The Raiders had located me and followed my radiation trail, the two of them. My reactor was damaged, about to explode at any moment, but I wasn’t even considering ejecting it. I had to make it last as long as I could. The alternative was a long slow death drifting through space.
I skirted the cargo ship and went into a spin, preventing the Raiders from opening fire. I then ducked into a huge hole in its hull and swung round, reducing speed with a few calculated pulses.
The enemy kept tailing me but my radiation trail wasn’t a reliable target — rather more a guideline.
The Raiders’ signatures kept approaching. I spent my last nanites on activating Piercing Vision. My ship’s sensors had been scorched dead, the cockpit depressurized. Many of the control panels had melted.
There they were.
They were still keeping together. The leader turned toward the cargo ship as if sensing the danger coming from within its breach holes, trying to second-guess my actions.
The other Raider’s guns were down but its shield emitters still worked. It was now trying to stretch its sickly power field to cover its leader.
I shouldn’t let this happen! My lasers couldn’t breach their shield.
Thanks to Piercing Vision, my mind expander could “see” the targets well. The nanites kept streaming information but their quantities were dwindling. The Raiders couldn’t see me: my radiation trail created a shapeless blind spot.
I had but a split second to come to a decision.
My thrusters cast a fiery glow onto the ship’s hull. Slowly I turned my Condor round. Her portside was now facing the breach. A powerful side thrust pushed my ship out to face the enemy.
Fire!
Molten metal spewed everywhere. Deep scars started to glow on the Raider’s hull, breathing heat, like the scores left by a clawed gauntlet.
My last accumulator was dead. My ship strafed to one side: mangled and defenseless, stripped of her technogenic power. The overheated reactor gushed radiation everywhere.
I didn’t expect another explosion. The apprehension of my own doom had tricked me into desperation. But I’d smoked the last Raider, after all!
Both of us dissolved in a circle of fire. A torrent of debris shot past. Some of it hit me, sending my Condor into an uncontrollable spin.
The accumulator indicators glowed weakly. I tasted blood in my mouth. I didn’t feel as if I’d won. I felt empty inside. I could barely move. Communications were dead. I had almost no thruster fuel left.
* * *
The asteroid that used to be the Outlaws’ base continued to drift through the asteroid belt. I navigated my disfigured ship past countless rocks and blocks of ice of every shape and size, catching up with it slowly but surely.
I released the last remaining probe. The spherical device headed toward the structure’s vacuum dock gates. They’d been gutted. Deep cracks had ripped through the ancient mine’s framework.
In expectation of the probe’s report, I plotted the trajectories of the nearest asteroids when I detected a Condor drifting nearby.
“Liori!”
Her ship was dead, its reactor block ejected. Most armor plates had been destroyed, the grid of her Condor’s support beams resembling a skeleton’s ribcage.
While the probe was busy studying the ancient mine, I swung my ship around and closed with the drifting ship.
“Hold on, sweetheart... just hold on, my love,” I mouthed non-stop. Sweetheart, darling, my love — and I used to think that these words were hopelessly dated and meaningless!
The automatic docking system kicked in, connecting the two crippled ships with a short pressurized hose.
Her cockpit was pitch-black. All the control panels were fused solid. Her empty pilot’s seat had been sliced in two by a laser beam. Tiny droplets of hydraulic liquid floated around it in zero gravity, having escaped the emergency anti-G system.
I received no feedback from the nanites that used to make up Liori’s avatar. She had used them all up when she’d run out of both ammo and power.
I refused to believe this was the end of her. A lump in my throat prevented me from breathing. I felt like screaming. Still, I clenched my teeth and perched on the seat’s edge, scanning the jury-rigged adapter.
Her cyber module was deformed. Its neurochips sported fire damage. Right here and now it was pretty impossible to tell whether Liori’s identity matrix had survived the predicament.
I used a laser from my repair kit to cut out a fragment of the control panel with her cyber module still in it, then placed it gingerly into my inventory. I cast one last look at the silent cockpit and began retracing my steps back on board my own ship.
During the last few days, I kept getting these moments of absolute confusion. My life in other game worlds had been exciting and simple: trouble-free. Words like grief, desperation or loss had never entered my vocabulary. They’d had no meaning. Now that they’d revealed their true sense, my heart struggled to accept them.
The world had changed forever. Your past was dead; your future wasn’t born yet. All you had was this now-moment and the fire-polished fragments of a cybermodule in your inventory. Plus the faint hope that you could still recover the bytes containing the digitized soul of the woman you loved.
* * *
I was closing in on the asteroid. I suppressed all irrelevant thoughts. First I had to get to the Founders’ artifact, then take it back to the Relic and restore the cybermodule containing Liori’s identity. Together we’d be able to work out what was going on, then find our way around our new environment.
The target loomed ever closer. The data collected by the probe seemed positive. The ancient artifact was still functioning. The numerous impacts had damaged the asteroid, creating a plethora of deep cracks in its surface which considerably simplified my task. Basically, the asteroid was only held together by the mine’s powerful superstructure made of cargonite alloy.
