#
Half a station away, a single guard was watching from the other side of a locked cell door as a medic worked on Karter inside the cell. The inventor had stopped screaming and grunting in pain a minute or two ago, and now seemed to have lapsed into a state of delirium from the pain. A patch attached to his chest was bleeping off the irregular rhythm of his heart. All around them, the station was echoing with the sounds of distant battle. The soldier twitched at the sound of each ricochet like a dog straining its leash. In his hands was the mechanical arm that had been removed from the scientist, which the soldier was fiddling with in irritation.
"Listen, hurry up! The first real action I've had a chance to see besides babysitting this mad scientist is happening and I'm missing it!" he urged.
"It is going to be a few minutes more. I need to check if there is any internal bleeding."
"Look, just let him die, right? He did his job, and he wants us dead."
The medic stood and faced the soldier. "Listen, don't you think I want him dead? But I've got orders."
"You think it matters how well you follow orders if whoever is invading manages to blow this place up?"
There was a rattle and crash. The medic turned to find Karter convulsing, having knocked the contents of the med pack all over the floor.
"Now you see what you let happen? He could be going into shock. You want to go fight? Fine. He's pretty far out of it. I don't think I need you looking over my shoulder and distracting me."
"Finally!" the eager soldier proclaimed, throwing the prosthetic limb to the floor and rushing off to find glory.
The medic crouched and sifted through the tools scattered on the floor.
"Where did that stim go?" he muttered.
Suddenly Karter stopped convulsing and the patch on his chest gave a long, even tone.
"God damn it!" the medic growled, leaning low to check the scientist's respiration and begin pumping his chest.
In a lightning motion, Karter's remaining arm whipped around and plunged a hypo-injector into the medic's neck. The futuristic replacement for a needle blasted a dose of unknown medication into the hapless medical technician's bloodstream. He had enough time to lurch to his feet and get out half of a syllable of a cry for help before he shuddered and dropped to the ground. Karter sat up, breathing heavy and pouring sweat, and glanced at the spent vial in the injector.
"Heh, sedative. You lucked out," he remarked.
He frowned and looked down at the monitor on his chest, which was still blaring out the helpful reminder that his heart was not, in fact, beating. He made a fist and tapped his chest a few times, like a man trying to unearth a decent belch. The monitor stuttered and began to beep again.
"Let that be a lesson to you," Karter said wearily, "Never trust an off-the-shelf heart monitor to monitor a custom made heart correctly."
He tore the monitor off and tried to stand up, but grimaced and fell back to the floor, clutching his back.
"Okay, fine," he grumbled, rolling over and fumbling his hand through the scattered medical equipment until he came up with the appropriate vial, which he chambered in the injector and administered to his neck. His eyes rolled back and he grinned. "Oooh. That's the stuff."
He loaded three more vials of painkiller into his pocket, then paused and grabbed three more for the road. After a few seconds to let the painkiller kick in, he grabbed the bars and hauled himself off of the floor, struggling to the edge of the cell and reaching around to the keypad that controlled the lock.
"Another lesson, since you're here," Karter said, his voice somewhat slurred by the affects of the medication. "If your prisoner has a wireless datalink built into his eye, don't put a security camera directly opposite his cell. I tapped into that baby six hours after I got here. Doesn't matter how many times you change the key code if I can see you enter it."
He managed to key in the code, causing the door to click open. The combination of medication, missing limbs, and injury made retrieving his arm a less than simple matter, but once it was affixed, he dragged himself to the nearby bank of lockers until he found where they kept his leg.
"There," he said, clicking it into place and mopping the sweat from a face that was steadily getting paler. "Time to cause some problems."
#
Silo and Garotte pounded their way down the battle-scarred hall. Spitting wires and hissing pipes that had been torn apart by the rampaging Zerk were scattered across the walls.
"Now then," Garotte announced as he ran, "We are looking for a weapon, so it would stand to reason the weapons bay is a good start. That is three decks down. We should find an access ladder- COVER!"
Garotte dove to one side of the corridor, Silo to the other, each cramming themselves as far as possible behind the bulkhead surrounding a submarine-style compartmentalization door.
"Four on the left, two on the right," Silo dictated. "Small arms, energy weapons, lightly modified. I'll take-"
As she was speaking, a quiet whine had grown steadily louder, and finally interrupted her as a vicious crackle of energy. An instant later, the bulkhead a few inches above her helmet exploded into molten metal. A few drops of incandescent liquid metal sprinkled on her helmet and quickly began to melt through. She scrambled to pull the helmet off just in time for the white-hot drop to fall through into the space that moments earlier would have been her skull.
"What the hell are they shooting!?" she screamed, briefly looking through the widening hole left by the weapon.
Garotte leaned out and took a few shots with his pistol, causing the soldiers to take cover. A second later one of the men stepped out and tapped a control strapped to his arm, two or three behind him doing the same. Garotte aimed and fired. The bolt of energy hit its target... and rebounded off of a briefly visible glimmering surface, deflecting into the wall.
"Bad news. I think Karter might have equipped them with some of his toys," Garotte said with a tremor of nerves in his voice.
