Odin's Eye

by Kal Spriggs

  “Mien Herr,” Gunther responded, “the scanner is in the secure room in the basement. Would you like me to bring up the new one instead? We have it in the loading bay.”

  Kaptain Sebastian waited a moment, well aware that their conversation was being recorded. The delay would tell anyone who reviewed the file that he took a moment to consider it. “The new one has not been validated yet?” He knew the answer to that. The validation process would take weeks as the device was taken apart and put back together again to verify no one tried to slip something in with the new equipment. The scanner was only in the outer layer of security, it would be moved into the second layer for storage after it was validated.

  “No, it is scheduled for tomorrow,” Gunther responded.

  “Send it up,” Kaptain Sebastian said. “Chief Operations Officer Bader insisted that we move as fast as possible.” That task done, he brought up his guard on the prisoners, “Bring them up, Paul,” he said. Time to get this over with.

  Time: 0130 Local, 25 September 291 G.D.

  Location: Danzig High Orbit, Neu Emshaven System

  “Captain Bulpit-Grant,” Captain Le Roi's voice was smug. “Rear Admiral Grossman has just confirmed that the pirate appears to be talking to someone at Odin Interstellar. They've been aware of the attempt from the inside, but they would like the ship alive, if possible, but destroyed if we can't take them alive. Rear Admiral Grossman says that his force is in position to intercept if the pirate flees, but we'll have the opportunity to take him down, first.”

  “Excellent,” Frank said. “You still have him locked, do you not?” The question was unnecessary, since the data feed from the Vulcan Phoenix showed good targeting data. Frank had moved his own ship around to the other side of Danzig so as to not spook the pirate.

  “I do,” Captain Le Roi said. His confidence would have grated, except that Frank wanted that certainty, it meant the pirate would not escape.

  “Good,” Frank said. “Then when I give the signal, I want you to hail the bastard and tell him to stand to. At the same time, I'll move around to that side of the planet to sandwich him. If he rabbits, then we can take him down. If he doesn't, we'll board him.”

  Part of him hoped the pirate actually surrendered. A Halo-class destroyer would sell for at least twenty or thirty million Guard Dollars. The company would take seventy percent of that, but he would take fifty percent of what was left... or twenty-five since he would have to split that in half with Captain Le Roi and his vessel.

  Still, he thought, I could almost retire off of that. His ex-wife wouldn't get any of his prize money. It would be a separate award, ineligible for her to draw on and Frank wished he could see her face when she found that out.

  “If he evades us, we let Guard Fleet get him,” Frank said. Though he would not let his crew fail him. If that bogey got away, it would be because he slipped past Captain Le Roi's ship... or he would have the ass of whoever failed him.

  “Of course,” Captain Le Roi said. “I'm ready when you are.”

  ***

  Fenris' mind felt even more sluggish. Something was wrong with him, he didn't know what, but he could feel it. The more he looked at himself, the more wrong he felt. He had to talk to Mel, she would know how to fix it.

  He peered around, yet his sensors seemed myopic, barely fit to guide him. He could barely follow the traffic around him, much less look for threats. Yet he recognized a Carnivore-class cruiser only a short distance away. It seemed that he had seen that ship before, yet his memory felt confused. Had it followed him as he made orbit? He didn't know anymore.

  “Attention, unknown vessel,” A sharp voice broadcast from only a few tens of thousands of kilometers distance. Fenris zeroed in on the Carnivore-class cruiser as the source. “We know that you are engaged in criminal activity with a stolen transponder signal. Power down your warp drive and weapons or you will be destroyed.”

  Fenris felt his systems freeze up. Just at that moment, a second Carnivore came over the planet's horizon. They were trying to box him in, he saw. In only a second he could see how dangerous it was... and how with his drive at such a low setting, he couldn't take even a single hit.

  Yet he couldn't bring his drive to full power, not without blowing the operation. Nor did he have the time that would take. He had to evade this ambush now or else they would have time to bring other forces to box him in.

