She stared at him. “It is entirely possible.”
If they had and she could pull up the data, it could give them an idea of how much of a problem the incoming probe might be for them. She shifted gears, digging into the border outpost’s history. It wasn’t hard. She’d already gone here, it was just a matter of reopening the connection. She saw digital tracks indicating someone else had been in the data since her last look.
Doc? Probably. The hair on the back of Rachel’s neck lifted. She could almost feel Doc staring at her, which was ridiculous, paranoid even. Unless…in the direction of the camera, Rachel peeked through the screen of her hair. Okay, she could be watching. Just don’t think about it. She kept typing and reach a place in the outpost’s history that hadn’t been penetrated yet. Rachel felt a tiny glow about being a little ahead of the game.
“There you are.” She pulled up the data and the video on this. There wasn’t a lot to see. The feed shook a little at the time of impact. It was the computer system where all the action happened. “Whoa. That’s a hearty handshake.”
“Handshake?” Valyr asked.
She half turned. “It’s like when people meet. Well, other people,” she qualified, demonstrating one half of the handshake with her hand. “In formal situations, or in doing business. They shake hands, exchange greetings. And then, if the handshake goes well, you get down to business.”
“That is what happened when the probe reached the border outpost?” He did not sound enlightened. He lifted his hand, moving it up and down just as she had.
Rachel leaned forward and took his hand, the jolt of this first touch not unlike the probe hitting the outpost. It was a bad idea, but she was committed. Or should be committed. She watched her fingers curl around his hand. His big hand. His clammy hand. He just got defrosted, she reminded herself. She lifted it up, then down. “Handshake.” Her voice had a tremble in it as his hand began to warm up.
“Handshake,” he repeated thoughtfully, his gaze on the handshake and not her face.
She stared at their hands, too. She might have expected it to be wrinkled by the years in the cryo-goo. Or more alien. It wasn’t either of those things. It was just a hand. A man hand. A little abrasive. Different. The warmth built. She lifted her lids and found him looking at her as he slowly, oh so slowly, lifted her hand toward his mouth.
Was he going to kiss her hand? She might die—he leaned in and sniffed. Okay, wasn’t expecting that.
“What—” she swallowed and tried again. “What are you doing?”
“What is that scent on your skin?”
Rachel lifted her other hand and sniffed.
“Coconut,” Sir Rupert said.
At least it wasn’t BO.
“Coconut,” Valyr repeated. His sudden grin was wry. “I smell like—” the word was foreign.
Rachel figured it was something like chemicals. She lifted their hands toward her nose and found out they were both wrong. As his skin warmed, his scent began to break through. Yeah, that was better than coconut. She drew a shaky breath and returned his hand to his knee.
“So, that’s a handshake between two…people.” She cleared her throat. “Computers do it with, um, bytes.”
“Bites?”
“1’s and 0’s,” she managed to get out. “Not…” She gave herself a tiny shake. “I’m guessing the probe was designed to speed things up.” And boy had it. They’d cracked the systems at the speed of light, not the speed of Rachel, which had seemed fast but didn’t anymore. She replayed the probe’s impact inside the outpost. What had it looked like outside? She dug around and found there were more feeds on the surface than here. Or more feeds had survived? That seemed more likely. “Look at that.”
The probe was a bright trail of fire as it approached. Prior to impact if flared brighter, releasing something that looked a balloon or parachute into the atmosphere. The bulk of the probe continued to the ground. That was the impact that had made the camera jump down below. And on the surface. The surface cameras fuzzed up for a few seconds and when they cleared, the parachute had landed, releasing a sophisticated version of their Mars lander. It had an antenna—
“Holy crap!” She reared back when bolts of something blue and similar to lightning fired from the antenna.
“It is designed to take down firewalls and protections,” Valyr said, leaning close to study the feeds as Rachel played the different views.
“That’s more punch in the jaw than a handshake,” Rachel said.
“Does it damage the systems?” Sir Rupert asked.
“That’s a good question, though I’m guessing they aren’t going to do catastrophic damage.” And their access hadn’t left the system inoperable. She went back to the system itself and pulled up before and after. “There is some damage, probably to the security programs.” The code looked a bit like someone had punched it. There were torn fragments and gaps. “Ouch,” then she added, “Garradian code is so pretty.”
His chuckle drew her attention away from her screen. When her gaze met his, he sobered.
“Who are you?” There was a roughness in his voice that was new, possibly caused by what his eyes revealed.
Desire.
Rachel blinked. For her? No, for human contact. He’d been frozen. And now he was alone in a strange new world.
“Rachel,” she said, softly, trying to infuse comfort into her voice. “I’m Rachel.” They’d already done this, but this felt different.
His nod was slight. “I am Valyr.” He held out his hand again.
She took it, expecting and getting a small shock as their skin touched again. He’d warmed up a lot. “I’m pleased to meet you, Valyr.”
“And I am…pleased…to meet you, Rachel.”
This silence was not a fraught. It felt more like two people getting to know each other even though neither said a word. It also felt as if time stood still. Or stretched out. His chest rose and fell in a deep sigh.
