The Pendulum Swings (The Forever Gate Book 8)

by Isaac Hooke

  He disconnected the metal cylinder from his belly and stuffed it into a small satchel along with the other two. "Several robots have sealed off his berthing area."

  The pair hurried through the corridors until they reached the berthing area. Peering past a bend in the passage, they spotted five maintenance robots camped out in front.

  "Okay, you hide here." Hoodwink pointed behind one of the nearby pods. "I'll draw them away."

  "Wait," Tanner said. "If I have to wait here, isn't it better if I'm the one with the blaster? I'll be defenseless if they discover me. Plus what do I do if some of the robots stay behind?"

  Hoodwink hesitated, then slid the blaster from his holster and handed it to Tanner. Then he dashed out into the corridor and shouted at the robots. Hoodwink waited a few seconds, and then turned around and hotfooted it out of there in the opposite direction.

  Tanner held his breath as the robots rolled by in turn. One machine. A second. A third.

  He waited, but no more robots appeared. Only three of them had pursued: the other two robots had stayed behind.

  Tanner stepped from cover and fired the blaster at the remaining pair.

  He hurried to the door and tried his access code. The hatch clicked open. At least he hadn't lost the ability to open doors yet.

  "Tanner!" Jacob said, coming forward. He was one of the oldest people on the Outside, the perfect example of why Tanner preferred not to refer to the operators as "Children." He was wearing his service utilities, and had a full body exoskeleton on top of that. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to walk.

  His face was a wrinkly mess, with ears like shrunken scraps of old leather, and eyes so deep-set it was as if he viewed the world from two funnels. He was one of those so-called New Users who had coordinated the final assault against One a year ago. He had died in that attack and awakened inside his pod. His real world body proved to be nearly as old as his virtual one, and he barely survived the rebirth.

  "We'll need you and four of your men to come with us to the Control Room," Tanner told him. "We've lost operators."

  "What's going on?" Jacob said.

  "Kade has betrayed us. He's locked us out of most of the system. We're clawing our way back."

  Jacob shook his head. "Our best programmer. How could he do this to us?"

  "No one knows," Tanner said. "Worst of it is, there's another alien attack."

  "When it rains..." Jacob said.

  "Here." Tanner handed Jacob one of the wireless access ports. "Leave this with the men who stay behind. They can use it to keep in contact with us, or go Inside as necessary."

  Tanner led Jacob and the four men outside. Hoodwink had already doubled-back and apparently had been about to open the door.

  "There you are," Hoodwink said.

  "Hoodwink," Jacob returned. "I'll be damned."

  "Nice to see you too."

  "Last time I saw you," Jacob continued. "You threw yourself beyond the system boundaries in the desert. Which is the equivalent of throwing yourself into a blender, or so I hear."

  "Yes," Hoodwink said. "We can all talk about it over drinks sometime soon, but at the moment we have to fly. Those machines are right behind me."

  Tanner followed his gaze down the corridor and saw the three machines rounding the bend. "Let's go!" Tanner said.

  The group exited the berthing compartment.

  "My blaster, if you please?" Hoodwink said.

  Tanner handed it over and the group hurried back to the Control Room.

  "Glad to see you made it in one piece," Stanson told them.

  "Your access should be close to what it was before," Hoodwink told him. "I've reset the access flags for most members of the active watches. I tried to change the privileges of Kade and his fellows, but of course that didn't work. See if you can change the access codes on the hatches."

  Stanson tried. "I think that worked."

  "Ship-wide?" Hoodwink said. "Or just the hatch to this compartment?"

  "Ship-wide," Stanson said.

  Hoodwink went to the door and tried his code. It didn't work. "That's a good start. At least now we know Kade and his little group will be stuck in whatever compartment they currently reside in."

  "Until he finds a way to hack his way out of it," Jacob added.

  "The biggest benefit for us, I think," Tanner said. "Is that we don't have to worry about the robots unexpectedly barging in on our current location."

  "Good point," Jacob said.

  "I want to discuss some strategies," Hoodwink said. "First of all, how can we eliminate this Amoch character who's causing Ari such grief on the Inside?"

