45 - Golden Ticket

The scout rats did their job and sent back information on the unshielded core. Maya pulled up the hologram and studied it, she looked to her two companions and they both nodded. They were as ready as they could be.

Maya formed a door that was flanked by Bell and Tender. They had their weapons drawn and pushed their way into the darkened area before her. She had protested, not wanting to be protected by the two, but she was a mess. Maya limped forward, her half healed injuries sent shooting pains through her limbs and she was half carried by an undulating Cage made crutch.

The hiveship core room was stifling hot, not from the damage the ship had taken, but from the massive ball of rouge tech components that sat before them. The room had a metallic stink and Maya noted discarded cores littering the ground before them. It was as if they had walked into the den of a carnivore as the cracked and broken AI cores crunched beneath their feet.

She paused and looked at them, one of the cores catching her attention.

“Zono,” she said, lifting the core from the pile.

“Are you sure?” Bell asked, he shone his light upon the core. It still had an internal light, therefore it hadn’t been destroyed yet. Maya could almost feel it screaming to her, trying to communicate. She inventoried the core.

“That would explain some things,” Tender said.

“How so?” Bell asked.

“Well, Zono knew our location along with the Tarvana warrens,” he replied.

“They tore him apart,” Maya said. She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter if he sold us out or not. “ She walked toward the massive core and looked at it. “We’re not here for Zono.”

The rogue AI core seemed to shudder as she looked at it. She widen the door and brought it closer to them, from within the Cage a violet colored tentacle began to extend.

“Show off,” Bell said.

“I’m just full of awesome power,” Maya remarked. The tentacle gently touched the core and seemed to reel back from it. Maya felt a spark of something in her head, a surge of information and then a voice.

“You!” the voice screamed at her. She translated it so that Bell and Tender could hear.

“Ah, nice to meet you. I’m Maya Sullivan, these are my companions Bellmo-“

“We shall destroy you!”

“Rude,” Maya said. “You wanna play it this way then? Alright, we’re the Sullivan Survival Society, surrender your ship. We’re gonna add your technological distinctiveness to the stuff we sell and your little drones are gonna serve us. Resistance is futile.”

“We shall destroy you!”

“You blew up my ship. I’m not in a forgiving mood,” Maya said. “Trying to kill me is one thing, but you’re making it so that the name Bonita is gaining a bad reputation. I can’t let you do that. I like the name Bonita, my first dog was named Bonita. Real nice girl, until she…. well, died.”

“We shall destroy you!”

“Fine.”

Maya snapped her finger and the tentacle whipped forward and wrapped itself around the massive core. The AI core let out a strangled cry of rage. Maya grunted as she strained, the hiveship core was far too strong for her to try and dominate. The Blob had been a barely forming mind, that had been easy to stomp on, but this core was old and it was powerful.

Therefore Maya wasn’t trying to subdue it, she was cutting it out. The Cage’s components streamed out of the threshold, pulsing with an internal purple light. They wrapped the core completely, microscopic connections forming and replacing the ones that the AI core had once commanded.

It was a painful process, Maya leaned heavily against Bell as she basically shoved a crowbar between the core and the rest of the ship. She dislodged the massive core, but it wasn’t just a removal, she groaned as the Cage and her brain tried to replace it.

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Bell said, helping her sit on the ground. Maya only groaned more as the strain in her head made her want to pass out.

She tasted blood and felt it dripping from her nose. That was not a good sign.

“Just need to get those little extra brains working,” Maya said. The hacking heads had been left in the processing nodes, more due to everyone forgetting to bring them back with them than from planning. It worked in their favor as Maya used them to begin overriding the lesser brains around the ship.

Already the vessel was listing, several of the engines had shut down and some vital shielding was failing. Maya was only after two things, power and the damn teleporter. She wanted it.

“We have to leave,” Tender said.

“One moment,” Maya gasped. She struggled and felt the connection to the hiveship begin to fray. It wasn’t designed to take input from an organic mind, the hundreds of uncontrolled minds through the ship were going mad and they were rampaging.

Maya felt the security systems give and she let out a shuddering breath. She still struggled to get the hiveship to do what she wanted and she could feel it beginning to slip out of her control. The ship listed more. It if crashed, there went all the liquid mana the ship had secured along with a lot of fancy technology they had created.

She felt Tender’s metallic hand on her. “Let me help,” he said.

Maya nodded. A purple tentacle peeled off from the orb surrounding the main AI core and slipped into Tender’s armored head. He jerked as it made the connection and Maya could almost feel a weight being lifted off of her.

“Ah, see this isn’t too hard,” Tender said.

Maya chuckled weakly and groaned as her head wanted to explode.

“You’ve broken the security walls,” Tender said. “I’ve inputted the necessary information, but we must leave now.”

Maya nodded weakly and she felt Bell lift her up. They raced to the door and she dragged the main AI core with them. Once they entered the Cage, she shut the door and then collapsed into unconsciousness.

***

“Wake up,” Bell said.

Maya groaned and felt sick as she opened her eyes. “What?” she asked.

“We need you to open a door to the space station,” Bell said.

“Why?”

