Whisper & Fury: Eydulan Series Book 1 Read online

  One

  “Whisper, is that it?”

  Redish orange light fills the circular room. She points toward a column in the center, the light barely giving away the control panel next to it. Cameras around the room turn, focusing on the pillar.

  “If you don't mind, that ‘it’ you’re referring to is my brother you meat puppet.”

  “Right, sorry Whisper. So what is it that I have to do again?”

  Whisper goes through what controls to hit, and the sequence to do it in with Katrice. There isn’t much time left before someone should come looking for her. She presses them quickly, continually looking over her shoulder, making sure there isn't anyone coming up from behind. She takes a short breath followed by another, as sweat drips down her forehead. An ache in her shoulders cries out for a scratch, and she obliges.

  Whisper asks, “Another scratch huh?”

  “Shut it Whisper.” She says back, a bark in her tone.

  “Just calm down Kat, the space station is empty, and has been since the random pirate attack we falsely made. We still have twenty minutes, at least, and I know the codes to get Fury out of there. So get your meat-mind focused, and quit being so paranoid.”

  “Easy for you to say, you're an AI. You don't have to worry about being shot.”

  “I know you've been through worse. I was there when you got rebuilt, which is why you should be taking those pills the doctor gave you.”

  Kat rolls her eyes, typing in the last few commands. That’s all she needed was an AI on her back about taking her meds. She’ll take them when she’s ready. She enters in the last sequence, and the emergency lights turn off with a loud click, leaving the room pitch black. Light spills in from down the hallway, leaving the exit sign as the only thing she can see.

  “Uh, Whisper, was that supposed to happen?”

  “You didn’t mess it up with those sausages you call fingers did you?”

  “Hey, I am a perfectly healthy weight, thank you very much. I typed in the codes just like you told me.”

  The enclosure around Fury hisses, expelling cold air throughout the room. Kat could smell nitrogen filling the air, like opening a sealed video game. Metal squeals against metal as a glass enclosure is revealed by light from within. A large gunmetal-blue pistol stands within the case. Kat stares at it, mouth open, trying to figure out how she's going to carry it. Let alone use it.

  A virtual box appears with a microphone shape within the center between her and Fury. She closes her mouth, taking in a breath through her nose. Having to get the phrase out in one breath.

  “The Zerg rush killed Diablo with Frostmourne.”

  A man’s voice echoes in across the lab room speakers, “Command accepted. Give new verbal ID for ownership.”

  “Katrice Wylde, owner ID KW1337.”

  “Owner voice ID accepted KW1337, Katrice Wylde. Restart and install commencing, thirty minutes till complete.”

  The lights within the lab room turn back on, as do all the lights down the hallway.

  “Looks like everything is going exactly as planned. Whisper, send a signal to the Crucible and have her ready for takeoff. We need to get out of here before Mars Security can get here.”

  Whisper sighs, “I hate taking orders from a flesh and bone creature such as yourself, but I will oblige. You did just rescue my brother after all.”

  Kat rubs at her forehead, “For an AI, I swear, you just can’t seem to get the concept of a captain and her crew. Can you. I’m the captain, and for the moment, you’re the only crew that I have. The crew listens to and respects the captain.”

  “This is just the way I was programed, or it could be I like to get a rise or two out of you.”

  Kat takes a moment to compose herself. She tells herself, she’s just an AI and she’s trying to get a rise out of you. Just calm down.

  Looking over at the table behind the enclosure, there is a holster laying on it next to a stack of paperwork. She grabs the leather holster for Fury on the table close to the glass enclosure that held him. The holster straps to the side of her leg, with Fury sticking out of both ends. She wonders how she is even going to fire such a weapon. The kickback alone might tear her arm out of socket. An itch in her shoulder reminds her of her new cybernetic limbs, and how she didn’t want them.

