The image on the screens flickered for a moment.
‘You are correct, Captain Goldwing. I am nothing but a computer program. I lack the ability to do what needs to be done to save the rest of the survivors on board this ship. For that, I need your help. I am not your enemy.’
“If you had been up front and honest with us from the start, perhaps this might have been a little easier on the both of us,” Draco said, going along with the story. Better to let this fucker believe that he had them deceived than rouse his suspicion.
‘Of course, you are correct. I am simply following my programming parameters.’
“You damn well better make sure the rest of my crew make it back to us alive. Because if they don’t make it out, no one does. Do you understand?”
‘I’m not sure I do, Captain Goldwing.’
“We’ll get to Metro Tower. We’ll do whatever it is you want us to do to save this ship, but you need to guarantee the safety of our other three crew members, you got that?”
‘I understand. I will provide them with whatever aid I can, in return for your full cooperation.’
“Agreed.”
‘Very well, Captain. I will speak with you further when you arrive at Metro Tower.’
The screen went blank, and they continued into the Residential Station. The doors at the other side of the station that led out to the Residential District were open. Draco surveyed the station before stepping across the threshold. There didn’t appear to be any fleshlings waiting for them.
The hurried through the station and stopped at the open doors that led out into the city. There was a parking lot at the bottom of the stairs, filled with electric cars and motorcycles. Their owners had left them there, never to return. It was difficult to believe that they were on board a starship. It felt like they were walking through a city that might exist on New Earth or Orpheon.
It was the sky, Draco decided. That was what really sold the illusion. The clouds were especially convincing, even if they were only images played across a grand screen.
“Can you get any of these vehicles running, Al?” Draco asked.
“I believe I can,” Aloysius said.
A low-cut hedge surrounded the car park. The streets looked very similar to those found on New Earth, paved with asphalt. Just like on New Earth, all the vehicles on Metropolis Seven were electric. The charge coils which powered the vehicles were embedded within the road itself.
Aloysius got to work on the first bike while Raze and Draco kept an eye out for any potential threats. Pim stayed by Raze’s side, hiding behind the big man. Kid logic was funny. Raze was the biggest, so naturally he was the strongest. Draco smiled to himself.
“Al, do those schematics you downloaded from the engine room include the street layout of these districts?” Draco asked.
“I’m afraid they don’t, sir. They only include the overall layout of the ship, and maintenance access. Unfortunately, I am still being blocked from accessing the mainframe.”
“Damn it.”
“It is unfortunate, but to be expected. If a guardian program has been activated, its protocols would try to ensure that no foreign systems had access to it, otherwise you could re-program a guardian to do whatever you want them to do.”
“Do you think you could do it?”
“Re-program the guardian?”
“Yes.”
“If I had access to the Icarus’s mainframe, perhaps I could muster up the power to crack the shell, but as we are cut off from it, I’m afraid that I don’t possess the ability. Not unless you’d like to have me non-functional for the rest of our time here.”
“No, it’s fine. Just trying to explore every avenue.”
If the person masquerading as the guardian shell program could be thwarted by a re-purposed guardian program, then it was worth a shot. They might be able to wrest control away from him, but it didn’t seem like that would be an option until they could get back aboard the Icarus.
“Ah, here we are!” Aloysius said. “The first bike is up and running. Remarkably low security, actually.”
Aloysius pressed the ignition button. The engine engaged, the dash display turned on and the headlight flickered to life.
“There isn’t really anywhere to hide a bike here on the ship, so I don’t imagine they have much trouble with theft,” Draco said.
“They also only work on the roads and the parking lots, so you can’t take any of these vehicles anywhere they’re not meant to go. Well you could, but there’s no reason to, because they wouldn’t even work! Wonderful anti-theft system.”
Aloysius moved onto the second bike and started working on it. Draco walked across the parking lot to Raze and Pim. The artificial sun beamed down on them from the artificial sky above. The day felt too real, and too lovely for such grim circumstance.
“Any sign of movement out here?” Draco asked.
“None. Pim’s been telling me the best way to get into the city from here,” Raze said.
“Is that right?” Draco asked as he got down on his haunches to talk to Pim face-to-face. “What route would you recommend, Captain Pim?”
Pim smiled bashfully and said, “I’m not a Captain.”
“I don’t see anyone else around here, so you’re good enough for me.”
Pim laughed and his smile widened. “You just need to follow this road onto the big one then drive straight ahead. That’s how Mom and Dad used to take me to the city.”
Draco ruffled Pim’s hair and said, “Good man. We’ll be there in no time.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ava, Vynce and Jaxon shuffled single file through the through the maintenance tunnel. It was cramped, uncomfortable, and took so many twists and turns that even Jaxon seemed to find himself turned around, which made Ava’s growing apprehension almost bubble over.
But the sounds coming through the pipes all around them were worse.
It was a low rumbling, like the pre-tremors of an oncoming earthquake or rolling thunder. Combined with the clattering, clambering sound of something crawling around the underbelly of the ship it was almost enough to make Ava want to scream.
Ava guarded their rear, and she could see nothing but metal pipes and grates in the darkness behind them. Jaxon led them forward, and Vynce was in the middle.
