Carmen hurried to reconnect to the harvester. In an instant she confirmed what had been reported. The Melded vessel was moving away from the Cordice home ship. Somehow they had dislodged themselves from the harvester sphere. A trail of debris followed them or spiraled away. They were leaving and her mother was with them.
With a thought she detached the sphere. She could intercept them in minutes and disable them. If she brought more spheres into play, she could tear them in half like they were wet cardboard. She could save her mother.
She disconnected.
The sphere would remain in place next to the Cordice home ship as they continued their orbit around Mars’s smallest moon. Maybe the Melded departure would allow the Cordice some breathing space so they could reach a compromise.
She went to She Who Waits’ bed. “I don’t suppose you’d take the harvester off my hands and bring us home?”
When the red light appeared Carmen wondered if she would have to explain humor. But what she heard sent a chill down her spine.
“It’s the Melded,” She Who Waits said. “They’ve activated one of their missiles and are targeting us.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
A missile?
What would be the point in the Primary Executive engaging in a final bluff like this?
Carmen reconnected. Zoomed in on the departing Melded vessel. It glimmered as it passed before the distant sun. One of the tubes stored on the outside of the ship now hung detached in space. It was moving under its own power and turning as it tumbled.
A sensor confirmed what She Who Waits had already told her: they had been hit with a targeting laser. If the missile was real, then there was no time to try and talk the Melded out of whatever they were intending.
With a command she pulled the sphere towards the rest of the sections of the trailing harvester to bring it closer to the Melded ship. There was the briefest delay and then the sphere began to move. The Melded ship wasn’t in a direct path, so she corrected the sphere, willing it to go faster even as the back of the missile blossomed a blue flame and pushed off, instantly accelerating. It was racing towards them in a long arc so quickly, the Cordice home ship felt as if it were sitting still.
The sphere had just enough momentum. She locked on to the missile and drove the sphere into it. The sensors signaled a flash. And just like that the missile was gone. But so was the sphere. Pages of data tried to command her attention but she dismissed them. A hazy cloud of amber expanded near the Cordice ship. Both the sphere and the missile had been annihilated.
The Melded ship continued its retreat. It took her a few seconds to spot the missile array on the hull. A second tube popped free. A remote arm appeared to be trying to remove the other two but the array looked damaged from her earlier attack with the harvester.
“Tell them to stop,” she cried out. “Call them.”
Carmen received no reply. Was She Who Waits even listening?
The nearest sphere was too far away. An intercept plot showed it would take minutes. The first missile had halved the distance in mere seconds before being intercepted.
The new missile began spinning free.
What would destroying the Cordice home ship accomplish? The icy realization came to her that it would decisively sever control over the harvester. The Primary Executive could then hack it at his leisure. And he was willing to destroy all the Cordice and anyone living inside their simulation to get what he wanted.
She Who Waits’ calm voice spoke as if right next to her. “The Cordice wish to talk.”
“Busy.”
She was pushing the sphere as hard as it would go. The harvester felt like it had a mind of its own. It kept wanting to rearrange itself and place its power plant at the rear of the configuration as if in anticipation of future commands she had no intention of making.
She wasn’t about to use the machine to gather resources. Once again it was a weapon of war, and if she couldn’t smash the missile then she needed the incoming sphere to land a kill shot on the Melded vessel.
It was the only way. The ship was closer. Whether knocking the Melded out would stop the missile once it took flight was unknown. The missile came to life, making a final orientation turn before streaking off at a terrible speed directly towards them.
“Tell my mom I’m sorry.”
The sphere was building speed as well. It would strike the Melded at the same time the missile would find its mark.
Seconds left.
She wished she could hold Jenna’s hand.
The blue plume at the back of the missile winked out. She zoomed in. The weapon was no longer under power. With a quick recalculation she charted its trajectory. Its course would take it on an ellipse just behind the Cordice home ship. It was drifting in space, the targeting laser down, its power out.
Her sphere was about to impact the Melded ship. At its current velocity, a change of course would be impossible.
“Car?”
She felt Jenna alongside her. She was there virtually at the harvester controls, a second set of hands and eyes. They overlapped, their thoughts shared. There was no need to communicate the situation. Jenna understood instantly. Highlighted a function that Carmen hadn’t inspected. Together they touched a control.
The sphere scattered into dozens of separate pieces. The wedges glided past the Melded ship by a hair’s breadth. Carmen was too numb to do anything, but Jenna reassembled the sphere and slowed it down to a crawl. It remained poised just beyond the Melded ship and could be brought into action in an instant.
Carmen
