Diego & Germán - 10. Chapter X: Deceit

That night we were in bed, in each others arms, enjoying the nearness. The fact I had to leave had been on my mind, but I had avoided addressing it. We were just too happy to spoil it with open-ended questions and what-ifs. But as the moment neared, I had to confront the fact, and take action if I didn’t want Germán to disappear from my life.

“You know I’ll soon have to leave for the colony.”

“Yeah, I know.” I heard, and noticed his body tensing up. “I don’t know what I’ll do when you’re gone. There’s nothing for me here.” He couldn’t keep the sadness, and desperation from his voice, even though he did a good job trying to hide it.

“Why don’t you come with me?”

Say yes! Say yes!

Lifting his head, and looking me in the eyes, he answered with a question, “Are you serious?” His face was a beautiful mixture of hope, amazement, and love.

“Of course I am!”

All of a sudden, I was rolling around the bed in a knot of legs and arms with German. After a couple of seconds, I didn’t know what was up or down. I was trying to breath through my laughter.

When his excitement wore down, I said, “I suppose this is a yes?”

He answered with an enormous smile, “YESS!!”

And there we went again, embraced in a ball, rolling around the bed, until we both were laughing so hard, we had to stop. I won’t explain what happened next, but we were both walking funny the next day.

~~~

And the day of departure arrived. I was with Ruffles picking up all the critters on the excavation, and trying to make sure everything would be OK until I had the opportunity to come back. The home we had discovered had been sealed, and the tunnel had been closed. Even though the airlock should have been enough protection, the tunnel had been shut off on the outside, to make sure no water or wild animals would be entering. I had all the information in the ship and in Lisa, but you never know what you may have overlooked, and may want to come back to.

While the spiders, and moles, and drones, and whatnot, were entering the rover, I was already thinking about the possibilities of a new campaign. This was a big city, and there may have been more than one library. What were the odds of finding the only library preserved in the city during the first campaign?

So while I was at the dig, Germán was at the camp, gathering his things into the moto, as the tent and the equipment there were already in the ship. We wanted to leave as small an imprint on nature as possible. It wasn’t just out of environmental aspects, even though I like to leave an area the same way I found it, I didn’t want to leave any traces or evidence other people could use against Germán, my family, or me. The sudas were apparently not as innocuous as they wanted us to believe.

I admit I was already dreaming of our life at home. I knew it would not be easy to introduce a modified soldier from a rogue, fanatical power into the colony, but he could become a valuable asset to our world. And with my help, we could build a life together, and be happy ever after. I know, I know, there’s no such thing as happy ever after, but I was going for happy-most-of-the-time with him.

We’ll be living in Belmonte during classes, and come here to the excavation in summer. -- Yeah, of course, because he won’t have his own life. -- Fuck it! I can’t even dream without my cynicism butting in. -- Well yeah, we’ll have to build a life for him. He has to stand on his own two feet. He will not be happy if he becomes my househusband. -- But we’ll grow old together, two old farts cracking up about the olden days, and hey-you-kids-get-off-my-lawn-ing from our rocking chairs.

* Hey Lisa, how’s the analysis going? *

# We have found seven hundred and thirty five books, and a few other written sheets. I still don’t know how to classify them all. The topics so far are economy, psychology, linguistics, and engineering; but the biggest batch are those about languages, and about homosexuality. #

* Really? That’s amazing! It’ll be really interesting to see what they thought about it. *

All of a sudden the perimeter alarms went off. One, two, five, fifteen men were trying to approach the camp from different sides. A group of hunters were slowly surrounding the camp.

* Germán! He’s at the camp! Is he OK? *

# He seems to be unaware of what is going on. #

* Can we communicate with him? Tell him to get the hell out of there! *

# They seem to have scrambled the normal communication lines. My lines seem to be unaffected. #

* Activate all the defense systems. *

# Really? Do you think so little of me, you have to say that? #

* Thanks Lisa, you are golden. *

While I was communicating with Lisa, I already had called Ruffles to me, and was getting into the rover. Fuck the rest of the critters, I’d direct them to the river, and let them autodestruct there.

* Is there something coming through the air? *

# No. The air is clear. They are trying to remain undetected. #

* Launch the drones, let them fill the bushes on the routes they’ll be taking with ticks. I want DNA samples of all of them, and then I want them sleeping. *

