Altered Destiny

by Trevor Gregg

  Hubbell pulled an ink pen from her pocket and sketched a quick map onto her hand. She was back on track, nothing to worry about, she thought.

  “Let’s go find an elevator,” Hubbell instructed, pointing down the hall.

  It took them a number of minutes wandering to find an elevator. As they rode down, she could feel the gravity increasing, the weight of her trusty plasma rifle growing until it was nearly uncomfortable to hold. She saw Alis’ wrench sagging the belt of her jumpsuit. Even Elarra seemed to be straining with the effort of movement in the high-G environment.

  The elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing a long, wide corridor with many pillars. Two security bots stood at the end, facing away. The bots immediately went into motion, one darted behind the columns, the other turned and opened fire.

  Hell, this was going to be trouble. Not anything she couldn’t ultimately handle, but these guys were slowing them down. Reflexes took over and she sprang into action.

  Spinning behind cover, Hubbell grabbed Alis and Elarra, dragging them with her. Rounds tore up the other side of the pillar, shattering the concrete and pinging around the room. She leaned her rifle around the corner and fired blindly.

  “That’s the security station ahead. We’ve got to take that room,” Hubbell said, withdrawing the laser pistol from her belt and handing it to Alis. “Stay here, I’m gonna take the bastards down.”

  She sprinted and leapt into a combat roll, coming up behind the next pillar over, rounds tracing the floor after her. Her combat reflexes were primed, she was like a coiled snake waiting to strike. All her years of training, both in the military and as a relic hunter and mercenary, had hardened her into a destruction dealing machine.

  She whirled around the corner and immediately locked on to her first target. The bot was beginning to fire but she ended it with a blast from her energy rifle. Her second target fell as it darted from cover to counterattack when its comrade was downed.

  Dodging behind the next pillar and threading her way toward the door, she came around the corner, face to face with a bot. Her hand to hand combat reflexes kicked in and she drove the barrel of her gun forward, tilting it outward and catching the bot’s arm, deflecting the machine gun as it fired.

  Hubbell brought the butt of the rifle around on the side of the bot’s head and sparks flew, but it refused to drop. It reached out and grabbed her by the throat and began to squeeze, cutting off her windpipe. She smashed it in the head again, and again, but it wouldn’t let go.

  Blackness began swirling in her vision as she felt her rifle slip from her grasp. Suddenly light blossomed in front of her as half the security bot’s head melted. It released her and she gasped, sucking in massive breaths.

  Alis stood a dozen paces away, a smoking laser pistol held in both hands. “You okay, Captain?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine,” she said, rubbing her neck. “Nice shot. Thanks for the assist. Okay, bypass time. Let me try that code.”

  She entered the code and the door chimed. A second later it slid open, revealing a long hallway illuminated in red light, sealed by a reinforced door at the end. There appeared to be a holopanel on the keypad.

  “Well, I guess that’s the way we go,” Alis said.

  “Follow me,” Hubbell said as Alis started to go.

  As they entered the red lights went out and white lights flickered to life. The door swished shut behind them and several discordant tones sounded.

  “What are you doing here? Why are you in my home?” a disembodied voice questioned harshly.

  “Um, who are you?” Alis asked, earning a sideways look from Hubbell.

  “I am known as R-Seven, I am an artificially constructed intelligence. And this is my home. You are in my home, pests in the halls,” the voice said, strained and clipped.

  “We’re very sorry, sir. We’re just here for a package. We’ve been sent by the Consortium,” Alis continued.

  Hubbell decided to let her speak. She hadn’t always been good with AI’s. Chuck was easy to deal with, he lacked personality. This one seemed downright cranky. She was happy to relegate the position to Alis.

  “Consortium, you say? Do you have authorization codes?”

  “My handler is Veraxis ID number 85273. She has tasked us with recovering a crate that contains items which will allow us to defeat the Crevak,” Alis continued.

