Extinction

-39-

We watched on the cameras as two suited men strapped sagging tool belts around their waists and lifted a barrel-like container between them. They were unarmed and anxious. The weightless environment made things much easier. They simply walked out onto the top of a brick in the maintenance and supply area and jumped toward the ceiling. They did a slow spin and landed on their magnetic boots. They were about thirty yards from the four Macro guards. They stepped toward the guards, who didn’t move except to swivel their weapons systems. They tracked the approaching men flawlessly.

I frowned. “They could at least move out of the way,” I said.

My marines took ten steps closer, then twenty. They walked slower as they approached. They tried waving at the Macros and gesturing for them to move aside. One of the machines twitched its gun-mount, tracking the gesturing hand.

One of the staffers in the command module waved to me. He handed me a com-link unit. “It’s the two engineers, sir. They don’t like it.”

“I don’t blame them,” I said. “Just tell them to standby. I’ll talk to the Macros. Maybe they don’t quite get that we have to enter their ship in order to do the job. Damned machines.”

“Command module, relay to Macro Command the following: Allow my technicians to pass your guards and set up the sensor array.”

A few seconds passed. I watched as the two men stood there, moving uncomfortably.

“Incoming Message: Give us your location.”

“We’re right there, standing in front of you.”

“Incoming Message: Give us the location of Kyle Riggs.”

“Me? I’m right here. I’m in my command module, my brick, just where I’ve been every time I—” I said, then suddenly I halted. Something was wrong. “No, wait I—”

But it was too late. The four Macro guards in their diamond formation were carefully placed. All of them had a free field of fire and could burn down my men without injuring one another. Two of them fired on each of my unarmed engineers. The men were cut in half by the initial blazes of energy. They hadn’t even had the chance to scream. But the Macros weren’t done yet. They kept firing on the floating pieces until nothing bigger than a burnt finger drifted around in the hold. A mass of vapor, much of it atomized particles of my marines, floated in a steamy haze that obscured the Macros. The four machines still twitched, as if looking for fresh targets of sufficient mass to warrant further blasting. I noticed the sensor unit was still there, magnetically attached to the roof of the hold. They had not damaged it in the slightest.

I ripped my com-link off and threw it onto the table. “Dammit!”

The link beeped and I snatched it up again. A familiar voice spoke in my ear. It was Sergeant Kwon. I’d placed him on operational security. Apparently, he’d watched the fiasco on the ceiling.

“Sir, I’m requesting permission to burn down those machines.”

“No. Request denied.”

“Sir, I won’t lose a single trooper doing it.”

“I know you won’t, Sergeant. But I don’t need to compound this misunderstanding.”

Two seconds of silence followed. “Yes, sir. Standing by.”

I took a deep breath and looked around at my stunned command staff.

“Are we prisoners, sir?” asked Captain Sarin.

“What did we misunderstand?” asked Major Robinson.

I looked at them both. “The Macros are very literal. They gave me permission to install the sensor. That’s because, as I recall now, I demanded they allow me to install it.”

Major Robinson got it first. “Ah… so they figured out it wasn’t you standing there at the exit when you contacted them.”

“They confirmed I wasn’t one of the engineers, yes—and then they burned down two perfectly good men because they were too close to the portal,” I said. I was angry with myself and the Macros. I stepped to an emergency locker and broke out a combat suit.

Major Robinson came around to talk to me quietly. “Sir, you don’t have to go out there.”

I looked at him. “No. But I’m sick of sitting here in the dark. Don’t you want to know what this ship looks like? Don’t you think it would help our assault if we could see the world we were landing on?”

Tight-lipped, he nodded and backed away.

“You’re in command while I’m out of contact, Major,” I said, slipping on a hood and tapping to activate the nanites. They sealed the hood into place and I touched another contact to pressurize the suit.

I left them there, at the command table. I walked out into the airlock and jumped to the ceiling. I was glad for every zero-G training exercise I’d participated in. I did a somersault and landed on my feet on the roof of the hold. Clanking along, I soon stood amongst the burn marks that represented two of my men. I eyed the Macro guards with disdain.

