Weird Tales About the End Read online

  “I need to pass a message down through the generations. If I should die because of my work and all my creations die with me, I will live through you.”

  Rolly kissed me, and I responded. On the wooden floor of that cabin, Rolly perfected me as woman. I held him tight and rejoiced as he poured himself into me. The time was right to create a child, and I knew we had done that. I wept for joy.

  His final words were, “Thank you. We’re now one. If I escape the Luddites, I’ll come for you. Keep our child safe. She’ll be a hominin like you. Return home with Margaret. She’ll protect you.”

  I left with the AI and the code of the hominin Margaret within me.

  Arching to the Dawn

  Bombs rain down between great hurricanes. Floods rise in empty streets and yards as distant buildings vaporize. Heat pulses and lights from mushroom clouds illuminate your tears. Why are you weeping? This end is no surprise. I feel you cling to me inside, a glove as liquid as your eyes.

  How could our slow laborious start and your soft moans not favor climax? You are pink from hot showers and I red from struggle. We watched as madness mixed with mediated pain. We knew, and knowing nothing could be done, retired.

  You spread your thighs like wings. Flying is like our eagles tangled while dropping off a canyon wall. Our talons locked desperate for a soft landing grasp and tear, frantic to hold each other close for interpolation. You bite me hungrily. I lick your eyes. Can you see the light in mine reflecting you?

  A sheet of rain upon the window pane startles, and the ashen beads that run to the sill shows me the fall out begins a quiet aftermath of loud, distant explosions. I feel your heartbeat as I probe your core. Your arms around my back pull down as you arch up. You are wet now. We perspire, our stomachs rubbing gently as we rise and fall.

  It was not always thus. We fought and pulled each other’s souls astray. Funny how cosmic combat nullifies quotidian negativity. You see how my tears flow uncontrollably. A thousand images revolve of our embraces. Our ancient rituals seem invariably new. Losing our false electricity, we rediscovered in intimate motions our friction in time before we inexorably part.

  Don’t weep. It is an end-time thread. It will run, and run out. Your breasts touch mine, your nipples hard and warm. I suckle and you writhe. First one and then the other, never withdrawing, sunk to the hilt and swelling to fill your void.

  I say I swell, yet you swell to accommodate. I feel your core rub against me deep within. As you gasp and groan, you drive me wild. Your nails rake my back. Your knees rise to either side of me. I feel your legs extend. Your tiny heels find my backside and close as spurs. My thumbs wipe your eyes. You shake your head and reach under my arms, your hands holding my shoulders now and fusing your fevered body to mine.

  In the radiation’s glow I see you smiling. It is the smile I gave you when we met. I told you then it was a mirror show. We give each other what we get until, overcome, we hide and wait for more. Is the crash we hear more bombs or thunder? Forks of lightning set our room on fire. I kiss your trembling lips and thrust to let you know the lie of safety. You are a believer, so you breathe easy. I continue the charade of comfort and the real bonding force.

  I feel you pushing up as you would devour me. I bite your shoulder and feel your heels and hands. I kiss your neck. You groan and say yes. I withdraw as you rise and thrust as you retreat. My hand slide down your sides and underneath to draw apart your lips. You tighten around me, and I feel your heart beating swiftly.

  “Hold on, please. And wait for me.” That’s what you always say so we can come together. How do you know the time but by the waves that sweep through your body? How do you know that I know what you need?

  I feel throbbing and squeezing, you nuzzling against me as I thrust deep and deeper. You bite my lips so my blood flows. I taste salt. So do you. You lick my face and rise below to take me in entirely. You know I like that. I push so you know and plunge myself in, up to the hilt.

  You tremble all over and shudder. Still I understand we must wait while energetically continuing our mutual climb.

  We are one organism with two backs now, undulating. I hear your sweet, hot breath in my ear. I nibble your earlobe and take your whole ear in my mouth as to eat.

  Out the window the black rain is spattering through the screen to the glass. In the distance spreads another mushroom cloud and the lightning forks between the ground and the sky. Then the lightning plays in the sky. And two great booms shake the house, one from the power of humans, the others from the heavens.

  You flinch and grit your teeth. Your back begins to arch. You press against me while you dig in your heels. Your nails find my neck and run down my straining back. I know your signals well. The end is near outside; inside your end is coming, and I am coming with you if I can only hold a little longer.

  You gasp and say, “I feel the waves running through me. It’s coming soon. Please stay with me. We will come together. I know this.”

  Thunder speaks and shakes the windows. The nuclear wave runs through the house. I feel the radiation passing. My heart skips a beat. Your heart does the same.

  “My heart!” you say.

  “Dear heart,” I answer.

  We are about to arrive now. I am so large I wonder how you can hold me inside you. You begin to spasm while you squeeze in rhythm.

  You are smiling. Your head leans back into your pillow. You grit your teeth and shake your head. “I’m so close,” you say.

  I think the whole house is moving, fit to be torn apart in a nuclear wind. My eyes are closed as I focus on the moment, shutting history out of memory, waiting for the energy of creation to superimpose itself and wash our guilt away. You are saying, “Yes!” as you arch your back.

