The Eye of Orion_Book 1_Gearjackers

by Mitch Michaelson

  Steo got bored while they talked. He had seen enough dolls, and wanted to get on with the mission. The deal was done so he wanted to get back to the ship, but he waited while Glaikis and Curio finished their tour. When their conversation wound down, Steo was already at the door, ready to go. They thanked Curio and left, making their way back to the ship.

  “I’d like to come back here on the way out of the spiral arm,” Glaikis said to Steo. “I wouldn’t mind having a longer conversation with Curio.”

  CHAPTER 25

  Cyrus Majeure

  Everyone was invigorated. They had tracked down their target and the chase was on. One theft of a superweapon, then they were free to return home. If they got lucky they might find and capture Dr. Spierk too. The Savior of Yrtria, mass murderer and wanted man, might soon be in their sights. Then back to civilization and spending some well-earned reward money. It had been two weeks since they met on NBS 2.

  Glaikis transfixed the crew with tales of Dr. Spierk’s abominable crimes. Even Tully didn’t know the extent of the Yrtrian war.

  If there was anything they were confident in, it was Steo’s ability to steal whatever was being built on the Vadyanika. That was his specialty.

  The Vadyanika was hiding in a gas cloud – the perfect concealment – unless someone knew your exact coordinates. Thinking no one was looking for you might make you overconfident.

  The crew checked their data and rechecked it. This time when they left Kurzia Station and jumped to the gas cloud, they were on alert. If it was a trap, they would be ready.

  Steo didn’t broach the possibility of arming the Eye of Orion. The crew were still uneasy about that, but they knew the ship had excellent defenses and Steo himself seemed capable of using the enemy’s weapons against them. They looked forward to a quick mission.

  After appearing on the edge of the AH91 Nebula, the Eye of Orion went dark. They didn’t emit any signal. Even their shields were down. Outside was a monstrous multicolored cloud, as if they sat next to a wall millions of miles high.

  After an hour of checking every spectrum, they felt safe to move. The Eye of Orion slipped into the cloud. Streams of cosmic matter flowed within past them. They didn’t take a direct route to the coordinates. Paths through the stellar mist provided cover.

  When they got closer, Yuina slowed to a mere 100,000 miles an hour. Steo dimmed their electromagnetic signature and switched to passive sensors. No eyes would be able to see the Vadyanika, but eventually their sensors would identify it as a tiny black speck on the brilliant background.

  The Eye of Orion stopped and remained still. It took four hours until they felt they had a bead on their target. The speck could be an asteroid, they couldn’t be sure. Everyone assisted.

  Steo proposed an active pulse that could be confused with background radiation. Hawking helped identify the surrounding radiations and select one, then Glaikis configured one of their dishes. Steo fired a brief burst and they waited. It took an hour and a half to get a result.

  The angles of the target proved definitively it was a ship. The measurements roughly matched their data.

  “What’s the plan, Steo?” Glaikis asked.

  Yuina grinned. “I know he has a plan.” She knew about Steo from her discussion with Slank. Steorathan Liet had a reputation.

  “I have a plan,” he confirmed.

  Sneaking up on an enemy vessel to attack was difficult but not impossible. A still target made it simple. Sneaking up on a ship and staying there without being noticed though, that meant the target had to be blind.

  Yuina observed, “If we fly straight at them, their automatic collision sensors will set off alarms.”

  “Hawking, give her the flight path in.”

  The robot showed her a diagram.

  “It’s a big curve?” she asked.

  “An exponential spiral,” Hawking corrected. “Since computers can’t predict, this will never seem like a straight line and therefore not a collision. There are tiny course shifts, which you see here and here. You have some leeway at those points. The changes you make will introduce enough difference in the spiral that their computer won’t be able to calculate the end point.”

  Steo said, “They aren’t actively scanning so we only have to bypass passive scans.”

  “And once there?” Glaikis asked.

  “Just get me next to the ship, Yuina.”

  “Can do.” She concentrated on the flight plan.

