by Tim Waggoner
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
At first, Kyoto could only stand and stare in shock. The Mutants had to be the source of the life signs Memory had detected, but why hadn’t she known they weren’t human? Then she realized: the complete Memory, the one on the Janus, had been linked to Manti biomaterial. The alien DNA had corrupted not only her but also the copy she’d downloaded to Kyoto’s starfighter. Memory Junior hadn’t told her the building contained Mutants because to her corrupt programming, they weren’t a threat; they were family.
Kyoto didn’t know why the Mutants were clinging to the ceiling, but since they didn’t immediately attack her, she assumed they were resting. It was unknown whether the Manti slept, but they did occasionally go dormant, but whether to rest and recharge or simply to await further orders, no one was certain, not even Mudo.
Mutants were the abominable offspring of Landers and humans. When a Lander absorbed a victim’s DNA, it underwent a process of nearly instaneous genetic reengineering and became a Mutant. Mutants were about the same size as Landers, but their amber-tinted armor was thicker and far stronger. They were also faster and more aggressive than Landers, and once they fixed on a target, they pursued it relentlessly. The best way to fight a Mutant was to prevent it from being born in the first place—whether that meant destroying Landers before they could catch prey or killing Colonists already in the process of being absorbed.
My father almost became one of those things, Kyoto thought. He’d been spared the horror of becoming one thanks to the Defender pilot who had saved Kyoto. But now here she was, all these years later, alone with a dozen of the hybrid monstrosities, as if fate had decided to give them one more chance at the little girl who had escaped them long ago.
Kyoto wondered why there were only a dozen. If there were no other surviving humans in the colony, surely there would be many more mutants. Maybe the other Mutants left Rhea, or maybe some of the Colonists killed them before dying themselves. It wasn’t important. All that mattered was getting the hell out of here and back to the Defender before any of the ugly bastards decided to wake up.
Kyoto began walking slowly backward, keeping her helmet light trained on the Mutants, and aiming her handblaster at them, though she knew such a small weapon would provide no defense against them.
The vacc suit’s comlink chirped.
“I have a theory about what happened here, Mei. Would you like to hear it?”
“Not just now,” Kyoto whispered. “I’m trying to sneak out of here without making any noise.”
“I really think you should hear this—it might be useful!”
“If I can’t shut you up, will you at least lower your goddamned volume?”
“Now, Mei – there’s no call to use language like that! I simply—”
One of the Mutants began to stir. It shifted position, jostling the other Mutants around it, and then its head swiveled in her direction.
Kyoto felt a surge of little-girl panic and almost fired on the Mutant, but she managed to restrain herself. All the blaster energy would do was wake the Mutant up more quickly.
“Memory, can you set off my gen-stim by remote control?”
“I believe so, but I don’t see— ”
“Just do it when I tell you.” Kyoto pulled the gen-stim from its pocket and fixed her gaze on the hyperetheric energy infuser. She drew her arm back and threw the gen-stim at the metallic infinity symbol. Kyoto’s aim was good, and the low gravity helped. The gen-stim flew toward its target, and Kyoto said, “Release full charge on contact, Memory!”
The gen-stim struck dead center, where the lines of the infinity symbol overlapped. Kyoto imagined the clang that she couldn’t hear, and energy flashed as Memory discharged all the power stored in the gen-stim’s battery.
Suddenly, every Mutant raised its head, and though the Buggers had no discernible eyes, Kyoto knew they were all looking at her.
The insectoid creatures released their grip on the ceiling and started to drop toward Kyoto, and she feared that her gamble with the gen-stim hadn’t paid off. She began firing her handblaster at the Mutants, knowing that the ruby red energy beams wouldn’t do much more than tickle the human-alien hybrids. But she wasn’t about to allow herself to be killed without a fight.
The infuser began to glow then, filling the room with the aquamarine glow of hyperetheric energy. Kyoto had hoped that the radiation would prove harmful to the Mutants, but she’d forgotten that the Manti were creatures native to hyperspace. Hyperetheric energy was probably no more harmful to them than oxygen was to humans.
