Agent X

by Morgan Blayde

  Her face turned toward the comm station. “We’ve an incoming message from Charon.”

  He felt his face settle into stern lines. “Record and play the essential part.”

  Silence held the bridge. He watched the passing stars. Soon, the message played. “The RV Venture has gone silent at Wolf 359. A fragmented transmission from the research vessel warned of an ancient artifact detected in the sun’s photosphere, possibly something left over from the last Harvester migration through our galaxy. It is feared the RV Venture has been destroyed. Wolf is under military quarantine. They’ve been told not to go in, leaving that to you.”

  Chim caught Elissa’s troubled gaze. He said, “Tell them we’re on the way, full speed.”

  She stood there, looking ephemeral and beautiful, but he knew her physical body in engineering was running everything, including the comm system, and that the message had already gone out. Elissa was very good at her job.

  “Elissa, if we have to go in close to the red dwarf to deal with this artifact, will the ship take the stress and radiation?”

  “That depends on what you mean by close. I’d really rather we don’t find out.”

  Not feeling lucky, he sighed. “I hope we have that luxury.”

  The ship approached the variable dwarf star, sensors scanning: throwing out a web of force that would feed vibrations back from solid matter while other systems tasted the EM bands. The electromagnetic spectrum was rich with gamma and x-rays thrown out by the M-type star. The red star was dim to the human eye, but not to the sensors which read its infrared frequencies well. As the IMPERIAL DRAGON reached a position equivalent to Old Earth’s distance from its yellow dwarf sun, Wolf shone ten times brighter than Earth’s moon.

  Chim stared at Wolf’s image on the bridge’s master vid screen, thinking of the mysterious alien relic the sun’s fire had hidden for galactic ages. The galaxy had been harvested several times by raiders from God knows where. Vulnerable life had fed the voracious ravagers who’d stripped planets almost to bedrock, taking technology and resources.

  Then the raiders would leave for ages, giving the victim worlds time to heal and restore themselves—for the next harvest. This explained why so many worlds were a mixture of both old and new technologies that weren’t always compatible. A few worlds—like Ebon—had survived intact, strong enough to fight off the cyclical invasions. There was no reason to think of this relic as having been lost by the raiders, except for its age and durability. But Chim’s neck hairs bristled. His gut was riding a wild hunch.

  Still at his side, Elissa had grown pensive at his retreat into his thoughts. He needed to give her something to do. “Elissa, do you think you could fix me something to eat? When things break loose, I’m not going to have time.”

  She smiled at him. “Of course. Any preferences?”

  “You know my tastes. I trust your judgement.”

  His words widened her smile. “I’ve got a drone working in the galley.”

  He nodded. “Thanks, love.”

  Her photon-based projection flickered, deepening a moment with a reddish blush as she drew on the Hera stone’s power in engineering. Her hand touched his arm and he felt actual pressure, the weight of substance. They truly touched. Her voice came low, nearly a whisper. “Chim…”

  “You’re an idiot,” he said, “if you think I can ever live without you.”

  “Thank you, Chim.”

  “For calling you an idiot?”

  “Sometimes, I need that.”

  An alarm went off at the sensor station. Elissa’s image looked that way, then back to him. “We’ve got wreckage from an Imperium vessel. I’m moving us closer, scanning for ADAM.”

  Chim pushed off the chair, leaving Elissa’s touch. He stood and advanced on the big screen like a tiger stalking prey. “Anything?”

  “I’m using the tractors to sweep the debris into Cargo Bay Two.”

  He turned toward the exit and headed off. “I’ll meet you there.”

  “Sure, Lover.”

  He took the null-grav shaft from the bridge to the appropriate floor and drifted back into gravity, dropping into the passage, landing cat-like. He took the conveyor strip on the deck, letting it whisk him to the cargo bay. The journey passed in near silence with only background sounds from ship operation. They weren’t currently carrying passengers so he hadn’t worn an exo over his interface-suit. But ADAM might be in the debris, and he only knew Chim as an x-class agent. It was time to suit up.

  “Elissa, I’m going to need an exo-suit for possible void work; retros and grapples.”

