by J. J. Green
Whoever was in charge of the defense units was clearly having a hard time controlling them. On her way to her destination, she came across several units wandering around aimlessly and getting in the way of the repair crews. She told them to follow her, and the part-organic androids dutifully marched along behind her.
By the time she arrived at the corner of the bay, Jas had collected seven units of varying models and specs. Another group of the towering androids were standing together as she approached, and she spotted an amorphous creature made of a transparent jelly-like substance among them. All the creature’s internal organs were visible, including the inner structures of its four eyes, which on the surface looked disconcertingly human.
“What are you doing with my defense units?” the creature screeched. A regular human voice had broadcast the words in an even tone from its translator, but the life form’s own high-toned speech almost overwhelmed the English. Jas wasn’t sure if it was as angry as it sounded or if that was just how it talked.
“I found them roaming around while I was on my way here,” she replied. “I thought I should bring them with me as they don’t seem to know what they’re supposed to be doing.”
“How did you make them obey you?” screeched Lieutenant Yeroch.
Jas replied, puzzled, “I just...told them what to do.”
“Huh, they won’t do anything I tell them. I commanded them to wait around for a while until we found them a leader, and half of them walked off.”
“They did what you told them to,” said Jas. “You instructed them to wait around, so they did that as well as they could. If you want them to wait here, you have to tell them exactly that. They do just exactly what you tell them.”
“Is that so?” The creature’s voice became so high-pitched, Jas winced. “If you’re so good at it, you can take over. They’re all yours.”
Chapter Ten
Over the next couple hours, Jas inspected the defense units and got them working as a team. Some were Earth-manufactured and their organic components were human cells, which seemed to make them easier for her to manage. Others were kinds she didn’t recognize, and she had to be even more careful than usual to simplify her language to make her meaning completely clear.
Working with such a mismatched bunch wasn’t going to be easy, but the tasks her squadron had been tentatively assigned were at least straightforward: defend the starship from boarders and sweep captured vessels for pockets of resistance.
After checking their integrated weaponry and asking for a status report from each unit, Jas repeated marching orders to accustom them to moving together in a predictable, orderly fashion. This wasn’t easy for the units, given their range of sizes and shapes. She was grateful that they all seemed to have organic neural networks that enhanced their adaptability and learning powers.
A few of the units reminded her of the AX models she’d commanded on Polestar prospecting missions. She’d even checked their chest plates, feeling a kind of nostalgia for the times when her life had been much simpler and she only had a myth-addicted, greedy captain to deal with.
She remembered the time she’d snuck aboard a shuttle to try to check out a Shadow trap planet after she’d been confined to quarters. Carl had been the shuttle’s pilot, and she recalled him finding her hiding in the hold, along with unit AX10.
She sighed. None of the units under her command were AXs, and she didn’t know where in the galaxy Carl was.
Jas came out of her reverie almost too late, as the defense units were about to march directly into a shuttle. “Right turn,” she said. As one group, they turned. Jas gave a small smile of satisfaction. Even the smallest of them, LK29, who she’d mentally nicknamed Pint-Size, was finally keeping up.
“Put this on,” said a voice behind her, making Jas jump. The words had been accompanied by a screech. She turned to find Lieutenant Yeroch handing her an armored suit and helmet. She took the suit and held it up. It seemed roughly the right size.
“You’re shipping out in fifteen minutes. Transport 17,” Yeroch continued. “You’ve been assigned to the destroyer, Infineon.
“Are we losing the battle?” she asked.
“No,” Yeroch replied. “The word is, we’re on the verge of victory, though we’ve incurred heavy losses. They’re calling for reinforcements for the final stage. You’ve been assigned to a human majority ship.” He left, repeating,” Fifteen minutes. Transport 17.”
***
What Jas had thought were shuttles were actually military transports with starjump capabilities, she realized. Hence their size. She also realized that the scars they bore were from attacks as they carried troops to and from starships taking part in the battle.
The defense units climbed inside Transport 17, their feet clanking on the metal floor. The interior had definitely seen better days. Inside were two long benches on either side of the long, low cabin. The floor sloped slightly, down to a central channel that led to a drain, no doubt to carry away the stomach contents of new recruits unused to starjumping. The channel didn’t look like it had been cleaned any time recently, and the smell of the place confirmed the fact.
Bare pipes encrusted with grime ran across the walls. Dirt also dimmed the light shining from square panels in the ceiling. The corner of Jas’ mouth lifted as she imagined Sayen’s reaction to traveling aboard the Unity’s transportation.
The defense units spaced themselves out evenly along the benches, and Jas took the spot closest to the exit. The hatch closed and sealed itself. They were left in silence and dimness. The defense units looked sinister in the half light, but Jas wasn’t too bothered about being alone with them. It had been weeks since she’d worked with androids, and she finally felt she was on familiar ground.
Still, her stomach was in knots. It wasn’t that she was afraid of fighting in the battle. It was hardly the first time she’d been in combat, though this would be her first military excursion. Her memory of the Path’s message was making her nervous. If undiscovered Shadows on the Unity side were going to turn against their shipmates, now would be the time.
