Shadow Agents

by David Alastair Hayden

  She and the ship had become one.

  “Whoah, dampeners to twelve times max!” Tekeru Jones called out. “Thirteen…fifteen…seventeen…leveling out at eighteen.”

  Oona didn’t need to hear him say it. She knew everything the ship knew long before he did.

  Through the ship, she watched Bishop zooming toward them. And she wasn’t afraid. He would be okay.

  He passed through the plasma window and entered the loading bay. The dampeners slowed him, but he still crashed into the wall. He slumped down and lay stunned a moment.

  But he was alive. The sensors said so.

  “Get up, Bishop,” she said through the ship’s comm. “We’re coming up on Octavian.”

  Slowly, Bishop got to his feet. She opened the door for him, and he stumbled into the corridor. He started to turn, to swipe the keypad, but she snapped the door shut.

  With a painful groan, he collapsed next to the phantom emitter.

  “I’m onboard and…alive…” Bishop said. “But I tore the suit…cracked three ribs, maybe four…broke my arm. Need to check…for internal…bleeding.”

  A few moments later, Octavian smacked into the wall in the loading bay. Oona felt the crunch as if he had impacted her own skin.

  Limping and cradling one arm, the cog scrambled inside. The ankle of the injured leg bent awkwardly to the side, and the hand of the arm he cradled was smashed with bits of gears and wires poking out.

  Octavian stopped to administer first aid to Bishop, who had retracted his helmet.

  “Coming up on the fusion core,” Tekeru Jones said.

  “Bishop, this is the last chance to reconsider,” Kyralla said. “Even with the dampeners tuned this high, it’s going to hit hard.”

  “Can we beat those starfighters?” he asked.

  “Honestly? No. Not with our shields this low.”

  “Are they going to catch up before we reach the breakpoint?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then we need it.”

  Suddenly fearing the fusion core would explode in the loading bay, Oona fired the ion engines at full blast to slow their speed.

  “Speed reduced by twenty percent,” Rosie said.

  “What the hell!” Kyralla pulled the accelerator back. “Ship, stop firing the engines.”

  “Attempting to,” the ship’s AI replied. “Sorry, I no longer have control over that system.”

  “How’s that—” Kyralla turned and faced Oona. “You’re doing this, aren’t you?”

  Oona didn’t reply. She needed to focus. They would reach the fusion core in thirty seconds.

  “Madam…madam, are you okay?”

  She didn’t respond to Artemisia either.

  “Oona isn’t communicating with me,” Artemisia said. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but her brain activity resembles a festival of lights.”

  “Nearing the fusion core,” Tekeru said. “Inertial dampening up to eighteen times normal.”

  The Outworld Ranger swallowed the core. It scraped the floor then banged into the wall.

  The crack in its side widened, and the leak doubled. The containment field it projected flickered a moment but then held steady.

  “We have twenty minutes at best before the core goes nova,” Artemisia said.

  Oona cut off the atmosphere supply to the loading bay and released the plasma window so that radiation could flow back out into space and wouldn’t overwhelm the ship’s filtration systems.

  Kyralla fired the starboard thrusters to spin the ship back into the direction it was traveling.

  “The starfighters are almost in weapons range,” Tekeru Jones said.

  Kyralla slammed the accelerator forward. "Maximizing ion engines. If that's okay with Oona."

  She allowed the ship to accelerate.

  “Fly into the…rings…for cover,” Bishop said.

  “I was planning on it,” Kyralla said.

  “We need to get to…the other side of the planet…” Bishop said “…so we can put it…between us and the destroyer.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Kyralla replied, “but there’s only so fast we can… Whoah. How are we going this fast? I didn’t max the engines.”

  She realized then that she'd maxed the engines by merely thinking how they needed to go as fast as possible to escape the bad guys.

  “Oona, if you’re doing that, I need you to stop,” Kyralla said. “Fast is good, but I will need to slow down once we’re weaving through the planet’s rings.”

