“It is unfortunate,” Mother Parveen replied. “But it is the reality. Politics is a critical part of this. We need political support. There is no other way around it.”
“That is why we leverage the Armada,” Margaret said. “It is the only independent force out there.”
“For the time being,” Parveen replied. “It does enjoy a degree of autonomy that we can exploit. But this is not likely to last. The Armada will eventually need broader support.”
“Let that be my job, then,” Dhohal said. “This is my field of expertise, after all.”
“We have four more days to come up with an attack strategy for the Armada,” Margaret said. “Let’s get to work.”
24
“Mumlo, we have a big problem,” Drexler said as the First Officer crossed the doorway to the Captain’s quarters.
“Be specific. We have many big problems,” Mumlo replied. He assumed a rare seated position. Drexler could remember him sitting only once or twice in the thirty years he’d known Mumlo. His stubby legs lay straight out before him, and his three-jointed arms formed a base to hold up his broad torso.
Drexler sat in his office chair, which brought his head to the same level. Mumlo’s huge black eyes looked tired. Drexler had the opportunity to observe that Forest Children also developed loose skin beneath the eyes when exhausted.
“We have a hundred-thirty-two ships out there with three to four-hundred Reptilian prisoners each. They are awake and active. Some are locked up in the cargo holds, but others are actively trying to take back control of the ships.”
“Darzi and her team could not get the job done in time,” Mumlo said. “Now what?”
“That’s what you and I need to figure out. It’s coming at me from all sides.”
“Why is it up to you and I? Why are you taking this all on yourself?”
Drexler admitted for the first time, “This is my Armada.”
“I see,” Mumlo said.
“Don’t hold back. Let me have it,” Drexler said.
“I am not holding back,” Drexler folded his arms across his chest and glared. Mumlo sat and thought for a long while. “I have known you since you were a small child. I see you working for something greater than yourself for the first time in your life,” Mumlo said.
Drexler dropped his arms and gaped. Mumlo continued. “I see you showing greater concern for others than yourself and your own immediate goals. Now it looks like all of it is getting away from you. You have to ask yourself why you want control over this Armada, and whether someone coming to take it away from you might not be the worst thing.”
Drexler reeled. He tried to formulate some sarcastic remark, but could not. Mumlo laid him bare with an assessment he found shockingly true. Drexler was accustomed to Mumlo calling him out on his sketchy plans and schemes, but he was not prepared to hear something positive. Somehow it seemed almost worse to have Mumlo on his side.
“I need your help,” Drexler said.
“You have it,” Mumlo replied. “Let’s address the urgent parts first. We have eight ships where the Lizards have run amok. So far, the AI units of those ships have the situation under control, but just barely. I’m told we only have a few hours before either the Lizards succeed in taking the ships, or the AI decides to kill them all.”
“We can’t let the AIs reach that conclusion. It kind of…makes them crazy.”
“I understand,” Mumlo said. “If that happens, the Armada will have very little trust for the AI ships. They are already wary as it is.”
“OK, so we regroup and focus on getting control of those problem ships,” Drexler said.
“Yes. After that, I propose we put the Lizards on one or two freighters and send them back to Medina 3 for holding. The Caliphates can bargain with the Reptilians for their return.”
“Problem with that is the Lizards might not care. They tend to execute soldiers who fail their missions.”
“Not by the thousand,” Mumlo replied. “Not even they can justify that.”
“Where do we start?” Drexler asked.
“You have to be the one to lead the effort to take back those ships. The solution must come from you. That means going in person.”
Drexler sat back in his chair, remembering the last time he boarded a hostile Reptilian ship. The memory was not warm and fond, but he did get the job done.
“Don’t worry,” Mumlo said, mimicking a toothy, human grin. “I will watch the ship for you.”
Drexler shook his head, got up and headed for the shuttle bay.
