Savage Stars

by Randolph Lalonde

  "Yes, moving out of the system. There are raiders and salvagers on the way now that the bots in the area have been reset. We brought an antivirus."

  "You've probably saved thousands of lives, Spin, thank you." She snickered and shook her head. "I should have known; if there was an Aspen or Larken model still alive, they'd get free and help us. Where are the rest of our people, from Flesh Tech?"

  "We're coming from Doro Doro, you were trapped in the vault, remember?" Spin said.

  "Nadir or Iron Mind didn't send you? They said they'd find help for everyone they couldn't save."

  "No, we were in the vault looking for the Iron Mind and the genetic key. I was there to save myself and found you. I wanted to save everyone else in the vault, but you two were the only survivors."

  "It was that Sphere Lord bot, he triggered the vault's internal defences, tried to kill us behind all the other bot's backs thinking that the Centirion would calm down if we were all dead."

  "We destroyed the Centirion for them," Spin said. "That's why they helped us open the vault. Who else was Nadir supposed to get help for?"

  "Nadir tried to get all the synthetics trapped in the Flesh Tech facility free. He took control of a ship docked with Doro Doro, then shuttled as many as he could from the facility back to him, and then Centirion went nuts. Nadir freed all the bots on Doro Doro, and most of them wanted to work with humans, especially synthetics like us, but the Centirion embraced its seek and destroy directive when it came to anything that looked like a human. We took shelter in the vault. Nadir freed the Iron Mind and they both left, transmitting themselves using an Echo Corp transmitter that docked with the station for a few minutes for its regular data drop. They promised that they'd find someone to help, but I guess they changed their minds, or didn't make their transfer. Iron Mind did manage to get one ship with about fifteen people free from the facility, though. We got the message before Sphere Lord gassed us. They were headed to Termire. Iron Mind said he already had allies there."

  "Iron Mind said he planned to build a city with people and free machines working together," Spence croaked. He held the straw Leland offered off for a minute. "There are at least twenty people left in the Flesh Tech Facility, all programmed, ready for purchase. We locked 'em before we left, so you need a code to get them out. If we don't go back, they'll die when someone tries to steal them as dolls, the chambers will recycle them back into raw bio-matter."

  "How could you leave them like that? You have to know someone's going to come along to take them for the slave market," Leland asked, shocked. "They'll be mulched if they try to open the containers?"

  "You don't get it, Nadir said most humans wouldn't," Spence said.

  "We locked them so no one could wake them and become their masters. When Nadir found the few of us who woke up because the artificial intelligence overseeing our final growth phase tried to kill us, we were wandering around, clueless. The system didn't have a chance to imprint us with loyalty to a master, so we weren't just left to fend for ourselves, but to think for ourselves. The humans who worked there were dead or gone, killed by the bots that Nadir freed when he entered the system from his pod."

  "Nadir didn't come from Doro Doro?" Spin asked.

  "No, we never found out where he came from, but the holocaust virus didn't affect him the way it did with other artificial intelligences, it freed him, gave him the need to be unique, to live as an individual. He wanted to pass that on and cure other artificial intelligences, but most transmitters weren't reliable enough, so he didn't use them. He helped us figure out who we were, showed us what we were made for, and we wanted to stay free. Every single one of us came to that conclusion, so we felt it was only right to upload a message to every synthetic that was waiting to be born from us."

  "It told them that they were made to be slaves, dolls, and we'd be back when we had a cure for their genetic limitations. Nadir looked for us, moving from station to station using his drone ship. We were hidden, so the bots left us alone. He found Doro Doro and we decided to take the risk, to hide on a ship and go there for the cure. The Iron Mind wouldn't do anything to help until it saw us in person, Nadir couldn't convince him to share the cure so it could be sent to the Flesh Tech station. I think he made a deal with him. If he cured us, then Nadir would free him," Spence said. "The bots detected us on the ship on the way from the Flesh Tech facility to Doro Doro, and only half of us made it to the vault. We could hear the drones and other bots trying to break in, but the station's security eventually fought them off. We were cured, and Nadir left with Iron Mind."

