She shrugged. “Old habit.”
I realized then that the girls and I were at her mercy. She could control the nanobots in our bodies, and she could bring us to our knees with a thought.
“You have nothing to fear from me,” she said, surveying the surroundings. “I have no intention of enslaving your minds. I’m not that kind of person.”
“That’s good to know.”
“You wonder if you can trust me.”
“Listen, I’m not really comfortable with you hearing my thoughts.”
“My apologies, but they are hard to ignore.”
I looked at the sky, wondering when the Ardominus would get here, and if they would beat the enemy ships.
“So you’re here, but your brain is on the Ardominus?”
“That is correct.”
“And your attention is here and there? That must get confusing.”
“I’m able to focus on many different things at once.”
“How is your body linked to your brain? Is it like galactic bluetooth or something?”
“Bluetooth?”
“Like radio waves.”
“Yes and no. It is more like telepathy. You understand this word?”
“I understand the translation, yes.” I glanced at the emptiness around us. “This isn’t much better than floating in space. Do your sensors pick up any structures nearby or a place we can defend if need be?”
She looked left. “That way, five miles, there is an ancient structure.”
“Then let’s get over there and hunker down. If the grays show up before Orcag and the gang, maybe we can hold them off long enough to be beamed up.”
“You will have to fly me there. My power is too low to use my thrusters.”
She suddenly hugged me around the waist and pulled me close. Our lips were inches apart, and my boner reawakened despite the visor between us.
“Hold on tight.”
“Oh, I will.”
We shot into the air, and I steered us toward an old structure which was actually a pyramid.
“What the…?”
“You recognize it?” she asked as I landed and put her down.
“Yeah, people made these on Earth thousands of years ago.”
She nodded solemnly. “The grays had them built all through the galaxy. They were once used to channel power from the fourth dimension.”
“You’re kidding, right? The fourth dimension?”
“You don’t know much about the grays, do you?”
“I know they’re a giant pain in my ass.” I gestured toward the pyramid. “Anything in there?”
She scanned the structure and shook her head.
“How soon until the Ardominus arrives?”
“Fifteen minutes.”
“And the grays?”
“It is not actually the grays, but rather Erzocks, soldiers of fortune working for the grays. And they are not far behind Orcag.”
“Maybe we should tell them to hang back. If the Erzocks attack, the girls might be injured, not to mention your, uh, brain.”
“You would allow yourself to be captured to save them?” She sounded surprised.
“You’ve been inside my head. What do you think?”
“You are a good man, Harry Warwick.”
“I just try to do what I think is right.”
“And righteous,” she added with a smile.
“Okay.” I shook my head and laughed. “I’m serious though. Maybe we should tell them to hang back.”
“Nothing I say will stop Orcag from retrieving my vessel. Besides, the Ardominus can handle the Ezrockian fighters.”
“Why does he want your body so badly?”
“Can you blame him?” She cocked a hip and struck a sexy pose.
I couldn’t help but laugh. She might have looked like a cyborg, but she had a hell of a personality. “Are you always such a flirt?”
“No. I guess you bring it out of me.”
“Orcag doesn’t want your body so he can… you know.”
“I hope not,” she said disgustedly, then shook out her hands like she’d touched something slimy. “He wants me because of my advanced tech.”
“Jules, if you had a birth mother, I mean a real birth mother, that means you’re an organic lifeform.”
“Correct.”
“Then how do you have advanced tech? Have you been implanted with it?”
“It is called evolution.” She studied me for a moment. “I apologize, but I cannot help but read that you are having trouble with the concept of an organic robot. That is the word in your mind for what I am—robot—but I am no such thing. Robotics and computers as you know them on your planet evolved from organic binary systems. The grays have introduced such advancements to all civilizations in the galaxy. They have been doing so for the last ten thousand years or so.”
“Why?”
“It is a system of control. When other races use our tech, it usually doesn’t end well, and the grays love chaos.”
I thought of World Wars I and II; video games in which humans played at killing each other; people out to dinner with their noses in their phones; and how technology was slowly turning us into a bunch of lazy limp-dicked pussies.
“Your thoughts are accurate,” she said solemnly. “The more dependent people become on technology, the more enslaved they are.”
“I’m trying to follow this, so forgive my ignorance. Are you sure your kind evolved organically? How can a creature with metallic parts, gears, processors, and whatever else you’ve got going on in there be organic? I mean, your brain is somewhere else, yet you are still alive. I don’t know of any other creature that can pull that off.”
“Binarian history goes back hundreds of thousands of years, and nothing points at us being created by anyone. Perhaps we were once like you and changed ourselves into this. There is no way of knowing. But I was not programmed by anyone, and I was not created in a factory or grown in a lab. I grew inside my mother’s womb, and my thoughts are my own.”
“That’s pretty amazing. You’re possibly the most interesting woman I’ve ever met.”
“Possibly?”
“Okay, you are definitely the most interesting woman I’ve ever met.”
She grinned. “That’s better.” Her smile disappeared and she looked up.
“What is it?” I asked, unable to see anything that raised alarm.
