14 Surv1v0rs

9

"Of course it's a trap," said Reeves.
The storm was in full tilt. Nictitates of lightning lit their way. Outside, the world was swallowing itself, perched on the rim of an event horizon to be consumed and disintegrated. Even time itself, subjected to paralysis, could not stop them from descending into the stygian spiral, and dissolving into a molecular solution.
"What do we do, then?" asked Jack.
"We set our own."
They stood observing the generator house from the window in Sector 3.
"Shouldn't we get the others to help?"
"No," said Reeves. He seemed certain about this.
"Why not?"
"Fewer witnesses," he said. He palmed the axe, then slapped it in his hand. "I'm going to go in through the maintenance tunnel."
"He's going to expect that."
"You're going to distract him with Dilbert by sending him in from the outside. That means you'll have to be outside."
"We're coming in two ways," said Jack.
"Dilbert's infrared will be able to pick him up."
"He's wearing a spacesuit," Jack pointed out. "It'll mask his heat signature."
"He wouldn't have been able to get here that fast in a spacesuit," said Reeves. "If he was in one, he's taken it off by now. Restricts his movement."
"Why would he put one on in the first place unless he was going outside?" said Jack.
"He probably escaped outside and headed for the generator," said Reeves. "Like he did when he wanted to kill Steve. He travels undetected that way."
"His suit has a transponder."
"Easy to switch off, Jack."
"I don't like this," said Jack. "We're missing something."
"Maybe we are, but we'll find it on the way," Reeves said, and opened the door for the maintenance tunnel. "Keep me apprised of your situation as it unfolds," he said. "We're gonna flush him out. And I want to get to him before Dareel bashes his head in."
"Why?"
"I have a hunch. He might know who the infected person is. He's trying to protect him."
"Why?"
"Why do you think?"
"You're not saying he still wants to .... "
"Of course he does," said Reeves, and he let the blade of the axe drag on the floor at his feet, back and forth, back and forth. "You saw how he talked about it. He thinks it's superior to Homo sapiens, Jack. He'll kill all of us before he destroys it. But he's gonna tell me. Oh yeah ... he's gonna tell me."
"And then what'll you do?" said Jack. "What'll you do when you find out?"
"I don't know yet," said Reeves.
Jack felt a chill run along his vertebrate; his legs were suddenly loose and weak. Seeing Reeves standing there, hearing him drag the axe across the floor, looking rapt, murderous ... evil ... made him feel sick to his stomach. He could only imagine how this would all turn out. He was overwhelmed with the sense that he was powerless. Walking a slow but steady death march.
But what do you have to fear? I'm not what you're thinking I am. I'm not! I am not!
"What's wrong, Jack? You look ... you look a little pale ... sick even."
"I'm fine."
"You keep saying that," said Reeves. "I need you with me, Jack. More than ever. You're the only one I can trust right now."
"Yes, of course. Of course you can trust me."
"All right." Reeves turned, and shut the door to the maintenance tunnel.
Jack rushed over to Sector 1 and went straight for General Maintenance, where he found Karl and Marcus searching with flashlights.
"Did the storm cause the power outage?" Marcus asked.
"Yes," Jack lied. "Reeves and I are heading there to check it out now. But I think he went outside."
"If he went outside, he won't get far without a supply of oxygen," said Karl. "He'll have to come back. Stupid move if he did."
"Well, I don't think he went outside," said Marcus. "Think he'll try to sabotage our supplies ... you know, steal the O2 and run off, so we all die of hypoxia before Earth gets here. Then make up his own version of what happened. That's what I'd do."
"Who's keeping an eye on our supplies?" Jack asked.
"Nobody," said Marcus. "That's what I was just sayin to him."
"Go back there and watch it. Stupid of us to overlook that, but it's all happening too fast to think."
"Yes," said Marcus. "Like I was sayin. I'm doing the thinkin right now."
When they left, Jack slipped into the extraterrain suit and loaded it with a reserve power cell. It added extra weight, but he needed it for opening the sealed exterior door. Then he activated Dilbert and interfaced with his controls, tallied him to autopilot, and had him follow him. He put on his helmet and fastened the O2 hoses, before heading for the sealed external door. He had to use the reserve power cell to bypass the seal, and then as the door slid open, he stepped headlong into the truculent storm.
Oh God, what am I doing?
He could see nothing visually through his visor except the skeins of sand sifting through the fingers of the CO2 atmosphere, and the blurred resonance of the sun caught in the mottle of clouds. He switched to the suit's ultra-sensors, allowing him to see in thermal, or a sophisticated suite of LiDAR and RADAR, and found the generator house and headed for it.
"Heading to the generator now," he said over comm.
"I'm in the stairwell," reported Reeves. "Send me your feed."
He could hear his own breathing gushing over the mic as he interfaced with the suit's cameras, and then transmitted them to Reeves.
"All right, you're close enough," said Reeves, as he approached the door.
Jack interfaced with Dilbert, took him off autopilot and switched him over to manual.
"Send him in," Reeves said.
Dilbert's lights lit up, and then he rolled forward on his tracks to the door. Using the robot's grip end-effector, Jack made him open the steel door, which swung open. He sent Dilbert inside.
Reeves watched through his implant as Jack switched to thermal and scanned the generator house. Then he used LiDAR. Nothing turned up on the scanner.
"Where is he?" said Reeves.
"I don't know," Jack responded. "We're in a blind spot, Reeves."
"Go in farther," said Reeves. "Don't know how far the sensors reach."
He was right. LiDAR did not cover the whole interior of the generator house. It had limited mapping capabilities.
Dilbert rolled farther inside, and the LiDAR imaging began to map out the interior piecemeal.
"What are you seeing?"
"I'm transmitting the feedback," said Jack.
He thought maybe he should send out the drone sensors for a better visual. But just then, something flashed in his interface.

