Jack's Moonlighting Pt. 01

Danner's wasn't inside the city limits. She expanded the range and widened it once more to see it leave the screen... headed north.

"NO!" she screamed as she pounded her fists against the desk.

Ullenta called Creetak, Lirsha, and the Qui Qui Qui, who they could use as leverage against Danner as he seemed to like them so much. She ordered them all to meet her at the entrance to the skimmer yard.

She rushed out the door and crossed to the utility yards, where they kept all the equipment. She ran into the skimmer lot and grabbed the largest one, which already contained the snow gear. Jack wouldn't have that.

She drove the vehicle to the front gate where the others were waiting and opened the door.

"Get in! Danner is heading to the site!" she yelled, and the others hustled.

She punched in the coordinates she'd memorized and pushed their speed to max.

"How did he find it?" Creetak snapped.

"Are you kidding me? How many times do I have to say it? He has a Tik with him! Danner couldn't find his way to the bathroom without it! The Tik somehow found the location in the data. I told you it was a mistake to give it access to the data!" Lirsha argued. He was wearing bandages over his hands and prosthetics over those. The fake hands had a few extra hooks on them, which were rather frightening to look at.

Ullenta ignored the others and checked the position of Jack's skimmer in relation to theirs. She noticed it was moving faster than theirs but didn't know how to boost their speed. "Jack will arrive roughly fifteen to twenty minutes before we do."

"We have to be prepared to take steps to guarantee he doesn't leave the site with the secret," Creetak said.

"Finally, someone's saying something intelligent!" Lirsha insisted.

Ullenta saw worried expressions on the Qui Qui Qui. Too bad for them. Lirsha and Creetak were right.

The time for gentle behavior was over.

-=-

Jack woke at a light nudge from Rikki. He looked blearily across the seat at the Tik.

"We're arriving. We'll also have company in a little under twenty minutes, so we'll need to work quickly," Rikki said.

"Shit," Jack grumbled as he rubbed his eyes, then sighed. "That's not much time, but we'll do what we can with it. What are we looking at?" he asked, gesturing to the skimmer's control panel.

"There is a single dome structure ahead. It has one entrance, and it's partially underground. I'll land us by the front door. That blanket is not going to provide much protection from the sub-zero temperatures. If the structure isn't heated, you won't be able to stay in it for long," Rikki noted.

"They visit frequently, so I'm going to assume they'll want to be comfortable," Jack suggested.

"We will see," Rikki said. "Be prepared to run back to the skimmer."

They came in fast and used the gusts of wind to clear most of the loose snow from the entrance.

Jack wrapped a thick blue blanket around his shoulders and opened the skimmer's door. Frigid air poured in, and he gasped. Then he was running for the shelter's door. Rikki got there first and activated the entrance. It slid open, and they moved into the airlock. The outer door closed, and warm air blasted in. When the fans stopped, the inner door opened, and they were facing an empty, dimly lit room.

"That's pretty anticlimactic," Jack sighed.

"That's pretty horrifying!" Rikki said as it moved straight across the chamber. Jack followed and saw what Rikki had seen in the poor lighting. Two partially disassembled Tik were bolted to the far wall. Making this even more creepy, they powered up when he got closer to them, and a black vertical rectangle formed between them. He had difficulty looking into the inky darkness. More disturbing were the sickly-colored flames moving around the edges of the black abyss. The whole thing made his brain ache.

"What the fuck?" Jack asked in confusion.

"The Tik have been lobotomized to make them Gate Generators activated by the presence of organic life forms," Rikki said stiffly.

"That's a Gate?" Jack asked.

"A very old one," Rikki qualified.

"Okay, but to where?" Jack asked.

"Please stay here," Rikki said, floating into the blackness.

Jack held his breath as he could no longer feel Rikki. That silence grew louder.

It was approaching the one-minute mark, and he was about to step through when Rikki returned. "Jack. You need to see this. There's air, but keep the blanket."

Jack's eyes widened. "There's air?" What did that mean?

He stepped through the old Gate and gasped as he exited the other side. His stomach felt queasy after that transition. He looked around and was in another dimly lit empty room, but the difference was, on this wall were two more lobotomized Tik with an ancient Gate and a vault door on the opposite wall. It was very ornate and filled half of the wall.

