NanoSymbionts

by Joseph Philbrook

  He sent one more nano-pod to attach itself in Arnold's inner ear. There to wait until he regained consciousness before giving him a message. A few minutes later Jake was in another section of the base when he allowed someone to get a momentary glimpse of him. This was the start of a pattern that he hoped would cause them to focus their search efforts away from the spot he'd left Arnold's unconscious form. After several such sightings, leading in several different directions he began his real mission. At least power supply wasn't a problem now. There were plenty of power sources within the walls that his nanites could tap into but he had to be careful if he didn't want them to track him by the drain he put on their power systems.

  Commander Smith was livid with anger at the incompetence of the security details that hadn't been able to locate the intruder. He had actually been on his feet since he had ordered the power satellites to beam raw, unfiltered energy at prime Miller's island. So he decided he would be more effective if he briefly got some rest. He assigned a crack combat detail to guard his private cabin. Then he went inside and activated a secure lockout program that should insure he was undisturbed. The commander undressed and stepped into the sonic shower to cleanse the sweat from his body before laying down. It was the last thing he would ever do.

  ***

  Sam finally spotted the bridge ahead but his thruster was out of power. He tried to glide the rest of the way to the edge of the island. However he soon realized he was going to fall short. They were going to drown in the river and there was nothing he could do about it.

  Then he saw a small power boat approaching from the island. It was moving towards him at a recklessly rapid speed. The surface of the river was choppy from the outflow of Davids hydraulic power plant. The small craft was moving fast enough that it bounced on the choppy water so hard that the operator was nearly thrown overboard twice as the boat raced to meet the descending ultralight. The second time the crazy boater was nearly thrown overboard he was close enough for Sam to recognize him.

  Jess nearly lost his grip on the wheel as he scrambled back into the seat but he didn't even slow down. At least not until he had spun the boat around to match speed and direction with Sam. Jess got under him about two seconds before he would have splashed into the river.

  ***

  Jake kept out of sight as much as possible. It wasn't too difficult. All he had to do to disappear was to get out of sight for a few seconds. Find a spot where nobody would trip over him. The corner of almost any room would do. Then command his nanites to cover him with an image morphing layer that would bend the light around him in such a way that all they would see was the wall behind him. Then remain motionless until there wasn't anybody looking. He combined that technique with using his nanites to infect the circuits of any hi-tech sensor systems they found, so that they also failed to report his presence. Then when the search team had moved on, he could find a power source to recharge from and continue with his mission.

  Which was the sabotage of all weapon systems that Luna base could possibly attack anyone on the planet's surface with. His biggest problem was the way the power transmission satellites had been used as a weapon. Those systems weren't actually on Luna and David had said that eventually they would be able to resynchronize the satellite control systems. So while he was running around wrecking carnage in one place after another, his nanites were busy hacking into the command systems that would eventually be used to control them. They would implant a multi-layered stealth worm. That would quietly hide until the command systems began talking to the satellites. Then it would infect every satellite it connected with, with a virus that would cause it to self destruct if it was commanded to beam destructive energy at Slowlane. In the mean time he found and destroyed layer after layer of laser and missile systems.

  He was shot at several times. His nanites were usually able to deploy a defense shield to deflect the small arms fire. On those occasions when something did get through, they set about healing his body. He never bled enough to leave a trail, so all he had to do was find a hiding place until the damage was repaired again. He tried to keep the casualties to a minimum but inevitably, almost every time he blew up a weapon system, there would be some fatalities.

  Arnold was surprised to find himself alive. He hadn't really had a chance to wonder about it when Jake's recorded voice sounded in his inner ear.

  “Your one lucky bastard you know,” Jake's nano-pod said. “If you'd have given me just one more second's warning I could have prevented your fatal injuries. As it was it was all I could do to limit the damage to something my nanites could repair. Please try not to get yourself killed again, as by now I'm a bit busy. I've declared a one man war on this base. I'll try not to kill any more of your friends than I must Arnold. But the military capabilities of Luna base ‘shall’ be totally disabled. And you can damn well tell Mary yourself. End recording.”

  By the time he'd heard the whole message Arnold had figured out where he was. He breathed a sigh of relief when he extracted himself from the woman's facility without being spotted. Arnold had been a security man at Luna for so long that he knew almost all the security codes. There were security teams running back and forth all over the place. This made it relatively easy for him to blend in. All he had to do was avoid bumping into anyone who knew him personally.

  He modified his ID tag and acquired a body armor equipped combat uniform, complete with a shock rifle. He hoped that Jake's mission would succeed but there wasn't much else he could do to ensure that. So instead he had decided that it was time to begin his own personal mission.

  When the commander stepped into the sonic shower, a cabinet door in his personal pantry began to open. When the commander was sufficiently refreshed he deactivated the sonic emitter and started to step out of the stall. He was totally unprepared to see a man in body armor holding a shock riffle pointed in his direction. Then he heard a familiar voice.

