Starship Alchemon

by Christopher Hinz

  Ericho grimaced. If they didn’t return, no one would ever know what happened.

  CHAPTER 23

  When LeaMarsa was a child, a good cry would often make her feel better. Letting go relieved a surfeit of tensions that had built up. On many occasions back then, her weeping had been due to those mean boys teasing her about her psionic abilities.

  LeaMarsa de Host, the freaky ghost.

  By the time she’d reached her tweens the taunt had lost potency, at least enough not to send her running home in tears. Nevertheless, such incidents had served as constant reminders of just how different she was, how she’d never been able to develop any real friends. That contributed to an emotional wall isolating her from everyone but her parents.

  And then she’d learned of their genetic manipulation and how they’d saddled her with psionic abilities. After that, her parents also had been consigned to the realm of the disavowed. The two people she’d loved and trusted became, like everyone else, the enemy.

  By her mid-teens, she was immune to trusting anyone. Even the kindly aunt and uncle who’d taken her in after her parents died in the shuttle crash had been kept at an emotional distance.

  Right now, sitting with her back to the wall, trapped in this short corridor outside the natatorium, she wanted nothing more than to cry. Her anger had morphed into a deep sadness from which weeping might provide a short respite.

  But tears wouldn’t come. Instead, bitterness settled over her, a feeling that no matter what she did there was no way out of her painful existence.

  Yet that wasn’t true. Her thoughts again contemplated the ultimate form of resolution.

  There is a way out. I can follow the path of the lieutenant, end it all.

  A hissing noise, behind her. She whirled.

  The natatorium airseal had opened. A cloud of swirling white mists poured out into the passage. Overhead fans whirred to life to draw off the cloud. But there was too much of it for the fans to handle.

  The fog, warm and moist, swarmed over her. She tried seeing through the mists into the pool. But nothing was visible beyond the first few meters.

  She sensed hidden danger within the fog. Still, there was nowhere else for her to go.

  Curiosity overcame fear and she entered the natatorium.

  CHAPTER 24

  Ericho was riveted to the HOD as the pup neared its destination. He estimated another thirty seconds before the diminutive robot reached the containment chute’s outer lock.

  Jonomy and Rigel were discussing various systems that might be under the creature’s control. The tech officer had removed his helmet but remained inside the shieldsuit. Ericho suspected he still harbored suspicions about the lytic’s trustworthiness.

  “Levels Six, Five and Four are entirely corrupted,” Jonomy said. “Since a number of Level Three systems have also been breached, it follows that Level Two penetration cannot be far behind.”

  “But that would likely awaken the Sentinel,” Rigel argued.

  “In theory, yes. However, since initially taking over the robot and warrior pup in the containment, the creature has been tiptoeing around SEN, being careful to avoid any direct action that might trigger a Sentinel response. We are dealing with a very shrewd enemy.”

  “What if it gets control of EAC and opens the airlocks?” Ericho wondered, echoing Faye’s earlier fears directed at Jonomy.

  “SEN likely would be alerted. Also, such a scenario implies it is trying to kill us. I am not sure that is its immediate goal. It may want us alive.”

  “Why?” Rigel wondered.

  “Unknown.”

  “So, what do we do?” Ericho asked. “How do we fight back?”

  “Unfortunately, by openly confronting me we have lost a tactical advantage. The creature is now aware of our opposition.” Jonomy regarded them with a sharp look. “Keep in mind that it is likely eavesdropping on this very discussion.”

  The pup reached the containment lock. Extruding a hand-like appendage, it opened the outer hatch, maneuvered into the chute and pulled the hatch shut behind it. A series of dim lumes illuminated the robot’s path as it floated through the shadowy tunnel.

  “I just thought of something,” Rigel said. “The HOD is Level Five. How do we know it’s not been compromised? What’s to stop the little bastard from feeding us fake imagery, maybe a recording from the GEL archives?”

