Starlight(Pact Arcanum 4)

by Arshad Ahsanuddin

  “Tobias kept few secrets from me. He told me what you were before he died.”

  “Very well. Your inquiry is now an internal security issue within the Nexus Council.”

  “How can it be internal? I already told you it belongs to a Court operative.”

  “We will investigate further and take action if required, should your suspicions have merit.”

  “Now wait a minute—”

  “The audience is ended.” The communications pathway shut down.

  Nemesis fumed for a moment at the brush-off, then went in search of Revenant. She found him leaving the House Diluthical stronghold on his way back to Armistice territory. “Why would a Court spy be an internal Nexus matter?”

  Revenant barely acknowledged her. “Let it drop, Nemesis.”

  “How can you say that? This is an ally of the woman who killed me.”

  “Nexus White already briefed us. The access point you supplied was set up by a Nexus Council member. He will be captured and interrogated.”

  “Which councilor?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Revenant, I was Archangel for almost a century. Trust me to have learned a little discretion.”

  Revenant weighed her words. “Rapier.”

  * * *

  Nick watched his soldiers wipe out the last of the Court’s resistance. He made his way forward until he reached William’s former office and found the teleport gateway. Then he contacted Ghian, a virtual screen opening in the air before him. “We’re ready.”

  The Earth Sentinel looked pleased. “So are we. We’ll access two of the master gateways in the Council Chamber Complex and attack on both fronts. Kill everything that gets in your way until you reach the bloodwine depot. Without that stockpile, the Court forces will die. As long as the repository is destroyed, we win, even if their leaders escape through the third gateway.”

  “Are you sure you want to be in on this? You’re a head of state now. Maybe you shouldn’t lead the attack in person.”

  “And miss putting these bastards into the ground once and for all? I let the other Winds have the glory once, and they all died. This time, I don’t intend to let anyone screw this up.”

  “Then it’s time to go.”

  “I’ll meet you in the repository.” The virtual screen closed.

  Nick stepped onto the gateway with his bodyguards and formed the coded energy pattern in his mind to lock the teleport functions into a continuous connection so the rest of his forces could follow him. Then he surrounded himself with his strongest shields and jumped to the Council Chamber Complex.

  CHAPTER 47

  January 2143; the Citadel, Lunar Farside

  “Let me go on record as saying that I don’t like this plan,” said Rory.

  “We have to take Rapier by surprise,” said Revenant in his ears. “He’ll see the rest of us coming, but if you bring me into the ship itself, then he won’t be able to keep me outside the firewall. He’s a gen3AI. I can take down his internal defenses more easily than the gen10 defenses around the Starlight systems themselves.”

  “But I’m the one walking into the lion’s den.”

  “There’s nothing he can do to hurt you. What are you worried about?”

  “What if he’s come up with something we haven’t thought of?”

  “Just bring me to the command deck. That’s all you have to do. I’ll take it from there.”

  Rory sighed. “Fine.” He walked through the departure hub down the access corridor to the Starlight. He tapped the call key next to the ship’s main hatch and waited for Rapier to answer.

  “Good morning, Rory,” responded the AI’s voice.

  “Rapier, can I have a moment of your time?”

  “Of course. Rafael and Antonio were just about to make a run to the Singularity. You can find them on the command deck.”

  The hatch irised open, and Rory entered. It took him only a few moments to make his way through the main corridor to the command deck.

  Rafael and Antonio jumped apart in surprise.

  Rory stared at them, surprised at their disheveled appearance. “I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

  Rafael straightened his clothing, face red. “Sort of. When did you come on board?”

  Rory frowned. “Just a minute ago. Rapier let me in.”

  Antonio chuckled. “He could have warned us.”

  “It’s probably his revenge for us using the Starlight as a meeting place,” said Rafael. “Rapier, that wasn’t funny.”

  The AI didn’t answer.

