Forerunner

by Isaac Hooke

  “He was indistinguishable from a real Mind Refurb,” Cranston said. “So real, that all this time he was able to mislead an entire fleet of intelligent machines.”

  “There’s a reason he’s been capturing our AI cores,” Jain said.

  “He’s been studying us,” Sheila said. “Learning to mimic us.”

  Gavin nodded. “If the alien was able to crack the encryption schemes, it would have had access to the full knowledge of Admiral Williams, Commander Jang, and whatever other Mind Refurb AI cores it captured.”

  “I’m going to call them the Mimics,” Mark said.

  Jain continued to focus on shooting down the blobs, and alien transports, while the alien vessel turned toward him.

  “I’m receiving a transmission from the ship,” Xander said.

  “Connect us,” Jain said.

  Prescott appeared before them on the virtual bridge. “You’ve been a wonderful distraction, but it’s time for you to end. Like your brethren.”

  “Why are—” Jain began.

  Prescott winked out before Jain could finish.

  “He closed the connection,” Xander said.

  “How rude,” Cranston said.

  The Pyramid ignored the other vessels and concentrated on following Jain. It was slowly closing… obviously trying to get within six thousand kilometers—the range of its lightning weapon.

  Letting momentum carry him forward, Jain fired starboard thrust to swing his nose around. He also angled his barracuda far to the right, to the maximum extents of its forty-five degree throw angle, so that as soon as the target was in sight, he opened fire.

  Despite the close range, the pyramid was easily able to avoid the attacks, thanks to its inertialess drives.

  “I can’t shake him,” Jain said. He stopped firing as his weapon neared overheating, and instead concentrated his fire on the blobs and smaller pyramids that were continuing to approach him, both of which were moving faster than the bigger vessel.

  Mark fired several black hole bolts, aiming them between Jain’s Talos and the alien vessel. Cranston and Sheila unleashed their remaining missiles.

  The Mimic vessel altered course, swerving around the black holes as they took shape. Several of the hellraisers came in next, hitting the ship, but causing no apparent damage.

  The alien vaulted over the final black hole…

  Right into Medeia.

  Her vessel blinked into view, the blade of the Arcane having penetrated deep inside the hull in a stabbing motion. She ground to a halt a few meters above the base of the blade. A dangerous maneuver: she could have ripped off the entire section if she had penetrated any deeper.

  The Mimic stopped all course changes and began to drift.

  “Ha!” Medeia said. “He fell for the same trick again.”

  “Unfortunately, it looks like this time, he was ready,” Sheila said.

  Medeia slowly moved downward, as if sinking into the pyramid. Jain zoomed in and saw alien micro machines swarming all over her sword extension. There were no doubt more of them just inside the penetrated hull region, pulling her inside.

  “Oh, shit,” Medeia said.

  “You’re going to have to blow away the entire section!” Jain said.

  “I’m dispatching security drones and munchkins to the internal decks ASAP,” Medeia said.

  Mark quickly dispersed the tears in spacetime he had created.

  Cranston had recharged enough to teleport again, and he did so now. He appeared above Medeia and deployed his micro machines to begin sawing at her sword extension.

  Meanwhile, Jain decelerated, and took advantage of the alien vessel’s lack of acceleration to launch several energy bolts. The pulses slammed into the alien hull, carving away big chunks. He had to stop when he overheated.

  “Mark, you need to launch black holes,” Medeia said. “Fire into the craters Jain formed.”

  “No,” Mark said. “I won’t risk losing you.”

  Medeia shook her head. “It’s too late.” She paused and cocked her head slightly. “What if I ejected my AI core? Sent some rovers to retrieve it, and launched it in a transport? Then would you fire?”

  “No, Mark is right,” Jain said. “We can’t lose your ship. It’ll take us eight months to build a new one. And we won’t have the alien material in your sword section, so you’ll lose that.”

  “But I’m going to lose it anyway, at this rate!” Medeia said.

