G-Pol Ch. 09

Chapter 9

The four humans and the Killhound arrived at the gym the next morning to find Rachael already there. She was wearing a bright yellow one piece swimsuit that left very little to the imagination, and she was drawing eyes like bees to honey from the gym's male early birds, not to mention a couple of the women as well. This wasn't hard to understand either. At a hundred-fifty-eight centimeters tall, with well rounded B-cup breasts, a narrow waist and curvaceous hips and backside, who wouldn't find her attractive? Add in the high cut hips and wide open cross laced sides of her one piece swimsuit, its plunging heart-shaped neckline with barely there shoulder straps, and the ecstatic way she moved, and it seemed as if she'd been purposely designed to attract attention.

She had joined Janice's early morning dance aerobics group, and seemed to be having a lot of fun. Janice spotted them at the same time, and waved them over to join in. Karl demurred, but the girls joined in, giggling and smiling.

Karl took over another empty room and began his own warm-up routine. It began with a light jog around the room's circumference to get the blood flowing. Then as he was completing his final circuit, he leapt up and caught a pull-up and inversion bar and ran through several variations to warm up his upper body. Then he worked his way through several sets of hanging crunches, and finally settled to the mats for a stretching routine that would've had most men cringing in sympathetic pain.

He emerged just in time to catch the end of Janice's class, and had to catch his breath. Natasha's tousled sweat slicked body drew his eyes like iron filings to a magnet. Her endorphin generated euphoric glow and post exercise flush was doing strange things to him. Vixi was the first one to spot him, and when she saw the look in his eyes, she followed the line of his gaze right to Natasha. Her eyes flicked back and forth between them and a knowing slightly envious smile appeared on her face. Then her eyes went to Lisa and the envy disappeared, replaced by a glowingly happy tender smile. It was clear she was in love.

Mike appeared a few minutes later and they all began making the rounds of the weight machines. Janice and Michael provided a little coaching to Vixi and Lisa when it was needed. Then they moved to one of the exercise rooms for more intensive martial arts training.

Karl Michael and Natasha divided their time between teaching various moves and transitions, and sparring. The idea was to make sure the two women knew and understood the purposes and mechanics of the various moves, and when and how to use them. This went on for more than two hours.

Afterward, they all went to lunch. This time it was a far more relaxing affair than their previous get togethers, the sexual tension wasn't there, and everybody was more relaxed. Rachael fit in as if she'd always been a part of their little group. It helped she'd made it clear early on she wasn't interested in sharing someone else's man, no matter how attractive he might be.

After lunch, Rachel left them to go back to her place, Lisa Vixi and bona headed back to the ship, while Mike and Janice led Karl and Natasha to several exercise equipment outlets on the station. They found what they needed easily and made arrangements to have it delivered and set up. Their final stop was the swim spa dealer Mike had mentioned the day before.

There Natasha found several that would serve her purposes admirably. One even had a slightly more powerful force shield that would not only provide a field for the holo-projections, but would also channel any water splashed out back into the pool. The model they settled on at last was a meter longer than the original, the swim channel was twenty centimeters deeper, it had an onboard memory with more than ten thousand prerecorded holo backgrounds, and had room for at least as many more, depending on the complexity. Some of them were even interactive! What finally decided them was, this one was actually in stock and ready to be delivered. Better yet, as far as Natasha was concerned, it was also the one with the splashproof force screen for the holo-curtain.

By the time they got back to the Czarina, there were already a half dozen crates waiting in the gym and a pair of setup techs waiting to begin work. Natasha showed them where she wanted each piece and they set to work. By the time they'd finished, the rest of the equipment had arrived, including a pair of the articulated exercise bikes Karl liked so much, along with the spa.

Although it was larger and deeper, the spa installation was relatively quick and painless. This was because of the way the original had been installed. It had been a kit designed for universal use in spacecraft, which meant only a little of the subfloor had to be removed to accommodate the new installation. The grav system was another easy installation, and the heavier mats went right over it, only needing to be cut to fit exactly.

