The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) (31 page)

“Agreed,” Foggs didn’t ask any unwanted questions. “You need security?”

“No need. I’ve got sensors set up. Keep me posted.”

I switched over to direct neurosensory contact but Liori was “temporarily unavailable”. Of course. She was busy scanning the defense point. You never know, it might be for the better.

* * *

It’s not difficult to build a copy of an item if you have its detailed scanner file — with one exception. You must have level 20 in Mnemotechnics, possess a Founders-specifications mind expander and an available nanite colony.

With a dull flash, the three nested rings clanged onto the rocky ground.

You have created a unique item!

Name: unknown

Purpose: unknown

Your Alien Technologies skill has grown 1 pt.!

Your Mnemotechnics skill has grown 1 pt.!

I picked up the mysterious device and scanned it all over. It looked like a useless trinket which could probably serve as an amulet.

It showed no sign of any power activity. Touching the pictograms produced no effect.

Wait a sec. Did this thing have a power source?

I immediately thought of the spherical power units Vandal had found. Their shape and design seemed to fit this thing.

So I had to walk all the way to the shelled warehouse and dig through the cargonite scrap for my own gear sliced up by Avatroid’s plasma lash. The weird-looking power unit was still in its slot – apparently, the slave traders hadn't been interested in it.

Excellent. The sphere fit the third and smallest ring like a glove. With a dry click, it locked in. I turned the power slider one point. The pictograms lit up. The artifact had come to life!

I kept it at 10% power and looked for a secure place amid the cliffs as far from the respawn point as possible. Just in case, you know. I perched on a boulder and began studying the symbols.

Much to my disappointment, no further prompts came up.

Never mind. Gingerly I touched the
Test
symbol.

A message in the Founders’ language appeared in my mental view.

The device operates properly. To activate all the functions, please increase power.

That could wait.

I touched the
Connection
pictogram.

Connection with mind expander established. Please enter the network address in order to perform the check of the hyperspace channel.

While I was racking my brain trying to work out where I was supposed to get the network address and how they expected me to enter it, another message hovered into view,

If you don’t know the exact location of your primary identity matrix, use the Search function.

So that’s how it was, then — hyperspace? It would be a shame if all this unique device could do was take me for a guided tour of the Founders’ history. I’d counted on it to learn something bigger – some of their secrets maybe?

In any case, I could always try. I looked for the symbol I needed and touched it, having very little idea of what might happen next.

The world around me blurred, then came back into focus.

* * *

Indicators’ red lights glowed in the dark.

I couldn’t believe it! This was my in-mode capsule!

How crazy was that? Had I escaped? Was I back in real life? Had the device hacked the logout ban?

Wait a sec... why was everything swimming before my eyes?

I concentrated on my sensations. I couldn’t move at all, couldn’t even turn my eyes. The frailty of my wire-wound body stunned me. I tried to force my head up but was flooded with cold sweat.

I struggled to suppress panic. All the lights on the life support panel were red. What the hell was this? Had they indeed stopped servicing our in-modes?

It took all of my willpower to calm myself down. I couldn’t see clearly: my eyes watered all the time.

Mechanically I switched to the capsule’s external cameras and studied my surroundings.

This was my apartment, no doubt about it.

I’d never thought I’d see it again! Still, everywhere I looked I saw strange developments. The room looked unlived-in. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust. The air regenerators were off. Weird shadows danced behind the window.

I strained my mind to switch off the smoked glass effect. The capsule lid turned transparent. I saw self-powered ad modules rush behind the glass, enveloped in the swirling emissions.

Connect to Phantom Server! Get a taste of unlimited freedom in the boundless Universe!

The beta testing is completed. Release in: 00.00.00.00

The digits in the countdown window didn’t move. The countdown had long been completed.

Need to escape boredom? Join the new adventure! Phantom Server awaits you! A 100% realism of experience guaranteed! We use the latest technologies of direct data download into the user’s brain!

Judging by the lasers’ jumpy work and the battered state of their emitters, the ads hadn’t been updated for quite a while.

Night was circling over the deserted city. Not a single light in the billions of windows; not a single vehicle on the road. Only the towers’ landing lights glowed in the dim sky.

I was shivering with emotion overload. My wasted body felt awful.

Why wasn’t anyone coming? An in-mode was supposed to send out a distress signal whenever its life support resources were depleting.

Dammit. What the hell was going on here?

Due to the nature of my old employment, I'd had several jury-rigged devices installed into my life support module. One of them allowed me to enter the building’s network.

I connected to the security systems. The entire floor was dark, empty and dead. I proceeded gradually, switching from one camera to the next.

Found it. That’s the door I’d been looking for.

The flat was occupied by Stephen — a young guy very much like myself, also a virtual junkie. Once when the Net had been down we’d even met each other in the flesh which eventually led us to working together on a rather complicated project courtesy of Arbido – I’d still worked for him at the time.

This Stephen used to have the Rolls Royce of all in-modes, one of those state-of-the-art limited-production models. Now its complex life support panel was lifeless, not a single light showing behind the smoked plastic of the capsule. A thick layer of dust covered everything here too.

