Danlain

Across the rooftop stood he, risen from setting the tangle of equipment at the edge of the roof. A great, white moon filled all the sky beneath the stars, above the black shapes of buildings lit in city blue.

Danlain swallowed. The man had not heard him. His shoes shifted on the rooftop surface, lightly, just lightly to set his stance. His heartbeat drummed, his fingers shook. The rooftop intruder turned to stretch muscles in his aching back, the black jacket shifted, showing fawn leather harness, a black shape shining. A handgun.

Danlain moved with painful care. The long black coat, soft, light fabric silently pooled at his feet, unfurling gold lining in the moonlight. Don’t get blood on the coat – where came that thought into being from the dark places in his mind?

Whose blood?

Concentrate, Danlain. Step forward. Right hand closing around the black hilt of his katana, tightening fingers around the bound silk.

Step. Step. Step – the man bent to check the display, a ribbon of digital red letters surmounting a keypad on the machine at his feet.

Step. The man rose again, yawning, resting his hands, thumbs in pockets, fingers drumming on the material. This mainlander was not wearing dark glasses. Stubble darkened pale cheeks that shone under the moon. The strong, normally constant wind lifted the night air, catching the jacket, flying cool in Danlain’s black, untamed hair.

The man pulled his jacket tight, a shiver shrugging his shoulders, turning, he heard the snik in the lull of the wind as Danlain freed his sword from its saya.

Grey blue eyes met Danlain’s golden brown, sharing shock across the void. The wind rose again and rushed between. The katana tip hovered inches above the grey roof, shining, trembling, a steel extension of the line of Danlain’s arm. Six paces distance separated two beating hearts.

The man reached for his gun. As his fingers closed on the grip Danlain’s feet moved two paces, sword arm reaching back, muscles bunching in preparation. The gun came free, but now Danlain was almost in reach, the gun levelled at his chest, and now Danlain’s knees bent as he swung low into the last step he would need. Or the last step. The last step.

The downward swing of his body changed the line of fire and the mainlander flinched.

The katana swept up and out as Danlain rose through, muscles releasing through the sword blade as the boy’s leap took him past his target, turning in the air, G-field anklets firing briefly in response, adding lift.

His feet returned to the roof several paces onwards from the point which they had left. The blade completed its smooth course, snapped tight out into the same shallow diagonal as before. A spatter of blood sailed free of the cold metal. The handgun clattered across the rooftop, a heavy slump, falling impact. Danlain’s breath left him in a sharp exhalation. The knuckles of his right hand bulged white.

Danlain, hand shaking, reached for his communicator. The close fitting techmetal of his armour shirt was active, aware of the adrenaline in his system, a faint gold glow lighting his fragile featured, angular face from beneath. The serpentine spiral of metal rose like filigree across his neck from beneath the techmetal, tracing his left ear. The fingertip that touched the wire was encased tightly in techmetal itself, the material embracing like a liquid, as strong as the steel of the katana, a barely visible glow rising as it made contact.

‘Emergency Assistance.’ Danlain managed to murmur. Then he forced himself to turn and stare.

Blood pooled dark and relentless, creeping across the rooftop in a widening lake of guilt.

The door from the stairwell opened and another man came through. He was armoured similarly to Danlain, but was older, an adult. A heavy, leather greatcoat flapped gently in the high altitude night. His hair, like Danlain’s was black, but true black, void of the gold and silver highlights shot through the boy’s wild, spiky hair.

Danlain opened his mouth for words, but found himself abandoned of language. His arms lifted in a sort of shrug, halfway towards his hands being lifted in a plea. The tall man strode across the roof, glancing down at the corpse, boots avoiding the blood. His long, tied back hair framed steady, indigo bright eyes that settled on Danlain with a question.

‘Are you alright?’ Daimyo’s voice was strong with concern. Danlain flinched as his superior rested a hand on his shoulder. He blinked, mouth still slightly open, eyes fixated on the work of his hand.

I can see inside. The realisation took the strength out of his legs and he slipped, held up by the Guard Premier.

‘Come on. Here, Sigma Guard, shhhh... sheathe your blade.’

‘There’s blood on it.’

‘Doesn’t matter. Clean it later. Come on, let’s get off the roof.’ The leader of the city’s Guard retrieved Danlain’s coat, folding it over his arm as he shepherded the fifteen year old down to the stairs.

