“I will use less than half of our boost juice boss. But only so that we can maintain the zero percent impact-with-moon rate I quoted.”
She could jump, but alerting GE to their system earlier than necessary would be the more reckless action.
When the boost was finished, he returned to the cockpit, pulling himself up through the hatch below him. The steady acceleration of the Dee-Dub's e-drive gave him just enough weight to feel like a musclebound superhero. “Do we have any positive readings from scanning-electro-thinga-ma-watsits?”
“All negative so far,” Linda said, cheerily.
“But look at that planet,” Snow said, wonder filling her voice.
Slowly they were coming around the small lifeless moon that, despite its relative size to the planet, still loomed large through the ship’s canopy. As the moon’s bulk rushed alarmingly by them, the planet, for the first time, drew the focus of their attention. Clearly, it was in the white stars habitable zone because most of its surface was covered with a deep red ocean. Small dark landmasses dotted a region near the equator, connected by a region of paler pink shallow seas. Snow magnified the image of the small continents in the canopy. Most striking of all was just how dark those landmasses were, surrounded by a thin red-brown halo about their coasts. The blackness of the landmasses was so deep, that the only light to be seen from the area came in pink bands of cloud cover and thin haze of the atmosphere.
“Photosynthesis?” Max asked. It had to be. And yet he had difficulty believing it.
“Life seems the most likely explanation. Though other explanations are possible,” Linda said.
“Could we land? Or jump down?” Snow asked.
“It is tricky, but yes we could jump. Whatever we do though, landing, or jump landing, we have to stabilize our orbit first. And when GE shows up, it may only be a few seconds before our neutrino burst reveals our location. If they arrive as quickly as they did after the first jump, they are likely to arrive in time to catch it. It would be much safer to jump further away.”
In the end they stayed put. Though they did stabilize their orbit adjusting their next jump speed to zero. As it had been explained to Max by the computer during his training, discovering a way to match system speed was not optional. Without it, long jumps would be problematic as the speed of the system would have to be somehow matched before or after the jump to keep the ship from coasting away after it arrived. The solution was well beyond Max's understanding, but it involved the introduction of something like a gravity wave into the fold of space and whipping the jumping ship along it between the origin and destination. In theory a great velocity could be added or subtracted from the ship’s end velocity, but in reality, it was difficult to manage. A shortcut was discovered in which the origin and destination orbital speed could be directly combined, and the net result translated without calculation and on the fly. It involved a sort of cut and paste of physical reality without directly making any measurements. At the time of severing ties with Earth, no one had come close to formulating a way to add an additional net velocity to the system, which would require replacing the elegance of the jump drives own natural analog calculations with some other computer driven math. It was well beyond imagining at that point, and remained so now. And so, the residual net speed remained as well. Landing on a planet was well beyond Max’s understanding and involved sending the extra energy from orbital velocity into the planet before fully crossing into the new space. Similarly, energy was stolen from the planet in a jump from the surface to orbit.
The scans came back showing little promise in the system. It was possible that there existed some Akoronite in system but as before, they hadn't the years that might be required to uncover it. It was Linda's turn to pick their destination, and Max hoped for the end of their little game. She spent more time choosing than Max had expected, a hint at just how many systems were now within confident reach. Waiting for her decision, they watched the world pass by below. There were more and larger continents to be seen. Covered universally with the same or similar light absorbing life-form. The ship’s sensors detected little difference in height between the life-forms and the adjacent, seemingly sterile, coastal tidal zone, suggesting the plantlike life lived close to the ground.
“Okay,” Linda said, “I have my pick.” She sounded uncharacteristically subdued. “I wouldn't have taken quite so long, but this is my first high-stakes game and I don't want to let you down.”
It seemed to Max that Linda was not properly getting the spirit of the game, but as he preferred the idea of a friendly, overly cooperative AI to a coldly calculating one, so he made no attempt to change that understanding.
