by J Porteous
'I'm in the wrong job,' Watts said, studying the surroundings. 'To think you went from this to the War Goddess. No wonder you look pissed off most of the time.'
'Pissed off?' Carl asked, frowning at the accusation.
'Come on, Goban,' Watts said. 'You don't need to say it, I can see it in your eyes. Piloting ships for the military one minute, cramped up in the Goddess the next. I'd be pissed off too.'
'I thought you were ex-military too?'
'As an engineer,' Watts replied. 'It doesn't quite have the glamour of being a pilot. The most I can remember about the ships I served on is the maintenance shafts.' He glanced at Carl. 'I think you've got more to miss than I have.'
Carl thought hard for something to say. Watts was right, in a way. He had been hand picked to pilot the Indomitable, out of hundreds of potential candidates, and he had only been too happy to leap at the chance. He flew each ship, basking in the glory others handed him after successful runs.
He shook his head. I should have seen it coming. If he had not been too busy fighting for attention and promotions, he probably would have never ended up on the Indomitable. Perhaps then he would still be in the military now, not stuck running missions for mercenaries. 'They do say pride comes before a fall.' He looked up and realised Watts had left him behind.
'Goban,' Watts called from further up the corridor. 'Found the hatch, this way.'
Carl dropped off the last rung of the ladder and peered into the darkness of the hold.
'Don't they have any lights down here?' Watts said.
'Check the back wall.'
Carl stood for a moment in the darkness. A loud clunk confirmed that Watts had found the lights. A brief hum sounded, followed by the bulbs bursting into life. A huge form appeared near the centre of the room.
'Goban, get to cover. Now!'
Carl leapt behind a steel crate, waiting for the inevitable alarm. The pounding of his heart threatened to burst his eardrums.
Nothing.
He looked around the side of the crate. The huge form still stood menacingly among the assorted crates and clutter, reaching high above them. A Heavy Combat Synth. Carl slowly moved his hand out from behind cover, as something that could not hide from the Synth's thermal scanners. He winced, waiting for a round to rip through his palm. Still nothing.
'Goban,' Watts called out. 'I think it's deactivated.'
Carl stood from behind the crate. He looked up at the towering Synth. Its hunched form looked down, regarding him with its cold, dead sensors. Carl could have quite easily reached up and fit his arm into one of the Synth's wrist mounted barrels. They would not have stood a chance had it been active.
'Over here, Carl.'
Carl followed Watts' voice, leading him past the shadow of the Synth. He found Watts looking excitedly at a case, running his hands over the length of it as if searching for something. 'How are we meant to get that out of here?' Carl said, pointing at the case. 'It's at least a metre wide and as tall as you.'
Watts flipped up his visor and grinned. 'You might know your ships, Goban, but you don't know your AI tech.' He looked back at the case. 'Come on, Dareth, you've got this,' he muttered to himself. He moved his hands around on the surface before making some adjustments to a dial on the side. The loud noise of steel running against steel burst the quiet as a section of the case slid away, revealing a cube that hummed with a dark glow.
'What is that?' Carl said, his eyes widened. 'The AI core?'
'Nailed it in one, kid.' Watts pulled the core out and held it up to the light. 'Who would have thought an AI as powerful as this would come in such a helpful size.'
'It's smaller than I thought,' Carl said.
Watts placed the core under his coat. 'Most people only ever see the case and assume that's it, but it's only a protective housing. Puts a lot of people off stealing them though.'
Carl let Watts continue to babble about the story of AI cores and the many myths behind them, although it was not that noise that caught his attention. Carl cocked his head, trying to make out the other sound. It was something else, something that slowly got louder. It still had not caught Watts' attention. 'Watts?' Carl said quietly. 'Watts?' He jabbed the engineer with his finger, pointing to his ear when the engineer finally looked up in annoyance.
Watts froze on the spot, his annoyed expression melting away as he listened out. He heard it too. 'We need to hide, kid.'
They ducked down beside the AI case, listening as the footsteps and chatter got closer.
'Who the hell left the lights on down here?' a voice called.
