The Weapon - Genesis - part 8
By Diana the Valkyrie
A visit to Australia


She cuddled him close to her body as they flew high over Europe; over the
Indian Ocean she increased speed to Mach four, curving round the south of
Australia to approach Melbourne from the sea. As she came close to the city,
she saw the big smudge of smoke rising from the forest fire. She slowed down
to a couple of hundred knots, and woke Duncan. "This is your pilot speaking,
we have arrived at Melbourne, the weather is fine and clear, but smoky." "Huh?
Wha?" "You want a quick dip in the cold sea? Help wake you up?" she asked.
"No, Wendy, I'm fine, open your cape, let's have a look." She hovered in place
and opened up her cape so he could see. "Wow. See all that smoke?" "Uh huh,
it's still on fire." "OK, don't head for the smoke, we need to find the
firefighter's headquarters." "Why don't I just put the fire out." "Because if
you do, a lot of people will be very pissed off." "Why? We're helping them,
doing them a favour." "That's just the way people are, Wendy. You have to do
things their way, otherwise they make themselves into part of the problem."
"Well, I can deal with that, too." "Yes, I know you can, but, well, I think
this is why you have a Wielder, kitten. You don't do something just because
you *can* do it. Come on, lets get to the middle of Melbourne."

They landed in the financial area, skyscrapers all around them. If you've
never been to Australia, you might have mental pictures of sheep and
crocodiles, and people wearing funny hats and slurping the amber nectar.
Actually, it looked rather like London on a summer's day, apart from the pall
of smoke they could see in the sky. Duncan hailed a taxi, and they bundled
into it. "The nearest fire station, please?" The cabbie took them there,
Duncan paid the $6.50 fare by credit card (thank heaven for plastic) and they
hopped out. He turned to her. "Twelve inches, Wendy." She rose up, so that her
cape no longer trailed in the dirt. He looked up at her. "You know, you look
so majestic like that, so dominant. It's amazing what a few inches of height
will do." She grinned. "Now what?"

They entered the fire station, and he spoke to reception, a man at a desk. "We
need to talk to the people at headquarters, about the forest fire." "And you
are?" "I'm Duncan McCrae." "And she is?" "She is The Weapon" He wrote it down.
The function of some people is to do what their job says they should do, and
they are not supposed to think. "And your contact details?" "Look, we've just
flown in from England to here, we've got a way to help you with this forest
fire. We can really help a lot; could I talk with the people in charge of the
fire-fighting effort?" "Contact details?" Not supposed to think. Duncan gave
his address and phone number. "Thank you sir, we'll contact you in due
course."

He closed his eyes, and opened them slowly. "Look, we've just flown in from
... " "Yes, sir, you said that. Now if you don't mind, we have a lot to do
here ..." Duncan looked at Wendy, and she looked back at him. He nodded to
her, and took a step back. "Go on. You try."

She moved around the desk, and put her gloved hands under the receptionist's
armpits, lifting him onto his feet. He looked up at her face, about eighteen
inches above him, then down at her feet hovering several inches off the floor.
He looked at her costume, at her cape, at her logo, and at the place where her
logo was proudly and prominently displayed. "You know who I am?" she asked,
softly. He swallowed. "Er, yes, I mean, no, I mean, er." "I'm The Weapon, and
I'm here to help you, honey." "Yes, er, Ms Weapon." "So here's what you're
going to do. You're going to take us to your leader." "Yes, er." "Yes what?"
"Yes, Ms Weapon." "Good. That's nice, and we can all be friends." She patted
him on the cheek. "OK, let's go, then." "This way," he said, and led then back
outside. Duncan whispered "Wendy, now you see why the costume is such a good
idea." She smiled. "Plus a bit of intimidation ..."

