Scott sat down on the antigrav chair and placed the tablet on his lap. "What can I say?" He switched on the tablet and pointed the wand at Cairn. "I missed you."
"Plus you need to...run a medical exam...on me." Cairn smirked up at him. "Hence the...diagnostic wand."
"Nah," said Scott as the first test procedure booted up on the tablet. "This is our new Red Deprogrammer device. Guaranteed to change a Red into a Commonwealther at the press of a button."
"I'm starting to feel...more corrupt...and more boring...already." Cairn laughed as he continued his push-ups.
"So what've you been doing?" As Scott spoke, he watched a set of numbers appear on the tablet screen--Cairn's vital signs. Meanwhile, a form slid onto the screen beside the list of vitals, and a holographic keyboard popped up under the tablet when he squeezed the side. Using the keyboard, he tabbed through the form and typed in the numbers from the other side of the screen.
"I've been working out mostly." Cairn did two more pushups, then stopped and lowered his knees to the floor. "That and dreaming."
"About what?" said Scott.
"About you." Cairn snorted. "I've been dreaming about the look you'll have on your face when you get to Oberon and realize just how bad things have gotten and how there's nothing you can do about it."
"Thank God," said Scott. "I was afraid you might say you were dreaming about me in a dirty way."
"Nope." Cairn chuckled. "I never fantasize about jerk-offs who leave me for dead after I save their lives and everything."
"Good to hear." Scott finished typing up the vitals and tapped the screen, moving to the next test in the preprogrammed sequence. "Because the other thing would've been just too awkward."
Cairn lay back on the floor and started doing sit-ups. "So how far are we from Oberon now? A day and a half? A day?"
"Something like that." The new test analyzed the composition and condition of Cairn's microbiome--the cloud of microbes surrounding his body. A new customized form appeared, and Scott continued entering data as before. "Sounds like you can't wait to get there."
"Like I said...seeing the look on your face...will be sweet." Cairn sneered. "I've been waiting for years...for that. For seeing your spirit...utterly crushed...beyond repair."
"So you'll feel better when you get your payback?" Scott didn't look up from the tablet. "Will that finally fix things between us?
"How could it?" said Cairn. "I'll hate you for the rest of my life."
"Right." Scott kept typing. "For not coming to get you even though I thought you were dead."
Cairn sat up and stopped. "You knew." He gave Scott a look of absolute contempt. "Deep down, you knew. And you still did nothing."
"I saw you fall. And then I died." Scott met his gaze. "I was dead when they found me, remember? They used an experimental procedure to revive me, but I was still a mess. It took me over a year to recover." What a nightmare it had been. Bern had pulled strings to make the procedure happen and bring him back...but sometimes, he'd wished she hadn't. The word "agonizing" didn't begin to describe what he'd gone through.
But surviving it had toughened him. It had made him the man he was today.
Not that that held any water with Cairn. "Poor baby." He spit on the floor at Scott's feet and went back to doing sit-ups. "At least you weren't still...the captive of a sick bastard...who got off on torturing and abusing you."
"Well, if I'd known you were out there, I would have done everything I could to save you." Scott returned his attention to the tablet, where he typed the last of the microbiome data. As the next test started, he decided the conversation had gotten too volatile and tried reshaping it as Beauchamp had suggested. "So tell me, do you still have family on Tack?"
"Who the hell knows?" Cairn's voice was thick with anger. "I haven't had much...of a chance...to go look for them."
The new test, a subatomic scan, chugged along as Scott copied over the results. "Do you have any brothers or sisters? If you told me, I forget."
Cairn kept doing sit-ups. "Two brothers...and three sisters. I haven't seen them...since I was taken by Vore...back when I was six."
"I could look them up for you," said Scott. "Let you know where they are, at least."
Cairn paused. "Don't even try to tell me you haven't looked them up already. As soon as you realized who I was, you must've run a complete background check."
"Not me. Been a little busy." Scott raised his eyes from the tablet. "You're not the only thing on my to-do list, you know."
Cairn stared at him for a moment before resuming his exercise. "Don't bother with the family reunion. Those people won't even know who I am anymore."
