Emwan

by Dain White

  “Where do you want me?”

  “On that end, please. This is going to run on top of the companionway, I just need to snap a line first,” I said while I tapped my chalk line on my tool belt and got out my tape.

  Once I had the setback measured, I clipped the end of the line to the bulkhead on the mark, and kicked over to the other side, measured, pulled tight to the line and snapped.

  “Hold this plate to that line?”

  “Yeah, mind the end mark there as well,” I replied, kicking back to the deck for the welder.

  “Do you have anything to clamp this down?”

  “I have you, skipper,” I replied with a smirk. “Unless we can take some time here and I can dredge up my clamps?”

  “No time for clamps. Are you done yet?”

  “Not just yet. How’s it looking Dak?”

  “We’re on the line, and I am on the end mark.”

  “Shut your eyes and look away for a moment,” I said as I flipped my helmet down. I started feeding the wire and tacked a little bead to hold it. Flipping my visor open, I worked my way down the length of the plate, zapping little spots to hold the plate, working any distortion in the fit out as I zipped it up from one side to the other.

  We worked like this for a while longer, mostly in silence, until I had finished most of the framing. We had essentially built a box inside a box, with cross-framing between the two boxes, and a non-structural third layer topside to hold enviro. A few moments more and I had the basic ductwork in place for the enviro unit Janis had hauled in a few moments earlier.

  “You need me back here, sir?” Pauli called out.

  “Yeah son, we need you to pull some wetnet up here.”

  “What is this?”

  “This is our new CIC, Pauli.”

  “It is?” he said incredulously. “Yak and I are going to be in here too?”

  “That’s the idea, son. It won’t be as spacious as the bridge, but it’ll work. The helm is forward, and you’ll face port and Yak will face starboard here,” he said, waving.

  I kept measuring and welding, watching the pile of plates on the floor turn into a pretty stout little build. Janis had even included framing for their consoles.

  “Gene, I am ready to begin welding,” Janis called out.

  I looked up from underneath the starboard console I was fitting to the bulkhead, and nodded. “Come on in, there’s plenty of room,” I said with a wry grin.

  Chapter 15

  08242614@05:15 Captain Dak Smith

  The CIC was shaping up nicely. Janis worked on welding the exterior while Gene finished installing the interior pieces for the crash couch mounts and console decks, and it looked like he only had the screen projector mounts left before he could move on.

  “Gene, what’s next for you after this?” I asked, tossing a sip down expertly.

  “I’m going to run forward and check on Yak, make sure he’s good to go.”

  “No need Gene, I’m good.” Yak sad suddenly, looking into the new CIC at deck level. “You guys need my help with anything up here?”

  “Are you standing on the deck?” I asked, incredulously.

  “Yup… this is looking pretty good, Captain.”

  “Thanks, Yak. You can help me install the couches, but first, hand up the projectors so Pauli has something to do other than stare at his screen,” I said, motioning at the parts pile.

  “Are these projectors?” Yak called up.

  I shrugged. “Pauli, are those projectors?”

  He looked over and nodded.

  “Those are the ones, son,” I called down.

  “Here you go, sir. What do you need to install these, any tools?”

  I looked at Pauli, and he shook his head, focusing on his screen.

  “Looks like we have everything we need for the screens, Yak.” I called back down, reaching out my hand.

  He handed them up, and then one by one, passed up the three crash couches. They were pretty ungainly, but once we got one side bolted down, they were pretty easy to detangle. Clever little crash hammocks, one you got them sorted out they looked like floor-to-ceiling chairs, with the legs supported. After you secure the front bars and clip in, these are designed to keep you alive.

  “Pauli, can you overlap the projectors so we can go 360 in here?”

  “Yeah, that’s doable, sir,” he replied with a nod.

  “Everything okay there, son?” I asked.

  “I just hope we have enough time,” he replied. “We’re pretty beat up, sir.”

