by John Lane
“Computer control room secure. An avatar is connected to the core, but there is no access,” Alfred reported. Tommy sent an access code to the avatar. “Access established. I’m now gassing the two on the bridge. Zero gravity ready.”
Tommy moved into position. Two of Alfred’s avatars clung to the walls nearby. “Now!” The gravity shut down. Tommy pushed off the wall and shot down the corridor like a rocket, firing as he went. As they lost purchase on the floor one pirate using a torch to cut through the hatch, with no luck cut another pirate’s foot off. Tommy hit him with an anesthesia goo ball. A spider shut down the torch. Tommy shot another one before the last three returned fire. With no place to hide, Tommy landed in the middle of them and was caught in the crossfire. The pirates were shooting at each other now. One died by friendly fire. The last two fell victim to a spider zap and a needle dart from Tommy’s gun to the leg. Both went down despite wearing military suits.
Globules of blood floated in the 0g from the fallen pirate on the opposite wall. Where Tommy floated over the last pirate a smear of blood stained the ceiling. “Tommy, you’ve been hit.”
“Got my suit with a dart. Don’t laugh, flesh wound to the butt,” Tommy admitted. Just then the pirate who lost a foot drew a gun and aimed squarely at Tommy’s helmet. A spider wrapped a leg around her wrist as she fired and the shot missed. In the zero gravity of the corridor, the spider could not get any purchase. Tommy pushed off the wall and tackled her with the spider in tow. But as Tommy completed the tackle, she rolled in the air, tapped a wall with her remaining foot and shot down a side corridor to escape. This one had military training. She was still a mercenary.
The spider still attached to her wrist and trailed behind her. It attempted to wrap additional legs around her limbs but only managed to grab her injured leg. Hog-tied like a calf at a rodeo, she still had one free hand and leg. Tommy recovered by now, pursued her down the hallway. Badly aimed shots zipped past him as he realized that she had transferred her weapon to her other hand. Still wrestling with the spider and trying to kill Tommy, she did not notice the end of the hall and a wall coming up fast. Her head slammed into the wall first at an odd angle and the mass of her body did the rest. There was a distinct snap and her body bounced off the wall limply, her unblinking eyes staring at nothing.
“That’s all of them, Tommy. We have regained the MOM,” Alfred reported through Tommy’s earbud.
“Good. Move the dead to cold storage on the Swift. Rest bind. Can you handle that?” Tommy said.
“Not a problem, Tommy,” replied Alfred.
“And Alfred,” Tommy paused. “Thanks.”
Alfred understood. “Of course, Tommy. I’m always here.” Tommy always relied on Alfred in tight spots and even as a constant companion. Tommy took pains to be sure that he did not take Alfred for granted. An artificial intelligence Alfred may be, but he was still a friend.
Tommy went back to the operating theatre hatch and found the damaged entrance pad. It took a few minutes to repair it. He punched in an access code that shouldn’t work but the door opened. Tommy was greeted with chaos and suspicious looks. The staff had built a barricade against the hatch. Behind that, they armed themselves with anything they found in the OR. Short clubs that had once been parts of furniture or equipment predominated. Tommy understood the thought, but right now he had to calm them down and show he was not a pirate.
Placing his weapon on the ground Tommy held his hands out above his head. He turned to show his Postal Service ID patches on his suit. “Tommy Judson, Postal Service Courier. I have a patient who needs help.” He subvocalized to Alfred, “Bring Agnes now.”
“Trust him.” The gentle voice of a woman sounded through the OR antechamber. At that signal, men and women in various colored hospital jumpsuits and scrubs emerged from behind the barrier.
The OR had gravity. It may have been Tommy’s uniform, but most likely the sight of blood on the butt of his suit. As soon as the medical staff saw a person in need their training took over. They moved from behind the barricade to get a stretcher under Tommy in his EV suit. A middle-aged man in a white jumper with a paramedic emblem on his sleeve took charge. He turned back to Tommy and asked, “It sounded bad. Are there any other wounded?”
“Yes, broken neck down the hall with a severed foot and one leg wound.” Tommy reported as he removed his helmet. Under the established gravity of the OR, Tommy moved with a limp.
