Vigilante Series 2: Nebula Vigilante

by T. Jackson King

  Matt nodded even as his attention fixed on the holosphere. “I’m out of ocean-time, for now. And Mata Hari is quite correct. Our job is to visit that world and learn why it is dead. Or, why it appears to be dead.”

  To George’s right, beyond Matt, grew a purplish holocloud that grew larger until the twelve-foot tall dragon form of BattleMind appeared. The alien AI’s scaly black wings spread wide, its toothy long mouth party opened and the armor plates on its back and sides bunched together as if it too was tense. “There is no tachlink response to the code I have emitted. Any automaton of my like, or even a non-aware device, would respond. If there were power and if there was something able to respond. Let us proceed inward.”

  “Agreed,” Matt said. “But we will dribble out SpyEye Remotes, sensorBeads, sensorProbes, and tachRemotes in case someone else enters space behind us.” His left hand gripped his arm-rest and starship Mata Hari moved forward on its deut-li thrusters. Eventually they would reach one-half lightspeed, then reverse half way there so they could come into a high orbit about a world that glimmered blue from oceans, brown from deserts and green from scattered forests and meadows.

  George looked back over his shoulder at his combat suit. Soon enough he would enter the suit and join Matt on any space or land foray that they undertook. He hoped that this time he would be as useful in spotting the unexpected as he had at the Trans-Galactic office. And he hoped that dead really meant dead.

  Matt gazed at the planet below him in normal-time mode, the lack of any activity by ancient comsats, habitat debris and a few polar orbit geosync satellites gave him hope that the planet below really was tech-dead. And while he now spoke and thought at human speed, the optical neurolinking lightbeams that caressed his skin in the Pit gave him backup as needed.

  The silvery shine of giant cities spotted the planet’s various continents, even though green overgrowth had spread little fingers down the transit routes of the radial design of each city. Similar metal reflections showed around large lakes, some high peaks and at the polar ice caps, indicative of a species that did not accept weather or geographic limitations on their life choices. After all, this was a colony world of the T’Chak, the perfect species, a species that was equally at home flying in the sky or treading along pathways between high-reaching buildings of stone, ceramic, metal and glass, each building a marvel of intricate design. Perhaps he would have liked meeting an organic T’Chak, if they could put aside the ‘we are perfect’ persona for a moment. This world suggested they had much to be proud of in how they lived their lives.

  He looked aside at the somber dragon AI. “Well, BattleMind, where do you wish to go, or visit?”

  “The city urbus beside that large inland lake, at the equatorial continent. The Planetary AI is always located in the Imperial Urbus of each planet. That urbus is below us.”

  He spoke to Mata Hari both aloud and through mind-link. “Is Ariadne ready for our journey?”

  “Yes, Matthew,” said his partner, still dressed in her chain-mail, leather skirt and steel saber. Her look was somber. “And dear ladies, I know you wish to breath the air of a planet after three months aboard this ship, but let Matt, George, BattleMind and myself first establish the safety of this world below.”

  “Damn!” muttered Eliana. “How did you read my mind?”

  “Mine too!” said Suzanne with a sigh. “I don’t have those nanoBit computers in me like George does.”

  Matt bit his lip to keep from laughing. Gatekeeper stepped back to view the other half of their crew. “Eliana and Suzanne, it is logical for a visitor to a new world to visit it. But George and Matt are now a combat team, well able to defend themselves. While you two may out-think our gentlemen, it is best for them to go first. Is that agreeable?”

  He marveled at how the Omega AI was so incredibly diplomatic. Rather than give an order, it explained and asked for compliance.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s agreeable,” muttered Suzanne. “At least Eliana and I can see what you folks encounter thanks to the helmet cams of those suits you wear.”

  All true, Matt recalled. He climbed out of the Pit, then looked at George. “Shall we suit up?”

  “Sure,” George said, getting out of his accel-couch and then stripping off his shirt and pants. He headed for his white ceramic armor suit, resting against the back wall of Bridge, just like Matt’s own Suit. With a wave and a smile at Eliana, he too headed for Suit.

