A Check for a Billion

by Vasily Mahanenko

  He was still cackling when the tentacle came whipping back and pierced his fighter, impaling it on one of its myriad spires. I didn’t get off cleanly either. No matter how hard I tried to escape, the Queen was faster. Surviving miraculously, I flipped the fighter vertically at the last moment, turning my cockpit away from the tentacle. My pilot’s seat had come undone and as I flipped I went flying into the hull. I was saved by the fact that the hull had already cracked. A caustic fog of dissolved raq began seeping in — it seems that the Queen’s tentacles were covered with a volatile acid. I unfastened my suit and zoomed upward like Superman. Or, rather, like Iron Man. He’s the one who likes flying around space in a tin can. Aalor was nowhere to be found.

  The tentacle that had destroyed him returned just as quickly, aiming for its new target. The Queen had swallowed its fancy appetizer and was now heading for the main dish — Blood Island.

  I remained hanging amid the asteroids and stars, watching the Queen. An unpleasant feeling of nausea was growing somewhere deep inside me. Gradually, it enveloped and penetrated into every nook and cranny of my consciousness, causing my gag reflex to go off and my throat to spasm. The Zatrathi Queen was horrible not only because of her appearance, which you’d get used to sooner or later — but rather because of her inevitability. The Queen was an unstoppable destructive force. There was nothing in Galactogon that could oppose her. Sooner or later she would reach even the most distant star system and the game’s lore would come to an end.

  Although, why do I say that there’s nothing to oppose her? I’ve got one such item in my inventory. I spent a long time thinking about whom I should call. Vargen and Ash were out of the question. I wasn’t about to do either one of those jerks a favor. Kiddo — more of a no than a yes. First I’d need to figure out what our relationship had become after I’d rescued Wit-Verr. Gammon didn’t have the skills I needed. Eine? He was useful naturally, but not in this line of work. Ah! I know who can help me!

  “Valmont, hello! Wanna become the hero of all of Galactogon?”

  A true pilot, a real ace — not some delinquent orbship pirate. He arrived fifteen minutes later, giving me the time to examine in detail what happens when the Abyss enters a system. Planets were consumed first, then large asteroids. When nothing remains and the system’s star goes crazy from the presence of an extraneous massive body, the Abyss turns its attention to the dessert.

  I was wrong — the players’ ships were no delicacy for the Abyss. They were more of a snack. It was stars that were the creature’s main treat and dish. The Queen even closed her eyes in pleasure as the deformed sun disappeared in her mouth, illuminating the insides for a few moments. I’m willing to bet Eunice will give me a kiss for getting that on video.

  Having finished her meal, the Queen froze. Her tentacles gathered under her body, her eyes closed, and she began to slowly drift away, digesting her food. That was when the scout popped up next to me.

  “God — damn! What the hell is that? Is the corp’s art department hiring acidheads again?”

  Valmont’s reaction was understandable, but he was wasting time. My time. The Queen’s eyes opened, and she stared at the new food with interest. I jetted over to the scout’s airlock and dived inside. As soon as the doors were closed, inertia ruthlessly pressed me into the bulkhead. The scout began to accelerate out of the system at full thrust.

  “Well shit! Are you sick in the head, Surgeon? Wasn’t there some easier way to kill yourself?”

  I crawled over to the captain’s cabin and collapsed into an empty chair. Valmont had arrived alone. The Queen reached for us with a tentacle, but the experienced pilot had no trouble avoiding it. There was no chase — I guess we didn’t seem very tasty.

  “Why didn’t you tell me I’d get your Star Hero medal posthumously? I never signed up to be a kamikaze…”

  “Turn around. See her? That’s the Queen. She’s got two dozen tentacles, every one of them long and quick…”

  “Yeah, I noticed. Wish my ex had some like that,” the pilot laughed, distracting me.

  “Ugh. Skip the personal details. Focus. Your job here is to dodge the tentacles and land me on her body. Preferably in the ship.”

  “Oh, so it’s like a kink of yours,” Valmont quipped and suddenly added quite seriously: “Tell me again how helping you pull off this elaborate suicide will make me the hero of the galaxy?”

  “Because if you and I do it right, the Queen will die,” I said simply. “I have no idea whether she has a binding or not, I don’t know whether she’ll respawn or what, but I do know that we’ll be the first ones to gank the Zatrathi Queen…That’s gotta be worth something, don’t you think?”

  “Okay, but you’re going to need more than a dingy blaster. You got some kind of doomsday device you want to tell me about?”

  I nodded and pointed to the Queen. She had stirred again, apparently done digesting my star system and was now about to set off for a new goal.

  “You’ll need some time, right?” Valmont asked thoughtfully and took out a cigar: “Want one?”

  “Why not?” I didn’t smoke in reality, but this was one of those occasions. “A couple of seconds should do. The doomsday device is easy to set off. The important thing is to get to her torso.”

  Valmont helped me light the cigar and I took the first puff of my life. Nothing happened. No coughing, no irritation, and most of all and most depressingly — no buzz.

