The old woman slumbered upon a binary bed. Her mind, her 
self-conscious mind, was unstirred as it had been for centuries. 
Beneath it, accommodating her unconscious, was a dynamic layer 
of numbers, continuously changing to the different stimuli she 
received. She felt the rational and the irrational alike, 
impartially, and all became a part of her--the foundation for an 
immense database of appropriate responses to anything.

Anything, she herself knew, be it quick or dead.
--
"This is the United Nations Space Ship Vaz. Please acknowledge 
yourselves. Over."

Two light minutes away, the commandeered Leviathan ship 
waited, like a whale on the border of the blue and the black of 
the sea. When the radio message arrived, its commander spoke 
for the ship:

"This is the Sar-ha-Azaz, renegade ship of the Free Planet of 
Mars. You have two standard hours to concede to our demands. 
First. You will sponsor the repopulation of the cities of New 
Vancouver and Kingsport. Second. You will acknowledge the 
Free Planet of Mars as an independent political entity, and the 
First Martian Congress as its rightful leaders. Third. You will 
grant the First Martian Congress' demands for autonomy as they 
are issued. Over."

One minute and forty-five seconds later, the UNSS ship replied, 
"We cannot make your guarantees unconditionally. Please allow 
us more time to consider your demands. Over."

Yoko snarled into the mouthpiece, "Your message is 
acknowledged. Prepare yourselves for reprisals immediately. 
Over and out." She pushed herself away from the microphone 
and cursed under her breath. "Bastards. I don't know why we 
even bothered to approach them. Ng, send out the signal."

"Yes, Yoko." He tapped out a few commands on a keyboard, then 
said, "It's off."

"Very good then. We've done our job." She thought, _Kill the 
bastards, Bertram. Kill 'em all._
--
She felt a vibration beneath her feet and heard it tone in the air. 
The tube, world serpent, ached and groaned as its rearing head 
changed its position. In some part of her heart, she wished for 
wind-whipped storm clouds and lashing rain, but they were not 
to be had. In fact, she was almost above the cloud layer, and it 
promised to be a clear and starry night in the City in the Sky.

Along the nape of the tube came a ring, spinning and slicing 
through the air. It held the beauty of mathematics, a constant 
rotational velocity and uniform acceleration along the 
hyperbolic cosecant that the tube was upon.

--Come to me, you ineffectual gesture of authority. Come to me 
and face your fate.--

It came as she knew it would. It was afar, and then it was a mark 
closer, and then it was almost upon her. She stuck out an arm 
and caught one of the blades, too fast for the parahuman 
cybernetics to manage alone, and the ring stopped with a clang. 
Yoko grasped another blade in her other arm, kneeled, and 
groaned. Then she flexed her shoulders and pried the ring in 
half, bending the blades then cleaving through the metal of the 
ring itself.

She pulled the base as far apart as she could manage, and then 
she left it to slip along the tube to the ground. No longer did it 
spin harshly and threateningly. It merely scraped up sparks and 
rattled as it descended.

--Mercy to you,-- said Yoko, --if that ring falls and hurts an 
innocent as it goes down.--
--
close your eyes
your christ has come
the crippled girl that you once knew
the charmed enigma chosen one

with painted lips
skin ripped and torn
come touch and feel and lick and smell
this envy that i've worn so well

everybody wants
everybody says
everybody begs in time

MOIST, "Silver"
--
Ng turned to look over his shoulder, warily. "We're dropping 
from the lunasynchronous orbit. It's going to be about 90 
minutes before we touch down on the lunar surface."

Yoko gave a curt nod, then pushed herself away from the 
controls in an eerily graceful flip. She touched the ceiling with 
her feet and balled as she landed. From her inverted position, 
she spoke to the four other people in the landing craft:

"Our objective is at Lamont, in the Sea of Tranquillity. Switch to 
polarized vision." All five cyborgs touched their left eyeballs as a 
digital projection of the Lunar surface appeared in the control 
room. Yoko pointed to a large black mare in the southwestern 
quadrant of the map. Yellow and red dots, indicating historical 
landing sites and the few colonial outposts, flashed across the 
map. On the mare, south of the Ranger 8 landing site, was a 
bright green crosshair.

