Warrior- Integration

by David Hallquist

  A surprised Terran wanders in and stares, gaping. I put him down with another tranq and put him in the stall next to the guard to sleep it off.

  “Sharron, can you fool the master systems? Tell them this guy is dealing with bad burritos or something?”

  “Already on it. I’ve intercepted the signals from his personal network and overridden them.” That was fast. Too fast, actually. What is she?

  Now, the systems will see that there are three people in here—the guard in the stall is me having a bad day, the Terran in the stall is dealing with lunch, and I’m the guard. It ought to hold until someone actually comes in and checks on the stalls.

  Time to get the guard’s gear on.

  The bodysuit offers protection similar to the vest I now have, but over most of my body, with a coif over my head. It’s sized for Terrans and stretches a bit, but it fits. Ablative coatings on the vest and helmet can hold off small laser fire for a while or a single pulse from a more powerful beam. The hard vest and helmet can actually absorb a light railgun shot or blaster bolt, though the plate matrix will shatter, or the super-conducting matrix will overload in deflecting the force. That’s why they go over the bodysuit—so it can distribute the remaining force without crushing my chest or breaking my neck. Hopefully.

  For weapons, there is a laser pistol not too different from mine, a sonic stunner, a power-blade, and a stun baton. I initialize all the weapons to my control systems, then conceal my own weapons, and holster the new ones.

  There are a lot of restraints, as well as a full-service med kit and diagnostic computer.

  The mask protects against toxic gasses and provides supplemental oxygen, and the visor functions as a targeting interface and full spectrum scanner. I’ll look strange wearing the mask for no reason, though, so it’s safer to go with my face bare and use the shades for my interface.

  Everything is linked in, and Sharron is loaded and has control of the computers. According to the computers in the suit, I’m Sgt. Calon, and that’s how I’ll be reported to the master systems and sensors in the tower.

  Of course, I don’t look anything like Sgt. Calon. One security check, and I’m done. Any camera, anywhere, could pierce the deception.

  My heart is beating rapidly as I work, and I feel the monster moving under my skin. That gives me an idea.

  Staring into the mirror and at the guard, I will the monster into action. My face seems to swell and ripple, and my vision shifts. When it clears I’m Sgt. Calon’s twin.

  I put my shades back on and find Sharron’s ghost staring at me in horror. “What the hell are you?” she gasps.

  “It’s me, Sharron. Just new and improved.”

  Time to go. Even with the systems fooled, they will discover my presence soon enough. Time is working against me.

  A pair of guards bump into me on my way out of the restroom.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 67

  The two guards give me the once over. The signal my equipment is sending will be continuously analyzed by their systems and the master systems. Will my face match my records?

  “Hey, Calon, I was worried I would find you passed out in there,” the taller one says.

  I cough and clear my throat, then I wipe the perspiration from my face.

  He backs up, his attention shifting elsewhere for a moment. Most likely, he is checking his cybernetic link to the master systems. Will my false signal hold, or am I going to have to kill them and fight my way through this fortress? From this position, I should be able to kill them in less than a second.

  He looks back. “You got it bad. Check the medical station, I’ll get someone to cover your shift.”

  I nod as he moves on.

  OK, the new disguise seems to be working. The signals from the guard’s equipment seem to be fooling the master systems. For the moment. There probably isn’t much time, best not to waste it.

  Sharron floats in front of my vision. “I altered the medical signal you are broadcasting. Apparently, you ate something that disagreed with you.”

  “Quick thinking,” I sub-vocalize. Yeah, Sharron’s an AI, not a regular ghost. That’s supposed to be impossible, but so are shape-changing monster-symbionts.

  As I make my way down the hallway, I give Sharron a detailed description of the head doctor from the murder-lab. The 3D image she projects in my shades shifts and changes as I correct it. I also mention he likely had surgery on the day of my escape.

  His image comes up from her query of the master systems. It’s him. Doc Frankenstein is actually Doctor Alex Veridian. Yes, he works at the hospital built over the hellish lab. He is a specialist in trans-genetics (whatever that is), chimerography (whatever that is), and bio-symbiosis augmentation (which sounds like the monster in my blood). He recently had new eyes installed and had his face regrown due to a lab accident. Yeah, you could call it a “lab accident.” He’s about to have another.

  “That’s our boy, Sharron. We get to him, and we get answers. What’s the best way to get to him?”

  Sharron pops up a 3D image of Singularity Tower. There is the floor for the doc’s office, kilometers up. The doctor is in. I will have to go through a security level, because the elevators don’t just run from a low-security to a high-security section.

  The elevator doors receive my security transmission from the guard’s equipment, and the elevator takes me up to the security level. Time to find out how good my disguise and Sharron’s ghost are.

  The doors open on the security level.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 68

  A couple of guards nod to me, and one waves. No alarms. So far, so good. I pick the shortest route to the elevators that go up the rest of the way. Any moment, heavy security doors could slam shut, or a squad in hard suits and combat gear could show up. I check the guard’s computers. This level is basically a barracks for security and the small army they have on site. There are Terran forces here and Special Security—real soldiers with full tactical loadouts. I wouldn’t want to fight my way through without an assault-battloid and a few dozen combat remotes. Thank God, they don’t have any of those here.

