by Chris Hechtl
...*...*...*...*... .
The Admiral's three AI were present; their small avatars were on either side of his position at the head of the table. As each officer entered they stiffened to attention when they noticed him.
“Take your seats ladies and gentlemen,” the Admiral said sternly as the officers from Xavier filed into the wardroom. They had been murmuring amongst themselves about what the meeting was about. Their talks came to an abrupt end as they took their seats. When the last person was seated the Admiral flicked a command through his link. The room lighting changed to red and they could hear the snick of the door lock engaging. The window went opaque and there was the crackle as a force field went around the room.
“Mysterious,” Captain Sampson said looking at the Admiral in frank curiosity.
“Security precaution,” his exec said. The Admiral nodded a brief sharp nod of acknowledgment.
“What I'm about to tell you is classified level ultra black. That means ladies and gentlemen if you discuss this with anyone,” his eyes roamed the officers as they straightened instinctively. “Anyone, anyone at all your implants will report you and you will be up on charges.”
The phrase you could hear a pin drop echoed in his mind. After a moment the communication's lieutenant down at the end of the table took a deep breath. Her exhale made the Admiral nod. “That means a cover has to be maintained. You can tell people who inquire that we are exploring a lead for more ships. Don't get into details, leave it at that and then move on. Do not imply or state that it is classified, just drop the conversation. Only I and Commander Sprite as navigators will know where this is. I am not going through that again for the return journey,” he said shaking his head. “The helm will get their bearings from me and unfortunately their implants will wipe the memory of it after we return to Antigua.”
“Sir ... where are we?” the captain asked carefully.
“We are outside a secret research facility code named Lemnos. The same one I was at when I spearheaded the Nova bomb,” the admiral explained. A lot more happened at Lemnos, but for the moment he judged they didn't have the need to know.
The men and women in the compartment blinked at him and then turned to gauge their fellow officer's looks. “I've kept its location quiet all this time. I am not certain what is in there if anything. I am hoping we will find it intact, which we did indeed. If we had not found it intact we would have checked for what we could have scavenged and then returned to Antigua.”
“How long will this take, Admiral? Will we get to get inside?” the XO asked thoughtfully.
“We're not here to play tourist,” the captain said with a shake of his head.
“No but I mean, we could look around ...”
“Keep such thoughts to yourself, Lieutenant,” Defender rebuked. “I want the record to show I am against this mission.”
“So noted,” Irons said curtly.
“What do you hope to find, sir?” the communication's lieutenant asked.
“I was hoping it is still intact. It is, so that is a relief. Commander Sprite has been keeping an Intel eye out for any reports. The caretaker crew might have destroyed it if it had been abandoned. Or it might have been stripped. We won't know until we get in there. If it is intact my keys will get us in the door. But the catch is, I'll have to go in alone.”
“Sir, that's risky,” the captain said. “I'd prefer to send in marines with ...” he saw the resolution on the admiral's face and then sighed. “But I'm not going to get my way. Just remember I'm worried about your safety sir.”
“So noted Captain,” the admiral said. “For what it's worth Mat, thanks.”
“I am betting it is intact inside,” Sprite replied. She turned to Defender's avatar. “And for the record I am whole heartedly for this mission, I've been suggesting it for several years. The laws on classification are clear. It is well past the due date for declassification,” she stated. “And I'll go on the record as saying so,” she said with an eye to the admiral.
Defender smoldered at her for a long moment. The Admiral grunted. “Enough. We need this. This research facility is a large one, large enough with enough specialized manufacturing equipment to give the Antigua and Pyrax yards a major leg up.”
“And the tech on hand? We can use that?” the XO asked, now excited.
“If it pans out. Remember, research facility,” the captain warned.
The admiral smiled. “Working at Lemnos was like being a kid in candy land to an engineer,” he said. The chief engineer chuckled. “For some it was great, but the pie in the sky shit some of the scientists and others dreamed up was a pain in the ass to implement.” He shook his head. “They came up with a great idea and then expected us to make it work.”
“And of course took the credit,” the chief engineer said darkly.
“Exactly,” the admiral said with a nod. “After all, they did the 'hard work' of thinking it up, we did the 'easy part' of making it work.” He rolled his eyes. “Please. A lot of skull sweat went into every project yet they got the credit.”
“Bitter much?” Sprite said, eying him. “You know you still loved it.”
“Yes. It was almost as good as being in a yard.”
“Then why are we here?” Captain Sampson asked.
“New technology, news from the Xeno war we may not know about, key code updates, any AI, and a ton of tech tools and equipment we can use,” the admiral said.
“To answer your question, this place can do almost anything,” Sprite said.
The admiral nodded. “It isn't a yard, it's limited on what it can prototype. But it can build a lot, and more importantly, it can build new tech. Things you've only dreamed about. It has every piece of equipment to manufacture prototypes you can imagine. And her machine shops ...” he paused to grin. The chief engineer chuckled.
“A kid in a candy store indeed,” the captain murmured.
“Pretty much. We can make ansibles here, nanotech, ship prototypes, and yes nova bombs if necessary. It was supplied by special tankers and supply vessels. When their link to the outside galaxy was cut off, they must have been left to wither on the vine,” the admiral explained.