"I'll take you, but all I've got is my motorbike, I can only take one of you."
"No problem at all" said Duncan, climbing on the pillion seat. "You just go
on, she'll follow." The receptionist took them to a large building near the
Yarra river, and stopped. "Here you go, mate. The person you want to see is
Captain Gossage" Duncan climbed off the bike; Wendy landed nearby. "Thank you
for helping us, Bruce" she said to him, "I won't forget that." He stared at
her, open-mouthed, as they headed into the building, Wendy floating just a few
inches behind Duncan, and following him in tight formation.

Just inside the building, he grabbed her hand. "Post-mortem, kitten." "What?"
"I just want to talk about your performance just now." "Oh?" "The 'Do you know
who I am' was very good, very good indeed. He obviously didn't know who you
are, but you appeal to the right myths." She smiled. "One thing I'd suggest,
though. If you stand with your hands on your hips, you'll look a lot more
aggressive and dominant than the arms folded look." She nodded. "I know. I
didn't want to scare him too much, he was shaking as it was. Much more and his
mouth would have gone dry, and he'd have been useless." "Yes, he was almost
wetting himself as it was. OK, I see you have this all under control already."
"Tactics, Duncan, that's my area. You're strategy. So what's the strategy
here?" "First we need to get in to see the Big Cheese on this, then we need to
convince him that he wants your help." "With a forest fire out of control, he
shouldn't be too picky about accepting help!" "But he will. He'll have had
loads of lunatic ideas chucked at him by now, and the last thing he wants is a
couple of civilians getting killed trying out another loony idea." "But we're
not loonies, and a forest fire isn't going to kill me, not even singe."
"Wendy, you know that and I know that. Now we need to convince him." "But why
don't I just ..." "We already talked about that, love. We want the ordinary
folks on our side, we don't want to be fighting them all the time. By the way,
how did you know his name was Bruce?" "Oh, aren't all Australians called
Bruce?" she grinned.

They got as far as the receptionist, who looked up at them. "Yes?" "McCrae and
Weapon, here to see Gossage, do you know the floor?" "Floor 33, do you have an
appointment?" "No" "He's a very busy man, I'll see if he's free." She called
up and spoke on the phone. "I'm afraid he's in an important meeting right
now." "OK, we'll wait," said Duncan, "can we use your toilet for a moment?"
"Sure," she said, "over there." He led Wendy in the direction she'd pointed,
but instead of the toilets, he walked into the stairwell. "Lift, 33rd floor,
going up," he said. "You need the exercise," she replied. "Aw, c'mon Wendy,
I'd be knackered before I got halfway." She grinned. "Come here, sugar." She
put her arms round him, kissed him, and spiraled up the staircases till they
got to there. "Here you are, sir, 33rd floor, ladies lingerie" she said,
putting him back on his feet. He checked her over, "You look fine. Twelve
inches up remember." "These ceilings are only just over seven feet." "Wendy,
if your head brushes against the ceiling, that'll be just fine."

They moved along the corridor until they got to a big meeting room, where they
could hear voices. "OK, Wendy, do your thing. Take control." Duncan opened the
door, and Wendy swept in, regally. The discussion that had been going on
halted as everyone turned to look at her, hardly noticing Duncan behind her.
"Hello," she said, brightly. No-one spoke. She moved towards the table. "You
people know who I am. And I'm here to help you put out that fire." Several
people started to talk at once. "Who ... " "How ... " "What ..." "One at a
time, fellows. You can call me The Weapon. What would you most like to help
deal with this fire, right now?" "Rain," said the man at the head of the
table, "but there's not a cloud in the sky, and nothing forecast for the next
week." "I can make it rain within the next hour," she said.

"Impossible" "No way" "You're dreaming." She raised her voice slightly.
"Quiet!" They shut up. "I can make it rain within the next hour," she
repeated, "and I'm not in the habit of making promises I can't keep, or of
repeating myself. Is that clear?" A few of them nodded. "Right, then. Which of
you is Captain Gossage?" The man at the head of the table raised his hand.
"How much rain will it take, and how big an area will need to be covered?" He
thought for a moment. Half an inch would be wonderful. Any amount would help."
"How about two inches? And what sort of area needs the rain?" "Same answer,
anything would be better than nothing, but there's about 400 square miles
either burning or at risk." She thought for a moment. "OK, that's about 50
million tons of water. No problem."

