"Jane, can you access any cams in here?"
"Trying."
Several more firing cycles later, my PC popped up a hollo screen, showing the other side of our conflict.
"Everyone getting this?" I asked.
A series of yes came back.
Time to change the dynamics.
"Jane, mark the woman firing at me as target one, and tag the rest in order of threat potential."
"Confirmed."
The display changed to show an arrow. It also showed exactly where to aim.
"BA, call out the timing, and we all fire at the same person at the same time."
"Wait."
BA was in the zone. While the lowest rank of our little group, she was the combat expert. Jane was more precise, but not as combat experienced. We waited. Only seconds though.
"Now."
The six of us rose to the top of our cover, aimed, and fired. The woman's head emerged as we fired, and she took four full pulses, a long gun pulse, and eighteen half pulses. She went down backwards, and the display showed blood.
"Shift target," said BA, steadily. "Wait."
I needed the wait to reorient myself, so fixated on my original attacker I hadn’t gained any perception of where the others were. I was ready in time though.
"Now."
The same thing happened with target two. And three through six. One by one they went down under our combined firepower, although the last two managed to avoid being hit the first time. But the result now was inevitable.
Jane was the first to rise, and begin walking towards the mess. I looked around for the others. They were all up now, as I was.
"Anyone hurt?"
"Me," said Alison. "Three of them hit me before I knew what was going on. Suit took it, but I can feel a new bruise forming."
"We really need to fix that, once and for all," said BA.
I sighed. Belt suit side effects had been an ongoing issue for two years now. Every time we thought we had it fixed, something new happened. The whole idea was a suit which kept you undamaged, at least until it failed. But every version had some reason why you still ended up getting hurt, usually bruised in some way. Hurt was better than dead though. And most of us had been close to it at some time or other, and I had actually been dead once. Alison was the tallest of us, and I’d been in front. Hence being the most obvious targets.
"It's still being worked on," said Jane, in front of us, now stopped and looking down.
We joined her. The sight was sickening. Only one of the women had a face any more, and she had one eye missing, and also a missing hand, which probably meant the hand took most of the shots, largely protecting her head. They'd been good enough to only need a head and hand above cover to fire, but not good enough to avoid our level of co-ordinated firepower. Several of the other's hands were missing as well.
"Why didn’t they surrender?" asked Amanda.
"I was wondering the same," said Aleesha. "After their leader went down, I was expecting the others to give up."
"I wish they had," I added.
I hated when we had to do something like this. Even more so this time, as I had no idea why.
"Not likely," said a male voice. "Weapon dealers are always ready for a double cross. They must have assumed you were with me."
He emerged from behind a pile of drums, head first, the rest following after a pause, but kept his distance.
"Who are you?" asked Jane.
"Jack Tressler."
Jane was silent for a moment, and we all looked at her, waiting.
"Oh."
How very informative that was.
"What was going on here when we arrived?" I asked him.
"Well, she was about to shoot me."
"Why?" asked BA, in a tone which caused him to jump slightly.
"Well it seems I bought a stolen ship. Theirs. I was unsuccessfully trying to explain it wasn’t me who stole it. I simply bought it, not knowing its history."
The raised hands and charming smile, didn’t exactly engender belief.
"Fine," said Jane. "I believe you."
I frowned, but Jane obviously knew more than I did.
"Thanks," he said. "And thank you all for saving me."
"I'm not sure we did," added Jane.
The smile slipped.
"Err…"
"I suggest," Jane went on, "you sell this ship today, for whatever you can get for it, and buy something with a benign history, and be a long way away from here when anyone associated with these people get here to find who killed them."
"You should too."
"Don’t concern yourself about us," I said. "We'll be long gone."
"I kinda liked this ship though."
"This ship equals short life," said Jane. "Running gives you a much longer life span. Trust me."
He looked at the corpses on the deck, shuddered, and returned his gaze to Jane.
"Good point." He looked down again. "Good thing this ship has a very efficient recycling system."
The grin was back.
"Got a live one here," said BA suddenly.
She was squatting over the one with only one eye, the one who'd taken the least damage.
"I've got her," said Jane, and she hoisted the unconscious woman into her arms, and ran off the ship.
"Where's she going?" asked Jack.
"Nearest med center I expect," said BA. "Dump and leave job. Jane's fast, and no-one will see her."
He looked sceptical.
"You might want to be careful about that one," I told him. "Best be gone before she's awake again."
"Yeah. Thanks."
I'm not sure he understood my meaning, but what he did next wasn’t our concern. We said our goodbyes, and I led the girls off the ship. Around the first corner, we found ourselves on the bridge of Gunbus. We had to wait for Jane to appear a little while later.
"What the hell was that?" I yelled at her, and she grinned back at me.
"Troubled Space, by A.K. DuBoff."
"Another book?"
"Of course."
"What's the damage to the book this time?" asked Amanda.
"Very interesting actually. The book still exists, but the story changed completely. We changed the first page, and it changed everything." She paused, obviously reading. "Odd. A lot of the previous story is still there, but so much changed around it, it's practically a new story." She looked accusingly at me. "What did you do?"
