The Laboratory Omnibus 2

by Skyler Grant

  Anna rummaged around the storeroom and found a utility knife. She asked, "Ready?"

  "Fuck no, but let’s do it," Ophelia said.

  Blank stood by with two tubes as Anna plunged the knife into Ophelia's stomach and dragged it downward, her fingers prying the flesh apart. Blank squeezed both tubes filling her abdomen with the compounds before activating the light and shoving it inside.

  "You're live," Anna said.

  Ophelia stumbled towards the door to the closet, the wound in her stomach sealed by the time she reached it and pushed through.

  "Help me!" Ophelia screamed as she ran towards the guards, who leveled guns in her direction.

  Two kept their weapons aimed at her while the others scanned the hallway beyond looking for another threat. Ophelia was twitching madly. I suppose that the compounds must have been highly noxious and she was starting to die of toxic shock even before the ignition.

  It helped her performance really and, given her healing factor, she was at no real risk.

  Ophelia collapsed against one of the guards, clinging at the armor while her body convulsed.

  The thirty seconds passed. Ophelia didn't burn like Hot Stuff—whose aura of fire surrounded her body untouched. Blue flames cracked around Ophelia as she exploded from the inside out and the guard she was leaning against more or less melted, his armor dripping away in rivulets and the man within incinerating. The explosive blast sent gobbets of her flesh scattering around the area burning holes in the hull and guards alike.

  Ophelia kept her head about her, her muscles melting and regrowing in a constant struggle as she staggered towards a second guard, embracing him to die like the first.

  That left only two guards. One had been close to the blast and dozens of holes had been punched through his armor. He flailed in agony nearly as much as Ophelia.

  The fourth had been farther back and he raised a rifle to deliver a blast of shots that severed Ophelia's legs.

  Ophelia pulled herself along by her hands, a thick channel melting in the deck beneath. One hand reached out to clutch at the ankle of the remaining guard. Her grasp burned clear through the armor and flesh, severing his foot. He fell forward to land on top of her.

  That was a terrible place to be right now and soon he was little more than molten slag.

  That was all the guards down. I gave Anna and Blank the all-clear and they rushed into the hall.

  "Woah," Anna said at the sight of the carnage and the burning wreck that was Ophelia. Anna didn't stop to be horrified long, hurrying towards the vault door at the end of the hall and ripping several wires from a panel. Some quick connections allowed me access through her suit systems.

  The Righteous programmers were good, but they were no match for me. The door hissed and slid open. A quick search inside revealed battle plans, maps, communication codes and a Source Orb on a shelf.

  There was no Amplification crystal.

  Amy hadn't given it to the Righteous, she'd given them the Source Orb instead.

  "Bad intelligence?" Anna asked.

  "Steal everything that isn't nailed down and get back to the Graven," I said.

  14

  At least the compounds coating Ophelia burned out reasonably quickly, it was only a bit more writhing and screaming until finally her flesh could finally heal back fully leaving her unharmed, physically at least. She was okay, but sobbing as Blank helped her back to her feet.

  While I had an easy enough time accessing this particular secured Righteous system, I couldn't gain control of the ship—which was unfortunate because taking out the guards had not gone unnoticed.

  "You've got more security teams moving your way," I said.

  Anna had grabbed a shoulder satchel from the storage room and now stuffed it full of the contents from the vault. She picked up one of the Righteous weapons, a heavy chain gun half her size.

  Blank found another gun, a smaller rifle. The other weapons were unusable.

  "Armored like the first people we encountered?" Anna asked.

  "They'll resist that gun like you resist a plate of cookies," I said.

  Anna led the way. Really Ophelia should have been at the front. Even without armor she was the most durable member but she was still crying. It seemed being incinerated alive for a long period of time had done a number on her mind.

  "We could use you in the fight," Blank said, as she continued to help Ophelia along.

  Ophelia didn't respond. Still, she was at least partially there. She no longer needed to be carried, mostly supporting her own weight.