  At the pressure doors to the cargo bay, he found one of Elissa’s mech-unit waiting, a four-wheel electric cart supporting a frame that mag-clamped an empty exo suit—the one he’d just asked for. It hung vertically, ready for him to climb in. He entered and sealed the suit around him. The helmet hid his face, its midnight-green visor providing an interior vid display as well as tags to keep him informed of his suit’s various systems.

  She anticipates my needs so well, I’ve grown to expect nothing less. I wonder if this is how it is for the other x-class teams.

  His powered suit stepped off the frame, returning him to the deck. The transport cart ran off, redirected by Elissa to other duties. Chim subvocalized, testing his comm link to her. “Elissa, do you read me?”

  “Affirmative. I stand ready to serve, Lover.”

  Odd, she sounds sweeter than usual. That can’t be a good thing. He set the thought aside. Time for business.

  Taking the pressure doors one at a time, he let himself into Cargo Bay Two. The deck was littered with debris, much of it twisted and burned beyond recognition. There were pieces that could be manhandled as well as sections large enough to strain his exo-suit’s power. That was why more of Elissa’s spider-bots were in here, crawling over everything, using sensors to peer through metal, to scan and inventory the wreckage. The spiders ignored him except to transmit their findings in a continuous stream that his system could tap.

  It took a while for the sealed chamber to be found. The spiders retreated from it as Chim approached. The original function of the thing had been a small space for human waste elimination, a ship’s head. The steel lump had one door into it and that had been welded shut from the inside to form a kind of jury-rigged life-pod. Scanning revealed biological life signs.

  “Elissa?”

  She glimmered in beside him, all golden flesh and wide-staring eyes, hovering a foot off the deck. “A present from the cosmos. What do you suppose is inside?”

  “Get me a cutting tool and we’ll find out.”

  “I’ve got a mech on the way and a med-bot in case emergency treatment is needed.”

  “That was going to be my next suggestion. Besides the biological, there is a large amount of steel in there. It’s powered, but running on reserves with most systems shut down. We might have found ADAM as well.” He reached out and touched the welds framing the side of the door. “Hasty job, and I don’t think a real arc-welder was used.”

  “Be careful going in. If he’s damaged, he could be a threat, even to you.”

  “If what I suspect has happened, I don’t think there’s going to be an immediate threat.”

  The mech units arrived, closing in on the wreckage under Elissa’s wary gaze. Chim watched the mech unit attack the door with a heavy-duty cutter that showered the deck with yellowy-red sparks. Waiting for developments, he was distracted by Elissa drifting closer.

  “Chim, what do you think went on with this lump of steel?”

  “Scans are consistent with a commercial ship’s head having been hastily converted into a life-pod, which makes sense since it would have a self-contained recycling system for fresh water. One door means it needed little adaptation to get air tight in a hurry. ADAM was built on a mining colony so he probably has a built in air-purifier for rescue work in case of cave-ins. He wouldn’t need air, but anyone with him would.”

  Elissa nodded her holographic head. “And
his power core would provide temperature control.”

  The cutter fell silent. Sparks died out. The mech moved away.

  Chim used his exo-suit’s strength to peal the door open. The med-bot went in and a moment later, retreated, cradling a human female. Her eyes were closed, but her chest moved, proving life. Sheathed in a black, glittery body-sheath, wearing a belt of woven gold wire, her hair long and burnished bronze; Chim decided against her being ship’s crew.

  Probably a passenger. I’ll get her story later.

  He moved into the doorway and confirmed that it was ADAM inside, but the cybernaut had definitely seen better days. He sat on the floor like an iron Buddha. One hand was damaged, a finger ripped off and the stub melted with globs of steel adhering like barnacles. The lining of the small shower stall had been cannibalized for extra material to seal the door.

  He turned his hand into an arc-welder. The amount of power needed to weld the door shut had to have been a heavy drain on his systems. He probably shut down most systems—hibernating—in order to keep the air and heat going for this long. It’s the only reason the girl’s still alive. I guess I better wake him up now.

