HAWK

CHAPTER ONE: CAPTIVE (2/2)

Otto shoved Kas inside the cockpit, her hands locked behind her. The searing heat on the back of her head confirmed Vima still had the Ghoster trained on her. She'd barely taken two steps towards the command panel before she saw something that made her stop.

'What's that?' she whispered, though she already knew the answer. Bent over the ship's controls was a six-foot beast of gloss black metal: an X1.

X1's were a fusion of bio-steel and carbon-crystal that made them about as easy to kill as rocks. Roughly humanoid in design, its entire body contained an arsenal of insta-deploy weapons, all designed to disarm, paralyse or kill—usually in that order. Atop its shoulders in place of where the head would normally be sat a shallow black dome, and within that was the most advanced computer supposedly ever created.

X1's were supposed to be galactic law enforcers, created by the Federation to protect over a thousand solar systems with ten-thousand units to each one. Unfortunately, X1 computers turned out to be not quite as advanced as they let on because a handful of people had found a way to hack them and turn them into their personal servants. Although the expense and expertise required to do so were great, dozens of X1's were rumoured to have been commandeered over the years just in Kas's solar system alone. The Federation had gone to a lot of effort hunting the rogue X1's down, forcing those who had them to hide them away to avoid certain imprisonment on Carcem, and though they'd reportedly recaptured many, an undisclosed number were still at large.

And one of them was standing right in front of Kas.

'Hik!' Otto shouted, 'Get outta the way, dumbass!'

The X1 called Hik didn't move. His hand was attached to the control panel via a rod that had extended from his wrist into the access terminal. He—it—was trying to take control of the ship.

'Hik!' Vima yelled. The X1 straightened up and turned to face Vima. A stream of green digits scrolled over his black dome.

'Bvooor za, hik,' he said—not words, but an electronic approximation.

'Move! Or I'm aiming this at you!'

'Bwaarz a, hik.'

Hik retracted his hand from the panel and walked calmly away, his movements surprisingly smooth.

'You're up, sweetheart,' Vima purred in Kas's ear.

'I need my hands,' she replied.

No answer.

'One minute remaining,' the ship announced.

Kas felt her face grow hot with sweat and thought that Vima was about to end her right then and there. Instead, she felt a tug on her wrists and her cuffs came loose.

'Hurry up,' Vima hissed.

Kas rushed to her chair and threw herself into it. She leaned over the controls and a city of lights blinked back at her. Mounted in the centre of the desk was a glowing square of electric blue gel. Kas slammed her right palm down on it. It turned green and started flashing.

'Eight-three-X-five-two!' she shouted.

Nothing. The green gel was still flashing. She kept her hand there as she tried again, this time speaking slower.

'Eight. Three. X. Five. Two.'

A short silence, and then: 'Thirty seconds remaining.'

'What's going on?!' Vima said, failing to hide her nerves.

Kas tried to ignore her, but it wasn't easy when it felt like the Ghoster was melting a hole in the back of her skull. The smell of singed hair filled her nostrils.