The Syn-En Solution

by Linda Andrews

  Shang’hai tugged on the left panel at the foot of the human’s stasis chamber. What about our people?

  Rescue the occupied pods first. Bei tamped down his rising irritation. He’d ordered the Syn-En to abandon the life pods in case Faso targeted more of his men. They’d be fine for a while, but the radiation limited their time in space. Once the Starflight is clear, have them re-board their pods, using their oxygen for thrust and maneuvering, and wait for retrieval.

  Chief Rome set his hand on the citizen’s belly and held her inside the chamber’s interior. Faso still has control of the com system. She could order a self-terminate on the life pods.

  Shang’hai bent a metal sheet into an arc and wedged it across the opening of the stasis chamber. Banded over the citizen’s abdomen, the wide bar would hold her in place. Especially if that bitch sees us rescuing our men.

  Annoyance shot through Bei. His men frowned upon him touching the woman, but they had no problem doing so. Even unconscious, she caused trouble. He’d have to deal with the citizen. Problem was, with his men triple bunked, the only space he could keep her out of sight would be his quarters. The notion kicked him in the chest. Bei initiated a diagnostics on his cardiac implant and stared at the scorched emblem on the metal. The image of a hazy white planet with a single red ring lying on a star-studded blue background stirred a dormant memory. Where had he seen the icon before?

  Chief Rome removed his hand from the citizen and fingered the cleft in his chin.

  She drifted up. The band of metal caught her across the abdomen, holding her firmly within the stasis chamber’s confines, but the jagged edges cut into the blanket wrapped around her and tore at the skin underneath.

  Bei clasped his hands behind his back to prevent himself from holding her away from the serrated metal. As a citizen, she could strip him of leadership and cost more Syn-En lives on this fruitless mission. Yet there was something about the texture of her skin. He could almost feel the heat and moisture sighing from her pores and the fine hair tickling his fingertips. Can you take Starflight’s com system offline?

  Shang’hai snorted. Our people reclaimed the latest pieces of technology to build that shuttle. It won’t be easy to wrestle control away from the bridge, but I’ll try.

  Black eyes filled with concern, Doc Cabo glanced at Bei. His tan fingers settled on the buttons of his MedPak. I’m ready to revive the citizen.

  Bei nodded. Questions formed and reformed inside his head, each vying to be the first asked.

  Seconds after Doc pushed the button to release a chemical cocktail into the citizen’s bloodstream, she gasped for breath. Her eyes flew open. Their color was startling, bluer than the Earth’s oceans from high orbit. She looked at the doctor then Bei and groaned. “You people really need to make up your mind. Do you want me dead or alive?”

  People. Bei stiffened. He’d explained they were Syn-En. Had the time in stasis damaged her higher brain functions? Monitor her. All systems. Scan for internal injuries.

  The human wiggled in her stasis chamber. “Ow!”

  Red blood bubbled from the cut on her arm. Instead of running along the metal band like normal magnetized fluid, it floated toward him.

  Bei caught the drop, squished it between his fingers. The moisture turned them warm and slick. Activating his CBR sensors, he felt the liquid being sucked into his armor for analysis.

  Doc quirked an eyebrow before laying a hand on her sternum and pushing her back, away from the sharp edged band. Her blood still pulsed through the tubes attached to his forearm. “Try not to move. I’ve only filtered four liters.”

  The woman twisted and turned until her hands latched onto the sides of her stasis chamber. Using her hold as leverage, she managed to wiggle into a sitting position.

  Like all humans, Bei noted, she did not heed the advice of a Syn-En.

  Then she noticed the tubes.

  “What! Good Lord.” Her fingers played with the tubes, followed them from her neck to Doc’s arm. She leaned over the lip of the pod. “How are you doing that?”

  Doc set his free hand gently on her shoulder and held her still. “The enhancements in my left are primarily for triage under CBR conditions.”

  The woman’s eyes grew wide in her face. “CBR? What’s that?”

  “Chemical, biological, and radiological events.” Smiling, Doc removed the needle from her jugular. Her blood bubbled from the hole and Doc frowned.

