Black Sun (Phantom Server: Book #3) (7 page)

“Does that mean that the interface was built by the Founders?” after having seen it with my own eyes, this was the logical conclusion.

“Absolutely. The way I see it, the military back on Earth discovered some artifact — a neuroimplant, most likely. They must have studied it and used it as a prototype to build more of them. Then they used us to test them. I’m pretty sure the Haash and the Dargians followed the same route. Plus dozens of other civilizations we know yet nothing about,” Liori turned to me, hope in her gaze. “Do you understand? None of our abilities are made-up! The Founders built this interface to use it themselves in order to travel through the Universe. Even if I’m the only one who survives,” tears glistened in her eyes, “I’ll level up Mnemotechnics and bring you all back to life, I promise! I’ll piece your identities together neurogram by neurogram and byte by byte!”

By then, the nanites were done sealing the ship. I sent a mental command, assigning part of the ship’s power to atmosphere regeneration. Then I removed my helmet, unbuckled and rose, reaching out my hand.

“Zander? What do you think you’re doing?”

The thin plate covered with neurochips clicked shut in its dedicated mind expander slot.

External neuronet connected.

+5 to your Mnemotechnics skill.

Direct neurosensory contact established.

The gloom of deep space faded away.

Sunrays began to fall on our faces. A breeze tousled Liori’s hair.

“Zander,” she returned my kiss, nestling up to me.

Red sand crunched underfoot. A purple surf broke over the boundless coastline awash with orange light. No idea where my subconscious had unearthed these images from. For Liori and myself, they’d forever remain the epitome of happiness.

The Darg System

T
he Relic’s dark outline was barely discernible against the backdrop of the gutted station.

The frigate lay low, safely concealed by the veil of her force shields.

I began closing in, Liori’s fighter following in my wake. The area around was littered with pieces of mauled framework and other debris left from the battle for Argus.

“Docking pod 10 activated,” Jurgen reported. “I’m sending you a plotted course.”

Having received it, I steered my Condor into a narrow crevice between two of the station’s hull structures. Soon I was tucked away safely within the Relic’s shields.

The docking pod’s position lights flickered into view. The frigate’s body was rapidly approaching.

“Second docking pod ready,” Jurgen reported. “Forced docking protocol initiated. Berthing generators ready.”

The nanites forming the towing cables dissolved into a fine mist. The frigate’s force beams grappled Liori’s ship and dragged it toward its docking pod.

I slowed up and turned my ship’s aft toward the Relic. My engines flashed one last time and died. The docking pod’s robotic arms clamped onto my Condor’s hull.

Liori, here we are!

Zander? Mind sorting it out on your own for a while? I’m a bit busy here.

Liori had already snuggled up in my mind expander, creating a workspace for herself, and was busy poring over the Founders' interface. We maintained uninterrupted neurosensory contact. The sensation of our minds touching filled me with warmth. Funnily enough, my Mnemotechnics skill had continued to grow which was a welcome surprise.

The docking mechanisms clanked as they sucked my ship into the pod. A force field swelled up around it. Jets of whitish liquid sprayed the inside of the pod, restoring the atmosphere.

Charon, Jurgen and Foggs were already waiting outside.

Without saying a word, Charon scooped me up in a bear hug, expressing his pleasure at seeing me. In recent days, he’d picked up quite a few human habits and mannerisms, doing his best to behave appropriately around us (whatever his idea of “appropriately” was).

Foggs gave me a friendly slap on the shoulder. “Good to see you back in one piece. Where’s Liori?”

“She’s here.”

“Well, show her to us, then! I’d like to thank her personally. You did a nice job on those Raiders.”

“Plenty of time for you to thank her. How’s it going?”

“We’re finding our way about,” Foggs replied. “Although we’ve already crossed swords with the Manticore.”

I immediately remembered this fabled clan whose members I’d met on board the Eurasia. So they hadn’t taken part in the storming of Darg, after all. They must have “gone their own way”, just as they’d planned. “What was the problem?”

