Wrath of the Void Strider (28 page)

“Apologies, Captain,” Collins quietly interjected, and he stood up to lean in close.  He whispered, “We should hurry this up.  Just got word from the surface there’s a ruckus at the VelAquant.  I expect housekeeping’s paid your room a visit by now.”

“Thanks,” Zerki replied.  “Sorry to cut this short, but we’re out of time.”  She cleared her throat.  “Our hauler’s been sabotaged with a time bomb.  A two-hour countdown will start as soon as we initiate a jump.  We can’t fix it, but Stone and his people can.  However, if he can’t fix it in time, we’ll get stranded on Nerthus.”  She pressed her fingertips against her chin.  “I have high confidence he’ll be able to get it done.  Still, I’m sure most of you would rather be stranded here on Varuna.”  There were some chuckles as she shut off the display.  “The choice is yours.  Roll the dice and keep flying with me to Nerthus, or take your leave right here.  I won’t hold it against anyone who quits, but we won’t be coming back for you.”  She nodded grimly.  “We’ll wire you your due severance as soon as we can.”  Her expression was resolute as she said, “I need a show of hands from anyone who’s leaving.”

A moment passed, and a hand went up.

Reluctantly, others followed.

The count held steady at twenty.

“It’s been great flying with you all,” said Zerki as she looked into the faces of men and women she had grown close to, some over the course of years.  A mix of sorrow and anger welled up within her.  “Get your things and get off my ship.  Everyone else, to your stations.  We’re jumping as soon as Collins gives the all-clear.”

Without another word, she stormed from the briefing room, headed for the bridge.

Chapter 18

With a sad look, Collins watched the last of the
Sanguine Shadow
’s deserters cross into the space station’s corridors.  The exterior hatch sealed shut, and he heaved against the interior airlock’s polished turn wheel.  It prompted the massive cog-like door to roll slowly along its track and stop at the bulkhead.  With a hiss and a jet of steam, it locked in place.  He located the comm interface and reported, “They’re safely off the
Shadow
.”

Seated in the command chair, Zerki leaned over and said, “Good.  Get up here.  Gavin’s already in the rig.”  She glanced to her bridge crew.  All of her senior officers had remained aboard, though her junior officers had taken their leave.  She assigned Jenn to logistics and put Buck on communications.  Fully two thirds of her crew had chosen to continue flying with Zerki, and she took some comfort in that.

Moments later, Collins hurried onto the bridge and stood near the captain. 

Zerki drew a deep breath and glanced to Gavin.  “You ready?”

“Yeah,” he answered with a determined nod.

“Here we go,” Zerki whispered.

Gavin placed the cephalotronic upon his brow.  Overhead display screens lit up with data pertaining to Chiron System.  His eyes flitted across them, and his back arched as he became aware of the space surrounding Nerthus.

“Start the countdown,” said Collins.

Deep in the engine room, the radiation nullifier began its slow decay.

Minutes later, the
Sanguine Shadow
completed her jump.  Collins set to hailing Benjamin Stone as the starship raced into motion.

In time, Stone replied with a video feed.  “Jackson Collins,” he began.  His features had not diminished in the slightest.  “How long has it been?  Almost ten years?”  He smiled kindly.  “No matter.  It’s good to see you again.  What brings you back to Nerthus?”

“Need your help with a risky repair job.”

Stone’s expression saddened slightly.  “I’m afraid you’ve come at a bad time.  A rogue intellect strain has developed, and it’s got control of my people.  Until I can isolate and expunge the virus, it isn’t safe to land anywhere within the populated zone.”  He raised his brows.  “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to come back later.  Maybe in a day or two?”

Zerki barged into view.  “Hi,” she interjected.  “Look, if we can’t fix our nullification unit within the next ninety minutes, we’re all dead.  We really need your help,
right now
.”

Stone scanned her starship and studied the results.  “Captain Ibarra, your emergency is indeed dire, but it doesn’t change anything down here.  As long as my people are enslaved by this viral entity, as long as I’m barricaded within my personal chambers, there’s nothing I can do to help you.  I’m sorry.  I invite you to set down in the wastes and abandon your vessel.  It will demand some degree of survival, but at least it isn’t a death sentence.”

She flushed.  “Maybe we can help you.”

“Doubtful, and I must return to my work before…”  He paused.  “I’ve detected an AI collective aboard your starship.”

“That’s correct,” said Zerki.  “He’s one of my security officers.”

Stone smiled optimistically.  “Perhaps you can help, after all.  If I upload the purified code, perhaps your AI can use it to give my people their freedom.”  He proposed a course of action.  When he was done, Zerki disconnected the feed and summoned a small team to the briefing room.

