“Is the plasma cannon online?” Tekeru asked with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Affirmative,” the ship’s AI answered.
“And are we in firing range of Kaleeb’s ship?”
"We are," Bartimaeus answered, "though the shots would be highly inaccurate and easy to evade from this far out. They would also be significantly weakened by the time they reached Kaleeb's infiltrator."
"Could we fire on Kaleeb without hitting the shuttle?” Tekeru asked.
“With care, that would be possible,” Rosie replied. “Though it would mean we’d be even less likely to hit him, and he’d likely close in on them for cover, increasing our need for accuracy.”
Tekeru grinned. “Octavian, can you reroute those power fluctuations to the plasma cannon instead of alternating between the engines?”
A flustered Octavian responded that it was possible but risky and asked why he wanted to.
"We can siphon off energy from the fusion core using the cannon to lessen the strain on the engines. And if we're lucky, maybe we can take out that bastard Kaleeb at the same time."
“Rerouting power now,” Octavian responded. “Cannons powering up…successfully. You will need to begin discharging the power within thirty seconds.”
Kyralla rushed over to the piloting station and slapped the circlet on. Bishop leaped into the weapon station chair. Tekeru hobbled across the bridge and stepped over Oona, who was lying on the floor, and collapsed into the command chair.
“I’ll do what I can from here,” Tekeru said.
Kyralla slammed the control stick hard right and reversed the direction the ship pointed. The engines continued to burn at three over max, but now they were slowing them instead of increasing their speed.
With the chippies, the ship’s AI, and Tekeru assisting him, Bishop opened up with the plasma cannon, which pumped out high-strength shots at four times the normal rate.
Kyralla zoomed in with her system locator and watched Kaleeb weave through the plasma bursts. Two glanced against his infiltrator’s force field, dropping its strength by ten percent.
“The plasma cannon is overheating,” the ship announced.
“Keep firing,” Kyralla said. “Octavian can we do anything to cool it?”
Bartimaeus translated. “Even if it were possible, all our cooling capabilities must remain focused on the fusion drive.”
“The fusion drive will now overheat in five minutes," Artemisia told them.
Rerouting the extra energy to the plasma cannon had bought them a couple of minutes.
“Kaleeb just fired on the shuttle again,” Rosie said, “but he missed.”
Before anyone could respond, Oona leaped to her feet. "I've got it!" She held her hands out, tapping and swiping as if she were operating an invisible control panel. "I can stop the darkness. I will stop it! And I will save everyone." She raised her head toward the ceiling and cried out. "I will save everyone!"
A sparkling halo formed around the ship, and arms of blue flame whipped out from the hull.
"Fusion core cooling rapidly!” the ship announced enthusiastically. “Full control over all ship systems has been restored.”
The quad plasma continued to pump out increasingly accurate, high-strength, high rate-of-fire bolts toward Kaleeb’s infiltrator. Only one out of every ten shots struck home, but that was more than enough to drop his force field strength to an estimated ten percent according to the Outworld Ranger’s sensors.
Through the ship's comm came a deep voice that sounded as if it were scraped over shards of glass. "Stop firing immediately, or I will destroy your father and your friends!"
“Die!” Oona screamed. “Die, die, die!”
The Outworld Ranger shuddered and creaked as the plasma cannon kicked out a series of star-blazing mega-bolts. Trying to avoid them, Kaleeb darted his infiltrator in an evasion pattern so intricate Kyralla couldn’t imagine ever being skilled enough to attempt such a maneuver. Then he opened fire on the troop transport shuttle.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ship as the cannon on top exploded. Seneca screamed. Octavian bleeped a string of curses. Fire alarms blared. Their shields collapsed. The sensors went down, and Kyralla had no idea whether Kaleeb had dodged their plasma bursts or whether his laser blast had hit the shuttle.
Breathing heavily, Oona fell to her knees, heaving in deep gulps of air. She looked up at Kyralla, worried and blinking back tears. Her eyes were back to their normal space-black. “I did what I could."
