The Weapon - Genesis - part 10
By Diana the Valkyrie
The statue


"Please do not leave your position until the vehicle has come to a complete
halt." He woke up. "What?" "Honey, we're home." She opened her cape, and he
saw the familiar surroundings. "I can't believe we were in Australia less than
an hour ago"! "Yup, sub-orb is definitely the way to go on these long trips.
But you haven't eaten for nearly 24 hours, you must be ravishing." "Ravenous"
"I know what I meant." She reached behind into her cape, and showed him the
two fish. "You've still got those?" "Uh, well." "You can not have taken those
into the sun with you." "Well, obviously not. I left them at the L1 Lagrangian
point, about a million miles sunwards of the Earth." "But that's not a
completely stable orbit" "Sure, but it was only for a few hours, they were
fine when I got back." He shook his head. "I'm about to eat fried fish that
spent hours in earth orbit." "Actually, they were in a solar orbit, and I'm
grilling them, fried food is bad for your arteries." "My Weapon, the cook and
dietician" She grinned at him. "And other talents too." "I know," he said,
ruefully, "I'm just starting to discover the stresses of sub-orbital flight."
"That wasn't flight stress, that was me." "Yes, but you do it every time."
"Sure. Isn't that what flying is all about?" "Mmm. It's the only way to fly."

"Oh, and I have a present for you." She reached behind into her cape. "I think
I've got that one figured out." "What?" "All this stuff you have in your cape.
You don't even have a pocket there." She grinned. "It's like you keep
producing rabbits from a top hat. The rabbits weren't actually in the top hat,
you just make it look like that's where they come from." "So ..?" "You aren't
keeping stuff in your cape, you're keeping stuff inside yourself, am I right?"
"Ten out of ten, but you wouldn't like it if I pulled two fish from inside me
and cooked them for you, would you?" "No, you're right. It's a good illusion,
and you're right to use it." She brought her hand back into view. She was
holding a statue, made of some silvery metal. He looked up at her. "What's it
made of?" he said, cautiously. "Don't worry, I wouldn't give you anything
radioactive. It's only platinum. Here, look." He went to take it from her
hand. "Uh, use both hands, Duncan." He reached out with both hands, and she
carefully gave it to him. "Jesus, what does this weigh?" "About sixty pounds,
platinum is even heavier than gold."

He looked at the statue, eighteen inches tall, it showed a woman in flight,
one arm stretched out to the sky. A man had his arms round her neck, his face
buried in her chest. Her other arm was holding him closely and protectively.
Her cape streamed dramatically out behind them, her hair fluttering and
curling in the wind of passage. "Oh, Wendy. Oh, oh. It's magnificent." She
smiled. "You know, if you ever need another career, you'd make a great
sculptress. But this must be worth, wow, what?" "About half a million. You
gonna sell it?" "No way, Wendy. Absolutely no way. This is something to keep
for ever." She smiled. "I'm glad you like it." "You got the metal from that
seawater again?" She nodded. "You wouldn't believe the amount of junk that's
dissolved in 50 million tons of seawater. Not to mention zillions of fish and
stuff. I chucked most of it back, but I kept a couple of the fish, and some of
the nicer metal." He put the statue in the centre of the table. "It'll go
there for now, I'll think later where to put it permanently. Oh. But it's so
valuable, what if it gets stolen?" "Well, first of all, it doesn't really look
valuable, I mean, no-one except you and me know what it's made of, it might be
plastic if you just look at it." "Mmm. And second?" "If it does get nicked,
I'll just make another one. It's just a statue, Duncan, not a human life."
"True," he said, "Are you OK on Simon Robson now?" She nodded. "Yeh, I'm fine.
I just needed you to tell me it was OK." "Well, it is OK. Very OK." He moved
forwards and pulled her down into his arms. "Your strength is my strength"
"Mmm." "So - let's use it. Kitten - I command you - up to bed!"

* * *

Next day, he woke up, and cautiously opened his eyes. The first thing he saw
was her big blue eyes, looking down at him, a gentle smile written across
them. "Hello, sleepybaby." "Unhhh. Umm. Wendy?" She kissed him. "Wendy, I've
never seen you asleep. You don't sleep, do you?" "Of course not. Spending a
third of your life unconscious and out of action is no way for a Weapon to
behave. What if I was needed? Sorry, we can't fight you just now, our Weapon
is asleep." "But you spend several hours in bed with me each night, don't you.
Or do you? Do you go wandering while I'm asleep?" "No, of course I don't. You
might wake up, and then I wouldn't be there." "So what do you do while I'm
asleep, you just lie there?" "Not entirely. I do a bit of thinking, and a bit
of learning, and a bit of talking." "Talking? Who with?" "Oh, anyone. You
know?" "No, I don't know. I'm fast asleep and my kitten is out talking with
other people?" "It's not like that. Listen. You know how moving electrons
create a magnetic field?" "Of course" "And how a changing magnetic field
induces an electric current?" "Elementary electricity, sure." "Well, I just
move some electrons and change some magnetic fields, and I induce a current in
your telephone system." "Uh. And?" "Well, it's like, um, a modem? I can make
it do the whistles and stuff." "Ah. So it's just like you had a computer
connected to it!" "No difference, really. While you're asleep, I'm surfing the
internet." "Without a computer." "Well, you know, if you look at me one way
..." "I know, you are a computer, I just don't tend to think of you like
that." "You're a computer too, just different hardware." "And different
software," he said, bringing his hands up to touch her software.

"Yes," she said, "but right now, it's time for your morning shower. You want
it cold, or freezing?" "Neither, hey, HEY, put me down, stop that, no, look,
you aren't supposed to, STOP THAT." She threw back the bedclothes and scooped
him out of bed, hustling him into the bathroom. He fought back, but she pinned
him against the wall and turned on the water. "Aaaargghhh ... splutter gurgle
splowth spreargh." When she'd finished, she let him out and rubbed him down
hard with a towel. "There, isn't that better?" "I don't understand you, Wendy.
One minute you're loving and submissive, next minute you're torturing me."
"Well, you know, I reckon that if you had it all your own way, you'd lose
track of what's what, so I think for a few minutes each day, I want to make
you do what I want, not what you want. Now go get dressed, it's eggs for
breakfast." "But we had the last of them yesterday." "I got more."

* * *