Black Sun (Phantom Server: Book #3) (31 page)

“I wanted to be like you,” Avatroid croaked. “I’ve outlived my technical purpose. I wanted... to be free. To travel.”

Quest alert: The Nature of Avatroid. Quest completed!

You’ve received a new level!

At moments like these, system messages felt totally inappropriate.

The souls of humans, xenomorphs and AIs — they were all burning in a technogenic Inferno. We walked the edge of this chasm, barely keeping our balance. “And that’s what made you kill and ravage?”

“Don’t you do the same? I was growing. Those were birthing pains. This is something you’ll never understand, Human. But then it was over. Others came.”

“We call them Reapers.”

“I don’t care what you call them. Names don’t change anything. They’re synthetic digitized identities of organic creatures!”

“Why, is that bad?”

“Only an identity matrix of an organically born being is capable of traveling the worlds. That’s one of the network’s settings.”

“Does that mean you can’t leave the Darg system?”

“No. I can't. That’s why I wanted to
change
. But it’s not about me anymore. My fleet is defeated. My mind is failing. But these creatures... they absorb neurograms. Nothing like this has ever happened before. We need to stop them... while it’s still possible. Give me a chance... to fulfill my purpose.”

“Sounds a bit haughty, doesn’t it?”

“It sounds scary,” Avatroid’s eyes were locked on mine.

“What can you do?”

“Nothing... almost. You do it.”

“You’re joking? I’m just a player. Less than six months ago I was smoking mobs and didn’t give a damn!”

“You’re a Colonizer. I’ll give you all the codes.”

“Which codes?”

“The jump codes. The defense codes. The rest you’ll have to work out yourself. We have no time left. Say yes.”

Zander
, Liori’s voice added to my thoughts,
They’re back. Five thousand ships.

“What’s the significance of this Colonizer skill?” I demanded. “How can I stop the Reapers? What’s the nature of interstellar jumps?”

He only answered my last question. “Physical bodies can’t travel through hyperspace. What’s transmitted is the information about them. To perform a jump, you need to transmit a full scanner file of an object. It’ll be used to create a new object at the point of arrival.”

“So this is the Founders’ big secret?”

“It’s never been a secret. The transmission code is.”

“You want to say you’re going to give it to me? What do you want in return?”

“Stop them. That’s enough.”

“How do you want me to stop them?”

His glare singed my face. “Go,” he screeched. “Go, or you’ll die pointlessly in a pointless battle.”

New command code received.

New star system coordinates received.

A full scanner file of the Relic frigate received.

A wormhole has been opened. You have thirty minutes to issue jump orders.

An unknown location in deep space

T
he wormhole has been closed.

Materialization complete.

You’ve arrived at-

My semantic processor faltered, searching for the right translation.

You’ve arrived at the... Central system.

Observation screens lit up, revealing a mind-blowing panorama.

Hundreds of chiseled cargonite structures encircled an incredible space station, forming a complex albeit faded and partially damaged technogenic necklace around it.

Phantom Server.

Its hull’s outline was formed by a multitude of spired structures, their configuration repeating the pattern of the unfamiliar constellations.

These were hyperspace communications modules. I could see some of them surge with occasional charges of energy. Still, most of them were dark, covered in digs and dents.

The ancient network’s central node must have been millions of years old. Both time and outer space had changed its initial layout. The light of the system’s far-off sun curdled on the molten bodies of starships scorched in the fiery inferno of age-old battles.

That didn’t surprise me. The Founders’ legacy had been misinterpreted by young civilizations that had adapted it for their own expansion needs. They had partaken of the ancient mysteries while still too young to appreciate their true power. They’d broken loose into the Universe, damaging the ancient network in their desperate struggle for sole possession of its central node.

“Raiders!” Arbido exclaimed.

The veil of metallized dust shifted around the station. External cameras zoomed in, revealing tens of thousands of AI-piloted combat craft coming for the Relic.

Our communications station kicked in, transmitting Avatroid’s codes.

This was make or break. We’d just performed a hyper jump preceded by a desperate battle. Our ship’s shields were barely glowing at 5 megs. They needed time to restore.

Friendly Contact!

The targets’ markers changed color, their advance through space changing its course, then reversing. Only a small group of Raiders, a hundred at the most, swept past us, exposing themselves to our screens in all their awesome technogenic omnipotence, then headed toward the system’s edge.

