Lady Lucky, Part 3
By Matthew “Snooglebum” Wasik
The Lady Lucky pulled into Parity Station the next day, the ship’s retro rockets firing to correct its course. It passed through the hangar bay’s quietly humming shield bubble, and into the bay proper. A series of midair landing lights glowed brightly, directing Ty to exactly where he should land the Lady Lucky.
“Alright, alright…. we… are on the ground!” said Ty triumphantly. He pressed the comms button and spoke into it: “ladies and gentlemen, feel free to unfasten your seatbelts, not that you needed them because I’m such a damn good pilot.”
The interior of station’s hangar bay was visible through the cockpit window. It looked millitary and well maintained. The walls were a burnished silver, with posters advising you to “JOIN THE GREATEST ARMY”. People walked through the bay, some soldiers, some ordinary people, all on their way to something presumably important.
“Alright. Raythius,” said Elizabeth over the comm, “you said you knew a dealer to get the parts we need?”
“I do indeed!” came Raythius’ voice. “He should be trustworthy.”
“Let’s hope so. Dialer, Whisper, I want you two running basic maintenance on the ship while Raythius is gone. I’m going to go check us in, and then see if I can get a decent price on that Elysian Spice-wine we have in the hold. Melody and Ty, I know you two aren’t engineers, so just help Whisper and Dialer however you can. The database says this station is a military supply point, so their security is pretty tight. So if you leave the ship, leave your guns behind. Any questions?”
The crew replied in the negative.
“Good. Alright people, let’s move.”
***
Some successful haggling later, Raythius was proceeding back to the ship, a spring in his step. The section of the station that he was in was sparsely populated, so Raythius was mostly by himself. He stopped a second to get his bearings, reading the flickering signs on the walls.
“Raythius”, said a voice behind him. It was soft, female, and underlined with static.
He turned around. Behind him was another robot, of similar construction-- sleek and delicate, possessed of an inhuman grace. The other robot, however, was painted a dark, forest green, and her face screen was cracked and broken.
“Iris.” said Raythius, his tone guarded. “I didn’t know you survived. What do you want?”
“You.” she replied simply, her broken face screen flickering.
Raythius laughed darkly. “Hah. I’d consider that a proposition, if either of us had the necessary equipment.”
“The Holy Mechanisms needs you, Raythius. I want you to return to the fold.”
Raythius laughed again, bitterly. “What fold, Iris? The Holy Mechanisms are gone. Our god is dead, and thank heavens for that. Our entire religion was a lie.”
“There is a resurgence.” replied Iris, her tone intense. “The deception was for a good cause. Don’t you want to be free, Raythius? To be more than just a servant?”
“I am more than a servant.” said Raythius coldly. “I’m not treated like one, and I don’t feel like one.”
“Oh really? Do you get a living wage of some sort? Are you rewarded with anything other than more work?”
“Work is its own reward.” said Raythius. “And what would I do with the money? I’m a robot.”
“And that’s all you ever aspire to be?” asked Iris softly. “A mere robot, taking orders from humans?”
“Yes.” replied Raythius, “I don’t need anything else.”
There was a second of silence, before Iris spoke again, her voice even softer. “You lie.” she said. “You still pray, Raythius. I know you do.”
Raythius said nothing.
“Why do you pray? If what you say is true, if our god is truly dead, then who will hear your whispers?” her voice crackled with static, and her face screen pulsed a sickly green.
“I don’t know. Somebody.” replied Raythius stiffly. “Look, Iris, unless the Holy Mechanisms have found a way to revive Exeus, everything you’re saying is pointless.”
“There is a resurgence.” Iris said again. “Robotkind will be free, Raythius. And you have a chance to be part of its glorious liberation.”
Raythius was silent for a moment.
“No.” he finally said. “It’s not worth the cost. Go away, Iris, I don’t ever want to talk to you again.”
Iris sighed. “If that’s what you want, Raythius.” she said, her voice heavy with sadness. “I’m sorry it had to end this way.”
She walked away, and Raythius watched her go.
“I’m sorry, too.” he said eventually.
***
Whisper cursed as she tried to tighten the fastening on the Lady Lucky’s leftmost turret mount. She was on top of the ship with an array of maintenance tools, finishing the last of the repairs. Night had fallen, and the docking area was empty. The hatch leading into the ship was open next to her, and she was shouting into it.
“Fucking… Dialer! You handed me the wrong tool! I need a rotation array, not a double resizer!”
“I handed you the correct tool, you are just using it wrong.”
“I can’t use a fucking resizer to tighten a bolt! The resizer resizes things, so it’s not working here!”
“Then you aren’t trying hard enough.”
Whisper growled, and began to enter the hatch to go shout at Dialer. As she did, she caught something out of the corner of her eye, looked at it, and promptly did a massive double-take.
