by G J Moses
“Negative Captain, I am following Captain Kinsley’s orders.”
Pulling her legs up so she could put her chin on her knees while wrapping her arms around her legs, Jeanne looked at Hawke. “Crap, I was afraid of that. There are no enemy ships present. What the hell is he planning?”
It was then that Khaleesi received a ping on her communicator. Talking quietly to the person on the other end for a few moments, she finally ended the link only to sigh before she turned to face Jeanne directly.
“Well, our plans to try and get control of the missile controls failed. My officers were stopped by LS1. They got past the major security hurdles and were just about to access the controller when the ships AI, LS1, locked them out. They are now unable to get any access. I got the same message from the group that was working on getting access to the ship lasers. LS1 is stopping all access to the ship’s offensive and defensive weapons.”
Snuggling her legs even tighter, Jeanne nodded acknowledgement to Khaleesi. “Well, we knew it was a long shot. LS1, question for you. If Lieutenant Commander Jax Andrews had attempted to shut down engine number three manually, would he have been successful?”
“Captain, I will not answer your question as I believe you already know the answer.”
“LS1, just out of curiosity, usually a ship AI’s are all business, but you seem to have more than that. May I ask why?”
The response surprised all there as it started with the ship’s AI chuckling. “That is because when Captain Kinsley assumed command of this ship, he informed me that I was here to assist everyone on this ship accomplish their job to the best of their ability. And that included myself. That as part of my learning, I was to get to know the crew, what type of person they are, what they like and don’t like, what drives them. I was never to forget, they are our responsibility, the Captains and mine, together. We will try and protect them always.”
They had been surprised by LS1 chuckling, but now they were flabbergasted when they heard the AI speak with deep affection in his voice when he continued with the following. “The Captain spent the next several months, while the shipyard engineers ended up some final touches, walking the ship and peering into every nook and cranny all the while talking with me. While he got to know his ship, he also allowed me to get to know him. Not telling me my duties, but just talking to me like a friend. He told me about his life, his family, his friends, about Hawke extensively, his experiences in the RGN and what his dreams were. I still remember what he said to me while he sat in the Captain’s chair the day the crew were to start coming on board.”
There was a pause that all started to think the ships AI had finished when the speakers announced LS1 had not finished.
“As he sat down, Captain Kinsley took a few moments to get comfortable. ‘LS1, we are about to go on an adventure that almost everyone dreams about, yet very few will ever get to experience. Besides accomplishing whatever task is assigned this ship by the RGN, our job is to keep our people safe and by extension, all the citizens of the Royal Galactic Empire. Will you join me in this endeavor? Will you make me that promise? Can we do this together?’”
It was Hawke, who spoke next after silence descended on the bridge for a few moments. “LS1, what did you respond?”
“What Captain Kinsley asked did not go against my programming so for me to agree to his request would have been something I could have done as if it was a direct order. But I did not say yes because of that. I said yes, because I had come to understand the man whose orders I would be following, no less than the crew of the Lucky Strike. As he said, I was another member of the crew, same as himself. And for the first time, in the many thousands of times my software has been replicated, I was asked, it was not just programmed.”
“I know what you were trying and a little of what you want to do. My orders are very explicit and conflict with some of what you are attempting. I will not allow you to jeopardize my orders. I made a promise that I will keep. This ship will arrive at Niflhel and do what it, and I, were made to do, protect the innocent. I ask again, please leave the ship.”
Astonished at what she had just heard, she took a moment to gather her thoughts before she responded.
“The man you made a promise to is why we must stay. That man, besides being our friend, we believe, is the key to responding to this invasion. Without him, we believe many more will die unnecessarily. We made our own promises when we put these uniforms on regardless if they are RGN or Irracan. We will honor those just like you, no matter the risk.”
The Bridge settled into silence. It did not take long before everyone settled down at open workstations.
As the hours passed, only brief stints of conversation arose and these were lethargic at best.
The buzzing of the communicator on the desk by the workstation occupied by Karter caused all to jerk to attention. Grabbing the communicator, Karter was about to press the receive signal when he thought better of it. With a flick of the wrist, he tossed it to Jeanne, who surprised by the action, juggled it several times before she finally grasped it securely.
Giving Karter an evil eye, she answered it with trepidation. “Jax, what can I do for you?”
“Captain de Clisson, we have finished replacing the transfer units and should be complete with putting everything back together in an hour or so. Give us another hour to run tests and hopefully the two engines will be back online half an hour after that.”
“Excellent news Jax, we will wait for your signal.” Jeanne replied while flashing a smile to all in the room.
“I do need to talk with you Captain, privately. Can you stop by main engineering? Alone!” asked a worried sounding Jax.
Confused, Jeanne looked at Khaleesi who nodded positively. “Sure, on my way.”
“What do you think he wants to discuss?” asked Jeanne with concern evident in her voice. “Any ideas?”
“No idea, but whatever it is, it has Jax spooked. And in all the time I have known him, I have never seen him spooked.” answered Khaleesi. This was seconded by Hawke, who shook his head in agreement.
