by Ryk Brown
“I’m heading for the showers,” Jessica announced as she headed for the forward hatch to the hangar bay.
“I didn’t do nothin’,” Marcus insisted.
“Luckily, we didn’t need you to.”
“Can I go back to Sanctuary, then?”
“Why the hurry?” Nathan wondered as they headed forward.
“Promise you won’t laugh?”
“I swear.”
“I’m kinda likin’ the life. Good night’s sleep each night. Good food. No one shootin’ at you. Nothin’ to fix. It kinda grows on you. Them kids aren’t bad, either. Kinda reminds me of when Josh was little.”
Nathan didn’t respond.
Marcus looked at him. “You promised.”
“I’m trying,” Nathan said, fighting back a broad smile. “Shower up and get changed,” he told Marcus. “I’ll get you back to the good life, straight away. After all, if anyone deserves it, it’s you,” he added, patting him on the back. Nathan stopped, spotting General Telles climbing down from another recently-arrived Reaper. He waited a moment for the general to collect his things and then headed over to walk with him. “General,” he called out as he approached. “I take it your time on Takara was productive?”
“I believe so,” General Telles replied, looking over Nathan’s outfit. “Been away, I see.”
“A little side trip.”
“The flight crew got me up to speed on the way back,” General Telles said. “I am glad you and the Aurora survived the attack.”
“Attacks,” Nathan corrected.
“Indeed. I understand the Aurora is badly damaged. Three reactors, is it?”
“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Nathan insisted.
“I am certain that you do,” the general replied.
“I’m a little confused,” Nathan said. “I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to assassinate anyone else?”
“I assassinated no one,” General Telles insisted. “I simply provided actionable intelligence to the Dusahn, and they did what they thought best, given the nature of each.”
“And the fact that every one of those nobles were party to Casimir’s assassination had nothing to do with it, I suppose.”
“It had everything to do with it,” General Telles admitted, “but not in the way you think.”
“Then it wasn’t revenge,” Nathan surmised, not quite convinced.
“It was not, but it was necessary to make Lord Mahtize believe that it was. A man seeking vengeance is to be avoided at all costs.” General Telles looked at Nathan. “An old Takaran saying.”
“I see.”
“By leaking information that I knew would lead to the executions of the nobles involved in Prince Casimir’s assassination, I increased the pressure on Lord Mahtize, forcing him to agree to continue feeding us information.”
“And it worked?”
“He believes that if he does not, his treachery will also be revealed to the Dusahn. Whether or not he will provide actionable intelligence to us remains to be seen.”
“If he doesn’t,” Nathan said, “then the executions of those nobles will have been unnecessary.”
“A risk I am willing to take,” General Telles stated plainly.
Nathan looked at the general. “I’ll bet.”
* * *
General Telles carefully studied the images on the command briefing room’s view screens. After a few moments, he spoke. “The first problem I see is that the two different plants are quite separate. We cannot even be certain they are connected on the inside, at least not in a way that suits our purpose.”
“Then we may have to choose between the mini-ZPEDs or the larger versions,” Cameron surmised.
“The priority is the Aurora,” Nathan reminded everyone. “We can produce the mini-ZPEDs ourselves.”
“We can produce the larger versions, as well,” Vladimir pointed out.
“Yes, but it will require specialized facilities,” Abby reminded him. “The conditions required to initiate the zero-point state are quite challenging to produce, particularly with the larger versions.”
“Logic dictates that we exclude the mini-ZPEDs from the mission objective,” General Telles decided. “The odds of success drop dramatically if you include them.”
“Siggy’s not going to be happy,” Jessica commented.
“Siggy has screwed plenty of people in his miserable, little life,” Nathan said. “I have no problem screwing him on their behalf.”
“Perhaps he’ll feel good about helping us defeat the Dusahn?” Abby suggested.
“Doubtful,” Nathan chuckled.
“The other issue I see are the four sections between the spaceport and the ZPED storage area,” General Telles stated. “That means we will have to pass through at least three security checkpoints, likely more. Each one of them is a potential failure point.”
“If you get through the first one, doesn’t that mean you’ll get through the rest?” Abby wondered.
“Different checkpoints have different levels of scrutiny,” the general replied.
“The door to the bank is glass, but the door to the vault is steel,” Nathan said.
“Precisely,” the general agreed. “I only see one way that offers an acceptable probability of success.”
“A direct ground assault,” Nathan surmised.
“Precisely.”
“You want to try to blast your way in?” Cameron wondered, somewhat surprised.
“Actually, it is a combination of two approaches, a direct assault and an impersonation entry,” General Telles explained.
“The direct assault is just a smoke screen to create confusion,” Nathan added.
“The moment the attack begins, everything will lock down,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda warned. “The insertion team will be trapped.”
“The plant was built by Takarans,” General Telles said. “My specialists are quite familiar with Takaran security systems. We should have no problem bypassing them.”
“But the Dusahn have had control over the plant for more than a month now,” Cameron pointed out. “They could have changed those systems.”
“True, but we have no evidence of any such changes,” General Telles replied. “In fact, the only thing the Dusahn have done is to place their own security personnel on site, and those personnel are not based on Rama, but on Takara. So, reinforcements must come from Takara.”
