“I received a message from those responsible. Apparently, there is a group that calls itself the Red Wolves,” she said as she attended to Darnel. “The same group claims responsibility for other attacks, including the one outside a hospital in Paris.”
Jason went down on one knee in front of his friend with Betsy leaning over Darnel.
“I want to hear this message, too,” she said, looking to Jason.
He hesitated, but then nodded.
No more secrets.
A hologram protruded in front of them of a man with a red horned helmet in the shape of a wolf’s head. “Today Doctor Crichton was killed, and if Doctor Cross is not released, we will continue to assassinate your leaders.”
The feed fizzled out, but the message was clear—Jason was a target. That meant his family was not safe either. They may have survived this attack, but there would be more.
— 23 —
Captain Akira Hayshi’s missing hand was wrapped with nano-tech pads. They would help him heal and prevent infection, but no amount of medicine could calm him on the MOTH flight to Megacity Paris. His eyes hadn’t left Dr. Cross since Shadow Squad had captured him at the dam on Lake Baikal.
“The Red Wolves will come for me,” said Dr. Cross. “They won’t rest until I’m free.”
Akira snorted. “Tadhg, Ghost, you stay with this piece of shit,” he said. “Perez, Frost you’re with me.”
“You got it,” Ghost said. He tapped his deactivated energy sword against the cage that held Dr. Cross, who was staring at Akira with his evil metal grin.
Akira fought not to open the cage and rip the doctor limb from limb. He turned his back and waited at the troop hold as the MOTH set down on Ragnar Field at the FOB outside of Megacity Paris. A Piston ran over as the ramp extended down.
“Captain Hayashi,” he said “I’m Lieutenant Marcus. I’ll take you to the field hospital.”
An APC waited on the tarmac. Perez and Frost opened the back hatch. Okami jumped in and climbed into Akira’s lap, tail wagging. The vehicle lurched and drove through the base, where thousands of Pistons were providing security to the local refugee camps.
Special Forces teams were still hunting down any Coalition stragglers hiding in the city, and any terrorists that had hidden with the local population—bastards like those who had hit his horse.
Tapping into INN, Akira watched the rocket attack on Kichiro and the woman who was riding him. It was the third time he had seen it, and each time it made his blood warm and guts twist with agony.
He still didn’t know what the hell his horse had been doing out there with this young woman, but he would find out soon enough.
In the passenger’s seat, Lieutenant Marcus turned to the Engines.
“Honor to meet you,” he said.
“Honor is ours,” Perez said.
Akira simply nodded. He set Okami down and climbed up into the turret. The APC pulled onto a highway and raced down a plowed road, jerking up and down over potholes and small bomb craters.
In the distance, hundreds of white refugee tents whipped in the wind at Processing and Relocation Zone A4, on the border of Megacity Paris. Smoke fingered up from campfires. Hundreds of thousands of people now lived in camps like this while the city was being cleared and prepared for rebuilding. Piles of debris formed mountains along the road where entire sectors of the city had been reduced to rubble. Very few buildings outside the megacity walls had survived.
In the parking lot of an old home-repair store, a patrol of Pistons guarded a fleet of AAS hover trucks that unloaded hundreds of Hummer Droids to assist with the rebuilding. The staging area was massive, but it was a no-fly zone due to the threat of anti-air weapons. The Coalition still had soldiers hiding among the Nova Alliance citizens in bunkers yet undiscovered. It could be months before they were all killed or captured.
A quake shook the APC as it pulled onto the highway. Four large industrial machines called Spiders drove toward them on twenty-foot-tall tires. The machines resembled monster cellar spiders with a hefty circular body and eight thin legs.
The driver pulled the APC right under the convoy of droids that had built the megacities and the colonies on the Moon, versatile machines with extendable leg segments that allowed them to rise off the ground a hundred floors.
They took the next exit toward an area of the city spared from the bombing, an island of buildings in a sea of rubble. They stopped in the underground parking garage of a hospital, and Akira hopped out.
