by Neil Hunter
She needed his strength. His resolve.
Most of all she needed him to hold her.
His image danced before her eyes as she lay in her lonely bunk, the future before her highly precarious, and the past the only certain thing.
The days passed with mind-numbing slowness until her cell door slid open and the droid stood there.
‘Come with me, Miss Bannion,’ the amber-eyed android said.
‘Why?’
‘We will be docking at the Lexus facility, Orbit Platform-12 in the next few minutes. I have been asked to escort you to the airlock. I hope your trip has been satisfactory.’
Kate bit back any reply. She couldn’t blame the android. It was only a machine carrying out the program fed into its memory chips.
She followed the chro-metal droid through the endless companionways, down through the various deck levels until they reached the main airlock. Just as they reached it, Kate felt a slight nudge as the freighter locked on to the magnetic buffers of the docking bay. A deep, echoing thump rang through the hull as the docking bay’s transit tunnel secured itself over the airlock. The hum of the electro-clamps releasing was followed by the soft hiss of air. Then the airlock began to open.
Kate looked around and found the android had gone. For a moment elation flowed through her, but hard fingers clamped over her arm. Kate turned and looked into the face of a stranger.
‘Let’s go,’ the man said. He urged her forward. ‘Shuttle's waiting to take you down. Don’t play games with me. If I have to I’ll kill you on the spot.’
Kate didn’t doubt his word. She noticed that he wore a handgun under his leather jacket.
As they walked through the tunnel and into the brightness of the transit lounge, he grinned at her.
‘I enjoyed the showers best before you figured out what was happening. Used to be the crew’s daily highlight. Pity you caught on. You didn’t give such a lively show once you knew you were bein’ watched.’
‘Nice to know somebody had an entertaining trip,’ Kate replied.
The man kept grinning. ‘You keep up that feisty spirit. Be useful where you’re goin’, honey. Believe me, it really will.’
Kate wondered what he meant. The words puzzled her, and she was still debating their meaning when the shuttle from Platform-12 made touchdown at the main landing strip on Lexus-9.
Chapter Fifteen
Cade and Janek had joined Bronson in the officer’s club at the Marine Space Corps’ facility on Platform-12. They had a couple of hours to kill while the shuttle they had hired was readied for them. The Nui Vu was docked and undergoing a thorough service check, which meant that Bronson and his crew were off duty for a while. The Marine Major’s first request was for Cade and Janek to join him for a celebratory drink.
The Texan grinned, raising his glass of Southern Comfort. ‘We did it, guys. We cut over two days off the record. Now you tell me the Nui Vu isn’t a great ship.’
‘I was wrong to doubt you, Bronson,’ Cade admitted. ‘That was one hell of a trip.’
‘Tell the truth, boys, I’ve been waiting for an excuse to push those engines to the limit.’
Bronson was still grinning as he downed his glass and immediately refilled it.
‘Will it cause any lasting damage?’ Janek asked.
‘To the ship or my career?’ Bronson asked, peering across the rim of his glass at Janek. ‘Hell, even Marine Majors have to bend the rules once in a while. Anyhow, she was in a good cause.’
‘The arrest of Randolph Boon’s accomplices?’ Janek said.
‘No, dammit, to save a lady’s honor,’ Bronson told him. ‘T.J., it doesn’t take the brains of a mule to see this partner of yours wasn’t built in the state of Texas.’
‘To tell the truth,’ Cade said, ‘I’m convinced he popped out of the toaster one day.’
Chuckling softly, Bronson stared at the cyborg. ‘Why, he’s a solemn old boy, isn’t he, T.J.? Pity they didn’t design him so he could down a shot of this here golden nectar. Now, that would loosen up his joints.’
Janek watched his two human companions, and a grunt of disapproval passed his lips. ‘If you two carry on the way you are, loose won’t be the word,’ he said sternly.
‘Watch out, T.J., the party pooper’s on to us.’
‘Having Janek around is like hauling your conscience behind you.’
