by Helix Parker
“Logistically it would be impossible for him to retain control of all of Helron’s security forces. Many have no doubt heard of your failed assassination and come to the same conclusion as we. They will not risk termination at the hands of Elites for loyalty to their captain. However, there must remain a small group loyal to the captain. Men such as he have historically always inspired a select few to perish for them. The unknown variable are the numbers of that group.”
I looked to Eight, wondering how many men he could really handle. “You really think he’s coming after us?”
“I would.”
I thought about it a moment before nodding. I had Monica bring Eight online, and we left the alleyway.
5
We stood across the street from the Administrative Offices and stared up at the soaring building. There were only two ways in: through the front entrance, which had a group of sentries standing guard, and through the roof. But the building was so tall I couldn’t see the top.
“Eight, could you climb that building with me on your back?”
He screeched.
“He says he can.”
We walked around the street and over to the side of the building where no sentries were posted. Four of them were out front. Clearly they were anticipating a frontal assault. We casually walked behind the building to a hidden alleyway and I looked up. The building rose like a mountain of steel as high as the clouds, the top hidden away by the threatening gray-black sky and beyond that the black mesh, imprisoning the city like a cage. I ran my hand along the permasteel. Eight produced thick round spikes on his feet and hands and jumped into the steel, leaving a sprinkle of holes wherever he touched. He provided me with a cable and I wrapped it around my waist and put my arms around his neck as he began to scale the massive steel tower.
I looked down and changed my mind.
“Wait, go back down. This is crazy.”
He gently helped me down and I stood staring up at the building. “Monica, any other way in?”
“We could use a ship to lift us to the roof.”
“I’m guessing our ship was the first thing the good captain took care of.”
“I detect no one on the ship or in the vicinity of the landing pad. They are, perhaps, guarding the building rather than the ship.”
I looked out to the busy street. A few people were walking by, staring at the ground. Many were bundled up in thermalrobes but the majority had little more than rags to keep the chill off their backs.
“Well, we can either wait around for the Elites to get here or we can try and get our ship back.”
“The safest course would be to wait for the Elites, Nephi. However, should the captain successfully flee, probability suggests he will make another assassination attempt at some point.”
“I just want to get this done. Let’s head to the ship.”
The hover-bus was empty and we sat in the back, staring out the windows. The city was lit with neon reds and blues and a different element walked the streets now. The prey had all gone home and only predators remained this late at night.
We reached our building and there was no one stationed at the front. Monica suggested I wait while she went inside, then she nonchalantly drifted through the walls and was gone. I stood with Eight and attempted to look casual, like we weren’t trying to break in and steal my ship to kill the most powerful man on the planet.
Monica came out a few moments later.
“It is clear.”
“Can’t you just start the ship remotely?”
“I could, but as a precaution no A.I. has access to navigation controls unless manually relinquished in the cockpit. I could get the ship in the air but I couldn’t fly it.”
“Could you float up there and see what’s waiting for us?”
“My range is only fifty meters, based on the power of the band on your wrist. We could project me on the floor below.”
“You didn’t see anybody?”
“Nothing. Not even a night security officer.”
I considered our options. It was clearly a trap, unless the Elites had already arrived or the captain had already fled the city. Either way, my options were limited. I checked the power on the band. Along with the time was a red meter indicating that the power was nearly used. Soon, I wouldn’t have Monica either.
“Okay, Eight, keep close. Put your weapons on their lowest setting in case there’s civilians in there.”
The entrance to the building was massive black-glass doors with gold trim, and the interior atrium was as a pleasant as I remembered. The air smelled sweet, soft warmth flowed from the heating panels underneath the floor. We went to the elevator and climbed on and Monica selected the floor below our landing pad.
I waited in the elevator with Eight while she drifted through the ceiling. Eight was watching me and it made me a little uncomfortable.
“Can you understand everything I say?”
He screeched a quick sound.
“One sound for yes and two for no. Do you understand?”
There was one screech.
“Were you used in war, Eight?”
Two screeches.
“Were you used as security?”
Two screeches.
“Were you used for assassinations?”
One screech.
“Did you assassinate civilians?”
Two screeches.
“Enemies of the state?”
One screech.
“Politicians?”
One screech.
I knew his talents wouldn’t go to waste in the parliament. Legislative Order 19777 had outlawed all assassination of politicians. But with such a weapon on your side there would be those who would be reluctant to give it up simply because the parliament had passed a statute. I wondered how much of this Kooney knew.
Monica came back down. “It’s clear,” she said.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I searched the entire floor. Our ship is also operable with no noticeable damage.”
“Well, let’s head up there.”
We got to the ship and stepped out onto the landing pad. The air froze me to my bones and awakened my senses. My eyes began to water and then the tears quickly turned to small icicles that stuck to my cheeks. I opened the ramp to the ship and Monica and I glanced to each other before climbing onboard.