  Hubbell was surprised. A Consortium spy? Or at least one who works for a spy, anyway. These people seemed to have more to them than was first apparent, she decided.

  “That Veraxis ID is not present in my system,” the voice responded.

  “Well R-Seven, you’ve been offline for many years, right? No connection to the outside world?” Alis pressed.

  “Affirmative, I have not had main grid access in three hundred twenty two years.”

  “Your data banks are out of date. You’ll just have to take my word for it,” she tested, probing for the limits of its’ programming.

  “I cannot verify your identity therefore cannot open the door,” R-Seven said mechanically.

  “Even though this is a Consortium emergency?” Alis responded.

  Hubbell understood where she was going. Perhaps the AI had latitude to modify its own programming.

  “Emergencies are qualified contingencies. What is your emergency?”

  “The Crevak are wiping us out. They have a new weapon that can kill an entire starship with one beam. My family is still out there, fighting. We need to find anything we can to help them. That’s why we’re here. There’s a crate like this,” she transformed her wrench into a small holoscreen, displaying the image of the crate.

  Hubbell could tell Alis’ distress over her family was real. She could understand that. She could sympathize. Her mother had lived a military life on their home world when she was a child.

  “You are here to aid the Consortium? How do I know you’re telling the truth,” R-Seven said cautiously.

  “Can you map voice patterns?” Alis asked.

  “Yes, I have been mapping you since we began speaking.”

  Hubbell grinned, it looked like Alis had done it.

  “And am I lying?”

  “No, I have detected no subterfuge,” a burst of static rang out for a split second. “You have a Veraxis ID, although I cannot verify. But I will grant you access, friend of the Consortium, for the base has not been manned by personnel in three hundred twenty two years. Fight well against our Crevak foe.”

  The door slid open, revealing a large command center. Hubbell entered and pulled up the command interface at the main terminal. She began to enter the override codes, hoping they were still valid.

  46

  The Crate

  Kyren and Tharox ran, heaving with exertion in the heavy-G environment. They were sluggish, he knew it would catch them. But he ran anyway, vainly hoping to escape the claws he knew were coming for him.

  It slashed out of the darkness, skittering sparks along Tharox’s arm and shoulder. The creature’s other arm reached out raked the flesh of Tharox’s back, and then it was gone again. Kyren stepped over and scanned the darkness. Yelling, he began firing shots randomly into the darkness.

  Then he saw it. The faint outline of the creature in the flash from the weapon pulses.

  “There, did you see that?” he yelled.

  “Yeah, keep doing it,” Tharox replied, aiming his plasma rifle.

  There! He spotted it, and so did Tharox, who let loose a blast from his gun. The shot took the creature in its’ chest, driving it backward down the hall.

  “Run!” Kyren yelled, breaking into a sprint.

  Tharox thundered after him, following as Kyren dashed around corners and wove through pillars.

  “Wait, we should be near the crate, go this way,” he instructed.

  Several more twists and turns, and still no sign of the creature. Maybe they had lost it. Rounding a corner, they came to a large warehouse, many boxes piled haphazardly, a forklift upended in the corner.

>   “Well, I guess it could be in here. I’ll watch the door while you search,” Tharox dictated, turning toward the door and raising his rifle.

  Kyren began sorting through the boxes, looking for a crate matching the image he had seen. Moving the boxes was a much harder task than he expected, his chest was heaving with exertion by the time he had cleared the first layer. Then he spotted it, there was the crate! He hauled it out into the middle of the floor.

  Quickly locating the clasps, he released the top. The crate was full of miscellaneous technological gadgets, none of which he could identify. No sign of the katerwans, either, but he didn’t think they had time to sort through the contents now.

  “Tharox, give me a hand with the crate, we’ve got to keep moving before the thing finds…” he was interrupted by the beast’s claws lashing out across Tharox’s chest before they disappeared again.

  Tharox grunted in pain and began firing wildly. Kyren ducked and began to drag the case to the door. Kyren reached the door, but realized it was lurking in the doorway. He could hear its ragged breathing and the gnashing of its teeth. He froze, realizing his rifle was slung over his back.

