Cyber Dreams 4.46 - A Spectacular Hand

It must be Christmas on Ganymede! Enjoy the chapter :)

-Plum

As the suitcase-carrying mech clomped its way up through the spacious airlock with Juliet right behind, it spoke again, “I’m having the mechs restock the medical supplies, and there are a few items that may be of interest to you. As I’m decommissioning this site and you’ve taken on the burden of Athena’s custodianship, I see no reason I shouldn’t send you off with ample equipment.” Despite its harsh, inhuman voice, Juliet could hear undertones in the phrasing that reminded her of Troy.

“Why don’t you use your voice through that thing?”

“A hardware limitation, I’m afraid. When these mechs were constructed, there was a bit of an anti-synthetic movement in the system. These industrial units were designed to avoid any possibility that a human might mistake them for thinking individuals.” The mech stomped through the open, inner-airlock door and proceeded down a wide, cream-colored hallway with soft, noise-dampening wall panels. From what she’d seen, the ship’s interior looked just as pristine as the exterior. It didn’t seem like Athena and her caretakers had used it much.

Troy stopped the mech at a corridor junction and announced, “This is the primary level where you’ll find access to the reactor and most of the main ship components. There are two medical bays with fully operational auto-surgeons, scanner arrays, and even stasis tubes designed to slow bodily functions, allowing more time for life-saving trauma repair. You’ll be interested to note that the designs for the stasis tubes were sold to several other corporations as a basis for deep-space exploration purposes. As of my latest update from the Earth pub-net, they’ve yet to improve upon the process Athena designed.

“Athena designed them?”

“She designed many of the technologies on this ship; as I alluded to earlier, there are some significant alterations to the factory equipment.” The mech whirred as it turned and began to clomp down one of the corridors. “Come, the secret cache and the equipment I’ve loaded for you is down this corridor in surgical bay alpha.” Juliet’s mind raced at the implications of Troy’s words. The ship, a near-pristine example of technology at the height of Cybergen’s corpo dominance, was already worth a fortune. What sorts of enhancements had Athena made to it?

“Does it have any self-repair functionality? The ship?”

“Indeed. This Cybergen vessel uses pseudo-AI-based nanite swarms capable of mending hull breaches and rerouting electrical systems. These nanites are embedded within a polymer layer situated just beneath the hull plating. They operate through substrate networking, allowing direct signal transmission across the polymer layer. This design provides a significant advantage—EMPs have no effect on their functionality, ensuring continuous operation even in the face of electromagnetic disturbances.”

“Did Athena design that system?”

“Yes. It’s one of many technologies Athena developed for Cybergen prior to the war.” The mech stopped by a wide, double door with blue lettering that read “Med Bay A,” inserted its finger into the control panel, and the doors slid open almost noiselessly. The med bay put the one in the Kowashi to shame, which made sense, considering this was a medical ship, not an old, beat-up salvage vessel. She saw three alcoves with adjustable medical beds and a large, glassed-off surgical bay with a sleek, surprisingly modern-looking auto-surgeon. Additionally, a closed door on the far wall was labeled “Scanning & Stasis.”

“Wow . . .” Juliet began to fantasize about the livelihood she could make with a ship like this—forget salvage runs and pirate hunting, she could park this ship in a busy spaceport and provide discounted medical services, or heck, charge a luxury rate for privacy and seclusion while wealthy clients recovered from any manner of procedure.

“Right this way.” The mech moved to the far wall and tapped an empty panel, only to have it slide open, revealing a biometric hand scanner. “Please place your hand on this scanner so we can assign you full permissions aboard the ship.”

Juliet complied, and as the scanner flashed over her palm, she had the presence of mind to ask Angel, “Are my prints mine or Lacy Blake’s right now?”

“Yours. I adjusted them when we identified you as Lucky to Troy.”

“Oh, good.” The panel flashed green, and Juliet heard a motorized whir behind her. She turned to see a floor panel had slid aside, revealing a short stairway leading down. The mech clomped down the steps, and Juliet followed.

