by Frank Carey
"Even if he is integral in the enslavement of billions of League citizens."
"Ever kill someone?" Harm asked from the railing. "You know, end a life?"
"No, actually," Xura said, "I haven't."
"I have. It's not something to be taken lightly. It changes you and not in a good way."
"Enough discussion," Royce said. "Xura, where can we find this Nash person?"
"Computer core, near where Harm and I first met," the Minotaur said. "This way." She led them to a stairwell leading deeper into the depths of Hephaestus.
Chapter Eleven
Gloria and Aerith entered Science Lab One where Gloria's crate of robotic probes was being stored. The crate sat over in the corner with its lid removed and several bots laid out on the one of the nearby workbenches.
"Where are they?" Gloria mumbled as she dug through the crate like some crazed child digging through a toy box.
"Can I help?" Aerith asked while watching bots fly out of the crate.
"Nope. Found them," Gloria said as she pulled a pair of black, foot-long centipedes from the crate.
"Ewe!" Aerith said as she backed away.
"Oh, come on. You don't have to touch them. You just need to drive one," Gloria mumbled as she placed them on a worktable. After pressing a power switch on each bot’s head, Gloria ran each bot through a diagnostic using a control pad she found on the other table.
The bots moved their legs in a complex pattern, eventually walking in a figure eight. More checks followed as weapons, sensors, optics, and communications systems were put through their paces. Satisfied, she disconnected the tablet from the bots while leaving both units powered up.
Aerith looked confused as she examined the probes from a safe distance. "How do we get them to the breach? By boat?"
Before the young woman could protest, Gloria grabbed one of the centipedes and dropped it in Aerith's hands. "Inside, both units are mostly dead air surrounding a few ounces of microcircuits and nanomaterial actuators. The shells are hermetically sealed foam aluminum. They're designed to float, swim, crawl, climb, and hide under conditions which would cook a normal probe. You've got a headset?"
"Yes," Aerith replied while pulling hers up from around her neck.
"Good." Gloria walked over to the wall near the door and activated the intercom. "Bridge, this is Gloria. We have the bots."
"Doctor, Torga here. There should be a yeoman waiting outside the lab. Hand her the bots and return to the Bridge immediately."
"Aye, sir," Gloria replied as she carefully handed the yeoman the two bots. When the crewman was gone, the two Aymars returned to the Bridge as ordered.
###
When Gloria and Aerith walked onto the Bridge, they saw a new face standing next to the captain. "Doctor, Ms. Aerith, I'd like you to meet Dr. Paul Steele, a historian we have with us on this voyage." Introductions were quickly made all around.
"What's your specialty, Dr. Steele?" Aerith asked. Gloria noticed her cousin's slightly dilated pupils and increased breathing, a sign the young woman was interested in the young human historian.
"Please, call me Paul. Earth history and how it compares to Venecia. The two cultures have remarkably similar histories. The captain tells me that you plan to send in robotic probes. Are these AI controlled?"
"No, doctor, Aerith and I will be controlling them using telepresence headsets developed by Aerith's father, Harmon Aymar."
"Is Mr. Aymar a biocyberneticist?"
"Actually, my father prefers smuggler, but he’s an elf of many talents," Aerith told the young historian.
"Dr. Aymar, your probes are wet. You are free to proceed with the mission," Torga said.
"Thank you, Captain. Aerith, activate your headset and tie-into the probe," Gloria said.
"Yes, ma’am," Aerith responded as she pressed a small button on the side to the headset. "I'm in. Activating swim mode and setting course for the breach."
"Copy that. I'm right behind you," Gloria responded.
"I shouldn't keep you from your work," Paul said as he turned to rejoin the captain.
"No. Please stay. The bot is on autopilot while I monitor it visually," Aerith explained as she gestured toward the main viewer where the vid feeds from the two probes were projected side by side.
"I never say no to a pretty woman," Paul said with a damn disarming smile. Gloria noticed that Aerith's usually frantic tail was gently swaying as if it were a slender blade of grass being gently moved by an evening breeze.