  I pull you towards me and come, my back arching to the dawn.

  3Maggie Solo

  3Maggie had been briefed, but nothing prepared her for her encounter with the Galactic Prince, a man so powerful that billions of souls depended on his whims. The only thing that made sense to her was her mission, as expressed by her friend and lover Manny Farstar, the Galactic Edgemaster: get inside the imperial defenses and terminate the Emperor.

  She had been prepared for her mission. She was irresistible to anything male, and she could change her shapes to accommodate to her target’s fondest wishes. 3Maggie was the closest thing to perfection her designers and coaches could imagine. She was not consoled by the fact that she would be performing her last mission and that she would probably never see Farstar again.

  Other resistance agents had tried to deceive the Evil Empire, and they had uniformly failed. The last attempt was by a seductress who seemed to have no flaws. The woman was destroyed before she ever entered the Prince’s chambers. “So much for planning.” Farstar had told her. “But was she betrayed?”

  The Evil Galactic Empire had spies throughout the universe. 3Maggie had to figure on the spies who might have been privy to her own mission from its inception. She had to anticipate the suspicions of the Empress and her devious minions. She had to be wary of the Emperor’s staff. 3Maggie had been programmed to the nth degree. Still, Farstar had coached her to be wary and distrustful of what he termed, “the certitudes and platitudes.”

  3Maggie rode solo in her Spacecrafter VI vehicle to the boundaries of the Red Rhomboid crucible. She understood she would be met there by the Prince’s representatives and escorted to his royal side. She had been prepared with irresistible intelligence about a plot against the Emperor himself. By imparting such knowledge, the Price would curry favor with his prolific father. From that moment, the Prince would be vulnerable, but 3Maggie might remain alive and remain outside the lethal target ellipse.

  3Maggie arrived at the periphery on time and announced herself in the prescribed code. The escort team came to enfold her into their intricate security envelope. There would be no question of her surviving her penetration of the Prince’s defenses now. She knew her betrayal might cause her immediate termination, but her data had been subj
ected to limited access and need-to-know protocols. If she had not been betrayed by one of three persons, she would be all right. The leader of the resistance had every reason to want the plot to succeed. Manny Farstar genuinely wanted her to return so they could continue their partnership. The unknown informant who had advised on the details of their approach had no idea what was coming.

  As things worked out, 3Maggie was allowed through all the myriad security walls to the final access path to the Prince. He personally overrode the final protocol so she could tell him what she knew. This was beyond the fondest wishes of her masters. Only Farstar had envisioned her getting this far without discovery.

  The Prince said, “3Maggie, you have found me. And I am ready to receive your priceless intelligence. Please don’t waste my time dallying. Tell me what you know.” The Prince was handsome, suave and a born aristocrat. His eyes darted over 3Maggie’s figure with appreciation.

  “Your Excellency, my intelligence is for your ears only. Can we retire to a fully secure environment where I can be certain no one can derive what I tell you and use it against the people who have risked their lives and their families’ lives to inform you of the plot that has been laid against the Emperor?”

  “Lady, your concern for security is coincident with mine. Let’s retire to my chamber. There you may be assured that my security people have imposed what any reasonable being would consider the best security in the universe.”

  3Maggie allowed herself to be escorted by the Prince to his bed chamber. She there endured the most invasive and insulting full-body exploration she had ever experienced. The Prince’s own eldest sister participated in the all-cavity penetration and search, to reveal to her brother the results, which were uniformly negative. Before she left the Prince’s chamber, the Princess said, “I find no fault with this female emissary.”

  The Prince was accustomed to taking his liberties with a cleared envoy, and he made no exception with 3Maggie. She submitted to his lascivious embraces like the wanton whore Farstar had advised her to be, and she waited while he saw how far she was willing to permit his license. She did not call him to task in anything he tried, for that was her design. When he had slaked his lust on her, the Prince cleaned himself and ordered her to divulge her message.

  She smoothed her uniform and stood at attention as she spoke.

  “Your Highness, the plot against the Emperor is well founded yet subtle. His own vices will be used against him as I have been used against you.”

  The Prince became defensive and said, “Are you confessing that you’re a viper in my breast, 3Maggie?”

  “Lucky for you, my Prince, I am not a threat. I am innocuous. If I had been lethal, you would be dead now. The same trap has been set for your father, with one exception: the assassin will be equipped with a virus so subtle and lethal that it will not be detected until far too late. Nothing in the imperial pharmacopeia can save your father, except for the contents of this vial.” She held up a vial containing a dark blue, liquid substance.

  The Prince grabbed the vial and examined it. He said, “Why should I not apply this antidote to counter any ill effects garnered by my intimate contact with you?”

  3Maggie nodded and bowed. “Your imperial foresight is well known. But your use of the blue liquid would diminish the amount available for your father, the Emperor, and it would be wasted since I have introduced no poison into your system by our contact.”

  The Prince seemed to be satisfied with her answer. He summoned his sister and informed her of 3Maggie’s pronouncement.

  The Princess said, “Brother, I think it would be wise for you to take this antidote to our father. Meanwhile, I’ll keep this 3Maggie under close guard until you return safely. Of course, if you don’t return, I’ll have her tortured slowly.”

