by M. D. Cooper
And then Prime entered the enclosed area.
Logan shot out of the closet, triggering the EM grenade as the ES field snapped into place. There was a flash and a clatter as both Judith and Prime were thrown to the platform floor. Marines rushed into the area, spilling out of the MOA from its door onto the concourse, some with weapons trained on the platform, others with weapons pointing at Terrance and Logan.
Terrance raised his hands, palms out, as Habitat Marines closed in on them, shouting for them to get down on the floor. He’d slowly taken a knee when he saw Rhys race around the corner, General Smith on his heels. The NSAI abruptly ceased its warning and the ES field collapsed. The maglev car slid to a stop, but its doors remained closed, thanks to Logan’s hacked commands.
Rhys shouldered his way through the Marines to kneel next to his daughter as General Smith rounded on Terrance.
He put up a hand as Eric shouted,
Rhys paused and turned to look at Eric. A Habitat Marine approached Prime’s inert frame, and Eric repeated the reprimand.
Terrance’s mouth quirked at that; he’d all but forgotten the team’s cover in the days that had led up to this moment. It made sense, and he was glad the commodore had possessed the presence of mind to think several steps ahead and was prepared to handle the aftermath of a confrontation that never should have occurred in the first place.
General Smith frowned at Terrance.
The executive looked up as a disturbance rippled through the crowd of Marines. Reluctantly, General Smith and her soldiers stepped back, allowing the El Doradans room to secure Prime.
He heard Callahan, the Enfield quartermaster from the Speedwell, bellow, ‘make a hole!’ and saw a stasis pod float toward them, the woman pushing the hand truck shoving her way through, uncaring how many Marines she jostled. One of the Enfield engineers followed with a remote hand crane they would use to maneuver Prime’s frame into the stasis unit.
In the brief moment the crowd of Marines parted, he spied Jason limping toward them, Calista’s arm wrapped around his waist as he ignored the protesting medic attempting to apply a med patch to his shattered shoulder. Terrance grinned briefly at the sight; he could sympathize. He’d have reacted the same, had the roles been reversed.
Terrance glanced at the internal chrono on his HUD as the engineer maneuvered the crane into position. He knew those EM grenades usually knocked a person out for at least five minutes; by his estimation, they only had a minute to go. He hoped it was enough time.
He shook his head mentally in admiration. Eric had obviously considered the potential threat the AI’s frame posed and had placed the quartermaster on standby; there was no other way the stasis pod could have been delivered quickly enough to pull this maneuver off.
He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding the minute the pod powered up and the stasis lights indicated readiness. Judith began to stir as the crane lifted the AI’s frame and seated it inside the unit. She stared blankly up at the roof of the platform, then her head rotated to take in the sight of Prime being sealed into the stasis pod.
Jason and Calista reached her at that moment. The minute Jason paused, the medic trailing him injected his shoulder with nano. As he attempted to shrug the medic off, he heard the woman’s sharp “stand still!” as she sprayed the wound with a sealant. Jason ignored her, his gaze riveted to the stasis pod as the lid closed and the unit came online.
The engineer operating the crane nodded in satisfaction, and the quartermaster took that as her signal to move. She motioned the engineer away and began to maneuver her load back toward the Speedwell. The general raised an arm to halt the woman.
“You are in our sovereign territory, and that creature will be remanded into our custody.” Her tone brooked no disagreement.
The quartermaster turned to eye Terrance and Eric—both her boss and commanding officer—questioningly.
Eric’s voice projected into the platform, reassuring the general. “We have no intention of breaking your laws, General, but please understand that the pod that contains Prime is experimental and is most likely the only safe way in which to contain him for the moment.”
The general cast a skeptical eye his way. “Isolation tubes are much smaller than that thing,” she said, hooking a thumb toward the stasis pod. “Why inter the entire frame? Just pop the cylinder out and be done with it.”
“That might be an issue best discussed in private,” Terrance said, nodding pointedly at the crowd of Marines, as well as the press of civilian faces gawking at them from inside the maglev cars. “For now, would it be acceptable to have a squad of your Marines escort the pod back to the Speedwell? They can guard the unit to ensure the prisoner does not escape. And to be honest, we would appreciate the assist.”