***
The trip to the Jubilee took a little over an hour. The plan was to meet Darzi and her team there, then head over to the breakaway ship. By the time he arrived, Darzi already had a plan to take back the hostile ship. Samuel sat in the back of the shuttle preparing two rail rifles with anesthetic rounds. The idea was to perform a lightning strike of the ship, knock out the Alphas and corral the rest. Drexler wanted to keep the loss of life as low as possible. Darzi agreed but offered the opinion that killing might be necessary.
Drexler stepped through the airlock to find Darzi already suited up for the mission. Her helmet hood was deployed, making her look like a living statue with no face.
“Do you remember how to deploy the EV suit for combat mode?” Darzi asked.
Drexler and Samuel responded by unrolling the hoods from the flight suit collars and bringing them up over their heads. With the front of the suit fastened and sealed, the hoods inflated, and the active cloth hardened to form a helmet.
The helmet was pitch dark for a few seconds while the suit activated its sensor functions. In a few seconds, a three-hundred-sixty-degree display of the outside world appeared on the inside of the helmet. The display showed any sort of data Drexler might think of, and more. At the moment, it displayed an identification overlay on each person in his line-of-sight.
“OK, I think I’m good,” Drexler said.
“Not quite,” Darzi said. “The suits are not networked.”
“Ah, how do we do that?” Drexler asked.
“You need to authorize it,” Darzi replied. “Then you will be designated, commander.”
“You don’t sound too happy about that,” Drexler replied with an audible smirk.
“I’m not,” Darzi replied. “But it’s in name only. The suits are tied to your Ship’s AI, so the higher command functions delegate to the ship’s captain.”
A message popped up on the helmet display requesting formation of a network. Drexler approved it, then hunted the voice menus for another option. When he found it, Darzi could not conceal her surprise.
“Do you understand you just gave me full access to all combat functions of all the suits on your ship? That includes hand weapons,” Darzi said.
“Of course,” Drexler said. “I’m the damn Captain. I know what I’m doing. I can take it all back if you want.”
Darzi did not reply but slung her rifle over her shoulder. “Let’s go, then.”
Drexler and the Doctor climbed back up the airlock ladder to Reggie’s shuttle behind Darzi and her four soldiers. Once onboard, Drexler sat in the pilot’s seat and took off.
“Tara and fifty of her children are already aboard the occupied ship. They took the bridge first, which is a very good thing. The Lizards are still trying to break into the tractor decks.”
“OK,” Drexler said, ”do they have an Alpha?”
“We can assume so,” Darzi replied. “Don’t they always? Somebody must be at the top of their social structure.”
“I want to try negotiation first,” Drexler said.
Forty-five minutes later, the shuttle latched on to the bridge emergency airlock and down the ladder Drexler went. He found Tara standing in the center of the bridge with Huey and Dewey by her side.
“Hello, Tara,” Drexler said. “Huey, Dewey. Always a pleasure.”
“Hello, Captain,” Dewey replied. Since he was now the largest of his brood, he tended to speak first.
“S
o what do we have here? Tell me the situation?”
Tara gave her report. “We have two-hundred-forty Reptilians trying to cut their way through the bulkhead to the tractor decks. We would vent atmosphere, but they have locked out the controls to the environmental systems and the airlocks.”
“I thought there were three-hundred Lizards aboard,” Drexler said.
“Sixty died in the contest for leadership,” Tara replied.
“That is bad news,” Drexler said. “That means there is a pretty strong Lizard behind their group.”
“Or a really smart one,” Darzi added.
Drexler considered that for a moment. “Do we know who the Alpha is?” he asked.
“Yes, we have identified him,” Tara said.
“So you would know him by sight?”
“Yes,” Tara replied.
“And do you know where he is?”
“No,” Tara replied. “He is aware of internal ship sensors, and remains out of sight.”
“So, he knows the ship blind spots, and he is using them. He is a smart one. More bad news. That means we have to make him come to us.”
