“Straight for us. If you do not wish to engage, you should not slow down.” A large hunk of debris to the right of the ship exploded. Shrapnel peppered the hull of the Gilmore. “Roll left.”
Without hesitating, I slammed the levers to the left. My stomach tightened as the debris field spun at dizzying speeds. I had to fight to keep my food down. Around us, more explosions lit up the canopy window.
“This guy’s good,” I said between breaths. “I don’t know if I can shake him.”
“I’ve analyzed his attack patterns. The ship’s movements are quite precise. They match those of the pirate attack a few days past.”
“Military A.I.?”
“I would presume that is correct. I advise extreme caution,” said Sami. “Searching for possible escape strategies.”
“So much for overwhelming intelligence,” I scoffed.
“Had your brain been more apt for a higher percentage on the compatibility scale, we would not be having this conversation. You are the weak link.”
“Gee, thanks.” I rolled the ship in the opposite direction as more explosions detonated around us. “I’m completely open to any suggestions that help us survive,” I shouted.
“I do have one potential course of action; however, it will stress your body. And it will tip your hand. The enemy will know about my presence afterward.”
“At this point, the other option is death. Worth the risk.”
“Understood. Diverting all nonessential power to the maneuvering thrusters.” The heating system went quiet as the lights dimmed. The gravity plates shut off. Oh no… “When I signal, cut engines for one-half second. Pull back hard while spinning, then reengage engines. If you do not pass out, you will have a brief moment to drain his reactor.”
“How brief?”
“Do not hesitate nor miss. You will not get a second chance. Your window is fast approaching. I hope you are ready. For both our sakes.”
“I’m ready.” The mining laser was still charged from testing. I centered the target indicator in the middle of the monitor.
“Take a deep breath and hold it.”
The second my lungs filled, the ship spun three directions at once. The stars streaked by in the windows, further adding to the disorientation. Vertigo. I didn’t have it, but I might as well have. My vision shrank to a dark tunnel, far away. Something glowed. Then there was an explosion. Someone was yelling my name.
Sami. Sami was yelling at me. I couldn’t make out what he was saying. Another bright flash and boom barely registered. I couldn’t move my body. The stars stopped spinning, and my body wrenched in the harness. Someone needed to learn how to fly the ship. Then everything came into focus. A ship was flying straight at us, guns blasting.
I lined up the target indicator with the central mass of the ship and fired. A beam of yellow energy streaked out and slammed into the oncoming ship. Glowing blue globs of molten reactor fuel flowed up the beam and into the storage canister on the mining laser. As soon as the fuel stopped flowing, I cut the power.
The beam dissipated. With its power depleted and its engines offline, the ship continued on its last course. Sami guided us slightly off its trajectory and allowed it to float by undisturbed.
“We should head back,” said Sami. “It will only be a matter of time before his friends arrive.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah. Let’s go.
20
As soon as the hatch slid open, someone punched me in the belly. I went down to my knees, wheezing and trying to catch my breath. My stomach burned. I couldn’t inhale or exhale. I looked up to see Anne standing over me, shoulders heaving, tears in her eyes. She stomped off a few feet away.
“Well, that was mildly entertaining,” said Sami with a slight chuckle.
“What the hell were you even thinking?” bellowed Steve. He picked me up by my shirt and pinned me to the wall. “Well?”
I gulped down as much air as I could. “If I’d known you’d be this upset, I’d have taken my chances with the pirates.” Steve frowned. “There was no sense risking you or Anne. Either it was going to work or it wasn’t. If I got caught, then at least you two would still be free.”
“That’s a bullshit excuse, and we both know it.”
I squared my shoulders and set my jaw. “It’s the only explanation you’re getting out of me. Now, put me down,” I said firmly. Steve’s expression changed to shock. He released me and I sagged to the deck plating.
“What happened to you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You…seem different. I can’t put my finger on it, but you’ve changed.”
“I was only gone for three days.”
“Steve’s right, there’s definitely something different about you.”
“Nothing’s different. I’m just seeing things a bit more clearly is all.”
Anne raised an eyebrow. “Tell us what happened.”
“Okay, but first, I need food.”
I cooked up two ration meals while I told Steve and Anne what happened on the colony ship. Anne was taken aback and not at all pleased. Steve mostly nodded, rarely asking for clarification.
“So,” I said. “Did you ever spend a lot of time in the slums?”
“I stayed there for about a year after Dad died. I ended up moving in with my sister after I got beat up real good by the pirates.”
“Why did they beat you up? I mean, besides the obvious…”
Steve scoffed. Then his face grew serious. “They were trying to rape a friend of mine. I bought her enough time to get away, but I paid a pretty big price for it.” He lifted his shirt. Scars I’d never seen crisscrossed his torso. Deep, ugly scars.
“Holy shit, man. I’m sorry, I never knew.”
“Don’t worry about it. I was fifteen when it happened. It’s behind me.” Steve looked up at the top of the Gilmore. “So…where’d this beauty come from?”
