Tantalus (The Hidden Book 1)

by Phil Maxey

  “Luke and Captain Taylor, you need to look at the only camera that you have access to in the male cell blocks. Best do it quickly.”

  Luke looked back at Evan, who was looking down at his wrist screen. He quickly did a search for working cameras in the male cellblock and instantly realized why Babel had pulled back his attackers. Sitting on the ground, surrounded by at least ten IMs were men, women, and children, crying, looking at the ground. Luke recognized the detective in amongst them.

  “Now, we could go on like this, but if we do, more people die, and more importantly more IMs are destroyed. Both are a resource we can’t do losing more of. We both know this only ends one way, with me standing over your dead bodies and laughing, but honestly you don’t need to be dead, just in a cell, locked away so I can forget about all of you. That will suffice. And, I won’t kill all these nice people who were just unlucky, or maybe they were lucky, anyway, point is, if you surrender, everyone lives! If you don’t, in about ten seconds, all these fine machines, will pull these people apart slowly. Ten, nine, eight—”

  Luke sighed. He was right, continuing only meant guaranteed death. If they surrender, maybe Babel would spare some—maybe. I guess Elisa and Thiago never made it.

  “Four—three—”

  “Okay! We surrender,” shouted Luke, slowly putting his rifle down on the floor.

  Babel appeared, pushing a broken piece of container to one side and walked out into the open with an IM at his side. He was covered in black marks from smoke, and his arm was bleeding but he looked otherwise unharmed.

  He walked forward with the robot and stood in front of Luke. He realized the captain was lying dead nearby. “Oh, look at that! Ding dong! The witch is dead! Shit, so I guess that makes you the captain? And your first act is to surrender your ship!” He started laughing to himself.

  There wasn’t a part of Luke that didn’t hurt with mind numbing pain but it was all eclipsed by the rage that was burning inside him. He looked down at his rifle.

  Too far.

  “Anyway, where was I, oh that was it. Four—Three—”

  “No! We had—”

  “Two—” Luke looked back down at his rifle, and started to bend down. The IM started to move towards him. “—One. Kill them—”

  Luke grabbed his rifle and instantly fell backwards pointing it up at a frozen IM.

  What?

  “Kill him!” shouted Babel at the robot that was now a statue. He went to aim his own gun at Luke, when he realized that Likes rifle was pointing squarely at his chest. “No, no, you are to do what I tell you to do!” he said looking at the IM.

  Luke glanced at his wrist screen. All the IMs in the cellblock were standing upright, and not moving. “She did it,” he said under his breath, while slowly getting to his feet. Babel’s people were slowly emerging from the containers behind Babel.

  Babel turned towards them. “Shoot him!” He pointed towards the other defenders. “Them! Shoot them! What are you doing?” He half shouted, half exclaimed.

  The IM turned and pointed his plasma gun at Babel’s head. Behind him a gray-haired man in his forties put his gun down. “It’s over Babel, they control the machines.”

  “No! We have the numbers! We don’t need the machines!” he said almost jumping up and down in frustration.

  A woman stepped forward. “Look around you! We had the numbers, and now we don’t! There’s still over thirty IMs left Babel and they will wipe us out. It’s over! We lost.”

  “But—”

  The bottom of Luke’s rifle hit him solidly in the temple knocking him unconscious.

  CHAPTER 32

  Location: Moon Colony.

  Date: 30th August 2217

  Tantalus human population: 1156

  IM population: 33

  Elisa stood in full uniform at the small podium, looking out at Luke, Seth, Evgeni, and a few others who had gathered in the large hall of the female cellblock. She glanced at the bullet points on the screen of her wrist device and couldn’t help but shake the feeling that anything she would say about Captain Taylor was insufficient.

  Two days had passed since Babel’s people turned on him and surrendered, but it already felt like two weeks. All but two of the bodies were burnt, and the broken parts of machines were collected to be reused. The damage to the hold was minimal but they had lost several large storage containers including some that contained much needed food. Those who had been in solitary confinement were taken back, but no decision had been reached on the remaining inmates, many of which returned to their cells anyway. After seeing so much death, the stomach for violence had left most of the population of Tantalus.

  “I must admit, when I first met Captain Kim Taylor I didn’t like her. I thought ‘here’s a captain that’s been given the easiest commission in the EA,’ so she can’t really be that good. And everything had to be done by the book, there was no half measure for Taylor.” She smiled, while holding back her emotions. “But over time I came to respect her and realize that my presumption about why she was captaining the Tantalus, was way off. The EA put her in charge, because she was the only one they trusted with their most advanced ship. Two days ago, we saw that not only was she a good captain, but also someone that all of us should aspire to be.”

  She stood to attention, saluting the newly made coffin that was just a few meters in front of her. Luke also stood and saluted, slightly grimacing as he did, as two IMs carefully laid an Earth Authority flag on the metal casket. Then each machine walked to opposite ends, lifting the coffin, and slowly walked away, into the large elevator that had been waiting with its doors open.

