Daisuke raised his eyebrows. 'Navigation, have you a course?'
'Locked!'
'In your own time, please. Intelligence, what are your drones seeing?'
Daisuke quickly instructed his suit to seal itself and for the acceleration gel to be flooded into him.
'Hundreds of Urchins, really big fuck-off ones!Nothing like I have ever seen before and a shitload of nasties. Hold on ... checking my ID files ... yeah, killers. Urchin killers. The files say that the really big Urchins are queens.'
Yvette Reese yelled out, 'Jumping!'
Minutes later the view had dramatically changed again as they jumped into the LP closest to the queen that had the Games Board signal coming from it.
The intelligence officer started to sound excited. 'The queen is on an intercept course with us. She is coming to this LP!The killers are harrying her! We have hundreds of smaller Urchins around us, killers predating on them and a few big lumps of rocky ice, but will be clear of them all in a few moments due to our speed.'
Daisuke clenched his jaw, hoping that he was making the right decision, but knew that the GB core was being carried by the queen. Although the queen was vastly bigger than the Thorn, he had huge firepower and a very good crew at his disposal.
'One just swallowed a cobalt! Where the hell did that come from?'
'Off the surface of the queen!'
Daisuke called with his mind again. 'Comms! Send a recognition signal at that queen!'
'Done, sir! Have Basalt'sID back! 'Itis coming from the queen!' 'Right. Tactical! Light up the particle accelerators. Dirty them with positrons. Hit the killers that are still behind her!
And hit them with the lasers as well. Anything to distract them. Comms! Get me Basalt.'
'Link established, sir!'
'Basalt, this is Thorn two of Rose. We are inbound to you from LPL Is the crew still alive?'
'Daisuke! This is Michael. Damn, but we are pleased to hear from you! Bit nasty here. All still alive, thanks. Bit messed up, but still OK.'
'Good! We are over 800,000 kilometres from you and on an intercept course. How bad a shape are you in? Stand by! Navigation, how long to swing around them at our current speed. Figure. out if we should jump to LP2 and come up behind them? Sorry, Michael! Go ahead.'
'Squirting the logs to you. The Urchin we arebeing protected by is sort of friendly. She has been using our munitions that we set up for our defence. We have been presenting them to her tentacles and she has been making the most of it. The three killers that you guys just zapped were the last of them. But we are certain there will be more coming towards the LP.' As he was listening to Michael, Yvette Reese was also advising him. 'It is faster if we decelerate and swing around behind them. Us and the ship will survive, but you would not, sir. Time to intercept will be just on three hours.'
He grimaced. 'Survive for another three hours, Michael. We are coming to get you! I have to go get chilled in solid, otherwise I will not make it. I am handing you over to Major Carrington. See you on the other side.'
He told the seat to let him go. As he walked into the survival system at the back of the bridge, he said, 'Mr Carrington. Do everything in you r power to get Basalt out of this system and back to Storfisk. See you in a few days.'
The Q commander nodded as Daisuke pushed his way into the survival system, which immediately recognised him and held him firmly as it rotated him into a coffin-like structure. He was injected with a fast-acting anaesthetic through one of his chest shunts and had his bioware modified to adapt his tissue to a frozen state. Within minutes his body temperature was down to a few degrees below zero. The system then flooded him and his container with a hard high-acceleration resistant gel and finally reported to the Thorn's Qmedical officer that the commander was secure.
As soon as he saw that the commander was safe, the Q major barked out his orders. 'All crew: gel! Two minutes. Navigation as quick as we can!'
In the time it took the crew members to leap into the nearest acceleration pods, seal their helmets and flood gel into themselves, Yvette Reese also flipped the ship end to end and started a seven gravity deceleration while also swinging the ship out in a long arc.
Basalt
Urchin Star System
'Jasmine. Request of Zawgyi again that she let us go.'
Jasmine took a deep breath and said, 'Hello, Zawgyi. Our captain is asking again if you can please release us.'
There was a long pause before the creature replied. 'No. I like you. I will keep you. I wish we all be together forever. You are nice, Jasmine. Do you not wish to stay with me?'
