Soundless Conflicts

by S. Walker

  Two corridors and a mid-ship transfer later she was slowly approaching the bridge, already thinking ahead to what needed to happen. For sure she needed more time on the manual navigation simulations, but coordinating that while making sure no one found out was going to be difficult. Not to mention the unanswered personnel questions that keep popping up: She had access to crew files but with everything going on there'd been no free moments to really dive into reading. Which in hindsight was probably a huge error: She'd assumed this was a regular Corporate Navy posting, with CN personnel. That was exactly how she'd treated the crew and they gave back nothing but raw contempt in return.

  Now, after talking with Siers, Jamet had a worrying feeling like the last week was a tightrope she'd been walking entirely by accident.

  Rounding the corner, she caught sight of a small figure wearing a colored visor. She sped up. "Emilia! Good morning."

  The Comms technician stiffened and turned, revealing an enormous thermos in both hands. One eyebrow raised in skepticism. "Kind of chipper, aren't you? A regular morning go-getter."

  "I am?" She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "I am. Are you planning to share that caf?"

  Skepticism turned to wary hostility. "What if I'm not?"

  "Well I've noticed the break room is rather unclean-"

  "Fine! But get your own damn mug." Emilia sounded salty... but the corners of her mouth lifted slightly. She fell in beside Jamet, protectively cradling the thermos in one arm. The taller lieutenant slowed down a little to make walking easier, then side-eyed the surly technician. This might be a good time to fill in some blanks in her knowledge.

  "So." How to approach this topic? It might be best to just dive in. "Shareholders, right?"

  Emilia tripped on nothing and almost went face first into the bulkhead. "How do you know about- oh, right. Wow." She looked genuinely floored. "The captain already gave you the talk and everything? The whole deal?"

  For a long, drawn out moment Jamet thought about bluffing her way through. It was what she'd have done in a normal conversation with a Management peer: Pretend to know more than she did, trap them into admissions and follow up later for maximum benefit. Up until a week ago she wouldn't have given it a second thought, but now something felt off about being so one-sided.

  So she tried something new: Honesty. "Not really. He gave me a share, I think. But a share of what? I don't know, other than he said you could explain. Or Janson and Paul. Anything you can tell me?"

  They paused together at the bridge hatch while Emilia thought about that. Eventually she looked up, visor reflecting Jamet's face in a swirl of rainbow colors. "Did you get to the part about the Boards? Because if I have to explain that we're going to need a cleaning kit because that-"

  "-rarely goes well." Jamet completed the phrase right along with her. "Yes, the Boards reporting to Boards bit was, uh, a struuuuuggle." She said that last with an up-and-down tone that implied quite a lot of personal sacrifice.

  "Oh, good. Good. Okay, so all of the systems were investments from other groups that put in startup money and resources. Right?" Jamet nodded along. "So whoever put the cash in gets their money back if the development works out. That's a share: Whatever the system makes, they get a piece of it."

  "A piece of what?"

  "Everything that system makes." She waved both arms around to indicate everything around the ship. "All the profits."

  Jamet thought about Middle Management budget meetings, remembering the sheer volume of credits on the bottom line. Then she imagined the Upper Management meetings and suddenly felt a bit light headed. "How much of the profits? For how long?"

  "For one share? Not sure, Princess. Probably something like a fraction of a percent. But it's forever, unless you sell the share or something."

  One percent (of even a single percentage) of total system profits would still be in the millions. Jamet felt sick and free all at the same time. "So all of us have a share in... Eblett? Or wait, where are we- Pilster?"

  Emilia looked at her oddly. Or at least Jamet assumed so from the way her head was tilted. "Princess, you have one share of everything. Boards reporting to Boards, remember? I'm starting to think you faked your way through school or something."

  It suddenly clicked. The entire Corporate was a pyramid going to a single point, which meant... which meant... "One share of the original system that invested in everything?" That wasn't millions. Or billions. Suddenly she remembered seeing the banking sheet in front of Captain Siers, lighting up his face as he transferred something to her account. The total at the bottom hadn't been a number-- it looked like an alphabet. Powers of powers.

  Emilia pointed both index fingers her way, thermos tucked securely under one arm. "You got it now. You're outside the whole bullshit Corporate thing now; congratulations. I'll be honest with you, Princess-- I still don't know why we picked you up." She hit the hatch control and leaned in, voice lowering. "But you're not all bad. Hurry up and get yourself a mug, this caf is goin' fast."

  The short woman marched onto the bridge with the thermos held high like a conquering hero, drawing a laugh from a tired-looking Siers. Jamet followed her slowly, feeling a bit shell shocked.