> Threat detected <

"What's that?"
Jack switched to camera mode and focused in on it.
"Oh hell," he said.
"It's a goddamn mining charge," said Reeves. "He's going to blow us all to hell."
"A mining charge," said Jack. "Reeves—he got it off the ship."
"Looks like it. He smuggled a lot more than we thought."
"I can't get it with this robot," said Jack. Sure, Dilbert could open doors and fix stuff, but he wasn't capable of using his grip end-effector to unfasten a charge that had been augmented to magnetically attach to the generator.
"I'm going in," said Reeves. "Watch my six."
"Copy that," said Jack.
He watched as Reeves opened the door to of the stairwell and went inside. Cautiously, he made his way to the generator, then hunkered down and shined his flashlight on the charge. After studying it for a moment, he said, "It's been augmented with a magnetic clamp, but there's a motion sensor on it that's blinking," said Reeves. "It's jerry-rigged to go off, I bet, if I move it."
"He must have been planning this for a while to have modified one of the mining charges," said Jack.
"Not really," said Reeves. "It only takes an hour with the right tools. Something you learn in the military."
"Can you remove it?" Jack asked.
"I'll need to get the detonator, Jack."
"That means you'll have to find Kaiser," said Jack. "And he's not here."
"No," said Reeves. "I was wrong about him. He did leave. But he's gonna blow us into space dust. That's his plan."
"He's not gonna destroy the only supply of oxygen; he'll need that," said Jack. "I told Marcus and Karl to watch it."
"Good work, Jack. But Kaiser is armed with an industrial strength Laser-bore."
"Okay," said Jack. "But he won't blow the generator until he's gotten the O2 and is clear of Nerva."
"We'll have to intercept him then," said Reeves.
"Okay," said Jack. "But now he has us just where he wants us."
"How do you mean?"
"If we try anything ... Reeves, he has the detonator."
Reeves swore. "You're right. Let me think of something."
We'll have to kill him, thought Jack. No other option. We'll have to kill him ... and suddenly. Not slow and painful, so he can disclose information. Yes—and then he won't be able to talk. He won't be able to tell Reeves who was infected ....
That was when he heard the voice.
"Do as I say, Jack, and I won't have to kill you."
"What?"
"I said I'll need to get the detonator without alerting him—or jam it. I think we have a jammer. No ... wait .... "
Jack turned and looked around in the storm, but he could see nothing in the wild sandstorm.
"Reeves?"
"You're on another channel," came the voice.
"K-Kaiser?"
He strained to see through the storm, but all he could see were the flurries of sand.
"Jack?" said Reeves. "Do you copy?"
"What did you do to my comm?" Jack asked the voice.
No response.
He turned around, and switched to LiDAR. When he did, a light pinged on on his helmet's LCD display.
But the mapping imagery suddenly went blurry. He couldn't see anything. Whoever it was, was jamming his sensors.
Now he switched to normal view, and looked out through his visor at the storm. Through the torrents of sand particles he could see a silhouette of something coming toward him. A spacesuit.
Adrenaline surged through his veins.
"Who are you?"
"You know who I am, Jack," crackled the voice.
"Jack?" cried Reeves over the comm. "Jack, do you copy?"
"No," said Jack. "I don't know who you are."
"Sure, you do, Jack," crooned the voice, as the silhouette approached him through the curtains of the storm, the sand blowing off its suit in powdery clouds. Then, suddenly, it stopped in place.
"I am you."