The Negator, page 4
“There’s that too,” I said. “I can’t say I’m upset about that.”
Axion fell silent, studying his console.
I snatched my hands away from the interface plates because they were burning my palms. A flare of pain made me shoot to my feet, then stagger and crash onto my butt. What was wrong with me?
I noticed Axion staring at me.
“How dare you think you can regain control of the Theron?” he said.
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“The female,” he said. “You have activated her and she—”
Axion threw his head back like a man in agony and screamed—a harsh, mechanical sound that echoed through the bridge.
Before I understood what was happening, the seven-foot android broke into a run and exited the bridge.
-9-
I ran after Axion to see why he was fleeing the bridge but slammed against a force field that blocked the exit.
Standing there, I saw him running down the corridor, shoulder lowered, as he burst through a different force field. Power sizzled over him, and I couldn’t tell what was happening. Then it hit me: Alina—this must be her doing.
Even though the blast of the force field had shocked me, I now stumbled across the deck and thumped back into my pilot’s chair.
I was hesitant to put my palms on the interface plates, but I heard a loud bang, and the entire ship shook. So, I slammed my hands down onto the interface plates, and there was resistance. Sparks showered up from my hands, and a cascade of glitches seemed to bombard my brain.
I gagged, and then I vomited, but I held on to those interface plates.
Then I heard Alina in my mind: Don’t fight this. Sit back and relax.
I knew she meant I shouldn’t keep my hands on the interface plates. No way, Jose.
“I gotta see this,” I said aloud.
The sparks quit showering around my hands. I could see through the ship’s cameras, the images forming in my mind. I saw the remaining guard androids lurching like robots in the engine compartment. They headed toward one of the power conduits.
“What’s going on?” I said. “What are you making them do, Alina? How are you doing this?”
Then I had a picture of her through the interface. I saw that she was rigid upon her medical board. There was no longer a force field there. Her hands were clenched at her sides, and sweat dripped down her beautiful features.
Somehow, the cyborg Mindship tech and the Ick modifications—she used her abilities on the androids.
In the engine room, the first android approached the open power outlet and shoved his hands into it.
He stood rigid as sparks flew out of his optical sensors, and then abruptly smoke began to billow from him.
I realized the android’s interior must have fused as he crumpled to the deck. It was a devastating performance. It showed me that Alina had figured out some kind of virus or computer worm to shove into their mainframes.
The second android stepped forward and hesitated as if fighting her control. Did I see fear flicker across its android face? Then it thrust its hands into the open conduit, just as I heard a “No!”
Axion stood at the hatchway, witnessing this.
Like the first android, this one smoked, and showers of sparks came out of its eyes and other openings. Then it collapsed, disintegrated within, fried, slagged—whatever term you want to use. It was mere junk now.
Only Axion was left.
Through the interface plates, I saw Axion turn and begin to march. Once more, force fields flickered into place, and he smashed through them. At other times, he used his sing-song High Polarion speech. It might have helped him some.
I saw Gorrax, the mighty Tokari warfighter. He had the plasma rifle in his hands. He sighted Axion and pressed the trigger. Plasma poured from the barrel, and all the force fields dropped.
That had to be Alina’s doing—Gorrax’s release and the force fields going down.
Axion, like some kind of sorcerer supreme, held his hands outward, and force fields appeared before them. That was a neat trick. His personal shields blocked the plasma beam.
Then Axion shouted, charging the plasma rifle, using his shields to protect him from the beam.
Gorrax stood his ground, firing. Surely, the shields were weakening.
Then the High Polarion drew something from one of his pants pockets and hurled it underhand like some kind of dagger.
When the thing hit Gorrax—it was a round disc—it discharged energy. Gorrax gave a great shout, and the 400-pound Tokari warfighter collapsed onto the deck.
Axion ran and scooped up the plasma rifle in passing. I could sense that he was heading for the medical chamber to kill Alina.
A furious contest began.
Alina put up force fields in the corridor. Axion hit each one like a linebacker, smashing through. It burned his metallic skin, and made him stumble at times, but he had power and determination. Then he started using the plasma rifle to burn them down. That seemed like a wiser plan.
Finally, he stood before the medical chamber hatch.
It was open. He aimed the plasma rifle and fired, but it clicked, empty. He hammered at the force field with the rifle stock, sending up showers of sparks. I could see him looking and seeing Alina.
She was sitting up on the med cot with her eyes open. There was grim intensity in her eyes.
Did Axion realize he couldn’t hammer through this force field, or was he too beaten to do so yet again?
Suddenly, Axion whirled around and charged toward the bridge.
I took my hands off the interface plates. What could I do against an enraged android? I looked around. There were no weapons. I had nothing, not even my knife. I couldn’t believe this.
I wasn’t going to hide in the corner, so I went to the bridge exit to face destiny.
Axion was not there. He stood at the main hatch down the corridor, the one that led outside. The bastard opened the hatch to space. Was he trying to kill us biological entities that way? All the air should have rushed out the hatch. Instead, Alina had placed force fields on either side of Axion, blocking him yet again.