  "Good to see you, lieutenant." Siers already had a mug out, hand steady as Emilia poured. "And even better to see you, Emilia-- I was starting to think you all were going to find me sleeping at the wheel. Glad I made it."

  Jamet took the co-CEO workstation seat, swiping the console to life with her wrist ID. Half the display sputtered to life, system readouts cluttering the right hand side. She frowned at it, irked. "Any updates? Are we on course, any problems?"

  Siers waved at the forward display, currently set to show the entire system at once. The primary star was front and center on screen, surrounded by two asteroid belts with gas giants taking up orbits in between. A callout on the edge of the display indicated the system arrival point, with a hazard indicator for derelicts and debris. "Nothing changed on our course, no new arrivals in system. But I do have an update on our survivors."

  He tapped a callout over the nearest gas giant, then drew a box and zoomed in until the icon became a clear image of the mining ring. "See it?" He pointed a quarter turn clockwise around the facility. "The exterior lights came on. I checked imagery from when we first arrived and that whole section was dark."

  Emilia took her Comm workstation, bringing up an interface that looked like a cross between a music equalizer and a heatmap. She scanned it from left to right and frowned. "We're picking up more background signals. I can tell they are signals, but just barely: If they weren't so regular on a single band it would just look like background noise. They need a better transmitter." She thought for a moment, then muttered quietly to herself: "Or we need a better receiver."

  Siers nodded, then everyone turned as the bridge hatch opened. Janson lumbered in with the worn out, slightly hangdog appearance of someone going through withdrawals. That changed in an instant when he smelled Emilia's thermos: The big man made a machinelike precision turn and headed her way, only pausing to snag a mug from his own workstation along the way. "S'morning, Emilia. Ahhh, thank you-- that's life's blood, right there." He backtracked to his own console, nodding to Jamet along the way and tipping his drink to Siers. "Ma'am. Captain."

  "Welcome back, Janson." Siers sounded amused. "Status update on repairs?"

  "Well ah was running drones most of th' morning-"

  "I expressly told you not to do that."

  The engineer shrugged agreeably. "Can't help it sometimes, sir. You know." He tapped the scars visible over his collar. "Systems start talkin' an' before I know it things are getting done."

  Siers pinched the bridge of his nose, then sighed. "I understand, but I wish it weren't so. Moving along-- updates?"

  Janson waved his console to life, grabbing icons and flicking them onto the shared forward workspace. "Everythin' that can be sealed is closed up. Got half the power relays workin', although don't go hitting anything with
a singularity soon, ma'am." He tossed that at Jamet. She gave him an embarrassed look in return. "Krepsfield repairs ah also doin' fine, we'll have all three back by the end of ship's day."

  "What about just one?" Jamet asked. She pointed at the screen, indicating their current speed. "Can we get a single uh, singularity, working? Just for a little bit, to brake our speed?"

  Both eyebrows shot up as Siers leaned in. "That's a good question. We're decelerating, but even a momentary event horizon adjustment would put us at a better approach."

  Janson thought about it, eyes unfocused and upwards as he consulted chipped systems. "Probably. Yeah, ah can do that, if we start real slow building a charge in the couplings. It's only going to be for maybe half a minute; that good enough?"

  Everyone looked at Jamet. She gulped and worked furiously on half her console, pulling data and making guesses. "Do we want to be at a dead stop? Or still moving?"

  "I think perhaps three thousand feet per second, if you can." Siers glanced at Janson, who nodded in return. "We can decelerate with retros the rest of the way without straining ourselves."

  "Okay, then... yes. Yes, we can do that in thirty seconds. It's going to be a strain, though."

  "I think we can handle it. Engineer, how long before we can get one singularity available?"

  Jamet noticed Emilia frowning off to the side, eyebrows lowered intently under her visor. The Comms technician was working on something, tapping one side of her console and pulling system icons to the other side.

  "Three or four minutes, sir." Janson pulled up a schematic of the Kipper, pointing to a blue line of power relays zigzagging up the ship from the aft reactor. "Ah'm working with patched relays right now. If we pop any of those parts of th' ship go dark. The LT or I would need to manually restart the repair drones again."

  Visions of a dark corridor with blown out walls sprang into her mind, cold stars shining through the ship hull. "I would very much like to avoid that, please."

  Janson grinned. "Ah know. Starting the power build now, give it three minutes or so. Watch your console-- the singularity will pop up on you when the Krepsfield gets enough input. Not sure when, but it'll last about thirty seconds after that."

  "Got it." Jamet stacked manual navigation controls on top of each other, taking up most of her workspace area. "I'll watch out."

  Emilia suddenly whooped, then hit a control on her workstation. Immediately the overhead speakers cut on with a tangle of half a dozen static-filled voices, all talking over each other.

