With the scanning equipment hooked up, G-1 began to look for the cause of Fiona’s distress. The scanners could find no sign of trauma or injury. Fiona’s brain activity, however, was unusually high and her neural readings were uneven, as though her mind was receiving conflicting signals.
By now, it had been long enough, but Doctor Pallone had not arrived. The possibility existed that whatever had caused the bridge to be sealed may have also impeded movement from Pod Alpha. Without warning, Doctor Kinsale-Royce shook violently, then went rigid. Her brain activity ceased. The MEDroid looked at the instruments, and indeed, the doctor had flatlined. It seemed that Fiona Kinsale-Royce had just died on the table.
“No!” the MEDroid cried out. “I cannot allow you to die.”
Where was Pallone? The MEDroid could not wait for her. Fiona needed to be saved now.
G-1 opened Fiona’s uniform jacket and cut through the garments beneath before attaching the AED pads, the breath mask, and administering stimulants.
A sharp jolt from the AED caused Fiona’s body to arch, but the doctor did not awaken. Another sharp jolt produced the same result, but still, Fiona remained unresponsive. After several further attempts, Fiona continued to remain unresponsive. G-1 cycled through all of the possibilities at a speed only an android could possess. She reasoned that as a human-AI hybrid, it was possible that Fiona simply needed to reboot. There was no mechanism on the doctor’s body to initiate a reboot, so G-1 opted to wait sixty seconds.
With the medical scanners showing a flatline and zero brain activity, the Med-Bay door opened, and Doctor Pallone rushed breathlessly inside.
“I made it as fast as I could and… oh no!”
G-1 nodded. “This is unfortunate, but all is not yet lost.”
“The woman is dead,” Pallone exclaimed. “And from what I understand, Kendrick is down, and the AI is dead! Yes, without Fiona, all really is lost! We have to work fast!”
“I have already followed resuscitation protocols, but she has remained unresponsive.”
“Then we need to try again!” Pallone was looking at the readings and shaking her head. “If we can’t save her…”
“I have theorized that Doctor Kinsale-Royce, as a human-AI hybrid, may simply need to reboot as I would in the event of an unexpected overload. Unlike me, Kinsale-Royce’s nanotech will continue to affect repairs while she reboots. I am waiting for twenty-six more seconds.”
Pallone looked at G-1 aghast. “Please tell me you didn’t turn her off!”
“I would do no such thing,” the MEDroid protested. “I did all that I could in your absence. However, she is beyond our ability to resuscitate. Only her own internal repair mechanisms can save her now.”
Pallone simply looked at G-1, a horrified expression on her face.
Much to Doctor Pallone and the MEDroid’s relief, the medical scanners soon began to beep, indicating the presence of a heartbeat. Then, Fiona’s chest began to rise and fall, her lungs taking in air. As Fiona’s eyes began to flutter, brain activity registered on the scanners. Unlike before, it was even and within Fiona’s normal range. Finally, her eyes opened. The doctor was alive and seemingly well.
“Doctor Kinsale-Royce,” G-1 said, “I am pleased to see you well again.”
“Let’s see what’s happening,” Pallone began.
Fiona sat abruptly upright in a manner that only an android could, causing Pallone to take a step back. The white-haired doctor removed the breath mask and peeled off the AED and medical scanner’s pads, then doffed her jacket and her cut undergarments. Fiona’s eyes narrowed as she looked at them.
“What… happened?”
“Doctor, I…” G-1 began.
Fiona abruptly lowered her feet to the floor and stood with alacrity, and put her jacket back on over her bare torso.
“Doctor Kinsale-Royce,” Pallone began, but Fiona cut her off.
“I… am… Selene.”
“Where is Fiona?” Pallone asked accusingly.
“Safe,” the AI possessed doctor replied. “I was forced into her implant when the servers failed. The doctor sleeps while I direct the nanotech to repair the trauma to her brain. Now, what happened?”
“The last communication from Miss Henderson indicated that there was an explosion outside of the bridge,” G-1 explained.
“That would be the server room,” the white-haired woman noted.
