Syn-En: Pillar World

by Linda Andrews

  “Power.” Ugu spat. “The great corrupter.” She pointed to two female Skaperians and their bucket of NDA. “Show us what you’ve accomplished.”

  The two scientists plucked at their lab coat buttons. “Prime Ugu, we are attempting to make a skin of armor for our brave warriors.”

  Ugu nodded. “Apollie, let them demonstrate on you.”

  Dropping her hand from her swollen belly, the albino Skaperian shifted the dummy out of the way, stepped on the pan, and bowed her head.

  Nell hustled over. “Wait. Wait.” She clasped Apollie’s hand. “I’m here for you.”

  A sheet snapped as the mechanic and Doc peered at the corpse-filled armor.

  The two scientists poured the bucket over Apollie’s head. Silver glittered in her feathers. The NDA poured down her body, coating it evenly. She wiggled. “It’s warm.”

  The scientists tapped notes into the computer and smiled to each other. “It works.”

  “It works.” Ugu’s eyes narrowed. “Nell, remove your touch.”

  Apollie’s hand sprang open. Nell broke the connection. The NDA on Apollie’s body beaded then formed rivulets and puddled onto the floor.

  One scientist banged her fist on the table. “It only works for Humans.”

  Humans. Humans. The word jostled loose Bei’s log-jammed thoughts. If the Syn-En were already dead, who was the female who had sent the SOS?

  “Admiral.” Doc glanced up. His black eyes glittered. A blue ball twinkled between his fingers. “We’ve found an active tracker. The enemy knows our location.”

  Chapter 9

  “I’ve got this.” Nell wiggled her fingers. Fermites sparkled in the air. With a flick of her wrist, she flung them across the room. They arrowed toward the blue tracker.

  Bei’s eyes darkened to pitch. “The enemy has detected our position. Prepare to jump to fall back location.”

  The target winked and sparkled in Doc’s hands. “Don’t take my fingers off, Nell Stafford. Replacements are getting hard to come by.”

  Beside Doc, Mechanic Montgomery Smith poked his head out from under the tarp covering the remains of the third Syn-En. “I’m working to repair limbs as fast as I can. But there are few of us mechanics aboard anymore.”

  Ugu and Apollie watched the silver stream through narrowed eyes.

  Cradling her baby bump, Apollie shook off the beads of NDA from her feet and stepped out of the puddle. “I didn’t think the fermites could be used as a weapon.”

  “They can’t.” Nell twirled her finger in the air and the fermites wrapped the tracker like a foil around candy. “But I’ve convinced them the trackers are harmful so they can be destroyed.”

  Ugu smoothed her white feathers out of her aquamarine eyes. “Cannons are harmful. Can you destroy them?”

  “If I give that order, the fermites will destroy our weapons first.” Information coagulated inside Nell’s head—copies of the intelligence the tracker had relayed to its owners. She shunted it to Bei and tightened her grip on the alien technology. Soon the thing would be destroyed, and they would leave this deserted quadrant in No Man’s Space. Her fingers curled against her palm.

  “Don’t!” Shang’hai emerged between pillars containing the oxygen scrubbers. She lurched forward, grabbing Nell’s arm. An electrical charge danced across her white teeth and her back arched. Her pink dreadlocks rose from her shoulders.

  “Darn it!” Nell didn’t dare let go of the tracker, but she had to help Shang’hai. “You’re not supposed to touch me unless I touch you first.”

  “I’ve got her.” Bei eased his hand around the Chief Engineer’s.

  Shang’hai stopped shaking.

  Smith materialized at her side, every tool in his fingertips was ready for action. “Let me know when it is safe to touch her.”

  “It’s safe.” Shang’hai coughed a puff of smoke.

  A loud hum vibrated the tools on the carts. The tarps slipped off the abused Syn-En corpses laid out on the tables. The two Skaperian scientists reached for the bucket of NDA. The lavender one on the right knocked over the pail. The NDA formed a hard lump inside.

  The two aliens looked at each other. “Electricity,” they chorused.

  Smith stared at the top of his skull. “I’ve only told them so a dozen times.”

  Bei pried Shang’hai’s hand off Nell’s sleeve and lowered her to the metal deck.

