Deep Hydra

by Michael Formichelli

  She shrugged.

  He looked her up and down. She wouldn’t be hiding something from him, would she? He didn’t want to believe that she was, but…

  Find out all you can about this Biren, he messaged Ben. And see what we can do about getting our promise of revenge fulfilled to Meia. She will be a strong ally moving forward.

  “I shall, master.”

  “We’ll think about what use your Gaian can be. In the meantime, I think we have some plans to make about changing Caspian’s mind.”

  There was a fire in his gut as they turned down the hallway that would take them to the lift. Though he knew he needed to focus on other things all he could think about was that filthy man’s arms locked around Lina’s body.

  Chapter Two

  Katozi Slynn, Deep Space

  J2400:3287

  A cyborg, a criminal, a cop, a robot, and a kid are hurtling through space in a tin can held together by spit and glue… Nero scowled. They could be the start to a bad joke; maybe they were. The five of them were in the cockpit when the rainbow-lines spinning around the ship collapsed back into pinpoints of light in the endless void. To outward appearances the stars rippled a moment before the boxy, pock-marked hull of the Katozi Slynn appeared among them.

  Their bodies felt no change in momentum. The AlCas drive left the space immediately around the ship untouched. It was an older system and much slower than the big ships that used Einstein-Rosen Bridges. They had a long way yet to travel and would run out of food long before they reached the capital if they didn’t stop at a friendly port.

  Hey asshole, you forgot about me, Prospero said.

  What?

  You were thinking that the five of you were a bad joke. You left me out; not that I’m complaining about omission from such a poor witticism.

  Nero rolled his eyes. Prospero, the artificial intelligence riding in his symbiotic cerebral computer could be a real pain in the ass, but there was no doubting his value. The annoying digital hitchhiker saved him more than a dozen times in the past, and truth be told, he couldn’t do without him. Still, it did hurt to admit—

  Ha! I knew it!

  Shut it, Nero thought back in growling tones.

  Kaeden Faen looked down at the pilot’s console. The holographic screen flickered, displaying a wire-frame diagram of a network of pods connected by long, thick tubes like something a child would build with a construction set. As there was no major source of light nearby there was no visual image to fill in colors on the diagram, but the radar imagery got the design across. They were looking at a massive ship. 12-kilometers wide, its surface was rough, covered by plates, handholds, windows, and turrets. At its heart lay a solid sphere emitting high levels of neutrinos and a powerful magnetic field typical of a high-mass reactor core. Its IFF signal registered at the top of the screen as “RLWS-Ol’Lekhura.”

  “This is a popular spot for my people to trade. The coordinates are well known among spacers as well.” Sorina Khepria said in the thick tone of her Relaen-accent. The long, pointed ears resting high on her head were cocked at different angles—one facing Kae, and one facing him.

  “It will be nice to eat something other than ration bars today, right Rune?” Kae’s fingers danced over the holographic controls to fire the ship’s maneuvering jets and bring them onto an intercept course with the massive vessel.

  His long, brown ponytail swished back and forth through the air as he turned toward his freckle-faced son. The boy was strapped into the co-pilot’s chair beside him staring at the starscape with the same deep-blue eyes that accused Nero of abandoning his other father, Ameluan. They dulled during the long trip as the grief took away their edge and Rune began to accept his new reality. He lost weight, going from well-fed to skinny in the 26 days since they escaped Zov. Kae hadn’t fared much better. The once-round gut beneath his worn, brown jacket was at best a flat expanse, and was often rendered concave by his defeated slouch. The happy-go-lucky joker Kae once was seemed hidden behind a dark shroud.

  Nero shifted his weight. Ameluan betrayed them to the VoQuana and actively participated in their attempted capture. The kill was justified no matter how he looked at it, but there was part of him, an illogical side, that felt there should have been another way out of that small room.

  He stared at the back of the boy’s curly, ginger head and sighed.

  It’s not your fault, Prospero said into his thoughts. Ameluan forced your hand. You did the right thing.

  He gritted his teeth, still waiting for Rune to speak.