  “Theoretically possible,” Jonomy admitted. “However, as of this moment, such is not the case. I am authenticating transmissions into the HOD via a multiplicity of systems, including Level One PAQ. We are not being deceived.”

  The pup reached the end of the tunnel. It opened the inner lock without any problems and entered the devastated and now airless containment. The ship’s strong geonic forces again took hold. The pup, back in a normalized gravitational environment, switched off the slow electrogs and activated its swift maneuvering jets.

  “Sensors read lingering radiation, mostly in the gamma range,” Jonomy said.

  The pup did a three-sixty-degree pan of its surroundings and raised its camera eyes to the ceiling. Ericho registered surprise, not because of anything up there but because of what wasn’t. The suspended test canisters and their associated appendages that had survived the melt were missing.

  “Ripped loose and ejected with the rest of the purge?” Rigel wondered.

  “Those items were not part of the debris field,” Jonomy said.

  The pup finished perusing the containment and drifted through the shattered wall into the lab area. Again, it panned, but this time halted abruptly three-quarters through its rotation.

  “What the fuck is that?”

  Ericho had no idea. It was a robot of some sort, but not a prototype with which he was familiar.

  The machine was about a meter high and stood upright in the corner of the lab. It had a slim lower torso widening to an upper spherical body. There was no head. The lower torso tapered into a cone that terminated in a point, the only part of the machine touching the floor. The whole thing reminded Ericho of an impossibly large child’s top that wasn’t spinning.

  A triplet of arms, formed from the appendages taken from the missing canisters, projected from the torso in a triangular configuration. Two of the hands tightly gripped one of those melted chairs that rose from the deck like a crooked stalagmite. The third hand gripped the low-powered Higgs cutter.

  “It must have held onto the fused chair to survive the purge,” Rigel said.

  The missing canisters also had been incorporated into the robot. Mounted on either side just below the torso, they looked like a pair of bulky hip pads. Pieces of the amputated link robot destroyed by the warrior pup also had been cobbled together into the strange creation.

  “The prick has been busy,” Rigel grumbled. “Nice do-it-yourself project.”

  The maintenance pup continued panning the lab. Spotting nothing else out of the ordinary, it rotated back to the strange machine.

  “So where’s the creature,” Rigel asked.

  Ericho had a pretty good idea. “Jonomy, does that that pup have backscatter x-ray?”

  The lytic nodded. The robot took on a greenish hue as the x-ray scan rendered it translucent. Its lower innards appeared to have been assembled with circuitry modules from the link robot. But it was the spherical upper portion that proved Ericho’s hunch.

  “I’ll be damned,” Rigel muttered. “Explains how it survived the purge.”

  “It appears to have matured,” Jonomy said.

  The creature was squashed within the upper cavity, having grown to twice its original size. It had left behind the infantile development stage appropriate to Faye’s nickname and now resembled a young child, perhaps two years old. The elongated face seemed even more skull-like, as if its flesh was an ultra-thin membrane stretched over a bony substructure.

  An airseal opened and Faye entered.

  “Anything you need me to do?” she asked. “I know I’m not bridge personnel but I can help with whatever you
think…”

  She trailed off, agape at the image in the HOD.

  The creature’s sensory organs also had undergone a developmental spurt. The eyes were open and unblinking, the irises a vivid green. The lips were parted enough to reveal upper and lower sets of ivory teeth. Yet despite those human similarities, the face could never be mistaken for a denizen of Earth, especially not with that extra sensory organ. The silvery marble was shiny, almost mirror like.

  “Creepy,” Faye whispered.

  The robot whipped up the hand with the Higgs cutter, took aim at the pup. There was a flash of amber light. The HOD image devolved into a sparkling interference pattern.

  “Telemetry and com modules were targeted,” Jonomy said. “We’ve lost contact.”

  Ericho came to a decision. “OK, I want everyone up here. If we have to make a stand, this is where we’ll do it from.”

