by Robert Boren
“We’re home,” Izzy said.
Tim nodded in agreement, as Nolan looked out at the vast bay. “They’re not going to move us above the airlock level?”
“No need to,” I said. “It’d be different if we were staging fighters out of here.”
JJ glanced at me as we walked to the transport hub. “I think Vermillion wants us poised to take off at a moment’s notice.”
“Yep, and I agree with him.”
“This ship is basically invincible, isn’t it?” Izzy asked. “With the upgrades, especially.”
“We don’t know what the capabilities of the Clan ships are,” Nolan said. “It’s also hard to tell what the Overlords have been up to. What was their retrofit plan, for example?”
“I think they want to install their own remote-destruct capability,” Tim said. “But who knows?”
We arrived at the transport station, meeting Cyrus and several of his crew members.
“Feeling at home yet?” Cyrus asked me.
“Yeah, hit me as soon as I smelled the air.”
“This is my first time aboard.”
I shot Cyrus a glance. “Really? I’m surprised.”
“They’ve been keeping me pretty busy, and then things went sideways. Glad to be seeing her now. This is the biggest bay I’ve ever seen.”
“It looks even bigger when we don’t have the airlock level open,” I said. “The floor would be higher, but then we can open the ceiling. There’s four bay levels above us.”
“Impressive,” Nolan said.
I looked at my PA, speaking our destination into it. The door in front of us slid aside, revealing a round room with seating arranged in circles, smallest in the middle, the largest being against the outside walls. We got in, moving away from the entry, and the door shut, seats folding out from the door to complete the outside circle.
“Strap in,” I said. “This thing moves.”
“This is a ball suspended in a can, isn’t it?” Nolan asked.
I nodded yes. “It rotates inside to keep us level at all times.”
Nolan smiled. “Mag drive, of course.”
“Yes. I spoke into my PA, and we rose quickly, our stomachs feeling it.
“This would be worse if the gravity was as heavy as Earth,” Tim said.
When we got up to the correct level, we shot horizontally towards the middle of the ship. We slowed to a stop after thirty seconds. A warning light flashed on the folding seats, letting everybody know the door was about to open. Then they folded up and the door slid to the left, opening onto a clean white hallway with a lot of foot traffic.
“What if you don’t get off those seats fast enough?” Cyrus asked.
“They sense if anything is on them, and won’t move until they’re empty,” I said. “Nice little system. Came in with the last revision of the Centurion class.”
“Captain Clarke!” said a young officer who was walking by. He was a tall black man with a crew cut, a muscular build, and a wide grin. “Are you coming back soon?”
“RJ, how the heck are you?” I asked, shaking his hand. “You’re looking good. Andrea’s been treating you well?”
He laughed. “She’s doing a good job, but she’s not you.”
“And the Captain’s head swells some more,” Izzy quipped. “Hi, RJ.”
“Izzy. We going on that date pretty soon?”
She rolled her eyes. “In your dreams. You’re just a lowly pilot like me.”
RJ grinned. “Oh, you only want to spend time with the higher-ranked, huh? Now I get it.”
Izzy smiled as we started walking.
“We’ve got a meeting to get to, RJ,” I said. “We’ll have to catch up later.”
“First round is on you,” he said as we walked away.
“What does he do?” JJ asked.
“Combat pilot,” I said. “If we get into action, RJ is one of the folks who take over. He knows all of the weapons systems and how to coordinate them.”
“What about the gunners?” Nolan asked.
“He directs them. We have fifteen others who do the same job as RJ. Each of them controls a section of the ship, with it’s armaments, sensors, and damage control robots.”
“I’d like to break into that eventually,” Izzy said.
“Does it pay more?” Nolan asked.
“It does, after you’ve been proven,” Izzy said. “I’d have to be an apprentice for a longer period than I did as a transit pilot.”
We got to the conference room complex. Vermillion stuck his head out the door, catching my eye, motioning us over. We filed into the conference room, sitting around the long oval table in active chairs which molded to us as we sat.
“Missed these chairs,” Tim said, leaning back, the chair cradling him.
“Don’t turn on the massage function,” I said, “and don’t turn the heat up too high. We don’t need you falling asleep.” I shot him a dead-pan look, and most of the people in the room chuckled.
Andrea walked in, closing the door behind her. “The scan has been completed. We didn’t find anything else.”
Vermillion’s brow furrowed. “I want us to stay cloaked at all times, except when we’re in a jump. I can’t believe the only transmitter Ensign Daniels had was a suppository.”
“We need to know if he expected the railgun attacks in advance,” I said. “Did we save the video from the base?”
“It was all held off site, so it survived,” Vermillion said. “You’re thinking we should review it?”
“Yes, using facial recognition search.”
“And hope he wasn’t wearing a disguise,” Nolan said.
I nodded. “If he didn’t know the attack was about to happen, he probably scrambled here without having time to take any additional hardware. He left his COMM device in his barracks locker on the Zephyrus. He either expected to be back there, or he’s trying to make us think he expected to be back there.”
“Or he wanted both the Zephyrus and the New Jersey to be tracked,” JJ quipped.
