Crystal Venom

by Steve Wheeler

Two full-power Compressors were then launched, destroying the damaged enemy frigate and everything else behind them as he felt several large thuds against Sledgehammer’s hull and then savagely against his back as first his HUD failed and then Tux stopped responding to him. The secondary hull clamps reached out and held them tight as Basalt continued to accelerate, with Marko’s instruments showing that they were heading on a tangential course towards the closest Orbital, and then, totally unexpectedly, they jumped. Patrick must have been able to identify a very small LP between the Orbital and the planet and took the opportunity. Jumping that close to occupied space was strictly forbidden, and used a great deal of fuel.

  A fraction of a second later they were on the other side of the planet at the larger LP by the shipyard’s moon. Their radios and receivers on all channels were going nuts from everyone watching and cheering them on. Games Board officials were calmly telling everyone that they were dangerous murderers and terrorists, but Basalt’s crew heard the officials being shouted down by members of the watching public, something none of them had ever heard before.

  Basalt jumped again with the first of the other frigates jumping right behind them, only two kilometres away. From Marko’s perspective, someone on the bridge of Basalt must have really done their calculations perfectly, for as soon as they exited the wormhole, five Compressors were launched, two of which struck the pursuing frigate as it emerged into normal space. The remaining three detonated instantly, carving huge hemispherical shapes from the frigate and leaving only a small percentage intact. It was looking like some extraordinary piece of sculpture.

  Basalt was under full power, racing for the next optimum jump point, with Marko fretting because although he had no access to his engineering boards he could still calculate the huge amount of fuel they were going through. They jumped again and this time found the other Games Board frigate waiting, with a very clear shot at them. However, it did not engage with them, and as they flew silently past at great speed, they could see why. Something had used a very powerful weapon on it and they could see on their screens that the frigate was literally hollowed out from end to end with a slowly expanding debris field behind it.

  The major took the opportunity to give some orders. ‘All craft, we have a flight time of thirty-seven minutes to the next jump point. Everyone get inside, bay doors are all open.’

  With that the clamps disengaged and they took their battered selves inside the hangar deck. Marko had to push Lilly with Sledgehammer, using manual control, as she was without power. It was not pretty, but they got back on board, and then secured their ships. Everyone’s units looked as if they had taken a real pounding and when Marko again queried Tux as to his status, he did not respond.

  He had to physically pop the hatch open and climb out, then looked behind him to discover that his beautiful Hanger was riddled with holes behind the cockpit and through his seat. Tux was another casualty of this very long day. When he finally arrived at his board he could see that they were deeply in the shit. Fuel was critically low, as the tiny jumps had used a staggering amount of water fuel. They had enough for two more jumps but even that would only take them to the edge of the star system. Bringing up Harry’s board he could see that ammunition was also dramatically depleted and it would be weeks before the gardens started to supply them with food again.

  The major spoke sombrely. ‘Things don’t look all that flash, comrades. Someone took an axe to that hulk behind us and they may do the same to us. Looking at the debris fields, it only happened minutes ago. Administration says that, pending a full investigation, we are suspended from their employ. I told them that that was just fine and to blow it out their collective arses; sorry, did not have time to take a vote on that. Their response was that we were on our own and that they would lend no assistance. Games Board wants to kill us. Or should I say, a faction of the Games Board wants to totally humiliate us, and then kill us. And we are fairly messed up. So, what do we do now?’

  Jasmine answered. ‘I shall speak with the Haulers, Major.’

  ‘Good, you do that please, Jasmine.’

  Harry slowly said, ‘Um, guys …’

  ‘What, Harry?’ the major answered.

  ‘Take a look in the rear-view screens.’

  Marko groaned. ‘What the fuck is that?’

  After a few seconds Harry answered. ‘Hey, we’ve seen that before. Looks like that derelict we found Veg and Stephine in.’

  The major was yelling, ‘It’s closing on us very quickly, we cannot outrun it. Look at that! It’s opening up!’

  ‘Oh, hell, what now? And we only have two Compressors left,’ Harry said.