“They’re here.” She regarded me with determination. “Are you ready?”
“To face off with an octopus version of Jabba the Hut?” I laughed. “Sure, sounds like your average Tuesday in space.”
The Ardominus broke through the low-hanging green clouds like a behemoth emerging from a sea of fog. It had looked large when it approached our ship, but given the contrast of the sky with the land below, I realized the true grandeur of the whale-shaped vessel. The thing even moved like it was swimming through the air, graceful despite its cumbersome appearance.
“What’s the plan, Jules?” I asked as we stood with our backs close to the pyramid and our eyes locked on the approaching vessel.
“I take over all systems when the vessel lands. We free the girls and my brain, kill Orcag and the crew, then we leave on your ship.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
No sooner had I said it than a deep hum issued from the pyramid. I backed away from the monolith. “I thought you said there were no life-forms in there.”
“There aren’t.”
“Well someone turned it on.”
The humming grew louder, and the pyramid vibrated. Dirt fell down the sides, chipped bricks shed their outer layer, and soon the sides were crumbling.
I grabbed Jules’s hand, and we ran away from the structure as debris rained down the slope. When we were a safe distance away, I glanced back. What I saw made me gasp. The pyramid, which had appeared as ancient as the ones in Egypt, now shone golden in the bright sunlight.
The capstone glowed so brightly it made the sun seem dim in compar
ison. The way the capstone powered up toward a massive release reminded me of the Death Star right before it fired, and to my horror, a beam suddenly erupted from the top of the pyramid and flew toward the Ardominus.
The ship, about five hundred feet up, was coming in for a landing. The beam tore through it effortlessly. I watched in horror as the Ardominus was shorn in two, and the pieces fell like a lead zeppelin.
They hit the ground and kicked up a one-hundred-foot high plume of dirt and debris. Half of the ship exploded, and I prayed the girls hadn’t been inside it.
“We’ve got to get in there!” said Jules. “I can destroy the capstone, but only if I am reunited with my brain.”
“Come on!” I urged as that thick beam shot straight up into the air.
Jules hugged me around the waist, and we took to the air. I kept an eye on the beam, which tore a circular hole in the fabric of reality. V-shaped ships shot out of the newly created portal and veered toward what was left of the Ardominus.
We reached the broken back half of the ship and flew through the debris into what I thought was the hanger. The inside was a maze of twisted metal, sparking wires, and hissing hoses, but I found our ship farther in, where there was less damage.
A winged creature flew at us from the wreckage, and I almost fired as I pulled up, then I recognized the monster. “Drogy!”
The drogan performed an aerial somersault and came to hover before me.
“Where are the girls, bro?”
He made a mewling sound I didn’t like and glanced deeper into the ship.
“You’ve been through enough shit. Go on, get out of here. Fly as far away as you can. When this all blows over, I’ll come looking for you.”
He roared in protest, then sniffed at Jules.
I pushed his snout away. “Go on, get out of here, you stupid drogan! I don’t want you anymore.”
It broke my heart to do it, but he couldn’t stand up to the firepower descending upon us.
“You heard me. Get!” I pushed him again when he tried to nuzzle me.
With a pained look, he whimpered and flew away.
“I hated doing that.” I flew deeper into the broken vessel.
“You did the right thing,” Jules said sympathetically.
“Yeah, well, sometimes the right things feels shitty.”
“The hall to the right will take you to where I am being held.”
“Where are the girls?”
“First we reunite my mind with my body, then you can find your wives.”
“They might be in danger,” I protested.
“We are all in danger, and only I can destroy the capstone.”
I landed on the crooked floor, and we raced down the busted-up corridor. We came to a spot blocked by debris, and I enabled my telekinetic nanoarm ability. I hadn’t used it yet, not having had the time to practice with all its features, but now I wished I had.
It was like being a Jedi and using the force. I focused on a twisted metal beam, reached out with my hand and my will, and the beam floated into the air with ease. In this manner I cleared the hallway, and we continued through the maze of corridors.
We reached an open door and went through it, only to skid to a stop. My three beautiful woman were on their knees, and three big hairy bastards stood behind them with guns pointed at the back of their heads. Orcag stood off to the right, looking on with a wide grin. He’d stripped the girls of their nanoarms, but his own was set to nanosuit mode. He looked ridiculous, and I couldn’t help but crack a joke.
“You look like Aquaman and Iron Man’s forgotten love child.”
He held a golden box covered in glowing silver runes. “One more step, Jules, and I wipe your mind.”
She blocked my advance with her arm. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, I would, and I’ll kill these three little bitches without a second thought if either of you try anything.”
“Harry?” Purshia whimpered.
“It’s okay, babe. I’ve got you.” I regarded the captain. “It’s over, Orcag, There’s a fucking squadron of ships out there, and the grays have enabled the capstone. Any minute now we’ll all be reduced to smoldering ash.”
“Oh, it has only just begun, Sheriff.” Orcag raised the tablet he had used to control us earlier and gleefully tapped. When nothing happened he poked at the thing like a spoiled toddler trying to play with a dead iPad.
