A Dark And Hungry God Arises 35 - Angus [6]

[Cord Hurn]

Angus watched Nick smile and tried to find some way to squeeze murder through the interstices of his programming.

It was insufferable that Captain Nick bloody Sheepfucker stood there smiling as if he'd just won again, beaten Angus again. It was intolerable that Nick brought his own people aboard Angus' ship; that Angus had to accept them because he needed them. It was utter and absolute craziness to let them in here, to trust them--

Nevertheless his datacore issued its instructions, and he obeyed; ruled by the pitiless compulsion of his zone implants.

Nick's UMCP connection made him effectively immune to any real harm from Angus. And his offer to help satisfied the prewritten logic of Dios' exigencies. Rescuing Morn took precedence over everything--Angus had no idea why.

It's got to stop.

He didn't understand that, either.

Hatred burns through Angus Thermopyle like a sustaining energy while he's locked inside his implants-induced mental prison. Inwardly, he's pacing like a tormented killer, but outwardly he must ignore his passions to deal with how to rescue Morn. So, Angus dispassionately asks Nick the identities and abilities of the four people behind him.

Billingate's Security Chief loudly threatens Angus (via a blaring ship's intercom) with laser-cutting his ship's main door if he doesn't open the ship to the Bill's bio-retributive guards IMMEDIATELY. Angus notices this makes Davies flinch, and realizes the kid's been through too much too quickly--as Davies stares at him with worried eyes like Morn's.

Angus stepped to his command board, tapped a key which silenced the external intercom. Then he turned back to Succorso.

A woman, two men, and a kid about Davies' age stood behind Nick: his people. At a glance, the woman looked too hostile to admit she was out of her depth, and one of the men had the round, calm appearance of a cat addict. But the other two were scared put of their skins. The kid twitched nervously from one foot to the other; he was practically holding the woman's hand. The man with the abject mustache sweated and gaped as if he was being rendered down for grease.

(I have to feel sympathy for Sib Mackern after a description like that. Seems like he is a basically good person who is tormented by stress most all of the time.)

Now Angus demands that Nick explain why he thinks the people with him will be of any use in rescuing Morn. Nick counters that he believes Angus should prioritize the problem of the Bill's guards wanting to break into the ship. Angus responds to Nick's concern by playing a recording of his voice saying he's not on the ship but that the ship will self-destruct if broken into, and that only Angus as captain knows the code to end self-destruct. Then Angus shuts off the monitor playing the recording and tells Nick that the guards outside have been hearing that message repeatedly. Angus further states to Nick that the Bill can't know for sure if he's in Trumpet or not. He argues that that means they have some time before the Bill gets desperate enough to order his dogs to cut into the ship.

Nick looks relieved, scans the bridge, and asks Angus where Milos is. Angus' programming doesn't require him to answer that, so he doesn't. He deflects by observing they the bruise on Nick's forehead looks like he lost an argument with a steel piston, and to stop asking questions and start answering them. Mikka curses and surges forward past Nick, shouldering him aside to stand before Angus. Nick's eyes flare with fury but he does nothing to hinder Mikka.

"Captain Thermopyle," she announced in a voice made for shouting, "I'm Mikka Vasaczk, second command, Captain's Fancy--or I was until recently. He"--she indicated the frightened man with the mustache and the staring eyes--"is Sib Mackern, Data first." Next she nodded at the cat addict. "Vector Shaheed, engineer." That left the kid. "Ciro Vasaczk is Vector's second and my brother. Nick wants to get rid of us. He was planning to abandon us here.

"I'll tell you why. We don't like what he did to Morn." She shifted her scowl to Davies. "We all tried to help you. Sib let her out of her cabin. Between the two of us, Vector and I let her at the ejection pod controls. That's why the pod brought you here, instead of to Tranquil Hegemony--why you're still human.

"But we weren't able to help her." She swallowed once, roughly. "Or we didn't try hard enough. Maybe we all thought we were alone. Or maybe we just couldn't believe he would really go that far."

"I knew it," Davies rasped back. "I knew it from the moment I was born--and that was before I remembered anything about him."

"Yes." Mikka nodded slowly. "But you're a cop. You think differently than we do."

Her glower swung back to Angus. The four of us are interested in rescuing Morn. If the Amnion haven't already finished her. But Nick isn't. You've got to understand that. He hates her--he wants them to have her. If he told her something else, he was lying.

"He's only here because the Bill barred him from Captain's Fancy. He doesn't have anywhere else to go."

Neither of the men behind her moved. Only the kid nodded.

Angus believed her. Her face looked as honest as a fist. If she'd helped keep his son away from the Amnion, he could count on her to help him reach Morn as well.

Angus deep inside gets the satisfaction of knowing that reputed swashbuckling hero Nick Succorso has managed to be overbearing and unscrupulous enough to drive some of his crew members to disobedience and mutiny. But his zone implants sure won't let him show that satisfaction. Nick snarls that Angus knows he needs him, and that underlying reasons don't matter.

