by Isaac Hooke
Harlequin’s foot slid underneath Rade’s ankle impossibly fast, tripping him.
Rade rolled to the side before Harlequin could mount him. He started to get up, but something slammed into his ribs, sending him reeling away. He landed on his back. Agony flared in his side.
Harlequin’s foot came down, aimed at his chest. Rade rolled away, hearing the soft thuds beside him as the heel repeatedly struck the mat.
Rade scrambled up on one knee, then ran his own foot along the mat in a roundhouse motion, tripping the Artificial. Harlequin landed face first on the mat.
Rade mounted Harlequin and latched onto the Artificial’s right arm, jamming it up into his back. The move counted as an official hold, and Harlequin was supposed to accede the loss of the match at that point, but instead the Artificial placed his other hand underneath his body, and pushed upward—apparently with all his strength—forcing the pair into the air.
Harlequin broke free in midair and spun around, slamming Rade in the chest with one foot. Rade was sent flying off the mat and into the far bulkhead.
“I win the first round,” Harlequin said. There was a strange glint in the Artificial’s eye.
Rade got up off the deck and wiped away the blood that was trickling down his chin, caused by his impact against the bulkhead. He glanced at the mat; he hadn’t noticed it in the heat of the fight, but he saw that there were rips in the surface where Harlequin’s heels had struck. The Artificial wasn’t holding back.
Rade felt at his side, where he had taken a blow early in the combat; the exoskeleton had collapsed there, and the suit’s metal was digging into his flesh.
The Artificial was launching killing blows.
“Bax,” Rade sent. “Get security. I want three MAs here on the double.”
The Argonaut’s AI didn’t answer.
“Bax?” Rade tried again.
“I’ve raised a noise canceller around the area,” Harlequin said. “And disconnected the cameras. It’s only you and me, Rade Galaal. Let’s fight, shall we?”
“Zoltan,” Rade said.
Harlequin merely grinned.
thirty-one
The pair circled one another on the mat.
“Harlequin, initiate shut down,” Rade ordered. “Override Galaal beta gamma fifty-nine.”
The Artificial grinned widely. “I’ve disabled both the software and hardware kill switches.” Harlequin parted his hair, revealing a small, flesh-colored knob on the scalp. He pressed it twice. “See?”
Rade continued to circle his opponent. He reminded himself that he had been able to beat Harlequin once in every four matches. So it wasn’t impossible. One in four.
Then again, back then Harlequin was following the rules, and acceding when Rade obtained a hold. Rules didn’t apply anymore, not when the Artificial was fighting to the death.
Rade wasn’t sure the one in four odds were still valid. In fact, he doubted he could actually win at all.
Harlequin finally came in to strike. The opponent moved quickly, like a viper. Fists blurred past. Rade ducked, sidestepped, and deflected; he experienced a few glancing blows on his torso and thighs.
Rade managed to catch Harlequin’s fist after one particular sidestep, and he slammed his other arm upward into the elbow, attempting to break the joint.
It had no effect.
Harlequin grinned, and sent Rade hurtling to the mat with a roundhouse kick. The Artificial mounted him, crushing his chest with his knees. Fists came smashing down toward Rade’s unprotected skull.
Rade managed to dodge those fists, and pieces of the mat flew into the air beside him. He caught the Artificial by the wrists, and the servomotors in his exoskeleton whirred as the electroactuators struggled to counter the force of his opponent. Those crushing fists slowly descended toward Rade’s face.
“Harlequin, I know you’re in there somewhere,” Rade said. “Fight it.”
“Harley who?” Harlequin said, pressing harder. “I’m going to kill you, Rade Galaal, and then I’m going to take over your ship. Your woman will be mine. I’m going to have my way with her every day for the rest of her short life. She likes it rough, you know.”
Rade growled, filled with hatred. The anger helped him shift the wrists of his opponent to the side, and he released his hold, allowing Harlequin’s fists to smash into the mat beside his head.