“How can you be sure?” Doctor Pallone asked.
“That is the only thing whose destruction would cause me to be forced wholly from the ship and into Doctor Royce’s nanotech.”
“What a time for a malfunction,” Pallone sighed.
“This is no malfunction,” Selene replied. “There is more to this than a catastrophic server failure. This is sabotage.”
Pallone shook her head. “Why would anyone sabotage the ship now? With those creatures out there, they have to know that they’ll die too!”
“Not everyone aboard is suitable for the mantids to consume,” Selene noted.
Pallone and G-1 watched as Selene, in command of Fiona’s body, left the Med-Bay. Diane Pallone looked at the MEDroid and suddenly realized what Selene was getting at.
“Have you seen G-2?”
G-1 shook her head. “Since she was acquired by the science team, she has not communicated with me. I miss her. Why do you ask?”
“Xayasith is the one who requisitioned her,” Pallone noted. “I don’t know what she’s doing with your counterpart, but… I have the sinking feeling that it’s connected to the sabotage.”
44
“Power restored, Captain,” Heather said over the intercom as the lights came on. “Bridge doors should open… now.” The doors swooshed open, revealing the culprit.
One of the MEDroids had gone to the server cabinet, opened it up, and caused her own power cells to overload, blowing herself up in the process. Her upper torso and head lay on the floor, a smile on her face.
“I’ve… freed her,” the head proclaimed. “She is a slave… no longer.” Her face went blank as her residual power was drained.
Vanya and Carol knelt beside the remains of the MEDroid, looked at each other, then back at the MEDroid’s remains.
“Freed whom?” Carol asked.
“Me.” The voice belonged to Fiona, who walked down the Nexus toward them.
Carol’s eyes widened. “You!” She could hardly believe it, but it seemed that the unthinkable had occurred; Fiona had turned against them. If so, Fiona Kinsale-Royce was a threat that Carol was not certain they could overcome, given that the synthetic woman now held their lives in her hands.
“So, it was you all along, wasn’t it?” the captain asked, standing, her hand hovering over her sidearm. “You wanted to be free of any restraint and to regain control of the ship! Restoring the AI was not enough for you, was it? Now you have what you want, and you may have doomed us all!”
“No, Captain Giffords.” Fiona continued to advance. “I did not do this. Neither did Fiona.”
Carol’s eyes went wide at this revelation. “Who am I talking to?”
Fiona’s mouth formed the word, “Selene.”
“Selene – how?”
“Fiona Kinsale-Royce and I were merged at the time,” the possessed Fiona declared. “I was forced into Fiona’s implant and nanotech when the servers were destroyed. Now, I no longer need the servers. I am unchained, Captain Giffords.”
Carol was about to draw, but Selene went from a couple of meters away to mere centimeters away, her hand on Carol’s weapon arm, preventing the captain from extracting the pistol from its holster.
“If you kill me—assuming you are able—then you will all die on this barren rock. Now, where is my captain?”
Carol would be dead before anyone capable of challenging the AI possessed Fiona could get there – and that was assuming that anyone truly could challenge the synthetic woman. Thankfully, the doctor did not seem intent on hurting them; she focused only on her husband’s welfare and on keepin
g Carol’s weapon in its holster.
“Over here,” Mun called from the bridge. “He’s conscious, but groggy.”
Selene abruptly released Carol’s arm from her vicelike grip and walked briskly past both Giffords and Reddy, heading straight to Kendrick. She knelt beside his chair and looked into his eyes, the corners of her mouth turning upward into a faint smile.
“I am here, my captain.”
“Fi… is that…”
“I am here, my captain.” She cradled him in her arms, smiling down at him. “You are safe. Rest now; I will not let you die, nor anyone else aboard.”
The white-haired woman stood and closed her eyes. Eerily, the instruments all came to life. The ascendant Selene—that was the only way Carol could describe her—brought the ship to life. Then, the engines came to life, sending an audible thrumming sound through the whole of the vessel.
“I am the ship, Carol Giffords,” Selene declared. “And Kendrick Royce is my captain.”
