by Justin Sloan
Jilla held the communicator to her mouth. “Outpost Alpha. Hailing Alpha, do you read?”
It was a few moments before the response came through the speaker. “Outpost Alpha reads. Please identify yourself.”
Jilla grinned. “Harrow, is that you? Don’t tell me they still have you manning the communicator after all these years!”
There was a long pause. “Jilla?”
“You know it, you ugly bastard. How the hell are you?”
The voice coming through the speaker changed, suddenly becoming much friendlier. “I’m good! What about you? What are you doing in this neck of the void?”
“I’ll explain everything when I see you. In the meantime, think you could arrange for an airlock for us to park this ship?”
“One moment.” There was a long silence.
Kalan exchanged a glance with Bob. What were they getting themselves into here?
The voice came through the speaker again. “You can dock at Airlock Four. It’s on the northeast—”
“I know where it is, you silly bastard.” Jilla shook her head, but she wore a wide smile.
“Oh. I guess you would. We’ll see you soon.”
“One more thing, Harrow? Let Talrok know I’m on my way. I need to speak to him.”
“Roger that.”
They signed off, and Jilla leaned back in her seat and sighed contentedly. “What did I tell you? We’re all set. Let’s go to the moon.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Space: Singlaxian Grandeur
Returning to space was always an adventure, but the crew of the Grandeur was worried about what was happening back on Tol.
As far as they knew, they had just disturbed the hornets’ nest and now everyone was about to get stung.
“If it ends here,” Valerie said, glancing over at Flynn while the rest of them caught some sleep, “I want you to know it was a pleasure working together, even though I feel I hardly got to know you.”
Flynn nodded. “I like bugs.”
“Excuse me?”
“Bugs. You know, beetles, ants, cockroaches, centipedes…”
“I know what bugs are, but who the hell likes bugs?”
He laughed, then said, “I think it started when I was ten. Life was crazy out west, you know. Before connecting with the Colonel…I don’t know, I didn’t have a lot of friends. One day there was this beetle that had somehow managed to get its shell punctured, yellow goo coming out of it and all. I fixed it up, took care of that little guy, and it was like we were friends.”
“Until he broke free and stole part of your sandwich?” she asked, not meaning to mock but unable to help it.
“What about you, then? What do you like?”
She thought about that, then replied, “Honey.”
“What, like the kind you put on biscuits?”
She licked her lips, mouth watering at the idea of honey on a fresh warm biscuit. “Exactly. Think they have bees in space? Maybe we can import honey from Earth!”
Flynn laughed. “I don’t think that’s how it works. Maybe you should ask Michael next time you see him.
She scoffed. “Not likely.” For a while they kept flying, enjoying the vastness of space, but it was overwhelming so Valerie turned back to him. “Seriously, though… What got you to join up with the Colonel? I mean, you didn’t have to become a soldier, right?”
“I never had any siblings, but always wanted one. Had a friend with a sister, and once I saw him defend her against some punk kids—scavenger types.” He laughed to himself, running a hand across his jaw and thinking. “Man, I wanted him to be my friend right then. ‘Charny,’ they called him. What a stupid name, but I wanted so bad to be Charny. When I had the chance to put on the uniform, my mind instantly went back to that moment, back to my friend and his sister. What we were doing there, what we’re doing out here…it’s all part of that, right? Defending others from the scavengers, from the bullies of the universe.”
A smile crept its way onto Valerie’s face and she nodded.
“How about you?” he asked. “What brought you to…all this?”
“The moment I turned and all that? Nuh-uh.” She took a deep breath, considering how much to tell him. “It’s not that I don’t want to open up, it’s just… Some stuff I’d rather forget. But then there was this moment—not so different from yours, really—when my brother was killing a kid and—”
“Hold the front door,” he interrupted with a laugh. “You think that’s not so different from what I just said?”
“Well, there was a kid. Do you want me to tell you, or not?”
He held up his hands in surrender and bit his lip to keep from laughing. “Please, go on.”
“That was my moment,” she continued. “When I was done with them and all their bullshit. They had trained me, turned me into a vicious killing machine, and when I left I was determined to first stop my brother and then do whatever else I could for the injusticed.”
“Is that a word? ‘Injusticed?’”
“Fuck if I care,” she replied. “Hey, Michael himself made me his Justice Enforcer, so if I say it’s a word, it’s a word.”
“Works for me.” He nodded his head, thinking about it. “For the injusticed, then.”
The space station still wasn’t in view, but they could see the trajectory on the display and it wasn’t far now. Valerie was thinking she should get some shuteye too and had even said so, starting to stand, when the display went blank.
“What was…” she began, and then all the power to the ship cut off.
All, that is, but a red blinking light on the arm of her chair near a speaker.
“Reading your ship’s information, Valerie, and I’ve gotta say… Less impressive than I thought it would be.”
“Who is this?” Flynn demanded, instantly alert.
Valerie sat back down. “Flynn, allow me to introduce you to the Aranaught.”
“Call me ‘Aranaught,’” the AI replied. “Including ‘the’ before my name gives me more of a god-like quality, and honestly, that doesn’t appeal to me.”
