ARTIS PRIME

by Tobias Roote

  As the guard pulled the heavy duty trigger, RIGA managed to leap away so that the harsh beam missed her, dissipating harmlessly in the roof space. On the wrong side now to bring her whip hand round to disarm it, she turned her attention to the other one approaching from her left. Her arm, already half in position rose up, and with a deft flick of her wrist, she sent the smoking wire around the new guard’s neck. The plasma hummed and fizzed noisily, as it ate through the metal of the unfortunate android. Its head flew off, while the smoking metal body it had been attached to, fell to the ground with a noisy clatter.

  Still working at top speed, managing to keep the upper hand purely through her agility, RIGA, turned back to the two guards on the ground. She dragged the whip across their necks, satisfied when the hot plasma wire instantly ate into the major conduits leading to the chest cavity, severing them and leaving them deaf and blind to all around them. The sensors in their heads were now isolated from the limited controls in their bodies. The guard that still had a hand and a blaster, began shooting in a frenzy of fire, inadvertently taking out sections of the walls around her while she almost casually sidestepped its aim. It wasn’t close enough for her to disable it, without risking being caught in its continuous fire.

  As she paused to evaluate her situation, her senses warned more guards were on the way. Thinking it was becoming a little hazardous in the room, RIGA decided it was time to make an exit. The councillors that had been behind her had already removed themselves via their own private exits. She was now alone with the singular problem of getting out of the chambers.

  She tried to call Gossie, but the chamber was shielded. Not that Gossie could have done anything, RIGA just wanted confirmation that the AI and the ship would be waiting for her.

  Taking off through the doorway, jumping over the corpses of the AI guards, RIGA bounced off the opposite wall gaining some traction before any guns could concentrate on her. Leaping forward with her enhanced speed was proving too fast for the defensive weapons to follow; instead they set up an impenetrable barrage for her to get through. She would have hesitated had she sufficient time, but the speed she was running only gave her options over her direction, not on stopping.

  All of the lasers hit her square on, at least three of them direct hits to her head and chest. She felt the impacts as her body continued to push towards the elevator door that she had left locked open. Her vision was interrupted by a crimson film approximately twelve inches in front of her blocking her view of the lifts. Momentarily wondering what the hell had just happened, RIGA realised the laser and blaster fire was not harming her. It must be the amulet around her neck, Osachi’s shield. She now sensed the strength of the waves as the shield increased power to reinforce her defences.

  The hall lasers now opened up. Having previously come to her defence, they were now trying to kill her. There was no justice in the world, she thought, while dodging what she could, and running through what she couldn’t. She leaped over two androids that were hurriedly bringing blasters to bear, her whip taking out their weapons, cutting the barrels in half rendering them useless. One exploded, its charge having been released by the sudden opening of its sealed power unit, leaving the guard with the sparking stump of one arm and serious shrapnel damage to its body.

  Now almost at the elevator, she checked the surveillance outside. There were no other elevators near.

  A tight-beamed message reached her. She decoded it automatically. It was the same male voice that warned her in the reception attack.

  “Your way is clear - don’t delay, your enemies rally.” Just who was this new benefactor, where was he that he could follow her? It must be an AI, she decided, but which.

  As the door closed, RIGA activated the transit overlay that she had left within the elevator, her attention concentrated on an exit point where her ship could extract her. Not fully trusting the message from her new ally, RIGA inserted emergency codes from memory. She ran another evasion routine, a copy of the one she used on her way to the meeting. She manually jumped the code to ensure there were no opportunity of external analysis and intervention.

  ‘Gossie? Extraction required. Coordinates as per my indicated exit point.’

  She transferred her intended route and point of exit from the elevator car. The ship would have a scoop ready to whisk her out of harms way the second it had clear access.

  RIGA no longer required her plasma whip, so pressed the jewelled protrusion on its hilt. The plasma field deactivated and the wire began to resume its metal memory, curling back into the shape of her fring. It still felt hot, but was cooling rapidly as RIGA slipped it on over her fingers.

  She remembered her speed run to the lift entrance, replaying it all in her mind exactly as it had transpired. She remembered that none of the laser beams actually connected with her body. Putting her fingers up to the band around her neck, she wondered at the technology that could create such a shield in so small a space. These new humans were amazing. How did they manage to build such advanced technology, so far ahead of the Empirum.

  RIGA was pensive as she realised the Council would not rest easy once they viewed the events in the entranceway, and discovered that she had a personal shield that would protect her from their lasers. Not to mention the speed and acrobatics she displayed on her escape! She was unlikely to be allowed to return to Artis Prime. Damm! more reasons to be hunted, she thought absently, as she ran through her remaining options. Her disguise would help hide her true identity, but she wouldn’t be able to use it again. She marked the personal template for removal once she returned to her ship.

  As if on cue, her surveillance systems noted a change in the pattern of elevator behaviour. Capsules were massing, and there was a strategy behind their new alignment. RIGA extrapolated their direction and saw the objective. They were attempting to hem her in. The other elevators refusing to give way were forcing her capsule to a different exit point. She was being herded to where they wanted her to exit. Time to bale out and seek an alternative route, RIGA decided.