"Me?"
"You. I checked the book on the way to the med center, and it's changed again since then."
"Good or bad?" I asked.
"Impossible to tell," laughed Jane.
August Bowditch
Five
"Oh," said Jane, sounding perplexed.
A hollo was showing the aftermath of a car accident.
At a guess, having seen lots of flat screens with similar vehicles and clothing, this was early two thousands Earth. Which wasn’t a good place for Gunbus to be. History called it a time of mass paranoia.
The car in question had hit a man. Or to be more exact, the man had run straight into the path of the car, with substantial damage caused to both. Traffic was now banking up well down the street, since the man had ended up behind the car, and people were milling around both man and car.
A number of questions were juggling for attention. Why were we watching the aftermath of a car accident which happened six hundred years ago? And where the 'choose your expletive' were we now? Not to mention exactly when.
"We have to help him," muttered Jane.
Jane muttering got everyone's attention. Jane was not noted for muttering.
"Who?" asked Amanda.
"What?" asked Jane.
Jane not being aware of everything around her was also not normal. I could see Alison teetering on the edge between concern, and the beginning of freaking out.
"Who do we need to help?" said Aleesha, somewhat more forcefully than normal.
"August Bowditch," said Jane.
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br /> "Who's he when he's home?" I asked.
"Him."
Jane was pointing at the man lying on the ground, who'd been responsible for partly wrecking the car.
"Why?" asked BA. "That's what happens when you ram a solid object. Especially one which is moving at the time."
"Is he going to die?" asked Alison quietly.
Jane paused, and Alison went a little paler. Jane only paused for effect, as part of being perceived as human, and entirely for our benefit. Jane actually pausing for real was quite frightening. Most of her thought processes were completed in nanoseconds. For a pause to be a real pause, she was spending an eternity thinking about something. And anything which could cause her to do that, was a worry.
"No. He's going to live."
"Why is that a problem?" asked Aline.
I flicked a quick glance at her. I hadn’t noticed she'd joined us.
"His injuries are severe."
"And that’s our problem, because?" demanded BA.
"He brings on the zombie apocalypse."
"Sorry, what?"
It took me a moment to realise it was me saying it. But the same question was on most of our faces.
"Maybe 'brings it on' is the wrong way to put it. But as far as I can tell, the only defining event before it starts, is this accident."
"Zombie apocalypse?" said BA slowly. "You mean we're not in our genre anymore?" Her voice rose in tone and volume. "We're not trained for this!"
The last came out as a bellow. Alison looked just shy of losing it.
"Zombies?"
Even my voice sounded a little shaky. I'd always hated the whole concept of zombies. Finding ourselves anywhere near them, wasn’t something I wanted to experience firsthand.
"Zombies," confirmed Jane.
"Fuck," said Aline, and every head shot around to look at her.
Jane pausing, Alison freaking out, BA feeling inadequate, and now Aline swearing. I wasn’t sure I could cope. Let me clarify that. Having your team reveal an inadequacy at a time of stress wasn’t easy to cope with. Zombies I thought we could deal with, given we were on Gunbus, and presuming the armoury was full. Dealing with Zombies with only our…no, not going there! Preventing zombies should be a lot easier.
"Get a grip everyone," said Amanda, and all eyes went to her.
"That’s my line," I told her, but only Aleesha chuckled.
I looked at Jane, who seemed to be her normal self again.
"Book name?"
"August Bowditch and the Zombie Apocalypse, by Graham Toseland"
"And how do we stop zombies happening?"
"We need to get him into a care unit as soon as possible."
Six
We had to wait until he was on his own in a hospital bed.
Jane sent me a suit definition for a hospital orderly, and I walked into the hospital in it. Jane was behind me, in local style civvies. It didn’t take long to find a wheelchair not being used, and I simply wheeled it somewhere no-one else was. Jane disappeared at one point, and reappeared sitting in the chair, showing a few bandages here and there.
I wheeled her into Bowditch's room, as if bringing one victim of an accident to see another. She rose, and we both looked down on him. He was a mess, to be sure.
"You sure he lives?"
"Sure. I'm not sure I’d call it living though. Ironically, when he confronts zombies, he has none of these injuries, and when he's not, he does."
I screwed up my eyes and shook my head. Getting clarification I figured was probably a bad idea.
"Door," said Jane.
I turned back to it, and pushed it shut. We probably didn’t have long, since all the other doors were open.
Jane took a moment to determine if he could be moved to the wheelchair. Nodding to herself, she changed her appearance to match his, and there was a momentary glitch in the monitors as she took control of them. Very carefully, she eased him out of the bed, and onto the wheelchair.
I put a spare belt suit around his arm, and Jane shifted his appearance to look like her. As I wheeled him to the door, Jane took his place on the bed, looking like him.