  Fenris spun his drive field and sped past the Carnivore that had hailed him. Yet as he did so, his speed failed him. He moved too slow, his systems unable to perform as he expected. Instead of a swift sprint, his move was more like a stagger.

  The pair of Carnivores reacted too quickly. Both fired almost as he moved. The closer one missed, but the further one struck his drive field a glancing hit that sent power fluctuations throughout his warp system. Had he a voice, he would have screamed in pain as his drive emitters flared and exploded and his drive went unstable.

  Yet his pain ended a moment later as the first Carnivore caught him in a direct hit. The trio of antimatter-core mass-driver rounds detonated in a perfect carat around his warp field. Any one of the fifty megaton warheads would have been enough to knock out his weakened drive field and smash the hull beneath.

  When the three perfect detonations cleared, there was nothing left besides a cloud of rapidly expanding ionized gas.

  Time: 0200 Local, 25 September 291 G.D.

  Location: Danzig, City of Neuhaven, Neu Emshaven System

  “What is the meaning of this?” Doctor Farber demanded. The Director of Security's people had all but physically accosted him as he worked. He had almost pieced together the various bits that his algorithm had pointed out. He felt certain the final clue was somewhere to be found... if only he could find it. Doctor Farber froze as he found a large assemblage in the Chief Operations Officer's normally empty office.

  “I might as you the same thing, Doctor,” Bader asked him with a growl. She snarled his name in a hostile fashion that even he could not help but notice. She must be irritated about something, that was absurd, he had done nothing wrong.

  “What?” Doctor Farber asked. This was simply unacceptable. Didn't she see that he was busy.

  “Approximately an hour ago, Herr Doctor,” Kaptain Sebastian Lokisen said, “we intercepted an encrypted transmission from a ship in orbit. Sent to you, Doctor. Only an hour before that, my people detained these criminals attempting to gain security badges to access the outer layer of security.”

  “Transmission?” Doctor Farber blinked. He had seen a string of gibberish appear in his message inbox, he had assumed it merely garbled data. “This has nothing to do with me!”

  “Guard Fleet just finished decrypting the transmission, Doctor,” Bader said. “It reads: Ship is in place, my team will make contact to pull you out in one hour, be sure to bring the data.”

  “This is absurd,” Doctor Farber snarled. “I do not know these people, I have never met them!”

  “No, but you know their employer,” Kaptain Sebastian said. “Who is he? Tell us and things will go more easily for you.”

  “You might as well just tell them everything, Doctor,” one of the prisoners said. He was a tall, handsome man, whose aristocratic accent seemed at odds with the company he kept. “They've already destroyed the Raven. We can't get out at this point. Maybe they'll cut us a deal.”

  “I do not know what you are talking about!” Doctor Farber shouted. This was preposterous. “I must have been framed, someone who wants to discredit me, perhaps!” He spun to look at Kaptain Sebastian and he froze. His bionics whirred as he zoomed in on the Chief of Security's features. Of course, he thought, it all makes sense. It was his underlying bone structure, it didn't, quite, match his external features.

  “We have already begun scanning for files you accessed since your arrival,” Bader said, her voice harsh. “Tell us what we want to know or we will find out anyway. Who hired you and what did they want? What was valuable enough for you to risk yourself on such a ri
sky plan?”

  “Chief Operations Officer Bader,” he said quickly, “you must listen to me. You have been deceived. This man,” he pointed at Kaptain Sebastian, “is not what he seems. He is a fake. An imposter. He has framed me in an attempt to discredit my work, he is actually a Guard Intelligence operative by the name of–”

  “This is absurd,” Kaptain Sebastian said. He waved at his men, “Take him away.” Two of them caught him by the arms.

  “You must listen!” Doctor Farber wrenched his arms free and pushed both men away hard enough to knock them down. Clearly they had underestimated his strength, his superiority. He pointed at Kaptain Sebastian and shouted, “This man is a fraud!” He raised his other hand, the data card in his fingers, “I can prove it!”

