by Isaac Hooke
Once the TSN gets its claws into you, they don’t let go until they’ve wrung every last bit of use from you. Last thing I want is you or your mom in their hands.
He heard a clanging come from around the bend beside him: the approach of metal feet.
Damn. No doubt the security droid had noticed him peering around the edge, and was now coming to investigate.
There was still time to flee.
Do I really want to do this?
He swallowed, then glanced at the elevator all the way down the hall behind him. The TSN could arrive at any time. In fact, they might be coming up the lift at that very moment. Tane couldn’t afford to wait for Lyra and her so-called help.
I have to act now.
24
Tane removed his personal storage pouch and set it down on the floor beside the bend. He quickly widened the opening, forming a black hole broad enough to fit a man. Or a robot.
He then stepped around it, and waited until it sounded like the footsteps were right around the corner, then he walked into the T intersection.
“You,” the robot said.
“Oh hey,” Tane said, continuing down the T intersection toward the other side. Near the far edge he paused to turn around.
The robot stepped into the T intersection. It now stood directly beside the inter-dimensional hole on the floor.
“I already told you to leave,” the robot said.
“And so you did.” Tane activated his shield belt and flung himself at the robot.
The surprised machine reacted immediately, flinging its arms up to protect itself. Wrong move. It should have activated its own shield.
When Tane’s energy shield collided with the robot, the security droid was forced backward, right onto the tear in spacetime. It plunged into the infinite blackness.
Tane knelt and quickly drew the drawstrings closed. He looked both ways, and when he confirmed that no one else had witnessed the capture, he reattached the pouch to his belt and casually made his way down the restricted hallway as if nothing had happened. His heart rate was through the roof but he resisted the urge to fiddle with his pulmonary system. He didn’t need to accidentally knock himself out now of all times.
Maybe I should have picked up that Cardiovascular and Endocrine Mastery skill.
He kept an eye out for the telltale domes of security cameras, but didn’t spot any. With luck the incident hadn’t been recorded.
Tane absently checked the charge level of his shield. Seventy-five percent. The value was slowly crawling upward as the shield’s protective energy recharged.
As he made his way into the restricted hallway, he wondered vaguely how much he could get for the combat robot on the black market. He quickly chided himself for even thinking that. He wasn’t a robot slaver. They were sentient beings with advanced AIs.
He glanced at the overhead map and confirmed he was on his way to Sinive’s room, at least according to the hospital information interface. He was a little surprised the interface reported her location down to the room level, considering that the entire section was marked as restricted. He suspected there was some sort of civil law in place that required the hospitals to disclose the precise locations of their patients; the staff probably figured it didn’t matter anyway, not when they employed security droids to protect their “no visitor” areas.
Tane finally caught sight of a dome camera in the ceiling. It was too late to avoid it. He maintained his pace, doing his best to make it appear he belonged. More security robots would probably be on their way soon. He didn’t have much time.
He spotted a nursing robot in the common area shared by the rooms here, and the robot’s animated visor displayed a confused expression when it saw him. Tane increased his pace, hurrying onward before the nurse could accost him.
He reached Sinive’s door and deactivated the shield so he could open it. He slid his hand in front of the motion sensor, worried for a moment that the door might be biometrically locked, but it slid aside.
Before he knew what was happening, a black tentacle shot forward, tipped by a three-pronged claw.
Luckily the shield interface was still open on his HUD. Tane narrowly reactivated it and the tentacle bounced away harmlessly.
On the far side of the room, next to a bed, lurked a dweller, clad in the same protective suit he had seen on his farm. Those four pairs of segmented legs were tucked in close to its body, as were the tentacles.
The window was open behind it. Sinive stood in front of that window. She looked at Tane blankly. Her condition had worsened since the last time he saw her: dark veins crawled up her neck, toward her face. Most disturbing of all were her eyes, which, sclera and all, were pure black.
A ramp sloped upward to a shuttle behind her. She turned, zombielike, toward the ramp and hoisted herself onto it.
“Sinive!” Tane said. “Don’t go.”
She ignored him and clambered up and out of view.
The alien pulled itself onto the ramp behind her, but then paused. Inside the translucent dome on the carapace, that sideways-opening jaw turned to look at him.
“You want?” The voice came from external speakers, each word sounding as if it was spoken by a different man. “Come.”
The dweller extended a black tentacle, inviting Tane to surrender himself.
“Come,” the voice repeated.
The clawed tentacle reached right up to him, pausing just beyond the influence of his energy shield.
For a moment, Tane actually considered letting the alien take him.
“No,” Tane said.
“You will come,” the voice said. The tentacle withdrew.
The shuttle ramp sealed behind the dweller and the craft pulled away.
Tane hurried to the window. The shuttle was of human make and model: a Couraser Spaceport Taxi. All the better to blend-in with the city craft. It quickly flew into the nearest approved sky lane.
Bastards know how to evade us.