  “It was a waste of time taking a shower commander,” Arnold informed his superior officer. “Nothing can wash away the stain of your guilt.” The commander opened his mouth to protest but Arnold modified his aim slightly and fired a brief low power burst. The shock rifle sent a pulse of conflicting repulsor and attractor beams into the commanders groin. Literally ripping the naked mans genitals to shreds.

  “That's for what you nearly did to Mary,” Arnold said just before the commander started to fully feel the pain of his injury. Then as Arnold saw the commanders face distort in agony, he added, “And this is for what you did to the people of Shipend.”

  As he said that he modified the aperture setting for a broader, less focused field of disruption and squeezed the trigger. He was still squeezing it long after the screaming had stopped.

  Jake had disabled almost every long range weapon system at Luna base when he detected that Luna itself was beginning to rotate. At first he was puzzled. Then he realized that the drive systems that had been built in to it for it's interstellar journey still existed. The next thing he realized was that in a few minutes the massive gamma laser system on the far side of the moon would be pointed at Slowlane. It hadn't been designed as a weapon. It had been a primary component of the old drive system. It didn't have any precision targeting system. The smallest area it could possibly target was a continental land mass. Yet someone was about to point it at Slowlane. Worse, the power and control systems for the old drive systems were located at the farside base. Which was too far away for his nanites to infiltrate in time. Then in a moment of inspiration he knew what he had to do.

  The commander's guard detail had heard the commander's screams. They tried, to gain entry to the commanders quarters. Unfortunately for the commander, they could not override his secure lockout program but there was no way for Arnold to escape them. It was only a mater of time before a construction crew would arrive with the tools needed to cut through the 3 inch steel walls.

  Now that the commander had paid for his crimes, Arnold calmly waited for them to cut their way in. He had no illusion
s about what they would do to him when they did so. He expected no mercy but Arnold had been prepared for death from the moment his shuttle left David's island behind. He also knew the commander's guards were essentially innocent. So he simply put his weapons away and used the commander's computer to record a final farewell to Mary. He never got to send it however.

  He noticed that the cutting tool had almost completed the 2 ½ foot hole through which they would enter and kill him. So he quickly finished recording his message and reached for the transmit key. At that moment the floor shook as an immense shock wave tore through the Luna surface. Causing half the power circuits in the entire Luna complex to fail. Including most of the high priority power circuits like the power supply to the commander's computer.

  There were also structural collapses in many locations throughout the base. The commander's quarters wasn't one of those. So when Arnold picked himself off the floor in the nearly complete darkness, he had plenty of time to lament that Mary would never hear his farewell. The corridor outside however wasn't so fortunate. The two man construction crew who had been operating the high powered cutter were both killed when the corridor collapsed.

  The six man assault team had also lost two men. All of which angered it's team leader. Though not nearly so much as the fact that there wasn't any power for the cutter to cut through the last two inches of the circle. He was certain that the commander was already dead but it was his duty to kill the assassin and he couldn't get in there to do so. He was so frustrated by this that he broke several bones in his foot. In a futile attempt to kick the hanging piece of steel out of the way.

  ***

  Jess began helping Sam, get himself and Sue's limp form out of his flight rig.

  “Never mind me,” Sam screamed. “Just get some damn nano-meds in her quick! And get her to Jake now!” Jess took Sam's word for Sue's need and quickly stuffed both of the nano-med packets he had brought with him into Sue's mouth.

  “OK Sam, I've just given her a double dose of your reserve nano-meds,” Jess explained.

  “That's good,” Sam said. “But she needs something a lot stronger. Now hurry up and get her to Jake.” Jess just shook his head.

  “I wish I could Sam,” he said. “But Jake isn't here.” Then after a slight pause, he continued “He's busy pounding the shit out of those bastards on Luna base.”

  David met them at the dock. He'd been listening to the open communications circuit on his boat.

  “Don't worry Sam,” he said. “I've got the very best of Slowlane's medical technology in my med-lab. Whatever those nano-meds of yours can't fix, I probably can.” Sam didn't look convinced.

  ***

  First Jake had modified the control program of the freight pod launcher. Then he rapidly launched a half dozen of the heaviest freight pods in the loading bay on a short suborbital trajectory. They impacted the gamma laser array just as it began it's primary power cycle. This resulted in a massive power circuit feedback and a chain reaction of explosions in a series of power storage facilities. By the time the explosions were done, all that was left of the farside base was large crater and a massive shock wave that was moving towards the Luna command center.

