by John Lane
*****
Aboard the Swift Dr. Judson, Ai asked, “What happened?”
“Our connection to the station network has been cut. My own systems are compromised. I believe the Swift is under attack,” was Alfred’s response.
“What can I do to help?” she asked.
“Stay put. Shutting down may be your best option to protect yourself.”
“I’ve got to protect Christine,” she stressed, the mother coming through in her tone.
“Yes. My larger avatars all are on defensive assignments. I can only release the micro spiders to your control. They are all that is available. They do not have enough charge to down a human.”
“I’ll take them. And thank you, Alfred. You are very much like him,” she replied.
Alfred did not have time to ask Dr. Judson what she meant by that. At this moment the Reapers had gained access to his main docking bay and were attempting to enter the cargo bays.
*****
In Weltha’s cabin, Weltha took over the screen control and brought up the live feed from her station security net. It was blank. She reviewed the last few minutes at high speed. On the screen, she saw the lights in the bay darken. There were flashes and the bodies of two Postal Service staff tasked with guard duty floated through the bay bouncing off the walls. There were additional flashes next to the Swift’s hatch, and then the feed went dead.
“More deputies are on their way, but they don’t know what they will be facing. I’ve got to go.” Weltha grabbed her weapon belt from a secure closet in the hall and started for the hatch to her cabin.
“Not alone,” Tommy said.
“We’re coming with you. That’s our home,” Agnes added.
Weltha looked into their faces and had the good sense not to argue. “Glades,” She called to the station Ai. “Keep an eye on Holly and make sure she stays in bed.”
“Yes, Sheriff,” was the expressionless response from the station Ai, but they were out the hatch before it finished responding.
They ran down the corridors to the lifts that would take them to the docking bays on the outer frame of the station. Alfred pinged Tommy’s earbud, “I cannot establish contact with the ship or my copy aboard her.”
“We’re coming,” Tommy huffed as he rounded a bend and braked to a stop to wait for the lift. Weltha and Agnes followed close behind. Agnes was winded, but nodded she was okay as she caught her breath and the concerned look from Tommy. All three dove into the lift as soon as the doors parted. Weltha gave a priority order, and the lift sped away.
*****
Aboard the Swift the only light was coming from independently powered systems. Alfred moved his largest avatars into the cargo bay behind the hatch. If anyone attempted to access the ship here, he would block them. He had smaller spiders arranged around the hatch to stun any intruders and several were equipped with goo guns. The Postal Service took delivery of the mail seriously.
Deeper in the bay, a ventilation grill was unscrewing itself from the wall. In the zero gravity of the bay, it could have floated away. But a fluid mechanical tentacle slid it aside and secured it to the bulkhead with a small piece of gum. Then the rest of the creature emerged silently from the vent. She was chomping her gum as she slid out and stretched the rest of her arms. Not wearing the visage of a complete human body, the Angel Reaper launched herself down the bay to the open hatch. She now had easy access to the rest of the ship, and Alfred’s copy did not see her. She had been wiped from his data, just like the ship’s emblem.
*****
Weltha, Tommy and Agnes met up with the deputies who’d responded to the attack. They were all armed except Tommy and Agnes. Weltha saw a simple solution to that, but she might pay for it later. “Thomas Judson, I drop all charges against you as Sheriff of the Nu2 Lupi System.” She’d pitched her voice so the station Ai could file the proper paper work and continued in the same vein. “Under these emergency conditions, Thomas Judson, Agnes Zephyr, I hereby deputize you. They need guns,” she instructed the deputy next to her.
Tommy was surprised that her deputy handed over two guns so quickly. Then he recalled that Weltha drilled her team regularly. In true military training, these deputies did not question the boss. It seemed to pay off. This was a very quiet station, except for the pirates that Tommy had brought down on them.
“Sheriff, we’ve sent in a spider to scan. There are six hostiles. They seem to have a hostage. It’s the Postmaster. The hostiles are well armed and fortified. They have not gained access to the ship,” the deputy finished her report.
