Savage Stars

by Randolph Lalonde

  Dori was already there, her rifle back in hand and the large hull cutter secured on her back. "Figured out why the 'bots weren't able to talk with them. There are two left in stasis. The air in there was poisoned, a countermeasure of the vault that may have been activated by the Centirion once it hacked into the security system. Either they only had enough meds for two people to go into deep stasis, or no one else dosed in time."

  "It is sad, to be sure, but at least there are some survivors. I am sorry you lost more of your own kind."

  "Thank you," Spin said. "Can you get the vault open so we can get these two back to the ship? I have a medic there."

  "Right away."

  "Seal your suits if they're not already closed," Spin said, her suit already sealed. Nigel, Dori and Boro left their suits sealed. Frost had already returned to the ship.

  The vault doors began to part, the ten-metre-high, three-metre-thick inner doors running on a bearing system that made the deck rumble as they parted. "I'm surprised they didn't use some kind of antigravity to reduce stress on the station," Nigel muttered.

  "What's the point of heavy doors if they're not heavy?" Leaper asked, shrugging his shoulders.

  "We're moving in, putting them in containment bags and rushing them to the ship," Spin said.

  "Not before you scan them for contagions or other risks on site," Leland added through their communicators. "I don't want their first exhale to kill everyone in the room the moment we wake them up. I don't know how good the scrubbers are on the Jumper."

  "All right, full scans before we move them," Dori said, pushing between the parting doors first. Spin went second, with Boro behind.

  "These doors could close right now and crush us all, you know," Leaper whimpered, looking around from Boro's shoulder.

  "I was trying not to think about that," Boro grumbled as he made it half way through the thick parting slabs of metal.

  "Oh, God, whatever killed these guys put them through some serious pain," Dori said, looking at the nearest body. It was swollen from head to toe, his hands were around his throat, mouth wide open to accommodate a tongue that filled it.

  "It was a broad-spectrum allergen. One of the crueller biological weapons designed to trigger allergies. It looks like this particular gas used an airborne virus to give its victims several allergies as well. Their airways swelled up, but not before the rest of their bodies were treated to the worst series of reactions I can imagine. Whoever decided to use this bio-weapon wanted whoever it was used on to suffer," Leland reported from the ship. "Hal's telling me that, if you put the pair who are in stasis in your medical rescue bags and activate the decontamination cycle on them, then you can transport them to the ship safely."

  "None of that allergen gas will make it to the ship if we do that?" Dori confirmed.

  "That's right," Leland said. "We'll have them go through a decontamination cycle in the airlock here just to be sure."

  "All right, Nigel, time to earn your paycheque," Dori said, holding up a rescue bag so it unrolled.

  Nigel and Dori got to work putting the survivors in rescue bags while Boro helped Spin with the security console inside the vault. The passcodes were already entered, and he watched as her deft hands typed in a string of commands that made sure that the vault's interior security measures wouldn't reactivate while she browsed the computer system. The lighting came online, and Boro looked all around. There were several swollen victims who he tried not to look at.

  Aside from crates of supplies that the people inside brought with them, there were pedestals with cases in and atop them. Most had the sheen of exotic, difficult to pierce metals. The walls were covered by different sized drawers that used bio-readers and every kind of data key he'd ever seen, there were even a few he didn't recognize. "The patrons who hid their data and objects away here provided their own locks," informed a small hovering orb from the robot who called himself Sphere Lord. "One of the greatest benefits of storing your important articles here is the client's direct participation in securing their items. The drawer is given to the client, they place what they like inside, add their locking mechanism, then it is brought back here, where a quarantine period is observed before it is put in the vault wall. Clients who have drawers are not allowed inside the vault. They request their drawer and it is delivered to them secretly either in a secure room or at their location in the solar system."

  "There must be hundreds," Boro said, the thief in him wondering what rare objects of value might be stashed away.

  "There are thousands of drawers, actually," the sphere said. "This floor moves up and down. It is actually an elevator."

  "It says the Iron Mind is in Pillar Three," Spin said, turning and moving deeper into the vault. Boro followed her to a pillar that had several round metal tubes docked into it. They looked like combat grade containers for data storage and computers. She read the numbers off of several of them and pulled a red and black one free. It lit up in her hand, identifying itself as The Iron Mind Secure Data Storage Computer.

  "That's smaller than I expected," Boro said as Spin connected a line to it from her left bracer. A holographic interface appeared in front of her. "I love everything in this suit, especially the shield and the computer."

  "Don't get used to it," Frost grumbled over the audio channel.

  "I thought that bot said that Nadir deleted everything on the Iron Mind?" Boro asked, already starting to think his way through convincing his brother to leave a combat suit behind for Spin, himself, Nigel and everyone else on the crew.

