by M. R. Forbes
“Damn right.”
12
Tibor reverted to his first form before they made their way to the front of the garbage hauler. It was a standard, modular design, one that Hayley was somewhat familiar with. The hatch from the trash container led into a small section with bunks for sleeping, a tiny kitchen, a head, and a shower. The cockpit was located ahead of the living area, while the docking link sat on the right. The ship was humming softly, its reactor active to keep the gravity generators pulling the trash to the floor.
Hayley wished they had time to stop and use the meager facilities, but the best they could do was grab a pair of uniforms from the racks near the bunks and slip them on. The work utilities were tight on Tibor even at his smaller size, while they hung off Hayley’s more slender frame. Still, the basic disguise allowed them to move out from the ship and into the hallway without attracting extra attention, and soon enough they were climbing a metal stairwell from the bowels of the station up and into Support.
“What happened back in the trash unit?” Tibor asked while they quickly ascended. He had remained quiet until now, perceptive enough to give her some room to breathe without her needing to ask for it.
“I’m not completely sure,” she replied. “I think the Collective reverse-engineered the signal I send to the naniates through the visor. It piggybacked it to get into my head.”
“Smart.”
“Too damn smart. It was tempting me with its power. It wanted me to join it. Even worse, I was close to saying yes.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Do you regret it now?”
“Of course not. Getting that much closer to it only convinced me I made the right call refusing it the first time. The Nephilim are bad. Thetan is bad. This thing is worse.”
“And you think it’s on the station?”
“I did before, but now I’m not so sure. I mean, I know it’s here in some form. But I don’t know if Thetan or Mazrael are here. I’m starting to wonder if it was stowed away on the Chalandra.”
“How could that be? Wouldn’t you have seen it?”
“I can’t see through walls, and it’s small enough to hide anywhere. It took control of Mazrael. If it’s able to maintain its sentience from here to Thetan’s flagship? It gives me chills just thinking about it.”
“But I saw you. You were controlling it.”
“It was letting me control it. Another trick. Another lie. It wanted me to give in to its temptation. It wanted to keep me distracted. It almost worked.”
“Damn. How the hell do we fight something like this?”
“One battle at a time.”
“Do you think it’s still on the station?”
Hayley nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
“If it can spread like that, we can’t let it leave.”
“No. We have to destroy it.”
“What about the civilians?”
Hayley shook her head. She didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about them. If the Collective were loose on Rage Station and able to duplicate that quickly, they wouldn’t have any pleasant options.
“Oh,” Tibor said when she didn’t answer his question. “Maybe there’s another way?”
“I hope so. One thing at a time.”
They reached the top of the stairwell. Tibor went through first. A sign across from the stairs confirmed what she had suspected. Deck 34. Support. It wasn’t the comm array, but at least they were inside security.
“There has to be a terminal around here somewhere,” Hayley said. “All of the life support systems will have low-level network connections.”
“Will the CO2 scrubbers work?” Tibor asked, pointing to a sign on the opposite wall. An arrow pointed them in the right direction.
“They sure will,” she replied. “Come on.”
They ran down the proper hallway, slowing a moment later when a pair of techs came into view. Hayley reached beneath her utilities to grip her pistol, holding it ready to draw and fire as the technicians neared. She could tell by the color of their energy that they were synths, like everything else they had encountered so far.
The two pairs passed one another slowly. Hayley made sure to keep eye contact with the techs, not giving them any hint they didn’t belong. The synths continued past, turning their heads to look back on the way. Hayley tightened her grip on her sidearm, her other hand itching to reach for her Uin. She pointedly kept her face straight ahead, listening for them to question their presence.
The synths continued on their way, disappearing down the other side of the hallway. Hayley didn’t breathe again until the synths were gone, glancing over at Tibor.
“Good thing they don’t care much about the way we smell,” Tibor said.
“I think that helped sell our disguise,” Hayley said.
“Right.”
They broke into a fresh run, making it to the end of the hallway. The corridor split at the entrance to the life support control systems, and a quick glance told Hayley they were clear.
“Is it secured?” Hayley asked as Tibor tapped on the control panel.
“Damn,” Tibor replied. “Yeah.”
She had expected it would be. Even inside the secure area, something as valuable to the living and breathing individuals on board as the scrubbers needed extra protection.
She pulled her visor out of one of the uniform’s large pockets, only hesitating for a moment before slipping it onto her head.
“Gant, are you there?” she asked, unsure if the Collective had damaged the AI.
“I’m here Witchy,” it replied. “I had the strangest dream.”
“You aren’t capable of dreaming.”
Gant chittered nervously. “I’m not?”
“No. Start running a full diagnostic in the background. Meanwhile, I need help getting past a secured door control.”
She reached up, opening the compartment on the side of the visor and removing the extender there. She placed it against the control panel.
“Do your thing,” she said to the AI.
