A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 3

The major laughed and thanked der Boltz, to which the baron replied: 'Well, I'll take any opportunity to gather a little fruit from the legendary gardens of Basalt. I hope one day we can all break bread together. Thank you and goodbye.'

While the elegant, mottled mauve and black craft lifted rapidly, ascending into the afternoon sky, Marko noted that a highly compressed message in one of Fritz's codes, from the Baron's dragon, had arrived in his private message box. He smiled, wondering what it contained.

The rest of the journey back to base was uneventful. Marko plucked Glint from his hiding place and with the aid of the Tech proxy sealed off the tail stump. Marko wondered why the major had wanted him hidden as the Gjomvik ship would have been aware of the ACE from the Games Board feeds. He decided that the major knew something that he did not. He was thinking about it when the Tech proxy slid up beside him. He looked up at it and raised his eyebrows in query. The machine nodded its sleek head to him. 'My apologies for interrupting your reverie, Sergeant Major. I have a small matter that I would wish to discuss with you.'

Marko indicated Jan's empty seat. She was out on the aft deck taking a few minutes' break. As the sleek machine folded itself down into the seat, Marko asked it what it wanted to discuss. The machine unfolded a large screen out of its wrist which displayed a small monkey-like creature; this got Marko's immediate attention as he could see that it was an ACE. The video showed the creature carefully moving across the ceiling of one of the base's hangars.

'This is definitely an ACE, Sergeant Major,' said the Tech proxy, 'as we have been watching it for weeks, but it possesses high-tech chameleon-ware and has avoided capture. As Tech AI, I have taken it upon myself to talk with you about it and wonder what we should do? We have scans of the ACE and believe it may have originated from your home province and be of Dine family manufacture.'

Marko looked through the displays, mapping them against his own internal records, and wished that Topaz was present to verify his thoughts. 'Interesting. Yes, I believe you're right. Looking at the scans, I would say that the ACE may be out of its indenture and travelling throughout the Sphere.'

'Yes. That is probably correct, but it keeps trying to gain access to the incinerators. We wonder if it is trying to commit suicide.'

Jan had quietly entered the c.o.c.kpit and heard what was said. 'It happens. It's sad, but it happens. They become lonely and distraught just like any other sentient creature and decide oblivion is the best answer. The neverending problem with life creation. What if the living created creature does not wish to live?'

Marko and the proxy nodded in understanding. Fritz, who had been quietly listening, said: 'Um, I have a piece of music that might help. Kind of peppy and a real tonic for sad souls. Particularly ones that have been engineered. Hey, Marko! I know that look. You are about to help another lost waif ACE, eh? Here, have opened the music file to you. Just play it in that hangar and watch what happens.'

They all grinned and Jan patted Fritz on the shoulder as Marko opened the file and listened briefly to the music. It seemed gentle and quite innocuous, but knowing Fritz it would be packed with high maths.

They slid up the ramp many hours after sunset and were treated to the sight of a beautiful conjunction of the planet's twin moons as they eased into the hangar. Nothing else blew up and nothing else failed except, as they arrived and came to a complete stop, the ramp finally gave up the ghost and fell onto the workshop hangar floor with a loud clatter.

The crew a.s.sembled in front of the battered Mudshark as the monitors and proxies left.

Marko looked at Glint. 'Did it taste nice?'

'What?'

'The octopoid's brain, Glint.'

'I was not eating it, Marko, I was trying to kill it.'

He sounded quite indignant and became even more so when Jan and Marko grinned at him. 'Just as well, Glint,' Jan said. 'I wouldn't want you getting a reputation.'

Glint shrugged and with a wicked smile said: 'I think it actually needed frying and sprinkling with a little pepper.'

Michael Longbow addressed the crew as they waited outside Mudshark. 'OK, people, well done. Take the day off tomorrow. Party, my place, tomorrow night. Harry, make sure that booze is secured and bring it along.'

Harry nodded. 'No problem, boss. This is the good stuff. Hey, by the way. A small niggling question. Why did you want Glint hidden?'

The major looked at Harry and gave a curt little nod. 'The baron is an inquisitive chap and I have been advised that he has taken a serious interest in Glint and what is inside him. Seems that he knows rather a lot about our little mate here, and knowing that the baron almost always gets precisely what he wants, I did not want to give him the opportunity.'

Four.

The following morning, as the first light of the day was creeping skywards, Marko, Jan, Glint and Flint were inside an aircraft maintenance hangar at the base airfield. Flint had jacked himself into the living building's audio system and was waiting until the other three had seated themselves at its centre.