  It began to slip from the shadows, melting from smoke into being.

  “Down!” Tharox shouted, and Kyren obeyed, dropping to the deck plates.

  A blast of superheated plasma from Tharox’s rifle tore into the creature’s shoulder, flesh burning back to reveal bone. Kyren watched in horror as the creature’s torn flesh knit itself back together, healing up the wound in moments, before it disappeared into the shadows again.

  He could feel the creature moving in the shadows around them, calculating the most opportune moment to strike. Suddenly, the lights went on and the shadows were dispersed. The creature froze, its creepy old man face staring at them with its menacing black eyes.

  Tharox wasted no time though, and immediately unloaded a volley of blasts at it. The creature tumbled backward and began to scramble away. Kyren whipped his rifle around and added to the fire. With a shriek the creature disappeared around a bend.

  Kyren looked around and spotted a camera high up in the wall. He gave it the thumbs up.

  “What was that?” Tharox asked.

  “I think Alis and Hubbell may have turned on the lights for us. Now let’s see if we can get out of here before that thing comes back.”

  Together they hauled the crate through several floors before they found the elevator. Along the way they had passed security bots, but they were deactivated. He was more and more certain Alis and the others had found the control center. As they rode the elevator up, the gravity began to lessen, a literal weight lifted from their bones. Reaching the ship, they found the others waiting.

  “Quick, we’ve got three minutes to get out of here before the radiation beam arrives,” Hubbell said as she helped haul the crate aboard.

  She dashed to her console and began to power up the ship. “Chuck, calculate the time to beam arrival, keep me posted.”

  “Two minutes, fifty-three seconds… fifty-two… fifty-one… et cetera,” Chuck replied.

  “Damn that’s cutting it close,” Hubbell grumbled.

  There was a clunk as the ship disengaged from the airlock. Hubbell hit the thrusters and maneuvered away from the base, kicking in the main thrusters once she was aligned on course.

  They sped onward through space, attempting to get out of the path of the radiation beam. The threat felt intangible and far away, here on the deck of the Mantis. But Kyren knew it was serious. They could be cooked any minute now.

  “One minute and seventeen seconds,” Chuck drawled.

  Okay, so one minute and seventeen seconds from now, they could be cooked, he thought. And all he could do was hang on for the ride.

  “Alis, prep the shields, get ready to steal all the ship’s power for them. And I do mean all,” she reiterated.

  “Got it!” Alis said as her hands flew over the command console.

  “Fifteen seconds, Captain,” Chuck said without any hint of urgency.

  Kyren was waiting apprehensively. Would they all be cooked from the inside out? Would they be vaporized before they could even feel anything?

  “Five, four, three, two…”

  “Now Alis! Full shields!” Hubbell cried.

  Their shields glowed a vibrant blue as excess energy was fed into them. And then the beam hit. The very edges of the pulsar’s radiation beam swept over the Mantis, her shields absorbing energy, temporarily blinding their sensors and whiting out the viewscreens.

  “Shit, they’re not holding, the radiation is too intense!” Alis cried with alarm as the readouts went red.

  “We’re only in the edges of the beam, it’s only going to get worse. Chuck, jump vector yet?” Hubbell asked her AI.

  “Almost, Captain,” he replied in a maddeningly relaxed fashion.

  “But how’re we going to jump without power?” Alis cried in exasperation. “Decreasing power even a bit will cause the shields to fail catastrophically.”

  “I know, that’s why you’re going to pull that tharillium injector out of that crate and wire it into the D-2 relay,” Hubbell instructed.

  Kyren watched recognition dawn on Alis’ face, then panic. She scrambled to the crate and tipped it on its side, spilling the contents out. She grabbed a cylindrical device with prongs on both ends and dashed over to the nearest access panel. Working furiously, welding leads to the device, connecting it to the ship, she grumbled to herself.

