I had to force myself to reach up and hit pass-through on my helmet.
“Roger,” I said as I moved back to the bridge of thePinnacle, “I am here.”
I blinked as I returned to the bridge. Everything here was on fire as well. Billowing black smoke filled the room. Alarm klaxons rang as heavy foam sprayed from the ceiling all over everything. I had dozens of warnings. I felt woozy. I was going to pass out.
“I am sorry, Oliver,” Roger said. “I was unsuccessful in gaining control ofPinnacle. Lorraine remains in hiding, but she will not be able to make a physical connection without revealing herself. Trixie 2 is operating on emergency backup, and in moments, she is going to fail, and I will once again lose control of the remaining New Sonora honeybee units.”
I coughed. “How many are left?”
“There are six with the refugees north of the remains of your farm along with a single rhino unit. There are five in the fields surroundingthe crossroads. There are dozens that may be repairable, but we do not have any scouts left.”
“Twelve left?” I felt myself say.
“You and your sister are both severely injured, and I have ordered the remaining honeybees to transfer you to the closest healing beds. I have rendered Lulu unconscious, and I have just used a honeybee to inject you with a cocktail of drugs that should keep you conscious for another five to ten minutes. Please listen carefully.”
“Roger, what are you talking about?…Whoa, shit!” A strange rushing sensation suddenly overwhelmed me. I was suddenly very, very alert. But at the same time, I became aware of just how injured I was. I still couldn’t feel my left arm, but my back and legs shrieked in pain. It was as if every nerve end had just woken up and was screaming.
“I am unable to administer additional painkiller, unfortunately, as it will interfere with your connection. Oliver, please attempt to fight through the pain and pay attention to my instructions. Before Lorraine went into hiding, I had her transfer the communications module to an unused strength-enhanced RMI soldier from the storage facility. The moment Trixie 2 fails, you have the option to transfer back to your mech. Click yes. This will take you to the RMI unit. Directly below your feet will be a hatch. Open it, and toss the grenade in your hand through, and then quickly close the hatch. After the explosion, reopen and pass through the hatch. Gravity will flip, and you will find yourself directly outside the door to Opel’s stateroom, which will hopefully have been blown open. Beware of the defenses in the hallway. You must move quickly. You must dispatch Eli, and from there, the remaining instructions will be in a document on your view.”
“Will I still be able to talk to you?”
“Not until you reach the secondary bridge and take it. There are two instances of me. The one still inside this ship is relegated to the primary bridge. There is now a separate instance in the Earth net.You will be able to speak with both in theory if you follow my instructions correctly. We will only have one chance at this. Look at the instructions before you proceed, but do so quickly.”
Just as he said that, a group of gun-covered spiderlike automatons swarmed the bridge. Each was the size of a human head, and there were more than a dozen of them. They launched at me, firing their guns. The screen went black.
Chapter 53
As Roger predicted, the button to transfer back toOperation Bounce Houseappeared. I clicked “Yes.” The loading screen appeared again, and again there was a giant error, followed by me suddenly in control of yet another vehicle.
This time I was in the body of an RMI soldier, and like Roger had said, I had a hatch under my feet. The words “Emergency Exit” were written in large block letters on the hatch. And under them was “Warning: Gravitational Reversal.”
I took a moment to just breathe. Everything hurt, but it was all getting numb again. I didn’t have time.
I hopefully clicked the button to reengage my private live stream, but as expected, there was aNo Connectionerror. That was because I was connected from my helmet to Lorraine and from Lorraine to this thing. That was it.
I had a grenade in my hand, another four hanging off a bandolier, and a pistol in a holster on my hip. I was wearing some pretty heavy armor as well.
Sitting right there on my HUD, blinking on the side, was a text document. I clicked it and scanned the instructions.
“Jesus,” I muttered. I was already feeling woozy again. I reached down, turned the handle on the hatch, and threw the grenade through, giving it a little force. I watched it fly down and hit the ceiling of the hallway below me before the reverse gravity took hold. I quickly slammed the hatch down just as it blew. I ripped the hatch back up, took a step back, and jumped through the hole in the ground headfirst, then attempted to roll.
I ended up sliding across the floor just as a turret down the hallway whipped in my direction and started firing. I jumped to my feet, looked about, and realized the door I was supposed to be going through wasn’t knocked in all the way. I rushed toward it, turning my virtual shoulder at the door, and I slammed right through it, again hitting the ground and sliding as a pulse blast hit my left shoulder, mirroring my injury in the real world. I spun and tumbled, knocking over a table and slamming into a wall.
The map showed three rooms, with Opel likely in the one to my right because that one contained access to a private lifeboat. All around me, things started exploding as the turret fired at me as I went through the door and into Opel’s stateroom.
“Shit, shit,” I said, scrambling to the right. This was an unarmored interior door, and I pushed my way in easily.
Slam!
The gunshot hit me center mass in the chest, but it didn’t penetrate my armor. I grasped at the gun in my holster, and as I raised it toward the man who was now scrambling toward another door in the back of the small room, I pulled the trigger. The man cried out as he crumpled to the floor.
I quickly moved to the control panel, which was just a tablet sitting on a table with a wire attached to it. I pulled up Roger’s instructions, and I hit a few buttons. I moved to the side of the tablet, and I followed the wire to the wall. The sound of something skittered into the room outside.
The panel against the wall was already open, and there was a lever identical to the levers we used to turn the water off at spigots. I turned it just as the spider automatons entered the room.
The spiders stopped dead. Then they turned around and left the room.
“Good job, Oliver,” Roger said over a loudspeaker. “I now have full control of thePinnacle, and I have deactivated the internal defenses. Furthermore, I have deactivated the connection of all the remaining mechs on the surface of New Sonora. I am in the process of giving new orders to the remaining RMI soldiers to protect and defend the citizens before I permanently break the connection.”