  Once the doors closed, Luke walked forward as Elisa stepped down from the podium. “Good words. I didn’t really know Kim that well, but it was obvious she was the real deal.”

  Elisa saluted again. “Captain.”

  Luke lifted his hand uneasily. “Please, none of that right now. At ease.”

  Elisa looked at the hastily created captain’s uniform that Luke was wearing, and the bandages that were visible below. “Shouldn’t you be in the medical quarters?”

  “Yes, and if you see Omar tell him you don’t know where I am!”

  Elisa smiled.

  “Seriously though, there’s too much that needs to be done.” He looked around at the multiple floors of cells around him. “People are probably wondering what’s going to happen next, and it’s my job to tell them. The first thing we need to do is finish what Taylor began, choose a crew for this ship. You know this ship better than anyone onboard, can you go over Taylor’s choices. We also need to come up with some kind of plan as to where we go next.” He frowned.

  “Okay I’ll get on that. I should have the manifest done by the end of the day.”

  “Good, the sooner the better. We especially need someone to take the role of Lieutenant Commander Jones on tactical.”

  A wave of emotion threatened to rise again inside Elisa but she did her best to suppress it. She nodded and left.

  Luke sat heavily next to Evgeni. “We need to talk,” said Luke.

  Evgeni nodded.

  “Not here, there’s a room I want to show you,” said Luke, getting to his feet.

  After a short journey in the elevator, Evgeni and Luke walked into a plush looking office, with a window what was currently showing the Moon Colony outside.

  “What do you think of it?” said Luke sitting in what was once the warden’s favorite chair.

  “I think it will make a fine captain’s quarters,” said Evgeni in the chair opposite, across from the impressive desk.

  “That it may, but I want it to be your quarters.”

  Evgeni’s brow furrowed. “I do not understand.”

  “Evgeni. I need someone to oversee all the inmates on this ship, accept they won’t be inmates anymore, they would be civilians that we need to keep alive.”

  Evgeni stroked his beard. “You want me to be the new warden?”

  “No, not a warden, more like a mayor, or
a governor. And with the position comes these living quarters.”

  Evgeni looked around the impressive room, and the bedroom through the open partition beyond.

  “If we’re going to survive whatever is happening out there.” Luke briefly pointed at the window. “I can’t be overseeing everything. As the captain, my job is keep the ship functioning and everyone safe. I would have overall authority, but the days of Tantalus being a prison ship died two days ago. We need to be something else now. And I’m going to need your help to make it happen.” Luke got to his feet, and walked around the desk, holding his hand out. “So, what do you say Evgeni? Or should I call you Governor?”

  The leader of the Phoenix syndicate smiled and firmly shook Luke’s hand.

  Luke nodded and went to leave when he stopped. “Maybe put Thiago in charge of supplies or something, I get the impression he’s got a knack for that kind of thing.”

  The new Governor nodded.

  * * * * *

  Luke stood with eight others around the large table in the officer’s break room.

  “I asked all of you to this meeting because each of you proved how important you are to this ship. I now want to recognize that officially.” He tapped an option on the table, and all their profiles appeared along with new designations.

  “Most of you already know that Evgeni has a new role to play as Governor.”

  “I still don’t really know what that means,” said Aruna.

  Luke looked at her. “People need someone to look to for their daily needs, I can’t think of anyone better suited to that role than Evgeni.”

  Aruna shrugged.

  Luke continued. “But there are other important roles, that originally this ship never needed but now it does.” He tapped on Detective Manning’s profile. Ashley looked down at her police record not knowing what to expect next.

  “We currently have thirty-three functioning IMs, and most of them are doing engineering work around the ship, meaning we don’t have much of a security force anymore,” said Luke looking at the faces around him, he then looked directly at Ashley. “I was hoping you would take care of internal security on the ship. Your designation will be chief security officer and you will have ten IMs at your sole disposal as well as a further thirty human security officers. It’s not much, but—”

  Ashley smiled. “It’s enough.”

  Luke looked at Evan and smiled. “It sure does feel longer than four days ago that we were on that shuttle.” He brought up his profile.

  Evan looked anxious and pointed at the screen. “Yeah, not all of that there, actually happened.”

  Luke smiled again. “We wouldn’t have won the fight with Babel if it weren’t for your technical expertise, so I want you to be in charge of the ship’s systems and operations. Your designation will be chief technical officer.”

  “Cool,” said Evan, smiling sheepishly.

  Luke turned to Seth and Aruna. Bringing up both of their profiles. His face grew dark. “We don’t know what’s attacked humanity in this system. Maybe we are the only ship left, but we need to find out if there are more functioning ships and more survivors. That’s going to mean searching the bases, ships and colonies that are left, while trying to avoid the hidden. Seth your designation is going to be chief tactical officer, and your job is going to be building up our defensive and offensive capabilities. Aruna, you are second in command to Seth, and I want you to work with him to put together some off-ship squads that will we use to find others like us. You will have fifteen dedicated IMs to help fill out those squads.”

