Mooncalled 22

“What do you mean, surrounded?” asked Donna, the tiny crystal of her body flickering with anger.

“A couple army trucks pulled up after I got here,” said Gwen.  “They’ve set up a cordon around the house, but haven’t taken any aggressive actions.”

“Other than cutting the power?  I checked our systems,” chimed Donna, “and we’re running off the RTG in the sub-basement.”

“The power flickered a while back, but we didn’t think anything of it,” said Sidney.  “We have backup power?”

“Yeah.  Buried deep, so it can’t cause problems,” reassured Donna.  “The flicker was the automatic cutover.  Did they get the phone line, too?”

“What does it matter?” asked Sidney.  She pulled out her brand new cell phone.  “Wait.  I’m not getting a signal.”

A quick check showed that the landline was dead.  Gwen’s cellphone had no signal either, and Duncan’s cheap flip-phone had died with his body.

“Bastards are jamming us.”  Donna went quiet for a moment.  “Second truck, it looks like.  Something in the cab.”  She chuckled evilly.  “Let’s see how it does against my masers.”

“Your what?” asked Sidney.

“Since when do you have microwave cannons, notably plural?” was Gwen’s question.

“This house is better secured than… Huh.  I can’t think of a good comparison.  Fort Knox is probably more solid.  The walls and windows are reinforced with carbon fibers, it’ll take more than they’ve got to breach it.  I may have gotten a little creative with the weapons systems, too.  Haven't had a chance to test them yet.  This’ll be fun!”

“Donna…” cautioned Gwen.  “Those guys have families they’d like to go home to.”

“Then they shouldn’t be here,” grumbled Donna.

Gwen glanced meaningfully at the cabinet where the silver magic-containment box was kept.

Donna siiiighed.  “Fine.  Nonlethal only.  Masers online, targeting…  Uh, oops.”

Gwen frowned.  “Oops?”

“Targeting isn’t calibrated.  I set something on fire.”

“How can you tell?”

“Cameras in the eaves.  And a couple tiny ones in the trees.  Here.”  Donna turned the TV on, and a feed showing the three army trucks appeared.  The cab of one was smoking, and two of the soldiers were playing fire extinguishers over the source.

“On the plus side, the fire took out the jammer.  Call Agent Mackie.”

Donna listened in to both sides as Gwen described their situation and asked Mackie what was going on.  He promised to get to the bottom of it.

The call cut out abruptly.  Donna sighed.  “They have another cell jammer.  Nuke it too?”

“Wait a bit,” suggested Gwen.  “Once is coincidence, but if we pop another one they’ll get suspicious.  Give Mackie time to sort it out.”

“I don’t think we have that much time,” said Sidney, pointing at the TV.  “It looks like they’re unloading rocket launchers.”

Donna cursed.  “Take the kids downstairs, go hide in the vault.  If this goes bad, you’ll be safe there.”

By the time they were out of the way, a team of soldiers was approaching the door with a battering ram, and another squad had a pair of LAW launchers at the ready.

To the soldiers’ surprise and Donna’s amusement, the ram bounced off the door without doing any damage at all.  After about fifteen attempts, they retreated because the ram had broken.

“Can it hold up to those anti-tank weapons?” asked Gwen once they’d stopped laughing.

“It should.  I’m bringing up the point defenses, but I’m worried about the calibration.  They aren’t tested, and the soldiers are the backstop.  If they fire, they’re going to get hurt.  But if I used the corner emitters and accepted a high deflection shot...”  Donna’s voice grew distant as she considered the options.

“If you’re not sure, I should try Mackie again,” said Gwen after Donna went silent.  “Can you kill the other jammer without starting a fire this time?”

“Done,” said Donna almost immediately.  “It’s smoking a little, but not too badly.  Damn, now they do look worried.  Call!”

Mackie didn’t have any good news for Gwen.  The Director wasn’t taking call from a “lowly agent” during the crisis.  Donna suggested claiming to have a message from “Henry and Bunhill’s friend.”

Donna and Gwen watched quietly as the soldiers conferred among themselves.  None seemed keen to light off LAWs in a residential area.  They settled on sapper charges, placing them at the door.  Donna chuckled to see that.  “I’m not certain the windows can take that, but the door is probably the hardest part of the whole building.”