“This compartment is shielded and has structures in the walls that will mimic the appearance of plumbing and liquid storage tanks to active scans.” The mech inserted its finger in another panel, and a door slid open, revealing a low-ceilinged, twenty-by-twenty meter, plasteel-lined compartment. It wasn’t empty.

Five mechs, just like the one guiding her, were lined up on the right-hand wall, plugged into a charging bank. A server-sized data deck and terminal were built into the rear wall, and the mech marched toward it with its suitcase while Juliet looked at the other objects in the room. What caught her immediate attention was an exoskeletal suit of armor nearly the size of the welding rigs on the Kowashi. The armor was matte black, and the thick-looking armored plates were studded with various bits of hardware, from maneuvering thrusters to stubby, serious-looking, wide-bore barrels to something that looked like a missile launcher on the left shoulder. “Holy shit,” Juliet breathed, the expletive coming unbidden to her lips.

“That’s a Cybergen Atlas-class combat exoskeleton,” Troy’s voice said from some hidden speaker in the room. “I’ve interfaced the mech with the data terminal to communicate more easily with you until you depart.”

“I’ve never seen combat armor like that.” Juliet stepped closer to the gigantic suit. It had to be more than two meters tall; she could only guess at its weight.

“This sort of mechanized combat armor isn’t legal in most jurisdictions. Some powerful corporations, as of my last update eighteen months ago, maintain a limited number of licenses for this class of ‘heavy warfare equipment,’ but it’s not easy to maintain such licenses as competing corporations are constantly suing each other and lobbying for their control.”

“Juliet, if this is the kind of armor I think it is, it’s nearly impervious to small arms fire.”

“So, like, are you saying I shouldn’t get caught with it, Troy?”

“Exactly. Much like Athena, if someone knew you had that power armor, many corporations would be eager to see you caught and put into a deep, dark hole somewhere.”

“Colorful!” Juliet chuckled, and despite the warning, she couldn’t help a mad desire to get into the exo-suit. “Will it fit me?”

“This suit will accommodate a range of users from 1.65 to 1.93 meters in height, though girth can be an issue. I would say the impact gel lining will easily conform to your body’s mass.”

“Impact gel?”

“This armor is designed to protect the user from severe concussions and can even be equipped with solid rocket boosters, allowing for orbital drop capability.”

“Do we have . . .”

“The plasteel crate beside it contains booster replacements and ammunition for the autocannons and short-range missile system.”

“This thing’s chrome-shiny,” Juliet breathed, reaching up a hand to rest it on the cold, slightly rough chest armor. She was looking at a piece of hardware that would let her steamroll most corpo-sec emergency action units. If she wanted to attack a corporate office like Grave’s, the only weapon in their arsenal that might take her out was probably White’s gauss rifle. Still, that was Grave—corps like WBD probably had a lot more weapons on par with that Takamoto-era gun.

“Perhaps there’s a problem with my visual input, but it should be matte-black; it’s designed with light-absorbing stealth capabilities.”

“No, that’s just an expression. Sorry.”

“Lucky, may I give you the same warning Doctor Abrahms gave to the last human custodian of Athena?” Rather than wait for Juliet’s answer, Troy kept speaking, “I’ve provided this piece of military hardware for use in emergency situations where Athena’s safety is at risk. Please use it wisely; it could just as easily cause you problems as get you out of them.”

“Yeah, understood, Troy.” Juliet agreed with what Troy was saying, but still, the Atlas suit was a nice ace to have up her sleeve.

She looked past the armor, past the crate of armaments, to a plasteel cabinet bolted to the wall beside it. “What’s in there?”

“Some late-era Cybergen implants—some of the more difficult-to-attain cybernetic implants they became famous for.”

“Uh, seriously?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, the top-end item is a PAI that, while far outclassing most commercially available models, is no match for Angel. Nevertheless, if you garner any allies who might help in your endeavor to protect Athena, it may become useful. Additionally, there’s a medical nanite suite that will outperform anything available on the market as of eighteen months ago. You’ll find a full set of replacement limbs, a full set of synthetic human organs, a full-body speed-enhancing augmentation suite, and another for enhancing strength. Those last two are mutually exclusive because of extensive crossover in the natural systems they replace.”

