Overdrive (13 page)

“This isn’t really
convenient. Perhaps I could contact you tomorrow?”

“It is a matter of
some importance. It concerns ship security”

“That would seem
to be a matter for security then. Or even for the ship itself."

Roger couldn’t be
sure - due to the proximity of the twins - but the emotional feedback he was
getting from the Templar seemed to be a cross between scorn, contempt mixed
with agitation, and even irritation. He couldn’t read the other two Templars.
They were both carrying large cases.

The Templar
Captain showed no emotion on his face. “This is a matter that I believe you
would like to address yourself. I would require only a few minutes."

Roger sighed. “Oh
very well." He nodded and smiled at the twins. “I’ll be back as soon as I
can ladies. Duty calls." He winked, and placing his drink down on a nearby
table, allowed himself to be escorted out of the bar by the three Templars.
Once outside in the deserted corridor, he turned and faced the Knights Captain
once again.

“Now what’s all
this about?”

Knight’s Captain
Tynan smiled grimly. “It seems we’ve uncovered a plot to blow up the ship."

“What! By whom?
When?”

Tynan’s grin
broadened. “Yes," he said, mimicking the Pilot’s strident tone. “By us.
Very shortly."

Roger wasn’t sure
he’d heard correctly. Feeling distinctly uneasy, and on the verge of panic, he
requested his AI open the link to the ship. There was no response. It was
almost like his AI no longer existed.

“Is this some kind
of joke?”

Tynan continued to
smile at the man. “Not even close to being a joke. In fact, one might say its
the complete opposite." Tynan waited for the man to do something
predictable like try his AI again or even run but Lapont seemed to be in some
form of daze.

“There’s no point
in trying to contact the ship. We’ve incapacitated your AI. When I shook hands
with you earlier, I implanted a virus designed to temporarily crash your AI.
Now, if you’d like to come with us…”

Tynan saw the
pilot tense up as if about to run for it. He motioned to his two fellow
Templars who seized Lapont’s arms. Tynan produced a small molecular bonded
knife and held it close against Lapont’s side.

“Don’t do anything
silly now," he told the frightened pilot. “I’d hate to have to kill you. Makes
such a mess you know.”

“Where are you
taking me?," an increasingly worried Lapont asked the Templars.

“Someplace you
won’t be very familiar with," replied Tynan. “The bridge." The other
Templars sniggered.

Tynan led them
down the corridor. Lapont followed, prompted by the two Templars behind him.
The Knights-Captain came to an AG lift and gestured with a flourish and a bow
to Lapont.

“After you
Captain-Pilot." The two Templars pushed him in and then entered
themselves. Tynan came in last. He opened a panel in the side of the lift which
caused the doors to close and the lift itself to start moving.

“In case you’re
wondering," Tynan said without looking at the dazed Lapont, “we’ve
disabled the Minx’s access to this lift. If you were expecting any help from
that quarter, then you’re sadly mistaken.”

“What do you want
from me?” Lapont asked wild eyed.

“Well, that’s the
question I was expecting to hear a little earlier from you. I’m really rather
disappointed. I thought you Pilots were meant to be intelligent. I suppose your
brain must have stagnated with disuse.” Tynan waited for a response, but not
receiving one, decided to continue.

“Disappointing
really. It wasn’t much fun in playing verbal hockey if you didn’t have anyone
to play with. Hmmm. What do I want." He walked up to Lapont and tore first
one, and then the other epaulette off the man shoulders. “I think these will do
nicely for starters."

In order to get
Felix off the ship against his will, the Areopagite’s had to disable a
significant part of the Minx’s monitoring capability. That would in turn cause
the Minx to dispatch a security and maintenance team to investigate. Even if
they could get Felix to the ship, the Minx was capable of stopping them leaving
by simply refusing to remove her vacuum field from the docking bay.  One option
of course was to take the Minx completely out of the equation.

To that effect,
three grim faced Templars and one nervous and frightened ship’s Captain-Pilot
exited the lift at level 60. During the ride, Tynan had told Lapont what he was
to say. They walked down another corridor and came to large double doors marked
with “Bridge Access. Authorized Personal only." Tynan nudged the
Captain-Pilot and he addressed the doors.

“Minx, its me.
Open the doors please. I’ve got a few people I want to show around the bridge."
He was sweating heavily under the intense gaze of the Templars.

“Good evening
Captain-Pilot Lapont." The doors opened to allow the four men to enter.
“There seems to be some problem with your AI Captain-Pilot. I cannot gain
access.”

“Minx, help, I’ve
been…” Lapont never finished the sentence. Tynan thrust his knife into Lapont’s
temple. The man continued to stand upright for a few seconds with a look of
surprise on his face before toppling forward and landing with a slightly moist
thud. A red stain slowly puddled under him. Tynan didn’t give him a second
look.

The Minx took a
nanosecond to analyze the situation. The doors slammed shut and the access
panels on the bridge were suddenly covered with blue fields. “You’ve killed
Captain Lapont," she said with some emotion.

“Who are you? What
are you doing?” she demanded. “Security has been called and will arrive in 2.6
minutes. You cannot escape.”

The three Templars
ignored her. Tynan walked over to the access panels while his subordinates took
out two large weapons from one of the cases and set them up on tripods. The
cases were shielded and scan proof from the ships senses. One of the mounted
weapons, a field disruptor, was aimed at the main access panel. The other, a
high yield plasma cannon, faced the direction of the door.

As soon as the
weapons were removed from their cases, a red light filled the bridge. A high
pitched siren could be heard in the background.

“I have detected
illegal weapons," wailed the Minx. “This comprises a level 2 felony.
Desist immediately.”

