by Isaac Hooke
“I want you piloting,” Rade told Harlequin.
“Thank you,” Harlequin said.
While Rade could have had the onboard AI do the flying, he trusted Harlequin more.
When everyone was secured in the cabin, Rade glanced at the cockpit, where Harlequin was strapped in.
“Take us out,” Rade ordered.
Harlequin moved his hands, accessing the shuttle interface that would only be visible to him on his HUD.
Rade waited for the ramp to close beside him, but it didn’t.
“Problem?” Rade asked Harlequin.
“It’s not responding,” Harlequin said.
“That sinking feeling you get when you realize you’re screwed…” Lui said.
Rade accessed the seat interface and tried to deactivate the locking clamps, but they wouldn’t retract.
“I take it I’m not the only one who can’t get out of his seat?” Manic said.
“Zhidao,” Rade said.
“Finally you catch on,” the voice of Surus, or rather her Artificial host, Ms. Bounty, came over the cabin intercom. “Ah, I was enjoying myself so immensely. You and your team are like tiny mice, lost, scurrying about to and fro in the maze. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time. And believe me when I say this, because eternity is a long time. But alas, my fun, at least with you five, is now at an end.”
“You little bitch! I’m going to kill you!” Bender was struggling frantically against his clamps.
“I thought you scanned the AI core?” Lui asked Harlequin.
“I did,” Harlequin replied. “But—”
“Cloaking routines,” Zhidao said over the intercom. “I made a quick trip back to the shuttle while you were occupied and injected some fresh code to hide my previous tampering. You see, with all the other robots, I purposely left my tracks uncovered. I placed little breadcrumbs for your Artificial to follow. I wanted him so confident in his abilities, and dismissive of mine. A lesson for you all: underestimate me at your peril.”
Lui glanced at Rade in shock. “If true, that means Harlequin himself could have unactivated stealth routines hidden in his codebase. Or Cora and Dora…”
“No no no,” Zhidao said. “Well, Cora and Dora, maybe. But the Artificial was too tricky. He never disconnected from the real world, affording me no opportunity to meddle.” His voice took on an amused tone. “Then again, maybe I did actually install something. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
“You want the time weapon,” Rade said.
“Eventually, perhaps,” Zhidao said. “But time travel bores me at the moment. Too many complexities. Too many paradoxes. I almost accidentally destroyed my own race last time, not just your own. Yes, it was that bad. You actually did me a favor by reverting my changes. In any case, I have more immediate, safer plans.”
“Good for you,” Rade said. “So what do you want, then?”
“I don’t like to be hunted,” Zhidao said. “Never have. I promised you what would happen if you ever crossed me again. And now I am going to fulfill that promise. You will pay in full.”
Rade thought of Shaw and the twins still in sickbay, and he had a sudden image of Centurions storming the compartment and killing them all.
“If you touch my family—” Rade began.
“I could have killed you all,” Ms. Bounty’s voice interrupted him over the comm. “Came to you in the dark while you slept, and eradicated your human forms with a touch. And perhaps I should have. But where is the fun in that? So many decades out here lived in sheer boredom. So many days filled with drudgery. Why ruin my entertainment? Yes, killing you in your sleep would be too easy. I want you to suffer of course, Rade Galaal. That is what I want.”
Rade gazed at the somber faces of his men. None of them could do a thing.
Suddenly Harlequin physically ripped himself out of his seat, using his brute strength to break through the clamps. Skin hung from his arms where he had torn it away, revealing the memory metals that served as muscle underneath.
Harlequin moved toward Rade, obviously intending to break him free as well.
“Uh uh ah!” Zhidao said.
Harlequin shook violently in place and then collapsed to the cabin floor.
“All right, I admit it,” Zhidao said. “Maybe I sneaked some stealth code into his system after all. Wink wink.”
Rade slumped in his seat, the momentary hope he had felt quickly fading.