"I don't know about that," said Scott. "What if they still love you after all? What if they want you back?"
"I'm nothing but a ghost," said Cairn. "Leave it alone, Sol."
"Whatever." Scott shrugged and finished the subatomic scan. "Believe it or not, I'm trying to help."
"Trying to play me...is more like it." Cairn did three more sit-ups and got to his feet. "Well, the palsy-walsy routine won't work with me. I'll never open up to you, plang-hole."
"Just making conversation," said Scott. "Plus, I'm curious. You and I never really got to know each other back in Iridess Chasm."
"No loss there." Cairn started doing jumping jacks.
Scott ran the next test and typed up the results as Cairn continued his workout. When he'd finished, he proceeded to test number five--a quantum scan designed to detect infiltration of dangerous bodies from parallel universes. "I don't know, Cairn. I think we could have been friends."
"Then you must have...suffered brain damage...when you died."
Scott ignored the remark. "You know what I remember?" He stopped typing. "I remember you breaking down in tears out in the Chasm, and me comforting you."
"You have a...vivid imagination," said Cairn.
"I also remember helping you climb Penitent Peak," said Scott. "I remember you holding on to my hand for dear life."
Suddenly, Cairn stopped doing jumping jacks and turned away from him. "Flux you." He grabbed a gray towel from the cot and wiped his face with it. "I was seven years old, and I'd been held captive for over a year. I'd have held on to anyone if I'd thought they could help me."
Scott opened his mouth to say something, then noticed a blinking readout on the tablet. The wand had picked up an abnormal quantum signature coming from Cairn.
Tapping a few controls on the tablet, Scott zeroed in on the signature. It was located in Cairn's head, around the middle of his brain.
Using the comm function on the tablet, Scott flashed a text message to Beauchamp, describing the finding. She texted him right back: SWITCH TO HOLOGRAPHIC TOMOGRAPHY SCAN OF THE BRAIN, TEST SEVEN IN THE SEQUENCE.
Scott jumped ahead two tests to the holographic tomography scan and switched it on. As he pointed the wand at the back of Cairn's head, the crystal on the tip of the wand glowed blue.
A moment later, an image of a human brain appeared on the tablet. Scott touched the screen, requesting a view of a midsagittal section; immediately, the brain split in half along the midline and the left side faded away, leaving the right.
There, in the center of the right midsagittal section of Cairn's brain, Scott saw a jagged, ruby red object with crystalline spines like the rays of a star.
"What the hell?" he said, frowning at the screen. As he watched, the object flared with light and vanished...then reappeared. It went on pulsating like that--brightening, vanishing, and reappearing--in a continuous cycle.
Cairn turned to look at him. "What is it?"
Scott wondered if he should keep it to himself--then decided full disclosure probably wouldn't make any difference. "There's something in your brain. Some kind of spiky red object."
"Does it keep fading in and out?" asked Cairn.
"Yes." Even as he said it, Scott could see the pulsation continue on the screen of the tablet.
"Congratulations," said Cairn. "You found my personal s
elf-destruct mechanism." He tapped the side of his head and laughed. "Maybe you can tell me why it hasn't blown us all to kingdom come yet."
"Good question." Scott didn't mention that the cell had been triple-reinforced to block all known types of transmissions (except the security camera feed and the comm channel allowing him to text Beauchamp). "Tell me how it works, and maybe I can figure it out."
"It's a quantum bomb," said Cairn. "Powerful enough to destroy this entire ship. That's all you need to know."
Scott zoomed in on the midsagittal plane and tried using holographic tomography to pop up a view of the inside of the bomb. For some reason, all he could see under the bomb's jagged shell was a featureless blotch of gray. "How do you trigger this thing, did you say?"
"Wish upon a star." Cairn bugged his eyes and chuckled.
"Seriously," said Scott.
"I'll tell you this much." Cairn nodded and winked. "If I could get the damn thing to work, we wouldn't be standing here right now. I've been trying to trigger it since I got here."
"Well, thanks for giving it a shot," said Scott. "I appreciate the effort."