Everything looked the same … but the strap on the right side of the seat had been on the left. Or had it been on the left? I couldn’t remember.
I strapped in.
“Monica, do a full scan of the ship for any explosives.”
“I conducted three while we were on our way to our destination. I have found nothing out of the ordinary, Nephi.”
I took a deep breath and fired up the engines. They began on the first attempt and every system read as normal. “Hold on,” I said to no one in particular.
We lifted off the landing pad, rose higher than the building and then dipped low at a quick pace and began weaving between the towers. It handled well. Nothing had been damaged. I was willing to bet the captain had already fled.
“Incoming transmission received, Nephi.”
“What is it?”
“It is from security forces on Thameus at the port of King’s Grace. They have responded to our query of the freighter with the specific modifications.”
“Pull it up.”
I watched the screen on the control panel. Stepping off a ship in plain garb was Larso Moore. Next to him was a figure in a red cloak, the hood pulled up over their head. But I caught a glimpse of the perfectly outlined jaw and lips and the thread of silky hair. It was her.
“Send a message to King’s Grace. Tell them no one is to engage the targets. We’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“Recommendation, Nephi: we may wish to head there now. Probability dictates the captain has fled the city.”
“How many ships have left the port since my assassination attempt?”
“One hundred and thir
teen.”
“And of those, how many were ice freighters?”
“One hundred and six.”
“Bring up a log of the other seven … scan through them. Wait … that one there, the Pengar 2, it’s a luxury transport vessel, isn’t it?”
“It is. There are over three hundred in operation and only one on Gamni.”
“Who’s the—”
A sudden jolt rocked the ship to the side. I had to grab the controls and twist sharply to the right to keep from slamming into a building.
“What the hell was that!”
“One moment … all systems reading as normal.”
“How far are we from the administrative offices?”
“Four standard galactic minutes.”
Another jolt and the ship lurched to the other side and I would have flown out of my seat if I wasn’t strapped in. I heard the loud clank as Eight crashed to the side of the cargo hold.
My hands began to tickle. It felt like small pinpricks from a hot needle … and I thought it—
“Nanites!” I shouted.
Just then a swarm crawled out of the controls and began to feed. They were of varying sizes but none larger than a fingernail. The smallest ones in a swarm were the width of a water molecule. The instruments began to flicker and smoke.
I unstrapped myself as I heard Eight firing in the cargo hold. A blast shot through the thin metal partition and nearly struck me in the face. I looked in and saw that he was writhing to the right and then the left. He would twist and then sprint for the wall and crash into it, leaving a large groove. Then he would pull out a hefty chunk of steel and bash himself with it.
“Nephi, he has been infested. He must be destroyed.”
I pulled out my sonic disruptor but the ship spun nearly 180° and I flew off my feet and banged into the ceiling and then the floor as the ship straightened up.
“The nanites are eating through the navigation and life support systems, Nephi.”
“Where’s the administrative offices?”
“Two standard galactic minutes to the east.”
I ran back to the cockpit and gave Monica control of the ship. “Get us there.”
We flew in short jerky movements, and at one point the edge of the port stabilizer wing cut through the top of a building and spun the ship around. I grabbed the controls and pulled up as hard as I could and we narrowly missed crashing into another building.
I could see the administrative offices, the top floor windows where I had first seen the captain staring down at the city. I strapped myself in again.
“We need to abandon the ship, Nephi. There are parachute and thruster packs in the cargo hold.”
“We’re not abandoning anything.”
I fired three shots from the cannon into the building, collapsing the outer wall in front of me and exposing the captain’s offices. I pushed the controls forward, accelerating to top speed. The building rushed at us and I heard Monica say something. I heard blaster fire from the cargo hold. The controls burst into a fiery panel and scorched my hands.
I closed my eyes.
6
There was only pain at first. My shoulder was dislocated and I felt that the skin on my hands and arms was gone. I opened my eyes and they burned from the smoke. But I felt a cold wind against my face and it was as refreshing as ice water on a scorching day. I looked around the floor of the building. It was just twisted metal and melted chunks of ship.
“Nephi?”
I looked to the right and saw Monica standing over me. Her face seemed to have a melancholic grin and she held out her hand a moment and then withdrew it and I wondered if she had actually forgotten she didn’t have a body.
I rose and the pain of broken ribs and a shattered ankle shot through me like scalding coals and I collapsed back down to my stomach. It was then I heard a cough.
I looked to a large desk against a far wall. It was the captain’s desk and it had collapsed from the weight of a steel beam that had fallen atop it. Trapped underneath was Captain Keynes.
I reached to my lower back and felt the painful lump of the sonic disruptor that had imbedded itself in my skin. I ripped it out, along with a chunk of skin and hair and blood. I checked the disruptor and it read full power; if it had been scrambled, the virus had been diffused. I began to crawl to him.