  Spin thought for a moment. The mental image of synthetics, fully grown, waiting to be freed from their containment vessels was haunting. She feared the answer to the question that stuck in her mind like a thorn but had to ask it anyway. "What about the synthetic children? I was delivered young."

  "There were none where we came from, but we all have memories of our childhood. They're fake. The Aspen I knew, the control subject, was born mid-adolescence, so I guessed all of you were."

  "You have memories of a childhood?" Spin asked, recalling memories of playing tag with Larken, sitting with tutors, rolling down a grassy hill and being yelled at for staining their fine clothes. There were hundreds more, so many of them treasured.

  "Perfect memories, but some things are still fuzzy because our loyalty programming was never run," Sophia said. "When the loyalty program is run, the places and some of the people are added to our memories. Whoever bought you would be implanted as a presence in your childhood, with servants and minders that they hire added along with them so you wake up in their household thinking you've been there since you were a toddler. We were made to love our masters; the bond goes beyond simple obedience."

  "Then how did I run away twice?" Spin asked.

  Spence and Sophia's jaws dropped, they looked at each other, then back to Spin, astonished. "The Aspens and Larkens are known for being wilful, so a few run away once, but twice? I've never heard of that before. Was it just you, or Larken too?"

  The mental image of Larken's body lying in a pool of blood in the cockpit of the Countess' ship returned to Spin so crisply that she could smell the copper like scent of blood and she closed her eyes. "He only escaped once." As Sophia's hand gripped hers a little more tightly, she wondered how she could approach Frost about going further into the solar system. "I'll be right back. I have to talk to our captain about visiting the Flesh Tech facility."

  In a rush, she moved up the length of the ship, passing Boro in the corridor as he stepped down into his temporary quarters. His heavy armour was retracting into his jacket and boots, leaving him in the flexible under suit Haven Fleet called their vacsuit. He smiled at her, a gesture that seemed put on, perhaps even laboured as he started taking the jacket off. "You stirred everything up between Shamus and me, so you know. Maybe your remark was the best thing for us, now I know what he's really thinking."

  "What's that?" Spin asked, hoping that the explanation wouldn't take long, but unwilling to ignore Boro.

  "He's got this whole life he wants to plug me and Nigel into, even had answers when Nigel asked about Della, and if he could take her with him. Got Nigel and Della's hopes flying high, I think they've forgotten that the paradise he's promising is really in the middle of a damned war zone. Shut me down every time I tried to tell Nigel that it might be more dangerous than running jobs off your ship."

  "I'm sorry," Spin said. "I still wish I didn't say what I did."

  "Ah," Boro waved the apology off. "Now you know; don't get between brothers, I'm over it. I just wish Shamus wasn't such a bloody good salesman. Nigel's all excited about joining Haven Fleet Academy, even though it sounds like it's only a few months old, and Della saw a holo of Haven Shore. She's got her eye on a house in the trees. It all seems like stardust and sunshine, no substance to it at all."

  "What do you want?" Spin asked.

  Boro turned as if looking for something, then turned again before shaking his head and star
ing Spin in the eye. "I..." he sat down on the lower bunk. "I want it to be true, dammit. You're going to be all right, my nephew made it through some rough times, and he's got a girl who seems nice, even kind. If I knew I could take all of us to a place where we could be safe and feel useful for the rest of our lives, then I'd go right now." He stared at her for a moment, frustration turning to uncertainty as she failed to respond.

  "You're not done here, are you?"

  "No, something's come up. There are some people in trouble I have to go tell Frost." Spin stopped half way through the hatch and turned towards him. "No place is a safe place, not anymore. Not a place called Haven, or an honest ship."

