Shards [Book Two]

by Peter W Prellwitz

  While we had our little joy rides, though, we also worked. With Mike acting as my courier, I had begun placing traps and data mines throughout every section of NATech. I also planted a number of spawning grounds. I left them there to incubate, feeding on partially disabled trinary code. When I had finally crossed the Quantum River, and found what I suspected I'd find, I would unleash them, and they would rip through the NATech webbing, destroying everything they touched. I didn't particularly enjoy this kind of wholesale destruction, but I liked their wholesale control of our planet and our lives even less.

  We were heading over to NATech Antarctic site—I was really interested in finding out how our team did on the recent raid—when Mike called out and suddenly stopped in midair. He used ion thrust to move around, much more spectacular than my solar wings, and left a five hundred meter trail behind him. I followed behind and lower, so when I saw the trail shorten, I knew he had stopped. I shifted my feathers and climbed up to him, calling for a platform. It came shooting up underneath him fast enough that I had a landing area. I touched down and released my wings.

  “What's up?” I asked, a little breathless. This far from the interface surface, the connection was more difficult to maintain. It wasn't bad, but the electrons were a bit thin up here.

  “I just picked up a nearby distress signal, Abby! A couple of dogs from the Seventeenth are on leave in Phoenix, and they've just been ID'd by NATech goons!"

  “Oh, no! How bad is it? Can you establish contact?"

  “I think so. But I'm going to need some of your energy.” I nodded, stepped up to him and grasped his forearm. Yellow energy flowed from me into him, lightening his green aura while intensifying it. I gasped with pain and clutched a rail. Normally, giving him extra power was not a problem, but this soon after data sharing made it more difficult. But Mike needed this extra energy to boost our signal. He called up a smooth surface the size of a plate. I looked into the solid, dark surface.

  There was a great deal of static. I could only just make out a couple of faces. Two men, both bloodied. It was dark outside. I heard occasional slug gun fire. I started to speak, then broke off and looked at Mike quickly. They would be less likely to ask for assistance from a girl my age. Mike understood and adjusted the fragment. It didn't look any different, but I knew the men on the other side would be unable to identify me easily. And they would hear my voice in a deeper register.

  “Hello! This is Private Abi—Private Wyeth! I'm a dog with the Third! I'm in the puterverse and I picked up your signal! Do you need assistance?"

  He peered into the device. “Yes! They chased us up into the White Tanks mountains and we're pinned here! Our hov took damage and is out of commission. We can make out some lights further down the mountain. I think they're sending a cohort to take us out."

  “How are you armed?"

  “We've got a couple...” he broke off, remembering protocol. “I'm sorry, I need positive identification from you."

  “Look, we haven't got time! I'm only five minutes away if you send your signal. Let me—"

  “If you're a real dog, you know the procedure."

  He was right. Dogs died before risking their unit. Even if their unit was one person. Yet if I cleared the transmission, he'd know in a second I was a girl, and he'd be unlikely to send the signal then. I needed a disguise.

  “Okay. Identification coming through. Stand by."

  Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I shifted my form. I forced myself to grow taller, more muscular. My shoulders broadened and my chest deepened. Everything feminine about me, even my yellow aura, was abandoned to the disguise. I felt a little sick in my stomach and for a moment feared I might have triggered a sharding episode. But the feeling didn't get worse—or better—and I retained control of myself. I stepped up to the fragment again. The picture was clearer on both ends now. His peering turned into an open look.

  “Sorry for the delay. I needed to secure the channel. Sending ID code, now.” I pressed my thumb against the fragment, and Mike sent the appropriate ID with sufficient modifications to make me male. I don't know what first name he gave, nor was I going to ask. The other man referred to his readout, and a look of relief came over his face. He returned his ID, Mike verified, and we were ready to fight together as dogs.

  “Company A, eh? Great! We can use you! Here's the buoy. Hurry!” The fragment blanked out.

  I didn't even wait to let Mike return the fragment to the platform. Feeling uncomfortable and ill, I jumped off. The rushing electrons burned away my repugnant disguise, and I returned to my proper form. I extended my wings and flipped back up into the air, feeling the wonderful flow of my body returning. My aura was back to its light yellow, and I began to feel right again. Glancing back, I noticed Mike was racing after me, his comet trail leaving a bright green streak.