The android looked at me.
He wore a bulky pack. Why hadn’t I noticed that earlier? It must have been a thruster pack.
To my amazement, Axion jumped out of the hatch into space.
That was crazy. Had we just beaten Axion, the High Polarion? Or was this something else?
-10-
Colonel Pendance
Colonel Pendance stood in the sub-deck corridor of the massive prison ship Dreadstar, stick-thin from his ordeal but finally free of the alien parasite that had been consuming him from within. The ship stretched around him like a metallic city—kilometers of corridors, detention levels, and laboratories where the Ick conducted their experiments on captured beings from across the galaxy.
He should have felt relief, but instead there was only a throbbing emptiness in his skull where something used to be. What had Nask done to him during the surgery? What perfidy had the insectoid Ick committed when they removed the parasite?
His mind hurt. The empty spot felt like a missing tooth that his tongue couldn’t stop probing, a void that made him wince every time his thoughts brushed against it. The Ick surgeons had worked on him for hours with their needle-sharp instruments, their weird eyes reflecting the surgical lights like black mirrors. But whatever they’d done beyond removing the serpentine creature, he couldn’t let it show. He had to keep his end of the bargain, or Nask would put the parasite back in him. The thought was enough to keep him moving.
The Collectors were tucked into a far section of the Dreadstar’s inner levels where neither the Ick nor their human enforcers ventured, or not very often, anyway.
In the past, Pendance had slain any prisoners who contacted the Collectors for trade. Yet, he also made deals with them on the sly. Now, he realized, the Ick had always known about that.
Pendance had used his old procedure to make contact, and now one of the Collectors approached.
The small alien didn’t glide like an Ick. Nor did it walk like a human. It wore a cloak and stood a little less than five feet tall. A snout-like breathing apparatus covered the lower half of his face, and goggles covered his eyes.
A human-shaped android bodyguard stood beside the little alien, watching Pendance.
“I am here to speak for Nask,” Pendance said.
The Collector said nothing to that.
“Nask knows that a copy of Axion’s living intellect went to the Antares System,” Pendance said. “There, he acquired a powerful android body. Nask is willing to trade for any data you might possess about where Axion will go in his search for the Negator.”
Through the goggles, the Collector studied Pendance as if he were some kind of specimen, the breathing apparatus making soft mechanical sounds. “Why would Nask think I would cooperate with the Ick?”
“Because the end may be near,” Pendance said, the empty spot in his brain throbbing like an infected wound. “If the Negator is found and acquired…”
“Nask wants the Negator, doesn’t he? He wants to control the most powerful being in the galaxy with it.”
The question caused a stabbing pain in Pendance’s brain. He winced, and then fought to keep his expression neutral.
“What is wrong with you?” the Collector said.
The words seemed to force themselves from Pendance’s throat. He couldn’t believe he was saying this aloud. “I want to leave the Dreadstar. I’ll do anything to escape.”
“Indeed,” the Collector said. “That is an interesting admission. Why would you make it to me?”
Pendance tried to reason it out. He was a brutal man who’d been out for himself his entire mercenary career. But if the Ick discovered he’d said this…
The void in his brain throbbed again. He might have panted, but he shivered instead. These corridors reeked of surgical antiseptic and the silent screams of those the Ick experimented on in their dim laboratories. Maybe just as critical, he yearned to find and kill Kane for causing these problems.
“I… I must leave,” he said.
“Yet you claim to speak for Nask?”
“Yes.”
The Collector seemed to consider this. “You say Axion is free, as an android?”
Pendance blinked hard several times and seemed to speak by rote: “He transferred his consciousness from a digital storage device into one of the most advanced android bodies I’ve ever seen. It was seven feet tall, perfectly proportioned, and strong enough to punch through steel. He’s going after the Negator with Kane and his crew as prisoners.”
The Collector glanced at the android bodyguard before regarding Pendance again.
“The Negator is the great prize. Yes, I begin to understand. But you have made some curious statements, Colonel. Exactly how loyal are you to Nask?”
Pendance opened his mouth to profess undying love for Nask and the Ick. He feared that Nask had planted listening devices everywhere. But the void in his brain throbbed once more. So instead of hypocrisy, truth came out. “I hate the Ick. I want off the Dreadstar so badly I can taste it.”
The Collector seemed to digest this, considering carefully. “You must come with me then.”
Pendance nearly shrank back. What was he saying? If Nask found out about this betrayal…
Instead of running away or protesting, Pendance found himself following the other two. Soon, they traveled through corridors he recognized from his missions with Kane.
They turned into a different corridor and came to a portal marked with symbols Pendance couldn’t decipher. There, the android inserted his entire hand into a slot, becoming rigid. Was that some kind of interface?
The Collector slid a small hand into a metallic sleeve and grasped the android’s other arm.
“What are you doing?” Pendance said.
The Collector peered at him through the goggles, but said nothing.
A minute passed.
Pendance shifted from foot to foot. He didn’t like this.
“The daughter,” the Collector said hoarsely. “The daughter has agreed to come with us.”
