BIRTHRIGHT 2 – THE GATHERING
by Soledad
Author's note:
For disclaimer, rating, warnings, etc., see the Prologue.
A few lines of dialogue are modified versions of what was said in The Mathematics of Tears.
CHAPTER 17 – MORE THAN BARGAINED FOR
Landing on the catwalk with a somersault in mid-air to slow her own fall down and feather out the impact, Amritray saw that Harper had managed to catch himself on the railing and was trying to climb back up. The little kludge was amazingly hard to kill. But the situation was critical, as the dark-skinned engineer kept zapping his hands with the nanowelder.
"You're so damn stubborn," he growled. "I hate stubborn lads."
Harper had one leg hooked on the catwalk, but the other human… well, creature… was still firing at him with the nanowelder, trying to make him fall. Amritray looked around in despair. She was still too far to use one of her throwing knives – the engineer kept moving, and she could have caused him to fall onto Harper, dragging the little human down with himself.
To her relief, she saw Captain Valentine running up from the other side. The human woman had a force lance, thank the Progenitor!
"Shoot him!" Amritray shouted, and Beka fired at Dutch without hesitation.
"Shocked to see me?" she asked mockingly, and Dutch lunged at her, forgetting Harper momentarily, eager to get his hands on the force lance.
"Give it to me!" he demanded, and Beka backed away, luring him after herself, to give Harper some breathing space.
While they were struggling, Amritray ran to Harper, pulling him up with a strength that belied her slender frame. Barely on his feet, Harper launched himself at Dutch's back, but Amritray stopped him in mid-leap.
"Leave him to me," she said. Her hand was like a steel clamp, so Harper wisely obeyed.
Beka pushed Dutch towards Amritray, who grabbed the engineer's jaw and broke his neck with a well-executed jerk. Strangely enough, it didn't immobilize him. Head standing in an unnatural angle, he kept going. Collecting her strength, Amritray tore his head off completely – and stared at the broken, blinking circuits and diodes with satisfaction.
"An android," she concluded. "I was expecting something like that."
"Uh, miss Über lady, I don't want to ruin the moment, but…" Harper pointed at more Pax crewmen entering the engine area.
"Oh! More fun!" Beta said, shooting one of them point-blank in the chest.
The crewman in question got up after a moment and kept coming.
"Am I the only one who starts seeing a pattern here?" Harper asked, slightly panicking.
"I suggest a retreat," Amritray said.
They ran.
Tyr stopped mid-step as Amritray's mental call for help reached him. Rekeeb didn't realize this and marched several steps ahead, before turning back and looking at the Nietzschean in askance.
Tyr bowed his head forward, listening. With his advanced hearing, he could recognize weapons fire, just a few corridors away.
"It seems things have turned ugly," he said to Rekeeb. "Return to the Maru, as quickly as you can. The way before you is still free."
"What about you?"
"I'll look after the others. But I can't do so with you underfoot. Go now, while you still can!"
Rekeeb didn't need more persuasion. He ran as only a very frightened Perseid could. And Perseids were known to be really fast when scared.
He reached the Maru without incidents and stumbled into the cockpit just as Rommie was preparing the console to re-enter the VR-matrix. The Emerald Than wiggled her antennae in welcome.
"Trouble?" she asked.
"Anasazi seems to think so," Rekeeb replied absently, putting on the VR-goggles. "Keep an eye on the entrance, will you? I need to watch the avatar, just in case."
Celestial Fire nodded in agreement. She had been instructed by Born to Starfire to cooperate with the Nietzschean during this particular mission. And since Anasazi and the Perseid worked together, she would support Rekeeb, too.
Rekeeb found himself on the virtual command deck of the Pax again. Lieutenant Pierce was still alone there, in command of the whole ship. Well – alone, aside from the two ship's avatars.
"Maggie," the Andromeda avatar urged, "I believe I can help you. But you have to show me what happened the day your captain was killed." She waited, but the blurred golden avatar still hesitated. "Come on," she argued, "you can do it. You know there's no other way."
For a moment, it seemed as if the Pax avatar would cooperate. It opened its mouth – and then it gave a long, electronic keening sound, sending feedback to Rommie's body on the Maru, disabling her.
"Oh, no!" Rekeeb tore the goggles from his eyes and tried to yank the android off he panel she was using to interface. Unfortunately, the only result was an electronic jolt through his cranial implant, making him scream in pain.
