The Cassini Mission

by Rob Colton

  Kane helped me up and guided me inside.

  “Ops is secure,” Green’s voice came through. The rest of the team moved into the control center. I locked the door once everyone was inside.

  The ops control center was smaller than I thought it would be. Several workstations were arranged in a semicircular pattern. Large e-glass panels covered the walls. The panels and computer stations were all powered down.

  Nothing looked out of the ordinary. The room was completely deserted, which surprised me. I expected that there would be at least one man running things here. Given the size of the colony, I supposed it was mostly automated. A thin layer of dust covered the panels. The control center must have been abandoned some time ago.

  Thomason had carried Kenji in and laid him down on the floor by the wall away from the door. “This will have to do until we secure the med bay or the crew quarters.”

  Willis shook his head. “No. We stay here for now until we figure out what we’re dealing with. Get these systems back online.”

  Yates and Bradley moved to the computers and began booting them up. The flat, translucent displays above the workstations and around the walls blipped and came to life one by one.

  “How many more of these things are there?” Willis demanded. He looked between Bradley and me.

  Ignoring the sergeant, Bradley looked at me. “Let me see your scans.”

  I pulled out my pad and sent the scans to Bradley. He flipped through my data, studying the scans for several moments. “I think we can recalibrate the sensors to find them.” He sat down at one of the workstations. “Give me an hour.”

  I looked at the scans in detail and furrowed my brow. Something seemed oddly familiar about the shielding technology. Kane walked up behind me and looked over my shoulder. “What is it?” he asked quietly. I leaned back a little closer to him, comforted by his close presence.

  “One of the species I have been researching is a Crixan reptile. It’s like this big armadillo. It secretes this resin over its armored shell that is resistant to particle weapons and EM scans.”

  I opened up my files on the pad and waited for it to sync to the Union Research network. It took a few minutes to connect, but once it did, I flipped through my data files until I found what I was looking for.

  “Bradley. Calibrate the scanners to filter these frequencies, and concentrate on these particles.”

  I sent the data to Bradley’s comPad. He looked at me strangely for a second, and then turned back to the computer to program the changes into the sensor controls. Within seconds, the area map on the large screen above him came to life. Eight orange dots appeared, each one indicating a cyborg. All eight were currently stationary.

  “How did you know that?” Sergeant Willis demanded, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  “It’s my research.” Everyone turned and looked at me. At the distrust on their faces, I shook my head and held out my hands. “I don’t understand how they got it, or how they adapted it to work with those cyborgs. I had nothing to do with whatever is going on here.”

  Satisfied with my answer, Kane asked, “Can our weapons be modified to get through the armor easier?”

  “It should be possible,” Bradley answered and I agreed with him.

  “Villanova, work with him,” Willis ordered.

  Villanova nodded.

  “I can help,” Ensign Yates offered. “I’m good with weapons coding.”

  I sent Yates the data to his comPad while Villanova handed over a phase rifle to the young ensign. “Knock yourself out, kid.”

  Yates rolled his eyes as he pulled the rifle out of the Marine’s hands and proceeded to get to work.

  “So what exactly are we dealing with?” Kane asked, looking around the room.

  Since Kenji was incapacitated and Bradley remained silent, I gave my opinion. “The robots seem to be in sentry mode, only activating when they sense an unknown danger. They do not appear to have any sort of advanced A.I. as far as I can tell.” I turned to Bradley, hoping that he would inject some insight into our conversation. After all, cybernetics and artificial intelligence were his area of expertise.

  The commander just stood there with a blank look on his face.

  “Fuck. Me!” Green exclaimed without warning.

  Chapter 10

  We all followed his gaze to the security display. Four of the orange dots were now moving towards the docking platform.

  “Fuck,” Kane cursed. He spun towards Bradley and leveled him with a glare. “It looks like your robots have targeted the shuttle as an unknown danger.”

  “The cyborgs are not mine,” Bradley grumbled with a scowl.

