The Eye of Orion_Book 2_Spinebreakers

by Mitch Michaelson

  The Eye of Orion was safely docked inside the immense carrier.

  “Glaikis, Cyrus, come on,” Steo said. “Yuina do you need to know what we’re doing?”

  “I’ll let Renosha explain,” she said. “I know, stay here and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”

  The three went to the tech bay. Steo had several projects on the tables. Glaikis and Steo collected tools and gadgets, then they got suits and put them on; the hangar bay was open to space. Their suits were excellent quality: tight to allow range of motion, but comfortable.

  Steo said, “Glaikis, pick up those tools. Cyrus, can you go pick up that decoy drone?”

  Cyrus looked at the torpedo. “No, I can’t.”

  “Oh sorry,” Steo said. “I put LBDs on it. It’s light as air. You can just push it along with us.”

  Cyrus grabbed the long torpedo and lifted it easily.

  They entered the airlock and soon were on the gantry. Their suits automatically oriented gravity to the gantry, so they walked along it to the door. They turned on their helmet lights.

  “What’s that you got there?” Glaikis said, pointing to a couple gadgets she didn’t recognize.

  “Renosha gave me these. Some kind of light manipulator and a tension shield. I thought I’d start carrying them whenever I’m off ship. They’re not much use on board.”

  They advanced down the walkway. It took a mere swipe of a hand on the plate next to the door to open the airlock. They went in and were surprised to find that the airlock worked. The symbols were an incomprehensible language, but the rising light in the dingy panel probably meant air was pumping into the room.

  “This was a human ship, right?” Glaikis said.

  “Yes.”

  “What does that matter?” Cyrus asked.

  “If that’s air, it’s breathable,” Glaikis said.

  “Why is it still working?”

  “Who knows what they left working in these old floating shells. Hawking probably turned it on remotely,” Steo said. “Or maybe the mercs started repairing it. Keep an eye out.”

  The door into the ship opened. The hallways were dusty. They saw no sign that anyone had been on board.

  “Where are we going?” Glaikis said.

  “The schematics show the graviton engine can produce power. It’s not much, but they would probably start right up. The scanners are ancient but also would work. They’re just outdated. We’re going to connect the decoy drone to the scanners and power them up. It’ll generate a strong duplicate of our ship’s signal. They won’t be able to ignore it. Even a Stalker missile would turn toward this ship if it was launched at us, and this ship is big enough to sustain a lot of hits!”

  They headed off down a hallway. Steo seemed to know the way. This was his element.

  The cutters moved cautiously through the ship graveyard, staying in formation. Their shields were up and their scanners checked every fragment they floated by. The Fire Scorpion kept a narrow-beam scan on them to support with missile fire if needed, but the destroyer didn’t venture far from the AndroVault.

  Boc had assembled a crew of men and chosen a shuttle. It was even smaller than the cutters and its shields wouldn’t hold up to weapons fire, much less a direct missile hit. Boc had to go quickly, though. The admiral didn’t have another way to get back and a shuttle might go unnoticed.

  “This is good enough,” Steo said. They stopped in a big room and set everything down. “This was launch control for the fighters. It has consoles for access to the engines and scanners.” He turned up some lights.

  “My readings say the air is safe.” Glaikis removed her helmet. “Eerie.”

  Steo and Glaikis went to work, connecting cables and installing applications.

  Cyrus explored the room. He pushed a lever and saw the engines come to life. They only stored a fraction of the power a modern ship could collect, and the tachyon subengine was probably dead. Life support was on in all sections of the ship that weren’t open to space.

  He tapped a button and a hiss caught his attention. Looking behind the console, he saw a door had partially opened. He stepped to the aperture. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Inside was a lightless chamber with rows of ancient spacesuits, covered in dust. At the far end, one cracked helmet revealed a skull. Curious, Cyrus stepped inside.

  Glaikis called Steo over to look at a coupling that didn’t fit well. A door to the room opened and a man in black armor stepped in. He carried a tension shield and he quickly drew a long rod. As he advanced, Glaikis looked up and yelled.

