Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Kade to Stolen Dragon. Are you there? Can you hear me?”
Vessani jerked alert and switched off the mute.
“I hear you, Nate. Reception is a bit spotty. Can you boost your signal?”
“This is as high as it’ll go. What’s your status?”
“Rufus and Aiko are back on board. Rufus is here in the cockpit with me, while Aiko is . . . having a lie down in the cargo hold.”
“The statite’s messing with her head. The other Jovians, too.”
“Yeah, I’ve caught a few glimpses of Jovian activity back here. None of it makes sense.”
“Are you able to come to our position? We found a spot for you to land.” He then described what the surrounding parts of the cavern looked like.
“I can risk it, but are you sure? Jovian ships are buzzing around the cavern, and they don’t seem shy about shooting anything that moves.”
“Can’t be helped. Regardless of what we do next, we’ll need access to the ship.”
“Understood. Heading your way.” Vessani switched off the commect and settled into her seat. “You ready?”
Rufus finished strapping in. “Ready.”
“Here we go.” Vessani slid the Stolen Dragon out of its hiding spot and into the wound cavern. A low-hanging beam scraped across the top of the ship, and she eased off the throttle, letting the ship fall until it almost touched the ground, then angled the thrusters and powered out of the recess without another bump.
“Not bad,” Rufus said.
“You know how to use the weapons on this thing?”
“Uhh . . .” Rufus gave his console a doubtful frown. “Not really.”
“Not really or not at all?”
“The latter.”
“Fine,” Vessani huffed. “I’ll handle both. Keep your eyes open for those corvettes.”
The Stolen Dragon emerged from its hidden nook, entering the wider cavern. Vessani spun the ship, angled the thrusters, and powered them deeper inside.
“Jovian ship ahead,” Rufus said.
A corvette hovered on glowing plumes near one jagged side of the cave, facing the wall and floating sideways. Its guns snapped out and opened fire, drenching a small section of the walls with twin bullet streams.
“I see it.” Vessani’s free hand danced across the console, and her ears folded back. “I wonder what they’re shooting at.”
One of the Dragon’s weapons bays clanked open.
“What are you doing?” Rufus asked, his eyes trained on her fingers.
“Solving a problem. No point leaving something that dangerous flying around. Why?” One of her ears rose and swiveled toward him. “You want me to leave them be or something?”
“Not really. They picked this fight.”
“That they did. Now, let’s see how they like”—Vessani jammed her thumb down on a button—“this!”
The ship shuddered, and one of their five remaining torpedoes shot out of its tube. It flew forward, lit its miniature thruster, and curved toward its target. The warhead in the torpedo’s nose detonated, and the corvette cracked open, splitting in two along its midsection. The two halves fell away, one straight and the other in a wild corkscrew, before they both smashed against the cavern floor.
“Problem solved,” Vessani declared victoriously.
Small-arms fire plinked and clinked against their ship, originating from the area the late corvette had been targeting.
“New problem,” Rufus said.
“Well, I’ve got more solutions where that came from!”
“Hold on. What you did seems easy enough. Let me give it a try.” Rufus slid forward in his seat and armed one of the turrets. The bay split open, and the gun trained out. He took manual control and swung the weapon to face the source of incoming fire. The zoomed view on his vlass showed a group of three commandos, all firing their rifles at their corvette.
Rufus opened fire and raked his aim back and forth across the group, blasting all three of them to pieces. He kept firing a little too long, wasting some of their ammo reserves, but she couldn’t complain about the result.
“Not bad for a cleric. Give it a little time, and I’ll turn you into a proper pirate.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” he replied dryly. “Do you see where we’re supposed to land?”
“Not yet, but it should be just around that outcrop up ahead.”
“Explain this to me again.” Nathan said to Joshua while the Stolen Dragon came into view. “You’re suggesting we do what?”
“I know it sounds crazy, but—”
“It’s not just crazy,” Nathan cut in. “It’s the single craziest idea I’ve ever heard from anyone! Ever!”
“It’ll work,” Joshua said, then hesitated and shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Maybe,” Nathan seethed. “How about we try blowing some big holes in it first? Nothing likes holes.”
“Yes, we can punch some holes in the computronium reservoir with enough explosives but even a thimbleful of the stuff is enough to maintain human-level intellect. Unless we manage to drain all of it, we run the risk of this place continuing to operate erratically, spreading its special brand of chaos wherever it goes. And now, thanks to us, it’s begun to wake up! Who knows what it’ll do if it grows more aware and decides to really lash out? Can you imagine what might happen if the statite parked itself in orbit around Jupiter?”
“Nothing pretty.”
“This statite is too dangerous to leave be. Not only does it possess enough firepower to liquefy whole fleets, but it can corrupt and control deifactories, Jovian minds, and who knows what else! If this place decides to wreak havoc, we could be looking at a fall on par with, if not worse than, the Scourging of Heaven! And the Pentatheon aren’t waiting around the corner with a safety net! If we screw this up, all of humanity could go splat!”
“But you realize what you’re asking of her?”
