Cheeky let out a nervous laugh. <At least we’d accomplish our mission…Airtha would be toast.>
<You’re sharing it back out?> Seraphina asked, ignoring Cheeky’s comment.
<No…I just thought I’d keep it to myself and let the other teams blow us all to Andromeda. Yes, I’m sending the updated info to Sabrina and Troy now.>
<What gives?> she asked her uncle. <You’re normally the funny, joke-cracking person in situations like this.>
<Sorry,> he replied. <This one…this one’s different for me. This ring is the culmination of my life’s work, and here I am skulking about on it like a thief—and now doing my best to make sure we don’t accidentally destroy it to save it.>
<OK, I can see that. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry it’s come to this.> Seraphina gauged where her uncle’s arm would be and reached out to touch it. <You know…memories of sneaking off to your lab and talking with you about your latest endeavor…well, it was always my favorite pastime as a child.>
The old engineer snorted. <Seraphina, there is no possible way that I didn’t already know that. However, what you may not have known is that it was one of my favorite pastimes as well. There was a reason why I never ratted you out.>
<You…> Seraphina’s throat constricted, and she paused to swallow and take a deep breath. <You were always the father that other man never was to me.>
Finaeus’s hand reached out and wrapped around her shoulder. <And you were—and still are—like a daughter to me. But when all this is over, I hope you’ll give the real Jeffrey Tomlinson a chance. He deserves a good daughter like you.>
<We’ll see. I guess it can’t hurt to try. But he’s not really my father, and I’m not really his daughter.>
<Don’t write it off the value so soon. It might be just what you need. Either way. The messages are sent, the other teams know what to do. Let’s get our nano into the nitrogen lines and move on to the nodes.>
<OK, uncle-dad.>
Finaeus made a choking sound. <Gah…that sounds like some sort of terrible incest thing. Never say that again.>
<Er…yeah, didn’t mean that at all. Stricken from the record.>
SABOTAGE
STELLAR DATE: 10.24.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Airthan Ring
REGION: Huygens System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
<I guess it looks like Bob knew what he was doing, sending Erin along,> Katrina said to Kirb as they crouched next to the nitrogen line.
She carefully placed a blob of formation material on it, seeding the inert mass with nano all bearing the specific instruction sets that Finaeus had passed along.
<I’ll admit.> Kirb let out a nervous laugh. <Bob scares the shit out of me. But from what you and Troy have said over the years, he does seem to be on the money a lot.>
Katrina sent an affirming thought to Kirb, then froze, shielding the formation material with her body as one of the patrol drones flew past.
She eyed the weaponry hanging from the thing and made a mental note to profusely thank Erin for coming up with the idea to use sabotage that didn’t require them to fight their way to the CEPPs to plant explosives on them.
In all honesty, it didn’t surprise her that the pixie-like engineer had come up with the perfect solution to their problem. She’d been instrumental in dozens of projects back at Kapteyn’s Star as well, her unique insights always aiding in getting the job done on time.
The flood of memories caused a tightness in her chest that she carefully quelled. Just thinking of the Kap and all that her people had accomplished there still caused her more pain than she would have expected after so many years.
She wondered how the colonists were dealing with it, reeling from one crisis to the next in the wake of their journey forward in time. She suspected that they’d never had a chance to deal with the loss of the Kapteyn’s colony before being attacked again and again.
Though if there’s one thing I know, it’s that this life never really gives you a ‘safe time’ to slow down—other than in death, of course.
The drone completed its pass, moving along its route, and she triggered the formation material to bore its hole in the pipe, seed the nano in the nitrogen flow, and then reseal the breach.
Though some of it would invariably get lost, the nano was preprogrammed to make it to the correct CriEn modules and seed itself for the time when it would commit the sabotage.
