19

MAN OR MACHINE

I AM SEETHING. No wonder he’ d seemed remorseful and had given me the suit like some consolation prize. I can’t even think about the man without wanting to dice him into tiny, unrecognizable pieces and scatter him to the wind. But my greedy, soulless father will have to wait. Right now, I have to deal with being in close quarters with a man twice my age who wants me to be his little hybrid breeding toy. The ship is tight enough with six people, let alone ten.

We’ d left Avaria on time. Inka made me swear not to share with anyone what she’ d told me—at least, not until we reached the relative safety of Neospes. Her father has a way of making ugly things happen, and it turns out that Matias isn’t just a weapons expert. He’s also her father’s right-hand man. He’s trained in a full range of combat techniques and is particularly skilled at making people disappear.

“You’ d be putting your king at risk,” Inka had said. “Aenoh will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Even if it means regicide.”

So I’ve kept my distance and held my tongue. I agreed to stay quiet for now because, frankly, the less Aenoh knows about what I know, the better. And I have no intention of marrying that old lecher. I’ll electro-fry myself first.

I glance at Bass, sitting in his usual spot in front of the plasma cannon. Sylar and Enola are up top with us. I’m not sure what the new rotation is, but I think Caden is at the helm with Sauer and Inka. The other three are resting. It’s an interesting dynamic, that’s for sure. I’m positive that Sauer doesn’t want three Avarians piloting the ship at any given moment. Other than the few words we exchanged at the waterfall, Enola hasn’t said much. I trust her more than I trust Aenoh or Matias, though.

“Hey, Bass.” I nudge him with my boot. “I feel like I haven’t seen you at all in the last five hours.”

He gives me a strained smile. “Trying to understand the maser contraption we have on board. Matias was… difficult.”

“How so?”

“Evasive is probably a better word.”

“But you know how it works, right?”

“More or less,” Bass says. “As much as I could learn in a couple hours, anyway.” He grins at my daunted expression. “I’m kidding. Have I ever steered you wrong?”

“No. Anyway, you owe me for saving your life when the moss monster attacked. I expect you to return the favor when you detonate that thing and I stay alive.”

“That won’t happen. You dying, I mean.”

His tone makes me pause. “How do you know?”

“Because I do. Now, will you shut up for a second so I can enjoy my sliver of peace before we have to go down into the hell pit?”

I grin. “Sure.”

Sauer’s pushing our speed. My suit’s information panel indicates that we’re going over two hundred miles an hour, almost double the speed of our outbound trip. Either Sauer’s become more comfortable with the Machine technology or he’s worried about the mega-killer maser we have on board—maybe a combination of the two. If something goes wrong with that device, we could blow ourselves and half the planet into oblivion.

“The maser,” I say in a low voice to Bass. “It’s contained, right?”

“Locked down and only Sauer has access—” His words are torn from his mouth as—suddenly—a massive collision rocks the hover, nearly tossing us off. It’s followed by another and another. “What the hell?” he yells, hanging on for dear life.

The hover lurches to a brutal stop. “Sauer, what are you doing?” I yell into the comms unit. “Why are we stopping?”

“Sensors show we’re coming into some bad weather,” he replies. “If a wind gust rips under us we could flip, and with that weapon on board I can’t take any chances. Have to set down. What are you seeing out there?”

“Holy shit.” Bass’s eyes are wide as he stares at something over my shoulder.

I turn and my breath stalls. The dark cloud on the horizon is thick and ominous, roaring forward like a massive wave of earth. Lightning rips through its center as sand cyclones spit bits of debris over us—sand, gravel, and fist-sized rocks—getting bigger by the second. The hull rattles as a huge chunk shatters at my feet.

“Sandstorm,” I reply to Sauer as I decipher the information from my suit pinging back from orbiting satellites. “Coming out of the west, and it’s big. Visibility is nearing zero. Rocks the size of bowling balls. Bass, we better take cover.”

“That’s not good,” Bass mutters.

“What’s a bowling ball?” Sylar asks.

“A big heavy ball about the size of my head,” Bass says, opening the hatch and ushering her and Enola inside. I follow, sealing the entrance behind me.

We huddle together and watch the storm increase in intensity on screen, feeling the impact of gigantic pieces of rock pummeling the sides of the ship. “Sauer, we’re not going to be able to withstand much more. One of those rocks is going to hit the hover gear, or worse.” My gaze slides to the cargo hold where Aenoh’s weapon is being stored.

“What do you want to do? We can’t outrun the storm, not at its current velocity. We’ d be lucky to last five minutes, if the wind doesn’t flip us. We’re sitting ducks.”

“Not necessarily,” I say, then pause, staring at Aenoh out of the corner of my eye.

“What do you mean?”

I don’t answer. We’re all going to die if I don’t do something. “I can fly it,” I say softly so only Sauer can hear me.

