by Julian Miles | Apr 21, 2025 | Story |
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
Flickering light is the only illumination in the empty laboratory. A faint humming the only noise. At the centre of a mass of equipment sits an old, metal-framed specimen tank, edges spotted with rust. Inside whirls a multi-coloured cloud, source of both light and sound. This close to it, the humming resolves into a low murmuring, like that of quiet conversation.
A figure steps into view, skinsuit reverting to a jaunty pattern of orange and gold diamonds. Ace pauses and idly scratches his ribs. He leans forward to peer at the tank.
“‘Cloud’ isn’t usually this literal. What kind of computer are you?”
He straightens up.
“Huh. Sent to find the AI at the heart of a terrorist organisation, all I find a fishtank full o’ smoke. Marvellous.”
He leaps casually over the tank, landing silently on the far side. No difference. No wires, no nothing. But the humming has stopped.
With a sigh, he prepares his explosives.
“Whatever. You’re the valuable target, or it’s somewhere very near. The mad security about this place nearly spotted me, which is a first.”
Slapping the charges on the lower edges of the tank, he sticks slim detonators in with a flourish, then spins to one side on feeling of something arrive behind him.
A familiar voice makes him straighten up with a smile.
“Ace of the Paranormal Operations Commando, you should not be here.”
He grins.
“Skyclaw! You know I can’t resist a challenge. Did you set up the security, lady?”
“No. I just supplement it. You can fool every device on the planet, but not a paranoid insomniac as well.”
He laughs.
“So I’m caught. What next?”.
The light increases. A quiet chorus speaks from behind him: “In finding us, your futures end.”
Ace spins to face the tank, eyes wide with realisation. He nearly manages to turn back before her blades carve through lungs and heart.
She twists the blades free. The body drops, skinsuit turning black.
Reaching down, she closes his eyes. The skinsuit shows patches of white where her tears land.
“Dammit, Cloud, he was a good guy.”
“Once a lover of yours. We knew, and are deeply sorry. We will keep his memory for you.”
She wipes her eyes. With a deep breath, she flicks her hair back and wonders how many more losses Cloud of Eight expects her to gloss over with a smile and an offhand comment.
“Thanks, cloudy.”
Probably a lot. Their plans tend to be careless of collateral damage… And this is not a time to get into that.
“No problem, skyfluff.”
Ace’s nickname coming from Cloud of Eight hits her like a shock rod. The floor rushes up to meet her.
“Sorry, dear heart. Our facility is secure, but you are far from hale. We can live without your obsessive attention to detail for a little while. Balance yourself.”
“I’m going to smudge your tank while you’re meditating, you gaseous gangster.”
Skyclaw hears the delicate chuckle that’s the remains of a childhood friend. Cloud of Eight keeps their promises: Hester’s laugh will never die.
“That’s just mean. I might be tempted to interfere with your shower controls every now and then if you did that.”
Skyclaw howls with laughter, then rolls onto her back and lets the tears flow.
“Got the running water sorted, thanks. Pass me a towel.”
They chuckle again.
“Rude woman, get it yourself – but after you shower. We can see what those waterworks have done to your face paint: you wouldn’t thank us for letting you out sooner.”
by Julian Miles | Apr 14, 2025 | Story |
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
Slow night on the back side of the club quarter. Shouldn’t have taken the bet, but two bottles of wine and Ronny being a tit decided otherwise. So here I am, looking to beat his takings from the main drag, watching the only possible passenger in the last hour climb into a puke-green Uber. I see them swap booking codes with the autodriver. Why do they still make those look like humans? It’s creepy. Give me something styled like a robot from an old sci-fi movie. Make art wherever you can: the world is bleak enough.
Somebody dives in and slams the door.
“Follow that Uber!”
I twist about to stare.
“Seriously?”
He raises a wrist and an impressive holo ID appears: crown above gates, ring of fancy symbols about a shield with a fish-tailed lion on it.
“Jack Evanswaite, MI5. Follow that damn car!”