“We took hold of the old warehouses in the Exo sector. And just as we’d finished sealing two hangars, they arrived and read us the riot act: like, they were the first to land there so they were the legal proprietors of Argus and everything that was on it. They gave us an hour to piss off before taking action. Vandal’s now busy setting up defenses.”

I didn’t like this latest development at all. “This isn’t the right moment to wage a clan war. Was there anything in the Exo worth your while?”

“Some metabolites. Novitsky’s now busy itemizing them.”

“I’d like you to call the Daugoths off. Tell them to return to the Relic.”

Foggs didn’t seem to like that at all. “We shouldn’t show any weakness!”

I wasn’t going to comply. “For the moment, the Daugoths need to take a step back. Their only safe respawn point is on board the Relic, anyway. Jurgen, do we still have some respawn marker paste?”

“We do.”

“I’d like you to bind the Daugoths to our mobile respawn point. I’ll sort this thing out with the Manticore myself.”

“They won’t talk to you. They really think they’re something.”

“I have a few things up my sleeve that just might convince them. Actually, where are Arbido, Ralph and Frieda?”

“Arbido’s in the conference room,” Jurgen replied. “Ralph’s not in a good way. His in-mode must have packed up. I don’t think he’s gonna last. Frieda’s with the kids now. Danezerath and the rest of the Haash have gone to pick up their
yrobs
, just as you ordered. They’ll be away for a couple of hours, I think.”

“Right. Let’s do it this way. I want to listen to what Arbido has to say first. I also have some important information that concerns everyone. Foggs, I’d like you to get your men off Argus, then join us in ten minutes. Agreed?”

The Daugoth Clan leader nodded, reluctant to accept the fact that I was right. There was plenty of space on board the Relic to accommodate everyone. This was a safe well-protected location where his men could finally take a break from their Dargian tribulations.

* * *

“This will be your room,” Jurgen pointed to the entrance of a living module, then forwarded me its access code. “Sorry, but it’s the best we could do. Part of the personnel deck is still depressurized.”

The room was nothing to write home about but at least I could finally remove my suit. A lot of petty details I’d never noticed before had become vital due to the 100% authenticity.

I removed my heavy gear, peeled off my clothes and headed for the shower. I needed to freshen myself up a bit before the meeting. I had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation. No idea what Arbido had come up with, but one thing I knew for sure: the only route to survival was by studying the Founders’ technologies combined with my own rushed leveling. Once I’d brought my Mnemotechnics up to 100, I could start building neurochips all on my own.

“How would you do that?” Liori’s form materialized out of millions of nanites.

I put on some new clothes. You had to give the Founders their dues: they valued creature comforts and knew how to create them. Their Object Replication command could be applied to most everyday situations. I’d already noticed that I sent certain orders to nanites mechanically without even realizing it.

“We’ll have to work as a team,” I replied. “We’ll need some volunteers. Some of Foggs’ men might agree to help me.”

“Are you going to activate their Mnemotechnics skill for them?”

“I am. I want to explain the situation to them and offer to open a unique development branch. I’ll need at least fifty people. We’ll make a group which will keep scanning the Founders’ devices and manipulate nanites, and I’ll be getting their XP for the time being.”

Liori did some calculations. “Sorry. It’s not gonna work.”

“Why?” I asked as we walked out into the corridor and headed toward the module that Jurgen had converted into a conference room.

“A level 1 or 2 Mnemotech can only study the most primitive of objects. It serves no purpose. Neither you nor them would be able to grow your skill properly. It would be much better if you and I continued to level up on our own.”

“We’re pressed for time and you know it.”

She paused, thinking. “We don’t even need to look too far. The Relic is one giant artifact in its own right. Take the mobile respawn point: it’s never been studied before. We can ask Jurgen and Danezerath to join us. A top Technologist and an expert Mechanic will be much more use to us than a hundred inexperienced volunteers. We all need to level up as fast as we can. We don’t even have the artifact itself, only bits of scanner files. Which means we’d have to build our own machine capable of digitizing our identities.”

