by Frank Carey
"You lie!"
"Gracie, send everything we've collected."
"Yes, Doctor."
"Danyr, I am sending you everything we stole from your home world's database. Contained in the information are records from the people who developed the weapon and the reason why they did so."
Danyr stepped away for a moment. "Kel, what the hell is going on?" Sheila asked.
"The original samsar was developed to track down and destroy something called the Trent. The real samsar has FTL capability, so it can move from system to system as it seeks out and destroys any Trent it finds."
"Oh my God. Who created this thing?"
Kel nodded toward the missing Danyr. "The Tegans did before they moved from what was left of their old world to their new one which they called Tega."
A visibly shaken Danyr stepped back into frame. "This is a lie which goes against all precepts set down by our religious leaders."
"It's not a lie, dammit. Computer languages change over the millennia. What's important is that you are dealing with a bad copy of an extremely lethal weapon that is missing all instructions contravening the extinguishing of any life other than that of the Trent. You must get your people and my people off that planet before the samsar turns its attention on you, which it will when it finishes with Team One."
"Lies! All lies! You were sent by my parents to stop me, but you will not. Come near this planet and I will kill your mate, then the other expedition members. Do you understand, Dr. Hardy?"
Kel leaned into the video pickup. "Pray to your gods that the samsar gets to you before I do, Danyr. Your death at its hands will be far more merciful than the one you will get from me if you harm Sheila or any of the others. Of that you have my word." Kel killed the connection before she could reply. Sighing, he turned and saw everyone, including Percy and Nayla, aiming a weapon at him.
"I thought you were stunned and locked in a room," he said to his cousin.
"Boy, were you wrong. You calm yet?"
Kel sniffed the air and smelled sulfur. "Let me guess, I was puffing smoke."
She nodded.
"Ancient instincts from a time when violence was the Basili rule of law. I take it you heard everything."
"Yeah. I also heard why Fool shot me. You're all a bunch of mother hens, you know that, don't you?"
Dash peaked around Kel. "Any chance we can still go on a date when this is over?" he asked.
She glared at him. "Kel, I assume you have a plan."
"Yes, I do. Maeve, can you fly the Zephyr?"
"Sure."
"Nayla, Dash, can you two fly the Tegan ship, at least into orbit?"
"Yes," they said in unison before looking at each other.
"Good. My plan is for Maeve to fly the Zephyr over the Tegan ship while under cloak. When we're close enough, Dash is going to shunt both him and Nayla over to the Tegan ship where they will take control and immediately take the ship into orbit. Meanwhile, the rest of you are going to rescue Team One, then get the plark off this rock."
"Kel, what about you?" Maeve asked slowly.
"I'm going to send that thing back to hell. I need to stop it from eating Team One or turning against the Tegans. I killed one of them, so I have the best chance of killing the second."
"My best friend bonded with an insane dragon," Maeve said. "That damn thing killed a ship filled with Tegans, the very race the original was entrusted with protecting."
"What did you just say?" Kel asked.
"Percy, how may Tegans were aboard that ship that crashed here, the one carrying the samsar?" Maeve asked.
"Over a hundred."
"And that thing killed each and every one of them even though the original was designed to protect the Tegans by only killing the Trent, right?"
"That's the answer," Kel said while replaying the entry from the ancient log. "They did everything in their power to protect everything except the Trent."
"Yeah, so?"
"They had to have put self-checks into place and protocols to handle if those checks failed. Percy, what is the Tegan's current thinking on murder?"
"Murder is a most heinous crime, punishable only by death. It is the oldest of our laws."
"And that thing killed over a hundred members of the very race it was designed to protect. "I'd call that one hell of a malfunction. If I can I get it to run a diagnostic..."
"It's a long shot, Dragon."
"Yeah, but it's all we’ve got. Anyway, I can always get out if things go sideways. I just have to wait until the rest of you get clear.”
"Let's hope you're right," Dash said as the ship gave a little shudder. "Because we've just entered atmo."
"Then let's get ready," Nayla ordered as the windows glowed bright orange with the heat of reentry.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Sheila rubbed her eyes in a futile attempt at bringing some order out of the chaos displayed on her screens. On the left screen was a hacked-together mishmash of routines which would make a second-year computer science major cringe. On the right was more advanced code worthy of a government-run coding house. In the center was something else, something almost beyond her understanding. Frankly, it scared her.
A voice from behind her made her jump. "Any progress, Doctor?" Danyr asked while holding out a cup of tea.
"Ever deliver a Sokuhl baby, Danyr?"
"No, why?"
"Because you will if you continue to sneak up on me like that. To answer your question, yes, I found something," she said before launching into the details. "The center screen contains the original code which I will designate 'Alien.'"
"I thought the original code was from the government."
"So did I, but there's way too much of it. Brack found some more files which contain the actual samsar code. Look at the center screen which contains only the alien code. This code comprises ninety five percent of what is running the damn weapon."
"What about the rest of it?"
"Three percent is what I call government. Somehow, they were able to dig deep enough to affect certain aspects of the weapon's behavior."
"And that behavior is?"
"Seek out and destroy your friend, the Trent."