One muffled explosion later and the soldiers looked even more confused.  There was some scorching where the charges had gone off, but no structural damage.  A few minutes later, they packed up in the two trucks that remained functional, and left.

Mackie called, and said he’d finally gotten through to the Director.  Gwen laughed, and said that they’d guessed as much from the fact the soldiers had just left.  “Bunhill’s friend sends her thanks, and wonders what’s next.”

“I don’t know,” replied Mackie.  “We didn’t manage to stop the escape of the guys that took out Duncan, but it’s moot.  We know who they are.”

“Toronto, right?” asked Gwen.  “If the Director was in on it, he’d have sent more.  Someone made it pretty clear that it’d take more than a couple trucks of soldiers.”

Mackie confirmed the guess.  “It’s going to be an ugly internal matter for a while.  While the investigation is ongoing, it should prove more difficult to move against you.”

The army sent an oversized tow-truck to fetch their damaged vehicle later in the day, and fixed the power and phone.  A soldier in dress uniform tapped deferentially on the door once they were done.  Robo-Duncan answered, because Sidney was feeling far too skittish to do so.  The apology was very heartfelt, if completely lacking in details as to why it had happened at all.

Duncan nodded graciously.  “I do hope there won’t be a repeat of the incident?”

“I should hope not.”

“I suppose that will have to do.  Good day.”  Duncan started to close the door.

“May I ask one question, first?”

Duncan studied the soldier for a moment.  While he didn’t know how to read his insignia, there was enough brass to suggest he was at least somewhat important.  “Go ahead.”

“The charges my men used should have destroyed the door entirely.  How is it still standing?”

“Are you going to tell me why this whole ‘incident’ happened?”

“No.”

“Then I feel uninterested in sharing.  Good day.”

“But if the cause were to be declassified sufficiently to share, you would?”

“While I have my guesses, it would be good to have them confirmed.  Yes.”

The officer nodded, and left.

* * *

The rest of the week was quiet in comparison.  Mackie called from time to time to keep Donna abreast of what was going on.  He was concerned that Duncan’s survival had been revealed so quickly, as the doubt could have been used to protect him.  It also required some creative explanations to the agents who’d seen the bomb go off.  Donna countered that he had a life and responsibilities, and he wasn’t going to shirk those.  So Robo-Duncan went to work as if nothing odd had happened over the weekend.

Duncan maintained the pretense of normality at home, too.  Gwen knew better, and came over several times to talk and encourage him to go see Arwen.

“What am I supposed to say to her?  That I tried being human, and died, and don’t want to any more?  How is that helpful?”

“Tell her that.  Personally, I think being human is overrated,” confided Gwen.  “If it wasn’t for the whole ‘can’t go outside’ thing, I’d never change back.”

“Fine,” sighed Duncan.  “I’ll talk to her.”

“Good.  Let’s go, right now.”

“But... now?  Right now?”

Gwen nodded, pulling an unresisting Duncan toward the door.  “Arwen said she’d be willing to talk to you at any time, day or night.  She’s at her office right now, waiting for us.”

“Bye Sidney!  Back in an hour or so!” called Duncan as they left.

When Duncan was safely sitting on Arwen’s couch, Gwen beside him, he repeated what he’d told Gwen.

Arwen studied him, and shook her head.  “Drop the pretense.  You’re not Duncan.”

Robo-Duncan sighed in Donna’s voice.  “I know.  He hasn’t come out since the explosion.  The experience was... unpleasant.”

“Just unpleasant?” asked Arwen, brow arched.

“Fine.  It hurt like hell.  Worse than anything he has ever felt.”

“He?”

Donna sighed again, slipping free of the Robo-Duncan.  A small crystal settled in the robot’s folded hands.  “I did not experience it as he did.  He took the brunt of it, saving me.”

Arwen studied the crystal, and sighed.  “You’re harder to read like this.  Saved you from what, exactly?  Pain?”

Donna was silent for a long time.   “Death,” she said tonelessly.  “Duncan died in that explosion.  The shock pulped the organs that weren’t shredded by the shrapnel, and he bled out instantly.  I cut off the sensory feed as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough.”

“Duncan is not dead,” said Gwen firmly.  “I would know.  He was there with us at the house, targeting the cell jammer, figuring out how to stop the rockets without killing the soldiers.  That was Duncan’s type of thinking.”