  "Can't," Jacob said. "From what I've heard, he's invincible. He's like One reincarnate. Fire, lightning, steel, nothing can harm him. And he can freeze the avatars of anyone around him, so no one can even get close enough to him to even try to harm him."

  "Can we change the flags on his avatar?" Hoodwink said. "And remove those invincibilities?"

  "We've tried," Stanson said. "We haven't been able to isolate his avatar in the system. The data is encrypted across multiple drives. It's like trying to find a needle in a million haystacks."

  "Remind me to schedule a rewrite for the search function sometime," Hoodwink said. "We need to make it easier to look-up avatars."

  "We're still recovering from the aftermath of the virus Jeremy put into the system," Stanson said. "We lost much of the source code, and we've had to construct several pieces from scratch. Kade was responsible for most of it, as you may or may not know. I think he purposely wrecked the avatar search function."

  "You're all missing the obvious here," Tanner said. "And that is: Amoch is probably Kade's avatar. We unplug Kade, we unplug Amoch. And if we can capture Kade and his little group, I have no doubt we can get them to revert all the hacks they've implemented. Sit him down with me to watch him work, and give me that blaster of yours, Hood, and I'll get the system fixed. Right quick, as you would say."

  Hoodwink smiled.

  One of the operators in Jacob's group spoke up. His name was Bronson.

  "What about one of the Dwarfs?" Bronson said. "The representations of the sub-AIs in the system? Because they can veto the instructions of the main AI, they could ignore any code changes that are masking Kade's location. They might be able to help pinpoint the position of him and the others on the ship."

  Tanner nodded. "That's a good idea. They might be able to help us in other ways, too. Such as tracking down some of those code changes that have given Amoch all of his powers."

  "All right," Hoodwink said. "Some good, solid ideas there. But now I want to talk about the second problem that's ailing us." On cue, the compartment rumbled from an attack. "The Satori mothership in orbit."

  six

  "We have to eliminate that mothership," Hoodwink continued. "And soon. She's more powerful than the previous ship we had to deal with. Our human vessel won't be able to withstand her for more than a few days, at most."

  "But what else can we do other than let the automated defenses wear them down?" Tanner said.

  Hoodwink turned toward Stanson. "The Hercules class of colony ships come with shuttles, don't they?"

  Stanson nodded. "They do. And in fact we've been sending our shuttles out on exploratory runs already, to survey the moon for mineral deposits, and to retrieve chunks of ice from the surface to melt into fresh water. There are ten shuttles aboard, but only five of them are still operational."

  "Is there enough propellant to achieve escape velocity?"

  "If we dig into the storage tanks, yes," Stanson said.

  "And the stuff is still volatile after all these years?"

  "Should be," Stanson said. "According to the archives, the standard protocol is to fill the tanks with preservation agents before long-term storage. We used one of those tanks to fuel the existing shuttles, after all, and that worked."

  Hoodwink nodded. "All right. Have an engineering team get each of the working shuttles fueled, and then instruct
them to run full diagnostics."

  "Wait, you're not planning on using these shuttles to assault that massive Satori mothership are you?" Jacob said, the incredulity obvious in his voice.

  "Perhaps I am," Hoodwink said. "Tell me, Stanson, what kind of weapons are aboard each shuttle?"

  "Nothing that could harm the Satori ship," Stanson said. "A couple of X2 lasers, nothing more. Not even any missiles."

  Hoodwink tapped his chin. "We'll need a bomb."

  Jacob threw up his arms. "A bomb. Is that the best you can come up with? And where are we going to get one?"

  Stanson pursed his lips. "This colony ship was equipped with nukes as part of its offensive weaponry. I think there are still two aboard that were left unfired. The AI probably stopped launching them when it realized the nukes had no effect on the enemy's shielding system. I'll have to confirm the inventory." He reached for the terminal.

  "I already confirmed it," Hoodwink said. "There are indeed two." He had been hoping to find a way to use the material in those warheads to prolong the ship's nuclear power source, which had a current lifespan of about fifty years, but if they needed those warheads for a bomb, well, there was nothing for it.

