by Jason Kent
"Yeah, and they were going to be delivered by a shuttle straight to the hold." Kate straightened her back and looked into Merrick's eyes.
Both Kate and Merrick spoke at the same time, "Sparrow!"
"She and Ross were trying to get to the hold!" Kate said, heading for the door. "We need to warn her!"
"Of what?" Merrick asked. Even though he was not entirely sure what Kate was worried about, he was at her side as they exited the bridge. He pulled out an oversized radio from a pouch attached to his waist. They'd gone with the low tech gear as it was designed to function even in the tech-killing Tallinn vessels. They'd been burned before when their top-of-the-line equipment stopped functioning aboard an ironclad. The marines had made sure they wouldn't face the same predicament again.
"Whatever killed the crew came aboard with the shuttle. Sparrow and Ross are walking right into trouble!"
Chapter 19
Mechs in the Dark
Sparrow raised her hands toward the oversized hatch and twisted her wrists slightly. The embedded circuitry and magnetic generators in her palms glowed brighter, visible through the thin material of her suit gloves. The golden light gleamed on the polished brass of the dials and piping set in the nearby bulkhead. Sparrow's implants collated her various sensor inputs and within seconds began to play across the inner heads-up display hovering before her line of sight. She studied the hydraulics circuit which she needed to activate in order to open the door as well as the mechanical locking mechanism currently keeping her from doing just that.
"Anything?" Ross asked. He glanced back the way they'd come. The marine's suit lights barely reached to the nearest intersection, leaving the remainder of the corridor cloaked in blackness. A metallic click echoed down the hallway. Ross instinctively raised his assault rifle to his shoulder and swept the weapon back and forth, seeking the source of the noise.
Sparrow glanced sideways at her companion and gave him a small, closed-mouth smile. She knew Ross well enough to realize a dark and empty corridor would not normally bother him. But, then again, the big marine was usually shooting his way through Tallinn ironclads, not poking around them in the dark.
"Quiet getting to you?" Sparrow teased. She kept her eyes on Ross as she used the sensors in her hands to probe deeper into the hatch controls. She was trying to gather information as to what might be waiting for them on the other side.
"Not all that quiet," Ross replied. He slowly let the end of his rifle drop. Another click sounded from farther down the corridor followed by the whir of a mechanical component spooling up to speed. Ross snapped the rifle up again. He whispered, "See what I mean?"
Sparrow looked in the direction Ross was aiming and her silver eyes winked when they caught the marine's lights. She spared one of her palm sensors and spread her fingers wide, sampling the corridor for the source of the disturbance. A Tallinn ironclad was simply a huge clockwork and steam-powered machine. The fact there was a component apparently still ticking away did not really surprise her as much as it appeared to be bothering her marine. She twisted her outstretched arm and finally locked on the source of Ross' concern.
"Pressure regulator," Sparrow reported. Gear ratios and spring tensions swam before her vision. She blinked them away as irrelevant. "It is non-functional. I would hypothesize the vibration of our passage probably jiggled something loose. I would not let it worry you." To prove she meant what she said, Sparrow turned her hands and attention back to the cargo hatch.
"If you say so," Ross said as a slow grin formed on his lips. "Did you just say 'jiggled'? Is that a Sprite technical term?" Taking on a more relaxed demeanor, Ross lowered his rifle and was turning to see what he could do to help Sparrow when the regulator clicked again in a half-hearted attempt to restart itself. Ross glanced down the corridor then back at Sparrow. "You're sure?"
"I am," Sparrow asserted. "Plus, 'jiggled' is a perfectly acceptable description for the scenario I described—"
Sparrow inhaled deeply as her remote prodding activated a camera in the room beyond the hatch. She focused on the feed and sent a query for current imagery. A rapid-fire series of pictures began to scroll across her vision. Something caught her attention as the camera panned the dim expanse of the large hold. Sparrow turned the camera back a few degrees before she saw what had tripped the response. The image was full of hulking black figures. They were lit only by the light of the local star coming in through a few, widely-spaced observation ports. Sparrow had seen hulks like these before.
