Plague Planet (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  ...*...*...*...*...

  “This is the damnedest do or die thing I've ever heard. Is this going to work?” Helen asked. She stuffed her hands in her pockets, but kept clenching them. She was scared, more scared then she'd ever been in her life.

  “It'd better,” Nohar replied.

  “Will he be back?” Helen asked softly, eyes troubled as she watched the red car climb into the sky.

  Nohar churred for a moment, shading his eyes to watch the car climb. “I hope so,” he murmured. “I hope so,” he said again after a long moment, and then turned away.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Sprite watched through the admiral's eyes as he piloted the air car closer to ground zero. “This has got to be nuts,” she murmured. She was charting locations for the admiral to land after phase two of his plan. He would need a safe place in that sea of hostile nanites to land and go to ground before phase three. So far she wasn't at all sure about phase one though. They had to survive it first.

  Irons grunted. His hands clutched at the control yoke as they went through a patch of turbulence. “Any other ideas?”

  Sprite sighed. “No, that's the problem, I'm coming up empty. But this is the damnedest do or die thing I think you've ever thought of admiral.”

  “Or at least the damnedest he's come up with yet,” Proteus interjected. Irons snorted.

  “Any other objections?” Irons asked. “Defender? You might as well weigh in on this,” he said.

  “I have nothing to add admiral. This is the only prudent course left,” the AI responded. Sprite blinked on the admiral's HUD, clearly surprised.

  “No try to get to the shuttle?”

  “As you pointed out the nanites have no doubt compromised it. It could crash or self-destruct or at the very least contaminate Phoenix and other ships thus compromising your safety as well as the safety of others. Until it is certified safe we can't chance it. This is the only option.”

  “That's it?” Sprite demanded. “Just like that?” she asked. The AI's smoldering eyes turned to her.

  “There is nothing left but a hail Mary as the admiral likes to say.”

  “Amen,” Irons replied. “We're almost there. Prep for nanite defense and shields. Proteus is the package ready?”

  “All set admiral. Waiting on your order,” the AI responded.

  “Good. Let's deliver the football to the end zone.”

  “And shove it right up the Xeno's ass,” Sprite growled. Irons grunted in amused approval.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  An hour later Irons wasn't so eager as he felt the little red air car shudder. “That's not turbulence,” he said.

  “Nanites in the air have infested the car's systems. I suggest you abandon before this ship crashes admiral,” Proteus said.

  “Yeah, right,” Irons said, pulling the canopy release. Instead of popping off it slowly lifted, the edges were melting around the perimeter seal. After a moment the air got under the lip of the canopy and did the rest, ripping the thing off. Irons winced, the thing was covered in nanites, there was no telling where it would land.

  “Controls are now non responsive admiral. Bail,” Sprite said. He grunted and hit the safety release on his harness. It didn't unlock. He hit it again but it still didn't unlock.

  “The AI admiral, it's locked it.”

  “I see that,” Irons said, yanking with enough strength to rip the nylon straps apart. He stood in the seat, feeling the wind buffering him as he reached down and pulled a bag to his chest. The air sparkled around him as his shields fended off the attacking nanites. As he stood, left arm up protecting his eyes the ship nosed down into a suicidal dive. For a brief moment he felt like he was air surfing.

  Inertia tossed him out of the seat, he floated as the ship fell below him. After a moment it picked up speed and was out of his field of view. He however had gone spread eagle, he glanced left and right and saw the familiar glow of his cybernetics under his skin. He checked the bag on his chest and then looked to his left. “Where did the car crash?”

  “It didn't. It's... it's coming back around!” Sprite warned, putting a karat on his HUD, behind and to his left. He turned, looking in the indicated direction.

  “Son of a bitch!” he said, arching into a dive of his own. “Lose it!”

  “We're trying admiral!”

  “Cloak?”

  “Not enough power if we're going to get to where we're going admiral. And the air is saturated with nanites. If we cloak they will still know our location from our passage through the air.”

