Cosmosis

Core

(Starspeak)

Looking at the computer with Ken, the robots' plan was looking clearer.

At least their method was.

They didn't want to destroy the station. Blowing the whole place up would have been a hell of a lot easier than this song and dance, but it would have spread out the impact a lot more.

But one solid mass hitting an absolutely miniscule moon?

I didn't even know where to begin the math, but my hunch said there was decent odds it could crack the whole rock like an egg.

"Look at this," Ken said. "They were trying to route water pressure."

"Where?"

"External," he said. "Look, opposite sides of the station on opposite ends. Could that much pressure put the station into a spin?"

"Dunno," I admitted.

"If the station was spinning like that, it wouldn't matter if we get the thrusters back."

"No," I agreed, "but that's assuming it would cause a big spin. Other possible effects?"

<Tasser, Dustin, you guys still down in water processing?>

<Yeah,> Tasser replied. <More bots came for it, but we beat them. They have to be running thin on manpower soon, right? Err, robotpower?>

There might have been something to that point. I'd already trashed more than a dozen bots personally. The running total for the whole station was north of eighty so far.

<Maybe. But I wouldn't count on it. SPARK wouldn't just spend his riff-raff for no reason. There's something more,> I hedged.

If I was wrong? Fine. SPARK's forces would peter out and we'd retake control of the station. But if I was right? SPARK still had a card to play.

<Ken, you're with Caleb?> Nora called out.

<Yeah.>

<You two need to get to the main reactor!> she called out.

I didn't move because I was still waiting for an explanation, but Ken didn't hesitate. I chased him because he wasn't going to stop to wait for me. A reminder: not every human answered to me.

<We're moving there,> I said. <Why?>

<I'm back at the bridge,> Nora said. <Your crew and I found planning data on the rocket they strapped up top. We got an exact count of the invasive computer modules that have been implanted in the station. That number's been going down, but thirty seconds ago it just went up.>

<They installed a new one,> I deduced. <Where—the reactor?>

"<The water!>" Ken realized. "<It wasn't about putting the station in a spin. It was for compromising the reactor's cooling.>"

<Could they be trying to weaponize it?> Nora asked.

<No,> I said. My brain was flying putting the pieces together. <There's way easier ways to do that without this much trouble. If they just wanted to blow up the station, it would be smithereens already. But if they overheat it and force the reactor to shutdown, then it won't matter if we regain control of the station thrusters. We'll never be able to power them.>

<Could we use the ships anchored to the station?>

<It'd be like towing an aircraft carrier with canoes,> I said.

<Kinda what I figured,> Nora said.

<All hands, alert!> I broadcast on our Flotilla-band. <Anyone who isn't actively fighting bots this very second, move to defend the main reactor.>

That included Nai.

<Jordan, Ben, you two are the last line of defense on the bridge,> I said.

<Understood,> they replied.

<I'm on my way,> Nai said.

Ken and I dashed as quickly as we could to the nearest elevator, and this time we didn't wait for the box.

"You're sure this is safe?" he asked.

I checked the position of the elevator in the shaft to make sure it wasn't below us.

"[In theory,]" I said.

And jumped.

"[In theory?]" His voice faded as I plummeted down the elevator shaft.

Artificial gravity pulled me down the shaft at a breakneck pace. Literally. If I bumped the sides, I'd be lucky to get away with breaking only that.

But in seconds, I plummeted past the halfway point of the station, and the gravity flipped. I was suddenly decelerating until my speed eventually zeroed out.

I jetted myself to the wall before I started freefalling again. A couple seconds later, Ken came falling 'up' toward me too, losing speed. I tossed him a cable, caught his fall, and we pried open the nearest set of doors.

The reactor was close to the bottommost points of the station, so we still had a ways of climbing to go.

Ken and I started hearing gunshots after charging up a few stair-ladders, but…

<Tasser, Dustin, we're coming up on Dyi level fourteen. You guys taking fire too?>

<Negative,> Dustin said, <we hear them too, but they aren't shooting at us.>

What?

Then who—

Ken and I leapt up one more step-ladder only for a bot corpse to slam into the wall beside us.