  She reached under her jacket and pulled out the other egg. Inside were various items, including a small needle-gun and a reel of black wire. This she removed and replaced the egg. RIGA unwound the black wire that when extended would be large enough to create a small doorway and pressed it against the rear wall of the elevator. Adding the contacts in the heel of her hand to the end and creating an electrical charge, she commanded it to activate, then stepped back. The electricity and activation sequence set off an thermionic acid concentrate that burned through everything it touched.

  A few seconds later, having eaten into a section of the wall, the wire dissolved. The cut piece dropped away leaving the inside of the elevator capsule open to the complex transit grid. RIGA viewed the mass of low-powered laser beams and flashing optical connections running through the dark space, forming a maze of possible multi-directional routes. She related what she saw to the map in her head.

  Taking care to keep a grip on the edge of the hole, RIGA climbed onto the roof of the elevator, keeping her body as low as possible, to avoid any possible cables or edges. She waited until another one was going past, then jumped lightly from hers to it, and then to successive elevators. She finally found one going in the direction she needed, which was difficult, because nearly all of them were being seconded to the task of blocking her escape.

  Outside things looked very different. To call it a grid wasn’t strictly accurate. It consisted of dark, wide open spaces with electrical cables that were knitted together, forming a mesh of contacts. This meant an elevator could simply change direction ‘on the fly’, with junction points where there was an angled ascent, or descent to another level. The repeller and tractor beams both kept the cars floating and propelled in the direction of travel. The ‘grid’ was a series of fixed location indicators to help the Warden guide each elevator.

  RIGA’s sensors now showed the individual elevators massing around, as she leaped from one to another avoiding the repeller beams w
hich would throw her back against the vehicles. Her original capsule would continue to be herded until it got to where they wanted it, she, however, would be long gone, and hopefully untraceable.

  Concentrating, which was hard while jumping, RIGA changed her appearance. She wasn’t about to use her real self, but she could change sufficiently to fool any sensors. Kneeling low on the final roof, she turned her jacket inside out, the black lining changing her appearance along with black hair and a pale complexion so she wouldn’t be recognisable. She was already spoofing her DNA and personal frequencies. RIGA now looked and identified as a human from Antth, a worker planet that supplied manual labour for ad-hoc work that met the terms of the Empirum’s equal rights conventions.

  As she approached her destination, RIGA pushed her sensors ahead of the elevator car to assess any risk. She was in luck, there appeared to be no sign of any security attention directed towards the elevator exit.

  When the elevator slipped passed her exit, RIGA leapt off the roof, grabbing a suspension rail that held the magnetic grid. Touching the grid would probably give her a major electric shock, but the suspension rail was insulated and safe for her to use as a transit point to the elevator exit door. As soon as she was sure all was well, RIGA lowered herself to the deck, carefully noting the position of the large magnetic anodes, which were seriously playing havoc with her sensors.

  After first reassuring herself there was no-one on the other side, she remotely activated the exit door, then jumped into the opening doorway, landing on the causeway in the goods inwards area of the hangar.

  She walked calmly from the elevator, moving around pallets and crates, as she negotiated her way to the unloading bay. The direction took her out from under the overhang section which led directly to where the vehicles queued. Her lift was nowhere in evidence, but would be nearby.

  ‘Gossie?’ RIGA enquired of her companion.

  ‘Scoop coming up behind you, RIGA. Prepare yourself,’ was all she heard in her implant before she was suddenly catapulted into the air. The scoop held her using a specially adapted adhesive net, designed to secure cargo on the fly, literally. RIGA was airborne.

  The boom device that caught her was already retracting into the cloaked ship. Within seconds she was inside and heading for the cockpit. Gossie took standard evasive action in case anyone had tracked the scoop. The whole procedure had taken less than ten seconds.

  Her ship wasn’t large. It was a military converted courier so, its accommodation was spartan. Even more so since RIGA had the whole craft prepped for war. It bristled with every small armament they could fit into, or bolt on. RIGA spent many months at a time wrapped in the small ship’s cocoon, so often resorting to cockpit AI-sleep while linked to Gossie, waking from her suspended state only if anything required her attention. The ship would control everything else.

  Still cloaked, Gossie unobtrusively guided them through traffic filled lanes, using secret ESSG codes that bypassed Artis Prime controls. It did mean observing local space conditions, so as not to become a hidden hazard in the three dimensional chess game, being played by the ships and ground crew.

  They prepared to hide in open space. It was standard procedure after a mission. RIGA usually needed to digest the mass of data recovered from her logs. It was easy to miss important clues, so she religiously recorded everything, while busy staying alive.

  Gossie reminded her to place her hand in the slot built into the arm of her chair, and prepared to receive the download to the ship's data-bank. After complete analysis by them, the information would be passed onto ESSG, adding to their knowledge of events. It helped Bollida understand what his agents were coming up against on their missions. The records also provided evidence, in the event of possible repercussions.

