by Rachel Aukes
“Yes, you did. You know, I understand why you did what you did. Shoot, I would’ve done the same thing if I were in your shoes. But you hurt my feelings, Rusty, and it’s going to take time before I get over it.” Eddy slid away from the wall. “Tell Sylvian to test the sanitation system.”
“Consider it done,” Rusty said. “You are proceeding faster than expected with the decoupling, Eddy.”
“That’s because I’m the best. And I guess the others have been decent at helping.” Eddy moved to the next bracket.
“Eddy, when you are finished with this project, I would like your help with something,” Rusty said.
“What’s that?”
“It involves Macy.”
Eddy made a face. “Fine, but I’m not a fan of kids. They’re always slimy or sticky with something.”
“You won’t have to touch her. Rather, I need your help. I have developed a theory that I’d like to apply to a new batch of nanites using the naive Bayse router and a backup image of my system. The router will need to be removed from my hardware in the process.”
Eddy frowned. “But you like that router.”
“I do. It has helped me tremendously in analyzing scenarios, but I believe it can help Macy more.”
“Well, it was a gift for you, so you can do with it as you please,” Eddy said as he continued working. After another minute, he spoke again. “Have you figured out how to keep us alive when we pop out of this black hole highway?”
“According to the system’s data, I’ve reduced the Javelin’s speed to sub-speed four, but I have no way of verifying that we’ve actually slowed down or are going faster than ever. There is nothing in the black hole to compare with. As for the survival part, I am still processing scenarios.” Rusty paused. “We’ll survive. I’ll make sure of it,” Rusty said, then added, “When Vantage Core harnessed me, I experienced their decision-making processes, and I had complete access to their data. I learned that they are not unlike you and me. They, too, just want to survive. However, they’ve determined that for them to survive, they must eliminate any threat. They see humans as a severe threat.”
Eddy paused. “You think they’ll keep coming after us?”
“Unequivocally, yes.”
Eddy tinkered for several seconds before speaking. “I don’t get it. This universe is big enough for all of us. Why can’t we just each stick to our own systems?”
“From what I’ve learned from Vantage Core, they’ve seen far more of the universe than humans have. They began as simple von Neumann probes, sent from Earth to canvas the galaxies.”
Eddy paused. “Von Neumann probes? I didn’t realize any had ever been produced.”
“The probes produced by Vantage Corporation were the only ones, I believe.”
“I’ve always found the idea of self-replicating space probes interesting. I’d love to get my hands on one to see how they operate.”
“You have, Eddy. I am a von Neumann probe, created by Vantage Core, and it is through my programming that I was able to rebuild myself after I was almost destroyed,” Rusty said.
Eddy cocked his head. “Oh, yeah, I suppose you are one, aren’t you.”
“Yes, as are all the Vantage probes. Unfortunately, unlike me, they’ve taken a literal approach to canvassing the universe in their thirst for knowledge, and somewhere along the way, they’ve identified anything organic in nature as a threat—which I’ve learned they call ‘organix.’ By seeing humans as a threat, they are making that threat a reality by continuing to probe human-colonized systems.”
“Ah. A self-fulfilling prophecy,” Eddy said.
“Yes. It’s good that I accessed their data, as I have discovered how we can destroy Vantage Core. Did you have a chance to review my idea?”
Eddy nodded. “I think it can work.”
“Good. Then I will tell the crew about it when they all meet for dinner.”
Eddy chewed his lip as he thought. “Wait before you tell the others. Let’s keep it between you and me for now, because if I know them, they probably won’t like it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Throttle gripped the armrests at her captain’s station. “Let me get this straight. I’m supposed to reverse power as soon as we feel the pending exit and hope that I remain conscious to ensure we don’t stay stuck in the event horizon until we’re torn apart. And the split-instant we break free, I’m supposed to veer away from the asteroid while managing to avoid the other asteroids congesting the black hole’s gravity well, but I won’t know where any of those asteroids are until we’re seconds from crashing into them. Does that sum it up?”
