Burnt Ice (11 page)

Those who had lost their lives
but whose Soul Savers were intact were all now in tanks high above the planet,
where they would stay for a year, totally awake, intimately aware of and
controlling the growth of their new bodies. Most of those present at the
Conflict had been through the experience at least once, if not more. They all
considered it truly horrible. One of the topics of discussion among the people
fitted with Soul Savers was that there must be a better way, but everyone
acknowledged that a living human had to take total control of body regrowth —
and who better than the actual person?

Later in the evening, the section
were all sitting around a large table talking quietly, large iron braziers
ablaze around them. Jan and Helena were questioning Fritz on what he had learnt
since they saw him last.

‘We don’t have a key yet. We have
all this information but lack the key to it. And it will be hellish simple.
Something we’re overlooking, I know. Hey, Marko. Jan says you have a new
commission for a dragon! That’s good work, mate. You’ll enjoy that. I’ve seen
you pecking away in your spare time. Can we have a look please?’

‘Yeah, why not.’

He pulled up the sleeve on his
left arm and tapped open the screen, then quadrupled its normal size, and
dropped away the background so everyone could see the creature. It would be a
classy-looking little beast about the bulk of a medium-sized dog. Rolling down
the sides of the screen were all the system requirements; he explained what it
would need to be built and how he would tackle the build. Fritz’s companion,
who was a little looker and obviously as smart as Fritz himself, gazed intently
at the menus.

‘Marko, what are the gene
sequences like for the eyes?’

‘Good question, Marie. OK. Fossa
meets Australian swamp falcon meets shrill bird from New Greece. You see the
diverse genes? We then create a similar size, take the orb from the falcon, the
IR and UV from the shrill and the musculature and iris type from the Fossa. The
captain was very keen that the creature should have kind eyes, so a little
touch of bovine in the mix as well.’

Marie became excited, saying, ‘Can
I see what the sequence would look like for the combination please? Fritz, pay
attention! Look. Oh God, that’s it! Look, Fritz, you dummy! Look! There it is.
It’s been staring us in the face. The sequencing had points of difference. The
aliens are a
design.
They were designed as soldiers and support
structures for soldiers. OK, Marko. Here’s my plate. It only has a very small
part of the alien gene sequence. Will your arm hardware support it?’

‘No, but hold on, my midi will.’

Marko trotted back to his rebuilt
room, woke the machine, and jogged back down to the beach with the midi
following on its AG. He then took Marie’s plate and plugged it into his palm
checker. After a few moments it gave the all clear; he placed the plate on the
table and told the midi to interface with it. The machine rose up, unfolding
various parts of itself, reaching across with its fine arms and grasping the
plate while plugging leads into it. The midi then lifted Marie’s files as she
instructed her unit to give up the information. A few seconds later the midi
unfolded a 3D screen big enough for everyone to see.

‘Where the hell did you find one
of those, Marko?’ Marie asked in wonder. ‘Even I can’t get anything like it
yet. I know the specs of that machine. No one can get into them. They are
sub-AI and recognise only one operator. I’d heard you were good, but I’m
impressed that you have a Sub Zero 12.’

‘Thanks, Marie. No questions, no
pack drill, OK? Clue: be nice to Fritz and the boss. Interesting stuff. Let’s
see what the midi can split out of this. It will be a rough one as there are a
lot of unknowns. Here we go. It’s found a chunk of differences. Hope they pay
you plenty Marie. Excellent find of yours. Now what are you looking for
exactly?’

‘I believe that the frequencies
at which the genes bind and unbind may be a recognisable energy pulse.’

‘Wow, Marie. That’s ultra. Light
or music?’

‘Maybe both, Fritzy.’

‘Right, I’ll ask the midi for
light emission. Shit, look at that. Remind you of anything?’ Marko said.

‘The light show from the MP
frigate,’ Marie answered.

‘Party’s over for us, Marie,’
interrupted Fritz. ‘Base AI is monitoring and has requested that we get back to
the dirigible, pronto. Thanks, Marko. Later, guys. Nice knowing ya, Jan. Be
good, be bad, whatever turns you on. Bye.’

They walked off briskly, hand in
hand, heading towards the landing field where the rest of the crew could hear a
transport spooling up. Five minutes later it lifted and headed out to the alien
city site. The gathering went back to some quiet drinking and talking but
within twenty minutes they had all broken off to be with their partners.

~ * ~

Helena
woke Marko by rolling him on his back and straddling him. Later, smiling, he told
her that was always a good way to start the day. In the mess, Jan joined them
for breakfast, telling them that her redeployment orders had been put on hold.
She wasn’t sure why. Harry arrived a few minutes later to say they were to have
a quick breakfast and meet with the boss in one of the orders rooms. Something
serious was up. Marko kissed his darling goodbye and the crew, grumbling about
no longer having the day off, left the mess.

‘OK,’ said the captain when they
had gathered. ‘The good news is that the codes are broken. The interesting news
is that a huge amount of data is now available. The even more interesting news
is that we are all ordered to be on board an engineering recon frigate in three
hours. We’re off to find an artefact which the alien records show to be a
mothballed Octopoid Library a long long way from here. We’re getting
Basalt,
a nice little frigate. Fritz will be joining us on board, and Jan, you are now
officially assigned to us for as long as I want to keep you. Have you a problem
with that? No? Good.’

