Gavin thought for a moment, his forehead wrinkled deeply, then he shook his head. "I need more information. What I've seen can lead to what you're saying, but it could lead to other things too. Maybe they need soldiers, and they're starting soft with a brainwashing process? Maybe they need scientists, or breeding stock the moment the genetic key is developed? Maybe we can serve as templates? All those theories are served by us being kept in a safe place, given something for us to work on. We should go back, learn more."
"I want to go on. Farrah and Terry might have been on to something, left us bread crumbs for us to follow." The deck shifted underfoot a little, as though the ship tilted and moved to the side suddenly. "Something is going on."
Gavin looked down, then around at the bland service corridor before focusing on her and nodding. "Lead the way."
They moved down Corridor Fifteen and found an emergency station at the end with two hand scanners and a shallow closet containing suits along with medical and survival supplies. One of the hand scanners was active. "Skylar, Gavin," whispered Farrah's voice.
"It's been programmed to react to our approach," Gavin said, taking the hand scanner out of the form fitted shelf.
"Terry was caught getting out of the Grand Gallery a few hallways up. He discovered that we're in orbit around Termire, one of the worlds where an artificial intelligence called Nadir transmitted himself to before moving on. They're trying to get to an Echo Facility where they found traces of data that he left behind, including a universal genetic key for dolls. Before they caught him, he was able to get me into one of the few successful downloads from that facility. There's a list of dolls there, it's not a complete one, but there are hundreds of thousands of us. It's not like we thought; that only ten thousand or so were made. This list alone has nearly half a million, and most of them don't know they're synthetic beings. I put the list over a map of the galaxy, and they're everywhere, from the Core Cluster to the Iron Head Nebula and beyond. There's more to it, I'm sure, but we discovered that our hosts are just learning about this technology, they want to harness it to take control of dolls everywhere, and to apply it to themselves because they are inferior constructs, made using something called the Framework Platform. I recorded a high-powered scan result on this device. I also included directions to an escape shuttle. There are humans down there, a faction that wanted to help us, but Terry got caught before we could get away. Go, don't stay here. They killed him. They used one of the genetic keys that worked in simulation on him and his system rejected it. I'm next. I have to go. Follow the directions."
"Termire, that's only nine light years from Geist," Gavin said. "If we're going to escape, then now's the time."
Skylar was unsurprised that Gavin wasn't distracted by Terry's death. She imagined that they used one of their earliest successful genetic keys on him, one of the ones that worked in a few simulations, but was still flawed. Farrah would be next, and she wanted to save her, even though they weren't close, but any attempt to go after her would probably get them caught. With a few quick gestures, Gavin was able to see the whole plan Farrah and Terry devised to get them off the ship. She grabbed a backpack from the emergency station and checked it. There was food, medical supplies, water filtration built in, and some basic electronics. "We have to go," she said.
"We don't know what's going on out there," Gavin said, bringing up the scan record Farrah left behind. He shook his head and recoiled a little as he saw it. "What is this? They're humans with some kind of skeleton that generates them from the inside out." He held the scanner so she could see it.
"What's that beside the readings on each one?" She asked, pointing at a long number.
"Serial number? Maybe they're a new wave of android?"
Skylar scrolled through the scan until she found several Aspens and Larkens. "They're not real dolls. They're trying to put us at ease by pretending."
"You're right, we have to go," Gavin said, handing her the scanner and taking one of the other backpacks from the emergency closet. He took the other hand scanner and looked around for a moment. "There are no weapons here," he concluded.
"Farrah's plan has us running back to the service corridor we passed, then here," she pointed to a spot marked on the plans for the ship.
"Termire was marked as a lost world, completely overrun by infected technology," Gavin said.
"But she said Nadir cured the robots," Skylar said, tightening the arms of her backpack and closing the belt clasp.
"With free will? That's ridiculous."
"So you really want to stay here?" she asked, but her tone was an objection.
"You think we should go down?" He looked around for a moment as the deck shifted again.