  Jonomy tabbed the shipwide speaker. “June, Hardy, LeaMarsa – report to the bridge immediately.”

  Hardy checked in first. Not surprisingly, he protested the order. Ericho turned him over to Jonomy, who outlined the situation and attempted to convince the science rep that this was the wisest course.

  Hardy could barely contain his rage. “I’m in the midst of important work. And I no longer recognize the authority of a captain whose indifference and bungling has turned this mission into nothing short of a disaster!”

  The science rep terminated the call.

  “Let the asshole rot down there,” Rigel said.

  Ericho saw no alternative. As long as Hardy remained oblivious to the superluminal storm impacting them, he would be impossible to convince. Physically dragging the science rep up here wasn’t an option Ericho wanted to contemplate at the moment.

  June came over the intercom but asked that she be allowed to stay in medcenter. Although Alexei’s surgery had gone well, the trainee remained in critical condition and could best be monitored in a fully outfitted treatment room.

  “I’ll be OK,” she said. “Medcenter is fairly secure.”

  “All right. But keep me updated.” He turned to Jonomy. “What about LeaMarsa?”

  “Unknown. IBD is not reading her position and her wafer is not responding.”

  “IBD is Level Four,” Rigel said. “It’s probably compromised.”

  “As is internal com, which could be preventing us from contacting her.”

  Ericho voiced the obvious question. “Why stop us from reaching LeaMarsa and not the others?”

  “Given her psionic prowess, she likely figures prominently in the invader’s plans.”

  “And just what the hell are those plans?” Rigel asked. “What does this thing want?”

  “Clearly, it is trying to take over the Alchemon. Presumably, however, that is only an intermediate goal.”

  Ericho recalled June’s description of her recurring nightmare, shared by others, where what they had brought aboard the ship returns with them to the solar system, destroying the world’s cities and consuming the population. “It wants to reach Earth and the other worlds of the Corporeal.”

  “That is the most likely scenario.”

  And a scenario that couldn’t be allowed. For the first time since the tumultuous events of the past few days, Ericho had a clear mandate.

  We have to stop it out here.

  CHAPTER 25

  LeaMarsa slipped through the enveloping white fog and entered the natatorium. The vent fans in the passage were winning the battle, drawing off enough of the mists to enable her to see a few meters. The air was hot and humid, conditions no doubt contributing to the fog.

  She eased past the garden and exercise machines and stopped at the edge of the pool. Hundreds of multicolored globules bobbed on the wavering surface, which was black, shiny and opaque. The globules resembled those from the nutriment bath although many were larger, some the size of oranges. A small area not slicked over was alive with clumps of green and violet algae.

  Anxiety gripped her. Whatever bizarre metamorphosis was occurring in here she wanted no part of. She retreated toward the airseal. Three steps away, the door whisked shut.

  She accessed the manual mechanism, cranked the handle. It froze at two rotations and wouldn’t turn further. She tried the intercom.

  No response.

  The creature was doing this. It was manipulating the Alchemon’s systems to trap her in the natatorium.

  But why?

  She didn’t need psionic abilities to realize that the question would be answered all too soon.

  CHAPTER 26

  “The hatch is opening,” Faye whispered.

  They all turned to the HOD. Jonomy had set it to display a hull-cam view of the containment’s outer airlock.

  Ericho, standing beside the scientist and Rigel, was startled by what emerged from the containment chute. Technically, it was neither the makeshift robot nor the exploratory pup whose telemetry and com modules had been disabled.

  It was the two units combined.

  The robot’s pointed leg was deeply embedded in the pup’s com-module socket. Together, they formed an awkwardly shaped machine.

  “Infrared sensors reveal complex linkages between the pair,” Jonomy said. “Not only can the creature build elaborate devices, it can swiftly combine them.”

  “Anything it can’t do?” Faye wondered.

  They watched spellbound as the pup’s electrogs reactivated. The combo robot drifted along the hull, heading slowly for the airlock from which Jonomy had dispatched the pup a short time ago. From there it would have access to the main part of the ship.