“Their fighter cover is the same way,” Lieutenant Commander Shinoda pointed out. “They also come from Takara.”
“We also have no evidence that the Dusahn have attempted to integrate the ZPED technology into their own ships,” Jessica said.
“If you remember, we had some difficulty in making the ZPED technology work with the jump drives,” Abby said. “All indications, thus far, are that the Dusahn jump drive technology is quite similar to our original jump drives. They are basically five to six years behind us in jump drive development. Quite possibly more since, until they captured Takara, they did not have the technological and industrial infrastructure to further its development.”
“So, the Dusahn may not consider the ZPED facility a high-priority asset,” Nathan surmised.
“While that may help, it does not negate the third requirement for this mission,” General Telles said.
“Which is?” Nathan wondered.
“The facility must be destroyed.”
The room fell silent.
“He is correct,” Abby finally said. “The Dusahn will eventually figure out how to use ZPEDs. First in their smaller ships, then in their larger ones. At that point, defeating them will be all but impossible.”
“At the very least, it will greatly escalate this conflict,” Cameron added.
“Surely the Dusahn realize this?” Jessica said. “If so, we could be wrong about how much they have stepped up security.”
“Zero-point energy is very difficult to develop,” Abby pointed out. “It requires very complex systems just to carry out the ex
periments. We were lucky enough to have people who already had experience in the process and already had working ZPEDs.”
“So do the Dusahn,” Nathan told her.
“Yes, but ours were willing participants,” Abby replied. “You’d be surprised how much that can make a difference. Trust me, I know. Also, the Dusahn technology is somewhat inferior to ours, and even more so when compared to Takaran technology, which creates an additional hurdle. But again, it is not a hurdle that cannot be overcome, given time.”
Nathan sighed. “Then we destroy the facility, regardless of whether or not we manage to acquire the ZPEDs that we need.”
“This all hinges on your associate,” General Telles reminded Nathan. “If this person fails to deliver…”
“Then we simply destroy the ZPED factory,” Nathan said. He looked at each of their faces. “Agreed?” When no opposition was given, he continued. “We’ve got fifteen hours to put this together, so let’s get started.”
* * *
“What about the Orochi?” Nathan asked as he and Cameron entered the Aurora’s bridge.
“All four are up and being trained on, now,” Cameron replied. “As expected, Commander Kainan’s crew has adapted more quickly than the others, but everyone is getting the hang of it.”
Nathan stopped next to the communications station. “Are they going to be ready by tomorrow?”
“If all they have to do is jump around and launch missiles then, yes. The Orochi are so automated that we could teach the galley staff to do that.”
“God, no,” Nathan objected. “We finally have good food.” Nathan turned to Naralena. “Any message?”
“Negative, sir.”
“No news is good news,” Nathan stated, turning to continue to his ready room.
“I should point out that to arm all four Orochi, we’re basically wiping out our jump missile inventory.”
“Yeah, I thought of that,” Nathan admitted, sighing as he plopped down in his seat. “Two plants are up and running and a third is due to start production in a few days, so we should be okay in a week or two.”
“Let’s just hope the Dusahn don’t realize how wide-open we are,” Cameron stated.
“How could they?” Nathan replied. “We’ve got all cargo traffic bound for this system offloading in the Helton system. The only ships now operating in the Rogen system are ours.”
“There’s always a way to get intel, you know that. Sooner or later, the Dusahn will find another way.”
“Let’s just hope that by the time they do, we seem too well defended for them to attack us again.”
“You have the watch for the next few hours,” Cameron told him. “I have to review the Orochi crew’s training performance reports and make recommendations.”
“Very well,” Nathan replied as Cameron turned and headed out the door.
“Commander,” Cameron greeted Vladimir. “Deliza.”
“Captain,” Deliza replied.
“Captain?” Vladimir called from the entrance.
Nathan looked up from his data pad. “What’s up?”
Vladimir and Deliza entered the room, closing the hatch behind them.
“We’ve been studying the Sugali AI and the results are, well, unbelievable,” Vladimir exclaimed.
“When did you have the time?” Nathan wondered. “What, with you playing hero out there, which I specifically told you not to do.”
“Actually, it was Deliza who did most of the work,” Vladimir said. “On the AI, I mean,” he quickly added, “and I thought you were kidding.”
“Uh-huh.” Nathan looked at Deliza. “What have you discovered?”
“Only that the Sugali AI is probably the most sophisticated and well-conceived AI imaginable,” Deliza replied.
“That’s quite a claim.”
“She’s not kidding,” Vladimir insisted.
“Then you agree with her?”
“Da.”
“They somehow managed to make it extremely human-like. Within minutes, you feel like you are conversing with a person, not a computer program.”
“Similar technology was responsible for the bio-digital plague, you know,” Nathan reminded them both.
“The big difference between Leta and any other AI is that she understands what she is and has no desire to be anything else. She has no true feelings, only the appropriate inflections for any given situation. But that’s just scratching the surface,” Deliza continued. “She can learn at a phenomenal rate, and she can hypothesize with equal speed.”