"Yes, I want to change our odds. We're at a massive disadvantage here, and they're probably already looking for us."
Gavin took another backpack from the shallow closet and looked it over quickly before putting it on. He thought for a moment then kissed her briefly before nodding. "Let's change our odds."
Thirty-Eight
The station was designed in layers of armour. Around a pill-shaped, multi storey core surrounded in metres of advanced protective materials called The Vault, were other cylindrical sections that encased it. Thanks to that design, walking, or in Spin and Dori's case, running through one level of the space station took them in a circle that got smaller the closer they were to the core.
The Centirion finished repairing itself, and it was on the hunt. Spin and her companions had just enough time to formulate a plan that would put the Centirion out of commission, but it required control, and the only way to control the metal beast was with bait.
The other robots closed heavy armour doors, made sure that access to the outer rings of the station was restricted, and everyone was cloaked except for Spin and Dori. They were the fastest by a hair in their combat armour, even with Leaper on Spin's shoulder. "Everyone's in position," Boro said over a scrambled channel.
"Got all the right doors open, the rest closed," Frost added.
Spin and Dori ran down one of the secondary hallways, the monkey-like Leaper bot leaping off her shoulder to close the door behind them. "The Centirion's coming towards this section. I think it's just curious though."
"If it wanted to kill us, it would be moving much faster," Leaper Six confirmed, landing back on Spin's shoulder.
"I can't believe how much stamina this new body has. I'm like some kinda athlete, I just don't run out," Dori said as they slowed their run in front of one of the vault doors. "I feel strong, too. This cutting beam isn't slowing me down at all."
"They said there were enhancements built in," Spin said, watching Dori aim the heavy hull cutter at the seam in the vault. It would take a week to get through, but their purpose was to alarm the Centirion, not actually cut into the main vault. "I hope you give it a chance."
"It doesn't look like I'll have much of a choice," Dori said. "But it could be worse. Some of the details of what it was like to be a cyborg are coming back, and there's one thing I remember more than anything else; it hurt. I think I did a lot of drugs just to keep the cold and the pain away. I don't think I'd want that again." As if to punctuate her statement, she activated the cutting beam.
The broad corridor was filled with white-blue light as the broad particle accelerator beam blasted the thick doors leading into the main vault. The high-tech armour didn't show a sign of weakening, not even a mark for several seconds, and Spin's tactical system showed that the Centirion was still one level up and half away across the station. She and Dori weren't cloaked, it would have no problem making them out once they were in range of its sensors.
The hull cutting beam system was strapped firmly to Dori's back, the focusing and firing array looked like a great cannon in her hands fed by cables. "Is this thing gonna start penetrating, or what?" Dori asked, chuckling. As Dorian, he was a talented hull breaker. There were few vessels he couldn't find vulnerabilities in, and he'd assisted in piracy, reclamation, salvage and rep
airs. Spin hoped the skillset persisted in Dori.
A broad, metre wide circle began to shimmer and melt under the cutter's beam then, and Dori laughed. "There it is! Man, they built this vault heavy. If we were seriously trying to get in, I'd put this gun on a tripod because I couldn't imagine standing here for two hundred hours while the beam works on it. Oh, and if we weren't careful, we'd instantly cook anyone inside when we broke through, just so you know. The temperature is rising super-fast here."
"Hopefully we won't have to burn through," Spin said, watching the Centirion on her tactical screen. The station sent a broad band message that a vault was being forced, appealing for help, and she watched the Centirion's movements go from what seemed to be a leisurely patrol to a rushed speed right towards them. "It's noticed! Get ready to fall back!" Frost announced.
"I see it," Spin said, watching Dori stop blasting the door and turn towards the main corridor they originally came in through. The rest of the bots were hiding completely, nowhere near that main hallway, using Sphere Lord's mini-drones, which were hovering high in the latticework above the corridor, to watch what happened.
The Centirion moved down to their level and started charging from the other side of the station. With her sensors active, Spin could see that the large security bot had all its shields repaired and active. "We're going to have to burn her shields down or wait until someone gets grabbed to do real damage, and I don't want to see anyone in its claws."
