‘Blake,’ Gan called from near the back of the room.
Blake walked up to him and was handed a small white plastic parcel. There was a label on it with only two words that read: ‘Open me.’ Blake looked at it in surprise. Quickly he ripped open the package and pulled out what was inside: a small black oblong of some crystalline material.
‘A micro holograph projector,’ Blake said. ‘And I thought no-one used them any more.’ He tossed the little block of crystal into the air and Gan caught it. ‘The Liberator should have enough charge now for us to use the teleport. Gan, take this to Avon and see if he can get it working. Give him the data crystals you found, too.’
Gan nodded. ‘Cally,’ he said into his bracelet. ‘Bring me back.’ A greyish halo outlined his figure for a moment and he faded away, the halo snapping like a rubber band and blinking out of existence.
Blake turned to his other companion. ‘Vila, how are you doing with that lock?’
*
‘This must be where Blake got in,’ Travis announced to the two mutoids as he examined the airlock hatchway. ‘I wonder how they stopped the air escaping. No matter.’ He glanced at his crew of two. ‘We won’t go in this way,’ he added. ‘It’ll be too dangerous. Blake might have set traps. After all, Liberator would have been able to see our ships.’ He clung to the hull of Station Amber and started to climb up it. ‘Look for another airlock.’
Travis had noticed a cable snaking out of the airlock and winding up through space towards the Liberator. He now knew why they had just been sitting there: they were siphoning off power from the station’s generators. That of course meant that Amber’s power, or at least some of it, had been turned back on, and the airlocks would open when asked to. Travis climbed up the hull and found the two mutoids standing on the top side of the station, looking down at a hatch.
‘Get it open,’ he ordered and the mutoids set to work.
Inside the station, the corridor was empty, though a few dim lights were on. Travis looked left and then right, wondering which way to go, where to begin his search of the station. ‘Life signs?’
One of the mutoids held a portable scanning device in her hand. ‘A mild radiation leak is affecting the detector, sir,’ she reported. ‘It’s hard to say.’
A radiation leak. That would be from whichever of the generators Blake had managed to get working. He would be near to that. ‘Can you pinpoint it?’
‘Three decks down,’ the mutoid answered, waving her scanner about. ‘Maximum Priority Research Level, corridor forty-nine. It’s not far from the sabotaged airlock, sir.’
Travis smiled coldly. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Let’s get down there. We don’t want to give Blake enough time to do anything dangerous.’ He indicated for the mutoid with the scanner to lead the way.
*
It didn’t take Avon long to get the micro holograph projector working. He listened to the message with growing concern then, quickly and methodically, he started to scan through the data crystals Gan had brought, each new bit of information confirming what he already suspected.
They should never have gone to Station Amber.
He pressed the communications button on the control panel nearest to him.
‘Blake? Your time’s up,’ Avon said. ‘Cally’s about to bring you back. But before she does, I need to know if you’ve found a weapon yet. The… AE105.’
‘It’s in the vault here. Vila is just picking the lock.’
‘Then tell him to stop at once. I want you to leave it alone.’
‘Leave it?’ Blake protested. ‘But that means we’ll have come all this way for nothing!’
‘That’s a good deal better than coming all this way for an early grave,’ Avon retorted. ‘If you want to go ahead and release that thing, at least give me fair warning so that I can jettison the powerlines and leave you to die. I don’t feel particularly enthusiastic about sacrificing my life for your unrealistic ideals.’
‘Are you sure you’re not over-reacting?’ Blake asked. ‘What is it?’
‘A merciless killer,’ Avon said bluntly. ‘It vaporises every living thing it sees, one by one. It has no automated stop cycle, which means it won’t stop killing until it’s killed everyone except Ban Kerralin, its creator, who is already dead and therefore not much help. The moment you open that door it will kill you.’
Blake sighed. ‘All right. We’re coming back.’
Avon smiled with mild satisfaction, but his moment was spoiled by a sudden excited cry of, ‘I’ve got it!’
*
‘No, Vila!’ Blake shouted urgently, running to the laboratory exit. ‘Get away from the doors, quickly.’