  Chim spoke over his shoulder. “Elissa, scan his power core and fetch me a fully charged replacement.”

  “Yes, Chim, coming at once.”

  He found her image hovering just behind his suit. He knew her projection was in no danger, but the closeness cramped his focus, dragging it away from the business at hand. She was all but pressing photonic breasts against his armored back.

  “Uh, Elissa, how about a little room? When I replace the core, he may come back to awareness in an agitated state. I won’t want to be distracted, and that’s your middle name.”

  “Yes, Chim.” She gave him no sass, drifting backwards, her eyes clinging to him.

  Weird. She’s going out of her way to be helpful. I’m not used to that. I wonder what’s wrong with her.

  The core came in the iron mandibles of a spider-bot. The steel ball

  was placed at his feet. The bot scurried away. Chim picked up the core and returned to make-shift pod. He slid inside and found the access plate in ADAM’s chest. Chim soon had it open using the basic power tools built into his suit. He pulled the old core and let it drop to the floor. ADAM’s systems shifted over to a secondary emergency battery. The electric glow of his eyes dimmed a moment and came back with less force. Chim attached the new core, lining up the leads, and sealed the chest plate.

  He backed out of the wreckage and waited.

  ADAM’s eyes flared with ion blue light. His head turned, scanning the area he was in, settling on the gap where the door had been. He shifted forward, rising into a crouch, his titanium mass a silent threat, poised for action. He stomped out of the head, onto the decking of the bay, his electric gaze locked on Chim’s exo-suit.

  “Are you the one?” ADAM asked.

  “The one you met before? Yes.” He wasn’t sure it was possible, but the titanium giant’s body seemed to bleed tension and relax.

  Probably my imagination.

  “I believed you’d come. I couldn’t trust anyone else with her life. Where is she?”

  “The woman we found inside was unconscious. I’ve had her taken to the medical bay for treatment and monitoring. She’s being well taken care of.”

  ADAM said, “I will accept that, for now. There is a pressing matter at hand.”

  “The relic in the red star’s photosphere,” Chim said. “Can you elaborate?”

  “Give me a download link.” ADAM waited.

  Chim sub-vocalized into his helmet pickup. “Elissa?”

  “Opening up a secure link to a mirror-hub isolated from main systems. Nothing dangerous can breach security.”

  Good.

  Elissa said, “This is bad, Chim. I recommend we get the hell away from the star and quarantine this place—forever.”

  “Why,” he asked.

  She took a moment to answer. “Come to the bridge. I’ll use the wraparound holo screen here to run ADAM’s download. You need to see this. Meanwhile, on my own authority, I’m getting us to a safe distance. Trust me. It’s needed.”

  There was a vibration of near panic in her voice that carried weight. Chim let that persuade him. “Fine. I’m on my way.” He shifted his attention to ADAM. “I’ll handle this from here. That’s why you called for me, right?”

  “Right. Can you have one of your drones take me to Sick Bay? I’d like to check up on the woman.”

  The woman? Don’t you know the name of the human you saved? Chim filed that information away for later consideration. Why so much passion for a stranger? Why passion at all from a true cybernetic organism?

  But he remembered, from the beginning, ADAM had displayed far more emotion than a thing of titanium steel—with a synthetic brain, and electricity for blood—should have been capable of. ADAM had been designed to be a cold mentality, removed from everything human. Only pretending, hiding his humanity, Chim fit the role much better. That success disturbed him, until he shook it off, turning from ADAM, heading back toward the bridge. ADAM followed him out of the cargo bay. From there, a spider drone led the Artificial-Dialectic-Anthropomorphic-Matrix toward Medical.

  In his exo-suit, Chim stomped on alone, carrying the weight of the Imperium upon his shoulders as he returned to the bridge. He floated out of the lift tube, reentering the artificial gravity of the bridge. His suit’s systems adjusted faultlessly; he landed with only a slight bump and strode to the captain’s chair. Too small for the exo-suit, the chair morphed, readjusting with a series of clicks, expanding to take his greater mass. He sat and viewed the curved holo-screen. The screen showed a research vessel with heavy shielding, a gray wedge skimming the red star’s photosphere like an arrowhead. Using a steel cable, the Venture dragged an instruments bundle that vanished and reappeared in the red dwarf’s fire.

