Zeta Hack: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 3)

by Michael-Scott Earle

  I started my crawl again and then heard the machine gun piss its bullets from what sounded like two meters away from me. They were shooting toward Byron, so I crawled toward the group of men behind the barrier.

  There were four of them. Each wore heavy military looking armor and the three not on the machine gun carried carbines. I pressed my finger on the switch to ensure that I was firing slugs and then stood from my crawl.

  I squeezed the trigger four times as I cycled through the men. My first slug took the head off the machine-gunner with a spray of red that mixed with the smoke. My second slug divided the chest of the man to his right in half. The third punched the man so hard; his body tumbled back over the barrier and was swallowed by the smoke. The last slug tore the man in half, and his legs continued to stand for a few moments after the upper half of his body rolled away.

  I guessed where Byron was from his shot, and I had an approximate idea of the other men's locations based off their shots, so I grabbed the handle of the light machine gun and strangled the trigger.

  Bullets poured from the barrel of the machine gun and punched through the smoke like drills. The smoke swirled around the path of bullets as if it was a liquid whirlpool, and I managed to get a clean look at where the rounds landed. The metal spray tore through an armored man, then another, then another, and then I started to lose count of the bodies I punched through with the stream.

  Then the gun clicked, and I looked down to see that I’d run out of the belt.

  I ducked down behind the machine gun cover, held my shotgun, and listened for the sound of anyone alive. I didn’t hear anyone speak, or moan, or cry out in agony, and I began to believe I’d killed them all.

  “Byron?” I called out through the still air. I half expected my voice to draw more gunfire, but no one shot at me.

  “Yeah, Mate?” he sounded as if he was on the other side of the large command room.

  “Youuuu okkkkay?” I growled.

  “Never been better,” he said, but then he coughed, and I guessed the android was actually hurt.

  “I’ll come to yooouuu,” I said as I stood from behind the barrier. There was still a bunch of smoke in the room, but it was clearing a bit, and I didn’t see any movement.

  But I did see the outline of a bunch of armored bodies.

  I moved cautiously through the terminals and around the raised area of the command center. There was no other movement through the thinning smoke, and I started to think that I’d killed all opponents.

  “Here, Mate,” he said, and I moved to the terminal he was hiding behind.

  “You said you werrrreee okay,” I growled. The android had taken a bullet through his stomach, and green fluid was leaking out onto the metal tile.

  “This?” he asked as he pointed at his belly. “It’s nothing, Mate. I had my head blown off before. Oi, help me stand though! My legs aren’t working that well.”

  “Alright,” I said as I grabbed onto his shoulders to hoist him up.

  “Watch the green stuff. It’s artificial stomach acid.”

  “Huh?” I asked as I brought him to his feet.

  “Yeah, Mate. I can eat and drink. I’m just like a human, but more charming, and I smell better. Ha!”

  “We need to find this swwwwwitch,” I growled.

  “It’s probably in the center part.” He pointed to the raised command center. It rose out of the smoke like a building climbing out of fog.

  I pulled Byron toward it, and we ascended the steps to reach the platform. I set him in a chair while I looked at the cluster of ten terminals. I didn’t see anything obvious on the control pads, so I reached into my pocket to pull out my transponder.”

  “Z and Juliette, I’m in the command center. I don’t see this switch.”

  “Look… red… behind… main… station…” the policewoman’s voice was choppy, and I guessed our position deep under the security station was causing interference with the signal.

  “Shitttt!” I smashed my fist against one of the forgotten terminals, and the desk broke in half. “How are weeeeee going to find it?”

  “You okay mate? Seem a little upset,” Byron said.

  “Noooo. I’m fineeee,” I growled as I forced my anger down into my chest. Damn. It was hard to tell if the edges of my vision were getting darker because of the lack of lighting in the command center, the smoke, or because I was slipping into the madness of the beast that lived inside of me.

