“Well, if they can get anywhere near those systems they could help themselves a bit. That really doesn't help us much though. There's not much I can do. Any fight I put up could cost lives, I'll have to surrender myself.”
“That's your plan? Surrender yourself?” Frost said, shaking his head.
“It's worked before actually,” Stephanie put in. “When you had to get aboard the Rising Mist. It was the only way to distract the crew so we could sneak in the other way.”
“I don't think we'll get away with that this time. Instead you'll impersonate me while Frost and I hide.”
“I'm a little short, don't you think?” Stephanie said in disbelief.
“You are, but we only need to distract them long enough for me to get in position. I'll be able to act as soon as you're in trouble.” He spotted a clear patch of earth. “Frost, check the density on that area there.”
Frost scanned the section of ground he was gesturing to and gave it the thumbs up. It was dense enough to support the weight of the craft. “Where will I hide?”
The ship set down with surprising speed, it didn't entirely seem intentional however, since the rear landing gear creaked so loudly they could hear it through their vacsuits and the Captain winced. As soon as they were down he pulled his sidearm and handed it, handle first, to Stephanie. “You'll find somewhere. If things start going wrong I'll just step out of the shadows and give myself up completely. If things go well we might be able to gain the upper hand and free the crew.”
“I don't like it,” Frost said as he accepted Stephanie's rifle.
“You don't have to, you just have to stay out of the way and be ready to help turn the tide,” he replied as he took a small communications and computer module from an inside coat pocket and stuffed it into a hidden fold in his vacsuit. He did the same with a few other very small components, they virtually disappeared on his person, before handing his scarf, long coat and arm command and control unit to Stephanie. “Take care of everything until this is over.”
“Any tips on impersonating you?” Stephanie asked.
“Keep your vacsuit faceplate blacked out and the long coat closed.”
“An' walk around like you own the place,” Frost added with a smile.
She grinned as she put on his arm command unit, long coat and white silk scarf. “Don't take too long sir, I like the way this fits.”
Gabriel Meunez
Gabriel Meunez had waited years to return to the Alice project. He was once an Executive Operations Officer with the Vindyne Corporation. Given great responsibility, a better paycheck and access beyond what most could fathom. After Major Hampon had captured Jonas Valent they moved on. He was reassigned despite his protests. An officer with much more influence had requested control of the Valent project.
Collins. A former general, he was a renowned tactician and was entrusted not only with Jonas Valent's fate but with pursuing the Alice software. He decided to attempt the transfer of a fully formed artificial intelligence to a human host using the information he would gather from Jonas Valent's mind and the scant fragments of Alice left in a massive computer. The problem was Valent's mind was resistant, and the computer core had been stolen along with the last complete imprint of the Alice AI.
Gabriel found himself reassigned back to rescue, salvage and profit recovery. It was an insult. He knew Alice was in a human host. Most didn't believe him, they thought that the cybernetic implants in his brain, his eyes, his hands and elsewhere had finally driven him to the edge of human reason.
On record they made him sound half mad, machine obsessed, but to look at him, to know him as a man, there were no visible additions or changes to his body. In fact, he looked more human on the outside than anyone who used wrist computers or dermal attachments to access information and aid them in their work. His frustration was eventually replaced with a renewed resolve. He was denied access to her file, but watched for any information that could lead him to her. One of his processor nodes were always looking across the millions of interconnected networks for her.
Almost a year later he found something. A ship registered to Alice Valent. She was so far away, it would take him weeks to get there, so he began to send priority messages. Somehow she had the impression that he meant her harm, even though they had never met. The only message he ever received was; ' leave me alone!' That didn't stop him. He repeatedly sent appeals, threats, explanations of why he thought they were the perfect mated pair.
It only drove her further away until she came for Jake Valance. Under everyone's nose she and her partner, Bernice, made off with his stasis tube and disappeared. To Vindyne fleet security's utter embarrassment they could never explain the entire incident. She had not only been the first artificial intelligence to make the transfer from a digital existence to flesh and blood, she was also capable of so much more than any normal human. Breaching a high security secret Research and Development laboratory was nearly impossible. Getting out alive with one of the most important resources in the entire Company was impossible but there it was, it had been done.
He continued his search in private. Every spare moment, every extra processor clock cycle and terabyte of excess storage was dedicated to tracking her. Years passed and he was always aware of where she had been no more than two months before. She had gone so far, separated herself from her enemies so well and for a time she had many. It seemed beneath her to do what was common to most as far as occupations were concerned. Rescue missions, smuggling runs, freelance fighter piloting, even the occasional theft was performed for payment. In underground circles she was gathering a reputation for herself, in more legitimate law enforcement data bases she was earmarked as dangerous, not to be trusted and occasionally as a fugitive. He was in awe of her accomplishments.
At last count three government agencies and nine corporations had charged her with a variety of crimes and most of them gladly contributed to one bounty pot or another. The largest of which was over three million Core World Credits. Vindyne had contributed two thirds of that amount, claiming she was their property. Before they could see the day of her capture their stock crashed.
