By David C. Daoust
Elijah still had more than a half-dozen spider-drones under his control, each flew, in sync, through the cargo bay like a tightly unified squadron— might be impressive if they were each controlled by a different person. This was not the case. The Limited Ark’s consciousness was spread throughout the group.
Admittedly, he had started out with many more such drones, though he had underestimated the effectiveness of the girl’s attack– put simply, the Ark lost a couple to friendly fire. He kicked himself for not seeing that as an eventuality. He could not blame anyone else, there was no reason for the girls to suspect they had quite so many spiders on their side.
In reality, both sides were having a hard time differentiating between the two. It was clear the similarities between the rival drones, were what was confusing the enemy drones. The fact that Harper was suddenly targeted, and spliced, right after he had color-coded his teams’ reticles, gave him pause, but he doubted the enemy could have perceived such a change. They could not possibly have access to his systems… not at that point anyway.
Elijah was convinced that that particular drone had merely witnessed Harper destroy one of their own—and just so happened to get the drop on her. Especially when all the rest continued the slaughter as oblivious as before.
Why Harper did not alert them to the coming danger was beyond him, but that single splice did a bit more than just steal one of their drones—it allowed an enemy within his systems.
An infiltrator that was routing around, trying to find information. However, this infiltrator was dumb. Like an animal tearing through someone else’s home, trying to sniff and/or gobble up what it could before it was suddenly forced back out into the wilds.
Yet, the information was there for the taking— and while Ferguson was able to corner the beast, quarantine it even, that information escaped, and changed the battle.
Ferguson witnessed all the enemy-drones suddenly drop from the slaughter– to regroup for a new directive.
This new directive targeted the Rover parked within the Dirty Damsel’s hold; to where their signal was coming from.
Elijah knew from his recent altercation with the invader, that this new information provided an actual target, where attacking the spiders, themselves, would have been incomprehensible to such a beastly intelligence; like attacking a gun, rather than the wielder—or even a bullet.
A small force of the enemy drones dipped low for the rover’s still open cargo-hold, the majority began to use energy weapons to slice through the Rover’s hull—each of these headed directly to either the Family Room to reach himself, or the engine room– which meant some were going after the girls.
Elijah was aware of Ratchet’s presence; he was also aware that the children all knew that he was being manipulative earlier.
In all honesty, being manipulative is kind of ‘default’ for an Ark. Not sure how to quell the sudden inquisition, he flipped on his ‘Ferguson-hologram’, he guessed maybe a human face would help, though considering it was more like a mirror to the boy… well, it was what he had.
“We have bigger problems than me,” was the first thing Ferguson announced to all those in the room. He then turned to Hamlin to include him in the sudden briefing. “The drone’s stratagem has altered,” the sudden scouring sound, of the drones’ energy weapons burrowing through the hull, both supported his claims and pulled the mottled boy’s attention from his previous concerns and on to the much more immediate threat. “The enemy followed our signal back from our servers—they are trying to gain entry—not just here…” He turned to Harper, pointedly, “They are cutting through the engine room hull as well… burrowing in with energy beams. It will take them some time to breach the hull, but we must act quickly.”
“I’m going back to my sisters…” Harper, frantic, began as she headed for the door. Stopped by a door which was not actually there, sealed by the Sun Particles.
“To do what?” Ratchet asked, hurriedly.
“To get them, to protect them… what the hell do you think?” Harper snapped.
“Just think for a minute… you saw what those things can do,” Ratchet pressed his case. “What can we fight them with?”
“I can’t just…” Harper protested.
“We can stop them from outside. We’re just meat-bags without a spider…” Ratchet reasoned evenly. “And it won’t be petals sputtering out of our flesh.”
“I will go to them,” Hamlin volunteered, “This holo-bot makes me a walking force-field. And these Sun Particles are pretty much a weapon!” Gesturing at the sealed door, the Sun Particles suddenly broke up into a swarming mass of glowing lights that followed behind him as the Wayward Aspirant rushed from the room.
“Okay,” Ratchet nodded. “That’s a better plan…”
“I can get you there faster,” Ferguson chased Hamlin from the room. “If it’d take a plasma cutter to harm this sphere then I should be okay… hop up.”
The small holobot did just that, Hamlin gripped the rope that was yet tied around the spherical device’s midsection, long since knotted and weaved around the top of it as well, and pulled himself up on top of its dome.
Ferguson heard Ratchet quickly call out to him, “Setup Harper another spider!”
“It will be done,” Ferguson said from the hologram just before it flickered to nothing as the sphere lost line of sight. ‘The Sun Particles are pretty much a weapon…’ Elijah considered the holobot’s words.
Elijah was spilt among all his spiders, his sphere- that now carried Hamlin to the engine room, and even the spider-drone Margo and her small friends’ consciousness borrowed. Thus, including Margo into the conversation was nothing to him.
“We need you to return to your Particles,” Ferguson interrupted the trio of young girl’s conversation over the comms, “They are attacking the rover itself– the children are in danger.”
“What can I do?” Margo looked alarmed, scared—more like a little girl than ever before.
“Those Sun Particles make you formidable,” Ferguson reasoned, “without any limitations to your form. Just get up to the Family Room—Harper and Ratchet may need protection.”
“Alrighty!” Margo agreed. “What about the spider? Can you take it?”
“I’m giving it to Harper,” Ferguson answered briefly.
“We’ll help at the rover, too, Mr. Ferguson!” Dicey suddenly threw in over the comms, having heard the whole conversation.
“Our spiders are headed back from the corridors now, we will help defend the rover,” Grace added in.
Elijah considered having the girls try to retreat, but they may be safer in that alcove, and they would need all the help they could get outside. He was unsure where Wilford and Olivia may be, even Hugo’s location was a mystery…
The Limited Ark hovered all the faster through the Rover’s corridors, the small holobot gripping at the rope, steadying himself, as the two charged to the engine room!
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