The Plague of Pyridian (The Other Worlds Book 2) Read online

  He waited until he could no longer see his own physical form. He then unlocked the door and ambled out.

  He went in search of the weapons storeroom, ignoring the soldiers who clattered past on a futile mission to find their elusive intruder, and the stolid lab technicians devoted to their profession as he was to his. He didn’t have to venture far to find it. The door lay open. Two soldiers were inside stocking up on weaponry. He went in and stood patiently beside them. When they had left, securing the door, he seized one thruster gun and a pack of light weight explosives. Just in case.

  He discovered Commander Trauss in the ship’s hub. He whispered in her ear and pressed the thruster gun to her temple, which he had secured in the nook of his sleeve, lest it become visible.

  ‘Change course for Earth,’ he whispered.

  Trauss gave a jolt. Her eyes widened. She started to raise her hands and then lowered them. She glanced at Dumcus and the other droids in her presence. The droids were frozen and Dumcus was staring at the screen in front of him unaware of her distress. The screen displayed the ship’s deck plans. The ship was colossal; five levels deep and thirteen miles in diameter.

  ‘Who are you?’ she whispered.

  ‘The invisible man,’ replied Skelos.

  ‘I can set the course for Earth. If that is where you want to go, but you can’t land a ship on that planet.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to,’ said Skelos. ‘That would be unwise indeed. You take me to Earth and teleport us down.’

  Dumcus stared at the commander and then turned away assuming she was talking to the comms device on her shoulder.

  ‘And you trust me to do that?’ said the commander. ‘You can only get off this ship if I land it or by re-entering the tank and teleporting onto the planet’s surface. You won’t be conscious. You’ll have no way of knowing what I’m doing then.’

  Skelos slackened the grip on his gun. It looked like he would have to power the droids back up. All other species would be going out of the airlock. He didn’t have to worry about them self-healing and coming back to haunt him. As long as the ship was on course for Earth, he could lie in the tank and leave them on window watch. Why do I need a gun at the commander’s temple to tell me that?

  ‘Who navigates this ship, humans or droids?’

  ‘Both.’

  It was confirmed then. The droids would carry out his instructions. And here I was worrying. Panicking. He suppressed a chuckle.

  ‘I take it you plan to kill us all,’ said the commander, ‘without giving us the opportunity to defend ourselves.’

  ‘No. You shall live.’ If he had said yes, she would have gone all combat fighter on him and he would have to kill her before all his questions were answered.

  ‘Make your excuses to Dumcus and leave.’

  ‘Dumcus,’ said the commander, her tone free of panic. ‘I’m going to check the storage facility on level 3. In the meantime, we will proceed as planned and go to Earth.’

  Dumcus whirled, his head rattling. ‘What about the security breach?’

  ‘Nothing has come up yet, and we wouldn’t want to disappoint the benefactor.’

  ‘Do you have the benefactor’s name?’ asked Skelos.

  ‘They use encrypted aliases. The encryptions are destroyed after each deportation. Such information is not stored on these vessels.’

  Skelos sighed. He didn’t have time to dissect the deportation system. The risk was great, but he would take it. He couldn’t afford to enter another world with a ship in tow. There’s not enough invisibility potion in the galaxy to conceal this beast.

  He told the commander to round up all the crew on board including the pilots and to leave the vessel in auto-pilot. He was surprised at how efficiently she was able to gather them all in one place and equally surprised at how few there were on board, if she had genuinely assembled them all, which he suspected she had not. Seven soldiers joined them in the hub, along with thirty-seven lab technicians, only nine of which were human. One of the crew members was an alien form, he had never seen before. It had a pale pink fleshy form and eyes like stones. It kept staring in his general direction as if it could pick up his scent; he had left it everywhere.

  He powered down the droids.

  One of the human pilots wore gloves: a man with a thick neck and well-rounded torso. Skelos told Trauss to have the pilot remove them. He needed to be certain he was unmarked like the others. You can never be too careful. To his relief and disgust, the pilot was unmarked like the rest of the crew.