  Turning her head, the woman tried to look at the wound. “What’s the matter? Didn’t it work? Am I going to die again?”

  Using his thumb, Doc applied pressure to the damaged skin. “You are free of cyanide and the injection should have prevented any brain damage during your short death.”

  “Short death? That’s a convenient term. Well, you see judge, it was only a short death soo….” The citizen raised her pale hand and slapped it over the doctor’s darker one. “What do you mean should have prevented damage?”

  Bei swallowed his amusement. Her thoughts were more erratic than most citizens he’d dealt with.

  Maneuvering her finger over the seeping hole, Doc worked the needle out of her artery. Blood spurted from the opening, spraying him across the face.

  The woman yelped and slapped her other hand against her throat. The red blood seeped through her fingers and swirled in the air. Her skin seemed paler than a second ago. “Give me something to stop the bleeding.”

  Doc patted her hand, tugged an ampoule from the compartment in his right forearm and snapped off the top. The medicinal scent quickly filled the air. “You did not respond as expected.”

  Brushing aside the woman’s hands, Doc waited for a small pulse of arterial spray to stop then smeared the ampoule’s contents on the puncture.

  The citizen hissed through clenched white teeth but kept her fists against the interior of her stasis chamber. “Are you saying you didn’t mean to kill me?”

  Surprise scattered Bei’s thoughts. The human actually trusted the Syn-En doctor to heal her. That fact alone made her dangerous to him and his kind. He’d prefer his enemies to be clear cut. “No. You needed to die.”

  The citizen focused her attention on him, and he felt it almost like a physical caress. For a moment, her attention drifted down to his mouth before she shook herself slightly and met his gaze. “Then why bring me back?”

  “Your death was not meant to be permanent.” The truth slipped from Bei. Even killing a citizen for a short time was a capital offense.

  She nodded and her shoulders relaxed. A tentative smile flirted with her full lips. “Just long enough to satisfy Grace’s bloodlust.”

  Bei’s attention snapped back to his mission. Was the woman about to reveal something important? “Grace?”

  The citizen shrugged and jerked her head in the direction of the com panel. “The African-American woman on the computer with big white teeth and a sadistic appetite who ordered you to kill me.”

  Disappointment filtered through Bei. He had to remember that her apparent respect for the Syn-En was an act, a means to keep his kind in their proper place. Even her excessive chatter was meant to divert his attention from the mutineers. Not that he could do much with his ship dead in the water, crippled with damage and weapons offline. “Her name is Burkina Faso.”

  The citizen focused on her thumbnail, tugged on the cuticle until she ripped it off and blood beaded on raw skin. “What happens if she again orders my death?”

  Bei replayed the scenarios in his head. Could she be in this with Faso? Not likely, given what he knew of the traitor’s character. “Faso is not in command.”

  The human looked up. Hope blazed in her blue eyes. “You killed her?”

  Storing the reaction to be analyzed later, Bei shook his head. “No.”

  “Why the heck not?”

  From her position next to him, Shang’hai snorted but blasted her anger over the WA. See. Even the human agrees the bitch should not have been allowed to escape.

  Bei felt the rage swirl i
nside his own body but quickly controlled it. Save your energy for finding the stasis chamber’s flight recorder. I need to know how soon she was sent after mission launch. Earth might have tried to renege on its promise of freedom for the Syn-En even before we reached Terra Dos.

  Shang’hai crouched at the foot of the stasis chamber, examining the end.

  As he expected, the reminder of past injustices against his people tempered his command staff’s infatuation with the citizen. He walked over to stand next to the Chief near the head of the chamber, while the engineer continued working on at the opposite end. Pressure built up on his forearm. He looked down and saw the citizen’s hand.

  She squeezed gently. “I’m sorry Burkina killed your people because of me.”

  Although Bei’s systems registered only sincerity in her words and features, he couldn’t trust her. Citizen betrayal was too much a part of his past. He’d promised his people freedom and freedom they would have. Heat flared along his cerebral computer interface, a reminder of their differences and his pledge to protect citizens. “We are Syn-En.”

