by Kate Kyle
Her heart was hammering. Her head still hummed from the period of high g. And the stress.
She kept trying, but the radio remained silent.
Maybe he'd fainted. Just like he did before they docked at Vindolanda?
His shuttle had slowed, the engines clearly inactive.
With her hands sliding over the control panel and a heavy stone in her stomach, she slowed the shuttle and readied it to approach the other craft.
A groan behind her reminded Jax that she had other passengers on board.
"Hey, you two are okay?" she called out without checking. Manual rendezvousing required all the focus she could muster. Fortunately, the shuttles must have been built with this option in mind.
"Alive. No body damage," Lulu reported.
"SingMa?" Jax said.
"Uhm…" another mumbling groan.
"Good. I've got to collect Rutger," she said. "You stay here and keep an eye on each other."
"Hey, Jax…" Lulu's voice contained a note of urgency.
Jax jerked her head up to acknowledge, still keeping a close eye on the maneuver.
It was nice to hear Lulu using her first name. But nos way was Jax about to trust her.
Could she actually leave her here, with the half-conscious SingMa, and Jax's piloting credentials?
Well, worst case scenario, Jax would return in the same shuttle she arrived, carrying the poor, messed-up Rutger with her.
"Yeah?" Jax asked.
"Do you still have that stun gun on you?" Lulu asked.
Jax tensed.
Oh, crap… what now?
"If you have any murderous feelings towards any of us, including Rutger, or any other object-"
"No, I don't," Lulu cut in. "But your friend might. You need to taser him as soon as you see him."
"I know," Jax snapped.
Now, she did.
Lulu’s suggestion was valid. Jax should have… she would have thought of it as soon as she'd completed the maneuver.
Like right now.
She breathed out slowly, going through the steps in her head.
"I'll leave you here. No games, no flying away, no messing about with anything or anyone, do you copy?" she said, turning away.
Lulu, her petit, usually pale face was covered in red blotches. Her eyes were puffed.
"You see what I look like. I can barely move. And I'm not your enemy," she just said.
SingMa only groaned and moved his hand.
"Look after him."
"I'll try."
Feeling like an old, wet mop soaked in water and thrown against the wall, Jax clicked her helmet on and headed for the airlock.
19
Jax
After scrambling through the shuttle’s umbilical docking ports Jax raced to the shuttle’s flight deck. Rutger's body lay curled up in the pilot's seat.
He was still buckled in the three-point harness. Thank goodness, otherwise, he'd be floating in zero-g and she'd struggle to bring him down.
"Rutger," she yelled out, rushing toward him. The magboots of her suit marked her steps with clicks.
He groaned.
At least, he was alive.
She leant over his head and gently checked his vitals, and then for potential injuries. Assured he was uninjured, at least visibly, she reached to her hip.
No, she shouldn't consider it as tasering a friend. She was immobilizing some sort of alien force. Completely unpredictable.
Yes, that's what she was doing.
She held Rutger's thigh and pressed the stun gun against it.
And then she saw it – on the main screen – the image of the girl holding a balloon. A short message floated beside it: 'It was never war.'
With Rutger safe, Jax located his helmet - floating above the console. She stood closer, released the magboots and pushed herself ever so slightly up.
With the helmet in her hand, she pushed herself off the ceiling and turned the boots on again.
Success! She touched the floor, the heels of her space footwear immediately securing her grounding.
All those hours of practice in weightlessness finally had proven useful.
With the helmet secured on Rutger's head, she unbuckled the harness and dragged his weightless body across the hallway, and to the set of airlocks.
To her surprise, Lulu was waiting at the exit from the airlock. Without a word, Lulu took Rutger's arm and draped it around her shoulders.
Stumbling and shuffling, trying to coordinate their magboot–secured steps, they finally arrived back at the flight deck of the first shuttle. SingMa helped them buckle Rutger in one of the chairs.
Fighting internal repulsion, Jax detached a harness from a free seat and secured Rutger's hands and feet.
"To be on the safe side," she murmured, tightening the straps. The comment was more to herself than to any of her passengers.
"No worries," SingMa said, but his face, with deep, vertical lines etched on his high forehead, sent a different message.
Otherwise, no one said anything, until Jax announced their separation from Rutger's shuttle and their departure back to Segedunum station.
Finally, she could swipe away the view of Vindolanda or rather, what was left of it. She would still have to keep an eye out for debris, just in case.
They flew back in a silence broken only by the humming of the machines around her.
Once they were close enough to Segedunum, she activated the comms system.
"We need to get him to hospital," she said aloud.
"Agreed," Lulu replied.
"I think it's the same thing that's affecting the guys from Vindolanda," SingMa said, confirming Jax's suspicions. "Get Si-Carb on the case. They'll question why we even went there…"
"Not me," Lulu cut in. "I've got authorization."
"Authorization to do what?" Jax snapped. "Pilot a shuttle on stolen credentials?"
A few seconds of silence followed.
"Still, I was allowed to be there."
"To do what exactly?" SingMa joined in. "Why were you there, Professor Li?"
