Star Force 12 Demon Star (22 page)

“We hear and obey,” came the collective response.

“Excellent,” I said. I looked from side to side and then pointed to my right. “The people we’re supposed to rescue should be through there, down one more passageway, close to the operations center. First and second squads will assault there, while third squad attacks the other direction to cause a diversion.” I indicated a door to my left. “As soon as we’ve rescued the Elladans, we’ll beat a fighting retreat back to the airlock.”

My three squads now became two as they advanced through the right-side door, sobered now that they had seen what they faced and had lost a couple of their number. They cleared each room to make sure no Demons were hidden. We didn’t need any surprises on our retreat path.

When we reached the edge of the command complex, I told my suit to broadcast on the Elladan frequency.

“Doctor Galen,” I said, using the name Argos had given me. “This is Captain Riggs. Your father sent me to rescue you.”

A scarred blast door slid back.

“Welcome, Captain,” came a haughty voice on my com-link. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Then, I got the shock of my short life. As one, the Raptors surrounding me turned to point their laser rifles at Kwon and me.

My own troops had mutinied. I should have ordered them all to eat their own damned tails.

-17-

“What the hell is going on?” I growled. “Pigs, aim those weapons at him!”

I pointed my finger at the Elladan, but my Raptors didn’t budge.

“Your lower orders will not follow you now, Captain,” a smooth voice said. The man who spoke wore a gorgeous, chrome-silver pressure suit. He stepped openly into view like some ancient lord. “And do not turn your weapons my direction, or they will burn you down. Now, place your rifles on the ground and step away.”

I glanced at Kwon, who was at least not aiming at me. He seemed frozen to the deck. On a private channel, I said, “Kwon? Kwon? Can you hear me?”

I got no reply.

“Captain?” said the Elladan. “Can you hear me? Please disarm yourself.”

Somehow, my troops had mutinied against me. Because I couldn’t see that happening spontaneously, I had to believe this was due to some kind of outside influence. I remembered how the Demons had turned on each other once their ships had been damaged, and I mentally reviewed the conversation with the prisoner about the slimy coating inside his ship.

It didn’t all fall into place, but I was beginning to get an idea of what was going on—and it wasn’t good. Everything hinged on the asshole standing in front of me, I was pretty sure about that.

Flatfooted and without warning, I leaped straight through the door. Lasers sizzled the air behind me, but I was ahead of their aim and shot forward, gauntlets outstretched, to close them around the neck of the smug man in the fancy suit. I whipped him in front of me as a human shield and backed into a corner. Five more Elladans occupied the room behind him, three women and two men. They all wore silver suits.

“Stop!” Galen yelled as I squeezed his head enough to hurt. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”

“I know I’m about to pop your skull if you don’t release control of my troops!” I snarled, holding him off the floor and shaking him like a terrier holding a rat with my suit-assisted strength. “Now!”

The five Elladans advanced on me, but they were helpless against my strength. Suddenly a narrow green beam speared between the Raptors in the doorway to blow apart the unarmored head of one of the two remaining Elladan males. The other four Elladans cringed, raising their hands.

At that point, confusion broke out among the Raptors, who started squawking at each other rapidly in their own tongue. Without
Valiant’s
bigger brain to sort it out, my suit couldn’t keep up with the translation.

Kwon bulled his way into the room, and he pushed a few Raptors out. He’d been the one who’d fired the laser bolt.

“Everyone standby!” he barked. He slammed the door and turned to the prisoners, pointing his laser at them.

“Kwon, good to see you in action,” I said, tossing Galen down roughly and knocking over his fellows in a heap.

“Mercy, Captain,” Galen said, and the others echoed his words.

“Why do you deserve mercy?” I asked. “We’re your allies, the only other humans you’ve ever met. We’ve been risking our lives to kill Demons, and you tried to stab us in the back. In my book, you should be strung up by your toes until you tell us everything about your mind-tricks, and then spaced. In fact, as I’m sure you can surmise, Kwon here would be happy to do the deed.”

“Mind-tricks?” Galen seemed genuinely confused. “No, Captain. We only influence the lower orders. They serve us because it’s right that they do so.”