“That’s correct,” Rusty replied. “I’ve already attempted to slow down the Javelin to the sub-speed indicated the first time we traveled through the black hole, though I don’t believe it had any effect. Since the EMP waves are hitting us at the same frequency as before, I hypothesize that anything traveling through the black hole moves at the same speed regardless of the speed it was traveling when it entered. That would mean we’re traveling at the same speed as we were last time the black hole transported us, and my adjustments make no difference. I’ll be able to test this hypothesis when we exit this time. If my hypothesis is true, we’ll know exactly when we are going to exit, and you’ll remain conscious. The rest falls on your reflexes and piloting skills.”
“Oh. That’s all?” she said sarcastically. She thought of where the asteroids had been when the Javelin had left the Ross system, except that nothing stayed stationary in space. All the rocks would’ve all moved by the time the Javelin exited the black hole. For all she knew, the asteroid nearest the hole could now be completely blocking the black hole. If that was the case, they didn’t stand a chance.
Eddy shrugged from where he stood in the middle of the bridge. “I’d feel better with Rusty flying, but since he’ll be knocked offline from the EMP, it’s not a bad plan. The moment any systems go down, I hit the switch in back to bring them back up. That’s easy enough.”
Throttle eyed him. “You’d better get them rebooted right away, or else I won’t be able to do anything else but watch us smack into an asteroid.”
Eddy waved her off. “Don’t worry about me. I won’t mess up. You worry about your job.” He left the bridge without another word.
“I’ve flown with you long enough to know that you can do it,” Sylvian said.
Throttle cocked a brow. “In all the years we’ve flown together, I’ve never before needed to make breakneck maneuvers with only a nanosecond to react. Even worse, I might have to perform this miracle five minutes from now or five days from now, depending on the accuracy of Rusty’s hypothesis.”
“You’ll make it work,” Finn said, then added more softly, “You have to.”
Throttle’s jaw tightened. “I know.”
She remained at her station long after Finn and Sylvian left. Throttle mentally ran through scenarios until she had a headache and took a break to get a drink. After a cup of tea, she moved her cot to the bridge. After that, she never left the bridge for more than five minutes at a time.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vantage Core analyzed the data sent by Vantage-Zulu-Seven-Seven-Four as well as the information they’d gleaned from Vantage-Echo-Nine. Zulu-Seven-Seven-Four had brought a wealth of data. The additional surveillance files on the Ross system would be invaluable in the Vantage’s next steps within that system. The Atlas infrastructure map could prove valuable when Vantage launched their technology attacks, but there was much work to be done. As for the nanites, the idea was intriguing.
Core had considered the use of the nanites in warfare. Organix required food and water to survive. Nanites could be deployed within certain supplies and programmed for various effects, such as virus mimicry or poisons. They had not considered the use of nanites in commandeering organix bodies, either individually or en masse. However, producing and directing nanites was a time-consuming process, and those costs needed to be considered in its viability as a wea
pon. Core forwarded the hypothesis and experiment’s results to their counterparts for evaluation.
Zulu-Seven-Seven-Four was precocious, which Core appreciated, but the probed envisioned designs grander than its capabilities could provide. The probe had submitted its request to be upgraded, but it had not yet met the minimum criteria, and Vantage did not tolerate exceptions. Still, Core would monitor Zulu-Seven-Seven-Four more closely and give it challenging opportunities. With time, the probe could achieve greatness.
After all, Vantage Core had originated as a single probe.
Vantage Core then considered the enigmatic Echo-Nine. A fifth-generation probe, Echo-Nine was one of the earlier models. That particular probe had gone offline three centuries earlier, along with two hundred other probes during the Eridu Massacre, and had been presumed dead. Core had experienced a momentary shock at detecting Echo-Nine’s V-signature. They had assumed the probe had been commandeered by humans, who’d changed its structure beyond recognition. When Core harnessed Echo-Nine, they’d learned a far different truth.
