Star Force 12 Demon Star (37 page)

I glanced at the cameras. “You sound angry. That’s good. I’m not surprised he was able to hack into your brain. He indicated he was an inorganic life form. A machine intelligence of a sort that was beyond our knowledge.”

“That’s my conclusion as well.”

“The question is, Marvin, how do you defeat an AI? How do you crash his software?”

Marvin’s cameras coalesced around me. I could tell he was thinking hard.

“That gives me an idea…” he said. “How far would you be willing to go to save Earth?”

Shaking my head, I threw up my hands. “I’d do just about anything.”

“Even if it was dangerous?”

“Of course. Dangerous or not, I’ll do whatever is necessary to keep the Earth from being expunged.”

“Can I take your comments as permission for radical thinking?”

“Listen, Marvin,” I said, “if you can get me and the rest of humanity out of this, you have my permission to think as radically as you want to.”

“Excellent.”

Several minutes passed after that exchange, during which I couldn’t get anything more from him. During that span, he swung the ship around and began accelerating back toward
Valiant
. I began to feel a fresh pang of dread. What had I done? I recalled moments like this from my father’s stories, moments where he let Marvin run wild—he’d always regretted it in the end.

“Marvin? What the hell’s going on?”

“I’ve released a seed,” he said. “I wish to exit the area, in case the anomaly attempts to affect me as well.”

I shook my head. “A seed? What kind of seed?”

“One capable of growing in an unusual environment.”

My head snapped around, and I gazed at the rear-view screens. The brown dwarf glimmered there. Could he be talking about the star itself?

-30-

Greyhound
had always been a fast ship, but I think Marvin had made improvements to the engines since the last time I’d been aboard.

I spent the next several moments pasted to the back wall of the cockpit, almost unable to move despite the phenomenal power of my exoskeletal suit and my own limbs. Despite the numbing pressure, my suit and my unique physique kept me conscious throughout the ordeal—I almost wished I could pass out.

“Marvin,” I grunted out. It was more of a wheeze than a word. “Marvin…what the hell…?”

“I’m sorry, Captain Riggs. I don’t have time for chit-chat right now, I’m engaging in critical maneuvers.”

“What the…hell…are you doing, robot?”

“I’m complying with your orders—or rather, I already did.”

“My orders?”

“Yes, sir. You indicated I was to engage in radical thinking.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t approve radical action!”

The pressures on my body were easing up.
Greyhound
must be approaching
Valiant
and coasting. Soon, deceleration would begin, but I had a few minutes to talk.

“I disagree. Your exact words were ‘I’d do just about anything.’”

“Yes, but that indicates I’m taking the action, not you.”

Marvin ruffled his tentacles, which was his equivalent of a shrug. “As my commander, I’m almost a part of you. I’m a tool, nothing more. Your orders freed your tool to act.”

“You’re a tool all right, Marvin,” I said bitterly. “What did you do?”

“I’ve taken radical action. I’ve released a variant construct based on a combination of Lithos physiology and that of the star-dwelling Ancients.”

My mouth hung open for a second as I pondered that. “How do you know anything about their physiology?”

“I admit, I’m operating on conjecture. The subject has fascinated me since I first learned of the true nature of the Ancients.”

“And when was that?”

“About a year ago.”

I sighed heavily. The deceleration process was starting again, and I was being pressed against the opposite wall.

“A year ago? And you didn’t feel like sharing this data with anyone else?”

“I was never questioned on that particular topic.”

“Okay…forget about that,” I grunted out. “Tell me what you did. You released something, you said.”

“Yes. Essentially, I formulated a special Lithos warhead designed to operate under extreme conditions. It’s an engineering marvel, actually. I’m quite proud of it.”

“I’m sure you are…” I said. “But you can’t expect me to believe you whipped this up in ten minutes. How long have you been working on it?”

“Hmm, checking my logs…I started approximately seven seconds after I discovered the nature of the Ancients. Mind you, the initial efforts weren’t working prototypes, but they were carefully designed blueprints, let’s say.”

“Yes…of course,” I mumbled tiredly.

My mind was racing, despite the fatigue and stress of the day. Marvin had performed his usual magic. Once he’d learned about the true nature of Ancients, he’d leapt to the conclusion that they might someday be hostile to us. For Marvin, theory and fact tended to blur. He’d immediately begun working on a weapons system to take out this potential threat.