“Hostages, I hate it when that happens. They needed Connie to access the PS bays here. She hasn’t been happy with an impounded ship taking up one of her docks anyway,” Weltha shared.
“Tommy, they had plenty of time to secure the ship and leave if they could pull off shutting us out this well. Why didn’t they?” Agnes observed.
“It’s a strategy.” Weltha admitted. “What do they want?”
A communication panel beeped on the wall next to the access hatch the team was waiting behind. “I want to speak to the Sheriff,” demanded the metallic voice of a Reaper. Weltha reached to respond when Tommy stopped her. She had already activated the contact.
Putting his finger to his lips and pointing at Weltha he shook his head. He then pointed at her deputy who’d just reported to them, indicating that she should respond as the Sheriff. She said, “This is the Sheriff.”
“Good. We’ve got a hostage. We have demands.” His voice rasped on, “We’ll negotiate for her safe release if you play nice. At the first sign of trouble, she’s a dead woman. We’ve planted charges in this bay. Enough to blow this whole section to hell.”
Weltha gave the kill signal, cutting her finger across her throat. “Give me a minute,” her deputy said.
“Just one minute,” was the reply. Then the click of the connection closing snapped from the speaker.
“They’re playing for time. What’s their game?” Weltha asked. “And why not let me talk?”
“Frees you up to act. They want time, but for what?” Tommy mused. “Need more information.”
“If I can get access to Alfred’s copy we might find out,” suggested Agnes.
“He needed a good scrubbing,” Alfred shared through Tommy and Agnes’ earbuds. “I need access to any secure port aboard the ship. I can scrub him and restore functions.”
“We have to get aboard.” Tommy said aloud. “From inside, we can reassess the situation, come at them from behind.” It was a good strategy.
“How are you going to get aboard?” Weltha asked.
“Are you up for a space walk?” Tommy grinned when he asked Weltha this, suspecting that she’d keep the training up for this kind of action as well. He wasn’t disappointed when she nodded agreement.
“Tommy, I’m coming, too,” Agnes volunteered without hesitating.
“Agnes, we don’t know if you have experience.”
“Best way to find out. Plus, I know the systems now. Alfred will need the backup, and your sister is still in hibernation. I can monitor her systems while you do your thing.” Agnes’ logic was sound.
The three of them moved to a nearby airlock accompanied by two of Weltha’s deputies for support. The rest remained to parlay with the Reapers and buy time. Since both sides were playing the same game, it wasn’t hard.
Agnes proved to be adept at the space walk. This was not surprising from an engineer. Tommy kept her tethered to him as he led the way across the gap between station and ship. Once secured to the hull, the team made their way across the hull to the opposite side. Accessing that bay proved simple. The Swift still responded to Tommy’s access codes. They entered the decompressed bay in darkness.
At the next hatch, everyone covered it with their weapons while the exterior hatch sealed and the atmosphere balanced with the rest of the ship. “Stay in your suits,” Weltha warned them as a reminder of standard procedure when boarding a compromised vessel.
Once
they opened the interior hatch, each team member moved in, covering the next for safety and scanning with night vision for hostiles. Agnes brought up the rear even though she showed every sign of being as competent in military operations as Weltha and Tommy. Tommy passed her his media player. In the zero gravity of the interior cargo bay, she launched to a computer access port. Once there, she used an interface to connect Alfred. She clicked off her external suit mic and asked over her earbud link, “You okay?”
Alfred replied, “I’m in. You may disconnect at this point. But please reconnect in the Med Bay. I may have to seek shelter there depending on what I find.” They both knew that it must have taken a powerful cyber attack to disable the Alfred Copy this badly.
“Copy that,” Agnes responded and signaled the rest. “We’re no good here. The ship Ai is not responding. We’re blind going in.” She disconnected the media player and pocketed it in her suit.