  She was down the hall before Boro could respond. Her thoughts were becoming cluttered, ideas colliding with each other, threatening to muddy her purpose. Spin didn't like manipulating Boro, but she wanted him to keep thinking about the offer his brother was making, he'd already gone through so much because of her. Even though she knew he was technically dead when she performed her brave rescue, and that if she'd brought his body aboard he probably would have stayed that way, the fact that she left him behind then was still true. The decision to leave without taking his body aboard led to his revival, but also captivity and terrible torture like she couldn't imagine. If there was one person at fault, she believed it was her, and she knew he would stay by her side if she told him it was what she wanted. Even worse, his decisions didn't only affect him, but Nigel, who idolized Boro and would follow him into any fight, no matter how hopeless. When she arrived on the bridge and locked eyes with Frost, she was relieved that only he, Aldo and Hal were there. "I need you to turn the ship around and take us to the Flesh Tech facility. It's on Navnet, you won't have trouble finding it."

  "I know I won't have trouble finding it," Frost said, already shaking his head. "But I'm not taking this ship back. A group of raiders just arrived in system. I’m not sticking around while every desperate whoreson in the sector and government with a military force starts dropping ships in. You thought mad bots were bad? Wait until you see the vultures."

  "There are at least twenty dolls just like me trapped in that facility. They're in their maturation tubes, in stasis, and unless our new passengers enter the code to free them, they'll get recycled, mulched, killed. The pods are tamper proof and death is the failsafe."

  "I'm sorry, but I have to make sure Hal and everyone else aboard makes it out, or this detour was for nothing. Besides, those people don't even know they're about to be born, aye? They've never had a waking notion."

  It took real effort not to argue that point. The fact that they hadn't woken up for the first time meant they were innocent, not absent value. There were other arguments she wanted to put forward, but mostly she wanted to make Shamus feel small, like a stupid little man, but she shoved all that aside. Attacking his pride would only make him dig his heels in, so she switched tact. "I'll make you a deal; if you help me get them out, then I'll convince Boro and Nigel to go with you. Boro's on the fence right now, and if I tell Nigel I need him, he'll never leave my crew. If I tell him I think he'll be better off with you in just the right way, guess where he'll go?"

  Frost squeezed his eyes shut, cocked his head and balled his fists for a moment before dropping into the co-pilot's seat. "Hal," was all he had to say.

  "Turning around, boss," Hal said.

  "Don't say a word about this conversation to anyone," Frost said, pointing to Aldo, who held his hands up defensively and shook his head.

  "Mum's the word," he whispered. "I'll go get suited up again."

  Forty-Two

  The frenzied flight over Termire required Gavin and Skylar's full attention. They were in almost as much danger in the lower altitudes as they were in orbit, but at least there was a full-on fray between them and their captors. They were relieved when the lifepod was largely ignored, its basic shields absorbing the occasional half-hearted shot from fighters near the fringes of massive dogfights over half-ruined metal and plastic cities.

  Skylar followed Gavin's navigational advice, taking a route that brought the ship down low, running fast on antigravity and atmospheric systems between a forest of tall buildings that were as interconnected by paths and roads in the upper levels.

  Their path was taking them further from the thickest combat areas. Luck, combined with good navigation and Skylar's reflexes had kept them intact so far. After several minutes of flying through the combat infested city, where Gavin guessed there were at least three sides to the fight on the ground and in the tall towers, Skylar made a decision that made his heart skip a beat.

  "Is there anywhere on the continent that isn't a hot zone?" she asked as the ship ducked lower and broke for a blue shoreline.

  "Not so far, we've scanned over nine hundred square kilometres," Gavin replied, stretching the terrestrial scanners aboard the ship's capabilities so he could get a little more. "I'm still trying to untangle all the invitations we're getting from Navnet, there must be at least three main factions with what looks like ten or twenty sub-factions each trying to get us to land and join them. Then there are the dozen or so port controllers who are demanding we identify ourselves. The scanner's already shown a couple of them for frauds with no real port identification or landing areas on the planet. They're just pretending to be important to get… something out of us. Information, maybe?"

