Unstable Prototypes (60 page)

Lex slid down after her, to find her standing
perfectly still with squinted eyes.

"What's wrong?" Lex asked, looking
desperately around to be sure there weren't any soldiers or traps
evident.

"I believe I have identified the
cryptographic cypher for the short-range communications. One
moment, patching in," she stated, her 'voice' once again stretched
by concentration.

"... Closing in on male and female. … Good. …
Engineering here. Final module is being installed. Software
download ready to begin in thirty seconds. …" A variety of voices
announced across the radio.

"The missiles are nearly complete. Silo,
Garotte, what is your status," Ma asked, her voice unstressed.

"Making progress, but a bit pinned down.
Also, Silo has lost her helmet, so our egress may be a bit more
complicated than previously intended," Garotte replied.

"You have as few as three minutes before the
CME Activators will be ready to fire, depending on the efficiency
of the equipment and technicians," Ma explained.

"That's going to be tight," Silo warned.

"Karter is extremely near, we will secure him
and attempt to render aid, or cause a delay," Ma advised. "This
way, Lex."

She rushed down the corridor, Lex close
behind.

"So far, this whole rescue has been me
following you around," Lex mused.

A bolt of energy crackled through the
corridor and blasted a hole in a control panel behind them,
knocking the lights out and replacing them with the intermittent
red glow of an emergency light. Lex dove aside and took cover, with
Ma skittering opposite him.

"Your sense of timing remains a statistical
curiosity, Lex," Ma stated dryly.

Lex fumbled for his pistol. "This is about to
go really wrong, isn't it?"

"They are getting closer," Ma unhelpfully
informed him.

Lex reached his pistol out from behind the
cover and fired a handful of shots aimed mostly by wishful
thinking. Most of them did little more than leave black marks on
the ceiling, but it was enough to prompt the soldiers to take cover
as well. Lex glimpsed out briefly.

"There are three of them. What should we
do?"

"Improvisation is not among my
strengths."

The radio crackled in his ears. "... This is
Team Gamma. We have located the second set of intruders. Preparing
to close on their position."

Lex muttered a few breathless profanities
before his beleaguered brain managed to deliver a crumb of an
idea.

"We can hear these guys. Can they hear
us?"

"Currently we are on receive-only.
Transmission is possible."

"Do it!"

There was a muffled tone.

"Attention, Team Gamma!" Lex proclaimed in
his most military voice, "There is a building power surge at the
end of corridor-" He squinted at the nearest indicator in the pulse
red light of the hall. "-7-I. Karter may be attempting to destroy
the station. Break off pursuit and investigate immediately. Top
priority!"

"That goddamn maniac! Acknowledged!"

The soldiers retreated and sprinted down the
adjoining corridor. For a moment, Lex stared in disbelief. A moment
turned out to be a bit too long.

"Negative, Team Gamma, disregard previous
orders. No power surge is detected," the tactical officer
corrected.

Wordlessly, Ma followed the scent of Karter
down the hall and Lex followed.

"Acknowledged. Doubling back!"

"Negative!" Lex urged, "Power surge is
critical. Investigate now!"

"Belay that order! Give me that
communicator," came Purcell's voice over the transmission. "Who is
this? Who is giving these commands!?"

"Agent... Smith," Lex replied.

"Communications have been compromised. Switch
to communication preset five!"

The radio crackled, and then there was
silence. Behind them, the sound of boots on grating echoed through
the halls.

"Stop," Ma stated.

Lex slid to a stop, barely avoiding crashing
into his diminutive guide.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Blood. Karter's. Excellent," she said.

"Why is that excellent?"

"Because it is a trail you can follow without
me. Fire at that access panel, please."

"But I-"

"Now, please."

Lex fired the pistol, releasing a bolt of
energy that shattered the panel.

"I will pursue a parallel contingency plan to
enhance our chances of success. Follow this trail of blood in that
direction. It will presumably lead to Karter," she said, squeezing
through the ruined access panel and into the wiring conduit behind
it.