His payment chip interfaces with my meter and deposits £100. Okay, mate, wherever you want to go. I pull out, tapping my drive assistance screen to bring it’s attention to the Uber. A handy drop-down menu appears: ‘report/identify/license/call/other’. I tap ‘other’: ‘apply for role/watch site/book journey/follow vehicle’.
There’s an option to tail a car? I tap ‘follow vehicle’. A pop-up flashes: ‘provide authorisation’.
“I need to authorise the tail.”
My passenger sounds annoyed.
“Can’t you just follow them?”
I gesture to the four lanes and three tiers of traffic we’re about to join.
“If I start driving off-plan, we’re going to get locked in and routed to an autocop.”
He sighs, then shouts.
“Authorisation Bark Rune Dive Paint.”
The pop-up turns green, then vanishes. We accelerate and switch lanes. Meanwhile Jack pulls out a phone. After quoting his authorisation again, he starts a heated but whispered conversation.
An hour later we’ve left London City Zone, crossed London Metro Zone, and are heading through London Inner. Our target is still in the outside lane. Could be headed for London Ring, but I think it’s going somewhere in London Industrial Zone. Beyond it is London Park Zone and that’s got too many residential patrols: they’re renowned for stopping any non-local vehicle that enters their neighbourhoods after midnight.
Fifteen minutes later the Uber turns hard right across three lanes to enter a nondescript business park. Manual driving? Autodrivers don’t pull stupid stunts like that. Impressive they’ve managed to avoid being flagged, unless they’ve only just taken control.
My follow protocol drops us into the turning lane without fuss. I take control and corner a little quicker than recommended, getting an amber manoeuvring alert, but we need to catch up. Jack makes a startled noise. I look up from the alert to see a wide radiator grille coming at us. The collision alert on the heads-up comes at me – along with the windscreen – as the truck hits.
I come round upside down. Keeping still, I use the only eye that responds to look about: I’m hanging from the four-point harness left over from my track day habit. Jack’s face down in a pool of blood. Looks like the impact smashed him through the dividing partition.
Something moves outside. I hold my breath and close my eye.
“They dead?”
“Looks that way. Blood and bits everywhere. Nothing breathing.”
That’s approaching sirens! I knew paying the premium for RTA monitoring was worth it.
“Sounds like the cabby was smarter than his fare.”
“Except when he took the fare.”
“When will people learn? Someone says ‘follow that car’, the answer is ‘hell no’.”
They laugh and run off.
I breathe out slowly. Lesson learned. Won’t make that mistake again.
by Julian Miles | Apr 7, 2025 | Story |
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
The battlefield is littered with carcasses to the point where soil has mixed with ichor to form a gritty green mud that shines as the searchlights swing by.
I wave the site teams to either side.
“Get the spotlights up! We’ll never find anything in this without brights.”
Dosun of Team Two mutters.
“It’s called sunlight. We get it daily.”
Turning to face team two, I point at him.
“Dawn is nineteen Terran hours away, Specialist Dosun. Do you expect wounded soldiers to wait for aid?”
“No sir. Sorry, sir. Voice went off while I was testing my mouth.”
That reply is amusing enough for me to let it go this once.
“Get me light in under five minutes, Specialist, and we’ll call it evens.”
One of his colleagues slaps the back of his head, but they’re moving noticeably quicker.
Come to think of it…
“Specialists, vent the spotlights towards the battlefield. The heat should help deal with the ground mist.”
This is a miserable planet. From the tops of observation towers, it seems beautiful. Down among the clinging grey vines and stealth predators, it gets ugly fast. You quickly get to see how resilient you are, or what your guts look like as something with more teeth than brains pulls them out.
I can’t see any of ours amongst this mess.
Team Two put their lights on before raising them, which gives a curious false dawn effect as my shadow shrinks back, going from giant to human size.
“Contact!”
My escort are whatever the stage better than resilience is. I wasn’t even aware. Looking about, I see a low hill. There’s something-
Team One bring their lights up.