  “Open.”

  Suit obeyed.

  It turned on waldo boots, bent forward, and split along its backspine, the rocket backpack hinging away as interlocking trapdoor plates opened in Suit’s midback—much like an antique zipper. Matt stepped into the tubular legs and pushed his feet into transducer-lined padding. Mid-calf support struts locked around his shins, then others about his thighs, ready to magnify every muscle twitch into a hyperkinetic kick-jump. He felt strong. From ten to a thousand times stronger than a normal human. Squatting, Matt thrust hands and arms into Suit’s outstretched armor-arms, felt similar struts lock-up, then ducked his head. He raised it inside the helmet and stood up straight. A rumble sounded from his back as Suit closed up, pressurizing its interior.

  Sensors, transducers and padding now touched him everywhere. Flex-struts enclosed his midbody. Waste tubes connected to his penis and anus, while feeder-needles penetrated abdominal Contacts—for nutrient nourishment, drug injection, and blood gases monitoring. Finally, moving along the nape of his neck like a lover’s caress, Suit’s fiber optic cable snuggled up. Thousands of optical fiber pins drove home, socketing into his cyborg implant at CV1. The omnipresent mental weight of Mata Hari, interrupted when he stepped out of direct lightbeam contact and into the shielding interior of Suit, returned with the cable connection.

  “Hello, Matt. Feel good?” Mata Hari asked. Her voice sounded normal and reassuring.

  “Good enough,” he said. “Is Suit outfitted for Antigen defense and any local bacterial and viral vectors on file with the Library?”

  “Of course.” In his mind’s eye there materialized the chain-mail clad battle maiden of Nordic legend. Her black eyes carried a intense look of duty that matched his own feelings. “Like my look?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I especially liked it when we boarded the harvester starship. I believe your look helped to reassure the captives.”

  “Thank you!” she said, a dimple-smile breaking through her intent look.

  He turned, waved at a suited up George, then mind-cast to the holo form of BattleMind. “Shall we depart?”

  “Follow,” growled the giant dragon as it stomped out of the Bridge and down the Spine hallway, heading for the space above the shuttle’s hangar. Clearly it had chosen to adopt the ‘get there on foot’ motif of normal organics.

  Matt smiled to himself, waved at Gatekeeper who was staying behind, then turned his thoughts to the internal checkout of Suit’s systems, sensors, weapons and life supplies. While he did not expect a battle once they landed, he had long ago adopted the life mantra of an obscure human group. Their customary motto was “Be Prepared.” He had always liked that phrase. Almost as much as the Paladin motif of “Have gun, will travel.”

  This time his travel was on an alien planet filled with unknowns and puzzles. At least the instant communications via tachlink would keep everyone on the same level of awareness. Now, if only their arrival did not activate some kind of automatic defense machinery.

  Two yellow laser beams hit him and George seconds after they stepped out of Ariadne and onto the central plaza of the capital city. Twisting, he let his sapphire crystals flare away the beam as Suit automatically backtracked the beam and fired a shoulder pulse-cannon at its dome top location.

  “The Defense Modulus has shut down at my command,” BattleMind said in his mind as Matt and George stood up from their automatic squat and shelter effort.

  Matt stepped into a water fountain bowl, standing with its central pedestal to his back even as the brown-stained water at his feet rippled away
sluggishly. Nothing tried to bite his boots nor did the pedestal release a shower of water. Clearly that part of the plaza had died long ago.

  “Damn it!” he said to the rushing mind-current of BattleMind. “Why didn’t you sense the power level of that laser mount? Even at rest mode it should have emitted a power signature you could read!”

  “Matthew,” said the nearby holo of Mata Hari, “we lack all of the instrumentalities we have aboard the ship. Remember, our holos here are projections from holo emitters seeded into yours and George’s suits. So, we act through devices in each suit. Not through our own instrumentalities.”

  BattleMind ignored his complaint as it spread its massive wings and began holo-walking toward the massive yellow geodesic dome that fronted on the open square. “The Planetary AI is based inside that structure, the one where the defense beam came from. Follow.”

