“That looks an awful lot like a coordinated search grid, ” Lex said.
“That is an accurate assessment,” said Ma.
“Any chance we can get ourselves up to FTL for another sprint without hitting eight percent?”
“No,” Coal said.
“And can we get beyond the edge of the search grid without getting above eight percent?”
“No,” Coal said.
He sighed and gripped the controls. “Coal, do me a favor and superimpose the avoidance radius on the GenMech grid.”
Virtually his entire field of view filled with red. Tiny black gaps represented the eye of the needle he was going to have to thread to avoid discovery.
“Calculating clearance…” Coal said. “Clearance varies from twenty-five meters to zero point four meters. The GenMechs are remarkably inconsistent with their spacing.”
“Give me a large readout of the power level.”
She did so, revealing that when not moving at all, the power level was already at four percent.
“…I could really go for some gum…” he muttered.
He feathered the controls and eased the ship toward what appeared to be the largest gap in their search.
“It should be discussed what we will do when you successfully evade the search.”
“I appreciate the confidence, Ma, but I kinda need to concentrate…”
“I shall collaborate with Coal subvocally,” Ma said.
This, like so many maneuvers Lex found himself performing, was something that would in theory be better served by an autopilot. After all, docking and other ship guidance that required submeter precision almost always fell to the ship’s computers. He didn’t even entertain that as a possibility. A portion of that could be chalked up to ego, and Lex wouldn’t deny it if accused. Another substantial motivator was the… quirkiness of his current control system. The largest part, however, was the nature of the obstacle. The reason computers did such a bang up job navigating in these instances was their ability to engage short-range sensors to guide themselves. Since the GenMechs would treat any active sensor as a bull’s-eye, those were a no-no. Rather than trust Coal to take the controls for a navigational maneuver that she’d been programmed to perform under very different circumstances, he decided to handle it personally.
He twitched the controls ever so slightly, easing the ship into the awkward angle necessary to slip not only itself but also its passenger through the space available. That last part was particularly tricky since he didn’t know exactly how far out the ship protruded, but if his cloaking field covered it, he’d just have to assume it fit within that sphere. That meant it was going to be a very tight fit.
The red overlay approached, and Lex massaged the ship into precisely the position he needed. Now all that remained was to wait until he and the wall of robots slid by one another. This moment of calm gave him time to think, however. And that churned up some things he would rather not have realized.
“Ma, I probably should know this by now, but if we know these things have gravity sensors, what’s to stop them from using those to detect us despite the cloak?”
“Gravitational sensors are calibrated for relativistic and superluminal speeds. They have a low signal-to-noise ratio at low velocities. Additionally, the cloaking device diffuses apparent gravitational—”
“I don’t need specifics. Thanks, Ma.”
“You are very welcome.”
He took a moment, anxiously watching the minimum perimeter drift closer.
“Coal… normally you’d use active scanners to make those navigational overlays for me, right?”
“That is standard protocol.”
“And we’re not dead, so you didn’t do it.”
“Correct.”
“How did you calculate those then?”
“They are estimates based on visual data.”
“Estimates.”
“Correct.”
“As in potentially inaccurate.”
“Incorrect.”
“Oh?”
“They are definitely inaccurate.”
“Exactly how inaccurate.”
“That’s a silly question, Lex. If I knew exactly how inaccurate, I would simply recalculate by that offset and remove the inaccuracy. Would you like to know approximately how inaccurate?”
He watched the red creep closer to the visualized limits of his cloak.
“… No. On second thought, keep that to yourself.”
Another few seconds passed. They were near enough that the finer details of the GenMechs were visible. Coal, without being asked, traced a rectangle over the nearest ones and magnified them. If the complexity and symmetry of the multirobot configurations was astounding, it was nothing compared to the uniqueness of the individual robots. No two of them were the same. The sizes varied slightly, but the components varied greatly. Some were slick and chrome. Others had a matte sandstone-like appearance. One of them included a strut supporting one leg that had a pearly yellow look that Lex felt certain must have been bone.
“Fascinating…” Coal said. “There are radio transmissions. Routing through com system.”
Lex had never challenged himself to theorize what a legion of killer robots would sound like when they communicated with each other, but if he had, he doubted he would have come up with what he was hearing now. It was akin to whale noises, but truncated and flanged like something that would come out of a DJ’s sound system. It also duplicated and rolled back upon itself, repeating patterns bouncing back and forth like waves in an enclosed tank.
“It is beautiful,” Coal said.
“Agreed,” Ma replied.
“Not the adjective I would have used,” Lex said, quietly wishing he wasn’t wearing a helmet so he could mop the sweat from his brow.
As luck would have it, of the three clusters nearest to him the one directly above was moving just a shade slower than its neighbors. This meant the nerve-wracking needle-threading was taking much longer than he’d expected. Those below him slid far enough ahead for him to nudge the Lump of Coal downward and away. He was moments away from having a clear shot to take the ship as fast as he dared out of range when a very distinct and concerning sound rippled through the eerie audio.
