Nepenthe Rising

by John Triptych

  The lithe dark-haired woman named Garcia threw her arm across the station chief’s chest, hurling him across the room with uncanny strength. Kamiki cried out as he tumbled backwards, smashing into the side of a console and ending up in a jumbled heap.

  Strand tried to draw his snub laser pistol, but Kruger was too fast for him. The Institute technician quickly closed the gap and grabbed hold of his wrist, just as he was about to aim the weapon in their direction. Strand groaned as the intense pressure in his wrist made him drop the pistol, the weapon falling noisily on the solid floor. He tried to struggle free, but Kruger’s grip on both his hand and throat were unnaturally strong.

  Groaning, Kamiki tried to get up, but Garcia dashed over to him and kicked him in the stomach. The station chief doubled over in agony, rolling on the floor for a few seconds before drifting off into unconsciousness.

  Kruger edged closer to Strand, who had been locked in a painful grapple hold. “If you want to live, tell me the truth. You are affiliated with the Nepenthe, yes?”

  Strand grimaced in pain. “Fekk off, you goddamn synth.”

  Kruger twisted the wrist he had been holding, fracturing it. Strand screamed and used his other hand to punch Kruger in the side of his face, but the blows were having no effect. Kruger let go of his right wrist and grabbed his other arm. “I’ll break this other one next. Then I’ll take an eye out.”

  Strand drew in a series of sharp, painful breaths. “I’m … a merc. I was hired to get in here, that’s all I know.”

  Garcia stood a few meters away and eyed him with seeming indifference. “Based on his eyes and body language, it’s highly probable he is hiding something.”

  Kruger held onto his left forearm with an ever-tightening grip. “I’ve counted two of you coming through the airlock. How many more of your group remain in the vessel?”

  Strand continued to breathe heavily. “There are two squads in the ship with a-suits, ready for action. If I don’t report back right now, they’ll deploy and kill everybody in here.”

  “It’s highly probable he’s lying,” Garcia said.

  The main doors slid open and Zeno popped in through the opening, firing his laser pistol. The first shot grazed Kruger’s shoulder, making him turn his attention towards the new threat. Strand twisted his forearm and slipped away from the technician’s grasp, dropping to his knees to retrieve his weapon.

  Garcia turned and charged towards Zeno, hoping to distract him. Strand’s ally fired several bursts of laser fire, eviscerating her torso. Torrents of cream-colored coolant erupted from the wounds on her chest, but Garcia kept on coming. Zeno’s next shots were at close range and directed at her head. Garcia’s face literally melted as her synthetic cheekbones gave way, until what was left of her visage was nothing but a half-melted puddle of circuitry and nanocarbon. Her main processor was destroyed, and she fell forward onto the floor.

  Strand was on the ground, struggling desperately to grab hold of the pistol. Kruger fell on top of him, away from Zeno’s line of sight, as they both grappled on the floor behind one of the consoles.

  Kruger was able to get both hands around the lieutenant’s throat. The damage he took in the shoulder sapped away much of his strength, and he struggled to get a proper grip on the target’s jugular.

  Strand’s left hand finally felt the grip of the pistol and he twisted his body sideways, hoping to fire off a shot at point-blank range and disable his opponent before he got his life choked out of him. He pointed the laser’s barrel to the side of his attacker, just as Kruger’s hands began squeezing his throat. Strand could no longer breathe, and the intense pressure around his windpipe was making him see bright flashes in his field of vision. He pulled the trigger a few times before the pain finally made him black out.

  When he opened his eyes again, Strand refocused his vision and stared up at Zeno’s violet face. His throat was parched and it was painful to take in air. “What … what happened?”

  Zeno pulled him up by his left forearm. “You were unconscious for a minute there.”

  As he struggled to his feet, Strand realized his face and chest were dripping with slimy coolant fluid. Kruger lay by his side on the floor, his eyes open and his mouth fixed in a frozen, mocking twist of contempt. A muffled groan coming from the other side of the room meant that Kamiki was still in between the throes of dazed consciousness and stupor.