Down the corridor was a monochrome robot charging its way through a clump of SPARK's drones. It was a completely different design. Next to the punk-neon drones, this newcomers white ceramic armor stood out bigtime.

The thing stood seven feet tall, towering over the drones it was currently smashing through.

Tall & pale's fist went clean through one drone's head, it let out a shrill whine, and a split second later it exploded in a wash of fire.

…And the pale robot walked right through the flames, without nary a scratch.

"So…is this one friendly?"

White ceramic armor? Hell no.

"It's one of CENSOR's," I said, crouching at the ready.

"[Correct,]" the machine spoke. "[You are Caleb Hane. You are coming with me.]"

My eyes widened. It talked? That was new.

The robot punctuated its threat, dropping into a combat ready stance.

"[In your dreams of electric sheep!]"

I materialized a cloud of smoke at my feet, and flared my jets.

But the bot dashed to cut me off.

<Go!> I sent to Ken. <The reactor is still the priority!>

He materialized a clone that tackled itself into the robot before fading, but otherwise followed my instruction.

The robot was mostly unfazed, shrugging off the clone and showing no sign of following Ken after he dashed past.

Stopping us isn't this one's priority, I noticed. The robot was fixated more on me than on the station's fall. Nora was probably right then. SPARK was the one dropping the station. But if this one answered to CENSOR…there must have been secondary objectives we were completely in the dark about.

There was going to be a lot of homework and review to be done if we scraped by.

"[Surrender peacefully, and this station's destruction will be halted,]" the robot said. In English I noted.

I didn't respond, flooding the corridor with more smoke, and retreating. Fighting this robot alone was not important. Much as I'd like to pump the bot for information…

"[You know I can see you, right?]"

My only forewarning was the sound of the robot's limbs whirring as it charged right for me.

It's fast!

The closed quarters of the space station corridors made for a dangerous arena.

As quickly as I ducked and leapt out of the way, the bot pressed toward me. It didn't move like a seasoned fighter, lunging for me with no feints or strategy, but its size and machine strength made it threatening nonetheless.

It charged right for me so quickly, I had to duck and slide between its legs. All four-hundred pounds of it slammed into the paneling leaving a dent bigger than I was.

"[Quit resisting!]" the bot hissed. It's voice was high, almost shrill.

"[…You're chatty,]" I observed.

The machine lunged at me again, sweeping an arm backhand to try catching me with my mouth running.

It was a seriously fast robot. More precise and responsive than any of the specialized units we'd encountered so far.

But I was still a hair quicker.

I swayed away from the hit, cartwheeling backward into a burst of my maneuvering jets. The bot was unrelenting, chasing me with the sustained stamina that only aa machine could have, but I still had enough in the tank to keep away while my mind raced.

There was still a station crashing down around us, but there were extra moving pieces in play now. This robot had destroyed some of SPARK's drones, and everything about its presentation screamed 'CENSOR'.

A possibility dawned in my brain.

We'd long known that the AI were body-limited. They were living computers, but bound to hardware—presumably very specialized hardware. They couldn't just beam themselves from one star system to another as a computer program. If they wanted to oversee an operation personally, they had to drag whatever metal carcass they lived in to the site in question.

Was I looking at just that? Specialized hardware for the AI itself? Their body?

"[Quit sliding!]" the bot yelled.

I was picking up more and more on this bot's weaknesses. It was especially unprepared to follow my jet-propelled movements. And it was incredibly emotive. CENSOR's usual specialty bots were typically stiff lifeless. In addition to having outbursts, this one had actually intelligible body language.

Much as I was noticing its shortcomings though…

It was refining its approach too, and I didn't like my odds if this dragged on. I was already worn out, and unlike me, the machine didn't require oxygen.

<Nai, change of plans,> I said. <Head toward me. I need an assist.>

<Understood.>

"[What's the matter?]" I asked. "[You want to play a different game?]"

"[Brat,]" the robot hissed.

"[Hey, I'll give you a free shot if you answer me a question,]" I mocked.

Except the bot actually stopped, seeming to consider to offer.