I opened my interface and forwarded its image to Liori. “You’ve already proved that the entire leveling scheme was developed by the Founders. I need to understand what it was that the military added to it. Which particular skills and abilities will still work? Considering I’ve just done a bit of leveling, I need to know how to distribute my XP points wisely. I’d hate to waste them on something that won’t work.”

“Let’s have a look,” she agreed. “We’ll think logically. Everything to do with nanites and neuroimplants would remain functional. Some of the characteristics might fall by the wayside but even that isn’t a certainty. We still don’t know how exactly our minds interact with the real world, do we?”

Zander. A Human. Level 91. Pilot

Main Characteristics:

Intellect,                            23 pt. (+1 Semantic Processor bonus)

Strength,                            22

Willpower,                            29

Agility,                            15 (+2 Reflex Enhancer bonus)

Perception,               17 (+2 Semantic Processor bonus)

Stamina                            30 (+5 Metabolic Corrector bonus)

Learning Skills,              15

Charisma, 5

Skills:

Piloting of Small Spacecraft, 27

Piloting of Medium and Large Spacecraft, 15

Combat Maneuvering, 30

Navigation, 20

Mechanic, 4:

Repairs, 4

Equipment Building, 2

Science, 59:

Creation of scanner files

Reading of power imprints

Equipment modification

Creation of replication matrices using existing models (requires Mnemotechnics skill)

Alien Technologies, 30:

Enables the study of alien equipment

Mnemotechnics, 39:

Enables the use of Mnemotechnic abilities and the reception of nanite control codes

Technologist, 5:

Enables Technology databases connection.

Combat abilities, 15 (0,0):

Light weapons, 10

Heavy weapons, 15

Energy weapons, 9

Accuracy, 12

Critical hits, 5 (+5% to the possibility of dealing critical damage to the enemy)

Defense, 10 (lowers all incoming damage 10%)

Mnemotechnic abilities:

Replication, 15 (on your command, a small group of nanites uses a selected source material to self-reproduce until the total number of nanites reaches 100,000)

Steel Mist, 10 (protects you from enemy scanners)

Active Shield (requires a Founders’ neuronet module). Requires activation

The Call, 5 (brings available nanite groups under your control, including small numbers of enemy nanites)

Differential Nanite Control (requires a Founders’ neuronet module)

Object Replication, 10 (allows the use of available nanites and power to build working copies of various devices)

Piercing Vision, 5 (allows the dispatch of nanite groups on reconnaissance missions with further reception of data from them in real time)

Global network (allows the scanning of star systems using the hyperspace network). Requires activation

Disintegration, 10 (destroys molecular bonds in a selected object)

Plasma Blast, 5 (allows a selected nanite group to self-destruct, forming a cloud of ionized gas)

Plasma Lash, 2 (requires a generator built by Object Replication)

Self-Sacrifice, 4 (allows your nanites to self-destruct in order to exterminate enemy nanites)

Integration, 2 (allows you to upgrade your weapons and gear)

Advanced Integration, 2 (allows you to upgrade complex equipment, including spaceships’ subsystems)

System failure, 5 (temporarily disables cybernetic parts of a selected device)

Breakdown, 5 (temporarily disables moving parts of a selected device)

Critical Damage, 5 (permanently disables moving parts of a selected device)

“In my opinion, Strength, Willpower, Learning Skills and Charisma are the biggest suspects,” I summed up. “They are the ones most likely to have been forced on us by the military geeks. All the other skills have a confirmed history of being used in implants, databases and nanite control codes.”

“We should tell all the others about this,” Liori agreed. “I’ll forward them the files to study while they still have time.”

“Excellent. Now let’s go and see what Arbido has come up with.”

* * *

The conference room was quiet: the same room where I’d stood yesterday showing the others how the Founders’ hyperspace navigator worked by connecting it to my Earth-bound in-mode capsule.

Arbido kept silent, brooding and fidgeting in his seat which was too large for his current build.

The door hissed open, letting in Novitsky and Foggs. I hadn’t seen Novitsky since Darg. Now, as I shook his hand, I was surprised to notice his tag,