by Scott Baron
“Can’t you extrapolate the rest of the course from those data points?”
“I would, but Zed and the others said Mal’s flight plan was designed to vary as needed, since it was such a long way to go and they didn’t know what issues might pop up.”
“So for the next two and a half years, we have no idea where the ship is.”
“Sorry, Daisy. I tried, I really did, but––”
“It’s not your fault, Freya. It just looks like it’s going to be a really long cryo-sleep for me.”
“But that’s so long!”
“I know, and I hate leaving you on your own, but it’s almost three years.” Daisy tried to think of another option, but none presented itself.
“So this is it?”
’Fraid so, Sis.
“Kinda sucks leaving the kid on her own for so long.”
I wish I didn’t have to, but once we warp to the last recorded spot on the Váli’s logs, we’re simply going to have to wait. And that’s going to be a long freakin’ time.
“Daisy?” Freya said.
“Yeah, kiddo.”
“What if I can figure out the time warp problem?”
“It was off by over a hundred years, Freya.”
“But what if I get it right this time?”
“Why not give her a chance to work on it? I mean, now that she has that last one to extrapolate from, maybe she’ll be able to hit the mark.”
“But what if we overshoot by fifty years?”
“Then we fly backward until it’s right.”
“We can’t ping-pong back and forth like that, Sis.”
“I know, but come on. Give the kid a chance.”
Daisy was reluctant. They’d already missed by quite a lot once, but Sarah did have a point. Besides, how was the young AI supposed to learn and grow if she couldn’t flex her mental muscle and try out her new skills?
“Okay,” she finally said.
“Really?” Freya asked excitedly.
“Yeah, really. But dial us in for as far before we were woken out of cryo as possible.”
“I’m on it, Daisy!”
“All right, then. Let me know when you’ve triple-checked your calculations and feel ready.”
“I’ve actually been running the data since I first started talking with Zed and the others.”
“So you’re ready to go?”
“Aye aye, Cap’n!”
“Okay, then,” Daisy said, settling into her captain’s seat. “Fire it up, Freya. Let’s do the time warp again.”
Chapter Six
The Váli was flying the course Freya had projected it would be on, the great ship silently zooming through the dark void of deep space. With her collector panels fully deployed and feeding her auxiliary thrusters, she was moving at a very respectable clip.
The stealth ship trailing her, however, was outfitted with a massively powerful warp orb, and keeping pace, even at those speeds, was child’s play for the highly capable craft.
“You’re sure?” Daisy confirmed with her electronic kid. “Like, really sure.”
“Yep. Scans show everyone is still in cryo.”
“So, we’re a few months out? Thank God. I’m sorry I doubted you, kiddo. Good job.”
“Hang on,” Freya said, a hint of concern in her voice.
“What is it, Freya?” Sarah asked.
“Is there a problem?” Daisy added.
“I said hang on!”
“Don’t get snippy. It’s just a question. What’s going on, Freya?”
“I-I think we’ve arrived late.”
“Shit. How late?”
“I’m tapping into the Váli’s logs. Gimme a second. I have to make a connection with Mal’s external comms uplink to do it, and if I’m not really careful, she might notice.”
“Okay, take your time,” Daisy said, forcing herself to remain calm. “We still seem to be here before Mal woke the crew, so it’s all good.”
Nearly a full minute passed before Freya had the answer she had been carefully looking for.
“We’re late. About six months later than we intended,” she said. “I think I see the pattern now. The warp orb has different output, depending on how far the jump is. When we first warped back near Earth, it was a huge burst, but this time it was much smaller.”
“Shouldn’t that have made us come up short instead of long?”
“You’d think, but we’re folding spacetime here, and less is more sometimes, for some reason. I think I understand, now that I have these drastically different warps to use as bookends for extrapolation.”
Daisy looked at the ship traveling beneath them, completely unaware of their presence.
“That’s good news, Freya,” she said, “but what about now? When are we?”
“About a day before the crew wakes up.”
“Holy shit!” Daisy exclaimed as she leapt from her seat and started quickly donning her Faraday suit. “I have to go in. Now!”
“It’s gonna be close, Daze. If Mal’s got Barry powered up––”
“I know. Nothing to do for it but try,” she replied, racing for the airlock. “Freya, I want you to soft-seal over Starboard Pod Eight. That section was already glitchy, so you should be able to override the door commands without Mal noticing.”
“Okay,” Freya said as she flipped around and angled her airlock above the much larger ship’s entry point.
Daisy’s new Faraday suit had a few special modifications, courtesy of her genius kid, and even at close range it should render Daisy all but invisible to the Váli’s internal scanners. Better yet, with the new design, it was sleek enough to fit under a loose crew uniform if needed.
For this outing, however, no one would be awake to possibly see her, so Daisy opted to go as lightweight as possible. Just her tools and the densely packed data stick pre-loaded with the alterations to her neuro-stim. She just had to make it to the peripheral data core as quietly as possible.
“I’m shifting my deflectors to alter the phase-shift in the Váli’s debris shields, Daisy. We should be through in just a minute,” Freya informed her.