“So as I was saying,” Zhidao continued. “I believe I have found a suitable means to inflict suffering upon you, while entertaining me at the same time. I couldn’t help but notice that you’re flying toward the nearby star. That is convenient, because it means a Slipstream awaits only a day away. I’ve already changed course for that Slipstream, and will be taking it, along with a few others thereafter.
“In the meantime, you will remain confined in the hangar bay. I’ll spare you the drudgery of existence, so that you won’t be bored out of your mind like I usually am. I’ll be flooding the shuttle with incapacitating agents, you see. A little cabin modification I’ve worked on here and there over the past few days. When you awaken, you will find yourself and your crew stranded on an isolated planet, away from civilization. And without your children. Ta ta.”
“Don’t you dare touch my children!” Rade struggled against the clamps that held him, and for a moment he thought he was about to break free. But the metal cylinders didn’t yield.
“The other members of your crew will come looking for you when you don’t return,” Zhidao continued. “One by one they will succumb to the incapacitating agents. No doubt Shaw and the children will remain in sickbay the whole time. Helpless. Defenseless. Eventually, when I grow weary of dragging out their terror, I’ll send a Centurion to toss a canister into sickbay so that they too can join in the unconscious fun. Hopefully the children will survive the incapacitating process. I heard there are warnings about this particular chemical agent, in regards to usage on children. I guess we’ll just have to hope. Farewell, Rade Galaal. We will not meet again. But if we do, your children will not survive the encounter.”
“What are you going to do to them?” Rade said. “What—”
White mist began to vent inside the cabin.
Rade had a sudden idea.
“Bender, can—”
But before he could complete the sentence, Rade dropped.
six
Rade opened his eyes.
“Boss is awake,” Bender said.
Rade blinked a few times. He was lying on the floor of a dome-shaped compartment. He ran his gaze across the blank, white walls. They looked like they were made of fabric. The floor underneath him was composed of the same material.
Bender, Lui, and Tahoe were here, seated cross-legged on the floor nearby. They held glasses of liquid meal replacement somberly in their hands.
Bender inclined his head. “Boss.”
Rade’s eyes drifted to a window set into one of the walls of the concave chamber. He rose to his feet and walked to it. Outside, the terrain was rocky. Barren. It stretched to the horizon, looking similar to a flood plain, thanks to the monotony of it all.
He could see other domes out there, connected to each other by can-shaped passageways. One of those passageways joined with this compartment. The exteriors of the structures were mirror like, and reflected the dull sunlight from the sky.
“Window is made of a reinforced polyethylene and polycarbonate combination,” Lui said. “The walls are made of essentially the same fabrics as an environmental suit, with a mirror like outer layer to keep out X Rays. Won’t hold up to any micrometeor impacts, if any should happen to strike. There is an airlock leading to the outside, but no possible way of actually going out there: we have no jumpsuits or spacesuits of any kind. Nor any exploratory vehicles. It’s like the airlock is present only to tease us. Or maybe to offer a final escape, not just from this world, but life itself.”
Rade stared at the rocky terrain for several moments, trying t
o gather his thoughts, get his bearings. Then he turned to face his men.
Their expressions remained somber. And… fearful?
“How long have I been under?” Rade asked.
“Compared to the rest of us?” Lui answered. “Fret was the first to awaken. You’re the last. It’s been six hours since Fret opened his eyes. But if you’re asking how long in general, according to our Implants four weeks have passed.”
“Four weeks.” Rade shook his head slightly. “Is everyone here?” He dreaded the answer, because he already knew from their faces.
“Everyone except Harlequin,” Lui said. “And the robots. And Ms. Bounty of course.”
“Shaw?” Rade asked.
“Yes,” Lui answered.
“The kids?” Rade pressed. That was the only real question he cared about.
And of course Lui didn’t reply.
“They’re not here, are they?” Rade said.
When Lui still couldn’t bring himself to answer, Rade glanced at Bender.
The big man shook his head. There were tears in his eyes.
For some reason Rade’s legs became suddenly weak and he could no longer hold up his own weight. He crumpled to the floor.