The Emerald Than reacted without hesitation. First, she tore the Perseid away from the panel. Then she yanked the android off the interface and laid the unresponsive body on the floor. After that, she hacked into the comm system of the Pax and sent a general message through the entire ship.
"This is an emergency. Mr. Harper, return to the Eureka Maru immediately."
"I'd love to," Harper panted, running down the corridor with Beka in trail and Amritray leading them," but these High Guard engineers are so damn touchy! You… burn through one… welded-shut door, and they… wanna kill ya… for it…"
Amritray checked her wrist map while shooting at the Pax crewmembers with a gauss rifle she'd picked up on her way.
"We're heading Obs deck," she reported. "Captain Hunt is still there. That might buy us some time."
"Time… for what?" Beka panted.
"For Harper," Amritray replied. She was the only one not out of breath. "They are androids. He's an engineer – a good one they say. He'll think of something."
"I'm glad… to be… appreciated," Harper's breathing was seriously laboured already.
"Do you really… have an idea?" Beka shot another android, but with little results.
"Yeah… if we reach… Obs deck in… one piece…"
"Don't worry," using her gauss rifle, Amritray shot an android to glowing pieces of metal and synthoskin, "you will."
Before Harper could have asked what the hell that was supposed to mean, Amritray pushed him onto Obs deck, closing the door behind them.
Dylan and Lieutenant Pearce were still having dinner amiably, and they looked up in surprise when they saw them stumble in.
"Dylan, get away from her!" Harper shouted.
Hunt glared at them, annoyed about having his date disturbed. "What the hell…?"
"They're trying to kill us," Beka explained succinctly.
"Who?" Dylan demanded, not quite believing her. "Jill, what the hell is going on?"
Beka gestured to the door, which was being pushed open manually by the pursuing androids. "See for yourself. Harper, you were having an idea?"
Harper grinned at her like a shark. "Watch this!"
He keyed a code into one of the consoles, and every single android slumped in their tracks – including Jill Pierce. Beka looked at them – then at Harper, in awe.
"Nice work, Harper! How did you do it?"
"I tricked the A.I. into initiating an android diagnostic program," Harper explained with obvious pride. "That would shut them down for a while: Dutch, the whole crew – the babe."
"They're all androids?" Dylan asked, completely dumbfolded. Beka pulled a face.
"Give the man a kewpie doll," she said snidely. "He got it down right to the point."
"But she… she was so human," Dylan murmured, visibly shaken.
"You can grieve later," Beka said impatiently. "Right now, we gotta get out of here before the ship manages to reboot the androids."
As if answering her words, Celestial Fire's message was repeated through the Pax' comm system.
"This is an emergency. Mr. Harper, return to the Eureka Maru immediately."
"Yeah, yeah, I've heard ya the first time," Harper growled impatiently. "We're coming all right. What's so urgent anyway? Had the Maru blown up, we'd have noticed it, right?"
Dylan, already on his way out, held on his track abruptly. "My god. Rommie. Perhaps she got damaged somehow while entering the Pax' memory archives. We have to get her out of there. She might need help."
"If that's the case, I'm sure Rekeeb would have broken the connection," Harper replied, "but I better take a look. Let's go! Especially," he added, seeing that the androids all started to come back to life, as it looks like nap-time's almost over."
Amritray consulted her wrist guard scanner. "Seems that the way through corridor 217 Gamma is free at the moment. We should hurry up."
Amritray navigated them through the currently unused corridors of the Pax, with the help of her scanner. Despite the dire danger, Harper couldn't help but glance longingly at the clever little instrument.
"I've never seen a scanner like that," he said, jogging on her side. "Where did ya get it from?"
"One of our people, Hector, likes tinkering with small tools," Amritray replied. "He's constructed all sorts of such little gizmos. You can take a look when we're back on the Andromeda, if you want."
"Really?" Harper's eyes lit up like two miniature supernovas at the perspective of playing with new toys. "That'd be so cool! I bet I can make a few more of them. Or improve them. Or…"
"Harper," Dylan warned, "we're not back on the Andromeda yet!"
"Not yet… but soon," Beka panted, as they tumbled onto the hangar bay. "Just let me get into my pilot chair and we'll be outta here in no time."
Amritray locked the hangar bay doors behind them, fusing the controls with a well-aimed blast. They'll replace them, once the Pax is secured. Right now, survival was the primary goal. Beka jumped into her pilot chair, cat-like, and started her checklist. Harper crunched down next to Rommie's body and, fishing a small tool out of his boot, worked frantically to reanimate her. A few minutes later the android finally opened her eyes, looking at Dylan with a very convincing expression of shock on her face.
