Seven Wonders (38 page)

  Next to her, Joe let out a sigh. Sam looked over at him, and saw him smiling as he clutched his chest. He was breathing easier, and she realized she was too. The air didn't have the deadly icy quality to it any longer. Blackbird had managed to regain control. Joe winked and gave a thumbs-up.

  Aurora floated backwards from his handiwork, with SMART embedded in the workshop wall. While normally this would only be a minor hindrance, the robot did not attempt to extricate itself. The Dragon Star allowed her shield to fall as she approached the robot, and Linear reappeared, a handful of wires and twisted plastic in one hand. He tossed the debris to the floor and peered at SMART. The robot's red optics were dark.

  "Was that me?" Linear pulled his mask off and scratched his beard, then kicked the discarded components out of the way with the toe of one boot.

  The PA barked, and Bluebell spoke from the annex. "Blackbird's disconnected SMART from the system. We've got control back."

  Linear grinned at Aurora. Even from her position near the workshop exit, Sam could see the superhero's face back in the usual smirk. She smiled herself, finding Aurora's clichéd tough-guy expression strangely comforting.

  Bluebell and Blackbird emerged from the annex doorway. Sam watched them cross the floor, noting that Blackbird remained uncuffed. Conroy walked over to where Aurora, the Dragon Star and Linear were poking and prodding at the deactivated bulk of SMART.

  "Ah, Aurora, we don't have much time here." As he spoke, Conroy glanced at Blackbird, who was watching him with an expression of complete hatred. He cleared his throat and turned back to Aurora.

  Aurora stepped back from the robot's carcass. "The Draconid meteors?"

  Conroy nodded. "We have to be ready, intercept the package in space before it even reaches the Earth."

  "Understood." Aurora waved over at Blackbird, and pointed a heavy gauntlet at SMART's dead optics. "Can you remove SMART's data core and install it in the base computer?"

  Blackbird strolled over, somehow maintaining a casual, indifferent air. "Why can't you do it?"

  "Hephaestus was our technical expert."

  Blackbird's mouth curled up in an unpleasant smile. "You want to mount his core like an external drive?"

  "Allowing access to the file directories, yes."

  Blackbird squinted, tilting her head as she looked at the black cube of SMART's processor, nestled within the wires and loops of its exposed head mechanism. "Yeah, should be easy. Got a terminal?"

  "Main conference room." Aurora turned on his heel, striking out for the workshop door. "The meteor shower approaches, but before we can act we need to get to the bottom of this mystery."

  He paused, mid-stride, and turned to slowly walk back towards the Dragon Star. Hands on hips, he towered over her.

  "We must know everything, my friend. The fate of the entire world hangs in the balance." He turned to face the room. "Everyone, follow me."

  Aurora strode back to the main door. Linear and Bluebell helped a still-groggy Sand Cat up and out, and they were followed by Conroy, Joe and Sam. Blackbird clambered over SMART's collapsed form to reach the head. The Dragon Star stepped backwards, sweeping the powerstaff around to cover Blackbird, still technically their prisoner. Blackbird heard the movement, and looked over her shoulder at the gently pulsing superhero.

  "Gimme a break, kid. I've got work to do." She turned back to her job. "So, on the run from the Thuban, eh? Well done on keeping that a secret. I guess Bluebell can't read that dead head of yours, eh? No electrical activity, is there? Brainwaves at zero. Handy. I'll see what I can do with the memory readout from this thing, but I can't promise anything. You'll need to face up to the consequences yourself."

  Blackbird jerked SMART's memory cube from the robot's head and turned, but the Dragon Star was gone.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

With Bluebell's help, Blackbird jury-rigged SMART's memory cube into the system controller that formed part of the conference room table within two hours. Aurora's display panel was active; he tapped at it, navigating through system folders and directory displays, waiting for SMART's isolated memory core to become available. Blackbird had been surprised to find the Dragon Star already sitting at the table, at her customary position at the opposite end to Aurora. Already the two heroes had exchanged glances a few times, or was that just her imagination? What was the link between the two? Did it go as far as telepathy? Given their almost symbiotic relationship in battle, it wouldn't have surprised her. Aurora was stoic, emotionless, and the Dragon Star silent, expressionless. Quite the crime-fighting pair.