  "The program in my Command and Control Unit is recovering what it can. There's a lot. Flesh Tech stored everything in the Iron Mind, but it's coming back in a raw format. There's no artificial intelligence in here to organize it, so if I want anything I need an old-fashioned search engine." She brought up a search box and entered her model and the words; 'genetic key.' A moment later the information appeared in a holographic branch to her left. "There it is; the exact treatment Med Three gave me to convert me to an Unlimited Model. I've never heard that term before, but it looks like it was an option Flesh Tech was ready to offer their sales division and anyone else who resold their products, even some people who bought them." She scrolled through the details and shook her head. "They offered the Unlimited option to the Countess for me and Larken, but I guess she decided not to pay for it. Instead of giving them more money, she was willing to watch us die then replace us." Her fingers scrolled to images of a pair of young adult models who were in storage, ready for delivery when she and Larken died. "They're still in the solar system, at the Flesh Tech facility, programmed and ready." With a flick of her finger the file closed and she started looking for something else.

  "How were they programmed?" Boro asked quietly, aware that he might be wandering into a sensitive topic.

  "No loyalty conditioning yet, I guess they do that last, once the final payment goes through, but they have all the operational and personality programming they need to believe that they grew up in a fine place, had a childhood, tutors, a history with their companion, and an understanding of technology. These two have military training as well, but they're also diplomatic, made to be charming while they fit in and offer security."

  The thought that Spin was made the same way, had the same kind of programming and may have never been a child passed through Boro's head. "Are all dolls made that way?"

  Spin cleared her throat and pressed on to another topic. "There's no sign of the Iron Mind here. The artificial intelligence that was supposed to guard and organize the data in this computer was copied then deleted so thoroughly that there's nothing to bring back. Most of the data it was protecting is here, except for everything in the bio and nano-weapon folders. Maybe that's the tech that Nadir didn't want humans to have," she said, shutting down the holodisplays and disconnecting the computer. "We could be here for days, weeks going through all these computers, the drawers, but I think they belong to the bots here now."

  A slim bot with a grabber arm
made specifically to handle the cylindrical computers in the pillars and stands rolled past them, pulled one and then rolled out of the vault at speed. It stopped once it passed through the doors and Frost took the cylinder from it. A thick bot on treads rolled towards him as he turned towards the hall that led to his ship and Frost drew his sidearm. "Back off, or you're slagged."

  It squared itself in front of him, a few other robots, loaders from the looks of their heavy frames, started rolling towards him. "What are you doing, Shamus?" Boro asked. He wondered what treasure his brother was after, and how he knew to grab just that one cylinder, but his thoughts were interrupted as Frost fired a furious burst of bolts through the memory and power storage section of the bot that got in his way, nearly splitting its main body in half.

  "Stay out of the way," Frost said as he walked around the remains, pointing his weapon at the nearest heavy loader. "The information on this could help millions, maybe a billion people, and we have more right to it than anyone else."

  "The Lorander Corporation entrusted us with keeping that for them, in our secure facility," Sphere Lord's voice boomed.

  "If it was really important, they would have come to this system and saved all your asses, but they didn't, so it's fair game. Stop me."

  One of Sphere Lord's little drones dove at Frost, who ducked the first time, then batted it away with one hand before shooting it with the other on the next pass. He crushed its metal carcass under his boot as he continued on his way. "My ship has enough firepower to blast the insides of this station to slag in minutes," Frost said. "We are leaving, one way or another, don't test me."

  The vault doors began to close as slowly as they opened. Boro and Spin rushed through them quickly. When Spin stopped to talk to Med Three on the other side, all his instincts told him that they didn't have time. He stayed by her side anyway, looking at the variety of robots and androids that were gathering around.

  "I don't know why he did that, I'm sorry," Spin said. "I thank you for sharing the cure with me though, you changed my life."

  "You're welcome. What will you do with the humans we saved?"

  "My medic is about to revive them now. Depending on what they want, they'll either join us, or I'll give them some money and find them a place to go so they can live freely. Thank you for helping them."

  "Thank you for killing the Centirion," Med Three replied. "You should go, word of your crewmate's theft is starting to spread. I expect we'll be discussing how much we should trust biologicals for a while after you leave."

  Forty-One

  "How do you feel, now that you're cured?" Boro asked Spin as the last cycle of decontamination scrubbed them with mist that vibrated against their armour hard enough to flay them if they weren't wearing it.

  Spin wondered how many people would ask her that question, and silently gave Boro credit for being the first. He watched her, especially after the Centirion. Whether she liked it or not, he'd be her guardian, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that yet. "I feel fine so far, but I think there will be a rough patch before it's over. What do you think your brother stole from the vault?"

  "I don't know. I've heard of Lorander, everyone has, they've been offering their trip to the outer colonies deal for as long as I can remember, and they own at least three of the big shipping companies in the Human Core Worlds. Sorry, owned. I haven't seen one of their ships since the holocaust virus unless it was torn apart."

  "Exploration, expansion and peaceful commerce," Spin recited. It was the first line of the Lorander Corporation mission statement, something she'd read years before. "That's the essence what they based all their business efforts in the Core on. The Countess' shipping and production companies brushed up against them often enough, but Lorander used the court systems of several governments to settle most of their differences. I've never heard of one of their ships using more force than they had to. They always held their own until they could escape if they could or surrendered their cargo if it was the only way to save the crew. Then they'd approach law enforcement and make a whole bunch of noise about whoever attacked them, and Lorander is so valuable to so many systems that there would be investigations, embargos, and eventually criminal charges. The Countess' more shadowy companies got caught that way a few times. I'm wondering what Frost would want with their secure archive?"

