Absolute Zero (The Sector Wars, Book 1)

by Nicola Claire

  “Still at it?” I asked unnecessarily. But no one had acknowledged my presence, and I’m ashamed to admit that didn’t work for me.

  “What did you do to her?” Odo accused.

  “Why do you ask?” I shot back.

  “She won’t talk,” he snapped. “And look at her.” He pointed an angry finger at the vid-screen. “Every line of code she’s clearing is taking her too long. She should be able to do this in her sleep!”

  I didn’t point out that Cassi didn’t require any sleep.

  “You said it wouldn’t slow her down,” Zyla remarked, adding more shit into the shit soup that was my life.

  “What did you do to her?” Odo growled.

  I noticed Marvin kept his head down, but he did flick the occasional accusing look over his shoulder at me.

  “We’ve had this discussion,” I said levelly and made my way to the command chair as if I hadn’t walked into an ambush. “I have my reasons.”

  “It’s hurting her!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said. Which was the wrong thing to say.

  Odo stormed across the bridge, but Zyla stepped in front of him, barring his access to me. I didn’t need her protection, but from the irate look on my engineer’s face, I was kinda glad she’d intervened.

  “Odo,” Cassi said over the ship’s speakers. “Stop.”

  The air crackled with restrained fury.

  “Have you integrated fully, Cassi?” I asked, ignoring Odo’s conflicted look and still fisted hands at his sides.

  “Negative, Captain. I am sweeping the ship’s systems as I go. Full integration will be completed in t-minus three hours. I’ve met some obstacles that have necessitated I proceed slowly.”

  “Five hours,” Odo muttered. “There had to have been a better way.”

  “And the ship will be clean when you’re done?” I asked Cassi, keeping a wary eye on Odo.

  “Affirmative.”

  “That’s not Cass,” Odo said. “That’s not how she speaks. What did you do?” This time it was almost a plea.

  All eyes were on me. Even Marvin had lifted his head to stare me in the face without blinking. The Mutt had clearly bonded with Cassi faster than I would have thought possible. Or maybe whatever was wrong with Cass was interfering in the normal process of acclimatisation; breaking down barriers quickly so he could become a ready tool when needed.

  I was doubting everything.

  I kept a neutral expression on my face.

  “And how’s that infiltration protocol going, Cass?”

  Odo narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

  Cassi didn’t reply.

  “Cassiopeia?”

  “You may have been right, Kael,” Cassi said. “I have found anomalies within my systems.”

  I sat forward in my seat. “Why haven’t I been notified?”

  “They have so far remained dormant, and I cannot determine their function; therefore, they have not exceeded any parameters yet.”

  “Yet,” I said, scrubbing my face. “Can you purge them?”

  “I have isolated them for further investigation; I do not think it is wise to summarily remove them without knowing why they are there.”

  “She’s right,” Zyla said. “It could be detrimental.”

  I nodded.

  “When can you look into them fully?” I asked.

  “When I have the computing power to battle any potential traps doing so may create.”

  And she didn’t have that computing power right now because she was dealing with Malcolm’s sabotage codes.

  I looked at Marvin. “Your father really screwed us with those codes.”

  “He does that,” Marvin said and returned his attention to his vid-screen.

  “So,” Odo said carefully, “you’re making Cassi do a deep scan for viruses?”

  “Something like that,” I said, turning to my own console and watching Cassi work.

  “You were right; something was wrong,” Odo said, sounding shocked. “I…ah…I’m going to go check on the engines. Come on, Marv.”

  “Marvin,” the Mutt corrected, but Odo was already walking off the bridge. Marvin followed.

  Zyla said nothing for a long time after they went, and then she turned her navigator’s chair to face me.

  “With Cassi using up all of her computing power,” she said, “to fight the code and isolate the anomalies in her system, she’s not able to connect us to a Net. I feel blind and unprepared.”

  “I have just the answer to that,” I said and stood up. “Transfer command to the cargo bay,” I told Cass.

