Crossfire (Star Kingdom Book 4)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Yes, sir,” he said, doubting Rache had truly meant to instill that jumble of thoughts in him. Surely, he had the station on his mind, not Yas’s social life. “Is there something I can do to help?”

  Rache clasped his hands behind his back and turned his mask toward the display. “Right now, we’re staying far enough from the warships that we shouldn’t be detected. From what Neimanhaus and Amergin have gleaned, the shuttle bays in the station are locked down, and if you try to latch onto one of their airlock docks, you’ll find the hatches secured. We couldn’t bring the Fedallah in, regardless. The slydar hull works out in space, but if we sidle up to a dock, the station will notice, and it’s possible the warships out there will too. My hope is that they’ll do something, and we can take a shuttle over, dock, and force our way in, while everyone is distracted. But the Kingdom ships are just floating there, staring at each other.”

  “Wouldn’t your shuttle also be recognized once it docked?”

  “I’ve got Chief Khonsari painting the outside of a new incognito one. It was aggravating to lose the other one on Odin, especially since I didn’t earn any pay for my mission down there.”

  Yas was tempted again to ask what that mission had been, but Rache was staring intently at the station, and Yas was far more interested in the current mission.

  “I’m still willing to pay for your help in this, sir. I don’t know that I could come up with enough to purchase a new shuttle, but maybe it would at least help.”

  “That’s not necessary.” Rache zoomed in on one of the Kingdom ships. The Osprey. “That’s the ship that came to the Machu Picchu at Skadi Moon. It’s also the ship that, according to Amergin, Scholar Sato and Professor Dabrowski are aboard.”

  Yas couldn’t tell from Rache’s tone what his feelings were toward them. “Does that change the situation at all? I assume they were sent because of their experience with the gate.”

  “It might,” Rache murmured. “But it shouldn’t affect our submarine retrieval and assassin-finding mission. I’m going to take a small team to the station, and I want you on it. You know the place better than I do. You can take us to find the president, where we’ll have a frank chat with him.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll bring some eslevoamytal along.”

  Rache gave him a long look over his shoulder—maybe he’d been envisioning more physical ways to extract the truth—but he didn’t object. “If we can, we’ll convince him to make an announcement to the station that a mistake was made and that you’re innocent. And we’ll make sure he lets your civil security institution know.”

  “If he was the one responsible, he won’t want to admit he was wrong and let the case be opened up again.” Yas snorted. They’d condemned him so quickly that he doubted there had been a case to start with.

  “A dagger to the throat tends to make a man amenable.”

  “Right,” Yas murmured, closing his eyes.

  The idea of threatening Chronis—would Rache go so far as to kill him?—didn’t sit well with Yas, but what had he expected when he asked a mercenary to take on this mission? That Rache would hire a high-priced lawyer to argue Yas’s case in court? Yas had asked for Rache’s help, and it sounded like he was going to get exactly what he’d asked for. He couldn’t object now.

  “That’s unexpected,” Rache said.

  Yas opened his eyes. The display was still focused on the Osprey, but a second spacecraft had appeared, a much smaller shuttle. It was flying away from the warship.

  “Are they sending someone over to negotiate?”

  The warship started firing on the shuttle, and Yas jumped.

  “I think not,” Rache said dryly.

  “What are they—”

  “It doesn’t matter. That’s our distraction.” Rache strode for the bridge. “Gather your gear and meet us in the shuttle bay, Doctor. Hurry.”

  16

  Thor’s Hammer connected to an external dock in the middle of a bank of dozens of them on the long side of Tiamat Station’s great cylinder. They had flown past several sets of shuttle-bay doors, but none had opened for them. As promised.

  Casmir sat in his pod while Asger finalized the hookup. He was running three software programs on his chip, one scraping data off the public network in search of the accounts of personnel with access to the locked security network, one trying to crack passwords for those accounts, and one trying to find a back door from the unlocked public network into the locked security network that wouldn’t require any accounts or passwords.

