Star Carrier (Lost Colonies Trilogy Book 3)

by B. V. Larson

  “Did you know what was beyond?” I asked.

  “No, not really. I thought it was your crewmen, loyal men who’d been rejecting their updates. You’re exactly the kind of revolutionary the Council has feared for all these long, long years… But when I opened the vault doors, these things rushed in. They killed everyone!”

  “Except for you… because you hid behind the door?”

  She looked ashamed and angry at the same time. “You did this. You brought these things here to kill everyone.”

  “The Council is no more,” I told her. “Their time has passed. I’ll let you escape, but you must close these doors first.”

  We could hear a clank and clatter on the stairs behind us. My aunt’s eyes grew wide, and she moved with surprising speed.

  Without another word, she gave me a coin-sized object. I touched it to the vault doors, and they began to swing shut.

  Lady Grantholm picked her way past the bodies and ran up the stairs and out of sight.

  When Vogel reached me, he surveyed the vast, heavy doors. They were now closed.

  “You did it?” he asked. “They look impregnable.”

  “If the Chairman wasn’t boasting about the impenetrable nature of this bunker,” I told him, “we should be safe for now.”

  “Good,” Vogel said. There was an odd light in his eyes. “We need time.”

  -66-

  Once again, I tried to reach the outside world with my implant. It didn’t function. Clearly, the vault was more than just bomb-proof. We were effectively cut off from the rest of the world.

  I wished I had thought to make the attempt before the doors had closed, but I hadn’t. Experimentally, I took out the coin-like key my aunt had used to open them.

  “What are you doing?” Vogel demanded.

  “Opening the doors again.”

  “Don’t. They’re out there. I can feel it.”

  I listened carefully. I couldn’t hear anything as the walls were too thick, but after a time, it seemed as if Vogel was right.

  I could feel them. An army of guardians had to have been called. Perhaps, they were milling about on the other side of that door, trying to figure out what their best course of action might be. Effectively, our situation had transformed into a siege.

  Vogel worked on the door’s control panel. He asked for the coin-sized key, and I gave it to him. Soon, sparks flew.

  “I’ve disabled the door for now,” he said. “They can’t get through even with a key.”

  “You’ve locked us in?”

  “Effectively, yes. It will give us time to think—and to act.”

  When planning this operation, I’d never bothered to consider a getaway scheme as the odds of my success had seemed prohibitively high. That lack of foresight had left me wondering what I should do next.

  “We must find the data injector,” Vogel said.

  “To destroy it, right?” I asked.

  He looked at me as if I was insane.

  “What? A marvel of computing, and you want to destroy it? Is that all you soldiers are, monsters bent on destruction?”

  “It was you who programmed the variants to kill these people rather than to capture or disable them.”

  When I said this, the variant with the bad leg swiveled two vid pickups in my direction for a moment, but it said nothing.

  Vogel made a dismissive gesture. “There was no choice. These oldsters would never have given up their power without being completely defeated.”

  “On that point, we’re in agreement. So, what are you planning to do with this data injector when we find it?”

  “The obvious, of course,” he said. Then he noticed my blank expression. “Think, Captain! How else will we get out of this tomb alive? We’ll use the injector to craft a new memory and upload it to the net as the morning update. Then, we’ll walk out of here by noon tomorrow.”

  I chewed that idea over. It did seem feasible. If we could operate the device, we could, in theory, make people believe anything we wanted.

  “What kind of cover story would we use?” I asked cautiously.

  “It seems straightforward,” Vogel said, already searching passageways while I followed him. “We should keep it simple, this being our first time.”

  I glanced at him sharply. “Our first time?” I asked. “Are you suggesting there may be more updates in the future?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not a prophet. It would seem natural enough to edit a few details about how people look at us.”

  “Such as?”

  “First off, we’ll have to make them think the terrorists who took this place have already been captured—no, killed! That’s better.”

  His eyes had a gleam to them now as he plotted his program for humanity. I found it disturbing.

  “Are you feeling well, Director?” I asked, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder.

  One of the variants reacted with flashing speed. There was a blur and a rasping sound. A metal arm telescoped, and a gripper caught my wrist.

  Looking down in surprise, I saw two bloody crescents appear around my wrist.

  “I see they’re conditioned to protect you,” I said.

  “Yes… Keep that in mind.”

  It took us nearly an hour to find the chamber we were looking for. It was hidden, but not overly well. The entrance was guarded by a statue of iron, a metal monstrosity depicting a man in military garb. The figure stood resolutely with rows of medals on his chest.

  “Who is this statue honoring?” I asked.

  “Don’t you recognize him?” Vogel asked, chuckling. “No, I don’t suppose that you would. The years aren’t kind to any of us, are they?”

  After peering at the statue for several moments, a flash of realization struck me.

  “That’s the Chairman, isn’t it?” I asked. “When he was young?”

  “Yes, of course. It used to stand in the public square in the capital. Now, it’s been gathering dust down here for more than a century. They didn’t want their old identities recalled, you see. The Council members erased all memory of themselves from the majority of Earth’s populace.”