  Soon they were off and Yuina’s skills were tested. The Eye of Orion’s own computer ran emulation. If it got above a certain value, a noise would sound. Yuina kept it well below that threshold as they closed in on the Vadyanika. They circled it at a distance and got closer.

  Eventually they received astrotelemetry closer to real-time. Glaikis confirmed the ship’s identity.

  Once they were within a few hundred miles of their target, Steo focused on his own console. He looked for a sign.

  Finally he said, “They’re in night mode.” That meant the Vadyanika’s crew were mostly asleep and few systems were running.

  Hawking floated over to Steo to watch him work. Steo made a small transmission to the Vadyanika.

  “What are you doing? Won’t they notice that?” Yuina asked.

  Hawking answered because Steo was busy. “Master Steo is disabling their alarms and blinding their sensors.”

  “Cracked. Done,” Steo said.

  The Vadyanika was in night mode, and its alarms and sensors were shut down. The crew breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Hawking, upload the Quark 7 virus,” Steo said. “Their engines will leave a signature for us to follow.”

  The Eye of Orion came to a full stop a thousand feet from the Vadyanika. The science vessel was dull gray with two white stripes surrounding its body. It was a bit larger than the corvette, but it clearly wasn’t a military vessel.

  “Ease forward,” Steo said.

  Yuina used the delicate controls to creep up on the Vadyanika.

  Steo went into the holobridge and brought up a 3D blueprint of the other ship.

  “The docking port is near the front of the ship,” Hawking observed.

  “But the main laboratory is in the rear.” Steo had studied it.

  Renosha pointed at the docking port and said, “That’s the port for people entering the ship. How does large equipment get into the laboratory?”

  Steo’s eyes skimmed the layout. “Equipment port.” He pointed at a room a short distance from the lab.

  Yuina moved the Eye of Orion around to the other side and extended the docking tunnel. Ever so gently, she touched it to the Vadyanika’s equipment port. She carefully pressurized the tunnel to match the inside of the Vadyanika.

  Steo went alone. He entered the docking tunnel, stood before the door and waited. Hawking used Steo’s applications to open the door.

  There was a click but nothing else. Steo put his ear to the crack and felt a change in air pressure on his cheek. Then suddenly the doors shot open with a loud clang!

  He froze, looking at a black corridor. Nothing moved. There was no sound. Steo stepped on board the Vadyanika. He remembered: two right turns and he would be in the laboratory.

  The ship was in complete sleep mode. Almost nothing was running. Each time he crept through a dark intersection, he saw no one. Finally he was at the laboratory’s door. He knew it was locked so he typed in a password and the door slid open.

  The room was a jumble of cables, consoles and big metal boxes. Most stood upright against the wall, but one big silver box lay in the middle of the room. The door closed quietly behind him.

  Steo didn’t know what he was looking for. They hadn’t broken far into the ship’s computer systems, just enough to gain entry. The superweapon could be a nuclear device, a new use of gravitons or tachyons, or a chemical weapon. It could be any size. Steo had seen a lot of technology and didn’t recognize anything in the lab.

  The room was cool but he had sweat on his brow. He was alert and co
nfident. This was what he lived for. His dreams as a child were to one day undertake dangerous missions like this.

  He didn’t want to open things randomly, so he traced where the cables and tubes ran. It was obvious: the silver box in the center of the room was the most likely candidate.

  There were buttons on the side. Steo pressed them in the correct order. There was a slight shudder. In the Vadyanika’s bridge, the research assistant who was supposed to watch the displays snorted in his sleep.

  The silver box tilted up slowly. It rose and soon it was upright, taller and wider than Steo. A crack down the middle opened and light shone on Steo’s face.

  The doors swung open. Inside was a nude man, covered in white frost. He looked like he was carved from a block of ice. His features were chiseled, his muscles cut like diamonds.

  Steo was shocked. He had expected a mechanical weapon like a bomb. This could be an android, a robot built to look like a human. Androids were universally banned. At least Renosha looked like a robot. Worse, he could be a biological weapon, a carrier of a deadly disease that could walk undetected through a city, spreading a blight that killed millions. A grown human male wasn’t on Steo’s list of superweapons. Yet he could be something extraordinarily deadly.