  “Useless. Right,” Irons grunted as the air tore at the bubble around him. He gritted his teeth, readying himself for the impact to come. “Is it still on us?” he asked, looking under his left arm. He could just spot the little red car in a matching dive.

  “That's loyalty for you,” Sprite said in a moment of ill-timed levity. He blew a raspberry in response.

  “Head straight down. When I give the word we kick and yo yo.”

  “Um...”

  “It'll work,” Irons replied. He felt the rush on the shield intensify as the shield reformed into an egg shape to cut his drag coefficient. “It's got to work,” he said, staring at the ground rushing up to meet him.

  “One hundred meters kick!” Sprite said, putting words to action. His gravity emitters kicked forward and to the right and then went to full power upwards. He felt a brief amount of negative g's until his inertial dampeners compensated. He looked to the right just in time to see the air car impact the ground in a tremendous explosion.

  “Nice. It couldn't pull up in time,” Sprite said as they flew onward. “We need to land soon admiral, we're using up a lot of juice,” she cautioned.

  He looked down to the sea of material writhing below him. They were over ground zero, the central mass of nanites. He shook his head, refocusing on the nearest Xeno shield emitter. It stood like an alien claw, glowing purple in the dying sunlight. “Not a chance. We'd be in quicksand and we're low on time. Get us there,” he said.

  “Lucky us,” Sprite replied.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  A few minutes later Irons noticed bubbles in the nanite mix ahead of them. The sea of robots seemed to writhe, and then a tentacle reached out for him. “Someone doesn't like us,” he said, dodging. Tentacles shot out, some spears, and other objects. The Xeno AI viewed him as a threat and rightly so. However he was only a dozen meters from the shield emitter. He twisted, watching a spear strike the shield and sizzle on it. “My turn,” he said, reaching into the bag and tossing the first package.

  The small gravity emitter he tossed activated right away thanks to the signal Sprite sent. It had a capacitor and just enough juice to fire off a millisecond burst of gravitational energy, all focused at the emitter itself. The planned chaotic interference kicked the Xeno shield, destabilizing it. It fluttered and then went down, the glow of the emitter towers ending momentarily. Irons flew through the gap and straight for the bomb.

  “The easy part is over. Now for the hard part,” Irons muttered as he reached into the bag again. His hands pulled out two centimeter long tubes of explosives that he immediately dropped onto the target. The mushroom shaped bomb's exterior casing ripped open like a torn fruit as the shaped charges detonated. He felt the plume of debris and hot gases ping off his shield, temporarily enveloping him for a moment before they dissipated skyward.

  “It's now time for the tricky part,” Irons said, reorienting so he was face down, hovering over the center of the Xeno bomb. He could see silver objects inside, and his enhanced vision picked out the nanites swarming like ants around the ripped sections of the bomb, already at work repairing the damage. “Nope,” Irons said, reaching in with his right hand and triggering a blast of plasma.

  Super-hot blue plasma slammed into the silver metal, scorching it. Blow back obliterated the nanites around the perimeter. A second shot tore a larger hole. Then he began to rip and tear at the torn metal with his right hand until he was had the center
cavity exposed.

  “Bombs away,” Sprite said as Irons dropped the bag and its' remaining contents inside.

  “And now up, up and away,” Irons said, spinning and throwing all the power he had into a climb. The bombs went off immediately, tearing the planet buster apart with concentrated thermite and plasma charges.

  Irons felt the explosive force push the air and him along, and he rode it like a surfer. He grinned. “Target neutralized?” he asked.

  Sprite extended his scanner range behind him briefly to look. “I'll say. At least until the Xeno AI can build another,” Sprite responded.

  “Which it's not going to do,” Irons said, looking up to the sky. “Phoenix? Drop on command,” he said as he crested the edge of the Xeno nanite mass and landed near a pile of rubble. The Xeno nanites were like organic things, they invariably took the easy path, chewing up the softer dirt around the rocks and leaving them alone. Now they would serve as a tomb for him.

