by Isaac Hooke
“I’m sure my men will manage,” Rade said.
Tahoe reported in that the Taenia—or the buffaclams as he called them—began to flood inside, and were attacking the minions of their hated enemies. With their help, he and the other Hoplites were able to rapidly clear the ship. Though unfortunately many Taenia lives were lost to errant Phants.
Shortly thereafter, Surus, still possessing the Artificial that Falon had used, arrived at the Observer Mind chamber with a mercenary escort. They ported the Phant trap with them.
The mercenaries had given the ordinary stun rifle to her, and she used it to herd the Phants inside the container. The liquid aliens were constrained by the invisible three-dimensional volume formed by the metal disks attached to the top and bottom of the container; as more and more of them were trapped inside, the liquid began to pile up, so that when Surus was done herding the last of the stunned creatures, a cylindrical column of Phants climbed nearly to the top of the container.
“Will you have enough room to hold the rest of the Phants in the ship, and this city?” Rade asked.
“I believe so,” Surus said. “I know the gap at the top looks small, but the rest should still fit. Phants compress well. The trick will be in finding them all. I’ll need Bender’s help for that.”
“You have it, of course,” Bender said. “Killing Phants is my specialty.”
“Trapping them, you mean,” Surus said.
“Same difference,” Bender responded. “By the way, just so we’re clear... now that you’re a dude, I have no interest in you whatsoever.”
“Sure you don’t,” Surus said, winking at him. “I’m free tonight, if you are.”
“Uh, have to pass!” Bender said. “Next topic! About those Phants...”
“Yes,” Surus said, becoming serious. “With me.”
Surus clambered up into Juggernaut’s passenger seat, and Bender jetted up, landing beside the Artificial. Meanwhile Juggernaut picked up the Phant trap and ported it from the room. The mercenary and robot escort fanned out ahead and behind the mech. Rade and the others joined them, acting as part of their guard.
When they had cleaned the ship of Phants, the team exited the vessel and defeated the remaining pockets of resistance. They were forced to put down some of the surviving salamanders and dragons, until Noctua led the Taenia buffaclams toward the stadium, drawing the larger creatures away. The golden owl passed into the invisible wormhole created by the Acceptor, followed by the herd of Taenia; the few remaining salamanders and dragons blindly pursued, their echolocation not detecting the wormhole at all. Two dragons swooped over the site too high and ended up stranded outside the stadium, but Noctua flew back out and with some chirping had them chasing her into the wormhole. When the last of them had entered, Surus shut down the stable wormhole so that Noctua could lead the aliens away on the other side.
With no further resistance to face, the team systematically swept the streets, taking down any last defenders that had holed up in the buildings. Bender fired the arc weapon as often as he could, limited only by the cool down interval. That weapon had the ability to ferret out Phants that were hiding just beneath the surface of the ground, or inside walls, or within the wreckage of robots, so it didn’t take much work on Bender’s part to track them all down. In fact he was having a field day.
Once a Phant or group of Phants was stunned, Juggernaut lowered the ever-filling container—which by then had become a kaleidoscope of colors—and Surus used the ordinary stun rifle to herd the liquid aliens inside. Noctua rejoined them after a few hours and aided in the hunt.
They discovered Ms. Bounty secured in the basement of an apartment building, along with several other of the city’s Artificials. Most of them had their power cells pulled, but the AI cores appeared relatively intact. Harlequin transferred power cells from some of the fallen robots and installed them, starting with Ms. Bounty, and she told them she had no memory of what had happened since Rade stunned her back on the alien world.
In other basements nearby the team made grislier discoveries: dead human bodies, piled into the hallways so high as to make them impassable.
Miraculously, there were also some survivors holed up in shops and restaurants whose breach seals had activated when the dome failed, people who hadn’t been discovered by the Phants. The team also found two brothers in jumpsuits who had survived by hiding out in a storage closet. They brought the survivors to the shuttles which then ferried them to the Piranha waiting in orbit.
Bourbonjack had sent a message to Bax, instructing the AI to bring the Argonaut to the planet now that the colony was secured. Bourbonjack also sent an encrypted message to the Zambian high command to let them know their colony world had fallen to an alien invasion, along with video footage proving it. The Zambian official hadn’t seemed too convinced; Surus agreed to send the Zambian High Command a message later, when the Green had returned to Ms. Bounty, because apparently her contacts in the government would recognize her in that form.
Twenty hours later, after making two complete sweeps of the city, and the shipyard, and a final run-through of the vessel, Surus abandoned the Artificial that had hosted Falon and returned to Ms. Bounty. She gave the former Artificial into the custody of the mercenaries, telling them to wipe the memory core once they were back aboard the Piranha, as the Artificial had been corrupted. They readily agreed. Rade expected Harlequin or one of the other AIs to protest the ethics of such an act, but they remained silent.
