The Machine Awakes (42 page)

“Negative,” said Cait. “It's possible the Freezer is within Jupiter's magnetosphere. We'll need to go in after him.”

“We don't even know where he is, exactly.”

Shit.
Avalon was right. Kodiak's shuttle had followed Braben down. The coordinates were still a mystery, and Glass, isolated from the rest of the JMC, wasn't able to decode them or to tell them what the secret Caviezel facility was, or
where.
All they knew was that it was somewhere in the Jovian system.

Cait leaned back in the co-pilot's chair.

Twelve minutes. Twelve minutes and help would be here. Cait screwed her eyes tight, watching the shapes dance on the backs of her eyelids, willing her talent to come back, to reach out and propel the Fleet arrowhead across the arc of quickspace that lay between the Earth and Jupiter. All she got for her efforts was a slight thump of pain across her temples and a tingling sensation down her arms.

Well, that was something, at least. She opened her eyes and looked at her arms, stretching her fingers out, as though that would amplify the effect.

Then she looked up, distracted by—

“What's that?” she asked.

It was a clicking sound. Cait and Glass looked at each other. Then Cait looked behind her, a sudden feeling that they weren't alone in the shuttle sending a pang of fear coursing through her.

“Do you read me?” asked Avalon. The chief's voice crackled along with the clicking, which was growing stronger and stronger. Cait turned back to the console. The sound was coming from the comm itself. Glancing at the controls, she saw the signal indicator flicker between green and orange, in time with the interference.

Growing louder, and louder, and louder.

“Commander Avalon, can you hear that?”

“We're getting … ference. Can yo … peat … ext power…”

The comms were crawling with the sound.

The sound of the Spiders.

Cait's eyes were drawn to the lightspeed link indicator, flashing more and more as the system struggled to maintain the connection to Earth under the strain of the data transfer …

Data transfer
.

“Kill the link!” Cait yelled. Glass looked at her. Cait cried out in frustration and hit the controls, but nothing happened. The cockpit was filled with the Spider chatter, loud enough to be deafening.

The lightspeed link was stuck open. Cait had to act, and act fast. She grabbed the staser from Glass's belt, ignoring the brilliant flare of pain the sudden movement caused. At point-blank range she fired three bolts into the control deck. Immediately an alarm sounded as half of the panel exploded in a shower of spark and flame, filling the cockpit with smoke. Cait waved it away, her battered body wracked with coughs. Finally the air cleared as the shuttle's environment systems pumped the smoke out.

Cait blinked at the melted, shattered control panel. “Well, that shut the lightspeed link off, anyway.”

Glass peered at the damage, then tapped at the pilot's control. “Control systems disabled. Autopilot offline. Manual controls non-responsive.”

He turned to Cait like he was waiting for an explanation.

She slumped back in the chair, letting the staser fall to the floor beside her. “The shuttle was acting as a relay—just close enough to the edge of the magnetosphere to pull in an echo of the Spider OS. I probably amplified it through my mind without even knowing. Then with the lightspeed link open it had a clear line to Earth and had tried to transfer itself to the system at the other end. I just hope we cut it off in time.”

She looked at the console again. She'd acted quickly, without thinking. She only hoped she'd been fast enough. If the Spider AI had managed to get back to Avalon's ship, currently hurtling itself through the interstitial gap between dimension to reach their location …

Glass flicked an undamaged switch on the console. A screen flickered briefly, then went dark. He looked at Cait and frowned. “I'm afraid we aren't going anywhere, Ms. Smith.”

Okay. Okay, okay, okay. She gave the servitor a nod. “Then we just wait until the Fleet picks us up. Hopefully Kodiak can get back and—”

He's here.

Cait sat bolt upright, gasping in pain that soon faded as a fresh surge of adrenaline hit. She turned to the servitor sitting next to her, eyes wide. “What?”

“I didn't say anything, Ms. Smith.”

Kodiak is alive, don't worry.

Cait's heart raced. The voice in her head was distant and echoed, but was unmistakable.

The voice of her brother.

