That must be how they hacked the system. Not that it helped her. She didn’t know what any of it meant.
“Oh,” Booster said, as though he knew what she was talking about. “Turn it off?”
“We can’t just pull the plug. There’s no telling what kind of permanent damage that would cause. It could take down life support or decompress the entire station. They also could have rigged the system in case it was tampered with. What if they rigged the sun-shields to fail?”
Booster grumbled. “Very dangerous. Can you fix it?”
“Only Sentinel security bots and maintenance bots know how to interact with the Sentinel’s primary systems—or so I’m told—and despite thorough study, no one has ever learned their secrets.”
Clio looked back at the tech to make sure he hadn’t moved. She suddenly realized that she recognized another part of the helmet. Part of the shell looked similar to the section of Sentinel maintenance bot that Taza had retrieved for their STD.
That explains it.
“They’ve accessed the system using the maintenance bots,” she whispered to herself, throwing her mind back to what little she had learned from working with parts Taza had retrieved.
“He’s awake,” the tech whispered.
The sound startled Clio, and she spun, her blaster ready. Booster also had his stunner pointed at the Thandrall and looked to Clio for instructions. The tech hadn’t moved, and Clio suspected that he wasn’t going anywhere while the device was attached to his skull. She gestured for Booster to stand down and he relaxed.
“Who’s awake? What the hell are you talking about?” Clio said.
Booster poked the tech’s leg. “He’s still asleep, I think.”
“Either he’s gone mad, or he’s lost in a dream.” She turned back to the control station and quickly strung together a subroutine similar to the one she coded for the STD. The station’s system deleted her changes before she could even execute them.
“Please help me!”
The tech’s scream shook Clio to her core.
He cried out again as though he was simultaneously undergoing immense pain, sorrow, and distress.
A loud crash resonated from the direction of the entrance. Clio checked her SIG’s VD and found a small squad of Chimera soldiers standing outside, trying to work their way in. Others stood off to one side, holding off Swigger and the others.
“Shit!” She spat. “It’s Chimera. We have to do something fast.”
Booster cocked his head to the tech. “Help him?”
“I don’t know. We’d have to cut him out of that, but we don’t know what it’ll do to the Sentinel.”
“Help me…” The whisper was somehow more unsettling than the earlier scream. “Don’t let him wake up. Don’t let him get me.”
Another crash sounded from the entrance.
“To hell with it,” Clio said through gritted teeth as she pulled a knife free from her hip. “Help me get this crap off him.”
Booster squeaked agreement and climbed onto the tech’s shoulders, pulling at the pipes and electronics.
Clio tore at the helmet, but it was no good. It was almost as if the top of the tech’s head had been removed and the helmet installed in its place. She helped Booster tear out the smaller cables. Some had been installed directly into the tech’s head. Those, she cut free with her blade. They had cut everything away apart from the heaviest two conduits running from the tech’s eyes to the control station.
“It’ll take us all day to cut through those,” Clio pointed out. “They’re as thick as my arms.”
She checked her SIG. There were fewer Chimera soldiers outside Terminal Thirteen now, but they had a cutting torch. She couldn’t tell what kind of progress they had made. Either way, she and Booster weren’t going anywhere. “May as well make a start.”
She stabbed down on one of the cables in anger. Her blade sank through the casing and lodged between a cluster of smaller wires inside. She pulled on the hilt, but tingling ran up her arm, freezing her in place.
Initially, she thought she’d received an electric shock that did something to her nervous system, but she felt something moving around inside her head; an alien feeling—no, a presence—streamed up her arm and prodded at her mind.
Seeing she couldn’t move, Booster fired his stunner. The cable exploded, and Clio was thrown to the ground.
She shook herself off and scrambled back to her feet, the entire right side of her body numb from the blast.
The Thandrall tech screamed in a high pitch as he flailed onto the floor twitching, the helmet still attached to his head. Smoke began to bellow from the gear on his head and he released another blood-curdling cry.
Clio looked around for options.