The doors were slowly opening, revealing a glimmer of bright blue beyond. ‘I think it’s too late,’ Vila said.
Blake used his bracelet. ‘Cally, get us out of here!’ he roared.
The door to the laboratory burst open and in marched Travis and two mutoids, all three pointing guns at Blake and Vila.
‘You’re not going anywhere, Blake!’ Travis snapped as the two men teleported back to the Liberator, disappearing from view.
*
The AE105 floated into the room. It registered five life forms as soon as the vault had opened and created a queue accordingly. It targeted the first on the list, then scanned for a power source and located the generator. Quickly, it translocated the power directly to its conduction frame and charged itself up. Trickles of light began to dance over its surface and it floated towards the life form. Then, the blue ball unleashed a bolt of energy that reduced the life form to a cloud of airborne particles.
As expected, the other life forms in the queue turned and ran. The AE105 followed close behind.
*
Avon was waiting with Cally at the teleport suite when Blake and Vila materialised.
‘What happened?’ he demanded.
‘The weapon got out,’ Blake answered. ‘Just as Travis and his mutoids turned up.’
‘So it was Travis’s ships that were following us,’ said Cally.
‘I think Travis may be dead,’ said Blake.
Vila smirked. ‘Well that’s good, isn’t it?’ he said. ‘One less thing to worry about!’
‘You have no idea how much there is to worry about thanks to you!’ Avon shouted.
Blake pushed his way between them. ‘All right, Avon,’ he said quietly.
‘What’s the matter with him?’ Vila huffed.
‘That thing you let out is deadly,’ said Avon. ‘It has virtually impenetrable shielding, an infinite range of mobility and a self-recharging power source. It can turn any living organism into a puff of smoke and it kills whoever it sees one by one.’
‘Lucky that it didn’t see us then,’ said Vila.
‘Of course it saw you,’ snapped Avon, ‘and that means you are on its kill list. It has some kind of bizarre queuing system. It must have registered Travis and his mutoids first, otherwise it would already be on its way over here. But once it’s killed them, it will come after you and Blake. Nothing will stop it.’
‘It won’t be able to find us,’ said Blake.
‘Really?’ Avon asked. ‘It will have registered the particle disruption caused by the teleport.’
‘Well then let’s disconnect the powerlines and get out of here, fast,’ said Vila. He darted out of the teleport suite, heading for the flight deck.
‘It’s not that simple,’ said Avon, following him. ‘Even if we do manage to get away completely, it won’t stop. It will search for new targets so it can reset its queue.’
Vila frowned. ‘You mean, it will look for populated planets?’
‘I think so,’ said Avon. ‘We will effectively be signing the death warrants of millions of innocent people.’
‘We’ve got to stop it!’
‘I admire your optimism,’ Avon said with a humourless smile, ‘but I’m not stupid enough to share it.’
They reached the flight deck, where the rest of the crew were waiting.
‘We’ve let loose a berserker,’ Vila told her.
‘Berserker?’
‘Vila seems to think this weapon deserves a pet-name,’ Avon said. He grimaced. ‘I suppose “Berserker” is as good as any.’
‘INFORMATION,’ chimed Zen. ‘ONE LIFE FORM IS LEAVING STATION AMBER AND HEADING TOWARDS THE FEDERATION PURSUIT SHIPS.’
‘That’s bound to be Travis,’ said Jenna. ‘He’s escaped.’
‘Not for long,’ said Avon. ‘That machine won’t stop until it has hunted him down.’
‘Then what?’
‘Then it’s coming for us.’
NINE
RUN, TRAVIS, RUN!
Travis and the second mutoid ran from the laboratory in different directions and, to his relief, the machine followed the mutoid. Running through the corridors, Travis managed to stumble across the place where Blake had entered the space station and stopped, momentarily confused by the large inflatable cushion. Then he put his space helmet on and aimed the finger of his artificial hand. The laseron destroyer flashed, the cushion deflated and, in a howling wind, Travis was shot out into space.
