There was another pause as the avatar stood perfectly still. The operator was obviously looking for more information and didn't want whatever they were saying or doing to be transmitted. The hologram resumed its animation as the representative went on. “Yes sir. Regent Galactic has had some difficulty in their outer solar systems concerning the Holocaust Virus.”
“What kind of difficulty?” Lister Hampon asked with a growing grin.
“The virus created by mister Meunez has taken hold on several colonies. Artificially intelligent machines have started attacking humans and other biological beings in and out of our employ. We haven't been able to troubleshoot the problem. None of the deactivation codes provided to us are working.”
“I suggest your citizens and military personnel begin raising one hundred thousand Core World Currency Credits each.”
“Why is that sir?”
“So they can apply to be listed with the Order of Eden. Here is the account information.”
“That account isn't registered with Regent Galactic, sir.”
“I know.”
“Do you have an update for our artificial intelligence programs that we could apply? To protect us from further viral infection or assault? We don't want this to spread to other systems.”
“I'm afraid not. The only true safeguard is to list with the Order of Eden and join the West Keepers. Oh, and if an artificial intelligence tells you to do something, you'd best obey.”
The hologram stared at him, there was a real appraising look there and it lingered for long moments before she nodded her acknowledgement. “Watch for my personal deposit. Is there anything else I can do for you sir?”
“No,” he deactivated the transmission and with it the micro wormhole that allowed him to instantaneously communicate across several hundred light years.
“Sir, we have a ship coming in,” announced a voice from the bridge over the intercom in the large darkened sitting room.
He stood and looked through the transparent section of outer hull to the rich planet of Pandem below. “This is a major port, that's bound to happen from time to time.”
“I know sir, but I thought you would like to be notified since this one is marked as a Freeground vessel. There is a notice here saying-”
“Thank you, you have followed my instructions perfectly. Capture them alive.”
“Yes sir.”
Crazy Pilot
“I don't understand, there's debris everywhere. Evidence of hundreds of collisions,” Ayan said as she looked through the combat scanner readout. She overlaid the transmission she was getting from Navnet. “Navnet says everything's fine, our trajectory is guiding us to a carrier in orbit on the other side of the planet.”
“What are it's markings?”
“They're blocked. Actually…” Ayan scanned through the port channels and shook her head. “Everything but Navnet is restricted. Thank God for this old comm equipment otherwise we would have missed it. Any modern gear would have just skipped over any channel marked as restricted or unavailable.”
Minh pitched the ship into the bulk of the debris and started turning off everything but basic manoeuvring thrusters.
Ayan braced herself. “What are you doing?”
“Going cold. There's a group of fighters coming around to meet us and a few tugs out there that are still moving,” he pointed at the combat hologram on his side of the cockpit. “I don't like being taken in by strange ships that block their transponders.”
“I agree. I don't think going in cold is the answer though, there's too much space between us and the planet.”
“We don't know if there's anywhere safe to land there, for all we know the anti-air batteries will kill us before we make it down.”
“It'll be easier to hide down there. Up here we're sitting ducks. I can't safely manoeuvre any faster anyway.”
Ayan looked through the cockpit window and at the dimmed combat scanners. Even using close range passive detection she could see that there was so much large debris, cargo carriers, passenger liners, military ships, pieces of the construction yard nearby drifting around that he was right. It was a near impossibility to pick one's way through the field in orbit at any greater speed. She watched silently as Minh expertly guided the bulky craft between much larger pieces of debris, just tapping thrusters to inch them around the remains.
“One of those tugs is following right behind us. They're using a repulsor field to push the smaller debris out of the way.”
“How far back are they?”
“At this pace they'll be on us in about fifteen seconds. Should I get into a turret?”
“Oh no, even I think they're death traps and I'm crazy.” He increased their speed a little using the cold rear thrusters and brought them around a large set of girders.
“Nine seconds.”
“I just need to get a clear look at the planet. When I activate the main engines, turn everything on and lock all three turrets backwards. I think we'll need to try and distract them a little.”
“You think maybe I should try and reinforce the shields?” Ayan said, getting ready to start turning systems on.
“Oh, yeah, shields would be good.”
“Do you know where we'll be landing?”
“One of those beaches might be nice. I've always liked surfer movies.”
“That would be a no then.”
“Hey, one crisis at a time.”
“That tug will have a clear line of sight on us in a couple seconds.”
Minh came around a large, jagged section of hull. The blue and green planet came into view and he activated the engines, closely followed by the afterburners.
“If you come in too steep we'll burn up!” Ayan shouted over the deafening roar of the solid fuel afterburners as she activated shields, weapons and supplemental inertial dampening systems.
“We won't come in too steep then!” Minh said as he struggled with the controls. The wreckage of a large carrier loomed in the cockpit view.