  "Are we ready, Blackbird?"

  She looked up at Aurora. The memory cube had been active for a few moments, and she'd let herself drift off into her own thoughts. That kind of carelessness was dangerous, especially with Bluebell at her shoulder.

  Blackbird nodded, and Aurora's gloved fingers moved over the touch panels.

  "Of course, what readout SMART's systems will provide is merely the missing link," began Aurora. "As part of his agreement with us, Paragon placed all files and data once in the possession of his alter ego known as the Cowl in our hands, and with his direction, retrieval of the power core from the Draconid meteor shower will be a matter of routine." Conroy nodded, almost sagely. Blackbird snorted. The creep.

  "What
is
new information is that in addition to the power core, the Thuban have sent a warship to collect their bounty." Aurora sat down, and leaned back, causing his chair to creak loudly. "That bounty, of course, being our guest from the Thuban, the Dragon Star." He gestured towards the opposite end of the table. The Dragon Star was looking downward, and appeared not to notice the entire room was looking at her.

  Linear buzzed. "Bounty?" He looked around the room. Nobody was saying anything, or even daring to move. Linear's chair rattled against the floor as his outline faded into a blur then snapped back into sharp focus. He looked around each of the people seated at the table in disbelief. "The Dragon Star is a dedicated protector of the Earth, and a sworn member of the Seven Wonders… right? Are you telling us she's a criminal? Some kind of alien con on the run from her own people?"

  Aurora said nothing, but the Dragon Star raised her hood and met her leader's empty, masked eyes. He inclined his head slightly, and she began.

  "Linear is correct. I am an escapee of the Thuban. I am a wanted criminal on a hundred worlds and a thousand moons. The bounty on my head exceeds the value of the mineral wealth of your entire solar system. If I am captured, I will be imprisoned until the end of the universe and tortured beyond that time point."

As the Dragon Star spoke, for the first time she appeared to become animated, a real, living person, even though Sam knew the horrific truth about her. The words were stilted, odd coming from this allAmerican teenager, apparently no older than sixteen, but the voice that spoke them and the alien intelligence behind the young face was ancient beyond all understanding; a bodiless, abstract entity merely re-animating the dead body of a teenage murder victim. Sam knew, unlike most members of the general public, about the Dragon Star. She'd investigated the girl's death: it had been her first assignment when she'd joined SuperCrime, the case that had brought her and David together. Perhaps, she thought, that was yet another reason among many why she didn't like the superheroes in general, the Dragon Star in particular. She shuddered inwardly as more gory details of the case swam into her mind… but then here was the girl, the dead cheerleader, all hope and promise for the future extinguished violently, sitting at a table of superheroes in colored spandex, wielding an awesome alien artifact, and describing an impossible life the girl could never have known. As she listened to the Dragon Star's explanation, Sam didn't know whether to weep or be sick on the floor.

  "My crime is a simple one, according to the Thuban. Freedom of thought. The Thuban are a collective, a group intelligence into which each individual is absorbed. While each Thuban retains consciousness, intelligence and awareness, identity is forbidden.

  "But this is not a choice we make. For many, assimilation is a living hell, entered into unwillingly. But more than that, as the Thuban hive expands outwards in space from our home, Alpha Draconis, the Dragon Star, so intelligent life and civilizations old and new are absorbed into the collective. The Thuban are consumers, absorbing and destroying all that come near. So I made my decision where billions of my kind would not. I declared an identity and left the collective. I was not stopped, because no one had ever left before. Such an act was beyond all reasoning.

  "I could not fight the Thuban on my own, so I fled as the declaration of my outlaw status was pronounced. I flew across the universe, and to the Earth, where freedom and identity are paramount. It is here that I found my home, defending those very principles, with my new friends. The superheroes of the Seven Wonders."

  The Dragon Star dropped her head back down and stared at the table top, her hood slipping forward to shadow her face. Sam wasn't sure, but she thought she could see the wet tracks of tears on the dead girl's face.