"So... it was treasure?" Jack said.

"Maybe, but we aren't experiencing natural gravity. The floors are gravity plates," Rikki said.

"Huh," Jack said, but he could feel no difference. "You'd need to be a Tik to identify that."

Jack walked over to the vault door and marveled at the intricate design on its surface. Then his eyes caught the symbol at the center. "Oh, shit."

"What's wrong, Jack?" Rikki asked in concern.

He lifted his hand and traced the deep V design on the door as he stroked the V at the center of his slave collar.

"The Prime?" Rikki asked.

"I think whatever's behind this door, a Mahrell Drun Prime had something to do with its design," Jack said quietly.

Rikki scanned the entire surface of the door. "There are no handles or controls on the door or the frame."

Jack nodded. "The Team Leaders have been trying to open this door for seven years with no luck. That's a stupid amount of time to be spent on a door."

"They were probably looking for clues on Allsa One and Allsa Komanae," Rikki suggested.

It looked closer at the center of the door. "Just under the Prime symbol is a grid of tiny holes with a membrane behind it. Does this give you any ideas?" Rikki asked.

"I'm sure they've been trying voice controls." Jack scoffed. Then he frowned. "If this was designed by a Prime, it would definitely be voice-activated as they're so fucking vain. Hearing themselves speak is the pinnacle of entertainment," Jack said with a stiff smirk.

"We could try that. Use the voice of the Prime, I mean," Rikki suggested.

Jack looked at Rikki cautiously. "What do you mean?"

"I know you keep your memories of the Prime buried deep, but if you shared one with me, I could emulate her voice," Rikki explained. "We don't have much more time before the others arrive, so we should try something soon."

Jack nodded stiffly. "Okay, fine. I'll try to find one that doesn't make me wet my pants. Hang on a second," Jack said. He took slow deep breaths.

When he was ready, he closed his eyes and recalled his initial meeting with the Prime in the fitness center. He let that memory fill his mind. Then Rikki arrived, and his memories skewed until they reached a new one. He was clamped to a table, naked and helpless. Then the Prime's voice slid into his brain like honey:

"All of my people, dead at your hand. How am I going to rule if I don't have a loyal ruling class? I need to repopulate my race. That's what a Queen does. I'm the last Prime, so I'm going to repopulate our world.

You and me, Jack, we're going to make some new Primes."

Jack's eyes flew open as he felt a severe tremor run through his muscles, stealing their strength, and he dropped to his knees. He sucked in deep breaths as he fought off the nausea.

Naturally, his brain couldn't allow him to use a less traumatic moment to relive.

"I'm sorry I asked you to do that, Jack," Rikki said contritely.

Jack took slow deep breaths until his equilibrium returned. "It's okay, Rikki. Please tell me you got her speech patterns and voice."

"Yes," it said.

Jack nodded and pushed himself back to his feet. "So, what do you think? Open Sesame?"

"Let's try Activate and Open first."

Rikki positioned itself before the grid of small holes. Then the Prime's slick voice spoke, and Jack's mind rebelled. "Door Activate."

A deep hum began, and Jack felt a vibration in his feet. "Holy shit. You got it on the first try! They're going to be so pissed!" he said to Rikki with a shaky smile.

Rikki pointed at Jack. "They would never have gotten through it as they didn't have the voice of a Prime. They needed you and me to make that happen." Rikki switched back to the Prime's voice. "Door Open."

A series of snap and thunk sounds came from the door before it swung towards them slowly. Jack saw it was at least eight feet of armored, super-dense metal.

The light was muted inside, but Jack picked up an orange glow to the left of the entrance.

"Seems like a rather intense door," Jack said nervously as he stepped inside. Rikki moved back between his horns. He took a sniff, and the air held a faint staleness to it.

"We should close the door in case our chasers arrive," Rikki suggested.

Jack was really not happy about that idea, but he agreed it might be safer. "Okay."

"Door Close."

Jack watched the vast door closing and unconsciously moved away from it further into the room.

There was a short square hall to the left with a right turn at the end, which was another short square hall.

Stepping out of that passage, they saw stretched out before them a vast chamber with a high ceiling lost in shadows. The deep and wide room looked naturally formed except for the perfectly smooth floor and its gravity panels.

