Jalawi dulled his suit’s reflex response to let him fiddle with a recycle berth without breaking anything, and plugged into the wall. Soon the O2 was refilling, and the CO2 flushing, and things began smelling much better inside the helmet. If only there was a way to scratch that damned itch on his jaw…
“Hey Jersey, you awake up there girl?” he asked the pilot on private channel.
“I might be,” Jersey admitted. “Skeeta, Phoenix wants a report now that you’re aboard.”
“Direct?” Jalawi asked with a frown, adjusting the airflows and muttering to himself when the diagnostic told him the suit’s filters were way below optimum. Something was clogging the damn things. “Is that safe?”
“It’s Styx’s encryption,” Jersey informed him. “They’re not even bothering to hide it. Since everyone knows we have Styx, might as well use her.”
“Styx again,” Jalawi muttered, thinking of his old buddy Lucy Cordi, and a number of other friends in Charlie Platoon who hadn’t survived Argitori. “Just great. Patch me through, let’s do this.”
There was a crackle, then a pause… Jalawi didn’t know which satellites or relays the coms were using, that was for spacers to worry about. Then a reply. “Hello Lieutenant Jalawi, this is Lieutenant Lassa on Coms. Please hold a moment, the LC is busy on an operational concern… LC? LC, I have Lieutenant Jalawi on coms.”
The link changed, and now it was the young voice of Lieutenant Commander Draper in Jalawi’s ear. “Hello Lieutenant Jalawi, this is the LC. The Captain’s getting a little sleep, you’re now on record and will be replayed to him and Commander Shahaim when they wake up. Please go ahead.”
Not for the first time, Jalawi reflected how odd it was that Phoenix, for so long led by the wise old heads of Captain Pantillo and Commander Huang, now found herself commanded by a bunch of kids. Save for Commander Shahaim, that was. “I copy that LC. Well, we’re making good progress with the laser. It works fine, but the overheating is just as we were warned… it’s not so bad in the cold water, but we’re not using it for longer than two seconds at a time.
“Power charge is more interesting, we’re rigging battery units but the connection’s not great… luckily we’ve got a bit of technical expertise at this end too, it should be enough, but if we run short of primary charge and have to use the backups it’ll slow us down further, one-second bursts at best, then thirty-second breaks to recharge the laser cell.
“The rock cuts well enough, but reseals fast in the cold water. Actually getting melted rock out of the hole we’re cutting is hard work, if we don’t do it, it just resets again. We’ve got some pretty tough tools we’re improvising, some replacement armourplate and stuff, we’re using it like shovels, but even that starts to melt at some point when you stick it into molten rock.
“Our best guess is we’re nearly halfway down. It’s taken us two hours to get there, so for all my griping, I guess that’s not so bad. Oh, and the toulies… the alien sealife. They’ve come from all over the lake to watch, I guess we’re the only show in town. Still non-threatening, they just watch and flash their lights, a whole big circle of them. I wonder just how smart these guys are… I mean it looks like they’ve got some basic idea of what we’re doing, and that we’re not here to hurt them. Maybe they’ve had enough good experience with those parren scientists at the research bases that they know bipeds aren’t any trouble. Lucky they haven’t run into the sard yet.”
“LT, we’ve actually been in communication with one of those research bases. They’re pretty scared to have Aristan’s bullies orbiting overhead, they’ve been asking us what’s going on, and we’ve given them some stuff on heavy encryption in exchange for data about the… the toulies, as you call them. The parren scientists insist they’re really smart. Not sentient smart, not logical, but incredibly complex in their communications. The scientists say they sing to each other, they rhyme, they pun — if you can understand what all those flashes mean — and their memories are precise down to billions of digits.”
Jalawi blinked. “Billions?”
“That’s what they say. They say you can feed them an entire encyclopaedia in binary flashes and they’ll recite the whole thing back to you, no mistakes. And no history of aggression, they eat mostly shellfish and clams, they don’t even fight much amongst themselves, so don’t worry about that.”
“Well if you think they’ll have any useful observations about our digging technique,” Jalawi joked, “I could upload our visuals for you to look at. They’re doing a running commentary at the moment.”
