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Space pirates must save the universe with help from the daughter of the last living AI... |
“The medals they pinned on my flesh were strategically placed to hide all the war wounds.” Julius Verndock, Captain, UEP Covert Space Operations Wing (CSOW), December 2073  The tiny dust particles blew across the landscape, covering it like a thick fog. They struck the buildings in their path, painting the structures with an orange hue. On either side of the settlement, buildings rose up from the sand, their tops disappearing into the Martian night sky. Piercing through the center of the mining settlement was a barely discernable road. Overhead lights aimed down at it, somehow managing to penetrate the thick haze. The road led into the caverns of the mines. A flimsy-looking handrail led up to the mouth of the cave. Its presence meant to give the miners a way to guide themselves to the unfulfilling job of extracting ore, despite any attempts by the sandstorms to get in the way. Mining machinery was kept in a garage adjacent to the road. There it would be protected from the harsh elements when not in use. The compound was located in the Tharsis region, east of the extinct Tharsis Montes volcanoes. Other mining operations existed in the region, but none like this one. It had the distinction of using cheap labor flown in each morning from Thyle Prison. The convicts would be cast into the mines to work their shift. Those that survived the day would be flown back to their prison cells. Sometimes, fewer would return than had arrived, a result of the dangerous conditions that existed inside the mines. Few safety precautions were taken on behalf of the workers. As long as all the proper documentation was submitted, nobody really cared if what returned to Thyle Prison was a living prisoner or a dead one. Overlooking the compound was the administrative building. Rows of windows, most of them shuttered, lined its walls. A single window had its shutters open, exposing a lit office behind it. The office had a classic appearance to it, with combinations of wood adorning the walls, doors, and furniture. A bookshelf covered one side, while pictures of Mars’ landscape covered most of the others. The only seemingly modern piece of equipment in the entire office was a holographic projector that sat in the center of the room. Near the window stood a desk where the lone occupant sat. Jack Dagiri reclined back in his chair while looking out at the Martian landscape. Gusts of wind blew fine, orange dust against the window, forming liquid-like trails that traversed like rivers against the transparent metal. A chime sounded at the door. Dagiri pressed a button on his desk and the double doors to his office swung open. Three men appeared at the doorway. The first was his main henchman, Hargo Lawrence—as always, an intimidating figure with a black trench coat and long hair braided with beads down his back. The black bandana around his forehead cast a dark shadow over a face that seemed to wear a perpetual scowl. His massive figure moved to the far corner of the office. The next two men wore the same dark green mining fatigues that most mining company management wore on Mars to separate them from the fugitive workers, who typically wore a dull gray. One of them was Steve—his last name escaped Dagiri and really did not seem important, anyway. The portly lapdog managed the tedious details of his operations—and that was all that mattered. The other man was Victor: the main subject of this meeting. The two of them took seats across the desk from Dagiri. Dagiri looked to Steve. “Any news on when this storm is expected to pass?” “Yes,” he said. “Within the next couple of hours it should clear up. It should then be safe enough for the miners to get back to work.” Dagiri raised his eyebrow. “I don’t care about that. I just want to make sure the prison transport can land.” He turned to the other man, as if noticing him for the first time. “Oh, Victor, glad to see you made it here intact. How was the trip?” “Long and boring,” Victor said. “I see,” Dagiri said. “I’m pleased with the job you did on Stromond.” “Yeah. Look, that’s great, but I really need to go,” Victor said while fidgeting in his seat. “We had a deal. Now can you give me what I came for?” Dagiri motioned to Hargo, still standing in the corner. The henchman nodded back and left the room. “It’s on its way, Victor,” Dagiri said. He reclined back in his chair again before continuing. “Tell me: to your knowledge, are there any other Elation operations?” Victor shook his head. “No, I already told you. Stromond’s was the only one. And what’s left of his people split up and scattered all over the system. It’s over.” “Leaderless and scurrying like scared rats, I take it?” Dagiri asked. “Yeah, I guess,” Victor said, his eyes wide and focused on the door that Hargo had left through. Dagiri studied Victor with some amusement: the constant shifting in his seat, the foot tapping on the floor, the nervous twitch in his eye. It