Breeze Corinth (Book 1): Sky Shatter (61 page)

Ray was stunned. “What? I thought the light wave was supposed to shield us.”

“It has not. I have failed to compensate for a...variable.”

The ship was suddenly rocked hard from an impact, and the cockpit was flooded by the wail of alarms.

Ray was flung to the side and hit his head on Achilles’ seat, then floated across the cockpit unconscious.

As the ship began to drift away from the platform, Achilles re-routed the controls to his helm and silenced the alarms, only to have them erupt again as the ship rolled from yet another strike. Vid-screens displayed the damage report showing sections of the hull had been breached as the ship was decompressing rapidly.

Achilles’ hands moved deftly across the console as it typed in commands that sealed off the damaged sections of the ship. Throughout the vessel, blast doors could be heard sliding to a close.

It realized the danger they were in, as staying out in the open was tantamount to certain destruction, and immediately maneuvered the scout ship as close as possible to the platform without hitting it, then pointed the bow toward open space. After conducting a sensor sweep at full strength, but detecting nothing, Achilles knew their assailant was still out there and waiting to pounce again.

It fell back into its own mind and reached out with psychic tendrils where it could sense a lone Elephim meshing in perfectly with the blackness of space, and realized it would have to become a decoy and lead the Elephim away from the ship.

Achilles grabbed Ray as he floated about the cockpit and buckled him back into his seat, then punched in a series of commands into the console that activated the auto pilot while establishing a wireless connection with the ship’s computer so it could operate it remotely.

Achilles then glided out of the pilot house and into the passenger compartment where it stopped to check the vital signs of Breeze and Sally. They were erratic, as if they were slipping away.

Something is wrong
, the voice inside whispered.

“Affirmative,” Achilles replied as it floated through the passenger compartment to the exit hatch, and then hit the air dump to decompress the chamber while blast doors slid to a close. It gripped an iron handle and activated the magnetic locks in its boots to keep from getting sucked out as alarms wailed, but faded away with the escaping atmosphere when the hatch rolled open.

Achilles was illuminated by the flashing strobe lights of the chamber and the glow of the Earth below as it stepped to the edge and looked out into the infinite blackness of space.

The Elephim that attacked them wasn’t interested in machines it sensed, but instead was tuned to hunting down paranormal energy. Achilles knew it needed to bring to the surface its own paranormal power to act as bait when it turned to look at a shimmering figure that appeared next to it.

The figure spoke in a deep voice.
“We have waited for this moment to arrive, as we both knew it would come. We have preached the importance of teamwork to the young ones, but are we truly capable of doing the same?”

Achilles shook it head. “Remember, you are a guest. I offered you refuge within my neural matrix until you find your mortal body and re-unite with it. I do not relish the concept of relinquishing control to you.”

“Achilles, we merged long ago, and have survived by agreeing to work together. Now it is my turn to shine. I know how to deal with the Elephim that attacked the ship. Allow me to employ my skills. Step aside and let me take control.”

Achilles nodded. “Yes, I do suppose you are right, Raven.”

“Of course I am,”
Raven said as the glow around him subsided enough to reveal a man with jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. He glided over to the robot and disappeared into it.

Achilles’ eyes flashed as its body shuddered.

“Watch this, Achilles. We shall play a game of cat and mouse. We’ll be the mouse for now. Let’s lead this Elephim away from the ship.”
With Raven in full control of Achilles, he released the magnetic locks on the robot’s boots and hurtled to the platform.

From a great distance, the Elephim erupted from his hiding spot in the darkness of space to give chase.

“Now that we have successfully distracted him, establish your link with the ship and maneuver it toward the hangar bay,”
Raven said.

Achilles nodded as it accessed the wireless frequency and took control of the ship remotely. The scout ship spun on its axis and glided after them.

“Achilles, hate to be a bother, but you will need to open the hangar doors.”

