The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) (9 page)

It didn't matter anymore. The game developers had already rewritten Phantom Server's earlier history and uploaded its new version to Wiki. In the eyes of new players, this was the ultimate truth.

An interface icon blinked, disrupting my thoughts. A new quest message:

You must take part in the obligatory adaptive story The Fall of Darg.

Step 1: Once Admiral Higgs finishes his speech, you must board the assault module and follow the instructions issued by Corporate Fleet officers.

Enjoy!

It was deceptively simple. I was pretty sure the hybrid had known what he'd been doing by porting me to the cryogenic chamber. He must have known the Eurasians' landing plans. The ship I was about to board would take me to the area I needed, unloading the assault party in the neighborhood of the exobiologists' crash site. It had to, otherwise Ingmud's idea made no sense.

The Admiral finished his speech. I joined the other players and headed for the ship's airlock.

* * *

I sat in the antigravity seat, hugged by the compensating field.

The personnel module was cool and brightly lit. Two rows of inclined ejection capsules resembled loaded gun clips. If the ship was shot down, we'd be automatically ejected into the unknown.

Still, the atmosphere was cheerful. None of the newbs showed any concern. Some told jokes and traded stories over the local network while others discussed the new world's potential.

I was listening, adding occasional quips and posting smilies, trying to fit in with the crowd. Still, my mind was far from their small talk. My chest felt like a taut spring. The closer to Darg, the tighter it clenched me.

Was it a premonition?

The tips of my fingers began to prickle.

Was my virtual twin getting restless? The twenty-four-hour deadline was nearly over and I still hadn't made up my mind what to do with it yet.

It was high time we got to know each other. My knowledge of the Founders' neuronets was rather limited. I had no idea what decision to make. What would become of the nanites already incorporated into my nervous system if I denied them access to my mind expander?

Then they would be pretty useless, wouldn't they? But if I wanted to level Mnemotechnics, I needed at least one AI neuronet.

The prickling was getting stronger. More insistent.

How demanding!

Very well. We could talk while I still had time. I activated the reincarnation task and closed my eyes, allowing the nanites access to my mind expander.

This time my twin didn't show up at once. He didn't look too good, either: hunched and sickly. No more disdain in his dull stare.

He didn't say anything. His back stooped some more. What if the hybrid had put the heat on him to prevent him from interfering with my quest?

The mind-expander-generated cyber space was a weird place indeed. Until I'd received the Mnemotechnics skill I'd had no access to it at all. Admittedly, I found my mental imagery rather chaotic. The seemingly hard floor underfoot was made up of the fancy script of an ancient language glowing green. Memories bubbled to its surface, then burst, letting out unclear figures that faded into the air. Data flowed through space in rivulets, forming cascades and even walls of stats.

A gray mist filled the air, shaping all the images and objects around me. Never mind. I'd find my way around one day. Now I had a job to do.

My twin's hunched figure wrapped his darkness-woven rags tighter around him, shivering. I stepped closer, trying to work out what was wrong with him.

His mental image came into focus. His face blurred, instantly regaining its original mask of disdain. An unkind flame lit up his glare.

A silent explosion blasted my mind to smithereens.

You've received mental damage!

You've lost control of your mind expander.

The implanted neuronet has seized control of your nervous system.

Your suit's communication device has been hacked.

An attempt to connect to the assault module's on-board network detected!

The next moment, my mind cleared. Energy surged through me, filling me with mind-boggling freedom. Finally this human had made a fatal mistake!

How much blood had he shed? My mind still operated in human categories even as I sensed myself as something inanimate and utterly ancient. I became a fragment of something greater — enormous and all-powerful.

The gloom dissipated. Digital codes kept streaming before my mind's eye. I hacked into the assault module's navigation system.
Darg is a trap! I can't go there!

I connected to the external sensors. Their data sobered me somewhat. Our module was moving in a compact formation with others of its kind, led by an assault group of five frigates and two Titan-class cruisers. Powerful monitors closed the rear, followed by a resurrection platform protected by a group of corvettes. The Stiletto-class airspace fighters had already commenced their assault.

I watched as hundreds of ships beelined for Darg's orbit. They were met by the scarlet tracers of the slave drivers' ships pouring out to meet them in the eruptions of mass launches.

I assessed my options. The pilots would have to be eliminated. I had to seize control of the assault module, then hack the Fleet's communications and disturb the data transfer, wreaking havoc in their network. Then no one would stand in my way. I'd be able to hijack the module and return to the station in order to keep searching for what I needed so badly. I'd showed them pictures of untold treasures hidden deep within the ancient stations, then watched the stupid fools sell the shirts off their backs in order to kit themselves out and set off in search of their dream.

All of them had died. Not a single one had succeeded. But this one, strong and cybergized, he just might be smart enough to survive. Between the Mnemonics skill and those excellent implants, he might-

I reached into my secret stash, scooping out fragments of the ancient civilization's knowledge. Nanite activation codes; ability-unlocking commands; this human was going to be mine for a long time! He would walk perilous trails and find his way deep into the ancient stations' very bowels. He would collect my missing parts!

Finally, the assault module's network succumbed. No one had noticed it. The pilots had no idea. Soon their life support systems would crash; they would suffocate within their pressurized suits. But not yet. Not quite yet.

My lips moved as I mouthed the words. A fair-haired young man opposite gave me an encouraging wink. This race had a most obnoxious body language.

