Chapter 18
John Doe
She'd collapsed. He'd seen the impediment field try to hold her in place, he'd seen it grow in intensity, smelt it as it had started to burn her flesh.
His stomach had given such a kick in that second that he had twitched forward, his boots squeaking against the floor.
Now he was on his knees beside her. And yes, he was pulling rank. He didn't care if it started a diplomatic firestorm; John was done seeing the Chief turn a blind eye to this woman's pain.
‘Computer, override access, authorization Commander John Doe. Tell me now her life signs. Is she—’ he began.
But John never got to finish his sentence.
Because something screamed.
From the other side of the room, right by the service elevators, something stretched up, opened its enormous mouth, and let out a sound half way between a bellow and the noise of metal cracking under weight.
John ducked to the side, bringing up his helmet in a second, calling the Pegasus in the next.
Eyes locked on the thing by the elevators, his heart plunged through his chest and right out of the building.
Old Tech.
Holy freaking hell.
He'd seen it on the way in. But of course he'd hardly paid any attention. He'd seen statues like that on numerous planets throughout the universe. It was exceedingly common to have a throwback to the Old Ones sitting around your security compound or propped up on your senator's desk. The stuff didn't work, of course; the devices that had any residual charge were safeguarded by the Union. But the other stuff considered too common and too sucked dry to ever be worth much, was kept as nothing more than trophies. By the rich and powerful of course - if some slum dweller got their hands on a device, they would find it quickly confiscated. But Central Security on Orion Minor was probably considered secure enough to have a honking great Old Tech device sitting next to the elevators.
John's eyes were plastered open, his jaw slack. He couldn't have closed it if he'd tried.
The device took a step forward. No, that wasn't entirely right. First it unwound itself. Before it had suddenly managed to turn itself on, it had been a squat-looking box no more than two meters across and one meter high. It had a dark blue and white metallic finish, and, to be honest, it was an example of Old Tech John had seen numerous times. They were dotted all over the place.
It really hadn't deserved a second glance. Well now it had John's second glance, in fact it had all of his pressed attention as the thing took another step forward.
In seconds it had unwound itself from the box, drawing up into a robot a good ten meters tall. Its legs and chest and arms and head were not smooth and cylindrical, mimicking the body of a soft-flesh alien like the security bots behind John. No, this thing was jagged; the metal stuck out at angles, all different colors and shapes. Spikes and shards of it shifted over the surface of the robot, darting this way and that, swimming over its chest and forearms as they eventually slammed into place.
It was like watching a robot growing. In fact, it was exactly like watching a robot growing; because as John stared on, mouth slack and dry, that was precisely what was occurring.
The thing did not have eyes, then the next second two eye holes bored right into its head and two pin pricks of light no bigger than his thumbs pierced into place. Shards of metal still shifted around all over its torso and limbs as they apparently raced to find their places on the nascent device.
As the thing pulled itself up to its full height, it gave another scream. Plunging its head forward, its mouth opening, more shards of metal moving around and through it, it let out the most harrowing of calls John had ever heard. It grated and roared and echoed through the room.
‘Oh my god,’ John heard Alice say from beside him.
He'd already jumped up to his feet. But in that second he shifted his gaze to her.
She was trying to pick herself up from the ground, but the impediment field was still strong around her. He could see it frantically crackling over her skin, see it as it appeared to push her down, trying to keep her locked in place.
John turned back to the giant robot in time to see it take one enormous step, one of its metallic legs punching through a consol. It burst into sparks, electricity playing up the leg of the robot, but not once did it shift back or jostle from the discharge. It just leaned down, opened that gaping mouth, and let out another scream.
Everyone in the room, from the criminals to the security officers to John, seemed frozen on the spot.
Something that had been a statue for probably more than 100,000 years had suddenly come back to life. No warning. Nothing.
This was not meant to be possible.