“In other words, when Sol didn't order a resupply ship anyone left on board followed protocol and shut the base down,” Sprite said.
“We hope,” the admiral said with a grimace. He was trying not to get too excited, to not get ahead of himself.
“You are also hoping a caretaker crew is in stasis,” Sprite reminded him. The Admiral nodded and crossed his arms. “It's a remote possibility,” Sprite said, turning to the others.
That brought an excited chatter among the officers.
Captain Sampson nodded. “It is at the very least a possibility I see sir, however remote,” he said, looking at the hologram of the base. After a moment the murmuring died down and they all looked to him. “To have slept this long ...” he shook himself. “The Admiral is right, they've slept long enough. We are their bugle call, calling them back to duty.”
“There are most likely AI in there,” Sprite said, eyes glowing. “I for one hope there is. I'd love to talk with them once again.”
“So, what do you need from us sir?” the chief engineer asked.
“For now, not much. I am going to have to go in alone to prevent any booby traps from being tripped,” the admiral replied. “Until I can clear the way, you're going to have to sit tight and be patient.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Once I am in and the facility is secure we're going to send over a survey team as well as the backup power and fuel.”
“Admiral, what we brought is a drop in the bucket for this place,” the OPS officer said.
“I know that,” the admiral said. “For now, we're just going to concentrate on her core. Getting her ansible back up and running will put us back in contact with Antigua. We'll work on the next steps from there,” the admiral said.
“Well then sir, we should get moving. Let's ...” the captain n
odded to the admiral. “Be about it sir. At your convenience of course,” he said.
The admiral nodded.
...*...*...*...*...
The admiral took a small cutter across to the station. It was a lonely voyage. It would take a half hour to cross the void to the nearest shuttle bay to the core of the station. If the station lacked power he would have to abandon the little cutter and use his MMU and suit to find a hatch to enter the facility he thought.
The cutter was on autopilot so he had little to do but look at the facility. It brought back some memories to him.
“I don't remember ever seeing this place from the outside like this,” Sprite said.
He grunted. It was true, the facility was black, with no running lights or open windows. He could see a bit of ice crystals glittering here and there but not much damage. That was good.
“You built this place. I remember that.”
“Sort of. It was on a shoe string. I had the idea back when I was a commander,” the admiral said. “The problem was, this was the only place they'd let me stick it,” he said with a grimace.
“I see.”
He remembered cutting out the rock, dodging spawling from the superheated rock, tangling with drifting wires ... he shook his head.
“Those were the days?” Sprite asked.
“Something like that,” the admiral grunted. He'd never lost his zeal to build things. He hoped he never would. It was in his blood. Mixed in with the nanites and stuff, he thought. He shook his head again as his thoughts turned to another flashback.
...*...*...*...*...
“Ah, you're awake I see. Good, good. Admiral, you need to understand, you've been severely hurt but you are better now. Way better,” A tantalizing familiar grating voice said. He frowned and opened his eyes to see a neochimp sitting on a stool across from him. He waved his left arm feebly. His strength returned rapidly. Data swam in his vision, threatening to crowd it out and blind him. He groaned as pain flashed in his temple then a cool touch eased it into a numbness that quickly faded.
“I'm sorry we couldn't ask you in advance, Admiral, but we had to try. You were already aware of the project and were read into it. It shouldn't be that much of a problem for you to adjust to.”
“It is one thing to adjust to it in theory, quite another to actually go through with it,” the admiral growled. “And I want whoever's ass for doing this against my own wishes,” he said. “And I don't give a damn who they are either,” the admiral snarled.
“That ... is a problem,” Doctor Bier said quietly. He sat on the stool. “You can have my head if you want it. I know you are upset. You have every right to be in theory. But look at what you've gained!” The chimp spread his hands apart imploringly. “You are invulnerable! Immortal! The future!”
“For what I've lost,” the admiral said, clenching a fist. He looked at his chrome right arm. “I'm a freak!” he snarled.
“What you had already lost,” Doctor Beir said, voice frosting over. This wasn't going as he'd imagined. He had thought the admiral would have been grateful to be alive. He felt annoyed at the ingratitude.
“What someone could have replaced with a regrown body. Or let me die. I've done my part,” the admiral said, eyes locked onto the doctor's brown ones.
“Is he depressed?” a voice asked from within him. “He sounds it,” the voice said, sounding like a female teenager.
“Shut up!” he snarled, raising a hand to his ear. “Spirit of space! To have to live with AI?? In my own fracken head?!?” He snarled.
The doctor stepped off the stool, fur rising slightly. “I ... didn't exactly think about the psychological implications. At least not to this level. And your instinctive rejection was not anticipated. If you would just relax ...”
“Stop telling me what to do!” The admiral bellowed, gathering himself to move. The doctor gulped and took a step back, hands up.
“I am sorry, Admiral. Please calm down,” he said as a nurse rushed in.
“We are Trinity,” a deeper voice said, sounding like a merge of voices. We are with you now. You are us ...”