  ‘Tell all non-droids to make their way to the airlock,’ said Skelos.

  The soldiers raised their guns, their eyes roaming the walls for an unseen enemy. A number of lab technicians raised their hands, letting their data pads crash to the floor. They were untrained in infringement protocol and made no effort to negotiate prior to their surrender.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ said Trauss.

  ‘Just do it,’ said Skelos. This wasn’t his style at all. He was no assassin. Those who had died at his hands were victims of his misadventures…or their own. He had to remind himself that they were Unmarked Ones and he shouldn’t care if they lived or died.

  On arriving at the airlock door, one of the soldier’s made a bizarre attempt at an escape, by launching himself at the commander. Skelos didn’t know how fear could cause such an act of stupidity, but the soldier threw himself at her as if she were a bomb about to go off and Skelos had no choice but to fire. The weapon he had chosen reduced the soldier to a single speck of ash. If he thought the airlock was a more attractive prospect, he was wrong. The soldiers knew someone or something was controlling their beloved commander. He supposed it would be easier to kill her and hopefully eliminate the threat in the process. He fired a shot straight into her head, killing her instantly.

  Skelos darted out of the way and let her drop. He tried to think why he wanted to send them through the airlock in the first place, but as another shot was fired which blew apart the airlock door, he remembered why he wanted to err on the side of caution. He grabbed one of the airlock rails to stop himself from being sucked out. He shot those who attempted to hang on in much the same way, picking them off before they knew what was happening.

  He called upon four droids to seal the airlock. One was inept at supporting its own weight and was sucked out into space. He summoned a replacement.

  He watched them work for a while and when he saw the progress they had made setting a temporary seal on the second door, he returned to the ship’s hub. By then he had become quite visible again. Though it no longer mattered. Able to once again plant his feet on solid ground, he had a droid accompany him to the room with all the tanks. He had selected a female droid with a squat jaw and limpid eyes. He left the remainder of the droids to scour the ship for any more humanoids or other life forms that Commander Trauss had failed to rally. He instructed the droids to kill them on sight.

  He could not leave without Vastra. Like it or not he owed the Second Status Citizen a debt. And if he were to abandon him, there was a chance Vastra would make it off the ship in one piece and seek retribution. He opened up Vastra’s tank and took out his bag, which he dropped into his own tank. He then retrieved his own from the circular vent on the floor. This too he placed in his tank.

  He awoke D12. ‘Take us to Earth,’ he told the droid. ‘No memory wipes. No change of clothes. No mistakes. Report to no one else. Once you have teleported us down to Earth, you can destroy the ship with yourselves in it.’

  D12 nodded, rising stiffly from the workstation chair. ‘I will do as you ask.’

  ‘Ensure that we have adequate sustenance. I cannot afford to lose any more weight. Be quick about it.’

  He removed his robes and lay them in one corner of the tank. He climbed inside it and closed his eyes before he changed his mind. Would the droid still obey me if I am unconscious? What if someone intercepts the ship while I’m asleep? He thought about all this as he watched D12 sit on the control desk.


  My fate will be determined by a droid. Better than at my own hands.

  THIRTY-TWO

  Ted’s heart thumped like a rabbit’s hind legs. He didn’t blink when he boarded the lift to the basement. He had called Steve’s receptionist who confirmed that he was out for the afternoon. It didn’t stop him from visualising Steve appearing on the other side of the doors when they opened with a gun in his hand, aimed at his head.

  He held his breath until the doors opened. There was no one around to greet him. He gave a few short gasps, determined to get his breathing in order before he committed himself to the task ahead.

  He did a quick lap of the basement, craning his neck, to check that no one was sneaking up on him. He relaxed as he passed the capsule. The door was closed and a swift peek through the window told him not a soul had entered it since he had removed the laptop and Connor’s bag.

  Ted went into the control room. The Vega computer held the buildings floor plan. It was capable of remotely controlling the fire alarms, lights, sprinklers and the security cameras.

