Borne On Wings of Steel (46 page)

"Look, Jysar is motioning for us,” Krinia said as she glanced over to the Hrono and the Iraxx gathered around him.

Both Rok and Krinia began walking back toward them.

But Kyle reached out and grabbed both Jaric and Elise by the arm, holding them back with him a moment longer. He whispered so that only they alone heard.

"Rok and Krinia are right. But if things get real bad, Jaric and I must make sure you stay alive—for real. Got it?"

Jaric nodded.

Elise looked from one to the other, a profound feeling of camaraderie exploding inside her heart and soul for these two young men—her friends, her brothers. Now, she really felt that the three of them were friends. More than that, it felt as if they really were family now, for the first time.

But in the next instant, fear gripped her heart in an icy stranglehold. If Kyle was right and things started going bad, she might lose them.

Destructors took no prisoners
.

Elise remembered that terrible fact from their final pre-mission briefing.

With a burning determination, Elise decided she would not allow that to happen—no matter what. After all, it was Kyle and Jaric who had been with Mother since the beginning. Mother would grieve so much more if one of them died.

No, if anyone would sacrifice themselves for the others, it would be her. This thing she silently promised herself as she walked in the darkness of the mighty Paum complex between the two people who meant more to her than anything else in the universe—except for Mother.

Mother had loved her long before Kyle and Jaric finally accepted her. Elise decided that she would risk anything to free Mother as well.

Anything.

The three drew near the others just as Krinia stopped next to Jysar and looked over his shoulder at his sensor unit.

"What's that?” Krinia pointed to Jysar's scanner.

A large, empty section at one end of the complex came into focus amid the honeycomb blocks and their accompanying corridor spaces. Whereas they were in the center corridor with the innermost network of honeycomb structures, this large gap was located at the northernmost section, beyond the last block of honeycombs.

Jysar tweaked his scanner again when a voice startled him.

"There!” Jaric shouted with triumph as he pointed at Jysar's screen.

"You have found the location of the MotherShip?” Rok stepped closer to the Hrono.

"Yes, I had to get through a ton of jamming the Paum has set up. But I managed to get through it long enough. She is docked in that empty section at the far forward end and about twenty levels below us."

"Good, let's synchronize those coordinates in all of our sensor units,” Qirn commanded with a low voice. “That way, if we get separated we know to keep going to the MotherShip AI. Everyone sync up now."

"A few of the hexagonal structures cross between the gaps—extending from end-to-end of this complex,” Jysar said as he peered at his sensor display. “About one in twenty do. And these particular ones seem to be hollow in the very center. Wait! There's an elevator type device that traverses them. Some begin at our middle section and extend to the outer ends. There are several we can use."

Kyle looked over Jysar's shoulder. “We could take one all the way to the section where Mother is. Looks like the only way."

"Good,” Qirn agreed. “Where's the nearest one?"

"About half-way up this corridor and then twenty-three levels down,” Jysar replied. “The tube reaches to the very floor where Mother is docked. We'll have to use our boards at that point again."

"If we get separated, we wait at the entrance of that structure,” Qirn said as he took his weapon out and checked its setting. “Okay, we'll take to the boards and leave this walk-way. The Destructors will have to come for us in the air."

"Should make it harder for them to get to us,” Jaric said with a sigh. “If we fly fast."

"Except for the board with two riders,” Hasta sneered. “They will slow us all down."

Rok and Kyle glared angrily at the Iraxx warrior.

"Krinia will fly on my board, her arms tight around my waist,” Rok said with a commanding tone. “We won't slow you down."

"I'll keep close to you,” Kyle said with a nod.

"So will I,” Jaric added.

"Destructors can leap a long way. They are powerful robots,” Rab grunted. “They will be able to leap from the walls all the way across to the center walkway. We know from our examination of them what they are capable of."

"We fly fast and we fly hard then,” Qirn said as his blaster clicked into a new setting. “Set blasters to full power. We must destroy the Destructors as efficiently as possible.