John finally got hold of his jaw, locking it closed. Who cared if it was possible? It was happening.
Reaching behind him, John grabbed the gun that had been synthesized when his armor had been manufactured right onto him up on the Pegasus. He pulled it off in a quick but smooth movement, thumbing the switch that told the plasma core to build up a devastating charge.
He did not bother to tell the robot to stop, he just dodged to the side, brought his gun up, and shot right at the main security console to his left.
John had not suddenly lost his mind. Upon seeing the giant robot come to life he hadn't automatically decided it was a great time to start trashing the building.
He knew that the quickest way to get the computer to kick into defensive mode was to assault the main bank.
As soon as the shot from his gun, hot and white, rammed into the console, blistering the front panel, but not pushing through the hardware underneath, the lights cut to half illumination.
As they did, security fields popped up around all the systems in the room, from the bio scanner to the computer core, to the processing desk.
‘Get everyone in the fields,’ John screamed, voice booming out with the assistance of his armor.
As he finished, the robot turned in his direction, leaned down again and let out another ferocious scream. It saw the blood drain from John's face, his fingers stiffen and crinkle, and his heart skip a beat.
It did not stop him however from turning on his foot so fast that his boot might as well have caused the floor to catch fire. He dropped to his knee and waved his arm over the woman. She was still desperately trying to get onto her feet. Her hands losing purchase, her legs and knees kicking out, no matter how hard she tried to stand, the impediment field pinned her down with all the force it could muster.
As John waved his hand over her, he tried to access the ICN, tried to override the field.
Though he had made a call to the Pegasus as soon as the robot had come to life, he had not said anything and neither had they. They were his team and they were professionals. The second he established connection, they would have picked up the visual field of his armor, played it back through the holo emitters on the bridge, and then they would have been smart enough to realize now was not the time to interrupt their commander. Hopefully they would be making all the right calls, warning the authorities, and wracking their brilliant brains for a way to shut down the Old Tech robot before it could trash the entire Block.
But right now John had to ensure the safety of everyone else in the room. As his hand still hovered above the woman, he turned to his left, darting his gaze around the room. Fortunately people were doing what he'd said; the assembled security officers and bots were shoeing everyone else behind the enormous and very powerful force fields that were designed to protect Central Security primary systems. They were probably the most advanced technology on the planet this side of the ICN. The Union, after all, always ensured to keep security as a top priority; food, housing, education, and all of those other things that made life livable were luxuries it did not waste on backwater planets.
Fortunately the security fields locking down the systems were smart enough to recognize the life signs of the officers, and the officers could shepherd the criminals and whatnot unlucky enough to be
in the room right now behind the fields.
Which just left John and the woman. The security field around the bio scanner did not reach her. It was a tantalizing centimeter to her left.
He had to shut down the impediment field and haul her through it before that robot started to get violent. And one look at those pin prick eyes and the metal constantly shifting over its body, changing place and changing shape, told John this situation could only end in one way.
‘Come on,’ he growled, shifting his hand, spreading the fingers wide, and plunging his concentration into the task. There was nothing wrong with his neural link; he had full access to the ICN, and his authorization codes were more than sufficient to deactivate the field, and yet he couldn't.
His armor kept registering some kind of feedback, and it was interfering with his link so much that his request wasn't getting through.
‘Commander, leave her,’ the Chief snapped. He was already safely behind the bio scanner force field, his deputies and officers crammed in with him. He waved a spiked-hand John's way.
John was not going to leave her. He turned on his foot, not moving his hand as it locked in place about 10 centimeters above her right shoulder. She kept on bucking up and down, scampering, trying to gain enough purchase to push herself up. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to push past the impediment field.
‘Come on,’ John half-screamed, his voice a tight croak.
He watched the robot, it twisted its head in all directions, those electronic eyes focusing in on the various security fields that had slammed up around critical systems. His eyes narrowed in on the people and robots crammed behind them, and John could see metallic circles shift underneath the red light of its gaze, focusing in just like a human pupil would.