‘Now grab your kit, everyone,’
said Harry. ‘A dropship will be waiting for us in one hour. Stock up on any
goodies you want. We expect to be away for ten days tops. Oh, and the bad news
is that we will have a monitor with us.’

There was a collective groan.

‘Captain, can I bring my own
medical unit? I know that the gear on the frigate will be good, but I’d prefer
to bring my own,’ said Jan.

The captain nodded, saying, ‘Sure,
we’ll have plenty of room. I wasn’t aware that you had your own. Give me the
details and I’ll have it transported. Fact is, if anyone has anything that they
want grabbed, send me the lists. Sorry, Marko. Helena is not listable, mate.
Give her a nice big sloppy kiss and say you’ll see her soon!’

Five hours later they docked with
their main engineering Orbital base. After checking their cabins, clearing out
physical mailboxes, organising repairs or replacement of kit, they boarded the
docked frigate on the other side of the Orbital,
Basalt.
A solid name
for a solid ship, Marko thought, with a reputation for looking after its crews.

‘Hey, Jan. I’m assuming you’re
familiar with the layouts of these frigates?’

‘No problem, Harry. They are all
pretty standard, these types — just another fat, oversized, double teardrop.
Bridge at the pointy end, decks to the drive units at the bottom. And this one
has an elevator at its centre, surrounded by a spiral staircase — now that’s
luxury. And twelve decks. I see it’s atmosphere capable. Very tough machine.
Nice. Yeah, I should be able to find my way around.’

Marko slipped on a comms band,
opened up his plate and started checking all he needed to know about his own
gear and where it was. With gravity not yet engaged, he then swam over to the
main engineer’s console and pulled himself into the chair, fastening himself
in. He powered up everything apart from heat and lighting, which were already
running. He dropped the internal temperature by a couple of degrees, to make it
a little more work friendly, which he knew his section liked from long
experience. Then he started the checks on the propulsion systems, fuel, water,
status of the fusion reactor, the gravity/antigravity systems, antimatter
containment and amounts available. When he was halfway through his checks he
brought up one of the side screens and opened the audiovisual links to everyone’s
stations. He checked their positions. He fed power into the primary systems and
the ship slowly came to life, then he opened the ship-wide comms.

‘Fifteen minutes to normal
gravity, people,’ Marko announced. ‘I shall give you a one-minute and then a
ten-second warning.’

‘Boss, do we have a preferred
departure time?’

‘Nope, Harry. Just whenever we’re
ready to go. We have a Hauler waiting a couple of hops out to give us a big
jump. Then we’re on our own.’

Marko unfastened himself from his
chair then swam, pushing himself off any available surface, down the spiral
staircase to the facilities deck. He went through it to the main airlock, found
his heavy kit containers waiting, checked them, and pushed them up against the
bulkhead, locking them in position. He could see that everyone’s, except Fritz’s,
were safely stowed. He grumbled aloud — sometimes around Fritz it was just
easier to do it for him. He grabbed the container and locked it. Picking up his
personal kit bag, he saw Fritz’s but ignored it. Marko manoeuvred his bag down
another deck, where the accommodation and ablutions were, then placed it in the
first empty cabin he could find. He noted that the cabin had its own ensuite, a
large AV unit on the end wall and a little auto laundry as well.

Harry came along the corridor,
pushing his kit ahead of him. He looked into Marko’s cabin.

Marko smiled. ‘Five people and a
monitor, rattling around in a twenty-five-person ship. We certainly have the
luxury of space.’

‘Not wrong there, Marko. No
sleeping in hammocks on this ship either, mate. You can select the bed style
you like.’

‘Yeah, nice. I like that!’

He smiled, then pushed himself
out of the cabin and up the stairway to swing back into his seat with minutes
to spare, before bringing the artificial gravity online, telling anyone who was
listening that they had one minute to gravity.

Then: ‘Ten seconds to gravity,
everyone.’

Not hearing any requests to hold
off he powered the gravity up and jumped as he heard a very solid thump
immediately behind him. Marko spun in his seat to find himself looking at the
Games Board monitor. Marko looked at her closely, eyebrows raised. What had
once been a complete human was now only a woman from her head to the top of her
hips then a streamlined, ceramic-and-metal, gold-and-black egg from there down.
Looking at her face, he saw enlarged, green, feline eyes, resculpted, overlarge
ears, and red metal plates rising slightly from her bald scalp. She wore a
heavy, deep red, multi-pocketed, reinforced jacket that had small camera units
mounted on either shoulder and a series of directional microphones on a collar
around her neck. Looking down at her long, elegant fingers then back at her
face, he knew that as a complete human she would have been very beautiful.

‘I apologise, sergeant. I am
having difficulty with my unit.’

‘Right. Can you wait just a few
minutes please? I have things to finish here then I shall have a look for you
or find someone who can. What do you call yourself?’ said Marko.

‘I am Sirius.’

‘Hello, Sirius. You can call me
Marko. Are you recording everything?’

‘Yes, Sergeant Marko. That is my
reason for existing. To record everything is for the greater good.’

‘Marko. You call me Marko,
Sirius. Where is your luggage?’

‘Very well, Marko. My equipment
is in the main hangar.’

He turned back to the console and
did a few more checks.

‘Harry, we need more water
please,’ he said through his comms unit. ‘Tank twelve is down to twenty-five per
cent. Might as well get everything topped off. Antimatter is also down by
seventeen per cent. Plasma tritium fuel is also at ninety-one per cent.
Everything else is good, but we might as well go with full tanks.’