"[…You would not honor any agreement,]" the bot said after a moment.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Taking a gamble, I stood still and spread my arms wide.

"[Come and find out. My feet won't move an inch.]"

The bot cocked its head, weighing its odds. It liked them.

The moment its knees lurched forward, I magnetized my feet to the ground and swayed backward. The robot's tackle carried them clean over me. It had fully trusted I wouldn't move.

"[Cheater! I knew you could not be trusted!]"

I could only smile.

"[But I didn't move my feet did I?]"

To keep the bot off balance, I tried attacking. CENSOR liked investing in her heavy-hitters' armor, so I didn't bother trying to break through the ceramic plating.

My new rime trick was custom designed to find all the microscopic crevices inside bots armor, but when I got my palm on this new one…

A flash of cold and even paler white instantly formed across the machine's body, but I felt nothing reach the inside of the machine. It didn't even slow off the roll, whirling around to grab at me again.

The only thing that saved me was its refusal to vary its attack. Instead of punching or feinting, it was exclusively trying to grab me. It spoke like it wanted to capture me, but I wasn't about to take it at its word. Given its size and speed, it might have just been looking to squeeze and pop me like a grape.

I didn't bother trying to shoot it. Its armor was the good stuff, and I doubted I'd be able to break it even with my heavy duty firepower. That left targeting the gaps in its armor, but given its aggressiveness, I didn't have the room or time.

As consistently as I could evade the machine, I couldn't escape it. It just kept coming, and I was going to run out of breath in a minute or two. If I didn't make a mistake sooner than that…

<Nai, you got me on radar?>

<Yeah,> she said. <I'm still eight or nine levels below you.>

<That's not going to be quick enough,> I said. <I need you to give me a bramble; I'm going to bail on this dance.>

<Where do you want it?>

<You looking at the floorplan?>

<Yep. The corridor?>

<Yep.>

<It's close to the edge of my range. This isn't going to be pretty work.>

<You got it. I trust your timing.>

<Hivivi,> Nai grinned.

Hivivi indeed.

"[Love to stick around and chat,]" I yelled, "[believe me, I'd give an arm and a leg to pick through your tin can…]"

I bought myself an extra second or two taking a corner better than the robot, and it was with wholehearted trust in Nai that I took the opportunity to jet down the straightaway.

"[Stop running!]" it screamed. The artificial voice crackled as it hiked the volume.

It charged down the hallway after me only for a lattice of crystal spikes lanced up from the floor. Its momentum and armor smashed through the first few stalagmites, but Nai's work grew and thickened in the blink of an eye.

In seconds, the towering robot was completely tangled in the sprouts of crystal erupting from all surfaces.

She was far enough away that he work threatened to cut me off too, but unlike the machine I was ready for the obstacle. I pulled and twisted myself through the gaps in the crystal before it could ensnare me too.

I spared only a second to look back at the robot. Its left half was entirely encased, and its remaining arm had severely limited range of motion.

"[Stick around,]" I said. "[I'll be back for you once we're not going to die.]"

<Perfectly aimed,> I told Nai. <It's trapped—or at least cut off. I'm heading for the reactor.>

There was an implicit choice I was putting on her. Leaving the robot entangled in her crystal likely wouldn't hold it for too long. So she could either follow me to the reactor and firmly leave this robot as a secondary objective. Or she could take my place and confront the talkative bot.

<I'll make sure it stays put,> Nai said. <I don't like the unknown factor showing up like this. If it runs amok, this could get even worse.>

<Gotcha.>

I switched channels and aimed toward Tasser.

<How's the reactor?>

<Bad!> he cried. <I think SPARK rerouted coordinator bots here from other squads. We've already taken out three, but there's at least five more.>

<Ken should be on his way,> I said.

<He's already here,> he said. <But hurry. This tactical position is the worst.>

Half my attention was on the station floorplan while I jetted through the halls, making sure I didn't waste any time or energy on an extraneous route.

That seemed odd until I actually arrived at the location flagged on the map.

The reactor core was situated below two decks of control and operation consoles. The decks had catwalks that overlooked the reactor itself, leaving a hole in each one and the superstructure of the station overhead.