“Riven, you’re not… qualified.”

I glare at him. Technically, this ship was built for Machines by Machines, and I’m the closest thing to that. “I think I’m more qualified than most,” I say firmly. “Everyone strap in. You two, with me up front,” I tell Sauer and Caden. I see Bass’s surprised look—he’s kind of been my wingman the entire trip. “Sorry, Bass, there are only two jump seats in the cockpit. I need Sauer, and the Lord King has to be with him. Plus, I want you out here in case anything goes wrong with that shit-cannon.”

“What are you going to do?” Bass asks, narrowing his eyes.

“I’m going to fly us out of here.”

Sauer shakes his head. “Riven, we don’t know if the ship can take it.”

Another collision makes us stagger. “The ship can’t take much more of this. Either you give me the go-ahead or we stay here and get crushed.”

“Are you sure?” he says, drawing me aside.

“This craft was built for… a certain kind of pilot.” Like Sauer, I keep my voice low, even though I can see Aenoh straining to hear. “I’m pretty sure it’s computerized, and I can sync the coding to my brain. The suit will do most of the work. I’m taking a gamble, but the alternative is worse.”

“Do it.” The order is from Caden. “I trust you.”

“Don’t count your chickens just yet,” I mutter. “Now, strap in and do me a favor, Sauer. Close the bridge access panel, will you?” I’ d rather work without any distractions or disturbances… like Aenoh obsessing over my every move. Sauer does as I’ve requested, sealing the bridge off from the rest of the cabin. I take a deep, calming breath, feeling the ship rock from the force of the wind.

I enter a few commands into the ship’s computer and sync to it so I’m remotely connected to the operating system. As the ship runs its execution scripts, the rush of data is overwhelming.

Okay, Riven, take it slow, I tell myself as I engage. The engine reboots and the hover rises off the ground. Slow and steady. But my efforts are thwarted as a huge gust of wind sends the entire vessel spinning. I struggle to regain control, manually entering commands, but my response time is too slow. The ship sinks into a tailspin, putting us completely at the storm’s mercy.

“Strap in, Riven,” Sauer yells, panicked.

Collapsing into the command chair, I hit the safety button and the gel covering settles over me like a chest plate, hardening into place and holding me securely in the seat. An entire new array of instruments lights up on the dashboard, including two glowing liquid plasma orbs at the end of each of my armrests. I notice my vitals pop up on screen—heart rate, brain activity, blood pressure—the works.

“What’s it doing?” Caden shouts.

“I think it’s calibrating my stats to its operating system, making me its command center.”

After a few seconds, the screen goes blank, and then two words glow: EXECUTE OVERRIDE? My fingers reach for the spheres of shimmering, white matter.

“Riven, no,” Sauer says. “You don’t know what that is.”

I study the palm-sized devices. “It’s a port.”

“A port for what?”

“For me.” I plunge my gloved hands into the shimmering orbs without a second thought and feel my entire body come alive. Energy fires through me, the entire suit electrifying and making blue starbursts leap from my skin. Sauer and Caden shield their eyes from the intense brightness. Suddenly, I’m one with the hover… no, not just one with it. I become the hover. It is responding as if it’s an extension of me.

“What happened?” Caden asks.

“I think this whole suit is a neural conductor,” I say. Danton must have anticipated that I’ d be piloting this craft, and he engineered the suit to maximize uplink capabilities. “I don’t know how, but I’m literally plugged into the ship. I’m inside its brain, or maybe its brain is inside mine.”

Caden frowns. “That’s not exactly reassuring.”

“It’s like an extra limb. All I have to do is tell it to move. I think it’s how the Machines flew these ships—all through an autonomous mother control center. The suit has overridden it so it thinks I’m the control center.” I close my eyes and feel the entire ship shudder as the propulsion jets come online. “Hold on. We are out of here.”

Go.

The ship obeys like magic, rising sharply through the wind, rocks, and sand. I dodge oncoming projectiles and lightning strikes with ease, my brain at one with the ship’s autonetics. I only have to think it, and my wishes are executed with flawless precision. Exhilarated, I keep ascending until all I see through the screen is a welcome crimson sky. Below us, the ruthless storm is a dark shape on a path of destruction.

Settling my hands on the orbs, I push forward, steering the craft with a flick of my fingers. We’re racing through the sky at quadruple the speed of any hover. At this rate, we’ll reach Neospes in hours. The invigorating sensation of being connected to the vessel’s computer system doesn’t wane, and I’m tempted to push it further to see just what it can do. I can’t quite explain what it feels like—maybe like being on the inside of a giant robot. I lean right and the ship responds automatically, bearing right.

“This is amazing.” I glance over my shoulder. Caden and Sauer are both watching me with twin expressions of awe. “What?”

“Nothing,” Sauer says. “Well done.”

