by Isaac Hooke
He tried shooting his cobra into the base of the limb, but the boxlike armor still covered the area, preventing his weapon from causing much damage. And there were no obvious gaps where he could lodge a frag.
“Need some help here, people!” Rade said.
Bender quickly joined them, but his own fingers constantly slipped along the glistening surface, unable to get a grip. “It’s like we’re masturbating it.”
Rade stepped back to let Tahoe try. As he did so, he gazed at the Phant, which had reached the ship by then.
Harlequin was standing between the two prongs, just inside the hangar of the vessel, waiting. The black box containing Surus still hung from his harness. How long he had been lurking there, observing, Rade didn’t know.
Harlequin held a blaster in hand, and peered down at it as if confused.
“Harlequin!” Rade said. “Jump down!”
The Black oozed up the external surface of the vessel and when it reached Harlequin’s jumpsuit it began to seep inside the boot.
“Harlequin!” Rade said.
Harlequin looked up. “Boss?”
The black liquid had completely vanished inside the jumpsuit.
Rade aimed the targeting reticle of his cobra over Harlequin’s head. He steeled himself to do the unthinkable.
He centered the crosshairs over Harlequin’s right eye. His finger started to press the trigger...
Rade couldn’t do it.
He released the trigger as if it were a viper.
Harlequin had sacrificed himself for Rade a long time ago. Even though he retained a backup aboard the Argonaut, Rade couldn’t do this to him, wipe out his existence like that and force him to start over again.
Besides, Rade knew that even if he terminated Harlequin, the Black would simply flow into the alien ship’s equivalent of an AI core and take over from there.
Harlequin grinned widely, then spun about. The ship’s bay door sealed shut behind him.
The vessel shifted in place; fresh portions of the ceiling ripped away and crashed to the floor; crates and other debris fell over. The horseshoe-shaped craft moved back and forth for a few moments, apparently lodged.
By then, Shaw, Bender and Tahoe had finally ripped Ms. Bounty free, and she was secure once more in the passenger seat of Nemesis. Apparently they had freed her by repeatedly firing their lasers into the AI core, judging from the fresh holes in the robot’s thorax.
Ms. Bounty unleashed her stun rifle at the ship but it had no effect.
“Shoot that ship down!” Rade ordered them.
But their comparatively weak lasers didn’t cause any damage against the armored hull of the vessel. It was constructed of the same material that had folded over the alien mech, apparently.
In moments the vessel had torn free of the Quonset. As it ascended, it ejected some sort of plasma sphere from its aft quarter. Red in the middle and blue on the outside, with sparks of electricity traveling all along the surface, the sphere seemed directed straight at the party.
“Retreat!” Rade said. “Use your jumpjets to break through the roof!” That was the only way to get out of there in time—Rade knew it would take too long to scramble over the debris blocking their path to the entrance.
The six Hoplites tore fresh holes in the roof as they emerged from the structure at full burn. Rade fired the aft thrusters next, so that his arc was more forward than upwards.
He glanced at the feed from the rearmost camera and watched the energy ball strike the far side of the three structures. Upon impact, a larger, blindingly bright plasma sphere erupted, engulfing half of the Quonsets.
The photochromatic filters gated the brightness down; in seconds, the large plasma sphere dissipated. In its place remained a perfectly hemispherical crater of the same radius and depth. The engulfed halves of the three structures—and their contents—were gone. Completely disintegrated.
The retreating ship, meanwhile, had vanished into the upper atmosphere.
“Manic, you okay?” Rade asked.
“Yeah,” Manic replied. “Just wish I had a mech. You guys had all the fun.”
Rade landed and gathered the Hoplites. When he confirmed that everyone was all right, he led the squad toward the righthand Quonset. His mech still had a bit of a limp, thanks to the damage to the right ankle. The other Hoplites showed signs of similar impairment: the left arm of Tahoe’s mech hung limply, the right leg of Bender’s Hoplite moved stiffly, and so forth.
“You know, I’m starting to think it’s too much of a liability to bring along Artificials,” Tahoe said.