In an emergency, the entire reactor core could be ejected right out, shot up and out through the holes.

The entrances to those catwalk decks were absurdly fortified, and sealing them would have been one of the first things the station crew had done.

But SPARK's bots weren't trying to access those decks or their hatches.

They'd cut through the reactor room wall.

Even worse, they still controlled that breach. I popped another candled radar to get a precise fix on my allies and found them inside the reactor room.

Ken and Tasser were on the floor of the reactor room, hunkered down behind the reactor core's hydraulic brackets. They were putting as many bullets as they could through the breach, trying to keep more bots from entering.

Dustin had climbed the ladders to the control decks, keeping the bots that had already broken in from going uncontested.

In the corridor outside the breach two bots were acting as sentries while two more worked torches, expanding the hole they'd already punched. Another four were taking turns firing through the breach at Tasser and Ken.

I sprang into action: sentries first.

Materializing a bulletproof shield, I poured all the rest of my mass into my jets and charged them. The sentries were quick to fire on me, but my shield-turned-battering ram did its job.

They only got of a couple short bursts before I slammed into both of them. I hit them with enough momentum to blow both of them off their feet, and one even knocked into the torch-wielding ones.

Keeping my shield between me and rest, I got a palm on the skull of one of the fallen sentries before it could recover. It froze in a crackle, and the limbs went limp.

The other seven outside the breach were fast. Tasser had been right. Two of them wore the backpack processors that boosted the responsiveness and precision of all nearby bots, and those boosts did stack.

Five guns and two metal-torches turned toward me.

My shield was good. It was even really good. But the truth is that nothing is bulletproof. Five guns' worth of fire hitting it was concerning, but it would hold up for a minute or two at least...but not with torches in the mix.

These weren't run-of-the-mill acetylene torches. These were specialized thermal lances that could melt through a reactor room enclosed in four inches of exotic metal stronger than steel.

My crystal shield blackened and scorched where one of the torches scraped across it. Running my cascade through it, I felt the whole structure falter at the heat blooming across the molecules. The bullets hitting the shield gouged deeper, cracked it further.

It was when shots started punching clean through the outer edges that I began to sweat.

<Tasser, take a picture!>

Instead of faltering backward, I needed to keep my momentum and reduce the bots' numbers.

I slammed what remained of my shield into one of the torch-wielding bots. It was hardly enough to do damage, but the bot still stumbled into the aperture of the breach.

Tasser shot it through the neck.

Six left.

Tasser and Ken went on the aggressive now that I was distracting some of the bots covering the breach. With the boosted processing, the bots were ready to counter even that.

Two of them switched to full-auto and sprayed through the breach as they walked through it.

Ah. I saw their play.

They figured it would be easier to keep me at bay from the other side of the choke point.

They weren't wrong.

<They're in there with you,> I warned Tasser. <I'm going up and around.>

<Do it!> he said. <Dustin needs help!>

I threw what was left of my shield at the torch bot, and fired my jets, rocketing back the way I came. They sprayed gunfire at me, but I ducked around the corner quickly enough to avoid being tagged.

<Unseal the reactor deck entrances!> I called out. <All of them!>

Bolting up the stair-ladders brought me to the first sealed hatch, and it gave a hiss just as I reached it, cracking open in the middle and sliding apart.

I passed up the first one, continuing down the hall and going through the second one.

Sure enough, it had been a good call. Six bots had followed Dustin up to the control decks and three of them were aimed at the first hatch.

The coordinator bots kept each other updated, so the ones below would have warned these ones I was coming. But even robots could make assumptions, and these ones had assumed I'd take the absolute shortest path, and aimed at the corresponding entrance.

Bonus, I'd moved quickly enough to pass that hatch before it opened, so they hadn't even seen me.

I materialized my gun and fired rounds into the backpacks of two of them.

These ones were disciplined though. They whirled toward me, but didn't waste any ammo seeing me duck down behind cover faster than they could get a bead on me.

