by Reiter
“However, Kiaplyx, you are more than a machine, are you not? You are a living machine! So alive that you have taken to emotion as if it is the height of your sentience. I suppose from your perspective, it may be; coming to express things that simply do not make logical sense must be an awesome feat for a machine.”
“You only show your ineptitude,” Kiaplyx stated. “You know nothing of me!”
“In all things there is a beginning,” Dungias resolved. “And though your intelligence is beyond genius, your ability to navigate emotion is…” Dungias looked around at the destruction. “…in need of maturity. You are so alive that you have managed to become petty. I blame the models of life around you… especially Taas.”
“Leave her out of this!” Kiaplyx shouted as the suit fired a laser bolt that Dungias absorbed, taking a step back from the impact. He blinked his eyes rapidly and staggered from the weight of the power his body now held.
“You have to teach me that!” Danatra projected.
“Just rest,” Dungias directed. “I am going to need you shortly.
“I thought as much,” Dungias said, adjusting his grip on the sword. “Very petty indeed! So, after all that you went through while separated from your higher functions, you become whole… and jealous?! Surely living machines are made of sterner stuff!”
“Absorb this!” the suit barked as a plate over the left shoulder opened and three darts fired. Dungias spun, swinging his blade and cleaving all three darts from their paths. They fell to his feet in pieces, unable to even explode as they were intended to.
“Taas… she did not want you,” Dungias continued. “Not the way she wants me. All that time you spent with her, coming to love her… and she asked me to stay… she never asked you. And why would she? Taas was never the sort to settle for less.” All three suits engaged their thrusters and flew over the tables toward Dungias. The Traveler jumped up, laying out over the three suits and spinning as he arched over them. All three suits landed with their power plants either cut or completely burned away from the body.
“Nicely done, Vu-Prin,” Danatra said as she smiled. “... but he’s only going to send more. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve killed. They just keep coming!”
“Good,” Dungias said as he closed his eyes and extended his senses. “Where were you when the last group arrived?”
“About where I am right now, and they popped up about seven trams to your left,” Danatra relayed.
“Then they will pop up to the lateral opposite of that position next,” Dungias quickly concluded as he broke into a run for the area of the floor. “Find Nugar! The Tohgrunn he has to contend with do not know I have taken Zaylo!”
Danatra’s brow drew tight as she watched her Vu-Prin run and take a leap into a forming dimensional door; he had guessed right… exactly right, which told Danatra that her younger sibling did not guess at all… somehow he knew! In an instant he was gone, she could not even feel his mind any longer, but there was something in simply viewing him move that suspended her fatigue and Danatra took in a deep breath before she pushed away from the wall, running to the fallen suits. She absorbed what power remained in the capacitors before departing to find the old Traveler.
“Come back to us, Dungias,” she thought, turning as soon as she was out of the cafeteria. “You are the Light of my dreams, my so-called shay-spawn Vu-Prin!”
Beware the wrath of a patient adversary.
John C. Calhoun
The armoured suit fell back under the force of Dungias’ lunge. His body was fueled and augmented by the blasts he had absorbed, but the young Traveler had no designs on keeping that energy for much longer. “This ends now!” Dungias shouted, driving his blade into the emitter pad of the teleportation device. The power surging through the blade did not mix well with the circuitry, and it fell dark as lights and machinery began to explode.
Dungias pulled the blade free and jumped to the closest suit awaiting departure. He put one foot on its shoulder and jumped high for the far wall. Applying some of the power he had absorbed, Dungias made it to the wall, driving the blade into it. More circuitry was destroyed; in particular, equipment that was used by the computer in the transmission of data. As he heard weapons charging and servos moving, Dungias knew that at least two of the suits had already received their download. He moved as if he was going to push off from the wall, but instead jumped down for the floor.
Landing with a grunt, his blade cutting down the middle of the back of one of the moving suits, Dungias stood up spinning. He cut off the arm of another suit.