I was really pressed for time. The asteroid belt was growing denser. Hundreds of rocks of every shape and size crowded the asteroid, most of them capable of dealing the final blow which could disintegrate the ancient facility.
The reactor had stabilized at 30%. I forwarded all of its power to the shields. Manipulating the maneuvering thrusters, I steered the ship into a dark crevice and began threading my way through the web of distorted and degraded support structures.
My speed kept dropping. I couldn’t help that. My path grew more littered with my every turn. Fractured walls revealed glimpses of mangled rooms — once embedded into the rock and now ripped to pieces. My mind expander greedily absorbed all available data. This was where the Outlaws had built Avatroid!
There must have been loads of precious data still left in the ruins of their cybernetic laboratories, like nanite activation codes which could open new areas of nanite technologies yet unknown to me.
The sensors kept beeping anxiously. The walls of the crevice kept shrinking ever closer — but I now was a mere hundred feet away from my target!
I engaged reverse thrusters, then stopped. The ship couldn’t go any further. I had to get out.
The rock walls quivered treacherously as new cracks traced across them. In places, they dissolved in soundless rockfalls filling the narrow space with sharp fragments of stone that floated in the void, endlessly colliding.
My armored suit wasn’t going to take it. I had to find a different way. I activated navigation lasers and cleared the shortest path with a series of pulses. With a circular motion of my guns, I cut an opening in the nearest mangled bulkhead that offered access to the surviving premises.
The docking hose hissed, expanding. The plasma torches snapped into action.
I touched a sensor, disabling my suit’s security harness. I was just about to get up when a premonition of impending danger assaulted my nerves.
The signal had come from the probe still left outside. One of the many asteroids was on a direct collision course!
It crashed.
The wal
ls of the crevice began to close around my ship. The force field throbbed. I heard a screeching sound as the ship’s stabilizers were being compressed into its hull.
My mind writhed in agony under the direct neurosensory contact with the ship’s systems as if it was my own flesh being crushed.
My mind crashed. Mercifully, it expired.
* * *
Gradually I came round.
The data I received from my implants was sparse. The area around me was saturated with radiation. My mangled Condor drifted amid the rocky remains of the destroyed asteroid. Not a single active power implant within the scanners range, meaning that the Founders’ device was no more. We’d lost it for good.
My mind expander kept piecing data together, connecting the ship’s surviving modules. I managed to stabilize the reactor at 10%. One of the force field generators offered all of 0.3 megawatts. This was all the protection I currently could offer against radiation and any further impacts.
I wasn’t going to give up so easily.
I set the communications automatic repeat to Call Relic and switched to manual controls. I had to get out of this cesspit. Then I’d have to scan each and every one of the asteroid’s fragments while I still had time. Very soon Avatroid’s fleet would be here. You never know, the Founders’ artifact might have simply been deactivated with the impact.
I steered the ship slowly and gingerly past the larger fragments until I entered a safe orbit around the swirling mass of debris.
Liori’s Condor drifted nearby. I sent some nanites on board her de-energized ship with a dozen micro nuclear batteries I’d robbed from the survival kit. They were going to activate the on-board scanners. With two sets of scanners, I could finish the job much quicker.
An incoming call, finally! I had the frigate on the line. Judging by the signal’s bearings, the Relic was still heading for Argus!
“Zander? Where are you?” Jurgen’s hoarse voice sounded first, followed by a murky image. He looked even more gaunt and weary than normal.
“I’m at the asteroid. It’s been destroyed.”
“So it’s the end of us, then?” he asked bluntly.
“I’m just trying to scan it. I’ll stay here for as long as it takes. How’s everything?”
“The Haash have respawned. They’ve lost their yrobs. The Wearongs are dead. The children are all right. Their room was well protected. What do you want us to do now?”
“Just don’t lose hope.”
“Is Liori with you?”
“She is. Her cybermodule’s been damaged. She’s incommunicado at the moment.”
“Zander? I think the artifact is ruined.”
This wasn’t an easy conversation. “If I don’t find it, we might try to contact the Oasis.”
“The hybrid? You think he might help?” Jurgen’s voice perked up. “Do you want me to go there and speak to him?”
“No. I’ll give him a call from here. I have Oasis within my direct line of vision. You take care of the Relic. Do whatever repairs are necessary and check the life support. Give Charon a ship: let him go collect the fragments of their yrobs. I’ll take care of Liori’s Condor. Tell Charon that I’d also appreciate his bringing any fragments of the Raiders he can find. We need to study them.”
“Just what are you hoping for? Tell me!”
He'd lost all optimism. I could read it in his stare.
“If the artifact’s destroyed, we’ll have to build something similar,” I added a note of confidence to my voice. “Between my Mnemotechnics and your Technologist skill, we might come up with something.”
Jurgen sat up. “Then you should come back! No good wasting time taking stupid risks!”
“There’re loads of fragments of various devices here. I’ve never heard about most of them. I’ll keep searching for the artifact while leveling up my skills. Creating artificial neuronets will demand a very high Mnemotechnics level.”
“Avatroid’s fleet is coming,” Jurgen reminded me.