“I have…many questions.”
“I know.” She gave him a rueful smile. “I have questions, too. And not as many answers as I’d like to have.”
His grip on her hand tightened. “Don’t—”
She put her other hand on top of his. “We’ll figure this out. Together.” It was a rash promise. She was writing a check that the expedition might not cash, but, well, she’d find a way to make sure she stayed in the loop. Unless they tossed her in the brig.
His lips curved up in a relieved half smile. He didn’t seem to go overboard with anything. Of course, normally Rachel didn’t either. This might be the first time a man had held her hand longer than a few seconds of greeting—or held it twice in the same five minutes. It was…nice.
“I will help, too,” said Siru, rolling in between them and just missing Rachel’s foot. She chuckled and saw Valyr’s eyes flare with something that curled melty warmth through her midsection.
“You can help, too,” Rachel said, without taking her eyes off Valyr.
“We can all help,” Sir Rupert said, his tone very dry for a parrot.
Rachel felt color surge up her face. Slowly, very reluctantly, she eased her hands free of his. They felt cold, as if she transferred her warmth to him.
“So they got whatever they wanted from the border outpost,” Sir Rupert said, his tone still dry.
“Yes,” she said.
“And what was it they learned?” he asked, this time with a touch of exasperation.
That was a good question, one she should have thought of, of course. With some reluctance, and possibly a sigh, she turned back to the screen. Then she frowned. “I don’t see much that would interest them.” She edged to one side, tacitly inviting Valyr to take a look. Would he recall enough to help? He sure stared at the list of files like he remembered something.
“They extracted information about the layout of this system and the outposts in general,” he said finally. He frowned. “I believe they would also acquire information about how to access this outpost.”
“How to
improve their handshake,” she translated. “And enough about the outposts to send them our way.” Or it had given them the confidence to penetrate deeper into the system? She realized she hadn’t shown Valyr the video of the robots inside the outpost and pulled that up. “This what we can expect when they get here.”
Interest lit his eyes. He leaned closer. “It is learning and very quickly.” His brows snapped together. “They move as if they are self-directed.”
Rachel studied their movements, too. At first, she saw coordinated military precision, but as she reran the video, she realized there were small variations that wouldn’t—shouldn’t?—be there.
“Is there more video of their ship?”
“Just a surface ship,” Rachel said, pulling that up for him.
This man might be military on some level, but he was also all scientist. One hungry for data on his new reality. “The scanners must be tracking their space-capable vessel. That is too small for long term travel.”
Did he realize he was remembering? Rachel didn’t point this out. It was possible it was like passwords—possible to remember until you realized you were remembering and then they slipped away.
“So far we only have ghost images. They are using gaps in the outposts coverage to avoid the scanning.”
He frowned. “There aren’t—” He stopped. “Planetary drift.”
That’s all he needed to say.
She switched to another screen and tried to scan the probe. “That’s odd,” she murmured. “I can’t get a clear read on their probe.” She’d seen it emerge from the dust of landing and launch, had seen it fire something, could see what it had done, but not how.
“That is excellent code,” Valyr muttered, the scientist unable to hide his pleasure.
With time, Rachel figured she could get in, but they didn’t have that much time. Right now she needed to focus on protecting this outpost from intrusion. What if they were after the other cyro-chambers contents? Her brain winced at “contents.” It was a scientist’s term, but it felt wrong with Valyr sitting close enough she could smell his scent breaching the chemicals that had kept him alive.
“Do all the outposts have the same security protocols?” If they did, they could probably expect the same impact, possibly upgraded by what the robots had learned to make the intrusion more efficient. Sir Rupert resumed his spot on her shoulder, his head tipped to one side. Could he do his ghost-seeing thing through a remote feed? She didn’t dare ask since this secret was not hers to share with anyone. Siru rolled closer, an antenna rising from the head and focusing on the screen.
“This outpost is very central,” Sir Rupert said, thoughtfully. “Is there a way to see the transport system, to see how it connects to all the outposts?”
“Let me try…” Apparently, that was an easy command. A holographic screen formed, first of the outposts, then lines appeared between them. Blue, yellow and red. “The blue lines are active connections, yellow ones need repair or perhaps special access? And the red ones are either damaged or locked down.”
That was interesting, but even more interesting was how the lines all intersected with this outpost. It wasn’t just the most central in position, but it also seemed to be the one place that could give someone access to all the other outposts. Was this why the pirates had picked this one? Not for data, but for access?
“If they get in here, they could go anywhere.” Sir Rupert said it aloud.
“We need to know—” Valyr stopped. “I need to remember.” Frustration colored his tone. He spun to face his console. His frown was one of fierce concentration. Slowly, he lifted his hands and positioned them above the smooth surface. It felt like a long time that he stared down at the indifferent surface. He bent his fingers. Straightened them and lowered them to almost touching. Hesitated.