  Nell squeezed her fist tighter, knowing the fermites would take it as a sign to crush the tracker. The air glittered in her peripheral vision. What were the fermites doing over there?

  Smith dropped beside Shang’hai, smoothed her kinky hair out of her face. “I’ll fix you. You’ll see.”

  “Don’t.”

  The mechanic yanked his hand back. Swallowing hard, he looked away.

  “Don’t…” Shang’hai threaded the word through her clenched teeth. “Destroy it. Don’t.”

  Smith jerked his attention back to Shang’hai. His nails dug into his thighs to keep from reaching for her. “You don’t want the tracker destroyed?”

  Shang’hai jerked her head once. “Back. Track.”

  Bei glanced at the ceiling. “Pennig, don’t engage the bubble drive. Nell hold the tracker.”

  Nell paused. She wished they’d let her in on their plans. Maybe she should have the fermites rewire her brain to think like the military, so she didn’t miss out on the fun. She called to the haze near the refuse treatment. It didn’t move. Odd, but then she either destroyed or did not destroy things, this purgatory was new. “Do you want me to halt the signal?”

  “Negative. We need it active.” Bei’s eyes darkened. “The Founders may be able to find out where the tracker is, but we can find where it has been. We will learn where they kept the corpses.”

  Ugu crept closer. The cane punctuated each shuffle of her feet. “If we don’t leave soon, the enemy will find us. We don’t know if the Nell Stafford can destroy a Founders’ dreadnaught.”

  “And we won’t find out today.” Releasing his chief engineer, Bei wrapped his hands around Nell’s shoulders and pulled her back to rest against the front of his chest. “How long can you hold the tracker without destroying it?”

  “I don’t know.” Her arm tingled. She felt the tug of the fermites to dismantle the technology. And then there were the rogue ones who were ignoring her commands. Were they reserves? The cloud thickened. Lights flashed on the refuse control panel. Should she tell someone?

  No one else seemed to notice.

  Cupping her hand, Bei steadied her and locked his armor. “Tell them that you don’t know if the tech is harmful and need to test it first.”

  “That could be dangerous.” She leaned her head against him. The cloud had thinned somewhat. “What if there are more trackers?”

  Hunt. Fetch. The fermite swarm drifted toward the third corpse.

  “We need to take the chance.” Ugu shuffled closer to the levitating, fermite-wrapped tracker. “If we can discover where your dead where taken, we might have an advantage.”

  “And if it’s deep in enemy territory?” Her hand shook from the strain. Her gut said crush it to dust and move the ship far, far away. The fermites stopped next to the workstation. She took that as a sign there were no more trackers.

  “The convoy these remains were on didn’t jump from inside enemy territory.” Bei’s breath warmed her cheek. “They were in No Man’s Space. Easy pickings.”

  Doc’s eyes had gone dark. “Sensors are at maximum. We’re detecting no activity on the nearby event horizons.”

  “So we have time.” Bei draped his hand on her hip before sliding it around and covering her belly.

  Nell shivered at his touch. He was deliberately distracting her from the danger by seducing her. She let him. Opening her palm, she called the fermites to her. The tracker floated on a silver cloud then drifted to the table near the first corpse.

  “Help me up.” Grunting, Shang’hai held out her hand to Smith.

  The tight skin around the
mechanic’s dark eyes relaxed. He slid his palm against hers, then clasped her wrist.

  Shang’hai pushed against the deck, before falling back.

  Smith wrapped his free hand over his other then braced his feet apart. “I’m stronger than I look. You can depend upon me.”

  Nell shook her head. She knew this script. The Syn-En was being a superior, over-protective ass; and the Human a reckless, but stubborn butthead determined to prove how tough he was. Nell and Bei often played the game. And she would bet her fermites, their next showdown would make the shootout at the OK Corral look like a bad hair day.

  As if Bei heard her thoughts, his fingers spasmed on her belly.

  Someone has an itchy trigger finger. At least her beloved hadn’t told her to stop using her atomic buddies. The tracker wobbled. “Um, you might want to get the lead out. I don’t know how much longer I can block the signal.”

  Leaning on Smith’s arm, Shang’hai trudged toward the table. “Can you peel the casing back?”