  "We'll never get close enough to detonate those nukes," Jacob said. "They'll shoot us out of the sky."

  "We will get close," Hoodwink said. "You forget, I still have my alien flyer."

  "What makes you so sure they won't fire anyway?"

  Hoodwink grinned. "Some creative social engineering."

  "All right," Stanson said. "Let's say you do get close. What about the black mist that shields them? You've all watched the archives of the invasion of Earth? Not even nukes could penetrate it."

  "Again," Hoodwink said. "Some creative ingenuity on my part. I plan on bringing the entire shielding system down. Once that's done, they'll fire at the shuttles with all they have. That's where you guys come in. You'll need to take out two key point-defense turrets, which I'll indicate on the data the Hercules sensors have been gathering. We'll never be able to land while those turrets are active."

  "You want the colony ship to use its defensive weapons offensively?" Stanson said.

  "That's exactly what I want. The shuttles might be able to take out the turrets with the X2 lasers, but it's risky, and I'd rather rely on the more powerful weaponry aboard the Hercules. Any objections?" Hoodwink waited. "Good. Stanson, I want you to start prepping both nukes for transfer to the shuttles. We'll use the first to blow a hole into the hull of the mothership. Then a couple of us will land on her and make a trip inside, porting the bomb with us. We'll plant it close to her reactor core. When that detonates, the whole ship goes with it." Hopefully the evac pods would trigger before then, so not too many Satori would die in the blast.

  "That's the craziest plan I ever heard of," Jacob said. "First of all you want to fly past their defenses, including their shield system, which no human weapon has ever penetrated. Then you want to plant a nuclear bomb on their hull, and once that detonates, you want to send a boarding party to wander around inside their ship until they find a good spot to place the second bomb. Likely said boarding party will face resistance the whole time. And once the bomb is situated, they're supposed to get the hell out of there before it detonates."

  Hoodwink grinned stiffly. "Yep. That pretty much sums it up."

  Jacob looked to Tanner and Stanson. "He's a madman."

  "A madman is precisely what we need right about now," Tanner said.

  "What about you, Stanson?" Jacob asked. "You're going to go along with this?"

  "I can't see that we have any other options," Stanson responded.

  "I'm glad that we're all on the same page," Hoodwink said with an ironic grin. "Now, I'll want to bring all five shuttles to give the Satori something else to shoot at other than my flyer and the two shuttles carrying the bombs. For that, I'll need some good pilots. Know where I can find any?"

  "Why not rely on the AIs?" Stanson said.

  Hoodwink frowned. "I don't trust AIs to man the shuttles. Not when Kade or one of his lackeys could have potentially infected them."

  "Good point." Stanson tapped his chin. "I think I know at least one person who might be a good fit. Someone who recently emerged, as luck would have it."

  Hoodwink cocked his head. "Oh?"

  seven

  Hoodwink made his way through the crowded relearning center. He had to play the usual cat and mouse game to get inside, as five robots guarded the entrance, and he wasn't keen on destroying them all. Despite their predicament, the people trapped within seemed in relatively high spirits. Most of them probably didn't even know that robots hemmed them inside—the individuals who resided there for the most part ate, drank, and slept in that compartment. Gel tubes distributed rations and water to that portion of the ship, toilets allowed for sewage disposal, and a profusion of mats allowed anyone to sleep comfortably on the floor.

  Around him those members of the recently awakened exercised on the various machines, or sat together in cleared areas on the floor. They all wore aReal glasses and short-sleeved patient gowns, with roughly two-thirds of the occupants clad in mechanical exoskeletons.

  Hoodwink spotted Caylin but the little girl promptly scowled, crossed her arms, and turned her back on him.

  He saw a woman lying on the deck beside her, tethered to a terminal. It could only be Ari.

  Hoodwink approached. Yes, that was indeed his daughter. She looked rather thin compared to her avatar on the Inside, but she was otherwise none the worse for wear.

