"I'm here to save you! Let's go!" Lex urged.
"What?"
Lex popped the face mask of his helmet up. "I said I'm here to save you!"
"Oh. Hey, you don't happen to have an auto-spanner, do you?" Karter slurred.
"We don't have time for that, listen... Are you drunk?"
"Medicated. Never mind, this will do," he said, pulling a grenade from Lex's belt.
"Karter, we've got a ship, and I've got a spare suit here. We're going to destroy the CM... the CM... the missile things, and we're going to get out of-"
"You wanna get out of the way of the door? It won't close with you standing there," Karter said, tapping the control repeatedly.
The sound of approaching soldiers inspired Lex to step inside, allowing the door to close and lock just as the first of them reached it. The pilot looked nervously at the door as the soldiers worked on it briefly. A glance in the other direction, the only other direction, his mind helpfully reminded, revealed that soldiers had gathered there, too. A cutting torch was already beginning to trace its glowing line through the thick metal of the door. On Lex's side, whoever was manning the weapon that had nearly obliterated he and Ma a minute ago was fighting with the device, which was smoking.
"Karter, we've got to-"
"Fire in the hole!" Karter announced covering his ears.
The variable grenade burst with a force just slightly too powerful for the purpose at hand, which was the removal of the control panel, and just about exactly loud enough to make Lex's ears ring painfully. The inventor then casually grasped two sparking wires and twisted them together, causing the storage bay to open.
"... What is that?" Lex asked, the sight before him temporarily enough to push the pair of terrorist squads from his mind. The ceiling and floor had been removed from the chamber, expanding the center of the storage bay into a massive three-level sphere traced out by spindly metallic braces studded with what appeared to be tiny satellite dishes. Nearly the entire bottom half of the cut away portion of the floor was filled with rocky gray soil. A rack beside the door contained a handful of pen-shaped metallic gadgets. Karter picked one up and twisted its top before tossing it out the door.
"This," he said, shutting and locking the storage door, "is my new favorite toy..."
#
"Commander, we are getting reports that Karter and one of the intruders have breached storage bay eight," the tactical officer announced.
"What about the CMEAs?" Purcell demanded.
"Engineering states that the software download on the CMEAs has begun, but the other two intruders have nearly reached the weapons bay."
Purcell removed the energy pistol from its holster, replaced the clip, and hammered it into place with finality. "Inform the men. I want three soldiers to peel off for a rendezvous. Tell the engineering crew to put the rest of the process on automatic. Get out of the weapons bay and aid in its defense. I am taking care of this myself."
Chapter 29
Somewhere deep in the core of the space station, an access panel rattled. After a second, it rattled again. Finally, after a scrabbling sound, it burst from the wall and a furry form tumbled to the floor of a dimly lit chamber. The air was stifling, even with massive fans running at deafening levels. It was a server room, about the size of a small studio apartment. Monolithic servers were spaced across the floor like tombstones in a grave yard, blinking lights and diagnostic screens flowing faintly. There were no guards in the room, or anywhere near it. Being as deep inside the station as it was, it was seldom even considered necessary to run a patrol past it. Of course, there usually wouldn't be a threat able to squeeze in through the wiring trough.
Ma got to her feet and trotted to the foremost server. She locked her eyes on the screen and concentrated, attempting to access the server with her data connection. With a beep, the screen displayed a message: Requested action unavailable over wireless connection. Please attach command module to physical data port and try again. Her eyes darted across the front of the device, eventually spotting a data connection. Her mind entered various parameters into her decision-making matrix. It came up with a depressingly low confidence value. With a tilt of her head, she concluded that in the absence of an alternative, this was still the best course of action.
"Attention, Lex, Garotte, and Silo. Please state status," she broadcast.
"Bloody busy!" Garotte growled.
"These guys are gosh darned dedicated to protecting this weapons bay. Can't budge 'em an inch. At least we know we've got the right place," Silo added. "This hallway is pretty shot up, too."
"I've got Karter, but we're trapped in a big room with a weird machine," Lex replied.
"I will attempt to shut down the computer system. To do so, I will need to go communication silent. At your earliest convenience, please fetch me from the computer core, marked on your maps. I will likely require aid," Ma instructed.
"Why, what are you-" Lex began.
"Signing off," Ma stated.
She closed the connection and struggled slightly, twisting her head and tugging at the straps holding the data radio in place until one snapped and the device rattled to the floor. With her teeth, she snagged the base of the plug and tugged it free. She stood on her hind legs and leaned against the front of the server, but the port was just out of her reach. Her brow furrowed. Crouching down, she waggled her tail, calculated the trajectory, and leaped. The well measured hop just barely missed its mark. A second and third did the same. Finally, with a huff of breath, she leapt one last time, and managed to click the wire in place. There was just enough slack to allow her to lay on the ground with the wire connected.
Now with a physical connection, Ma went to work. The encryption, even to get past the login screen, was astoundingly complex. She pushed the little organic brain for all that it was worth, churning through cyphers, keys, vulnerabilities, and everything else she calculated might gain her access. It was a terrible strain, and she began to shudder and shake violently as neurons worked at a capacity nature had never intended. It was hopeless, but that didn't matter. It was the only option. She would make it succeed.