'I don't know, you were the last one down here.'
'Maybe those techs have been down here? Saw them come on board earlier.'
Carl and Watts looked at each other. Someone must have paid attention to them.
A bleep of a communication unit. 'Hello? Yeah, this is Baneson.'
Carl strained to hear what the voice on the communication unit said, but the voice was too quiet and indistinct for him to decipher.
'Yeah, I saw the two techs enter the ship earlier, haven't seen them since though.'
Watts leant over to Carl. 'This doesn't sound good.'
The communication unit powered down. 'What is it, Baneson?' another voice said.
'Those techs. They've run a check on their identities. Simons was killed two week cycles ago, and Cage is currently in military police custody awaiting trial for gross negligence.'
'Shit,' the other voice said. 'Then who are these guys?'
'We're not paid enough to ask questions, Deignton. Just been told to bring them in alive if possible.'
'We've got to gather the others, meet me on the bridge and then we'll sweep the ship.'
The voices disappeared as the footsteps faded away.
'We're fucked, really fucked,' Carl said.
Watts blew out a defeated breath. 'It's not the best situation, Goban, I'll give you that.'
Carl thumped his head against the container he hid behind. How could I have been so stupid? How did I even consider for a second that this was going to work?
Watts stood up, rubbing his chin. 'We can't possibly go out the way we came in, and we can't stay here. Those troopers are going to be sweeping each floor bit by bit and eventually they are going to be sweeping this room too.'
'Then we are fucked aren't we?' Carl said, not even attempting to disguise the panic in his voice. 'We are going to be judged by the military court, and I think we both know how they deal with theft of high technology, let alone confidential AI cores. Treason.'
'I know, kid, I know.' Watts said grimly. He paced the room, making his way over to the combat Synth. A smile creased his face as he looked up at it. 'I think we've found our way out, Goban.'
'Oh no,' Carl said, shaking his head. 'No.'
Watts turned to face him. 'Stay here and we definitely get caught.' He pointed back to the Synth. 'But switch this thing on, remove the targeting parameters, and our chances of escape are going to improve.'
'By point five percent maybe.'
'Better than the zero percent we started off with.'
'This is starting to become a bad habit.' Carl chewed his lip, staring up at the Synth. It was as likely to attack them as to attack the troopers once it was activated. With this, and his encounter with the Kalindros and the Junkers, Carl was beginning to feel that he had been dealt some bad hands. 'Fine. Do it.'
Watts beamed a smile back. 'That's what I like to hear, kid. Come here, I'm going to need your help with this.'
Even with Watts on his shoulders, Carl could not tear his eyes away from the doorway, his mind picturing troopers flooding through it at any second.
'Keep still down there, will you?'
Watts was not heavy, being a thin and wiry man, but his feet dug into Carl's collarbone in an uncomfortable fashion. Carl glanced up, shifting himself in an attempt to steady Watts' feet on his shoulders. 'Are you almost done up there?'
'Yeah,' he replied. He twisted his hand around
inside the back of the Synth's head. Something slotted into place with a loud clunk. 'All done. Drop me down, Goban.'
Carl crouched slowly, letting the scrawny engineer jump clumsily to the floor.
Watts brushed himself off and looked back up to the Synth. 'That ought to do it.' He looked around the cargo bay. 'We'd better take cover. That hunk of metal thinks that it's in an enemy compound, and it's going to wake up and realise that in about thirty seconds.'
Shit, this is it. Adrenaline seeped into Carl, his senses heightened. He leapt behind a cargo crate, the cool metal relieving his burning skin. Watts crouched beside him. 'You sure this is going to work?'
Watts cracked a thin smile. 'No.' He put a finger to his lips and nodded in the direction of the door. 'Looks like our friends are here.'
'We've searched the entirety of the ship,' a voice called out. It was one of the troopers from earlier. 'I'm guessing they've crept off already.'
'Even if they have, they are still going to ship us to the frontier systems for this. How are we going to explain how they got on board?'
'We're not the ones that let them into the docking bay, let Ardran and Stanner take the heat for that.'
