The Link

by Isaac Hooke

  “She still has a backup,” Jain said.

  “A backup,” Cranston said. He almost spat the words. “What we really need is a time machine. So I could go back and prevent myself from ever getting my mind scanned.” He glanced at Jain and smiled weakly. “Just kidding.”

  Jain nodded. “Sometimes I don’t want to be a Mind Refurb either. I never asked for this. None of us did. Well, we volunteered I suppose, but we were naive, didn’t really know what to expect. We thought it was something that would never affect our lives. At the time, we only had some vague notion of the consequences of our actions. We thought, hell, we’re just creating copies… we’ll continue to live out our days as we know them. And our original human selves did just that. But we could have never realized how real our copies would become. You and I, we’re the real Jain and Cranston now. We’re our own legacy. And we’re living it.”

  Cranston fell silent once more as he jogged beside Jain.

  Then he smiled.

  “Saving the world, like we do best,” Cranston said.

  “That’s right,” Jain told him.

  “Let’s kick some ass,” Cranston said.

  “Oh, I intend to,” Jain said.

  Eric led the charge. This was his battle. He was going to save the world, once again.

  Humanity, and Mind Refurb kind, they really owe me. Big time.

  He dismissed the thoughts with a grim smile.

  Haven’t saved the world yet.

  He reached the entrance to the target compartment. The door was sealed.

  “Okay,” Eric said. “This is it. Behind this door resides the reactor responsible for shield generation. A well-placed plasma grenade will take it out. We peel open its metal exterior, toss the grenade, and get the hell out. That’s the plan.”

  “There’s a lot of room for resistance in there,” Jain commented.

  Eric glanced at the map. The reactor was located on the opposite end of the compartment. Definitely room for the enemy to make a final stand. He had no idea what the Link might have waiting for them inside.

  “Get ready for breaching!” Eric pressed himself against the bulkhead next to the door. Crusher assumed a position directly opposite. Behind them, the team members alternately lined up.

  “Breach in progress!” Eric fired his plasma weapon point blank at the door. The metal only took a few shots to turn from red hot to white. The final shot melted the white section away entirely, forming a small hole. Eric fired a few more shots, enlarging that hole until it was big enough to fit an android.

  Then he ceased firing. And he waited. He stared at the hole, waiting for something to attack. Anything.

  But so far, there was only calm.

  Eric glanced at Crusher, who nodded.

  Eric began to pie the opening with his rifle, when a huge grappling hook of some kind slammed through the door and into the opposite wall. No, it wasn’t a grappling hook. It was something organic. Like the thick appendage of some giant octopus. Where the appendage struck the wall, smaller tentacles fanned outward across the surface, curling backward, toward the Mind Refurbs.

  They were already opening fire. Eric joined them, unleashing hell on those things.

  Before he could react, that huge appendage released the bulkhead, and curved backward, smashing into his body. It wrapped around him, and pulled him through the breach and into the vast compartment beyond. He still couldn’t see what held him, because his back was toward it, and the tentacle blocked the rear camera hidden in his hair. He was drawn upward, toward the far ceiling, but never made it. The tentacles tightened, crushing his android body.

  His last thought before his body split in two was: oh shit.

  Reality blinked.

  He was back inside the virtual reality environment aboard the Bethunia—his mind had switched control to the next closest vessel linked to his consciousness.

  Around him lay the virtual deck of the sailing ship. None of the Bolt Eaters lounged nearby, of course. How could they, when they had transferred their consciousness into the androids?

  He turned around to gaze at the stars behind the ship’s railing. The half dome of Earth floated just above. His gaze was drawn to the world killer, which hovered above the North American continent. Concentric pulses of energy launched from the donut hole in the center, and into the Earth’s crust below.

  “Are we too late?” he wondered.

  A series of flashes drew his attention to a space battle nearby.

  More Link vessels had jumped in. Teleporters, Battlestars, Trees, Minelayers. Hundreds of them. Slate led the Banthar space navy against the enemy, helping the Earth defense forces and the Tyrnari ships fend off the latest flyby.

  The Void Warrior ships joined the battle as well, thanks to the copies of their Accomps manning the respective vessels. Eric had no one operating his ship, however. Autonomous subsystems kept the ship operational, of course, but otherwise the ship’s AI core was an empty shell waiting to respond to his remote commands. And so the Bethunia had idled on the sidelines all this time, letting the battle take place, and doing nothing to help.

  That’s about to change.

  “But even if we get those shields down, it won’t be easy to disable that ship, not with so many Link ships to protect it,” Eric said.

  “Yes,” Dee agreed. There was no one else present, so his Accomp assumed he was talking to her. Maybe he was.

  “Slate, I’m back,” Eric sent.

  Stunned silence. Then:

  “If your ass is back, then how come the worm killer still has its shields?” Slate sent.

  “The world killer?” Eric said. “My android died. We’re close, though. We’re right outside the generator room. There’s a little bit of resistance. Nothing the others can’t handle.” He hoped.

  “Well, it’s probably a good thing you’ve returned,” Slate said. “We need all the help we can get right now!”

