Jane froze.
All of her froze, everywhere. Including here on BigMother.
"Jane?" I yelled at her.
She didn’t move, didn’t speak. She didn’t appear to be seeing anything, or doing anything.
The other AI had to be fighting her.
The fact it hadn't taken seconds was a problem.
And I suddenly realized we had an even bigger problem. She still had control of the ship, and we were pointed at the station.
"Shit!"
Angel leapt off the console and ran out.
"What's wrong Jon?" asked Annabelle.
"The station must have a top of the range AI, and it and Jane are now locked in a battle of wills for control of everything."
I tried the controls on my chair, and nothing worked.
"Jon!" yelled Dick, a horrified expression on his face.
The station was directly ahead of us, and we were still at our normal cruising speed. And I didn’t have control. I did have minutes though, if I could use them correctly.
"Everyone launch, NOW!" I screamed into ship coms.
I didn’t wait to see if they did or not. I jumped up and crossed to Jane. She was rigid, and not connected to the ship physically. Which meant the battle was going on across all forms of communications.
"Everyone out of here," I yelled.
"Jon?" started Annabelle.
"Out. Move. If Jane loses, her avatar will kill us."
The few left on the Bridge hurried out, and I slammed the door behind us. It would provide about as much slow down to Jane as a sheet of tissue paper, but it also stopped her seeing us for right now. As if that mattered. But I was thinking on my feet, and slamming the door was a good emotional release.
"Annabelle, do you still have a combat suit on board?"
"Yes, on Deck Zero. But I don’t use one very often."
"Go get it. If Jane comes out that door, stop her any way you can."
"Jon?" She was horrified.
"No choice. Go."
I pushed her away, and then ran for the access shaft. On the way down, I changed my stunners to lasers. I threw myself off, and ran as fast as I could to the main communications nexus.
I had no idea where the on-off switch was, so I drew both Gatling guns and raked the entire room until all the lights were gone.
It may or may not have solved anything, but I was hoping if we had no communications, then Jane here on the ship was now fighting for control only of her own bodies here, with no outside help for the intruder.
I ran for the CCC.
Once inside, I jumped into my seat, and brought up the controls.
Yes! I had control.
But it was too late.
I desperately pulled the speed off us, pulling us up and left, as I yelled "Brace for impact!" into ship coms, forgetting I’d just destroyed them.
BigMother slammed into the station's shields, with Unassailable taking the brunt of the impact. We may as well have slammed into the station itself, as the whole ship shuddered down its length. Both shields died, but my evasions at least stopped us hitting the station for real.
I pulled us away, and changed course for open space as soon as I saw we'd bounced towards the planet. We barely had steerage speed now, but I wanted us heading where there was nothing to hit.
I sat there in shock for a moment.
There are some days when you shouldn’t get out of bed.
It got worse.
"Good," said a voice I didn’t recognize behind me, but which was vaguely familiar. "There you are."
I turned. Jane was standing there. But this wasn’t Jane. Her face and body were the same, but her skin and uniform were jet black. There was a look of unholy glee on her face, as she stalked towards me.
My suit shifted to full protection mode.
She stopped a half dozen paces away, and grinned at me.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I'm Jane. Who else would I be?"
"You're the station AI?"
"That’s right. I'm Jane, the station AI. I'm also Jane the ship AI, Jane the Droid AI, and Jane the killer. And I'm here to kill you."
The grin became bigger.
I thought rapidly. This had to be one of the security droids, not Jane's primary avatar. One on one, it had the advantage. Underneath the suit was an exoskeleton, not bones. It would take a while, but slugging it out would only have me losing.
I needed another option. I had another option.
The sword materialized on my back, and I smoothly drew it. In one fast swipe, I cut the head off the droid. Its suit shredded immediately, leaving a droid head on the floor, and a still reaching for me body. Without stopping the swing, I brought the sword up and around, and cut the droid cleanly in half down its full length.
I checked ship systems, and found our shields were regenerating. Coms were completely out, meaning the HUD and nav maps were useless. The sensors would still be gathering data, but had no way of communicating it to screens any more.
"You okay boss?" pinged in from Lacey.
At least pings still worked. But it meant Camel was very close by, which wasn’t a good sign.
"Ship has no coms, and bugger all shields. What's happening out there?"
"Big furball in progress. Ten plus squadrons launched from the station."
"Tagged AND Bagged!"
The latter sounded like Jessie, but how it came through a ping from Lacey was something I didn’t have the time to consider.
"Protect BigMother until we get some shields back."
"Roger that."
Not only didn’t we have shields, we also didn’t have Mosquito's for incoming missiles. There was nothing I could do, but leave defense to Lacey and his people.
I needed to find out what was going on here.
I headed down again on a hunch, touching down on the Cargo Deck.
The sight before me stopped me cold.
Hundreds of Jane's were fighting it out with each other. About a third of them were black, and the others either normal Jane, or the security guard's she emulated, mixed in with unsuited combat droids which seemed to be on both sides. Pulse Rifles were firing from all the combat droids, dark and light, and light lasers firing from all the security droids. On the other side of them, fighting in a defensive formation, appeared to be several of my teams.
