Tantalus (The Hidden Book 1)

by Phil Maxey

  Carter was tortured? They’re going to kill the captain when she returns?

  Quickly her fingers tapped the screen, searching for her XO. An image came up of him sitting up on a table in one of the storage holds. He looked bad, real bad, but he wasn’t dead. She watched the others, hundreds milling around, most looking anxious, while two rows of menacing looking IMs stood guard. She switched her view to the male cell block. More IMs, and even more people. It looked at least three times the number that was in the storage hold. If it came to a fight it was obvious to her which side would win. But if Carter was alive, maybe the captain gave him access to the internal sensors like she had. If he could see the warden’s and Babel’s forces as well, that would definitely even things out.

  She wondered if Carter had a comms device implanted in him. As a prisoner, his would have been removed, but as an XO he would have needed one. Tapping her screen, she scanned for any internal comms devices in the hold and didn’t find any. Damn. She noticed a man she recognized from the meeting in the break room, Evan she thought his name was and he was holding a touch screen. Maybe she could communicate via that.

  Targeting that device, she started to speak while she watched from her cameras position high in the ceiling. “Hello? This is Lieutenant Honer, are you hearing this?”

  Evan almost dropped the device he was holding. Elisa couldn’t help but give a quick laugh. She could see he was talking, but the device had no microphone so she wasn’t hearing what he was saying. “I cannot hear you, please can you type.”

  Evan started typing. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

  “I managed to get away before Babel’s forces got to me. I’m in a secure location. I have access to the ship’s internal sensors, do you? I can see Babel’s forces.”

  “No, we don’t have that level of Access.”

  “They are going to try to capture the captain on her return, you must stop them.”

  “We know. Can you see where their people are?”

  “It looks like most of them are in the male cell block, at least three times your number, and more IMs than you have.” She presumed they had control of the IMs standing close by.

  “Can you get to this storage hold?”

  “I’m not sure, but maybe it’s better I stay where I am, they won’t find me here, trust me. I’ll communicate what I see and hear to you.”

  Evan smiled, looking upwards. Elisa noticed Luke looking at him. Evan quickly walked over to him.

  “Luke wants to know if you can see the visitors room?”

  “Sure, I’ll look now.” She tapped the screen and the visitors room came up. “It’s empty.”

  Luke could be seen shaking his head, then talking some more to Evan.

  “He says he wants to know where Babel’s people are on the ship, including the IMs they control at all times.”

  Elisa nodded to herself as she agreed. The inhabitants of the Tantalus were at war.

  CHAPTER 26

  Lori Dower knelt behind one of the inlets that led to an airlock, in the corridor that ran along the outside of the Docking bay. Her brown hair swept back behind both ears.

  “I can’t believe we’re fighting,” she said to a muscular man kneeling next to her.

  “Yup, it’s fucked up.”

  “We should be fighting that thing out there, not each other.”

  The double door at the end of the corridor they were pointing their plasma rifles at, opened and they all raised them.

  “Hey, don’t shoot!” shouted an older man running inside as the doors closed behind him. “They are coming!”

  The wide docking bay access corridor had twenty of the Phoenix and Karma syndicates people. It wasn’t going to be enough if Babel attacked with significant numbers or even a few IMs.

  “I hope Evgeni and that new guy know what they’re doing!” said Dower, focusing her view through her rifles sight.

  A voice shouted from behind her. “The captain’s shuttle is coming into the bay!”

  “Here we go,” said the muscular man raising his gun.

  Just as he finished the doors slid open, and a wall of flashing metal charged through the gap. The first row of IMs knelt and started firing, sending a torrent of plasma bolts slamming into the posts and walls the defenders were crouched behind.

  “Fire!” shouted Dower, leaning out and firing off a volley of shots which hit a IM sending it crashing to the floor.

  Others leaned out to, getting shots off best they could, but three of them were hit by plasma bolts from the IMs that were now firing while walking forward, seemingly not caring about the bolts that were flying in their direction.

  “Fall back!” shouted Dower turning to grab the man next to her, but only finding his dead body on the ground. She ran, ducking, and just about jumped into another recess as plasma bolts slammed into the ground next to her. She looked at the people firing around her. They were already down to half their forces.

  At least eleven IMs were now in the docking bar corridor, bearing down on the people desperately trying to hold their positions.

  “Okay now!” shouted Dower as she started firing as much as she could, trying to cover the remaining people that were running behind her into the airlock and onto another shuttle which was waiting.

  A bolt skimmed her shoulder, tearing through skin and muscle, knocking her rifle from her hands.

  The closest IM started to run at her as she turned and staggered into the airlock. Not wanting to look behind she dived through the open hatch of the shuttle, which promptly closed. “Now! Disconnect the clamps!”

  The docking clamps on the shuttle disconnected as a loud clunk hit the outside of the hatch, a dent appeared in the carbonium surface of the inside of the hatch.

  “They are going to get inside!” someone shouted, close to her.

  She looked at her wrist screen. And tapped the only option on the screen. “Hold onto something!”