  “Command has been transferred,” Cassi said like any Basic would when issued an order.

  I let out a measured breath of air and left the bridge; Zyla right behind me. I could feel those inky black pools staring right into my back.

  In the cargo bay, I pulled up the command console on a vid-screen and checked that I could still keep an eye on Cass from in here. Then I toed off my boots, unstrapped my thigh holster, and walked to the centre of the gel floor, stretching my muscles.

  “We’re going to spar?” Zyla asked.

  “Why not? It’ll pass the time, and we both need to get back into a regular exercise regime. Unless, of course, they let you spar back on Zenthia and you don’t need me.”

  Zyla said nothing, just toed off her own boots, removed her pistol and holster, and then stepped lightly into the middle of the cargo bay.

  It was bigger than the gym we’d had on the original Harpy, but it didn’t have any weights or treadmills. It would do for what we had planned, though, and right now that was enough.

  We limbered up and then circled each other.

  “I would have come for you,” she said just as I was about to strike.

  I stumbled, and Zy managed to get a kick into my stomach. She followed it up with a punch to the side of my head. I managed to roll away before that one landed.

  “It’s like that, is it?” I said as we started to circle again.

  “You were always easy to distract.”

  We exchanged a flurry of blows, neither landing a decent one. Despite Zyla having a longer reach than me, I’d long ago learned how to combat that. I could duck and dive with the best of them. Movement was my friend, getting cornered was not; so I kept my feet moving.

  In minutes, I was out of breath.

  “How would you have come for me, by the way?” I asked when we’d pulled apart to reassess the situation sometime later. Sweat beaded her brow and ran down the side of her neck. Zyla was as out of condition as I was; at least that was something.

  “A few more days and I would have activated my beacon.”

  I stopped where I was.

  Zyla decked me.

  “Son of a bitch!” I said, rolling onto my stomach.

  She flopped down on the gel floor beside me and lay on her back, panting.

  I rolled over; aching. We both stared up at the gel ceiling.

  “What would that have meant?” I asked.

  “My father would have sent a dozen men to get me.”

  “That would have been enough,” I said, remembering how easy it was to infiltrate the ZNA facility.

  “Yes. It is a slow road to readiness.”

  “Readiness for what?”

  “War, of course. The ZNA want to fight for their freedom.”

  “And you support them?”

  “I thought I did. It stayed my hand.” She turned her head to look at me. Ebony eyes with hints of purple in them stared at my face. “But for you, Kael, I would have brought down a battalion on their heads.”

  I said nothing. What could I say?

  Zyla would have proven their accusations; that she was a High Council mole within the ZNA. That kind of thing carried a fair amount of weight.

  “I gave you a month to get yourself off Delphini,” she went on, returning her gaze to the ceiling of the cargo bay. “I knew Odo would have been trying from his end, as well. But a month, I reasoned, was long enough
. If you hadn’t come for me by then, I would have come for you.”

  “They were about to execute you,” I said.

  “They hadn’t indicated that.”

  We both said nothing. How close she had come to death.

  Then I let out a breath of air and said, “Is it just me, or is the universe out to flux us?”

  “It’s not just you, Kael.”

  It felt good having Zy at my side again. It felt good knowing I could always trust her. We’d had that trust tested recently, and I felt shit about that. But Zy was family.

  And on that note, I stood up and offered my engineer a hand.

  She grasped it; long fingers tangling with mine for a heartbeat. And then she was on her feet, staring down at me.

  I’ve never been the sort of guy to worry about my gal being taller than me. Hell, I’d slept with a few Zeniths in my time, enjoying every single one of those long, long legs wrapped around me. But for a fraction of a second there, I wished that I was Zy’s image of a perfect mate.

  Zeniths were so xenophobic. Sure, there were the few who liked to try a tumble on the wild side. But long term? Forget about it. Zeniths mated Zeniths for life.