  “Ready admiral,” The AI responded after a moment. Irons had sent a command to use the ship's on-board replicators to build an immense EMP bomb. The only downside would be that he was damn close to ground zero. Too close for comfort actually, but he had a plan that might work in his favor. Might. He wasn't sure, but there was one thing he was certain about, he didn't want to be in the air when the bomb went off.

  “Go for drop,” Irons replied. He turned and dug for his life, trying to get as much mass between him and the incoming bomb. The rocks exploded into flying chips as he burrowed and chiseled lower. His nanites spread out around him in a cloud, Proteus had his own task to perform.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  In orbit Phoenix did a series of precise calculations and then adjusted its orbit with finicky precision. When it was satisfied it counted down over the radio network. At ten-seconds the shuttle bay doors opened. At Zero the little kick motor on the back of the bomb ignited to life, kicking the bomb away and down to the planet. “Bombs away!” Phoenix called.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The admiral looked up as his nanites moved rock and copper over him, entombing him. Just as the last centimeter was covered he caught a glimpse of the bomb with his long range sensors. “This is Irons, bomb is in flight. Repeat, bomb is in flight. Shut down all electronic devices now! Repeat now!” He coughed a few times, he'd inhaled granite dust in his haste to get the warning out.

  “Good luck admiral,” Helen replied and then he heard a click as her radio cut off. She would be passing the order to everyone to shut down all electronics right about now he thought.

  Irons grunted and turned in place. He was as deep as he safely could get. Proteus had stopped him. He turned, aware of the cage being built around him. Between it, the ground, and his shields, and his own hardened electronics hopefully it would be enough.

  “Sprite, Defender, nap time,” he ordered.

  “Good luck admiral,” Sprite replied. He watched with a thread of worry as the two AI shut down his computers and then themselves. Unfortunately he had to leave Proteus up for this. The index and middle fingers of both hands crossed.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Falling through the atmosphere the six meter diameter canister bomb sparkled as its' carbon carbon shell heated up from the forces of reentry. The super-heated plasma around it made the air pop, and also burned away any nanites that came into contact with it as it dropped below one thousand five hundred feet. A micro second later it was at its preprogrammed detonation point and a relay clicked.

  Coils of wire ripped out from the device on either end. Electromagnetic force ripped out from the device as its' superconductor batteries discharged, tearing at anything electronic. It was a shaped charge, designed to focus its tornado of radio waves downward and in a broad two hundred kilometer hemisphere of electronic death and destruction.

  The Xeno's shields hadn't been restored when the bomb went off, it consequently suffered the full brunt of the bomb as it ripped and tore at its precious circuitry. It knocked the electronic network apart, cauterizing all the nanites on the surface and burrowing deeper.

  The Xeno nanites had burrowed into the ground much like the roots of a Terran tree, forming a central tap root and feeder roots along axises with the greatest amount of copper and other metals. These now became its downfall as they channeled the electromagnetic fury into the heart of the swarm, killing it.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  Nearby Irons felt the force of the bomb as his sensors went fuzzy and then filled with static. His eyes were closed, he felt the tremor of the bomb's physical detonation slap at the ground above him. After a moment he cracked an eye and swore as a bit of dirt from his ceiling got into his eye. He rubbed at it. “We still here?”

  “It seems that way admiral,” Proteus responded. “Faraday cage succeeded.”

  “Right,” Irons said.

  “We are however down to one percent power,” Proteus said.

  Irons grunted. “Sprite?”

  “Sprite and Defender are both offline admiral. They took themselves offline as a precaution,” Proteus responded. Irons knew that, he'd ordered it. His mind cleared.

  “But you didn't?”

  “I am the nanites admiral. I am actually online all the time if you wish to use them,” Proteus reminded him. Irons grunted as he stood. His body ached, he felt tired, but oddly elated. He used his arms to dig himself out. By the time he was done he really was exhausted. He turned, shielding his eyes with one dirty hand to look at ground zero. It looked like a sandy beach now, a silvery sandy beach. A hopefully dead beach, his power reserves were hovering around five percent and he had only half his nanites left.