  A few hours later the first of the troop carriers from the Wildland spaceport arrived. They were running with only minimal power from the new transmitter that the best available technology primes had rushed to build. It was transmitting from the only fusion reactor on the planet. Which was located about five miles from the spaceport. The original plan had called for a suicide mission to crash at least one ship, full of high explosives, into Luna base. The theory was that if they sent every ship they had and if none of them slowed down. Then even Luna's extensive defense systems might fail to shoot down one of them. before it could crash into the base. It's odds of success were not good but it was the only hope they had. Until, just before they were quite ready to launch, the moon had begun to rotate.

  By the time they were launch capable, they had detected the series of explosions that destroyed farside base. They quickly calculated that the shock wave must have done significant damage to the base. So they shelved the multiple suicide mission, in favor of sending troop ships. Even so, they were not prepared for the extensive damage that the shipboard sensor arrays were able to locate in the underground facility. They didn't meet with any resistance when they landed. Nor did any of the next ten shuttles. When sufficient power was restored to finish cutting that hole into the commander's quarters. It was no longer a death squad waiting for Arnold.

  He was however arrested. He had technically murdered his commanding officer after all. Additionally he had done so in a particularly brutal way. They didn't even try to arrest Jake. He had after all been granted ambassadorial status when he first arrived. Aside from which it could be argued that his retaliation against Luna base had been in self defense.

  It took nearly a week to locate the stasis chamber in which commander Smith had entombed Jake's ship after his best technicians had failed to force their way inside. The power network was up by then. Which was mostly thanks to David's help. David had incorporated a version of Jake's worm in the new control systems. The satellites could be used to defend against attacking spacecraft but nobody could get them to unleash such destructive power against anyplace on Slowlane. The amazing thing was that this was all done with the official approval of the government.

  Jake had used the resources of his ship to repair much of the damage done to Luna base. Once he determined that they really were serious about building in real safeguards he also helped them restore some of the defensive weapon systems. Then, when he requested permission to attend Arnold's trial by service tribunal, they even let him land his ship at the spaceport. Which was also the site of the trial.

  They let Jake attend but they didn't allow him to speak on Arnold's behalf. David Miller however, was permitted to speak. First he reminded them that if it wasn't for Arnold's bravery, the odds were that the isolationists would have won. Then he pointed out how many times Arnold's wife had been attacked. It was true that she would have only been collateral damage. Nonetheless Commander Smith had known her personally. He was a regular guest at her diner table. Yet he had known she'd be in the line of fire for each of the attacks he'd authorized. It was little wonder that Arnold had taken it personally. Eventually it was time for the tribunal to decide his fate. The tribunal, consisted of the three highest ranking service commanders. Which included commander Burlson and two others Jake hadn't met. The tribunal consulted together privately for only a few minutes.

  Then they proclaimed that they had considered the points raised by the esteemed prime Miller. They were further impressed by the fact that Arnold himself had refused to ask for mercy from the court. However none of that would allow them to ignore the fact that he was an officer of the service when he, without orders from a superior, murdered his commanding officer. This offense carried a mandatory death penalty.

  Then they said that there was just one thing that could allow them to rule otherwise. They had heard testimony of a nervous breakdown that Arnold had suffered when he believed that Mary had perished in the blast that destroyed the Scuttlebutt. They allowed that no qualified person had actually then ruled him fit for duty before he flew the assault mission. Thus they determined that Arnold should have been reclassified as unstable. Which would have, at least temporarily, cost him his commission.

  At this point in the proceedings they actually voided Arnold's commission, retroactively to the moment of his reported breakdown. Then since he was technically now considered to have been a civilian at the time of his offense, he couldn't be charged with it as a ‘service crime’. Though he would have to be tried as a civilian for the crime of murdering his former commanding officer. They would therefore recommend to the civilian courts that his case be dismissed for reason of heroism. They also expressed sorrow that his now documented history of mental instability would make him permanently ineligible to return to active duty, regardless of the rul
ing of the civilian court system.

  At first Arnold was at a loss. He said that the service had been his whole life and that he would actually have preferred the death penalty as a serviceman. That is until David offered him a position at his island, stating that he needed a lot of good men to help rebuild the community that had once surrounded his island. At which point, David addressed the tribunal.

  “If it please the court,” prime Miller said. “I have a request for the tribunal to consider while the special oversight powers granted to it, for reason of the disastrous conditions of the entire region surrounding my home, are still in place.”

  Commander Burlson focused his pale green eyes on David while he silently considered his response.

  “I presume then prime Miller, that this request is both related to the disaster and within the scope of the tribunal's authority,” the commander finally said. It wasn't a question and required no answer. Commander Burlson then continued with little discernible pause. “You may make your request.”

  “Thank you!” David replied. “As the tribunal is aware, my region has suffered greatly due to commander Smith's misuse of his military authority. You are also aware that the cost of repairing all the damage done to the infrastructure will likely exceed our means. However the tribunal may be unaware of a resource available to us while our ‘outworlder’ visitors are still here.