The Weapon - Oblivion  - part 18

By Diana the Valkyrie

There's someone out there

Update: 21/08/2003 to valkyrie05





In the middle of the night, she shook me awake. "Hey, wake up." "Uh? Uhh?" I

said, not very together. "There's someone out there," she said. I came awake a

bit more. "Someone?" "Out there. I can, like, hear something. I mean, see. I

mean, oh, whatever you call it." If this was a burglar, they've just chosen

the worst possible place to rob. I got out of bed, and grabbed a heavy torch I

keep near the bed, in case of power cuts. "Where you going?" she asked. "I'm

going to check around. If there is someone there, I'll scream, and you come

and handle him for me, OK?" "How are you going to get there?" she asked.

"Where?" "Out there."



I stood quietly for a moment, and listened. Nothing. "Out where?" "Outside the

orbit of Pluto," she said.



I felt like a complete idiot, and put the torch down. A torch isn't that good

against burglars, but it makes a really feeble weapon against an interstellar

invasion. "What did you hear?" I asked. "There's someone out there," she said,

"I think. I mean, it sounds like. No, I don't mean sound, I mean. I mean, I

don't know what you call it. But there's someone there. Or something."



"Wendy, what is it? Is it the war, has one of the sides at war come here?" "I

don't know, it's a long way away, all I can hear is someone there, I don't

know who it is. You're my Wielder, aren't you? What do I do? Please tell me."



There was a long pause.



"David, David, give me an answer, do. I'm half crazy..." she sang, softly.



No, I'm not your Wielder, I thought, you don't have one right now, you don't

even have your emulation. All you've got is me, and what do I know about this

stuff? I sat down, paralysed with indecision. Then I remembered what she'd

told me. "If it's the galaxy war, you're supposed to go and tell them to leave

here and not come back. Otherwise we get roped in on one side or the other,

and we get screwed."



"I have to go take a closer look, don't I? And handle it," she said.



"No, Wendy, not the way you are now. Chances are, you'd forget where you were

going, what you were doing, or where to come back to. You can't, it's too

dangerous."



"I got to go," she repeated.



"Wendy, you can't, you're, um, ill. Not well. Wait a bit. Wait here."



"It might be them, Duncan, I have to go. It's my duty, I'm your Weapon."



I'm not Duncan, she's forgotten who I am. "Wendy, if you go, by the time you

get there, you'll have forgotten why you're going, it's several hours away,

even at your speed."



"Then you come with me, you can remind me as we go."



I thought about that, but only for half a second. "No, Wendy, I can't. The

acceleration would kill me. Or else if you keep your acceleration down to what

I can take, it'll take you months to get there."



"I got to go."



"You won't make it. If you do, you won't know what to do. If you go, you won't

make it back."



"This is what I do. I'm your Weapon, I break things. I'm nothing if I'm not

this. When duty calls, I don't hide under the bed."



"But what will you do when you get there?"



"Get where?"



"Where you're going, to the thing you heard."



"Oh yes, I remember now. Good bye, Duncan, I'll be back soon. Dulce et decorum

est, pro patria mori."



"No ..."



But she was gone.



I put my hands over my eyes, and howled, a cry of pure pain. This was the

triumph of courage over sense. She was doing her duty even if it meant we'd

never see her again. I thought of Wendy in the great interstellar emptiness,

not knowing who she was or where she lived, wandering at random for ever, or

until her mind was completely blank. A flickering candle in the dark universe,

burning down and blinking out. I threw myself down on the bed, to the empty

space where she'd been, where I could still smell her. And I suddenly

understood why people pray; when you can't do anything about something very

important, you want to ask someone more powerful to help you. But my more

powerful one had just launched herself into space, and I'd probably never see

her again.



I don't think I fell asleep. Or maybe I did. Did I dream? Did I nightmare? Did

anything matter any more? Our only hope, the Guardian of Humanity, had just

launched herself into a futile battle; by the time she got there, she wouldn't

even remember why she'd gone, or how to get back. I'd never see her again.