She discussed tactics with Fogg, Cajun, Taryn, D’Arro, and Takeo.  “You’ll have to leave anything electronic behind.  Take a pipe wrench with you, or grab a cricket bat from the rec room.”  Regarding D’Arro, she said, “You should be fine.  The nanobots don’t give them super strength.”

“Can they infect us?” asked Cajun.

“UNLIKELY,” printed Fogg, hovering in the form of a miniature flying saucer.

Zerki said, “Stone integrated them on a genetic level, person-by-person.  Certain individuals might try to eat you, if they’ve gone that far off the rails, but even that’s doubtful.”

“
Might
?”  Takeo questioned.  “How close to ‘won’t’ is it?”

Fogg offered some comfort.  “IT APPROACHES CERTAIN THAT THEY WILL NOT ATTACK HUMAN FLESH, AS THEY ARE PROGRAMMED TO BE SYMBIOTIC WITH A SPECIFIC INDIVIDUAL.  FROM THE STANDPOINT OF OPPORTUNISTIC SUBROUTINE DEVIATIONS—AS THEY APPLY TO ALTERNATE SOURCES OF ENERGY AND RAW MATERIALS—THE ENERGY REQUIRED TO CONVERT BIOLOGICAL MATTER INTO A USABLE STATE IS A NEGATIVE RETURN PROPOSITION.  IT IS FUNDAMENTALLY ILLOGICAL AND WILL NOT OCCUR TO THEM UNLESS DIRECTLY PROGRAMMED TO THE CONTRARY.”

Takeo paused.  “Thanks, Fogg.”

“Let’s review,” Zerki urged.  “We’re running out of time.”

After quickly detailing the plan, Zerki passed out signal flares.  Her landing team scattered to gather their things, and when they returned, she accompanied them to the shuttle hangar.  While she ran through preflight, her companions dressed into simpler attire and secured their makeshift weapons.  Fogg moved to the shuttle’s bridge to keep his captain company.

When everyone was aboard, she signaled Krane, and he took the starship down through the Nerthusian atmosphere.  Keeping his distance from the populated zone, he set the
Sanguine Shadow
to hover.  Moments later, the shuttle launched from the aft hangar, rocketing for the heart of the ruined megalopolis.  The star freighter set to circling the outskirts of the vast, ruined city.

Zerki flew lower, and she watched as throngs of patchwork men and women turned in unison to regard the approaching shuttle.  Stone had supplied her with a map of the ruins, marked his lab and highlighted the most direct path to it.  She quickly found a raised landing platform.  None of Stone’s people were nearby, but they immediately began to converge as soon as the shuttle touched down.

“Good luck,” she said into the comm.  “You know what’s at stake.  Pop smoke when you’re ready for a pickup.”

“Aye, Captain,” said D’Arro.  The ramp descended fully, and he led his team out into the dusty, rusted brown air of Nerthus.  Dressed in his long coat, Takeo had turned up its collar and put on a wide-brimmed hat.  Taryn wore a leather vest over a long sleeve shirt and denim pants.  Cajun had donned loose khakis and a heavy plaid shirt, and D’Arro wore a pair of military cargo pants and a white tank top.

Ahead of them in the distance, gutted skyscrapers clawed at the clouds, blurred by a mantle of diffuse smoke. All around, ruined walkways linked abandoned residential levels, empty convenience stores, bound by rusted handrails and walls punctuated by heavy steel doors.  Bones of all sizes littered the expanse.  Once-mighty buildings reached down into a thick haze that obscured the city floor.  Faded paint and broken signboards whispered of Nerthus’s lively past.

“It looks bottomless,” Cajun gulped.

Retrieving a folded sheet of paper, D’Arro consulted the map of the sprawl.  “It’s not,” he said.  In the distance, the horde’s droning howl grew steadily louder.  Looking up, he pointed toward a door embedded in the side of a broad wall.  “This way.”  He plucked his pipe wrench from his belt and stored the map.  He dashed for the entrance, and his companions hurried after.

“They’re almost here,” noted Taryn upon reaching the massive door, and she wrung the grip of her claw hammer.

Takeo gripped a section of heavy pipe.

Father Stone’s zealots shambled into view, drawn from a mix of races.  They advanced along the stairs and dropped down from nearby roofs and catwalks.  Bound with red ropes, festooned with liturgical ribbons, their tattered attire did little to hide their ruined bodies.

Moving in unison, they spread out to form a crescent around D’Arro’s team.

“Cajun, get that door open,” said D’Arro, and he faced the mob directly. 