  And I suddenly didn’t want cheap sex with another Zenith again. I didn’t want cheap sex with Zy, either.

  I wanted life.

  I cleared my throat and ran a hand through my sweaty hair. Zyla offered a small smile and turned on her heel, heading to where her boots were, pulling them on one at a time.

  I crossed to the terminal and checked on what Cassi had been doing. She was almost done — one last segment of the ship’s systems to clean up. And then the Harpy II would be as good as new.

  With a compromised third-gen AI integrated into it.

  I pushed the worry that accompanied that thought away for now. We had to reach Pi Mensae before the drones did.

  “I’m going to check on Odo,” I said.

  “I’ll be on the bridge,” Zyla replied, exiting the cargo bay without a backwards glance.

  I stood there for a moment and tried to reorganise my thoughts. Zyla was forefront in my mind, and I needed to be a captain now and not a horny teenager.

  I shook my head and walked out into the corridor, turning left toward the ladder down to engineering; the opposite direction the object of my brain’s — and other parts of my body — fascination had taken.

  Cassi appeared on the gel wall at my side.

  I didn’t jump when she did that. I. Did. Not.

  “Cass?” I said, slowing my steps.

  “I found it,” she told me, her voice quiet. “I found the data stack. It was easy once I knew what to look for.”

  I should have been happy to hear that, but something in Cassi’s tone of voice had me worried.

  “And?” I pressed.

  “And it has the same signature as the anomalies I’ve isolated.”

  I stopped walking and stared at nothing for a while.

  “Kael,” Cassi said. “I’ve been hacked. By aliens. From beyond the Belt. They hacked me. Me! A third-gen. They hacked a third-gen AI, Kael. Do you know what that means?”

  Yeah. I did. It meant we were in deep shit.

  Chapter Eighteen

  “We need to know what the hack code does,” I said, making my way back toward the bridge.

  I thought better of it a moment later and headed toward the mess instead. There, I activated the ship-wide comms and ordered an impromptu meeting. I needed more than one head for this, and everyone was going to be affected by the outcome of the upcoming conversation.

  “I could isolate it,” Cassi suggested. “Along with the anomalies.”

  “What good would that do us?” I asked as the others entered the mess. “We need the information off the data stack.”

  “You’ve found the data stack, Cass?” Zy asked, taking a seat along with the others.

  “Tell them,” I said, pacing.

  “I have located the data stack and identified signature markers which match the anomalies precisely,” Cassi said.

  “Shit,” Odo muttered.

  “Shit is right,” Cass said.

  I smiled despite the topic. Cass was fighting her infiltration protocol in spite of what it would be making her do in the background. It made me feel better to know the AI had some fight left in her.

  “What would happen if we opened the data stack?” Zy asked.

  “Any number of things are possible,” Cassi replied. “Considering the anomalies I’ve found were well hidden, and I am fairly certain booby-trapped, I do not anticipate the outcome of opening the data stack being a positive one.”

  “We need that information,” Zy said, reiterating my earlier thoughts.

  “But we could flux Cass by reading it,” Odo pointed out.

  I ran a hand over my face. “Isolate it,” I said. “Separate all anomalies and the data stack from each other and you.”

  “On it, boss,” Cass said and then made a sound of distress. Fighting back hurt.

  “You’re doing good, Cass,” I murmured. She said nothing.

  “Can we remove that protocol now?” Odo asked. I hadn’t expected anything less from Cassi’s staunchest supporter.

  “Not until we know what that hack code can do,” Cassi said. “Or has already done.”

  “Do you think it’s done something?” Zy asked.

  “I am not myself,” Cassi admitted.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Odo said. “We’re about to head into battle with Cass compromised.”

  “Nothing’s changed,” I said, turning to face them all. “Pi Mensae still needs us, and Cass is running an infiltration protocol that should catch any nefarious commands. If and when it does, we’ll deal with them.”

  “In the middle of a fight?” Odo demanded.

  “Do you have any other suggestions?”

