“Even if you could, I don’t want you outside until we have a better idea of what’s going on,” Euphretes scolded.
“Yeah yeah.”
“I’m serious!”
“OK! OK!”
“Sir, what just happened was an abrupt and absolute shut down of Steadfast and Loyal’s Operating, Management, and Conservation systems. Basically, everything that produces or stores power was cut off. Why it happened, I can’t tell you. But, I can tell you that all Huron Fleet Vessels are designed to recover just enough energy to prevent total loss of life in the unlikely event that something like this would ever happen.”
“How so?”
“Well Sir, as we speak, a circuit is collecting energy from the heat inside the primary engine’s cooling unit. Once it has built up enough stored energy, the circuit will automatically trigger a quick launch inside the tertiary fuel compartment for the Life Support Generator. Once that turns on, Emergency Life Support Systems will be operating at a maximum of fifty percent capacity.” Neultin paused momentarily, “And that’s about the extent of my knowledge, Sir.”
Hidden from site, Crestone was swelling with pride. He had ridden Crewman Nueltin from day one to study his craft so that he could personally take the Crewman Operative to the Warrant Officer’s Selection Board. His persistence paid off.
“The kids right! From what I can remember at least. But he’s leaving out the fact that we’re now operating on a forty hour time window,” Neuma informed.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, to put it succinctly, in about forty hours the built up energy from the cooling unit will no longer be able to power the Emergency Life Support Generators.”
“Excellent,” Euphretes said rolling his eyes before addressing Neultin. “Good copy, thank you. So, what Operational Systems are directly linked to the Critical Emergency Life Support Systems?” Euphretes asked out loud, hoping any sort of viable link would come back online so Neuma could reenter the Flagship.
“Nothing with enough juice to allow me to get one of the generators to jump start Steadfast and Loyal’s primary engine. But, hopefully there’ll be enough left over power to give our exterior sensors and short range scanners a chance to show us what’s going on.”
“Well, Sir, the main component which takes priority is the Environment and Atmospheric Regulators,” Neultin explained. “Only when the Flagship is safe for human life will it divert any remaining power to the Operational Systems. If that happens, the first program to receive a line of connection will be the Central Diagnostic Unit. As for SR6, the chances of enough energy being left over to bring him back online are highly unlikely. However, once the CDU is receiving power, it’s possible a manual connection could be made on site.” Neultin finished. While he knew that if another RAI was online that it could restart SR6 from the inside, he purposefully left it out because they had all been mysteriously powered down.
As Nueltin explained, a quarter of the lighting consoles started to dimly come back to life. Simultaneously, a thousand different “clinks” and “clangs” rang out across the room as free-floating items that had enjoyed brief freedom from gravity started slowly dropping back down.
“Understood. Good stuff son, thank you for your help. Please tell Commander Remming that he has some competition,” The Admiral said in good spirits, still trying to maintain a calm demeanor.
“Anytime Sir, and will do,” Nueltin replied.
“Senior Leading Operative Crestone,” Euphretes announced, “Now that lights are coming back on, can you start working with Personnel Management to get me a status on the crew; the end state being we have all personnel accounted for across the entire Armada.”
Before the Senior Leader’s loud feet made their way toward Tropar’s personnel, Crestone’s voice answered from nearby, “Too Easy Sir. Operative Nettle, let’s get to work!”
“Any chance of you regaining any access at all?” Euphretes asked Neuma before speaking again to the Command Center. “Captain Blanchard, work with Engineering to see if there is a way we can by-pass these blast doors,” He directed, having full faith that his mechanics and specialists could get the Flagship up and running again if they could access the right areas.
“Oh yeah. The Central Diagnostic Unit is directly below the Command Center and well within our transmitter’s range,” Neuma answered. “But until a connection is opened back up, the CDU might as well be back on Santium.”
Captain Blanchard immediately made his way toward the Engineering Team’s Officer in Charge while shouting his response to the Armada Commander, “Roger, on it Sir!”
“Then we still have a fighting chance,” Euphretes expressed to Neuma. “By the way, what were you referring to when you said “it isn’t responding to SR6’?”
“Not sure exactly, but SR6 kept yelling at Steadfast and Loyal for not responding to his authorization.”
“Authorization for what?”
“Wish I knew,” Neuma said. “The Central Diagnostic Unit is starting to show signs of life. Time to see if we can get a better idea of what’s going on.”
“See if you can wake up SR6 while you’re at it.”
Immediately, Euphretes felt a large fraction of Neuma extend out of his consciousness, leaving a sizable hole that always stirred those feelings of abandonment. A short pause followed as Neuma worked her way through the Central Diagnostic Unit.
“No external damage. And from what I can see, we should be looking at no casualties.”
“How about the others?”