Yoko looked up from the map and continued. "Before we 
switched to radio blackout, we intercepted several transmissions 
from the colony at the South Pole. Our primary objective 
succeeded, and the colony was destroyed. Unfortunately, we took 
severe casualties, and the Lunar Militia has firmly aligned itself 
with the UN. So we're going to have to make this quick and 
thorough. Zoom in.

"As you can see, there's good ways to get in, but not out. We'll 
be coming in here from the east. The highlands will provide 
adequate cover, and we'll have air support from the ship. Once 
we burst in across Ariadaeus, though, we'll be out in the open. 
Our only objective at that point is to pick up survivors from the 
attack. Secondary objectives are escape and killing anyone who 
gets in our way. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah."

"Jacobs?"

"What do we do if we can't escape?"

"We kill ourselves, and take some--did I hear you say something 
just now, Ng?"

"No, ma'am."

"Very good." Yoko peeled herself off of the ceiling and returned 
to the floor. "At this time, we'll begin readjusting muscle 
tension for 0.6 G. In your own time, connect your postaural 
socket to your terminal."
--
The dead ashes of the lunar highlands spun below them. The 
transport ship, red and white in the reflected Earthlight, moved 
like a centipede, full of motion and base focus. Inside, anxiety 
ran with the life force. All six crewmembers were dizzy from the 
return to gravity, but none felt they could give in to their 
impulses and fear. The human overcame the animal as the 
drive defeated the humane.

The ship dove over the last ridge and the brown basalt of the 
mare ran to the horizon. At 11 o'clock was a large crater that 
would provide them with a few more minutes of cover. At 1 
was a butte-like highland. Ng banked into a southward turn, 
apprehension streaking his face. "Guys, keep an eye on that butte 
for me. That's a perfect spot for some artillery on our ass."

Yoko replied, "Copy that. Horton, help Ng with the controls. 
Everyone else, keep your eyes open. We don't want to draw 
attention to ourselves yet."

"What are we looking for?" asked Wick.

"First of all, anything that produces light," said Yoko. "But the 
Terrans aren't that stupid. Th--"

There was no sound itself, there was only vibration, as the craft 
lurched and shuddered. A fraction of a second later, a klaxon's 
shrilling tore through the interior and emergency warnings 
flashed across the computer monitors. The crewmembers leaped to 
their feet all at once and began shouting and cursing without a 
second thought, terrified below the flickering lights.

Furious, Yoko beat two senseless in the space of five seconds to 
restore order.

"Ng, what the fuck happened?"

"We got lucky, that's what," he said. "We must've just passed 
over a minefield. Something blew a small hole in the heat 
shields on our ass, but we'll be OK. It didn't breech."

"So what's with all the alarms?"

Beside her, Watson cleared his throat. He spoke quickly in a 
loud whisper. "What probably happened is that the mine was 
just to punch a hole through our shielding. It's what the Terrans 
did on Endymon. Then they started zapping everyone's butts 
with X-ray pulses. It'd scramble the electrical systems, and leave 
us sitting ducks for them to pick off or take hostage."

_We are in trouble,_ she thought, _if they want us alive._ "Ng, 
what's the damage to internals?"

"Uh...uh...OK, here we go. Auxiliary battery is off-line, and some 
of the software's scrambled, but that's it. It'll take 30 minutes to 
recompile the fine engine control patterns, and we can keep 
going while that goes on. Ma'am, I think we won't have any 
problems."

"I see 'em!"

Wick had only just come around, and Watson was supporting 
him by the shoulder. They were gazing between the monitors 
and the porthole on the left side of the craft. Yoko looked with 
them to the southwest. Two ships, one significantly larger than 
the other, were racing across the mare. The smaller one, the 
pursued, was scoured with impacts and carbon streaking. They 
were witness to the end of an exhaustive battle; neither was 
bothering to shoot any longer.

Yoko assessed the situation in one second and then began 
issuing commands. "They're trying to flush our ship out into 
the open so it'll be easier to pick off. We have to stop them here, 
even though they know we're here because we tripped the 
mine. Jacobs, take weapons and target the cockpit. The rest of us 
will keep our eyes open for artillery, it won't be long now before 
they open fire. Steady as she goes, Ng. Make for the starboard 
side."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Jacobs, fire when ready."

