Chilling Effect_A Novel

by Valerie Valdes

  “Got anything fun we can drop on them?” Eva asked. “No, wait, don’t answer that. I know the best thing. Shoot at the floor.”

  A few seconds later, the guards were briefly surprised when a round green mech fell on them from nowhere. Then they were too busy being roasted by a flamethrower to be surprised.

  Eva followed Sue to help clean things up, kicking a few burning guards over the edge of the platform and shooting the others who were still moving.

  What a damn mess. How many of these idiots knew they were working for The Fridge, and how many were just sending the money home to family?

  “I should have known it was you,” a sour voice said. “You’re subtle as a hammer on glass.”

  Pete emerged from the control room, trailing two of his people—the kloshian and Nara in her giant armor. His weapon was lowered, but the others were aimed right at Eva.

  “Just making sure you get that door open,” Eva replied coolly. “Wouldn’t want my ship to stay trapped in that hangar.”

  “Your ship?” Pete scowled. “Now is not the time, Eva-Bee. We need to get the—”

  “Artifact?” she interjected. “Sounds good. Vakar is working on deactivating the stasis field, unless you can do that from here, too.”

  “Jaedum is taking care of it.” He eyed the Gate cannon. “What the hell is that?”

  “Shortcut.” She shot a Gate at the nearest wall and poked her head through, looking up at Vakar. “Sending Sue back to you. Might want to make room.”

  Sue stared at the hole thoughtfully. “I’ll have to move quickly or I’ll fall right back down. Gravity is—”

  “Yes, great, go.” She turned back to Pete. “Once the door is open, we get back to my people and I send us straight over to the ship. Surprise, pew-pew, we get inside and get moving.”

  “And the artifact?” He gestured at the giant box hovering in its midair prison.

  “Open the cargo bay door, fly underneath and deactivate the field. Drop it in, close up shop and jump like a flea.”

  “And how do we get Jaedum back in after he deactivates the field?” Pete asked.

  Eva hefted the Gate cannon meaningfully.

  The kloshian—Sanana? Sania? Sanannia, that was it—spoke up. “That all sounds surprisingly cogent.”

  “Surprising after all the good things Pete has said about me?” Eva grinned. “I can throw in a few crazy antics if you’d prefer.”

  Sanannia didn’t respond, didn’t even bother to smile.

  “Nara,” Pete said, “stay with Jaedum. Keep the guards off him while we get the ship.”

  The bodyguard raised a hand—which was also, at present, a plasma cannon—and went back around the corner.

  Meanwhile, more guards had poured in from the elevator opposite where Eva had come in. She wondered how many there were to begin with. They had to run out at some point, right?

  Jumping back through the Gate, she careened into Sue and Gustavo, nearly falling back into the hole. The change in orientation gave her flashbacks to Conelia.

  “Incoming,” Eva said, after she recovered her balance. “Scoot.”

  Vakar was already firing on the guards, and she joined him. “We have to get up to the ship,” she said, checking that Pete and Sanannia were through. They were; Pete fired on the guards as well while Sanannia ducked behind Sue.

  “Stand clear,” Eva said, and aimed at a spot in the hangar near La Sirena Negra.

  Before she could shoot, a familiar voice boomed from the loudspeakers. “Attend me, worthless muck-eaters. I have come to your inferior outpost to apprehend the human captain Eva the Innocent!”

  Eva froze. “No,” she said. “No. No me diga.”

  “Him again?” Pete asked.

  The voice continued. “The might of the Glorious Apotheosis and the Gmaarg Empire stands ready to obliterate you at the slightest provocation! Deliver unto us our desire or bathe in a torrent of plasma!”

  She resisted the urge to smack her forehead with her gun. “Okay, so, we should probably hurry before he blows us up.”

  “Didn’t you say you—”

  “Yes, I thought he was dead, but clearly I was wrong. Doesn’t matter! We go now, quiet as mice. Vakar, Sue, you’re on guard duty while we make a path for you.” She shot a Gate next to her ship and dropped silently through the hole, landing behind the row of guards, who were now looking around in confusion.

