The Weapon - Passion - part 10
By Diana the Valkyrie
The peace conference


Next day, I packed a bag with clean socks and stuff, and got ready for my trip
to Ruthenia. Because it was a somewhat formal occasion, I wore my interview
suit and a sober tie, the one with the gold W embossed on it, just to show
off. And then I caught (or to be more exact, was caught by) the morning flight
to Ruthenia, courtesy of Pretty Flamingo Passenger Services. Some of the big
advantages of Pretty Flamingo are: you don't have to hassle into Heathrow,
there's no passport nonsense, and the inflight entertainment is superb. I
reminded Milly to change back to the white-and-gold before we landed, I wanted
her and Wendy to provide a unified and very daunting sight.

After we landed, I told her to join Wendy, while I got myself straightened
out, brushed my hair, pulled my trousers back on, that sort of thing. Then I
went to the big room where the peace conference was about to start.

Wendy and Milly were standing, side by side at the head of the table. Milly
held the two babies, Wendy stood with her hands on her hips, a great black
cloud of hair contrasting with her white tunic and cape, and a serious look on
her face. "Gentlemen," she said, "you have all expressed a desire to put an
end to this horrible war. Now make it so."

She stood, waiting. Her feet were several inches from the ground, a small
reminder of the tremendous power that she could exert if necessary. There was
a long silence; I think they expected her to tell them what to do. She waited
patiently; I could see from the flicker of Milly's eyes that they were
communicating via their radio network. I tried to imagine what they would be
discussing. Swapping curry recipes? Baby stories? Sex tips? Tactical military
data?

General Nyvski cleared his throat, glanced at Wendy, and said. "We should have
an agenda," he said. Wendy didn't move. Colonel Arpkhan spoke up, "First, we
should talk about the Final Solution, then we can agree how to implement it."
I shuddered at the expression he used, but Wendy still didn't move or speak.
Nyvski moved to the map on the wall, and pointed to a river. "The river
Khnorry is the obvious boundary between us, we could agree on that, perhaps?"
"No," said Arpkhan, "that leaves Hrvysklwr in your territory, we need to
divide the capital in two." Nyvski nodded, "Perhaps an island of territory
here ..."

"No." Both the men looked at Wendy. "No," she said. They waited for an
explanation, but Wendy stared back like a basilisk. So I thought I should
explain. "What she means is, that's just going to lead to more conflict in
future. One country, she wants you to be one country. A Union, a Federation, a
single political unit. One." She nodded, and folded her arms, and waited
again.

"But how can we ....?" "They are savages ..." "Death before dishonour," said
one of the men around the table. Wendy nodded to Milly, who walked round the
table until she stood behind him. Everyone fell silent, as Wendy spoke, very
quietly, to the man who had demanded death. "She has two babies held in her
left arm. They are life, the future, the hope of the nation." Milly put her
right hand on the man's neck. "She has your neck in her right hand. That is
death, the past, the despair of the nation. So, Mr Death-before-dishonour. Do
you choose life? Or death? Because you can have either of these, very easily."
I say Milly's hand clench slightly, making it hard for him to breathe. He
coughed, choked. "Life or death?" asked Wendy. "Life," he gasped. Milly let go
of his neck, and moved back to stand by Wendy. "Good choice. Gentlemen, please
continue."

There was a silence as each man contemplated the drama he'd just witnessed.
Milly started pacing slowly around the table, passing behind each man in turn.
I could see their eyes nervously following her as she prowled like a big
lioness, carrying her cubs.

"One nation," said Nyvski, "but who is to rule?" They looked at Wendy. She
said nothing. Milly was silent, too. One of the babies started to make a
mewing noise, but Milly let her suck a finger, and she was soon silent again.
Arpkhan sighed. "We cannot have a ruler that is one of us or one of them.
Please, Defender of Humanity, give us a leader. Or be our leader." Several of
the men around the table nodded, they would accept a strong woman leader, a
leader with the power to force them to do what she wanted. Wendy said nothing.
"You must," said Nyvski, "we cannot agree on one of us or one of them."