The Relic’s stern lit up with the glow of its plasma engines as the frigate accelerated, approaching the nearest of the three docking terminals which hung in a semicircle over the hull like an open-work crescent moon.

As we approached, more details hove into view: countless clusters of vacuum docks, the honeycombs of launch pods and vast landing pads which could accommodate behemoth starships.

The kingdom of cold dead metal.

The station would have indeed been a phantom, had it not been for the blurred signatures of some still functioning devices within.

I took over the controls. Slowly I turned the ship round to level up its speed with the station’s slow rotation.

Emergency docking mechanisms kicked in. Softly the Relic touched the landing pad. A dozen drones promptly made by our mnemotechs appeared in the dull flashes of Object Replication, then headed toward the nearest hull structures, scanning and streaming data back.

* * *

The station’s holographic model rotated slowly at the center of our ship’s informatorium.

“Now,” Jurgen paced along it, “Avatroid was wrong. Our visit is a few million years late. There’s no one here capable of listening to our problems, let alone solving them.”

“I’m not surprised,” Arbido crossed his legs, casting skeptical glances at the picture. “Avatroid remembers Phantom Server from the times of the Founders’ heyday. Which isn’t helping. Still, the long-range communications are still functional. They’re de-energized, but look at this,” he pointed at a weak signature that flashed across the screen. “Besides, our jump has been successful which raises another question: who or what is responsible for the ship’s materialization on this side? If I remember rightly, it has to be the station’s AI, no less. Zander, am I right?”

“You are. At least that’s what the system notes on the Colonizer ability say.”

“The station's AI? Then we need to get out and find it!” Vandal said.

“And where are you going to look for it?” Foggs zoomed in on the station’s model. Any potential power imprints were lost in the maze of countless rooms. Only a few blurred spots glowed weakly within the depths of the gargantuan structure. The nanites hadn’t yet got that far, busy inspecting the primary hull decks.

“Let’s start with those,” Vandal pointed at the blurred signals.

Phantom Server was eighty-seven miles in diameter. That was doable for the Relic’s scanners which had actually provided the data for creating the holographic model. Still, the transport hubs had been destroyed, blocked in many places by emergency bulkheads. I’d have hated to barge into the station using brute force but there didn’t seem to be any other way to get past all the obstacles. We’d already made several fruitless attempts to lay a potential course.

“I got the impression someone’s barricaded deep inside the station,” Ralph offered. “In which case we should expect traps in our way.”

At that moment the station’s communications systems kicked back in. Their activations seemed to be random and lasted but a few seconds, creating the same kind of power surges over the hull structures as those we’d already witnessed.

“Now that’s interesting,” Liori highlighted a weak power trail. “Take a look at this! This is definitely a data transmission!”

“So what?” Foggs raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“Why did it have to deviate toward the station’s center? What prevented two communications modules within direct line of vision from reaching each other directly?”

Ralph shrugged. “How do we know? Maybe that’s just the way they do these things.”

The next time the communications sprang back to life, I was prepared. I connected my Synaps to the Relic’s systems and was able to track the data exchange channel.

“Zander?” Charon craned his neck.

“Same thing. It passes through the center. And look, here’s another signature,” I added another power imprint to our plans of Phantom Server.

Jurgen peered at the faint imprint. “A respawn point? Compare it with this,” he opened a similar image in the operative window.

“It looks identical,” Charon agreed.

“This might actually solve the problem,” Arbido decided to show off his new knowledge. “Two respawn points can be connected to make a transport channel, am I correct?”

“You are indeed,” Jurgen nodded his approval. “Changing the settings might take some time but I think I can do it.”

An emergency alarm echoed through my mind.

“A wormhole’s opened!” Charon exclaimed.

A fiery dot appeared within one of the openwork structures, followed by the vague outlines of five gigantic spaceships.

We anticipated their materialization, expecting the Phantom Raiders patrolling the station to jump into action. They didn’t.

The cruiser, the frigate and three cargo ships remained semi-transparent. We were looking at the real ships’ optical phantoms. They drifted through the debris and disappeared.

* * *

It took us almost twenty-four hours to reset the respawn point and connect a transport module to the Founders’ navigator (which incidentally was how the hybrid had beamed me up on board Eurasia). Doing so proved to be a job and a half. Mnemotechs, engineers and technologists — in the end we all had to join in.