Nick further declares that Mikka, Sib, Vector, and Ciro have nowhere else to go themselves. Vector responds to that by telling Nick and Angus that they could have gone to either the Bill or Sorus and told them about Nick's adventures on Enablement Station.

[Synopsis will continue in following posts.]

[Cord Hurn]

Angus senses that whatever Nick has done on Enablement is important, but his programming pushes him to ask Nick's former crew members about their skills with high-tension work and ignore the Enablement questions, because his database is operating within the assumption that the time to rescue Morn is growing short. Mikka, Vector, and Ciro confirm they can do high-tension tasks. (At this point in the story, I confess that I had forgotten what "high-tension work" even meant.)

Nick tells Angus that he will help him rescue Morn on condition that Angus lets him speak to Captain's Fancy and inform his command third Liete he's been barred from that ship and give her instructions. Angus wants to refuse Nick, but his datacore programming makes him cooperate, makes him treat Nick like a cop in need of assistance. Nick sits in Milos' old chair at the command second's station and types in a coded message to Liete.

Now Angus turns to Nick's former people and to Davies and asks if they have extra vehicular activity experience and know how to handle a gun. Davies realizes he has Morn's memories of doing both, so reluctantly nods in the affirmative. Vector tells Angus they all have had EVA training, but that he and Ciro are inexperienced with guns.

With that information, Angus decides that Vector and Ciro will do high-tension work while Davies guards them. Captain Thermopyle will have Nick, Mikka, Sib, and himself break into the Amnion sector of Billingate and rescue Morn. Then they must see if Morn has been mutated into an Amnioni. If she has, they will kill her. If not, they put her in an EVA suit that Sib will bring, and escort her back to Trumpet.

The plan Angus has to avoid the Bill's forces for as long as possible is for them to go to and from the Amnion installation through the vacuum on the surface of Minor in EVA suits. Mikka observes to Angus that he makes it all sound "a little too simple" and Angus returns with the observation that only three hazards are facing them on this mission, "aside from the chance the Amnion will shoot us before we can shoot them": the Bill could send his guards EVA, some ship might pick them up on scan and alert Billingate Operations, and the Amnion could call out the Bill's muscle (forces) after they break into their installation.

What Angus does not mention is his fear that Milos has shared his zone implant command codes that could paralyze him or force him to fight the rescue team, if the Amnion choose to use the codes.

Angus demands Nick finish transmitting to his ship, and Nick does so immediately. Then Nick asks Angus where the hell is Milos. Angus replies that he thinks Milos has gone over to the Amnion. Everyone else, Nick included, is stunned to hear this. Angus points to the companionway out of the ship's bridge and insists they leave and start the rescue mission. Nick stands still, protesting that Milos must have told the Amnion they were coming. Angus counters that Milos knew nothing about HOW they were coming to rescue Morn, did not know of them approaching from the planetoid surface or how many would be involved in the rescue effort. Nick still won't move and demands to know how long Milos had been working for the Amnion. Angus retorts he has no idea how long, but that it was probably before Milos worked with Nick.

Mikka points out to Nick that the Amnion knew he would be cheating them when he went to Enablement, because Milos forewarned them, and that's why the Amnion trued to destroy Captain's Fancy in the Gap and why they kept trying to obtain Davies before Nick's ship left Enablement.

Davies asks why would the Amnion want him so badly? Angus is ready to howl in frustration at these delays in exiting his ship, but is prevented from doing so by an automatically-opening communications channel on Trumpet's command board.

[Cord Hurn]

At once, the Bill's voice burst from the bridge speakers.

"Captain Angus, you motherfucking sonofabitch, you're finished!" He sounded frantic, almost hysterical. "I'll get you for this--I'm going to fry you as soon as you try to leave.

"In the meantime, I'm cutting you off. No more power, no more air, no more operational data. Live with that if you can, you shitbag! You can supply your own life support, but you need operational data."

Then the transmission ended as if he'd silenced his pickup with a hammer.

Full of artificial calm and native horror, Angus announced, "I'm only going to say this one more time. If we don't go now, we'll lose our chance."

Leaving Nick's dismay and Davies' concentration and Sib's chagrin behind, he headed up the companionway.

Light and quick in Thanatos Minor's g, Mikka followed on his heels.

By the time he reached the passage running through Trumpet's core, boots rattled on the rungs as more people came after him.

His son must have been immediately behind Mikka. As Angus strode toward the weapons locker, he heard her answer Davies' question.

"The Amnion want to solve the problem of mutating human beings without destroying their minds." She was trying to help the boy again. "They want to make Amnion who look and talk and remember exactly like human beings. When Morn survived giving you her mind, they started to think zone implants are the answer. You're their chance to study the consequences of what she did. So they can refine their mutagens."

"Which is why," Angus said over his shoulder for no reason he could name, "I want you to protect Vector and Ciro, instead of coming with me. I don't want to risk letting those fuckers get their hands on you."

He had no idea if that was the truth.

On the other hand, he knew exactly how Morn would react if he rescued her--and lost her son in the process.