"Wait, but what if the soldiers show up
again?"

She peeked her head out again, "You are
clever and inventive. I am confident you will think of
something."

"Well
I'm
not!"

"You are also a very fast runner. Try that,"
she said, ducking inside again and worming her way along the
conduit.

"Great, yeah, running. Let's do that," he
decided, sprinting off in the direction of the blood.

His adrenaline-fueled run only managed to
take him down three blood speckled halls before he came to a series
of storage doors that were opened and finally one bulkhead door
that was closed. On the other side was Karter. He was wavering
slightly, tugging at an access panel.

"Karter! Karter!" Lex cried, banging on the
window.

Karter turned and squinted at him, lurching
unsteadily to the door and tapping a control. It rattled open.

"What are
you
doing here?" he said.
Rather than the tone of surprise and disbelief as one might
normally show when a friend from across the galaxy mysteriously
appeared in a prison, or maybe the relief and gratitude one might
show a potential rescuer, Karter sounded annoyed. It was as though
he'd been rudely interrupted.

"I'm here to save you! Let's go!" Lex
urged.

"What?"

Lex popped the face mask of his helmet up. "I
said I'm here to save you!"

"Oh. Hey, you don't happen to have an
auto-spanner, do you?" Karter slurred.

"We don't have time for that, listen... Are
you drunk?"

"Medicated. Never mind, this will do," he
said, pulling a grenade from Lex's belt.

"Karter, we've got a ship, and I've got a
spare suit here. We're going to destroy the CM... the CM... the
missile things, and we're going to get out of-"

"You wanna get out of the way of the door? It
won't close with you standing there," Karter said, tapping the
control repeatedly.

The sound of approaching soldiers inspired
Lex to step inside, allowing the door to close and lock just as the
first of them reached it. The pilot looked nervously at the door as
the soldiers worked on it briefly. A glance in the other direction,
the
only
other direction, his mind helpfully reminded,
revealed that soldiers had gathered there, too. A cutting torch was
already beginning to trace its glowing line through the thick metal
of the door. On Lex's side, whoever was manning the weapon that had
nearly obliterated he and Ma a minute ago was fighting with the
device, which was smoking.

"Karter, we've got to-"

"Fire in the hole!" Karter announced covering
his ears.

The variable grenade burst with a force just
slightly too powerful for the purpose at hand, which was the
removal of the control panel, and just about exactly loud enough to
make Lex's ears ring painfully. The inventor then casually grasped
two sparking wires and twisted them together, causing the storage
bay to open.

"... What
is
that?" Lex asked, the
sight before him temporarily enough to push the pair of terrorist
squads from his mind. The ceiling and floor had been removed from
the chamber, expanding the center of the storage bay into a massive
three-level sphere traced out by spindly metallic braces studded
with what appeared to be tiny satellite dishes. Nearly the entire
bottom half of the cut away portion of the floor was filled with
rocky gray soil. A rack beside the door contained a handful of
pen-shaped metallic gadgets. Karter picked one up and twisted its
top before tossing it out the door.

"This," he said, shutting and locking the
storage door, "is my new favorite toy..."

#

"Commander, we are getting reports that
Karter and one of the intruders have breached storage bay eight,"
the tactical officer announced.

"What about the CMEAs?" Purcell demanded.

"Engineering states that the software
download on the CMEAs has begun, but the other two intruders have
nearly reached the weapons bay."

Purcell removed the energy pistol from its
holster, replaced the clip, and hammered it into place with
finality. "Inform the men. I want three soldiers to peel off for a
rendezvous. Tell the engineering crew to put the rest of the
process on automatic. Get out of the weapons bay and aid in its
defense. I am taking care of this myself."