"Dylan, the Pax… She tried to send a power surge through me!"
"Yeah, and she tried to kill us all," Harper rumbled, before Dylan would have come up with one of his comforting platitudes. "Boss, let's get out while we still can!"
"I'm working on it," Beka replied, starting the engines. "Blowing out as soon as Tyr's aboard."
"We can't wait for him," Dylan said. "Let's go home, fast!"
Beka turned to him in shock. "You gotta be kidding!"
"Dylan, we can't leave him behind, with a ship full of killer androids!" Harper protected, too. He wasn't a fan of Nietzscheans by any measure, but Tyr was one of them now. Plus he had a wife and an unborn kid back on the Andromeda.
"Why not?" Dylan asked. "He'd do the same, if our roles were reversed. He's a Nietzschean. He'll understand that we must save ourselves, first and foremost. Besides, he's a big boy. He can take care of himself. Beka, let's get out here!"
"If you try, I'll shoot your pilot console to pieces," Amritray said calmly, aiming her gun directly at Beka's controls.
Dylan's pale eyes narrowed. "You're bluffing. No Nietzschean would ever sacrifice his or her life for another one. Suicidal tendencies aren't in your genetic make-up. Beka, let's launch."
"Do it, and you won't be able to fly this rustbin for a very long time," Amritray warned, completely unfazed. "Tyr is my Pride Alpha. I'm just an outcast, an infertile female. My life is insignificant for the furtherance of the Pride. His is crucial. I won't allow you to abandon him."
"Uhhh, people," Harper looked up from his engineering console. "This whole muscle-flexing is pointless. We can't launch. Hangar doors won't respond."
"Have you checked the crew manifest?" Rev Bem asked in genuine surprise.
Freya nodded. "Checked and re-checked and even made a thorough search through the entire Pax database, thank to Mr. Harper's hacker skills. There cannot be any doubt. She's not on the crew manifest."
"Strange," the Magog's ears twitched in excitement. "We might be on something here… Perhaps we should tell this Dylan?"
"That'd probably be a good idea," Freya agreed, "since he's having dinner with that woman right now. I wonder who she really is. A Dragan agent, maybe, who's had her bone blades removed to pass as a human?"
"That's known to have happened frequently," the Sapphire Than said thoughtfully. "Let's hope you can reach Captain Hunt before he gets disembowelled by her dinner date, shall we, Reverend Behemial?"
Freya and Höhne, who'd just joined them out of curiosity (after having prepared everything for the big showdown he and Tyr had been planning ever since finding the Pax) gave her blank looks. Arjuna, lurking in the background to protect Freya, looked around suspiciously. Was there someone else hiding in the science lab? But all he saw was one of the droids, doing some maintenance work.
"That would be me," Rev Bem explained placidly. "I've been given the name 'Reverend Behemial Far-Traveller' in my order. But when Harper came aboard the Maru, he found it too bothersome and shortened it 'for daily use', as he put it."
"He's a practical one," the Sapphire Than nodded. "I've got the Maru for you."
"Thank you, Wisdom," Rev Bem leaned over the comm unit. "Dylan, can you hear me?"
Dylan's stressed-out face appeared on-screen. "Rev, this isn't a good time…"
"Is there trouble?" Rev Bem inquired.
"Trouble?" Harper's face popped up at about the height of Dylan's shoulder. "You certainly might say that."
"We can't launch," Beka explained tartly. "The Pax won't open the hangar doors for us, and the crew's just tried to kill us. Plus, Tyr's missing."
"Hmmm…" Rev Bem said. "I don't know if it's pertinent to your current situation, but I've discovered something disturbing about Lieutenant Pearce."
"What?" Harper snapped. "That she's a psychotic android with a grudge? We've already discovered that, thank you very much."
"An android," the Magog said thoughtfully. "Well, that explains a lot, doesn't it? But I was actually going to say she's not on the crew manifest."
"Of course not," Dylan said, his eyes widening in sudden understanding. "'Pax' is Latin for 'peace'. Peace – Pierce. Jill – Ma 'jill' anic. Jill Pierce is the Pax Magellanic, the ship made flesh."
"Does that mean she's the one ordering these androids to kill us?" Harper asked. "But why? And how come the sensors registered her as a human being?"
"The life signs must've been faked," Radiance of Wisdom answered. "That's easily doable. As for the why… we know that ship's still hiding something. It must be a really big and ugly secret, if it's willing to kill us all for it – even Captain Hunt and Rommie."
