It was clear he had something he dearly wished to say, so Captain Middleton sighed softly, knowing he was going to regret his coming words, “I take it you have an idea?”
The Pride’s newest Comm. operator nodded quickly, “I have a hypothesis, but nothing more.”
“Let’s hear it,” Middleton said, leaning back in his chair and preparing for a lengthy dissertation on whatever it was that currently bubbled and boiled inside of Fei Long’s overly-fertile mind.
Fei Long leaned forward conspiratorially, very nearly causing the captain to do likewise before he recognized the urge for what it was and resisted it. The young man lowered his voice and said, “I believe it is a biotechnological organism of some kind. If I was to indulge my imagination, I would venture to say it is likely related to Elder, or possibly Ancient, technology. But as you are well aware, no examples of such tech have ever been recorded.”
Middleton blinked. Then he blinked again, followed by a double blink. His eyebrows then rose higher than he could remember them doing and this time he did lean forward. “Maybe you need some rest, Mr. Fei…” he began politely, contemplating a forced medical review of the young man’s competence at such a suggestion.
But Mr. Fei shook his head adamantly. “Please follow my logic, sir,” he said as he stood from his chair and began gesticulating in an almost hyper fashion. Well, it was almost hyper for him, at any rate.
Fei Long was usually the most unflappable person in the room, though Middleton felt confident that was not the case whenever the two of them shared a confined space, but just then the young man looked like a figurative kid in a candy store.
“The device was found embedded among Imperial technology,” the young man continued, apparently oblivious to his captain’s wary looks, “and not only did it appear to be having an impact on its neighboring systems, but my scans indicated that it has been growing rather steadily for quite some time.”
Middleton cocked his head slightly as he considered the information. “Go on,” he said, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together. He suspected he was very much going to dislike whatever it was the young man had deduced—and he also suspected that those deductions would be predicated un unassailable logic.
“Given its obviously foreign nature compared to the housing in which it was located,” Fei Long continued as he paced back and forth across the deck, “and given the fact that all Imperial technology is composed of crystalline, rather than metallic—or, in this case, organic—materials, I am forced to conclude that the device we discovered is not, in fact, Imperial in nature.”
“I’m with you so far,” Middleton said as he felt his guts begin to twist.
Fei Long nodded as he continued moving his hands this way and that while saying, “If it is not Imperial in origin then we must conclude that it was designed by another group entirely, and we must also assume that it had been placed there recently. But all attempts to create sustainable, organically-based computing technologies which have been researched in recent centuries have failed for one reason or another—”
“Hold up,” Middleton interrupted, raising his hands in an obvious attempt to request clarification, “how do you know the device was placed there recently?”
Fei Long stared at him blankly for several seconds before a figurative light switched on behind his eyes and he waved a hand dismissively, “The readings I collected have dated the installation of the object with a margin of error no greater than two weeks.”
“Are you certain about that?” Middleton pressed, knowing full well what it meant if he was, in fact, certain.
Fei Long nodded with conviction, “It was placed there shortly after the Imperial withdrawal from the Spineward Sectors.”
Middleton sat back in his chair and considered the matter in silence while Fei Long looked on, surprisingly refraining from any verbal outbursts while the captain mulled over the information. After a few minutes, Captain Middleton said in a lowered voice, “Go on.”
Fei Long looked torn as to how he should proceed, and after a few moments of indecision he retook his chair opposite Middleton’s own. “Whatever that device was, it is technologically superior to cutting edge Imperial tech,” he explained, “otherwise it would not have been able to integrate itself seamlessly into the hub’s systems. Not only that, but no unshielded, natural,” he emphasized the word, “complex organic material of any known type could survive in the environment of a hub for so long. The fact that it has clearly remained undetected also speaks to its superior design and ability, and I have indeed confirmed that there are several subroutines at work aboard this hub which, while subtle and difficult to detect, have fundamentally altered minor portions of the data transfer process which is the backbone of the ComStat network.”
