Operation Cobalt – A Military Science Fiction Thriller: The Biogenesis War Files

by L. L. Richman

  Katie wanted to smack him for that. Just… keep your mouth shut, Jerry.

  “Not this time,” the doctor replied, looking up once more at the security holorecorder.

  That was the second time he’d done that. The expression in his eyes made Katie realize he suspected she was alive, and that she’d hacked into the system.

  It was no great stretch; he’d caught her doing it enough as a teen.

  “I didn't see no dog when I searched the place,” the woman interposed, suspicion morphing into skepticism.

  “That's because he was sleeping under my office desk.” Annoyance edged Doc’s voice. “Obviously, he’s awake now.”

  The intruder grunted and stepped sideways toward Doc’s office, her pistol still pointed at the two men.

  The movement galvanized Katie into action.

  She reached through to the front of the surgical unit and slid the catch that held the panel closed. Hauling Fred up into her arms, she whispered, “Go on. Go to Doc.” Pushing carefully past the tangle of wiring, she set him down inside the room.

  The basset puppy turned to look over his shoulder, as if asking, “Aren’t you coming?”

  Katie nudged him further into the room—not an easy task, as Fred had decided to plant his butt on the floor, and she was as far out as she could be without toppling over. She managed to shove him clear and close the unit just as footsteps approached from the hallway outside.

  She could just make out Doc’s muffled voice. “Fred, you awake now, little guy? You know you’re supposed to stay in my office. Come on out of there, now.”

  The patter of clawed feet reached her ears as Fred responded to Doc’s call and trotted toward him.

  She heard Doc pause and whisper, “Be careful, Katie-girl,” before he retreated back to the main bay, dog in tow.

  A pang of regret hit her. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised on a whisper of her own, although he couldn’t hear. “I just have a few things to do first.”

  Katie pulled herself free and set the unit’s back panel into place, her fingers swiftly spinning the screws’ threads until they were secure. That done, she scooped up her console and prepared to slip back out into the maintenance tunnels.

  As she turned for the door, her eyes landed on a pile of discarded shock-locks. There were six in all, each thirty centimeters in length. They’d originally been used to secure the three diagnostic modules hanging on the wall, inside of which rested three extremely expensive AdS/CFT computer cores.

  The locks were the very best the industry had to offer. They functioned as active deterrents, rendering the units tamper-proof to all but licensed repair service bots.

  Unfortunately, one of the many problems that plagued doctors who worked on remote platforms such as this one was the lack of access to such repair bots.

  The manufacturer had reluctantly agreed to forward a service manual so that Doc could upgrade the cores himself. Katie had been with him that day, and had witnessed firsthand the kind of electric shock those locks would deliver to someone who tinkered with them without the proper codes. After that, Doc had decided it was more trouble than it was worth to reinstall them, and they’d lain there in a discarded pile ever since.

  The third and fourth steps of the OODA Loop nudged at the back of her brain: Decide. Act.

  She bent and scooped them up, fingering the label she’d attached to the bundle years ago, where the access codes that would reactivate them was written in her own messy scrawl. Looping them over one shoulder, she stepped out into the tunnel, shut the door behind her, and set out in search of the roaming patrols.

  TWELVE

  Sierra Twelve

  Maintenance tunnels

  “The RF interference signal is coming from up there.” Jack pointed down the tunnel as Micah emerged from the airlock.

  An icon flashed on Micah’s HUD, and when he accessed it, a map popped up, indicating some sort of maintenance room up ahead.

  He glanced at the identifying tag. “Auxiliary environmental?”

  Jack nodded. “That’s what it says.”

  “That’s the origin of the frequency buried in there, too? FINGERS?”

  Jack pulled to a stop just in front of the door and placed his hand on the palmpad. He shot Micah a sidelong look. “You noticed that, too?”

  “Yeah. Well, Cass did. She pointed it out to us.” Micah nodded to the door. “Locked?”

  “Not for long.”

  After a few seconds, the door slid open under the intelligence officer’s hand, revealing cobwebs undulating gently in the slight breeze the door’s movement had generated. Jack reached out, wrapping his fingers around the delicate threads.

  “Looks like no one’s been here in a while,” commented Micah, but Jack shook his head, bending forward to examine the cobweb more closely.

  “Actually, I’m not sure that’s the case.” His tone was thoughtful.

  He pushed past the web lining the entrance and palmed the lights on. As he pulled back, he traced the edge of the doorframe with his hand, a curious expression in his eyes.

  “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said softly. A slow grin spread across his face, but he didn’t say anything else.

  “Hey, jarhead. Hanging in suspense over here,” Micah reminded him.

  Jack elbowed him. “Chill, Navy. This kind of genius deserves respect.”

  Micah leaned against the doorjamb and crossed his arms. “Genius? Respect?”

  “Whoever we’re dealing with, they’re pretty clever. This is some devious shit.” Jack returned his attention to the delicate threads blocking the door. “When I felt the strands, they didn’t have the texture a real spider’s web would. Although most people would probably dismiss it, just like you did—no insult intended,” he added as an afterthought.