The first time was during an early mission with Georges. Sparrow remembered she was rather idealistic about her abilities as a Link Sprite. Yes, she'd done the occasional hacking. And her orientation after signing on with the SUMC as a consultant had shown her new and inventive ways to use her talents. But, it all seemed so innocent. After all, no one had gotten hurt by Sparrow's activities. She'd experienced nothing worse than data espionage waged by the Stellar Union against its political rivals. Sparrow had seen a lot of startling things in the digital world but nothing she couldn't handle. At least until she and Georges arrived in orbit above Nome.
Nome, a colony world close to the border with the Tallinns, was nothing special. There were still only a few thousand people on the entire planet. Georges had received intelligence that the Tallinns might be trying to gain a foothold there. He and Sparrow were supposed to check things out and take whatever actions were necessary to neutralize the threat. Sparrow was both nervous and excited. Upon arrival in orbit, Sparrow jacked into the burgeoning colony's networks and went to work.
Sparrow knew something was wrong right away. Net traffic was confused and she kept running up against military grade interference. It took all of her skill to worm her way into the Colonial Administration Complex's system. Sparrow would never forget what she saw on the camera feeds.
The Tallinns weren't trying to win over the Nome colonists. They'd come to destroy them. Sparrow didn't understand their decision. But, the reality of the dead scattered across the Admin Complex courtyard was clear enough. And stalking among the bodies were Tallinn troopers accompanied by their mechs.
As Sparrow had watched, a knot of colonists burst out of a door, apparently fleeing one threat only to run into something worse. The mechs had swiveled, locked their glowing red sensors on the civilians, and taken aim. Before Sparrow could break the connection, she witnessed the slaughter.
Georges had found Sparrow curled up in her bunk, crying. He'd done his best to comfort her. Sparrow always remembered what the older marine had told her, 'When you work on the edge, you see the best and worst of both sides'. It didn't make her feel any better, but the fact Georges had tried to help her was what stuck with Sparrow. That, and the orbital strike he called in to obliterate the Tallinns.
Sparrow stepped back from the cargo hatch doorway, nearly losing the connection to the camera in the process. She took a breath and tightened her mental grasp on the tenuous link before it disappeared. As she focused on the images, Sparrow swallowed her fear. They needed to know what to expect when they opened the doors.
Ross raised his weapon and pointed it at the door. He hissed, "Talk to me!"
"Mechs," Sparrow whispered. She gestured at the door then realized Ross could not see the view from the camera she was jacked into. "Lots of them."
"Tral!" Ross cursed. He kept his rifle aimed at the hatch as he glanced behind them to be sure there were no new threats in the direction he intended to retreat. "Time to bug out!"
"Wait," Sparrow said quietly. She laid a hand on Ross' shoulder and ratcheted up the magnification on the camera she was linked with. "Give me a second..."
"We can't fight off 'lots of them'," Ross declared, lowering his voice to match Sparrow's. "We need to get back to Blade and regroup!"
"They're all dead," Sparrow stated flatly. She tilted her head to one side, willing the images in her mind to slowly flip past one after the other. After getting over her initial scare, she could see there was indeed no movement in the dim hold
. There was something odd though. At first, she'd thought maybe they'd stumbled onto a maintenance area for the mechs. But she wasn't seeing neat lines of the war machines.
"I've got access to a live feed. Let me see if I can find any archived imagery from the storage system. One moment, please..." She raised her hand a bit and twisted her wrist slightly. Through the bulkhead, she could feel the motor system attached to the camera. With a small magnetic push, she panned the camera across the compartment again as she searched the memory tape attached to the optics.
"You're kidding right? 'One moment, please'... I'll give you a moment," Ross grumbled and shrugged theatrically. "Don't mind me, I like being put on hold during a potential mech attack."
"We're not under attack," Sparrow stated.
"Whether or not their attacking," Ross grunted, "We can't waltz into a roomful of mechs. There's no way to know if they'll turn on and decide it's a good time to start shooting."
"There is no sign of activity," Sparrow insisted and turned her silver eyes toward Ross.
"Doesn't mean they won't shoot at us when we open the door."
