Chaos Cipher (60 page)

-43-

A
t the Eastern Cosmo tower, Beta
Gate,
The Griffin’s Claw
nested in a docking base at the end of the
structure. Its nose pointed along the tower’s length facing back to
the circular habitation section, thrusters set snugly into locking
clamps. Due to the curious nature of the centrifuge affect outside
of the ring system, the Cosmo towers, unlike Earth’s skyscrapers,
tended to be upside down. The very highest point was in fact what
would be considered the parking areas on Earth while the Penthouse
suite was more or less constructed within the ring system itself as
part of the elevator channels.

The distant
sun glittered across the adorned fuselage of
The Griffin’s Claw
. Her architecture
was elegantly rounded, like a long teardrop. The ship’s bow tapered
with three twisting shield panels overlapping, torturing to a sharp
peak, like the petals of a flower head vying to a terminus, a rose
slowly starting to bud. Its mid-section was ribbed with an
expanding saltus-carousel which contracted neatly, hidden away into
the ship’s body during exploration. It could expand into an
oscillating toroid for faster than light velox when required,
assuming a size three times the width of the fuselage. Very few
starnavis had a saltus-carousel integrated into the hull the
way
The Griffin’s Claw
had. This was mainly because governing bodies like the S.S.A
wanted to keep control of which vessels were making a spatial velox
in and out of systems.

Tales of
virtuous battles were etched into
The
Griffin’s Claw
’s immaculate armour, those
of Greek mythology, the Titans and the Olympians and their glorious
stories, personified in the finest colours of titanium and silver,
figures embellished in battle.

With no
discernible windows the starnavis relied completely on vectors and
neurophase applications, yet the main observation dome was hidden
within the twisting shield panels. Three engine nacelles, set right
at its lower bulk were presently evaporating fluids into space, a
cooling process engaged after a quick engine test programmed by the
pilot. From the middle of the ship, an umbilical transport tunnel
joined the starnavis to the Beta Gate harbours. Several other
vessels were running tests and leaving for their various
destinations, busying the gate harbours with activity.
The Griffin’s Claw
shuttle was classed as a Tower Starnavis. Unlike Platform
Starnavis, its levels were based above the engines layer by layer
like a rocket, the bridge command being based at the top. Platform
Starnavis usually had forward facing seats with the engines
pointing to the rear.

Pawel Adamski
preferred the Platform Starnavis. He didn’t much like laying back
and feeling the fee forces shifting to his feet. He walked around
an inertial bed, one of ten pocketed into the bridge command floor
to support crew members during high gee-force accelerations. The
huge holographic display screens produced a panorama around Pawel
as he operated articulated kinetic arms outside the ship, making
minor repairs and taking in cosmic spallation supplies (like those
frequent small gritty black asteroids he often found knocking
around) for the aneutronic-fusion core. A budget calendar displayed
to each operation, subtracted each thought out operation and
priority from the pool supply of available Atomon funds.

Pawel stared
intently at each task, his scrupulous attention switching between
multiple designations. As one task was complete another needed
attention. There was no room for error, their budget was tight and
each priority had to be layered into a hierarchy of importance.
Once the programs were set, he stepped away from the hologram
display field and the images effervesced into dormancy. His white
and blue optical jumpsuit pulsed with life signals and codes
relevant for the neuro-ligature with the ship’s AI. Oscillatory
waves blinked over his arms and chest panels, while a matrix of
binary codes trickled and trafficked around his limbs. He opened
the signal through his neurosphere sensorium and discerned the
ship’s virtually augmented reality. The sphere bloomed through his
mind to imbue the entire bridge with programs to which he was
intimately linked.

‘
Good day
Pawel Adamski,’ the AI greeted in his native language, an avatar
personality program issuing an emoticon to smile and blink
pleasantly.

‘
Isolate
article seventy three, maximise and grant user
independence.’

‘
Compliance,’
said the Starnavis AI.

