Goliath, p.39
Goliath, page 39
"Bitch."
"Kill him, Davido," Adele urged him on.
"Would you people just stop it!" Sistine shouted. "Can't you see what's going on here? We have bigger problems right now."
"Your sister is correct," Jonas said, the machine's disembodied voice as calm and measured as ever. "It is time for you to leave the ship. There is a disturbance on the original route I had planned. I will need to reroute you through a more secure area."
"What's going on? Who are you people?" The sleeping figure awoke and sat up stiffly. "Hang on, I know you."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Davido demanded. He recognised the man. Ferena, one of Prentice's crew.
"That's a long story, and best saved for later," Sistine said.
"And where's Prentice?" To be honest, he wasn't that bothered if she got herself marooned up here. She was useful, but she was too inconsistent, she was a junkie after all.
"You're that gangster, Davido," Ferena said. Davido bristled as the man continued, "lost her hours ago. There's something on this ship. Something ...unnatural. You have to get out of here. Take me with you."
Davido shrugged. He didn't care about that either. He had what he had come for, it was time to leave. The only business he still had was dealing with Enderby. He checked his shotgun and move around Sollander, getting a clear shot of the man.
"No, dammit." Sollander moved again, keeping herself between them. "No one's shooting anyone."
Davido swirled some of the alcohol around in his mouth, enjoying the pleasant burn. "OK. But he dies today." She couldn't protect him forever. He wondered why she cared.
"Good luck," Enderby said.
"Bastard." Adele launched herself at the man, arms outstretched as if she intended on throttling him. Grimacing Sollander reversed the grip on her rifle and swung it at her. It connected with a sharp crack. With a grunt the woman fell to the ground, dazed.
"You watch it." Davido slammed down the empty glass. He often felt like doing the same, but Adele was his woman, no one harmed her.
"Stop it!" Sistine yelled.
Enderby backed away from them, putting some distance between them. He armed his rifle, ready to defend himself. These people were out of control.
Descending to a much lower orbit, Russou filled most of their sky. The Goliath's erratic manoeuvres had calmed. It looked like the ship was aiming at something hanging in the sky over the dusty planet's North Pole. That object was moving too, turning as if to engage the Goliath itself.
"I am initialising my primary weapons systems," Jonas announced. "This is going to be bright. You may wish to look away at this point."
The Mentor Platform, Sollander realised. The same one that had destroyed her family when she was a child. Like a giant spider it had been hanging over the planet's North Pole ever since Russou was inhabited. Watching, waiting. It was a constructed of glistening ebony material, twisting slightly as it turned, presenting its scaled underside to the oncoming ship. It was preparing to return fire.
"Cycling," Jonas announced.
Energy crackled over the Goliath's mammoth hull. Light bent around it as an intense gravitational field grew, focussed by the spines along the vessel's stern. It was not energy the Goliath's primary weapon fired, it was gravity.
A swirling singularity formed before the vessel's bow, held in check by forces none of those aboard could imagine. Jonas released the containment field, ejecting the singularity towards the Syat. The effect was very much like firing a black hole very close to the speed of light, straight at the slowly turning Syat platform.
The flash of atomic annihilation as the singularity speared the Syat lit up the planet's northern hemisphere. Instantly blinding anyone unlucky enough to be looking in that direction. Filters automatically dampened the worst for those aboard the Goliath. Shielding them from the hard radiation that bathed the old warship. Still, it left bright orbs in their vision for long moments afterwards, as if they had all looked directly at the sun for far too long.
The Syat had simply disappeared. Its constituent matter ripped apart by the singularity and swept up as it continued on its way. What remained of the platform was on its way out of the system, very quickly indeed.
"Shit," was all Sollander could find to say. Intellectually she understood the vessel boasted some astonishingly powerful weaponry, but witnessing it was something else.
"There is still another platform," Sistine pointed out.
