A Fury Of Aces: Crystal Venom Part 5

Patrick answered the AI. 'ETA is approximately eighteen hours away.'

The colonel acknowledged then made some suggestions. 'Crew, rotate for a meal and a freshen-up. We start looking for the core in earnest in two hours' time.'

They were all back in their craft waiting for orders when Major Longbow laid out the problem. 'OK, the core is an armoured sphere ten metres in diameter. It is normally fixed in position inside another heavy armoured s.h.i.+eld. From what we can see with the gravity sensors and the listening sensors against the outer hull, there is something moving it around on the inside of the nose segment in a random pattern. Every time we slice a piece of the exterior away it creates a greater risk of contamination. We have done well so far, but the odds are now stacking up against us. Every Intel drone sent into the segment is compromised and destroyed within minutes by something we do not understand.'

He paused, looking at a screen, before continuing. 'It is almost as if the segment is alive and actively challenging us. We now have thirteen hours before the Hauler Chrysanthemum arrives. I do not want to disappoint him as he is a member of the inner sanctum of the Haulers' Collective. The only really good news is that the main body of the Hauler has now reached such velocity that its fate is inevitable, so at least we do not have to worry about it being intercepted by friend or foe. Anyone have any bright ideas?'

'We could employ the urchins, Major.'

'How so, Stephine?'

'The altered ones are destroyed, but it would not take a great deal of effort to transport a few from the gas giant to here using the same method as when we captured the first one. I believe that we could then fire small encapsulated amounts of antimatter onto the segment and allow the urchin to chase them. If nothing else, we would see what happens. We could take our s.h.i.+p and go get them if you wish.'

They all waited for his reply. 'Interesting. OK. Do it.'

Harry added: 'While we are waiting for the captain to return we could use some of our anti-urchin tech and peel back a few layers of whatever it is that is now exposed where we have removed the outer hull. It appears organic.'

Colonel White came in and answered Harry. 'Right. We shall do that as well, Sergeant Major. Major van Beere, any thoughts?'

After a long pause van Beere answered. 'I must admit to being completely baffled, ma'am. We are out of our depth here. I'm sorry that I have no suggestions. I would prefer that we destroy everything and fly away. It is the only way we can be sure of containing this threat.'

The colonel nodded. 'Agreed, but unfortunately, we must endeavour to a.s.sist the Haulers in answering their questions.'

On the control deck of Basalt Major Michael Longbow looked at his screens and zoomed in on the Albatross lander. 'OK, everyone, ease back five hundred metres. Harry, you have control.'

Harry nodded and started tapping his screens. 'Firing.'

A steady stream of oxygen and hydrogen projectiles started to explode against one of the exposed areas of the sixty-metre-long cone shape which was the detached nose segment. Harry steadily walked the rounds about a central point, slowly excavating a sizable crater in the material. Suddenly, a huge tendril of rapidly accelerating material ripped out through the side of the sphere and reached across to the lander. Everyone in range reacted with everything they had to fire at the tendril and it stopped only metres from reaching the Albatross. It snapped back into the sphere, obviously damaged, but still alive.

Major Longbow yelled out, 'Cease fire! s.h.i.+t! What the f.u.c.k are we dealing with here?'

'Major Longbow. This is Crystal. It would appear that during the lengthy time the Cactus 3 was in isolation something grew and evolved, possibly combining the best and worst of the biological weapons together with the urchins. What we just saw was an extremely large feeding tendril from an urchin. We wounded it, but have really just annoyed it considerably. Unfortunately, it is now even more imperative that the records held in the Hauler core be accessed. This is a major development.'

'I hate those f.u.c.king things,' the major said. 'OK, everyone hold position until Stephine and Veg get back.'

While they waited, the salvage crews targeted all the floating debris and vaporised the small pieces, or, as with the bigger pieces, nudged them together by deploying small explosive charges and then laser welded them into a slowly growing ball.

