by Pirx Danford
As Ernest notices our approach he agitatedly runs to meet us. “We have another problem, the Benefactor is on the way towards the rift. He wants to prove the ship being an illusion by blowing open the hull!” I loudly curse and berate Ernest for not using Susanna to call me and informing me directly. Then I connect to Richard and Hask, hurriedly introduce them to each other and explain that the Benefactor has to be found before getting to the rift. Ernest joins the talk and informs us that the Benefactors squad apparently carries quite some advanced equipment, which had not been destroyed in the palace.
“Don’t underestimate him. Forget about the tunnel fights. No matter how you have to stop him. I’ll take care of the main computer here, then I’ll be back in touch.”
With that I end the conversation.
Ernest stays with me and we send our companions back to the city. It takes a while to squeeze into the suits and our mobility leaves a lot to be desired, as the suits are mainly meant to be used outside at zero gravity.
A hasty modification I made are energy shields, together with additional energy cells. Briefly I explain to Ernest how to enable the shields and then shove an explosive charge in his hand. “If I don’t make it you will have to destroy the mainframe. Look with this picture you can see where to best place the explosives.” After he ties the explosive package tightly to his suit, I give the best possible implication of a hug as is possible in the suit. “I thank you so much for all the help!” Ernest just nods and clanks his arm against mine, then we take off.
Behind the door only a two hundred meters should separate us from the maintenance center, yet we only make very slow progress. The first hundred meters take at least a quarter of an hour. Only a few meters ahead I recognize my dream had been very real. We had learned from the four escaped soldiers that they had only lost two companions, but seeing the messily strewn out chunks made it difficult to believe that the carnage stemmed from only two bodies. “Shields up!” I hear Ernest call and already we are surrounded by whizzing shapes. From now on progress is barely possible, after a short thirty meters the shields already are history. Now a perpetual rasping and scratching fills our ears. Finally after nearing the finish line the opened door glides shut tight in front of us leaving me swearing loudly. As I set my gun to maximum power and fire at the door I realize to my horror that I had no chance to smelt through it quickly enough. I tap Ernest on the helmet and takes his explosive charge. A short two minutes of time I give us to find cover, we barely make it around the corner of the central, as the explosion loudly resounds. For a short moment the drones let us be, but as we rush towards the entrance they intensify their efforts, already I feel on my skin that the suit is getting tenuous in places. I detach my gun from the mounting on my arm and with a bit of effort attach it on Ernest’s arm. “Marple, instruct Susanna how to operate that gun. Ernest has to try and disable as many drones as possible, while we take care of the main computer.” On seeing Ernest start shooting systematically at the drones I sit down at the terminal. Marple tries to gain access, but no chance. I should have brought more explosives.
Our last chance is cutting off the current supply, the inbuilt tools of the suits arm quickly let me open the mainframes access cover. Suddenly all drones hastily flee the room.
I mentally prepare for the worst and hurry to find the current mains, as suddenly Marple announces “I have been able to establish a connection to the mainframe of the center. Good news, your status as maintenance technician is established. Oh dear, we are asked to provide information if the Cleansweep-Protocol is still effective.”
I swallow hard, there had been rumors going around about the existence of such a protocol, but it was frowned upon the notion and seen as bad joke. Still it did explain the current situation. “No, of course not Marple! The protocol is invalid, all systems to normal.” Angrily I smash my fist on the terminal, then I start getting out of my suit. Out of my eyes corner I suddenly see Ernest break down and quicken my efforts to get out. When I am finally able to throw the remains of the suit aside and hurry to Ernest I see blood flowing out from his suit.
As fast as possible I remove his suit, he is still breathing and his back had been punctured at much too many places. The blood is flowing out far too strong. No time to find the fabber and no medkit at the ready. Without hesitation I undress and tear my uniform up, then I use the cloth stripes to wrap Ernest’s wounds as tight as possible. He is barely breathing, but the blood loss has been reduced to a minimum.
I ignore being totally smudgy and search the fabber, with great relief I find it fully operational and with a fair amount of material reserves. Quickly I have a medkit made, then I take proper care of each wound on Ernest’s back. With some effort I manage to place him on one of the daybeds, scan him throughly again, but it only were flesh wounds. All he would need is a lot of rest, so I administer a sleeping drug, caress his hair and say “Thank you.”
Then I run a full system diagnostic on the maintenance centers main computer, no trace of the madness I witnessed in my dream remains. Instead I find a very comprehensive report from Bernhard Nwosu, it counts close to a hundred pages and I have it loaded on Marple.