  “Matt,” called George over Suit’s comlink, “do I stay outside and keep guard against something else automated?”

  “No, come inside with me and the others. But do tell your suit to eject some SpyEye floaters just outside the entrance. We can keep an eye on everything from their vidfeed.”

  Matt walked up to the stone bulwark that surrounded the yellow stone of the giant dome. Unlike entrances to places where ground-bound folks lived, this place did not have a ramp or stairs to provide access to the giant archway that was an obvious entry point. The people here, who used to live here, flew up to the bulwark and just walked inside.

  “George, Nullgrav on the boots,” he said, releasing a flock of SpyEye remotes and sensorBeads from Suit as he rose up the three meter face of the bulwark. He tasked them to float around and inspect any building with open access to the interior. He wanted to see what condition the interior of the buildings were like, especially any habitat blocks. Were there people bones lying around? Did things look like a shambles inside? Were there active house AIs? Was anything living inside the tall buildings and house blocks? There were several wrecked groundskimmers and cargo floats on the plaza surface, but no lifeforms beyond dead leaves. He noticed George lifting his Magnum laser rifle to port-arms position as he rose, showing readiness in case another laser mount tried to zap them as they entered. Good.

  “Matt,” called George. “I see dead leaves, thick dust and pebble-sized debris lying on top of this bulwark. Also, my eye scope sees the same thing in nearby walk-streets, though distant alleys are overgrown with jungle creepers and small crevice plants. I’m putting my suit’s Combat CPU on AutoDefense mode.”

  Just right. Matt signaled Suit to do the same, though he kept the reaction zone fairly small. He didn’t want Suit to attack his combat partner. Arriving at the flat expanse of yellow stone that gave access to the wide archway entrance, he settled down onto the dusty yellow stone and looked to his right as the holos of Mata Hari and BattleMind also stood on the flat stone. He noticed that Mata Hari’s boots did not leave an imprint, unlike her movement in the park or elsewhere inside their ship. Not enough mini-tractors available from Suit, he assumed. He strode forward in Suit, his own Magnum rifle held in his right hand as his left pointed fingertip lasers ahead. The 360 AllAround vision afforded him by Suit’s helmet was good for seeing lifeforms trying to sneak up on him, but somewhat disorienting when he moved. But seven years of Vigilante work had taught him how to split his visual awareness in several directions.

  The wide archway showed no sign of individual stones, unlike human archways. While the building exterior showed the flat triangle slabs of a geodesic design, it appeared to be a unified structure. Whatever. After sending a SpyEye floater ahead in order to trip any entrance defense, he sent it further down a wide central aisle. It fed back to his helmet Eyes-Up display images in the UV, infrared, visual yellow and microwave ranges as his chestpack pulse-Doppler radar whined on.

  The glow of BattleMind’s holo came to a stop. “Strange. There is no sign of active ecofields or sensor emitters, such as is normal inside the structures of my masters.”

  Mata Hari pointed with her sword. “There are side hallways that intersect this aisle. They appear to be in radial mode, versus the right angles of some species.”

  “Of course,” BattleMind said verbally, even though the overflow from its mind made Matt feel crowded in his own mind. “That is the standard interior access design for all T’Chak structures. Let us move forward. My memory of the access mode to the Planetary AI module is that we must avoid the central convocation room and turn to the right down the fifth hallway from the building entrance.”

  George and Matt followed the two AI holos, their suits on 360 scan mode. Matt felt his biceps rocket guns rustle as they filled with Fire-and-Forget nanoshells, while his waistband neurotoxin gas dispenser vibrated as it loaded gas into miniature floater globes that would be spit out by either Matt or Suit’s CPU. His belly’s ultrasonic blaster had moved to Power Up status, read to liquefy the organic contents of any opponent. After years of Suit doing the identical preparations whenever they entered a likely battle zone, he might have smiled. Except his attention was focused on a brief flash of movement detected by his pulse-Doppler microwaves.