  Eric connected with Admiral Tanis. “I’m back.”

  “Tell me the shield is down,” Tanis sent.

  “Sorry,” Eric said. “My android ran into some trouble in there, and I had to exit the scene early.”

  “The quakes are getting pretty bad on Earth,” Tanis said. “I’m not sure how much longer humanity can hold out.”

  “So the quakes have started already?” Eric asked. He glanced at his timer. There was still twenty minutes left. “I thought we had more time.”

  “Apparently, you were wrong about when they’d start,” Tanis said. “They began about twenty minutes ago.”

  Eric squeezed his eyes shut for several moments.

  We failed.

  No. Not yet.

  He opened his eyes, and gazed at the distant battle. He accelerated toward it. “Well, if it’s any consolation, before I left, we were right at the shield generator room. We’ve almost got it. Trust me.”

  “I do,” Tanis said. “We could probably use you the most here, to shore up the defenses.” On the overhead map, a waypoint appeared.

  Eric directed the Bethunia toward that waypoint, where the fighting seemed the most intense above Earth.

  “We’re going to win this,” Eric sent Slate.

  “I appreciate the positive vibes,” Slate replied. “But it’s going to take more than good feelings to end this in our favor.”

  Unfortunately, Eric knew Slate was right. It was out of his hands now.

  So much for saving the world on my own.

  Though he supposed it was about time he let someone else take a stab at it.

  Good luck, my Bolt Eaters. And to you, too, Void Warriors. If anyone can do this, it’s you guys.

  22

  Jain and the others had rushed inside the expansive compartment in an effort to save Eric, only to find themselves face to face with the biggest creature they’d ever seen. It looked like a tree trunk covered in slimy skin, with huge tentacles in places of branches, their tips covered in even smaller tentacles. It resided directly in front of the much-vaunted reactor res
ponsible for generating the vessel’s impenetrable shield. And it wouldn’t move, no matter how many energy grenades, or laser and plasma attacks they directed against it.

  One of those giant appendages slammed down and Jain dodged it. As it hit, the smaller tentacles launched toward him. He sliced at them with the bayonet attachment of his rifle while firing laser bursts at the same time.

  Darts embedded in his back as another nearby tentacle launched barbs from slits at the same time.

  “I’m detecting the release of a corrosive liquid from the darts,” Xander announced.

  “That explains the pain!” Jain said between gritted teeth. The feeling became so intense he was forced to lower his pain sense. Thankfully it soon subsided as the liquid amount of toxic liquid dissolved as much of the surrounding metal as it could.

  Sheila suddenly smashed into him. As he hit the deck with her, he realized she’d forced him out of the way of another tentacle that had struck out toward him.

  He fired past her body as the smaller tentacles reached for him, and she rolled off of him and joined in the attack.

  They scrambled to their feet, and joined the others, who had gathered to fight in a small cluster nearby.

  They’d lost Dickson, in addition to Eric. He wasn’t sure how much longer the rest of them would last, not against this.

  It was hopeless.

  They weren’t operating at their heightened time sense, they couldn’t—their power cells were too low. No, they had to fight this thing in ordinary time.

  We might as well be human.

  Human.

  Jain had almost forgotten what it was like.

  I never gave up when I was human. When things were so much more difficult. When death was so very near. I have all the advantages of a machine in this body. I’ll be damned if I give up now.

  And so he fought with renewed purpose.

  The group was forced to separate whenever one or more of those huge tentacles came at them. They also repeatedly took barb impacts whenever those slits got too close.

  Crusher dashed forward, and tossed an energy grenade toward the base of that big trunk. She retreated as it detonated. The impact carved a fresh blast crater into the creature, and it howled, but did not let up its attack. In terms of relative damage, the hole she’d made was equivalent to cutting off the toe of a lion.

  “That was my last!” Crusher said.

  Jain still had one energy grenade left, but he was saving that to use on the reactor itself. There had to be a way to get around that creature to reach the reactor. Yet, he couldn’t see one. Unless…

  Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way.

  He dodged the latest strike, and then glanced at the overhead map. There was another compartment that bordered the reactor room. Its far bulkhead was adjacent to the reactor itself.

  “We have to retrograde,” Jain said. He sliced at a bunch of tentacles that tried to wrap around him. “Check your maps… see that room to the north? Its south wall borders the reactor. We cut through the wall, the reactor will be right in front of us.”

  “And what if that room is guarded as well?” Sheila asked.

  “It’s a lot smaller,” Jain said. “If it’s guarded, the resistance will be a lot weaker.” He hoped. “And if not, then we’re screwed. Now retreat!”

  Tentacles came in once more, and the group dodged; as soon as the appendages receded, Jain raced toward the entrance, leading the way. He fired behind him with his laser rifle, while the others launched laser and plasma attacks.

  He reached the doorway and dove through.

  He raced down the passageway, followed by the others. Behind them, a tentacle slammed through the entrance in pursuit, though it hit the opposite bulkhead harmlessly.

  Jain paused before a left turn on the way to the room in question. He peered around the corner. The way was blocked by those box-shaped robots on treads. They unleashed their plasma beams when they saw his head, and Jain was forced to retreat.

