Brynin2

by Thadd Evans

  For sixty years, using radio and optical interferometric telescopes and spectrometers, Aito, Etite, and Glemal Astrophysicists had measured strange attractors in P L Five’s outer orbit. But their maps were much less accurate than any created by the Dseo.

  Cold wind blew against my face. “Cl,” My face mask closed. I stepped inside the elevator.

  Its door opened. I entered the hall and walked. Moments later, I halted next to Nianda, and crouched.

  She was still asleep.

  I reached out, tapped her shoulder.

  She didn’t wake up.

  I headed for the door.

  It opened. I went outside.

  Above me, a fleet of blue LN spheroid ships began spreading out.

  Chills ran up my spine! I removed a VERDD, a vertical descent device from my belt. At the top of the VERDD, a drill bit started rotating. I pushed the bit into the wall. It made a grinding sound, digging its way into the concrete. At the bottom of the device, a tether uncoiled. I grabbed the tether, climbed over the wall, and rappelled down the cliff.

  When I was at the bottom of the tether, I shoved the toes of my boots into crevices, and grasped a protruding rock with one hand. “Anch.dr.cc,” I said. My tablet sent a message to the VERDD’s drill bit, requesting that the device remove itself from the wall. I yanked the tether. The VERDD came down—flew past me. I pulled the line toward me, grabbed the drill bit as it started rotating, and pushed it into a shallow hole.

  Once the device was firmly embedded, I gripped the tether, and started down.

  I reached the bottom of the cliff. Not far away, the drill bit, equipment that had just extricated itself from the cliff, landed in the snow. After coiling the rope, and grabbing the VERDD, I shoved them into a belt compartment.

  Far above me, LN ships veered starboard.

  As my adrenaline pumped faster, I wondered when they would touch down.

  In my mind’s eye, after Nianda reached the bottom of the cliff, a cable inside her lung froze, and snapped. Then she began gasping for air and passed out. Within minutes, she died because her lungs weren’t oxygenating blood.

  I shook my head, disgusted. If that happened to her, I couldn’t help.

  I peered in many directions, searching for Greg and everyone else, but only noticed snowdrifts and cliffs. Perhaps the LN had captured them. I spoke into my tablet. “Hello, it’s Jason. Can you hear me?”

  A soft crackling came out of it, nobody answered.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I kept going, advancing toward the bottom of the trail. Inside my mechanical left leg, a throbbing sensation became worse. I crouched, massaged it, then continued on.

  What if an LN robot shot Nianda in the forehead? Although the thought of that happening made me feel sad, it was too late. If I went back, they would kill me.

  I glanced to the left and right, but only noticed a snow covered trail, no bags or footprints anywhere.

  In the corner of my screen, a text message that Greg had sent to me when I was halfway up the cliff, just a few thousand feet from Solo, expanded, making it easier to read. Everyone has cold feet and hands. We are out of bottled oxygen. Although we’ve acclimated to this altitude, if one of us gets dizzy because of the thin air, that could be a problem.

  According to Tia, Yar, Paley and Yeliv, we only have a few wafers left. The rest are spoiled, filled with Salmonella. We eagerly await your return.

  Unfortunately, he hadn’t sent me any messages since then.

  I stepped over a frozen twig, waiting for Greg or anyone else to contact me. Now my lower left leg was numb from the cold. If it didn’t warm up, I might get pneumonia.

  Several hours later, I started around a bend. “Hello. This is Jason. Is anybody there?”

  “W…” a faint male voice responded. As the sound was replaced by random whistling noises, icy wind blew harder. I began shivering.

  As early afternoon shadows obscured nearby cliffs, I began staring at my screen. Close to the center of it, red warning text flashed. Temperature has dropped to four degrees, Fahrenheit. Leg nanomotors 201 through 9001 have slowed down 21% because of prolonged exposure to freezing temperatures.

  If every nanomotor in my leg decelerated 40 percent, reaching ST7 would take about sixteen hours longer.

  There was another problem. Once the nanomotors reached 10 degrees below zero, I would have to open my leg hatch and inspect biopolymer tendons and photonic cables. If anything had cracked, I would have to repair it soon, maybe within a month.

