Tethered Worlds: Blue Star Setting

by Gregory Faccone

  Wixom surged with such activity that Jordahk's wrist vibrated. "What's wrong Wixom? I thought you'd be pleased at the fulfillment of your purpose."

  "I was made to be a match for my brother, but it's not my only purpose." Wixom had not spoken enough for Jordahk to get used to his resonant, accented voice. "It would have been preferable for his final disposition to come at the hands of my master."

  "Well, we can't always get what we want," Jordahk said.

  "Waxad was only acting according to a wrong path his architecture allowed him to choose."

  "Unlike humans," Aristahl said, "there is no redemption for such a creation this far gone."

  "Only my master could accomplish that."

  Jordahk watched the silhouette of the Archiver corvette wind its way through the asteroids. It would reach the protected eddy in under 15 minutes. "Pops, I know why we have to force-feed the reactor, but why must the charges all go off when the reactor fails? We could use extra minutes to get clear."

  "You know how durable Sojourner work is. To not only destroy functionality, but obscure purpose, the explosives must be cascaded for maximum effectiveness."

  Jordahk let go of the frustration that was trying to build. Having gone through a crazy mission before, he knew plans were made on the fly, and there were no sure things. But somehow, if he and Aristahl were able to do their very best, he thought everything could end up, well, if not perfectly, at least successfully.

  "Why does it take so much energy to save the girl?" Jordahk asked. "Who would develop a therapy so difficult to apply?"

  Aristahl did not answer immediately. "This was a plan conceived long ago through Olahn-Dehr's concept of the universe. Even I do not understand all the Khromas could accomplish. It can take significant energy to reproduce what one of them could do in a single journey to the sub-quantum circus."

  Olahn-Dehr. The one history records as "The Spirit." Certainly the hardest Khromas to define. It stood to reason, though, if Thule-Riss Quext was truly his father, Aristahl may have also come into contact with others of the fabled five.

  "Olahn-Dehr was thought by fools to be the weakest of the Khromas," Aristahl continued. "She may have been the only one to rival my father... At least for a time."

  Suddenly feeling like an intruder, Jordahk let it lie. Besides, he was trying to come to terms with his own heritage and still unsure what it meant. The Sojourners pulled out, true. But would he have done any differently at the time if he discovered a distant Eden, the Ajurian Realm, into which to retreat?

  Though he was ignorant of the details regarding the girl's condition, Jordahk realized this potential treatment was somehow amazing. Why let such superior, and now inexplicable, technology go fallow? Humanity could use it. Perhaps it could even help the disparate cultures of the Asterfraeo unite against encroachment by the same forces that initiated their birth. Forces Thule-Riss once believed were worth fighting.

  Alerts pinged, and the graphics updated with sudden activity at the lab asteroid. The rock, once so impenetrable, came alive with activity. Energy built near its center, and superheated material began to gush from a new hole. The doors of the docking berth opened, and Alb-Sone's scout emerged. It turned nimbly and headed toward the energetic release.

  "Why do so many of us trust the Quext line?" Alb-Sone asked rhetorically over the comm.

  The Archiver sped up as much as he dared. The long chess game, so patiently played, was about to end one way or another.

  "Powering up the bus," Max said. "Wixom's got the pods. He has an early shot if you want to let one go."

  "Hold," Aristahl said.

  As the scout raced to the other side of the asteroid, its closed shuttle bay was visible. Thrust rings around the compact ship flared in various directions, like the spokes of an old wheel becoming visible for a second. The intense effort brought it parallel to the escaping pillar of hot gas. It moved onto the coalescing energy, the glowing line stretching from the asteroid into the scout's opening bay.

  "Temperatures coming up," Alb-Sone said. "Initiating crystalline synthesis. The girl's on the clock now. I won't be able to try this again. Do what you must to give us time, Arh-Tahl."

  The Archiver corvette, nearing the eddy, would soon have a line of sight shot on the scout.

  "All right, Wixom, let the first one go," Aristahl said.