#
"By my count, we've got very little time left, my girl. This can't go on like this," Garotte remarked.
The two professionals were crouched in a section of the space station that was barely recognizable as a corridor anymore. A constant hammering by friend and foe alike had reduced the walls, ceiling, and floor to scrap metal. There were no lights left, the glow from sputtering wires and plasma shots providing the only illumination. Sections of wall that were once bare, sturdy metal looked like discarded sandwich wrappers. If any of the walls had been space-facing, the whole battle would have been put to a sudden, airless end long ago. A badly damaged but still intact door provided protection behind the heroes, and a now unrecognizable piece of machinery that had been knocked down during the early moments of the onslaught provided cover from the front.
"I don't think the grenade trick will work again. And a live grenade would probably result in lots of dead people, including us without better cover," she replied.
"Well, we need something to break the tie," Garotte said, "Something that will..."
He stopped, because he realized that he was screaming, but he didn't have to be. The firing from the enemies had completely stopped. Before either could venture so much as a peek, however, a new sound came. It was a heavy, fast thumping, like boots pounding against the grating, but approaching far too quickly and hitting far to heavily. When Silo finally got her head out from cover to see what it was, she had a split second to react. One of the soldiers, equipped with a pair of Karter's boots, was surging forth at a completely inhuman speed. Silo threw out her arm and braced herself, delivering a textbook clothesline.
If one has never been on the receiving end of a clothesline, and few outside of the realm of professional wrestling have, then it is easy to overlook how punishing the maneuver can be, even under normal conditions. When the recei
ving end is moving about three times faster than a human being ought to thanks to boots that will continue moving forward regardless of whether the feet inside of them are able to or not, the results are best left without description. Suffice to say that it starts with a savage impact, moves on to a lot of screaming and crackling, and ends with an unconscious target with legs that have more in common with noodles than limbs.
"Oh, golly," Silo said, working her arm, "I just about threw my shoulder out on that one."
"Lucky you. This fellow looks to have thrown out everything else," Garotte said, dragging him behind cover as the shooting started again. "Pity he doesn't have one of those hefty guns."
"I'll say. I'm itching to give one of those a try," she said.
"Ah, but he does have one of those shields. This might be our break," Garotte suggested, tugging the device and its controls from the highly unconscious soldier.
"And end up full of holes like that other guy? No thanks," Silo shuddered.
"It only happened because he fired the weapon."
"Well, if we're going to be clearing those guys out of the way, we're going to have to do an awful lot of firing."
"Fine then. I shield, you fire," Garotte decided, hooking on the device and activating it.
The protective field, which so far had only been associated with people who ended up a motionless heap, shimmered into being. With a deep breath, Garotte stepped out from cover and into the hail of bullets and energy bolts. A flutter of gold and a slight shimmer sent every last one of them rebounding back at the weapon that fired it. Garotte released the breath and turned to Silo.
"Coming, dear?" he said shakily.
Silo stepped out behind him, then dove desperately back behind cover when, after two quick strides, the shield generator lurched upward and nearly dislodged from his belt. With a few panicked motions, he secured it again, fortunately without any of the hail of ordinance getting through.
"What the heck was that!?" Silo objected.
"It would appear that, if I move too quickly, the shield repels the ground," he observed. "In retrospect, this is probably why our fleet-footed friend didn't have it active."
"Okay then," she said, stepping out again. "Make like a turtle."
The pair trudged slowly forward, the shield doing its job and staying put.
"So far so good," Garotte said, flinching at a reflected round. He looked through the shield at the deadly light show that could kill him with even a single hiccup of his experimental protection, "Though I must admit, I feel a trifle exposed."
#
In the storage bay, Lex was looking nervously at the door as it rattled and buckled under the attempts by the soldiers to tear it open, blow it up, or otherwise eliminate it.
"Karter, we really have to find a way to get out of here," he said, reluctantly pulling the rifle from his back and aiming at the door.
"Busy," Karter dismissed, fiddling with controls at a panel on the left side of the massive spherical cage.
"Busy what? Bleeding to death?" Lex said.
"It isn't that bad," Karter countered, putting his hand to his wound. When he withdrew his hand and found it to be completely saturated with blood, as was most of the lower half of his jumpsuit, he paused for a moment. "Okay, that's a lot of blood. I'm gonna be a few pints low." He considered this for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll deal with it later. About how wide is that corridor, you figure? Four meters?"
"What? One and a half, maybe. Listen, is this really relevant? Shouldn't we be-"
"We'll say two. Diameter set. Target set. Antimatter cartridge loaded."
"Antimatter? What are you-"
"Engage."
