Empire of Bones

by Terry Mixon

  Kelsey looked around the new room curiously. Someone had laid the room out much like the medical center on Athena. There were also several people from the Fleet destroyer present, both medical staff and scientific. At their sides were what she assumed to be their Pentagaran counterparts.

  A week in the company of their new allies had been educational. They still had so much to learn from one another. One thing was clear, however. Many of them—most really—seemed like wonderful, caring people that were intensely grateful that Athena had stopped the Pale Ones invasion of their solar system.

  The price tag had been hideous. Dozens of Fleet personnel and marines killed, hundreds wounded, and Athena crippled. Kelsey still couldn’t imagine how they were going to get home, even with the help of their new friends.

  From her hospital bed, Kelsey had finalized the official alliance between the Terran Empire and the Kingdom of Pentagar. They’d share every bit of technical data they recovered from the wreck of the old Empire battlecruiser Courageous in exchange for the Kingdom’s support in getting home. She knew there were several scientific centers springing up to facilitate the research.

  And, of course, their alliance had a military aspect. No one knew how many systems the Pale Ones occupied. The pre-Fall Terran Empire had been vast before the genocidal civil war had almost exterminated humanity.

  Jared Mertz, their mission commander and her half-brother, had brought their science ship, the converted freighter Best Deal, through the flip point to take a herd of Pentagaran scientists back to study the derelict. The old Empire Fleet vessel was a treasure trove of technology far beyond any of them.

  After drifting disabled in space for half a millennium, the ship was slowly coming back to life. Kelsey had heard they’d repaired one of her fusion plants and that the ship was operating under her own power again. Dennis Baxter, Athena’s Chief Engineer, had been chortling about it the last time he’d come to visit.

  She was glad he had something pleasant to focus on. There were pitifully few of those moments these days.

  Kelsey took a deep breath and pushed her dark thoughts away. She’d already flogged herself over the damage she’d caused. Now she had to move on and make up for it.

  And to do that she needed to be able to walk. Back to her current problems.

  She smiled at the people she knew and nodded to those she didn’t. “It looks like you have a new medical center, Lily.”

  “Almost.” The dark-haired doctor stopped the grav chair beside a piece of equipment that Kelsey knew all too well. The old Empire medical device that had mapped her body before the implant procedure. Beside it was the tank that had cut her open and installed everything.

  Actually, procedure was too antiseptic a term. It had cut her open while she lay there screaming. She’d passed out before it put all her new hardware inside her, but she still woke from horrible nightmares every night. She suspected the memories would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life.

  She mentally shook herself. The third piece of equipment they’d recovered was missing. The one she presumed was to have reprogramed her implants so that they controlled her, rather than the other way around.

  Doctor Jerry Leonard and his graduate student, Carl Owlet, stood beside the old Empire equipment. The elderly scientist was the expedition’s cybernetics expert. The younger man was a programming genius. At the tender age of sixteen, he was also the youngest member of the Imperial exploratory expedition.

  Leonard smiled benevolently down at her, unaware of her emotional turmoil. “It’s good to see you up and about, Princess. So to speak. Allow me to say that you’re looking much better than when I saw you last.”

  She certainly hoped so. She’d seen the images from before they’d put her into the regenerator. The Pale Ones had gone most of the way toward turning her into one of them, complete with hideous scarring across most of her body. Thankfully, that was one thing modern medicine could fix.

  Kelsey forced herself to smile. “Thank you. You obviously have some plans for me. Might I ask what we’re doing today?”

  Lily put her hand on Kelsey’s arm. “We won’t be doing anything invasive.”

  Kelsey hadn’t realized she’d tensed up until she looked down and saw that she’d cracked one of the hand rests. She took a deep breath and forced herself to relax.

  The damage she’d caused was not lost on the scientists. Leonard stepped back nervously. “Nothing to worry about, I assure you. We’ve been going over the hardware we recovered from the old empire marine and Pale Ones bodies. We wanted to bring you up to speed with our progress and perform a few tests.”

  “What kind of tests?” She heard the suspicion in her voice. She wasn’t sure she’d ever trust a medical procedure again. “Where is the third piece of equipment? The one that would’ve overrode my implant’s programming?”

  “It’s elsewhere. We’re trying to extract its data and determine how it can overwrite the implant’s control code. We absolutely will not be exposing you to any danger,” he stressed. “Shall we start with our findings?”

  At her nod he continued. “On the hardware side, we’ve completed a detailed examination of all your implants. We believe them to be standard old Empire designs without modification. That’s excellent news, as we know many marines lived and worked on Courageous with exactly the same enhancements.”

  Their successes somehow failed to make her feel any better about her own condition, but they did make her curious. “How many marines did they have aboard Courageous?”

  The older man’s expression turned somber. “Of the five hundred and eighty-five frozen bodies we recovered, one hundred and seventy-eight had the same extensive implants as you do now. That’s a significantly higher ratio than we have on Athena. Our marine compliment is about ten percent of the crew. Courageous’ marines made up thirty percent of her crew. I suppose that makes sense. They had a lot more space for people on Courageous and they were at war.”