  It’s kind of weird being back in a Terran facility. I remember the walk and everything. If things had been a bit different, I could have been here, guarding this place. Not so long ago, I was one of these guys on Terra, following orders and hoping the Terran Leviathan of Special Security ate me last.

  I make it to the next set of elevators and breathe a sigh of relief on the way up. This is nuts. How am I going to get back down through all this? Any minute now, they are going to find the unconscious guard in the restroom…or interrogate me for a password check…or…I can worry forever, but I need to keep focused on what I can do here and now.

  The doors open on an opulent hall. Imported marble gleams from the golden lights, and computer panels are inlaid with precious metals. This must be the place.

  Down the hall is the door for Dr. Veridian’s office. I glide over and check to see if anyone is watching. Knock, knock. I put the code breaker into the port, and Sharron attacks the local security programs.

  Data readouts float in my vision. Sharron is overriding the local security systems, putting in spoofing resident programs, isolating the room, and unlocking the hatch. Lunar computers are better.

  The hatch slides open to reveal a reception area. The only one there is the secretary. She stares and starts to say something. She never finishes, as a tranq dart from my needler knocks her out.

  I close the outer hatch and seal it. “Sharron, override the drive systems for the hatches as we go, please. I want to make sure we have some time to talk with the doc.” They are going to have to get through the hard way now; I doubt they can quickly break Sharron’s encryption.

  Show time. I use the code breaker to load Sharron’s ghost into the next room. Once everything is isolated, I open the doors and go in.

  Doctor Veridian looks up, startled.

  “Hi, Doc,” I say, walking over. “Le
t’s talk.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 69

  He looks up in slow-motion, surprise just beginning to show on his face. As I glide over to his desk, I scan the room.

  There are a number of large statues by the bookcase that would make decent blunt weapons. There are two other hatches leading out, but I don’t hear anyone breathing in there, so no ambush. The laser-sealer on the desk might cause a minor burn or blindness, and the lamp looks heavy enough to do damage. So, no threats there, but he might have a weapon in the desk drawer.

  Directly behind him, the entire wall is a sheet of polarized, diamond-reinforced glass. Beyond, the sun streams into the room, and next to the sun is the light speckled, black marble of Earth. The city of Shackleton comes into view in the crater below as I close in on the doc.

  Alarm and fear are just beginning to form on his face as I reach him, grab him around the throat, and slam him up against the window. It holds, but he casts a wild eye down. Kilometers below, the cold crater floor waits.

  “What? Who?” he says with a gasp.

  I relax the musculature on my face, and the monster flows back out, removing the weird disguise. Holding the doc to the window with one hand, I whip off my shades and stare in his eyes. “Remember me?”

  “You!” He stares back.

  “Yeah, me.” I get up in his face. “Nice, new eyes. Remember what happened to the old ones?” I press him up against the window. “This monster, the symbiont. What is it? How do I get rid of it? Is there a cure? An antidote?”

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” He actually begins to smile a bit. “The epitome of human and extra-terrestrial trans-genetics manifesting in a perfectly adapting chimera. This changes everything!”

  Huh? I press a little harder, driving some of the breath from the guy, and bending the window outward. “Do I look like a guy who understands that stuff? How do I get rid of it?”

  He gasps. “You can’t.” I slam him against the window. “I don’t know!” I hit him a few more times against the window. I feel one of his ribs go; he’s panting for air. The monster boils within me, sensing my anger. It would be so easy to kill this guy. “We…we could maybe find a way…if we brought you back to the lab…”

  That was exactly the wrong thing to say. My roar doesn’t sound human as I draw back to deliver a blow with full strength at his face. At his sobbing, helpless face. The faces of terrified people from my past in Special Security float in front of me. Dammit. I can’t go back to that again. At the last minute, I direct the blow to the side of his head. The window shakes, and small cracks appear, but it holds.

  I drop the sobbing, pathetic scum to the floor. The faint hissing from the cracks stops as ice forms and the sealant fluids in the window crystallize.

  His computer is on, with the holographic display up, so I slide the code breaker in and download Sharron. “Sharron, this guy is useless. See what you can find.”

  Is there anything here? Was this for nothing, or will I find something that can help shut down the murder-lab? Maybe I can’t be saved, but I can keep this from happening to others.

  Doc slides open a drawer while my back is turned and slides his hand in. I slam the drawer shut on his hand, breaking it, and holding him in place. He certainly screams a lot. I throw him across the room into his bookshelf and pull out his small laser pistol from the drawer.

  “Brandt,” I hear. I whip the shades back on and see Sharron. She doesn’t look happy.

  “Did you get the info?”

  “Yeah, but there are two things you need to know right now. First, when you cracked the window, it affected the exterior radiation shielding charge for the building and set off an alert. They are right outside the office and getting ready to break in. Brandt, they’re Special Security.”

