by J. N. Chaney
The blade tore through Titan’s midsection, in the place I knew to be one of twelve landing bays. “Athena!” cried Abigail.
I felt my chest pounding as I brought us in along the open hull of the enemy ship. There was little left to do now except end this mess, once and for all. “Release the mines, Siggy!” I barked. “Make them count!”
Three mines launched in only a few seconds, entering through the open section of the enemy’s hull. I pulled back on the controls, bringing us away from the ship, trying to clear some distance.
As we did, Hephaestus pulled the knife out of Titan, readying itself for another strike, this time in the upper hemisphere. I knew that spot, too. It had most of the crew’s quarters in it, along with the cafeteria and garden. If that blade struck again, it wouldn’t just be an empty landing bay.
We still weren’t out of range, but there was no time left. “Ignite the mines!” I commanded. “Do it now!”
The blast was devastating, exploding inside the enemy ship like a bomb inside a man’s stomach. Metal guts went in every direction, tearing all four appendages from the torso and sending them away. The knife went, too, spiraling uncontrollably toward the battlefield.
The two fleets separated to avoid the debris, but quickly collided again when it was clear. Fragments of the ship remained near Titan, floating slowly apart.
“Athena, report!” I ordered.
“Power failures on three decks, although there were no personnel there,” said Athena. “No vital systems have been damaged.”
“Can Titan still move?” I asked.
“Yes, Captain. Engines and thrusters are still online. Life support is stable.”
I closed my eyes and breathed. That had been far too close for comfort. One more attack and Hephaestus could have killed half the crew.
Someone banged on the door to the cockpit, and it suddenly slid open. Dressler was standing there, a frazzled look in her eyes. “What’s going on out there?”
“We took care of the big guy, but now the drones are attacking the fleet,” Abigail explained.
“Shouldn’t we help?” called Freddie from the lounge.
“We can’t,” said Dressler. “Captain, we need to get down to the surface at once. There could be more drones coming.”
She was right. If we stayed any longer, who knew what could happen? We had the chance to end this right now, before anymore damage could be done. “Agreed. This battle might last an hour. Maybe longer. And our shield is down, same as Titan’s. We can’t last against those drones if we stay.”
“Let’s shut Hephaestus down,” said Dressler.
I nodded. “I’ll tell Athena we’re on our way.”
“I know you want to help them, Captain, but try to remember the priority here,” said the doctor.
I turned back around, taking the controls. “You ain’t gotta tell me, Doc.”
* * *
The Renegade Star began its descent through the atmosphere, headed straight for the facility below.
“Please be advised, Captain. We cannot remain in orbit indefinitely, should the battle intensify,” said Athena. “You must hurry.”
“We’ll be fast,” I answered. “Siggy, check for a landing zone near the entrance. I want an estimated travel time to the capsule.”
“Yes, sir,” said the A.I.
Abigail stared at the facility on the holo. “What happens if Titan has to leave? We need Athena to shut Hephaestus down.”
“We’ll blow the damn thing up. Simple as that,” I told her.
“But Hephaestus will just migrate to the secondary capsule,” she cautioned.
“Then we’ll hunt that one down, too. Whatever it takes, we’ll find a way to get the job done.”
She didn’t argue, and I was thankful for that. I knew what she was thinking, because I was thinking the same thing. Hephaestus was likely already building another fleet of drones to come after us, and we probably wouldn’t survive it. Not with Titan’s shield and weapons down.
But neither of us wanted to say that. Not yet. Not until the other cards had fallen and we were out of options.
Because right now, we still had a chance to see this mission through.
All we had to do was get there.
Twenty-Three
We landed on a platform a short walk from the entrance. The temperature on this planet had me sweating in my environmental suit before we even reached the door, despite the internal cooling system.
The facility wasn’t very large, since most of it was underground. What little could be seen had been etched into the side of a mountain, the only obvious indicators being a handful of landing platforms, two of which had collapsed some time ago.
I was hesitant to leave the ship there, but Siggy assured me the thrusters would kick in, should the support beams below the platform become unstable.
I trusted his assessment. Despite his many changes, he was still the most reliable partner I’d ever had.
We came to a stop in front of a set of locked doors.
“Shall I use my staff?” asked Lucia.
“Let’s save the explosions for a second,” I suggested, searching the nearby wall.
Fortunately, there was a touchpad nearby, sitting inside a small panel. I raised the lid, and found it still had power.
Dressler, Abigail, Freddie, and Lucia all stood behind me, waiting. “Do we have the access code?” asked Dressler.
“Siggy?” I said, hoping the defense network had given him the right data.
“Enter code 2-0-4-1-0-4-5-2,” said Sigmond.
I typed in the digits on the display, a bit of tension in my fingers. If I entered the wrong sequence, there was a good chance we’d wind up facing down a group of drones again, which was the last thing I wanted to deal with.
But instead of an alarm, I heard a chime, followed by the sound of the doors opening.
“Nice!” said Freddie.
“That’s no fun,” said Lucia.
