Lieutenant Bart McSwain by Frank Carey

Author:Frank Carey [Carey, Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-02T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Charis and Zoe examined the probe bots Charis had retrieved while strykers walked past carrying equipment and supplies they had stripped from the station to the waiting mech ship. "Excellent, Charis. Excellent. Radiation and vacuum hardened with advanced autonomous capabilities. Remind me why we ordered these in the first place."

"Is the mech personality dead?" she asked in reply.

Zoe glanced at the synth. "Of course. What's gotten into you, Charis? You seem perturbed."

"I find your callousness towards life to be disturbing, especially considering your proclivity to create it."

"Really? Hmmm, I never thought of it that way. I prefer to think that I am weeding out imperfections in the genome of the universe. Take these probes down to sub-level six and release them. Contact me if you find anything."

"Yes, mistress."

Charis picked up the crate and walked away, leaving Zoe to wonder if her creation was under too much stress. Shrugging it off as inconsequential, the good doctor walked off to see how the rest of her creations were faring.

###

Bart ran into an empty lab and threw his pack onto a table, while closing the door behind him. He emptied the pack and rummaged through the contents as he searched for his universal spanner. "Dammit! I must have left it on top of the food synthesizer!" He needed the spanner to rig the core to blow and a quick search didn't turn up one in the lab, so he brought up the station map on his computer. "There's a maintenance shop near the end of this corridor. I bet there's a u-spanner in there," he muttered as he stuffed his gear in the pack and headed out the door.

He quickly found the shop, and once inside, he began a systematic search for the spanner.

"Looking for this?"

Bart spun around and saw his late wife leaning against a console with the u-spanner in her hand. "Those weren't dreams or hallucinations, were they?"

She shook her head, then threw the wrench onto the table in front of him. "Nope. I'm... We are one of Zoe's experiments. Unlike the strykers, we're not morons. We knew we had to have time to evolve, so we jacked a temporally accelerated field generator to give us that time."

"The glowing ball?"

She nodded. "It's amazing what a pile of nanorobots can become given enough time."

"What do you want?"

"The key to your spacecraft. We're leaving, and that's our ride."

Bart looked at her. "I assume you know I am under orders to kill Zoe and destroy the strykers. I think the latter part of the directive may include you and your people."

"I can guarantee it includes us. We could be far more dangerous than a mad scientist or her half-baked offspring. We just want to get out of this tragedy and get on with our lives."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black cylinder about two-inches long and a half-inch wide. He looked at it for a moment before throwing it to her. "Her name is Betty. She's fast and reliable. Take care of her, and she'll take care of you.

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