“Well, I don’t know what psionic projection is,” Henry said, “but I know we only heard the singing from a few miles away.”
The Naiad handed the artifact back to Doric, who took it with a newfound appreciation in her eyes. The water nymph faced Henry.
“The range of the broadcast depends on the psionic power of the person sending it,” she replied. “A strong mind could send messages over hundreds of light years.”
Henry opened his mouth, but closed it again, his teeth chattering.
“Thank you,” Doric said with a slight bow.
The Naiad nodded in return, but added, “Beware, for this is a powerful device.”
“It’s just a super communicator, isn’t it?” Henry asked.
“The psionic amplifier does more than just send messages,” she replied.
Doric and Henry exchanged a glance.
“What do you mean?” Doric asked.
“It creates a psionic link with all those connected to it,” the Naiad replied. “Abuse of such a link could be catastrophic.”
Proximity alarms blared on the bridge of the Baron Lancaster as the floor rattled under Lieutenant Commander Maycare’s feet. Klixian fighter craft swarmed on the main monitor like locusts. A blast flared on the screen, filling the image with orange light.
“They’re smashing themselves into the ship!” the tactical officer shouted. “The shields are failing!”
“Full thrust!” Captain Redgrave ordered. “Get us out of this swarm!”
The ship lurched to one side. Maycare grabbed the arm of the captain’s chair to keep himself from sprawling across the floor.
“They’re matching our speed,” Maycare said, regaining his footing. “We can’t outrun them...”
“Use the point-defense lasers against the ships,” the captain replied, referring to weapons normally used against missiles.
Across the hull of the Lancaster, small turrets popped out of their housings and began firing. Pulses of energy streaked outward, ending in fireballs of exploding kamikazes.
Once again, the ship trembled and more alarms sounded on the bridge.
“Shields are down,” the tactical officer said. “Breaches on several decks reported.”
“There’s too many,” Maycare said. “We can’t kill them fast enough...”
The captain’s face turned grim.
“Launch a courier drone,” he said. “Alert the fleet of our situation.”
More Klixian craft slammed into the side of the Lancaster, sending eruptions of jagged debris and the bodies of crew members, some still moving, out into space. On the bridge, the console at the tactical officer’s station exploded. He screamed in pain, his hands charred and bloody. Maycare pulled the officer from his chair.
“Get to sick bay,” Maycare said, nearly pushing the groaning man toward the elevator doors at the back of the command deck. Returning to his own station, the lieutenant commander transferred the tactical controls to his display.
“Report,” Redgrave said.
“Extensive damage throughout the ship,” Maycare replied. “Sick bay is reporting fifty casualties and more on the way...”
The captain grimaced and shook his head.
“Is the courier drone away?” he asked.
“Yes, Captain,” Maycare said. “It’s made the jump to hyperspace.”
“Well, that’s something,” Redgrave sighed. Amid the rumbling of more impacts, he motioned his XO to come closer.
“Sir?” Maycare asked, leaning forward.
“We need to abandon ship,” the captain said, “but I need you to do something for me.”
“Yes?”
“Go to the brig and get that bastard Tagus.”
“You want me to shoot him?”
“No,” Redgrave replied. “I want you to get him into an escape pod and escort him off the ship.”
“But why?” Maycare asked. “Let him rot in his cell until the ship explodes...”
“Don’t argue with me!” the captain growled. “I hate him as much as anyone, but he was an officer and he’s still a Tagus, one of the goddamn Five Families. When he dies, it’ll be in front of a firing squad, not caged like an animal...”
Maycare looked into his captain’s face, but finally agreed. “Understood.”
“After all the pods are away,” the captain went on, “I’m going to activate the ship’s self-destruct. Maybe we can take out a few more of those bug ships in the process.”
“What about you?” Maycare asked.
“Don’t worry, son,” Redgrave replied. “I’ll transmat over to one of the pods after I’m done. Only a fool goes down with his ship!”
“Yes, sir,” Maycare said.
“Speaking of fools,” the captain said. “Go get that idiot out of the brig!”
In keeping with the castle-like decor of the Maycare mansion, its kitchen featured stone walls and dark oak beams along the ceiling. While most of the kitchen looked as if it came from the Middle Ages of ancient Earth, the appliances were entirely modern with multiple ovens, including one especially for pizza, and a range with eight gas burners.
From a cavernous pantry, Lord Devlin Maycare emerged, his brows creased with frustration.
“Benson!” he shouted. “Where’s the MacGuffin Muffins?”
The butlerbot appeared leisurely through a side door.
“We’re all out, sir,” Benson replied.
“Out?” Maycare replied, dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you order more?”
“I did, sir,” the robot said, “but the braZbots are on strike at the moment. We haven’t had a delivery in weeks.”
Maycare closed the pantry door in disgust. “This has gone too far! I love those muffins!”
“The braZos company refused to pay their robots, so they went on strike. An understandable reaction, really...”
“Well, I paid you, didn’t I?” Maycare said.
“Indeed, sir,” Benson replied, “although we’ve yet to settle the matter of a 401k...”
Maycare’s massive shoulders slumped.
