Black Sun (Phantom Server: Book #3) (26 page)

“You want more exo?” Arbido supported his head. “It’ll kill you!”

“That’s my business,” Dominic wheezed. “Let me explain! I’m offering a fair swap. You listen to me. In return, I’ll give you full access to the system. To save you time and energy.”

“We can still save you if we place you into an in-mode,” I said.

“No! Inject me with that stuff! Otherwise you’re not getting the access codes!”

I just couldn’t understand his fanaticism. What if whatever he wanted to tell us was indeed important? But I thought we’d sussed it all out already? “Metabolites will kill you. Charon, what do you think you’re doing?”

Charon who had the life support cartridges in his safekeeping stepped toward Dominic. In one deft movement he replaced the cartridge in his suit. “That’s his right.”

Dominic gasped.

The metabolites kicked in fast. He shook his head, then staggered toward the station and slumped into the seat. His hand touched a group of textoglyphs. He blinked several times, then blurted out,

“After the discovery of the alien ship on Europa, we scanned the whole of the Solar system searching for more artifacts. We didn’t leave a single rock unturned. It was then that we discovered about a hundred small diamond-shaped objects in the Sun’s photosphere. We began monitoring them. Soon we realized that the objects kept growing.”

Dominic ran out of breath, then exploded in a torturous bout of coughing. Soon, however, he plucked up enough strength to continue.

“No one could understand the significance of their evolution until one day the segments began to replicate and bind together. Both the data analysis and the situation’s prognosis presented us with a shocking development. These segments were building a sphere around our Sun in order to intercept all of its energy!”

No one said a word. Dominic caught his breath and went on, “It didn’t take us long to realize that Earth was doomed. Our astronomers discovered nine more Black Suns at various distances from the Solar system.”

“Why didn’t you destroy them?” Jurgen spat.

“There’s no spacecraft capable of entering the photosphere! There’s no weapon that could destroy them!”

“And they don’t respond to any attempt at contact,” Charon growled.

“According to our calculations, our Sun will expire within the next fifteen years,” Dominic’s voice began to weaken. The repeat metabolite injection hadn’t been as effective. “Our last hope lay with the Founders’ technologies and their interstellar network. That’s when we formed the first group,” he hurried to finish, “to test the neuroimplants we’d found on board the alien ship. Still, none of our officers survived the identity transfer.”

“So you decided to use gamers,” Kyle said darkly.

“And once you got access to alien technologies, they got out of control?” Kimberly snapped. “You managed to kill Earth even before the Sun went out!”

“Wait,” Foggs stopped her. “Dominic, I need to know the location of the bunker containing my in-mode. You kept advertising Phantom Server to the last even though there was no such game! You kept luring new players — where to? Why were you giving neuroimplants away, basically for free? What was the real escape plan? How long are those bunkers going to last?”

“There are no bunkers,” Dominic replied. “Here, look!”

A spherical 3D screen materialized at the center of the room.

The cold stars glowed in the black sky.

This was real-time streaming using the Founders’ communications channels which transmitted signals instantly.

Judging by the exhibited data, this particular monitoring station was located on Eris — a dwarf planet situated in the Kuiper belt just past Neptune’s orbit. As if in confirmation, the ashen gray disk of Dysnomia — Eris’ only moon — scurried up over the planet’s close horizon. And further beyond, huge bulks of interstellar stations ambled unhurriedly through space, accompanied by cruisers and countless interlinked groups of cryogenic platforms.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Dominic’s voice barely registered, so great was the shock as reality began to sink in. I was looking at a panorama of deep space unfolding in real time before us. We were watching events happening at this very second billions of miles away from Earth.

The picture changed.

I saw an enormous hall filled with stacked-up rows of translucent capsules. Each was filled with a soft glow outlining the shape of a human being inside.

“Cryo in-modes,” Dominic explained. “New-generation ones. All the network users in possession of neuroimplants who expressed their desire to join the Game of the Future were transported on board cryogenic platforms. Their construction was completed about a couple of years ago but it has taken us all this time to move all the users.”

“Am I there too?” Foggs exclaimed, disbelieving.

“You are. As are all the players who took part in the Darg landing. Plus millions of other people.”

“This fleet, where is it heading?”

“To the Darg system,” Dominic replied, then hurried to add as if afraid someone might interrupt him, “You need to understand. Everything was going according to plan. The cryo in-modes are preprogrammed to periodically contact the interstellar network. Groups of users take turns in emerging from stasis for periods of one month. They connect to the network via Eurasia station. The journey is expected to last eight and a half years. During that time, each of the astronauts’ identities should have visited Darg several times, gaining the necessary assimilation and survival skills. In the best-case scenario they could have even begun to settle on the system’s only habitable planet.”

“But then the Outlaws built Avatroid, didn’t they?” Jurgen asked. “Argus was destroyed by Phantom Raiders, forcing you to introduce the hybrid?”

“Exactly!” Dominic’s voice shook. He was fading fast. “Now the colonial fleet is heading into the unknown. Eurasia station is seriously damaged. Its acceptance rate is at its lowest. Now the future colonists won’t be able to acclimatize themselves to their new environment. They won’t have enough experience, which means they won’t be able to colonize the planet or restore the destroyed stations once the fleet finally arrives at its destination.”

“There must be a solution,” Kimberly said softly.

“We have eight and a half years to find one,” Dominic managed. The metabolites had burned away what meager strength he’d had left. His voice continued to fade, breaking as he spoke.

Suddenly my mind expander began receiving control codes. “Jurgen, I’ve got data from Dominic! I’m forwarding it to you. I want you to look into it.”