  “I've already alerted Susie, released the barriers on the hov, reduced your access field and began the checklist!” he shouted. “Cold start in fifteen seconds! Anything else I can do?"

  “Yeah!” I shouted back. “Go mess around with the navigation systems on the NATech hovs. I want some extra time to get to them!"

  “Abby, I can't tap into systems that independent and compact! I don't have the calibration or the ... the...” A big smile of realization spread slowly across his face. Despite my hurry, I smiled back.

  “I think you do, Mike."

  “WOW! Now that's code! Let me thank you properly next time! You be careful, Abby! Bye!” He zoomed off to the nearest NATech direct access link.

  Kiki was standing on her little terminal platform, waiting for me, when I landed at our home three minutes later. A person can come off line just about anywhere, but you ran a big risk of leaving a traceable signature, even with the extraordinary shielding I had. And my activities were such that I wasn't going give up the war to win a battle. Besides, Susie didn't need me to drive the hov. And Mike would have already told her where to go and how best to get there.

  “Abby! Mike told me about the rescue! Susie's already in the hov, and she's asking for you. I told her you'd be out in a minute. What do you need me to do?"

  “Kiki, I honestly don't know. If you've got any ideas..."

  “I do! I do have an idea, Abby! There's a NATech spy microsat in orbit just over the Florida islands. I think I can reprogram it to hit an area about one hundred meters in front of the last reported position of Kenneth and Wayne. I'll adjust the shields to prevent burnup until the last instant."

  “Kiki, are you sure? It would help out a lot. But if you're even one millisecond off the reentry procedure, my next date is with St. Peter."

  “I can do it, Abby! I've written some of my own trinary code and I just know I can do it! But you're the boss. You decide.” She eagerly waited my decision, hands clasped together, eyes glowing bright pink with hope.

  I wanted to think it over, but knew the time wasn't there. I had to go with my gut. Kiki was razor sharp. She wouldn't even suggest this unless she was sure. And though our “rollarounds” as Mike called them were nowhere near as intense, I knew her as intimately as I knew Mike. I made my decision the moment she asked me.

  “Do it, Kiki. I trust you completely. Give me a thirty second warning before impact, or if you have to abort."

  “Okay! Thanks! Please be careful, Abby!"

  “I will, squirt. Mind your decimal places. ‘Bye!” And I logged off.

  The hov was hot and shuddering when the interface collapsed. Susie was shooting us over the desert floor at a recklessly high speed. She didn't even look to see how I was doing. All her attention was on the swiftly passing terrain, which was fine with me. At this speed, the proximity alarm would work, but with only a one second warning before collision. A pilot had to be very good and totally focused. Susie was very good, and if I kept my yap shut, she'd stay totally focused. I remained in my terminal seat.

  In the distance, through the view screen, I saw the White Tank mountains looming, their bulk a solid black against the lig
hter, star-studded sky. The city of Glendale resided in the lower foothills and spread out onto the plains east and south of the main ridge. Our friends were further up the northern face, in an open area. I looked up toward their projected position, and sure enough, there were the occasional thin lines that appeared, indicating laser fire. We were still ten kilometers away. Susie opened the hov to full power. The proximity alarm sounded a tone and shut off. We now had no electronic warning device. Susie was putting the hov into battle mode. I felt the thrill of combat rising in me as my beast awoke. I touched the arm's emergency restraint button and a field sprang up around me.

  “Activate your ERF, Abby. One minute to full power stop."

  “Activated, Susie. I'm ready!"

  “Status report."

  “Their names are Kenneth Ramsey and Wayne Bourne. They're both on leave from the Seventeenth Air Wing. One's a pilot, the other's his gunner. Ken's been combat active for eight years, Wayne's a rookie. They're currently armed with slug guns. Maybe enough ammo for ten minutes or so. We need to keep our channel open to the puterverse. I have—"

  “No. If they spot our connection, they'll have a sight on our position and can take us out with freak.” Freaks were frequency hunter missiles. Small, tenacious, and deadly. But they needed a puterverse signal for their stupid guidance systems to follow.