"Jane!" I called out. "I need a wedge formation around me now."
I walked calmly out onto the Cargo Deck, like a fictional Knight walking into a battle. My sword was in my right hand, held ready to swing.
The nearest dark Jane came at me, and I moved the sword so both hands would wield it, and cut the droid in half. A dozen Janes formed up around me, giving me protection to the sides and back, while I moved with a purpose.
I strode forwards towards the next nearest dark Jane, and the sword moved. Step forwards, swing, and step over. Forwards, swing, and step over. Rinse and repeat. The occasional combat droid moved towards me, and I took care of it as well.
Janes swarmed around me, staying away from my flashing sword, but intercepting all the shots fired at me. I lost track of time. I crossed and re-crossed the Cargo Deck, going from one target to the next. My focus came down to which dark Jane was closest, and what my sword and feet were doing.
And finally, there was one. The last dark Jane was a combat suit. I could tell it was dark only because it was fighting the light ones.
I strode towards it, and seeing me coming, it started running at me. I let it come, but instead of waiting for it to reach me, I hurled the sword at it when I was sure I wouldn’t miss. Janes came between us so it couldn’t reach me, and the combat droid swiped at the sword. The arm was cut completely off and dropped to the deck, while the sword continued through the suit and came out the other side. The remaining Janes grabbed hold of both sides of the rent in its middle, and pulled it apart.
I stood there panting. The sword vanished.
It was over. Here. I needed to secure the Bridge
. I only hoped it didn’t need securing.
On the way up I checked my suite for Angel. She was curled up in a tight ball on the top of her kitty castle, with Nut curled up with her. Nut wasn’t the most aware of cats, so Angel must have sought him out, and convinced him to join her. I patted them both quickly, told them I’d be back when it was safe for them to come out, and shot out again.
At the top of the access shaft, I found a combat suit.
"You okay Jon?" asked Annabelle.
"Yes. But you missed a hell of a battle down on the Cargo Deck."
"Battle?"
"Later. Did Jane come out?"
"No."
I walked up to the door to the Bridge, and gingerly pulled it open.
Jane was still where she had been, still Jane, and still rigid.
"Jane?"
"Here Jon."
The voice came from Bridge coms. I had no idea why Jane could still talk to me with no com room active.
"Sitrep."
"I remain in control of BigMother, Gunbus, and Excalibur, but as you found out, I lost control of some of the combat and security droids. My avatar is still battling."
"Anything we can do?"
"No. She has to win this one on her own. Destroying the coms was a great idea, but it means I can't help her now. It’s a good thing I don’t actually live in the coms room though, or need the com lines. I live in the whole ship. Now if you’d destroyed the computer room, it would have been a problem."
"What was, is, attacking you?"
"It was me Jon. Dark, twisted, but me."
"How?"
"I don’t know yet, but I will be finding out."
"Can you get repair droids to reroute coms through Gunbus?"
"On it already. That was good thinking Jon. Until you destroyed the ship's coms, I was losing. The station seems to have a very powerful coms array, and it was overpowering me until you pulled the plug."
"Do we know what's happening on the station?"
"No. It will be a few minutes to complete the reroute. Point Defenses managed to protect the ship reasonably well, but we took some missile hits, and have some minor hull damage as a result. I've got repair droids on fixing damage already. We were lucky in one respect, none of the Mosquito AI's were affected. It looks like the station me went for me, and me only. But when you severed the coms, you also severed the Mosquito AI's link to the sensors."
"We should fix that. Even if we lose all primary systems, the guns and launchers should still be able to function locally."
"Confirm that. I'll have local sensors installed for each one."
"Lacey," I pinged, "sitrep."
"All quiet out here. We've taken casualties, but the day is ours. SR droids from Custer are collecting survivors."
"Any word from the station?"
"No. Sorry."
"Land anyone who needs to land, form the rest up into a CAP."
"Roger that."
"Coms are back up," said Jane.
"Hunter to One actual. Sitrep."
"Thank goodness," said Amanda. "We have problems. The station security forces have been joined by some of the droids Jane had impersonating crew, and some of Jane's combat suits went amok. We are so evenly matched now, and we can't break through."
"Where's BA and her team?"
"In the room next to the computer room boss," said BA. "When Jane connected to the computer itself, she turned dark side on us, and we had to fall back. Holding our own, but pinned down."
"Hang tight. Help on the way. Six actual, sitrep."
"The same," said Sam. "We were ambushed outside the central offices, and are pinned down."
"Team leaders, stand by for support."
They acknowledged, but I wasn’t paying attention.
"George, which teams do you have on board?"
"Two and three boss. Orders?"
"Dock immediately. If you have to force your way in, so be it. Send in the heavies. Priority targets are dark Jane's."
"Say that last again?"