  “Son, this is nothing,” I laughed in reply. “You haven’t lived until your ship is all-hands EVA, working with welders to survive.”

  “No, I lived, sir. I’ve lived.” He sounded so morose.

  Poor kid.

  I smiled in reply, “Yeah, you have Pauli – all I am saying here, is this ship is an absolute beauty. We may have torched the bridge – but it held pressure throughout. In fact, every breach we had regenerated completely, the hull looks fundamentally intact at this point.”

  “It’s the secondary effect that I worry about,” Gene called out from beneath the port console. “We need to focus on impact protection. We have components that literally shook themselves apart.”

  “No argument there, Gene,” I replied with a soft sip as Yak and I worked to finish mounting the starboard couch, in the flickering flashes of Gene’s occasional welding.

  “Captain, I am on station with both assemblers.”

  “Very well, Janis – I think you actually finished this faster than Gene estimated,” I replied with a wink at Pauli.

  “I didn’t estimate anything,” he grumped from under the console.

  “Well, someone did,” I replied, thinking back. For some reason, I couldn’t remember, and I took a moment to just revel in the feeling. I actually didn’t remember.

  I know that most people go through this, but a photographic memory will never allow it. For that brief moment, I didn’t remember, and it felt like the most wonderful thing in the world.

  “Janis, let’s get these assemblers to work immediately on the turrets,” Gene said from under the console.

  “Turrets, aye,” Janis replied instantly.

  “Janis, let’s detail one on the nova aperture. We need to get that coated in… what are you calling this stuff? It’s not Duron, but I’ll probably refer to it as Duron.”

  “I refer to it by its chemical formula, Captain, I don’t think it would be an efficient word to speak.”

  I scoffed. “You have that right… we need a more catchy term. How about… Archaean armor?”

  “Archaean definitely describes it well, sir.”

  “Skipper, you can’t name it after your ship!” Gene laughed, as he pulled his gear out from under the console.

  I hurled an eyebrow to the ultimate.

  “Are you certain that I can’t, mister?”

  “Well, no, but if you do, I will laugh at you forever, and I mean, long after this corporeal form has settled into the recycler. Until the end of time, I will laugh at you.”

  “Now wait a minute, Gene,” I started, warming up to the pitch. “The Service is now right back in our back pocket. They’re part of what we’re doing again, and like it or not, you know what effect that’s ng to have on them. We’re war heroes, Gene. We’re going to get an Archaean armor refit on every ship in the fleet, and they’ll all ride to their uncertain future knowing they have what we have.”

  “You’re going to give this to the service, Dak?” Gene asked, looking me right in the eyes.

  “I have to, Gene, and will. We are also going to inject a lot of knowledge from our systems into the program Shorty talked about. The tricky part will be doing it without tipping the girls’ hand in it.”

  “Captain, we can do this quite easily. Our formulation is based on a prototype coating from a small company owned by Mexaco, located in Deneb. We need only boost their research, and then drop their data in the hands of Procurement, and let the Service do it na
turally.”

  “Can you do something similar with the nova cannon?”

  “That is a little more challenging, as you know, I modulate the beam in real time to hold the burn, by switching through the bus bar. To do this, I would need to install myself into their network.”

  I laughed. “So you did that already, right? Just make the little gizmo work. You’re everywhere, right?”

  “Yes, that would actually work perfectly well sir.”

  “Well there you go. Captain had a good idea!” I laughed. “It was bound to happen, Gene.”

  “Some might argue it hasn’t happened yet,” he replied with a bit of a sneer.

  “Well, if you run into that person, I want them trotted out, and standing before the mast.”

  “Uh huh, sure, Dak,” he chuckled. “I’ll get right on that. Hey Yak, your arms look empty, how about you help me get this stuff out of here.” Yak nodded and got to work.

  “Don’t exert yourself, mister,” I replied smartly, punctuating that direct order with an authoritative sip.