“Understood,” it replied and scanned the platform for the transponder beacon. It locked onto it and sifted through a myriad of frequencies until it found the one that corresponded with the hangar doors, then accessed the traffic control computer via its wireless transmitter and interfaced with it, but was blocked by a sentry program. It rammed the sentry and flung it aside, then immediately inputted codes to open the hangar doors. Each one was denied.

“My metallic friend, this relentless Elephim is gaining on us and the ship is about to crash into the platform. Any moment now would be a good time.”

“I will ignore you until my task is complete. I must steer the ship via remote and maneuver it toward the platform while simultaneously accessing the traffic control computer guarded by a hostile sentry program. This is taxing my processing power to its maximum,” Achilles responded.

Raven chuckled.
“Didn’t know anything could flummox you.”

“The sentry program is much more complex and tenacious than I have anticipated. I will re-double my efforts.”

“That’s the fighting spirit.”

Achilles lashed out at the sentry and crushed it, then scanned the array of codes that spilled from the carcass of the defeated program. It grabbed those related to the traffic control system and fed them into the computer. The computer relented, and then granted access as the hangar bay doors slid open.

“Bravo, my scrap yard hero! Bravo!”
Raven cheered.

They arrived at the entrance with the scout ship in tow as Achilles scanned the cavernous hangar. Lights flashed throughout the interior but there were no other ships inside.

The robot cocked its head, then stretched out a hand and felt resistance as a rippling motion reverberated in front of it.

“Force field. I failed to anticipate this. I must access the flight control system—”

“Never mind that, our pursuing Elephim is rapidly approaching,”
Raven said as it pushed Achilles’ essence to the side and assumed control of the robot’s body once again.
“Watch and learn. We are a team, remember?”

“As you so often remind me.”

Raven chuckled as it plunged Achilles’ hands into the force field and created waves that rippled across its face.

“Observe. This is how I deal with an opposing force,”
Raven said as he flew them deep into the force field and created a rift, then pushed back with telekinesis and widened it into an opening large enough to let the scout ship slip through. Once the ship was in, he flung them into the hangar bay and slammed onto the floor with a heavy clang while the force field snapped back into place and rippled like waves over an ocean surface. Raven then relented control back to Achilles as the robot guided and lowered the scout ship via remote safely to a landing.

Outside, the Elephim giving chase slammed into the force field and was repelled with tremendous force. The field reverberated heavily from the impact and the Elephim was flung out into space.

Raven spoke. “
My dear Achilles, the Elephim will make another attack, this I can assure you. Close the hangar doors just to be on the safe side. We do have precious cargo to protect within the scout ship, remember?”

“Yes, of course,” Achilles replied, and then leapt over to an access terminal along a wall where it typed in a series of commands. The hangar doors began to glide to a close.

Outside the platform and drifting in space, the Elephim snapped out of his daze and hurtled towards the hangar once again.

“Raven, I must confess that the doors will not close in time,” Achilles called out.

“I know. The Elephim will punch his way through the field based on his current high rate of speed. Allow me to employ a different tactic.”

Raven assumed control of Achilles and swatted the Elephim away from the platform with all of his telekinetic might. They both watched dispassionately as he disappeared into the darkness of space.

Raven stepped out of Achilles and hovered next to the robot as the doors rolled to a close.

“Now that was teamwork,”
Raven said.

Achilles chuckled and nodded its head.

The brief moment of levity was broken by a series of heavy blows to the hangar doors. Each strike was announced with a deep thump, followed by a cratering of the metal. After several attempts by the Elephim to break through, the attacks mysteriously ceased and the only sound that was heard throughout the hangar was the rush of air as it began to re-pressurize.

Satisfied they were safe for the moment, they turned to survey the scout ship. It was a disheveled mess with ripped and crumpled metal across the surface of the craft, along with hydraulic fluid spilling onto the floor and hissing from ruptured pneumatic lines. The gangplank began to extend automatically amidst the sound of grinding from its damaged gears.