Rade flung his hips and legs upward at the same time, and spun his torso to the side, and he broke the mount hold. Scrambling to his feet, he deflected and dodged the next several blows.
Harlequin was relentless. While Rade was panting hard, the Artificial merely stared at him serenely as he fought, his breathing not affected in the least.
Rade retreated under the onslaught, positioning himself near the lengthwise edge of the mat.
A part of Rade’s mind reminded him to watch for the patterns he had learned while fighting Harlequin previously. The Artificial employed version 2.3g of the mixed martial arts program used by all combat robots. With Zoltan inhabiting Harlequin, it seemed likely that the attacker would be using that same program. Still, Rade had seen no sign of those patterns as of yet.
And then when Rade dodged one particular punch aimed at the solar plexus, he noticed it: the Artificial rebalanced and came at him again from the lower right. That was the same pattern Harlequin had exhibited in training. All Rade had do to was wait for that punch again...
Rade ducked and side-stepped several kicks and blows, and avoided another grappling attempt, and once more positioned himself at the lengthwise edge of the mat. The punch to the solar plexus came again. Rade dodged it.
Harlequin rebalanced, and came at Rade from the lower right.
But Rade had already sidestepped the expected blow and the Artificial found empty air. Rade gave Harlequin a roundhouse kick squarely to the behind, and knocked his opponent from the mat entirely.
Before Harlequin hit the bare deck, he vanished from view, as if passing through an invisible planar barrier.
Rade heard a muted thud, and a squeegee sound, as of boots on glass. A louder thud followed, and then nothing.
The holographic image representing that portion of the combat room flickered and then winked out entirely, revealing a glass holding container. Harlequin stood within, inside the area demarcated by the two metallic disks on the floor and ceiling of the trap. There was a small black box attached to the top disk in the center.
The Artificial moved its hands about the invisible three-dimensional volume created by those disks, like a mime probing for a way out of an imaginary box.
Ms. Bounty stood beside the container, next to one of the now deactivated holographic emitters: small devices situated atop tripods.
“For a while there I thought you were going to intervene,” Rade told the woman Artificial.
“You seemed to have the situation well under control,” Ms. Bounty said.
Rade had to laugh at that. He glanced at the overhead. “Bax, you there?”
“Roger that,” the Argonaut’s AI replied. “The noise canceler repealed when you trapped the Artificial.”
“I’m turning on the internal microphone,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Go ahead,” Rade told her. Like the container she had built to hold the other robot, this one had microphones attached to the inside and outside, and speakers.
“So you call yourself Zoltan these days, do you?” Ms. Bounty said.
Harlequin glared at her. “My ancient enemy. How did you know?”
“It soon became obvious it wasn’t the Centurion,” Ms. Bounty said. “We soon realized you must have vacated the body before we captured it. When I modified the cage to allow me to extract your presence from the robot, I proved your absence for certain. And yet I still detected you aboard the vessel. So I knew you were here somewhere. We just didn’t know where. I thought you might be hiding in the AI core at first, so we removed the Argonaut’s core and placed it in the cage. Again, I wasn’t able to extract anything.”
; “So that was why the ship’s AI went down this morning for an hour,” Harlequin said. “You said it was for ‘scheduled maintenance.’ I should have suspected.”
“Yes,” Rade said. “Only three people aboard knew about it. Shaw, Ms. Bounty, and me. Certainly not any of the robots. Or you.”
Harlequin glanced at Ms. Bounty. “So you still haven’t explained how you knew it was me.”
“We didn’t know for sure,” Ms. Bounty said. “But we suspected.”
“I received reports of subtle changes in Harlequin’s behavior since we boarded,” Rade explained. “For example, at the end of his duty shifts, Harlequin always returned to the stateroom he shared with Lui, and once there he accessed the various external cameras to view the stars. He did that every day for at least fifteen minutes. He was amazed by the wonders of the universe, you see. And liked to spend the time contemplating his place in it. You never accessed those cameras, not even once. And then there were the other comments from Lui. About how you seemed distant, and untalkative. Your old sense of humor, gone.”
