Spinebreakers

by Mitch Michaelson

  Then an arc of lightning appeared between Renosha’s hand and the train. The arc spun around the blue axis, increasing speed. The front shield of the Hussar glowed. The rope of lightning spun so fast around the targeting laser it formed a solid shape between the two robots.

  Steo got Yuina on her feet but instead of running they looked on in almost absent-minded awe.

  The lightning glowed white hot. The front shield of the Hussar overloaded and disappeared. The instant the lightning hit the structure, there was an immense explosion, then the insides of the machine glowed as ammunition and batteries erupted.

  The chain of cars hit the ground but continued forward. Steo and Yuina ran. Renosha released the lightning and hovered in the air, watching the train smash into the ground and slide into the corrugated metal building they had just left, demolishing it.

  Steo and Yuina ran inside the dark building and they threw themselves against the thick wall.

  Yuina glanced back. “Do you find it disturbing that our librarian is heavily armed?”

  General Heethe was unhappy. He observed the battle for the now-obvious outcome. His handkerchief quivered in his breast pocket.

  The escorts blew up the 13-car Cataphract. It crashed to the ground unceremoniously. One of the escort ships was destroyed, exploding in a flash that took a Hussar with it. Then the remaining escorts, one damaged and the other with its shields up, mopped up the remaining Hussars.

  The escorts circled above the battlefield and surveyed the damage. They found a wrecked skimmer and bombed it.

  “That was a disaster,” said one of the general’s officers.

  The honna complained, “They were prototypes, sir, not production models. We weren’t expecting this encounter. You didn’t give us preparation time. It was less than ideal conditions! However if you wish to pay for those we will be happy to engineer better war robots.”

  The officers drew their lasers and gunned him down, then they shot the robots.

  “I don’t remember saying that,” said General Heethe.

  He looked down at the smoking corpse. “Prepare the ship to leave, just as soon as the skies are clear. I don’t want to ascend into a space battle. If you encounter any resistance, kill them.”

  Renosha recovered his staff and found Steo and Yuina inside the concrete building.

  “I don’t know much about weapons –” Yuina said.

  “That was an Arc Ion model plasma cannon with cyan targeting laser wasn’t it?” Steo asked.

  Renosha looked surprised. “Indeed it seems to be. Installed in my right arm.”

  Outside they heard the escorts bomb the skimmer. The explosion rocked the ground and pieces of hot metal fell everywhere.

  Steo led them further into the tower with its thick walls. It went quiet outside. There were no sounds of fighting.

  Yuina said through gasps, “I was considered for gun-tech … back on Tirria. They found I was a better pilot.”

  “Careers aren’t a noble thing for tirrians, are they?” Renosha said.

  “Career is a word for servitude.”

  “Why didn’t you use that before?” Steo asked him.

  “A plasma cannon is not useful in close quarters, Steo. The weapon is to no avail against small, mobile targets. It takes a relatively long time to build up. Besides, to tell you the truth, I didn’t know if it still worked.” Renosha inspected his left hand.

  “How are we going to get back to the Eye of Orion?” Yuina asked.

  “We can probably call them to come and get us,” Steo said. “We’re nowhere near the bioark. Sit down, you look like your ankle hurts pretty bad.”

  She stood up on her own and put weight on both ankles. She winced. “I can walk.” She stepped around the room gingerly, favoring one leg. “Just probably not run.”

  Renosha said, “It sounds quiet out there so I will check the wreckage for a communicator, one more powerful than what we carry.” He left the bunker.

  They talked while he walked to the wreckage. There were no sounds outside but the distant crackle of flames.

  All of a sudden eight men ran into the room, pointing rifles at Steo and Yuina. They wore the gray clothes of the AndroVault. Each wore a loose white bandana around his neck.

  “Get down!” one said. “Down!”

  “Don’t try to send any communications!” another yelled.

  Steo and Yuina held up their hands. They couldn’t fight back.