Since the Argonaut wouldn’t arrive for another four hours, given that two of its engines were still under repair, Rade had the men make one last quick run outside the city to search for any Phants that might have gotten away. Surus reached out with her senses during the circumnavigation of the dome and shipyard, but detected no more of the aliens. If there were any Phants still out there, they had fled beyond her perception.
When the Argonaut finally orbited, Rade ordered the team to the stadium to destroy the Acceptor. Noctua was there, perched on the edge of the broad metal disk, claws gripping the fibonacci etchings in the side. When the robot owl saw Surus in the body of Ms. Bounty, it perked up and flew to her.
“Sweet master!” Noctua said. “I have missed you so!”
“And I have missed you,” Surus said. The owl landed on her shoulder.
“Is it just me, or is their relationship getting kind of creepy?” Manic said. “The two of them haven’t been apart for all that long.”
“I think they’re kind of cute together,” Lui said. “And you know, Noctua kind of looks like her.”
“Ha, that’s funny, Pimplepocks,” Bender said. “You have quite the imagination. That little bitch looks nothing like her.”
“No you’re wrong,” Lui said. “Look at the beak. And the big eyes.”
“I can see it,” Fret said.
Surus approached the teleportation disk and gazed upon it somberly .
“So how do you want to do this?” Rade said. “We still have explosives in our storage compartments. Or will cobras do the trick?”
“Now that the time has come, I’m torn,” Surus said. “I find myself loath to destroy it. We may have need of the device yet. Acceptors capable of creating stable wormholes above them are a rarity.”
“I think you’re reluctant to destroy it because you just want to keep a way home open,” Fret said.
“No,” Surus said softly. “I’m an outlaw now. I can never go home. But I speak truly when I say we may have need of the Acceptor... there are other conquered worlds out there, with technology that might yet aid humanity, if we can find it. Since we can no longer count on the help of the Greens, we cannot give up our only means of accessing that technology.”
Rade considered that. “There was also still some tech you wanted to retrieve from the Taenia world, before we so rudely interrupted you. Bourbonjack hinted that there might be something there that could protect you from the stun devices of this universe.”
“There is,” Surus said. “And whi
le it is possible I might find it, I believe my earlier estimate of a few hours was overly optimistic. It could take months, even years, of searching through the different alien archives. We have work to do here, I’m sure you would agree. Perhaps I can send Noctua looking for it at some point.”
“And what about teaching the Taenia how to use the archives?” Rade said. “That’s something else you wanted to do, isn’t it?”
“Eventually,” Surus said. “Again, that can be something I assign to Noctua. For the time being, I prefer to hunker down. I have taken enough risks with the life of my host, Ms. Bounty, to last a very long time. She would appreciate a break, I believe. As would you.”
“I’m sure neither I nor my team would have any complaints regarding a break,” Rade said.
Surus smiled. “Good. With your permission then, I would like to carry the Acceptor aboard the Argonaut. Your ship is my acting base of operations now, so it makes sense that I would store the device there.”
“It’s not going to suddenly open up onto an alien world and allow a bunch of bugs to come streaming aboard en masse, is it?” Rade asked.
“No,” Surus said. “I will have it locked down. With a cargo crate blocking it at all times.”
“I’ll also want at least one Centurion assigned to it on 24/7 guard,” Rade said.
“As you wish,” Surus said. “And thank you.”
“There will be storage fees as well,” Rade said.
“That is acceptable,” Surus said. “At some point, I will probably transfer the device to one of my bug out locations, so this won’t be a burden you must endure forever.”
“As long as you keep paying the storage fees, and nothing attacks us from it, you can keep it aboard for as long as you want.” Rade glanced at his Hoplites. “All right team, you heard Surus. Let’s get this Acceptor aboard. Along with the Phant trap.”
And so the Hoplites ported the acceptor and Phant trap toward the waiting shuttle.
“I’m looking forward to dumping this batch of bugs into the sun,” Bender said along the way. “It’s going to glow brightly for billions of years to come.”
“The trapped Phants will be long dead by then,” Surus said.
“Oh I hope so,” Bender said. “By the way, you mentioned you were free tonight?”
“That was in my previous body,” Surus said. “Unfortunately, my schedule just closed up once again.”
“Damn you,” Bender said. “Once a tease, always a tease.”
“You’re only doing it to yourself,” Surus said. “I’ve done nothing to encourage you.”
“Except when you were in the body of a dude,” Bender said.
“I’m surprised the ol’ Pussywillow didn’t accept your manly proposition,” Manic told Surus.
“Hey, when Surus was a dude, I didn’t want to use up his time in case you wanted him,” Bender said.
“Mighty kind of you,” Manic replied.
When Rade returned to the Argonaut, he found the twins already waiting for him in sickbay; Shaw had transferred them over first thing when the vessel arrived.
Bourbonjack reported that his men had boarded the disabled corsairs and merchant vessels to search for Phants, but had found none. Surus went onto each ship with Bender, Harlequin, and a small Centurion escort, and she detected the presence of Phants immediately. On each ship, her party moved from compartment to compartment, with Bender firing the arcing weapon, and together they ferreted out the last holdouts. It took another five hours, but they captured the last of the Phants: three Greens, and a Purple.