  “Well, it’s not real tobacco obviously — but it’ll help you relax. And by the way, if you take a drag like that in meatspace, you’ll cough up your lungs. This ain’t a cigarette, cowboy. Now hang on. Turbulence incoming. This scout ain’t so quick, but we should make it. This is the last time I help out a lunatic.”

  The scout came around and headed for the Queen. Something strange was happening to her. She had splayed her tentacles, as if to embrace something, and we saw several discharges of electricity slip along their lengths.

  “Look, she’s getting ready to jump!” Valmont concluded. “What a monster! She can jump into hyperspace and everything!”

  “Hurry up! We have to make it! The tentacles are occupied!”

  “Well get your doomsday device ready! We’re about to come along her spine like on a roller coaster!”

  The Lara crystal, the Lora coupler unit and the Lira pedestal appeared in my lap. The engineer had placed the crystal in an insulating case, which allowed me to carry the Lara on me. The pilot glanced over at my doomsday device, without ceasing to maneuver between the spires that dotted the Queen. The way we were spinning and whirling, I knew I had made the right decision. Valmont was the only pilot in the galaxy who could fly in these conditions.

  “Doesn’t look very scary. Is it some kind of doomsday trophy? Wait…don’t answer that! We’re almost there! On the count of three! One! Two! Now!”

  The scout’s hull jerked, there was a metallic screeching and showers of sparks and utter chaos erupted all around us. But that wasn’t the worst part. I did not take into account the size of the Queen’s mass — and I paid dearly for it as her gravity crushed me into my seat. The Queen’s gravitational force was enormous. My armor suit’s servomotors whirred and whined trying to cope with the strain. Sparks began to shoot out of my own body as my screens began to blink from the load of the energy vortices. My medunit couldn’t keep up with my injuries and a veil of haze descended over my vision. Well, this had all the hallmarks of a true heroic deed! Overcoming everything, I had to do the impossible.

  Am I a hero? But of course! Galactogon told me as much as soon as I managed to bring my hands together and push the button that freed the crystal from its casing…

  You have activated the Vengeance!

  The Vengeance Set has been destroyed. You have accomplished what none of Galactogon’s scientists could. You have destroyed the ancient Vraxis super weapon which could turn any battle in their favor. Your rapport with all factions has decreased.

  Further down, in small print came something li
ke a footnote:

  Achievement unlocked: Hero of Galactogon. You have sent the Zatrathi Queen to rebirth. The Zatrathi must retreat and Galactogon has received a month-long respite from hostilities. Use it to the utmost to prepare for the invasion’s second wave. Relations with all empires have changed. Everyone despises you, yet respects your achievements. Your access to the Hansa Arms Corporation has been restored.

  Contact any empire for a reward from the hands of the emperor.

  Your rapport with Jolly Roger 2.0 has grown. Speak to Captain Wit-Verr.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “C’mon! Really? Is there really nothing?”

  Brainiac scanned the space around us once again and confirmed the unpleasant news: ‘Empty.’ Only half an hour had passed since the Queen’s demise. Either someone managed to grab the loot crate or she never dropped one to begin with.

  “Lex, get over here!” Eunice called me. “There’s like a giant pajama party in space going down over here!”

  She was out in the region that had once been the edge of my star system. I flew up closer. A small forcefield sphere was hanging in the middle of nowhere. It was full of players dressed in nothing but white pajamas. There were so many of them that they were like bugs fumbling in a jar. Periodically someone would get shoved or kicked hard enough to fly out of the sphere. It took only a couple of seconds for the player to become a corpse in the open vacuum of space. The odd thing was that the bodies left no loot crates behind.

  “Brainiac, catch me one!” I ordered.

  The players were flying out all the time, so this was no difficult task. Brainiac brought a random player onboard and quickly placed him into the medcapsule to nurse him to health. While I was waiting for our guest to recover, I watched about five hundred players kick the bucket.

  “Th-thank you!” said the engineer from Render. “Th-that’s my th-third rebirth. It ju-just keeps happening again and a-again.”

  The Zatrathi Queen had once again played a nasty trick on the players. Not only had she gobbled up all their gear and equipment without a trace, she’d also destroyed Blood Island’s planetary spirit. However, the respawn point had remained and was now regurgitating the combined crews of two cruisers. Obviously the respawn location couldn’t accommodate all the victims in the area and they were now simply cycling: They’d respawn in the center of the sphere, gradually be pushed out to its outer periphery and then be cast out to respawn again in the center of this infernal bubble. Gustavo, the engineer, had made three such journeys before I rescued him. On the other hand, the players who had been on Blood Island and had been incinerated by its sun, were now safe at home.

  The worst part was that these prisoners couldn’t even call anyone. The mass of bodies was so dense that no one could reach for their PDA. I looked at the respawn point. There was little space on my orbship, yet the battlesphere could easily accommodate several hundred passengers. I’m no altruist of course, but sometimes it’s worth abandoning the ordinary pirate principles.

  “No way!” Eunice cut me off, upon hearing my idea. “I’m not about to save those who came here for one purpose — to kill you and take your ship.”

