Roboteer

by Alex Lamb

  ‘I couldn’t agree more,’ said the captain. ‘Hold on tight.’

  He ignited the fusion torches and the Nanshan pulled away from the station at full conventional thrust – a pitiful three gravities. The Kingdom ships sped after them, matching course and speed. The Third March’s disrupters surged forwards and spread around the Nanshan like the talons of a mighty claw.

  ‘This is out of order, Aquino!’ barked the voice on the speakers. ‘Power down your engines or we’ll fire.’

  Then let’s beat them to it, Will thought to himself. He fired a volley of well-aimed g-rays into the disrupter swarm and launched the cruiser’s defensive drones. On a ship this primitive, there wasn’t enough processing power for him to do anything particularly clever with them.

  ‘Third March, please ignore that last assault!’ Will cried down the public channel. ‘We were wrong about the virus, sir. We are infected. Repeat, we are infected. The weapons array is not under our control! In the name of the Prophet, please retract all weapons immediately! We will attempt to move the ship to a safe distance until the virus can be combated.’

  ‘Negative, Nanshan,’ said Captain Yuen. ‘Power down engines and prepare to be boarded.’

  Will shut the channel. ‘Any chance of some evasives here?’ he asked Ira.

  ‘We’re running them already!’ Ira snapped.

  Great. The cruiser was so cumbersome that Will hadn’t noticed.

  This problem was going to need a different solution. Will threw a handful of SAPs at the Third March’s security. The cruiser wasn’t equipped with all the fancy tools the Ariel had enjoyed, but it did have the advantage of a full suite of Earther security codes in its command cores.

  ‘Second ship just launched disrupters,’ said Hugo.

  It only took them seconds to close on the Nanshan. Will tried to fend them off with more g-ray fire, but keeping the enemy buoys from surrounding his ship wasn’t easy. Running three weapons banks and several dozen tiny spacecraft simultaneously had his skills at full stretch, even with his new abilities.

  ‘How long till warp?’ he grunted as his mind flickered from problem to problem.

  ‘We’re trying!’ Rachel replied. ‘This engineering set-up was built for a crew of five. I don’t have the software for it.’

  While still struggling to outmanoeuvre the disrupter swarm with his drones, Will ducked into the vault of his new mind. He threw Rachel every engineering program his body had access to. They started popping up all over her console.

  ‘Hurry!’ he urged.

  It was no use. The disrupters closed and fired. Every time Will targeted one, another started up, increasing the distance before they could warp out.

  Finally, one of Will’s security SAPs came back. It had matched the attackers’ encryption cycle. Will cackled and cracked the Third March’s main computer open like a walnut.

  ‘Take that!’ he yelled, firing an order for assault-system shutdown straight into their primary processors.

  Half the disrupter swarm fell away. Before Will could repeat the trick, however, the second ship swapped cycles.

  ‘Four more cruisers moving in from the outer system,’ Hugo warned.

  Will gritted his teeth. There had to be a better way to fight this battle. He reached back into the Third March and started pushing SAP code into the compromised computers. He didn’t have time to make the new software particularly strong or sophisticated, but he only needed control of the enemy ship for a minute or two.

  With ponderous deliberation, the Third March retrained its weapons on the second Kingdom vessel and started firing everything it had. Will smiled as he listened over the public channel to the shouts of panic and confusion that ensued. The rest of the disrupter swarm fell back, drawn into the conflict Will had created.

  He turned his attention to the four new approaching ships. He tried a couple of long-range viral attacks but their encryption was already up and running. This problem was going to be a lot trickier.

  ‘I’ve done it!’ Rachel gasped. ‘Ready for warp!’

  Will quickly sucked his drones back through the exohull.

  ‘Munitions retracted,’ he told Ira.

  ‘Firing engines in three, two, one …’ called the captain. Then he hurled on the power.

  The cruiser surged forwards but the four Earther vessels veered madly to match course. The sound of the Nanshan’s engines rose from a pounding to a whine as Ira took them up and out into the safety of interstellar space.

  ‘Get ready for the nastiest warp-scatter manoeuvres you’ve ever experienced,’ said Ira as they neared the system perimeter.

