Dust & Iron (Adventures of the Starship Satori Book 9)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  But the aliens might.

  All at once the cameras giving her a feed from the armor went dead. All her diagnostics went out. She was blind.

  “Andy! What’s going on?” Charline asked, hoping the radios would still work. Their batteries were separate from the power cubes.

  “We’ve lost all power! The armor just shut down. We’re getting out and making a run for it,” he said. “Oh, god. They just blew up Mark’s armor before he could get out. Char, we’re not gonna make it.”

  The kid she’d sent out there to replace her was gone. If she hadn’t handed the armor over to him, that would have been her. Charline didn’t know how to feel about that – relief, that she was still alive. Grief, that he had died instead of her.

  She pushed those feelings from her mind. There would be time to deal with it later. Andy and the others needed her mind if they were going to live through the next few minutes.

  Or her marksmanship. That might do the trick, too.

  “Andy, hang in there,” she said.

  “What–”

  Charline didn’t wait for the rest of his response. She raced toward the old suit, souped up by Halcomb to be something more than what it had been. Would the thing work? There’d been no time to run tests. She darted up the ladder as quickly as her legs could take her and had the machine booting up before she’d even strapped in. There wasn’t time for a proper inspection checklist, not if she was going to get there in time to save Andy.

  “What are you doing?” Halcomb roared, running toward her.

  “Saving the day, as usual,” Charline quipped. There wasn’t time for a detailed explanation. She’d fill Halcomb in later, if she lived through this.

  Her armor came alive as she finished clicking the last strap into place. Readouts gave her a view from all directions. Halcomb had the guns fully loaded, which was fortunate. She wasn’t going to be a lot of good up there without weapons. Time to see how fast this thing could move.

  The armor took a lumbering step forward as it responded to the movements of her legs. Sensors around her lower body read her own muscle movements and translated them into motion. Charline willed her legs to pump faster, and the armor picked up the pace. It was barreling forward at a light jog. Then she managed to get it up to something that more closely resembled a run.

  It was risky, running like this. The gyros weren’t calibrated for precision at this speed. She was counting on her internal sense of balance to make any necessary corrections if the armor started to spill over. There wasn’t time for a safe, plodding pace.

  “Andy, strep,” Charline called over her radio as she reached the tunnel to the surface. She needed to know what she was getting into up there.

  “They’re ignoring us. Targeting the armor. The rest of us managed to get out, but they’ve already blown three more suits. We had to run for the ruins,” Andy said. “They shot Jonas when he tried to make it back into the tunnel.”

  Damn them. Two of her people were already dead, and the rest were in deep trouble. They’d been sneaky as hell, letting the armor units think they were winning, then pulling out their ace in the hole. Hacking the power units was brilliant, just the sort of thing Charline herself might have done. Thin-lipped, she gave the aliens a nod of appreciation anyway. They were no pushovers.

  “Andy, I’ll be topside to distract them in a few moments. Get everyone down into the base. See if you can seal it and maybe defend it if this doesn’t work.”

  “Distract them? With what? Charline, don’t do anything stupid,” Andy said.

  Charline shut down her radio. “Sorry, Andy. I don’t need the distraction right now.”

  Then she burst from the tunnel entrance into daylight, both of her arms already aiming the guns at the startled alien centipedes. Charline roared inside her armor as she opened up on her enemy.

  TWENTY-THREE

  The first centipede didn’t even see her coming. Charline’s attack blindsided it while it was tearing into one of the disabled suits. She opened fire with both guns, barrels blazing as bullets streamed at her target. The shoulder cannon triggered as fast as it could charge, adding to the cacophony of violence.

  Rounds tore into alien armor. The first few pinged off, leaving only dents. But those guns were pouring out dozens of bullets per second. The dents turned into holes. The holes became great rents in the outer shell. Any material could only take so much abuse, no matter how strong or well-engineered it might be. The alien armor was built better than anything humanity had ever developed. But humans had been learning to kill things for a long time, too – and the weapons Charline brought to bear were among the best ever invented on Earth.

  The centipede came apart in a flurry of secondary explosions. Showers of half-molten metal fountained in all directions. Charline heard bits of it rattle and hiss against her suit. That was only one threat down though. The other centipede wasn’t going to be taken by surprise like the first. Charline twisted her torso toward it, trying to pin it under her guns, but it sped up and dashed outside her range.

  It returned fire, plasma bolts spattering against her right flank. Charline heard the hiss of metal vaporizing. She couldn’t afford too many hits like that, but at least her reinforced armor was holding out so far. The steel alone might have already burned through. She was doubly indebted to Halcomb, although she didn’t know if she wanted to tell him that. The man was already insufferable enough.

  Charline pivoted hard on her left leg, sweeping the right back so she could turn more swiftly. Then she dashed forward directly at the creature.

  It fired as she bore down on it. Plasma scorched the heavy armor guarding her armor’s chest. She returned fire with all her guns, blasting away at the centipede. It rushed toward her, front claw arms outstretched to tear into her, plasma bolts flashing.

