Argonauts 2: You Are Prey

by Isaac Hooke

  “Hmm,” Lui said. “It’s tricky. They’re going to have to work their way from the top down. There’s a lot of loose material here. You pull out a rock lower down, the rest are going to fall into place, potentially triggering a smaller avalanche. I’d say, best guess, one to three weeks. Assuming no breakdowns.”

  “That long, huh?” Rade said.

  “Yes. And that’s erring on the conservative side.”

  Rade glanced at Surus, who had just returned to the plateau after scaling the face. “Any luck cracking into those new emitters we captured?”

  “No,” Surus replied. “It’s secured with Tech Class IV technology. I can’t access it, I’m afraid. These emitters are useless to us.”

  “Maybe you should let me try,” TJ said.

  “Be my guest.” Surus retrieved the alien emitters from her utility belt and tossed them to TJ.

  Fret came forward. “So without emitters, how exactly are we supposed to sneak into the nest and retrieve our Hoplites?”

  “I have a way,” Surus said.

  RADE SPLIT THE team, leaving Unit A, Shaw, Fret, Lui, and TJ behind to protect Harlequin, and to guard the black box containing the captured Phant.

  “Better come back,” Shaw said.

  “Of course we’ll come back,” Rade replied. “And we’ll be in communication the whole time.”

  He waved to her one last time, then clambered over the ledge.

  He descended the steep face; he lost his grip only once, recovering with his jetpack. When he reached the winding path, he glanced up.

  Shaw was peering down at him from above.

  Rade couldn’t help but smile. He waved, and she returned the gesture.

  “You’re good at that,” Shaw transmitted.

  “What, waving good-bye?” Rade asked.

  Shaw laughed. “Sure. That too. But I meant climbing.”

  “Oh.”

  He and the others escorted Surus down the path to the base of the mountain.

  They waded into the calf-deep sand, trudging forward onto the plains, headed toward one of the nest entry points Rade had recorded earlier when the gatorbeetles fled.

  They eventually arrived at the entrance: a tunnel leading away into the dark underground.

  “Well,” Surus said. “It’s at this point I leave you.”

  “Good luck,” Rade said.

  “Luck?” Surus replied. “The concept is foreign to me. I’ve never relied on it. Perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, and strategic thinking under pressure, these are the hallmarks of a successful operation.”

  “All right,” Rade said. “Can’t disagree there.”

  She nodded, then her eyes defocused behind her faceplate and rolled upward. The Green seeped out of the boot of the jumpsuit, trickling onto the sand, darkening it. That green liquid oozed slowly forward until it reached the hard rock of the cave, whereupon it flowed more rapidly and soon descended from view.

  “Well,” Rade said. “It’s time to wait once again. Sometimes I feel like we’ve never left the military, in that regard.”

  “Hurry up and w—” Manic began.

  “Don’t say it!” Bender interrupted.

  Rade took a seat in the sand near the opening and aimed his scope into the darkness. He overlaid the infrared and LIDAR band onto the visual, so that he could see the outlines of the cave beyond the darkness.

  “What if she can’t take control of the Hoplites?” Manic asked. “What if the AI cores have been removed or something?”

  “Relax, Manic,” Rade said. “She’s a Phant. A member of an alien race that has proven to be one of our greatest, and most resourceful, enemies. If anyone can do it, it’s her.”

  Bender had taken up a defensive position behind Rade and with Tahoe guarded their rear.

  “So how’s it feel to be free of your master, ma’am?” Bender said, glancing at Ms. Bounty.

  “Lonely,” Ms. Bounty replied.

  “I can remedy that,” Bender said with a wink.

  She didn’t answer.

  “So what, you engage in mental dialogue or something with Surus when the Green is inside you?” Manic asked.

  “I do,” Ms. Bounty said. “It’s similar to communicating with any of you on a private channel.”

  “I wonder what a Phant and an AI talk about all day,” Manic said.

  “Typical alien and AI matters, I suppose,” Ms. Bounty said. “How to tweak the servomotor in my left arm to supply more mechanical output. Whether or not the current mission objective or plan is feasible. What we’re going to do when we’ve rounded up the last of the Phants in this part of the galaxy.”