“Everyone okay back there?” I ask on the comms. “Bass?”

“Yes. That was a little gnarly, but we’re no worse for wear,” he says. He snorts under his breath. “Matias might have thrown up a little.”

I hear an indignant, “I did not!”

“Just kidding, man.” I can tell Bass is enjoying poking fun at the unflappable Avarian. “Who knew you could fly a ship like this?”

“I’m thinking my father knew. That means you knew.”

There’s silence on the other end of the comms. “We hoped it would work. It’s my programming.”

“Figured. Seems like your style.” Entering the coordinates of Neospes, I let the ship do the work. “Sit tight until we stabilize. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

For a moment, as the ship charts a course, responding to my thoughts, I wonder why I’ d ever been opposed to using Machine-engineered robotics. It’s superior technology, far beyond anything any human has ever developed. It’s heady enough manipulating one of these things.… I can’t imagine how a central control could have operated hundreds of them. Then again, the super computers had infinite interfaces. No wonder they’ d taken over.

Piloting the ship, I feel energized. More than when I’ d fought those cannibals in the bone yard. Then, the nanobes had given me strength to fight. Now, it feels like it’s the other way around—like I’m giving them strength. Maybe they’re getting stronger.

“Feel free to move around, but I’m not familiar with the atmospheric conditions up here. I’m going to take her down some, but it could be bumpy.”

“You’re glowing,” Caden says, coming up behind me.

I turn to him. “What?”

“Your eyes, they’re electric, like you’re lit up from the inside.”

“It’s the nanobes,” I say, and swallow hard at the look in his eyes.

It seems as if Caden wants to say something more, but then surprises me by leaning down and giving me a hard, upside-down kiss. Sauer turns away, embarrassed, and makes his way into the main cabin.

“Caden, you shouldn’t be—”

“Don’t say anything,” he says, peppering my eyes, my cheeks, my nose with soft butterfly kisses. “Just accept it.” He lowers his voice to a whisper as the door slides closed behind Sauer. “And that you’re sexy as hell when you go all ’borg.”

He captures my lips in another swift kiss. I don’t know if it’s because of all the nanobes firing inside of me like liquid adrenaline, or because of the strange position of his mouth, but every part of my skin feels like it’s on fire. My lips cling to the warm wetness of his, the nanobes going into a supernova frenzy. The combination of the stolen embrace and the thought of Inka so near makes the moment even more heated.

What’s five seconds? She’ll have him for the rest of her life.

Yanking Caden forward, I kiss him back with a fierce desperation. The ship dips suddenly as I lose focus, and we break apart so I can regain control.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Bass standing near the access panel. I wonder how long he’s been there, and I blush. His face is shadowed, but he hides his expression well as he disappears from view.

“I need to concentrate,” I tell Caden. “I can’t think clearly when you’re doing that. And you shouldn’t be kissing me anyway. You’re engaged to a girl on the other side of that door.”

“Sorry,” Caden whispers against my mouth. “I can’t stop thinking of the perks.”

“The what?”

“The perks of being a cyborg,” he whispers against my ear with a grin.

Oh. Those perks. I feel the rush of heat intensify from somewhere deep in the pit of my stomach, rising up through my back to my neck. The ship makes a sharp swing to the left, veering madly off course, until I manage to get it back on track.

“Sorry, turbulence,” I announce on the comms.

“Nice recovery.” Caden smirks.

“You need to go or I’m going to crash this thing. This is why the Machines were excellent pilots—they had no emotions. Now, go check on your future daddy-in-law.”

Caden places a hand over his heart. “That’s just cold. Fine. I’m going.”

“Will you send Sauer in? And Bass.”

“Of course.”

I shake my head at Caden’s retreating back, my heart racing and lips tingling. That boy will be the death of me. No matter how much I try to be indifferent, my puny defenses are no match for him. Especially when he kisses like that. We’ d both been caught up in the moment, and the truth is, I’ d wanted the kiss as much as he did. His timing is terrible, but it could be worse. We could still be stuck in the middle of an angry rock storm. In the grand scheme of things, a kiss is pretty harmless. Or, at least, I think so until I see Bass’s cool expression.

I ask Sauer to go run a diagnostic with Arven on possible hull damage. “See this area near one of the propulsion jets? I think it must have gotten hit. I’m sensing a slight drag, and I’m not sure what’s causing it. Can you isolate? We may need to shut it down. I’m dropping low just in case we need to switch to hover mode.”

Once Sauer leaves and I’ve launched the new lower flight parameters, I turn my attention to Bass. “Okay, spill it. What are you pissed off about?”

He eyes me and snaps, “You really think making out with the Lord King is the best idea right now?”

“Who’re you? My keeper?”

“No, I’m your friend, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m a big girl, Bass. I can take care of myself. And, frankly, that’s none of your business. It’s no one’s business but mine and Caden’s.”

