by L Bowers
“Uh, Tom,” I said.
“Uh Tom, is an od name,” Titan replied.
“Sorry, my name is Tom. Just Tom.”
“Ah, I see. Tom, why do you only possess a portion of the Masters Gear?”
“The Masters Gear was a full body minus a mind,” Ariella said. “We couldn't get a consciousness into the Masters Gear so we went with plan B.”
“Is this true, Tom?” Titan asked.
“I don't’ have a reason to think the lady is lying.”
“Then I shall accept her response. Do you wish to power up all systems?”
“Hell yeah!” I shouted louder than I meant too.
“No wait!” Ariella shouted. “Don’t do anything unless I say otherwise, Titan.”
“My pilot has spoken.”
The soft whine I heard upon entering Titan picked up in cadence and volume.
“Main drives are go.” Titan boomed.
Vibrations rippled through me, but not me. Like I felt what Titan felt. Could he feel?
“Sensor suite active.”
A whole mess of information flooded my brain. From the temperature outside the mech and inside. Two objects in space moving close to the ship were being tracked, but posed no danger. What concerned me was the inbound ship. A database I had no clue I could access told me I was sensing a Dread class Battlecruiser. How did I know that, and how did I know I was accessing a database?
“Opening bay doors.” Titan said.
“Hey!” Ariella shouted. “You are not allowed to control the bay or anything else on this ship, Titan!”
“Imminent danger detected. Protocol override authorized as per section twelve, sub section six of the Titan code. Clamps disengaged. Titan free.”
My stomach lurched as Titan and I fell out of the ship. Our momentum carried us away from the belly of the ship, but nothing else happened. I looked up, or what was up relative to my position and saw the gleaming metal hull of the incoming Dread class Battlecruiser.
“Hey, Titan,” I said “What now?”
“Take us into battle, pilot and dominate our foes,” his deep voice rumbled through the cockpit.
“Okay. How?”
“Your will is my will. Demand it and it shall be,” Titan replied.
“Cause that’s not cryptic as fuck. Okay, your will is my will, huh? Here goes nothing. Space boosters go!”
Nothing happened.
“What gives, Titan?” I asked. The Battlecruiser closed in on us and little points of light flashed to life around it.
“I said will, not shout. Will me to move as you would do your arm. I am an extension of you when we are connected. Have you not read the manual and utilized the simulator? How many hours did you log before climbing aboard?”
“There’s a manual and a simulator?” As I spoke I willed us forward and we shot off like a bullet.
Chapter 11
In a matter of seconds we were next to the Battlecruiser, then past it. I applied my will again and we flipped around with the thrusters kicking into overdrive. From the feedback Titan gave me we had thrusters in our feet and a set on our back. The back thrusters stayed off until we used them to stop.
“What do we have for weapons’” I asked.
“Cannons and plasma weapons are offline due to ammunition deficiencies. All we have available are kinetic weapons.”
“Hey, Ariella, did you know that you sent me out here with all my guns unloaded?” I asked.
“What? Oh yeah. Use your swords, but whatever you are going to do make it fast. The Dread ship is speeding up. If they ram us we are screwed and they will just have to buff out some scratches in their paint. Get your ass moving before there is nothing here to save’” Ariella said.
“I need options, Titan,” I said as I engaged thrusters and headed for the enemy at a much more subdued pace.
“I am activating dual wield blades. Mover you hands to the green disk in our chest and prepare to catch them. They function exactly as they do in the sim,” Titan said.
“That’s great,” I grumbled. The damn robot was having a hard time understanding that I hadn’t done the simulator.
I moved our arms to just over the green disk in our chest as it lit up. Two handles slid out from the light and into our palms. I pulled them the rest of the way out and was surprised by what I had. Two identical high tech looking blades with green glowing edges. “What do I need to know about these blades?” I asked. There was a slew of questions building up in me, but the mission came first. Then I would grill Titan, Bridget, and Ariella.
The enemy ship loomed before me and my time for questions was up. We planted our feet on the hull of the massive ship. A cannon swivel to greet us. Titan’s legs moved faster than I thought something as big as him could move. In an instant we traveled the length of a football field and sunk one of the blades into the side of the turret. The other blade cleaved through the barrel with ease.
In response to my badassery two more turrets swiveled our direction. We ran at the next one and a green beam as wide as a house shot out at us. We dodged to the left but the beam clipped our arm sending us spiraling away from the ship.
“At this rate the enemy vessel will tear through the friendly designated ship and go on an extended vacation before we destroy it,” Titan said.
“I’m open to ideas, big guy,” I said as I flipped us and pointed us toward the accelerating ship.
“Combine max acceleration with the blades I issued you, and will have no problems punching through the hull. I calculate that we will be able to maximize the damage dealt and significantly reduce the time it takes to cripple or destroy the enemy vessel.”
“Man, you are one chatty giant robot. But I like what you’re throwing down, Titan. Here we go. I suggest you pray to whatever robo-god you believe in,” I said.
We shot forward like a bullet. The blades hit the metal plating and tore through like it was tinfoil. Titan collided with the torn plates bending them inward with no damage at all to my big buddy.
