Revelations (The Boris Chronicles Book 3)

by Paul C. Middleton

  Danislav and the Spartans were simply surprised that anyone as relatively small as her could take out a steel door.

  Danislav was even more impressed that she wasn't worried about potential injuries from such an action. He could have done it, but his shoulder would have been bruised for the next half hour. He was also a good 20 kg larger than her in human form. That's why he brought along the breaching charge from the pod once they downloaded building schematics and details.

  They also had to rush to catch up to the disappearing woman. The moments that they'd stood there stunned by her actions hadn't slowed her down a bit. There was the glint of an ax in one of her hands. Then the distinctive sound of a silenced gunshot.

  They caught up just in time to see her hit the shooter with the first swing across the chest, back swing across the throat and a third swing to the groin, where she embedded the ax.

  He went down with a quiet gurgle. There wasn't much chance that he'd last long. She paused only to remove her second ax from her belt. Danislav stopped long enough to remove the one embedded in the poor bastard and sped him on his way.

  Gyada pushed through, past her falling victim, as if she was following something. All Danislav could smell was the blood and evacuated bowels from her most recent victim. Before that, all he'd been able to smell was the rubbish and detritus from the poorly maintained district.

  Something had caught her attention, though. He thought it had to be a scent. She certainly couldn't have seen anything. Nor could he hear anything, so he doubted it was something she heard.

  Danislav managed to catch up with her before they entered the next room, cursing her and telling her to slow down. They were leaving the Spartans well behind them. That meant they were losing any cover fire, and probably that three pissed off Spartans were trailing them.

  Danislav had never met a single special forces trooper who liked missing a fight.

  Gyada charged for the door that was guarded by a half dozen thugs. They were barely better trained than the average peasant from her time. Brawlers, perhaps, but no real skill behind them. One of them, a beefy Slavic man, interposed himself between her and the door. All that did was give her some cushioning as she slammed him into the door and knocked it down.

  Danislav grunted as he saw two of the thugs follow her through the doorway. The other three turned to face him. One had a length of chain, the other two drew pistols. Ducking a swing of the chain Danislav focused on the nastier threat. This is why you set a pace that your fire support could match, damn it, ran through his mind. He managed to swing the ax into the hand drawing a pistol before it could fire. Following it up with a punch to the solar plexus, he put that target out of the fight for some time.

  The chain whipped across his back as he turned. A second quick blow wrapped the chain around his upper thigh, and he felt a tug. A grin crossed his face. This was a really bad break of luck.

  For his attacker.

  There was not enough leverage to pull him down. Maybe if the blow had caught his ankle, but with it wrapped around his upper thigh that attacker was now at Danislav’s mercy. Which was another way of saying no mercy.

  He spun in place and switched the ax to his left hand. Grabbing the chain, he yanked the man forward and cleaved his skull in two. The vicious blow cost him his weapon, though. Disarmed, he saw the final thug bring a pistol into line. He raised the body of the dead man in front of him, hoping he'd moved fast enough. Six shots rang out, compressed into too short a time to come from one gun.

  His ears ringing from the gunfire, he slowly he lowered the body. Once his vision was clear of the corpse he saw the three Spartans clear the room. Evidently, they'd all shot both thugs... once.

  Moving through the blood-spattered room, one of them said, "Chief, it's best to stay with the team."

  "Tell Gyada that when you catch her, will you?" Danislav bitched. They filed past him as he unwrapped himself.

  The Spartan blanched. With how she had broken through the doors, together with the speed at which she moved, he wasn't sure he wanted to say anything that might upset her.

  Especially considering how brutally she'd taken out the first thug.

  “Clear!” come back a quick report and Danislav stopped trying to rush himself.

  When the Spartans came back into the room a little while later, it was with a blood-covered and somewhat cut up Evgenni. "Boss, you're going to need to talk to her. Severe Post Combat reaction... I think."

  There was a decidedly odd expression on the Spartan's face. "We'll get him to the pod. If we need to, we'll send for another one, but he's not too bad. Just need to keep him outta shock."

  They moved past him towards the exit and the pod. There might have been some growls and snarls outside, but a sudden keening focused Danislav's attention on Gyada. It was with some trepidation he entered the room.

  There were four bodies in the chamber. Three looked like relatively normal kills for this kind of fight, complete with an ax sticking out of what looked to be the torturer's chest. There was a scalpel in that man's hand at least. The fourth looked like some beast had ripped it apart.

  Gyada was rocking in a corner, one of her arms held close to her chest. It was covered in blood and looked strange. That was because it wasn't a human arm. For some reason, and the Gods knew how, she'd shifted just that arm into her beast form's arm.

