Steal the Demon: A Science-Fiction Novella by Robert Roth (free novels to read txt) 📕

But it wasn’t going to be fast enough. As the tank’s cannon swiveled toward her, Kimiko anxiously looked around the airlock for some kind of protection. Then all of the hangar bay lights suddenly flickered and flared, and spider-tank and all the Bots on the deck stopped in their tracks and collapsed to the deck, motionless.

5

That’s Quite The Welcoming Committee

Overhead lighting came on once the exterior airlock hatch closed in front of her. Kimiko knew she needed to move, but she just stood there for a moment, breathing heavily in the sudden quiet. “Holy shit,” she muttered to no one in particular. “That was something.”

She’d made it. She was on the Shaitan. Now, she needed to actually steal the damn thing during whatever reprieve Paradox had just bought her. Kimiko finally forced herself to move.

The controls inside the airlock were the standard type she was used to. But she could already tell the ship’s materials were of much higher quality than anything she’d flown before. She hit the switch that opened the interior hatch and rushed through into the next compartment.

Kimiko barely noticed the details of her surroundings. She’d studied so many specs, diagrams, and pics of the ship that standing inside of it almost felt familiar. But she had no time to revel in the feeling. If she didn’t manage to get out of the hangar bay, she’d be just as busted as if she’d been caught back on the deck.

There were corridor junctions on both the fore and aft sides of the compartment. The one on the fore-side led to the bridge. She quickly jogged that way, lights coming on as she went, until she emerged into the small bridge. It was a standard compartment done up in muted grays and charcoals. There were four crash couches, two at the fore-end for the pilot and co-pilot positions, and one on either side for navigation and engineering. The whole space was around nine square meters–decent enough for a ship the Shaitan’s size, with a fifty-four-meter beam. Since she was flying solo, she would have to rely on the ship’s controller software to take on those extra functions. Or, would she?

Kimiko tapped the AI node in her pocket. While she knew it was physically possible to fit an AI mind into a pocket-sized, crystal processing block, she’d never actually possessed one before. She used her P/N-interface to try and reactivate her connection to it as she strapped into the crash couch that she’d decided would be her pilot’s seat, but there was nothing there. Paradox must’ve sealed it off on his end.

She touched the input pad on the console in front of her, and it lit up. Then she initiated a connection with her P/N-interface. The connection icon started flashing on the console display, so she reached out with her interface and applied the control codes Paradox had given her. Expanded awareness flooded through her mind as she gained access to the multiple sensor points spread around the ship’s exterior. She’d missed that feeling so much she could barely suppress the shiver that ran down her spine.

Then she spied a small, inset area on the console between the two forward couches, recognizing it as a physical interface. Kimiko pulled the AI node from its pocket in her flight jacket and set it down inside. The surface under the node immediately lit up with a blue ring, just like the security terminal. “Paradox?” she asked aloud.

“Stand by,” he replied. “Transferring program now.” The input pad on the node started to flash in an irregular rhythm, which the blue ring quickly matched. While Paradox pushed himself into the ship, Kimiko brought the powerplant out of standby, then began to access the ship’s systems through her interface and get them online. Finally, she initiated the main engines’ start-up sequence. Kimiko felt a smooth, low hum as the engines powered on, and it gave her a little thrill. She knew that she’d missed being at the helm of a spacecraft, but hadn’t realized exactly how much until she’d sat in that chair again.

“Alert,” said the ship controller’s voice with a rich, sultry, slightly femme tone that only a high-end craft like the Shaitan would have. “Software infiltration attempt detected.”

“It’s just me,” said Paradox over the same speakers. “Okay, that should do it.”

“What did you do?”

“The ship had no AI present, just the control software. Since it’s a demo model, I’m guessing Doha just inserted a submind whenever they needed to fly it.”

“And you’re the ship AI now?”

“So, it would seem.”

Kimiko probably should’ve discussed something like that with him first, but it was too late to worry about it mid-theft. Speaking of which. “That’s greased up and all, but what I’m more curious about is what you did out there to the spider-tank and Bots.”

“Oh,” Paradox replied breezily. “Nothing, really. I’d set a software time-bomb inside Doha’s system, and I was just playing for time until it went off.”

“Meaning?”

“Doha is no more.”

“Oh.”

“But that doesn’t mean we should remain here in the landing bay. Al-Zamani will still try to stop us, just without the benefit of their pet AI.”

Kimiko snorted. “Then you’d better release the docking clamps.”

“Docking clamps released.”

With a smile, she activated the pilot’s virtual control spaces, the Shaitan’s equivalent of an older spacecraft’s control sticks, and two glowing, blue spheres appeared in front of her. Kimiko stuck a hand into each of them, then adjusted their locations until they were comfortable. Once she was ready, she hit the launch thrusters and pushed the Shaitan off the deck. Since the bay’s grav-field was still active, she hovered on the thruster jets and spun the ship to face the hangar door. Which was closed. “Paradox, do we have remote access to that door?”

“Accessing. It will take me approximately forty-five seconds to break the Net encryption.”

“That long?”

“It would be longer, but there is no AI to fight against me now.”

“Alert,” the ship controller’s voice suddenly said. “Enemy combatants detected on the hangar bay deck.”

Shit. “Show