The Belt: The Complete Trilogy

by Gerald M. Kilby

  A short time later, Tugo, Sasha, and the two young fighters picked their way down from the war room building up on the edge of the city and across the central floor of the cavern. They moved past the hydroponic grow-beds, fish ponds, and orchards. There was an eerie silence in the vast space, punctuated only by the boom and rumble of plasma cannon fire. Those who were too old or too young to fight had taken refuge in the strongest of the ancient stone buildings that stepped their way upward along the edges of the citadel. As they walked past the ancient temple that occupied a central position within the citadel, Tugo was struck by how much human civilization had changed, how different the gods had become in this new age. It was here, in this temple, that the people who had built this place prayed to whatever god or gods they worshipped back then. Where before their faith lay in belief and ceremony, now these new gods doled out justice and mercy with algorithms and formulas. How simple life was back then, he thought.

  When they reached the edge of the cavern floor, they began to pick their way up an ancient, cut-stone staircase. It wound its way up through a series of terraces that had been hacked out of the side of the cavern. No one spoke.

  They came out at the topmost terrace and moved through the remains of ancient buildings until they arrived at a tunnel entrance. They could already hear the crack of ballistic weapons fire. They moved on.

  It didn’t take them long to encounter the group that had been charged with the task of defending this entrance. The tunnel was narrow—too narrow for security drones. The tribe had already blown the side walls to fill the passageway with rock and rubble to create a barricade, leaving a gap between the ceiling of the tunnel and the mound of rubble. Along the top of this mound, several fighters had taken up positions, shooting at any of the smaller scout drones that were foolhardy enough to take this route. The leader of the group saw them coming and scrambled down to meet Tugo.

  “So how are we doing here?” said Tugo.

  “No VanHeilding troops so far. Just some scout drones every now and again.” He jerked his thumb toward the barricade. “We had one a few moments ago, but that’s the first to come down in a while. It looks like they don’t regard this as a viable route in.”

  Tugo nodded. “Good, because we’re going to use it to get outside.” He turned to Sasha and the two young fighters. “Check your weapons, and keep your eyes peeled. Come on, let’s move out.”

  Tugo clambered up the rubble barricade and peered over the top and down the length of the long, dark tunnel. Here and there he could see the signs of battle. The shattered remains of scout drones lay scattered along its length, at least as far as he could see in the darkness. He slowly worked his way through the gap and clambered down the far side, the others following one by one. They flicked on lights that they wore on their heads or shoulders, and kept them low enough to see ahead, but only just. They moved in silence, stopping only once or twice where the tunnel forked to ensure they were heading in the right direction.

  Soon, the floor of the tunnel began to incline upward as it wound its way out of the bowels of the mountain to the hillside beyond. Finally, they saw the faint glimmer of daylight that signified the tunnel exit. They switched their lights off and began to move a little slower and quieter as they approached the mouth of the tunnel.

  They came out onto a wide, barren ridge about a third of the way up the mountain. Below them, the valley floor stretched unbroken from east to west. They moved out across the ridge, keeping low, covering the last meter or so on their stomachs. They inched their way to the edge of the ridge and looked down across the valley floor.

  Below, about half a kilometer away, several VanHeilding shuttles had landed earlier and disgorged their troops. They were still there, in exactly the same place, all grouped together. Tugo retrieved his binoculars from an inside pocket and proceeded to examine the assembled shuttles in more detail. He could see little or no activity.

  He then looked away east to the base of the next mountain along the ridge. About a quarter of the way up its northern slope, a swarm of drones buzzed and bobbed around the hidden entrance like bees around a hive.

  He put away the binoculars and turned to Sasha. “You reckon you could hit one of those shuttles from here?”

  Sasha took her time to answer as she studied the target distance. She picked up a handful of dirt and threw it in the air. The wind caught the finer grains, blowing them westward. “Tricky. Those shuttles are about five, maybe six hundred meters away. This RPG isn’t very accurate after about two hundred and fifty.” She looked up at the sky for a moment. “And we got about a six-kilometer wind.”

