AMP Colossus (22 page)

I replied, "Casualties of war, Duke, if we don’t receive full cooperation. Now, we noticed when we were looking through your systems that you have a decent-sized hydrogen store on this ship. We are going to be pulling a harvester alongside and taking that fuel. We will also be moving this ship within range of the Grid, where we will strip it of its resources. In the meanwhile, our intel people are going to have a field day trying to figure you out. What do you think of that?"

The Duke again smiled. "Mr. Grange, as I said, I am already several steps ahead of you."

An alarm then sounded on the bridge.

York moved over to a control panel and looked up. "Self-destruct, Sir; had to see that one coming. We have five minutes to get off this boat."

I opened a comm channel to all my squads. "Everyone to bay seven. We will take out the Duke’s shuttle. And Corporal Keith, space the crew. We can’t have them overriding the systems once we leave. They would inevitably attempt to rescue the Duke."

The Duke spoke. "Mr. Grange! I didn’t think you had it in you."

I replied, "You already killed them, Duke; I just sped up the process. Now let’s move before this ship blows. You can come peaceably, or we will carry you. Your choice."

The Duke held up his hand and began to walk. "I will cooperate, Mr. Grange. I am fascinated by your actions and cannot wait to see what happens next!"

I spoke. "You are a strange one, Duke, but we will figure you out before it’s all said and done."

We boarded the Duke's private shuttle, and Rodriguez soon had us past the gravity wall and into free space. "We should have someone check out this ship before docking, Sir. He might…"

An alarm began to sound on the console of the shuttle. The Duke had triggered another self-destruct. One of the Marines moved quickly towards him and was met with a balled fist to the center of his chest. The Marine flew back violently.

The Duke spoke. "More than one step ahead of you, Mr. Grange!"

Frost raised her blaster and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

The Duke spoke over the alarm. "Ion field dampener, Mr. Grange! Certainly you can do better!"

York charged at the Duke and was met with a clinching hand to her collarbone. A snap could be heard, but York pressed forward, her prosthetic arm gripping the Duke’s wrist. As York's prosthetic hand clamped down and began to tighten, the Duke’s wrist was crushed. Seconds later, the Duke pulled back a stump with fluid leaking and wires dangling.

The Duke exclaimed, "Ah! An android of your own! You are indeed full of surprises, Mr. Grange!"

York stumbled backwards, wincing in pain from the crushed collarbone. Frost stepped forward with a sawed-off shotgun and fired.

Boom!

A hole opened in the Duke’s chest, and more fluids began to leak.

Boom! Boom!

The Duke dropped to his knees. "Well done, Mr. Grange! But you still have a critical problem coming your way!"

The Duke reached up. With a twist of his remaining hand on his neck, his head was separated from his body. He held it out to his side and set it down on a flat portion of the console. The tendrils on his head continued to wiggle.

The Duke smiled and spoke. "Again, another turn I was not expecting, Mr. Grange. I don’t know how this soldier kept that weapon hidden, but I am enjoying the fight that it brings!"

I sat in a chair by a nav console. "So, you have no fear because you are an android yourself. I’ll have to admit that I did not see that one coming, Duke. I suppose there are copies of you out there just waiting to be activated?"

The Duke again smiled. "Bravo, Mr. Grange! Bravo! I still await your way out of this mess you find yourself in. How will you survive?"

I stood from the nav console. "Rodriguez, put us into a slow arc going away from the Grid. We have our battle suits, which will keep us going out there in the dead of space. The Grid will just have to send someone out to pick us up. We will be leaving now, Duke. We will survive."

The Duke rolled his eyes. "Mr. Grange. Always behind. Do you not realize that all I have to do is immediately trigger the autodestruct? You and your soldiers will die by my—"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Fluid and bits of biomaterial splattered on the cockpit windshield behind where the Duke’s head had been sitting.

Frost stood with a smile on her face. "We aren’t soldiers, you mechanical ass! We are Marines!"

With under a minute to go, we exited the shuttle and floated helplessly in space. As the shuttle arced away, it detonated in a bright fury of light. Several small private ships were soon out to bring us to safety.

When we arrived back in Alpha Bay, Ashley was waiting. "You look a little disheveled, Don. I can’t wait to hear of the trouble you have been in. But I am extremely happy to see you home."