“I’m Kyle Riggs. Let me pass.”

After a few tense seconds, they broke formation and revealed a dark hole in the ceiling between them. I released the magnetic clamps on the sensor array and picked it up. The sensor array was about the size and dimensions of a trashcan. It was bulky, but weightless, as the Macro ship was now coasting.

I entered the portal and awkwardly levered the sensor array in behind me. Once through, I found myself standing in a dark, tube-like corridor that ran length-wise down the ship from bow to stern. I snapped on my suit lights and did a com-check with my command post. The signal was there, but it was sketchy. I looked up and down the tube, which was festooned with hanging cables. Some of the cables were semi-opaque hoses that ran with slow-moving, gelatinous liquids. Pinks, golds, blues and mauves slid this way and that toward unknown destinations. Other cables carried wires that showed bare metal. These were twisted-pair sets with only a tray-like guide of thin shielding between them. I suspected these were low-voltage data cables, but I couldn’t be sure. I worked to avoid contact with all the cables, in case they carried a jolt that would blow my magnetized boots off.

I flicked on every recorder my suit had, relaying the recordings to the command brick where it would be digitally stored for posterity. As I roamed the dim tubes I took passages that led upward toward the outer hull whenever possible. The plan was simple: I would plant the sensor array as close to the outer skin of the ship as I could. The unit should operate through anything solid up to a foot of thickness, depending on the composition of the hull. The best spot I could find would be a simple window, but I doubted I was going to see any of those. The Macros didn’t strike me as star-gazers.

After traversing two upward shafts, I lost contact with the command brick entirely. It was an odd, lonely feeling, moving around like a secret mammalian spy in the midst of the Macro stronghold. I felt like one of those squirrel-rats that used to sneak around in the nests of dinosaurs. In this environment, I was the alien.

I finally reached a tight tunnel with a lower ceiling than the rest. The hard, flat ceiling bent my back and made me drag the sensor array behind me, bumping over the uneven surfaces. This had to be it. I had to have reached the outer hull. I reached up and touched the smooth, solid surface overhead. Beyond this wall was the vacuum of space.

I searched for and found an alcove and tucked the sensor unit into it. I activated the unit and had it run a self-diagnostic. I should be getting readings soon, and these would be transmitted along a self-adapting wire made entirely of chained nanites to the hold below. The sensor array had its own internal reactor, so there wouldn’t be any power problems.

I watched as the sensor-nubs self-modulated and scanned their environment. The final verdict was a yellow bar—not great, but much better than nothing. We would no longer be flying blind if I could get this signal down to the command post.

I flipped a valve open. A trail of gleaming nanites, looking like a mercury spill of deadly proportions, slipped out of the opening and snaked toward the nearest exit on their own initiative. Like a trail of ants, I knew they would find their way back home to the command brick. The nanite stream thinned until it was almost unnoticeable, no thicker than a human vein.

I stood up, pressing my back against the low ceiling. I followed the shiny nanite strand with my eyes until it disappeared. This place was oppressive, and I felt an urge to get back to the command brick. I turned my helmet right and left, looking up and down the remote tunnel. I’d only seen a few of the Macros, and they had been much further down, closer to the level of the hold itself. I bared my teeth, debating my next move. My mouth suddenly felt dry.

In the end I figured, why the hell not? When else was I going to get the chance to roam on an alien ship while it was in full operation?

I didn’t follow the winding stream of nanites back to safety. Instead, I turned and crawled farther toward the stern, deeper into the Macro ship. The recorders were still on, and there was plenty of storage space on my suit’s data-meter. I figured I might as well take the opportunity to do a little spying.

I picked my way toward the stern, heading in the direction of the engines and whatever passed for the crew quarters on a Macro ship. It was the opposite direction from the one the nanites had taken. I was moving farther from the hold and the rest of the humans on this ship. In my head, I could see Sandra gritting her teeth and asking me if I was insane. Fortunately, she wasn’t around.