  “Not this way,” he said.

  He led them back the way they had come, and raced past the open doorway to the shield room. The tentacled creature inside noticed their passage, and unleashed yet another appendage attack. It narrowly missed Marlborough, who passed by on drag. The Sarge gave the smaller tentacles that reached for him a good walloping with his rifle before running on.

  Using the map, Jain took an alternate route, and then doubled back. They met no resistance, and in moments reached the compartment that bordered the reactor room. The door was sealed.

  “Let’s hope there isn’t another tentacle-on-a-stick hiding behind these doors,” Sheila said.

  Jain stepped back to allow Crusher and Frogger to breach the door. The rest of the team spread out behind them on either side of the entrance.

  The plasma beams of the two breachers made quick work of the door, and they ducked behind the edges when the metal disintegrated.

  Frogger pied the entrance.

  “Clear!” he said a moment later.

  He and Crusher entered at the same time, with Crusher going high, and Frogger low.

  Jain followed just behind them.

  But the room seemed unprotected.

  “It’s a storage compartment of some kind, for processed ores,” Crusher said.

  It contained bars stacked in neat rows that clambered to the ceiling. Frogger kicked one of them, and it toppled, knocking down the others like dominos. They scrambled over the fallen bars and proceeded to the far bulkhead.

  “Breachers!” Jain said.

  Crusher and Frogger lined themselves up with the bulkhead, using the blueprints to guide them to the proper spot.

  It took four concentrated strikes to break through the metal. Jain could see the cylindrical reactor core lying just beyond. And past it, the hulking, void-resistant creature.

  “Peel back the exterior of the reactor,” Jain said.

  Crusher and Frogger fired again, this time aiming at the curved metal base of the reactor.

  Tentacles began to wrap around the cylindrical base of the reactor as the creature attempted to stop them. There wasn’t much room behind the reactor, so it was using its smaller tentacles.

  But Marlborough fired his plasma rifle at those tentacles, and Jain, Sheila, Cranston, and Medeia targeted them with their lasers. They managed to keep the appendages at bay long enough for Crusher and Frogger to disintegrate the reactor’s protective surface.

  The plasma conduit within was revealed. It shone brightly in the dim blue light that emanated from the bulkheads.

  “Get back!” Jain retrieved his energy grenade, and waited for Crusher and Frogger to retreat. He stepped back himself, then he tossed the grenade into the opening and into the plasma channel.

  The resultant detonation hurled him against the far bulkhead, along with the others. He landed in the ore bricks. Ahead, the plasma channel had turned black.

  “We did it,” Jain said. “Team, it’s time to get out of here!”

  He and the others retreated through the storage compartment’s opening at a jog. He took a left, retracing the route they’d used to get here.

  “Tanis, do you read?” Jain said. “The shield is down.”

  No response.

  “There’s too many bulkheads between us and the hull,” Frogger said. “We probably won’t be able to reach the fleet until we leave the ship. Assuming the shield is actually down.”

  “It’s down,” Jain said. He refused to believe that they had done all of this for nothing.

  He reached a left turn, and paused to gaze past. The passageway teemed with termites. They crawled over every surface, as far as the eye could see, covering overhead, bulkhead, and deck.

  “We’re trapped,” Medeia said. She was accessing his video feed.

  “Not trapped,” Jain said. “Look at the map. There are other routes back to the original hull breach. We take another way.”

  He turned around and followed another route.

  Even if he
couldn’t reach Tanis, the fleet would figure out the shield was down soon enough. It generated emissions that were unmistakable, a certain type of radiation that would have now ceased. The fleet would be coming in to make an attack run soon.

  Tanis had promised he wouldn’t destroy the world killer entirely, at least not until the Mind Refurb teams made it out, but the admiral did plan to severely disable it. Somehow, Jain doubted that being aboard while that “severe disabling” took place would be fun.

  But so far, those attacks didn’t seem to be coming.

  “Wasn’t the admiral supposed to start pounding the hell out of the world killer once we took down its shields?” Frogger asked.

  “Yes, but would we even realize it?” Medeia asked. “They could be attacking at this moment for all we know.”

  “Oh, we’d know all right,” Frogger said.

  “Guess they’re occupied,” Marlborough said.

  “What if the shield isn’t down?” Cranston said. “What if we did all of this for nothing?”

  “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Medeia said.

  “The shield is down,” Sheila said firmly. She glanced at Jain, who nodded stiffly.

  But he was starting to second guess himself right about then. If that shield wasn’t down, he didn’t know what else the team could do. Eric was no longer with them. He was the one who knew the inner workings of this ship. Without him, those blueprints were essentially useless, at least when it came to figuring out points of attack. Jain studied them as he ran, but didn’t see anything that stood out to him. Most of the larger compartments were all the same size. They’d have to go through all of them, if they wanted to search for vulnerabilities.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t have time. And he doubted the anti-boarding party units aboard would let them.

  Ahead, one of the box robots with the dual turrets steered around the bend. Jain and the others unleashed their rifles and took it down, continuing forward. But then another robot appeared, and another.