  Steo turned around and typed on a console. He wasn’t sure he would be able to steal the ice-man or even wanted to steal him. He needed to know what the ice-man was. It might not even be a man. What sort of threat is this? he thought.

  While he tapped, lights on the side of the sarcophagus changed colors. Steo cracked databases but encountered only numbers.

  Behind him the cryogenically-frozen man warmed up. He opened his eyes. Steo was too focused on his console to notice.

  Steo’s search was almost done. He wanted to find a journal explaining what this experiment was for. He felt a frosty hand clench his shoulder.

  Steo flinched in terror and squirmed out of the hold. He spun and saw the naked man staring at him with ice-blue eyes. The eyes studied Steo’s face for a long moment. The ice-man said nothing as he advanced toward Steo.

  Steo ducked and ran around the sarcophagus. The ice-man tried to follow but was too sluggish. Steo made it to the door and saw the ice-man was walking behind him.

  Steo panicked and ran. Whatever danger the ice-man represented, he didn’t want to be the first victim. He didn’t look behind him to see if the ice-man followed, he just sprinted down the darkened corridors. One corner, two, he rushed through the docking hatch and down the tunnel. At the end he hit a button and didn’t stop, though he heard the door close behind him. He ran to the bridge and came to a sliding halt, panting and out of breath.

  Yuina looked up from her console and screamed.

  Standing behind Steo was the naked man, staring at Steo’s back.

  Yuina yanked her legs up into the seat. Glaikis raised her eyebrows and stood slowly. Hawking hovered away from Steo.

  “Take off!” Steo told them. “Retract the docking tunnel and get us out of here!”

  Steo realized they were looking behind him and turned. He looked into the pinkish face of the naked man. Jolted, he backed away.

  “Say Steo, what you got there? Did you bring a friend?” Glaikis asked.

  “Aaah!” Yuina yelled again.

  “Why are you screaming,” Glaikis demanded.

  Yuina said, “That’s what a human male looks like naked?”

  Steo said, “More or um, less.”

  “Ugh, I think I’m going to vomit,” Yuina said as she shuddered.

  Steo backed away from the man. He was warming up, and was no longer white. His skin was flushing from head to toe.

  “I normally go for something softer, but there’s something to be said for muscles.” Glaikis wasn’t worried about an unarmed man.

  “I think he’s a disease carrier or an android, Glaikis,” Steo said.

  “Why?”

  “This is the superweapon.”

  “Sir! I am sorry to interrupt,” Hawking said, “but alarms are sounding on the Vadyanika. The ship is waking up.”

  Yuina said, “Alarms? I thought you shut them off?”

  “Yes, the computer-controlled ones. You can’t disable a button!” Steo said. “Get us out of here!”

  “What about Dr. Spierk! Did you find out if he’s on that ship?” Glaikis asked.

  “What about the bounty?” Yuina asked as she punched buttons.

  Steo backed away from the naked man. “We’ve got them tracked. Do I have to remind you we’re unarmed?”

  At that moment, Renosha strolled into the bridge. “I hope that isn’t the new fashion,” he said as he passed the naked man.

  “Where is my clothing?” asked the naked man in a baritone voice.

  Yuina and Glaikis quickly got to work. The docking tunnel retracted and in moments they were moving off at an increasing pace.

  The naked man strode further into the bridge. “I say again, I require clothing. Please attend to this.”

  Tully appeared in the bridge too, with a large towel. “Hawking, why did you send me that message? Why should I bring a towel to the … oh science … he’s naked.”

  The naked man took the towel and wrapped it around his waist. He looked around at his new surroundings.

  “Who are you?” Steo asked.

  With a square jaw and a far-away look he said, “I am Cyrus Majeure.”

  Yuina looked where he was looking and said, “Why do humans do that?”

  CHAPTER 26

  Bringer of Fire

  A strand of bright orange energy crackled on the floor, leading back to a handle in XO Pesht’s clenched fist. The strand crackled angrily. A man cringed with tears streaming down his face, not taking his eyes off the agony lash. His jaw was clenched and he squirmed on the floor.