“Alright, let’s get going,” I told them, stepping through the opening. “Bring up the map on your visors and move your asses. We don’t have much time to get this done.”
Despite the cumbersome suits, we moved fairly quickly through the abandoned facility. The map showed the capsule to be about one hundred and twenty floors down, which meant we’d have to take the elevator. A risky proposition, should the power drop at any point.
Siggy assured me that Hephaestus couldn’t do that, even if he wanted to. The facility’s grid was self-sufficient, probably to avoid a shutdown, should the capsule go offline. “Do you think that means there’s more to this place than the capsule?” asked Freddie.
“What do you mean?” asked Abigail, stepping into the nearby elevator.
I removed a repeater device from my suit pocket and placed it next to the lift, then got inside.
Freddie continued while the doors closed. “If this facility only existed to handle Hephaestus, why not give him total control over it? Why separate the systems? It’s not as though we haven’t seen it before. Athena has full control over Titan, doesn’t she?”
“It could be a failsafe,” suggested Dressler. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the capsule has its own power supply, separate from the building.”
“Whatever the case, let’s just be glad we don’t have to climb a hundred and twenty floors’ worth of stairs,” I said.
Our descent took a few minutes. We stopped every twenty floors in order to drop another repeater, each time adding previous seconds to our mission time.
I had to admit, I was half-convinced the elevator might shut off halfway down, stranding us, but I was pleasantly relieved. Instead, the lift decelerated and the doors opened without any problem.
After the fight it took to reach this place, I honestly expected more resistance.
The corridor before us was wide and empty, looking remarkably similar to those found on Titan, with a few exceptions. The lighting was poor here, and I didn’t see any workstations. There were no s
igns of activity, aside from the elevator we’d taken to get here. If I hadn’t known any better, I might have thought this section had gone unfinished.
But it wasn’t, I knew. The capsule was here somewhere, waiting for us to come and shut it down.
As we began our walk through the ancient, underground structure, I wondered whether Hephaestus even knew we were here. Did he realize how close we were to shutting him off? Did he understand—could he understand—the inevitability of his own death? Or was he so far gone now that only his basic programming remained?
I supposed it hardly mattered. At the end of the day, he’d tried to kill us, and I couldn’t let that stand. When you threaten me and my crew, you forfeit your right to live.
“I can’t believe this place hasn’t collapsed in on itself after all these centuries,” said Abigail.
“It’s certainly remarkable,” added Dressler.
“The ancients knew how to build,” said Lucia.
“To say the least,” agreed Dressler. “I am constantly in awe of their abilities.”
“They couldn’t be that great, since they’re gone,” I said.
We reached another door, which opened as we approached. Dressler stepped through, followed by Abigail, and then me. “I wonder why that is,” the doctor continued. “Athena’s records have no information on their whereabouts. Sigmond, I don’t suppose the data you collected from the defense network said something about that, did it?”
“Apologies, Doctor, but are you inquiring as to the location of the Eternals?” asked Siggy.
“That’s right,” she answered. “Do you know what happened to them after Athena left?”
“While the defense network stores certain records in its logs, they are routinely deleted every one hundred years. The only remaining data from the period in question pertains to border activity logs.”
“What do you mean?” asked Abigail. “Border activity? Are you saying you know who has come and gone through Abaddon Station?”
“Yes, Ms. Pryar, as well as all other border checkpoints throughout the former empire.”
“That’s good,” said Dressler. “When was the last time someone successfully entered or departed? Before us, of course.”
“According to the logs, it has been 1956 years since the last departure, which occurred through Sheol Station.”
“Fascinating,” muttered Dressler. “Do your records show who departed or how many ships they used?”
“I’m afraid not, Doctor. I only have the record of occurrence and location. Nothing more.”
“That’s too bad,” said Dressler.
“I’m sure you learn more about it when we finally reach Earth,” said Abigail.
Dressler nodded. “I look forward to it.”
“And I look forward to getting the hell out of this place,” I finally said.
The following corridor contained several other branching paths. Had we come here without a map, I was pretty sure we would’ve gotten lost. Lucky for us, that hadn’t been the case. Siggy had us covered, and we were nearly to our target.
When we finally reached the capsule room, I had to enter another combination on the pad.
The door cracked open once I had all ten digits entered, and I breathed a short sigh of relief as the four of stepped inside.
This room was just as large as the one we’d found on Tyche. Its walls stretched far above us, giving the impression that we’d somehow shrunk in size. The walls were lined with blinking lights, and along the far one, a monstrous computer that stretched from one side to the next. This was it. This was Hephaestus, all our problems made physical at last.
I could hardly stand to look at it, knowing what it housed inside. I wanted to grab Lucia’s staff and blow a hole through it, but I knew I couldn’t. Hephaestus would simply migrate to the secondary capsule if something happened to this one, and that would be a problem.
No, we had to play this right. We had to erase him, one line of code at a time.
I placed the final repeater near the doorway. “Athena, this is Hughes,” I said, staring up at the giant system along the far wall.
It took a moment for her to answer. Given how far we were from The Star, I supposed that made sense. “Greetings, Captain. Have you reached the capsule?”
