by M. D. Cooper
Nance spent another few seconds trying different algorithms, and then one clicked and the message from Spheria unfolded.
Are you in distress? Acknowledge.
Erin stopped as the lift stopped and the doors opened to reveal a squad of Orion Guard soldiers with weapons drawn.
“Hold it! Let him go!” one of the soldiers shouted, but Nance was already in the lift controls, closing the doors and sending it up another level.
Spheria cried out in Nance’s mind.
A second later the lift stopped, and then began to descend once more. At the same moment, Ortaga twisted and wrenched free of Nance’s grasp.
* * * * *
Iris confirmed she had taken control of the secure lockup’s sensors and Jessica triggered the pod’s lid to open. She rose slowly, checking the room over. Addie stood next to the door, her helmeted head turned toward Jessica, watching implacably.
“Good work, Addie.”
“Impersonating these Widows is a simple task,” Addie replied. “Being you on the moons of Serenity was a much more challenging endeavor.”
Jessica wondered at Addie’s wording. An NSAI didn’t gain any joy from challenges, or lack thereof. They simply performed their assigned tasks.
She opened the compartment on the bottom of the pod and pulled out the weapons, and an Orion Guard uniform. She stepped into the pants and pulled the shirt over her head.
“It doesn’t fit right. I can tell you’re wearing your shipsuit underneath,” Addie observed.
“Yeah, well, this OG uniform has near-zero armor capability. My shipsuit stays. Not getting a hole burned in me today.”
Addie cocked her head. “You expect conflict?”
“Yes.”
Jessica pulled on the jacket that went along with her uniform and picked up the two rifles. She handed one to Addie, and then slung another over her back. She holstered a pistol, and then looked herself over.
“Your feet,” Addie said, and Jessica laughed.
“Shit, must be nervous not to realize I’m barefoot,” she muttered before fishing out the boots to go with her uniform.
Jessica said.
Iris replied.
Nothing happened.
“I don’t think that’s the code,” Addie said. “I also don’t think it would be an audible command.”
Jessica chuckled and gave Addie a curious look. “I thought you could parse humor, Addie.”
“I wish you would stop making me break my persona,” Addie replied. “I was in character.”
Jessica’s mouth formed an O as she gave a slow nod. “Hard to tell with the helmet.”
Addy touched the sides of her collar and her helmet split open, revealing the face of a Widow. “I could take it off.”
“Gah! No, only if you need to scare the piss out of some little Oggie.”
“Understood,” Addie rasped and closed her helmet back up.
“That’s the name of the game,” Jessica replied. “What is it?”
* * * * *
Cheeky nodded as she peered out the ship’s front window to confirm what the external cameras showed.
Piya replied.
Cheeky gave a soft laugh.
Cheeky nodded as she rose from her seat and looked out the window at another pair of soldiers strolling into the bay. “Mission, meet hitch.”
The ship had a rear access port in the roof of its small engineering bay. Once Cheeky had grabbed a rifle and pistol from the armory, she clambered up the ladder and keyed in the code for the hatch.
The inner door slid open, and she quietly climbed the ladder into the small space between the two doors.
Here goes nuthin, Cheeky thought as she activated the Widow stealth systems. She looked down at her body and saw only a slight blur, like a dark patch in the air.
It was surprisingly difficult to key in the command for the external door without being able to see her hand, but then Piya activated an overlay mode on the helmet’s HUD that showed the outline of her own body on her vision.
The hatch above sunk down a few centimeters, and then slid into the hull.
OK, now here really goes nuthin’, Cheeky thought as she climbed up onto the roof of the ship. She stayed low, conscious of the turrets on the bay’s ceiling, and somewhat surprised no one had seen her yet.
The hatch closed a moment later with a soft ka-chunk that sounded far too loud to Cheeky’s ears and she moved away as quickly as she dared, toward the cooling vanes at the rear of the ship. They dipped low, only a few meters off the deck at the back, and a minute later, Cheeky was at the edge.
She landed lightly and rolled before coming back to her feet, looking around to see if anyone had noticed her.
So far, so good.
On the far side of the bay, she could make out more soldiers entering. At least sixteen were in the bay now.
Cheeky said to Piya.
It took Cheeky a moment to realize what Piya meant, and then she looked at the cradle. Sure enough, there was a ladder leading into the space below the deck. With any luck there’d be maintenance passages leading out of the bay.
She froze as one approached the ladder she was on and began to climb.
Cheeky swung over to the side of the ladder, planting her feet on the vertical riser and holding on for dear life.
The soldier was just below her now, and his hand barely missed her left foot. Given the distance he moved his hands each time, he was going to gra
b the riser right where her left hand held on.
She timed it carefully, and as he let go with his hand, she moved down, freeing up the space where her hand had been for his to grasp the ladder.
The soldier continued up the ladder and disappeared onto the deck. The other soldiers followed up other ladders, and Cheeky quickly scampered down to the lower service level.