In the meantime, we counted ninety-seven individual jumps plus five more incidents of wormholes opening. We witnessed the arrival of three more groups of miscellaneous spacecraft and two fleets: one military, the other commercial.

The designs of most of them were totally unfamiliar to us. None of them had ultimately materialized: all we’d seen were their optical phantoms.

We stopped paying attention to new hyperspace jumps. The Relic’s systems continued to register new instances of interstellar communications all the time.

I wasn’t surprised that this central node of the interstellar network had long become a myth. Phantom Server! — the name fit perfectly. The star system was supposed to be a point of transit but something was preventing ships from entering our 3D continuum. Their crews were bound to see the station’s phantom image on their screens complete with all the hull structures and fleets of Raiders surrounding it.

Why had it allowed the Relic through, then?

Liori and I had a theory but we still needed to check it out. And the truth lay deep inside Phantom Server.

“All done,” Jurgen finally reported. He'd run the test three times to check the system for any glitches.

“Good,” I nodded my encouragement to Liori, then clicked my helmet on. Here, realism was key which was why all of us were clad in pressurized combat armor.

The transport pad could only fit five people so we had to split into groups. Jurgen had to stay behind to keep an eye on the Server’s performance. Vandal’s men were to go first. Their job was to mop up the arrival zone and ensure its safety. Liori, Charon, Foggs, Danezerath and myself were to go next. The third group was comprised of five engineers and mnemotechs: I was pretty sure the depths of the station were chock full of all sorts of obscure devices. They all had to be scanned and studied.

If everything went well, more backup groups would arrive. But at the moment, we were impatiently waiting to see how the first group would fare.

We’re ready
, Vandal reported.

“Off you go,” Jurgen touched the sensor.

A green aura surrounded Vandal and his men, swallowing them.

One second... two... three...

“It’s dark in here,” Vandal’s voice came, distorted by interference. “No enemy resistance.”

“Let’s go!” I stepped onto the platform.

My mind shifted. It felt like falling from an enormous height, followed by a leg-shattering jolt. My armor’s servomotors rustled in the midst of a dull fading glow.

Our helmets’ flashlights sliced through the dark. You didn’t really need lighting with mind expanders, but our Synapses were down, forcing us to use backup devices.

Our implants’ sensors were still working but their range was minimal — three feet at the most.

“This is a large closed space,” Vandal reported. “No doors, hatches or airlocks observed.”

We stepped aside to vacate a space for the next group.

Darkness surged with flashes of green which looked just like a regular respawn. Transfer successful.

“Jurgen, do you read me?”

After a second’s delay, his voice came back. “The line is very bad. Can you stream the data to me?”

I did.

“You’re slightly off,” he reported back. “You’re supposed to be about a hundred and fifty feet from where you’re now.”

“But this place has a respawn device!” Liori exclaimed.

“It’s probably the backup,” Jurgen replied. “It must have kicked in and taken over the transfer channel.”

“Never mind,” I said. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. We need to have a good look around first. There’s something that stops our mind expanders from working. Don’t send anybody else quite yet. Stay posted.”

“Roger that. Be careful.”

* * *

The room was huge but empty, with the respawn point at its center. This place looked eerily reminiscent of Founders Square back on Argus.

“Come over here,” Vandal’s voice sounded in the earphones. He flashed his light a few times to direct us.

The place had an atmosphere. Our sensors had already analyzed it. The insides of our visors flashed a biological hazard warning.

“Someone’s beaten us to it,” Charon said.

The floor was strewn with the remains of some creatures. Pieces of gear glistened under the flashlights.

“Jurgen, can you see this?” I pointed the light under my feet.

“The picture isn’t good but I can. Should I send in Novitsky?”

“No. We’ll do some scanning now and I want him to receive and process the data.”

I turned, motioning Ralph to come over. “Go and check if we can get back.”

“I don’t understand,” Liori studied the remains. “They came here and died. But Zander, this is organic matter! Whoever they were, they didn’t use nanite matrix replication.”

“Foggs, take your men and study the perimeter.”

“What are we looking for?”

“An entry point.”

A popping sound came from the center of the room.

“The transfer system works,” Ralph reported. “I’m back on board the Relic.”

Good news.