Altered Destiny

by Trevor Gregg

  As they blew past, Alis got a good look at the ships. Crap, urnak fighters, she thought. They had much the same design as the urnaks’ larger battleships, just on a smaller scale. The oblong black craft had an engine pod at the rear and dozens of small spires jutting from the hull, making it look like an obsidian puffer fish.

  The spines, though, were not friendly, just like the puffer’s. These contained laser emitters, the favored weapon of the urnaks. They could fire in nearly any direction with a large number of the emitters.

  “Urnak fighters, lovely,” Alis cried.

  “Actually, that’s a good thing,” Hubbell responded, keying in a sequence on her holopanel and grinning. “They’re not shielded.”

  She watched as a strange green gas flowed out of the Mantis and into the space occupied by the ship’s faint blue shields. The gas began to follow the shields, flowing around until they were wrapped in a green blanket. The incoming laser fire was blunted, diffusing amongst the particulates suspended in their gas “cloak.”

  Ingenious! The gas absorbed several barrages from the urnak emitters, allowing Hubbell to get in position and line up a shot. Her plasma cannon tore through the first urnak ship, exploding it like a firecracker.

  Then their viewscreens went white as their shields were blasted away. The Viper had managed to line up a shot while she was maneuvering around the fighters.

  “Alis, monitor those shields, let me know when we’ve recharged enough to reactivate,” Hubbell instructed.

  The gas surrounding the ship took another barrage of laser fire from the remaining fighter. This time, without the ship’s shield to contain it, it blew away, leaving the Mantis exposed and shield-less.

  The second fighter was lining up for another pass and the Viper kept directing its fire their way. Just when Alis thought they were doomed, Hubbell executed a hairpin three-sixty and unloaded on the approaching fighter. It had several seconds to fire before the plasma beams tore through its hull, though. The Mantis was bathed in a laser barrage.

  Sparks flew from wiring and components, and a large quantity of smoke billowed from the life support ventilation.

  “Fuck!” Hubbell exclaimed, performing evasive maneuvers to avoid the Viper’s fire. “In the back, there’s a cabinet with re-breather masks, someone grab them.”

  “On it,” Kyren choked out between coughs.

  Alis quickly converted her wrench to a diagnostics scanner and began to examine the damaged components.

  “We could bypass the exhaust system and draw out the smoke,” Alis suggested, beginning to cough.

  Hubbell grunted and nodded. Kyren arrived with the re-breather masks and handed them to Alis, Hubbell, and Elarra. Except Elarra was unresponsive. They promptly donned the masks, while Kyren strapped one over Elarra’s face.

  Alis went to work, redirecting the exhaust to pass through a maintenance vent instead. Darting to the rear of the cabin, she located the access panel and worked it free. Immediately the smoke was drawn out through the opening.

  When the smoke had cleared enough, she sealed the access panel. Hubbell’s face was a mask of concentration as she worked to avoid the enemy fire.

  “I have detected a possible pulsar signal, Captain,” Chuck informed them in a lazy drawl. “Now we wait for the next signal in fifty three minutes.”

  “No, Chuck, we don’t have time. Plot a jump vector to the source of the signal. We can only hope…” she was interrupted by a new ship appearing. “Yeah, time to go, get us out of here, Chuck!”

  The urnak battleship that had just warped in was now targeting the Mantis. Any second their laser batteries would unleash a barrage of death. The Mantis wouldn’t be able to withstand the weapons of a full scale battleship.

  “C’mon Chuck, get me that vector!” Hubbell cried.

  Alis plopped back down and checked the shields. They were recharged so she deployed them immediately.

  Almost simultaneously the battleship opened fire. The viewscreens whited out as the shields burned bright, absorbing the energy beams before fracturing into sparks.

  “Vector ready, Captain. Shall I engage?” Chuck asked, urgency absent from his voice.

  “Engage!” Hubbell bellowed.