The landing craft shuddered as a volley of densematter slugs 
flew from the artillery turret. A few moments passed, then 
pieces splintered off of the bow of the pursuer ship. Its aft lifted, 
and the craft gently rose and banked to its port side, as though it 
was in pain. It twisted in the ether, then crashed upside-down 
into the dust.

Yoko smiled a fierce smile and nodded. "Jacobs, Watson. Switch 
to third lungs and pressure your goggles. Ng, bring us up 
alongside the craft, keep it between us and the butte. Are you 
ready?"

The nose of Yoko's ship dove into the ground and it skidded to a 
stop beside its derelict sibling. The three rebel Martians slipped 
out through the airlock, bobbing up and down as they felt the 
influence of gravity again. Their target's airlock opened as well, 
and in a matter of seconds they were inside the body of the ship 
proper.

There was no light, and all electrical systems seemed to be 
inoperative. Yoko switched to ultrasound, and her two 
companions followed suit. It was only then that they identified 
three of their comrades sprawled on the seats of the craft.

A robotic cyborg stood and saluted. "Spratt. Gonfalon. Warrior 
Yoko, I presume. Thank God you've arrived."

"Yeah. Let's get out of here." From off of her back she brought 
out a metallic cylinder, 45 centimeters by 10. "We rendezvous 
with the Leader for--"

"YOKO!" screamed Ng's voice from between her ears. "We've 
got company! Get out of there at once!"

"Roger," said Yoko. She dropped to one knee and set to work on 
the cylinder. "Spratt, get back to the ship. Watson, Jacobs, take 
the two wounded and go with 'em. If I'm not done here in 
twenty seconds, leave without me."

Both men nodded and dashed for their two injured comrades. 
Spratt had not moved an inch. "Yoko, there's still four 
incapacitated men in the back of the craft...and--and two 
fatalities."

"You want to join them, shitfuck?"

"I...I beg your pardon, Warrior?"

Yoko did not look up from her work. "In two minutes this nuke 
will go off. You can stay here and die, or you can come with us. 
That's always been the rule. Which is it going to be?"

Spratt paused a moment in thought, then spoke. "Warrior, with 
all due respect..."

He never completed the thought. Yoko leaped off the floor with a 
scream and slammed her hand against the side of his head, and 
the rattling it made fed back upon itself. The pressure grew to a 
roar, then Spratt's head exploded, spraying elegantly towards the 
ceiling before raining back downwards.

"Get OUT OF MY FUCKING WAY!!!" snarled Yoko, and pushed 
the cadaver aside in her rush to the exit. Below her feet the 
ground quaked. The artillery, foreseen, had arrived. She blew out 
through the airlock and raced to enter the ship in the time she 
had allotted herself.

When she received the green light she threw open the door and 
shouted, "Blow us off!" Not waiting to be understood, she 
pushed her way to the control board and manually fired up the 
engines, ignorant of the countdown that had been going on in 
her absence. The craft leaped up into the sky above and Yoko's 
passion ebbed a single quantum. "Ng, get us out of the line of 
fire ASAP. Watson, radio C and C and let them know we're 
coming. Bertram, is that you?"

All he could do was nod, struggling to overcome his shock and 
fear. Both his arms were gone above the shoulder, and he had 
no body below his sternum. His face and remaining body parts 
were scraped and pitted. He shook. Every few seconds he would 
glance around, as if hoping to see his missing body parts 
somewhere in orbit around him.

"You look like crap. Wilks, shut him up. What's our ETA over 
there?"
--
By less physical brute strength than the force of her will, Yoko 
disarticulated the massive metal blocks before her, and looked 
into the sanctum, the holy of computer holies. Fractal runes 
were inscribed on the ceiling, walls and floor before her, and on 
the alter to the power of mathematics. They were decorated in 
colors that the eye found hard to look at, to categorize; bits of 
color and tone moved in orthogonal patterns. A buzzing thrum 
came from the machine in front of her, around her.

--Come out, come out, wherever you are,-- said Yoko loudly.

Her request was granted. Hoxels, holographic picture elements, 
rained down like dust motes in a pillar of light. They stacked 
one atop the other to form the likeness of an old and austere 
woman, into the autumn of her life. She seemed dressed in a 
large and heavy wrap, with a dark tunic below it. Her feet were 
unshod.

