by Richard Fox
Carson’s heart ached. People were dying for her plan and it was not working. She turned back to the door and brought her carbine up. “We can’t wait forever.”
Just then, the door opened Jared Hale stepped out. His pale white skin was a stark contrast to the matte black segmented armor he wore. This close, Carson could see the cables snaking down from the back of his skull, to a mechanical rig that fit over his shoulders and down his back. His clean shaven face seemed calm, as if undisturbed by what was going on below. He stepped to the rail and looked down, shaking his head. “Will they never learn? With me.” Jared motioned to the two Netherguards and headed for the lift doors.
There was enough space on the platform that the Pathfinders could move to one side and allowed Jared and the two guards to pass without having to hang off the edge. The lift doors closed and they watched as the capsule descended through the clear tube to the floor of the chamber.
“Move,” Carson said.
Birch set Danielle down just outside the double metal doors of Hale's office. The woman seemed to materialize out of thin air as she stepped from Birch's arms. Birch jabbed his knife blade beneath a control panel and wrenched the metal plate open with a twist. Danielle reached inside and there was a snap from the door frame.
Birch lugged the door open just enough for them to get through.
“Inside,” Carson said, allowing the woman and her two Pathfinders to enter first. She took one last look behind her, then stepped in and closed the door with a quick pull.
Danielle stopped a few feet inside the door. “He's redecorated.”
The office was lined with large plexiglass panels covered in handwritten text and rows of numbers. An elevated workstation took up the middle of the room, the displays high so a person could work on them while standing. Crystalline panels covered the computer banks, and alien text floated over small ovals arrayed in a spiral pattern. Banks of holo screens lined the top of the windows, their images panning around as drone footage came in.
At the back of the room were two cylinders almost nine feet tall, both embedded in a humming block of machinery. Inside one was an incomplete Netherguard. Needle thin mechanical arms spun skin and muscle over the exposed skeleton. The body was slowly coming into being, like it was decaying in reverse. Carson swallowed hard, seeing how the constructs were made filled her with revulsion.
In the other cylinder, a complete doughboy stood with its eyes shut, breathing very slowly.
“Should’ve smashed the damn things when we learned we had them,” Danielle said.
“Get to it,” Carson took her carbine off her back and walked around the workstation. Danielle opened a panel at the bottom of a computer bank and reached inside.
As Carson moved around the desk, she noticed a small framed picture between the stations. She turned it around; both Hale brothers stood side-by-side in the photo. Ken Hale in his Strike Marine uniform, Jared in army greens. Both had 2nd Lieutenant gold bar rank on their shoulders. Carson knew the two were twins but had never noticed how much they looked like each other.
“We are our choices,” Moretti said, “good or bad. Ken Hale helped win the war, won the peace with the rest of the galaxy, created the Pathfinders…led us to Terra Nova. Jared betrayed the first colonists and is an abomination.”
“Sentimentality doesn’t strike me as the trait of tyrants.” Carson tapped the picture frame. “They’re twins. Nature and nurture weren’t all that different for them until when? Jared encountered the aliens? What have the Triumvirate done to him to keep him in line?”
“I think I heard something about Ken Hale,” Danielle pulled two wires out from beneath the workstation and spliced them together. “Wasn’t he the one that rescued Marc Ibarra on Earth? Something about negotiating with the Toth before they attacked us.”
“There’s a lot you’ve missed,” Carson said.
“Jared was just another civil engineer when we first got here,” Danielle said. “First I heard of him was when he got married.”
“Married?” Carson asked.
“They were one of the first couples to get hitched on Terra Nova…and had one of the first babies. It was a big deal for us, meant we were really getting settled, had a future ahead of us. Then he goes and destroys everything we built.”
“What happened to his family?” Birch asked.
“Not sure.” Danielle held up a data line to Birch and he plugged it into his Gremlin. “Lost a lot of people when Jared attacked New Jefferson. Maybe they died then. No one’s seen them.”
“You into the system yet?” Carson asked.
Birch’s fingers danced over his forearm screen. He looked to the holo displays and smiled as the pictures wobbled up and down.
“I’ve got the drones,” Birch said.
Danielle pulled Birch’s arm down and tapped on his screen.
“And now we’ve got the PA system,” she said.
“Don’t have his voice, though,” Carson said. “Birch, find him. Have a drone get close enough to pull audio. If he’s talking, we can fill in the gaps we need.”
“On it,” Birch said
Moretti went to an open crate next to the doughboy constructor and picked up a thick notebook. He flipped through the pages and frowned.
“Not medical,” he said. “Thought he’d have kept records of how he altered the doughboys. Bunch of engineering diagrams with his shorthand. Worthless.” He tossed it back into the crate.
“Those diagrams look like Fibonacci spirals?” Danielle’s head popped up from the workstation.
“They do,” Moretti said.
“Those are the Ultari engines.” Danielle looked at the crate and licked her lips. She shook her head quickly and went back to work. “Just because it doesn’t eat and breathe doesn’t mean it’s worthless, sawbones.”
