Crystal Venom

by Steve Wheeler

Marko acknowledged the order. ‘On it. So what do I do about the producer if I come across her?’

  ‘Just comment on how beautiful she looks!’ Stephine replied.

  Marko grinned and walked down to the armoury deck where the simulators for the Chrysops were situated. He opened the locker beside them to find an armoured flight suit with a streamlined helmet and activated them, allowing the protective equipment to form around him. He climbed into the open cockpit and strapped himself into the ejection seat, first checking all the life-preserving equipment. The Chrysops flight simulator closed its covers as the simulation started with him attached to the side of the lifter as it slowly spiralled down into the heavy atmosphere of the target moon. He first set his air feeds then armed the ejection seat before starting the compact turbine unit, setting the four lift jets to vertical, powered up the antigravity unit, then signalled that he was good to fly.

  A voice sounding just like the major’s gave him clearance and the little fighter was dropped away from the salvage craft. He rolled it out to the starboard side of the salvage lifter, commencing a standard air cover tight circuit around the craft. Over the next few hours the simulator took him through ever-increasing intensities of the entire gamut of emergencies from engine failures, impact damage, weapons malfunctions and missile strikes. The last simulation was the recovery of a downed pilot from the twisted nightmare of a thick alien jungle, which seemed to be made up of one huge primary fungus with tens of thousands of varieties of fungus all living on or in it, and even greater quantities of slug-like creatures everywhere.

  When he finally climbed from the cockpit he felt quite angry at the producer, whose intention had been to simply throw him in at the deep end on the day of the first deployment without any practice. After showering, he felt huge pleasure at being able to make bread again, with Minh Pham delighted to have him in the kitchen. Just as the first breads were coming out of the oven, a woman, who he had difficulty recognising as Ivana, sashayed into the kitchen. She looked young, attractive and full of the joys of living. She walked up to him, grasped his head in her hands and delivered a deep kiss full on his mouth.

  ‘I need to thank you, Marko.’ she gushed. ‘You are an angel. I don’t know what you did or how you did it, but sex is just the best thing, and also all this beautiful food and drink you people have introduced me to as well. Should you ever want to share my bed, you would be very welcome.’

  With that she picked up four long bread rolls, a container of butter, a pot of raspberry jam, a butter knife, then winked at him and left, heading back up the spiral staircase. Veg came up behind Marko, clapped him on the shoulder, then shook him cheerfully by the hand.

  ‘Excellent work as always, Marko. You should take up sex therapy when you leave the service. You would make a fortune!’

  Marko roared with laughter and before he could reply Jasmine interrupted. ‘Not going to happen, Veg. He is going to be with us instead!’

  Marko spun around into her outstretched arms. ‘Hey, beautiful woman! You I have missed. Hello, Lilly. Lovely to see you too.’

  Lilly patted the top casing of the monitor, Jim, then looked into the crew comms interface that Spike had installed, which blended perfectly into Jim’s surface. ‘Hello, Jim, so your sentience is returned?’

  He unfolded his arms from his carapace and shook her solemnly by the hand. ‘Yes, Lilly, my profound thanks to everyone. I just regret that my colleagues did not get the same chance as I did. Fortunately, the producer seems to have forgotten me, so, as long as the feeds of Marko keep going to her boards, I should remain safe, and probably do not need the new chassis you have built for me.’

  *

  They heard Rick broadcast his instructions. ‘All craft prepare to deploy. This is a look-see only. We are watching six Gjomvik Corporation Orbitals. Three have declared themselves non-hostile. The others are demanding that we leave as the Administration has no jurisdiction here. A demonstration of force, to appease their honour, is expected.’

  Watching his feeds from the cockpit of Sledgehammer, Marko could see Basalt being held on the launch ramp. The huge ship ponderously split into three primary parts as well, with dozens of smaller drone gunships dropping away from each segment to take up station around the small fleet. Each Orbital gunship was the size of Basalt, of simple spherical shape, with powerful engines, ring manoeuvring systems and, from what the Basalt crew could see, heavy firepower of linear accelerators, particle-beam generators, lasers, and kinetic weapon pods that folded up out of the armoured surfaces and then drew away from the hull on multi-jointed arms. As they watched, more weapons systems were deployed from the segments of Rick as they moved away from each other, creating three distinct battle groups with one moving into higher orbit and the other two spacing themselves fifty kilometres apart high above the moon then inserting themselves into orbit.

