Sweat began to drip down Demarion’s face as he stood and awaited his next move.
Were they going to request more? Did he make the brownies correctly?
The overlords that consumed the brownies slowly became lethargic. Some started to laugh for no reason, others became relaxed to the point where their laser grunt minions fell to the floor like sudden death had hit them.
33 RIVERA
ESRS Carl Sagan, Engineering
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 04:58 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Rivera awoke to the sound of the engineering team cheering as they quickly regained control of the situation. She rubbed the side of her head that was raging with pain from the hit she took, and then brushed aside the tiny orbs of her blood that had been floating around her face.
She looked and saw the grunt soldiers floating lifelessly. Her plan had worked; her message did get through. “OK, move, people, on the double!” She returned to her computer terminal to get an update on what had happened while she was knocked out.
Security camera footage showed a similar sight happening throughout most of the ship, grunts dropping, keeling over. According to Dr. Kostelecky’s discovery they were already dead, and being psionically mind-controlled by another source, their overlord squad leaders, many of whom were malnourished. Psionic powers required the brain to be operating normally, a brain that was as high as a kite wouldn’t be able to do that, thus the link would become severed. The grunts falling over meant the chef was able to nail Rivera’s pot brownie recipe perfectly. She grinned at the revelation, and made a mental note for him to bake her some later.
Challenge number two was now afoot, the overlords were still active and still a threat, they were just too high to do anything. It was only a matter of time before they recovered and attacked again, or worse, called for backup. That’s where Chevallier, Chang, and the habitat ring armory came in, assuming they made it in time. The overlords were Poniga after all, and there was no data available that would indicate how quick they might be able to recover from their trip.
34 PIERCE
ESRS Carl Sagan, Habitat ring exterior
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 05:08 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Dr. Travis Pierce sighed in relief as he saw Chang point at the hatch they had been traveling to since the space walk began. Just a few more meters to go, Pierce thought, during their climb upward to the top of the ring. Almost there, almost there!
Pierce stayed behind Nereid, the slowest of the four as he watched her back, something neither Chang nor Chevallier were concerned about. Nereid got Pierce out of his imprisonment, so he now felt the need to return the favor and get her to safety within the Carl Sagan. No way in hell was he going to allow her to be the last in the queue while Architect soldiers from behind scaled upward in pursuit of them.
Wait a second, Pierce thought, and looked behind at their pursuers. There was an overload among the four grunts. According to Rivera’s transmission all the overlords aboard had been incapacitated. Looks like they missed one.
The four pairs of magnetic boots slapped onto the exterior of the habitat ring. The experience was excruciating for Pierce as the artificial gravity bled away from the rotating section. Turns out, there was no need for magnetic boots, moderate gravity existed this far out on the ship. Pierce deactivated his boots and allowed his body to move with gravity holding him in place, it made running much easier since he didn’t need to use additional force to pull his feet upward to take a step. And given the fact he spent two years in the time dilation bubble, the least amount of work his sore and out of shape body had to do, the better.
Chang lead them toward the maintenance hatch. Being detected by the drones or soldiers was inevitable at this point. They were, after all, on the habitat ring which was spinning rapidly leaving them with very little means of using the rest of the ship as cover. An all or nothing run ensued as a result. Chevallier held her rifle forward ready for the unexpected while Pierce fiddled around for his pistol. The hatch neared, and so did the drone along with the soldiers from behind.
Chang moved forward first and began to lift the disk-shaped lid open as Chevallier’s weapon yelled and roared sending a message to the incoming hostile forces, stay away. The drone swooped down with its weapons charging and opened fire. A beam of white energy soared toward them and repelled off a dome barrier Nereid quickly threw down to protect Chevallier, Chang, and herself.
Pierce, who was lagging behind, was outside of the range of the barrier. Nereid’s mind, still weakened from their escape from the planet, couldn’t extend it forward to encompass him.
The explosive blast that followed in the wake of the drone’s attack launched Pierce backward, sending him spiraling to the pursuing soldiers. Without his magnetic boots, only the gravity that bled away from the habitat ring prevented Pierce from being lost to space. Had the explosion been stronger, he might have become a tumbling body lost in space forever, the border between gravity and no gravity was small.
Pierce got back to his feet and saw that he was now much closer to death as the four grunts approached with their blasters blazing. He looked up and saw his escape, the long tether that held the habitat ring to the ship. His EVA suit’s jets gave him enough thrust to launch upward and away from the gravitational pull. He glided toward the tether turning his body as he reactivated his magnetic boots, they clung securely in place on the tether. Looking back—or up—he saw the danger he had evaded. The grunts and their overlord continued to push on, ignoring him, and focusing on the other three who were in the process of climbing into the maintenance hatch, while the drone’s beam weapon chipped away at Nereid's barrier.
Pierce noticed that the four grunts were ahead of the overlord, moving at full speed, while their overlord commander slowed his run and watched from afar. It made sense that the overlords simply mind-controlled the grunts who were nothing more than undead shock troopers. The overlords needed to stay behind them and direct the flow of battle, if they went down so did the grunts they were mind-controlling. Pierce waited for the grunts to run far enough out of range, while the overlord stood, watching and controlling them.
Pierce aimed his pistol at the boots of the overlord and asked himself repeatedly if he was out of his mind for what he was about to do.
Pierce deactivated his magnetic boots and ignited the thrusts of his EVA suits jets. His body propelled back down to the habitat ring as his finger pulled the trigger of his pistol twice, one for each foot of the overlord, hopefully damaging its magnetic boots. He didn’t want to risk firing any more bullets, one missed shot would put a hole in the ring large enough for it to vent atmosphere.
His sneak attack drew the attention of the overlord, it didn’t have enough time to react as Pierce’s body came crashing down onto him, now bound by the gravity once again. The overlord lost its spear in the process and resorted to combat the old-fashioned way, with its fists. Pierce returned the favor.