"Here's hoping our plan pays off before it comes to that," Frost said.
"It's close enough, time to lure it in," Spin said as she saw it come around the corner. She and Dori were off, almost not quickly enough as the Centirion spat several heavy canisters in their direction. One narrowly missed Spin's head, making Leaper Six yelp and cling to her neck like a young monkey. When it hit the deck, it exploded in all directions, sending a wave of suppressive foam against that side of the hall. Her shields protected her from the edge of it, and Spin slipped onto her back, the friction of her boots against the floor broken for a moment.
It was an automatic countermeasure that she didn’t practice with. The suit's shields could switch to zero friction mode so sticky grenades and hardening foam rounds just like the one she just escaped had a lesser chance of working. Leaper Six wasn't protected and was ripped from her as the foam hardened into plastic behind her. "It's got me!" he howled over proximity radio.
"Don't worry, Centirion isn't after you, he's after them, surely," Med Three said.
"We'll get you free!" announced several Leaper model robots as they rushed through the latticework above.
Spin's boots regained their grip on the deck as the Centirion made it around the corner. She'd fallen behind Dori by a dozen or so paces, and she turned, aiming her hull cutting beam at the security bot, which was nearly twice Spin's height, at least five times her width. A flash of the beam drew its attention, giving Spin a chance to catch up. "Go! Hurry!" she shouted.
Dori turned to resume their sprint. Spin caught a glance at the monkey-like Leaper bots descending on the edge of the plastic wave that froze against the side of the corner corridor, where Leaper Six was stuck in to the waist. They used smaller lasers as they pried at the material, hurrying to get him free. There was no way she could stop and help. As she ran as fast as she could from the Centirion, the image of how desperately Leaper Six fought to be free of the hardening plastic that held his legs played back in Spin's head. Maybe it was her imagination, but those two big lenses on his face seemed fearful, even terrorized as it struggled.
The Centirion only glanced at the Leaper bots, pushing on past the corner in pursuit of Spin and Dori. "He's coming into position! Open the doors!" Boro called out over their scrambled channel.
The mid and outer shield doors in the main hallway leading from the outside of the station to the inner vault opened, straining against their rails as Frost and Nigel assisted the old motors that drew them aside. Spin and Dori ran several more steps then turned so they could get out of the way.
The Sector Jumper waited at the end of the long hallway, just outside the open airlock doors with its main beam at the ready. It was cloaked, invisible, but there nonetheless. The Centirion stopped before it finished coming around the corner. "What? Don't tell me it can see the ship?" Dori asked.
"There's no way. The class of cloaking tech the Jumper uses is way past what's in our suits. That security junker is a century behind," Frost said. "Hell, even our sensors can't see the Sector Jumper, and they're better than whatever that thing's got."
"Oh, my Genius! It's coming back! It's gonna blast me to slag! Or even worse, chomp me into parts and raw materials! Help!" screeched Leaper Six.
Spin watched her tactical screen as the Centirion turned around and stalked towards the trapped Leaper bot menacingly. Its fellow Leapers were still working at a frantic pace to get him free, but the plastic wasn't cooperating, melting under the heat of their laser cutters but solidifying before they could make much progress. The panicked screeches were almost too much to take.
"Shut yourself down, little Leaper, it'll be painless that way," Med Three said over the public channel.
"No! No! I'll get under its shields and then we'll see what kind of damage I can do from the inside!" the Leaper screeched, panic suddenly turning to bravery and fury. "Come eat me, you shining beast! Eat meeee!"
Half the Leaper bots jumped to the latticework above, while two stayed with Leaper Six, shouting and screeching, brandishing little hands with fingers that ended in laser cutters and whatever multi-tool tips that would give them nails that could double as sharp claws.