"The station AI seems to be a dark version of Jane. It has control of a number of security droids which were impersonating pirate crew, and a few combat suits. Have the heavies target them first."
"On way."
"And George?"
"Boss?"
"Bulldoze the station computer room please."
"This is team two actual. You want me to destroy the station computer?"
"Totally. Send in half your heavy force as bulldozers, the other half to kill the dark Janes."
"You got it."
"BA?"
"Boss?"
"Pull back. If you can form up with the rest of team one, do that. If not, wait for the reinforcements to arrive and support them."
"Confirmed."
I sat back in my seat, eyes still watching Jane, while they flickered to the cam images once again displayed around the Bridge.
"Do I need to stay in this suit any longer?" asked Annabelle.
"Better wait, until Jane resolves her avatar situation. Just in case."
"Okay."
I brought BigMother to a stop, and spun us around to point at the station. Custer was docking. We'd been lucky none of the capital ships had been able to join the fight. My own forces were in squadron formations now, flying patrols around both the station and the planet. It looked like we'd lost at least ten ships, but I didn’t know how many were in the process of landing. From the sound of it, we'd lost pilots as well.
I wondered how the day could get any worse.
Jane turned black.
Seven
Before I could react, she shifted again, this time to naked with a belt on, and seconds later to 'slinky red'.
"Well," she said in her normal voice. "That was unpleasant."
"You think so?" I said, in a high pitched voice.
Jane stood, came over, and hugged me. We stood there for several minutes.
"Now can I get out of this suit?" asked Annabelle, obviously not happy.
Jane returned to her seat.
"You may," I said to Annabelle. "Check on the remaining teams. They were fighting on the Cargo Deck earlier. If they're still good, get them ready to join the station fight."
"On it."
I sat again, and turned to Jane.
"Dock us please. If you can't get access to the station airlock, use the Mesons to cut a hole in their side."
"Confirmed."
You have no idea how good it was to hear that single word. I sighed deeply, and resumed my seat.
Custer was docked now, and I watched the six Bulldozers make short work of the station airlock. Cams followed them into the station, several combat suits riding along on them. The six giant suits behind them strode forward after them, heads making holes in the ceiling.
"Coming in to dock," said Jane. "Teams four and five, with combat droid support, are at the airlock waiting."
I watched as we nosed up to the station, making a soft seal on our side. Jane plugged herself into the station airlock controls, but shook her head. She stepped back, and twelve combat suits carrying Mesons stepped up, and began cutting into the outer doors. They were streamers rather than pulsers, so the job progressed quickly.
"Team four," said Jane, by way of explaining who was doing the cutting. "They appear to be extremely pissed off, and want to join the fight on the station as fast as possible."
I was all for letting them.
Annabelle took her seat, looked at me, nodded, and began watching cams.
The first of the bulldozers had reached BA and Aline, and escorted their team back to the rest of team one. Amanda started giving orders. Two of the bulldozers and two of the giant suits, the latter walking hunched over like Gorillas, turned and headed off into the station, with team three behind them. The rest of team two took up position with team one.
The station airlock's outer door came crashing down inside ours, and was pulled onto the Cargo Deck by Cargo droids. The Mesons went to work on the inner door.
Two of the Bulldozers lined up on the computer room location, and started forward. The other two formed up to the side and behind them. The four of them crashed through the wall ahead of them, and continued inside without slowing down.
The inner airlock crashed into the station, and the teams from BigMother streamed inside.
Fighting between giant suits and dark Jane's was still going on, but the huge Mesons were slowly shredding suits and leaving the droids underneath vulnerable to conventional weapons fire.
I leaned back in my seat, and watched the fighting slowly end.
On several of the cams, Repair droids were already patching the station airlocks which had been damaged to gain entry.
Jeeves dropped a bottle of water into the holder on my chair, and I gulped down half of it. Annabelle did the same, even though she hadn't been in combat.
An hour later, and the station was in our hands. But fighting had now shifted to the ships docked to it. With the station's computer destroyed, and no AI to stop her, Jane was able to force the airlocks open, saving us damaging the station any more. It was in a pretty fair mess, having taken a significant amount of heavy weapons fire, not to mention several large areas completely bulldozed, and the not inconsiderable damage made by the giant suits, and bulldozers changing back into giant suits, while changing levels. Many of the travel shafts would need to be rebuilt.
I went down to check on Angel and Nut, and found them still where I’d left them. After a cuddle and pat, Nut wandered off back to his own quarters, and Angel trotted up the stairs to return to the Bridge.
I found Dick, Amy, Magnus, Carter, her daughter, and the medical team, holed up in the Rec Room, watching the fighting on a room full of screens. They seemed to be quite chipper, which wasn’t surprising since they seemed to be enjoying full catering during the show. Pity I couldn't say the same for myself. I was about as unchipper as it was possible to chip. I returned to the Bridge, where Angel was sitting on my chair, eyes wondering from screen to screen. I moved her to her pad, where she continued watching screens as if I hadn't moved her.
Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates Page 4