  The Mimic vessel abruptly came online; Jain knew because it exhibited a faint rotation around its Z axis and straightened slightly—that familiar side effect of its inertialess drives turning on.

  The alien ship promptly fired its lightning weapon at Cranston. It struck his ship, and as electricity sparked across the hull, another big bolt arced out from the side of the Forebode and struck Medeia’s Arcane.

  Both of their avatars vanished from the virtual bridge.

  The other Space Machinists, who were beyond the six-thousand kilometer mark, remained unaffected. Jain suddenly realized why they had gone down so fast during the original battle that none of them could remember... they had been too close together when the weapon struck, and it had probably arced between all of them.

  The running lights on both stricken ships deactivated as the sparks swept across their surfaces; the lightning weapon shut down and the bolts faded, leaving the Forebode drifting, and the Arcane obviously offline.

  “Oh no,” Mark said. “No.”

  “Turn off your emotions,” Jain commanded. “We need you to stay focused.”

  “But she’s gone,” Mark said. “They’re gone. Dead.”

  “There’s a chance they survived, like I did, and Gavin,” Jain said. Though it was slim, considering that none of their shielding devices had intercepted the lightning weapon this time. “And a better chance we can restore them from their backups, if we can salvage their ships. We have to concentrate on recovering them now more than ever. Shut off your emotions!”

  Mark’s tortured expression became blank. He nodded. “It’s done.”

  For some reason, Jain was unaffected by their deaths, at least at the current moment. He would grieve later, but not now, not when he had a fleet to lead. He suspected his resiliency had something to do with his background in the Teams. And there was that phrase again, popping up in his mind.

  Death before submission.

  “We’re going to retrieve their wrecks, or die trying,” Jain said softly.

  The Mimic launched more blobs at each of them, but otherwise remained in place.

  “Why isn’t it approaching?” Mark asked.

  “Or fleeing?” Sheila added.

  “Their inertialess drives must have taken damage,” Jain said. “They have power to their lightning weapons, and that blob weapon, but nothing else. For the time being.”

  The Arcane continued to be drawn inside; no doubt the alien intended to use the metals in Medeia’s craft for repairs.

  Jain fired his lasers at the blobs, targeting them with three raptor turrets each, dispersing them.

  The transports were harder to take down, since there were so many of them. His stingers fired when they got too close, but inevitably he felt the vibrations on his hull as the objects attached.

  “Hull breaches on decks C and F,” Xander said. “Boarding parties of termites and lobsters have penetrated.”

  “Send the munchkins and security rovers to deal with them,” Jain said. “I’m kind of occupied at the moment!”

  The other Space Machinists faced similar distractions.

  “We have to use Mark’s black hole weapon,” Gavin said. “While we still can. Forget Medeia. We can only save Cranston now.”

  Mark glanced at Jain for confirmation. Even though his emotions were off, the conflict in his eyes was evident. If Jain gave the order to destroy the pyramid, with Medeia still attached, Mark would never forgive him.

  “No,” Jain said. “Not yet. We have to break Medeia free. Xander, is the Arcane’s remote interface
still active?”

  “The interface runs on a different subsystem than Medeia’s main AI core,” Xander said. “So yes, it’s still active. Using your access codes, you should be able to access anything that is remote capable aboard.”

  “Good,” Jain said. “Space Machinists, it’s time to take control of Medeia’s munchkins.”

  Jain’s external camera activated. He stood in wide passageway, with ample room above his head, and enough space on either side to extend both arms straight outward without touching the bordering bulkheads. It was an illusion of course, since he was inside a munchkin body, and lurking within a small conduit just above Medeia’s sword section.

  He glanced down at his form and confirmed that he was operating a robot. He held a plasma rifle with both hands, and on his harness several demolition blocks were secured. The robot had been placing the blocks along the inside of the conduit, as part of Medeia’s attempt to sever her sword section.

  Beside him, be spotted other munchkins and security robots, also which had been placing charges.