From the room
of hexagons, the emoticon turned its head slightly, spinning the
surrounding spherical virtual space until it isolated one of the
hexagons, maximising it for Pawel. He accessed the program and
opened up the binary software. A highway of program language
criss-crossed before him, as article seventy three presented its
function. Pawel began to reorganise the algorithms to fit with a
new animus, reallocating the hexagon to direct a new node pattern.
The job was celeritas and efficient, the node now allowing a new
power route from the core to the gravmex plating. At a thought, he
dropped out of the neuromitted sensorium and the virtually
represented reality imploded to a single speck of light and
vanished. The gloaming digits on Pawel’s optical jumpsuit mollified
with the less vibrant atmosphere. Small tremors shook beneath his
feet as the articulated kinetic arms operated on
The Griffin’s Claw
fuselage somewhere outside.

‘
Incoming
call from Captain Mowser.’ Said the AI.

‘
Receive,’
said Pawel.

Mowser smiled
into the projection and nodded his head. ‘Wi deed eet! We made the
deal, Paul.’

‘
Congratulations,’ said Pawel, hands behind his back and
standing upright.

‘
Jerrus ees
ghunah send us the cargo, ghit ready’a receive eet!’

‘
Course,’
said Pawel. ‘When can we expect delivery?’

‘
In ibout
faive mins, boetie. How’s Ethan?’

‘
He’s fine,
Skipper,’ said Ethan Thomas, strutting confidently onto the bridge.
His bulky tattoo profaned shoulders seemed to force their way from
his sleeveless top. Although Pawel was the tallest crew member, and
the leanest, Ethan was twice the size, sporting a bloated gut and
bushy beard. He came to a stop by one of the inertia beds and threw
one of his tuning implements onto the cushioning. ‘Just a little
pissed that Pawel here is using all the power! You might have
warned me before you did that, Pawel.’

‘
Is there
problem?’ Pawel asked calmly, switching his weight over to lean on
a terminal.

‘
Yeah,’ said
Ethan, ‘I needed that extra power on this floor for the moment, I
was analysing a circuit problem.’

‘
I rerouted
it.’

‘
Yeah, but I
can’t find the problem if there’s no juice running through
it.’

‘
We’re
wasting fuel,’ Pawel explained.

‘
Oh come on!
We’re talking nano-cubic metres of DT. We can pick up more from the
asteroid belt.’

‘
On Captain’s
orders I am supposed to be frugal.’

‘
Frugal?’
Ethan chuckled. ‘You mean pedantic. You like being the boss of this
shuttle, huh? We’ve given those quantum energy plates way too long
of a rest, c’mon Pawel. There’s infinite energy all around us. Pump
up the jam.’

‘
I am
getting...’ Pawel searched his memory for the word,
‘irritated.’

‘
Roite guys,
chillax, ah?’ Casipan’s voice interrupted. ‘Just ghit the damn
dreells onboard ind we ken scram.’

‘
Yes
Captain.’ Said Pawel.

‘
Aye, aye,
sir!’ Ethan rejoined.

When the
augmented hologram field dissipated, Caspian’s signal faded with
the light. Pawel glared as Ethan took a vapour-pipe from his vest
pocket and starting the vapour flow, sucking it all up
rapturously.

‘
That
circulates around the shuttle,’ said Pawel angrily.

‘
Exactly.’

‘
We all have
to breathe this air, Ethan. Don’t smoke it.’

‘
Shut the
hell up.’

-44-

A
rtex had just handed back a logging
register to one of the militia. A group of them were helping
matriculate a new shipment delivered from South A’ Two munitions
factory when a commotion began stirring in the garrison. Pania
Kedash had been asking around for Gus and Artex, pushing through
areas of the camp annoyed to have their training interrupted. She
vaulted over a short fence segregating one of the animal feeds from
a running track where some of the militia were practicing their
shoulder carrying runs with partners. Artex straightened up and
walked over to meet her as she sprinted towards him.