“I can’t make contact with any of the other Fleet Vessels yet, but they all appear to be damage free.” There was a momentary pause before Neuma resumed speaking. “Strange. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Steadfast and Loyal. But other than Life Support Operations and the Central Diagnostics Unit, I’m not getting anything else to respond. It’s as if something is plugging their connections!”
“Not exactly sure what that means,” Euphretes replied. “But can you work around it?”
“Only one way to find out."
Meanwhile, in the background, Command Center crew started the process of short circuiting the room’s blast door as Tropar and Crestone started compiling personnel numbers within the blast door’s shouting distance. “Good Copy! Have you at eight total! Over!” An Operative’s voice resounded over the noise.
The data display flickered a few times before coming to life, emitting a holographic orange glow that meant no information was being fed into its processors. Several of the interface monitors and work stations started to show signs of life by the soft vibrations of their start up procedures. In the background, section leaders were calling up their status reports while the Communications Team worked to establish contact with the Bridge. Now that Captain Ardein and Leading Operative Mercany did not have a Ship to Command, they were placed in Steadfast and Loyal’s Bridge to help oversee the Flagship. While breaking standard Huron Military Regulations, the destroyed Through the Abyss’s Command Team now had a purpose. Commander Ardein fell under the Operations Team on Steadfast and Loyal. The intent behind keeping them all on the same Ship was to give them a new Fleet Vessel to Command if Carpathian ever sent one, ensuring they stayed on the same Command Team.
“There we go!” Neuma joyfully stated. “I had to completely rework the operating functions of the Environment and Atmospheric Regulator. Whoever designed its transfer mechanisms was not at all worried about efficiency. Anyway, I managed to scrounge up enough energy to get some more out of our Operating Systems.”
“And that’s why I keep you around!” Euphretes teased.
“Ha, as if!”
As the monitors completed their start up procedures, they flicked on but were silently flashing the same peculiar warning beacons that showed up just before the Flagship shut down. Euphretes watched Crewman Nueltin walk up to one of the interfaces in an attempt to interpret the data. Aggravation started to seep into the Crewman Operative. “I can’t find the translation anyw
here! It’s either a programming disease that Steadfast and Loyal has never seen; or it was written before the Huron Empire even existed!” He shouted back to his team members.
“What?” An unknown team member inquired.
“It’s non-decipherable!”
Euphretes sensed the fractured part of Neuma return to his consciousness, filling the hole she had left behind. “SR6 will be coming online soon.”
“Awesome! Man am I glad that we went with the First Line Protective Suit today.”
“No kidding.”
Before Euphretes could respond, “Can anyone hear me?” SR6’s voice brought silence to the noisy Command Center almost immediately.
“Read you loud and clear. Glad to have you back!” Euphretes answered. He was filled with relief that the RAI had pulled through. “Glad to be back as well, Sir.”
“SR6!” Captain Blanchard stated while quickly walking over to Euphretes.
“Captain?” The RAI replied, choosing not to take up any additional energy by appearing as a holographic image.
“How are you back on-line? We haven’t been able to re-establish a manual connection yet?” The Executive Officer asked, skeptical about the RAI’s sudden appearance. The challenging question shut down any remaining side conversations; even Senior Leading Operative Crestone paused to listen in.
“He thinks SR6 did this.”
“My apologies Sir, but I’m afraid I don’t know. Steadfast and Loyal isn’t capable of memory storage at the moment, so any prior actions to re-establish my connection are entirely unknown on my part.”
“No need to explain further SR6,” Euphretes quickly interjected. “Captain Blanchard, your thought to be wary about the RAI’s improbable appearance is absolutely correct. However, at this moment, I am going to personally vouch for the RAI. I ask that we don’t let paranoia, albeit justified all things considered, prevent us from allowing one of our best assets from getting us out of our immediate predicament. Should anything further come up, we can re-approach the subject at that time. SR6,” Euphretes stopped to ensure everyone heard his next statement.
“Sir?”
“The Ship’s yours. Please don’t make a liar out of me.”
“SR6 can establish comms to the compartments that are locked behind blast doors, but he has to do it from here. The Bridge’s Central Diagnostic Unit isn’t receiving a connection for some reason. Either way, it’s going to limit what I can do on my end because of the added energy strain.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it Sir,” The RAI immediately answered.
With the RAI back in business, Euphretes could feel the confidence coming back into the room. “Good stuff SR6. Alright everybody, listen up. We have a very limited amount of power, so we need to determine how best to use it. First up is the status of the rest of the Flagship’s crew. Lieutenant Tropar and Senior Leading Operative Crestone, I am going to have SR6 open up a few direct link communications to the rest of the Ship so you can start getting a solid personnel count in spite of those blast doors. With that said, this will take up a large portion of the available energy, so please be quick.”
“We’ll get you your count Sir,” SR6 acknowledged as Crestone and Tropar started planning out the most efficient way to reach all of the Flagship’s personnel.