When everything was finished several hours later, Natasha was pleased with the result. The gym deck had a little less free space, but the workout options had more than doubled, and she thought the new swim spa would be perfect. The best thing was, the spa's seating was fully convertible. It could be set up for up to four lounge seats, any one of which could be converted to a bench arrangement that could accommodate up to three people, each with its own massaging jets and separate bubble controls. Built into the poolside next to each lounger, was a deep storage compartment, each capable of being set independently to operate as a drink cooler. There would be plenty of room for Natasha's collection of waterproof sex toys and accompanying lubricants etc, while still allowing her to have cold drinks, up to and including full sized wine or champagne bottles on hand! Even better, an additional pair of loungers could be set up in built in brackets in the swim channel with plenty of room to get around, although these seats wouldn't have the jets or bubble controls. The swim channel was longer and deeper and the current setting could be set to automatic or manual. On second thought, the best thing was the holo curtain! New fantasies were already boiling up in Natasha's imagination.

During the gym deck upgrade, Karl and Lisa with Vixi's help, had begun some of the other upgrade projects. The class three heavy pulse lasers and their ball turrets for the missile defense system were easy to come by, since these were commonly used in point defense batteries on personal vessels. With the machining tools in the Czarina's workshop, the ball turrets and related servos were easy to modify to fit. Since the Czarina's sensors had already been upgraded by Natasha's parents, there wouldn't be any issues there. The only problem would be finding an appropriate targeting and control computer for the lasers. There was nothing that would serve the purpose adequately available on the station, and they'd looked. Their only alternative would be to adapt one built for another purpose. There were plenty of personal computer dealers and many of those designs would work with the proper programming and a few additional parts. They decided they would have to look into that later. The hard part would be finding the correct targeting programs. None of them were programmers with sufficient skill to write what they needed from scratch.

The maneuvering thrusters were another matter altogether. As Karl had surmised, the pirate ship had been sent to salvage. Better yet, its thrusters were higher quality, more powerful units than they'd expected, and in pretty good condition too. With a few hours cleanup and adjustment, they were ready for installation and went right in. With those in place, the Czarina would be a far harder target to hit in the future.

The engine upgrades were similarly easy. Once again, the pirate vessel had most of what was needed, causing Lisa to comment, "Sometimes you just gotta love those pirates. True these guys were smelly animals, but they knew how to hotrod a ship! Plus, they were bigger and heavier than Czarina and pushing a lot more power through their system. Their stuff was built to handle the load and probably came out of some poor bastard's racing yacht. So much the better for us! I checked too, none of this stuff showed up as stolen, so the original owners probably just disappeared one day, never to be seen again. Anyway, now it'll help us pay the bastards back."

"Now that's what I call karma!" Karl agreed laughingly, "Best of all, this stuff looks like it'll be direct drop in replacements. NO custom fitting required. I like it when the job's easy."

Once the gym was finished, Natasha joined their work. When she learned the source of the parts they were using, she had to fight to keep back the laughter. "I hope you properly sanitized this stuff! I remember the smell on the outside of Karl's armor when he came off that ship! Can you say ripe?" Karl could only nod vigorous agreement.

They got so entangled in what they were doing, they worked right through dinner time, only stopping when Bona reminded them they should probably eat something. Just as they got back to the kitchen, the ship was rocked by what felt like thruster emissions. Natasha immediately activated the exterior sensors, and they all saw a small racing type yacht accelerating hard away from the station, completely disregarding all the safety regulations and nearly cutting off an incoming passenger liner. Karl spotted something and asked Natasha to turn up the vid resolution. The yacht was firing its defensive lasers on the liner, and apparently aiming for the Bridge viewports! They watched in horror as several black burn traceries scored the area, throwing off glittering red-orange sparks. Fortunately, none seemed to have found their marks. There were no telltale plumes of escaping air that would've made any hull breaches highly visible. Then the little ship was out of weapons range and racing out-system at full power.

