Unity by Carl Stubblefield (epub read online books TXT) 📕

Gus was kicked out of his meditation just as suddenly.

Who was that guy?

Epilogue

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Dennis asked, arms folded as he looked out the viewport of what was once the Von Neumann orbital space station. The liminal edge of the sun’s rays could be seen crawling across the Earth’s surface below as another day dawned.

Voltekka tilted his head to the side, examining the sight. After a pause that bordered on awkward, he responded simply, “Quite.”

Dennis smiled at his benefactor’s quirky demeanor.

“I assume you have come to discuss our progress and what needs to be done?” Dennis cringed, as his habit of trying to fill the lengthening silence kicked in, unbidden. He had become more used to Voltekka’s taciturn nature, but still fought the need to fill the quiet with something. Voltekka hated blather and he awaited a rebuke as the mecha turned to look directly at him.

“No, I can easily check progress remotely. I am here because—” He paused mid-sentence and held up a single mechanical finger. Dennis’ eyes focused in on the finger, seeing tiny emitters studded upon them. He had never been this close, but Voltekka’s seven-foot frame put them right at eye level.

An alarm began to sound, startling him out of his thoughts. It was relatively quiet, but compared to the silence that was the norm, it was jarring.

“…of that.” Voltekka finished. “Let’s watch, shall we?” Displays popped to life, controlled remotely as Voltekka synced with the system. Multiple monitors came to life and Voltekka even patched into their comms, and Dennis could hear them speaking to each other.

A force of five supers was entering through a breach in the side of the station. Slipping inside, one replaced the circular metal housing and spot welded it with a glowing finger. They proceeded down a corridor to where the high-grade materials and components were kept.

“It should be just down here,” the lead muttered, staring at a scanner as he motioned down the end of the hallway. Only two-hundred-fifty feet or so.”

“Good, let’s loot this station and get out of here. This place gives me the creeps,” a female super piped in, the edge evident in her voice.

The supers made their way down the hallway, looking up occasionally at the non-descript gray walls as they neared the vault at the end. One rubbed a hand along the wall, then turned to look at his fingers as he rubbed them together.

“Something ain’t right. If this stuff is as valuable as the boss says, there should be some security. This feels like a trap,” a gruff voice cut in.

“Don’t be so paranoid, Rowland. Always something in the shadows with you,” a jocular voice teased. “My father wouldn’t send us anywhere that was dangerous. This is an easy score. It’s a pain in the ass to get here, so that’s why no one has claimed these materials. Forty or fifty years ago, this station was abandoned with the people on board. Their shipment of oxygen was en route to the station when a big battle of supers broke out. The transport was crushed as collateral damage, and forgotten during the fight.”

“Damn corporations probably didn’t think it was fiscally feasible.”

“Either that or there wasn’t enough time. Maybe they didn’t care and planned on sending up more people, but that’s when the Shift occurred and everything changed.”

“Oh, call it what it was, an uprising,” the female spat with disgust.

“Supers taking over the governments was the best thing that has happened to the world for a long time and you know it,” the gruff voice broke in. “Besides, you’re a super; you’d think you’d be glad we never had to deal with a Keene Act or Sokovia Accord situation. Seizing control was the right choice.”

“Whatever,” she replied dismissively.

As they spoke, Voltekka recalled the event vividly, a small window opening in the lower left of his display as the memory played again. He saw himself, Merlin ushering his crew into the spacesuits that lined the airlock. Once they were secure, he would go and get his own. There weren’t enough here to fit everyone including him. Fortunately, there was one in a special bay in his office. The suits would buy them a day at best, but it could be all they needed until help arrived. If help arrived, that was.

The video jumped as Merlin began to feel the effects of oxygen deprivation. Flashes of him getting into position and having the suit clamshell down over him. Such an odd design. He must have succumbed to asphyxiation soon thereafter, as the suit took the initiative and Merlin felt a burning like liquid lava permeate his body, joining the less severe burning in his lungs as he gasped for breath.

He woke much later and found that he had recovered, and rushed to check on his crew, finding them all dead, rictuses of pain and terror frozen on their faces. The corporation hadn’t bothered to send viable oxygen tanks. He shook his head in disgust, looking at the pressure gauges. He shifted as the intruders reached a key waypoint.

The group reached the vault and a member of the group that hadn’t spoken came forward. Voltekka zoomed the view in to see what the thief was doing. The figure reached out a hand with a conical glove that suctioned onto the surface of the vault. Voltekka felt a biointerface attempt to connect with the electronic lock. He smiled internally as he sent a mental command. He synthesized the same command onto the invaders’ comms.

“Voltekkers: Violate!”

Each member of the group stiffened, and slowly looked around. Panels from the empty hallway began detaching, revealing the large mecha underneath, indistinguishable from their creator.

While there was red along the enamel white of their exteriors, there was much more when their job was finished.

Afterword

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