If only I’d chosen a starblade instead of a remote recon unit. The one the Shanti had used on her had likely run dry.
“The phase rifle,” Booster said, pointing to the hallway.
“Of course! Watch him.” Not that the tech could do anything sobbing on the floor.
Clio hurried into the tunnel and returned with the semi-phase rifle that had almost killed her just minutes before.
She repeatedly blasted the cables, and they eventually melted apart. As soon as they were severed, the tech stopped crying, but he still shook.
Flames erupted from the control station and Booster retrieved a fire-extinguisher from the corner. He sprayed foam as Clio dragged the tech to safety.
Clio knelt down by the Thandrall and jabbed a syringe into the side of his exposed neck. His shaking wasn’t as violent, but she pumped the sedative anyway. She tried to remove the helmet again, but it was not good.
“He’s coming,” the Thandrall said, his voice weak and distant.
Clio shook his shoulder. “Who is coming?”
“He’s coming,” he repeated mindlessly.
Clio went to a secondary control station to check on the Sentinel’s systems.
“Better?” Booster inquired, throwing the fire extinguisher to the side.
She still had no access, but the strange-looking Chimera code had gone. “It looks like the Sentinel’s programs have returned to normal. I can’t tell exactly what’s going on, but if I had to guess, I’d say security and communications are rebooting.”
“Good.” Booster squeaked.
“If I’m right, then yes.”
The fighting outside intensified. Clio switched her SIG to the recon drone again, but no matter how many times she slammed it against the wall, the VD image wouldn’t clear.
The communications node on the terminal’s control station flashed yellow. She suspected it meant the reboot had worked. She dialed Swigger on her SIG, hoping the network card hadn’t been fried completely. “Swigger, do you read.”
“Yes…” he sounded surprised. “You fixed comms?”
“No, it magically fixed itself,” she said sarcastically, though she was as relieved to hear he was okay as she was that systems were coming back online. “Sounds hot out there. What’s going on?”
“SenSec reinforcements just arrived and picked the last of them off. For a second, I thought Chimera would get to you before we could. A whole squad came out of nowhere. Thankfully, they had no long-range weapons.”
“Good,” she sighed. “The security infrastructure is still rebooting.”
“Hopefully, that’ll turn the tide. We’re waiting at the door.”
“I’ll be right there.” She turned to Booster. “It looks like we did it. Keep an eye on this guy while I let them in.”
Booster nodded and stood next to the tech. The Thandrall still muttered about someone coming. Whatever had happened must have fried his head.
She stumbled back down the tunnel toward the entrance, her limbs tired and sore. She rewired the control panel and the doors snapped open.
Sergeant Chin stood at the entrance with a dozen SenSec officers. The nearest four trained their rifles on her.
“What’s going on?”
“Hands up!”
Chin snapped.
“What are you talking—”
Chin flicked his wrist and one of his officers fired a warning shot, and Clio put her hands in the air as ordered.
Two officers approached. One stood to the side, his rifle aimed at her head as the other disarmed her and twisted her arms behind her back.
“Hey—”
The officer holding the rifle to her head hit her in the side of the helmet with the butt, causing lights to flash in her visor. “Quiet terrorist!”
Terrorist? What the hell is he talking about?
Something roared above, and Clio looked up to see an aircar hovering in the sky.
Chin swore and looked in the direction of the vehicle, shielding his eyes against the bright sky with the side of his hand. “Is that one of ours?”
“No, it’s the media,” one of his officers answered.
“Dammit!” Chin shouted. “Someone get HQ on the line, and get rid of them.”
One of the officers moved off to the side and tried to get in contact with his colleagues on his SIG.
Chin turned to Clio. “Who else is inside?”
“Three Chimera stiffs,” she said looking him dead in the eyes. “And a tech with a strange helmet attached to his head. I don’t think he’s a threat. Needs immediate medical—”
“Any more of your people?” Chin cut in.
“No, it was just me,” she said without breaking eye contact.
The officer behind removed her SIG and locked her wrists together with restraints.
