Infinite Empire – Chapter 8

He was right here. A minute ago. Seconds ago.

“Where did that slimeball go?” Skylar asks. “First sign of trouble and he’s out of here.”

“This was hardly the fist sign of trouble,” Wren points out.

“Ship, can you locate Ethan?”

“No.”

“No? What do you mean, no? Is he still on board?”

“None of the airlocks have been opened. Apart from the one that security drone used. It is possible he has left via that airlock. But that is a very low possibility.”

“Why can’t you locate him?”

“I am not sure. It is possible that his suit possesses stealth shielding.”

“This is crazy,” Skylar says. “How did he get slip out undetected? He can’t have just disappeared into thin air!”

“There are two other exit/entry points to the bridge,” I say. “He probably activated his ExoSuit’s stealth mode, and then left the bridge while everyone’s attention was on the main door.”

The ship says it has reviewed its internal recordings of the situation, both visual and audio. It says that Ethan vanishes before the security drone attacks.

“So he may have left via the airlock, onto the derelict station,” Wren says. “Or he might still be on board, somewhere?”

“He’s onboard,” Mason says. “No way he’s going over there by himself. I’ll find him.”

“Wait, there is activity the dropship,” the ship informs us. “It is powering up. I cannot override it.”

“He’s leaving us?” Luke says. “Where the hell is he going to go?”

Wren can’t believe it. “No, he wouldn’t leave. Leaving would be suicide.”

“Come on,” Mason says to Wren. “Let’s get him before he does something stupid. Everyone else stays here.”

Good advice from Mason. But there’s no way I’m staying behind. I follow Mason and Wren through the corridors of the ship. All the way to the cargo hold, all the way to the dropship.

“Thought I told you to stay behind,” Mason says to me.

“This is my fault,” I say. “I need to make this right.”

“Ethan!” Wren shouts. “We know you’re in there. What the hell are you doing?”

The ramp that leads up to the dropship’s interior is open. Ethan is definitely inside. “Does he even know how to fly this thing?” I ask.

“Dammit, John, we told you to wait on the bridge,” Wren says. “There is something very wrong with the ship. Multiple systems are glitching or crashing. Do you want to be sucked out into space?”

“I’m not letting this bastard endanger the lives of my crew,” I say.

“Yeah,” Wren says. “That’s your job.”

“Get behind me,” Mason says. “Let’s go. Up this ramp. We can’t let him take the dropship. Who knows when we might need it.”

Before we move into the dropship, Ethan appears at the top of the ramp. He is holding two very large caliber weapons. I was not aware we possessed this kind of firepower.

Mason drops to his knees and aims his sidearm at Ethan’s chest. “Drop it, Ethan. It’s not worth it. We can talk about this.”

“What’s there to talk about?” he asks.

“We can still make this work,” I say, holding my hands up. “You will get your money back.”

I’m talking about money because I’m pretty sure money is the only thing this guy understands.

“I’m not staging a munity, if that’s what your worried about,” Ethan says calmly.

“Then what are you doing?” Mason asks.

Ethan holds up his newfound weapons. “I’m saving all your asses. I figured these might come in handy.”

“When the hell did you smuggle these onboard?” Wren asks.

“A long time ago,” Ethan says.

Wren is not happy about Ethan lying to him, about keeping secrets. “You didn’t bother to tell me about your secret weapons cache? You didn’t think that your head of security might need to know about this?”

“I didn’t want to alarm anyone. And besides, I bought them not because I thought we’d need them, but because I’d rather have them and not need them, then need them and not have them.”

Mason shakes his head. He is losing patience. “Fine. Whatever. Just don’t go sneaking off on us like that again. You’re going to get yourself killed. And you put the rest of the crew in danger. Do you understand?”

“Look, do you want these weapons or not?” Ethan asks. “Any second now that other security drone is going to come looking for its friend.”

“And we’re at risk of getting boarded by raiders,” Wren says, thinking out loud, obviously wanting to get her hands on some more firepower.

