Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within

by Jasper T. Scott

  But what? What could Joe Coretti stand to gain from breaking into the Resurrection Center?

  A muffled siren came screaming through the ducts, interrupting Lucien’s thoughts, and Joe called out, “Someone sounded the alarm! They must have figured out that Guntha’s not the repairman they ordered. Let’s pick up the pace, people!”

  Chapter 44

  Astralis

  Director Nora Helios awoke to the sound of her ARCs trilling with an incoming call. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and sat up.

  “Hello?”

  “The center has been compromised.”

  “Ellis? What’s going on?”

  “A group of insurgents have broken into the Resurrection Center. They’re looking for evidence. Can they find any?”

  Nora considered that. “If they know what to look for, yes. I covered my tracks, but an in-depth search from a terminal inside the records room will uncover us.”

  Ellis made an irritated noise in the back of his throat. “Then you’d better make sure they don’t have the chance for an in-depth search.”

  “Have you alerted security? Who are the insurgents?”

  “Just get to the center.”

  “Ellis?”

  Connection Terminated flashed before Nora’s eyes, and she jumped out of bed. “Lights!” she shouted, and spent a moment blinking spots from her eyes as she hurried to her closet and got dressed. It would take time to find evidence of who they were. Even if someone reached the records room, they’d have to crack the password to access any of the data.

  There’s still time, Nora assured herself.

  * * *

  Astralis

  “I’m reading multiple lifeforms in the room on the other side,” Bob whispered to them as he gazed through the grille at the end of the duct where they were all waiting. According to Joe, this was it: on the other side of that flimsy metal plate was the records room.

  “They’re too late to stop us,” Joe whispered back. “Bob, would you do the honors of announcing our arrival?”

  “With pleasure.” Bob shimmied forward and punched out the grate. It landed with a bang, and he jumped down on top of it with his hands already raised above his head.

  Lucien scrambled back from the opening just as a tirade of reflexive laser fire flashed into the end of the duct.

  “Stop where you are!” one guard boomed.

  “I have stopped where I am,” Bob declared.

  “This is a restricted area!” a second guard said.

  “It is?” Bob asked, sounding confused.

  “I’m reading three more in the duct!” a third guard said.

  “Come out with your hands up!” the first one ordered.

  When none of them replied, another tirade of laser fire streaked into the end of the duct. This time the metal glowed red hot, and the air shimmered with the heat.

  “Bob!” Joe yelled. “Enough frekking around!”

  “You guards—get out, all of you,” Bob demanded. “Shoo.”

  “What did you just say?”

  Lucien snorted.

  “We have a bomb,” Bob explained. “And we will detonate it if you do not comply with our demands.”

  “It’s a bluff,” one guard said.

  “It’s not! Check the scans!” another said.

  “What are your demands?” the first guard asked.

  “That you leave the records room immediately. We’ll communicate the rest of our demands via comms once you have done so.”

  Bob didn’t get any more backtalk from the guards. There came a hurried shuffling of armored feet, followed by the sound of a door swishing open—then shut.

  “That was easy,” Joe said, and jumped down into the records room. Fizk handed his bomb down and then climbed down after his boss. Lucien went last. He looked around quickly to get his bearings.

  “Bob, secure the entrance!” Joe ordered.

  “Yes, boss.”

  “What now, Lucy-lu?” Joe asked.

  The records room was mind-bogglingly large. It was like a maze, with aisles of data storage units extending for at least a kilometer in all directions. “There has to be an access terminal here somewhere...” Lucien said.

  “That way,” Joe pointed to a distant speck at the end of the aisle where they’d emerged from the ducts.

  “How did you—”

  “Schematics,” Joe replied, cutting him off with a wave of his hand. “I’m going to get on the comms and make sure no one tries anything stupid.”

  Lucien nodded. “Should be safe to connect our ARCs to the network again.” He started down the aisle to the data terminal, connecting his ARCs as he went. He was just in time to see the comms icon light up with a message on an open channel. Lucien played the message and heard Joe’s voice echoing inside his head.

