by Gini Koch
Joe nodded. “We were on board for everything, remember, because you took our wives to the planet but not us. All we got to do was taxi service.”
“So bitter.”
“We’re not complaining,” Randy said. “Much. It was nice to get to do what we’ve been training for, for a few minutes. But it was getting ugly up here while you were down on the planet. Denise had the kids occupied, but most of the adults were already starting to get cabin fever.”
“Meaning we cross that road when we have an option,” Tim said. “But we can’t keep everyone sleeping all the time, particularly if your calculations for when we’re stopping are incorrect.”
A dinging sound started. Louder than the alarm had been, thankfully much softer than the alarms. “All personnel to stations,” Mother said. “All passengers to Nonessential Personnel Stations. We will be coming out of warp within five minutes.”
“I stand corrected,” Tim said, as he headed for his seat.
“I assume you can tell versus are back in charge, right, Mother?” I asked as I finished my cinnamon roll and seated myself and my purse in our duty station.
“Yes,” she said, as Jeff, Hughes, Walker, and Tito arrived, doing the hyperspeed daisy chain.
“Are the kids okay?” I asked Jeff as he strapped in and I got my helmet on.
“Yes. Locked and loaded, so to speak.” He looked around at Team Tinman. “Why are the five of you in here? Mother said to get to stations.”
“I think we want them here,” Tim said.
“Two androids, a cyborg, and the Six Million Dollar Men are good additions to the command crew. Particularly because we don’t know who has control of Mother.”
Jeff muttered something about too many cooks in a kitchen, but we all ignored him.
“Leaving warp in five,” Mother said, as the dinging stopped. “. . . four . . . three—”
Two and one were interrupted. By the ship slamming through something.
CHAPTER 54
WAS REALLY GLAD THAT the seats were made for this, and sincerely hoped the kids were as locked in as Jeff had insinuated, because we were definitely crashing.
Jeff hadn’t been wrong to ask why Team Tinman was hanging around. They were basically flipping about in the command area. Would have been comical if I wasn’t worried about them getting hurt, as well as anything or anyone they slammed into, too.
Was able to grab the Kristie-Bot as she slid into my chair. She pulled herself up and slipped her arm through my harness. It was uncomfortable, but she wasn’t cramping my ability to do whatever it was my job was, and it also meant she could catch Joe as he flipped by.
Joe and the Kristie-Bot did the hand-to-elbow clasp that meant they were both locked onto each other and had some slippage room in case of the worst.
Joe caught Maurer, they did the same clasp, then Maurer caught Randy, and Randy was able to grab Butler.
“Everyone okay?” Tito asked.
Got a chorus of replies that indicated no one was so damaged that they needed to get to sick bay or, considering, down to Engineering.
Because the helmets let us see what was going on with the ship, at least in a certain sense, I was able to see that we were smashing through something, because sensors on the exterior said we were.
However, looking out the windshield showed nothing. We were in space, in a solar system, because I could see a sun and planets, but we weren’t close enough to the nearest planet to be crashing into anything.
“What are we hitting, an asteroid belt?” Tim asked, as the ship shook and bucked. “Meteors? Space junk?”
“Not that any visual sensors are picking up,” Hughes replied, voice clipped.
“We’re crashing into nothing,” Walker added. “But sensors do indicate that something’s hitting the exterior of the ship and causing this slight turbulence we’re all experiencing.”
“So, totally par for our particular course. Good, good. So, how do we stop? And, as the Communications Officer or whatever the hell I am, what do I tell the others?”
“To stay put,” Jeff said. “Because we’re under attack.”
“By what?” Hughes and Walker asked in unison.
“No idea,” Jeff said through gritted teeth. “But I can see something coming at us from the planets.”
We all looked out the windshield. “I see nothing,” Tim said.
“He’s speaking for all of us,” Butler added.
“Through my helmet,” Jeff said. “I can see them coming at us through the helmet. Missiles or similar are leaving the planets.”
“All of them?” That seemed like overkill, even for the Solaris system, and Earth was considered really touchy, too.
“Sensors indicate it, yeah.” Jeff was pushing buttons at hyperspeed.
“Why can only Jeff see whatever it is?” Tito asked.
“Presumably because he’s in charge of Weapons,” Tim replied. “Though that makes no sense. I thought we could all see everything through the helmets.”
“Only what pertains to your duties and expertise,” Mother said.
“I can’t see Medical and we still don’t know why Kitty’s here, either,” Tito pointed out.
“Back to making no sense,” Joe offered from the impromptu daisy chain.
Walker took time out to catch hold of Butler’s free arm and pull him closer. Butler was then able to imitate the Kristie-Bot and get his arm through Walker’s harness. Now we had a semicircle around Tito, but Team Tinman wasn’t flying around through the air anymore, so one for the win column which was, once again, pretty empty.