  She tried to slow the ship but couldn’t.

  “Oona?” Kyralla spun around. “Are you okay?”

  “Her neural networks are lighting up even brighter now,” Artemisia said. “Something’s wrong.”

  “I’m losing conscious control of the ship,” Oona responded.

  “Oona…how are you talking through the comms without moving your mouth?” Kyralla asked.

  “I didn’t realize I was.”

  “You need to break the connection,” Kyralla said.

  Oona tried to separate herself from the ship, but she couldn’t. “I…I’m bonded to the ship. My brain has replaced the ship’s AI. I can see and hear everything the ship experiences. I feel what it feels.”

  “Tekeru, take the circlet off her!” Kyralla shouted.

  He bounded over, and before Oona could tell him to stop, he lifted it off her head.

  She cried out in dismay.

  The ship rocked as if struck by an object. The lights flickered. Alarms blared. And sparks shot from control panels on the bridge.

  “What’s the hell’s happening?” Bishop asked.

  “Status report,” Tekeru Jones said.

  As Octavian rushed onto the bridge, limping toward Oona, the ship began its status report…

  “Inertial dampeners in the loading bay are burned out. Offline in all other sectors. Shields up twenty percent. Quad plasma and flak cannons offline. Boarding ramp activators, railgun electrical systems, and the lights in the main corridor and cargo bay one are burned out. Reduced capacity in the temperature control and air ventilation systems.”

  Oona heard the ship's report, but she could no longer feel the damage. Her spirit, her identity, had separated from the Outworld Ranger. And suddenly, she couldn't even hear the others or see the bridge.

  Her consciousness had failed to return to her body. Instead, her mind soared out into the depths of space toward a gleaming point over a thousand light years away.

  43

  Mitsuki Reel

  Mitsuki ran forward and tackled Siv, taking him to the ground. Kaleeb's shot flared over their heads. As she climbed to her feet, Mitsuki grabbed the plasma pistol Siv had discarded. She reached around her back and tucked the gun into her belt. Then she grabbed her neural disruptor.

  “B, initiate Protocol Disruption.”

  “Initiated, madam.”

  “It would be best to surrender,” Vega Kaleeb said, his deep voice resonating through the sound emitter on his helmet.

  The sky-blade uncloaked and hovered beside Kaleeb’s right shoulder, spinning its blades to appear menacing.

  But then it started bouncing in place as if agitated. Kaleeb kept the neural disruptor leveled at Siv, but he turned his head sharply toward Mitsuki.

  “Madam, I think he’s detected the overload you triggered on the disruptor.”

  “The question is, what’s he going to do about it?“

  Mitsuki and Vega Kaleeb eyed each other. If her disrupter exploded, it could kill them all if they were close enough to the blast. A little farther away then they might be injured or knocked out by the neural pulse.

  Taking advantage of the distraction, Siv lunged forward and punched Kaleeb, his force-knuckles crackling as they struck the force field. He followed with a quick left jab, sending more sparks flying. Kaleeb began to retreat, but not because he was reeling. His android strength was more than a match for Siv’s field-deflected punches.

  Suddenly, Siv spun and threw a haymaker at the sky-bla
de. The orb hadn’t expected that. Siv’s fist struck. The cog’s force field held, but the impact sent it spiraling backward.

  Kaleeb looked from Mitsuki to the sky-blade tumbling through the air. He backed away. Siv started to follow, but Mitsuki grabbed him by the arm.

  “Come on!”

  She tossed the disruptor over Vega’s head and dragged Siv toward the warehouse behind them.

  “What the hell!” Siv shouted. “I had the bastard on the ropes! I could have—”

  The engines of Kaleeb's backpack flared, and he zoomed into the sky as Mitsuki's disruptor exploded. At the same time, she tossed Siv through the window of the nearby warehouse's front office, then crashed in after him.

  As soon as they struck the floor, she threw her wings out to cover them both and ducked her head.

