Influx (2 page)

The far more dangerous threat were the Coalition employees he’d come here to find.

“
Scroobers,
” Garen thought to himself.

Scroobers were one of the Coalition’s latest innovations in round-the-clock surveillance.

Rather than paying trained personnel to stare at video screens and relying on their easily distracted brains to interpret the visual input, the Coalition had decided to increase productivity by taking the process to its ultimate technological conclusion
–
hooking their employees’ visual cortex directly into the signals being generated throughout the
Golgotha
via its many, many security cameras.

Having your brain hard-wired like this wasn’t the most pleasant of prospects and so it only attracted those who’d accumulated a large amount of Coalition debt and needed a way to pay it down sooner than most jobs allowed. These unfortunate employees were nicknamed scroobers because the overwhelming input occasionally scrambled their brains and left their grey matter as useful as the contents of their nose.

On the other hand, from the Coalition’s perspective the process allowed fewer employees to handle a lot more visual input while at the same time removing all distractions or any opportunity for laziness. It was a perfect example of the immoral depths they regularly sunk to in their quest to increase profits.

The reason Garen wanted to find scroobers aboard the
Golgotha
was so he could gain access to a very particular connection with its communication network. The nano-tech he’d stolen from the Coalition had a unique way of working with human physiology and, after studying it, Kari had theorised that a scroober’s direct cybernetic link to the
Golgotha’s
network might allow them to do something they’d not previously been able to achieve.

Of course, that was easier said than done. To get to the scroobers, Garen needed to reach the
Golgotha’s
upper levels and that wasn’t going to be easy.

“
Do I take a direct path?
” he thought to himself. “
Or the longer, safer route?
”

He was confident he could avoid detection if he took the safer route, but given the importance of his mission, he didn’t want to risk being discovered whilst he was too far away from the scroober’s location to make a last chance run for it.

“
The direct path it is,
” he decided, heading for the nearest express elevator.

There weren’t many that reached this deep into the
Golgotha
, but when he found one, Garen didn’t have to wait long before a pair of dishevelled looking workers in dirty overalls appeared. They were dragging a gently smoking contraption behind them that Garen assumed was part of the machinery they were responsible for maintaining, and both had gasmasks hanging from their necks that looked as well-used as their clothes. One of them was clearly female and appeared wide-awake and alert, while her male companion seemed almost asleep on his feet.

The female activated the elevator call button, just as Garen hoped she would, while the male leaned heavily against the machine they’d brought with them.

“Wake up, Carter!” the female snapped. “You’re not off duty yet.”

“M’up,” the male said, standing straighter and trying unsuccessfully to open his blood-shot eyes all the way. “See, Michelle?”

Shaking her head with a grimace, Michelle stepped into the open elevator and Garen quietly slipped in behind them. He then carefully scaled the elevator’s corner until he was wedged in place above their heads.

There wasn’t much room to stand with the contraption they’d dragged in with them and so he didn’t want to risk one of them moving during the journey and discovering him.

“You shouldn’t time your come-downs like this,” Michelle said as she activated one of the higher levels. “You’re going to get us both in trouble.”

“Nuh-uh,” Carter disagreed, his posture slumped again. “Wanna sleep when I get off.”

“Sleep,” Michelle scoffed, “waste of time if you ask me.”

“Helps me deal,” Carter said, glancing up at her.

“Huh,” Michelle grunted non-committedly. “Sanity’s overrated too.”

As the elevator got underway, they travelled in silence for a few minutes and Garen could see the employee named Carter wasn’t doing well. As they ascended through the levels, he looked like he was slowly collapsing, as if he’d fall asleep at any moment and lose his balance entirely.

“Still with me?” Michelle said abruptly.

“M’up,” Carter said, standing straighter again.

“I’m telling you, Carter, you need to be careful. Something’s got the Coalition spooked and Security is only getting tighter.”

“What’re you talkin’ about?” Carter asked with a frown.

“So you’re blind too, huh? Didn’t you see those blue Security bastards at this morning’s briefing?”

“That was for Sandeera Centauri,” Carter said, his frown turning into a smile. “You know she’s here, right?”

“That system news slut? Why would she come to this shit hole?”

“I’d’know?” Carter said with a shrug. “Probably wants my bunk number.”

“Keep dreamin’, Carter,” Michelle said with another grimace. “But not before the end of your shift. I’m serious about this. Whatever’s going on, the Coalition are keeping a closer eye on things. If they see you like this, they’re going to add to your debt and maybe mine too. And that’s if you’re lucky. Those Security pricks will take any opportunity they can to wail on the likes of us.”

As Michelle continued her warning, Carter seemed to slowly nod off again and this time Garen didn’t think his partner would be able to save him in time.

It happened quickly. Just as Carter’s centre of gravity finally moved beyond the edge of his his feet, he lost his balance and stumbled forward.

“Carter!” Michelle yelled in frustration, but her warning was far too late.