A sharp, crackly tone rang out and quickly worked its way through the echobox. Every last GenMech configuration stopped, and slowly they began to pivot toward where the Lump of Coal was when the sound began.
“It looks like I underestimated the detection range of the GenMechs. I suggest we cut the man we have rescued loose and retreat,” Coal said.
“Steady,” Lex said, resisting the urge to accelerate. “They don’t know where we are, only where we were, right? So we just need to not be there when they get there.”
“Strange. Your words do not match your expression or vocal stress levels,” Coal said. “I may need to recalibrate my body language interpretation routines.”
“Unnecessary. Lex is misrepresenting his level of ease. It is a standard human behavior when facing adversity,” Ma said.
“Fascinating.”
“Could you please stop studying me for two minutes,” Lex snapped.
“Okay, that’s more like what I was expecting,” Coal said.
The rear viewer displayed the three nearest clusters of robots shifting to investigate whatever disturbance they had picked up. Mechanical legs shifted and tiny actuators flared with flickering tools. The plane of robots broke rank, gradually bunching up and crowding around where the Lump of Coal had been. Lex had to adjust the ship constantly to avoid robots jockeying for position, but the farther he got, the fewer he had to contend with. Finally he was outside the realm of concern, naturally just seconds before the alert that rippled through the group timed out and the GenMechs lost interest. They each found partners, linked into their high-speed configurations, and jumped to FTL seemingly at random.
A combination of luck and skill prevented Lex from being directly in front of one of the clusters whe
n they made their jump, and thus within a few minutes he and his rescuee were entirely alone.
“We didn’t die. Can I call this incident fun now?” Coal asked.
“Yeah. Intense, but officially fun.”
“Excellent, because I quite enjoyed it. I now know why I like you, even though I can only somewhat remember our other times together. … Stand by. I am detecting a signal propagating through the hull. I believe the capsule is attempting a hardwired communication. Slightly unfamiliar protocol. Attempting to decode.”
A few seconds of static resolved into the voice that had beckoned them.
“—know who you are, but you and I have to talk,” he said. “Standard parlay rules.”
“Can I reply to this guy?” Lex asked.
“I don’t have an official way to route electrical impulses through the hull. One moment. I think I can produce the required effect with microfluctuations in the shield generators. Stand by… Communication open.”
“Hello. Please explain ‘standard parlay,’” Lex said.
“And also, you are welcome for the rescue,” Coal said.
“Coal…” Lex muttered.
“I didn’t broadcast me,” Coal said.
“Though in light of the situation, gratitude is not an unreasonable expectation,” Ma said.
“Standard parlay!” the man said. “Where have you had your head if you don’t know standard parlay? We both go extra vehicular, de-tether from the ship, com-link our suits. That way no double crosses.”
“Mute communication,” Ma said. “This is unwise, Lex.”
“I agree. He doesn’t know how to act,” Coal said. “Rude.”
“Yeah…” Lex said, his face uncertain. “I’m starting to get a shady vibe from this guy too. But I’ve got questions and he can answer them.”
“Your questions are not relevant to the mission,” Ma said.
“They could be. Obviously these people must know an awful lot about the GenMechs if they’ve survived this long. Fifty years of evolution may have changed them in ways we can’t anticipate… I’m going out there. Ma, you come with me. Coal, keep an eye on him—”
“I do not have eyes, and applying one to another person is a misuse of anatomy. This is figurative speech, right?”
“Yes. He is requesting that you observe closely,” Ma said.
“And if something seems wrong, use your best judgment… and don’t arm the fusion device.”
“Okay,” Coal said. “And thanks for your confidence in my judgment. Depressurizing the cockpit. It will open when near-vacuum is achieved.”
The sound of fans and pumps slowly faded as the air was reclaimed, and finally the hatch popped silently open. Below the ship the as-yet-unintroduced stranger was slowly guiding his capsule away from the Lump of Coal, reeling out his tether and firing cleverly recessed thrusters to shift his vehicle out until it was roughly nose to nose. He popped his own cockpit and drifted out, casually yanking a tether from his own ship and hanging in space, arms crossed and patiently waiting for Lex to do the same.
Ma maneuvered herself out and to the left, taking up a watchful position almost at the limits of the communication cable linking her to Lex. He yanked the cable leading back to the cockpit from its port. The other man did the same. Lex pulled in the loose end of line and looked at it for a moment. It had been quite a while since he’d been forced to rely on wired communication, so the concept of having to worry about carrying adapters to ensure compatibility was a blessedly rare and foreign concept. After mulling over how exactly he was supposed to link to the stranger’s suit and have a chat, he decided to take one of his standard approaches and just make it the other guy’s problem. He tossed the tether forward and drifted close enough to give it some slack.
In a clearly practiced and familiar motion, the man snatched it and hauled in the end of his own tether. Unlike the single connector that Lex’s cable sported, this tether ended in a clump of assorted ports. He sorted through them, found an appropriate match for Lex’s cable, and hooked up.
“Hi, I’m Lex and—” Lex began.