“Death does not have the last say when Donna is around,” said Arwen.  “Liana is proof of that, among others.  What happened next?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” admitted Donna.  “Everything happened so fast.  Before I could gather my wits, Armstrong was shot and I had to scramble to save him.  He was lying in what was left of Duncan.  I gathered what I could and...  Oh!”

“What?” asked Gwen.

“Our soul.  It was there, with the power you and Ettie gave me.  I used that to heal Armstrong.  And in so doing, I healed myself.  I can’t hear him because there is nobody to hear.  No ‘us’, just ‘me’.”

Arwen shook her head.  “You always find the hard way to do things.  Dissociation more often caused by trauma than healed by it.”

Robo-Duncan shook his head.  “It wasn’t the trauma.  Well, indirectly...  We were more clearly separated than ever before, which made it possible to reunite and finally heal.”  He turned to face Gwen.  “Thank you for saving me,” said the robot and the crystal together.  “Again.”

“Me?” asked Gwen.  “I wasn’t even there?”

“But you were the one that suggested I not be truly human,” said Robo-Duncan.  “You were the one that gave me the power to heal even after the Moon had set,” said the crystal.

“That two voice thing is going to get confusing,” said Arwen.  “Can you...”

The crystal disappeared into the robot once more.  “Of course.  There are advantages to having a human-like body.  Crystals don’t smile.”

“And they can’t hug,” added Gwen, pulling Duncan into a tight one.  “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Duncan chuckled softly.  “Define ‘okay’.  I’m still twitchy about the idea of ever being really human again.  The idea of opening myself to that much pain...  I’m sorry, Arwen.  I don’t think I can do it again.”

Arwen studied Duncan’s expression.  “How do you feel about being a robot, now?”

“I feel... safe.  There are losses, but only a few.  I miss being able to cry, and being able to share meals with my family.”  His gaze turned away from Arwen, designing.  “But I could add tear ducts, and the ability to process food.  Add a sense of taste, and a sense of smell that I can disable at will...”

Gwen giggled.  “Your son can get a little stinky.”

“A little!” exclaimed Duncan.  “Still, it’s a useful sense the rest of the time.”

“So.  One to ten.  How happy are you with a robotic existence?” asked Arwen.

“Eight or nine right now.  With the redesign?  I’ll get back to you on that.  Probably eleven-plus.”

Arwen started to laugh, making Gwen and Duncan peer at her curiously.  “Sorry, it’s late, and I just realized you’ve done it again.  Instead of adapting a mind to its body, you’ve adapted a body to its mind.  Again.  How many is that now?”

“Less than it will be,” said Duncan with a grin.  “I don’t mean to stop.”

“Nor should you.  Which reminds me.  There’s a group counselling session I run Thursday nights for my wrong-bodied clients.  I think you’d be a good addition to it.”

“The Moon won’t be up this Thursday evening,” said Duncan.  “I won’t be able to help.”

Arwen smiled mysteriously.  “That’s fine.  Better they meet you without that in the way.”

Duncan shook his head at her antics, but took Arwen’s card with the time and date of the meeting.   He promised to be there.

On the drive back to Duncan’s house, he thanked Gwen for pushing him into seeing Arwen.

“I could tell you were struggling,” she said simply.  “And Arwen is very good at what she does.”

* * *

Two nights later, Duncan once more drove to Arwen’s office.  He was greeted at the door by Arwen, and shown in to her office where several chairs augmented the existing furniture to create a small circle.  Five people were seated there already, and all looked to the new arrival with welcoming faces.

“Introduce yourself.  You know why you’re here,” said Arwen.

“Hi everyone.  My name is Duncan, and for the last few years I have been getting more and more in touch with my female side.  While I like being male for the most part, I have found so much value in my femininity that I can’t let go of her, either.  I’m hoping to find some middle ground.”

All the others welcomed him to their group.  Then one asked what name Duncan used while female.

“I’ve been going by Donna,” answered Duncan.

“When will we get to meet Donna?” asked the young woman who’d posed the first question.

“Terry,” cautioned Arwen.  “Everyone has to go at their own pace.”

“It’s okay,” said Duncan.  “I don’t mind answering anything.  You’ll all get to meet Donna in two weeks.  The reason for the delay will be obvious, then.  For now, Terry, be patient.”

“Waiting sucks,” said Terry with a pout.

Duncan grinned at her.  “Trust me.  It’ll be worth it.”