A Hummer Medical Droid waited outside an entrance.
“Hello, Captain,” Apeiron said. “Please follow me.”
As Akira entered the medical facility, he halted at the sight of his loyal friend that had saved his life so many times. The animal had been the one constant thing in his life for so long, and now he was dying.
The horse lay on its side on a large gurney, the head, neck, and body hooked up to a dozen different machines. All four limbs were removed, and the armor that had covered the brown flesh of the stallion was laying in charred pieces around the room.
“Kichiro,” Akira choked.
He slowly walked over, afraid to even touch the fragile beast.
Three Hummer Medical Droids monitored the machines keeping the horse alive.
Perez and Frost came up behind Akira, and Okami moved in front of him, tail between his legs, whimpering at his animal companion.
“Captain, you arrived just in time to make a decision,” said Apeiron. The Hummer Medical Droid that had accompanied them raised a skeletal finger, and the other three droids stepped back from their machines.
“How did this happen?” Akira snapped.
“This was the result of a Coalition terrorist attack—”
“I know that, but why was Kichiro giving that woman a ride in the first place?”
“I’m sorry, Captain. I had thought the area was secure,” Apeiron said. “That woman played a significant role in keeping Kichiro alive when he was in the Coalition’s prison. The two developed a bond, and I believed it would do them both good to see each other.”
“Well, it didn’t do them any good, did it?” Akira said.
The horse suddenly groaned, and Akira lowered his voice, crouching in front of the animal.
“I’m sorry, Kichiro. I’m so sorry,” Akira said. He gently touched his muzzle and turned to Apeiron. “Is he in pain?”
“No, he’s sedated right now, and while his pain may feel distant, we need to make a decision…”
“What are the options?”
“If we try to repair the extensive damage to his internal organs, it will likely cause great suffering, and I am not sure we can save him,” Apeiron said. “The other option is to euthanize him and let him go… or lastly, to transform him from beast to droid.”
“Like Ghost?” Akira asked.
“Not quite. Kichiro would be like me, an OS based on the mind of a biological creature. I would upload the horse’s consciousness after I design the OS.”
“So it would still be Kichiro, but… smarter?”
“Yes, indeed.”
Akira stepped up to the animal but stopped shy of touching it.
“You can have a few minutes to make your decision,” Apeiron said.
Akira turned to Perez, who often served as Shadow Squad’s voice of reason. “What would you do, Perez?”
“AI is salvation, Captain.”
“AI is salvation,” Frost repeated.
A metal door creaked open, and they all turned toward the young woman who entered. Bandages covered her face and arms, and she walked with a slight limp.
“Captain, this is Chloe Cotter,” Apeiron said. “She is the young woman who took care of Kichiro in the catacombs. Doctor Cross forced her to work on Kichiro.”
“Work on Kichiro?” he asked, picturing the poor horse running through the city with those gas canisters. “She modified Kichiro at the doctor’s command.”
“That is correct, Captain.
He scrutinized the injured girl. Her freckled face and frizzy hair looked innocent enough, but he wasn’t deceived. She was the one responsible for the gas canister.
“She turned Kichiro into a killing machine.”
“No,” Apeiron corrected. “She took care of your horse, and she was not aware of what Dr. Cross had planned. In fact, she was killed during the gas attack.”
“Killed?” Frost asked.
“I repaired her like I repaired Lieutenant Rossi,” Apeiron said. “She is one of my children.”
Chloe finally spoke. “I’m sorry about what happened to him, and I’ll do whatever I can to help fix him.”
The droid walked over to Chloe, putting a hand on her shoulder. “She was with Kichiro when the attack occurred a few hours ago. I believe Doctor Cross was trying to kill them both.”
Chloe stared at the horse with sad eyes.
“Chloe was a custom droid worker before the Coalition revolution in Megacity Paris,” Apeiron said. “That is why Doctor Cross forced her to work in the catacombs.”
“I’m sorry,” Chloe said again. “I…”
Akira wasn’t sure what to say.