  He didn’t have a clue how to remotely control anything in the building. His mind ventured to what he could do if he did: shut the whole place down, strip the offices of valuables and do a runner. He sniggered at the thought. He didn’t have the guts for anything so daring, which is why he had never tried it. It was ludicrous to think that he could use the supercomputer to open a vault when he didn’t know how to get it to open anything else. He had let his ego do the talking when he had shown Vega to Connor. He had acted as if he had special access. It was almost laughable. He had seen Professor Hatleman using Vega from the other side of the control room door. The professor had spoken to the computer and it had recognised his voice. Ted didn’t have Professor Hatleman’s voice. Vega gave him scant access to Tridan Entertainment’s games. Nothing more. Steve Lepton was the one who had told him of Vega’s capabilities and had promised to give him a full demonstration, which he never did. Ted had taken it upon himself to learn its capabilities. He hadn’t got very far.

  He fumbled beneath the shelves. He found two remote controls, both as flat as smart phones. He plucked up one and tapped the button on the side of it. A touchscreen appeared and a blank textbox. He keyed in the code that he had taken from Professor Hatleman’s key card. The computer came on. This was as much as he knew. A group of icons appeared. The games icon gave him access to all of Tridan Entertainment’s games. All the other icons required a passcode and it wasn’t Professor Hatleman’s. Ted had tried a few combinations and none of them had worked. The remote security access icon was the one he needed to get into. Even if he got in, he wasn’t certain he could access the vault.

  He nearly swooned with fright when his phone vibrated in his pocket. He eased it out. It was Luke.

  ‘You in?’ he asked.

  ‘Yeah.’ Ted wiped away the mounting sweat above his lip. ‘I need a passcode to access the remote security.’

  ‘I thought you said you knew how to open the vault?’

  Had he said that? He couldn’t recollect. ‘Yeah, if I have a passcode. Give me the one off your uncle’s key card.’

  Luke read him the numbers and Ted tapped them into the touchscreen and then pressed enter. Nothing happened.

  ‘Did it work?’ said Luke, his voice rising in expectation.

  No it blasted well didn’t! Ted bit his lip trying to think about another way in which he could override Vega. Had he missed something the last time he had seen Steve and Professor Hatleman talking in the control room? He didn’t think so. It was the only time he had seen Steve in the control room, and if anything it was merely to have a quick word with Professor Hatleman himself about something non-Vega related.

  ‘You don’t have Steve Lepton’s key card by any chance?’

  Ted didn’t answer. He had never laid eyes on Steve’s key card. He figured the man had the thing taped to his chest.

  He pondered over how long it would take him to hack his way into Vega without the supercomputer knowing it was being hacked. It could have been rigged for such an attempt. Who knew what it would do. It wouldn’t have surprised him if it sent a text message to Steve Lepton.

  ‘Ted?’

  ‘I’m here.’ He began to wish he was somewhere else. ‘Just give me a bit more time.’

  Ignoring Luke’s groaning sigh, he set down his phone and seized the other remote and held them side by side. At first glance, they looked identical. They were both the same size and shape and both had blank screens. However, he found that one didn’t have an on-off button on the side. The one without the button was slightly thicker too and it felt a little heavier. He set the other one down.

  Why hadn’t he realised it sooner? He removed the silicone strip from Professor Hatleman’s key card and stuck it to the remote. He used the heel of his hand to warm it up. He then pressed nine again. The display on the remote flashed blue.

  After a tense two minutes, a collection of blocks appeared on the computer screen each one representing the floor numbers in the building. Oddly enough the basement was not among them. He felt a rush of jubilation. He had cracked Vega! It was a pity there was no one around with whom Ted could gloat. There was no point revelling in his triumph with Luke; he wouldn’t understand.