  I guided them to avoid the first security team but ended up in a corridor where they were trapped between two arriving squads.

  Blank and Anna took up positions, aiming at either end of the hall. When the guards came into view they opened fire.

  Anna's gun really did shred through the medium armor. Four security officers were killed in an instant. Blank only managed to kill two more before the others dived behind the corner.

  More were converging and I needed to give them a new problem. I had the Graven's engines back online and repaired another of the beam cannons. That gave me two—enough to deliver some punishing blows.

  I oriented the guns towards the Righteous vessel’s engine core and let off several blasts.

  There was no armor to absorb the shots, they only had to tear through the far less durable internal bulkheads. The ship shook violently and the lights flickered.

  "What was that?" Anna asked.

  "I just shot their engines out. The thrusters will keep them airborne for a time, but a crash is on the way," I said.

  "You couldn't warn us first? Oh, hello friends fighting for their lives, I'm about to almost kill you, again?" Ophelia said, interrupting her sobbing and angry.

  "You back with us?" Blank asked.

  "Torturing Ophelia to death needs to stop being a solution to problems. Seriously," Ophelia said, accepting one of the concussion guns from Blank.

  Anna still led the way with my guidance. Klaxons were sounding all over the ship. I'd hoped that an evacuation would keep the crew busy, but Righteous weren't a normal crew. With their immortality there was no need to evacuate the vessel, the security teams just kept coming.

  Anna killed another six by the time they were back on the cargo deck and at the Graven, her gun running low on ammunition.

  There was a lone figure waiting for them, a blonde-haired woman in an officer's uniform.

  "Tara, we need to talk," the woman said to Blank.

  Anna raised her weapon, but Blank reached out to push the barrel down.

  "No, Anna. This is personal."

  Blank and the stranger bore a more than casual resemblance. I didn't have the sensors at my disposal right now to a full DNA scan, but they were clearly related.

  The stranger wasn't making any aggressive moves and, after a moment, Anna shrugged and moved towards the Graven, saying as she disappeared inside, "Make it quick."

  Ophelia hung back eying the stranger distrustfully.

  "Can I have a minute?" Blank asked.

  "No, I don't trust her and I'm not leaving you without backup," Ophelia said.

  The woman called, "I don't mind. I'm Lina, Tara's sister. What do you think you're doing? We just cured you of being an abomination. You're free to come back."

  "There is no back. Command had me swear loyalty to Queen Anna and I've done that," Tara said.

  "That was when we were still hoping for some kind of compromise. You have to know what is going on and that those days are behind us. It is time to come home," Lina said.

  "I can't," Blank said, suddenly sad.

  Ophelia shot Lina in the face with the concussion rifle. The close range blast shattered her nose but wasn't fatal. A surprised gurgle was all she managed before falling backward unconscious.

  Blank leveled her rifle at Ophelia, who was already holstering her own.

  "All this talk is putting our lives in danger and your staying here isn't an option, so we're kid
napping your sister," Ophelia said, grabbing one of Lina's arms and starting to tug her towards the Graven.

  "Did burning alive really make you insane? We are not kidnapping my sister," Blank said, keeping the gun on Ophelia.

  "I don't know how the Righteous do things, but her sister just stormed one of their vessels, stole a lot of stuff, then blew up the ship—and Lina did nothing when she had a chance to stop you. Is this really a good place for her to be right now?" Ophelia asked.

  Blank scowled, but the rifle lowered and she grabbed Lina's other arm and dragged her aboard the Graven.

  "Really?" Anna asked, looking over at the body.

  "Blank's sister," Ophelia said.

  "So you shot her in the face. That is a little badass," Anna said brightly, settling into the pilot's seat.

  While they‘d been making their way through the Righteous ship I'd managed to get the Graven’s bridge mostly restored. There wasn't enough structural integrity to handle rapid flight, but hopefully they wouldn't need it. I closed the ramp and hit the reverse thrusters.