“That unit was not active,” Kiaplyx said as a suit fired its arm-mounted blaster twice. With his hand inside the removed arm, Dungias had a makeshift shield that deflected both blasts. Dungias jumped toward the suit, blocking a third blast before he ran through the chest of the last active suit. His blade passed through the chest and out the middle of the back.
“Still it managed to serve its purpose,” Dungias replied, kicking the suit free of his blade. The pommel was beginning to get warm and Dungias was surprised the weapon had lasted this long. “And in case you are wondering, that most recent influx of code you cannot comprehend, that is called fear! You will end soon, machine, and it will be your actions that have brought this about. Consider that while you have the time!” Dungias turned at the sound of the doors leading out of the chamber locking.
“It would seem that I will have a great deal of time, then,” Kiaplyx replied.
“Short-sighted machine!” Dungias hissed through gritted teeth. He walked over to one of the suits, cut away the interface port, and opened the back. He climbed in and activated the suit. As he expected, it was fully charged and armed. Charging the blasters for maximum output and then holding the release, Dungias dropped to one knee and leaned into his shot. He tumbled inside the suit, but only once, sliding to a stop. He looked up to see the smoke and debris clearing. The door remained, but that had not been his target. Like so many restrained thinkers, the original builders of the ship had placed more security in the door than they had the walls. Dungias ran and jumped high over the door, crashing through the wall and landing in the hallway outside the door.
“Care to make another estimation as to your remaining moments?!” Dungias yelled as he started to run for the lift. The suit moved well, unlike what he had experienced in his training with the Mal-Vin. It did not take him long to establish a rhythm of movement to run faster than he could have outside the suit.
“Do not lose your perspective, Dungias,” he thought. “He is stronger, faster, smarter and better than you. But on this star-term, Kiaplyx will have to prove it! He will have to prove it in order to remain on this side of Driahdré!” Approaching the lift, Dungias could see the cars were being called to a higher floor. “He means to hammer me with a lift car,” he presumed, charging his arm blasters. “Let us see if he can strike this nail!” Firing the left blaster at maximum range, the lift doors were blasted out of the way. “I wonder if the makers of these suits ever had anything like Pax’Dulah in mind when they fashioned them. We shall have to see!” The car of the shaft he was about to enter stopped its ascension and Dungias could hear it powering up. He dove well before reaching the doors, landed on his hands, rolled to a one-knee stance, sliding into the shaft. The smoothness and speed of the roll told Dungias that the suit possessed considerable flexibility. The slide showed him how the suit dealt with its own momentum. Kiaplyx had made a very crucial error; the suit actually made the young Traveler more agile!
Dungias was able to push off from the edge as he dropped into the shaft. He could hear the track wheels engage on the lift car as it began to drop. Dungias blew out smoothly as he recalled everything Onkorro had taught him about how to shoot. The fate of his life was riding on the outcome of this shot. The blast was away just before Dungias reached the far wall of the shaft. The Traveler planted his feet against the bottom of the cross beam, gauged the speed of the descending lift car and jumped down at a very slight angle.
An explosion sounded from beneath him as he fired at the lower side track wheels just before his feet made contact with the bottom of the car. He pushed off from the car at an angle with his arms crossed in front of his face. The suit burst through what was left of the blasted doors. Again Dungias rolled and slid to a stop, quickly jumping back into the shaft and firing at the track wheels on the upper side of the lift car. He landed on the car momentarily, hopping for the far wall as the car continued its free fall.
“Desperation,” Dungias thought, hearing another lift car coming on to his shaft. He lifted his blasters and fired both, taking out the doors. He jumped up to the floor and cleared the shaft just before the second car could drop down. “You have learned much about what it is to be alive, Kiaplyx. It is unfortunate you chose to be a petulant child!
“And while part of my mind calls to me… to have a calmer perspective and a constructive resolve, I have lost at the very least a loving kommis! I could very well teach this machine the error of its ways and help it to mature… but it has angered the petulant child in me!”