  "He didn't tell me about anything he would want in the vault, he even promised that he wouldn't get distracted while we were in there," Boro said.

  Their turn in decontamination ended, and they emerged from the airlock. Spin's computer updated, telling her that the Sector Jumper was starting its slow trip through the debris field, cloaked, and that they'd be leaving the system. "I need to talk to him," Spin said, deactivating her helmet, which parted then collapsed into her collar. "We could have left Doro Doro with friends on that station, but now I doubt those machines will trust any biologicals."

  "Why should we care?" Frost said. "I bet the raiders who are on their way here will wipe them out unless they hide or surrender. They shouldn't trust us air breathers."

  "Everyone I left behind will die?" Leaper asked from Boro's shoulder.

  Spin wondered how complex Leaper's emotional intelligence was. Looking into the big blue pair of sensors and their eyelid like shutters tricked her often enough. They were expressive, and the fact that he moved his mouth with his words perfectly definitely reinforced the illusion. "They're going to surrender if they see an overwhelming force coming, don't worry. They'll be too useful to destroy."

  "I suppose there's a chance," Frost agreed.

  "You turned potential friends into enemies without any explanation, Frost," Spin told him. "Having a few friends aboard Doro Doro could have been a huge help."

  "You're talking about a bunch of bots that were more interested in hiding than helping humans. Coward machines, could there be anything more useless?" he retorted, watching as Dori and Nigel emerged from the airlock a few frames down, their decontamination complete.

  Leland was there to accept the pair of bagged survivors, scanning and directing them to one of the crew quarters that was marked with a small blue cross. "What was so important in that vault, anyway? Why pull Lorander's files?"

  "I did a scan, saw something Fleet wanted, hacked the simplest droid with a receiver with a line of sight receiver in there, and took it for them. Considering all the help I'm giving you using Haven Fleet tech, you should be happy that I'll have something to bring back to them."

  "Can you even read it?" Spin asked, watching Frost flinch and look away. It was encrypted, there would be no way to get to the data on that cylinder.

  "I'll bring it back to base and we'll be able to get into it there," Frost said. "What it's for, why we need it, and where it's going are classified, that means none of your business."

  "You realize, you could have talked those bots into giving it to you," Spin said, watching as Boro and Leaper looked from her to Frost as the confrontation developed. More than once, Boro tried to interject, but Frost cut him off. "You burned bridges for me back there."

  "None that mattered," Frost snickered.

  "I thought you spent some time in the underworld? Someone like you should know that you can never have too many friends, or are you one of those lone wolves who burns bridges until even family writes you off?" Spin knew the last would strike a nerve, but Frost's nonchalant reaction was so infuriating that she wanted to leave a mark before dropping the conversation.

  "Spin, one of them is out of stasis," Nigel called from the hatchway down the hall.

  Frost was already leaving, his back turned, walking towards the bridge. Boro was still cringing from her last barb. "I'll apologize later," Spin told him.

  "I know you're smarter than most of us, hell, all of us most of the time," Boro said, his voice low, "But you should know well enough to stay out of family business." He was about to say something else, but hesitated, then started walking after Frost.

  "I know, it was too far, I'm sorry," Spin o
ffered, but she didn't really know. Her only family was Larken, and probably wasn't the same.

  "I'll tell him that," Boro replied stiffly over his shoulder.

  There was nothing she could do at the moment, and there was something more important a few metres away anyway, so she went to the room where their passengers were being treated. Dori met her at the hatchway, on her way out but smiling. "Holy shit, those are two beautiful people," she whispered as she moved past. "One's wide awake already."

  "Aspen? You're an Aspen?" asked a female voice that had an attractive, almost musical pitch to it. It belonged to a tall woman with an Amazonian build and light brown hair with blonde streaks.

  "The only one I know. I call myself Spin now." She sat down on the bed beside the awakened woman and helped Leland wrap her in a medical blanket and tuck it around her.

  "I'm Sophia," she was interrupted by the sight of a bag of water with a straw jutting out from it. Spin accepted it from Leland and held it so Sophia could draw on it. She held the moisture in her mouth for a moment before swallowing then drew on the straw until the bag was half empty before laying her head back. "There was something… chalky in my mouth."

  "Sorry, it was part of the decontamination," Leland explained from where he sat beside Sophia's male counterpart, who was waking, but much groggier. "I had to make sure your system was clear and the ship programmed some nanobots to go after any residual toxins then render them harmless."

  "Thank you, Doctor," Sophia said.

  "I'm a tech, not a Doc, but you're welcome."

  "How is Spence?"

  "He's not bouncing back as fast, but he'll be fine," Leland said, scanning Sophia's male counterpart. He was just as chiselled and attractive, with features that matched Sophia's. "I've seen this a few times before, he's just a slow rouser."

  "He is, even when he's just sleeping," Sophia said, smiling. Her attention turned to Spin as she took her hand. Her eyes were startlingly blue, and Spin understood what some people might have felt when they looked into them and were stunned. "Thank you for saving us. We're on a ship?"