  The energy readings from one of the escape pods burned white-hot in the graphics. It raced off into the eddy, heading for where the Archiver would enter. The escape pod, not designed for violent maneuvers, was doing a good imitation of it. Its single main thruster stuttered, flashing on and off as the pod tumbled, reoriented, and blasted off in another direction before its short-term propulsion system burned out.

  The corvette's heading adjusted subtly, and it spewed forth defensive fire as the pod plunged toward it. Truth be told, at the speeds the pod was likely to attain, and considering its minimal mass, a collision with a hot shielded warship would accomplish little more than a splash of plasma. At least the corvette was limited by a tight entry corridor surrounded by massive asteroids. It nullified the preferred corvette fighting style of fast maneuvering and head-on attacks.

  As it happened, the pod didn't last long against defensive fire designed to deflect things as fast as hypergun salvos.

  "That's the best you can do, Wixom?" Jordahk asked.

  A deep whirring filled his compy again.

  "I have something in mind with more potential," Wixom said, "if your grandfather will allow it."

  "Go," Aristahl said. A second pod raced forth, but it cut into the asteroids upstream of the Archiver. "Send the third before the corvette reaches the eddy. Coordinate for maximum confusion."

  Jordahk tried to discern what was going on. The second pod burned brightly amidst the asteroids before an unexpected collision. A moment later, more rocks collided. About two minutes before the corvette entered the eddy, Wixom fired off the last pod.

  "I hate to admit it," Max said, "but Wixom calculated an impressive chain reaction using the second pod's destruction. There's a lot of kinetic energy out there waiting to be utilized."

  The asteroids approaching the corvette looked more jumbled than a moment before. The Archiver adjusted his course again, more radically this time, as the third pod stuttered toward him.

  An asteroid half as large as the corvette rolled into its path along with copious debris. Which way would the Archiver dodge? Wixom guessed high.

  Sure enough, the corvette nosed up, its thrust rings shooting gouts of superheated plasma. The large asteroid rolled by slowly, its shadow crossing the ship. Debris pounded Archiver shielding, and defensive weapons opened up on the larger chunks. The third pod raced over the passing asteroid and sprinted the short stretch to the corvette. It, too, was shredded, but its debris showered the top of the ship while asteroid chunks pelted its side.

  None damaged the warship, but energy was expended, and its entry vector ruined. They had bought a couple more minutes.

  Like Wixom and Jordahk, Max had personal interest in the final sentencing of Waxad. He monitored the telemetry from the maintenance bot and tunnel bot fueling the overloading reactor. The force-feeding process was causing more interference by the second.

  "Something's not right," Max said.

  Jordahk knew the subject without even asking. "What's going on?"

  "It's hot in there. Maintenance bot's going to fail soon. The reactor core's reached temperature for disposal of Waxad, yet I'm getting no confirmations."

  Suddenly, everyone was looking at the issue except Alb-Sone, who had his hands full. The scout appeared pinned to the asteroid, in matched orbit, connected by a glowing beam of energy.

  "Okay, I think the maintenance bot just placed the case on the pile of heavy material," Max said. "The tunnel bot is shoving stuff into the matter scoop as fast as it can. It doesn't appear to see the case."

  "Jordahk," Aristahl said, "see if you and Max can get to the bottom of that. Wixom, take over the bus.
Barrister, keep our shuttle pod vector updated."

  Max rifled through a lot of machine telemetry. "The tunneler insists there are no resonance-proof cases down there."

  "What? That thing's dumber than a pile of ingots." Jordahk said. "The maintenance bot just put it on the pile."

  "It doesn't see it."

  "Then tell the maintenance bot to throw it in himself."

  Jordahk could sense what passed for concern within Wixom, and even from his grandfather. Both, though, were also busy on the overall mission. The coherent beam of energy from the lab asteroid lit the entire eddy and held the scout motionless as if it was attached to a glowing white pole.

  "I told it," Max said. "Not positive it went through. Wait, it's acknowledging the order. It's like a radiation chamber down there. I don't think the maintenance bot will make it to the scoop." Increasingly unintelligible telemetry from the overheated machines scrolled past as Max picked through it. "It has the case... and it just failed."

  Jordahk shook his head. "This is crazy. How could the tunneler not see it? What does it see?"