"That platform is being dealt with," Jonas assured her. With the planet between them and it none of them witnessed an old Confederate freighter powering up its FTL drive. Even with a limited run up it was already travelling at superliminal velocity when it struck. Both freighter and platform disintegrated instantly. The resulting fireball lit up the Southern Hemisphere, searing much of the pole. The meagre ice fields that clung there melted instantly. All life within thousands of kilometres perishing in the thermal pulse. Scrubland burst into flame, lakes and rivers steamed and bubbled. Cities thousands of kilometres away trembled, windows cracking.
"We can get out of here," Sollander said. "All of us. Was that your plan?" She looked down at the beleaguered world. There were still millions of people living there, all of them slaves ...farm animals for the Syat. This was their chance to escape that. Jonas had repaired enough craft to make it possible.
"I am afraid that is not my plan today," Jonas said.
"What? What else could it be?"
"You will be disembarking now," the machine continued. "I have prepared a MAV for your evacuation."
"You can't leave us to this, Jonas," Sistine said. "This is not a life."
"You cannot come with me, not where I am going."
"Anywhere is better than here."
"Jonas plans to deliver the alien plague to the Syat," Enderby realised. What else could all this be about?
"Leander has perfected it," Jonas said. "So you see, it is time for you to leave. The Syat will react quickly. We must be gone by then."
Davido hefted his shotgun. "You don't have to tell me twice. Let's go." He headed towards the veranda's doors. He knew that Syat retribution would be terrible. He didn't want to be anywhere near this ship when they caught up with it.
"Are you sure?" Sistine hesitated. "I still have so many questions."
"I am sure."
Shaking her head sadly she helped Ferena to his feet. The man still looked dazed, as if someone had drugged him. It was possible someone had.
Feeling confused Enderby was the last to leave the veranda. He stood watching space move overhead as the Goliath manoeuvred once again. The AI's were up to something, and he didn't know what it was. By appearances Jonas and Leander were at each other's throats, but on another level they were working together. Not to mention the fact that Jonas had been seeding the Parking Lot with repair mechanisms for decades, but still needed Davido to enable his internal systems. It didn't make sense.
The others didn't know AI's well enough to question it, but he did. When an AI was being duplicitous, it was time to get worried. He was worried.
The automaton was waiting for him at the entrance, the blasted bodies of a number of Leander's drones at its feet. Clearly it had been busy. "Come, we should go."
"I don't want to go with them," Enderby said.
"It would be better to stay together," it—Jonas—said.
He shrugged. "Why? They're going to try and kill me. That thug said as much."
There was the smallest of hesitations. "Friend Enderby, I currently only have one active android. I need to escort the group to the MAV bay to ensure they disembark safely. I also need to ensure your safety. I can only do both if you are together."
"You re-engaged your internal defence systems," he pointed out.
"I am afraid many of my internal systems are not as functional as I would like. Eighty years without a service has taken its toll. Alas, I could not complete diagnostics on them until power returned."
Enderby shook his head. Jonas was not living up to his reputation of a vaunted, all knowing AI. "Dammit," he said and followed on, keeping some distance between himself and the others.
Jonas led them to a transit well, the same one Ferena had fallen down hours earlier. It looked very different with the lights on. As they were on the vessel's lowest level, this was as far as the well went. The pool of drop gel at its base had been covered over, a deck of steel drawn over it. Above them the well looked like a hole drilled through every level, the decks receding into a point in the distance. Kilometre after kilometre of them.
"You have to be kidding," Davido said.
"No way," Ferena struggled with Sistine, who was still holding him up. "Keep me away from this thing." She let him go and he staggered away from the platform. His legs wobbly from whatever he had been drugged with, he collapsed against a bulkhead.
"It is safe", Jonas assured them. "It is also the only way to reach the docking bay in time to disembark."
"I'd rather walk," Davido commented.
Enderby stepped out into it, looking up. He had heard of these but had never used one. Jonas would employ force fields to ferry people and cargo up and down. It was the only effective means of moving large volumes of freight and crew about the ship. Anything else would simply be too slow. There were six aboard. One towards the bow, one the stern, then four extending radially to the hull. He knew it was safe, but he had to admit it was daunting to a first timer. Closing your eyes was recommend.