The sky above the city was star-scattered, lit with blue light rising from the glass and steel monoliths, buildings clean and square against the expanse of heaven. The broad roads that ran throughout the island city were empty, clean, impressive. Only thousands lived in Azure; Azure, a city designed for hundreds of thousands. Roads waited, ready for the automobiles that the people did not own.

‘The other alerts.’ Danlain blurted suddenly. The elevator that had just rushed them in smooth silence down seventy floors closed behind them in the desolate lobby. It was unclear, as with most buildings in Azure, what this structure was intended to be.

Daimyo looked back at Danlain as they left through automatic doors. ‘It’s all over now. Taig sent only a few through; there were enough to get past the Guards I stationed at the roadway, but not enough to pose a threat.’

The mention of Taig summoned back Danlain’s memory of earlier that night, when the sun had been setting in orange glory behind distant cloudbanks, above the dark and angular shape of the mainland city on the horizon.

----
The long road ran out clear from the sloped sand banks of the city, out over the silver mirror of the sea, out until obscured by distance, swallowed by the dark and distant cityscape beyond. The roadway opened on Azure soil into a broad, curving square. Sculptures sat in leafy bays around the outer curve.

A second semicircle had formed around the roadway, a concave barrier against those standing beneath the elegantly wrought welcome arch. In black suits they stood, stylishly clothed, shoulder to shoulder, expressly the same in manner and intent if not in look. Dark glasses hid the eyes of several, but their leader’s eyes were uncovered.

They studied all with an analytical sweep, a glitter in the green irises speaking of hidden things. The set of his shoulders and the way he stood was all confidence. His greeting to Daimyo was delivered coolly and precisely, as exacting and calm as it seemed to Danlain to be malicious – evil beneath a silk tie.

Daimyo stood resolute and unimpressed. Danlain glanced at his friend. Blue haired Pachikov, intent and excited, did not notice Danlain’s glance. The black haired youth returned his attention to the Gaurd Premier.

‘I am the leader of the Azure City Guard, mainlander. Azure is not a closed island, and visitors are welcome but you must turn over your weapons. Your car must be searched.’

Something about Daimyo’s clipped delivery seemed unusual. Danlain could almost feel the Premier’s intense dislike of the newcomer, although outwardly the tall Guard appeared polite. Taig smiled slowly.

‘I see that you and your guards go armed.’ It was true. Each Guard stood beside their own Cycle, and as each machine was of a different design, there was also great variety in the weapons on show. Daimyo, at least, had not drawn his enormous claymore; the great double edged sword rested in its straps down the length of his back. The other Azure City Guards were a mixture, some nearly as young as Danlain, who was the youngest, others approaching Daimyo in age.

Daimyo himself did not look older than thirty. Whether or not it was his age-bought wisdom that had lent him reserve, conversely the younger Guards were all presenting weapons.

‘Yes.’ Daimyo answered, harsh recognition showing, recognition of something in the mainlander, something he could see in the hidden lights of Taig’s eyes?

‘Yes, we carry swords, mainlander.’
----

Daimyo stood silently beside Danlain as the boy undid the strap that held the katana’s scabbard, the saya, close to his side. Danlain’s Cycle, OC Sigma rested at the roadside, gleaming metal edged in fiery gold. At Danlain’s shaking touch a compartment behind the seat slipped open, accepting the katana and closing automatically. The same touch had set the Cycle aglow, the swept back, curving rests at the vehicle’s rear lifted clear of the ground as a hum swept through the machine, activating the Gravity Field spheres that eliminated the need for a back wheel. The sphere at the front, three times the size of its partners, lit up with blue fire: a globe of techmetal containing the Onboard Computer unique to Danlain, OC Sigma.

‘Are you fit to ride?’ Daimyo asked. Danlain glanced up, expression still dazed. He reasserted his will, nodded.

‘Yes, Guard Premier, sir. I’m fine.’

‘I’ll escort you to your apartment.’

Danlain simply nodded his thanks, but Daimyo did not seem to mind the breach in etiquette. He looked away for a moment, eyes focussed but not on his surroundings, a sure sign that he was communicating with his own OC. Danlain’s admiration for his commander rose behind the walls that were rising in the boy’s heart. A cold fog was descending on the blood-hot fierceness of the rooftop, pushing it away, making it smaller. Even so, he still felt the pang of jealousy as OC Omega loomed into view, summoned directly by the Guard Premier’s integrated techmetal.

