by Isaac Stone
The woman regarded the people who starred at her without any concern at all. This was not the blank look of someone who had no previous experience as a human. This was not the face of a newborn. This was the face of someone who’d seen and done a lot already. They knew the eyes and the expression from the time they’d spent with her.
“So who is going to get me something to wear?” Barbara Ann asked them. “I know most of you don’t mind seeing me like this, but I can do without the tongues hanging out.” She crossed her legs. “And it’s damn hot in here.”
“Barbara Ann?” asked Ash. He couldn’t believe it as she didn’t resemble her at all, but everything else was the same.
“In this flesh,” she acknowledged. “I’m hot, dammit. Get me something to keep cool.”
Minutes later, Costa was inside the recovery room. He wrapped a white towel robe around her. This Barbara Ann was a lot taller than the previous one, had black hair and eyes to match. But it was her, they could tell it from the way she walked, moved and spoke.
“How does this body feel?” Ash asked her when she emerged from the recovery room.
“It will do,” she told him. “They did a good job on it, but the other one was almost indestructible. I can’t cross the void of space with this one. It can be injured. Nor will I be walking shoeless in a burning sea of fire. The other one was better, but I had to take what’s handy. I made Simon bring me back over and gave him a list of what I needed. This is as close as I could find for a new body.”
She walked over to a mirror and looked at herself, opening up the robe. “Hmmm,” different hair color and body structure. I didn’t like those large breasts anyway. Taller in height, but less muscle tone. It will do fine for me.”
“I understand you need to find another beacon,” Barbara Ann spoke to Ash. “According to my interaction with Haddo, the last one was rigged with a nuclear weapon.”
“You should know,” she continued while she examined her body, “the corporation is furious over what happened when you took off with the starship. They want Haddo and the ship, but they’ll kill him and destroy it if they can’t reach either. From what you’ve told me, they’ve decided it makes more sense to blow up the starship since everyone is inside it. They won’t even attempt to negotiate a settlement in the future. You have the only jump drive ship in existence and they’ll blow it up to prevent it being used against them.”
“But we still have to get rid of the other beacons,” Ash told her. “Won’t do anyone any good if we can’t take care of that problem. We can’t simply find a star that appears to be a good destination and head in its direction. What happens to the rest of humanity?”
She strolled over to an alcove in the wall and looked at it. “Is this a shower?” she asked into the air.
“Yes it is,” the voice of Viktor responded. “I had it made ready in case you needed it.”
“This body needs to be cleaned,” she announced.
Barbara Ann walked into the shower stall. She picked up a set of coveralls on a rack inside it. “Appears to be my size, it will do for now, but I’ll need something like I used to wear. Won’t need the cleavage room they old body needed. Let’s go with some latex leggings and a corset to match. This back seems weaker than I had before and the corset will support it. How long will it take to have them made?”
“I can have them down here in five minutes by a cart,” Viktor told her. “The fabricator will have them made in three.”
“See that you do,” she told the AI while stepping into the shower. As they watched, she stripped off her robe and turned on the water spray.
“The next beacon you have to destroy is on Calisto,” she told them. “Isn’t that something? It turns out the place you need to go is the same place you found this body. I knew about both when I contacted Simon through his stones. You’re a good boy Simon, just don’t try and run any games on me or I will be forced to kill you.” She scrubbed the back of one leg while watching Haddon’s reaction.
“The beacon is under a shelf of ice on the equator of the moon,” she continued. “I’ll give the coordinates to Viktor and he can eliminate it. You ought to be able to pull it off with one pulse from the EMP. Then we’ll get back to the rest of them.” She turned off the shower and walked out of it to dry herself with a towel.
There was the sound of a machine and they turned to see the cart with her clothes arrive. Barbara Ann walked over to it, selected a red thong out of the ones Viktor made for her, and slipped it up her thighs. She pulled her latex leggings on without much trouble. The corset, which was a dark green color, gave her some trouble until Kris stepped out and helped her lace it up in the back.
“Thanks,” Barbara Ann said to her. “Not hard to do these yourself, but we’re short on time.” She returned her attention to the cart.
Viktor had sent her several pairs of boots to wear and she chose one that gave her good calve support. She pulled them on by herself and didn’t need any help.
“I should have mentioned something about the footwear,” she told Ash. “Didn’t need any with the other body, but this one is built for a different purpose. Glad to see Viktor figured out what I needed.”
He declined to ask her what her new body was built to do.
“Okay, I’m ready,” Barbara Ann told Viktor aloud. “Show me a screen of the moon’s equator.” Barbara Ann watched as a screen materialized out of nowhere and displayed what she wanted to know.
Barbara Ann gave the AI coordinates and he zoomed in on the location. A few more adjustments brought up the location she wanted. “Right there,” she said pointing to an ordinary piece of rock on a frozen plane.
“I haven’t received any of the beacon signals from this moon,” Viktor explained to her. “Are you certain this is the right location?”