Tahoe rushed to him and knelt at his side. “It’s going to be all right. We’re going to find them.”
The edges of Rade’s vision filled with a red haze. A wave of conflicting emotions wracked his body. All-consuming anger, overwhelming outrage, gut-wrenching sadness.
His eyes drifted to the window, and the fabric-covered walls. He felt an abrupt, incredibly intense sensation of claustrophobia, and it was all he could do to prevent himself from hurling his body into the dome wall and tearing it apart. If his friends weren’t here, he might have done just that, exposing his body to the deadly atmosphere on the other side.
“Boss. Rade, it’s going to be all right.” Tahoe’s fingers rested on his back.
“Don’t touch me!” Rade snapped.
Tahoe withdrew as if bitten.
“Better get Shaw,” Lui said.
His voice sounded distant. The red haze was becoming thicker. Rade squeezed his hands tightly. Tighter than he ever had in his life. His nails drew blood from his palms, but he hardly noticed.
Or cared.
His entire body felt taut, as if every muscle was clenched.
Two sentences repeated over and over in his mind.
I failed. I lost my kids. I failed. I lost my kids.
Someone was touching his shoulder. He flinched away, growled, almost struck out.
“Rade,” a tender voice said. “Rade. Come back to me.”
A part of his mind recognized the voice as belonging to Shaw. The other part didn’t care.
She tried touching him again, and once more he refused her. He didn’t want another human being to ever touch him again.
“Leave… me… alone,” he managed to say through the red haze.
“I was the same, when I awoke,” Shaw said. “But I came to understand that the men needed me. As they need you. You have to fight, now of all times. You can’t give up. The children are alive. They have to be. I feel it in my heart. Call it a mother’s instincts. We’ll find them.”
When she touched him again, this time he allowed it. The haze was beginning to subside. Her voice was soothing. Calming.
“Rade,” Shaw said. “It’s going to be all right, my big warrior. We’ll get through this. We’ll find the children. Don’t give up.”
The tenseness he felt through his body subsided. He released his fists and slumped. His vision returned, the red haze clearing, and the anger faded along with it. But the sadness, the immense sadness, still remained.
Rade lay back on the floor. “I lost them. I failed.” He shook his head. Again, and again. “I tried. I just… I…” And then he wept.
Shaw held him. “Let it out. Let go.”
He felt ashamed for his tears. He was supposed to be the strong one. He’d always been the one to comfort Shaw. And now the tables had been turned.
He guessed losing one’s children would do that to a man.
He hardened himself.
We don’t know for sure we’ve lost them yet.
Rade sat up and straightened his back. Just like that, the hopelessness vanished. It was replaced by a burning anger.
Zhidao did this. He would pay. No matter what happened.
He tore himself from her grasp and scrambled to his feet. He felt a stinging in his palms, which bled where his nails had dug in.
He walked to the window.
“Do we have any remote sensing capabilities?” Rade asked his men over his shoulder.
“None,” Tahoe answered.
“So we don’t know where we are?” Rade said.
“Other than on some backwater, lifeless world?” Tahoe said. “No.”
“How can we be certain the atmosphere is deadly?” Rade said. “How do we know it isn’t some trick by Zhidao?”
Lui was the one who answered. “I asked the same question. There was a standard medkit next to me when I awoke. I placed the environmental sampler in the airlock, closed the door, and then opened the chamber to the outside world. Then I resealed it, flushed the external atmosphere, and had a look at the sampler. No bueno.”
“But you don’t know if Zhidao tampered with the sampler’s software…” Rade said.
“No,” Lui said. “But I figured I wasn’t going to walk out there and test the atmosphere on my own.”
“Could it be VR?” Rade said, remembering a simulation Phants had once trapped him in.
“It’s possible,” Lui said. “But if so, it’s the most realistic VR environment we’ve ever been in.”