Hydraulics hissed into life, and metal scraped against metal. 'Combat Synth active,' a large and droning voice called out. 'Confirmed hostile environment.'
Carl dared a glance around the side of the container. The Synth groaned into life, limbs moving and extending as it straightened up from its hunched position. He could see the two troopers looking up open-mouthed as it lurched towards them.
'Hostile detected. Two. Armed. Proceed.'
Before the troopers could even think of moving, the Synth levelled its wrist-mounted cannons towards them and fired. Bodies exploded, painting the polished metal walls a horrid shade of red.
An alarm sounded and the PA system crackled into life. 'What the hell is going on down there? All troopers report to the cargo hold, now.'
Watts grabbed Carl's shoulder. 'This is it, Goban, we've got to go.' He scurried forward, keeping low behind the crates. He glanced back at Carl. 'Come on!'
Fuck it. Now or never. Carl launched himself forward, crawling from crate to crate. He did not dare to look up to watch the chaos taking place in the room. Screams called out, gunfire rang loud and reverberated off of the walls. Another thunderous snarl of the Synth's cannon sounded, and blood splashed down over the crate, wetting the floor in front of Carl. He looked towards Watts, the ladder to the level above just before them.
'Come on, Goban,' Watts yelled above the sounds of violence. He grabbed onto the ladder and hauled himself up.
Carl pulled himself up on to the level above, the sound of fighting becoming dimmer. Watts was looking through the service door and down the corridor that they had earlier walked down. 'How's it looking?'
Watts stood silent for a minute. 'Looking good,' he said. 'Dead up here. Everyone must be on the lower level.'
It's going to be dead down there as well soon. Carl followed Watts down the corridor, keeping to the shadows where possible. Booming thuds still shook the floor from below. Still keeping them busy at least.
They reached the access door of the ship and the ramp which led down towards the docking bay. The bay stood empty, all of the troopers now engaged in the belly of the Royal Hunt. Adrenaline and hope mixed together to make a potent cocktail. Something dangerously close to relief washed over Carl.
'No point in playing it quiet now,' Watts said. 'Let's make a break for it.'
Carl rushed down the ramp, adrenaline surging through his body. 'We need to get back to the ship,' he said, as they hit the floor of the docking bay.
'No,' Watts wheezed. 'Too much heat. Too much attention. Need to head to the Research Chapter House, like Arrathnar said.'
They burst through the doors and back into the crowded market place. A row of troopers stood before them, keeping the crowd away from the entrance.
'Shit,' Watts said, stumbling to halt.
'We can't stop, not now.' Carl grabbed Watts' arm and dragged him forward, smashing into the line of troopers. The force of the impact scattered the troopers to the floor, sending them sprawling into the gathered crowd. He dared a glance back as the pair of them forced their way through the crowd, who now surged forward to gawk at what had happened. Somewhere, beyond the bodies that separated them, Carl could hear the troopers barking orders.
They rushed forward, knocking people back, as they made their way through the dim corridors of the space station. Carl turned a corner, knocking over a vendor carrying some kind of cooked meat. If that had happened at a calmer, more convenient time, he would have stopped, apologised, and helped pick the goods up, but not now. Now all he could think of was putting one foot after the other.
'Are they still on us?' Carl said breathlessly, forcing the air out of his lungs.
'No,' Watts said, as he glanced over his shoulder. 'Not for the moment anyway.'
They snaked further through the intestines of the station, the traders and travellers being replaced by service personnel. 'Wait,' Carl said, pulling Watts to a halt.
'Are you mental, Carl? We don't have time to wait.'
Carl took off his engineer's uniform, leaving him only in his basic onshore clothing of a white vest and dark trousers. He bundled it up and threw it into one of the garbage incinerators that dotted the service tunnels. 'We don't want to get caught with those on us.'
Watts nodded and pulled his uniform off. 'Good idea.' He threw the uniform into the roaring flames, swiftly followed by his fake identity card. 'Can't follow the trail back to the Bastards this way.'
'No,' Carl said. 'Nor the Researchers if they come knocking.'