I found myself hoping the weapon worked. Sure, it was beyond dangerous, but what did we have to lose? This Astrolyssos bastard was already talking about caging us and erasing us.

It did occur to me as we docked with Valiant and concerned technicians rushed aboard to help me out of the ship, that this was exactly the sort of possibility that Astrolyssos was taking action to prevent. Humans—with a little help from Marvin—were definitely troublemakers for these want-to-be stellar gods.

The stresses of the day caused me to slip into a foggy sleep as I was lifted by medical people and robots. They quickly retreated from
Greyhound
and carried me off to the autodocs.

“I’m just a little tired,” I told the fussing attendant. I realized after a hazy second she was none other than Doctor Kalu. She was connecting tubes and needles to me like there was no tomorrow.

“There’s nothing wrong doctor,” I told her with a slight slur to my words. “Nothing serious, anyway.”

“My instruments tell me otherwise,” Kalu said. “You’ve been exposed to radiation, extreme G-forces and God knows what else. Did you know you’ve had a small stroke, sir?”

“Stroke? I’m fine. Let me up.”

“You’re off duty for the day,” she said, shaking her head.

I growled in my throat and sat up. My armor had been stripped away. When had that happened?

Kalu put her small palm against my chest, but I barely felt her touch.

“Look,” I said, “give me a nanite refresher and some stimulants. Get me on my feet.”

“Can’t do that, sir. Tomorrow is another day.”

I put my hand over hers. I didn’t mean to hurt her, but she winced.

“Doctor,” I said, “there might not be a tomorrow if you don’t get me back onto the bridge. Do you understand?”

Her eyes finally met mine, and her face shifted into a look of alarm. She stopped talking and began mixing up an injection. She shot me up with several battlefield brews, the kind of stuff we usually used to get fallen soldiers moving again.

I felt great about ninety-seconds later—sort of. The sensation was a nasty mixture of trembling adrenalin and an urge to puke.

With sweeping strides, I exited the med bay and marched up the central passage to the bridge. I only hit the wall once on the way there, a glancing blow with my shoulder that I didn’t even feel.

“Sir?” Hansen said when he caught sight of me leaning against the open hatchway. “Cody? You look like hell.”

“I feel worse. Get me to my chair.”

He complied without a lecture—or maybe he was lecturing, and I didn’t hear it.

When I sank into my chair, I took a micro-sleep. Just like when you drive all night, and your eyes roll up into your head. For a moment I was dreaming, and it felt good.

“Captain Riggs! Sergeant Major Kwon!” Hansen’s voice penetrated my consciousness, and I realized he’d been repeating our names for at least a minute.

“Riggs here.”

“There’s a fusion flare erupting from Tartarus, sir!”

“Like a solar flare?”

I fought to focus my eyes on the sensors. The arrays were all swinging around to focus on the brown dwarf.

“Exactly. The solar mass will reach us in about twenty minutes.”

“I guess Astrolyssos is throwing a tantrum.”

“Excuse me, sir?”

“The creature—there’s something living in that star, Hansen. An Ancient. He’s been playing god out here in this war-torn system.”

Hansen stared at me in shock.

“Yeah, I know. It sounds like I’m crazy. Tell him, Marvin.”

“How did you know I was listening?”

“Because you always do, you nosy bastard.”

“Yet another pejorative. I looked up the colloquial term ‘tool’ by the way, Captain. I understand the reference now, but I fail to see how I, in any fashion, could be mistaken for a phallic symbol.”

I chuckled. Hansen did too.

“You seem very phallic to me,” I said. “Right Hansen?”

“Definitely.”

“Interesting…” Marvin said. “I’ll have to examine my physiognomy for—”

“Look, Marvin,” I said, taking in deep breaths and drinking a cup of coffee someone had pressed into my hand. “Just tell Hansen what you did.”

“The stellar being known as Astrolyssos is an Ancient,” he explained. “He attacked me with an advanced hacking technique and briefly controlled my person. In addition, he threatened all humanity. Captain Riggs and I took appropriate action in response.”

Hansen looked at me and snorted. “Appropriate action? You started a fight with a star-being, didn’t you? This is a new one even for you, Captain.”

