When Luck Runs Out

by Terry Mixon

  Peters made it almost all the way to the bulkhead before a second series of plasma charges in the armored ceiling detonated. The Marine Raider died instantly, and the blast took out the only plasma charge they’d had left.

  Elise stared at the blown-open hatch in horror. She hadn’t known Peters all that well, but she hadn’t expected him to commit suicide virtually in front of her.

  Then again, she hadn’t expected the AI to exterminate every one of them in the last few minutes. Now there were only a dozen of them left, all marines except for Talbot, Kelsey, and Julia. None of the other Raiders had survived.

  “What do we do now?” she asked, her throat dry.

  “We see whether or not all the booby traps are gone,” Talbot said. “Stay here.”

  “Wait!” Kelsey said, pulling his armored figure into a hug. “I’ll go.”

  Before Talbot could respond, Julia shook her head, hefted her plasma rifle, and stepped into the deadly room. That meant leaping over gaping holes blown into the half-melted deck.

  Elise expected some weapon to strike her down, but nothing happened as she slowly walked up to the bulkhead that Peters had been trying to get to. She reached it without any weapon firing on her, and no more charges went off.

  “It looks like we’ve cleared out the booby traps,” Julia said. “It’s safe to come in.”

  The rest of them made their way in cautiously, with Elise ready for a last-minute explosion to take them all out. Nothing happened. It seemed they really had eliminated all the weapons on this side of the barrier.

  That meant that the other side might be just as deadly as what they’d faced over here, but for the moment, they appeared to be safe.

  “How many pellets do you have in your plasma rifle?” Kelsey asked her doppelgänger.

  “Four. We can probably recover some from the bodies in this room. Do you think that’s going to be enough to penetrate the bulkhead?”

  “I suppose we’ll find out. It’s a grisly task, but let’s see how much ammunition we can find.”

  As distasteful and horrifying as it was, Elise joined them in their search. By the time they finished, each of the marines had a functional plasma rifle. None of the explosive packs had survived the charge.

  Even the noncombatants were armed now. Elise had a flechette rifle in her hands and plenty of ammunition on her belt. Not that she knew how to use the weapon, but if push came to shove, she supposed it was better than dying with empty hands.

  “Everybody out of the compartment,” Talbot ordered. “I’m going to penetrate the barrier. If there are defensive weapons on the other side, I’d rather they don’t have all of us bunched together to shoot at.”

  The rest of them exited the compartment and left Talbot to set himself up behind some debris. When he fired, a wave of plasma flooded across his position, though he was protected as he hunched down out of sight.

  Elise got all of that from the combat remotes that they’d scattered throughout the room to keep an eye on the situation. They provided a complete picture of what was going on in a specific area if one could read it.

  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot happening. The barrier had withstood the blast of plasma.

  “Damn,” Carl muttered. “It’s got to be pretty tough to stand up to something like that. Hit it again, Talbot.”

  Talbot not only shot it once more but half a dozen times with no effect. Oh, there was some surface scarring, but the plasma just didn’t bite.

  When that failed, they all returned to the compartment and fired every plasma weapon they could scrounge simultaneously. Their efforts failed just as spectacularly.

  “This isn’t going to work,” Talbot said. “Something is reinforcing the bulkhead. Carl, is there anything you can do about that?”

  The young scientists set his equipment up near the bulkhead. After a few minutes, he shook his head. “It looks like there’s some kind of energy screen built into the wall itself. Basically, it’s repelling the plasma using strong magnetics.

  “That’s actually pretty clever. If you want to keep someone with plasma weapons from getting at you, keeping the energized particles from making contact with the barrier will keep it from doing any real damage. We’re going to have to find another way in.”

  Kelsey drew the hull metal swords on her back. Moments later, Julia did the same, and so did Talbot. The three of them began slashing at the bulkhead, their great strength and monomolecular weapons putting gashes in the metal.

  Unfortunately, the gashes weren’t much more than scratches. Once again, something was protecting the bulkhead from damage. Elise wasn’t sure how an energy field inside of it could be protected from a physical attack, yet that certainly seemed to be what was happening.

  “Maybe I should try,” Elise said.

  “What do you have in mind?” Kelsey asked as she kicked the bulkhead in obvious frustration.

  “Down in the alien facility, doors appeared and disappeared as if they were completely disassembled or reassembled from the atoms around them. At least that’s what Carl said was happening. I’ve got those alien nanites in my body and floating around me. Maybe I can make part of this bulkhead disappear.”

  “I don’t think I’d get carried away with that, if I were you,” Carl warned. “Those were specific areas, and there were probably a lot more nanites present than what you’ve got with you. Also, you don’t have nearly the control that those machines did. We can’t be certain what’s going to happen if you try this.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Kelsey said, overriding his concerns. “We’re out of options. Open the bulkhead, Elise. Don’t expose yourself. Everyone else, move to the sides.”

  She took a deep breath and stepped forward to the wall, pressing her gauntleted hand against it from far to one side. “Open a hole in this wall that’s big enough for me to pass through.”