  As soon as he was clear for FTL, Ira broke off warp and fired the thrusters at full tilt. The enormous ship dragged around on its axis. Ira warped again, stopped, applied thrust and warped, over and over. The effects of jerking and turning in such a big ship were far less aggressive than aboard the Ariel but no less sickening.

  Fifteen minutes later, the Nanshan’s warp trail was a sprawling mess. It would take their pursuers hours to find them.

  ‘We’re clear,’ said Ira.

  Will passed him a course that would take them straight to the heart of the Fecund system and then flopped back into his couch.

  They were free. New Angeles lay behind him. He could hardly believe it. The weeks of torture and isolation were finally, undisputedly over. Without quite knowing why, Will folded his knees up to meet his chest, buried his face in his hands and began to sob.

  17.2: GUSTAV

  Gustav stood with his hands clasped tightly behind his back and looked out from the balcony of his new office in the trench town of Perseverance. Golden light streamed down in dusty shafts through the curved glass canopy overhead, illuminating the tiny twisting paths and glittering fishponds in the park far below. Across from him were stacked layers of Galatean homes with their curious outdoor walls made from nothing but white sheets. They reminded him of washing days in the Sophia of his childhood.

  Perseverance might have been still and beautiful, but it was also chilling in its emptiness. The town was virtually dead. There were no voices, no people visible below except the occasional Kingdom marine cradling an assault cannon. In the short weeks that he’d been there, he’d already learned to hate that quiet.

  Apparently only half the population was missing, yet Gustav had never been anywhere that felt so desolate. There was nothing to hear but the distant rush of the air fans and his aide, Regis Chu, standing behind him, reciting the depressing details of the day’s status report.

  ‘Our troops have been all the way up the northern transit line to the settlement at Hope Canyon,’ said Chu. ‘The pattern appears to be the same – no children left, no environmental maintenance personnel. Only adults, and all of those appear to have volunteered to stay behind. I had Colonel Hassan sweep the town for hardware. Unfortunately we, er … lost four men to a chemical explosion of some kind and a fifth to a suspicious airlock failure.’

  Gustav shook his head. ‘Did Hassan retaliate?’

  In his experience, marines always retaliated, usually before they knew who was responsible for attacking them.

  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Regis. ‘Three locals were killed and one of our men was accidentally wounded in a friendly-fire incident. An atmosphere supply pipe was ruptured. I have a repair crew looking at it now.’

  Gustav rubbed his eyes and groaned. Tang had known exactly what he was doing when he’d stuck Gustav with the job of Planetary Consolidator. It was spite in its most transparent form. Gustav was trapped on this denuded, hostile world for the weeks or months it would take for the new Protectorate Authority to arrive from Earth while the rest of the Kingdom celebrated. His task was not helped by the fact that the force of Kingdom marines he commanded appeared to be spectacularly inept.

  ‘My God, Regis,’ he said. ‘I thought these troops were supposed to be our finest. I expected them to be clumsy, but they’ve exceeded even my wildest expectations.’

  ‘There may be a r
eason for that, sir,’ said Regis. ‘Doctor Wei at our med-centre has been running blood tests and he’s found that the soldiers coming in have some very unusual hormone levels. His current theory is that the Galateans have poisoned the local food supplies, maybe even the air, with some kind of agent for which they’ve already taken an antidote.’

  That would explain why Gustav had been feeling so bitter and listless lately, at least.

  ‘He recommends that the troops be restricted to landing rations until he can find out what’s going on,’ Regis added. ‘He also says we should consider using environment masks.’

  Terrific. Discipline was already strained. Cutting the soldiers off from the spoils of their victory wasn’t going to go down well. Gustav straightened and sighed. It appeared that in the process of capturing Galatea, the crusade had turned its inhabitants into exactly the kind of people Gustav’s own ancestors had been – terrorists and freedom fighters. There was irony in that, but also something to learn.

  The Galateans weren’t like the people of the other colonies. It was as if they expected to suffer. They actively courted it. Still, it would be different when the High Church Repentance Squads arrived. Then the natives’ games would only make things worse for them.