  3Maggie had been programmed to anticipate this stratagem. She did not protest when the imperial guards came to incarcerate her for the interval when the Prince was scheduled to be absent. She was promised every amenity while she was under constraint. She was also given a communication device by which she could observe the meeting of the Emperor and his Prince. She was granted the privilege of clarifying any details the Emperor wished during that interview.

  In the long interim between the Prince’s departure and his arrival at his father’s secret lodgings, 3Maggie spent much time getting to know the Princess, who was the oldest sister of the Prince. Little was know of this shadowy figure because of her acquired love of secrecy. While her brother was absent, she divulged information about herself that would prove invaluable to the resistance to imperial rule—if it could reach the leadership of that clandestine organization. 3Maggie realized that her knowledge of the Princess might prove more valuable in the long run than anything purposed for the near-term elimination of the Emperor.

  One day, the Princess said, “3Maggie, we’ve become intimate while my brother is away. Why don’t you tell me the real reason for your having breached our defenses to see him?”

  The Princess’s eyes were flashing with excitement. She had unsheathed her curved knife to pare her fingernails. She was not threatening 3Maggie as much as displaying her power generally.

  “Your Highness, I have no idea what you mean. I’ve come in good faith to tell what I discovered by accident. I hope the intelligence I’ve passed to your brother will help you against the anti-imperialist rabble.”

  “No doubt, it will benefit our just cause. In any case, though, you will be expendable once the information has reached the ears of those who can make a difference. Surely, you know you are going to die in any conceivable scenario.”

  “Will I die even though I have caused the disruption of a fatal plot against your father?”

  “Of course! How could we let you survive knowing what you know?”

  3Maggie had been briefed to anticipate this gambit, but she had not anticipated that the Princess would make the pronouncement. “I understand your desire for secrecy, but you may not appreciate how deep the plotting against the royal family runs.”

  “You might as well tell me everything. After all, your avowed mission is to preserve the Empire, not to prolong your insignificant life.”

  3Maggie bowed and began her scripted presentation. “If you should decide to terminate my life, know that the virus with which I have infected the Prince will kill him. I alone have the antidote that can save him.”

  The Princess laughed. “I figured as much. Of course, now I’ll tell him how much he misjudged you.”

  “While you’re at it, also tell him that you are subject to the same virus as he—and the Emperor will be subject to it as well once he takes the blue liquid medicine.”

  “Treacherous vermin!”

  “No more treacherous that you, my perfidious Princess, who would destroy me, the bringer of the means to save you and your family!”

  The Princess retreated to consider the new information 3Maggie had imparted. She was gone for three weeks. Meanwhile, 3Maggie was afforded every amenity. She was fed the best food and given a retinue of twelve attentive servants who catered to her every need.

  By the time the Princess returned, 3Maggie was ready for death, but she knew her demise would come at a significant cost to the Empire. She was mildly amused to learn the solution she posed to the imperial family.

  “You must think you are smart to have challenged the Emperor and Empress as you have. No matter! I’m not going to order you killed—yet. Instead, I want you to tell me more about the virus with which my father and brother might perish/”

  3Maggie explained in minutest details how the virus worked, and she made sure the Princess understood that nothing could be done to stop the superbug’s actions besides the antidote she carried within her living person.

  “For my body carries the antidote, and if I should die, the antidote dies with me. There is no way the best of your physicians can isolate the antidote from my living body. So keeping me alive should be your priority.”

  The Princess forwarded her
interchange with 3Maggie to the Emperor’s personal physicians. They concurred with 3Maggie’s judgments and urged the Princess to discontinue any plans to have the messenger terminated.

  The interview of the Prince with the Emperor was witnessed by the Princess and 3Maggie via neutron communicator. The Emperor did not hesitate to imbibe the blue liquid remedy though he had no idea that he had been infected with the disease it was designed to counter. Then the Emperor ordered his guards to seize his son and torture him to be sure of his motives. It was therefore another Earth-month before the Prince returned to talk with 3Maggie again.

  “I want to be sure you understand the meaning of my meeting with my father. He is confident that what you warned him about was true. The antidote he took will protect him from the virus you warned of. The imperial family owes you a debt we cannot repay. I am therefore empowered by imperial decree to terminate you at my leisure. That would be an unjust conclusion to your mission, I must admit. Therefore, I give you the choice of returning to your people or facing torture and death as a consequence of your knowledge.”

  “Your Excellency, I am not afraid of death. If I were, I would have been deemed unsuitable for this mission. I would like to return where I came from, but I must warn you that everything we do has consequences.”

  The Prince smiled. “My sister, the Princess, has informed me of the effects of the virus. I am aware that my father and I have been infected and that your body contains the antidote. I have not informed my father of this fact, and I believe it would be unwise to allow you to be killed. In fact, I have decreed that you should be kept alive, under imperial protection, until the danger has passed.”

  “I’m sure you are aware that the danger will never pass.”

  “It won’t, unless my father and I avail ourselves of your salvific blood to save ourselves.”

  3Maggie smiled. “I thought your Majesty would come to that conclusion.”