Encoded

Deeper

The HER chamber made smooth mechanical noises, nothing loose or fake. It was similar to the kind of visual/audio reassurance you got from handling military-grade weapons designed to never fail, never jam. Slipping off the safety made a muted click, not a clang. The recoil was primarily built into the gun with only the faintest stress on the wrists or elbows. After a few moments, Benzo's massive form emerged from the chamber, the clone mod platforms quickly starting to form up his own shape and characteristics. He looked over at DigBee as the process continued, his steely blue eyes reading him, learning things about the situation from how DigBee was presenting even before they spoke. By the time the bot gave clothes, Benzo's outer body and appearance resembled when they had last been on a mission some 2 years ago. The insides of the android, however, could not be more different.

"I thought you had decided to not wear that creepy old jacket anymore?" Benzo asked, pulling on the last of his clothes in an overly annoyed tug.

"First of all, it's not creepy, and second, the last 48 hours made me change my mind." He silenced Benzo with a, not here look and moved to a ready room just off the main HER Deck. One of the other machines was coming to life, so another team member was inbound. Once in place, he activated a privacy field and asked Sally to add her own special sauce so the NEST couldn't listen in.

"How bad?" Benzo asked, waiting for a rundown on enemies or wired alien shit they had to deal with.

"Bad." DigBee leveled his gaze. "But while worse than you can imagine, not as bad as you think." Benzo glossed over, trying to understand the double negative. "Mika is here as well, and Sarah is personally running NEST point." This got Benzo's attention.

"Well, that's a lot of top brass. I hope you brought me some big guns of my own?" Benzo said, looking around in mock horror. "Why the hell are they here?" He asked.

"Genocide," DigBee said flatly and was about to say more when his world literally went black.

He came too on the ground and checked for weapons and/or injuries the old-fashioned way before asking Sally.

"What the holy mother of all just happened?" he said, standing, seemingly unharmed but in a different part of the ship, back near the data banks.

"I am not able to give you an exact answer to those questions," Sally responded to his spoken question, as always quietly in the back of his head.

He could subvocalize to her too, but he found it more natural most of the time to talk aloud.

"Were not alone." Sally indicated a precise military icon in the NAV area of his android's HUD.

Hector was onAD7 and standing three data banks from him. In a lot of pain.

This time he looked around at him and spoke, painfully and slowly.

"They are here DigBee, on this ship. The corruption has spread. I found this one before it could become active, but I cannot stop it forever." Pain creased his old friend's head as he looked up.

"What can I do?" DigBee now asked, stepping forward but stopped when he saw a kind of grey mist connecting Hector to the Goo Banks, which in turn brought a whole heap of questions into his head.

"Wait, this isn'tAD7?" He looked around needlessly as the GOO Banks all looked the same. Hector shook his head, and Sally confirmed they were, in fact, on another ship several hundred lightyears away fromAD7. DigBee Shook his head.

"How can that be? You moved me here personally over light space in seconds and didn't even use an HER unit." His head was spinning.

"Later," Hector said between gritted teeth. "Chess, you were onto something. I see chess patterns in here for some reason." He stumbled a little, and DigBee went to hold him but was shaken off.

"Find a Chess Player! Now! A game being played, or there may not be a later!"

He went into a primary tactical mode, Sally already one step ahead of him, shooting out micro drones and missiles from pouches under his skin, the pores closing, and replacements already being manufactured and slotted into place. He was running to the command deck area, the android replacing what would have been a colossal adrenalin rush with unparalleled sprinting speed. One of the missiles had reached the Command Deck; Sally fed the video steam in; it was empty, bringing him to a complete stop. The ship's AI, "Tampered Goods," was trying to break in on a channel; he ordered Sally to keep it out.

"Crack its codes, hack in, and shut it down; we don't know if we can trust it yet. Then close down all ship-to-ship communications; in fact, we need to get Sarah to do that on all ships. Once you have the AI on the ice, get me, Sarah." Other parts of his subconscious were running huge "what if" scenarios about the current ship, who was on it, and where it was heading.

"Wait, this ship is asleep, on a series of sub-light hops to a potential planet. There will only be one person awake. Once you're into the AI command structure, translocate me to the only other warm body on the ship other than Hector and me. Seconds passed, seeming like hours and then.

"Got her." his world blurred, and he was stepping out of a Translocation Gate (TG) with multiple weapons readied and one draw,n pointing a laser dot at her head. Her hand was on a piece on the board, but it didn't seem to be moving.

"Hector located Chess player. Shall I terminate?"

"No, if she is playing, have her immediately leave the board," Hector sounded terrible.

"You, commander Francis. Move away from the board now." He boomed from every communication channel and device available. She didn't move; he noticed a white haze over the board like the one around Hector. He shot a micro-slicer missile at the base of the stool she sat on, and it ate the stem of the seat sending the commander to the floor under artificial gravity.

"That's it!" Hector shouted. The commander looked over for the first time and moved her arm up to engage the board again. He shot her handoff, and she recoiled, screaming to the floor. He shot three narcotic Nanos into her, and she immediately went limp while he commanded a medical bot in a nearby maintenance pouch to attend the hand.

"It's Sarah." Sally interrupted

"Sarah, we need a longer chat, but right now, I need you to stop inter-SPJ communications and get everyone not in the GOO on lockdown."

"Tell me why and what Hectors doing, and I'll comply for now, although it won't be easy on D1." She sounded smug like she knew she was winning a race.

"He found another slice of Genocide code, but we stopped this one in time, but only just. That's all I know. This commander was somehow linking the hack to the ship via a chessboard. That's really all I know; you will have to ask Hector the rest."

"He's gone again." A short pause. "But I believe you." Don't go away while I make this happen. I have many questions about how you got from AD7 to AD4; we saw no HER activity.

"You and me both." He breathed as he reached the commander and looked down at her. "You, young lady, are in a lot of trouble." She looked at him, drugs dropping her eyelids. She then raised her remaining middle finger at him before a small charge blew her brains through her eyes and nose covering her body and his shoes in brain tissue. 

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