Middleton found himself nodding in agreement. “Which leads you to believe it is either Elder, or Ancient, technology,” he concluded.
Fei Long returned the nod with feeling. “Yes, Captain, but given the ship’s admittedly limited databases I am inclined to believe it is the latter and not the former. And I believe that whoever placed it aboard the hub has gained access to the ComStat network in a fashion similar to my own, physically non-invasive and possibly superior, method.”
The captain couldn’t suppress a snort of amusement at the young man’s abject arrogance. But he wasn’t about to call him to task for it since the young man had accomplished every other thing he had set his mind toward.
“Will this interfere with our mission?” Middleton asked, hoping for a succinct answer rather than another lengthy dissertation or display of deductive reasoning.
Fei Long hesitated, but surprisingly his answer was as short and direct as the captain could hope for. “I do not believe so,” he replied with unusual confidence. “The subroutines which appear to have been hijacked by this device do not interact in any way with my program.”
“’Hijacked’?” Middleton repeated with amusement. “You’re picking up Confederation parlance pretty quickly.”
Fei Long bowed his head in deference, “As the ship’s Communications Officer I feel it important to familiarize myself with the verbiage and—“
“Take the compliment and move on, Mr. Fei,” Middleton chided as he picked up the data slate containing the young man’s secretive report. Fei Long did as he had suggested, and the captain asked in a pointed voice, “How many others know about this?”
Fei Long shook his head quickly. “Lu Bu and I are the only members of the team to see the device, although it is possible Claus saw it from a distance. All aspects of the operation have been compartmentalized per your directives.”
Middleton nodded in satisfaction. “Keep it that way, Mr. Fei,” he said as he deleted the information stored on the slate. He then ran the slate’s onboard formatting tool and handed it back to the young man, “Go over that data but keep it off the ship’s DI, is that clear?”
“Yes sir,” Mr. Fei replied as he accepted the slate.
“Now,” Middleton said, changing subjects while his thoughts were still orbiting the almost unfathomable notion that someone—someone who was likely in league with the Raubachs—had managed to not only find, but use Ancient technology, “how goes your examination of the star charts?”
Fei Long nodded shortly, “I have decompiled the entire database but am encountering unexpected issues in format conversion. I believe I will be finished in two weeks’ time.”
“Good,” Captain Middleton acknowledged while he continued his silent musings. “That will be all; dismissed.”
Fei Long stood and bowed before leaving the room.
Minutes passed as Middleton considered the matter. Gaining access to the ComStat network was, and remained, the Pride’s primary mission but that mission had just gotten a whole lot more complicated. It seemed that the MSP wasn’t the only group which had such a goal in mind—and the other team seemed to have a head start.
But even more important than the presence of a rival force attempting to accomp
lish the same objective as his mission outlined was that group’s successful application of the strange biotechnology. That biotech almost certainly came from a long-dead civilization about which humanity knew next to nothing, but traces of which could be found all across the galaxy.
It was a mystery, but to Middleton a mystery was nothing but an unquantified variable…and he hated variables.
Chapter XXI: Reconciliation is Hard
“Come in, Doctor,” Captain Middleton said when the chime rang at his door. Their dinner had been delivered to the conference room several minutes earlier and Middleton had used the time to go over various department reports.
All in all the crew was performing well, but the brewing morale issues between the former convicts from Shèhuì Héxié, the Tracto-ans like Atticus, and the other group of Tracto-ans comprised primarily of formerly handicapped or crippled warriors deemed unfit for military service on their home world.
Tracto-an society was an enigma to Middleton. On the one hand it was largely a meritocracy, with the men earning privileges based on their accomplishments and the women largely abiding by the same code as it pertained to their administration of property.