Cairn's expression darkened. "Any time."
Scott fired Beauchamp a text describing the bomb, and she wrote back immediately: RUN A COMPLETE BRAIN SCAN, TEST NUMBER 12. RECORD ELECTROMAGNETIC FREQUENCY AND FLUCTUATIONS.
Scott followed her instructions and put the new test in motion. A wave pattern appeared on the screen of the tablet, bordered by rows of statistics.
"Careful." Cairn stepped closer and folded his arms over his chest. "Don't want to accidentally set off the bomb now, do you?"
Scott shrugged and kept working. "I've been dead before. It's no big thing."
"No fear, huh?" Cairn nodded. "Maybe you'd make a great Red after all."
"Wow." Scott's tone was sarcastic. "You make me want to sign up on the spot."
"Why the hell not?" Cairn grinned. "You ought to consider it before the scudge starts hitting the fan."
Scott kept typing up data from the brain scan. "All I have to do is betray my comrades and commit treason against the Commonwealth I've sworn allegiance to, right?" He snorted. "Sounds appealing."
"You'd be on the winning side," said Cairn. "Plus which, you and I would be working together again. We'd be friends again."
"No kidding." Scott glanced up at him. "So you'd give up your vendetta just like that? No payback needed?"
"That's right." Cairn nodded. "If you switch sides, I'll let it all go. We'll have a fresh start, you and I."
Scott watched him a moment more before returning his eyes to the tablet. "I like the idea of us being friends again. Can't we do that without my betraying everything I stand for and care about?"
Cairn shook his head. "I've told you the terms. You have until we get to Oberon to accept them."
"Well, thanks for your generosity," said Scott. "I'll take it under advisement."
"You do that, Sol," said Cairn. "I'll be waiting."
*****
Chapter 27
A day later, as the Sun Tzu approached Oberon's home system, Scott found himself back in the conference room with the Diamondback senior officers--Perseid, Rexis, Abby, Trane, Feinberg, Khalil, Beauchamp, Fong, García, and Azimuth. Perseid had called one last briefing to update the team on the latest developments before everyone launched into final preps for the mission ahead.
"We are thirteen hours out from Oberon," said Perseid, "and we have no idea what to expect." Standing at the head of the long table beside Rexis, he looked grim. "Sensors have not picked up any signs of unusual activity."
"What about Cairn Barrie?" said Khalil. "Has he given us any insight?" He looked across the table at Scott when he said it.
"Negative," said Scott. "Cairn refuses to cooperate."
"So our blindness continues," said García.
"Not quite," said Rexis. "Trane and his team have had some success opening our eyes for this mission." She gestured at Trane, who sat at the opposite end of the table.
"That's right." Trane stood. "We've developed an inoculation that kills the firewall virus." Reaching into a hip pocket of his black uniform, he drew out a hypodermic filled with bright green liquid. "It should enable us to see Red materiel and personnel."
"It was quite a challenge," said Beauchamp. "We had to draw the firewall virus out of its dormant state by exposing subjects to the catalyst virus from pieces of Red wreckage. Once we had samples of the activated firewall virus, it took a while to analyze its structure and develop an antiviral countermeasure."
"It's a tremendous advantage," said Perseid. "Assuming we encounter Reds at Oberon, they won't expect us to be able to see them."
"Great work," said Fong. "I guess this means Commandant Chalice got the data blocks lifted?"
"Negative," said Trane. "Corporal Scott didn't come through for us."
"Not yet, anyway," said Scott. "I'm still waiting to hear back from the Commandant. She's been off the grid the past few days."
"Doesn't much matter at this point," said Trane. "She isn't part of the equation anymore."
Scott bristled. "Don't write her off. She'll come through for us, wait and see."
"Sure she will." Trane sneered. "Clearly, we're not at the top of Granny's list of fish to fry."
Perseid cleared his throat loudly. "Moving on..." He gave Trane a meaningful stare. "We've got another surprise in store for the Reds."
"If there are any Reds at Oberon," added Rexis.
"Exactly." Perseid gestured at Beauchamp. "Doctor, if you will?"