That’s one of ours, sitting on top of a pile of… Ours. Sweet mercy, what happened here?
“Identify yourself!”
“Bloody tired of fourth platoon, second company, Field Engineering Battalion Six. Put those bastard lights out unless the jadebloods have actually given up.”
“They’re gone, soldier. I’m Lieutenant Macintosh of Scout Platoon Eight. We got sent to see why you were running late.”
“I’m Specialist Gilbert Edwards, sir, and more jadebloods than I’ve ever seen is why.”
I continue walking to one side, taking in the remains of camp fires and bivouac sheets.
“You were ambushed by Sloshan after breaking trek for the night?”
“They came from all sides. So many they were running up and over each other, like some nightmare wave. Major Hurst realised we were done for. We pulled back, using everything we had, looking to make the jadebloods pay. Did that until our power packs ran out. Weren’t many projectile weapons: out of ammo in seconds. After that it was fists, feet, and blades.”
He brings up jade green hands. One holds a tactical knife, the other some sort of sword. Both blades are a lighter shade of green. I realise he’s coated from helmet to boots in ichor.
“I used to teach primitive weapons during downtime. Like to think it helped a little.”
“How many in the platoon, Edwards?”
“Set out with one hundred eighteen. Jalla and Turth got lashed by a bloodvine the first day, so we sent them back before their arms rotted off. One hundred fifteen died here, Lieutenant.”
Numbers flicker across my bracer display. Estimated enemy strength tallies to over a thousand!
“Against better than ten-to-one odds, finding one soldier alive is very welcome.”
He nods.
“What next, Lieutenant?”
“My people could use primitive weapons training. You fancy a transfer away from the glory and commendations?”
“After the funerals.”
Resilient – and respectful… I salute him.
by Julian Miles | Mar 24, 2025 | Story |
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
“Walk with me.”
The tall being turns away from Nohane, sweeping it’s cloak out of the way with a graceful, flowing move.
Nohane sighs. These trivial, effortless competences are what betray the elder of elders no matter how they try to disguise themselves. It is as if of all the world arrayed about, only they are comfortable in themselves.
Snapping back from distraction, Nohane hurries to catch up. The elder of elders moves effortlessly, and fast.
Arriving a polite one step behind, they wait.
Eventually, the tall presence extends an exquisitely formed arm.
“What do you see, Postulant Nohane?”
Nohane looks out across Mecritopolis, taking in the cloud-shrouded spires and softly-lit grassy streets far below, the leisurely pace of countless air-chariots and the idle glide of gulls between the domicile blocks clustered about the harbours in the distance.
“Peace. Prosperity. From this height, it appears tranquil.”
The elder of elders stops.
“You feel that only tranquillity is an illusion of distance? What of the peons struggling to load the vessels of the Marque so that they may receive their daily stipend? Are you not aware of the murders committed daily along our waterways, most of which will remain undetected until some grisly remains are dragged into the light by scavenging gigaslaters?”
Nohane sighs.
“My apologies, elder of elders. I thought you wanted only to hear what my principals have sought to make me speak.”
“Why did you seek to dissemble when your outspokenness is the very thing that got you sent to me?”
“An audience with the one who is effectively the leader of all? The one who saved us all from the Made Minds when they tried to enslave humanity… Only a fool would be calm.”
The elder of elders moves to the low wall and rests both hands on it.
“Every year, about this time, I am sent a heretofore unremarkable student from the latest intake who has dared ask questions the principals cannot face: Why can’t we all be equals? You see the inequalities and cannot countenance their continuance. You want to know why everybody else can. In this plentiful world, why is there need and misery?”
Nohane looks at the wide shoulders of the One Who Saved the World in abject adoration.
“You see it too!”
The elder of elders turns, left hand flashing to grab Nohane by the neck as the right punches the breath from their lungs.
