by D. R. Rosier
I sensed Vik, Rilok, and Telidur come up and join me, Rilok faced the door to cover us, and Vik came up behind me. I pushed away the naughty thoughts that engendered, and focused on the diagnostic.
Vik asked, “What do you have?”
The power systems for the weapons were complex, and there were two backups like every other system on the ship. There was no way to shut down more than one at a time, at least, not safely. Of course, there was a way to de-power the entire deck, but it was insane, and would lead to bad things happening, probably.
“I’m sure my assistant has reported in on what we’re doing. There are probably guards coming as we speak. I can shut down the plasma weapon controlled from this room, but they could bring it back up later and just one weapon won’t have an impact. There are over sixty between this level and level four. The best thing to do is… crazy, do you trust me?”
Vik said, “There are forty-eight plasma arrays on this ship, and twelve missile launchers dispersed evenly between them. That accounts for port and starboard, both level four and twelve. A little trust, how crazy?”
“I could tell you, but then Ann would report our objective to the enemy.”
Rilok said, “You can’t seriously be considering following this… slave technician into battle without hearing her plan.”
Vik smirked at Rilok’s distaste and obvious discomfort, “We’re all dead if we do nothing.”
I moved quickly as soon as I felt the door open, and lunged for the Stolavii warrior. A knife wouldn’t do crap against armor, but they didn’t have helmets on, which seemed really stupid. Maybe some cultural thing? Stupidity usually is.
I yelled, “Help!” just to confuse things.
He didn’t hesitate long, but a split second was long enough as I shoved the knife into his head, from under his chin. My left hand pulled the knife from his sheath as I spun, and stabbed the second warrior in the neck.
I did mention my proprioception, and spatial awareness, not to mention my training and speed. It’s never a good idea to bring a knife to a gunfight, but their split-second surprise and hesitation at my cry for help was more than enough time for me to kill them. They were both dead before they hit the floor, and I pulled the knife out of his neck, while I claimed another knife from his side. I had one in both hands now. The hallway was clear.
Vik laughed.
Then he said, “You were saying something about a slave technician Rilok?”
Rilok looked dumbfounded, I winked, and started moving aft.
My idea was insane, clearly so, but as far as I could tell with my admittedly very limited experience, every deck on the ship had three main EPS lines. If we could destroy those lines near engineering and before the first plasma weapons, it would completely cut power to everything on the deck, but leave the rest of the ship working just fine. I just wasn’t sure how dangerous that was. Those EPS lines carried enough electricity to power a city, plasma weapons were apparently very energy intensive. Trying to take the main EPS nodes offline safely while it was powered would be impossible, that kind of work would require engineering cutting power on their end first, which was unlikely to happen.
One line ran right down the center, another was underneath the hallway on the starboard side, and the third on the port corridor side.
I wasn’t sure about an explosion, but it would certainly cause arcs of electricity, shorts, and may cause feedback into engineering. Feedback to engineering could cause explosions, but I had to assume they had safety features, just in case an enemy weapon broke one of the lines. It wouldn’t make sense not to have that, or a random shot could blow up the ship.
Ann said, “I thought you weren’t violent.”
I whispered, “I’m not aggressively violent, and I don’t start fights. I finish them. I only kill in self-defense, if I don’t get out of here, I’m dead.”
I still had the moral high ground there, I was kidnapped and enslaved, if that wasn’t an act of violence I didn’t know what would be.
I led down the hallway, with my legs bent and my back partially bowed. If a warrior entered the corridor far from our position, the blues brothers would take them with plasma bolts, but if any enemies entered the corridor at close-range, I planned to handle it myself. At least, I hoped that was the plan, I hadn’t told them what to do, but I was trusting them at my back. Why not, if I couldn’t trust them, I was already dead.
I wondered why they hadn’t flooded this deck with their version of marines, maybe they didn’t have that many? I didn’t bother asking Ann.
When we turned the curve farthest to aft, there were six guards all with rifles ready, three on their knees in front, and three in the back standing. Shit. I jumped back quickly and managed to avoid getting aerated with plasma bolts. I looked to the side, and it said fire control for Missile room four.
“Vik, this is as far as we’re going to get, unless you can pull grenades out of your ass?”
Vik laughed, but didn’t produce a grenade. I imagined they had some out here in space, probably plasma ones.
“We need to get in the floor here, if I cut the feed this far back we’ll get most of the plasma weapons on this level.”
Clink, clink, clink.
Aww shit, we didn’t have grenades, but the enemy obviously did.
I dove at the grenade that bounced off the wall, and whipped it back around the curve. I might have shit myself, if my sphincter hadn’t been so tight. I was a perfect killer, but usually not in a war scenario, I was an assassin, not a marine. Still, my spatial awareness and other gifts along with my speed and training had allowed me to intercept, snatch, and throw the grenade in a split second.
Boom!
I peeked around the curve, and then ran forward. Three were down already but took most of the blast, and three were rolling around in pain. It didn’t take me long to take care of that. There were a few grenades left on a bandolier type belt on one of them. I grabbed it off the corpse, and put it over my head. I hoped these weren’t DNA activated like guns, I didn’t imagine they would be, since grenades wouldn’t be issued to a specific soldier like a weapon would be.