The most dangerous situations involved multiple moving parts. Six bots were left below, six more were up here. Tasser and Ken were below. Eight reactor personnel were hunkering behind consoles and panels trying not to get shot. Dustin was…

"<Dustin, what are you doing?!>"

He was on the lower control deck, pulling on a jumpsuit and opening the reactor core door. All he had to do was point, and my heart sank.

Two more bots had gone unaccounted for. They were inside the reactor core.

Visibility into the core itself was spotty. Up here on the decks, the windows were angled better but the sightlines were still constricted.

But two robots were working on a metal apparatus inside, each motion slow and exaggerated inside the liquid-cooled core.

My first impulse was to try materializing a bomb inside the reactor—crazy sentence, I know, but my kinetic bombs weren't strong enough to even dent the machinery inside. And if the bots were thrown off for even a second, it would be worthwhile.

But I couldn't.

Because the reactor was filled with a mixture of water and exotic fluid for regulating temperature. My force of emergence wasn't enough to displace the liquid remotely. I could materialize matter in contact with my body, but not at a distance.

Dustin was our only hope.

I turned my attention to the technician helping him through the airlock.

"<What are they doing!>"

<Focus on those bots!> Dustin said, pointing toward the six on my level. <If they get to the emergency stop, the reactor's gone and we'll never power the jets.>

I swore.

He was right.

Unbelievably, the two bots trying to disassemble the reactor from the inside actually weren't the most immediate threat.

The technicians had all wisely taken shelter at that end of the operations deck, and I saw that not all of them were just hunkering down. At least two had the wall paneling open, presumably trying to disable the emergency stop.

If we hadn't all been a few minutes from certain death, that irony might have made me laugh.

But I didn't hesitate. Dustin had called the play, and second-guessing it now would only put people at risk.

I slid low on the floor and blasted one bot in the ceiling, making sure to target one of the coordinator units. Its backpack gave a satisfying crunch as it crashed both into the beams overhead and then the floor.

Five more.

The machine next to it was too slow trying to shoot me, and I froze it with a touch.

Four more.

Tasser and Ken had taken out another coordinator unit below. The remaining forces were losing some of their sharpness, but not so much we could afford to rush.

The remaining bots with me sprayed bullets at me, and I only barely managed to throw myself aside.

<Climbing the ladder!> Tasser warned me.

Staying low and out of sight, I moved to the ladder, materialized a double-barrel shotgun, and blasted two slugs into the robot's head as it tried to climb up.

Still four more. Up here, at least.

I didn't want to ruin any more reactor equipment than absolutely necessary, so I ditched the shotgun and recreated the single-shot contender style pistol again. In terms of staying precise, it was my best bet for punching through the robot's improved armor.

Faintly, I was aware of the technician below giving psionic Dustin instructions.

<Pop up and yell at them,> I told the reactor techs.

A chorus of replies came in protest and astonishment, but one rak didn't hesitate.

"Haaaaauugggghh!" the rak poked their head up for only a split second and let out a truly primal cry, heavy with fear and rage.

The sheer volume was enough to trip some alarm in the bots, because two of them turned—I sprang up too and put a bullet through the back of one's head.

Just as quickly, they turned back to spray more rounds at me, full-auto again. They're not worried about running out of ammo? No, they're just not holding anything in reserve.

It was do-or-die.

I resorted to the same trick as before. A riot shield and full-blast maneuvering jets. I charged toward them without any fear. This group didn't have the thermal lances, so my shield would hold more reliably.

One was tackled off its feet. My palm on its chest froze its internals solid, killing it instantly.

Three left.

I rolled to get my shield up, deflecting more fire into the ceiling—bad form. A good shield was soft enough catch bullets without deflecting them. Ricochets were every bit as dangerous, but I was panic creeping into my actions.

In the periphery of my awareness, I could sense Dustin inside the reactor core, tangling with the two bots trying to sabotage it from the inside. Flashes and pops made me think there were gunshots going off in the water-filled chamber.

Not a single nanosecond to waste, I lunged forward, hand outstretched for the nearest robot's gun.

It didn't stop firing, but at this range I got my hand in front of the muzzle. My hands could take punishment better than steel, and the rounds stung and bit on my palm, but they also had nowhere to go.

