HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: INVADER (3/5)

The plan was chaotic. Their chances of survival - which were already slim enough - would be slashed to ribbons. They were on a dying ship, journeying towards an instrument of death itself... and now they were about to up the ante.

The crew gathered beside the F-88, watching Astrid as she stepped on board and disappeared from view, on her way to the cockpit to set the scheme in motion.

'Rez wouldn't like this,' Pari said.

'Then it's a good thing he doesn't know,' Mack replied.

'We should talk this over again,' Sudds pleaded.

'There's no time to think, let alone talk. We may already be too late as it is.'

'There has to be another way.'

'I don't like it either,' Kas said, 'but this is the only plan that will get us past the X1's without them shooting at us.'

'But Astrid can hack X1's,' Pari pointed out. 'Why can't she just stop them? Or better yet, use them to help us.'

'There were a thousand X1's on Selva when Swanne hacked them and look what happened to that. What do you think the Intelligence will do if ten-thousand suddenly go rogue?'

'But what if--'

'It's done,' said a voice. Everyone turned to see Astrid standing in the F-88's doorway.

'Then I guess that's that,' Mack said. 'No going back now. How long do you think we have, Astrid?'

'No more than four days.'

'Four?' Sudds repeated. 'We need to be at the IRIS in five.'

'Would you rather they arrived sooner?'

Sudds had no reply to that.

'What I wouldn't give for some weaponry...' Kas mused.

'I think I saw a piece of wood with a nail in it somewhere,' Mack joked.

'What about the F-88?' Astrid offered. 'I won't need its weaponry. We could remove its guns and patch them into the Pegasus.'

Mack's eyes bulged. 'You're not serious?'

'Why not? I can't fire the F-88's weapons without drawing attention to it, and that is precisely what we're trying to avoid. They would be of much better use on the Pegasus.'

'You want to stick a fighter ship's weapons to this?' Sudds asked. 'Is that even possible?' Everyone turned to look at Worm in unison. The girl pouted thoughtfully as she looked at the F-88 and then up at the Pegasus's ceiling. Kas didn't know if it was the lighting, but she thought Worm's face seemed to turn a pale shade of green. Worm lowered her gaze as she held up her hands and started signing.

'What's she saying?' Pari asked.

Kas struggled with a couple of the gestures, but she thought she got the gist of it. 'She says she can do it, but she needs our help.'

Worm nodded her confirmation, and Mack clapped his hands together.

'Well then... let's get to it.'

Over the next few hours, the team rallied together to strip the F-88 of all its weapons - under Worm's careful guidance, of course. Kas saw Captain Mack grimacing as each and every turret was pulled from the glorious ship like long black teeth, roots and all. Worm carried them away and laid them out on the floor in a neat little line like a deathly smile. Kas didn't know what most of them were, but she counted upwards of twenty. All of them were fairly small except for a pair of triangular-barrelled turrets that were each bigger than Worm. It had taken all of the crew to pull those free.

Astrid, meanwhile, had seated herself inside the F-88's cockpit where she appeared to meditate. She was, in fact, using the ship's computer to continue her work on her virus. Though her consciousness had transferred to the alien's body, she could still connect to the ship like she previously connected to the WASP mask - except this was much more powerful. The F-88 had become an extension of herself, like a plug-in hard drive she could access through sheer thought.

Once all the guns were removed, they could finally begin reinstalling them on the Pegasus. Only then did Kas understand why Worm had turned green before.

Since guns are really only of use on the outside of a ship, that was where the work would have to be carried out. Kas remembered how terrified Worm had been at the thought of repairing the Calista following their escape from Selva's wreckage - a job which seemed relatively easy compared to her new task. Worm would have to spend many hours, if not days, tethered to the Pegasus's hull while they sped towards the IRIS.

To her credit, though, Worm didn't try to back out. She knew she was the only one who could do it and she knew it needed to be done. Unfortunately, the only spacesuits they had with them were adult-sized, meaning before Worm could even start work, she first had to repair her X1 suit.

When Astrid shot her with the EMP rifle, the pulse had fried the suit's power cells and essentially killed it. There was still a chance to bring it back, however. While stripping the F-88 of its weapons, Worm had come across a mass of compatible power cells which were not only half the size of the other ones but also held ten times the charge. Since they were only needed to power the ship's internal lights, Astrid said she didn't need them and gave Worm permission to take what she needed. Worm gladly took a handful and replaced them with the damaged ones in her suit, and was thrilled when it immediately returned to life. She clambered back inside and checked everything was as it should be before suddenly remembering the reason she needed it.

With heavy feet, Worm dragged herself to the left side of the ship where there was an external hatch designed for allowing crew into space. In theory, Worm could've gone out of the rear doors, but that would have required everyone suiting up, depressurising the ship and disabling the gravity which all seemed rather pointless considering there was a custom built door just for the occasion.

With the first of the F-88's guns in one hand and a welding tool strapped to her torso, Worm stepped into the hatch - a small room about two metres square - and closed the inner door. The hatch was suddenly bathed in green light. With her free hand, she attached her suit to a retractable tether and nervously hit the decompression switch. The green light turned red and her metal body lifted into the air like a feather. All sound was muted before the outer door opened.