He suspected it would eventually leave the city; no doubt a space-capable ship was waiting in hiding somewhere on the moon. After docking with it, the ship would enter orbit and jump to another system before military or police could intercept. And if the starship was of human make and model like the shuttle, it would only make their getaway all the cleaner.
He turned around and saw a nursing robot standing at the entrance to the room, simply staring, shocked into speechlessness. From its reaction, he knew the robot had witnessed the whole incident.
Tane shoved past the unit without any issue. It helped that his shield generator was still active, he supposed.
As he left behind the restricted area and approached the T intersection, three combat robots rounded the bend ahead. He knew they were TSN thanks to the ocean-digital fatigues they wore, and the big, white “MA” letters written onto their chests. And because of his chip, he realized without thinking about it that the robots were Masters-at-Arms.
Tane instantly spun around.
“Stop!”
Tane sprinted back toward Sinive’s room. He had maybe a thirty meter head start on the robots. He wasn’t sure how fast these robots were, but he doubted his lead would last for very long.
He kept his shield active just in case the robots got it into their heads to shoot him.
He darted past the nursing unit, which still lingered near the room, and bounded toward the still-open window.
He had heard that energy shields could absorb the impact of a fall, but the effectiveness depended on the height and the strength of the shield in question. Though his particular shield was relatively weak, it should have no problem dissipating the energy of a two story fall.
He hoped.
Tane had to turn off the shield so he could properly haul himself over the windowsill, and he launched himself outside just as the robots reached the doorway.
He activated his shield as he fell; since nothing touched him within a half meter on all sides, he was ensured three-hundred and sixty degrees of cov
erage, including the soles of his feet.
He hit the ground. Or rather the shield did. The generator performed some basic inertial dampening, preventing the sudden stop from causing any internal trauma, but he was still jarred. His feet had stopped a half a meter from the grass, but momentum rolled his body forward so that he immediately found himself lying prostrate while floating above the ground.
The shield held him aloft for a split second, flashing rapidly as it continued to expend energy to keep him hovering above the grass, until it depleted entirely and he dropped the final half meter.
Tane hauled himself to his feet. An alert appeared on his HUD.
Shield strength 0%.
Tane deactivated and reactivated the shield so that it could properly exclude the ground underneath him rather than trying to expend energy keeping him floating a half meter above it. The shield strength indicator crawled up to 1% as the unit slowly began to recharge.
This portion of the hospital bordered a back road next to an above-ground, multi-level parking garage. Tane raced across the road toward it. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted the robots: they were only just leaping from the windowsill behind him. Their jumps sent them arcing outward from the building and toward him; the robots wouldn’t have to worry about activating their shield generators to cushion their landing, as their robust bodies could easily handle a fall from two stories.
Tane deactivated his shield and leaped onto the back of a square-shaped delivery truck that was driving past. There was just enough room for him to plant his feet along the ledge that bordered the rear sliding door. He wrapped his right hand around the side to steady himself.
The robots raced after him, easily closing—the truck was only moving about ten kilometers an hour.
There was a notch in the middle of the sliding door, meant for manually opening it, Tane guessed. Continuing to grip the far right edge with is hand, Tane shoved his shoe into the notch and pressed upward, grabbing onto the roof with his other hand. Then he hauled himself onto the vehicle’s top.
The truck turned onto the main road and began to accelerate. The robots were starting to fall back. One of them slowed down and aimed its plasma rifle at the truck.
Tane dropped down flat on the roof. He heard the tires squeal, and the vehicle screeched to a halt.
Tane lowered himself from the truck to the asphalt. He turned on his shield and hurried to the outdoor parking garage whose northern side still bordered the road, and he vaulted over the concrete railing. He dashed into the middle of the lot, deactivated his mixnet connection so that his chip wasn’t throwing out any signals that might attract the robots, and took cover behind a series of closely parked vehicles. He also turned off his shield, just in case the robots could use its energy signature to track him.
Tane crouched there, breathing hard. That run had been extremely winding… probably because of the slightly higher gravity of the moon.
He glanced longingly at the vehicles around him. He was starting to wish he had picked up the hot-wire skill when he had had the chance.
Stop second guessing yourself. There are a helluva lot of skills I wished I had. But I don’t. And wishing for those skills isn’t going to help me right now. All I have to get through this is my wits. And that’s all I need.
He heard three distinct metallic clanks nearby as the robots dropped down into the parking lot. The metal-on-concrete sounds took on a scattered note as the robots split up to search for him.
Tane crouched lower against the craft beside him. The vehicle was one of those land and air hybrids, equipped with fold-away rotors. There was a small gap between the rotors and the vehicle, big enough for a human being to squeeze inside. If he really wanted to...
Hell with it.
Tane pulled himself into the gap and shoved inside. He drew his knees into his chest so his feet would be out of view if the robots happened to walk past. The vehicle felt slightly warm around him, which told him the owner had only recently arrived. That was good, because it meant less of a chance Tane’s thermal signature would stand out to the robots’ IR vision.