A moment later, Karl's com chimed. It was Rachael. Fearing the worst, he answered. Rachael sounded out of breath and more than a little panicked. "I saw him! I was walking into the bar and I saw him walking out. I left in a hurry to find a safe place to call you. Apparently I left just in time! A bomb went off like less than a minute later! The place was packed! They won't let me in, but I think there must be hundreds of people hurt and killed in there. I've been trying to get security to listen to me, but noone will! Even the G-Pol boss just blew me off. That was about ten minutes ago. I just calmed down enough to remember to call you guys. What should I do?"

Karl was already running for his and Natasha's quarters, Natasha right on his heels. "Rachael, just find a safe place and wait for us. We're on our way now. Keep this line open so we can find you. Got it?" He was stripping out of his clothes, pulling on his body glove, then his body armor even as he spoke.

"Got it." Rachael replied seeming to calm down.

In a way he was glad it had been the Center club Mallory had chosen as his target. It at least was in the center of the station, and was therefore less likely to experience catastrophic depressurization. Still, the death toll for an attack of this kind at this time in the evening would be horrible. If he'd used one of his new toys... The thought turned his stomach. He already knew that would be the case. He hadn't even finished sealing his body armor as he ran for the stairs to the garage deck, carrying his helmet in one hand and towing the grav enabled medical case with the other. When he reached the garage deck, he scrambled into his power armor and sealed it for space duty.

The station's lift tubes would be inoperative as standard procedure for situations like this. Natasha, Lisa and Bona would be able to override those, but he couldn't, he didn't have the authority, and he could get to the site faster by going outside the station to one of the emergency rescue airlocks. His licenses and credentials as an emergency first responder would grant him access.

Natasha was surprised at how quickly and efficiently Karl prepared to go into action. She supposed it came from a lifetime spent chasing criminals in dangerous environments. She was only half into her armor as he was running out the door towing his medical gear. She quickly collected her own, and emerged into the corridor calling for Vixi to bring hers. Bona was there waiting for her, already carrying hers. It was too bad they hadn't yet gotten their advanced equipment. It probably wouldn't arrive for another day or two. Still, what they had would help, and Karl's equipment could override their medical control units and reprogram the nannites if needed.

As Lisa and Vixi emerged from their own room in their armor, she heard the airlock warning signal and knew Karl had gone EVA. It made sense. He would be able to reach the scene faster that way, and his experience would be vital to save as many lives as possible.

As soon as he cleared the Czarina's airlock, Karl engaged his suit's drives at full power, racing across the station's surface to the airlock he needed. He arrived as another emergency craft was approaching the lock and signaled it. "Incoming ship, mind if I slip into the lock ahead of you? I've got A-one security clearance and I'll keep the door open and pressurize as soon as you are secure. We can verify once we're inside."

The ship responded immediately. "roger that. We've scanned you and we already got your clearance data from your transceiver, and the G-Pol desk cleared you too. See you inside."

Karl didn't need to be told twice. He slipped into the narrowing space between the ship and the lock and opened the door to step inside. Then he waited for the seal light to go green, then cycled the lock. The rescue crew opened their door a moment later and were all business, ready to go, and not even questioning his presence in power armor. They probably knew the increased strength would be needed to clear debris and find survivors. What they didn't know, but Karl hoped were at least partially prepared for, was what Mallory's weapons could do. He decided to take a chance. "Guys, this is probably Sean Mallory's work. You heard of him?" At their grim nods, he continued. "He's apparently been working on weaponizing the bacteria those crab bugs on the surface carry. He's already used it on two people I know about. The first one died, but I was able to save the other. I had to use some pretty high end nannite medical units to do it. Do you guys have any of that stuff? If you don't, then I suggest you pack as much antibacterial and antimicrobial medication as you can carry and inject anyone with even a scratch. I'd suggest peroxide iodine and antibiotic topical treatments as well. That'll at least slow the thing down." Nodding their agreement, the medics moved back into the ship to gather supplies and equipment.

Karl turned and headed directly for the Center Club. As he approached the entrance, he was brought up short by Dumerk, who placed himself between him and the door. "Oh no you don't you thug! I'm not letting you finish the job. You Mister Steiner are under arrest!"