  Then they all swayed on their feet as the internal gravity came online. As Rory stared in disbelief, the external view of the Citadel shifted. The city peeled away as the Starlight lifted off from the lunar surface.

  “Rapier, what are you doing?” asked Rafael. He tapped the manual controls when the AI said nothing, and found them to be offline. Bemused, he triggered his implants to fuse his mind with his personal AI, and the two of them examined the data core of the ship for faults.

  The central processor of the ship was surrounded by a firewall that shimmered oddly in the false-color virtual world. It seemed strangely fluid, the way its structure flowed chaotically like a swarm of bees.

  A second later, Rory/Revenant and Antonio/Pathfinder joined them on the periphery of the firewall.

  “What the hell is that?” asked Antonio.

  Rory cursed in multiple dead languages. “He knew we were on to him, and he’s going to fight it out.”

  The two Spacer fusions faced Rory/Revenant in suspicion. “What do you mean, ‘you were on to him’?” asked Rafael.

  Revenant answered. “Rapier might be working with the Court. The imposter who killed William has been communicating with him regularly.”

  “Couldn’t you have mentioned that sooner?” asked Antonio.

  “Not without tipping him off,” said Rafael. “It’s too late to worry about it now.” He faced the barrier and tentatively reached out to touch it so he could evaluate its program.

  Immediately, the wall shattered into fragments of malicious code that folded around him like an origami box. Rafael’s AI screamed as it was torn to pieces by the frenzied virus programs. The Spacer was slammed back into his body again and collapsed, his implant matrix dead. Antonio caught him as he fell and helped him into a chair.

  Revenant stared at the wall as it reformed, concealing the brief view of the AI at the center of the data core. “That’s not gen3 code. Rapier doesn’t have the complexity to create something that advanced.”

  “Then it’s not Rapier,” said Rory with a snarl. “It’s an imposter, just like William was. It must be a damn Court AI.”

  “It’s at least gen9 to be able to take down Raf’s AI like that. We’re gen6 and Antonio is gen8. We’ll be slaughtered if we try to go up against it.”

  An alarm klaxon sounded on the command deck. Rafael struggled to his feet and began swearing when he read the instrument panels. “Containment failure on the reactor. The bastard is going to overload the engines!”

  “What does that mean?” asked Rory. “We’ll be trapped on board?”

  “No, we’ll be sitting pretty in the center of a small star,” answered Antonio. “We’ve got about five minutes to get to him before the containment fields erode or we’re dust.”

  “Can’t you shut it down manually?” asked Revenant.

  Rafael was already flipping switches, then gave up in disgust. “He’s engaged the captain’s failsafe and locked me out of the engineering and communication controls.”

  “Then use what you have left to distract him,” said Pathfinder, breaking into the conversation. “Fire up random controls and max out the processing power of the ship’s systems. Then he won’t be able to use the ship’s defenses against us when we go after him.”

  Antonio stared at his AI through their virtual connection. “It might work. How did you think of that?”

  “You’re not my first client, Tony,” answered Pathf
inder. “My last boss was hardly a pacifist, and he used me to develop weapons and tactics for Armistice Security to use against the Spacers, if necessary. I took your contract to finally get some peace and quiet.”

  “Charming,” said Rory. “So how do we take back the ship?”

  Pathfinder studied the firewall. “The barrier collapsed when it attacked, and I didn’t see any other fixed defenses in place. He’s probably using all of his processing power to maintain such an intricately lethal program by himself and to run the ship at the same time. One of us needs to engage the defenses, and keep them busy while the other takes out the enemy.”

  “We won’t last long against an AI of that complexity,” said Revenant.

  “You’d have even less of a chance if you faced the barrier. I’m gen8. I have at least a shot at slowing down the virus programs until you can take him down. If I’m right, he’s put everything into the wall and won’t have much juice left to fight you.”

  “And if you’re wrong?” asked Rory.