"Wait, you're telling me this 'Alien' race knew about the Trent?"
"Yes, and they created a device to search the galaxy for this scourge and destroy it. I've detected control routines for an FTL drive inside the Alien code, which means the original Trent could travel between the stars and perhaps even the galaxies."
"Why would our government modify the code?"
"It was changed to prevent the device from trying to leave. Since they were building the components from a single scan, they could leave out things like space travel capability. They were probably worried that it would find alternate means of travel, so it was re-purposed to stay put. That's where the second code on the right came from. I'm pretty sure that's from your smuggler group."
"And what does that do?"
"It takes away the inhibition against killing anything but a Trent. They turned it into a weapon of mass destruction, but did a piss-poor job of it."
Danyr sat back and stared into space for a moment. "Can it be turned off?"
"Maybe I could find something if I had a million years. Right now, the best I can do is lure it to a chosen spot using a recall code I found in the programming. Once there, we might be able to destroy it with a nuke or an EMP bomb."
"I want to capture it, not destroy it. Send the lure code to my ship's computer."
"And once you lure it here, then what? A net?"
"Sort of. We have a force field. Once the weapon is inside the field's perimeter, we snap on the power and capture us a samsar."
"You're delusional. I'm not going to be party to you and your group committing suicide..." she stopped when Danyr pointed a weapon at her. "This weapon may or may not kill you, but it will kill your baby. Do as I ask, and I will not use it against you."
With eyes full of hate, Sheila tapped a but
ton on her console, transferring her data from Brack to the ship's computer. "Understand this, Danyr, I get the chance and I will end your miserable life for threatening my baby. I swear this on my family name."
Danyr laughed, but stopped when she saw the look in Sheila's eyes. She thumbed the comm on her wrist. "Quinto, the good doctor just downloaded a transmission pattern into the computer. Program one of our EPIRBs to broadcast it. What's our status?"
"No go on finding a way into the wreck—we kept having cave-ins. Per your orders, we've set the trap one courtyard over. The captain has prepped the ship for immediate liftoff in the event of a problem."
"What about visitors?"
"Oddly, the sky is clear out to the first moon. It's as quiet as a tomb."
"That is very odd. Have the captain go to alert level. We may have to fight our way out of here. Anything else?"
"Yes, we have an energy disturbance half a click from here. Could be a piece of wreckage shorting out or it may be natural. We will monitor."
"Good. I want Nero, Gaius, and Trajan to stay behind and guard the prisoners. Meanwhile, the rest of us and Dr. Minty are going to go catch us a samsar."
"Sister, are you sure this is wise? We can use an automaton to run the trap."
"No! I want us there when we take the first step toward conquering the Tegan Commonwealth and setting our people back on the path to greatness."
"Yes, My Sister. All will be done as you command."
"Come along doctor, it's time to change history!"
###
At the center of the courtyard was an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon—EPIRB for short—which had been modified to send out a coded radio pulse which would call the samsar like a whistle calls back a shepherding animal. Around the edge of the courtyard were force field generators which would englobe whatever strayed into the open area. Hiding between the buildings and in the dark doorways were most of Danyr's men, all heavily armed in the event the force field failed. "I would like to state for the record that this is the stupidest, most ill-conceived plan I have ever witnessed."
"Your opinion has been duly noted and logged," Danyr said derisively. "I suggest you stand behind Quinto if you're so worried."
"Thank you," Sheila said as she took up position behind the big insurrectionist.
"Comfy?" He asked.
"Very," she said with a glare thrown in for good measure.
"Good," Danyr said, thumbing the comm. "This is Danyr. EPIRB activation in ten seconds...Hack!"
Ten seconds later, she nodded to Quinto who pressed a flashing red button on a remote he was holding. Their ear pieces started emitting the coded signal as they reacted to the transmission pouring forth from the emergency device.
"Report!" she whispered over the comm.
"This is Nero. We're picking up the samsar approaching from the west. Ma'am it's coming from the same general direction as the unknown energy signature."
"It must have found a quick snack. Everyone, on your toes."
"ETA, ten seconds," Nero called out over the comms
"Easy, boys. Easy..."
A ten meter diameter cloud of black emerged from between two buildings. More than a cloud, it was a swarm of thousands of tiny robots moving two and fro in a manner reminiscent of a swarm of gnats on a warm, sunny day, only these gnats were deadly.
The samsar coalesced into a compact cloud shape. It cast about, undulating in shape as it searched for the source of the signal that called to it. In moments, it had engulfed the EPIRB.
"I thought it would be bigger," Quinto whispered.
"This is very, very bad," Sheila whispered as she looked around.
"Hit it, Brother."
Nodding, Quinto hit a flashing blue button on the remote, activating the force field generators and trapping the samsar in a globe of energy. Instead of struggling to free itself, the cloud calmly floated over to the side closest to where the three were hiding. It came to a stop and floated there.
"Shit, it knows we're here. Danyr, get your people out of here, or we're all going to die," Sheila hissed.
"Doctor, your concern for the safety of my men is commendable, but you forget about the force field tapping the weapon..." She stopped talking the moment the ground began shaking. "Report!"