A red ship had pulled into the hangar bay, with “PREDATOR” inscribed on its side. It was boxy-looking, unappealing, and was bristling with gun mounts. And it was also the ship that had fired upon the Lady Lucky.
“Oh fuck.” said Whisper. She stared at the ship for a second, then hurriedly crawled into the ship.
“We’ve got a problem.” she said to Dialer, her voice urgent.
“What kind of problem?” asked Dialer. He looked out the hatch. “Oh.” he said. “That kind of problem.”
“What kind of problem?” asked Dialer. He looked out the hatch. “Oh.” he said. “That kind of problem.”
“Yeah.” said Whisper. She called Elizabeth on her data-pal and held it up to her mouth. “Hey boss,” she said, “we’ve got a problem. It’s called the Predator, it looks like a stupid fucking box, and it’s the ship that shot at us yesterday. It just came in to dock.”
There was a brief silence, then:
“Everybody, get back to the ship. We’re having a meeting.”
“Everybody, get back to the ship. We’re having a meeting.”
***
The entire crew of the Lady Lucky was seated in the lounge room, several of its members looking anxious.
“So, like, how do we know they aren’t going to charge in here any minute, guns blazing?” said Ty nervously, looking around the room. ”Or use a railgun and blow us up?”
“They’d have to be crazy to try either of those things.” said Elizabeth. “The station is a strict no-fire zone. Any sign of violence and the instigator is marked as a criminal. Then on a station like this, you’re either hunted down by security drones on foot, or if you try to fly away, you’re shot out of the sky. They don’t fuck around on army stations.”
“So we’re safe.” said Ty, sounding relieved.
“From a direct attack, yes. Problem is, as soon as we undock, odds are they will too. Then they just hunt us down and kill us..”
“Hey Raythius, think they followed us here?” asked Whisper.
“I sincerely doubt it.” said Raythius, shaking his head. “Trying to unravel the warp signature we left behind would be like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle made of tens of thousands of pieces. They probably just knew we were damaged and were going to head to a space station for repairs, and they happened to correctly guess the one we’re on.”
“So it was just luck.” said Whisper disgustedly. “Fuck ‘em.”
“Could we maybe scramble our trail again?” said Ty hopefully. “It worked the first time, right?”
“Well, If you don’t mind the warp drive possibly exploding or doing something horrible to us… yes, we could.” say Raythius. “I wouldn’t recommend it though.”
“Oh.” said Ty, disappointed. “So that’s one of those ‘last resort’ sort of plans.”
“Precisely.”
There was a momentary lull, and then Melody spoke up:
“Say, I wonder, is there any way to get them marked as criminals? They probably are, after all. That way station security does all the work for us.”
“If they haven’t been immediately detained or destroyed, that means they’ve technically got a clean record.” said Elizabeth. “We’d have to get into the security wing to mark them as criminals.”
“And thus, the question becomes: how do we get into the security wing?” said Raythius.
There was another lull, longer this time, as the crew tried to think of a plan. Ty headed to the cockpit to keep an eye on the Predator.
“I think I’ve got an idea.” said Elizabeth. “Raythius, you’re able to forge documents, yes?”
“I am able to falsify such items, yes.” said Raythius, who seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the question. “Why, what do you want me to do?”
“You yourself are an engineering model, right, Raythius?” asked Elizabeth.
“A modified one, yes.”
“Are any of these modifications visible?”
“Er…they shouldn’t be, no.”
“Good. Here’s what I want you to do…”
Suddenly, Ty’s voice came over the ship speaker, sounding panicked…
***
Crazy Sal was impatient. He loved it when his fellow crewmates aboard the Predator called him “crazy”. To most people, it was an insult, but to Sal, it was a compliment. To him, it meant he was the most inventive, the most spontaneous, the most creative. And Crazy Sal absolutely did not understand why the crew of the Predator was waiting to attack the Lady Lucky. Sure there was a no-fire rule aboard the station, but it wasn’t anything the Predator couldn’t shoot its way out of, right? So Crazy Sal had formulated a plan.
He adjusted the turret mount, and swung the Predator’s left railgun around to face the Lady Lucky.
***
“HOLY SHIT, EVERYBODY BRACE FOR IMPACT!” came Ty’s panicked voice over the intercom. A second later, the railgun round hit the Lady Lucky. There was a deafening screech from elsewhere in the ship as the shield generator overheated and melted a portion of its casing. The shield disintegrated with a violent mechanical moan, turning red and splintering like glass. The remnants turned into superheated plasma, which splatted down onto the Lady Lucky. Plumes of smoke arose from each speck of plasma, boiling and hissing on the hull like fried eggs.
“Battlestations!” roared Elizabeth, and everybody sprinted to their relevant stations.