was reassuring to know that the allure of his product was so strong. “How much longer? I can’t wait much longer,” Victor said. At that moment the door opened and Hargo returned. He pushed in a hover table with a box container on it. He moved it to the center of the room and then returned to the corner of the office. Victor jumped up and rushed the table. “There it is … enjoy,” Dagiri said as he watched Victor digging into the contents of the box. Inside the case, Dagiri knew, sat stacks of white sheets. Each sheet had rows of square perforations that were pink in color. Victor grabbed one of the sheets and tore off a square. “That’s a hundred times more powerful than what you’ve probably had,” Dagiri said. Not answering, Victor peeled off a thin covering from the square and pushed it against the side of his neck. He stood with his eyes closed, apparently waiting for the Elation to take effect. After mere seconds, he dropped the sheet onto the ground and looked down at Dagiri in a daze. He began to lean over and then stumbled to the couch, collapsing on it. His apparent nervousness faded, and he stared off into the ceiling with dilated eyes. “Are you enjoying it, Victor?” Dagiri asked. “Not bad, huh?” Victor said nothing. “Stromond had a great chemist working for him,” Dagiri said. “What you just had is the result of his work—although that’s a bit more pure than what will be hitting the market soon. Way too strong. I just can’t have all my customers dying from the product. That would hamper any repeat business.” Victor’s eyes began to close and his head bobbed forward until he appeared to be out cold. Dagiri motioned to Hargo, who went to check Victor’s pulse. Hargo looked at Dagiri and nodded. “Put the body in cold storage,” Dagiri said. Dagiri watched as Hargo picked up Victor’s body from the couch, lifting it like it was a rag doll. Then he carried it out of the room, leaving Dagiri and Steve alone. “Uh, why are we keeping the body?” Steve asked. “Fresh meat for Nelly,” Dagiri said with a smile. “The Elation-tainted flesh appeals to her.” “Oh … uh, I see.” Steve swallowed hard. “Well … then, I guess this means we succeeded.” “Yes,” Dagiri said. “We are finally free to divert resources away from fighting our competitors. Now, finally, we can diversify.” “Diversify? Okay … well, what did you have in mind?” Steve asked. “A new business venture? Maybe expand the mining operation?” “Petty goals,” Dagiri said, as he stood up from his chair. He gazed out the window, gesturing to the Martian landscape. “We live in a galaxy of slaves and slave drivers. I’ve squeezed some profit out of the slaves here as a minor slave driver in my own domain. But my reach is limited—and the galaxy is a big place. We need to go after the other slave drivers—the main ones—and put them under our control.” He turned around, clenching his fists in front of him. “We need to squeeze them—and see what profits come out,” Dagiri said. “And who, exactly, are these slave drivers you’re talking about?” Steve asked. “The corporations!” Dagiri said. “Who else! They are the true slave drivers. They are the ones with the control, with the slaves … and with the profit. But … I want them to be my slaves.” Dagiri took in a breath and sat back down in his chair. Steve just sat there, staring back at him, obviously not catching on to the bigger picture. “Bottom line: no more new Elation operations. We let ride what we already have in place,” Dagiri said. “From now on, we’re going to deal in secrets and information. That’s the Elation for corporations.” When Steve remained silent, probably in mild shock, Dagiri turned his chair and again gestured to the window behind him. “There’s an awful lot of talent living down in Thyle Prison,” Dagiri said. “Untapped talent rots away in a cell, perhaps mining their lives away at some other settlement. There are other things they could be doing for us, many other things.” Turning back to his desk, Dagiri reached into a drawer and pulled out an information disc, which he handed to Steve. “Those are the prisoners I want transferred here immediately from Thyle,” Dagiri said. Steve waved the disc over his wrist-link. Once the data was downloaded, the disc turned into powder. The wrist-link then projected a holographic image in front of them. Dagiri watched as Steve touched the hologram with his fingers and paged through the data. “But these guys aren’t miner material,” Steve said. “They’re hackers.” Dagiri gave him a grin. “Exactly,” he said. “The talent. We’ll bring them in as miners working one of the deep veins here. A tragic accident will happen that collapses the vein and kills them. In reality, they will be sent with new identities to Earth, where they will head up our new operation.” “Interesting, but how are you going to assure their loyalty?” Steve said. “Oh, that’s the easy part,” Dagiri said. “All that hackers want is something to hack and the tools to hack with. We’re going to give them both; plus we’ll give them a challenge that will be irresistible to their kind. Even