The Shadows had managed another infiltration unsuspected. Jas guessed that it must have taken place long before the Council discovered the invasion. The Unity had scanned her and the other volunteers immediately when they’d arrived on the Camaradon, but if Shadows were already on the inside, it didn’t matter. The Unity’s precautionary strategies were too late, and now, in the heat of battle, it couldn’t possibly check all its personnel.
Had the Council made it clear to the Unity that it faced danger from within its own ranks? She had no way of finding out from her lowly position as a new recruit, and she was cut off from contact with any of the Council officers who had come to Ganymede.
At least the Shadows only replicated organic organisms, Jas reflected. She had nothing to fear from her units, but the minute she set foot aboard the Infineon, she had to suspect everyone she met.
The transport lurched as the pilot maneuvered it to the take-off pad, ready to fly the vessel to a safe distance from the Camaradon before starjumping. Jas told the defense units to fasten their safety harnesses, and she did the same. She slotted her helmet into place and snapped the visor closed, not knowing what to expect when they arrived at their destination. The cooled, purified air that puffed into her helmet was a welcome change from the stench and stuffiness of the cabin.
“LK29, do we have comm?” she asked.
“Affirmative, Corporal Harrington.”
Jas had memorized all the units’ designations, and she went through her list, checking that she was in contact with each one individually and as a team.
As she finished her check, the pilot’s voice came over her helmet’s comm. “Jumping in thirty seconds.”
Vibrations juddered through her bones as the transport’s engine generated power. The vibrations increased until they were almost unbearable. The Unity clearly didn’t waste creds on their troops’ comfort. Jas set her teeth and gripped her harness
tightly. Just when she thought she couldn’t bear the reverberations any longer, they jumped.
Chapter Eleven
As they emerged from the jump, the floor of the transport seemed to drop away. For the first split second, Jas thought it was an effect of the jump, but it soon became apparent it was more than that. She was forced abruptly downward, which caused her internal organs to crush into her diaphragm. She grimaced and waited for the pilot to correct their rapid drop, except he didn’t. The transport continued to accelerate in the same direction. The pilot must have spotted something as soon as they’d come out of the jump, Jas realized, and he was maneuvering to avoid it.
Jas guessed they must have emerged into the middle of a firefight, but she didn’t want to distract the pilot by asking stupid questions. A jerk to the right accompanied by the transport’s left wall buckling inward confirmed her fears. They’d been hit. A moment later, the lights went out. In response, Jas’ and the unit’s helmet lights turned on, their beams lighting the impassive faces of their fellows on the opposite bench.
A gasp came through from the pilot’s voice-activated comm. The transport heaved around, and the floor buckled against Jas’ feet. She lifted up her legs and told the defense units to do the same. The pilot cried out, there was a thump, and suddenly they were tumbling over and over. Another hit punched straight through the cabin, blasting two units to pieces. Jas felt the tug of depressurization as the air poured out of the ship.
The final hit corrected their spin somewhat, and now the transport lazily turned, powerless and drifting. The hard light of bright stars shone through the holes on either side of the cabin. The air was filled with tiny pieces of what remained of the two destroyed androids, which followed the spinning motion.
“Pilot?” Jas asked. No reply came. She asked again, several times, but he didn’t respond.
“Transport 17,” she said, hoping the ship’s computer would respond to the simple request. She didn’t know if she had the authority to use it.
“Yes, Corporal Harrington?”
A sigh of relief passed through her half-open lips. “What’s the pilot’s status?”
“The pilot is exhibiting no life signs.”
Krat.
“How about the ship’s engine?”
“The ship’s engine received two hits. The second hit penetrated its plating and disabled it.”
As the transport made another turn, Jas caught a glimpse of what looked like a far-distant starship, or at least a small area of starship-shaped space that was black among the shimmering sheet of stars. The Infineon? Probably, but they had no way of getting there. A jet of light like a falling star streamed past them toward the patch of darkness. As it hit, the light split and spread out, outlining the shape. It was a starship. No doubt about it. And its force field had just repelled a direct hit.
“Transport 17, please hail the Unity destroyer, Infineon.”
“I’m sorry, Corporal Harrington. My ship-to-ship comm is not working.”
The enemy seemed to have stopped firing at them and had returned its fire to the starship, probably correctly judging the transport to be disabled. Without a pilot, Jas and the defense units would spin forever unless an attempt was made to rescue them, and she thought that unlikely, even if someone had noticed the transport appear out of its jump before it was attacked. With their engines dead and their vessel sitting in an area of space hot with the trails left by energy weapons, they would soon be just about impossible to find. She would only last a few weeks, but the units might continue functioning for centuries.
The transport made another circuit of its slow spin, but its motion was still reacting to its final hit. Jas found it had turned slightly so that she could no longer see the Infineon, if that was what the starship was. Now, only the white points of distant suns showed through the holes in the transport. Floating gently against her safety harness, Jas wondered if any of them were the suns of planets she’d visited.
