The first revolution felt lazy. He drifted around in a slow circle around the ship, the speed gradually increasing as the wire grew shorter, its length beginning to wrap around the hull. The second spin was almost dizzying in comparison. Dan was guessing the third was going to involve a fairly fast impact between himself and a wall of metal.
“Damn it, this is going to hurt,” he grumbled.
At least the fear was gone. The crippling terror he’d felt inside the hatchway had vanished, replaced by the cool clarity he was used to having when in a crisis. He was able to track the spin carefully. He’d impact on the upper hull, luckily not too terribly far from the antennae he was trying to reach in the first place. But the impact was going to be too fast. If he was knocked unconscious he’d let go and spin out into space again, probably repeating the whole spin in the opposite direction.
Dan spun his body around the spool, placing his lower body between it and the hull. His best shot would be to soak up some of the impact with his legs before his torso and head hit. He wasn’t going to be able to bend his knees much, but having his legs in the way ought to do something.
The crash was jarring when it came. He felt bones in his legs crack from the impact with the Satori’s hull, but the pain was distant. One positive side effect of having lost most of the sensation in his legs, as he was sure the agony would have been excruciating otherwise. It was dangerous as hell though. He had no way to tell how badly his legs were broken. He only knew that he’d blown out some bone or bones in both legs. There could be a chunk of bone protruding from the side of his leg and he wouldn’t even know about the compound fracture until he saw it.
Dan focused on catching hold of the hull instead of worrying about something he couldn’t fix. His legs had done something, soaking up enough of the momentum that he was able to grab the side of the ship with one hand while hanging on to the reel with the other. With careful movements he made his way to the radio antenna and plugged the cable in.
“Majel, I did it,” he said. He leaned back against the hull, his entire body feeling wiped out from the efforts of the last few minutes. “You’re on.”
Seventeen
Andy’s radio crackled with static. He almost missed the sound over the rapid series of shots being fired by the Naga rifles pinning them down. He leaned out and squeezed off a pair of quick shots before being forced back under cover again. One of the rounds hit its target, and the small group of enemy trying to sneak up on the cave fell back dragging their injured friend.
He smiled grimly and switched magazines in his rifle. They were holding off the Naga for now, but that wasn’t going to last. Their supply of ammunition was going to run short before long, if nothing else.
It was then he noticed the radio crackling a second time. He’d turned it on as they approached the surface, hoping to reach the Satori. That signal was probably how the Naga had found them. In all the commotion he’d never thought to shut it down again. He reached over to do so now, but before he could a familiar voice sounded in his earpiece.
“Satori to landing team,” Majel said. “The ship is currently trapped by the Naga AI operating the station. Computer systems are down, but I am attempting to engage the enemy AI. If successful the crew will return to pick you up shortly.”
Andy whistled under his breath. What the hell had happened up there, and why was Majel contacting them instead of Charline or Dan? There had to be a good story behind this one. He hoped they would all live long enough to hear it.
“Hang on,” Majel said. “Satori out.”
“You heard that?” Andy shouted across at John.
“Yes,” John said. He shook his head, indicating he didn’t know what was happening up there any more than Andy did. “Thoughts?”
Andy scanned the enemy line. He’d hit a few of them, but there were still a lot of bad guys out there shooting at them. It was a matter of time before they rushed the place. Andy was down to his last magazine, and even if he borrowed from his friends they couldn’t hold them off much longer. Once the Naga realized they were out of ammo, they’d come in after them and there was little they would be able to do to resist.
Or was there?
“I’ve got an idea,” Andy said.
“Is it a good one?” John asked. “We could use a good idea right about now.”
Andy shook his head. “Probably a crazy one.”
John laughed. “Son, most of the best ones are.”
Andy chuckled. John had him there. If this didn’t work, he probably wasn’t going to survive long enough to regret trying it anyway. But if it didn’t work they were all in a lot of trouble. There was no way they could bust out through the mass of Naga outside the cave, and no way they could hold out long enough for the Satori to get there and save their butts. Retreat into the cave was one option, but that would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Which was precisely what he was counting on.
“Hold the fort here for a few minutes, I’ll be right back!” Andy shouted over the roar as another large impact came from the cannon of the thing Beth said used to be Paul.
He shuddered at that thought. Paul was an asshole, but if she was right then what the Naga had done to him was worse than horrific. No one deserved to be turned into some sort of living Frankenstein monster. He felt a heavy load of guilt. Andy had seen Paul fall into the pit. He’d heard what he was sure were Paul’s dying screams as the hungry Naga young attacked him. He’d been sure that the man was dead. How could anyone have survived that?
Those were questions for later. He rolled to his feet and started back down the tunnel, sprinting around the twisting tube as it spiraled away from the light. All the while he was going over the very crude plan in his head, trying to think of some way to improve his chances of surviving it.