A sudden head-spin made Ava lose her balance momentarily. She shot out her arm to grab a pipe to steady herself, but her fingers didn’t grip it. They just sat at the end of her hand like useless sausages. She landed heavily, and Vynce rushed to help her back to her feet.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Yeah, I must have tripped,” she said.
Her right hand felt strange. It felt somewhat numb. Like she had slept on it and pinched a nerve or something. She hoped that the bone needle hadn’t caused any permanent nerve damage. Ava concentrated her mind on clenching and unclenching her fist. There was a staccato jerkiness to the movements that terrified her. The bone needle may have torn a ligament or ripped one of her muscles.
She decided that when they reached the next medical station, she would take her suit off and inspect her arm. Clearly her smartsuit had not been able to repair whatever damage had been done.
The numbness was bad enough, but the itching was worse. It started on the top of her arm, then shot pain through her entire arm like the worst case of pins and needles she had ever experienced.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Vynce asked.
“I’m fine,” Ava repeated, her tone closing the matter.
She clenched and unclenched her fist as they continued and hoped that the feeling in her arm would return.
Soon they came to a junction with a tunnel heading left and a tunnel heading right. There was a maintenance hatch in the center which led even further down into the ship. Jaxon stopped and swore to himself.
“What’s the hold up?” Vynce asked.
“I don’t recognize this area at all,” Jaxon said.
“Shit. I got pretty turn
ed around in those tunnels too, so I don’t even know which way we’re facing right now,” Ava said.
“Me either,” Vynce said.
A voice came through the overhead speakers and said, ‘Captain Goldwing has asked me to ensure that your journey through the maintenance tunnels is a success. I will light your path. Follow the lights, and you will be out of here in no time.’
Emergency floor lighting came to life down the right corridor.
“Wait a second. Aren’t you the sonofabitch who’s responsible for us being down here in the first place?” Ava demanded.
‘Your Captain is the reason why you are down in these tunnels and the reason why your crewmate’s life was in danger. Your Captain failed to comply with a directive given by me, and you three paid the price for his decision.’
“Just who the fuck are you?” Ava snapped.
‘I am the Captain of this ship, and I’m offering you safe passage to the rest of your crew mates. Your Captain, along with two others from your ship, have just disembarked from the Metropolitan MagLev station. They are on their way to Metro Tower, where I will provide further direction on how we can save this ship and all the surviving passengers. If you’d rather not accept my assistance, then so be it.’
“Have you got any proof? How do we know you’re not just saying that to get us to do what you want?”
‘One moment.’
Suddenly a video file began playing on the virtual projection display inside Ava and Vynce’s visors. They saw Captain Goldwing, Raze and Aloysius disembarking from a MagLev carriage.
‘Is that sufficient?’
“Yeah, it’ll do,” said Ava.
“Lead the way, and we will follow,” Jaxon said.
‘Follow the lights. It’s not much farther now.’
They followed the lights down the corridor to the right.
Ava was the first to speak. “Guys, tell me I’m not crazy when I say that this doesn’t feel right.”
“You’re not crazy,” Vynce said.
“Definitely not crazy,” Jaxon said.
“Did you guys see that they have a kid with them?” Vynce asked.
“Yeah, that means that there are actually people asides from us and this jerkbag alive on this ship,” Ava said.
After following the corridor for some time, it began to slope upwards. Light from outside began to filter in, illuminating the corridor around them. There was a ladder at the end, which led up to an open hatch. Light shone down on them from above. The artificial sun was high in the sky.
Jaxon climbed the ladder first, and then Vynce followed closely after. Ava began to climb, but her right arm was even more numb than it had been before.
Was it blood loss?
Nerve damage?
Did she have one of those things growing inside her suit?
No, that wasn’t possible.
She reached up and tried to grip the rungs, but she kept slipping. There had to be tendon damage, and it was getting worse. She couldn’t grip the rungs with her fingers. She used her good left hand to pull herself up slowly and only used her right elbow as an extra support as she climbed.
“Ava, you okay down there?” Vynce asked.
She stopped climbing. She looked at her right arm and saw that it looked bigger than it had before. Thicker around the middle. Swollen.
“I’m not sure. It’s… it’s my arm. I’m hurt,” she answered honestly.
“You’re hurt? What happened?” Vynce asked.
“Please tell me you didn’t lie to me before,” Jaxon said. “Did that thing down in the tunnels get you?”
Ava ignored him. He knew.
“Can you make it up, or do you want me to come down and get you?” Vynce asked.
“I’m not sure. I think I can make it.”
She kept up her slow pace. She used only her left hand to climb and tried to wedge herself against the ladder with her right arm. When she neared the top of the ladder, Vynce got down on his stomach and offered her his hand.
Ava tried to stretch out her right arm to him. It was definitely swollen, and it did not like being extended like that. She felt her tendons and ligaments attempt to pull her elbow closed again, but she fought through it and tried to take Vynce’s hand.
Her hand refused to obey the signals her brain was giving it.