  “Have you seen a world-ship before?” Athame’s deep, feminine voice reverberated in the small cockpit. She stuck to the deck with magnetic soles. Her dark-skinned, feminine form seemed to radiate the presence of authority even though, like him, she was no longer an Abyssian Praetor.

  “No,” Rune answered after a few seconds. “This will be my first. I’ve been to space stations before, but not a world ship.”

  Nero glanced at Sorina’s amber, cat-like eyes. They seemed to glow in the dim light.

  “It is the same for me,” Athame stated. “I look forward to exploring the station with you.”

  Kae shot a worried look over his shoulder. “Don’t go too far from the ship. This place is massive and we’re only here to resupply and find a ‘wormer to get us the rest of the way to Kosfanter.”

  “I will exercise appropriate judgment in our choice of adventure.” Athame’s purple eyes were unwavering.

  “I’ll be fine, dad. No one is going to mess with a Praetor.”

  “They won’t know she’s a Praetor.” Kae continued after a pause, “Besides, she’s not one anymore.”

  Rune scrunched his lips. “Daedalus may not think so, but she still is. She can crush a titanium can with one hand. She showed me. Only Praetors can do that kind of stuff.”

  Kae looked to Athame.

  “It was from a used provision and was recycled after. Rune wanted a show of how strong I am,” she said.

  “I bet Nero could do that too. Right Nero?”

  “Ah, right,” he said.

  Maybe… Prospero thought.

  Kae licked his lips. The motion distorted his thick mutton chops. “I’m not so sure about your safety, son. Athame is strong, and I’m sure she has good judgment and all, but this is a dangerous place, right?”

  Sorina’s ears vibrated in alarm when Kae looked to her for support. Her mouth opened and closed once before she spoke. “In general world-ships are peaceful environments.”

  The corners of Kae’s lips turned downward.

  “But there will be many non-Relaen on board. Some individuals may be less law-abiding than others,” she added.

  Kae shook his head, grumbling.

  Rune frowned and gave her a sharp look.

  “I am more than capable of protecting the juvenile,” Athame said.

  “I’m sure,” he mumbled back.

  “Dad, we’ll be fine,” Rune said with enough force to make his curly red hair bob around his head.

  “My chassis is a fully armed and armored humanoid combat drone overlaid with a mimetic polymer that can assume any appearance. Nothing short of a full Abyssian would be able to challenge my abilities. Your son will be safe. If you doubt my sincerity, be assured that Nero’s symbiotic cerebral computer and Sorina have reprogrammed my core code to be absolutely loyal to him. As such, I am no threat to your boy. There is no logical reason for your concern.” Athame sounded defensive despite her sedate tone.

  “It isn’t always about logic.” Kae crossed his hands before his chest.

  “Dad, I want to go see the station.” Rune glared at his father.

  “No—” Kae started when the comm station lit up and announced an incoming transmission.

  “SS Katozi-Slynn, we have you on our scope,” a pleasant voice said in an accent similar to Sorina’s. “Please state your cargo, purpose of visit, and verify your IFF.”

  Kae let out a long sigh. “This is the Katozi-Slynn. Cargo is passengers
bound for—”

  Nero put his hand on Kae’s shoulder and shook his head.

  Kae nodded. “—Avanus. We require supplies and fuel. Request permission to dock.”

  “Stand-by for scan.” A panel lit up indicating an active EM scan targeting the ship. When it went dark the voice continued. “Scan completed. You are cleared to dock at port 4-71. We’re sending you the flight path now.”

  “Thank you Ol’Lekhura. Katozi-Slynn out.” Kae looked at Nero. “Well, that’s it. Once we’re on-board I’ll hunt us up a wormer.”

  “Do you think anyone will be looking for us? Like maybe Daedalus?” he said.

  It is a thought, Prospero stated on the open channel between their implants. I would think it might be, but it has no way of knowing where we’ve gone.

  “That does not mean it has not assigned a probability to us visiting the world-ship. Daedalus is a strategic AI, designed to win wars and conduct espionage,” Sorina stated. “We may expect some manner of search to be ongoing. I suspect we know too much for it to simply let us go.”

