Extinction

“Dammit,” I said. “I wish I had a sensor array up. Our passive sensors still aren’t picking up anything?”

“Nothing, sir.”

“Prepare to turn on the active systems,” I said.

Everyone in the room tensed up. Captain Sarin’s hand strayed to the computer. I stared at her.

“That’s not the sensor control system, Captain,” I said.

She jumped. “No, sir.”

I stepped beside her. She had sent a message to someone.

“Who are you contacting?”

“I had that messaging system up before, sir,” she said. “I was just closing it.”

Her forefinger stabbed the ‘X’ in the corner of the application. It vanished. Quickly, she dialed up the sensor controls.

The door opened behind me. I turned to see who showed up with interest. It was Major Robinson.

“What’s up?” he said, looking from face to face.

“A minor conspiracy, by the looks of it,” I said sternly.

Major Robinson paled. I waved away my own words and called him over to look at our supposed location in the universe. We had a chart up of the blue giant system. We’d taken it from the memory of the Socorro. All of the sixty-odd planets and other bodies were displayed in their relative orbital positions. We’d been there long enough to track and plot their paths and had programmed the system model into the tabletop computer. Overall, even though the nanite brainboxes were smarter and more flexible, I still preferred the interfaces of our own homegrown, electronic machines. They certainly were easier on a man’s vocal cords.

I crossed my arms, put my butt against the tabletop and leaned against it. “I hate this blindness. I’m going to turn on our active scanners.”

“Sir,” Robinson said, “As a marine officer, I have to warn you that is strictly against protocol for any insertion mission. In our own military forces back on Earth, you don’t start pinging when you don’t even know what is outside the ship.”

“That’s the whole point of pinging, Major.”

“But sir, we don’t know the tactical situation. We can’t do something like that unilaterally. The enemy might be listening for just such a signal to locate this convoy and destroy it.”

I cleared my throat, knowing he was right. “Okay, I’ll talk to the Macros about it.”

Robinson gave me a look that indicated he didn’t think much of my chances, but I ordered the command module to open a channel to Macro Command anyway.

“Relay to Macro Command: We would like to turn on active sensors.”

The answer came back immediately, and it was definitive. “Incoming Message: Permission denied.”

“Why not?” I asked. I closed my eyes and sighed the moment I’d spoken the words.

“Incoming Message: Cargo is not permitted interrogatives.”

“Yes, right. Send them this: provide us your passive sensor feed so we can monitor our approach to target.”

“Incoming Message: Request denied.”

“Then at least allow me to place my own passive sensors on the ship’s hull!” I shouted.

There was a long pause. Everyone looked at the walls around us.

“Incoming Message: Permission granted.”

“Ha!” I hooted and clapped my hands together. “We’ll be able to see what’s around us in an hour!”

Everyone tried to look happy for me. It took a moment to notice they looked a little green, too.

“What’s wrong now?”

“Who’s going to install the sensor array, sir?” asked Captain Sarin.

I suddenly understood her concern. “Send two of our best techs.”

Everyone in the command brick relaxed a little. They were all happy they didn’t get the assignment.

— 39-

We watched on the cameras as two suited men strapped sagging tool belts around their waists and lifted a barrel-like container between them. They were unarmed and anxious. The weightless environment made things much easier. They simply walked out onto the top of a brick in the maintenance and supply area and jumped toward the ceiling. They did a slow spin and landed on their magnetic boots. They were about thirty yards from the four Macro guards. They stepped toward the guards, who didn’t move except to swivel their weapons systems. They tracked the approaching men flawlessly.

I frowned. “They could at least move out of the way,” I said.

My marines took ten steps closer, then twenty. They walked slower as they approached. They tried waving at the Macros and gesturing for them to move aside. One of the machines twitched its gun-mount, tracking the gesturing hand.

One of the staffers in the command module waved to me. He handed me a com-link unit. “It’s the two engineers, sir. They don’t like it.”

“I don’t blame them,” I said. “Just tell them to standby. I’ll talk to the Macros. Maybe they don’t quite get that we have to enter their ship in order to do the job. Damned machines.”

“Command module, relay to Macro Command the following: Allow my technicians to pass your guards and set up the sensor array.”

A few seconds passed. I watched as the two men stood there, moving uncomfortably.

“Incoming Message: Give us your location.”

“We’re right there, standing in front of you.”

“Incoming Message: Give us the location of Kyle Riggs.”

“Me? I’m right here. I’m in my command module, my brick, just where I’ve been every time I-” I said, then suddenly I halted. Something was wrong. “No, wait I-”

But it was too late. The four Macro guards in their diamond formation were carefully placed. All of them had a free field of fire and could burn down my men without injuring one another. Two of them fired on each of my unarmed engineers. The men were cut in half by the initial blazes of energy. They hadn’t even had the chance to scream. But the Macros weren’t done yet. They kept firing on the floating pieces until nothing bigger than a burnt finger drifted around in the hold. A mass of vapor, much of it atomized particles of my marines, floated in a steamy haze that obscured the Macros. The four machines still twitched, as if looking for fresh targets of sufficient mass to warrant further blasting. I noticed the sensor unit was still there, magnetically attached to the roof of the hold. They had not damaged it in the slightest.

I ripped my com-link off and threw it onto the table. “Dammit!”

The link beeped and I snatched it up again. A familiar voice spoke in my ear. It was Sergeant Kwon. I’d placed him on operational security. Apparently, he’d watched the fiasco on the ceiling.

“Sir, I’m requesting permission to burn down those machines.”

“No. Request denied.”

“Sir, I won’t lose a single trooper doing it.”

“I know you won’t, Sergeant. But I don’t need to compound this misunderstanding.”

Two seconds of silence followed. “Yes, sir. Standing by.”

I took a deep breath and looked around at my stunned command staff.

“Are we prisoners, sir?” asked Captain Sarin.

“What did we misunderstand?” asked Major Robinson.

I looked at them both. “The Macros are very literal. They gave me permission to install the sensor. That’s because, as I recall now, I demanded they allow me to install it.”

Major Robinson got it first. “Ah… so they figured out it wasn’t you standing there at the exit when you