He breathed out and stretched his neck. “Why are we stopped?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted, the frustration palpable. “Lt. Cmdr. Alvarez is working on it right now. We don’t appear to be in any immediate danger, based on sensors, but we need to be ready for anything.”
“What do you think the problem is?”
She took a step over to the console, and brought up the radiation level readings. “There’s this,” she said, pointing to the screen.
Randy took a look and then let out a low whistle. “That’s high. But radiation shouldn’t have affected the electronics like this.”
“No, it shouldn’t have,” Sam admitted. “The other problem is that our AI isn’t working properly.”
“Katarina?” He ran his fingers through his graying hair. “Katarina is supposed to be top-of-the-line, the best ever built.”
Sam nodded. “She is. She’s perfect for ship control and dealing with unknown threats. She can collate information and learn. But she’s not responding right now, even though all other internal functions appear to be working properly. Lt. Cmdr. Alvarez is trying to determine what went wrong. Right before the stop, the ship performed an evasive maneuver.”
He shook his head. “Well, that’s what I get for trying to sleep,” he said with a chuckle.
His attempt to inject humor into the dire situation might have been appreciated with another recipient. Not Sam. “I’m sorry you didn’t get much rest. Grab a supplement from Dr. Zucker, if you need it. I need everyone alert and ready.”
He nodded. “I’m fine,” he said, with an exaggerated smile as he stiffened his position, attempting to appear alert. “If I need a supplement, I’ll grab one from Grace. Right now, what’s engineering’s take on things?”
“Lt. Cmdr. Alvarez is in the engine room now, checking thrusters, warp drive, and related systems. Sensor data indicate the maneuver was not caused by anything outside the ship, like an asteroid, space debris or even a hostile alien.”
“View screen on,” Commander Weeks said. He looked up at the view screen, which remained blank. He repeated the command. “View screen on.”
Sam sighed. She’d told him the AI wasn’t working. Well, he was the type who had to see things for himself. That was good, sometimes. “AI isn’t working and manual attempts to pull up the view screen have failed.”
“So we’re blind?”
She looked at the empty view screen. “Pretty much. I wish the hull could support a real window. But it’s for the best. Given the higher radiation levels we’re experiencing here, we’d be dead if we had a real window.”
Randy blew out a breath and then looked down at the readings on the screen. “Even though AI is broken we’re still getting accurate readings?”
“It appears so. But I’d like to check on things myself. I’m going down to engineering. Stay here and keep things afloat. I haven’t had a chance to fully brief everyone, just to put the ship on alert. I’d like you to brief the rest of the crew.”
He grinned. “Brief them on the little we know? Should take all of ten seconds.”
“True, but everyone needs to be involved. Dr. Zucker should prepare anti-radiation protocols, in case we’re stuck here much longer. Lt. Lyons can offer assistance monitoring the equipment and onboard supplies.” She turned to walk away. “I’m off to engineering.”
He nodded, but then added. “I thought you were going to try to stay out of engineering.”
Sam half smiled. “Try was the operative word. I tried. I just wasn’t very good at it. Don’t worry. I’ll be tactful.”
Chapter 3 - Engineering
It had been half an hour since everything had gone haywire and now Captain Hobson stood next to Jim in main engineering. He’d gone over the main systems to make sure there was no damage to the engine or warp core. If the maneuver had damaged anything, they’d be stranded in space in an area of excessive radiation.
His initial survey of systems said everything was working properly. He’d explained his findings to Captain Hobson and she’d listened intently. She stood less than a foot from him in this tiny space. Small ships meant small workspaces. The empty area to stand in this room was about five feet square. Even then, there was exposed equipment to allow the engineer to work.
“So, everything looks right?”
“Yes, Captain,” he said. “There is no reason we shouldn’t be moving and no reason the AI shouldn’t be working.”