47
Siv Gendin
Siv woke abruptly to Silky and Mitsuki cursing like planet-bound spacers in a bar fight.
“What’s wrong?”
Neither answered. Tamzin was shaking her head as if dumbfounded. Galen muttered something unintelligible. Whether that was because the ambassador was mentally damaged or preoccupied like the others, Siv didn’t know. The info in his HUD registered Galen’s health as poor but gave no other specifics.
He glanced at the time and guessed at least fifteen minutes had passed. The viewscreen showed the dark of space. Aside from the stars and one moon from the planet’s string of seven, only the glow of an orbital defense platform shined ahead.
“Silkster, catch me up on what’s going on.” No response came. “Silkster?”
Sixteen plasma cannon bursts flared from the orbital platform. Siv braced himself for certain death. The shuttle's force field was only strong enough to deflect small-arms fire and debris. He assumed this was what the others were cursing about, but they didn't react. A moment later, he understood why as the shots blazed past them.
The shots pierced the planet’s atmosphere and burned toward a target below that he couldn’t identify.
“Who the hell are they shooting at?” he asked.
"Tekk Reapers," Tamzin said, her weak voice shaking. "Your chippy confused the hell out of the bastards, and they attacked two planetary strike-fighters, thinking Galen was onboard. That led to a full military engagement."
“So the reapers are occupied and not pursuing us. That’s great.”
“It is,” Tamzin replied. Her vitals were strong. She only needed rest now.
“So what’s the problem?”
Silky muttered a string of curses and ponderings about the laws of physics and knuckleheads. None of it made any sense.
Mitsuki took a deep breath, sighed, and glanced over at him with a haunted look in her eyes. "The problem," she said, her voice also trembling, "is that the Outworld Ranger has jumped into the system.”
“What?! Why?”
“No pimp-on-pimp idea!” Silky snapped. “I can’t raise them on any channel known to human, starkat, or cockroach.”
“The only signature I see for the Outworld Ranger on my locator is the pink dot representing the decoy,” Siv said.
“The flashing green dot, sir,” Silky said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Siv had seen that dot but had dismissed it, assuming that was the Hydrogenist starship, but now that he examined the locator more carefully, he spotted the green dot for the Hydrogenists farther out than the Outworld Ranger.
“Wait, when did they jump in without us seeing it? Based on where they are, they would’ve had to jump a couple of hours ago, right?”
“Normally,” Mitsuki said.
"Try three minutes ago, sir. I don't want to say it's impossible. Because clearly, it’s not. How, I haven't the slightest clue, though Oona obviously did something."
Siv pulled up the data on the ship’s current speed and trajectory. His eyes widened. “Is that speed notation correct?”
“I’m afraid three point one over max is correct, sir.”
“Can the Outworld Ranger maintain that speed?”
“Oh, hell no,” Mitsuki said. “That little girl’s gone way too far this time, and she’s going to get herself and the others killed.”
“Mits!” Siv said to her on a personal channel. “Galen’s been through enough! Don’t freak him out.”
“He’s about to go through a lot more,” Mitsuki responded.
Behind them, Galen muttered a prayer. Siv turned him. “She’ll be okay, I’m sure. She’s done something like this a couple of times of times before, and it worked out.”
Trembling, Galen nodded. “The Source is with her.”
“You feeling okay?” Siv asked with concern.
Galen fixed bleary, tear-stained eyes on him. “Considering I nearly died again… I guess so.”
“I’m surprised you’re awake.”
“Tamzin gave me a half dose of stimulant.”
“On Shit-Circuit’s recommendation,” she said.
“The Calm had to be countered to a certain degree, sir. It’s part of the process.”
Siv consulted the data again in his system-wide locator. The Outworld Ranger was still speeding out of control. “Silkster, you can’t do anything?”
“Sir, even if I could connect to the ship, there would be no way for me to slow down the Outworld Ranger in the five to ten minutes left before the frame tears apart or the fusion core overloads. All we can do is stick to our plan and hope that Oona uses her crazy ability to fix what she screwed up.”