  “Their hatch is locked, so we’ll have to force our way in,” Asger said, rising from his pod as soon as they were docked and piggybacking off the station’s spin gravity. “That’s not a problem, but we’ll need to be ready for a fight as soon as we board. There are extra rifles in that cabinet for anyone who wants a weapon.”

  “I’ll take one,” Kim said. “Especially if we’ll be fighting robots.”

  “I’m aggrieved, Kim,” Casmir said. “Robots shouldn’t be needlessly destroyed. If you give me a chance, I may be able to find a way to get into their control interfaces and turn them off—or even turn them to our side.”

  “You can do that while Asger and I are shooting them.” Kim strode straight to the cabinet.

  “I like the way you think.” Asger handed her a rifle.

  “I like the way Professor Dabrowski thinks,” Tork said.

  “Thank you.” Casmir went to peer into the cabinet, hoping for a stunner. He’d hoped, by arriving before the marines did, that they could avoid using deadly force, on people and robots.

  Without being asked, Asger opened a drawer and pulled out two stunners. He took one for himself and handed one to Casmir.

  “Oh, thank you,” Casmir said, inordinately delighted. He patted his tool satchel. “A stunner, a power drill, and a ratchet set. I’m ready to infiltrate a station full of enemies.”

  “Did I mention that you’re the strangest ally I’ve ever had?” Asger asked.

  “About forty-five minutes ago, yes.”

  “Just making sure.” Asger held out his cloak and turned his back toward them. “Did you get all your puke off me?”

  Casmir silently thought Asger might be one of the strangest allies he’d had too. Kim reached out and scraped at a suspicious glop on the purple cloak.

  “Sorry, Asger,” Casmir said, trying not to feel like a failure at space adventuring. Admiral Mikita couldn’t possibly have had this problem. “People need to stop taking me on zero-g shuttles.”

  “If you keep throwing up on the pilots, I think that will happen.” Asger smacked him on the shoulder, then stepped into the shuttle’s small airlock chamber. “I wish you two had combat armor.”

  “This will have to do.” Casmir tapped his galaxy suit. “I’m planning to hide behind you. And, as soon as I can acquire them, an army of robots.”

  “I don’t think you’re going to be able to wave a wrench and talk them over to your side.” Asger glanced at Tork. “Or stick a missing hand back on one to win its loyalty. Unless you want me to go lop off their hands so you can try.”

  “I was planning to sneak onto their network and take control of them the old-fashioned way. By pretending I have the authority to give them orders.”

  “How long will that take?” Asger stood with his hand on the hatch, ready to go.

  “Uhm.” Casmir checked his programs. “Actually, I’m in now. I’m logged in as Brandon Oswald, who is listed as the assistant chief of Station Civil Security. The chief had a password that my cracking program is still working on, but this fellow should do. Let me try to find the models and network IDs of the robots guarding this area.” He waved toward the station on the other side of the hatch.

  “You’re in?” Asger stared at him. “We’ve only been docked for seven minutes.”

  “True, but the wireless network extends beyond the station hull. I’ve had access for longer.”

  “How much longer?”

  “Three minutes.”

  A
sger looked at Kim. “Is he serious?”

  “Rarely,” she said with her usual deadpan delivery.

  “Should we just stand here and wait while you take them over?” Asger asked. “Does it work like that?”

  A clang sounded on the hatch, and they all jumped.

  Asger spun toward the control panel and hit a button. A display flared to life, a camera showing the view outside of their airlock hatch. Surprisingly, the hatch on the station side of the short connector tube had swung open, as if to invite them in.

  Unsurprisingly, eight six-foot-tall barrel-shaped robots on treads were staggered in the bay in front of the hatch, each with cannon-arms pointed at the shuttle. A few other robots rolled around the large bay behind them, doing patrol circuits.

  “I don’t see any humans in there that we could reason with,” Kim said.

  “Waiting inside for—what does Bonita call you, Casmir?—sounds like a good idea,” Asger said.