I replied, "Trouble isn’t the half of it. We have a big fleet coming this way any day now. Let’s go see the Colonel and Admirals; we have a lot to plan for!"

I planted a long kiss on my wife and gave the gurney a pat as they wheeled York by on her way to surgery.

York spoke. "I’ll be fine, Sir! You don’t worry about me! And spend some time with the lady, Sir! You deserve it!"

I replied, "I would love nothing more, York. Get yourself healed up, as I don’t think we are quite done with the Colossuns yet!"

I walked with Ashley towards the main conference room. We had strategies to plan with the full Council. Ashley discussed her new prosthetic leg as we made our way.

The Colonel banged his big fist on the table. "There has to be something we can do. Send the Ghouls out with a few plasma torches, and we will cut our way onto those ships!"

Admiral Zimmerman spoke. "If it comes down to that, Colonel, I wouldn’t give us much hope. There must be something better."

I raised my hand as I stood. "There is a possibility that they will come within range of the big guns. I told the Duke their range was ten thousand kilometers. Was I close?"

Admiral Chaulk replied, "Not really; they are potent out to about one hundred twenty-five thousand kilometers. We can give them a good kick, but it doesn’t take much to move back out of range."

We discussed strategies for several hours before word came that the Colossun fleet was entering our space. At first, they stopped at five hundred thousand kilometers and waited.

I stood in a battle command center along with the Admirals. "One hundred twelve ships, and they are just sitting there."

Zimmerman replied, "They are deep scanning us. Let’s hope a little negotiating works. I know this station is formidable on its own, but I sure would like to have a fleet out there supporting us."

A voice then came over the general comm channel. "Mr. Grange. I will have to say that I was a bit shocked that you would destroy a defenseless head. Nevertheless, I am here in the name of the King to politely ask for your unconditional surrender. You will be treated fairly."

I spoke. "Uh, I don’t think so, Duke. Not after what you did to the Grell."

The Duke replied, "The Grell were already dead, Mr. Grange. They were just uninformed. All of their kind were overrun and destroyed along with their home world centuries ago. Those ragged ships they were in would not have made the journey across the expanse. I did them a favor by removing the real possibility of a prolonged suffering through starvation, Mr. Grange. I should be applauded for my humanity, but you Humans seem to cling to hope when there is none, such as what you are facing now."

I replied, "I will have to say that I am a little intrigued by how you, as an obvious new android, know what happened in the last few moments of your prior existence. Let me guess: you are continuously broadcasting a stream of data from the currently active android out to wherever. In that way, any new androids have the same experiences as the old and can continue on as if nothing happened."

The Duke replied, "You fascinate me, Mr. Grange. I would like to offer you a position on my ship as an assistant, but I would have to assume that you would not be interested in such. Besides, the King would not allow it. He is quite unhappy with me at the moment. He believes I am dallying around when I should be taking what he now believes belongs to him."

I paced for a moment and turned to look up at the Duke on the view-screen. "The King is right, Duke. You are dallying. Why don’t you go ahead and get this thing started."

I turned back to the Admiral. "He has to be broadcasting what he sees out to somewhere else. There is no other way that his new android body could have known those facts without it. Do you think we can find that signal and jam it? That way, if we kill him, he won’t come back with the knowledge of what just happened. I know it’s not much, but maybe we can show his milky-white ass why he should not mess with Humans."

The Admiral turned and sent an ensign scrambling with the task of finding the Duke’s data broadcast.

The Admiral turned back with a smirk on his face. "Sounds like you don't much care for the Duke, Don."

I replied, "He's an android, Admiral. That ranks him below any alien we've ever met. Going to war with another species is bad enough. Machines aren't even alive. They aren't sentient. They are just programming. It would make me happy to see him shut down."

The Duke spoke. "Mr. Grange. I find your attitude towards androids a bit disconcerting. I assure you that I am every bit as sentient as you. However, I would say that at this point it does not really matter. It is time for your species to surrender. As I said before, we will treat you well, although there will be a trial and, I am sure, a length of servitude for your race because of your transgressions. The Empire has much work to be done, and I am sure that Humans will one day make a fine addition."