  Then a red dot distracted me. It was on the terminal to my left, and I felt my anger abate as I watched it move across the surface of the control keys. I walked over to it and then went to touch it with my hand. But before I could grab it, the red dot twisted to my left. Excitement filled my senses, and I moved to try and get it again. This time the dot seemed to jump off the terminal and land on the floor next to me.

  I dove to the ground, but the damn thing was too quick, and it escaped my paws before I could capture it. I watched the dot move ahead of me down the stairs of the central platform, and I gave chase after it.

  The dot danced through terminals, climbed up a wall for a meter, and then came back around behind the main platform. I had forgotten about the bombs, the switch, and the wounded android sitting on the chair. Nothing else mattered but catching this fucking red dot.

  It rested on a smooth metal wall by a set of switches, and I stalked it carefully before I got close enough to snatch it. Before my paw could close around it, the red dot disappeared, and my hand grasped the metal handle of a large throw switch.

  Byron burst into laughter, and I looked up to see the bald gangster leaning over the side of the platform. His mirth brought me back to my senses, and I looked again at the handle I held in my hand. The sign above it said Security Firewall, and it was in the ON position.

  “Mate, you should have seen yourself. You looked like a housecat chasing after a toy. Oi! I don’t think I could laugh any harder.” He was practically sobbing with hysterical laughter, and I found myself smiling.

  “I hope my sisters made a video of that,” he said as he pointed up above my head. I followed his finger to see the two drones hovering three meters above me. Both of them winked their lasers on and off, and I found myself chuckling with the android man.

  “I’ll throw this,” I said as I pulled the switch down. I expected there to be a noise, or an alarm, or any sort of change in the light color of the red switch, but it still had the On light illuminated.

  “Z, I flipped the swwwwtich. Is the firewall gone?” I asked through the transponder.

  “No. I… Still… there… flip… it?” she answered.

  “I don’t think it worked, Mate,” Byron said with a sigh.

  “Why?” I growled as I looked down from the switch. There was a thick piece of metal conduit leading from the box that the switch was on, and my eyes chased it to the far wall.

  Where it had apparently been shot by a large caliber machine gun round.

  “Shit,” Byron and I both said at the same time.

  “Oi! Take me over there so I can look at it!” he demanded.

  I jumped up to the railing, flipped over it, scooped the android gangster up in my arms, and then jumped down. We made it to the far wall in a few seconds, and one of the floating drones turned on a small flashlight to illuminate the cut conduit.

  There was a pair of five-centimeter-wide cables inside. One of them was completely severed by a bullet, but the other one was intact.

  “This thing probably powers a main switch computer for the firewalls. The light is on at the switch, so this is the return power. You’ll need to find some cable, Mate. Then we can join them together and throw the switch again.”

  “Wherrrree?” I growled as I looked around the smoky command center.

  “Any of the terminals should have some. See if you can bust them open!”

  “Adam… Are… Hurry… time… Switch… Please!” Z’s voice came through the transponder, but I was only catching every second or third word.

&n
bsp; I moved to the nearest terminal and dug my claws into the top of the desk. The metal peeled away like an inexpensive can of tuna, and I looked into the innards of the computer.

  “I don’t see any cables, just short plug wires,” I said.

  “Let me see one,” he replied, and I tore a handful out to show him.

  “Naw, Mate. Those are clear fiberglass for shooting binary signal lasers through. They won’t conduct electricity. Try another.”

  I moved to the next desk and ripped it open. It also had the short fiberglass cables there were only a few millimeters thick. I went to another, and another, but none of them were wired with the thick kind of cable that looked like they could hold an electrical current.

  I roared with frustration and ripped one of the terminals out of the metal ground. The massive desk would have been impossible for me to lift while I was in my human form, but it felt almost like it was a child’s toy when I was in this enraged state. I glanced at the bottom of the desk joint brace where it met the ground and expected to see a power cable of some kind, but there was only a straight jack into the metal ground.