<OK, we’re on the clock, now,> Katrina said to Kirb. <No way to send an abort signal unless we come back here and re-seed a second batch.>
<Then let’s get a move on. It’s over eighty klicks to the node.>
A minute later, they met up with Amavia and Elmer on the far side of a maglev line that ran around the perimeter of the space.
<Any trouble?> she asked the pair.
<We nearly ran right into one of the roving AIs. Really thought I was going to have to take the thing down—it came within a centimeter of my left arm,> Amavia reported.
<Well, I bet we’ll get our chance to take some down at the node,> Katrina replied. <If this is how carefully they’re protecting the CriEn plants, then you can bet that Airtha’s nodes are going to be fortresses.>
* * * * *
Sera settled back behind a conduit stack, waiting on Flaherty and Kara to return.
A sense of relief had settled over her with the knowledge that the second phase was nearly complete. They were within a hair’s breadth of actually striking at Airtha.
Of course, the relief that one task was done was already bleeding into anxiety over the next. The knowledge that she’d eventually have to confront her mother had been eating at Sera for the past two years. Now that it was almost upon her, she had to continually force herself not to playout scenarios in her mind.
<You need to calm yourself,> Jen said, as Sera fidgeted. <You’re doing what must be done.>
<Am I that transparent?>
<A bit, yeah. Your thoughts are spilling over. We’re almost there, and then it’ll be over. We’ll hit the nodes, and we’ll convince Airtha to end herself.>
Sera snorted. <Just like that, eh?>
<Well…no, but yes, I suppose. That’s what will happen, in the end.>
<If we succeed,> Sera added.
<So defeatist, we haven’t even—oh…crap.>
Sera shot the AI in her mind a stern look. <Being mysterious isn’t helping.>
<Sabrina just got an update from Fina. They made it into the uplink tower, and Roxy was handling the breach, but they’ve lost contact with her.>
<Dammit.>
Sera considered her options. Not having six of the CEPPs suffer damage wasn’t critical; Finaeus and Earnest’s plan had only called for four of them in the first place. But without the interdictors being taken out, there was no plan B. Either they convinced an ascended AI to take its own life, or they were likely all going to die.
<Fina.> She took the risk of making a direct connection through their emergency backchannels to reach out to her sister. <What’s going on?>
<Sorry, Sera, I fucked up. Roxy went to the top of the tower to breach the uplink node, but she went dark as soon as she got there. Jane and I are climbing the lift shaft. We’ll be there in a few minutes. Don’t worry. We’ll get it done.>
<We can abort, fall back to the secondary schedule.>
<No, if they capture Roxy and strip our plans from her mind, we’re done. There won’t be a second chance. We have to stop that from happening. We’ll take the net down, and Krissy’s fleet will be onstation before you know it.>
Sera bit her lip, hoping against hope that Fina wasn’t just blowing smoke up her ass.
<OK…I’m counting on you, Fina.>
<Don’t worry. We’ll hit this, and make it to our node on time. I promise.>
<Just get out safe. All of you.>
* * * * *
Fina closed the connection to Sera and then triggered the nanorelays in the lift shaft and passages below to go into full standby.
It was
entirely likely that passing the message had given off enough EM to trigger a sweep of the shaft and the tunnels they’d passed through to get to the tower.
With luck, a sweep wouldn’t pick up the nano in standby, and they’d retain their connection to the other teams.
<We’re almost there,> Fina sent to Jane on a narrow-band, low power connection. <Just a few more meters and we’ll be at that landing. From there, we can send up a nanocloud and see what’s going on.>
<We should never have let her go alone,> Jane said, and Fina could hear the accusation loud and clear in the other woman’s voice.
<It was her choice, and a smart move,> Carmen replied. <There could be a dozen reasons why she’s not checked in. Maybe she’s waiting for the right time to make her move.>
<We’ll find out,> Fina said as she reached the platform set into the side of the lift shaft.
The top level where the node was situated was another twenty meters up, but a door on the platform led to a level two floors below the top. She sent a nanocloud out to move to the top of the shaft, while dropping a passel on the door’s panel, keeping her options open.
