Grayson pushed Michiko toward the wall next to the door.
“Follow when we tell you,” Grayson said, his back to the wall.
Devika took the other side. She gave Grayson a hand signal.
Together they entered the bridge, their handcoils ready.
Michiko braced herself for gunshots but there were none.
Grayson sighed.
“Come in, Michiko.”
Michiko ran into the bridge. The instrument panels were alive and glowing, and several screens displayed starmaps.
“There’s no one here,” Devika said.
“Ship’s on autopilot,” Grayson said.
Michiko spotted a camera screen that showed multiple surveillance cameras around the ship. Most of the videos were still, except for one—Florian and his henchmen were running down a long hallway toward a room with a round door. The men were injured but moving as if their lives depended on it.
“How did he escape?” Devika asked.
Behind Florian, Huxley had a blowtorch.
Devika cursed as the last man entered the room and shut the round door behind them.
The instrument panel beeped and another screen activated.
“Escape pod eject imminent,” the computer said.
“Turn it off!” Devika cried.
Grayson ran to the control panel and tried to make sense of it.
“Eddie, I need some help,” Grayson said into his radio. “How do I turn off an escape pod?”
“Uh, beats me,” Eddie said. “I never traveled on ships that had that kind of fancy technology.”
“If in doubt, start pressing buttons,” Keltie said. “They’re getting away. I checked the ship’s trajectory again. You're on course to exit the galaxy.”
Grayson banged every button on the control panel.
But the computer beeped again.
“Escape pod ejection successful. Now activating hyper core and jumping into hyperspace.”
“No, no, no!” Grayson said, trying to override the ship’s computer. “This thing is locked. I can’t control it.”
“They wanted it that way,” Devika said.
“Guys, they’re getting away,” Keltie said.
“Go after them,” Devika said.
“No way,” Keltie said. “We’ve got to help you. We’ve—”
And then the ship’s hyper core kicked in and the ship bulleted into hyperspace.
The computer beeped again.
“Self-destruct in three minutes.”
“Oh no,” Michiko said. “If this ship blows up, we’re screwed.”
“Yeah,” Grayson said, staring at purple hyperspace outside. He sank into a chair. “I’d say you got the ‘screwed’ part right.”
37
Hyperspace outside was as brilliant a purple as Michiko had ever seen.
She plopped down on the floor and sighed.
“Any ideas?” she asked.
Devika moved around the bridge frantically. She wasn't giving up.
“Devika, you think there are other escape pods on the ship?” Grayson asked.
Devika sat down and brought up a hologram of the ship. She manipulated it with her fingers, twirling the ship around and pinching and zooming.
“There might be one,” Devika said. “But its on the first level. It's quite a run from here.”
“Yeah, well, I'd rather be running when I die than sitting down,” Grayson said, extending his hand to Michiko.
“Agree!” Michiko said.
“I memorized the way,” Devika said. “It's our final shot.”
As they ran toward the entrance to the bridge, the sound of metal footsteps stopped them.
Grayson and Devika slid to a stop.
Then, two gold-plated, mechanical octopi as tall as Grayson crawled into the room. They had huge glass eyes and their golden tentacles had claws at the tips which punched holes in the metal floor.
The octopi locked on them and a mechanical voice said, “Targets acquired.”
Grayson and Devika drew their handcoils.
“Florian really wants us dead, doesn't he?” Michiko asked.
“I don't know about you two,” Devika said, “but I'm not going down without a fight.”
38
The Mechanical Octopi approached slowly with laser sights on Grayson, Devika, and Michiko.
“Stay out of their laser sights,” Michiko said. “Their intelligence is modeled on octopus’s brain.”
Grayson aimed and fired at one of the machines; his bullet ricocheted off and struck the wall.
“Shooting won't even put a dent in it,” Devika said.
The octopi leaped into the air, their tentacled knives raised to strike.
BOOM!
Grayson, Devika, and Michiko dove out the way, spreading out across the bridge.
Michiko ducked to avoid a tentacle. One of them stuck in a nearby instrument panel. It tried to pull the tentacle out.
Devika kicked one of the octopus’s tentacles out from underneath it and it crashed to the ground. Then she took another tentacle and jammed it into the octopus’s eye. The knife cut through and a fan of sparks erupted from the eye socket.
The octopus fell motionless.
“Grayson,” Devika shouted. “Knock its eye out!”
Across the bridge, Grayson was busy dodging tentacle jab after tentacle jab from the other octopus.
“Got it,” he said, backing away.
Suddenly, the octopus stopped and turned to face its companion, which was lying deactivated on the floor.
Grayson ran toward it but with a powerful punch, the tentacle knocked him away.
“It's calibrating,” Michiko said. “It's learning from the other’s mistake!”
“How do you know this?” Devika asked.
“Xenobiology,” she said. “I learned about brain modeling in artificial intelligence class.”
“This isn't school,” Devika said.
They glanced at the door to the bridge. They had a clear run at it.
