23

“My apologies,” AI Mavis said. “But all Archangel armor must be powered down for service after a major mission.”

“That’s pretty fucking inconvenient.” I felt my fatigue more clearly now that I was back on the Bright Lance. During a mission, it was easier to put that aside.

“I agree, Reaper,” Mavis said. “This is unfortunate, but the rules are there for your safety and for the preservation of the equipment. Which is very expensive.”

“My advice, Reaper Cain, is not to argue with Mavis,” X-37 said to me privately. “She is a great improvement over Necron, but she has her idiosyncrasies. As a relatively young ship AI, her default mode is to follow rules and regulations very strictly. She doesn’t have data that is gleaned from experience and interaction with humans to make more advanced decisions.”

I listened but had already moved on. “All right, give me an update. Ayers awakened and released some of the hybrids, then escaped. I need some better details.”

“We leave for five minutes and the entire ship goes to hell,” Elise said.

“You were gone for thirty-seven hours,” Mavis interjected.

“That is exactly what I was going to say,” X-37 added.

“You know what I mean.” Elise sounded frustrated and I wondered if she would start to understand the kind of crap I had to put up with all the time.

“Everyone shut up,” I said. “Here’s what we need. First and foremost, find whatever ship Ayers left with. Meanwhile, Elise and I will meet Path and Henshaw at the hybrid vault to assess the damage. I’m really interested to see how Henshaw allowed this to happen. He was in charge of the doctor, right?”

“That is correct,” Mavis said. “However, he is currently in the medical bay—his condition stable but serious.”

“Great. This just keeps getting better,” I said. “Path, are you on this channel?”

“I am at the hybrid vault,” the sword saint answered.

“Stay there. Keep everything locked down. Elise and I are on the way.”

“I will be here,” Path said.

“Bug, talk to me,” I said.

No answer.

“Mavis, can you find Bug?” I asked. “He was supposed to watching Ayers and Henshaw.”

“I will attempt to locate the boy,” Mavis said.

The Bright Lance was a flurry of activity. Every guard and soldier had been called to duty. Major intersections had at least two armed men or women. We encountered a half-dozen patrols and were advised twice to use the stairs instead of the lifts

“There have been numerous sightings of the hybrid creatures throughout the ship,” Mavis advised. “Three people have been killed and several more seriously wounded. It is unknown what these things want.”

“Ayers left them here to create panic and disorder while he escaped,” I explained. “Where is he?”

“Doctor Ayers took the Lady Faith,” X-37 said. “That is how James Henshaw was injured. Apparently, there was some sort of struggle.”

“That dumbass brought Ayers onto his ship, probably for some sort of high-brow scientific discussion, didn’t he?” I asked.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that hypothesis,” X-37 said.

“Remind me to punch Henshaw in his throat when I see him.”

“I have updated your agenda to include punch James Henshaw in the throat,” X-37 said.

“Mavis, have you found Bug yet?” I asked.

“The boy is on the line and awaiting communication with you, Reaper.”

“Bug, talk to me. You were supposed to be watching both Ayers and Henshaw,” I said.

“Who do you think sounded the alarm? I sent guards to inspect whatever they took onto the Lady Faith, but they were too late. Hey, do you mind, Reaper? I’m trying to find these monsters before they kill someone. The ship has a lot of cameras,” Bug said.

“Sure thing, kid. Do your thing. But keep me updated.”

When Elise and I finally arrived at the hybrid vault, we found what I hoped would be our last surprise of the day. There was a small army of guards and soldiers protecting the technicians that were putting new restraint mechanisms on each of the cryo-pods that still had subjects in them. There were also a lot of dead hybrids, killed by guards or by each other.

Commander Briggs sat on a bench holding a compress against an injury on his head. When he looked up, he appeared humiliated, hurt, and about ready to vomit. His formally ruddy complexion was now a dark shade of blue. Stripes went diagonally across his face and down his shoulders like the camouflage of a strange animal.

The man was also bigger, and he hadn’t been small in the first place.

I looked at his arms and saw bumps, little spiky protrusions where the other alien hybrids could extend tentacle-like arms that ended in ugly, serrated hooks.

“What took you so long, Reaper?” His voice was strange, barely sounding like the man I remembered.

“We need to have a long talk.”

“He took some of them with him. You know that, right?” Briggs said. “Why the hell didn’t you destroy all of us when you took control of the Dark Lance?”

“They call it the Bright Lance now.” I didn’t really have an answer.

Silence grew between us as I pieced together the facts of our new situation. Briggs sat with his head in his hands, looking at his feet. He swayed forward and back slightly, barely able to control muscle spasms that rolled through his body from time to time.

“I think he left some of the completed Slayers behind to terrorize the ship,” Briggs managed to say.

“At least one, but probably more. The ship is on high alert and we have guards everywhere.”

“That won’t matter. A lot of people are going to die before you put them down. Abandoning ship shouldn’t be ruled out as an option,” Briggs said.

“That will be easier said than done. There aren’t exactly a lot of Union stealth carrier ships around to replace this one. The captain will not want to sacrifice it. Not worth losing an entire ship.”

Briggs tried to laugh, which sent him into a convulsion. Every muscle in his body seized up at the same time, locking him in a state of agony for several seconds.

I wanted to help him but could only stand by, ready to catch him if he fell forward.

“Did you know there used to be four stealth carriers?” he asked. “That was until one of these things got loose and the captain refused to abandon ship. They did so much damage hunting it that it was eventually scuttled in the Quan Darr 11 system.”

“Did you have a Reaper on that ship?”

He managed to laugh without having a fit this time, sounding like he was blowing a tedious melody on a kazoo. “You always were as cocky as a son of a gun.”

“I have to keep you under guard and locked up,” I said. “We’re on the same side now, like it or not.”

“I’m not fit to be on anyone’s side, and my condition is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “Lock me up, but promise me someone will end it if I lose my ability to think like a human.”

We hadn’t been friends. There had only been one instance where I suspected he had done something to allow Elise and me to escape, but even then that was more of a hunch that I might have been imagining. After what happened to him, I felt a disturbing sense of kinship.

“I’ll do it myself if it comes to that.” I spoke softly but with conviction.

“Thanks, Reaper,” he said, his voice devoid of emotion. “I was hoping you would say that. You’re the only one I trust put me out of my misery without hesitation.”

There wasn’t anything to say to that, so I doubled the guards on his cell and left.

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