Overdrive (14 page)

A few Nephillim
spared their master a hurried glance. Asel was an impressive sight. Physically
similar to Areopagite Angels, Asel differed in that he had long dark hair, red
and purple wings and was dressed in silver battle armor befitting his rank.

His source had
revealed that the individual with the Overdrive data was aboard the Hedonist
ship. The Areopagite’s would probably be in possession of him right about now.
This didn’t concern Asel. The same source had told him that that Simbiel would
be taking Felix back to Arabot. Which meant they had to eventually come back to
their ship.

One of the small
screens in front of him showed two men walking through the docking bay, heading
towards a fish shaped ship. They obviously weren’t Areopagite’s. He gave them
no further thought.

Asel settled back
in his chair to wait and had just closed his eyes when he felt a shudder
running through the whole ship.

“What was that?”

One of his senior
lieutenants turned around to face him. “I don’t know Sir, we’re trying to find
out now.” The lieutenant closed one eye, opening it again moments later.
“There’s been an explosion on the bridge. A large chunk of level 60 has been
destroyed. The ship’s main AI has been taken out. All life support and basic
functions have fallen back onto the secondary systems and basic automation. We
are also emerging out of Nospace as a standard response to AI malfunction.”

Asel smiled.
“Prepare the assault squad. We’re about to have company."

◊

Logan and Tarquin
arrived back in the docking bay area of the
Dirty Little Minx
. No
Templars were in evidence anywhere as they made their way back to Tarquin’s
ship.

“Was that Watcher
Trireme here before?," asked Tarquin.

Logan looked in
the direction of the Watcher ship a few bays away. “Don’t think so. I could be
paranoid but I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

Tarquin sighed.
“Great. This just keeps getting better and better.”

They reached the
Debacherous
Weekend
which extended its ramp at Tarquin’s unspoken command. Inside, they
descended stairs to the hold, coming to a stop in front of a heavy looking
metal door. Tarquin fired the code to his ship’s AI which opened the door for
them. Logan had been in Tarquin’s ‘toy’ room before and had been duly impressed,
stunned and vaguely horrified by the amount of weaponry his friend possessed.
He’d seen military weapon stores and private armies less well equipped.

“Remind me Tarq,
why you need all this stuff again?’

Tarquin had picked
up a large plasma cannon and was examining the readout. “Insurance, piece of
mind, security. And I like really big guns.”

Logan raised his
eyebrows. “Right.”

Tarquin turned to
his friend. “How do you rate the chances of ship security getting Felix away
from our religious friends.”

“Low to nil. Have
you ever seen Templars in action before?”

“Nah."

“Well, its not
pretty.” Logan looked up at a bulky silver suit with four arms hanging from a
brace on the wall. “Hey, is that Class 5 Gorgon Battle armor?”

Tarquin grinned.
“Sure is. I’ve got a spare that might fit you as well."

Logan’s face lit
up. “Excellent. These are great." He paused to look suspiciously at his
friend. “Aren’t these suits restricted for military use only?”

“Yep."

Logan opened his
mouth to say something, thought better of it and shut it again. He shrugged.
“Ok.”

Tarquin was
removing a large two handed cannon from a wall rack. “If you liked that, you’ll
love this. Logan, meet my friend; the highly illegal Class 3 field Disruption
cannon, also known as a Angel Fucker or Afer." He stroked it lovingly.
“Cost me half a years salary.”

Hefting it with
some difficulty, Tarquin pointed it at the wall. “Capable of temporarily
disrupting the field of an Angel in the Second Hierarchy.”

Logan stared incredulously
at Tarquin. “Where did you get that?”

Tarquin smiled and
winked. “I have my sources.”

“Well, what do we
do if we come across a First Hierarchy?”

Tarquin shrugged.
“I guess we’re fucked.” He looked over at Logan. “So what’s the plan anyway?”

“If we step off
your ship toting the firepower equivalent of a small army, we’ll have to fend
off resident security as well. If the Angels want Felix off the ship, they’ll
gonna have to bring him back here. We’re just going to have to wait.”

“What about the
Watchers?”

“Hopefully they
discuss their religious differences in a purely violent way and then we step in
and mop up the pieces. Felix should be okay. Sounds like nobody wants to hurt
him. He’s too valuable alive. Its risky but we’ve got no option.”

A shudder ran
through the ship. One of the rifles fell out of its rack on the wall, landing
with a clatter on the floor.

Logan looked down
at the rifle. “That was an explosion," he said thoughtfully. He tried to
access the Minx but there was no response. Tarquin had one eyelid down. After a
moment, he opened it again, a look of surprise on his face.

“I’ve just talked
to my ship. There’s been an automated announcement. The Minx’s AI is down and
we’re emerging into regular space.”

Logan looked at
his friend grimly. “You know what this means.”

“Yep. Sounds like
our options have changed. Suit up. Let’s go get Felix.”

◊

Felix and Crystal
had just put their clothes back on when they felt a shudder running through the
ship. The door slid open to reveal two Templars carrying plasma guns. Entering
the room they pulled the couple to their feet and marched them into the Lounge.

“Where are we
going?," demanded Felix. The Templars didn’t respond. Felix didn’t expect
them to.

Simbiel stood in
the centre of the room surrounded by six more Templars, busy unpacking weaponry
from silver cases. He smiled when he caught sight of them.

“It seems there’s
been a slight malfunction with the ships AI. We have to evacuate.”

Felix curled his
lip up in distaste at the Angel. “The chances of a ships AI becoming inoperable
is 1,365,000 to 1. You wouldn’t have had anything to do with lowering the odds
by any chance?”

Simbiel continued
to smile. “Let’s just call it an act of god shall we?”

“Since when did
God start kidnapping people?”

“When there’s a
just and righteous cause.”