“That… actually might be interesting,” said Draper. “If anyone can decode a complex numerical language, it’ll be Styx.”
Styx again. Jalawi scowled, and patched his visual feed into the Phoenix one. “Knock yourselves out LC. Any updates on what Aristan is up to?”
“Currently he’s scheming. We don’t know what about, precisely. That’s what worries us.”
“Gesul is a real person,” said Jokono, leaning on the wall of Erik’s quarters by the door. “Our databases have been uploaded with all the latest public feeds, in parren space and tavalai. Parren media doesn’t work like ours, there’s not exactly a free press, information is more tightly controlled. But Gesul is common knowledge, and his disagreements with Aristan are discussed.”
All of Erik’s room systems were deactivated. At a pre-arranged signal, he’d told Draper he’d been momentarily out of communication range, and Draper had put a spacer at the door — necessary protocol on any warship, where the Captain had to be instantly reachable, even when his quarters were just metres from the bridge. All their Augmented Reality glasses were deactivated as well, and Erik had had Rooke’s people look at them to make sure Styx couldn’t reverse-hack them, turning them back on by remote. The crew’s own uplinks were another matter, but as Rooke had said, if Styx could reverse-hack implanted human uplinks, there wasn’t a heck of a lot anyone on Phoenix could do to stop her from listening in to whatever she wished.
No doubt Styx would know immediately that the Captain was having a conversation he didn’t want her listening to. Whatever else she was, Styx was logical, and would not find that surprising. Whether she had emotional depth enough to feel suspicion, or paranoia at the prospect of human officers plotting against her, was a matter for ongoing debate. Whatever the case, Erik knew that every instance where Phoenix’s officers decided not to do something for fear of upsetting Styx was another step closer to Styx becoming the unofficial captain of the ship. He could not allow it, ever.
“Prakasis is only two jumps from here in the opposite direction from where we’ve been,” said Suli, sitting on the end of Erik’s bunk. Erik sat back to the wall at the end of the mattress, an arm hooked over a knee, thinking. “A fast ship could get word back and forth in the time required.”
“How does a crewman on Toristan get to hear from Prakasis in time to relay that message to us?” Erik asked. His brain overloaded with too many things, it was a relief to have smart people around him to figure out these details. “Word had to get from Cherichal System, where Aristan decided we had to be eliminated, presumably after he saw our recording of Drakhil. Ships were going in Prakasis’s direction from Cherichal, sure… but then to here? How would they know to come here? We didn’t know we were coming here, Aristan hadn’t figured that out because Romki hadn’t discovered the location yet.”
“Placing spies in the headquarters, or on the spaceships, of rival factions, is something of a parren sport,” said Jokono. “This spy knows very old and very secret drysine communications methods, allowing him to talk to us without others knowing, via Styx. Domesh evidently have retained much of that old knowledge, and will thus retain an advantage in hidden communications over rival factions. And similarly, it seems reasonable to suppose that hidden communications are a feature of parren inter-factional rivalry. Rumour has it that Fleet possesses many methods they have not shared with the rest of humanity.”
Erik and Suli shared a brief glanc
e. There were indeed some such methods, known only to senior officers. Even now, given all that had happened between Phoenix and Fleet, neither was going to acknowledge their existence to Jokono. The secrecy of those methods remained vital to the security of the human race, regardless of their personal disagreements with Fleet Command.
“I don’t like it,” Erik admitted. “It’s too convenient. Styx has prioritised this data-core above all else. She has to be concerned that I’ll prioritise my sister above the data-core. It’s in her interest to fabricate this message, to convince me that Lisbeth will not be harmed if we act against Aristan. The timing works, but it’s very tight, and they’d have to be lucky to line everything up to get that message here so quickly.”
“Both Lieutenants Shilu and Lassa agree that an actual message was received by Phoenix’s main dish,” Jokono said, with noncommittal calm. Watching his young Captain with wise, careful eyes.