Dungias turned down the corridor that led to the computer room. He was becoming more and more impressed with the ability of the suit, but he could not allow that to be the focus of his thoughts. The door to the chamber was open, but Dungias did not run inside. He slid to a stop just outside the room and jumped up to the closest wall. He could feel energy coursing through the floor panels. He jumped away from the wall and activated the thrusters for the suit, hovering in place. He started charging all of his weapons.
“You have a decision to make, Dungias,” Kiaplyx said as a monitor was activated. “And it may not be the one you think. You should see what I consider the very thing that will change your mind.” Dungias looked at the monitor, keeping his senses at their sharpest. The energy traps in the floor, walls and ceiling had been deactivated.
“What have you done?!” Dungias exclaimed as the image became clear on the monitor. Held out over a heated smelter was Taas, stripped of her computer clothing and nearly unconscious. She had been there for some time, and the intense heat had sapped her strength.
“If you make a move toward me, I will release the Kwilek into the smelter,” Kiaplyx warned. “In only seconds there will not be enough of her to put into a regenerator. Her death will be on your hands!”
Dungias looked at the monitor and he could see Taas was both crying and sweating. If it was a hologram or a computer generated image, it was a thorough one. The female Kwilek was shocked out of her stupor. She screamed in rage before she opened her eyes.
“Your savior has returned,” Kiaplyx stated and Taas chuckled.
“Dungias, can you hear me?” Taas cried. “You’ve got to save me one more time, big guy.” The platform upon which her body had been placed dropped half a tram toward the melted material and Taas screamed in fright as she grabbed on to the platform. “C’mon, Traveler,” she cried. “You know there are some things I just can’t do myself! That’s why I’ve got you!”
“That I do know,” Dungias thought.
“No!” Kiaplyx said in disbelief. “She cannot mean that!”
“Oh, but she does,” Dungias said, locking in his aim. “Goodbye, Taas.” He fired into the hub three times before he started to shoot into every computer bank in the chamber. The monitor went black and Dungias closed his eyes, feeling an energy surge move away from the room.
“No, it is smarter than that,” Dungias thought. “I simply do not know how many systems into which it could have loaded itself… but I would not need to know, would I, Kiason?” Dungias amplified the thruster output and started toward the ceiling of the room. “And Kiason took back Ki-Aegis,” he calculated. “I should assume that they maintained the things they saw me do against the Athun. I suppose this is where I learn how to contend with myself. However, I am not dealing with a Malgovi Traveler, and that is where I will make my stand!” Dungias reached the ceiling and used the suit to access his PC, keying in commands. He then pulled down a few wires as he felt a presence quickly approaching.
Kiason dropped his stealth field and Dungias could see a new look for the sub-system living machine. Though still all-metal, Kiason had taken on the size and shape of Dungias, wearing Ki-Aegis on its left arm. It lifted up its hand and dropped a pile of smelted materials on the floor. “Do you see?!” it shouted. “Do you see what you have done?! This is all that is left of her! You killed her!” it shouted, looking around the room, but it could not find its prey. “Where are you?!”
“You might have changed your appearance, Kiaplyx,” Dungias said softly. “… but I am still above you.” Kiason looked up and though its eyes looked directly at where Dungias was hanging, the electromagnetic field produced by the cables did not allow his optics to see the Traveler… at least not at his current setting of vision. His eye flashed to red in color and Dungias smiled.
“Now he sees me,” he thought. “… and I am barely into my count. No one said this would be easy.” Dungias released his grip and re-engaged his thrusters. Kiason jumped up, flying much faster and swinging Ki-Aegis for the helmet. Dungias soon discovered that fighting while flying is much like fighting in the absence of gravity, only much faster. He leaned out of the way of the swing, but used the fold of his leg to lock around the arm. He then put his foot against Kiason’s face and called for full thrust capacity. Kiason cried out as its face was burned, but it recovered quickly enough to glare at Dungias before he collided with the wall. Dungias made the most of his opponent forgetting his surroundings, flying down for the door and out of the room.
