Adri smiled slowly, taking a sip of coffee. Yep, it was crap. “If I believed that, I would be sorely underestimating you.”
“You wouldn't be the first.”
Gray walked up to the table just in time to hear Adri ask, “So which poor soul are you victimizing now?”
Carter gave another dramatic sigh. “You have no romance, Rael.” He turned to Gray, “I'm telling you, the woman doesn't have a single romantic bone in her entire body. I do not victimize people. I merely try to see if we are compatible or not. Its called dating, you know.”
“Dating is just another form of victimization for one party involved.” Adri replied dryly. Gray had the feeling that this was an old argument. “One side of the party is interested, and the other is too weak to say how they feel and so goes along with the other's idea. Before you know it, it's a huge mess and one of them ends up totally miserable.”
“Like I said, no romance.” Carter twirled his empty mug in his hand.
“So who is she?”
Carter suddenly looked uncomfortable and a little embarrassed. “You remember Fayded? Leah Rachel Fayded?”
Adri reflected for a moment. “Is she the one who drop-kicked you out of the second story window after you asked her out?”
“Yep.”
“You've got to be kidding me. She graduated ahead of everyone else. I also think she hates your guts.”
“You're not wrong.” Carter sighed. “She's currently the assistant operations officer aboard the Commodus. We ran into them – well, not literally, but figuratively – about three weeks ago.” He sighed again. “She still hates me.”
Gray snorted at the lovesick expression on Carter's face. “You've got it bad.”
“Don't I know it. Well,” Carter rose to his feet as the two captains began walking towards the entrance to the mess hall. “It looks like our esteemed captains have finished their superior meal, and we'll be on our way. I really don't think that lavender neck wrap compliments Yates's complexion, do you?”
“The fact that you called it a lavender neck wrap is disgusting. Get lost, pretty boy.”
Carter sauntered off after the captains. “See you later, Rael. Keep safe. Nice meeting you Grayson,”
“Safe travels.” Adri and Gray watched as the senior staff of the Damacene exited the mess hall on their way to the transportation dock for their short shuttle back to their ship. “Come on, our shifts started ages ago.”
“How long have you known Royce Carter?” Gray asked as they walked towards the lift that would take them up to the bridge.
“Since the academy. I got into officer's school because I was good. Carter got in because he had connections. But don't let that fool you. He has a sharp mind, and though he's not the best in field combat, he'll make a good captain.”
“He seemed a bit…shallow,” Gray mentioned.
Adri smiled a little. “That is his greatest asset.”
“I'm not following you,”
“Don't worry about it.” Adri glanced over at Gray's face and saw a look of confusion and suspicion. “I don't have many friends,” she found herself saying. “Even fewer whom I am able to keep in touch with. It's nice to see Carter now and again.”
Gray's face cleared. “As long as he's just your friend,”
Adri scowled. “What's it matter to you, anyway?”
“A guy hates competition that might have a leg up on him. Carter obviously likes you, and he's known you longer. I feel threatened.” Adri gave him a blank stare. He grinned boyishly, “This is the part where you're supposed to assure me that I'm the only man you're interested in.”
Adri rolled her eyes and started walking again. “You're still here, aren't you? I let you get away with calling me Adri, don't I? I haven't taken Fayded's example and drop-kicked you down to the brig, have I?”
“Hmm, lucky me. It seems as though you're a lot more accepting of our relationship that you were even earlier today. We're making remarkable progress.”
The smug look on Gray's face caused Adri to scowl. “Then again, drop-kicking you into the brig might not be such a bad idea.”
All throughout Adri's shift, her mind kept drifting toward Gray, who was working with Commander Wede-Uctan, head of Analysis, at the Analysis station. Her personal life, despite her ardent resistance, seemed to have taken a turn. The more she thought about the situation, the less she liked the idea of pushing Gray away and going on with the way things had been.
Let nature take it's course had been Carter's advice. He ought to know.
Still, a part of her stood back, fretting that the closer she got to him, the more painful it would be when he was gone. It would be best to tread carefully, whatever she ended up doing.
Change is coming, something in her mind whispered. Adri glanced again at Gray and wondered if the change was going to be for the better.
Username: Cassie
File://GC#000118
Password: ******
Access Granted
Command: open file to last saved date
It borders on disobedience to have a private log that is not accessible to my human superiors, but Zultan has done so for a while now, and no harm has been done, so my logic sees no fault in going ahead and doing so as well. This seems as good a place as any to record and analyze the latest data I have received.
I have been activated little more than 48 hours, and I am already faced with issues that stress my logic systems. Some entity is attempting to murder my ada – I mean, Dr. Floyd Tarkubunji. The evidence that Zultan has been gathering over the past weeks leaves no other conclusion than a human conspiracy against the doctor, for reasons yet unknown. Zultan believes that the premature death of Dr. Harriman Tarkubunji also plays into this situation, and I am inclined to agree.
The most likely suspects for this are the superiors that I am supposed to obey. This presents a logic crisis. How can I be obedient to someone whom I have been programmed to suspect and apprehend?
Zultan says in crises like this, I am to follow my “instinct,” whatever that is. He believes it is our primary function to protect Dr. Tarkubunji over obeying orders from the heads of WCRTL, or even the Commonwealth Government. He, at least, makes sense.