“Right away.”  Fumbling somewhat, Cajun retrieved a prybar from his pack.  Takeo and Taryn formed a protective wall at D’Arro’s back, separating Cajun from the horde.

“Back off,” Takeo growled, and he raised his heavy pipe.  “We’ll defend ourselves if you force us!”  He narrowed his eyes.

A wiry, gaunt human man stepped forth, wearing a crown of jagged teeth embedded in his scalp.  “You are trespassing,” he rasped as he moved closer to Takeo.

“We’re here for Father Stone.”

With all his might, Cajun strained against the door.  He heard something pop within, but it didn’t budge.  “Oh, come on,” he huffed, and he drove the prybar deeper into the space between the door and its jamb.

The gaunt man smiled wickedly, a rictus of metal teeth and receding gums.  He reached for Takeo’s pipe.  “You would defend yourself with something so crude?  How unprepared you are to face the might of this army.  The blessing of conversion will deliver you from your small thinking.”

As one, a thundering chorus resounded, “
Conversion
!”

Takeo warned, “I said back off.  Look, we’re just here for Father Stone.”

“Stone is lost.”  Lowering his brow, he held Takeo’s gaze.  In a deep snarl, the crowned man said, “Again, I offer you conversion.”

The throng boomed, “
Conversion
!”

Reaching back with the pipe, Takeo said, “Don’t force me to do this.”

With a derisive cackle, the crowned man jeered, “Don’t force you to strike me with your primitive weapon?  By all means, take your best shot.”

“Actually, it’s not at all primitive,” Takeo breathed, and he swung full force at the old man’s head.  When the pipe struck home, however, there was no crack, or clang or crunch.  Instead, there was a muted splat.  Having been disguised as the pipe, Fogg deformed and spread around the crowned man’s face.  He set to reprogramming his nanobot symbiotes.

Moving as one, the ravening horde swarmed toward D’Arro’s team.  Howling, they reached out with claws and hungrily peeled open their mouths.

“It didn’t work!” Taryn shouted.  She lunged and dodged, her hammer striking and gutting in short arcs.

“Fogg needs time,” said Takeo.  He was a blur of precise hits and kicks, and he sent a dozen opponents to the ground.  “Just hold them off until it’s done!”

The door at last gave way.  “There!” Cajun triumphantly announced.  “Door’s open, guys!”

“How’ll we know if it worked?” D’Arro asked.  His enormous wrench struck with crushing force, taking out two or three enemies with each hit.

Takeo said, “You’ll know!”

Zealots continued their relentless attack.

“We’re getting overwhelmed,” grunted D’Arro.  “Everyone, move into the hall!”  Cajun was the first to enter.  With only two or three opponents to face at a time now, the battle took a much less fevered pitch, though the press of countless bodies still drove the landing team back.

Abruptly, the horde fell still.

Pulse racing, Takeo assumed a defensive stance and watched the patchwork men and women stop and stare blankly.  D’Arro pushed one of them over with the tip of his pipe wrench, and Taryn snapped her fingers repeatedly in front of an older woman’s face.  The aged zealot gave no indication she was aware of Taryn at all.

“He did it,” Cajun said with an excited smile.

Tense moments passed in silence, until Taryn asked, “Where’s Fogg?”

Takeo shook his head.  “I don’t know.  Clearly, he was the victor.”  He scanned the crowd.  “He should be here by now.”

Still in a daze, men and women moved aside mechanically to make room.  Moments later, the crowned man stepped into view.  His skin had hardened and turned coal-black.  He moved to within a few paces of the landing team, picking the teeth from his scalp.  Where his gray and wispy hair had been, a shock of thick black strands now jutted forth at a steep angle.  Thin copper lines outlined his pure black eyes, outlined his nose, ears and mouth.  They added definition to his broad chest and slender arms.

“Fogg?” Takeo asked in a hoarse whisper.

Behind him, D’Arro readied his pipe wrench.

The crowned man raised his inky brows.  “I am… trapped in this body.”  Fogg cast aside the last of the teeth.  “There was a noteworthy struggle between the virus’s intrusion countermeasures and my own aggressive programming.  While I was able to destroy the hostile intellect, it was something of a Pyrrhic victory.  I am… bound to this body on a programmatic level.”  He regarded Takeo with pleading eyes.  “Is this what panic feels like?”

“Oh, Fogg,” Takeo answered, and he reached forth to comfort the AI.  “Wow, your skin is hard as a rock.”

Fogg nodded.  “What was left of the hostile intellect activated a self-destruct protocol.  It is attempting to consume this body utterly, and me along with it.  I am able to keep it in check without meaningful difficulty, but… I… I am afraid.”  Fogg looked overwhelmed.  “I am afraid of dying.”