The sheer force of air rushing from behind knocked her off her feet. She rolled and skidded down the hall, catching a corner awkwardly with her foot. “Pain meds, right ankle,” she told her suit, she knew she at least had a bad sprain.
It only hurt for three steps, then she was fine. It was a price she'd pay later. There was a group of soldiers coming towards her from another corner. From the other side of her jacket she pulled the second and last belt of grenades. As the lead soldier peeked around the corner she tossed the twenty centimetre long belt straight at his head. It looped around his neck, the six second fuse counted down.
In all her life she never ran so fast. She was almost there, just another corner and two hundred meters. The corner came up and she dove behind it, landing on her back, thanking the creators of the impact resistant vacsuit she wore. For a whole breath she looked into the visors of a pair of guards whose hesitation must have been a symptom of their surprise.
Then the grenades went off. The pair of guards were knocked off their feet by the violent concussive force. It took a moment for her sensors to reset and get back to normal, and she used the seconds to stand up. She straightened her jacket and brushed the dust and debris from the front of her vacsuit. “Lewis, open this door,” she ordered through her communicator.
A second later it opened to reveal Jonas Valent, just as she remembered him, only he was in plain grey civilian clothing, holding a thin computing pad. She stepped inside and let the door close behind her. “Lewis, increase gravitational force in the passages around this room by a factor of five point five.”
He stood, cocked his head and looked at her. “Wrong turn?” he asked.
Retracting her headpiece she smiled at him brightly. “Do you remember your eighteenth birthday? After the party was finished and you were back home in your room I asked you what you wished for?”
He didn't understand, but she had his attention.
“You told me you wished to live in interesting times. A few years later you found yourself on All-Con Prime watching a foundry explode and said; 'you just can't pay for this kind of entertainment back home.'”
He looked at her in disbelief for a moment and smiled.
She went on. “I commented; 'that's pretty good evidence that wishes can come true.'”
“Alice?” Was Jonas' only response.
“Daddy's little girl is all grown up,” she ran over and jumped into his arms. To her relief and joy he actually squeezed her back. The moment couldn't last, however. “We have to go. I don't know how long Lewis can keep everyone on their faces. He has the gravity turned up to five point five.”
“Yup, that kind of gravity would strain systems. Who's Lewis?” He asked as he accepted her rife.
“He's my artificial intelligence.”
“Nice. Let's get out of here.”
“The primary artificial intelligence is redoubling its efforts to regain control Alice, I don't know how long I can maintain this,” Lewis informed her.
“All right, stop work on everything but keeping yourself intact and keeping the corridors nearest us set to increased gravity.”
“I will try.”
Alice looked to Jonas. “Now we head to my ship.”
“Thank God you have a plan, because I don't have a clue.”
They stepped out into the hallway and could immediately hear the whining of the gravitational systems as they tried to keep up with the requested output. The pair of guards were in awkward piles. They tried to move, and would be fine once the gravity let up, but for the time being they could barely shift their weight.
Alice and Jonas ran as hard as they could, the sound of strained systems following them as much as the sound of their footsteps. They made quick time through several corridors. It was like some mad mixed nightmare. She was running beside her creator, twisted, contorted bodies wherever they looked. The level of gravity the crew had been subjected to wasn't the maximum tolerance of the human body, but it was enough to force just about anyone down. Lewis had set it higher than she wanted him to.
They reached a lift and Lewis opened the door. “I expect to lose control in less than ten minutes,” he informed her.
“Okay, clear us a path to the port reactor. In the meantime, deactivate gravity and the cars for this lift,” she replied mentally. “Change of plans, we have to hold the ship hostage. We won't be able to get to the ship before Lewis loses control.” Alice said aloud.
“You really do have a plan,” Jonas said, shaking his head as he followed her into the zero gravity of the elevator shaft. The door closed behind them and she lead the way down several decks. “I really just winged it whenever I could get away with it.”
“I know, that is until you took command of the First Light.”
“Yup, and then I relied on you for all the heavy lifting, cerebrally speaking.”
“Until I was transferred into the Overlord Two where I eventually found my way into this body.”
“That explains a lot.”
“We're here, time to put on a real show,” she started taking off her pack as they stepped into the corridor when a shot caught her in the arm.
Jonas pushed her to the deck and opened up in the direction the shot came from, catching the guard three times in the chest.
He checked her and saw it was a through and through burn that took a piece of bone with it. It was immediately evident that as a reaction to her brute force measures, everyone else had tuned their weapons up to their maximum setting. The reactor was just up ahead. There were three luminescent tubes a meter and a half across, each one filled with churning liquid that fluctuated in colour between deep red and deep blue.
“Pain meds are already kicking in. I'll take care of this myself. You have to plant this explosive,” Alice said, standing with Jonas' help.
“Gotcha.” He opened the bag and pulled the long cylinder free. The remote detonator was inside. He took a look at it. “Simple enough. Safety on the device here, and another safety on the trigger here.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, cover me,” he said as he started down the ramp to the reactor. There was another guard, but he had been crushed to the ground earlier at an awkward angle. Jonas made it to the nearest reactor tube and realized it was a regenerating antimatter core. “This is the most dangerous power system I've ever seen,” he said to himself as he affixed the charge and pulled the safety strip clear. He recognized the trigger system. If anyone moved it it would show on the trigger mechanism and the user would have the option of either setting a timer or blowing it right away.
He turned and ran back to Alice who was in much less pain. The vacsuit had regenerated across the wound as well. She smiled at him and flexed her arm. “Emergency nanobot kit built into the suit. My idea.”
“You make your father proud,” he said as he followed her back into the lift.
As they came to the level of the main hangar Lewis opened communications with Alice. “I am losing control.”
“Okay, deactivate dementia and upload yourself into the Clever Dream. Get her ready if you can.”
“Done.”
The way to the hangar bay was a grisly sight. The damage the Clever Dream was doing had caused a high temperature explosion throughout several hallways. They could see where pipelines had exploded, blowing huge holes in the walls and charring the decks and ceilings. The fire had been put out, whatever was flowing through those pipelines had been turned off but there were still corpses scattered throughout the hallways.
They turned the second last corner before getting to the nearest hangar access point when the door in front of them slid open to reveal a squadron of soldiers ready in firing formation. One group was in a kneeling line with rifles ready, the group behind were standing with their weapons trained on them as well.
Alice and Jonas moved with the same swift motion, diving into the adjoining hallway. Several shots rang out milliseconds behind them.