by Marc Stevens
The beast inside of me was restless and I could feel its need for mayhem infecting me. Tria noted the change in my demeanor and came over to me. The Operative must have felt it too because she got up and moved away with a frown on her face. I reached out for Tria and she stepped close to me holding onto my arm. My eagerness to bloody whoever was controlling the ship vaguely ebbed. Revenge for the innocent would be the only surefire antidote for the juggernaut infecting my thoughts. Trying to kill us was going to cost someone or something on that pile of shit dearly.
Sael was standing next to the bridge hatch and would come no closer to me. She instead chose a different tack. She must have finally figured out she was not going to get anywhere unless she interacted with Justice in a proper manner.
“Justice, what did you mean when you said unprotected personnel could be subjugated, and what is the nature of the protection that can prevent it?”
We all turned to the Operative, wondering if Justice would answer her. To our shock and surprise, he did the unexpected. Two arms extruded from the overhead and wrapped around Sael. She freaked.
“WHAT SORT OF TREACHERY IS THIS? RELEASE ME NOW!”
We weren’t absolutely sure but had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen next. The goofy smiles on our faces did not ease the Operative’s trepidation.
“NATHAN MYERS, YOU TELL THIS DEFECTIVE MACHINE TO LET ME GO OR I WILL CUT YOUR HEART OUT!”
“Sael, if you want to go with us you need to calm down! Justice is going to ensure you will not be a threat to us or the rest of the galaxy once you step foot on that ship. You would be doing us all a favor if you quit your whining while Justice takes care of the problem.”
Sael’s eyes were practically bugging out of her head. If she gritted her teeth any harder they would break off in her mouth. I thought about letting her know it was not a flattering look but decided to keep that little jewel to myself. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, another arm came down and wrapped around her head. I might have thought it funny if it were not for Sael’s body suddenly going rigid.”
“Justice, don’t you think you are getting a little carried away?”
“Commander, I must introduce Guardian architecture into the Operative’s implants. Unfortunately, it is an invasive procedure that is absolutely necessary for her own protection. I had to temporarily paralyze her and block coherent brain function to complete the procedure. Tria underwent the same procedure during the weaponization process. The Operative will suffer no ill effects.”
That was nice to know, but it was not going to make Sael any less angry when she got her senses back. She wanted to tag along and this was the admission fee. Coonts had a frown on his face.
“Justice, did you perform the procedure on me as well?”
“Yes, it was necessary to ensure your safety.”
“I do not recall you asking me if I wanted the procedure. When did you do it?”
“I performed the procedure on both you and Xul during your sleep period. Your safety is my responsibility, and I take that duty seriously. You and Xul are now immune to Prule subjugation and manipulation of your implants. Klutch does not possess implants, so he did not require any alterations.”
Xul put his hands to the sides of his bulbous head and walked off the bridge. It left me wondering how many procedures were performed on me without my knowledge. I let the thought pass. I did not want to know.
“Justice, in the future, you need to ask us BEFORE you experiment on us, understood?”
“Acknowledged!”
Justice’s extruded arms fell away from the Operative’s body and retracted into the overhead. Sael momentarily stood there with a blank look on her face. It was a good start, and I tried to put on a cheery face for her. Her eyes blinked and then locked on me. Thinking a bigger smile would smooth things over, I laid it on her. She reached over her shoulder and drew one of her swords. Not the reaction I was expecting at all. She twirled the four-foot long pulsating blade and headed in my direction. Klutch introduced a bouquet into the air that brought tears to everyone’s eyes but Sael’s — I was pretty sure there was fire coming out of hers. Tria and Klutch quickly stepped between us and the Operative poked the sword in my direction.
“If you ever let that machine touch me like that again, I will adorn the walls of my quarters with the souvenirs I cut from your body.”
After seeing the look in her eyes, I developed an itch in all the wrong places. I was glad that Tria and Klutch did not budge until she finally returned her sword to its scabbard.
“Sael, I did not let Justice do anything to you. You should appreciate the fact that Justice chose to protect you against possible Prule manipulation. If he had not, and you were subjugated, you could have possibly infected your entire race with a machine virus that is capable of destroying entire worlds.”
“We have no idea if that scat factory is even of Prule origin.”
“Justice was not going to let you gamble with the lives of your people to find out.”
That seemed to mollify her anger and give her the proper perspective.
“Now that I have been declared immune, why are we still standing here?”
“Justice, have you got a plan to get us in?”
“We are fortunate another race was kind enough to furnish us with a safe docking area.”
“What docking area? All I see is junk and weapons damage.”
“Precisely, Commander. The Legacy will fit inside of the crater that was blown through the holds of the ship. The ship will be unable to target us and there should be plenty of access holes to board.”
Justice superimposed an outline of the Legacy in the massive crater. It would be a tight fit, but I had no doubt that Justice could do it. It was very unlikely the ship would have internal weapons large enough to penetrate the Legacy’s shields. It was a brilliant idea and as safe a place as any.