  43

  Security

  The anticipation was getting to Kyren, his hands trembled slightly. They would have fifty-three minutes to get in, locate the katerwans, and get out before the station would be bathed in deadly radiation again. He checked and rechecked his weapons. It was going to be a long flight to get there, unfortunately. Lots of time to worry.

  Hubbell had Chuck jump them to the outskirts of the system, so they could find a path that would take them to the station without crossing the radiation beam. It was going to take around six hours to get there.

  “So why does the pulsar spin so slowly if it was only formed in the last thousand years? Shouldn’t it still be spinning many times a second?” Alis asked Hubbell.

  “It was created artificially,” Hubbell replied. “A weapon of unimaginable power caused the star to go supernova, leaving behind an exposed neutron star. For whatever reason, the neutron star began with less angular momentum than normal, so it rotates much slower. The base itself is the size of a very large moon. Supposedly, much of the base is intact, still powered and with functional life support.”

  “Wow, sounds impressive. So what are the defenses supposed to be?” Kyren interjected, thankful for a distraction.

  “First off there will be the standard deployment Consortium security bots. Very tough, bulletproof but still vulnerable to energy weapons. They’re pretty well armed, though.”

  “So if they’re so tough, how are we supposed to get through them?” Kyren returned.

  “We’ll only have to deal with a few, if we can find the security station. I discovered override codes after I found the shipping manifest. I should be able to deactivate the bots,” Hubbell replied.

  “Do you have any maps or schematics of the facility?”

  “Yeah, let me bring them up,” acquiesced Hubbell, tapping the controls.

  A wire frame model of the station came into view, a huge donut. Their target sector was highlighted in red. He zoomed in and began to study the routes to the locations Hubbell had marked.

  “I’m assuming those marks are our destinations?” Kyren affirmed.

  “Yes, those are the two possible locations where the delivery could have gone, as far as I can deduce, anyway,” Hubbell said, voice still full of confidence.

  At least she knew what she was doing. That battle had been close, but Hubbell had managed to outmaneuver three pirate vessels. Yeah, she had this under control, he thought. Hours passed and finally they were within sight of the base.

  “Radiation beam will pass in seven minutes,” Chuck informed them.

  “Okay, we’ll need to move fast once we dock. We’ll have fifty minutes to get in and out. Here,” Hubbell said, handing out wristwatches. “Chuck’ll activate those once the beam passes. We’ll need to get back to the ship before the countdown ends.”

  “Based on the design, the base gets its’ gravity from rotation. But the readings show that the base is spinning faster than it should be. It’ll be stronger than one G in there,” Alis said, ears twitching nervously.

  “Chuck, calculate gravity at the two points on the map, based on the station’s current rotation rate,” Hubbell ordered.

  “The gravity at point A is one-point-seven g’s, point B is one-point-three,” Chuck revealed.

  “Okay, I hate to say it, but I think our best bet is to split up,” Kyren said seriously. “We don’t know which of the two will have the shipment, right Hubbell?”

  “Yes. I suggest you and Tharox take point A, your stronger bodies should be able to withstand the heavy G’s. Alis, Elarra, and I will go to point B,” Hubbell instructed.

  “Does anyone know what these katerwans look like?” Elarra interjected. “Seems like we are missing a critical piece of information.”

  H
ubbell brought up a picture of the shipment, or at least a representation of what the crates should look like.

  “I don’t have a picture of a katerwan, so we’ll just have to grab the entire shipment.”

  “The beam has just passed,” Chuck mumbled.

  Hubbell wasted no time, kicking the ship to full throttle and burning fast toward the massive station. Kyren could now see it was a giant toroid, face on to the pulsar’s beam. The half facing the neutron star was melted to slag. The other half still had lights on intermittently, though.

  “This’ll be tricky,” Hubbell said, highlighting their docking point along the center rim of the inside hole of the donut.

  She sped toward the airlock, attempting to match the base’s rotation. She goosed the thrusters and feathered the maneuvering jets, attempting to line up the two airlocks. With a clang heard and felt throughout the ship, the Mantis bounced off of the side of the station.

  “Um, do you want me to…” Alis began quietly.