But as the blue-green glow filled the room, the Mutants slowed their attack until they were halfway to the floor. They stopped there, hovering, and then one by one began to rise toward the infuser. Kyoto stopped firing her blaster and watched the Mutants, trying to figure out what was happening. She’d seen many nature vids about Old Earth insects—they’d become very popular after the First Manti Swarm. One of those vids had shown how some insects were attracted to bright lights, and how that tendency had been used to create devices to lure bugs close and then fry them with a discharge of electricity. The GSA had experimented with weapons based on similar principles, but the Manti had never been attracted to any spectrum of light. But right now it appeared they were definitely attracted by hyperetheric radiation.
“If you intend to leave while the Offspring are distracted, Mei, you should get going. The infuser won’t remain charged for long.”
Memory’s words proved prophetic, for already the aquamarine glow that surrounded the infuser was beginning to fade.
Kyoto turned and headed for the corridor as fast as she could move, but with the grav-gens in her boots still working, the best she could manage was a stiff-legged hobble, as if she were trying to run through thick mud. She paused to turn off the grav-gens and then leaped forward. She shot through the open doorway and out into the corridor as if she’d activated the vacc suit’s EVA thrusters. Rhea had enough gravity to make that impractical, though, especially indoors. So she continued run-jumping down the hall, covering meters with each step.
She thought she remembered the way back to her starfighter, but she couldn’t afford to make a mistake, not with a dozen Mutants due to come after her any minute, so she had Memory guide her back the way she’d come. She squeezed back through the partially opened storeroom door, and then with one last leap, she was through the hole in the wall and heading for a landing on Rhea’s icy ground. But since her grav-gens were off, when her boots came in contact with the ice, her feet slid out from under her and she half slid, half bounced past her ship.
Kyoto stabbed her hand toward the vacc suit’s wrist controls and reactivated the grav-gens on one of the lower settings. If she activated them at too high a level, her boots would stop, but the rest of her would keep going, resulting in a pair of shattered legs.
When Kyoto finally came to a stop, she didn’t bother checking to see if her vacc suit had been damaged. She didn’t have time, and besides, if her suit developed a breach, at least she’d go out quick. She carefully rose to her feet, increased her grav-gens to Earth norm, and began plodding back toward the Defender. The ground was too icy to risk further jumping.
“Open the G-7’s cockpit, Memory, and fire up the engines!”
“Yes, Mei.”
Just then the first Mutant soared out of the building and streaked toward her.
Suddenly, jumping on the ice no longer seemed too risky. Kyoto shut off the grav-gens, bent her knees, and leaped toward the Defender. A split second later, the Mutant passed through the space where she’d been standing and arced upward, segmented legs thrashing in frustration at being denied its prey.
Kyoto hit the side of the Defender chest-first and grabbed onto the edge of the open cockpit. The impact drove the breath from her lungs, and she gasped for air. She activated the grav-attractors in her gloves to give herself a firmer grip and then pulled herself into the cockpit. She collapsed into the pilot’s seat and tried
to order Memory to close the canopy, but she couldn’t manage to take in enough air to speak. Still gasping, she turned on the holoscreen, intending to close and seal the canopy herself before the Mutant could attack again.
As the canopy began to close, the Mutant swerved into view and hovered in front of the Defender. Its energy prongs began to glow yellow-red, and Kyoto knew she had only a second or two before the Mutant unleashed an energy blast at her.
Still unable to draw a full breath, Kyoto activated the G-7’s energy shield using the holocontrols. A blue-white sphere of energy appeared around the Defender just as the Mutant unleashed its blast. The shield flared yellow-red as it absorbed and dispersed the Mutant’s attack, but in doing so, it lost some of its own charge—21 percent of it, according to the holoscreen. A few more direct hits like that, and the energy shield would soon be offline, and once that happened, Kyoto would be easy picking for the Mutants.
The canopy finished closing, locked tight, and the cockpit began pressurizing. But Kyoto had no intention of waiting for it to finish. She activated the G-7’s fast-lock missiles and targeted the Mutant, intending to fire a salvo to cover her takeoff. But before she could release the fast-locks, all weapons systems shut down.