Beauchamp nodded and stood. When she touched the edge of the table, a hologram appeared before her--the computer-rendered image of Cairn based on Scott's descriptions. "Meet our Trojan Horse."
Scott frowned. He knew what a Trojan Horse was but didn't understand how the reference applied to Cairn.
"Mr. Barrie has a quantum bomb in his head." Beauchamp touched the table again, and a midsagittal view of a human brain appeared beside the image of Cairn. A spiky red crystalline object pulsated along the midline. "This is a computer rendering of Cairn's brain with the bomb inside, based on the data reported by Corporal Scott. The explosive is actually quite powerful, in spite of its small size. Mr. Barrie claims it can destroy this entire ship, but we estimate it can destroy much more than that. A fleet of ships, perhaps."
"And this walking bomb is still aboard this ship why?" said García.
"Because we might be able to use him," interjected Perseid. "We could hand him over to the Reds, then trigger the bomb remotely."
"How are we going to do that?" asked Fong. "Surely, we can't control the bomb trigger mechanism."
"Surely we can." Beauchamp put up a third image above the first two--a series of overlapping jagged lines plotted on a chart. "Since Corporal Scott could find no trigger device anywhere on Mr. Barrie's person, we concluded that the device must respond to his thoughts. After Corporal Scott mapped Mr. Barrie's brain activity, we were able to construct a device that will block his neural impulses and substitute our own commands, broadcast at the same frequency. In short, we can make the bomb do what we want, using a signal disguised as Mr. Barrie's own thoughts."
"And you say this thing could knock out a fleet?" said García.
"That's just a guess on our part," said Rexis. "We haven't been able to view the bomb's interior with holo tomography, so we can't determine its capacity that way."
"And there's no record of Commonwealth forces encountering a quantum bomb this small before," said Perseid. "Larger versions have been extraordinarily destructive, but this one might be more advanced and just as powerful."
Scott frowned. "So you'll just hand him over and blow him up?"
Beauchamp held up her left wrist and pointed at the oblong device strapped around it like a chronometer. "This remote control will trigger the bomb." She tapped the surface of the gleaming silver oval mounted on the strap, and it swirled. "Press it three times, and the final signal will be sent."
"And
Cairn will be blown to smithereens," said Scott.
"He would've done the same to us," said Trane. "He tried, didn't he?"
Scott didn't answer. He didn't like the direction the briefing was taking. It was true Cairn had said he'd tried to blow up the Sun Tzu, but did that make it right to detonate Cairn by remote control?
"Anyway, we'll only use the quantum bomb as a last resort," said Perseid. "It's just another weapon in our arsenal."
Scott still didn't like what he was hearing...but why? Had Cairn succeeded in making him feel guilty about what had happened at Iridess Chasm? Or was something else affecting him? Was it possible he felt some connection to Cairn, though the man clearly hated him and wanted to see him suffer?
Scott would have to think about it later. Perseid was wrapping up the briefing.
"That brings us all up to speed for now." Perseid clapped his hands together. "Until we know more, let's get ready for our arrival at Oberon. Prepare all Battlenauts for planetfall, though armored deployment is not a certainty at this time."
Everyone at the table nodded.
"We know so little, we need to be ready for anything," said Perseid. "Not that we aren't always ready for anything."
Everyone in the room jumped out of their chairs and shouted "Hoo-aah!" as one.
"Dismissed!" said Perseid, and the Diamondbacks charged toward the door.
*****
Seven hours later, when Scott had finished prepping his Battlenaut, he headed to the medicenter for one last visit with Donna before Oberon.
Unfortunately, the medicenter was crazier than usual when he arrived. There were dozens of Diamondbacks standing in a line that snaked down the corridor, all waiting to get their inoculations of the firewall virus counteragent.
Marching past the waiting Diamondbacks, Scott zipped into the medicenter and made a beeline for Donna's bed. Beauchamp and Tourmal, who were giving the crew their shots, looked up when he passed...then returned their full attention to the bare biceps they were injecting.
Resist the Red Battlenaut Page 18
