When Gjosta passed off the encrypted data to Traveller in his buffer room, he thought the situation could hardly become worse. Whatever Erasmus—that thing—was, it was not an AI. As he disconnected from the computer system, Gjosta reviewed the communication log.

  Gjosta activated the radio relay and connected directly with the Traveller.

  “Anyone aboard?” Gjosta asked.

  “Just Rifka.”

  “Leave now. I’ll meet you outside.” Gjosta sent reference coordinates.

  “Yes. Yes. Departing immediately.” Traveller replied.

  Gjosta pushed off a wall and maneuvered himself toward the laboratory supply hanger. He would leave from there because it was the fastest way off LM-25.

  He was stopped in the atrium by three of the company agents, including Jorge and Ambrose.

  “Sir, Robert ordered us here.” Ambrose aid. “We did as he asked, and placed explosives from the mine in the computer’s facility. But … you need to see what Jorge found.” Ambrose said.

  “While placing explosives,” Jorge continued, “I took a recording of the far end of the tunnel with a broad spectrum analyzer.”

  Gjosta accepted the file and viewed the picture on his HUD. There was a glowing mass of wires and equipment knotted at on end of the computer’s lab. Settled among the wires, a crystal with a marker had been tagged.

  “What am I looking at?”

  “You are looking at a pandimensional strange-matter crystal,” Jorge said. “The one the company scientists studied to make the stable wormhole.”

  “Where is this exactly?”

  “The far end of the quantum computer.”

  Gjosta stared at the crystal. Cables twisted and piled at some sort of node. The crystal rested to one side, but he could grab it, and then flee via the whole in the wall that he could use to reach the supply hanger.

  “Alright. Where is VP Thor?”

  “He is still setting up charges to blow up the computer.”

  “So, he’s stupid and slow. Head to the backdoor. The one I used to enter LM-25 in the miners’ habitat. Spread the word to the other agents. Use the escape pods there to exit. We’re switching to plan nine.”

  “Escape? But, none of the systems have gone hostile?”

  “That’s going to change in a minute when this thing kills the … process I’m using to delay it. When it disconnects from the computer I don’t know what form it will take, but I’m beginning to think it really will be a dragon.”

  Gjosta had the coordinates set for the computer system. He took a deep breath and so he used his coprocessor to activate his bioliminal drive to warp all the way to the entrance to the quantum computer.

  His heart rate skyrocketed. The warp would take its toll, more in low gravity than space, and harder because it wasn’t a straight line. He could jump several times again in the next few hours, but not many more times.

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  Climbing out of the computer facility was the VP and two others on the team.

  “Gjosta,” The VP said, “We are just on the way out. This is the first step to securing the station. I’ve got the detonator keyed to my cyberware, so we’ll blow it …” The man didn’t finish his sentence before Gjosta locked his body rigid and threw him into a coma.

  The VP’s strangled cry didn’t even register with the other two agents, who hadn’t been connected to the same channel. They could tell something had gone wrong, because the VP spasmed and shook in his suit. But, there was nothing to do: if they unsealed him, he would asphyxiate. According to his suits bio-monitor he was alive, but unconscious. The hack had destroyed his ability to send a signal to the bombs.

  Gjosta switched channels to link with the agents.

  “Gentlemen, the VP’s system was hacked and overloaded when he tried to attack the quantum computer. I warned him that the AI was a very clever, and it would be better to avoid its notice. His suit seems to have been easier to hack than the ones I prepared for the team. I think he’s still alive. Regardless, it’s probably best if we don’t try to set off those bombs, right?”

  The two agents appeared to agree.

  “I’m going for the crystal, and out on my own through the supply hanger. Take the VP and escape as fast as you can to the miner’s residential habitat. You need to use the pods there. I know its not ideal but they are closer and Traveller needed get out into space so she can maneuver. Even if I don’t manage it, Traveller’s automated systems will pick you if we survive this. She’s already outside ready. Most of those escape pods went unused during the original evacuation, so there should be enough for the rest of the team to escape.”

  “Yes. Yes.” The men replied. They used the tunnel handles to maneuver back toward the mine exit. They didn’t look back.

  ‘You idiot.’ Gjosta thought at the VP as the two dragged him away. ‘I could have forgiven you, if your stupidity hadn’t unnecessarily risked everyone’s lives. Would you have blown the computer up when I was connected? Would the alien even have been hurt?’

  Gjosta moved from the passage out into the computer’s facility. He aimed his next warp for the crystal.

  His sub-processors locked in, and he warped to the spot.

  He felt short of breath now. There was no way to wipe the sweat from his eyes, so he blinked hard. His suit’s filter system would pull out the excess moisture eventually, but he didn’t have time to wait.

  The crystal appeared like a rough sphere about size of his head. His cybernetic eyes showed it giving off all sorts of exotic radiation. The the entire space under the cables seemed infused with an EM field. With all the exotic radiation, Gjosta decided it wasn’t particularly smart to wait around.

  Gjosta didn’t bother so much with the details. He scooped the crystal up and held it against his chest.

  He warped to the hole leading to the supply ship hanger. His head pounded with a migraine. Gjosta reasoned that the stone was reality-dense. The higher density resisted his pushing the crystal around with his bioliminal drive. He’d encountered the concept mentioned in theoretical papers on liminal drives. It was the reason the research here was so important.

  A few moments later, he arrived at the slagged hanger, crystal in his arms.

  Something—probably the Dragon—had melted the hanger doors. Most of the station had been pristine: just as if the workers had stepped away for a coffee break. Not this place. Jagged ruins of the supply ships and floating debris filled the hanger. The operations booth had been melted by some sort of heat, and claw-like tears appeared in the walls.

  Gjosta manually maneuvered to hangar door. This hanger faced away from the planet and the wormhole.

  Gjosta prepared from his last warp to the prearranged location. He wrapped his arms around the crystal. It felt warm. In the cold of space, probably a bad sign that he felt its heat at all. He warped to the coordinates. It had been almost too far. He was shaking and his body felt he was wading in the ocean. Heavy and exhausted.

  Traveller hadn’t arrived yet, but Gjosta felt confident he’d be recovered. They would hide for a bit, then run through the wormhole. The plan wasn’t ideal, but at least they were almost done.