The danger here is avoided and I am in dire need of a shower, but before that I need to know if there are news about the Benefactor.
I have the fabber output a small repair kit and a light blue summer dress meant for one use only.
As I trod towards the separating walls of the halls entrance at a smart pace I notice that the drones attacks had left their traces on me as well. But that are only scratches and I simply slap a patch on every spot that I notice while moving forward.
At the entrance Max and Steven greet me beaming, apparently the two had decided to ignore the orders to go back and had been waiting for us. Worriedly they ask about Ernest and after telling them about our struggles I send the two on their way towards the central, to make sure Ernest is doing alright. I establish a channel to Hask, while in the course of setting up a radio signal amplifier on the wall using the repair kit, drawing a connection line to the side behind the entrance and setting up another amplifier. “No, we didn’t catch him yet” he replies to my first question. I give a summary of my situation and while moving back to the maintenance central Hask tries his best to talk me out of joining in the hunt for the Benefactor. He even gets Agatha and Kara into the debate, but even the three united cannot manage to convince me to back down. “Yes, I am well aware I don’t have to solve all the problems on my own. But I am familiar with the kind of weapons he could have with him and if I make it to the rift before he does, I might find a way to stop his plans or at the least repair the damages he could make, hopefully quickly enough.” Kara explains that she would arrive at the rift soon with her crew and also Agatha would be with her shortly. Agatha’s mastery of the maintenance drones was an uncontested fact. So the debate goes to and fro. At the end I am swayed into at least doing a short rest at the maintenance center. Nevertheless as soon as I would have refreshed myself and had eaten something I would move out again.
I nearly rue this statement, when I finally able to take a shower and feel the tiredness in my body. With the help of Max I throw the remains of the suits and everything else, which remains from the battle, into the recyclers. Then I have a proper maintenance crew uniform made for me.
To that a backpack, a weapons belt and two guns, some energy shields and a selection of tools. Already back in the city I had made myself an energy blade as well as a solid knife, which hadn’t seen any action since.
In a final step I have a light litter with foldout legs manufactured, so Max and Steven could bring back Ernest to the city.
The search for something edible proofs more difficult. Giving up I have the fabber come up with some nutritional paste. While I chew tiredly and the two brothers hesitantly nibble on their share, I cannot help but notice the intent looks the two are surveying me with. At some point I utter an irritated: “What?” - and Steven chokes on his bite. “Er, Uh-uh�
� well…” Max stammers, then Steven says: “Its nothing, only” he takes in the room with a swiping motion “all of this, how you so easily muscle through. Awesome.” I point to Ernest “I wouldn’t exactly call it easy. Would have been nice if it had been, but only a few seconds longer and we both had been lying here. Would you two have tried to rescue us, you wouldn’t even have gotten near.” Max looks at me big eyed and opines: “Yes and now you want to just press on. Let us at least join you, this is all too much to be carried by one back!” I sigh and hesitantly agree, also because I could make sure Ernest would be well on the way to the city. The body count on my name was much too high, but it was much too soon to allow myself to mull about this.
What did you do, Bernhard? The answer was hiding in the report I hoped and I planned on reading it on the way back to the city. Carefully Max and Steven were moving forward with the litter and slowly I move along at their side. With every step the informations in the report fill in the pieces about the events a 230 years ago. It was such a simple design mistake, the whole catastrophe could have been easily prevented. By the time Bernhard Nwosu realized what was going on it was far too late, the damage had been already done some centuries ago. His search for a source of the problem was only triggered because he noticed the repercussions.
The wastewater system was mounted with slightly undersized exhaust air filters, so too many contaminants escaped and the residents of the close-by settlement suffered through the persistent exposure very subtle brain damages. In and of itself not especially drastic damages, yet it resulted in them being more aggressive and a bit slow-witted as the other ships inhabitants. Soon working at the sewage plants was regarded as idiot employment, so the people in the settlement had to suffer under great disdain. A complex system of competitions was meant to regulate the all too human aggressive nature. Now the villagers from the water treatment area did not stand any chances at the intellectual matches, which they compensated with excessive aggression at the physical competitions. After the first deaths at the contests the events were closed down.
Now the hatred grew so much stronger and faster though, so it did not take too long for the first Benefactor to surface, albeit not with that title though. He aggressively demanded additional workforces from surrounding villages in exchange for peace.