Propelled by his jetpack, Travis wasn’t running away in the physical sense – he wasn’t using up any of his bodily resources to gain distance at great speed – but nevertheless he was breathless by the time he reached the hull of his ship. It wasn’t the ship he’d arrived in: that one, now that the mutoids had been killed, had nobody to pilot it, so Travis made for one of the others.
As he neared his ship he heard an explosion and looked back to see that the hull of Station Amber had ruptured. The AE105 had smashed its way out, and was still on his trail, heading towards him through open space. This puzzled Travis, because the Liberator was nearer and still tethered, a much easier target. Thoughts tumbled around in his head as he sped towards safety. Why was this machine hunting him down? Had Blake somehow programmed it to steer clear of him and his band of rebels?
Travis was inside the pursuit ship in seconds, locking the hatches and taking control.
‘Commander Travis,’ a mutoid said as he entered the small command area.
‘Who else were you expecting?’ Travis said bitterly. ‘Course for Eurydice, maximum speed. Get us out of here.’
The mutoid started to plot the course on the console.
‘Now!‘ screamed Travis.
*
Blake’s crew watched, with a mixture of fascination and terror, as the Berserker ignored the two static pursuit ships and single-mindedly headed for the third ship that was already streaking away.
‘Travis must be on that ship,’ Blake said. ‘He’ll try to find shelter.’
‘The nearest populated planet to here is the one we set out from, Eurydice,’ said Jenna. ‘There are about three billion people there.’
Avon looked accusingly at Blake and gave him a vicious smile. ‘And you let it out.’
‘I won’t have those deaths on my conscience,’ hissed Blake, turning his eyes away from Avon.
‘You haven’t a choice,’ Avon replied crisply. ‘There is no power in this galaxy, or probably any other, that can stop it now. Face it, Blake. This is a mess of your own making, and you can’t clear it up.’
Blake wanted to hit Avon, but he knew that it wouldn’t do any good. Instead he perched himself on the edge of one of the consoles and tried to think. He saw the micro holograph projector and picked it up.
‘So this was a message?’ he asked Avon. ‘This was what warned you about the Berserker?’
‘You are welcome to listen yourself,’ Avon said. He took the projector from him, lay it on top of a table and tapped it twice with the tip of a finger. It glowed bright blue-green, and a figure materialised hovering an inch above it. A man with long black hair and a beard, broad-shouldered and fat, wearing shabby clothes.
‘Hallo,’ the figure grinned. ‘My name is Kerralin, Ban Kerralin. I’m supposed to be Head Consulting Weapons Technician at Station Amber, though I’ve a feeling that by now my contract will be under review. You have put me on the floor, haven’t you? Only if I’m standing on a table right now I must look quite silly. Don’t suppose that matters now, though, because if you can actually see this and hear what I’m saying then I’m obviously dead, hence the contract review gag. I do hope somebody got that. Might as well go out on a laugh, and at least I don’t have to listen to Servalan any more.’ He suddenly looked frustrated. ‘And why in heaven’s name am I asking you anything? It’s not as though you can give answers that this recording would be able to hear. But I’m rambling, aren’t I?’
‘Just a little,’ said Vila, soothingly. Cally frowned and shushed him.
‘Anyway,’ the holographic figure continued. ‘I’ve got to put you in the picture about the AE105. Keep away from it. It’s unstable. It’ll kill anything it sees. Now that I’m dead, absolutely nobody is safe. I’m sorry… But Servalan altered the course of my work.’
‘Sounds like Servalan,’ said Jenna.
‘The AE105 was supposed to emit a pulse that pacified the mind by subduing certain neural activity in the brain,’ continued the figure. ‘Servalan held my family to ransom and forced me to modify it. She had me replace the neuro-inhibitor with a tissue vaporiser. Do you know? She even let me see my wife and kids safe and well, and as soon as I’d finished the adaptations to the unit she sent them off to be re-educated anyway.’
The hologram gave a hollow laugh, and the crew of the Liberator exchanged glances.
‘So, the thing is, I sort of lost my temper and removed its safety features,’ Kerralin said. ‘All but one. The only safety cut-out it has is an integrated command that registers on sight of me. It can’t kill me. But if I’m dead, everybody’s had it. It can self-charge its power cells from any source of energy. It can even convert raw energy into usable power. If it’s a bit tired it can go and sit near a star until it livens up again and then just carry on with its job.’