Stephine's very beautiful craft popped into existence beside Basalt. Caught in the starlight, the flattened teardrop's sleek and almost sensuous bulges shone slightly in the afterglow of the jump energies as Stephine opened comms. 'We have two small urchins. I note that you had a little excitement! Yes, I agree with Crystal. The creature or creatures residing in the segment appear to be evolved urchins. Let's see what it makes of real ones. I have sampled the skins of these and they are much closer to the others that we have encountered. They are in fact another racial type, but are still ninety-nine point nine per cent identical. They are also free from any contamination. With your permission, I am about to launch an encapsulated fragment of antimatter at the segment. I shall release one of the urchins a few moments later.'

The colonel gave Stephine the go ahead. As they watched on their individual screens, they could see the small package of antimatter move relatively quickly towards the segment. A few moments later an urchin burst out of its containment on the side of Stephine's craft and actually jumped across the five hundred metres in a fraction of a second to be between the antimatter and the segment. As it enfolded the antimatter into itself, a huge tendril shot out from the segment and speared the urchin, dragging the thras.h.i.+ng, convulsing creature back into the cone.

'Stephine, repeat that, please,' the colonel requested. 'This time allow the antimatter to make contact with the segment before releasing the urchin. Oh, and make the antimatter package one hundred per cent bigger.'

'Acknowledged. On the way.'

As the antimatter package arrived, the area of the nose segment where the hull plate was nonexistent actually opened up like a mouth and then folded the energy package into itself. The urchin arrived on the surface a few moments later and violently attacked the writhing ma.s.s of tendril material, trying to get at the antimatter. An explosive fight ensued with the urchin tearing chunks away from the segment before it was seized and apparently consumed. Patrick once again took control of everyone's lasers and burnt the debris.

Major van Beere commented thoughtfully. 'Interesting. Fritz, can we speed up the decay of the energy packets surrounding the antimatter?'

Fritz took a few minutes to reply. 'Yes, dangerous, but it can be done. We would have to get in a lot closer. What do you have in mind, Major?'

'I want to peel off a strip of the hull plate around the entire circ.u.mference of the segment. Then launch multiple packets of encapsulated antimatter and see if we can create a reaction and split this whole thing in half. Obviously, antimatter is still attractive to the altered urchin.'

The high-pitched voice of Fritz posited another problem. 'Interesting idea, Major, but consider what would happen if this thing acc.u.mulated enough antimatter to jump by itself.'

'OK, good point, Fritz,' the major acknowledged. 'Let's tease it. How long to set up the energy packets for rapid decay?'

After a few long seconds, Fritz said, 'Couple of hours, tops.'

'OK. Everyone, just concentrate on chewing as much off the surface of the nose cone as possible. Let's arrange ourselves so that all craft can see everyone else's lines of fire.'

So again everyone just watched and waited carefully lasered off as many chunks as possible when the gravity sensors showed them that the AI Core was out of the danger area, and played 'dodge-ems' with the tendrils when they came raging out.

The major gave another order. 'As soon as we see another of those big tendrils, I want everyone to concentrate their fire on its base. Let's try and cut it off.'

Moments later the opportunity presented itself but all that occurred was as soon as the lasers started to cut, other smaller tendrils came to the aid of the larger, pulling it back inside.

'Michael,' Stephine said. 'I believe that there are some five or six individual urchin-type creatures inside the segment. The data that I have managed to collate shows that the biological weapons have been incorporated into the makeup of the urchin. The frightening thing is that there is also human DNA in the makeup together with that of various Avian creatures; as you'll remember, the delivery system for the biological weapons were specially bred Avians. My conclusion is that these larger types of urchins are constructs, as there has, quite simply, not been enough time for them to evolve naturally.

'Could it be that some of the original scientists were not dead but, rather, in cryno sleep when their laboratories were encased and taken on board the Hauler for the journey to Hades? Certainly, such a scenario would explain what has been happening, although the more disturbing aspect may be that some or all of the scientists made good their escape, and are now somewhere else with very potent biological weapons, based on a fusion with the urchins.'