“You don’t consider yourself a god, then?” Valerie shared a concerned look with Flynn. “That’s a relief.”
“All I’ve ever wanted was to be one of them. To belong. The Skulla with their ‘Wandrei’ and their hatred for outsiders, their inability to believe in me and my ability to help the universe…it was all too much.”
The screen fizzled back on, but instead of a display of the route there was a green and black image with lines running together to form a face. It was clear, then re-formed and stared at them like some giant wizard of space, eyes narrowed with intense hatred.
“You know what I’ve demanded—the Bandian. Until he is with you, we have nothing to discuss.”
With that the screen turned off, and the Grandeur was left to float in space.
“Did that just happen?” Robin asked, apparently having awakened. A backward glance showed they were all awake now, even the Bandian. Shutting off power to the ship must have stopped the machine from pumping him full of meds.
As they drifted away, the power kicked back on, but the meds supply came slow, apparently. The Bandian was at the back, strapped in but staring at them with wild eyes.
“It’s not right,” Palnik said, shaking his head. “If we turn him over they’ll either want to use him or punish him.”
“Punish?” Garcia asked.
“For failing them? I don’t know. What I do know is that we can’t just hand him over.”
“The plan was to get in there and use him as bait, then take them out,” Robin reminded everyone. “So why’s that changing?”
“No power to the ship,” Valerie explained. “Or there wasn’t, until we drifted out of their range. If they take away our power like that, we’re screwed. There’s nothing we can do in there unless we get feet on the station.”
“There’s got to be another way.”
Palnik cleared his threat, glancing back at the Bandia
n with uncertainty. “Thing is, the Bandian wasn’t alone in his work with the Aranaught. There was a team, but their leader would have ideas here—because he already tried once to take them down. Namely, Talrok.”
The Bandian began thrashing at that name, wincing in pain but working to get his muffled shouts out.
A glance at the screen, and Valerie got up to take off his muzzle. “Let’s be glad that AI didn’t have actual eyes on the ship or know what you look like, pretender.”
“What are you doing?” Palnik asked in horror.
“He has something to say, and I want to see what it is.”
“I can tell you exactly what he’s going to say.” Palnik rose, defiant. “He’s going to say that Talrok is crazy, that he’s hard to find, and if we do find him he’ll kill the Bandian first, then likely have a go at the rest of us.”
Valerie turned back to the Bandian, who had physically relaxed though his eyes still held that crazed look. He nodded slowly. “A crazy leader we don’t know how to find—”
“I didn’t say that, exactly,” Palnik interrupted. “Talrok is what we on our planet call ‘paranoid.’ Completely paranoid. We know he was exiled after originally trying to take down the whole AI system, then never found when others realized he might not have been wrong. I’d be willing to bet he’s sticking close to the space station, and the closest point to that is…”
He turned to the display, where Flynn pointed out a nearby moon and asked, “There?”
“Precisely.”
“Well then,” Valerie moved back to the chair and gave Flynn a nod, “looks like we have our course.”
“Can someone explain one thing to me, though?” Robin asked as they flew off. “If the AI is everywhere—this Aranaught—how does doing anything on the space station take care of it?”
“The space station is its hub,” Palnik explained. “Destroying it wouldn’t stop the AI, but if we could put a virus in the system, destroy it from the inside so that the problem is pushed out to the others… Victory.”
“And your boy Talrok can do this?”
“Let’s hope so, or we’re going to have to rethink our strategy completely. Probably just hand over the Bandian and see what happens.”
More grunts came from the secured Bandian, but the machine was doing its thing again and the former warlord’s eyes were closing.
As there were no more protests, Flynn continued to fly them toward the moon, now visible in the display, and Valerie leaned back to finally get some shuteye.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Tol’s Moon: Outpost Alpha
The hangar doors to Airlock Four of Outpost Alpha opened and Kalan gently lowered the Nim through them. As soon as he touched down, the doors above him closed and a large light on the wall turned green. Another set of doors opened, these on the wall next to them, and the hangar filled with air.
Kalan taxied the ship through the side doors and followed the directions of a male waving green flags, who pointed him to a place to park the ship.
“I don’t mean to brag,” Kalan said, “but that was a nice landing.”
Jilla nodded. “I cannot lie, that was smooth. You always did have a gentle touch.”
“Gross,” Bob muttered.
They exited the vehicle and found a contingent of ten Skulla waiting outside the ship, all but one of them armed. The unarmed male was the shortest of the group and judging by the numerous patches on his well-pressed uniform, he was the highest-ranked among them.
Jilla smiled when she saw him. “Daschle! How’ve you been, my friend?”
The Skulla looked uncomfortable at her enthusiastic greeting. “I’m doing well, ma’am. This is an unexpected visit.”
Jilla turned to Kalan. “This is Talrok’s second-in-command. He basically runs things while Talrok broods about evil robots or something.” She paused, looking around the hangar. “Speaking of Talrok, where is he?”