Before Aerith could respond, a steward walked in carrying a tray of teacups and other refreshments. Starting with the captain and first officer, he made his way around the Bridge, serving the crew. Eventually he made it to where Gloria, Aerith, and Paul stood.
"Tea, mum?" he asked as he showed Gloria his tray. "May I suggest you try this one, mum? Its aroma is reminiscent of Eireann."
Gloria turned her gaze to the young steward. "Eireann’s beautiful this time of year, isn't she?"
"Aye, mum. She’s a beautiful lady."
"Eireann?" Aerith asked.
Gloria looked at Paul and saw him shrug as if not knowing what the name referenced. "An island on Earth. I have a friend who's from there. Steward, what is your name?"
"Sean Dayton, mum," he replied as he handed tea to Gloria and Paul.
"Sean, this cup is empty," Paul said as he handed it back.
"By wool and hemp, so it is, sir," he said while taking the cup away and replacing it with a full one. "Forgive me sir."
"No harm done," Paul said with another disarming smile.
Gloria looked up at the captain and saw him nod in her direction. "Proceed, Doctor."
"Aerith, ETA at breach?"
"Six minutes," The young girl replied while refusing to take her eyes off Paul. Meanwhile, Sean had walked over to the main entry where he handed Paul's empty cup to someone standing outside in the hall. His task complete, he returned to a spot directly behind Aerith sans tray. He stood there with his hands clasped behind his back, as if waiting for something.
As the Bridge crew watched, the two centipedes approached the breach in an almost submerged posture. "Scanning," Gloria said. "Clear! Aerith, enter the building. I'll be right behind you."
"Yes, ma’am," Aerith said as she tore her gaze away from Paul. "Proceeding. Nothing on visual. Nothing on infrared. Damn, that was one hell of a grenade." On the viewer was a scene of twisted and charred metal. Off to one side they could see the burnt remains of a synth's hand. On its fingers were two ornate rings.
"At least he died a warrior's death," Aerith quipped.
"Sorry to burst your bubble," Gloria pointed out. "I don't think the grange can die, at least not from something as quaint as a grenade."
The two bots moved up to what was left of the ceiling and made their way through a partially destroyed airshaft. Once inside the undamaged section of the building, they came to a stop at an intersection with a large trunk line. "Scanners indicate this line connects with all sections of the main level...including a room emitting one hell of an energy signature," Gloria said as sensor data filled the viewer.
"Computer core," Aerith said. "A big one at that."
"How could you possibly know that?" Paul whispered.
"A hobby of mine, one I inherited from my father."
"What about your mother? What did you inherit from her?"
"My eyes," she said as she batted them coyly.
"Your mother's human?"
"Yep. Capt. Marta McMurphy of the Elf Marine Expeditionary Force. Excuse me for a moment. Gloria, can I remotely run a hacker ball through one of the pedes?"
Gloria reached down and made some adjustments to her console. "Now you can. I assume you want to mosey over and hack into the system?"
"You know me so well."
They headed down the metal duct while homing-in on the signal.
As they approached their destination, Gloria noticed members of the boat's security force quietly walk onto the Bridge and tak
e positions in the shadows at the edge of the darkened room. She looked down at her console and saw a single word displayed dimly on the central screen: "Go."
Gloria grabbed the gun she had tucked into her waistband and turned toward Paul only to find herself facing a blaster. She looked over to Aerith and saw Paul was holding a knife to her throat. "Easy there, Doc, or your cousin gets cut."
"Hey, lad, you're hurting Ms. Aerith," Sean said as he approached the two. Before anyone could stop the steward off, Paul turned and hit him with the blaster, knocking Sean to the ground.
"Back off, sailor boy," Paul said as he turned his back to the unconscious steward to speak to the captain. "I want a shuttle prepped for liftoff in five minutes or Dr. Aymar here gets her head air conditioned."
"Who the hell are you?" Nachase demanded as she stared down the barrel of her gun at the historian. Around her, the security personnel had their weapons aimed at him while the crew continued to operate the boat.