  In the corner of my screen, text, information about the Eaarting buildings, materialized. Rating 5 structure, 16.5 miles. The information was replaced by new data. Rating 5 structure, 17.1 miles.

  The tablet had just provided inconsistent readings. Was it broken? I couldn’t tell.

  The text vanished. New data came into view. Rating 5 structure, 14.8 miles.

  I put away my tablet, then glanced over my shoulder.

  Above a foggy cliff, I noticed a clear sky. All the blue ships were gone! Had they docked at the bottom of the Xah Gorge or left D24? I wasn’t sure.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Hours later, my mechanical left leg started aching. I paused, lifted my left pant leg, and pushed my sock down. “Op.lefleg.lh.” Near the bottom of my leg, a hatch opened.

  Inside the hatch, on a gauge, text flashed. If temperature remains below 2 degrees Fahrenheit for thirty more hours, leg biopolymer tendons 301, 302, and 303 should be replaced.

  I closed the hatch, worried, and continued on, realizing that if the tendons broke, I would have to crawl.

  In the late afternoon, I stepped over an icicle. Close by, a ghostly Ontx man’s purple face, a stranger with a small forehead, materialized. His bisque colored eyes started fading.

  “Who are you?” I squinted, trying to see him more clearly.

  Random clicking sounds came out of my earplugs. The Ontx wouldn’t answer.

  “I can barely see you.”

  “H…” a voice whispered.

  Was this a rollover hologram, a 3 D message projected from a nearby underground server? I couldn’t tell. Was it warning me to stay away from something?

  Feeling curious, I looked over my shoulder.

  Not far away, six ghostly Ontx men, beings with crimson faces, began staring at me.

  Above them, beyond my peripheral vision, someone whispered, “Sah…”

  I glanced up.

  Above me, close by, three semi-transparent Ontx women in chrome colored jumpsuits, females who were standing next to each other, pivoted, and pointed at the cliff.

  “Ju ha orn,” one of them murmured.

  My earplugs deciphered the comment. It’s inside.

  None of these meaningless conversations mattered. I had to reach my ship before my leg fell apart. I kept going. Hopefully, Greg and the passengers had reached ST7.

  After passing a frozen branch, I glanced over my shoulder, curious.

  All the Ontx were gone.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  At dusk, I removed the bag from my sleeve, tossed it to the ground, climbed inside, and ate a wafer. After sipping water from a bottle, I dozed off.

  I opened my eyes and gazed into the darkness. According to my watch, it was almost dawn. I ate a wafer, sipped water from a bottle, and crawled outside.

  After placing the compressed bag onto my sleeve, I started down. It occurred to me that if the LN had extreme infrared telescopes, they would spot my body’s heat signature. Luckily, the ships couldn’t land on the trail.

  Without warning, my right boot slipped over the edge! I reached out, gripped a protruding rock, and stood. Without warning, a sweet sickly smell, nerve gas grew stronger. I yanked the bag off my sleeve, pushed the spinning anchors into the cliff, and crawled inside.

  “Eme,” an unfamiliar voice, a sound coming from outside, whispered.

  “Szaz,” a stranger replied.

  Distant voices began wailing. At the same time, a ghostly Ontx man’s taupe
face, a countenance with sunken cheeks, appeared in my mind. I passed out.

  I yawned. According to my watch, it was early morning. Although I felt groggy, I crawled outside. After pressing the compressed bag onto my sleeve, I grabbed the cliff, and started down. My shoulder-mounted- flashlight switched on, illuminating the trail.

  Close by, a contorted Aito woman’s pink face, a nerve gas induced hallucination, became more transparent.

  I clutched a sharp rock, trying to maintain my balance—my boot slid forward and stopped. I got on my hands and knees, and crawled while Aito men’s garbled voices, more hallucinations, started mumbling.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  After rounding several bends, the voices faded. Although I was cold, I kept moving because someone might spray me.

  I went by the Eaarting buildings as morning light crept over sienna cliffs. Then I shook my head, trying to fight off nerve gas induced drowsiness while my shoulder-mounted- flash light switched off.