When it had popped out of its box, the robot had seemed instinctual and full of rage. But as the seconds passed, something far worse was happening. Angry and big John could deal with. But as he watched the robot, intelligence seemed to be growing behind its laser-like vision.
Sweat collecting above his top lip, shoulders tensing and locking, John kept his gaze focused on the robot as his hand hovered over the woman. ‘Come on,’ he screamed again.
For a second the robot stared right at John. Then one of its enormous metallic nostrils, that was little more than a slit, shifted up in a snap. Once again small metal shards shifted in and out over its face and nose, imbedding themselves with a metallic clang only to shift around again a second later.
The vision of it sniffing the air reached in and grabbed at John's hind brain. It was such an animalistic thing to do.
It sniffed the air again, then its electronic eyes darted across the room. They finally settled on the ground. It bent right down, its enormous body twitching in half, in a furious, incredibly fast snap. It plunged a hand right into the ground, the floor buckling and snapping around it.
It was then that John noticed the faint white-blue line.
The robot locked eyes on it. Its head snapped up as it appeared to follow the line.
Then it moved.
Faster than John could have imagined.
Right at him.
John had time to let off one round. Right at the thing’s chest. It landed, but that was it. It did not stop it, it did not harm it. It did nothing. The blast was simply absorbed into the thing's massive chest. Bits of metal sloughed off, flew out, but then changed direction and landed against its arms and face, sinking into them, shifting back down, then closing up the hole in the chest. It took less than half a second.
Then the robot reached him, it brought one of its arms around and swatted at John.
Just in time he rolled to the side, but his gun was not so lucky. As the robot's arm swept past John's body, his gun lurched from his grip and slammed right into it. It must have had some kind of fantastic magnetic pull, and within seconds the gun began to break up and become absorbed into the body of the robot.
As John rolled away, he had to lock his boots onto the ground, forming a mag lock. Now the robot was closer, it felt as if John would be sucked off his feet and pulled towards it. The force was incredible.
But it was not enough to distract John from what happened next.
The robot reached down to the woman, locked one of its shifting hands around her neck and lifted her off the floor.
As it did the impediment field exploded, sending ripples of energy washing over the woman and crackling up the robot's arm. Once again it did not seem to affect the thing at all.
‘Leave her alone,’ John tried. But he could hardly make his voice be heard; the effort of locking his boots in place so his armor wasn't sucked towards the magnetic field of the robot was taking all his energy.
The robot's grip tightened around the woman's neck and it gave another scream as it brought its face close to her own.
Somehow she was still alive, still fighting. Though she had screamed in pain when the impediment field had exploded over her, her legs still kicked and she had her hands locked over the robot's giant fingers.
John had to do something. Anything. If he didn't, the woman would die, then the robot would continue its rampage.
‘Get me a transport lock,’ John screamed through his implant, contacting the Pegasus, as he stared on helplessly at the dangling woman.
‘John, we can't; the transporter is going haywire every time we try to establish coordinates anywhere near you,’ Parka replied. Her voice was trilling with exasperation and fear. For a woman who usually took exploding stars and pirate wars in her stride, it was a testament to how fraught and dangerous this situation had become.
‘Have to do . . . something,’ John managed. As his armor threatened to lose lock on the floor, he was using all of his concentration to stop it from happening.
‘We've contacted one of the heavy cruisers in the system, they are redirecting. They've got mining transport beams. We can use it to lock onto the robot and beam it into space. Hopefully,’ Parka added under her breath. ‘Two minutes until they are in range.’
Two minutes. The woman did not have two minutes.
‘Based on calculations, the security fields down there will hold for that long, and the robot shouldn't be able to make it up to one of the higher levels before then. Just hold on, John,’ Parka gasped.
She didn't have that long.
‘Let her go,’ he tried one last time.
The robot would not.