“Another possibility,” I said, “although he would’ve hidden it better if that was his plan.”
Vermillion glanced at Andrea. “Set that search up, please.”
Andrea nodded, speaking into her PA for a moment. A tray of refreshments on a silver mag-lift cart moved through the door on its own. The metal cover opened, sliding into a storage space under the tray.
“That smells really good,” Deacon said.
“Gotten tired of the Zephyrus cheesecake already, Deacon?” JJ asked.
Deacon grinned. “Yes, it’ll be nice to eat something that isn’t untouched by human hands.”
The group chuckled for a few moments, Vermillion settling down first and glancing around the room to get the meeting in order.
“Let’s get started, shall we?” he asked. Everybody stopped talking and gave him their full attention. “First of all, I’d like to welcome Captain Clarke back to his ship, although we won’t complete the hand-off right away. There are still some tasks I’ll need you to do on the Zephyrus, Captain.”
“Whatever you need, sir,” I said, trying to push disappointment to a place nobody could see.
“Let’s review to set the stage, and if anybody has new insights, we’ll discuss them.”
You could hear a pin drop, until Nolan cleared his throat.
“Something to say, Nolan?” Vermillion asked.
“No sir, sorry.”
“Well don’t hold back when you do have something to say. Your actions so far have been partially responsible for us still being alive. That’s not something I forget.”
“Thank you, sir,” Nolan said, not sure how to take the complement.
“We know what the official news reports are saying,” Vermillion started. “The Samson Corporation has been abusing its power, and the Central Authority’s bureaucracy was not able to control it. In fact, the story goes, the Central Authority legislative bodies and the court system suffered from rampant cronyism and corru
ption brought about by the Samson Corporation. The Overlords, fulfilling their self-proclaimed role as protector of last resort, has stepped in and put the Central Authority Zone under a loose form of martial law.”
“Baloney,” JJ said.
“Does anybody sitting at this table believe the reports?” Vermillion asked, “because I need to know right now.”
“No way,” Cyrus said.
“I know the story to be false, Mr. Chairman,” Nolan said, “not that I think the Samson Corporation is always right.”
I tensed myself for the comments I feared were coming from Nolan, but he stopped with his initial statement.
“Would you like to elaborate on what you don’t like, Nolan?” Vermillion asked.
Nolan thought for a moment, then nodded yes. “The Corporation acts like a private enterprise, but it’s really not. It’s got elements of a private corporation, but it’s also got elements of an oligarchy, and it’s had that since the founder created the Samson Drive.”
“You’re referring to the veto-power that the corporation had over the entire universe with its capability to remotely destruct the Samson Drives?” Vermillion asked.
“Yes,” Nolan said. “That being said, I probably would’ve done the same thing that Alexander Carlson did, given the circumstances. It made perfect sense at the time… in fact, it was the only choice.”
Vermillion smiled. “You would have done something differently, though, given your distrust of the Samson Corporation.”
“I wouldn’t call it distrust, Mr. Chairman. The circumstances have been changing, and the Corporation didn’t change with them, so we’re in trouble now, and it’s much worse than trouble for just our Corporation. It’s trouble for all the people who populate the universe, because in getting rid of us, groups like the Overlords now have an opportunity to remove representative government and individual liberty from the equation.”
“Groups like the Overlords?” Cyrus asked.
“Yes, I’m thinking there’s a similar group that’s gained control of the Clan Zone. I don’t think the Clan presence we saw at Valla Cappos was the precursor to an invasion. I believe that ship and others like it are trying to escape the Clan Zone.”
“You mean defect?” I asked.
“No, I didn’t say that,” Nolan said. “They probably know the Central Authority and their Overlord henchmen have goals like the government they’re hiding from.”
Vermillion leaned back in his chair, the material molding around his back. “We’ve seen tightened controls on individual liberty now that the Overlords have become more dominant, but they’re still pretty measured. They did landings on Earth trying to capture Corporation employees after the attacks, but they didn’t kill civilians, and they didn’t stick around either. They grabbed who they had a warrant for and left the planet.”
I shot a glance at Vermillion and Nolan.
“You have something to say, Captain Clarke,” Vermillion said. “Out with it.”
“Simone and the Overlords are staging a coup. They’re going after the Samson Corporation because they know we’re the only force in the Universe that can stop them. They will hunt us until they kill or capture us.”
“That’s the way I see it,” Tim said.
“We can give the Overlords enough nasty surprises to back them down temporarily,” Nolan said, “but the real problem is that the Samson Drive technology is no longer a mystery. The advancement of physics and engineering technology will take our monopoly on wormhole projection away from us. Simply stated, soon many other corporations will have technology like the Samson Drive, and customers will opt for them instead of our products. Who wants to buy something that could be blown up if the manufacturer gets mad?”
Vermillion chuckled. “Want a seat on the board? We have some vacancies.”
I eyed Vermillion. “You’ve seen this coming for a while, haven’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “Hell, Alexander Carlson knew we wouldn’t have this monopoly forever. He’d be surprised that it lasted almost four hundred years.”