There was a shuddering clap, and a blinding flash of light. Lex shielded his eyes as a second burst of light surged through the room, followed immediately by another clap of thunder and a rush of air from behind him. His eyes were still covered when he realized the rattling of the door was gone. Slowly he lowered his arm. Apparently the rattling was gone because the door was gone. A fair amount of the wall was gone, too, along with the wall on the opposite side of the corridor. And there was a circular hole in the ceiling and floor, revealing the decks above and below. The edges of the missing sections were sharp and precise, with a concave curve to them. As he looked about, trying to take it all in, his eyes locked on to the end of his rifle, which was also missing. Gradually his brain twisted and turned the missing pieces, and worked out that a perfect sphere had been removed. The soldiers who had been hammering on the door would have been inside said sphere.
"W-where did they go?" Lex asked.
"Beats me," Karter said with a shrug. "I'm still figuring out the controls. Someplace else, anyway, which is where I wanted them to go. The hole is bigger than I expected."
"This is a transporter?"
"This is the transporter," Karter corrected. "Oh, there's the problem. It says radius, not diameter. Whoopsie."
"Can it get us all on the ship? Or transport those missiles out of the weapons bay?" Lex asked.
"Nah. It needs one of these active carrier wave transmitters on the target," he said, grabbing one from a rack by the console and throwing it to Lex, "Kind of like that one I tossed out the door before."
"... Well then how did you transport them out of here?" he asked.
"There's six carrier transmitters flitting around outside the station. I targeted one of those. There's only five, now."
"I think there are six enemy ships outside."
"Well, there's only five now."
"That'll make the exit a little easier, I guess. Speaking of which, I've got a spare space suit bundled up here, I need you to put it on so we can get out of here," Lex said, releasing the rifle and stuffing Karter's gadget into one his suit's many pockets before tugging the bundle from his back.
"Later, busy," Karter dismissed again.
Lex gritted his teeth and threw down the suit. "Fine. I'll go get Ma. She's the only one who I've ever seen talk any sense into you."
"Ma's a computer, Lex."
"Not right now she's not. Are you going to be okay here while I get her?"
"Let's see. Peace and quiet, a bunch of painkillers, and an experimental piece of apparatus? Yeah, I oughta be good for a while. Leave the grenades, though. You know, for self defense."
Lex nodded and tossed away his rifle, left the four remaining grenades, and dug the slidepad from his pocket. According to the point on the map Ma had sent, she would be one level down and a few intersections down the corridor. He leaped down through the convenient hole left by Karter's trial and error and rushed down the fortunately deserted hallway below. He found the indicated door and tried the handle, mysteriously discovering it to be unlocked. Inside, he found the rows of servers all whirring and clicking in a way that sounded wrong even to Lex's untrained ear. On the ground in front of the nearest of them was Ma. The little creature was shuddering and jerking, eyes half-closed and legs splayed out. Her wire had been pulled from the front of the machine, and was laying loose on the floor beside the liberated data radio. The screen was at a red and black command prompt, and simply displayed the words "connection lost."
"Oh my God, Ma, are you alright!?" he exclaimed, crouching down and shakily inserting the wire into the radio again and tucking it into her harness.
The funk's head turned vaguely toward him, as though it was being controlled by an inexperienced puppeteer. At first there was only digital jitter on the radio's transmission, but it cleared enough for a voice to cut through.
"Lex..." came her reply. It was as through an audio technician had run it through every digital distortion effect he had in his toolbox. The syllable was barely coherent.
"Are you okay? What happened?"
"High... encryption... extreme... computational... effort... Over... extended... capacity..."
"The encryption was too much? Are you going to be okay?"
"No... no... massive... data... corruption... Program... integrity... failure..."
&
nbsp; "What do I do?"
"Take... care... of... Squee..."
With this final statement, Ma jerked a final time and went limp, her breathing taking on the steady rhythm of sleep, and the transmission dropping to meaningless distortion, then silence.
"Ma..." Lex said, scooping up the little beast.
Lex hung his head. Something in his mind tried to remind him there was no reason to be sad. This creature wasn't dead. Ma, to the extent she could even be considered to be alive, still ran in her entirety on Big Sigma at this moment. Logically, he shouldn't feel an ounce of heaviness in his heart over the loss of the temporary subset of herself she'd sent to fetch him. Logic, though, comes as small comfort when cradling the motionless body of a creature that once spoke with the voice of a friend.
His expression hardened and he climbed to his feet.
"Open Com Silo, Garotte," he stated, managing to keep a tremor from his voice. "Guys. We just lost Ma. What is our status?"
#
In the embattled hallway, Garotte gave a reply. "One moment."
They were practically on top of what remained of the soldiers defending the weapons bay door. The constant stream of reflected attacks had reduced their numbers considerably, and the well aimed and well timed cover fire offered by Silo whenever they attempted to use something that might punch through the shield had reduced them even more. Silo clicked a fresh clip into her pistol, leaned out, and fired off a few precise shots, taking care of the final soldiers.
"Well then, that's that," Garotte said, dusting off his hands. "We're at the door. Applying shaped charges now."
"Sorry, hon, out of shaped charges. Used them all up getting here," Silo corrected. "And I'm afraid anything less controlled that would result in us having a very bad day, this being the weapons bay and all. I'm shocked we're still in one piece as it is, with all the shooting going on."
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