Chim stopped so the bed lay between him and ADAM.
ADAM’s head lifted. “You have questions?”
“Who is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?” Chim asked.
ADAM was silent a moment. “I suspect she’s from the alien artifact. Shortly after it was pulled from the photosphere, she appeared on the Venture in a burst of light. She fell unconscious then, too, for a while. Recovering, she was unresponsive to Galactic. She learned quickly, but once she started talking, she didn’t manage to provide much information. The Venture’s medical officer examined her. He said she checked out as textbook human. That seemed suspicious to me.” ADAM’s electric gaze swiveled back to the girl’s face. “Her readings were too exact, showing no variation.”
Elissa’s voice sounded inside Chim’s helmet, a private consultation. “That ‘burst of light’ comment interests me. The Imperium has been working on teleportation technology for a long time and hasn’t got it right yet. If she can do that while separate from the alien artifact, she’s a danger to my ship.”
“So what do you suggest?” Chim asked.
“Cryogenic suspension,” Elissa said, “to play it safe.”
“We won’t get a lot of answers out of her that way. We’ll save the freeze for Plan B,” Chim said.
“What’s plan A?” There was an edge to Elissa voice, as if his decision had not met with joy.
“I’m going to talk to her. While I do so, I want you to deploy all drones throughout the ship, especially in sensitive areas. If she starts hopping around, I want to be able to Taser her on command.”
Elissa said, “Okay. I’m on it. Meanwhile, your fake alien relic is
almost done. I used a lot of the wreckage in Cargo Bay Two. The remainder’s been recycled for ship use.”
“Fine,” Chim said.
“Who are you talking to?” ADAM asked.
Chim looked at the cybernaut. “Talking to?”
ADAM said, “I’ve noticed these pauses of yours. This last one was particularly lengthy. I took the liberty of scanning the EM spectrum and found an encrypted comm frequency where one wasn’t supposed to be.”
“Some secrets need to be left alone,” Chim warned.
“Ironic you should say that. I’ve heard the Imperium leaves no secret unturned,” ADAM said.
Chim studied the steel giant. “What’s a glorified tin can know of irony?”
“You tell me,” ADAM countered.
The woman on the bed moaned. Her eyes fluttered open. She pulled herself into a sitting posture.
ADAM’s iron fist blurred toward her face, certain death…
Except Chim’s exo-suit matched speed and deflected the blow—ka-tang!
ADAM shoved Chim’s blocking arm away, lashing out again.
Chim had the woman in his other arm by then, dragging her with him as he backed to the med-bay door.
ADAM smashed the middle of the bed, caving in the sides. “Give her to me. She needs to die before we all do. She’s Harvester tech.”
“Then why did you keep her alive until now?” Chem asked.
ADAM stomped on the bed, trampling across it. “I’m not going to ask again.” His eyes were bright with the will to kill.
Elissa’s voice entered Chim’s helmet. “I’ve got combat drones heading your way with heavy-core weapons.”
Chim pivoted out the door, into the passageway. “Elissa, this feels completely wrong. ADAM’s logic isn’t this cold and dispassionate.”
The woman he carried stared into his visor. Her voice emerged, a weak flutter. “Guardsman, you came. I knew you would.”
He ran to a cross corridor and bore leaving ADAM’s line of sight. A swarm of spider-bots bristling with guns and energy emitters came crowding toward him. He adjusted the woman, settling her over a shoulder, and hopped over the drones. They ignored him and continued on toward ADAM.
Chim heard the sound of drone fire.
“Keep moving!” Elissa urged. “ADAM isn’t being stopped. He’s shrugging off beam attacks that should melt him into slag. He shouldn’t be this powerful. I know his specs. I’m scanning his energy signature, looking for new tech upgrades.”
“That’s definitely not the ADAM we know from before.” As he said it, he realized he’d made the statement audibly.
The woman answered. “He’s not ADAM. I am.”