  “Movement on the ground, small thing, at the entry to hallway Five, George and everyone. BattleMind, did you perceive any emissions?”

  The armor-plated back of the dragon bunched up and its wings lifted high, with the grasping claws at each wing’s forward edge opening and closing. Hungrily he thought. “No. But I am limited to the sensors on your combat suits and in the autonomous floaters and beads. We proceed.”

  Matt resumed his walk ahead as George brought up the rear, walking backward so he saw the receding entrance archway while Matt watched the views ahead. Then his left side faceplate Eyes-Up quadrant filled with four images transmitted to him by four different SpyEye floaters that had reached a housing block. This his AI friends needed to know.

  “Mata Hari, BattleMind, four of my floaters have found skeletal remains inside four different housing block locations. To me, the remains look . . . as if they died in place, not running from something. Either a killing gamma ray beam took them out with no structure damage, or maybe a bioweapon killed them.” Matt looked closer at the images. “The personal items often found in a home are present, like plates, goblets, wall murals and similar non-organic items. There is no evidence of the residences being ransacked by later raiders.”

  “Curious,” growled BattleMind. “I have even more questions for this AI, once we reach its residence module. Turn here, and follow.”

  Matt and George turned right down the fifth radial hallway from the entrance. They marched nearly halfway around the dome’s interior before the T’Chak dragon holo stopped, turned to face a wall of yellow stone, then reached out to claw at it with his armhands. Of course there was no mark left. Hissing with frustration, BattleMind’s angry image appeared abruptly in Matt’s mind. “This is the entry zone for the module that lies below us. But it is unpowered. Or, it requires an organic being to be within sensor perception. Stand before it and open your faceplate!”

  Matt slowed the rapid beating of his heart, resisted the impulse to say “Fuck You!” and walked forward to stand where the dragon holo had stood. With a blink of his right eye, he opened helmet’s crystalline faceplate. A scent of dryness and dust came to his nose. There was no moisture to sense nor any odor of decay. “BattleMind, this place seems to be—”

  “Opening,” said a harsh voice that seemed to come from the stone itself. The language spoken was unknown to him, but not to BattleMind since he felt the AI translate the phrase even as Suit’s external speaker heard it. A five meter high triangular slab slowly dropped down to floor level, leaving a dark open space before them.

  “It did require an organic,” muttered BattleMind. “At least this part of the structure has basic power. But I detect no building-wide power emissions, similar to the way your datapads link to one another by broadcast power. However, every T’Chak structure is built with radioactive power capsules that last
a half million cycles, as a backup to the normal broadcast power. At least something of my masters continues to function.”

  Matt told helmet to close his faceplate. While he did not expect this place to be teeming with biospores, he did not believe in careless behavior. Carelessness hurt you every time. “George, follow after me as we three enter, but bring in a few sensorBeads in case the entry closes and blocks out any EMF reception from our little spies.”

  “Got you, Boss.”

  The two AIs entered the dark corridor that lay ahead. Matt followed behind, counting on his physical movement to tell any corridor sensors that people were about. Overhead, a portion of the ceiling began glowing, providing a whitish light that illuminated the corridor. Matt saw almost no dust on the floor, but what was there showed two tiny lines, as if something that ran on wheels or tracks had preceded them. The small object he’d seen with the microwaves?

  The corridor made a sharp right turn, then became a spiral ramp that moved downward. High enough for a full-sized T’Chak dragon, the width of the spiral corridor was broad enough for three of them to walk together. Though the white light did appear dim. Perhaps the radioactive power flow was very limited.

  “We are nearly there,” BattleMind said as the corridor ramp stopped descending and flattened out.

  “So it seems,” Mata Hari said, holding her sword before her in a two-handed grip.

  Matt did not chuckle at the battle-readiness of his friend. For in truth she was his friend, and as real a part of his life as Eliana had become. He moved to the side of the corridor wall and stared at the image of a T’Chak dragon that was carved deep into the stone wall that blocked their further movement. “Do I open my faceplate again?”