Though he could barely see because only a little light actually penetrated the rotor compartment, he knew he was squished right up against the big, deadly blades. He considered cranking up the ISO of his vision, but being able to see the blades wouldn’t really help him out all that much. Tane prayed the owner didn’t decide to return anytime soon, or even worse, remotely start the vehicle. The results would be messy, to say the least. Then again, his chip told him that safeties would prevent such an incident.
In theory.
Tane heard the growing clank-clank as one of the robots approached. He glanced at his HUD and double-checked that he was disconnected from the external mixnet. He prayed the metallic shell of the craft would shield his RFID: even though his public profile was spoofed, the robot would recognize his name from the encounter in the hospital.
He held his breath as that clanking seemed to come from right beside him.
The sound paused, and Tane was convinced the robot was staring right at him. He thought his feet must still be showing or something, but he didn’t dare try to tuck them in deeper, not now.
He exhaled in relief when the robot moved on.
It was at least ten minutes until the robots abandoned their search of the lot, judging from the continuous clanks he heard. When the sounds finally vanished, he assumed the robots had moved on to the other floors and the surrounding areas, so he remained where he was for another twenty minutes.
Finally feeling safe enough, he slowly crawled out of the rotor compartment and reactivated his mixnet connection.
Lyra was online. He received an incoming call request from her immediately.
“Tane, we’re at the hospital,” Lyra said. “Sinive isn’t here anymore. Please tell me you got to her in time?”
“No,” Tane said.
“So the TSN has her...” Lyra said.
“Worse,” Tane said. “The dwellers.”
“What?” Lyra said. “Are you safe?”
“Not really,” Tane said. “Got some TSN robots that have a hard-on for me. I’d appreciate it if you could pick me up.”
“We’ll be right there,” Lyra said.
“Oh and, while you’re on your way out, would you mind picking up some weapons I left behind at the check-in by the top floor emergency entrance?” Tane said. “I left a D18 and a few grenades. I’m sending the digital receipt your way.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Lyra said.
A land-air taxi pulled up five minutes later. Clad in his bulky power armor, Jed was in the back. Lyra meanwhile sat in the front driver’s side. She looked beautiful as ever. She was gripping the steering wheel, obviously having hacked the self drive to manual control.
Tane slid into the backseat beside Jed. A D18 and several grenades were waiting there. Tane promptly loaded the grenades into the pockets on his harness, and slid the D18 over one shoulder.
“The TSN has set up checkpoints at all exits to the garage,” Lyra announced after he shut the door. “Change your public profile immediately.”
Tane chose the first name and class that came to his mind: Doug Grays. Professional Video Game Player.
“Done,” Tane said. “Apparently it takes up to a full business day to go through, though.”
“I know,” Lyra said. “Which is why I don’t plan to stop.”
She drove up the ramp to the third and top floor of the parking garage.
“You might want to duck down,” Lyra said.
Tane lowered himself onto the seat and Jed covered him with a blanket so that he wasn’t visible from the window.
Tane heard a knocking, followed by a window opening.
“Volur business,” Lyra told someone. “I can’t delay.”
“I’m detecting three passengers,” a robotic voice said. “But I see only two. And registry information is blank for the third. I’m going to have to search the craft.”
&nb
sp; “I’m on a highly sensitive mission for Talendir,” Lyra said. “I have reason to believe terrorists are operating in this area, and I’m pursuing a time critical lead. If you delay me, I’ll lose that lead.”
“I’m sorry, but—” the robot began.
“Let me pass, or thousands of people will lose their lives,” Lyra interrupted.
The robot didn’t answer.
“I assume you enjoy your existence?” Lyra said, her voice becoming extremely quiet.
The robot remained quiet a moment longer, then: “Go.”
The seat shook underneath Tane, and then he heard the sound of rotors starting up. Sudden G forces assailed his body.
“All right, it’s clear, Farmer.” Jed pulled the blanket off of him.
Tane sat up. The taxi had taken to the skies. Tane pulled his hood low as Lyra steered into a sky lane.
“Thanks for the pick-up,” Tane said.
Lyra nodded.
Tane glanced at Jed. “And also, thank you for what you did in the Umbra. Without you and Lyra...” He shook his head. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Jed nodded slowly. “We still abandoned you in the end. Which is inexcusable, in my opinion.”
“Jed wanted to stay behind in the Umbra to look for you,” Lyra said. “I wouldn’t let him.”
Tane glanced at Jed, but the Bander refused to meet his eye. Tane focused on the buildings below, watching them go by.
“I owe you an apology,” Jed said after a moment.
“Why?” Tane asked.
“I underestimated you, Farmer,” Jed said. “When we left you behind in the Umbra, I told Lyra we’d never see you again. And yet you survived.”
“A lot of people have underestimated me over the years,” Tane said. He added quietly: “Including myself.” He turned to Lyra. “Where are we going, by the way?”