Drexler thought for a moment, then crossed the bridge to the nearest console. The internals had been torn out and replaced crudely with Reptilian equipment. He could not decipher any of the symbols there. Nothing was in Tradespeak.
“We really should get started on something, Captain,” Darzi said. She shifted uneasily on her feet.
“Relax, Darzi,” Drexler said. “We have them right where we want them. Have you forgotten that we’ve done this before? It was my plan that ―”
The deck bounced under Drexler’s feet. Even with the armored EV suit fully deployed, impact with the bridge ceiling stunned him. Someone just rang my bell, Drexler thought, as gravity brought him back into contact with the deck again. He lay on his back with a ringing in his ears.
He was not sure whether or not to be grateful that the internal gravity field still held. Whatever exploded beneath the bridge, it did not take out the field emitters. It wasn’t incendiary, either, because there was no smoke or flame. He really wanted to figure out what it was, but tinnitus the blood in his eyes was a major distraction. He managed to stand.
“Somebody rang my bell!” Drexler shouted inside his helmet. He couldn’t hear himself. How did he end up with a scalp wound? There must be some part of the helmet that was sharp or hard enough to cause such a wound. He made a mental note to check into that obvious design flaw when something knocked him off his feet again and sent him sliding across the floor with a weight pressing down on his chest.
“…they are on the bridge!” a voice shouted over comms as Drexler’s hearing returned.
Two things occurred to him at once. Firstly, he realized that he made a terrible mistake due to overconfidence. Secondly, he was in very serious trouble. Whatever was pressing down on his chest also used a heavy object to beat him in the helmeted head. The beating did not help to restore his thought process.
Drexler managed to get his arm up in front of his head after one or two blows. The suit protected him from the worst of the impact, but his arm grew numb, as if he was holding too tightly to the handle of a sledgehammer. The impacts sent brutal vibrations along the bones of his arm and into his shoulder.
Drexler finally blinked rapidly enough to overcome the blood in his eyes. Confused images on the helmet display showed a very large reptile above him with a long, narrow snout wide open and panting with exertion. Drexler gave him credit for his persistence. He did not seem to tire of wailing away with what appeared to be a section of plasma conduit.
The Lizard roared, and put both hands on the conduit, raising it high above his head. Drexler wondered how much more the suit could take. It seemed pretty strong, and once protected him from a rail rifle round, but he had no idea how the suit worked, or why. It just did. Its combat functions were undocumented.
Drexler took the opportunity to raise his other arm. Instead of the conduit coming down, the entire reptile fell, pinning him to the deck. Drexler hurriedly extracted himself from the fallen Lizard and climbed to his feet, just in time to see Huey and Dewey barricading the bridge doors. Darzi stood over him with her rail rifle barrel crackling with static electricity.
“So, Captain,” Darzi said. “You were saying?”
Drexler stumbled over the prone body of the Lizard who treated him like a percussion instrument. Six Reptilians lay sprawled out on the deck, three of them looked dead, obviously stung. It was easy to tell by their agonized and contorted postures.
“Is everyone OK?” Drexler asked. All of his team was upright, and the Lizards were not.
“Yes, Captain,” Dewey answered. “We appear to be OK.”
“You aren’t,” Samuel said. “Your suit is telling me you have a concussion and a scalp wound, and some hairline fractures to your forearm.”
“It knows all that?” Drexler asked. “These things are amazing.” He reeled around the bridge, trying to court the affection of his estranged equilibrium. “I’m OK!” Drexler said. Let’s get to work!”
“You are out of the game, kid,” Samuel said, coming over to steady Drexler. “That blast knocked you silly.”
“What the hell was that, anyway?” Drexler asked.
“They reverse-pulsed the Boson emitters. They blew out four decks below the bridge. The ship is venting atmosphere,” Sergeant Jones said. He held a portable console in his hand, tapped into the ship’s core functions.