"I wonder why Rommie didn't see it sooner," Rev Bem said with mild reproach in his scratchy voice.
"Pax changed her avatar," Rommie answered defensively. "We used to call her 'Maggie'... and she used to have a different look. But what are we doing with her now?"
"There's a simple solution," everyone jumped a little when the screen split and Tyr appeared on one half of it. "Erase it."
"If you erase her, you kill her!" Rommie cried.
Tyr rolled his eyes. "And if we don't erase her, she'll have her army of androids kill us all. After which they'll most likely destroy the Andromeda to cover their trail."
"He's right, Rommie," Dylan said. "We don't have a choice. Access code Lexic-Dark-52..."
"Dylan, wait!" Rommie begged, and Tyr cursed inwardly. They almost had the legal code to erase the Pax AI, which would have been a much safer procedure than using Finnabair's virus. "Whatever is wrong with her, the Pax is still a sentient ship and your fellow High Guard officer."
"Who's trying to kill us," Harper reminded her. "I hate to say this, Rom-doll, but I'm with Tyr in this one."
Rommie turned to him with a very convincing display of eyes blazing with fury. "She took an oath to die for the Commonwealth's principles, the same oath that Dylan and I took. If you just kill her without investigating – without applying those principles – then her life was meaningless."
"And what about our lives?" Harper scowled, angrier than they'd ever seen him since he hired on to the Andromeda. "Sorry to burst your bubble, Rommie, but I'm, not risking my life for the principles of an organization that's been dead for three hundred years – due to said principles. The Harper isn't into suicidal actions."
"I'm afraid it's not your decision, Mr. Harper," Dylan said dismissively. "Rommie, what should we do?"
Nobody but Amritray saw the sudden hardening of Harper's face. As if the engineer had been backhanded. Which he, in a sense, had. Having been told that his life was less important than an insane ship's AI. That he had no saying in this, despite the fact that his own life was at risk. Amritray wondered how many more punches in the face were needed to change the little engineer's loyalties. Sometimes it seemed as if Captain Hunt would do his best to alienate his own crew. Which was fine with her. It only strengthened Tyr's position.
"If I could just go back into the memory archives, I might find out what the ship is hiding and fix it," Rommie offered.
"All right," Dylan gave in. "But I'm going in there with you."
"Erm… Captain," Rekeeb intervened nervously, "that's not a good idea. We've already had this discussion. I should accompany Andromeda… or Mr. Harper. We're better equipped for this sort of…."
"No," Dylan interrupted brusquely, "you're not family." He put on the VR goggles, preparing to enter the matrix. "Watch our backs," he ordered, before going slack.
Tyr glared from the screen unbelievingly. "He's risking your lives to save a machine? In case you haven't noticed, the androids have just managed to push open the hangar bay door, gaining access to the Maru. Things are about to become really ugly."
"Where are you?" Beka asked.
"Coming," Tyr replied, "but still several decks away.
"Then I suggest you hurry up," Harper scowled, "because for my part, I haven't taken any oath for the principles of any long-dead Commonwealth, and I'm surely not ready to die for them."
Unexpectedly, Tyr grinned at him. "Don't fret, little man. I won't let you be harmed. You are too valuable in the machine shops."
"Geez, thanks, I love ya, too," Harper growled, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"Harper, behave," Beka said impatiently. "Tell me, could you hack into the matrix and erase the Pax AI, in case we needed to do this despite Dylan's noble intentions?"
"Perhaps," Harper shrugged, "but it would be dangerous for Dylan and Rommie. We shouldn't risk that. But when they come out… I can try. Are you really willing to do it?"
"Not yet," Beka said. "I'll let Dylan have his way for the time being. Tackling an insane High Guard warship might be just as dangerous. But I want to know what's going on in that matrix. Rekeeb, could you eavesdrop a little?"
"I'll try my best, Captain Valentine," Rekeeb promised meekly, and put on the ersatz pair of goggles.
Outside the Maru, the androids started banging on the fighter's doors, as if they'd be trying to open them by sheer force.
"This is insane," Harper said. "They won't be able to break through the Maru's hull – will they?"
Beka shrugged. "You're the engineer. You tell me."
"They shouldn't," the Emerald Than replied in Harper's stead. "Unless, of course, they intend to blow a gaping hole through the bulkheads. They're insane enough to try, I think."
They all listened to the noise the androids were making in concern – until it suddenly stopped, and after a moment of deadly silence, opera music started to play all across the Pax' comm system.