"I'm called Krax, and I'm here to collect a bounty on Harmon Aymar, but since he's away on business, his daughter will have to do."
"What happened to Paul Steele?" the captain demanded.
"He's tied up in storeroom C57-D. He may even be awake by now."
"You must know there is no way we're going to let you leave, don't you?" Gloria hissed. "There is no way in Hell that you’re taking Aerith with you."
"Let me tell you something—" Whatever Krax was about to say got lost in a gurgle as a long, thin black rope-like object wrapped around his neck and squeezed, cutting-off the bounty hunter's air supply. Meanwhile, clawed hands grabbed his wrists, forcing him to release Aerith and his weapons.
"I cannot stomach some low-life bounty hunter behaving this badly while everyone around him is trying to get their work done," Sean said as he picked the perp up by the throat and turned him so they could stand face to face. "Now, these fine members of the Deltafish Security Force are going to take you to a holding cell. I suggest you behave yourself."
Security officers disarmed Paul and handcuffed him before leading him off the Bridge. "Captain, my compliments to you and your crew. Your professionalism will figure prominently in my report to Cube Director Devlin," Sean said as he removed his hat to reveal long pointed ears which swiveled about once they were freed from their confinement.
Gloria had reestablished control of her bot and slaved Aerith's to hers while the young woman stared at the steward. "You're like me!" she exclaimed."
"I'm not nearly that smart, nor am I anywhere near as pretty," Sean said as he scratched an ear tip. "Oh, OffSec Security Agent Sean Dayton at your service," he said. "Thanks for the assist, Dr. Aymar."
"Thank Dir. Devlin. It was her idea. You're an elf-human hybrid?"
"I hate that term; it makes me feel like an electric conveyance. Mom's an elf and dad's a human. They run a freight service out of Earth's Station One. Personally, I prefer elfling. It sounds much more mythical," Sean said before noticing Aerith's look. "Dr. Aymar, why is she staring at me?"
"You're the first one of her kind she's ever seen," Gloria explained as a medic tried to examine her, but got shooed away for his trouble.
"Really? Hell, the space stations are filled with us elflings."
"Are there really a lot of us out there?" Aerith asked, still unable to take her eyes off Sean.
"Ms. Aerith, I'm the youngest of six siblings, and they all look just like me. Listen, you need to get back to work, and I need to write a stack of reports a mile deep, so I should go. How about you and I have dinner when all this insanity is over?"
Aerith smiled. "I'd like that very much."
Sean turned and headed to the door, pausing only to salute the captain and first officer.
Aerith tapped her headset, connecting it to her bot. "He seems very nice," she said to no one in particular.
"Ladies, I am sorry about that ruckus," the captain said as he walked over to their position. "OffSec warned us of a possible assassin aboard the boat, but they had no further information as to his or her identity. They did say the attempt was financed by a brigand named Kobo. Security reported the assassin was wearing a shimmer mask programmed to look just like one of the crew."
"I thought it was strange when our Dr. Steele, an Earth historian, didn't recognize the genitive case of the Irish name for Ireland."
"I shall let you two get back to work. Speaking of which, where are the probes?" the captain asked.
Gloria looked first at the console, then the viewer. "The grate up ahead is directly above the center of the core. Wait a minute..." she said as she turned up the gain of the audio feed.
"What is it doctor?" the captain asked.
"I'm picking up voices from inside the room. I recognize one of them."
"Who is it, Cuz?" Aerith asked.
"It's Royce, and he's very angry."
Chapter Twelve
Nash pounded on the console in frustration as it refused to do his bidding, all the time growling and cursing in several ancient tongues.
"Agent," a technician said from the other side of the console, "the explosion sent current spikes through most of the systems. It'll take an hour to reset no matter how hard you pound on the controls."
"Silence!" Nash yelled at the tech. The tech stood there and stared at Nash with a look of contempt mixed with boredom. Before Nash could comment on the tech's impudence, the door to the room was kicked in. Five Marines, an elf, and a nightmare walked in.