“I found it on some wreckage out in the fields.”
Anne gasped. “You went to the fields? By yourself? Are you crazy? There’s patrols and, worse, pirates!”
“Oh, I’m aware.”
Anne glared at me. “Bishop. What aren’t you telling us.”
“I ran into that pirate who tried to take us out last week.” That got both of their attention. “I was testing the new mining laser. Sami noticed them first. I saw the engine glow a few seconds later. We bailed as soon as we spun the ship around. Then he started firing. I managed to avoid the blasts, but without the debris field to cover us, we’d be sitting ducks. So we spun around and siphoned his reactor dry.”
“Any idea who this guy is?” asked Anne.
I shook my head. “No clue. But Sami and I are both positive whoever it is has the same technology though. And,” I hesitated, unsure whether I should mention anything. “I’m pretty sure after that maneuver he knows I do as well.”
Steve frowned. “No more element of surprise.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Was that or die, though.”
“Still, it was the right call.
“Yeah, just sucks because next time he’s going to be ready for me. That trick won’t work a second time.”
“The Gilmore is going to need actual weapons. Maybe we should take the Grey Wolf to the fields?”
“Too risky. They’d see it on their sensor net.”
“Yeah, but that pirate would leave you alone.”
“Until the colonial fleet showed up,” I said with a chuckle.
“Yeah,” agreed Steve. “Any other ideas?”
“We’ll think of something. In the meantime, Sami managed to hack into the colonial network. Hopefully, we’ll be able to start making some repairs to their systems.”
I turned to Anne. “How’s the Strider?”
Anne’s face lit up for the first time in days. “Ready to go.” She beamed. “Sami also upgraded the navigation and energy control systems. Now she can turn on a bolt head and stop almost as fast.”
I smiled. “You were feeling
homesick, weren’t you?”
“Maybe a little. The Strider’s been our home for almost two decades. Didn’t you miss her just a little?”
“I guess I’ve been so wrapped up in things that I hadn’t given it too much thought. But now that you mention it, yeah. The Gilmore isn’t exactly a homey ship.” I started munching on the meal rations as we talked.
“It’s come a long way from the clunker you brought back a few days ago. I’m impressed, Bishop Jones. You and that ship have both grown.”
“Are you saying I should keep it after this is all done?”
“Why not? It’s a decent ship. And an extra ship would be handy. Especially with the Grey Wolf as a base; it could be super profitable in the long-term.”
Steve nodded. “I like that idea quite a bit.”
“That’s all assuming we survive the next few days,’ I said. “Don’t forget, the entire colonial military is after us.”
“Yeah…” said Steve. “We’ll have to deal with that.”
“Sooner than later,” said Anne. “I don’t know if I can deal with looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”
I smiled. “Yeah I don’t think any of us can. We’ll get it worked out.” A beep from a nearby console caught my attention.
“Bishop,” called Sami. “There’s something I wish to show you.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Please don your neural interface gear. It’s something I’ve discovered inside the colonial network.”
“All right, give me a few minutes to finish eating.”
Fifteen minutes later, I stood in darkness. I could feel some sort of solid surface below my feet, but there was nothing there.
“Sami?” I called out. My voice echoed all around me.
“I’m here,” he said as his body materialized. He waved a hand in front of him, and a massive table appeared before us. A giant schematic took up the entire surface. Most of the rooms were red, yellow, or purple.
“Is this the colony ship network?” I asked.
“Indeed, it is,” he said somberly. “Tell me what you see.”
I looked at the schematic for several minutes. Labels appeared on the rooms as I scanned over them. “These are viral infections, aren’t they?”
Sami nodded. “Yes.”
I sighed. “We’re going to need help…”
Steve looked incredulous. “You want us to do what?”
“You and Anne need to be our eyes and ears while Sami and I hunt down the viral infections and destroy them.”
“How exactly are we supposed to do that?”
“I think it’s time we visited the main bridge,” I said.
We left the cargo bay and followed the map Sami had shown me. It took almost ten minutes of walking through corridors to arrive at the large metal door to the bridge. I typed in the new code Sami had installed in the system, and the doors ground open. Room lighting slowly gained brightness until the bridge was fully lit.
“Wow,” said Anne. “It’s beautiful…”
Steve was speechless as he stared out the viewports onto the lunar surface which stretched for miles.
“This will do quite nicely,” I said. Multiple monitors were mounted above many of the stations, and the walls in the back were covered as well. “Sami, can you hear me?”
“Yes, quite clearly. Are you ready?”
“Do it.”
“With pleasure.”
Every monitor on the bridge blinked to life. Schematics of the colony ship filled the back wall. The viral infections were highlighted and labeled according to their threat level. Line segments linked systems together, color coded by importance. Small triangles showed the direction of network traffic as it propagated throughout the entire colonial network.
“Holy shit…” breathed Steve. “What is all this?”
“This is the colony ship’s network,” I said.