Shaw had retrieved the first aid kit, and she began wrapping Rade’s hands as he continued addressing his men. Everyone had gathered in the dome by then. Lui, Manic, TJ, Tahoe, Shaw, Fret, Bender.
“Did Zhidao leave a message of any kind?” Rade said.
“Funny you should ask,” Fret told him. He ducked inside the small passageway that led from the dome and returned a moment later with a small disk-shaped device. He set it on the floor and stepped back.
A holo-video of Ms. Bounty appeared above the disk, showing her head and shoulders in proportions that were twice life-size.
“Hello again Rade and the Argonauts,” Ms. Bounty said. “It is I, your good friend Zhidao. I’ve trapped you all inside a dome environment on a dead planet without jumpsuits of any kind. You’ve got enough liquid rations to survive a month. I’ve placed hidden surveillance devices throughout the dome environment I’ve built for you, with a nearby transmitter uploading video on my own private InterGalNet.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how you get out of this one. Though I suspect you won’t last the month without tearing each other apart. But if you do, congratulations will be in order. And if you manage to escape, even greater laudations are due.
“Rest assured, the twins are alive. I’ve kept them in stasis aboard the Argonaut. Find the ship, and you find your children. But you must be quick, because you see, I’ve installed a timer to coincide with the exhaustion of your rations on that planet. When a standard month passes, the stasis pods will fill with flames, and your poor, poor little children will be incinerated. The thought brings a tear to my eye.” The hologram theatrically rubbed at one eye.
Rade started to squeeze one of his hands again, but was met with Shaw’s fingers—she was still wrapping his palm in gauze, and she gently unfolded his fist.
“In any case, as much as I’d love to prattle on, I’m sure you’re eager to start planning your escape,” Ms. Bounty continued. “The clock is ticking, after all. I’ve left a shuttle nearby, about one hundred meters west of the dome environment’s airlock. Mostly to tease you. Because there’s no way you’ll ever reach it, not without exposing yourselves to the deadly atmosphere first. Ta ta!”
The image winked out.
“Well that was…” Infuriating, Rade wanted to say. Instead he co
mpleted the sentence with: “Annoying.”
Shaw finished wrapping Rade’s hands and stepped back.
“Have you been able to confirm that he’s watching us?” Rade asked his men.
“We haven’t been able to find any surveillance devices, no,” Fret answered.
“But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any,” Tahoe countered. “Without proper EM scanners, we have no way to know for certain. Stealth cameras are smaller than the size of pinheads, as you know. The problem is power, but with a battery beaming electrical energy from a source somewhere outside, he could certainly keep them operational for the month.”
Rade rubbed his thumb and forefinger in thought. “Did Zhidao really leave enough rations for a whole month?”
“There are rations,” Tahoe said. “But a month might be pushing it. And there isn’t any native flora or fauna out there, at least none we can discern from our current location. Not that it would be biocompatible with our digestive tracts anyway. And not that we could actually go out there and get it.”
“The idiot,” Rade said. “Why is he playing this game with us? Why not just kill us outright?”
“He can’t kill us,” Lui said. “We’re the most entertainment he’s had in decades, remember?”
“I can only imagine how lonely his existence must have been,” Shaw said. “An alien, trapped in our section of space, away from all others of his kind, hunted by humans ever since the first Alien War.”
“You’re actually feeling sorry for him?” Rade asked Shaw.
“A little,” Shaw answered. “But any pity I have for him ends the moment I think about what he’s done to our kids.”
“He could do a lot worse to them, you know,” Fret said. “And given who he is, he might have already.”
“Don’t say that,” Rade said. “It just makes me want to kill something.”
“Me, too,” Bender said. He turned toward Fret. “Mostly you, Little Bitch.”
Fret shrugged. “Good luck.”
Bender jumped onto Fret and started pounding.
Rade hated to admit to himself, but he wanted Fret to suffer for suggesting that harm had already come to his children, so he took a bit longer to intervene than he normally would have. Maybe a bit too long, because Shaw looked at him with an expression of disbelief on her face.