“Yes! And I wouldn’t be asking if I had any better ideas! The statite is still in a state of relative dormancy, but who knows for how long? This may be the only chance we get to stop it, but in order to do that, we need an interface with enough sophistication to—”
“Stop right there.” Nathan held up a hand, then let out a long breath. “All right. I agree with you—in principle—but it’s not me you need to convince.”
“I know,” Joshua replied, some of the fire gone from his voice. “Do you think she’ll listen?”
“How the hell should I know? She almost shot me last I saw her!” Nathan pointed a finger at the other man’s chest. “Which is why I ask again, are you sure about this?”
“Yes. If we aim to destroy the statite, then this is the best I’ve got.”
Nathan looked the man firmly in the eye while the corvette settled onto its landing struts and came to rest. He searched the man’s eyes for doubt or dishonesty, and while he found a million concerns swirling around in there, Joshua stared back at him with steely conviction. He truly believed this was their best shot, which led Nathan to give the engineer a grim nod.
“Crazy it is, then.” Nathan started for the airlock. “Let’s go break the terrible news to Aiko.”
The two men hurried inside, waited for the airlock to cycle, and stepped into the cargo hold. Aiko was seated in one of the rovers, strapped into the passenger seat, her head rolled back against the headrest.
“Rufus must have stashed her here when he came on board,” Nathan said, removing his helmet.
“I’ve never come across a sleeping Jovian before,” Joshua said, doing the same. “Do you know how to wake her?”
“Sure do. It’s a complex and difficult procedure, but I think I can manage.”
“Really?” Joshua’s eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t expect it to be so involved.”
“Here. Watch and learn.” He grabbed Aiko’s shoulders, sucked in a deep breath, and then proceeded to shake her violently. “Wake up, sleepyhead!”
Aiko twitched alert, her head swiveling back and forth. Behind Nathan, Joshua gave him a disapproving frown.
“What?” Aiko exclaimed. “Who? Where?”
“It’s all right,” Nathan said. “We’re safe. For the moment.”
“Where are we? Are we—” Her camera lenses opened wide. “No! I can still hear it! Why’d you wake me up? I need to switch off!”
“Don’t. We need you.”
“Nate, don’t do this to me! I’m scared! Let me shut down again!”
“No, you can’t.”
“But—”
“Just hear us out. I wouldn’t ask this of you if we didn’t need you.”
“I . . .” His words seemed to placate her, and she settled deeper into the seat. “I’m listening.”
“How ‘with us’ are you?”
“It’s taking a lot of effort just to have this conversation. Don’t drag this out any longer than it needs to be!”
“All right.” Nathan gestured Joshua forward. “Explain it to her.”
“Okay. See, I came up with the idea of constructing and programming a persona replicator which, in theory, should allow us to commandeer the statite’s systems.”
“A what?”
“It’s quite simple, really. The statite circulates black computronium as part of its control systems.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Which means we can reach any system within the circulation path, and we know that includes the maneuvering thrusters because we saw those fire earlier.”
“Okay.”
“Now, the problem is, it’d probably take a team of the best Saturnian programmers the better part of a century to come up with the code we need, like, right now.”
“The hell you say.”
“I know! But then it dawned on me. We don’t have to write new code! The Jovian mind is already encapsulated in an interface that’s compatible with black computronium! And a persona safe provides a ready-made method for introducing copies! Which means, all we need to do is—”
“Stop! Just stop!” Aiko glared at him. “Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to concentrate right now?”
“Yes, but—”
“Josh,” Nathan cut in. “How much time do you need to construct your gizmo?”
“Not too long, I think. Twenty to thirty minutes. Pulling the persona safe out should be the hardest part.”
“Then go get started.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, Aiko and I will talk this over while you work.”
“Okay. If you feel that’s best.”
“I do. Now get going.” He nudged Joshua toward the freight elevator. The engineer took the hint and exited the cargo hold.
“Can you please explain to me what’s going on?” Aiko pleaded.
“We need you to guide the statite into Sol.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“Pretty much. Josh is going to turn the persona safe into a mind-bomb of sorts, and he wants your thoughts to be the shrapnel.”
“What does that even mean?”
“He’ll set it up so that it’ll copy your persona into whatever computronium is nearby, and those copies will also make copies, and on and on. After that, you take control of the statite and drive it into Sol.”
“But that’s—”
“Crazy, I know.” Nathan leaned in and spoke softly. “But let me ask you a question: Does this place scare you?”
“It terrifies me! I’ve never been this scared in my life!”
“Right.” He gave her a sympathetic nod. “We all see how dangerous this place is. You more than the rest of us, I’d wager. And with that knowledge, we can either slip away and save our own skins, or we can try our damnedest to take it out here and now.”
“You make it sound like I don’t have a choice.”
“But you absolutely do. We need you to sacrifice a copy of yourself. There’s no way I’d force you to do something like that. Ask you, yes. Beg you, yes. But force you?” He shook his head. “No way in hell.”
She sat forward in the rover and lowered her head in thought.
“So, what’ll it be?” he asked.
