ARTIS PRIME

by Tobias Roote

  She pressed forward in bursts of speed; the corridors weren’t long enough to make fast progress. RIGA made her way to a point in the ship that she felt wasn’t far from wherever they kept their weaponry. The map blueprint, she had lifted from the guard's computers, weren’t too specific, but it would be here somewhere near. It needed to be. All other avenues were now closed off. There would be a running battle soon, whichever way she went.

  It didn’t take much for her fast processors to figure out that the room with two armed guards on its entrance would be either the armoury or the engine room. She couldn’t sense the drive generators this close, so it would likely be where they stored the weaponry. Both guards were attentive and would react quickly. She placed her flechette guns on the deck, deciding on an unarmed approach. It was forty-five yards to the first guard. She calculated she would get half way before he opened fire. The other would wait a few seconds before joining in.

  Stepping out and walking normally, hoping that her shield hadn’t suffered any damage in Trench’s hands, RIGA headed directly towards the guards. They saw her immediately. She was still too far away and needed to get closer. Placing her hands up in the air in front of her to indicate she was unarmed, she continued to walk, eating up the distance between them.

  “HALT.... Stop where you are and get on the deck.... on your knees, NOW!” the guard ordered, bringing his gun to bear.

  RIGA ignored him, keeping her hands in front, now twenty yards from them. Both prepared to fire. RIGA was close enough, so put on a burst of speed, taking them both by surprise, as blaster fire scorched the air where she had been walking a second earlier. Now, she was almost in front of the first, easily pulling his weapon free, leaving a very surprised guard. She kept moving, and with her other arm, knocked the second guard heavily into the bulkhead. He hit it at the speed of a full run, smacking his head as it collided with hard steel.

  The disarmed guard was attempting to grapple RIGA, but the shield wouldn’t give him purchase. RIGA slammed her open hand against his chest, driving the guard back against the door, where he too, hit his head and was unconscious before he hit the ground.

  RIGA looked at the door. It was heavy duty and locked. She would need time. It was an old-fashioned manual lever with a locking mechanism. Cocking her head slightly to tune her hearing, RIGA judged she had a maximum of two minutes. The surveillance cameras were turned to her and would be reporting her position to the force amassing to take her down.

  One of her eggs emerged from her abdomen and opened on her command. She selected a small wedge of plastic explosive and a detonator cap, then replaced the egg. It was still being absorbed as she placed the explosive inside, and at the front of the lock, making sure it was embedded well into the framework. The detonator was a simple device. She pressed the bezel until it broke the internal compartments, allowing the constituents to mix. Taking note of the time, she pressed it into the explosive, then walked away until she was off-centre from the frame.

  Six seconds later the door lock had melted in a heated exchange of chemicals. An alarm sounded coming from the main speakers, and a red light above the door advised everyone that the armoury had been broken into. She calculated she had less than sixty seconds.

  Inside, RIGA found what she needed, blasters and lasers. They weren’t the same designs she was used to, but they would be sufficient to achieve her aim. Passing along the shelves as RIGA switched them on, checking the charges, she noticed power equipment for creating hull breaches. These would be used by an assault team when attempting to subdue an enemy ship. They weren’t small, but there was an anti-grav pallet nearby. Placing four of them onto the sled, she added a few other items, then covered them with heat resistant blankets and strapped them down, ensuring they couldn’t see what she had loaded.

  Since there was no other exit from the armoury, RIGA anticipated a battle to leave the room. She sensed soldiers, guards at the end of the corridor. Looking around her and at all the different weapons designed for ground, as well as ship fighting, RIGA selected a long tube type device which held a number of canisters. Her analysis told her these were percussive devices with an explosive charge in both the ignition and the detonation sections. Perfect.

  RIGA had two advantages, her speed and the shield. She intended to use both now to clear her exit.