  They were like two knights charging toward each other, she thought. Two crazy knights in armor no medieval knight could ever have envisioned. Then she wondered if it was more like the story of Saint George and the dragon. Or Sigurd and Fafnir, although she was hoping for a better end than dying under the creature she’d just slain.

  The centipede collided with her suit, the impact almost knocking her over. Jaws snapped closed in front of her face. She held it off with both hands, fighting to keep the alien’s thrashing body from tearing holes in her armor. Human engineering fought against alien armor, working as hard as it could to keep the powerful jaws away. But she was losing, and Charline knew it.

  She didn’t need to win, though. She just needed to make the bug put everything it had into the effort.

  All at once Charline stopped pushing the insect away. Instead she pulled, dragging it closer. Surprised, the centipede had no way to stop her as she brought its head up higher, raising it until it was directly in line with her shoulder cannon.

  “Eat this,” she snarled, and fired.

  The Naga weapon discharged its energy ball, which blasted deep into the alien armor. Charline dropped it and took a step back. It was still moving, but it was badly damaged. Was the creature inside injured? Dying? Or was it only the armor which had been disabled? Even without armor, these things were deadly. She couldn’t afford to take any chances.

  Charline took another step back. Then she opened up with both arm guns. She continued firing until the centipede was a smoking ruin.

  A whining noise caught her attention. The ship! One of the four bugs they’d seen remained, and it was on board. The ramp was rising and lights were coming on around the engines. In another few seconds it would take off. They’d lose their chance to grab a ship. Without that ship, the enemy could just come back whenever they wanted, with overwhelming force.

  “Not happening,” Charline said. She dashed forward again, jumping to land on the ramp just before it raised itself too high. It continued closing with her on top of it, lifting her the rest of the way into the alien ship.

  Inside was a place both strange and familiar at the same time. She knew this tech. She’d seen
traces in the Satori, that rescued fragment of ancient technology that had allowed humanity to begin exploring the stars. The curves and lines were like the ones she’d found exploring the ruins of this planet, and very close indeed to what she’d discovered in the sealed off room.

  It was different, too. Charline couldn’t quite put her finger on what had changed. It wasn’t surprising to her that a species would adapt over the course of a thousand years. If anything, it was more unusual that these bugs had changed so little. Humanity certainly adapted more rapidly than that. The suits she’d been fighting against, for example – more advanced than the ones she’d discovered, but not significantly so. They were an improvement on a design, not something truly new.

  This race changed slowly, then. They didn’t innovate rapidly. Charline filed the information away. That might make a difference down the road.

  She turned and spotted the last alien. It was near the nose of the ship, curled around what had to be some sort of control device. It saw her and gave a series of clicking noises she hoped were distress. Charline flicked on her external speakers so it could hear her.

  “That’s right. I’m here. You’re not going anywhere,” she said.

  It hissed at her. She didn’t think it understood a word she said, but the tone was probably getting through. The bug rushed at her.

  Charline didn’t want to blow the shuttle to bits. They needed this thing if they were going to make good their escape. Everything they’d done would be for nothing if the ship was rendered useless and the enemy simply came back with even more firepower. They’d been lucky to only face four of the things. If the aliens had sent twice that number her people never would have survived the attack.

  Not destroying the ship meant no guns. Luckily the bug didn’t want to shoot, either. It was going to come down to claws and teeth. But Charline had one more trick up her sleeve that the bug hadn’t seen yet. She tapped a button on her console, and Halcomb’s pretty gadget engaged. A three foot length of sharpened alien metal slid free from a housing in her right forearm.

  Charline swung the sword in a silvery arc, severing one of the alien’s limbs before it could bring itself to a stop. It darted to her left, dodging and weaving. She turned, blocking a series of attacks with her left arm while trying to bring the sword to bear again. A quick twist put the sword out in front of her, between her and the creature.

  It hissed again. She stabbed out. It dodged to the right, slapping at the sword with a claw. The blow sent Charline’s arm off to the side.

  The alien took the moment to lunge in, biting deep into the armor of her right arm with its armored mandibles. That was her sword arm! The weapon was useless if she couldn’t bring it to bear.

  The alien’s bite pressure was increasing. Charline could hear her armor squeal and scream as it buckled under the strain. She swung her arm hard against the shuttle wall. The centipede cracked into the wall once, twice, and then a third time, but it still clung to her. There had to be some way to get it off her!

  While she was distracted with trying to dislodge it, the bug swung its lower body toward her legs, wrapping them in a metal coil. Charline’s armor went down hard. The impact rang in her ears. There was a snapping noise as her lower right arm came completely off, the insect’s armored bite tearing completely through. The thing reared back, then lunged in again toward her head.

  She lashed out with her remaining arm, smacking the centipede in the head. Her blow sent it flying backward against the wall again.

  Charline staggered back to her feet. Her armor was a smoking mess. But her adversary looked dazed and hurt, too. Half of its legs were snapped or damaged, and there were several big dents in its head armor. The bug inside couldn’t be feeling too good.

