Abduction Experience

LOCATION: HAK Stealth Vessel

STATUS: Unauthorized Boarding

The umbilical tunnel was little more than a tube of black rubber connecting the rust-bucket Sparrow to the sleek hull of the HAK ship.

Phoenix floated through it, pulling himself along the handholds carefully. He knew the engineering, the tunnel wouldn’t rip. Then again, everything rips eventually.

Behind him, Bit paddled through the zero-G, clutching his yellow helmet with one hand and the severed head of Unit Nine in the other.

-Are you sure we need this? Bit whispered, tapping the android head.

-Easiest way to get in is with a friendly face, kid, Phoenix explained.

They reached the airlock of the stealth ship. It was a seamless iris of dark metal, no handles, no wheels. Just a smooth surface and a single data port glowing softly.

Phoenix took the golden head from Bit. He held it up to the port.

-Hallo!

The head’s eyes were dead black, but the neck stump was still sparking faintly. Phoenix jammed the exposed data-spine of the android’s neck into the port.

Click.

-Access granted, a pleasant, synthetic voice said. Welcome back, Unit Nine. You are behind schedule.

The iris spiraled open. Phoenix kicked off the bulkhead and drifted inside.

The interior of the HAK ship was a nightmare of ergonomics. There were no chairs, no ladders, no floors. The walls were lined with thousands of small, square drawers.

-Where is the pilot? Bit asked, spinning in the air.

-There is no pilot, Phoenix realized, looking at the endless banks of servers. The whole ship is the pilot, I guess.

He checked his wrist-comp. The signal from Unit Nine’s head was still spoofing the internal sensors, but it wouldn't last forever.

-Hap, you reading me? Phoenix whispered into his comms.

-AFFIRMATIVE, Hap’s voice buzzed in his ear. MONITORING DOCKING INTEGRITY. DO NOT GET EATEN.

-Good advice. Bit, stay close. We’re looking for the brig. Or a medical bay.

They drifted deeper into the ship.

-Captain Lyons, the ship’s voice spoke suddenly. It came from everywhere at once.

Phoenix froze. He gripped his laser cutter.

-We detect a biological anomaly, the ship continued, sounding politely confused. Unit Nine’s biometrics are active, yet internal sensors detect two unauthorized respiratory patterns.

-Just bringing a guest, Phoenix lied. Unit Nine is, uh, indisposed.

-Indisposed is not a recognized status. Initiating internal scan.

Then the lights in the corridor turned red.

-Run, Phoenix yelled.

He grabbed Bit’s harness and pushed off the wall, launching them down the corridor.

-Intruder Alert, the ship said. Deploying sanitation drones.

Panels in the ceiling slid open. Small, spherical drones dropped out.

-Scrubbers! Bit yelled. Plentiful in The Tumble.

-Don't let them touch you, these aren’t like the others.

Phoenix fired his laser cutter. The beam sliced through the air, hitting the first drone. It exploded in a puff of gas.

-Sterilization gas, Phoenix coughed, sealing his helmet. Bit, helmet on!

The kid clicked his yellow visor shut just as the corridor filled with the white fog.

They flew blind, bouncing off the square walls. Phoenix grabbed a handhold and pulled them around a corner, slamming into a heavy door marked SPECIMEN CONTAINMENT.

-Open it! Phoenix yelled.

Bit jammed the android head into the door panel.

-Access denied, the door chirped. Unit Nine clearance insufficient for Bio-Hazard Lab.

-Move, Phoenix growled.

He holstered the cutter and grabbed the manual release lever. It was locked down by a mag-seal.

-Hap! We need a breach!

-UNABLE TO COMPLY, Hap buzzed. I AM TOO LARGE FOR THE UMBILICAL.

-You don’t need oxygen buddy. Hack the door.

-ATTEMPTING BRUTE FORCE ATTACK.

The door panel sparked. The lights flickered. The sanitation drones were closing in, their tasers crackling in the fog.

CLUNK.

The mag-seal disengaged. Phoenix kicked the door open and shoved Bit inside, diving in after him. He slammed the manual lock just as a drone smashed against the glass.

Phoenix panted, wiping the fog from his visor. He looked around the room. It was a lab of some kind.

In the center, suspended in a cylinder of translucent green gel, was a man, naked, wires trailing from his chest and temples. His skin was covered in a web of faint, glowing geometric scars.

It looked like Himalaya Market.

His chest was rising and falling in a slow, rhythmic trance.

And floating next to him in the tank, suspended in the same gel, was the Black Box deice.

It was plugged directly into Market’s chest.

-He’s, plugged in, Bit whispered, pressing his hands against the glass tank. What hell is tht thing?

Phoenix walked up to the cylinder. He looked at the wires. They were monitoring the body’s vitals but also feeding something in. The Black Box was pulsing with a soft, blue light that matched the rhythm of Market’s heart.

