Chapter 7
Lost In The Mist © 2015 Sinclair Diavante
Chapter 7.
"How's it going, Nod?" He had his overpowered space heater apart, and glanced up at me.
"Better if my thruster was workin'. You?"
"Better if I didn't find bullet holes in The Jefferson. A whole lot of them." I crossed my arms and glared. He only smiled at me.
"Haaa! Really? That little thermawidget told me it was beam damage only. Can you get to it all?"
"I don't know," I responded, annoyed. "They go deep, the edges are all curled sharp, so I know it's high velocity. Probably went pretty far in, didn't go straight through, so at some point..."
Nod, well, nodded. "They bounced. Then prolly tore through somethin' else that was softer."
"Mmmhmm," I said, staring.
"Mmmhmm," he said, staring back. He got to his feet and walked a little ways away, reaching under a workbench to pick up a bucket of something. I could tell it was pretty heavy, by the way it moved around. He carefully set it down next to me.
"Got somethin' fer that." I stared down at the quicksilver liquid sloshing around inside. "Nanos. They's unowned, have ta' initiate 'em. But yer good with 'puters, still got that Solve-All, right?"
"I used to have a Solve-All, Nod." He looked at me curiously. "You know that AI core you gave me?"
"Yup," he said.
"Never mind," I said, shaking my head. "I'll tell you about it later, one thing at a time. Nano's? I'll take em. How much?"
"Free. They's hazmat, in that shape. Don't piss 'em off!" He laughed deeply.
I carried them away, thinking all the while... don't piss them off, Keman. Just what pisses off a nanobot? And what happens if you do?
I got back to my ship and was about to go inside, when I noticed one of the aft cameras swivel towards me, tracking my movement. There's no reason it should ever do that, unless someone told it to.
I don't know why I didn't set the bucket down, but I ran inside with it as fast as I could, thinking someone was fucking with my ship. I barreled up the ramp, into the cargo-bay-turned-workshop, and I misjudged the weight of the heavy mass sloshing around. Some spilled over the side, and I leapt out of the way, so none splashed onto my feet. I needed to get away from it, like right now, so I ditched the bucket entirely. It fell onto its side with a hollow thunk, and washed the floor with mirrored nanobots. I held my breath and righted the bucket quietly, staring at the puddle. Don't piss them off.
Nothing happened.
I remembered the original problem, and ran to one of the diag panels nearby and performed a scan for life aboard my ship. There was one: me. I brought up all the external camera scan routines, and saw that none were active. I glanced around, wondering if I was losing my mind. That camera moved!
I walked back to stare at the glossy mess on the floor. This was probably not something to try cleaning up with a mop. The bacteria living in the mop's fibers might constitute a biological attack, and they could try to defend themselves, somehow. Maybe eat the mop, the handle, and the Rhenthar holding the handle. That would be bad.
Oh boy.