Complimenting this natural aesthetic, the walls running the length of the room sloped toward each other as they climbed into the darkness above. The wall to their right had a distinct sixty-degree angle from the floor, but the wall to the left had an irregular slope.

A deep, triangular room?

It was completely atypical for Allsa Komanae architecture, making Jack appreciate it more. It was also strangely warm, so Jack dropped his blanket to the floor.

Aside from the dark ceiling, the long room was brilliantly lit by orange beams of light pouring in from the right. They couldn't see the actual windows from this end of the room, but the light cut through the space and highlighted the one jarring reminder of the Allsa Komanae's presence.

Directly in the middle of the widest swath of orange light stood three control consoles meant to be operated by a trio of the diseased cybernetic monsters. A short distance back from that was a row of metal cabinets, whose purpose was unknown.

Aside from these out-of-place add-ons, the chamber was stunning!

Turning his eyes from ugly mechanisms, Jack aimed his feet toward the source of that broad beam of light. As he stepped around the edge of the deep window alcove, he struggled to grasp the reality of what he was seeing and how it related to where he was.

He faced a window thirty feet wide at the base, probably eight feet thick, and easily thirty feet tall, tapering to a point.

Rikki reached out and touched the surface for a moment. "I think it's a diamond," it said.

Orange-tinted diamond. It was the largest diamond Jack had ever seen.

As if this wasn't enough to dazzle his mind, outside the window was a view Jack did his best to grasp. He'd stepped through an ancient Gate on Allsa One, bringing him here. Now, he stood before a huge window facing a vast, unnaturally flat crater suspiciously free of debris.

He was on a moon.

This explained the need for gravity plates.

In the distance was a star providing ample light and lighting up the side of a planet seen on the lunar horizon.

"Rikki? Are we on Allsa One's moon?" Jack asked quietly.

"Hmm? No. The planet you are looking at is Allsa Komanae, I believe. We are on one of its moons," it responded with an equal amount of awe in its voice.

The control room they stood in was built into the upper lip of the vast crater. There were many vertical fissures of various sizes in the slope which may have been exposed to space at one time. Now they were filled with orange diamond windows. The sheer quantity and size of the diamonds was yet another wonder.

"Is that a natural crater?" Jack asked.

"Yes. The crater walls are natural, but I think long after the impact site cooled, some mechanism was built into the crater floor. What it does, I have no idea," Rikki responded.

Jack turned his back on the spectacular vista and looked nervously back at the consoles and the bank of cabinets. The hairs on the back of his head were standing on end. He didn't know what they controlled, but he was pretty certain it wasn't something good.

He walked closer to the equipment that didn't seem to fit in this otherwise artfully crafted settling.

As they approached, lights came on in the row of servers at the back. Rikki suddenly shot forward and reached out with a tentacle to brutally slap a cluster of sensors projecting from the top of the middle case, causing several of the rods to break clean off while others dangled from the wires that connected them to the device.

The tentacle Rikki used to do this drooped loosely at its end. It was clearly broken.

"Remain silent. The servers are waking," Rikki said internally to Jack.

"Prime. Novae Control Center One activating. Damage detected in internal security sensor array." The voice came from a speaker hidden in the darkness above and had the distinct mechanical buzz of an Allsa Komanae. A shiver ran down Jack's back.

Rikki responded as the Prime. "Bypass internal security sensor array assessment. Status update."

More squirmy shivers ran down Jack's back as he peered more closely at the five distinct server towers and the glowing lights leaking from their insides. There had to be something creepy going on in there, as they were built by the creepiest fucks he knew.

"Power cell systems running at eighty-five percent efficiency. Activating secondary systems to restore shortfall. Energy accelerator systems are nominal. Targeting systems nominal. Jump Drive systems powering up and nominal. Navigation systems are nominal. Defense systems are nominal. Stealth cloaking systems show forty-three percent surface coverage due to surface impact damage and are offline for repair. Gravity plate systems are nominal. Cooling systems..."

Jack listened to the list of functions this control center managed, and his mind returned to the first thing it said. Novae Control Center. Jack looked back out the massive window to the flat, grey expanse below as the realization struck with full force.

He was standing on the Allsa Komanae's star killer.