Tynan walked back
to where the other two Templars waited behind their weapons and opened the
other case lying on the floor. He carefully removed a large spherical object.
On one side was a large suction cup, the other contained a small display
screen. Tynan accessed the bombs main processor via his AI and initiated the
activate sequence. The little display screen came alive and started counting
down.

Tynan nodded at
the Templar with the field disruptor who let off a white pulse at the main
bridge panel. The field surrounding it immediately cut out. Static electricity
jumped off the panel and then dissipated.

A more strident
sounding Minx demanded to know what was happening.

Tynan calmly
walked over to the now field free panel, opened it, and inserted the bomb,
attaching it with the suction pads. Closing the panel, he walked back to his
two men.

Precisely 2.6
minutes after the Minx informed them of security’s imminent arrival, the bridge
doors slid open to reveal a squad of 6 security guards together with 2 combat
droids. A plasma bolt, half a meter in diameter, exploded in the middle of
them. The smell of melting flesh and metal filled the bridge. When the smoke
cleared, all that remained of the security detachment was a small puddle of
molten droid and the odd piece of sizzling human fat.

Tynan and his
fellow Templars packed up their weapons, and careful so as to not stand in the
congealing puddle of human and droid, calmly made their way back to the lift.

The Minx,
surveying the carnage, was at a momentary loss. The field, disrupted by the
cannon, reasserted itself. She used it to open the access panel and with her
optical senses got a good look at the device planted by the Templars. It was,
her memory informed her, a field protected Neutron bomb. And it was placed
right on her AI interface. The countdown display read 7 seconds.

“Oh dear,"
she said.

Chapter Four

Antipathy had
always existed between the Areopagite’s and the Watchers. Skirmishes between
the two had certainly taken place, mostly over newly discovered planets, and
loss of life and materiel on both sides had occurred. Outwardly, the two groups
presented a polite face to each other and even displayed limited degrees of
courtesy. But inwardly Angels from both sides concealed (and sometimes not) a
degree of anger, jealously, and indeed in some, hatred.

The Areopagite’s
fear was that the Watchers slowly growing power would eventually eclipse them.
For their part, the Watchers coveted the power that their former kin currently
possessed. Many assumed that the two groups would be natural allies. They
assumed wrong.

Genetically
similar, possessing the same ability to navigate through Shiva space and
sharing the beliefs of Dionysius the Pseudo Areopagite, it would have seemed a
logical paring. However, anyone who had studied the history and development of
religion would realize that religion is often as far away from logic as it is
possible to come and a single difference in religious doctrine or methodology
will almost always justify either rape, burning or pillaging and usually an
enthusiastic combination of the three.

The physical
difference (not withstanding ethical) between Areopagite’s and Watchers was
simple and significant. Areopagite’s were created from a normal human being in
a genetic laboratory (or so the story went). Watcher’s were created and born
the natural way. The Areopagite Proscription against an Angel and non-angelic
individual having sexual relations and specifically children, was instituted to
stop the superior genetic code of the Angels from being diluted, thereby
weakening their powers. Also, and for some reason, it was not seen as very
Angelic to procreate. This proscription had been put in place almost since the
inception of the Areopagite’s and it was not without its critics. The
Proscription was aided somewhat by Areopagite Angels created to be sterile.

Approximately one
hundred years earlier, one of these critics, Zophiel, a former Cherubim of the
Areopagite’s in charge of genetic research, fell madly in love with one of his
non-angelic female flock. Being the romantic that he was, Zophiel decided to
quit Areopagite society and its restrictive proscription and found his own
church – one that allowed fornication and procreation with whomever he damn
well pleased.

Unsurprisingly, he
was joined by over 300 other angels who were similarly inclined.

Using their
abilities to navigate, they founded their own world, naming it Ardos after the
top of Mount Hermon where biblically two hundred angels had descended to Earth
to have sex with mortal females. In keeping with this theme, they named
themselves the Watchers or Grigori. Zophiel himself changed his name to
Semyaza, the biblical name for the leader of the Watchers and married his
non-angelic partner, Doris (who was later elevated to Angelic status). He then
modified his own genetic code, and that of his followers, to allow procreation.

According to the
Book of Enoch, the offspring of an Angel and a mortal female was called a
Nephillim which somehow later turned into an evil giant. The offspring of the
Watchers, much to the Areopagite’s disappointment (and curiosity), failed to
turn into these creatures, and instead became Angels of limited power.

The Watchers
maintained an operation similar to that of the Areopagite’s but on an
infinitely smaller scale. Like the Areopagite’s, they hired their services out
as navigators, explorers and guardian angels, and whilst only controlling the
one world, were thought by analysts to one day be in a position to challenge
the Areopagites choke hold on navigation and exploration. These same analysts
could see the potential of a society that had a policy of interbreeding in
terms of sheer exponential birth rates. The Watchers now had a population over
5 million and were starting to attract many more followers than the
Areopagite’s, largely due to their intermingling policy.

Pure bred
Watchers; that is children whose parents were both Watcher, were equivalent in
power to an Areopagite Power. Direct descendants of Semyaza and his now Angelic
wife Doris, were deemed to possess the abilities and power of Thrones, Angels
that in Areopagite society were of the third order. These Watchers were named
Prince or Princess.

One of the most
feared Watcher Princes was Asel who was currently sitting in the command seat
on the bridge of the Class 1 Trireme, The
Sweet Bejesus
. The
Sweet
Bejesus
had arrived on board the
Dirty Little Minx
shortly after the
Areopagite war galley
Divine Retribution
. There was no sign of activity aboard
the Areopagite ship but Asel had taken the precaution of assigning two of his
men to watch it. He watched in satisfaction as his Nephillim scurried about the
bridge, going about their orders with an air of controlled haste. The command
seat was raised above the other consoles in the crescent shaped bridge. A low
balcony, accessed via a small staircase, separated Asel from his lesser
brethren.