Warden 4

by Isaac Hooke

  So Min could only be trying to steal the technology away from her, and once the woman had taken them all, they would be gone. Permanently.

  For a moment, Rhea considered simply giving up the technology to her former sensei. After all, Min had years more experience than Rhea, and would know better how to use the machines. That she had taken control of them from Rhea attested to that knowledge.

  And yet Rhea couldn’t help the sudden building anger she felt. The woman hadn’t even asked. She thought merely to take the technology from Rhea. Force it from her. As if Rhea would ever let another person treat her this way.

  No, Rhea refused to give them up. Not even to her former teacher. Rhea was as good a carrier as anyone for the nano machines. What she did not know, Min could teach her.

  Thus, filled with anger, Rhea activated the Ban’Shar of her other hand. She converted it into a blade and pressed the tip into the neck of her former sensei. “Release me!”

  The Wardenites stepped forward threateningly, keeping their pistols pointed at Min’s head. Burhawk stepped back in shock.

  The woman’s chin finally darted up. Her eyes met Rhea’s. They were filled with defiance and greed. She did not let go.

  “You might have been my mentor once,” Rhea said. “But that was years ago. I’ve come into my own. If you don’t let me go, I will kill you.”

  Min seemed to notice the Ban’Shar blade for the first time, and the pistols trained on her head. Her expression softened, becoming sad.

  She released Rhea’s hand and backed away. When she reached the couch, she slumped back down.

  Rhea deactivated the Ban’Shar and glanced at her Wardenites. “At ease.”

  Her companions had kept their pistols trained on Min the whole time, and reluctantly lowered them.

  “I didn’t know that was possible,” Rhea said. “Stealing nano machines from another.”

  “There is much you don’t know about the technology,” Min agreed. “You should give it to me.” That gleam of avarice flashed in her eyes once more.

  Rhea gave her a fake smile. “No thanks.”

  She bent over to touch a metal chair leg and replenished the nano machines she had lost, which would have the added effect of deactivating any of the technology Min had stolen. The leg dissolved, and the chair toppled over.

  Rhea stood to meet her former sensei’s eyes once more.

  Min lowered her gaze. “I’m sorry, my sister. Forgive me. I yearn so much for what was lost. I shouldn’t have done that…”

  “Happens to the best of us,” Rhea commented reassuringly, though she wasn’t quite sure she meant it. She thought of something. “What was my name?”

  “Your name?” Min said.

  “Yes,” Rhea said. “On Ganymede. When I was your student.”

  Min frowned. “We didn’t actually employ the real names of students during training. I only know your training designation, which is four-forty-four-C. Sorry.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Rhea said. “I have a new name, now.”

  “Yes… Warden,” Min said.

  “Teach me how to use this technology,” Rhea said. “I want to know what you did when you grabbed me hand.”

  Min hesitated, then glanced at the Wardenites, who gave her dirty looks. She sighed, then asked Rhea to give her some of the nano machines so she could show her. Rhea did so.

  “It’s a matter of reaching out with your mind,” Min said. “Through the skin and feeling the minds of the machines. Touch my hand.”

  Rhea did so.

  “Do you feel anything?” Min asked.

  “The texture of your palm,” Rhea said. “Fibrous. Patterned. Warm.”

  “No,” Min said. “With your mind. Forget the tactile sensations of your physical body. Concentrate on the world beyond the physical. The nano technology is designed to communicate with your mind-machine interface on a graviton band. You will not feel a thing with your body. Become one with the nano machines in your fingers. Communicate with their technology. Only then will you sense the living machines inside me.”

  Rhea closed her eyes and tried to do as the sensei asked. She ignored the sensation of Min’s hand in hers and tried to focus on the world beyond the physical.

  Finally, she opened her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t.”

  “Come on, you know how to do this,” Min said. “Or you did, once. It’s just that this particular ability hasn’t seen as much use as your other skills over the past thirty years. Try again. Focus. Leave your eyes open this time. Look through my palm. See inside me.”

