by Justin Sloan
“Rantu,” Kalan answered.
“Okay, let’s go with that, then. It’s rantu.”
“Wonderful,” Kalan muttered. He picked up the dull knife next to his plate and began the difficult task of sawing off a bite of the mystery meat.
“I wonder where these important guests are?” Jilla asked.
Bob nodded toward the end of the room. “From the way everyone is gathering around, I’m going to guess they just walked in.”
Kalan attempted to chew the tough bite of meat as he squinted through the crowd to get a glimpse of them. When he finally did, he practically choked.
It was Valerie, Robin, and Garcia.
Kalan pushed up himself up from the table and headed toward his friends.
Daschle once again stepped into his path. “Kalan, please. As I’ve told you, you’re going to need to be patient. Talrok will see you when—”
“Can it, Shorty,” Kalan ordered. “I think we just got a table upgrade.”
He pushed past Daschle, and Jilla, Bob, and Wearl followed him closely.
Valerie was enduring a welcome from a Skulla soldier when she spotted him. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she walked away from the Skulla mid-sentence.
Kalan grinned. “So you’re the honored guests I heard about?”
“Honored?” Valerie asked. She nodded toward the pistol on his hip. “At least they let you keep your weapons. They stuck us in a tiny room for the last couple hours.”
“Us too,” Kalan said. “What the hell are you guys doing here?”
They exchanged stories of what had brought them to Outpost Alpha and their reasons for needing to see Talrok.
When they’d finished bringing each other up-to-date, Kalan said, “Talrok is really fighting the artificial intelligence? Trying to take it down?”
“Take her down. And yes, although I’m not sure how much actual fighting is going on—seems mostly like they hide in their outposts. Apparently Talrok used to work for the Bandian, but now he’s decided to join the good guys. “
Kalan scoffed. “The Bandian. Thank the stars I never have to see that bastard again.”
“Er,” Robin began, “we sort of brought him with us. He’s in a cell here on Outpost Alpha.”
“What?” Kalan asked in surprise.
“We brought him as bait,” Valerie explained. “Aranaught wants him. She made a big announcement about it on Tol.”
“Damn,” Kalan said, running a hand through his hair. “If we’d known Talrok was at war with an artificial intelligence, we probably wouldn’t have bothered coming all this way just to ask him about an old business partner.”
“Oh, I knew,” Jilla interjected.
“You did? Why didn’t you say anything?”
Jilla shrugged. “Didn’t seem relevant.”
Valerie frowned at her. “Who’s this, Kalan? New girlfriend?”
“Old one, actually.”
After Kalan had introduced Jilla to the rest of Valerie’s Elites, Valerie turned toward Talrok’s table and shook her head.
“It looks like Palnik is already making himself at home.”
Kalan followed her gaze to where a familiar Skulla was buddying up to Talrok. “Palnik? Isn’t he that warlord you told me about from the fighting pits?”
“Yep,” Valerie said. “The very-fucking-same.”
“Turns out Palnik’s super-loyal to whoever happens to be in power,” Garcia added.
“Well, let’s get this over with.” Valerie marched to the head table, her Elites close behind.
Talrok looked annoyed when he saw them approaching, but he leaned forward, placing his elbows on the metal table. “Ah, here you are—the guests of honor.” He glanced at Kalan, Jilla, and Bob. “You’ve met our other guests, I see.”
“Yes, some time ago,” Valerie replied.
Jilla pushed to the front of the group. “So that’s how it’s going to be? No hello for your ex-girlfriend?”
He looked at her absently. “Hello, Jilla. Good of you to visit.”
Bob nudged her. “I can tell you left a big impression on him.”
“Shut up, Bob,” she hissed.
Valerie put her hands on the table and leaned toward Talrok. “We need to talk about Aranaught.”
He gestured to the bench across from him. “What’s the rush? Sit down. Let’s enjoy each other’s company.”
“Fine.”
Valerie’s Elites sat down at the long bench across from the important Skulla of Outpost Alpha.