“That’s what really bothers me about all of this,” Nolan said. “Instead of holding destruction over everybody’s heads, we should have worked to shore up the Central Authority Republic. We’re at an extreme risk of losing that.”
“Sounds like we’ve already lost it,” Cyrus said.
“Nolan, your side project was a reaction against that situation,” Vermillion said. “It may still be our only hope.”
“Too little, too late for those in our lifetimes, Mr. Chairman, but I’m still willing to work it with every ounce of strength I have,” Nolan said. “We should stay on the long game constantly, no matter what.”
“What’s he talking about?” JJ whispered to me. I shook my head no, hoping nobody else noticed.
“This conversation is too heavy on philosophy and woulda coulda shoulda,” Deacon said. “How are we gonna keep from getting blown to bits, and hold off the dark forces for as long as possible?”
“This is why I always want somebody from Engineering present at meetings like this,” Vermillion said. “He’s right. We’ve got a crisis now and we’ll have to deal with it using the tools at our disposal. We’ve also got the longer-term strategy which we’ll run at the same time.”
“Then let’s reset this conversation,” I said. “Let’s start with what we know for sure.”
“Go ahead,” Vermillion said.
I took a deep breath. “Here goes. We know that all three of our ships are wanted, as are the bridge crews for each and all Corporation officials not yet captured. We know that Simone and her Overlords are the party who wants to capture us.”
“Correct,” Vermillion said. “What else?”
“We know that the Overlords are trying to clamp down on the Central Authority Zone,” JJ said. “We know that there is wide-scale resistance happening.”
“Was happening,” Tim said. “I’ve been watching. After that skirmish between the Earth ships and the Overlords, travel appears to have stopped again.”
“Where?” Cyrus asked.
“The entire zone,” Tim said.
“And yet you said the Overlord ships didn’t pursue the Earth ships when that engagement was over,” Nolan said.
“That is still holding true,” Tim said. “The Earth ships are back home. Most of them landed. A few are in orbit.”
“There was a threat made,” Nolan said. “We need to figure out what kind of threat it was.”
“Do any of us know what the retrofit they’re demanding consists of?” I asked.
“It’s got to be a new remote self-destruct that they control,” Cyrus said.
“We have some intel on that,” Vermillion said. “We’re working to verify it.”
“Can you talk about it?” Deacon asked.
“Nothing leaves this room,” Vermillion said. “Understand? Everybody agree?”
“Yes sir,” I said. Cyrus said the same, and everybody else either said yes or shook their heads yes.
“Of course the Samson Drive self-destruct was the first thing we thought about. Our source said the change had nothing to do with the Samson Drives.”
“Then what is it?” Cyrus asked.
“The PA Net software,” Vermillion said. “They want the capability to surveil individuals while they’re aboard starships, and they are introducing the capability to force an automatic download of the entire contents of shipboard PA Nets whenever the ship is near a network node.”
JJ’s face went white. “They’re pushing the stun capability, too.”
“Son of a bitch,” Tim said. “If they did the retrofit on this ship, they could zap all of us right this second. Knock us out cold or worse.”
“Or worse?” JJ asked.
“It’s easy to turn a stun into a kill, my dear,” Nolan said.
{ 16 }
Military-Industrial Complex
W e were sitting in the conference room with Chairman Vermillion. The subject of PA stun ca
pability came up.
JJ looked at Nolan with her eyes wide. “You think they can turn our implanted PAs into remote execution devices?”
“Even stun capability is bad enough,” Cyrus said. “Think about it.”
Nolan’s eyes closed as he was thinking, his brow furrowed. Vermillion and I exchanged a glance.
“What is it, Nolan?” I asked.
Nolan’s eyes opened, and he looked down at the table. “I think I know what Simone’s threat is.”
“What?” I glanced at Vermillion again.
“If they’ve got the software completed to add stun capability to individual PA devices, they can act on them directly, provided the subject is in a civilized terrestrial location with wireless network access.”
“Dammit,” Vermillion said, “he’s saying that anybody on Earth is subject to attack through these imbedded devices.”
“Earth or any other planet at level five or below, Mr. Chairman,” Nolan said.
“You developed a way to wipe PA devices and the PA sub-net software on the Zephyrus,” I said. “Anything you can do to stop the Overlords from using this stun capability?”
Nolan sat silently for a moment.
“Well?” JJ asked.
Nolan shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Wiping memory is easy. To turn off a feature, I’d have to access the operating system, turn off some capability, and then figure out a way to broadcast an update.”
“And I suspect the Overlords could then over-write your over-write,” Deacon said.
“Maybe,” Nolan said. “I need to concentrate on this.”
“We’re not even sure it’s the real threat,” Tim said.
“True, Tim,” Nolan said, “and thanks for bringing that up. How can we find out?”
“I still have some connections on Earth who would know,” Vermillion said. “I’ll contact them.”
“Can you do that without tipping off the Overlords to our location?” Izzy asked.
“Yes,” Vermillion said. “Nolan, perhaps you should load your PA wipe program onto the PA sub-nets of this ship and the Tristar.”