  Rhea kept her eyes open this time and stared at Min’s fingers. She imagined the living machines inside her hand, envisioning them as vibrating at a certain frequency. Then she visualized the nano technology inside Min’s palm, and in her mind’s eyes, she had them oscillating at that very same frequency.

  And then she felt them.

  She released Min’s hand, shocked.

  “You sensed them,” Min said.

  Rhea nodded.

  “Now touch me again,” Min said. “You are to continue doing so until you detect the machines inside me without thinking about it.”

  And so Rhea touched her hand once more and released it when she sensed the machines. Then she repeated this again and again, until she no longer had to visualize the nano machines, and instead perceived them only a few moments after she gripped Min’s palm. She was building up the muscle memory. Reinforcing the neural connections of engrams that were weak from disuse.

  “Now that you sense them upon touch, take control of them,” Min said.

  Rhea wrapped her hand around Min’s. In an instant she recognized the throbbing of machine life within, the hundred or so power sources of each individual nano unit, pulsing with energy. They seemed to be speaking to her. Yearning for her.

  “Command them to join you,” Min said.

  Rhea did so and was thrilled when the metal insects poured out of Min’s hand and back into her own.

  When it was all said and done, she wasn’t certain how useful this ability would be, given she wasn’t fighting Ganymedeans, and the technology was deemed lost. Still, it was good to know. Especially if someone stole a portion of them from her again.

  Min didn’t have anything else new to teach her. Transforming the body, repairing, taking control of standard human AIs, Rhea knew all of that already.

  Thus, when she was done her lesson, Rhea turned toward the woman. “I have a favor to ask.”

  Min arced an eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “As my sister, and a fellow Ganymedean, will you help me confront Khrusos?” Rhea asked.

  “I’m not sure we want her with us,” Will said. “Not after what she just tried to do.”

  “She made up for it after, by teaching me,” Rhea told him. “Besides, she’s my sensei. She trained me. You give her a proper weapon, it’s like having another version of me in the party.”

  “What makes you think I want to help you?” Min asked, straightening defiantly on the couch.

  “Because you hate Khrusos,” Rhea replied. “You tried to have me assassinated merely because you thought I still served him. So of course, if you had a chance to confront him, you’d take it.”

  “I’d prefer a chance to kill him,” Min murmured. “But that isn’t possible.”

  “See?” Burhawk said. “Even she understands how impossible the task before us is.”

  “I only want to talk to him,” Rhea told the both of them.

  “Khrusos won’t talk to you,” Min said. “You’ll never get close to him. Not until your mind is wiped, or you’re chipped. That’s the only way.”

  “So you won’t even try?” Rhea said.

  Min sighed and slumped once more. “I…. I’m not your sensei anymore. I haven’t fought in years.”

  “But the muscle memory never goes,” Rhea said. “The mind-machine interface sees to that. We’re cyborgs.”

  “No, you’re wrong,” Min said. “You don’t know how our brain w
orks. Our minds are human. If we don’t practice something, we’ll lose it. Sure, it might take a little longer than an ordinary human before it’s gone, but in the end, without use it still goes.”

  “But we can learn it again, faster than before,” Rhea said.

  Min pursed her lips. “This is true.”

  “I can give her some weapons training,” Burhawk said. “If you like.”

  Rhea glanced at the man. “Probably a good idea. If she agrees to join us.”

  “I still think we should leave her behind,” Will said.

  “I agree,” Miles said. His eyes were full of hatred as he gazed upon the woman. Was he angry because Min had dared lay a hand on Rhea? Or because of something else…

  Before Rhea could consider the thought further, Min said: “My entire life, I have sat back and watched as Khrusos destroyed everything that was dear to me. My world. My students. You. I will come. I must. But there is something you should know. And this is very important. Khrusos can neutralize your nano machines. In his throne room, where he resides, he possesses a special beam that can pass straight through the Ban’Shar.”

