Ghost of Mind Episode One (25 page)

‘
We are out of immediate danger,’ Helper
said very quickly, darting closer to her, resting barely 30
centimeters from her face as he hovered there, one of his
electronic beams scanning over her body. ‘It is not recommended
that you let this affect you,’ it repeated for the third
time.

She knew that, God did she know that, but she
couldn’t stop the fear from rippling through her. She couldn’t
regain her control and stop the meltdown.

‘
It is recommended that, although the plans
I have suggested are imperfect, we immediately pick one and enact
it. We must get off this planet,’ Helper darted around her head in
a circle, and came to rest on her shoulder.

It was such an odd move and reminded her of a
Dopring jungle cat. Despite the fact Helper was a simple electronic
ball, he had a deep warmth, and the import of his move managed to
cut through Alice’s fear and still her for a moment.

It reinforced one simple fact. She was no
longer alone.

Reaching a hand up to him, waiting for him to
dart into it, she brought her shaking arm around and stared right
at him.

He didn’t have a face; he had no eyes to
stare out with as every single one of his sensors could work in
every single direction. Nonetheless, she picked a point and she
stared right at it.

‘
Thank you,’ she croaked.

‘
Statements of thanks should wait until we
have left the atmosphere and are steadily on our way to escape,’
Helper chirped.

She muddled her way through a laugh and
smile, her stomach twitching forward, one of her legs tensing, and
the skin of her right arm prickling.

But while her sensations were still chaotic,
they were starting to wane.

‘
Just pick a plan, any plan, the best one
you can think of, and direct me,’ she told Helper as she took the
opportunity to stare out around her.

When she had jumped off the railing only to
grab Helper and let him fly her towards safety, he had taken her
well out of sight of John Doe, up to the top of the docking ring,
and had not landed until they had reached one of the outermost
layers.

So here she was, standing on the very top of
a curved roof with the view of nothing but clouds and ocean in
front of her, and the docking ring full of ships behind.

She could not stay here. She would be in
plain view of anyone walking along the gangway and no doubt John
Doe had already recalibrated the docking ring sensors to search for
her.

‘
I will interfere with their scans and
attempt to restrict access to their ICN,’ Helper told her in a
ringing voice.

He did not move from her palm, and his
distinct vibrating energy fed back into her skin. He was warm, not
the same warmth you might feel from a living breathing organism,
but something distinct, something unique.

‘
How long will that take?’

‘
Minutes; unfortunately I will not be able
to access it quicker. Security protocols have been heightened. As
we speak many systems are being locked down.’

Alice bared her teeth, squeezing her eyes
closed for a moment. When she opened them again, it was to the view
of sky and ocean.

She was standing on top of a floating
doughnut-shaped city, kilometers and kilometers above the planet’s
surface. Below her was nothing but cloud and ocean, above nothing
but sky and space.

And she felt trapped. In this enormous
advance of space and sea, somehow she felt as if she was being
squeezed into oblivion.

‘
Do whatever you have to,’ she said in a
single breath.

‘
It is recommended that we move towards the
central engine unit,’ Helper finally darted out of her hand and a
meter to her left.

She followed his move, her gaze flicking
beyond him.

Though she was unfamiliar with the floating
docking rings of Orion Major, she knew how to sense her own
technology.

And underneath this epic floating city she
could feel it.

The Old Ones.

The trace they always left in their devices.
The sense of something more.

She could taste it on the wind.

‘
The central engine unit utilizes a form of
floating, anti-gravitational technology based upon Old
Technological design,’ Helper said as he darted forward.

He did not stop to turn around to see if
Alice was following him, or maybe he did; he didn’t have a face,
after all. But Alice did not hesitate. She ran at full pelt after
her darting little friend.

‘
With simple manipulation, you will be able
to overcome the central engine unit’s internal protocols, altering
the field dynamics,’ Helper sped up.

Alice had no trouble in matching its speed.
The two of them were now heading across the roof so quickly that
Alice’s feet hardly touched the metal.

She could see what they were headed towards.
A section of raised roof with a single, tall, long spire that
pulled up into the sky. Whereas most of the rest of the docking
ring was painted in blacks and grays and whites, the spire was a
curious shade of dark green. And the closer Alice got, the more
curious it seemed. The green appeared to dance and move and shift
around, as if the color itself was bending in towards some
incredible source then breaking around in a wave.

‘
If it comes to it, you will be able to
alter the technology of that field to generate a complete shield,’
Helper finally finished.

Alice’s mouth descended into a frown.

While she was an Old One, there was a
great deal about her kind that she did not know. And that included
the finer subtleties of their technologies and theories. Pumping
air through her cheeks, she kept her eyes locked on that strange
green spire. ‘What do you mean? What is a complete
shield?’

‘
Simple. The greatest shield technology
that the foundational races possessed. There is nothing within this
universe, nothing that the Union possesses, that will be able to
break through it,’ Helper kept on darting forward.

Just for a second Alice slowed. It was not
because she suddenly ran out of energy; his words had shocked her.
Not because she had not expected her race capable of creating such
powerful technology. But because of what Helper was actually
suggesting.

‘
I can’t, I just can’t,’ she wobbled and
stumbled over her words. ‘If I create a complete shield, I’ll draw
attention to myself. They’ll know what I am,’ her voice shuddered
so badly that it was hard to force it through her
throat.

‘
I know who you are,’ Helper pointed out
simply.

‘
You know what I mean. I can’t run the risk
of the rest of the universe finding out that a member of the Old
Ones is still alive,’ her voice was choked, her words practically
indistinguishable. In fact, if it wasn’t for the fact she was
talking to a sophisticated piece of technology, Helper would not
have been able to pick up what she had just said.