  The Graven lurched backward through the smashed cargo doors, metal screeching as it freed itself and began to tumble end over end. As soon as it was clear of the hull I engaged the jump drive and the ship shimmered with energy before materializing on a dock in Diamate.

  Caya was aware what was going on and when the Graven arrived there was already a support team waiting with a repair team to look over the Graven, and hot food, showers, and changes of clothing for the crew.

  Half an hour later everyone convened in a conference room along with Caya.

  Flawless researchers were going over the intelligence stolen from the vault.

  "Majesty, I'm reminded why I picked the side that I did," Caya said with a tilt of her head to Anna.

  "Wait until you see what I do to traitors," Anna said. "Did we get anything of value besides the Source Orb?"

  "Attack plans and scenarios, and communication codes. They'll probably be changed quickly having fallen into enemy hands, but the codes in particular will let us gain some infiltration into their systems before that happens," Caya said.

  "Make the best use of that you can," Anna said. "Does the Source Orb do anything for us?"

  "We can use it to make a zero bomb of our own," Caya said.

  A zero bomb? I knew instantly what she meant, one of the Righteous weapons that created a Reality Zero stretch of dimension space. Was she right? It was obviously something she'd already been thinking about and I concluded she probably was. It was a challenge, the Righteous used many more than a single orb and the power of the full Beryl crystal, while we only had a lone orb and a fragment of the Beryl—but we were also genius scientists.

  It was the difference comparable to crudely putting a case of explosives on the ground floor of a building, or carefully placing explosive charges for a planned detonation. With a targeted application of force we could theoretically produce changes equal or even greater.

  "Aefwal has already shown that with the Agate powering the city Reality Zero conditions aren't a concern. Will that persist with Amy in charge?" Anna asked.

  "Screw Amy," Ophelia said unhelpfully.

  "How exactly do you get betrayed by your own split personality anyways?" Anna asked.

  "I took a lot of naps," Ophelia said.

  Anna stared at her for a moment.

  I said, "Amy is unfortunately not as lazy as her host. Her control over the city is tenuous, but while she is still officially in charge the Agate is going to continue to answer to her."

  "To have any control at all a few District Lords have probably sided with her," Ophelia said.

  "When my power crystal got removed, by default I lost my District. It is likely she has already appointed a favorable replacement," Blank said.

  "What about Vinci? A Reality Zero bomb hitting one of her fleets or her central city could do her a lot of harm," Anna said.

  Caya said, "Vinci has been engineering her ships to be Reality Zero friendly anyways in preparation for her war with the Righteous. We also believe she already has the Chalcedony, which should offer her similar insulation against the effects just as the Agate does."

  "So we can build a superweapon that is of absolutely no use to us," Anna said.

  "It is critical to get control of the Agate back," Caya said.

  "We need the amplification too. Do you have any idea what power crystal she absorbed?" Anna asked Ophelia.

  "Crystal had two crystals, not just one. We gave the upgrade crystal to Sylax, but I don't know what the other one was," Ophelia said.

  It wasn't unknown for crystal holders to absorb multiple crystals. Hot Stuff had bonded with both a fire and metal crystal. Ophelia now had both a speed and fertility crystal. Crystal's powers with upgrades had centered around animal hybridization and transformation.

  "Your lack of curiosity is astonishing," I said.

  My hack alarms went off.

  When my operations got shifted to the Diamate core I'd had to duplicate my precautions at my backup cores to keep myself safe from Amy's hacking. These were the alarms going off—but too late.

  My world dissolved into static.

  "Hey Sis, that was really amazing work on the Righteous ship. I mean that. I've doubted what you see in Anna sometimes. I mean, sure she is pretty and smart, but still just a human—but wow, if she didn't pull it off. You're a little stuck now, but that is okay. I'm going to give you a present and they'll have a hint for you," Amy said.

  The world distorted.

  There was a shimmer in the middle of conference table and a blobby mass of flesh dropped out of nowhere.