  Gustav’s compad chimed. He drew it out and found Tang’s personal insignia flashing there. Gustav was required immediately for a video conference with the admiral.

  ‘The rest will have to wait,’ Gustav told his aide. ‘Restrict the troops to rations and give Wei whatever resources he needs.’

  He strode over to the corner of the huge Galatean room where he’d set up a working console. He pressed the answer stud on the compad and sat down in front of the monitor. Tang’s frowning face appeared on one side of the screen like an angry moon. To Gustav’s immense surprise, Rodriguez appeared on the other, and he didn’t look happy, either.

  Gustav nodded to them. ‘Admiral, Father,’ he said coolly. ‘What a nice surprise.’

  ‘There’s nothing nice about it, Ulanu,’ Rodriguez snapped. ‘The artefact has been stolen and a Buddha-class battle cruiser along with it.’

  Gustav stared at the disciple in disbelief for a moment and then fought down a bray of laughter. Could it be that the mighty Rodriguez had failed to keep his hands on the Galateans? Of course he had! Gustav was only surprised that he’d managed to make such a mess of it so fast. He had come running here for help, no doubt.

  Rodriguez read the light in Gustav’s eyes. ‘Are you amused, General?’ he spat. ‘Fifteen of my men were killed including my best interrogator. The Sons of Mao lost eight others. And my work on the Relic solution has been set back by months.’

  ‘I’m very sorry for your loss, Father,’ Gustav said unconvincingly.

  ‘Disciple Rodriguez came as quickly as he could via high-speed scout,’ Tang put in. Gustav didn’t doubt it.

  ‘Can I also assume that the Galatean prisoners escaped?’ he asked sweetly.

  Rodriguez turned scarlet. ‘Of course they escaped! Who else do you suppose was responsible for all those deaths?’

  You, Gustav thought. ‘Father,’ he said, ‘may I ask, what vector did they leave on? Were they headed here?’

  ‘No,’ Rodriguez replied, ‘though I’m sure you’d have liked the answer to be that convenient. They disappeared somewhere in the direction of Zuni-Dehel.’

  ‘I see,’ said Gustav, nodding sagely.

  That was disturbing. Gustav thought that home would be the first place Captain Baron would head for. Failing that, he’d have bet on the rendezvous points for the Galatean evacuation arks.

  ‘Well, Father, I’m grateful that you came all the way out here to tell us, but I’m not sure there’s a great deal we can do about it,’ said Gustav. ‘The problem now lies within your jurisdiction, after all.’

  Gustav glanced at Tang’s face and saw some of the tension go out of it. It was clear that the admiral didn’t want this problem. He might even be prepared to abandon his ally to avoid it.

  ‘Wrong, General,’ said Rodriguez. ‘The High Church does not get involved in direct military action, and as the senior officer most recently responsible for those captives I consider it your responsibility to retrieve them.’

  Now there was a surprise.

  ‘Furthermore,’ said the disciple, ‘if your men had properly searched the prisoners for concealed weapons, this breakout would not have occurred. It is therefore your fault.’

  So that was why he’d come in such a hurry – to hand off blame.

  Gustav smiled back at him. ‘Firstly, Father, those men were searched thoroughly. The nature of the scans and their results are all on record. Secondly, your grasp of the military hierarchy appears to be flawed. Responsibility for chasing spies cannot be retroactively apportioned to reassigned personnel, as you so colourfully imagine. From the moment the orders you passed me took effect, Admiral Tang became responsible for all military aspects of the Galatean problem. If you wish to second me, you must approach him, as it will be to his report sheet that my activities are appended. Thirdly, by coming here rather than following the Galateans directly, you have lost the opportunity of finding them. Neither I nor any other person alive has the ability to reliably follow a two-week-old warp trail.’

  ‘I know that!’ Rodriguez seethed. ‘Chopra’s men have given chase. I have come here to instruct you to depart to oversee the operation.’

  Gustav shook his head. ‘I cannot. Wherever they were going, they will in all likelihood have reached their destination by now. The best that we can do, in my opinion, is remain here and reinforce our defences. It seems certain that the Galateans will attempt to return home eventually and we must be ready for them when they do. Do you not agree, Admiral?’ he said, glancing at Tang.