"Don't use that name," Lulu hissed.
"It doesn't matter here. You're too far away from New China's influence," Jax said. She reshuffled the comms parameters, still seeking connection with the station that loomed in the distance. She broadcasted an 'emergency approach, medical help required' message.
"You never know…" Lulu said quietly. "I'm sure the authorities here will prioritize people's safety and well-being over any petty-"
"Petty?" Jax interrupted. Her radio comms crackled, but the Net screen remained dark. "Hush!" she added and switched off and on the radio comms. They were close enough to the station. It should work.
"Emergency approach, medical attention required," Jax repeated into the mic, with increased urgency.
"What if the Segedunum's network is still down?"
"I can land the shuttle back in the port of origin, even without automated help."
"That's not what I meant. If the Net is still down, it means the whole city might be off the grid. And even if certain parts remain in operation, they'll be disconnected from the main network."
Irritation grew in Jax's chest and rose to her mouth.
"And?" she said.
"And no one will hear your request," SingMa replied quietly.
Ah, crap…
"What do you suggest we do?" Jax asked. "Try to reach them via the PSSNet?"
Silence.
"Is this question directed also to me?" Lulu joined in.
"Yeah, why not?"
What could be worse than having a bat-stir crazy man on board, probably infected by the virus, approaching a dead port and not being able to raise help?
"You may need to try the Net, if the radio is not getting us any replies. We need to get him into hospital asap."
"And bears poop in the forest," Jax snapped back.
She located the switch connecting the shuttle to the PSSNet. Screw the potential virus. They had a real medical emergency on
board, and she'd seen no evidence of it on this shuttle.
"They do, indeed. But how do they do it so they can do it safely?" Lulu replied.
She had nerves of steel, that strange woman. Unlike Jax at this moment, when she actually most needed it.
She was behaving like her mother. Exactly the way she despised all her life and swore to never repeat – to let your emotions get in the way of your situation-analyzing and decision-making process.
"What do you mean?"
"Someone needs to take him to hospital."
"I gather that someone is not you," Jax said through her teeth.
Jax repeated the distress call once more and broke the connection, just in case.
"I need to continue my work, which was interrupted by your… friend."
"Ah, yes, your work. What were you exactly doing in that shut-down station?" Jax swiveled to face her.
"Trying to identify the conditions needed for the code to shift into the swarm behavior," Lulu replied simply.
She was either highly trained to filter out non-verbal communication, or despite her almost perfect English, not really able to read it or… some sort of human-computer hybrid.
"Do you think it's an intelligent code, professor?' SingMa said.
"Not yet. I think the pieces of code just carry out certain tasks, which are either meaningless or destined to recruit more items into the growing group so that the shift in behavior can result."
"What does it mean?" SingMa asked, saving Jax having to swallow her pride to ask the same question.
"It means that there's still time to prevent a swarming event."
"And what would happen if the code starts swarming."
"When the code becomes a swarm," Lulu corrected. "That, I don't know. Nobody knows, because this would create a whole new organism, a new entity. One probably far more powerful than anything that can be extrapolated from their current behavior."
The cockpit filled with silence again.
A thought popped up in Jax's head.
"How are you going to continue your work, now that you are away from the station," she asked.
"I've got a piece of rock they were studying and the data storage unit from the computer they used to work on the code," Lulu replied.
"You've got the virus then," Jax stated.
She was surprised how easily this came out of her mouth.
"She said it's not a virus! Stop repeating unfounded claims!" SingMa snapped.
The comms screen lit up.
Jax's eyes snapped back into focus.
A holo of a girl holding a balloon wavered on the screen with a text below:
"It was never war. Release the Artifact. Release the Balloons."
Jax's stomach shrank as if hit with a rocky ball flying straight from the deepest reaches of cold, cold space.
"I think," she said, moving aside so her passengers could see the screen. "I think it is a virus. It's in our shuttle, and maybe even in the whole Segedunum station."
20
Jax
"That text's new, isn't it?' Jax asked. "What's your view, Miss Swarms Specialist?"
Lulu shifted her gaze from the screen to Jax's face.
"I don't think I've seen it before in the briefings I was given. I haven't had enough time to check all of the Vindolanda's materials, but I saw a fragment of something that looked like a poem or a song, with balloons in it."
"There was a message on the screen in the other shuttle," Jax said and told them what she saw.
"I've only seen the image and 'release the artifact' text so far," SingMa added. "Unless the Segedunum IT has been secreting… but that's unlikely. It would have emerged in the informal networks. What does it mean, Professor?"
"It may mean that another key element has joined the pool of individuals," Lulu said slowly. Her big eyes shone.
"Is it swarming yet?" Jax asked.
"No idea," Lulu replied. "We won't know until it's already done, I'm afraid. But it's getting… closer, I suspect."
"How come? How did this new element join the pool? Where is the pool?" Jax asked. "Is it our shuttle?"
"No, it's the station network," SingMa replied, even if the question wasn't addressed to him. He had clearly recovered from the anxiety of the urgent evacuation from Vindolanda and the shock of increased G lift off.