Charon wheezed, staring at the screens. He didn’t say a word.

Arbido sat in a heap on the floor, clutching his head. “They are freakin’ nuts,” he whispered softly. “Darg has been destroyed by their orbital strikes! There’s not a single functioning space station! The area is controlled by Avatroid’s fleet!”

Dominic’s gaze began to cloud as he looked at me. His lips barely moved. “You need to destroy the communications station. If the Reapers get to it, they'll stop the colonial fleet. They’ll use remote commands to kill its engines. Millions of people... and their neurograms... sweet, helpless quarry.”

“No, Dominic, wait! Don’t you die on us!” I tried to help him but failed. His Adam’s apple jerked a few times. His head hung to one side. His stare glazed over.

Dead.

I couldn’t change that. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t swallow the lump in my throat. I wrapped Dominic’s body in Steel Mist and stepped aside. I avoided looking at Charon.

“Zander,” a few minutes later, Jurgen walked over to me.

“What is it?”

“I’ve checked the data he sent us.”

“And? Speak up, man!”

“These are the control codes to the Third Colonial Fleet. He gave them to us!”

* * *

The work space of the communications station was formed by three holographic images.

The first screen showed humanity’s fleet crossing the Kuiper belt, heading out of the Solar system — basically, going nowhere.

In another nineteen days, the Third Colonial Fleet’s on-board systems would relieve the current watch group, sending Vandal, Foggs, Novitsky and all the survivors of the Darg mission back into cryogenic slumber. The fleet’s communications stations would then kick back to life and transmit the identities of the next group of half-baked “colonists” to the Darg system via hyperspace.

I could clearly see what was going to happen next.

Badly damaged and drifting the outskirts of the Darg system, Eurasia wouldn’t be able to receive all the identity matrices. In which case, Founders’ equipment was going to automatically join in, using random respawn points — which more often than not were located in the wreckage.

Thousands of players would have to suffer the consequences of the “alternative start”. Believing they were playing a game, they would search for the game developers’ prompts in a desperate attempt to survive.

Not many would be lucky enough to live to tell the tale. There were few, if any, safe respawn points left. And neuroimplants knew no mercy.

“We need to deactivate the auto awakening program!” Foggs exclaimed. “Zander, at least my men aren’t new to this anymore! You can’t send them back into stasis! Who are you going to get instead?”

The mind boggles.

Who are you going to get instead?
— the snappy phrase met the others’ silent approval, forcing me to take one step forward out of our serried ranks. No one had bothered to ask me if I was ready to accept responsibility for millions of human lives.

“Good idea,” Charon added his approval. “Zander, the Haash will join you! Argus is a big station. Surely we’ll find some room there for my people too?” he lowered his head, awaiting my answer.

I just loved it! A doomed human fleet and the few remnants of the Haash civilization — and all you needed to do in order to save both from extinction was work out the mystery of interstellar jumps!

Quest alert! New quest available: The Chasm

Skills required: Pioneer, Colonizer

Ability required: Broken Chains

Quest requirements met.

Two civilizations are on the brink of extinction. Their representatives have officially sought your help. Find a way to save humans and the Haash.

You’ve received 100 AP (Action Points)

Deadline: none

How weird. I couldn’t find any further information about those mysterious Action Points. What were they for? Did I really need them?

And I’d thought that the game was over! Why, then, would my interface jump back to life, offering me a new quest? Who’d issued it?

It didn’t really matter. I had no need for moral crutches anymore. “Jurgen, is it really possible to deactivate the awakening protocol?”

“I don’t know yet,” he answered in all honesty. “But I’m gonna try. The fleet’s data exchange channel is stable enough. I have the necessary access codes.”

He gave me a funny look. “Zander, may I ask you about something? Could you stop issuing me quests, please? There’s no need for this gaming décor anymore.”

I stared at him, uncomprehending. “What kind of décor?”

“This!” he sent me the screenshot of a system message he’d just received,

Quest alert! New quest available: Stasis

Contact the Third Colonial Fleet’s flagship and abort the awakening protocol, leaving the crew in cryo in-mode capsules in permanent stasis.

Time left until completion: 19 days 2 hrs. 30 min

“Jurgen, just do it!”

“Do you think that the Founders’ interface came with a quest generator?” he asked. “But this would mean that-”

“Sorry, man, can we discuss it some other time?” I said, unable to shake off a chilling, unsettling foreboding. Why was I feeling so restless all of a sudden?

“Charon,” I asked, “the remaining Haash back on your planet, do they have neuroimplants?”

“
Nowr
,” he snapped. “Every single one we had was implanted in the crew members of the reconnaissance ship.”

“And cargonite stores, did you find any?”

“
Nowr
. Our second ship was equipped with the Founders’ communications device. We had to find the planet and report its coordinates,” he lowered his head in sorrow.

“How long can your people last?”

“Three full orbits.”

“What, only three years?!”

“By now, the second ship should be completed,” I’d never seen Charon so agitated. “Everyone should have already boarded it. We don’t have a stasis technology,” he explained. “But we’re naturally capable of hibernating. By lowering on-board temperature, everyone should have already fallen asleep. The ship is located on the planet’s surface and protected by a force shield which is powered by the on-board reactor. The reactor will last three full orbits!”

It’s all right. We’ll sort this out,
I told myself. Still, a chill ran down the back of my head. Not a pleasant feeling. Charon was only a wing leader. He wasn’t privy to the “sacred mystery”, as he’d put it. I still needed to make level 70 in Mnemotechnics to unlock my Global Network ability. Then I’d be able to scan the Haash system, contact their colonial transport and send them Argus’ coordinates.