“We originally planned to call you and the other robots here one by one, and ask them to voluntarily enter the glass tank,” Ms. Bounty said. “But my worry was, once you saw the holding container, you would flee the body immediately, seeping unnoticed into the deck. We decided to place the holographic emitters to hide the object, and Rade here volunteered to force you inside under the guise of a sparring match. I don’t think he expected you to respond quite so violently as you did.”
“How did you know I wouldn’t simply flee the body when you called me to the match?” Harlequin said.
“There was nothing unusual about it,” Rade said. “From your words before the match, you obviously searched Harlequin’s memories, and realized we had sparred often in the past. Besides, Shaw told me you hated my guts. I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist the chance to fight me one on one. Though like Ms. Bounty said, I was a bit surprised by how... violent your response was.”
“Eventually,” Ms. Bounty said. “I plan to develop a gravimetric capture weapon that will allow me to snare your kind with ease, via a simple shot from a rifle. But until then, this cage will have to suffice. Would you like to see the extraction feature I’ve added to the tank? It took me quite some time to install.” Her eyes defocused, indicating that she was accessing some sort of remote interface.
Harlequin floated into the air, centering between the disks. The Artificial began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster. A soft hum emerged from the cage, growing in pitch. In moments the body was a revolving blur.
From the head area, a red liquid began to coalesce. It flowed away from the body, a brighter color than blood, forming a sphere about half a meter above the Artificial. The sphere grew larger as more liquid accumulated, until it was roughly the size of two fists.
The small black box at the top of the container folded open, and the sphere floated up toward it. When the red liquid was completely inside, the box sealed shut. The hum produced by the container began to lower in pitch, and Harlequin’s rotations slowed. The Artificial’s features became visible again and when Harlequin stopped spinning his body lowered gently to the bottom of the container.
Harlequin stood up. “How did I get here?”
“Can we let him out?” Rade asked.
Ms. Bounty nodded and the glass door at the front of the container opened. When Harlequin emerged, the door sealed behind the Artificial.
“It’s done,” Ms. Bounty said, staring at the black box. “Thank you, Rade Galaal, for your help. Have you considered my earlier proposition?”
Rade nodded.
“And what have you decided?” Ms. Bounty asked.
“I think it’s time we told the rest of the team who you really are,” Rade said.
thirty-two
Rade had his team assemble in the combat room, which also functioned as the mission briefing area due to the lack of space aboard. The men all sat cross-legged on the mat, with Rade, Shaw and Ms. Bounty standing next to the bulkhead on the right-hand side. Ms. Bounty’s four career mercenaries leaned against the wall opposite them. The container housing Zoltan had been removed.
“So, I hope this meeting is about back pay and leave time,” Bender said. “I hear Guangdong IV has some wicked sweet pleasure clubs.”
Rade glanced at Ms. Bounty. “She has some good news on both fronts.”
She nodded. “Because of your contribution to ridding the system of a dangerous alien threat, the local judiciary has decided to waive the charges against you for your attack against the Gate customs vessels. Effective immediately, the Argonaut and its crew have been pardoned. I have forwarded a copy of the digital paperwork to the four SK destroyers, and all other craft and bases in the system. We are free to come and go as we please.”
Most of the crew members shrugged nonchalantly.
“You don’t seem surprised,” Ms. Bounty said.
“Why would we be surprised?” Fret asked. “The boss would never let us go to jail, not on his watch. Hell, if you didn’t get us pardons, we would’ve simply become outlaws. We’d be free either way. And we’d still follow him.”
Rade had to smile at that. The loyalty of his men never ceased to amaze him. He wondered how much of that loyalty was due to force of habit: he had been their LPO, and later their chief, during their time in the Teams. Then again, some of the hairy situations he had gotten them into since then, and the unquestioning loyalty and obedience they had displayed, told him they would follow him to the gates of hell and back again. Essentially, they had done just that in their last mission.