Everyone went very quiet as they digested this latest possibility, then the colonel spoke up. 'I agree with Stephine. I have been a.n.a.lysing the images we kept of the part of the Hauler we sent into the sun. I found no evidence that any human-compatible lander s.p.a.cecraft were still present, which suggests someone used them to escape the Hauler. It is only a supposition though. The areas where they would normally be stored were heavily modified by whatever occupied the Hauler. The landers could still be there.'

Major Michael Longbow sat in his command module on Basalt's bridge deck, frowned and scratched his head as he digested the information. 'This is not good. OK, command decision time. Colonel, if we broke this segment into three, would the Compressors be able to destroy them individually?'

'Um, stand by.'

As he waited for the colonel's answer, he switched channels and asked, 'Fritz, can you configure one of the Harpoons to lock onto the core and retrieve all the information from it? I now believe the core may be totally compromised.'

Fritz grumbled under his breath at yet another interruption, but replied calmly. 'Yeah, should be able to sort that. I shall get Patrick to do it, though. Need another ten minutes to sort the antimatter packets.'

At that moment, the colonel came back on the comms. 'Yes, the Compressors would handle the three sections. With that in mind, I shall now use a drone to move the captured material we have in hand to a safe distance and dispose of it.'

Michael Longbow nodded and ordered. 'Right, here's what we are going to do. As soon as Crystal returns, we are going to create a killing field. Stephine, you will command one group; colonel, you take the second; I will take the third. The antimatter packets will be spread to create two rings around the segment. As soon as those outer parts of the segment - and whatever is lurking under the surface - is gouged aside by the first set of ten antimatter packets, the second set will be launched and s.p.a.ced out so that the urchin-type creatures will hopefully attempt to grab them. Patrick and Crystal, you will need to control them. No matter what happens as soon as anyone sees the core, yell and concentrate weapons while Patrick fires the Harpoon onto it. As soon as the data is lasered back, we then destroy everything including the core. Colonel, when you return, can you disperse your Compressors to form a field beyond the killing field and that way we can push everything against them. I just had another disturbing thought, people. We have not had a visit from any of our friends or counterparts in Admin procurements or weapons research. What's the bet that someone already knows what has occurred? OK, team off.'

Two.

Marko was attached to Stephine's group to the right of Basalt, with the colonel's group on the other side, so they had a fan-shaped firing base a kilometre wide.

The first wave of antimatter packets contacted the surface of the fragment and all reacted at the same instant, cutting two rough rings right around the centre of the cone's remains some seven metres across and three metres deep. They could see the writhing ma.s.ses of biological material rapidly filling the s.p.a.ces and repairing itself just as the second wave of antimatter arrived. The effect was immediate and dramatic. The enormous urchins inside the segment erupted outwards to get at the antimatter, tearing the whole structure apart. Just as the tendrils reached up to touch the antimatter packets, the containment fields of the antimatter all collapsed, obliterating large swathes of urchin flesh.

The Cactus Core suddenly popped out above the separated segments, and Patrick wasted no time in hitting it with two Harpoons. Sacrificial drones swept in from the larger craft to push up against one of the three ma.s.ses, as everyone continually fired upon their designated targets to prevent them from reforming into one ma.s.s. The pressure of the vaporising material, together with the drones, gradually pushed the three ma.s.ses towards where the Compressors waited. Marko had no idea what was happening to the Cactus Core as he was working hard with Stephine and Julie Mapp, pus.h.i.+ng their target ma.s.s as far to the right as possible. Stephine activated one of the Compressors and it closed on the twisting, writhing ma.s.s which had systematically destroyed the drones.

'First Compressor five minutes to detonation. s.h.i.+elds closed and get clear,' the colonel yelled.