  “We have to risk it, Susie! Kiki and I have a counterattack planned, but I don't know exactly when we can pull it off, or even if. Kiki will give me thirty seconds warning either way. But I just have to keep the link open. I can shield it."

  She paused, and I felt the same way Kiki did only minutes ago. Would she trust me on this? It was hard; I was so young. And in a decision like this, my youth counted against me. Susie knew I had the experience, but did I have the judgment? If I took the time to use it, sure. But I didn't always do so these days, and Susie had to determine if this was one of those times. She didn't suspect my ability, she suspected my capability to think things through, to not act out of emotion.

  “All right, we'll risk it. I hope ... Hold on!"

  Susie jerked back on the controls, and the hov jumped into the air. At almost the same instant, the craft lurched forward, its tail rising up and shuddering. Behind and below us we heard a muffled boom. A close one. The attacking squad must have locked a freak onto the proximity alarm just before it shut off. It narrowly missed us. Fortunately, there seemed to be no harm to the craft.

  Instead of lowering the craft down toward the surface, Susie switched it over to flight mode and ascended. The style hov we had could sustain flight for a limited time, but it had a very low ceiling—maybe a hundred meters above the ground—and its broad bottom and heavy McDonald phase unit up front made it a target ground troops drooled over.

  We had reached and passed the foothills in a moment and went quickly up the canyon that our friends were trapped in. The signal buoy they had set for us projected their position up on the viewer for Susie. They were about one kilometer ahead.

  The hov shuddered again as small arms fire pelted the bottom and sides. Susie snapped on the proximity alarm, then viciously banked the hov to the starboard. She leveled it out for a moment, then angled the craft down sharply toward the steep slope where the fire was coming from. The alarm started screaming, but Susie ignored it. Instead of stars in the viewer, I saw nothing but black, black mountain, peppered with flashes of white laser fire. She was flying us straight into them!

  I winced and closed my eyes. I suddenly felt my skin prickle and my throat get dry, and a glow came through my eyelids. I opened my eyes and saw rock and earth pass through us, briefly illuminated in the emergency lighting before flickering out of sight. Susie had activated the phaser! Even as I realized it, my stomach twisted and jerked as the craft, flying on program, veered up and port, heading toward the buoy which was still displayed on the screen. The marker lights were growing quickly, and soon took on the form of two men. They were crouched and firing weapons downhill.

  Just when it seemed we were going to phase through them, the craft shuddered and slowed as it executed a full power stop. The images shifted off to the left as the hov selected a landing point immediately behind them. I could say I braced myself, but between the ERF and the glue of phasing, I was pretty well braced already. I wasn't worried about the outside, though. I was worried about my insides. I didn't feel right.

  The viewport cleared up and my hands became solid. The hov had come free of the rock and stopped phasing. Simultaneously, it cut all power and thudded to the ground, an inert lump of metal. My field snapped off, and I was thrown to the deck.

  Susie jumped out of her seat and raced to the back exit, her gun giving off the high pitch charging tone. In the dim emergency lighting, I saw a gleam in her eyes that betrayed her excitement.

  There was no gleam in my eyes. There were tears of pain. I had already found out how hard prolonged phasing is on a person my age. After hours of phased travel, I was left weak, achy and drained of energy. My bones had felt soft and sore, and only a complete collapse of many hours in a bed restored me.

  Full power stops were worse. Full power stops immediately after phasing were far worse. Maybe the fact that I had experienced extended phasing only last night compounded the feeling. I didn't know. And at that point, I didn't care.

  I was sick. Violently, convulsively sick. My stomach was heaving and my throat and lungs felt like they had razor blades sliding up and down the linings. My hands, feet and ears were being stabbed by thousands of needles, and hot blood was oozing out the punctures. I thrashed on the deck, sobbing and dry retching. If it weren't for the searing pain, I would have passed out. I heard a dim tone in my ears. At first I thought it was another symptom, but it didn't hurt, so I knew I couldn't be. Then I had it; it was my link to the puterverse. That must be ... NO! I wasn't ready!