  My claws dug into the joints of the tile, and I peeled back the metal on the ground. Underneath was another long cluster of fiberglass lines, and I yanked them out with another cry of frustration.

  “Yeah, Mate. They use light pulses to send the signals to the central computers in the base of the station. Makes it easier to update the whole thing at once.”

  “I’ll go backkkk upstairs and find some caaaable,” I growled.

  “Naw.” Byron sighed. “I don’t think you’ll find any, and there isn’t time.” The man took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second.

  “What--” I started to speak, but the man raised up his hand and beckoned to me.

  “Mate, do you think redemption is possible for anyone?” Byron blinked his eyes a few times.

  “Yesss,” I hissed, and I thought about deserting the Marines and my time in the Yakuza.

  “Maybe I’ll see her on the other side,” the man smiled and then looked at the floating drones. I saw a single tear drop from his right eye and slide down his chin.

  “What are you--”

  “I’ll hold both sides of the cable, and you flip the switch again,” he said as he grabbed one of the metal ends poking out of the conduit.

  “No! I’ll go get some--”

  “Mate, you aren’t going to find any, and a lot of people are going to die. You’ll let my sisters on your ship? They are good girls. I did all the bad stuff so they wouldn’t have to.”

  “Can you pop your harddddd drrrrrive out? Then they can rebuild--”

  “Naw. No time. Have to take my skull apart. This is the end. I’m fine with it, as long as you let them come with you.”

  “I will,” I said with a sigh.

  “And you’ll take care of them?”

  “Yessss,” I growled.

  “Good.” He leaned into me, and I mirrored his movement so he could whisper his last words. “So Kasta, she likes it up and down. Vertical like. Paula likes it in slow circles. Clockwise. Got it?” He smirked at me as he held two of his fingers up. He wiggled them and let out a short laugh, but another tear dripped down from his right eye.

  “What are you talkingggg about?” I growled.

  “It’s not incest. I’m not really their brother. It’s more like using a vibrator. Ha!” He laughed and then pointed at the switch. “Go flip it, Mate. Time’s a wasting.”

  “Are you--”

  “Just fucking do it! And take care of them. You promised!” he shouted at me and then pointed at the drones. “I’ll tell her when I see her!”

  Byron grabbed the other end of the cable.

  I flipped the switch up and back down again.

  Byron didn’t scream as the electricity fried his body. He didn’t shout or make any movement. The android maintained his grip on both ends of the cable as his skin, flesh, and metal bones all began to bubble and melt together. He smoked like a piece of charcoal, and then his body began to lose its shape.

  The switch next to me flipped to a green color, and it read OFF instead of ON.

  “Z, did that, do it?” I asked as I walked over to Byron’s smoldering body.

  “Yes! We… Districts… Juliette… Talk… You… Back?”

  “Yeah, but it will justttt be meee,” I growled as I looked at the smoldering corpse. “Byron gave his life to save the station.”

  The melted android’s goopy hands finally came free of the cable, and he slumped to the floor. I didn’t think anyone would be able to use the switch again to activate the firewalls, and it was quite possible that millions of people now owed their life to a vulgar android gangster.

  “I hope you meet her in the afterlife,” I whispered to the smoking corpse.

  Chapter 19

  The drones followed me out of the command center, up the flights of stairs, and through the lobby of abandoned security station. I expected to find more armed insurgents on the way out, but I saw nothing but the corpses of the men I just killed. I contemplated searching each one for R-credits, but my blood was throbbing through my skull, my muscles were screaming, and it felt as if the beast was trying to break my brain so that it could consume me.

  I’d been in this form for far too long, and each step made me thirst for more blood, violence, and destruction. The beast wanted to run wild through the station so it could kill, feast, and fuck. It was everything my human brain wasn’t, but I was losing the war against the monster.