  Her capacity, to understand technology quickly, meant she ascertained the procedure for firing the tube, and was ready to leave in a few seconds. Pulling on the sled, activating its motors, it followed her to the exit. The door was open and RIGA knew there were guards approaching along the bulkheads. She took two of the globe-shaped devices from the nearest shelf, glanced at them to assure herself of their design and function. She then moved the safety catches sideways, pressed the button on both and threw them out of the door at different angles to take out the nearest section of corridor on either side.

  The double boom of explosive detonation told RIGA what she needed to know, there would be at least twenty feet either side in the clear.

  Before they organised a better mode of attack, RIGA needed to act. Jumping out into the corridor and firing the tube first down one side, then the other, she jumped back again before any return blaster fire reached her. The resultant explosions were deafening, and RIGA distinctly heard the sound of air loss, she was obviously closer to the hull than she first thought. Good.

  Choosing to go right out of the armoury door, RIGA draped a box of the round objects on the sled at the back where they could easily be seen. The writing said ‘GRENADES,’ and she absently flitted through her data-banks for the meaning. The response confirmed her correct application of the weapon.

  As she ran, the sled following behind, RIGA had an opportunity to survey the damage the tube device had caused. Impressive, she thought as she also detected hurried attempts to stifle the loss of atmosphere, caused by the heavy detonation. These should not be used on a ship, she realised. Not wanting further possibilities of damage to the hull at a weak point, the force ahead of her had pulled back to an inner corridor leaving guards behind to keep taking pot-shots at her.

  RIGA detected them before she reached the corridor. Pointing the tube weapon at them, she fired, noting with satisfaction the immediate withdrawal of the guards as the hurriedly erected barricade disintegrated in a cloud. The internal bulkheads, obviously not as strong, were buckled and damaged. Two guards lay behind the debris, killed by the shrapnel, judging by the body damage. Neither of them wore armour.

  She continued to move forward, aware that she was being permitted to move freely in some directions, and held back at others by large forces and barricades. Moving further down the corridors, she came to a room that held external space gear. Her mind, full of the idea of sabotaging the ship, came to a quick decision, she quickly found a space-suit, donning it in a few seconds. RIGA looked at the power-packs and oxygen. She could take one, but not the other, the sheer bulk of them wouldn’t allow her to manoeuvre through the corridors.

  Fixing the small power-pack across her shoulders but leaving the helmet on the sled, where it would be protected by the explosives it carried, she continued down the corridor. RIGA had noted that there had been no shots from behind since leaving the armoury, despite detecting the proximity of at least ten guards following her a corridor behind. The proximity of the grenades and the knowledge that beneath the cover, there were unknown explosives, kept them from risking a large detonation within the confined space.

  They had a plan, she just didn’t know what it was, but believed it would entail some form of physical disablement. There was no smell of gas, and no worrying emanations coming from rooms she passed. The map in her head told her she was still too far from both the bridge and her other destination, the engine room. The airlock, however, was in the next corridor.

  RIGA’s senses tingled. She stopped, as the sporadic firing accompanying her progress also halted. They were springing their trap. RIGA’s sensors worked to understand the danger, but couldn’t get a s
ensible response from the feedback. The air pressure had changed. She moved on and rounded the corner to face the outside hull, the airlock she was aiming for was now directly ahead. There were no guards or barricades.

  Whilst RIGA knew she was entering a trap, she didn’t yet know its nature. Her senses went out on high alert, feeling around the edges of the trap for an explanation. There was nothing. The airlock looked fine, another red light was flashing, but there was something she couldn’t place. She kept her attention fixed on it waiting for whatever it was to rise through her consciousness.

  The rumbling sound from behind brought her to another halt. She ran back to see the internal doors closing. Her exits were being cut off. That explained the changing air pressure. They had been sealing off all of the exits. Now what?

  Too late RIGA remembered the flashing red light above the airlock. The outer door was open. Before RIGA was able to consider the reason, an explosion ripped through the airlock with such force that debris was flying through the air towards her, bouncing off her shield.