“I know. Which is why I’m asking you to take care of the frigate. I want you to dock her to the station and camouflage her signature. Tell Vandal and Foggs to check the Technologists Clan’s quarters and search the debris for any data storage devices they might find. The Founders’ technologies are the key. When I’m back, I’ll need any information that might help me to level my skills and abilities.”
“Zander, all this rushed leveling will kill you.”
“It might,” I snapped. “Then Liori will have to finish it for me, won’t she? Enough of this, Jurgen. We’re losing time. Let’s each of us do his own job.”
“Very well. As you say,” he sounded anxious. “I’ll keep communications open just in case.”
“Just please don’t bother me with the basics. You can take care of them yourself.”
* * *
As we spoke, the nanites had finished patching up Liori’s Condor. I sent it the instructions to join in the scanning of the asteroid fragments.
The mnemonic load indicator surged into the orange as my mind began receiving data from two combat scanning systems.
Translucent schemes of various devices drifting in space flashed before my eyes: some floating on their own, others bejeweling angular slabs of rock.
I switched data collection to background mode and opened the abilities tab. In all honesty, we stood very little chance of ever locating the artifact. But apart from that, the Outlaws’ base had been literally stuffed with equipment. Most of the already-discovered devices belonged to the Founders’ technosphere. I’d never studied them before. In just a few brief minutes of data collection, my Alien Technologies skill had already grown two points.
This was a good start. Still, too early to celebrate. I kept replicating nanites over and over again, then sending them deep into the mangled mines toward the surviving rooms of the ancient installation. Soon they would begin streaming more data; in the meantime I could finally take a breather.
I injected myself with a dose of combat metabolites. My mind cleared somewhat. The mnemonic load indicator reluctantly crawled into the yellow zone.
I switched on the long-distance communications. The far-off spark of the Oasis station glimmered on its grid. Obeying my mental command, the optical multiplier kicked in. The image zoomed in, gaining detail.
The hybrid was neither our friend nor foe. He was a synthetic identity, an AI pieced together by the Corporation out of the dead players’ neurograms. He was, intrinsically, the result of a chilling otherworldly experiment that brewed fear and resentment.
When we’d last met, he publicly declared himself the opposite of Avatroid, announcing his intention to restore Oasis to its original glory.
Still, it looked as if it hadn’t come to anything. The skeleton of the ancient station was still dark and gloomy — not a sign of any repairs in sight. There was one other thing I couldn’t understand: why hadn’t the hybrid even attempted to help the Eurasia? I knew from experience that his technological skill at least equaled that of Avatroid. He could have thwarted the Phantom Raiders’ attack — and still he hadn’t lifted a finger to save the defeated Colonial Fleet.
I activated the communications with Oasis. The only things that the hybrid seemed to have restored were the locator tower and the transport beam control devices associated with it. He'd apparently used those ancient alien systems in order to spy on the Eurasia fleet and listen in to their command frequencies; he’d even managed to beam me up to the Eurasia station with the orders to bring him Genesis: an ancient planet-forming device safely stashed away on Darg.
Never mind. This wasn’t the right time to rake up recent developments.
A green indicator lit up on the control panel. I had a connection with Argus; still, no one seemed in a hurry to answer me.
Whatever had happened to the hybrid? Why wouldn’t he speak to me?
When my Darg mission had been over, I couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t claimed Genesis’ scanner files that I’d made. Those were indis
pensable for him to restore the station. Why hadn’t he tried to buy them off me or even take them by force?
Now I understood: he’d had nowhere to hurry to. He knew about his own true nature — and certainly about our desperate situation. In case of my death, the neurograms of my disintegrating identity would return to the Corporation’s server where he’d immediately be granted access to them.
He wasn’t our friend. Oh, no.
“Zander... what is it?” I could barely recognize his voice through the interference. “What do you... want?”
That was weird. There were no obstacles in the laser transmitter’s path capable of distorting or diffusing its signal. Could it be the hybrid? He seemed to have blocked the video channel. His speech was slurred and faltering.
“I need you,” I said. “I know that you need the Genesis files in order to restore Oasis. I’ll give them to you. In return, you must teach me to build artificial neuronets.”
“Not interested,” he said, wheezing as if his every word was a physical struggle.
“Why? Tell us!” Jurgen butted in. “Don’t you understand we have children on board?” his desperate voice rose to a scream.
“I... don’t... care. I... won’t help... anyone. I have... my own... problems...”
The communications indicator blinked and went out.
I sat there, gasping. “Did you hear that?”
“I did,” Jurgen echoed. “What a piece of shit!”
“Never mind. Forget him. It wasn’t meant to happen. I’m sure we’ll know everything when the time is right.”
“Zander?” Frieda chimed in. “Any news? What did the scan show?”
“I haven’t found the artifact yet if that’s what you mean. My levels keep growing but not as fast as I thought they would. The scanners keep bringing lots of interesting stuff but nothing we can use at the moment.”
“Arbido seems to have an idea,” Jurgen joined in.
Black Sun (Phantom Server: Book #3) Page 4