The shock of the statement nearly caused Chim to stop running. More spider-bots passed, on the way to buy him more time. He spared the woman a glance, then took a corner toward a grav-lift, his exo-frame moving him at great speed, his feet ringing off the steel deck. “What do you mean?”
“Tuna in a tin!” Elissa exclaimed. “How is that even possible?”
That’s what I’m trying to find out. He reached the null-g lift and dropped inside.
The woman said, “Let me down. I can match your speed. I don’t need to be carried.”
“Fine.” Chim brought her down and set her beside him, never slowing his pace. She hit awkwardly, but steadied, matching his speed.
“So what’s your story,” Chim asked.
“Originally in this synthetic form, the alien AI hacked my cyber-core and tried to erase me by moving in. She thought she had, but I was able to use her attack link. I loaded my awareness into this body which she vacated. We essentially traded places. When her mission is accomplished, she plans to return to this form. This is the body with the teleportation system. Without taking me over again, she can’t get back to the alien relic, her home.”
Chim left the shaft and full gravity took hold again. He ran toward Cargo Bay Two. “She seemed like she was willing to kill you back in Medical.”
“When I revealed I was still alive. Sensing your presence, I had to take a chance that you wouldn’t let me be killed out of hand before I could let you know what was going on.”
The airlock’s first door cycled open. Chim and his companion entered and closed the door behind them. In a moment, the inner door would open and they’d be cornered in the cargo bay.
Chim asked, “So, what’s this body you’re in now? Is it organic? Synthetic? A hybrid of some kind?”
“The solidity is an illusion. This is a colony of nano-particles with a polymorphic outer skin. More a densely packed cyber-cloud than anything else.”
The second door opened. Chim and the woman went through. They were silently regarded by a half dozen of Elissa’s spider drones, most of them workers with metal-working tools attached. “Elissa, I need a structure welded to the deck that will keep your drones and ADAM’s current body in place as I open the hanger doors to space.”
“On it,” she said.
The spider-bots stalked off to do as commanded.
Chim shifted his attention to the female cybernaut. “ADAM, can you use your new body’s teleport system?”
“Not yet. The command systems are a complex product of an alien civilization.”
“So I shouldn’t hold my breath.”
The cybernaut looked past Chim. “You’ve got the alien relic onboard?”
“No, it’s a copy. I just need to fool the other you for a few moments.”
“What’s you plan?”
“No time. You’ll have to trust me.”
The cybernaut paused a moment, staring. “Always.”
Chim pointed at a large pile of nearby scrap. “Go behind that pile. Stay with the spider-bots. I’m going to decoy your original body to come after me.”
“I’d rather fight by your side.”
“I may need to call on you yet, but this isn’t about force. There are other ways to win.”
The female cybernaut walked away, declining argument.
Elissa’s voice sounded in Chim’s helmet. “What are you going to do? ADAM’s hacking ship systems to trace you. He’s closing in on you. You don’t have much time.”
“Elisa, connect me to ship’s intercom; I want to have a talk with the alien.”
“C
omm is live. Go ahead Chim.”
“Attention, Harvester, what the hell do you think you’re doing on my ship?”
Silence followed.
Chim decided he needed to provoke an answer. “You’re going to answer me or I’m going to destroy your former body.”
“What is it that you want to know?” The voice was river smooth, without inflection.
“What is your mission?”
“To abide, to eternal waiting.”
“Then what are you doing on my ship?”
“Ages have passed. This one grew curious. This one foresaw the need to escape from the Swimmer-in-fire. Damage is not acceptable. Damage defeats the mission.”
Chim nodded at the statements that confirmed his reasoning. “You’re a navigational beacon, aren’t you? The next time the Harvesters come, the stars may be in different positions. They might need you to tell them which worlds are prime for attack according to the ancient records, or
inform them of ships’ movements through the area.”
The alien answered, “Our hunger is our right. Our need is our law.”
