Provenance I - Flee The Bonds (41 page)

‘Why would I do that? You’ve won. Provenance is yours.’

‘Not quite. There are several thousand CONSEC Defenders and Advocates waiting for an order from INC to attack. The success of which, relies heavily on the support of those aboard Provenance. I intend to erode that support. Besides, if you refuse, I’ll kill Penny.’

‘And how will killing me help?’

‘You have read
Govern by Division
, the control of a population through the exploitation of inequity. I will show those aboard Provenance how they have been used to further the gains of a few. Of course, there may be some in SCITECH who know what you and I know and consequently will be more difficult to coerce. That is where you come in. In your death, the death of their last remaining hope, SCITECH will realise the futility of supporting an attack, of allowing Citadel to be woken.’ Morton leant forward, his nanocrystalline eyes fixed on Steve. ‘Not everyone was as resilient as your parents. I know all about SCITECH’s machinations, and their prodigies. There were others like you, but it was your parents who had the idea of sabotaging the engines. They knew that would protect you
and
give you and Alex the opportunity to get close to me. They so much wanted you both to live.’ Morton nodded at the lifeless Alex. ‘When you touched the dolphins your synapses received a series of messages, each one triggering a change in your physiology. You were probably already aware of your enhanced reflex arc, but now — well, you’ll see.’ He tapped his top pocket. ‘As an added incentive, I have here an interface card. It controls all SIS AH’s and Prefects.’ Polymer lips actuated a smile. ‘All you have to do is take it from me.’

As Steve stared up into jet black eyes, flames of hatred ignited in his stomach, but there was no anger, only calm resolve. ‘I’ll fight you.’
Why am I not afraid?

‘As I knew you would. Oh, and you can leave your MPS and MCD here.’

Penny released Steve’s hand and stood. ‘That’s hardly a fair fight, you’re a machine.’

Morton’s eyebrows rose. ‘If you had read Steve’s medical file
nurse
you would see it is more than fair. Isn’t that so, Lieutenant Merblayn?’ Kacee remained silent.

Morton returned his indifferent gaze to Penny. ‘When your boyfriend loses, I suggest you look away. You will sleep much better that way.’

Steve rubbed his thighs; he had begun to feel odd. Despite not having slept for two days, energy pulsed through his body.

09:33 SUN 05:11:2119

Maintenance Bay 04-02-17, Provenance, LEO

Beneath the gargantuan maintenance bay's ceiling of light, Steve walked across the expanse of metal decking towards the centre. Morton had chosen the empty coliseum of 04-02-17 for his arena. The others would be watching from the bridge, on Provenance’s largest viewscreen. The spectacle was to be broadcast across the Network. Earth would also be watching.

When he reached the centre, Steve turned around.

Morton stopped five strides away, his imperious grin stretching his stubbled polymer face. ‘At last.’

He opened his arms and raised his chin. ‘In all of humanity’s futile conflicts, this is the only one that matters. None of you know Stephen Arrowsbury, not even those who think you do. He is a prodigy of an obsolete SCITECH elite. They have poured their scientific arrogance into him in the belief that he could prevent what has already occurred. The succession of humans by a superior race.’

Morton lowered his arms and took a step closer. ‘To Continuity, I say this. The Council used SCITECH to bring you to this point in your evolution, not for altruistic reasons, but to satisfy the egos of a few. They used CONSEC to oppress you, using a Resistance of their own creation to ensure your compliance.

His head skewed, as though he was speaking directly into a camera. ‘We are the master race, we have no superiors, and it is for us alone to determine our future. For those of you aboard who feel as I do, I ask for your support in defending Provenance against the inevitable CONSEC attack. An attack that will destroy us all and any hope we have of finding our new world. For those of you who feel they cannot support me. Please w
atch.’

Throughout Morton’s denunciation of just about everybody, Steve had scrutinised his options. The red airlock doorway to his left added the only splash of colour to the otherwise drab grey outer bulkhead. To his right, five maintenance bays hid behind their towering white blast doors. His only means of escape were the two locked entrances, if he’d had his MCD.

Within the sterile hanger, specks floated aimlessly beneath a sky of crystalline light. Steve focused in on one, aware that the whirring scrubbers above his head filtered particulates greater than 0.2 micrometres. Three hundred times smaller than a human eye can detect.