“Looks like you’ve been hit, too?” The paramedic cocked a quizzical eye at their savior. “This way, we’ll take a look. By the way I’m Larry, welcome aboard our MOM. She’s one of the earliest to be commissioned.”
Tommy winced as they led him to a curtained bed off to the side of the main chamber for the OR. “Hi. You’re welcome. And I’ll only admit to a flesh wound,” he protested. “Can’t sit.” Tommy removed what he needed of his suit so the paramedic could get to his wound, clean and dress it. “I need to see your MOM.”
“Just a couple of minutes. I know she’ll want to see you,” Larry replied as he ministered to Tommy’s wounded pride, his butt.
Around them the staff put the OR antechamber and recovery area back into a respectable order. It dominated the main fuselage of the MOM as a large spherical space in the center. Here they lowered the gravity to allow easy movement of patients and to ease their body’s recoveries. Layered like an onion all areas were accessible to the staff. Recovery stations lined this first layer where Tommy was being stitched. Above them, the next layer several housed operation theatres where surgeons worked their miracles. In the center of this sphere hung another spherical chamber, which could be clear or opaque. The location of the office of the MOM’s administrator, this was the staff member who served as their chief of staff and usually, their top surgeon. The ship’s captain and crew maintained and ran its operations. It was the MOMA, Mobil Orbiting Medicine Administrator, who was truly in charge of the MOM.
“Where is the crew? I only see medical staff here,” Tommy asked.
Larry took a grim moment before he responded, “Dead. They bought us time to get the patients into the OR and then sealed us in before the pirates could get this far. They gave us time and you saved us.”
“We’re almost there,” Alfred murmured to him in his earbud. As Tommy turned back to the hatch, two of Alfred’s avatars maneuvered Agnes through the hatch at the end of a corridor outside the OR unit.
An electrical zap and two distinct pops came from the corridor. Alfred’s avatars towing Agnes blew up when struck by the same kind of goo ball that Tommy used on the pirates. Before anyone reacted to grab Agnes or close the OR hatch, two pirates snatched her out of the air and put a lethal dart gun to the underside of her helmet.
“Nobody touches anything or I spatter her pretty brain all over the inside of her helmet.” This guy was big and he wore the most advanced military EV suit that Tommy had seen on any of the pirates yet. He also sported a tattoo of a reaper’s scythe with the blade under his left eye and the stylized handle curved along his jawbone. The staff followed his neck to his collarbone. His tattoo included drops of blood running down the blade and staff, pooling in the shape of a wolf at his collarbone.
“Sorry Tommy, these are the two from the ER. They aren’t showing up on any internal sensors anymore. Those suits must scramble the internal motion and visual scanners. The only way I detect them is through my own avatars,” Alfred shared through Tommy’s earbud. Tommy dared not respond with a gun to Agnes’ head.
“Now we’re going to join your nice little party,” said the other pirate, this one a woman. She sounded harder and more battle worn than many of Tommy’s buddies from the Wars. Tommy saw through her helmet, she had a scar along her left chin and one of her eyes was artificial. Her right arm was a prosthetic appendage attached directly to her suit. She had access to an arsenal with it. She also had two scythes tattooed on her neck, under her right jaw. The staffs crossed in an “X” with angel’s wings. This was bad. Tommy stood there with his
EV suit pants down, helmet off and his gun nowhere near his reach.
The pirates floated through the hatch and landed gracefully on the floor inside the OR when they reached the light gravity. The big guy dropped Agnes in a heap on the floor next to him. She let out a small groan. Tommy saw she was feverish.
“That’s right. Everybody’s going to have a real nice time at our party,” said the woman. Turning to Tommy as she recognized his Postal Service emblem on the sleeve of his suit. “Starting with you handsome.” She strutted up to Tommy. “You’ve caused a lot of trouble, but you opened the door so nice for us and found such a treasure here.” She looked at Tommy’s suit pants gathered around his knees. “Gee, aren’t you glad to see me. Too bad.”