“Lower orders?” Kwon roared. “I’m getting sick of this ‘lower orders’ crap. You tried to get me to turn against my boss. I could feel an urge to do so in my head. I’ll show you ‘lower orders,’ you dirt-bags.”

Galen held up his hands, placating. “But you did not submit which demonstrates you’re
not
one of the lowest orders, so you should not be insulted. The bird-aliens, though…they seem particularly susceptible.”

My blood ran cold. If they could influence Raptors in close proximity, maybe they could do it across space and take control of Kreel and
Stalker
. A sneak attack on
Valiant
could cripple her, putting everyone into the hands of these bastards.

“Are you even Argos’ son?” I asked.

“Of course I am,” Galen replied, drawing himself up. “My flesh was once part of his flesh. I’m of the highest-order stock.”

“That’s great,” I said. “How do you define these higher and lower orders?”

“Isn’t it obvious? By mental resilience. The weaker serve the stronger. We thought you knew this, though your lack of precautionary measures was puzzling.”

“We base who serves whom on other factors, such as demonstrated fitness for command,” I retorted. “Your system is just a refined version of dog-eat-dog, king-of-the-hill. And I don’t really believe what you’re saying is true. Argos came aboard and made contact with many of my crew. He did this on purpose, so he could pass on some kind of biological agent, didn’t he?”

Galen looked nervous. “I’m sure it was something like that.”

I snorted derisively. “Then it really doesn’t matter who has the strongest mind. You drugged people somehow. Poisoned them.”

“Oh, no, Captain. The higher orders, like you, can resist. I would guess you’ve had contact with our kind before—or you have a genetic difference in your make up.”

He was right, of course. My parents had endured all kinds of reconditioning. My father, in particular, had once been rebuilt by Marvin’s biotic baths so he could survive on a gas giant. Some of these alterations had been passed on to me. But I didn’t feel like enlightening Galen any further.

I held up a hand. “Wait a minute. Kwon, guard these guys, but keep them alive. I have a lot more questions.” I strode over to the door and yanked it open to see two squads of Raptors standing in ranks, tails in their hands.

“Drop those tails!” I said.

“But commander, we have failed you,” the senior squad leader said.

“Not yet you haven’t. The Elladans used some form of mind-control on you, so that’s not your fault. We’ve captured them, so forget about killing yourselves and get back to your duties. Spread out and set up a perimeter to guard against any more Demons that might be here, and any Elladan you find take prisoner—but try not to hurt them.”

“We hear and obey.” The Raptors fell out and scattered in all directions.

“Suit, access the repeater,” I said.

“Repeater on line.”

“Valiant, this is Riggs. You read me?”

“Loud and clear, Captain Riggs,” came Valiant’s welcome voice. “Shall I put you through to Lieutenant Commander Hansen?”

“No, Valiant. This is private, me to you, for now. First, be aware the Elladans have delivered some kind of contact poison that will allow them to control some of our people, Raptors are particularly susceptible. They tried to capture my forces and me. We’ve overcome them, but this puts a completely new spin on things.”

“I understand. I’ll take precautions against all Raptors interfering with ship operations.”

“And keep a close eye on
Stalker
. Make up an excuse to maintain your distance, and stay out of their main weapons arcs. Snap on the shields and get the hell away if they try a surprise attack. They won’t be responsible for their actions, so it’s better to simply avoid fighting with them.”

“Understood.”

“Now listen carefully. I also need you to temporarily override your usual protocols on command personnel because of the possibility of outside influence. I seem to be immune. Six Elladans tried their trick on me and failed. Kwon seems resistant, too, but I have no idea about anyone else. So until I tell you differently, you have to comply with my orders. Do not be confused by the orders of any other command personnel. Even if that goes against your usual programming.”

“I have no problem with that.” Valiant sounded smug, as if happy to be given an opportunity to defy other biotics.

“Good. Anything that seems out of character for our command personnel and crew—except me, of course—you’re free to ignore or modify. Do your best to use biometric data to identify people that are under outside influence. It might manifest as unusual stress, such as sweating or inability to concentrate, or maybe unusual anger.”