  “We played right into its hands,” Rigel grumbled.

  “That would seem to be the case,” Jonomy said. “The creature built the robot to provide a stable platform in which to resist the purge. But the unit lacked effective add-ons for facile navigation in the void.”

  “Which we conveniently provided by sending in the pup,” Ericho said, troubled not only by this latest trick, but by the fact that the creature seemed to be constantly outwitting them.

  “We can’t let it into the ship,” Rigel said, turning to Jonomy. “Did you seal the locks?”

  “Yes. For the moment, EAC remains under our control. Should the invader attempt to burn through the lock with its Higgs cutter, the Sentinel likely would respond.”

  “Let’s assume for a moment that it’s smart enough not to risk that,” Ericho said. “If it can’t open the airlock, what’s its next move?”

  “Might play a waiting game,” Rigel suggested. “Even out there it’s probably close enough to keep using its superluminals or whatever weird-ass powers it has to keep attacking our systems. All it has to do is sit tight until it gets high enough in the network hierarchy to take over EAC.”

  Jonomy nodded in agreement.

  “How long do you think we have?” Faye asked worriedly.

  “Not long,” the lytic said. “External airseals are Level Two. I cannot calculate a precise rate of network penetration. A rough estimate would suggest a matter of hours. Perhaps less.”

  “We can’t just sit here,” Rigel said, picking up his shieldsuit helmet. “I’m going out there. I’ll blast the goddamn thing off the hull.”

  Ericho shook his head. “It’s armed with a cutter.”

  “So am I.”

  “You would be at a serious disadvantage,” Jonomy said. “Machine reaction times are faster than human ones.”

  “Yeah, no shit. But it’s better than wandering around the bridge doing nothing. We don’t want the little bastard in here with us, now do we?”

  “Other options?” Ericho asked.

  “I know of none,” Jonomy said. “The invader will eventually gain access.”

  “What about firing up the main engines?” Faye proposed. “A quick burst of acceleration might send it flying off into space.”

  “Wouldn’t work,” Rigel said. “With the pup’s electrogs, it’s as good as locked onto the hull. But there might be another way.”

  �
��There is not,” Jonomy said, locking gazes with Rigel. “I have reviewed the situation thoroughly. There is no effective means of preventing the robot from entering the ship. I suggest we wait until it is inside. At that juncture, a range of strategies to combat its presence will become available.”

  “What strategies?” Rigel demanded.

  “Considering that the creature is likely eavesdropping on us, I would rather not utter them aloud.”

  Rigel seemed about to snap a retort but hesitated. When he finally spoke, his voice was tranquil and accommodating.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right. That’s the best approach.”

  Ericho wondered if Rigel’s polite attitude was veiled sarcasm. But as he gazed back and forth between the tech officer and the lytic, he realized that some form of nonverbal communication was passing between them.

  Jonomy has a plan. And Rigel has just figured out what it is. A glance at their stern faces warned him to keep his mouth shut and go with the flow.

  “I am attempting to prod SEN into a response,” Jonomy said. “I have been continuing to alert and update the Sentinel to our overall situation, explaining that the Alchemon is under a form of systematic attack that defies its normal response parameters.”

  “I doubt that’ll work,” Rigel said. “If the creature scanned the library, it knows the general criteria for what contingencies are likely to awaken a Sentinel.” The tech officer had second thoughts. “Still, can’t hurt to try.”

  Ericho settled back in his chair, puzzled by what Jonomy and Rigel were concealing. Before he could entertain so much as a wild guess, June’s troubled countenance appeared on a monitor.

  “Alexei’s gone!”

  Ericho was stunned. “I thought you said his chances for a full recovery were excellent.”

  “No, that’s not what I mean. He’s not dead. At least I don’t think he is. He’s gone from medcenter. I was in the bathroom. When I came out, the treatment room was empty.”

  “Shouldn’t he still be unconscious?”