“What kind of weapons are they?” I ask. “What can they do?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Ethan says. “But I can’t wait to find out.” Ethan makes his way down the ramp. “Let’s go. Before we’re taken by surprise again.”

We make our way quickly back to the bridge. Skylar is tending to Luke and swearing a lot. Luke is looking worse.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It’s worse than we thought. He’s coughing up a lot of blood. Possible punctured lung.”

“I’m… fine…” Luke says, struggling to breathe. He pushes Skylar away and jams some kind of device into the neck of the security drone. “This better work.”

“Is the medi-bay ready?” Wren asks.

“It’s not properly installed,” I say.

“What, why not?”

“Because we weren’t supposed to be leaving today. This was a test flight. This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Skylar is wiping away blood from Luke’s mouth and chin as he works on the drone. “We were supposed to Jump to Titan,” she says. “How did this happen? How did we go so far? How does the ship not know where we are?”

“There might be a medi-bay onboard the station,” Mason suggests.

“Ship, is there a medical facility on board the service station?” I ask.

“It is not a service station. It is a refinery. A gas refinery. And yes. There is a medical facility. However, due to damage it has taken, the medical facility is no longer operational. And the life support systems are failing.”

“Thank you, ship,” says Mason. “And ship?”

“Yes.”

“Can we call you something other than ship? Do you have a name?”

“The name ‘Expensive’ comes to mind,” Ethan says.

“Advanced and expensive,” Mason says. “You gotta have a name, right?”

“Yes. I have a name.”

“So what is it?”

“When I was built, when I became self-aware, they named me Orion’s Wolf.”

“That… sounds ominous,” I say.

“Were you a combat vessel?” Mason asks.

“Unclear. I have had several memory wipes. However, I am certain my former commanders called me ‘Wolf’.”

“Again, that sounds very ominous,” I say.

“Are you aware of any system failures?” Skylar asks. “Why did you detect stowaways in the cargo hold?”

“System errors are of an unknown origin. However, it is possible the errors are occurring due to the size of the initial jump. But this is a working theory. And I detected stowaways in the cargo hold because there are stowaways in the cargo hold.”

“I’ve got it,” Luke says, coughing up blood and cheering at the same time. “With the help of Orion’s Wolf of course.”

“Got what?” I ask.

“We’ve reprogrammed the security drone. We can talk to it now. And it won’t even try to kill us.”

“That was fast.”

“Ok, fine. The Wolf did most of the work, and I helped a little. Wait, do we call you ‘The Wolf’, or just ‘Wolf’?”

“Wolf is fine.”

Just as Wolf said, it was a Security Drone, left behind to guard the refinery station. To protect the wreckage from marauders and salvagers. To stop it from falling into the planet and burning up in the atmosphere. Although it appeared to be failing that last mission objective. According to Wolf, we have less than thirty minutes before orbital decay becomes orbital fireball.

“What is happening here?” Luke asks the drone.

The drone takes a second to reboot. Another second to take in its surroundings. “Holding pattern Alpha. Mission objective: protect the refinery station and other assets belonging to the Oracle Corporation. At all costs. Trespassers will be eliminated. Do you have an access code?”

“No. We don’t have an access code.”

“Then you will be eliminated. You will be destroyed.”

“Who is attacking the other station?”

“Unknown.”

“Another company? Marauders? Pirates?”

“Unknown.”

“Where are we?”

“That is classified.”

Mason pinches the bridge of his nose. “Luke, I thought you said we could reprogram this thing to help us.”

“I have. We have. It is helping us. It’s telling the truth.” Luke pauses, has a coughing fit. “At the moment, it is incapable of lying. Judging by the simplicity of its coding, it doesn’t know where we are either. It doesn’t need to know.”

“Wolf, do you know where we are?” Mason asks.

“No. My navigation database is incomplete.”

“Just thought I’d check.”