  “Right.” If one couldn’t tell Kane didn’t believe Bradley from the expression on his face, the way he intoned that word was a dead giveaway. “Stay here,” he ordered Bradley, Yates and myself.

  Green punched open the door and the rest of the Marines filed out.

  Crap. I didn’t know how they were going to handle four of the sentry robots attacking at the same time. Just one of the damned things took all of the Marines concentrating their firepower to take it down.

  Yates busied himself with Villanova’s phase rifle. Using my specifications, he connected his pad to the rifle’s CPU and set about reprogramming and updating the firmware. The tip of his tongue peeked out the side of his mouth as he concentrated intently on what he was doing.

  I watched him work for a moment. “If we can get one working, we should be able to clone the subroutine into the other weapons.” I looked back at Bradley to see if he was listening to me, but Bradley was busy working at one of the computer stations.

  Bradley patched into the Union Marine network and the map screen filled with gray dots indicating each of the Marines.

  Joining Bradley, I reached up and tapped one of the gray dots. The dot changed to a picture of Villanova’s face inside a square icon. A status bubble appeared next to the icon, naming “PVT VILLANOVA A” along with a small status bar that contained several indicator icons.

  My hand automatically went to the base of my skull. All Union military units and civil employees had a microchip embedded at the base of the brain. It was responsible for transmitting the data that was currently displayed on the screen.

  Bradley double-tapped the screen and activated all of the status indicators for the Marines. We watched Villanova’s icon move around the ship. We could hear the explosions outside and the building trembled. The veil of dust covering the consoles rocketed into the air, forming a cloud of gray. With a cough, I waved my hand in front of me and wiped off the display with my hand.

  “Shit,” Bradley muttered as Private Thomason’s icon flashed. The status bar flashed as the heart rate icon dropped to “0” and the identification picture turned from color to shades of red. Then Willis’s icon began flashing red. “We’ve lost two of them.”

  “I got it,” Yates said suddenly. He jumped up and ran to the door, holding the rifle to his chest.

  “Wait!” I cried out.

  Yates pulled his goggles over his eyes, opened the door and disappeared down the darkened hall. Bradley activated the Union Navy network and a gold dot indicating Yates raced through the corridor. Two blue dots indicated mine and Bradley’s positions in Ops. A tap on the screen and the dots were replaced with our ID pictures.

  “He’s gonna get himself killed,” Bradley sighed.

  I looked at the security display to see Yates’s icon move through the external blast doors and stop next to Kane.

  “Shit.”

  I couldn’t stay back any longer. I unholstered my pistol and pulled my goggles on. I raced out the door, down the corridor, through the blast doors.

  It was utter chaos as three of the robot sentries concentrated on destroying the shuttle while the other took on the Marines. It tirelessly fired particle beams from the weapons attached to its arms. Our men were pinned behind crates and retaining walls.

  Divided between the four sentries, our weapons were ineffecti
ve against their shielding.

  “Get back,” Yates yelled, his voice loud in my comm. “Clear a path!”

  When the Marines gave him an opening, he fired the rifle at maximum setting at the closest cyborg, hitting it directly in the middle of its chest. It opened a gaping hole and the droid began to sputter.

  “He did it,” I exclaimed in surprise. Without hesitation, I lifted my phase pistol and fired into the opening. It went offline in a shower of sparks.

  A few additional shots from the Marines and the robot exploded.

  “Here,” Yates called out to Kane. He tossed the modified rifle to Kane who effortlessly snatched it from the air with one hand.

  “Marines,” Kane ordered. “Take down those fuckers!”

  The Marines covered Kane, who advanced on each robot one at a time. Once he disabled the robot with the modified rifle, the others destroyed it.

  With the robots taken care of, we could survey the damage. The shuttle was wasted. It was on fire and a huge section of the aft hull was missing. The engine was ablaze, sending plumes of thick black smoke into the darkened sky where the wind rapidly carried it away.

  We would not be leaving the planet on that ship.