Siv noted they were heading toward the orbital defense platform. “Why aren’t they suspicious?”
“I registered us as a scouting vessel, sir. When we get near the station, our official government orders instruct us to venture out to our rendezvous point beyond the fifth moon. That route shouldn’t seem irregular enough to get anyone’s attention.”
Siv stepped over to Galen, squeezed his shoulder, and squatted down beside him.
“Oona will save the ship in time, I’m certain.”
“I know the Source is with her,” Galen said, “but to be honest, I’m not feeling as positive about this as you.”
“You haven’t seen what your daughter can do. I have.”
“To me, she’s still the little girl I left behind, safely living in secret on my brother’s estate, reading and playing video games.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t ready for everything to change. Obviously, I knew it would, and soon. But I thought that figuring out the location of the genetics facility would give us a chance to get ahead of things and not reveal her identity to the galaxy.”
“Sir, the Outworld Ranger is slowing down!”
“That’s great news!”
“They’re still going too fast, sir, with a danger of exploding or breaking apart. But there’s hope now.”
Galen brightened when Siv relayed the news.
“So, tell me more about this priestess,” he said.
Siv recounted the entire tale, leaving nothing out.
“Wow,” Galen said once Siv had finished, “I can’t believe you’re so…old.”
“And crusty,” Mitsuki added.
“I’ve read some of your father’s work.”
“He was a brilliant man,” Siv agreed.
“You know, I can never thank the two of you enough for risking your lives to save my daughters.”
Siv shrugged, unsure how to respond. “Any updates, Silkster?”
“Slowing but still in danger, and some strange interference keeps preventing me from making contact, so I can’t—”
A red light overhead pulsed in tune with a blaring alarm.
“Target lock!” Mitsuki cried out.
“Shit!” Silky cursed. “How did he evade my sensors?!”
“What the hell’s going on?” Tamzin demanded.
Mitsuki jerked the control-stick hard left to evade. “Missile incoming!”
A red dot flared in Siv’s system locator as the ScanField-3 registered a new ship only fifty kilometers away. The infiltrator class designation flashed beneath it.
Kaleeb.
“Evade!” Silky said.
Mitsuki jerked the ship one direction then another. “I’m not a pilot!”
“Attempting to jam the missile…and failing,” Silky said aloud.
“Try the sonic burst again,” Siv told him.
“It won’t work without an atmosphere to carry the sound, sir. And I doubt it would work a second time anyway.”
“The missile’s closing in,” Tamzin said.
“I can’t shake it!” Mitsuki shouted. “I can’t—”
The shuttle bucked violently, and an explosive boom thundered through the ship. Lights throughout the vessel and on the control consoles flickered. Sparks flew from power relays along the ceiling and walls.
"Power failing!" Silky said aloud. "Starboard engine destroyed. Outer hull breached. Shit. We’ve got a containment field failure. The inner hull is holding, but we're leaking atmospheric pressure from somewhere."
“Controls are barely responsive,” Mitsuki said.
“Vega owns our asses now,” Silky said. “We can’t take another hit. Even a glancing laser strike could take us out.”
Tamzin cursed. “We’re goners.”
48
Silky
Silky's human companions couldn't appreciate everything he was doing to keep the dream alive. He executed trillions upon trillions of functions per second as he constantly scanned their surroundings and analyzed threat vectors and calculated possibilities while performing every countermeasure possible. He was also now serving as the shuttle's command-and-control model.
Really, it was better that they had no idea. Humans hated feeling powerless, something he had in common with them. Of course, even his chippy friends couldn’t understand the extreme processing capabilities that enabled his pseudo-humanity. They could fathom the nature of his being no more than he could that of the Benevolence.
And then there was Oona, who made absolutely no sense whatsoever—to anyone. He could only guess her purpose. And her seemingly unnatural abilities…he couldn't figure out the science behind them, much less how she managed to manifest them.