The general thought a moment and then nodded her agreement. She turned, barking orders for her soldiers to fall in and form up around the quartermaster and her load. As the Marines formed a phalanx around the departing stasis unit, the crowd cleared enough to admit Tobias. Terrance noticed the glint of something incongruously slick and red on one of the arms of the AI’s mech frame and realized it must be Jason’s blood.
As the platform emptied, Rhys looked questioningly over at Terrance. He realized abruptly realized the scientist’s mute look was a request for permission to go to his daughter. Judith had levered herself up into a sitting position, but remained seated, her body tense as she observed the drama playing out before her eyes.
Eric had seen Rhys’s look; at the AI’s mental consent, Terrance nodded for the scientist to approach. The man knelt beside Judith, and he could just make out his quiet murmur of reassurance before he shifted to make room for the medic. The woman began a cursory physical exam, and he heard Judith protest in a halting, stilted voice that she felt just fine.
Rhys and the medic helped Judith stand. She did so awkwardly, her motions jerky. Terrance sympathized with the woman.
Trauma can do that to a person, he mused. Especially one not used to combat.
Rhys turned to the general. “If you don’t mind, General Smith, I’d like to get Judith down to the hospital for a once-over.” He nodded toward Jason. “And he could obviously use something better than battlefield triage—” he smiled at the medic, “no slight intended.”
General Smith hesitated and then nodded. “Understood, Doctor Andrews. But please be advised we need to debrief them—” she swung her gaze across the platform, and it darkened as she took in the mechs, Calista and himself. “all of them, as soon as possible, to get to the bottom of this.”
* * * * *
Jason’s gaze flickered from Judith to the AI’s mech frame and back again, and he gave an almost indistinguishable nod. This earned him a curse and another sharp word from the medic, who was attempting to clean the blood from his face before he could step onto the maglev.
He smiled at the woman, thanked her, and then reached for Calista’s hand and squeezed it.
He stepped toward the maglev as he gave her a wink, which turned into a lopsided smirk as she rolled her eyes at him.
The platform doors retracted, providing access to the three cars that made up the train. The f
ew passengers who had been sealed inside while the takedown had occurred now gingerly exited, giving the El Doradans and the Habitat Marines a wide berth. Rhys guided Judith into the first car, and Jason followed, Tobias bringing up the rear.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jason caught Logan gesture to Terrance and motion to the last car. The maglev’s NSAI announced that doors were closing, and then he was inside, fastening the car’s restraints one-handed as the train began to leave the platform.
He couldn’t help but think that Terrance, Eric and Logan had jumped into the final car at the last moment.
Why would they do that?
THE PALADIN OF SOULS
STELLAR DATE: 03.11.3192 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Maglev connecting C-47 Dock and Habitat
REGION: Proxima Centauri System
This was too easy.
Logan could not escape that thought. Everything about the drama that had just played out rang false, as if the scene had been orchestrated for effect.
His sensors registered the steep dive of the maglev as it plummeted off the side of the dock and skimmed the spire on its way to the cylinder habitat. He contemplated the long, four-thousand-kilometer cylinder, with its twelve million square kilometers of habitable space and the millions of lives—both human and AI— that dwelt within.
Eric responded,
Eric nodded.
They were nearing the juncture of the spire to the central axis of the cylinder now; soon they would pass through a series of progressive airlocks that would transition them into the cylinder proper and deposit them at their first habitat stop. He returned to his conversation with Eric.
Eric gestured for him to continue as the maglev car began to shudder, the differential between vacuum and the airlocks they were passing through causing small, concussive waves as atmosphere interacted with the cars.
It was Logan’s turn to nod.
Eric’s avatar’s face grew grim.
The maglev stopped, and they exited and stepped off the habitat’s platform onto the streets of the C-47, feeling the pull of a full g of gravity once more, as it spun on a two-hundred-kilometer radial about its axis.
He noticed the stares they drew and realized he’d completely forgotten how they must look to the average Proxa, an AI wearing a military frame bristling with weapons, standing next to a human who looked like he belonged on a battlefield instead of a sunny, suburban street.
Looking around, he saw that Rhys had spotted them and was hurrying toward the pair, concern in his eyes. Behind him were Jason and Tobias—but not Judith.