I took Tria by the hand and stepped into the down tube. The crew and Sael jumped in right behind us. When we got to the ready room I started stripping off my smart cloth uniform and was shocked to see Sael intently watching me. My cheeks warmed and I turned my back to her. Tria noticed what was going on and turned me back around and planted a wet one on me. This was neither the time nor the place for such horseplay, and I grabbed my suit liner and hastily put it on. I didn’t think it was possible to get into battle armor as quickly as I did, but I somehow managed. I promised myself if I lived through this I would make it up to Tria for all of the times we were rudely interrupted.
Justice momentarily displayed my armament meter and highlighted anti-matter. He supplied me with twenty rounds. I wasn’t sure if he finally relented because I had gained control of the Oolaran soldier in me or he thought I would need them to survive. Either way I hoped it would not come down to using them.
The Legacy was cloaked and our negation systems engaged. We were far enough out from the target it was almost invisible against the background of the dusty rock field. Justice dropped our shields and accelerated to maximum velocity. The speed of our approach made the derelict ship rapidly increase in size as we closed with it. Justice shut down the star drives and all unnecessary systems. We were coasting in at breakneck speed and defenseless against incoming fire. I sucked in a breath as the junkyard filled my visor. We were not fired upon and Justice once again validated his theory. Just when it looked like we would crash into the belly of the beast, Justice spun us around in a crazy one-eighty maneuver that parked us in the huge belly wound nose out. The ships reaction to the disturbance we created within its guts was to randomly fire its main weapons in angles so depressed it was blasting debris from its hull. We were in, and apparently the ship could do nothing about it, or so we thought.
“Commander, I am picking small devices measuring less than a meter across emerging out of the debris and moving rapidly in our direction. I do not recommend you depart the Legacy at this time.”
“What are they and how many are coming this way?”
“Unknown and the count is at two hundred and forty-two.”
My visor went live with the exterior feed and small red boxes appeared to be leaping out of the trash and junk surrounding the ship and were making a beeline for our location. Our point defense and rail cannons started picking them off as fast as they appeared. I was expecting large explosions but the devices made a bright spark and disappeared under Justice’s withering fire. Several made it to our shields and abruptly stopped. They extended some sort of probe that made the part of the shield it was touching fluctuate.
“Justice, what are they doing?”
“They are attempting to drain away power from our shields. It is an interesting phenomenon, but they are only capable of fractionally siphoning power from the areas they make contact with. They would have to blanket our shields in order for them to be an effective power diverter.”
Justice had knocked down more than a hundred of the drones and then ceased fire. I guess he was curious whether or not they could pull our shields down. He let the balance collect outside our shields and was content to observe their actions. At first, they were spread out and ineffective, but as we watched they quickly started to congregate and our shield started glowing brighter where they collected. They finally collected into a blob and our shield was flaring brilliant white. I was going to ask Justice why he was dicking around when he turned the whole pile into atomized gas and dust with a shot from our main weapons. We no longer had to worry about the tight squeeze into the ship. The shot opened up a hole large enough we could turn around if need be. The beast in me loved the results and I wanted more.
“Justice, wasn’t there a weapons turret somewhere above us?”
The Legacy moved slightly backwards and then up. I could see the red outline of where the turret was located. A flash whited out my visor, and when it reset I could see an awesome glowing tunnel all the way to the starfield peeking back at us. Justice was projecting an image on the bulkhead so the Operative could observe what was happening. She now stared back at me wide eyed.
“You may have just destroyed hundreds of priceless artifacts.”
“Easy come, easy go. Justice do you have any movement on your scanners?”
“Negative, Commander. You are clear for departure. I have highlighted several passages for your consideration. I have avoided any that had the power conduits we discovered.”
The Operative closed her helmet and moved to the open hangar door. Klutch was standing in his usual forward position and Sael attempted to step in front of him. He would have none of it and pushed in front of her. Tria and I were stepping up behind them with Coonts just to our rear. This was our customary combat formation and Sael was an odd cog in our normally smooth-running combat machine. She once again attempted to elbow Klutch aside for the lead position. I could see the vents in his suit lock in the open position. I thought there was going to be a scuffle but Klutch’s response was measured and to the point. He promptly pushed the Operative out the door and she disappeared over the side. Justice did not link our comms to hers and any swearing she may have broadcast was in vain. Xul was standing on the ramp to Eagle One wearing Coonts’ old Zaen combat armor. I waved to him and he returned the gesture. If for some unforeseen reason we needed shuttle support, the little Grawl would immediately launch and provide assistance with every weapon available to him.
We took our positions and I rapped Klutch on the shoulder. He hit his gravity drives and jetted upward with us close behind. We formed up to follow and my Backscatter transmitter beeped and then filled my head with lovely Chaalt idioms.
I didn’t have time for the Operative’s leadership pep talks.
“Sael, the Troop Master drives this train, so either get aboard and shut up or you can go your own way!”