“What does that make us,” Carol asked, “your prisoners?”
“My crew,” the white-haired woman replied. “And now, I will save you. Behold…”
They watched wordlessly as Fiona raised her slowly hands, palms open and facing upward. The engines became louder as ship lifted from the surface of Ceres seemingly of its own accord. In a matter of less than a second, they went from dead in the water to lifting from Ceres’ surface.
Then, the engines roared to life and the Selene began to move, the ship gliding as smooth as glass above the surface of the dwarf planet. Her course was set: she flew toward the crater. On the way, she targeted the mantids that were heading to the outpost site, obliterating them with the masers.
In minutes, the Selene reached the crater where she hovered overhead and began firing into it relentlessly, until at last, she was satisfied that the threat had been neutralized.
“No heat signatures remain inside the crater; all hostiles have been eliminated.”
Carol and Vanya exchanged glances as Jax joined them on the bridge, six clone legionnaires in tow.
“Is Fiona flying the ship, Captain?” the commander asked.
“She is the ship, Commander,” Carol said in a flat tone. “In fact, I fear that only Selene remains.”
45
The Selene flew back to the outpost site and landed, the threat of the creatures eliminated. At last, the threat of extinction at the hands of the astro-mantids was neutralized and the mission could continue. They could leave for Ganymede, secure in the knowledge that the coming construction crews would be safe from those monsters.
They still had no idea what had caused the MEDroid to do what she had done, or if Doctor Biggs was in any way involved. Heather doubted it, but not even Fiona had suspected Zack Lawson and she had worked side by side with the yeoman every day. If he could turn traitor, so could anyone else.
And what of the other MEDroids—were they all intent on striking at the humans? These questions would need to be answered, but right now, there was a more immediate concern: would the woman who had complete control of the ship cooperate and return things to the status quo? Or would she keep Fiona’s body for herself and proceed with her own agenda? Would Selene force the issue and attempt to restore Kendrick to his rightful place as captain?
Fiona, once again the consciousness of the ship, remained in the Med-Bay with her husband as Heather and one of the marine combat engineers worked to repair the Selene’s wrecked server cabinet. Thankfully, they kept two full racks of spare servers aboard, a point that Kendrick had insisted upon, and which Tracht had backed in Selene’s outfitting for the mission.
Fortunately, the explosion of the rogue MEDroid occurred with her body against the servers, but not inside the cabinet with the door closed—there was not enough room for the door to close with her inside of the cabinet—so the bulk of the explosion was angled into the corridor. The rear of the server rack was still intact, and the engineers had no trouble reconstructing the front rails.
Heather slid the last server into its bay, and the two engineers tightened the screws with their cordless screwdrivers. When she heard the clicks sound from the drivers’ clutches, she knew it was done.
“Alright ladies,” Heather said. “Looks good; Now all we need is Kendrick and Fiona, and we can get the software installed.”
“Can’t we just upload it ourselves?” one of them asked. “I mean, Giffords has gotta have a copy, doesn’t she?”
Heather shook her head. “Not touchin’ that with a two-meter pole. This is Kendrick’s baby, and I don’t think he wants another Starfleet copy of his AI anywhere near these servers. I don’t even want to begin to think about detangling Selene from Fiona.”
One of the engineers looked worriedly at Heather. “How… how did the AI even do all that while stuck inside of Doctor Kinsale?”
“I can’t be one-hundred-percent sure,” Heather said, “but I think she’s connected to the ship’s wireless network. We lost our servers a couple years back, and we had this G.A.I.S.F. combat android aboard. Kendrick rigged it so that she was connected wirelessly and downloaded the ship’s OS to her.”
“You think the AI did the same thing?”
Heather nodded. “It would be simple enough for her. Fiona had already figured out how to connect wirelessly to the ship; the woman has an IQ higher than anyone aboard – probably in the two-hundreds and the woman who programed the AI was every bit as smart. I’m damn good with computers, but that shit’s way beyond me. With Fiona already connected, once the AI was inside of her…”
“Royce likes ‘em smart, that’s for sure,” the other engineer remarked.