Time was now important. I hurried as fast as I could without drawing attention, and made it out the front doors without being stopped. It was dark, which was the important thing. The car park was only sparsely occupied, and Jane had put Gunbus down as best she could. The ship was invisible, and I had to ask Jane via my PC to put the ramp out.
Wait, I can tell you're getting confused. Jane is in the hospital bed. Jane is also running Gunbus as the ship's AI. Plus an assortment of combat and security droids. Not to mention most of my other ships. She gets around, and does a lot at the same time.
A small area of metal appeared a little closer than I’d have preferred it, and I stopped dead. It's hard to judge where empty stops, and invisible begins. The small airlock in the middle opened, and a one person wide ramp extended.
I quickly wheeled Bowditch up the ramp and across the cargo bay. At the base of the stairs up to the upper levels, a small cargo droid picked up the whole wheelchair, and carried it up. It put it down again inside the medical suite.
Jane had taken over one of the security droids, and it carefully picked up Bowditch, and put him in the nearest care unit, before removing the belt suit. The auto-doc took over, sealed the unit, and began assessing him.
The belt went around the waist of the security droid, and Jane was standing there again. She and Alison stayed with the care unit, while I returned to the bridge.
We were already in the air, and heading off planet.
The next two days were spent hiding behind the dark side of the moon. The auto doc did its work, and the rest of us amused ourselves how we normally did. Just for the hell of it, I tried to read the story we were currently in, but, zombies.
I went back to some old favourites. I mean really old. Which in itself was a bit strange. My copies were six hundred years old, but where we were now, they were only recently written. Then it occurred to me reading them might be tempting fate so we ended up in them next, and I stopped. I settled for Who re-runs instead, and hoped like hell we wouldn't end up in them.
Aline joined me, and night time was more enjoyable than the last few had been. At the back of my mind though, was if we'd even remember any of this, when it ended. Assuming it did. Bonking over, Aline slept, but I was kept awake wondering what was actually going on, and who was doing this to us. Also why. None of this made any sense. Then again, I should be used to that by now.
The auto-doc completed its work, and after Alison gave Bowditch a sedative to keep him from waking up at the wrong time, we reversed the procedure. Jane put him in the wheelchair, the cargo droid carried him down, and Jane landed the ship in the parking lot again.
This time though, and it could have been because I was in the cargo bay this time, waiting for the ramp, there was a definite feeling of resistance as Gunbus touched down.
"Crap," said Jane, over the coms.
The sound of the twins laughing came after her voice. The airlock opened, and the ramp slid out. When it hit the ground, I wheeled the chair down to the bottom. Looking back at the visible part of the ship, it seemed the angle was wrong. I started chuckling when I realized the probable cause.
The night time staff paid me no attention, and I made it to Bowditch's room without any problems. A few minutes later, he was hooked up to his monitors again, Jane was Jane again, and I wheeled Jane out. We were barely past the nurse's station before a commotion started, and people started converging on his room.
We left the wheelchair where we'd found it, I shifted into civvies, and we walked out like anyone who'd just been visiting a patient there.
Back on the ship, I trained a cam on the parking lot as we ascended.
Sure enough, there was a single flattened car sitting where the front of the ship had been.
I grinned at Jane, but she refused to make eye contact with me.
"No zombies?" asked BA.
/> Jane paused, obviously checking, and a startled look appeared on her face.
"Well that’s strange. No zombies, as the book is now a single chapter long about how someone has a car accident, and a miracle cures him of his injuries while he sleeps."
"What's strange?" I asked.
"There's a new book now, same title without Bowditch's name, which is essentially the same story, but without him in it."
"But we're not in that one?" demanded BA.
"No."
"Good," said everyone.
Desert Runner
Seven
"Are those dragons?" asked Amanda.
"Something along those lines I think," replied Jane.
They certainly looked like dragons to me. Not exactly how images in the past had depicted them, at least the ones I’d seen, but dragons all the same.
"Does that mean we're out of our genre again?" asked BA.
I hoped not.
"Probably," giggled Aleesha.
"Not helping," I muttered, which only caused Amanda to giggle as well.
"Where are we now?" asked Alison.
"I'm not sure yet," said Jane. "But I think I found why we're here."
The view shifted to show a large number of people moving away from a set of buildings. There were no life signs inside them, but some sort of vehicle I'd never seen before was heading in another direction away from it at high speed.
"They look like refugees," said Aline quietly.
"Fleeing the dragons?" asked BA.
"Seems to be," said Jane.
I groaned.
"Yes Jon," said Aline, patting my arm. "It’s a rescue mission."
This of course made everyone grin in my direction. My stance on rescues was well known now, and widely ignored. Sometimes I thought the cosmos conspired to make my life one series of continuous rescue missions. As far as I was concerned, I was done with them. As far as the cosmos was concerned, I wasn’t. I sighed.
"Where's the threat?" I asked Jane.
The view changed again. The direction the refugees were heading in, down some sort of roadway, was going to be overrun before they got there. The problem wasn’t how fast these creatures walked, but that half of them were flying.
Crossover: It's a Jon Hunter thing. Page 2