“She identified twenty-seven damaged systems that we were not even aware of,” Vladimir added, “in only a few minutes! Several of them would have had serious consequences if they had gone undiscovered.”
“You plugged her into the entire ship?” Nathan asked, shocked.
“Uh…” Vladimir realized he had spoken too soon.
“Without authorization?”
“We isolated all communications systems from her,” Deliza assured him. “So if she was a spy, she couldn’t transmit any data to the Dusahn.”
“That isn’t the point,” Nathan told her, “and stop calling it her. It’s not a person, and it certainly doesn’t have a gender.” Nathan looked sternly at Vladimir. “What if it took control of the ship and jumped us into Dusahn hands?”
“Our jump drive is still down,” Vladimir pointed out.
“Seriously? That’s your response?”
“It has a very robust control lattice,” Deliza explained, jumping to Vladimir’s defense. “We are able to deny it command ability to any system we wish. We did not give it independent flight control authorization. It can only pilot the ship if you tell it to.”
“So you did give it flight control?”
“No,” Vladimir said. “I mean, yes, but not like you think. We had to give her…”
Nathan held up one finger.
“…I mean it, access to all systems so it could accurately diagnose and identify needed repairs,” Vladimir explained. “Nathan, it even recommended the most efficient order of repairs, probably shaving a week off our repair time.”
“Even better, it can help us adapt the ZPEDs for use in the Aurora,” Deliza said. “That could get the Aurora back into action even sooner.”
“That’s the first thing either of you has said since you came in that I liked,” Nathan said. He looked at Vladimir. “What’s the downside?”
“That is what is so amazing!” Vladimir exclaimed. “I cannot find a downside.”
“If we fully integrate Leta into the Aurora’s systems, we can cut the crew requirements in half,” Deliza explained.
Nathan thought for a moment. “Cameron would like that,” he admitted. “However, I suspect she may have a harder time accepting the idea.” He leaned back in his chair, looking at the both of them. “Very well,” he sighed. “Sell Cameron on the idea, and I’ll approve it.”
“Yes, sir,” Vladimir replied, turning to exit.
“Commander, a moment,” Nathan said before he left.
Vladimir and Deliza exchanged glances as she departed. He then turned around to face Nathan.
“If Jessica learns you hooked that thing up to the entire ship, she’s going to skin you alive. You know that, right?”
“That’s why we didn’t tell her.”
“She’ll find out eventually,” Nathan warned. “You might want to avoid her for a while.”
“Understood.
“And next time, no heroics. If you had died out there, the Aurora would be completely screwed.”
“And if you had died out there?” Vladimir wondered.
“I’d be a martyr,” Nathan replied, “and the rest of you would carry on without me.”
“Don’t be so sure,” Vladimir replied, turning to exit again.
Nathan watched his friend depart, contemplating his words.
* * *
Nathan had memorized General Telles’s mission plan in a single reading and spent the last few hours studying all the
intelligence they had on Rama, hoping to find something they had overlooked that could increase their odds of success. Unfortunately, his efforts had been unsuccessful. As expected, the general was quite thorough in his planning. The only fault in the plan was its dependence on Sigmund, but that could not be helped. Time was of the essence, and Siggy was the only person he knew who could acquire the needed resources on such short notice.
“Did you even leave this room while I was gone?” Cameron asked as she entered the ready room.
Nathan leaned back in his chair. “Nope. How did the training review go?”
“They’re about as good as they’re going to get, in the time allotted,” she replied, taking a seat. “I had them stand-down to get some rest, just in case your friend shows up sooner, rather than later.”
“If I know Siggy, he’ll show up at the last possible moment,” Nathan groaned.
“Is there a last moment?” Cameron wondered.
“I gave him forty-seven Haven hours,” Nathan said.
“Why?”
“So he doesn’t drag his ass,” Nathan replied. “Siggy doesn’t trust me, and for good reason. He’ll show up a few minutes past the deadline, just to show that he doesn’t answer to me.”
“Sounds like a real winner,” Cameron observed.
“Siggy’s a real piece of work.”
“Then why use him?”
“Because he can get what we need.”
“Has it occurred to you that Siggy knows you can’t fit fifty mini-ZPEDs and four large ones in a Dusahn cargo shuttle?”
“He doesn’t know we’re after four large ones,” Nathan told her. “For all he knows, we’re after one hundred mini’s…or just a bunch of cores and no reactor housings.”
“Surely he suspects that you’re going to screw him,” Cameron said.
“Siggy expects everyone to screw him,” Nathan replied, “but it’s a small risk, with the possibility of a large payoff. That’s enough for him.”
“But you already screwed him once, didn’t you?”
“Actually, I just failed to deliver. He screwed himself on that deal. He should have hired a bigger ship. He knew damn well that I would rescue the passengers first. He was gambling on his score, and he lost. Sure, he acted all angry, like he wanted to kill me, but he’s not stupid. He knew it was his own fault. He also knew that if he did kill me, he’d have a hard time getting others to work for him, especially with the Dusahn around. As long as you play to his motivation, which is always profit, you’re safe.”
