Pax Galactica 2 - Revenge of the Old Ones

Chapter 12 - The Lion's Den (II)

Gagnon had to disable layer after layer of fail-safes within his implant before he could get it to utterly suppress his mind-state. Doing so was as good as death, but it was the kind of death one could come back from. The kind of death not much more disruptive than a deep sleep if one didn't examine the philosophical ramifications too closely. Of course, if one did...

In place of his former mind-state Gagnon's mind became, in essence, a computer program. To be even more specific his mind became a computer virus.

The Old One space station was not connected to any external networks. Computer access was strictly controlled. With zero meaningful risk of an outside attack there was no reason not to network everything together for the sake of efficiency.

It was a fatal mistake.

Old Ones didn't trust AI; while it was impossible to run an equivtech society without it Old One AI were little more than half-lobotomized slaves. They were no match for a malicious program being wielded by a tiny personality shard of a true free thinking individual. Thanks to the extreme efficiency of the station's computer network the Gagnon virus had control of virtually every system in a fraction of a fraction of a second.

By the time the eruditists caught the smallest hint that something was amiss it was all over. The Gagnon virus had overloaded the station's water filters, burning them out one after the other. Unless they could be repaired the Old Ones would suffocate in their own filth in under an hour. Next he flushed every airlock on the station, save for the docking bay that contained the Don't Tempt me, blasting 10% of the pressurized sections out into space, water, equipment, Old Ones, and all. After that he disabled the locks on the cells in the detention center, but left them shut. It wouldn't do to drown Decker and Annesdaughter. Finally he activated the station's security systems after resetting their friend/foe recognition algorithms.

The program controlling Gagnon's force restraints released them, and the virus deleted itself. Gagnon's implant reactivated his mind and he woke screaming.

Of course this was different from being restored to life from a deathward. Continuity of consciousness had been lost in order for the virus trick to work. This Gagnon was a new Gagnon, a distinct instance of his mind-state just as surely as if he had been cloned. The original incarnation of Gagnon was now well and truly dead.

Gagnon was briefly envious of the version of himself that had died. May he rest in peace. In the meantime the new Gagnon had work to do.

The eruditists fled through the water and out of the lab just as the soldiers opened fire at Gagnon with kinetic lances. In the chaos of the fleeing eruditists they missed their first shots, damaging equipment in a spray of vapor bubbles. They wouldn't get the opportunity to to fire their second.

The station security system, no longer programmed to recognize Old One soldiers as friendly and lacking an AI authorized to make its own decisions like those found in most human tech, opened fire with the many kinetic turrets all throughout the lab. Blasts of kinetic energy obliterated the soldiers' defense fields in a series of beautiful explosions that worked their way through every color of the rainbow before finally settling on black.

Now the soldiers were forced to fight their own station security. It was a battle they had no hope of winning. While they took several turrets out with them subsequent shots utterly vaporized them, reducing the soldiers and their battlesuits to so many bubbles.

Gagnon took full advantage of the distraction. Taking a deep breath he removed the emitter from his neck and his atmosphere bubble popped. Pushing off the wall with his feet he swam out the door while the Old One soldiers were still being massacred by their own defenses.

Gagnon swam as far down the hall as he could before he was forced to reattach his emitter. His personal bubble filled back up with air just in time for him to take a rapid series of life-sustaining gasps.

He looked down the hall both ways. In one direction a swarm of unarmed Old Ones were fleeing down a tube connecting to a lower deck of the station where the primary water filtration nexus were located. In the other he saw an Old One in a bubbling, half-wrecked battlesuit get blown away by a kinetic turret.

As long as he stayed non-violent the security system would consider him a lower priority target than the soldiers. It was working; somehow his desperate last-ditch plan was working.

All it cost him was a life.

Gagnon removed the emitter again and swam off down the hall.

* * *

Decker heard the door to his cell open just as water began to flood in.

Two for one, he thought.

He immediately threw himself forward, hoping to get between the two soldiers and fool them into shooting one another. Instead he came crashing into Gagnon's bubble field and the collided with him.

"Sprelling-" Decker began to shout, but changed course one word into the sentence. "Wounds of Tellus it's you!"

<Take a deep breath,> signaled Gagnon.

Decker did so and Gagnon removed his emitter again, popping the air bubble.

The two swam a short distance to Ophelia's cell, reactivated the bubble emitter, and opened the door.

Ophelia looked shocked, but just for a moment. Her look of surprise quickly morphed into a mischievous smile.

"What took you two so long?" she asked, as soon as she had joined them inside the bubble.

"We decided to take in a play on the way over," Decker quipped.

<Don't waste air on jokes,> signaled Gagnon. <We're going to have to share one bubble.>

<So what now?> asked Ophelia.

<We make for the docking bay,> signaled Gagnon. <With any luck the Old Ones won't have had a chance to pull the Don't Tempt Me completely apart yet.>

<We can't leave without Bob,> signaled Decker.

<Bob could be anywhere,> signaled Gagnon. <The Old Ones won't stay distracted forever.>

<I guess we should start looking now then,> signaled Ophelia.

<He should still be hooked into the Don't Tempt Me communication network,> suggested Decker. <If we can boot it back up we'll be able to contact him.>

<Of course!> Ophelia mentally exclaimed. <I guess we head for the ship then after all.>

<Let's not waste any more time,> signaled Gagnon. <Deep breath.>

He removed the emitter and the three rangers swam off.