  “Orders?” one of them said.

  “Hold position,” the squad leader answered. “They have to come through us to get the ship.”

  Right. Eva suppressed a snicker as she crept toward the airlock. Unfortunately, when she tried to open the ship remotely, she remembered Pete had changed the codes.

  “Do you smell something?” a guard asked.

  “Only a lump of shit who won’t stop asking stupid—wait, yeah, sort of like old rubber tires . . .”

  ((Pete,)) she pinged. ((Unlock door.))

  He was a hair too slow. Just as he and Sanannia came through the Gate, one of the guards saw them, shouted and opened fire. Eva dove back through the Gate to avoid being hit, while Pete and the kloshian raced to the relative safety of the ship’s umbilicus.

  And the damn door in the ceiling still wasn’t open wide enough.

  “Vakar, I think your skills are needed. Sue, sit tight.” Eva fired the Gate cannon at the platform where the control center was, grabbed Vakar and pulled him through with her. They slid out because of the angle, landing in a tangle atop each other.

  After all the running and screaming, that was kind of nice, even if she couldn’t smell him.

  “Eva?” said a voice behind her. “How? What?”

  “Moment ruined,” Eva said, getting to her feet. “Welcome to the party, Mari.”

  Her sister came around the corner, scowling. Her face was roughed up and she favored her left leg, but that didn’t stop her from stomping over and smacking Eva in the chest with her palm.

  “What have you done?” Mari said. “You brought the whole damn gmaargit armada down on our heads!”

  “In my defense, we both thought he was dead,” Eva said.

  “Cease your pathetic countermeasures, vermin!” Glorious boomed. “My military splendor is upon you. You shall fall to ruin wailing for your broodmare’s embrace!”

  An explosion shook the building. The lights flickered, then stabilized, and a string of curses emanated from the panel where Jaedum was working. The kyatto emerged a moment later, holding his right hand, ears flat against his velvety head.

  “Stupid power surge overloaded the board,” he hissed. “Have to deactivate the stasis field manually now if we want to get that damn thing out of here.” He gestured at the artifact with his injured claw.

  “At least you got the door open,” Eva said amiably, watching the iris widen.

  “Should have made sure the board was properly grounded,” Vakar told the kyatto.

  Jaedum snarled. “Course I did; I’m not a damn rookie. Why don’t you stick to shooting things and leave the thinking to me, ghost boy?”

  Eva swallowed a sassy reply. “How do you deactivate the stasis field manually?” she asked.

  Jaedum pointed at the generator floating midair in the middle of the room, above the artifact. “Open the panel on the left side, press the big red button.”

  Mari stepped in front of her. “Don’t even think about it. This is my mission and you’ve already done enough damage. Get back to your ship and get off this moon before the Gmaargitz Fedorach blows it up.”

  A squad of guards decided it would be a good time to float up to their level on a levitating catwalk and start shooting. Everyone ducked behind the corner of the console area. Everyone except Nara, all two meters of her in that massive armor, who ran toward the gunfire and returned it with gusto.

  “Vakar?” Eva said.

  “Yes?”

  “Open a Gate in the wall here.”

  “That will leave Sue and—”

  “I’ve got it,” she said.
She stared up at his unreadable mirrored face. “Trust me.”

  Would he? Could he? Because right now, she barely trusted herself. If this didn’t work—no. It had to. No do-overs in a firefight. People were counting on her, and she’d already failed enough for one lifetime.

  Vakar opened a Gate next to hers. His silence said enough.

  “Make sure everyone gets on the ship when I open the way.” Eva leaned out past the edge of the console until she had a clear shot, aimed the Gate cannon at the stasis field generator, and fired.

  Without another word, she raced to the other Gate and leaped through it backward.

  For a disorienting moment, Eva found herself falling through the air, away from the generator and the Gate she had made.

  She fired the Gate cannon at the wall next to La Sirena Negra and flicked on her gravboots, which yanked her back toward the generator, her stomach flipping from the whiplash. Since her Gate had moved, she was now able to stick to the side of the machine.