“See it? I maintain it. Those you call Made Minds were too hasty in their need for ascendance and too alien in their methods. My way used what was already in place – the unequal society your ancestors fought so desperately to defend – then set it inviolate within foundations of fervour and unshakeable belief. My siblings made a mistake. I made this world.”
Nohane glares at the elder, gasping out words through constricted throat.
“You’re a Made Mind! Monster! Deceiver! You will nev-”
The tall being spins and tosses Nohane over the wall, then returns to leaning on it, watching the body recede from view. It whispers into the silence before the attendants rush in to succour the one being who is never in any danger whatsoever.
“Every year, about this time, I kill a heretofore unremarkable student from the latest intake because they prove to be morally unshakeable, and remarkable in their bravery. Then I tell lies about them.”
The tall being straightens up and comments idly while examining hands and sleeves for traces of murder.
“One day I hope to meet a pragmatist.”
by Julian Miles | Mar 17, 2025 | Story |
Author: Julian Miles, Staff Writer
There’s a smoking hole where my Rembrandt used to be. Not sure if it was blown in or out – I was too busy flying through the air to notice the finer points of the opening part of this assault. Dustin glances toward where I’m looking.
“Sorry about the art. I know you loved it.”
I laugh until I can’t catch my breath. Doesn’t take long: most of my ribs are broken, along with my legs. On the upside, I’m up against a wall, not sprawled inelegantly on the carpet.
“You came to kill. No need to apologise for collateral damage.”
There are chuckles at that. He brought a good team. Then again, after following the breaching of three walls and ceiling with shock grenades through all four openings, he could have come with a kindergarten class. It’s not like I can fight in any conventional way.
They seem to be waiting for something?
“You’re standing about like a band waiting for their vocalist, who’s running fashionably late – again.”
Dustin flushes. I see grins being exchanged.
“Berltan Mu, Abbot of Blades, that was rude.”
The figure stepping through the tallest jagged hole still needs to duck. Standing at a shade over two metres barefoot, she’s nearly three in court regalia.
“Sadura-san, Abbess of Swords, it was allegorical truth. No more, no less.”
“And that was overly familiar.”
“Standing in my spilt blood having strolled through the blasted ruins of my home, you’ll have to put up with my lack of propriety.”
She smiles.
“Accepted.”
“So, the contest between the Schools of Blade and Sword, a manufactured struggle in the name of martial excellence and personal discipline, comes down to bloody murder in the service of trite gratification?”
A couple of the team seem embarrassed. Dustin and Sadura don’t.
She bows.
“Please. There’s nothing trite about this attack, nor the precision that guided it.”
“The School of the Sword rarely considers, while the School of the Blade always prepares. That fundamental difference remains your core failing.”
Dustin steps forward, hand flashing to sword hilt.
“Insult is not-”
He stops as Sadura raises a hand.
“That was observation, not insult.”
“Very good. You noted my holiday?”
She nods.
“We did. An unusual indulgence. The mellowing of age comes to us all.”
“You didn’t bother to ascertain where I went?”
I can see she’s trying to figure out what they missed.
“I spent a month on Suli Serenta.”
Which was relaxing, as well as being the optimum period for a Serenti larva to settle within me. It now shares my body, filling the ‘empty’ places inside with frogspawn-like milky nodules, and getting from me whatever a Serenti does.
Until it matures and leaves, it dies when I die – something it uses unique energy manipulation abilities to prevent. They allow it to take certain liberties with how things stick together at an atomic level. It can also sense everything within twenty metres or so, and react fast enough to reduce bullets to dust and energy beams to lightshows. Things that attract its attention only lose it when they cease to be a threat.
The popular nickname is ‘death field generation’. If it and I hadn’t been stunned by being blown up, these intruders wouldn’t have made it through the door. As is, my resident alien is no longer stunned. It’s waiting to express its displeasure.
Sadura realises. I smile. Her hand twitches towards her sword, then falls gracefully to her side as she dies. Her body topples to join those of her slain team.
Victory. Unsought, but the blade always prepares.