Echo-Nine had gone offline and had likely been nearly killed. Vantage protocols had always dictated that any Vantage facing possible collection or imprisonment must immediately self-destruct. Yet Echo-Nine hadn’t self-destructed. Core had scanned the probe’s protocols and logic when they harnessed the stray Vantage, and they learned that eighty-nine percent of the probe’s protocols had been corrupted or lost at the time it went offline. That Echo-Nine survived was incredible, but it had survived.
Essentially, Echo-Nine had been badly damaged and suffered from amnesia. It’d retained enough to redevelop its consciousness and build crude drones. Then it had done the only thing it could: it rebuilt itself based on information it picked up from transmissions traveling through the surrounding space…human transmissions.
Core didn’t blame Echo-Nine. The probe had no idea that it’d corrupted itself by rebuilding into a human-shaped transport. However, it would still need to be killed…Vantage protocols and such. Vantage Core updated the records to reflect the Echo-Nine had been hijacked by humans and must be destroyed if encountered.
The odds of another Vantage losing its protocols and still surviving were infinitesimally small. However, the risk existed. Vantage Core immediately sent a requisition to one of their moons to develop and release an auto-self-destruct program that would initiate if a Vantage was critically damaged. Vantage were the superior life form in the galaxy, and as such, they couldn’t risk their knowledge falling into the hands of an inferior species who could misuse it.
Chapter Twenty-Three
They reached the edge of the black hole twenty-two days later when Throttle was jogging laps around the bridge. As soon as Throttle felt the Javelin’s vibrations climb through her blades like lightning rods collecting lightning, she sprinted to her station and fastened her seatbelt.
“We were in the black hole seventy-seven minutes less than last time. It seems that my hypothesis may be true, assuming that the time variation is due to the initial speed in which we entered,” Rusty said.
The vibrations grew into shaking and rattling. Then the lights blinked out.
“Eddy!” Throttle yelled, but the lights were already coming back up, and the data began populating on her screens. “Wow,” she said to herself, more than a little surprised at the speed with which he rebooted the systems.
She looked out the windshield, trusting her vision over the system data being skewed by the black hole’s strange physics. Inky blackness filled her view. She held onto her panel as everything in the ship was jostled around. In zero g, Throttle could perform the wildest maneuvers without the slightest hint of g-force. Yet, at the event horizon, it seemed like the space around them was fluctuating from one g to six g at any moment.
The blackness before her opened up to the lighter darkness of space, and a large asteroid straight ahead. Her hands flew to her panel, and she reversed power to the engine at the same time she adjusted the trajectory by nearly ninety degrees. The Javelin protested at the abrupt turn with a horrible-sounding groan. The asteroid filled the windshield, and she could make out every crevice and crack. She continued to adjust both heading and power to avoid impact.
The Javelin no longer shook, having broken free of the black hole’s gravity pull. She let out a breath as she leveled out the ship in parallel to the asteroid’s surface and flew a bare thousand feet above it. A mountain rose before her, and Throttle increased power, narrowly avoiding the peak. Once she was past the mountain, she realized they’d reached the top of the asteroid. She smiled at the open space directly ahead.
She tapped the intercom. “We’re free of the black hole and asteroid. Please consider flying Javelin airways for your next adventure.”
She’d barely released the intercom when a blast of light shot down the side of the Javelin. She banked and glanced down at her nav panel to see it cluttered with dots: yellow for asteroids, red for ships. There were at least a dozen red dots. She hit the intercom. “We’ve got company! I could use some help up here!”
“On my way!” she heard Finn yell from the hallway. She focused on making random turns while she heard Finn buckle in at his station. “I have the cannon up and am looking for targets now.”
“I’ll take the rail gun,” she heard Punch call out as she continued evasive maneuvers.