“No,” said Erik. “The Coms Officers agree that their systems indicate that a message was received. It’s all just electronic data, Joker. Styx can build castles in the sky with electronic data, and have us all swearing they’re real.”
“Erik,” said Suli, and Erik could see her steeling herself to say something that needed to be said. “Styx is not alone of this crew in being concerned about your priorities.” Erik stared at her. Suli gazed back, with all the honesty that decades of experience had given her, to know that whatever it cost, such things were better said than not. Somehow, coming from Suli, it did not sting as it had from Trace or Kaspowitz. Both of them had questioned his judgement directly, and worse, had assumed it was their right, despite their significantly lower rank. Suli was the closest thing on Phoenix to Erik’s equal, and she simply stated a fact, and made it about the crew, not about him.
“I know,” said Erik, controlling his tone with difficulty. He could not make this about his ego, no matter what Trace and Kaspowitz thought it was. This was about rank and command, and what his underlings were allowed to question, and what they were not. The lines that determined what was out-of-bounds, and what was not, were far too close to Erik’s toes for comfort. He had to move them back several steps, or else he’d have twenty captains on the ship instead of one. “That’s why I’m suspicious of my own impulses regarding a message like this. Styx insists she doesn’t understand organics, and I don’t think I’m alone in suspecting that’s a head-fake. The best way to avoid being suspected of mind games is if everyone thinks you don’t play mind games. She wants me to believe that Lisbeth can’t be affected one way or the other by what we do here. And of course she thinks I’ll want to believe her.”
He was so furious at Trace right then, for bringing Lisbeth aboard Phoenix in the first place, he wanted to slap her. Never mind that she was probably right when she said she hadn’t had a choice, or that the slap would never reach its target. Of all the ways to compromise a captain’s authority before his crew, bringing his sister aboard, then having her put in mortal danger by his enemies, was about the top of the list.
“Erik,” said Suli, with an intense stare. “The excavation is ahead of schedule. We gave ourselves three days minimum until the Fortitude Fleet came back to the system. So far we’ve taken one, and Charlie Platoon are halfway to the object already.”
Erik nodded slowly, knowing exactly what she was about to say. “I’m thinking about it. I’m thinking real hard.”
Jokono frowned. “Thinking about what?”
“Hitting them first,” said Erik.
Jokono’s eyes widened. “Taking them by surprise?” Erik nodded. “We’re not even completely sure Aristan’s going to betray us yet. If we strike the first blow…”
“We’re in position to do it,” Suli pressed. “Styx has given us a big advantage, we can disable a lot of them without firing a shot. I’m as suspicious of Styx as anyone, but in this I trust her completely — if we’re fighting to get sole possession of that data-core, she’s with us all the way.”
“My biggest concern is the object that Charlie Platoon is digging up,” said Erik. “We’re almost entirely sure it’s the data-core. But what if it’s not? We’re in such unfamiliar territory here, dealing with things and people that happened so long ago. We can’t commit to action against Aristan until we’re completely certain. Otherwise, if we act on the assumption that we’ve only got hours to go before we have the data-core, and instead discover that we need several days or more, we’ll be screwed. We can’t mess this up at the last moment because we get overconfident. There’s too much at stake.”
Suli, Erik noticed, was looking at Jokono in concern. Erik looked, and saw Jokono staring stiffly at a corner of the room. As though something was badly wrong. The former-inspector saw both the officers looking at him, and gestured them with both hands to follow him. He hit the door, and backed out, Erik and Suli following.
When the door was shut once more, Jokono leaned close to Erik’s ear and whispered, “I’m fairly sure I saw an assassin bug. In the corner. Just sitting there.”
Erik nearly swore, but repressed it in time. Styx’s ears were everywhere. Most of the time the crew just swallowed it, as an inevitable consequence of having her aboard. Much of the time it was even useful, and thus far they’d had no confirmation that she’d done anything to harm Phoenix’s security with what she’d heard. But one of these days with Styx, Erik was quite certain, the rent would come due.
“Hiro says the bugs aboard Phoenix are not armed with neurotoxin, but to be honest, I don’t know that he could stop her from arming them if she chooses. She has an entire factory of micro-assembly coming together down in Engineering.”