“Shut up!” The admiral snarled. He lost control and his right arm started to morph and flop about.
“Sedate him, Doctor?” A nurse asked as another doctor rushed in.
“No, let him get himself under control. He's been through a lot.”
“Sir, he may harm himself ...”
“If we knock him out we're only delaying the inevitable. Let him come to terms with it,” the psychologist said, pulling the nurse and neochimp doctor out of the room firmly. He glanced back to the bed and snarling admiral and then shut the door.
...*...*...*...*...
“Admiral, we're here,” Sprite said softly.
“Trinity,” the admiral murmured. “Three AI interlinked. Three in one,” he said shaking his head as the vision of their symbol came to his mind. Three faces on a sphere facing outward. He shook his head.
“What?” Sprite asked as the cutter slowed to a stop relative to the boat bay. “The lock is closed by the way. And based on the lack of energy readings, it is unpowered.”
“I should have chosen the three fates as your symbol,” the admiral murmured. “One of the past, one for the present, and one for the future,” he said.
“That's nice. Now can we focus please?” Sprite demanded.
“Hmm? Okay,” he said, shaking his head to clear it.
“Let's get this over with,” he said, closing his visor and watching the telltales on his HUD as Proteus secured his suit. “Depressurizing the cabin. I'm strapping into the MMU.”
“Keeping a running commentary to Xavier,” Sprite said.
“We're reading you five by five, Admiral,” Xavier's communications officer replied.
He exited the cutter, drifted clear of it, then engaged the MMU back pack. The Man Maneuvering Unit moved him about to the small personal lock off to the bottom left of the larger boat bay rectangle.
“Airlock in sight.”
“Shouldn't you have brought a power source, Admiral?” Xavier asked.
“I am a power source,” the admiral rumbled. He flexed his right arm. He reached out and arrested his approach by grabbing a safety bar. It was slick with ice but his right arm clamped down hard, hard enough to nearly snap it. He eased his grip up and then pulled his arm to allow him to get his left hand onto the opposing safety bar. “Docked to the airlock. Now,” he murmured. He clipped a safety line to the safety bar then used his right arm to jack into the controls.
“I'm in Sprite intoned, sounding distant. “Minimum power, not enough to open the lock,” she told him. “Drawing power from your implants,” she said.
The airlock popped silently, jerking slightly apart, then began to open more smoothly. When the hatch doors were far enough apart for him to squeeze through they stopped.
“I can't get in with the MMU on,” he grumbled.
“I can open it further if you'd like, Admiral,” Sprite offered.
“No, this is fine,” he said, removing the unit. He attached it to the safety bar with another safety line then climbed through the airlock into the Stygian dark room.
He entered the station alone, even though his AI were riding along in spirit within him.
“This is bringing back memories,” Sprite said. “And not fond ones either,” Sprite murmured.
“Where?”
“Antigua Prime. It was a ghost station when we first boarded. Boy that was a mess,” Sprite said.
“Oh yeah,” he said. He went to the inner hatch and jacked in. Sprite powered the lock enough to close the outer hatch.
“Wake the dead handshake engaged. I'm ... Okay, I am getting a reply,” Sprite said. “And we're locked out until we answer,” she said wryly.
“Then tell them who we are,” Irons stated. His normal vision was black but his sensors overlaid and formed a new image that was almost as good. In some cases better. But he could only see data and power flowing through the one wall h
e was jacked into. Everything else beyond the airlock walls was dead.
Sprite got past the initial firewall easily but as she accessed the net she felt another AI coming straight at her from the opposite direction.
“There must be a short in line 2124 c because airlock 92s1 just powered up. Wait a minute, there is no power going ... intruder alert!”
“Ray?” Sprite asked, recognizing the AI as it slammed up firewalls. “RAY!” Her handshake call was rebuffed automatically.
“Admiral, there is activity in the net. A caretaker, it's Ray!”
“Is he sane?” the admiral asked.
“I don't know ...” Sprite started to answer but a series of attacks threw her out of the net.
“Well!”
“Well indeed,” Defender replied. “Let me try, Commander.”
“Be my guest,” Sprite said, stepping aside. The security AI tried to get in but the initial firewall Sprite had gotten around had been reset and wouldn't even let him in.
“Okay ...” Sprite drawled. “Any other bright ideas?”
“One,” the admiral said. He tried to access the lock mechanism to open the door but the AI had frozen it out.
“Okay then,” he said, putting Proteus to work. The AI sent a stream of nanites into the hardware. It traced the electrical lines to the door's motors, severed them from their link to the computer and power system, then fed power from the admiral into them. The door immediately cycled open.
“Okay, now what?”
“Now we find another terminal,” the admiral said as Proteus withdrew the nanites. He frowned thoughtfully. He poked his head through the open hatch but didn't see anything on his sensors. The place was cold and empty. “No life support. They have to be on fumes.”
“Should we have knocked first? Called ahead? Or sent a gift?”
“No. Find a terminal,” the admiral ordered.
“Admiral, we don't have a map of the facility. It's deliberate remember? A security measure even we couldn't get around,” Sprite said. “Believe me, I tried,” she said sourly.