The Age of Scorpio

by Gavin Smith

  ‘No way! Fuck that! I am not getting involved in any Church shit! You can take my contract and use it to sodomise yourself for all I care.’

  ‘Are we working for the Church?’ Brett asked more reasonably.

  ‘I don’t know, not as far as I know,’ Eldon said, as confused and frightened as the rest.

  ‘If this is to do with bridge drives then more likely it’s a Consortium bid to break the Church’s monopoly on their manufacture,’ Nulty said.

  ‘You fucking moron!’ Melia screamed at Eldon.

  ‘I didn’t know,’ he said defensively. ‘We’re jumping to conclusions.’

  ‘But that doesn’t make any sense,’ Brett said. ‘I mean, why us? After all we’re a bit . . .’

  ‘Crap?’ Melia suggested.

  ‘Rough and ready, I was going to say.’

  ‘Deniability and expendability,’ Nulty answered.

  Melia turned on Eldon. ‘That’s it. Contract’s null and void. Get us out of here.’

  ‘But, Baby Doll—’

  ‘Don’t Baby Doll me, you repellent, cockless fucktard. Get us out of here before a Church cruiser turns up, kills us, destroys our backup and murders everyone we ever met. I may be the cheapest clone possible of the original, but I have no wish to wake up in one of their immersion interrogations!’

  Eldon seemed to deflate. He’d lost his big score, through that probably the Swan and his only real pleasure in life in one brief moment. Brett’s look of sympathy wasn’t helping either. Then he realised that Eden had been uncharacteristically quiet throughout Melia’s outburst.

  ‘Are you still listening to that noise?’ he asked. Brett turned to look at Eden. Melia did as well, an expression bordering on horror across her feline features.

  Eden just shrugged.

  ‘Shut it off, now,’ Eldon said. Eden did so.

  ‘There’s another signal,’ Eden said. She tried to share the second signal. She found that the others weren’t so swift to interface with her.

  ‘You’ll want to hear this.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Nulty said over the interface. The others relented. This message was much weaker, broken. ‘What the fuck is this? A radio wave?’ he mused to himself.

  ‘What’s a radio wave?’ Brett asked. Nulty ignored him.

  The language was unknown but sounded like one of the uplifted races, probably human. Eldon started to ask if it was live but stopped as it repeated itself. It was some kind of recording. His neunonics searched for a translation program but came up with nothing despite the thousands of variant uplift languages and dialects in his systems.

  ‘I’ve got it,’ Nulty said over the interface. His voice didn’t sound right. ‘It’s a mayday signal in human common.’

  ‘Bullshit,’ Eldon started.

  ‘From before the Loss.’ The four of them on the bridge just stared at each other. Eldon was the first to smile. He looked over to Melia to see the cash signs mirrored in her eyes.

  Nulty lived for extravehicular activity but he still wasn’t loving Red Space. Space should be really big. Somehow the strange gaseous-like nature of his surrounding environment seemed to be bearing down on him, making him feel claustrophobic. The living smoke effect of Red Space that he was used to was so much thicker here than on the normal Church-approved routes.

  ‘You got it?’ Eldon asked as Nulty scuttled over one of the detachable boosters, sending a diagnostic check as he did so. He’d sent some of the vacuum drones out but didn’t want to let them get too far from the drifting tug as he wasn’t happy with the ’face connection.

  He reached the final spotlight and snaking tool limbs rapidly began repairing the ‘non-essential system’, as Eldon had called it when Nulty had suggested repairing it the last time they were docked at Arclight. He jury-rigged it and then stressed the repair by increasing the power output. The billowing red clouds were so thick here that the sensors were now next to useless, too much interference. It had rapidly come down to just what they could see with the optics.

  They were letting the bridge drive pull them to wherever it was apparently going. Melia was running complex intelligent navigation programs that they hoped would be able to take them back to their initial position, or close to it, because they had no idea where they would end up with even a small amount of movement in Red Space.

  The spotlight’s beam stabbed out into the living smoke with enough power to put some laser weapons to shame, illuminating swirling eddies in the red gases.

  It appeared through the smoke like some primal leviathan.

  They weren’t used to Nulty screaming. He just didn’t emote that much.