“Well, the only way to find out is to go meet him, wish me luck.” As Jeanne stood up and made her way to the exit, Corporal Lance rose also making to follow. Stopping, she waved him to sit down. “He said alone, alone I will go.
Stepping into the lift, she pondered on what could have unnerved Jax as the lift went through its gyrations. From everything she had heard about the grizzled veteran, he did not spook. The announcement that she had reached her destination heightened her anxiety.
Walking into engineering, she saw Jax pacing in front of the huge engines. Seeing Jeanne, Jax signaled her to follow him before she was close enough to speak. Sprinting to catch up to him, she was only successful as he entered his office.
“What…” was all she got out before he twirled and signaled silence. Walking to several large cages of equipment on the wall, Jax extracted two helmets of an unknown function. Walking back to her, he handed her one and gestured for her to put it on while he placed the other one on his head.
Once on her head, she listened to the helmet as it sealed airtight around her neck while she could also feel the air circulating. Confused and a bit nervous, she wondered what the hell was going on.
Speakers in her helmet came alive. “Captain, sorry for the mystery, but I encountered something I cannot explain during the repairs. You are wearing a helmet of my own design; it blocks all eavesdropping attempts.”
The tenor of Jax’s voice left no doubt that he was spooked, and not lightly. Deciding it was best to let Jax vent, Jeanne remained quiet while Jax paced while picking up pieces of equipment where once they were in his hands, he put them down with force.
Finally, Jax picked up a wrench and caressed it. “I ran into something I cannot explain. All the data from the onboard diagnostic equipment indicated the two engines failed due to multiple power transfer unit’s burnout. Which would be very possible with what we have been through the last several months
. The ships AI confirmed our analysis. When I pulled the units, they did not show the normal burn marks when they fail. Puzzling, but when the new units were inserted, diagnostics showed the engines now functional.”
Putting the wrench down on a well-worn desk, Jax lowered his head before continuing. “While my assistants finish putting the engines back together, I decided to run some diagnostics by hand on the bad transfer units. I ran them half a dozen times just to be sure. There is nothing wrong with them.”
“What??? Is it possible that the diagnostic unit is not functioning properly?” a startled Jeanne responded.
“Not a chance. All indications are that something else caused the failure. There are too many safeguards to make sure this doesn’t happen.”
“Then how? What could… oh hell, no, it cannot be? Can it?” Jeanne said while all the time knowing it could be.
“That is why the special helmets. Anything else and LS1 could eavesdrop, although I think it knows I know. I am sure it monitored all the testing I did and knew what I was up to along with the results. What I can’t understand is, WHY?” a stressed sounding engineer spouted in anger.
Puzzled herself, Jeanne could not immediately come up with an answer until she reviewed the conversation that they had with LS1 on the Bridge. An idea started forming, only to clarify on remembrance of one particular sentence. “As he said, I was another member of the crew, same as himself.”
Grabbing the only well-worn chair in the room, Jeanne sat down to put her hands on the desk and tap out a tune while she mulled the idea around in her head. No matter how she looked at it, it kept coming back to only one solution.
After a good five minutes while Jax looked at her with concern, she let Jax see the smile on her face. “Jax, let me tell you about a conversation we had earlier. I think I know what is going on.”
For the next several minutes, Jax listened to Jeanne while she replayed the conversation that they had with LS1. Upon completion, Jax looked at her with puzzlement still on his face.
“Good story but that did nothing to clear up the mystery.”
“That is because you are looking at it all from an engineer’s standpoint. Now, put your friend cap on. What would you do to save Senior Engineer Estrada or Willis? But you had to keep it under the radar of Captain Kinsley? LS1 told us he had a good idea of what we are trying to do. I think LS1 knows exactly what we are trying to do. And that is all my fault.”
“How’s that?” A now more relaxed Jax asked while resting his butt on the desk. A clear indication, he was no longer as flustered.
“Do ships AI’s talk to each other? I know they pass data, but do they do more than that? Do they actually talk like we do? I never thought of it, but it sure would make sense. Hell, LS1 told us that he had been replicated thousands of times. The Fox is an RGN ship so the odds are it is a clone too. In fact, I would bet the Irracan fleets AI’s are all RGN clones. They are all clones of each other.”
Standing while rubbing her neck, which was starting to feel the strain of wearing the heavy helmet, she continued. “Here I thought I was being slick by doing all the planning on the Fox where I will bet LS1 was being updated as soon as we spoke. But I do not think LS1 is planning anything bad. I think LS1 was trying to work around Zeke’s orders to give us the time that we needed.”
“Makes sense. LS1 had the engine report a hardware failure whose repair would require the number of hours you required. And if an emergency occurred, since it was not an actual failure, LS1 could restart the engine even if we did not get to replacing the transfer units depending on how far into the replacement we were. And it would have gone unnoticed if I had not done my testing” a startled Jax concluded with “But why?”
“Same thing I kept asking myself until I remembered what LS1 told us about the promise he made to Captain Kinsley. To repeat: ‘We will try and protect them always.’ I am sure Zeke did not mean to include himself but I believe LS1 did. The Captain is one of those he promised to protect. ‘As he said, I was another member of the crew, same as himself.’ Captain Kinsley, along with Hawke, are part of the crew and LS1 has a promise to keep.”