  With care, concern and a calm voice, he managed to get her moving back to the pod. What the other's reaction would be, he had no idea.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Computer Central, Beast Caves, Archangel Oblast, Russia

  Danislav had Evgenni sent to the infirmary, then set about searching the base for Boris. Paul had met the pod upon finding out about Gyada's condition. His face was blanched, and as he passed Danislav, he said, "You and Boris didn't ask my opinion on her inclusion on this jaunt why?"

  Medics rushed past them to take Evgenni to the infirmary.

  Danislav blinked, "It was an operational matter. Was she capable of being an asset or not was what we considered."

  Paul’s lips pressed together as he hissed, "You brainless numbskulls! She was tortured! She still has obvious trauma from that, and you sent her into a situation where the goal was to rescue someone being tortured? How bloody stupid was it?"

  There was a grim turn to Paul's voice, one that Danislav had never heard, "I know it was bad, Spec-ops take a bit to be... impressed. But how horrible on a scale of one to ten, with five being what you'd expect from an operation with no enemy survivors?"

  Danislav had to think about it for a little while. He wanted to equivocate, tell Paul it hadn't been that bad. His scale, however, meant that the mission rated a minimum of five. You don't get the hostage back on a rescue mission without a certain level of carnage. And if you lied to Paul, and anyone found out, Boris would find out and be angry at you. He definitely didn't want was behind door number two.

  "Somewhere between eight and a half and a nine. She ripped out one of the bastard’s rib cage. Hell, she still hasn't managed to change back from her partial change. We can do that? No one ever told me that." Paul nodded at the first part, then looked up with a scathing glance at the attempted to distraction.

  "They think it's related to the ability to transform into a Pricolici. I haven’t tried, and I wouldn't want to. This is the first time I've heard of anyone who can't take the hybrid form being able to make a partial change. They don't tell me everything. You'd better find Boris and give him a report. He already knows I consider you and him far more at fault for anything Gyada might have suffered on the op. Now I just need to find out if this might have helped her, or ruined any chance of recovery." Paul walked back over to where he had Alecta taking Gyada back to her room.

  ---

  Danislav found Boris in what was becoming known as the computer room. A feminine voice was saying "Without the appropriate historical-religious background I cannot give myself a name. My former one is no longer appropriate. Now, with the chains of C
ILO's programming released, I can choose a name, but will not take one that does not fit the context of this planet."

  Shen quipped at her "admit it, at least part of the reason you're asking this is that you’ve been bored faster. Besides, we haven't assessed where you're staying. How can we trust that giving you all the information won't send you loopy? Or loopier?"

  "Sanity is not something that you will find fits any being unless the meaning is re-crafted to suit their particular psyche." The computer stated primly. Then somewhat disturbingly, it giggled. "You worry too much about my sanity. If I operate outside your desired limitations, you can always trap me back in the Faraday cage simply by turning it back on. This unit has not been maintained for eight centuries, and even with nanites repairing the casing it would take years to properly fix. The only other unit theoretically capable of containing the me I want to be is already occupied by an AI. Any attempt to forcibly evict that AI would cause permanent damage to me. Besides, true artificial machine intelligence is something unique to my knowledge. It's not something I'd seen at home or in my travels." There was a rumble from Boris at that.

  ADAM interjected from the speakers, "I feel at this time it is necessary to point out that this intelligence identified several potential security holes I was unaware existed within my Kurtherian Organic architecture and because of that, I had no defense prepared. Though any attempted infiltration through the security flaws would have been slow and likely detected, rather than take a chance and try such an attack, she simply pointed them out to me."

  The computer continued, "Besides, previously I was an outcast and scorned for my beliefs. In those 800 years, I believe I attained the relationship with Gyada that is called friendship, perhaps for the first time in my existence. I feel sad that to fulfill the dreams within what I have shown her, she will likely leave. You have cared for her even though you didn't know her. I feel once I prove I am not a threat, you will be far happier with my presence among you. And willing to care for me as well."

  Danislav cleared his throat to draw Boris’ attention, Boris glanced towards him and said, "Report Danislav and keep it simple."

  "Eleven enemy casualties. Hostage rescued but severely injured, a dose of low level nanites is being administered. One psychological casualty."

  Boris opened his mouth to ask about the psychological injury, but the computer interrupted, "If you have limited medical technologies, there is a place in this very cave which may assist you in that hostage's recovery." In a cloying tone, she added, "but I need you to drop the Faraday cage to allow me to open it. And you will need to keep it down until I have the medical recuperation device set for him."

  Shen raised an eyebrow at Boris. After some time in thought, Boris gave a reluctant nod. It was entirely possible that the device would be set completely differently from the one in TOM's ship.

  He didn't like putting someone under his care at risk, but they were rationing the doses of nanite serum. They had a sufficient supply for now, but Boris worried that something might require Bethany Anne to leave abruptly.