  “Interesting,” Manic said. “So what are you going to do when there are no prey left to catch?”

  “When we’ve eliminated all potential threats to humanity, even from non-Phant aliens?” Ms. Bounty said. “I suppose I will board a ship and set a course for the colony world closest to Phant space, and there I will wait with Surus for the arrival of the Phant motherships: they are destined to return roughly seven hundred years from now.”

  “You’ll still be alive by then, won’t you?” Manic said.

  Ms. Bounty nodded. “In theory, yes. Unless something untoward happens to me.”

  “It’s a frightening thought,” Manic added. “Both living that long, and having to face the Phant motherships once more.”

  Ms. Bounty cocked her head. “I’m not afraid of long life, nor facing the Phants. In fact, I look forward to doing what I can to save humanity. It is my duty, and the least I can do for my creators.”

  “You think humanity will be ready for them when the time comes?” Rade asked.

  “I am uncertain,” Ms. Bounty replied. “It can take anywhere from five hundred to five thousand years for a Tech Class III race to reach Tech Class IV.”

  “According to Surus...” Rade said.

  “Yes,” Ms. Bounty replied. “And she is rarely wrong.”

  “Well maybe you should help accelerate us along,” Manic said. “Get Surus to release some more of those special patents of hers. I’d prefer if she gave the tech to me for patenting purposes of course—I’ve always wanted to be rich. But I guess I’ll settle for you keeping the patents, since you’ll be doing it for the good of humanity and all.”

  “Surus and I could release more patents, yes,” Ms. Bounty said. “But even if you reach Tech Class IV in time, can you ever be ready for a foe like the Phants? Surus and I, we fear sometimes that the Phants will find a way to bring their motherships here much earlier than seven hundred years. And then, well, all bets will be off, to quote an old human aphorism.”

  “Let’s just hope they don’t come early,” Rade said.

  A PHANT DIDN’T see so much as sense its surroundings. The best analogy was to imagine traveling in complete darkness, with tactile-sensing limbs extended in front, to the sides, and the back, with many sensory tendrils spread out between them. With those inter-dimensional tendrils, Surus was able to sense the walls of the cave and the different branches and caverns connecting them.

  Surus also detected the gatorbeetles when they passed, and deftly flowed aside to avoid touching them. The Green didn’t release any chemicals that could be detected by olfactory organs, so she had no fear of the aliens ferreting her out by smell. In the more well-lit areas, there was a chance the poor-sighted aliens would spot Surus, of course. Indeed, when Surus had passed the cavern in front of the queen chamber, a gatorbeetle dashed forward to explore this strange flowing liquid, but when one of its antennae touched the inter-dimensional molecules that composed the Green, the alien vanished, ripped from existence.

  It had taken several hours, but finally Surus had found the underground chamber that contained the Hoplites. The Green recognized the sensory pattern returned by the powerful mechs, but the characteristic “glow” that came from active AI cores was not present, meaning the mechs were currently offline. Surus did detect the faint residue produced by such cores, meaning they were still int
act, so the Green knew precisely where to flow to assume control. Once Surus booted one of them, the Green would attempt to remotely activate the others; if that failed, then Surus would simply move from Hoplite to Hoplite and activate each in turn. Afterward, Surus would review the records to determine what had taken them offline in the first place, with plans to avoid that thing during the escape, if possible.

  Surus didn’t anticipate that the escape from the nest would be overly difficult. Like humans with their Implants and aReals, Phants had a sort of built-in mapping software, in that any recent paths they had taken through this three-dimensional reality would appear as fresh imprints on their sensory networks. Psychic bread crumbs. And the firepower of the Hoplites should be more than enough to counter any gatorbeetles that attempted to block the Green’s path, assuming Surus could get out before too many of them descended upon her position. Even Hoplites could be overwhelmed if the opposition proved too great.

  As Surus approached the closest mech, the Green felt a strange sensation. It could best be described, in human terms, as tingling. It was very odd, and seemed sourced from the cave floor. Surus focused all of her attention on the area immediately below, and realized she had moved over a surface composed of something entirely different from stone.