Carter’s sudden loss of equilibrium
–
or perhaps it was Michelle’s voice
–
seemed to startle him awake halfway to the floor and as he flailed his arms to catch his fall, he snagged a wrench that was attached to a large bolt on the contraption’s side. The wrench squealed as it turned under his weight and the loosened bolt released some kind of oil that had been held under pressure, spraying it over Garen’s stormsuit before he could get out of the way.

Carter continued falling, striking his head on the side of the contraption before slumping unconscious to the floor, and Garen quickly looked at Michelle to see if she’d noticed him.

She was staring straight up at him with wide eyes.

“
Not good
,” he thought as he leapt down to prevent her from setting off any alarms.

But before he could stop her, Michelle’s flailing hand slapped a large red button beside the activation panel and the elevator lurched to a halt.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Garen said calmly, before hitting her in the stomach.

As Michelle bent over in pain, Garen snaked an arm around her neck and twisted savagely upward, breaking her neck in an instant. Then he let her limp body fall to the elevator floor beside the fool who’d exposed him and glanced at the elevator’s glowing counter.

Luckily for him, they were only one floor beneath the one he was trying to get to and so he left the employees where they lay and quickly leapt up to scramble through the ceiling’s access panel.

Once inside the elevator shaft, it didn’t take Garen long to climb the access ladder and force the doors on the level above. This caused another deafening alarm to go off and Garen had no doubt this one was meant to incapacitate him while the nearest security team could reach his location.

“
No point trying to stay hidden now,
” he thought quickly.

There were several more employees on this level and they gaped at the indistinct, oil-splashed form that ran by them, but none of them moved to stop him. Whether it was surprise, or cowardice, Garen didn’t care. He just needed to finish his mission before
Golgotha
Security caught up with him.

When he finally reached the scroober’s communication hub, Garen stopped in front of the large, heavily locked entrance and pulled a small tube of foam explosive from the pocket at his waist. He then used it to draw a quick oval on the door, placed a small detonator at the top, and took several steps to the side.

The sizzling
SHOOMP
it produced blasted him with a powerful shockwave, but Garen ignored the sudden slap of pain and quickly stepped forward to kick the oval of metal he’d just cut out of the door.

The room beyond was small and smelt strongly of disinfectant. There were a dozen motionless bodies lying on benches, six along each wall, and every one of them was fitted with life support systems that seemed to service both ends of the digestive cycle. Their eyes were also covered with large, black visors and their hairless heads bristled with wires that streamed down into a much thicker set of cables that disappeared into the walls.

“
Which one of you is worthy?
” Garen thought, staring around the chamber dispassionately.

But he knew there was no time to make such a serious judgement and so he simply strode toward the nearest body.

As he approached, he took two small vials out of the pocket at his waist and held them up for inspection. One contained the highly illegal drug Lyquis – the sacred means by which he communicated with Kari – and the other contained a solution of the suspended nano-tech that he’d stolen from a Coalition drop ship.

Lowering the vials again, Garen leapt onto the nearest scroober’s bench and squatted over the man’s chest.

He knew the added weight wouldn’t be noticed. All the scroober’s conscious attention would be on the scanners and cameras that covered his allocated surveillance areas.

Reaching down, Garen gently thumbed the man’s lower lip down and poured the Lyquis through the small gap between the man’s feeding tube and his teeth. He then waited as the drug made its way to the scroober’s brain and wondered what it would make him see and whether the effect would be noticeable at the
Golgotha’s
central security hub.

As he calmly pondered the question, the sound of heavy boot steps echoed through the hole he’d just cut in the door and Garen knew his time was about to run out.

Kari had assured him that his own safety was paramount, but Garen knew he had to finish the mission at all costs. And so, despite being aware he was leaving himself open to attack, he ignored the boot steps and patiently lifted the dark visor that covered the scroober’s eyes.

Multi-coloured lights spilled out from beneath the visor and Garen leaned forward to check if the man’s pupils were dilated – a sign that the Lyquis was working.

“
Not yet
,” he thought, bringing the second vial close to the scroober’s eye.

This was the part of the plan he had to take on faith. From the research he’d done with Kari and Onzo, he assumed the complicated nano-particles would be absorbed along the scroober’s optical pathways and migrate into his brain, where they could fulfil their purpose and begin transforming the cellular material.

Garen had no idea what this would do to the scroober, but Kari was confident it would create an energy conduit that he could use to enter the
Golgotha’s
communication system.

Kari was essentially made of energy – albeit one that could only be detected through the use of Lyquis – and so he could easily endure such a process. Then, once he was inside, he would be free to study the
Golgotha
and find a way to send the entire energy sump into the crushing depths of Jupiter’s lower atmosphere.

“I know you can hear me, Kari,” Garen said as he waited for the scroober’s pupils to dilate. “I don’t need Lyquis to know you’re here with me now. I just want you to know that I’m ready for whatever will come. Do whatever you have to do.”

Then the boot steps finally reached him, just as the scroober’s pupils grew larger.