‘In your case it’s a waste of effort,’ Janek said. ‘I’ll go take a look and see if the shuttle’s ready.’
Then he got up and left the bar.
‘We haven’t offended him?’ Bronson asked.
‘Janek? No way. He’s a hardass,’ Cade said, but at the back of his mind he couldn’t shrug off the odd look he’d seen in his partner’s eyes.
Janek was his old self when Cade and Bronson joined him later at the shuttle bay. Janek pointed out the ship they would be using. It was a standard shuttle, thirty feet long, and ugly. The shuttle’s outer shell was scarred and filthy. Its appearance took away all the romance about space travel. The shuttle’s sole purpose was to ferry people down from the orbit platform to the asteroids, in this instance Lexus-9. The trip would take just over an hour.
Bronson handed Cade a lightweight pack. Inside was the Marine-issue transmitter that Cade could use to summon Bronson’s assistance when he needed it.
‘Once you get the goods on our boys, you hit that panic button and we’ll get to you fast,’ Bronson said. ‘After you blast off, I’m moving a squad into orbit above Lexus-9. The minute we catch your signal, we can be down in under half an hour. Make sure you carry those miniature tracking devices at all times. Once you activate them, we can home in.’
Bronson followed them to the transit tunnel belonging to the shuttle-rental company and wished them good luck.
Janek had the paperwork all signed.
He’d paid the rental fee with a credit card issued by the Justice Department, which identified the two of them as equipment salesmen. Both Cade and Janek carried paperwork to that effect. The company they were supposed to represent was entirely fictitious but was covered by a Justice Department setup on Earth.
Once they were on board the shuttle, Janek took over the controls. His memory store fed him the information he required to handle the craft, and he eased away from the docking bay as though he’d been piloting shuttles all his life.
Cade checked out the pack Bronson had given him. The transmitter, complete with a long-life power pack, was compact and sturdy. If the power pack failed, the transmitter had a backup solar-energy absorber. In fact the absorber reacted to any form of light. It would draw power from an artificial light source. The tracking devices were coin-sized disks with a wide-ranging signal and had enough power to transmit for at least fifty hours.
‘Here,’ Cade said, handing over one of the devices. ‘And don’t lose it.’
‘I won’t.’ Janek took the tracker and slipped it into his pocket.
‘You okay?’ Cade.
‘Fine, T.J.,’ Janek replied, though he failed to convince his partner.
‘Spit it out, Janek,’ Cade said. ‘You don’t fool me. Something’s bugging you. Come on, partner. Like you always tell me, don’t hide your feelings.’
‘But I’m only a machine, T.J. A cyborg. Machines don’t have feelings. Do they?’
Cade dropped into the copilot’s seat.
He watched as Janek did a thorough instrument check, then punched in the course for Lexus-9.
‘I thought we knew each other better than that. You’re my partner. I don’t go around consciously thinking about the fact that you’re a cybo.’
‘You bawl me out when you get angry.’
‘So? Do you think it would be different if you were human? Any partnership is based on a mix of emotions. It’s like Kate and me. You’ve heard us row. Everyone has a different personality, and at times those differences clash. So people strike out verbally. It gets the frustration out of the system. It doesn’t mean one person hates the other. It�
�s part of the relationship. It’s ongoing, Janek. It isn’t something static. Emotions like love and understanding and tolerance develop with time.’
‘It gets confusing for me sometimes, T.J.’
Cade grinned. ‘You and me both. We all have that problem,’
‘But I’m programmed to approach things logically. Emotion doesn’t come into it.’ Janek hesitated. ‘Only I’ve been experiencing feelings lately, T.J., and I don’t understand them.’
‘You remember Dr. Landers at Cybo Tech? I had the same conversation with her. Janek, I think what you’re experiencing is an expansion of your intelligence toward human emotions. It’s a natural progression of your programming development. You were created to simulate human behavior so you could function within society. Okay, you’ve gone one step further. Instead of just analyzing your reactions, you are automatically responding. Because you actually feel those emotions.’