“You are seriously damaged goods,” Chim said.
Elisa closed the ship’s comm, connecting to Chim. “You don’t have much time. The alien is closing in on your position.”
Chim turned. His sensors locked onto the fake version of the alien relic. Its outer covering made of many layers of thick mesh, it occupied much of the bay. He moved toward it.
“Elissa, come to me.”
Her golden projection materialized, floating in the air, pacing him.
He said, “I need you to change your appearance.”
“I thought you liked me this way.” There was a flash of hurt in her eyes.
“I do, but we need to fool ADAM’s highjacked body. I need you to impersonate the female that came aboard, and to play along with me. Can you do it?”
“Who do you think you’re talking to? Piece of cake.” Elissa’s golden form glowed out and solidified once more. The doppelganger looked convincing, but…
Chim asked, “You can fool his scanners right? I’d rather the AI not know you’re a holo-projection until the last moment.” He stopped beside the fake relic, dwarfed by it.
She shimmered red a moment, accessing the Hera crystal for enough power to condense into solidity. “Easy enough. I hope.” Standing beside him, Elissa looked back at the airlock entrance. Her vocal tone altered, a copy of the female cybernaut’s pattern. “ADAM will be through in moments. I’m trying to slow him down without letting him know I’m also in the system.”
Chim looked at her. “You have always been my secret weapon, and the love of my life.”
She swung her face toward him, expressing shock. “Chim!”
“Happy Anniversary,” he said.
“You remembered!”
“The first time I saw you on Charon. I was a young boy, alone against the universe. You were an exotic dance of translucent beauty in the water tanks. My first true friend. How could I ever forget?”
“Chim…”
“When this is over, I have a gift for you in my suite.”
The distant airlock door swung open. ADAM’s stolen body entered the space and paused, instruments searching. His head—and electric eyes—locked onto them. And the black mass of the mockup. The alien AI came forward at a relaxed pace, stomping small pieces of debris still littering the deck. The airlock door closed.
“Pump the air out of here,” Chim ordered.
The sound of the bay’s environmental recycling system fell quiet. The air pumps came on at multiple locations, thinning the air.
Elissa said, “Chim, I know about the present. I sort of peeked after you left your suite.”
The enemy’s feet clanged on the deck, growing ever louder.
“You can act surprised later,” he said. “I’ll pretend to believe it.”
The enemy was now halfway across the cargo bay.
“Open the hanger doors,” Chim said. “And grab onto the relic.”
“We’ll lose air. I haven’t gotten it all out,” Elissa said.
“I’m counting on that to roll the sphere right out of here. I’m using you and the mockup as bait.”
“How sweet of you.” Elissa grabbed onto the deep layers of latticework, as if needing the support.
The hanger doors had a widening gap. Their grinding filled the space, along with the rush of wind. In the shelter of the mockup, the effect wasn’t immediate on Chim’s exo-suit. The monster sphere itself began to roll, gaining speed.
ADAM’s body exploded into motion, rushing at Elissa and the sphere.
Chim activated circuitry that gave him magnetized feet. Locked in place, he braced for the charge of the enemy.
* * *
Wandering during his free period, Chim’s feet carried him to the aquarium level, a frequent place of refuge. He sat on a bench in the courtyard, facing a wall of glass. The water was dark, in night mode. A shark swam by while asleep. It had no choice; if it stopped swimming, it died.
Chim understood completely.
He let every thought go, resting body and mind, becoming emptiness itself. This was part of his training. He didn’t know what the training was preparing him for—just that it was for nothing good.
Sensing his presence, she came. Her umbrella was crystalline, clear. Transparent organs lay within. Her long graceful filaments trailed behind, rippling curling. A small fish came too close. It brushed a tentacle and dinner was served as the fish received a taste of neurotoxin. The tentacle reeled in the blackening fish.