"No," said Wendy.

"Then what?" asked Nyvski, "with no ruler, we cannot unite, and we are
condemned to fight on. Please, O Defender of Humanity, rule us."

"No," said Wendy. There was another long silence.

Arpkhan spoke. "The Romans, they elected two consuls each year, but the main
power was in the senate. Maybe we could do something like that?" Everyone
looked at Wendy to see if she approved; she stared back at them. "Consular
elections every four years?" asked Nyvski, "with one consul to be Rhythyn and
the other Thrynyn" "And how do we decide the constituencies for the senators?"
"Easy - we don't have constituencies, we use proportional representation, so
parties get a number of seats that is proportional to the popular vote."
People around the table nodded and agreed, this sounded like a workable
compromise system. I wondered about the idea of having two presidents, but
hey, it seemed to work just fine for the old Romans. Wendy looked at me as
they talked excitedly about the details, and her tongue appeared between her
lips for a second, then she pursed her lips slightly, and twitched an eyelid.
Nothing as crude as a lewd wink, but easily sufficient to convey what she was
thinking. Who needs a wireless lan link? I adjusted my trousers
surreptitiously.

It looked like the delegates were actually hammering out a constitution; once
they'd gotten started, it turned out that they were full of ideas. "Maybe we
can join the European Union", said one "Yes, and that means a stable currency,
and the stable political situation will mean industrial investment." I smiled
as I imagined an emergency airlift of vowels, but I could see a shared dream
taking shape around this plain wooden table.

War isn't just killing. It's also unemployment, scarcity, hunger and misery.
Even people who see glory in battle, find it difficult to see glory in lice
and dysentry. These men were sick of war, and now that they had an
alternative, they were going to grasp it with both hands. They were choosing
life and hope.

And then one of them stood up, and shouted "NO!" Everyone turned to look at
him. "This is treason, you are betraying the dead of centuries past, did they
die for nothing?" "Yes," said Wendy, quietly, "they died for nothing." "NO!"
he screamed, "it would be better to die than to live under the yoke of the
ancient enemy." "That can be arranged," said Wendy, and Milly started to walk
towards him. He pulled out a mobile phone, and dialled a number. "Detonate,"
he said.

Wendy and Milly glanced at each other, Milly tossed the babies into the air,
and crashed straight through one of the walls, zooming up into the sky. Wendy
leaped up, scooped the babies into her arms, then flew straight at me. She
smashed into me, toppling my chair backwards. I lay face-up on the floor, the
babies on my chest, Wendy covering all three of us and holding me still, her
cape spread out around and over us all.

Then I felt the ground heave and shake. There were screams, then everything
fell silent. Wendy held us down for a while longer, then she stood up, and
hurled herself furiously at the man with the mobile phone. "You piece of
shit," she screamed, "you murderer, you coward, you ..." If looks could kill,
he would by now have been charcoal. Her face was inches from his as she hissed
"You'll pay for this, you snake." He looked terrified, as well he might, and a
wet patch appeared on his trousers. She spat into his face, and he fell,
unconscious, or dead. She stood over him. "You shit," she said, in utter
contempt. She turned to the other men, beginning to get back on their feet.
"Charge this piece of garbage with murder. Murder of one, and attempted murder
of two million. He just tried to set off a nuclear bomb in the middle of this
city."

She came over to me, took the babies back into her arms, and helped me stand
up. "I'll be back," she told the frightened delegates, "and when I return, you
*will* have a single state and a functioning government. Or you will each
explain to me why you failed. Each of you. Will explain. To me." She put her
arm round me, and the four of us left through the hole that Milly had made,
and zoomed up into the sky.

"Wendy? What happened?" "Later, Duncan." "No, tell me now, what's going on?"
"Duncan. Shut. Up." I shut up. I'd never heard her like this, and I didn't
like it. This wasn't the warm affectionate Wendy, this was some cold, angry
stranger. This is what it felt like to be intimidated by her, and I didn't
like it. I was pretty sure she wasn't angry with me, but what was she so upset
about?