  Beneath my knees, ice cracked. I glanced up, searching for the LN fleet, and glimpsed an empty sky with a few clouds. What had happened to the fleet?

  I stood and walked slowly, imagining that they were parked at Solo.

  I looked into the gorge, searching for any spacecraft.

  There was only mist. Above the Bae Dy, morning lit fog obscured part of a craggy peak. The blue ships might be on the opposite side.

  My stomach growled. I hesitated, removed a strawberry wafer from my pocket, and starting chewing. After sipping water from a bottle, I started down, and pulled out my tablet.

  The screen appeared. On it, just over a mile down the trail, a Dwate jumped over a crevice, sprinted up a slope, and went behind a cliff.

  I hiked.

  In the early afternoon, somewhere down the winding trail, out of sight, a Dwate screeched. Eeeey!

  I glanced to the right, and noticed several boulders.

  The creature was nowhere in sight. The Dwate leaped out from behind the closest boulder—rushed toward me.

  I pulled out the L21, squeezed the trigger.

  The beam missed the creature!

  I dove into the snow, trying to make it harder for the Dwate to bite my leg—one boot slipped over the edge! I shot a blurred white figure, the Dwate—hit it.

  The creature darted up the slope, running away from me—dashed behind a cliff.

  I stood and kept going.

  Within a few miles, I stepped over white branches. A Dwate stepped out from behind a nearby cliff, snarling.

  Close to my heel, beyond my peripheral vision, ice cracked, making a loud noise. Kerrract.

  I glanced at my left boot. Beneath the toe, snow broke off—plunged into the gorge. I pushed the heel of my left boot deeper into the dirt. As my adrenaline pumped harder, I glanced over my shoulder.

  Close by, the Dwate jumped over a ledge over, headed in the opposite direction.

  I took a deep breath, relieved, and resumed my journey.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  A burning-hot pain ran up my left leg—I clenched my teeth. After leaning against the cliff, I took several capsules out of my pocket, swallowed the painkillers, grabbed a bottle of water, drank and hiked.

  I reached the bottom of the trail.

  My tablet remained silent.

  No one had contacted me!

  I shook my head, upset and veered left, headed toward my ship. Near the top of my screen, far away, the platform, the pad ST7 was parked on, was vacant! Perhaps mist was obstructing my view.

  I aimed my tablet in another direction. On my screen, burnt-tan cliffs, not the platform, enlarged as the lens zoomed in.

  Someone had stolen my Series Seven!

  I hiked faster, shocked by this horrible surprise. Feeling I shouldn’t give up my search, I pointed my tablet down the Xah.

  Near the bottom of the screen, below the snow-covered platform, a large white round object, just a boulder, got bigger.

  Cold gusts hit my neck. I stepped over a patch of frozen dirt.

  Eighty yards beyond it, a ghostly humanoid with a white face, a barely visible silhouette, waved at me. Much to my surprise, the being vanished.

  I looked around, searching for the humanoid, but only noticed weeds. The being was nowhere in sight. I hurried toward the platform.

  I stepped onto it and reached out. My hand bumped against a hard object, an invisible one. I ran my fingers down a strut. Was this part of ST7’s landing gear? Feeling curious, I aimed my tablet upward.

  On my screen, ST7, just a ghostly outline, appeared.

  “O.op.” My ship’s stairway, barely noticeable to the naked eye, descended, and hit the ground. I climbed the steps and entered ST7. Beneath the invisible floor, mist blew across the platform.

  Near the center of my screen, the floor turned opaque as the tablet cancelled out the cloaking signal.

  I entered the bridge, a mostly transparent room, difficult to see with the naked eye. Near the edge of my screen, my ghostly chair slowly became opaque. I sat down. Soon the accelerometer, spectrometer, barometer, radio and optical interferometric telescope screens, the wireless network monitor, and altimeter materialized.

  Behind me, a boot heel scraped across the floor. Nench, nench.

  Who had entered the room? I glanced over my shoulder, but only noticed a server. Nobody was there.