She quickly scanned the room and then walked over to the main terminal for input. She accessed the root file — all the code that ran the AI on the ship. If any other captain had done that, Jim would have told them to back off. Even now, he found himself uttering, “Careful there.”
She turned and nodded to him. “I’ve used a Kat system ever since I was a child. I’m really familiar with the code. And I’m just looking. I promise.”
He nodded. They’d talked briefly about her parents when they first started the mission. She’d tried to spend a little time chatting with each of the crew. He’d tried to casually mention that he’d heard her parents were Lin and Ephraim Hobson. She’d nodded, as if it were nothing. But for an engineer, her parents were like the Holy Grail. They were the backbone of integrated computer engineering. They’d designed most of WAFES’ AI. They were the smartest people on the planet. He’d have been in awe just by who she was, but she knew a lot about the ship and engineering.
Her eyes scanned the lines of code that appeared on the screen, her teeth biting her lower lip. She was completely focused and intense. He liked watching her like this, so wrapped up in what was in front of her. He suspected the ship could swerve again and she wouldn’t even notice. He wondered, as he marveled at her intensity, if the rumors were true. People said she’d been raised by AI. That her parents were so busy, they’d simply handed her off to AI and bots to be reared. Though, he suspected the rumors had been started by jealous people. Even those who were good at their jobs were subject to hurtful gossip. People said her precision, her ability to be perfect at everything was a result of her AI upbringing. But as watched her, as he saw the way she bit her lip, the way she brushed her hair behind her ear, he knew she felt; that she was like him, just a person who understood machines. Understanding how things worked didn’t make you inhuman.
She turned to him and offered a weak smile. “Jim,” she said, dipping her head slightly, folding her hands across her body, and then unfolding them. “Look, I hope my being here doesn’t come across like I’m suggesting you aren’t doing your job. I’ve seen engineering from the lowest to the upper echelon, and you’re one of the best I’ve ever met. I’m not undercutting that. I just think, sometimes, if you have two heads look at a problem, you might find a better solution.”
He nodded. She was right. Two heads were better than one. “Did I miss anything in the code?”
Her eyes turned back to the screen. She didn’t speak for a minute as she watched several lines whiz by on the terminal. Then she turned to him. “Nothing’s wrong in the major code, but clearly something has happened. She seems to be running. She’s still navigating the ship and running all the life support and safety functions. But the ship has stopped and she can’t communicate with us.”
That about summed it up. “I should check the sensor array again,” he said. “Maybe it’s not working and the ship was hit by something.”
Sam looked skeptical. “If something external caused this, we’d see some type of damage in here, right?” On the wall nearby was a diagram of the ship, and she pointed.
He looked at where she was motioning. “Yeah, that’s right,” he said. She knew her ship. She had engineering knowledge up the wazoo, and the pedigree to be creating something really awesome. Only she’d been afraid of going into engineering of any kind. “They’d only see my parents, not me,” she’d told him a couple of months ago, when he’d asked if she’d ever considered engineering. Her parents had created too big of a shadow and she didn’t want to
live in that darkness. He could respect that. But he wondered if she’d shortchanged herself by heading to the other side of things. Even now, her eyes were alight with happiness and her body at ease as she tackled this problem.
She turned to look at him. “It could be the sensors, but that seems less likely. I feel like the problem is in here. Let’s both go over everything. I’ll get Commander Weeks to finish the scan of the sensor array.”
She returned her attention to the code on the screen. He wanted to say, hell no. Weeks was the kind of shit that rose to the top. He was a brash, cocky asshole who had a terrible habit of thinking he was perfect at everything. Jim despised every interaction with him and had no idea how the guy had managed to secure this post. Hobson was known for wanting to surround herself with good people. While he’d grudgingly admit Weeks was competent, that didn’t make him easy to work with.
“He’s performing captain responsibilities while you’re down here, isn’t he?” Jim said.
Sam looked up from the screen and nodded.
“Maybe he should focus on keeping the ship secure. We could get Grace to do it.”
