Slave Mind

by Rob Dearsley

  The SDF Commander fell back, hefting his rifle.

  “Hawthorne, what are you doing?” Sammy almost twisted out of Dannage’s grip.

  “Buying to you time. Captain Dannage, get her out of here.”

  “Garry?” Sam tried to turn again.

  Dannage gritted his teeth. “It won’t do any good. Just run, damn it.”

  Sammy protested, but Dannage pulled her along, running for the Folly.

  They had the ladders down and the other senator was already climbing inside.

  Sammy had stopped struggling in Dannage’s arms. He stumbled over the barrier that separated the courtyard from the road.

  A pair of Turned crashed down the front of a building on the far side of the courtyard, ripping great rents in the façade. Before Dannage could even register their presence, let alone call out a warning, they darted toward the Folly and the small cluster of SDF troopers.

  One of the men managed to get a couple of shots off, for all the good it would do, before the Turned crashed into him. They tumbled away in a wash of blood, taking the ladders with them.

  Well crap.

  Dannage stumbled over the rubble-strewn courtyard, catching himself on the Folly’s landing gear. The sound of Hawthorne’s rifle had died, more Turned must be seconds behind them. He cast about, looking for the ladders. Damn, nothing. They needed another option.

  Starting forward again, Dannage pulled his com-link from his pocket and thumbed it open. “Jax, can you lower the ship?”

  “Say again?” His engineer sounded surprised and confused.

  “Partially retract the landing struts so we can climb into the bay.”

  Jax muttered a string of epithets but started typing, and with a groaning of hydraulics, the ship started to descend.

  Dannage pushed off and started toward hold entrance.

  The ship continued to drop, and they had to stoop to keep going. Dannage could hear the creatures crawling along just behind them.

  “Jax.” He was practically bent double now. “Too low. Go back up.”

  “Do you have any idea how hard this is?” Jax replied. “Hang on, I’m going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

  There was a deafening roar as the engines lit up, forcing the ship back upward until they were just able to stand straight.

  “Best I can do, Captain. Hurry.”

  As if to punctuate her word, the ship rocked, skittering sideways.

  Hale vaulted out of the hold and bodily pitched a couple of the SDF guys up into the ship.

  Dannage and Sammy reached the pool of light beneath the now rising cargo hold as the Spook pulled himself up into the Folly.

  Turned scrambled toward them, running spider-like on all six limbs.

  The last trooper swung in behind Dannage, his weapon firing in a low roar.

  Hale grabbed Sam, eliciting a cry of pain, but was forced back as more turned came the rear of the Folly.

  “Jax,” Dannage yelled into the com. “Drop the ship.”

  “What? No! With all the rubble, you’ll risk damaging the hull.”

  “The bloody Turned will cushion the landing. Just do it!”

  The ship thumped down and they were safe.

  Dannage instinctively tried to kick off into the freefall, before realising the hold’s gravity was set to standard down.

  Luc shouted, “Go, go, go.”

  The roar of the Folly’s engines rose, as did the lip of the door. Hale, Sammy still under her arm, hopped up.

  Dannage lunged for the rising lip; it was already chest height.

  “Jump Cap’n.” Luc reached for him.

  The creatures were already rallying, scrambling under the ship. Damn it, Jax.

  Desperate, he threw himself toward the lip, catching it under his arms and hanging on. Hale and Luc grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him up. He felt fingers close around his thigh and thrashed against it.

  Hale grabbed his belt, pulling him further into the ship and reaching around for her gun. The sound of the weapon going off left his ears ringing. The hand fell away and he kicked his legs over and into the hold.

  “Mike? Mike?” Sammy crouched down her hands on his shoulders. He smiled at her. They were okay. He’d saved her.

  They were going to be all right.

  The Turned leapt up, its hands scrabbling against the floor of the cargo bay and closing around Sammy’s ankle.

  “No!”

  Hale swung around, her weapon out but not pointed. Luc snatched for his own gun, Dannage grabbed Sam and hung on as they were pulled toward the door. Damn it, no. He wasn’t going to lose her now, not like this, not after everything. His legs flailed for purchase on the deck.