  Fighting, Hubbell regained control and reversed thrust, rolling as the station turned. A quick burst of the maneuvering jets resulted in a satisfying clunk as the airlocks linked up.

  “There! We’ve got a lock and there’s atmosphere on the other side,” Hubbell exclaimed. “Now let’s go, everyone move.”

  They scrambled out the airlock and into the station. The air tasted stale, but seemed otherwise okay. He oriented himself for a moment, and then began to lead them down the corridor. Every step he bounced, nearly hitting the ceiling, the gravity at this part of the station lower than the levels below.

  He cautiously led them through the station, down many levels, to where the gravity began to normalize.

  “Where’s those security bots, Hubbell?” Kyren asked as he stalked down the hall, rifle raised.

  Next to him, her actions mirrored his, “Not sure. So yeah, that makes me nervous.”

  They came to a bend and Hubbell peeked around the corner. Several beeps in an almost melodic tone, followed by clicking and then “Intruder!”

  Hubbell ducked back and said, “bots, two of them.”

  “Termination protocol initiated,” two mechanical voices said in near unison. Footsteps began to echo down the corridor.

  “Get ready, we’ll open up on them as they come around the corner,” Hubbell instructed.

  They were crouched and aiming, ready and waiting for them to step around the corner, when a small orb bounced into the intersection. Before Kyren or the others could react, it exploded into a powerful blast wave and blinding light, sending him tumbling and leaving his vision blurred and ears ringing.

  He reached for his fallen rifle, attempting to scramble up, when the bots stepped around the corner. He couldn’t aim, he could barely see, so he just pulled the trigger, and held it down. Walking the beams across the first bot, sparks and slag shot from the impact points. The gun hissed as it overheated, but the damage had been done.

  The submachine gun attached to the bot’s forearm ceased firing, and the shoulder-mounted laser cannon swiveled blindly as if seeking a target in the dark. The head had been carved in half, sparks and fire spewing out of the gash. The second bot dodged back around the corner.

  “Fall back,” Kyren yelled, waving for them to run.

  They bolted but another tink-tink-tink and another orb bounced down the hallway after them. It detonated, knocking them down like bowling pins. As he was scrambling up, he saw Alis and Elarra dart down a side passage, Hubbell taking cover at the corner.

  Several more bots came into view at the intersection and began firing. Tharox grabbed Kyren’s collar and yanked him backward into another cross passage. The withering fire drove Hubbell back into cover.

  Yelling across the corridor, trying to be heard over the ringing in his ears and the cacophony of gunfire, he told Hubbell, “Go! We’ll meet back at the ship!”

  He watched them go, then risked popping around the corner to fire a potshot. He knew he had to get the bots’ attention, he had to lure them away from Alis and Elarra. His shot had the desired effect, as he barely made it back behind cover before the rounds poured after him.

  “Now we run,” suggested Tharox.

  44

  Shadows and Darkness

  Tharox and Kyren had executed an ambush and destroyed nearly all of the security bots, but the several that still remained dogged their every step. Kyren spotted an open elevator and prayed it was operational. He dodged down the passage, Tharox thundering after, his metallic footfalls echoing off the walls.

  They ducked inside and he hit the control panel. The panel lit and the doors whooshed shut. He hit the panel for floor eighty-four and the elevator lurched into motion, accelerating downward. A short bit later the elevator decelerated and the doors swished open.

  He had already begun to feel the effects of heavy-g. His breathing felt heavy, labored. His footsteps were not a struggle, necessarily, but were difficult nonetheless.

  Lit by emergency lighting, the corridor was dim. Kyren was having a hard time making sense of what he was seeing. There was some sort of crust on the walls, and what appeared to be a few skeletons scattered down the hall.

  “What the hell?” Tharox rumbled, hefting his plasma rifle to his shoulder with great strain.

  Kyren mimicked him and raised his own weapon, although it felt like it weighed a ton. “What the hell is that stuff?”

  “Do you know which way to go?” Tharox asked, ignoring the goop on the walls.