  Something was bothering RIGA. She was sure that her abilities outweighed that of the elevator AI, yet she had been intercepted twice on the mission, which was unprecedented in her experience. As far as RIGA and her compatriots were aware, the skill to manage those elevators without leaving a trace, was beyond the capability of the existing Alders on Artis Prime. This meant there was a new influence in the game. One which she had yet to get the measure of. As it stood, she was currently on dangerous ground. Obviously, Pelon had access to this new player and had used them to intercept her exit. Was it possible he was also involved in the first attempt as well?

  RIGA had more questions than answers.

  What was it that Pelon observed in the chip and why did this set off the chain reaction?

  What did Tempus have to do with this, and could he be trusted? And who was behind the intercepts and what was their objective?

  RIGA began to delve into the logs looking for answers. Gossie joined her adding an overlay of its records of transmissions in and out during her time in repairs, waiting to recover RIGA. Most of these would be dumped from her short term core as soon as they were no longer needed. In the meantime, RIGA had access to data and routings which, despite encryption, could give them significant information from her short stay.

  At the end of a day, RIGA had a partial answer. Tempus was obviously working for an alternative group who wanted to take control of the Council. This was his reason for the olive branch, when it looked as though she would be blanked by the council members, and which turned decidedly concerned when Pelon set the guards on her.

  This placed him as a manageable resource, but not to be trusted beyond his immediate needs, which was obviously going to be gaining allies off world. Specifically those with new unfettered technology, anything that would help him secure his market. He needed to regain his position in the Artis Prime hierarchy, and a new source that had no other political affiliations would be extremely valuable to him.

  Having seen Pelon in action, RIGA doubted if Tempus could overcome his grip on the council, most of whom seemed docile, deferring to Fregal who was the chairperson. RIGA concentrated on the discussions between the councillors. After several hours, still unable to crack the encryption, RIGA noticed that there were in fact two separate conversations occurring.

  One conversation, amongst all of them, was obviously their own developed language to discuss things of council nature without compromising security. The second conversation was between Fregal, Pelon and Kalla, another councillor who had remained quiet throughout the meeting. RIGA remembered the moment when she put her hand out. There was a brief physical contact where Kalla deliberately placed a finger on RIGA’s hand, before removing a MAC. RIGA replayed the precise moment through her internal memory.

  There! A brief, not quite natural movement, completely at odds with the fluid pick-up of one of the remaining chips. Her suspicion was instantly aroused, why would an Alder place her hand like that, unless...

  RIGA looked at her hand where contact had been made. Sitting carefully so she could focus fully, she used her macro filter on her optical lenses, zooming in until she could see the individual pores of the synthetic mesh, that to the visible spectrum appeared as biological skin, but was in fact synthetically produced. She hunted over the patch where she remembered the contact was made. In the end she almost missed it, her magnification barely enough to see the particle. It had penetrated her skin, but not really being human tissue had not been absorbed into the underlying flesh.

  ‘Gossie, do you have a tool that can extract this?’ she mentally asked, holding herself rigidly in position so as not to lose the location of the microscopic object. She transmitted the data and visual to her ship partner. RIGA watched through Gossie’s visual sensors as she accessed her large toolkit within the internal walls of the cockpit. It was essential to utilise all available space on such a small ship, and the otherwise unusable crevices kept a wide range of instruments and equipment that Gossie could handle through a selection of attachments.

  A moment passed before a thin tubular arm snaked out from the wall of the cockpit. Attached to the arm was a microscopic sized transparent container. A second arm snaked out. This held a tool that disappeared into a n
on visible taper. Both descended towards RIGA, who still maintained her visual connection to the foreign particle so that Gossie could piggyback to the object’s location.

  As the tools got closer, RIGA saw the tweezers appear from the edge of her tunnelled vision. The instrument took hold of the object and removed it from her skin. She watched as Gossie transferred it to an equally tiny container, flipping the lid using the tweezers arm and sealing the item inside. Both arms then withdrew. RIGA checked the rest of her hand for any visible residue and was eventually satisfied there was nothing further attached to her.

  Activating her link with Gossie, RIGA was about to ask when she was interrupted.

  “Already analysing,” the ship AI announced, pre-empting the command from RIGA. The Ship had a wide range of diagnostic equipment built in, and could determine the nature of most things they were likely to come across in their missions.

  An hour later Gossie chirped.

  “Analysis complete.”

  “and?” RIGA questioned expectantly, refusing to invade Gossie’s territory and read the results directly. Mutual privacy between AI’s was normal, except when given encrypted permissions. RIGA and Gossie had full availability to each other’s minds, but kept out, as a sign of respect. They were a team, but with both individuals having different thought patterns, it wouldn’t be beneficial for either to spend too much time sharing.

  “Sample is biological DNA. Origins unknown, sequence suggests paternity with human specimen DNA on file for Empirum members,” Gossie responded. “It’s close to the local gene pool, but not exact. It’s also older than Empirum DNA. The sample has been partially corrupted by some other organic matter that seems to be parasitically attached.”