“You called me freak-monkey before,” it replied.
She sighed. “Are you really going to bring that up now?”
“It hurts my feelings when you call me that.”
“You don’t have feelings. Open the door.”
“Not until you apologize.”
“Damn it, Gant, I-”
“Apologize.”
“Fine. I’m sorry. Now open the fragging door.”
“Done,” Gant said.
The door slid open. She grabbed the extender and returned it to its place.
“Fragging AI,” she cursed.
“I heard that,” Gant said.
“Xolo, keep an eye on the door.”
“Roger.”
She hurried to the terminal. Hayley ran her hands along it, using the shape to determine the model. She wouldn’t have been able to identify it if had been the original, but fortunately it had been replaced at some point. She grabbed a small multi-tool from a tightpack and quickly removed the terminal’s cover, placing the extender inside.
“What do you want me to do with it?” Gant asked.
“Get through security,” she replied.
“I did that already. My storage chit has over one hundred million exploits on it, and this terminal hasn’t been patched in years.”
Hayley couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a good little Gant, aren’t you?”
The AI purred softly.
“See if you can do something about the signal that’s jamming the comm.”
“One moment.”
“Witchy,” Tibor said, getting her attention. He crouched beside the door, out of sight. “Someone's coming.”
“Damn it. Who?”
“I think it’s the techs from before.”
“Did they see you?”
“Not yet.”
“Maybe they’ll go back to wherever they came from.”
“What if they came from in here?”
Hayley pulled her Uin from beneath her uniform. “Then their day is going to get a lot worse.”
“Witchy.”
Colonel Quark’s voice sounded hoarse in her ear. It was the best sound she had ever heard.
“Colonel,” Hayley said. “Do you copy?”
“Witchy, that you girl?”
“Roger that.”
“Sitrep,” Quark ordered.
“Deck Thirty-four. Support. Xolo and me are fine.” She paused a moment. “Sykes didn’t make it.”
“You’re supposed to be on Deck Three,” Quark said without hesitating. He was too much of a professional to get derailed by the loss of a team member during the mission.
“Complications,” she replied. “We have access to a terminal and Gant’s inside security. Where are you?”
“Witchy,” Tibor said, pointing toward the open door.
She rose from behind the terminal, just enough to see the techs were still coming.
And the blue energy that powered them had taken on a copper-green hue.
13
“When you didn’t show, we made a break for the inhabited areas,” Quark said. “Narrl’s got a bullet in his thigh that you’ll need to fix up later, by the way. I don’t know what the frag is going on around here, but the inhabited area? It isn’t so inhabited. Or rather, it’s a damned tomb.”
Hayley felt her body go numb. “What do you mean, a tomb?”
“They’re dead, Witchy. All of them. They look like they just dropped right where they were. I’m old, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Hayley watched the techs approaching. They looked like they knew exactly where they were going, and what they were looking for. Did the Collective know Gant was on the network?
“It’s the Collective,” she said. “It’s here. It must have killed them.”
Why? To get back at her for refusing it? To hurt her? Or just because it wanted to?
“What?” Quark said.
“No time, Colonel. I’ve got incoming. What do you need Gant to do?”
“Have it clear the tubes and keep them open. Meet us near the reactor.”
“Yes, sir. What about Station Control?”
“What’s the fragging point of going to Station Control? I don’t even know who the hell is in control of the station. This little plan of mine isn’t about to shine. Better to regroup and reevaluate.”
“Roger. We’ll meet you there.”
“Copy that.”
The techs were near the open door, less than twenty centimeters from where Tibor was pressed against the wall. A synth power supply stored enough energy to act like a grenade if the Collective chose to use it that way.
“We know you’re in there, Hayley,” one of the techs said.
“We just want to talk,” the other said.
Hayley remained crouched behind the terminal.
“Gant, have you broken the security on the tubes yet?”
“I’m having minor technical difficulties, Witchy,” the AI replied. “Someone is trying to stop me.”
“The Collective?”
“I don’t think so. It may be Pallimo.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s lost control of this place, but he’s still worried about us?”
“I’ll get it. I promise.”
“We’re waiting, Hayley,” the tech said.
She groaned softly and stood up, facing the two synths.
“What the hell do you want? It isn’t enough you killed every living thing on this station?”
“Not every living thing,” the synth replied.
“We will spare the Riders for you, if you wish,” the other synth said.
“All you have to do it let us in.”
“Why?” Hayley said. She kept her Uin behind her thigh, out of sight of the synths. “You were ready to kill me on Thetan’s flagship. You were ready to kill all of us.”
“Them, yes. Not you. We would have saved you. We told you. You are family.”
“Bullshit. What’s the real reason?”
“We admire who you are. Your power over us.”
Hayley stared at them for a moment. That was it, wasn’t it? They wanted what she had and they didn’t. The Collective could control the Collective. It could program the base naniates or convert them to more of itself. But it couldn’t boss the others around. They wanted her ability to control them.