The jellyfish rippled its umbrella, moving closer to the glass, as if aware of Chim. She was big, a massive—though fragile—angel in the water. He knew this jellyfish. He studied them long enough to be able to tell them apart. This was the one that always came to greet him, warming
his heart. They were friends, though worlds apart.
A dark gray shape speared the water behind her.
Chim tensed. A shark. It wiggled in the water turning, returning; no longer on autopilot. The jellyfish trailed a tentacle across the glass as if waving to Chim. He stood and walked to the glass. His hands pressed flat against it. “Behind you!”
The jellyfish made no response.
Chim’s heart pounded. His child’s hands rolled into fists.
The shark drove in, mouth open, jagged teeth exposed.
Somehow, the jellyfish spiraled aside, trailing glass-like tentacles.
The shark jammed its nose into the glass. Chim half expected cracks to appear. They didn’t. The glass was thick, enduring. Tentacles moved along the body of the shark. Alien neurotoxin was injected. The shark shuddered and died, a triumph for fragility in the face of a brutal universe. The gray shark turned black. It crumbled at the edges, sinking from sight.
It was almost as if the jellyfish were being trained for some rigorous destiny, just like him.
Chim’s wrist comm pinged, a reminder of his next period class. Leaving his heart’s companion behind, he left the courtyard, heading to the athletic center. Minutes later, Chim stood with the other children. Mats were spongy beneath their feet. An instructor faced the line. He was big. Very big. The man looked like he could bench press a refrigerator. The look in his eyes was just plain mean. He glared down the line of the children, looking for weakness, looking for fear.
“So, who wants to take me on?”
The silence was thick.
Man’s finger moved randomly, summoning several of the children to move forward. Chim was one of them. He left the comfort of the line, stopping in front of a big man. The other children were slower to approach. Chim knew there was no use in putting off the pain. Pain and challenge were the only constants here. When he stopped rising for the challenge, they’d be done with you—you’d be sent away.
The big man smiled. “So you think you got what it takes to take me down?”
Chim said nothing, his face composed.
The big man lost his smile. “
Well let’s just see.”
Chim was turned to the right. The big man walked off, and turned back to look at Chim with twenty feet between them. The big man charged. Chim stood his ground. The impact slammed him back. The big man lay on him, crushing him to the mat.
The instructor’s smile was back. “Is that all you got.”
Chim had no breath to answer with. His vision had turned gray. Everything hurt.
The instructor lifted himself off of Chim. The big man looked down.
“Are you just going to lie there?”
Chim pried himself off the mat and made himself stand. He swayed, but had time to recover since the instructor moved on to the other children he’d called forth. One by one, they faced the freight train that was the big man, displaying the same passivity as Chim.
He wasn’t sure what the point of all this was supposed to be. Conditioning? Or were they supposed to find an answer? It was sometimes hard to know, but his aching body told him to do something new. His mind searched for that answer.
It came his turn again. He stood there until the last second, then crumpled and rolled. The big man’s shins connected with Chim’s back. The big man went down, hard. Chim picked himself up. He stood, waiting. The big man rolled to his back and lay there looking upward. He shivered in place. A laugh emerged. Slowly, he picked himself up and came back to Chim. The smile was there, but the eyes were hard, glaring. “So what the hell was that?”
Chim met the man’s stare. “I fell down. Accidentally.”
The big man slapped meaty hands down Chim’s shoulders. “Okay, you’re done for the day. Go have fun.”
Chim walked across the mats, feeling the eyes of the other children on him. If hate were a burning wind, it would have lashed his back. He knew he’d pay later for standing out, having distinguished himself.
* * *
Chim waited until the enemy was almost upon him and activated his suit’s thrusters. He was slammed into Adam’s stolen body. A metallic clang filled the space. They limit the deck, Chim on top of him. They scraped along the deck as the air left the cargo bay, following the mockup toward the open bay doors. Sparks reached ADAM’s body. Automatic systems had reduced gravity to assist cargo movement, something Chim counted upon.
Agent X Page 10