At least, that was true on Earth. We were in the back of the corridor, but I didn’t see any access panels on the floor. I pulled a panel off the wall, and plugged in the diagnostic unit into one of the power nodes. It traced the power flows, and showed the main conduit right under the floor, beneath the artificial gravity emitters. Unfortunately, that didn’t really help, just confirmed what I’d already figured out. The diagnostic didn’t show access panels, just the circuits and lines and where they were.
There had to be a way, how did they service the gravity emitters? And why wasn’t that answer in the download I was given? Maybe it hadn’t been complete, since I was new and they didn’t trust me yet. Smart of them, but it didn’t help me now.
“Any idea how to open up this floor?”
Vik, Rilok, and Telidur looked clueless. Hot sexy men, but totally worthless. I suppose I couldn’t blame them, on an Isyth ship, the Artificial Assistants took care of all the repairs with droids.
“Ann?”
Ann didn’t even bother to respond.
I stuck my head in the access panel and looked down. No dice, of course it wasn’t that simple.
I turned back to the blue group, “Hey, can you make a really small plasma ball, and use it like a cutting torch? I only need a small hole, maybe six inches round?”
Rilok said shortly, “They weren’t designed for that.”
“Probably not, but can they do it?”
Telidur sighed, and got on his knees. He formed a small ball in his hand, and lowered it to the deck. The metal started to melt, and he moved his hand in a slow circle. When he finished, the small plate fell a few inches into the floor.
“Awesome, move toward the other side of the ship, our next target is in the central corridor. I’ll be right behind you guys.”
Vik asked, “What are you going to do.”
He then s
miled grimly, when I pulled a grenade off the belt.
“You’re crazy.”
I kind of was. I grabbed a rifle off the floor, I couldn’t shoot with it, but it worked marvelously as a lever when I stuck it in the hole, and pushed round plate out of the way. I saw the emitters, and the EPS conduit directly below it. That should work. I studied the grenade for a minute, no pin but it had a dial on it. I turned the cap to five, and dropped it in the hole. Then I hauled ass down the aft corridor.
Boom!
The lights blinked, but stayed on, and there were no secondary explosions. Apparently, the Stolavii could build good safety systems. The only way this would work, is if we got all three of them.
I smirked, Rilok was already on his knees and cutting into the floor. Of course, Ann knew my plan now and was probably reporting it. I imagined the captain would find it alarming enough to redirect every resource in the area.
The three blue alien eye candies, took off as soon as the plate dropped, now that they knew the plan, they seemed totally behind it and decisive. I pushed the plate with the rifle, and then dropped in a grenade, and ran. I wasn’t overly worried this time, now that I knew what would happen. The explosion was loud, and the lights flickered again but stayed on.
When I got to the corridor, Vik was taking his turn, unfortunately Rilok and Telidur were in a firefight with soldiers moving aft from the bow on the starboard corridor, and it wouldn’t be long before we got flanked from the direction we came on the aft corridor. We were in the corner of the ship, so didn’t have to worry about anywhere else, but an attack from two directions would be bad enough.
Fortunately, I had more than one grenade left. I peeked around the corner, dialed it to two, and then tossed it down the corridor in a sidearm throw. It didn’t even hit the ground, but exploded in midair in the middle of their formation. They weren’t all dead, but Rilok and Telidur took care of that with a few follow up shots.
Clink!
Vik stood up and stepped back.
“When I blow it, we need to retreat to the cargo hold, and hope that was enough. There’s no way we’ll get to deck four.”
Vik nodded, “And if we win the battle?”
“Can a destroyer dock with this ship’s large cargo hold?”
Vik said, “Yes.”
I shrugged, “I’ll plug the power node back in, so we can open the outer door.”
He nodded, and they started moving down the aft corridor, I dropped a grenade in, and was down to my last one I as I ran.
Boom!
Everything on the deck died, lights, power, gravity, life support, and I could only hope the missile launchers and plasma as well. Life support shouldn’t be a problem, we’d have days of air to breath, and it wouldn’t get too cold for a long time either, not with warm decks above and below.
The ship rocked violently, as I floated blindly down the corridor. I should have put more thought into this. I ran into one of the eye candies, as I reached the port side of the ship again, and bounced off. I felt a hand grab my arm, and steady me.
“Sorry. Can’t see a thing.”
Vik chuckled, which sent a tingle down my spine and a pool of warmth grew in my center.
The ship rocked violently again, and I heard explosions.
“What’s going on?”
Vik said, “I suspect that more than plasma and missiles are on four and twelve. I think the shield emitters might be as well, which means you just took out half the shields. Half the shields, are no shields at all. The system can compensate for some missing emitters, but not that many.”
I nodded, “We need to get back to the cargo bay, or break into a room and cut another hole down.”
Rilok said, “What’s the rush?”
“Because, with the power down it also took down the inertial compensators on this level. If the captain decides to stop, or accelerate, we’ll be pasted to a wall.”