The female pirate reached up with her weapon arm to slide it up his inner thigh when Agnes shouted, “NOW Alfred!”
With the signal, the scarred woman turned to be hit in the face with one of Alfred’s small spider avatars holding its legs into a point. These avatars designed and built to face the hardest conditions in space pierced the faceplate of her helmet and then expanded into the helmet. The electrical surge shorted the whole unit.
At the same time, Agnes kicked the legs out from under the big Gorilla pirate. He landed on the faceplate of his helmet. Agnes then rolled over and landed on top of him. She pulled out several circuits from his suit and crossed them with wires from her own, shorting out both. By the time they hit the floor neither pirate could move. Then Agnes fainted into unconsciousness again.
*****
Moments earlier, Agnes was jarred awake as soon as the big pirate grabbed her and manhandled her through the OR hatch. Dropping her had brought her fully awake. The first thing she saw was Tommy with his blood stained suit pants down around his knees. “Alfred?” she whispered.
“Try to lie still, Agnes.” Alfred suggested through her helmet on a low volume.
“No Alfred. HUD display of room.” She requested. Through her haze, she saw the placement of everyone in the room and that Alfred had sent additional avatars into the hall, ready, should an opportunity present itself. Something clicked into place in her mind. She tapped into a skill set that she did not know she had, strategic planning. “Al, be ready for my signal,” she whispered back. The avatars made ready to launch one of their own. The weight of her body trapped her right arm under her when she was dropped. With her free hand she pulled out two leads and wire from her standard belt pack tool kit. When she saw the chance, she signaled, “NOW Alfred!” Agnes kicked out, rolled over and found the weakness she knew was on the back of the suit. Jamming her electric leads into the slot, she shorted out the Gorilla pirate’s suit. She stayed conscious just long enough to see Tommy pull up his pants and disarm both pirates.
*****
Larry took charge again. “What are her symptoms?” Alfred passed along the vitals by handing the paramedic a tablet from the Swift’s own Medical Bay. He took it, scanned it and frowned. “We’ve got a contagion here people. Let’s get her to a quarantine chamber immediately. Let MOMA know we’ve admitted a new patient.” A team now gently gathered Agnes up and placed her on a gurney. Their precise action showed professionalism, as they carried her away, deeper into the ship to an adjunct chamber for quarantine. Two of the staff met them wearing hazmat suits and took Agnes into the chamber to prep her for an exam.
“More pirates?” Tommy asked Alfred.
“I’m running out of avatars, but I’ll search MOM for any more while I assign them to repair what we can. I’ve also closed the hatch between MOM and the Swift. We don’t want any aboard.”
“Outpost?”
“I’ve got no way to search the whole complex. We need to assume there are pirates there as well. And if the pirates left a crew, their ships will be back to pick them up. Our drones are placed to signal us when they do return.”
Tommy left the OR and made his way to the docking port on the MOM. Larry followed. “Need to secure MOM from station. No power to engines?” he asked.
“The pirates took that out first. They were practiced in this move. I’ve seen this before, during the war. It was a move our marines did once they boarded an insurgent’s ship.” Larry shared.
“Looked familiar,” Tommy said. He and Larry reached the boarding tube that extended to the station at this habitat ring. Beyond lay a large docking bay that the inhabitants of Make-Haste station used to come and go. MOMs practiced an open door policy. Tommy floated down the tube into the bay. Three hatches faced him. Each hatch led to a separate strand and different habitat ring of the station. They opened each one and hid a sensor pod from the MOM in the corridor beyond the hatch. These Alfred used as an early warning signal.
“Tommy, I am receiving chatter from somewhere inside the outpost. I’ve been able to give responses based on what I heard of the pirates on MOM, but they will return.” Alfred warned.
“Let them come.” Tommy replied. “Here’s what I want to do.”
*****
Several hours passed since Jackson checked in with Anderson back on the MOM. That mechanized abomination should never have been put in charge. Here they found a respectable haul of goods, plenty of loot for everybody and she has them looking all over the outpost for the Dead Letter Office of the Postal Service. She’d said something about collecting a lost package. Instead of the Post Office, his buddies and he had found the well stocked bar and had themselves quite a party. It could have gone on longer, too, if there was anything left to drink or break.