Karl snarled at him through his helmet's visor. "You fucking idiot! Get the fuck out of the way before more people die! I'm one of the few who knows how to deal with what's going on in there."

Dumerk drew his sidearm and aimed it at Karl's chest. To Karl's surprise, it was a military grade particle beam pistol! "Are you going to resist arrest? Please tell me you are! I'd love to finally put you out of my station's misery."

Karl didn't hesitate. "Force shield, safe mode." He'd long ago programmed his suit's systems to minimize the chances of collateral damage by altering the force shield frequency settings to allow multiple modes. Safe mode would allow the shield to absorb most of the damage from an energy weapon attack, while minimizing the chances of a shot being deflected into innocent bystanders. True, more of the energy would get through his shield to damage his armor, but he considered the risk worth it to protect innocents. Now he advanced on Dumerk so fast he was only able to fire a single shot before Karl's right fist caught him squarely on the tip of his chin, knocking him back a full meter to land flat on his back unconscious. "Somebody get him off the ground and someplace safe." He ordered loudly, and make sure I didn't hurt him too badly!" Then he rushed through the doors into hell.

And it literally looked like hell. The devastation was enormous. The lower plasteel dance floor had been blown into razor sharp shards that had ricocheted all through the club, cutting patrons to ribbons. Most of the structure holding the upper dance floor and platforms was shredded by flying debris, and most of it had collapsed. The fire suppression system had gone off, effectively dousing the flames that had obviously spread far and wide, and very quickly. And worst of all, there were hundreds of victims, some impaled on or by flying debris or broken pieces of structure or furniture they'd landed on, some missing limbs, others just nursing burns or cuts and scrapes. The obvious dead were mixed liberally among the survivors. There were dozens of less injured survivors attempting to help those in need, and emergency personnel and local volunteers were already moving through the room trying to help as well.

This was what he'd been afraid of. He could see the splattered cocktail of chemicals and probably deadly bacteria everywhere. Those trying to help were in as much danger as the victims already injured, and he knew he couldn't stop them trying to help. If he did, others would die. He activated his loudspeaker system and turned the volume up high. "Everybody listen carefully. The bomb probably contained a highly dangerous biological agent, a powerful necrotic bacteria from the surface. You should be okay as long as you don't cut yourselves and allow the agent access to your system. If you do cut yourself or you have already, make sure you clean the cut out immediately with the most powerful disinfectant you can find. Your best bets will probably be peroxide and or iodine." After a moments thought, hea added, Strong liquor might also work. Hell, if you have to, use bleach! Please everyone, be extremely careful. If you can, try to use whatever protective gear you can, especially gloves, heavy clothing, boots and the like."

"How do you know all this so soon?" someone shouted suspiciously.

"Sean Mallory was seen leaving the club just before the bomb went off." He answered immediately, "We have reason to suspect he was planetside studying the more dangerous life forms for use in his future attacks. Some of you I know have heard of him. You can tell the others. We've already filed everything we know so far with the G-Pol office here on the station. Hopefully they've had a chance to look over it and disseminate that information to the emergency response teams."

"We're passing on what you told us out there now." He heard from behind him. We're having extra supplies and equipment brought in even as we speak. We'll do our best to take care of everyone, so please try to keep calm. There are a lot of people in need right now."

That reminder quickly quelled the rising panic Karl's announcement had begun. From that point forward, there was little time to rest. Natasha and company showed up soon after rescue operations resumed, and quickly joined in.

The first death directly attributable to the necrotic bacteria happened as one of the victims was being pulled from the wreckage with few apparent injuries. When the victim went into convulsions, her flailing left arm showed a spreading black stain running upward. When her shirt was cut away to find the extent of the infection, her entire shoulder and upper chest were a hot splotchy red mass that was already quickly darkening toward greenish black. She died within half an hour, screaming in agony. Many others followed, including several who hadn't known they were even wounded until the burning pain began at the injury sight.