On the other hand, there was a severe fascist streak running through nearly all of the Tracto-ans when it came to identifying the ‘successful’ from the ‘unsuccessful.’ It seemed that in many cases—like with Atticus—it was not enough to simply rise above the rest of the pack. For him, and those like him, it seemed almost automatic that those who had been deemed failures in society should be castigated for their failure at every opportunity.
The door slid open and Jo stepped through. Middleton saw the familiar face of the man who had been assigned to escort the ship’s doctor throughout the ship, and he gave the man a barely-perceptible nod before the door slid shut.
“Doctor,” the captain greeted, briefly standing and gesturing to the seat opposite his own, “please have a seat.”
Jo did as he requested and kept her eyes on him, never once looking down at the plate of food before her. Middleton saw something in her visage that twisted bits and pieces inside of him he had forgotten about, and he silently reminded himself that the purpose of this particular meeting was to go over the morale situation aboard the ship while checking on the medical status of the ship’s crew.
Wishing to forgo any awkward silences, Middleton picked up a slate and said, “I’d like to go over Mr. Fei’s latest physical—“
“When are we going to talk about it, Tim?” she interrupted. “I’ve tried to give you some time on this but we can’t just keep ignoring it.”
He had hoped to avoid this particular subject during the meal but realistically he knew that they would need to broach the topic sooner or later. “Doctor—“
“No, Tim,” she cut in harshly, “not in this! It wasn’t your ship’s doctor that lied to you, it was me—and I have a name. Stop hiding behind your protocols and regulations and be a human being for once in your life!”
Middleton felt a chill spread throughout his body. “Is that what you think?” he asked after a lengthy silence while they locked eyes with each other. “You sorely misunderstand me if you believe that I’m hiding behind anything, Jo,” he said coldly.
“Then why won’t you talk about it?” she demanded hotly. “I took advantage of you, of our legal system, and of your generosity and now there’s no way it can be made right. Or are you trying to convince me that it doesn’t affect you?” she spat in what was a clear challenge if Middleton had ever heard one.
He set the data slate down slowly before leaning across the table. “What would you have me do, Jo?” he asked, his voice measured and calm. “Would you prefer that I run through the corridors of my ship rending my garments and gnashing my teeth?” he asked all-too-patiently and he saw her eyes flare with an almost forgotten, yet vividly familiar anger. He shook his head adamantly from side to side, “I’m not here to satisfy your personal ideations of what constitutes a proper grieving process. And frankly,” he added, his voice rising slightly, “you’re the last person with whom I’d choose to discuss the matter. I suggest we move on.”
“I took your daughter away from you, Tim,” she said, the defiance in her voice mixed with an unexpected, pleading, tone, “but not only that, I took away any chance you had to know her; nobody can just ‘move on’ from that. The least you could do is to show some blasted emotion!”
Middleton felt a surge of anger at her words but was determined not to give her the satisfaction of seeing it. He leaned back in his chair and slowly drummed his fingers on the tabletop. “You’re right, Jo,” he agreed after a pregnant pause, “you did take any chance I may have had. And since that is indisputably the case, I see little point in poking around the topic—especially with the very person who took advantage of my trust. Now if you need to discuss it to get a firmer grip on the issue for yourself, that’s a different matter entirely,” he said with more contempt than he had hoped to hear in his own voice.
Jo shook her head in apparent disbelief. “You really are that cold?” she asked distantly as she sank back into her chair. “You’ve changed, Tim…at first I thought it was just the passage of time, but you’re different.”
Middleton shrugged lightly, a gesture at odds with his feelings at that moment. “I asked you here to discuss the crew’s medical status, with specific emphasis on Mr. Fei Long,” he said, hoping to cut off the entire line of discussion then and there. “But if you’re unwilling or unable to do that then I suggest we eat our meal, wait an appropriate interval for the benefit of anyone who may be keeping tabs on us, and you can return to your quarters.”
They sat in silence for several moments until Jo said, “I am this ship’s primary medical officer. I would be remiss in my duties if I did not tend to the duties of that post.”
