Crucible: Records of the Argos

by Michael J. Farlow

  “We can destroy them all. Our weapons will make a quick end to the bunch.” He nodded once after he made his speech, confident that he had given us the best and easiest solution. But Amini thought otherwise.

  She spun around in her pilot’s chair to face the Arkon and give him her best dirty look. “We can’t do that! There are innocent people in those ships.”

  Amini was right. We couldn’t just let them all die as Sif suggested. Besides, this situation might yield some advantages for us. First, we could tag the pirate ship with one of Wizzy’s ID beacons and make it easier to keep track of her. Second… wait, a new idea just popped into my head. We could return to Tye, pick up enough of Larona’s people and come back, help them take over the two-ship station, remove all the cargo and the prisoners (good ones and bad ones) and return them to the Resistance base. This would allow us to make better friends of the Resistance and possibly build an opportunistic alliance. The goal of such an alliance would be to create new information channels to help us. It’s what intel weenies do. I liked this idea. The problem was, nobody liked it as much as I did.

  Sif groaned. “Too complicated. Keep it simple. Destroy everything.”

  “I already said no to that, Sif. Like Amini said, we can’t kill innocent people. Besides, if the Resistance found out, which they would, we’d lose the only potential allies and information source we could have.”

  “There’s another reason to rethink your idea,” Amini said. “By doing what you suggest, aren’t we choosing to join the Resistance and even set ourselves up to be planetary police? And isn’t that way out of our business?”

  I had to think about this only for a moment. I had already rehearsed my response if this question came up.

  “Good questions. The answer is yes, and no.”

  I got questioning looks all around.

  “This step, in my opinion, is not joining the Resistance. It is taking advantage of them to help us discover the details of this quadrant that match our orders and what the leaders back home will want. They always want more than they put in the orders, by the way. That’s the no part.

  “The yes part might be coming.” That got their attention. “I remind you, for now, we are unable to report to, leap to, or ask advice from home. With help from Wizzy, I personally verified there are no passenger ships scheduled to leave Tye in the direction of the Consortium that we could send a passenger on or even a message in the near future. Nor have there been any since before we got here. In fact, we don’t know if, or even when, we will regain our full capabilities. I think I heard one or two of you suggest a while ago that we could FTL home and report. Even if we went FTL right now, it would be weeks to go to and from home base plus whatever time we are kept there to explain what we knew, just to be told it isn’t enough and we didn’t carry out our orders. I see no point of leaving now via FTL.

  “Given that we are, therefore, stuck here and if it comes down to it, we have capabilities significantly in advance of any ships we have seen, which give us a serious advantage in multiple areas, including combat if required. My personal orders allow me to deal with the unexpected as appropriate. That, in my view, could mean assisting the Resistance.” The orders did say that, and I knew there was risk involved on my part. But there was more.

  “Finally, as members of the Consortium, we have high standards, especially moral standards. When it comes to societies and even planets being ruled by forced cruelty similar to slavery, we have a responsibility to act when we can. So, we stay and do what our orders say and allow.”

  That was a long speech by my standards, and it must have hit home. As I looked around, I could see people in contemplation, Sif included. Then one by one, they all looked up and nodded. We were of one mind.

  We tagged both ships, not knowing if they would leave together after the transfer. As it turned out, the pirate moved out alone. We contacted Larona and explained what we wanted to do. We waited while the Resistance made up their minds. Then we waited some more. Everyone but me decided to do other things aboard the ship. I stayed on the bridge.

  “Wizzy, do we still have a connection?”

  “Don’t be so impatient,” came the answering voice. “Yes, the link is still available, but nobody has answered yet. How about some music?”

  “No. I’m not in the mood.”

  “Cranky, aren’t we? Music is supposed to help, and I have a good selection. Let’s see, Pearl Jam is good. Red Hot Chili Peppers might — no, not them. How about Metallica? Now there’s a band with spirit.”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Oh, something with a little less edge? How about…”

  “No music! “

  “OK, OK. You don’t have to shout. I was only trying to help.”

  Now I felt guilty. Wizzy was trying to help. He just didn’t understand that sometimes people don’t want more noise than is already going on in their heads.

  “Thanks, Wizzy. I know you were trying to be helpful, and I appreciate it. How about calling the Resistance again?”

  “If you say so, but I don’t see how that will help… oh, they answered.”

  It took nearly twenty-four hours, but they had answered, and they agreed. I was given coordinates on Tye to pick up a small force of Resistance members, which included Larona. We did so, made them comfortable in the old crew quarters and the mess hall, and headed back to Ledo. That took another day to go to and from Tye and get people settled.

  The Ledo base hulks were as dark as they were when we left them. Even the new cargo ship was dark. Our sensors, however, made the environment look almost like daylight in our viewscreen. Doc was in the medical center, preparing it for use when we brought people aboard. That left Sif, Amini, and me on the bridge while the Resistance people stood by the shuttles in the cargo bay. Of course, Wizzy was always there in one form or another.

  “What do you see, Wizzy?” I asked.