“We’re here,” I said.
“Excellent. Please, insert the drive into the system, just as you did the last time.”
I motioned at Dressler, who proceeded to the corner of the room. She found and activated the nearby display. “We’ve got it up and running,” I said into my comm. “Dressler is sorting through it now. One second.”
Dressler had one hand on the pad and the drive in the other as she sorted through one subdirectory after another. “Here it is,” she finally told me. Abigail, Freddie, and I walked up behind her to observe the display. She quickly inserted the drive, giving it a brief moment before continuing through to the next screen. “It’s ready.”
“Hear that, Athena?” I asked. “Anytime you’re set, come on down.”
“Performing transfer,” said Athena. “Please, hold.”
We’re almost done, I thought, keeping a hand on my holster and thumbing my pistol grip. Just a bit more and we could finally stop all these delays.
“Did she make it?” I asked, looking at Dressler.
“Nothing’s changed,” she answered.
“Athena? Everything okay up there?” I asked.
“I apologize, Captain, but it seems I’m unable to remote into your location,” Athena answered. “I have made twenty-three attempts and have yet to succeed. I’m searching for the cause right now.”
“Unable to remote in?” asked Abigail. “Is there some kind of interference?”
“Could it be the planet’s atmosphere?” asked Freddie.
“I doubt it,” said Dressler. “From what I saw, there wasn’t much of one when we arrived. No cloud coverage, either.”
“Siggy, give me something. Are you detecting anything?” I asked.
“No, sir,” said the A.I. “Although, my scans are limited to our ship’s position and yours.”
I wondered if perhaps Titan simply didn’t have the power reserves to allow Athena to make the jump, but it couldn’t take that much just for this, could it? No, there had to be another reason. A barrier preventing her from reaching us.
“I’ve found the cause,” said Athena, after a few more seconds. “But I’m afraid the problem may take time to resolve.”
“Let’s hear it,” I said.
“Hephaestus has deployed a signal, blocking me from transferring myself to the surface. While I can still speak with you, it appears any major data flow will be impossible. The drones seem to be the cause, which means we will need to eradicate them all before I can proceed.”
“How many are left?” I asked.
“Approximately 900.”
I cursed. “We should’ve stayed up there and helped.”
“This isn’t good,” said Dressler. “If we don’t shut this capsule down, more drones could arrive.”
“Are we sure about that?” asked Abigail.
Dressler and I both looked at her. “What do you mean?” asked the doctor.
Abigail motioned with her hand to the capsule. “What if he’s still building them? We might be overreacting here. He could be completely out of resources, trying to salvage more from one of those warehouses.”
“That’s true,” said Lucia.
“Maybe it is, but we have no way of knowing that,” said Dressler.
“Don’t we?” asked Freddie. “Just ask Sigmond to check the network again. He can do that from here, can’t he?”
“Hey, that’s true,” I said, raising my brow at him.
He nodded. “Sigmond did it once before. If he can give us a look, we might not have anything to worry about.”
“Siggy, think you can handle that?” I asked.
“I believe so, sir,” said the A.I.
“Athena, hold on a minute while Sigg
y gets us a look at Hephaestus’ fleet,” I said.
“Understood, Captain. I await your findings.”
Dressler ran through another set of directories, quickly coming to a full stop. “I’m ready if you are, Sigmond.”
“Transferring now, Doctor,” he responded.
A second later, he was inside the capsule. I watched from behind Dressler as Siggy took control, filtering through various directories and locating something called a Network Assembly Caption Image.
The display changed in an instant, replaced with a large picture of our little section of the galaxy. In it, we could see the battle taking place overhead, represented by an array of red dots, each one being a single drone. Not far from us, however, there was something else—an equally large cluster of red. It gathered together near the edge of a star system, gradually disappearing.
“What is that?” asked Lucia.
The rest of us already knew the answer. “They’re going into a slip tunnel,” answered Abigail.
“Probably headed our way,” I said.
“That settles it,” said Abigail. “We don’t have time to wait. We need to figure out another way to get this done.”
“But how?” asked Freddie. “Without Athena, we can’t delete Hephaestus.”
“We’ll destroy it,” I told him.
Everyone looked at me. “If you do that, we’ll have to track the second capsule down, too,” cautioned Dressler.
I nodded. “That’s fine. If we did it once, we can do it again. Besides, we don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“Pardon me, sir,” interjected Sigmond. His voice was still coming through the comm. “I’m afraid I must disagree. Now that I’m here, I believe I can perform the shutdown, myself. The system appears to recognize my program as a pure Cognition, due to my previous acquisition of Janus’ shell.”
“It recognizes you as a Cognitive?” I asked.
“That is correct, sir. Shall I attempt to perform the required cleanse on this system?”
I looked at Abigail, but she only nodded. We both knew that this was the best option on the table. If we didn’t try it, the other fleet might arrive before Alphonse and the others could wipe up the other drones. If that happened, everything would be lost. “Okay, Siggy. Do whatever it takes to wipe that system clean. We’re counting on you.”