  “Fall back to Ops,” commanded Kane. With Corporal Green, he hooked a hand under Willis’s shoulders and the two dragged the unconscious sergeant by the arms.

  Yates struggled to help Razix in. I got on the other side and guided the big red alien back to Ops.

  Once we were all safe inside, I locked the door behind us.

  Out of the landing party, all that remained, besides me, were Kane, Green, Villanova, Razix, Yates, and Bradley. Villanova and Razix had minor injuries. Kenji was still unconscious. Sergeant Willis was hanging by a thread, and I was positive he was not going to make it.

  I grabbed the first aid kit and gave Willis something for the pain. When I pulled his armor away, my heart sank. His wounds were bleeding uncontrollably. I scanned his body using my pad. Large sections of the graphical figure flashed red. Details of his numerous injuries scrolled across the screen so fast I couldn’t read them all.

  “He’s got massive internal injuries,” I said, helpless to do anything for the sergeant. “I can’t fix this.”

  Yes, I had a medical degree, but I immediately went for my doctorate after graduation. I never did a residency or field rotation. I wasn’t prepared to handle a severe trauma situation. I never felt more useless than I did right now.

  Willis coughed several times, spewing blood onto his chin. He slumped back, slack, his eyes wide open as my pad beeped a steady tone. With a shaking hand I covered Willis’s face with my hand and closed his eyes. My voice cracked as I looked to Kane and Green. “I’m sorry.”

  “Fuck!” Kane shouted in an uncharacteristic burst of emotion as he tossed his rifle across the room. He paced back and forth, then finally let out a sharp breath. His face went emotionless and he became all-business. “We need to modify the rest of the weapons.”

  I nodded in agreement. “As soon as we get these guys patched up, we’ll get on it.”

  I grabbed the first aid kit and opened it up. Yates grabbed the antiseptic spray and bandages and went to take care of Villanova while I handled Razix.

  After getting out of his armor, Villanova pulled off his uniform top so that Yates could get at the deep cut on his bicep. While Yates was distracted, Villanova grabbed at the smaller man’s ass and squeezed. Yates slapped his hand away and punched him right on his wound.

  “Motherfucker!” Villanova groaned as he grabbed his injured arm.

  “Serves you right,” Kane called out to him. “Quick fucking around and let him do his job.”

  I shook my head and tried not to laugh. The young ensign may have been green, but he was a scrappy thing. I turned my attention back to Private Razix, who was holding his left shoulder and groaning.

  I tugged at his uniform zipper and helped him lower it. I gently pulled the fabric away from the wound and tugged at his sleeve to pull it off him. I grabbed the hem of his tank top and pulled it over his head. He had a large particle burn above his left pec. I cleaned it up as best as I could, wiping away the green blood that had oozed out over his red skin. The particle burn had cauterized the wound, but it looked inflamed and very painful.

  Razix winced, hissed and whined loudly as I sprayed the wound with Antibac. I rolled my eyes at him. The 6’8” bulky Regulan Marine was a big baby. I placed a clean bandage over it.

  “I’d give you something for the pain, but we probably need you to be alert. It’s your call.”

  “I’m fine, kid,” he grunted through gritted teeth. “Just patch me up.”

  “Make sure you keep it clean so it doesn’t get infected.”

  I closed up the first aid kit and set it aside. I walked over to where Kane was standing by himself, lost in thought.

  Kane sighed. “The shuttlepod is wasted. It won’t fly. We gotta wait for the Cassini to return to evac.”

  “We need a plan to get into the research lab,” Bradley stated.

  “Fuck the lab,” Villanova said as he angrily yanked his zipper up. “There’s still four of those things left. We don’t know what else is out there. The scanners can’t even penetrate the inside of the lab. There could be a hundred more in there for all we know.”

  Bradley rolled his eyes and spoke to Villanova like he was an idiot. “The lab is the reason we’re here. Its network is isolated and the outer hull is shielded by design. We need to get into the lab. The data can only be accessed from the inside.”

  “Sarge is gone,” Green said. “Robby’s next in line. It’s his call.”