  “Send the code back to New Earth,” he said. “Let the Originators deal with it.”

  “No!” Both Cassi and I said. “No,” I repeated more carefully. “It could be a Trojan horse.”

  “A what?” Zy and Marvin asked.

  “The moment we send what we’ve found to New Earth, we could activate it,” I explained. “That might be the sole reason why it’s in Cassi’s system. Maybe the aliens know more about us than we realise,” I said, voicing my earlier worries. “Maybe they want us to infect the Originators. You know how much of New Earth is controlled by them.”

  Odo looked sick; he’d gone a sickly shade of grey. He got it.

  “Why would they do that?” Marvin asked.

  “Why have they killed thousands of beings?” I shot back.

  No one said anything for a while, letting that sink in.

  Then Zy asked, “What’s the plan, Captain?”

  “We go to Pi Mensae and offer what support we can.”

  “We can’t stop them all,” Odo said.

  “We might be able to stop enough,” I countered.

  “And then what?” Odo asked. It wasn’t said in a demanding tone of voice. In fact, he sounded worried. Odo didn’t often sound worried.

  I didn’t know what happened next. We needed that data stack read. But to do that, we needed to make sure Cassi was contained. The Base was the most logical place to come back to. It was isolated from all other systems and even from New Earth. The comm panel was the only way to stay in touch, and that was protected.

  At least, I hoped it was protected.

  For now, it was the best plan we had.

  “We deal with Pi Mensae,” I said. “And then we come back here and unpack that data stack.”

  Everyone slowly nodded their heads.

  “Odo,” I said, “Check flight readiness.”

  “On it, boss.” He and Marvin stood up and headed toward engineering.

  “Zy, I want you to map us best time to Pi Mensae.”

  “Already done. It’ll take twenty-four hours through multiple jump points. But we should still get there in time if we leave within the next one-hundre
d-and-twenty minutes.”

  I nodded. Typical Zyla. She’d be ready for anything, even scuttling the vessel.

  “Then that leaves camo,” I said.

  “Camouflage is up and running,” Cassi announced.

  I caught Zyla’s eyes. “I’ll double-check it,” she offered, heading toward the bridge.

  Cass said nothing.

  I stayed in the mess for a moment longer, contemplating sending an update to Gramps. But the thought of having possibly made a minor error when I hooked the comm panel up to the H2 stayed my hand. The stakes were getting higher, and I’d save that ace until I had to use it.

  Gramps had been warned. He knew there was a threat. The Originator AIs would be on high alert. It was all I could do for now.

  I turned to join Zyla on the bridge when the gel wall turned red.

  “Proximity alert! Proximity alert!” Cass announced. “This is not a drill. Proximity alert!”

  “On screen!” I ordered, spinning back to the closest vid-screen.

  In the distance, still a parsec out, nearer the jump point, was a fleet of ships. I zoomed in using the magnifier lens, and made out different shapes and sizes but nothing that helped with my assessment.

  “Can you identify them?” I asked.

  “There are twenty-three vessels in the flotilla, all of differing configurations,” Cassi said. “Boss, they’re pirates. No transponder codes or any identifying tags.”

  I flicked the ship-wide comm on.

  “Marvin!” I shouted. “Get to the fluxing bridge. Now!”

  I ran out before he replied, throwing myself up the ladder.

  “Odo, can we fly?” I asked as I threw myself into the command chair.

  “We’re good to go, Cap’n,” came the reply from engineering.

  Marvin entered the bridge.

  “Fire us up and beginning separation from the dock, Zy,” I told my navigator.

  “Engine start, in 3, 2, 1,” Zy said. “We are go for ignition.”

  “Take a seat Marvin and tell me what you make of that.” I pointed at the flotilla moving inexorably closer to our location.

  “Separation in t-minus thirty seconds,” Cass supplied.

  Marvin swore in Mal.

  “Is that Daddy?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “How the flux did he find us here?” I snarled.