am sorry, Osta. I will not kill.” For you.
This time Osta only sighed.
He’d lied a little then. Perhaps it was a big lie. JI hoped it would not come back and bite him.