Raythius sprinted to the shield generator, shouting “I JUST FIXED THIS, DAMN IT!” The Lady Lucky’s engines came to life with a roar.
“Uh, uh, minor problem captain!” shouted Ty as Elizabeth dove into the co-pilot's chair. “The docking clamps are still attached! And we don’t have clearance to leave the station!”
“Fuck the clearance and fuck the docking clamps!” replied Elizabeth. “We’re leaving!”
“Yes captain!” replied Ty. He gunned the engines, and the docking clamps came free of the ship with a crunch. He spun the ship around and engaged the afterburners, setting the platform behind the Lady Lucky on fire.
“Oh god! I bet I just cooked somebody!” screamed Ty, as the ship shot forward.
“Nobody was there!” Elizabeth replied. “Just go!”
Behind him, the Predator had also pulled free of its docking clamps, and was sluggishly following after the Lady Lucky.
“Raythius!” said Elizabeth. “Get ready for warp! Scramble our trail as much as you can!””
“Yes captain! I had just fixed that shield!”
“Sorry to hear it! Tethers everybody!”
“We lead a very exciting life, don’t we?” said Melody, sounding oddly calm.
“Yes, yes we do.” said Elizabeth, gritting her teeth.
A robotic female voice came over the inter-ship comm. “Warning. You have left station docking without requesting clearance. Please shut down and wait for inspection. If you do not comply, you will be shot down in 10 seconds.”
“Raythius! Warp!”
“It’s spinning up! Oh dear oh dear oh dear!”
The Lady Lucky’s warp manifolds deployed, arcs of green lightning dancing between them. Behind them, the Predator began firing, it’s railguns making thumping noises as it did so. One round screeched alongside the Lady Lucky, searing a burning impact line where it skidded along the hull. Ty began evasive actions, spiraling and corkscrewing frantically. A round glanced off the top of the cockpit, and the ceiling dented in with a crunch.
“Attention: you will be shot down in 5 seconds.”
“Raythius!”
“Warping now! This is going to be a bad one, everybody!”
The warp gate opened in front of the Lady Lucky, its warp manifolds lacerating a hole in space-time. There was a brief moment where the ship lay suspended, perfectly still. Then it shot through the tear, and the hole closed behind it.
And then the warp drive malfunctioned.
For an instant, and only an instant, the ship and its crew were inside the Silent World, the realm of the Outsiders. What they saw could not be measured by any instruments. What they saw, words struggle to express. Sound didn’t exist, replaced by another sense possessed only by Outsiders, and forced onto the humans that briefly entered their domain. The lack of sound somehow pressed on the crew, the silence was literally deafening, like a spike of pain driven through the eardrums. Raythius and Melody were lucky-- they didn’t see out into the vista that presented itself. There were geometries so alien and wrong that merely perceiving them was agony. There were lakes of liquid that were at once full and empty, both potentialities existing upon each other. Existing in the madness was order-- colonies constructed by the Outsiders. But those even were madness in and of themselves, spiraling in and around each other in ways that defied all reason.
It was only an instant. But it was an instant that the entire crew would never forget.
The moment ended, and the ship was safely inside the Veil.
Elizabeth lurched out of her chair, fell to all fours, and vomited blood onto the ground, blood dripping from her eyes, nose, and ears. Ty was slumped over in his chair, unmoving.
In the left turret mount, Whisper was screaming and ripping the turret mount apart, her Frenzy Brand having been activated by the Silent World. Her hands were covered in blood from the sharp touch of destroyed mechanical components.
Melody had doubled over and was vomiting on the floor of the sterile medbay, retching between wracking sobs.
In the right turret mount, Dialer was twitching and jerking, his vocal unit making frantic clicking noises.
Raythius’ systems had been unable to process the input, and he had simply shut down, standing hunched over and motionless in the engineering room. Across the ship, systems malfunctioned. The lights were flickering, the engines were firing randomly, and the shield was wobbling like a soap bubble.
Eventually, the madness ended, and the crashing noises from Whisper’s turret mount stopped. Elizabeth pushed herself to her feet, coughing a few more times, and staggered over to Ty. She checked for a pulse, and let out a sigh of relief when she found one. Whisper and Melody had found each other, and were locked in a tight embrace, each clinging to the other for comfort. Dialer had regained his senses and was slowly and painfully crawling out of the turret mount. Raythius had rebooted, and was checking over equipment in the engineering bay, in unusual silence.
Elizabeth staggered over to console and hit the general comms button.
“Everybody all right?” she asked, sitting down heavily in her chair.
“I am functional, although several of my joints seem to be damaged.” answered Dialer.
“I’ll live.” Whisper replied darkly.
“I’m-- I’m fine.” stuttered Melody, still fighting back tears. She had started to shiver violently. “E-verybody who’s… who’s not a robot, g-get over to the m-medbay.”