Vik said, “Shit, let’s go.”
I shrugged, not that they could see me.
“I did say my plan was crazy.”
Vik laughed, “So you did. You’re also hired.”
“Ooh, can I have a hand plasma thingy?”
I blushed after I said that, but seriously, that thing was so cool.
Vik snorted, “We’ll talk about terms later Lori, right now we have to move.”
Rilok said, “You can’t be serious my… captain.”
Vik said, “I’m very serious, she just won us this battle and our lives. She can crew with us, Jillintara could use assistance on weapons, and she can be another bodyguard during our missions off ship. No one will suspect how deadly and resourceful she is, can you imagine her with the right tools?”
I blushed at the compliments, thankful it was dark.
I also wondered if I could trust them, or if he hoped to take advantage of me. At least I’d be free, earning good credits, and would have a chance to go home someday if I earned enough cash. I really needed to learn how their society worked. It seemed to be a strange mix. Water and food were shared resources through their artificial assistants’ management, almost like communism. Except, unlike humans, artificial intelligences wouldn’t cheat the system and screw things up.
Everything else seemed to be hardcore free enterprise.
Also, who was Jillintara?
Chapter Eight
The compartment was a little cramped, but I wasn’t going to complain. It had a soft bed, rugs on the floor, and the walls weren’t made of a metallic alloy. It hadn’t taken long for the Stolavii captain to surrender once the destroyers were peeling his ship into pieces. I felt nervous, but excited at the same time. I was no longer a slave, but I still needed to learn to make my way in this new world. I wondered if I would even want to go home, it wasn’t like there was anything waiting for me there, outside of a whole lot of people that needed killing that is.
I was assigned to a small room, and Vik promised to come by and speak to me soon.
Just as well, since I needed to understand the Isyth economy a little better before trying to negotiate a salary and benefits.
“Ann, can you fill me in on the details a bit, for the Isyth Empire’s economy?”
I stepped into the alcove with the sonic shower to get clean. Water might be free in the Isyth Empire, but on ships it was obviously still a precious resource for drinking only.
Ann said, “You already know food and water are free. The exception to that are pre-cooked meals and eating out in restaurants, but even that is cheap since you’re just paying for the salaries and the rest of the overhead for a business. After all, they have no food cost.”
That made sense.
Ann continued, “The Isyth Empire has no taxes. They make their money and pay for the government, military, ships, and personnel by owning all resources.”
“All resources?”
Ann said, “The four Isyth Empire member species, and five inhabited worlds are at the point they’ve taken most of the natural resources from their home planet and solar systems. The government runs all mining facilities in resource filled but otherwise dead star systems, including hiring all the people to make the work possible. Then they sell those resources at a flat rate to resource haulers, and other ships. The base of the economy is not free enterprise, but the rates to purchase resources are extremely reasonable and have been stable for thousands of years.
“The ships take the resources back to the five planets and sell it to various companies. It is against the law to fix prices at that point, and there are enough sellers and buyers to keep the prices down and reasonable through competition, while still having plenty to pay off the ships crews, fuel, and wear and tear on the ships. Not just private ships do this, military ships do as well. It just makes sense, while patrolling and ensuring the safety of planets and resources, they can also make the money required to maintain their ship and personnel. Energy use is still the highest cost to travelling through space.
“The companies refine and use the resources to
feed their fabricators. Fabricators make things on demand, which cuts down on production waste. People can either order online, or they can go to a store and browse via holograms. They can also show you full size holograms of what clothes would look like on you. That’s a rather simplistic explanation of the economy, but it should suffice for understanding.”
Right, she hadn’t addressed ship building, or natural fabrics which can’t be mined from an asteroid, and any number of other things, but it did give me a grasp on the basics. I already knew about my salary. As a slave, I’d been making right around thirteen hundred credits a year. Which meant a technician’s job was worth about thirteen thousand a year. Of course, the Isyth Empire didn’t have technicians, the intelligent assistants did all that.
“What’s the average pay for a bridge crew person?”
Ann said, “Around twenty thousand a year, but it varies.”
That didn’t sound like a lot, but I got the idea that credits were far more valuable than the American dollar. Plus, no medical or food bills would make a huge impact on a personal budget. If I lived and worked aboard a ship I wouldn’t be paying for a house or apartment either, which also meant no electric, water, or gas bills.
“What are the prices for one of those internet interfaces, and weapons.”
Ann said, “It depends, you can buy a wall screen, a handheld device, or an implant which would give you an overlay. The prices run between fifty or a hundred credits. The latter comes with other benefits, but some people can’t get used to it. The advantage of course is it works anywhere through quantum entanglement, can interface with most devices, and runs on bio-electric energy so never needs to be recharged and doesn’t cost money to run.
“Weapons are a controlled thing, only those aboard ships or in some military or police capacity can buy them. They usually run between ten and fifty credits, but have maintenance costs attached. You’ll have an opportunity to look and decide if Vik hires you, most likely anything you choose will be manufactured on, or already aboard, the ship.”