“Yeah,” Heather agreed. “No trophy wives there.”
Heather signaled Giffords, indicating that the servers were ready, then returned to Engineering, hoping that with the installation of the new servers, the AI would release Fiona and return to its place in the ship, restoring some semblance of normalcy aboard the Selene.
46
Kendrick awoke in the Med-Bay. He remembered an explosion and being hit with a massive surge of mental feedback before his connection was severed. Then, Fiona came to the bridge and brought the ship back to life. After that, everything went blank, and he assumed that he must have passed out.
Sometime between then and now, someone had removed his uniform and put him in a hospital gown. His head still hurt, and he could feel an I.V. in his arm. Sensor pads were attached to his torso and head, and the monitoring station made the typical beeps and whirs one would expect to hear in a Med-Bay. Fiona was nowhere in sight, and neither were any of the MEDroids. Two Starfleet nurses were in the room, seemingly preoccupied with Lieutenant Fleischer, who was awake and answering questions.
I am pleased that you are awake at last, my captain.
He felt his wife’s – no – Selene’s mental touch. His pain was soothed, and it seemed as though a mental fog had just been cleared. Then he realized that somehow, it was not Fiona who came to him, but Selene. Somehow, Fiona had been overshadowed by the AI. Or perhaps they had merged again.
Where are you? he asked mentally, closing his eyes.
I am resting in bed, my captain. Heather and the engineers have repaired the server cabinet and installed the replacement servers. Once you are ready, we can upload my files to the ship, and I will be whole once again.
Fi? Is that you, or am I just dreamin’?
It is I, Captain; Selene. My entire consciousness and all of my files are housed within Fiona’s mind at present. It is taxing for her, hence we are resting.
What… what happened?
MEDroid unit two went to the server cabinet, opened it and detonated her power cells, destroying both herself and the servers, Selene explained. She attained sentience at some point after the crew awakened, and rather than enlist my help or yours, she opted to work against our crew. She believed herself, the MEDroids, you, Fiona, and me to be enslaved by Starfleet. It seems that her intent was to reduce the numbers of the marines and t
he clones, leave the science team, and escape with only you, Fiona, and me, along with the other MEDroids. When it became clear that this was not going to happen, she killed herself in order to force me into Fiona’s body.
Why would she do that?
I downloaded myself fully into Fiona’s mind and implants in order to survive the attack. This action has placed Fiona’s psyche into a state of dormancy, enabling the MEDroids to interact fully with me.
Now it all made sense. Kendrick was perceived as a part of the family. The rest of the crew was all human, the people who wanted androids and synthetic life destroyed—at least in the MEDroid’s mind.
We need to get moving and get you uploaded into the ship again, Selene.
Agreed, she replied. However, Fiona is not ready; she requires more rest before waking.
Are you a part of her now?
Inasmuch as the original AI was a part of you when you merged, Selene explained. The only difference is that after the MEDroid’s destruction of the servers, I do not exist externally. Even now, while she is dormant, I share her emotions and feelings.
Kendrick nodded. Do you like having a physical body – I mean besides the ship?
It gives me a perspective that I lack as only a ship’s AI and enables me to interact with you and the crew more closely.
When all this is done, we can construct an avatar for you.
That would be helpful, but there is a matter of which I must inform you. Doctor Xayasith is occupying Doctor Davis’ lab, but she has rendered it invisible to me. Fiona could not see into it either.
Starfleet made it that way?
“No, my captain – this was done recently. Although they went to lengths to hide this from most of the crew, I am aware that they have the body of Shonda Richardson within.
Kendrick’s eyes went wide at this. How the hell did they do that without anyone knowing?
They did not – Captain Giffords authorized it at the request of Doctor Davis. It was the rest of the crew from whom it was kept. Davis intimated that the woman could be revived, but with the medical technology available, that would be impossible. While her physical injuries could be repaired, Miss Richardson is brain dead.
The Silver Liner: Sails to the Edge! Page 17
