‘Am I in an alien?’ I asked nervously.
‘Don’t start,’ Morag said testily.
‘Hi, how are you, Gregor? How’ve you been since I last saw you? Oh fine, just kidnapped, held against my will and experimented on. Yourself?’ Gregor said, smiling in a way that made me surprised his face didn’t split.
‘Just give me a moment,’ I said.
‘Because you ‘re the one who needs time to readjust,’ Annis said.
‘The bar?’ I asked.
Annis shrugged. ‘He made it,’ she said.
‘It was a peaceful moment for me. I was waiting for a client who wanted a slice job doing. I was let into the bar. It was the middle of the afternoon, it was peaceful. I guess my subconscious just produced this moment.’
‘You’re dressed like a twat,’ I pointed out. He started laughing.
‘I was young, I was foolish,’ Gregor said. It was him, it was slowly beginning to sink in, it was really him.
‘So what happened to me?’ I asked.
‘You fainted,’ Annis said. There was another grotesque smirk from Gregor. ‘Overexertion and a nasty cocktail of drugs.’ There was something in her voice, coldness, a distance. I looked up at her. I remembered her in tears at the carnage. I remember my contempt, how much I enjoyed doing what I did. I also remembered Morag bleeding from her ears and eyes and not wanting to go back into the net.
‘You okay?’ I asked. She nodded, her icon’s features an impassive mask. ‘Sure?’
‘We all need to talk about it later. Sergeant MacDonald is our main problem at the moment,’ she said.
‘Just Gregor,’ Gregor said.
‘ Where are we at the moment?’ I asked. ‘We made it to the Mountain Princess?’
‘Oh yes.’ Annis sounded a little pissed off.
‘And?’ I asked expectantly.
‘We’re docked at Atlantis,’ she said.
‘What! Why?’ I asked. Had we been captured?
‘Because it makes sound tactical sense. They would never think of looking for us here,’ Morag said, using a tone of voice that suggested she was quoting someone.
‘This was Balor’s idea?’ I asked resignedly, and I supposed it made a degree of psychotic sense. The problem was sooner or later they would put a smart enough program or a smart enough image analyser on their satellite info and they‘d work out what had happened and trace us to the Mountain Princess.
‘No offence, mate, but are you in isolation?’ I asked Gregor. He nodded.
‘Not fit to mix with the other children,’ he said.
‘So it’s you, not the alien?’ I asked.
‘It’s both. We sent me because I would be the best able to communicate with youse.’
‘What happened?’ I asked.
‘Pretty much what I said. My other half effectively colonised my body. You ‘re looking at the first hybrid between us and Them.’
‘Who’s in control?’ I asked.
‘At the moment neither, but normally both. Look, despite seeing what you ‘re seeing now there’s been some changes. We are fully integrated.’ I didn’t like the sound of this and he must’ve seen it on my face. ‘It’s okay, man. It maybe wasn’t what I’d planned in my life but I would not have survived for you to get me out if it hadn‘t been for my other side.’
‘So are you Gregor?’ I asked.
He shook his head. ‘But it’d probably be easier if you call me that.’
I took another sip of whisky. A packet of cigarettes had appeared on the table. I took one out and lit it. It was nice to see that Morag understood my coping habits, or at least my putting-off-dealing-with-things habits.
‘So why did you want to integrate with my friend?’ I asked it. I caught Gregor’s icon’s eyes narrow ever so slightly as I spoke. Morag shook her head in disgust. Gregor considered me for a bit before answering.
‘It was trying to communicate with us,’ Gregor said. So Pagan had been right. ‘All They have ever experienced from us is violence, therefore They assumed that our society was based on violence, which to a certain degree it is. They assumed the most violent were the leaders, which was a reasonable assumption to make.’
‘So They went after special forces operators,’ I said, understanding. ‘What do They want?’ I already knew the answer.
‘Peace,’ Gregor said. I gave this some thought as I took a drag on my cigarette. The cherry glowed brighter -1 was impressed despite myself.
‘How do we know you ‘re telling the truth?’ I asked.
‘Trust,’ Annis answered. ‘So we ‘re probably fucked,’ she added bitterly.
‘Yeah, well hands up if you’re a human?’ I said and put my hand up knowing I was acting like a prick.
‘Hands up if you’re an arsehole,’ Annis suggested. I dropped my hand. ‘Look, you ‘re here because I thought you‘d be of more use in helping bring your friend back than Mudge. Instead it’s you who needs all the reassurance,’ Morag said.
‘Are you surprised? I’ve spent most of my adult life with these things trying to kill me. If we’re wrong, if we trust the thing in your head and So-I-Married-An-Alien over here-’ Gregor smirked again ‘-we could hand over this planet to Them and effectively wipe out our own species, have you thought about that?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘Really? Because you seem pretty quick to trust the alien, and believe me you wouldn’t if you‘d seen what any of us have seen.’
‘So I don’t get an opinion because I haven’t been to war yet?’ she asked.
Gregor was watching the exchange like a tennis match. I was beginning to find the constant smile infuriating.
‘What did Rolleston want with you?’ I asked him, ignoring Morag’s question.
‘That’s kind of a long story and I’d rather tell it to everyone,’ Gregor said. ‘Besides, I haven’t insulted Mudge in a while; I’ve no doubt you’ve been remiss.’
‘Remiss? The alien bring a vocabulary with him?’ I said, realising that I was treating him like my old friend again. I turned back to Annis, who still looked angry.
‘Why don’t you look like the hag any more?’ I asked.
‘I do, I just thought this would be easier for Gregor,’ she said through gritted teeth. Feeling the cold I turned back to Gregor.
‘So I’m assuming you ‘re still sedated?’ I said. He nodded. ‘And you’ll play nice when you wake up.’ He shook his head. ‘No?’
‘That’s why we’re here,’ Annis said impatiently.
‘When they realised that the facility was under attack they programmed me to attack.’
‘Programmed?’ I asked.
‘Vicar was right: effectively Their physiology is a kind of naturally occurring nanite. Their technology and biology are one,’ Annis said.
‘And the Cabal have developed bioware interfaces,’ Gregor added. ‘Effectively they used primitive bionanites of their own to reprogram my own biology,’ he said. It struck me then that the war was over. All we had to do was release these nanites and programme Them to leave us alone. Except of course that we might be the aggressors.
‘The Cabal?’ I asked.
‘Later,’ Annis told me. ‘We’ve got some of the sedative and between us and Ambassador we ‘re trying to find a way to turn off the kill signal.’
‘Because if not, I’m going to wake up and kill everyone, starting with that big fish-looking bastard,’ Gregor said in a disturbingly matter-of-fact manner.
‘So how come you ‘re here?’ I asked.
‘Because he still has his ports and the alien has wired himself to them to allow input and output,’ Annis answered. ‘You need to go now, we have work to do.’
Gregor winked at me.
‘Cunt,’ I said, meaning Gregor, and waking up. I felt like shit. I mean really bad. I felt weak, really sick and patches of my skin were very sore. I needed some more of Papa Neon’s pills and quickly. The slight but noticeable near-constant moving of the room I was in wasn’t helping me with my nausea.