  "-that room immediately..."

  "Course the bloody handle's stuck, when does..."

  "-can't do that! Why does everything have-"

  Siers sat upright. "Is that...?"

  Emilia was grinning and tapping between controls. "It's the habitation ring! I've got fifteen, no wait-- at least twenty-seven broadcasts. Almost everything's on the emergency channel and super low power."

  "Very well done!" Siers toasted her ironically. "Can we broadcast to them?"

  "No, sorry. I'm cheating a bit right now to get this much-- basically I'm using the wireless receivers on every ship drone as a huge signals net."

  "Ay now, don't be repurposing my-"

  Emilia waved him down. "Hush, I'm not doing anything with the drones. Just using them to listen. At least we can get a count of how many survivors we have." She suddenly looked crestfallen. "I was hoping for more."

  "The transmitters might have failed," Jamet offered. "Happens a lot. Corners get cut, substandard equipment gets installed. I've seen a lot of sanctions over that when someone gets caught profiting on bad contracts."

  Janson swiped a timer onto her display. "About one minute, ma'am. Keep an eye out." She nodded.

  Siers had control of the signals now, slowly going through them with an intent look. "They're almost all on the emergency band, Comms?" Emilia nodded, then highlighted the signal range for him. He played with it for a moment, then pointed at a line just below the chaotic mess. "What's this?"

  She frowned, then pulled up a window. "It's a transmission, but not on the emergency frequency. It's- hmm." A database query popped up, there and gone in a flash. "Ah, found it: That's the signal range for a station-keeping transmitter. Deep space mining drones use it to orient on so they can locate the right bays to drop off ore."

  "Shouldn't that have been on the processing station? Why isn't it in fragments with the rest of the facility?"

  "That's a... good question." Emilia sounded puzzled. "You're right. Maybe this is a backup, somewhere on the habitation ring?"

  Jamet's timer ticked down to thirty seconds and flashed red. She split her attention between the conversation and her console, willing the singularity to come to life. It was her one job and she wouldn't miss the opportunity.

  "Could the survivors be using it to call for help? Is there another group?" Siers seemed animated by the idea. "Or maybe a holdout in another section, on a transport perhaps?"

  "Hold on, going through analysis." Emilia frowned. "Sorry, captain. It's a loop, not a live broadcast. It's repeating a signal, the same twenty second transmission over and over. If anyone was alive when it started they probably aren't now-- do we really want to listen?"

  Jamet's timer hit zero. She watched the display like a hawk. "Janson...?"

  "Any moment now, LT. Couplers are charged, Krepsfield engaging."

  Siers motioned towards the overheads. "Sorry, Emilia-- I think we might need to hear this. I know it might be bad, but please put it on if you can."

  "Alright, captain. Here we go." She adjusted something on her console, then tapped an icon and looked upward.

  Overhead speakers came to life, hissing and popping with audio artifacts from either a bad setup or sheer distance. Whoever recorded the broadcast sounded like they were speaking from inside a skinsuit: The low, exhausted voice had an flat echo that made it hard to understand some of the words. They caught the message mid-sentence.

  "-to any ship in range. This is Executive Thomas Minyer from the MES Fortune's Find, offering full repayment for any rescue attempt possible for me and my family. Military intervention is requested. Be aware our system is under attack from multiple unknown hostiles, origin unclear. I will stand by on this frequency for any reply. This is an open broadcast, to any ship-"

  Emilia angrily cut the loop off, stopping the Executive's desperate plea mid-word. "Incredible. Millions in danger and this asshole is buying rescue for himself. Goddamn Corpo."

  Siers frowned. "Wait. What did he say?"

  "He was buying off a rescue ship! Probably-"

  "No, not that. What did he say about multiple hostiles?"

  Jamet's console suddenly lit up as a singularity became available. She whooped, then hammered the engagement icon and flicked the black hole behind them, close enough to make the hull groan. "I've got it! Throwing our event horizon aft, going to full decel-"

  "NO!" Siers screamed. "DON'T!"

  On the forward workspace dozens of small red contacts came to life, spread through the asteroid belt like furious stars.

  Chapter 19

  Room and Boarders

  "I didn't know!" Jamet screamed, frantically working navigation controls.

  "Save it!" Emilia shouted back. "Nobody knew! Captain, I'm tagging the incoming hostiles!"

  Siers already had a callout window pulled up on the forward workspace. He added Emilia's icons to the display as fast as she could throw them his way. Markers stacked up by the dozens, each one with an informational tag listing distance and acceleration. "Point a sensor that way! I need a visual of them!"

  "Should I stop?!" Jamet's hand hovered over the button to cut off their singularity.