She hated the idea of giving up hope, but the chances of a change in their circumstances seemed slim. She didn’t fear death, though dying of thirst—which seemed the thing most likely to kill her in her powered armored suit with its limited water supply—wouldn’t be pleasant. But thoughts that she would never have the opportunity to set Carl straight on what he’d meant to her, and that she’d never see him, or Sayen, Phelan, Erielle, or Makey again—these thoughts made her sad.
“Corporal Harrington, permission to speak,” said one of the defense units. Jas lifted her eyebrows in surprise. She’d rarely known a unit speak without being spoken to. Her visor display told her it was Pint-Size.
“Permission granted,” she replied.
“What is our status, ma’am?”
“Our status is...” Stranded? Waiting to die? “...awaiting further orders.”
“Corporal Harrington, our transport’s engine is no longer functioning.”
“That’s correct, LK29.”
“Would it be beneficial to our mission if the engine were repaired?”
“Yeahhhh...it would.” Jas’ stomach clenched. “Are you telling me you can repair it?”
“Please wait a moment, ma’am, while I run a systems check with the ship’s computer.”
She held her breath.
“The engine is not repairable,” announced LK29.
Jas exhaled. Oh well.
“But we may be able to power the thrusters directly and move our vessel closer to the nearest friendly starship, the Infineon.”
Jas had forgotten that defense units were also walking, talking, fighting power packs. She should have remembered the fact because it was unit power that had kept Sayen alive when a ship they’d been on had crashed. Jas had never heard of units powering thrusters, but if Pint-Size was correct, that might save them. The transport already had momentum. All they had to do was exert a little propulsion at the right moment in its spin to reverse their motion away from the Infineon.
“You might? Then do it, LK29. Do it.”
Five defense units unbuckled themselves from their safety harnesses and set to work. They opened the access hatch in the floor of the transport and disappeared through it. Jas marveled at the androids’ independence and initiative. If she hadn’t known it, she would never have guessed they were the same units who’d been wandering around and bumping into each other in the shuttle bay of the Camaradon less than a couple of hours previously. They were acting more like soldiers than machines.
Around a minute later, the transport jumped a little. They were doing it. They were powering the thrusters with their own power packs. She didn’t know how long it would take, but eventually they should arrive at the Infineon. She just hoped it would still be under Unity control by the time they got there.
At each burst of power from the units to the thrusters, the ship’s spin was slowly being corrected. The view from the holes in the cabin stabilized, but the new, steady orientation of the ship showed nothing useful to Jas. She had no visual on the starship they were heading toward. Yet she did see more bolts of light speed past the transport. Despite what Yeroch had told her aboard the Camaradon, the battle seemed far from won.
LK29’s head appeared in the access hatch in the floor. The android clambered out, followed by another.
“Corporal Harrington, our power is nearly exhausted. Permission to substitute fresh units.”
“Permission granted,” Jas said. “How much—” A violent lurch from the transport snapped her teeth closed and made her bite her tongue. “Ough.” She swallowed the hot, metallic blood that leaked into her mouth. What the krat was that? At the same time as the lurch, a powerful shock had run through the ship as if something had collided with it. The units who had been powering the engine were thrown into the others sitting on the benches.
“Units, strap in,” Jas said.
The unsecured units struggled upright and clambered onto the bench, fastening their harnesses immediately. There was another heavy bump, and the last unit to emerge from the
hatch, who hadn’t had time to secure itself, flew across the cabin and out through a hole. The tips of its fingers caught the edge, and it began to pull itself in, but a third thump broke it free, and it spun away into space.
A bolt of light flashed through the holes, illuminating every nook and cranny, every stain and smear in the cabin. They were under attack again. Jas clenched her fists in frustration. A unit was lost, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. They were like passive targets in a vid game, just waiting to be picked off.
The flashes and erratic bumps continued for another few seconds, then suddenly it was all over.
Chapter Twelve
The transport was still. Reverberations in the bench and floor told Jas something was locking onto the exit. It opened, and armed suited-up soldiers poured in, passing Jas as they sped to the far side of the cabin. They began checking the units.
One of them kicked a unit’s leg and began gesticulating at another who seemed to be the captain. Jas couldn’t hear what the soldiers said, but it was clear from their body language that they were frustrated at finding only units inside the transport.
Jas unfastened her harness and floated free. One of the soldiers swung his weapon around and pointed the muzzle at her. She held up her hands, and the officer waved the soldier down and approached her. He grabbed her shoulders and touched his helmet to hers.
“Are you the only person aboard?” he asked, his voice sounding muffled and distant.
“It’s just me and twenty-two units, she replied. Her swollen tongue made her voice thick. ” Used to be twenty-five.”
“Kr—” said the officer as he pulled away. He pointed at the units and thumbed toward the exit, then grabbed Jas’ arm and gestured in the same direction.
Jas joined the soldiers and units as they left the transport. As soon as she passed through the exit, artificial gravity pulled her to the floor. They were inside a large airlock. With some relief Jas saw the name Infineon emblazoned on the walls. Soldiers and units crowded in the airlock, and the last to leave the transport sealed its exit.