  “You had already disabled him by the time I got to a firing position,” Zeno said. “I merely finished him off.”

  Strand coughed. He could taste blood in his mouth. His right wrist dangled by his side, broken and useless. “They were synths.”

  “Yes, they were.”

  Strand shook his head slowly. “I … thought it was illegal for synths to disguise themselves … as humans.”

  “It is,” Zeno said. “I can only surmise that whoever controlled these units didn’t care much for the law. It would place them in the same league as us.”

  “Screw it,” Strand said. “Did you download the files we need?”

  The synthetic nodded. “I did indeed. I may need Sappho’s help to fully decrypt it all in a short amount of time though.”

  “Then let’s go already.”

  They had both started to make their way towards the doors when their wrist smartcoms began beeping.

  Strand placed the device close to his mouth. “Yeah?”

  The audio belonged to Oana. “LT, we’re picking up multiple contacts and hails.”

  “Where are they coming from?”

  “From one of the nearby gas giants. I’m counting at least two … no, three Star Force destroyers heading towards this station. They’re ordering us to stay put because they want to board the Amerigo for inspection.”

  “We’re on our way back already. Get ready to undock and go to full acceleration.”

  “Yes, LT.”

  13 The Getaway

  Garrett Strand gave a slight groan while easing himself onto the captain’s chair. He had made a quick trip with Zeno to the science vessel’s medbay, and now all four of his strike team were back on the bridge of the Amerigo. “What’s our status, Oana?”

  Oana Florescu continued to sit at the pilot’s console. “We transferred the prisoners over to the station while you were getting back to the ship, LT. Keo and I placed them in one of the other airlocks and bolted it down with a security exploit. They won’t be able to get out for a few days without any outside help.”

  Ripoll Keo was situated towards the rear of the bridge. “Zeno’s malware is causing havoc all over the station. It’s going to take them days just to get everything back to normal again. Even the bots are going nuts in there. The station crew are in a panic, but they can’t signal for help because we sabotaged their com-link system.”

  Strand held up his right forearm. The broken wrist had been set and would fully heal in a few hours, but it continued to feel stiff. “Undock us and head towards waypoint bravo.”

  There was a slight lurch as the Amerigo detached itself from Azusa Station. Oana preferred to use the autopilot for these procedures since she had already inputted the course into the ship’s AI well ahead of time. “Detach maneuver completed. Radiator wings deployed. Accelerating to two-gees.”

  Zeno had wedged himself against the side of the wall in order to better brace his body in case of any sudden accelerations while monitoring the com-link chatter. “The three destroyers are reacting. One is still heading for the station, while the other two changed course and are attempting to intercept us.”

  Strand settled in the chair as the Amerigo’s delta-V continued to increase. “They saying anything?”

  “Just the usual. ‘Stop and prepare to be boarded or you will be fired upon.’ Should we reply?”

  Strand sighed. Up until those two synths revealed themselves back inside the station, he had thought it would be an easy operation; getting away clean was proving to be tough nowadays. “No. It seems they were expecting us. Zeno, have you formed any conclusions ab
out this?”

  “Nothing definitive,” Zeno said. “The two disguised synthetics were indeed a clever ruse, but from what I gathered they didn’t reveal themselves until after they ran a full background analysis and determined our identities were faked.”

  “What does that tell you?”

  “They were on guard, that much is apparent, but not expecting us to venture into the actual station in person,” Zeno said. “I can come up with two hypotheses. The first is the synthetics were stationed there to look out for potential breaches merely as a routine security precaution.”

  “And the second?”

  “They were indeed on the lookout for us,” Zeno said, “but they might not have been certain as to our identities, hence their delayed reaction. My guess is, whoever is behind this deployed covert synthetics to all Science Institute space relay stations in the region, hoping we would venture into one of them.”

  “If they were truly expecting us, I would have thought they’d bring in more of their operatives,” Strand said.

  “You are correct,” Zeno said. “The fact there were only two of their assets in place means this counterintelligence operation of theirs may have been done in haste, with whatever they could spare at this time.”

  Strand pursed his lips. “Okay. How far away are those two destroyers?”