  "You don't want me to tell it to stop feeding the matter scoop, do you?"

  He knew the right answer. Aristahl looked over at him anyway just to confirm Jordahk wouldn't risk the mission for the secondary goal.

  "No, keep loading. Just tell it to look around."

  "The tunneler is tough, but it's going to fail soon, too," Max said. He highlighted telemetry. "It sees the various forged-heavy material for the scoop. There's extra coolants for the failing shielding and various associated equipment. The fallen maintenance bot. Extra power caps." The telemetry was becoming erratic.

  New synthsound rumbled. The bus was firing up in a big way. With its thrusters not engaged, excess plasma was jetting out opposing thrust rings. The entire episode was about to come to a spectacular end.

  "Sir," Barrister said, "may I suggest you board the shuttle pod?"

  Aristahl took it all in with his usual and admirable calm. He met Jordahk's gaze for only a second, but it was enough for Jordahk to reset and rethink.

  "Extra power caps?" Jordahk mused. "Would they qualify as heavy matter for the scoop?"

  "No," Max said.

  "Were the bots given any orders or under any directives to bring them down?"

  "Checking the logs. No."

  "Oh hell, that's it! Tell it to throw in the power caps."

  "I'm trying. The tunneler's getting slow."

  Jordahk pounded his suit-gauntleted fists together. "Damn that conniving AI. It's too clever." He looked up.

  Aristahl was next to him. "Time to board."

  "Yes, please," Barrister reiterated.

  His mind ablaze with thought, Jordahk moved mechanically to the shuttle pod in Aristahl's wake. "Anything, Max?"

  "I had to resend the order multiple times. It's hard for anything to get through now. It just sent a jumble. It may have been an acknowledgment of the order. I don't think were going hear anything else from that cauldron."

  "My brother knew all the bots in the lab well," Wixom said. "I surmise he hid exploits for activation should opportunity arise. He likely only had a fraction of a second during transfer from trammel snare to resonance-proof case. Any corruption of the maintenance bot would have been noticed by Alb-Sone. Almost assuredly Waxad piggybacked a message through the maintenance bot to the low-intelligence tunneler, telling it the resonance-proof case was something else. Something it should not feed into the matter scoop."

  "I'll have what I need in about a minute," Alb-Sone said. "And two minutes until demolition. We're cutting it close."

  They piled through the hatch, quickly activating the restraints in the two forward-facing seats. Barrister had the shuttle pod prepped. The lone thruster came up quickly, and various courses flickered on hard screens in the airless environment.

  "Maybe the tunneler finished the job," Max said.

  Jordahk sensed doubt in Wixom, and it echoed his own thoughts. For once, he and the advanced creation were in agreement. His graphics pinged a change. The Archiver corvette was pouring on the thrust and blasting asteroids to quicken its entry. Flickering plot adjustments danced along the hard panels.

  "We have to go now," Barrister said. "Adjusting to the updated bus path."

  The synthsound of the bus's thrusters grew. Jordahk turned his head to face an opaque shuttle pod bulkhead but saw through it with the graphics of his helmet. The rendering of the bus blasted forward out of the rocks, into the eddy and toward the Archiver. The shuttle pod felt like it was going to to shake apart before it also blasted into the bus's wake. The grav weaves in Jordahk's suit covered the Gs, but something broke loose in the tiny cabin.

  "Can robots experience fear?" Torious asked. "I wonder if combat bots do. I doubt they experience half as much danger as I seem to regularly encounter."

  "Really, Torious," Aristahl chided.

  "Yes, I know. Suicide missions are not the time to talk about such things."

  There is definitely something wrong with that robot.

  Ahead, the corvette cleared the rocks. The graphics showed it powering up for a shot. The scout, pinned in place to intercept the energy beam, couldn't dodge.

  The bus remained between their pod and the Archiver, blocking direct fire. But the corvette was focused on the scout and fired a salvo of rocks and T-beams. Defensive fire danced off the side of the scout. The Archiver's small-caliber hypergun rocks, on their short, predictable course, were intercepted. Fragments disintegrated in flashes upon the scout's shields. But the teleforce beams couldn't be dodged and hit squarely.