  “So you think you could hit it?”

  She looked up at him. “I’ll give it a damn good try, sir.”

  “Okay, just wait for my signal before pulling the trigger.”

  Sasha readied the rocket launcher, feeding her last remaining round into the barrel. She lay down flat on the edge, shouldered the weapon, and peered through the scope at the target below. She dialed in the range.

  Tugo tapped his headset and opened the comms channel to Scott McNabb. “This is Commander Tugo for Scott McNabb. Do you read me? Over.”

  The headset crackled and hissed for a moment. “This is Scott McNabb. We’re ready.”

  “Good. Any minute now, but don’t move until I give you the signal. Over.”

  “Got it,” replied Scott.

  Tugo took one more look through his binoculars at the drones swarming around the entrance to Athena’s layer. He then turned to the two young fighters who had come with them. “You two, I need you to take up positions on either side of the tunnel entrance. Once the fireworks start, some of those drones are going to be heading our way, and you guys need to hold them off so Sasha and I can get back inside the tunnel. After that, we’re going to have to make a stand in there. Got it?”

  They nodded in unison and made their way back across the ridge.

  “Okay, Sasha, whenever you’re ready.”

  There was a momentary pause as Sasha steadied her breathing before pulling the trigger.

  The rocket-propelled grenade exploded out of the muzzle with a fiery violence. It traveled about fifty meters before firing its secondary rockets and extending its fins. From there it corkscrewed gracefully across the intervening space and slammed into the side of the nearest shuttle. The craft exploded in a fiery ball, burning rocket fuel. Hot shrapnel spun out from the epicenter and some hit another shuttle, presumably in its fuel tank, as it too exploded into a fireball.

  Tugo fisted the air. “Yesss!” He brought his binoculars up again and looked over at the drone swarm. They were already on the move, some heading for the shuttle, some heading directly for them. He tapped his headset to open a comms channel. “Scott, go. Go now!”

  “We’re going.”

  Tugo lowered the binoculars. “That was one hell of a shot, Sasha. You may have just saved us all.” He looked back up at the sky. “It looks like there’s a dozen or so drones heading our way. The fight isn’t over yet—let’s get out of here.”

  19

  Dominion

  After he got the go-ahead from Tugo, Scott tentatively looked out through a small gap in the steel doors. He half expected to be met by a barrage of plasma fire from scout drones, but Tugo had been true to his word, and there were none to be seen anywhere around the entrance. “They’re gone. The coast is clear—let’s go get this thing done.”

  Scott went ahead and scrambled up the mound of rocks at the edge of the ridge, leaving Cyrus and the android to reassemble the satellite uplink and get it working.

  As Scott looked out across the plateau, he could see a vast plume of smoke rising up from the valley floor. Several of the VanHeilding shuttles were on fire, and the drones had moved off to investigate. An exchange of plasma fire caught his attention over to the west. He looked across to see several drones engaged in a battle about a third of the way up the next mountain. “Tugo,” he said to himself.

  He looked back to see th
at Cyrus had assembled the uplink, and its dish antenna was now slowly tracking across the sky, searching for the comms satellite. They waited.

  The firefight on the western ridge abated. Either the protagonists were all dead, or they had managed to escape back inside the mountain. Scott was so ensconced in the battle that he hadn’t noticed that one of the drones, which had been circling the destroyed shuttles, had broken away and was now heading back their direction. By the time he noticed it, the drone had already covered half the distance.

  “Cyrus, you better get your ass up here. One of the drones is heading our way.”

  “I shall stand in front of the uplink and do my best to protect it,” said Lexicon in a very formal and matter-of-fact tone.

  Scott readied his weapon as Cyrus came up beside him. He fired two shots at the oncoming drone, but it dodged them easily. The drone took a moment to realign itself before it let loose a ball of incandescent plasma. It slammed into the rocks just below Scott, and the mound of rock began to give way. Scott lost his balance, but fortunately fell backward rather than forward down the side of the mountain.