“I’m beginning to feel the same way,” Rade said. “New rule: next time we equip our jumpsuits not just with anti-telepath defenses but also anti-Phant EM emitters, just like the Hoplites. You think Surus can manage that, Ms. Bounty?”
“I believe so,” Ms. Bounty replied. “She won’t be cutting costs like that ever again.”
“We’ll see,” Bender said.
When they reached the Quonset, they discovered the second ship had escaped disintegration by virtue of its positioning on the closer side of the hangar. And though there were holes in the walls indicating where the random plasma beams of the robot gatorbeetle had struck, none of them had penetrated the armor of the Tech Class IV vessel.
“The King should have fired another disintegration sphere,” TJ said.
“He couldn’t,” Ms. Bounty said. “That weapon is restricted to one shot every twenty minutes.”
“Then he should have aimed his shot better,” TJ said.
After a closer inspection, they realized a small piece had in fact been shorn off the aft section.
“Will it still fly with that damage?” Rade asked.
“I believe so,” Ms. Bounty said. “Unfortunately this section housed the aft plasma turret, so we’ve lost that weapon. But we still have the forward lasers.”
“You think the King did this on purpose?” Lui asked.
“What do you mean?” Rade replied.
“All I’m saying is that maybe he purposely missed the ship,” Lui said. “Firing at just the right angle to shear off the aft weapon. Maybe he wants us to follow.”
“Definitely something to consider,” Rade said. “All right everyone, get inside the ship! We have a Phant to catch!”
twenty-four
Bring the Hoplites!” Rade continued. “We’ll stow them in the crew quarters.”
Limping, Rade led the Hoplites aboard in single file. He followed the smooth, curving passageway.
“Do you see those lines in the deck?” Ms. Bounty said.
Rade glanced downward. Horizontal lines placed perpendicular to the passage occasionally interrupted the smooth surface.
“Those are where breach seals will activate when we reach orbit,” Ms. Bounty said. “You don’t want to be caught overtop one of them when that happens.”
“Good to know,” Rade said.
Rade paused at every compartment and sent a mech inside to clear it. He wanted to make sure nothing had sneaked aboard while they were engaged with the Xaranth mech. They swept engineering, the bridge, and finally the hangar bay, scanning each compartment on all EM bands, and LIDAR. Ms. Bounty dismounted to check the onboard shuttle.
When they cleared the final area, he backtracked to the crew quarters and stepped past it to allow the other Hoplites inside. They took their places among the six hollows in the floor. TJ lowered the Phant trap into the free hollow beside him.
“Wait, Rade’s mech needs a spot,” Shaw told TJ.
“No,” Rade said. “I’m not leaving Electron here. Dismount, everyone. Make your way to the bridge.”
Rade walked Electron forward through the curved passageway.
“You’re bringing your Hoplite to the bridge?” Shaw asked.
“Not exactly,” Rade told her. “I’m taking Electron to the hangar bay. I want the mech ready to launch, just in case.”
At the bay, there was more than enough room for him to fit the Hoplite beside
the existing oval-shaped shuttle. He glanced at the overhead map generated by his Implant to orient himself, and confirmed that the bay doors—located on the lefthand side of the compartment—opened out between the prong sections of the nose.
Rade dismounted. It was nice not to have a machine-inflicted limp anymore. He performed a second quick search of the shuttle, as the ramp was still open. No one inside. When he poked his head out he saw Shaw waiting for him near the entrance to the bay.
“Always double-check, huh?” Shaw said as he approached.
“That’s right,” Rade said.
“At least we have a ship again,” she told him.
“Too bad we can’t take it back with us to our side of the galaxy,” Rade commented.
Shaw smiled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We have a Black to capture, a Green to rescue, and an Artificial to save.”
“Ah, it’s all in a day’s work,” Rade told her.
The pair joined the rest of the crew at the bridge. Most of them simply sat along the edge of the circular hollow in the deck, their legs resting on the sloping surface. Ms. Bounty stood near the front perimeter of the depression, one of her gloves wrapped around the featureless pillar beside it.