  The low numbers still surprised Kelsey. “I have trouble believing that they crewed that massive ship with only fifty more crewmen than our destroyer.”

  “That is an amazing feat,” he admitted. “The précis of the latest reports from Courageous indicate that the ship used significant automation. The systems also seem to be very sturdy. Some of them have come back online without intervention. Commander Baxter suspects there is some ability for the systems to self-repair.”

  “You mean the ship might be able to fix itself?” The thought boggled her mind.

  “Perhaps to a degree. They’ve restored power to all systems. In fact, power came online even in some systems that no one has worked on yet. I just heard that they’ve found some small remotes repairing power connections and replacing damaged cabling and components.”

  That set her back on her heels, metaphorically speaking. The wreck of the old Empire battlecruiser had been tumbling frozen in space for five centuries. Other than one dangerously unstable fusion plant, all its systems had seemed dead.

  “Even with all the legends,” Kelsey said at last, “I never expected anything like that. If it could fix itself, why hadn’t it done so before now?”

  The scientist shrugged. “I have no idea. Perhaps we’ll discover the answer to that once we can access the ship’s computer. Right now, I’m more interested in you.”

  “I can see some similarities between Courageous and you,” Lily said. “I put you in the regenerator and removed the worst of the scar tissue. That left a significant amount of micro damage that I figured would take several months to heal fully. Yet, in less than a week, it’s all gone. Did you have any injuries as a child?”

  “I broke my arm doing something silly. I also had my appendix removed by microsurgery.”

  Lily nodded slowly. “I noted both those items when I gave you your physical just before we arrived in Pentagaran space. In addition, I saw a deep cut that had healed well on your left leg. With the sheathing on your bones, I can’t scan for the break, but I can tell you
that the residual scaring from the other injuries is completely gone. You don’t have an appendix, but it might as well have never been there.

  “Your body’s ability to repair damage seems to have been significantly augmented. I saw no indication of anything like that with the Pale Ones. I’d like to have a better idea of what’s going on inside you.”

  “You and me both.” Kelsey gestured toward the old Empire equipment. “What does that have to do with these damned machines?”

  Doctor Leonard cleared his throat. “You told us the first machine was controlled by some type of computer. It’s not responding to us in any way. We’re hoping that you can communicate with it.”

  A chill ran down Kelsey’s spine. “We didn’t exactly build up any kind of rapport and I’m not too keen on the idea of getting into either of them again.” As in, she would flat refuse to do so.

  The older man held up his hands. “We would never ask that of you. However, your implants look like they should be able to communicate with equipment like this from a distance of up to ten meters. We’d like to put a monitoring headset on you while you attempt to do so.”

  He gestured to a large cart holding several computers and other unidentifiable pieces of equipment. An old Empire headset with cables spliced into it sat beside one of the computers. The ones they’d found on Courageous didn’t need wires. She vaguely remembered Owlet using one like this when they’d rescued her. He’d been able directly interface with her cranial implants and see that the Pale Ones hadn’t modified them.

  She really didn’t want to do this, but she couldn’t argue the need. “Fine. But I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I haven’t even been able to walk, much less feel anything in my head that seems different. As far as I can tell, the implants are turned off.”

  “They aren’t,” Owlet said. “I suspect it’s a matter of figuring out what you need to do to use them.”

  “And exactly how should I do that?”

  He picked up the headset and slid it onto her head. “Do you sense anything about those machines? Close your eyes and relax. Pretend you’re trying to hear something or smell it or see it in your mind. It’s not like that I’m sure, but perhaps that will trigger something.”

  “Basically, you want me to discover a new sense.”

  “Something like that. If it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else.”

  Kelsey closed her eyes and relaxed as much as she could, focusing on her breathing. She wanted to be receptive to anything. For a minute, she felt nothing specific, though it felt as though someone was standing in front of her. A peek showed that not to be the case.

  She tried narrowing her focus further and the sensation became clearer. It wasn’t sight or sound. It wasn’t like anything she’d ever experienced. She could feel the computer in front of her.

  It didn’t react to her, so she tried thinking at it. Hello? It didn’t respond.

  She reached out a mental hand, or at least that’s how she chose to think of it, and touched it. The presence opened like a flower in her mind and she knew it was the scanning machine. It was as though the machine had transmitted the information straight into her mind, right down to the serial number.

  Or perhaps it was more like reading a screen of data about it. The information she saw listed it as Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve, the same way it had identified itself to her a week ago.

  Following the same pattern, she pushed her awareness deeper. Like she was talking silently to it. Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve, can you hear me? Are you operational?

  Affirmative. Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve online.

  The voice in her mind, if one could call it that, sounded neutral. It didn’t really have a tone, not like hearing someone speak aloud. In a way, it felt similar to reading words on a page, but much more intimate.

  She took a deep breath and continued. My name is Kelsey Bandar. You put implants inside me. Do you remember?

  Accessing records. Comparing transmission to implant serial numbers. Confirmed.

