Black Hull (23 page)

“Yes,” Mick interjected, stepping
closer. Carner let go of FOD and looked at Mick.

“She’s running around, doing all this
for
you
, and you get her killed,” he said.

“Mick had nothing to do with it,” FOD
said.

“Like hell,” Carner said. He turned to
the blue clouds behind him, his wind-stripped smuggling post an aberration on
the barren, lifeless world. “It’s
all
bullshit you know. All of it.”

“I do,” FOD replied.

“And you’re hot—real hot. They have a
tag on you and there’s nothing I can do. I don’t think you’re going to make it
out of Bessel.”

“We will.”

“And how? To me it sounds like the whole
god damn UCA fleet is coming. I’ve been listening—it’s every other transmission
that comes through.”

“You know my ship is cloaked.”

“And you know that doesn’t mean shit.
And I know what you’re up to. The only thing is—I don’t give a damn anymore, I
really don’t. I think maybe you’re right.” Carner looked at FOD’s eyes, hoping
they’d explain what words hadn’t. 

“We are a plague. You know it. I’m
justice for everything else.”

“XJ, what are they talking about?” Mick
whispered, sidling to XJ.

“I think it might have something to do
with fixing Sera. There’s got to be a way to get her back—up and running,” XJ
said.

“You know she’s dead XJ—you can’t revive
a cellbot once it’s died. Your alzeimagnetism is acting up again,” GR
interrupted.

“So what is it then?” Mick turned to GR.

“He plans to swallow the spread of
mankind in a black hole.”

“Of course, not until he’s dropped us
off at Utopia.”

“Utopia will go too, XJ,” GR replied.

Could that be it? And counting on me to
pull the trigger? Fuck it. As long as I’m out before it hits.

The silver streets of Organ World
gleamed. A torrent of midday traffic flowed, prospectors riding through the prostitution
capital of the planet. Some of them drove past the buildings that housed their
very own backup bodies.

“Hey!”

“Yea?”

Axa paused, considering the man who’d
flagged her down. He was young—a lineless, optimistic face. He kept scanning
the sidewalks, paranoid, as if someone would spring on him; not her usual
customer.

“I’m getting off world. What do you
say?”

“Do I know you?”

“Axa, you’re Axa right?”

“Yea. And I have to get back to HQ. My
day’s over.”

“No it’s not. I have a ship waiting for
us. Do you know who the Force of Darkness is?”

“No—what are you after? What kind of
clothes are they?”

“Shh!” said the man. He grabbed her hand
and tugged her off the sidewalk.

“Hey!” she shouted. “Help!”

“I’m an organ body.”

Axa froze: she’d never heard of an organ
body knowing it was awake, let alone escaping the Understore where they lived.
She stared into his life-filled eyes.

“Bullshit,” she said softly, forgetting
that he’d pulled her. It made sense—his clothes, his paranoia.

“I need someone to get off world—you’ll
play my partner.”

“I can’t—”

“I’ve been watching you for a day now—I
know you’re a hooker bot. What I’m talking about is getting out of here—both of
us—to Utopia.”

“Utopia? How?”

Organ World seldom paid any attention to
the forefront of scientific development—it was an organ reservoir world, and an
intergalactic way station for every kind of seedy indulgence. Still, she
remembered the gold orb displayed on advertisements, distant and imaginary.
Could
he be telling the truth?
She had suppressed the idea of escape, often
wondering why they—whoever had created her—hadn’t removed her capacity for
thought.
Why not use androids? Because people pay a premium for cellbots.

“The Force of Darkness, he’s going to
end this all. Everything.”

“I really don’t—”

“Follow me—the ship’s waiting.”

The Great Auk
rose away from
Carner’s Post. Mick peered out of the rear porthole, watching the speck of the
old man and Sera disappear below. XJ crept up behind him.

“Mick—would you like to play chess?”
“Set it up.”

“Excellent!”

“I’ll be right back.”

Mick passed XJ, heading through the main
artery of the ship. He passed GR, peaked into Axa’s room: she lay asleep,
recovering, her arms still mounted to a wall med-unit. FOD sat in the cockpit,
pulling the ship into orbit.

“The grav’s going to catch. Sit down,”
FOD said.

Mick obeyed and sat in the copilot
chair. “We need to talk.”

“Talk,” FOD said.

“What exactly are you using me for?”

“You really want to know? Wouldn’t you—”

“Yes. I want to know.”

“I’ve been tracking you since the
anomaly. Trying to get to you. I need you to get a measure of a synthetic
radioactive isotope for me.”

“I figured something like that—but I
don’t care what I’m getting you. What’s the end goal here?”

“I’m going to end everything.”

“Go on,” Mick said, studying the
indifferent cheeks of his pilot, whose hood drooped around the neck.

“Human kind is a mistake.”

He’s a philosopher. A mindless agent of
death. Failed protector of Sera. Promise-maker. His ability to keep them,
questionable.

“How so?” Mick asked.

The ship jerked into low orbit, then
into the vacuum of space. Stars filled the viewscreen. The radar blipped: a
tiny dot appeared far on the edge of its screen.

“That’ll be the first scout,” FOD said.

“Don’t change the subject,” Mick said,
resentment swelling.