  "Well, they're coming to get you," Conroy said. He slouched in his chair, stroking his chin in thought. "After the initial transmission, I negotiated a bounty and they agreed to send one of their own power cores, providing enough raw energy for me to take you out once I'd built the supergun – Hephaestus' design, I'm guessing, which you've all forgotten even exists."

  Conroy paused and allowed himself a chuckle. He glanced at Bluebell and a murmur rippled around the room. Conroy raised an eyebrow and continued.

  "Oh, I don't blame you. You got Hephaestus to design a weapon that could be used against other superheroes. That kind of thing is too dangerous to have lying around, even locked in the Citadel of Wonders. So it was never built and all memory of it erased. All you were left with was the knowledge that there was important information entrusted to a series of individuals. What that knowledge was, you'd forgotten."

  Linear sighed dramatically and shook his head. The other superheroes remained silent. Conroy turned back to Aurora. "After assembling your weapon with the Thuban power core integrated, I was to hold the Dragon Star's body until they arrived to collect."

  Aurora drummed his fingers on the table, then paused, and fixed Conroy with a look.

  "But…?"

  Conroy smiled again. "
But
is right. As your friend here said, the Thuban expand by absorbing civilizations they come into contact with. The Earth is no different. Sure, they're coming to collect their outlaw, but sure as hell they'll collect the other seven billion people on the planet while they're dropping by."

  Conroy pointed at the black memory cube from SMART. "After months of regular communication, Blackbird intercepted the
other
transmissions, the ones routed through your satellite system that you never received. SMART, I presume?"

  "Not SMART." The Dragon Star turned her hood to him, and reached into the folds of her cloak. She removed a small plastic disk, two-inches square. The metal spindle embedded in the center glinted as she held it up. "Me. I received the transmissions, but fearing for my freedom I hid this from my friends. I feared they would not understand my position. I am the very thing the Seven Wonders exist to fight, a criminal."

  Aurora shook his head. "You underestimate us, Dragon Star. We uphold natural justice, a universal tenet." He raised a gloved hand and gestured at Paragon. "But Paragon is correct − SMART was not a part of our computer system, it
was
the computer system. I'm afraid, Dragon Star, that the messages you received were not only read by me, but were also received by SMART. Here we failed – Hephaestus' skill was too fine. He created an infinitely logical machine intelligence with a mind and will of its own. Seeing a traitor in our midst, it did what it was designed to do – protect the Earth, at any cost. I fear SMART saw first the Justiciar, then ourselves, as the primary threat, one that had to be eliminated in order for the Thuban menace to be neutralized."

  The room was silent after that for some time, each person around the table lost in their own thoughts. The Seven Wonders were disintegrating just as the world faced one of its greatest threats.

  Joe cleared his throat, and had the attention of the whole room. He nervously adjusted his tie and rubbed the top of his closely shaved head.

  "So, what are we waiting for?"

  Sam looked at him, shaking her head in confusion. Linear buzzed on his chair. The others sat and stared. After a few more seconds, Joe tapped his fingers on the shiny table top, leaving big smeary fingerprints.

  "The Cowl built a weapon specifically designed to take out superheroes. The Thuban have sent the power supply so we know it works against their own kind."

  The detective looked around the room, waiting for the penny to drop. Conroy sat back in his chair, a broad smile across his face.

  "So goes the theory," he said.

  Joe made to move from the table, then sank back into his chair.

  "So let's go get the power core and shoot some aliens."

The Apollo Fortress was, quite literally, a smaller version of the Citadel of Wonders. Same layout, same facilities, all just a little
reduced
. Control One, with its conference table and observation windows. A Nuclear Forge, with yard-thick walls half the thickness of the furnace's cover itself. Sleeping quarters that were never occupied. An infirmary.

  A morgue.

  The room was lit in clinical blue, as if the choice of lighting somehow reinforced the chilled temperature within. Since the Apollo Fortress had been built, the morgue facilities had never been used. And now it was doubling as an evidence locker. Exhibit A lay on the slab, his skin washed a flat white by the blue lighting, a sheer plastic sheet draped over his body from head to toe.