Rachel realized she was holding her breath. And not getting anything done. The first thing she needed to do was make contact with Kikk. This was beyond her skill set. Way beyond. But even as she resumed her effort to open up communication, out of the corner of her eye, she watched him.
His shoulders rose and fell in what could have been a sigh. Then he lowered his hands the last inch.
As if it had been waiting for him, only him, it came alive. More alive than when Rachel had accessed her console or any console on Kikk. She froze, trying to figure out what was happening, what it was showing him. Multiple holographic screens arranged themselves in front of him, data flowing across all of them so fast she couldn’t hope to read them. Siru rolled away, directing its antenna at this screen. Rachel could almost see bytes flowing back and forth between the console and the little robot, like liquid gold, but did she see it or did she think she saw it? She wasn’t sure. And between the console and Valyr? He was lit by the glow of all those screens popping up and then vanishing. Only, was it a glow or something else?
His hands weren’t moving. The system was doing it all. Or—they were communicating out of her sight and hearing. She opened her mouth, closed it, and looked at her screen. Time to phone home, or to what passed for home. But as her hands settled back on her console—it went dark.
Since no one could find out how Dr. Frank had gotten to Central Outpost, the next logical step was open a communications channel between the outposts. That should have been easy.
It wasn’t.
Doc was starting to wonder about this outpost—mostly wondering why they hadn’t been there and why they hadn’t realized it was sassier than the Kikk Outpost. All this time in the system and no one had been there until today. And Dr. Frank had just happened to pick the day a ship of robots was incoming.
You are worried about her.
Doc glanced at Hel. She might be starting to worry. She’d done some more digging into her personnel file and found some unexpected items. Contrary to her expectation, the wimpy-looking doctor had performed fairly well on the survival and defensive training. And she had demonstrated a surprising aptitude on the firing range. If she’d still worked for the Major, she might have recommended her for more advanced training. She might almost be impressed if—
If—
The freaking girl was armed!
You know she’s not armed.
I know.
Because no one knows how well armed you are—
She’s not me.
No one could be.
This time the look she sent Hel’s way was, well, personal. Her lips might have twitched. You’re the only one who knows where all my weapons are hidden. It was Hel’s lips that twitched this time. And the glance he sent her direction had some smolder to it. It was not a great moment for the nanites to interrupt.
This is most challenging…
She could feel Lurch’s strain as he fought with the firewall. A very well constructed firewall. Her thoughts flickered back to the other outpost. Would the robots have more trouble getting in here?
I think I see the way. Fester sounded excited.
It is fighting back, Grandpa said.
And then the lights went out.
Before Doc—or anyone else—could ask what the crap?—the lights and systems began to come up again. She glanced at Hel, pretty sure he was the reason for that. Hel was a possessor of the Key DNA. But someone—or something—had interrupted their control of this outpost.
“How bad is it?” she asked.
“Systems are up here, but we are cut off from the other outposts,” a tech said.
The other outposts. She looked at tracking. And the scanning tech of the other outposts. They weren’t just cut off from the other outposts. Scanning was down. They couldn’t track their bogey or the probe. And they could no longer see Carey’s squadron.
Can you— she started to ask her nanites.
We’ve been kicked all the way back here.
It almost felt like they were rubbing their tushes.
RaptorZ contacted CabeX privately. Privately. CabeX was not sure that had happened since the rebellion.
“I am encountering unusual
resistance to accessing the wider network,” he admitted.
Because this had never happened, CabeX was not sure how to respond. “The data we took from the first outpost is not providing assistance?”
“It appears to have been a low priority outpost.”
That was odd. Usually, perimeter defenses were more rigorously defended. They had been startled by the ease of access and had assumed that the interior would be even less challenging. It was a pointed reminder not to assume.
“It appears that the Garradians feared internal enemies more than external ones,” CabeX told him.
“That is my assessment, too.”
“Will our probe be less effective?”
“It learned what it could from the outpost.” RaptorZ could not sigh over the connection—or at all—but CabeX felt he would have. “It is more aggressive.”
But it might not be as aggressive as they required. He would not be concerned if not for that cluster of currently cloaked ships that had to be vectoring on them. Why else would they have cloaked?
“I have confidence,” CabeX told RaptorZ because he did. He would get in. He was not as confident that the timing would be optimal for them. The goal was to be in, out, and back on the ship before the intercept. Suddenly a series of symbols flooded into the communication channel.
“*&#%&%#$@&.”
It was their version of profanity. “What’s happened?”
“We’re not only shut out, the whole outpost system has gone dark.”
“Dark?”
“Offline.”
CabeX added his series of profanity symbols to their mutual feed.
11
It was just as well that Valyr’s screens didn’t go dark, and the Urclock was still winking. Otherwise, the freaky dark would be more, well, freaky. Rachel tapped the console surface. Nothing. She was completely shut out. She grabbed her tablet. It still worked but—no surprise—it was no longer connected to the Garradian system’s version of Wifi.
She checked things. “So, we are no longer tracking the bogey or the probe, and I can’t phone home.”
Lost Valyr: Project Enterprise 7 Page 12
