The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution (24 page)

When the physicia
n’
s assistant turned to pick up a medical scanner, Cat struck. Disabling a Modos attached to a Suhtii was simply a matter of pulling a control tentacle away from the Suhti
i’
s temple. Cat carefully transported the Modos to a saltwater bath especially designed for the Modos. She then locked the seriously confused Suthii in an isolation bay. This last was necessary because the Modos had trained the relatively simple Suhtii to respond to summoning whistles. The last thing Cat did was to change out of her prison garb and replace it with medical scrubs. She grabbed a second set of scrubs for Private Stone.

As she worked her way carefully back to the cell that held the private, she began to remember more of what had happened to her. In point of fact, the limited number of observation nanites floating through her system had detected a change in her circumstances and triggered the release of construction nanites from the fire-safe in her supposedly disabled Heshe encounter unit.

Within minutes she was again in two-way communication with the massive WhimPy weapons platform and its powerful AI. That AI took over control of Ca
t’
s construction nanites. At the same time, 101 began the task of restoring Ca
t’
s memory from an archived backup.

***

Private Stone was doing pushups in his cell when Admiral Kimbridge approached the cell door unescorted. He raised an eyebrow, but otherwise said nothing. She activated the locking mechanism and tossed him a set of medical scrubs. They were ridiculously large on her, but they should fit his bigger form easily.

After he had discarded his prison uniform, he joined her in the corridor.

“
What now
?
” he asked.

She smiled
.“
Now we have some fun. There is an engineering station I want to get a look at up one level.
I’
ve walked by it every day for a week now. W
e’
ll have to be careful. There are bound to be people in the corridors
.
”

As they made their way toward the turbo lift that would normally be used to go up a level, he noticed her scrubs were shifting and resizing themselves to better fit her.

“
Admira
l
… are you back to being you
?
”

“
I never stopped being m
e
… but if yo
u’
re asking if I have access to my enhancements and memories again, that would be an affirmative
.
”

As they approached the lift, Cat touched a panel on the wall, which then slid away and revealed a ladder between the levels.

“
How
?
” the Private mouthed silently.

Cat smiled
.“
You forget
,
” she whispered
.“
I spent quite a bit of time on other Modos ships
.
”

Thanks to Ca
t’
s newly enhanced hearing, they managed to avoid running into any crew members in the corridor. Unfortunately, the same could not be said at the engineering station; it was manned by a single Modo
s—
a Modos Cat knew all too well. It was the Lieutenant who had captured Cat.

Quick-Kick was busy at his station and did not immediately notice the two enter the room. It was
n’
t until Cat cycled the door closed that he turned around to see who had come in. All four sets of eye
s—
those on the Modos and those on the Suhti
i—
went wide at the unexpected sight.

Cat raced forward at an inhuman speed to attempt to separate the Modos symbiont
from the Bearephant host. Quick-Kick responded equally quickly. This was Ca
t’
s first clue that the Suhtii the lieutenant was attached too was not a normal specimen, but an android host; with android reflexes and android strength.

As Cat reached forward to forcibly disconnect the Modos from its host, Quick-Kick caught her arm and twisted it brutally. The bone snapped under the force of his grip. Had Ca
t’
s Heshe enhancements been fully online the damage would never have occurred. But there were too few nanites, and those that were available had not yet had time to reinforce her bones.

Her AI immediately blocked the pain center and began to quickly knit the bone together. Cat backed off. This opponent was more dangerous than she had anticipated.

Private Stone stepped in and tried to physically restrain the Modos officer. Quick-Kick shrugged him off with unconcealed contempt. As the private tried to hold on, Quick-Kick threw him across the room. He hit the wall with a crunch that signaled broken bones. He slid to the floor with a dazed look on his face.

Although the private was ultimately unsuccessful in stopping the lieutenant, he provided Cat the moment she needed to mount a better-planned attack. She placed a hand on the engineering console and created a link to its electrical system. She then sent an impossibly thin graphene fiber, extruded from a fingertip, through the air toward the Modos perched on the Androids shoulder. In an instant it was all over.

She fired well over one hundred kilowatts over the filament. It became a hot plasma in a fraction of a second but not before rendering the Modos symbiot unconscious. The android continued to fight for a few seconds longer, but Cat flooded it with several thousand command and control nanites that were hooked directly into the WhimP
y’
s AI. They quickly reprogrammed the android to follow Ca
t’
s instructions.

She bent over Private Stone. His collar bone was broken, but already his medical nanites were repairing it. She helped him up.

“
Thank you
,
” she said, gently.