  She puts her thoughts aside, looking at the glass tablet where the stack of papers are, and can see its preliminary tests that were completed. Skimming the document, there wasn’t anything that caught her eye on Fury’s behavior, so she just tosses them back on the table.

  “Whisper, would you please get the Crucible ready for when we get back, so we don’t meet the security forces on the way out.” She says gritting her teeth.

  “See there, it wouldn’t kill you to be nice every now and then.”

  The lab was not far from where she parked her ship. It was something else she took, when she ran from her psycho ex. She didn’t feel one bit of remorse for taking them either. She was dragged though hell and back, and spent the better part of two years looking for the plans to have them built. In a way, she thinks it could be a severance package.

  A blaster fires, ricocheting off the corner of the wall as Kat walks by. Her body flinches back away from the hallway. The space station was supposed to be empty. Reaching into her back pocket, she rummages around till she finds her compact. It had been used for make-up once, but that was in another life. She undoes the clasp revealing a mirror, and where the applicator use to be, were two thin grenades. Pulling the top one, she flips the latch, and tosses it around the corner.

  “You ready Whisper?” Kat says, trying to keep her voice low.

  “Yes, yes, when am I not.”

  Kat rolls her eyes, wishing she would get an un-sarcastic answer just once. The grenade explodes with a puff of pink smoke. The pink cloud crawls down the hallway, filling up from ceiling to floor. Each particle that touches a surface, sends back a signal to the compact. Lighting up the hall as she looks through the mirrored display. She knew this was a choke point, but it was the safest place to park her ship. She knew, that if anyone came after her that it would be here, but she didn’t really think anyone would be here.

  A deep, commanding voice comes out from around the hallway. “Mrs. Wylde, that was a practice shot. So, if you wouldn’t mind, could you please make this easy on me? I only need to retrieve our boss’ stolen property, the bracelet and ship. He wants you dead. I personally don’t care one way or the other, I’m just forced to do my job here.”

  "Like I can really believe that. The second you get Whisper and Crucible back, my life is forfeit."

  "Believe what you want, but I don't want to kill you. I have been an admirer of your work for some time now. My regret is that we have to meet like this, I think we would have hit it off.”

  Whisper says, “I think the meatbag just tried to hit on you. That is the worse pickup line I have ever heard.”

  Kat replies softly, “I know right. He fires a blaster at me and then says we would hit it off. A real charmer that one is.” She then replies back to the man, “What do you think I am, an idiot.”

  “Alright, how about this. Your accident, the one that caused you to have all of your cybernetic prosthetics. It wasn’t an accident. Mallory, our boss, wanted you dead.”

  The compact shakes in Kat’s hand. Mallory sent her on that job, why would he want to kill her before it was finished. It didn’t make any sense to her at all. Her breathing gets shallow, and world begins to spin as all the thoughts and memories of their life together come to the forefront of her mind.

  Searching for Whisper and Fury before she knew their names, the explosion. Hazy memories of doctors at her side, talking, yet silent. Mallory’s face, clean and clear, holding her hand. Then tears running down his face, or was it water. He pulls back, putting drops in his eyes, and then leans forward again.

  There is a muffled voice in the background, but Kat can’t make it out. Her knee hits the floor before she regains her composure and hears Whisper speaking to her.

  “Hey, come on Kat, don’t have some traumatic meat-brain meltdown on me now. I’m going to need someone to polish me later, and I don’t want it to be the brute over there.”

  “Whisper, sorry about that.”

  “Yes, well you had better get the good wax out, you know the one from Andromidus with the turtle on it, that can make up for it.”

  Kat laughs, “Ha ha, yea I will, but we have to deal with muscles over there first.”

  “Muscles, huh. I didn’t notice.”

  “I… I didn’t… whatever, just help me out here. Do you have any offensive settings, other than sarcasm?”

  “Very funny ape, let me see…”

  Muscles says, “Hey Kat, listen. I can’t go against Mallory, and neither can you. Maybe if you hand over Whisper and Crucible back over to him, I can convince him to keep you around.”