Jane reached the platform a moment later and pulled herself up alongside Fina, pressing herself against the wall.
<Stars…that’s a lot of down.>
<Try not to think about it,> Fina replied as she watched the feed from her nanocloud.
Above them, the drones slipped past the lift doors at the top of the shaft and into the room at the top of the tower.
The area was crammed with equipment. Everything from power regulation systems to network interfaces, to the transmission equipment itself.
In the center lay the main processing node that handled all the connections and data transfer with the other uplink towers. The node was a massive cube, over thirty meters across. Power and network conduit ran into it from all directions, and lights glowed across its surface, projecting holographic status indicators to a group of technicians who monitored the node.
Or would have been monitoring the node, if they weren’t standing nearby, staring down at Roxy, who was kneeling on the floor in front of a group of five SAI battle frames.
<Aw, shit,> Fina said to Jane and Carmen, sending them the feed.
“You’re locked down,” one of Roxy’s AI captors was saying. “No one’s coming to help you, and we’ve begun scouring the tower for any accomplices. Tell us what Justin has planned here.”
<Shit!> Jane exclaimed. <They still think we’re with Justin.>
<That could be good,> Fina replied. <Really good. We just have to take them out before they breach her mind and find out the truth.>
<How are we going to do that?> Jane asked. <There are four technicians and five of those AIs. Can the ISF flow armor withstand that much firepower?>
<For a second or two,> Fina replied with a soft laugh. <What we need to do is get up there and get breach nano on one or two of those SAIs. Then we set them on one another.>
<Won’t we get detected the same way Roxy did?> Jane asked.
<Maybe. I’ll take the direct approach, while you go through this lower level. There’s a staircase that will take you up to the far side of the uplink control node. Once there, you get the tap on that node as quickly as possible.>
<Wait,> Carmen interjected. <How are you going to get through those doors up there? They’ll be watching them for sure.>
Fina gave a resolute nod. <I’m counting on it.>
* * * * *
Sera walked down the corridor to the CEPP’s maglev station with her team close by. They’d successfully executed Erin and Finaeus’s plan, and if they could catch a maglev at the right time, they’d be able to reach their assigned Airthan node facility in just ten minutes.
Then the fun would really start.
She was about to reach out to Flaherty with a comment about the train they’d take, when she saw his marker suddenly stop five meters in front of her.
<Down!> the man bellowed.
Sera dropped as flechette rounds tore through the corridor, slicing through the air where she had been a moment before.
The shots revealed the warm end of a weapon floating in midair, just a few meters in front of where Flaherty crouched.
<What is it?> Kara demanded from her position behind Sera.
<Don’t know,> the man grunted. <I ran right into her, though.>
<Her?> Sera asked.
<Thin arms…but strong.>
A second later, another barrage of flechette rounds filled the corridor, and Sera pulled her pistol from its stealth sheath, firing in the direction of the second attacker.
Each of her rounds missed their mark, striking the bulkheads. She flushed out a nanocloud to try and see the invisible assailant, when something slammed into the wall next to her, and Kara called out, <Found one!>
Sera moved across the corridor, covering either end as her two invisible companions fought their equally invisible enemies. Sending her nanocloud in their direction, she drew her pistol, waiting for her nano to find and highlight the enemy on her vision.
A second later, a black figure appeared where Flaherty stood, struggling with the invisible woman.
<Fuck. Widows,> Sera spat out the words as she fired on the attacker.
The shots ricocheted off the Widow’s armor, but provided enough of a distraction that Flaherty was able to grab the woman and fling her into the wall next to Sera.
Sera fired another series of rounds at the Widow, targeting what looked to be a weak spot in her armor at the top of her left thigh. None of the shots penetrated, and she shook her head in frustration as the Widow began to rise.
<I guess our stealth is ruined anyway,> she said and slapped her thigh, drawing her lightwand out of a pocket in her armor.