  “Abby! This is Kiki! Thirty seconds! Make sure no-one's looking, or they'll be blinded. Gotta go, bye!” The signal went dead before I could call for an abort.

  Thirty seconds. I had to get out and warn them. I rolled to my stomach and tried to raise myself up on my hands and knees. But my hands, though they weren't really bleeding, felt like they had no skin on them, that I was putting my weight on raw flesh. I yelled and fell to my side, having just enough presence of mind to roll toward the door. I made it about halfway from momentum, but everything went completely black for a moment. I snapped to, and realized it wasn't too late. The lip of the hatch was only a meter away. The microsat would hit in seconds.

  I only had one choice. Using every ounce of concentration, I looked beyond the pain and stood up. My feet began melting, being burned away by hot coals. Dazed, I looked down in terror, but saw they were still fine. The phasing and abrupt shifting and extreme power down, coupled with my extended stay in the puterverse and the sudden collapse of the ERF must have combined together to have an effect on my already worn nerves. It probably wasn't permanent, but it was getting worse.

  I staggered to the hatch and fell against it. My shoulder caught it high up, and I fell out onto the ground, crying out. I heard gunfire, both energy and slug. I felt consciousness fading away, for good this time. But that meant the pain was fading, too. This was my only chance.

  I rose to my feet and stood there wobbling. A beam burned next to me, thwacking hard against the hov's hull. The spot glowed a dull red.

  “Hey, kid! Get down, you fool!"

  Somebody grabbed me by my waist and yanked me down. His body was sweaty and hot and burned me with his touch. I yelled out in agony as my nerve endings shot slivers of pain through me. I tried pushing him away, but it was useless. He looked down at me, confused and a little impatient.

  “Settle down! Just settle down! We'll get you out of this. Don't be scared, I—"

  “Wait! She's not like that!” Susie's voice came in from the darkness. “She's been in more combat than you and I combined. Abby! What's wrong?"

  Instead of answering her, I shook my head and reached out.
r />   “Down,” I croaked out, my throat cracking and grating. “Get down. Counter—"

  “Your counterattack? When—"

  “Down. Now,” I repeated. My throat hurt so much, I started crying.

  “What's she talking about? We've got to hold our line, or they'll close in—"

  “No! Do as she says! Get down. NOW!"

  The fire abruptly stopped on our end, and we waited. By not moving at all, the pain seemed to be more tolerable. I forced myself to stay awake.

  The seconds passed. It must have been more than thirty seconds by now. Did Kiki make a mistake, or have to abort? Maybe the shields couldn't protect the microsat from burn up on reentry.

  “What are we waiting for?” the man holding me said impatiently. “We're not going to last—What's that?"

  We all heard it at the same time. It was a rumbling sound at first, but quickly turned into a deep scream. Suddenly, the sky turned brilliant white and the whole mountain shook as the microsat exploded on impact down in the canyon. There was a deafening roar, followed by a wave of hot air. I wanted to get to a sitting position, so I could see Kiki's handiwork, but the pain returned in force, and I heard a roaring in my ears.

  The man holding me straightened and looked down the canyon. He stared for a moment, then shook his head slowly.

  “I'll be—” He turned to Susie. “They're all dead! What did she do?"

  “I—I don't know.” Susie seemed almost as stunned. She looked down at me and I stared dully back. I saw her lips move, but I couldn't hear anything above the roar in my ears. The sound made me so sleepy.

  * * *

  Chapter Five

  It was very dark when I opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was that the pain was gone. Completely gone as though it had only been psychosomatic. Maybe it had been. I didn't care. It had felt real enough, and now it was gone. I could deal with life again.

  Above my head I saw the dim glow of the combat lighting bar. I realized I was lying on the floor of the hov, my head in somebody's lap. From the size of the thighs and upper legs, I'd guess it was a somebody who was not Susie. I saw his vague profile against the red light and caught the pleasant scent of man smell. This, I decided, would be either Kenneth or Wayne. He was looking off toward the bow of the hov. I stirred a little to get his attention. He started and looked down at me.