“The beacon is on a delayed cycle,” she told him. “It won’t make its presence known until the corporation has enough energy from the power packs to send across the system. When that happens, they’ll be able to open the gates. They could open the gate with one Hell Beacon, but multiple ones make the job easy. Takes too long to make new Hell Beacons, which is why they won’t replace any. They’ll concentrate their efforts on killing us instead.”
“I would feel better if there was a signal from it,” Viktor spoke out. He was in the floating head form.
“If you wish,” Barbara Ann spoke and closed her eyes. “There. Some things I can do on my own in this body.”
“Wow, strong signal from the very spot you pointed out. Pulse fire underway.”
They watched as the surface of Calisto became molten and the ground was broken up by the intense radiation sent to it from the EMP gun. Gas bubbled up from the ground and ice crystals broke up. They were sent hundreds of feet into the air. A volcano erupted right over the spot as the pulse pumped a load of energy into the site.
This time they saw the beacon. Once again, it resembled a black cube. Viktor managed to bring it up on the magnification. It was gone in a flash once the full power of the EMP beam struck it. The moment the cube reached the surface, it split apart and burst into a ball of white heat, and then turned to ash.
“Now that it’s out of the way,” Barbara Ann told them, “we can move on to the next one. Where did you say it was, Viktor?” She turned and waited for the floating head to give an answer.
“On the Finvar station right outside Saturn,” he told her.
She turned back to Ash. “Your move, as it’s your team. Ready to go on?”
“Of course,” he informed her. “Might as well get this thing over. Did you say Finvar Station?”
“Yes. We’ll have to make our way into it. The bastards hid the next one on the inside. Viktor can locate it for us and if he can’t I have my ways of finding out where it’s placed. Expect the corporation will have a waiting committee for us on that one too.”
Finvar Station brought back some bad memories for Ash. He’d been there years ago when he worked corporate security and spent som
e quality time with a woman he wanted to forget. He didn’t know what the place was like these days, but he suspected it wasn’t in the best of shape. Finvar Station was, at one time, a major center for ice mining outside the rings of Saturn. But later on, it was found to be much more efficient to mine ice from several new asteroids discovered in the orbit between Mars and Jupiter. Industry tended to follow the money and opportunities, so he expected the place to be abandoned.
He was almost correct.
When the crew entered the old station, they found it occupied by a few small companies that refused to leave no matter what. The shuttle took them directly inside a landing bay and they didn’t have to dock clandestinely, as had been done on Calisto. A few old traffic officers greeted them as they left the shuttle.
Even Barbara Ann wore full armor this time. The new body wasn’t built to handle constant attacks and they didn’t want to return to Calisto to get another one. The old traffic officers looked at them strangely. The armor they wore and guns they carried wasn’t expected.
“I can’t imagine you’d want to steal anything in this place,” One of the officers said to them. “I thought you said you needed to investigate something. Are you with the rangers?”
“Sort of,” Ash told the man as they walked past. “We’re a special unit. We won’t be here long. He handed the man a very official piece of paper and walked past him.
The mech unit attacked them as they neared the beacon.
Barbara Ann was almost at the hidden storage locker where, according to the reception Viktor was getting, the beacon was hidden. They entered a large storage room with crates piled up against the wall and shined lights around. There could be many places to hide it in here, but Barbara Ann was certain she knew the correct one. She walked to a locker and pulled it open.
“Well, hello,” they heard her say. “I guess you’ve been waiting for us.” She pointed down inside it.
The rest of Team Omega ran to the locker and looked inside. There was the same black cube they’d found each time. Theo studied it for a few minutes and turned to the others with a nod.
“I thought they were supposed to hide these things better,” he commented. “They’ve all looked the same.”
“Note the settings and where we are,” Barbara Ann mentioned to him. “These beacons are scattered across the system. No one would realize there is a pattern unless they searched for them. So far, we’ve been the first to hunt them down. So who wants to do the honors?” She waited for a volunteer, her black hair tied up inside the helm.
“I’ll do it,” Kris said as she stepped out and pulled out her flame sword. She flipped the switch on it and the sword glowed with its intense heat.
Just as Kris walked over to the beacon, they heard a crash. Everyone turned to look at what was moving into the room from an adjoined storage space. They found out five seconds later. This one wasn’t that tall and was built for internal fighting. It was a marauder mech, another one left over from the Mars Colony Wars. In the light of the celling, they could see its low velocity guns begin to swerve in their direction.
Without the need to be told, everyone scattered. Ash pulled Barbara Ann next to him and out of the way of the killing device. They were behind a crate, which wouldn’t stop the bullets, but it gave them some concealment.
“Guess this is the surprise in the box you were trying to tell me about,” Ash told her, his impact gun ready and trained on the mechanical killer. He could hear the stomps on the floor as the three legs pounded in search of them.
It was up to Kris to save the day. She jumped out from behind one of the crates with her flame sword on full power. The mech didn’t have a chance as she was behind it and the guns were aimed forward. Kris cut down behind the metal monstrosity, sliced through its primary engines and control units as the machine burst into flames. It fell over. Once the fighting mech was down, she drew her sword across it and cut the killer robot into two distinct sections. She wasn’t satisfied, so she sliced up the machine guns that were mounted to it as well.