  I stared straight ahead.

  Close by, Bemme walked toward me. She opened her mouth.

  At the bottom of my peripheral vision, on the floor, a round white object, about a foot in diameter, intrigued me. I looked down.

  It was Yar’s severed head. A stranger had placed the dismembered body part in that spot, right side up, the face aimed toward me. I yanked the L21 off my belt and fired at Bemme.

  She jumped to the left—the beam missed her. Much to my surprise, she leaped at me.

  I squeezed the trigger.

  The shot went over her head and she ran through my chest. She was only a hologram. Thinking that the real Bemme was behind me, I glanced over my shoulder.

  She wasn’t there.

  I stared straight ahead, spotted the accelerometer and the rest of the instruments. However, the real Bemme could be hiding somewhere on ST7. She might be using this hologram to wear me down.

  “Ey.inf.on,” I announced. The vision in my mechanical eye switched to infrared mode. I noticed the barometer and the other gauges. Unfortunately, Bemme’s infrared heat signature didn’t materialize.

  “Activ.m.en,” I called out, starting the main engine.

  Behind me, boot heels clicked—I glanced over my shoulder, the L21 aimed.

  No one else was on the bridge.

  I looked straight ahead and shoved my hand through floating computer syntax, initiating take off procedures.

  To the right, beyond my peripheral vision, a barely audible whispering sound, “H…” got louder.

  I glanced in that direction.

  A woman’s ghostly white face, a barely visible countenance, became more opaque. She resembled Yar, but there weren’t any vertical stripes on her face or eyes.

  I glanced down.

  The woman’s jumpsuit was the same color as her face. Who was she?

  The female apparition vanished.

  I stared to the left, wondering where she went.

  Close to a server, a transparent face, the same woman I had just seen, turned white. Within seconds, her slender figure changed color, making it impossible to see it. At the same time, her mouth opened wider.

  I listened, but couldn’t hear a word she said.

  “Ey.exr.on.” My tablet switched to extreme x-ray. Near the edge of my screen, Yar’s blurred face, her eyes, mouth, cheeks, chin, nose and forehead, more clearly defined than before, emerged from a hazy background.

  “Can you hear me?” She paused.

  “Now I can.”

  Her legs, barely visible misty outlines, slowly appeared. “SRG,” Yar whispered, referring to cloaking software.

  “Yes
, it’s either Sixteen or Nineteen,” I replied, talking about two different upgrades.

  I pointed at the COV10 box. “I have to install this.”

  Yar nodded.

  I jumped to my feet, headed for the server room.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  I stepped inside the room as a tray slid out of a server. I placed the replacement disk inside the tray and left the room, running. Moments later, I sat down.

  Near the top of a huge screen, text and parameters enlarged. Functionv(21111, 211112, 211113). COV10 had just created vectors.

  “H…” a faint male voice whispered

  I peered to the right.

  Greg’s ghostly figure walked toward his chair. Suddenly, he vanished.

  “Where are you? I can’t see you.”

  He didn’t answer.

  Was that Greg or a hologram?

  Not far from his chair, a transparent humanoid silhouette—Tia, barely noticeable, came into view. Then her lips spread apart, creating a zero shape.

  “Tia, I can’t hear you.” I blinked.

  As a spectrometer clicked louder, she faded.

  Was that the real Tia? Was that the real Greg or were they outside? Someone might have created holograms just to fool me.

  “Dop.sc,” I blurted, switching on the Doppler scanner.

  Close to the center of its screen, human silhouettes, Tia, Greg and Yar, all of them yellow, green and green, barely visible, enlarged. All of them were on the bridge—their silhouettes began swirling and dissipated.

  “Greg, Tia, Yar, can you hear me?”

  “N…” a distorted voice, one partly obscured by screeching noises, whispered.

  “I couldn’t understand what you said. Talk louder.”

  Silence.

  On screen, a text alert flashed. Nine computer Viruses have just been sent into the radio interferometric telescope.

  More text materialized. The server’s utility has destroyed eight of the viruses. However, in the last three seconds, thirty-nine more have been exported into the spectrometer.