  Thrust rings gushed to counter the inertial force of the T-beam impact, but it wasn't enough. The scout was pushed off the beam. The energy, no longer tapped, raked the stern causing glowing debris to fly out the bay. Plasma shielding splashed into rainbow arcs.

  "I'm not done here, Arh-Tahl," Alb-Sone said. It was the same peeved tone Jordahk remembered when he received an admonishment from the old Sojourner the previous year. The scout didn't rocket off. Instead, it closed its bay, and thrust rings flared as it reset upon the beam. The bay doors, blasted by the energy, opened carefully when the machinery within was again positioned to receive. "It's a mess in the bay. The girl wasn't directly hit, but her readings are fluctuating."

  "What about the crystalline synthesis?" Aristahl asked.

  "Intact. I need another thirty seconds on the beam."

  "Step it up, Wixom."

  The bus was spewing thrust plasma with such intensity that Jordahk thought it might explode before seeing action. Such overheating was tearing the ship apart. Their vector and the bus's split suddenly. The bus streaked toward the corvette while Barrister raced them toward the scout. After about 10 seconds on these divergent courses, they could no longer stay in the protected shadow of the bus. Barrister began violent evasive maneuvers. Jordahk had to look away from the heaving stars.

  The Archiver had a decision to make. Line up for another shot on the scout or stop the crazy, suicidal bus. Smaller ships, such as starfighters, scouts, corvettes, and even frigates to some extent, had the bulk of their offensive weaponry aimed forward. It was a matter of design and volumetric constraints. A warship, too massive or underpowered to maneuver, was no good to anyone.

  That highlighted the other problem the Archiver faced. Within the eddy, there was little room to maneuver, and the corvette's stern wasn't far from the wall of asteroids. Self-preservation kicked in, and the corvette maneuvered wildly. It had to point roughly toward the bus to aim enough firepower to quickly destroy it. Wixom poured every last bit of plasma not being used for the thrusters to the forward shield controllers of the civilian vehicle. It still wouldn't stand a chance, but it might hold together an extra second or two.

  The bus closed rapidly in the confined space. The Archiver was aware of the strategy, and his secondary defensive weaponry started taking potshots at their wildly maneuvering shuttle pod. The auto-cannons missed, but a T-beam slashed open the back o
f the cabin, damaging the feed to their only thrust ring. Plasma sprayed wildly off their hull as Barrister struggled to bring them back on an approach vector to the scout.

  Torious shook his head in a curiously human gesture. "Naturally."

  The corvette opened fire with a full salvo on the dangerously close bus. It easily tore through the transport. One of its engines exploded instantly and spectacularly. The plasma-spewing hulk tumbled toward the corvette. There was little time or room to maneuver. The Archiver was forced back toward the wall of asteroids.

  "It's done," Alb-Sone said. "Clearing the beam, get in here."

  Explosions rumbled within the lab asteroid, and the beam was interrupted for a few seconds. The Scout got clear of it and aimed its open bay toward the approaching shuttle pod. It cut loose with a full defensive fusillade to protect them. Jordahk looked out the crystal and saw the scout growing large. With a half-functioning thrust ring, Barrister managed a crash landing into the bay. Their shuttle pod bounced and almost literally broke in half before coming to a stop.

  As its bay doors closed, the scout reoriented toward their fastest escape vector. Across the eddy, the bus, looking more like a flaming comet, careened past the Archiver into the wall of rock and exploded. The corvette's shields flared madly as it was pelted with debris.

  The lab asteroid began to crack apart. Huge fissures with light streaming out spread along its surface. Jordahk thought the scout was going too fast to wend its way out through the asteroids. Then again, he didn't want to stick around for the lab's demolition.

  Obviously, the Archiver saw the state of the lab asteroid and determined pursuit across the eddy was unwise. The corvette turned around violently and was partially swiped by an asteroid. Plasma spewed off its shields as control was regained. Through the graphics, Jordahk saw the scout was weaving dangerously close to asteroids, but had already put a layer between them and the lab.

  "There it goes," Max said.