Marko turned on the amplifiers and played the music track, seeing in his brain the beautiful, tonal, mathematically soothing music, and admiring Fritz for his total devotion to the art form. Ten minutes later, as the tracks of music slowly changed to further aid a troubled ACE mind, he saw the little monkey-like creature move about in the building's security system high above him. A further ten minutes went by, with Marko wondering if he was going to have to play the entire suite of music over again, until the monkey came out into plain view and crept across to where the three were seated.

Marko turned slowly as the small silver-coloured primate walked cautiously towards him. He gestured for the ACE to sit with them and stayed quiet until the music stopped. He then looked at the creature, allowing his augments to visually map it. He slowly nodded as it signed to him.

'You are Marko. I am so pleased to see you. Are you really Marko of the Spitz family from Waipunga?'

Marko nodded and the monkey continued: 'I was created by the Dines, but the family that I was indentured to did not send me back for the full augments when the children grew up.'

'I know the Dines well. Are you capable of seeing my biometrics and can you vocalise?'

The ACE signed back to him. 'No and no. I am sadly lacking in most skills apart from caring for small children. Do you know of any here who I can help? I feel so good this day, so much better than I have in a long, long time.'

The Basalt crew members gave silent thanks to Fritz and his genius. Glint took one of the little monkey's hands in his.

'Have you a name?' Jan asked the creature.

'LSM ... it is for Little Silver Monkey.'

They all frowned at that. Marko wondered why many humans had an ACE created, but as soon as the creature had worked out its indenture, abandoned it and did not fulfil the final part of the contract to equip the ACE with all that it needed to survive and prosper in the Sphere of Humankind.

Flint, who had joined them, looked up at the monkey. 'What do you call yourself, ACE? LSM is insulting.'

The creature slowly looked at each of them and shuffled about, looking embarrased. 'I like Josey.'

Glint clapped a hand on the monkey's shoulder, startling it. 'Right! Come on, Flint, let's take Josey to see Topaz for a few checks and some augments. In a couple of days, once you are sorted out, Josey, we will take you over to the Base school. I know you'll enjoy it there.'

As they watched the unlikely trio walking out of the hangar, Jan gave Marko an exuberant kiss. 'Well done us! Another one rescued!'

Two days later a short, fat cylinder slowly surfaced south of the battle zone and sent out a tiny focused squeak to Basalt, which was listening for it from orbit.

The Harpoon core, once recovered by an Aurora's drone, gave up a lot of new tech information about the Gjomvik sub. The best part was that the Games Board did not know that Basalt's crew had the information, otherwise they would have insisted that they be given a cut when it was sold on to the Administration Intelligence group.

Later the same day Marko received a message from the local Administration Intelligence group's accounting division to let him know that one of his accounts had been credited with what he considered was a tidy sum for the information he had pa.s.sed on about the baron.

The following morning Marko, Harry and the major were back in Mudshark's hangar, looking up at it.

'So Harry, is there anything else we can learn from Mudshark ?' the major asked.

'Not really, boss. Very interesting design which certainly has potential for future use. I have noted in the report how we could improve upon it further. I hope like h.e.l.l you are not going to ask me to patch it up so we can take it on board Basalt. Fritz says that the Gjomvik coding is hardwired into a large part of it, and without spending a lot of time ripping it completely to pieces we would never guarantee a hundred per cent control of it.'

Major Longbow, who was known to 'collect' interesting artefacts, said, 'Nope. Intel AI wants this one. Wants to see if that code can be broken. I'm a little concerned that we'll see this beast, or something very like it, again though. Games Board is very pleased with what we did and wants to see another Mudshark in another AV. Sirius, yes that Sirius, who is our Games Board handler and agent, has been in touch again and wants us to do that battle, but I declined as we have real work. Harry, give the troops a twelve-hour movement notice, please. Marko, could you go have a talk with Stephine and work out a price for the Harpoon Intellectual Property? Admin wants it in production and deployed soonest. Right, see you both in a couple of hours.'

The two men watched him depart as Harry said, 'Where are those ACEs of ours, Marko?'

'Last seen with Glint furiously pedalling that push bike you gave him for his birthday down the main road with an MP in hot pursuit an hour or so back. Didn't know that such a contraption could go so b.l.o.o.d.y fast. They were clocked doing sixty-five kilometres per hour in a twenty-five kilometres per hour zone. Have not heard from them, so I presume it's been sorted. You know, Harry, I should really have given Glint sweat glands. That frill we installed on him as a heat exchanger is just too fierce-looking when he's hot.'