The woman did nothing more than stare for a few moments; 
then she pointed a finger and said, --You are the Warrior Yoko. 
Without a doubt.--

--I am,-- she replied. --And I have come to take my revenge 
upon you. The streets above you flow red with the blood of a 
dozen dozens of your children, who took it upon themselves to 
stop me. They were fools, one and all. But they did.--

--Fools? They?-- The woman let out a small laugh and smiled. --
Yoko, why is it that you've come here?--

--Revenge!-- she shouted. --I'm here to get revenge for what you 
took from me so many years ago!--

"Yoko? Uh, Yoko?"

--Revenge for what?-- asked the woman Melchizedek.

--For my homeland!-- Yoko replied. --You ruled it with an iron 
fist! You never let us advance on our own! You never offered us 
the necessities of life we needed to terraform!--

--Independence? _And_ sustenance? But aren't these opposing 
desires?-- The woman took a step to one side as she gestured 
widely. --You were the ones who didn't want to rush 
terraforming. You wanted to get it perfect, to build the species in 
integrated ecosystems. Then, when resources became limited, 
you were so quick to rebel.--

Stymied for a moment, Yoko altered her tactics. --What about 
our lives? What about the governors you sent to rule us?--

--They are centuries dead, Yoko,-- said Melchizedek. --And so are 
the algorithms that chose them, and sent them to your planet.--

"Yoko. Hey, listen to me."

--And...and what about our lifestyle? Our loved ones?--

Melchizedek looked directly into Yoko's eyes. --What about 
them?--
--
The carbonized burn within her heart knew no limits. The man 
beside her gibbered words in alien tongue, scarring the principles 
she bore within her breast.

"What was it we were fighting for again?" he sang atonally.

Fuck. Inanities from the anus of the heartless.

"I blew them up."

Don't be a cocksucker. There was nothing to blow up. Everything 
is an astropolitical construct, a hallucination dream, the product 
of foreign propaganda. Shut your cocksucking mouth, you son 
of a bitch!!! The instabilities within the nonlinear dynamics that 
define my thought patterns--your vocabulary is beyond the 
norm, no place, no place for it, or for you.

"Yoko, I've always lov--"

Go skullfuck the Messiah. Shit in his veins. Break the last taboo. 
Do it. Ten thousand times, do it now.

She drove the phallus-knife into his eye.
--
"Yoko? You're...you're not really looking anymore."

Yoko felt naked; and for the first time since her rebirth, she felt 
afraid. Fear was no longer for her enemy.

"I don't care!" she shouted. "I don't care about you, and I don't 
care about anybody. I don't care any more. If I'm going to hell, 
I'm taking you with me."

--Oh, well,-- said Melchizedek as she faded away, --I knew that 
I'd have a Pyrrhic victory at the best.--

"Don't get smug with me, bitch." Yoko crossed her arms at the 
wrists and lifted them over her head. It exposed the half-dozen 
missiles, purloined from the Deckmen of the Scrapyard, wired to 
her flanks. "I'm going to kill you for that."
--
The explosion ripped through the core of the City in the Sky. A 
few moments passed before a horde of computer shards ran 
down from the Dust Chamber. The wind picked up shortly 
before morning, scattering a few over the Scrapyard; but by 
midday the majority was in transit to the scrap piles around the 
city. The column into the sky remained intact, empty and 
impotent, but still shining in the sunlight.
--
Copyright 1998 Daniel Snyder. Permission granted to distribute 
in any digital/binary/e-mail form; however, any physical 
printout is strictly prohibited. Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita and 
GunnmGaiden are by Yukito Kishiro, The Crow is by James 
O'Barr.

"No Time to Cry" by Marx/Adams/Hussey, published by Blue 
Network Music Inc., ASCAP. Copyright 1985 WEA Records Ltd.

"The House that Jack Built" by Hetfield/Ulrich/Hammett, 
published by EMI Ventures. Copyright 1996 EMI Ventures.

"Silver" by MOIST, published by EMI Music Canada. Copyright 
1994 Like A Scarf Music/EMI April Music (Canada) Ltd.

Special thanks to Marco for warning me not to do this and to 
Margot for her help with the Latin. Props to all the homies who 
fed back. ;-)