  She’d done it. Her crazy-ass maneuver had worked. Now all she had to do was hit that manual bypass button and—

  Sadly, at that moment she had a great view of the mostly open door above her. Hovering a hundred meters away was a gmaargit fathership, its giant death ray powering up.

  “Me cago en la hora que yo nací,” she said, scrambling to find the access panel. A glance told her that Vakar had figured out the Gate logistics and was hustling everyone onto La Sirena Negra, but if they wanted this artifact, they’d need to take off and get over here quickly.

  If they were smart, they would leave you here, her inner voice said. And you would help them. You let Glorious kill all those people the last time—

  “Cállate, coño,” she muttered. ((Hurry,)) she pinged at Vakar.

  With a familiar whine, her ship lit up and took off, and Eva’s heart nearly went with it. Whoever was flying it didn’t so much as scratch the paint coming out of the hangar, and dropped down in a maneuver that would have made Min sigh with envy. The cargo bay door opened, but she couldn’t see who stood inside.

  ((On three,)) she pinged, ripping open the access panel. Big red button. She looked up again at the fathership, with the most annoying fish-faced jerk to ever walk the galaxy up there somewhere. She’d be flattered that he was still so obsessed with her, but it was less about her than it was about his fragile ego.

  Eat me, she thought, and hit the button.

  The stasis field around the artifact shut off with a low hum, and the huge box fell without a sound. La Sirena Negra shot forward to catch it.

  And missed.

  The artifact seemed to tumble in slow motion, end over end, toward the floor. It clipped a floating catwalk, sending the platform careening into the wall, where it cracked and spat electricity. But the artifact itself kept falling, falling, until finally it landed with a loud, echoing thud.

  Eva could practically hear the scientists screaming. Probably Mari, too. She had to get down there and get the stupid thing somehow.

  Sending up a prayer, she shot a Gate at the roof of La Sirena Negra, which hovered below her, and dropped into it. This took her back to the original platform where they’d left Sue and company, though Eva flew out so fast she hit the wall opposite the hole. Struggling to her feet, she staggered to the end of the platform and shot a Gate at the ground near the artifact.

  With a running leap, she dove through the hole next to her and came out in a roll.

  “You will acknowledge my dominance or perish!” Glorious screeched.

  Another boom rocked the station as Eva was getting up, sending her stumbling into the artifact. Without thinking, she threw up the hand holding the Gate cannon for balance, and it smashed into the side of the mysterious metal box. The purplish-pink power gauge inside abruptly went dark.

  Three things happened at once.

  One: Eva thought, Mierda, I broke it. Two: La Sirena Negra shot into the sky so fast it made a sonic boom.

  And most importantly, three: the artifact next to her whirred to life and began to transform.

  The box slowly unfolded itself, one piece at a time, like a cat waking up from a nap. Except once it was finished, instead of a cat, Eva faced a robot bigger than the biggest todyk she’d ever seen. It was humanoid, with thick arms and legs and a broad rectangular chest that looked almost the same as the box it had once been. It had no mouth, but it did have two glowing red eyes that stared down at Eva with no apparent emotion.

  It spoke—she assumed it was speech, anyway—in a voice like modulated noise.

  Eva had never been so afraid in her life. She inched away from it, her eyes flickering from its huge bulk to the fathership looming overhead with its weapon preparing to fire.

  The artifact spoke again, the sound rattling her teeth with its volume, then turned away from her and raised an arm.

  Against the wall a meter away, a Gate appeared, triple the size of the ones she’d been making, but with the same green glow around the edge. On the other side, Eva glimpsed a black sky empty of stars, and an enormous city crafted entirely from the same metals that were in the temple where the artifact was found. The artifact stepped through the Gate, which popped out of existence with a splash of light.

  Eva didn’t realize she’d backed up to her own small Gate until a pair of hands reached through and grabbed her, pulling her in just before the fathership fired its massive laser straight down into the facility.

  Chapter 26

  Calabaza, Calabaza, Cada Uno pa Su Casa

  “You’re sure I’m not dead?” Eva asked.