  The blocks were organised into levels: one to twenty-five. He was pleased to see that level seven was among them. Just to be sure, he pointed the remote at level one. Vega displayed a floor plan of the lower ground floor lobby. The floorplan appeared as a fusion of arcs and lines. Underneath were several remote access options: lighting, sprinklers, alarms, heating water, lifts and power overrides. It was all here. Just as he had imagined. He checked a few of the other levels. There was a colossal banquet hall on the second floor and a fitness centre on the first floor that Ted hadn’t seen since the day of his induction seven years ago.

  He pressed exit, erasing the floorplan. The blocks reappeared. He entered level seven. The vault showed up as a rectangular box that stretched to the very end of the corridor. As he expected there was no ‘vault opening option’ visible on the monitor. The best chance he had was shutting everything down, save the basement and seventh floor door access. He would have to shut down the backup generators too. If electrics held the vault door in place and there were no electrics, then technically the door would open. As far as he knew, the lifts electric motors wouldn’t be affected by the power shut down. He could take the lift up to the seventh and back down again without a hitch. He could use the light from his phone to guide him into the vault if it was dark too see.

  He grabbed his phone to speak to Luke. ‘I’m going to shut down the power on seventh. The vault should open. Don’t go in until I get there.’ He dropped his phone in his pocket and aimed the remote at the power override option and selected TURN OFF ALL POWER.

  His heart jumped to the beat of clacking footsteps on the tiles. He tossed the remotes back on the shelf and crashed to his knees. He tried to hide under the shelf behind the stools, nudging two out of the way with his elbow. The recess under the monitor was nowhere near deep enough to conceal him. He heard a rap on the door and looked up to see Alec, the security guard, peering at him. Ted stared around the floor pretending he was looking for something and then got to his feet. He gave Alec a smile and a short wave, but his wide-eyed expression showed his guilt and fear and Alec’s eyes narrowed with suspicion as he took in the scene.

  ‘What you doing in there, Ted?’ he asked. He held a set of keys in his hand.

  Alec’s hair resembled wet cat’s fur. Fit and lean, he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. Ted gawked at the belt around Alec’s waist. Was that a gun hooked to his belt, or a walkie-talkie?

  ‘Thought I’d lost something,’ said Ted. He turned to look at the screen. The floorplan to the seventh floor had gone, but the blocks were visible, clear evidence that he had committed a gross act of misconduct. Alec would know the only persons who had access to the Vega control room were Professor Hatleman and Steve Lepton. Did Alec?r />
  Alec took a key card from his pocket and used it to let himself in.

  ‘You shouldn’t be in here?’ He stared over Ted’s shoulder at the blocks on the screen. Ted watched a lump go down Alec’s throat. He shook the bunch of keys in his hand. ‘What were you doing, Ted?’

  Ted turned to the colossal monitor. ‘The whole system came on by itself. You don’t know how to turn it off do you? I know Steve’s busy and Professor Hatleman’s away.’

  Alec cleared his throat. He gave Ted a narrow-eyed look as if he were searching for a hint of sarcasm in his face. Alec knew Ted’s role at the company and he knew his own. Alec was a security guard, not a computer expert. Ted wanted to make Alec feel important. The security guard was used to Steve snapping orders at him all day. It was probably rare for anyone to come to him for solid advice.

  Alec puffed up his chest and strode towards the monitor gazing at the blocks in wonder. ‘I’ll try, but I’ll have to tell Steve you were in here.’

  Ted flew to the door, seizing a chair as he went. He swung it in front of Alec as he went to lunge at him. Alec stumbled into the chair. The keys flew from his hand.

  Ted left him cursing. He tottered to the lift. Weighed down by fear, he staggered the last few feet to the lift doors. By the time they opened, he was panting. He swiped the key card through the electronic reader and slammed his hand on the seventh floor button.

  When the doors opened on the seventh, he staggered up the corridor. The lighting was meagre with the lights out, and fear had taken such a hold on him, he hardly knew where to go. When he stumbled into a wall, he fished out his phone and called Luke to help direct him. He imagined Alec was calling Steve to tell him he had used Vega. Steve Lepton would arrive shortly, carrying a body bag with his name on it.