  ‘Turn on the engines! We’re going to hit it!’

  Eldon and Brett reacted with a thought. It was a simple matter to swing the engine arms around to point subjectively forward and trigger the engines, halting and then quickly reversing the gentle forward momentum of whatever had been attracting the bridge drive.

  Eldon was about to reproach Nulty for his overreaction, but Nulty chose that moment to trigger the rest of the spots and bring them to bear. Eldon saw just how close they had got to the other ship – thing – whatever it was.

  ‘How did we miss that?’ Eldon asked in awe. It was at least the size of a capital ship. He was pretty sure he’d seen smaller habitats.

  ‘Even now it’s barely there,’ Eden told him. She was just staring at it through the transparent smart-matter hull. All of them were using the ship’s sensors and feeds from the drone, Nulty and the external optics to get a more complete picture in their minds via their neunonic interfaces.

  It was massive, dwarfing the Black Swan. The smoky Red Space seemed to stick to it somehow, helping to conceal it.

  ‘That’s not right,’ Melia said.

  Eldon and Brett worked in conjunction to manoeuvre the Swan, tilting it subjectively downwards so they could get a better look at their find as they travelled down the length of it.

  ‘Can you clean up the resolution on the lenses?’ Eldon asked Nulty. ‘I think the gas is messing it up.’

  ‘No, you’re seeing what I’m seeing,’ Nulty said.

  The hull of the ship, if that’s what it was, seemed to be made out of some kind of thick heavy-duty material which looked like the rubbery flesh of some sort of abyssal sea creature. It was so large that it was difficult to get an idea of its shape but it seemed aerodynamic enough for atmospheric operations. What he could see of the shape reminded Eldon of marine life, or maybe a seed pod. Then he saw the hull of the ship move. Like it was breathing. Melia, noticing this through one of the drones’ optics feeds, let out a little gasp.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ the feline said.

  ‘Can’t you say anything else?’ Eden demanded. ‘Very little heat bleed. If its internal systems are working then they are very efficient – fuck all is penetrating its hull. Also getting some very strange energy readings from it, in weird spectrums. Like it’s generating a field of some kind.’

  ‘Be more specific,’ Eldon snapped.

  ‘Can’t,’ Eden said, sharing her readings with the rest of the crew.

  ‘It’s a Naga spore ship,’ Melia said.

  ‘There’s no such thing as Naga,’ Eden scoffed. Melia looked like she was about to argue.

  ‘You know what it looks like, don’t you?’ Brett asked. ‘A colonial carrier.’ Eldon started laughing; he liked it when Brett said something stupid.

  ‘Except they were made of metal. We’ve all been in one: they’re museums and churches now.’

  ‘Actually I grew up on habitats,’ Brett said. Eldon rolled his eyes as if that explained everything. ‘But I’ve seen pictures, and if they had been made of some kind of flesh then that’s what they’d look like.’

  ‘He’s got a point, boss,’ Nulty said over the interface. ‘Knew this guy once who claimed that all the museums and the churches that we supposed were in the hull of old colony carriers were actually fakes. ‘Course he also said he used to be one of the Lords of th
e Monarchist systems.’

  ‘Nulty, what do you make of the composition of the hull?’ Eden asked. She knew but she didn’t want to be the one who said it.

  ‘That hull’s alive,’ Nulty said, the first to give words to what they’d all been thinking. ‘That’s Seeder biotech, that is.’

  On the bridge the four of them glanced at each other. They knew that managed correctly this could be worth a fortune, if they could hold on to their claim. The Seeders were the semi-mythical progenitor species of the uplifted races as well as the inspiration of worship for the Church. Most of the uplifted races having long abandoned the idea of actual supernatural gods.

  ‘Why’s it speaking monkey if it’s Seeder tech?’ Melia asked before remembering everyone else on the Swan was either human or started off that way. Brett looked at her reproachfully. Eden just glared.

  ‘I don’t know. I’m not getting anything through the hull. Eden?’ Nulty said.

  Eden went through the sensor suite, but a combination of the Red Space environment and the craft/thing’s hull/skin was blocking even the harshest of active scans.

  Something occurred to Brett. ‘Was this the area where the glitch was coming from?’ he asked Eldon.

