Arcturus: Part 2

Part 1

The first schematics released from Arcturus detailed a 3d printer which utilised exotic metals at the nano-scale. Subsequent schematics were made freely available on-line and the neural nets themselves finally came via the third generation of printers. Despite the risks and the lack of understanding of the technologies involved, it didn't take long for the first neural net implants to be made.

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It was dark by the time she heard the hides on the doorway being pulled aside. She sat up in her cot to see Arn throw a heavy bag to the floor.

'You were gone a while, I was worried that something had happened to you?'
'Something happened? Yeah. I'm guessing you could say that.' He grunted as he wet a cloth and mopped his face. 'Managed to break into the pharmacy, got some meds.'
'I told you not to go. Are you ok?'

Backlit by the fire, his face was in shadow as he continued.

'Bumped into Jerry. He started trying to sell me that horseshit about the netics bein harmless.' Something in his voice unsettled her.
'And?'
'No way was I listenin to that, so I told him to get lost.' Arn continued to mop his face and then the back of his hands with determined strokes. 'Good riddance,' he said softly, almost as an afterthought.
'What? What's that supposed to mean Arn? Good riddance?'

She swung her legs from the cot and stood to adjust the storm lantern, flooding their small hut with light. A deep sense of disquiet was descending upon her. Damn but she knew he had a temper. It had only been 18 months since Arcturus and here she was holed up in the hills with Arn, hiding from the Government and their announced netic signup programme. What was it they said? 'Together we are owning tomorrow' or some shit. Now she was pregnant and Arn, well. Arn had never been the sharpest knife in the drawer.

It was then, in the light of the lantern, she saw the water that Arn was rinsing the cloth into. It was red, a red that made her stomach lurch. She knew that it was blood.

'Arn.' She stood back so as best to see him properly. 'What. Did. You. Do?'
'It was nothin, just a disagreement.' he waved a hand dismissively, a hand she noted still caked in dried blood.
'Tell me you didn't shoot someone Arn, tell me you haven't bought them down on us?'
'I didn't shoot no-one.'
'Thank god himself Arn because if I thought for a minute you...'
'I didn't have to shoot him.' He snapped. 'I beat him down and then I stamped on his neck till he shit himself and died,' he spat at at the floor. 'Dirty alien bastard.'

She backed off, the enormity of what he was saying almost beyond her comprehension.

'You killed a man because he was wearing a netic? Are you fucking INSANE? You think they will stand back and let us come down out of the hills and pick them off one by one and not do something? Jesus H!'

Arn stepped round the fire toward her, his face set in a grimace.

'You think I wanted this? Skulkin in the hills from those alien bastards. I would kill em all. Every last one to take our country back.' He moved toward her now. Bloodied hands held out in a placating gesture. 'Now look. I did what needed done, sit down and we will...'
'I ain't no savage Arn, do I even know you? How could you kill a man, Was it Jerry? Was it really Jerry, you'd known him for years!'

She pulled up a long coat, heaving her arms into it. Arn stepped forward.

'Whoa, where are you going, Rose, lets talk. I'm sorry, alright? I did it for us, I did it to keep the baby safe. You want it turned into some kind of linked up robot machine?'
'You know what I want Arn? Right now I want, no. I need some fresh air and a cigarette. God you're makin me feel sick and its nothin to do with the baby.' Fastening her coat she stormed to the door, her mind spinning. 'Just give me a minute. Jesus.'

Arn watched her leave. Truth to be told he was feeling a little sick himself. He hadn't meant to kill Jerry but after he had hit him, the red mist descended and he found he couldn't stop. He finished cleaning his hands. Dammit, it was all going wrong. He could do with a cigarette himself. Yeah, he would go out and speak to Rose. She was right, they might come looking for them now and no radio jammers tied to trees would stop them. They should move out. He knew there were more like them further in the woods. Regular folks who wanted no part of this cybernetic future that was being forced down their necks. He pulled the hides at the entrance open.

'DOWN!' He was pulled out and thrown to the dirt. Someone was kneeling on his back, The hut and clearing were lit up and he could see boots tramping around his head. Yells of 'Clear' echoed from the hut and back and forth from the clearing. His hands were cuffed and he was pulled upright to his knees.

He spat dirt and looked around him. Amidst the floodlights body armour clad police officers were taping off the area and pulling stuff from the hut and laying it on the ground. A slight figure in regular clothes walked over to him. He recognised him immediately. Sheriff McCullough.

'Well Arn, I'm guessing we ain't gonna dance around one another.' He held up the bloodied cloth from inside the hut 'You are under arrest.'
'I aint saying nothin, I aint done nothin.' Arn's heart sank at sight of the cloth. Shit, he was in big trouble and he couldn't see a way out. How did they get past the jammers?
'Arn Sanderson. My sister said it couldn't be you. She said you were stupid but not that stupid. Not stupid enough to go killing someone.' McCullough sighed, dropping the cloth into a bag. 'I guess this says different. You got anything to say to me?'
'I aint saying nothing. I don't go near you damned netic's.' He spat phlegm at the ground. 'I don't know what you are talking about.'

McCullough motioned the rest of the officers over. 'Save it. We're taking you in. Damned idiots and your netic obsession. Save it for your lawyer.' McCullough twitched suddenly, then stepped back.

The two officers beside Arn hauled him jerkily to his feet and stepped over to McCullough before turning to face Arn. The rest drifted over to stand in a tight group. All of them stood slack, staring. In the light their faces had turned ghostly and frighteningly empty. The netic's at the side of their heads gleaming dully in the light.

'Well. You takin me in or what?' Arn snarled at the motionless group before him.

Silently the sheriff and his officers raised their guns at Arn and fired. A succession of shots tearing into him, plucking him from his feet and throwing him to the dirt. He twitched and then stilled.

McCullough blinked, his face no longer slack. 'Damn, I can't believe he came at us like that. Did you see his face?
The other officers shook their heads as if rousing from slumber. Swift nods.
'Came at us waving that gun like a madman.'
Other muted agreements followed.

McCullough sighed. What a waste. He lifted his radio and called it in.