All the craft rolled away and powered their engines to maximum as they needed at least five kilometres of separation. The Compressors went off one after the other, shredding the ma.s.ses of horribly contaminated material down to individual atoms. Once the all-clear was given, the colonel then had them form a series of sweeps looking for and destroying any remaining material.

Many long hours later they held station off Basalt while the exposed surfaces of every craft and s.h.i.+p were minutely inspected by engineering drones for any possible contamination. Being the last in the queue Julie and Marko were finally cleared. They individually docked with Basalt, landing on their platforms and rotating back inside the hangar. After powering down their Skuas they went for a long shower and a decent meal.

As they were emerging from ablutions, Major Longbow made an announcement. 'Crew, we managed to procure total data from the core. Chrysanthemum has also arrived in the system and will be joining us shortly. I have briefed him and he concurs with the decision to destroy the core. He has started to upload all the core's data as well. There is a lot of useful information, but we will not know about the personality of the Hauler until Chrysanthemum decodes it for us. Stephine, you are the last in the queue. Crystal, you are cleared to dock when ready.'

'My thanks, Michael. I shall join you shortly.'

Marko walked up the long spiral staircase to the bridge deck feeling very tired, but enjoying the exercise. He looked at Michael Longbow and frowned. 'Boss, you don't look too hot. You all right?'

'No, Marko, I'm feeling b.l.o.o.d.y awful. Jan, can you meet me in Medical, please. Harry, get a message to the colonel and to Stephine to hold their positions.'

Over the next half an hour they all, one by one, succ.u.mbed to a nasty flu-like virus. Marko felt as if something was slowly grinding on his bones, he ached so badly, but what concerned him most was a harsh burning sensation on his chest. He stripped off his suit and could see five tiny raised lumps on his skin and was reminded of the time years before when an octopoid had touched him in the same place. The tiny lumps itched horribly and he fought the urge to tear his skin apart scratching them. Jan was affected worst of all and, as Marko leant against the medical bulkhead, Ernst whistled up a medical drone to a.s.sist in getting her into a cryno unit.

As soon as she was in the unit, and being chilled, Ernst took a blood sample from Marko and, after a few moments, gave his opinion. 'Marko, it appears that the nanotech for your arm has halted the spread of this virus in your system. It is a manufactured virus - and virulent is the least of it. We need time. Please ask all those who are mobile to get to the cryno chambers themselves as we need to chill them down, otherwise they will probably die. I'll give you a c.o.c.ktail of vitamins to boost your system so you can help me and Topaz.'

As Ernst positioned himself against a large medical supplies dispensing cabinet and rapidly loaded what he needed into himself, Marko selected Stephine's private channel. 'Stephine, this is Marko. I have not seen the ACEs. Are they with you?'

A very tired sounding Stephine answered. 'No, Marko, they all elected to go with Colonel White. Glint, are you OK?'

The ACE answered immediately. 'We are all fine, thank you, Stephine. Marko, the colonel has a most interesting s.h.i.+p. We are learning a great many fascinating things. You really should have a look at this s.h.i.+p when you get better.'

Oh, s.h.i.+t, Marko thought. Glint does not use that sort of language. He is much more direct - and how the h.e.l.l does he know that I'm not well? Ernst pressed a unit up against Marko's right arm medical shunt and he felt slightly better. Not much, but enough to function. Marko reached out and tapped Ernst beside where the private circuit communication gla.s.ses were normally kept. The panel popped open presenting Marko with the gla.s.ses. As he put them on, Ernst advised, 'We are secure, Marko.'

With a rising panic, Marko quickly said, 'Glint and the ACEs have found something on the colonel's s.h.i.+p and he knows that we are unwell. How would he know that? How can we communicate with them, without the colonel knowing?'