The disliked work at the treatment plants was shifted to the shoulders of coerced workers and here a social determinant came into play. Properly all settlements were supposed to handle their criminals on their own, but in short order it became common practice to have the criminals banned to work in the village near the treatment plant. Soon after arena fighting with battles to the death were introduced for public entertainment. This was the time Bernhard Nwosu awoke in. The then time Benefactor managed to sweet talk Bernhard for a while, before finally Bernhard saw through him. When the first Open Eyes freed Bernhard, he managed to get into the maintenance center at the ships drives. It was the active crews luck that the sabotage campaign of the new empire already had cut the connection between all maintenance centers. The Cleansweep-Protocol would have had all airlocks opened up to destroy all the life aboard, to then have a fresh crew woken from the cold slumber. It was meant as a final resort, at least that had been the rumor, to deal with a ship wide epidemic, complete social breakdown or other unexpected large scale catastrophic events. It never was Bernhard Nwosu’s intention to safe or warn the next technician at the waking area, but his last desperate try to activate the Cleansweep-Protocol all aboard the ship. I wasn’t even able to take offense against his decision, seeing what was going on around him with the people, he believed it to be the best course of action. A dire sadness had its grip on me on reaching the city.
Before heading on I met Irene and Richard and explained to them that the city would need to be disbanded.
Back at the maintenance center I had given Max and Steven a full security services equipment set and now quickly explained to them how it worked, before hurrying off towards the passages to the middle decks. A furious rage had risen in me and the brothers were barely able to keep up with me. At the passage the Benefactors troops were still entrenched, but I just turned on my shield and mowed down any resistance I met with fast fire from my two pistols.
The brothers had their hands full with restraining the soldiers I had missed, but the soldiers that flew my wrath had rushed into the tunnels.
This was the first time ever for my guns to become hot by use, as I whooped the soldiers on while constantly dropping the ones in the back. Unexpectedly their throng turned around and tried to move towards me again. In the meantime Max and Steven had managed to catch up and so the detonation of our three stun grenades left an eerily silence. But only momentarily and we had fighters rush towards us with raised spears, those weren’t Iron Warriors. “Haaaalt!” a loud voice which I knew resounded in the tunnel and to my surprise I saw Gurd hurry towards me. “Helen! By golly its really you!” And turbulently he hugs me. I smile at him, but he instantly sees the bitterness in my gaze. “You are chasing the Benefactor, or so its being said?” “Indeed so” I answer only abrupt to maintain my composure. “We have interrogated the soldiers we caught. Rolf is following a lead together with Hask. Wait I’ll send one of our tunnel scouts with you, they really know their way around here by now.” “Alright. We’ll catch up later, promise!” Is my reply and I give him kiss on the cheek and leave.
The brothers only look at each other dumbstruck and then hustle to follow along, as I drive the scout that Gurd had introduced as Simon to hurry up.
Bewildered I notice that something different than rage is driving me forward now, as a haggard thought of Rolf floats through my mind.
Hours pass and we surely traveled a few kilometers through the tunnels, as we reach a nexus tower offering a way towards the middle decks ground. As we move along the ceiling towards the tower I see explosions blossom across the middle decks floor, a foreign anxiety fills me up.
I don’t want to fail, not lose this ship, not witness the death of the people living in it. And yes I want to see Rolf one more time.
The others try to keep up with me, but after I put a makeshift carriage together and speed down the towers wall without any safety system I wave them an apologetic goodbye.
My hastily designed braking system fails, to my luck though only after slowing me down enough and near the ground, so manage to survive the fall by a hairs breadth.
I rush towards the direction the explosions came from, both weapons ready in my hands.
Some distance away I suddenly see a hatch open up. Someone climbs up to then drag a prisoner up who is fiercely ranting while trying to wiggle free.
More shapes climb out, but my eyes are only on Rolf. His garments are badly damaged and he has grime and slashes all over his body. But in his dirty face I can see a grim smile as he drives the Benefactor onward.
That is the moment in which I realize that all immediate dangers have been deflected. Whatever the future kept in store, there was no need for haste anymore.
I give a loud call, throw my guns to the side and run even faster.
Rolf is looking startled into my direction and just barely manages to shove the Benefactor towards the fighter behind him, before I knock him down. And while we lie in each others arms an unbridled joyous laughing sweeps us away.
Copyright © 2015 Pirx Danford
Version: 20151121
Publisher: Clemens Scholz, Germany, 65582 Diez, Schaumburger Str. 33
Used typeface on the cover:
Xolonium by Severin Meyer
(http://openfontlibrary.org/de/font/xolonium)
Cover image by Eugene Kovryga.
Find more fantastic art by Eugene on
http://newmand.deviantart.com
h friends