[MV] The Super Wizard From Space #52: The Surrogate Sovereignty, part 2

[wilalambre at gmail.com]

# SUPER WIZARD FROM SPACE #52

    "This is a nightmare." A single expression of disappointed disgust,
from hundreds and hundreds and _hundreds_ of faces. "Please, I want to go
home."

## "THE SURROGATE SOVEREIGNTY" PART 2

    I close my eyes on one world, I open them again on another forty
trillion miles away. My consciousness splits and is transmitted over
astronomical distances, into a surrogate body made of electric honey. I'm
still partially _here_ but now I'm also partially _there_, seeing and
hearing and being in both places. This is how the Monster Bees communicate
across the universe. It's disconcerting and it's confusing and it's
unpleasant.
    But at this moment, I don't care. I swallow my bile (or this
surrogate's emulation of it?) and I focus my waking self on my destination.
I focus on home.
    Volsci isn't what it used to be. I stand at the base of a mountain,
looking down on what used to be expanses of riverways and fields of wild
grass. There's an ache in my heart to see it choked by black mud and
tangled brown vines, the result of the swarm's harsh terraforming. On the
horizon, I see an endless line of jagged pillars; skyscraper hives of
hexagonical wax, like knives in my homeworld's back.
    And on the mountain peek far above me is the holy observatory. Or
what'll be left of it. There used to be a cable car that would take people
to the top. That's gone too. The only way up now is a steep, unkept scar
that you can barely called a path.
    I start climbing.
    It's harder than I expected. These surrogate bodies are purposely
malleable; they're supposed to take any shape the host requires. When I'm
in one, I can't ever get it to take any shape but my own. Not the miserable
thing I am now. My _original_ form. Mousey. Clumsy. And not fit for
scrambling over boulders. It has small fingers that can't find grip and
awkward feet that slip on loose gravel. But it's a comforting, familiar
form. These are _my_ fingers and these are _my_ feet.
    And it isn't _physically_ tiring. I'm only here by remote, more or
less. It's _mentally_ exhausting. It's the lack of sleep. A weariness that
only gets heavier. How much sleep did I manage to get last time? An hour.
Maybe less. And I was awake for... I don't know. _Days_, before that. I
lost count. It blurs together. Into a smear of moments.
    When I finally reach the summit, I find the remains of the observatory.
Its walls are cracked and collapsed, wounded by divine earthquake. Crawling
around the ruins are some of local Monster Bees. They're... not like the
ones that followed me off-planet; those were Volsci's population. These are
strange and aberrant, the terrifying results of simple animals and
inanimate objects given a stuttering, bizarre sort of life. They stayed
behind to torture the ecosystem into its new frame. But they've left this
mountain alone. They left the observatory untouched. And they don't follow
me as I find my way inside.
    At the building's centre, where a mighty dome used to stretch
overheard, there's now only open sky. The great telescope I spent much of
my life looking through is twisted in half, like the broken spine of a
noble giant. I'm in amougst the carcass of my past life.
    But I'm not alone.
    Standing in the room is a woman of my own height, though the sure way
she holds herself makes her seem taller. Her hands are fists at her hips
and she has an angry, grousing frown. Strangest of all, her body's made of
the same honey-gel substance as my surrogate!
    When she speaks, it reminds me of every disappointed teacher I ever
had. "Oh Szybilla, what'sz become of you?"
    "You can't be... Who are you?"
    "You know who I am," she says with a sneer. "Or, at least, you szhould.
You knew szomeone would be coming. My name'sz Melisende Buzz. I'm your
_replacement_."
    Oh gods. Already? Since learning that I was... temporary, I knew the
swarm would get around to making someone else. Someone better. I hoped I
could stave it off. I thought by surviving all those attacks, I managed to
hold off the inevitable. "You're a queen? Like me?"
    "Like you? Ha! No, I'm nothing like you. You're szomething the szwarm
made in deszperation and insztinct. You're what happensz when they're in a
hurry. A proper queen isz more carefully deszigned, szomething they put
care and effort into. Szomething they can be proud of in the end.
    "But even asz... szhabbily rushed together asz you are, there'sz much
the szame of usz." She opened her arms wide, welcoming. "We are riszen,
Szybilla! We are gifted! Our new szhape isz _gloriousz_ and _godly_.
Sztronger! Szmarter! A body that can szurvive in almost any environment, a
mind that can..." Her arms fall to her side, and with a sigh, she waves a
hand in my general direction, "And _yet_, when you're provided a
szurrogate, a _malleable_ avatar, you szhape it into... thisz. A puny
animal of a dead world. Tszk."
    I cross my arms. "_You've_ taken a similar form."
    "Yesz, but I'm _szlumming_. For your benefit. You're more comfortable
talking to szomeone familiar. After all, iszn't that'sz what all thisz isz