  “Well! I think that was enough excitement for one day! Don't you?” he asked, brushing dirt from his hands as he leaned against a rock. He reached down and brushed at the dirt and dust clinging to his clothes. “Sitrep?”

  “Nanites down to forty one percent I backed most of my systems up however. I will need time and resources to recover fully,” Proteus responded with a slight hesitation. The admiral winced. He'd forgotten that Proteus was the nanites. What could that have been like, using the nanites to create a copper cage knowing that they would die? Feeling them die? He wasn't sure he could ask Proteus. It was brave, that was for certain.

  “Commander Sprite is booting now,” Proteus said, not acknowledging the admiral's levity. “Estimated time to full consciousness... two... One... now.”

  “What'd I miss?” Sprite asked as her avatar popped up on his HUD. She pretended to yawn and stretch. Irons snorted.

  “Have a nice nap?” he asked as Defender appeared as well.

  “Now that you mention it, yes,” Sprite replied with a shrug.

  “Cute. Now, any ideas on how to get back to civilization?” he asked looking around.

  “Well, since everything electronic for a two hundred kilometer range is toast, walking sounds about right,” Sprite replied with a snort.

  Irons sighed. “I was afraid you'd say that,” he grumbled. Sprite laughed as he shook his head and oriented himself. “This is going to be a loooong walk.”

  ...*...*...*...*...

  When the admiral returned to the edge of the remaining town just as the sun had crested the horizon he was greeted by a cheering crowd. He snorted, nodding and slowing his jog down as he got within a hundred meters of the group. Nohar and Helen were in the forefront, clapping and smiling.

  “What's next?” Nohar asked. Irons caught sight of Ole Blue in the crowd. His multifaceted eyes glittered at him briefly. The assassin tipped his hat his way with one pincer and then turned away, melting into the mix of cheering people.

  “A bath,” Helen said shaking her head as she looked at the dusty admiral. The crowd laughed at that.

  Chapter 23

  A small fast freighter the Jeremiah arrived in orbit as things seemed to be finally returning to normal. The ship arrived unannounced, there was much consternation about its arrival. Governor Oman was happy to see it, it was a sign things we
re returning to normal. Besides, all this brotherly love to save the peons was expensive, and continued to be so for some time. They needed some source of income to pay for it all.

  The ship was surprisingly from Pyrax, the Cross, a yacht turned freighter. The ship had passed through Gaston and had gotten word Irons was headed here. on-board were members of a merc group sent out to return admiral Irons to Pyrax.

  It was a wonder anyone was alive at all, it was a mark of their patience and team cohesion that they were. Trained killers trapped in a ship for nearly six months had been tough, they were all eager to get on with the mission and the big payday that awaited them in Pyrax. Some thought they were hired to bring Irons to justice, others thought it was because of the hit on him. Still others didn't care, they just wanted the money. They laughed about it as the ship approached orbit.

  “So, how are we going to do this? Irons is tough Hombre, or so I heard. And we don't even know where to find him!”

  “Where there's a will there is a way. We'll go to the top. I know a fat pig here who knows everything about this planet.”

  “Let me guess he'll talk?”

  “For a price,” a woman scoffed, picking at her nails with a bowie knife.

  “Nah, you squeeze him just right and he'll squeal like a stuck pig. Why do you think they call him Hodges the Hog?” The tough laughed nastily. The others snorted and then joined in.

  ...*...*...*...*...

  The captain negotiated the port fees. He wasn't happy, but he agreed to front for the mercenary team leader Miss Persephone, 'queen of the dead'. She was quiet, watching with black doll eyes. Some thought of her as a shark. She was small, with a bit of Asian in her blood line. She had short black hair and long nails. She tended to talk in a soft voice, occasionally stroking someone with a claw to keep them riveted to her.

  The males on-board weren't fooled by her. They broke out in a sweat whenever she came near, and for good reason. Roberts had made an idle pass at her at the start of their journey and she'd sunk those claws deep into his groin. He'd pissed blood for a week and spent several days in the ship's tiny infirmary.