“It will give chase,” the young Traveler thought. “… and it is much faster than I am. In such tight places, however, speed does not yield success.” Dungias did not look back when he heard the clanging of metal or the powerful thrusters that propelled Kiason along. Dungias flew at his best speed, which was not worthy of comparison, finally looking back to see Kiason drawing nearer rapidly.
Dungias stopped suddenly and lifted his arm-top blaster. Kiason lifted Ki-Aegis but no shot was made.
“I must thank Ejdren for teaching me this maneuver,” Dungias thought, catching the shield and twisting it, placing his foot against Kiason’s ribs. A thruster kick and quick jerk removed Ki-Aegis and it shifted in color, becoming bronze.
“This is… unexpected,” Dungias said as he dropped the shield. While it would have been superlative to use the shield, he simply could not trust it without having Alpha verify its intentions. He felt an energy surge before Ki-Aegis hit the ground. Dungias flew away, turning for the lift shaft.
“Energy bolt,” Dungias thought, cutting thrusters and belly sliding on the flooring. An explosion burst just over him and he reactivated thrusters to take flight again. In a space where a tight turn was necessary, Dungias flew wide, ramming the wall panel where the energy bolt had struck. He was in the crawlspace and was about to fly for the lift shaft when he felt a hand grasp his ankle.
“Enough games!” Kiason yelled as it pulled the suit from the wall. It slammed the suit to the ground and released energy through its hand into the armour. It overloaded most of the suit’s systems before driving its fist through the chest. Kiason pulled its hand free and was surprised not to see any blood. Flipping the suit over, it saw that the back panel was missing; Dungias had ejected inside the shaft. Kiason screamed again as it fired energy bolts into the shaft.
Explosions ripped the inside of the ship apart and trailed after Dungias as he made the desperate leap down the lift shaft. The explosions pushed him forward enough to where he could reach for a crossbeam after dropping two whole levels. He screamed as pain stabbed at his shoulders and back, but he did not let go of the beam. He knew with the outcry that Kiason would know his exact location, which meant he had only a few moments. He was in the shaft with the blasted lift car, but the computer controls were offline. A fist came through the wall, striking Dungias in the chest, and he felt it was an act of wonder his chest cavity had not collapsed. His back slammed against
the far wall and Dungias fell forward, stunned and unable to move. He was caught by his right shoulder, with Kiason’s middle finger and thumb piercing skin to ensure a good grip. Dungias screamed as Kiason held him in place.
“A scream?” the machine inquired. “That does not sound anything like your normal repartee, Traveler.”
“NEITHER WILL THIS!” Dungias screamed, grabbing the wrist of the offending hand and absorbing all the energy he could find. Immediately Kiason’s thrusters disengaged as it was stunned by the sensation. Dungias used the new power to fuel his body and pulled Kiason’s hand away from his wounded shoulder. Looking at his right hand, Dungias grunted as his fingers balled up into a fist. The pain inside the Traveler bonded with his rage and increased his focus and the power of his body. His right fist flew up and punched into Kiason’s chest. Dungias lifted his feet to the beltline and stomach of the automaton.
“Just one more effort,” Dungias whispered. He had a hold of one wrist and the inside of Kiason’s chest. He shrieked as he pulled with his hands and pushed with his feet. They spun as they fell. Kiason initiated its thrusters and they began to slow down. Dungias took in a deep breath, made another attempt at absorbing all of Kiason’s energy, and used that power to fuel the effort of ripping the arm from Kiason’s body.
Malfunctioning on too many levels to count, Kiason’s thrusters failed and the drop resumed. With only slivers of his augmented strength remaining, Dungias balanced his body, took another hold of Kiason and slung him down toward the debilitated lift car. The automaton crashed down on to the top of the car, and Dungias collided with the body moments thereafter. The Traveler bounced, blood and bone coming away from his body as he fell through the service door of the lift car; the floor was no softer than the body of the automaton.