“We’re down to an hour of time,” Tender said. “If we don’t do it now, we’ll run out of power, then we’ll have to navigate the hiveship to retrieve some. It is still crawling with active and madden rogue AIs.”

“Plus you’re a bloody mess,” Bell said. “We need Nan to look at you.”

“Fine, fine,” Maya grumbled. She concentrated and then let out a strangled cry. The Cage threshold shifted and she felt as if someone punched a sharp knife into her brain. It wasn’t mind flies bad, but it was enough to cause her eyes to roll back and blood to drip from her nose.

“We’re here,” Tender said and looked to Maya. “Maya? Maya!”

***

“Damn it! Why am I here!” Maya shouted as she was seated her her father’s lounge chair. The System was reading a book on the couch beside her.

“Oh, you’re nearly dead,” the System said.

“Bullshit. I saved the day, killed the hiveship, made some awesome sauce advances in controlling the Cage, and made some wacky new purple components.”

“Yes, Union Tech. Nice rediscovery,” the System said.

“Union tech?”

“A union of rogue and system tech.”

“Boring name. I’m calling it Purple Rain.”

“No.”

“Come on. How about Crystal Rex?”

“No. It’s called Union Tech.”

“Lame.” Maya fumed. She looked at the System and sighed. “So I’m dying?”

“Near death.”

“Because of the whole brain thing? Trying to control the Cage, the hiveship, while patting my head and rubbing my belly?”

“Yes.”

“You’re the one who said to use my big brain.”

“Well, not to the point of causing brain damage.”

“How much is too much when it comes to surviving and pulling awesome technological achievements out of my ass during a bloody fight?”

“You need to be at a ‘seven’ and not an ‘eleven’ when it comes to doing things,” the System said.

“Go big or go home,” Maya replied.

The System snorted.

“So, what, is this like my pre-death party? I would like some strippers, please.”

“No, I didn’t say you were dying. I said you were near death.”

“So I’m gonna live?”

“Depends on your friends.”

“So I’m gonna live.”

“You have a lot of faith in them.”

“Dude, you’ve seen the shit we’ve been through. We’re golden and like totally besties for life.”

“True,” the System remarked.

“Well, I’m just gonna wait here and allow them to save me. Wake me up when it’s all done and over with,” Maya yawned.

“Oh, another thing.”

“Something good, I hope. “

“More of a congratulations.”

“On what?”

“Reaching level one hundred,” the System said.

“Wait, what!”

“Oh, look at that. You’re fading out of here. You must be awakening in the real world!” the System’s voice faded in and out and Maya glared at him.

“Stop doing that!”

“I can’t hear you, Maya Sullivan…” the System’s voice faded as if being pulled away, even though he sat less than five feet from her and she could see him clear as day.

“I said-“

***

Maya gasped and opened her eyes.

She saw Tender’s half a dozen red eyes watching her. The rogue AI’s head tilted and she could almost see him smile, even though his faceplate didn’t move an inch.

“You’re awake,” Tender said.

“Hey, there buddy. You keeping me company?” Maya asked. She looked around from the bed she lay in, noting that she was in what appeared to be a hospital room. “Uh, where am I?”

“In the Cage,” Tender replied.

Maya closed her eyes and then she could feel it. She could feel everything that was happening within the Cage. She could sense Roci moving around, Nan working on some medical machinery, Yosi and Veskari… uh… Maya shook her head.

Maya reached up and touched her head, noting that her usual locs of hair were missing, instead there was a smooth dome of her shaven head with some bits of machinery stuck to it.

“Guess I blackout and get haircuts now,” Maya said.

Tender tensed a bit and then looked in the direction of where Nan was. Maya could already feel the doctor noting her awakening and moving toward the room. Through some communication, Roci was notified and the young woman changed course toward the hospital room.

Maya paused as she scanned the Cage, she noted the astronauts were there, talking among themselves and seemingly working on some kind of engineering model. She saw that her engineering VR was being used by Hanna and that they had tablets and holographic diagrams before them.

“Uh… how long was I out?”

“One standard week,” Tender said.

“Bull-honky.”

“It is not bull-honky,” Nan said from the doorway. She was immediately pushed aside and Roci shoved her way in.

Maya looked at the AI and saw that she had grown again. It was strange, she realized, how much like a SIL she was even though her skin was metal. Maya had made the body so long ago, it seemed, out of random scrap parts, but now Roci seemed to fully wear it.

Roci raced up to the bed and looked at Maya. “You’re awake.”

“Nope, still sleeping. I sleep with my eyes open now,” Maya said. “How you been, kid?”

Roci hugged Maya and she felt her shudder against her. There were no tears, but the sentiment was there. “I thought you were going to die.”

“Takes more than a little hiveship to kill this girl,” Maya said. “Probably it’ll take two or three hiveships.”

“Your brain was so messed up,” Roci said.

“Oof, tell me about it. I once watched an Adam Sandler movie and thought it was funny.”

“There was extensive damage to your brain,” Nan clarified. “You would have died, if not for Bell.”

“Where is the lovable four armed grump?” Maya asked. ‘I don’t feel him…”

“He used his golden ticket,” Roci said. “He returned home.”