“I’m sorry, Mei. I understand that you’re only trying to protect yourself, but I can’t allow you to hurt any of the Offspring. They tend to be somewhat… playful when young, but that’s no reason to—”
The Mutant unleashed a second blast, this one stronger than before. The energy shield managed to deal with this attack as well, but now it was down by 48 percent.
Kyoto knew there was no use arguing with the AI, and she had neither the skill nor the time to reprogram her. Kyoto accessed the ship’s AI control settings and began the process of deactivating Memory Junior.
“Mei, please don’t do this. You’re going to need me to get back through the hyperbubble safely. If you deactivate me, I won’t—” Memory’s voice cut off. The AI was offline and would stay that way until Kyoto reactivated her.
A second Mutant flew out of the building, followed quickly by a third. Kyoto didn’t hesitate. She powered up weapons systems and fired both her fast-locks and pulse cannon simultaneously, and then hit the takeoff thrusters. A pair of missiles shot out from underneath the ship’s wings, each targeting a different Mutant, while the energy pulses from the cannon built into the G-7’s nose streaked past the third. Kyoto hadn’t been aiming for that Mutant, though. The pulse energy struck the wall and it exploded in a shower of plasteel shards, collapsing the hole from which the Mutants had emerged. That wouldn’t stop the others for long, but it might buy Kyoto enough time to blast off this lousy iceball and head back to the Janus.
The fast-locks pursued their targets, but the Mutants were fast, and they dipped and dived as they worked to escape the missiles. The remaining Mutant began to power up its energy prongs, and Kyoto wasn’t sure the Defender’s shield would be able to completely turn aside another direct hit.
The Defender struggled to lift off, but the landing strut that was caught in the ice held it down. Kyoto couldn’t wait for the thrusters to melt the ice at the normal strength. She needed to be airborne now! She increased power to the thrusters, though by doing so on the ground she risked overheating and burning them out. She kept an eye on the temperature reading displayed on the holoscreen.
C’mon… c’mon…
The third Mutant fired its blast, and the G-7 rocked and shuddered as some of the energy got through the weakened shields. Kyoto’s breathing had returned to normal, and she almost asked Memory for a damage report before remembering the AI was offline.
Thruster temperature was approaching critical, but Kyoto knew it was now or never, and she increased thruster power to maximum. Warning alarms sounded as the ice melted, and the Defender—suddenly freed—leaped into the sky. Kyoto quickly disengaged the thrusters and gained control of the G-7 as it soared toward the hyperbubble. The holoscreen showed that one of the fast-locks had finally caught up with the Mutant, and though the creature wasn’t dead, it wasn’t going to be space traveling any time soon. The other missile came too close to the ground and detonated in an explosion of ice and fire.
The two remaining Mutants immediately took to the sky in pursuit of Kyoto. She supposed she should be glad the damn things didn’t have enough intelligence to try digging out their trapped friends before coming after her, but somehow that wasn’t much comfort at the moment. She fired another pair of fast-locks, gunned the engines, and headed for the hyperbubble.
The barrier of hyperetheric energy drew closer and closer… and then the Defender plunged into the roiling field of aquamarine. Alarms began shrieking at once, and the starfighter shook as if it were flying through a Class 4 Martian windstorm. The ship was still protected by its energy shield, but without Memory to infuse it with hyperetheric radiation and modulate the frequency, it was a damn rough ride. According to sensors, the Defender was in danger of both exploding and imploding at the same time. Kyoto hoped the data was the result of a glitch caused by interference from the hyperbubble, but since hyperspace had its own physics, the data might be accurate after all.
The two Mutants were still on her tail, and she watched the holoscreen as the fast-locks she’d deployed closed on her pursuers. But before the missiles could strike their targets, they wobbled, veered off course, and then exploded without causing the Mutants any harm. Kyoto guessed that when the missiles had drawn too close to the hyperbubble, its energy emissions had fouled up the fast-locks’ guidance systems and they’d gone astray.
