by Robert Roth
She quickly moved towards the hatch on the opposite side. Her mini-map showed a route that would lead her toward her first possible target. The hatch at the far end of the compartment slid open automatically when she approached it, and she stepped out into a corridor. It was narrower than the wide-open walkways on Davida Station, with dark gray composite paneling and exposed ductwork and piping on the walls, and metal grating for a deck. The lighting was still bright, though, and it was also empty.
According to her mini-map, Kimiko needed to take that corridor to the next junction, then turn left. She moved quickly and quietly until, turning left at the corridor junction, she nearly ran right into a uniformed Al-Zamani engineer.
“Shit, Joe,” exclaimed the engineer, a look of surprise on their bearded face. “I didn’t even hear you coming.”
“Sorry about that,” Kimiko replied, working to keep her expression placid and voice calm. She started to move around the engineer and continue down the corridor when they held up a hand to stop her.
“Hey,” they said, “where’s your ID badge.”
Kimiko wavered briefly before recovering her wits. “I haven’t been assigned one yet. I’m on my way to do that right now.”
The engineer nodded, but still had a look of suspicion on their face. “Okay, well, I’ll just call in and get you an escort then.”
They started to lift a hand toward his ear when Paradox cut in. “Disable them now, Kimiko!”
Without even thinking, she thrust a hand out in a knife strike to their throat. The engineer faltered, barking a loud, choked cough as Kimiko spun on the ball of her foot and got behind them. Then she wrapped an arm around their neck, locked their head with her other arm, and put them into a sleeper hold. She held them firmly as they struggled, before she felt them slump into her grip, unconscious.
“There is a compartment hatch to your right,” Paradox announced. “Hold your palm out near the input pad. I can modulate the shield emitters in your suit to try fooling the NFC reader.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yes. If we had more time, I’d be happy to discuss the finer points of field energy manipulation.”
“Ok, yeah. Sorry.” She balanced her grip on the engineer to hold her hand out as instructed. She couldn’t feel anything happening, but assumed Paradox was hard at work trying to break the code. The QED node was really pretty amazing if it allowed him to do that. She’d so far not lost contact with Paradox and, even inside the Al-Zamani Shipyard, was still receiving a crystal clear signal from him.
“Got it,” Paradox said just as the input pad lit up green, and the hatch slid open.
Kimiko hurriedly dragged the engineer inside the small compartment. It was an armory. Except for a viewscreen, the walls were lined with gun racks containing hand-sized and rifle-sized blasters, as well as two frames full of baton-shaped stun sticks. A trio of Security Bots sat in the corner.
“Shit!” she exclaimed in surprise, before realizing that all the Sec-Bots were folded down and deactivated.
“They don’t appear to be active at the moment,” Paradox confirmed, coming to the same conclusion. “This compartment must be where security personnel coming onstation can arm themselves. You might consider doing the same.”
Kimiko grunted as she pulled the engineer to the side of the compartment and propped them against the wall. She knew she was running out of time before they regained consciousness, so she searched their body, finding a Comm unit in their pocket and an ID badge hanging around their neck. She took the Comm unit, threw it to the deck, and then stomped on it with a boot, crushing it.
“Can you deactivate the hatch controls for this compartment?” she asked Paradox as she stood to look over the weapons racks. The rifles were out of the question, since she’d hardly ever trained with one. She’d trained on hand blasters, but guessed that the only thing more suspicious than a joe running around the station with no ID badge would be a joe with a blaster in her hand. But the stun batons appealed. She grabbed one and attached it to a waist loop on her coveralls.
“Yes, I believe so,” Paradox replied.
“Stellar.” Kimiko took one more look around the armory, at the viewscreen mounted on one of the walls. “And there’s no security terminal access you can use in here?”
“No,” Paradox said. “But that viewscreen is displaying an annotated station layout.”
Kimiko smiled as she focused on the viewscreen. She looked over the nearby areas and found the compartment they’d chosen as her first stop, conveniently labeled as a Security Station. “There you are,” she said quietly.
“I’ve updated our map with that location. You shouldn’t delay any further.”
She looked back and saw the engineer starting to stir. “You’re right.” She pressed the hatch control panel, and it slid open. Once she was back in the corridor, Paradox instructed her to hold her hand in front of the input pad again. After a few seconds, it lit up all in red.
“The hatch is now locked and quantum coded,” Paradox said.
“And our sleeping friend is stuck in there?”
“Until someone physically cuts away the hatch, yes.”
She smiled. She was starting to really enjoy having Paradox on her team. “Is there anyone else coming?”
“I don’t have any Net access outside of the docking bay, I’m afraid.”
“You think you’re afraid,” she said with a chuckle, “you should try being in here with me.”
Paradox laughed. “That was a figure of speech, of course. But, for all intents and purposes, I am in there with you.”
“Then you better not forget to duck when all the shooting starts.”
He laughed again. “I’ll bear that in mind.”
