A sharp bang sent She Who Waits reeling, knocking her over. She bobbed back up high enough to reveal a gaping hole in her shell, which leaked gas and a fine gray powder. Quivering tentacles probed the air beyond the open hole. She collapsed and didn’t rise again.
The bomb.
The Primary Executive had detonated it.
The worm blurted a short command. Then the monster leaned over Carmen’s bed and reached inside to grab her.
Chapter Thirty-Six
The Primary Executive took hold of Carmen with four hands and shook her.
She braced herself as she felt the connection to the simulation slipping. The historian’s voice kept chirping but it had lost all its meaning and it finally faded as the contact was severed.
“Let go!” she cried. “Let go of me or I destroy it!”
She clung to a rail inside the bed. When he tried to dislodge her she bit the worm’s hand and instantly regretted it as an acidic burn filled her mouth. But it let out a surprisingly high-pitched yip and flinched, releasing her. The worm reared back and brought up its weapon.
“I’ll crash it into Mars.”
It pressed the barrel to her head.
“I’ll do it,” she whispered.
Would it even understand her? A display on his wrist popped up, which he scanned. The worm’s body shook. It began a series of short wheezy coughs. Foul steam erupted from its helmet vents. Was it laughing at her again?
Even if she could reconnect to the harvester, it would take more than a moment to do anything. Crashing it would require more than the flick of a switch. There were fail-safes to avoid destruction. And all the worm had to do was pull the trigger.
It knew that and the thought of her threat had made it laugh.
Her mom’s voice spoke from the Primary Executive’s wrist device. “I asked it not to hurt you. But there’s no more time for this. The encryption is a scan of your nervous system. If you can’t find how to reset it so the Primary Executive can take control, then disconnect. It will take it from there once you’re up. You won’t be hurt. Do you understand?”
“I hear you, Mom.”
She had seconds left before the Primary Executive lost patience and tore her from the bed. With a thought she found the encryption key. Deleting it would be a simple command now that she was examining the proper virtual menu. Then she would only have to log out.
But her exchange with the historian had been troubling. Something continued to feel wrong with the Cordice. He was in a sudden hurry when before they had been engaged in lengthy deliberation. She felt certain they remained divided and the decision to surrender the harvester was being made under duress.
And her mom had joined the side that was willing to shoot Jenna and murder She Who Waits.
“I’ve found the encryption commands,” she said. She heard her mom reply but the words were muddy as Carmen let the medical bay fall away.
Carmen navigated the ship controls. Focused on the sphere still lodged between the home ship and the Melded vessel. So many commands. But some of what the ship could do was automated with strings of programming that would require little of an operator or no input whatsoever once set in motion.
The harvester, as it turned out, could harvest.
It only required a thought and the sphere began to change shape. Each component of the harvester could act as a section of a broad gathering web to collect particles and gas from a variety of mediums ranging from an atmosphere to the vacuum of space. It could also dismantle space rocks.
The surface of the sphere opened like a metal palm with a dozen fingers. The sphere blossomed out and curled backward, the tips of the fingers clamping down on the Melded ship’s hull.
“Mom, if you’re listening, if anyone is listening, tell that fat worm to back off or I tear its ship to pieces.”
Her mom was on board their frigate. So was Agent Barrett and any number of Melded. She guessed they had emergency measures. But once her harvester got to work, the Melded ship wouldn’t stand a chance.
A hand had her by the throat and was squeezing. The worm shouted. Raged.
Carmen lost touch with the harvester as the Primary Executive tore her away from the com node.
The worm shook her. Threw her down. The gun popped as a projectile exploded next to her head. The floor was covered in a sticky residue that continued to ooze from the shattered remains of She Who Waits’ translucent shell. One of her tentacles had emerged as if reaching for something but now lay limp, the skin darkening and mottled.
A steady vibration ran through the floor.
Carmen’s throat ached and she could only speak in a whisper. “Say goodbye to your ship.”
The Primary Executive thrust a wrist in her face. Her mom’s voice said, “Carmen, stop the harvester.”
Another shudder, this one more violent.
“No,” Carmen said. “The worm wants it so badly? I’m disconnected. Go ahead and take it. I hope it can hack the encryption in time. But you’d better evacuate their ship.”
“This isn’t a game!”
“I know that, Mom. Do you? What’s to stop him from killing all of us?”
“Because we have a deal with the Melded Primary—me along with many of the Cordice. He lets you and Jenna live inside the simulation if I get him the harvester. He sets aside resources so their ship continues to function. It’s the only way.”
A muffled boom caused the other Melded in the medical bay to freeze in place and stare at the ceiling as if it was all about to come down on top of them. And it might. Would the harvester stop after tearing the Melded vessel apart, or would it continue to dissect
