by M. R. Forbes
“Those are my orders,” the synth replied.
“Are we having fun yet?” Quark asked, smiling.
They dropped below the levels of corridors, toward the bottom of the station where all of the life support equipment was held. The reactors, the stabilizing engines, the water filtration and waste processing. They sank into the bowels of the place, headed somewhere isolated and only accessible to a limited few.
It wasn’t a great sign.
The platform came to a stop, the tube doors sliding open. The air was warm and humid, the walls and floors glistening with dampness. The loud, pulsing hum of the machinery that kept everyone on the station alive was a constant presence.
A few technicians had been headed for the lift, and they turned away and lowered their heads at the sight of Shasta and the soldiers. Hayley was surprised to realize they were synths too. The false humans didn’t come cheap, and they seemed to be a relatively high level of quality, especially for techs.
They were also a pretty solid clue to where they were going. Or rather, who they were going to meet.
But down here?
That was a little worrying. Hayley glanced at Quark again. There was no worry in his qi. No fear. No anxiety.
He was enjoying this little adventure.
They were led through a smaller passage and into a larger, more open room. A power source sat in the center of it, a dozen thick wires spreading away along the floor and vanishing into the walls. The energy it was emitting was familiar to Hayley, and the sight of it scared her.
It was black as pitch, pulsing in a resonating cadence that sent ripples through the area around it. The energy field containing it was bright in her view, nearly washing out everything except the blackness.
It hadn’t been that long since she had last seen a chunk of ebocite. Wherever the black crystal went, the Asura, the Shifters, normally followed.
It had been a mistake to come here. They were better off dealing with Thetan.
They needed to get away from Rage Station as soon as possible.
“Colonel,” she said. “This is bad.”
“Why?” Quark replied.
She pointed toward the ebocite. “That stone has baggage. A lot of it. Destabilizing one just like it caused Yeti-4 to implode.”
He still didn’t seem concerned. “Looks like there’s a pretty strong containment field around it.”
“There is.”
“So relax.”
She nodded, glad he couldn’t see her the way she could see him. There was no way in hell she was going to relax as long as they were within ten light years of that thing.
The Shasta synth brought them to a stop way too close to the reactor for Hayley’s liking.
“Wait here,” she said as if they had a choice. Then she vanished back the way they had come.
“She could have at least offered us a refreshing beverage,” Narrl said. “Some Drool would be divine right now.”
“Sounds delicious,” Tibor said, gagging.
“Don’t knock it until you try it, Xolo,” Narrl said. “Even a beast like you should be able to appreciate a nice, cold container of Drool.”
“I don’t think drool means the same thing in Earth Standard as it does in Curlat,” Hayley said.
Narrl chuckled. “Or maybe it does.” He opened his mouth in an awkward smile.
“Gross,” Hayley said.
They fell silent as the Shasta synth returned.
Don Pallimo was with her.
“Well, that’s anticlimactic,” Quark said.
6
“Colonel Quark,” the Don Pallimo synth said. “And your Riders.” His attention shifted to Hayley. “How are you, my dear?”
“Okay, I guess,” Hayley replied.
“Excuse me, Don,” Quark said. “But what the frag is going on?”
Pallimo continued into the room. He was leaning on a cane, hobbling as if there was something wrong with him. It was all for show, to mimic the real thing.
“I should ask you that, Colonel,” he replied. He kept his eyes on Hayley. “Or maybe I should ask you, Hayley? You did cut my head off, after all.”
“It wasn’t really your head,” Hayley said. “Any more than this version of you is the real you.”
“True, but biting the hand that feeds you is a bad idea no matter how many copies of that hand there are.” He came to a stop in front of them. “I assume you had a good reason?”
“I think you know the reason,” Quark said. “Or did the other synth not get its backup transmitted while we were on Yeti-4?”
“Yeti-4,” Pallimo said. “Right. It’s all coming back to me now. What happened to Yeti-4?”
“You sent us there to save the naniates,” Hayley said. “Not because you were trying to stop Thetan. You hired Thetan. You created her.”
“You do know what they say about omelettes and eggs, don’t you, Hal?” Pallimo said.
“Another Earth colloquialism?” Narrl asked.
“Yes,” Quark said. “And a shitty one considering the situation.”
“Come on, Colonel,” Pallimo said. “You’ve been around. You know how these things work.”
“And what about that?” Hayley asked, pointing at the ebocite. “I know how those things work, too. How did it end up here?”
“Yes. There was a pool on Yeti-4, wasn’t there? This isn’t quite the same thing.”
“Does it come with the invisible assholes?”
“Not as long as the containment field remains intact, no. What you’re looking at is ancient technology. By ancient, I mean it was old before the Shard ever arrived here and created us. Amazing, isn’t it? That single piece of black crystal holds more energy inside it than a star, and I’ve learned to harness it safely.”
“You’ve been behind Rage Station this entire time?” Quark asked.
“Not always, no. I acquired it after my original self’s demise. It seemed a logical testbed for the reactor, as well as some of my other more esoteric and dangerous projects.”