*****
Once back in his ship’s system, Alfred made short work of cleaning up his copy. Alfred found his copy in a dark room. The Ai System had been cut off from the rest of the ship’s systems in the computer control bay. The real Alfred was not part of the Ai system, just the model for the interface. He sent avatars, via his wireless connection to Tommy’s earbud, and repaired the damage. With plenty of time because of the real time repair, Alfred scrubbed the worms from his copy and merged their data. Alfred’s virtual version of a good scrubbing consisted of a large copper bathtub loaded with sudsy water. Alfred took great care as he scrubbed what looked like his child, the copy. The worms jumped from the child’s hair and escaped from sores on his body. Alfred carefully toweled down his copy and put ointment on the sores. He finished by giving his child copy a big hug and absorbed all the clean data. Alfred then sent the copy to bed and rest until needed again.
The bathtub served as a sterile container once the lid sealed over it. Alfred stored this with other such bins and an avatar physically disconnected the drive from the rest of the system. He didn’t want to take any chances. That code came from the local network. And he’d trapped more than worms in the tub. Another residue of scum, truly foreign code, clung to the bottom. This was getting messy.
*****
Weltha and her team faced a different challenge. The Swift’s main fuselage contained fifteen bays. Each bay’s bulkheads adjusted to accommodate the packages Tommy would haul to each of his stops. They entered the even side through bay number eight. Directly across in bay seven the exterior hatch opened into the station, the Reapers and their hostage.
Both Tommy and Weltha realized the hostage was a distraction. With the internal systems down inside the Swift, the true target must be inside. There must be someone else on board.
Agnes found the evidence first. As soon has they entered the central catwalk to the bays, Agnes saw the even bays hatches two through six damaged. The team remained on com silence and masked the light through their helmets as they moved. Weltha indicated one of her deputies should go with Agnes to bay one, the med bay. Their job was to protect Christine. As Agnes passed bay five she glanced at the access pad. It was still intact and hadn’t been tampered with. She felt relief even though she didn’t know why it should have mattered.
Tommy, Weltha and her last deputy floated down the catwalk following the damaged bays. As they approached bay eight, something skittered through the hatch. It was inside.
“Tommy, I’m back and have partial control.” Alfred’s reassuring voice came through on Tommy’s earbud.
“Scan bay eight,” Tommy requested.
“Sorry. The even bays two through eight have been damaged. Let me put a spider in there,” Alfred suggested.
Tommy signaled the team to wait. They picked up the night vision from the light spilling through the ship. “There is movement within the bay, but it doesn’t appear to be human,” Alfred signaled. “Wait,” he paused and then, “It’s that damn Angel Reaper!” Alfred exclaimed uncharacteristically.
Tommy reached out to Weltha, grasping her helmet and placing it against his. “Alfred is back online. We’ve met this intruder before. She is a cyborg. Dangerous. Ideas?” he asked.
Weltha thought. One exit. She could pick us off as we enter. She’s trapped. And she’s been trained well to be able to break into a Postal Service ship this easily. This is not good. Weltha placed her helmet back against Tommy’s. “We have surprise on our side. Slip in and get her in a Panzer move.”
“Classic. Old school might work. Me first.”
Weltha agreed. She indicated to her deputy to cover the exit. They entered. There was less light in a bay filled with packages. They took opposite sides of the bay and floated to positions to cover it from both vantages. Tommy had Alfred send a text: CVR EYES ON MARK. Then they waited for the Angel Reaper to start for the hatch.
“Now,” Tommy ordered. Alfred flooded the bay with light, set as high as possible without blowing the lamps. Weltha and Tommy both emerged from their hiding places ready to fire, but there wasn’t anything there.
“Hey, pretty boy. Did you come out to play?” Angel Reaper emerged behind Tommy and launched at his back. Tommy anticipated the move and rolled in the air to throw her off. Once clear of Tommy, Weltha fired off a couple of shots. One struck two legs on the spider lady. These went dead, and she drug them with her using the rest to propel herself. She bounced into a storage net of packages lashed to the bulkhead and rebounded. This enemy was very good. She rebounded out the hatch and into the corridor.