  Micah snorted. “Sure there was. Jarhead.”

  Ignoring the jibe, Jack tapped on the edge of the doorframe. “There’s a very narrow band of ActiveFiber material lining this. What you’re seeing was formed from that.”

  “No shit?” Micah leaned forward to get a better look. “That’s pretty convincing.”

  Jack nodded. “Yep. And ActiveFiber could spin out something like this in a matter of minutes.”

  Micah looked beyond the threshold and into the room. “Which means that layer of dust we’re seeing on everything is probably fake too.”

  “Yeah,” Jack said. “I’d bet good credits on it.”

  “Any idea who it is?”

  Jack shook his head. “No, but if this is the same person who hacked the external hatch, it must be a platform native. No one from the SS would be familiar enough with the area. They wouldn’t have had the time to set up a program this elaborate to run the ActiveFiber, either.”

  “So we have a Cobalt employee on the loose, waging their own war against a bunch of terrorists… Is that what you’re telling me?”

  Jack shot him a worried look. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” He swept the fake cobwebs out of the way, stepped into the room, and pointed. “The RF’s coming from behind that wall, by the way.”

  He crossed the room and laid his palms flat against a section of wall. To Micah’s surprise, it rolled back, exposing a hidden access panel.

  “More ActiveFiber?”

  “Got it in one.” Jack opened the panel and stuck his head inside. His voice echoed slightly from within. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. This is where the leaf node is.”

  “Want to break that down for us dumb Navy pilots?”

  Jack pulled his head back. “Leaf node’s the end of the line, so to speak. It’s the very last computer node in a sequence. It’s also where our hacker tapped into the public net.” His expression was distant, his voice distracted.

  Micah realized the intelligence man must have dropped some sort of hack onto the node so that he could contact-trace their mysterious web-spinning, free-range local.

  A wry grin crossed Jack’s face. “The work’s a bit messy, but the code’s
solid. Whoever he is, this kid—and yes, I do think it’s a kid—has promise.”

  His grin widened at Micah’s look of confusion. “Most platforms have a small group of kids, employees’ children, who are raised there,” he explained. “Platform rats are easily bored, stuck on a small station like this for long periods of time. They can get into an interesting amount of trouble when left on their own.”

  “You speaking from personal experience, there?” Micah lifted a brow.

  “Might’ve done something like this myself, once upon a time, but you’ll never get me to admit to it.” He resealed the access panel, letting the ActiveFiber skim coating hide it from view once more.

  Stepping back toward the entrance, Jack swept his gaze across the contents of the room. “Now all we have to do is figure out whose kid is out there trying to get himself killed.”

  “And you think you’ll be able to locate our super sleuth by that tap you dropped on them?”

  Jack’s eyes glinted with a dark humor. “Oh ye of little faith. Of course I will.” He hooked a thumb in the direction of the hub as they exited back out into the tunnel. “Our culprit’s thataway.”

  Micah fell into step beside Jack as the Marine started down the tunnel passage at a brisk walk.

  “Any chance those SS jokers will find our guy before we do?” the pilot asked.

  Jack’s face turned momentarily grim. “Let’s hope not. Even if this kid’s as clever as I think, he’s no match for them. His willingness to take them on concerns me.”

  Micah glanced over at him. “In what way?”

  Jack frowned. “If they’re willing to shoot at an unshielded and unarmed ship like that tug they took out, then they’ll think nothing of taking out someone who tries to cross them. Honestly,” he gave a small shrug, “I don’t think the lives of these miners mean all that much to them, other than as a means to an end.”

  They fell into a combat-ready silence, Jack intent upon his trace, and Micah monitoring the passageway up ahead with a small cloud of stealthed microdrones he’d brought along.

  “Ahhh,” Jack breathed after a moment, breaking the silence. “Our genius is a she.”

  * * *

  One of the pairs of patrolling intruders was about to swing into a section of the platform known for its sporadic systems failures. It was low on the repair list, given that it was located in a little-used area, reserved for overflow in the warehouse section.

  “Let’s see if we can’t figure out a way to neutralize you guys, what d’ya say?” Katie murmured as she reviewed what she had to work with in this sector.

  She grinned to herself as an idea came to her. It would take some time to set up, but it was a simple plan, really.

  First, isolate a single HVAC zone in that sector, and send its ambient temperature plunging to well below the freezing point. Second, drop the temperature of the water line feeding the backup fire sprinklers that ran through the area until it hovered just above the freezing point.

  She glanced at her chrono. It would take time for the temperature to drop low enough to enact her plan. She’d have to wait until the intruders made their next pass to fully implement it.

  After they passed through that sector, and the section had enough time to bleed off residual heat, it would be time for part three of the plan: set the sprinklers to release a fine spray of supercooled water. Wherever the water landed, the surface would flash freeze on contact.

  If she played her cards right, the thin coating would barely be seen. Plus, she was banking on the intruders being too distracted by the subarctic temperatures to notice anything else.

  Katie inserted a time-delayed, motion-activated program that would kick in right before the patrol hit that section again. She planned everything carefully, programming the system to check in with her before each decision point. By her estimation, she had about an hour to commandeer a weapon and position herself to take out the two as they entered the icy corridor.