“Four decks?” Drexler asked. “That’s all of them. What do they hope to accomplish with that?”
“I have no idea,” Darzi answered.
“I’m afraid I do,” Reggie answered. “The blast made the AI emergency subsystem route all command functions to the loading bridge.”
“Why would they do that?” Darzi asked.
“Because the loading bridge now has full control of the ship,” Reggie replied.
“A reversal!” Drexler exclaimed. He pushed Samuel away. “I’m OK. I’m good, I’m good. Everyone, back on the shuttle. We’ll take it around and just blow up the bridge.”
“Can’t do that with the shuttle,” Reggie said. “They already put up the protective field. If we unclamp, I’ll have to move outside the field, and the shuttle doesn’t have the firepower to defeat it.”
“Tara,” Drexler said. “Where are your children?”
“They report some fighting on deck ten. They are all accounted for and barricaded in a large common area near the stern of the tractor section,” Tara said.
“I have some sensor data,” Reggie replied. “The ship AI is essentially cut off from its high-level language subroutines. It is communicating with me in machine code. Only its base functions are active, meaning life support, helm control, reactor control, etc. It’s basically a slave to the Reptilian hardware.”
Drexler concentrated on what that meant. His head began to clear up.
“So they just cut the AI interface to ship functions and spliced in their own computer,” Drexler said.
“That is essentially correct,” Reggie replied.
“Is that what they did with the other ships?”
“Yes,” Reggie said. “They did this on every one.”
“Why is that important now?” Sergeant Kaur demanded. It was the first words Drexler had heard from the Sergeant.
“Because it might help us figure out what is going on overall,” Drexler snapped. “Now shush, I’m working a problem here.”
“Well, you better hurry,” Darzi said. “Because here they come. I can see them on infrared. They are climbing the lift shaft. They have weapons.”
“Of course they do,” Sergeant Kaur said. “That’s probably the first thing they did.”
“First thing they did was send these guys,” Drexler said. “But why didn’t these Lizards have firearms. Something doesn’t make sense.”
“No time for this,” Darzi said, moving in front of the lift doors. She aimed her rifle and took a shooting stance
.
“Reggie, where is the lift?” Drexler asked.
“Gone. Disabled by the blast,” Reggie replied.
“Are the power rails still active?”
“No, they shut down automatically when the shaft breached.”
“Can you turn them on?”
“Let me ask the ship,” Reggie replied.
A few seconds later, the smell of burning flesh seeped into the bridge.
“That worked,” Darzi replied. “I saw a flare of heat; then the signatures fell back down the shaft.”
“OK, so we know they are trying to come to kill us,” Drexler said. “We have to get off this bridge.”
“Tara, what is the status of your children?”
“They are safe for now. The Lizards seem to be leaving them alone.
“That is our biggest force,” Drexler said. “Let’s link up with them.”
“And then what?” Darzi asked. “We will be further away from the shuttle and outnumbered more than one hundred to one.”
“A space walk. We’ll get to them from the outside. We can figure out the rest on the way.”
Drexler climbed back up the ladder to the shuttle. “We’ll use the shuttle airlock, that way they might not notice we’re going outside.”
They climbed the ladder, and Reggie already had the shuttle airlock open. The group simply walked through the shuttle and exited through the back.
“This way,” Drexler said.”
They walked between the low domes of the particle emitters. Drexler noticed odd structures here and there, obviously installed on the hull by the reptilians.
“What are these weird, jagged looking poles and those cylindrical things they stuck to the hull?” Drexler asked, opening an exclusive channel to Reggie.
“I can’t tell, and I don’t have a visual. The ship AI does not know what they are either.
“Must be something important,” Drexler said.
“The shuttle reads them as communications devices with some kind of computing component,” Reggie replied.
“Keep trying to figure it out,” Drexler said. “What is the name of this ship, anyway?”
Rogue Messiah: Fleetfoot Interstellar Series, Book 2 Page 26