  Cyrus was even more fortunate, and managed to let loose a single shot which impacted straight on the nose of the drone. It partly disintegrated, but the bulk of it slammed into the side of the mountain and exploded.

  Scott looked over at Cyrus and gave him a thumbs up. “Nice shooting. Where did you learn that?”

  “Scouts,” said Cyrus with a smile. “They were a very mean bunch.”

  “The uplink has found the satellite and has made the connection,” said the android as it tried its best to shield the unit from the falling debris of the smashed drone. “Athena is now interrogating the network.”

  Two more drones, having sensed their comrade’s destruction, broke away from the swarm circling the shuttles and made a beeline toward the ridge.

  “Two drones incoming,” Cyrus shouted down to Scott, who was clambering back up the rocky mound.

  Scott reckoned that now was not the time to be conserving the fuel cell on his plasma weapon. So, when he reached to the top of the mound, he simply let rip in the general direction of the drones in the hope that something might hit. As luck would have, he snagged one, sending it into a tailspin down toward the valley floor.

  The second drone danced and bobbed, dodging Scott’s fire, and finally fired a plasma bolt. Scott and Cyrus tried to dive out of its path, but it slammed into the rocks just beside Cyrus. He screamed out, spinning around with the force of the impact, and tumbled back down the rocky slope.

  “Cyrus! Shit,” Scott shouted out, but had no time to check on his buddy. He simply stood his ground, pulled the trigger, and held it there. The drone dodged and weaved its way around the oncoming assault from Scott’s weapon.

  “Do your worst, you tin bastard,” Scott shouted just as his weapon fizzled out, its fuel cell spent. He flung it to the ground and went for his sidearm. It was gone, fallen somewhere when he took that tumble. He ran down the rocky incline to try to grab Cyrus’s weapon, but he slipped and fell, tumbling down to finally land on his back.

  He looked up as the drone hovered overhead. He decided to use the only weapon he had left in his arsenal—he gave it the one-finger salute. “Screw you.”

  But the drone didn’t fire. Instead, it simply hovered a few meters above him.

  “Athena has established dominion. The AI has been compromised and is now under Athena’s direction,” said the android.

  Scott let out a long, slow sigh, and rested his head back against the rocks. “Ho-ly crap. We did it, Cyrus. We did it.”

  But Cyrus didn’t answer.

  Scott scrambled out of the hollow that he’d fallen into and ran over to where Cyrus lay face up on the ground. His left shoulder was a bloodied mess, but his eyes were open and he was breathing. Scott knelt beside him, reached out, and popped open his visor. He then popped open his own. He was sick of caring about radiation and being cooped up in an EVA suit. He wanted to talk to his friend face-to-face. “Cyrus, how you doing, buddy?”

  “Not…so good, Scott. I’ve seen better days.” He took a breath and winced in pain. “Did we…win?”

  “Yeah, we won. Athena has control. The drones have stopped. Look.” He pointed upward to where the drone still hovered a few meters above them.

  “I knew we would…never doubted it for a minute.”

  “We’ve got to get you to a medic—get you seen to quick.”

  “Commander Scott?”

  In all the drama, Scott had forgotten about the android. “Yeah, what is it?”

  “Athena has a message for you, from Aria.”

  “Aria? In Jezero City?”

  “Yes. Relaying it you now.”

  Scott’s headset crackled for a second before Aria’s voice broke through. “We would like to congratulate you all on achieving your mission,” said Aria, from sixty million kilometers away. “Athena has now achieved dominion over the AI that controls that sector of the Pacific. It won’t be long before more follow. You and your team have achieved a great victory.”

  Scott nudged Cyrus. “Are you getting this?”

  Cyrus gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  “Aria, I can’t believe I’m actually hearing your voice all the way from Mars.”

  “Yes, the wonders of superluminal communication.” Aria paused for a beat. “Scott, do you remember that I made you a promise before you left on this mission?”