Morton took another step forward. Steve’s focus snapped back and as he met Morton’s pitiless black stare, a chilling fear quenched the fire in his stomach. Not fear for his life, but for the murderous intent rampaging through his mind.
‘What have I become?’

Wide-eyed, he watched Morton dive towards him. For a moment he thought Morton was deliberately moving slowly, but then he noticed the particles had almost stopped. He stepped aside, his eyes following Morton diving past and slithering to a halt on the metal deck.

Morton climbed to his feet and brushed his tunic with both hands. ‘I’m impressed.’ He stared blankly for a fraction of a second and then blinked once. ‘Let’s see just how quick SCITECH have made you.’

10:06 SUN 05:11:2119

Bridge Alpha, Provenance, LEO

Penny’s hands clamped the upper deck chrome rail, her eyes held captive by the bridge’s cinematic viewscreen and the sickening spectacle it projected. On her right stood Kacee and on her left Dee. Francois sat behind them in a console chair. She felt so alone.

Her initial shock at seeing Steve move in a blur had been surpassed by a hollowing fear. Morton was becoming faster with each attack. He circled Steve with a predatory grin, darting from one spot to another in a streak of black.

Her innermost thought escaped. ‘What if he loses?’

Kacee took hold of her hand. ‘Then he would have died protecting the only thing that matters to him.’

Penny continued to stare at the viewscreen. The word ‘died’ threatened to overwhelm her. Her voice wavered
. ‘They don’t deserve him.’

‘They? Look at me, Penny.’

Even in the cold blue light Kacee’s gentle smile carried warmth. ‘Steve’s not fighting for
them
, he’s fighting for you.’

Morton blurred once more, and this time he made contact.

Penny spun around. ‘Why don’t—‘

Francois had gone.

10:10 SUN 05:11:2119

Maintenance Bay 04-02-17, Provenance, LEO

Steve crashed onto his back, surprised that his ripped shoulder registered no pain. He crooked his head, just in time to feel Morton’s fist brush his ear and pound into the deck plate. With his ears ringing, he pushed Morton aside and jumped to his feet. Whatever augmentations SCITECH had given him, he doubted his body would survive a punch like that.

Morton lunged from a crouch, his shoulder thumping into Steve’s hip plate and lifting him into the air. Steve gritted his teeth, raised his folded arm and drove his elbow into the back of Morton’s neck. The elbow protector plate shattered on impact, polymer skin split, exposing an edge of Morton’s shiny alloy vertebrae.

The force of the blow knocked Morton to the deck. Steve landed on his feet, his body rigid in anticipation of the next onslaught. It never came.

Morton raised himself into a crouch, his head bowed. ‘How’s the elbow?’

Steve touched his right elbow, the swelling felt hot and squidgy, and painless. Morton’s head juddered up and down. Something was broken.

Morton rose slowly, his head still bowed. He arched backwards until their eyes met. ‘It would appear SCITECH have been tampering with your subconscious as well. Your blow was too precise to be a fluke; you have damaged my semispinalis linkage.’

‘So I’ve won.’

A smile crossed Morton tilted face. ‘I said this was a contest between two species. My species can communicate directly with the network, can you?’

The klaxon shrilled in the cavernous bay. Particles accelerated towards the flashing red doorway and the widening gap between the airlock doors.

Morton raised his voice over the alarm. ‘Exemplar’s can hold their breath for at least thirty minutes. Which I believe is twenty-five minutes longer than you
.’

Steve ran across to the EM suit closets attached to the inner bulkhead. He yanked open each door in turn, as he flung open the last one his head drooped. They were all empty.

‘Did you think I’d be so foolish as to overlook something so obvious?’ Morton’s voice swirled in the clamour of the alarm and rush of escaping air.

With one hand gripping the suit closet, Steve turned to face him, his breathing slowing in the rarefied air. The particles had all gone and across the bay, the tug of decompression invited him to follow. Morton’s body had bent into a grotesque S-shape as he countered the drag and retained eye contact.

Hang on, Steve. I’m nearly there
.

Alex?
Steve’s subsequent thought was oxygen deprivation psychosis.

Who else would it be? Where are you
?

Opposite the airlock, hanging onto a suit closet
.

Stay where you are, I’m coming in from your right
.