All guards on Azure were techmetal augmented, but none could match the level of advancement shown in Daimyo. His integration with OC Omega was so complete that it bordered on miraculous. Messages sent to the Onboard Computer Omega, it often seemed, would arrive in the mind of Guard Premier Daimyo simultaneously.

Danlain shook himself again. ‘Pash...’

Daimyo swung himself into the seat of his powerful Cycle, looking across at Danlain. Ready to go, Danlain. OC Sigma’s metallic voice spoke through Danlain’s techmetal communicator. The Guard Premier understood the question Danlain had not quite asked.

‘Guard Tau Pachikov is safe. Only Guards Theta and Epsilon were injured, and not badly. There are no mainlanders currently alive on Azure.’

----
When Danlain had arrived, jumping from the seat of his Cycle as it drifted to a halt at the edge of the square, Pash had been waiting for him. The boy had short cropped blue hair, contained a little by the head-guard he had just put on. He was holding his greaves and as Danlain walked to his side locked them in, the soft bodysuit nanotech bonding firmly with the techmetal armour.

‘Hurry, get on your armour, Lain!’

‘Yes...what’s happening?’

Pash pointed to the road bridge. A gleaming black shape was growing slowly larger as it approached. More cycles slowed to a halt as the other Azure City Guards pulled in, grabbing their weapons and looking around for Daimyo and information.

‘Mainlanders, Lain.’

‘What do you think they’re coming for? They never came before.’ Danlain grabbed the nanotech under-suit, from one of the rear compartments of Sigma Cycle, pulling it on over his head, feeling it react to his shape, enveloping and fitting itself to him. Pash helped him, pressing armour segments into place and pushing the taller boy’s ruffled hair back out of his eyes.

‘Ah, Lain, I must even dress you!’ he grinned. Danlain smiled, he had missed hearing his best friend’s accent, missed the consistent cheeriness of the other boy in the days he had been absent from the apartment.

‘Here.’ Pash handed Danlain his katana and hurried back to Tau Cycle as Danlain strapped the saya to his side. When he looked up Pash was returning, balancing his own sword, a two-hander falx along his shoulders. The long, curving blade reflected the setting sun on its keen inner edge, scythe-like to the down curving point.

‘Let’s see what the mainlanders think of us, eh?’  
----

Daimyo pulled away, the hum of OC Omega’s engine rising to a warm roar as the road surface began to blur from speed. Danlain followed, the more streamlined but smaller OC Sigma keeping up with the larger Cycle’s low speed. The boy sat more or less upright, control columns rising on either side of his seat, the steering rods held out at the side. As the Cycle gathered speed he pushed the columns forward, tucking his legs back as he rested his torso along the cushioned curve of the machine, the console screen rising to function as a windshield.

‘Sigma. I don’t feel good. Take me to my apartment, follow OC Omega.’ Danlain muttered, closing his eyes, feeling the numbing sensation as the adrenaline left his system.

Shall I inform Guard Premier Daimyo of your condition?

‘No.’

The OC took over, guiding the Cycle the further few blocks to Danlain’s apartment. The boy was able to get off the Cycle unaided, leaving the machine to lock itself down in the bay beside the steps to the first floor rooms which Danlain shared with Pachikov. Daimyo watched him to the steps, waited until the door closed behind him, saw the silhouette of Pash greeting him in the lit room behind the blind.
For a time the Guard Premier sat there, staring up at the room. His eyes were soft and his fingers gripped unnecessarily hard the steering columns of OC Omega.

‘If you build a sword, expect to cut something.’ He muttered it bitterly as if punishing himself for something. ‘Techmetal and Direct Learning. Swords and Cycles.’ He spoke again as if disgusted with the things he spoke of. Finally he let out a sigh, firing up the front sphere of OC Omega and preparing to pull away.

‘Fifteen years old, and tonight he is a killer. But the blood falls at my feet.’ The Guard Premier relaxed, the self-confession seeming to solve the inner turmoil.
His dark Omega Cycle took the corner of the residential area smoothly and he left Danlain behind to his dreams.