deactivate this channel - honourable Gowchee and
Yash, my thanks.'
. Abruptly, the voice cut off, leaving Kao Chih to stare
at the external monitor in puzzlement. The mech's final
words had been odd, lacking in its usual conciseness,
and expressing thanks seemed somewhat out of charac-
ter.
'What . . . the jelk,' Yash said, pointing with a long
forefinger, 'is that?'
The Voth was indicating a touch-control screen on
the comms console - it was glowing a pale blue with
dark blue and green graphics, an app options panel with
the words 'Terminate Simulation?' across the top.
'What simulation?' said Kao Chih.
'Exactly! - there wasn't one running before you and
your machine arrived,' the Voth said as he reached over
to the screen, hesitated a moment, then firmly pressed
the terminate button.
At once, the image of the Castellan and the oncoming
freighter disappeared from several screens up and down
the control room. A second later, a cluster of board
alarms went off, lights and symbols flickered and
flashed, and a rasping synth voice spoke.
'Hull breach, outer hold 4, inner pressure doors clos-
ing . . . hull breach, outer hold 9, inner pressure doors
closing ... inner bulkhead breach, section 23, mainte-
nance drone assigned . . .'
'What. .. what's happening?' said Kao Chih, bewil-
dered now.
'Well, for a jelking start,' Yash said, hefting the
plasma cannon and levelling it in his direction, 'there
never was any message to your allies, was there?
Instead, your machine sets a simulation running, faking
an attack and him taking your ship, while all the time he
was stealing my shuttleV
'No, that cannot be ...'
'Look, idiot Human, look!' An external monitor
showed the Castellan still moored to the harvester's
underside, then it switched to a view of some kind of
hold with a gantry and racks of equipment. 'And that is
Stern Bay 1, where my shuttle is usually berthed, only
now it's . . .'
'Intruder detected, deck 10 . . . intruder detected,
deck 7 . . . hull breach, outer hold 2, inner pressure
doors closing ...'
'And now I'm being boarded,' the Voth moaned.
'Who by? - and where did they come from?'
'It must be the droids from the ship you destroyed,'
said Kao Chih, eyeing the wavering business end of the
plasma cannon. 'They are agents for a cyborg species
called the Legion of Avatars who were defeated by the
Forerunners, but these droids have to get to Darien to
open a well into hyperspace ...'
'Mad,' the Voth said. 'Completely sun-staring, rock-
sniffing insane you are! Legions and Forerunners . . .
I'm being boarded and you're giving me jelk like that.
But here's an idea ...' He prodded Kao Chih with the
cannon. '. . . if they're your enemies, maybe I should
just welcome them on board and treat them as friends,
eh? What do you say?'
'A very sensible proposal,' said a voice from one of
the monitors. 'I suggest you adopt it without delay.'
One of the Legion droids was regarding them from
the screen. It was a bulky, asymmetrical machine with
lens clusters set into a small, off-centre recess. Yash took
one look and sneered.
'Jelk you! This is my ship so we play by my rules . . .'
'I don't think you've grasped the fullness of the situ-
ation,' the droid said.
Just then the control room lights went out along with
all the consoles and monitors, apart from the one they
were watching.
'So - where do you think we are?' the droid contin-
ued.
Yash flared his nostrils and Kao Chih could actually
hear his teeth grinding.
'Power core regulating station,' he muttered.
'Correct. Now, because you destroyed our ship we're
going to have to borrow yours so that we can resume
our pursuit, made all the more difficult by your stupid-
ity in letting the Instrument take your shuttle . ..'
'Stupidity?' said the Voth, long teeth bared.
'Yours and this halfwit Human's. Anyway, before we
can do anything we have to unpick the autodestruct
which the Instrument planted in the hyperdrive startup
datachain.' Some of the consoles came back to life.
'Take a look.'
As the Voth bent over a console and called up streams
of incomprehensible code, Kao Chih slumped into one of
the bucket seats, thoughts whirling. Clearly, Drazuma-
Ha* had been planning all this since before they'd come
aboard the harvester, which included leaving Kao Chih
behind. Perhaps it needed Kao Chih's honest reaction
when the simulated droid ship had appeared, but that
did not make him feel any better. Nor did it quell bis
sense of unease. And why did the Legion droid refer to
the mech as the Instrument?
'Nasty and well hidden,' Yash said at last, straight-
ening. 'But how do I know you didn't put it in there
yourselves?'
'Why should we?' the droid said. 'Why go to all the
trouble? No, that's high-grade Legion work - not our
methodology at all.'
Yash stared at Kao Chih. 'You said that this lot were
from the Legion of . . . what was it?'
'Avatars,' Kao Chih said. 'Legion of Avatars . . .'