But that the rest of us couldn’t see whatever it was out there made sense if only an A-C would be able to see what was coming. And there had to be some reason for why whoever—presumably Naomi—had made our seat assignments irrevocable. I’d inherited A-C vision from birthing Jamie, too, and I saw nothing, but I wasn’t the one assigned to shoot photon torpedoes or whatever, so maybe that was why. However, there was something that no one else was saying that I figured someone had to.
“Um, I don’t know whose job it is to say this, but shields up.”
“That’s me,” Tito said, as he started hitting buttons. Buttons were flashing on everyone’s consoles, not just his, though. The guys all pushed theirs fast. My console only had one button flashing. I’d already forgotten which button did what, and, so far, I’d only had to deal with three of them. Why I had this position was beyond me, really. However, managed to recognize that the button flashing was the same one I’d pushed to chat with Kreaving. Oh well, time to Uhura Up and do my job.
Pushed the button. “Hello, this is the Distant Voyager from Earth in the Solaris system. We’re sorry that we can’t take your call right now because we’re under attack. If you are the planet or planets attacking us, we would really appreciate your stopping. We come in peace and would like to leave the same way, versus in pieces.”
“What?” the voice on the other end said. Sounded female. Possibly.
“Stop shooting at us or whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Your ship ignored our instructions to stop.”
“No, we did not. Your call just came through.”
“We told your ship to stop.”
“Um, I’m in charge of Communications. These requests come through me or they don’t come at all.”
“We are able to talk directly to your ship. We did so, and your ship did not comply. Or respond.”
“Missiles getting closer,” Jeff said. “Verify that they’re warheads, Kitty, versus manned.”
“Ah, as to that, the ship is having some issues right now. Also, are you sending things to blow us up, or people to shoot at us?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean we’re about to retaliate. But we’re actually coming in peace, as in, don’t want to fight with any of you, so i
f those ships are manned then we’d prefer to talk versus shoot. If, however, those ships are bombs, warheads, or whatever else, then we’re going to shoot them before they hit us.”
“You attacked us and destroyed our shield.”
“Look, your shield is invisible. So are your bombs. At least to us.”
“Then how are you seeing them?”
“Nice to get the confirmation that you’ve sent weapons at us. Officially, that’s an act of war where we come from.”
“You intruded.”
“So sorry, but if you put up invisible barriers, you just have to figure someone’s going to crash through them. Frankly, where we come from, barriers are made to be really obvious so people avoid them. Those barriers that are hidden are usually hidden to hurt innocent and unsuspecting people. So, right now, we think of you as a violent race out to hurt us and probably others.”
There was a pause on the other line.
“Kitty, ten seconds and I have to fire.”
“Yo, whoever I’m speaking to, time’s up. Pull back or we blow the things coming at us up.”
“Locked and loaded,” Jeff said. “Firing in five . . .”
“We will pull back.”
“. . . four . . .”
“Jeff, they said they’re pulling back.”
“. . . three . . . no, they aren’t . . . two . . .”
“We have stopped!” The voice on the other side sounded panicked. “Don’t fire!”
“Not firing,” Jeff said, before I could tell him not to. “The missiles have all turned away from us.”
“Where are they headed?”
“Other directions, just not toward us. I’m monitoring in case they come back at us.”
“Thank you for not shooting,” the probably-a-woman on the line said. “Please leave our solar space now.” The ship stopped shaking and bouncing.
This was weird. Weirder than normal. Weirder the more I thought about it. First an invisible barrier, then invisible weapons that only Jeff could see, these people claiming to have talked to Mother directly, them managing to call their weapons off at the very last second, and then them telling us to leave, as if we were still the aggressors. The way the ship was somehow now through a barrier we couldn’t see—a very thick barrier, all things considered. An invisible barrier that a spaceship had flown through for several minutes. Something was off. Very off.
“Hold please.” And, speaking of off, took my finger off the button. It was still flashing, so assumed my call was still live, so to speak. “Mother, is the call still live?”
“Live, but holding, just as you requested. They cannot hear us.”
“Great. Mother, can you tell us what damage the exterior of the ship has taken?”
“None. I have been scanning since this began and the Distant Voyager is fully intact.”
“That seems impossible for how much I’ve been battered around,” Randy said.
“Our shields could be that good,” Walker said doubtfully. “I mean, Drax is a genius.”
“They are not,” Mother replied. “Based on what we felt, shields should have taken damage. But they took none.”
“Jeff, where are the missiles?”
“Can’t see them anymore, Kitty. They’re out of range.”
Looked out the windshield. “I see seven planets and what appears to be a lot of moons around most of them. What do you guys see?”
Everyone saw the same, even Jeff. “The fourth planet only has one moon,” he said. “At least, that’s all I see.”
“That’s all I see, too.” My brain nudged. “Um, Jeff? What would our missiles have hit, if they’d somehow missed the targets or you’d fired before the targets moved?”
“I can determine the trajectory,” Mother said. “Our torpedoes would have struck the large moon that orbits the fourth planet in view.”
Knew what was going on. “That’s no moon.”
CHAPTER 55
“I’LL BET CASH MONEY you’ve been waiting all your life to say that, Kitty,” Tim said. “But, why right now?”