“We're ready to jump when you are,” Snow said.
“I am ready. Coordinates are entered. Doozer is awake and alert,” Linda said, and he was both awake and alert, crammed, as was his preference, between the two front seats. “Captain Long Legs? Could you press the big red button for me? To make it official.”
Max hovered his android hand over the big red button and counted down slowly from three to jump, and depressed the button.
Space folded. The ship arrived at its new position around a pale blue ice giant. Immediately the ship’s scanners began to flash the good kind of flash. Akoronite was in the area and it was so close that detailed scans hadn't been required.
“Suck it humans! That's how you do it! First pick victory. Wooot!” Linda cheered. Perhaps she understood what was at stake after all.
In addition to the purple blips on the map, indicating the definite presence of Akoronite, there were red blips indicating another type of presence. A great many red blips. With Linda distracted by her victory, Max responded with an emergency jump, quickly adjusting their position to a thousand kilometers in a random direction. He slammed the button.
Nothing happened.
In the space around them hung a ring of menacing alien ships.
“We're hooped,” Max said.
“Barf,” Snow said.
Chapter 19
Quin woke to find himself in a bright room, lying in a coffin. The faint sound of voices could be heard nearby. He was wearing a white body suit that left him looking exposed, if not immediately feeling so. So far, this being in a coffin in a white room thing was exceeding his expectations. Though that was easy to do, given that last time he'd had expectations they'd involved no future at all. He'd been very positive that he was about to be very dead.
He sat up and hopped lightly from the coffin. A chair near the foot of the coffin had a fluffy white coat laid across it. He took the coat and began to put it on, but stopped when he noticed the plastic cast on his left arm. The cast went all the way up to and over his shoulder. He touched it with his right hand and was surprised to find that he could feel right through the cast, as though it were skin. He moved his cast covered arm and it swung freely, which also surprised him, despite the fact that up till that point he’d been using his arm normally. He explored the maybe-not-a-cast and found that it carried on over the left of his chest and up his neck to the jaw, though normal skin remained to the right of his neck. He slipped the coat on fully, intending to find out where he was and noticed that his right leg was also changed. Sticking out the bottom of the long warm white coat was a leg he recognized, but not as his own. It was the leg of the robot he'd used as a cudgel against the reaper. Now he understood. He wasn't wearing a cast. His parts had been replaced. Was this how they created the battle-bots? Perhaps he had died in the reaper as he'd expected to. He felt his face with both hands. Neither hand detected any hard surfaces or other changes.
“Our miracle squid fighter has awoken,” said an even-toned female voice from behind Quin.
Quin turned around. In front of him was the shortest and palest adult person he had ever seen. She was wearing a white coat that differed from his in that it was not at all fuzzy. She held a device in her hand that looked as much like something out of the theater as she did.
“Your mouth is open,” she s
aid. “Has that been troubling you?”
Quin closed his mouth, then opened it again, this time to speak. “No. It's fine.” Are-you-turning-me-into-a-robot? he didn't ask.
“I'm Doctor Simmons. I'm here to do a quick check up and then if all goes well, I'll send you on your way.”
“Alright,” Quin said.
“Okay then pop your jacket on the pod and your butt in the chair,” she said.
Quin hesitated.
“Don't worry about me, I'm a doctor. I've seen it all a thousand times,” she said, pointing to the chair.
Quin did as she requested and sat patiently through her various tests and checks which went quickly. He noticed that the walls of the bright room seemed to flow occasionally as if pushed by drafts, and he realized that he wasn't in a building at all, he was in a tent. Her tests checked the reflexes of his new limbs, which she declared to be excellent, and moved on to a more general check-up involving his eyesight and hearing which she also declared to be excellent. This was news to him. He'd always had below optimal eyesight. Not to say that he couldn't see. His eyesight was fine. But it had never before been described as excellent.