‘Is this guy crazy?’ Vila asked, tapping the side of his head.
‘Its only order is to kill absolutely any living thing on sight, one by one. It makes a queue – first come, first served. The only thing that can slow it down is interference with its queuing system. If it somehow loses all trace of the first person in line, or if it kills someone out of turn, it resets and then the next person it sees will be number one on the list.’
‘I’d have to say he doesn’t sound completely sane,’ said Gan.
‘I’m sorry it’s so indiscriminately destructive. I was hoping it’d do Servalan. If it hasn’t, then don’t worry. I’ve got a bit of a plan B that won’t be nearly as easy for her to escape.’ The figure laughed.
‘What’s he talking about?’ wondered Jenna.
‘I wondered that. But surely something trying to kill Servalan is the least of our troubles,’ said Avon.
‘I hope it doesn’t do you, whoever you are,’ said the hologram. ‘I hope you’ve got the good sense to leave well alone. Look after yourself. I mean it. I’m… sorry.’
And he was gone.
‘If it’s that powerful,’ said Jenna slowly. ‘How did it come to end up in that vault? Why didn’t it just blast its way out and get back to looking for Servalan?’
Blake shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Jenna. That’s a temptation even I couldn’t resist.’
‘Or any of us,’ murmured Vila. ‘Would you stay at home when you could be out caving Servalan’s head in, Jenna?’
‘Probably not,’ Jenna said with a smile.
‘There had to be a way of keeping it inside,’ said Blake. He picked up the micro holograph projector and studied it intently. ‘Of course…’ he said, suddenly.
‘Of course what?’ asked Vila, but Blake wasn’t listening.
‘Zen!’ he shouted. ‘Connect to Station Amber.’
‘CONNECTION ESTABLISHED,’ Zen reported.
‘Scan the vault we found the machine in for holographic equipm
ent.’
‘A HOLOGRAPHIC PROJECTOR IS IN THE VAULT.’
Blake’s eyes were alight. ‘Is it still operating?’
‘IT WAS DEACTIVATED AUTOMATICALLY WHEN THE VAULT DOORS OPENED.’
‘How is it programmed?’
‘SIMULACRUM LOOPED FOR CONTINUOUS PLAY.’
‘Can you download the simulacrum and play it back for us?’ Blake picked up the micro holographic projector and switched it off with his thumb. ‘Patch it into this unit.’
The lights on the projector blinked on and off fast, then the figure of Ban Kerralin returned. But this time, it was a different recording of him. It wasn’t smooth. The words were in different tones, spoken with different inflections. They had clearly been cut from other audio recordings and stitched together.
‘You will… not leave… this… room,’ Kerralin said in odd pitches and paces. ‘You will… not attack… anyone.’ He repeated the two crudely edited sentences over and over.
Vila stared at it. ‘So that’s how they stopped it getting out,’ he breathed. ‘I’m guessing they couldn’t order it to self-destruct, so this was the next best thing. Lock it up, close down the station and drag it far, far away.’
‘And we just had to go looking for it,’ said Gan.
‘And we’re going to again,’ said Blake, grimly. ‘Avon, could you reprogram this hologram? Make it say something else? Tell it to switch itself off.’
‘It’s possible,’ Avon said quietly, picking up the projector. ‘Zen, can you reconfigure this simulacrum and synchronise the movements of the mouth with an open-input speech synthesiser?’
‘IT REQUIRES MANUAL REPROGRAMMING.’
‘Using recordings of this simulacrum and the previous one, are you able to reproduce the voice of Ban Kerralin in the speech synthesiser?’ asked Avon.
‘NINETY-THREE PERCENT MATCH.’
‘That should be good enough,’ Blake said decisively. ‘Jenna, how’s our power?’
‘We reached optimum half an hour ago,’ Jenna replied confidently.
‘Good,’ said Blake. ‘Sever the powerlines and the safety cable. Zen, set a course for Eurydice. Standard by twelve.’
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