She had jumped the Outworld Ranger into what seemed a sure and explosive doom. And with the strange interference surrounding the ship, he could do nothing to help. That equal parts drove him batshit and sparked him off. That ship was his as much as anyone else’s, save Octavian. It was his home. And it deserved far better than how she was treating it.
Siv and Mitsuki and the Outworld Ranger. Those three things he valued above all else. Those three things he'd give his life for. Nothing less than the future of human civilization was more important.
Unfortunately, that future was on the line.
The Benevolence had created the greatest civilization to ever exist, Eyana had taught him that. But the nearly god-like AI had failed to protect it, and it was crumbling. Now Silky had a chance to undo it all and redeem AI-kind. He couldn’t screw this up.
And he had to make sure Siv survived. He hadn't raised and protected the boy all these years just to see him die like this. Losing Eyana had crushed him. He’d had to remake himself to survive the loss. He doubted he could do it again if he lost Siv.
The crew had slowed the Outworld Ranger, but only because they had manually restored access to thruster control. Nothing had changed as far as Oona’s nonsense was concerned. The engines were still going to rip the ship apart, and the fusion core was going to overload.
"Why isn't Kaleeb taking the shot?" Mitsuki struggled with the control stick, cursing. "He tried to kill us before, and he owns our asses now.”
Over the comm, Silky said, "We are bargaining chips now that the Outworld Ranger is here."
"Why not waste us and go after them?" Siv asked.
“Because he's almost certainly as confused as we are, given that the Outworld Ranger jumped halfway into the system and is moving at unprecedented speed. He knows it has to be Oona's doing but probably doesn’t realize she can't control it. Naturally, he's freaked out. Cause if she can do this, what else can she do?"
The shuttle rattled and groaned as if it were being pulled apart at the seams.
"Are we going to break up?” Tamzin gasped, struggling to breathe as the atmosphere thinned.
"Ma
ybe when we crash," Silky told her. "Mits, I've entered a flight path for you. Head toward the partially terraformed sixth moon. The ecosystem is rubbish—rocks and microbes—quite boring. But you can breathe the air. It's a fascinating project. The atmosphere is maintained by—"
Oxygen masks deployed from the shuttle’s ceiling. "You’ll want to use those.” He decided to continue to distract them with his lecture. "Anyway, as I was saying. The moon's atmosphere—”
A voice blared over their comm system as Vega used his infiltrator’s invasive communication array. Silky had very much enjoyed using that function on Eyana's infiltrator. Vega’s irritating growl made Silky wish he could gag.
“Surrender and make the Outworld Ranger respond to me, or perish.”
“Allow me, sir. I annoy them more.”
"If you think that's for the best,” Siv gasped, “then by all means.”
“Our surrender means nothing,” Silky responded. “We are helpless, and you know it. As for the Outworld Ranger, I am no more capable of communicating with them than you are. Well, I'm certain I’m more capable than you, which is no doubt why you're asking for my help. Still—”
Another voice blasted through the comm channel. “That’s it, boss. I’ve had it. We’re doing them in. I’m making this call.”
“Faisal, no!”
“You can’t stop me!”
Two things happened at once. First, the infiltrator’s lasers locked onto them. Second, the Outworld Ranger opened fire with its plasma cannon, forcing Kaleeb to evade as rapid-fire, high-strength shots came at him.
The Outworld Ranger chucked out fire as if it were a freak battleship, or like Siv had that time he ate the meatballs from a food cart Silky warned him to avoid.
“I thought Kaleeb wasn’t going to fire on us!” Mitsuki yelled.
"He wasn’t,” Silky said, “but the sky-blade hates me, and I may have overplayed this one.”
“You think?” Tamzin snapped.
Silky wanted to snap back, but she was right this time. That had been reckless. Maybe the pressure was getting to him. Or maybe he’d grown cocky from complacency. Those were both human failings. Maybe he was getting closer to the very elusive dream of true sentience. Or maybe he was too human now?
Breaking Point Page 33
