Chapter 21 Minions of the Mountain King
'Probably the cleaning crew,' said Tenry peering up. The lights began to probe the platform overhead. 'Let's get out of their way,’ he added and kneeling down, braced himself against the rib to get leverage on hatch wheel.
Before I could find a place beside him we were bathed in light from above. The hatch door was thrown open and half blinded, we watched as three dark shapes glided onto the platform above us.
Two were large teardrop shaped objects festooned with assorted appendages and spot lights – heavy service maintenance/repair robots by their look and shape – the third was an angular human shaped avatar with a series of small flashing lights on its chest and face.
The avatar looked down to us, and its glowing eyes brightened. It pointed to us crouched below, which didn't strike me as a very welcoming gesture. If it spoke, it was lost in the hard vacuum.
'Scan to find its frequency,' said Tenry, but I was already reaching for my com.
'… ignored our last communication and its stated consequences,' came a strangely accented voice in Unity Standard from the helmet speaker. 'I am authorized to declare this intrusion a violation of Mountain King Directive Three which clearly stated that any further intrusions would be met with lethal force. Thus authorized, I withdraw your protected status.' This was followed by a flood of squeals, clicks and squeaks, the language of machines.
The avatar, who I assumed was doing the transmitting, made a sweeping gesture with its arm directing the service bots towards us. The robots fired their steering jets, drifting off the far side of the platform and down towards us. Again the humanoid shaped avatar pointed to us and the repair robots began a slow, rather clumsy maneuver to get under the edge of the platform to reach us.
'I didn't catch all it said, but what I did catch didn't sound very welcoming.'
'No, it didn't, Tenry said, and in his official Patrol voice, 'This is Patrol Boarding Boat Leader Tenry Roynay. I order you by the universal authority of Unity Law to cease all hostile actions. I repeat, stand down and await instructions.'
'Aux47 does not recognize Unity Authority. The Directorate of Machines has authorized lethal actions as defensive responses to attacks on sentient machines. Mountain King Alpha has issued Directive Three authorizing the use of lethal force. It has been posted. You have ignored it. It will now be enforced.'
The service robots were too large to reach us floating upright, they had come at us tilted at an angle...
I noted they each held a very large spanner in one of their appendages – far too large to adjust anything on my space suit, at least in any way I'd appreciate it.
'Do we want to stay and talk, Ten?'
'I don't think that would be advisable, Skipper. I suggest we conduct any further conversations from the far side of this rib. There's a gap here we can slip through and they can't,' said Tenry, pointing to a narrow black space between the rib and the inner bulkhead.
'Right' We had to scoot past the awkward service bots to reach the gap, but we made it just out of reach of their spanners and grabbing the edge of the rib, dove into the dark gap. There was a meter-wide gap between the rib and the inner bulkhead, spanned by support beams and half filled with pipes and ducts along the upper edge of the crew deck. We had just enough space to slip through into the next inner-rib space. This one was bare of any platforms or machinery until the next rib, some fifteen meters ahead. We jetted across. We could hear the machines communicating in their beeping, static-laced lingo in our earphones.
'Switch back to home frequency and scramble so we can talk,' said Tenry reaching for his com as we arrived at the next rib. I did the same.
'Right. They'll have to come around over the top,' said Tenry tersely glancing up to the blackness between the top of the crew deck and the ship's prow. It was high, wide and very open. 'Let's keep going and see if we can put some distance between us before we stop to talk again.'
'Over the top of the deck or between the ribs?' I asked, glancing up. There was more room overhead to use our jet packs.
'We need to find another lifeboat access point. Shouldn't be too far ahead. Let's just stay between the hulls so we don't miss it.'
'And? I'm open to suggestions.'
'If we have a clear chance, make for the hatch, get it open and get back to the gig... If not, find someplace near it with cover to make a stand. Try talking again.... but with plasma darts if necessary,' he rapped out as we slipped through the gap. 'We're dealing with sentient machines who can and will kill us, given a chance.'
'What are they doing here?' I asked as we slipped through. 'They're far outside of their treaty space. What can they be doing on this wreck?'
'I'm thinking they've always been here... we've stumbled on to something so old and out of touch that it may well think the strike is still going on. It could be the last striker.'
'Neb, it almost sounded like that, didn't it,’ I said, the light dawning. We'd emerged on the other side. I could see the stabbing beams of the robots in the space overhead. They were up and after us. 'Lights above. Would they really harm us?'
'If I'm right, yes. It got nasty on some worlds. We can't take chances. I'm not certain what effects our plasma darts will have on those bots; they're built to work in dangerous environments. Best aim for the sensors, they may have some disabling effect,' he said as we jetted across to the next rib.
'I'm unlikely even to hit 'em,'
'You will when they get close enough...'
