Point of Origin (War Eternal Book 4) (12 page)

If only they had known.

She was about to head down the port side corridor when she heard the sound of metal scraping metal not far from where she had just come. She paused to listen, still and silent, until she heard it again.
 

Whatever it was, it was moving closer.

She had known Watson would try to find her. She had known he would make machines to do the work. She looked back down the corridor to the left, deciding if she should hide. Once Watson knew she was here, he would send more of the things this way, and probably the slave crew as well. He would do whatever he could to find her, and she wouldn't have time to discover his secrets.

At the same time, she wanted to fight. She wanted to show him that she was capable. She knew he wasn't taking her seriously, not yet. She knew he didn't see her as a threat so much as an inconvenience. She wanted him to see that he was underestimating her.

Except then he wouldn't be. She couldn't risk everything because of her hatred. She needed him to think she was weak.

She listened to the scraping. It was getting closer, definitely coming her way. It wasn't moving quickly. She took a few steps down the corridor before pausing again.

She looked up.

The machine arrived two minutes later. Kathy stared down at it from her perch on the ceiling, her arms outstretched and tight against two covered bundles of cabling. It was another simple thing, the size of her head and made of an amalgamation of synthetic musculature and metal that skittered along the floor like a crab. She could see a number of sensors jutting out from it, taking measurements in the air around it and likely transmitting them back.
 

Could it sense that she had been back there minutes before?

Could it sense that she was here now?

She didn't know.

Once more, she had to decide what to do. Destroying it would lead Watson here. What if it was already too late? She couldn't afford to be caught hanging from the ceiling.
 

The crab kept moving without slowing, walking directly beneath her and turning left down the corridor. She could drop behind it and disable it. It would be easy. Then she could double back closer to the core to try to throw Watson off.

If he knew she had the chip would he suspect she would try to access it? Would he destroy all of the lab equipment?

She needed it. He didn't. It was logical that he would. She couldn't let that happen.

She dropped from the ceiling, landing silently behind the machine. Three quick steps and she was on top of it. She grabbed it by a leg, swinging it hard into the bulkhead. It shattered against the wall.

She knew they would be coming.

She ran.

Kathy reached the biosciences lab, rolling under the opening hatch and sliding it closed behind her. The lab was dark, this part of the ship lost and ignored up to this point. The Tetron's dendrites hadn't touched this area, remaining closer to the hull instead.

Kathy gave her eyes a minute to adjust. Everything was still dark, but she was able to make out the shapes of the equipment around her. Centrifuges, an anaerobic chamber, an autoclave, and a long table with a set of monitors. There was a second table opposite the first that contained the tools she was seeking.

She rushed over to it, taking a seat on the stool and reaching for the goggles. She pulled the chip from her pocket and dropped it on a black pad in front of her. She dropped the goggles over her head, reaching up and turning a small dial on the side of them to increase the magnification. The top circuitry came into easy view through the lenses.

She turned the chip over.

The bottom was blank.

She smiled. She had been expecting that the goggles wouldn't be able to see the nanoscale circuitry of the Tetron data storage. The good news was that she didn't need it to. For Watson's human neural implant to access the Tetron data, it had to have a connector somewhere that would allow the larger side to draw information from the smaller. What she needed to do was create an interface between the neural chip and the mainframe on the other side of the room. Once she could plug the chip into something that wasn't a brain and display the results she would be able to read the contents even if it were in full binary.

She placed the goggles on top of her head and then stood on top of the stool so she could get a better view of the tools arranged above the desk. She needed a bit of wire and something that would create enough heat to solder it to the circuitry. Her eyes landed on a laser pointer. It wouldn't be powerful enough to do the job as it was, but she would be able to modify it to better suit her needs.

As for the wire, she didn't expect to find any just laying around a bio sciences lab. Instead, she dropped from the stool and ran over to the centrifuge. She tugged the service panel away from it looked at the mess of wires within. There was no point being careful. She grabbed one and tugged until it broke free.

She moved around the room then, searching for a more standard set of repair tools. She spent a few minutes rifling through cabinets and drawers, finally locating a set of small screwdrivers. She needed to be faster. Each second that passed left her closer to being discovered. She returned to the table, laying the items out to the right of the chip. She picked up the screwdriver and the laser pointer, beginning to open up the pointer to get to the wiring inside.

She paused then, raising her head slightly. A feeling of dread overwhelmed her, and she quickly grabbed the chip, the wire, the screwdriver, and the laser pointer, shoving each into the pockets of her grays.

The hatch slid open at the same time she ducked behind the centrifuge.

A bright headlamp swept the room, a figure in fatigues and carrying an assault rifle creating a dark silhouette behind it.

"Are you in here, little bitch?" the person asked. Kathy recognized Captain Alvarez's voice, her words controlled by Watson. "I know you were out here a minute ago."

Kathy remained behind the centrifuge. She couldn't see Alvarez from where she was hiding, but she could hear every step the woman took. She didn't feel afraid. She was simply waiting.

"I know you have my chip. I want it back. I always get what I want."

The light from the headlamp flashed over where Kathy was hiding.

"Where did you come from, I wonder?" Alvarez said. "You're like us. I can tell that much. Clearly, you are related to the First somehow."
 