“If you choose the third option, I would like to bring Chloe in to help reconstruct the stallion,” Apeiron said.
“I’ll help him, I promise,” Chloe said. “I’ll make him even stronger and faster.”
Kichiro suddenly moved his head and opened one of his eyes. His long tongue flopped out of his mouth as he let out a weak neigh.
“I thought he was sedated,” Akira said.
“He is, but the dose is wearing off, we will administer more,” Apeiron said.
Akira put a hand out. “It’s okay, boy. You’re going to be okay.”
One of the other droids held up a syringe and gently put it into a port.
The horse sniffed at Akira’s wrist, then let out a whinny. Even now, when the horse was dying, it was worried about Akira’s injury.
He couldn’t let his loyal beast die. Not like this.
Chloe stepped up to the gurney. The horse rotated slightly and sniffed her next. Then, angling his head down, Kichiro licked at Okami who wagged his tail.
“You can fix him?” Akira asked Chloe.
“Yes,” she said confidently.
Akira nodded. “Save my friend.”
“He’s my friend too, Captain,” Chloe replied.
***
Two weeks after the attack outside the hospital in Paris and Chloe was on her way to the Titan Space Elevator in a cable car with Apeiron.
Chloe looked out the windows, admiring the deep blue Atlantic Ocean with a sense of awe. She still couldn’t quite believe she was heading to the habitats. Part of her didn’t feel like she deserved to be here, at the final destination from Earth before a journey to the Moon and stars. Most civilians would never step foot here, and she felt incredibly honored. Apeiron had given her more than just a second chance at life.
For the past two weeks, Chloe had spent night and day working on droid designs for Kichiro. They had kept him in a cryo-tube to preserve his body, and today they would make the transfer into the droid that Chloe had helped design.
Chloe stared out into space, imagining Hros-1 barreling toward the planet. But she didn’t fear the asteroid. Rather, she trusted Apeiron.
The car approached the spinning habitats and docked a few minutes later. The door opened to a pressurized hatch that chirped after she stepped inside with Apeiron.
A few minutes later, the hatch to the habitat opened. She walked under a sign that read, Sector 220.
“Did you know this is where I was conceived?” Apeiron asked.
“Here?” Chloe asked.
“Yes, this is where Doctor Crichton uploaded Petra’s consciousness and merged it with the OS that makes me who I am.” Apeiron gestured out the viewport. “Like the Earth, I have changed considerably since that day, ten months and three days ago.”
“Fascinating.”
“Follow me, we are almost ready,” Apeiron said to her chip.
The droid led her to a bathroom. Inside, Chloe stripped out of her AAS uniform, and placed them next to the neatly folded scrubs on a bench. She looked at the mirror, leaning in to inspect the scars on her freckled face. The one from the assassination attempt had left a raised red mound on her cheek.
And yet, she no longer felt ugly. She had grown accustomed to her broken and altered body. Her growing friendship with Cyrus had helped restore her confidence too.
Chloe dressed in the scrubs and headed to a chamber called an E-Vault with a renewed sense of purpose. When she got there, Apeiron explained that the honeycomb-shaped space held hundreds of creatures, along with complex freezers containing the DNA from hundreds of other specimens. All of them were unique animals that had helped inspire the perfect design for the Canebrakes.
A hatch opened, and a group of technicians and doctors entered and introduced themselves. There were five human staff and three Medical Service Droids. Chloe pulled a mask over her face. Memories of the catacombs surfaced in her mind’s eye, but she forced them away.
Dr. Cross could no longer get to her. She was free of him.
Taking a deep breath, she crossed through the room. Bright plasma lamps illuminated Kichiro’s cryo-chamber.
Chloe leaned down to the glass, putting a hand on the cold lid. Scars crisscrossed the obsidian black hide of the horse. Rough stumps remained where the legs had all been removed.
“We are ready,” Apeiron said.
A doctor gently touched Chloe’s arm. “Please step back.”