“
Begging the Admira
l’
s pardo
n
… but what are you thanking me for? He kicked my butt
.
”

“
Your bravery bought me the time I needed to beat him. If you had
n’
t distracted him, we would both very likely be dead right now.
I’
ve been there before and I can tell you I do
n’
t like i
t
… so again I say
,‘
Thank you
.
’”

“
Yo
u’
re welcom
e
… I think
.
” He looked around the room. He had to admit there was not a lot that he recognized
.“
Is there a plan now that we are here, m
a’
am
?
”

Cat turned to face the various displays. Her eyes searched the readouts until she saw what she was looking for. Instantly her face lit up.

***

Admiral Faragon whistled as he sat back in his command chair on board the GCP
Victory
. He was being hailed by an old friend onboard an enemy warship
.“
Cat, I ca
n’
t say
I’
m surprised to hear your voic
e
… but I can say
I’
m damn pleased to hear it
.
”

“
Sir,
I’
m glad yo
u’
re gla
d
… but
I’
ve got a bit of a situation here. You understand that the MS
Retribution
is loaded to the gills, if yo
u’
ll pardon the pun, with Uruk technology
?
”

“
Yes, according to 101
it packs quite a punch
.
”

“
I need WhimPy to take it ou
t
… blast it into smithereens
.
”

Admiral Faragon leaned forward
.“
Cat, you may not have hear
d
… but the last time the WhimPy tried that it did
n’
t end well for our side. What makes you think it will now
?
”

Ca
t’
s voice was steady as she answered what was a reasonable question
.“
Sir, this ship is a mishmash of Modos and Uruk technology. For whatever reason, the Uruk want to work from behind the scenes. That means that most of the time this ship operates using purely Modos tech. Its only when i
t’
s seriously challenged that the captain engages the Uruk tech. I need him to engage that tech now
.
”

“
Good Lord, why would you want to do that
?
”

“
Because, sir,
I’
m going to use their own strength against them.
I’
ve rigged the Uruk systems to utilize the Modos power conduits rather than the ones dedicated for the Uruk systems. Because things are somewhat kludged together on this ship, there is a dedicated control center for doing this switch-over. I now control that engineering station
.
”

Faragon nodded. He finally understood what she was suggesting. Once the Uruk tech was engaged, the ship would burn out most of its control systems.

“
Cat I like the plan but it seems to me i
t’
s not going to be too healthy to be on that ship when the WhimPy begins its attack run.
I’
d hate like hell to get you back only to lose you again half an hour later
.
”

Cat waved the android forward
.“
Do
n’
t worry, si
r
… I have a plan for that
.
”

***

As the newly reconstituted WhimPy platform materialized out of a hyperfield conduit near the bulk of the Modos fleet, the bridge of the
MS Retribution
exploded in a sudden flurry of activity. Captain Dry-Bait slammed his fist down on the comm button at his command station.

“
Engineering! Bring the enhanced systems online
!
”

An android controlled not by the Modos that had previously owned it, but by a human female who was even now making her way covertly to the
Retributio
n’
s
shuttle bay, answered with the expected acknowledgement.

“
Weapons!
Target that Heshe abomination. Remove it from my sky!
Now
!
”

Uruk power systems, many orders of magnitude more powerful than anything either the GCP or Syndicate had available, began to energize. In an instant the systems had available to them an energetic output that could rival most suns: something on the order of 10
26
Joules. The energy began to flow along conduits designed for twenty orders of magnitude less energy. The result was superheated plasma that rapidly ate away at adjacent systems. These too failed.

The lights on the bridge of the
Retribution
flicked and went out. At the same time every console overloaded, filling the bridge with smoke and fire. It lasted only as long as it took superheated plasma to envelop the entire interior of the ship. Seconds later the exterior hull began to dissolve, and soon all that was left of the
MS Retribution
was a rapidly expanding ball of plasma and one lone shuttle making its way to the GCP planetary picket line.

Chapter Twenty On
e–
Loss Mitigation...

Cat scanned the schematics in front of her. She, Commander Ben, and Commander Thais Figarero, the
Yorktow
n
’
s power systems and Chief engineers respectively, were working on the new Suhtii shield technology in the main engineering fabrication lab.

“
Ca
l
… rotate the model one hundred-eighty degrees. Let me see it from the other side
,
” Cat said to the shi
p’
s ever-present AI.

“
There
!
” Thais pointed
.“
That node is the one causing us the problem. There is no way the geometry is going to allow this to work the way the Admiral wants
.
”

Cat nodded. Admiral Faragon had given them six hours to figure out how to fix the fundamental problem with the new Suhtii temporal shields. They were orders of magnitude more effective than existing shield technology, except that they worked in reverse. They dissipated energy within the shield bubble rather than energies striking the exterior of the shield bubble. Cat had been trying with the others to find a way of reversing the polarity.