more, though, most of this bunch happens to be hooked on Elation. They’ll be easy to control. If they do get out of line, we can dispose of them; nobody’s going to miss a few convicts. And there’s plenty more hacker talent where those came from.” “Okay, but what about these tools you mentioned?” Steve said. “Right,” Dagiri said. “That’s going to be the difficult part. Pull up the last page of data.” Steve pushed a holographic button. A long list of items appeared in front of him. “A shopping list?” Steve said. “Yes,” Dagiri said. “Our hackers are going to need some very high-tech equipment. Some of it is off the shelf, but for a lot of it, you’re going to have to do some shifting through black-market channels. I added some preferred contacts at the bottom of the list. It will be expensive and tedious to obtain it all, but it’s necessary. Use whatever means.” Steve glanced the listing, scrolling down through it. “This is very comprehensive,” Steve said. “You’ve been planning this for some time.” “Of course,” Dagiri said. “Since before we planted our mole into Stromond’s organization. Stromond needed to be out of the picture before we could go into this phase of the operation.” “I see,” Steve said. “Okay, I’ll get on this shopping list.” With the meeting between the two over, Steve left Dagiri alone in the office. Dagiri again looked out the window from his chair. The dust storm was now settling. In another hour, it would subside completely. Dagiri looked at the time. It would be morning soon and he had not slept. He could go now and get a couple of hours of rest, but he had too much work to do. Instead, he opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a small, handheld device. He pressed it against the side of his neck and closed his eyes. A soft hiss sounded. By the time he opened his eyes, he was reinvigorated. “Sleep is for those who just want to dream,” he said aloud. ***** The small shuttle sped out of the launch bay, performing an acrobatic dive and roll that took it flying under the belly of the Sea Wolf. The shuttle’s silvery hull darkened from the shadow of the larger vessel above it. The triangular-shaped shuttle had tiny running lights that twinkled along its wings. Its rear was illuminated by an eerie dark blue that emanated from its plasma engines. On its side, painted in black lettering, were the words Merciless Errands. The shuttle continued its trek past the underbelly of its mother ship until it finally cleared it at the far end. Free from the shadows, it was greeted by sunlight that shimmered across its metallic hull. The small ship emerged into a space that was marred by asteroids and other debris. Julius sat behind the controls of Merciless Errands. Its cockpit was spacious as far as shuttles went, with a copilot seat and a living area to the rear with bunks. The cockpit was enveloped by a holographic viewscreen, its images showing their environment as well as symbols and navigation information. An open trap door on the floor led down into the engine compartment. A continuous commotion emanated from the compartment, which had begun the moment they took off. Julius tried to endure the sounds of yelling and metal hitting metal escaping from it. “Quit your whining, Murdock,” Julius finally said. “Can you stabilize it or not?” “Damn it, Julius! You’re crazy! I can’t see shit with this helmet on and you want me to work while you’re flying.” “Nobody said you had to wear a helmet. If it bothers you, take it off and I’ll lay it next to mine on your chair.” “No way,” Murdock said. “I’m not going to die from decompression when this thing hits an asteroid from this stupid stunt of yours.” Julius turned his attention back to their surroundings. Islands of debris drifted around them, forming pockets of asteroids and other space junk scattered throughout the empty space. In the distance, the dense debris wall could be seen. There was activity in the wall as the debris within it seemed to move on its own. Unseen by the eye were the invisible gravity streams that pushed and pulled everything in its paths. The debris followed the gravity streams, like leaves floating on top of a stream of water. The streams went in multiple directions, with some of the paths intersecting and crossing each other. This created constant collisions among the rocks and junk. Clouds of space dust would constantly appear as the debris collided with each other indiscriminately. The dangerous and unpredictable nature of the debris fields kept scientists and other interested parties away from it, leaving it for Julius and Laina to use as a secret base. The path through it was a closely guarded secret that only Julius and the pilots knew. The Sea Wolf itself had a precisely plotted jump coordinate to a cleared-out area of the field. Once inside, the mother ship was effectively shielded and protected by the surrounding streams. Julius maneuvered the shuttle in between two large asteroids that were on a collision course with each other. The ship slipped in between the two boulders, making an aggressive