  “Discipline is critical,” Pesht said with a broad, wicked smile. Every time he struck the man, there were loud snaps and screams. The rest of the crew kept to their posts and tried to look busy. The flashes of the agony lash lit their backs.

  Several days ago, the kalam had transferred his best technician to the Tactics section. This new one would have to learn faster.

  Eventually the man’s cries weakened. Pesht flicked a switch and shut off the agony lash. The orange strand hissed away to nothingness. He didn’t have to give an order to pick the groaning man up. One of the guards rolled him over and applied a shot to the base of his throat. Pesht walked the bridge of the Fire Scorpion, surveying consoles and checking efficiency. The punished man struggled to his feet and got back to his station, supported more by stimulants than his own strength.

  Stimulants were widespread among space crews: combat drugs, energy drinks, shots of medicine, pills, patches, etc. For every side-effect there was another stimulant. Men aged rapidly in these artificial conditions. Most hoped to live long enough to retire. Many just wanted to burn out in a spectacular way.

  “Navigator! Estimated time of arrival?” Pesht demanded.

  “Four minutes,” a man responded.

  Pesht scurried across the room and climbed the back of the man’s chair, looking over his shoulder. The crew were used to the kalam’s overpowering stench, but a few inches away it was hard not to choke a little.

  Pesht snorted, but was satisfied with what he saw. They were about to appear next to the Vadyanika, and Pesht looked forward to Dr. Spierk’s final payment. Kalams were greedy and ruthless. Every good pirate captain had one, and many knight-mercenaries had them too. As a species kalams were widely despised – thus the nickname “scurjes” – but Pesht knew of no megalomaniacs like Dr. Spierk in his race.

  He let go of the navigator’s chair and went back to climb up on his own. His authority didn’t require him to look down on his taller crew. It was just natural for the six-legged species to climb.

  The door to the captain’s lift opened with a squeal.

  “Admiral Slaught on deck!” Pesht barked.

  The robot Leech floated in first, hands behind his back. Fo
llowing him was a row of hard men. They had broad shoulders and sharp angles, guns and blades within easy reach. The last was a grizzled, severe man with eye implants: Admiral Slaught.

  “This is Pest, my Bridge XO,” Slaught said to his men.

  Pesht never liked the mispronunciation of his name and knew it was derogatory, but he needed to appear tough on a ship like this. He nodded to the entourage.

  They fanned out to look around. It was against procedure for non-bridge crew to move around on the bridge, but that was the Admiral’s procedure to break.

  “Admiral we’re about to appear near the science vessel,” Pesht dutifully reported with a slurp. He left his chair and went to double-check a console.

  One of the mercenaries walked over and dropped into his chair. Pesht glared at the merc. Pesht was an excellent judge of human character. He noted the few cybernetic enhancements. In a flash, Pesht drew his agony lash and whipped the man.

  Instinctively, the mercenaries reached for their own weapons, but none drew them. Pesht slashed the man several times as he screamed, until he fell out of the chair. The agony lash simmered on the deck and smoked.

  He addressed the armed and armored men in his bridge. “I am Bridge Executive Officer of the Fire Scorpion, personal ship of Admiral Slaught. My chair, my bridge.”

  One of the mercenaries laughed maniacally. The one thing that grated a kalam’s nerves was human laughter. This was a screeching laugh too, not one that made others want to join in.

  “Bridge XO, I like you! Field Officer Boc,” he said.

  They were the same rank, but different commands under the Admiral. Now Pesht knew who was in charge of the ground troops.

  Before Pesht could reply, the panels changed. The Fire Scorpion had stopped in a gas cloud. Outside, pink and blue streams flowed in every direction.

  Pesht leapt to his duties, issuing orders and getting replies. Nobody helped the whipped mercenary up. He crawled away from Pesht’s chair. Boc watched in amusement.

  The Fire Scorpion was a few hundred miles away from the Vadyanika, a pinpoint stop for a starship. Pesht didn’t wait to see if it was safe. The Fire Scorpion was a destroyer-class military ship, armed to the teeth. It was a ship killer. Anyone that approached risked utter destruction.