"This is getting weird, Boss," Harper commented, grabbing his nanowelder and choosing the highest energy setting.
Beka raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "Getting?"
The banging on the doors stopped. For a moment, just the swelling of the opera music could be heard – then the doors opened easily.
"Security systems overridden," the Maru computer reported.
"Oh crap!" Harper shouted, momentarily spooked, seeing Dutch, whose head had apparently been reattached, entering the Maru.
Amritray threw him a gauss rifle. "You'll need more firepower than the 'welder. Shoot them either in the head or in the chest – both solutions would interrupt vital functions, no matter where their motherboards are placed."
The opera music swell, on, washing over every single deck of the Pax. The androids boarded the Maru, driven by the single-minded urge to murder the crew, moving like a bizarre ballet ensemble of death and destruction. Beka, Celestial Fire and Amritray were fighting the intruders, slowly losing foothold on the Maru's corridors, while Harper retreated to the cockpit to protect Rommie, Dylan and Rekeeb, who were sitting in front of the console controlling the Maru's VR matrix, helpless and oblivious of the drama unfolding around them, with the opera music swelling to new heights in the background.
The noise level became painful for Celestial fire's sensitive hearing receptors, distracting her from the fight at hand. One of the androids dealt her an energy surge that would have been deadly for any humanoid, although Beka hoped the tough bug would survive. Amritray somersaulted from the bulkhead and shot the head of the android to glowing pieces.
"Repair that!" she scowled, still feeling insulted that they'd managed to reanimate Dutch, then looked around for new targets. There were more than enough for each of them, and it didn't look good for the Maru crew at all.
In this very moment, however, Tyr arrived, seemingly out of nowhere, with a disturbingly feral grin on his face and a seriously oversized gun in each hand. He came in like a moving armoury, firing with each gun at the same time, filing the corridor with glowing, sparkling spare android parts and very obviously enjoying greatly the mayhem he was causing. In mere minutes, the corridor was cleaned – well, as much as any place covered with still jerking electronic body parts could be called 'clean'.
"It was about time," Beka remarked snippishly. "What kept you so long?"
"A dozen or so androids," Tyr replied. "Where's Harper?"
"Protecting our VR tourists," Beka said. Tyr shot him an unbelieving look.
"You left that boy alone with three helpless persons? Never mind," he interrupted, seeing that Beka was trying to answer. "I'll take care of the problem myself." Without waiting for her answer, he began to run.
Harper, in the meantime, was having problems. He'd lost his gauss gun in the melee, and was now trying to keep the 'resurrected' Dutch, who seemed determined to sever Rommie's connection to VR, away from the console, using everything he could get his hands on, from various heavy objects to the nanowelder. Unfortunately for him, his fighting tactic, that had often helped him against Nietzscheans in the past, were fairly ineffective against an android who wasn't able to feel pain.
"Duck!" someone ordered, and Harper did have the common sense to obey. Something big and powerful discharged just above his head, and Dutch flew backward, various parts of his body molten beyond repair. Harper rose to all fours, still trembling with over-exertion, and looked directly into the manically grinning face of Tyr.
"You sure took your sweet time to get here," he scowled.
"I was… hindered on my way here," Tyr replied, helping him to his feet and looking him over. "Are you all right, boy?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll live," Harper waved impatiently distracted by Rommie, Dylan and Rekeeb coming out of VR. The Perseid was cringing in pain.
"My cranial implant wasn't constructed to deal with that sort of static," he complained. Dylan paid him no attention.
"We need to get out of here," he said instead. Harper gave him an exasperated look.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know. It's not as if we wouldn't want to get the hell out – it was you who insisted on playing shrink to an AI gone mad.
Dylan ignored him, too. "You all right?" he asked Rommie.
She nodded, glancing at Rekeeb apologetically." I am."
"Can we go now?" Beka asked impatiently. "You can share the intimate details later. This isn't the time."
Dylan looked around the battlefield, still not showing any intention to move. "What happened here?"
"You missed Tyr's cavalry act," Beka replied. "Without him, you'd have managed to get us all killed, just to save an insane ship. Can we go now?"
Tyr, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy himself immensely.
"They were playing Wagner," he said. "It's the most fun I've had in about six months."
Harper rolled his eyes. "Übers. They are a perversion of nature."
"Perfection of nature," Tyr corrected, still grinning like a fool.