“Great. I’m ready to go when you are.”
The slightest of shifts in gravity was the only sign they had soft-docked with the Váli.
“All set. I’ve also tied in to the internal scans and reduced their efficiency by fifty percent. You shouldn’t need it with your Faraday suit shielding you, but this way there’s absolutely no way you’ll show up on the internal stuff.”
“Perfect,” Daisy said as she stepped into the airlock. “Wish me luck.”
Starboard Pod Eight’s outer and inner doors cycled open simultaneously rather than individually, unexpectedly dropping Daisy into the pod’s different angle of gravity.
“Freya, what are you doing?”
“Sorry. My override seems to have been a little too efficient. I’ll cycle them individually on your way out.”
“Okay,” Daisy said. “I’m stepping into the corridor. You’re sure everyone is still in cryo?”
“Yep. You guys are all still sleeping.”
Daisy hesitated, then took a detour down the familiar corridors.
“Daisy, where are you going?”
“Don’t do it, Daze.”
Aren’t you curious?
“Sure, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
We’ll just have to agree to disagree, then, she replied.
“Just a quick swing by the cryo pods, Freya. It’ll only take a minute.”
The cool air of the chamber made the hairs on Daisy’s arms stand on end, despite the warm embrace of her Faraday suit. Crossing the room, weaving between the pods containing her sleeping friends, Daisy finally reached her own and gazed upon her peacefully sleeping visage.
So weird, Daisy mused.
She looked over her shoulder. Across the pod, Sarah lay quietly slumbering in her own composite bed. A flash of grief surged through her, but she shook it off, quickly heading for the door.
>
“All right, enough of that, then. Heading to the data core.”
It felt odd, walking the dimly-lit corridors of the ship, the eerily silent space devoid of the usual chatter of crew and hum of equipment. The Váli was in deep-space standby mode, though that would change soon enough when her crew would be rudely awakened.
I’m going to need you to relay to Freya for me, Sis. Don’t want to risk using the comms this close to Mal’s brain, even if she is in low-power mode.
“I’ve got ya. Our link is still holding, but if you go much deeper into the ship, the neuro-band is going to go out of range. That little antenna you rigged outside your suit won’t cut it down below.”
I’ll just have to be quick and stay on this level, then.
Daisy double-checked the access panel to ensure it was temporarily removed from the ship’s sensors, then keyed the heavy double doors to Mal’s peripheral data core open.
I’m in.
“I can see that. You want me to relay to Freya?”
No need. Just talking to myself. And by ‘myself,’ I also mean you.
“Gee, thanks.”
All righty, now. Where’s that pesky neuro-stim data center?
Daisy quickly made her way to the powerful device that had been feeding knowledge into her head since before she was born, which, technically, was still the case, as she hadn’t actually woken up yet for the first time.
This is so weird, she mused as she plugged in the data stick and began the careful upload of the heavily encoded information that would be stealthily added to her neuro-feed.
“At least now we know why you spoke Chithiid so well from day one,” Sarah noted.
Yeah. And I’ve had Freya add all the Ra’az we have translated so far, so that also explains why some of it makes sense.
“Not all of it, though.”
Nope. Going to need to work on that. I think some of Maarl’s people might be able to help. The Ra’az translator just needs more information, and a bit more creative coding to get it to work between English, Ra’az, and Chithiid.
“I was thinking,” Sarah said, a slight hitch in her voice. “What about me, Daisy?”
What about you?
“Me, me. This me. Living in your head. You’re fiddling with your neuro-stim. Did you do this?”
Daisy pondered the question, but the answer seemed pretty clear.
No, I still don’t even know how that happened, exactly, so this shouldn’t change anything.
“You sure?”
Pretty sure.
“Gee, that’s encouraging.”
Stop razzing me. I’m trying to work, here.
Daisy monitored the slow upload of data to the system. She’d have liked to do a simple data dump into the very-capable computer system, but that would put her on Mal’s radar, and avoiding that was most definitely a priority.
Okay, it seems to be working just fine. Ask Freya how things are on her end.
Silence.
Talking to you, Sarah.
The increasing silence was growing more uncomfortable by the second.
Oh shit. What if she was right? Fuck, did I just––?
“Ah, relax. I’m just fuckin’ with ya.” Sarah laughed. “Still here, Sis.”
Sarah, you bitch!
“Aww, you know you love me.”
Doesn’t mean I don’t want to smack the shit-eating grin off your face.
“Sorry, no face, no smack!”
Oh, so that’s how it is? Hang on, let me see, how do I delete you from this thing?
“Hey! Not funny!”
Gotcha! Turnabout is fair play.
“Daisy?” Freya said, worry in her voice.
“No comms in here, Freya!”
“But Barry is active and coming your way.”
Shit! Tell her I’m coming and to be ready for an emergency disengagement.
“Passing it on. Now get moving!”
I will, but I can’t leave this here, she said, pulling the data stick from her neuro-stim input.
“But it’s not done.”
No time. I’ll have to come back and finish loading it later.
Daisy dashed across the pod and quickly cycled the double airlock doors, then took off at a run, trying to keep her footfalls as quiet as possible as the dim lights began to brighten.
