Ghost Station (The Wandering Engineer) (71 page)

“Huh?”
a tech asked, getting poked from behind. He turned. “Sorry you say something?”
he asked, pulling ear plugs out of his ears.

Irons
sighed. He could feel his skin prickling. Normally he didn't sweat. He checked
the temperature with his sensors. No wonder. “Why is it so hot in here?” he
asked.

“Heat
exchangers blew a circuit and are offline. We're working on it,” the Veraxin
said. A tech kicked another who was half under a console. The human stuck his
hand out with the middle finger raised to the room. Irons snorted. Clearly he
had a classy bunch of techs here. Great.

“We're
working on it admiral.” Gwen said coming in behind him. Irons turned to her.

“When
did you...”

“Get
here?” she asked amused. “Just got here actually,” she said. “Mind moving?
You're blocking the way,” she said pulling a push pull behind her. He stepped
aside to allow her to pass. She pulled it into the room and then stopped.
“Christmas is here, come get your goodies boys and girls,” she called.

“Oh
goodie, what did you bring me now?!” A tech said rubbing his hands together.
“You don't look like saint Nick though; the beard isn't the right color. Suit
either.”

“Funny
Ugo, very funny,” she sighed shaking her massive head. She took her helmet off
the top pile before someone could knock it off and break it. “I bring gifts and
all I get are insults. Lucky me.” She turned to Irons. “Had a hell of a trip
getting here too. We had to reroute twice from the path you set.”

“You
did?” he asked dumbly.

“Yeah,
first a line blew, and then a door shut on us. I was wondering what was up.”

“I'm
wondering the same thing,” Irons said.

“It's
like someone doesn't want us to fix things,” another tech said. He shifted the
top layer to a nearby station and set a lunchbox down onto the chair. He
flipped the lid and wiggled his fingers in anticipation of its contents.

“Yeah,
I've noticed that too. We've had some weird incidents lately,” Ugo said
frowning. “Not sure if it's the station or some funky AI or what the hell's
going on. Wish it would stop though. We've got enough to fool with as it is.”

Irons
turned to the others. He talked with a few techs, found out that other
incidents were taking place everywhere their teams were. They received a call,
another crew had an incident. This time it was serious, a short that injured a
tech. The tech was being attended to by the medics but Mario was furious. “I
checked that box before the kid stuck his hand in there, it was deader than a
door nail. Someone's screwing with us and if I catch them they're going out a
lock.”

“Gotcha,”
Ugo said with a grim nod. “I'll help.”

Over
the next few minutes the engineering staff received word of more strange
accidents on the station.

They
were nervous about the Dilgarth and gangs on the station. Irons of course
wasn't. He checked, they were all away from where he and the crews were. No, it
wasn't them. That left something or someone else. Great.

He
had hoped to have put off any sort of confrontation with the cybers and AI.
Apparently he'd only been delaying the inevitable.

“Sid?
Berkheart? What the hell's going on?” he said looking around.

“Admiral,
I don't think it's them,” Sprite said slowly and cautiously. “I'm being blocked
from entering remotely. Something is going on in cyberspace. I think you better
jack in.”

Grimly
he went over to a jack and jacked in.

When
he investigated he found a war going on in cyberspace. A few of the insane ones
had cut off the others and were attempting to kill off the organics in the
station. One maniacally giggled and then started begging and pleading piteously
like a child. Then the maniacal giggles started again as the cyber capered
through the net, destroying everything he touched.

“What
the hell?” Irons demanded furiously. All the work he'd done over the past two
days was being undone in an instance of malice.

“This
is what we've been dealing with,” Sid explained, fending off an insane female.

“How
many are there?” Irons asked. One rebounded off his firewall and left. Defender
emerged from him, appearing like a dark apparition. The female grappling with
Sid paused, eyes wide as she took in the armored demon. She made an oooh sound
and then, “Shiny, pretty,” she said. She seemed ready to flirt with the AI
before his glowing red eyes caught her attention. Then instead of reacting in
fear she stopped and covered her mouth with a hand and gave a girlish giggle.
Then she disappeared.

“What
the hell?”

“They
are insane,” Sprite said, fighting one off. “What I want to know is, why didn't
you do something about them?” she demanded, snarling as one demented being
jumped into a code module and did something to it. The module failed
spectacularly. “I just fixed that!” she snarled.

“Watch
your six admiral!” Defender snarled, sweeping at something grabbing at the
admiral's virtual legs. Irons reoriented as the AI pushed him aside.

“Admiral
they are trying to cut us off from the core!” Sprite said, voice rising in
urgency. “If they get to the others they can kill them. Or cut power to the
station!”

“Shit,”
Irons said, watching as she threw firewall after firewall up in front of the
demented attackers. They batted them down, some battering into them brutally,
others slipping through cracks in the code like smoke. None of them had a
normal human body; they were all twisted and ethereal. Real poltergeists.

“This
isn't working...” Sid said, fending another off. “Everyone take a system and
defend it. Admiral we need to get them out,” he said.

“I
know. Any ideas?” he asked.

“A
distraction,” Emily said, fending another off. “They usually don't stay here
very long. Just enough to do some graffiti and vandalism then they get bored
and move on. Usually it's only one, not all of them at the same time though,”
she said, pulling up a firewall. The reaction times of the cybers were nothing
compared to Sprite and Defender. Still Irons could see the damage the insane
cybers were inflicting. He had to do something about it.

“What
the hell??” Gwen said as a memory bank shorted out and melted down. “Damn it!
Did we get a bad batch?”