  “Three ships. Two without power and one powered down. Just like before.”

  I had to learn to be more precise when talking to Wizzy, maybe especially with this version of the venerable AI.

  “Good, that’s what we see. I mean, what can you detect aboard each ship?”

  “Oh, you didn’t ask that. Let’s see. Mmm, yep. OK. Humm, oh, I see.”

  “Wizzy, tell us what you see!”

  “Chill, I’m getting to that. Using our infrared system, I detect two lifeforms on the new ship, both on the bridge. One hulk, the one on the left, shows no life forms and only minimal power. The other hulk, the one on the right, shows multiple life forms. Most of those are located on the deck below the main deck in the middle of the ship.”

  “That would be amidships, Wizzy.”

  “What ships?”

  I shook my head and waited a moment to stifle a squeak of laughter, or was it a hiss of irritation? Maybe a little of both.

  “Amidships is the naval term for ‘in the middle,’ Wizzy.” He should have known that as legacy knowledge from Harry. They were growing more different than I thought they were.

  “Oh, OK. Well then, a block of people amidships. Most are not moving, but two are walking back and forth and appear to be armed.”

  “That sounds like prisoners and guards,” Amini commented.

  I nodded my head in agreement. “What else, Wizzy?”

  “Here, see for yourself, since apparently, I don’t speak your dum-dum language.”

  The ship in question appeared in infrared on the viewscreen. We could see the red conglomeration and the two guards where Wizzy had described. There were a few more red images. Some were horizontal and obviously sleeping, a few more roaming the ship, and two on the bridge. All totaled, there were about fifteen as near as we could count. Not many, but they knew the ship, and we didn’t. That, however, was about to change.

  “Wizzy, how about sending a few fireflies into the vents of the hul
k?”

  “Easy peasy. Done.”

  In a few minutes, we began getting video from the interior of the hulk. As we suspected, a group of prisoners were uncomfortably gathered in a large, crude cell.

  “We have to map out the hulk better, so we know where we’re going.” I thought I said that to myself until Amini spoke up.

  “How long will that take?”

  I didn’t get a chance to answer.

  “Don’t ask him, missy. He hasn’t a clue. I, on the other hand, have the answer. Done!” The last word from Wizzy sounded like the triumphal ending of a song when the pitch goes briefly higher.

  “You’re showing off, Wizzy,” I said with a bit of a scowl.

  “It’s not showing off if you can back it up, and I can. Behold the viewscreen.”

  Wizzy was right, again. The viewscreen showed two images. One was like a video of the hulk’s interior complete with moving inhabitants. The second was a floor plan for each level of the hulk that we could manipulate in any direction and which we could view from our combat suit helmets. We weren’t going in there without some protection. I had to admit it was pretty cool, just not to Wizzy. It would give him a big head.

  We didn’t have time to train the Resistance people in the use of the full-scale combat suits that the Argos’ crew would wear. They were too complicated. However, we could provide the next best thing with the lightweight suits that had the communications capability we needed, and which could also project the same images on the helmet visors that the heavier versions displayed. Knowing Doc’s aversion to shooting things, we left him in control of the bridge while Amini, myself, and Sif formed the lead members of the Resistance teams. There were three main decks to control. I decided to lead the team on the upper deck, which included the bridge. Sif would take the next lower or second deck where the prisoners were kept, and Amini would lead the team on the lower or third deck where engineering was located. I had to get to the bridge as fast as possible to take control while Amini had to take control of engineering, assuming that it had propulsion capability. It probably had very little, but we had to see and control whatever it was. That left Sif’s team the unenviable task of rescuing the prisoners and subduing the armed guards.

  We all met in cargo bay 2 and went over the plan to take over the hulk with everyone. Larona noted her main concern was for the prisoners, so she elected to go with Sif. We answered all questions and tested each Resistance person’s basic knowledge of the lightweight suits. As it happened, these suits had many of the same characteristics as the space suits used in the local cargo ships. Satisfied that we all understood the plan, I turned to the holo image of Wizzy.

  “Wizzy. What can you do to prevent the other ship from departing or sending an alert to the pirates?”

  “Oh, that,” he waived a holo hand, signaling that task was nothing. “While you were conducting your boring briefing, I sent a communications bot to the ship and made contact with the ship’s computer core, if you can call it that. Anyway, I persuaded it to take a nap for a while. The ship can’t move or communicate until, of course, I allow it.”

  “Thank you, Wizzy. Great job!”

  “Ah, it was nothing. All part of my amazing capabilities.”

  Larona and her friends stared back and forth between Wizzy’s image and us with mouths agape but didn’t say a word.

  Chapter 10

  We departed Argos in two shuttles. Part of what we saw while observing the hulks was that they each had two docking ports on the top side of the hulk — both near the level of the first deck. Wizzy had repaired the universal coupler on Shuttle 1, so both crafts were ready to dock.