Okay.
Psychotic or not, the codeword was acoustically encoded to Steve’s voice pattern. There was no shortcut to activating it.

10:16 SUN 05:11:2119

Corridor 04-02-01, Provenance, LEO

Francois stood with Alex outside the maintenance bay doors. ‘What are you waiting for?’

‘I need to close the airlock and jam the other entrance first.’

After listening to Morton’s diatribe, Francois had concluded his longevity would be more assured under Steve’s command than SIS’s. To defeat two enemies, it is sometimes necessary to befriend one. With the black Prefects and SIS AHs deactivated, his
Garde Impériale
could defeat CONSEC. Provenance would be his to command.

Nonessential crew who wished to leave would be given safe passage to Earth. Some, like Captain Deon Brandleson and First Sergeant Nikodem Gorniak, would have no choice.

He looked up at Alex’s blank expression, ‘Have you not yet finished?’

Francois’s body tensed rigid as Alex grabbed his chest protector plate and lifted him off the floor.

Alex leant in so close Francois could see the familiar sharpness of his
vert olive
eyes. ‘You don’t command me and neither do you understand the situation
. If I can’t hear Steve’s command I can’t activate the program and
Morton will have time to summon the Prefects.’ Alex opened his hand. ‘Now keep quiet, I’m nearly done.’

Francois repositioned the chest plate and unclipped his holster. His Cogent was the one safeguard he didn’t intend to relinquish; Alex had adjusted it so it could fire at greater velocity, thus negating the black Prefects increase in speed.

Alex stepped back from the doors. ‘Done. I’m going left. Prefects will have to come through either entrance; I suggest you don’t stand with your back to the doors. Ready?’

Francois nodded. I do not command you now, but I will.

10:19 SUN 05:11:2119

Maintenance Bay 04-02-17, Provenance, LEO

The pull on Steve’s body slackened at the same time as the calamitous alarm. He ran towards the opening entrance doors one hundred metres to his right. Alex dashed through, followed by Francois.

Morton twisted his misshapen body in their direction, ‘You’re too late, Alex, and you, Francois, have signed your death warrant.’

In the distant bulkhead the opposite pair of entrance doors exploded, a smoking hole gaped between them.

His oxygen starved legs burned, but Steve had covered half the distance in a few seconds. ‘Janus!’ A second explosion drowned his shout.

Morton was much closer than Alex. ‘Janus! The two faced roman god. How apt.’ He held up his hand, the interface card shimmered. ‘You cannot win.’

Steve glanced left, a black Prefect burst from the plume of heavy smoke. Its cannon fired and Morton’s raised hand disintegrated in a shower of white-hot fragments.

He was now only thirty metres from Alex. ‘Janus! Francois, shoot the Prefect!’ Steve’s stomach knotted when a smiling Alex grabbed Francois’s firing hand.

Alex nodded in the direction of the Prefect. ‘I heard you the first time.’

Steve slewed to a halt. The Prefect sat on deck, its indicator panel unlit, its cyclopic eye opaque.

Behind him, Morton spoke. ‘What are your orders Commander?’

Steve ignored him and approached a beaming Alex and a sheepish looking Francois. He reciprocated Alex’s smile and accepted the proffered MCD.

Admiral Smithson’s face appeared on the screen. ‘Well done Steve, we’re in. Controllers have shut down the black Prefects and all AHs are under the Marionette directive. I’ll meet you back at the Pentagon,
Commander
. Smithson out.’

Steve pocketed his MCD and placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder. ‘I need a cup of coffee, and this time I’m buying.’

10:42 SUN 05:11:2119

Cabin 42-18-3125, Provenance, LEO

After a brief diversion to the bridge to collect Penny and the others, Steve returned to Alex’s cabin with a tray of freshly brewed coffee. Penny and Dee sat on one of the settees, opposite Alex and Kacee. A furtive looking Francois stood by the bed.

In an attempt to defuse any latent conflict, PSYOPS had decided everyone aboard Provenance should be informed of Colossus’s harmless trajectory. Knowledge that a few hours earlier would have killed you was now displayed on every viewscreen. Steve wondered how many people believed it to be true.

Assured by Alex it had been repaired, he gingerly placed the tray on the hexagonal table and decided against pointing out the obvious tilt.