Janek turned to look directly at Cade.
‘You know what you’re saying, don’t you? There are people who wouldn’t take kindly to a cyborg with humanlike emotions.’
Cade shrugged. ‘So we don’t tell anyone. We keep it between ourselves.’
‘You’d do that for me? Conceal it?’
‘Like I said, Janek, we’re partners. And partners look out for each other.’
‘Yes,’ Janek said softly.
‘Mind, I still get to call you names if you piss me off.’
This time Janek smiled. ‘I understand, T.J, Only promise me one thing. If we have a big argument, don’t ever do what you do when you and Kate make up.’
‘You can bet your tin ass on that, partner.’
Lexus-9 lay below them. Janek had the shuttle in orbit above the dark, bleak surface of the asteroid. He had locked on to the landing marker and was punching in the autopilot codes.
There were a number of spacecraft already in the area. Huge ore freighters, their massive bulk overshadowing the tiny shuttle, slid silently by. There were smaller craft, other shuttles, fuel freighters and service ships belonging to numerous companies and supplying goods and services to the asteroid’s business and pleasure facilities. There were even a number of sleek, privately owned cruisers.
‘Shuttle 204,’ came the voice of the controller from the landing complex. ‘Your landing coordinates have been cleared and logged in. Permission to break orbit. And have a good flight in.’
‘Confirmed,’ Janek answered. ‘Better strap in, T.J.’
The shuttle automatically made a short burn, altering its position, then fired its motor again to give it the needed thrust.
Cade and Janek, strapped into their couches, were able to view the asteroid’s approach as the shuttle curved in toward the surface.
‘Let’s hope the communication blanket worked,’ Cade said. ‘If it hasn’t, we’ll be walking right into Boon’s hired guns.’
Janek tapped his titanium body through his clothing. ‘Yes, sometimes I’m glad to be a cyborg,’ he said. ‘Did you forget to bring your body armor, T.J.?’
‘You know how to stretch a friendship,’ Cade said.
Panel readouts flashed as the shuttle’s on-board computer began to monitor their progress. The vid-screens rippled with figures and course patterns. The hum and click of the machinery filled the cabin.
Cade felt the sudden increase in weight as the retro-ports blew, slowing the shuttle’s descent. The craft arced, rolling slightly as it settled to its final approach.
Through the shuttle’s viewport Cade saw the landing site. It was a huge complex, capable of handling the largest freighter belonging to Lexus. The complex had been designed in the form of a huge wheel, with the control-and-passenger terminal situated within the central hub. The spokes of the wheel were the landing bays, each with its own docking facility.
The shuttle sank toward the landing bay it had been allocated, linked by computer to the dock. Guided in by the programmed machine, the shuttle nosed along the spoke of the bay until it came to rest. The craft settled with a hiss of hydraulic rams. Immediately the dock pushed out the transit tunnel, making an airtight seal and automatically releasing the electro-clamps on the shuttle’s airlock.
‘Docking completed. Passengers may disembark,’ control informed them.
Cade and Janek left the shuttle and walked down the transit tunnel. They emerged in the passenger terminal and made their way to the shuttle-rental counter where Janek completed the paperwork.
‘I hope you will use us on your return trip,’ the android clerk said blandly.
‘No personality to those Model 15s,’ Janek muttered as he rejoined Cade.
They wandered across the brightly lit terminal building. The place was wide and roomy. It had two tiers of shopping and restaurant galleries. The curved top was transparent. The ground level dealt with the mundane business of embarking and disembarking passengers. There were vid-phone facilities and information booths.
Cade and Janek located the access to the subway link. An automatic dispenser took their money and issued them tickets.
‘It’s like being back in New York,’ Cade grumbled, shouldering his personal hold-all and pushing through the barrier.
‘Hardly,’ Janek observed as they reached the platform. ‘No graffiti, T.J.’
