Twin Stars 1: Ascension (26 page)

* * *

Aboard the Imperial Cutter
Silverthorne
, Colonel Cole continued to monitor the situation, nodding in approval at what he saw.

“Colonel Cole, the Infiltrator units have arrived at the Crystal Leaf with no resistance. They report all ships systems are indeed dead.” Ashe announced.

The Infiltrator units were specially designed war robots with a single purpose- to board and take control of starships. Normally, they attacked a ship’s systems from the outside first, some taking control of its control grid while the others entered and seized physical control. In this case, however, there was no system to take control of once they’d arrived on the hull.

“Excellent.” Cole commented. “The shot must have crashed their reactor network. You are an expert gunner, my dear.”

“Thank you, master.” The Squire answered, pleased. “The units await your orders to move in.”

“Yes, tell them they can enter the ship. Bring the
Silverthorne
into docking position and have Major Garret’s men prepare to deploy. We’ll dock as soon as the Infiltrators sound the all clear.”

* * *

Kip floated down the darkened corridor of the Crystal Leaf, using his neutral implant’s map of the ship systems to overlay a graphic of the corridor onto his vision so he could “see”. If any objects were floating in the blackened corridor, he would fly right into them, so he kept a hand up in front of his face as he carefully navigated the halls. He wished there was another way to render the ship inert, as crashing the ship’s backup reactors had also taken away the artificial gravity and lighting.

Finally, he saw a light up ahead from the mess hall, and used fingertips dragged along the walls to slow his momentum so he came to a stop in front of the propped-open doorway. Inside, a dozen members of the crew were gathered, and Jack Onoli, one of his engineers, was distributing weapons in the light of glow rods.

His arrival made the crew jump, and half a dozen plasma pistols came up to point at him as he floated inside with raised hands.

“Whoa there! I’m pretty sure I’m friendly!” He cracked, and the engineer yelled at them to point the guns somewhere else.

“Sorry X-O,” the Engineer said as Kip let his smartsuit’s feet adhere to the decking next to the man. “They’re just on edge.”

“Hey, no worries.” Kip told him, taking a quick head count. “You have enough for everyone?” Everyone he expected to see was there.

“Yeah, and I got this for you.” The engineer reached into a bag and handed him a metal cube that looked black in the light.

Kip took it, it was just small enough to hold in one hand, and if the gravity had been on, Kip knew it would have been surprisingly light. This was a battle array in its inert form, one of fourteen the ship carried aboard for general use by ship security personnel, and the one Kip was to use to keep these people safe. Once activated, it would flow out over his arms and encompass him in a protective web of thin metal that would generate a defensive field around him.

But not yet, not until it was time or he might be detected by the Infiltrators.

Touching it to his smartsuit’s pant-leg and letting it attach, Kip began to make his way through the assembled people, checking with each of them. He knew them all by name, and found himself making a few jokes to help lighten the mood as he went around the room. The Emissary was sitting on a chair behind the rest of them, her weapon floating above the table beside her.

“Ma’am, you should attach that to your smartsuit so it doesn’t get lost.” He told her, gesturing at the plasma pistol.

She glanced at it, and gave him a sour look.

“Is this really necessary?”

“Yes ma’am, I’m afraid it is.” He said, gently grabbing the gun and offering it to her. “The captain has asked that everyone be armed.”

She just looked at it, not making a move to take it.

“Young man, it’s not that I have never handled a weapon before, but I prefer to let others do the shooting for me.” She looked about the crowd. “Where is that man you hired to guard me- Ulstead wasn’t it?”

“Ma’am, the Captain has him on other duties, and asked me to keep an eye on you.” He said cheerfully. “Hey, don’t worry, you’re perfectly safe in here with the…” Then he suddenly stopped, a distant high-pitched humming sound echoing from the corridor outside.

Spinning around, Kip ordered all lights to be shut off, and crewmen quickly turned the room back into a pool of complete darkness and silence.

Outside, the humming drew closer, and they could hear a light whistling sound as well. All eyes were on the propped-open door to the corridor Kip had entered through, and they slowly began to see a faint green glow that became brighter as the sound became louder.

Then, it appeared in the doorway.

The Infiltrator Unit looked like nothing so much as a large black metal walnut with a ring of red glowing gem-like eyes ringed around the top and bottom. From its sides sprouted eight long wispy tentacles that each ended in a sharp spike or a short cylinder. The spikes were for close combat, and the cylinders were plasma weapons for clearing away the things the spikes couldn’t tear apart. Glowing green with the light of its gravitic defense field, this thing was meant to be a weapon of terror as well as war, and it excelled on both counts.

The war robot floated in the doorway, and for a moment Kip was afraid it would enter. The unit knew they were there, the darkness was no cover against its sensors, but the Captain was gambling it wasn’t under orders to clear away non-hostiles and would leave them alone if they didn’t appear to be threats. If anything, he’d ordered the lights doused to make the crew feel better and less likely to take a shot at it, not to keep them from being seen.

Then, after a tense moment it slipped away, and they heard the sound retreating down the corridor towards more important parts of the ship.

Kip became aware of a hand gripping his left arm, and once he’d given the okay to turn the glow rods back on, he found it was the Emissary holding onto him. Her earlier arrogance had now been replace by a look of fear.

“W-What was that?” He could feel her hand shaking.

“Infiltrator unit. Don’t worry, they’re not looking for us, they’re just heading for the control areas. We’re fine for now.”

She let go of his arm, and quickly grabbed for the gun, holding it with both hands.

“Your Captain is letting them just come aboard like that?!?”

Kip smiled, enjoying the sudden change in attitude. “Yeah well, the Captain’s got his own plan.”