When she'd finished, she indicated that he could put his coat back on. “When you were brought in, we weren't at all certain we could reverse the damage. You were badly wounded by the reaper, and shot twice for good measure. Many of your bones were crushed or shattered, or shattered and crushed.” She smiled amiably, kindly modulating the seriousness of her words. “There was more scarring that I would have liked to see, but that is a side effect of the squid slime. Given time and more complete facilities I could do better of course, but I digress. We replaced some of your limbs as well as the eye and ear.
Quin’s eyes widened, both of them, though he failed to immediately realize that distinction.
“I'm sorry to dump this all on you so quickly, but we don't have near enough staff. The good news is that though you very much should have been killed, you were not. And a fair bit more than half of you is still human,” she said.
His expression doubled down on surprise.
“Not to worry, your genitals are fine,” she said, perhaps mistaking his reaction for a very specific worry. “No concern, whatsoever, in that department.” She gave him two thumbs up.
She really must have seen all this before. In her position, Quin would rather jump back into the mouth of a reaper squid than have to speak aloud on the topic. “Where's my brother?” Quin asked, suddenly ashamed that he hadn't thought of him before this.
“You will be reunited shortly, there is just one more thing first. With all the replacements, you might find that your appearance has changed for the different,” Dr Simmons said. “I'm going to have you look in a mirror, so be prepared to think 'Wow! I am very special now!' alright?”
Her casual, this-is-not-a-big-deal smile eased his concerns somewhat and he nodded assent. His right hand was sweaty. He closed his eyes for a moment to center himself. He was alive to look after Cailin, that should be enough. He opened his eyes.
The Quin in the mirror stood straight and tall and looked much more like a ring fighter than the old Quin. His right leg, along with his left hand and the portion of his chest showing at the top of the robe were as he'd already guessed. White plastic with yellow stripes. But it was his face that drew his attention. Where his left eye socket had been was more plastic that carried on around the side of his head to his ear. The shape was all the same, but the color, white with yellow, contrasted with the light brown of his original face. There was a scar above the plastic eye socket and the yellow highlight was formed to continue the curve of that scar. The eyeball within the socket looked normal with the exception of the barest hint of blue light escaping from its pupil when he looked directly into it.
“I must say that you are taking this very well. So many changes so quickly… You are a remarkable young adult,” she said.
“Not for two more years,” he said, “at least.”
Dr. Simmons escorted him to the waiting area. Unlike the rest of the tent hospital he'd seen, which had concrete slabs as flooring, the floor here was made of pallets. Some wood and some shell cobbled together to keep the dirt below from tracking into the sensitive areas of the hospital.
There he found an unexpected visitor. One of the combat robots who had been fighting squid seemed to be waiting for him. Quin recognized it from the damage to its midsection and the wear pattern on its legs. This was the very robot that they had been trying to recover when he'd been eaten. Dr. Simmons gave it a questioning look, but made no comment.
She patted Quin on the back. “If you get the opportunity later, try to download a training update for your chip. It's not included, it would be too soon to add any such complications. An update would help you to utilize those other systems we talked about though, once you have fully adapted and integrated what you already have,” she said. “I have to go now, but if you run into any difficulties come back and I'll see what I can do.” She waved goodbye.
“Thanks, Doctor.” Quin waved back and bowed his head in thanks. She had told him a bit about the possible upgrades, but he was happy just to be alive and functioning. And he strongly suspected that the upgrades mentioned were not intended for someone like him.
The robot, which had been waiting patiently approached. “Hello Quin. We have not properly met yet. My name is Chaplin. You and your crack team of urban squid fighters liberated me from… possible destruction.” Chaplin's voice sounded human with the exception of a slight electronic buzz. He offered his hand to Quin.
“Obviously Cailin told you to say that,” Quin said, taking the offered hand and shaking it.
“Yes. He did.”
“Where is he? Is he okay?”
“He is away urinating. When I last saw him, he was physically well. I expect that he continues unchanged. With the exception that for a short time he will possess less urine.”