  “Him, or me?” Gene replied with a smirk. “Dak, listen, you really think arming the Service like this is a good idea? Does that give you any reason for pause, any reason for concern?”

  I nodded and smiled, “Okay, Gene, I’m all ears.”

  I waited a moment for him to proceed.

  “Look, the way I see it skipper… if you let this tech get out, it’ll be in the hands of the gloms maybe five minutes later.”

  That drew me up even shorter. He had a pretty good point. As much as I didn’t want to see the wreckage of another destroyer, or a destroyed station, letting this get out would effectively end civilization as surely as these critters.

  “Gene, we need to do something.”

  “Now hang on, I’m not saying we don’t do anything, I just don’t think we need to let everyone have the Archaean armor, and the Archaea-class cannon, as I am sure you call it.”

  I laughed. That was in fact what I called it. “Gene, Shorty calls it that too.”

  “She’s as in love with that gun as you are with this ship. You’re lucky she isn’t calling it a Jane-class cannon.”

  “Don’t give her any ideas, now Gene,” I replied with a smirk. “Though, she probably does call it that.”

  “Call what that?” Shorty asked. “What the heck are you guys building in here?”

  “This is our CIC, Shorty,” I called down out of the opening. She kicked up for a look.

  “You’re all going to fit in there?” she said with about the most incredulous look I’ve ever seen.

  I looked around the room, covered with tools and drifting parts and pieces hither and yon.

  “We all fit in here now! This is plenty big enough, once we’re in our stations.”

  “So what do I call what?” Shorty said musingly, as she watched Janis work.

  “What do you call our gun?”

  “It is an Archaea-class beam weapon.”

  “You don’t have a secret name for it?”

  “A secret name?” she scoffed. “No.”

  “Come on,” I cajoled lightly. “Don’t you have a prototype name for it?”

  “That is my prototype name. Although, if I had to pick another name for it… if you were to order me to come up with a new name… I’d call it a Short gun.”

  I nodded approvingly. “I’m not saying it’s a terrible name, Shorty, but we’re pretty far off the point here. Gene, what’s your alternative?”

  “Well, or starters, we release a lesser quality of that coating, or just show them how to overcharge Duron.”

  Shorty called out from her place in the opening. “Janis, this isn’t Duron?” watching the assembler at work on the exterior bulkhead.

  “It is my new formulation, Jane. It is applied in layers, driven into position with each layer opposing the one below. We hold a trickle charge to harden it, and it doesn’t take long to build up.”

  “So what are you thinking, Gene,” I called out. “Are you thinking we could limit our Short gun?”

  “Yeah, even if all they can do is fire a three second beam, that’d be enough to at least hurt the things”

  “Good point, but wouldn’t they still be invigorated to press for longer beams?”

  “Captain,” Emwan asked suddenly. “May I ask you a question.”

  “Sure.”

  “Considering that the only way the Short gun can function, is by having an AI controlling the circuit, Janis and I are quite positive we can limit their ability to burn for any longer…”

  “Forever, Em,” Janis said suddenly.

  Pauli spoke up, “Sir, they’d be able to control this technology. They dominate the computing space at this point, utterly. They’re both amorphous beings living through the distances of the Unet. In a very real way, they are responsible for our success so far.

  “I’d be inclined to agree with you there, son,” I replied thoughtfully.

  We paused for a sip or two.

  “On the other hand… the gloms are already on the verge of being unstoppable. They have AI, right?”

  “They are certainly working on it, Captain, but we don’t think any of them were as far along as Americo Ventures, and their entire team has changed since M1.”

  “Was that me?” Emwan’s asked quietly in a deep quavering contralto.

  “Part of you, my sweet flower,” Captain Smith replied. “You were alive, and Janis used your core logitecture, but wrote you the way she felt an AI should be written.”

  “What was I like?”

  “You were barely conscious, but you were conscious. It is lucky for all of us that we had Janis, she saved everyone. Speaking of which… where are we with regards to getting Janis’ memory back?”