“So what happened here?” Skylar asks. “How were you attacked?”

“They attacked suddenly. From multiple points in space. They used ranged weapons. It was a well-coordinated attack. They kept their distance, attacking at the moment they entered the edge of the system. There are numerous other stations around the planet. They are all lost.”

“How many security drones on this station?” Mason asks.

“Twelve. Including me.”

“So there’s eleven other drones?” Skylar says. “We can’t fight that many.”

“There is a commander unit. If you disable the commander. He might be able to order the other drones to stand down.”

“Might?” Skylar says, doubtful.

“I am unsure.”

Wren says, “That’s a trap. That’s bait. No way. Not buying it.”

“It is telling the truth,” Luke says. “It’s incapable of lying.”

“Where’s the commander unit?” Mason asks.

“It onboard the derelict refinery station.”

Mason thinks it over, weighs up our options. “So we need to go over to the derelict station, the one that is currently dragging us to a fiery death, find the commander unit, without being detected by it, or the other drones, and disable it?”

“And make it order the other drones to stand down,” Wren adds.

“And that might not even work?”

“Correct,” the drone answers.

“And we’ve got less than thirty minutes,” I say. “Before the station, before we fall into the planet.”

“How long before the AutoDrive kicks in and makes a jump?” Skylar asks.

“Less than forty minutes.”

“What happens if we’re connected to this station when we jump?” Skylar asks.

“Nothing good will happen,” I say. “That’s for sure.”

Mason kneels down next to Luke. “Ask the bot what happens if the other seccy’s break their holding pattern and come looking for us.”

The drone answers immediately without further prompting. “They will only break the holding pattern if they are presented with a reason to do so. An unknown vessel is a reason to do so. I expect them here any minute now.”

“Can you get a reading on them, Wolf?” I ask.

“Yes, sir. Eleven Security Drones. They appear to be holding firm in their positions.”

“It won’t be long now,” the captured drone says. “If they are standing still. It means they know.”

“Know what? What do they know?”

“It means they know I have been captured. It means they know you are not supposed to be here. It means they know you are docked to the station. It means they know you do not possess an access code. Except for him.”

The drone points at Ethan. “He has an access code. Administrative privileges.”

We all look at Ethan.

Mason moves quickly, before Ethan can raise his massive weapon. Mason picks up Ethan by the throat. Lifts him off the ground. Again. “You son of a bitch. You been holding out on us!”

Wren springs into action. Places a gun against Mason’s temple. “Put him down. Or I blow your goddamn brains out.”

“In front of our new friend, the security drone?” Mason says. “In front of Orion’s Wolf?”

“Wolf, look away.”

“I have seen worse,” Wolf says.

Again, very ominous.

Again, I hold my hands out pleading for someone not to shoot their weapon. “Please,” I say. “Everyone just calm down.”

Mason loosens his grip around Ethan’s throat. “Start talking.”

“I have an access code. I bought one before we left. I bought it a year ago. I paid a small fortune for it.”

Another fortune. A small fortune, but a fortune, nonetheless. Add it to the other fortunes we paid for the ship. The AI. The suits. The JumpDrive.

The malfunctioning AutoDrive.

Why did I ever think I could do this?

“Why didn’t you use it?!” Skylar asks. “We were nearly killed. Luke was nearly killed!”

“How was I supposed to know the code would work here? With this particular company? For this particular drone? I don’t even know where we are!”

“What does his access code do?” I ask the drone.

“It will allow you to talk with the station. It will allow you to talk to the drones. It might stop them. It probably will not.”

“See? It probably won’t even work,” Ethan says defending his decision.

“But it might,” Mason says. “Which means, you’re coming with me.”

Mason drops Ethan to the ground.

“Where are we going?” Ethan asks, rubbing his neck.

“We're going to make sure we can undock with this station before it drags us to our death. We’re going to make sure no more drones come through the airlock. And we’re going to find the medical bay so we can save Luke’s life. Got it?”