  “Grenade!” Kaptain Sebastian shouted.

  “What?” Doctor Farber looked around, “No–”

  And then the world exploded.

  Time: 0215 Local, 25 September 291 G.D.

  Location: Danzig High Orbit, Neu Emshaven System

  Fenris pondered the state of his soul.

  It was an odd thought for an Artificial Intelligence who had only ever recently come to the conclusion that he might, indeed, have a soul. Given the importance of the question, it was something he had thought about quite a bit. What he hadn't really considered, up until this moment, was how that soul might be judged.

  As he watched the ore freighter die along with the simplified copy of him overwritten on its computer core, he had to wonder if that copy, too, had a soul. The fact that it had not possessed free will of its own, that it hadn't even known it was a copy, and a poor one at that, made him suspect not.

  Still, if it had...then what he had just done was murder.

  Better, he thought, that I was dead than to be trapped in that simple computer core and be bound to the hull of an ore freighter.

  He brought up the simulation of the bridge and Captain Le Roi of the Vulcan Phoenix, neither of which really existed. “A good kill, Captain Bulpit-Grant. It looks like we both got a piece of it.”

  “Indeed!” the former Guard Fleet officer seemed buoyed by the experience. Then again, from what Fenris had seen of his file, it was the only combat the man had ever seen, since he had risen in the ranks of the Parisian Sector Fleet. “Got the bastard. I'll give Rear Admiral Grossman a call and let him know. Good flying, Captain.”

  Fenris allowed his simulated Captain to smile, “Thank you, Captain, it was a pleasure.”

  Time: 0215 Local, 25 September 291 G.D.

  Location: Danzig, City of Neuhaven, Neu Emshaven System

  Mel opened her eyes and shook her head at the ringing, “You guys are going to do permanent damage to my hearing, you know that?” She looked around and saw that the security guards were all down, all but Bob's contact Paul Kruger and Kaptain Sebastian. “Good work, team.”

  “It was your plan,” Kaptain Sebastian said as he stepped forward with the keys to their cuffs.

  “I knew it!” A metallic voice roared. “I knew you were a fraud! Mrs Bader, see, they are in this together! The real Kaptain Sebastian Lokisen was killed on Foster!”

  The cybernetic Doctor Farber stood up, clearly his augmentation had given him some resistance to the stun grenades that Marcus had thrown. “This man is a fake, he must have some means to alter his biometrics. He is the Guard Intelligence operative that went missing on Foster!”

  “Former Guard Intelligence agent,” Marcus said, dropping his accent. It was odd to hear his voice coming from the other man's face. “Very good, Doctor, clearly your program is better than even we estimated.”

  Mel just looked over at Lindsey Bader and raised her eyebrows.

  “Yes,” Odin Interstellar's Chief Operations Officer said, “You are very clever, Doctor.” She pulled her stun pistol and fired.

  The twenty thousand volts of electricity locked Doctor Farber up and he jerked for a long moment before he fell backwards with a clank. Bob winced in sympathy, “I bet he didn't see that coming.”

  “I agree,” Lace said with a smirk.

  “Hell, even I wasn't entirely certain until you had me bring the scanner up here,” Marcus said. He frowned though and Mel saw disapproval on his face. “Did you have to kill her, though?”

  Mel sighed, “You killed her? That's going to make getting this done a lot harder.”

  They had planned to coerce the access codes out of her to get this done and then to leave her behind with short term memory loss, ostensibly caused by the explosion. Without her around, things would be more complicated.

  Lace shrugged and pointed at the crate behind her. “The good security Kaptain brought her body up here, courtesy of the company's clean team. Besides, the world is a better place without her.”

  Mel frowned, “What about the access codes?” That was the part they really needed, yet somehow it seemed Lace had gained access to the core network already without them.

  That was the problem they'd faced, the access point in Lindsey Bader's office required not just a biometric lock, but an alphanumeric password. That was why the other mercenaries had discarded the idea, they hadn't seen a way to suborn or blackmail the codes out of her without giving away the operation. Lace's implants were advanced enough to allow her to fool the biometrics, or so she'd said, but they still needed the passcode.