  “I take it then they were unpopular?”

  He laughed. “Extremely. They were a cabal of government leaders who took it upon themselves to retain their power indefinitely. Announcing a coup on the whole planet wasn’t something that endeared them to the people at large. They took to hiding down here until they perfected the data injector.”

  “At which point they altered everyone’s memory…” I said, trying to recall what I knew of the early days of my government. What they taught in school had always been hazy. Perhaps historians had learned to stick to less dangerous topics.

  “Ah, here it is!” announced Vogel at last.

  I heard a click as he felt behind the statue’s tall jackboots. A portion of the wall behind it rolled away silently.

  Lights flickered on in response to our intrusion.

  Vogel began to step forward, but I called out. “Wait,” I said. “A paranoid man might set a trap.”

  Clearly anxious to rush inside, he peered at me. After a moment’s thought, he waved to a variant and ordered it to advance into the room.

  We watched as it clacked on metal feet until it met up with the midpoint of the tube-like passage. We could see bluish lights glowing beyond the mouth of that tube.

  The variant’s numerous eyes twitched and whirred. It was clearly looking for danger as well.

  An object fell from the ceiling while it was still inside the passage. With amazing speed, the variant reached out a claw-like gripper and snatched the object from the air.

  “I’ve found—” it began in a mechanical voice, but then a loud explosion went off. A gust of air and sound blew past us, making us recoil. The variant had been destroyed.

  Vogel cursed colorfully and at length. “Hmph,” he grunted, when he’d regained his composure. “One left.”

  He then searched the floor with a thin probe until he found a touch-plat
e.

  “Here,” he said. “We must step over it. Do you think you can do that?” he called to the last remaining variant.

  Experimentally, the variant lifted its damaged leg with a claw instead of dragging it. Moving slowly and carefully, it proceeded down the illuminated tunnel. Vogel pressed after it had made it inside without mishap, and then I followed after I saw him reach the far end of the tube alive.

  The chamber beyond the passage was elaborate and roomy. The ceiling had to be at least ten meters high. The walls were a hundred meters long each, forming a square.

  But it was the equipment that filled the chamber that caught our attention. There were large devices like tuning forks with seats in the middle of them. I noticed that the seats were metal, bolted down, and equipped with restraints.

  “Do you think they brought prisoners here?” I asked.

  Vogel glanced away from the main console long enough to comment. “I bet they had test subjects down here at some point in the past. Maybe they abused thousands of them, over the years, while they perfected their arts.”

  I looked over the devices with disgust. “They were forced to participate?” I asked.

  Vogel gave me a dirty chuckle. “Of course. Would you like to have your mind altered by a big, experimental machine?”

  Large generators filled part of the space, and the main console lined the back wall. The computers seemed antiquated, but serviceable.

  “See here?” Vogel asked. “They have high-speed net traffic. Our implants don’t seem to work, but that might just be due to a security code. We can get out onto the nets from here.”

  The Director poked around, and I did the same. The system allowed every computer worldwide to be examined in detail. An AI package monitored everything viewed and sorted them in terms of how subversive they were. The AI gave each site a loyalty rating.

  The power of it… a simple search could find the most strident critics, filtered and sorted by AI. This was how they’d selected their victims.

  “I think this is how they find people who irritate them,” I said, “there’s a scanning system—”

  “Yes, yes. I’ve already seen that. Now, I’m trying to determine—” Vogel broke off, giving a whoop of joy. Both the variant and I moved to his side as he continued to exclaim in excitement.

  “Look!” he said, tapping at his controls. “I’ve found it! The editor! A universal smart-editor. The AI is amazing!”

  I frowned and studied the screen from over his shoulder. At last, it dawned on me what I was seeing.

  “Are you saying you can use this to edit anyone’s data?”

  “Yes, exactly. From this console, I can change anything on the net. I can change it, remove it, or I can add data of my own!” His lips split into a grin.

  The situation was becoming increasingly clear. This was how they planted stories. But, how did they change the minds of those who had yet to read them?

  Vogel continued working feverishly for the next two hours. I watched, but he soon lost me in technical detail.

  At last, he leaned back and breathed a heavy sigh.

  “I’ve got it,” he said. “I’m going to try my first update.”

  “Hold on,” I said, “that’s highly unethical.”

  He turned around slowly in his chair and stared at me. His face displayed a mixture of surprise and irritation.

  “Why do you think we’re down here, Sparhawk?”

  “To free the Earth from this sort of manipulation. It’s illegal and reprehensible.”

  “Fine,” the director said, turning back to his work. “You can watch, then.”

  “Hold,” I repeated, taking a step closer to him.

  I froze. The last surviving variant had shot a long arm between us, barring my path.

  Vogel chuckled. “It’s you who must hold. Back off, or I’ll order this machine to kill you where you stand!”

  There was an odd light in his eyes—the light of excitement. It was as if his mind was filling with new ideas.

  I took a step back as I’d been directed. My hands came up in a surrendering gesture. The variant retracted its arm, but kept several eyes on me.