'Ah, I see,' said the droid on the monitor. 'I'm afraid
you have been deceived - your mech companion is an
Instrument of the Legion of Avatars while we are field
armigers for the Construct...'
'What proof . .. can you offer?' Kao Chih said. 'Why
should we take what you say at face value?'
'Why did you take what that machine said at face
value?' the droid countered. 'Even its appearance is a
fake ...'
'With respect,' he said, 'that is ridiculous.'
Yash laughed unkindly. 'Didn't you know that it was
running a holoshell behind its forcefield? I was using
my goggles in tandem with my wall sensors to study it,
got a few outline scans and extrapolated a rough
image . . .'
'Did it look anything like this?' An inset appeared
on the monitor next to the hulking droid, showing a
strange metallic object resembling a section of articu-
lated limb with a joint halfway up its length. Seeing it,
the Voth nodded.
'Yes, very similar, except that this one has two joints.'
He squinted at the screen. 'What is this thing? Looks
like a piece of something else.'
'It is,' the droid said. 'This is a limb from a cyborg
creature, a Knight of the Legion of Avatars. A Knight
cyborg is permeated with bio-cortical substrate so
when they hive off parts of themselves they can imbue
them with a version of their own personae. They pos-
sess organic sentience along with the attitudes and
instincts of their progenitors, which is strictly in accor-
dance with their creed. In the convergence of organic
>
sentience and technology, the part shall reflect the
whole.'
'Can they be killed?' Yash said, patting his plasma
cannon.
'Most definitely,' the droid said. 'But not if we stand
around here talking.'
'I'll get that autodestruct unpicked,' the Voth said, sit-
ting down at the console. =
Kao Chih had listened in silence, absorbing the truth
and feeling a horrible realisation. After the escape from
the Chaurixa torture ship, he had been so determined to
be done with being someone else's pawn or commodity,
yet he had been Drazuma-Ha*'; willing dupe all along.
His father was right - the hidden hand with its knife had
been there from the start.
'When you reach Darien, I want to go with you,' he
said to the droid.
'As you wish, Human. Just don't get in our way.'
'I won't, I give you my word. I just want to be there
when you tear out whatever that treacherous machine
uses for a heart.'
Yash looked up from his screen, chuckling.
'That's more like it, Human!'
In the stolen shuttle's cockpit, the Instrument patiently
observed the console displays, overseeing the ship's
progress through T2 hyperspace as it savoured the suc-
cessful outcome of its deceptions and gambits. He had
come so far in such a short span of time, from awaken-
ing underwater in the shadow of his mighty progenitor
to this final stage of his momentous journey, having
beguiled and outwitted all his adversaries. Even when
the Chaurixa hijacker had taken them by surprise at
Bryag Station and employed a stasis web, he had been
able to divert all available resources to maintaining a
hard holoshell while recovering various crashed sub-
systems preparatory to regaining full functionality.
Another example of ingenious improvisation leading to
success. And was that not because he was, in himself, an
authentic replica of his exalted progenitor's instincts and
craft and ingenuity?
Too soon for celebration, said an admonitory inner
voice. Too far yet to travel, too much still to do, too
many uncertainties and opponents to overcome. Focus
on the task, enumerate resources, assess all likely risks
and possibilities, generate tactical solutions that will
support strategic aims.
Very well - risks and possibilities. Before leaving the
Viganli's bridge he had left a destruct trigger buried in
the hyperdrive datachain matrix, but it was quite likely
that if any or all of the Construct's rustbucket Als
boarded the harvester (itself quite likely) the trap would
be uncovered and made safe. Therefore, there was a
good chance that they were following him to this
Darien, the warpwell planet, which had been colonised
by Humans. He knew, from news feeds picked during
his travels, that there were warships in orbit there, a
dangerous obstacle to any arriving vessel. He would
have to find a way to make that potential aggression,
and the inherent territorial paranoia of military hierar-
chies, work in his favour.
There were a few options but one of them stood out
from the rest in its simplicity. It would require a certain
amount of finely-gauged role-playing, but he was sure
that his recent experiences would prove invaluable in
that respect.
Aboard the Heracles, Sub-Lieutenant Tuan Ho had just
gone on overwatch in Sensory when one of the outer
boundary beacons went off. He shook his head, put
down the plastic beaker of coffee from which he had
been about to sip, and called up Hugo, the resident
expert system.
'Yarr, matey! There be a ship incoming off the lar-
board bow . ..'
Ho sighed when he saw the eye-patched, tricorn-
hatted visage. The middle-watch operators must have
been exceptionally bored.
'Hugo,' he said. 'Setting command - reskin to default.'
Suddenly the head and shoulders image reverted to
Hugo's usual appearance, attired in the pale green one-
piece of a navy tech.