  No way out without a fight. They will be ready for me; this won’t be like when I surprised a bunch of security guards or hired guns. She shows me what she saw from the exterior camera before they destroyed it—about forty men in black hardsuits, with rail-carbines and heavy lasers. I doubt even the monster can handle that.

  “It gets worse.”

  Great. I’m already gliding across the room. Time to take the shades off and put the mask and visor on. Is there anything in this room that can stop or slow down rail-fire?

  “They are going to get rid of the evidence and witnesses at the laboratory. Some of my people were taken there after the fight.” She looks worried. “Brandt, they are going to blow up the hospital.”

  The hatch from the secretary’s office explodes inward.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 70

  Walls are neither cover nor concealment against modern gear. They are, at best, polite suggestions. My visor’s sensors pick up the Special Security team pouring into the room next door, setting up positions and getting ready to blow the last door between us. If I can see them, they can see me. The walls are foam-silicon with ceramic paneling; railgun rounds won’t even be deflected as they go through.

  There is nothing in this room that will provide effective cover. Still, I take cover behind the massive desk, and get ready to open up. They will have to watch their fire or they will breach the walls. The corridor beyond them is abandoned; I don’t have to be so careful. I select fully automatic fire on my railgun. I’ll shoot them through the walls.

  The air fills with a long, booming roar as I sweep my fire across the Special Security troops. The bookcase shatters, and confetti fills the air. In the next room, their reactive armor goes off. Several men go down, and the rest hit the deck. My pistol is probably breaking plates on their armor and opening cracks; I’ll need sustained fire to actually defeat a hard suit. Still, if I can keep up the fire, knocking people around and messing with their aim, I might prevent accurate return fire—

  A short burst goes through the desk and hits me in the chest. My chest plate shatters, and I’m thrown up against the window. The desk explodes, filling the air with wooden shards. I slide down the window behind the smoking ruin of the desk.

  Lying on the floor, I try to breathe again while reaching for my pistol. The monster goes insane, surging through my body, lighting my nerves on fire.

  Doc runs screaming to the hatch. The hatch they are getting ready to breech. I try to cough out a warning; I only gasp.

  The hatch explodes into the room. Flame, metal fragments, and bits of Doc fly into the room in a deafening thunder. The flames aren’t even out when they rush in. They flow inside, breaking into pairs and checking the corners and side rooms for threats.

  They ignore me. I should be dead, chest plate or no chest plate. The monster has restarted my heart and lungs and is knitting my ribs back together. I hope I’ll still look human when it’s done.

  They won’t ignore me for long. When they see I’m alive, I’ll get a frangible dart in the head. Quickly, I switch out the magazine for canister shot that will fire a short range cone of lethal micro-darts. They will be useless against the hardsuits, but it isn’t for them.

  The air fills with thunder again, as I sweep automatic canister fire across the window behind me. The Lunar glass frosts as thousands of needle-like darts punch through.

  They turn to face me, then pause, turning to stare at the window. A high-pitched hissing fills the air. The glass frosts over. Slowly, the window begins to bend outward, giving off a high-pitched crackle as small cracks spread through the layers of glass and diamond.

  The breech klaxon goes off, and the flashing yellow lights strobe. It’s every Lunar’s nightmare. That high-pitched shriek and rumble, that sequence of flashing yellow strobes.

  Vacuum breech. Death is knocking at the door.

  “Move! Move! Move!” They make for the hatch. To hell with me, this room is going to evacuate into space. They need to get out before the heavy doors come down and seal off this room. I’d follow if I could. They flow with the smooth precision that only comes from rigorous training. They don’t bunch up, and no movement is wasted. They do everything right.
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  They almost make it.

  A deep, low roar fills the air as the window explodes outward. The air turns into fog as a typhoon sweeps everything in the room out into space—me, the remains of the furniture, and the armored soldiers. The fog clears as the roar fades into silence.

  Ice crystals and shards of Lunar glass turn and flash in the sunlight as we begin our fall toward the crater floor kilometers below.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 71

  Panes of shining mirrors tumble around me as I fall in a constellation of glowing glass. Far below, the darkness of the crater floor waits patiently for us. It won’t have to wait long.

  My armor holds, mostly. The mask forms a tight seal with the coif, and the bodysuit is airtight. I should have ten minutes of air, but I’m not going to get to use it. Air hisses from my chest, where the shards of my chest plate have torn my suit and cut me. That won’t matter for long either. My visor radar tells me I’ve got about twenty seconds before I hit the crater floor. Even though I’m accelerating slowly, there is no air to slow me down, so I’ll hit a lot harder than someone swan-diving off an Earth arcology. Splat city.

  Less than half a minute to live, not much time.

  I’ll be weightless the whole way down. The world turns about me in perfect silence—shining windows, now star-studded space, now the sun and Earth in all their glory, now the other men who were blown into space with me. I hope no one else got blasted out. Decompression is a horrible way to die.

  The windows blur together into one shimmering mirror. An explosion of glass erupts outward in silence. My radar buzzes—I’m being fired upon.