Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  Captain Clayton reluctantly signed off on allowing Commander Koba to take the ship as her prize captain. She led a crew of twelve crew members, four of them designated for the bridge, the rest to man engineering. They would be shorthanded but would hopefully not have too much of a hardship on their return journey. They were grateful that Mister V'm'l'x, one of the sleepers they had found, was willing to go with them as their navigator. The Veraxin seemed eager to get back into the saddle.

  To make it easier on them, Horatio had Second Chance's computer network expanded and a dumb A.I. uploaded into the network. The A.I. named himself Deuce. The ship's prize crew had mixed feelings about sharing the ship with an A.I., but their skipper was more or less resigned to it.

  Second Chance took a few days to work up and get the bugs out. Once she did, Lieutenant V'r'x worked with a crew of stevedores and robots to load her up.

  On Monday the ship was given a brief ceremony recommissioning her and then was sent on her way to Bek. She carried a precious cargo of hyperdrives, reactors, grav nodes and emitters, sensors and other salvaged gear.

  All of it would need to be rebuilt Horatio judged, if they actually used it. Given that Admiral Childress was still in charge, he had his doubts. It would go slow, in the low alpha bands so it would take Second Chance time, most likely three months or more, to get there.

  “Slow and steady may not win the race, but it will definitely get you there in one piece. I loaded a copy of Mercury in your net as well. If you run into problems, you've got a couple thousand tons of cargo to pick through for spares,” Horatio said as he shook the commander's hand.

  “Thank you, sir. We'll get her home,” the commander said.

  “Home, serviced, and then back here hopefully,” Captain Clayton told her.

  The former XO nodded. “Aye, sir. Already miss me?” she asked with a wry smile.

  “Something like that,” the captain growled.

  “Safe sailing, Captain,” the commodore said with a nod. She took a step back, straightened, and then saluted him. He came to attention and returned the salute, then struck it.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  When the weekend hit, the time off was much appreciated. Horatio had timed Second Chance's departure well; she had jumped out in the evening on Friday.

  He took the time to visit the rec decks to get the pulse of the crew. Eventually he ended up spending the remaining of his evening in the officer's bar that had been set-up on Quantum. The officer's bar was one of the high-end bars for first class passengers. It was quite nice with brass fixtures and polished wood and leather. He wasn't certain it would remain an officer's bar, but for the moment he didn't mind.

  He listened to some of the crew as they swap stories and laughed. Along the way, he got another whiff of the true reason behind the Bekian's fear and hatred of A.I. and nanites.

  He overheard a little bit of chatter against A.I. and a reference to Tesla station. He frowned thoughtfully, but before he could ask about the R&D station, the communication's officer moved off to visit the little bug's room.

  He frowned and cataloged what he'd overheard. Something was hinky with the story. Everyone seemed to know something, but it was all scuttlebutt. No two stories seemed completely in line, which was on par for scuttlebutt. But there was no mention in the historical record.

  From what the bug had said, it had been a research station dedicated to A.I. research. According to the bug it had been run by an old dumb A.I. that had gone rampant and had been forced to be terminated.

  That didn't make sense since dumb A.I. didn't go rampant. Not unless they had been hacked in some way.

  “Tesla was bad enough. You'd think they would have learned but no,” Leo said. Horatio noted the young man was a couple sheets to the wind. Gemma had taken herself off to the dance floor. She'd dragged him to the dance floor twice, but on the third attempt, the young man had pretended to be too inebriated to dance. She'd left him behind.

  That had to be some sort of feat to be that drunk since the drinks were watered down and there was a hard two-drink limit per customer. Either Leo couldn't handle his liquor or he was a good actor Horatio thought.

  “Uh huh,” Fly by Night slurred, fluttering his wings. He teetered a bit then settled himself onto his stool. Unlike the other organics, his species could get drunk on sugar. They usually got very active at first, and then started to slow down as the excess sucrose hit their blood stream. Too much would send them into a coma he knew.

  “You'd think they would have learned something but …,” the young human shrugged.

  “I guess not. But what did they do wrong compared to what the Federation has done?” Fly by Night enunciated carefully. “I mean, they've got them. We've got one here! Two,” he buzzed. Leo propped him up onto the stool. “Um …”

  “It's scary. It could happen here,” Leo said with a nod.

  Horatio didn't comment. He just knocked his drink back. Before he could say anything, Leo piped up with the story of Marconi Station. That instantly sparked his interest. He turned from his bar stool and leaned against the bar with his elbows to watch the two. When Leo didn't say anything further, he prompted him.

  “Marconi?” the commodore asked carefully. “Marconi Space Station? Named after the Terran inventor of the radio?”

  Leo blinked in surprise. “Um … yes, sir. I should have known you'd heard of him.”

  “It is a different sort of history you are talking about though. I know Tesla was also rumored to have built the first radio. The man was a genius,” Horatio stated.

  “Um …”

  “So Marconi Station. What happened there?” Horatio prompted.