'Bloody Neb,' I cursed. So far my panic level was yellow, still manageable. Once again I was lucky to have had someone cool and competent at my side.
'If what I'm thinking is right, the whole ship is a sentient ship, so the whole ship will be against us,' rapped Tenry as we slipped through the next narrow passage. 'We're just dealing with its mobile auxiliary units.'
'Neb and the Ninth Star! How can we stand against a ship?' I asked, pushing my way through the narrow passage.
'Can't. Just run like a quantum current. If we can make it to the gig we should be fine, it's still a derelict tug and can't do much outside of the hull.'
The next compartment was different – it was filled with environmental and plumbing equipment, pipes, vents and machinery. We must've reached the edge of crew section. I followed Tenry through the metal jungle. Quarters were too close for flying so we pulled, clawed and twisted our way through the maze of machinery, slowing us down considerably.
We reached the next rib. Had we lost too much of our lead?
'Risk it or stay here in cover and see if we can negotiate?' Tenry asked.
'Go,' I said and we dove through the gap together. Even with this cover, there was no point stopping before we found the next lifeboat access point and an exit to the engine room.
We found that the next section was indeed, another lifeboat access point like the first one. We didn't hesitate. I saw a flurry of moving lights above and behind us. But if the hatch opened easily, we could be through in half a minute or less, and we'd have some cover from the platform above the hatch.
'Rockets Away!' exclaimed Tenry, and fired his jet pack. I followed, hitting the power hard.
As soon as we started across the gap, the lights slashed down, spearing us in their glare. I dove for the far corner flying fast. It'd be a hard landing so I twisted, using my body and steering jets to swing around to absorb the shock with my legs and the full blast of the jet pack.
I saw a swirling vision of two dark shapes and streaking lights as I flipped. And the flash of the spanner striking my helmet, ringing it like a bell – the impact sent me spinning out of control. I ended up hitting the outer hull with my shoulder, recoiling a little and ricocheting into a heap just under the platform.
Lights spun around me – some in my head, others, bright blue ones, coming from the exploding plasma darts Tenry's darter was spitting out. They sheathed the robots in lightening, driving them back beyond into the darkness above the crew deck. And then Ten
ry was peering into my helmet.
'You okay?'
'I think so.' The clearsteel helmet was probably the best place to take a spanner hit, the clearsteel could take the impact (I saw the dent in the helmet above my left eye) and since the helmet is secured to the frame of my suit and jet pack the force of the impact was broadly absorbed by the suit. It would have broken bones if it had hit me anywhere else but the jet pack.
'Let's get this hatch open while they regroup!'
He let go of my suit and dove for the latch. I followed gingerly. I crouching down beside him to push against the wheel. My left shoulder shot darts of pain to my fingers. The wheel spun easier than the last one. We'd begun to lift the hatch open when I saw a flicker of movement from the corner of my eye. Glancing up my head lamp caught the outlines of three, four, maybe more dark shapes emerging from the blackness beyond the upper edge of the crew deck. They came in dark, lights off, and in assorted shapes, a collection of specialized repair and service bots wielding their favorite heavy tool, or two. They seemed ready and eager for a fight.
'They're back!' I exclaimed yanking the plasma darter from its holster, flipping the safety and opening fire. The field that drives the darts left glowing lines in the darkness allowing me to correct my rather wild initial shots, though to little effect. The bots reached the platform landing, close enough for me to hit their sensors, if I took careful aim, which I didn't, but since they were nearly on top of us, it was hard to miss them. The bright blue electric blasts of our shots etched spots on my retina as they hit the bots, all but blinding me. Service robots are designed for heavy duty work and built to be resilient to electrical damage, so our fire likely inflicted little damage on them. They are, however, programed to get clear of unchecked electrical discharges in the course of their normal duties and that programing must have kicked in just when we were in reach of their spanners and cutting tools, since they suddenly withdrew once more, leaving two units behind, floating out of control, a result, no doubt, of my shots hitting 'em in their sensors. We quickly returned to the hatch.
'Go,' I said as we freed it and swung it nearly upright. 'Right behind you.'
Tenry dove thorough the opening and I followed him into the engine room. No escape – there were robots streaming down the access well and swarming across the deck.
I twisted about to locate the freight lift shaft. It was, of course, on the far side of the wide deck beyond the robots, who, locating us, started for us in mass. Most were still of the repair and maintenance class, slow, stupid, and likely relying on centralized directions to direct their actions but I could see at least one of the more advanced avatars in the pack.
'Go low,' hissed Tenry, firing his jets and diving towards the deck.