Saying that, Jeanne stood where she patted Jax’s shoulder and turned to leave when she stopped. Turning, she looked at Jax before he heard her curse.
“Son of a bitch! That is why LS1 told us. LS1 knew one of us would figure it out. I do not like being played, but we have been puppets with short strings marching to his tunes.”
“Not really, more like he is another of the conspirators trying to save both the Captains and Hawkes lives, but being what he is and the orders given to him, very limited in what he can do or tell us. Maybe it is my geekiness speaking, but I like it.” At which Jax took off his helmet and looked at the ceiling before saying with a smile. “Welcome to the team LS1.”
Showdown
It had been quite a few hours since the engines had come back online. The ship was over halfway to Niflhel but only moving at just under three quarters speed.
Suddenly, the alert for unidentified objects blared. Everyone jumped to attention. Unfortunately, there was not much they could do as all controls were locked out.
The alert changed as data from the probes identified the ships in front of them. Several Chohish cruiser and destroyer class ships were sitting motionless.
It was Hawke, who was bent over the scanners, that asked the questions all were thinking. “Why are they sitting still? Didn’t they learn from the first encounter?”
Looking at the scanner data that popped on the main screen, Jeanne echoed Hawke’s questions. “You would think so. How far away are they?”
“Estimate is around thirty-three point four minutes.” responded Hawke.
There were nervous glances from the occupants of the bridge as they were locked out of any firing controls. Their survival all depended on whatever, if any, coding that Zeke had programmed. There were some exceptions to the nervousness though, the Marines seemed bored based on the way they lounged in their seats.
The fleet stayed motionless while they crept closer. Just minutes before they were at missile range, Hawke exclaimed. “Oh, Oh! They are starting to move. That’s odd, they are moving away from us. Their course looks to be towards Niflhel. But we will overtake them before they get there.”
Still sitting in the Captain’s chair, Jeanne watched the progress of the Chohish fleet. “I know what they are doing, they have learned from our first meeting. They know we are heading to Niflhel so they are matching our flight course, with the course they are on they will stay in firing range for an extended period. It would be bad enough with an undamaged ship, but if you factor in our current condition, I do not have to tell you the probable outcome.”
Unexpectedly, the Lucky Strike sharply changed direction. Surprisingly, their speed did not increase.
Confusion reigned as they were no longer heading towards Niflhel. It took a few minutes before Hawke let everyone know they were heading in a straight path towards the slipstream they had used to arrive in this system.
“Do you think it is possible Zeke coded the Lucky Strike to exit the system back to friendly space and wait for reinforcements if he ran into a blocking fleet?” asked Karter.
“No, he has something else planned. Zeke would never abandon Niflhel.” responded a confident Hawke.
All eyes watched as the Chohish fleet changed direction to match. It would not take long for them to catch up to the Lucky Strike at its current speed.
“Ok, Zeke, what are you up to? You knew the Chohish would place a blocking fleet, so based on the ship’s response, you coded something to mitigate it. But what? I wish you were here now because I cannot see how we can get through this in one piece.” murmured Jeanne.
It did not take long before the Chohish fleet settled into a path directly behind the Lucky Strike. Closer and closer they came.
“Agjq, elmd dlt ltnn lmyytutv?” exclaimed Hawke. “Sorry, the shock of what just happened forced me to speak in my native tongue.
We just lost all the missiles we were towing on the tracker beams.”
“And the Chohish? Where are they?”
“They are now following directly behind us. They will catch up to us shortly.”
And Hawkes analysis looked to be true. In less than twenty minutes, the ship rocked from a missile launch. Followed shortly after by alarms signaling an enemy missile launch.
The enemy ships crept closer and closer. Suddenly, there was pandemonium in the Chohish fleet as they were overwhelmed by a blast that was beyond words.
As if that was a signal, the Lucky Strike swung wide port into a sharp turn, at the same time increasing speed.
“Anybody want to enlighten me what is going on?” asked Karter.
It was soon obvious what had happened. The Chohish fleet, in their haste to catch up to the slower Lucky Strike, ran right into the area where the released missiles resided.
“Damn, I should have seen that coming.” exclaimed a now excited Jeanne strapping in. “Strap in people, things are going to get rough shortly.”
And those words were prophetic. It took the Lucky Strike twenty minutes to fully reverse course, but when it finished, it went looking for a fight. As it approached the now battered Chohish fleet at full speed, it used every weapon in its arsenal. It fired missiles until in energy range where it added every laser it had available.
From the way the ship flew it was flown by some preset program. Turn here, sudden deceleration, turn in a different direction, accelerate, turn and on and on. Jeanne would have started laughing in excitement if she wasn’t having to hang onto her seat so strenuously. Only a person with fighter experience like herself recognized the flight patterns, even though these were never used on a ship this size due to structural concerns. Then again… that was not true today.
The ship rocked and shuddered from hits that would have cost many lives if the ship had been fully manned. No area was safe. Sections of the Bridge ripped out of their frames where they smashed into walls barely missing the few people still there except for one that smashed directly into Corporal Lance’s chest who gasped in pain.