‘
Trouble!’
She shouted, gasping for breath.

‘
Take it
easy, what’s going on?’ he asked, grabbing her shoulders to stop
her colliding with him.

‘
Artex! We
need you! They got Kyo! They took him and his parents.’

‘
Who
did?’

‘
The
hardlanders,’ she explained, ‘from Moscowai! Krupin took
them!’

Artex cursed
under his breath and opened a semi-qualia channel with Cedalion.
She was high in the sky over the air zone, she swooped lower to get
a visual and saw that the Perigrussia Skybus had long ago
left.

‘
When did
they leave?’ Artex asked.

‘
A few hours
ago,’ said Pania. ‘They took off and we heard a distress call from
Kyo not long after. I don’t know how but they found
him.’

‘
I’ve an idea
how,’ Artex grumbled, thinking of The Bear. ‘Do you know
Berengar?’

Pania
nodded.

‘
He’s been
close with the Lewis family some time now,’ he said. ‘Damnit! This
might be my fault.’

‘
The Bear?’
she wondered, remembering suddenly the last time she saw him. ‘Oh
God! It wasn’t you.’ She realised. ‘That fucker overheard me
talking with Kyo on my Quantic-W. He was looking around the SkyLark
bays.’

‘
I’ll have
people keep an eye on him.’ He promised.

‘
I got to get
out to them, Artex!’ Pania said. ‘We have to do something, they
need us! I’ve known Kyo most my life, he’s like my little brother!
I gotta get him back!’

‘
Cedalion can
fly far.’ He said. ‘I can get a trace on the Perigrussia’s magnetic
signals. If I find her…we can trace where it’s heading.’

‘
Then what?’
Pania asked desperately.

‘
We’ll get
back our people.’ Artex decided.

‘
I’m coming
too,’ Pania said. ‘I’ve got a weapon. If we have to go out into the
Novus for them, let’s do it.’

Artex nodded.
‘You’ll need a lot more than just a weapon. I’ll assemble another
team member.’

‘
Who do you
have in mind?’

‘
A sniper,’
he said. ‘Gus.’

*

‘
NO! LET ME
GO!’ Kyo howled, kicking vociferously with little affect to Krupin
and his security. The man growled angrily and hurled Kyo into a box
of crates in the ship’s cargo hold and Kyo collided with them and
rolled to a stop, pushing the boxes off of his back. He hissed
through his teeth painfully, a tightening claudication bracing his
limbs into rigidity. Kyo lay still, panting for air, listening as
Krupin spoke Russianomai with Vadim the Raw Dog, probably telling
him to keep an eye on Kyo. The fighter rested his assault rifle and
folded his arms.

‘
What the
fuck happened just now?’ he asked. ‘This was supposed to be a
smooth operation.’

‘
Blue
fucking
Lycans!’ Krupin
spat. ‘They almost destroyed my ship!’

They looked
at Kyo where he lay in the dark, whimpering painfully with rasping
breaths.

‘
Hear that?’
Krupin said, ‘your Blue Lycan friends were after you. And I’d a
good mind to let them have you.’

‘
You think
they came for him?’ Vadim asked.

Krupin didn’t
have an answer. The ambush had shocked him as much as anyone else
and he’d lost some of his crew.

A commotion
echoed in from the other room, voices that sounded to Kyo very
familiar, chirping and laughing. Kyo sat still between the columns
of heavy cargo boxes that were strapped tightly together and on top
of broken bits of wood from the lighter cargo, and he suddenly felt
the need to become invisible.

Hattle came
running into the cargo hold topped with excitement and he whooped
and cheered.

‘
I don’t
fucking believe it!’ He hollered. ‘Remember me? Huh? Remember me,
speedy?’

And he ran up
to Kyo who curled into a ball defensively as Hattle grabbed his
collar and pinned him back.