  “Director Vogel, please reconsider,” I said calmly.

  He didn’t even bother to look at me. Instead, he worked on his update at length. While he did so, I feigned boredom and put my hands into my pockets.

  There was a blinding flash. A bolt of energy took most of Vogel’s head off. There were only scraps of smoking flesh attached to his gray-white skull.

  The body slumped and flopped out of its chair onto the floor.

  Whatever variants are, they aren’t stupid. His bodyguard looked down instantly toward my hands, which were still buried in my pockets.

  But there was something new. A blackened hole now scorched my left pocket. The variant spotted it, and it was then that I knew my life was over.

  I was comforted by the knowledge I’d given up my existence for a good cause. How could I have stood by while a new dictator rose up before my very eyes? How could I allow this new master to replace the old? The mere thought was intolerable.

  Ready for death, I looked at the variant expectantly.

  -67-

  Vogel’s body lay still on the floor. Fully expecting to see a blurringly fast arm reach out and snip off my head, I stared at the variant.

  The variant returned my stare with one of its own.

  “Well?” I demanded, growing impatient. It seemed wrong to keep a man waiting for his execution. “What are you going to do about this?”

  “I’ve been cogitating,” it said. “I’ve determined the situation is outside my parameters for action.”

  “Hmm,” I said, mulling that over. “You were supposed to protect Director Vogel, correct?”

  “Yes, that was an imperative objective.”

  I glanced down at the cooling corpse. “It would seem that you’ve failed.”

  “I have failed.”

  “What’s your programming say to do now?”

  “I was also instructed to assist in the capture of this facility.”

  My mind raced. It wasn’t attacking me because Vogel had been struck dead before it could act. It was supposed to protect him, but apparently Vogel hadn’t given his pets any orders suggesting they should avenge his death if they failed to keep him breathing.

  I let loose a heavy sigh of relief. My hands came out of my pockets, and they were empty.

  The variant studied my hands with marked curiosity, but it didn’t do or say anything.

  Assuming command of any situation was something I was born to do, so I took matters into my own hands. Experimentally, I assumed a tone I often used when instructing a new spacer recruit.

  “Variant,” I said, “I need you to search this facility for dangers. Do not kill any survivors you find. Instead, you’ll note their position and report back to me immediately.”

  It hesitated as if uncertain. Its numerous eyes flashed to me, then back to Vogel’s corpse, then to me again.

  “My instructions are clarifications,” I told it. “Your current mission is to capture this facility. Follow my instructions in order to achieve that goal.”

  That did the trick. It turned and left the control room. It clacked and clicked, the one injured leg dragging with a grating sound. There were sparks kicked up in its wake now and then. I noted it took special care to step over the touch-plate in the tunnel leading to this inner sanctum.

  It was a relief to get that thing out of the room. With its brooding presence standing over me, it had been hard to think. I’d had no idea when I might accidently trigger a deadly response.

  Left alone with Vogel’s corpse and the data injector, I regarded them both.

  I hadn’t wanted to kill Vogel. I’d liked him in many ways, and he’d served me well. But I simply couldn’t take the risk. He’d clearly decided to become the Chairman’s replacement. I could never have allowed that.

  In my judgment, it was this abominable mac
hine that was to blame for Vogel’s death. It represented a dark temptation that was too great for anyone who was weak of spirit to resist.

  Looking at the machine while I was alone in the room with it began to work on my mind. No one could stop me now, it was true.

  Such power! Just thinking about it left me light-headed. To be able to influence the minds of every person on Earth at will… Any wish, any dream might be achievable.

  These were exactly the kinds of thoughts that had intoxicated Vogel. Giving my head a shake, I drew my pistol from my pocket. The flared muzzle of my PAG looked ugly and mean.

  Apparently, Director Vogel had been plotting for a long time. He’d planned all along to gain control of the machine if he was given the chance. Why else would he have reprogrammed the variants to become his personal guard? They weren’t instructed to protect me, only Vogel.

  That was why I’d been forced to act. He had to be stopped, and this foul machine could not be allowed to update human minds ever again.

  Taking aim, I placed shot after shot into the equipment. I knew enough of engineering to be thorough. I opened panels, found sensitive organics in tanks, and I methodically burned them.

  The artificial wetware smoked and filled the chamber with a nose-curling scent. I continued my work, blasting critical components until my PAG was out of charge.

  Then I left the mess behind and headed to the living quarters of the ancients who’d lived here. I found medical kits and doctored myself as best I could. Intelligent salves and bandages crawled over my skin, making the hairs on the back of my wrist stand on end.

  After that, I located water and some food in the kitchens. Searching around the Chairman’s office, I found a computer desk that was linked to the outside world.

  There were no editing facilities or mental reprogramming encoders. All that sort of thing had been in the secret lab.

  Tapping at the desk, I found I was able to access Earth’s net and use my implant to make a call outside of the vault —but I wasn't sure who to contact.

  The variant found me before I could decide who I could trust.

  “Report,” I ordered it.