The Mutants flew into the hyperbubble, but the energy barrier didn’t appear to slow them down. But then, why would it? The Manti were born to maneuver through hyperspace. Unfortunately, this meant the Mutants would soon catch up with her—and if sensors were wonky due to the hyperbubble, the damn Buggers could be even closer than they seemed. She needed to get through the bubble and away from this concentrated hyperetheric radiation. At least then her sensors and weapons would function properly, and she’d have total control of her ship again. Only then would she stand a fighting chance against the two Mutants.
Sensors said she had only a few more kilometers to go before she emerged from the bubble—if she could trust their accuracy. If she could hold on just a few more moments…
The Defender suddenly lurched hard to port and alarms screamed. Sensors indicated she’d taken a hit from a Mutant energy blast. The ship went into a spin, and no matter how hard Kyoto fought to get the starfighter back under control, the craft refused to obey her. The energy shield was now down to 13 percent of maximum: not enough to protect the ship from another blast.
It looked like this was it, then. Kyoto’s only regret was that she wouldn’t get to take both Mutants with her when she went.
But then the blue-green on the holoscreen turned gray, and the Defender was suddenly responsive again. Kyoto brought the ship out of its spin and launched another pair of fast-locks at the pursuing Mutants. She switched the holoscreen to aft view and watched in satisfaction as the missiles found their targets and the two Mutants took the express transport to hell without her.
She debated whether or not to bring Memory Junior back online but decided against it. Kyoto should be able to find her way back to the Janus by herself. She opened a comlink to the Janus, but before she could speak, new sensor data began scrolling across the holoscreen. She frowned as she tried to make sense of it. The data seemed to be about Rhea, but little of it made sense to her.
“What’s happening?” she said to herself.
Kyoto jumped when an answering voice came over the comlink.
“The hyperetheric bubble burst as you passed through it, Mei,” the version of Memory aboard the Janus said. “The bubble was the only thing keeping Rhea in hyperspace. Without it, the moon is going to be transported back to its former position in realspace, and it’s not going to be a smooth return trip, either. A hyperspace maelstrom has come into existence—something like a starg
ate vortex, but on a far greater scale—and it is quickly beginning to grow. The energies within the maelstrom are so violent that there’s a better than even chance that Rhea will be destroyed during the passage back to realspace.”
Since the only living inhabitants on Rhea were Mutants, Kyoto wasn’t bothered by this possibility, although she knew better than to tell this to Memory.
The cockpit filled with a high-pitched whine as the Defender’s engines began to strain harder, and the holoscreen readout showed the ship was losing speed.
“You’ve been caught in the maelstrom’s tidal pull,” Memory said. “And your G-7 simply isn’t powerful enough to pull free. I’m sorry.”
Kyoto brought up an image of Rhea on the holoscreen. The moon no longer appeared spherical. Instead, it was stretched thin, like a long strand of sugar-enhanced soy chew, and it tapered off into a point of bright white light that Kyoto assumed was the hyperspatial maelstrom. As Memory had promised, the light rapidly expanded as it pulled Rhea into its luminance atom by atom. Kyoto knew it was only her imagination, but she thought she could hear the moon scream.
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
“We have to get out of here before we’re caught, too!” Mudo jumped into the pilot’s seat and began working the ship’s controls.
Hastimukah was so surprised that at first all he could do was stare at the human scientist.
“You aren’t seriously suggesting we abandon Commander Kyoto.”
“You bet your genetically altered ass I am!” Mudo snapped. “The Residuum’s high holy principle is survival, right? Well, consider me a devout convert to your belief system!”
According to the data displayed on the holoscreen, the Janus turned around and began accelerating away from Rhea and the hyperspatial maelstrom that was devouring it.
Hastimukah stepped forward and laid a hand on Mudo’s shoulder.”You can’t do this, Doctor. It’s murder.” He was prepared to inject Mudo with nanoparticles designed to incapacitate him. Hastimukah was no pilot, but with Memory to help him…