The shielded soldier smiled, squeezing the trigger of his fully-automatic ballistic rifle without even raising it to his eye. A deafening sequence of blasts was followed by a peculiar rattling clatter. Along with the sound came a random shimmer of shield and shudder of the soldier. It wasn't until the sound finally stopped and the soldier crumbled to the ground, perforated with bullet holes, that it became clear what had happened. The shield was equally good at reflecting projectiles fired from the inside, and from the looks of it, his body hadn't been enough to keep some of the bullets from making multiple trips back and forth.
"... Make that half-finished toys," Garotte amended.
The soldiers who had just moments before activated their own shields made panicked motions to deactivate them, while others stepped forward and raised a few more charge-gun-enhanced weapons. In a well rehearsed rhythm, Silo and Garotte began to alternately lean out and fire shots. The fire was enough to keep the soldiers from unleashing their over-powered weapons, but only one or two shots met their mark.
"This is no good," Garotte said between shots, "If we don't make any ground, they can get a second squad in to flank us. I don't want to get into a turkey shoot. The access ladder is in the no man's land between us. We just need to break the stalemate for a few seconds."
"Coming right up, hon," Silo said, pulling a grenade from her bandolier and tossing it into the chamber ahead.
"Grenade!" came the cry from the soldiers as they evacuated in panicked unison.
As they moved back, the rescue party moved forward, striding quickly to the ladder and sliding down. After a few seconds, no explosion came and the most courageous of the soldiers stepped forward to find the grenade. The pin had not been pulled. He rushed to the ladder to find the access hatch closed and fused. While tools were deployed to release the door and soldiers were deployed to find alternate routes, Silo and Garotte continued toward their goal.
#
In her control center, Commander Purcell looked on. The bulk of her men were facing off agai
nst something that looked like a hurricane of cutlery. The cameras inside the ship were barely able to register any details beyond streaks of black and silver. It usually didn't take long before the cameras and in some cases the power systems for the section of the station currently playing host to the mayhem were destroyed. Her mind grasped at possibilities.
"Commander, we need orders!" the tactical officer urged.
She looked to the ship layout.
"Close bulkhead L3-8 and L3-10," she ordered.
Two indicators toggled, and on the cameras, the machine and eight of her men were sealed between the bulkheads.
"I want those men formed up in the center of the sealed area," Purcell said.
The tactical officer delivered the orders and she watched through the one remaining camera as her soldiers, men who had been delivered into the arms of the Neo-Luddites by the mind searing psychological scars of having had to face a mindless machine, valiantly attempted to follow orders in the face of something that made their past trauma seem like a pleasant dream in comparison.
"Close bulkhead L3-9 and L3-10."
Two more heavy doors dropped into place, sealing off five men and Zerk.
"Blow evacuation hatch L3-K. On my authorization. Command Voice Code Six eight eight three."
The tactical officer's hand hesitated over the execute command. "I can't execute without two senior officer's codes."
"Do it, number 2."
"Commander, five of our men-"
"Now!" she cried.
"Command Voice Code Nine four eight four," he murmured.
A small breaching charge detonated, and the audio feed from the camera registered a brief burst of sound and cluster of screams before the air, the soldiers, and the war machine were all sucked from the chamber. The man at the controls stared at the soundless screen, watching the silent struggles of the last man to be pulled out until the dim light of the chamber and the angle of the camera would show no more. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to.
"Those men died for our cause," Purcell said without emotion or apology. "And never, never hesitate in following my orders. Tactical, locate any additional intruders."
The officer tapped at the controls.
"The machine caused extensive damage to our power grid. Most visual scanners are down. Based on the last fully functional sweep, it looks like we've got two intruders, military, that were heading to the lower decks."
"I want all lower deck soldiers near vertical shafts to attempt to intercept them."
"We've also got a third intruder, lightly armed, and... some sort of animal. They were leaving the docking section. Most of the soldiers from that section of the station were killed by the machine."
"Redirect one squad from Deck 2."
"Continuing analysis of sweep. Commander, Karter! He's out of his cell!"
"How did that happen? Where is he?"
"I don't know. It looks like he was heading to the storage section. Based on system access, he's been attempting to disengage security on the storage bays. He's finished one through four, and he's working on number five now."
"Storage bays... Dear God! Any soldiers we can spare, get them down there, now! I want him stopped, killed if necessary, before he gets into storage bay eight! Do you hear me!?"
"Issuing orders now."
She pulled her communicator. "Engineering! Status!"
"Engineering here. Just a few more minutes and we can begin downloading the final software routines."
"Get it done, now! Do not stop for anything!"
#
"How are we doing, Ma?" Lex asked as he hustled after the little creature.
Thus far, they had been unbelievably lucky. Only one detachment of soldiers had sprinted by, and fortunately they had seemed to have better things to worry about, since they hadn't even slowed down to check the area.
"I am confident that we are approaching him. I believe I have achieved a level of proficiency in interpreting the fine pattern recognition capabilities of the funk olfactory system," she replied.
"You figured out how to smell better?"
