THE ARGUS PROJECT
Distance from Jupiter: 11,737 kilometers
The group of celestial bodies Leda, Himalia, Lysithea and Elara are all fragments of a parent planetoid, now destroyed.
Though unsuitable for permanent habitation, these asteroids are used as key defense points in the supply-routes of deuterium from Jupiter to its larger colonized moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
After Io, the next target on the Fleet's course is Elara and its manned defense-station with a crew of some twenty Jovians. Since prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation and the extremely low gravity is dangerous even by Jovian standards, the crew is changed every month.
It is virtually impossible to make a surprise attack on the outpost, given its minute size and excellent surveillance range. Every side of the craggy, irregular asteroid is fitted with particle cannons and lasers, dug down deep below the surface.
Its strongest defense measure is to emit clouds of reflective aluminum barrage-bubbles, which can deflect the impact of any laser or radiation attack.
The crews of Elara have beaten back two attacks from the Terran Fleet, and have inflicted damage on the flagship once. No single DF charge had yet scored a direct hit.
Now, as the Elara crew has just been relieved, 23 newly arrived Jovians prepare to encounter the returning Terran Fleet. The flagship's stealth measures make it difficult to detect with precision, but there is little doubt about its approximate bearing and orbit.
The enemy will fly by close, closer than they have ever dared before, with a new type of attack craft... easily recognizable from many public propaganda and news broadcasts.
And the pilot will be the dreaded "indestructible" Argus-A.
***
Once he had exited the hangar of the E.S.S. William Jefferson, Argus accelerated his ship as fast as safety allowed, then killed the main booster-rocket and prepared for a close fly-by of the target asteroid.
It was not so different from his earliest simulation training, only this time the target would almost certainly fire back - and use counter-measures similar to those of his own ship.
If a solid object came through his electromagnetic shield and the Leydenfrost shield, it could punch right through the armor - and quite likely blow up the anti-matter drive within, turning the ship into a miniature sun.
His minutes in weightless, free-fall flight passed... he stayed on edge, looking for the smallest approaching wink of light in any part of the spectrum. Bizarrely enough, the most Argus saw was the distant but uninterrupted stream of freight traffic going to and from Jupiter's gas mines.
The flagship arced off into a smaller orbit, putting another moon between itself and Argus. Soon, he couldn't communicate with the Jefferson anymore... left alone against the enemy, again.
The ship's display panels began to show an array of warnings: his presence had been located ever since he left the flagship, and could be seen even in an optic telescope from any of the neighboring satellites. It was like running with a bullseye painted on one's back.
"Here we go again, Nav. You know the drill." There was not a sound in the airless cockpit, all communication was down to visual. Argus read the screens or received laser-signals into his eyes, while Nav had learned to lip-read his face - all to save time and make their responses even faster than humanly possible.
"Yes, Argus. Plan 'Bumblebee' in progress."
Navbutler proved much more helpful this time, as they had worked out in advance how to share tasks. "Nav" took care of the purely defensive systems, while Argus did the steering and attacking.
Under his rapid control, the incoming ship zigzagged and danced about in a complex pattern. He knew he was being fired at from Elara, with invisible laser and particle beams. The enemy fire became visible to him only indirectly, as it brushed past the outer edges of the ship's shields, and set off quiet stroboscopic fireworks of energy.
Argus kept ducking the fire blindly, waited for more solid things to try and sneak up on his ship; and yet, no missiles or remote-pods were launched at him.
The target asteroid crawled closer... he could now discern the many guns and shining parabolic laser-shields across its irregular, gray-brown surface. A glittering cloud of what must be aluminum bubbles rapidly spread out in his way, several kilometers ahead.
SHIELD CANNOT GIVE 100% PROTECTION, Navbutler's display text warned urgently. 3 SECONDS TO IMPACT.
Argus rotated the ship very rapidly, so that it fell with its belly first, and fired off the main booster. He throttled it slightly, rotated the ship again, and set off another boost at a different angle. He braked, adjusted, braked...
It took the flagship command a few moments to understand what was going on. The spy satellites relayed Argus's movements to the Kansler. Just as I had hoped, he thought.
By ignoring the "common wisdom" of spaceflight and being deliberately wasteful with his powerful antimatter fuel, Argus had learned to navigate in orbital space as if his ship flew through atmosphere. He "banked" off his expected orbit with repeated adjustments against the natural fall-orbit. In doing so, Argus created a rapid circling movement around the asteroid, while slowing down enough to eventually turn into the opposite direction.
***
"I've never seen that done against a free-fall orbit before," Admiral York said. "There's no atmosphere around Elara! Nothing to push against to make that circling movement around an asteroid. Is he flying through some sort of gas cloud?"
"It only seems impossible," the Kansler replied over the command center's channel. "He's doing it without computer guidance - Argus is fast enough to be a flight computer. Boulder Pi ought to be proud."
The Kansler grew silent and bit his lips together, as Argus completed his half-circle, and was about to reverse his course. The Kansler was ready to take Direct Control.
His eye-display indicated the time-delay in the control-signals, so that he could send the launch-order at the very right moment. Not for a moment did he trust Argus to press the launch button - but that suited his purposes perfectly.
