HAWK

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: TEMPEST (6/6)

'Not Hik,' the robot said, and to everyone's surprise, the back of the robot suddenly split open, revealing its interior to be hollow - or almost hollow. Its miniature inventor clambered out wearing a pair of VR specs and some artifibre gloves.

'Worm?' Kas marvelled.

Worm wiggled her fingers and the robot beside her spoke.

'What model is ship?'

'Uh... it's an FC-440,' Mack replied from his seat.

'I know it. I can fix it.'

'How are you talking?' Kas asked.

'Attached haptic gloves to voice box. Take me to ship.'

Mack hesitated. 'Are you sure you know how to fix it? FC ships haven't been in use for decades.'

'I can fix it. Take me to it.'

'You heard the girl,' Rhaspa said. 'I am not a religious man, but if God exists, I would say Worm has surely been sent to help us. And right now, we need all the help on offer. Take her to the Pegasus.'

With his orders issued, Mack stood and made his way over to Worm who was already sealing herself back inside the robot. The entire hall watched stupefied as Mack and RoboWorm exited together up the stairs on their way to the hangar. As they did, Sudds approached Rhaspa's table to talk to him more privately.

'I think we should consider other options,' he said.

'What other options do you have in mind?' Rhaspa replied.

Sudds shook his head like he might rattle an idea loose. 'I don't know, but we can't seriously be thinking about loading Astrid onto the Pegasus and posting her through the IRIS like a letter bomb.'

'It's either that or let the Intelligence destroy us,' Mana said. 'This is not a situation that we can outmanoeuvre. If the IRIS reaches Primi before Astrid reaches the IRIS, we won't get another chance. Our odds of success might not be great, but we're lucky to have any odds at all.'

'And what does Astrid plan to do once she reaches the IRIS? In case you're forgetting, it's closed off. They're not letting anybody in or out, let alone a hundred-year-old freighter ship!'

'Shut up, Sudds,' Kas growled. 'You're offering nothing but problems.'

'Me? You've been creating problems since the second you got here!'

'And I've been trying to leave ever since.'

'If you wanna leave, then leave!'

'Be quiet!' Rhaspa shouted. Mana took his trembling hand and held it until he had calmed. 'Your quarrel helps no-one. Astrid, how soon do you need to depart?'

'As soon as possible,' Astrid replied. 'We have to assume the IRIS will reach the sun sooner than expected.'

'Agreed. Do you require anything else for your journey?'

'Actually, there is one thing. To have the best chance of culturing my virus, I will need to take certain resources with me.'

'What kind of resources?'

'I need the alien.'

Sudds laughed nervously. 'What alien? You mean the Kikoan?'

'Yes. It may hold the key to creating the virus.'

Rhaspa lowered himself into his seat. 'I thought you said if you tried to access it, there's a good chance it might hack you instead?'

'That is a strong possibility, yes, but in all honesty, I don't think I will be successful without it - not with the limited amount of time I now have. From what I know about the alien, the substance inside its body is similar to the substance inside X1 computers. I can hack an X1 computer; I should be able to hack the alien.'

'And if it hacks you?'

'Then there will be nothing more I can do.'

Rhaspa took a single deep breath in and let it out slowly. 'If you really need it, then of course, you must take it with you.'

'Thank you.'

'But I would feel better if I sent some soldiers to guard it, just in case it gets loose. I don't want Captain Mack out there alone with it.'

'I'll go,' Sudds quickly said.

'Thank you, Sudds. Perhaps you can find a few volunteers willing to join you?'

'I'll ask around, though maybe the bounty hunter would like to come?'

Kas cocked her head at him. 'You that keen to spend time with me?'

'Just trying to help you get off this planet - isn't that what you wanted?'

'What I want is to go home.'

'If this mission fails, you won't have a home to go back to.'

Kas was really starting to dislike Sudds, but she couldn't argue with him on that point. She was trapped. Either she stayed and became like the rest of the people stuck on Xeo, waiting for the final verdict to fall on the solar system like an axe, or she went with them and journeyed towards almost certain doom. Kas was not scared of death, but she was scared of not living, which is exactly what she'd be subjecting herself to if she stayed. The Pegasus might not have been a glorious ship to fly into battle on, but she would rather go out fighting than laying around in bed, waiting for the world to end.

'Sign me up,' she said.