by T E Olivant
Biddy kept her helmet on as she sidled into the compound. She pulled her stungun out of its holster and double checked the settings. She hated using the thing, but there wasn’t much choice in a building full of enemy Augments. At least she wouldn’t kill them, although the thought of a hundred or so angry Gods waking up after she had shot them was not a cheery one.
She tapped her datapad and brought up a map of the compound. Once again, she mentally thanked the Geek. Now she just had to find a way to get to the chamber where all the alarms were going off – and where she knew she would find Lu Tang right in the middle of it all – without being spotted. She looked to her right where a small hatch led to a maintenance duct. She guessed she could just about squeeze in, then wriggle her way along over the course of half an hour…
Biddy shook her head. Screw that. She double checked the plan. If she took the corridor that led around the perimeter she would get to the room in five minutes. She would just have to be prepared to hide if anyone came past.
Five minutes later she was hiding in a store cupboard right next to the main chamber. It had all been a little too easy. The Augments had disappeared. Biddy didn’t realize she was biting her lip until she tasted the salt of fresh blood. What the hell was going on? Well, the chamber had only one entrance, so it looked like she was going to have to knock on the front door. She put her hand on the cupboard door handle. What was the worst that could happen?
Well, instant death at the hands of a hundred vengeful Gods. Clearly. But Biddy Mackay was a Detective, first and foremost and she knew that sometimes you’ve got to just burst your way in somewhere and deal with the consequences later.
She pulled open the cupboard door and moved towards the chamber. To her surprise, the main door was open. But if Biddy was surprised by this she was a hell of a lot more surprised to see Chief Campbell and the Scotclan standing just inside, their weapons trained on the Augments.
Chapter 52
“What a disappointment you are, Kepler,” Chief Campbell said, his gun pointed directly at his enemy’s face.
Kepler shrugged. He should have thought up some sort of witty retort, but he was struggling to form the words. He just hoped no one had realized yet that he was totally incapable of getting up from his chair. It had been ten minutes since he’d lost all sensation in his legs, and he had a horrible feeling it was permanent. How irritating.
Another one of the pods started beeping. Augustus ran his hand repeatedly over his bald head. Kepler found it comforting to know that even genuine Gods could develop nervous tics.
“Why are the alarms going off?” One of the tartan-clad men asked. He had a face like an old-earth rodent.
“Kepler here has decided to kill our sleeping friends, Faithful one,” Augustus said. “I assume you have arrived to stop him.”
“Ummn, yes,” said the newly-Christened Faithful one, adding hurriedly, “Blessed be to the Gods.”
Kepler snorted a laugh. It seemed that Mackay was not the only member of Scotclan who had little time for the Faith.
“I can only apologize for this situation, my Lord,” Campbell said, addressing Augustus in his most obsequious voice. “I am afraid that Kepler has been sorely deceived by a rogue member of our Clan. He is also… unwell.”
A talent for understatement, Kepler thought, working his jaw once more to see if he might be able to speak.
“He has the portal drive,” Augustus said, edging towards the safety of the Scotclan group. “And he is turning off the life support in the pods. He has lost his mind.”
“It was never mine to lose, was it, Chief?” Kepler hissed, each word a thousand agonies in his aching muscles.
Campbell took a step forward. “You are sick, Kepler. If you give me the drive, I can help make you well again.”
Augustus’s face creased into a frown. “Why should you have the drive, little human? It belongs to your Gods!”
Campbell kept his eyes on Kepler. “You think you know what happened to you, but you don’t. All along we have been helping you, trying to save you.”
The Voice, Kepler thought, trying to keep his blurry vision focused on the man. How could he have been so naive? Was it simply that he had wanted to believe so badly that there was someone looking out for him? He barked out a laugh. For the first time he realized exactly how the stupid Faithful had fallen for the same trick. Idiots all of them.
“How long have you been looking for the portal drive,” Kepler asked Campbell.