“A very short time, yes.”
“I didn't want to say so. Is it normal for humans to urinate so often when they are young?”
“I guess so.” Quin heard the rough whoosh of a tent door being brushed aside and a familiar footfall patter and braced for the Cailin tackle hug that was certain to be incoming. When the hug didn't land, Quin turned around.
Cailin stood just inside the waiting room, shyly patting the side of a wooden chair with both hands. “Hey, Quin,” he said. His eyes shifted from place to place, for a moment they made eye contact but Cailin shifted his gaze to the floor.
“Hey, Cay, you doing okay? I was expecting a hug.”
Cailin slipped from behind the chair and walked stiffly over to Quin and hugged him.
“So, what have you been up to while I was away?” Quin said, hugging Cailin back.
“We were evacuated to tent city.”
Cailin failed to elaborate. Quin wasn't used to having to try so hard to get words out of his brother, but he tried again. “Are any of your friends here?” He realized his mistake before he finished the question.
“A few.”
“Maybe the others were sent to another camp.”
“There's no other camp. They’re just dead. Lots of people are dead. Lots and lots.”
Quin looked over to Chaplin and the robot nodded in agreement.
“I'm sorry, Quin. I'm sorry I… I didn't…” Cailin said, uncharacteristically struggling for words, “I didn't know you would die.”
“I didn't die, Cay. I'm fine. I just got some new parts is all,” Quin said. “You were looking at the floor, so I guess you didn't see them, I got a new arm, leg, eye and ear. It's like a full set.”
“I saw them. They let me see you before.” Cailin continued to hold his older brother.
“Did they tell you that now I can see through walls and also punch through walls?”
Cailin pushed away from Quin and looked him in the eyes without faltering. “You can't punch through walls,” he said, though he sounded unsure.
Quin thought it odd
that Cailin doubted his ability to punch through walls but seemed unfazed by the idea that he might be able to see through them. “I'll show you,” Quin said, standing up and looking around for wall in need of a new hole, he wasn't sure he could even do it, but if it dug Cailin out of the dark hole he seemed stuck in, it was worth a try.
“Might I suggest that you not punch through a wall at this time. You could damage your new arm, not to mention the damage you would do to the wall,” Chaplin said, taking a step towards the pair and patting Cailin on the back, adding, “Your brother is very strong. Remember that time he wielded my legs like a club?”
Cailin's eyes bulged and a smile returned to his face, as convinced now that Quin could smash down walls as if he'd just seen it happen. Quin was intrigued to find that the robot was a more capable socializer than Quin was.
Cailin lead the way through the narrow paths between the straight lines of tents that made up the refugee tent city. There was a fair bit more body odor floating in the air of tent city than Quin was used to, but apart from that and their slightly dirtier clothes, the people filling the streets were familiar. Their faces told of a sadness spread thick across the whole of the populace. So thick that few felt their woes worthy of special mention. They had all lost someone. Most had lost some-many. But several days had passed and now they seemed to be carrying on. Quin understood the loss. They'd come through this tragedy so far intact, or reasonably intact. Their loss had come in the year before. Their parents.
One thing that seemed to consistently shake the sad expression from the faces of the populace was the sight of Quin and his cyborgian features. Though this attention was unwelcome to Quin, he supposed it gave them one more thing to talk about that wasn't death and loss.
Along the way Cailin filled Quin in on the details he had missed since he'd been 'half-eaten' as Cailin put it. Jayleen, who had been caring for Cailin since the incident, had braved the open when she saw the squid had collapsed. Before she could stop him, a paratrooper had helpfully shot the squid, to make sure it was dead. The paratrooper stuck around long enough to help her and Cailin pull Quin out of the squid corpse. Then he called for a medic. Then he carried on with his business of warring against the still living squids threatening their clifftop home.
Starship Invasion (Lost Colony Uprising Book 2) Page 16