Activating my rocket pack, I flew toward them as Jaclyn raced across the ground, moving slower and more carefully than usual to avoid launching herself into the ceiling.
I’d done the same with the rockets without thought.
The Xiniti implants helped with that, implanting that skill along with all the other knowledge we had available.
As good as that was, it meant we weren’t moving as quickly as we could on Earth, giving us time to watch the inevitable. Continue reading Moon: Part 11
Plan b was to use an object that the Artificers had designed to end civilizations. It wasn’t a question of whether that would be bad for us, but whether the effect would be to empower Victor or to infect us.
“Not good,” Jaclyn muttered and her hands twitched, activating a new feature of her suit, which I’d described as “essentially a gumball dispenser.”
With a hand motion, she could cause dense balls of an alien-designed alloy to roll out of her suit and land in her hands. Then she could throw it. Continue reading Moon: Part 9
Over the comm, I asked, “Was that you?”
“Me?” Marcus shook his head, “No. I just connected.”
Victor stared at me and looked over at Rachel. Then he shouted, “I see you for what you are—avatars of the Artificers. Die!”
Then all the lights winked out as the doors on the boxes that Cassie called “psychotic monkey boxes” opened. For the record, they weren’t monkeys. They were bipedal, but they had two extra arms compared to regular monkeys. They also had tails, but that wasn’t weird.
What was weird is that they didn’t have fur. They had dark, gray skin, glistening with what I assumed to be moisture, but didn’t have to be water. My gut feeling was that it was some kind of oil. Continue reading Moon: Part 8
Cassie didn’t hesitate to respond, treating a conversation with a time traveler (I guess) trapped on the Moon like a normal thing.
“We need to get into the equipment in this room. Someone’s shut off access and I’m assuming it’s you.”
Victor eyed her, “Who sent you?”
Furrowing her brow, Cassie said, “Sent us? No one. We’re here on our own.” Continue reading Moon: Part 7
I used the Rocket suit’s sensors to see if I couldn’t make the sound clearer. When I did, I learned something.
It still didn’t make sense.
Querying my implant, I checked if it might be another language. My implant identified bits of Sumerian, a variant of pidgin Abominator used by their human servants, English, and several ancient human languages that must have been common when the Abominators were on Earth.
Translated into modern English, the mass of words was still gibberish. Continue reading Moon: Part 6
Zooming in with the Rocket suit’s sensors, I realized something. I knew this guy. I’d last seen him while fighting Rook and other operatives of the Nine at another lab analyzing alien technology, that one on Earth.
I’d worked for a company called Higher Ground and this guy, Victor, had been my co-worker, mentor, and semi-supervisor in an internship that was an undercover mission. Victor had seemed nice enough at first. Continue reading Moon: Part 5
I couldn’t rule out the possibility that some were literally in our basement or one of our storage rooms. The original team confiscated a lot of technology from supervillains that they didn’t feel comfortable handing over to the government.
I also hadn’t forgotten that Yoselin’s father and Russian Victory had also brought some home from the Moon.
I’d always assumed it had been Abominator tech, but seeing the room, it could have been Artificer tech. There were enough empty spots to be nervous about. Continue reading Moon: Part 4
Marcus shook his head, “That does not look good. I hope whatever did it is gone. Hey, Accelerando, any idea what killed them?”
Shooting him a look, Jaclyn said, “I’m training to be a doctor, not a forensic pathologist. I have no idea. Without an internship in alien autopsies, I can’t even guess whether it was the Abominators’ defenses or another creature.”
She leaned forward to inspect the bodies anyway and her eyes glazed over as she took what had to be a massive download from her implant. Continue reading Moon: Part 3
Daniel might have sensed how long it had been, depending on factors I mostly didn’t know.
I looked down the hall ahead of us. The lights didn’t help much, but with our suits’ sensors, everyone would be able to see what I did. The hall went on as far as I could see, but it wasn’t straight.
It curved enough that the small changes of its path made it impossible to see anything in the hall except for the distant glow coming from the ceiling.
“Hey,” I said, addressing everyone via my comm, “it looks like Rook’s people either were here or are here and I can’t tell more from these… bootprints. It also looks like they might have used a different entrance. So we have no idea how many it is.” Continue reading Moon: Part 2
We stepped out of the hatch into the hangar. A thin layer of moon dust covered the floor, capturing our footprints. It wasn’t a good sign if I were hoping to find working machinery, but it might be a good sign if I were hoping that the building’s defenses were in bad shape.
Given that the base was thousands of years old and that it had opened up the doors to the hangar with no issue, I decided not to be optimistic. The universe wouldn’t be handing out that kind of favor unless it planned to collect on it with interest at the worst possible moment. Continue reading Moon: Part 1