Nellie and the Nanites - Bk3 - Ch.2

Chapter Two

Derelict

“Looks like someone was here before us,” Nellie said as the screen showed a dark shape outlined against the volcanic planet.

“No signs of power or life,” Lucy offered.

The powerful lights on the front of Bly’s Revenge lit up, finally showing details. It was dark metal, pockmarked with what looked like micro-asteroid strikes and extensive signs of neglect. The closer they got, the more they could see. A dead space station, hanging in orbit of the planet below but blocked by the moon they had just dropped the Hope onto. Three or four sections remained from what remained, connected by large tunnels. None of the tunnels were still intact. Three sections were floating close to each other, dark and open to the vacuum of space. What might have been a fourth part, or maybe a set of docked ships, was spread in a ring around the moon itself.

“Scans are showing no power remaining anywhere on board the remains of the station itself.” Lucy flicked at some readings, “I think this place was stripped and then abandoned.”

“Why?” Salem asked. “I mean, why do you think someone stripped it?”

“I can’t find a single power generator, even a damaged or inactive one, anywhere in the wreckage,” Lucy explained. There also seems to be a suspicious lack of rare metals used in circuit boards and the like. There is some, sure, but nowhere near enough for a station this size.”

“Yeah, but it could have been stripped later, right?” Baz said, echoing Nellie’s thoughts.

“Possible, but unlikely,” Lucy pinged a few readings. “The level of stripping showing would have had to be done while the place still had some atmosphere. There is just no way to do some of it in a space suit.”

“Which makes it much less likely that there was anyone else here after the occupiers left,” Remy added. “I can see no sign of weapons fire on the station itself.”

“Correct,” Lucy nodded. “Plus, you need time to do all of this. I suspect this station was abandoned in a voluntary and leisurely manner.”

“So the entire system is likely abandoned,” Remy nodded.

“Wait,” Nellie held up a hand. “Why does one dead station suggest the whole place is abandoned?”

“If someone was leaving a station and you were in the system, would you let it turn to this?” Lucy gestured to the wreckage.

“Maybe they couldn’t repair it or even salvage it in space?” Nellie offered.

“Possible,” Lucy admitted. “But if that was the case, why would someone build a station here?”

“I guess we will find out either way,” Nellie said with a grin. “So, someone left a wreck of a station just hanging out there…”

“I’ll have a detachment of Centrum units deployed to the Resurgence,” Lucy said with a smile. They can do a preliminary search without worrying about breathing or exposure to space.”

“They can also check for bombs, traps, or other surprises,” Remy added.

“Spoilsports,” Nellie chuckled.

The Centrum units were deployed in a little less than a half hour, and the Resurgence was back in the bay. As much as Nellie wanted to explore the new station and see what could be salvaged from it, they did need to head back and check on the Duke’s Hope. She had been right to come and check this place, which was not a threat, but the fun of exploring it and figuring out how they could use it would have to wait. They had friends back on the moon that were in a bad way.

It might not technically be her job; they had all signed up with Duke, not her, but she was there, and she could help.

Lucy took over on the bridge while Nellie went around the ship, checking in with her crew to make sure they were all doing okay. For most of the forty-odd people who had signed up with her, this was the biggest change they had ever experienced. They had left behind everything they knew and traveled further than anyone they knew. It was a feeling she understood, so Nellie spent a few minutes just to check in with them.

The reactions were pretty mixed, which was to be expected. They ranged from almost manic excitement to very obvious regret. Nellie did her best to calm down the overexcited, but it was a challenge as—if she was honest—Nell was probably more excited than anyone else on her ship aside from Lucy. They were finally free to be themselves, and with a conscious effort, Nellie stopped herself from doing the little things to appear completely human. She didn’t really need to blink these days, so she didn’t. Breathing was something she needed to do about once in ten minutes, so she only did it when she needed to. Nellie laughed, joked, commiserated, cheered up, and hugged people because those were all really her, but the little fakes were behind her now.

Over the last few weeks, something had finally changed for her. It had been subtle at first, a slow build rather than a sudden eureka moment, but her feelings had definitely gone through a seismic shift.

The first few nano augmentations had been harrowing in the extreme, and Nellie had fought Lucy on them every step of the way. She had always treasured the human part of herself, and for her, it meant an organic body—all original parts, as it were. She made necessary upgrades, but nothing more than that. Her first thought when she felt the shift was that someone must have influenced her, namely Lucy. The truth was far stranger.