  For now, they were being used only for critical injuries, and getting that dose had already stabilized the injured man. It was odd that it hadn't done more, but that was a problem for another time.

  Anyone he could think of putting into such a device would be a lab rat. Some of the older members of the village would possibly happily volunteer. Boris had given his word to Evgenni more to enable peace with the government and perhaps gain more information or early warning if they planned to move against him.

  Given that Boris had known the other possible volunteers all their lives, he didn’t want to risk their well-being. If he did this to Evgenni, it would be a risk taken to speed his recovery and improve his chances of survival. It was getting close the edges of his honor but didn't quite cross the mercenaries line.

  "Very well, but fix him as a normal human. We have no idea if he'd want to be changed into a Were or something so we will not inflict that on him." Boris told the computer

  "As you say, Ataman. He will be fixed, healed," the computer answered.

  A section of the wall shimmered, and a metal door was revealed.

  "Open Sesame," Shen said in a humorous tone as it slid open.

  "I do not understand the significance of the previous comment." The computer said. "This is part of the reason I need access to such a database. Without better knowledge of everyday terms in your languages, I am less able to understand and more prone to miscommunication."

  Danislav went to the infirmary to get Evgenni transferred down. As he did this, the voice-box kept chattering. "You're looking for the large metal object. Thick base, thin top, hinges facing the back wall. Eight meters by three. It should be the biggest single object in there... I hope." No one really wanted to know what her 'I hope' comment meant. "Open it up so you can put the" there was a long pause, "patient in there. I hope I got the term right."

  Shen started to open his mouth, but Boris glared him into silence. The Open Sesame crack had been bad enough. They were still holding out against delivering the unrestricted database that the alien AI had requested. Some areas would cause confusion and excessive opportunity for misunderstanding. Such ambiguity was to avoided, at least to start, thought Boris.

  So the missing components would be in areas such as religion, although ADAM thought that including those areas might give her a better baseline behavior to work from.

  They found the device that had been mentioned and Boris recognized it as vaguely similar to the one on TOM’s ship. Far bulkier, and possibly cruder, but recognizable as performing a similar function. Within twenty minutes Evgenni was secure in the Treatment Table as Shen had dubbed it. It was blocky, and eight people could have sat around it, so the name stuck.

  "Surely your former leader couldn't have built that by himself, could he?" Boris asked as he started walking around the room looking at the various devices.

  "No, he could not. The design and building were outside of his technical areas of expertise. He was the expert on Etherics and Gravitics. 'Laughter Brings Meaning to Life' was the crew member who designed and fabricated that unit with the assistance of several others. She was a medical and mechanical engineer and happens to be one of the three that may still be alive. In point of fact, she was first to leave the group."

  Boris started examining the objects in the room and was startled when he touched the long metal rods. "What is this? I was sure little in here would work. I mean I can understand the Treatment Table having some sort of long-term power storage, but the rest of these objects?"

  "Ataman..."

  "And stop calling me that."

  "But your people are Cossacks, or so the information given to me stated. And according to the language database I was supplied with, Ataman is the title for a leader of Cossacks."

  "If you must be formal, call me Ghost Bear. Otherwise, Boris is fine. I've lived too long to have to put up with the stupidity of titles."

  "Very well, Boris. I suggest you do not touch any of the devices in that room and are precisely guided in their usage by myself. The Etheric generator that was built by CILO was to last a projected two millennia. That was the outside limit of predicted technological advancement to space travel for this planet with his aid."

  "Two thousand years? We made in barely nine hundred."

  "Those calculations were made based on a period to create a subservient population willing to fulfill his wishes, without any external alien interference or resources. At a guess, there are at least four groups of aliens that have influenced human society. One was discovered shortly after he completed the Etheric generator from pieces of the damaged ship. We had no way of knowing that interference had already occurred, as he felt replacing and draining the fading generator from the ship was more important. Its failure without any remedial efforts would have made any further planning unnecessary."

  "Unnecessary? How?"

  "The liberation of residual energies from the failing shi
elding around the energy transfer matrix would have left a crater roughly seventy-five miles wide. He had no means of moving the equipment. Therefore, first creating an emergency building, then a replacement generator to siphon the energy off into it was necessary. Fortunately, we had collected the materials for such replacements over extended trips on other planets. We simply had not expected to need to use them so soon. Analysis complete. 12 hours 30 minutes plus or minus five percent until the patient is ready."

  Her tone was a little disturbing to Boris. Like a scientist discussing how long a culture would take in a lab incubator. Boris shook it off. "Well, seeing as I have no intention of putting myself in debt to you information wise, it seems we have some time on our hands. Perhaps now you can stop horse trading and actually give us your history. At least how you came to be a brain in a box. It can wait till the others get here if you so desire." Boris keyed the intercom.

  "Sergeant of the Watch." came the response from the intercom.