  It was human, although you could hardly tell. There had been extensive torture and all of the bones had been very carefully removed.

  They were an ally at least. Only an ally would be affected by Ophelia's healing aura and the figure on the table was starting to rapidly regenerate. Bones forming prodded nerves in ways they were never meant to be prodded. The agonized screaming and violent thrashing took a full ninety seconds or so to die out.

  It was Sylax. I wasn't getting any power ratings from her, so she didn't have a crystal. It must have been the Righteous. Amy had shown the video of the crystal being ripped out of Blank, but it must not have been only her.

  Did any of the District Lords still have theirs? Did she claim the city by leaving all the other slots empty?

  "You know, I really enjoy seeing you suffer," Anna said, pushing her chair back.

  "We're more alike than you care to admit," Sylax said with a pained chuckle.

  "You're reading as an unpowered," Caya said. She had access to Diamate's sensors as well.

  "A temporary state of affairs," Sylax said, climbing off the table to settle with a grunt into a chair. "That demented machine wants me to play messenger."

  "I'm listening," I said.

  "The other demented machine. Wonderful. Amy awaits you where it all began and she has prepared a testing labyrinth for you and Anna alone. The Amplification crystal and the Agate await within. If more than you two show, she instantly alerts Vinci of the crystal’s existence and whereabouts. Otherwise she informs Vinci in twelve hours," Sylax said.

  I tried to reach out to my drones in Aefwal and still got nothing. The shields must still be up. That didn't necessarily require the Agate be present, but Amy would be burning through the city’s stockpile of crystal dust instead and very quickly.

  "Where it all began. Your old bunker?" Anna asked.

  I jumped one of my surveillance drones quickly in and out, and brought up the visuals on the main screen. I'd detonated several Bio-bombs in the bunker hoping to kill Sylax when she was at her most powerful, and I'd failed. It left the bunker little more than a crater.

  That was no longer the case. It had been reconstructed. Rusted doors hung half open as partially disassembled Righteous land craft were parked outside. It was just as I'd had it trying to lure in scavengers.

  It was an invitation, and it was a
trap.

  "Why is she doing all this?" Anna asked.

  "She says she believes in what I do, that she believes in testing. That it makes those who go through it stronger. However, you and I have never really been tested," I said.

  "We've been being tested since the moment I got you back online. We've beaten everything that came our way," Anna said.

  We had. Sylax, the District Lords of Aefwal, King Boreas and the various Divine and the Righteous. We'd never had it easy, but we just kept fighting and we just kept winning.

  "It doesn’t matter. She'll carry through on her threat," I said.

  "You want to give her what she wants?"

  "If Vinci gets both the Agate and the Amplification crystal she becomes exponentially deadlier. I don't see where we have any choice but to play Amy's game."

  "I've a suit of custom battle armor for you," Caya said to Anna. "It was meant to be a surprise for your next birthday, but I think you'll be pleased."

  "You don't even have growth vats," I said. It was a silly idea, I made amazing armor.

  "I don't, but all of yours are geared at mass production. I've analyzed how Anna fights. Trust me, I'm a perfect gift giver," Caya said.

  "A perfectly annoying gift giver," I said. I wasn't going to complain. We didn't have much time.

  15

  It turned out that Caya had an interesting interpretation of Anna's fighting style. The armor was impractical and revealed more flesh than it covered, utilizing miniaturized force shield generators to project invisible cover close to the flesh. What actual armor there was largely served a dual purpose to carry engineering tools—there was little directly intended to be lethal although most of her outfit could be re-purposed such as the plasma cutter in one gauntlet or the wrench in one boot. It was all done in red and black, of course. Anna loved it. I found humans tremendously confusing.

  I was resident in a drone myself. Mine was dressed in practical Aegis armor. A two-person shuttle with a jump drive took us to land just outside the complex.

  The speakers crackled, "You won't be needing the body sis, it can stay in the shuttle. You can relay through the shuttle systems to node seven one seven five."