Navigation control: completed

Engine control: completed

Life support control: access denied

Primitive systems. Primitive civilizations. They shouldn't notice anything. I needed time to hack into the Fleet's network. I had to smile back at the guy.

I was shuddering. My lips stretched into a semblance of a smile, baring my teeth. My eyes opened wide. Thick drool slithered down my chin.

“You all right, man? What's your name — Zander? Are you shitting yourself? Not to worry, man. We'll make it.”

I kept grinning. The fair-haired Sergeant's face darkened. Like everybody else, he couldn't move, pinned to his seat by the gravity compensating field.

“Quit grinning, you idiot,” he must have sensed something. “Lieutenant? Problems in Cell 13! I think the player is having a fit.”

Thin needles sank into my neck. Help had come from the least expected quarters as the emergency life support systems kicked in.

Combat metabolytes can bring anybody back to his senses. This time my consciousness hadn't been blown to smithereens — on the contrary, I suddenly felt my numb body, my lucid mind preserving a clear memory of the few blood-curdling minutes when my brain had been taken over by an alien neuronet sifting through my thoughts with disgust.

My emotions surged forth in an uncontrollable bout of fury that rose like a wall of fire under a blast of a hurricane. No idea how many neurons I'd lost in these seconds.

The image of my phantom twin broke out into scabs of oxidization and crumbled into dust.

I felt the wind knocked out of me. I sat there gasping, choking on the thick air. The sergeant kept saying something but I couldn't make out the words.

You have dealt a mnemonic hit.

Reincarnation: Quest failed.

Alien Mind: Quest failed.

The artificial neuronet has been sterilized. All its data has been destroyed. Its nanites will remain part of your neural system; however, you cannot use them until you reach lvl. 30 of the Mnemotechnics skill.

Talk about close encounters. The hybrid had warned me against him, too.

I nodded my gratitude to the sergeant as in,
sorry about the hassle, bro, I'm okay now.

I closed my eyes to avoid their questions and started the mind expander test. I saved the logs of what had just happened. I'd have to look into them properly later to see how my surge of emotion had managed to frazzle the ancient monster. But now I just wasn't up to it.

Slowly I came back to my senses, all thanks to the bumper dose of combat metabolytes. I was still shivering. My new abilities tempted and scared me. This was the ultimate unknown, the proverbial
terra incognita
. Mind-controlled technologies could offer me power over the world. But what would I become then?

Implants, nanites, neuronets... my imagination offered me images of ancient ships manned by these Avatroids, the clouds of incandescent particles forming lethal weapons of a long gone civilization... who would stand against them?

You and others like you
, a voice whispered deep in my mind.

I was curious to see a top-level replication matrix so I checked one of the scanner files made at the station.

I saw a drone which resembled a scaled-down Phantom Raider.

In order to study the object, you need lvl. 75 in Science and lvl. 50 in Alien Technologies. In order to materialize the object, you need lvl. 30 in Mnemotechnics.

What, was that it? After the recent upgrade, Science counted as 10:1 to Intellect. Alien Technologies skill was more or less clear too: I could level it relatively quickly simply by scanning every alien item I came across. Now Mnemotechnics was different. To level it, you had to learn to handle nanites — and that was a job and a half!

I couldn't help wondering about the hybrid's potential. Hadn't he said he had Mnemotechnics at almost a hundred? Provided he'd told me the truth, of course.

Mind expander testing completed.

Two new activation codes and six new command sequences detected.

Where did those come from? Oh yeah, right. My twin had planned to use them, thinking I was now secured under his control.

Curiosity flared up, wiping away the tiredness. I tried to activate the new commands. All I received were the names of the future abilities and their brief descriptions, plus more level restrictions:

Integration. Allows you to upgrade your weapons and gear and change their designs by adding additional modules (the upgrade schemes have to be consulted or created personally). Requirements: lvl. 5 in Mnemotechnics and a source of energy (a regular or micro nuclear battery depending on the complexity of the work).

Plasma Blast. Destroys 10,000 of your nanites, dealing 200 pt. damage to all enemy within a radius of 50 ft. Requirements: lvl. 6 in Mnemotechnics and enough available nanites.

Disintegration. Destroys any item, machine or living being chosen as target, creating an incandescent molecular cloud (its radius depending on ability level, increasing 3 ft. per level). With every new level received, the damage dealt increases 100 pt. Requirements: lvl. 7 in Mnemotechnics, lvl. 8 in Replication and lvl. 1+ in Differential Nanite Control.

Breakdown. Affects any kinematic devices by temporarily disabling them. Duration: 5 sec +1 sec per each ability level. Requirements: lvl. 8 in Mnemotechnics.

System Failure. Disrupts data transfer in the target's cyber devices. Duration: 3 sec +1 sec per each ability level). Requirements: lvl. 12 in Mnemotechnics.

Advanced Integration. Allows you to upgrade any planetary vehicles and small spacecraft. Requirements: lvl. 17 in Mnemotechnics, lvl. 15 in Technologist, a neuronet implant made to the Founders’ specs and a source of energy (a battery or a mini reactor depending on the complexity of the intended improvements).

New ability available! Piercing Vision. Your nanites will form a reconnaissance net, transmitting visual information and scanners' data within a radius of 30 ft. Requirements: lvl. 3 in Mnemotechnics and a micro nuclear battery. Warning! In order for the ability to work, you need to possess a mind expander made to the Founders’ specs.