The turrets began firing backwards at the debris field, not specifically striking any target but causing the slowly milling mass behind to become agitated and start churning. “That's a distraction,” she turned to look at the tactical scanners and saw two groups of fighters closing on them. “We're about to come under fire, setting our shields for ventral and aft.”
“Starting atmospheric entry.” Minh said as the afterburners cut out. “Look, I'm right on course,” he pointed to his main navigational display. “No burning up.”
“I wasn't voicing a doubt, just a concern.”
“There's a difference?”
“And so we solve the mystery of why you're single. Women appreciate the subtle differences,” Ayan said as she checked the hull integrity.
“Bah, I'm saving myself for someone who really understands me,” Minh shot back with a grin as he maintained their course.
“It'll be a while,” Ayan chortled.
They cleared the upper atmosphere and the island dotted ocean below came into view. Minh flipped the ship right side up and began their descent. “How far back are those-” a sharp impact on the hull jarred the ship.
Ayan adjusted the shields and focused most of the energy on the dorsal side of the ship. “I think they followed through right behind us. They're fast.”
“Evading, we'll have to find somewhere to hide quick. Help me look,” they were past the point where they could relieve tension with jests and teasing. The pair were in trouble, serious trouble.
“I'm looking, but where I'm picking up life it's scant. The electromagnetic signatures are much thicker than normal. All the cities down there look like war zones and comms are jammed.”
“There's got to be something.”
The shield warning lights started blinking red and yellow. “We're down to nineteen percent overall shield power.”
“There's too many of them. I jink to avoid one and there's another firing right at us.”
“Shields are gone!” Ayan sho
uted as several enemy shots impacted the hull. “Losing integrity.”
“I'm pointing our rear at them, it'll take them more time to get through.”
“Damage to port engine, I'm re-routing,” Ayan's eyes went wide as something came up on their communications.
“Freeground ship, go to these coordinates, we'll cover you,” said the incoming voice.
“Can we trust them?” Minh asked as he turned quickly to the coordinates that were marked on his navigational system. He flipped the ship upside down and increased throttle, the deafening roar of the engines filled the cockpit.
“It's our only choice other than crashing, besides, they were transmitting using a laser link striking the hull.”
“Smart!” Minh exclaimed as the Warpig took several more hits along its upturned underside.
“We're losing power!”
“Just a couple thrusters left, maybe I should ditch in the ocean?” he searched the ground for any safe landing spot. “Wait! I see a hangar!” There was a yawning opening in the cliff side ahead.
A deafening explosion rang out from behind them and their engines went out. Minh activated the afterburners and the inertial dampeners nearly failed altogether. Both of them were pressed back into their seats so hard their vacsuits automatically sealed.
The hangar loomed larger and larger, and as the afterburners were about to run out of fuel he deactivated one a second before the other, spinning the ship so it was headed inside rear first and a little high.
As the second afterburner flamed out the near wreckage of the Warpig fell as much as collided right onto the front end of the large hangar back end first. The ship, barely recognizable, skidded with a scraping, grinding sound that could be heard for kilometres in all directions until it came to rest wedged in an open equipment bay.
Repairs
Stephanie could hear Jake but couldn't find him. The four meter high space was filled near to capacity with the Samson's largest systems. It was never properly lit, the walkways were as narrow as forty centimetres across in some places and she always had the feeling that the mass capacitors, energy management systems and the myriad of other old machinery that filled the space was about to activate and fry her alive or worse, close in and crush her.
It was one of the only places in the universe that made her feel claustrophobic and awkward. The clinking and clanking of someone trying to worm their way through a space that was even smaller than the narrow alcove of cables she stood in echoed again and she gave up on proximity radio. “Captain!” she called out.
Her reward was a quick, sharp CLANG! and the Captain Valance's voice carrying through a narrow space nearby.
“Ow! What the hell is it?” he called out from wherever he was beside or above her, she couldn't quite tell.
“I've been trying to get you on comms for half an hour sir.”
“Wireless doesn't work in this section, there's too much energy stored in the systems.” Captain Valance replied.
She could hear him shuffling through a space to her right. “So I'm surrounded by cables with power running through them. Nice.” Stephanie tried to be smaller, shrinking away from the interconnected components all around her.
“Aye, Chief Vercelli's crew almost have the Samson back in shape and the modifications I requested finished. The first load test was yesterday and all her internal systems are live.”
“Good to hear, we can start running two recruiting missions at a time when she's ready. Still, next time you decide to go making repairs you might want to let someone on the security staff know.”
“I ran into March on the way down here, he didn't log it with the security office?”
“No, sorry, I didn't get it. What are you doing in there anyway? I'm sure one of the deck crew would be happy to do it for you.”
Jake dropped down right in front of her, barely fitting in the walkway. He had to stand sideways to squeeze between the seemingly random components that enclosed him in on either side. “There's a jury rigged cross beam here that's barely anchored at one end. It's not critical for support but it'll rattle like hell if anyone pushes the Samson's engines near three quarter throttle. If Ashley ever pilots her again…”
“It'll happen all the time.” Stephanie finished for him. “Did you get it?”