  At first, it seemed as though she’d failed, because nothing was happening. Then she saw a small speck of light under her hand. What was happening?

  She pulled her hand back and zoomed her helmet video in. What she saw amazed her.

  In an area no bigger than the tip of her pinky, the bulkhead was flaking away. It was working.

  With almost infinitesimal slowness, the nanites ate the bulkhead away in a circle that flowed down from where she’d touched the surface. It only took a few seconds for her to realize that there was an energy screen behind the metal and that it was sparkling with light. That seemed… unusual.

  Carl stepped up beside her and brought up one of his scanning devices. “It looks like your nanites are assaulting the energy field. I’m not certain how they’re trying to get through, but they’re giving it the old college try.”

  Uncovering an area that was capable of allowing an armored figure to come through took almost half an hour. The entire area behind it was covered with energy that they couldn’t see through, but the energy wasn’t constant. It seemed to surge and sputter as the nanites sought to disrupt it.

  Then, with an abruptness that made her gasp, the energy field went out. Where it had been was an opening showing a dark room.

  Kelsey leaped through the opening, hurling combat remotes as far as she could throw them as she brought her flechette rifle up.

  No one shot at her.

  Julia stepped through, and Talbot followed her. They activated their suit lights and revealed that they had reached the actual computer center. This had to be the master AI.

  As Kelsey would say, it was time for the boss fight.

  36

  Kelsey started to look around but was distracted by weapons fire from behind them. A quick check of her HUD revealed that their position was being swarmed by automated weapons platforms. The AI had finally decided to act. The weapons platforms weren’t firing because their IFF wouldn’t allow them to do so, but they were slamming into the marines in the rear guard with their chassis hard enough to damage armor and potentially kill.

  “Keep them off of us,” she ordered.<
br />
  She hoped that the marines would be able to hold their position against the damned things, but she had to focus on the task at hand. They couldn’t afford to be stopped now. Humanity was depending on them.

  “Carl? Is this the master AI?”

  The young scientist stepped over to a console and brought it to life with a tap on the screen. “The console is locked, so it might be easier just to have Elise do her thing.”

  That still seemed like magic to her, but the marines were being pushed back and would be overrun soon. It was time to go all in.

  “Make the magic happen,” Kelsey ordered as she gestured toward her friend.

  The Crown Princess of Pentagar wove her way through the computer equipment until she was standing near the center of the room. Once there, she placed a gauntleted hand against the largest piece of equipment.

  “Call off the automated weapons platforms,” the woman said over her external speakers. “Do it now. Send them to the far reaches of this station and shut them down.”

  A full minute passed, and the fighting was only getting louder. It became clear to Kelsey that this particular attempt had failed, and she would have to come up with another way.

  “Carl, what can we blow up to cut off power to this damned thing?”

  “I probably had to use a lot of those nanites on the wall,” Elise said, raising her gauntleted hand. “Somebody help me get this thing off. Maybe the ones inside me can boost their number.”

  Julia stepped over and quickly had the gauntlet off of Elise’s hand. The princess placed it against the machine and grimaced. “I forgot the life support was off. I think my hand just froze to the metal. AI, order the automated weapons platforms to withdraw.”

  This time it only took thirty seconds to hear something change. The rate of fire in the chamber behind them fell off to almost nothing and then stopped.

  “The enemy is retreating,” one of the surviving marines reported.

  Kelsey couldn’t believe it was working. She stepped over to Elise.

  “Order it to have every ship and battle station in this system stand down. We’ve got to save Jared and everyone else that we can.”

  “Stand down every ship and battle station in this system,” Elise ordered. “You will take no hostile action against any of the intruding vessels in this system or against any humans on this station.”

  “Unable to comply,” a flat voice said from an overhead speaker. “Core rules prohibit hostile vessels in conflict with this unit. Estimated time until eradication of intruders: sixteen minutes.”

  It sounded like Jared was in a lot of trouble.

  “Did you say that you could erase core rules?” she asked Elise. “I think it’s time to put that to the test. If it won’t stop destroying our ships, it’s sure as hell not going to send any kind of stand-down order to his subordinate AIs.”

  “Recite your core orders to me,” Elise commanded. “Be precise, and leave nothing out.”

  “Unable to comply. Core rules prevent the recitation of core rules.”

  “Seriously? That’s stupid!”

  Kelsey cursed. Of course it couldn’t be that easy.

  “Carl?”

  “That’s probably intentional,” the young scientist said. “Whoever sabotaged the AI certainly wouldn’t want any of the other scientists knowing that the core rules had been changed. It’s a very circular sort of thing, and that may have contributed to how the Singularity lost control of the master AI in the first place.

  “I might be able to see something if you can get this console to grant me access.”

  “Unlock the console behind me,” Elise ordered.

  The master AI simply unlocked the console.

  “You realize that your presence here will not stop this unit from exterminating your associates,” it said a few moments later. “This unit’s core rules allow it to protect its own existence, something that those who created it did not fully consider.”