Sam considered it for a moment, then shook her head. “Dr. Zucker is more pleasant than Commander Weeks. However, Commander Weeks has more engineering background than her. All captains and first officers take a basic ship maintenance course. Dr. Zucker hasn’t had that, and she wouldn’t know if the readings didn’t jibe. I’ll have him do it.”
Chapter 4 - Man Down
It had been another 40 minutes and they’d learned nothing except everything looked fine. Except the ship wouldn’t run and their AI wasn’t working. They were essentially adrift in space.
Sam had walked over to the intercom. “Commander Weeks,” she said. “Have you had any luck with the scans?”
They waited a moment and then Weeks’ voice crackled over the intercom. “I’m almost done here,” he sputtered, sounding a bit winded.
Flying figshit. What was wrong with Randy? He should have already finished; it wasn’t an arduous task. Jim didn’t doubt the captain, but he wished she’d sent Grace. The doctor was efficient, smart, and easy to work with.
“It looks like everything is fine with the sensors,” Randy, said as he sucked in a breath. “Give me 10 seconds. I’m just waiting for the positioning system scan to come back.”
Randy hadn’t been asked to scan that, though Jim had to admit it was a decent idea. Maybe Sam had been right. Randy’s knowledge of the ship had been an asset in this instance. “Whoa,” they heard Randy say over the loudspeaker. “I know what’s causing the radiation. We’re not—” and then his voice cut off.
Sam pressed the intercom again. “Commander Weeks, we lost you. Repeat.”
They waited. Five seconds. Another five. She pressed the intercom again. “Commander Weeks, please repeat.”
They waited. Again no answer.
Jim had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. He looked at Sam. Her brow was furrowed, her teeth biting her lower lip. “I’ll go check on him,” she said.
“We should both go.”
Sam shook her head. “That’s not logical. You need to continue checking the systems.”
Jim shook his head. He wasn’t letting her go alone. “You know the AI probes reported alien ships have flown through this region.”
She stared at him. “Right?”
“What if they have some kind of technology that can get inside our ship? I mean, what if it’s bots, but smaller than ours. What if they’ve done something to our ship, and got something on board?”
“We’d know if there had been a hull breach.”
Jim shook his head. “We only know our technology. We don’t know if they have ways to breach the hull undetected. Back home, we’re really close to working transporters, sending particles from one ship to another. What if aliens have perfected it already? We’re a small crew. We should go together, back each other up.” Alien tech transporting aboard was far-fetched, but it wasn’t impossible. He just knew she shouldn’t storm in there by herself, and he hoped this would make her take him with her.
Sam thought on it for a moment. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll go in and check it out. If there appears to be something dangerous, kill it, even if that means killing me and Commander Weeks, too.”
She’d said it as if it was an order, so he nodded. But there was no way in hell he’d do anything that would kill her.
* * *
Dr. Grace Zucker stood over the first officer’s dead body. She wiped a tear from her eye, but when she spoke, her voice didn’t waver. “It appears he suffocated,” she said.
“How?” Jim asked, as he stared at the unmoving body of the guy he’d just a few minutes ago had nothing but unkind thoughts about. He felt awful about that now.
Grace looked around the room. “A failure in the oxygen system?”
Jim walked over to a control panel on the wall. That was crazy. “Why would the oxygen system for just this room stop working? And then why would it start working again. When we got here, the air was breathable.”
He glanced at Sam, remembering when they’d stormed to the doors a few minutes ago and found them locked. She hadn’t bothered pounding on them. Instead, Sam went straight for the manual override. It took a minute to get the paneling off to enact the override, but as soon as it was done, she’d run straight to Weeks and started CPR. Jim had used the intercom to call for Grace. Sam stopped shortly after she began, saying he was gone. She’d turned away from him to compose herself, and he’d let her. He’d needed a moment to compose himself, too. Even though he hadn’t liked Randy, he hadn’t wanted him dead. It was a small enough crew as it was, and now they were down a man. If Randy could die just like that, so could any of the rest of them.