Two more shots and a scream came from the corridor. “Alfred light. All of them.” Tommy shot to the hatch, but did not rush out of it. Weltha hugged the other side of the hatch. As soon as Tommy nodded his readiness, she fired several wild shots to clear the way, and then they both flipped through the hatch, landing on the catwalk at different orientations. Weltha anchored to the ceiling and facing the prow, and Tommy on the far bulkhead facing the stern.
There was no sign of the Angel Reaper. Weltha quickly assessed her deputy The Reaper’s goo landed on his suit and shut it down. He floated in his dead suit but unharmed. She’d also cracked the faceplate, but it held due to the equalized pressure.
An alarm sounded. “She’s just accessed bay fifteen,” Alfred warned on an open channel. Weltha lashed down her deputy and launched to the stern after Tommy who’d launched as soon as the alarm sounded.
*****
Agnes made it to the med bay with no problems. There, she connected Tommy’s media player so Alfred accessed his true code. He responded more fluidly with this interface in place on the Swift. He sent some available avatars to bay fifteen to assist. Dr. Judson remained activated through a similar interface, but only in bay one. Once Agnes reconnected Alfred she inspected the caskets. She had moved her casket into bay one over the last week while she was waiting for Tommy to get out of jail. She inspected both caskets. “Everything looks good. Did you have any problems?” she asked Dr. Judson, Ai.
“No one accessed this bay,” the doctor reported.
The deputy stationed herself at the hatch was yanked through it and slammed against the far bulkhead. The Angel Reaper crawled into the bay and slammed the hatch behind her. Dr. Judson blinked out.
“Well, little girl, you’ve been keeping secrets here haven’t you,” she sneered at Agnes. Before Agnes raised her weapon to get off a shot, the Angel Reaper launched herself across the bay and knocked the gun from Agnes’ hand. “Now, now. It’s not polite to point guns at your guest, even if I wasn’t invited.” The spider lady focused her attention on the two caskets. “Don’t try anything little girl.” Agnes stopped moving toward her gun.
The abomination of the Angel Reaper and her spider body seemed confused. She didn’t expect two caskets. This is what she was after. She moved around to the backside of Christine’s casket and lowered her spine to the access panel located there. By keeping one eye on Agnes, she did not see Dr. Judson’s image appear behind her and do the finger to mouth sign for quiet. Small spider avatars were m
oving from behind Dr. Judson’s image over top of the other casket. Dr. Judson faded again.
Angel Reaper had almost accessed an internal port in the casket. Her attention focused more and more to her task. She extruded fiber cable from her spine and clutched these in her one good hand to connect to the interface port. As she was about to make the connection, Dr. Judson’s image flew through the casket right at Angel Reaper’s face, screaming. The avatars swarmed up Angel Reaper’s exposed spine sending small electric charges into her as they went, stinging and disrupting control signals to her appendages.
Agnes dove for her gun and the cover of an exam bed. She rolled into a kneeling position, locking her boots under the bed to anchor herself. She came up ready to fire. By now the spider avatars that Alfred left for Dr. Judson swarmed. They stung the Angel Reaper on her only remaining human skin, this covering half her head and arm. Agnes took aim at the spine and gooed it. This Reaper scrambled and fought her way around the far side of the bay. She shot toward the door when several more shots of goo came from the deputy in the corridor who had recovered.
Letting out a snarl, the Angel Reaper launched herself through the hatch and bounced down the corridor. Where Weltha and Tommy, realizing the alarm had been a feint, fired more shots at her. She slowed down, only able to use her human arm to ricochet off the bulkheads and hatches. The Angle Reaper made a small target, so the team carefully picked their shots.
The Angel Reaper began to fire lethal darts at them. They all dove for cover. Tommy and Weltha dove into separate open bays. Agnes and the deputy were forced to take shelter in bay one again. As soon as they regained the corridor, they followed the Angel Reaper into bay fifteen. This bay served for Postal Service storage, not packages on most ships. Tommy had converted some of it to a workshop. Bay fifteen balanced the ship in the stern, matching the bulk of the living decks at the prow. It led to the main hatch for loading and unloading cargo.