Kalan shot Daschle a smile.
Talrok glanced down the table at Kalan, Jilla, and Bob. “How about you three? What’s so important that you came all this way to talk to me?”
“I’m looking for an old business partner of yours,” Kalan said.
“Willom,” Jilla added.
Talrok’s face darkened. “Is that so?”
“It is. I’m hoping you might be able to put me in touch with him. I have information that—”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Talrok said, cutting him off. “Willom died a few years back.”
Kalan felt a familiar sinking feeling in his stomach. Another dead-end. Another Grayhewn he was too late to meet.
“Hang on,” Jilla said. “You used to talk about Willom all the time to me. You never mentioned he was dead.”
Talrok shrugged. “I guess it never came up.” He voice was noticeably cooler when he spoke to Jilla. Maybe he was still holding a grudge against her.
“Do you know where he lived?” Kalan pressed. “If he had any family?”
“Willom was a very private person. I was his partner for more than a decade, but I knew very little about him. I’m sorry I don’t have more to say about him, but I don’t.” He turned to Valerie. “You wanted to talk about Aranaught?”
Kalan wanted to interrupt, to grab this damn Skulla by the collar and shove him against the wall until he revealed everything he knew about his old partner.
At the same time, he knew he couldn’t endanger Valerie’s mission. For one, she would kick his ass, and for two, her mission was vital to the entire system, which was much more important than finding a single Grayhewn. Kalan bit his tongue.
He noticed that Daschle, who was at the far end of the table, looked troubled, like maybe there was more he wanted to say on the matter too. Kalan made a mental note to corner the Skulla when his boss wasn’t around and ask some more pointed questions.
Valerie answered Talrok, “That’s right, I want to talk about this AI. I’m going to take it down, and I’d like your help.”
The Skulla leader scoffed. “That’s not possible. Even if she had a physical body, which she doesn’t, we’d need advanced weaponry to take her down. The problem with that is, she can take control of any robotics, and her tech is pretty good at shutting down advanced electronic devices, too.”
“Yeah, we noticed that,” Robin interjected.
“What about the shield you used on that little robot?” Kalan asked. “That blocked the AI, right?”
Talrok chuckled. “On a very small scale, yes, but all the shield really does is stop her from knowing one little robot exists. If we attacked her with it, she’d see through the ruse and push past the shield.”
“So build a better shield,” Valerie suggested.
“Impossible.”
“Okay, so if Aranaught is unbeatable, then what are you even doing here? Why not flee to Tol?”
Talrok considered that for a moment before answering, “Because we have to keep trying. It’s the right thing to do.”
“Exactly,” Valerie agreed.
“I’ve been at this a long time, and the best I’ve managed to do is to keep her out of our little outposts on this moon. I appreciate you bringing the Bandian here. We’ll see that he’s properly dealt with. Beyond that, I don’t know what to do for you.”
“Hang on,” Robin said. “We didn’t bring you the Bandian as a gift. We brought him as bait.”
Valerie nodded. “If
you’re not going to help, there’s no way in hell you’re keeping the Bandian.”
Talrok turned an angry shade of red. “He’s in our prison cell now, and he’s staying there.”
Valerie started to respond, but before she could two soldiers hurried into the room and ran up to Talrok.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
Talrok answered without taking his eyes off Valerie. “Not now. I’m busy.”
“This can’t wait, sir.”
Talrok turned and glared at them. “What is it?”
The soldier who’d been speaking swallowed hard. “Outpost Alpha is under attack, sir. We need to get you to safety.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Tol’s Moon: Outpost Alpha
Talrok stared blankly at the soldier in front of him for a long moment. “Are you sure?”
“They’ve breached the airlocks, sir.”
“Damn it!” Talrok ran a hand across the tattoos on his face absently.
Kalan and Valerie exchanged a glance. Clearly this leader wasn’t going to take charge, at least not as quickly as his troops needed him to.