Piya laughed and sent Cheeky a soothing feeling.
Piya said and suddenly everything felt properly aligned to Cheeky.
Piya grinned in Cheeky’s mind.
Cheeky reached up and had to keep going to find the top of her helmet.
Cheeky replied.
Cheeky caught sight of a passageway leading off the lower deck and a pair of soldiers standing guard.
Cheeky drew a slow breath, held it and walked toward the guards, careful to roll her feet and hold her arms still. The less air she moved around, the better the stealth would work.
The two guards never even twitched as she walked past, and a dozen meters into the passageway, Cheeky let out the breath.
Cheeky reviewed the best route to the lockup, and took off at a slow jog. She’d outpace the nanocloud, but she had a feeling speed trumped complete stealth at this point.
Ten minutes later, she eased into the short corridor that ended at the door to the secure lockup. The door was sealed shut, and Cheeky looked for some way to access its controls.
Piya instructed.
Cheeky did as Piya directed and then a voice came into her mind.
Cheeky didn’t respond to the AI, but knew she should expect soldiers to show up at any moment.
Then the secure lockup’s door opened, and Addie stepped out with an Orion soldier at her side. A very curvaceous Orion soldier.
“Jessica?” Cheeky asked the dark-haired woman.
“Yeah, I can’t just run around all purple on base—wait, A45? What are you doing here?”
“OK, Cheeky, you and Addie get to their central command. See what’s up with the hackit and get it Linked into the gate control. I’m going to go hunt down Nance.”
Cheeky felt herself pale…not that anyone could see it behind the helmet. “Really? You sure we should split up?”
Jessica stepped forward and put a hand on Cheeky’s shoulder. “We’re already split up. Don’t doubt yourself because of one little abduction. It happens to the best of us. It’s just two levels up. You can do this.”
“Oh,” Jessica pulled the pack off her back. “Take the explosives as well. Once you get the gate lined up, you know what to do.”
Cheeky nodded. “OK, Addie, let’s go.”
BAD TO WORSE
STELLAR DATE: 03.22.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Costa Station, Quera System
REGION: Midway Cluster, Orion Freedom Alliance Space
She was half-tempted to take off the Oggie uniform. Since stealth was no longer the name of the game, shock and awe may work better.
Then again, a moment’s pause from any Oggies she saw could be the difference between life and death.
Jessica prised the lift doors open and looked into the shaft.
Iris didn’t respond for a second, then laughed.
Jessica looked for a ladder in the lift shaft, but there was none, just a rail that maintenance bots traversed.
“Looks like I’m going for a slide,” she said softly, glad for the gloves that were a part of the standard Oggie uniform.
She slid for fifteen levels before the gloves began to heat up and tear, and then went hand over hand for the last twenty down to the maintenance levels where Iris believed Nance to be.
At the specified level, Jessica swung out and pulled the doors open, peering down the—thankfully—empty corridor.
The sounds of weapons fire echoed down the corridor before Nance replied.
She sprinted down the passageway and passed into a large room. The overhead lay ten meters above, and tanks filled the area. The sounds of pumps, liquid sloshing, and a dozen other noises she couldn’t readily identify assaulted her.
Great, ambush central.
Jessica flushed out a passel of nano as she skirted around the edge of the room, rifle stock tight against her shoulder as she worked her way past the rows of tanks and pipes.
Moveme
nt behind a tank caught Jessica’s attention, and she quickly backtracked to take cover behind a cluster of pipes rising up out of the deck.
She flipped her rifle from pulse shots to its fifteen millimeter explosive tip rounds and took aim at a pipe feeding into one of the tanks.
A long exhale, a trigger squeeze, and the pipe exploded, spraying human waste into the space below. There was a cry of dismay, and Jessica rushed around the clean side of the tank to see two soldiers backing away from the filth.
Two shots later and they were down.
Jessica circled around the tanks and took a new route down the center of the room. She caught sight of two guards a moment before they saw her, and they joined their comrades in the afterlife.
Iris closed off the exit behind Jessica and she continued along her route to Nance.
Jessica rounded a corner and spotted a squad of Oggies crouched along the edges of the corridor. She pulled her pistol free and opened fire with both weapons, tearing into the enemy’s backs and mowing down four before they’d even turned.
There were still ten of the enemy in the passageway, and half of them turned and fired on Jessica, who ducked back behind the corner.
She lobbed a grenade around the corner at the same time that shots joined in from the far end of the passageway.
There was a thundering explosion, and then silence reigned.
Jessica eased around the corner and sighed as Nance emerged from the smoke.
Nance threaded her way through the bodies of the enemy, and one groaned as Nance walked past. The ship’s engineer casually shot the soldier in the head.
The action surprised Jessica. Not that she wouldn’t have done it—they couldn’t afford to leave enemies behind them—but she’d never seen Nance do anything like that.