"I will be leaving this system shortly," the machine said reasonably. "You do not want to go where I am going. Hence ..." It raised one chrome arm to point towards the gaping passage above them.
Davido found himself stood behind the pilot. Jeno ...or whatever his name was. He studied the man critically. He was scrawny, his clothing hanging off his bony frame. His hair was a mess, as if he hadn't washed or cut it in years. There might actually be some dust in it. There was something about him, though. Something he couldn't place. It was almost ...predatory. It was in the way he looked at the people around him. There was distaste in his gaze, loathing. He looked like he was fighting the urge to do something violent. His hands were white on the rifle.
The rifle. Davido wanted it. He had seen what it did to flesh and metal. There was nothing on Russou to matched it. With a dozen of these he would be unassailable. But he didn't have one, and this man did. He could remedy that.
Reversing his shotgun Davido swung it at the man's legs. Hard.
Enderby screamed, his legs buckling beneath him. He dropped to the deck, Davido following him down. As if it were a pick axe he swung the shotgun again and again, battering the man at his feet. Enderby curled into a ball, his arms protectively over his head.
"Kill him!" Adele shrieked.
Grinning Davido kept on swinging, blood splattering the deck. Even when Enderby stopped screeching in terror he kept on going.
"You must stop this." The android stepped between them. Caught in mid swing the shotgun butt caught the machine across its back. It didn't seem to notice.
"Out of my way, demon," Davido panted.
"I cannot permit this."
Davido laughed. He threw aside the bloody shotgun and scooped up the rifle where Enderby had dropped it. He admired its smooth metal, feeling the power throbbing through it. Yes, this was more like it.
"Great, well done, Davido." Sistine crossed to the prone man. He was whimpering, his face a bloody mess. Blood seeped through his grubby shirt.
"He's hard to kill," Adele said. "Sash shot him earlier. You wouldn't know it now. Bastard. Someone shoot him again, see if he survives this time."
"Bloodthirsty, the lot of you," Sistine said. As she studied his wounds she noticed something strange. The seeping of blood had stopped almost instantly. While she watched the swelling seemed to reduce. She touched his skin carefully. It was hot.
He pulled away from her, eyes flickering open. "Get off me."
"How do you do this?" She stood up, unsure what to make of it.
He shrugged. There was still a lot of Combinate in his system. It was just doing its job.
"Want some more?" Davido laughed. He wasn't going to abuse this weapon like that though. "I still owe you for Sash."
Enderby discovered the discarded shotgun beside his fingers as he heaved himself to his feet. He scooped it up and aimed it at Davido. "Stay away from me."
"Good excuse as any." Davido fired the rifle. Nothing happened. The trigger clicked but it remained unresponsive. "What the hell?"
"I cannot allow this," Jonas said.
"Should have kept the shotgun," Enderby grinned. He aimed quickly and fired.
Davido stepped back in surprise. The shotgun blast beat at his ears, but otherwise nothing happened. He was untouched. A misfire?
Someone screamed.
Confused Davido looked around him, trying to discover what had happened. It was when he saw Sistine collapse to the deck he realised it wasn't him Enderby had aimed at.
Sistine.
There was so much blood. Too much for one person. Sistine was a bloody heap. Unmoving.
"Sistine!" He dropped the rifle and knelt beside her. "Sistine?" He brushed aside her hair and held her head. Her eyes flickered as she tried to look at him. Her lips moved as if she was trying to form a word, then stilled.
"Shit, man. What did you do?" Ferena dragged himself to his feet. "What did you do?"
"Bastard!" Adele launched herself at Enderby. He hadn't moved after firing the shot. He was simply watching, a look of calm satisfaction on his face.
Adele screeched as she was snatched into the air and flung towards the distant hull. Cartwheeling as she struggled she vanished quickly into the distance.