“Nope, hands are too big. I'll have to get someone else to tighten it back down or come back with an extender. What brings you down anyway?”
“One of our new recruits was killed yesterday and sent out the main emitter control room service airlock. Price and Finn just found her drifting outside the ship.”
Jake lead the way out of the tight space then retrieved his gun belt and long coat from a railing on the way down the hall. “Have you figured out how it happened?”
“She was strangled with a moderately thin wire. Without the Triton 's artificial intelligences online we can't do a ship wide DNA scan to find the weapon but we're looking. Whoever did it knew that the emitter systems were being serviced around the main control room and they were able to remove all records of their passage through the ship. Everything points to either a small group of people or individual who were able to somehow transport a body without being noticed. I'm looking at medical staff.”
“Did you find any other evidence?”
“We found a freshly scratched tether loop inside the emitter control room which tells me whoever it was was tied to it when they hit the decompression switch. They were probably just standing a few feet away from her when she was flushed out into space.”
“Why didn't her vacsuit seal?”
“There was an override in place on her command and control unit. Whoever it was used one of Wheeler's back door codes.”
“Could it have been Burke?” Captain Valance asked as they walked across the darkened cargo area the Samson was secured in. The new energy emitters running across her outer hull made it look like some spiked sea creature.
“He was in stasis at the time.”
“Then we have a murderer on board. What do we know about this new recruit?”
“Vienna Lars was her name.”
“Any idea why Vienna was killed?”
“Records show her spending some time in the Pilot's Den, the lower berthing and she visited the command deck once to check in with security. She was looking to qualify for core engineering staff, with her education she might have made it too. She had a data and communications unit that's several years old with her and it has records of her being in contact with Regent Galactic going back several years. Over the last few months she's also been in touch with something called the Order of Eden. Her credit records show that a one hundred thousand credit deposit was made to them over eight months ago.”
“She was a West Keeper?” Jake asked in a whisper.
Stephanie pressed the call button for the bulk express lift as she replied. “My working theory is that someone's doing our work for us, but for some reason they don't want to get caught. I think it was someone who was on the Triton when we took it.”
“I agree, any leads?”
“Well, I'm going to have people follow up with people she might have met in the pub or berth. One of my security people was a police officer so I'm going to work with her.”
“Good, tell me if you find anything.”
They stepped into the large express car and Captain Valance brought up the forward command deck as the destination on the two dimensional screen then pressed the ACCEPT key. So many things had become manual since the old ship AI's were deleted. Stephanie rode along with him in silence for a moment before turning to look at him. “You're taking this really well.”
Jake gave her a small smile and nodded. “It sounds like you're doing everything I would. We're both experienced bounty hunters, despite our differences in style, so I'm sure you'll catch whoever did this. Just make sure word doesn't spread across the ship. This is so strange that the whole ship would be talking about it within a couple days.”
“I don't think that'
ll be a problem. As long as Finn and Price have each other to talk to about this I'm sure they can keep it to themselves.”
“You're right, those two are pretty tight lipped in the first place. How are things going between you and Frost?”
“All right, I reset his intoxicant rationing so it's a little lower than anyone else at the rank of Chief, so he's pretty pissed about that but it'll blow over.”
“Think he'll get used to you being Chief of Security?”
“He'll have to.”
Jake couldn't help but chuckle. “This is going to be interesting. I'm sure Ashley or Alice will give me the blow by blow.”
“You're on duty right now, aren't you?”
“I'm always on duty.” The lift opened to the busy main corridor of the command deck. With over two thousand crew members aboard and going about their business there was a lot to manage and the front half of the command deck was the nerve center, for the most part.
“I'll see you on the bridge later, I have to get to the security office and brief my Lieutenants. I get the feeling that we're all going to have to keep our eyes open if we want to catch whoever spaced Vienna's body.”
“Good hunting Security Chief. Hopefully I'll decide whether to congratulate or incarcerate whoever's responsible by the time you find them.” Captain Valance muttered as they exited the elevator car and went their separate ways.
Two Improbabilities
“Okay, so Doc Anderson took some customized genetic material and her memories into a wormhole for thirty years so she could grow naturally. When he came out only four years had passed out here and Ayan was born again with all her memories. She also doesn't have any genetic mods past being restored to what she should be if her family had kept from tinkering with their genes.” Jason said to Minh, still trying to believe what he was seeing through the hospital observation window. Ayan was sleeping peacefully, her broken wrist and leg had been mended through nanosurgery.
Minh-Chu nodded with a broad grin as he lounged in the hospital waiting room. He turned one of the tuning keys from his ruined guitar over the backs of his knuckles leisurely. “She's real, not a hallucination. I checked more than once because that's been known to happen lately.”
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