  “Vaguely,” he replied. “And yeah, it is down that way.”

  As they proceeded, the ichor on the walls grew thicker and more prolific. The atmosphere had also grown humid, the moist air cloying in his lungs. They moved cautiously but found nothing, until they reached a large open space. The room was a hundred feet square, the ceiling a good hundred feet up too, with diffuse lighting, giving the whole courtyard the glow of afternoon sun.

  They crept into the courtyard cautiously, slowly scanning the overgrown foliage for threats. They had stepped several paces from the door when there was a colossal crash behind them.

  Kyren whirled and spotted movement. A huge slab of concrete balcony above the doorway had just collapsed, sealing the way they had come. Darting into the shadows was a gaunt, gray-skinned form. He opened fire but it was already gone, somehow disappearing right before his eyes.

  “Go, get to the other exit,” Tharox yelled, pointing.

  The exit to the other side was open. They were almost halfway across the courtyard when a large vending machine landed in front of the doorway. A gray skinned form came out of the foliage at them. It had long, spindly arms and legs, and a stunted torso. The hands had more than five fingers, and they all ended in deadly looking claws.

  The face was the worst, though. It was that of an old man, skin wrinkled and splotchy. The mouth, though, was not that of an old man. It was filled with needle sharp teeth that gnashed together rhythmically, as if miming the act of chewing. Neither were the eyes normal, they were solid black, inky pools of darkness.

  Kyren panicked and pull the trigger, spraying the room with blasts from his weapon. The beast dodged them all, dancing back and forth with superhuman speed. His sustained burst resulted in his weapon overheating. He realized the creature recognized the opportunity, and saw it capitalizing on his momentary defenselessness.

  With a shriek it charged him, claws swinging. He dropped the rifle and drew the pistol from his waistband. Adrenaline flooded his system and time slowed down. He brought the weapon up as the creature advanced.

  It was nearly within striking distance when he began firing. He unloaded half a dozen shots or more right into the creature’s face. Blood spattered and flesh tore. The thing howled in pain and broke off its’ charge, disappearing into the overgrown foliage.

  “You think we can climb over that vending machine and out the other side?” Tharox asked Kyren, standing with his back to him, rifle held out from his hip.

  “If we run for it, that thing’ll j
ust cut us down,” Kyren bemoaned.

  “It’s our only chance. Let’s at least get free of this jungle. You lead, I’ll cover our retreat.”

  They made it all the way to the door without incident. Tharox ordered Kyren through first, while he covered. Kyren had just scrambled through and was preparing to cover Tharox as he climbed through when the beast came out of the shadows.

  It wasn’t just lurking in the dark he realized, it was in the shadow. It swung is grotesquely long arms, the razor sharp claws throwing up sparks as Tharox used his bionic arms to block the blows. He returned with a couple of bursts from his plasma rifle.

  None struck but it drove the creature back long enough for him to scramble over the barrier and into the next hall. They bolted, but Kyren knew it was futile. There were shadows everywhere in this dim corridor.

  A claw flew out of the darkness and Kyren twisted, but wasn’t able to evade entirely. Ribbons of pain erupted on his arm as the creature’s claws bit into his flesh. Tharox roared and crashed into it, attempting to grapple it before it could return to the shadows. It slipped away before he could get a grip on it.

  45

  R-Seven

  While they had managed to ditch the security bots after separating from Kyren and Tharox, Hubbell had to admit that they were in fact now lost. She led them on, though, without hesitation. She couldn’t let any uncertainty show through, it was the responsibility of the captain to maintain hope. Besides, a data terminal might have a map.

  There! She spotted a data terminal. Hopefully, it’s still operational, she thought. Approaching, she could see the holopanel displaying the service prompt. Well, the interface wasn’t operational but maybe something could be gleaned from the terminal.

  She began to type commands, executing built-in routines. This was sector Z-seventeen. They needed V-thirty-one, that would be many floors down. Now to locate a map, if possible, she thought. She typed the simple command “map” and voila! The map screen loaded.