  Eldon considered this. ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘So what? We tow this to the rendezvous and get paid?’ Melia asked, undisguised greed in her voice. She was not very interested in sensor glitches. Eldon seemed reluctant to answer the question.

  ‘What?’ Melia demanded.

  ‘We need to go on board,’ Eldon said. Melia looked at him like he was insane. Brett was nodding eagerly.

  ‘Fuck that!’ Melia said.

  Eden was irritated to find herself forced to agree with Melia. ‘Go inside what? We don’t even know if it’s a ship! It could be a fucking animal for all we know, and I don’t want to get swallowed. If it is a ship, the environment might be completely inimical to human life.’

  Melia was nodding in agreement.

  ‘Then why’s it broadcasting in human common?’ Eldon asked.

  ‘I don’t know, a caught transmission? A lure?’

  ‘How dangerous can they be if they’re transmitting a mayday?’ Brett asked. Eden just looked at him as if he was a moron.

  ‘He’s right,’ Nulty said. ‘We want to salvage this, we have to check to see if it has crew.’

  ‘The crew of that thing can’t be subject to Consortium salvage laws,’ Eden said, getting more heated. ‘If that’s Seeder tech, what if the whole thing is filled with servitors? Have you thought about that?’ They gave a shiver. All of them had seen the wedge-headed, multi-limbed, armoured carapace effigies of the last living remnants of Seeder biotech, crucified on the X-shaped crosses in churches.

  ‘Then we can’t take it back into Known Space,’ Nulty said.

  ‘Look, this is a big fucking score—’ Eldon started.

  ‘Yeah, for you. Even with a bonus it’s not worth the risk for the rest of us,’ Eden said. Eldon was less than pleased to see Melia nodding in agreement.

  ‘But, Baby Doll, you’ll get to share in my fortune,’ Eldon pleaded.

  ‘Uh uh, not this time. I want an equal share. When I agreed to our little arrangement you misled me into thinking that you were a ship’s captain . . .’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘No, you’re owner of a piece of shit. I want an equal share.’

  ‘Equal share? Are you actually going to do something or just hide in your cryo-pod until it’s over?’ Eden asked.

  Melia turned to glare at the more masculine, scaled woman. ‘I’ll do my bit,’ she answered haughtily. Eden just raised an eyebrow.

  ‘Look. I am the captain, and you will fucking do as you’re told or you’ll be out that airlock for mutiny!’ Eldon screamed at them, visions of his fortune slipping away. Melia, Eden and Brett just looked at him sceptically.

  ‘And how do you intend to enforce that?’ Eden asked. Eldon turned to look pleadingly at Melia. He couldn’t believe she’d turned on him after he’d treated her so well.

  ‘Oh, grow up,’ the feline snapped.

  ‘I think it’s time to negotiate, boss,’ Nulty said.

  ‘This is mutiny,’ Eldon said weakly. The rest of them ignored him. ‘We don’t even know how to get in.’

  Eldon had finally admitted how much his mysterious contact was paying him after Eden held him upside down and Melia threatened to torture him. To make matters worse, Brett had had to intervene on Eldon’s behalf, further adding to the humiliation.

  Brett was piloting the Swan steadily nearer to the craft/thing, trying to get close enough for their active scans to work, when it happened. During a very slow pass, something seemed to grow out of the craft. It looked like a tunnel made of the hull’s rubbery flesh.

  ‘What is it?’ Melia asked. There was something obscene about it, Melia decided, and it wasn’t as if she had terribly delicate sensibilities. ‘Some kind of defence system?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Nulty communicated over the interface. ‘I think it’s a docking arm?’

  Brett swung the engine arms around to bring the Swan to a halt. The tunnel seemed to be swaying in the cloudy Red Space in front of them.

  ‘You’re going to let that touch the Swan?’ Eden asked doubtfully, looking over at Eldon. Eldon was crouched in the corner, sulking. He had been trying to work out how get the money for the ship/thing and then burn the rest of the crew. He looked up at the sound of Eden’s voice.

  ‘Oh what? Am I captain again? Is there actual work to be done?’

  ‘Take it easy, Cap’n,’ Brett said good-naturedly.