“Take her in with the others. If she so much as gives you lip, shoot her. Check inside. Be careful. I don’t trust the bitch. Kill anything that moves.”
Everything in Clio wanted to scream out to Booster, but she swallowed her words and told herself he would know what to do.
The officers forced her toward a SenSec aircar resting within a stone’s throw and shoved her into the back. Swigger and O’Donovan were already in there.
They locked her restraints to the aircar wall and slammed the door behind her.
She turned her head as far as she could to get a look at the others again. Swigger looked at her and smiled. Several of his teeth were missing, and his face was swollen to the point where she wouldn’t have recognized him had she bumped into him on the street. O’Donovan didn’t look much better, only he was unconscious. Clio was glad to see he was still breathing.
“Holy shit Swigger. Are you okay?”
“Been better,” he said, wincing. “Still look better than this lazy bastard, though.” He tried to laugh but ended up coughing and moaning in pain instead.
“The Shanti?”
“Chimera got them.”
“What the hell happened?”
“I’m not sure. One minute we were waiting for you to open the door, the next we were having our asses kicked by SenSec. I get the feeling they think we were helping Chimera.”
“Helping Chimera?” Clio’s voice broke as she shrieked. “We just stopped them.”
“That’s what I told SenSec, but it didn’t stop them from doing a number on me. O’Donovan tried to help but…” He nodded to Riley.
The aircar jerked as it lifted into the sky, its engines humming deeply below. Clio slumped against her restraint bar, feeling deflated all of a sudden.
She didn’t understand what was going on. They had just brought the Sentinel’s systems back online. Surely SenSec could see that. She had so many questions. Had they won? What had happened to the Ministers? What about Taza and Grimshaw? Would Booster be okay?
26
Of Body and Mind
Grimshaw rested against the door that led to the tunnel connecting to the safe-room, panting hard. He had landed several direct blows on Artax, but nothing seemed to phase the brute. He stood a good head taller and weighed a great deal more. His black TEK was twice as broad as Grimshaw’s and should have been cumbersome and slow, but the Thandrall moved so fast Grimshaw had trouble keeping up.
Zantho and the Tower Guard lay on the floor unconscious. Grimshaw had assumed they were dead and was glad to see they were still breathing. He momentarily dropped his guard when checking on them, and he paid with a broken nose. He had hoped that one of them would get up, but he realized that they would be powerless against so many enemies anyway. As things stood, Artax was using him as a toy. Grimshaw wasn’t sure what point the Thandrall was trying to make by dragging things out. Maybe he was doing it to show off to his men, or maybe he simply derived sick pleasure from drawing out a person’s suffering. Either way, Grimshaw was running low on steam and barely had one punch left to give…or take, for that matter.
If only the other Tower Guard would get here already. The gunfight in the adjacent corridor had been ongoing, but the Chimera soldiers didn’t seem too bothered. They were clearly seasoned fighters. The Tower Guard, on the other hand, were more form than function.
Artax stood back, his body held in a fighting stance. A handful more Chimera soldiers had poured into the chamber to watch the fight.
“That’s okay, Jason. Catch your breath. I’ll wait.”
Grimshaw considered his fury-drive. The Aegi surgeons had upgraded the implant in his head, stating that it would be more stable and would help reduce the attacks he experienced on occasion. However, since the technology had been lost when the Confederation Science Division had shut down the Fury Program decades before, they had no idea what the consequences of using it would be. For all he knew, it would boil his brain, so he had been keeping it as a last resort.
“Ready to go another round?” Artax said, stepping forward.
Grimshaw closed his eyes, drew one more deep breath, and whispered the command for the fury-drive, unlocking the neurological gate that cut it off from the rest of his brain. He opened his eyes as his heart rate exploded, warmth coursing through his veins, lending fresh strength to his musculoskeletal and nervous systems. He sucked air through his nostrils, a half a dozen odors he hadn’t noticed before registering with his senses. The warmth burned away all worry, fatigue, and pain. Grimshaw’s perception shifted, becoming a mere passenger in his own body as his instincts took control.