  They then saw fifty or more high-speed recon drones drop away from pods on the side of their segment and race down towards the moon. Each group had layers of defensive and offensive weapon carriers deployed in a great spearhead formation, with the gunships on the outer and the large missile phalanxes and smaller self-propelled multi-barrelled linear accelerators at the centre.

  As the crew watched and marvelled at the sheer power that Rick as a single unit possessed, they wondered why they were needed. The producer, Ivana, with Sirius at her side, was in a large lander which Marko could see into from his vantage point in the cockpit of Sledgehammer. Hundreds of feeds from weapons cameras throughout the fleet were feeding into the boards on the lander, with the Games Board computers and semi-AI systems processing it all into what Marko thought would probably be tens of different program formats. When they did get back to the Sphere this would be the month’s highlights, as many had believed that Rick was a myth.

  Marko keyed his comms. ‘Stephine, this is a show of force, is it not?’ He put on a deep sombre voice to sound like a media hack. ‘Somewhere beyond the Sphere is an instrument of the Administration protecting all you folks at home.’

  Stephine laughed as Veg grunted. ‘Yeah, Marko, that’d sound right, and we are along for the ride as in the human interest stories. This lot will be for the tech freaks and the weapon porn markets.’

  Harry suddenly made an announcement. ‘We have multiple missile launch from three Orbitals.’

  Instantly, particle beams flashed out from the closest of Rick’s crafts, carving the missiles and their launchers into small pieces of junk. Every time a weapon was fired against them the response was immediate, but measured, with the small Orbitals themselves not being targeted. An hour later hostile fire ceased.

  Harry came back on the comms. ‘Not sure what that was all about. Seemed rather pointless. We have conversations occurring between Rick and the three Orbitals. Only one is prepared to surrender. The ground facilities have also joined in the conversations. The pacifist segments are evacuating into the surrounding jungles. Those who want to fight are moving into defence-hardened positions, not that that would make the least bit of difference to Rick and his firepower. If all else fails, he will just fuse the earth for kilometres around and hundreds of metres deep. Hell, if he really wanted to, he could probably punch a hole, kilometres deep, that would stay molten for months.’

  In the cockpit with Marko, the upper camera segments of Jim had plugged themselves in, while the lower power systems and antigravity generators were stored in one of the small cargo bays on Sledgehammer’s side. Glint poked his head around the corner with the cheerful little face of Spike also looking at Marko.

  Glint laughed. ‘We have a stowaway, Marko.’

  Marko laughed too, and stretched out his hand, onto which Spike hopped then scuttled up his arm to perch on his shoulder.

  ‘Could not resist the opportunity of some excitement, eh, Spike?’

  ‘No, Marko, I could not. I helped wire Jim in and then I had nothing else to do so decided to stay. I hope you do not mind?’

  ‘Not at all. But what about when
we are away from Patrick? Won’t your sentience suffer?’

  ‘Glint and Patrick and I talked about that,’ Spike replied. ‘Patrick transferred packets of myself over to the computer here on Sledgehammer, plus Glint and I loaded additional hardware into Jim, and he does not mind either. The computers that he had as part of his systems were removed and replaced by Fritz with much better ones, so the Games Board cannot control him either. We work well as a team, don’t we?’

  Marko felt a great love for his created friends. ‘Yes. Yes, you guys do. I am proud of each of you.’

  Glint spoke with regret. ‘I am sorry about Tux, Marko.’

  Marko felt a sadness. ‘Yeah, me too, it is an extremely good suit but will remain sub-AI, I’m afraid. Stephine and Veg don’t know why he failed and no one can find a fix.’