Reaching the weapons locker, Angus opens it as his database supplies his mind with the password codes and a list of all weapons within. He picks two limpet mines, a small laser, and a matter cannon longer than his leg and twice as heavy. Mikka grabs an impact rifle and a laser, Davies grabs a laser to go with his already-carried rifle, and Vector grabs the close-range weaponry of two projectile launchers, one of which he gives to Ciro. Sib grabs a handgun. Nick helps himself to two handguns, an impact rifle, and a clip of grenades. Then Nick must pull his hands quickly back as Angus slams the locker door shut! (It is probably mean of me, but I get amusement out of Angus nearly pinching Nick's fingertips as a consequence of Nick's greed. I think this is due partly to my realization that normally Angus' implants won't let him do something to harm Nick, as it considers Nick to be UMCP personnel, but allows an exception for Angus when it perceives Nick is doing something to delay the start of the rescue mission.)

Next, Angus moves to the ship's aft area where the EVA suits are stored. Looking at the suits, Angus wonders how the maneuvering jets on the suits will function, and his database promptly supplies the information of how to perfectly control them. He warns his allies that the jets take practice to control, so they have to hope they won't need to use them. Then he sets a communications frequency for them all to talk privately while performing the EVA. Then they all don EVA suits while Angus mentally goes through a mental checklist that his database now imposes upon him. He moves a handheld transmitter to a pocket on the outside of his suit, and after pulling into the suit and sealing it, clamps the laser and limpets to his exterior utility belt.

Now Captain Thermopyle is cradling the miniaturized matter cannon and again moving, this time toward the lift.

[Cord Hurn]

He was trying, trying, not to listen to the claustrophobic hiss of air in his ears. It told him that he'd just sealed himself into a crypt, a crib; tied down so that the woman looming over him--a woman as vast as space, who should have been his mother--could fill him with pain like the void between the stars.

EVA always terrified him.

The countdown continued. His bluff wouldn't hold much longer. As soon as the Bill panicked he would order his guards to start cutting. Then Trumpet would defend herself--but not with self-destruct. Instead she would trigger a power shutdown across as much of the installation as she could reach. Angus had arranged that during Milos' absence.

At the same time he'd done some extensive mapping of Billingate's power supply, using equipment which no known Needle-class gap scout possessed. What he'd learned was of no use to him at the moment, however. For now only the shutdown mattered.

It would keep Trumpet intact for two or three more minutes, no more. And it would be fatally premature if it happened before Vector and Ciro had carried out his plans.

He was already sweating like a whole herd of swine, and he hadn't even left the ship yet.

Mikka joined him in the lift almost immediately, with Nick close behind her. "Are you sure all this stuff works?" Succorso's voice sounded all too loud in the confines of Angus' helmet. Through two faceplates Nick looked like a ghoul: his scars resembled open wounds. "It's so damn new, I don't think it's ever been tested."

"It works, Nick," Mikka muttered. "Give us a break."

Nick regarded her steadily, as if he'd already decided how to kill her.

Davies was ready, but he waited for the other men; entered the lift last.

Fighting his impulse to gasp, Angus sent the lift upward to Trumpet's other airlock.

Davies gets out first, puts himself inside the airlock, right by the control panel, then points his rifle at the belly of Nick.

Angus can sympathize with his son's fear of treachery from Captain's Fancy's commander, but unlike Davies he thinks Nick won't try anything treacherous right now. (Maybe later in the Amnion installation or on the way back to Trumpet Nick will try something, Captain Thermopyle thinks to himself.)

When all seven people are in the airlock, Davies works the controls to shut the inner door and start pumping air out of the airlock compartment.

Angus turns down the gain on his EVA suit's microphone, so that no one else can hear him panting in distress. He bites his lower lip hard and gets ready to use the ladder and after the outer door opens, leading into the vacuum of space. Then he climbs it and glimpses outside his ship.

The visitor's docks of Billingate shine brightly, lit by tall poles of brilliant white light at their tops. The landscape shows a lot of concrete facing, with building abutments tightly and thoroughly grafted onto the natural rock of Thanotos Minor. The facing includes views of cones, antennae, cables, receptors, grapples, and two very large radio dishes. The exposed rock sections of the planetoid look alternately smooth and rugged.

But to Captain Angus Thermopyle, newly-minted the commander of Trumpet by the departure of Milos, the emplacements look less threatening than the void of space above him.

Angus wore EVA suits for the same reason that he wore ships and stations: to protect his body and his life from the vacuum, of course; but more to protect his sanity from the abyss. Space itself appalled him.

It may have been the only thing he truly understood.

The planetiod's surface lights enable Angus to see the result of Nick's instructions to his ship and its commander Liete. He quickly witnesses Captain's Fancy forcefully tearing herself out of her dock berth.

Riding a spray of lost air and torn grapples, a corona of sparkling powerlines, she drifted away from the docks as if she were lost.

What in the blazes do you all reading along suppose Nick is trying to do, NOW? Is he positioning his ship to aid them against the Bill and the Amnion, or betray them at a rapidly approaching critical moment??