“Yes, I have, but as to why right now, it’s because I think what we have going on here is a very interesting con. Mother, what’s the internal communications button? I need to reach Drax and Hacker International pronto.”
A different button flashed. “I have restricted the communication to where they are, only. They are not with the children.”
“Good to know.” Pushed the internal button down. “Gustav, Eddy, guys, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Kitty,” Stryker said, “we can. What’s up?”
“I think Mother’s been hacked or had a virus sent into her or something. No idea how, but it would be a virus that caused the ship to feel that it was crashing and under attack and a virus that could make the ship react as if it was being battered about.”
“I sensed and still sense no such thing,” Mother said.
“Ah, but Mother, the best viruses are the ones you don’t notice until it’s too late. Eddy, don’t let me down. Get going, find it fast, and fix it faster. Someone grab Serene on your way, just in case.” Thought about it. “Send Jennifer to grab Serene and I want the ladies using their fastest hyperspeed, please and thank you.”
“We’re on it,” Stryker said. “Jennifer’s back with Serene and we’re on our way.”
Let go of the internal communications button and pushed the external communications button down. I was getting good at this. Wondered if I’d remember this sequence tomorrow and figured it could go either way. “You still there?”
“Yes, and so are you. Why haven’t you left yet? We will fire upon you again.”
“I’m sure you will. Or, rather, I’m sure that you won’t, because I’m also sure that you never did. I’m also sure that there aren’t actually seven planets and more moons than you can count in an hour in front of us. I think there’s one planet, with one moon. Maybe.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Interesting. This person had difficulty lying believably. Never argued when the cosmos did me a solid.
“Sure you don’t. So, here’s the thing—we’re going to land. You’re going to remove or deactivate the virus you put into our ship’s system. Or we’re going to stop being peaceful and start thinking about leaving your world in pieces. Or do I make myself clear?”
“No, you are unclear. We did nothing to your ship.”
“Ah, but you see, I think you did. I think you have some way of determining when ships are nearby, even those coming out of warp. Perhaps especially those coming out of warp. Said ships fly through some barrier that sends a virus into their systems. The ship then thinks it’s being attacked. If it doesn’t immediately leave, your virus tells the ship that missiles are heading for it. Systems will even show those missiles. But there’s nothing there. It’s all illusion being filtered into the ship’s computer systems.”
Silence on the other side.
“How in the hell did you get all that from what we have to work with?” the Kristie-Bot asked. “I mean, I don’t think you’re wrong. I’m just kind of amazed that you took the leap and that, based on the silence we’re all hearing, you’re right.”
“Lucky guess.”
The Kristie-Bot snorted. “Right. Stop pretending I wasn’t a costar on Code Name: First Lady. I know how you roll. This was just even more amazing than usual. God, that movie is going to be a huge hit! I hope we’re back in time for the premiere.”
Managed not to wince. I’d been enjoying not thinking about the movie—an impromptu space trip having managed to keep my attention off of things I didn’t want to dwell on. But, honesty forced a response. “I’m just really exceptionally good at going with the crazy.”
“She is,” Jeff said. “And it makes sense.”
“No,” Mother said. “It does not. How would this virus be sent
into my system? The ship is self-contained.”
“But there are ways in and out. And if we’re talking some kind of pulse or whatever, then I imagine it would get through via the metal somehow, maybe via vibration, maybe we’re not as airtight as we think, pick a reason. That’s other people’s bailiwick, not mine. I just figure out the heinous plots and try to stop them. I don’t come up with them.”
“Our plot is not heinous,” the maybe-a-woman on the other side said. Realized I still had the button down. Oh well.
“Really? Seems heinous to us.”
“We don’t want to be invaded.”
“Most don’t. The nice thing? We’re not coming to invade. We were sort of tossed over here.” Was seriously wondering why Naomi had so tossed. “We have no idea why. We weren’t expecting your warm welcome but, as you can see, we’re prepared to make things even hotter for you. Now, are you going to let us land or not?”
“Why do we want to land?” Jeff asked. “I say, let’s figure out where we are, figure out where Kreaving is, and get back to that solar system and stop its sun from exploding or whatever. We have a lot of lives to save, Kitty. No need to stop here to refuel.”
“Wait,” the possibly-a-woman on the other side said. “Are you saying that you are going somewhere to . . . help?”
“Yes, that’s the plan. We got a distress call while we were in warp. A warp we didn’t put ourselves into, long story we’ll tell you about if it turns out we actually like you. Jury’s still out on that one. Anyway, we need to get back to wherever that ship was, because they’re lost and the system they landed in is in mortal peril. Something hit their sun and is causing said sun to start to self-destruct. There are a lot of lives hanging in the balance.”
“Is this your assigned role? To assist?” Possibly-she sounded far more hopeful than I’d have expected.
“It sure is on this trip, yeah. Why?”
“Hold please.” I heard a slight static.
“That’s my line.” Looked around. “Mother, what’s the status on Hacker International?”