  “Then we all die,” said Antonio. “We don’t have much time. Go for him as soon as the wall is down.”

  Rory and Revenant stitched their fusion back together and stood ready at the edge of the wall.

  Antonio/Pathfinder jumped into the barrier, and the swarm of viruses collapsed around them. Pathfinder tried to fight them off while Antonio augmented his processing power and tried to keep the AI from being obliterated.

  Rory/Revenant leapt over the collapsing barrier and immediately attacked the enemy AI with bursts of static, blasting away the outer layers of its design.

  The enemy AI howled as it retaliated with a dense blanket of code that surrounded Rory/Revenant and tried to seal them away, the same attack it had used to capture Rapier. But Rory/Revenant was a gen6 fusion, and they were quickly able to decode the matrix of the attack and break free. The two AIs grappled with each other, tearing at the insubstantial equations of their existence.

  Then Antonio/Pathfinder, still surrounded by lethal viral programs, threw itself onto the enemy from behind. Rory/Revenant disengaged and backed away as the malicious viruses destroyed both enemy and ally. As soon as the cloud of lethal programming cleared, they interfaced with the ship’s systems and turned off the captain’s failsafe.

  Rafael turned away from Antonio shivering on the floor when the instrument panels lit up, and immediately began shutting down the reactor core.

  Antonio got to his feet as the klaxon continued to sound. “What’s wrong?” he asked, seeing the expression of dread on Rafael’s face.

  Rafael shook his head. “It redirected enough power into the ship’s controls to fry the system. I can’t stop it. I can’t even call for help. The AI shut down the comm array. It will take time to power back up, which we don’t have.”

  “Then we need to get off the ship,” answered Rory as he withdrew from the ship’s systems. “You and I can survive in space if you have breathing masks on board. Antonio will last at least five or six minutes in hard vacuum, even without a suit.”

  “And how do you propose to get away?” answered Rafael angrily. “We’re halfway to Cassandra Station. There’s not enough of a gravity well effect for you to fly us out of here, and we can’t teleport all the way back to the Citadel from this distance.”

  Antonio blinked. “Cassandra Station? How far is the Singularity from here?”

  “Far enough that there won’t be enough time for them to pick us up and still get away, even under Recursion Drive,” answered Rafael, punching up the location of the two ships on the navigation console. “They’ll be caught in the blast and die along with us, even if we could contact them.”

  “But it might be close enough for a teleport!” said Antonio. He faced Rory. “Can you jump us that far if I get you coordinates?”

  Rory studied the readout of the distance. “It’s at the edge of my range without transmission cores to enhance the signal. I might not be able to get us onto the ship, but I can get us close enough that they can pick us up.”

  Antonio’s mind speared outward, focusing all of his mental power into a telepathic needle aimed at a very specific and familiar pattern out of the chaos of minds he could feel at the edge of his awareness. “Bradley!”

  “Tony?” came back the surprised response. “Where are you?”

  “No time. I need teleport coordinates for the Singularity, right now!”

  January 2143; Jumpvessel Singularity, lunar space

  Bradley jumped off the bed in his quarters, dropping the book in his hand as he raced to the computer terminal. “Pulsar, give me absolute teleport coordinates for a large open space inside the ship.”

  “For what reason?” asked the ship’s AI.

  “Just do it!”

  The AI displayed the coordinates on the virtual screen of the terminal, and Bradley let Antonio read them through his eyes.

  “Tell Pulsar we’re going to try and jump there from the Starlight. If we can’t make it all the way, we might have to drop back into material space somewhere in between. Be ready to find us. We don’t have much time.”

  “Tony, what’s going on?”

  “Reactor breach.”

  “Oh, my God,” said Bradley, aloud. “Pulsar, Captain Jameson says that the Starlight is about to suffer a core overload. The crew is going to try and teleport to these coordinates.”

