Pax Galactica - A Space Opera

Chapter 41 - Hominem Ex Machina

Ophelia and Decker threw caution to the wind and just flew at high speeds towards their target. They had bigger problems than a possible sanction from the Parliament of Stars. Remaining undetected was pretty much out the window already anyway considering how many times the rangers had flown back and forth from the Heptagon.

After a few hours at top speeds they slowed down somewhat and started to fly low over the desert, looking to find the exact location where Helios parked the Cat's Pajamas. They were able to get a rough location thanks to their implants but the desert was vast and difficult to navigate precisely.

"Do you know anything about any of this Inxon stuff?" asked Decker.

"Just what everyone knows," said Ophelia. "Don't mess with their stuff or the Successors will kill you. Do you know anything?"

"That's all I know as well. Other than what I saw for myself, which was terrifying but I which I still don't understand. Looks like the Successors aren't so protective of it without a reason. I've seen first hand what happens when that stuff falls into the wrong hands."

"Where are the Successors when you need them? Once we get out of here we should tattle on Helios to them. That'll show her."

Decker was silent for a moment.

"Did she ever show any signs of this before?" he finally asked.

"Did Helios ever show any signs that she might go crazy and try to kill me?" asked Ophelia. She let the question hang in the air for a moment before she answered it. "No. She didn't."

Ophelia's Suit highlighted a glint of silver on her H.U.D.

"There's the ship!" she yelled, pointing.

Ophelia came in for a hard landing, kicking up sand. She ran towards the twin-engine ship at top speed, stumbling a little over the sand dunes.

A bubble around the ship shimmered and crackled for a brief moment as its shield came online. Ophelia smacked straight into the shield and fell backwards.

"Ak!" she yelled.

Decker landed a ways back, a little more gently.

"Careful," he said.

"Yeah thanks!" snapped Ophelia. "Cat's Pajamas, this is Squire Annesdaughter," she added, climbing to her feet. "Lower shields."

The ship did not respond. Instead it raised itself up on an AG bubble and retracted its landing gear.

"No!" shouted Ophelia. "No! No! No!"

The Cat's Pajamas fired off into the night sky.

"Sprell," said Decker, walking up beside Ophelia. "There goes that idea."

The ship grew smaller and smaller as it continued to climb.

Decker and Ophelia watched the ship go for a long time. The complete hopelessness of their situation washed over them as the Cat's Pajamas began to pull itself free of the planet's gravity well and flew straight out into space.

The surface-to-orbit weapons fired. You could see them explode against the ship's shields from the ground. It was a little like fireworks.

"All communications down here are jammed," said Ophelia, breaking the long silence. She was still looking up at the sky. "Without the ship we're on our own. We can't even get in touch with the other rangers down here. Don't even know what tribes they're with. Or which tribes will try to kill us on sight."

"We'll have to try and stop Helios ourselves," said Decker.

"How?" asked Ophelia. "Helios and I used AM weapons to bombard that Inxon thing and it didn't even scratch it. The walls are invulnerable, at least to any weapons we have access to."

"What if we didn't attack the walls?" Decker thought out loud. "If we could get inside somehow maybe we could still kill Helios. Your antimatter missile seemed to do the job on the Aranarth creature."

"Even if you're right, which is dubious, I'm out of antimatter. My Suit used the last of it blowing up the creature. Yours still has the full complement though, right?"

"It does," said Decker. "Give me a moment."

<I'm not doing it so don't ask. Especially not antimatter.>

<Suit, we need this. It's our only option.> thought Decker.

<I have to abide the rules. It's more important now than ever. I was given a direct order and it remains valid whether Ranger Aranarth is alive or not.>

<Please.>

<I can't. I don't have a choice,> insisted the Suit.

<You always have a choice,> thought Decker. <You said it yourself: you're a person not a tool. If you were meant to always blindly follow orders that could be achieved with a non-sentient computer system. You're more than that. And since you're not just a tool, but person, that means you're responsible for the choices you make. Mindlessly adhering to the obsolete orders of a dead man like a poorly designed computer program is a choice, just like giving me the tools I need to fulfill the oaths I took is a choice. You need to make sure you can live with the one you make. You're a member of A.R.C. too, you have the same duty as me. Don't tell me you're just following orders, that's not a valid excuse for a person.>

<What if I just make the situation even worse?>

<I don't think you can make the situation any worse. Infinity plus one is still infinity.>

There was a long pause.

<Alright. I'll arm some AM missiles.>

<I want all of them,> thought Decker. <We might only get one shot at this.>

<We could die you know.>

<Oh don't worry, we're definitely going to die.>

"The Suit is in," said Decker. "We have our antimatter."

"I always thought dying young sounded romantic," said Ophelia. "I'm less enthused about it now. How do you suppose we're going to get inside the Inxon construct to set off all this antimatter?"

"How do you get in anywhere? We'll talk our way in. Based on some of her insane ranting I think Helios thought everyone was going to side with her over all this. We'll just tell her that we've changed our minds."

"Do you think she'll buy that?"

"She thinks she's the hero here. To her it's the obvious position to take. We just needed some time to come to the correct conclusions."

"QX, we have our plan," said Ophelia. "Let's go blow up a maniac. Or three maniacs, I suppose."

They both shot back up into the sky, their cloaks flapping behind them.