The gun's barrel deformed and warped instantly, stress splitting metal like wood. The kickback on the gun threw the bot off balance enough for me to shove it against its neighbor.

<Caleb, block the sensor!> Dustin screamed at me. <Full spectrum!>

With the words, he packed a dense series of images and diagrams into the message, showing a metal box high on the wall with a black glass panel on the side facing the reactor.

Some of the images and diagrams had come from the Vorak technician instructing him.

I blindly threw mass at the spot he indicated, covering the box in ugly black crystal.

There was no shattering scream of a reactor being ejected from the station, so I assumed I'd been successful.

I'd split the robots, shoving two together and leaving the third on its own. Rematerializing my contender pistol, I turned and shot the robot isolated from the other two.

Two left now, already off balance too.

Still holding onto its deformed gun, I levered the robot's arm out of the way so I could touch its head and freeze it.

One more.

It recovered quickly from its compatriot toppling into it. More quickly than I'd expected. It raised its gun, and I went for mine.

Quickdraw.

I fumbled the trigger, not even a tenth of a second's delay. My training and reflexes screamed at me to materialize a shield—something we all learned to do literally in a flash.

A shot rang out, and the robot's head shattered like an egg.

I blinked.

For a second, I thought I was dead. Would I have been quick enough with a shield? I wasn't sure.

But on the other side of the deck, Ken's clone stood holding a smoking pistol. The clone vanished a heartbeat later, and the gun clattered to the floor.

Tasser had passed a real gun to Ken's clone, I realized. It had probably saved my life.

<Your six done?> I asked.

<Yep,> Tasser said. <We're coming up. You came in at the perfect time.>

Pleasantries could wait. My mind went to—

"<Dustin!>"

I ran toward the technicians, looking inside the core.

<I'm good, I'm good!> he called out from underwater. <Scratch two.>

I spared the upper-deck technicians cursory glances before jumping down the ladder to the lower control catwalk. Tasser and Ken joined me.

"<You are not good!>" the last technician called and fussed with the reactor controls.

Dustin clambered into the airlock hunched over, one hand on his chest, the other tapping on his helmet.

He didn't have an air supply, I realized.

How long had he been in the reactor core? A minute? Two? I could hold my breath that long, but while fighting two robots?

The technician's hands flew on the controls, emptying the airlock of water as quickly as possible. As soon as his head was above water, Dustin pulled off his helmet and sucked down a breath.

"Ohh…[damn, that's better.]"

<Reactor is clear,> I sent to the bridge. <I think. Talk to your techs.>

The station leadership sent an acknowledgement, and I checked the other crises wrapping up around the station. There were none I could help with. They'd be finished by the time I arrived.

I tried not to let out a breath in relief. The station was still falling out of the sky.

"How did the robots get in there?" I asked.

The technician pointed up.

"They cut through the emergency eject channel."

"From outside?" I asked.

The rak nodded. They were strangely unconcerned with that detail, all of their attention on Dustin.

"<We need medics in the reactor immediately,>" they called.

"Good idea," I huffed. Dustin's chest was heaving to catch his breath, but I was running on fumes too.

The rak looked concernedly between me and him. I caught the worry this time.

"What?"

"They exposed the reactor for a second there," Dustin said. "That's why I needed you to block the sensor. I caught some rads. I got it sealed back up quick though."

My internal alarms rose.

"[You're being pretty fucking casual about deadly radiation,]" I hissed, turning to the tech. "How much did he get? Is he going to be okay? What meds does he need?"

The rak opened their mouth to answer, but they hesitated. The pit in my stomach tripled.

"How bad?"

The rak tried not to stammer, and they looked at a console, desperately hoping for some information they'd missed.

They hadn't missed anything.

"Get out of here," Ken prompted me. "There's other stuff you need to be doing on this station. Besides, Dustin's one of ours. I'll stay with him and make sure he sees meds quick."

I was still frozen, trying to figure out if I needed to scream at the tech for more information. But Tasser roused me.

"Come on. We'll meet up with Nai."

I forced myself to nod.

Nai.

The robot.

Still a space station falling.

There was still too much to do to slow down now.