The machine was quiet for a few seconds, before replying. 'That would be basically impossible, I am afraid. Crystal is a remarkable information-gathering AI and would know immediately. I think it best if you disappear. I shall log that you have been placed on ice. Topaz will get that new suit for you; meet him in the cryno chamber. With the exception of you, no other biological currently on Basalt is awake as they are all in cryno sleep.'

Marko groaned. 'That is very bad. I shall keep these gla.s.ses on so we can talk without being listened to.'

He walked slowly down to the cryno chambers, stripped, then climbed into an open unit with Topaz helping and the waiting prototype suit formed around him. Sealed up, he activated it, and waited. It insulated him completely from the cold of the chamber and, of course, none of the systems could get at his permanent medical shunts. Marko decided that Patrick must have overridden them, as they did not attempt to interface.

He found himself moving and realised that the AIs must have activated the emergency evacuation system for the chamber. He was moved quite quickly down through the floor and into a long-term survival pod.

An image of Ernst appeared in Marko's gla.s.ses. 'Marko. We have overridden the systems; Patrick suspects that something is wrong with the fuel feeds for the Wormhole generators. Suffice to say, if we activated the feeds we would not make it back to any of our bases any time soon. He believes he can circ.u.mnavigate the software changes, but it will take time. It would seem that the colonel wants us out of the picture.'

A terrible cold feeling bit right into Marko's inner being as he realised just how bad the situation was. He felt a tiny spark of fear as he asked: 'What's happening with Stephine and Veg?'

Topaz answered through the Ernst comms system. 'They have just come on board. Veg is already very ill. Far worse than anyone else. Stephine is also badly affected. They are both making their way to cryno and I have sent engineering drones to help them as they have both just collapsed unconscious. It would seem that they have been infected with something much worse than the rest of you. I have instructed the drones to load them into cryno units. We have isolated the virus that you have. Give us a couple of hours and we will be able to help you greatly.'

'Thanks, Topaz.'

'Marko,' Topaz continued, 'I am sorry but the colonel has just reported an incident on board Crystal that has resulted in the deaths of the two salvage personnel who were with her. She must have placed her own AI on board this s.h.i.+p ... whatever it is, it is mimicking Michael and Harry perfectly. I believe that this is a subterfuge to keep the Hauler, Chrysanthemum, from knowing what is occurring here. She has also begun communications with Chrysanthemum, so a great deal of data is now open to her. She has total access to the Cactus 3 core. Unfortunately, I am not able to access any of it.'

Ernst interjected. 'There is a problem with Patrick. He is becoming very slow. Actually, this may be of advantage to us. He is losing interest in monitoring any internal sensors and also losing control of external door sensors. Topaz and I believe that you must take control of Crystal, eliminate or neutralise the colonel and learn what is happening. We shall work on getting Patrick back to normal, repair the Wormhole generator problems and also check for any other anomalies while we are at it.'

Marko felt a slow rage building inside him. 'f.u.c.k! f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, but I feel like s.h.i.+t on a stick! OK, OK, I'm onto it. So, how come you two are not affected?'

'I am sorry,' Topaz replied, 'but I cannot answer that. It is possible that the colonel simply did not consider what our capabilities are. Time will tell.'

Marko pushed open the chamber cover and then the access door to the pod. As he moved, he activated the chameleon ware of the suit. Harry and Veg had been working with him on the suit with him for months and they'd made it more like Veg and Stephine's suits. Much sleeker and a lot more compact than the Administration originals; it was also superbly quiet. He walked down to the engineering deck and looked out through one of the viewing chambers. Crystal was holding station only a couple of hundred metres away with the huge bulk of the Hauler Chrysanthemum hanging above.

He walked across to the opposite side of the deck and opened the small airlock, manually rotating it through. He climbed out onto the external sh.e.l.l and pulled himself around the large curved hull of Basalt until he could see Crystal, then he stood up and ran across the hull plates, building sufficient speed to launch himself across to Crystal, hoping like h.e.l.l that it would not move in the few minutes it took for the flight across. He didn't use the small thrusters built into the suit and fervently hoped that Crystal's sensors could not pick him up as he landed with arms outstretched among the rear rocket nozzles of the colonel's s.h.i.+p. He decided it was now time to create a little constructive mayhem of his own.