“Decades. At first we thought it was nothing more than a myth. We didn’t know if the Gods had truly created something so wonderful.”
Augustus snorted. “Of course we had. And we could have made a thousand more of them if we hadn’t been imprisoned.”
The Scotclan Chief glanced at Augustus with something closer to irritation than reverence. Kepler felt the urge to giggle once more. It was always a disappointing experience to meet your Gods in the flesh.
“Undoubtably, my lord,” Campbell groveled. “Now that we have you back with us, we hope that you will grant us your knowledge to make many more portal drives.”
“We must have the prototype to work from,” Augustus said, pointing to the device that was nestled against Kepler’s stomach. “Those who engineered it for us will be long dead. You must protect the device.”
“I’m sure we will,” Campbell said gently. “Our friend Kepler here has no wish to do anything to damage the device. He knows that it is safer in our hands than in those of our enemies.”
“And whose hands would that be, Chief?” Biddy Mackay walked through the door pointing her stungun directly at Campbell. “Do you mean Scotclan’s? The hands of the Gods? Or perhaps your own?”
Even Kepler had to admit that the Detective’s expression was impressive. Her gun was held steady without the slightest waver and her eyes fixed straight on the Chief’s.
“Better put down your weapons, guys. Yes, all of you. As I’m sure Campbell has already told you, I don’t have to obey Scotclan’s rules anymore. So I won’t hesitate to shoot a single one of you.”
The members of Scotclan placed their guns gently on the floor. One of them, a handsome, dark-haired man who seemed vaguely familiar tried to speak to Mackay, but she didn’t even glance in his direction.
“This is what it was all about, right Campbell? You couldn’t have cared less how long your Gods spent in the freezer as long as you got the drive.”
Campbell bristled, and Kepler reckoned that even the most self-obsessed of the Augments would realize that Mackay had hit a nerve.
“Of course our primary mission was to find the Gods…”
“So you could use them, right? To reclaim the galaxy for the Clans.”
“Among other things. But they are our Gods, they would want to help us.”
Kepler snorted back a laugh at Augustus’s disgusted expression. No one seemed to notice.
“All right then, let them take over now.” Mackay was close to Campbell, moving her body between the Scotclan men and Kepler’s chair. “Give this tall guy with the arms like girders control over all the clans right this second. They are your Gods, right?”
“Well, perhaps that would be a little hasty…”
Augustus’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, Campbell? The girl is right, surely. We have come to reclaim our rights. Tell your people to serve me.”
Campbell said nothing. The room fell silent as he chewed his lip and glared at Mackay.
“You see, I’m afraid that times have moved on,” Mackay said, turning to Augustus and the other Augments. “No one is going to worship at your feet anymore. Oh, there’s a few faithful left, here and there, but the Clans are in power now, and they won’t give it up.”
“Then we will show them just what we can do!” Augustus lunged towards Kepler who managed to stick out a foot and clip him on the ankle. He held the portal drive above his head.
“I will activate this damned thing if anyone else tries to grab it.” Kepler said, findi
ng that rage at the collective stupidity of the people in the room had given him his voice back.
“Just what do you intend to do with it?” Campbell asked. “You have rejected the mission that you were created for. What will you do now?”
“Sell it to the highest bidder?” Kepler said, his eyes on Mackay. “Or maybe I’ll just keep it for myself. I don’t believe that anyone in this room has any more right to it than I do.”
“Give me the portal drive,” the young Detective said, stepping neatly over the prone figure of Augustus. “I swear that I will find a proper place for it.”
“You can have the drive,” Kepler said, even though the words pained him. “But you will have to wait until the hibernation pods go out. There’s enough Gods in the world already.”
The Detective shook her head. “Believe me, you have enough reason to hate them. But the people imprisoned here are not responsible for what happened to you. I won’t let you kill them. Give me the drive now.”
“You’ll have to take it from me,” Kepler said. And then he grinned.