He hadn’t come up with anything by the time he hit the base of the tube. He paused there. Staring across the big room with its pools of water hiding monsters, dimly lit still by patches of green light where his glowsticks still cast some illumination, Andy felt a lot less sure of this plan. It had seemed so much more reasonable up there in the daylight than it did in the murky shadows below.
“Hey you!” he shouted into the room. He picked up a rock and tossed it into the deeper pool. “Our here!”
Nothing moved. There was no sound except the splash from the rock he’d thrown and the quiet ping as drips hit the surface of the water somewhere. That big monster had to be down here somewhere. All he needed to do was get the thing to follow him and then survive long enough to get it to the surface.
He threw a few more rocks. Some of them clattered against a wall or the floor. Others fell into water. But there was no response from the giant insect. Either he’d hurt it worse than he thought with the flash-bang, or it simply didn’t want anything to do with the two legged creature that was able to brighten its dark home so fiercely. Whichever the case, it wasn’t coming out.
Frustrated, he kicked a rock toward the smaller pool. One of the small creatures jumped up and scuttled toward the water to escape his sudden movement. John thought those things were the younger form of the big one. Was it possible it might act to protect its young? Some insects would do that, back on Earth.
He darted forward and grabbed the thing before it could reach the water, snatching it up from the cave floor. It was almost as long as his forearm, all chitinous shell and darting legs. Mandibles the size of his fingers snapped at him from the front of the bug. He kept that end away from him, struggling to hold on to the thing.
It began emitting a shrill, high-pitched keening noise. Andy froze. Was that the sound of movement from somewhere back in the pitch-dark hollows at the rear of the cave? The sound came again, audible even over the little bug’s screech. Something very big was coming his way.
No time to lose. He darted up toward the tunnel, carrying the smaller bug with him as he ran. His lungs were screaming from the effort by the time he reached the first turn, but he kept running fo
r everything he was worth. Behind him he could hear the monster gaining on him, coming closer. Its massive claws were pounding the floor of the tunnel as it sped along.
Up and up Andy went. He’d never run so hard in his life. Daylight was just ahead. One more turn and he’d be there. The monstrous insect was immediately behind him. It lunged forward. He ducked more from instinct than skill, and the massive mandibles slashed the air where his head had been a moment before.
Andy ran with renewed vigor, somehow putting a couple of arms length between him and his pursuer. The cave entrance was in sight. He caught a glimpse of his friends hiding at the edge of the opening. He saw their looks of confusion and concern, and then the horror as they saw what was following him.
He didn’t have to tell them to get back, to hide themselves. That was good because he didn’t have the breath to do it. He’d never run so hard or so fast in his life. Without breaking his stride he continued his sprint through the cave entrance. He was out in the open now, and the Naga had him in their sights. One of their rounds impacted his chest. Pain blossomed there, fiery agony that took his breath away. Another shot hit his left thigh and he toppled forward to the ground.
The monster was right behind him. Andy didn’t know whether the Naga had seen anything like it before or not. They responded in predictable Naga fashion though. The entire unit opened fire on the thing as soon as its head came into view. Shrieking fury at this new assault the giant bug rushed forward, half crushing Andy as it passed over him to attack these new oppressors.
Eighteen
The lights flickered all around the small control cubicle, startling Charline. It was the first significant change in the lighting she’s seen since arriving, the first noticeable fluctuation of any sort in the smooth operations run on the consoles around her.
“Dan, what’s going on over there?” she asked into her radio. There was no response. Which meant something was up. Either the station was doing something to the Satori and Dan was too busy to reply, or Dan was up to something over there to try to pull her fat out of the fire.
Either way, it was in her best interest to try to help out as best she could. If she could make a little trouble inside here, maybe screw something up for the AI, then she might be able to distract it long enough for Dan to break the ship away.
She glanced at her timer. In another five minutes none of this was going to matter anyway. The C-4 would go off, taking her out of the picture. As much as she wanted to live, dying was actually preferable to the Naga capturing her. Their ship was on its way to the station, and would link up about a minute after her bomb went off.
In the meantime maybe she could make some mischief. She had a small toolset attached to the leg of her space suit. It had seemed prudent to bring something of the sort along. No telling if she’d have to bust her way in to something or strip some sort of machine apart. She took the kit out now and began working at some of the panels behind the console machines.
The things weren’t really designed to come apart though, at least not with the tools she had. It wasn’t shocking that the Naga didn’t connect things together with phillip’s-head screws, but it was inconvenient. Charline wasn’t going to let that stop her, though.
“There’s more than one way to open a bulkhead,” she muttered, breaking into the kit for a small torch.
Charline brought the torch against the metal. The stuff barely heated up. With a stronger tool she might be able to burn through it, but not with this mini-torch. That didn't mean the rest of the surfaces in the control room were armored as well though. She applied the torch to one of the screens. That did gather the heat - pretty rapidly. After a few moments the screen melted in a small hole around where she was applying the flame. She shifted the flame, and soon there was a book-sized hole in the middle of the screen.