  ‘Ready them, but don’t fire. Let’s just wait a moment…’

  Marko took a high-speed message which he relayed. ‘Boss. Blackjack just sent me a message. Says to stand by, that negotiations are in progress for transport.’

  The major audibly inhaled. ‘Yeah, right, Blackjack now talks with you. Marko, what’s going on?’

  Marko quickly shrugged. ‘Um, bit to explain on that front. Seems that she is sentient.’

  The major took even longer to reply. ‘Stranger and stranger by the second.’

  ‘Yeah, kind of new to me as well, but expected, as that’s Veg and Stephine’s craft. She says prepare for envelopment and that additional frigates are inbound.’

  The major shook his head. ‘OK. Is this thing friendly or not? Still, we are stuffed no matter which way we go. Right, accept the offer, but what are the terms?’

  Marko almost smiled. ‘That we go pick up Veg and Stephine!’

  ‘Hell! That’s it?’ The major shook his head again in wonder. ‘So this is the same transporter that we saw at the library planet?’

  ‘Nope, another one, a clone of it, if you will. You will note that it is two-thirds smaller.’

  The major conceded. ‘Like I say, we are dead anyway. Might as well adventure to the last breath. Accept the offer, Marko.’

  As they watched through the viewports, great finger-like slabs of silvery-green material slid up over them and encapsulated Basalt.

  A message from Patrick flashed up on their screens to say that he could hear no signals coming from outside the ship, had lost all telemetry from the local LPs and believed that they were cut off from any data feeds. They gradually felt heavier, as whatever Basalt was now part of was accelerating fast, slowly climbing up to two full Gs as they were pressed further into their seats.

  The major grunted. ‘Adjust your bioware everyone. We have no idea how long this is going to go on … Patrick just advised me that at this rate the nearest LP is sixteen hours away. Not much we can do, so might as well endure it any way you want.’

  At the workstations around him, Marko saw his friends altering their seats into full-acceleration couches so he did the same, adjusting his bioware for continuous acceleration and allowing himself to drift off to sleep.

  What seemed only moments later, he was awoken by someone gently shaking his shoulder. He looked up and all the memories of the previous day bit deep into his consciousness when he looked across at Jan’s empty workstation. Tears welled in his eyes as he looked up into the beautiful face of Jasmine, who handed him a large mug of drinking chocolate. She looked down at him, smiled a little smile, stroked the top of his head, and rested a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘It’s all right to grieve, Marko, but you know that at some time she will be back and she will want you to be healthy, strong and waiting for her. We will be here for you always, Lilly, Glint and I.’

  He could not bring himself to speak but smiled wanly and nodded his thanks as she bent down and kissed him on the cheek.

  The major’s voice broke through his thoughts. ‘We are told that the journey will continue at one G for six weeks and Patrick says that we have jumped already as he is detecting neutrinos from other stars.’

  For the rest of the day the crew took stock of the damage and prioritised what needed to be done.

  Marko was sitting on his
favourite wooden bench in the gardens looking sadly at the damage when the major hobbled up to him. ‘Marko, I hate to broach this, but I want you to think about what we should do with Jan’s remains. You don’t have to make the decision right now. Hellish sorry, mate, hellish sorry for you.’

  Marko looked up and nodded. ‘It’s all right, thanks, boss. I will ask Lilly and Jasmine to take care of her and place her in the gardens. I don’t want a ceremony or anything like that, as I know I will see her again one day. Just miss her so much, that is all.’

  The major agreed. ‘Yeah, we all do, chum, we all do. Fully understand if you want to take a couple of days off.’

  Marko slowly shook his head. ‘Nope. I need to work. Going to repair Topaz so he can repair Nail, then take what remains of Tux and see what Blackjack can do for him.’

  The major looked down at his friend, nodded, then reached out and briefly embraced him. Patting him on the back, the major turned away to slowly walk back to the bridge.

  Marko went to his quarters and stripped off Tux, which he had to do manually as the suit was effectively just a rather beaten-up ship’s suit, laid it on the bed, then showered before putting on his other, older prototype suit.

  He turned to see Glint standing in the doorway. ‘Hey, Glint. How are you doing, mate?’