“Tyler?”

Hey, sis.

“Where are you?”

They call it the Freezer. Had a little run-in with a Spider.

“What?” They'd been right. The Freezer was the source of the infection. The Spiders were there.

A million thoughts entered Cait's mind. She fought to clear them, to focus on the here and now, aware that the infinite babble in her head was likely to confuse and disorient Tyler.

“Are you okay?”

Yeah, don't worry. We both are—all thanks to your friend.

Cait smiled.

Listen, sis. We need your help to get out of here though. Okay?

“Okay,” said Cait, “but listen, I'm hurt, and not very strong. I'm having to speak aloud just for you to hear my thoughts.”

Are you okay?

“Mostly. Better once the Fleet arrives.”

Okay. But we need to do this. Will you try?

“What? Of course.”

Okay. Good. Turn off the viewscreen. Lie down. Can you go somewhere quiet?

“What are we doing?”

We're going to form a gestalt. You're far away, but that servitor with you, Glass, is doing his best to boost the signal.

Cait looked at the servitor. He nodded, a friendly smile playing over his lips.

“A gestalt. Okay.” Psychic warfare. Exactly what she and her brother had been at the Academy for. Except she hadn't finished her training.

No. She pushed the thought away. She was more than capable, she knew she was. She was powerful. She was a
warrior.

She could do this.

She
had
to do this.

Yes, you can do this.

Cait smiled.

I need you to concentrate. You need to be able to cut yourself off from the real world.

“I know, I know.”

Glass turned in the pilot's chair and pointed toward the rear of the cockpit. Cait gingerly moved her own seat around. There, behind the flight positions, was the stasis pod her brother had been transported in.

Cait looked at Glass, a frown on her face. “Won't that cut me off from Tyler?”

The servitor stood and moved over to the pod. He popped a side panel, revealing a simple set of controls. “The psychic shielding can be disabled, leaving just sensory deprivation.”

“Like an isolation chamber?” Cait smiled. Brilliant. She gave thanks to any deities listening that Kodiak had picked Braben's shuttle by mistake.

“Tyler, I've got something, don't worry.”

Great, sis. Now, let's get to work.

 

44

Commander Laurel Avalon gripped
the back of the captain's chair on the deck of the U-Star
Ultramassive
as the Fleet destroyer exited quickspace ten million klicks out from Jupiter. The pink-and-blue kaleidoscope on the forward viewscreen cleared to show the planet ahead, a beautiful jewel in terracotta hues hanging in an almost featureless blackness. In the chair itself, Captain Henrietta Gartner began punching a sequence on the armrest as her crew, seated in the control pits sunk into the flight deck around the central platform, reported their status.

“Arrowhead assembled,” said one of the pilots, while next to him another FlyEye began reading off data coming in on the ship's forward sensors.

“Identifying targets. Heavy magnetic interference surrounding the Jovian system.”

“Acknowledged,” said Gartner. She turned her chair slightly and looked up at Avalon. “This is your show. Just say the word.”

The chief nodded, and considered her options.

Despite her rank, trips out on U-Stars were a rare occurrence for her—or perhaps it was
because
of her rank, which had confined her duties mostly to the offices of the Fleet Bureau. Being out on a mission—a
combat
mission—made her … not nervous, exactly. Anxious perhaps. There was a quiet buzz on the
Ultramassive
's bridge, the anticipation of the task ahead of them, of what they might encounter. Captain Gartner was a veteran of many battles, a commended officer who had earned her position leading a Fleet arrowhead of thirteen ships. The
Ultramassive,
at the head, was one of the larger and more powerful of the Fleet's armada. For that, Avalon was grateful. The Bureau Chief was in safe hands with Gartner, and was well protected within the
Ultramassive.

And now the captain was asking
her
what she wanted to do. Official courtesy between branches of the Fleet, Avalon assumed—she outranked Gartner by quite a margin, but there was no direct line of command between them.

But she trusted Gartner. She was hard-nosed, experienced—she even
looked
it, her steel gray hair razor short, her gray eyes sharp, her manner speaking volumes about efficiency, about leadership.