Being human was not important. Being anything other than a good person was not important. Old biases and fears slowly washed away in the face of actual fact. Salem and the others were good people. Paren was a good, if slightly creepy, person. Lucy was the person she loved.

None of them were human, but all were humane.

Nellie? Was she a good person? Maybe, or at least she tried to be, which had to count for something. Was she still human? Also, a maybe. How much of her had to be original for her to still be called human?

The best answer to that was that she no longer cared. She was Chanelle ‘Nellie’ Bonne Chance, Captain of the Bly’s Revenge. That was all she needed to know for now.

“Knock knock, how’s it– What the fuck is that!?” Nellie swore and jumped back as the thing on the shelf turned to smile at her.

“That’s the Mark II Smiler crawler,” Paren said, clicking her fingers and causing the thing to skitter down off the shelf. The crawlers had been pretty damn horrific before, but this one was on another level. The frankly terrifying mandibles that resembled a smile and gave the crawlers their name had been bad before they had been replaced with glinting metal ones. The armored carapace now glistened with veins of metal as well. Worst of all were the eyes. The compound horrors it had before were replaced with a sensor orb and what looked like some kind of camera.

“Why does it have all the little arms?” Nellie asked, not sure she wanted to know. Each section of the creature now sported thin, multi-jointed arms ending in tiny claws. When she mentioned them, the thing raised a random selection and waved.

“That’s nothing,” Paren huffed, “It just helps when they do maintenance work,” She clicked her fingers, and the crawler reared up. “Show Nellie your party trick!”

Nellie felt every instinct in her body flick over to Flight when the thing tore apart down the center to almost half its length and revealed a complex laser array built into it.

“Paren, why?” Nellie gasped, frozen in shock.

“Huh?” Paren looked over at the creature. “Self-moving turrets, of course!” She gave the creature a critical look. “Why? What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s fucking terrifying!” Nellie swore.

“Don’t be so rude!” Paren hissed and stroked the armored plates of the thing as it let out a purr Nellie would hear in her nightmares for years to come, she was sure. “Ignore the silly Captain, who’s a cutie? You are!”

Nellie backed out of the room and slammed the hatch shut.

“Lucy, can we get a drone therapy?” She muttered to her AI as she hurried away.

===<<<>>>===

Paren wasn’t talking to her when they headed down to the moon on the Resurgence a little while later. Salem, Baz, and Remy had stayed behind in command of the Bly while Nellie, Lucy, and the others headed down to see what they could do to help the Hope.

As a bonus, it gave Nellie an excuse to finally fly the Resurgence, and Baz was right; it was ridiculous how well it handled. Banjo whooped as she did another loop and added a spin, just for fun. Dar and Vey held onto their chairs in terror despite the multipoint harnesses, while Lucy just smiled and shook her head.

“I don’t see why your pet comes, and I only get to bring one,” Paren muttered.

“Oodles needed an outing,” Nellie insisted. The Ooze in question was currently gluing itself to her shoulder armor and chirping in complaint as she swooped and dove. “We haven’t had time together in ages.”

“You did get to bring more than one,” Lucy noted. “The crawler swarm is not a single entity, you know that.”

“You know that,” Paren parodied and stuck her tongue out at Lucy. “Thank you, evil stepmother!”

“I like them,” JoJo added, always on the side of the girl of his rather strange dreams.

“There are chairs, Jo,” Nellie said helpfully as the drone strained to stay stood next to Paren’s chair.

“I’m good,” Jo grinned. “It feels right to stay near the Prime Drone.”

Nellie sighed as she saw Paren’s self-satisfied smile. She mentally added JoJo’s relationship with Paren to her list of things to worry about. Even a normal pair of teenagers could mess each other up pretty badly, and those two were far from normal even without the whole Drone and Prime Drone angle.

“Ooh, that ain’t good,” Dar said as the landing site came into view.

At first, Nellie had no idea what he meant. The various sections seemed to have made it down to the surface in one piece; She could even see a pair of growing towers standing in the center of the cluster of landed compartments. A second later, she saw the problems. The biggest was the scattering of compartments that had not quite touched down in the right place. Some were almost a mile out, and that was far from ideal. Nellie could also see a broken open growing tower scattered over the landscape. That was going to be a significant loss for the new colony.