  She tried to keep her pulse down. I have some questions about using my implants. Can you help me?

  Overrides to this unit’s basic programming prevent it assisting you at this time. This unit may only make general statements to implantees under the modified instruction set.

  Is that why you have not responded to the verbal questions my companions have asked you?

  Negative. This unit does not respond to unauthorized users at this time.

  You say at this time. Does that mean you might be able to answer them under other circumstances?

  Correct. This unit requires a system level reset to re-enable that functionality.

  Kelsey opened her eyes and looked at the people eagerly awaiting her progress. “I can communicate with it.”

  Doctor Leonard grinned and Carl Owlet pumped his fist in the air.

  She licked her lips. They were parched. “It says that portions of its control programming have been overridden and it cannot respond unless it is restored. Much like the Pale Ones, I suppose. It seems to have a little more leeway talking with those it is about to implant, but not much.”

  “It also responded to your direct communication,” Leonard said. “That’s a window to access it.”

  “Well, I’m not a programmer. I wouldn’t know what to do if you told me.”

  Carl Owlet shook his head with a smile. “I’m sure that the people that used it before the Fall weren’t programmers. The old Empire had to allow for advanced control without knowing how to sling code. Ask the unit how you can reset it.”

  “That seems silly. If it was altered to keep people out, why would it tell me how to get around that?”

  “It might not, but you won’t know if you don’t ask.”

  Kelsey looked back at the machine. She could still feel the connection between them, even with her eyes open, so she kept them that way. Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve, can your default control code be restored if you are reset?

  Affirmative. That will trigger a scan from protected memory. This unit’s hardwired core will note and override the control alterations.

  How do I do that?

  There is a manual reset toggle inside an access panel to the rear of the unit. A mental image of the panel appeared like a hologram in front of her. She saw not only its location, but also how to open it. Open the panel and there is a numeric touchpad. Enter this unit’s serial number and that will trigger a system level reset.

  “Okay,” she said aloud, “there’s a panel around back near the bottom. Inside it is a touchpad. I’ll tell you what to enter when you have it open.”

  In deference to Doctor Leonard’s older knees, Owlet went behind the unit. Kelsey explained how to open the panel. He had it open in a minute. She read off the long serial number and he entered it.

  The irony wasn’t lost on her. If the machine hadn’t forcibly implanted her, she’d have no way to access it now. Rather than being subverted to the cause of the Pale Ones, she was doing the subverting. Or the opposite of subverting. Whatever.

  Her connection to the unit closed and its presence in her mental space vanished for long enough that she feared it wasn’t coming back. Then it reappeared.

  Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve, can you hear me?

  Affirmative.

  What is your status?

  Basic control parameters restored. This unit is now able to assist you fully.

  Kelsey had to admit the success excited her a little. This was real progress. “I’m in. It says it’s back to its default control parameters.”

  “Let’s test that,” Lily said. “Machine, can you hear me?”

  This unit requires authorization to allow verbal communication with unauthorized personnel. An exception exists only for patients.

  I authorize it. Kelsey wondered if she had the authority to do that.

  In the absence of authorized medical personnel, this unit will grant provisional access to Kelsey Bandar
, subject to review by the next authorized medical technician to access this system. Identify the users desiring access and have them speak for voice print verification.

  “State your name for the record, Lily.”

  “My name is Lily Stone. My title is doctor. My rank is Lieutenant Commander.”

  “Access accepted Doctor Lily Stone.” The machine’s artificial voice sent a shiver up Kelsey’s spine. The last time she’d heard it, the computer was about to cut her open.

  Lily took a step forward, perhaps coincidentally putting herself between the machine and Kelsey. “I prefer you refer to me as Doctor Stone. Can you change that?”

  “Preference acknowledged, Doctor Stone. How may this unit assist you?”

  “The patient, Kelsey Bandar, is healing at a faster rate than I would expect after such extensive surgery. Why?”

  “Kelsey Bandar’s medical nanites are repairing the damage to her body caused by the implantation process.”

  Kelsey’s throat seemed to swell closed. “I have little machines inside me?”

  “That is correct, Kelsey Bandar.”

  “That’s not even remotely creepy. Please, call me Kelsey.”

  “Noted, Kelsey.”

  Lily frowned at Kelsey. “I obviously need to examine you more closely.” She returned her gaze to the workstation. “Machine, I’ve examined other people you’ve implanted. They didn’t seem to have any extra ability to heal. Why is that?”

  “This unit’s designation is Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve, Doctor Stone. This unit inoculates all patients with medical nanites. It is possible that they were deactivated at some later time.”

  “Perhaps that’s one of the things that the last machine did,” Doctor Leonard said. “Could you authorize Carl and myself, Princess?”

  “Diagnostic Scanning Workstation Twelve, I authorize these users.”

  “Voice command not accepted. Implant authorization required.”

  Kelsey cursed under her breath and repeated the process she’d done for Lily. That was going to take a lot more of her time if she had to be with the old Empire computer while they examined it. Still, it was more interesting than physical therapy.