I replied, "Well, Duke, why don't you just come in and get us? We are right here, waiting."

The Duke smiled. "Mr. Grange. I am in no hurry to rush in against those guns. I will tell you what I think. I think you expended much of your fuel getting here and are in need of replenishment. If your Grid functions anything like the Verna, you are only self-sustaining for so long. You need resources to continue. So, it seems I have the one thing you do not, Mr. Grange. I have time. The supply lines for my fleet are already coming online."

I spoke. "Go ahead and just sit there, Duke. We have a few aces up our sleeves, and when it comes time to bring them into the game, you will wish you had acted sooner."

The Duke laughed. "Mr. Grange. You do not even have any sleeves in this game we play! I will sit here and enjoy the luxuries that my Empire affords me while your life becomes increasingly more difficult. I have business to attend to, Mr. Grange. We will talk again when you come to your senses."

The comm channel to the Duke's ship went silent. As we continued to discuss our options, the Duke's fleet began to fire rail gun rounds at the Grid. The exterior armor plating of our home station absorbed the rounds without effort; that is, until a round found an area of previous damage that we had repaired.

The Admiral spoke. "Give me a damage report from that section! I want maintenance crews heading that way, and I want all personnel moved out of there!"

The Admiral turned to face me. "Don. That section and several other repairs are vulnerable. If they continue with those strikes, Fango section may have to be sealed off."

I replied, "We have room on the station to move everyone. So we lose one section. It won't affect our defenses."

The Admiral shook his head. "No, it won't, but it will affect our food supply. Fango is largely a nursery area. If we lose that section, we lose nearly a quarter of our food production! That was just a random shot; let's hope they don't realize that it actually did real damage, or they will hit that section hard."

I began to pace back and forth on the deck in front of the Admiral. "Admiral, do we know how far out the Yacabucci will reach? If we set up a generator here, how far can we project that wave?"

The Admiral replied, "If we have the power, which we certainly do here, I believe we could reach those ships. But we need a second point to reflect that wave out so that the web covers that whole fleet."

I stopped and spoke. "Are we in contact with the
Granger
?"

The Admiral replied, "They are sitting cloaked, just to the right of the Duke's fleet. I will round up the right people to see if this is something we can do."

The Admiral moved off to gather information. I met up with Ashley and paid a visit to Jon Touchstone in the science labs.

I spoke. "Hey, Jon. How is the work with the Colossun bots coming?"

Jon replied, "Welcome back, Mr. Grange, Ashley. I tell you, Mr. Grange, these people know their androids. I was watching the Duke on a video feed. His reasoning and reactions were flawless. These Colossuns we have—they are not as advanced as the Duke appears to be. Of course, these were constructed as soldiers whose purpose is to follow orders."

I turned as I heard a heavy footstep behind me. "Whoa! What the..."

A Colossun stood over me with a towel hanging over his arm.

Jon spoke. "Meet my butler, Jeeves, Mr. Grange. We have full control of all of his programming. It's really quite ingenious, and efficient. I will have a coffee, Jeeves, and you, Mr. Grange? Ashley?"

I replied, "Uh, yeah, sure, coffee. Dr. Touchstone, Jon, what do you know about the Yacabucci generator?"

Jon thought, then spoke. "I suppose I know it well enough. The science behind it is still sketchy, but it functions as Mr. Yacabucci says. Why do you ask?"

"I want to know, if we built one here on the Grid and hooked it to our power, could we capture those ships out there in a web? They are sitting at about five hundred thousand kilometers."

Jon replied, "The distance that wave travels is a function of the power applied. I suppose we could use a power feed from the Grid. As just a quick guess, I would think we could reach out that far. We do have one problem, Mr. Grange. Rob Yacabucci is the only one who has put one of those generators together."

I spoke. "Yeah, I know, he's back on the
Suppressor
with Frig and the others. We have examples of the generator here. Do you think you could build one?"

Jon Touchstone clapped his hands together, and three more Colossun androids entered the room. "Boys, download the Yacabucci designs from my storage area and do your best to construct a generator about one meter cubed in size. That will be all."

The three Colossuns turned and left the room.

I spoke with a look of amazement. "Wait, they are going to go build one of those generators? You have that much control over them?"