  Her speedy reactions were all that stopped her and the sled from being sucked back out into the resulting vacuum of space. While she managed to put on her helmet using her own weight, she used her other hand to disable the antigravity of the sled, bringing it to the deck with a heavy thud. The additional purchase enabled her to lodge a foot under it while she sealed the helmet and checked her suit quickly for leaks.

  This was their plan? To explode their airlock and suck her out into space? She considered it, deciding it probably wasn't a bad strategy if they thought she was human. The Captain, knowing what she carried underneath the covers on the sled, and the tube device she had been using to great effect, would recognise the potential for serious damage to his ship. More than sufficient cause when added to the threat that she would destroy the ship in one hour. Thirty-four minutes actually.

  RIGA waited a few seconds for the air to escape and the pressure to equalise, then she proceeded to the airlock with the re-activated sled and, began to climb onto the outside of the hull. This was probably the most dangerous part for her. If Gossie was not in range, there might be no escape plan, but RIGA trusted her friend to be here. She continued to pull the sled until it broke free of gravity and turned into a weightless lump, which nonetheless had significant inertia to drag her away from the hull. She had no magnetic boots, nor did she need them. Her power-pack had switched on automatically as soon as it detected vacuum, and now offered up direction and thrust, to keep her close to the ship, out of range of any weapons they had.

  RIGA kept a three-dimensional map in her head, heading directly to the engine room area where the drives were being maintained. Earlier she had noticed there were signs of nuclear activity, and had judged that these people were using reactors, to power their ship. This might prove fatal for them soon; it would depend on where they were being kept. Usually, they would keep them close to the hull, so the cores could be ejected if the possibility existed of them going critical. RIGA intended to test that theory in a few minutes.

  When she judged herself to be in the correct position measured by feedback from her sensors, she turned carefully to the sled, uncovering the contents, keeping them close to her as she worked. When she had finished there were three clamped devices attached to the hull, and a 4th still attached to the sled, with some other items. RIGA intended to detonate them from a distance using her own electronics.

  Detecting activity behind her, RIGA turned just as a plasma bolt slammed into the arm of the sled, skewing it out of her hand and sending it away from her and the ship. Darting away from the charges she had set, RIGA now had no weapon to use against the enemy coming at her. She did have her own particular skills, as well as her power-pack She couldn’t afford to take any risk, deciding it wasn’t necessary.

  There was only one of them, but she still decided to retreat, a plasma bolt at this range would be fatal. She had the shield, but the impact would catapult her into space, same as the sled. She carefully backtracked toward the hull breach, using sensors to monitor the location of the enemy space-soldier. They should have sent more of them, she thought.

  When the figure reached the clamps, he squatted down to begin disarming them. RIGA sent the detonate command to the electronic receivers. The explosion of all three hull breaching detonations at the same time was surprisingly powerful. She could feel the shudder of the ship through the outer section of the hull she was holding on to.

  RIGA had intended to return to the breach and detonate the cores inside the engine room using the spare gear on the sled. By good fortune, it seemed unnecessary now, as she detected new explosions occurring within the ship. It shuddered again.

  Just as she began to move back to the opening away from the damage of the engine room, an explosion occurred closer to her, dislodging her from the hull. She had no tie lines, so no means to halt her sudden departure from the ship’s hull. The increasing effects of speed were sending her further away every second, spinning into space.

  When the ship’s reactors went up the result was a sunburst; no sound, although there was interference on the comms channels from the radiation. However, the distance from RIGA was already such that she had few concerns for debris, hoping the shield would continue to protect her and the suit in case some came her way. She wondered if the young female officer had escaped. She doubted it. Her internal chronometer calculated the final explosion to be ten minutes after her deadline.