  “People of Astralis, this is Joseph Coretti. I have infiltrated the Resurrection Center with a five kiloton bomb. It’s wired to a dead-man’s switch and it will go off if myself or any of my associates are either stunned or killed. If you try to remove us from the premises by force, we will also detonate the bomb. I have just one demand: I want a film crew from every holonews channel on Astralis to join us here in the records room of the Resurrection Center and bear witness to what we find. You will be shocked to learn that Astralis has been taken over from within, its leaders possessed by aliens.”

  Joe went on to explain more about their suspicions, rattling off a list of people they suspected to be infected: Ellis, Stavos, Graves, Director Helios—even Lucien’s five-year-old daughter, Atara.

  “I await the arrival of the first film crew,” Joe concluded.

  Lucien reached the data terminal at the far end of the room and took a seat there to access the data. The terminal demanded a password to access the data. Of course. Why didn’t I think of that? Dread stabbed Lucien’s heart and panic swirled as he struggled to think of a way to get past the password. Fizk arrived and opened his briefcase on the edge of the terminal.

  “What are you doing?” Lucien demanded, watching the bomb as if it were a snake about to bite him. Fragile glass cannisters of red and blue liquid explosives were packed inside the case and wired together with a simple pump. It was a binary explosive. If those cannisters broke...

  “I’m fixing your problem,” Fizk explained and withdrew a data wafer from a slot in the padding of the case. He inserted the wafer into a port in the side of the data terminal, and a split second later, the password prompt vanished.

  “How did you do that?”

  “You wanna sit here discussing the finer points of network security, or are you gonna find what you came for?” Fizk demanded.

  Lucien frowned and shook his head, once again shocked by the amount of planning Joe had put into this.

  “Well? What are you waitin’ for?” Fizk prompted. “You better find some evidence before those film crews get here.”

  Lucien pushed his misgivings aside and set to work. He checked Chief Councilor Ellis’s memories first, and selected the most recent records—uploaded just last night while Ellis slept. Drilling down deeper, he found specific memories and hunted through them. Most of them contained mundane details from his day-to-day life—the meal he’d eaten last night, the cloning bills sitting on his desk, council meetings...

  But then things started to get interesting. Lucien found a seemingly innocuous memory from just a few days ago. Lucien watched as the terminal faithfully reproduced the view of an artificial sunset from the pool on the rooftop deck of the councilor’s penthouse in Summerside. Ellis was busy sipping a cocktail and thinking to himself. His thoughts appeared in subtitles below the scene: These humans can even rival us when it comes to luxury. That sounded pretty bad by itself. Lucien flagged that memory, thinking it must contain even more incriminating thoughts—but just one memory wasn’t enough. Ellis could claim they’d planted or altered it. Lucien skipped by it, choosing a more recent memory this time.

  It was even more incriminating than the last. It d
epicted Ellis sitting in the dark, in a hotel room in District One, thinking about a power blackout he’d arranged. His thoughts identified him clearly as Abaddon, and the memory went on to reveal a message he’d sent to someone named Katawa via a Faro communicator that General Graves had stolen from one of the captured alien shuttles.

  “Well, well...” Fizk said. “Looks like you were right.”

  Lucien nodded. “Yeah...” He was distracted, thinking about what he’d find if he searched Atara’s records and looked into her recent memories, but he pushed those concerns aside. Saving his daughter would have to wait.

  The comms icon on Lucien’s ARCs flashed again, this time on a private channel.

  “We’ve got company!” Joe said. “It’s Director Helios with a whole lot of security bots. She’s demanding we let her in.”

  “Don’t let her!” Lucien said. “She’s one of them. She’ll probably gun us all down just to keep us quiet!”

  “She’ll blow the center if she does that!” Joe said.

  “And erase all the evidence,” Lucien said. “I don’t think she cares.”