<Sabrina, Troy,> Sera reached out to both AIs. <We just encountered two Widows. Inform all teams to be on the lookout.>
<Are you still at the CEPP?> Troy asked, worry evident in his tone.
<Yeah,> Sera replied, pursing her lips, knowing what that meant. <The Widows must be trying to sabotage them, too.>
<Except they’ll be doing it for real,> Troy warned. <And if they do…>
<Sera,> Sabrina began, sounding almost breathless. <There are dozens of CEPPs on Airtha. If they’re hitting them all…>
<I’m going to reach out to Finaeus. Hold tight.>
* * * * *
A few meters into the passageway out of the CEPP chamber, Finaeus found himself leaning against the wall as he trembled with rage, clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to gain some measure of calm.
<I swear—>
The ability to form words fled him for a moment, and he struggled to grab ahold of any coherent thought, forcing his heart rate and breathing to steady.
<I swear, I have the worst…the worst…ex ever. If anyone ever says ‘my ex is a horrible person’, I can ask ‘but have they ever tried to murder a trillion people?’. What the actual fuck is she thinking?!>
<Well…we thought it too,> Sera said, uncertain of why she’d suddenly try to defend Lisa Wrentham’s decisions.
<And then we fucking dismissed it! Because we’re not goddamn lunatics!>
<So what do we do?> Sera asked. <We could warn Airtha.>
<Do you think she’d listen?> Finaeus asked. <‘Oh, hey, Airtha. We came here to kill you, but it turns out that the Widows beat us to the punch. Any chance you could just shut down all your CEPPs so that they don’t blow away half the fucking stars between Orion and Sagittarius?’ Think she’ll go for that, Sera?>
His niece didn’t reply, and Finaeus felt a measure of guilt flow into his mind, dousing the anger at Lisa and her narrowminded, pigheaded ways.
<Look. I’m sorry, Sera,> he said. <You’re right, we have to stop it, but Airtha won’t
do it. She’ll see it as some part of our attack, and then…. Well, anyway. I’m going to have to shut them all down myself.>
<Can you do that?> she asked. <I mean…it just took us hours to get into position to sabotage six of them. For all we know, the Widows have targeted them all.>
<Yeah, it’s easy,> Finaeus replied. <My team will just have to go back to our CEPP and blow it early. I’ll alter the risk assessment parameters in the safety systems, and that one event will make every CEPP on the ring go into safety shutdown. Then, if the Widows do blow any, it will just cause a small explosion from localized residual energy.>
<Just like that?> The laugh that came with Sera’s statement sounded more than a little nervous.
<Well, there’s more to it, but I have your sister, Cheeky, and Nance to help. We’ll get it done. You keep to your target node. With the Widows here, this really is our one shot.>
<OK, good luck, Uncle Finaeus.>
<Gah, don’t call me that. Makes me feel old.>
<Funny, funny. Get to it, old man.>
Sera cut the connection, and Finaeus terminated the nano relays he’d used for the direct communication before reaching out to his team.
<We need to go back.>
A simultaneous ‘What?!’ came from Seraphina, Nance, and Cheeky.
He quickly explained the situation, causing both Nance and Cheeky to spit out a few curses regarding their strong dislike of Widows.
<So how will we trigger the explosion?> Nance asked. <And how are you going to alter the safety protocols to cause all the CEPPs to think that this is an event warranting a full shutdown?>
<First, we’ll need to drop another passel of nano into each nitrogen feed line. We’ll program in a new detonation time, say, thirty minutes from now. Then I need to get to the control node at the base of the plant and reprogram it and then trigger a system-wide update.>
<You sure that will work?> Nance asked. <Plus…how will we get there?>
Finaeus resisted the urge to smack the woman in the head for always questioning him at the worst times. <First off, I designed these plants, so I know how to get it done. Secondly, we’re going to have to shoot our way in.>