The result of our spontaneous entrance was a good reminder that I was in space. People, equipment, furniture, and all kinds of space-stuff flew by us in a rush to check out the new exit. Unfortunately, the impact stopped our forward momentum.
I gave myself a mental fist bump before addressing the big guy. “Any ideas on how to deal with this ship now that we are in?”
“I suggest a systematic search until you locate the engines then destroying them.”
“Yeah, no. That is going to take forever,” I giggled due to the fun I was having, “but I have an idea.”
We backed up to the hole then I launched us forward blades first and fired the foot thrusters. We tore threw all kinds of shit before bursting out of the other side. Then I flipped us around and kicked on back and boots to stop us. With a thought the thrust kicked into high gear and sent us back at the ship.
We tore into the ship again this time going through and back out. Then we flipped and punched through moving up along the length of the long ship. When we came out this time cannons opened fire on us.
“Looks like that was enough to make us priority one,” I said.
“Indeed,” Titan replied. “What now?”
“Ha! Now we keep at it! You know what Swiss cheese is?” I asked.
“Negative.”
“Well here comes your first earth lesson.”
We spun back around and headed for the ship. This time I was forced to dodge green bolts, but with the telemetry data Titan fed me that was easy as cake and pie. We punched through again and again until we slammed into something solid enough to slow our momentum.
“What the … “ I started.
“REACTOR CORE!” Titan screamed. “GO!”
I didn’t need to be told twice. Kicking all the thruster up to maximum we shot through the center of the ship. An explosion detonated at our six and a ball of flame chased us out.
We burst free of the Dread class ship right before the fire and shock wave hit us. Wit
h my senses connected to Titan I felt the wave like I received a punch to the back. We tumbled through space as I took time to enjoy the immense pain I felt.
“Tom?” Bridget asked and I heard the fear in her voice.
“I’m here,” I grumbled. “Just a little battered, but nothing to worry about.”
“Oh thank the gods. Can you get back to the ship?”
“Yeah, no issues.” I kept my voice calm and even to disguise the pain I felt. No point in making her worry more.
“You are amazing, Tom. Okay, so … what?” Bridget’s voice became distant so I didn’t catch her next words.
“Tom, the prisoner is going bonkers. She keeps yelling about collecting the black box. I don’t know what it is, but maybe you should look around the wreckage?” Bridget asked. “Huh?” Her voice became distant once more. “I’m being told there are strange signals coming from the wreck. Will you check?”
“Yeah, I can do that,” I said.
“Listen, Tom,” Ariella said through the comms. “We are on a private channel. I don't know why you didn't fess up to your injuries, but I am receiving your vitals and I know you’re hurting. Come back and let someone else worry about the treasure hunt.”
“Preciate ya for your concern, Ariella, but I’m fine. I swear it's not just macho bull. I hurt some sure, but not enough to call it,” I said.
A long drawn out sigh came through my speakers. “Okay, Tom. I’ll trust your judgement this time. Don’t make me regret it.”
“You got it, boss. You are tech, right? I mean like my tech support, that is?” I asked.
“Correct.”
“What can you tell me about this black box thing the prisoner mentioned?”
“Nothing. I’ve been searching our records, both stolen with this ship and those Senator Lorn gave us access to, but I have nothing. I want to go talk to the captive, but as long as you are sortied I have to man my post,” Ariella said.
“I’ll make this quick so we can both go ask,” I replied.
We turned slowly to face the wreckage. Never had I felt so proud as I did when I saw the work we had done. The back end of the ship had blown open like a joke cigar with an exploding end. From there a tear spread down the length of the ship bisecting it. A cloud of debris and metal shards surrounded the dead vessel.
“We must be careful while navigating the debris field,” Titan said. “We run the risk of bumping into unexploded ordinance. The probability of a vessel this size carrying planet busters is high.”
“Copy that,” I replied. “Track the movement of the debris in the area of our entry point and let me know of anything that looks to be a problem.”
“Indeed.”
Using the back thruster so I could stay upright in relation to the wreck we moved forward at a cautious pace. Still we entered the field a moment later. Slow for Titan was fast as fuck for me.
A woman in a dark uniform floated by our face with a look of terror frozen on her face. I ground my teeth and tried my damndest to forget her. The next body among the debris field made that notion impossible as did the one after that. I wasn’t sure if the whole bodies or the pieces of corpses were worse.
“Fuck,” I mumbled. “Maybe there is brain bleach in space. Yeah, probably not.”
Titan rescued me from the dark tunnel my thoughts spiraled toward. “I am picking up a unique energy signature.”
“Unique how?” I asked.
“It is identical to the energy signature I generate,” Titan said.
“I see. Can you locate it?”
The answer came to me before Titan responded. He could, and knew where it was. “I have plotted a course to the source of the signature in the lower half of the shipwreck.”
A green line appeared in my vision leading between the two halves of the ship and down into the lower portion. We followed the line weaving through the debris field. The path took into account the movement of the debris but took us close enough to a few large pieces increasing the pucker factor by tenfold. Finally we were clear and sailing into the space between the ship halves.