She wrapped her cape round us, and we flew in silence. I looked up at her
face, but it looked like stone; hard and expressionless. I looked down at the
babies, one of them was stirring, and Wendy was soothing her with her other
hand. I had a lot of questions, and no answers, and I'd just been told to shut
up in a tone of voice that left no scope for argument. I sighed, and kissed
her neck, just below her ear. Maybe there was one thing I could say, despite
her command. "I love you." She hugged me closer.

The journey home took two hours, I guess she hadn't gone suborbital in order
to protect the babies against the acceleration. When we got home, she said
"Don't call George", and set about dealing with the babies; feeding and
changing them, and putting them in their baskets, while I boiled some rice and
heated up a can of instant curry for myself. When she had the girls fed,
cleaned and stowed away, and I'd eaten, I faced her across the table, and
said, "Well?"

She shook her head. "Wendy?" She sighed, and bowed her head, her hair falling
like a curtain around her face. Then she came over to where I was sitting, and
knelt by my chair. She put her arms round me, pulled my head down to her
breasts, and whispered "It's Milly." "What?" "She's dead."

I wasn't sure that I'd heard right. "Dead?" Milly?" "Yes." "How? But. I mean,
I thought, I thought that nothing could, I thought. But. How?"

Wendy was crying now. She'd held herself in check for the last few hours,
doing the things that needed to be done, but now it was bubbling out. "She's
dead, he killed her, that shit, she's dead, dead, Milly, oh Milly, my baby, my
Milly." She clutched at me and I held her as she sobbed incoherently. "I
should tell George", I said. "No, no, not yet, wait a bit, Duncan, not yet.
Not on the phone, I should tell him, I should be there when he's told." I
nodded, she was right. This isn't the sort of thing you can do on the phone.
"But how, Wendy, what could kill someone like Milly?" Someone like Wendy, I
thought. Someone like Wendy. Someone just like Wendy. Dead. An ice cold fear
gripped my stomach.

Gradually, in between sobs and tears, she explained it to me. Dialling that
number had detonated a nuclear bomb. As soon as the fission was initiated,
Wendy and Milly had known what was happening, and Milly went to deal with it.
"You could stop a nuclear bomb from exploding?" "No, it was too late to
prevent it, the chain reaction had already started. She went to contain it."
But by the time she got there, it had already progressed to the point where it
wasn't a matter of just wrapping her cape round it.

"The thermonuclear explosion had already happened, you see. All she could do,
was to try to stop the fireball from expanding, stop the explosion from
destroying the entire city and suburbs, two million people. Two million! You
can only do that by inserting a major black hole at the center of the
reaction, nothing can escape a black hole, nothing at all, it's an absolute."
I stared at Wendy. In my mind's eye I could see the four charged spinning
black holes that were the essence of her, and I suddenly understood what Milly
had done. "She entered the fireball, it's not as hot as the center of the sun,
we can handle that. And then she coalesced her four black holes into one. The
mass of that, plus the binding energy, plus the kinetic energy, plus all the
matter inside the Event Horizon, combined into one single black hole that
contained the energy of the device." "But Milly, what happened to Milly?" "She
sacrificed herself, so that others could live."

There was a long silence. I watched the tears streaming down Wendy's cheeks,
and dabbed at them with a tissue. "Her last word was 'Rosetta'"

The baby. It's always for the babies, the children. Any species that survives,
protects its children, makes any sacrifice for them. If they don't, then the
species doesn't survive. "She also asked me to look after you, Duncan, and
George." "She knew ..." "Of course she knew. She knew exactly what she was
doing. Oh, Duncan, why am I so, so..." "Unhappy?" "Proud. I'm so proud of her,
she was so brave, my daughter, my Milly, but I wish, I wish ..."