I followed his lead. We stretched out, streaking half a meter above the deck, jets wide open. A long bar flashed towards me, hitting the deck ahead and bouncing, brushing my arm as I raced by. I caught a fleeting glimpse of several more avatar bots diving down the access well as I streaked by. We dodged around the control station and I caught a fleeting glimpse of one of the arrows Tenry had painted on the floor. I followed it.
I didn't look back until I neared the lift shaft and had to twist about and, rockets flaring, brake hard to make the sharp turn downwards. I glanced back at the straggling mob following us, perhaps three dozen bots armed with heavy tools led by half a dozen of the higher level avatar bots. We swung about and dove, head first, down the shaft, opening our jets wide again. Our jet packs gave us a speed advantage over our pursuers and we easily left them behind in the long, straight shaft. Still, whether that lead would be enough to get us aboard the gig without making another stand was an open question. I was optimistic enough, however, to exclaim softly, 'Rockets Away!'
Tenry turned and grinned. 'We're leading the charge, aren't we Pax?'
'Well, we're well in front.'
'I seemed to have lost connection with the ship,' Tenry noted.
It was quiet, no static, just Tenry and I breathing. 'Don't like that...'
'We'll deal with it.'
The lift was lit now, and we followed the lights down into the vast depths of the engine room. I saw tiny lights below, unsure if they were still shaft lights or more robots coming up from the depths of the engine room. After a minute or so we cut our jets and began looking for our beacon. We'd not want to miss it and find ourselves trapped at the bottom of the shaft. Several tools drifted slowly (relative to us) past us, tossed by the more enthusiastic robots of the mob above.
'Getting close, I think,' I said as we flashed past the pumps and engine top level. I swung to face up and began braking, the suit tugging at my back. Tenry did the same, splitting our attention between watching the light that I hoped was still there that marked the level that had the air lock and the intermediate rain of tools from above.
'There it is,' I exclaimed pointing. With the lift shaft now lit, it was hard to pick it out of all the lights that shown up through the gratings of the decks and catwalks below.
We lightly floated down the last fifty meters, but that was better than missing it. The robot gang was still a twinkling chorus of lights far above us. We'd likely had a minute's margin of error.
The cargo lock was closed tight when we reached it. Of course. No real surprise, the loss of contact with the ship had prepared us for that.
'I'll stand watch here and tickle some robots – see if you can get this lock open or find another way out,' said Ten. 'If need be, we can use my explosives, but that will take more time than we might want to spend here.'
'Right,' I turned to the air lock and quickly located the control panel. With power on, it should open. But with the ship awake and in charge, it probably won't. It didn't. No response at all. Of course.
Tenry had taken up his position at the edge of the shaft and was sending blue streaks of light upwards. Glancing up through the grating of the overhead decks, I could see the resulting electrical storm high above. I flashed my torch into the dark nooks beside the lock. There had to be other ways out. Since the double hull in the engine room was very narrow, the cargo lock extended fifteen meters into the engine room from the outer hulls. Tucked up against the cargo lock where it met the outer hull, my torch located a smaller, personnel airlock. It had a manual locking wheel that should be independent of the ship's control. I hurried over and braced myself to give it an upward push. It was stiff, but it spun open. Heart racing, I pulled the airlock door open and raced to the outer door. It also had a manual locking wheel, but the fail-safe wouldn't let me open it with inner door still open.
I called to Tenry, 'Found a personnel air lock on the far side of the cargo lock. The outer door won't open with the inner open. Fail-safe, probably, though it could be the ship.'
'Right there,' he replied. A moment later he came skidding around the cargo lock holding a big spanner. 'Wedge this in the open door. I'll blow the outer door. Hold the fort,' he added, as he settled close to the outer door, digging into his satchel for his explosive charges.
I jammed the spanner into the door hinge gap and reached the jutting corner of cargo lock just in time to see a rain of robots from the lift shaft floating by, the ones that had seemed to have called it a day. I upped the charge and velocity of my darts and bracing my darter on one of the lock hinges I waited for the operational ones to make it down. When the ones with lights started arriving and veering onto the deck, I opened fire. Even hit a few. Some of their lights went out. There's a flash behind me.
'Open Skipper. Withdraw at your convenience. Get to the gig. I'll cover your retreat from outside the airlock.'
'Right,' I replied, let loose a final volley and withdrew to the airlock. I paused to yank the spanner from the inner door and pull it shut, spinning the lock. The outer door was open, hanging by a single hinge. Tenry was peering over the edge, darter in hand. He gave me a thumbs up as I passed.
To my great relief, the gig was untouched. I quickly undid the safety lines and jetted up to
the airlock, keyed it open and called, 'Let's get the Bloody Neb out of here.'
Tenry rose, and made the gig in one carefully timed lunge.
As the gig pulled away, the freight lock opened spewing a horde of spanner bandying robots. Tenry smiled and sighs, 'Well, that was interesting.'