The footsteps paused. The light moved this way and that across the room. Kathy counted her heartbeats. They remained slow and steady, her breathing even and calm. Fear was for the weak.

"I would say that I have all day," Alvarez said a moment later. "And technically I do. Technically, I have all of eternity." She laughed for Watson, an awkward cackle. "I have a lot to do, however; and only so much time."

Kathy rolled away from the centrifuge at the same time Alvarez opened fire. Bullets pinged off the metal and shattered plastic around her, the noise of the gunshots echoing in the space. Alvarez followed her roll, tracking her movement, the headlamp locking on to her position. Kathy bunched her legs and jumped towards her attacker, rising and towards the assault. She felt her leg get twisted as a bullet punched through her calf, and some distant part of her registered the pain.

Then she was coming down on top of the soldier, leading with a cocked fist. She punched Alvarez hard in the forearm, hitting a nerve and forcing her to lose her grip on the gun. Kathy landed, losing her balance slightly on her wounded leg but managing to recover in time to catch Alvarez' punch, twisting the Captain's arm and throwing her forward into the machines.

Alvarez bounced off them and turned, her face twisted in Watson's rage. "You little bitch," she screamed, lunging for her.

Kathy stepped aside, balancing on her good leg. She spun herself around, ducking low to pick up the assault rifle and bringing it back in one smooth motion.

"I'm going to frig you so hard you'll explode," Alvarez cursed, recovering from the lunge and reaching for her again.

Kathy slammed her hard across the side of the head with the butt of the rifle. Alvarez hit the ground and didn't move.

Kathy dropped in front of Alvarez and rolled her over. She was still alive, one of Watson's devices on her back, controlling her despite the fact that her p-rat was shut down. Kathy wanted to grab it and tear it away, but she didn't. She didn't know how long Alvarez would be out for, and setting her free right now would only get her killed for sure. She stood up instead, rushing towards the door. She could hear the scraping noises in the corridor, more of Watson's machines arriving to back up his human slave.

Bullets tore into the bulkhead ahead of her, a chip of metal slicing her across the face and forcing her to duck back.
 

"Not so fast, little bitch," a new voice said. Kathy couldn't place it. "I need that chip."

Kathy crouched behind the side of the wall. She could hear the machines moving closer. If Watson were controlling the Riggers, it meant he would be doing the fighting for them, too. As Alvarez had proven, he wasn't very good at it.

She reached into her pocket, finding the laser pointer there. She crouched even lower, cradling the rifle in one hand, stock against her shoulder, barrel resting on her knee. She was just behind the door, in a position to swivel out and get the muzzle clear to fire even though she'd only have one eye to sight.

"You need to die," the soldier said again.
 

It was a male voice. Kathy tried to list all of the remaining male crew members in her mind. It wasn't Jacob, she was sure of that much.

She gripped the pointer in her free hand, switching it on and holding her arm out, shining it on the wall.

Bullets tore into the spot, simple armed robots falling for the simple trick. Kathy swiveled out, pulling the trigger, watching as bullets tore into three of the machines, cutting them to pieces. She shifted the rifle on her knee, adjusting the aim towards the soldier in the rear. He was trying to bring his weapon to bear but was too slow.

Kathy's fire ran up his chest and into his face, knocking him backward.
 

She stopped shooting.

She got up, rushing into the corridor, climbing over the broken machines to reach the soldier. She dropped her rifle and picked his up, trying to identify him past the mess she had made of his face. Private Klein.

"Try again," she shouted into the now empty corridor. She leaned over to check her leg, noting that the wound was already closed over.
 

There was a part of her that was human.
 

Then there was the part that wasn't.

"Good," Mitchell said, taking a few steps back from Aiko to reset himself. "I'm going to come at you again."

He held a shock stick in his left hand as a stand-in for a gun, and he crouched menacingly in front of the tech. She stood straight up, waiting.

He stepped forward, holding it out towards her. She slid gracefully to the side, grabbing his wrist in one hand and the center of the stick in the other, bending his hand back as she did. Mitchell tumbled onto the mat, releasing the stick.

"You're a natural," he said, getting up again. "How does it feel?"

"Good." She wiped a wayward strand of sweaty hair away from her face. Her body was coated in a sheen of sweat, her grays clinging to her skin and outlining the shape of her beneath them. "Although, I don't see how this is going to help me. I have a feeling if there is trouble the authorities won't give me a chance to take their weapon before they shoot me."

Mitchell shrugged. "You never know. Besides, ninety percent of survival is confidence. It's knowing that you have some ability to take care of yourself when you need to."

"What is the other ten percent?"

"Instinct and knowledge."

She nodded. "Can you teach me something else?"

Mitchell nodded and picked up the shock stick. They had been in hyperspace for a week now, halfway to the planet Yokohama. So far, the trip had been relatively relaxing. While there was still a lot of repair work going on around them, Mitchell's duties had been lighter than usual. Mainly, he had been reading reports of the different efforts underway by the crew of the Carver and offering advice to the pilots on flying their starfighters manually. He spent the rest of the time in between down in the battleship's gym, either working out his battered muscles to try to get them back into some semblance of shape or working out the members of the crew who would be joining him on Yokohama. While Calvin and Joon had some basic training in hand-to-hand, he was the only Marine among them.