'Coffee's up, guys,' their comms announced.

Harry answered. 'Ta, Veg; nice to have you back! Interesting critters? On our way. Spread the word, twelve-hour movement order.'

After they had finished their break Marko went back to the quarters he shared with Jan and packed up their meagre belongings. He activated both packs but left them where they were for the time being. Jan had left a message for him an hour earlier telling him she was saying their goodbyes around the base. He wandered across to the accounts section of the Sergeants' Mess, squared away their bill and, for the first time, had to pay for Glint's consumption as well. He decided that he would have to have a word with the ACE about doing some ch.o.r.es to pay his way.

The rest of the day was spent with Harry sorting the stock materials from the metal production mill for use on board Basalt. Harry then put a call through to Major Longbow. 'Marko and I have squared away the metal requirements and also the fabrication consumables, new tools, cutters and abrasives for everyone. We are up tonnage wise. What do you want to do? Have Patrick bring Basalt down, two trips with the Albatross lander or make up a container and have the Base punch it into orbit?'

They waited a minute or so before the major replied. 'Basalt is on the way down. Will land in a couple of hours.'

Marko was leaning against the chain-link fence separating the Administration area from the airfield as Jan, with Glint following on his bike, joined him.

Jan gave Marko a hug and leant into him, letting him shelter her from the stiff sea breeze. 'What's happening, lover?'

'Look at the entrance to the third hangar from the left at that beautiful, vintage design aircraft. It's called a Pitts Special biplane. Totally aerobatic. They started it up, ran it for about ten minutes and I had hoped to see it flying, but they shut it down again. Nice design; no doubt they probably built it here. Plenty of facilities available as long as one is prepared to pay.'

Jan looked across at Marko, smiled, and rubbed the top of his smooth head. 'Still basically a kid. Nice, shiny, dangerous-as-h.e.l.l toys attract you, don't they, Marko?'

He grinned, pushing himself against her beautiful curves.

'Yeah, I am. But you're not that shiny! Hey, guy in what looks like a real leather flying suit has just climbed into the c.o.c.kpit. Great! Going for a start-up.'

As they watched, the aircraft taxied over to one of the runways and minutes later was airborne, howling over their heads and out across the bay. They walked down to the sh.o.r.e and watched the little electric-blue-coloured aircraft giving a good aerobatic display. Glint laid his bicycle down, pointing at the waving tendrils some hundreds of metres out in the bay.

'I hope the pilot knows that adult whorl crustaceans are in the bay and that the mating season is fast approaching.'

'Why, Glint? Oh, I see, data coming from you ... wow, they can throw adolescents that high! Yeah, I hope he knows. But the whorls should be much further north? That's what I read in the local environmental hazards brief last week. What would have attracted them here?'

Glint flashed another information packet across on their crew comms directly into Marko's eyes.

'Ah,' Marko nodded, 'simple as that. Alter three elements in the river water and they will come closer to the seash.o.r.e, attracted by a possible aphrodisiac source. Trying to get a warning to the pilot but I am either being blocked, or he is just ignoring me!'

They watched in silence, with a slowly gathering group of spectators from the base, as the inevitable happened. The aircraft swooped low and dozens of two-metre-diameter young whorl were thrown upwards by the adults. The pilot suddenly realised his predicament, but the trap had been sprung and the whorls quickly unfurled multiple tendrils with one grasping the aircraft as it desperately wove through the others' tendrils.

There was a loud bang followed by multiple shots as Glint fired on the whorls, but many more were shot out of the water and Glint ran out of ammunition. The alarms were sounding all over the base as additional weapons started firing but it was too late; a single whorl landed in the aircraft's c.o.c.kpit, instantly dispatching the pilot by biting off his head. It then dragged his body out of the aircraft to fall with it back into the ocean. The aircraft flew straight, unmolested by the other falling whorls; obviously now under remote control, it banked and minutes later landed. There was silence for a few seconds before the whorls turned towards the sh.o.r.e. The crowd rapidly moved inland as the local defences activated, frightening the sea creatures so that they moved into deeper water.

As they walked back towards the frigate Basalt, Marko looked at Jan and whispered, 'Was that pilot a good Gjomvik or a bad Gjomvik, Jan?'

She shrugged and gripped his hand a little tighter, saying nothing.