“Are you ready for take off?” she asked.
“Launch,” Rade told her. He hesitated. “Should we grab on to something?”
Ms. Bounty smiled. “We’re already in the air, accelerating to escape velocity.”
“Oh.” There were no external windows to speak of, so of course Rade had no way to tell.
“This is a Tech Class IV ship,” Ms. Bounty explained. “Though it’s small, the inertial dampeners will offer a far smoother ride than anything you’ve ever experienced in a human vessel. You’ll feel no change in gravity once we enter the void either, as this vessel is equipped with a fully functional artificial gravity system.”
He sensed motion to the side, and turned his head toward the bridge entrance: a hatch had silently sealed, shutting them in.
“We’re in orbit?” Rade asked.
“We just achieved orbit, yes,” Ms. Bounty replied.
“Are we tracking our foe yet?” Rade missed having access to a tactical display, but this was an alien ship, so of course there was no way for him to interface with whatever AI the vessel had.
“The target seems to be using the gas giant as a gravitational slingshot,” Ms. Bounty said.
“You’re getting all of that from the pillar?” TJ asked.
“Yes,” Ms. Bounty said. “It’s hard to explain, but the pheromone data returned by the interface is a language in and of itself, and can be used to specify the positions of all surrounding celestial objects in the battle space when one understands how to interpret that data. My guess is the Phant is heading toward a small wormhole on the other side of the planet, closer to the sun.”
“A wormhole?”
“Yes,” Ms. Bounty said. “There are a network of them in this region of the galaxy. The equivalent of your Slipstreams. We won’t need a Gate to traverse them.”
“Nice,” Rade said. “The Phants created them?”
“No,” Ms. Bounty said. “Another, more ancient race. Perhaps the Elder. No one is certain, as none of the races conquered by the Phants ever had such technology.”
“All right,” Rade said. “Set a pursuit course with that ship.”
“Setting course,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Feels a bit odd, doesn’t it?” Tahoe said. “Relaying your orders all to the same individual?”
“Somewhat,” Rade said. “Though really, it’s not all that different from relaying orders to a ship’s AI, like I sometimes do with Bax.”
“You know, we haven’t named this ship yet,” Fret said.
“How about the Magnet?” Manic said.
“The Magnet?” Bender said. “Worst— name— ever.”
“No, it works,” Manic said. “The ship looks like a big magnet or horseshoe, so why not? And Magnet is better than Horseshoe.”
“I kind of like Horseshoe,” Bender said. “Or maybe Horsey.”
“Horsey?” Manic said. “And you complain about my names. Hey everyone, we’re flying aboard the intergalactic cruiser the U.S.S. Horsey. Welcome aboard, enjoy your stay, and try not to gag whenever you hear the name!”
“We’ll go with Magnet,” Rade said.
“Thanks boss,” Manic said.
“Yeah,” Bender said. “Thanks for nothing.”
Ms. Bounty kept Rade updated every fifteen minutes. Her third announcement revealed that they were on their closest approach to the gas giant.
“In a human ship, the decks would be moaning in complaint right about now,” TJ said. “From the competing forces vying to tear apart the hull. And yet this ship is quiet as a hunter in the dark.”
“That’s exactly what we are,” Tahoe said. “We’ve become the hunters again, not the prey.”
“Don’t be so sure,” a voice came from the entrance to the bridge. The hatch had opened.
Tantalus stood there, blaster in hand.
“How?” Rade said.
“I came aboard while you were engaged with the Master.” Tantalus stepped inside and the hatch sealed behind him. “I hid in the hangar bay.”
“But I searched the bay,” Rade said.
Tantalus smiled. “I had a few Tech Class IV holographic emitters with me, as well as a metal wall panel—a piece of junk from the first Quonset I carried aboard. I flattened myself behind it against the hangar bay doors, reduced my thermal output, and activated the emitters.”