  Rhea glanced at Burhawk, who nodded.

  “That beam is part of the defenses Khrusos possesses,” Burhawk said. “It is based on Ganymedean technology. He has multiple beam turrets situated throughout the throne room. I can provide a map of them, but those turrets are omnidirectional, so even though you know where they are, it will be very difficult to get close to him.”

  “Then I’ll bring a different body,” Rhea said. “One that doesn’t contain nano machines.”

  “The beams will disable an ordinary machine body as well,” Min said. “You will be frozen in place if you are hit. Helpless for what he does to you next.”

  “Then I’ll dodge the beams,” Rhea said.

  Min glanced at Burhawk for confirmation of that.

  “They can be evaded,” Burhawk said. “They emit a telltale glow moments before firing. Your first goal upon entering the throne room should be to disable them.”

  “This begs the obvious question,” Will said. “Are ordinary humans affected by these beams?”

  “No,” Burhawk said. “But there are plasma cannons in the room as well. Operated by an advanced AI—you humans react and move much too slowly to stand a chance. I suggest you and the men stay outside of the throne room and guard our back, at least until we can clear both the beam turrets and plasma cannons. Unless you want your Warden to divert precious energy defending you…”

  “Does Khrusos have similar beams and cannons located anywhere else in the palace?” Rhea asked.

  “No,” Burhawk said. “There are some plasma cannons lining the outer wall, but that’s about it. There are no turrets in the halls. Even so, there are still a plethora of defense robots roaming the grounds, making up for that. They’ll gather the instant an intrusion is detected.”

  She studied Burhawk. “You are cyborg, correct?”

  “I am,” he said. “I am one of those who will go with you to the very end.”

  “I’m coming, too,” Will said.

  “No, you’re not,” Rhea told him. “You will stop at the door to the throne room. At least until we can clear the turrets within.”

  Will frowned but didn’t contest her.

  “How do we know Khrusos will even be in this throne room of his when we arrive?” Horatio asked. “Do we know his schedule?”

  “He never leaves the throne room,” Burhawk said. “It’s his permanent residence. He conducts all business for the United Settlements, the High Council, and Mars from within. He eats there, sleeps there, defecates there.”

  “Interesting way to live,” Brinks commented. “Sounds like a pigsty.”

  “It’s one of the cleanest places you’ll ever see,” Burhawk said. “Along with the deadliest.”

  “The door to the throne requires a special entry code, if I remember correctly,” Min said.

  “Yes, I can handle that,” Burhawk said. “I know how to bypass the code, even if it’s been changed. But the question is, how are we even going to get close to the throne room? It’s guarded at all hours. When I said there was a plethora of robots on the grounds, I wasn’t kidding. That isn’t something to be taken lightly. There are so many places where you can be pinned down and fired upon from multiple angles. I highly doubt those glow shields of yours will be enough. We’re going to need an army…”

  They were all looking at Rhea expectantly. “I have an idea.”

  She revealed the plan that had been simmering inside her head.

  13

  Rhea strode beneath the crystalline skyscrapers with Will and the Wardenites. They wore their black robes, the raised hoods pulled low about their heads. As usual, Rhea and the others were careful to match the gait of the locals, and they kept their gazes diverted when passing security cameras, or other foot traffic.

  A pair of sentry robots stood at the corner of an intersection ahead. They had their backs to her, and observed the passing vehicles, and pedestrians. Instead of having rifles barrels built-in to their forearms, they carried actual separate weapons.

  Hidden beneath the canopy of a street-side cafe, Horatio watched the sky from across the road, and transmitted the locations of any nearby security drones that hovered overhead. She checked her map, and confirmed no airborne drones were nearby, and that the closest security cameras had a poor view of what she intended. Indeed, the bodies of the robots would block her almost entirely from said cameras.

