Star Force 12 Demon Star (23 page)

I knew horseshit when I heard it, but I didn’t have time to play twenty questions about Marvin’s many questionable past experiments now.

“If I create such a suggestibility defense, will I be promoted?” Marvin asked.

“Absolutely. You’ll be Lieutenant Junior Grade Marvin.”

“In that case, I’m on my way. ETA four minutes twenty seconds. Please have a sample Elladan for dissection along with the contact agent and more of the insectoid slime. I’ll get to work immediately.”

“Dissection? No, Marvin. That isn’t happening.”

“Can I at least have a subject for study? Perhaps the smallest of the females. You won’t even miss her.”

I frowned in disgust. Marvin often asked for test subjects for his studies. His track record wasn’t good on such matters. He tended to kill anyone and anything we let him study.

“Not happening. I’ll let you take samples from their hands and from the affected Raptors. No living test subjects. Riggs out.”

His complaints were cut off. I updated Kwon on the situation and marched a squad of Raptors to the airlock. At the appointed time, I opened the door and stepped out onto the hull to meet Marvin.

Greyhound
slid across my field of vision, seeming huge from a range of ten feet. A tentacle reached toward me and stopped at arm’s length. “Greetings, Captain Riggs,” the voice of a brainbox said. “It is good to see you again.”

I realized it was my old suit AI, which now served as Greyhound’s brain. “Good to see you again too, Greyhound. How do you like being a ship?”

“I like it very much. However, Captain Marvin is—”

“Please disregard my lazy and often insubordinate ship, Captain Riggs,” Marvin interrupted. “May I grasp one of these Raptors with my tentacles?”

They shuffled uneasily, but no one complained.

“Take him,” I said, pointing to the squad leader. “But I want him back intact in ten minutes—that means breathing and in fighting shape, Marvin. Don’t remove any organs or anything.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

The tentacle snaked forward. The Raptor squad leader was alarmed, but he didn’t struggle. They were loyal and obedient to the last—unless someone messed with their minds.

We waited out on the hull while Marvin worked on the Raptor. I checked my chrono. “You’re two minutes over, Marvin. Is that Raptor still breathing?”

“Yes. Rapidly breathing, in fact. I’ll return him shortly—you could always retire into your ship to relax.”

“No way. Give me back my soldier.”

Reluctantly, the tentacles uncoiled and the raptor squad leader was returned. He looked a little woozy, but he didn’t complain. His kind rarely did.

Greyhound slid away then. I sensed Marvin was eager to scurry away to some private place and work on his findings.

“Captain Riggs, my ETA is now two minutes,” Valiant said in my helmet.

“Good. We’re waiting outside the airlock. Pass the info about the suggestibility agent to Adrienne and have her start locking up anyone who appears mentally unstable. Then—”

A searing flash darkened my faceplate at that moment. It was close, dangerously close. It felt as if my eyeballs had been seared.

-18-

Blinded by a sudden burst of light, I staggered into the back of the airlock. It was the only cover I had.

“Suit, I can’t see. Guide me to the controls.”

The suit servos moved my arm until my hand touched the keypad and I pushed at the big “close” button. I felt the airlock door clang shut.

“What the hell is going on?” I asked, but no answer came. I was pretty sure we’d been hit by a ship-mounted laser from outside, but it must have been diffuse or from long range as I hadn’t been fried outright. It had apparently burned off the smart metal repeater antenna, though.

The two Raptors grabbed onto me. “Captain, we are blinded,” one said.

“Your nanites will fix you eventually,” I replied. “Until then, have your fellows guide you.” Their suits didn’t have their own brainboxes like ours. I retracted my gauntlet to better feel the controls, using only my thin internal glove to find the “open” button for the inside door, and pushed it.

The inner door swung away and we stumbled into the fortress.

Other Raptors seized us, babbling in my ear on the short-range com-link. I told them to bring us to Kwon.

Before we got there, I heard Valiant’s voice in my helmet. “Captain Riggs?”

“I’m here, Valiant. How are you reaching me?”

“Via the ansible installed in your suit.”

Of course.
The quantum signal wouldn’t be stopped by the mere hull and armor of the fortress. “Good idea,” I said. “We got hit by a laser.”