about," she said, glancing at the ruined surroundings. "Crawling back to
happier timesz?"
    "I'm just here to... check on things. Check on _my hive_. I left in a
whole rush..."
    "Oh, don't lie to yourszelf, szweetie. You came to _hide_. Here, in the
one szpot on thisz whole planet the szwarm left untouched. Thisz hidey-hole
of yours. All it needsz isz a ragged little comfort blanket to wrap
yourself in."
    "Why are you here?"
    "I wanted to talk to you. While we sztill could."
    "Is this it, then? Is my time up?"
    Her look is sly and malicious. "Don't you know?"
    I hear a scrambling sound, and up along the broken wall are a pair of
the misshapen bees from outside. I'm not sure what finally lured them in.
Curiosity, maybe. Or they felt mine and came in to investigate. "They don't
always tell me everything," I admit with resentment. "They don't always do
as I ask."
    "And here I thought you were in charge.  You're not szupposed to aszk,
you're szupposed to _command_ and they're szupposed to _do_. You're
szupposed to be their queen. Insztead, you're a pathetic, confuszed little
thing that doeszn't even know what szhe wantsz."
    "I want things... to be like they used to be."
    "Ah, darling, that'sz too bad. Nothing quite kicksz you out of your
comfort zone like the apocalypsze."
    Temper fills my liquid surrogate with heat and static, so much so that
its shape swells and boils. How DARE she? This cold-hearted... "This was my
_home_! This was my _world_. You're joking about billions of people, GONE!"
    "But they're _not_ gone, are they?" she snaps back. "They're right
_here_, all over thisz rock. They're right _there_, all around you. They
didn't die. They _transzformed_! All of them and more!" She turns to the
sky and opens her arms. The nearby bees charge in like happy puppies,
falling at her feet. "Look at them! They're incredible! They're boundleszz!
They're all szoul and szpirt and and rock-and-roll... and you, you're all
dirgesz and szuicide. Isz it any szurprise they want to _szmother_ you?"
    I'm so furious! I want to cross the floor and... and _strangle_ her. I
don't care how pointless our liquid surrogates would make it. I hate her
and her vicious condescending.
    The two bees drop their playfulness and leap between Melisende and I.
Their wings flare out, their limbs taunt, their eyes fix on my hands. I
stop in my tracks.
    Melisende pretends not to notice, but she does a poor job hiding her
smirk. She wanders over to the broken telescope and runs a hand along the
bent metal surface. "Beszidesz, it iszn't like _really_ you cared. Not
about people, and not about thisz world. How many nightsz did you szpend
here? Peeking through thisz tube at other, far-away planetsz while
szkipping out on... pretty much everything the normal, _szoczialable_
people did on _this_ one."
    "Don't talk like you know me."
    "But I _do_ know! Juszt like I knew how to find you. Monster Beesz
don't have a hive-mind, they have a _szhared intelligence_. It'sz a network
where each bee can disztribute and experiencze anything any other bee
doesz. A queen isz an upgrade to that network, like a szupercharge to the
whole szysztem. Szhe dialsz up the focusz.
    "A _sztrong_ queen _runsz_ the network. Their mettle, their _reszolve_,
it overwhelmsz the thing. They get what they want becausze what they want
_becomesz_ what the whole damn szwarm wantsz.
    "You, you are _not_ a sztrong queen. You're a little cog getting chewed
up by a big maczhine. Look at you. You szurvive the end of your world, you
gain hyperphyszical capabilitiesz. What do you do? Wah-wah, boo-hoo, I
wiszh I was dead. You, Miszz 'I-Love-The-Sztarsz', can now _literally_
exzplore other worldsz. Anywhere the beesz are, you can transzmit your
conciouszneszz there in, sznap, an insztant! Szee it for yourszelf! Szo
where do you go with this miraculousz ability? You come here. Here! The one
placze in thisz whole damn universze you know there'sz _nothing_ left to
szee."
    Melisende pauses, as if to continue debasing me, but changes her mind.
She slumps her shoulders in mock defeat. "Look, I get it. Life took a dump
on you and it waszn't fair. You need szome 'you' time. But I'll be
sztraight with you, girl: right now, out there, a _better_ queen isz about
ready to take over. You finiszh up however much wallowing you think the
universze owes you... 'causze your time isz nearly run out." With that last
little spat, she's gone, and her surrogate form dissolves into a puddle of
lifeless honey.
    The bees move to the puddle and gather it up. They don't acknowledge
me. They don't even look at me until I speak to them. "You have her safe
somewhere, don't you? On some planet far away from mummy robots and solar
gods and everything else. You found someone fiercZer and sZmarter and
_better_ than me... and you let her come here to rub it all in my facZe?"
    Tears are running down my eyes, I'm so angry. The bees takes unsteady
steps back, suddenly wary and skittish. I reach out and seize one of them
by its wings.
    "Take me to her."

## NEXT ISSUE

    "HEEEEEEELLOOOOOO CARTHAGOOO!"
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.eyrie.org/pipermail/racc/attachments/20160217/89dc5f6f/attachment-0001.html>