  The sentence explained everything, yet the woman didn’t seem to understand.

  Chief Rome cleared his throat, picked at a ragged seam on his blue uniform. “Starflight has cleared the fleet. The bitch is scanning us, probably looking for a target.”

  The human shrank back into her life pod and tucked the hem of the blanket between her thighs. Her heart raced and her pupils dilated. “Can Burkina detect that I’m alive?”

  “No.” Bei glanced at his security officer. Was his Chief deliberately trying to scare her? Either way, Faso needed to be neutralized. Bei had no doubt that not firing upon the shuttle would be viewed as a weakness. Did you confirm that the Starflight’s weapons are offline, Chief?

  Aye, Admiral. Chief Rome switched his attention to the human, then her hand on Bei’s arm before cocking an eyebrow.

  Bei returned the look. The citizen liked to touch. He wasn’t about to let on that he understood her game, using contact and the ease of it to seduce him into doing her bidding. Faso had taught him well in the ways of human women. Besides, it wasn’t as if he enjoyed the contact.

  The citizen’s grip tightened on his arm. “What’s going on and don’t say nothing. I’ve seen that look before. It means there’s a big ‘but’ coming. I didn’t spend twenty years as an administrative assistant to some very powerful men not to recognize a whammy on the horizon.”

  Bei started. The woman had picked up on something. Six months aboard the ship and the Syn-En had begun to express their emotions outside of the WA. It wouldn’t have been a problem before, but now they had a one hundred percent organic citizen on board, one who could assume command of the fleet just because she had no tech.

  Whammy? Citizens have a strange way of talking. The Chief blinked then frowned as external sensors fed new information to the WA. “Starflight’s weapons are charging.”

  Shit. Bei had hoped Faso would be so afraid of Syn-En retaliation she’d burn out the engines in a quick retreat. Instead, she’d decided to neutralize as many Syn-En as she could before they hunted her down. Blanking the anger from his features, Bei shunted a flash of annoyance at his security officer. “Why aren’t weapons offline?”

  Chief Rome clenched his jaw. His irritation flared across the WA. “One of Faso’s lovers is a very talented hacker. Tim’s happy fingers demoted him from citizen to civilian and earned him ten years in the service of the Syn-En.”

  Found the flight recorder. Not that it will be much help if Faso hits our engines. Shang’hai yanked off a square section from the foot of the citizen’s stasis chamber. “The bitch is targeting our people again.”

  Get control of those weapons, Chief. Bei felt the hum in the WA as both his security officer and engineer sent override commands through cyberspace to the Starflight’s bridge.

  The citizen wiggled out from under the band of metal keeping her in place. She half crawled and half floated over the edge. Once clear, she smoothed the emergency blanket wrapped around her lithe form and hooked her heels into the indentation at the base of the chamber.

  Bei watched her progress. Did she think to escape them? Where would she go on his ship that they wouldn't find her eventually?

  “Targeting your people?” She blinked, then clasped her hand over her mouth. “As in going to kill them?”

  Doc pinged Bei. Admiral, my systems have detected some anomalies in the citizen.

  Later. Bei ground his teeth together. Status, Chief.

  That bastard Tim has set up firewalls. Chief Rome squeezed his eyes closed, focusing most of his consciousness in the WA. I’m trying to knock them down, but there seems to be a subroutine that adapts to my every move. The fucker is using our own technology against us.

  Engineering controls are locked out, Admiral. Unless I can get on the Starflight’s bridge, I can’t override helm controls. Shang’hai growled through the WA. The tips of her knuckles shone white as she gripped the flight recorder.

  Without opening his eyes, Chief Rome grabbed the citizen’s arm and kept her from drifting up. I’m in the telemetry core, trying to access targeting.

  The human’s brow wrinkled as her gaze bounced off them all in turn before settling on Bei. “What’s happening? Why aren’t you doing anything, like jamming the signal or blowing her out of the sky?”

  Typical human. Thinks we’re stupid. Shang’hai rolled her eyes.