  The theme song to Gilligan’s Island drifted through Nell’s head. Peel the skin. Peel the skin. She pictured a banana and slowly dissolved the casing.

  “Good. Good.” Bracing her hands on the table, Shang’hai leaned forward. “It looks like the schematic from Surlat.”

  Smith hustled around the other side. “There are a few differences.” Using the Phillips screwdriver in his index finger, he pointed to the silver balls and a black rectangle. Fermites thickened the tip of his tools. “These are new. One looks like a memory chip. Guess their tech isn’t that reliable.”

  “No one’s tech is reliable, except Humans.” Ugu waved her scientists over. “What is your opinion?”

  With their cricket-like legs, the two women leapt over the table and landed with a thump on the floor near Smith.

  The red-feathered one pursed her lips as she leaned forward. Her lab coat strained over her girth. “There is a memory chip. The other looks to be extra batteries to boost power to the signal.”

  Doc closed his eyes and stiffened. “Jump gates have been activated. We have two minutes, ten seconds until enemy intercept.”

  The hair on Nell’s arms prickled. Their ship was cloaked. Somehow the knowledge didn’t give her the Star Trek warm and fuzzies. The power cell emitted more light. “Um, you might want to hurry. I think it’s calling the mother ship.”

  And not in a good way. She checked the fermites. Their exact location had been discovered despite her cloak performing its magic trick.

  “I’m going in.” Shang’hai’s eyes changed to black coals in her sockets. “Nice doggy. Want a biscuit? Not much security here. Geez, there’s a lot of doors. I think they’re interfering with the signal.”

  Doggy. Nell shivered. Antiviral software often took the form of Dobermans.

  Bei tightened his grip. “As long as she’s inside, you can’t let anything happen to the tracker.”

  “Got it.” Nell glanced beyond the curtain of prosthetic limbs waiting to be repaired. Less than two minutes until the enemy arrived. Was it cowardly to want to be gone before the countdown hit one minute? She wouldn’t visit Oz to get courage either. She had a baby to protect.

  Circuits snapped and popped on the waste reclamation unit.

  Doc turned to inspect it. Lifting his fingernail, he unveiled a connector and aimed for the port. Static electricity leapt from the unit to his hand, throwing him backward against the table holding a corpse.

  “I can fix the interference.” Smith jogged to his workstation and strung a fiberoptic cable back toward them. He jacked into the port under Shang’hai’s thumb. “Let me see what you see.”

  The screen blinked to life. Shang’hai’s avatar ran down a corridor opening and closing yellow, green, and red doors.

  Nell’s fingers burned. The fermites didn’t like limbo. They thinned and condensed like a heartbeat around the tracker. Glittering balls formed near the oxygen scrubbers. Was she calling them? She didn’t mean to. Static electricity crawled over the metal columns. God, what if they sparked and caused an explosion? That would be a very bad boom. Her NDA merged with Bei’s, deadening the pain.

  The balls scampered away from the scrubbers to hover near the ceiling.

  “Just a little longer.” Bei kissed the delicate skin under her ear.

  She shivered and her legs almost buckled. Her husband’s strength kept her on her feet. “A little longer.”

  “Batteries at fifteen percent.” Her cerebral interface chided in a voice that sounded exactly like Nell’s mother.

  Only her mom could lay the guilt on a century after she’d passed away. Nell swallowed the lump in her throat. She would make her family proud. With maybe just a little whining. “You might want to hurry.”

  The balls near the ceiling expanded.

  Smith tapped on the farthest door on the screen. “Try that one.”

  Shang’hai’s avatar paused by the next door then she sprinted down the cyberspace corridor. “Why?”

  “Hunch.” Smith glanced back and smiled. His grin melted away before he cleared his throat. “The tracker’s sole purpose is to record information. It would be at the heart of the matter.”

  Bei grunted. “One minute.”

  The fermite balls descended. Sparks from the water treatment vats showered the floor. The nacelles hummed at a higher pitch.

  Shang’hai tossed open the door. A data packet hovered in the room.

  “Booyah. Just like a Christmas present from Santa.” Nell resisted a fist pump. That’ll teach the Syn-en to dismiss biologics just because they didn’t have a NDA exterior and a gooey center. Her hand shook. Soon… Soon, she could crush the tracker.