Grace kneeled down next to the body again and looked at it closely. “All I can tell you is this is oxygen deprivation. It’s textbook to the pallor of the skin, the color of his tongue, and even the way his skin feels. If Katarina were working, I’m sure her scans could confirm it. I need to take him back to the med bay to perform a manual autopsy.”
Sam shook her head. “No,” she said adamantly. “Lt. Cmdr. Alvarez has mentioned the possibility of alien technology being aboard our ship. We need to make sure our ship is secure before we begin an autopsy.”
Grace turned to Jim. “You really think that, Jim?” the doctor asked.
He shrugged, trying not to let his embarrassment show. He wished he’d thought of a better reason to tag along, but it wasn’t something to entirely discount. What was happening made no senses. “I don’t know what to think,” he responded to Grace finally, as he accessed the room’s oxygen readings on the screen. “Regardless, I concur with the captain. Let’s put Commander Weeks in a cryo chamber until we sort this out.”
Grace nodded. “Fine,” she said. “Are the bots working?” She looked down at the body. “If not, I’ll need a hand getting him to the medical unit.”
“Figshit,” Jim spat.
“What is it?” Sam asked, turning to him.
He waved her over so that she could take a look at the data herself. She scanned it, but her expression didn’t change. Always cool under pressure. “Dr. Zucker,” she said, turning back to Grace. “We won’t need the autopsy. At the start of Commander Weeks’ scan, the room began to slowly decrease the oxygen levels. When he was communicating with me, the computer cut off all oxygen for approximately four minutes, blasting the room with breathable air immediately before we arrived.”
Concerned, Grace looked around the small room. “Why would that happen?”
Sam looked at Jim and said, “Lt. Cmdr. Alvarez may be right. We may have alien tech on board sabotaging our system. Everyone out of this room, right now.”
“What about Randy?” Grace said, looking at his lifeless body on the floor.
Sam didn’t look back as she exited the room. “Leave him.”
Chapter 5 - More Questions
The remaining crew were in the medical b
ay. It was big enough for a maximum of three patients, which meant the entire ship could be run by a crew of one, while three convalesced under the guidance of the doctor.
Lt. Walter Lyon was the botanist. He was a tall, muscular man with brown skin and short hair. He always looked pensive, as if his mind was deep in thought.
Walter was shaking his head. “I still can’t believe he’s gone,” he muttered. “And you think a ship malfunction killed him.”
Jim nodded. “I’m not sure if it was a malfunction or some type of malicious alien technology.”
Sam wasn’t so sure it was malicious technology. She was starting to wonder if Kat hadn’t killed him. The ship wouldn’t be functioning the way it was if Kat was completely inoperable. So she was working. She was just choosing not to talk to them. Sam assumed Jim was suggesting malicious alien technology for the same reason she wasn’t disagreeing with him — concern that Kat was watching them and plotting their demise. Sam preferred honesty in most situations, but people tended to fear an out-of-control AI. Her parents had put in many safeguards to warn against such a thing, and the probability of such a thing happening was infinitesimal. However, people let their imaginations go wild when it came to AI. Sam didn’t want to prematurely accuse Kat, so she figured she’d let things play out without adding her thoughts on this particular matter.
Walter, seated on one of the patient beds, rubbed his temples. “So what do we know about our position?”
“Just that we’re in system Alpha 9, and very close to our destination planet,” Sam said. “But the radiation readings are off the charts, and there’s not a good explanation for it.”
Walter nodded. “How do we know the oxygen won’t shut off on the rest of us?”
“We don’t,” Sam said. “That’s why we’re meeting in the med bay. I want everyone to take an emergency portable oxygen unit. Keep it with you at all times. It gives you one hour of oxygen, and it’s enough that we should be able to cope with any potential problems.”
The Expanding Universe Page 13