A shriveled food cylinder lay in the open tray of the hydraulic delivery elevator. The food had long decayed. It had leaked all over the tray in a pool of brown rot, then dried out.

I reentered the security network and began checking flat after flat, not even trying to hide anymore. This wasn’t real. Everywhere I looked, I saw desolation, gloom and billowing dust. All appliances were switched off, all the inhabitants gone. The holographic modules circling above the windows advertising Phantom Server were the only things left.

I imagined vast underground bunkers lined with billions of in-modes, all connected to cyberspace. This seemed to be the only logical explanation.

At a certain point, I lost concentration. My mind blurred. I saw a fiery spiral spinning in total darkness.

I shuddered and opened my eyes.

Quest completion alert: Phantom Server. The Mystery of Hyperspace. Quest completed!

You’ve received a new level!

I was sitting amid the cliffs. Liori next to me was clutching my hand.

I could hear shots echoing from afar: that was Foggs still storming the Dargians’ defenses.

New messages unfolded before my eyes,

In order to scan all network connections available, please increase power 90%.

Still dazed from everything I’d just seen, I was about to turn the ring's lug when Liori stopped me, covering my hand with hers. “Please don’t. No idea where it might send you this time. I have plenty of nanites at my disposal now, anyway.”

“Do you remember now?”

“I do.”

“I was back on Earth!” I said.

“I know. So was I. I was inside my in-mode. That’s how it all started.”

* * *

The Planet Darg. Five hours later

A cold midday flowed over the singed clearing.

The bottom of the boiled-out lake was cracked over. Cliffs descended toward it in soft shallow ridges. The burned skeletons of downed assault modules peeked out of the petrified silt.

“We’ve got the crystal,” the mechanics group finally reported.

At last!

My interface flashed a new message,

Quest update: The Fall of Darg.

One of the Dargian aerospace defense positions has been neutralized. This has created a safe entry corridor, allowing a rescue team to approach the planet. Please stay put and wait for help to arrive.

Overhead, the resounding fire of coilguns was accompanied by occasional volleys of plasma batteries. This was the work of our newbs. Goaded by Vandal, they’d worked their butts off until they'd dismantled the main weapons from the crashed assault modules and installed them in the slots of the defense location which had become our stronghold.

Foggs had command of one hundred and thirty people. The cliffs covered our flanks and the rear. We controlled the respawn point. The Dargians were forced to attack us from the direction of the lake. I could see ten large rovers with the logos of some unknown clan bellow smoke about half a mile away from our defenses.

I stepped away from the narrow window that looked like a gun slit and glanced over the holographic location map.

Our positions were good. We desperately needed ammo, power and life support cartridges. The Dargians had sprung into action before our mechanics had managed to dismantle the modules’ reactors.

Never mind. Three or four hours, that was all we had to hold out.

Liori switched on the long-range communications. We’d had to recreate some of its components from scratch using Object Replication.

The cliffs around were shuddering. The enemy had placed heavy artillery just out of sight which kept firing and missing: we’d discovered a few anti-laser guidance systems on the downed modules which now enveloped the cliffs in a quivering mirage, refracting light and deflecting the enemy’s homing missiles while the false thermal imprint of the location confused their infrared scanners. Luckily, the Dargians hadn't been trained to fire using signature guidance.

“All done!” the nanites condensed again, sculpting Liori’s image.

Both Foggs and Novitsky were there with me at the command point. They kept casting wary glances at the girl, still unaccustomed to her instant transformations.

“Go ahead, man,” Foggs slapped Novitsky’s shoulder.

“I’ve been demoted, haven’t I?”

“Come on, Foggs, do it yourself,” I suggested. “It’s not the right moment to hole up. We’ll only lose time. Send them your implant’s data: no one can forge that. And include a close-up view of the defense armament we’ve taken.”

He seemed to like the idea. “Will you help me?”

“No, I won’t. Liori and I will keep a low profile. You never know how Eurasia might interpret the data received from my Synaps or a nanite network.”

“All right, then,” he seemed to understand my point perfectly well.

It took us another ten minutes to create the scanner files and begin sending them. I could see no reason why the command of the Second Colonial Fleet would question their authenticity.

“Composite assault group to Eurasia! We’ve neutralized an enemy airspace defense point and established our presence on Darg! You now have a safe entry corridor! We’ve taken an enemy respawn point and are now fighting overwhelming forces. Please send in reinforcements, over!”

All we heard back was the crackle of interference.

“Call them again!” Novitsky demanded, anxious.

“Liori,” I said, “will you please rescan the frequencies and try to amplify the signal.”

A cloud of nanites enveloped the long-range communications system.

The crackling of interference grew louder, then disappeared, replaced by a barely audible voice.

“Keep on amplifying!”

“To the composite assault group... Negative... There’ll be no reinforcements... The Eurasia Station is under attack from an unidentified enemy... retreating toward the edge of the star system...”