  Her two preconditions satisfied, she broke away from the Wardenites and approached the intersection. When she arrived, she glanced both ways, confirming no other robots were nearby. She lingered behind the sentries, waiting for the foot traffic to pass, then checked her map one last time. After verifying no drones had arrived since the last glance, she stepped forward and placed her hands on the cold shoulders of the robots. She already had nano machines deployed and at the ready, so that when she made contact, several of the tiny metal insects flowed onto her targets.

  She removed her hands as the robots turned around, and she dropped her gaze to conceal her face in shadow.

  “Can we help you?” one of the robots asked.

  It would take a moment for the nano technology to reach the AI cores from the shoulder area, so Rhea shook her bowed head and simply said, in an altered voice: “I mistook you for someone else.”

  She inclined her head lower before turning about and quickly walking away.

  She hid in a side alley, where the other Wardenites were waiting for her.

  “Did it work?” Will asked.

  “We’ll know soon enough.” She peered past the edge of the alleyway.

  The robots had returned their attention to the road and seemed unaffected. As the seconds ticked past, she was beginning to fear that the nano machines had failed to take, but then the heads of both robots bowed suddenly. Their arms drooped downward as well, so that they nearly dropped the rifles they carried.

  They remained frozen like that for the next minute, as if powered off. A passing man paused to rap one of the robots on the head with his knuckles, and when it didn’t respond he shrugged and moved on, muttering something. Her sensitive ears picked up: “Only in Hongton.”

  After a full sixty seconds had passed, the robots raised their arms and heads once more, standing up straight. They began to look about, as if searching for someone.

  “There we go.” Rhea confirmed no airborne drones were watching, then stepped from cover and went to them.

  “What can we do for you, Mistress?” one of the robots asked.

  She gave them their orders and ended with: “You will delete all logs of this conversation.”

  She smiled inside as those words left her lips. The robots had a one-minute lag time between their recording of external data, and its transmission to the central AI: the conversation would never reach the city’s main computer.

  “Understood,” the robot said.

  Rhea momentarily a
ctivated her wireless mesh network, setting it to minimum transmission range, and recorded the remote IDs of the two machines. On the overhead map the indicators of both robots changed from red to blue, marking them as hers.

  With that done, she disabled her network once more, turned around and left.

  She rejoined the Wardenites, and they retreated. Horatio mirrored their route on the opposite side of the street, ready to resume his skywatching when the next opportunity presented itself.

  Thus, she continued through the city, keeping her hood pulled low, and converting different robots to her side as the opportunities presented themselves. She usually went for pairs of sentries standing close together, but occasionally she converted a larger walker, or a drone hovering low to the ground, always from behind. Sometimes the robots seemed angry that she had touched them—especially the walkers—and demanded that she enable her comm node and lower her hood. In those later instances she always refused them, stating in an altered voice that it was her right to wear her clothing as she wished.

  She always strode away regardless of what the machines demanded, giving the nano machines the time they needed to work. Once a walker actually followed her, and she was worried it was going to shoot her down, but then it promptly froze as it rebooted.

  Horatio occasionally disabled an unfortunately placed camera with a CommNixer to enable a conversion. Horatio did this by subtly tossing the magnetic disk with his hand, rather than relying upon the more conspicuous pistol.

  Rhea paused next to metallic structures now and then, such as benches or lamp posts, to surreptitiously replenish her spent nano machines. Will or one of the other Wardenites often screened her body with their own if there were any cameras around. Upon walking away, she would leave subtle handprints in said metal.

  She was careful to move to a different neighborhood after taking a certain number of robots: the city’s AI would be wondering why robots were rebooting with an alarming frequency in a particular neighborhood, and in addition to running diagnostic checks to look for viruses and so forth, it would also start beefing up security. It would also likely lower the transmission lag time for machines in the area… if that happened, and the AI realized a certain black-robed Martian was speaking to the robots right before they rebooted, then anyone wearing a black robe in the neighborhood would be stopped for questioning, and likely forced to reveal their faces, regardless of the legality.