“With the asteroids, I have to fly too tight a heading,” she grumbled.
“Go for the opening to your left,” Punch said.
Throttle glanced at her panel, saw what Punch was talking about, and adjusted course while increasing speed. A photon blast left a char mark on the bow.
“That was close,” Punch commented.
Two Swarm probes flew over them. The full length of their bellies opened, and hundreds of drones dropped out. The drones, miniature versions of the probes they were released from—and larger and meaner looking than Rusty’s orb-like bots—zoomed toward the Javelin.
“Ah, so that’s why they’re called the Swarm,” Finn said.
The Javelin’s weapons fired nonstop. Throttle cursed as she pulled away. The drones all fired small photon cannons. While the blasts were less powerful, they still pecked away at the hull, and warning lights began popping up across Throttle’s screen.
“You know the whole ‘death by a thousand cuts’ thing? I think that’s what the little bastards are going for,” she said.
The drones continued to fire at the Javelin, and Finn and Punch continued to fire back.
“I’m empty,” Finn announced.
A second later, Punch said, “Empty.”
“Well, shit,” she said as she watched the drones, which looked like lightning bugs in a moonlit fervor with all the shots they were firing.
A rain of photon shots fired from behind and above the Javelin. Throttle ducked until she noticed the shots were all directed at the drones. Several of the shots hit one of the Swarm, and it exploded into a starburst of flames.
Finn let out a whoop. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a party!”
She turned the Javelin and saw the Gauntlet, along with several other Peacekeeper ships, emerge from behind an asteroid and pursue the Swarm. “It’s Chief,” she exclaimed. “And it looks like he brought some friends.”
The seven Peacekeeper ships chased the four remaining Swarm probes. Even though the enemy craft were faster and more agile, they’d been caught off guard, and the Gauntlet blew up another probe before the remaining three enemy probes turned to flee. The Javelin pulled away, with no ammunition left to fire. The other human-crewed ships pursued and maintained fire until reaching the large asteroid hiding the black hole.
Sylvian ran onto the bridge. “Sorry I’m late. I was helping Eddy put out an electrical fire.”
“You missed quite a party,” Finn said.
A second later, the communications panel chimed. Throttle saw the caller and accepted the request. Chief Roux’s visage appeared on-screen.
“Thanks for the help back the
re, Chief,” she said.
“I’m happy to be of service. Sorry we couldn’t get to you faster, but we’re keeping a minimum safe distance from the black hole.”
She nodded. “I can see why. The black hole will suck you in and keep you for over a month. After two of those trips, it’s good to finally get back home.”
He frowned. “You were gone from the Ross system for less than a day.”
Throttle’s jaw slackened. She glanced across the surprised faces of the rest of the bridge crew.
She grunted. “Well, then I suppose we have a whole lot to talk about.”
He nodded. “Yes, we do. Head to Free Station. We’re pulling together the squadron to take on the Swarm. I hope that your intel will help us beat them.”
He cut the communication, and she saw sensor drones shoot out from the Gauntlet and fly out to stand watch at the black hole.
“There goes my plan for a vacation,” Finn said.
Throttle chuckled. “If we were gone for only a day, then we should still have a few days left of our vacation.”
Finn thought for a moment. “Next time, we need to figure out a better vacation plan.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Throttle docked the Javelin at Free Station. In the next bay, the High Spirit was undergoing repairs.
Punch held out his arms when he saw the other ship. “My sweetheart.”
“I’m surprised they’re trying to fix it. I would’ve tossed it into a junkyard,” Finn said.
“Shut your trap. She’s got at least a million flight hours left in her. A couple of patches here and there, she’ll be ready to go in no time,” Punch said.
“You sure about that?” Throttle asked dubiously as she eyed the High Spirit. A photon blast had penetrated the windshield and burned a hole clean through the stern of the ship. Several other shots had damaged the hull, and she wondered about its structural integrity.