"The deodorizing treatment is still effective. I smell fine, Lex."
"What? … Ma, was that a joke?"
"There is considerable evidence that humor can have stress reducing effects."
"That may be true Ma, but there isn't a joke in the universe good enough to do the job right now."
"Acknowledged. This way," she stated, scrabbling her claws across the grating and bounding down the nearest ladder.
Lex slid down after her, to find her standing perfectly still with squinted eyes.
"What's wrong?" Lex asked, looking desperately around to be sure there weren't any soldiers or traps evident.
"I believe I have identified the cryptographic cypher for the short-range communications. One moment, patching in," she stated, her 'voice' once again stretched by concentration.
"... Closing in on male and female. … Good. … Engineering here. Final module is being installed. Software download ready to begin in thirty seconds. …" A variety of voices announced across the radio.
"The missiles are nearly complete. Silo, Garotte, what is your status," Ma asked, her voice unstressed.
"Making progress, but a bit pinned down. Also, Silo has lost her helmet, so our egress may be a bit more complicated than previously intended," Garotte replied.
"You have as few as three minutes before the CME Activators will be ready to fire, depending on the efficiency of the equipment and technicians," Ma explained.
"That's going to be tight," Silo warned.
"Karter is extremely near, we will secure him and attempt to render aid, or cause a delay," Ma advised. "This way, Lex."
She rushed down the corridor, Lex close behind.
"So far, this whole rescue has been me following you around," Lex mused.
A bolt of energy crackled through the corridor and blasted a hole in a control panel behind them, knocking the lights out and replacing them with the intermittent red glow of an emergency light. Lex dove aside and took cover, with Ma skittering opposite him.
"Your sense of timing remains a statistical curiosity, Lex," Ma stated dryly.
Lex fumbled for his pistol. "This is about to go really wrong, isn't it?"
"They are getting closer," Ma unhelpfully informed him.
Lex reached his pistol out from behind the cover and fired a handful of shots aimed mostly by wishful thinking. Most of them did little more than leave black marks on the ceiling, but it was enough to prompt the soldiers to take cover as well. Lex glimpsed out briefly.
"There are three of them. What should we do?"
"Improvisation is not among my strengths."
The radio crackled in his ears. "... This is Team Gamma. We have located the second set of intruders. Preparing to close on their position."
Lex muttered a few breathless profanities before his beleaguered brain managed to deliver a crumb of an idea.
"We can hear these guys. Can they hear us?"
"Currently we are on receive-only. Transmission is possible."
"Do it!"
There was a muffled tone.
"Attention, Team Gamma!" Lex proclaimed in his most military voice, "There is a building power surge at the end of corridor-" He squinted at the nearest indicator in the pulse red light of the hall. "-7-I. Karter may be attempting to destroy the station. Break off pursuit and investigate immediately. Top priority!"
"That goddamn maniac! Acknowledged!"
The soldiers retreated and sprinted down the adjoining corridor. For a moment, Lex stared in disbelief. A moment turned out to be a bit too long.
"Negative, Team Gamma, disregard previous orders. No power surge is detected," the tactical officer corrected.
Wordlessly, Ma followed the scent of Karter down the hall and Lex followed.
"Acknowledged. Doubling back!"
"Negative!" Lex urged, "Power surge is critical. Investigate now!"
"Bel
ay that order! Give me that communicator," came Purcell's voice over the transmission. "Who is this? Who is giving these commands!?"
"Agent... Smith," Lex replied.
"Communications have been compromised. Switch to communication preset five!"
The radio crackled, and then there was silence. Behind them, the sound of boots on grating echoed through the halls.
"Stop," Ma stated.
Lex slid to a stop, barely avoiding crashing into his diminutive guide.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Blood. Karter's. Excellent," she said.
"Why is that excellent?"
"Because it is a trail you can follow without me. Fire at that access panel, please."
"But I-"
"Now, please."
Lex fired the pistol, releasing a bolt of energy that shattered the panel.
"I will pursue a parallel contingency plan to enhance our chances of success. Follow this trail of blood in that direction. It will presumably lead to Karter," she said, squeezing through the ruined access panel and into the wiring conduit behind it.
"Wait, but what if the soldiers show up again?"
She peeked her head out again, "You are clever and inventive. I am confident you will think of something."
"Well I'm not!"
"You are also a very fast runner. Try that," she said, ducking inside again and worming her way along the conduit.
"Great, yeah, running. Let's do that," he decided, sprinting off in the direction of the blood.
His adrenaline-fueled run only managed to take him down three blood speckled halls before he came to a series of storage doors that were opened and finally one bulkhead door that was closed. On the other side was Karter. He was wavering slightly, tugging at an access panel.
"Karter! Karter!" Lex cried, banging on the window.
Karter turned and squinted at him, lurching unsteadily to the door and tapping a control. It rattled open.
"What are you doing here?" he said. Rather than the tone of surprise and disbelief as one might normally show when a friend from across the galaxy mysteriously appeared in a prison, or maybe the relief and gratitude one might show a potential rescuer, Karter sounded annoyed. It was as though he'd been rudely interrupted.
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