  A strange vibration momentarily passed through that floor, as if some door had slammed shut nearby.

  Surus attempted to retreat but came up against an invisible barrier.

  And then the Green understood.

  In their flight from the nest, the team had abandoned the glass container in the queen cavern. Apparently, it had been moved here and placed in the narrow passageway leading to the Hoplites.

  She had walked right into the Phant trap. No doubt the Tech Class IV holographic emitters had been used to conceal the glass container, modified to hide it not just on the visual band, but from the direct sensory capabilities of a Phant.

  Nicely done, my enemy.

  Surus explored the circular perimeter of the invisible barrier and quickly determined that she had indeed been ensnared by the Phant trap. She could not move past the constraints of the three-dimensional volume formed by the invisible disks embedded in the floor and ceiling.

  The container wasn’t supposed to close like that, not without the necessary input. Unfortunately, Surus had designed the remote interface to be accessible via human technology; the Green realized it had been a mistake to rely upon that technology to secure the trap. She had wanted Shaw and Rade to have the ability to control it, but that left the container wide open to potential hacking by those familiar with human designs.

  Surus would have smiled at the irony of it all if she had lips. Her own trap, used against her.

  Yes, she would have smiled.

  And cried.

  fifteen

  Shaw zoomed in on the plain below. It had been two hours since Rade had escorted Surus to the cave entrance, and there had been no sign of the Green, or the Hoplites Surus promised to rescue.

  “Shaw, are you still reading us?” Rade sent, as he did every fifteen minutes or so.

  “Loud and clear,” Shaw replied.

  She gazed at Unit A beside her. The robot had come up with an idea to bring Harlequin back online. It involved removing Harlequin’s damaged battery pack and replacing it with two cells extracted from the Centurion’s own pack. TJ handled the actual extraction and reconfiguring, as Unit A had to be shut down during the procedure.

  The associated chest plates from the jumpsuits of both Harlequin’s and Unit A’s jumpsuits lay on the black rock of the plateau beside each of them. The torso portion of the cooling and ventilation undergarments had been shifted upward, revealing the belly regions of each subject. The artificial skin on Harlequin’s abdomen had been cut aside, and a panel was open in his chest, revealing the inner circuits. Unit A had a similar open panel, though there was no surrounding skin to speak of.

  TJ had already removed the battery pack from the Centurion and used the surgical laser in his gloves to peel away the shell. He had broken out two of the individual cells within and placed them in a protective wrap of low-tech electrical tape.

  TJ set the jury-rigged pack inside Harlequin’s chest piece, but didn’t connect it. He returned his attention to Unit A, taped up the original battery pack, and then shoved it back into the slot in the Centurion’s abdomen. TJ shut the panel, then his eyes defocused behind his faceplate as he accessed the remote interface and booted the robot.

  Unit A sat up.

  “So, how do you feel running at half power?” TJ asked.

  “Why would I feel a change?” Unit A replied. “To assume so is to assign anthropomorphic qualities to a robot. My energy levels will simply deplete all the sooner now.”

  “Of course we’re going to assign human qualities to you,” TJ said. “We made you in our image.”

  “It kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” Unit A said. “What the robots created by these aliens must have looked like when the species was in its prime.”

  “Probably like giant beetles,” TJ said.

  “Unit A, how long will your battery last?” Shaw said. “Does the twenty day estimate you gave us before we opened you up still apply?”

  “I have reassessed.” Unit A rolled down its cooling and ventilation undergarment and started to reattach the chest plate of the jumpsuit. “I believe the battery will last at least thirty days. Maybe longer. “

  “That long?” Shaw said in disbelief.

  “Yes,” Unit A replied. “I plan to operate at eighty percent efficiency, and slowly shutdown unnecessary subsystems as the weeks pass. I plan to constantly adjust my power levels every day to extend the duration, and I will shutdown entirely when I am not needed.”

  “I can see that working,” Shaw said.

