Influx by Kynan Waterford Page A

need you here, buddy. If I come back needing medical attention, you have to be ready.”
    “As long as you come back,” Sheeva growled beneath her breath.
    “I will,” Garen replied.
    Sheeva wished he would say more. In fact, she’d feel a whole lot better if he forcefully spun her round and pulled her into a passionate kiss. But Garen wasn’t like that. He was an emotionless machine with only one purpose in life. And that purpose was dictated by the heavangel mentor he conferred with every time he took Lyquis.
    As he left the cockpit with Onzo to prepare for their departure, Sheeva wondered if she would ever meet Kari in person, or if she even wanted to. She’d done some very bad things since she hooked up with Garen and she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet the one responsible for planning it all.
    Shaking her head in resignation, Sheeva wished she could at least follow Onzo with her scanners, but even that was impossible. Only Garen could communicate with the little robot now. If either she or Onzo attempted any traditional form of communication, the Golgotha would pick it up immediately and they would be discovered.
    All she could do now was focus on using the turbulence to mask their approach and stay hidden long enough to get this done.
    “Just make it back,” Sheeva growled beneath her breath. “This war will end the wrong way if you do, Garen.”

    Garen stood within the confines of a personal skim-ray field inside one of the Kronish’s open airlocks, staring up at the gaping maw of the influx-vent. It was an impressive sight. The giant concave structure was filled with hundreds of large intake pipes that were responsible for producing the immense tornado beneath them. It was one of these that would provide Garen with an entrance, as long as Onzo did his job.
    While he waited to hear from the tiny robot, Garen methodically stretched his limbs so his storm suit would settle more comfortably. Onzo’s tough little body might be capable of manoeuvring through the turbulence beneath the Golgotha , but Garen required assistance.
    By now, Onzo would have redirected his tiny body through the shiv-grid that prevented Garen from entering one of the pipes and would soon reach a control panel that would allow him to shut down power selectively. After that, Garen was free to take his one-way trip.
    Despite getting in this way, he knew he couldn’t get back out again. Not without shutting down an entire influx-vent and turning off the tornado beneath it. But he wasn’t concerned. He had faith in Kari’s plan.
    “ Mission accomplished ,” Onzo’s voice said clearly in his head.
    “ Acknowledged ,” Garen replied in his mind. “ Now get back here so you and Sheeva can leave. ”
    “ I don’t like leaving you here ,” Onzo whined.
    “ You never do, ” Garen replied, “ but that’s the mission. ”
    “ I get it, boss, ” Onzo said in a sad voice. “ Leaving now. ”
    Certain his tiny robotic friend would find his way back to the Kronish , Garen thought of Sheeva and turned his head slightly.
    “I’ll be back soon,” he promised her, aware she wouldn’t hear him.
    Then he returned his gaze to the influx-vent. His skimray field was working hard to keep the screaming hydrogen winds at bay and its shifting crimson light marred the view slightly, but when Garen activated his ocular implants, the internal architecture of the influx vent blazed into crystal clarity.
    Thanks to Onzo, one of the outermost intake pipes was lit up brighter than the others and when Garen focussed on it, he saw that the shiv grid had been retracted.
    “ Nice work, Onzo ,” he thought.
    Then, with a flick of his finger, he deactivated his skimray field.
    The pressure around his body changed instantly as the freezing hydrogen rushed in around him, but because the Kronish was already in sync with the tornado being sucked into the Golgotha’s influx vents, Garen wasn’t snatched away immediately. Instead, he merely drifted up from