  Steo looked around and saw the advancing soldier. Glaikis drew her pistol and fired, realizing too late that the mercenary’s tension shield would bounce her shots.

  Steo jumped up and remembered his own shield. He freed it and maneuvered it forward with his hand. His shield looked tiny in comparison to the full-body shield the soldier carried.

  Glaikis circled left and waved Steo right. The mercenary was confronted with offense on one side and defense on another. He marched toward Glaikis. His crashbar came swinging down, barely missing her as she dove aside. It slammed into the steel panel, cratering it. Glaikis kept away. She’d been trained in ship-fighting, and knew how dangerous her attacker was. She didn’t watch to see where Steo was as the soldier came at her again. This time he swung at her waist, then reversed course and swung back. If it made any contact, it would tear flesh and break bones, but she eluded each attack by fractions of an inch. The mercenary was experienced. He could control the crashbar’s force better than a man could wave around a stick. It didn’t look heavy in his hands, snapping back and forth.

  He lifted it overhead and Glaikis jumped aside. The metal console behind her screeched as it bent under the tremendous force.

  The soldier judged her speed and made quick, flicking swings. She rolled out of the way of the last one, came up and fired at him under the shield. The reflective body armor was mainly useful against lasers, but it absorbed the rounds from her gun. He reeled back.

  “You need a weapon!” she yelled at Steo.

  Steo grabbed at his belt. He didn’t even have a holster. He found the silver tube with the needle and decided that would make a poor weapon. Then he saw the red disc strapped to his thigh. He knew it could produce images but he found it difficult to use. Renosha’s voice came to mind that it was “completely intuitive.”

  The soldier had his bearings back and was advancing on Glaikis.

  What I need is a laser, Steo thought. His hand held a laser, though he didn’t feel a thing. He lifted it and made the motion of pulling the trigger. A bright beam of energy shot past the soldier’s ear.

  That changed the soldier’s priorities. He kept the shield oriented at Glaikis but for an instant let go of the crashbar. It hovered in the air. Steo’s next “shot” again missed the soldier. In a flash, the soldier drew a small object and flicked it at Glaikis, then snatched his crashbar from the air as the grenade exploded.

  It was a stunner, a bomb with collected gravitons that suddenly released them when it exploded. Glaikis was lifted off the floor and thrown across the room.

  Steo shot at the soldier and the beam reflected off his chest armor. The soldier moved toward Steo, who wasn’t trained in ship-fighting. Steo tried shots at him, but the laser reflected off the shiny black armor or plain missed. The soldier had a twisted grin and swung at Steo. His crashbar, which weighed hundreds of pounds and was accelerated by state-of-the-art technology, bounced off Steo’s tiny tension shield.

  The mercenary didn’t expect this and the tip of the crashbar banged on the floor. He recovered and swung again at Steo. The rod bounced off the shield again. The soldier swung fast, faster than a human could swing his own fist. The little shield easily parried the blows, no matter what angle they came at.

  The soldier had never seen such a defense. The plate-sized shield was more effective than his own, which covered him from knee to shoulder. The frustration made him forget that a stunner only stuns.
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  Glaikis took careful aim from a seated position and fired. The shots hit him hard. He plunged forward. Steo’s shield hit him, spinning him around. Glaikis fired again and hit him in the neck. There was a gout of blood and he fell like his strings had been cut.

  Glaikis dropped her gun with a clank. She breathed hard. Her left arm was limp. Steo ran to her and tore off his own helmet.

  “Glaikis, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  Clearly in pain, she said, “Arm caught the brunt of the explosion. Clavicle is broken. Other pains I can’t identify.”

  “I need to get you back to the ship!”

  “Where’s Cyrus?”

  He didn’t see Cyrus anywhere. “I don’t know!”

  “Then get the decoy drone linked up. Just wiggle that coupling, and get it done. If there’s one merc here, there’s more. Hurry!”

  “Okay!” Steo ran back to the equipment and realized the illusory laser gun was stuck to his hand. He shook it, tapped the red disc and it went away. He let the miniature shield keep floating around him.

