Zeta Hack: A Paranormal Space Opera Adventure (Star Justice Book 3)

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “Where to begin?” She had closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The woman didn’t speak for longer than I expected, so Z and I looked at each other. Then my friend opened her mouth to speak, but Kasta leaned forward. “You are Z?”

  “Yes,” my friend replied.

  “I am Kasta, my sister is Paula.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Z said with a guarded smile.

  “Yes. We feel the same way. You have both helped us.”

  “Byron said something about his sister before he killed Huyan Kar,” I prompted.

  “Yes. She was taken from us when we were young,” the woman said as she opened her blue eyes. “She was incredible. Full of life. Intelligent. A genius. We have an affinity for machines, but she was almost a sorceress. She could build a robot out of scrap metal and a trashed terminal. She could move the metal with her mind and shape it how she wanted. Then it would come to life and entertain us.” The woman closed her eyes again and took another breath.

  “So it wasn’t Byron’s sister. It was yours?” Z asked.

  “Yes. We’ve missed her for ten years. Our parents were miners and were away for their week of work. We weren’t supposed to leave, but we ran out of beans and rice. We had little money then, but we had some saved. We went out to the store to buy some so she could continue to build the toy she promised us. When we came back, the apartment was empty. The door was kicked in, and we could hear her screaming from the alleyway.” The woman opened her eyes again and then cleared her throat. “I would like some water. Would you two like some water?”

  “Uhh, sure,” Z said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  “Water, please. Three glasses” the woman called out to the ceiling. Two seconds later I heard ice falling into glass and liquid pouring. Three hand-size drones then hovered from an open archway five meters behind the couch where the blonde woman sat. They each bore a full glass of water, and the woman motioned for us to keep our hands up as if we wanted to hold the glass from the bottom. We did so, and they dropped their load into the palm of our hands before retreating toward the kitchen.

  “That’s some decent programming,” Z said with a whistle.

  “Thank you,” the woman replied as she took a sip of her ice water. “We ran out of my building and found the men. They were taking her down an alleyway. We were eleven years old in Earth years or so, and we couldn’t do anything but follow them. They took her to a brothel. We were too scared to go in because we knew they would just kidnap us as well. Then no one would be able to tell my parents what happened.”

  “That’s fucking awful,” Z groaned. “What did your parents do?”

  “We had to wait for another two days. When they returned, we told them what happened. My dad was a hard man, but he loved us more than anything. He hated that we were alone when they went on their jobs.” The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “He went to the brothel to find my sister. He never came back home.”

  Z and I were silent as the beautiful woman bit her lip. A tear fell down her cheek, and she touched it with the tip of her pointer finger. Then she opened her eyes and stared at it with fascination.

  “Mother couldn’t pay the bills with only her mining income. She had to start allowing men to use her body. One of them didn’t want to pay her-- we could hear them screaming in the other room. Then he started beating her. Well…” Kasta sighed again. “We hid so he couldn’t find us. Then we were orphans. We lived on the streets of Queen’s Hat. Our lives had always been hard, but it became harder alone. We went hungry for a long time, but then we found an old drone warehouse. It was abandoned when Nebula Gammon left and filled with wonderful toys. The technology was a bit old, but we didn’t care. Soon we had minions to get us food, clothes, rhodium, and R-credit cards.” The woman’s eyes turned to me, and they were the hard eyes of a killer.

  “Then we began to look for our sister.”

  The woman was silent for a few moments and Z cleared her throat. “I’m guessing you didn’t find her?”

  “She wasn’t at the brothel. No one knew of her. We tortured and killed all of the men who worked there and the madam. The closest information I got was that some new gangster, who used to captain a ship, was buying girls and selling them.”

  “Kar?” I asked.

  “We didn’t know. We found the man who killed my mother first. My machines killed him after we told him who we were. I believe we were twelve or thirteen. It had been a little over a year since our mother was murdered.” The woman took another sip of water and then set it on the table that hid her tools. “We had used my stolen rhodium and R-credit cards to lease a small apartment. We continued to search for our sister, but there was no safe way for us to infiltrate the many organizations of gangsters in this district. At the time, there were five crime lords and as many in each of the other six districts. We slipped our faithful minions into spots to observe, we tracked conversations, but all of the men were involved in the slave trade.”

  The woman paused again and then glanced over to the room where her sister retreated. She turned back to us after a few moments, and a sad smile spread across her lips. “Not only were we just girls, but we were women. Queen’s Hat Station is steeped in mining culture. There was not much respect given to women on the job, or in any roll of power in the districts.”

  “So you built Byron,” I said. As the words came out of my mouth, I realized that Kasta smelled strange. Other than the thick flower perfume, she had no body odor. Z and I both smelled like sweat, the food we had eaten, and exhaustion.

  We smelled human.

  “Yes,” Kasta said as our eyes met.

  “Damn good job. I had no idea he wasn’t real,” Z said, but the strange woman didn’t look at her. She was still staring at me.

  “You know?” she asked as her lips curved into a surprised smile.

  “Yeah. I have a keen nose. I couldn’t tell at first because I wasn’t even considering it, and maybe your perfume covered it up.”