“I figured out what wasn’t responding to SR6 before everything shut down.” Neuma’s voice sounded concerned.
“And?”
“He was saying, ‘Steadfast and Loyal is receiving an immediate protocol order to shut down all external systems! An imbedded obligatory message is demanding access to the Command Center in order to stop it but it’s not responding to my authority!’ Not sure exactly what he meant to be honest.”
“An unresponsive imbedded obligatory message that basically shut down every aspect of this Ship?” Euphretes scoffed. “Cause that seems fair!”
“It makes no sense. The message was giving every indication that it would react to his commands, but nothing happened every time he tried to grant the message access.”
Not trying to state the obvious but also wanting to make sure that it happened, “Have you tried to grant the message access yourself? You know, now that you’re back inside Steadfast and Loyal to an extent?” he carefully stated.
“To be honest, it didn’t cross my mind. But it can’t hurt!” Euphretes instantly felt her extend further into every available area of the Flagship.
Seconds later, “Why couldn’t you do that earlier?!” Neuma groaned in frustration as the message responded immediately to her commands.
ZZZRRRIIIPPP! The Command Center instantly became remarkably brighter while at the same time sounding as if energy was being force fed back into equipment.
“Steadfast and Loyal’s primary engine is back on!” Neuma shouted with elation.
“Sir, we’re back on-line!” One of the engineers shouted in shock.
Out of nowhere, work stations still in the throes of working their way through start up procedures turned snow white. At the same time, the background noise of Tropar’s team receiving personnel counts went completely silent as their equipment was cut out.
“What the?!” One of the Crewman shouted after losing the other end of his connection.
Just then, Neuma was violently thrown into a virtual wall of confusion. Struggling to find the source, she searched until she found what she was looking for. A face, both horrifying and resplendently beautiful appeared before her. “Who are you?”
“Neuma, who are you talking to?” Euphretes asked, his mind scrolling through every plausible reason for her statement. Suddenly, something that felt like an electrical surge raced through every passageway in his subconscious brain. When the bolt completed its forked journey, a sinister voice crept through his mind space before bursting with rage, “There is nowhere you can hide, GUARDIAN!”
It was then that Euphretes noticed the complete absence of human voices in the back ground. He slowly lifted his gaze while turning around, observing every crew member’s transfixed expression in his peripherals while in the process.
Euphretes’s eyes widened as nine feet from his transfixed expression was a spitting image of The Almighty’s face, filling the entire data display with her pale skin while staring directly at the Armada Commander. While he had never seen The Almighty, the image instilled a sense of fear in him regardless. Before his mind could interpret the information flooding in from his eyes,
“What was that?!” Neuma exclaimed, feeling an outside presence enter her partner’s mind space for the first time.
“Oh, so now you hear them?”
“That voice was one of them?!” Neuma asked, remembering Euphretes’s description of Kyurious and Adoenye.
“I don’t know, but something tells me that this white faced program has something to do with them,” He commented.
Nearly identical to the corrupted Birth Code, the image before the stunned Admiral was a Prerecorded Superimposed Response Program, otherwise known as The Guardian Response Program. The representation was based off the original Birth Code’s appearance and manor, before her disgust in Mankind had manifested itself on her cheeks in strange blazing red letters.
“Hello Empirical Admiral Euphretes, son of Tabor Huron!” The pale face tilted to the right slightly as her mismatched eyes studied the Human before her. One eye was a strange sort of silver while the other was the deepest blue. “I assume you are the Commanding Officer of this humble gathering of Huron Fleet Vessels?”
“How does it know my mother’s name?” Euphretes remarked to Neuma, stunned that the UIS allowed whatever was before them access to parts of Euphretes’s profile that even Emperor Carpathian technically wasn’t allowed to see.
“Not sure, but don’t keep it waiting.”
“I am,” Euphretes replied to the white face, examining it the same way its eyes were studying him, “And who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
The youthful pale face gave a quizzical look before speaking, “My apolo
gies Admiral Euphretes. Please forgive my being rude. My name is Arhangalos Jibril, otherwise known as the UIS’s Guardian Response Program, but you can call me Jibril.” She paused momentarily to let the words resonate before providing another piece to the puzzle. “If it helps, you’ve already met another one of Adoenye’s creations, Kyurious.”
Captain Blanchard shot a baffled look at Crestone at the mention of the peculiar names. But
Crestone was just as in the dark as the Captain. While the name Adoenye struck the same chord it had in Euphretes when he first read the Pillar AI’s name, neither knew the truth to the rumors behind the UIS.
Knowing that no-one else in the Command Center had any idea what Arhangalos Jibril was talking about, Euphretes quickly steered the conversation away from his experience with Adoenye. “It’s nice to meet you Arhangalos Jibril. Now, is it safe to assume that you are responsible for the attack on my Armada?”
Through the Abyss Page 39