"Is there nothing we can do? Some rescue or something?" "No, Duncan,
everything inside the event horizon is inaccessible to the universe outside.
No information can leave the inside." "But, but there's still a black hole,
that's her, isn't it? Couldn't you go and get it?" "I could, but that wouldn't
be Milly. My brave daughter."

For a moment, I wondered why Milly had sacrificed herself and not Wendy. Then
I realised, they would have exchanged a discussion on this as soon as they
realised the situation, and somehow they'd decided between them which of them
would die and which would survive. And I thought, there's no way I'm going to
make Wendy relive the agony that they must have both been through to make that
decision.

So I put my arms round her, and said "Oh Wendy. Wendy. I love you. But I loved
her too." She looked back at me, "My daughter. My brave daughter. She loved
you too, you know. You were one of her babies." "No, I mean, not just as a
baby, I mean, I mean ..." "Shush, Duncan, I know, I know. I know what you did
that night, I watch over you all the time, you know. I told her to do it, she
wanted to so much. And I'm glad you both got to, got to, before she, she. So
brave."

Now I was crying too. Crying for a lost love, for a potential that had gone,
for a life that should have lasted for millions of years, which had only
lasted for days. For the evil done by humanity, and for the babies who would
never know their mother. For the end of innocence, because now Wendy knew
death, and when you know death, you lose your own immortality. I cried for
what might have been and now never could be. And all we'd been aiming to do,
was help an orphanage stay open.

"Do we bury her? Or what?" "There's nothing to bury. Just a black hole,
hurtling out in space, establishing its own orbit around the sun." I thought
about this. She was full of life and happiness, now she was alone and cold in
the dark vacuum of space, and not even anything to mourn. I went to the
kitchen cupboard, and got a candle, put it on the table and lit it. "What's
that for?" asked Wendy. "It's for Milly, love. You light a candle in honour of
the dead, it's an old custom. The candle flame symbolises the life, and you
think about the one who is gone, but she isn't completely gone, because she's
still in our memory. Even when the candle burns out. The candle always burns
out." Wendy came over to kneel next to me, and pulled me into her arms. "I'll
stay with you tonight, Duncan, I'll tell George tomorrow." "I'll tell George,
I understand how he'll feel." "No, Duncan, I'll tell him. Because then I can
comfort him, and I can do that a lot better than you can. You know?" I nodded.
George's loss was much greater than mine. I still had Wendy. And I didn't
fight too hard on this, telling George was going to be a very difficult job.

Next day, she flew out to tell George the terrible news. By the time George
got back from work, she was inside waiting for him. I wasn't there, but she
gave me a telephone feed of what was happening, so I heard the whole thing. As
soon as he came in, she said "George, come here." She wrapped her arms and
legs round him, the way she does, and held his head to her breast. "George,
I'm so sorry." "What?" "Milly won't be coming back, she's dead. She died to
save two million people's lives." "No!" "George, she was so brave, she didn't
hesitate for a moment. She had no qualms, she sacrificed her life for those
people." "But why, why?" Wendy explained what had happened. "But they didn't
deserve this, why her, why Milly? Why not one of them?" "George, George.
Shush, shhh, George. She did what was right. There was no other choice." "So
where's her, her body, I mean, is there?" "No, George, there's nothing. Duncan
lit a candle last night, let's do the same thing." Wendy had brought a big
votive candle for George to light; she had to hold his hand as he did it
because he was shaking so much. "Now we can sit here and remember her as she
was." George was crying now. "She was your daughter, Wendy." "My brave
daughter." "I loved her" "We all did." "She was looking so good in that Pretty
Flamingo dress, she was looking forward to doing that, I'd have gone with her
on some of the trips." "Yes, George, you would. Now I'll have to do all the
Flamingo trips, but you can come with me sometimes." "Can I?" "Of course you
can." "It's not the same, you know." "I know." "Oh oh oh." "Shhh. Come to
Wendy. There there." And she sang softly to him, and when I heard that, I hung
up, went to bed, and cried myself to sleep thinking about Milly.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it look as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
oh, yesterday came suddenly

Why she had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday

Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
oh, I believe in yesterday