“But not the genetic research?” Sykes said. “My son was on Yeti-4. Thetan took him for your experiments. He’s dead because of you.”
“Those weren’t my experiments, Alice,” Pallimo said. “My only goal was to create naniates that would accept integration with my neural network. Li’an Thetan used me. She surprised me. I didn’t think she had it in her to be so duplicitous.”
“And now, here we are,” Quark said.
“Yes. Here we are, Colonel,” Pallimo agreed. “You destroyed one of my synths. You killed me, in effect. I’m not very happy about that.”
“No offense, sir,” Quark said. “But you kind of deserved it.”
“Did I?” Pallimo asked.
“You used us,” Hayley said. “For your own personal gain.”
“I’m your employer, dear. That’s what I do.”
“When you want us to save some kids, we’re all in,” Quark said. “When you want to stick it to the Nephies, we’re fragging jumping for joy. When you’re trying to turn yourself into what would essentially be a living god at the expense of millions of lives? Not so much. I didn’t sign up for that shit.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, Colonel,” Pallimo said. “My research was harmless.”
“Not exactly,” Hayley said. “The naniates you brought formed a Collective. They have a mind and will of their own, and thanks to Mazrael they managed to get off Yeti-4 before it imploded.”
“Worse than that,” Quark said. “The Collective is on board Thetan’s flagship. We have no fragging clue what it’s going to do from there. Seize control? Make an alliance? Your guess is as good as mine.”
“It sounds to me like you’re trying to blame me for your team’s failure, Colonel,” Pallimo said.
“What?” Tibor snapped. “Are you fragging-”
Quark put up his hand, silencing Tibor. “The key to any successful mission is good intel. You fed us horse shit and expected us to turn it into fragging gold.”
Quark’s qi was flushing with red. He clenched his jaw to contain his anger.
“This has been a raw fragging deal since day one,” he hissed.
“I wasn’t the one who sold you out to Thetan,” Pallimo said. “But I see you’ve already accepted the only other surviving Rider back into your ranks. It isn’t like you to be so forgiving. Or is it desperation?”
“You know what,” Hayley said, interrupting before Quark could reply. “Thetan and the Collective both have their motives, but do you know what the common theme is? They both want to take control of the galaxy. That means killing individuals. A lot of individuals. I know you’re a program living in a machine, but isn’t there some directive in there that tells you to give a shit?”
Pallimo stared at her a moment. He was a synth, so he had no qi to read. “I have a different set of concerns now,” he said at last. “Foremost is self-preservation and personal growth. I can’t evolve further without two things. One is a larger power supply for my existing network, and thus the ebocite reactor. The other is a more stable form that can contain all of me, not the limited subset of operations stored in this synthetic. The fate of the galaxy is tertiary to that.”
“You didn’t use to be such an asshole,” Quark said.
“Time changes all of us, Colonel,” Pallimo said. “Honestly, how long do you think you can keep the naniate threat at bay? This Collective is surely only the first to come. Do you think more of these machines won’t join together? Do you think this will be an isolated incident? Fortunately, our goals intersect.” He raised his cane, pointing it at Quark. “I’ll give you a pass on murdering me, just this once. I’ll help you outfit your crew and send you on your way. Do what you need to do, but I expect you to capture some of the source naniates and return them to me. Do you understand?”
“What if I don’t? Or can’t?”
“I’ll have every armed ship in the galaxy hunting for you. How does that sound?”
“Sounds shitty,” Quark replied. “Can you at least take the Chalandra off my hands and upgrade us to something, I don’t know, with guns?”
Pallimo lowered the cane, leaning heavily on it. “Sorry, Colonel. As Control stated, we can’t afford to have the Republic or the Outworlds getting too interested in the station.”
“Figured I’d ask. What about the supplies you mentioned?”
“They’re already being loaded onto your ship,” Pallimo said. “A pleasure as always, Colonel.”
He bowed slightly, a stupid grin plastered on his smug face. Then he retreated from the room with the Shasta synth, leaving the Riders alone with the guards.
“We could kill the guards and blow the station,” Narrl suggested.
Quark glanced at him, his qi shifting colors in a way that made Hayley wonder if that’s what he was planning to do.
“No,” the Colonel said at last. “We’re not blowing up anything. I have another idea.”
7
“You can’t be serious,” Hayley said.
“Look at my qi, Witchy,” Quark replied. “And say that again.”
“Colonel, what you’re suggesting is more likely to be our cause of death than trying to break into the Worldbrain.”
“True. But if we do succeed, we’ll have a much better chance of getting the Oracle out, and getting away. Bonus points for fragging over Don Pallimo, the way he fragged us.”
The Riders were on the bridge of the Chalandra, gathered around the Colonel at the Command Station. Don Pallimo’s synths had nearly finished loading the hold with a raft of supplies, from weapons and armor to food and water, to all kinds of contraband equipment that was illegal for anyone short of Republic Special Ops to possess. Not that the Don or the Riders cared about legality. Their permit time on the station was winding down, leaving them with less than thirty minutes to get suited up and do the stupidest, craziest thing Hayley had ever heard.
They weren’t aiming to leave Rage Station.
They were going to seize it.