Rade cursed silently. With those emitters on, Tantalus would have completely blended in with the bay doors. And by holding the wall panel in front of him, if it was wide enough, the Artificial would have evaded detection on the LIDAR and thermal bands, seeming a part of the bulkhead.
When Tantalus emerged from hiding, because the Hoplite AI cores were offline, even though Electron remained in the hangar bay, the mech wouldn’t have reported the intruder. Perhaps the Magnet’s AI had detected it, but Rade suspected Ms. Bounty hadn’t been able to interpret the data.
Tantalus glanced at Ms. Bounty. “Set a course for the gas giant. A direct course. Steer the ship into its heart.”
“But you’ll kill us all,” Fret said.
Tantalus pointed his blaster at Shaw. “Do it, or I kill the human woman.”
“Set the course, Ms. Bounty,” Rade said. He sent her a private message. “Or pretend to.”
“It’s done,” Ms. Bounty announced.
“Line up against the far wall,” Tantalus said. The crew got up from their places and did so. “You too,” he told Ms. Bounty.
When everyone had moved back, the Artificial approached the pillar and rested a hand on it, keeping the blaster pointed at the party. Rade noticed small pheromone funnels on his fingertips.
“You didn’t set the course,” Tantalus said. “No matter. I’ve updated it.” Tantalus released the pillar and turned toward Ms. Bounty. “You are to serve as the vessel for my Queen. Argonauts—is that what you call yourselves? Yes. Argonauts, toss your weapons into the bridge pit, please.”
Across the squad, blasters were removed from utility belts and tossed into the depression on the deck.
“Good,” Tantalus said. “Now, we will proceed toward the crew quarters, where you have trapped a certain queen of mine. You are all lucky, you know. Ordinarily, I would simply kill you where you stand for what you have done. But I have decided to leave the manner of your deaths to my Queen. Besides, she may decide to spare a few of you for her pleasure. So who am I to judge who will live and die among you? Now move!”
Ms. Bounty was the first to the door, and she opened it with her gloves. The squad members marched two abreast into the passageway beyond.
“It’s going to be a little hard to serve your Queen if we fall into the gas giant,” Rade said.
“I plan to correct our course shortly,” Tantalus said. “Once you release the Queen.”
&n
bsp; Halfway there, they reached another breach seal that Ms. Bounty once more opened. During the march, Rade was constantly aware of the passing seconds, and he wondered how long it would be until the ship reached the point of no return, unable to achieve escape velocity from the gas giant. Even a Tech Class IV ship would have a limit in how close it could come to such a gravity well. He kept an eye out for an opportunity to jump Tantalus.
A seal had closed over the entrance to the crew quarters. Ms. Bounty opened it, but before she could enter, Tantalus spoke.
“Don’t go inside,” Tantalus said. “You are all to move forward and walk past the entrance.”
The squad obeyed. Mostly.
Bender, near the center of the group, decided to duck inside.
Tantalus raced forward. “I said don’t—”
A large metal hand reached around the edge of the compartment and wrapped around Tantalus.
“Permission to squash this bug dick-licker, boss?” Bender asked.
“Granted,” Rade replied.
The Hoplite’s hand squeezed shut. The Artificial’s upper body convulsed violently, and its eyes rolled up in their sockets.
Tantalus ceased moving.
Bender released the Artificial and then stomped down on the remains with one of Juggernaut’s feet, grinding as he did so.
“How does it feel?” Bender said. “Not so high and mighty now are you, bitch?”
“Get to the bridge!” Rade said. “We have to correct our course before it’s too late.”
Ms. Bounty was already rushing back the way they had come.
When Rade reached the bridge, Ms. Bounty was just wrapping her hands around the control pillar.
“I’ve corrected our course,” Ms. Bounty said. “It will take us at least a day to attain our previous orbit. We’ll be twenty four standard hours behind our prey.”
“Not much we can do about that,” Rade said.
The others took their seats around the hollow.
“Close one back there,” Lui said.
“Thanks, Bender,” Rade said.
Bender shrugged inside his jumpsuit. “Sure boss. Squishing bugs and their dick lickers is what I do.”
