by Charles Mead
“Yes sir.”
“Mr Vokes, hail Admiral Herd and patch it through to the ward room. You have the bridge,” said Ben as he turned and left the bridge.
“Aye sir.”
***
Ben pressed the screen button on the large ward room table to show the admiral on screen.
“Ben, good to hear from you. Status report; how’s your nose now?”
“Never mind my nose. We found your rogue submarine, two of my crew are currently on board but we cannot communicate with them any longer. We can, however, still track it, for now.”
“I … err … see. What’s the analysis so far?”
“Well, let’s see, my analysis is you haven’t been completely truthful with me, Admiral.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“DAMN IT. Cut the crap, sir. You asked me to step in and help you and I am. We found that damn boat, I really wanted to destroy the thing, but you know what, I got curious. What could we learn about it?”
“Captain, I suggest you proceed carefully.”
“Ok, here it is. That submarine has U.E.S technology on it.”
“That’s what you believe is on there?”
“Don’t patronise me, Admiral. We have known each other for years. I know you very well, and you’re not being truthful with me. Now, I am going to give you five seconds to start telling me what I need to know, otherwise I am going to chase that sub down, recover my crew, and then disable all its functions. Then I am going to order the submarine be stripped down in public and offer a public news feed of it.”
“You cannot do that, Ben.”
“Why not?”
“That’s classified.”
“Well, declassify it immediately.”
“Look Ben,” said the admiral with a sigh, “you are right, or at least partially right, in your suspicions. That rogue submarine does have U.E.S. technology on it; we think it was the basis on which they built it…”
“Who are they?”
“We suspect they are one of the emerging factions out of Marconesia. A few years ago, we had an exchange programme with some of those colonies. Exchange of ideas, personnel, you know the score.”
“No, not really, and it included an exchange of giving our technology away to them?”
“Come on, Ben, we’re not that stupid as an organisation. Yes, we do bureaucracy but not stupidity.”
“Well, I am going to disagree with you on that one.”
“Fair enough. Anyway, to get back to what I was saying, this exchange stopped when a couple of their exchange engineers went missing. We never found them, but we did find out that they had accessed restricted areas before they vanished.”
“Oh brilliant, Admiral, so not stupid but incompetent security within the bureaucracy.”
“Lessons were learned, Ben.”
“But clearly not the lesson of finding out where these people had gone with our techonology before they built a submarine that’s destroying our colonies.”
“Yes, it’s regrettable.”
“I would think the families of those killed would have different words to describe it, Admiral.”
“We will deal with that.”
“You had better. What’s to say this Marconesian alliance haven’t built several submarines like this current one? Proteus cannot be everywhere all at once.”
“We are sixty percent certain that hasn’t happened, Ben.”
“Well, I am therefore forty percent assured then, Admiral,” replied Ben sarcastically.
“From what we can tell this rogue submarine is the only one. All our spy stations have nothing else to suggest this is not the case.”
“Why couldn’t you just tell me this, Admiral?”
“Well, whilst I told you I don’t report to anyone higher in the U.E.S., I still report to people, like government ministers, and they made the call to make it confidential. We thought, and I knew, you would find the submarine.”
“Well, that’s a vote of confidence of sorts. I am inclined to give these government ministers a tour of Proteus when we are in dock and then have them swim the swim tubes with a shark in them to make them think about what they have done and accountability.”
“Well, they probably will want a tour at some point. I think it best you don’t do it.”
“I think that’s best too. Now, as you know so much about this rogue submarine, I assume you have tactical specifications on it?”
“We do.”
“I want it shared with my security officer immediately.”
“Will do.”
“After we have recovered our two crew, whilst at the same time making sure this submarine does not destroy any more of our colonies, I take it I am authorised to destroy this submarine by any means necessary.”
“You are, but I am sure you can think of intelligent ways to do it.”
“Oh, I know I can, but perhaps I will take a leaf out of U.E.S. security and completely fail.”
“No need for that, Ben.”
“Proteus out,” said Ben as he pressed the button on the ward room table to end the conference.
“Captain to the bridge,” said Daniel Vokes through the intercom.
“On my way.”
***
“Sir, we are tracking the rogue submarine well. It’s not currently heading towards any of our colonies and just appears to be deciding what to do next.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. You should have some more data on the rogue submarine at your station now. I need you to go through it and give us any advantage. I have just been ordered by the admiral to destroy it by any means necessary.”
Daniel Vokes looked uneasy at this.
“Relax, Mr Vokes, we are to destroy after we have recovered our two crew members, whilst making sure this submarine does not attack any other colonies.”
“Aye sir.”
“Mr Weaver, I need you to find a way for us to talk to our crew on that submarine.”
“Aye sir, but I am not sure how to do this.”
“I don’t care. Make a start. I want to hear any and all options.”
***
On the rogue submarine Commander Nichols and Steve Kennedy were still on the bridge.