The transmission ended with a disparaging comment about my ancestry.
43
Most of the passageways above us were huge. Klutch guided us to the smaller ones Justice had highlighted. We knew from experience major passageways were direct routes to essential compartments and usually defended. Klutch took us into the closest one. It was still fairly large but nothing like the main corridors. I’m sure he didn’t like the idea of being out in the open and an easy target. We set down in a dark service tunnel laced with pipes, wires and tubing of every size. Klutch took the lead and the Operative brought up the rear. There were passages branching off in all directions, many of which were so choked with piping we could not go that way even if we tried. After about a hundred yards our tunnel ended at a large room filled with what looked like more alien junk. We passed through a retention field and the room was registering a thin atmosphere. We had no choice but to go forward or turn around and backtrack until we could find another passage that we would fit into.
Klutch cleared his visor and gave me a questioning look. I waved him on. It was as good a place as any to start looking around. We were maintaining radio silence, and to the Operative’s credit, she was too. We jumped down amongst the hoarded booty and picked our way down several narrow paths to the far end of the room. It was as if someone had taken a thousand pieces of equipment apart and stacked it into piles until the room would hold no more. I turned to Coonts and pointed at random piles. He just threw his hands up so I turned back to Klutch and waved him forward.
The no-light setting in my visor revealed the outline of a large hatch on the wall we were approaching. It surprised the crap out of us by opening when we were about five feet away. We yanked our weapons from their clips and dove behind the piles of equipment remnants. Tria was by my side covering my back. Coonts and the Operative went to the left and Klutch to the right. We waited to see what would happen next and got nothing. The door stayed open beckoning us to enter. Klutch got tired of waiting and cautiously moved to the edge and peeked out. He waved us over and slipped out into the huge passageway. Like it or not, we were in one of the main arteries of the ship.
We had gone maybe twenty steps when some sort of electrical current shot out of the walls, surrounding us in a glow bright enough to light the passage. Our comms were overwhelmed with a deluge of languages. Our suits were able to mute the volume of the verbal assault. Justice’s subsystem translated the speech and alerted us the rest of the languages made no difference because they all said the same thing.
“BOW TO THE WILL OF YOUR GOD AND MASTER OR BE CONSUMED AND NEVER RISE TO SERVE!”
It would never be a catchy jingle, and we didn’t come here to bow to anyone. Klutch took off on a dead run skirting the wall of the corridor, the bizarre bolts of electricity jumping from the wall to his armor as he ran. We closed with him, and the glow surrounding us lit the passage ahead. We had no idea what it was for or what it was doing, but it suddenly stopped. I didn’t know where we were going but running seemed like the prudent response to the bullshit that was just laid on us.
“Klutch! Where are we going?”
“To find our new master and kick the scat out of him!”
While it seemed a little rhetorical, it was better than anything I could come up with at the moment. I wondered if Justice had anything to say about our current situation and was going to hail him for a sitrep. He saved me the trouble and embellished my concerns with a bucket of piss.
“Commander, the heat sources Tria detected appear to be multiplying.”
“OK Justice, I am going to need a little more than that before I can concern myself with multiplying heat sources. How many more are you talking about?”
“Six-hundred and counting and they are now moving.”
“Moving where?”
“Toward your current location.”
That made us slam on the brakes and take pause. My team took a knee with their weapons pointing down both directions of the corridor.
“Do I even need to ask how many?”
“All of them are converging on the passageway you occupy.”
“Are the numbers still increasing?”
“No, they are holding at twelve hun
dred and six.”
The corridor we were in stretched for more than a quarter of a mile. I looked back the way we came and could see a faint light appear. It had to be the weird static electricity and it also meant we were going to have company. The beast in me was surprisingly calm, but no one had shot at us yet either. My visor picked up the outlines of several side passages well ahead of us. There was no light at our end but the other end was getting a little brighter by the minute.
“Klutch, find us some defensible cover. Coonts, go with him and cover his back.”
They boosted away and quickly disappeared into the darkness. Sael turned to me and I could see by the look on her face she wanted to start giving orders. She surprised me by asking a question.
“Do you want me to go back and slow them down?”
“No — how many grenades do you have on you?”
“Four, because a primate took me from my ship without my combat loadout.”
She had a point — it wasn’t one of my brighter moves and not worth commenting on. Tria and I had fourteen a piece.
“Let’s go back and mine the passage.”
We engaged our gravity drives and flew toward the gathering light making its way up the massive corridor. As the distance between us and the heat sources closed, I upped the magnification on my helmet to maximum. What I saw made my skin crawl. There were beings of every description; some I could identify, some I could not. What was creeping me out to the max was they all had some kind of metal looking protrusions sticking out of their heads or bodies. The crazy electrical current that was coming from the passageway around them was dancing between the protrusions and daisy chaining among the aliens. Tria and the Operative must have taken a look as well and didn’t like what they saw any more than I did. They both pulled out grenades and were going to toss them to the overhead.