  “Yes, I remember. Miranda?”

  “Athena has managed to find her location. You will be glad to hear that she is alive and well. She currently resides on the VanHeilding family orbital, a vast space station that’s currently in geosynchronous orbit over your side of the Pacific.”

  “I…I can’t believe it. The child?”

  “Unfortunately, we have nothing definitive. The VanHeilding orbital is heavily shielded from the network, and so Athena has no access to its AI. All information it has gleaned has been thirdhand. That being said, there are fragments and hints of the existence of an offspring. But nothing conclusive.”

  “I see.” Scott sat down and took a moment to digest this information. “Well, at least Miranda is still alive.”

  “I also promised you, Scott, that I would find a way for you to see her again.”

  Scott clambered back onto his feet and stood up. “How? Tell me.”

  “The VanHeilding shuttles which were used to land the security personnel. They embarked from the orbital, and so have a security protocol that will enable them to dock with it. If it’s possible for you to commandeer one of these shuttles, then you have a way in. But you have a limited window of opportunity. The security protocols for the orbital are rotated every hour, and once that happens, all those shuttles will be denied access as a security precaution. So, if you wish to see her, then you must go now.”

  “I understand.”

  “However, this is as far as Athena can take you. Once you enter the VanHeilding orbital, you will be on your own. Neither I nor Athena can help you on the inside.”

  “I understand, Aria.”

  “Again, I would like to reiterate that we owe you and the crew an enormous debt of gratitude. And if you choose to see Miranda again, then I can only wish you good luck.”

  “Thank you, Aria. I understand.”

  The connection terminated.

  Scott looked down at Cyrus. “Did you hear all that? Miranda is alive.”

  “Yeah, I heard it. You better go…if you want to see her.” Cyrus barely moved. His voice was weak, and his face deathly pale.

  Scott knelt beside his friend again. “I don’t like leaving you here like this, Cyrus. I’ve gotta get you to a medic.”

  “I’ll be fine…just go. It’s what you wanted…a chance to see Miranda again.” He winced in pain. “You need to go now…or you’ll miss the opportunity.”

  “Yeah, but you don’t look so good, Cyrus. I’d be happier if you were in the hands of the medical team.”

  “T
he android…it can help me. Go…tell Miranda I said hi.”

  Scott stood up slowly and began to clamber up the rocky mound. He stood at the top and looked out across the valley to where the VanHeilding shuttles lay waiting. Three were smoldering wrecks, but the other four on the periphery all looked serviceable. He judged the distance, and reckoned it would take him around ten minutes to climb down the side of the mountain and cross the valley, five minutes to prep the craft, and another twenty-five or so to reach the orbital. He could make it, but only if he went now.

  He looked back down the mound to where Cyrus lay. The android had knelt beside him; it was trying to make Cyrus more comfortable.

  And in that moment, Scott made his decision. He knew what he had to do—he knew what was right. He turned away and started down the mountain toward the shuttles.

  20

  Hermosillo

  Scott woke to dappled sunlight filtering through the window blinds. He rubbed his face and neck, which ached—a symptom of sleeping in a chair for too long. How long have I been out? he wondered as he tried to ease the ache. He stood up slowly and remembered that he was no longer encased in an EVA suit. He stretched his limbs and looked over at the prostrate form of Cyrus Sanato, propped up in the hospital bed on a multitude of pillows. His left shoulder was swathed in a heavy bandage. Tubes snaked out from his body, feeding it with fluids and drugs. Monitors drew out his life in waves and charts.

  Scott moved over to the bed and wondered if Cyrus was awake yet. It was hard to tell, as the augmented vision visor he wore permanently obscured his eyes.

  “Cyrus, you awake?”

  The engineer didn’t respond, so Scott let him be. He moved over to the window and split the blinds to look out at the hospital compound and then to the bright blue sky above. He heard a sound—a rustle of bed sheets.

  “Scott?”