The doors of the Research Chapter House swung wide as they approached. Arrathnar stood at the entrance, urging them inside. 'Come on,' she said, watching them struggle up the steps. 'Did you manage to retrieve it?'
Carl nodded, sucking in ragged breaths.
'Good.'
The grand doors swung shut behind them, the crash of them closing echoing around the hall. Carl took a moment to catch his breath. I can't believe it. We did it, we actually did it. He turned to Watts, who stood grinning like a lunatic in between clutching for breaths. Laughter erupted from Carl, filling the room. The pair of them embraced, patting each other on the back.
'You know,' Watts said. 'I didn't actually think that Synth idea was going to work.'
Carl grinned even more. Going against all the odds and still coming out on top. Maybe this is what it is about, maybe this is what keeps the Space Bastards together?
'I trust you have finished your celebrations?' Arrathnar said coldly.
'Once we've got a few drinks in us, then yes,' Watts replied. He paused, noticing that her expression looked less than impressed. 'I thought you'd be happier? You've got your AI core, just as you asked.'
'You have retrieved the AI core, I will give you that,' she said, her voice refusing to gather warmth. 'But the noise you made doing it, that is another story.'
'It should all die down in a few days,' Carl said. 'We'll just wait it out.'
Arrathnar shook her head. 'This is not some run of the mill theft. You killed twenty two troopers. I assume you realise what that means?'
The fear of treason crept up Carl's spine once more. Killing even one trooper out of combat was a death penalty, let alone more. 'How do we know they are sanctioned?' Carl said. 'You said yourself, some of the troopers here aren't what they seem.'
'Off station it would not be a problem,' Arrathnar said, shaking her head. 'But killing the amount of troopers that you did, sanctioned or not, they need to be seen to be reacting. How do you think the populace would react knowing that, for some reason, someone managed to get away with wiping out three squads of human military? The station is locked down. No one is to leave or enter until justice is done.'
She had a point. Carl looked at Watts, all signs of elation drained from his face. 'So we're stuck then? We've just go to sit here until th
ey find us and kill us?'
'I did not ask you to murder troopers, Carl, I asked you steal some technology.'
Silence fell over the trio, the large Researcher hall swallowing them whole.
'Surely someone has clearance to leave?' Watts said. 'Or perhaps there is someone we could bargain with.'
Arrathnar shrugged. 'The captain of the human military garrison now controls the clearance for docking. I doubt he would be willing to let us out, even if we did ask him nicely.'
'Any troopers you could pay off?' Carl said, desperately clutching at straws. 'Maybe we could sneak out?'
'Even if we did,' Arrathnar said. 'The close range scanners would pick us up quickly, too quickly for us to escape.'
'There is one other option.'
Carl followed Arrathnar's gaze to see an older Harathdan walking down the hall towards them. His robe was as ornate as the etchings Arrathnar had revealed to them, weaved in bright gold and dark crimson and copper. It glided effortlessly across the polished floor.
'Grand Researcher,' Arrathnar said, bowing her head.
'Please, Arrathnar, how many times must I say it? We have known each other too long for such formalities.' He turned his gaze to Carl and Watts. 'You work with Arrathnar and, by extension, work with me.' He glanced down towards Watts, gesturing to his pocket. 'You have done a great deed for Arrathnar, for all of us, but even great deeds mean nothing if dashed against the rocks. We cannot complete our work trapped here. We must leave and your crew must join me.'
'The station is on lock down, Grand Researcher,' Arrathnar said. 'I do not mean to question you, but surely there is no way you can offer us safe passage.'
'It relies on an ancient treaty,' the Grand Researcher said. 'Offered between ourselves and the humans when we uplifted their race.'
The Harathdan-Human scriptures. Carl had been taught of them in the military academy, as all recruits were. An ancient doctrine drawn up as a thank you for the Harathdans after they had pulled humanity back from the brink of extinction. Universal cancer had affected ninety eight percent of the population, billions were dying on a yearly basis, but the Harathdans created a cure, and gave them a new life amongst the stars. 'You expect them to honour that?' Carl said. 'After what has happened today?'