  “That explains the air. They’re repairing this ship.” She pulled herself up.

  “Got it.” He jumped up and hit some buttons on the console. Then he went to Glaikis.

  “Where is Cyrus?” she said.

  “He was right here. I was paying so much attention to the equipment that I wasn’t watching him. He probably felt like he didn’t have anything to do and went back to the ship. Come on, I have to get you out of here!”

  The door slid open and three soldiers stepped in. Another soldier followed, an old mercenary with mechanical ocular implants, commonly called spider eyes.

  “Hold,” the leader said in a rough, rasping voice. The mercenaries were ready to kill and he knew it. They had no qualms about seeing another dead mercenary, but the sprawled body made them instinctively trigger combat drugs. Tiny sacs spurted stimulants into their bloodstreams and they became agitated. Steo and Glaikis froze.

  “Hold,” he repeated. The fear of failure was ingrained in them after sessions with discipline robots (not to mention their Torment Bundles).

  “You’re from the Eye of Orion,” the leader said. “An uncommon lot, and a reward for years of facing weaklings. You’re skilled foes. You know me as Admiral Slaught.”

  CHAPTER 8

  Reminders

  Muuk met his peers around the bed of Doib, the Reminder of the Soldiers. The other three were Erps, the Reminder of the Dead; Kinch, the Reminder of Obedience; and Limax, the Reminder of Contribution. They motioned for the medical robots to leave, and closed the door.

  Muuk began. “We are awakened and we grow strong. What do we think about these soldiers who found us?”

  “They are strong, but they don’t speak of the Old Ways,” Erps said.

  Kinch said, “The ideals the Great Planners set down are important. I see that in these soldiers. Have you seen how they venerate authority? It’s like they sense its importance in their bones.”

  “There are many loyal in the universe, Kinch,” Muuk said.

  “But I saw a man sent to the discipline robots. He went of his own free will and he did so promptly. His face was ashen going in. He came out on a stretcher, but when he was fit to serve again, he was back at his station. Think of the efficiency of such a society!” Kinch said.

  “If I may Muuk, that fits the principle of contribution. I agree with Kinch, they work as if they knew their places,” Limax said.

  “Doib? Are you well enough to contribute?” Muuk asked.

  Doib coughed and sat up straight. “They defend the soldier, the mission, the leader. They only seem to need to hear the Old Ways.”

  Muuk said, “Councilor Ulay offers himself as a star messiah. We are the pure. We decide who follows our beliefs. It’s not good enough to say you believe in human exceptionalism and special purity.”

  Kinch said, “What do you propose?”

  “An external agenda can’t be allowed to grow here. My fellow Reminders, begin organizing. Keep the people loyal to the Old Ways. Speak of them publicly. Speak to the soldiers. Test them.”

  Loud alarms interrupted the conversation. Muuk ordered Kinch and Limax to stay with Doib. He and Erps and left the room. There was panic in the hall.

  “We’re under attack!”

  “The ship has been hit!”

  “Fire!”

  “Where?” Muuk yelled.

  “The nursery!”

  A cold chill ran through their veins. Muuk and Erps ran to an elevator. A long shaft rose through the center of the ship and they saw robots floating up the shaft, heading to the trouble. No infants were cryogenically frozen, but young children were. The two men were impatient as they rose many levels.

  A few minutes after the attack, the men arrived on the nursery floor. Smoke curled along the metal ceiling. Robots extinguished fires and sealed off rooms while soldiers organized the confusion. Muuk and Erps were prevented from helping.

  They backed away into a meeting area that would soon be a makeshift hospital. Medical robots arrived to arrange hoverbeds and life support systems. A robot turned on a panel and a man gave an announcement.

  “The AndroVault has been attacked. A high-explosive missile hit it in the upper port decks. Councilor Ulay’s personal ship is defending the AndroVault now. The attacker is the Eye of Orion.”

  A vid of the ships came up. The way it was edited, it appeared that the missile that hit the AndroVault came from the Eye of Orion’s nova attack, not the Fire Scorpion.