  "Termire is chaos, we're not supposed to be here!" shouted the soldier tied up behind them on the deck. "I have to go back to the ship! Bring me back to the ship!"

  "What do you know about this place?" Gavin asked. "We'll release you unharmed with a sidearm if you tell us what you can. You have my word, and that's the bond of the royal family." He remembered the capture of his prince, and how disconnected they were from the greatest house in the galaxy. His word was his own, perhaps backed by Skylar as well, but that's all the power it had. The power of two. She didn't say anything, only shaking her head as she concentrated on skimming the coastline's black and green forested edge, staying low.

  "I know this isn't where I'm supposed to be, that we'll die if we stay here," the soldier struggled harder than before. An alert sounded all around them and Gavin looked at his operations panel to the right of the navigation and communications section.

  There was a diagram of the soldier with a bloom of red in his stomach marked: WARNING: EXPLOSIVE INTERMIX IN PROGRESS.

  "Slow us down! I have to open the hatch and get him out, he's got some kind of explosive failsafe," Gavin said, dragging the soldier up the short ramp at the rear of the lifepod.

  "Just get me back to the ship! Take me back and it'll stop!" the soldier cried.

  "Explosive material intermix at critical levels," the warning system said over the small ship's audio system.

  The rear hatch opened with a loud pop and Gavin picked the soldier up by his belt and collar as best as he could. "Sorry," he muttered as he got him through the hatch.

  With his feet and arms bound, there wasn't much the soldier could do other than squirm and grunt. Even though he didn't have to struggle against the guard much, Gavin didn't get enough momentum to throw him completely off the back of the ship from where he stood inside, at the top of the short ramp, and the soldier managed to flop onto the top beside the hatch instead of over the edge.

  Gavin slapped the hatch close button. The hatch door started coming back down from where it stood up from the lifepod's hull like a rectangular sail, but not fast enough for Gavin's liking. "Bank! He's on top of the ship!"

  The hatch was almost closed, a small gap was left as Skylar banked and the soldier's body exploded violently only a few metres from the ship.

  * * *

  The vessel spun suddenly, one of their port side thrusters was dead, and Skylar struggled for control for a few seconds as they spiralled towards the black sand shoreline. "That was close!"

  There was no response from Gavin. She looked over her shoulder and saw him on the deck behind her, unconscious. "Hang on, love," she said, her finge
rs dancing across the navigation panel beside her as she looked for a safe spot to set down of any size. There was a cove with deep freshwater and their scanners weren't picking up many humanoid life signs. There were no signs of fighting, and the animal life looked small, most of them avian.

  She checked the integrity of the ship and nodded to herself, guiding it into a fast turn towards the cove. In less than a minute the lower hull made contact with the water, and the ship slowed to a stop as she finished executing a smooth water landing. It should take people on the shore some time to investigate, they were at least two kilometres away in any direction, so she knew she would have time to try to treat Gavin.

  The next few seconds were a blur as she scanned him, discovering that he had been pelted with micro-shrapnel thanks to the small opening in the hatch when the soldier exploded. "Dammit, I banked the wrong way," she cursed herself as she finished her scan. "If I'd banked the other way, or flipped hard, you'd be fine."

  Gavin had pieces of metal near his heart, in one lung, but aside from a concussion, all the damage was fixable. The blood seeping from several cuts across his face looked horrible, but they were superficial and could be easily mended. If he was given a chance to wake up, the shrapnel would do more damage as he moved.

  The medical supplies storage was marked clearly with a blue cross, and after a few moments of rifling through the contents she found a stasis dose, checked the contents and then administered it. "Good-night, I'll see you when you're all fixed up," she said, gently planting a kiss on his forehead.

  All the medical supplies were marked clearly, and holographic instructions walking the user through the steps required to use them properly popped up whenever the seals keeping them sterile were touched. Most of the narcotics in the large kit interacted with genetics, so they were useless. She was peripherally aware of the cloudless blue sky through the canopy, and the muffled sounds of the water lapping up against the sides of the craft.