  “Any day now Whisper, I don’t think he is going to just keep trying to talk me to death. He will start shooting again. Hopefully.” Kat says annoyed.

  Whisper lets out a huff, which was impressive for someone without a physical body, or the need to breath. “I am still learning what I can do myself, and there is a lot of data to search through and unlock.”

  “You haven’t done that already?”

  “No, I’ve been busy. With the whole escape, hiding from Conglomerate ships, and then saving my brother. Didn’t leave me much idle time to sift t
hough my memories and see what’s there.”

  “Alright Kat.” Muscles says, “I didn’t want to do this but what Mallory wants, I have to get.”

  He stands up from behind his hiding spot. Kat watches him raise his hand up toward the ceiling with something in his hands, but with the compact display only showing a silhouette, it was hard to tell what. A few seconds later, alarms start to go off, and the bulkhead door slams down behind her. It was the emergency fire system kicking on drenching the hallway. She wipes the hair out of her face, with water still pouring down over her. A quick look at the compact shows the water washing away the camera dust her grenade laid out. Her heart sinks as they wash down the drain.

  “Whisper, I'm going to need that weapon now.”

  “Have you ever heard of patience meatbag?”

  Kat sighs, “Yes I have you organic hating AI, but if you don't hurry you'll be wiped clean and reprogrammed.”

  “Re… reprogrammed, right. I just finished unlocking the program, loading it now. It will be a minute or two till it’s ready.”

  The man walks around the corner, over six feet of muscle stands less than a few feet from her. He was handsome, in the he’s about to kill you sort of way. Strong chin, soft green eyes, dark auburn hair, and muscle definition that was showing though his clothes. She takes a few steps back, pushing that thought into the what the hell am I thinking folder, bumping into the bulkhead door. Her head whips back, looking at the door, then back to Muscles. He’s holding a single shotgun blaster across both hands, a weapon that Kat knows too well.

  He says, “Katrice, hand over the AI. I will then take the Crucible, and Whisper back to Mallory. When I leave, you can just take my ship and get off this station, please. I can tell Mallory I killed you. This is your only warning, then I have to shoot. No matter what I want.”

  “I can't, and even if I could, I wouldn't.”

  The man holds the gun around his hip, “Then there is nothing I can do for you now.”

  Kat screams, “Whisper!”

  The blaster fires off a round in a tight spread. She feels a searing stab against her right leg, as it slides out from underneath her. Her face splashes against the cold metal floor, bouncing once before laying back down. A blaster shell ricochets off the ground, and she hears the gun’s action lock a new round into place. Her hand instinctively reaches for her leg, feeling where the blaster hit. The cybernetics had been coated in a skin like material that allowed her to feel her leg. She almost regretted having that feature at that moment, but it helped her realize that the wound wasn't as bad as it felt. It took a chunk out, but nothing that couldn't be fixed, if she could live through this.

  “Weapon systems are now online Kat, miniature rail-guns activated.” Says Whisper. The bracelet housing Whisper breaks apart, transforms into a five domes across the top of Kat’s hand, with a trigger in her palm.

  “Fire!” Kat screams, straining her voice and pulling the trigger. The big man takes a step backward, not ready for a counterattack. Kat braced herself for ear ringing shots, but only heard wisps of air and grunts of pain. Each shot was a tiny sliver of metal, two in the chest, and one in each leg. He limps back behind the corner, giving Kat a moment to breath. She props herself up against the door, clenching her leg.

  “Better late than never huh Whisper?” Kat says breathing heavily.

  “I was perfectly on time, you're still alive aren't you?”

  “Cutting it a little close.”

  “Yes, well, that is another matter entirely.”

  “You know you could just say you're sorry.”

  The man coughs, “What are you mumbling about over there?”

  “None of your business, and I thought you weren't talking to me anymore.”