  White energy flared across the street and into the office, passing over their heads. The booming shockwave blew the remaining glass out of the window onto them.

  The wall below the window and the distance shielded them from the blast. Mitsuki got to her feet and helped Siv up. She checked herself over and discovered only one small cut on her cheek. Otherwise, she'd gotten through the encounter unscathed. Siv had some cuts on his face and hands, none of them severe, and he probably had some severe bruises on his arms.

  He rushed toward the window, but Mitsuki jumped in the way. He tried to dart around her, so she spread her wings to block the opening.

  “We can’t take him,” she said. “He’s too heavily armored.”

  “Silky would know how,” Siv muttered.

  “Silky’s gone.”

  Siv’s face twisted in anger and grief. “You don’t know that!”

  “You saw that blaze. Nothing could have survived that crash. And B can’t find his signal. I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”

  “Then I’ll kill the bastard that took him!”

  Mitsuki sighed and rubbed her face. “Siv, that’s Vega Kaleeb. We don’t stand a chance against him.”

  “Ka–Kaleeb?” he nearly sobbed.

  For a moment, she thought he was about to break down and start crying. He’d been struggling to hold it together ever since Zetta had tempted him with Kompel. But now he’d lost Silky. She wouldn’t blame him one bit for falling apart, but now wasn’t the time to do it. They had to survive first.

  “Siv, he’s still out there. We’ve got to escape…on our own.”

  “How?” he asked despondently.

  “We…I don’t know. Just run and hope for the best, I guess. At least he doesn’t want to kill us. We do have that.”

  Siv didn’t respond. But he didn’t argue either or try to run out into the street when she closed her wings. When she headed deeper into the building, he followed.

  “B, what’s here?”

  Mitsuki checked her locator. Vega had gotten high enough to avoid the explosion. Now he was rapidly closing on their position. The sky-blade, however, was nowhere to be seen. And they weren’t lucky enough for it to have been taken out by the blast.

  “Madam, this building housed a parts company specializing in plastic components for starships and skimmers. Some manufacturing occurred here, but most of the building was dedicated to storage and logistics.”

  “Is there anything here that can help us?”

  “Not that I know of, madam. But it was only recently closed, so the power and emergency systems are still on.”

  “And that helps how?”

  “Madam, I have no—”

  Mitsuki spotted an elevator. “Hold that thought.”

  If the building had power, she could take the elevator. And if she could get to the top of the factory warehouse, she could glide away. With her antigrav maxed, she felt confident she could carry Siv along, especially since they didn’t have any excess weight, having abandoned their packs and equipment on the street.

  She led Siv into the elevator and pressed the button for the thirty-first floor. As they sped upward, Mitsuki sagged against the wall.

  She realized suddenly what having to abandon their packs on the street meant. They had no hard credits now, no disguises, no contacts, and no safe way off the planet. So even if they escaped Kaleeb here, he'd quickly track them down again.

  She put a hand on Siv’s shoulder. He was shaking, his face a blank mask. Poor Siv. He was in shock. Without Silky, he was broken. Maybe permanently. She couldn’t let him down now.

  This was just another extraction. And she was the best extraction agent in the game. So what if she was up against a legendary bounty hunter? That only made it a challenge, another chance to prove herself. And so what if the whole operation was up to her now? She’d always done just fine on her own before. She could do this.

  She squeezed Siv’s shoulder. “I’ll get us out of here, Sivvy. Extraction’s my game.”

  He stared at her blankly for a few moments, then half nodded, his glassy eyes falling toward the floor.

  She took a deep breath and calmed her mind. One extraction at a time. Focus on escaping. Worrying about what came next got you and your mark killed.

  “B, can we get to the rooftop?”

  “Not easily, madam. The door was supposed to remain physically locked at all times, so unless we’re lucky, that route is barred to us.”

  “Windows on the top floor?”

  “There are some windows on the top five floors, madam.”