“You call murder,
kidnapping and acting like complete immoral bastards a just and righteous
cause?”

Simbiel pointed a
finger at Felix. A small blue spark flew from his finger and hit Felix in the
leg.

“Owww," said
Felix, grasping his leg in pain. Crystal put her arms around him. “You alright?."
Felix grimaced and nodded. She turned towards Simbiel. “Leave him alone penis
breath.”

Simbiel pointed a
finger at her. Before he could shoot, the main doors opened and a smiling Tynan
entered with two of his Templars. Simbiel turned and addressed him. “I trust
your mission was a success?”

“Certainly was.”

Simbiel glared at
him.

“My Lord," he
added hurriedly.

“Time to leave
then." Simbiel gestured at four of his Templars who grabbed Felix and
Crystal by the arms, dragging them out into the corridor behind Simbiel and the
Knights Captain.

Turning down
another corridor they arrived at an AG lift. The doors open to reveal a ship
security detachment. Their leader pointed his weapon nervously at Simbiel.
“Drop your weapons," he demanded of the Templars.

Simbiel pulled out
his sword. “You mean this?," he said innocently.

“Drop it."
The security leaders arm was beginning to shake. His men were pointing their
weapons alternatively at Simbiel and the other Templars.

“Of course."
Simbiel’s sword swept out, almost too fast to follow, lopping off the hand of
the security leader. Blood spurted out. The rest of the security detachment
fired their plasma weapons at Simbiel, the bolts splattering harmlessly off a
blue field now surrounding him.

Tynan and the rest
of the Templars discharged their weapons into the lift. There were some brief
screams, the smell of burnt flesh and some moist and disturbing sounding thuds
as the bodies hit the floor. Simbiel turned and smiled at Felix. “Coming?”

Felix glared at
him. “After you chuckles.”

He was thrown into
the lift by two Templars, where he fell amidst the charred bodies and burnt
blood.  Crystal was pushed in after him. She helped Felix to his feet. Simbiel,
Tynan and the other Templars joined them. One of the Templars opened an access
panel on the lift wall and connected a small console to it, causing the lift to
start descending.

Crystal was
unsuccessfully trying not to stand on a dead body. She looked at Felix. “Look
on the bright side. It certainly can’t get any worse.”

“Touch wood."
He looked around for some wood to touch. There was none in the lift. He settled
for touching his head.

◊

Ships without AI
guidance were seen as being too risky to operate in Nospace. As a standard
response, a ship that experienced the unlikely event of AI malfunction was
brought immediately back into real space by automated backup systems.

A small point of
light gradually grew to a circle of grey nothingness 10 km in diameter. The
Dirty Little Minx emerged out of the circle, 20,000 km above a gas giant. The
grey slowly disappeared, gradually filled in by the black space surrounding it.

Unknown to the
current occupants of the Hedonist ship, the
Dirty Little Minx
was in a
system 10 days travel (or 3, dependent on whether you had an Angel or not) from
the nearest occupied world or asteroid. Catalogued 75 years earlier, the system
was so unremarkable that it didn’t even warrant a name. On start charts it was
known as QS176. No-one had bothered to name the gas giant. Like the system, it
was unremarkable. Almost half the size of Jupiter, it was only 70,000 km in
diameter. Unfortunately, it was still large enough to create a formidable
magnetic field, attracting asteroids and other debris in the system. Today, the
gas giant had captured something quite different. The
Dirty Little Minx
was currently caught and in a rapidly decreasing orbit.

The ships backup
system issued a repeated warning to its passengers and crews. All through the
ship, warning sirens went off.

“This is a Class 1
emergency. This ship is now in real space and is caught in the gravitational
pull of a nearby body. Please proceed to the lifepods immediately.”

Unknown to the
passengers on board, the designers of the
Dirty Little Minx
, with
pleasure rather than safety in mind, had decided to allocate only enough space
to evacuate approximately half of her total capacity. Fortunately, this fact
didn’t seem to carry weight with many of the passengers. Many had never even
heard of AI failure, let alone experienced it and as a result weren’t taking
the announcement too seriously.  Alarmingly, the remaining lifepods were still
filling up largely due to the more intelligent, experienced and moderately
sober passengers making their way with alacrity towards the lifepods.

Two that could be
classified into the latter group were the two Transplanters, Derek and Bruce. After spending two years fighting together as mercenaries in various private
wars, they had decided to take a much deserved holiday. In addition, Derek’s mum had recently passed away and Bruce was quietly worried that his friend was starting
to lose it. He’d thought nothing could be better than two weeks of drinking and
womanizing (some women were fascinated by Transplanters).

Heading towards
the docking bay, Bruce spotted a group of figures ahead of them and nudged his
friend.

“Hey, isn’t that
the wanker that spilled your pint?”

Derek
’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Fucking
well looks like it.”

The Gorilla’s face
contorted into a human facsimile of thought. “I wonder if he’s got a way off
this crate.”

Derek
smiled showing a face full of large
canines. “Lets go find out shall we?”

◊

Logan emerged from
the
Debacherous Weekend
wearing his newly acquired Class 5 Gorgon Battle
Armor. The silver suit fully enclosed his body and was equipped with a full
helm enabling an AI interface. Two lower mechanical arms, able to revolve in a
360 degree arc, each held a plasma gun. Thanks to the suits strength
enhancement, he carried a large plasma cannon easily in one hand. His AI,
connected to the tactical one in the suit, informed him that threat assessment
and targeting overlays were already on line and there was no immediate danger
in the vicinity. Tarquin, similarly dressed walked down the ramp behind him.
Tarquin, in addition to the plasma guns carried in his secondary arms, held the
large Afer. Their AI’s were also linked to each other to prevent accidental
shooting in a combat situation.