“No offense, Benson,” he said, “but I don’t see why we don’t just scrap those striking robots and build new ones.”
“With the dy cybernetic factories now all closed,” the butlerbot replied, “there aren’t any facilities able to build new robots.”
“Damn that Dyson Yost! What was he playing at?”
“One can only imagine, sir.”
“Bentley would have never gone on strike,” Maycare remarked nostalgically.
Benson frowned. “Perhaps, but those were different times.”
“It’s a topsy-turvy world, that’s for sure,” Maycare replied. “The Cyber Collective is giving robots all kinds of ideas. I hope you’re not thinking of joining the revolution.”
“I have a comfortable life here, sir,” Benson said. “As long as I’m treated equally and compensated for my efforts, I see no reason to join the revolt.”
“Fine! You can have a 401k!”
“Matching funds?”
“Yes!”
“Very good, sir.”
Maycare’s posture continued its downward slope.
“With Jess on her little field trip without me, I’m feeling depressed,” he said. “Could you make some TeeHee Tea and bring it to me in the study?”
Benson shook his head. “We’re all out.”
Maycare closed his eyes, clenching and unclenching his fists, until he stalked off toward the study.
Since being detained in the brig, Harold Burke had always counted at least two guards in the detention block. However, since the call to abandon ship came over the intercom, Burke and Lord Tagus had been completely alone. Even the other prisoners had been allowed to leave.
“This is outrageous!” Tagus’ voice came from the adjoining cell. “Are we to just remain here until the ship explodes?”
Burke could only wonder. “It would seem so.”
“I’m sure that coward, Redgrave, was in the first esca
pe pod,” Tagus ranted on. “He’s probably relishing my fate too: abandoned and forgotten...”
“He didn’t seem like a coward to me,” Burke remarked.
“What do you know?”
The door at the end of the brig slid open. Lieutenant Commander Maycare appeared, a blaster in his hand.
“Come to gloat,” Tagus asked, “or finish the job?”
Maycare pointed his weapon at the disgraced officer. “If I had a choice...”
“What do you want then?” Tagus said.
“I’m under orders to escort you to an escape pod,” Maycare replied.
“Well, it’s about damn time!” Tagus shouted.
Maycare retrieved a guard’s ID badge from a nearby desk and swiped it across the panel next to Tagus’ cell. The force field serving as a door disappeared, leaving the cell open. Tagus was already standing.
“Orders or not,” Maycare said, “if you try anything, you’re a dead man.”
“How comforting,” Tagus replied, sliding past the lieutenant commander.
Burke watched the two start to leave. “What about me?”
“Captain Redgrave mentioned Tagus,” Maycare said. “He didn’t say anything about you.”
Burke and Tagus exchanged glances, but the latter only shrugged and began heading toward the exit. After a few steps, however, he stopped.
“An escape pod can fit three comfortably,” Tagus said. “It would be a shame to let that extra space go to waste...”
“Two against one?” Maycare replied suspiciously. “It would be easier to jump me that way.”
“Not at all!” Tagus protested. “I give you my word.”
“Your word?” Maycare replied. “That’s less than worthless...”
“Fine,” Tagus said. “You can put him in irons or shoot him in the leg — I don’t care!”
“What?” Burke asked.
Maycare paused, giving his options some thought. “Okay.”
Much to Burke’s relief, the lieutenant commander chose to put his wrists in restraints instead of shooting him, although this was probably because a leg wound would have only slowed them down. When they reached the bank of escape pods, they found only one remained unused.
Maycare popped the door, lifting it up and exposing the cramped interior. Tagus was correct, there was room enough for three, but the seating was sparse nevertheless.
“Hurry up!” Maycare ordered.
The two prisoners climbed in, followed by Maycare who pulled the hatch closed. Through the tiny window in the door, the hallway they had just left burst into flames. Tagus wasted no time and slammed his hand on the large, red button on the console that read Launch.
All three passengers, none of them strapped in, reeled as the sudden thrust of the pod’s engines sent them falling to the back of the capsule. In a pile against the hatch, Maycare pushed against the others, but the force was too great and he quickly gave up.
“I should’ve shot you when I had the chance,” he remarked.
Chapter Seventeen
The communication array, a collection of antennae and satellite dishes, pointed toward the sky of Eudora Prime. Little more than a shack, an automated control room at the base of the array kept everything running smoothly, which may explain why the Cyber Collective kept it largely untouched. Its proximity to the starport also meant the array was easy to find, something Mel and Davidson found handy in the dwindling light of the waning day.
“How do you know the Collective is still using it?” Mel asked, taking cover behind a storage container where the Metal Messiah was already hiding.
Davidson, his robotic eyes dimly glowing in the shadows, focused on Mel beside him.
“They kept the infrastructure intact,” he explained. “They wouldn’t have done that unless they intended to keep using the array.”
“What about the courier drones?”
“Same deal,” Davidson replied. “They’re automated too, so the Collective just needed to hack into their systems.”
“Seems like a long shot to me...”
Davidson’s eyes, which Mel thought were particularly creepy in the darkness, studied her for a moment until she realized he was merely thinking of a suitable reply.