The eye-display flashed GO; he squeezed his fists and triggered the delayed command.
***
A second later, the DIRECT CONTROL prompt appeared on Argus's tactical display. And again someone else took control of his movements. His left hand moved toward the launch button and pressed it - at the wrong moment.
The DF charge was ejected at a bad angle, flew out too slowly due to Argus's complex braking maneuvers, and drifted off toward the asteroid one kilometer "below" the ship.
Argus smiled inwardly; even if the Fleet could order him to push the button, they could never time it as well as he could. He wouldn't kill more people this time, not before they had had a fair chance of evacuating Elara. The DIRECT CONTROL vanished after a second.
His eyes followed the misfired bomb as it was pulled toward the asteroid's rocky surface. It plunged into a hilltop - and detonated, pulverizing a 200-meter wide peak. The entire planetoid lurched a fraction of a degree from the impetus - but the habitats inside remained safe.
Argus put his ship on a rapid accelerating course back toward the flagship, right past the asteroid, and felt the G-forces push him into his pilot-seat. An ordinary man would have had all air squeezed out of his lungs from the force, but Argus had no lungs and the cabin was de-pressurized.
He ignored all common spaceflight-sense by not putting his ship on a parallel course with the flagship's orbit, and then make a rendezvous as their directions and velocities matched. A crewmember on the flagship later joked, that Argus navigated as if driving a sports car.
But as he boosted the ship, the cyborg pilot sensed that the ship was heavier than he expected after the drop - a whole ton too heavy...
The DIRECT CONTROL prompt reappeared. Argus thought: What's going on? The tactical display now indicated a second DF charge, and the remote-control forced his hand on the launch button again.
Argus was completely taken by surprise; the bomb "package" in the bomb bay, that he thought was identical to the one used over Io, was in fact two smaller bombs, inside the launch-cartridge of a single charge.
The Kansler had outsmarted him again!
With the ship on a steady accelerating forward course, the second launch was almost ideally timed. The light DF charge plunged into the asteroid just as his ship flew past at supersonic speed, and drilled itself a mile inside - then it went off.
Navbutler activated the electromagnetic shield to protect the ship's rear. In the space of a few seconds, the accelerating ship put several kilometers between itself and the disintegrating asteroid; in that time, Elara inflated into a glowing sphere of molten rock and hot gases.
For a moment, the fireball resembled a hot bright gas-planet, complete with swirling clouds - and it was gone, the light dying down to an expanding sphere of darkening gas.
Jupiter's Red Spot seemed to watch the event, following his flight...
Four seconds later the Direct Control ceased, and Argus roared with open mouth and bared teeth, his face contorted to a grimace. In the airless cockpit, the sound of his roaring voice was but a thought in his mind.
It occurred to him, that his sense of identity was getting blurred. Everyone calling him "Colonel Clarke" to his face, expecting him to be in a certain way. No one from his former life was around anymore. As if...
His memory of being the not-too-bright boxer "Gus" Thorsen might be the false one, implanted in his mind while he was rebuilt into a cyborg. What if, Argus thought, he really was Haruman Clarke - the stern, cold career officer, but pretended to be "that nice guy Gus" to protect his conscience?
But immediately Gus Thorsen began to fight within, demanding not to be erased out of existence; in the boxing-ring of the mind, Gus danced about, punched at his thoughts, struggled for attention - and won. The fighter wasn't beaten yet.
It was the whole Fleet system that was his enemy, trying to mold him into their "thing", their obedient killing machine...
And a new question stood clear to Argus - he felt foolish for not having thought of it before: What if the accident that killed the real Colonel Clarke was also the Kansler's and the Fleet's doing?
No... why intentionally kill an already renowned career officer on his way to become promoted to super-soldier, and replace him with a total, poor nobody like Gus? That didn't make sense, like dragging a person from the street to replace the champ, just because their faces resembled each other.
Argus told himself he was going crazy for even thinking such a thing. Things had to make sense, the Kansler too. Then again, this war made less sense all the time.
"Nav?"
"Yes?"
"Found the files I asked for?"
"Wait... your authorization level is still not high enough. I'm sorry, Argus."
"Why am I not allowed access to the files on myself, damn it?"
"Fleetcom authority says all personal files on Haruman Clarke were given top-secret priority from the day he was selected for the Argus Project. All his files were universally closed or destroyed through use of Fleetcom virus programs, by the Planetary Security Act of 2173."
"You said 'he was selected,' Navbutler. Not 'you'."
"Pardon?"
"Do you know something about me that you haven't told me, Nav?"
"I am partly what you make me, Argus. I learn to adapt."
"Then tell me, Nav, buddy... who am I?"
"You are Argus-A. You are who you are."
"Should I like being what I am?"
"Please explain previous statement."
"Take us back, Nav. I need a rest."
21: Second Bomb Run
Diameter: 76 kilometers
Mass: 7.77e17 kilograms
THE ARGUS PROJECT INTERNET EDITION (c)A.R.Yngve 1999, 2000, 2004. All rights reserved. May not be copied without permission.
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