  “I just threatened her bodily harm,” Lace said with a slight smile. “Then when she gave me the codes, I killed her. Far more easily than she deserved, let me assure you. A quick, painless death, she didn't even realize she was dead before her body hit the floor.”

  Mel shivered a bit at the cheerful tone of Lace's voice. The woman was entirely too happy about the whole thing. I probably don't want to know any more, Mel thought.

  “My equipment is set,” Aldera said, “Connection up-link is established and we should be good to go...” Outside the doors Mel heard shouts. Clearly the rest of security was wondering what had happened inside the office.

  Mel went over to their confiscated gear and pulled out her comm. “Fenris?” she asked.

  “I am here.” His gravelly voice had never sounded so welcome. She knew the plan had given him a good chance of evading notice, but she still had feared for him until they finally made contact. “Guard Fleet is analyzing the data I falsified on the drone freighter. It is likely that they will conclude it was the Halo-class destroyer and not look any deeper on the data.” He paused, “I'm accessing the core network now.”

  A moment later, klaxons went off as he put the building in lockdown. Mel saw the internal armored door slide down to secure the office doors. That should keep them out, she thought. “Good, how long to locate cover identities and then modify our files?”

  “Not long,” Fenris said. “I've already found over a hundred candidates. I'm narrowing the selections now, based off of known contacts to limit the chance of detection.” He paused, “I'm also accessing the security files and modifying the ones we need.”

  Mel looked at Swaim, “Aren't you supposed to be uploading your file?”

  He shrugged, “Fenris has it already, he can load it faster than me.”

  Mel scowled at him, “Why are you here, then? Couldn't you do that from the ship?”

  “Well, yeah,” Swaim said. “But you guys didn't listen to me when I said that.”

  Mel shook her head, but she couldn't argue with that. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried to speak up, but they generally hadn't listened. She looked over at Marcus, “How's Brian doing?”

  Marcus looked up from the security console, “He's on his way to his objective.”

  “You deceitful, inferior, fleshy little worms,” a mechanical voice snarled. Mel turned with surprise to see that Doctor Farber had sat up. He climbed to his feet, “You think you can destroy my life's work and brush me aside? You pathetic creatures, I am above you, I am superior to you in every way! I will crush you.”

  Mel stepped back in surprise as the cybernetic man advanced towards her.

  “D
amn it,” she said, “Didn't we deal with one of these nut jobs already?” She saw Bob paw for his BFR, but he'd left it aboard Fenris.

  Marcus drew his sidearm and fired, but the bullets bounced off of Doctor Farber. Clearly he had more augmentation, including armor, than they had expected.

  He advanced slowly and he brought his arms up, his mechanical fingers formed into claws, “I will rend you into pieces for your insolence!”

  Tank stepped in front of Mel. He had one of the security guard's riot guns and he fired it from point blank, but the flechette rounds just shredded the Doctor's lab coat to show a metal casting beneath. The Doctor backhanded the big man and sent him tumbling. “I will kill you all!”

  ***

  Fenris was, for once, feeling almost overwhelmed. The Odin Interstellar database was far beyond any network he had ever encountered. Just one of the building's servers held as much information as his entire core. He had expected to find it as raw information, yet it was all meticulously filed. Indeed, every bit was cross-referenced and he found himself overwhelmed not by the information, but by the sheer variety of topics to explore.

  The processors that ran the system were amazing as well. Big and stupid, compared to him, yet incredibly powerful. Had they recognized him as a program, they would have attempted to rip him apart into his constituent data and index him and they had the power to do just that, yet they were too simple to even recognize him. To them, he was merely another user.

  Fenris was able to identify potential candidates for the new identities almost instantly. From there, he set up money transfers in a cascade of pending transactions that would upload as Odin Interstellar courier ships visited the systems. The money transactions went through dozens of dummy corporations that would exist only long enough to make the transaction before they vanished again.