Bass’s mouth thins. “And what about Neospes?”

“What about it?”

“What if everyone else gets hurt because of your actions?”

I shrug, frustrated. “It was a kiss, Bass. There’s a lot you don’t know about what’s going on. And, honestly, things are probably going to get a lot worse.”

He sighs, raking his hand through his hair. “I know more than you think. We need to be focused right now. In the field, out there, it’s us against a highly motivated enemy.”

I get where he’s coming from, and I’ d be concerned, too, if the situation were reversed. “Look, Bass, you’re the last person I want to fight with. What I have with Caden is… complicated. There’s history and, yes, I hate that he’s bound in this alliance, promised to someone more worthy than me. But I swear, none of that will affect my judgment when it comes to Cale or defending Neospes. You have my word.”

“She’s not more worthy than you,” Bass says quietly. “It’s the other way around.”

“Politics.” I smile at him. “We cool?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’m going to need you to—”

My words are cut off as the ship jolts violently to one side. Piercing alarms start screeching and flashing red across the entire instrument panel. Sauer comes running onto the bridge, followed closely by Caden and Arven.

“What now?” Sauer asks urgently. “We should be near the far side of the Outers.”

“I don’t know. The sensors are registering ionized weapons attacking the ship. Something’s going after the shields.”

“Something? What? How?”

“From there,” Bass says, bringing up a terrestrial view on screen.

A gigantic wave of Reptiles is firing active ion blasters at us. Sauer’s right—we’re at the edge of the Outers, the Neospes dome just visible on the horizon. We should have guessed that Cale would be waiting with an ambush. The enemies on the ground aren’t the only assailants. Suddenly, the ship’s display is full of interference from dozens of flying Reptiles. The hull shudders as another wave of attacks pounds the underside.

“Shields are at twenty-one percent,” I say. “We took a beating during the rock storm, and they’re using an ion pulse to chip away at it.”

“Why?”

“I’m guessing they’re trying to bring us down.”

“Can we pull up and go around?” Sauer asks.

“Not with the damage to the engine. We could implode. If we can’t flee, we have to fight.” I glance at Caden, my eyes glowing blue. “Permission to engage while we still have a chance.”

“Granted.”

Closing my eyes, I focus on the target—the Reptiles with the ion cannons pointed at the ship—and engage our plasma weapons. It’s like being plugged into a video game where my hands are the guns and my brain is the trigger. I exhale and start firing. Fire erupts where the plasma cannon makes contact, but the Reptiles keep shooting.

“Shields at eleven percent,” Arven says. “Nine, and decreasing fast.”

“We need a new plan,” Sauer replies. “I say we risk the engine.”

“Three percent.”

I make the call, pulling up sharply. I’ d rather risk exploding at fifty thousand feet than be swarmed by a group of carnivorous Reptiles. But it’s too late. Our shields have failed completely, and suddenly we’ve lost all forward momentum.

“What the hell?” Sauer growls.

“Hang on!” I set the engine for the maximum acceleration and, for a minute, it seems like that’s working—we start moving up. Then everything powers down suddenly. I lose the uplink and am booted out. For a half second, I wonder why we’re not falling out of the sky. I try to reboot but the control panel has gone completely dark.

“This is not good,” I mutter.

I try to resume communication, using emergency power to reboot and force the ship’s computer to come online. All of a sudden, the vessel starts moving slowly backward.

“Can you see what’s got us?” Sauer asks, punching in commands on the screen.

“Yes,” I reply in a dull voice. “It’s an energy field graviton net. That’s why they wanted to take out our shields. Cale wants us alive.” I sink back into the chair studying the cabin’s occupants. “We should have destroyed that damned tracker.”

“The one with the picture of the cage?” Caden asks.

Bass frowns. “Why?”

“That thing ran a full schematic on the ship. The photo message was a decoy. We were worried about decoding the message, when we should have realized what the tracker was really doing—luring us right into a trap.”

“How?” Aenoh asks.

I stare at him for a moment before responding. Bet he didn’t plan on this happening. “Bass, why don’t you explain to the chief how gravity and quantum mechanics works?” I don’t hide my sarcasm.

“It’s all about mass, matter, and gravitational force,” Bass obliges. “Energy field graviton nets have to be specifically constructed based on their targets, which is why they were unpopular during the War. The smallest change of mass on a metal ship would impact a graviton net’s ability to hold a target immobile, much less manipulate it. However, if you had exact specs on hand—say from a tracker that just happened to be on board—such a net would be impossible to escape.”

“Can we get out of it?” Aenoh asks.

“No.”

“What does that mean for us?” Inka whispers, watching Bass with wide, but fearless, eyes.

Bass looks up, his mouth twisting. “It means we’re royally screwed.”