  One of the plasma guns mounted on the insect’s armor had broken off during the fighting. But the other glowed, aiming at her and preparing to fire. It must have decided that its odds were better with her dead even if it ruined the shuttle in the process.

  There was nowhere to run. The blast splashed across her torso. The heat poured in through the hole in her right arm. Charline screamed as the temperature inside her armor rose dangerously high. The suit tried to compensate, but she could feel her skin blister and burn.

  She would not survive much of that. Now or never. She ran in, stooping to pick up the severed forearm with her left hand. The insect fired again and again as she closed the distance between them. One swing cut the offending plasma weapon in half.

  The second severed the thing’s head.

  Charline sank to her knees. It was over.

  She hurt everywhere. Her entire body felt like one big burn. She flicked her radio back on.

  “Andy?” she croaked.

  “Oh, thank god. I thought I’d lost you,” he said. His voice was soft, gentle. “Are you all right?”

  “I will be. Can you get Karl in here?”

  “The medic? Are you hurt?” he asked.

  “Yeah. All that stuff you said about not risking myself…”

  “Forget about it. You did great. I’m radioing for Karl now. Just hang in there,” he said.

  It could have gone very differently. She’d been good, but she was lucky, too. Charline shrugged before she recalled how much that would hurt with her scorched skin and groaned. Sometimes you had to be both. Someday she might end up not being lucky enough or good enough to survive. But this was where she intended to be, from here on out – at the sharp point of the spear.

  “Yeah,” she replied. She didn’t need to explain herself anymore. This was still her command, her decisions, and her future.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Charline’s first sensation on waking was pain. She hurt all over. Her body felt raw, especially her right side. She tried to shift, and agony flashed up her right arm and leg. She gave a soft moan and stopped trying to move.

  “You’re awake. Good. How’s the pain?”

  Charline just winced. Talking hurt too much.

  “Hang on. I’ll add some more pain medication to your drip. You did a number on yourself,” the voice said. She recognized the man speaking, but she couldn’t place his voice.

  He fiddled with something beside her. A few moments later, the pain receded enough for her thoughts to clear. She remembered the battle. The plasma blast that washed over her armor…

  Some of the heat had flowed through a hole in her suit. It had hurt badly at the time, but not like this! She must have been more injured than she’d thought.

  “Everyone else?” Charline managed to croak out. Her mouth and throat felt dry as dust.

  “Alive, except Max. You saved everyone else. That was damned brave. Stupidly so. You almost killed yourself.”

  Charline gave him a smile that faded immediately. Even smiling hurt. At least she recalled the medic’s name again. “Did what needed to be done, Karl.”

  “Well, it worked. This time,” Karl said. “You’re lucky we had some medical nanites in my meditation, or you might not still be here.”

  “She’s awake? Thank god. I was so worried,” Andy said.

  His face drifted into view, then he knelt down on the floor next to her. Charline realized she had to be laying on the ground, but there was a curved ceiling overhead.

  “Where are we?” Charline asked.

  “In the alien shuttle,” Andy said. When she looked alarmed, he waved a hand in dismissal. “I know it’s a risk, but you couldn’t be moved. Karl said we’d risked you enough just getting you out of your armor. They haven’t come looking for their shuttle, anyway. It’s been six hours. I’m starting to think they aren’t going to.”

  That was strange. Why would the aliens abandon the shuttle? It had to have come from a larger ship, right? It was hard to imagine that this one shuttle was the only Bug ship in the system. So why hadn’t anyone else come to help, or at least come looking for it?

  “Ship’s log?” Charline asked.

  Andy shook his head. “We can’t make heads or tails of it. The shuttle�
�s systems are mostly still functioning. But there don’t seem to be anything that resembles flight controls, and while we found the computer and managed to link up with it, we can’t decipher what it says.”

  Charline grinned. “Tablet.”

  Andy raised an eyebrow and looked at Karl.

  “If she’s well enough to ask, she’d well enough to play with a tablet,” Karl said. “But she still needs plenty of rest while the nanites do their work.”

  Andy motioned to someone else just out of Charline’s line of sight. They handed him a computer tablet, which he passed over to her. She activated the device with her left hand – her right still didn’t want to work. It was swathed in bandages and burned like mad if she moved it. Pulling up the link they’d made to the alien systems was easy. Understanding what she was seeing was going to take a little longer.

  Nobody knew more about the alien language and computer code than she did. It was Charline’s primary area of study ever since she’d been brought on board the Satori. The Satori’s alien systems were the same technology as the devices they’d discovered buried under Dust, and those were likewise roughly the same tech as what she had seen on the alien shuttle. They’d all been built by the same people. Or bugs, in this case.

  But the tech examples she’d worked from were about a thousand years old. Charline recognized some of the code syntax she was seeing, but she couldn’t make sense of the specific words. It made sense. There was bound to be some drift over that long a period of time.

  If anything, she was lucky that there was so little change. Humans changed their tech base rapidly. That the Bugs were still using the same quantum cubes as the basis for their infrastructure was a stroke of luck. It was going to take some work, but she’d puzzle the problem out.