Somewhere deep in the core of the space
station, an access panel rattled. After a second, it rattled again.
Finally, after a scrabbling sound, it burst from the wall and a
furry form tumbled to the floor of a dimly lit chamber. The air was
stifling, even with massive fans running at deafening levels. It
was a server room, about the size of a small studio apartment.
Monolithic servers were spaced across the floor like tombstones in
a grave yard, blinking lights and diagnostic screens flowing
faintly. There were no guards in the room, or anywhere near it.
Being as deep inside the station as it was, it was seldom even
considered necessary to run a patrol past it. Of course, there
usually wouldn't be a threat able to squeeze in through the wiring
trough.

Ma got to her feet and trotted to the
foremost server. She locked her eyes on the screen and
concentrated, attempting to access the server with her data
connection. With a beep, the screen displayed a message:
Requested action unavailable over wireless connection. Please
attach command module to physical data port and try again.
Her
eyes darted across the front of the device, eventually spotting a
data connection. Her mind entered various parameters into her
decision-making matrix. It came up with a depressingly low
confidence value. With a tilt of her head, she concluded that in
the absence of an alternative, this was still the best course of
action.

"Attention, Lex, Garotte, and Silo. Please
state status," she broadcast.

"Bloody busy!" Garotte growled.

"These guys are gosh darned dedicated to
protecting this weapons bay. Can't budge 'em an inch. At least we
know we've got the right place," Silo added. "This hallway is
pretty shot up, too."

"I've got Karter, but we're trapped in a big
room with a weird machine," Lex replied.

"I will attempt to shut down the computer
system. To do so, I will need to go communication silent. At your
earliest convenience, please fetch me from the computer core,
marked on your maps. I will likely require aid," Ma instructed.

"Why, what are you-" Lex began.

"Signing off," Ma stated.

She closed the connection and struggled
slightly, twisting her head and tugging at the straps holding the
data radio in place until one snapped and the device rattled to the
floor. With her teeth, she snagged the base of the plug and tugged
it free. She stood on her hind legs and leaned against the front of
the server, but the port was just out of her reach. Her brow
furrowed. Crouching down, she waggled her tail, calculated the
trajectory, and leaped. The well measured hop just barely missed
its mark. A second and third did the same. Finally, with a huff of
breath, she leapt one last time, and managed to click the wire in
place. There was just enough slack to allow her to lay on the
ground with the wire connected.

Now with a physical connection, Ma went to
work. The encryption, even to get past the login screen, was
astoundingly complex. She pushed the little organic brain for all
that it was worth, churning through cyphers, keys, vulnerabilities,
and everything else she calculated might gain her access. It was a
terrible strain, and she began to shudder and shake violently as
neurons worked at a capacity nature had never intended. It was
hopeless, but that didn't matter. It was the only option. She would
make it succeed.

#

"By my count, we've got very little time
left, my girl. This can't go on like this," Garotte remarked.

The two professionals were crouched in a
section of the space station that was barely recognizable as a
corridor anymore. A constant hammering by friend and foe alike had
reduced the walls, ceiling, and floor to scrap metal. There were no
lights left, the glow from sputtering wires and plasma shots
providing the only illumination. Sections of wall that were once
bare, sturdy metal looked like discarded sandwich wrappers. If any
of the walls had been space-facing, the whole battle would have
been put to a sudden, airless end long ago. A badly damaged but
still intact door provided protection behind the heroes, and a now
unrecognizable piece of machinery that had been knocked down during
the early moments of the onslaught provided cover from the
front.

"I don't think the grenade trick will work
again. And a live grenade would probably result in lots of dead
people, including us without better cover," she replied.

"Well, we need
something
to break the
tie," Garotte said, "Something that will..."

He stopped, because he realized that he was
screaming, but he didn't have to be. The firing from the enemies
had completely stopped. Before either could venture so much as a
peek, however, a new sound came. It was a heavy, fast thumping,
like boots pounding against the grating, but approaching far too
quickly and hitting far to heavily. When Silo finally got her head
out from cover to see what it was, she had a split second to react.
One of the soldiers, equipped with a pair of Karter's boots, was
surging forth at a completely inhuman speed. Silo threw out her arm
and braced herself, delivering a textbook clothesline.