“I’m almost offended,” the medic said. “Almost.”
“Found Jared,” Birch said. Two of the holo screens switched to the catwalks, showing them different angles as Jared walked along, his personal guard close to him. One of the drones shifted to one side and Carson saw Jared’s destination. He was heading straight for them.
“Damn it.” Carson touched her camo cloak, thinking of options. She’d planned on the riot lasting a good deal longer. “We…we just need his voice. Moretti, on the door with me.”
Jared’s bodyguards peeled off and returned to their original position as the overlord walked back to his office, his face dark. Carson drew her knife and jammed it between the door and the frame. Moretti braced himself against it.
Outside, Hale almost walked into the door. He mumbled and held his palm up to the sensor on the outside control panel. Unseen mechanisms wined and clicked, but the door did not open. Jared slammed his fist into the door.
Moretti lifted his carbine, aiming it through the door at Jared. “Want me to—”
“No,” Carson told him. “There's no way of telling how the Netherguards will react if he dies.”
Hail pounded on the door again, shouting muffled curses. He went to the window and punched it, sending a spider web of cracks through the glass.
Carson looked back over her shoulder. “Birch, you ready for phase two? Move the drones giving us the video feed in closer.”
Birch tapped his gauntlet and one of the holo screens changed to a grid with letters and consonant blends on them. A little more than half were shaded in. “Program’s up and running.”
The window cracked further as Jared hit it again.
“Mic.” Carson waved at the Gremlin. Birch pointed at her and the drone zipped over.
“You’re on in five…four…three,” Birch finished the countdown with his fingers.
Carson took a deep breath and said, “Give me your weapons.”
Outside, one of the video drones played her words through its speakers, the voice was not hers, but Jared’s. The pounding on the glass stopped as the two Netherguards stepped up and held out their clubs to Jared.
Jared shook his h
ead, pushing the clubs away. “No, what are you doing? I don't want your damn staffs.”
On the screen, more of the grid squares filled in.
“Get him to say a word with ‘st’ in it,” Danielle said. “Stink. Store. Whatever.”
The Netherguard pulled their weapons back and stood still, waiting for the next command.
“Throw your weapons over the railing,” Carson said and Jared’s voice came out of the drone.
“No, cancel command.” Jared grabbed one of the Netherguard by the wrists before it could comply. The other tossed his weapon over his shoulder. There was a thump and a growl of pain from a guard on the ground level.
“Punch each other.” Carson tossed her hands up.
One of the guards landed a haymaker that sent the other to the ground.
“Stand down! Stand down!” Jared pulled the standing guard back before it could hurt the other some more. Jared’s face snapped up, and he looked straight at the drone that had given the commands. He pointed at the drone and the armor around his wrist glowed bright.
“Guards, throw me to the floor—” Carson bit off a curse as a flash of light came through the window and the drone footage cut off.
“Bring in the other one?” Birch asked.
“Do we have what we need?” Carson asked.
On the grid, only a few boxes remained unchecked.
“Think we can get the job done,” Birch said. “Just have to pick our words carefully.”
“Here.” Carson pushed the Gremlin back towards Birch.
The door groaned as Jared’s Netherguards tried to pry it open. Machinery in the door frame groaned and Carson heard Jared shouting commands through the metal.
She grabbed her knife and felt tension through the handle. The door lurched open and her blade snapped out the frame.
A Netherguard fell through the door. Carson rammed her knife through its temple and it dropped like a rock. The second stumbled into the room and ran into Birch. The Pathfinder clamped his hands against the side of its head and snapped the neck with the crack of a bough breaking.
Carson swung her carbine up and leveled it at Jared’s face.
Jared froze, arms held out low to his sides. One of his eyes twitched, and Carson saw thin wires moving just beneath his skin. The glowing metal around one wrist died down.
In a voice more calm than she felt, Carson said, “I want you to be very, very still. I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. I want you to think long and hard about your answers, because they will determine whether or not I put a bullet through your skull.”
Jared gave an almost imperceptible nod and remained silent.
“Where are my people? Are they alive?”
Jared nodded slowly.
“Where are they?”
“You have…you have to stop them,” Jared said. His lips pulled back, racked with pain.
“My team, the colonists; they are what’s important,” Carson said. “You want to make amends for what you’ve done, you better start now.”
Jared looked over his shoulder to the starship. “You don't understand. You don't understand what's happening here. What they want, what they can do.”
“Sounds like you’re stalling.” Carson put pressure on her trigger.
“They’re reaching for me,” Hale said, cocking his head slightly. “I don't have much time.”
“Then tell me where my people are.”
Hale held her gaze for several seconds without speaking. His eyes darted back and forth as if he was checking for something, then he mouthed, “In the ship, sub level one. 1-8-3-8-8.”
Carson frowned, watching his lips as he mouthed the words again. She nodded, understanding.
The next words he spoke were barely a whisper. “Tell Ken, tell my brother…Clouseau would never have gotten caught.” Then his once concerned and anxious face twisted into one of rage and hatred and he slammed a fist against the door frame.