“Well let’s just hope she doesn’t take these things personally,” Erik murmured back, beneath the operational chatter of the neighbouring bridge. “Just like she and Romki are always insisting.”
“Hello Captain?” came Draper’s voice in his ear, and Erik could hear Draper’s actual voice, much fainter, echoing from within the bridge. “We have a new series of incoming marks from jump. Their identification says they’re Domesh ships, three of them, and their trajectory indicates they’ve come straight from Prakasis. Looks like Aristan’s got reinforcements.”
Erik strode from his door, and was greeted with a cry of “Captain on the bridge!” as he crossed the threshold.
“You have command,” he told Draper as he grabbed the back of the chair and peered at the wrap-around screens.
“I have command,” Draper echoed, and pointed at the scan feed. Without the headset, or his glasses patched into command channels, Erik couldn’t make out the full three-dimensional display, but the numbers alone gave him all he needed. “They’re all the same class or equivalent as the cruisers here, they have high-angle V and look like they’re taking up position at intermediate insystem, right where they can screw up our escape to Brehn System.”
Phoenix’s internal time showed it was less than one hour until shift-change. It made more sense to do it now. “Lieutenant Lassa,” he said, “put me on ship-wide.”
“Yes Captain,” said Angela Lassa, doing that. “Go ahead.”
“This is the Captain, we are changing from second shift to first shift effective immediately, and I am elevating combat readiness from full red. Sorry second shift, I have a feeling you might not be getting that much sleep.” He deactivated. “Lieutenant Commander Draper, I have command.”
“Aye Captain, you have command,” said Draper, and began unbuckling, as all across the bridge, second-shift crew did the same.
“What are you thinking, Captain?” asked Suli from beside Helm, where Lieutenant Dufresne was similarly unbuckling.
“I’m thinking this new arrival just changed the odds,” Erik said grimly, helping Draper swing the side-screens out of the way. “And now we might have no choice but to rush it.”
12
Lance Corporal Lani Graf had only spoken with Captain Debogande twice before in her life. Both times he’d been Lieutenant Commander Debogande — once before Phoenix
had gone renegade, and once after. It said something of the operation she was currently supervising that taking instruction from him directly was less interesting. She only wished she better liked what he had to say.
“I’m sorry Captain, I can’t give any guarantee it will be done in twenty minutes.” Major Thakur was listening on the channel, also up on Phoenix, and Graf knew from experience that whatever trouble she’d be in for telling the Captain to shove it would be nothing compared to what the Major would do if she told him bullshit in an effort to please him. “We are progressing at maximum speed, but if we go any faster we’ll risk damaging it. I think we’re about fifteen minutes out, but there is no way in hell I can give a guarantee.”
“I understand that Corporal, but orbital mechanics don’t change to suit your schedules or mine. The window of manoeuvre is in twenty-one minutes, and we suddenly have a new trio of Domesh warships coming down on us who will block that manoeuvre if we wait any longer.”
“I understand the situation Captain,” Graf replied, attempting calm as she watched the glare of laser bursts and boiling water nearby. “We’re going as fast as we can, and Third Squad are removing our excess equipment in advance. I will keep you updated on our progress.”
“Get that data-core intact, Corporal,” came the Major’s calm voice from her operations room. “Let the spacers worry about orbital mechanics, it’s not your problem.”
Lani could have kissed her. As always, the Major placed herself like a wall between her marines and all spacer officers, even the Captain. ‘Do what I tell you,’ she said, ‘and take what they say as advice. And let me worry about the fallout.’ “Yes Major. We’re real close now.”
Lani disconnected from the buoy channel, and glanced up at the big, dark shape of a touli, gliding dangerously close to the communication cable. That cable in turn connected the buoy on the lake surface, which was in turn fixed by lasercom from PH-3, and from there to satellites and Phoenix. “Gonzo, keep an eye on the toulies and that cable. I think they’re just inspecting our bubbles, but I don’t want us to get disconnected.”
Defiance: (The Spiral Wars Book 4) Page 17