  Nero frowned. “What do you mean? I thought we decided Login was a rogue Abyssian reprogrammed by the VoQuana.”

  That is the most likely scenario, but if nothing else we know Daedalus is trying to retrieve you as a malfunctioning unit. We can assume Athame is a target too. It must have calculated that you would go to Zov. If it tried to check-in with Login it would notice that things were amiss. By my calculations, Daedalus will add questions concerning Zov as a further reason to retrieve us. Additionally, as we discussed before, if it intends to use the Zov quarantine breach as a reason to wipe out the VoQuana we may be “loose ends” as the expression goes, Prospero said.

  He sighed. “So, the end result is the same. Daedalus is hunting us.”

  “It would appear that is the case,” Athame stated.

  Through the window a blinking light appeared. He stared at it for a long moment before realizing they were now close enough to the Relaen vessel to see its docking lights flashing in the endless night of the void.

  “Standby for deceleration burn,” Kae looked at his son. “Go ahead.”

  Rune glared a moment before shaking his head. His hand dropped to his belt as though reaching for a weapon. “I don’t feel like it. I want to see the station.”

  “Please?” Kae looked even more tired.

  Rune sighed and passed his finger through one of the holographic controls on the console. Kae patted him on the shoulder as the ship’s retro-thrusters powered up with a whine. Their chairs rotated around to face aft as the turbines filled the air with a sound like a rushing river. Vibrations shook them in their restraints, and they were pressed back into the seats with increasing force.

  Somewhere, deep in the ship, Nero’s cyber-enhanced hearing picked up the sound of smashing glass. He grimaced. They must have forgotten to secure something in the galley.

  The burn went on for more than five minutes. When the engines cut off the sudden quiet pressed in on his ears like mufflers.

  “What’s the gravity like?” Kae said while their chairs rotated around to face the window again. The Relaen ship loomed large. Its strobing lights revealed flashes of the gray-metal structure while the glow of thousands of windows added to the stars.

  “Relaen ships use 22% of the neutronium Solan FTL vessels do,” Sorina said. “In most of the habitat pods the gravity, as expressed in Earth terms, is 0.151-gee.”

  “So, light as hell, but we’ll still stick to the floor,” Kae muttered.

  She nodded.

  “See? It sounds like fun,” Rune said. “You have to let us go. Come on, dad. Please?”

  “I said ‘No.’ That’s final,” Kae snapped.

  Rune snorted and glared at the ceiling.

  “Goddess-dammit, Rune. You’re too old to be acting this way,” Kae whispered in a hoarse voice.

  “So are you!” the boy shouted.

  Kae’s lips pressed together in a thin, white line. His eyes blazed.

  Through the cockpit window the world-ship grew larger. Nero looked up to the tactical screen over the window as the ship’s maneuvering-thrusters brought them into alignment with their assigned docking port. The display showed a dot at its center to represent the ‘Slynn and a large hexagon ahead of it to represent the Relaen world-ship. Flashing triangles at the display’s edges indicated there were more vessels nearby outside of its scope.

  “What’s in the area?” he asked with a gesture at the display.

  Kae glanced at it, then danced his fingers over a terminal to his left. “We just picked up a wormer and a few smaller ships in the area. The wormer reads as the Xiq’iz, Cleebian registry belonging to the Kri’Cho Barony.”

  “Kri’Cho?” Nero asked.

  They were Mitsugawa allies before Baron Yoji’s death, Prospero explained using the open link. Mitsugawa Ichiro lost their support along with most of the Cleebian contingent in the Barony.

  “So, Kri’Cho might be hostile to us?” he asked.

  “Only if they know why we’re here,” Kae offered. “Do they know, Lieutenant?”

  He flinched. “Don’t call me that. I’m not Star Corps anymore.”

  “You’re not an Abyssian anymore, either,” Kae said with a glance towards Athame.

  “It’s just Nero.”

  “And do they know about your association with Mitsugawa, ‘Just Nero?’”

  “Fucker,” he muttered, but smiled.

  “Don’t curse in front of my kid.” Kae grinned back and earned an indignant look from Rune.

  I calculate the odds are against it, Prospero said.