  The red dot on the locator closed in. With a thought, she rotated the image to get a three-dimensional representation. It was just as she had feared. Kaleeb wasn’t landing on the street to come up through the building after them. He was using his jetpack to fly in and catch them from above. He would crash through a window on whatever floor she stopped on, and they’d be trapped.

  “B, do you have any ideas?”

  “About what, madam?”

  “I don’t know, some way to survive this.”

  “Sorry, madam. I’m not that creative.”

  Mitsuki chuckled. “Okay, how about ideas for getting out of this elevator without Kaleeb immediately springing out on us.”

  “Madam…I…I could tap into Siv’s sensor array and try to replicate the signal of an overloaded plasma pistol. He would think you’re trying the same trick again but with a bigger blast.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Silky gave me access to the pack before he…perished. And I copied the signal of the neural disruptor before it exploded. If we broadcast that, it might fool Vega Kaleeb.”

  Mitsuki nodded. “It should make him back off at the least. Do it.”

  “Yes, madam.”

  Getting him to back off was a good start, but she still had no idea how to disable his jetpack so she could glide to safety.

  “Wait, have you started the signal yet?”

  “I was just about to, madam. Do you want me to wait or cancel it?”

  “Put it on hold, for now. I have an idea. Do you think you could mask an overloading plasma pistol instead of broadcasting a fake overload?”

  “I could try, madam.”

  She drew Siv’s plasma pistol from her belt. “Okay then, wait for my signal.”

  When they were two floors away from the top, she triggered the overload sequence. She smiled sadly. She would never have thought to do this except for Silky. He’d taught her the strategy years ago and had always customized every weapon she acquired, disabling the protections that would prevent a forced overload.

  "Make sure Kaleeb sees it at the last moment. I need him to back away from the door, so I can hit him with the blast but not catch us as well."

  “I don’t think I can mask it once we’re that close anyway, madam. I can’t run the calculations and change the variables nearly as fast as Silky can.”

  Mitsuki turned to Siv. “Want to know the plan?”

  He glanced at the pistol in her hand then stared at her as if she were asking a stupid question. “Do you want me to hit the button to close the door after you do your thing.”

  Mitsuki marveled a
t him. He still looked blank and listless, so she hadn’t thought he was paying attention. “How did you know—”

  “How do you think? It’s what…it’s what he’d tell us to do. And it’s the only play, isn’t it?”

  “The only one I can think of.”

  Kaleeb was waiting on the top floor, just a few meters from the elevator. When the doors opened, Mitsuki tossed the overloading plasma pistol into the room, aiming it at Kaleeb. As soon as he saw the weapon, he turned and fled. Siv pressed three buttons simultaneously, triggering the emergency closing function on the elevator doors. They closed, and she hit the button for the next floor down. She needed to preserve as much height as possible for gliding.

  The building rocked, and the elevator bucked as the pistol exploded. An overloaded plasma pistol created a far more significant blast than a disruptor. Mitsuki pinned Siv in one of the back corners and braced herself against the walls to keep them from getting tossed around. Based on the position of the red dot in her locator, Kaleeb was speeding away. She couldn’t tell if it was under his power, or if he’d gotten caught in the blast.

  The elevator dinged, and she squeezed out through the warped doors as fast possible. Siv followed blindly.

  “B, bring up an escape path to an accessible or breakable window. I need to be able to fly down the length of a street, a straight shot to build up speed and get as far away as possible. If I have to turn, I’ll lose speed and altitude fast.”

  “Here you go, madam.”

  A map appeared in her HUD, leading across the floor to the opposite end of where she was now. Terrific. She had to cross most of a city block to get to the best location for her attempted escape. This just couldn’t get easier.

  Siv dutifully following, she raced through narrow aisles that weaved between giant factory machines and storage tanks.

  “What’s in the tanks?”

  “Those, madam, are filled with various organic and synthetic polymers, coolants, and propellants. Many of the substances are highly flammable.”

  “Then it’s a damned good thing I didn’t throw the plasma pistol in here. I could’ve blown up the entire building.”