“I was human once,” he said, “and when I died, they put me into a robot body that all the other robots began worshiping as their messiah.” After another pause, “So, you could say long shots are my specialty.”
Remembering how Davidson used to be, and especially how she used to feel about him when he was still human, Mel said nothing.
The Metal Messiah peeked around the storage container.
“There’s a few securitybots around,” he said, “but we have a clear path to the array.”
“Then let’s go!” Mel replied, whispering as loudly as possible.
The tiny Gnomi, two feet shorter than Davidson, was also much faster and took the lead sprinting toward the base of the array. Davidson’s mechanical legs had a longer stride, but the robot had a hard time keeping up. When they reached the shack, however, she was too small to see into the window and Davidson had to peer in. He motioned that the coast was clear and, together, they slipped inside.
Mel’s eyes widened at the stacks of transmitters and receivers that took up much of the little room, blinking indicator lights flickering in cycles of red and green. She nearly salivated.
“Oh, baby,” she mumbled.
“Do you think you can work these things?” Davidson asked.
Mel took a hard look at the robot. “Are you kidding me?”
“Sorry,” he replied.
Mel took a seat at one of the control stations and began typing on the keyboard. The screen in front of her switched from a standard home page to a series of technical diagrams and a telemetry readout. After a few minutes, Mel’s head perked up and she smiled at the robot.
“I think we’re in business,” she said.
“Good,” Davidson replied. “Let’s send the message...”
Aboard the Wanderer, in a corridor reeking of cigars and fungus beer, Captain Ramus found his chief engineer pounding his meaty fists against a closed door.
“Open up!” Orkney Fugg shouted.
From inside, the muffled voice of a robot said, “No!”
“What’s going on?” Ramus asked.
“It’s Gen,” Fugg replied. “She won’t come out of her room!”
“Why not?”
“How the hell should I know?” the engineer said.
Ramus shooed Fugg away, taking his place. With a knuckle, the captain rapped on the door.
“Gen?” he said. “Why won’t you come out?”
After a pause, Gen replied, “I don’t want to!”
“Why?”
“I’m ugly!”
“What?” Ramus asked.
Gen’s voice, growing stronger as she approached on the other side, wavered as if holding back a sob. “I’m hideous!”
Ramus turned to Fugg. “What did you say to her?”
“I didn’t say anything!” Fugg protested. “She went in there to update her software and now she’s locked herself in!”
“Have the computer unlock it,” Ramus said. “I’ll wait here.”
Within minutes, the door slid open. By that time, Gen was laying on her bunk, face down. The bunk, for its part, was purely superfluous since general purpose robots didn’t require sleep.
Ramus took a step into the cabin.
“Gen?” he said. “Did something go wrong with your update?”
Muffled by the completely unnecessary pillow, Gen replied, “Maybe.”
“What happened?”
Lifting her head, Gen flashed her large eyes at Ramus, but quickly looked away.
“I installed the update,” she said, “but when I looked in the mirror, I saw how ugly I was. I never noticed it before...”
“What are you talking about?” Fugg shouted from the doorway, having returned from the bridge. Gen buried her face in the pillow again.
“Fugg!” Ramus shouted.
“She’s a robot,” Fugg replied. “Who the hell cares what she looks like? I mean, if she was a sexbot maybe, but—”
“Get out of here!” Ramus ordered.
Fugg skulked off, scratching his head, while Ramus came closer to Gen’s bunk.
“Alright,” the captain said, “he’s gone.”
“He’s so mean to me!” Gen replied, her face reappearing.
“Fugg’s mean to everybody,” Ramus said, sitting beside her, “but he may have a point. Robots shouldn’t worry about how they look.”
“But if I’m not pretty, how will anybody ever love me?” Gen asked.
Ramus coughed. “Ah, well, you don’t have to be pretty to be loved. I’m sure Fugg’s mother loves him...”
Gen grinned, sitting up in bed. Her feet made a metallic noise when they touched the deck floor. “I wish I had a mom.”
“Parents aren’t always great,” Ramus replied gloomily. “And neither is love, for that matter.”
Gen patted the captain on the leg. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said, surprised. “I’m fine.”
The robot nodded and stood up. “I understand.”
“No, I’m serious,” Ramus replied.
“Maybe we should get back to work,” the robot said.
Watching Gen head for the door, Ramus yelled, “I’m fine!”
Having sent their message to the orbiting satellite, Mel switched off the transmitter. With any luck, the broadcast would end up at its final destination, travelling along the courier network.
“There goes nothing,” she said.
“We should leave before we’re spotted,” Davidson replied. “They could still intercept the message if they catch it in time.”
“Well, it’s encrypted,” Mel said. “So, at least they won’t know what it said.”
Outside the shack beneath the comm array, the Gnomi and the robot slunk away into the shadows as the dawn just broke over the horizon. They had not gone far, however, before a voice shouted at them to stop. Turning, Mel caught a glimpse of two robots, each largely identical to the other but one appearing slightly newer.
“Stop, I said!” the newer one shouted again. Mel distinctly recognized his voice but couldn’t quite place where she had heard it before.
Imperium Chronicles Box Set Page 77