  “Uhhh. Did I miss something? What are you talking about?” Z asked me.

  “She is one also,” I said as I pointed to the blonde twin with the darker red blouse.

  Z gasped and turned to face the woman. My friend leaned forward, and they stared at each other for a few moments. Then Kasta shrugged, and Z shook her head.

  “Holy shit,” Z gasped. “I don’t believe it.”

  “That story didn’t really happen to you,” I said as I nodded to the back room where the sobbing woman had run to. “It happened to her.”

  “It happened to her, and to me. We are the same,” the android said with another shrug that only a few minutes before, I would have thought of as an entirely human movement. “She lost her sister, as did I. My tears are real. I feel her emotions as my own. I might not be made of the same red blood, bones, and flesh as you both, but I do have bones and muscles, a mind, and a soul. They are just made of metal, silicone, and plastic.”

  “So, let me get this straight,” Z huffed. “An orphan girl managed to build two perfect AI androids in her apartment with no corporate support or money?”

  “We had money we stole, but yes. We wish you could have met our sister. She was the real talent.”

  “Uhhhh. Yeah, but there is no way I’d believe anything you were saying if I didn’t just watch you and your… uh… sister, screw a spare head back on him.” Z pointed at Byron’s body. The man’s eyelids were starting to flutter a bit.

  “I can understand. She and I began to believe we were unusual when we constructed our first drones with left overs found in the Nebula Gammon warehouse.

  “She’s got to be the most brilliant engineer in the fucking galaxy, and I thought you were both just pretty hookers,” Z said with a dry chuckle.

  “Your man knew better,” the android said as she looked at me and smiled.

  “He did?” Z asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I guessed that Byron was following their orders, but I didn't know he was an android. I can
imagine how the rest of this story goes since Huyan Kar is dead, but why don’t you finish?”

  “Byron started a gambling house and some drone betting. We were able to use our tech to rig the games a bit better. We made money, and Byron rose in power. Then we began killing the other gang bosses in the district. During this time, Huyan Kar was also rising to power by legitimately buying property, so I didn’t suspect him. Over the years, all of my leads led to him. Byron was able to work his way into the man’s partnership, and we waited for him to admit that he had been kidnapping girls.”

  “I see,” I said as I recalled the bald man’s last act. “What of your missing sister? Did you find out anything about her?”

  “No,” the woman said, and a flurry of human-like sadness fell across her face. Even though I knew she was a machine, her face was constructed so perfectly, and her expressions so sincere, I almost couldn’t believe it. “We’ve downloaded and run facial recognition software for every video feed in the station. In all districts. We’ve sent our drone-minions into countless homes where we knew girls were sold. It has been ten years, and we’ve never seen a trace of her. We suspect she is dead or was sold as a slave to a passing ship.”

  “And she was your-- I mean her twin?” Z asked as she nodded to the back room where Paula went.

  “Yes, but as I said. She is my sister as well. I am made identical to Paula, and I carry her lost sister’s name.”

  “Fuck. I’m so sorry,” Z said, and my friend actually wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

  “Why are you crying?” the other woman asked.

  “Because it makes me sad. My mom was also murdered,” the blonde hacker asked.

  “Oh,” the android replied with a slow nod. “I understand.”

  “You do?” Z asked. “You said you have a soul and feelings. How does that work?”

  “I was programmed for it, and Paula taught me,” the woman said with another shrug. “I feel all the emotions, perhaps they are a little muted when compared to my sister, but that could be my particular personality.” The woman nodded to Byron. “He’s brasher than I am.”

  “So, when we first met, Byron rubbed one of your… uhhh. Well…” Z’s face started to turn red.

  “I can have sex. I create the necessary lubricants and can experience an orgasm. Byron’s request for us to exchange sexual partners was driven by our desire for Adam.” The woman smiled at me and then bit her bottom lip a bit.

  “Shit, this is so weird. Does he have a robot penis or something?” Z asked as she pointed at Byron.

  “Okay, let’s talk about the bomb,” I said to change the subject. “You mentioned it was Nebula Gammon?”

  “Yes.” The woman nodded to me and then turned to Z. “He actually can’t have sex. We never cared to make his penis work. If Adam agreed to our exchange, Byron would have just made an excuse for not being able to perform.”

  “Ahh. Then he probably would have blamed me or something.” The hacker rolled her eyes.

  “Yes, probably,” the twin nodded with a wry smile.

  “Fucking typical man. You did a good job programming him.” Z actually leaned back on the couch and laughed.

  “The bomb?” I asked, and I probably did a poor job of hiding my urgency.

  “Nebula Gammon has been planning this for the last four or five years. They own some of the Parliament, but not all. Their plan is to bomb every security station tomorrow morning when the members of Congress are supposed to be holding a surprise inspection for their district. Cops loyal to the members of Congress bought by Nebula Gammon will not be around, of course.”

  “They are bombing every single one?” I asked.

  “Yes. It will destroy most of the stations and kill over half of the police force. Nebula Gammon is ready one star system over. They will appear out of hyperdrive an hour after the bombs go off, invade the station, and then take control of it once more.”

  “How do you know all this?” I asked.