“Check it,” Vey pointed at the viewscreen. It was a small area she had not noticed yet, but the second she did, she started swearing and cursing.

The Resurgence was still pretty high up, so she estimated the problem was probably a good seventy miles away from the landing site, but it was going to be a problem.

Lucy snagged the image and enlarged it, using sensors and her own computing power to add detail to the image.

“That’s a wooden palisade wall,” Dar said. “No sign of technology, but…”

“The moon is inhabited,” Lucy growled. “How did I miss this?”

“No tech, no big cities, no power signals,” Nellie said as she quickly scanned the readings. There was no sign of land clearance, not even anything that looked like extensive farming.” She shrugged. “This looks the same as a place with just animals on it.”

“It never occurred to me to look for a civilization this basic,” Lucy agreed. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Too late now anyway,” Paren said. “Duke’s people can’t exactly leave, can they?”

“Well, this is going to be a shitty conversation,” Nellie said as she brought the Resurgence into land just outside the main cluster of compartments.

The settlers from the Duke’s Hope were in a rough way. As her crew walked into the main encampment, chaos was everywhere. It looked as if each compartment was attempting to sort out its own needs and people without worrying about others, which was leading to fights breaking out. Some were just sitting outside the compartments crying and rocking back and forth, while others were walking aimlessly, their eyes blank with shock.

She found Leo resting with his back against one of the massive vertical farming towers, clutching his leg.

“Leo, what’s wrong?” She asked, crouching down. “Where are your medical teams?”

“Hey, Bea,” Leo said, sweat beading on his brow. “I, uh, I think our medical people are about a mile in that direction,” He pointed randomly and laughed. “I got caught on some exposed metal when we landed, and well, I didn’t make the walk.”

“Have it cut off and replaced with a synthetic one, mate. Trust me!” Banjo offered, and Nellie reached out and cuffed him across the back of his head.

Leo laughed.

“Want me to look at it?” Lucy offered.

“Would you mind?” Leo asked, taking his hand away gingerly. Blood welled up instantly from a deep gash.

“It's not as bad as it looks,” Lucy said with a kind smile. A simple patch job will do.” She pulled one of the healing patches they had used since the first encounter with Abomi-Toads from her pack and gently placed it over the wound.

Leo reacted immediately, tension leaving his body as the nanites soothed and numbed the nerve endings.

“Thanks,” Leo sighed. “That was deeply unpleasant.”

“No problem,” Nellie patted him on the shoulder. “Just take it easy for a few minutes, and you will be good as new.”

“Sure thing,” Leo’s eyes were drifting closed, “I think I might just take a little nap.”

“Any idea where Duke is?” Nellie asked.

Leo pointed further into the mess and was asleep before his hand hit the floor.

“He okay?” Nellie asked.

“Barely,” Lucy said. “His artery was in danger of splitting, so I added a dose of tranquilizers to the patch. By the time he wakes up he will be as good as new.”

Duke was sat on the steps of the command section with his head in his hands.

“Hey, thanks for telling us about the splitting compartments,” Nellie called sarcastically as she walked up. “Scared the shit out of us.”

“It’s all gone wrong,” Duke said, looking at his hands. “It just…”

“Uh huh,” Nellie nodded. “Hey, Duke, look at me, will you?”

“It’s all–” Duke’s head rocked back as she slapped him hard across the face.

“What the–” She stopped him talking by reaching out, grabbing his face, and pulling it back toward her. “Your people need you, Duke. Now. Not when you get over your pity party. Right fucking now!” She gestured to the chaos behind her. “Everything went to shit? Well, tough shit. That happens. Trust me on that.” She released his face and pointed back the way they had come. “People are fighting everywhere; Leo damn near bled out because all your medical people are missing. PEOPLE NEED TO BE ORGANISED!”

Duke blinked a couple of times, his eyes finally focusing on what was going on around him.

“Thanks,” Duke nodded to her and got up, shouting orders and gathering people around him.

“Anytime,” Nellie said and led her people away.

“I thought we were going to talk to him?” Dar said as they hurried away.

“We will,” Nellie said, “But there is no point now. Everything here is too much of a mess.”

“What’s the plan?” Vey asked, jogging to keep up with Nellie, who was no longer bothering to keep to human speeds.

“Let’s go find the stragglers; get a few of these sections back here while they sort themselves out,” Nellie said.