The small fleet spent a day returning to the Gate; Surus and Bender boarded the Zambian customs corvettes still adrift there to collect the two Greens that had possessed the AI cores of each vessel. Then the Argonaut headed toward the inner system and its star, while the Piranha plotted a course for the Gate and the system beyond. Bourbonjack towed along the other ships that had belonged to his original task unit, as the engines of the damaged vessels were still under repair.
Rade, in his office, tapped in the Piranha before he moved beyond realtime comm range, and Bourbonjack’s grizzled hologram appeared before him.
“Well, that’s another mercenary mission that’s a wrap,” Bourbonjack said. “Thank Surus for me. The bonus she gave us for helping was unexpected, though entirely appreciated.”
“I certainly will,” Rade said. “She likes to treat her employees very well.”
“I see that,” Bourbonjack said. “I can understand why you’re so loyal to her.”
“There’s also the fact that she’s fighting on the side of good,” Rade said.
“Good and evil are only a matter of perspective,” Bourbonjack said. “As we’ve learned long ago. But I hear what you’re saying. She’s fighting on the side of humanity, and that’s good enough for me.”
“What are you going to do with the prisoners from the mercenary ships?” Rade said. “And the merchant?”
“Dunno,” Bourbonjack said. “And because I don’t know, that means I’ll probably let them off at the nearest station. Their ships are mine now, of course: I’m going to make the owners sign over the vessels to me before we pass through the Gate, to compensate me for the inconveniences they put me through.” He paused, shaking his head. “I still can’t believe everything that happened. The Greens, betraying us like that.”
“We all thought they were our friends,” Rade said. “And they were, while it was convenient for them. Surus had access to all of Falon’s memories via the Artificial, and she believes this was only a small group that disobeyed the noninterference edict of their hive High Council. Apparently, there’s a political game of sorts afoot among the Greens; despite the atrocities committed against them in the past, there are many Greens who want to rejoin the main hives, and who regret ever breaking away. But there are others, the majority, who never want to return. It seems the Greens here were on the rejoin side of the aisle.”
“What a twisted web they weave,” Bourbonjack said.
“Yes,” Rade said.
“Are there still more of them in this part of the galaxy?” Bourbonjack said. “Greens I mean?”
“Surus won’t say,” Rade said. “Though I suspect there are. I’m not sure she really knows.”
“Well, you certainly have your work cut out for you,” Bourbonjack said. “Then again, I suppose you’re lucky to have a client as rich as she is, or a client at all for that matter. Even with the bonus, I still have to start looking for my next customer ASAP.”
“The life of a security consultant,” Rade said.
“Indeed,” Bourbonjack said. “I don’t suppose Surus can use an extra ship like the Piranha?”
“She wants to keep the team tight and small,” Rade said. “With only one vessel. She seems to think we’ll be less conspicuous that way.”
“Probably a good idea,” Bourbonjack said. “Well, it was nice fighting with you again, if only for one last time. Even if I was in orbit, and your team on the surface.”
“It was nice,” Rade said. “I appreciate everything you’ve done here. If you hadn’t helped us, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. And thank you for protecting Shaw and my kids during the battle.”
“Any protection was all her,” Bourbonjack said. “I tell you, Shaw was ready to scoop them up and head to the nearest lifepod at a moment’s notice. She’s a good woman. You should marry her.”
“We don’t believe in marriage,” Rade said.
Bourbonjack frowned, then said: “I suppose it’s just a human-made contract anyway. You’re essentially married, if not in name, then in spirit.”
“You got it,” Rade said.
“I guess this is farewell,” Bourbonjack said.
“Take care of yourself, master chief,” Rade said.
Bourbonjack grinned. “And you take care of yourself as well, Rage.”
With that, Bourbonjack’s image winked out.
The Argonaut spent four days traveling to the nearby star, an
d then jettisoned the liquid-filled Phant trap via a specially prepared missile, dumping all of the alien entities the team had collected into the corona.
A few hours later Rade was seated on the bridge when Lui announced that the missile had broken apart. Lui transmitted a video of the moment to Rade’s Implant, and Rade saw the bright flash as the object disintegrated.
“Wooyah,” Bender said. “Burn bitches burn!”
Rade was more contemplative than anything else. There were hundreds of Phants out there, exiled to live out the remainder of their days trapped beneath the surface of a star.
He had hoped life as a security consultant would prove easier than his tenure in the military. That was one of the main reasons he had bought a ship and started the company. Another reason was that he had wanted to be in control of his own destiny.
But the missions were only getting harder. And his destiny seemed forever bound to the fate of humanity, or rather, to protecting that fate.
He wondered what the universe would throw at him next.
He reached out and grabbed Shaw’s hand at the astrogator station beside him. She squeezed back tightly, looking at him with shiny eyes.
Whatever it is, we’ll face it together.
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postscript
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