Duncan wondered for a moment why she'd made that calculation, then he
realised, she was comparing the mass of the water with her own one billion ton
mass. It meant that she'd be five percent heavier while she was carrying the
water, and he guessed that she'd decided that would be no problem. "When do
you want it?" she asked.

"Listen, Sheila," said one of the men round the table, a large, heavy-looking
fellow. "Stop pissing about and get back to your kitchen, we have a serious
emergency to handle here." She came around the table to stand in front of him,
he pushed his chair back so he could see her. "Stand up." He sat still,
looking up at her defiantly. She reached down and lifted him up. "I said,
stand up. That's better. Now, do you know who I am?" He shook his head. "I am
The Weapon. Now, who are you?" "John Partridge." "Wrong. You're a weasel, and
a fool, and you're the man who refused my help when I offered it." She put her
hands on her hips, and stared into his eyes. He met her gaze, then looked
away. "Sit down." He sat. "When do you want it," she asked Gossage. "The
sooner the better, Ms Weapon. Right away would be perfect, sooner would be
even better." She grinned. Then I'd better get going, hadn't I? Give me half
an hour. Do these windows open?" "No" "Wrong."

Crash! She went straight out of the window, and everyone rushed to the side of
the room to watch her go. She flew up into the sky, then curved round to
Hobson's bay, and they lost sight of her in the heat haze. "Well," said
someone, "I guess we can get back to business now? We still have a fire to
fight." Gossage shook his head. "I'm not so sure. If she can fly like that,
then maybe ..." He beckoned Duncan, who had been standing by the door while
Wendy had handled the meeting. "You're with her?" "Yes." "And you are?"
"Duncan McCrae." "OK, McCrae, what's she capable of?" He came to the table,
and took an empty chair. "If she says she's going to make it rain two inches
of water over 400 square miles, then that's exactly what she's going to do."
"But how? There isn't a cloud in the sky?" "Why do you think she was heading
for the Hobson's Bay?" "Blimey, I don't know. Visiting the Botanical Gardens
there?" "Look, it's very simple. She's going to pick up 50 million tons of
water and dump it on your fire."

There was a long silence. "No way." Duncan sighed. "Look, it's been a long day
for me. I was dragged out of bed at an ungodly hour, and eight hours ago I was
in England. I've missed lunch, and I didn't have much for breakfast. If you
don't believe that she can do anything she says she can do, then I suggest you
get a glazier in to fix the window that a hallucination just flew through, and
then start trying to explain the sudden, totally unexpected and very heavy
rainfall that's about to quench your forest fire." There was another long
silence. "And, by the way, what you guys should be doing, is planning how to
clean up the mess she's about to make, because that much water in so short a
time is going to cause very big flooding problems when it all comes back down
the Yarra."

Captain Gossage stood up. "Jim, Bruce, we need to get down to the operations
room. Mr McCrae, I'd be grateful if you joined us there, we're going to need
your advice, this is all rather new to us. The rest of you, start developing a
plan for what will happen when 50 million tons of water comes flooding down
the Yarra, how much will the river rise, who do we need to evacuate, that sort
of thing." "You really believe ...?" one of the men said. "Jim. Do you believe
a girl can fly?" "No. Well, not until just now." "Right. Me too."