  The ACE looked sombre. ‘All these changes in our lives are most disconcerting, Marko. But I have you and I have my friends here, so it is good, I suppose. I have assembled what I can of Topaz and you will be pleased to know that his sentience was in safekeeping with Patrick, so he is on the road to recovery. However, a large portion of his non-sentient builder self is missing. I suspect that it may be with the other material that the Games Board stored in their shuttle. None of us are able to access it.’

  Marko felt drained and tired to his bones, but proud of his son. ‘Yeah, that would be right, the thieving bastards. It’s good that you took the initiative, Glint. I am proud of you and all that you have done. Let’s go talk with Fritz. I think that he may have something that we can use.’

  ‘Fritz is still having difficulty communicating, Marko. The medical units have only just placed the bone-healing nanotes in his system and also implanted the growth units for new teeth.’

  ‘Uh huh, what about the crew comms tech?’

  ‘The GB took those as well.’

  Marko nodded sadly. ‘I have Jan’s, it will be OK. Let’s go find the boss, have a talk with him and then Fritz.’

  The major had also been thinking about the problem of accessing the GB shuttle. The shuttles were notoriously difficult to break into and known to have some rather nasty fail-safes on board to deter forced entry.

  A few moments later they found Fritz looking very glum at his workspace in engineering. His jaw was encased in a ceramic framework and he looked sadly at them, but smiled as best he could when Marko handed the small piece of electronics across to him, immediately placing it in his ear. A second later Marko heard Fritz in his head.

  ‘Jan’s one, Marko? Yeah, this I shall wear with honour. Thanks so much — been a total bastard not being able to communicate. Damn it, I so want to damage them as much as possible now.’

  Marko nodded. ‘Me too, big time, but of course we are all dead men walking unless we can make ourselves valuable to them once again. Mate, as you know we can’t get into their shuttle and it seems that a bit of our gear is on board, like the comms units, some of Patrick and also Topaz. Was thinking about your nanote tech. What do you reckon?’

  Fritz was silent for a few moments. ‘Leave it with me. I will figure out something.’

  *

  Three

  As soon as they left, Fritz pulled every piece of information known about the GB shuttles, and about every type of fail-safe they had used in the past. Over the next few hours with the aid of Patrick, who could now be accessed by Fritz using the crew comms unit, they designed and made a seemingly completely transparent self-sealing unit that Fritz fitted over one of the laser comms units on the exterior of the brutishly functional fifteen-metre-long Games Board shuttle. After testing the unit for an hour, and satisfied that the shuttle was receiving his coded message, which it responded to by raising a windscreen shield, he, with the aid of three of the engineering drones, covered each sensor on the shuttle with identical transparent units as they came off the engineering assembly line.

  When he was ready he called Marko. ‘Mate, I think that I am ready to open this sucker. Just as well the Games Board are so paranoid about shipborne AIs. Nice that they prefer to make all the decisions with their own brains — even if they are pieces of shit. This has a nice suggestible computer system on board. Can I borrow one of those Soul Savers from you, please? Does not matter which one. I just need the ID link off it.’

  ‘On my way, Fritz.’

  Minutes later Marko, with Glint behind him, arrived in the hangar with one of the dark green ceramic casings in his hand and Fritz explained what he wanted to do.

  ‘Nice! Like it,’ Marko said approvingly. ‘Glint, go get Flint, please. Patrick, have you any voice recordings of the Games Board operative called Carol? He was the one whose head I took off on the stairs.’

  ‘Yes, I have. I presume you want me to download that to Flint?’

  ‘Please.’

  Patrick reported back. ‘Done. I have the frequency they operated on as well. That is now open. You may commence when ready.’

  Marko suddenly had a thought. ‘Shit! I wonder what the transport entity around us will think about this?’

  Fritz agreed. ‘Yeah, interesting thought, Marko. How ‘bout you go tell your Blackjack mate the plan, as that shuttle is now seeing and hearing exactly what I want it to see and hear. It queried why a dead operative is now alive again, but we convinced it that the individual had been slammed in the chiller and is, as we speak, revived and evading the enemy crew to get back to the shuttle. All good so far and I can delay just as long as you want.’