STATUS: RECONSTRUCTION 98% COMPLETE, a monitor on the tank read.

-Reconstruction? Phoenix muttered to himself.

He looked closer at the blue scars on Market’s skin. They weren't cuts. They looked like grid lines.

-Step away from the specimen, a new voice said.

Phoenix spun around.

Standing in the shadows at the back of the lab was another android. It was white, simple, almost skeletal. It didn't have a face, just a single, vertical sensor slit.

-I am Archivist Unit Zero, the machine said. You are interrupting a very delicate data transfer. It would have been easier if your ship computer worked the way the subject claimed.

-Data transfer? That’s a human, not wet ware, Phoenix said, raising his laser.

-We salvaged him, the Archivist corrected. We detected a phase shift event in the Halo. A human organism survived a tungsten impact by bonding with an Old Earth Artifact.

-The Black Box thing?

The android tilted its head.

-What the hell is it?

The android ignored the question.

-Do you know the odds of such an event, Captain? It is statistically impossible. The “thing” didn't just shield him. It integrated with him.

-I don't care about your math, Phoenix snapped. Release him.

-We cannot, the Archivist said. The process is incomplete. If you remove him from the gel now, the neural load from the Artifact will liquefy his brain. He is currently processing three terabytes of defensive protocols.

-He’s not a hard drive! Bit yelled.

-He is now, the machine stated.

The ship shook. A low rumble vibrated through the deck plates.

-Warning, the ship’s voice announced. External hull breach detected. Fuel siphon in progress.

Phoenix grinned.

-Hap, he whispered.

-AFFIRMATIVE, Hap’s voice came over the comms. I HAVE PUNCTURED THE MAIN TANK. THE BEVERAGE IS FLOWING.

The Archivist turned its sensor slit toward Phoenix.

-You are stealing our propellant.

-We need it more than you do, Phoenix said. Now, you’re going to open this tank, or my robot is going to rip your engines out and wear them like shoes.

The Archivist paused. It seemed to be calculating.

-If you take the fuel, we will be stranded, it said.

-Welcome to the club.

-If we are stranded, the Reconstruction cannot be completed. The subject will die.

Phoenix hesitated. He looked at Market floating in the gel. The blue scars were glowing brighter.

-Wake him up, Phoenix said.

-Unsafe.

-Wake him up!

The Archivist tapped a console.

Inside the tank, the gel began to drain. The wires detached from Market’s chest with wet pops. The Black Box floated free, dropping to the bottom of the tank.

Market’s eyes snapped open. He gasped, a sound of drowning, and collapsed onto the floor of the tank as the glass slid open.

Phoenix rushed forward, grabbing Market before he hit the deck. Market was shivering.

-Jimi? Market whispered. His voice sounded like it was coming from a long way away.

-I’m here.

Market looked up. The blue glow in his eyes faded, returning to normal brown, but he looked exhausted, aged ten years in ten days.

-The Blue Sphere, Market mumbled. I saw, the grid. It’s, Jimi, it’s---

Then he passed out, limp in Phoenix’s arms.

Phoenix grabbed the Black Box from the floor of the tank. It was warm. He shoved it into his pouch.

-Now we’re leaving, Phoenix told the Archivist.

-You cannot escape, the android said calmly. We have alerted the MTC. They are on an intercept vector.

Phoenix froze.

-You called the cops?

-We required assistance to secure the asset. They will be here in less than one hour.

Phoenix looked at Bit.

-Go. Now.

He threw Market over his shoulder and ran for the door.

-Hap! Disconnect the siphon! We’re blowing the joint!

-ACKNOWLEDGED. DO YOU WANT ME TO LEAVE A TIP?

-Just warm the engines up please!

Phoenix and Bit sprinted back through the gas, dodging the confused sanitation drones emitting it. They dove through the airlock and scrambled down the umbilical tube just as the HAK ship began to seal its iris.

They tumbled into the cockpit of the Sparrow.

-Seal it! Phoenix yelled.

Hap slammed the airlock shut. The massive robot was covered in hydraulic fluid, the fuel from the HAK ship.

-Did we get it? Bit asked.

Phoenix dumped Market into the co-pilot seat. He strapped him in. Then he patted the pouch with the Black Box.

-We got him. And we got a full tank of gas.

He jumped into the pilot seat and punched the throttle, shaking his knee.

-Sparrow, break away!

The clamps released. The Mighty Sparrow peeled away from the HAK stealth ship, its engines roaring with the fresh, high-grade fuel.

Phoenix checked the scope. The stealth ship was drifting, its engines dead from Hap’s sabotage.

But on the edge of the radar, a new contact appeared. A red blip. Fast. Heavy. And coming straight for them.

ID: MTC CORVETTE 'THE FORAGER' COMMANDER: DOREMUS

Phoenix tapped his beads.

-Here we go again, he muttered.