  “Get the door! Cover it!” Two men with lasers ran and knelt inside the door, pointing their weapons outside. “If the robot returns, melt him!”

  The man giving the orders had the telltale signs of a mercenary: silver lines under his skin, oddly bulging muscles and plenty of scars. His left hand was metal.

  “Who is this? These aren’t locals. Oh no. I think we got us some operatives.” He scanned them up and down, lingering on the tirrian. He snatched her close to him. She flinched and wobbled a bit. “You’re with me. I’m going to collect my reward. Grab him!”

  Several men grabbed Steo and they backed out of the room, the men with lasers covering their rear in case the robot returned.

  Out the back of the building, an escort waited. “We seen you run into that building so we bombed your skimmer and then snuck around back. Now get inside!”

  They were shoved into the escort. The mercenary dragged Yuina by her arm to the left. The soldiers took Steo to the right.

  “Where are you going?” Yuina said nervously.

  “We’re going in here.” He threw her into a room with computers around the walls. “You have something I want.”

  Steo was taken to the bridge. He had a growing sense of worry about Yuina but couldn’t do anything at the moment, not with seven rifles pointed at him.

  One placed his rifle in a locker and took the pilot’s chair. “Escort Loyalty, this is escort Trust. We’ll take off in a moment. Will rendezvous at home.”

  “Why aren’t we taking off?” said one.

  “Waiting for orders,” said the pilot. “Until the sergeant comes back and tells me to take off, I’m not moving.”

  “Did you see what that robot did? It’s armed with something. I don’t want to get shot by that!”

  The pilot seemed to consider this. He wasn’t used to thinking on his own, he was used to taking orders. “I’ll move a little.” He shut the doors and raised the ship, but remained behind the building.

  The mercenary stored his rifle in a locker outside the room. When he opened the door, he saw his captive busy at work. The tirrian had disassembled a control console and was rewiring it. He ran in and shoved her away.

  He stared down at her with a hungry look in his eye. She pulled herself up and leaned against a console. He stalked around the outside of the room. She looked up at him with her big, white eyes.

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” he said. “Even if I wasted time on women, you’re not that attractive.”

  She ran forward, aimed a kick for his groin, and connected hard. Her foot bounced off his armored codpiece. She fell back, hopping and cursing with a broken toe.

  He laughed. “You and your buddy, you’re more than you seem. Like I said, you’re not locals. I can practically smell it on you. So who are you? And what were all those war robots?”

  He sensed profit here. The people he’d signed up with had drive and motivation, but as it turns out they didn’t care about cybernetics and accumulating luxury items. Their speeches and quasi-religious services were starting to wear on his patience. War robots like the snake chain and especially the flying humanoid robot were big business. Illicit and dangerous business, but profitable. The mercenary sensed a chance to jump ship and find a new employer.

  Yuina’s normal instinct was to lie so she thought hard. She opened her mouth when a voice came over the comm.

  “Sergeant, the robot is walking back to the building. I don’t think it’s spotted us. We need to return to the AndroVault. Furthermore, I am obligated to remind you that we are under orde
rs not to take prisoners – especially aliens.”

  The mercenary grimaced.

  Yuina realized no lie would get her out of this. She ran toward him and aimed a punch at his head. She had a little hand-to-hand training. He waved off her punch and swung a fist at her, but she spun away from him.

  He threw big punches at her and kept her on the defensive. He tried a kick to her midsection and barely connected, knocking the wind out of her. She gulped in breath and was getting desperate.

  “You can’t win. I have eight times your strength,” he said as he moved in for the easy kill.

  He swung hard and missed her by an inch. She came up with a pipe and hit his elbow, cracking the bone. She didn’t wait to see a reaction. She had blood in her eyes and swung repeatedly, using both hands, as fast as she could, as hard as she could. The mercenary deflected it twice with his metal hand, only for her to scream and bring it down on his shoulder. His arm went limp. In a berserk rage, she spun a full 360 degrees and smashed the pipe against his head. He reeled and she pursued. She lifted the pipe over her head and brought it down with every bit of strength she had left, shattering his eye socket. He fell, dead or unconscious she didn’t know or care.