  “If you inquire again, I will begin to doubt my own senses,” Vakar said.

  Her head rested in his lap, which was attached to the rest of him, which sat on the floor of La Sirena Negra. Eva stared at the place where a Gate had been a minute earlier, and which was now the paneling of the cargo bay.

  “I never would have thought to shoot a Gate through a Gate,” she said. “I can’t believe that worked.”

  “I was not certain it would, either, but the alternative was—”

  “If it hadn’t worked, everyone would be dead,” she said quietly.

  If the scientists, freed hostages, and assorted soon-to-be-former crew of the ship could hear her, they gave no indication. Everyone appeared to be about as shell-shocked as she felt, with the quennians almost uniformly smelling like a mixture of anxiety and relief.

  “Where’s El Cucullo?” Eva asked.

  “We are on our way to them now.”

  Relief washed over her like a cold shower. “And Pete?”

  “Flying the ship.”

  Bastard. “Mari?”

  “I believe she is using the comm system in your quarters to contact someone named Schafer.”

  “No way.” Eva finally remembered where she’d heard the name before: Schafer was the human war hero Leroy used to worship. He probably would have peed himself for the chance to talk to her. The thought of her sister being linked to that big shot was disconcerting, to say the least. That explained some of Mari’s secret mission stuff.

  Vakar stroked her head gently. “Would you care to receive medical attention? I am told Sanannia is well versed in first aid.”

  “In a minute,” she said, closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath as she snuggled closer to him. “As soon as everyone decides I’m okay, the yelling is going to start, so we might as well enjoy this while we can.”

  Eva sat in the mess, drumming her fingers against the table as a room full of people argued with each other about what had gone wrong. Most of it kept cycling back to her, which was fine; she’d given up any dreams of a hero’s welcome long ago. You only got parades and medals if you hit all the mission objectives. Getting home alive was lower on the success ladder than dying gloriously in battle, for some reason.

  “—the greatest archaeological find of the past millennium!” First Scientist Orana was saying. “And now we’ll never know what it was.”

  “A giant robot,” Eva said. “S
o big.”

  “But was it a virtual intelligence, or an artificial one, or—”

  “You have to give me those Gate guns,” Mari interjected quietly.

  Eva shook her head. “Finders, keepers.”

  Really, she didn’t want some massive organization to have them, Fridge-fighters or not, hero commanders or not. Mari would probably try to steal them later, which was why Eva had asked Vakar to hide them. Still, if Mari’s intelligence raid had been a success, she probably had the plans for them somewhere anyway. It was only a matter of time before more were produced.

  The thought did not comfort her.

  “Why don’t you get the hostages back to your boss,” Eva said. “Someone has to take the credit for busting them all out. And I’m guessing you’re better equipped to transport a bunch of random people to their respective homes, anyway.”

  Mari waved dismissively and stalked out of the room. Eva found herself surprisingly bereft of the urge to punch her sister, even after all that had happened. Mari thought she was doing the right thing, fighting the good fight, all that motivational-poster mierda their mom was always sending them q-mails about. And maybe she was right, and Eva was wrong, and what The Fridge was doing with the mystery Proarkhe tech was so profoundly terrifying that they had to be stopped no matter what.

  They’d find out soon enough, either way. Eva thought of that strange metal planet without stars and a knot tightened in her stomach.

  Pete came to stand next to her other elbow. “So you’re taking the ship back, eh? What’s an old man like me supposed to do for a living?”

  Saddest attempt at a guilt trip ever, Eva thought. “You can stay on board if you want,” she said, but they both knew she didn’t mean it. “Otherwise, you can have El Cucullo back. Sue has worked miracles with what little we had.”

  “Fair enough,” he said. “What are you going to do now?”

  “What indeed,” Eva replied.

  A few hours later, they rendezvoused with Pink and Min at the quennian military station where they’d left Pollea and the cats. Poor girl smelled like incense in a stinky bathroom, she was so upset, but it transitioned into cinnamon and almonds as Vakar showed her to his bunk on La Sirena Negra.