“What do we do now, sir?” asked Steve.
“Well, I am sure Proteus is trying to find a way to get to us, but, as we are here, we might as well take a look around the bridge.”
“Do you think, sir, we could be being watched right now?”
“Maybe, but I have a feeling that the people who designed this ship were so arrogant they never expected two people to be able to get onto the bridge.”
“Perhaps it is just deciding what to do with us.”
“I think it would have already done something, assuming it is capable of that.”
“It was smart enough to lock down the bridge, sir.”
“Yes it was, but I suspect that is a standard program being run, secure the bridge to stop people getting access to it. Unfortunately for them, we are already here.”
Commander Nichols accessed one of the panels and starting tapping away.
“Hmmm, this is interesting.”
“Sir?”
“Take a look at this. We were tracking this ship, but look at this,” said the commander as he pointed to the screen.
“It can’t be that easy, sir, it might be a trap.”
“It might be, but we need to find a way to communicate this back to Proteus without it being detected that that is what we are doing.”
***
Back on Proteus Captain Ben was growing impatient.
“What are our options?”
“I have nothing at the moment, sir,” said Will.
“Well, keep looking, I want a way to get to that ship and our crew without the AI in that ship realising what we are doing.”
“Aye sir.”
“I have a suggestion,” said Mr Vokes.
“Go ahead.”
“We could run one of our faster l
aunches as low as we can along the seabed and then switch to the docking vehicle at the last moment and head straight up towards the ship.”
“Now that could work, but given its intelligence it could slice you up before you get anywhere close to a docking hatch.”
“Well, if we control our speed enough, could we spoof being a school of dolphins?”
“Good thinking, how do we spoof it?”
“We’ll need some help.”
“Dr Martinez to the bridge,” said Ben.
“Aye sir?”
“Mr Vokes, make the preparations for the launch, I will speak with Dr Martinez about how we might spoof your launch as being some dolphins messing around.”
“Yes sir,” said Vokes as he got up from his station and left the bridge.
“Captain, we appear to have received a message from the rogue submarine,” said Kennedy.
“On screen,” said Ben.
“Err … no, sir, it’s a single text message.”
“Ok read it out to me.”
“Wait.”
“And?”
“That’s it, it just says, ‘Wait.’”
“What does that mean?”
“Don’t know, sir.”
“Can we said a message back where it came from?”
“No sir, we don’t know the source.”
“Hang on, what if ‘wait’ is an instruction for us” asked Ben.
“Sir,” started Steve Kennedy, “I still have a connection to the rogue submarine at the moment, what if I try entering ‘wait’ as a single command and we see what happens?”
“I want to try it, Steve, but I want Mr Vokes and his team to be in position before we do, in case that command fails life support and our crew members are stuck on that ship.”
“Yes sir, sorry sir,” said Steve, a little disappointed.
“No need to apologise, it is a good idea and unless something else comes along we’re going to do it.”
Dr Martinez arrived on the bridge.
“Dr Martinez, we need your help.”
“Of course, Captain.”
“As much as we possibly can, we need to make the launch Mr Vokes is about to use appear as a school of dolphins or one big dolphin to the rogue submarine.”
“You’re thinking it will ignore that, Captain?”
“Yes, thinking but not knowing until we try. The question is how do we even do it?”
“Well, which launch is Mr Vokes going to use?”
“Err … I don’t know. Captain to Mr Vokes.”
“Here sir.”
“Which launch are you planning to use?”
“Gamma sir?”
Dr Martinez shook her head.
“Not that one, Mr Vokes.”
“Err … ok … which one then?”
“Use the Beta one,” said Dr Martinez.
“There’s going to be a delay, Captain, if that’s what you want to do as that is in launch bay two,”
“Yes, do it now.”
“Understood sir.”
“Good. We’ll explain later, let us know when you are ready to launch.”
“Aye sir.”
“Why Beta?” asked Ben.
“Dolphins’ bodies are shaped to be able to swim fast, the Gamma launch will act and handle like a normal launch as it looks like two big balls with a tube in between. Beta is shaped more like a tube that is pointed at both ends. It still is, of course, much larger than a single dolphin but could look like more than one dolphin, if whoever is piloting it can mimic their movements.”
“Well, we’re about to find out. How do we do it?”
“Well, that’s a little trickier but still possible,” said Martinez.
***
On the rogue submarine Kennedy and Nichols were still looking at the screens and any other way to communicate back to Proteus.
“You’re sure that message has been sent?” asked Nichols.
“Yes absolutely, Proteus have got it.”
“So I guess we just stand or sit around and wait.”
“I could patch in my handheld and try to slurp as much data as I can from it, for investigation.”
“Ok, do it.”
Kennedy took out his clear handheld tablet and connected a cable to it and then plugged it into one of the ports under one of the terminals. With a few taps data started to be downloaded.
“Wow that was easier than I thought.”