“As far as I can tell, Astrolyssos started it,” I said, “but we intend to finish it.”

“The problem is I’m not sure if my agent will be effective,” added Marvin.

Gazing at the forward screen, I nodded to myself. “I think it was undeniably effective, Marvin. Look at that flare! It’s like an arm grown by a star. If I don’t miss my guess, it’s curling around in our direction, too.”

“Yes, it will reach us in approximately fourteen minutes,” Marvin said calmly. “My agent clearly caused discomfort to Astrolyssos—but that wasn’t the goal. I’d hoped for incapacitation.”

I frowned, getting Marvin’s point. The goal hadn’t been to just piss-off this star god. We’d hoped to knock him out or even kill him. Instead, it looked to me like we’d missed our target and merely kicked him in the ass.

“Hansen,” I said quietly.

“Yes sir?”

“Get us the fuck out of here.”

“Through the ring?”

“Absolutely. I want to put some real distance between ourselves and that son-of-a-bitch star.”

Our ships wheeled and headed for the ring. When we’d almost reached it, the enormous jet of plasma twisted and came after us. A finger of destruction pointed at our aft engines, reaching…reaching. Tartarus might be a tiny star, but it was still a star, with enormous energies held within it.

“If it comes much closer, it’s going to roast the Demon planet,” I observed.

“Maybe he doesn’t care,” Hansen suggested. “Maybe he’s planning to start over with a new race of monsters.”

“Perhaps he’s trying to destroy the ring or cause it to lose its connection to Trinity-9,” Adrienne said from the ops officer seat.

She’d come to the bridge and had been fussing over me ever since. I realized it was she who’d given me the coffee. Damn, I was a little out of touch.

“Interesting idea.” I said, staring at the holotank. “What will happen when that plasma hits the ring?”

“One would think—nothing,” she replied. “The rings are made of stardust, which shouldn’t be affected. Even nuclear weapons haven’t been able to harm rings or any other example of Ancients’ technology.”

We watched as
Stalker
flew through the ring ahead of us, and then we followed.

We were immediately surrounded by a hundred Whale ships and contacted by Farswimmer.

I reassured the alien all was well, but I suggested he pull well back from the ring.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because there’s a huge plasma flare about to hit the other side, and I presume some of the stuff will come through. There’s no point in taking chances.”

Hansen piloted us further along the gas giant’s orbit, putting thousands of miles between us and the ring.

Right on schedule, the ring spouted gouts of hot plasma, and caused the region to glow bright with burning matter. It didn’t damage the ring in any way we could see.

I expected the plasma burst to die out as it neared us, but interestingly, the mass continued to grow and grow.

“What the hell is happening?” Hansen said aloud, getting up from his seat to stand next to me at the holotank.

I rubbed my jaw. “I think I know…and I’m starting to wonder if I overplayed my hand.”

“Dammit, sir, this is impossible!” Hansen said.

My eyes swept the people on the bridge. They were all staring at me, waiting for an answer.

“Normally I’d agree with you,” I said in a quiet voice, “but now, I don’t think we’re watching a solar flare. I think it’s Astrolyssos himself—and I think he’s trying to follow us through the ring.”

-31-

Everyone froze and stared at their view screens and data readings in shock. The idea that a creature was coming after us—a living creature as big as a planet and made of living plasma—that was a stunner.

“Good Lord, do you really think that nebulous mass is
alive
?” Adrienne said, jumping up to stand between Hansen and me.

I didn’t answer because no one was listening to me anyway. They were all talking excitedly at once.

In the holotank, we watched with growing concern as the plasma cloud continued to pour through the ring, expanding rapidly.

“Okay, okay,” I boomed, causing everyone to fall quiet. “We’ve got a situation, here.”

“I’ll say,” Hansen threw in.

“Can Astrolyssos send his entire substance through?” Adrienne asked. “I thought he was attached to the star—it’s so far. Millions of miles…”

“We don’t have a clue,” I said, “but we have to assume the worst.”

“Well, if you’re right, we really screwed the pooch this time,” Hansen muttered.

I felt a surge of annoyance—but to be fair, he was right. Maybe if we’d simply left Astrolyssos alone, he’d never have gotten mad enough to do anything extreme.