  Now, with no chance of returning, she attempted to reduce her spin using the power-pack. Needing its energy for life-giving heat, she couldn’t over waste the reserves as she had no idea when Gossie would reach her. With no air to worry about, she could survive on the small quantity inside the suit, it would be enough with her own internal stores, to keep her flesh breathing for many hours, possibly days. Her body heat was the main issue; the spare batteries were on the sled.

  As time went on there was still no sign of Gossie.

  RIGA’s body heating began to slowly give way to the cold of space. Her oxygen supply, whilst enough to keep the flesh alive, was being poisoned by the build-up of carbon dioxide and other gases in the suit. RIGA needed energy to neutralise it, but there wasn’t enough for all the functions required.

  As her core battery expended energy keeping her temperature stable, RIGA realised it would not be long before her surface systems succumbed to the cold. She began to take steps to ensure her memory core was protected deep in her system, as far as possible from the ice-cold that was beginning to invade her body. She began shutting down her processes to minimise damage to core systems. In the end they too began to fail.

  The final task was to set her Emergency Transponder to use the remaining power, it would keep the signal going another day at most. After that it would no longer matter.

  15. The Plot Thickens

  The recovery of RIGA's body by the small ship was a time of concern for Gossie, who realised that she had incurred multiple points of failure of her bodily systems. There were protocols set-up for revival in such extreme situations. As RIGA lay inert on the deck of the control room, Gossie began putting them into action.

  First, the AI used a remote arm to place a conductive pad behind RIGA’s neck. This was to feed power to the sub-systems, allowing the lungs to autonomously feed life-giving gas nutrients to the synthetic flesh, which was bordering on necrosis from lack of oxygen.

  Next, Gossie accessed the nodes in RIGA’s left hand by re-extending the metal arm, now fitted with matching connectors, slotting over the protruding contacts. By accessing RIGA’s systems directly, Gossie was able to concentrate the ingoing flow of energy, ensuring that her core systems received essential power boosts, stabilising her without further deterioration, while at the same time pumping power into her organic battery.

  A major problem with her synth-bionic cells, as in humans, was the speed with which they would degrade if they were deprived of energy for any length of time. RIGA looked to have been lucky, if Gossi
e had been delayed, RIGA would never have recovered. Her body would eventually have broken down in much the same manner as a humans, leaving only the alloy skeleton and a few non-metallic parts behind, to deny a science laboratory any clue as to their purpose, or construction.

  The scientists who had examined RIGA, before officially accepting her as an AI citizen of Epsilon Gamma, had found that she carried within her instructions on basic repair, recovery and maintenance, in the event she was damaged.

  When Gossie had originally been designed it had been with the objective of providing RIGA with life support, where and when needed. She was a multi-functioning AI, and in all ways, RIGA’s partner. Her underlying instructions were to provide full medical back-up to RIGA. That was her primary function, even though their mission protocols sometimes forced these to be over-ridden, or ignored.

  A lot of trouble and expense had been gone to without RIGA’s knowledge. It had not been considered relevant to inform her of these arrangements; they would become known, as and when, they were required. That was good enough for the scientists and the AI’s involved.

  When Gossie had been trained, it had been with the knowledge that it may well be impossible to return RIGA to Epsilon Gamma in time, or at all, before she effectively ‘expired’. Therefore, Gossie had as many resuscitation facilities as they could install, to ensure that RIGA could be kept in suspension, until return to Epsilon.

  Now, as Gossie monitored RIGA’s life signs, she began the long return to the Empirum’s system.

  Only now did Gossie begin to replay the events leading to the recovery of RIGA. Her report would show that, having followed the enemy vessel for days trying hard to keep it in range (the battleship was fast in hyperspace), Gossie had discovered that she was in unknown regions and without any idea as to their final destination. As a result, there were no drones to relay the transponder signal from RIGA. However, when the ship dropped out of hyperspace, Gossie had managed to catch up by placing both antimatter drives into the red zone of their commercial meters for a full day and a half, overheating them almost to melting point.