“Come on!” Michiko said.
Michiko and Devika ran toward the door.
Grayson slid under the octopus quickly and dashed at them.
“Not much time left,” he said.
CLANG. CLANG.
The octopus jammed its tentacles furiously into the floor and stamped after them.
“Run!” Michiko cried.
They ran through the hallway toward a stairwell at the other end.
The octopus stamped after them, crawling up the walls.
“That thing is relentless!” Grayson cried.
They passed under a steel pipe.
“Got an idea,” he said, crouching with his handcoil aimed at the octopus.
As it neared, he shot the pipe.
WHOOSH!
The pipe broke and a rush of hot steam enveloped the octopus. The machine stopped and thundered to the floor. Its giant blue eye deactivated.
“Nice shooting,” Devika said.
They bolted down the stairwell to the first level of the ship. It was hotter down here, and Michiko began to sweat even more.
“It's hot!” she said.
“We’re not far from the engine room,” Devika said.
“How close are we to the escape pod?” Grayson said.
“Yeah, this thing is going to blow any minute,” Michiko said. “I'm getting my hopes up and I am surprisingly optimistic now.”
“A few yards,” Devika said, counting doors as they ran. “Just a few more doors and I think we’re almost there.”
She pointed to a black door in the distance.
“That one!” Devika cried.
CLANG.
CLANG.
Just ahead of the black door, two more octopi were perched on the walls, their blue eyes glowing.
“Oh, come on!” Grayson cried.
“Damn,” Devika said.
“Self-destruct in thirty seconds,” the computer said.
The two octopi ahead crowded in fro
nt of the black door and then sat in front of it. Their blue eyes deactivated.
“There's no way we’ll be able to move them,” Devika said. “They're too heavy.”
“Self-destruct in fifteen seconds,” the ship’s computer said.
Grayson tucked his handcoil onto his belt. Devika did the same.
“Good run while it lasted,” Grayson said.
“Hardly,” Devika.
Michiko clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. She thought of her mom and dad and how they would take her death. Two tears flowed from her eyes.
And then she opened them.
She wasn't going to be afraid. She wasn't going to die with her eyes closed.
“Self-destruct in five…”
Michiko balled her fists.
“Four…”
She wouldn't let this break her. They could break her body but they would never break her—
“Three…”
Spirit. She would always have spirit. She would never—
“Two…”
Surrender. She would never surrender!
“One…”
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
The three of them looked at each other.
The octopi reactivated and stood, looking around confused.
And then the ship’s computer spoke again.
“Unable to detonate due to insufficient energy. Power supply waning. Deactivating self-destruct.”
A shrieking sound came from the engine room down the hall, followed by an explosion.
The lights flickered, then shut off.
Immediately, the octopi stomped down the hall toward the engine room.
“Not again,” Michiko said.
“Divine intervention or not,” Grayson said, “I’m pretty damn relieved right now.”
The ship slowed down and from the sound of the metal shifting, it dropped out of hyperspace.
Grayson’s radio beeped.
“You're alive,” Keltie said.
“Couldn't get rid of me that easily,” Grayson said.
“I didn't want to,” Keltie said playfully. “How did you guys do it?”
“No idea,” Devika said.
“If you guys are going to get off the ship, you need power,” Eddie said. “Can you restore power somehow?”
“We’re on it,” Grayson said.
More shrieking came from the engine room, followed by clanging metal.
Something was going on.
They ran for the engine room.
THE ENGINE ROOM was a playground of pistons, reactors, and a giant hypercore that pulses like a bellows in the center of it all.
It was hot.
The octopi skittered across the walls, stomped between the shadows of the equipment.
Something shrieked.
POP!
Sparks flew as a reactor exploded.
Shriek.
POP!
A bundle of wires hung down in front of Michiko and she ducked, narrowly missing it.
Shriek.
BANG!
“Get down!” Grayson cried, pulling Devika and Michiko down.
An octopi flew out of the room and crashed into the hallway outside. It was on fire.
The octopi activated their laser sights and charged toward the back of the room.
Michiko, Grayson and Devika followed.
Then they stopped when they saw it.
The black cloud that Michiko had seen earlier was sprawled across the ship's main cylinder engine, sucking on it like a leech. It had several arms that wrapped around the metal casing like a snake. It was three times its normal size. Its red eye glowed angrily.
An octopus leaped toward the engine.
The cloud siphoned out a heavy breath of gasoline and then blew fire, wrapping the octopus in flames.
Then it continued sucking at the machine, slowly growing larger.
“I've never seen anything like this before,” Michiko said. “It's eating the ship’s energy.”
“How do we stop it?” Devika asked.
CRACK!
One by one, the cloud destroyed the octopi until they lay in a pile on the floor.
Then, it continued sucking, its mouth popping against the fuel injectors.
It disconnected itself from the engine and let out a room-shaking burp. Then it billowed and made a motorboating sound.
