by M. D. Cooper
Cheeky let out a nervous laugh.
The old engineer snorted.
Finaeus’s hand reached out and wrapped around her shoulder.
Finaeus made a choking sound.
SABOTAGE
STELLAR DATE: 10.24.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Airthan Ring
REGION: Huygens System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
Katrina said to Kirb as they crouched next to the nitrogen line.
She carefully placed a blob of formation material on it, seeding the inert mass with nano all bearing the specific instruction sets that Finaeus had passed along.
Katrina sent an affirming thought to Kirb, then froze, shielding the formation material with her body as one of the patrol drones flew past.
She eyed the weaponry hanging from the thing and made a mental note to profusely thank Erin for coming up with the idea to use sabotage that didn’t require them to fight their way to the CEPPs to plant explosives on them.
In all honesty, it didn’t surprise her that the pixie-like engineer had come up with the perfect solution to their problem. She’d been instrumental in dozens of projects back at Kapteyn’s Star as well, her unique insights always aiding in getting the job done on time.
The flood of memories caused a tightness in her chest that she carefully quelled. Just thinking of the Kap and all that her people had accomplished there still caused her more pain than she would have expected after so many years.
She wondered how the colonists were dealing with it, reeling from one crisis to the next in the wake of their journey forward in time. She suspected that they’d never had a chance to deal with the loss of the Kapteyn’s colony before being attacked again and again.
Though if there’s one thing I know, it’s that this life never really gives you a ‘safe time’ to slow down—other than in death, of course.
The drone completed its pass, moving along its route, and she triggered the formation material to bore its hole in the pipe, seed the nano in the nitrogen flow, and then reseal the breach.
Though some of it would invariably get lost, the nano was preprogrammed to make it to the correct CriEn modules and seed itself for the time when it would commit the sabotage.
A minute later, they met up with Amavia and Elmer on the far side of a maglev line that ran around the perimeter of the space.
* * * * *
Sera settled back behind a conduit stack, waiting on Flaherty and Kara to return.
A sense of relief had settled over her with the knowledge that the second phase was nearly complete. They were within a hair’s breadth of actually striking at Airtha.
Of course, the relief that one task was done was already bleeding into anxiety over the next. The knowledge that she’d eventually have to confront her mother had been eating at Sera for the past two years. Now that it was almost upon her, she had to continually force herself not to playout scenarios in her mind.
Sera snorted.
Sera shot the AI in her mind a stern look.
Sera considered her options. Not having six of the CEPPs suffer damage wasn’t critical; Finaeus and Earnest’s plan had only called for four of them in the first place. But without the interdictors being taken out, there was no plan B. Either they convinced an ascended AI to take its own life, or they were likely all going to die.
Sera bit her lip, hoping against hope that Fina wasn’t just blowing smoke up her ass.
* * * * *
Fina closed the connection to Sera and then triggered the nanorelays in the lift shaft and passages below to go into full standby.
It was
entirely likely that passing the message had given off enough EM to trigger a sweep of the shaft and the tunnels they’d passed through to get to the tower.
With luck, a sweep wouldn’t pick up the nano in standby, and they’d retain their connection to the other teams.
The top level where the node was situated was another twenty meters up, but a door on the platform led to a level two floors below the top. She sent a nanocloud out to move to the top of the shaft, while dropping a passel on the door’s panel, keeping her options open.
Jane reached the platform a moment later and pulled herself up alongside Fina, pressing herself against the wall.
Above them, the drones slipped past the lift doors at the top of the shaft and into the room at the top of the tower.
The area was crammed with equipment. Everything from power regulation systems to network interfaces, to the transmission equipment itself.
In the center lay the main processing node that handled all the connections and data transfer with the other uplink towers. The node was a massive cube, over thirty meters across. Power and network conduit ran into it from all directions, and lights glowed across its surface, projecting holographic status indicators to a group of technicians who monitored the node.
Or would have been monitoring the node, if they weren’t standing nearby, staring down at Roxy, who was kneeling on the floor in front of a group of five SAI battle frames.
“You’re locked down,” one of Roxy’s AI captors was saying. “No one’s coming to help you, and we’ve begun scouring the tower for any accomplices. Tell us what Justin has planned here.”
Fina gave a resolute nod.
* * * * *
Sera walked down the corridor to the CEPP’s maglev station with her team close by. They’d successfully executed Erin and Finaeus’s plan, and if they could catch a maglev at the right time, they’d be able to reach their assigned Airthan node facility in just ten minutes.
Then the fun would really start.
She was about to reach out to Flaherty with a comment about the train they’d take, when she saw his marker suddenly stop five meters in front of her.
Sera dropped as flechette rounds tore through the corridor, slicing through the air where she had been a moment before.
The shots revealed the warm end of a weapon floating in midair, just a few meters in front of where Flaherty crouched.
A second later, another barrage of flechette rounds filled the corridor, and Sera pulled her pistol from its stealth sheath, firing in the direction of the second attacker.
Each of her rounds missed their mark, striking the bulkheads. She flushed out a nanocloud to try and see the invisible assailant, when something slammed into the wall next to her, and Kara called out,
Sera moved across the corridor, covering either end as her two invisible companions fought their equally invisible enemies. Sending her nanocloud in their direction, she drew her pistol, waiting for her nano to find and highlight the enemy on her vision.
A second later, a black figure appeared where Flaherty stood, struggling with the invisible woman.
The shots ricocheted off the Widow’s armor, but provided enough of a distraction that Flaherty was able to grab the woman and fling her into the wall next to Sera.
Sera fired another series of rounds at the Widow, targeting what looked to be a weak spot in her armor at the top of her left thigh. None of the shots penetrated, and she shook her head in frustration as the Widow began to rise.
she said and slapped her thigh, drawing her lightwand out of a pocket in her armor.
The blade sliced through the black-sheathed woman’s neck, and a moment later her body fell to the deck. Turning to the second attacker, Sera saw that Kara had killed her attacker, as well, courtesy of her long, hooked talons.
* * * * *
A few meters into the passageway out of the CEPP chamber, Finaeus found himself leaning against the wall as he trembled with rage, clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to gain some measure of calm.
The ability to form words fled him for a moment, and he struggled to grab ahold of any coherent thought, forcing his heart rate and breathing to steady.
His niece didn’t reply, and Finaeus felt a measure of guilt flow into his mind, dousing the anger at Lisa and her narrowminded, pigheaded ways.
Sera cut the connection, and Finaeus terminated the nano relays he’d used for the direct communication before reaching out to his team.
A simultaneous ‘What?!’ came from Seraphina, Nance, and Cheeky.
He quickly explained the situation, causing both Nance and Cheeky to spit out a few curses regarding their strong dislike of Widows.
Finaeus resisted the urge to smack the woman in the head for always questioning him at the worst times.