“Where is Judith?” Eric’s voice projected to the three before Rhys could speak.
The physicist looked startled for a moment, his concern over their unexpected presence momentarily derailed by the question.
“She’s very shaken by what happened. She asked for a few moments alone while we get Jason some medical attention.” The scientist’s eyes sharpened. “But why are you here? You can’t walk the C-47 carrying live ammunition; the Council will—”
“And you let her go alone?” The commodore’s voice interrupted the man, sounding sharper than Logan was sure he had intended.
Rhys sighed tiredly. “She’s an adult human, commodore, and she checked out physically unharmed. I’m not sure how you do things on El Dorado, but here in Proxima, if someone asks for a few minutes of privacy, we give it to them.”
“I understand,” Logan interjected, pitching his voice reassuringly. “We were just concerned. Do you know where she went?”
Jason looked at him strangely. “She said she was going to ride the maglev down to the water table,” he supplied. “Said she just wanted to sit by the lake and think for a few minutes.”
Logan turned and sent his frame racing back toward the platform.
* * * * *
What the hell? Jason thought as he turned to follow the AI. He heard his dad call out in protest, but waved his good arm in a ‘wait’ gesture as he caught up to Terrance.
Their combat net reestablished itself, and he heard Eric’s voice in his head.
He heard Tobias arguing with his dad as he and Terrance followed Logan onto the maglev. Terrance jerked his head toward Jason’s injured shoulder as they sat, and the train took off.
“Should have stayed and gotten that looked at,” the man said. “You don’t think we can handle Judith between the two of us?” He gestured between himself and Logan’s frame.
He ignored the exec, turning a questioning look at the commodore’s avatar over the net.
It was Logan who explained.
* * * * *
It was the only place within the habitat where the “ground” encircled the entire cylinder. The water table, as it was called, provided the cylinder with a dense, stabilizing mass at its central point, dampening the rotational instability along its secondary rotational axis and removing the need for active stabilization.
Most of the water was underground, but periodically, sections of it surfaced to form lakes. The subterranean feature of its topology was what had earned it the moniker of ‘water table’.
The largest of these bodies of exposed water was a long, narrow lake called Lake Chinquapin, which ran several kilometers along the circumference of the cylinder. Bordering its length on both sides were beaches, greenspaces and parks, hemmed in by cliffs that rose half a kilometer into the habitat’s skies. These functioned as longitudinal breaks to protect the habitat from flooding, should the cylinder experience a sudden shift along its long axis and the water overflow its boundary.
After they discovered Judith was not answering their pings, and scans for her ident returned null, the three decided to split up. Terrance opted to exit the maglev while still on the dock-and-spire side of the lake; he was now climbing one of the rolling hills that backed up to the cliffs. Logan and Jason had stayed on the maglev as it looped around to the long end of the lake and began its path along it
s opposite shores.
Terrance watched Jason’s icon slow as the maglev stopped at the far end to disgorge passengers and pick up new ones. Jason’s icon began to move again as the pilot began searching through picnickers and hikers enjoying lakeshore activities.
Logan’s icon sped along, the AI having opted to remain on the train. He could see from Logan’s icon on the combat net that the maglev was about to reach the lake’s midpoint; soon, it would come abreast of where he and Eric were.
Abruptly, the AI’s telemetry showed a steep descent.
They were just a few meters away when Logan’s voice rang out.
Terrance dropped, hugging the terrain, his hand automatically moving to check his rifle. As Logan sent them the feed from his position, he saw why the AI had ordered him not to crest the top of the hill.
A large station had been built atop the cliff, above where Logan stood. A winding trail with switchbacks led up to it, and there, climbing the last few meters to its pinnacle, was Judith. As narrow as the lake was, if Terrance were to have crested the top of the cliff, she would surely have spotted him from her position on the other side of the water.
Eric brought up the building’s specs and shared them with Terrance, revealing it to be a pumping station. The equipment inside controlled the water table, managing the pipeline and the various pumps that regulated it.
At first, Terrance couldn’t understand how a water pumping station might benefit Prime, but then Eric highlighted the building’s specs. Inside that building was a primary node that connected directly to the habitat’s net. If Prime gained access, given the AI’s proven abilities, he would be able to hold the entire population hostage.