“Lucy to Bly,” Lucy said with a nod.

“Bly, responding,” Remy answered immediately over their suit comms.

“I want a full scan of the area around each compartment more than a half mile from this location—life signs, movement, everything,” Lucy replied.

“Understood,” Remy said. “I’ve sent the preliminary scans I prepared; active ones will follow as soon as they are done.”

“Good thinking,” Nellie said with a smile to Lucy.

“Always,” Lucy smiled back.

“Not always,” Paren snickered. “You did miss an entire indigenous population.”

“Thank you for reminding me,” Lucy said with a grimace.

“You guys go get the shuttle ready,” Nellie said, grabbing Paren’s arm. “We need a minute.”

“Spill it,” Nellie said once the others were out of sight.

“What?” Paren snapped.

“Why are you giving Lucy a hard time?” Nellie demanded.

“Am I?” Paren asked with fake shock.

Nellie stared at her, and the silence stretched on.

“What?” Paren asked eventually.

Nellie kept staring, waiting patiently for the impatient teen to snap.

“Fine!” Paren caved in under five minutes.

“What’s going on?” Nellie insisted.

“It’s nothing, I’ll stop, okay?” Paren said sulkily.

“Paren, seriously,” Nellie said. “Please, tell me what’s wrong.”

The ‘please’ seemed to shock Paren a little. They both knew Nellie could order Paren to talk, and she, as a drone, would have to comply. Asking was a different matter. Paren ignored Nellie and Lucy on a pretty regular basis, but ‘please’ was something Nellie did not say often.

“Sheneverstandsupforme,” Paren said the whole thing in a rush.

“With who?” Nellie asks. “If someone is being nasty-”

“With you, duh!” Paren snapped. “You always get so rude about the things I make and my little drones!” She glared at Nellie. “You always act like they are something horrific! I like them, and you react like I shit in your food! How do you think that makes me feel?”

Nellie opened her mouth to argue but stopped. The kid had a point. The things she made were unquestioningly horrifying abominations, but she worked hard on them, and she seemed to genuinely love them… somehow. Nellie never even tried to understand it; just fled as soon as possible.

“I’ll try to learn to love them.” Nellie eventually answered, “They are amazing things, they really are. I can’t believe or even understand how brilliant you are. They just look a bit creepy and terrifying. I need to try and see them the way you do.”

“Really?” Paren looked surprised.

“Really,” Nellie smiled. “This is all new to me as well, remember. I am really sorry I hurt you, though.”

“Duh,” Paren said. “That’s why it’s Lucy’s fault.”

“Pardon?” Nellie was lost again.

“You’re all soft and squishy,” Paren said like it was obvious. “But Lucy is the smart one; she should see how cool they are and then explain it to you.”

“I think she is trying,” Nellie said with a sudden memory. “I think that is why she had me make Weasel.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Paren said thoughtfully. “In that case, sorry, Lucy.”

“No problem, Paren,” Lucy’s voice came out of both their suit speakers. “And I do like your creations. Remind me to talk to you about the importance of making your creatures socially acceptable. It really does matter; it can even be fun.”

“Yeah, sure,” Paren rolled her eyes. “I’ll definitely remind you.”

“Think of it as camouflage,” Lucy added.

“Oooh, that might make sense,” Paren seemed to consider it for a moment. “I’ll think about it.”

“Uh, guys,” Dar called over the comms. Are you guys done with the family talk? Remy just sent the information, and I think some of them will die if we wait much longer.”

“Coming!” All three girls called at the same time.

===<<<>>>===

“Together!” Crush yelled. “Three, two, one, now!”

They kicked the hatch for the umpteenth time, but this time, it finally gave. Sunlight streamed into the compartment as the stale air and smoke escaped.

“Silver grass, cool,” Crush grinned as he climbed out.

“Four hours in a locker, and you think the grass is cool?” Madeline grunted as she forced her way past him.

“Wait!” Crush called before she could remove her helmet. “We need to check for spore–”

She ignored him and pulled off her suit’s helmet while flipping him off.

“Real mature,” Crush grinned and pulled out his scanner. The ticks and clicks of the readings slowed and stopped. A green light lit, and he gratefully pulled his helmet off, flicking his tongue out to taste the air for anything the reader missed before taking a much-needed deep breath.