  Marko walked across the hangar deck, then through the internal airlock to where Blackjack was sitting on her launch platform. He climbed in through the hatch as it irised open for him. After donning the command helmet, he told her what they intended to do.

  ‘It is a good plan. My compliments to Fritz. Tell him if it is unsuccessful I have a few methods that will work. I shall relay the plan to our transport. Agree that it would not like the idea of a firefight going on inside the craft, which is inside it. You are right, it is very aware of what is happening in here. You do know that it is another octopoid construct, Marko?’

  Marko nodded. ‘I suspected that, Blackjack, but have not spoken with any of the others about it. So how does it know of us?’

  Blackjack hesitated for a fraction of a second, then said carefully, ‘Well, actually it’s you. It seems, my friend, that you carry something which you have never spoken of. Get the shuttle open and come back with the late Tux and we shall talk this through, shall we?’

  Marko felt a chill run through him, wondering if he was somehow responsible for the actions that had occurred around them and if he had instigated the death of Jan.

  Blackjack conferred with the transport. ‘The outside entity approves of your plan and sends its appreciation that you took the time to advise it.’

  ‘Good, thanks, Blackjack. I shall be back soon.’

  When he strode back into the other hangar, he could see that laser fire dispersers had been glued onto various parts of the shuttle and that combat drones were hovering, awaiting their orders to fire.

  ‘Any problems, Marko?’ Fritz called out.

  Marko replied cheerfully. ‘Nope, we are good to go whenever you are.’

  Fritz gave the order. ‘OK, let’s do it. Flint, over to you, mate.’

  Seconds later the large spider, who carried a cylinder against his side, scuttled into the hangar as the drones fired their lasers into the dispersers and then fired directly on the shuttle as he approached it, the bounced beams hitting the carefully placed energy dispersers
. It was all for effect and, as if on cue, the closest of the shuttle doors slammed open when Flint approached. He tossed the cylinder inside just as the door slammed shut equally fast. Fritz then opaqued all the sensor covers. Realising that it had been duped, the shuttle’s offensive weapons came on line, but did not fire, as it could not identify targets.

  Inside the shuttle, the cylinder dissolved down into tens of thousands of nanotes. These grouped back together to form smaller units which, as per their programs, disarmed all the fail-safes and intruder countermeasures, then shut down the external weapons. They then reworked themselves again, forming different machines to be able to interface with the controls to overpower the computer. Two hours later the shuttle doors opened.

  Flint was the first to go inside, checking that everything had been done according to the plan, then, with the aid of Basalt’s micro-spy drones, gave the entire shuttle an exhaustive in-depth check. Finally, hours later, when everything had been made safe, he shut down the computer and invited the rest of the crew in. In carefully labelled containers, they found all the missing equipment, including hundreds of personal items, together with Jan’s handmade weapons and Veg’s jewellery.

  The first thing that Marko took back was the manufacturing units for Topaz. Once he had checked and attached them, they immediately went to work to make the repairs to the anxiously waiting Nail. Detouring to his cabin to pick up the Tux suit, and then through the galley, where he had a quick drink of some of the last fresh fruit juice, he walked back to talk with Blackjack, allowing himself to speed up before climbing into the command seat.

  ‘So, Marko, what have you to tell me?’

  Marko told Blackjack everything that had happened concerning the octopoid touching him, and showed the recorded images of the incident that he had kept in his head. He explained that it had itched horribly when they had all been infected with the Infant virus, and spoke about when he had touched Stephine and what it had felt like — then, and in the weeks following.

  When he finished the tale he heard a sigh from Blackjack and then, after what seemed like minutes, a reply came. ‘Oh, now that is something rather new. I wonder who that individual octopoid was and if he escaped the planet before the attacks? I don’t suppose it makes a great deal of difference, but several starships had left the octopoid bases the day before. Looking at the recorded conversation that took place, it would seem that the two individuals concerned belonged to a dissenting faction that believed the attack was a woeful waste of resources, and that you humans were a species worth communicating with on a positive level. One day I am sure that I shall identify those individuals.’