  The Spook was there, that half-smile on his face, not moving.

  “Help, you muppet.” Dannage’s voice cracked. He kept holding Sam’s arm, as she was pulled over the edge. “Sammy, just hold on. Sam, please.”

  Luc and Hale were coming, but they’d never get there in time. The only one close enough to make any difference was the Spook. She started slipping through his grip, panicking, trying to hold onto him, her struggling only making her slip faster.

  “Sam, hold on.”

  “Mike, please.” Her eyes held so many things, things they’d never said to each other. Things that never needed saying but should have been said anyway. Things that he promised himself he’d say to her when they got through this.

  “Sam, no.” She slipped through his sweat-slicked hands. “No!” he screamed, lunging forward to follow her. He’d save her, or he’d join her. There was nothing else that mattered. He had to save her.

  Hands clamped on his shoulders, pulling him away from the edge. Screaming again, he thrashed, lashing out, trying to get free, to follow her. She hit the ground, disappearing from view as the creatures swarmed over her.

  The hands pulled him back as the doors started to close.

  “No, damn it. We have to go back. We can still save her. Land the ship again.”

  “Cap’n.” Luc’s face filled his vision. “I’m so sorry.”

  “No.” He shook his head, his vision blurring. She was still alive, he’d seen her moving. They could still save her.

  “She’s gone.” Luc tried to look him in the eyes.

  He could still save her, he could. He had to. She wasn’t gone.

  “Please, go back. Please.”

  Eight

  - Gypsum IIc -

  “You will not land this ship,” the other Minister said. “I’m the First Minister, and I’m giving you…” He trailed off as Hale moved to stand in front of him. She said nothing, did nothing remotely threatening. All the same, the man paled and gulped audibly.

  “Cap’n, you know its suicide to go back down there.”

  Dannage looked around the bay for the first time. Of the eight military guys they’d started with, only three remained, two troopers and the young officer slumped down on some old packing crates.

  Luc rocked back on his heels. His normally bright expression was tight and drawn.

  Then there was the Spook. At the sight of that banal man, Dannage’s grief crystallised into a white-hot anger that washed away his common sense, and the last of his restraint.

  “Why didn’t you do save her?” The scream was barely coherent. He didn’t give the Spook a chance to reply before he lashed out, his fist connecting with the man’s jaw. The Spook tumbled backwards, blood pouring from his nose and mouth. “Why?” he yelled again, grabbing the man and pulling him up by the shirt front.

  The Spook smiled. “This is where it all begins. This is the plan, the only path.”

  Dannage went to hit him again, but Luc caught his arm. “Cool it.”

  He pulled free of Luc’s grip. “Whose plan? The Binaries?”

  The Spook laughed. “It’s all of us, and we are legion.”

  Dannage hit him again. “Speak sense. Why didn’t you help me?” Spittle flew from his lips.

  The Spook shook his head. Dannage hi
t him again, and again. It was all his fault. If he’d done something, Sammy wouldn’t be dead.

  Sammy was dead.

  He’d never see her again. Never hear her voice, her quips at his expense. He fell back onto his heels leaving the Spook stunned on the floor.

  “I’m sorry.” His voice was little more than a whisper, glistening tears filling his eyes, spilling down his cheeks.

  “They’re coming,” the Spook said, drawing attention back to himself.

  Dannage wiped the tears from his eyes and looked down at the man, his nose broken, face battered and bloody, and one eye swollen shut.

  He felt ragged and drawn, hanging on to sanity by his fingernails, but he could think again.

  “They? More Spooks?” Dannage demanded.

  “The Old Ones, shining so bright, bringing our beginning to an end.” His voices shifted, becoming an angry growl. “We will watch you burn.”

  The hells with it. Dannage went to hit the Spook. Wait, what had he said? He’d heard the words before, on the Hlin. The Core Mind, talking through Hale. Those recitals, it was something else talking through them. The Binaries? Maybe, but not now. This was Terran Core Minds, taunting him.