There were about thirty of them, coming from all directions, leaving some space between them towards the river. My guess was that they wanted us trapped between them and the water. They undoubtedly counted on surprising us. They didn’t know yet who was going to get a nasty surprise.

Luckily enough, the excavation was between the camp and the river, and I could use the gap they had left to get to Germán. I accelerated the vehicle as much as I could.

* Lisa, what is the best route to the camp. We don’t want to be intercepted. *

# Follow the small stream as near to the water as you can. #

* How long? *

# 05:25 minutes #

* Any way to make it shorter? *

# Throw the critters out. #

* No time. *

The rover was darting almost on the surface of the small stream that served the camp with water. As we sped, the wake of the rover was producing a wave, and a big cloud made of water droplets. I was not quite sure it would not be seen, but there was not much I could do about it right then.

# The ticks have failed. The soldiers are modified, and their skin can not be breached by the stingers. #

* Shit! Take out the heavy weaponry. Attack them all at the same time. Distract them while I get Germán. I don’t want them to know what’s hit them. *

Thanks Uda I’ve been deploying all kinds of shit, and improving the sensors. Without the training with Germán I would have never discovered the hunters, or even had the necessary weapons down here to stop them. -- But what do they want with me? Have they discovered I know they are preparing an army of modified soldiers? How would they know?

* Lisa, have you noticed if our communications have been breached? *

# No, they do not seem to have the technology for that. I have noticed they watch our communications to the ship, and to the net, but I have not let them discover anything interesting, just your boring archaeology holos. #

* Good girl. *

# Fuck you too. #

I was still one minute away when all hell broke loose. Several different types of weapons were going after the hunters, including armored scarabs, mosquitoes, and larvae; those were mines that exploded when the objective was near enough. We took five hunters down, seven more seemed hurt, and eleven were still trying to get rid of the critters. The remaining eight seemed to be thinking twice about advancing again, giving me some time. But they would all be rushing towards their objective in a couple of minutes.

When I arrived at the camp, the hunters were slowly advancing again, wary of new traps I’d made sure they’d be finding. I didn’t see Germán. He was well hidden, so I got out and began to desperately shout his name, trying to be heard over the noisy fighting going on,

“Germán! Germán! GERMÁN!”

He came out of the bushes on his moto. “What is happening? Are you OK?”, he asked while he was dismounting.

“The sudas are attacking us! They’re after me! Come on, we’ve got to get out of here. The ship is waiting.”

Surprise showed on his face. “But the bishop promised me…!”

Time stood still.

The bishop? What bishop? The bishop of Shboa?!

All of a sudden everything was clear.

They sent Germán to spy on me! They knew I was gay, and they sent him to get to me. What were the odds of something like this happening? A stranger falling for a guy he found by chance in the woods? Of course it couldn’t happen! You fucking idiot! But then it really got to me. He was just acting this whole time! This whole time together was a lie!

The idea expanded through my head like a tsunami, soiling everything in its wake. Intimacy became a fraud; confidence became treachery; laughter became mockery; sex became rape. The last weeks became a joke on me. My body reacted violently drawing blood away from my skin, closing all superficial vessels; it felt like hundreds of millipedes were crawling on my skin. I was getting colder by the moment.

My head was swimming under the stress. But to Germán I just showed a face completely devoid of any expression. He wouldn’t notice anything of what I was feeling. He’d already done enough damage. I wouldn’t allow him to do any more.

As Germán saw my reaction, he took a step towards me, and said, “Diego, it’s not…”

I didn’t let him finish. With Ruffles at my side showing his teeth, I said, “Don’t get near.”

“Diego…” He repeated with a pleading face. But he didn’t finish his sentence either. The forbidding expression he was seeing on my face didn’t allow it.

“This place is going to blow up in a couple of minutes. You’d better get away in time.” With that, I got into the rover with Ruffles, and elevated the vehicle towards the sky, while Germán stood there watching me go. The last time I saw him, he was running to get to his moto.

* Lisa, we’re leaving for the colony as soon as we arrive at the ship. -- The sudas may want to intercept us. See to it they don’t. -- And about the explosion, I want everything in a hundred meters gone, including the hunters. All other technology we may have left behind, I want thoroughly destroyed. -- And, ermm, make sure Germán survives. I don’t want him on my conscience. *

After I was out of danger, and nothing else had to be done, I threw up so hard, I covered the rover’s copilot seat with puke. The adrenaline peak was ebbing fast, as I was crying heavily, feeling dizzy, and the headache was killing me. It was all too much. I passed out on the seat.