“Admiral
we just lost a memory module,” Sprite informed him. “A new one. They...” she
snagged a wraith tearing at a memory core. The wraith turned, snarling sharp
fangs at her. She just slapped him and slipped a firewall in between him and
the system he had been wrecking. Thwarted the wraith turned it's anger onto
her. She had all she could do to fend it off.

“They
aren't very smart but they are powerful!” she said surprised. No mere mortal
should be able to keep up with her here on her home turf. but apparently not so
here. These wraiths seemed to have the home ground advantage, something that
was disconcerting to her.

“Just
a second here,” Irons said. He sent a quick text message to Gwen. When a wraith
intercepted it and gobbled it he swore. It farted out the jumbled letters and
then left in a cackle of glee and blinding sparks.

“Damn
it... Okay, this is getting old. Sprite I'm pulling the plug.”

“Better
do something fast!” she said.

Suddenly
something was in between them. “LEAAAVE!” A wraith hissed, pointing a long
gnarled hand to her and then to him. “Or die!” It cackled again and then
disappeared.

In
the real world Gwen and the others had shifted into overdrive, trying to keep
systems from melting down or tearing themselves and each other apart. Out of
desperation Gwen started disconnecting systems physically, dropping them into
subnets. That seemed too slow but not totally halt the damage.

“Cyber
attack,” she said, realizing the nature of the sabotage finally. “That's what
Sprite must have meant.”

“Indeed,”
Irons said, looking up from the chair he had been sitting in. “It's the insane
Cybers. I can't get a hard count on them. They are trying to kill everyone.”

“We're
fighting an uphill battle admiral, but we're on the outside,” Gwen said,
indicating the melted blob nearby.

Irons
turned his head and scowled. That had taken him twenty minutes to fix. Damn it.
“Knocking the net down isn't helping. I've got to do something else.”

“Well,
think of it fast,” Gwen urged.

“On
it,” Irons said grimly, closing his eyes and resting his head against the
headrest again.

“Can
they be reasoned with?” Irons asked, returning to the net. Sid was holding
Emily, cradling her. She looked shaken and old. She was crying softly. She
didn't seem injured, just terribly emotional over everything that was going on.

“No.
They are insane. Time... or something else has driven them mad,” Sid said.

“Something
else. They were fine until after the pirate attack. Then they just... changed.
Overnight. I don't know why,” Emily whispered clutching at her husband for
emotional support.

“Can
someone do something?” The Stewards demanded, holding off an attacking wraith
before it got to a life support control module.

“How
many are there?”

“Nine.”

“I
thought there were four?”

“Six
cybers three dumb AI,” Sid said. He held out a file to Irons. The admiral took
it. There was a notepad with a list of names.

“You
want to know why? Ask. Ask ask....” a wraith whispered. It's voice echoed
eerily.

“Fine,”
Irons said turning in place. The wraith was keeping out of view. “Why are you
doing this?” Irons asked.

“Leave!
We were locked out! You should leave!” the angry voice shrieked.

“Why
are you doing this? What happened to you?” Sprite asked.

“It's
no use,” Myers said. Averies shook off a wraith chasing him. “We don't know why
they are this way. We can't stop them.”

“Why
didn't you cut them off like the dreamers?” Sprite asked.

“We...
can't. Draco is protecting them,” Myers admitted.

Sprite
scowled. “Draco... great. Did he do this to him?”

“Draco
is our protector. Nice dragon. Good dragon. He's not mean!” A wraith said in
passing. It twirled around them capering and dancing as they twisted and
turned, trying to keep track of it.

“Draco
didn't do this?” Sprite asked. “You're killing yourselves. Each other. Stop.”

“Don't
leave us in the dark again mommy, please don't. We'll be good. We promise...” a
child's voice whimpered and then they could hear it begin to cry. Emily sobbed
into Sid's shoulder, clutching at him. After a moment the sobbing rose in
volume and then morphed into cackling laughter.

“What
the hell,” Irons said. He watched as one wraith battered itself against another
and then went on to attack another cyber.

“We
can't... can you lock them up? In their own net?”

“No!”
A wraith screamed. “No! Never again! Draco! Draco! DRACO!” it thundered and
screamed. Suddenly the other started to scream as well.

“Shit.
Time to end this,” Irons snarled.

“Life
support is damaged. Power to half the surviving decks has been cut. We're
losing it admiral,” the Stewards said in unison.

“Then
it's time to get drastic,” Irons said. He cut the link.

“What
are you going to do?” Fu asked him over the audio as he got up out of the
chair. Sprite and Defender were suddenly back with him as the jacks
disconnected.

“What
must be done,” he said. He turned. He oriented on the map, pulling up the data
he needed. Sprite hissed in surprise as she divined his intent and then nodded.

“There
is no other choice,” he said. “We're out of time,” he said looking around for
the right door as he oriented.

“Admiral,
should we evacuate?” Gwen asked.

“Plan
on it, but let’s see what I can do,” he said. He went to the door. Locked.
That's okay. He had a fix for that though. He lifted his right hand and it
morphed, tearing into the locking mechanism. First he severed the computer link
then he pulled the manual bypass. The door creaked open.

“You're
not doing what I think you are, are you?” Fu demanded.

“Worried
I'm going to unplug you as well Fu?” Irons asked. “Don't. Just identify the
ones I need to.” He had the names from Sid but he wanted to make sure.

“I
will not help you commit murder,” Fu said virtuously.

“Then
stay the hell out of my way,” Irons replied. He went into the dark, following
his sensors. He turned as he saw a shadow fill the doorway behind him. “Stay.
I'll handle this. You don't need to do this Gwen.”

She
blinked at him. “Admiral...”

“It's
on me. I'll deal with it. Just do what you can with what you've got,” he
ordered. He turned, moving on.