  “Well …,” Leo frowned. “Okay, from what I heard, this is just classified as rumor mind you; no one talks about it.” Horatio frowned at the provision. “No one knows what exactly happened; the entire matter was hushed up. But from what they said, the station had been working on nanotech,” he went on to explain. “Apparently, they'd run into something. Something went wrong; I honestly don't know the full story.”

  “Okay, so what do you know?”

  “Not much beyond that. The station went offline. Something similar happened to Tesla Station.”

  “Hmm,” Horatio grunted. The names teased at his mind, but whatever was there stayed buried. It was maddening. He'd run a scan but he didn't have access to ONI's databases. Maybe the historical … no, he didn't remember anything in Bek's historical record.

  “According to what I was told, the navy got involved. They sent a fleet.”

  Horatio nodded slowly. “And? A sun scuttle I presume?” he asked. “I'm wondering how they did it if they did,” he said.

  Leo shook his head. “Well, according to what I heard, the station was quarantined and then nuked from a distance. No one got off alive. The communications were jammed too, just in case,” Leo said quietly just as the XO came in.

  Horatio frowned thoughtfully. The story, both stories sounded vaguely familiar. He made a note to do a full database search when they got back to Bek—a search in a civilian network. Hell, a public library would do. He kicked himself for not taking the time to visit a public library and downloading the full history of Bek. He'd been remarkably shortsighted in not thinking of it before.

  “What's going on here?” the XO asked as he went over to the coffee urn.

  “Um …,” Leo looked guilty.

  Horatio noted it and decided to let the commander off the hook. “Just coming on shift, Commander? You missed a good dinner,” he said.

  “I know. Bixbee loves to make a full course meal. Unfortunately, I'm taking graveyard tonight. I don't like to start my shift with a heavy meal. It makes me want to take curl up and take a nap.”

  Horatio smiled in sympathy. “Some people are like that. They have to start with a light meal or start their day with a traditional breakfast,” he said, nodding to the coffee.

  The XO looked at the steaming coffee mug and then snorted. “True,” she admitted as she t
urned and leaned against the counter. “So …”

  “So, I, um, need to be going,” Leo said. Horatio snorted mentally as the engineer scampered out fast under the XO's gaze. She turned to him with a “what was that about” expression. He shrugged it off.

  “So, are you still considering taking the prize captain job, Commander?” he asked, changing the subject.

  The XO nodded as she sipped her drink. When she slowly dropped her hand, she shrugged slightly. “I think it will look good on my record, though I admit I'm a tad nervous about manning a ghost ship.”

  “Well, we're going to give her a good shaking out before we turn her over to you. And I loaded an A.I. into her computers to help you and the crew look after her.”

  The commander grimaced. Horatio frowned. “Every little bit helps, Commander,” he scolded mildly.

  “Oh, I know, sir. Many hands make light work. I'm just not thrilled about having electronic ones involved.”

  “I see,” Horatio said.

  “But, I'll take what I can get,” she said. “I'm in.” She grimaced. “Provided the skipper signs off on it. That part I'm not sure about.”

  “I'll see what I can do to grease the wheels there, Commander,” Horatio said.

  The XO smiled slightly. “Thank you, sir. I like the idea of having my own command, even if it is a transport. It'll look good on my record that I held a starship command. A prize ship …,” she shook her head. “That's a story people will kill to hear.”

  “Good,” Horatio replied with a slight smile.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  When the news came in of the battle of B-95a3, Horatio scanned it and then passed it on to the officers. They concurred to release the news to the crew openly.

  That kicked off celebrations that the pirate fleet had been decimated and driven back. That news was followed with the news that Admiral White was standing on the defense to effect repairs while sending his remaining prowlers and scouts ahead to scout the enemy star system. He wasn't going to get caught out again.

  “One of the main elements of any battle plan, proper intelligence,” the commodore said with a nod as he looked over to Captain Clayton. The two men had never quite hit it off; there was an element of reserve in their relationship, no easy camaraderie. But that was fine as long as they remained professional Horatio thought. He could work with the prickly officer. Once they had enough of the station online and at least one or more of the ships they had sent back with fresh supplies, he planned on releasing the captain and Ilmarinen to return to Bek anyway.

  “Yes, sir, but how accurate will it be? It will be out of date by the time he gets it. And by the time he acts, it will be very out of date. They have to be rushing their own reinforcements to Dead Drop by now,” Captain Clayton pointed out.

  “True,” Horatio replied thoughtfully. “But, at least they will allow him to see what they have as far as defenses in the star system. And he can always send scouts in just before his fleet arrives as he attempted to do before,” he said.

  The captain nodded.

  “Are you nervous about your daughter's mission, sir?” the captain asked, eyeing the commodore curiously.

  Horatio grimaced. “She can get into just as much trouble here as there I suppose. She tends to have a nose for it. I won't be around to help her out, nor will the fleet. I think she's up for the challenge. Tau was pretty devastated by the Xenos since it had the Tauren core worlds in it. From all accounts ONI has managed to assemble, it is pretty chewed up and what systems that have survived are spread out. She'll have her work cut out for her.”

  “Why go at all, sir? Why not wait and focus on Sigma and Pi sector, sir?” Captain Clayton asked.