Out of sight of the Hauler, he fired a few laser bursts through two of the partially exposed fuel lines and down into one of the external backup pumps, simulating a micrometeor hit, something that was rare for an individual s.h.i.+p, but happened every day somewhere in the fleet. Fuel started to vaporise from the holes immediately, which he knew would trigger an alarm somewhere, so he pulled himself over to the nearest airlock and waited. A few moments pa.s.sed before it opened and two maintenance and repair drones flew out, allowing him to slip inside and wait pressed up against the wall.

Ten minutes later the hatch closed and the airlock recycled to allow a third drone to enter with lengths of spare pipe and pump components. As it came in, Marko slid out and into the main engine room of Crystal. With his secure inter-unit comms system, he sent a call to Glint hoping that he had spread a few of his micro-relays throughout the s.h.i.+p.

'Marko! We're in trouble. Very great trouble. This colonel is nasty. She killed the lieutenant and the other sergeant and they were both nice people. She actually destroyed their Soul Savers as well. Crystal is very strange; she does not like us and wants to eject us into s.p.a.ce. She calls us created abominations.

'Where are you?'

He flashed Glint his location as Glint continued. 'Here are the layouts of this s.h.i.+p. We're being very well behaved, Marko. The evil woman crushed my tail, snapped Flint's legs and broke Nail's neck. We are OK, of course, but we wonder how she could do such things. She is not human, Marko. She wants to dismantle Stephine. She says that she is not human either and is an enemy of humankind. I am afraid, Marko. Be very careful, Father.'

Oh, s.h.i.+t, he thought. Not human. Great! He activated the advanced ICE bioware that Stephine had concocted for them. All it did was make him feel normal, but that was better than feeling below par from the virus. He looked around the engine room to find something suitable for a 'failure', so the pumps that fed the damaged fuel pipes came in for a little treatment. A drone arrived a few moments later and he encouraged that to fail also by spraying it with fuel and then igniting it. All the fire suppressants came online so he backed a few of them up and encouraged a few more pump failures. He worked long and constructively, creating a cascade of failures until, finally, the colonel herself arrived in an armoured suit to find out what was happening.

Marko did not believe in giving vermin any chances. He deployed the molecular chain-linked diamond blades down his forearms which folded themselves up out of the suit and extended them for their full length past his hands. As she walked past him in the haze, he reached out and sliced her head off. Immediately he saw that Glint was right; she was not human. She was a hybrid human-urchin. The body calmly turned and advanced on him, trying to grab him. As each piece presented itself, he chopped it off while his engineer's mind tried to fathom how - without a head - it knew where he was. The whole front of the suit opened, revealing numerous tentacle-like structures which continued to reach towards him.

As his mind went into overdrive and searched for options as to how to deal with this thing that was becoming more like a hydra than a human, he activated the suit's lasers, destroying the middle of its torso. He then fired two micro-missiles into the tops of its thighs. It finally fell to the floor with various parts seeming to act independently, thras.h.i.+ng towards him until he realised that he was running out of time, with not one part but dozens trying to attach themselves to him.

Quickly looking up, he identified the main fuel feeds overhead, locating the oxygen lines and severing them with one of his blade arms. As the entire engine room filled with pressurised oxygen, all the parts of the alien stopped moving, no longer able to attack or attempt to rea.s.semble. He carefully stepped over the parts to seize the alien colonel's head sealed inside its helmet.

He looked around, found a crynogenics container and dropped the head in, its lips still moving and eyes glaring at him. He flooded it with liquid hydrogen and sealed it shut. Carrying the container and sealing the engine room door after him, he moved down the main corridor towards the bridge, until a Games Board monitor challenged him. Without waiting for an answer, the monitor deployed a small rotary cannon which looked exactly like the one that Jan had designed for Basalt's crew months before.