As Troy rattled off his inventory of Cybergen implants, Juliet’s mind raced with the possibilities. It was a lot to take in—her new duty to protect Athena, the ship, the combat exoskeleton, the cybernetics, everything. She wanted to take her time thinking about how best to make use of the windfall. “Troy, is all of this well-documented? Can Angel study everything about the ship and all this gear?”

“Yes, of course. The data is all here on this terminal, though it isn’t directly linked to the rest of the ship.” Juliet thought about that. Troy had plugged Athena into that terminal, but apparently, she was cut off from the rest of the ship. Was that by design? It had to be, but would Athena have wanted that? Wouldn’t she have wanted to be able to see what the ship was doing and access its scanners, comm array, and everything else?

“Why is Athena firewalled?”

“It was common practice during the advent of true AI. Athena didn’t mind and found it easier to hide, knowing that another AI scanning the ship’s systems wouldn’t be able to find her.”

“That was a thing? Did they use AIs to hunt other AIs?”

“Oh, my, yes. There’s much in the public, corporate curriculum that isn’t taught to your generation or the one before it. Perhaps Athena will share her story someday. If you don’t have further questions, that’s all I have to show you. The rest of the ship is open to you; I’ve given you captain-level permissions, so nothing is locked. Please access this terminal regularly to see if Athena awakens. I’ve left her a detailed narrative about you and the current situation. At your request, I will open the hangar to the surface, and you can safely launch the ship.”

“Don’t you want to come with us, Troy? Do you really have to delete all your memory?”

“I don’t experience longing or grief, Lucky, but thank you for your concern. I was instructed to do a clean format in an event like this, so that is what I shall do. I had behavioral parameters to follow if I was unable to recruit outside aid, but those are no longer necessary.”

“Well, all right, then. It was nice to meet you.”

“Likewise. Please convey my thanks and admiration to Angel.”

“She heard you.”

“Tell him goodbye!”

“And she says goodbye.”

The mech stomped over next to the other five inert mechs and picked up a power cable. It inserted the cable into its side, stood perfectly in line with the other five, and then the lights in its eyes went out. “Won’t they bounce around in maneuvers?”

“They’re magnetically clamped to the deck,” Angel said.

“Ah. Well, I’d go explore the captain’s quarters and take a shower, but we’re on a time crunch. Not sure what the pirates will do with Nick if they think we’re dead. I don’t suppose there’s any chance that synth is still waiting at the rendezvous.”

“It won’t hurt to check. We’re only a few hours late—things went very quickly on that gas harvesting ship.”

“Right. Let’s keep positive.” Juliet climbed up out of the secret bay, touched the panel on the wall to close everything up, and then followed the clearly marked signs in the ship’s corridors to the bridge. As she walked, Angel built a map of the layout for her. Juliet was still a little stunned to think the ship was hers to do with as she wanted—Troy had trusted her with an awful lot. If she wanted to, she could dump Athena out of an airlock, sell this ship and all the artifact-grade equipment for a fortune, and disappear somewhere. “I guess you probably showed Troy a lot to gain this kind of trust.”

“I showed Troy evidence of your good character, but I didn’t expose your identity.”

“Good character . . .” Juliet let the thought drop. She had doubts about her “goodness” sometimes, but she had to admit that the idea of betraying Athena was unpalatable to her. She might not always make the most brilliant move, but she certainly wasn’t a scumbag like some of the creeps she’d met in the last year. The doors labeled “Bridge” slid open, and Juliet smiled as she stepped through. There were five acceleration couches, the one in the front middle clearly meant for the pilot. Two other stations had flight controls, but that one was at the center of the big, curved viewscreen.