  “They’re accelerating as well, going close to three-gees,” Oana said. “They won’t be able to get to extreme weapons range for at least twelve hours. Their lasers will get to us faster though. Should we start evasive maneuvering?”

  Strand shook his head. “No, not for a while. If we begin evasive maneuvers right away they’ll know we’re guilty of something. Keo, how long till the third destroyer docks with the station?”

  Keo checked the readouts on the engineer’s console. “Around six hours, LT.”

  Strand rubbed his chin. “They won’t treat us as hostile until they hear from the captives at the station. Let me know the moment they dock.”

  “You got it, LT.”

  Strand turned his attention towards the pilot’s console. “Oana, go to manual control only after we detect any weapons discharge. Once they start firing their lasers, increase acceleration to four-gees and begin evasive maneuvering. Right now, just keep your eye on the sensors. I want to know if they set up a kill zone.”

  “Yes, LT,” Oana said.

  Since their fusion thrusters were facing the enemy, laser fire at extreme ranges would hit the ship’s aft hull first, but their effects would largely be blunted by the Amerigo’s plasma exhaust. The real danger at this distance would be coming from the gauss cannons and lancer missiles. Once they began evasive maneuvering, it would be a waiting game to see if their aft sensors would be able to spot the incoming ordinance in time to alter course and evade them. Gauss munitions were unguided, while lancers would fire molten projectiles when they got too close. Modern space warfare favored those with steady minds who could make the right moves at a precise moment in time.

  Strand glanced in Zeno’s direction. Being a civilian ship, the Amerigo didn’t have any point defense systems, nor was her hull well armored, and a single hit on her drive would be enough to render them all helpless. “This is going to be one heck of a short getaway if we don’t hear from our old friends. Please tell me the good news.”

  “Incoming coded message from waypoint bravo has been confirmed,” Zeno said. “Based on my calculations we ought to reach our intended destination just as our pursuers get to within extreme weapons range. This will be close.”

  “I’ll take those odds,” Strand said. “Now if only the other spacers do their jobs well.”

  Millions of klicks away, Duncan Hauk floated inside the cramped aft pod of the battle drone along with Spacer Sergeant Boaz Singer. They had been dozing off in the null gravity, trying to get as much rest as they could ever since they had successfully attached the mass driver to the nearby asteroid just a few hours before. With most of the drone’s primary systems switched off in order to remain hidden from the sensors of the nearby space stations, there wasn’t much to do except wait.

  A beeping noise coming from their com-link circuits instantly snapped them awake. The rear pod’s interior lights came on, and the rumbling voice of Commander Creull could soon be heard. “Amerigo is approaching the waypoint. Suit up and get moving.”

  Being the designated commander of the pair, Boaz pulled himself towards his battle suit, which had been strapped along the side of the capsule. “Wake up, Duncan.”

  Hauk blinked a few times as his eyes adjusted to the brightened lights. The new ocular implants seemed to work fine, though he would still sometimes get a case of blurry vision upon waking. Remembering where his own a-suit was, he used the handholds along the walls to get closer to it.

  Boaz had already taken off his skinsuit and floated around naked while easing himself into the open rear torso of the battle armor. He turned to look at his subordinate. “Hurry up and get your coveralls off; you wouldn’t want to be wearing that when the bio-gel goes on your body.”

  “Sorry,” Duncan said as he began to slip out of his skinsuit. The crew preferred to get in naked when wearing battle armor, since the bio-gel would serve as a liquid coat in between the solid layer of composite armor and their skin in order to prevent rashes, chafing, and itching. The initial sensation of being encased in a warm, gelatinous substance took some time to get used to.

  Now fully covered in his battle armor, Boaz waited as the bio-gel began to seep through the gaps between his body and the suit. In less than a minute, only his head, with its separate neck collar, remained free of the substance. He quickly ran a diagnostic check using his suit’s AI, making sure that all systems were fully functional. Once he received an affirmative, he detached himself from the wall.