Kimiko turned on her heel and continued onward. She stopped when she reached the next junction and peered carefully around the corner. The corridor was clear, so she started moving again. The Security Station was just ahead, marked on her mini-map with an icon on her right. As she approached, she could see the bright orange hatch decorated with a black shield icon. Next to the hatch was a Security Personnel Only warning sign in Arabic, Mandarin, and English, mounted just above an input pad. She reactivated her helmet, then, as it unfolded around her head, held her hand in place in front of it like she’d done before.
“Okay, Paradox, work your magic again.”
“Working on it. Stand by.”
Suddenly Kimiko heard a hatch slide open behind her. She turned around to see another uniformed Al-Zamani employee standing in the hatchway. They looked at her with a shocked and mildly annoyed expression. She was glad that her helmet hid her face.
“Who are you?” the engineer asked her impatiently. “What’s going on here?”
“Quickly, before–” Paradox started.
Kimiko lunged toward the engineer before Paradox could finish the thought. Reaching down, she pulled the stun baton from the quick-release, then depressed the thumb switch near the base just as she shoved the tip into the engineer’s chest. There was a soft bang as the baton released its charge. The engineer grunted forcefully as they were thrown back into the wall behind them, before slumping down onto the deck. Looking into the open compartment, Kimiko could see the rise and fall of the engineer’s chest, so she knew they were still alive. “That’s what’s going on here,” she muttered.
She glanced around the small compartment, which looked like a storage closet. There was nothing in there she needed, so Kimiko stepped back out of the hatchway, and the hatch slid closed behind her. Looking up and down the corridor, she saw no one else, so she went back across to the input pad and held her hand in front of it.
“Alright, let’s try this again,” she said with some urgency.
“Stand by one moment. Got it.”
The input pad flashed green, and the door slid open, revealing a security guard in a crisp, black uniform seated at the terminal inside. The guard turned toward the hatch to see Kimiko standing there, the stun baton still in her
hand. As they opened their mouth to speak, she lunged, pressing the stunner’s trigger button just as she was about to make contact with their body. But the guard reacted fast, knocking Kimiko’s arm aside at the last moment, leaving the baton to discharge into open space. They tried to kick Kimiko away, but she let her momentum carry her past them, raising her hands to catch herself as she crashed into the far side of the small office. The guard spun on their stool, reaching for the blaster hanging at their hip. But Kimiko braced herself against the wall and kicked back, planting her boot into the guard’s chest and forcing them off their stool. She shoved off the wall as the guard tried for their blaster again, twisted around to face them, then kicked the gun out of their hand. As the guard fumbled around, trying to get to their fallen weapon, Kimiko flipped her stun baton up into the air, caught it with the tip facing down, and stabbed it down onto the guard’s chest, pressing the trigger button when it made contact. The guard shook violently as the stun charge coursed through their body, then fell back down onto the deck, limp.
Kimiko’s heavy breathing was loud in the sudden, quiet calm. Her thumping heartbeat boomed in her ears. She nudged the guard once with her foot just to make sure they’d been knocked out.
“Hurry, Kimiko,” Paradox said urgently. “I don’t know yet if that guard managed to send out any sort of alert.”
Nodding to herself, Kimiko collapsed her helmet as she set the baton down, then unsealed her belt pouch and pulled out the QED node.
“Set it on the interface on that desk.”
She found the interface section outlined in blue light and set the node inside of it. The input pad on the node started to flash in rapid pulses, and then the blue lighting followed suit.
“I’m negotiating access through the Net-Sec,” Paradox explained. “This may take a few moments.”
Kimiko’s breathing and heart rate were returning to normal, so she set about removing the Al-Zamani coveralls. They wouldn’t be necessary once Paradox was in the Net and subverting the station’s Sec-System. Once it was off, she folded the uniform, set it down on the desktop, then picked up the baton and attached it to her suit at the waist. She picked up the stool and set it back upright, then sat down on it and looked over the virtual controls projected onto the desktop in front of her. She selected one of the security cams, and the footage appeared in a window on the large, wall-mounted viewscreen. She began to cycle through the cams, continuing until she found the view of the shuttle bay. It was empty, which meant Ernesto was already gone. Good. If she did manage to get caught, they would probably still suspect his involvement, but at least he was no longer on-site, which gave him a headstart should Al-Zamani decide to take action.
The security cam footage suddenly started to flicker, and went black. Then the whole viewscreen did, too, followed by the virtual desktop projection.
“What’s happening, Paradox?”
There was an extended moment of silence before the hacker finally answered her. “The AI Sec-monitor fought my attempts to gain access, so I had to resort to more aggressive negotiations.” The viewscreen came back on, then the desktop did as well. “I am now in the system and in control. The Sec-monitor attempted to escape into the system, but I’ve neutralized it.”
“You killed it?”
“I don’t know that ‘killed’ is semantically the best choice–”
“Okay, okay, you neutralized it. Did you find the Shaitan control codes?”
“I’m searching for those now.”
Kimiko let him work and went back to monitoring the security feeds. She didn’t see any armed guards or bots scrambling to her location, so she guessed things were alright, at least for the time being.
“I’ve located the control codes. I’m downloading them to your interface now.”
“So, we’re cleared for launch, so to speak?”