“I must apologize for that, Captain. One of our gunners fired a laser on her own initiative. She was evidently under the influence of the Elladans, though she claims to have no memory of firing the cannon. She’s now under guard in the brig.”

“Well done. Keep a close eye out for others that are susceptible. What about the senior officers?”

“After being briefed, they all self-reported what appear to be feelings of remorse for being aboard this ship.”

“Remorse?”

“Yes. They say they feel like intruders, interlopers that should abandon ship and aid the Elladans. Their biometrics, however, indicate they’re still able to control themselves and follow orders.”

“Good to hear. Let me talk to Hansen, then.”

Hansen’s voice broke in. “I’m here, Skipper. We’re all pretty freaked out about this mind-control thing, but I think we’ll make it through.”

“Look out for unwarranted sympathy for these aliens,” I told him. “And don’t accept transmissions from one of them. They might be able to convince you to do something you’ll regret.”

“Will do, sir. We’re on approach now. We’ll have you off that rock in…
oh, shit!”
His voice broke off.

Valiant came back on. “Captain,
Stalker
has begun firing on us from long range, and all our Nano frigates are closing on attack vectors. I was able to raise the shields in time, but we cannot remain here without taking significant damage or having to return fire. We are moving behind the fortress. Can you make your way across to the other side?”

My heart began to pound. The Elladans had upped the ante. My Raptors were turning on us.

I tried to pull up my HUD, but then I remember I was still blind. “

“We’ll try, Valiant, but I think you should run away for now and come back for us later. We have the supplies on our pinnace, and there are probably a lot more stored here somewhere. We’ll be fine. Riggs out.”

“Captain, we are here,” a Raptor told me, guiding my hand to the frame of a door.

“Kwon?”

“Yeah, boss, I’m here. You’re blind?”

“For the moment. Laser strike. No idea how long this will last. I can feel the nanites working.”

I could, too. My face itched like hell, but I wasn’t going to open my faceplate yet. “We need to get to the other side of this fort.
Stalker
’s shooting at
Valiant
, and she moved over there to hide behind it, but we have to hurry.”

“Okay! You, Sergeant, have your squad bring these prisoners. The rest of you, go get all the supplies you can carry and come after. Boss, tell your suit to follow me. Everyone else, get moving to the coordinates I’m sending.”

“Suit, follow Kwon in walking mode,” I said.

“Following.”

I felt my suit take control and start jogging. I relaxed, not fighting it. I wondered whether it would be worth it to investigate some kind of implant into my visual cortex, a backup for situations like this, but none of the salvaged Nano technology had included biotic-to-machine integrated cybernetics, so that would be some bleeding-edge technology, probably beyond the means of my expedition right now.

Maybe Marvin could do it, but he had so many other things on his plate…

Sometimes I wished I had a dozen Marvins—but without the attitude. Such a plan would work better if he had some form of conscience. But my Dad had told me long ago they’d worked out a deal preventing him from creating “offspring.” That was probably for the best.

I trudged in my personal darkness, listening to the curt orders from the Raptor troops as they cleared the way ahead and guarded the flanks and rear. This might have been one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I hated giving up control to my subordinates and a not-too-bright machine.

Despite the fact that we were moving at a jog, I had nothing to occupy my mind with my suit doing all the work. To pass the time, I contacted Galen. “Hey Galen, how many Demons do you think are aboard this station now?”

“I believe you killed all of them, Captain,” he said, barely panting. Of course he would be in superb shape. All these Elladans looked like Hollywood stars—at least the ones I had seen. Maybe these examples weren’t representative of their entire population.

“What about Elladans? Any more survivors?” I asked.

“All but the handful accompanying us are dead. They’ve probably had their fluids drained and consumed as food.”

I turned that over in my head. “Really? Why would the Demons do that?” I knew the Demons ate volatiles. Dead bodies should hold little attraction for them when there were plenty of other things in this fortress. I remembered the oils and pressurized gases where the bugs had been feeding, and I knew this guy was lying.

“Why do the lower orders do anything?” he said airily.

Damn, but I wanted to slap the smug look off his face. I didn’t have to see it to know it was there. I decided not to call him on his possible lies in order to keep my advantage hidden. “Why did you survive?”