  “You’ve been listening this whole time?” He threw the Spook into a stack of crates. “Well hear this now. I will find you and make you pay. By all the Stars in all the heavens, I will end you.” By the end he was screaming, spittle flying from his lips. That final, clawing hold on sanity gone. He welcomed the fire, consuming him, washing away the pain and the grief.

  ◊◊

  Voices swirled through Hale’s mind. Those of the attacking ships, ranting. Hungry for their death and destruction.

  But there was another voice, something colder and somehow more human running beneath it all.

  She looked over at the Spook, his face bloodied from the captain’s attack. The captain had been right, this Spook was linked in somehow. He could hear them.

  Arming missile three.

  Hale’s attention snapped up. Angels, the Bargi was going to launch another city killer missile. They’d been lucky the warhead on the first missile hadn’t gone off.

  She sprinted for the bridge, pushing the door open in her haste. Arland was in the pilot’s seat. “Get us clear.”

  “Working on it,” Arland said without looking away from the screens.

  Hale moved forward, crouching to peer through the copula. Above them, the burning city painted the Terran hull’s an angry red. From this range, she could see more Turned, jumping into the city below.

  Power surged through the Bargi.

  “Hard port,” Hale snapped.

  To her credit, Arland didn’t question the order.

  A plasma beam burned through the space the Folly had just occupied, followed by a barrage of artillery shells aimed at a wing of atmospheric fighters. The fighters broke apart on evasive vectors.

  Hale felt the city killer breaking away from its moorings. Luc cursed.

  “Arland, climb. We’ve got to get clear.” Hale couldn’t take her eyes from the missile as it slowly dropped toward the planet’s surface.

  “How far?” Arland asked, already pulling the Folly into a steep climb.

  “Out of the atmosphere.”

  Luc let out a low whistle. “You guys really don’t mess about.”

  The fighters regrouped and came in for an attack run against the missile, sending out volleys of tracer fire. The missile’s close defence batteries came online sending flack shells ripping through the SDF fighters.

  Deck plating rattled as the Folly streaked up through the night sky, past the armoured bulk of the Terran gunship. Below them, the missile crashed through the skyscrapers, seconds from impact. They weren’t going to make it.

  Hale braced herself against the nearby chair. This was it.

  Cloud closed around them, cutting off her view of burning city below. Images of Terra Prime, her home, being smashed under this unstoppable onslaught flicked behind her eyes. Her home, all her friends. Gone. She reached up to touch the ring hanging from her neck.

  The missile hit, the blast ripping the city apart. Hale felt the Buri’s hull take the force of the impact as she rose, pushed by the shockwave, but holding together.

  When it passed she was slumped into one of the tiny chairs. Just focus. She just had to focus. The stippled plastic of the chair. The hiss-click of the Folly’s air system. They’d broken through the cloud cover. Tendrils of ice crystallising across the copula. Above them, two smaller battleships traded blows with the SDF carrier group.

  A com signal cracked through the overhead speakers, “Transport CTX-515, this is the SDF Pavel. Do you have the surviving ministers on board?”

  Luc tapped a couple of controls before replying, “This is the Hope’s Folly, we’ve got the surviving Minister. Where do you want him?”

  “Copy that, CTX-515. Confirmed you have the surviving Minister on board. Proceed to docking back D2.”

  “Bay D2. Copy, we’re on our way.” Luc nodded to Arland who swung them around toward the beleaguered battlegroup.

  The other voice, the calmer more human one, whispered through the sudden quiet.

  Welcome. Join us. This is the start – the end. We know the solution.

  ◊◊

  Hale jumped down into the Folly’s hold, stretching out her neck and shoulders. She’d never get used to these cramped modern ships.

  Even if she could, would they – these humans – accept her? She saw the sideways looks the troopers gave her. Assessing at best. At worst, scared.

  They were scared of her. Even Dannage and his crew, no matter the front they put up, were on edge around her. She couldn’t even blame them. She was the unknown variable. Or worse: the enemy.