At least, that was the Colonel’s big idea. After all, the Chalandra had no weapons, and the station did. Not only that, it had what Pallimo claimed was a limitless power supply for the laser batteries, shields, and cloaking mechanisms Quark was convinced were hiding on board. He had worked for Pallimo for years; he knew how the man, and now the machine thought. There was no way the Don wasn’t prepared to defend the station from invasion, especially with the ebocite reactor up for grabs.
Too bad the invaders were already on board.
Of course, this was going to put a massive crack in the Colonel’s relationship with the Don. It was going to put a target on his head, one that every mercenary in the universe would be aiming at. He said it was an outcome he was willing to accept to save the galaxy. Hayley knew when he said that, he was mainly referring to her.
“What about the synths?” Sykes said. “You saw them. They’re armed and armored and outfitted with military protocols. That puts them a step above Nephilim Servants in my book.”
“Two steps,” Quark said. “They’re going to be a challenge, especially since we don’t have counts. But I didn’t take you back into the fold because of your smile, and I damn well didn’t bring you back because I still like you. You said you could out-Engineer our Gant. You’re going to have a chance to prove it.”
“How?”
“Synths have remote access protocols,” Hayley said. “Heavily encrypted, and if Pallimo wrote the key, it’s probably long and random.”
“But maybe she doesn’t need the key,” Gant said, feeding her the lines.
“But maybe you don’t need the key,” Hayley finished. “All we do need is to make it to the main transmission module and patch in some middleware. That’s a hardware interface, so you should be able to manage it.”
“Right,” Sykes said. “I suppose that could work. If we have the right middleware to do the job.”
“Pallimo loaded us up with high-end shit,” Quark said. “He knows the Worldbrain is a tough nut to crack.”
“You want to use the equipment he gave us against him?” Ahab said.
“Yeah. That’s what we do, Squab,” Quark said. “Or did you miss the part about how Pallimo lied to me in the first place? He used to always be straight with me, but the more time he spends as a neural network, the less human he gets. Besides, we need the station.”
“How do you know we can jump the station?” Jil asked. “That’s a hell of a lot of disterium.”
“There were disterium conduits in support,” Sykes said. “I saw them.”
“Pallimo wouldn’t leave a station with conduits short on crystals,” Quark said. “That isn’t his style.”
“Okay, Colonel,” Tibor said. “Let’s say we take out the synths and manage to gain control of the station. What about all of the civilians on board?”
“Omelettes and eggs, Xolo,” Quark said. “Omelettes and eggs. This is the whole fragging galaxy we’re talking about.”
“We can’t kill innocent people.”
“Who said anything about killing them? Hal, how many ships did you say are connected to the station right now?”
“I didn’t,” Hayley said. “One second. Gant?”
“Forty-seven,” the AI replied. “With estimated space for approximately ten-thousand souls. Fifteen-thousand if they get friendly with one another.”
“We’re going to force them out of their homes?” Tibor asked.
“They can stay if they want,” Quark said. “I don’t care.”
“There are only six of us,” Jil said. “How are we going to control a crowd that size?”
“The synths,” Sykes said. “The same way Pallimo keeps them in line now.”
“Bingo,” Quark said. “We’re changing ownership and taking a trip to the Worldb
rain, that’s all.”
“I bet the Oracle won’t see that one coming,” Narrl said.
“Witchy, you do realize the probability of pulling this off is infinitesimally small?” Gant said.
“I know,” she replied. “We’re doing it anyway.”
Quark stood up in the center of the group. “We’ve got less than thirty minutes to get suited up and organized. Witchy, you and Sykes are in charge of neutralizing the synths. Bring Xolo with you for protection. Narrl, Jil, and I guess Ahab; you’re with me.” He focused his attention on Ahab. “Unless you want to bow out of this one too?”
Ahab glanced at Hayley. His qi flooded with yellow, but he shook his head. “No. No, sir. I’m in.”
“It’s about damn time. We’re going to head for Station Control and create a diversion. Which reminds me. Sykes, you’ll need to lock down the docking arms, too. I don’t want any of the ships leaving before either I give the say so or we’re all dead.”
“Roger, Colonel,” Sykes said.
“Anyone have any questions?”
“Not a question, sir,” Jil said. “Just a statement.”
“What is it, Jillie-bean?”
Her Trover smile was massive. “This is the most fun I’ve had in years. I fragging love being a Rider.”
“Copy that,” Narrl said.
“Riiiddeerrss,” Hayley said.
“Riiiddeerrss,” the rest of them shouted in reply.
“Let’s move,” Quark said.
8
“Witchy,” Quark said, his voice loud and clear through Hayley’s comm. “We’re in position.”
“Roger, Colonel,” Hayley said. “We’re ready and waiting on your mark.”
“Copy that,” Quark said. “You think Pallimo has any idea this is coming?”
“No, sir.”
“That’s what I like to hear.”
“Witchy, the Chalandra is receiving a hail from Station Control,” Gant said.
“That’s our signal,” Hayley said. “Docking time is up. Gant, do that thing.”
“Aye, Witchy,” the AI replied, chittering in amusement.