“And more importantly,” said Sami, “every viral infection in said network.”
“This is bad,” said Steve
I put my hand on his shoulder. “It gets worse… Elyssa’s evidence is in there somewhere. And we have to find it.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Just watch our backs. If I get nailed in there, it’ll do massive brain damage.”
“So, you’re saying you’d be fine?” I gave Steve the bird. He laughed.
“You ready for this then?”
“Yeah,” he said. He turned to Anne. “You?”
She nodded. “Be careful, Bishop. You too, Sami. Go show those viruses who’s boss.”
“Yes, ma’am!” we responded.
We returned to the colonial network blueprints inside the neural link. Our armor-clad bodies glowed with subtle power.
“Sami, do we have a chance at all of succeeding?”
“Yes.”
“Do I want to know the odds?”
“No.”
“I figured not…”
Sami sighed. What the hell? “Bishop, I have something for you.” He held out his hands, and a massive blade appeared in them. He handed me the sword handle first.
“Whoa, that’s awesome,” I said, impressed with the weapon.
“Use it if you must. Only if a virus gets too close. Now, place it on your back.”
I did so and the back of my armor morphed to accommodate the blade. “I like that.”
“I’m glad. I have also provided you with basic training for use of the weapon. With any luck, you will not need it.”
“Luck?” I asked. “We both know I’m going to need to use this thing before the day is out…”
Sami frowned. “No doubt. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’m going to be. Let’s do this.”
Sami nodded and walked over to a blank spot on a wall. Bulkheads appeared, outlining a set of large doors. He placed his hand upon the door and it hissed open. A field of energy snapped into place and flared and popped violently as it was bombarded with tentacles of blue energy.
We both hefted our massive rifles as we switched the safeties off. I took aim at the door and nodded once. The shield vanished, and we unleashed a massive volley of energy projectiles into the room. Tentacles exploded into shards of brilliant blue light and vanished.
We cleared the room and moved inside. “Security checkpoint breached and secured,” reported Sami.
“Got it,” responded Steve. “Was the blue virus stuff defending the network from you? That’s what it seemed from out here.”
“Yes,” said Sami. “The blue ones are defending the network. But they are not allied to us. They are just as dangerous as the malevolent infections we are about to face.”
“Is there any way to reprogram or repurpose them so we can use them?”
“Possibly, but it will require time to do so.”
“Don’t we have plenty of that at the moment?”
“I suppose we do,” said Sami. “Initiating counter infection.” He reached out his hand and placed it on the floor. New tentacles of blue and purple flew out in all directions, embedding themselves into the walls and ceiling. They created a massive web of throbbing and twitching hoses. “This will prevent infections from retaking this room. It should also spread along the walls as we go and assist in securing other areas as well.”
“Great,” I said. “We could use all the help we can get.”
“Indeed.”
“Steve,” I said. “How far did the new infection spread?”
“Uh, maybe two blocks? It’s running into some red stuff that’s pushing back pretty hard. You should probably hurry up and get over there.”
“He is right,” said Sami. “We have secured a foothold to pivot from, but we must continue. Are you ready to move on?”
“Yup. Where do we go next?”
“This way.” Sami gestured through a door which had just opened.
We spent the next few hours clearing room after room and watching his tentacles burrow into most every surface we con
quered. We entered another room that looked clean.
“There’s nothing here,” I said.
“So it would appear. Steve, do you see anything?”
“Um, I’m not really sure. The block you’re in is staticky. Something’s interfering with the signal.”
“That is not possible. Are you sur—” Sami howled in agony, his voice raw and metallic. I turned to see a stray tentacle had slammed through Sami’s shoulder and the wall behind him, driving him to his knees. Without hesitating, I swung the massive blade in an arc, severing the appendage. It exploded into light shards as Sami braced one arm against the floor to steady himself.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I reached out a helping hand. He struggled to his feet. The wound looked bad.
“Still functional. Repairs are in progress.”
Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed something odd. The walls flickered for a moment.
“Sami, what was that?”
“Likely, my environmental compensator was damaged. It is in the shoulder area.”
“What does that have to do with the room flickering?”
“The room is a neural construct. It is my interpretation of our environment.”
“What happens when it fails?”
“Unfortunately, you are about to find out…” Sparks shot out of the wound on his shoulder, and he cried out in pain once again.
The room flickered. Then it was gone. We floated in a cloudy red void. Surrounding us were virulent entities as far as the eye could see. Space was the only constant. The only thing buffering us from them. The lack of sensory data made my stomach turn.
“Sami,” I managed between violent gasps of breath. “We are in deep shit.”
21
“You must regain your composure. Your emotional state will be interpreted as a sign of weakness. You will attract other infections to our location.”
“How?” I asked. I tried to steady my breathing. My heart pounded against my eardrums. My hands shook. I was hyperventilating.
“You must take control of the environment. Mold it to fit your perception of reality. Impose your willpower upon it and force it to bend to your needs.”
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