I thought about how Hansen had been acting lately. Could this effect have spread all over my ship?

“But what about you?” Valiant said. “How do I know you’re not under outside influence?”

This statement concerned me. Valiant was thinking on its own, and it seemed like it was
looking
for reasons to ignore human commands.

“Download everything that happened from my suit and Kwon’s, right now. Use it and our records to baseline us. Do you see evidence of us being subverted?”

There was a pause as the ship digested the data.

“I see no clear proof of misconduct,” it said at last. “I accept your new protocol.”

I could have bet a stack of credits there was a hint of disappointment in the ship’s voice.

“Good,” I said. “Pass my order on to Hansen. He’s to bring the ship down here immediately.”

“I have relayed the order. He appears to be complying. ETA is fourteen minutes.”

“I hoped that means the Elladans are too busy with the Demons to try to influence my people… Valiant, I also need you to put me through to Marvin, and don’t let him ignore you. Tell him it’s top-priority, life-or-death with a technical puzzle involved. In fact, add in that there’s a completely new field of research to interest him, something where he’s superior to biotic life, but which also threatens his survival.”

Valiant didn’t respond right away. When it finally spoke, it sounded suspicious. “Are you certain you’re mentally balanced, Captain? You’ve ordered me to lie to another commander. Further, you’ve given me a list of fantasies concerning—”

“Enough. Be insistent.”

“Order relayed.”

Star Force had spent a lot of time and effort making sure our brainboxes couldn’t take over from our biotic personnel, to the point that I wasn’t at all certain what would actually happen if Hansen or other officers were to try to override Valiant.

Could Sakura or someone else like Kalu do it? I knew that most competent programmers could find a loophole in any protocol or script, given enough time. So I had to get back aboard.

While I waited for Marvin, I checked the local situation. Kwon seemed to have firm control of the Elladans, making them sit on the floor, their ethereally handsome faces turned upward toward us. Again, I resisted the urge to open up my faceplate. I had no idea why I had been able to fend off their amplified mental attacks so well, but I wasn’t going to give them any edge if I could help it.

Instead, I paced up and down, scarring the deck with my heavy boots, until I heard Marvin’s voice in my helmet.

“What is it, Captain Riggs? I’m very busy.”

“Doing what? You haven’t been fighting.”

“I am continuing to research Demon technology and biology in order to develop your ‘bug spray.’”

“Well, I’ve got information for you that will stun your artificial mind.” And then I stopped because I realized what kind of power I was about to hand over to the robot. If the Elladans could come up with a suggestion agent that could work at a distance and Marvin could replicate it, he might be able to zap Star Force personnel with it without them even knowing.

After a moment’s thought, I pushed the worry aside. After all, I seemed to be highly resistant. Kwon was as well, so I had to think about short-term concerns now and worry about the long-term stuff later.

“Go on, please,” Marvin said in what I would call a very interested tone.

“The Elladans have the ability to influence minds. There must be some kind of biotic agent, something Argos passed around when he visited our ship. I think the existence of this toxin, or whatever it is, explains the slime coating inside the Demon ships. I also think the effect caused Demon ships to suddenly turn on each other during the battle.”

Marvin was silent for a moment, processing. “Your premise is odd, but given recent events it seems plausible. I have no evidence or even a hypothesis about what kind of agent could influence something as complex as a biotic mind across the vast distances of space.”

“I don’t think it works that way,” I said. “I think it makes a person more suggestible. They find they
want
to mutiny. Maybe this happens after talking to an Elladan or maybe they just want to do whatever might help the Elladans. Maybe they just suddenly decide they like people from that planet. The Whales certainly act that way.”

“Interesting…” Marvin said. “A methodology allowing the reprogramming of a living neural net—without killing the host? I’ve sought such agents in the past and failed to produce anything practical.”

“What? You tried to come up with a contact-based biotic poison that would—”

“I would suggest you calm down,” Marvin said. “My goals were purely scientific in nature. Nothing but research, in the interests of expanding humanity’s pool of knowledge to the benefit of all.”