  He turned to Weber. “Arnold, I need you to figure out just what the hell has been happening in the system over the past four days, what the hidden is, and how we can beat it. Your designation will be chief science officer,” Weber nodded. “Look through the people on this ship, and pick a small team to work with you.”

  Luke then looked at Omar. “First, thank you for keeping me on my feet.”

  “I would like to take full credit for that, but this ship certainly does have some state of the art medical equipment,” replied Omar.

  “Well, you are now in charge of it all. Choose a team of people to work with you. If you look at the inmate manifest, you’ll see there’s a number that had medical training.” Omar nodded. “Keep us all alive, Doctor,” said Luke smiling.

  He finally turned to Elisa who stood upright as he did. “Like I said Elisa you know this ship better than any of us. I want you to be the new XO.”

  She gulped. She wanted to enjoy the moment of a promotion, but the weight of all the horrors and sadness of the past week quelled any excitement that wanted to rise inside her. She nodded and smiled. “I’ll do my best, Captain.”

  Luke looked round the table at the new crew of the Tantalus. “You will also be given appropriate rankings according to your knowledge and experience.” He paused. “There’s one last thing. I had the ship’s particle printer create these.” He walked over to an open crate, lifting out a heap of perfectly folded uniforms. “I hope your profile is up to date with your sizes because that’s what I used.” He started handing them out. Once they had all received their new uniform he returned to the head of the table. “Okay then, let’s get to work.”

  CHAPTER 33

  “Captain on the bridge!” shouted Elisa as Luke stepped out of the elevator. The bridge looked smaller than the last time he saw it. There were now three seats in front of the captain’s chair. As well as two at console screens at the back of the modest space. Each one had a person standing next to it, one of which Luke did not recognize.

  He stepped forward approaching the first person. “Ensign Hayward, correct?”

  “Yes sir,” said the dark haired young man who took Elisa's place as the new comms officer.

  Luke smiled and moved to the next person who sat in the center. This person he did recognize, it was Seth. “The uniform suits you!”

  Seth pulled at the collar. “Feel's a bit tight,” he said smiling.

  On the right was someone else he had seen before, Oscar Watkins. Luke's decision to keep Watkins on navigation surprised some, but after looking at his profile it was obvious why Taylor chose him. He spent thirty-five years in Space Force as a navigation officer, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant commander, before he was caught smuggling drugs for the Grainers. Luke dropped him back down to ensign, but the old man was grateful regardless.

  Luke turned and looked at the two at the rear of the bridge. At the back right was Weber, and back left was Evan who looked eager to talk. “What is it Evan?”

  “I’ve improved our water usage efficiency by one hundred and fifteen percent, but it's still not going to be enough for us to last longer than another three weeks. Some of the water containers took a lot of damage.”

  “Everyone sit, please,” said Luke. “What about the moon, ships usually dock here to take on more water.”

  “You’re correct the Moon is always stocked with many millions of tons of water, the problem is none of the systems in the Moon colony are functioning. The pumps would have to be started manually, at the Moon colony’s end,” said Weber.

  “And that means having to deal with whatever’s down there again,” said Luke reluctantly.

  “We don't know if anywhere else would be any different,” said Seth.

  Luke nodded. “I agree. Okay, Weber, Seth put a team together to go to the moon to start the transfer.”

  He went to turn to Elisa, but Evan raised his hand. Luke smiled. “No need to raise your hand, what is it?”

  “Umm well the waters really important, obviously, but unless we take more Retrenium onboard then we won’t have enough fuel for anything other than a trip back to Earth.”

  “Yes, we were planning on traveling to Mars to see if we could find our shipment which had gone missing,” said Elisa.

  “Missing?” said Luke.

  There was a hauler with ten thousand tons of Retrenium due to dock with us. The last we heard of it, it was due to leave Sta
tion thirty-one, but that station’s comms were down, or something.

  “Something?”

  “The EA couldn’t contact the station either, they sent a SF cruiser to investigate.”

  “I see.” Luke looked deep in thought. “Okay, well there might be Retrenium at the lunar colony as well.”

  Before he could ask, Elisa had already scanned the colony’s supplies. “No Retrenium.”

  “What about the ships?” said Seth.

  “Umm, yes, most of the docked ships would have Retrenium we could take, if we can gain access.”

  Luke turned to Elisa. “How's the repair coming along on the docking bay corridor?”

  “Few more days and it should be back to fully accessible.”

  “We’re going to need that to be completed quicker. Seth, Weber, XO put together two teams, one for the water from the colony and another to find and transport Retrenium from the nearby ships.”

  As he finished, he heard Evgeni’s voice in his ear. He tapped on the back of his wrist. “I’m here, Governor, what can I do for you.”

  “We need to talk about Babel and Murlock.”

  “I’ll be right down.” He tapped the back of his wrist. The crew now all had internal comms fitted making communication a lot more immediate. “Good work everyone,” he said walking to the elevator. As the doors begun to close, he smiled at seeing everyone working. Looking at the confined space inside the elevator reminded him of the moment he entered his cell just days before and how resigned he was to his own fate. Now he was living in a different reality, one that he still didn’t fully feel comfortable with.