  A strident alarm tone began to sound in the background, and protective shutters slid closed over the window in Bradley’s quarters. “This is an emergency broadcast on all available frequencies and communication devices,” announced the AI over the public address system. “The external sensor array confirms radiation spikes consistent with containment failure on a jumpvessel in local space. Nova defense protocol engaged. Hard shields deployed and defense screens at maximum.”

  Bradley dropped to his knees and slipped under the desk.

  “Incoming travelers detected off the starboard bow at thirty-two by twenty-eight degrees, range two hundred fifteen meters. Recursion drive online. Maneuvering to provide blast coverage.”

  There was a pause for a few seconds, while Bradley ground his teeth in anxiety.

  “Thermonuclear detonation detected. The shockwave will intersect this position in twelve seconds. All hands, brace for impact.”

  * * *

  The three of them drifted in space with their arms linked, the bright running lights of the Singularity visible as it approached.

  “What are they waiting for?” thought Rory, when the ship slowed to a stop a fair distance away. “They must know we’re here. Aren’t they going to pick us up?”

  “Nova defense protocol,”answered Antonio. “The largest ship in the vicinity aligns itself along the blast vector to shield the smaller, less protected ships.”

  “We’re too close to the point of origin and there’s not enough time to send out a rescue party,”thought Rafael. “They have a better chance of survival than we do, so they’re going to take the hit for us.”

  Rory was about to answer when the ship was outlined in diamond-hard, white light. Rory screwed his eyes shut against the painful radiance and felt his skin char. Great. So it’s not just sunlight that burns me. Noted for future reference.

  The light faded somewhat, but then it quickly began building in intensity again.

  “Here comes the plasma wave,” thought Antonio. “Uncle Rory, if I don’t make it, promise me you won’t let Uncle Nick sacrifice himself to save you. Do whatever it takes. That’s all I ask.”

  Rory studied Antonio’s earnest face through the facemask of his pressure suit. “How do you know about that?”

  “It doesn’t matter. Just promise.”

  “I would never let that happen, Tony. But we’re all going to survive.”

  Then a riot of multihued light exploded around the edges of the Singularity, all the colors of flame, and rolled across the sky, blotting out the stars.

  * * *

  Bradley crawled out from under the desk in total darkness. T
he emergency lights came on and he could see again. “Pulsar, how bad is it?”

  “Main power distribution is offline in 45% of the ship,” answered the AI. “The reactor cores and environmental systems are stable. The internal sensor grid along the port side of the ship is heavily damaged. Internal bulkheads in those areas have deployed in response to explosive decompression on multiple decks. There is insufficient data to assess casualties. Response teams are being organized from among the Children of Starlight and the Armistice Security forces on board who have Spacer or medical training.”

  “What should I do?”

  “Report to emergency assembly point Bravo Seven and await further instructions.”

  Bradley hesitated at the door. “Did the Captain make it?”

  “Unknown. The external sensor array has been destroyed. Manual assessment will be required to determine whether he and the other travelers survived. I will update you when I know more.”

  Bradley took a deep breath and walked briskly toward his duty station through the ruins of the only home he had ever known.

  THE NOVA

  CHAPTER 48

  January 2143; Court of Shadows Council Chamber Complex, Alexandria, Egypt

  Nick pushed through the ranks of his soldiers to the front line. The fighting had been intense in the wide corridors leading to the antechamber of the Council Chamber, but then the defenders had retreated behind an opaque energy barrier. He studied the spellforms of the mystic wall carefully. It was strong, but not insurmountable.

  Ghian joined him. “Can you break it down?”

  Nick nodded and called Reaper to his hand, sheathing his mundane sword. “It might take a little time. This is a composite ward. They must have most of their remaining spellcasters maintaining it.” He pressed the sword’s point against the barrier and slowly drove the blade forward. A ripple of blue fire spread across the face of the crimson wall of energy, then the ward flashed brightly and disappeared.

  Ghian hefted his sword in his hand. “Good work.”