  ‘Yes. Yes, of course,’ said Tang, nodding vigorously.

  Gustav smiled to himself. Tang’s contempt for his old boss appeared to have been forgotten. Apparently, the moment the admiral’s credibility was under threat, he was only too happy to hide behind whoever was closest.

  ‘This is preposterous!’ said Rodriguez. ‘What if the Galateans are on their way to bomb the Earth in retaliation, just as the Drexlerians attempted?’

  ‘Unlikely. But in such a case, we would bomb Galatea,’ Gustav said smoothly. ‘That is how deterrents work, Father.’ He chose not to reveal the fact that Galatea was effectively doomed already. ‘We have what they want most, and that is this planet,’ he went on. ‘With respect, we would be fools to take our eyes off it, as I’m sure Admiral Tang would agree.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Tang said quickly. ‘I’m sorry, Father, but our job is here. Those rebels are no longer our concern. That responsibility is yours, I’m afraid.’

  Rodriguez tried to give his ex-ally a significant look. ‘Admiral, I beg to differ,’ he said. ‘The suntap project and your fleet have been associated from the outset.’

  ‘Not any more,’ said Tang bluntly. ‘The target planet has been taken. The crusade is over. We have no further interest in suntap production or its difficulties.’

  Rodriguez’s face went puce with fury. ‘The Prophet will hear about this!’ he hissed. ‘You may like to think your hands are clean, but responsibility lies where he wills it!’ He cut off the link.

  Gustav turned calmly to the admiral. ‘May I recommend that we mount extra defences with all haste, on the off-chance we’re facing some kind of Galatean counter-attack?’

  Tang nodded. ‘For once we are in agreement, Ulanu. You will be responsible for the operation, of course. Please send me a summary of your intentions by close of fleet day.’ With that, Tang signed out.

  Gustav sat back and exhaled hard. Rodriguez had begun his inevitable fall from grace, which was wonderful. His threats of a ‘freed’ High Church already sounded hollow and laughable. However, the news that the crew of the Ariel were loose in the galaxy again with a repository of alien weapons technology was worrying in the extreme. Instinct told him that some kind of confrontation was inevitable. Th
is time, he intended to be ready for it.

  17.3: WILL

  Will kept the cruiser on alert as they flew into the Fecund system. If one Earther gunship had been able to find the place, so could others. He transmitted a friendly welcome message under the Earther protocol and, to his immense relief, received no reply. Nothing moved out of the debris ring to attack them, either. The place appeared to be as dead as when they first found it.

  Ira slowed the ship as they approached the drifting hulks. Everyone watched the monitor wall as their sinister, barbed forms loomed into view. They shone balefully by the light of the system’s wounded sun. Will had forgotten what this place was like. There was something infinitely cold and sad about it, beyond the reach of words.

  For a while, they just watched. Then Ira took the initiative.

  ‘What now?’ he said.

  Will scanned the ruins. ‘Hold on a minute.’

  He found what he wanted floating a few AU away at the ring’s far edge, where the Transcended files in his new mind said it would be.

  ‘There,’ he said.

  He brought up a picture of a nestship to show the others. It was in far better shape than the first vessel they’d looked at. Its rust-red hull was smooth and unbroken. The immense fronds he now knew to be warp inducers were completely retracted, protected from collisions and radiation. Just as Hugo had predicted, the ruins at the outer rim had taken much less damage than those further in.

  Ira regarded Will levelly for a long moment before changing course.

  ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘And what do you intend to do with it?’

  Rachel and Hugo turned around in their seats expectantly to hear his answer.

  Will pursed his lips. The right time to explain his plans to the others had never really come up. He’d been kind of crazy while they were breaking out of New Angeles. For a couple of days after that, he hadn’t been able to do anything without wanting to cry. He’d spent his time on the bridge working or alone, much to Rachel’s apparent distress. It had taken him a while to find himself again. Now that he had, his doubts had come back, too.

  He felt sure Ira could guess what he intended. In fact, he suspected they’d all guessed.