And thank goodness, because one sick man was more than enough to worry about.
"Yes. I think you're right, Manish," Lulu said, thoughtfully. "And I'm afraid I know the source. It's us."
"Us? What do you mean by us?" Jax asked.
"I mean our shuttle. We've brought another element and it joined the pool which has been, so-to-speak, swimming in the Segedunum network."
"And how did we do it, since we haven't landed yet. Which I need to prepare for very soon," Jax added.
"We might have not landed, but we've connected with the station network. Did you broadcast the message over the Net as well?" SingMa asked.
"We've got an emergency on board and-"
"And that's how it happened," Lulu said.
Jax's gut clenched.
Crap…
So, this was all her fault? She swiped the screen off and cut all the comms. She hadn't got anything but the stupid image and silence anyway.
"But I had to contact the space port. I had no choice, we've got a seriously sick man on board," Jax explained.
Yep, she felt guilty.
"Indeed. I think it would have found its way aboard sooner or later. No point in blaming yourself," Lulu said. "Now, we need to think how we can stop further pooling of elements, to prevent swarming."
Rutger moaned.
"And get Rutger into the hospital," Jax said. "Hopefully the clinic is still in operation."
"Some networks run on double circuit. They are connected to the main network but also can access the Pan-SS-Network directly. They can shut down both accesses and operate independently with access to archived pages," SingMa explained. "Safety reasons."
"What does that mean?" Jax asked. She hated technobabble as much as she hated long words…
"It means, we should be able to do some work if we find one of those double-circuit systems in working condition."
"How are you going to stop the swarming?" Jax pushed on.
"By finding and isolating the key elements," Lulu replied. "Where are those double networks?"
"Si-Carb clinic, The Rainbow's End," SingMa said hesitantly. "And some government facilities."
"Obviously government facilities may be hard to access, although I am able to try," Lulu said. "Rainbow's End? Sounds good."
"No," SingMa replied. "I don't think anyone would allow that to happen and there is no way I'd be able to hack into it. I stand a better chance of hacking government facilities."
Jax glanced over her shoulder, throwing SingMa what she hoped was an incredulous look.
"Why so?" she asked.
"You don't know?" the incredulousness was definitely contagious.
"Why should I" Jax retorted.
"Because you play."
"So what? I'm not a hacker."
"You don't have to be a hacker to know that… ah, but you don't, so clearly you're not here to… Why are you here anyway?" he stopped and stared at her.
"Too much time in high g?" Jax asked and glared at him. Hopefully, this would do for a comment. But SingMa just stared back.
"Pilot, emergency medical transport, now in search of my life savings and pilot credentials, medical history and lots of other useful things," Jax replied.
She glared now at Lulu, just to stress the point.
"I said I'd return your tablet as soon as I finished using it."
"Which is when?"
"No idea, but as you can see this whole thing is not over yet. We must find safe places to identify and destroy the key elements before it's too late."
"Good point, Professor. But since Rainbow's End is a bad idea, we're left with the hospital, right?"
"I hope so,
" Lulu said. "Because I'm planning to go there and work on this," she patted the side of her suit.
Jax just realized it was bulging slightly.
"That's the memory storage you stole from Vindolanda."
"No. It's the memory storage and a piece of rock I've retrieved from Vindolanda for further scientific research. Now I need a secure network to further my analysis."
"And infect poor people in the hospital?" Jax snapped. "Including my… " she wheezed in a breath. No, that was nobody's business. Her… baby… "Including my friend, Rutger."
"Don't be silly, Jax. What else do we have? The hospital is one certain location. And I'll be risking the life of my own son," she added quietly.
"Alex? Alex is here?" SingMa asked.
"Hush, that's irrelevant for now. I'll do my best not to release any key elements into the main pool."
"How will you know which ones are key?" SingMa asked.
"Good question," Lulu replied, furrowing her forehead. "I need to go back to the beginning. This wasn't the situation I expected to see. I was brought in to look at the Vindolanda research, but it seems that a very recent event must have speeded things up. "
"How recent?" SingMa asked.
"The last twenty-four hours," Lulu replied.
"Nothing of note has happened in Segedunum in the past twenty-four hours," SingMa said. "We make, of course, lots of exciting discoveries, but none in the past day or so. We don't even get many visitors."
"Yeah, our ship was apparently the first one to arrive in days," Jax said.
"The only one in the past nine days," SingMa specified. "All Segedunum geeks know the port's schedule. It's when our orders from Earth arrive."
"Really?" Jax snorted. "It hardly looked like a welcoming party. The Si-Carb retrieval guy was unhappy that two passengers were missing from the final count. By the way, I still haven't been-"
"Yes!" Lulu clasped her hands. "Of course! The briefings I had reported that after the initial appearance of the image seven months ago, after the transport of sick researchers from Vindolanda, there had been nothing until… when exactly?" She glanced at SingMa.
"That would have been this morning, 10 am, local time, I'd say."
"That's one hour after our arrival," Jax said.
"Which would mean it's aboard your ship," SingMa said. "You must have brought another piece of code to join the pool."
