Chapter 5
Alice
Alice zoomed past a group of Barkas massing around a tiny Garpa alien. If she hadn't known better, she would have though the cute, almost cherub-like Garpa was in trouble. Years of life on Orion Minor had taught her differently. No doubt the Garpa was trying to swindle the Barkas. And if it didn't work, it would probably grab at its electric rod and send the group flying into the smart glass high above.
That was the thing about the galaxy, the universe even - appearances were misleading.
Gritting her teeth, Alice was a living reminder of that. A small alien herself, and one that looked like she couldn't protect herself from a Barka fly, she could take on half the security forces of the planet if she had to.
She just really, really hoped it wouldn't come to that.
As Alice ran, she closed her eyes. While that was a move not recommended to the softer races, it did not affect her speed, agility, or ability to dodge around the junk that littered the narrow corridor. She still sailed right over a broken crate of ship bolts, she still ran straight past a swarm of tiny spider-like aliens.
With her eyes closed, she tried to concentrate though.
She tried to integrate with the ICN. She never, never usually did this. It was such a risk.
But she could tell the guy was hot on her heels. She could also tell that he'd taken the time to upgrade. She'd heard it, she'd smelt it, and heck, she'd picked up on the electromagnetic surge as the ICN had redirected its power to knit him armor.
Curling her lips up in a sharp move, Alice swore bitterly.
Why him? Why the hell had it been John Doe? Not only would he know all about Old Tech, but unlike most of the other security forces you found down on the lower levels of Orion Minor, he would have access to high-level upgrades. If he was in the mood, he could tell the ICN to break down half of the building in order to knit him armor capable of smashing through a whole ship. It could make him a third-generation plasma coil gun within a minute, it could generate an impediment force field around his body, ensuring all objects within a ten meter radius ground to a halt, living, dead, or never alive.
Swearing again, Alice accessed the ICN. She would trip a circuit in doing so; there was no way around it.
She didn't have the choice.
Alice, still with her eyes closed, ran towards the airlock that led out onto the outside promenade. When she reached it, she didn't stop; she flung it open, refusing to wait for the computer to utilize the dying, dried-up mechanism to shift the 500 kilogram door in a minute.
She didn't even break a sweat.
From 30 meters behind her, she heard someone swear. It sounded impressed. It also sounded like John Doe.
She jumped through the door, dropping and rolling as she did, coming right under the legs of a rock warrior. The creature was massive, and each of its three legs had the girth of a small transport. If she'd ran right into one, even Alice would have doubled back.
The promenade was a large open area that ran around this level of Alpha block. While the weather on Orion Minor was decidedly un-tropical, there were enough weather fields in place to ensure a constant habitable climate for all the residents inside the block. Or at least that was the theory. While the fields on the higher levels were always maintained, down here they'd only get around to fixing them when the cold and salt-laced wind threatened to chew through the lower levels and topple the entire structure.
One of the fields was clearly malfunctioning right now, because Alice could taste the salt shifting through the air. She could also feel the distinct drop in temperature. But while it might have sent a softer race reeling back inside before their eyebrows froze over and dropped off, Alice simply redirected energy into her skin.
She could take more, much more than this.
Which was a good thing, because that's when she heard something.
She'd snapped her eyes open when she'd yanked the door open, but just for a moment she had allowed them to close again.
She didn't have a lot of time here. John Doe, it seemed, was intent on catching her. The Union Commander obviously hated the idea of scum running free.
‘Come on,’ she snapped under her breath.
If she hadn't been so flustered and on the run from the security forces, she would have integrated with the ICN in a snap.
In fact, it would have welcomed her back with open arms. Because no matter how much the Union had changed it, underneath their downgrades and replacements, the technology was still Old.
And so was Alice.
Finally Alice was in. There wasn't a click or a snap, but there was a buzz. Just for a second every single computer circuit on the entire block suddenly whirred into life, glowed bright, then dimmed in a snap.
Several of the aliens standing around her saw it, and they all shifted their heads around, expressions surprised. One or two mumbled something about a fluctuation in the power grid.
That had been no fluctuation. And it was probably time to stop standing around.
Alice brought up a hand and shifted her face to the side.
It was just in time.
One by one, the weather fields protecting the block started to shut down.
It started at the top of the building, then descended, gaining speed, the low whir of the fields snapping off echoing around the promenade.
Alice didn't smile, she didn't even let out a satisfied puff of air.
It wasn't over yet. But she just had put a dent in John Doe's plan.
With the weather fields shut down, Block Alpha was now at the mercy of the freezing, incredibly strong winds of Orion Minor. And if the winds weren't enough, sometimes there was so much salt being carried on them that the crystals were large enough and moving fast enough to scratch metal, let alone shred flesh.
Fortunately the shields had shut down slow enough that every alien on the promenade had ducked for an airlock in seconds, leaving only Alice standing on her own.
Alice didn't even bother to shrug further into her hood. She always wore it, and it was a fact she was now truly thankful for. Throughout their entire altercation, John Doe would never have clapped eyes on her face. It was, after all, no ordinary hood. Alice had never had much money, but she was the last of the most sophisticated of races ever to have lived in the universe, and that came with its perks. She usually shunned her own technology, knowing the risks of someone else ever seeing she could operate it, but this hood was her mainstay. From the outside it looked like a thick blue fabric that, while warm, was not fancy. It always sat just below her eyes, her nose, lips and chin the only thing in view as she tramped around the lower levels of the slums. But appearances were misleading, very misleading when it came to her simple blue hood. It actively disrupted in-depth biological scans. It also sent out a field that confused biologicals. However subtly, her cloak would obscure memories of her face. Especially amongst the soft races. And little John Doe was, despite his heroic tendencies, still a softy.
As the wind howled over the promenade, it brought its salt-laden bounty crashing into everything around. Alice could feel the brunt of it as it tickled along the skin of her exposed arms and cheeks, but it did not shred her to pieces.
‘God, I can't believe I'm considering this,’ she mumbled to herself as she took an enormous breath.
And then Alice stopped breathing. She also ran forward, right at the railing that ran around the promenade. The railing that it would have been impossible to fling herself off when the weather fields had all been operating. But the railing that now invited one to fall a good three kilometers down to the ice and salt covered surface of the planet below.
‘Stop,’ someone bellowed from behind her. That someone was John. His voice, still bolstered by the ICN, rang around the entire promenade, managing to arc high even over the roar of the wind.
Maybe Alice hesitated for just a second, the thought of what she was about to do shaking through her, but she did not stop.
Alice ran at the railing.
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