This was the weapon the bastards used to alter the Harruushan's star to poison them and destabilize the Shreen's star until it consumed their planet. He'd wondered why they hadn't used it on any other worlds. Going through the list of active systems, he'd only heard one issue, the stealth system was damaged. Was that why they hadn't continued to use it?

"Jack, I'm going to connect to the server to gather as much information as I can get from it while remaining undetected," Rikki said to him internally.

"Be careful!" Jack said unnecessarily, his nerves buzzing.

Rikki hovered next to the first console and slipped one of his tentacles under the control panel.

"Prime. What are your orders."

Jack stood in a vast chamber listening to the hum of the servers gently bounce off the high ceilings.

There was a high-pitched whine coming from the top of the middle cabinet. A slim rod was extending upwards amongst the debris of the broken sensors.

Shit.

The hum of the servers suddenly cranked up to full power. "Intruders. Connecting to Network."

There was an eerie silence as the voice went quiet as it... investigated?

"Allsa Komanae are extinct. Home world infested. Weapon has been compromised. Initiating Autonomous End Plan."

Now that his presence was no longer a secret, he figured he could ask a question.

"Define Autonomous End Plan," he said aloud.

"Purge all non-Allsa Komanae life from home world by triggering supernova in local sun. Weapon will travel to all Assembly worlds and trigger suns to supernova, extinguishing all life. As stealth systems are still offline, all subsequent targets will be chosen randomly after the initial target, Maghadahn's sun," the cold voice announced.

Jack looked to Rikki, who was still connected and hopefully looking for an off switch.

Rikki dropped to the floor with a thump. Its tentacle was still connected to the console.

The speaker above went silent as well.

"Rikki? Are you okay, buddy?" Jack asked internally.

"Busy," Rikki said.

Jack figured Rikki was battling the AI and didn't need the distraction.

"Keep duking it out with the AI," he said in support.

Rikki chuckled. "Duking is more your thing." Then it went silent.

Jack felt useless, so he moved closer to the servers and wondered if he could find an off switch manually. Walking around the cases showed no such controls. It would have to be inside. He realized he had no tools to use to open them. He glanced around, but the room was empty of anything he could use.

Digging in his pockets only yielded his padded gloves. He stared at them until he felt a strong vibration and saw the sun beam on the floor was moving. Jack rushed back to the window. The sun was slowly moving upwards, which meant the moon was rolling to reposition itself. Thinking of something as large as a moon being maneuvered like a vehicle boggled his mind.

A new vibration began and settled into a steady rumble. The vast expanse of the crater floor was starting to iris open. After just a few moments, Jack began to see the muzzle of the weapon, which would fire at the sun.

A second hum began, higher in pitch and growing steadily louder. Jack's imagination was telling him this was the weapon charging.

He ran back to the row of cabinets and slipped his gloves on. He looked closer at the five server towers. The central one had the security sensors, and the fifth one was wider than the others with fewer lights on it. Otherwise, they were all pretty much the same. He stepped in front of the first case and began to punch the front panel, slamming his fists against the flat metal plate. Eventually, it buckled, and one side popped loose from its frame. He grabbed the edge and pulled with all his strength until the metal plate folded back.

Jack looked inside and yelled in fright as he threw himself back to land on his ass.

Inside the cabinet was a partial Allsa Komanae head and some floating tissues interconnected to the server hardware inside a closed nutrient solution delivery system. The head floated in a clear glass cylinder with glass pipes feeding and draining that.

Shaking off his disgust, Jack climbed back to his feet and kicked at the bent panel until he had better access to the insides. He glared at the head, then examined the connections. The glass was one solid piece, so he'd have to break it at its weakest point.

He began to punch the nutrient feed pipe until it suddenly cracked and burst open. The fluid inside was pressurized and jetted the liquid out, splashing his glove. The Reaver silk was not affected, but the gel padding began to dissolve. It thankfully had no effect on his skin aside from the odor.

The pressure change in the nutrient system caused the Allsa Komanae's organic tissue to immediately swell and pop sickeningly. Jack felt a little dizzy, but looking down at the sunbeam on the floor, he saw its movement slowing.

Rikki's voice suddenly called out over the overhead speaker. "Next!"

Jack moved to the second server and punched his fists against the panel. The damaged glove didn't protect his hand, and he broke his little finger, making him hiss in pain. He pushed through it and got the panel open, kicking it back.