  “Problem solved. We can hitch a ride as long as they don’t know who we are,” Kae said.

  “I guess we could.” Nero and Sorina were already wearing the jacket and jumpsuit style typical of small-time merchants like Kae. He had the fabricator on board print them to look worn. He knew wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny, there was no way to fake actual wear and tear, but it would do for the casual observer.

  He looked back at Athame. Her Abyssian uniform shifted, becoming a navy-blue jumpsuit. He gave her a nod and returned his attention to Kae.

  “It would have a certain irony to it, right? I mean, if they support Baron Revenant now?” his friend said.

  “It would.” He looked at Sorina.

  “I agree,” she said.

  “Besides,” Kae continued, “we don’t have much of a choice. There’s no telling when another wormer might be around.”

  “That is true,” Sorina stated.

  “It’s settled then. We approach the crew of the Xiq’iz and find out if they’re renting berths.” Nero stroked his chin.

  “Consider it done, Lieutenant.”

  “Kae—” he was interrupted by a proximity alarm coming from the control board.

  “Whoops, time to dock.” His friend touched one of the holographic controls. The ship’s jets fired again, and the sensation of motion shifted when the world-ship’s magnetic guidance system grabbed hold of them. The hull shuddered and the locks hissed as the Katozi-Slynn’s docking ring mated with that of the Ol’Lekhura. Kae’s pony-tail was no longer floating, and weak though it was, Nero could feel the pull of the ship’s gravity in his bones.

  “Remember, no adventures. We’re here to get supplies, and maybe a ride from that Cleebian wormer if we can manage it.”

  “Are you sure that is the best choice?” Athame asked.

  “I thought we were in a hurry,” Kae responded.

  “We are. If the Cleebians are going to the capital, or to a neighboring system, it will be a stroke of good luck we can’t afford to pass by. If not, maybe we’ll have to wait here a while,” Nero said.

  “You got it, buddy.” The restraints retracted into Kae’s chair and the holographic displays hovering over the panels vanished as he got to his feet. He looked a little shaky at first, as most space-farers did when they found themselves in gravity’s pull. With a gesture in Rune’s direction to follow he headed
deeper into the ship.

  The boy sighed and climbed out of his chair. He floated up almost to the ceiling, then drifted down to the deck in slow motion. Like a true spacer, Rune waited until the magnetized soles of his feet touched the deck before proceeding.

  “Hey, you okay?” Nero couldn’t help but ask. The pained look on the boy’s face made him wince.

  “Yeah, but I want to go exploring. It’s not dangerous. Dad’s wrong.” Rune glared down the corridor after his father. “If Ameluan was here I bet I could go.”

  Nero flinched.

  “I know. Ah, keep your chin up, right?” He knew Kae was worried about something happening but the only thing that came to mind to help the kid out was letting him explore the world-ship. Who wouldn’t be cheered by a little adventure, especially after so long spent cooped up inside a small ship?

  This is not a good idea, Nero. Kaeden specifically said we shouldn’t let the boy wander, Prospero thought at him in a flourish of words.

  “Okay,” Rune said with some reluctance. There was a tension around his eyes that made him look tired as he started to move down the deck.

  “Hang on.” He grabbed the kid’s arm. “I know Kae said he didn’t want you exploring, but if you want to, let Athame know. We’ll take you around after we get things settled with that wormer out there. Okay?”

  “Nero—” Sorina cut herself off. Her ears fluttered in the air.

  For a moment Rune stared at him with suspicious eyes, then his face lit up for the first time since they left Zov and he nodded with vigor.

  “Dad doesn’t have to know, does he?”

  “Nope, so don’t tell him,” he added.

  Nero! Prospero snapped.

  “Okay. It’ll be our secret.” A wicked smile lit Rune’s face.

  “Better get moving before Kae gets suspicious.” He felt better.

  Nero watched Rune go and lifted his gaze up to Sorina’s. She pressed her lips together into a tight line; there was a hard look in her eyes.

  “What?”

  Her ears vibrated in the air above her head.

  “What?” He had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

  “Make sure you watch after him,” she said.