  “The Eye of Orion has been temporarily driven off. It is a slaver ship. They capture humans for sale to the Biotrophs, a parasitic alien species. Biotrophs capture or purchase living people and insert their eggs up their digestive tracts. Their young eat some of what the host eats, growing longer and broader. When the Biotroph young reach maturity, they are born from the intestines of the human host. If the host lives, a new egg is implanted.”

  Muuk and Erps looked at each other, faces pale. They mouthed words but nothing came out.

  “As you can see, we are fighting this alien subjugation. We have a fleet of small volunteer ships chasing the Eye of Orion now. We expect it to flee or be destroyed soon.”

  The vid continued to play short clips of the battle.

  “Turn it off,” Muuk said. A robot turned off the panel.

  A robot with four arms floated in. What they saw next turned their stomachs. The robots brought in human remains, all of them small.

  “The fires are extinguished, sir,” said a robot in a neutral voice. “This room has become a morgue. The hospital is across the hall if you wish to visit it.”

  The smell of charred skin filled the air. Muuk and Erps escaped the room, gagging.

  The robots left and returned with long gray sacks. A soldier was with them.

  “What are those for?” Erps timidly asked the soldier.

  “The sacks? Those are waste disposal sacks,” the soldier said. “The bodies will be put in there and taken down for disintegration. Then they’ll be disposed of with the rest of the ship’s waste. It’ll be safe and clean.”

  Erps grabbed Muuk for stability. They were shocked to the core at this deep violation of their beliefs.

  “You can’t do that!” Erps shouted. “The dead must remain with us! They are part of us and must be returned to us!”

  “What are you jabbering on about? Stay out of the way, old man,” the soldier said.

  The robots continued collecting the burnt and bloody bodies and unceremoniously dumping them into the gray waste disposal sacks.

  “This will not go unaddressed,” Muuk said, simmering with rage.

  Kiluth watched the exchange from the Fire Scorpion, with his staff of novorian Readers. One of the noves hit a red button. Everyone’s panels lit up, a warning.

  The nove said, “The attack worked as expected. However the defective humans now feel that their beliefs are being trampled. Their emotions are spurring them to action. Body temperatures are risi
ng. An outburst is imminent.”

  “Shut that mercenary up!” Kiluth ordered. On the AndroVault, the mercenary touched his earpiece and clamped his mouth closed.

  “Initiate protest scheme,” Kiluth said. “Get it done.”

  Armed soldiers arrived and escorted Muuk and Erps out of the area. They were taken to an elevator. Several other awakened were there, equally agitated. They wanted a meeting with the Reminders.

  Before long, hundreds of people were brought together in a large hall. Men were on one side, women on the other, kept separate by tradition. The mercenaries left them.

  Each of the awakened came with a bent limb, a watery eye or a curled foot. They had blisters and inflammations. They were several inches shorter than before entering cryogenic sleep.

  Muuk, Erps, Kinch and Limax heard the peoples’ complaints. The word had spread that the dead were being disposed of instead of reclaimed. More people trickled in until the meeting was two thousand strong.

  Leech arrived in the conditioning center. Kiluth remained calm. The retainer robot tended to appear in sections where there was a lot of activity.

  “Section chief Kiluth, reports from the AndroVault are quite distressing. The awakened gather and grow ever more angry,” Leech said with his hands behind his back.

  “That they are,” Kiluth said.

  “How do you plan on mitigating this disruption?”

  “We introduced the idea of gathering together.” Kiluth’s mask remained neutral. “They believe it was their idea.”

  “Why?”

  “A protest or demonstration will almost certainly occur next. In fact my team estimates over a 97% chance of it. They will organize and choose leaders, which will be the Reminders. They will come to the man they know as Councilor Ulay with demands. He will appear benevolent and understanding. We will recommend to Admiral Slaught to agree to their demands.”

  “Excuse me, but my impression was that recycling the bodies was unsafe.”

  “It is. We won’t be able to sway the defectives with facts, so we will recommend that Admiral Slaught agree. Then the science section will modify the reclamation systems to prevent the polluted material from re-entering the feeding process.”