rolling maneuver that put it within a mere meter of touching them. He looked at the rear display and could see the two boulders collide with each other behind them. Julius smiled. It was probably fortunate for Murdock that he did not see Julius pull that maneuver. Ahead he could see the dense debris wall drew nearer. At that moment came a hard shudder in the ship, and Julius felt a strange vibration from the controls. “Shit!” Murdock shouted from below. “What just happened?” Julius said. “The starboard propulsion nozzle is locked!” Murdock said. “The port one is compensating, but you won’t be able to navigate the streams like this.” A collision warning beeped on his instrumentation. Ahead, Julius could see a dense cluster of debris that their shuttle now drifted toward. Compensating for the locked thruster, Julius still managed to bank and roll the ship through the debris unharmed. He could hear the sound of debris pebbles bouncing off the hull as they escaped the collision. “What was that?” Murdock said. “Relax, just a little bit of rain. But we’re approaching the first stream, so you better get that thruster stabilized. I’ll compensate manually for now.” “You’re insane, Julius!” Julius gripped the control stick with one hand and operated the throttle controls with the other. He was pleased to have analog controls in his hands instead of the holographic variety. The panels were the old liquid-crystal type with variable gauges and monitors displayed two-dimensionally. Julius did not mind the older technology; he’d grown up on it, after all. It also reminded him of his days as a fighter jockey back in the UEP military. The ship banked unexpectedly to port on its own. Julius tried to compensate by applying more thrust from the port thruster, but the shuttle continued to skid to the left. He looked at the projected course plot on the navigation screen reticule. A few light pockets of debris stood in the path. He rotated the course plot to see if changing their z-axis position would give them a better course. But the other courses were not favorable without full control of the ship. “Murdock, how much longer on that thruster?” he said. “I don’t know if I can fix it from here. I think it’s the navigation controller, and that’s not in here.” “Where’s the navigation controller?” “Outside,” Murdock said. “On the starboard—aft panel. You’ll have to shut off the engines and stabilize us first before we can attempt a fix.” Julius tapped a few keys on the panels, a buzz sounded. He tried again and got the same response. “I can’t shut off the starboard nozzle,” he said. “Would the controller affect that?” Murdock climbed out of the lower compartment and walked to the forward controls. He tapped a few keys and scowled. “Shit! The backup controller isn’t working either!” He stopped and swore again. “Of course it’s not! You never had one! It was already burned out when you got your hands on this piece of shit!” Julius looked at the current course plot; it would take them to the debris wall within minutes if they could not stop it. He activated the port thruster and applied full throttle to it. He then adjusted the z-axis thrusters and dipped the shuttle in a dive. The shuttle would effectively traverse into a continuous circular dive. It would be a matter of time before a stray rock would cross their path, but it bought them a little breathing space. “We need to hurry,” Julius said. “You need to talk me through fixing the navigation controller.” “What? Just turn off the power to all the engines!” “Turning them off would not slow us down,” Julius said. “We’d still have enough momentum to smash into the debris field wall, unless we can get complete control of all the thrusters.” He reached over to his helmet and began to fasten it on. “You’re going outside?” Murdock said. “Of course,” he said. “Give me the tools I’ll need … now!” Murdock rushed into the compartment and pulled out a metal rod with a tiny touch panel on it. “Here,” he said, handing him the tool. “If you connect this to the controller, I can upload a fresh copy of the firmware remotely. That should reset the controller and give us back control of the thrusters.” Julius grabbed the tool and shoved it into one of his suit pockets. He then walked over to the airlock and stepped inside. The door shut behind him. “Link check,” he said into the conference channel. “Yeah, I read you,” Murdock replied. Julius attached the retractable lifeline to his suit and gave it a hard tug. He then tapped the airlock control panel inside. The lights in the airlock turned red and a timer counted down from ten seconds on the panel. He checked his suit gauges and waited for the outside door to open. The countdown hit zero. The pressure doors slid open, revealing his ocean— the ocean of space. Julius stepped forward, his magnetic grip boots keeping him planted to the ship. He reached the outside and could feel the lightness of zero-g pick him up as he slowly left the artificial gravity field of the shuttle. He placed his first step out of the airlock and