  “Collect the charges!” Jain said. “There’s no point detonating them anymore, especially not here, not when her entire sword section has been swallowed by the pyramid now.”

  Jain backtracked, and retrieved as many of the blocks as he could, as did the other munchkins in control of the Space Machinists. Jain took control of the other nearby autonomous units—security rovers and other munchkins—and instructed them to do the same.

  “I’m not sure how confident I feel about leaving my Accomp in charge of my ship while I’m gone,” Gavin said while he collected those chargers and shoved them into spare pockets in his harness. “Especially while there are alien intruders aboard my own ship.”

  “Just set your Accomp to recall you if certain parameters are met,” Mark said. “Like a breach in your engineering, or AI core areas. Or if the pyramid vessel starts to move again. That’s what I did.”

  “As did I,” Jain said. “You don’t want to be stuck inside a munchkin when things start to go south aboard your own ship.”

  When Jain was satisfied that there were no more charges to collect, he led the platoon away from the breach. He used the blueprints he had of the Arcane to take them through a scuttle to the next deck.

  “Well, at least there aren’t any intruders on her ship, yet,” Mark commented.

  “Don’t jinx us!” Sheila said.

  Jain reached a hatch on the starboard side. It led to the surface and was meant to give the repair swarm access to the external hull.

  He opened the hatch, and instead of finding deep space, he was met with a sheer wall of alien metal.

  He tried his plasma weapon and formed a relatively deep crater.

  “That’s a good sign,” Jain said.

  He placed three demolition blocks into the crater produced by the plasma rifle, and hand-signaled the others to retreat. Surprisingly, they understood his archaic SEAL hand-talk.

  Of course they did. They had entire databases of military history at their disposal.

  He detonated the charges remotely. There was just a flash, and a gas-shockwave that rapidly dispersed. No explosive decompression—you needed an atmosphere for that.

  He peered around the bend, only to see alien micro machines flooding inside the breach.

  Moving quickly, Jain and the others targeted the termites with their plasma rifles. They were able to take down two or three with a single shot, as the superheated plasma passed through those in the forefront, and in moments they had the hatch clear.

  They proceeded into the corridor beyond a short distance and continued to melt the termites they encountered. The light from the Arcane’s conduits didn’t penetrate very deeply. Jain activated his LIDAR, and smooth metal bulkheads led away inside, represented as a three-dimensional, wireframe.

  Jain glanced along the inner edge where the Arcane’s sword section met the alien hull. Above, the alien hull pressed right up against the Arcane’s. Below, he could see a slight gap, which seemed to widen about a meter down, where the sword section began.

  “As I suspected,” Jain said. “Her sword superheated the surrounding metal on impact. It already solidified, thanks to the heat loss. We just have to free the upper portion, and we’re good to break free.”

  He placed two charges on the gap and retreated back inside the Arcane with his companions to detonate them.

  When he returned, the gap had become two craters that had eaten into both hulls. Medeia’s metal wasn’t as badly damaged as the Mimic’s, due to the nature of the material composing her sword section.

  At the bottom, where the two hulls met, he could see the crawlspace the sword section had melted away between the Mimic hull and the Arcane, one that existed around the entire area where the sword had stabbed—forming a sheath, of sorts. There were termites in there, slowly chewing into the Arcane’s section.

  “All right,” Jain said. “It’s time to place some charges.”

  “Uhh, I’m claustrophobic,” Sheila said. “And there are bugs in there.”

  “Turn off your fear emotion,” Jain said.

  She cocked her head. “Oh yeah.” She looked into the crawlspace. “I’m good.”

  “How do we ensure that the termites don’t digest our charges?” Gavin asked.

  “Clear a wide area around every charge you place,” Jain said. “And hope that’s good enough. I want the charges placed in the following distribution pattern.”

  He overlaid the positions on the overhead map; several yellow dots appeared, encircling the top of the sheath formed by the Mimic’s hull where its hull pressed into the Arcane.