  “I can’t give you any more warnings, but we can talk. We're lucky though, you almost hit my heart. That would have been bad for the two of us.”

  Two

  “What do you mean bad for the two of us, that doesn’t make any sense. If you die, then I could get the hell off this space station.”

  “Come on Katrice, you should know Mallory better than that. Do you really think I was here of my own free will. He surgically implanted a bomb next to my heart after a mission where I needed surgery. If my heart stops beating, the bomb goes off. Which would take half the space station with it.”

  “He’s a cold hearted bastard sure, but never did anything like that when I was around.”

  “Are you defending him now? He did the same thing into you, just in your new limbs.”

  Kat takes in a sharp breath. Her prosthetics had been forced on her, and she had been trying to ignore the fact she had them, but that just made them all the more real. She scratches her leg, wanting to feel her nails dig into her skin. Even knowing the feeling was artificial, it settled her thoughts.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Like I said, when you got your new arms and leg they put a bomb in each. Maybe one in your head too, I wasn't in his good graces at that point. So I only have what some of the other medical techs who were there said.”

  Kat says softly, “Whisper, can you check to see if he is telling the truth?”

  “I might be able to if I use my nanites to search your cybernetics. I've never done that before though.”

  “Do it and hurry, because I don't think he's lying.”

  Muscles says, “That mumbling that you’re doing over there. Your talking to Whisper aren't you?”

  “I just like to mumble to myself, it's a nervous habit.”

  “It's ok, you don't have to tell me. I know you're already paired to her, and I know you came here for Fury. Mallory wants the project scrapped so he can restart it, but since your exit with Whisper. Let's just say there wasn't much left to start over with. But you already knew that.”

  Whisper says, “Kat, not to alarm you, but we have a slight problem here. There are two heavy yield explosives in you.”

  “How big we taking here?”

  “Enough to begin a planet cracking job twice over. With what you have in you, it will take a chunk out of the moon this station is orbiting.”

  “Ok. Not good. So what do we do, because I can't disarm them.”

  “We can just disarm you, and throw them out the airlock.”

  “This isn't the time for jokes.”

  “This is the perfect time for jokes. It will help diffuse the situation, and keep us cool headed so we don't blow a gasket.”

  “Wow. Seriously.”

  Whisper sighs, “You and your primitive monkey brain have no sense of humor, you know that.”

  Kat clenches her jaw tight speaking through her teeth, “Can you disarm the explosives, or not?”

  “Yes, yes. Give me a few minutes, but I won't be able to be used as a weapon while doing this. I'm not used to surgically diffusing an explosive that can crack a planet in two. Just keep him talking.”

  “Great, just great.” Kat rubs at her forehead. “Hey Muscles, what’s your name?”

  Two years ago

  “Katrice, I guess the doctor cleared you, and are you ready for the trip?” Says a male voice over the noise of the launch pad.

  “Mallory!” Kat runs over to an average sized man, kissing him deeply on the lips. “I didn’t know you were going to see me off like this.”

  “Well, I know how you get about these things. It wouldn’t be proper to send you off on this mission without saying goodbye first.”

  “You do always know how to surprise a woman don’t you.” Smiling, she reaches up tidying his thick black hair, running her fingers through the soft and silky strands. “And yes the doctor said that I was as fit as a human can be. The only way I could perform better would be to get some cybernetics installed, but you know how I feel about that. So, what ever will you do without me around?”

  Mallory nods giving her a little smirk, “I have some plans, nothing to dangerous mind you. I have Zane and Garvan working for me on security as we speak.” He points at the two men in matching black suits near the doors to the control room. “They will be my new number one and two while you’re gone.”

  “Gravan, which one is that again? I did so many checks on substitutes I lost track.”

  “He was another Empire soldier, like you, different special forces unit. After the rebellion lost and everything calmed down, he went into mercenary work because he needed closure. At least that’s what your psyche evaluation says.”