“A very poor one, from where I’m standing.”

Kip laughed. “Lady, you don’t know Al Tysen. If you did, you’d be sure he’s as cool as a cucumber right now.”

* * *

“Esther, if I stop breathing remind me to start again.” Tysen said, wiping the sweat from his brow. His smartsuit was compensating for the dropping temperature in the ship, but he was doing precise and difficult work at the open access panel and had little time to do it in.

Esther, holding a glow rod next to him so he could see, looked at him curiously. “Why would you stop breathing, Tysen?”

“Too many things going on at once in my head,” he said as he tried to carefully remove the cover from a power node with a laser Cutter. “I keep wondering if I accounted for everything properly. We can’t communicate with the others with the ship’s link system down, so it’s all going to come down to my timing. Either I planned it right and everything works, or I didn’t, and we’re already finished.”

Esther considered a moment, then answered- “This is true. I too hope you did account for everything.”

Tysen couldn’t help but laugh at her straightforward manner. At times Esther’s bluntness was almost comical, even when she said things he might have found offensive from someone else. “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said, carefully removing the cover to expose the orange metal capacitor beneath. “Hand me the last of the red detonator crystals.”

Esther gave him the small red gem, and after looking at it to make sure he was inserting the right side, he placed it down on top of the exposed capacitor. Then he grabbed the cover panel for the access hatch and slipped it back into place.

“Okay,” he said, letting his smartsuit detach from the wall so he could float free again. “That’s it. This one’s rigged too. Let’s get back to the rendezvous point.”

* * *

Colonel Cole watched his units move through the map of the target ship on the holo-display in front of him. Around it were direct sensor feeds from each of his infiltrator units as they carried out their work.

He had watched as the target ship’s security robots mounted a series of defensive actions, and they had eliminated almost half of the Infiltrators he’d sent over. But the Infiltrators were efficient in their work, and naturally prevailed against the defensive units.

He’d seen the human crew of the ship through the feeds as well, huddling in darkened rooms like trapped animals. They didn’t try to even attack the Infiltrators, but had let them pass unchallenged and let the robots do their work for them. Sad really, Cole thought, if the crew had helped the security units perhaps they could have defeated the Infiltrators. Of course, even if they had- where could they go?

Finally, Cole saw the last of the defenders fall, and Ashe reported that they had control of all key systems and areas aboard the ship.

“Time for the personal approach then,” Cole announced. “Extend the docking tubes and tell the Major to move in once they’re secure.”

* * *

Tysen watched the silver lines of the array spread out over his smartsuit, and then felt a sudden rush of sensation as the array connected itself with his neural implant. The world flared into brilliant color as the array added several more senses to his usual five, and he saw indicators for the array appear in AR windows inside his vision. After making sure everything was connected and working properly, he used the enhanced senses to check on the people around him.

There were twelve people in his assault team, five behind him, and another five crouched down behind Mister Ulstead on the other side of the darkened corridor. With the exception of Esther, who was behind him, these were the eleven people aboard the ship with the most combat training. All of them, again with the exception of Esther, who didn’t need one, were equipped with battle arrays like the one he’d just put on. He’d offered one to her, but she’d refused on the basis that Squires were already superhuman combatants, and that the array would be of more use enhancing one of the other crew members for the coming melee.

Tysen hadn’t been able to argue with that, so he’d just told her to be careful.

He glanced over at Mister Ulstead, and his array told him the man’s pulse and respiration rate were extremely high. He could see the heat pouring off of Ulstead’s uncovered face.

“All set?” Tysen asked, trying to refocus the man.

“Ready as we’re going to be.” Ulstead’s usual joviality was gone, and his tone was serious now.

There was a distant clanging noise, and a shudder ran through the hull around them. Behind him, Tysen heard the crew members whisper, and heat began to pour off most of them as they readied themselves.

“Docking tubes,” Tysen told the other man. “They’ll be across shortly.”

“They will,” Ulstead agreed.

“Ever used a Battle Array before, Mister Ulstead?”

The mercenary shook his head. “Can’t say I have, mate. Your man put me through the basics, though, so I think I can handle myself.”

“You have my complete faith,” Tysen told him. And he meant it, the man was incredibly adaptable and Tysen had little doubts in his ability to use such an intuitive system well.

“You had much experience in these kinds of actions, Captain?”

“Some,” Tysen said, then decided to add- “Although I admit to them being training exercises. Just stay with us, Mister Ulstead.”

“You got it, mate.”

Up ahead, the array let Tysen hear the sound of the airlock cycling. They were coming in.

“Everyone, wait for my signal.” He told the assembled. “Remember, don’t move until I tell you to.”

That got a round of “Yessir!” from the crew and the sound of weapons being readied.

Ulstead glanced behind Tysen, looking unsure.

“The Shelia’s coming with us?”

“Esther is my Squire, and I think we might need her.” Tysen said, then smiled and added. “Don’t worry, I’ve asked her to keep an eye on you.”

“Gee, thanks!” The other man snorted, then his gaze snapped forward. “Head’s up!”

Tysen heard the airlock door draw back, and there was the sound of electrical buzzing from far up ahead of them. Then suddenly the dark corridor was alive with light as the invaders began to pour in, their own battle arrays covering them with a bright blue blue aura in the darkness as they flew around the corner and right at Tysen and his crew.

Plasma shots began to fly down the corridor at them, forcing the crew to flatten behind the bulkhead flares they’d chosen as their cover. Thanks to the array, Tysen could still see them, though, and he saw them confidently rush down the corridor, heedless with the power their arrays gave them.

“Master?” Esther asked from behind him, concern in her voice.