'Yes, we all like you too, Zawgyi, but we must leave. Our friends are here and they want to take us home.'
The peevish, metallic alien voice of the chimera queen sounded in Jasmine's ears. 'But I saved you from the monsters, Jasmine. I like you. I do not care for your friends as I do not know them. It would be better if they were dead. I want to go to your home with you. Are you not grateful?'
Stephine was sitting next to Jasmine, wondering what she could do to ease the situation. She looked at one of her screens and fired a laser message to Blackjack. 'Can you tell me what is happening to Zawgyi?'
The sentient ship answered immediately. 'The creature has changed again. I gave her more of our octopoid material essence, and it was assimilated and changed. Since she took those last three males' reproductive packets and had them suicide against the killers, it appears that she is changing even more. I think that having gained sentience at the level of a prepubescent standard human she has become unstable. Tell everyone that more tendrils are being formed around Basalt. I believe that she has no intention of letting the ship go. Oh, yes, and I had a pair of drones bring me the Games Board Soul Saver core when Marko switched the antigravity off.'
'Good. Have you assimilated enough of the queen to taste like an Urchin yet?'
The ship answered. 'Yes. I have let go and risen above her. A tendril rapidly touched me and then withdrew. I went further out and did a quick orbit of her and she did not react. I am now locked against the crew access on the engineering deck. I have the drones gathering those things that the crew find most precious to them and loading them on me.'
Stephine slowly nodded, wondering if it had been a bad mistake to team up with the Urchin. She shook her head as she also thought that they would not have survived on their own anyway. 'It had been the queen herself who had tipped the balance, by using the weapons that they had prepared. She knew that the images of the queen's tendrils snatching the laid out weapons off the hull of Basalt and hurling them with pinpoint accuracy" at the killers would stay with her forever.
She stood up, thinking very carefully of what she had to do, and pulled herself over to Patrick's closest datalink. She touched it, establishing a silent link with Basalt's Al. 'Patrick,. do you know what I am?'
The voice of the sentient instantly filled her head as he spoke silently. 'Of course, Stephine. Michael and I have known for a long time that you are a construct of the octopoids. You are one of the so-called angels who walks amongst us. You need to take all our sentient friends and leave Basalt,Stephine. And I think you should do it very soon.'
She felt tears pricking her eyes. 'But what of you, Patrick?'
The AI gave a short laugh. 'Mine has been a wonderful existence as part of this crew, Stephine. I shall eject one of my own Soul Savers, but it will be a terminal one for me as I need to stay here and talk to the queen in all your voices. I see Blackjackhas been able to move around her, at least, unlike our drones which she destroyed.'
'Thank you, Patrick. I shall know you again, of course, but that "you" will not be a continuation of the one I am talking with now. Goodbye, dear friend.'
'Stay true to yourself, Stephine.'
She wiped the tears from her eyes, broke the connection and pushed herself across to Jasmine, touching her. 'Don't answer, Jasmine. Quietly make your way to Blackjack.Those things that are most precious to you are being loaded onboard her now. Comba
t tap to anyone you see. No spoken words. I believe that Zawgyi is listening to the sound vibrations through the hull.'
Jasmine's eyes got huge looking closely at Stephine, then she gave a sharp nod and started to move.
Stephine saw Michael looking at her and about to speak when she put a finger to her lips. His eyebrows went up and he cocked his head to o,:ie side, questioning her. She pushed off the wall, gliding over to him, and reached down and tapped out the message she had given Jasmine on his wrist. He slowly nodded, big tears rolling down his face as he pulled a large datablock out from the side of his pod and slowly pushed himself out of the bridge, took a long moment to look around the control deck, then headed straight down the spiral staircase.
Stephine touched part of the wall and a large, deep green diamond-clear disk was ejected from a slot. Gathering Patrick's Soul Saver to her chest, she too left the bridge.
Fifteen minutes later, everyone was inside Blackjack, squeezing in amongst the containers of the things precious to each of them. Stephine was the last inside the airlock as it closed behind her. She looked around the augmented humans and ACEs, then frowned and reached across and grabbed Marko's hand.
'Where is Topaz? Why is he not here? And where is Jim?'