  Bradley shot Green a scathing look and Green shrugged in a half-apology.

  Everyone turned and looked at Kane expectantly. Kane nodded. “First, we need to contact the Cassini. We also need to salvage what we can from the shuttle. Then we’re gonna modify the rest of the weapons, what we have here and anything we salvaged from the shuttle. Once our work is done, we get some rest before we take the lab. We get in, get the data, then get the fuck out.”

  While Kane and Green worked out a battle strategy, Razix and Villanova salvaged what they could from the shuttle. Bradley and I sat down on the floor in the back corner and worked with Yates to get all of the weapons we had modified. It took about two hours, but we finally got all of them done.

  “Good job, Yates,” Kane said.

  “Yes, sir,” Yates said with a nod. The young officer had a broad smile on his face, always eager to please.

  “There’s a bank of crew quarters through that aft door. We’ll take turns keeping watch, but I want everyone to get some rest. We’re gonna need it.” He looked over at Villanova and tipped his head towards Kenji. “Put the lieutenant in one of the rooms.”

  After Kane set up a guard rotation with the rest of the Marines, I turned my head up towards Kane and he was already looking down at me expectantly. He held out his hand and I took it and used it to pull myself up from the floor. Kane put his hand on my back and guided me back to the aft door. He hit the controls for the first room. The door hissed open and I stepped in after Kane. I tapped the overhead lights button, then hit the door lock button.

  The room was small and spartan. I assumed it was used by the Ops personnel, but it didn’t look very lived in. There was a small bed, a desk and a tiny closet. It did have a head, though, with a sink and a toilet, but no shower. There was a single photo frame on the desk. The picture of a man and a woman hugging and smiling at the camera was the only indication that someone formerly used the space.

  I sat down on the small bed and pulled my boots off. I took my comm piece off my ear and tossed it onto the desk. Kane set his rifle on the desk.

  “You coming to bed too?” I asked as I unzipped my jumpsuit.

  His eyes moved down my body as he swiped his tongue across his lips. “Yeah. For a bit.”

  “Okay. Then I won’t need these.”

  I pulled off my tank and briefs, then tossed them
onto the floor. I pulled the blanket and sheet back and crawled into the bed. Laying back on the bed, I watched Kane get undressed.

  He hit the light control, then slipped into the bed with me.

  I was utterly exhausted, but I had to have Kane.

  “I need this,” I whispered. “I need you.”

  Kane straddled my leg. He tenderly stroked my hair for a moment as he looked at me. The look in his eyes was one of unexpectedly deep emotions. As I stared back at him, I felt his cock throb against my thigh.

  “Turn over, boy,” he commanded. “On your hands and knees.”

  There wasn’t a lot of foreplay, but I was okay with that. More than okay.

  Our coupling was quick and frantic. Kane slid up behind me. He snorted and spit into his hand, then pressed his fingers against my hole. He spit once again and the head of his cock rubbed back and forth across my entrance before sliding into me. I moaned wantonly, gripping the sheets and pushing back against the invading monster.

  “Fuck me,” I begged.

  Kane gripped my hips and started a punishing rhythm. It was exactly what I needed. I needed him to take me hard and fast, to make me forget about everything that had happened today, if only for a few minutes.

  And that’s what the man did. He fucked me senseless. The only thought in my head was centered around my rapidly approaching orgasm.

  I reached down and gripped my dick, pulling it in a counterpoint to the thrusting of Kane’s hips. “Kane!” I cried out as my dick throbbed and began spurting onto the sheets below me.

  “Fuck! Aron!” He roared as he thrust into me, his weight pushing against my back, pinning me down onto the mattress as his body convulsed on top of mine. “Fuck…”

  “Kane…”

  His arms surrounded me and I fell into a deep sleep with him on top of me, still embedded inside me.

  Chapter 11

  When I stirred awake, I rolled over and reached out for Kane, but came up empty. I opened my eyes, realizing that I was alone in the darkened bedroom.