  She was wearing a blue patient gown, and a total parenteral drip was connected to her body via the cephalic vein in the crook of her arm. Two tubes led out from underneath the hem of the gown and connected to an excretion collection device. All those support lines reminded Hoodwink of the surrogate bodies he had seen on Earth—lifeless, soulless beings who waited to receive Satori consciousnesses. He shuddered involuntarily.

  She's not a surrogate, she'll never be a surrogate.

  He rested a hand on her shoulder.

  Ah, my Ari, but it is good to see you. I wish you were here with me now. You're breathing the same air as me, lying on the same deck, and yet you're so very far away.

  "You need to feed Commander Ari more," Hoodwink told Caylin. "Would you do that for me, when she wakes up?"

  Caylin glanced at him but quickly looked away.

  "Caylin, are you listening, lass?" Hoodwink pressed.

  "Why should I talk to you?" Caylin said. "You left us."

  Hoodwink sighed. "I didn't leave you on purpose." Actually he did, but just not for the reasons that she thought.

  "You're one of the Enemy," Caylin said stubbornly.

  "And so I am. Mind, that doesn't actually make me an enemy. It's a bit confusing, I know. Half the time I'm confused myself." He waited, but the little girl didn't look at him. "All right, it was good to see you again, Caylin. You take good care of my Ari, you hear?" Hoodwink turned to go.

  Caylin abruptly spun about and wrapped her arms around his legs in a tight hug. "Please don't go, Hoodwink."

  Touched, he rested a hand on her head and wrapped his fingers around her thick locks. "I'll be back, soon. I'm here to see someone named Zak."

  Caylin shook his hand from her head and looked up. "Zak? I've met him. He hates me."

  "I'm sure you're imagining it, you are. No one could hate someone as adorable as you."

  "No he does," Caylin insisted. "He hates all of us." She swept her hand around the compartment. "All of this."

  "It sounds like a reaction we've seen in other Children before," Hoodwink said. "He's blind to what is real."

  "Is that because he's dipped headfirst in shit?" Caylin asked innocently.

  Hoodwink couldn't suppress a small laugh. "I taught you that, didn't I? Don't be repeating the words you hear me speak, little one. They're not for your clean mouth. Anyway, I really must go. You don't know where Ben is, do you? He's the relearning specialist in charge of Zak."

>   Caylin shook her head. "One of the other specialists will know. Or Helen."

  "All right," Hoodwink said. "Please keep an eye on my dear Ari for me."

  "I'm going to protect her," Caylin said proudly. "And make sure no one harms her. When the needle people came, I wouldn't let them hook her up to the sugar water until they confirmed their credentials."

  "Well done, Caylin." Hoodwink gently extricated himself from the little girl. "I'll see you soon."

  "Goodbye, Hoodwink," she said sadly.

  Hoodwink glanced one last time at the unconscious Ari and then quickly moved on.

  He hailed one the relearning specialists, who was readily identifiable by the dark blue service utilities he wore, and asked him where to find Ben. The individual pointed toward the far side of the center.

  Hoodwink made his way toward that spot and finally spotted another blue uniform on a young, bearded man seated on the floor beside several unconscious people who were tethered by umbilicals to terminals. The man's eyes were slightly defocused—he was obviously viewing something on his aReal.

  Hoodwink sat cross-legged beside the man. "You're Ben?"

  The man nodded absently. "I am."

  "You count a Zak among your students?"

  Ben looked at him for the first time. "Zak is one of my students, yes."

  "I hear he has the potential to be a pilot," Hoodwink said.

  "Potential, perhaps," Ben said. "But attitude in equal amounts."

  "Is he here?" Hoodwink glanced at the dreamers beside them.

  "That's him," Ben said. "Third from your right. The one with the clenched jaw."

  The indicated individual was young, no more than nineteen or twenty. His features were gaunt—all bony angles—but somewhat handsome, Hoodwink supposed. Ladies would certainly like him once he filled out a bit. Tiny welts and scabs lined his beard area, evidence that he had recently started shaving. His cropped hair was so thin that Hoodwink could see the scalp underneath. And his jaw was indeed clenched, the muscles standing out on the sides of his face.