  Piece of cake.

  Having set the trap to her satisfaction, Katie moved onto the next pair of intruders prowling the platform.

  The path these walked would take them close by one of the tunnel entrances just ahead. She studied her prey, following them as they drew closer, transiting from one sensor pickup to the next. She smothered a laugh as one of the invaders nearly smacked into the door that led into the next sector.

  That door sensor is always on the fritz. Gage claims it keeps shorting out on him—

  Katie’s hand froze over the display as she realized what she’d just been thinking.

  “Shorted out….” she breathed, her fingers flying over her console’s ancient keyboard as she searched for the platform’s automated access control system. “Aha. Gotcha.”

  Her connection to the building’s service portal would gain her admittance. She copied the settings from the glitchy door over to the one the pair was approaching, and waited to see what would happen. She gave a mental whoop, shoving her fist in the air when, just as before, the door’s sensors didn’t trigger an automatic opening.

  “Seriously?” she heard one of them say.

  The other man kicked at the door. “What a piece of shit platform.”

  You keep telling yourselves that, Katie said to herself with a gleeful cackle as she accessed the doors between where they were and where she stood waiting for them.

  Every door would now require a physical palm to activate. They weren’t coded to any particular print; the metal plate simply required a human palm to complete the circuit. At last she could begin staging her trap.

  Diving into the controls to the palmpad on the final door, she increased the voltage running through it, bypassing the built-in safety protocols.

  This last door wouldn’t just not open for them; it would deliver a powerful electrical shock to the person whose palm made contact with the surface of that metal plate. If she got really lucky, the second man would brush up against the first, and she’d be able to neutralize both at the same time.

  “Don’t count on it, Katie,” she muttered to herself. “Remember what Doc always says: ‘Luck is the residue of preparation.’ Icing on the cake, nothing more.”

  She was still uncertain how to keep them from contacting their associates once she captured them. The best she could come up with was to increase the RF interference in this section, but it would cut her off from the public net, too. She’d be blind until she retreated far enough to regain signal.

  She straightened as the far doors slid open to admit her targets. Apparently they’d resigned themselves to the need to use the palmpads to access the next section of passageway. As they strode toward the door, they gave no indication they suspected foul play, though their disgust with Sierra Twelve was clear.

  She set her console down on the ground, dumping all but four of the shock-locks into a pile beside it. Katie would use the four she still held to bind the pair of intruders, one each for hands and feet.

  She stood poised to open the tunnel door, her body vibrating with tension. A look of pure anticipation formed on her face as one man slapped his palm down on the surface of the display.

  She heard a garbled sound fly from his lips, and then his body grew rigid.

  “What the fu—” his companion started to say, rounding on him impatiently, a hand sweeping out to grab at the frozen man’s arm.

  With a yelp, the second man jumped back, realizing in the nick of time what was happening.

  “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” he chanted, looking around for anything nonconducting that he could use to knock his partner free.

  Finding nothing, the man let out a growling yell and charged, his momentum carrying both free of the panel, although Katie knew it still must have imparted a sharp sting in the process.

  As she watched, the second man groaned and rolled onto his back, his expression contorted in pain.

  That was Katie’s cue to move.

  She burst from her hiding place with an exclamation of stunned surprise. “Om
igosh, are you okay?”

  She feigned concern as she stepped past the second man and knelt beside the one who’d received the electric shock. Rolling him to his side, she pretended to look for wounds while reaching for his weapon.

  “Back off, bitch,” she heard the other man growl.

  Her eyes widened as she looked up and saw him reaching for his weapon, just as her own hand wrapped around the handle of the first man’s pistol.

  With no time to check the weapon’s settings, she aimed it at the second man and pulled the trigger.

  THIRTEEN

  Sierra Twelve

  Maintenance tunnels

  “Sonofa—!” Jack broke into a sprint.

  Micah didn’t bother to ask; he just followed as the other man went barreling down the tunnel passage.

  The intelligence officer swerved suddenly, taking a hard left down a cross corridor. Micah did the same, his hand slapping against the bulkhead’s surface to redirect his momentum as he went.

  {What just happened?}

  {Fool girl just took out one of the patrols, but she didn’t block their communications first. Those jackasses in control know she’s on the loose.}

  Micah turned Jack’s words over in his head as the Marine increased his speed.

  {That doesn’t sound like something your whiz kid would miss.}

  {Oh, she tried. She thought increasing the interference in that area would do the trick. It almost worked. But the fact that it’s concentrated only at the spot—}

  Micah abruptly understood. {That’s a dead giveaway.}

  {Yeah,} agreed Jack. {She’s not used to thinking things through tactically. I let the RF interference ride, since she’s already outed herself, but we need to secure those two before someone is sent to retrieve them, and undoes all her work.}

  Jack pulled to a stop in front of a closed access door, lifting a fisted hand in silent warning. {Let me confirm the cameras are off.}

  After a beat, he nodded. Sliding the door open far enough to launch a surveillance microdrone, Jack brought his weapon up into its ready position and palmed the door.