***
No sooner had he spoken those words than the words, “Auto destruct sequence initiated,” boomed out across the bridge with a countdown timer of ten minutes displayed on all the screens on the bridge.
“Just when I thought this couldn’t get any worse,” said Nichols.
“What do we do now?” asked Kennedy.
“Hope that Proteus have received your transmission and that overrides this countdown. Whilst we wait, check any panel that is not locked to see if we have any ways at all of interacting with this ship.”
“Yes sir,” replied Kennedy, clearly in a state of panic.
“Look at me, Steve. I need you to focus on what’s happening right now, not what might be happening, right here, right now. Got it?”
“Yes sir.”
“Status report, Mr Vokes,” said Ben Roberts back on Proteus.
“We’re ready to launch.”
“Good. Go ahead and go low first, really low, and then sweep back towards the rogue sub location. Hold underneath it until we enter this ‘wait’ command and then dock as quickly as possible with it.
“Understood, sir, launching now.”
“Sir,” said Will, “I think we have another problem.”
“Explain.”
“I am still connected to their systems but something looks odd to me, like their core engines are overheating, possibly.”
“Ok, we’re out of time. Enter that ‘wait’ command now to the rogue sub. Mr Vokes, get into position right now.”
“We won’t have time to pretend to be—”
“I no longer care about you looking like porpoises, Dan, position now.”
“Aye sir.”
Will Weaver typed the command and hit enter on his panel to send it.
“Message sent, sir.”
“Anything happening?”
“Not yet from what I can see. Do you think I should have used an upper case ‘w’ or should it have all been upper case do you think?”
“I am not, much like you, familiar with this particular rogue sub, Will. Enter all the possibilities now, damn it!”
“Yes sir,” replied Will as he turned back to his screen and was about to enter the next combination when he was alerted to his screen flashing.
“Err … sir... I don’t think we will need those combinations, the core drive is powering down.”
“Good, Mr Weaver. Mr Vokes, dock with that thing and find our crew, and get back here stat or ASAP or whatever means immediately these days.”
***
On the rogue submarine bridge the countdown clock abruptly stopped and all screens returned to their previous displays.
“At last a break,” said Nichols.
“Yes sir, I think we have communications back to Proteus online.”
“Good, Nichols to Proteus.”
“Proteus here,” said Ben.
“We’re o.k, the self-destruct system was engaged but has now been cancelled. I take it you got our message about the ‘wait’ command?”
“We did indeed, Martin.”
“Did it work in upper case or lower case?”
“Never mind that now! Can you get off the bridge?”
“Let me check,” replied Nichols as he walked towards the main bridge doors and they opened.
“Yes sir, I think we can.”
“Good, get off the bridge and meet Mr Vokes who is docking with the sub now. Then get the hell out of there, that’s an order.”
“Yes sir,” said Nichols as Kennedy also joined him in the bridge lift. “Do you plan on towing this
ship to the nearest U.E.S. station, sir?”
“No, I don’t. I am going to destroy it the second you are back on board Proteus.”
“Respectfully, sir, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Noted, but the decision has been made by the admiral. This sub is far too dangerous to tow back to any U.E.S. station, and we have no idea how long this wait mode will last.”
“Sir, we know this ship has U.E.S. technology on it, and if we are ever to find out who the culprits are we need as much forensic data as possible. Nothing beats having the actual ship.”
“I agree, Commander, but we can’t take that chance. Meet up with Mr Vokes and get out of there.”
Nichols went to speak again, but Kennedy beat him to it.
“Sir, if I may, we might be able to get some more data if we can connect to a console again and start the data transfer.”
“The last time you did that it triggered the destruct sequence.”
“Yes, but it’s asleep now or at least waiting for another command. What do you think, Captain?”
“Do it but only once you have met up with Mr Vokes, and from the air lock, nowhere else.”
“Yes sir.”
The submarine lift doors opened and they began to run down the corridor and met Vokes and his team about halfway down on the way to the docked launch.
“Good. You are o.k. This way, both of you now,” said Dan as he placed a remote detonating charge on the floor.
“I have been laying these every twenty metres or so, another of my crew is tagging the outside of this sub now, so Proteus has something to lock on to.”
Steve noticed a patch panel on the wall with a screen.
“I know what the captain said, but can I just connect to this one here? I think it might be better.”
“No,” said Dan sternly, “you can’t. Now either move those boyband legs of yours or I am going to pick you up and carry you.”
“Understood,” replied Steve as they all started running towards the docking bay.
“Ok Steve,” said Dan as they arrived at the air lock, “you have exactly one minute to extract any more data you can from this ship.”
Steve nodded and plugged into the nearest port and worked quickly on his handheld tablet.
“Status report,” said Ben over the comm channel.
“Just getting some last data from the rogue sub, sir.”
“Whatever you have will have to be enough.”
“You heard the captain, Steve, disconnect now.”