The rising expense of running a war on several fronts along with more and more frequent civil uprisings were a large part of their downfall. They had also overextended themselves and were falling out of favour with bigger corporations like Lorander. When the stock was down to a percentage of its former average he took the opportunity to purchase Jonas and Alice Valent's files along with all property associated with it. The ships he commanded were actually stolen from the weak, crumbling Vindyne Corporation. In the end he was only as good as any looter on the street but that didn't matter. He could afford to pay the crew for years to come and there was always work for a small fleet of armed capitol ships.
As soon as all the materials associated with the Valents were aboard his flagship he made for the last sector Alice had been spotted in and began tracking down her various cohorts. He used Vindyne technology to reprogram who he could with the simplest of subliminal instructions. In the end they suffered through the process of capture, but no long term harm was done. He couldn't allow that, they were almost like family if they were friends to his beloved Alice.
He watched nervously through a large control room window overlooking the main hangar. The Clever Dream was guided in by a tractor beam. He would make her welcome, treat her as she deserved to be treated and when the time came they would be closer than any mere humans could ever be.
The Clever Dream was brought down onto the deck and a team of soldiers in black Vindyne armour moved up the main gangway carefully. It was a beautiful ship, he would ensure that it was well maintained and ready for her. Someday he knew he would be able to allow her to leave and trust her to return of her own accord.
The ten soldiers disappeared into the belly of her sleek, black ship. “Captain, report. Is she inside?” Asked Meunez.
“We're in the first corridor. This thing has a lot of living space sir. She hasn'
t presented herself yet.”
“All right, I'm sending beta team in.”
“Yes sir.”
Another ten soldiers rushed up the ramp. Their rifles were slung, sidearms in their holsters as instructed. They weren't to present an immediate threat if they could help it. The last of them disappeared into the ship and Gabriel counted the milliseconds for as long as he could stand it. “Anything on thermals or motion detection?”
“No sir. Wait, I see something on thermals. Stand by.”
The gangway slammed shut. A communications officer turned to him with a worried expression. “We've lost our link to the teams sir.”
A moment later the gangway lowered slowly, at it's normal speed. “Theta team, check on alpha and beta,” Ordered Meunez.
Ten more armoured soldiers rushed up the ramp and a moment later the Captain's report came. “Dear God, they've been incinerated.”
“Get out of there!”
The gangway slammed shut once more and communications between the ship and the team dropped off.
Gabriel looked on in horror as all the weapons on the ship activated. Panels slid aside to reveal missiles and guns as though the ship itself was sneering, bearing its deadly teeth for all to see. The deck Sargent took Gabriel's arm. “We should go sir!” he shouted, pulling him out of the room.
As he was dragged away from the window he could see Alice drop out of a rear engine compartment. A slim figure in a blue vacsuit and old flight jacket armed with a rifle, a case slung across her back and a sidearm dropping out of her black nightmare of a ship.
Seconds later he was behind the door to the control room and he could hear the explosions and thunderous impacts as the main hangar bay of his flagship was decimated.
Shadows
The patch of ground was as level as you could find in the swamp hell that had been chosen for their meeting place. In the middle stood Stephanie, dressed in the Captain's coat and scarf. Her vacsuit was sealed and the faceplate was blacked out so no one could see her face.
As a severe looking craft that looked like it was made from harsh angles and a collection of various triangular sections landed, she stood stoically. Before the main gangway at the front of the thirty meter long ship came down she drew the Captain's sidearm. Four soldiers in white and grey vacsuits, completely out of place in the misty darkness, walked down the ramp.
“Drop it,” One of them commanded.
She hesitated a moment, as the Captain would, and tossed the gun between them. “Don't lose that. I'll want it back later,” she said through the voice disguiser. It sounded exactly like the Captain's voice.
They split ranks so there was enough room for her to walk up the ramp and she obliged.
Frost knew for a fact that the Captain, secure in his cloaksuit, was right behind her. As the ramp closed he dreaded what he must do next. He had been buried in the soft ground right under her feet, and with all his strength he rose up and ran to the nearest landing strut. As the ship started lifting off he stepped on and climbed up.
“I really have to talk to Captain about keeping me out of the action,” he muttered to himself. He knew why he was the one entrusted with finding a hiding place in a hurry. Stephanie didn't have the technical knowledge or experience sneaking around he did. Jake might not have known about his ship thieving past, but he did know Frost had been an excellent burglar before and after he joined the crew of the Samson.
The compartment was tight and he looked desperately for a service door or hatch, anything.
They were in the air when he finally found the service hatch. The gear started retracting and he tried to squeeze his shoulders inside. He almost made it half way but nearly became stuck. “I've got ta lose some weight, dammit. Get back in fightn' form.”
He lowered himself back down into the small undercarriage space and knowing he'd be crushed when the landing strut was fully retracted he wrapped the power cords leading to the retractor around his hand and yanked hard, disabling the mechanism that would draw the undercarriage inside. “Oh I think they'll notice that.”
