Ghost of Mind Episode One (24 page)

The shops around her suddenly felt wrong. It
was almost as if they had eyes and ears.

Backing off, she started to sniff the
air.

She increased her hearing, in fact, she
redirect her special energy to every sense that she had.

And she felt it.

Someone was close by.

She could taste their electromagnetic field.
Though only barely. It was blocked off to her for some reason.

She nodded towards Helper, and as she did,
she integrated directly with his systems. Bypassing the need for
speaking, she transmitted her thoughts into his network.

She warned him of her suspicions.

She was about to tell him that they had to
leave immediately. Even if they had to shut down the weather field
just outside the promenade below them, and throw themselves off the
railing, they had to get out of here now.

Alice didn’t get the chance.

Chapter 35

John Doe

John Doe he had snuck his way into the
sector. Only him though. He hadn’t wanted to risk any more forces,
especially if that had meant relying on people with
less-sophisticated armor.

Parka had agreed. So John had gone in alone.
When he’d seen that woman, finally getting close enough to pick out
her form and heat signature through the wall, he’d practically
stopped dead in his tracks.

It was her. She was bloody alive.

He’d taken up position right next to a shop
wall, as close to her as he could get without being directly
visible.

Increasing the power running to his armor’s
scanners, he’d been able to pick up every single sound and movement
she had made.

He’d heard her speaking to something, though
his armor could not tell exactly what it was. That had not been the
interesting part though. Their plans to escape however, had been
fascinating.

Just who was this woman that she had 1500
methods of avoiding detection from the Galactic Transport Network?
Just who was she that the thought of heading to the Pharos system
was a welcome one?

As John had sat there, pinned up against the
wall, listening to everything he could, he had waited.

When she had suddenly drawn into silence, and
he could see through the wall that her heat signature had surged,
he pushed himself up.

It was time, wasn’t it?

His gun was already in his hand, his grip
strong and tight. Fortunately his armor regulated the pressure of
his fingers around the butt and trigger, otherwise he would have
crushed the entire thing in a second.

Making a snapped call to the Pegasus and
telling them that the plan was in operation, John walked out of the
shop, around the corner, and he faced her.

She was standing in the center, her arms
stiff by her sides, her legs wide, her head angled down as that
hood covered her eyes.

She had obviously been expecting him.

He opened his mouth, but he didn’t know what
to say. Stop, this is the Union Forces? Or I’m here to help?
Whatever thoughts came into his head seemed hollow and empty. Plus,
the sight of her standing there in that hood, her body so tense and
stiff, stilled his mind.

And then he noticed it: the small metal orb
buzzing around her side.

He’d seen one of those before. It was Old
Tech. It had many moving parts, somewhat like the soldier robot on
Orion Minor, and a persistent blue glow ran in a circle around its
middle.

She took a single step backwards.

He raised his hand, though he didn’t let
his guard drop. ‘No one is going to hurt you,’ he
managed.

It was a lie; John could not promise that. He
had no idea what they were going to do to this woman. All he knew
was what he wanted to do. Pull back the veil and understand what
her secret was.

But he had to say something. And telling her
to give up and surrender seemed like a hopeless command.

Especially considering what she could do.

As he neared, one hand still held up in peace
while the other was paradoxically clasped on his gun, his eyes grew
wide underneath his helmet.

And his breathing stopped too, his heart rate
dropping as his body seemed to freeze in place.

‘
Commander John Doe,’ she said, her voice
picking up with a flicker of recognition.

‘
I know what happened to you on Orion
Minor. I know you survived that transport beam. I know you got
aboard my vessel,’ he managed.

She took a shuddering step backwards ‘That
was your vessel?’ she began, the then she muffled her own words by
bringing a hand up and clasping it over her mouth.

It seemed like a genuine move. In fact,
everything this woman did seemed real. She did not seem to be
capable of faking anything, or, perhaps more to the point, she
didn’t seem to want to waste her energy trying.

And John knew exactly what it was like to be
in a position like that. There was only one thing this woman could
prioritize and allocate her energy towards. Survival. Nothing
else.

‘
Just come in quietly,’ he begged. In a
way, it was a ridiculous thing to do; he could see from her body
language and he knew from her previous exploits that there was no
way this woman was going to come in quietly. She would throw
herself off a building, fight an impediment field, and basically do
whatever she could to keep her anonymity and freedom.

Still, it was all John could do to stop
himself from raising his gun and telling her to stop in the name of
the Union Forces.

‘
You don’t know what you’re doing and you
have no idea what I am,’ she said, her voice hesitant and low. And
once again, as soon as her words were finished, she seemed to suck
back in on them, planting that hand harder over her
mouth.

‘
Let me know, tell me, what are you? What
are you running from? I can help you,’ John tried.

She shook her head bitterly, her hair pushing
out from underneath her hood, but the hood itself never moving from
over her eyes.

Now Evelyn had confirmed his suspicions, John
was absolutely certain he was looking at Old Technology. The way it
sat, the fact it could withstand his own armored grip, there was
really only one sane conclusion.

But where had she got it from? And how was it
still running?

‘
Please,’ he tried again.

She shook her head one final time.

Then she nodded towards the orb by her
side.

It paid exact attention to her move. Then it
darted forward, shooting towards the promenade and the weather
field beyond.

As it moved, so did the woman. She pushed
herself into a frantic sprint, ducking to her knees for a second,
then springing forward in a perfect somersault and flipping
straight through one of the windows of the shops and landing on the
promenade beyond.