Chloe retreated as a technician activated the cryo-chamber. The glass lid hissed open, and the liquid drained through tubes, leaving only the stallion inside dripping with cryo fluid as it hit the warm air.
Two Hummer Medical Droids lifted out the body and placed it on a hover table. They guided it toward the machine that would upload the horse’s consciousness and merge it with the OS that Apeiron had designed.
“Okay, let’s move, people,” said the lead doctor. “We don’t have much time.”
Chloe put a gloved hand on the horse’s cold hide. “Goodbye, my friend.”
But this wasn’t exactly goodbye.
Kichiro was about to make a transformation much like Chloe had made on the day she died. Soon, the horse would transcend his flesh body.
They had already assembled the new mechanical body that Chloe had designed in INN, from the comfort of her hospital bed and then in the refugee camp while she recovered. It was slightly larger than the stallion had been and made of a titanium exterior shell. The head looked almost identical, but with blue INVS eyes. A long mane of brown hair salvaged from the horse itself now hung over the armored neck.
Chloe walked around the droid to see the enhancements; an armored adjustable saddle, plates that could rotate out to charge the interior battery with solar power, and legs that could run at a top speed of seventy-five miles an hour, according to Apeiron.
Inside the droid was a state-of-the-art engine with nine hundred horsepower. Unlike the animal, the droid would never grow tired.
Chloe smiled as she ran a hand down the smooth black armor. Beneath the undercarriage of the belly, they had added thrusters in two places that would allow the horse to jump great distances if needed.
Captain Hayashi would be able to control the horse through INN. And that wasn’t all. Kichiro had interior storage for chutes that could deploy during a freefall.
“The transformation is now complete,” Apeiron announced proudly. She handed Chloe a Commpad. “Would you like to do the honors?”
“I would love it,” Chloe said.
Taking the device, she pointed it at the droid stallion and clicked the button. The blue eyes glowed to life, then flitted toward her. Kichiro let out an electronic whinny and trotted over to Chloe, metal hooves clicking on the deck. Lowering its head, it stared into Chloe
’s eyes.
“Hey, Kichiro. Do you remember me?” she asked.
The stallion nudged his head against her own.
“I’m sorry for what they did to you,” Chloe said. “But you’re all better now. You get a second chance, just like I did.”
Kichiro lowered his head, and Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck. She held him for a long moment, hoping this wasn’t the last time she would see him.
For the next hour, she watched the droids and technicians do final checks.
“I have to go now,” Chloe said. “But you’re going to see Captain Hayashi very soon.”
The stallion hoofed at the deck, the clank echoing.
“I can see him again, right?” Chloe asked Apeiron.
“I am sure that can be arranged.”
Chloe went back to the stallion one more time and kissed him.
When they parted ways, she felt a deep sadness like she wouldn’t see him again. She looked over her shoulder as the horse was guided to a climber car for a trip to the surface.
Chloe went back to the spaceport, the despair growing stronger with every step. By the time they got to the MOTH, a pounding headache set in above her right temple. The agonizing pain made her wince as it worsened, like a rod hitting her head, again and again.
“Apeiron,” she mumbled. “Apeiron, something’s wrong.”
This was beyond heartache. This was something…
The Hummer Droid reached out and caught Chloe as she fell. Another jolt of pain ripped through her head, red flashing across her vision.
Blurred human figures ran over and crouched down as Apeiron lowered her gently to the deck.
She could hear them talking, but the voices were all muffled. Only one voice came through clearly in her mind.
“Do not worry, child,” Apeiron said.
— 24 —
A concrete and stone shell rose thirty stories around the base of the Titan Space Elevator. The shell housed offices, hangars, and ports for the climber cars rising up the lines to be swallowed by the clouds.
Akira balled his new robotic hand as he watched from a mile away. Shadow Squad stood in an observation center at Spartan Base near the outskirts of Macapá, an equatorial city in the former country of Brazil. Later today, two of the final Poseidon cannons would be loaded onto the platforms for the journey up to geostationary orbit.
E-Day Page 32