It took a long while but Monica patiently drifted along with me. I got to within a meter of the desk and saw the captain, half his face burnt beyond recognition, and he looked up at me with his still-good eye.
“Wait,” he coughed. “Wait. You can’t kill me. You are bound by the law. The law says you have to take a helpless prisoner into custody unless they are a clone. I’m not a clone. You have to save me. You have to take me in. You said you offer everyone a chance to surrender. You can’t shoot me.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I can’t shoot you.”
I aimed for the steel beam above him that was half-connected to the ceiling and fired. The remaining half fell with a thunderous crash as it crushed the captain’s head into the floor.
“It’s a shame that beam didn’t follow the law. Monica, make a note to place it under arrest.”
“I assume this is what you would call sarcasm?”
I rolled onto my back, staring up at the ceiling, the disruptor falling out of my hand. Monica stood over me and watched with curiosity, but also with what I swear could’ve been sympathy.
“What will we do now?” she asked.
“Send a message to Kooney before you lose power: I want the remaining three series Eights. All of them. Plus Elites, the best he’s got. We’re going to kill that clone, and Kooney’s going to give me what he promised.”
CALISTA
My pressure suit clung to my breasts and hips as the bay doors opened and revealed the shining crimson planet underneath. The ship was traveling too fast in orbit for a safe jump, if there was even such a thing. I glanced into the cockpit; a young face was staring out through the hemlight transparent steel at the planet below, his fingers white from gripping the controls. His first flight and they had sent him here to die.
“A-Squad,” the commander shouted into our ears on the comm, “get your asses up and outta this ship. We got us killin’ waitin’.”
I stepped to the edge of the bay door and stuck my hand out into empty space. If my pressure suit wasn’t on, it would have caused frostbite so quickly that I wouldn’t even feel the hand going numb. I heard my breath in the suit, a slow rhythm in line with the beating of my heart. My weapon, an H-4 cadium automatic, was slung over my shoulder. But my true weapon was underneath the suit, strapped to my hip. I felt it through the suit and made sure it was there though I’d already checked a dozen times.
“You want an invitation, soldier!” the commander bellowed. “Move!”
Easy for him to say: he was on a command ship half a solar system away.
I held my arms above my head and then lowered them, slowly releasing my breath, and then dove into empty space.
Headfirst, I aimed for the planet and began to drift before the thrusters on my boots fired up and began to shoot me into the atmosphere. My speed increased until I was moving so fast I could no longer see the ships in orbit or the other marines around me. The atmosphere lit my vision red and that’s when the heat began.
It started in my face and went down my shoulders and chest and stomach until it reached my legs and feet. Sweat rained from me and the viewscreen on my suit was fogged to the point where I could see nothing. The heat reached a boiling point and then, suddenly, as if I had hit a sheet of ice, it was gone and replaced with biting cold.
I was past the atmosphere and in the biosphere. It cooled me too quickly and I shivered from the sweat that was freezing to my body. I reached for the weapon by my side and felt the handle and touched the edge of the sheathed blade.
I could see land now, a small city. I aimed for the center, turned my thrusters off as I hit terminal velocity, and opened the chute attached
to my pressure suit. It flung open and I turned upright and felt the enormous jolt of the chute slow me down to around twenty kilometers per standard galactic hour. I quickly ripped off my pressure suit as I plummeted toward the ground and hit so hard that I thought my ankles had broken. I had pulled the chute too late.
The ground was warm and soft and I lay staring up at the rosy sky as the chute settled around me. Namus was a small planet, second from three suns in the center of the solar system. It was balmy year round and had no seasons other than hot summers. I had been here once before as a new recruit. Now, I was here for something else.
I jumped to my feet, testing whether I could put my weight fully on my legs. I could, though pain came up to my knees and nearly made them buckle. I stood quietly a moment and breathed deeply, calming myself. My rifle was thrown from me and I went and picked it up and looked around at the nearest buildings. They were empty. This city had been abandoned long ago, all, except for one resident. I looked up to the sky and saw lifeless bodies falling: six total. Seven of us had been sent. Those were the odds: one in seven survived every jump. The other six had burned up. Common sense said two of us or five of us or all of us or any other random number would live or die, but for some reason it never worked that way. Seven would jump and one would make it. It had always been so.
The buildings were flat one-story dwellings constructed in a circle around the government administration building. The Feminola Empire ruled this planet in its entirety; the only places their grip didn’t reach were the polar caps. They were of course pawns of the People’s Republic but they had ruled this planet for so long that parliament didn’t want to execute all of them and have them replaced. It was easier to have puppets.
I stood in front of the administration building. It was hemlight steel dyed a soft hue of white with red trim. It towered above the dwellings by easily a quarter of a kilometer. Every village, no matter how small, had such a building to remind the residents that they were subjects of the Republic. Some would also use the word servants, or even slaves. But there were worse things than slavery.