  “And I have a lever,” she said.

  Exhausted, she dropped the pipe onto his body.

  “No prisoners, eh?” Steo said. The men were barely soldiers, not mercenaries. They had no rules of conduct for handling prisoners. They didn’t know the reasons behind their orders. They weren’t used to asking questions of their superiors. Steo worried about Yuina and stared down six barrels.

  He considered his options. He reached inside and connected to the Valence processor. Reading their thoughts wouldn’t help him.

  Just then the door of the bridge opened and Yuina stumbled in. Seeing the guns she said, “Oh. I thought you would’ve had this handled.” She raised her hands in surrender. She was nearly worn out, her muscles shaking, one ankle sprained, and toes broken. An adrenaline crash was coming.

  “Actually …” Steo said, “wets lurk forever okay? Me can bake the pour on the flight. Can you candle the mother goo?” It was gibberish not Slanglish, but he hoped she understood.

  “Sit down!” one of the soldiers ordered Yuina.

  She slouched over on tender feet to a chair.

  “What?” one of the men said to Steo.

  “What did he say?” another said.

  Yuina nodded as she sat. “Miss crack shun?”

  Steo smiled at the men. The pilot screamed, “I’m blind!” The ship rose and spiraled in the air. “Where is everyone? What’s going on?”

  A couple guards moved to see what he was doing, when their heads were surrounded by darkness too. It was as if a black globe sealed around their heads, like the pilot’s. Steo remained still, watching them closely, concentrating. He no longer needed to touch the light manipulator attached to his thigh to use it. The Valence processor allowed him to multitask and control several ‘illusions’ at once. The men yelled and swatted the air, trying to figure out the cause of their blindness.

  Steo said, “You are not blind. What you see is nothing.”

  The two unaffected watched in confusion and fright. The ship weaved; inside, it was hard to remain standing. Just as the two decided to go to the others’ aid, Yuina moved. She snatched a gun from a blind soldier and struck one of the nonblind in the back of the head, dropping him. The other turned but she aimed at him. “Drop it or I will blow your face off.” He let the weapon clank to the floor.

  Steo concentrated as he knelt to pick up the dropped rifle. “Go ahead Yuina, I have them covered.”

  She went around the room and took away their weapons. “Don’t resist, and you’ll survive. Resist, and there will be … pain.”

  Steo released the darkness spheres from their heads. Fortunately, the pilot first got the ship under control.

  Steo ordered, “Land.”

  When the escort was down and hovering an inch from the ground, they ordered the men to disembark. Renosha was there to greet them.

  “I saw the ship start to take off,” he said. “I should have pitied the crew. How did you accomplish this?”

  Leaning on the door Yuina said, “A little back-alley Slanglish.”

  “And some old technology,” Steo said.

  They left the seven men there in the middle of the battlefield and headed back to the Eye of Orion.

  Yuina checked the rest of the escort ship and made sure no one else was on board. She found the body of the mercenary and ditched it from a thousand feet in the air.

  “What was that?” Steo asked.

  “The mercenary sergeant.”

  “Was he dead?”

  “He is now.”

  CHAPTER 33

  Light Manipulation

  The two empty A-skimmers shot off. Yuina flew after them with her passengers Steo and Renosha. Cyrus and Glaikis checked the time.

  “Why are we wearing these gray jumpsuits?” Glaikis asked.

  “They’re the closest thing to the clothing worn by the people on the AndroVault,” Cyrus said.

  “Why is that necessary?”

  “Trust me, Glaikis. I know what I’m doing. They won’t shoot us from a distance if we might be their own people.”

  “I guess that makes sense.”

  “Although, I hope they don’t notice my broad shoulders and smoldering masculinity from a distance.”

  She stared at him, trying to decide if he was kidding.