"Yeah, whatever," with the help of the Maru, Harper hacked into the Pax' board systems. "I've overridden the hangar door block. We can go any time you want. Now would be preferable."
"You go," Tyr said. "I'll try to return to the command deck and disable the fire controls."
"That'd be helpful," Dylan agreed, "but how do you intend to get back to the Andromeda?"
"In a slipfighter," Tyr grinned. "You can override the lock on the slipfighter hangar, can't you?"
"Of course, but…"
"Then do it. The Andromeda can use one more slipfighter, can she not?"
"Definitely," Dylan nodded. "You'll need my Argosy code, though."
"Don't worry, I already have it," Tyr said. "You announced it long enough at GS92196. So, unless the Pax demands a voiceprint or retina ID, I'll be fine."
"She won't," Harper said. "The core AI is very confused right now, so I've managed to switch all systems to low security settings. I can't guarantee how long it'll last, though, so we better hurry up."
Harper was proved right when the Pax started firing on the Andromeda as soon as the Maru escaped. The PDLs of the battered freighter had their work cut out for them to repell all stray missiles that otherwise would hit them instead of the Andromeda, and Beka needed all her piloting skills to dodge the shots sent directly after them, not to mention the variously sized asteroids in their way.
They stormed directly to the command deck, taking up positions, to Rev Bem's eternal relief. The Andromeda took several hits in a row, but so far she was holding out well enough.
"Prepare to return fire," Glittering Starlight ordered, vacating the command chair for Dylan and sliding into the pilot's seat. "Slipfighters One and Two are ready to launch to draw some of the fire away from Andromeda."
"That won't be necessary," Dylan said confidently. "Rev, call the Pax. I'm sure we can reason with her, now that she doesn't see her territory threatened."
"I seriously doubt it," the Magog said, "but it's your call."
To everyone's surprise, the image of Jill Pearce – or, to be more accurate, that of the Pax avatar – appeared onscreen almost immediately.
"Dylan… I'm sorry…"
"Maggie, you have to stop this!" Rommie begged her. "Don't make things worse than they already are."
"You've been a good little sister, Andromeda," the Pax avatar replied in sorrow. "I wish there were another way." At the same moment, the Andromeda took more hits.
"What the hell is Tyr doing?" Dylan scowled. "He was supposed to disable the Pax fire controls!"
"He might have run into… hindrances," Amritray said grimly.
"We can't continue to shoot down her missiles," Rev Bem warned. "Some of them are going to sneak through. And we have civilians aboard, Dylan, diplomatic personnel – we're responsible for their safety."
"I know that," Dylan snapped in frustration. The Magog's beady eyes watched him intently.
"Do you?" More hits shook the Andromeda as some sort of answer.
"Shall we return fire?" Sword of Midnight, standing behind the fire controls, asked.
"Enough to neutralize her missile batteries," Dylan ordered. "Don't destroy the vessel."
"Missiles away," the Than reported crisply. "Switching to external view."
The main screen now showed the Pax being hit by the Andromeda's missiles, and a massive explosion blooming on the golden ship, soundlessly, like a deadly flower of fire.
"The Pax… she's breaking up!" Rev Bem whispered in shock. Beka shook her head.
"There's no way our weapons burst could have caused that," she said.
"It hasn't," Sword of Midnight replied, studying the readings. "The Pax let down her defences. She made us destroy her."
"Oh, great!" Harper rolled his eyes. "Not just psychotic, but suicidal, too. Tyr's been right. We should have erased the core AI. That way, at least we could have kept the ship." He paused and became deathly pale. "Ohmygod, Tyr! He's still aboard the Pax!"
"And the Pax is literally falling to pieces," Sword of Midnight added grimly.
Dylan shrugged, as if he'd have been about to say 'collateral damage', but wisely remained silent. Besides, at the moment he felt a lot keener the loss of an excellent – albeit insane – High Guard warship than that of his unpredictable Nietzschean fire control officer. Sure, Tyr was useful in combat situations, but in the end, he couldn't be trusted. No Nietzschean could. The only person Tyr would ever be completely loyal was Tyr himself.
Rommie seemed devastated over the loss of her 'sister', too.
"Maggie, why?" she lamented. "Why are you doing this?"
The image of the cool blonde beauty gazed at her from the viewscreen thoughtfully.
"You can't understand this," the Pax replied, "and I hope for your sake that you never will. This has been a three hundred year nightmare, and I'm glad it's finally over."
The viewscreen switched back to external, and they watched in morbid fascination the Pax explode in another deadly bloom of fire.
TBC