Sparrow tilted her head. "Zooming in..."
"Can you tell if their functional or not?" Ross asked. "Because if you can't, we're done here!"
"I'm detecting damage to each of the machines," Sparrow reported, ignoring Ross' comment. "Wait...there are bodies around the hold. I can just make them out with the low-light settings. From what I can see of their uniforms, I presume them to be Tallinn Legionnaires. All dead."
"I would think so after all this time," Ross said. "How many?"
Sparrow lowered her arms and turned to face Ross. "Lots of them."
"Maybe we need to find you a math sub-routine to download," Ross laughed.
"There is no need. The problem with my estimation of the numbers of enemy personnel and machines in the next room is rooted in the limited field of view of the optical system I was able to access. There is also the issue of insufficient lighting, mech damage, dismemberment, disorder, and—"
"Did you just say 'dismemberment'?" Ross interrupted.
"Yes," Sparrow replied, "Among other things."
Ross sighed and stared at the door.
"We need to go in," Sparrow said.
"I know," Ross admitted. "We have to find the tablet and figure out what happened here. I don't have to like it though."
"There is the slight problem of accessing the room through this hatch," Sparrow said. "I can unlock it, but the hydraulic systems are non-functional. I can't use them to open the doors." That wasn't entirely true. Sparrow figured she could use her implants to impose the kinetic force needed to move the door. But, she was hesitant to employ her abilities. Each time she used her 'powers', as she was coming to think of them, they seemed to grow. She wasn't ready to see how far they would go. Given their current situation, she thought it was smart to conserve her energy.
"That much I can manage," Ross replied with a toothy grin. "Unlock our door and I'll do the rest." He let the strap on his rifle retract so the weapon tucked itself into an easy-to-reach spot across the marine's chest. His hands free, Ross reached behind his back and unclipped a heavy pry bar from his web belt. He stepped forward and jammed the well-worn steel bar into the crevice formed by the two halves of the door. Ross looked over at Sparrow and winked. "Never leave home without it, right?"
Sparrow's eyebrows rose and knitted together in confusion. "Without what?"
"Just unlock the hatch," Ross snorted. He adjusted his grip on the pry bar, ready to lever the door open.
Sparrow focused her magnetics on the inner workings of the mechanical lock. There were no less than twelve bolts securing the hatch in place. The hydraulics used to pull them out of the recessed holes in the floor, ceiling and walls, were dry, but there was an alternate means of manually opening the door...if you had the key. Sparrow didn't have a key, but she could make the tumblers do as she pleased. She blinked and the lock disengaged. Next she twisted her hands to the left and the gear system turned. With a thud, the twelve pins retracted. Sparrow announced. "All yours."
Ross strained on the pry bar and the doors creaked open. "The augmented assist motors in my combat armor would come in handy about now," Ross huffed.
"We were unsure if the latent power remaining in this ironclad would deactivate Stellar Union Marine Corps armor. As they did during our experience aboard the ironclad in the Gliese star system," Sparrow noted. She and Lieutenant Colonel Georges had made it back to Ross' shuttle with their armor barely functioning. Ross' team, including Merrick and Kate had been forced to abandon their armor deep inside that ironclad's engine room as they laid the nuclear charges which ultimately destroyed the vessel. Their efforts succeeded in allowing the rest of the beleaguered Stellar Union fleet to escape. Sparrow had no desire to have her armor fail again. She had felt utterly helpless. For this mission, they had decided to wear basic pressure suits.
"Yeah, I know," Ross grunted. "Still think it would help." The marine's muscles bulged under the fabric of his suit as the door reluctantly opened. Ross clipped the pry bar to his belt. He grabbed one side of the door with his hands and planted a booted foot against the other. Ross pushed and pulled until the hatch offered enough space for him, and by default, Sparrow, to pass through. He brushed his gloved hands together then aimed his assault rifle through the opening. The lights mounted on his suit and attached to the rifle swept over the immense chamber. "I can't wait to see exactly what 'lots of them' actually means."