'Okay,' Tuan Ho said. 'Let me have the report again.'
'A badly damaged small ship, possibly a shuttle,
dropped out of hyperspace just inside the deci-au
marker. The pilot is speaking Brolturan, says he is the
sole survivor of a Brolturan prospecting expedition that
was attacked by a hijacked harvester ship, and claims
that this harvester is chasing him. He also says that his
guidance systems are down and that he's flying on
manual with the aim of landing on Darien. His life sup-
port is on backup and his comms are down to audio
only; his ship is not emitting an ident but he claims to
be from the Perquisitor. A Brolturan-registered ship of
that name was reported missing in the Huvuun three
weeks ago.'
Tuan Ho frowned. 'No ident, audio only - could be
anyone or anything. Have you piped it to Tactical?'
'I did so when I piped it up to the captain's portable.'
His eyes widened in surprise. 'Why do that?'
'Because fifteen seconds later the captain received a
direct query about the newcomer from Father-Admiral
Dyrosha aboard the Purifier.'
Tuan Ho grinned. 'And it would have looked bad if
Velazquez had had to get the information from Dyrosha.
Good thinking, Hugo.'
The expert system smiled and shrugged. 'I am coded
for initiative.'
'Over-Lieutenant Schenker once said he wished I was.
So what's happening now?'
'I am tracking this ship in tandem with Tactical,
Velazquez and Dyrosha are still in conference, and the
Purifier has just launched a pair of interceptors.'
'Goodness, I do hope they don't lose those ones too!'
Like almost everyone on board Heracles, Tuan Ho
had watched the incredible dogfight over the forest
moon, which had been shown on all the communal and
rec screens. The sight of one of their own shuttles being
piloted with insane bravado and destroying not one but
two Brolturan interceptors was electrifying, and reveal-
ing. The crew had been divided into a minority who
were shocked and upset, and the majority whose
approval ran from a kind of fateful resignation to out-
and-out pro-Dariens who later put together a
noticeboard shrine to the Scots pilot, Donny Barbour. It
had not escaped Ho's attention that most of the pro-
Brolturans also had Al-companions.
'Well, it'll probably turn out to be nothing serious,'
he said. 'While you're keeping your eye on it, I'm going
to heat up my coffee.'
'You may be right, sir,' said Hugo.
But twenty minutes later, when a Star-Eater-class
cloud-harvester came out of hyperspace a mere 2,000
kilometres from the Heracles, tripping every alarm,
Tuan Ho soon found that there was no time for sips or
even thoughts of coffee.
From the moment they appeared in the Darien system,
/> they were bombarded with a stream of increasingly
trenchant demands, and finally warnings of dire conse-
quences. Yash, however, was giving as good as he got.
'No, no, Heracles, you listen to me - I am the
wronged party, I am the victim and I'm in pursuit of the
thief who stole my shuttle . . .'
'Harvester Viganli, we have to verify your story
which is why you must cut your velocity and assume
stationary orbit
'Why aren't you putting the clamps on that shuttle,
eh? Why? . . .'
'As a Brolturan vessel it is being handled by . . .'
'It's not a Brolturan ship! - can't you jelkers under-
stand? The thieving, stinking machine who stole it is
lying to you and the Brolturans, lying to everybody . . .'
'Harvester ship - this is Tactical Dominance Enabler
Purifier, Father-Admiral Dyrosha commanding. You are
ordered to reduce your velocity to zero and prepare for
boarding scrutiny . . .'
'No one gets to scrutinise me,' snarled the Voth.
'. . . and possible charges. Failure to comply will
result in diligent threat elimination. That is all.'
'Heracles to Viganli - in case you didn't get the gist of
that, I should tell you that the Purifier has launched fif-
teen close support fighters due to intercept your
trajectory in less than six minutes. But you are already in
range of our standoff weapons and in two minutes you
will be in range of our full deterrent. Consider your
position carefully.'
Yash nodded sourly at the dead channel then looked
round at the Construct droid, the spokesman.
'I hope that you know what you're doing - it looks as
if we're about to become involved in a bit of target prac-
tice.'
'We have reconfigured your fields into defence shields,
Pilot Yash,' said the bulky droid, who went by the name
Gorol9. 'Our opponents should be surprised, especially
when the target starts firing back.' Part of its upper cara-
pace swivelled to bring its lens cluster to bear on Kao
Chih. 'Has there been any change, Human Gowchee?'
Kao Chih had been assigned a console dedicated to
tracking the stolen shuttle's course, velocity and other
aspects of its flightpath.
'None, Gorol9,' he said. 'It is still broadcasting that
Brolturan message and heading straight for Darien at
Michael Cobley - Humanity's Fire book 1 Page 55
