Flight of the Javelin: The Complete Series: A Space Opera Box Set

by Rachel Aukes

  They strode past the cabins, all with the doors closed and likely locked. Trepidation nipped at Throttle’s nerves when they passed the airlock, and she hoped that the Vantage Core preferred to keep the humans alive for the time being rather than open the doors and watch them being sucked out into the black.

  They made it past the airlock alive and continued to the cargo hold, which was the only hallway door still open. The trio stepped into the open space of the hold, and the door closed behind them.

  There, they found Punch standing outside the open door of the Faraday cage and Eddy standing on the other side of the hold, near his engineering workbench. Four of Rusty’s bots were active and hovering. The single armed bot had a blaster pointed at Punch, who had his hands in the air. Another bot slowly circled Eddy’s head, holding a lit soldering torch. The remaining two bots, each holding different tools-turned-weapons, floated to the newcomers, hovering just above their eye level.

  “Glad you could join the party,” Punch said drily.

  “Wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” Throttle said just as drily.

  “Tigger, damn it. I’m telling you to stop flying around with that torch. You could hurt someone. Rusty, seriously, this is not funny,” Eddy said.

  Throttle glanced over to see the engineer glaring at the bot buzzing around his head.

  Punch grimaced. “He hasn’t shut up since these bots all woke up with mean streaks.”

  “They took control of Rusty and used him to take over the Javelin,” Sylvian said.

  “I figured as much,” Punch said. “I’m guessing their having control of Rusty and this ship doesn’t bode well for us.”

  Throttle raised her lip in a snarl at the large bot hovering near her, holding a spinning sawblade. “No, it doesn’t.”

  Finn spoke. “I don’t suppose anyone has any great ideas on how to get us out of this mess?”

  Throttle gave a ghost of a smile. “Remember Belmont?”

  Punch eyed her for a long second, looked over his shoulder into the crate, and then back at her.

  She glanced at Finn, and his lips were in a thin line. He shot the briefest of glances at his wife before he tilted his head in acknowledgment.

  “Wait. I wasn’t in Belmont,” Eddy said nervously.

  “It’s okay. You’re my Sophia,” Throttle said, knowing that Punch and Finn would get her meaning.

  Eddy frowned. “What’s that mean?”

  “Now!” Throttle yelled. She dove into a roll, whipped out her pistol, and shot the bot above Eddy’s head, and the bot tumbled through the air. She’d heard a shot go off before hers, and several followed. She jumped to her feet, ducking and avoiding the sawblade that missed her head by inches. Several strands of hair flitted to the floor from being sliced.

  “They’re not staying down,” Finn called out.

  “Of course not!” Eddy yelled from where he’d ducked under his workbench. “They’re built for mining resources out of asteroids. They can survive just about anything.”

  Throttle shot the torch-wielding bot again when it went after Eddy, but the distraction gave the bot going after her time to close the distance. She tumbled onto her back to keep from getting decapitated. It came down at her again, and she swung her prosthetic leg around, the blade snagged on the bot, and she flung it across the hold, where it bounced off the far wall.

  “Guys! The door!” Eddy shouted, and he ran over to the airlock door.

  Throttle glanced to see the red light flashing at the inner airlock, which meant they had only twelve seconds before the airlock chamber between the two doors depressurized and opened.

  “They’re purging the cargo hold,” Sylvian cried out.

  “Stop that door!” Throttle yelled to Eddy. She fired at the bot chasing Eddy.

  He shrugged. “I can’t! The override isn’t working.”

  Throttle spun around, looking for anything that could be used to prevent the door from opening, while shooting at the bots to knock them away. Sylvian was prying at the hallway door with a crowbar while Finn covered her.

  Punch was also shooting at the bots as Macy stepped out of the crate and around her father. Punch grabbed her with his free hand and yanked her back. “Stay behind me.”