The sleek train slid into the station minutes later. Cade found a seat, but Janek wandered through the car, staring at the advertising posters and watching the TV monitors mounted in each section. They pumped out an endless display of ads and video programs.
‘Same old junk,’ he said, settling beside Cade. ‘That cop show has been running in New York for the past three seasons.’
‘You can always depend on TV to keep everything the same.’
Fifteen minutes later the train stopped at Lexus Central. Cade followed the arrows and took the escalators to the main concourse, with Janek trailing behind him.
The cyborg’s eyes were everywhere, taking in his new surroundings.
Lexus City was made up of a series of huge domes linked by sealed tunnels and underground passages. Although Lexus had claimed the asteroid as its own with regard to the mineral rights, Washington Central was still the administrator, and the asteroid remained under federal jurisdiction. It had been decided to bring the asteroids under Washington’s control after the early, bloody wars between the emerging mining consortiums. A situation had developed that closely resembled the days of the range wars on Earth back in the 1800s, with greedy individuals attempting to gain control of the rich asteroids. Cade had been in the thick of the troubles during his hitch with the Marine Space Corps, and Lexus had been one of the worst hot spots.
Things had changed for the better while he’d been away. Lexus City had developed into an established community that resembled an Earth city, apart from its being housed beneath a series of vast, transparent domes.
‘We’ll find a hotel and get ourselves settled,’ Cade said. ‘Then we start.’
Chapter Sixteen
There were four major domes making up the greater part of Lexus City. In these were the financial, administrative and white-collar residential areas. Included in the largest dome were hotels and up-scale leisure shopping malls. Lexus City was looking to the future as interest in deep-space pleasure cruising grew. Six smaller domes comprised the outer zone, catering to the housing-and-entertainment needs of the mine workers. Two of the domes housed industrial units and storage facilities. Beyond Six Domes, as the workers’ area had been named, stood the towering block of the nuclear reactor that provided power for the asteroid. The reactor fed the city and also the sprawling mine complex of Lexus-9 farther to the north.
Cade and Janek hired a car to take them the ten miles from their hotel to Six Domes. The sleek vehicle, powered by electricity, took them through the access tunnels, some of which were underground, while other sections were located above the surface of the asteroid. They could have gone by subway, but Cade liked the idea of being independent when it came to moving about. It was also easier to
transport the transmitter by car.
The closer they got to Six Domes, the more certain Cade became that they were doing the right thing. The Darksider problem was linked with the actual production side of Lexus-9, so it was within the mine complex that they would need to concentrate their probe.
They reached Six Domes close to nine, evening time. The asteroid operated on a schedule based on Earth time in order to balance the artificial light required at all times. Adjustments were made to imitate dawn and dusk.
Checking the computer readout on the car’s vid-screen, Janek was able to bring them into the industrial area, close to the access roads that led into the actual mine complex. He swung into the parking lot of a deserted diner and cut the power.
‘Plan of action?’ he asked.
‘I don’t see any other way than going in and forcing their hand,’ Cade said. ‘Asking polite questions isn’t going to get us a damn thing. These people are running an illegal operation. We can’t afford to give them any chance to get rid of the evidence. Agreed?’
Janek nodded. ‘On this particular occasion, I’m inclined to go with you. Can I mention something?’
‘Go ahead,’ Cade said. He was unzipping the hold all he’d brought with him. From it he produced the stripped-down SPAS he’d lugged with him from New York.
‘We have two objectives. The locating and release of the Darksiders. And finding Kate.’
‘I know,’ Cade said in a tight voice. ‘I feel torn, tugged in two directions. But Kate is a victim here...a victim who is being punished because she wanted to help others. So who counts more, this single person I love, or a hundred others?’
‘You are getting yourself stuck in an emotional quandary,’ Janek told him. ‘And there's no need to make the kind of choice you are considering, not while we are both around?
‘What are you suggesting?’
‘We separate. One goes into the mine complex and handles the Darksiders. The other returns to Lexus City and looks for Kate.’