Fancy ship, reading minds, fattened
wallet—made that way from expancapacitor assassinations carried out by
pawns—coupled with an inability to carry out a single directive—protect
Sera—to, with all that tech, not overlook an extra man on board a ship. One
guy.

“We’ll be quick to die if I fall off
task. You wouldn’t want to die before you get home?”

“Am
I
under your protection now?”

“There was no way to know. I told her to
stay back. She didn’t listen.”

Anger throbbed through Mick. XJ appeared
at the door.

“Mick—the game is all set up,” he said.

“Give me a couple minutes XJ,” Mick
said.

“But Mick, GR is bothering me. I’d
really—”

“I’m in the middle of something, hold
on.”

“In fact, we all are. We’re in the
middle of an assault,” FOD said. “XJ, make sure Axa and GR are strapped in.
Then strap yourself.”

FOD jerked the pilot rod down, punched
the accelerator.

“I want to talk with you—truly—but it
will have to wait. I may need your help here,” FOD said.

Another blip appeared on the radar
screen. Then another. Suddenly there were twelve dots on the radar, each a UCA
ship jogging fast toward
The Great Auk.

Don’t get hot Mick—Home is still in the
cards. Follow his lead. He’s your only shot anyway.

“Whatever you need,” Mick said.

“I can’t outrun them, so I’m going to
have to—
oh no.
”

“What do you mean you can’t outrun them?
Isn’t this a military super ship?” Mick asked.

FOD whispered to himself: “I see, just
see, skyward, great cloud-masses; Mournfully, slowly they roll, silently
swelling and mixing; With, at times, a half-dimm’d, sadden’d, far-off star—”

“Quit the riddles for fuck’s sake.
What’s happening?” Mick watched the radar blips peel off the
The Great Auk
,
changing direction.

“Poor man,” FOD said.

Mick looked out the porthole. The
atmosphere of Carner’s Post lit with gold fire, then white clouds spread over
it, a wave smothering the entire world. He closed his eyes. Visions of the
explosion flickered into his imagination. When he opened them, the planet was
gone.

“They’ll be after us presently,” FOD
said. He jammed a button on his console, punched another, then tore the pilot
rod around in a half circle. XJ squealed from the back of the ship.

“They’ve got planet killers?”

“Portable ones. Quantum bombs are
incredible, aren’t they?”

“XJ said quantum warfare is outlawed.”

“Law is propaganda. It always has been.”
FOD turned to look at Mick. “You sure you want to go home?”

“Yes. Now out fly these ships.”

“No guarantees.”

“Listen—Sera promised her family she’d
get them to Utopia. She’s dead, so now that promise is mine.”

“She never asked you to—” 

“I’m
taking it
from her. So I
need a guarantee right now.”

The swarm of blips on the radar
multiplied, then turned toward
The Great Auk.
Their speed increased.

“FOD—
I need a guarantee.
”

“I said I’d need your help. Get down to
the engine room—now.”

“He’s a fucking terrorist. Force of
Darkness—The Singularity—he’s got a bunch of names. And he’s planning to create
a G10 quantum black hole—do you understand what I’m telling you?” roared UCA
Space Fleet General Sirma.

“What about this planet—we traced a
cargo drop—some back rock called Carner’s Post?” replied the Captain’s voice.

“Bomb it—god knows what he’s doing
there—what he’s setting into motion.”

“General—to
confirm
—that’s a
Q-drop on Carner’s Post?”

“Drop and follow. I swear to god, if
this son-of-a-bitch gets away, it’s your head. But it’s all of ours.”

“Underway, General.”

“You’ve got an entire cohort, don’t
you?”

“We do. Drop time is two minutes.”

“So there’s no excuse—do not lose
him—understood?”

“How long until the garrison joins us,
General?” came another voice from the Captain’s ship.

“Not soon enough.
Do not
lose
him. Do you understand? He’s planning to create a G10 quantum black hole, I
repeat—we’re all dead if you lose him.”

“Understood—will report back as we
approach.”

“And watch rear cannon fire from his
ship.”

“Roger.”

The General snapped off communications
with his distant battalion. He turned to his second-in-command, then looked at
a picture on his desk: his wife and two daughters stared up at him.

“So he did steal it then?”

“The ship?”

“The
Auk?
”

“Looks that way.”

“I don’t want to be the bearer of bad
news, but they’re not taking it, even with a cohort—not unless—Jesus, General,
there’s no other way. You’re going to have to suicide that entire squad.
They’ll need to get in reach and drop the biggest Q in the fleet, running at
flank speed. That’s the only way.”

The General contemplated the decision,
pondering the many lives it would take to finally bring down FOD.

“Not a word until they’re in range.”

An engineer came into the room,
confirming the second-in-command’s fears:

“Sir—
The Great Auk
is equipped
with near-field magnetic disintegrator engines. If they work, the only way to
destroy him is to—” the engineer paused, hesitant to overstep his rank.

“We know. Go back to your office and
pray to your god. That’s what I’ll be doing.”

“Oh dear,” said XJ. From where he was
strapped to the wall, which he’d done himself using cargo cables, he watched
the chess table. Pawns slid off one by one. The ship jostled back and forth. A
tremor rocked them and the whole table spilled.