So Valerie did. She looked at the soldier. “What are we talking about here? Robots? Space-spiders? What?”
The soldier glanced at Talrok to see if he’d object to this Wandrei speaking out of turn, but when he didn’t the soldier answered, “They’re mechs. Sent by Aranaught, no doubt.”
Kalan raised an eyebrow. In his experience, making such assumptions could be dangerous. “How do you know who sent them?”
The soldier looked at him like he was stupid. “We’re on a moon. Who the hell else is up here?”
“Fair point,” Kalan allowed.
Valerie snapped her fingers to regain the guard’s attention. “You said ‘airlocks.’ How many have been breached?”
“Three. Two on the south side, and one on the north.”
“Shit,” Valerie muttered. She turned to Talrok. “I take it most of the outpost’s personnel are presently gathered in this room?”
“Yes,” Talrok confirmed. He was starting to sound more like himself as he adapted to the reality of the situation.
“Good. How many entrances?”
“Three.” Daschle answered this time. He gestured to the doors in the dining hall: one of the north side of the room, one on the south side, and one on the east wall that led to the kitchen.
Valerie grabbed Talrok by the shoulders. “Tell your soldiers to get into their battle positions. You need to focus now.”
“We could invite the enemy to the feast and make them eat the meat,” Bob suggested. “That would kill them as quickly as our bullets.”
“Shut up, Bob, I’m thinking.”
Bob smiled. “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard you say that, Valerie. I’ve kind of missed it.”
Valerie ignored the comment and continued addressing Talrok. “As for you, you’re coming with us. You too, Arlay.”
Talrok’s face darkened. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you want to stay alive, and I’m going to keep you that way. We need to get the Bandian from his cell. He can’t fall into Aranaught’s hands. She turned to Arlay. But first you’re going to get my team their fucking weapons.”
Arlay hesitated for only a moment, then nodded.
“Kalan,” Valerie said, “you and your girlfriends will come with us.”
Jilla said, “I think she means you and me, Wearl—wherever you are.”
“Excellent,” Wearl said. “I haven’t killed anyone since this morning. I was starting to get antsy.”
“What about me?” Bob asked, the hurt clear in his eyes.
Kalan clapped him on the back. “You can come too. Just don’t say anything obnoxious, or really, anything at all. In fact, it’s probably best if you hang back a little.”
“Roger that,” Bob said, a determined look on his face.
Talrok gave his orders, and the crew left through the south exit.
Arlay led them down a long corridor and stopped at a small storeroom. After unlocking the door, she handed Valerie, Robin, and Garcia their weapons.
Robin took her gun. “Fighting mechs, huh? This is just like old times.”
“Let’s hope they build them more solidly up here,” Valerie said. “I’d like a bit of a challenge.”
Arlay shook her head. “You are some crazy Wandrei.”
“Agreed,” Garcia said with a smile. “Now take us to the Bandian.”
The journey to the prison cell took much longer than the walk to the storeroom had. As they traveled, they heard fighting in the distance.
Talrok stayed in constant contact with his commanders, talking through a communicator that must have been built into the sleeve of his shirt. From what he passed along, the soldiers in the southern part of the facility were holding their own against the enemy. The ones in the north, however, were taking a serious beating.
“We need to help them,” Arlay said, her voice thick with frustration.
“We will,” Valerie promised, “but the Bandian can’t fall into enemy hands. That’s Priority One.”
Thunderous footsteps echoed down the corridor and Kalan felt himself tense. “Sounds like they’re bringing the fight to us.”
Valerie drew her sword, holding it in one hand and her gun in the other. “If these are anything like the mechs we fought at the Bandian’s mountain headquarters, they’ll have a small glass faceplate. The rest of their armor is tough, but if you can get through the faceplate you can get at the driver inside.”
Talrok’s eyes narrowed. “We’re dealing with Aranaught here. I’m not certain that these—”
He never got to finish the thought.
A large mech rounded the corner and charged at them.