  There was a bright flash, instantly followed by the sound of a huge explosion. Alarms started up on the shuttle as everyone was flung first onto the side of the shuttle’s interior, then onto the ceiling and finally back onto the floor. The cabin flooded with red as the emergency lights came on.

  Dower rolled onto her side. “Is everyone okay?” she said not even knowing her own condition. A series of groans accompanied by “yes’s” and “I’m okay’s” came from around her. “I think we’re all okay,” said a slim woman.

  Dower got to her feet uneasily, and looked towards the cockpit, where an IM was piloting. “Did we get them all?” she said to the IM.

  “I’m not seeing any movement in the remains of the corridor.”

  She walked and stood in the cockpit. Pieces of IM and carbonium wreckage floated by the front window. “Where’s the other shuttle?” she said urgently.

  The IM pointed. “It is sitting on the floor of the loading bay. As you can see the captain and her crew have already disembarked.”

  In the distance three IMs and six people in space suits, one holding a bundled space suit, together with two carrying a large crate, walked across the floor of the huge loading bay, their magnetized boots stopping them from floating away.

  “They are making their way to the engineering chutes.”

  “Tell the others the captain is on her way.” She turned to walk back to the main cabin area. “I really do hope our space suits have not been damaged.”

  CHAPTER 27

  Captain Taylor walked into the storage hold. A hush descended across the crowd of hundreds standing and sitting. Awkwardly she dropped her suit that she had been carrying for the past half an hour, on the floor, just before Elisa ran up and hugged her.

  “I’m okay, Elisa.”

  Elisa looked embarrassed by her own emotion. “I’m just—glad you are alive.”

  The others from the shuttle did the same, putting the large crate on the floor.

  Closely behind Elisa was Evgeni, who also was smiling. He held out his hand, which the captain shook.
“Good to have you back onboard, Captain Taylor.”

  Dawn looked wide-eyed at the people around her. Her dog Juno was equally quiet. “It’s okay, Juno, no need to worry about these people,” she said hugging it.

  Seth walked up to Evgeni and the captain. “The main access to the docking bay has gone, there’s no easy way on and off the ship anymore.”

  Evgeni nodded. “It needed to be done to reduce the number of IMs Babel has.”

  “So now what?” said Seth.

  “Now, the captain takes back control of the ship,” said Luke speaking up from the chair he was sitting on behind them.

  “What I don’t get is why didn’t he throw more IMs at trying to capture the captain,” said Evan standing next to Luke.

  “Because he knew it might be a trap, he didn’t want to lose more IMs than he had to,” said Luke.

  “Yes, but now the captain is back, she can lock down the rest of the ship and trap them,” said Evan, looking confused.

  “And that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” replied Taylor. “Ship, where is Babel right now?”

  “Cell block A, section five,” replied the ship’s AI.

  “Seal off that area.”

  “Unable to comply.”

  The captain frowned. “Why not?”

  “The doors in the Cell blocks and surrounding areas are not responding.”

  “Ah, another reason he didn’t throw everything at getting the captain. He knew she wouldn’t be able to cut him off anyway.”

  “And the environmental controls for those areas?”

  “They are not responding to commands, Captain,” said the AI.

  “I need to sit down,” said Taylor sitting in a seat close to Luke. “Ship, how many people are in the cells where Babel is?”

  “Fourteen hundred and thirty-five.”

  “And how many IMs is he in control of?”

  “Fifty-eight.”

  “I want all remaining IMs to report to me here.”

  “The remaining IMs are not responding, Captain.”

  Taylor looked confused. Evan walked to her. “That would be because of me, to stop Murlock controlling all of them, I cut off his and the ship’s access to as many as I could, which is what you see—” he turned to the two rows of IMs nearby “—over there."

  “He has almost three times the number of people, and almost double the number of IMs we have,” said Evgeni looking glum.

  “Can we stop him from accessing anymore of the ship?” said Seth.

  “We should have been able to lock down the cell blocks, he’s obviously found a way around that.”

  “I think, he will just attack us soon,” said Evgeni looking resigned to his fate.

  Taylor stood back up. “Come with me.”

  They all walked across the smooth but dusty floor following the captain to the large crate, which she then pulled the top off. A multitude of firearms laid stacked on top of each other. A smile spread around the small group looking at the crate and the captain.

  Luke was the last to join them, hobbling as best he could to see what the fuss was about. Reaching in, he picked up an advanced looking plasma cannon. “Looks like we might have a chance after all.”

  CHAPTER 28

  “It’s a good plan,” said Aruna to Luke as they both sat with others inside the half empty storage container, which had become a makeshift headquarters for their defense.

  Luke smiled, obviously in pain. “Yeah, well we will soon see.”

  “We haven’t properly met, I’m—”

  “Aruna Anthony, leader of the Karma syndicate. Born in the northeast American federation in municipality two. Grew up in foster care, until you ran away from home at the age of fifteen. Joined a street gang called the Transits, because you used to hang around the Hyper Rail and pick the pockets of people who disembarked. The gang slowly transformed into the Karma syndicate over the course of ten years.”