  Screens lit up in the AndroVault’s control room. A depot hundreds of miles away had blown up. The crew cheered and clapped each other on the shoulder. The discipline robot, unsure what was causing the commotion, moved forward. Its presence scared the crew back into their seats. They kept their smiles though.

  Several hundred people – humans and aliens alike – died in the depot explosion, but the fireworks were more like a distant vid-game to the people on the AndroVault. They watched from a safe distance while murder was done for their cause.

  “Units are preparing to return home,” reported a crewman.

  Erps, the Reminder of the Dead, said, “Repeat the message that all of our dead must be returned to the community. The dead remain with us, not on some alien battlefield.”

  Lord Muuk said to Doib, the Reminder of Soldiers, “Prepare a statement about our honorable troops who died defending the freedoms of humanity everywhere. They exhibited the virtues of selflessness and bravery in the galactic struggle for one human society. By their blood today do we all drink tomorrow. Uniforms are for those who understand the strength of uniformity.”

  Doib said, “This is a glorious victory. I am proud to serve.”

  Lord Muuk said, “Add some more to that. Pull from the stock phrases database if you need ideas.”

  “Praise our triumphs.” Doib bowed and left.

  “What materials do they have?” Lord Muuk said.

  “All missions were a success, Lord. There were a few where the supplies were overestimated so they return with less, but others found great stockpiles.”

  Movement on a small panel attracted attention. “Sir, the escorts have entered battle at the far range of our scanners. They are fighting local forces. The escort Fidelity is damaged.”

  A robot entered the room with its hands behind its back. “A little damaged? Local forces?” it said to the crewman. “Do you find that sufficient information for Lord Muuk?”

  Unused to speaking robots, the crewman looked at Lord Muuk. Seeing no reaction he said, “Um, no. I will investigate further.”

  “You do that crewman. Try to be exceptional once in your life.”

  “Ah,” said Lord Muuk. He looked at the floating robot but addressed his technicians. “This robot was on board when the Scorpion was destroyed. Was it properly reconfigured?”

  The robot said, “If I may, sir: when my former owner died and his ashes were vented into space, my priority was to report to the next in command. However with the Fire Scorpion annihila
ted, it was my responsibility to report to the nearest human settlement. Your technicians were kind enough to replace my useless dongle with one of your own, and now I serve you. You may name me as you wish, but I was formerly called … Leech.”

  “What is your function, Leech?”

  “To assist yourself and the Reminders in enforcing the Old Ways, by assessing the worth of crewmembers.”

  Lord Muuk smiled, signaling his approval. He turned to address the crewman. “Yes, do as the Leech robot says. Try to be exceptional once in your life, crewman.”

  Glaikis flew the skimmer at high speed and low altitude in the direction of the colossal ship. Soon its towering shield came into view, faintly shimmering in the sunlight.

  Shields were normally invisible except in atmosphere under bright light or at close range. They were rarely used inside ships but when they were, they were colorized to warn of their presence.

  “Hang on, this will be bumpy,” she said.

  The internal gravity controls were turned up to maximum sensitivity and both occupants were strapped into their chairs. Glaikis tilted the skimmer to the side and raced on a slanted course at the shield. They glanced just enough to damage the skimmer and bounce away. She cut power and tilted the skimmer on its side, then landed. The A-skimmer tilted and rolled, bent the corners, and skidded to an abrupt halt. They were still strapped in and unhurt, though upside down.

  As they struggled to exit the vehicle, soldiers buzzed like ants inside the shield. The large glimmering shield was about 600 feet from the generation ship. Units of soldiers were stationed there, both to welcome returning troops and fend off any ground attack. When they saw the skimmer crash outside their shield, they didn’t know what to make of it yet. No signal came from it.

  Glaikis and Cyrus stumbled away from the vehicle. Glaikis, being short and strong, helped Cyrus as if he was wounded. The skimmer smoked, black pillars rising from it as if disabled by the crash.