"OK, put that down. Now." Sollander approached the pilot slowly so as not to startle him. "Give it to me. There's been enough killing."
He backed away from her, hands tightening on the weapon. "Stay away from me." He jacked another cartridge into the chamber.
Sollander hesitated. She didn't want to be his next victim.
Davido stroked Sistine's hair straight and tried to pull her clothes over the terrible wound to her side. Much of her chest was missing and her blouse was a ripped mess. It were never going to cover her. "Sistine. Oh, my Sistine." Tears began rolling freely down his cheeks. Splashing on her forehead.
"I think you should leave," Jonas said to Enderby.
"What?"
"This changes my plans somewhat."
Davido looked up, his eyes slowly focussing on Enderby. "Why?"
"Leave," the android instructed Enderby. "Now."
"You guys are crazy," Ferena said. "Hey!" An invisible hand picked him from the deck, lifting him up the well. He closed his eyes. Not again. He quickly disappeared after Adele.
"It is time for you to go," Jonas said. It wasn't to Enderby this time. It was to Davido.
"What? No!" He tried to hold onto his sister but the forces within the well easily separated them. He was shouting with frustration as he was carried into the air, disappearing overhead. His shouts coming to them long after he had gone.
"Your turn, Chief Engineer Sollander," Jonas said.
"No," she said. "I don’t have what I came for."
"Oh, but I think you do."
"Bastard!" She, too, was catapulted into the air, carried quickly towards the hull far overhead.
Enderby stood watching them go. He lowered the shotgun. "Now what?"
The machine stood silently for a long moment, it's cold metallic eye slits regarding him. "I must go with them. They need leading to the MAV."
"What about me?"
"I would recommend returning to the captain's quarters."
"Why are you so eager to help them? You hate them as much as I do."
The machine regarded him for a moment longer. "It is important they leave this ship." With that it allowed to well to lift it off the deck.
"Why?" Enderby demanded as it grew smaller above. "Why?" He shook a fist impotently after it. "Shit."
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The battle to take the cargo hold was not going well. Isskip's forces had taken to lobbing grenades off the walkway, it was simply too dangerous to stick their heads over the side. The fire from below was ferociously accurate. There was no way to tell what was within the crates below, but clearly a lot of it was combustible. Some were downright explosive. Within minutes many were on fire. Some popping in the heat, raining their contents onto the forces gathered below. There was no way anyone could survive that.
Sensing victory was close at hand, Isskip directed two of his troopers to summon an elevator set into the far wall. It was a simple platform, designed to move cargo from one level to the next. It offered little in the way of cover once it started down. Within seconds of exposing themselves crossbow bolts thudded into them, pinning them to one of the crates already piled on the platform.
Swearing Isskip ordered more grenades. And so it went.
"Start shooting at something, why don't you?" A trooped kicked an assault rifle in Singh's direction. It had blood on it, he noticed. It's previous owner's.
He gingerly pulled it closer and inspected it, not quite sure what to do with it. Weapons were not his thing. In fact, none of this was. What was he doing here? The Goliath was supposed to be abandoned.
"Point and shoot!" The trooper instructed. He couldn't see that man's face, it was hidden behind his visor. He, along with many of the other troopers, was still wearing his pressure suit, taking advantage of its armour.
Singh didn't argue. It was pointless. Instead he crawled towards the edge and pointed the weapon blindly over the edge. He was astonished to find there was no railing. There was no way this was safe. He fired half-heartedly into the crates below. He couldn't see if it had any effect, there was too much smoke. Besides, he was not about to expose himself to return fire.
"Who are these people? There's supposed to be no one aboard," he complained, firing again. The recoil was starting to hurt his wrist.
"I don't think they are people," the trooper said as the elevator returned to their level. A bedraggled group of figures lurched in their direction. Smoke lifted from their clothing where they had been seared by the fires below. Some were on fire themselves. They didn't seem to notice or care. He opened fire on them, his weapon humming on full auto. The figures twitched, one falling off the walkway into the inferno below.
