Micah put his hand to his headset. “You hearing this, Ru?”
I am. And I think you know my answer.
“We’ll get out there as fast as we can.”
Be careful.
Three of the hackers were already packing up their portables, moving quickly and efficiently. Bakshi remained at his station. “I’ll keep an eye on the gate and see if I can do anything to buy us more time. And handle Vienna if she calls for us.”
“Every minute you can buy us will help,” Micah told him. “Hell, every second.”
If they could take control of that ship and divert it from Harmony, then whatever spores Icelus had intended to transmit would no longer be a threat. But they had to do it before the Kawaii assault was neutralized, or all their efforts would be wasted.
Roz was staring at him. When she saw him look her way she grinned. “Micah’s got a girlfriend.”
God, he’d missed these people.
There is no miltary technology ever produced that is more deadly—or more powerful—than the human mind.
DUAEN CORREN
On Human Destiny
HARMONY NODE
INSHIP: ARTEMIS
THE HARVESTER had pulled ahead of its fledglings. Or rather, more accurately, the porter ships had decelerated, preparing to dock at the receiving station and unload their goods, while the mothership continued on at full speed. Of course the cambots would try to get the best possible view of the whole process, so they were lined up with their backs to the station, seeking the perfect image of gleaming winged ships against a backdrop of velvet blackness. Spectators had arrived as well, singlers and luxury yachts and tourist transports, all crowding behind the bots. Security cruisers were making regular circuits of the crowd, warning back anyone who got too close. No one would be allowed to ruin the view.
All of which suited Ru just fine. She was able to bring the Artemis within easy transmission distance of the porter ships without looking like anything other than a tourist. The cambots wouldn’t turn her way unless she gave them reason to. Perfect.
Micah’s friends were busy at the work table she had set up for them. Crisscrossed cables made the arrangement of their equipment look like a snake’s nest. It seemed oddly primitive to her—computers didn’t normally require physical connections—but Micah had explained that this arrangement was not only more efficient, but more secure. No one from the outside could detect their communication or interfere with their work, this way. Fair enough.
With luck—and skill—they’d be able to hack into the Hydran ship’s navigation system and take control of it. That was the hope, anyway. Micah seemed to think it was possible. But could they make it happen soon enough? The logjam of data that the hackers had created could break up at any moment, and then it would only be the work of seconds for Icelus to transmit its foul seeds to all corners of the galaxy. An invasion beyond any hope of recall.
“All good here,” came Bakshi’s voice over the com speaker. Ru had looped him into her system so he could report to the rest of the team as he tested Harmony’s connectivity.
Behind her, Roz suddenly cursed and slammed her hand down on the table, startling Ru. “Damn!”
Ru swiveled around to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
The hacker was glaring at her screen. “Ship’s network is completely self-contained. It has no channel to the outside. None at all. Which means there’s no way for us to get in.” She shook her head in frustration.
“Won’t you have an opening when it tries to transmit its spores to Harmony?”
“Yeah, but it’s not within range for that yet.” She glanced up at the navigational screen. “Six minutes to contact.”
“Still good down here,” came Bakshi’s ritual reassurance. The tension in his voice was palpable.
Hellbane shook his head in frustration. “Short of ramming the damn thing, I don’t see how we can stop it.”
“Is that possible?” Roz asked, looking at Ru.
Ru took a moment to swallow back on the sharp rejoinder that came to mind. “Our target’s in the middle of that formation. Every one of those porters is armed and probably programmed to respond automatically to any foreign vessel that gets too close. If the Hydran ship has fooled them into thinking it’s one of them, they’ll protect it.” She shook her head. “We’d be rubble before we got close.”
“How do you know they’re armed?” Micah asked.
“In this node? With a scavenger stronghold not a day’s flight away?” She laughed sharply. “That’s a given.” She looked at the main screen, eyes narrowing as she studied its display. “What we don’t know is what will trigger a response. How much can we do before it identifies us as a threat? How close can we get?”
“The cambots are flying awfully close,” Sisi pointed out. “They’re not being attacked.”
“Probably too small to be considered a threat. Artemis can’t pull that off. Especially if they detect our armaments.” Vienna’s three hackers turned around to look at her, eyes wide. “Yes, Artemis is armed. Not enough to do battle with that whole fleet, though, so don’t even ask.”
“What about picking off the Hydran ship from here?” Hellbane asked. “Can you do that?”
“Not in one shot. Which would be essential, because as soon as we fired we’d be classified as a hostile entity, and then we’d have that whole damned fleet to deal with. One shot is all we’d get.” She shook her head. “I’m not that well armed.”
“Still holding,” Bakshi announced.
“What about the porters?” Sisi asked. “I’m sure they’re networked to each other, so maybe we can slip in and take control of one. Then we could use its weapons.”
“And get them to take the Hydran out?” Roz nodded sharply. “Worth a try.”
All three of them went back to work again, navigational code scrolling down their screens too fast for Ru to read it. They were like a single creature, six-armed, single-minded, with Micah channeling data from the Artemis. Ru felt strangely isolated.
“Can’t do it,” Roz muttered. “Too well passcoded. Can’t find a way through that in—” She glanced up at the timer on the main display and shuddered. “Shit. Three minutes, guys.”
“Try to hack into navigation,” Micah suggested. “Maybe we can get one of the porters to ram the bastard for us.”
“Autopilot will see that coming and dodge it,” Ru said. “Even if you each took control of a ship, it’d just calculate all possible flight paths and find a way through the pattern.”