“I am so sorry,” Mackay said, looking Kepler right in the eyes. Then she shot him.
Chapter 53
Lu Tang hadn’t hit the floor before Mackay was sprinting forward. There were yells of horror all around her, but she ignored them and did what a ‘tec does best. She ran. She grabbed the portal drive out of his lap and she dodged the arms of the Augments that crowded around her.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” Chief Campbell called out from behind her. Biddy felt her shoulders itch as she moved, waiting for the fatal shot.
“No you won’t!” A familiar voice said, and she half-turned to see Elvis fling himself on the Scotclan Chief. Campbell went down like the proverbial sack of tatties. Biddy would have let out a whoop if she hadn’t been running for her life, carrying the galaxy’s most potent bomb.
She dodged and weaved around the beeping hibernation pods, making her way to the back of the chamber.
“Stop!” Some newly awakened Augment with clammy skin tried to grab her on the way past, but she wrenched her arm out of its damp fingers.
Another few steps and she was at the door of the furnace, the Augments scattering before her as she raised her stungun. She balanced the portal drive on her hip and opened the door, feeling the heat singe the hairs on her arm.
“Are you mad?” Campbell screamed from the floor. “You’ll kill us all.”
“I really hope not,” Biddy said as she closed her eyes and threw the portal drive into the furnace. Lu Tang had assured her a thousand times that the drive was completely harmless when not running. It should burn up with no more trouble than an old hovercar engine.
Of course, throw any engine into a furnace and it’ll still make a hell of a mess.
The blast ripped the metal front of the furnace to pieces. Biddy was blown backwards by the force of the explosion, her body limp like a doll’s as it flew through the air. She landed hard on her back, then instinctively curled into the fetal position to protect herself from the falling debris.
The world became a roar of heat and sharpness. She shut her eyes but she could still see the fire that threatened to consume the room billow into curtains of smoke.
“Ow,” Biddy said in a tiny voice. She felt a drop of water hit her singed face, then another. The sprinkler system had kicked in, as well as a fan that whooshed the smoky air out of the chamber. The hibernation pods had been well protected by someone, that’s for sure.
There were screams and whimpers of pain, but they were coming from somewhere far away. Biddy felt a buzzing from an arm that she was pleased to notice was still attached to the rest of her.
“Hello?” she said, her voice sounding like it had been put through a mangle.
“It’s the Geek here. You okay?”
“No.”
“But not dead?”
“Not dead.”
“Our readings showed a surge of power in the hibernation chamber. Does that mean that the plan worked?”
“Never in doubt,” Biddy whispered, closing her eyes and begging for the peace and quiet of unconsciousness. Unfortunately, someone poked her in the ribs.
“You alive, ‘tec?”
Biddy looked into the warm brown eyes of the most handsome man in the galaxy.
“Stop staring and help me up, will you,” she said, reaching out for his hand. She decided she would pretend not to notice the worry etched across his face. “And tell me quickly if you think Campbell is going to shoot us both.”
“Not sure. Looks like we’re about to find out though.”
With a lot of help from Elvis and several heartful groans, Biddy made it to her feet. She looked over and saw that Campbell was kneeling down next to Lu Tang. After a second the Chief stood up and shook his head.
“He’s dead,” Campbell called out, the words echoing across the chamber.
“Biddy, the murder clause!” Elvis looked genuinely devastated.
“He wasn’t an Augment,” Biddy replied, pretending that it hadn’t worried her in the slightest. She just had to hope she could convince the Chief. She raised her voice. “No murder clause applies. He was a fake, created by Scotclan. Isn’t that right, Campbell?”
The Chief gave her a glare. “It is open to interpretation. But what is very clear is that I can charge you for treason. That portal drive was meant for the Clans! It would have changed our lives, all of our lives for the better!”
“And we could have reclaimed Tir nan Og, right?” Biddy said.
“That miserable rock? Who wants Tir nan Og when we could have the galaxy!” Campbell said, “We could have revolutionized space travel. Everyone would have had to buy the engines from us, even the Knights.”