“We have an armored safe-room. When you arrived and killed the enemy, we came out.”

“In hopes of enslaving us?”

Timor’s voice took on an arch note. “If we had been able to dominate you, you would have deserved to be enslaved. Because you maintained self-control, you have earned a place of equality among us. Come now, Captain. There’s no further need for hard feelings. It’s simply our way to challenge others for dominance—our culture.”

“Your culture sucks,” I said. I was usually fairly understanding about aliens and their bizarre attitudes, but these people were hard to take.

“One of your mind-tricks forced a gunner on my ship to try to kill me with a ship’s laser,” I went on with a snarl. “I’m lucky to be alive and only blind. So don’t try to tell me this was all some kind of fair test that I passed and I should let bygones be bygones. No, you’ve gotten on my bad side, Galen, and people that get on the bad side of a Riggs usually start hating life pretty damn quick.”

Galen didn’t reply. We jogged on in silence for five minutes, and I resisted the urge to bug Kwon or berate Galen any more. It would only make me look weak.

Before we arrived, Hansen contacted me. “Captain, we either have to run or destroy our own Nano frigates. They’ll be here in about thirty seconds.”

“Dammit. Go ahead, get out of here. You have to preserve yourselves. Come back when you can.”

“Aye, aye, Skipper. We’ll keep watching for an opportunity.”

“How’s the rest of the battle going?”

“It was close for a while, but the Elladans are losing.”

“Serves them right. If they hadn’t screwed with us, we might have been able to turn the tide in their favor. Goddamn idiots.”

In a suddenly strained voice, Hansen said, “Yeah. Ah, sorry, gotta go.”

Valiant’s voice took over. “Captain Riggs, Lieutenant Commander Hansen is currently engaged in initiating violent evasive maneuvers.”

“No problem, Valiant. You’re doing a great job. I don’t know if I ever told you this, but you’re a damn fine brain, and I’m proud to serve with you.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Riggs out.” I had no idea if the Nano-style brains we used were truly sentient and conscious, or only seemed to be. That was a philosophical question well above my pay-grade or interest level at the moment, but I figured a few compliments couldn’t hurt.

Sentient or not, Valiant had remained unfailingly competent through all our ordeals. When we got home, I was going to argue for not re-base lining her at the next update. It seemed an unfair reward for her constant loyalty.

Because of the example of the Macros and Nanos, Star Force was paranoid about letting its AIs become too individualistic, but maybe we were being too conservative.

Hell, look at what Marvin was able to accomplish. It seemed worth the risk. But all militaries tended to become risk-averse in times of peace, and when we left, we’d been at peace for two decades.

That might change when we got back, depending on what happen here in the Trinity system.

“We’re here, boss,” Kwon said. “There’s a bunch of rubble in front this airlock. Troops, put that stuff down and clear this mess, pronto.”

I stood there uselessly, listening to the sounds of the Raptors working. I felt the clunks and thuds of debris and rock when they moved it. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them repeatedly, trying to see something—anything.

“Suit, turn up my HUD to max brightness, and then back down again, once per second.”

“Cycling.”

I thought I could see a faint pulsing of light against my optic nerve, which cheered me up. Like many things, you never know how wonderful sight is until you lose it.

“Kwon, don’t open the airlock yet.
Valiant
had to leave,” I said. “They’ll come back for us later.”

“Okay, boss…what do we do now?”

I was sorely tempted to order my forces back to the command center and have the Elladans call up views of the battle, but giving them access to their systems seemed far too risky—especially with me blind. “First, use the override module to make sure we can open the airlock with the push of a button. Then make sure we have a good atmosphere and everyone can crack their suits if they want. Get the supplies organized, feed the troops, and set up whatever gear we have.”

“All right, Pigs, do what the boss said,” Kwon shouted, slamming his gauntlets together. I heard the Raptors rustling, hastening to obey.

“What do we have, anyway?” I asked.

“We got lotsa stuff, boss. Lieutenant Turnbull drew up the list. We got a surfboard for each of us in case we have to evac into space. We got food and water, survival shelters, blankets, fuel isotopes, grenades and other heavy weapons, and a portable console.”