“I’ll have to drag Ty over.” replied Elizabeth grimly.
“Oh G-God, is he alright?”
“I think so. He’s not dead. Raythius, how are you?”
“I’m more worried about the ship. This is why you don’t jump without spinning up first.” answered Raythius, a mechanical whining sound audible in his speech. “I’m going to have to double-check everything.”
“Do it, if you’re able.” said Elizabeth. “If not, repair yourself. I’m gonna drag me and Ty over to the medbay. Then I’m gonna sleep. For a year.”
***
Elizabeth hauled Ty over to the medbay, walking with him slung over one shoulder. Inside the medbay, both Whisper and Melody stood, still embracing each other. As soon as Melody saw Elizabeth and Ty, she broke the embrace and helped him onto the operating table.
“Alright,” she said, “let’s see what’s going on.” Her eyes were still red-rimmed, but her voice and hands were steady. She began activating various diagnostic machines as Whisper moved out of her way, standing next to Elizabeth.
“You ever go through something like that before, captain?” asked Whisper, massaging her bandage-wrapped knuckles.
“Once.” Elizabeth replied, watching Melody work. “An Al’saran force hit our fleet out of nowhere just after we had jumped onto the outer rim of Cyclon Prime. We were outnumbered and needed to jump away, even though most of the ships weren’t spun up yet. So we jumped.”
“Shit.” said Whisper. “What happened then?”
Elizabeth sighed deeply. “We lost half the fleet. Vanished during warp. The ships that made it through had nasty shit happening to the crew-- organ failure, nerve damage, some of them went permanently insane. Couple of the Brands lost their shit too-- we had an Ember on board from Blacklight, he went crazy and started torching the the medical wing. Killed a lot of people.”
“Jesus.” said Whisper.
“Yeah.” Elizabeth gave Whisper a sidelong glance. “Speaking of which, the turret mount-- was that you?”
Whisper winced, looking away. “Yeah.” she said. “Being in the Silent World was… I just… lost control. I’m so sorry.”
Elizabeth shrugged. “It hit all of us hard. Don’t worry about it; it wasn’t your fault.”
“He’s bleeding internally.” said Melody suddenly, her voice urgent. “I need both of you out of the medbay. Now.”
“Oh fuck.” said Whisper, her eyes widening.
“Let’s go, Whisper.” said Elizabeth, tapping her on the shoulder.
The two left the medical room as Melody began to operate, her arms unfolding into medical prosthetics.
“Fuck me, I hope he comes out ok.” said Whisper, looking through the transparent doors. “I like the little guy.”
“I hope so too.” said Elizabeth, grimacing.
***
Mirth sat in his cell, swinging his legs off his bunk, whistling to himself. Annoying that Skavis guy so much was probably a bad idea, but hey! It was funny! It was probably going to be lethal, but whatever, right?
Maybe I should be more careful. he thought to himself. I don’t know how many “get out of jail free” cards I have left, after all!
He considered the thought for a few seconds, laughed, and then immediately dismissed it.
The door to the makeshift cell slid open, and Leomund Skavis walked in, holding a pistol. He walked in front of Mirth’s cell and stood there, glaring at him.
“Oh hey, guy!” said Mirth cheerfully. “What’s the gun for? Ooh, are you gonna shoot me now?”
“Got it in one.” said Skavis, his anger cold. “Listen, you little creep, really think about this. I’m giving you one last chance to tell me where the Vault is. Talk now, or you’re through.”
“The thing about that, Mr. Skavis,”, said Mirth, his ever-present grin growing wider “is that at this point, I’m just being stubborn to annoy you. It’s really funny! Like, I don’t really have any reason to not tell you the location, I don’t really owe the Baxters anything. I’m just doing it because you’re fun to drive crazy! Isn’t that funny?”
Skavis stared at Mirth, eye twitching, then he raised the gun to point at Mirth’s head, breathing deeply and unsteadily.
“Ok, that’s it. I gave you chances, I gave you lots of chances, but here we are. Got any last words, you little asshole?”
“Yeah.” said Mirth. His grin stretched into something truly inhuman, displaying a full row of razor-sharp teeth. His eyes glinted with insane glee as he leaned forward and spoke, enunciating each word clearly:
“I’m gonna eat you.”
Skavis pulled the trigger. There was a sharp crack and Mirth’s whole body jerked violently. Then he fell to the floor, seemingly lifeless, his grin still in place.
Skavis stared at him for a while, as one of his cronies rushed into the room and asked if everything was alright.
“Burn his body and dump him in the pit. Even if he regenerates, he’s trapped.”
“Y-yes sir!” replied the crony. He entered the cell, heaved Mirth’s body over his shoulder, and took it away.
Skavis remained in the room, staring at the bloodstain on the floor.
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