onto the ship’s hull. He swung his entire body out of the airlock and let the magnetic boots lock him into place. Standing on the port side of the ship, he felt the momentum of the shuttle push him down into the hull. He struggled for a moment to keep his knees from immediately giving way. It had been a long time since he had been on a space walk and he had forgotten what it felt like. Regaining his balance, he took a moment to look at his surroundings. He was greeted by the grandness of mostly empty space. Despite being surrounded by the debris phenomena, he could still see the stars and distant nebula seep through the veil of rock. Julius focused his eyes to the distant beauty beyond the debris. For a brief moment, he could see the ugliness of the debris contrasted against the beauty of the stars. It was as if someone had drawn a yin and yang symbol onto the canvas of space for him. A piece of space junk, flying dangerously close to him, snapped him out of his reverie. Something about the piece caught his eye. Reflexively, he grabbed it with his hand and caught it. It appeared to be a sheet of metal hull plating. He angled the sheet toward the ambient light of the sun and noticed military markings on it. He could not read it, but he could run it by the computer later to identify it. He attached a belt line from his suit to it and tugged it along with him the rest of the way. Julius made it to the starboard side of the shuttle. Once at the edge, he had to be careful to firmly plant his boots onto the hull as the reduced gravity from the dive could easily launch him into space. Another few steps and he would be there. As he walked, Julius half expected a chunk of debris to whack the back of his head. This whole thing could have been avoided if he had waited for Murdock to fix the ship before launching, but that would have been too predictable. He had become accustomed to the constant repetition of life. The last decade felt like a recording played back on a loop. He always wished for something to break the endless cycle, even if it hurt a little. “Okay, Murdock,” he said as he reached the panel. “I’m there. How do I open it?” “There’s a release button next to it. It should be colored green. Just press it for five seconds.” Julius reached down carefully and depressed the button, holding it down. He counted off more than five seconds, but nothing appeared to happen. “Not working, Murdock,” he said. “Shit!” Murdock swore. “I don’t know—it has to open! Do it again.” Julius reached into his suit pocket and pulled out his flicker pistol. “Any danger in using a flicker pistol on this?” “Yes! You’re right near the fuel cell! If it goes too deep, you could blow us up! Don’t do it!” Julius adjusted the pistol’s setting and aimed it at the panel. “Murdock, do you know what’s worse than being killed by sudden decompression?” A bright blue beam of accelerated protons burst out of the pistol and impacted against the panel. A quick flash ignited the panel and the small lid was gone. “Being forced to live in a loop,” Julius said in answer to his own question. Julius pulled the metal rod tool out of his pocket with his free hand. “The panel is off. Now, what do I do with the tool?” “I hate you, Julius. Hell … Anyway, there should be a hole it fits into. Just slide it in. Tell me when you’ve done that.” Julius leaned forward toward the panel. It had a large hole in the center surrounded by various smaller ones. He slid the tool into the large hole. The end of the tool lit up when it was all the way in. “It’s in,” he said. Julius turned to his right and looked at the midsection of the shuttle. He could see the starboard thruster going out. Without warning, he felt his feet go under him as the ship pushed heavily against him. Julius fought to keep his footing, but both magnetic boots lost their grip on the hull. He threw his arms forward to try to grab the hull but he was already drifting past the ship. Julius held onto his lifeline as hard as he could; he knew what would be coming next. The lifeline’s slack gave way and it snapped him hard, making his body do a complete turnaround, facing the shuttle. The line broke his momentum and he was now drifting about twenty meters away from the shuttle. “Murdock, pull me in!” The lifeline began to retract and pull him to the airlock. Once inside, he laid the metal sheet on the floor and touched the airlock controls. The outside door closed and the airlock began to pressurize. The inner door opened and he took off his helmet. Julius picked up the metal sheet he’d snagged and inspected it further. It was light for its size and seemed to have been part of a ship’s hull plating. “What is that?” Murdock asked. “Something I found out there,” Julius said. “A piece of hull plating.” “Well, is it worth something?” Murdock said. “Not to you, but it does have sentimental value. It will make a good gift.” Murdock gave Julius a puzzled look. “Let’s continue on to Deimos-1,” Julius said. “We’ve had enough fun here.” |
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