A very sad Marko answered. 'Topaz decided to stay with Patrick. She would not come no matter how I pleaded. She said I could build another of her at any time and gave me her datablocks. Jim, as soon as he learned that she was staying, insisted on doing the same. He said he would record_ everything to the end and store the information on the Fast Mover drones, which he believed could be ejected if the queen destroys Basalt.'
Stephine vehemently shook her head. 'No, I shall go get them. Losing Basalt and Patrick is bad enough; we do not need to lose the other two as well.'
As she started for the airlock, Veg quickly stepped in front of her and gathered her rigid self into his arms, silently saying, 'No, Stephine. No. None of us can go back. Blackjack says that Zawgyi's tendrils are trying to force their way into the upper airlocks of Basalt. We must go now.'
They all felt the soft thud of the airlock connection to Basalt being broken and Stephine sagged against Veg's bulk as she murmured through her sobs: 'What have I done, husband? I have cost us Basalt, Patrick, Jim and Topaz.'
The huge man stroked her back and whispered, 'No, my love, no. You saved the biological us. Our lives are still continuous. If you had not convinced Michael to team up with the queen, we would all be dead.'
Blackjack gently and slowly, with the tiniest puffs of her attitude jets, took them away from the massive Urchin. As soon as the ship knew that they could not be grabbed by the queen, she accelerated until they were fifty kilometres away and carefully watched for any reaction from the creature.
An hour and a half later she accelerated again, sliding up to the Thorn and matching speed to dock with it. As soon as they felt the docking clamps locking them hard against the bigger ship, they relaxed for the first time in days.
As soon as the airlocks connected themselves, Michael and the crew pulled themselves across into a featureless room onboard the Thorn, where, as the carrier continued to climb away from the planet to the Lagrange point, the drone sensors built into the walls checked them for any contamination.
While that was happening, the screens came alive around them. 'Major Longbow! Pleased to have you safely aboard. May I have your instructions concerning Basalt and the Urchin queen, please?'
Michael nodded at the face of the Q on the screen. 'Mr Carrington, I presume?'
The Qnodded.
'You have reviewed the files?' The Q nodded again.
'Very well. That queen holds a great deal of information that we would like to acquire. 'It also holds our ship. We do not want either destroyed. But ... I also do not want it heading off in some direction that we have no control over. I need you to deploy three semi-AI controlled Fast Movers with two full power compressors on each attached to a jumper unit. Have them shadow the queen. If she jumps for anywhere else but Storfisk, they are to follow and destroy her. Yes, I know it will destroy Basalt as well, but we can always grow another ship. We need to clear the way for her to get out of this system undamaged as I want our ship back intact.'
The Qtapped the side of his jaw. 'Yes. 'Itis a good plan. 'Itis initiated. I also note that you all appear clear of contamination. However, I cannot say the same for the personal yacht you came in. May I ask who owns it and how does it come to be covered in Urchin material?'
Stephine stepped forwards. 'It is called Blackjack and it is my ship, Q Major Carrington. I presume that you know who I am? The data files of what we have endured are with you. Blackjack acquired material from the queen and coated itself in it to avoid detection by the queen. If it is a problem, I shall instruct the ship's AI to stand off the Thorn's hull.'
The Q smiled and bowed his head. 'I recognise you, Emissary Stephine. My apologies. I should have seen you and your esteemed companion earlier. No, that will not be necessary. I shall take your word for it and read the files later, but I shall make your Blackjack off-limits to all but yourselves anyway. Please come aboard. A meal is prepared for everyone. Of course you have freedom of this ship.' He smiled again. 'It is not my ship, so strictly speaking, I should not be able to say that, but I am anyway. 'It is my and the entire crew's great pleasure to welcome the famous crew of Basalt.'
The ACEs were the first out through the opening doors with Spike riding on Flint.
Marko fired a message to Glint using their secure crew comms. 'How is Spike going to get on without Jim and the sentience blocks he held for the little guy?'
'We did not have a lot to do for the last couple of days so we built the blocks into Flint and Ngoc. As long as he is within line of sight of one of them, he is OK. Never been onboard one of these Thorns before. Nice design. Hope these Q lizards have good food. I am hungry!'