And maybe her ability to destroy them.
The Collective was powerful. It was intelligent and manipulative. But maybe it had a weakness, and maybe it had just told her what that weakness was.
“Witchy,” Gant said. “The system diagnostic is registering block corruption near the frequency modulator. I am losing stability.”
She put her free hand on the visor. It was trying to get to her through it again. “Can you shut it down?”
“No. I’ve lost access.”
Damn. The synth’s faces were expressionless, but she could picture the smug satisfaction the Collective might be feeling.
“Can you do a data transfer to the station network?” she asked. “Copy yourself there?”
“There is potential for corruption to my neural stack.”
“The visor is compromised.”
“I can’t complete the security clearance, diagnostic, and copy all at the same time.”
“Damn it, Gant, get out of there.”
The AI didn’t reply. She hoped because it had started transferring its main neural stack to the network.
She grabbed the visor and pulled it off her head, holding it in front of her. She could see the copper-green glow coming off it.
“Trying that bullshit again?” she asked.
The synths smiled in unison. “Well played, Hayley Cage,” they said.
They charged into the room. One of them leaped up and over the terminal, diving toward her, arms outstretched to grab her. The other vectored to go around the station.
Hayley flicked open her Uin, taking a step back and bracing herself for the fight. She turned her head toward Tibor.
A copper-green glow had worked its way into his qi.
She stifled the instant sense of worry and fear. There was no time for that. She sidestepped, ducking low as the first tech swiped at her, its hand catching the oversized work utilities and latching on as it landed on the terminal. She cursed, bringing the Uin over and down and severing the hand.
Tibor cried out near the doorway, his qi shifting and changing as his form did the same. She looked past him to the open space. She had about five seconds to get away before she would be trapped.
The second tech reached her, trying to get a grip on her. She slashed the Uin in front of it to keep it back, slicing through its synthetic flesh and the metal beneath.
“Gant, if any part of you is still in there, set the self-destruct.”
She had no idea if the AI could hear her or not.
Tibor had finished changing forms. He had to stoop over in the tight quarters of the room, and his bulk was almost completely blocking the entrance. He bared his teeth and stepped toward her, leaving her stuck.
The two techs reached for her again. She grabbed the arm of the first, pulling it with her as she backed into the second. It wasn’t expecting the move, and she ducked beneath both, slipping the visor over their shoulders and rolling away.
It detonated in a bright flash of energy, with enough force to blow through the synth’s heads and chests. Hayley returned to her feet, watching as the energy of the two techs sputtered and faded, and the synthetic forms stumbled a few steps before toppling over.
She grabbed her pistol as Tibor grabbed the terminal, muscles rippling as he yanked it out of the way, throwing it into the wall and clearing the space between them. She watched it crash into the side of the room and lose power.
“Tibor,” she said. “It’s me. You have to fight it. Come on. I know you can do it.”
“No, he can’t,” the Collective said in his voice. “His mind i
s weak.”
His qi shifted, telegraphing his move. She reacted without hesitation, using the added strength of the lightsuit to jump sideways, pivoting and bouncing off the wall. She released the Uin and the gun from her hands, reaching out and wrapping an arm around Tibor’s neck, holding tight as she swung against his back.
The Collective guided him toward the wall, intent on crushing her between it and him.
She reached around with her free hand, feeling for his mouth. When she found it, she slid the back of her hand along his tooth, cutting herself open.
They slammed into the wall. Hayley felt the air explode out of her as her body was crushed. She refused to let go, shoving her hand further back into Tibor’s throat, her blood running out and into it.
He let out a high-pitched whine, falling forward onto his knees. Hayley let go of him then, dropping off and stumbling to her gun. She picked it up, turning it toward him.
The copper-green hue was already gone, but he was still bent over in agony. There were naniates infused into his bones, and the toxic nature of her blood was going to kill at least some of them too.
Hopefully not too many.
She crouched beside him, draping her arm over him and holding him while he started gagging. Then he vomited, a line of dark blood spilling onto the floor.
“Tibor, I’m sorry,” she said.
He coughed and spat. His qi was shifting, growing more healthy.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop it. I hate that fragging thing.”
“Me too,” she said.
“You saved my life,” he said.
“I saved my own life.”
“Why does it want you so bad?”
“I can think of two reasons. One, it knows my blood can destroy it. Two, it knows I can command the other naniates, and it wants to be able to control them.”
“So fragged up.”
“Agreed.”
She looked back at the destroyed terminal. Had Gant completed the transfer?
“Is your comm working?” she asked.
“Colonel, this is Xolo,” Tibor said. “Do you copy?”
He paused, then nodded. “I’ve got him. He wants to know where you are. He sounds worried. She’s here, Colonel. Her visor is destroyed.” He paused again. “He wants to know if you cleared the tubes.”