  “Byron’s men are laying the bombs right now,” she said.

  “Who asked him to do it? Was it Kar?”

  “Huyan Kar was working for Congressman Baccala and his wife. They have been bought by Nebula Gammon. They promised both Huyan and Byron vast wealth for helping them.”

  “But you control Byron. Why are you letting this happen?” I asked. “Thousands of people are going to die from the bombs. Then more will die when Nebula Gammon invades. From what I understand, Nebula Gammon weren’t nice overlords when they owned this station.”

  “That’s what is said of them. Yes,” she replied with a shrug. “What are we supposed to do? Byron is only one pawn on their chessboard. If we had him tell them ‘no,’ they would have easily found another. Up until an hour ago, we’ve been focused on revenge. We suspected Kar, so I didn’t want to do anything that would cost me the position we worked hard to gain with him.”

  “But now you know he took your sister,” I said. “You’ve had your vengeance. Are you just going to sit around and let all these innocent people die? Are you going to let Nebula Gammon enslave this station again?”

  “There is nothing we can do,” she said with a shrug. “You told my sister you have a ship. Perhaps we can leave with you? There is nothing left for us here. We have enough rhodium to pay our way.”

  “We have a friend in jail in the station,” I growled. “There are two and a half million people living here. Yeah, I’m sure some of them are assholes like Huyan Kar or Jared Wes, but the majority of them are like you and your sister.” I stood and looked at Z. The woman nodded and stood a second later. “I’m going to stop them from bombing the stations, and then I’m going to stop Nebula Gammon from taking over.”

  “How are you going to do that?” a voice said from across the room, and I turned to see the other twin standing there. Her face was red from crying, and the contrast to her blue eyes helped remind me that she was actually alive. Or at least human.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ll talk to Juliette Larns. I’ll tell her what is going on. She can probably get in touch with all the stations and tell them about the bombs.”

  “No, the communications and video feeds are going to be cut. The districts won’t be able to talk to each other,” the human twin, Paula, said.

  “She is right. There is nothing you can do,” the android twin said. “We still have a few hours. You told my sister your ship engine needs repair? We’ve never worked on an engine before, but we can probably figure it out. We can also provide you with R-credits you can use to buy food. We should be able to escape before the bombs go off.”

  “Let’s go,” I said to Z. She nodded, and we turned toward the door of the apartment.

  “Wait,” Paula said, and we turned around to face her.

  “Yeah?”

  “Why?” she asked. “You don’t know anyone on this station. Why do you care?”

  “What would you have given to have me standing in the alleyway when the men took your sister?” I asked, and her eyes grew large. “I would have killed them, and then carried her back to your apartment. Then I would have probably bought you both dinner with whatever money I had. I would have told you that there were good men and women in the universe.”

  She didn’t say anything, but a fresh torrent of tears began to roll down her red cheeks.

  “Let’s go,” I said to Z again. I wasn’t going to sit around here and beg Paula and Kasta to help us. There wasn’t enough time.

  “Aye, Captain,” my friend whispered, and we walked out of the apartment.

  The woman and her androids didn’t say anything else, so we closed the door behind us and left them to their sorrow.

  Chapter 15

  “What’s the plan?” Z said when we stepped into the elevator.

  “We need to call Juliette on the transponder, tell her what is going on, and get Eve out of whatever cell they have her in. Then we need to find these bombs and disarm them.”

  “Sounds good, except for the assholes w
ho are probably waiting for us on the street, the whole ‘convincing Juliette we are telling the truth’, and the ‘disarming the bombs’ part. I’m guessing you think we can disarm them by shooting them.” Z let out a chuckle, closed her eyes, and then she leaned against the wall of the elevator.

  “You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to,” I said.

  “Adam,” she growled as she opened her blue eyes. She glared at me and crossed her arms. “Don’t say that shit. I’m with you to the end. Got it?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I smiled at her.

  “I don’t want Eve or any of these other people to die. I’m merely pointing out our plans are like a list of shit that isn’t going to happen. We might as well try to just get off the station. We’ll end up saving everyone instead.” She let out a long laugh and then exhaled.

  “We’ll figure it out. One step at a time. First the men at the door.”

  “I can call that bitch on my transponder. Maybe she’ll send her men to take out the fuckers at the door? We don’t have to shoot our way through everything,” she said as she pulled the device out of her pocket.

  “Will take too long for her to send men. Besides, I’m not going to be doing any shooting,” I said as the door opened.

  “Oh?” She raised an eyebrow, and I could see her thumb poised over the button that opened the transponder.

  “Nope. No bullets left in the revolver so I threw it at them. I’m going to have to punch my way through.” The elevator door opened and I looked down the hallway.

  The men were still waiting by the glass door to the building.

  “Oh, fucking shit,” Z sighed. “Why do I even bother?”

  “You already told me why,” I said as I ran down the hallway to the door.

  “Yes. But no! Stop! Don’t!” I heard her shout once I started running.

  There were three of the suited men, and one was hammering on the keypad while the other two looked out onto the street. Was this all that was chasing us? I didn’t know for sure, but I couldn’t see any of them holding their pistols when I looked through the twisted ironwork of the door.