  “Frek... they’re coming in,” Joe said. “Bob! Hold them off!”

  Laser fire sounded over the comms, and Lucien spun away from the data terminal, drawing both his pistols and scanning for targets. The aisles were clear, but the entrance wasn’t visible from the terminal. Lucien ran to the nearest row of data storage units and took cover behind them. He waved to Fizk, and the curly-haired demolitions expert hurried over to crouch beside him.

  “Where the frek are those film crews?” Fizk gritted out.

  Lucien nodded to his briefcase bomb. “Is that thing really wired to a dead-man’s switch?”

  “Yes! Someone shoots one of us, and this whole place goes boom. Bob’s the only one who’s not tied to it.”

  “Can you disable it?” Lucien asked.

  Fizk frowned. “If I do that, they’ll just kill us.”

  “They’re going to do that, anyway! At least if you disable it we won’t all die if just one of us does.”

  “Right. Yeah, yeah, okay. Let me try. I’m going to need some time.”

  “How long?”

  “Five, ten minutes at least.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Lucien said. He peeked around the data storage units to check that the way was clear. Fizk grabbed his arm to stop him before he could race out of cover.

  “Where are you going?” Fizk demanded.

  “To create a distraction!”

  “You’ve gotta stay here and keep them off me while I do this. I can’t shoot and defuse a bomb at the same time!”

  Lucien looked around for a place that was less exposed. While hiding behind the storage units they could be flanked from either side, but the data terminal provided slightly better cover. Lucien nodded to it. “There. Behind the terminal.”

  “Nuh-uh. Not good enough.”

  “It’ll have to be,” Lucien said, peeking around the corner once more. He caught a glimpse of lasers flashing in the distance. “Call if you’re in trouble,” Lucien said.

  “Frek you,” Fizk replied.

  Lucien ran out of cover, flicking off the safeties on both his pistols and dialed up the power on the stun pistol. Hopefully it would interrupt a bot’s circuits for a second or two.

  “Joe?” Lucien asked over their private comms channel. “Where are you?”

  “Pinned down!” Joe replied. “Where the frek are you?”

  “On my way.”

  “And Fizk?”

  “Busy.”

  “If one of us goes down, it’s game over, Lucy.”

  “Then let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “Like krak! We’re outgunned ten to one at least, and more bots are still coming in.”

  Lucien’s mind raced as he ran. Even if Fizk managed to disable the dead man’s switch before a lucky shot turned them all into plasma, they didn’t stand a chance against that many bots. “You need to tell people what’s going on!”

  “I tried! They’re jamming us. No messages are getting out of this room.”

  Lucien blew out a breath. “Great.”

  Down at the end of the aisle a squad of bots came into view, marching in lockstep and firing their integrated laser cannons. Lucien snapped off a burst from his pulse pistol and a handful of stun bolts to draw their attention. Half the squad broke off and turned his way. Lucien ducked down the nearest aisle of storage units just in time to evade an answering stream of laser fire. Those lasers blew molten chunks out of the side of a storage unit, incinerating someone’s cherished memories.

  “Lucy-lu... where the frek are you!” Joe screamed over the comms.

  Lucien peeked around the corner and popped off another burst of fire at the bots marching toward him. The bots fired back in the same instant, and two laser bolts hit Lucien’s arm, drawing a hissing protest from his shield. Residual heat bled through the shield, scalding his arm. Lucien ducked back behind cover, gritting his teeth to hold back a scream. “I’m pinned down, too,” he said.

  Chapter 45

  Astralis

  “Weapons fire has been detected in the Res Center,” Commander Wheeler announced as she leaned over the sensor operator’s station. “Did you order the Marines to open fire?” she asked, rounding on Admiral Stavos.

  He shook his head. “No, they haven’t even arrived yet.”

  Wheeler scowled. “Well someone’s firing! And we can’t get anyone on the comms over there.”

  Stavos smirked. “Sounds like someone called their bluff.”