"Nash, old buddy!" the nightmare yelled as it walked over, grabbed the agent by his tunic, and threw him roughly up against the wall while the other grange stood and watched with amusement. "Hey, Nash, it's Xura! Don't you recognize me?" She rotated her horn lasers so they were aimed right between the agent's eyes.
"Xura? I see you found a new designer. Love the look, by the way."
"Quiet, worm," she said. She turned to the techs and hissed, "Get out!"
The techs bodies crumpled to the ground in lifeless heaps.
"Where the hell did they go?"
"Back to their universe. Any grange released from its host body will immediately return to the grange universe as long as the portal is open."
"And if it's closed?" Marta asked as she examined the console.
"They die. So, Nash, want to tell us what kind of party you and Lorq are throwing?"
"I'll tell you nothing, Inspector. My lips are sealed."
"Fine. What do you think your High Council will say when you materialize back on your home world? You screwed up on Maranta Five, now you screw-up here. Hmmm, I think I smell displeasure on the wind."
"Maranta Five? What the hell are you talking about?" Harm demanded as he grew visibly angry.
"Meet the mysterious signature you saw on the screen right before you got shot," Xura explained. "He's the one who shot you via the guard bot. Marta was never the target, only you were, oh noble elf."
"This is making no sense," Marta said as she put a gauntleted hand on her husband's arm.
"Tell them!" Xura said as she began to press against Nash's chest.
"The Wraith was supposed to clear the way for our invasion ten thousand of your years ago, but it went bat-shit crazy, killing everyone and everything in sight, including the bodies inhabited by the advance team of grange. We detected the ships which arrived one hundred fifty years ago, but that damn virus was still active. Even with that moron, Jurzik, interfaced, we couldn't stop that damn thing. Then Harmon shows up and imprisons it. I realized too late that he was about to set the self-destruct, so I shot him."
"I stopped an invasion? Damn, failing after ten thousand years of effort must really hurt," Harm noted.
"Laugh it up, elf, but today is a new day, a day of victory for the grange. You and your motley crew can't stop us. Your fate is sealed..."
"Blah, blah, blah. What? I'm going to die," Harmon sneered. "Been there, done that. I suggest you tell the big elf in the battle armor everything you know."
"And If I don't?"
"Then I'll let the good Captain deal with you," Royce said as Marta crushed a steel chair into a pancake.
Nash looked up from the wreck of the chair to see Marta had raised her visor so he could see the smile on her face. "Remember me?" she asked. "I'm Harm's wife. I watched you shoot my husband through the heart," she said as her gauntlet laser powered up. Harm, Royce, and the other members of the team gave her space.
Realizing the chances of his continued existence in this universe were growing slim, Nash acquiesced. "What do you want to know?"
"Put him down, Xura, and bring him over here," Harm said as Royce joined them at the console. Meanwhile, Marta and the other Marines took up defensive positions near the door.
Harm reached into his pocket and pulled out his hacker ball, activated it, and placed it on the console. Immediately, tendrils emerged and embedded themselves into its surface. The console lit up as the ball wrested control of all its systems. Harm quickly tapped commands into the console. He stopped abruptly and stared at it. "We have a problem," he said calmly.
"What? What kind of problem?" Royce asked as he tried to make sense of the data displayed on the screen.
"Nash, did you send a distress signal to Cmdr. Lorq?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about..."
Marta raised her right arm and aimed its laser at the synth. She reached over with her left hand and turned the weapons power to its maximum setting of eleven.
"Yes! I don't know what got into me..."
"How much time do we have?" Royce asked as he unslung his weapon and powered it up.
"Two minutes, tops. I have internal sensors online and they show three teams of hostiles approaching," Harm said as he went back to typing. One of the wall screens lit up with an image of the lab along with everything around it including corridors and one large access tube behind the wall opposite the door. "Nash, I want your access codes. Now!"
Nash obliged.
"Xura, would you mind cutting us a way into that tube with those mighty fine lasers you're sporting?" Royce yelled.
"My pleasure," she replied while swiveling her tail around. She fired at the bulkhead, cutting through the metal like she was carving a roast beast.