Without thinking, Marko lasered the caseless ammunition magazine of the weapon which then detonated severing the monitor's weapon arm and destroying most of its chest. As it slumped against the wall, another monitor rushed up behind him. The suit's proximity and other warnings went off, showing Marko that lasers were being powered up. He reacted to eliminate the threat, launching tiny short-range missiles which, when they struck the monitor, showered its electronics with a wave of focused neutron beams and destroyed them. The smoking monitor promptly crashed to the floor. It reached up with its hand and opened up the faceplate.

'You are not to interfere, Chrysanthemum crew member,' the p.r.o.ne monitor instructed. 'This is not within your jurisdiction. This is Games Board business. Leave now and nothing more will be said.'

Marko brought up the exterior suit controls in his head and activated the external speakers. 'Why would you think that I am the Hauler s.h.i.+p crew member?'

'It is logical,' the damaged human-machine hybrid replied. 'The Basalt crew have been incapacitated as planned.'

Marko suddenly felt very old, terribly tired and a little despondent. 'Really? Maybe you are wrong. I shall deal with you later.'

Marko left the motionless monitor and went to find the Crystal AI housing. It screeched abuse at him as he brutalised it, tearing its casing apart. He smiled grimly, noting that the Gjomvik manufactured components were much easier to break than the biologically grown ones on Basalt, which had originally been created by the Haulers. After lifting out the primary brain segments, he extended sensor and investigation probes from the ends of his artificial fingers, pus.h.i.+ng them into the web of electronic and biological parts and demanded the AI tell him where its remote parts were. As soon as the answers started to register with the internal map of the s.h.i.+p, he locked down all the doors, then systematically dismantled the units, isolating each part of Crystal. When he finally identified her core nodes he activated a small unit - Fritz had taken many months to perfect it - which took control of any computer accessed data blocks. Finally satisfied that the AI was no longer a threat he went looking for the ACEs.

He was cross, tired, full of a virus and generally not paying complete attention when he pa.s.sed a wrecked cabin door. A black-suited figure hurtled out, knocking him down. He rolled against the wall and flipped over onto his back when whatever it was. .h.i.t him very hard in the throat. The thought flashed through Marko's head that had he been wearing a standard suit he would have been out of the fight, then and there. As it was, the iron fist of whatever it was knocked the wind out of him as it punched him in the stomach. Marko was grateful that Veg, Harry and Jan had not been nice instructors. This sort of serious rough and tumble was bearable; only just, but still bearable.

He allowed himself to sag and as the thing came in again to have another go he flashed open the full blade past his left elbow. The block was not so much of a block, but rather allowed the black suit to simply chop off its own arm, which bounced off its chest and rolled across the corridor. As Marko's opponent sprang backwards, with blood spraying out from the stump, he brought the other blade into play, trying to thrust it up between its legs. But his opponent was quick and leapt up, hitting the wall on the other side of the corridor.

A weapon was deployed from the right flank of the black suit, which Marko immediately responded to with two microneutron missiles, knocking the black suit down hard as its electronics and weapon controls were fried by the energy pulse from the impacting missiles. He brought the pulse laser up then blew the weapon off the side of the black suit as it raised its remaining hand and signalled a halt. The suit sealed off the severed stump and the figure stopped bleeding all over the wall. Marko waited as he could not see any other weapons on the suit and besides, the little pulse laser that he had trained on its head was just plain nasty in its capabilities and he demonstrated this by slicing the soles off his opponent's boots just to get its attention. The figure slowly touched a seal and the faceplate opened to show an ashen-faced Colonel White.

'Who are you and why are you on my s.h.i.+p?' the colonel demanded.

He brought up the menus in his display and activated the external speakers of the suit after deliberately changing the timbre of his voice and adding an old-world Italian accent for good measure.