On the way to the ops room, Gossage said "I hope she isn't about to convert a
disaster into a catastrophe." "No, I don't think so," said Duncan. "She'll
have thought of the flooding issue, I guess, and she wouldn't dump two inches
of rain if that would cause really big problems. But one way or another, once
that fire is out, you'll still have a huge mess to clear up." They arrived at
the ops room, there were a couple of dozen people round the edge, working the
phones, and a big map in the middle of the room, showing the state of the fire
and the location of the fire fighting units. "Wow," said Duncan, "this looks
like a Battle of Britain fighter control station." "We are fighting a battle,
Mr McCrae. Fighting, and losing. The fire is only half a mile from the
built-up areas of the city, and the wind is against us. I've lost fifteen good
men and women dead, and thirty nine injured, burned. We have all our units in
action, and I was just about to order civilian evacuation of the threatened
area, that was what we were discussing just then. An evacuation would be a
very big step, it would have put fifty thousand people out of their homes,
maybe 100,000 because people would hear about it and decide to go even though
we didn't tell them to, and would have meant more casualties among the sick
and infirm civilians. If we can avoid that, then we've saved a few dozen lives
right there. Frankly, we were at the end of our resources, and if your girl
can do what she says ... " "She can. She doesn't make promises that she can't
keep." "If she can do what she says, then she's an angel from heaven as far as
I'm concerned." "Actually, you're not that far off," said Duncan.

One of the girls on the phones came over to join them. "Captain?" she said.
"Yes, Judy?" She looked at Duncan. "He's OK," said Gossage, "what is it?"
"Another casualty." "How bad." She said nothing, just stared at the floor.
"Very bad," she whispered. "What?" "Simon Robson, on duty at the Warrandyte
area, he's got 90% burns." Gossage blinked. "Sally Robson, she's on duty here,
she's his mother. Judy, go tell Margaret in Personnel, then you and Margaret
tell Sally. And Sally's relieved from duty, you two look after her." Judy
nodded, looking pale, and hurried off. "Oh god, McCrae, your girl, she's all
I've got to hope for now, if she can't ... I can't take much more of this,
I've had fifteen of these, he's number sixteen, I know these guys and I'm
sending them off to die." "Sit down, Gossage. There's nothing we can do right
now. It's in her hands." Gossage sat, his face expressing his misery.

And then Sally screamed. "No!!!" and everyone looked round at her. She put her
hands over her face and moaned. The two women led her away, sobbing
uncontrollably. Duncan looked back at Captain Gossage; there were tears on his
cheeks too. "Damn damn damn, I feel so bloody helpless." "She'll come through
mate, she always does."

A voice cut through the noise in the ops room. "Rain" "What?" "Rain, it's
raining!" "Where, where?" "Eltham" "Rain here too!" "Where?" "Keon Park."
"Tullamarine" "Greensborough" "It's not raining, it's bloody pouring!" "Cats
and dogs" "A flood" "It's pissing down!" "A deluge" "Start building the arks!"
"Hurrah!" Cheers rang out in the ops room, and Captain Gossage looked up.
Duncan patted his arm. "Told you. She's done it." "Really?" "You heard. It's
raining." "Fifty million tons of water. How the hell ...?" "How doesn't
matter. And I don't think that either of us could really understand how. The
important thing is that she did. Captain Gossage, the Weapon has extinguished
your fire!"

There was a whoosh of air, and suddenly she was standing next to Duncan. "Oh,
there you are," she said, "all done, you ready to go? We can get back in time
for supper. I thought I'd fry up a couple of nice fish I found." He looked up
at her. "Yes, dear." She turned to Gossage. "Oh, Captain, I have a souvenir
for you." She reached behind her, under her cape, and pulled out a golden
statuette, twelve inches high, it was a woman, reaching for the sky in full
flight, her cape streaming out behind, a big W on the cape. "Oh! Oh, it's
beautiful. You made this?" She nodded. He hefted it. "It's gold. I can't take
this." "Why not? It's a gift, no strings. Enjoy it." "Wendy, where did it come
from, you didn't have it when we left England?" "I just made it, the gold came
from the seawater, I had to get the minerals out anyway before I put the water
on the fire." "You just desalinated fifty million tons of water?" "Sure. Oh,
and Duncan, I gave that other guy, you remember, from the other fire station?
I gave him a silver one, he was ever so pleased. Come on, Duncan, we can get
home for supper if we leave now. The fish is fresh, I only just caught it"