  “What if it’s not a bluff?” Wheeler demanded. “Then what?”

  Stavos arched a woolly white eyebrow at her. “You think they really went in there risking that they could die a permanent death?”

  “We can’t assume that they didn’t,” Wheeler replied.

  “Admiral—Marines have just arrived at the center,” the comms operator announced. “They’ve detected active comms jamming in the area.”

  Wheeler shook her head. “Someone’s deliberately pushing them into a corner. If that bomb goes off...”

  “The Marines are asking for orders,” the comm operator said. “What should I tell them?”

  “Tell them to hold where they are,” Stavos replied.

  Wheeler blinked in shock. “So we sent them there for no better reason than to hold a perimeter around the center?”

  “You said it yourself—that bomb could go off at any second. I’m not sending people in just to get them killed in an explosion,” Stavos replied.

  “So send in the bots without their sergeants!”

  “You’re out of line,” Stavos said.

  Wheeler turned in a circle to address the rest of the bridge. General Graves was mysteriously absent, making her next in line for the conn after the admiral himself. “With all due respect to the admiral, he is one of the ones implicated in this alleged Faro conspiracy. How can we take orders from him under those circumstances?”

  “You’re talking mutiny, Lieutenant,” Stavos growled. “I could have you court-martialed for what you just said.”

  “It’s Lieutenant Commander, sir,” Wheeler corrected. “Guards—arrest the admiral!”

  Stavos glanced at the pair of Marine sergeants and the half a dozen bots standing with them at the entrance of the bridge. The sergeants looked to each other before one of them took a hesitant step toward the admiral. “Stand down, Sergeant!” Stavos warned.

  Wheeler scowled. This was taking too long. Before anyone could do or say anything else, she drew her sidearm and shot Stavos in the chest.

  His eyes bulged as arcs of blue fire skittered over his body. He fell to his knees, teeth gritted, and muscles spasming. Wheeler shot him a second time, and he toppled to the deck and lay still.

  A shocked silence hung in the air as Wheeler holstered her sidearm. “I have the conn,” she declared. “Comms, tell our Marines to get in there and secure the records room now.”

  “Ma’am...
you just shot the—”

  “I’m well aware of what I did and of the consequences, Lieutenant,” Wheeler said. “Now give the order before it’s too late.”

  “Yes, ma’am...” the comms officer replied. The other officers on the bridge went on staring at Admiral Stavos’s motionless body in shock, as if they couldn’t believe what had just happened.

  Wheeler could hardly believe it herself, but there was no going back now. If Councilor Ortane’s husband and his gangster partners couldn’t find the proof they were looking for, then Wheeler was headed straight for the corrections center.

  She wished she knew why they’d bumped up the schedule for the operation without telling her, but they must have had their reasons.

  “I’ve lost contact with the Marines,” the comms operator reported. “They must be inside the center now, ma’am.”

  Wheeler nodded. “Let’s hope they’re not too late.”

  “Aye, Commander.”

  Several officers were still staring at Admiral Stavos’s motionless body. “Eyes on your stations, people!” Wheeler snapped. “Guards, take the admiral to the brig.”

  “Aye,” one of the sergeants replied as he hurried forward with a trio of bots.

  “Sensors, get me whereabouts for the General and Chief Ellis.”

  “Yes, ma’am...” the sensor operator replied.

  “Security, revoke all command privileges and authority for Admiral Stavos, General Graves, Chief Ellis, and Director Nora Helios.”

  “Revoking command privileges for ranking officers requires authorization from everyone on the bridge,” the security officer replied. “That will make all of us complicit in this mutiny.”

  “And following my other orders won’t?” Wheeler demanded.

  The security officer stood up from his station, and one by one, all the other officers followed his lead. Only the comms and sensor operators remained seated.

  “What is this? You can’t mutiny against a mutiny!”

  The second Marine sergeant from the entrance of the bridge walked up to her. “Ma’am, please come with me.”