  “I know what Rusty needs.” She grabbed her father’s wrist and twisted. Punch grunted and fell to one knee. She swung around and kicked him in the temple, knocking him out. As Macy ran across the floor, the bots all turned and gave chase. Throttle and Finn fired nonstop to keep the bots away from Macy. She reached for the wall screen, standing on her toes, and began entering commands.

  Throttle continued to shoot, but noticed that the screens Macy accessed were screens Throttle had never seen before.

  “The outer airlock door is open!” Eddy said. “Three seconds!”

  Macy’s little fingers flew across the screens. The lights across the ship blinked. The bots dropped to the floor, each landing with a solid thunk. The outer airlock door closed, and the flashing red light by the airlock turned off.

  Macy turned to Throttle. “Hurry.”

  The hallway door opened, and Throttle saw Macy glance at it. Understanding Macy’s meaning, Throttle yelled, “Finn, I need you on the bridge!”

  He took off without even a pause. The pair raced through the cargo hold and down the hallway. The bridge door opened, and they didn’t slow until they skidded and toppled into their seats.

  The planet was still directly ahead. She grabbed the flight controls and spun the Javelin in a one-eighty to face the maw of the black hole. Except that one of the Vantage probes was positioned directly between them.

  “I’ve got it.” Finn fired.

  Reflective rounds lit up a line of space like twinkling stars. The probe veered away but not before receiving several rounds to its bow.

  “The other probes are pulling away. I think they’re lining up to fire at us,” Finn said.

  Throttle entered jump data as fast as she could. When she looked up to see open space, she initiated jump speed. “Hold on!”

  The black hole grew larger and larger until no stars could be seen in the periphery.

  “They’re following us,” Finn called out.

  All systems went blank as the black soup engulfed them. Throttle could no longer breathe to speak, and the pressure on every inch of her body felt like she’d been caught in a vise. Her head felt like it was going to explode. The pain created bright stars behind her eyes, which was the last thing she saw before everything went blank.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Throttle felt herself being jostled before she heard the words, “Hey, Throttle.”

  She groaned and opened her eyes. The bridge was dark, but Finn was standing by her, holding a flashlight.

  He smiled. “Good. You’re alive.”

  She rubbed her forehead as the pieces of her reality came together. “We’re back in the black hole.”

  “Yeah. With how fast you entered, I didn’t expect any of us to make it. For a moment back there, I thought my guts were going to be splattered everywhere.”

  “I know the feeling. That gravity was brutal.” The lights came on. She squinted at the brightness. “I guess that means Eddy’s alive.”

  “I’d better check on the others,” he said, but she knew he was thinking mostly of Sylvian.

  “Good idea.” She looked around the bridge and up at the ceiling panel that concealed Rusty. She grimaced, knowing that he needed to be brought back online in order to reboot all the critical systems, but bringing him back online brought a new and possibly deadlier risk. She pushed herself up to stand and found her body felt like jelly. “I’ll go with you. We need the systems back online, but we need to have a team meeting first.”

  Her first steps were wobbly, and she noticed Finn was faring a little better. They leaned on each other and the walls as they walked down the hallway. Both had found their balance by the time they reached the cargo hold.

  “How’s everyone doing?” Throttle asked afte
r they stepped through the doorway.

  “Just a few minor cuts and bruises,” Sylvian said. She was wrapping a bandage around Eddy’s head. Blood had run down his face and soaked his shirt.

  “That looks like a bit more than a minor cut.” Finn headed over, squeezed his wife’s shoulder, and helped her with Eddy.

  “That’s what I told her, too,” Eddy said.

  “The head injury didn’t screw with Eddy’s sparkling personality,” Punch said.

  Throttle looked over to see him sitting on the floor. Macy sat cross-legged near him. Throttle walked over to the pair. “You look like you’re doing okay.”

  “Entering the black hole was pretty scary,” Macy said. “I barely got into my clubhouse in time.”

  “I wouldn’t know. I was out for all of it.” Punch eyed his daughter.

  Throttle eyed the girl. “Those were some moves back there.”

  She smiled. “Thanks. Punch taught me those.”

  “Why’d you knock out your old man?” Throttle asked.