"You will see for yourself in a moment," Sparrow replied. She watched as Ross squeezed though the opening and carefully entered the chamber. She took a deep breath. Sparrow knew seeing things through a camera and in person were two very different things. More to herself than Ross, she whispered, "You will see..."
A glint outside the cockpit window caught Dagger's attention. This was saying a lot given her current activity. She continued kissing Garrett while keeping one eye on the ironclad's outer hull. When nothing moved, Dagger shrugged it off as a trick of the eye and returned her full attention to the marine pilot's lips. Her eyes were half closed when another flash of light winked at her. Dagger gave Garrett a distracted kiss and leaned away from him, scanning the Tallinn ship outside for the source of the disturbance.
Garrett looked into Dagger's face. He started to say something but stopped when Dagger put a finger against his lips. He followed her gaze and joined her in staring out the side window beside the pilot's seat.
"What are we looking at?" Garrett asked softly after a few moments of silence.
"Shhh!"
Blade's cockpit was dark. Dagger had turned down all the lights earlier when she decided to take advantage of her ship's relative emptiness to spend a little quality time with Garrett. Most women might think waiting outside a quiet ship for their friends to retrieve an ancient, possibly dangerous artifact to be an inappropriate time to engage in any sort of romance. Then again, Dagger was not like most women. Dagger found the quiet and sense of anxiety to be just what she needed to put her in the mood. Yes, the ironclad's crew was all long dead, but they were here together, alone, and very much alive. To Dagger, it was the perfect time to make a move on Garrett.
He had not argued when she'd climbed into his lap and Dagger found herself enjoying the closeness as much as the marine.
Dagger glanced back to Garrett and found herself smiling. She'd kept the marine at arm's length for months after they got to the Archives. She'd known the poor sap had a crush on her, she just didn't feel like acting on it. Dagger originally thought of her time with Garrett, Kate, and the others as a temporary arrangement. Although she was up for the occasional one-night stand, she didn't want to become entangled with someone who seemed to want something more. Commitment had never been high on the list of Dagger's priorities. At least it wasn't before she was dragged into Kate's little adventure to discover the Tree of Knowledge. Every step of the way, Garrett had been there.
The marine turned away fr
om the view outside and squeezed Dagger around the waist. Quietly, he asked, "Something wrong? Because, if it's the clothes, we could easily—"
Dagger shushed him again and rolled her eyes. The man was incapable of keeping quiet. Unfortunately, she kind of liked that about him. Garrett was always there with a witty comment, no matter how inappropriately timed. Dagger tried to think back; when did she realize she had feelings for him? All the way back on Transom? Dagger had to admit, she enjoyed the 'accidental' brushes with him in the close confines aboard Blade. At first, she'd tensed every time they'd touched. If it had been anyone else, she probably would have pulled a knife on them. Luckily for Garrett, Dagger had decided to give in to his advances. Now, she wondered why she'd fended him off for so long.
Outside the cockpit, the ornamented hull of the Seiklus looked just like it has when they'd docked with the ironclad hours ago. Not only was the crew section of the hull rotating, the entire vessel was slowly tumbling. For the moment, their piece of the hull around the airlock was mostly cloaked in deep shadow. Only a few projecting components caught the distant sunlight.
"Keep your jumpsuit zipped up," Dagger replied with a grin. She turned to Garrett and looked him up and down with a twinkle in her eyes. "We'll keep the option open for later, though."
Garrett gave Dagger a squeeze then gestured out the window. "Did you see something?"
Dagger uncurled from Garrett's lap, reluctantly ending their double occupancy of the co-pilot's chair. He traced his fingers lightly over her back as she got up. She shivered and squeezed his hand.
"I'm not sure," Dagger admitted. She moved closer to the cockpit window. Her eyes darted from one dark nook on the hull to the next.
Garrett got out of his seat and imitated Dagger's study of the steel terrain outside. She felt an electric surge as he brushed against her. After a moment, he wrapped an arm around her waist, holding her close. She resisted her natural urge to lash out at him for violating her personal space. She thought this was great progress in their relationship. Dagger temporarily forgot about the mystery outside and reveled in Garrett's touch.