She wanted to grab Vynce’s arm and be pulled to safety, but her arm refused to grip anything at all.
Vynce grabbed her arm just below the wrist, and a sharp pain shot up her arm in a sudden jolt. She yelped more in surprise than pain. She felt her fingers close around Vynce’s arm. Then they started to squeeze.
“Ava, not so tight, yeah? I can feel that through my suit.”
“I’m not doing it. I can’t control it!”
“What are you talking about? Hey, that hurts!”
Her arm squeezed with a strength that she didn’t know she had. She heard something crack, and she hoped it wasn’t one of Vynce’s bones.
“Ava, you’re crushing my suit! What the fuck is going on!?”
“I don’t know!” she said desperately.
Jaxon grabbed Vynce’s ankles and pulled both Vynce and Ava back out of the hatch.
“All right you can let go now,” Vynce said to Ava.
“I’m trying! I’m trying to let go!” she said. Her body wasn’t obeying. It was moving on its own.
Jaxon knelt down next to Vynce’s arm and pulled a black bladed knife from his shoulder holster.
“What the fuck are you doing, man?” Vynce asked in horror.
“Trust me,” he said.
Jaxon pressed the hilt, and the sharp edge of the blade became a flat, blunt surface. The blade morphed from a knife edge into a tapered wedge. Jaxon placed the wedge under Ava’s fingers and pried her hand loose, finger by finger.
Vynce withdrew his hand quickly and tried to shake the crushing pain away.
“What the fuck just happened?” Vynce demanded.
Ava held her hand against her stomach. The fingers flexed and relaxed, as though they were still trying to find something to grip onto.
“I… I don’t know,” Ava said.
“When did you get hit?” Jaxon asked Ava directly.
“What do you mean, hit?” she asked.
“Somehow, something from one of these creatures got inside your suit. When did it happen? It was back in the tunnels, wasn’t it?”
Ava sighed. “When we found Vynce. When that fleshling’s mouth tumor exploded. There was a piece of bone or something. One of those splinters went straight through my arm. I pulled it out. My suit sealed up the damage and did what it could.”
“There’s something growing inside your suit,” Jaxon said.
“What do you mean growing?” Ava asked and started to feel sick to her stomach, even though she already knew it. She felt it inside her, moving all by itself.
“Don’t worry about that now. We need to get to a medstation as soon as possible. It’s the only way we’re going to be able to save your life. Can you walk?” Jaxon asked.
“Yeah, I can walk.”
“Under no circumstances are you to unseal your suit until we can get you to a medical station. And you tell me if anything else happens, all right?”
Ava nodded as she got to her feet. Her right arm curled close to her body. He left arm gripped her assault rifle. The Amenities MagLev Station was in front of them. The enormous x-shaped MagLev tracks extended down the huge tunnel as far as they could see. There was another ladder leading up to the platform.
“Another ladder. Fucking great,” Ava said.
“I’ll follow you up. You just go as fast as you can, all right?” Jaxon said.
Ava nodded.
Vynce led the climb up the ladder. Ava followed slowly, and Jaxon followed her. The going was slow, but eventually Ava reached the top and pulled herself up. She crawled over to the glass barricade separating departures and arrivals and slumped against it, breathing heavily.
She looked do
wn at the arm curled close to her chest and felt something move beneath the plates of armor. It didn’t feel like it moved in any way her muscles had ever moved before. She felt like she was going to be sick. Jaxon helped her to her feet, and they headed into the MagLev station. While they crossed from the arrivals to the departures gate, an empty MagLev carriage arrived at the platform.
“At least the train’s running on time,” Vynce said, but neither Ava nor Jaxon responded. They all shuffled somberly into the carriage, and the doors slid shut behind them.
“Draco, Raze and Aloysius went to the Metropolitan station, right? That’s where the Captain said,” Vynce said.
“Yeah, that’s right. We go through beach front, residential, then onto metropolitan. We should be there within ten minutes. Do you think you can make it?” Jaxon asked Ava.
“Do I have a choice?” she asked in return.
“Not really,” Jaxon said.
The doors to the MagLev carriage slid shut, and the carriage began to accelerate.
Chapter Thirty
The streets were quiet, and that made Draco uneasy. Since they landed on the Metropolis Seven they had been subjected to horrors he had never imagined could exist even in his most terrifying nightmares, but the streets were mostly clear in the suburban Residential District. They hadn’t seen any other signs of life since they ran into Pim and his sister.
Aloysius had managed to get another two bikes working. Pim rode with Raze, who rode behind Draco in single file. Pim hung onto the big man’s waist. Aloysius rode in back, keeping his sensors tuned for any unusual or unexpected movement. Draco was glad to have Aloysius on sentry duty. His sensor arrays could pick up so much more than human eyes and ears could.
After seven blocks, nothing out of the ordinary had appeared. The suburban community had been abandoned, but there was nothing that suggested that anything unexpected or devastating had occurred. A quiet apocalypse.
The electric bikes ran silent. The only sound was the whisper of their rubber tires on the asphalt.
“Captain, we need to stop here. I’ve detected movement from inside one of the houses. It could be a survivor,” Aloysius said.
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