The front of the Centirion jerked, several manipulator arms lashing out, hurling the two Leapers who were trying to defend their trapped companion in opposite directions. A section of the security robot's forward shields was dropped, and Spin tried to figure out a way to turn that to their advantage. The Centirion was around the corner, facing away from them. There was no chance anything they had could turn and hit the face of that thing from where they were.
"Here, ya wee bastards! Toss grenades in its mouth!" Frost said as he tossed a pair of grenades up high. They weren't active, but Boro still cringed at the sight of grenades in the air.
Before they could come back down, two of the Leapers snatched them and moved at incredible speed along the ceiling. "Gimmie-Gimmie! Oooh! Quick!" screeched the trapped one excitedly.
One of the Leapers rushing along the ceiling made it around the corner and activated the countdown on his grenade, drawing the attention of the Centirion immediately. It turned its head, and the active grenade was hurled at it. The security bot activated its shields and rolled so its face was facing the deck, and the grenade went off against its shields harmlessly. "No! Gimmie the grenade so I can turn it on when she eats me!" shrieked the trapped Leaper.
The Centirion turned in a blur so its back end faced the Leapers and several of its legs telescoped, lashing out at its small assailants several times, slashing at them until they were inoperative pieces. "That's it!" Dori said through gnashed teeth. She stepped out into the hallway, cutting beam at the ready.
"No! You saw what that thing can do!" Nigel shouted.
"I have shields and a great big gun," Dori said before switching to the base's general channel. She stepped around the corner so she had a clear shot and blasted the Centirion with a focused beam, bringing its shields down three percent. "Over here, you outdated antique!" She followed her statement with a sustained blast from her beam, then ran away.
"It's going to retreat," Spin said, bursting into a run. She turned her cloaking systems on and all her communication systems off. There was an armoured door blocking that corner behind the Centirion, and she could feel terror begin to rise as her naked eyes saw the huge security robot through her transparent visor. Seeing it down a long hallway, or through her tactical system was one thing, but actually being within reach of it as she ran to close the heavy armoured door behind it was something else entirely.
Dori had its attention, but if the Centirion realized what was going on behind it, Spin was sure she'd be under attack, and those arms would make quick work of her with her shields down. The Centirion was thirteen metres long, with more gleaming legs than she could count. The armoured body shifted and turned, looking for a vantage point where it could get to Dori without following her into the hall.
Spin sidestepped it, running right towards the wall at one point to avoid it, then ended up running along the wall, using the built-in grip and support of her suit to move past it. To her amazement, with the Centirion's rear body within two metres of her, she managed to hit the switch that brought the door down and then stick a grenade to it.
Spin turned and started to run away from it as quickly as she could manage. The suit was well armoured, it could protect her from a normal grenade, but she didn't know how well it would fare against the type Frost brought with him, the one that was about to go off in five seconds. The heavy armoured door finished closing. The Centirion turned towards the control panel, and its middle brushed her.
Three of its legs reached out, and she was caught by two around the middle. Her communications systems turned on automatically as she tried to stay calm, Firing her rifle. "It's got me," she said, realizing where the Centirion's real strength was. One of its highly articulated legs gripped the rifle, two more grabbed her - one around the neck, the other around the legs - and she fought them as they slowly dragged her under its body. There were hundreds of articulated legs there, once it had her there, she would be torn to pieces.
Spin managed to get a firm hold of two of its appendages, and her forced descent was halted. Other limbs scratched and pried at the flexible metal surface of her armour, trying to rip it open.
A bright light followed by flashes and concussive shocks rocked the machine, and Spin knew they were trying to save her. The shields on her suit activated but failed to push the arms that threatened to violate the armour surrounding her away, and her grip on the pair of legs she had was slipping. "Oh, my God, I hate this thing!" she said as one of her hands lost their mechanically assisted grip. She struggled to get at her sidearm, caught it in her free hand and began blasting. "I'm under its shields!" she cried, realizing that only her right forearm and hand were inside its shielded perimeter. She turned the intensity of her sidearm up with an eye gesture inside her helmet and fired as fast as the weapon would permit for the base of all the nearby arms.
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