Marko chuckled. 'Don't call them lizards, Glint. They are closer to you in structure and you hate being called a lizard. Dragon is best.'
Marko had to march fast to keep up with the ACEs and maintain the line of sight needed for the comms link.
'Yeah, yeah. Shall I get Nail to sample one for your biological information files?'
Marko thought about it for a few seconds then mentally shrugged. 'If you think that you can get away with it, why not. Might learn something interesting.'
Glint, just before he disappeared down the central stairway replied, 'Good! We need a challenge!'
Marko groaned internally, wondering if it was such a good idea after all.
Minutes later he joined the ACEs on the mess deck of the Thorn, where various food units were creating and presenting the food items as they were ordered. He grimaced slightly, but then smiled, seeing the living fruit vines with their hybridised produce weaving around the walls and machines. He watched as Glint stood still, appearing to be mesmerised by a Q drinking from a mug and sucking the fluid up through its hollow muscular tongue. As the Tengu finished the drink, Glint turned to Marko and pointed at the Q's mouth.
'What a great idea! I shall build one of those for me as soon as we get back. After that there will be no more carefully drinking from cups for me!'
Michael was accompanied by Stephine and Veg as they made their way up to the bridge to formally introduce themselves to the Qcommand.
As they were walking up the stairs, being greeted by hurrying identical Tengu going up and down, Michael whispered to Stephine, 'How do you tell them apart?'
Veg slapped the major on the shoulder. 'Did they not teach you anything at command college, major? Adjust your eyes to take in more ultraviolet. The information is in their tattoos. Sex, rank, profession, battle honours, what other specialisations the construct possesses ... it's all there.'
Veg stopped climbing. Forcing the other two to do the same, he looked into the major's eyes. 'But I bet you that you don't have those datablocks to decode that information, do you? Upgrade on the way!'
The information was l
asered from Veg's eye into Michael's. His bioware scanned it for anything hostile and a few moments later opened the information and uploaded it into his subconscious. Minutes before they got to the bridge deck he could 'see' the data on each of the Tengu and felt much happier.
'Thanks, Veg. Fact is, I had only heard rumours that these guys existed. Knew about the Tengu the Baron der Boltz had and what a shithead that creature was, but had no idea that there were a lot more of them.'
Stephine gave him a small grin. 'The prototype was made a long long time ago on Storfisk and it was a true ACE. These are a few generations further from them and from the Tengu that was with the Baron. They are created by the Haulers and their crew on some of the more hostile missions to star systems a long way from the Sphere. Almost perfect troops.'
'Almost?'
Veg laughed. 'Always room for improvements, eh, Mr Carrington? Long time no see, old friend. May I introduce Major Michael Longbow? And yes, Michael, Mr Carrington does have a first name, but very few of us know it!'
The creature, who was taller than Michael and moved with feral grace and power, shook Michael warmly by the hand before hugging both Stephine and Veg as he said, 'What needs more improvement, Veg?'
Veg poked the Tengu in the chest. 'You lot! Bigger, better, faster, you know, the usual corporate bullshit.'
The Q laughed. 'No way I will get into the ring with you ever, Veg! No way. But I would suggest that you get yourselves something to eat, get refreshed or whatever you want to do, as we are only a couple of hours away from Ll. And we expect a bunch of shitfights until we are out in the interstellar LP.'
Basalt's crew were spread throughout the Thorn, manning resupply units or weapons. The ACEs had been left with their mentors.
Marko and Glint sat in compact wraparound seats side by side in one of the weapon stations.
'All crew: this is tactical. The queen is fifty kilometres behind us and no longer talking with anyone. Treat her with caution. Do not get close, but our job is to give her any support that is needed. All fighters launch when able. We are seeing seventeen killers in and around the LP, hundreds of Urchins, plus those big ice asteroids, and we are 300 kilometres out. You are weapons free. Final upload of Soul Saver information. Soul Saver links are established. Do not hesitate to use them as we will not be able to swing around if you are stranded. As soon as the queen jumps, so do we. Good shooting!'
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