Beyond wasn't the standard grid of electrical wires and circuits she was familiar with. Instead Charline saw row after row of small crystals, all set in long rows. Were they some sort of quantum computing system? Or was each of those crystals actually a component analogous to a CPU? It was hard to tell. There were a lot of them though - a couple dozen in this array alone.
If she had all day she would have loved to sit and study the thing to figure out how it worked. She had about three minutes left though. It was time to move a little faster. Charline grabbed the metal plate that the crystals were attached to and yanked hard. It didn't budge, but she could see where it was connected. She applied the torch to one of those spots and the weld holding it in place weakened enough for her to pull the entire plate away.
The empty space it left behind had nothing else inside.
“Damn it!” she shouted.
She’d been hoping that the system would be connected to something else, and that to something else again. That if she kept ripping long enough she could eventually tear out something vital. But this system didn't appear to be connected to anything else at all. That was impossible, of course. It had to be linked. The links just didn't have to include wires.
Charline left the board behind and fetched the C-4 charges from the airlock. She might not be able to rip her way into the central systems, but she could get the charges closer to where the brains of the AI had to be. Armored or not, the C-4 would be more likely to hurt it if it was nearer.
She was walking back to place the charges inside the small space she’d made inside the screen when the airlock blew out.
There wasn't any warning. No flashing lights or alarms. One moment she was starting the walk back to the control panel. The next all of the air was rushing out of the satellite through the suddenly open airlock. The wind knocked her off her feet. She was flying through the air before she realized that the station’s artificial gravity had been shut off at the same time.
The outer airlock door snapped shut a second before she was flushed out into space. Charline smashed into the door with bruising force. The impact knocked all of the breath from her lungs, and she cried out in pain. The inner doors snicked shut before she could react, trapping her in the airlock.
The damned AI wasn’t just trying get rid of her. It would have flushed her out the door if that had been the goal. She looked about for the C-4 but couldn't find the charges. She’d dropped them during the decompression, and they must have been sucked out into space.
“Well shit,” she said. It looked like something she did finally scared the AI enough to take action. She just hadn't guessed it would be quite this effective at stopping her, damn it. But she was a good little computer geek. It would be a sad day when she couldn't rip apart a computer’s lock on a damned door if she put enough effort into it.
Charline reached up for the panel controlling the outer door. She’d left the torch back in the control room, but with a couple of screwdrivers she managed to pry the front of this small panel free to get access to the little crystals inside.
“Now I’ve got you,” she muttered. “All I need to do is figure out how an alien computer system works before the Naga show up to grab me.”
Which was going to be impossible, said a little voice in the back of her head. She was good, but there was no way anyone could do this. She ignored the voice. As alien as the tech here might be, it still had to operate by the same laws of physics she was used to. It had to be an evolution of the sort of tech she understood, not something completely different. If she worked at it long enough…
A sudden weight hit her shoulders, buckling her knees. Charline went to one knee, then both knees. She couldn't hold that position though. The weight was crushing her. She fell sideways to the floor, gasping for breath. Each inhalation was almost impossible. It felt like there was an enormous pile of bricks on top of her. She sucked in air, savoring it before being forced to exhale again by the crushing sensation.
It had to be the artificial gravity. The AI had cranked it up somehow. How many gravities was she under now? Five? More? She had no way to know. It was enough that she was seeing stars crossing her vision. She focus
ed on breathing, forcing her lungs to fill. Every breath was a burning agony. She tapped her radio on with her chin.
“Satori,” she said. She had to take another painful breath before she could go on. “Stuck in the airlock. AI is crushing me with gravity. Probably going to pass out.”
Every short sentence required another hard breath. Each time she wasn't sure she could take another one. She reached for the stamina to take one more breath.
“Could use some help here.”
The stars crossing her vision were getting brighter. Or was that darkness creeping in at the edges? It was growing harder to tell. Would the AI turn the gravity down after she passed out, or just leave it on to make sure she couldn't do anything else to threaten it? Charline had no way to know.
Her world devolved into shallow breaths and a desperate battle to retain consciousness.
Nineteen
John saw Andrew come running up the tunnel. At first he wasn't sure what the man was up to. Then he watched Andrew duck under massive mandibles, saw the bulk of the monster chasing him. He cursed under his breath. There wasn't a thing he could do to help Andrew right now. He couldn't shoot the thing without hitting his friend. And they were moving too fast for anything he did to matter.
Besides, he had a feeling he knew what Andrew had in mind. It was indeed a crazy idea. But it might just work.
Instead John grabbed Beth by the shoulders and dove away from the monster, tucking them both against the far wall. They were as out of sight as he could make them, as unthreatening as they could appear.
He couldn't resist looking over his shoulder to watch the thing coming. If he was about to die, he wanted to at least see it. But the alien bug didn't come after him. Andrew dashed out through the opening into the hail of Naga fire and the insect followed him. John saw Andrew go down and said a quick prayer that he was all right.
Adventures of the Starship Satori: Book 1-6 Complete Library Page 40