The move was so quick and snapped that John
had trouble keeping up with it. His armor, however, did not, and it
pushed him forward, his own limbs moving at incredible speed as he
practically copied her maneuver. As he landed on the hard floor of
the promenade, it was to the view of the woman rushing forward
towards the railing.

It was like a repeat of Orion Minor all over
again. There was a flickering moment, and then the weather field
shut down.

John watched with absolutely wide open and
shocked eyes as he saw the dim electronic flicker of the field
surge and then disappear altogether.

Then he felt it, or more accurately his armor
suddenly warned him of the instant change in pressure and wind.

His boots locked onto the promenade of their
own accord, generating a powerful magnetic field that ensured he
could not be ripped from his feet by the horrendous gale. His armor
also blocked out the sound of it moving past his earpieces, making
the change in temperature and pressure negligible too.

Then he watched in horror as she planted her
hands onto the railing and leapt over it.

Her move was so fast, and she did not
hesitate. It was such an incredible sight to behold.

‘
She is doing it again,’ John suddenly
heard Parka guffaw over his earpiece. ‘This woman is
incorrigible.’

That was one word for it.

John ran forward.

‘
I really don’t think so,’ Parka snapped at
him. ‘You jump over that, John, and there’s nothing but air and
water and clouds. And we really don’t want to fish you out of the
ocean.’

In the time it took Parka to snap that in his
ear, John had drawn to a halt, his hands smashing into the railings
to stop the momentum of his body.

The woman had already disappeared from
sight.

For a moment his heart leapt into his mouth,
and the same incredible concern that had all but killed him at the
sight of her jumping off the promenade on Block Alpha filled him
again.

But he needn’t have worried.

In a second she darted into view again. She
had one hand clasped over the orb, and it was flying her up,
against the incredible force of the wind, towards a different
section of the docking ring.

John watched in astonishment. His armor
ensured that his view of the woman always zoomed in, no matter how
far away she got. He focused on the hood, on the lips, on the wide
open mouth and the obvious expression of fright.

Then she ducked out of sight as the orb
zipped around the corner of the docking ring and out of view.

John still had his hands planted around the
railing, his fingers digging deeper into it. It buckled and bent
under his grip, and if he’d tightened his fists any further he
would probably have made it melt from the friction.

‘
We saw it all, Commander,’ Parka said in a
snap, ‘we’ve already redirected the security forces. And don’t
worry, I’ve still got a lock on her position; we’ll know exactly
where she lands.’

Eventually he took a step back, but he
practically had to pry his fingers off that railing.

His breath was heavy, even though he had
hardly moved. He hadn’t fought anyone, he hadn’t run that far, and
while he had done a deft somersault, in this armor he could do so
much more.

He was not out of breath because of physical
exercise.

It was the frustration. The fact he kept on
getting so close only to have circumstances carry her away
again.

Even though John wanted nothing more than to
take his frustration out by stamping one of his heavy,
fully-armored boots into the floor of the promenade and cracking
the metal plating easily, he controlled himself. Instead he walked,
back and arms stiff, fists clenched tightly at his sides. His walk
quickened into a run, then a sprint, then the fastest pace his
armor could provide.

John was not going to give up.

Chapter 36

Alice

He had come for her. John Doe. He seemed like
a rash she couldn’t get rid of. Just as she had been allowing
herself to mellow into the fact that she now had help, he had
reared his ugly head.

Okay, he wasn’t that ugly; by human standards
he was probably incredibly handsome. But that was not the
point.

He was the last person in the universe she
needed on her back. And the fact that he had found her meant one
thing; John Doe had been looking for Alice. She really doubted that
he had been taking a stroll in full, incredible armor along an
abandoned section of the docking ring of Orion Major only to run
into her.

Not wearing that kind of armor. Alice knew
enough about the Union Forces and their upgrades to realize that
what John had been wearing was top of the line. It was the kind of
stuff you brought out when you knew you were about to fight a
war.

He had come prepared.

Shaking her head again, rubbing her hands
over her bare arms, Alice tried to catch hold of her courage.

‘
It is not recommended that you allow this
incident to affect you,’ Helper said from her side. Though his tone
was, as always, competent and quick, Alice could tell that the
little electronic bubble was about as surprised as she
was.

Neither of them had detected John. Helper was
an ridiculously sophisticated piece of technology who could
integrate easily with the ICNs all around him. He was far beyond
any of the technology in the docking ring. And as for Alice, she
was an Old One. Her own senses were incredible.

Yet neither of them had seen John coming.

Still shaking, her skin cold as the energy
within her body destabilized slightly, Alice pressed her eyes
closed.

‘
It is not recommended that you let this
affect you,’ Helper said again, but his tone was quicker this time,
his chirped electronic voice almost slurring.

She could tell that he was distressed by what
he was seeing, and there was good reason for that.

Alice was an amazing creature, capable of
astounding things, but nothing in this universe was perfect. And
for all her wonderful abilities, she had problems that far exceeded
them.

Yes, she had access to some of the most
fantastic energy in the universe, capable of re-energizing Old
Technology. But it came with its problems. When Alice was healthy,
of sound mind, and had complete control of herself, there was
almost nothing she wasn’t capable of. When she was unhealthy,
damaged, or had faced some kind of situation that undermined every
scrap of courage and control she could muster over her emotions,
things got serious.

It felt like she would go into meltdown. All
of that energy swirling around in her suddenly became chaotic, and
started to do the strangest of things to her body. A part of her
left arm suddenly stiffened so much that the skin around it almost
felt like it would start to crack. And her left foot became so
heavy that it started to dig down into the metal gangway underneath
her. A section of her hair began to change color, and her left knee
started to buck forward and backwards faster and faster.