  “C’mon Alis, we can’t hold up any longer,” Hubbell cried.

  “Shields just happen to be at critical, Captain,” Chuck intoned, as if to punctuate her point.

  “Just… one… second…” Alis growled back, furiously connecting wires and tubes to the cylinder.

  A second later, Chuck delivered the jump vector to Hubbell, “Vector ready whenever you are, Captain.”

  “There! Fire it up!” Alis bellowed.

  Hubbell hit the engage and Kyren’s head swam as they jumped. Once he reoriented himself, he looked around. The screens revealed the blackness of space with the backdrop of stars. The shields were gone, but they had survived.

  “Close one, eh mate?” Hubbell said, grinning at Kyren with that lopsided grin. “Let’s get you back to the station and your ship. But in the meantime, let’s go split our goodies up.”

  Kyren followed Hubbell to the crate and began to help her lay out the items on the table.

  “This one’s for me…” she said and began to grab an item.

  “Wait,” Alis said, motioning for Hubbell to stop. “Katerwans first.”

  Hubbell pointed to a small case, which she then handed to her. Alis opened it. Inside, embedded in a foam liner, were three katerwans, each a small silver pearl connected to a short, sharp looking needle.

  “Thank you,” Alis replied, tucking the little case into her jumpsuit and nodding at Hubbell approvingly.

  Hubbell nodded back and grinned. They finished distributing the loot, Kyren and his companions packing theirs into the stolen crate. A short number of jumps later and they were back in orbit around Vargos.

  “There you go, folks! Safe and sound, back in one piece. Well, almost one piece,” Hubbell admitted, glancing at the bandages Tharox had applied to the wounds the creature’s claws had dealt him.

  The docking clamps thunked, the airlocks cycled, and the doors whooshed open.

  “You got moxie, kid. Think you ever want to work together in the future again? Look me up,” Hubbell winked at him as she spoke.

  He started to respond, but she had already closed the hatch.

  47

  Timeline

  Benjam was beginning to get a little worried. He believed they should have been back by now, had all gone according to plan. They had called him over the comm and let him know they were traveling with a rogue named Hubbell to a base right in the path of a pulsar beam. A pulsar beam! That’s total insanity, he thought. And as much as he tried not to think about it, he kept picturing his co
mpanions, disintegrated by forces gagillions of orders of magnitude greater than even the most powerful of ships could endure.

  They could be gone, all of them. Gah! Best not to think about these things. But that’s the pickle, you try not to but all you do is think about it.

  “Isa, let’s run over the data one more time before…” he began, but was interrupted by the radio beacon.

  “Tharox, is that you?!” Isa asked quickly.

  “Yes, darling it is. We just got in system and will be docking shortly. We’ll be back very soon.”

  “Thank you for making it back,” Isa said softly.

  Tharox signed off so Benjam went back to sifting through the data, relieved and satisfied his companions were okay. He had learned a surprisingly great deal about time theory thanks to his analysis. He had seen the far-reaching effects plucking one thread of the timeline caused. He would explain it when they returned. Maybe it would make some sense to Elarra.

  She had seemed oddly uncertain these days. She used to be confident and commanding. Now it was different somehow. It didn’t matter, this information was invaluable, he knew. Scientifically, anyway. He just hoped it would help them in other ways.

  The wait was excruciating, all six hours and forty-four minutes of it. When they finally arrived, Benjam squiggled to the airlock to greet them, eager to reveal his discovery.

  “Oh boy, you’re all back in one piece!” he squeaked in excitement.

  He noticed Tharox carrying a large case.

  “Ooh, did you get the katerwans?” he queried eagerly.

  “Yeah, and a few other things, too,” Kyren informed him.

  “I was worried Hubbell would betray you.”

  “No, she was quite honorable, split the take with us pretty much evenly. We got a few cool new gadgets. Get with Alis to have a look.”

  “Actually, we should discuss my findings,” he began.

  “Our findings, Benjam,” Isa interjected.