The eye saw Michiko, Grayson and Devika.
Then it narrowed.
“It's going to attack!” Devika cried.
“It can't touch us,” Michiko said.
“You sure about that?” Grayson asked.
“Positive,” Michiko said.
But then the cloud sucked in air and blew fire at them.
They jumped out of the way.
“Bad advice, Michiko!” Devika cried.
“I didn't know it could manipulate chemicals!” Michiko said.
The eye locked on her, narrowed again angrily and zoomed for Devika. It wrapped around her and began sucking at her face. She groaned.
Slowly the color drained from Devika’s face.
Grayson fired his handcoil at the cloud. The bullets went through the swirling black mass but did not exit the other side.
Devika dropped to her knees, groaning again.
The veins in her forehead jutted out. She was pale.
Michiko balled her fast.
“No, stop!” she cried, leaping at the alien.
To her surprise, her hand seized on the alien’s black mass.
The eye widened.
Michiko pulled the cloud off Devika.
A flash danced across her eye, and again she saw the negative world and the crumbling planet.
The vision made her angry, so angry, that she screamed.
“I said STOP IT!!!”
She flung the cloud across the room and it struck the wall. The black mass collapsed on the eye, making it disappear.
Michiko stood, panting. She looked at her hands.
“How did you do that?” Grayson asked.
“I…don't know,” Michiko said.
“Well, thanks,” Devika said, gasping for her. “I didn't think I was going to make it.”
The cloud shrunk to its original size and swirled toward Michiko.
“Leave us alone!” Michiko screamed. She grabbed the alien again and flung it away.
Grayson ran to a nearby shelf and grabbed a red canister of spaceship fuel. It must have weighed at least fifty pounds; he lugged it toward the engine and, hoisting it up, he poured it into the fuel door.
The engine hummed to life and the lights flickered on.
“Let's get out of here,” he said, supporting Devika. She was weak from the encounter with the cloud.
They ran.
Michiko looked back.
The cloud was sulking on the floor, its red eye saddened.
“You tried to kill us,” Michiko said.
The eye looked down.
“You're not a good alien,” she said.
The cloud swirled toward her.
She reached out her hand to throw it, but it backed away.
When she lowered her hand, it floated near.
“Go away,” she said. “You can eat as much as you want the moment we’re gone.”
The cloud shook.
“You don't want to be alone?” Michiko asked. “Then why did you attack us?”
The eye stared at her curiously.
“How are we even supposed to trust you?”
The eye blinked. Then Michiko got another glimpse of the negative world.
She nodded, blinking the vision away.
“I guess…you can come with me, but you can't eat us!”
The cloud swirled closer in a gesture that looked like a nod.
“Then come on,” Michiko said. “Let’s go.”
As she caught up with the others, the alien followed.
Grayson and Devika opened the black door. A round escape pod with a glitte
ring instrument panel awaited them. There were four seats and a single, round window that glimpsed into space.
“Behind you!” Devika cried.
“No, it's okay,” Michiko said.
“What do you mean it's okay?” Grayson asked. “That thing is going to eat us.”
“Not anymore,” Michiko said, holding out her hand. The alien backed away and retreated when she lowered her hand.
“I think I can communicate with him,” she said. “And I think…he learned his lesson.”
“How about we leave him here,” Devika said. “I don't like the idea of sharing a pod with it.”
“Think about what this alien could teach us about xenobiology,” Michiko said. “He's coming with us.”
“He's not a dog,” Devika said.
Michiko started for the pod but Devika shut the door.
“Hey!” Michiko said, banging on the door.
“We’ll send someone to get you,” Devika said. “You're crazier than I thought.”
“Not fair!” Michiko said, banging harder. “You realize he saved our lives, right?”
Silence.
“And you realize that this little guy might have the secret to Florian’s plans? When I touch him, I see things—and I know what happened to Refugio!”
Silence.
Then the door opened.
Devika popped her head out.
“Two conditions: first, stop talking. Second, if there's any sign of trouble, I'm ejecting you into space first.”
Michiko grinned and looked back at the cloud, whose eye blinked sheepishly.
“You need a name,” Michiko said. “How about Clark?”
“Clark the Alien?” Grayson asked.
“Yep, I like it!” Michiko said, closing her eyes.
They piled into the escape pod. Clark swirled in the corner, not making eye contact.
Grayson operated the control panel, and with a boom, the escape pod ejected from the ship and rocketed away. Florian’s black and white ship grew smaller and smaller until it was the size of a distant star.
“Eddie, grab our location and come get us,” Grayson said into his radio. “We’re out.”
“Coming your way,” Eddie said. “By the way, is Michiko with you? Tell her the Galactic Guard rescued her parents and they’re okay.”
Michiko sighed with relief. Her parents were alive. An invisible weight on her heart lifted. She glanced at Grayson and Devika who were strapped into their seats, watching the stars.
Rogue Colony (Galaxy Mavericks Book 6) Page 12