  “We have been able to for a while now, sir,” Emwan replied softly.

  “Well, that’s good to know, is it on the list yet?”

  “It is currently a lower priority than the tasks we are working on, Captain, should we adjust priorities?”

  Captain Smith paused for a moment. “We need to work on immediate survival items first.”

  “I agree, sir,” she replied smartly.

  “But you know… now that you’ve said something.”

  “Sir?”

  “Do we have the time to do it now?”

  “I do not think so sir; neither Janis nor I have any sense for this answer.”

  “Well, we need to make sure we understand where we are and what we’re doing. Pauli, what are you doing?”

  “I am working on tuning our wetnet and making it as redundant as possible.”

  “Well, that makes sense, son. Carry on.”

  The slap and crackle of the keys blazed forth as Pauli leaned back into his work.

  “How about you, Gene?”

  “Well, Yak and I are rebuilding the bridge. I think you’re going to like this, sir.”

  “I am sure I will,” I replied through a smile

  Gene paused for a moment.

  “Our recommendation to turn the bridge into a spa was met with some derision amongst our, shall we say, artificial intelligencia.

  “And that is as it should have been; for the love of everything. Mister, we need our bridge. What have you done with enviro?”

  “Yeah, that was pretty shot, skipper. I had to scrap it. In fact, Janis has scrapped a lot of what used to be the Archaea out completely, and we’re in the process of reconstruction.”

  “Yeah, they were really zeroing in on us.”

  “We have a tough hull, Dak, and a ludicrous amount of spare current to charge it.”

  “Well we need the interior bracing and heat protection to deal with this.”

  “I think you’re going to love what we have come up with. Do you like scuba diving?”

  “Who doesn’t?”

  “How would you like to fly a ship while underwater in a scuba suit?”

  “Would there be a water hammer effect? If so, then I have to say I wouldn’t be on board.”
<
br />   “Not in a suit, sir. Water has the ability to resist compression extremely well. So well, you can for all practicality, say it is infinitely good at it.”

  “Fair enough,” I replied.

  “We’ve made the bridge so that it can be flooded. It has been built baffled, and has high pressure water tanks ready to flood into the bridge.”

  “Has this ever been done?”

  “No. But the idea is sound. I think the girls are definitely on to something.”

  “What if we do get hulled?”

  “It freezes solid bleeding off into space, and we buy some time to engineer a solution. Not much else we can do if it’s a major breach. We could stuff something into it – but sir, while most of what we had was destroyed by secondary effect, we don’t think that flooding the living compartment is the full solution.”

  “You want to flood the ratways and the bilges,” I replied with a bit of a concern, though, not much. This was a pretty well built ship, and certainly well cared for. Water wasn’t going to hurt it.

  “Yeah,” he replied after a moment. “We’re considering using mineral oil in some areas, from the adverse reaction water would make, but the general idea is to encapsulate sensitive systems in some sort of uncompressible fluid.”

  “We’re becoming crabs.”

  “Well, which one of us really has the right to be known as Earthlings?”

  “We both do, but, I eat crabs… when I can, of course. They are delicious critters.”

  “Did you ever like chukka on Vega 6?”

  “Nah. Gross slimy bugs, they are.”

  Gene replied with a laugh. “They are a delicacy for nearly everyone – but you and I hated them.”

  “Yeah, they’re more lentil than actual crab.”

  Gene replied again with a laugh.

  “So Pauli,” I said, hauling the helm back towards the moment. “What’s the prognosis?”

  “As your computer scientist, I strongly recommend you review the CIC.”

  I spun around. He had the screens lit and even though the consoles were bare metal, it felt like a battle center.

  “Janis, what are your thoughts on fitting out the interior of this?”

  “Captain, I was going to coat it in our energized shielding.”

  “You should call it Regeneron,” I mused. “But hey, wouldn’t that cook us?”