Jon smiled. "I'm sorry, Mr. Grange. That was for my own amusement. No, they do not have the ability to follow such high-level commands. At least, I don't believe they do. It was an experiment on my part to see what they could accomplish. Let's go talk to my lab team, and we will get started on building a Yacabucci generator."

As we walked, Ashley grabbed my arm and smiled. "I don't know why people feel the need to screw with you so much, Don. You just seem to draw them in!"

I replied, "I sometimes think Frig is in secret communications with them all. He hasn't been talking to you too, has he?"

Ashley smiled. "Not as far as you know!"

With Jon Touchstone now hard at work with a mission, we made our way back to the council room, where the Colonel was waiting. "Colonel, have we come up with anything new?"

The Colonel leaned in and replied with his usual thundering voice. "We are currently running through plans for boarding parties if the Yacabucci plan works out. You never saw any of those sentinels in action, did you? Would be nice to know what we will be up against."

I shook off the effects of the Colonel's voice and replied, "No. We only got a look at those big Colossun androids in action. The sentinels, we don't know much of anything about other than that they are supposedly centuries more advanced than the giants. If they are anything like the Duke in their level of reasoning, we are going to have a fierce fight on our hands. Human tricks will be easily countered."

I continued, "You have info about the hit on the Fango section?"

The Colonel replied, "I do; Admiral Chaulk is coordinating the moves of the farming equipment there while Michael Felix works on the evacuations. Both believe they can have that section isolated within about forty-eight hours."

I sat in a chair and rubbed my temples. "We just can't catch a break, can we, Colonel. Practically everybody in this galaxy wants us dead or, at a minimum, wants control of this station. Did you see the video feeds I loaded of the Verna? If those stations are real, what do you think it means for us?"

The Colonel took a chair of his own. "I think it means we at least have a clue as to our origins. I've always found it interesting, and frustrating, that we have all this knowledge in the archives, and not a single mention of where we are from. If those Verna are real, we might just have our first big clue. That is one of the reasons that I am working out plans for boarding parties. I want to take the Duke so that we can question him about the Verna. If the Colossuns started out in this galaxy the same as us, that means someone put us here on purpose."

I replied, "Well, if it was someone who did this to us on purpose, we must have really done something to piss them off. I mean, they dropped us in where there seems to be continuous war. Every time we come across a species that is friendly, it is right before they are about to get crushed by some massive force."

I leaned back in my chair. "I wish we could have filled those hydrogen tanks with enough juice for a jump out of here. Even one or two hundred light-years away could make a huge difference. Instead we now have a couple hundred very large ships out there planning for our demise."

The Colonel stood. "You have just given me an idea, Grange. Let me go hit my tacticians with it and see if it is at all workable."

As the Colonel walked towards the door, I replied, "What, you’re just walking out without giving me a clue? Thanks, Colonel! It's always nice talking to you!"

With time on my hands, I made my way down to the gun range. As usual, Jeb's cousin Maracus was working the counter.

Maracus spoke. "Hey, Mr. Grange! Welcome back! What can I set you up with today?"

I replied, "I don't know, Maracus; surprise me. I just know I want to shoot something, that's all."

Maracus laughed. "I get a lot of days like that, Mr. Grange. Sometimes the Ghouls come in here and just go on a rampage. Oh, they leave plenty of money behind, but they leave an awful mess too. Can't say how many wads of that Omega root I've had to mop up over the past year. I put out cans for 'em, but they don't use 'em. Here, try out this one, it's new."

I replied, "It looks like a modified AK. What's special or new about it?"

Maracus smiled. "It is a modified AK. The chamber was made slightly longer to accommodate a new explosive round we came up with. You know how you had to sometimes pump three or four rounds into whoever you were fighting? Well, this one round packs a punch, so you only need one hit. It explodes on impact. If it hits an arm or a leg, or a head for that matter, it will blow it clean off. Anywhere in the torso is gonna be a kill. The ammo is only slightly bigger, but we managed to keep the weight down."

I nodded as I replied, "Explosive, huh? I would like to give that a try."

I turned to walk towards the range door as Maracus followed. "It would be nice to have a more effective round, as you can go through a lot of ammo if you are having to spray someone. How does it do against the hardened targets?"