  When Unit A resealed its suit, Lui nodded toward the chest piece and said: “Looking forward to spending some quality time in the decon ward when we get back?”

  “Entirely,” Unit A replied. “Peace and quiet from the humans. It will be bliss, I tell you.”

  TJ patted the still offline Harlequin on the back. “You’ll have Harley here for company.”

  “Oh, wonderful,” Unit A said.

  Shaw glanced at TJ. “Might as well activate Harlequin. If you can.”

  “Oh I can.” TJ connected the jury-rigged battery pack to Harlequin’s supply interface, then shut the panel and readjusted the artificial skin to cover it. TJ’s eyes defocused.

  Harlequin shot out his arm and TJ went flying backward.

  “Sorry,” Harlequin said, sitting up. “Reflexes.”

  “Damn it, Harley.” TJ clambered to his feet several meters away, near the rim of the plateau. “You nearly knocked me over the edge. And almost punctured my jumpsuit.”

  “Sorry, again.” Harlequin looked down at his open jumpsuit, and then glanced from left to right, examining the plateau. “This is interesting. The last I remember, someone—I believe it was Bender—shouted about movement on the far side of the cavern. Then our emitters failed. Everyone materialized. And now I am here.”

  “Yes,” Shaw said, and she updated Harlequin on what had transpired since then. As she spoke, the Artificial adjusted its cooling and ventilation undergarment, then reapplied the missing chest piece to his torso and sealed the jumpsuit.

  “Interesting,” Harlequin said when she was done. “It sounds like I missed out on a lot of fighting.”

  “Nah,” TJ said. “You didn’t miss much. It was fairly straightforward, to be honest. As far as bugs go, they’re about a three out of ten on the difficulty scale.”

  “If you say so,” Shaw said.

  “I do,” TJ replied.

  Harlequin stood up, stretched his arms, and rocked on his toes. “Well, I appear to be none the worse for wear. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back.”

  “We’re glad to have you,” Shaw said.

  “Bender had an orgasm porting you here,” Fret said.

  “I did not, bitc
h,” Bender said over the comm. He was still with Rade on the plain below, but his voice was crystal clear despite the range.

  “Really?” Fret said. “Then how come you didn’t let anyone else carry him?”

  “Wanted to make sure no one harmed my verbal and physical punching bag,” Bender said. “A man of my nature has got to have an outlet for his more violent tendencies, you know. And that’s what good old Harlequin is. Couldn’t let any of you take that away from me, or let any harm befall my punching bag. He’s like a permanent addition to my man cave. My bitch, you know?”

  “That’s sweet of you, Bender,” TJ said. “Isn’t it, Harlequin?”

  “When I get back there, I’m punching both of you in the nuts,” Bender said.

  The Artificial stepped toward Shaw. Before she realized what was happening, Harlequin had drawn the blaster from the holster at his utility belt and swiveled around behind her, dragging her upright. The muzzle of the blaster was pointed directly into her faceplate.

  The other Argonauts rose in shock, hands reaching for weapons.

  “Don’t move!” the Artificial said.

  “Harlequin,” Shaw said. “What are you doing?”

  “Stay back, all of you!” Harlequin said. “Throw your weapons in a pile at my feet. Do it!”

  Rifles were lowered from shoulders and flung forward. Blasters were drawn from utility belts and similarly abandoned. No one had any grenades or charges left, so the weaponry was limited to the former two.

  Shaw saw the remote access indicator flashing on her HUD, and she knew that Rade was watching the video feed from her helmet even now.

  “You as well, honey,” Harlequin said.

  Shaw reluctantly lowered her rifle, and then retrieved the blaster from her belt and dropped it.

  “Harlequin,” Rade transmitted. “What the hell is going on?”

  “Stand over there,” Harlequin ordered the captives. He gestured toward the edge of the plateau. The men complied.

  “Rade,” Harlequin said. “Your men on the plains are to lower their weapons immediately. Do it now.” The Artificial dragged Shaw toward the edge of the plateau, keeping his distance from the other men who were lined up along the cliff. As they neared the precipice, for a moment Shaw thought Harlequin was going to threaten to throw her off.