“Finished!” Joshua declared triumphantly, hugging a large red cube awkwardly with both arms. Rufus stood on the elevator beside him. “One Jovian mind-bomb as promised. I even beat my own twenty-minute estimate.”
“We beat your estimate,” Rufus corrected.
“All you did was solder a few cables!”
“Still a team effort.”
The freight elevator finished its descent, and Joshua walked across the cargo hold, leaning back slightly to compensate for the persona safe in his arms.
“Good work, you two,” Nathan said.
“Here you go!” Joshua plopped the safe on top of the rover’s hood, then wiped his hands. He glanced to Aiko, then back to Nathan. “We all sorted out here?”
“We are. Aiko’s ready to do her part.”
“Great.” Joshua grabbed a short cable dangling from the mind-bomb. “Then, shall I?”
“Do it,” Aiko grunted. “Before I change my mind.”
“Lean a little closer, please.”
Aiko did as he instructed, and Joshua plugged the cable into the base of her neck. He sidestepped back to the mind-bomb, pressed a few buttons on the vlass he’d taped to the side, navigated to a different menu, and inspected the results with an approving nod.
“There.” He unplugged the cable. “Your current persona has been saved.”
“Then am I done here?”
“I believe so. We should be able to take it from here.”
“Good.” Aiko’s camera’s closed, and she slumped in her seat.
“How do I arm it?” Nathan asked.
“It’s armed now.” Joshua waggled the cable. “I didn’t have time for anything fancy, so it’s constantly searching for a connection. If it finds one, it’ll copy over Aiko’s persona, and it’ll keep doing that until it runs out of power.”
“Then how do I deploy it?”
“Throw it into the reservoir. Should be as simple as that.”
“Chuck the whole thing in the reservoir. Got it.” Nathan fitted his bubble helmet back on. He put his arms around the cube and lifted it. Even in the quarter gravity, the device was heavier than he expected. Carrying it would be awkward.
“Wait a second.” Joshua stepped over. “Don’t you want one of us to carry that for you?”
“No, I’ve got this. You two stay here with the ship. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Nate.” Rufus put a hand on his shoulder. “Shouldn’t one of us come with you?”
“I appreciate the sentiment, but let’s face it: both of you rate only slightly higher than ‘target dummy’ when it comes to a fight.”
“Well . . .”
“What about Vess?” Joshua asked.
“She needs to stay right where she is. Someone’s got to fly this thing, and with Aiko out of commission, Vess is all we’ve got at the moment. Both of you, stay here and don’t let any crazed Jovians onto the ship while I’m gone. I’ll be back before you know it.” He carried the mind-bomb into the airlock.
“What if you’re not?” Rufus asked.
“Then assume I died a grisly but heroic death and get the hell out of here.” He flashed a quick smile and nudged the airlock controls with his shoulders. The doors slid shut and the airlock cycled, leaving Nathan alone with his thoughts.
He hadn’t lied to the others. Not really, but he hadn’t shared all his thoughts, either.
Under normal circumstances, he’d send an Aiko to carry out a job like this. But that wasn’t possible with her in one body and going loopy, so it was up to him. Sure, he could have brought Joshua or Rufus or both of them along as decoys, but they weren’t part of his crew. Not in any official capacity. They were passengers, and it was his responsibility as the captain to look out for their wellbeing.
Besides, there’s no telling what will happen when I dump this into the lake, he thought. If this works, then the statite will begin to accelerate toward Sol, and none of us have a clue how strong the g-forces will be. Down could turn into left, and I might find the return trip impossible to navigate. No point in anyone else risking their necks when I can handle this on my own.
The outer airlock opened, and Nathan took a deep breath.
Let’s get this done.
He hefted the mind-bomb, adjusted his grip underneath it, and began to make his way toward the computronium reservoir.
Nathan retraced his steps, following the long curving path back to the reservoir. He shifted his grip on the mind-bomb multiple times along the way. The device was cumbersome and made keeping an eye out for trip hazards difficult.
Despite these difficulties, he kept up a brisk pace, slowing only a few times to sidestep through particularly treacherous patches of the floor. The distant but powerful flow of computronium vibrated through the floor, escalating and waning as he passed major arteries in the statite’s control systems. He couldn’t be certain, but there seemed to be more activity than the last time he passed through this area.
The path turned inward, and he followed it until the pipes and cables constricted around him, forcing him to twist sideways. He set the persona safe on the ground and nudged it through a narrow cleft before picking it up again.
The reservoir machinery reverberated throughout his surroundings. How loud would all this equipment be if there’d been an atmosphere? How badly would it have pummeled his ears into submission?
He entered the main chamber, the crack in the reservoir now within sight. He shifted the mind-bomb once more and began to cross the jumble of cables that formed a serviceable walkway over to the central tank.
“Stop.”
Nathan froze at the unexpected voice. A new light beam glared against him from the side, and he turned to face it.
A gold-skinned Galatt Xormun sat on a pipe to his left, leaning forward with a scowl on his face. He held a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other.
The pistol was aimed straight at Nathan.