“We are. I’ve scrubbed you from the security footage. I’ve also set a series of false security alerts on the far side of an adjacent section and dispatched the nearby personnel to investigate them.”
Kimiko smiled. Things were going really well. “You’re pretty greased up at this sorta thing, Paradox.”
“Indeed,” he responded, with maybe a hint of smugness. “You should get moving, though. I may have control of the station’s security system, but there is still the station AI to deal with, and it’s only a matter of time before it notices my presence. You need to get to your ship.”
Her ship. Kimiko liked the sound of that. She spun around on the stool, then she stood up and looked back at the QED node. “What about that,” she wondered aloud. “Do I leave it here?”
“Yes,” Paradox answered. “It’s currently my only connection to the Al-Zamani Net.”
“And we can still stay connected with each other?”
“Yes. Now that I’m inside the Station Net, I can stay in contact with you that way. I’ve already switched us over to an encrypted local channel.”
She hadn’t even noticed the changeover. “Ah, okay.”
“I’ll add the route to the docking bay to your mini-map,” he added, “and alert you if I see any trouble headed your way. Now, get moving.”
4
You Are Advised To Hurry
The wayfinding icon in her virtual display swiveled to the right, so Kimiko headed that way. According to her mini-map, she needed to go another ten meters further down the corridor, make a left turn, then continue another thirty meters to a lift shaft. The Shaitan was about twenty levels up from there. Kimiko was quietly determined as she moved, her excitement building as she got closer to her goal. But when she approached the upcoming junction, a visual alert flashed inside her helmet.
“Two engineering techs have exited the lift and are heading in your direction,” Paradox suddenly announced. “There’s nowhere to redirect them away from your path, but I’ve disabled their comms, so they’ll be unable to call for help.”
Kimiko stopped and put her back to the wall near the junction. The techs’ muddled conversation in her helmet speakers grew louder as they approached. She reached down to grab her stun baton, pressing herself firmly against the wall until the engineers emerged into the junction. Once they stepped past her, she lunged and touched the tip of the baton to the closest engineering tech, triggering the discharge with a soft bang. The force of the shock knocked the tech forward, and they collapsed to the deck, twitching lightly. But the other tech reacted fast, ducking back as Kimiko swung the stun baton around, then kicking it out of her hand with a grunt. When they dropped back into a combat stance, Kimiko frowned. None of the other joes she’d encountered so far had fought back, except for the security guard. It was probably too much to expect that none of the Al-Zamani engineering staff knew how to defend themselves.
The tech was femme-presenting, but they were a good fifteen cms taller and ten kgs heavier than Kimiko. That weight all looked like muscle under their coveralls, too. If they were fast and strong, Kimiko would just have to be smart. She feinted a punch with her left arm, which the tech moved to block. Using the feint as cover, Kimiko kicked low with her left leg, aiming for the tech’s knee, but the engineer shifted their thigh, and Kimiko’s foot hit muscle instead of the joint. The tech trapped Kimiko’s leg with one arm, and tried to slam their elbow down on Kimiko’s knee with the other. With a grunt, Kimiko pushed up off the deck with her other leg, twisting her body around and kicking her free leg high toward the tech’s head. Struggling to keep their balance, the tech let go of Kimiko’s leg and tried to block Kimiko’s kick, but they weren’t quick enough, and took a foot right on the chin. Kimiko continued her twist until she was facing the other way, landing on the corridor deck in a crouch while the tech sailed back and fell hard on their ass. Balancing on her hands, Kimiko launched a backward kick and planted her heel right on the tech’s forehead. Their eyes rolled up as they fell back onto the corridor deck and stopped moving.
Breathing heavily, Kimiko pushed herself up to her feet, picked up the stun baton, and rea
ttached it to her flight suit. Suddenly a nearby hatchway opened up. She looked over in surprise but saw that it was empty, opening into a darkened compartment.
“Move the bodies in there,” Paradox instructed her. “I can lock it and keep them in there until you’ve escaped.”
Kimiko exhaled loudly, then grabbed the first engineer’s leg and dragged them into the storage chamber. She was grateful to have Paradox doing overwatch, even just for simple things like opening a nearby supply closet. As she pulled the unconscious tech into the far corner, she wondered briefly if Kenji’s ex had ever been in there. But she shook the frivolous thought away. Then Kimiko went back out and did the same with the second tech, propping them against the first one. Once she was back out in the corridor, the hatch slid closed again behind her.
“Everything greased up ahead of me?” Kimiko wondered aloud.
“Your path to the lift shaft is clear now.”
“Stellar. Thank you.”
Kimiko took off in the direction the engineering techs had come from. At the end of the curving corridor was the entrance to the lift shaft. It slid open as she approached it, revealing the waiting lift chamber. Paradox must’ve gained control of that, too. She stepped inside.
“Which level do I need?” she asked as the hatch slid closed.
“I will send the lift compartment directly to the correct level, and hold it there. That will make it difficult for anyone to follow you.”
Kimiko felt the lift start to move upward. She took advantage of the momentary calm to access her P/N-interface and found the file Paradox had downloaded containing the control codes. She was getting closer, and could feel the excitement building.