“And if they didn’t, well the portal drive was a threat in itself, wasn’t it?”
“The greatest weapon ever made! No one would dare cross us.”
“I think that’s enough, Campbell.” Macleod emerged from the doorway like a vengeful ghost. Well, if the spirit of vengeance would ever appear with grey hair and a cozy scarf. “Looks like it won’t be Detective Mackay that’s charged with treason.”
“Oh, Gods in the galaxies above us what is that woman doing here,” Biddy said, instinctively reaching for her stungun but not finding it: it must have fallen somewhere during the explosion. Damn.
Macleod seemed to have entirely recovered from her concussion. She strode over to the Scotclan members and took in the prone body of Lu Tang with a single glance.
“Portal drive?” she barked at Campbell.
“Your pet Detective destroyed it,” the man spat out.
Macleod narrowed her eyes. “That true, Detective?”
“Yes,” Mackay said, waggling her jaw to try and clear the ringing in her ears. “You can thank me later.”
Macleod blinked, then turned to the ragged group of Scotclan men gathered around Campbell. “MacInnes, Thain, take Chief Campbell into custody.”
The men turned to face her, but didn’t move.
The old woman sighed, then tapped her datapad. A voice rang out. “This is Chief Forbes of Scotclan.”
Biddy couldn’t help but gasp. Like many others, she had believed the great Chief was dead. No one had heard him speak in years. And yet here he was, booming out of a smug-looking Macleod’s datapad.
“I hereby grant Agent Cher Macleod the power to revoke the Sub-Chieftaincy of Campbell of the Fuller System. Campbell will be immediately transported to the judges of the Celtic Alliance for trial by his peers. Agent Macleod is to be given temporary Sub-Chief status, as of this message. Out.”
Campbell’s face was ashen. “But… but I was only following orders. We have been searching for the portal drive for decades...”
“And you let some slip of a girl destroy it,” Macleod said, gesturing to the young clan members who now took position on each side of Campbell.
“You cannot convict me for that!”
“I don’t have to,” Macleod shrugged. “I can put
you on trial for the Westward Ho!.”
Biddy was impressed. Had it really only been a couple of hours ago that Macleod had called the death of the Westward Ho! a simple screw up? The woman really was an arch manipulator. Ex-Chief Campbell didn’t stand a chance. The old man hung his head as he was led out of the hangar.
“What about the Gods?” Elvis asked, and Biddy realized she had forgotten all about them. The Augments were huddled together around the room, looking confused and scared. The tall black one that Lu Tang had tripped was at least trying to get his sleeping friends out of the pods. They seemed more to be pitied than frightened of, but Biddy knew how quickly that could change.
“I think I might have Scotclan explain the concept of retirement to them,” Macleod said softly so that only Biddy and Elvis could here. “Either way I will take them into custody for the time being. Don’t worry, I won’t hurt them, but I won’t let them loose on this century either.”
Biddy wasn’t entirely happy with this solution, but she had no more fight left in her. She nodded. “That’ll do.”
Macleod raised an eyebrow. “You still seem to think you have some say in the situation, Mackay. May I remind you that you are a lowly Inspector.”
Biddy’s ears were still ringing. “Inspector? What are you talking about? I’m not even a Detective since you saw to it that Scotclan fired me. Don’t think I don’t remember that you were right in the middle of all this.”
“I’m sure you will hate me until your dying day,” Macleod said with a grin. “But you’ll have to join the queue little lassie. For the moment, let it comfort you that Scotclan acknowledge that you helped prevent a worse outcome in destroying the portal drive.”
“You mean she saved the entire solar system and everyone on it,” Elvis said, with a look so loyal it made Biddy cringe a little.
“And in recognition of your actions,” Macleod continued as if Elvis hadn’t spoken, “Chief Forbes himself has recommended the rescinding of all charges against you and your immediate promotion to Inspector.”