  The plan was for both shuttles to dock at the same time to minimize an alert response from the hulk crew. That was the plan, anyway. Amini docked quickly and cleanly over the forward airlock. I, on the other hand, bumped the hulk several times before the coupler could take hold on the after airlock.

  “Nice work, Nicky. Could you make more noise?” came the sarcastic voice of Wizzy.

  I ignored him while I insured the coupler was tight and the hulk’s airlock worked — which it did. My group waited while half of Sif’s force jumped through the airlock and down one level to meet up with Sif and the other half of his team that came with Amini. We had to split one team up because we didn’t have three shuttles or three docking ports.

  Once Sif’s teams were out, Amini and I followed into the hulk to go to our designated targets, engineering, and the bridge. Along the way, it was our job to eliminate or incapacitate any pirates on board. Doc had encouraged us to carry stun pistols along with our laser rifles to minimize killing. Sif didn’t like it, and I was indifferent. Amini was okay with the idea.

  We were lucky that both docking ports, located on the top of each hulk, were more to the stern of the hulk than forward. That allowed me and my team to take a brief look aft of the airlock before moving forward. There was nothing there, so we turned and moved cautiously forward. Later, people would blame me for waking up everyone with my noisy docking. The noise and vibration caused the pirates to roll out of their bunks to see what was happening and the watch standers to sound an alarm after we were aboard.

  Sif didn’t have much of a problem as it turned out, even with the late alarm. His group had been deposited in two different places on the first deck, which had two ladders (that’s stairs to you non-Navy people) leading down to the lower decks. That gave his team the ability to approach the cell and guards from two different directions. Resistance was over fast, with the two guards taken out before they had time to call for help.

  Amini had a similarly easy task. There was nobody in engineering, and Amini’s team left two Resistance members there to guard it. As she and her team walked forward on the third deck, they found stashed cargo, some workshops, and very few pirates. Those that they did find seemed to be ignoring the alarm and continuing their work, likely thinking that some other people would deal with the intruders, especially if this was one of the do-nothing drills they had now and then. Amini and her group shot them all — with their stun guns, of course — and then tied them up.

  My task, on the other hand, was not so easy. The top deck was more valuable to these people. After we made our way forward through a storage area, we stumbled onto the computer core. Only one pirate in that space, and he was taken down with a stun and secured. That was where all their data and inventory records were located. We left a Resistance member who claimed to be a computer expert to download all the data and sabotage the core. Then it was on to the bridge. That was the place, we assumed, where we would find the majority of communications equipment and valuables stored in the captain’s safe. We must have been right because the remaining crew met us as we exited the core. They weren’t happy.

  Somebody was smart enough to set up a makeshift barrier of odds and ends blocking our progress toward the bridge. Good for them, not so good for us. The best we could do was duck into the doorway to the crew’s quarters next to us and back to the computer core slightly behind us. We were pinned down, and only a few of us could train our weapons to fire forward on the pirates who had a clear view down the passageway from behind their crude but effective barrier. I don’t know what kind of weapons they were using, but they made our laser rifles look like BB guns. These unknown weapons were firing explosive-tipped rounds. I know that because as I was peaking my armored helmet cautiously around a door corner, one of the rounds hit a metal frame in front of me and tore it in half. Amini, Doc, and I had some hand-to-hand and weapons training before we left on this mission. One of the things emphasized by our instructors was the danger of weapons fire inside a thin-skinned ship. Based on what we were taught, I couldn’t believe they were using these rounds inside a spaceship. Needless to say, I jumped back behind the door with a highly elevated heart rate and thankful that whoever fired that round was a crappy shot. Based on what we were taught about weapons in ships, I had t
wo thoughts. One, the opposition was totally dedicated to beating us or, if that failed, taking everybody out in a violent depressurization when explosive rounds penetrated the ship’s hull. Or, two, they were just plain stupid. Those rounds also made me wary of moving forward in my battle armor, not wanting to test the unknown projectiles’ armor-piercing capability. I did the only thing left for me to do. I yelled for help.

  Fortunately, Wizzy’s carefully constructed layout of the ship came to our rescue. Looking at the ship’s diagram on the faceplate of his helmet, Sif knew where we were, and he could see via IR where our opponents were. He had moved far enough forward on the second deck that he found the ladder leading up to the first. Now you have to remember Sif’s solution to most problems, “kill them all.” None of the stun gun stuff for him, even if it did piss off Amini.

  I can only imagine the looks on the opposition faces or what was going through their minds when an almost seven-foot-tall Arkon Red in full battle armor came upon them from behind. On second thought, maybe nothing went through their minds except the laser blasts from Sif’s rifle. So intent were they on stopping us, they failed to react in time to deal with an enraged Arkon warrior. What scared the rest of us was the godawful bellow of triumph Sif let out. It might have been muffled inside his helmet, except that Sif turned on the suit’s external speakers and turned the volume way up. I almost peed my pants, and my ears rang for an hour. Even Amini was scared on the third deck! Maybe next time, we’ll just let Sif scare the living daylights out of our opponents and make our lives easier. But we weren’t quite done. The bridge still remained.