  Marko brought up the feeds of the surrounding planetary systems. The cloud-covered moon below them orbited inside a spectacular, heavily banded ring system around a deep orange-coloured gas giant, which featured dozens of storms in its upper atmosphere. The other planets were also interesting, including two almost-Earth types which orbited the local sun on opposite sides.

  Looking through the astronomical data, Marko could see that they were a long way from the Sphere and closer to the Blue Snowball Nebula. He thought it was little wonder, then, that it had taken Rick so long to get to the system, and fervently hoped that the Haulers who had brought the Infant colonists to the moon were the ones destroyed in the latest clean-outs.

  He had a sudden thought. ‘Hell, Veg, if this colony is so far off the beaten track, I wonder how many others there are?’

  ‘Good question, Marko. Short answer, no one knows, or if they do, they are keeping quiet. Looks like we are moving closer in.’

  Looking at his data feeds, Marko could see the segment of Rick that they were still attached to was descending to a lower orbit, as the other segment moved to cover them. Looking across at the covering segment, he watched as enormous solar panels deployed, giving the look of a huge butterfly, or ancient sailing ship. He switched feeds to look at their segment and saw the same configuration. He also saw the huge particle-beam generators slowly coming online and as each part of the thousands of solar panels aligned themselves to the local sun, he could only imagine the enormous destructive energy they represented.

  ‘So this is what was hunting us?’ Marko said. ‘Poor Basalt would not have stood a microsecond of a chance.’

  Harry growled back. ‘Shut it, Marko.’

  Marko was deeply intrigued by Harry’s reaction, but only said, ‘Yeah, sorry, Harry, just commenting.’

  Harry growled again. ‘Keep it to yourself, OK? Everything you say is still being recorded.’

  Using his crew comms, Marko sent a mental shrug to the crew on board Blackjack. Jasmine responded with a personal message. ‘Don’t stress, Marko. Harry is still coming to terms with the idea that his mentor and friend would kill even him when under orders.’

  Marko agreed. ‘Tough call, Jasmine.’

  She said with a mix of admiration and acknowledgment, ‘Yeah, they create us and they can destroy us as well.’

  Marko felt startled, suddenly understanding so much about Harry. ‘So Harry was once crew on a Hauler? That I did not know. He was with Rick! That explains a chunk of things.’

  Glint groaned. ‘Like I have said many times, Marko, sometimes you are not very bright.’

  ‘Thanks, Glint, I know I can rely on you to put me right.’ Marko said, only half joking.

  Veg cut through their conversation. ‘Eyes on the job, people, tactical is coming up.’

  Everyone looked at their screens as the results from Rick’s recon drones started to come online. The drones were flying below thick cloud cover, through low hills, identifying various groups, assigning identities to each, and mapping the deep sheer-sided ravines where the Avians had their colonies in the cliff tops. Above the ravines on the surrounding flatfish land, they could see the areas of human habitation surrounded by cultivated fields, with the native predominately fungal forests pushed back.

  They then saw the first group of Avians with their belongings waiting at an airfield south of the human habitation.

  Lilly spoke first. ‘This looks like a place ripe for so many things to go horribly wrong. The desperation of sentient beings wanting to be the authors of their own future. I wonder what is going through their minds, knowing that not that long ago they were simple birds lacking in complex thinking.’

  ‘I agree, Lilly: I don’t like this one little bit. And don’t forget they will know that they were created as weapons against people they have no actual knowledge of. What do you think that we should do, Stephine?’

  After a long pause, a serious-sounding Stephine said, ‘Come up with some alternative plans, Veg. Remember that we are here as a punishment as far as the Administration is concerned. It is designed for us to look bad. Damn, it is happening already!’

  One of the feeds showed the group of the refugee Avians being killed by missile strikes originating from the Gjomvik Corporation stations. The airbursts obliterated great numbers of them; the few survivors, after taking flight, were struck from the sky by something also coming from the Gjomvik station. A fraction of a second later the facility was hit by a giant particle-beam strike from Rick which vaporised the entire complex in seconds, resulting in a great explosion of superheated material. Marko thought that it would have felt like a nuke going off, although he did note that other groups of refugees, many kilometres away and within range of other stations, were left alone. He allowed himself to speed up.