The space below us turned out to be a storage area and a large one at that. The black box was pretty evident once I saw it. It was exactly as described. A box as tall as Titan that measured the same dimensions in length, width, and height.
We stepped onto the deck next to the box. Cables tethered it to the floor of the cargo hold. We circled the cube cutting the cabled with our green edged blades. Once the last was cut the box floated off the deck.
“So we just need to grab this thing and push it toward the ship?” I asked.
“I recommend we pull it along,” Titan replied. “That will allow us greater control of the boxes acceleration and deceleration.”
“Right. Last thing we want is to kill our own ship with a high-speed collision,” I said “Here is what we are going to do …”
With Titan’s immense strength we pulled the box up and out of the ship. Using it as a shield we pushed it though the debris field and even managed to avoid most of the floating detritus. Once clear we pointed the box at our ship and gave it another nudge. Then I moved us to the far side of the box and planted our feet on it then waited for Titan to give me the queue to start decelerating.
“Now,” Titan said.
I triggered the back thrusters and our progress slowed. Thanks to Titan’s calculations our speed was ideal for pushing the black box into the ship’s hangar. We held it down while crew members in zero atmosphere suits strapped it to the deck.
“I will dock us,” Titan said once we pulled our arm back out of the ship.
“Copy that, buddy.”
The machine called Titan maneuvered us under the ship and into the giant robot dock. Once he was settled and secured lights flicked on and the cable holding the handle descended to chest height. I grabbed a hold and the devices connecting my armor to Titan disconnected. The cable yanked me back up into the ship.
Chapter 12
The ship vomited me back out on the deck in Ariella’s workshop.
“Hey handsome,” The gorgeous alien greeted me.
“Hi, Ariella, how are you doing?”
Her big ears twitched and she tilted her head to the left. “I’m good now that I don’t have to worry about death.” Her large eyes narrowed to wide slits. “How are you, is the real question. Any pain or discomfort?”
“No, not really.”
“Not really, or no?” Her tone lacked the playfulness from before.
“I’m a little sore, but nothing serious,” I said. “I understand your concerns, Ariella, but I’m fine. I promise I won’t hide any pains or injuries from you. There are a bunch of mechanical parts sewn on my body that I don’t understand. No way am I going to risk my dick falling off because I caught the cyber crotch rot. Not going to happen.”
Ariella chuckled and her ears turned back. “Okay, though I don’t think cyber crotch rot is a thing.”
“Well that’s a load off. There are still a ton of answers I want, but I think the black box should be our priority,” I said.
“I agree whole heartedly,” Bridget said causing Ariella and I to turn towards the door.
“Hey, Bridget,” I said. “You have an idea what the box is or what’s in it?”
“No, no clue at all. I was hoping we could find out and do it soon,” Bridget said.
“Titan said it emitted an energy signature identical to his own,” I said.
“What?” Ariella’s ears stood to attention and her eyes went wide. “Why didn’t say that? Hell, why didn’t you lead with that. You have no idea how important that could be.”
“Kinda sounds like you don’t either,” I replied.
“That might be true, but irrelevant. You should have said something.”
“I just did, Ariella. You remember the whole thing about you being worried for my well being? I Thought it would be more prudent to ease your concerns instead of just ignoring you and saying, ‘Hey, forget about what you’re worried about
or how it might make you feel, did you know…’ I didn’t want to be that guy. Sorry,” I said.
“Yeah, I guess you have a point. Anyway, let's go and take a look,” Ariella said. She practically bounced with excitement. It was enough to do some interesting things to her chest area.
“Hey, Bridget,” I said as I pulled my eyes kicking and screaming away from Ariella’s chest. “Have you gotten anything from the prisoner?”
“Nothing. She was going ape shit over the box until you set it on the deck in the cargo hold. Then she quieted and has been sitting docile on her bunk since.”
“I’m wondering if we should bring her to the hold and see what she does,” I said.
“No!” Both Bridget and Ariella said in unison. They shared a sly smile before one of them spoke next.
“Until we have a clue what it is bringing her there is too much of a risk. I think having them both on the same ship is too much of a risk, but we only have the one ship here. We’ll probably transfer her to another ship once we make our rendezvous,” Bridget said.
I turned back to Ariella to see her putting an item into a bag she had looped around her shoulder. She smiled at me and pointed toward the door. “I’m ready if you two are.”
“Let’s do it then,” I said.
The ladies led me through the ship’s passageways. When I wasn’t busy admiring the view from behind, I took note of the sailors we passed. All of them stopped to salute Senator Lorn but none paid Ariella much attention. In fact, If I didn’t read the situation wrong most seemed to ignore her. That was something to look into later.
Bridget had a nice walk with just enough movement to draw my eye, but Ariella’s walk promised to deliver the kind of things men spend their entire lives hoping for but never getting. Most men that is, being a being a Marine gave me an edge in that department.
I became so lost in Ariella’s hypnotic sway that I didn’t notice when all three of us came to a stop in front of an elevator. “You going to stare at my ass all day or do you plan on helping us figure out the black box?” Ariella asked.
“Huh?” I looked up to find both women smirking at me. “Oh sorry. Just lost in thought.”