  Disable those weapons permanently, Rome. After freeing her from the Chief, Bei used his body weight to gently pin her between him and her stasis chamber. Frustration coiled low in his belly at having to let his senior staff do the fighting, but too many cyberspace presences would definitely register on the Starflight’s sensor. Right now, a surprise attack through the WA was their only means to limit the damage Faso could inflict.

  The citizen grabbed onto the front of Bei’s uniform, digging her fingers into the navy material. “I know, why don’t you loop what she sees over and over again like in National Treasure or Speed?”

  Doc Cabo skirted the stasis chamber to stand at their side. Admiral, the human is displaying unusual cerebral spikes. The medicine may be having a side effect. It wasn’t meant for pure organics.

  Later, Bei shouted through the WA and focused on the Chief.

  Rome opened his eyes, fear blazed in their light blue depths. Tim’s blocked every entrance. I’ve been locked out. Weapons are charged and I can’t do a damn thing about it.

  Shang’hai punched the citizen’s stasis chamber. “Two pods have been destroyed. Seven Syn-En reporting suit damage, switching to hibernation mode. They can’t use their location beacons or she’ll target them.” Another minute and the Starflight will be out of range of the WA.

  The human flinched, as the unit shoved her against him. “Can’t you change what she sees so she thinks everyone is destroyed, like trick photography? Why are you just standing there when your men are dying?”

  Her lower body ground against Bei’s. With his implant sensors heightened in battle mode, the feel of her supple legs snug against his interjected a spurt of lust, scattering his control. Her heart rate increased when he set his hand on her bare shoulder. For a moment it seemed as if her desire was fueling his inside the WA.

  Dammit Bei, that bitch Faso is killing our people. The chief’s disgust roiled through the WA.

  Bei clamped down on the out of place emotion and handed the citizen off to the doctor. “Keep her still and quiet.”

  Nodding, Doc Cabo cupped both of her shoulders. Her skin glowed green under the monitoring of his MedPak.

  Bei stepped back, closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to enter the WA. Using his command code, he merged with his avatar in cyberspace and materialized inside the CIC mainframe. Bundles of data, hearts, lightning bolts and other symbols of emotions whizzed by his digitalized body. Latching onto a cartoon image of a brain, he rode a stream of information into his ship’s data core. The busy terminal had bits and bytes trave
ling in every direction, each stamped with a unique identification code. Spotting the Chief’s security over-ride command, Bei’s avatar climbed on board the yellow data packet. The missile shaped code carried him off his ship, through open space and into the Starflight’s information port.

  Roadblock signs lowered on the data streams, prohibiting access. The Chief’s code disintegrated under Bei. Jumping onto a platform, he called forth the command protocols citizens always demanded be embedded in Syn-En technology. A key materialized in his hand and an emergency door appeared in front of him. Staring at the emblem of a ringed planet on starry background, he appreciated citizen paranoia for the first time. After touching the key to the door, he watched the barrier dissolve, and he stepped into the Starflight’s mainframe. Scanning the hexagonal shaped room, he noted the six closed doors, one for each of the hubs on the bridge. I’m in the com system. Chief, I need images of the life pods against our current position.

  Rome’s surprise blipped across the WA. Aye. Images captured.

  The photograph of capsules glowing against the luminescent walls of the wormhole flickered inside the picture frame that materialized in Bei’s palm. Loop it through one of the fight simulator programs.

  Done. Sending file.

  A bright yellow package replaced the picture frame.

  Received. I’m allowing you access. An avatar of the blond Chief appeared next to Bei. Opening the box, Bei removed a red crystal containing the program. He tugged on the ends, pulling it apart like taffy, then handed one of the two pieces to Chief Rome. For a moment, Bei stared at the closed doors ahead, then pointed to the one marked weapons before taking his position in front of communications. I need you to disable the weapons deck on my command.

  You’re using the humans’ idea? Red flags and lightning bolts exploded like fireworks around the Chief’s head.

  Yes. Bei glanced at his friend, knowing that if Tim was as savvy as his record told, he could have tracked Bei’s entrance and even now be locking them inside the Starflight’s computer. Their bodies would soon die without their consciousness.