  “Well, seems like you know all about me.”

  “I did kind of think of you would be taller,” said Luke smiling.

  Outside the last of the five-meter high containers was moved into place by an IM that Seth recognized. “Grant!”

  IM 036 sat in a large exoskeleton that was designed to move heavy cargo, looking at Seth. It’s head twitched slightly, with a show of recognition.

  Seth climbed up on the outside of the mechanical carbonium frame that housed the IM he had explored the hauler with a day before. “I knew you wouldn’t be one of the ones Babel controlled! How’s things?”

  “It is good to see you too Seth Cohen. How are things?”

  “You do realize asking an AI, ‘how’s things’ is probably one of the most complex questions you can ask it right?” said Evan standing nearby, while looking at his newly acquired wrist screen.

  “I mean, has your work being going well?” said Seth to Grant.

  “Yes. All tasks have been completed within satisfactory parameters.” His head twitched again. “Thank you for asking Seth Cohen.”

  Seth smiled. “Seth will do. Try to stay alive when the shit goes down.” He jumped down onto the hard floor.

  Grant looked ahead and continued moving the container into position.

  “You sure there’s enough weight in these containers to do enough damage?”

  “Quite sure,” replied Evan, still tapping on his screen.

  Luke appeared from the open container with Aruna, the captain and an IM closely behind her. He went to walk uneasily towards Seth and Evan, when they put their hands up, walking towards him. Evgeni and Yegor also walked across to join them.

  Luke looked up at the ten-meter-high wall of containers, with another single container behind them looking like a giant set of toy steps. “And there’s definitely no gaps on the inside?”

  Evan moved closer to Luke showing him his wrist screen. “No, as you can see, the containers are just sheer walls on the inside, facing the only entrance they can come into the storage hold. There’s a space of around twenty meters by ten for Babel’s people to be funneled into, after that they only way out is the way they came in.”

  “Our people with weapons will be behind the top containers on our side, ready,” said Evgeni.

  Taylor nodded. “What about our fall back positions if they break through?”

  Seth turned to the circular row of containers behind them, which arched around the ones further in. “We can defend this barricade if it comes to that.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t.”

  * * * * *

  Ashley Manning sat in the cold cell, wishing they had all stayed in the visitor’s room. Great timing Ash. Even though there were only two beds, five others including an elderly couple, Selena with her baby, and a man in his twenties were in the cell with her. Babel said the other cells were needed.

  She looked around the frightened faces and tried to push away the feeling of despair. It was her fault they were in this situation, she was an officer of the law, if anyone could have seen what was about to happen it was her. She’d been in one other hostage situation in her life before. Six years ago, when a husband who was also drug pusher was holding his wife for ransom. Ashley exchanged herself for the woman, then took the guy down. A commendation and a year later she had made detective.

  “It’s going to be okay, we just need to wait,” she said to the elderly man and woman, holding each other on the bed. It was a lie of course, but sometimes all you got left is hope, and sometimes it’s enough.

  She got up from the floor and walked to the cell door which was closed. Looking down through the transparent wall, she gasped. The ground floor of the cellblock was a sea of people, some armed with physical weapons such as pipes and spears, while others had guns.

  The man in his twenties joined her. “They must be getting ready to attack the others.”

  “Yes, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” she said frustrated.

  “You’re the cop, right?”

  Ashley briefly looked at the blonde-h
aired man to her left. “What about it?”

  “No, reason, just making conversation.”

  Ashley looked back at Selena and her little baby who was sleeping. She looked back outside and instead of seeing the hundreds of people below she saw a metallic wall of carbonium standing just on the other side of the door which then opened.

  “You are all to come with me,” said IM 032.

  Ashley considered saying something to the robot, but thought better of it. She had a dislike for AI’s as they were called growing up, ever since her mother was misdiagnosed by a doctor AI, leading to her death by taking the wrong medication. They were advertised as the worlds savior but she had first-hand experience they weren’t.

  She looked around at the rest. “Everyone get up, we need to follow the IM.”

  Cautiously they got to their feet and they were soon outside in the maelstrom of noise.

  Babel was standing on a second-floor gantry looking down upon the people that had chosen to follow him.

  “Earth has gone! The EA has gone! It’s no more! Poof! Swallowed by who knows what!” he said, raising his hands. To his left and right stood two IMs and slightly behind was Bell and Murlock, the latter looking anxious. “We’re not criminals anymore, we’re just people trying to survive! So why would we take orders from the EA anymore?” The crowd cheered. He put his hands on the gantry guardrail. “If we don’t fight, we are just going to become their slaves! I don’t want that, do you?”

  “No!” The mob responded as one.

  “It won’t be easy. They have maybe thirty of our metal friends here, and they have some people, mostly the flaming birds, which we know all too well. But together the Oilers and the Grainers, and our independent comrades will take back control of this ship, so we can be free again!”

  The crowd roared in response, shouting “Babel” repeatedly.

  He turned to Murlock and Bell. “Smile Murlock, soon Taylor will be dead and we can travel throughout the system taking what we want, it’s going to be a blast!”