  ‘Blackjack. How do you think that Stephine will cope with this if it turns out to be another bloodbath?’

  The ship replied. ‘An interesting thought, Marko. I think that she will be all right, strangely enough. I have wondered about her since her return. It is as if she has had a tiny amount of her essence removed. It did surprise me that she was unable to rebuild Tux to his former self, for instance. In making her more stable they have taken some part of that mercurial mix that is Stephine. Yes, she will be fine. To be blunt, Marko, we are a little concerned how you will take it, as you have become a more empathetic entity.’

  Marko nodded slowly to himself, wondering the same. ‘Well, you will just have to look after me, eh.’

  He slowed back down to listen to Veg. ‘Seems that an impasse of sorts has been reached. We are allowed to take those Avians who want to leave, as long as we do not take any technology Nuts! They are the technology. Then once they are away, we will negotiate a settlement with the Gjomvik Corporations. Yeah, like that is going to happen. Rick is sending down a special lander which will be sealed totally, then transported to a destination that no one is being told of in a long-range interstellar transporter created especially for the job.’ He paused for a second before continuing. ‘Seems that there are not that many of them who want to go anyway, so we are to escort the one lander that Rick is sending. OK, you know the protocols. The bird creatures themselves are the only things carrying the viruses and toxins, so as long as you don’t come in actual contact with them you will be fine. I know that we have had plenty of boosters to our biomed units, but be safe anyway. I am uploading what we now know about the life forms on the planet itself in case any of us gets clipped.’

  *

  Two

  Basalt dropped away from Rick as a lander of almost the same size as the frigate moved ahead of them. The bay that held Blackjack and the Games Board lander sealed itself, and moments later the hull doors opened as both craft were moved into drop position on their platforms. Minutes later they lifted above the retracting platforms, with Stephine flying Blackjack until it took up a position above the large lander. Marko looked over his shoulder to see two Skuas piloted by Minh Pham and Julie still docked onto the side of Basalt with the salvage craft, squatting like a giant insect, also hard docked, clinging onto Basalt’s upper portion. They all dropped straight down towards the heavy cloud cover with each powering u
p their antigravity to drop into the half Earth-standard-gravity-well at a stately two hundred kilometres per hour. Once they were well into the thick atmosphere Stephine ordered the Hangers to deploy and hold station at five hundred metres apart.

  Marko watched as the Hanger sensed true atmosphere and its wings folded out from the fuselage to aid lift, while the ring manoeuvring unit also expanded, creating an annular wing with the individual manoeuvring thrusters also streamlining themselves.

  They could see nothing but clouds, so they switched to their imaging, which showed the rolling hills and deep ravines where the fungal trees reached a hundred metres tall, interlocked with millions of symbiotic fungal plants and the odd rare leafed plant as well. Eventually, they dropped through the cloud cover and transited into level flight with the three Hangers leading, then Blackjack, then the lander, with the Games Board craft off to its port side, and then Basalt riding shotgun over them all.

  Marko, as the lead aircraft, flew over the first landing site, pulling a hard right-hand climbing turn, followed by Lilly and Jasmine, providing top cover as Blackjack orbited left at a lower altitude. Rick’s lander slowed, then touched down, floating just above the ground. Within a few moments the refugees, carrying their few belongings, trooped on board. The lander lifted off and every ship moved to the next pick-up point. The procedure happened a dozen more times throughout the long day, as they followed the rotation of the moon in relation to the sunlight, until every Avian who wanted to leave was accounted for and every member of Basalt was bored with the repetition. They finally started the climb up into the atmosphere, with Marko coming in for his fifth refuelling dock with Basalt.

  ‘Might as well stay where you are, Marko. All small craft, dock please. We are going straight up to RV with the refugee carrier.’

  Marko saw his tanks being rapidly refilled as he reached across to open the last of his drinks and grab a bite of a fruit bar.

  Just then, Harry yelled a warning. ‘Missile launch. Target is the lander!’