Raven motioned toward the ship.
“Let’s check on the young ones.”

Achilles rushed up the gangplank and into the cabin where it found Sally and Breeze safely buckled in their seats. It scanned their pulses and confirmed their vital signs were still positive, then dashed to the pilothouse and into the cockpit where it found Ray still slumped back in his seat. After scanning his vital signs and finding them satisfactory, Achilles looked through the forward cockpit window and spotted a computer terminal mounted on a wall next to a set of elevator doors.

Raven was gliding into the cockpit and followed Achilles’ gaze to the computer terminal.

“I know what you are contemplating. Let us plug into the terminal and ascertain our situation
,” he said, and then merged back into Achilles.

Bram stared at the vid-screens and smiled. “Enoch has failed to retrieve your students and destroy the robot, but no matter. I’m very impressed by it. Tell me Oslo, where does a robot go to get telekinetic power?”

Oslo squirmed in his restraints as he looked over at the astral forms of Sally and Breeze. He was surprised Bram managed to restrain them even though they were projecting. Both teens were on their knees and trapped within a glowing circle that pulsated on their floor. “The robot is…one of my special cases,” he replied.

Bram roared with laughter. “You always were a bad liar. Anyone can call your bluff. No,” he said soberly, “this one is different, that much is obvious. Your little project here, your actions of late, has stirred something. And this one,” he stabbed a finger at the image of Achilles on the vid-screen, “is one of the reasons.”

“And these two,” he pointed at Sally and Breeze, “have no idea what’s in store for them. And you, my young flier,” he inched closer to Breeze who was in a daze, “are truly ignorant of your past, are you not? Your family-, oh, we have company.” He smiled as an Elephim stepped into the chamber. The pinpoints of light across his face flashed quickly, conveying a message to Bram.

Bram placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It’s quite all right, Enoch, you did well. We will instead employ a different tactic by making them come to us. After all, we have all the bait that we need right here.”

He glided over to Sally and squatted before her. “They will come to us and save ourselves the trouble of hunting them down.”

He raised a hand and let it hang over her head. “Though it will require just a little persuasion.”

Achilles glided across the hangar bay and landed with a clang in front of the computer terminal next to the elevators. It ripped off a panel below the terminal that exposed an array of inputs, and then held out a hand as mechanical tendrils snaked out of the fingers and plugged themselves in. With eyes shining brilliantly, it interfaced with the computer.

It easily neutralized the sentry programs that rushed in to attack, then immediately went to the central core where it scanned through a multiverse of files as it tried to glean more information about the platform, but found nothing but gibberish and deliberately deleted information.

It began to rewrite the central core’s programming and jam the sensors throughout the platform when it was interrupted by a lone sentry program that suddenly rushed in. Achilles grabbed it and hurled it away, then casually continued scanning files while simultaneously accessing security vids that displayed live feeds from cameras placed at all levels of the platform, though it noted none were to be found on the detention level, or were being deliberately hidden so they couldn’t be hacked. It redoubled its efforts to discover and break into the detention level.

One of the vids clearly showed the mangled scout ship docked in the hangar, but nowhere throughout the platform did Achilles see or sense any other presence.

“
No personnel, no security guards, no outside traffic entering or leaving the platform,
” Raven announced from within Achilles’ neural matrix.
“This is peculiar considering the size of this platform. And why no live feeds from the detention level?
”

“I am running into extreme resistance from another wave of sentry programs mounting an assault against me as we speak. Please be patient.” Achilles swiveled its head briefly. “I have neutralized them. Accessing the detention level... now.”

Scanning the live feed, Raven saw an image that made him recoil.

“I detect that you are witness to something that has disturbed you,” Achilles said. “May I query as to what it could be?”

Raven pointed. “
There, on the detention level. That is not good.
”

Achilles nodded as they both saw Oslo in restraints, along with an Elephim and a man that shimmered and glowed.