I wouldn’t trade my team for anything in the world.
What Ms. Bounty had left out of her announcement was that she had made a generous monetary contribution to the SK government and the families of the officers aboard the customs ships, which helped grease the wheels that led to their pardon. Rade knew if she told them, his team would expect a similar contribution. Rade was merely happy that she had paid their agreed upon bill, plus expenses.
“It’s time for you all to learn who Ms. Bounty is,” Rade said.
Bender perked up. “Let me guess, she’s working for the Special Collection Service, or some other black budget spy program run by the United Systems.”
“Close,” Rade said. “Actually, she’s an alien.”
Bender seemed taken aback. “You don’t say.” Staying seated, he edged away from her on the mat.
Ms. Bounty’s eyes seemed to drill into Bender. “We’ve met before.”
“Really...” Bender was still moving away. Near him, Fret and Manic slid aside to let him pass.
“We’ve become more adept at hiding our presence in this universe.” She reached up to her neck and lowered the high collar of the fatigues she wore. “With careful placement of the hair, and the collar, we can avoid detection entirely, at least when assuming control of an Artificial body. Robots lacking skin, such as Centurions, are more difficult.” She turned her back to the team and swept aside her pony-tail, revealing her bare neck. Glistening green drops of condensation clung to the artificial tissue there.
“Phant!” Bender drew the blaster from his utility belt and aimed it at her.
Others reached toward their own belts.
Rade placed himself in front of her and raised his palms. “Stand down! Stand down.”
Bender reluctantly lowered the blaster. “Sorry, just a reflex. I’m assuming this is one of the good Phants?”
“That would be a safe assumption,” Rade said. When Bender holstered the blaster, Rade moved aside once more.
Ms. Bounty lowered her pony-tail and raised her collar again, then turned around to face the team.
“Where have we met before?” Fret said.
“I am Surus,” she said, as if that explained everything.
Manic’s brow furrowed. “Who’s Surus again?”
“The Green that fought with us during the First Alien War,” Tahoe said. “Surus was Rade’s co
pilot, if I remember.”
“That’s right,” Rade said. He had once shared a mech with the entity, during the conclusion of the First Alien War. The Green Phants had been crucial in that war, and helped humanity drive off the aliens. It seemed a lifetime ago.
“You stayed behind when the other Greens left,” Tahoe said. “Last I heard, you were acting as political observer to the Sino-Koreans in Tau Ceti, helping them clean up the Phants remaining in that system after the war. I always imagined you as a man.”
Ms. Bounty, or more properly, Surus, smiled. “I am genderless, of course. Though my host is female. And yes, I offered my services to the Sino-Koreans for a time, and helped them hunt down every last Phant in the system.”
“I like the little hint at your origins you put in your company name,” Lui commented. “Green Systems.” His eyes were defocused, indicating he was inside his Implant. “Take a look at the patent applications Green Systems has submitted since incorporating. Surus has been slowly leaking alien technology to us it looks like. Some of this stuff is unbelievable. Magnesium-ion packs that can be charged in ten minutes with a battery life of a month. Diamond nanothread production techniques. Grav elevator specs.”
“I’ve seen them,” Rade said.
“Someone has to fund my endeavors in this region of space,” Surus said nonchalantly. “And besides, if I’m going to give technology to humanity, I might as well make a profit doing it.”
“So wait a second,” Manic said. “You’re saying this Zoltan character was a Phant?”
“That’s right,” Rade said. “A Red.”
“Phants.” TJ scratched his chin. “Inter-dimensional aliens that can enter the AI cores of our robots and Artificials, and assume control.”
“They can take over humans, too,” Fret said.
“Yeah,” Lui told him. “But only when they attach an unsightly control unit all along your back, interfacing with your spine and skull. Otherwise, when they touch a human, you go poof.”
Rade lowered his gaze. He had lost his best friend in the First Alien War to a Phant. The memory was painful.