Glint looked at them both and said, 'Well, if he could afford that aircraft I would say that he was wealthy Gjomvik, so would have had a Soul Saver and a link. I could ask Gerald if you like?'

Marko nodded.

Glint contacted the Base AI and said, 'Yeah, he did. He was a military contractor and had one. Gerald said that the pilot's zygote will be attached to his Soul Saver data unit and the re-lifing of him will start tomorrow. I wonder what it will be like for him to be conscious for a year as he concentrates on growing himself a new body. Would not bother me but I wonder what it is like for a true human.'

It was not often that the famous ship was seen in an atmosphere and close to a terrestrial base, in daylight and on the ground, so they had quite a few sightseers lining up against the fences as Patrick refuelled the ship via the large diameter, tendril-like pipes which slid from Basalt's base then snaked out to locate and latch onto the various fuel feeds. Marko flew the Gunbus and its trailer down from the great wasp-shaped vertical ma.s.s of Basalt and ran a few trips lifting the materials back into the engineering deck access hatch in the side of the ship.

He enjoyed flying the odd little machine and got a few enquiries from some of his mates wanting to have a go. He had to admit it was great fun with only a low little windscreen and then nothing out in front, so he felt quite daring. Veg suggested that he needed a leather flying hat and aviator goggles. On the second run, Glint arrived, and promptly hung out over the front making appreciative noises as they swooped down over the complex. Marko grinned as he opened comms. 'Major.'

'Yes, Marko.'

'When are we going to tart up Basalt, exterior wise? Looking a bit worse for wear, don't you think?'

Marko heard the major give a little grunt. 'Agreed. Put a file together and send it at your leisure. Won't be this trip, but soon. OK?'

The comms link cut off abruptly as Marko swore quietly and wondered why he did not engage his mind before his mouth. He saw something below and turned to Glint. 'Glint, do I spy your bicycle on the ground beside Basalt ? When we drop this load off I want you to go get it and store it properly.'

The ACE looked off into the distance, shrugged and muttered, 'Flint said that he would do it.'

'Flint wouldn't be able to manage it - he simply does not have the ma.s.s. Your bike, your responsibility, end of story. What would the boss have to say? When we land go sort it, or no more rides today.'

A few moments later he had to stop himself from laughing out loud watching the steel-grey ACE trying to stomp away and act bad tempered, which was not really his nature. Marko looked across to see the Albatross lander descending to settle beside the main accommodation area just as the comms link chimed open.

'Crew, this is the major. We lift in two hours Standard Time unless there is a pressing need for a delay? No. Right, two hours to sort out your stuff.'

Patrick remotely took control of the Albatross, after they had dumped all their gear on board, flown it up the side of Basalt and gently eased it in through the tight main hatchway. The winds were gusting a little so it was much easier for Patrick to do it.

Jan was privileged to fly Stephine's craft up into the hangar deck once the Albatross was sorted, with Veg riding shotgun. Later she told Marko that she really wanted to take it for a decent blast but controlled herself, although she felt that the craft wanted to go much faster. The last job Marko had was to go pick up Ernst from the repair facility, where he had been acting as a standard dumb medical unit. He was very relieved to be back on board and able to behave as a sentient individual once again. Jan performed all the standard tests including a 17J5AI as he had received an upgrade from the base facilities along with the other two medical units on board.

When everyone was finally on board, the major said, 'Lift stations, please, five minutes.'

Most of them were already at their stations although Fritz was late as per normal. Harry ran to get to his comms station in time to hear the major say: 'Harry, whenever you are ready.'

Marko had brought all the antigravity units and thrusters online a few minutes earlier to warm them up. He had also opened the atmospheric jet drives, rotating them out from their housings at the waist of the ship, so he shunted control of them across to Harry, who lifted the ship and rotated it around its axis so he could see out across the barren rocky hills and wide blue ocean bay. Using the AG and side thrusters, Harry took the ship out over the workshops and wharves, slowly climbed up a kilometre or so, powered up the jets and gathered speed. Once they were a few kilometres downrange of the facilities, he lit up the fusion rockets and they roared out through the atmosphere at a leisurely one gravity of thrust.

The major visibly relaxed and issued instructions. 'Two-hundred-kilometre orbit, please, Harry. All crew, we have three hours to establish biosecurity protocols. Once under way to the local Lagrange point, I will brief you on the mission.'