"Okay,” Qirn said with deadly earnestness after everyone had double-checked the coordinates on their sensor units and blaster settings. “We fly in a loose, main group.” The Iraxx commander looked up. “Rab, you and Jerr take point. Keep your sensors tuned for the ghost images of Destructors."

The two Iraxx nodded slowly.

"Qata and Hasta will bring up our rear. You too, keep sharp for Destructors. One of you, keep your sensors tuned tight. The other, keep your weapon ready. The same for Rab and Jerr."

Solemn faces stared back at Qirn from all around.

"We can destroy them. But we have to detect them first,” Qirn said sharply. “And we have the new devices with their strobe frequencies—that should reveal them to us.” Qirn looked slowly around at all the others.

"I'll tune my sensors as well,” Jysar added with an even look. “I think I might have something up my sleeve that might help."

"What?” Jaric asked with sudden enthusiasm.

"I'm going to try scanning with pulsating bandwidths, trying to get around the dampening effect these things cloak themselves with. Same concept as the strobe device.” The twin row of scales across the Hrono's head turned a deeper hue of green as he smiled confidently.

"Good thinking,” Qirn said. “Some of our other warriors have tried similar tactics when encountering Destructors."

"Did any succeed?” Jaric asked.

"We are not sure, none lived to report back."

"But you've managed to destroy at least two Destructors,” Kyle added with urgency.

"True, but our warriors were also killed each time."

An intense silence filled the air.

"Maybe they managed to see them long enough to take them out?” Kyle said at last.

Qirn let out a deep breath. “Perhaps you are right.” The Iraxx leader looked down the corridor before them and raised his arm. “Warriors on point, get on your boards and head out. We follow you one minute later. The others to rear-guard positions."

Rab and Jerr obeyed instantly.

The others watched them make their way forward.

As Elise stood near, Kyle leaned closer to Jysar and whispered in his ear.

"You try what you're thinking. If you can find a way, any way, to see these things—do it.” Kyle looked deep into Jysar's eyes. “Then we can fight them."

Jysar smiled up at the human. “I will do my best."

Kyle patted Jysar on the shoulder as he and all the others rose to begin following the point warriors.

"Our lives probably depend on it."

[Back to Table of Contents]

MOTHER'S MIND FLICKERED and dimmed in rapid succession like a neon light about to fail.

The rogue code quickly erased over thirty percent of her near-term memory and now invaded the first sections of her long-term memory. She realized the attacking code was designed to do one thing—clear the contents of her memory systems and replicate itself into her main operating system—and it was succeeding with a quick and deadly urgency.

Mother used every ounce of processing power simply to fend off its attacks, now that it had replicated itself into hundreds of thousands of separate, attacking entities. She focused her resources so intently on the internal attack that she had nothing left for anything else.

She finally isolated and trapped one of the attacking viruses. Mother analyzed its code and disabled its ability to replicate. Within a few more seconds, she analyzed its entire structure and started building her own coded countermeasures in order to defend herself and destroy it along with its rapidly multiplying copies.

It would not be easy. The code replicated exponentially and now attacked her from thousands of separate sections of her circuits simultaneously. Mother began disabling a number of her on-board systems in a drastic attempt to free up her processing power and defeat this insidious attack.

Minstrel watched as console after console went dark around Main Ops.

"Can I help you, Mother?"

A long pause ensued before Mother finally answered.

"If you could manually disable life-support on all levels except Ops and here at my main hatch, in case the children come on board. Leave life-support active on the main corridor leading to Ops."

"Will do. Anything else?"

Again, there was a lengthy pause.

"I am trying to reach out and determine the exact location of the children, but the Paum is blocking me.” Mother's voice changed to a low, monotone baritone and faded away with the last words as some of the attacking code erupted into her voice systems.

"Your efforts are all wasted. The Paum is always victorious. Even now, my robots have entered the docking bay for you."

Minstrel's flowing form glowed an angry crimson at the Paum's voice. Drifting over a console, Minstrel began disabling life-support in spite of the Paum's dire prediction.