  “They’re just ordinary players, Eunice. They were simply doing as Aalor had ordered them.”

  “Oh sure — make sure to spill a tear for them too. That’ll move me! What a bunch for you to pity. Lex — they knew perfectly well what they were doing and where they were going! No, I don’t want to help them. They have a guild, let it help them. If they can’t call home, let them call tech support and complain. This does not concern us.”

  “Eunice…”

  “Eunice what? I’ve been Eunice for thirty years! If you want to help them — go ahead! Don’t count on me! But, before you hang up — tell me: If you were in that situation, would someone from Liberium help you?”

  My wife disconnected, leaving me on my own. She was right of course. No one would lift a finger for me. In fact, they’d probably take a selfie and share it around for the lulz.

  There was just this one thing that kept me from washing my hands of the situation. It wasn’t my conscience. Or the promise of a reward. Or even just wanting to show off in front of everyone, showing them what a good guy I was. No…

  There’s simply what’s right and what’s wrong.

  These players were in trouble and there was no one else to help them right now. They could not even sign out of the game, since you couldn’t do so while inside a respawn area and the desperate few seconds of tumbling through space before dying made it very difficult to navigate the UI’s menus. The players would naturally make the corporation pay for allowing such a bug, but that would come later.

  “Vargen, this is Surgeon. Your men need help. Here are their coordinates.”

  My orbship managed to accommodate 150 players. I would have never imagined what survivors are capable of. As soon as they had caught their breath, they huddled up next to their mates and accepted more rescues onto their shoulders — effectively returning to the same hellish situation they’d just escaped from in order to save more of their fellows. I could not provide everyone with medical care and many had to bear serious injuries and a myriad debuffs. But everyone tried to survive. The lack of binding meant that if they left the game before they reached a planetary spirit, they would respawn here all over again.

  Bit by bit, the number of people inside the respawn bubble decreased and the players stopped jostling each other. Half an hour later, five cruisers descended on us all at once. Vargen did not trust me. Brainiac warned us that the cruisers had locked on, but they did not open fire. Once Liberium saw the situation, they began to evacuate the trapped players.

  Meanwhile, I received a request for a video conference. I found myself staring at a screen with a battered Aalor, Vargen and a couple of sullen players around them, who I figured were the cruisers’ captain.

  “Surgeon, you bastard, I curse the day you showed up in Galactogon! Three cruisers in three days!”

  “Well, I’d love to take credit for all three, but I’m only responsible for Inevitable. You can talk to Aalor about the other two. He’s the one who led them to the Queen’s maw.”

  “You destroyed our engines!” one of the gloomy captains objected emotionally. “We could not escape! That’s why we lost the ships! It is your fault!”

  “I guess if you say that a few more times, maybe someone will believe you? I returned to my home system. I was attacked. Not a single one of you jerks has said word one about why. If you’re looking for someone to blame, I have a mirror to sell you!”

  “Are you looking for more trouble than you’re already in?” Vargen threatened darkly.

  “Do you still have something I can steal? Although I can see for myself — five cruisers. Pretty decent loot, I agree.”

  “I will destroy you,” Aalor growled, but Vargen stopped him with a gesture.

  “I don’t need a war. There are too many preparations to be made for the second invasion to waste forces on you. I’m calling an end to your vendetta. If you want to say something to each other, exit to meatspace and have at it. In here, you obey my orders!”

  “Oh really? Is there something I don’t know? While I was out here saving your people here, did someone mistakenly appoint me Liberium officer?” I could not restrain my sarcasm. “Well, I didn’t sign up for that. You were right when you told me I was out of your league, Vargen. I’m happy here in the minors, I don’t want to play with you and your friends.”

  Vargen allowed himself to show emotion. This was evident by how tightly he gripped the edge of the table. Only, I wasn’t much affected by these theatrics.

  “I’ll be waiting for you to compensate me for the planet you stole from me. After that, I hope that Liberium can forget about my existence for good. Just as I will forget all about your lame-ass guild in return. Have a good one!”

  The orbship vanished from Liberium’s radar screens and the table cracked. Vargen had managed to break it after all. I liked hi
s reaction and disconnected from the conference call. Brainiac had already calculated the hyperjump and was merely waiting for the go-ahead. Now my enemies can puzzle over how I managed to enter hyperspace despite their cruisers’ hyperdrive disruptors. Hopefully simple fear of the unknown will get them to leave me alone.

  The flight time was quite long — about an hour — so I allowed myself the pleasure of taking a nap. I certainly haven’t been getting much of those lately.

  I spent a long time rolling around thinking about how to get the KRIEG. Jumping to the coordinates Eine had given me and hoping for the best seemed the most obvious plan and therefore also the worst. I had to act outside the box, to keep the devs from setting up new obstacles. I therefore set course directly for the Qualian capital in the Marloon system. The three-eyed gray-skinned outcasts of Galactogon still remained an empire, and I, as the system had told me, had the right to receive a reward from whatever emperor I wished. There was no fine print stating that this couldn’t be an ally of the Zatrathi.