  ‘Go and fuck yourself, muscle-head,’ Eldon muttered. Brett just laughed as if it was friendly banter.

  Eldon had seen the thing in his mind but he walked over to look through the transparent hull.

  ‘Nulty, if it goes badly do you reckon you can cut that thing?’ Eldon asked.

  ‘Er . . . yes,’ Nulty said. He did not sound very sure of himself.

  Eldon turned to Eden. ‘Sure, why not? A fifth of something is better than nothing and you gotta take risks if you want the pay-off. Besides,’ he stabbed a finger at Melia, ‘maybe then I can get rid of this bitch and get a decent concubine.’ Eldon glared at her. ‘You’re coming. None of your bullshit. I’ve got the contract. You don’t come, you don’t get paid, understand me?’ Melia looked like she was about to argue. ‘Besides, if it all goes horribly wrong I want to make sure that you die as well as me.’

  Melia hissed and made an obscene gesture.

  Brett pushed both hands into the ball of semi-solid liquid. The spacesuit started crawling up his arms, covering them and then growing down his torso. He held the visor in front of his face and the liquid suit crawled over his head to connect with it. The armoured environment bladders on the suit inflated as they took gas from the surrounding atmosphere. The suit had already connected to his neunonics and Brett adjusted the gas mix with a thought.

  He had already adjusted his nano-screen, brought it in close to his body, only leaving a little outside the suit. Whenever he did this it always made his skin crawl but he knew this was psychosomatic. A screen of nanites surrounded Brett, like everyone else in Known Space, everyone who didn’t want to quickly sicken or die and could afford it. The screen prevented him from being attacked by rogue nano-swarms, provided him with a degree of privacy and stopped him from coming down with all but the most sophisticated advertising nano-viruses. Nanite pollution was so extreme in all but the most expensive enclaves in Known Space that without a screen you would be dead within days, or at very best sporting a colourful rash advertising the latest soft drink.

  However, for cultures that did not have such a high level of nanite pollution exposure, the nano-screens themselves could be potentially harmful.

  ‘First-contact protocols?’ Brett asked. He had just realised that he’d always wanted to say that.

  Melia and Eden stopped and looked at him as if he was mad.

  ‘What
do you think happens if there’s a crew on board, arsehole?’ Eldon demanded. Brett was taken aback by the anger in his tone. Eldon was just pissed off that he had to spell this shit out to Brett. ‘We get nothing. Reining in our nano-screens is the least of our issues.’

  Brett just stared at Eldon as he lifted one foot and then the other so the spacesuit could assemble the hard-wearing soles.

  Eldon was holding the quick-release holster for his double-barrelled laser pistol to the thigh of the suit so it could bond, as Eden handed out the double-barrelled disc guns. The disc guns were basically electromagnetic shotguns. It fired solid-state cartridges of smart matter that split into multiple razor-sharp aerodynamic discs. Designed to be fired semi-automatically, the disc guns had a pump-action mechanism to help clear the inevitable jams. Like most brutal close-quarters weapons, they had been designed by one of the tribes of lizard uplifts. Eden held out one of the weapons to Brett. He eyed it through his visor for a while and then took it from her.

  ‘Just so you know,’ Eldon said, holding up a hardened biohazard container. ‘Just so you’re in just as much trouble as the rest of us if this screws up. Just so you can’t claim you had no knowledge or rat us out, this is a bucket of the most potent virals I could lay my hands on. If we get in and there’s crew, this is for them.’ Brett stared at it. He looked like he was about to object but he caught a glimpse of three hard faces watching him through darkening visors. ‘In fact, I think you should carry this.’ Eldon held the canister out. Eldon was enjoying this, starting the boy down the long road of moral compromises and disappointments that was life. He also thought he was doing the boy a favour. You want to prosper, then people are going to have to die; it was an important life lesson.

  ‘I don’t want to—’ Brett began.

  ‘Just fucking man up,’ Eden snapped at him. Brett had thought they were friends.

  Brett swallowed hard and took the canister from Eldon.

  ‘Fuck up, you get left. Don’t hold up your end, you get left. Understand?’ Eldon was starting to feel more in control again. Also, he was never going to get tired of making this kid miserable. Brett just nodded.