Avalon wished she shared more of those qualities herself.

But, for the moment, she was in charge. First item: secure the area, secure Fleet assets.

Avalon nodded at the captain. “Locate Smith's shuttle and go in for pick-up.”

“Yes, ma'am,” said the captain. She turned her chair back around and gave the order. “Find the U-Star
Cassilda
and plot an intercept.”

“Yes, ma'am,” said the pilot.

Avalon glanced up. The viewscreens of the
Ultramassive
extended from the nose of the bridge up over the platform on which the captain's chair sat, curving back to provide a direct rear view. Slightly behind and above them was the keel of another U-Star, and in line with that ship, two more to both the left and right. The same formation was repeated underneath them, and two more followed in single file behind, bringing the arrowhead to thirteen ships with the
Ultramassive
at the point. It was a formidable force, but Avalon only hoped it was enough. They were here to fight a Spider. Just a single machine, according to Caitlin Smith's report, but even that was a formidable foe. Just one of the alien machines had destroyed the moon and left an entire hemisphere of Earth a smoking wasteland. Another Spider this close to Earth was bad,
bad
news.

“Shuttle located,” said the FlyEye from her position below and to Avalon's right. “ID is U-Star …
Selene.
”

Captain Gartner looked up at Avalon, but Avalon nodded. “Pull it in,” she said. “It's the missing Bureau shuttle.”

Gartner confirmed the order, then turned back to the chief. “The one your rogue agent took?”

“Mike Braben, yes,” said Avalon.

The FlyEye read out the approach vector, and the U-Stars above Avalon's head slid out of sight as the
Ultramassive
moved in to collect the shuttle. Ahead, a bright spot appeared on the left-hand side; the destroyer's computer locked on and drew a vector to it across the viewscreen, labeling the target as the U-Star
Selene.

Avalon watched the shuttle grow larger. Kodiak had followed Braben down to the JMC's secret facility, which meant this shuttle contained Caitlin Smith.

The comms operator called out from the other side of the control pit. “Communications received from the U-Star
Selene.
”

“Put it through,” said Gartner.

Seconds passed. Gartner and Avalon exchanged a look; then the captain stood from her chair and moved over to stand above the comm position.

“Confirm comm, operator.”

“Ah, correction, ma'am,” the FlyEye reported. “Transmission is not on the comm. The shuttle is drifting and the automated systems are not responding to our call, but we are getting a signal coming through a short-range guidance channel.”

“Automated distress call?”

“Negative, Captain. It's a pulse code. Decrypting now.”

Gartner moved back to her command chair. Avalon watched as the captain sat down and flicked a switch on the arm.

The shuttle was damaged, although it looked intact. Avalon thought back to her conversation with Caitlin, and how the signal had cut out suddenly. Something had gone wrong aboard. She only hoped Caitlin was still alive.

The bridge was filled with a low rumble. Then a voice spoke, distorted but audible.

“Hello, Commander Avalon?”

It was male. Avalon took a step forward, frowning, her eyes on the vector plots traced across the viewscreens. Whoever that was, they were on the shuttle with Cait.

“Commander Avalon speaking. Who is this?”

“You can call me Glass, Commander.”

“Glass?” The name Cait had known for the servitor Braben had shot. How he—it—was apparently on the shuttle was a question Avalon pushed out of her mind for now. “Where's—”

“Caitlin Smith is with me, and she's fine. Kodiak and Caitlin's brother Tyler are down on Europa.”

“Europa?”

“Don't worry, we're handling it.”

Avalon turned to face Captain Gartner. Gartner's brows were furrowed as she listened.

“What do you mean, you're handling it?” asked Avalon. “According to our sensors your shuttle is disabled. Stand by, we can come and collect you—”

“We are not your priority, Commander,” said Glass. “We can wait. You need to get to Jupiter. The Spider war machine is active and has already taken out the JMC refinery. Your priority has to be to stop it from leaving the Jovian system. When the threat is eliminated, you can collect us and the others.”