“See, it’s fine,” Maddy threw aside the helmet and flopped back on the grass. “Damn, but it’s good to see sunlight again.”

“I don’t disagree,” Crush said, scanning his eyes across the surroundings. “I just think we need to be careful of the local wildlife.”

“If there even is any,” Maddy argued.

“You are lying in excrement, by the way,” Crush said as he stepped past her and bent to examine the rocks and dirt.

“Oh, fuck,” Maddy leaped away, “Where is it?”

“Where is what?” Crush grinned back.

“Asshole,” Maddy kicked him half-heartedly.

They had met when he was escaping the chaotic energy of jump transit as it poured into the poorly shielded Duke’s Hope. He had been attacked by a panicked crewmember while wearing a temporary space suit made of sealant tape and spare parts. The idiot thought he was some kind of alien from Transit Space. After Maddy got the man off the disorientated and exhausted Crush, she decided to stick with him. Not fancying their chances when the ship down-jumped, she had joined him to suit up in a supply room. They were just about to leave when the ship lost power.

From that moment to the moment the compartment detached from the Hope and crashed here, they had ended up working side by side to try and keep the damn ship together. They had then spent four hours trying to get the busted and warped hatch to give up the ghost. Needless to say, they had gotten close.

“We better get moving,” Crush said. “I don’t think staying here is a good plan.”

“Stay put and wait for rescue,” Maddy countered. “Standard survival training.”

“Don’t wait for a rescue that might never come. Special forces training,” Crush countered and gestured for her to follow him.

“Quite the show-off, aren’t we?” Maddy asked as she followed.

They walked for a little over an hour, trying to avoid attracting the attention of anything that might want to eat them. Their compartment had been bare when it separated from the Hope. Their task had been to check the empty compartments and ensure no one was inside. Of course, they were also supposed to have another ten minutes to get clear before it broke away. All they had was the suits they were wearing and one large pair of vice grips that Maddy had been holding when they got locked in.

“Here we go,” Crush called when he saw the red and black metal of another compartment between the trees ahead of them. He hoped that this one at least had a few people in or maybe some supplies.

“Hey, have you seen this?” Maddy called. “It smells really nice.”

Crush turned to see Maddy sniffing a large yellow flower growing from the side of one of the large, gnarled trees that made up the local flora. The flower was the size of her head, and a delicate blue center flexed slightly as she drew a deep breath.

“Stop!” Crush yelled, but was too late.

Maddy collapsed to the floor, eyes glazed over and a goofy smile on her face. Crush ran over and pulled her away, noting the fine, pale green tendrils of moss that had started to wrap themselves around her in the scant second it took him to get there.

“Everybody has to stop and smell the flowers. How does no one get that unknown worlds have unknown dangers.” Crush muttered as he dragged the giggling woman toward the compartment.

“Silly man with your silly scales,” Maddy giggled.

“Oh, really?” Crush grinned. “Better than being all pale and fleshy there, miss sniff-the-flowers.”

The small clearing in the trees created by the compartment was a sight. It had knocked over one of the trees as it passed, and Crush saw the inside of the tree was hollow, filled with waving tendrils of pale moss. Moss really shouldn’t move like that.

“Quick!” A voice called, “Hurry!”

Crush looked around to see a small, squat man waving him over to the compartment with urgency in his every movement. Not stopping to ask what the man was referring to, Crush grabbed Maddy, flipped her over his shoulder, and ran as fast as he could for the compartment door.

“Have you seen anyone else?” The man asked Crush as he handed Maddy through the hatchway and climbed inside.

“No one,” Crush asked. “What’s out there?”

“It’s in the trees,” The man said quietly and pointed to the moss, gently waving.

“Fuck’s sake,” Crush laughed. “I know about that stuff. I thought there was something dangerous here.”

“You think it’s not?” The squat man pointed to the base of another tree. A figure was lying there, tightly wrapped in moss and struggling feebly.

“And you just watched?” Crush growled and grabbed the vice grips before stalking over and swiping the moss away. The figure underneath was in rough shape. Bits of skin were torn off with the moss, and other areas looked mushy and wet. The man revealed was still grinning, even with one side of his face almost completely skinned.

Crush grabbed the man and started to drag him toward the compartment when a loud noise and a large shadow passed above the trees; figures dropped from above as if they had simply stepped out of whatever it was up there.

“Doing a little gardening, Crush?” Nellie grinned at him.