Hernando Ramirez
The ship was massive, he'd only been aboard something as large when he was in the infantry. The drop ship he served on was huge, but all he really saw was the gymnasium, the berth, drop bays, disciplinary room, the showers and the head. Grunts didn't get to see much of anything else. Despite that, he wasn't quite out of his element.
He was still ducking behind corners, running through hallways, firing off at a pair of pursuers trying to gun him down. That was the most familiar thing about the situation and it was all he really needed.
It was becoming evident that men knew just as much about where they were as he did; little to nothing. They were new aboard, so the advantage of familiar ground belonged to no one. He came to a skidding stop at the end of a hallway and ducked around the corner, looking for doorways. The lighting was dim, the corners were dusty, but the ship was very well constructed and there was a bulkhead every twenty meters. It was built to an older standard, meant to last. Any wall was good cover, their ammunition couldn't penetrate but neither could his.
The map he had downloaded from the ship computer wasn't as detailed as he would like, the security built into the computer didn't allow labels to appear and he wasn't an engineering genius like Finn, so he couldn't tell the crew quarters from the galley. From the looks of it there was a lift at the end of the hallway that lead up into the rear of the ship and the doors between lead to four large sections.
He peeked his head out from the corner and glimpsed the pair who had been chasing him. A shot narrowly missed and to his dismay there was no time for him to make it to the lift. He couldn't guarantee that the doors would open or close fast enough to provide cover.
Instead he took the few steps required to get into the nearest room, only the doors didn't open. He ran to the next and fired down the hallway at the pair of security officers. They were using the corner for cover, and firing wildly around the bend without looking.
The hall was sealed off, and he took one last chance, rolling across the floor to the elevator doors. The panel to one side lit up, indicating that a car was on its way. He got as low as he could and fired back, hitting the corner the pair were firing from and firing just past, trying to intimidate them into not risking their hands or forearms as they stretched out, firing blindly.
With a glance upward he could see that the ceiling was completely sealed. Other than a few pipes and heavily insulated cables there was nothing, no panels, hatches or other ways out. One of the guards tried to peek and take an aimed shot at him. Ramirez caught him squarely in the forehead. The light energy deflected off the man's vacsuit, but the initial heat must have done the job. The guard slumped to the floor, motionless.
The elevator doors parted and he backed inside. The second security officer took several shots at him and just as the doors closed one caught him above the right hip. Ramirez fell to the ground and checked the burn. It was more painful than the shot he had taken in the leg, but he could move.
“Finn, I'm out unless I can find pain killers, something,” he said, breathing raggedly. He reached up to the control panel and pressed the top level button then the rest. “Finn, do you hear me?”
“Yes, I'm looking. Are you okay?”
“I took a hit. I'll probably live but I'm out of the action. Can you see where I am?”
“In the lift?”
“That's me.”
“Okay, there's an emergency station just outside on the fourteenth level.”
“Fantastic, anyone there?”
“Nope, like most of the ship it's pretty much empty. Now that you mention it, there's automation all over the place. It's like the Triton was rigged so a hundred people could run it.”
“Interesting,” Ramirez said while grinding his teeth together. The pain in his side was so intense he saw spots as he stood up on the opposite leg and cancelled all the floor requests except for the fourteenth.
“Sorry
, you probably don't want to hear me go on.”
“No, keep talking, it distracts me from feeling like someone's slowly sawing me in half,” he tried to take a deep breath but was rewarded with stabbing pain. “How is Agameg doing?”
“He's stopped in the brig, he's been there a while but outside the cells.”
“I've managed to become the brig watchman. Have they started moving people from the Samson yet?” Price asked in a hushed whisper.
“Nice work buddy!” Ramirez commented. The lift arrived on the fourteenth floor and he struggled out of the car and into the hallway. The emergency medical kit was just a couple meters away but it seemed much further. He steeled himself, ground his teeth together and moved as quickly as he could, falling against the emergency medical station. He cried out involuntarily in response to the sudden pressure on his middle.
“I'm going to help Ramirez,” Price said.
“Stay there! I'll be okay.”
“I'm sorry, I heard you and assumed.”
“I'm getting treatment,” he replied as he activated the emergency station. “Well, self medicating I hope.” A bed came out of the wall and he leaned on it. “I'll try to keep it down next time.” Hurriedly he looked through one of the drawers and found a package with a green cross on it. The universal symbol for pain killers. The package came undone easily and relief was instantaneous as he injected himself with whatever was inside.
“That guard is taking the elevator!” Finn warned.
“Dammit!” Ramirez rifled through the drawer for a moment, then just took a hand full of packages and limped down the hallway. “Always running out of time. Any way for you to stop the elevator?”
“I don't have that kind of control.”
He turned towards the next doorway and found it sealed. “What the hell? How much of this ship do they actually use?”
“What?”
“None of these doors are opening,” he complained as he crossed the hall to another.
Awakening sf-2 Page 14