  Macy shrugged. “He would’ve stopped me. Rusty reached out to me for help because he was trying to save us.”

  Throttle frowned as she looked from the daughter to the father and back to the daughter. “Can you tell me how Rusty was trying to save us?”

  “The bad guys got in his head and were making him do stuff, kind of like what they did to me. But they didn’t know that Rusty and I are a team.”

  Throttle’s brow rose. “A team?”

  Macy gave a single, big nod.

  Punch’s features were tight. “The computer’s inside her. It used her like some kind of backdoor.”

  “Whatever happened, Macy saved us back there.” Throttle shivered from the cool bite to the air. She turned to the other three members of the Black Sheep. “We need to figure out what to do about Rusty and how.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Eddy.

  “Well, we lose Rusty going in and out of the black hole. We need Rusty online to reboot most of the systems, including most of the environmental systems.”

  Eddy waved his hand through the air. “Then turn him back on.”

  Sylvian spoke. “But if we turn him back on, we run the risk that he’s not Rusty, that he’s that Vantage Core thing.”

  “Hey, Eddy,” Finn said, “could you build a bypass so that the systems will still work without going through Rusty?”

  “It’d be easy enough. Rusty is just a node in the Javelin’s network. It’s not necessary for any of the systems.” Eddy thought for a moment. “I’ll be right back.” He took off.

  “Where are you going?” Throttle asked.

  Eddy stopped, turned, and rolled his eyes. “To see what it would take to bypass Rusty, duh.”

  “We should put on our suits to maintain our body temps until Eddy figures out a bypass,” Finn said.

  “I can tell you, without any doubt, that I don’t want that computer running again,” Punch said.

  Throttle sighed. “Noted. Okay. Get into your suits. Then we’ll help Eddy—”

  The systems around them snapped to life.

  Punch scowled. “That son of a—” He took off down the hallway, and the others followed.

  When they reached the bridge, they found Eddy folding up a stepladder. The panel to Rusty was open, and his lights were on.

  “You rebooted Rusty,” Throttle said.

  Eddy turned to her. “Of course I did. It was the only smart thing to do.” He then wagged a finger at Rusty. “And don’t think that you’re forgiven. I’m still mad at you.”

  “Smart?” Punch stomped toward Eddy.

  Finn held back the other marshal. “Whoa there, buddy. What’s done is done.”

  Punch pulled away from Finn and wagged a finger at Eddy. “You are an idiot.”

  Eddy guffawed. “Well, I’m a lot smarter than you.” He motioned to the rest of the crew. “I’m clearly smarter than all of you. You all would’ve frozen to death before accepting that we need Rusty to run the systems.”

  “But, Eddy, you saw what Rusty did back there. How do we know that Rusty is even Rusty?” Sylvian pleaded.

  “I’m Rusty,” the computer said.

  “Oh, yeah? And how do we know?” Punch asked.

  “I don’t know how to prove it, other than to apologize. I am sorry for frightening you and hurting you. I was Rusty before, but I had no free will. Vantage Core used me like I was a simple tool.”

  “I know what it’s like,” Macy said, and everyone turned to her.

  “I found it terrifying. I can imagine you found it doubly so,” Rusty said.

  The girl nodded. “It was scary, but they’re out of my head now, and I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Macy,” Punch drew out.

  She turned to her father. “It’s okay. You can trust Rusty.”

  “You don’t know that, pumpkin,” he said.

  She smiled and tapped her temple. “Yes, I do because he’s in here with me, and I saw how scared he was when the bad guys made him do stuff.”

  “The bad guys didn’t make him do everything,” Throttle said and looked up at Rusty. “They didn’t make him sabotage another ship’s systems and alter its headings.”

  “No, they didn’t make me do that,” Rusty agreed. “I did all that on my own. I’d been alone for so long, and I desperately wanted to fly again. I hadn’t thought of the impact on you and your passengers. I only thought of my own needs, and for that, I am sorry.”