  “I think it has to do with not wanting any pirates in our rear,” Horatio mused slowly. That earned a nod of respect and understanding from the captain. “I think it is also the need to do something about the sector. To start to set things straight and put the pirates there in check.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I haven't seen her final orders, but from what I understand of them when they were being drafted she won't go looking for trouble. Not with Prometheus, though she might kick some of her escorts loose to go hunting if she thinks it is worth the risk. I don't know,” Horatio said with a wuffling sigh. “Again, I hate not knowing,” he grumbled.

  The captain eyed him and then nodded slowly.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  The following day the crews returned to their ongoing project. Horatio shook his head as he thought about the idea. His goal had seemed straight forward on paper. It was working, but they were having so many issues! He grimaced. It was a constant battle to balance the workload and projects. He had been forced to scale back some of the efforts twice. The tugs were now confined to working around the station; most had been docked for the time being.

  The station itself was still growing. The work crews were focused on getting Quantum, Demeter, and the freighter fully restored, but therein was one of his fresh headaches.

  He'd wanted to tie all three ships into one coherent network overseen by Commander Decoure and Dutch. That had been wishful thinking on his part.

  Teething problems from interfacing so many different forms of hardware in one place continued to persist. Software issues also plagued the station and tended to add to part of the problem. For the moment the station had nine independent networks, four on the Quantum, one each on the other two ships, one for the military hardware, and two minor networks for some of the other civilian hardware they had added.

  If Bailey's estimates managed to hold this time, they might, might be able to knock that number down to eight. Bailey had tried to interface some of the hardware in the subnetworks and had managed to get it running with Dutch, but he'd finally given up and started to replace entire servers and electronics with military grade components Horatio had replicated. It was a slow tedious process however. At least he'd tied in the fusion reactor and eliminated that headache.

  If Dutch was just a bit smarter, he would be a lot more helpful in the process Horatio mused. And, if the damn crew were willing to work with him more … he sighed. If wishes were fishes, he thought.

  He flipped his fingers through the reports. Apparently, part of the problem was that there were crappy legacy code and even a few viruses in the civilian networks. He also didn't have a proper software team to go through it all, just electronic techs that were more focused on the hardware side than the software. They could write scripts to tie things together, but that was it.

  He needed them to work on the hardware side. He'd overestimated Dutch's abilities he thought with a shake of his head.

  If Bailey's plan worked out, they might give it a try with the other subnetwork, the one running the life support and systems in the lower docking ring, he thought. The wiring itself was okay; it was just the hardware that was a problem. Fine, he thought, making a note to replicate some replacement life support electronic control modules in the near future.

  Which sparked another problem, he realized. Using the replicators used up power. He scrubbed at his brow and then pinched the bridge of his nose. They had stabled some of the tugs to conserve fuel since most of the ships had been brought near the station, so their pilots were bored. They had been put to work on maintenance issues and in getting some of the station's salvaged shuttles online, but they clearly didn't like the assignment. A third problem there, he thought.

  He couldn't replicate replacements for the entire station's electronic network and the shuttle without having an impact on the bottom line. But if he did both, would they have enough to work with what they got out of the systems? They'd have to, he vowed. One way or another they'd damn well have to make it work.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  The Xeno virus recognized the network it was in was restored up to 81 percent but then the restoration had stopped. There was also no effort to tie it into the other networks, so it needed to communicate with the bots it sent out through other means.

  Unfort
unately, with the air firewalls in place it was difficult. It had to rely on piggy backing micropackets into the implants of those who accessed the VR network to send and receive reports. It used that method to slowly create a copy of itself in the other networks the users accessed, but it was a slow tedious process.

  Mapping the systems were also a problem; they kept changing as hardware was brought online or replaced. It had to be careful with the bots it sent out; it had no active control.

  But it would continue with its designated mission. When it was ready, it would strike.

  Chapter 48

  Nearly three weeks to the day after Second Chance's departure, Harmony of Space cleared her final tests and even performed well during a quick and dirty working-up exercise to check her systems. She wasn't at anywhere anyone would consider 100 percent, but she was a functioning ship once more.

  She owed a lot of her restored status to the combined efforts of Bailey, Galiet, and Leo. Bailey had been invaluable with prioritizing the engineering repairs with Leo. Galiet had figured out the problems with her hyperdrive and had worked with Leo to settle her node interference issues.

  She had a small prize crew on board with Lieutenant JG V'r'n'll, Ilmarinen's Veraxin communication's officer as her prize captain, along with another dumb A.I. to help manage her systems. She also had Lunzie and the remaining sleepers on board as passengers and crew.

  They got underway for their journey to Bek after a brief ceremony. Since the passenger liner was faster than Second Chance in sublight and hyperspace, there were running bets on whether she could beat the freighter there.

  As the passenger liner crossed the star system, Horatio turned his attentions to the third and what he considered the final ship they were going to be able to restore. Finding and salvaging the fuel and water that they had was what had allowed them to put Harmony into flight. It would also allow them to send the T'clock-built medium freighter to Nuevo. She would have just enough fuel to get there; to get home, she would need to trade for it.