  “She refined the robot whisperer to El Mago.” Casmir rose on his tiptoes for a better view of the display—Asger’s broad shoulder partially blocked it. “At least I can more easily get the model numbers this way. It should make it easier to match up their network IDs.”

  “Just let us know—”

  Another clang interrupted Asger. One of the robots had rolled closer to bang on their hatch. It backed up to its original position among its cohorts, and an android with a blow torch strode into view.

  “Hell.” Asger pulled out his pertundo and flipped his helmet into place. “I can’t let them melt holes in my shuttle, or we won’t be able to leave again. I’m going in.”

  “Zee and Tork will go with you.” Casmir waved his mechanical allies forward as he gestured for Kim to stay back, hoping she would listen to reason. She was in a galaxy suit, the same as he, and they couldn’t stand up to the same kind of damage as the armored Asger or the sturdy robots, especially Zee.

  Asger eyed Zee and Tork, not looking like he wanted to storm the shuttle bay with them. Casmir didn’t know why. They were the most logical options. As good as Kim was with her practice swords, she couldn’t flatten enemies as efficiently as Zee could.

  All Asger said was, “I’m going to try to charge across and lead them off into the station. Assuming that hatch on the other side of the bay is unlocked. If it’s not, I might need you and your tools along.”

  “I’m positive either Zee or Tork can open the hatch for you.” Casmir patted them on their backs as they stepped into the airlock chamber behind Asger.

  “My strength is greater than a Tork-57 android,” Zee stated.

  “I have been upgraded,” Tork said a little stiffly.

  “It was a simple matter for me to subdue you.”

  “I had been damaged and was not able to defend myself optimally.”

  “Uh, they’re not going to fight, are they?” Asger had his back pressed against the hatch and looked like he wanted to back up even farther.

  “I think that is how they fight,” Kim murmured.

  “They’re simply warming themselves up for the battle ahead,” Casmir said.

  An alarm flashed on the control panel.

  “Let’s do this then,” Asger growled, facing the hatch and hitting the button to open it.

  Casmir scooted out of the line of fire, relieved when Kim joined him.

  But no energy bolts streaked into the shuttle. Asger sprang out, leaping over all eight robots and the android and landing on the other side. Zee and Tork charged out, hurling themselves straight into the mass of mechanical enemies. As the first shots fired, punctuated by destructive clangs from Asger’s pertundo, Casmir pressed himself against the wall and concentrated on finding the robots outside on the network. It didn’t help that there were numerous ship bays full of robot sentries, and Casmir didn’t know the number or network designation of the one where they had docked.

  Kim stood between him and the hatchway, her rifle poised to fire if any of the robots tried to enter.

  “I’ve identified the type of robots we’re dealing with,” Casmir whispered, feeling the need to keep her up-to-date. Or maybe to let her know he was doing something, not simply cowering and hiding while Asger risked his life. “And those are Aegis Defenders, models 14A… located on, this has to be level 1…”

  Logically, everything on the outside rim of the cylindrical station would be the first level. But what sector? There were more than twenty of them. Ah, there was a ship bay in Sector C with a breach recorded and Aegis Defenders and a security android on the move.

  “That’s us,” Casmir murmured, then commanded the robots to cease, desist, and wait for new orders. Ah, damn, the assistant chief didn’t have a high enough level of security access for the job. Back to his programs. He had to find the chief’s passcode.

  Asger shouted something inarticulate from across the bay. Casmir couldn’t tell if it was a battle cry or a cry of pain. Or both.

  Kim shifted, as if she might run out to help, but she glanced back at Casmir and hesitated.

  “You can go help, if you want,” he whispered. “I need a few more minutes. Seconds. This shouldn’t take long.”

  “I’ll stay here. They—” Kim heard something and leaned around the corner to peek into the bay. She jerked her head back.

  A crimson energy bolt zipped through the hatchway and ricocheted off the opposite bulkhead. Casmir flattened himself to his stomach, but the bolt streaked the other direction, slamming into the back of a pod. Stuffing flew out, and the top half of the frame blew into pieces.