  After cloning the present, Shang’hai sent the copy to Smith’s station then left cyberspace. Data streamed down the screen.

  The Chief Engineer stumbled backward, clutching her head. “Damn. ET’s tech is worse than a hangover.”

  The ship bucked underfoot. She tried to close her fist, but her fingers wouldn’t obey.

  “We’re moving. Nell—”

  Fermites gobbled the tracker until the pixie dust faded away.

  “Good job.” Bei embraced her.

  “I didn’t do it.” Someone else had taken control of her fermites.

  Chapter 10

  Bei curved his body around his wife’s, embracing her fully. She was here. She was safe. For a moment there… He shut down the image of her fingers blurring. Of her disappearing again. Doc had said she was stable. Stable, his synthetically-enhanced ass. Nell had been dissolving in front of Bei’s eyes. “Well done, everyone.”

  He buried his nose in her neck and filled his senses with her scent.

  Nell sagged against him. “I didn’t do it. I didn’t control the fermites.”

  She waved her hand in the repair bay, gesturing toward the oxygen scrubbing towers and treatment vats.

  Enhancing his optical sensors, he picked up clusters of fermites. Not unusual. The atomic pests congregated everywhere these days, waiting for his wife or Davena Cabo to summon them for service. “It doesn’t matter. We retrieved the information and Shang’hai returned safely.”

  “But—”

  Admiral, Executive Officer Cassius Pennig hailed him through an encrypted channel. I recommend a thorough diagnostic on the Nell Stafford. The ship’s bubble engines jumped without my authorization. Hell, the damn things overrode my authorization and activated.

  Bei straightened. What could be so fast as to override the speed of thought? Glitter twinkled above the corpses laid out on the three tables. Could fermites be the cause? “Doc.”

  His medical officer pulled his singed index finger out of his mouth and activated the diagnostic beam in his wrist. A fan blade of green washed over Nell. “She’s exhausted but that’s to be expected given—”

  Bei pinged his medical officer. He wanted to know the results of Nell’s blood test first. As for her disappearing, that was better discussed without an audience of featherheads.

  Ugu rested
both her gnarled hands on the top of her cane.

  Apollie cocked a pale eyebrow. Her red eyes blazed with interest. “Given that Nell is pregnant or expecting twins?”

  Nell’s head whipped up. “Wh-what? Twins.” She clutched Bei’s arms. “No one said anything about twins.”

  “Elvis said you had a tangy aftertaste.” Apollie shrugged a pale shoulder. “Every Skaperian knows that means twins.”

  Bei would have to speak with the pack leaders about disclosing sensitive information to everyone. “Doc?”

  He brushed his dark hair off his forehead. “Yes, the tests confirm there are twin boys. Healthy and identical, right down to their heartbeats.”

  Nell glanced up at him. Worry pleated her forehead. “How can they have identical heart beats?”

  “Ours do.” A chill washed over Bei’s skin. Hearts shouldn’t beat identically. But his and Nell’s did because their cerebral interfaces synced frequencies. The babies should be a hundred percent biologic, with different rhythms.

  “Oh.” Her shoulders sagged and she wrapped her arms over his as if to protect their unborn children. “Twins.”

  All of her systems were suppressed. Bei stopped her cerebral interface from releasing a hormone cocktail to perk her up. There was a better remedy for her and the twins. “You should return to our cabin and rest.”

  “But…” Nell eyed the screen where the information from the enemy tracker streamed.

  “I’ll give you the highlights later.” He nipped her ear. “And I’ll join you in an hour. I’ll debrief you then.”

  “Debrief me, huh?” Her eyes twinkled but the light was dimmed with fatigue and worry.

  He pressed his lips to her forehead. Her skin registered point one degree above normal. His essential systems threatened to shut down. Everything about her should be spot on the norm. “Whatever you want.”

  She angled her face towards his. “You better take four hours off then.”

  “I will.” He brushed his lips across hers. Energy sparked off her skin. The control board on one of the oxygen scrubbers behind him popped and fizzled. Cupping her cheek, he stepped back. “Richmond and Brooklyn will escort you to the cabin.”