Artax still moved incredibly fast for his size, but Grimshaw tracked his movements; he noted his gait, the position of his shoulders, the incoming left hook.
Grimshaw blocked the strike, and spun on his heel, bringing his elbow up, smashing Artax in the side of the head. The Thandrall stumbled sideways, almost losing his balance, but caught himself at the last second.
He looked at Grimshaw, wide-eyed, then a smile crossed his face. “Yes! That’s what I’m talking about. I knew you had to be holding out on me—”
Grimshaw launched for the Psi Commando, his fists moving in a blur. The Thandrall evaded and block half the blows, but the others struck true and the last took him hard in the jaw, sending him crashing to the ground.
Two gray-clay Chimera suits lifted their rifles.
“I told you to stay out of it!” Artax growled, still kneeling on the floor.
The Chimera soldiers withdrew quickly, slinking into the shadows.
Knowing he didn’t have long before the fury rage wore out, rendering him helpless, Grimshaw tried to force his body to hurry, and to his amazement, it listened.
He charged at the Thandrall, kicking him hard in the side as he tried to get up. Grimshaw went in for another kick, but Artax got a hold of his ankle and twisted his leg, causing him to crash into a wall.
A Rivarian in a black Chimera TEK moved out of the way. Artax came in with his fists, but Grimshaw blocked the strikes with ease before landing several of his own. He punched twice more, each blow taking the Thandrall square in the face. Blood squirted from his nose and poured from a gash in his lip, and the left side of his face began to swell.
“Yes!” Artax cried out with delirious laughter.
Grimshaw sensed that some of the troops had grown uncertain about the situation, possibly questioning their superior’s sanity.
Artax c
harged Grimshaw and twisted at the last second, his shoulder aimed at Grimshaw’s face. Grimshaw sidestepped the attack and smashed Artax’s head into a pillar.
The Thandrall fell to his knees, holding onto the support with one hand.
His shoulders heaved and Grimshaw thought he was struggling to breathe, but soon realized he was actually giggling.
Wasting no more time, Grimshaw moved to the Chimera commander and got him in a head-lock. Artax grappled with his arms but it made no difference.
Grimshaw lowered his center of gravity and pushed his feet against the pillar, his arms squeezing harder.
“You’re quite the legend, after all…Jason,” the Thandrall barely managed to croak. “But let’s see whether your mind is anywhere near as strong as your body.”
Artax lifted a hand to Grimshaw’s temple. The phantasmal claws tore at his mind again, and as hard as Grimshaw fought, they broke through his defenses with ease. He tried to summon the unfamiliar words that had kept the Thandrall at bay earlier but couldn’t recall the sounds. Horror registered as he realized the language had been burned away when he’d activated his fury-drive.
Grimshaw’s crusted eyes parted slowly. Sleep under the jungle canopy of Gorthore had come in fits and spurts. It had rained hard half of the night, and he rested against a thorny bough. The tree-trunk was far from comfortable. One could have been forgiven for thinking that everything on Gorthore—from the flora and fauna, to the terrain—had been designed to make life tough.
“Rise and shine, ladies,” Sergeant Richards said on the vox. “These Krag bastards aren’t gonna kill themselves, and I’d like to make good progress before another storm hits.”
A shadow fell over Grimshaw as he was about to get up.
“You heard the Sergeant, Grimshit,” Corporal Bradley said. “Get your ass moving before the Krags sniff out your stinking hole.”
Grimshaw got to his feet just as a beam cut through the leaves above. The white light flashed about before him, instantly disintegrating everything it touched. Trees, flesh, and bone turned to ash in a heartbeat. In an instant, the light was gone, leaving Grimshaw standing on the edge of a ring of fire. It had happened so fast, there hadn’t been any screams.
The Galactic Sentinel: Ultimate Edition: 4 Books with 2000+ Pages of Highly Entertaining Sci-Fi Space Adventure Page 59