"Once I have made a direct connection, my essence will fill the Mother AI. Then, she will be mine."

Minstrel worked feverishly until life-support was disabled everywhere Mother had indicated. Minstrel's flowing form caressed another panel in order to access Mother's weapons. The alien sought to activate one of them and direct it at the robots that drew closer to Mother's hull with each passing second.

"My code infiltrated her engine and weapon's systems first. They are currently inactive. And you will see that Mother is so busy defending herself from the other attacks that she doesn't even have the processing cycles left to bring them online.” The Paum's voice sighed deeply. “Such a waste. Still, she turned out to be imperfect and should be deleted. Completely!"

"You're wrong!” Minstrel shouted angrily. “Mother is a noble entity. She's light years ahead of you as a living being!"

"She is impure, prone to mistakes. Unlike me."

"You're fooling yourself, Paum. No creature is always right. And like everyone else in the universe, you're wrong more often than you realize it!"

"Never!"

"Yes, you're wrong about Mother. You're wrong about the rest of us needing your guidance."

"No! I bring balance to worlds. I bring harmony to entire civilizations. I am always right."

"Then why do so many want to fight you, and reject your way of Paum!"

"They are fools, they do not understand how I can benefit them. I am Paum."

"Total control is not what sentient beings want. Yes, they want harmony and balance and to live in peace in this great universe. But you can't force it on them. Prove to them that your way is better, let them choose to live Paum for themselves.” Minstrel's body erupted into wave after wave of sparkling colors and lights.

"They are blind, they are imperfect and must be guided to Paum.
I am Paum
."

Mother had been half-listening as she formulated and created her own set of search-and-destroy code and now set it free within her circuits to annihilate the attacking code. Still, the virus had replicated until it was now many millions of separately attacking entities. Mother bent every ounce of processing she had—first to defend herself at key points inside her systems, and second to send out the new code to attack her attackers.

Suddenly, she realized one of the panels that protected her external connectors had been opened.

Fighting against the overwhelming surges that swept throughout her circuits, she tried to concentrate on that single connector. But she could not—not yet.

"Min-n-n-n-n-strel,” Mother's voice pleaded with an awkward and drawn out tone.

"I am here.” Minstrel's form coalesced into a tighter cloud.

"I-I-I need you to stop, t-o-o deee-lay ... ro-bot ... Panel A-21.” Mother focused on her voice systems. “If it makes a connection to the Paum, I will be quickly overwhelmed. I am trying to contain the rogue code. Any connection now with the Paum will mean my end."

Minstrel didn't answer. Instead, it disappeared with a flash of light.

"Minstrel, I have encountered your kind before,” the Paum said with an edge to its voice. “I can detect you, now that I know you are here. And I can destroy you, as I have all the other Minstrels who were foolish enough to oppose me."

Mother felt some of her systems freeze with fear for Minstrel.

"Minstrel, come back! We can find a way to stop them from inside! Don't go outside!” Mother shouted over every comm channel, not knowing Minstrel's exact location now.

But Minstrel did not answer.

"I am bringing on-line several weapons that will destroy this life-form, Mother AI. Minstrel is a plasma-based being. My weapons will dissipate it even to the sub-atomic structure—effectively annihilating it. I only need a clear shot once it is outside your hull.” The Paum began laughing, a maniacal edge to its cackling.

A burning sensation filled Mother's circuits—and it wasn't the Paum's virus code attacking her. Deep inside, Mother felt fear for her friend Minstrel. She knew that Minstrel would risk its life for her, and now grew afraid she would lose Minstrel.

Just like she had lost Becky
.

The memory of Becky's death filled a large portion of her remaining near-term memories for a millisecond, before she pushed it back into her permanent storage, afraid that the code might erase the memory of Becky from her forever—so she could never remember her again.

The thought horrified Mother.

And now the Paum sought destroy Minstrel and herself.

Mother's mind reeled. It felt like her entire world was quickly coming to an end—everyone she had ever loved or cared about—gone forever.