“Good job, Kris,” Ash told her as he emerged from behind the crate. “Anyone see more of these things? I don’t think this is their only trick.”
“Too easy,” he heard Barbara Ann speak. She activated her flame sword and used it to destroy the beacon in four quick slices.
“They’ll have more of them waiting for us,” Barbara Ann spoke. “Or something else just as bad. The corporation will not give up their game plan so easy, you can be sure of that.” She walked to one of the aisles and looked down it.
“Think it was the only one, Ash,” Costa called back to him. “I don’t see another one. Anyone else?” Everyone else reported seeing nothing in the storage areas.
“We need to get back to the ship,” Ash told his crew. “Only a few more of these beacons left and I want to be alive to see them all of them taken out. Let’s get out of here.” He turned and the crew followed him out of the room.
They almost made it back to the shuttle bay without incident.
Team Omega headed down a corridor, which they’d used to reach the storage room from the bay. Ash heard a loud sound of many voices coming down the corridor’s opposite side. He had every one stop. Ash heard the noises as they came closer. It was the sound of random voices screaming and howling in all manner of distress.
“I think we’re about to run into trouble,” he told everyone. “Could be a mob out there. Could be something worse. Start up your flame swords and…”
“I’ll handle this,” Barbara Ann announced and strode into the middle of the corridor. Ash had a hard time remembering this was the same person even because the body was different.
Around a corner they came. Fifty or so uniformed station operatives. But their eyes were sunken and had no focus. Most of them drooled and some even crawled along on the floor. These were not he reanimated corpses they’d encounter before, but something new. These people had their minds affected by something. They were snarling and made other animal sounds.
Team Omega, just behind Barbara Ann, brought up their guns and made ready to fire. The impact shells they used in the miniature cannons would wipe out the mob, but it would be a slaughter. Ash raised a hand to stay everyone. He was willing to let Barbara Ann try it and see what she could do.
Barbara Ann walked up to the mob, dropped her hands to the sides and went into a trance. The horde, which was headed toward them, stopped and fell to the ground. They were still in some kind of somnambulistic state, but the rage was gone. Ash went over to them and saw each of them had looks of ecstasy and pleasure on their faces. They seemed to be in absolute heaven and rolled around on the ground. Now they made purring sounds.
Barbara Ann came out of her trance and looked at the scene before her. She smiled and turned back to Ash. “They’ll be in this way for a long time. We can walk right past them. Just don’t step on anyone of them. Wouldn’t be a good idea.” She began to walk forward to the shuttle bay, her feet avoiding any of the bodies on the ground.
Soon the rest of Team Omega followed her and were on their way back to the shuttle. Ash had to ask her what just happened back there.
“Don’t worry about it,” she explained. “I think that bunch was in need of some good stimulation for a long time.”
They returned to the shuttle and were on their way back to the starship.
It took several jumps for the Paradiso to find the next location.
The starship would jump to a particular point, and then Barbara Ann would consult with both Viktor and Haddo. Most of the time something was wrong with the coordinates. She felt the corporation was doing everything it could to move it around and keep the crew from locating the placement of the final Hell Beacon. They’d tried everything else to stop them and this was their latest attempt. Since the corporation made no contact with them after they seized the ship, it was not possible to negotiate anything. As far as Barbara Ann could tell, they had no intention of reaching an understanding when it was to their advanta
ge to simply kill them.
Ash didn’t like the frequent jumps. He felt disoriented each time. Plus, he didn’t like Barbara Ann’s assumption of authority. He made it clear to her at the beginning that this was his operation and she was there to help Team Omega. They didn’t serve her.
“Then why did you go to such trouble to get me back?” she asked him.
He didn’t have an answer.
It took the third jump for Barbara Ann to find the exact location of the last Hell Beacon. Ash walked into the master control room after he woke from the latest jump. Barbara Ann was seated at a portable table with a sheet of calculations and a computer screen that floated in the air. Across from her stood Haddo. Viktor floated around her in his disembodied head form and tried to get a good look at what she was writing.
Barbara Ann stuck to her current outfit: latex leggings and a corset. She’d traded the green corset for a red version that had dragons embroidered on it. By now, she was confident enough in the new body to do the lacing herself. Ash watched her change them earlier in the day and she had no issue bending her thin arms backwards to lace the corset without the use of a mirror. She had her boots off and sat barefoot in the chair as she made some notes with a pen.
“This has to be the location,” she told the other two. “I’ve triangulated it to this asteroid floating free near Neptune. They’ve tried to fool me up until now, but I know what they’re up to. These other two locations are bombs, just look at the background X-ray and neutrino emission. Nothing else would account for it.” Viktor floated down to her level and seemed impressed.
“Even if it is the one you seek,” Haddo told her. “There is no guarantee it will be unguarded. Expect the corporation to have tied it to the worst trap yet. I don’t see them letting this go without a fight.” He walked over and looked at what she had written down on the pages.
“I have just the plan to deal with them,” she told him. “Ash won’t object, I’m sure. And here he is!” She turned around to great Ash who walked up to her table.
Ash was about to ask her what she had in mind with the alarm began to wail.