“It doesn’t work anymore,” said Jules. “I’ve had full control all along.”
He tossed it aside, and the three hairy thugs looked expectant.
“I don’t need the nanobots. I’ve got you where I want you.” He said it with less bluster.
“We can do this all day, Orcag.” I pointed at the ceiling, and the sound of enemy ships could be heard in the silence. “The only way we’re all getting out of here alive is if we work together.”
He arched a brow. “And if I start killing them, one by one?”
“You won’t do that,” said Jules.
“Oh?” He looked amused. “And why is that? You cannot control my nanobots. I took care of that long ago.”
“That is true.” She pointed at the women. “But I can control theirs.”
The women whirled and snatched the guard’s guns in a blur of motion. Then, like a team of synchronized assassins, they bent the thugs’ wrists back and shot them in the forehead with their own guns.
Orcag didn’t flinch but calmly said, “If anything happens to me, Jules dies.”
I gestured the girls over to me and moved in front of them. “You lose, Orcag. You can’t control Jules anymore. You can’t control us. But you can work with us, and maybe, just maybe, we can get out of this shitstorm in one piece.”
“And then?” he asked skeptically. “Am I supposed to believe you will let me go?”
“After we destroy the capstone and kill the gray’s fighters, you can fuck off, for all I care. Take one of your ships and do whatever you want. I’m not in the kidnapping business. Besides, I don’t need you stinking up my ship.”
“Like bad sushi!” Purshia barked.
An explosion rocked the ship and knocked everyone off balance for a moment.
“We need to get the hell out of here!” Ella warned.
“Kill him now and be done with it,” said Val.
“No one is killing anyone!” I scowled at Val. “You survived the arena, Orcag. So did we. This is what the bastards want, everyone fighting each other when we should be fighting the grays. You don’t strike me as a puppet. Fuck the grays. Let’s send the bastards a message.”
“And what message would that be?”
A line from Braveheart came to mind. “‘They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!’”
He seemed moved by the words, and a glimmer shone in his eyes. “How do I know you won’t kill me as soon as I free Jules’s mind?”
“We have nothing to gain from that.” Another explosion rocked the ship, and the sound of marching boots echoed from the hallway. “Goddamnit, Orcag, we don’t all have to die here.”
At length he nodded, then tossed the golden box to Jules. She caught it with an astonished breath. I waited for the captain to make a move, but he didn’t try anything.
Jules opened the box reverently and carefully pulled out a glowing orb the size of a small cantaloupe. To my amazement, her skull opened, and she placed the orb inside. After her skull reformed and locked into place, she opened her eyes and shuddered.
“The girls’ nanoarms?” I said to Orcag.
He nodded and tossed me three cylinders. I handed them out, and they attached them and enabled their nanosuits.
“Let’s finish this,” I said and turned toward the hallway.
“Wait,” said Jules.
She closed her eyes and raised her right hand. I felt a tingling sensation in my brain, and a notification came up on my interface.
Congratulations, Warrior!
You now have full control of your nanobot bonuses!
> Enable with a thought or verbal command.
“When I have more time, I’ll reformat your interface so you no longer see such messages in the same format you did in the arena,” said Jules. “I must warn you to be careful with the nanobots. It is easy to overload your system.”
“Increase hearing 50 percent,” I said, and every sound came to me with more clarity. “I think I’ve got this. Ladies?”
“Oh yeah,” said Ella as she tapped on her invisible interface.
“Thank you so much, Jules,” said Purshia and hugged her.
“You people make me sick,” said Orcag. He brushed past us and moved to the hallway. A moment later he was firing, and we fell in place behind him.
The corridor was thick with dudes in battle gear. They carried some pretty impressive weaponry, and they weren’t afraid to use it. As the bullets slammed into our nanoshields, I realized they weren’t under any orders to take us alive.
We fought through the hall and back to the loading bay. Orcag held up a fist as he peered around the corner, then quickly jerked his head back as bullets banged into the wall.
“There are about a hundred of them out there,” he growled.
“We must go on the offensive,” said Val, and her nanoarm shifted into bomb launcher mode.
“Ready?” I asked everyone.
“Wait,” said Jules. “My systems are fully functional now. Let me go first.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am sure, Harry,” she said with a smile.
She moved ahead of me and turned the corner fearlessly. Bullets erupted from the loading bay, but she held up her hand and stopped them like Neo from The Matrix. Her eyes glowed red, and two laser beams shot out and swept across the room.
I dared a glance and discovered she’d wiped out half the enemy.
The rest of us charged out from the hall and took to the air. I launched a nanobomb into the center of a group of thugs. It turned them to minced meat when it went off, and I flew through the bloody mist and landed among another group of fighters. They were as tall as men, but thicker and a hell of a lot scalier. I enabled both a right- and left-hand laser sword and proceeded to chop them up like a hibachi chef. My swords severed heads and limbs, and spilled guts. A long line of dead piled up behind me, and the six of us steadily pushed the disheartened enemy back.
Warwick: Episode 2: Galactic Fugitives Page 10