Kalan had thought the training robot he’d fought a few hours earlier was fast, but this mech made the robot look slow. It moved so quickly that all he saw was a blue blur from the lights of the hallway reflecting off its body as it came on.
To his amazement, Valerie responded just as quickly. She lunged forward, firing as she went. The bullets struck the mech in the glass portion of its faceplate, and the glass became a spiderweb of cracks. Clearly whatever material the faceplate was made of had been designed to be bulletproof.
She crashed into him and wrapped her legs around him, holding on tightly, and drove the hilt of her sword against the glass faceplate until it shattered.
Kalan watched in awe, realizing that he’d never seen Valerie fight in a real battle before. It was like watching a master musician play an instrument.
He didn’t have time to watch her work any longer than that, though, since half-dozen mechs charged down the corridor toward them.
“Let’s light ‘em up!” Garcia called.
The boom of Wearl’s rifle echoed in the enclosed space, quickly followed by the rapid fire of Garcia’s gun.
Kalan only had his Tralen-14 pistol, so he waited for the mech charging at him to get bit closer.
“Son of a bitch!” Valerie shouted.
But the mech was almost on Kalan now, so he didn’t have time to see what his boss was cursing about. He needed to focus on the task at hand if he wanted to stay alive.
When the mech dove at him, he quickly sidestepped and fired into the mech’s faceplate. He drove a shoulder into its back as it whirled past him, and the mech tumbled forward to land on its face.
Kalan was on its back before it could rise. He reached around, pressed his pistol into the enemy’s faceplate and fired four rounds, then slammed the butt of his pistol against the shards to knock out what remained of the hard glass.
The mech started to stand, and Kalan let it. It didn’t matter now. With the faceplate gone the creature inside was vulnerable, just as Valerie had said.
The mech finished standing and glared down at him, and what Kalan saw shocked him.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelled, echoing his boss.
There was no face behind the mech’s faceplate. There wa
s no driver inside at all. It was empty.
***
Kalan stumbled backwards, shocked, wondering what the hell he was fighting. Talrok had explained that Aranaught could control robots and other machines, but even mechs? It was basically a souped-up suit of armor, right?
There had to be something inside—some electronic gizmo that allowed Aranaught to infest this thing and control it. All he had to do was figure out where those electronics were located and find a way to remove them. He’d start by—
“Found it!” Valerie called.
He glanced toward her. She was holding an electronic device about the size of her fist, and the unmanned mech lay smoking at her feet.
“The electronic doohickey is embedded in the upper back,” she announced. “If you manage to get through the faceplate it’s pretty easy to dig it out.”
“Doohickey?” Robin asked. Her voice was strained as she pried the faceplate off a mech who was futilely trying to dislodge her from its shoulders.
“Whatever,” Valerie said. “I’m sure Bob would know what it’s called.”
Kalan focused on the mech in front of him. Now that the faceplate was gone there was a pretty big opening, so he jammed his arm through the hole and felt around inside.
The mech beat at his back as he dug for the electronic device. Each hit was like being struck with a club, but Kalan persisted. After what felt like an eternity but was in reality only about ten seconds, he wrapped his fingers around the device and pulled.
The mech went down hard.
He tossed the device on the floor and looked at his friends to see who needed help.
Valerie was finishing off her second mech, and Robin was standing over her first. Garcia, Arlay, and Jilla had teamed with Bob to kill one, and while he couldn’t see Wearl, he had to assume the defeated mech off to the side was her doing.
“Everybody good?” Valerie asked.
“Better than them,” Robin said. “Anybody else notice something odd about these mechs?”
“Besides the lack of drivers?” Kalan asked. “I’d say it’s weird they didn’t have any weapons.”
“These things are basically disposable for Aranaught,” Talrok said. “Leftovers from the days when we needed living beings to use as experiment subjects—the pre-AI days. Guns however, are still very valuable to her. My guess is these guys were sent in as bruisers and cannon fodder. The second wave will be more adequately armed.”