  I made it to the opened gate between District H and B before the spasms rippled through my stomach and shoulders. I flopped onto the ground and tried to focus on the sounds of the ocean. I’d never been to Earth, but I had seen enough videos of the seas there, and the white sandy beaches. The thoughts of it normally pulled me out of my shifted form.

  But the monster was resisting the mantra. It screamed against my efforts to put it back in the mental cage I built for it, and I could feel my arms begin to tingle.

  “Nooo!” I growled as I felt the bones of my arms elongate. Terror filled my mind as I realized I wasn’t changing back into my normal body. I was shifting the other direction.

  I was turning into an actual tiger.

  “Noooo!” I growled again, and I saw the thumb on that hand start to shorten. Fuck me. I’d stayed too long in this state. The creature controlled my body now, and it would soon keep me locked in the cage of its stomach like I kept it imprisoned.

  Or it would kill me.

  I rolled over onto my stomach and kicked the ground with the toe of my boot. I tried to think about the ocean waves and the wind through the palm trees, but I couldn’t hear the breeze. I could only hear the snarling of the tiger.

  I was the one making the noise. My screeches were filling the street, and I saw the backlit shapes of people peering out of the windows of their apartment buildings. Soon I would run into their homes. I would kill them and feast on their terror. The monster didn’t care, it just wanted dominance and death.

  Adam. I am here.

  Eve’s voice brought the sea waves into my mind, and I let out a painful gasp. The creature in my soul was confused by the intrusion, and it toggled between an angry growl and a purr of pleasure. It liked the vampire woman’s voice, but it didn’t want her to keep it from taking control.

  You are a man. An honorable man. You don’t want to kill those people in the buildings.

  “No,” I gasped, and I felt my hand start to shift back painfully so that I had an opposable thumb.

  “You want to help the innocent. Save the beast in your soul for the evil men and women we will encounter.” She was standing a few feet from me now, but I couldn’t look up from the pain pulsing from my cramping stomach.

  “It… hurts,” I curled up into a ball and felt the monster try and shift my leg joints around so that they were no longer fit for bipedal movement.

  “It is a tool you have mastered. It is not a monster. It is a part of you
,” Eve whispered and took a step toward me.

  “Noooo. I’ll hurt you.” I gasped and tried to roll away from the vampire woman’s legs.

  “All the parts of your broken soul love me. As I love you. The beast wants the same as you, it just bucks against your control. Just as you buck against its anger. Accept it is there, and think of the oceans that calm you.”

  I thought again about the waves. I thought of the trees. I thought of the wind.

  I pictured the sun setting across the waters. I imagined walking barefoot through the sand at dusk. I stepped into the waves and felt them splash against me as the spasms of agony tore into my stomach. My walk carried me deeper into the warm waves, and each step meant fewer waves and more embrace from the water.

  Then the pain went away, and I was floating in the endless warm ocean watching the sun descend into darkness.

  “Good.” Eve’s voice was a warm caress over my ear, and I opened my eyes to stare up into her beautiful face. The slight yellowish-red tint was gone from my vision, and I raised my arm up to look down at my hand. I was human again, but it felt like my arm weighed eighty kilograms, and I could only hold it up for a second.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to her. It was hard to move my lips, and my eyelids were beyond heavy. I needed to sleep for a year.

  “You are welcome, as always.” It sounded like she was smiling when she spoke, but I couldn’t force my eyes open.

  “Can you walk?” she asked.

  “No. So. Tired.”

  “You have to walk, my love. When I left the security station. Juliette was in communication with the other district’s security commanders. Some of them did not believe her.”

  “That’s a problem,” I said as I tried to force my eyelids open. If Juliette’s peers didn’t search for the bombs, then their stations would be destroyed. Not only would a bunch of innocent people die, but it would probably hurt the automated turrets that protected Queen’s Hat Station from invaders.

  It could mean District B’s cannons would be the only defense against Nebula Gammon’s armada.

  My eyes finally opened, and I stared at Eve’s beautiful face again.