  Hauk felt the liquid gel soaking his body the moment he activated the suit, but he had forgotten to designate his helmet to breathe standard air. The boy’s eyes opened wide in surprise as his face was suddenly engulfed in the greenish fluid before he tapped on his command menu to switch back to air-breathing mode. He had accidentally swallowed a mouthful of bio-gel, and he instinctively coughed it back out, staining the lower part of his faceplate with rapidly hardening goo.

  Boaz noticed the boy struggling while still attached to the wall. “Duncan, you okay?”

  Hauk coughed a few more times while shaking his head to clean away the dried bio-gel still stuck in his visor. He took off his helmet and wiped at its interior before placing it back on. “Yes, sorry. I accidentally had the helmet on liquid breathe mode.”

  Boaz chuckled. “That’s okay. Happened to me once too. You good to go?”

  Hauk nodded as he detached himself from the wall. “Yes. All set.”

  Boaz keyed in his com-link. “Delta team set.”

  “Amerigo is an hour away from your position,” Creull said over the com-link. “Get the mass driver going.”

  “At once, Commander,” Boaz said on the com-link before turning to glance at Hauk. “I’m depressurizing the pod now.”

  Hauk had finished stowing away his skinsuit in the nearby cabinet. He was to be nothing more than an observer for the duration of the mission due to it being his first deployment. “Ready.”

  Boaz keyed himself into the battle pod’s command line. “Activating mass driver … now.”

  The Amerigo was moving at four-gees of acceleration, doing her best to keep the two pursuing destroyers at bay when the science vessel began to skirt close to Kolob’s asteroid belt. Just as the lead destroyer fired a warning shot with its lasers, one of the outlying asteroids began moving out of its orbit and headed directly towards them.

  Inside the science vessel’s interior, the three crewmembers at the bridge now wore their helmets and life support packs while strapped down to their respective accelerator couches; the synthetic man remained attached firmly to the wall.

  Zeno was hardly affected by the increased gravity load, and his demeanor remained impassive. Just as
he was about to communicate to his organic allies, he sensed something strange within his core processor. It felt like a jolt of power, temporarily confusing him for a brief second, before his systems were back to normal.

  Despite having a headache from the increased pressure on his body, Strand noticed his synthetic colleague’s sudden spasms. “Zeno, you okay?”

  Zeno turned and looked at him. “Yes. I’m sorry, I experienced a slight hiccup in my memory processor.”

  “I’ve never seen you jerk like that before,” Strand said. “You sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Zeno said. “I wanted to inform you the lead destroyer just fired a warning shot using her lasers.”

  “That means we’re in weapons range,” Strand said tersely. “Oana, start your evasive maneuvering and get us behind that asteroid. Keo, watch the sensors. If you spot any incoming munitions, key it into the pilot’s console.”

  Both Keo and Oana answered in unison. “Yes, sir.”

  “Zeno, pay attention to what those destroyers are doing,” Strand said. “I need your full analysis on this.”

  “I believe they might have fired a burst of gauss munitions in an attempt to disable us,” Zeno said. “I’ll key the probable fire corridors into the ship’s AI. Also, the third destroyer has begun her pursuit as well, but she won’t get here in time.”

  “Did they fire any lancers?”

  “No, it doesn’t look like it,” Zeno said. “If they fired lancer missiles then they would be seeking to destroy us.”

  “Okay,” Strand said. Battles in space were mostly spent waiting and watching sensors before having to make quick adjustments on the fly. There was no telling when an incoming projectile or missile alert would pop up until the last minute, so one had to be constantly on guard once the opposing side got to within weapons range. Spacecraft commanders who didn’t pay attention or were slow to react usually didn’t survive for very long.

  Hauk watched the mostly one-sided battle unfold on the tactical screen in his visor. The Amerigo had no weapons or defenses, and all she could do was run. The plan was to use the asteroids as both a shield and a distraction to the enemy until the science vessel could get to the shadow zone just beyond the asteroid field. Out by the wisps of dark matter the Nepenthe waited, not wishing to reveal herself lest a system-wide alert be issued, resulting in all nearby Star Force armadas being immediately dispatched to intercept and destroy her.