The man silenced him with an outstretched hand, then held the other hand palm up and tapped his center three fingers against his palm in a complex sequence. This gave Lex a moment to look over the man he had saved. His suit, like his capsule, was a patchwork mess. Stretches of silver, red, and black had been slapped together with gobs of visible sealant and glorified duct tape. His ship, while a reasonably streamlined shape, had the same variety of shades of metal. Thick, messy welds, more tape, and copious hammer marks. His visor, one of the only parts of the suit that seemed to be a continuous piece, was heavily silvered and didn’t offer up a hint of the face within. Now that they were much closer, Ma had enough slack on her own com-tether to get behind him.
“He has an energy pistol holstered behind his back, Lex,” she said.
He sighed. “Of course he does…”
When whatever the stranger was attempting to do was through, he rolled his hand in a get-on-with-it motion that had evidently survived the intervening decades.
“Testing, testing,” Lex said, trying to be subtle about backing up a bit more.
“You’ve got a damn old codec, son,” the man said.
“I’ve been out of commission for a while. Tell me—”
“We don’t have all day. Those things double back sometimes, so I’ll make it simple. I’ve got eleven liters of liquid oxygen I’m willing to part with in exchange for that cloak of yours. I’ve never seen one that still worked so good you could depend upon it at ranges like that.”
“Oh, no trade. I need that for a project I’m working on.”
“I do too, son. It’s call survival.”
“I might have some stuff I can trade, but I need to ask you some questions.”
“Might have something to trade? You’ve got a dog. If you’ve got the resources to keep a worthless scrap of meat alive, you damn well have something to trade.”
“We can discuss that, but like I said, I’ve been out of commission for a while. I need to know. How bad has it gotten?”
“Fine, twelve liters, and a nearly new CO2 scrubber.”
“Again, we can discuss that, but maybe you can at least tell me what sort of population is left. Are any governments still—”
“Look, son. Current events aren’t your thing. I see that. But you’ve got to realize I’m only making an offer because you answered the dirge, so I figured you as the decent sort. Could be that you’re the stupid sort instead. They answer dirges sometimes too, but only once usually. So I’ll give you one more offer. Twelve liters, a CO2 scrubber, and a pound of frozen butter.”
“Frozen butter?” Lex said.
“Guaranteed not rancid. Take it or leave it.”
“Is it so hard to answer a few questions? I did save your life,” Lex said.
“You didn’t save my life. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d’ve roasted my rig rather than let that bot-loving slag have it and made a break on my own. But if you’re going to try to hang that over me, I’m going to make one last offer…” He reached behind his back.
Lex didn’t wait for the rest of the sentence. He’d had dealings with enough psychopaths to know when a weapon was about to show up. He squeezed the glove-mounted controls for his maneuvering jets and whisked to the side. Ma darted toward the man. The stranger revealed a blaster and fired straight from the hip. It probably would have crackled through space and chewed a hole through something important inside the Lump of Coal’s cockpit, if not for the fact that Coal was just as quick to act. She’d snapped the hatch shut. The blast dispersed against the overengineered hatch, then a brilliant glow erupted from her thrusters. Coal streaked backward, taking up the slack on the tether linking her to the capsule.
The man tried to line up a second shot. Ma struck the gun hard with a well-timed kick of both back legs that carried all the momentum of her pack-assisted approach. It wasn’t quite enough to knock the gun free, but it startled t
he man enough to distract him from what came next. Lex had circled around and was angling his boots at the man’s chest. The blow sent him backward and dislodged the weapon. In the blink of an eye the stranger activated his pack to stabilize his tumble and attempt to reach his weapon, but Ma’s less massive body was far quicker to accelerate. She darted past, snatching the gun with her specially equipped muzzle, and took up a place beside Lex.
Lex snatched the offered weapon and leveled it at the man who he’d just gone through an awful lot of trouble to rescue. The man froze and held his hands out to the side to make it clear he didn’t have any additional weapons to pull.
“Okay, listen up. Now I really want some answers,” Lex said.
The man did not react. Ma glanced at the end of the communication cables and noticed they had become disconnected. Without a word, she darted out, snatched the end of the man’s tether, then nudged it toward him. She then caught and flicked Lex’s dangling cable end toward him as well.
With motions carefully designed to not be interpreted as sudden moves by Lex, the man restored the connection.
“What the hell was that all about?” Lex said. “What you just did here, what happened back there with the other ship, everything.”
“You have been out of it,” the man said, his voice considerably less frightened than his body language had indicated. “That’s life, son. That’s how you keep breathing. That slag back there didn’t want to pay the price I was asking at my oxy-farm, so she figured she’d drag a swarm to scare me off, then tow as much as my rig away as she could before they closed the gap. I’ll be damned if I was going to let her get away with that, so I toasted my rig. Same deal with you. You have something I want, you didn’t want to take a fair price, so I was going to take it.”
“Yeah, well now that you’re unarmed, I think it’s time for us to chat about the current state of affairs and what—”
“Here’s the last lesson you’re ever going to get, son, since it’s clear you don’t know anything. No one is ever unarmed with those bots about.”
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