Being off-scan inside a largely slumbering ship was one thing, but once Mal was awake with all of her systems online, anything over a slow walk would draw her attention, even in a Faraday suit.
What the hell happened?
“Mal must have noticed something.”
But I was careful.
“Well, so much for foreknowledge, I guess.”
Shit. I wasn’t awake for this, so I don’t know what happened.
“Then get your ass in gear. Mal’s probably going to have Barry do an EVA to survey the hull after he finishes inside. Freya needs to get clear until it’s safe to come back.”
I know, Daisy replied as she keyed in the bypass to her escape route’s double doors.
“Freya, I’m almost inside Starboard Pod Eight. Prep for immediate dust-off.”
“I’m ready, Daisy. But it looks like Barry is twenty seconds from your location. He’ll be rounding the corner any second.”
“Shit. Come on, door! Hurry up!” she hissed, willing the controls to work faster.
Daisy dove through the gap that opened as the inner door slid open far too slowly for her taste, then slapped the close button, sealing it behind her.
“Did he see me?”
“Negative. He’s still moving at the same speed. Should be passing the pod in eight seconds.”
“Okay, I’m going to stand by and not open the inner door until he’s passed. He shouldn’t hear it, but better safe than sorry,” she said, then stood silently waiting.
Ask if he’s gone, she asked Sarah twenty seconds later.
“Freya, is he gone? Don’t reply if he isn’t.”
A long second hung in the air before she replied.
“He just cleared the corridor. Come on, Daisy, let’s go!”
Daisy cycled the inner door open and bolted across the pod.
“Open both doors!”
“But you said to do one at a––”
“I know what I said, but just do it!”
Freya did as she was told, and Daisy dove headlong into Freya’s waiting soft-seal and waiting open airlock. A second later, Starboard Eight’s dual doors slid shut as Freya broke her soft seal.
“I’m in. Get us out of here!”
Freya uncoupled and pulled away from the Váli’s hull. The debris shield had phased several hundred times since they had first landed, and the young ship was forced to pause and match the cycle before powering her way through to the safety of empty space.
She had nearly gotten clear, when the shields cycled again. It was only a microsecond, but it was enough to disrupt the pattern ever so slightly.
As Freya drifted farther away, a small gap in the phasing of the debris shield remained unmended. An oversight that would result in the unexpected impact and subsequent waking of the crew just short time thereafter.
Chapter Seven
Sarah had been uncharacteristically silent since the mission aboard the Váli and its unplanned interruption. Daisy was no fool, and a wave of guilt washed over her when she realized what she had done, knowing full-well she had unintentionally caused her sister grief, and not the good-natured sibling kind.
This Sarah was dead, but she had just been forced to see her own living body mere feet away. Close enough to touch, even, if not for the fact that she was just a ghost in a shell and would never have a proper body again.
A diversion was what was called for, Daisy decided, and thus, she pulled up an impromptu double feature of cheesy comedy videos from Freya’s vast memory banks. The stealth ship was easily keeping pace with the Váli, waiting for another opportunity for Daisy to complete her task, when she noticed something was not right.
&n
bsp; “Daisy? I’m sorry to interrupt your movies, but I’ve noticed something wrong with the Váli’s shield’s phase timing.”
“That’s okay, Freya. I’ve seen this one before,” she said, pausing the movie. “What’s the dealio? You said something was wrong, but I missed what you said.”
“I said there’s something wrong with her shields.”
“Oh, shit,” Daisy said, her levity vanishing in an instant. “What section?”
“Well...”
“Freya, tell me.”
“You’re not going to like this,” Freya hesitantly replied. “It’s upper aft three.”
“Where we slid through the shields when they shifted phase,” Daisy muttered as the realization set in. “What can we do to get them cycling properly again?”
“We’ll need to get back inside the shields. From there we can re-sync the phasing. We’ll have to exit out the rear portion of the shields, though. If we get caught up in her wake, it could get a little bumpy.”
“We left her vulnerable. I think a little bumpy ride for us is more than acceptable to make things right.”
“Hang on, Daisy,” Sarah said. “Put on your neuro-band.”
Daisy slid the slender device onto her head and pushed her hairband into place to anchor it.
“Freya.”
“Hi, Sarah. I was wondering what you were doing.”
“Yeah, I just needed to think about things a bit.”
“I do that all the time.”
“I know you do, hon. Now, you said the shields were compromised, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You know where I’m going with this, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Freya reluctantly admitted.
“Um, what are you two going on about?” Daisy asked with a frustrated sigh. “We need to fix this.”
“No, Daisy. We don’t. In fact, we can’t.”
“That’s just––” The realization hit her like a clammy-palmed slap from a scorned lover. “Oh, fuck,” she managed to say.
“Uh-huh.”
“So that means that it was us all along.”
“Yeah. And judging by the timeline, I’d say we should be expecting some fireworks any moment now.”
“There’s a little debris field in her path,” Freya noted. “It would normally not be an issue, but now––” She hesitated, calculating the trajectory. “Impact in fifteen minutes.”