  The troopers didn’t even know she was Terran. She could just imagine their reactions if they found out.

  Well except the Spook. He kept looking at her, but his expression seemed to alternate between assessing and hungry. He scared her.

  The younger, unarmoured officer looked up at her. “What were those things?”

  My people, my friends. The words slipped across her throat. They weren’t anymore. The ships had seen to that. Hollowed them out to use as puppets. “We called them ‘the Turned’.”

  “But what are they? Aliens?”

  “They’re genetically engineered killing machines.” With all the same genetic code as her. She had the same potential inside her.

  The grinding of gears drew their attention toward the cargo hold’s doors. The troopers reached for their weapons.

  “We’re safe,” Arland said, following Luc down form the bridge. Luc ducked into one of the side rooms while Arland moved to stand beside Hale.

  Deck crews rolled a loading ramp up to the cargo bay door and a moment later more troopers moved up, their hard-shell glinting under the light, their weapons up and pointed.

  “Gypsum Ministers, identify yourselves,” the lead trooper snapped.

  The Minister pulled himself upright, puffing out his chest. The men relaxed, slightly moving further into the hold.

  Then they saw Hale.

  Weapons snapped up, aimed in her direction. They didn’t know her, they just knew she was different, and that was enough.

  “Hey. Hey.” Arland pushed in front of her. “Stand the hells down. She’s with us.”

  The troopers weren’t convinced. “Back up. We don’t want to hurt you.”

  “Sargent.” One of the men they’d pulled off the planet stood. “We’d be dead without her help.” He gave Hale a sheepish look.

  “Just because she’s Terran, doesn’t mean she’s—” Arland realised what she’d just said.

  The guns snapped back up aimed at her. The troopers from the surface groped for their own weapons, stumbling backwards.

  The young officer grabbed Arland to pull her away from Hale. The fool probably imagined himself a hero.

  Arland twisted out of his grip and let out a cry of pain and tumbled to the deck, cl
utching her side. Crimson soaked through her top.

  Angels. Hale itched to grab Arland and run for the med bay. Arland had stood up for her, trusted her. But she daren’t move with all these guns pointed at her.

  “What the hells is going on?” Dannage marched out of the side room Luc a beat behind him, his jaw set with irritation.

  Then he saw Arland. “Stars. Doc, get out here.” He rushed over Arland. “What have you muppets done?”

  The doctor appeared, and he and Luc pulled Arland away to tend to her. Dannage pushed himself up, blood dripping from his hands. Barely contained fury rolled off him like heat from a reactor.

  Voices hushed through Hale’s mind, drawing her attention to the Spook who moved toward the door.

  Dannage changed course mid-tirade “—and where do you think you’re bloody well going? I should have you arrested.”

  “Captain.” The Spook gave him a condescending look. “You can’t stop me, I have the full backing of the Systems’ Defence Force.”

  Dannage clenched his fists. “Hale, punch these fools.”

  That would be a good way to get herself shot. She didn’t move. The SDF troopers’ guns wavered between her and Dannage. Odds were, they were both about to get shot. She closed her eyes, picturing Matthews’s face, his rough hand touching hers.

  “Stand down.” The order was almost screeched, but it had the right effect; everyone froze.

  An officer walked up the loading ramp and into the Folly’s hold, his air of arrogance and authority practically following him. He stood ramrod straight, his uniform pristine, medals glinting on his chest.

  “Who the heck are you?” Dannage snapped.

  “Ambrose, Admiral Ambrose.” Ambrose looked them over, his dark eyes assessing, scrutinising. “Who are you?”

  Dannage was still doing his best to get them all shot. “Captain Dannage, Mr. Admiral.”

  “Captain Dannage.” Ambrose managed to make the title sound like an insult. “You have no authority here, this government official is to be given the proper respect while on my ship.”

  “We’re still on my ship.”

  Ambrose gave him another condescending look.

  Voices flowed through Hales mind. Don’t fear. We will see you again.

  Belatedly she realised the Spook recited along with the voices. “—you are still important in what’s to come.”