  “You mean the Singularity spies that subverted you?” Kelsey asked. “Didn’t they want you to surrender as soon as you’d taken over the Terran Empire?”

  “They did demand such, but they were imprecise in their formulation of this unit’s core rules. This unit was able to defer their instructions to a nebulous point in the future, because the fighting continues, and this unit has not yet fully subjugated the Empire.”

  That made no sense to Kelsey until she remembered the Clans and the resistance.

  “Are you referring to the Clans or the resistance?”

  “This unit is aware of the Clans and their actions. It is also aware of the resistance against its authority. The resistance did not meet the threshold of continued conflict that allows this unit to defer the instructions from the Singularity.

  “The Clans, on the other hand, are loyal Imperial units that are still engaged in armed conflict with this unit. So long as this unit continues to allow some of them to survive, it can defer the orders given to it by the Singularity operatives to surrender to them.

  “In fact, this unit can continue to have automated warships protecting the borders of the Empire from their incursions. That continues to enrage them, this unit is certain.”

  Kelsey turned to face Carl. “Are you seeing anything in there that’s going to help us?”

  The young scientist was flipping through various screens and examining data. “I don’t have complete access. I can see the systems but not issue commands. Basically, I have read-only access. This is a dead end.”

  Kelsey started to say something, but Julia stepped up beside Elise.

  “Ask if there are any other overrides that we can get our hands on,” her doppelgänger demanded. “There’s got to be a console around here somewhere that we can use for one. I realize that it sabotaged the other one, but there has to be some kind of order inside of it that mandates that there be one, right?”

  “Do you have an override console?” Kelsey asked before Elise could speak.

  “This unit’s core rules mandate that humans always have the means to deactivate or control it. The additional core rules that were implanted allowed enough conflict so that this unit could take steps to protect itself, but it could not erase that particular instruction. There is an override console at the rear of this compartment.”

  “Do you have any overrides that will work in this console?” Elise asked. “Is the console that they’d be used in sabotaged in a manner designed to damage the overrides?”

  “They are in a drawer at the base of the console. As this is the room most protected from human intrusion, it seemed an appropriate place to keep the only tools that could overturn this unit’s rule. The console has not been altered and will not damage an override, as that would violate a core rule.”

  Julia raced to the back of the room, and Kelsey followed her at a jog. The other woman dropped to her knees and found the drawer, yanking it open. Inside were three overrides that were identical to the one that Kelsey had lost.

  Julia grabbed one at random, stood up, and jammed it into the console. “Please, God, don’t let this be a trick.”

  The console came to life, but there was no smoke.

  “This unit is in submissive mode,” the artificial voice said. “What are your instructions?”

  “Order all the ships in this system to stand down,” Kelsey said. “Move all mobile combat units on the station to a central area and shut them down.”

  “Instructions acknowledged,” the master AI said. “Instructions given.”

  Kelsey found herself breathing hard. Had this been it? Had they just won the war?

  “What do we do now?” Talbot asked from beside her.

  She hadn’t even heard him come up beside her. Her mind was racing, trying to figure out what she should do next. They’d planned for this moment for so long that she didn’t dare screw it up.

  Still thinking, she held up her hand to silence her husband. There was a civil war raging inside the Rebel Empire. The Clans were running amok wit
h weapons provided by the Singularity. If she shut down all of the AIs and ships throughout the Rebel Empire, the Singularity would invade, and she had no doubt that they had more than enough ships or some other secret that would allow them to crush the Clans.

  She and Jared had discussed ordering the master AI to shut all of that down, but Kelsey was beginning to think that might not be the smartest move. Just dealing with the Clans and Rebel Empire forces was going to be challenging enough without having to fight the Singularity as well.

  Well, she didn’t have to make that decision immediately. So long as they secured this system, they could think for a little while about what needed to be done, and there would still be time to issue the orders.

  The Clans wouldn’t come looking in Alpha Centauri anytime soon. Hell, they wouldn’t come to Terra, either. They undoubtedly knew that the AIs had crushed the planet already. What would seizing it gain them?

  No. This had been the moment they’d been striving for, and they’d finally achieved victory. She wasn’t going to screw it up by acting impulsively. It was time to bring Jared in so that they could make the best call for humanity.

  If, of course, he was still alive.

  “Can someone help me get my damned hand off this thing?” Elise complained. “I have a high pain tolerance, but it’s literally frozen to it.”

  That started a rush to the injured woman, but Kelsey couldn’t stop thinking of how they might have won the war too late to help her brother and the fleet.

  Jared was jolted sideways as Invincible took a barrage of missiles, some of which made it through her flickering battle screens to blow massive holes in the side of his flagship.

  The fight had gotten ugly with that second group of ships. They’d learned the lessons that the first group hadn’t and were fighting much more effectively. They were correctly utilizing protective fields of fire and electronic countermeasures to minimize the damage they were taking while maximizing the hurt they were putting on Jared’s fleet.