  “We’re going to split up into two teams of two each,” Jain said. “Buddy system. Sheila, you’re with me. We’re taking the right. Gavin, Mark, you get the left.”

  They split up, going in opposite directions. Jain pulled himself into the crawlspace and used his magnetic mounts to better pull himself along the Mimic’s surface. The hull of the Arcane pressed down just above him, forming a vaguely concave surface. To his right was the ceiling, where the Mimic’s hull abutted against the Arcane’s, forming only a slight crack between them.

  He fired his plasma weapon to clear the termites from his path as he crawled forward. Sheila meanwhile guarded the rear, taking out any micro machines that decided to attack them from that direction.

  Jain reached a yellow waypoint on his overhead map and affixed a demolition brick into the small crack in the ceiling formed by the two hulls. He positioned it so that most of the explosive force was directed outward, into the Mimic’s hull.

  Then he shot at any other termites that he deemed too close nearby, and then continued toward the next waypoint. In that manner he proceeded forward, slowly clearing the way, and placing bricks as necessary. At the quarter way mark, he ran out, and let Sheila crawl in front of him, while he protected her back.

  She placed her demolition blocks at the expected waypoints. The termites were becoming more aggressive and had begun to attack them more often.

  “Hurry it up, people,” Jain said.

  Sheila increased her speed as much as she was able.

  Lobsters began to attack. So far, Jain was able to take them out before they fired plasma bursts from their mouths, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last. Though bigger than the termites, the crab-like robots could still easily fit into the crawlspace, just like the munchkins.

  Jain took a plasma hit in his right arm and had to switch his plasma rifle to his left. He was still able to fire one-handed and took down the lobster.

  “Faster…” Jain said.

  The attacks continued to increase, and Sheila lost both legs so that she had to drag herself forward, with Jain’s help. Finally, they placed the last of their charges and met up with Mark and Gavin at the halfway mark.

  “You look like crap,” Mark said.

  “So do you,” Jain said.

  Mark had both arms blown off, while Gavin had lost a leg, and part of his munc
hkin head.

  Jain glanced at their harnesses. There were no charges left.

  “You’ve placed them all?” Jain asked.

  “It’s done,” Gavin said.

  His head disintegrated entirely as a plasma blast from behind struck it.

  “Bastard,” Mark spun, releasing a shot, and taking down the offending lobster.

  “The termites are starting to dig into the charges,” Sheila said.

  “All right, we’re done here,” Jain said.

  He remotely detonated the charges, and his video feed went blank.

  His perspective snapped back to the virtual bridge.

  On the external camera, he saw the flashes all around the rim of the sword section where the charges detonated in the Mimic’s hull.

  Jain accessed the Arcane’s drives, and as Xander had promised, he was able to bootstrap the engines using his access codes. He immediately reversed course and pulled her free.

  The pyramid fired its lightning weapon at the Arcane again. Jain promptly lost his access, but the deed was done: Medeia’s momentum slowly carried her away from the ship.

  He waited for the Arcane to get some range on the alien vessel.

  On his HUD, he glanced at the top-down overhead map of the Talos. Red areas flashed, indicating where hull breaches had occurred. “So, are you still putting out fires aboard?”

  “I presume you’re asking about the boarding parties?” Xander said. “Since flames can’t bloom in oxygenless environments...”

  “Good guess,” Jain said.

  “I’ve terminated the boarding parties for you, yes,” Xander said. “Though while you were gone, the attacks came with increasing frequency, almost like the alien was growing desperate.”

  “We faced something similar before we planted the last of the charges,” Jain said. “But then the alien got smart, and started trying to target the charges themselves, but by then it was too late.”

  “I have a feeling termites have limited object recognition capabilities,” Sheila said. “The alien only started targeting our charges when the lobsters came.”

  Jain saw a flash on one of his external camera feeds: it was the one facing the pyramid vessel. He switched to that feed and enlarged it. Out of spite, or perhaps rage, the pyramid had fired its lightning weapon at the Arcane again. When that was done, it launched several blobs at the already disabled ship.