“Unit Gamma nine, activate! I’ll kill you myself! All will serve the true rulers or they will be destroyed!”
Carson lowered her muzzle and shot Jared in the chest. The plate fragmented and he backpedaled. She shot him again. The hit spun him around and pitched him to the deck face first.
“What was he talking about?” Moretti asked. “Gamma—”
There was a crash as the complete doughboy inside the assembler burst through the cylinder. Moretti turned around and took a punch to the jaw that knocked him off balance. The doughboy slammed a hand onto the medic’s shoulder and chucked him into Birch. The two Pathfinders went down in a tangle of limbs.
Carson brought her carbine around, but the workstation was between her and the new threat. One errant bullet could wreck the entire setup and ruin their plans to free the prisoners.
Danielle scrambled aside as the doughboy raised a foot and stomped down. She rolled out of the way as its heel stuck the deck, leaving a dent in the metal.
Carson wrenched her knife out of the dead Netherguard’s skull and hurled it at the Gamma. The doughboy raised an arm and the blade sank into its forearm. Blood burbled out of the wound. The doughboy looked at the knife, then at Carson and growled at her.
“Well…shit,” Carson said.
The Gamma thundered towards her, faster than anything that size should have ever managed. She brought her carbine up and had it slapped out of her hands. She ducked a punch that would have knocked her head clean off and brought an arm up to ward off the next swing.
Instead, the Gamma grabbed her by the wrist and flung her into a window. Carson went flying out of the control room as the glass shattered. She tumbled over the deck and managed to get a hand up to grab a railing as her legs flopped over the edge.
The doughboy jumped out of the broken window and charged at her. Carson saw the rage in its face and realized she was about to die.
There was a snap of a carbine and blood burst out of the doughboy’s chest. It slowed and looked down at the wound. Another shot ripped through its stomach and it hunched over. The construct looked up at Carson, blood gushing over its lips.
“Die...” It took a step toward her and its head exploded.
Carson pulled herself back onto the platform. In the broken window, Danielle held a carbine, smoke wafting from the barrel. Carson waved her back into the control room and got to her feet, still dizzy from the sudden ride through the window. She brushed glass out of her badly torn camo cloak.
She looked over to where Jared had fallen, but he was gone.
An alarm sounded, its two-tone wail echoing through the cavern. The chimes were followed by a mechanical voice, the same voice they'd heard in the chamber before. “All prisoners are ordered to stand down and return to their cells. This is a no-fail lockdown. You are in violation.”
Carson stepped over the dead Netherguard and reentered the command center. Moretti helped Birch back onto his feet.
“Where the hell is Sub Level One?” Carson asked Danielle. “What’s a ‘no-fail’ lockdown?”
“Sub Level One? That’s in the ship,” Danielle hopped into the control station and gingerly tapped at the alien controls. “A no-fail means anyone not in their cell in five minutes will be killed on sight.”
“We have…” Carson lost her balance and grabbed on to the station to keep her balance. “We still have access to the PA system?”
“That we do.” Danielle gave the work station a quick pat.
Carson closed her eyes, waiting for the room to stop spinning.
“Kill that other voice. Lock Jared out of the PA; can you do that?” Carson said.
Danielle gave her a thumbs-up.
“Mic,” Carson said. “Give me the mic again.” The Gremlin bobbed up and down in front of her.
“Cancel lockdown,” Carson said, and her words boomed through the chamber in Jared’s voice. “All units report to the ship. A prisoner in violation has broken into the ship’s engine node. Get into the engines and detain him for judgment. Now! The Triumvirate commands it!�
�
On the chamber floor, the Netherguards surrounding the prisoners stopped, straightening as they received their instructions. After a moment, they turned, facing the large disk-shaped ship in the center of the chamber, then started advancing towards it.
“Faster!” Carson shouted.
The Netherguards broke into a full sprint, all converging on the far side of the ship. They converged on large bulbous outcroppings on one side of the disk and started clawing their way up the sides of the spacecraft. They pounded fists, clubs, and feet into the outer shell of the ship, damaging the metal.
Carson pushed the Gremlin away. “Birch, find us another way into that ship.”
One of the screens panned to one side and stopped over a gap in the unfinished hull beneath a catwalk.
“That’s our way in,” Carson said.
A deep reverberation carried through the floor.
Moretti tapped a foot to the floor.
“Can’t be an earthquake,” the medic said.
“The engines.” Danielle looked up from the controls. “I think they’re getting ready to leave.”
“Hold down the fort.” Carson picked up her carbine and ran for the door. “Let’s go!”
Chapter 16
Jared’s armor carried him forward, his legs refusing to move by his will. Every breath sent stabs of pain through his chest. He’d come to inside the ship. His armor, his mobile prison, had removed him from the Pathfinder while she tangled with his Netherguard.
I can’t believe she shot me, he thought. Twice. The iris to the Triumvirate’s quarters opened and the armor carried him on stiff legs.
The emperor turned away from his data field, lava-red eyes glowing beneath the metal sculpture of his face.