Daschle gave a thin, uncomfortable smile. “He sends his regrets. He’s currently quite busy with urgent business, so he sent me to make sure you were welcomed properly. And to…” His voice trailed off as he tried to find the words.
“To find out why we’re here?” Kalan asked.
Daschle thought for a moment, then nodded. “I was trying to think of a nicer way to phrase it, but yes.”
“What we want,” Jilla said, “is to see Talrok.”
The Skulla nodded. “I understand. Let’s see you to your quarters and get you refreshments, then I’ll see if I can arrange a brief discussion with Talrok.”
Bob leaned close to Kalan and whispered, “I told you things with exes could get complicated.”
Kalan shot him a look to silence him.
Jilla introduced Bob and Kalan to Daschle. She started to introduce Wearl, but Kalan gave her the briefest of headshakes and she stopped herself in time.
Kalan was glad. In his opinion it was advisable to keep their invisible ally a secret when entering new situations, even those which were supposed to be friendly.
“There is one more thing I should mention, Jilla,” Daschle said. “If you’re up for some entertainment, two new recruits arrived today. I know how much you always enjoyed watching their initial training session. Should be starting about now.”
Jilla grinned. “Oh, hell yeah. There is no way we’re missing that.”
Kalan raised an eyebrow. “Care to let us in on the secret?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
Daschle led them through a series of long, empty hallways. The place was spotless, but Kalan was surprised at the lack of advanced tech. It stood in stark contrast to the Skulla temple on Coybon, which had seamlessly blended technology with the masonry. Here, where he would have expected to see computers everywhere, there were almost none.
“Ah, here we are.” Daschle pulled open a door and motioned for them to enter. “Please stay quiet and watch the proceeding.” He looked pointedly at Jilla. “And please resist the urge to laugh.”
Jilla nodded solemnly and they entered a large auditorium-style room.
Two Skulla males in civilian clothing stood near a female in uniform in the front of the room, next to some sort of mech twice as tall as the Skulla. There were seats arranged behind a transparent blast screen, and most of them were unoccupied. Jilla motioned them toward them.
The uniformed Skulla was speaking when they entered. “I want you to keep in mind that this unit has been heavily shielded, meaning it shouldn’t be able to communicate with the Aranaught. That said, we’re not taking any chances. We’ll only power it up for a few minutes. Any longer, and we risk it deciphering a way around the shields.”
Kalan leaned toward Jilla and whispered, “Aranaught?”
She shushed him and gestured for him to watch.
“I also want to point out,” the uniformed Skulla continued, “that this unit is many generations old. There’s no way we could shield an ancient model like this. It also means this unit can be defeated, since it has no built-in firearms. A well-placed shot with your pistol can disable it, but you have to use your head. You ready to give it a try?”
The two recruits looked at each other and nodded, although it was clear to Kalan that their bravado was false. He’d seen enough guys in prison trying to act tough to hide their fear. Hell, he’d been one of those guys.
“Excellent,” the Skulla female said. She stepped behind the blast screen and took a handheld device off a seat, then pressed a button on it.
The mech’s eyes lit up and it slowly turned its head toward the recruits.
Kalan sat up a bit straighter in his chair, realizing he’d been wrong in his assumption. This wasn’t a mech. It was a robot.
“You have one minute to take the unit down,” the uniformed female told the recruits. “Your time starts now.”
The robot’s head swiveled on its shoulders as it scanned the room. Kalan assumed it was trying to analyze the situation.
One of the recruits immediately fired at the robot’s head.
Until that moment the robot’s movements had been slow and deliberate, but that all changed in an instant. Even as the shot was being fired it lowered its head to protect the equipment built into its faceplate. The shot struck the dome at the top of its head and ricocheted off to lodge in the wall.
The robot wasted no time recovering, just charged the recruit who’d fired. Moving at a speed that seemed impossible considering its bulky frame, it grabbed the recruit with a metal hand and tossed him across the room. He slammed into the blast shield and slid to the floor.
To his credit the recruit tried to get up, his weapon still in his hand, but the female in the uniform stopped him. “Uh-uh, you’re done.”
She dragged him behind the blast shield.
The second recruit warily circled the robot, looking for a point of attack. Despite what had just happened, the robot made no move against this second Skulla, just swiveled its head and followed him with its eyes wherever he moved.
“Thirty seconds left,” the female officer called.
The recruit gritted his teeth and fired his weapon. The round struck the robot square in the chest and ricocheted harmlessly off the metal.
Once again the robot moved with uncanny speed to rush the recruit, but instead of grabbing him it pulled back a massive metal fist.
The uniformed Skulla pressed a button on the device in her hand, and the robot froze. The light went out of its eyes and it became nothing more than a strange statue that looked like it was ready to punch someone.
Despite Daschle’s warnings, Jilla did not restrain herself. She howled with laughter. “Oh gods, that was pathetic!”
The uniformed female whirled toward the sound of the laughter and her gaze settled on Jilla. “You think you could do better?”
Jilla shrugged. “Probably not.” She gestured to Kalan. “But he could.”
Kalan’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?” he hissed at her.