Dronikus, a novel set on a burning planet called Earth
What a crew
‘It’s all still fully functional,’ said Chun. ‘The old man knew what he was doing when he made this place. It’s almost as if he knew that we’d have to go literally underground at some point.’
The workspace in the basement was a lot more cramped and untidy than the old workshop rooms had been, housing just five hacker-style terminals on shaky old tables behind, under, and around which was a spaghetti of cables, routers, and switches.
‘Here’s a place for you, Ballie.’ The old man did not need a second invitation, the addict being offered a hit. ‘And Nur.’ Heesh indicated a place for her. Gino helped to get them going.
In the lounge room Zola and Chun sat side by side on a couch.
‘How are you doing?’ Zola asked. ‘The attack coming just after…’
Chun looked at Zola, heris face fixed, fighting any show of emotion. Zola put a hand to heris face and heesh put heris hand over Zola’s. They sat in silence.
Then Chun dropped heris hand and turned to Zola. ‘Why is heesh here?’ a note of uncertainty, suspicion even, in heris voice.
‘It is bizarre that she should be here with me, I know.’
‘Heesh’s part of…’
‘The Pandoke criminal gang?’
‘Yeah, seriously,’ said Chun.
‘She is,’ said Zola.
‘Weren’t you once together… as lovers?’
‘Yep, and I have hated her ever since. I believed that she informed on my sister Leilu, having me sent to exile in the process, while getting-it-off with my brother and taking a big stake in the company. Not a pretty picture.’
Chun nodded, smiling, and looked at him, eyebrows raised.
‘But now, although she did marry my brother and acted quite vilely, I no longer think that she shopped Leilu and me. And actually what is important is that, at this point, her interests and my interests coincide. She’s at war with my brothers and she’s prepared to use me to bring them down, just as I’m prepared to use her to bring them down. So far she’s been incredibly useful and in what’s coming, I think she will be so again – even more so.’
‘Do you trust herm?’
‘She’s actually got very little option but to rely on me, funnily enough, and so while I don’t trust her at all, I think I can control her. We’ll have to keep an eye on her, though. So much so that I think you should put us in the same room together.’
‘What?’ Chun was shocked.
Zola laughed. ‘Not for us to sleep together! Simply it will be the best way for me to keep an eye on her.’ He hugged Chun who relaxed in his arms.
‘And I’ve brought Ballie, as you can see.’
‘What a crew,’ said Chun.
Zola said that Ballie had been working on techniques to disrupt the attacking capability of the dronikus, working on the ARRLiDkus coding and laser technology.
‘If we could only have had that on RePO Day,’ said Chun.
‘There are a lot of “if onlys” my lovely Chun.’
‘Like if only I had been the one to sit next to herm on the AutoTrain.’ Zola said nothing. ‘I just miss herm all the time.’ Heesh looked away and then refocussed on Zola. ‘What did they do to you after they took you from the AutoTrain?’
Zola spoke of his time at Shangdu, of how Enrike had made enormous efforts to enlist Zola in his quest for a technological master race, of Panduan, of the video of Agung’s torture, of the hologram meeting with Leilu, of the escape with Nur.
Chun listened quietly, not looking at Zola. Heesh closed heris eyes and, after a long silence, spoke in a whisper. ‘I heard the noise, the screaming. I pushed through the crowds to the upper floor and saw herm crumpled forward in heris seat and you gone.’
Zola pulled herm to him. ‘Don’t Chun.’
‘The train had stopped and in the confusion I found an open door and jumped off. I ran. For days I ran, walked, and crawled until I found my way back here.’ Chun could not hold back heris tears any longer. Zola held herm tight, kissing herm on the forehead.
After a while Zola looked up and saw Nur standing at the door. She indicated that she was sorry to have appeared to be eavesdropping. She entered and sat herself on the armrest of the couch.
‘I’m so sorry for your loss,’ she said. ‘You were very close, the three of you?’
Chun ignored her and looked at Zola. ‘Why have you come here?’
‘We are planning to go to the West Isles to find out what they are doing in their research facility at Sesanti and, if necessary, stop them,’ said Zola.
‘They are doing unacceptable stuff, Chun,’ said Nur. ‘I say this as a Pandoke board member.’
Heesh turned to Nur, looking at her properly for the first time. ‘What kind of stuff?’
‘We’re not too sure, but it involves unethical use of humans in experiments, which, in turn, is causing suffering.’
‘And they’ve attacked the local community who are not happy with what they’re doing,’ said Zola.
‘Can I come with you?’ Chun asked.
‘I was hoping you would ask that.’
‘They put us here because of a shortage of rooms,’ said Zola.
‘You told him that you wanted to be together with me, I know,’ said Nur, teasing.
‘You wish.’
‘You wish!’
‘Ok so, we both wish or, it seems like, we both don’t wish,’ said Zola. They laughed. They were in the room with the large bed where Zola had slept the night he, Chesa, and Chun had stayed here, the night they had fled, the night before the journey on the AutoTrain. The dronikus bombing had left the room unscathed as it was on the far side of the house, towards the back. Zola had Shadrack use its torch to light the room as there was no power in this part of the building. They both got into bed almost fully clothed. Shadrack and Mishack stood by door.
‘It’s great to be in bed with you again,’ said Nur.
‘We’re not “in bed together”. Just keep it simple, hey. You stay there,’ Zola pointed to her side of the bed, ‘and I stay here.’ He told Shadrack to turn off the torch and rolled onto his side, away from her. ‘Goodnight.’
Immediately she was up against him. He felt the softness and the heat of her body, even through his clothing. ‘No, Nur,’ he said.
‘Shhh…’
Despite the many hate-filled years, Zola felt a prickling sensation in his groin. He struggled with the impulse to turn and hold her. Buried memories of her feel, her smell, her nubile body seeped back into his brain but he remained resolutely still, as did Nur. After a while, he felt her body relax and her breathing change and soon he, too, fell asleep.
Dronikus is a novel published in 2023, now being serialised here on Substack. You can read a chapter every week for free.
Liking what you’re reading? Don’t want to wait to see what happens next? You can read the full book now by purchasing a digital or print copy of Dronikus from:
AndAlso Books (print edition)
Amazon (epub), Smashwords (epub), Apple Books (epub), Barnes&Noble (epub)
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