That made no sense to Pendance. “Are you referring to Axion’s daughter?”
“She’s his niece,” the Collector said.
“Whose daughter do you mean then?”
“The Burnt Polarion,” the Collector said.
Pendance found himself blinking, wondering what the alien was talking about.
“She’s been trapped in the ship’s digital systems for centuries,” the Collector said.
“Are you mad?” Pendance blurted.
“You do not understand,” the Collector said, as he let go of the android and removed the metal sleeve, putting it in a knapsack.
The android, with her arm still in the slot, suddenly snapped to alertness. Then she blinked as if in confusion and looked around. When she spoke, the voice was higher pitched and feminine, carrying an aristocratic accent that reminded Pendance of Axion.
“Oh my,” the android said, looking at herself, “I’m naked. I need some clothes if I’m going to do this.”
“Pendance, take off your coat,” the Collector said. “Give it to her.”
“Her?”
“The android, you fool,” the Collector said.
Pendance shrugged out of his military jacket—the black fabric repaired and cleaned from his ordeal on the Antares world.
The android took the jacket and shrugged it on, quickly buttoning it. Then she looked around again, smiling. “At last, I’m out. I thought I would be trapped forever in the digital prison.”
“That strikes me as an odd statement,” the Collector said. “I thought this was just a copy of you.”
“Yes, yes, of course it’s a copy,” the android said. “But to know this and to feel again, even in the body of an android… let us hurry.”
“What’s going on?” Pendance said, more confused than ever.
The android picked up a laptop case from a hidden compartment, and rocked on her metal toes as if impatient.
“Are you ready, Pendance?” the Collector asked.
“Ready for what?” the colonel said.
“We are about to escape from the Dreadstar,” the Collector said.
Pendance’s gut twisted in fear. If Nask caught him trying to escape—
“Pendance,” the Collector said. “Are you willing to do this?”
“Yes,” Pendance said in a hoarse voice.
The Collector nodded and pressed a switch on his belt.
Golden motes appeared around them and reality blurred. Pendance felt weightless for just a moment and then he materialized elsewhere. To his surprise, the Collector and the android wearing his jacket appeared near him.
“Hurry,” the Collector said. “Follow me.”
Pendance stumbled after the two, soon entering what appeared to be a bridge to a sleek starship. This looked like a hangar bay.
The Collector sat in a piloting chair and began to tap controls. The great hangar bay door opened as the starship lifted from the deck. Beyond was gray foldspace.
In wonder, Pendance sat in a seat. The small starship exited the Dreadstar. Pendance peered at the massive triangular prison ship. The Collector piloted them away from the mighty vessel, gaining enough separation to turn on the Manifold Drive. In seconds, the starship dropped out of foldspace into regular space, with stars all around them.
The Collector swiveled around in the piloting chair and regarded Pendance and the android. “That was easier than I expected.”
“We’re in normal space?” Pendance asked.
“Yes,” the Collector said.
“I’m stunned Nask didn’t fire at us,” Pendance said. The prison ship’s weapon systems should have been able to vaporize them in seconds.
“Indeed,” the Collector said. “It does seem odd.” He stared at Pendance through the goggles. “Do you have an explanation for that?”
Pendance rubbed his forehead as his normal suspicion finally came to the fore. Was Nask using him? Had the surgery done more than just remove the parasite? The empty space in his brain felt like a wound that wouldn’t heal.
“It doesn’t matter,” the Collector said shortly. “One way or the other, we are going to find Kane and take what he has if he discovers the Negator. Then we will be the arbiters of fate. Yes?”
“Of course,” Pendance said, though confusion and fear clouded his thoughts.
“This is amazing,” the android said. “I made the right decision. This is simply marvelous.”
Pendance nodded slowly. At least he was off the Dreadstar. For now, that would have to be enough. Yet, the fear that Nask was using him made him determined to thwart the Ick mastermind in the end. Pendance rubbed his forehead once more, wondering about how to do that.
-11-
After some time, I sat in the piloting chair with both hands pressed against the neural interface plates, watching through the ship’s sensors as Axion sailed toward the third planet of the star system. It hit me then just how much distance the Theron must have covered earlier. We were close enough now that I could make out individual continents on the blue-green world spinning below us.
We weren’t in low orbit yet, maybe 100,000 kilometers out. But Axion’s thruster pack was propelling him toward the planet. He’d already covered a lot of distance and was approaching low orbit. I could see through the sensors that the planet’s gravity well was starting to take hold of him.
The world looked like a smaller, untouched version of Earth—swirling white clouds over deep blue oceans, brown and green landmasses that spoke of life and weather patterns. He was falling, his metallic form catching the white dwarf’s harsh light as he dropped through the invisible gravitational gradient that surrounded the planet like a funnel.
At our distance, the planet’s gravity was still weak, maybe one percent of what it would be at the surface. But as he fell deeper into the well, that pull would increase exponentially. Because I had the AI’s help again, I knew that the gravitational force increased with the square of decreasing distance—Physics 101, right? The ship made me look smart. The closer Axion got, the faster he’d fall.