  Throttle looked from Eddy to Finn to Sylvian, the others who’d been on the Gabriela and then abandoned the ship, in part due to Rusty’s deeds. Finn and Sylvian looked contemplative. Eddy looked bored.

  Sylvian spoke first. “We all make mistakes. I know I’ve done things I regret.”

  Throttle blew out a breath. “I agree, but I have to know that Rusty’s not keeping secrets from us or doing things behind our backs. That’s not how a crew operates.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Punch said. “You can’t trust a computer. It’s a Swarm computer.”

  “I know now that I was designed and manufactured at Vantage Core, and I was sent out as a probe to gather data on other systems,” Rusty said. “But I have learned enough to know that I don’t want anything to do with them. I am on your side.”

  “The problem is, you don’t have the luxury of picking sides. They picked a side for you back there, and you didn’t have a say in the matter,” Finn said.

  “That is why we must decouple me from the Javelin. Should Vantage Core exert control over me again, I can do no damage if I can be disconnected from all systems with a simple switch.”

  “That’s easy enough to do, but we’ll still want Rusty connected to help monitor our systems. Otherwise, we have to handle all that ourselves,” Eddy said.

  “I monitored all the systems on the High Spirit on my own. It’s not so hard,” Punch said.

  “That’s a smaller ship,” Eddy countered.

  “Still has to have all the same systems,” Punch countered.

  “I hate to agree with Punch on anything, but I have to agree with him this time,” Throttle said. “The Javelin has a full crew. While Rusty makes our jobs easy, we have the training and experience to pilot a ship without a central computer.”

  “But—” Eddy started.

  Throttle held up her finger. “I’m not finished. I think we need to isolate Rusty from the Javelin, not because I don’t trust him, but because those five Swarm probes followed us into the black hole. I don’t know if they can use that same stun ray the planet shot out to get into Rusty, but I don’t want to risk it. After Macy’s stunt back there, the Swarm must know she’s got a special connection with Rusty, so we can’t rely on her to save us next time.”

  “I agree, Throttle. You are all far safer if I am decoupled from the Javelin,” Rusty said.

  “How about decoupling it from Macy?” Punch added.

  Throttle sighed. “We’ll talk about that later.” Throttle looked down at Macy.
“You should probably be back in the Faraday cage. We could be getting hit by EMP waves right now.”

  The girl lifted her chin. “It’s a clubhouse, not a cage.”

  Throttle smiled. “You’re right. Your clubhouse, then.”

  “I’ll grab my tools so I can start digging around Rusty to see what it’ll take to reroute all the cabling. A month in this hole gives me plenty of time, especially with you all helping me. Rusty, set a clock. How much time is the trip through the black hole?” Eddy asked.

  “If this trip mirrors the first trip through the black hole, we’ll eject in thirty-one days, four hours, and fifteen minutes,” Rusty said.

  Throttle grimaced. “Maybe not.” She glanced across the crew. “The last time we entered the black hole, we were at sub-speed four, and we ejected at nearly twice that speed. This time, we entered at jump speed.”

  Sylvian gasped. “But if we eject at twice jump speed, we’d be moving at almost the speed of light. The radiation alone…” She trailed off.

  “Yeah,” Throttle said. “But we don’t have to worry about the radiation killing us, because there’s a big asteroid sitting just outside the black hole.”

  “We’ll plow right through it,” Punch said.

  Throttle blew out a breath. “Figuring out a way to survive our ejection from this black hole is our top priority.”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Nope. I’m still mad at you,” Eddy said as he soldered the final touches on another cable connector bracket.

  “I’ve noticed that your drill’s battery drains quickly. I could create a new model of your battery and print it using material you acquired from the Free Station electrical room,” Rusty said.

  Eddy held a finger to his lips. “Shhhhh. No one knows about that except you and me.” He paused. “A new battery would save me time in securing the new network adapters. Okay, fine. You can make me a new battery, but that still doesn’t make us even. You kept secrets from me, and I’m supposed to be your best friend.”

  “You are my friend. I made a mistake in not telling you.”