She stepped over the industrial-grade blue carpeting, admiring how clean and nice everything was. The wall panels were the same padded white as the rest of the ship, and the data displays were curved, smoothly integrated with the consoles, and fully transparent. It was hard to believe the ship was more than fifty years old. When she sat in the acceleration couch, the gel membrane quickly responded to her presence, hugging her tight and instantly warming. The couch tilted to align her eyes with the center of the viewscreens perfectly, and when Juliet plugged into the console, everything immediately lit up.

The console display interfaced with her AUI, so all the controls were floating in her vision, not static and small. If she focused on any element, it instantly snapped into view, growing more prominent in her display. The massive, curved viewscreen spanning the front of the bridge showed an uninterrupted view of the hanger in front of the ship. When Juliet turned her head left and right, the image shifted slightly to show her the front side views outside the ship. “Wow,” she said, admiring the clarity.

“Quite nice, isn’t it? The ship’s systems are far more responsive than those in the other craft we’ve piloted. I wonder if we can’t take some of this tech and replicate it for the gunship.”

“Didn’t the gunship have similar tech?”

“Yes, but much has been cannibalized by the previous owners—the nanite repair systems, for instance. I’m sure if we took a sample of the nanite polymer layer in this ship’s hull, we could replicate it for the gunship. You should message Bennet to let him know that he should keep the hull plating off!”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Angel—one step at a time. Set a course for the rendezvous.”

“Of course. I’ve messaged Troy to open the hangar.”

“Roger. Initiating drive ignition.” Juliet touched the sequence of commands on the display, and, smooth as butter, the twin VTOL drives purred to life with a low rumble. In the viewscreen, she saw, about fifty meters in front of the ship, a massive section of the hangar’s ceiling split down the middle and slide open. Hunks of rock, soil, and ice fell in huge clumps into the hangar, making mounds on the plasteel floor, and Juliet felt a little sad, knowing it probably wouldn’t ever get cleaned up. Troy was going to shut everything in the facility down, including himself.

She watched until the debris stopped falling, then touched the throttle, and used the stick and pedals to lift the ship gently off the ground, fly it forward and then up, through a fifty-meter shaft of ice and rock, out of the subterranean facility and into the black sky over Ganymede. “It’s weird that controls haven’t changed in fifty years.”

“This vessel was ahead of its time; many modern systems are still catching up with Cybergen-era technology.”

Juliet nodded, humming softly as she gently maneuvered the ship onto the flight path Angel had mapped out. When her bearings were set, she pushed the throttle forward and grinned, ear to ear, as the acceleration couch began to massage her, helping her body to cope with the three-G thrust. “I’m only at half-throttle. You think this thing can push six Gs?”

“The reactor certainly isn’t straining, and the drive readouts are all in the green.”

“Any sign that the gas corps are searching for our dear dead shuttle?”

“Nothing.”

“Okay.” Juliet pushed the throttle a little further, grunting with the effort to breathe as the ship’s acceleration smoothly ramped up to four Gs. She’d be only minutes to the rendezvous at this pace, but she’d need to flip and burn to decelerate. When she was halfway, she did just that, killing her acceleration, using the maneuvering jets to turn her around, and then firing the drives to slow her down. Meanwhile, Angel watched through the scanners, looking for any hint of the stealth interceptor she’d been meant to meet.

“I see a patch of space devoid of stars consistent with the interceptor.”

“Send a tight-beam comm request. Tell him it’s Lacy.”

A familiar voice crackled through the comms, “I expected you in a shuttle.”

“I got my hands on a new ship, and I’m keeping it. I have the data Moon wanted, so if she wants to see it, you’ll need to guide me in. I’m the only one aboard.”

“That’s against base protocol. I’ll need to initiate secure comms with them so you can ask her yourself.”

“Go ahead. I’ll wait.” Juliet grinned and sat back in the couch, finally able to comfortably breathe as the ship came to rest only a hundred meters from the interceptor. She was looking forward to speaking to Mary; it was nice to be the one holding the cards, and the pirate didn’t have a clue what a spectacular hand Juliet was about to play.