"No response from the ship," Quinto yelled back over the din of the buildings shaking apart around him. "Scanner shows a second energy signature similar to the samsar's."
"Where?"
"All around us. Sister, it's big."
"How big?"
Sheila pointed to where the first samsar had appeared. Above the buildings rose a wall of churning dust—on Earth, it would be called a haboob— which quickly gained in height—fifty meters, one hundred meters, three hundred meters—until capping-off at one thousand meters. Danyr looked around and saw the dust surrounded the courtyard and her men. "Liberty, this is Danyr. Emergency extraction. I repeat, emergency extraction."
Silence from the ship. One of her men panicked and fired on the cloud. A tendril dipped down and engulfed him. Moments later, it dropped his lifeless body to the ground before turning its attention to the force field. The tentacle of smoke lashed out against the energy screen, causing sparks to fly before the electronic barrier collapsed in the face of an onslaught of nanoscopic robots. Once freed, the smaller samsar flew up until it disappeared into the body of its larger relative.
"Open fire!" Danyr yelled. Her men didn't need to be told twice. All of them fired their weapons, filling the area with the smell of ozone as energy beams cooked the very air around them.
The samsar was not amused. A tendril dropped down and killed an insurrectionist. Then another. Then another. Then one went for Quinto. Acting on instinct, Sheila screamed a Sokuhl battle cry as she reached over and threw the insurrectionist to safety, then found herself the tendril's new target. She closed her eyes as the tentacle bore down on her, silently apologizing to her daughter for getting both of them killed. Another tremor knocked her to her knees.
"What the hell?" she asked as she opened her eyes and saw the tendril hovering above her, its tip pointed toward the middle of the open area. She turned her attention to what interested the weapon and stopped breathing. In the center of the ancient plaza stood Kel, his wings spread while his eyes glowed in anger.
"I love you Sheila Minty. Always have, always will," he yelled as he pressed a control on his right wrist gauntlet. Sheila could hear a shriek come from the insurrectionist's ear pieces as they ripped them out and threw them to the ground. The samsar screamed as well as a hundred of its tentacles leapt toward her mate in a massive swarm.
Seeing the way clear, Quinto ordered the others to retreat as he grabbed Sheila.
"Nooooo!" the Sokuhl screamed as she fought to free herself.
"He's giving his life to save you. Don't let him die in vain," he yelled as he grabbed his sister with his other arm and dragged them back to the ship as the samsar engulfed the Basili historian.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Flashback
The Furball landed at the Sokuhl spaceport and taxied over to where Gus had a private hangar. Once the ship was squared away, Gus and Sheila exited the port and took a public conveyance to Sheila's office across town.
"Nice digs," Gus commented.
"Thanks, they serve me well," she said while closing and locking the door behind her. "Where do you want to start?"
"A picture of the object and a brief description of the events leading up to its loss."
She dug through a pile of paperwork on her desk, finally holding up a photo. "Here it is." She gave it to him.
"Hmmm. Winged, bipedal dragon. Look at the abs on that guy. What does he represent?"
"Supposedly he's a representation of a second race of sapients that called the home world home. A friend of mine lent it to me for a caper, but it has to be back in the museum by opening Monday morning."
"You had a second sapient race? And one with wings?"
"My friend is a little eccen
tric. No one else on the home world thinks anything of it."
"What does your friend do?"
"He has doctorates in History and Archaeology. He's also a recluse."
"Wonderful. A recluse. How did you lose it?"
"The op was a simple show and tell. I show the perp the object, they pay for it using an e-card, then we back trace to the account. Everything went fine until we went to retrieve the artifact."
"Let me guess. No way it could have gotten out of the area, yet it was gone?"
"Exactamundo."
"Where did this take place?"
"The Komodo Downtown."
The Komodo was one of the most secure establishments in the League. Deals both legitimate and illegal were struck there with impunity and security. Nothing gets out of the Komodo unless it is supposed to. "Let's go check it out."
After a short trip through town, they arrived at the Komodo. Sheila got them inside with her OffSec ID card and took him to where the deal went down. The area had been cordoned off with Security tape.
"You work both sides, don't you?" Gus asked the agent.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Right." He ducked under the tape and looked around the table. "Hmmmm." He looked one way, then another. "You ran a scan of this area?"
"Of course."
"Can I see it?"
"We found nothing," she said while handing him her datapad.
"Hmmmm," he said while reading the information.
"Do you have to do that?"
"Hmmm?"
"Yes, that."
He smiled, then reached down and tore the bottom cushion off its frame. Inside the hollow space underneath was the statue. But Gus didn't remove it, instead, he pulled a weapon from its shoulder holster and aimed it at a human waiter making a beeline for the door. "Hey, Krazney, long time no see. What's your hurry?"
"No hurry, Gus. Just need to feed the meter."
"Kraz, you're so forgetful. There are no parking meters on the home world. You're just so Earthbound. How about you come over here and have a few words with the pretty lady about her statue?"
"Damn, Gus, how about you cut a guy some slack?" Krazney said as his shoulder hunched over in defeat.