‘
Though I agree this is a functional
strategy for now, it may not always be the best option.’

As she ran her features crumpled into a
twisted look of confusion. ‘The alternative is suicide.’

‘
The alternative is not suicide,’ Helper
corrected. ‘There are many different scenarios that could ensue
from this eventuality.’

‘
I’m never going to do it,’ certainty rang
through her voice.

‘
If you find yourself fighting for
something worthwhile, you will. It is only logical. At this point
in time you have no good reason to reveal yourself. If
circumstances change, you will do what is best for your own
survival,’ he corrected her again.

Her lips parted, her jaw dropping open. She
was ready to tell him that would never happen. There was no
eventuality that would force her into willingly revealing herself
to the Union.

Then she stopped. Because he was right.
Helper was just computing the possibilities, as he always said. And
no matter how limited Alice’s imagination was at that point, even
she could appreciate that there were things out there that would
get her to do the unimaginable, to reveal herself and her
powers.

She just hoped that would never happen.

‘
Once we have arrived at the central
engines, I can manipulate their field to ensure it is impossible to
track you. They will also make it far harder for anyone to get a
transport lock on our position,’ Helper pointed out.

Transport lock.

The very possibility of it made Alice speed
up. Her brow was covered in sweat, her hands moved like lightning
by her side.

If John had managed to find her, then it was
not outside the realm of possibility that he would try to transport
her again.

And that would no doubt end in tears.

But she knew she had a chance. If she stayed
with Helper, if she relied on his ability to objectively read the
situation to keep her safe, just maybe Alice would get out of
this.

Chapter 37

John Doe

‘
She’s headed for the central engine core,’
Parka said, her voice being picked up by John’s earpiece. ‘Don’t
worry, though, we have increased the security field, and I don’t
care who she is, she won’t be able to get through it to touch those
engines.’

Before John had a chance to get nervous at
the prospect that that woman might sabotage the very devices
keeping this city aloft, Parka had already assured him it couldn’t
happen.

‘
We’re directing forces to intercept,
moving to phase two of the plan,’ Parka snapped in his
ear.

John nodded his head. It didn’t matter that
Parka wasn’t there to see his movement; all of the information from
his armor was being relayed up to the Pegasus, and no doubt Parka
was now standing in Central Engineering staring at a hologram of
John and everything happening around him.

‘
The Admiral has given you the go ahead to
do whatever it takes to bring her into custody. If it doesn’t
work,’ Parka left the rest of her sentence floating.

John knew exactly what she meant.

If it didn’t work, John had orders to kill
the woman. Plain and simple. She had already proved herself to be
an enemy of the State, or at least in the eyes of the Union. She
had resisted arrest, she had deliberately hidden herself from a
Union Forces’ officer, and right now she was headed towards a
highly restricted area of the docking ring.

He really, really hoped it didn’t come to
that. And if it did, hell, he had no idea how he would do it.
Somehow he doubted he could take her down with a few blasts from
his gun. Not only would she fight him every step of the way, that
woman seemed to bounce back from everything.

‘
Turn left, Commander, take the blue
elevator in front of you,’ Parka snapped.

John did exactly what she said. As he rounded
the corner sharply, moving so fast that his footfall was a constant
drone, he saw the correct elevator. He opened it before he reached
it, sending an imperative message through his armor, and overriding
every system around as he did.

That way he didn’t have to stop; he slammed
right into the back of the elevator as the doors opened, then told
the thing to head straight to the engine core.

Ordinarily an elevator would never do that on
the docking ring; only specific people aboard would have access to
that system. For a good bloody reason. It was exactly what kept
this floating chunk of metal in the air. Without the astoundingly
powerful anti-gravitational field drives, it would sink like a
stone, slam into the ocean, and disappear under the waves.

‘
Local security forces are waiting there
for you, and so is the Admiral,’ Parka said just as the doors of
the elevator opened.

John ran out.

The room around him was enormous. It had no
divisions, no walls, no pylons holding the roof in place. Just the
floor and ceiling.

Oh, and a lot of energy.

John’s armor was picking up the magnetic
field being generated by the engine cores. It left a distinct
shifting blue glow in the air, and even though his body was
completely enclosed underneath his armor, John fancied he tasted it
too.

A tinge of metal, somewhat like blood,
filtered through his mouth.

Though he fancied this room, dotted with
panels, was usually empty save for the occasional maintenance crew,
now it was a hive of activity. Security robots, security officers
of various races, and members of his own crew raced around.

For a moment they all seemed to part, and in
the distance John locked eyes on the Admiral.

He was standing right beside the enormous
bank of windows that offered an unrivaled view of the sky and ocean
beyond.

His lips were drawn into an enormous,
pronounced frown, and that beard of his kept on shifting up and
down as he tapped his foot repeatedly and shook his head.

He looked angry. John had gone through enough
years of military academy to appreciate that.

But that did not mean that John hesitated; he
rushed right over to the man, dodging around the various security
forces as he did.

There was a low and constant pulse in the
air, a hum that filtered through everything, reverberating through
the floor and ceiling, shaking up through John’s boots and even
setting his teeth on edge inside his armor.

The cores themselves were at the end of the
room, shielded by several meters of solid and reinforced wall.
There was a massive bank of consoles just before those walls, and
John could see out of the corner of his eye the distinct flicker of
layers upon layers of security fields, no doubt shielding the rest
of this room from the lethal radiation and magnetic pull that would
be generated within.