When the recall code sounded on his suit com unit, he’d been having himself a good sleep. He removed someone’s leg from his face and his hand from one of a woman’s boots. He roused himself and stood.
“All right losers,” he broadcast as he shoved yet another sodden body off the pile that buried him. “Rise and shine. Momma bear wants us back in the tree with all our little faces clean and shiny.” Jackson smirked. He wasn’t sure which would be better, letting Anderson ream them a new one for drinking first or shoving the data cube they recovered within the first ten minutes on the station up her nose first. As he relished these private thoughts, he knew he’d never do it. She’d never give him the chance. Anderson scared most all the crew. She lived in that suit. The crew thought nothing human survived inside that suit anymore and she just kept the head to show she had been human once. And that Swiss army knife arm of hers could eviscerate a man in seconds. He didn’t have to speculate. He’d seen it.
So Jackson continued to gather up his squad of nine. They lumbered back to the MOM where the core of their boarding party stayed to strip the real prize, a medical ship. Three other squads searched the outpost with different orders, but all were to meet back at the MOM upon recall. Once Jackson’s squad awoke, he kicked their butts to double time it back to the boarding dock.
When they arrived the other squads were there, having trouble with the hatches to the dock. Jackson grabbed Stanwick, the explosives expert, and sent her up to the hatches. Ten minutes later, they blew the hinges and pried all three hatches off the wall. As the first squad entered the dock, they felt the unmistakable vibration of explosives in a vacuum. Those combat ready squads with their helmets sealed survived. Jackson and most of his cocky squad failed to seal their helmets. As vacuum of space sucked them out the exterior hatch they each died.
As the other two squads struggled to hang on in the loading dock, Tommy’s goo balls peppered them from behind. His shots immobilized and froze their suits. None of their weapons worked. They uselessly fought the rush of escaping atmosphere from the immediate corridors inside the outpost. Other emergency hatches closed deeper within the station. The pressure and debris pushed the pirates out the main hatch.
The MOM still sat there. Their minds could not accept what was happening. There should have been a hard seal against the MOM’s hatch. Some of them saw as they passed into the MOM’s hold that there was a gap between the ship and the station where atmosphere escaped. Inside of the MOM, all the pirates were caught in a strange n
et that further scrambled their systems and shut down any chance of their suits rebooting its operating system. And the last insult, gently floating inside the hold, feet magnetized to the wall, was a Postal Service employee, smiling at them.
*****
Tommy and Alfred planned well. The odds figured twenty to one. They set a trap that completely took care of the pirates. Alfred’s avatar spiders did much of the work, placing charges that separated the MOM from the station without damaging her atmospheric integrity. Tommy rigged the loading dock interior hatches to jam, which forced the pirates either to explode them or force them open and damage the door mechanism. The most elegant aspect of the trap was to surround the interior hatches with bags of goo balls. The escaping atmosphere pulled them loose, and the pirates were immobilized from behind by their own actions.
Alfred added two final touches. It was his suggestion to have his spiders weave a web of their safety lines and charge them to shut down any restart sequence in the pirates’ suits. And since MOM’s systems remained offline, Alfred used the Swift, securely docked at the end of MOM to maintain the distance from the station. That way they collected the pirates in MOM’s hold. The squad that died had only themselves to blame, but their bodies were captured.
Once Tommy closed the exterior hatch on MOM’s cargo bay and pressurized the bay, he met Larry at the interior door. With no gravity inside the passageways of the MOM they lashed the living together to move.
“Have you got someplace to stow them?” Tommy asked.
“We’re equipped with a psych ward. Let’s stow them with the others as soon as we decant them from their suits. Had some trouble with that gal that went after you. Seems most of her really was her suit. Your AI shut down anything that could be dangerous. She wouldn’t shut up though. We had to lock her in her own padded cell. We could shut down her arm and legs, but not her mouth.” Larry explained. “Are you heading back to the OR? MOMA still wants to see you. She definitely wants to thank you for what you’ve done.”