It was one of the drawbacks of bringing the frigate down onto the surface of a planetary biosphere. Bad enough with the lander, but with the frigate, even if they had only had it on the ground for a few hours, the checks still had to be carried out. It was a bit easier with the ACEs helping, and they only found a few of the planet's spider-type beings. This pleased Patrick, who had a phobia about insects in general, having confided in Harry how he had once had a colony of ant-like creatures invade his outer casing. They dutifully set off the bio-gas...o...b.. to ensure they got everything, and then each of them was scanned and tested for pathogens or unwelcome hitchhikers of any kind by Topaz and Ernst, before the major gave the all-clear. The information was logged with the Orbital local control and they were free to be on their way.

Three hours later, with the crew back into their routines and the journey out to the nearest LP under way, the major gathered them in the mess room.

'Right. Interesting mission for us. No Games Board involvement, only Administration and the Haulers' Collective on this deal, so we're effectively off the public audiovisual grid for as long as it takes, something I'm very happy about. I have flashed the files to each of you, but the basic story is that this is a recovery or destroy mission. Briefly, a little over thirty-nine standard years ago a heavy Hauler was tasked with transporting a cargo of nasties after the war known as "Infant". If you don't know about it, look it up. Not one of the battles in that war covered any of its partic.i.p.ants in glory. In fact, that war led to the Games Board having considerably more power and influence than they had previously enjoyed.'

He looked around the faces of the crew, before continuing. 'So, this Hauler was tasked with dumping a cargo of biological weapons onto Hades, but it never made it. Big search at the time; nothing found. The Hauler has now turned up. Located by a Ranger Scout who had been tasked to look for octopoids. We have to return to Cygnus 5, uplift a specialist crew of ten, plus the Ranger, and go have a hard look at the Hauler. I have also been advised that the Haulers' Collective want us to recover the ship's core if it is still intact.'

During the week's transit, Harry, Topaz and Marko made a new replacement arm for Marko. They built in a few extra facilities, but there was not a lot of improvement to be made on the previous one anyway, so Marko programmed up the auto-mills and then had Topaz grow the rest of it.

Harry had managed to procure a few extra sheets of t.i.tanium, which they earmarked to replace the shielding on the Hog mechanised walker which they had taken as a prize from 27's planet. So now that they had everything they needed, and the time, they decided to rebuild it completely. The original cha.s.sis was stripped down to bare metal and still further into its individual components. Harry programmed a couple of the engineering robots to grind the original welds and then re-weld the entire main structure. He smiled to himself, immersed in the physical making, thinking that sometimes it was much nicer to actually build something rather than have it grown.

Veg was having fun redesigning the machine, so they gave up on the old version and basically junked most of it. They retained parts of the c.o.c.kpit, the primary cha.s.sis, the legs and the feet. Following Veg's lead, they laid out a new engine bay, upgraded hydraulics throughout and also decided to put a rail gun on one side and a heavy rotary cannon on the other. With the major's permission, Harry pulled one of the spare gas turbines from storage to mount behind the c.o.c.kpit, together with a gearbox driving the primary hydraulic pumps. Once they had all the framework and main supports in place, they surface-coloured everything in dark green carborundum which Topaz had modified bacteria grow onto the metal structure. Over the next couple of days they fitted the new c.o.c.kpit and the hydraulics, the cracker unit, weapons and magazines, and had Fritz run the electrics. They still had all the covers and shielding to make and fit when Basalt arrived back at Cygnus 5, but at least the Hog could stamp around and look menacing if required.

Gliese 667C A few days later they arrived back at the control Orbital Epsilon with Harry announcing that a Ranger would be the first to join them.

Marko considered that the Ranger Squadrons were made up of interesting, but peculiar, people. Deeply calm, utterly fixated on the task at hand and superbly happy in their own company, they were in some respects the elite of the elite. Every Ranger he had met seemed to be able to put people immediately at their ease and then gently, but remorselessly, pump them dry of the information they required. And every one of them he had met was heavily muscled and tall. It took more than twenty-five standard years to train one to full certification, so they had to be something special to start with. They were also rumoured to carry substantial armour under their skin - he supposed that was another reason for the bulk. The exception was the one who presented herself at the crew airlock as a full colonel, which everyone knew was a rare rank to still be an operative without a crew.

'h.e.l.lo, ma'am. I am Sergeant Major Marko Spitz. Welcome aboard Basalt. Major Longbow will join us shortly; he is currently in conference with Epsilon Admin.'

She looked down at him, smiled, extended her hand and grasped his in a slightly firm way, denoting respect. She towered over him and he felt the same way he did when around Stephine. I must be a midget, he thought.