  “I’ll definitely stay here,” Kim growled.

  She hadn’t hit the deck, but she’d dropped into a low crouch. She leaned around the corner and fired several bursts before pulling back again.

  “Stay down,” she ordered, as two more energy bolts streaked into the shuttle. They ricocheted into the lavatory, and the sink blew up.

  “Oh, I was planning on it.” Casmir pressed his cheek against the cool textured deck. If his program didn’t find that passcode, he was going to have to think of something else. Other robots on the network were being ordered to come to the bay to assist with the intruder problem.

  A soft bing sounded in his mind, and the second passcode appeared on his contact.

  “Finally,” he breathed, copying it into the wireless interface.

  Then he was in. He zipped around the security interface, ordering robots all over the station to stand down until they received new orders from him even as he isolated the ones fighting Asger, Zee, and Tork. He ordered them to halt and was tempted to power them down, so there wouldn’t be any delays or mistakes, but he might need those robots online to help his team if human security officers showed up. And Casmir was sure they would once they realized their network had been infiltrated. He hoped it would take them time to figure out it had been at the highest level.

  By the time he changed the passcode for the chief, it had fallen silent out in the bay.

  Kim poked her head quickly around the corner and back. Then she leaned out for a longer look.

  “I think you can stop kissing the deck now,” she told Casmir.

  “You don’t need a bacteria sample while I’m down here?”

  “Please, no more offers of swabbing samples with your tongue.”

  Kim walked into the bay, and Casmir pushed himself to his feet. He jogged out to make sure Asger hadn’t been injured. Or Tork. The android didn’t have the self-repairing abilities of a crusher.

  Tork and Zee stood still, facing a clump of the Aegis robots. Neither appeared damaged. Asger was in a crouch, his pertundo out and extended to its eight-foot halberd form, as he faced two robots he must have been battling when they had stopped moving. Their cannon-arms were now down at their sides, and none of the sensor discs that resembled eyes and a mouth on their heads moved.

  “They’re not going to bother us now,” Casmir said, “and I think I’ve effectively ordered the rest of the robots on the station to stand down.”

  “H
ow many is that?” Asger tapped whatever invisible button drew in the telescoping handle and hung his pertundo on his belt.

  “A couple thousand, it looks like.”

  Asger stared at him. “Can you mobilize them to fight for us?”

  “Maybe, but a lot of them are just cleaning robots and the like. And if I do more than power them down, someone will get suspicious right away and log on to investigate and try to override my work.” Casmir waved at the still robots. “This might be interpreted as some network error. And if any security robots out there were fighting the inhabitants, the humans will be able to get away.” Casmir nodded, pleased at the idea, even though he was acting against the side of the station forces that had Kingdom leanings. He couldn’t help it that they had been the ones denying entrance to the shuttle bay. Hopefully, Jager would never find out.

  “Get away? If robots had been chasing me down the corridors where I lived and suddenly stopped, I’d grab the nearest club or other weapon—” Asger patted his pertundo, “—and hack them into pieces.”

  Casmir rocked back, aggrieved. “Robots are just following programs written by humans. They can’t be blamed for their actions.” He looked at Kim, who’d walked out of the shuttle with him. “You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

  “No.”

  He let out a relieved breath, certain Asger’s reaction was extreme. Maybe he had been joking.

  “If I felt particularly abused, I might graffiti them,” Kim said.

  Casmir squinted at her, hoping she was joking, though it was always hard to tell with her. “That one over there shot at you, and you haven’t graffitied it yet.”

  “I didn’t think to bring spray paint.” She poked his tool satchel. “Do you have any?”

  He shifted it away from her. “No.”

  “Disappointing.”

  “You have a map of this place, Casmir?” Asger asked. “I’ve never been here. We need to find Kim’s friend and President Chronis. And this wayward princess. Hopefully, before anyone realizes we’re here.”