Nodding in approval, Captain Middleton picked up the data slate he had held at the beginning of the conversation. “You deactivated Mr. Fei’s kill pill during our previous deployment out here,” he said in a tone that barely hinted at a query. “I assume you respected my request that he not be apprised of that fact?”
“Yes,” she said coldly, “against my better judgment, I was complicit in your subjugation of his most fundamental human—“
“I’d like you to tell him that it is no longer a threat,” Middleton interrupted, and Jo’s mouth froze mid-phrase. After a brief, but pointed, silence the captain continued, “I was concerned about his psychological stability, and frankly too much depended on him at that point for me to risk the outcome of the mission. As the ship’s Chief Medical Officer, I would like you to perform a final assessment of the device and, if it has been successfully deactivated, I leave the matter of disclosing the truth of the matter to him.” His lip curled as he added, “You can paint me in whatever light you think best as you do so; I’m satisfied that Mr. Fei is capable of processing the situation and arriving at the same conclusion I did.”
Jo’s mouth closed and she cocked her head slightly before asking, “You think I won’t do it…is that it? You honestly think I’m more concerned with covering my own backside than I am in doing what’s best for my patients?” she challenged icily.
Middleton shook his head evenly, knowing that nothing could be further from the truth. “I trust you to, as you say, do what’s best for your patient,” he said with a shrug. “And you can even demonize me if you need to, telling yourself that I violated his – and your – rights in this matter. But everything I’ve done,” he jammed his finger into the tabletop hard enough to separate the fingernail from its bed, “since sitting down in that chair has been to defend the very rights you might accuse me of violating. The Spine is at war, and—“
“Spare me the rhetoric, Tim,” she cut in angrily, and Middleton saw tears gathering in her eyes as she continued, “I didn’t want to listen to it when we were still married and I certainly don’t want to listen to it now. Is that all?” she asked, standing abruptly to her feet as the first tear slipped
down her cheek. But her features were stoic, just like he remembered from so many years ago, and for a brief moment he empathized with her.
Maybe I’m being unfair, he thought to himself before hardening his resolve. “If you’re in no mood for dinner,” he gestured to the platter of food as he stood from his own chair, “then yes. That will be all.”
She turned on her heel and made for the door as quickly as her feet could carry her, and Tyrone Middleton was left alone with the distinct impression that he would need to apologize for something that just happened…but he would be blasted to the Demon’s Pit if he could figure out what that was.
“Lie back; this will just take a minute,” Doctor Middleton said a bit more shortly than was usual for her. Fei Long briefly searched her features before lying back in the scanning device. This would make the sixth time he had been subjected to such an extensive cranial scan, and he could only assume it was due to the presence of the ‘kill pill’ which had been implanted deep in his brain shortly after his arrest on the world of his birth.
“May I ask whether I should be concerned for my well-being?” he asked in a playful tone that belied the very real concern he felt as he tried to relax on the sliding cot portion of the device.
Doctor Middleton adjusted the controls of the machine and shook her head. “I have no reason to expect so, but yours is a unique…condition…” She paused awkwardly before adding, “I just want to make sure nothing has changed.”
“I see,” Fei Long replied, knowing a white lie when he heard it but deciding against challenging her statement. There was clearly something on Doctor Middleton’s mind which weighed heavily on her conscience, and Fei Long knew that she had precious few people with whom she could speak regarding personal matters.
The cot slid backward along its track until Fei Long’s shoulders were fully enclosed in the cylindrical scanning device. Not long after it had stopped, the familiar sounds and tactile sensations which he had come to expect from it began, and for a brief moment his entire body was awash in a chilling sensation. The sensation passed, as it always did, and when it had done so he thought about the best way to broach the subject of the Doctor’s obvious distress.
Up The Middle (Spineward Sectors: Middleton's Pride Book 2) Page 21