  “So far, everything looks normal,” Chim said.

  “Yeah? Watch this.”

  Teeth-like spikes of fire converged on the dragged probe, biting, swallowing. The spikes meshed as a fiery, eyeless face surfaced on a long, serpentine neck.

  “A dragon?” Chim said. A very big dragon.

  “If dragons can be made of energy plasma,” Elissa said. “Talk about the one that got away. Okay, I’m queuing up the ship’s next encounter with the beast.”

  The red star shifted and the background stars blinked to new positions. The research ship seemed to have come up with another probe to dangle. The cables on it were longer.

  “They’re trying to get more information without getting dangerously close,” Elissa said.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” Chim said.

  The Venture jerked to a stop as its lure was snagged. Then, achingly slow, the vessel retreated from the red dwarf. The instrument package emerged from flame, gripped by a mechanical claw from a black metal sphere that was half the size of the research ship. An ion-blue glow bled out of the rescued sphere, turning away the solar energy bathing it.

  “And there’s the alien artifact,” Chim said. “Analysis?”

  “The sphere is strongly reminiscent of the technology of the Harvesters that decimated the galaxy a few ages ago, returning many worlds to barbarism.”

  “Not yours,” Chim said.

  “We were one of the few worlds strong enough to fight them off,” Elissa said. “That’s why they will hit us even harder next cycle around.”

  “The Imperium is not going to let that happen. I’m not going to.” He returned his attention to the holo-screen in time to see the return of the dragon. It shot out of the dwarf sun without entirely leaving it. The plasma beast arced past the alien artifact and enveloped the Venture with burning coils. The coils melted through the research ship, cutting it into pieces. The ship’s engine core spewed energy that was drawn to the dragon and absorbed.

  So that’s what happened. An outright explosion wouldn’t have allowed survival.

  The dragon turned on the ali
en artifact, racing for it. As it reached its target, its jaws clomped on the probe, destroying it. The holo-play ended.

  Playful bastard.

  Elissa said, “The feed ADAM gave us was data acquired from the probe before it was destroyed. Talk about multitasking; he created a survival pod, rescued a human, and hacked the probe all at once.”

  “So, do we know why this alien latticework was left in the dwarf star?”

  “I’ve been crunching the data from the destroyed probe. There are highly structured x-ray emissions mixed in with the star’s natural radiation. This is just a guess, but I think the dragon’s chew toy is actually a navigation beacon. I think if we look in a few more variable stars, we’ll find more of these.”

  Chim pushed himself out of the chair. “Send a report to Charon. The white coats will be doing backflips over this discovery.”

  Elissa’s tone turned grim. “They’ll want us to recover the beacon if at all possible.”

  “There is a way. When strength is unlikely to prevail, trickery often suffices.”

  Elissa moved up against his armor, rising in the air to stare into his visor. “Sneaky is good. What do you have in mind?”

  “Can we fabricate a copy of the dragon’s chew toy and put a strong x-ray generator inside? If it puts out a similar signal to the alien beacon, one maybe even a little stronger, we can lure the dragon to the new toy, abandoning the old.”

  “Damn! That just might work. I’ll get right on it.”

  He nodded. “Meanwhile, I’m going to check on our patient.”

  “She’s still not conscious. Oddly, the medical sensors don’t know why. Another anomaly: I’m finding no crewmember of her description registered in official records with the Venture.”

  He turned toward the lift entrance. “Maybe ADAM can shed some more light on her. He’s certainly attached enough.”

  “Do you think that’s true love?” Elissa asked.

  Chim reached the lift. “Not my problem. Hopefully not an issue.” He stepped into the reduced gravity and sank down the shaft to the sick bay level. Minutes later, he arrived, strolling in to where a sensor bed cradled the woman. ADAM stood on the far side of the bed, immobile as only a steel-forged creature could be. His photo-receptors locked on the woman.