As for the harddrive himself, while working with him sometimes stresses my logic functions, it presents no other difficulties. I see no problems with our continued partnership. Although…well, no one is going to read this – connecting with him is oddly special.
Save all new data.
Close file.
Encode.
Chapter Ten
The “night” shift, never the busiest, left Adri with too much time to think. While the captain secluded himself in his quarters, sleeping or doing who-knows-what, Adri had control of the bridge. There were a lot of domestic orders to be given and followed up on, last messages to the Damacene to send, and a full checkout on all the Advance Force tertiary equipment. The checkout would take several days to complete, but Adri preferred supervising the whole process. The schematics from all the battles, recorded within the troops’ battle suits, would have to be watched and analyzed, which led her thoughts back to the data chip that Duane had given her earlier.
The blaster shot from Kobane should have killed her, or at least mortally wounded her. Adri knew this, without a doubt. The beam had been aimed at her mid chest, and not even her armor and shielding could have completely protected her from a direct shot. So what happened? All she could remember was a second of feeling very peculiar, and then the beam was gone, as though it had hit something and been deflected. Wondering about it was driving her crazy. She would watch the data and see.
The sudden increase of talking, along with the shuffling of feet marked the end of the shift. Captain Heedman had long since retired to his private quarters, where he was doubtlessly sleeping the sleep of the petty-minded. Adri supervised the changes in the bridge shifts, as trained ensigns replaced the senior staff at the major posts. She was gr
ateful that Vice Captain Lowell had covered her first shift the night before. Of course, she would have to pay for it tomorrow with a day-night double shift.
Adri nodded to Lowell as she relinquished the captain's chair and walked off the bridge. In a few hours she knew that Janag would return to relieve him. Gray was standing just outside the door, leaning against the wall, obviously waiting for her. She was a little surprised; not once during the whole shift had Gray so much as asked her a question, instead conversing the whole time with Commander Wede-Uctan or studying the screens at the security station. When the shifts changed, he strode out without even looking in her direction.
“You ready?” He asked, straightening up and walking alongside her.
“I'm surprised you still want to go through with this, you don't have to.”
Gray raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Of course I do. I said I would, didn't I?”
“Well, you don't have to,” Adri repeated, stopping in front of the lift. “I can easily manage this on my own,”
“That's not what you said earlier. Besides, last night's activities aside, this will be the first time we'll be alone together. Are you trying to break our date?”
“This isn't a date, Grayson.”
Gray smiled. “You keep saying that.”
With a last dubious look at Gray, Adri stepped inside the lift. When Gray had joined her and the doors closed, she spoke to the lift computer. “Level four, block seven.”
[Affirmative.] the computer responded in a neutral female tone.
As the lift began to move, Gray turned to her. “So what are we looking at, exactly?”
“Something strange happened in that factory on Rema,” Adri said slowly, choosing her words carefully to keep from sounding ridiculous.
“The skill of the enemy, while unexpected, isn't particularly strange,” Gray replied, confused at her elusive answer.
Adri shook her head. “No, it wasn't the Belligerents themselves, per se. That is an entirely different matter, which we will need to have a staff meeting about very soon.”
“You say that with a sour look on your face,”
Adri's scowl deepened. “You would too if you had to organize the stupid thing. Captain Heedman's necessary presence at such things is never what you could call constructive, and I always walk out wanting to shoot something.”
Gray laughed. “Diplomacy is not your middle name, Adri.”
“Diplomacy, dipshomashy. All that does is make the process longer, and brings in a bunch of idiots who don't realize that we would be better off just shooting each other and getting on with business. They're the ones that make war take so long.”
Gray found he had no argument for that.
The lift came to a stop, and the two stepped out. Gray followed Adri down several corridors until they reached the Weaponry and Tactical Analysis complex. Adri entered her passcode, saying as the door slid open, “The WTA is always empty during graveyard shift, most of the work being done in the day and night shifts.” Adri walked into the dimly lit room, Gray right behind her. She nodded towards the scattered stations that were still being manned. Gray realized that, instead of ensigns, there were humacoms plugged into the schematic consoles. “The Oreallus is equipped with a lot of drone humacoms, who mostly handle minor jobs like recording, copying and sending battle records and analyses to the main Commonwealth database on Halieth. They won't acknowledge us unless we give them a command.”
Adri stopped at a console that was tucked around the corner, blocked from view of the door. Booting it up, Adri gave Gray a searching look. “Everything from here on out is not going to be logged, understand?”
“Yeah.”
Adri stared again into Gray's eyes. The dim lighting made them look darker than usual. “Fine then.” She turned back to the console. Pulling out the data chip that Duane had given her earlier, she slid it in. “Computer, upload and display data on chip.”
[Affirmative.]
“Take a seat, this may take awhile.”
Gray pulled the chair from the next station over and sat down beside Adri. There was silence as the computer uploaded the information from the data chip. [Upload complete. Awaiting command.]
“Begin playback of file one,” Adri ordered.
With a soft hum, the computer display began to show a recording of the Belligerent base mission from the view of Adri's visor on her combat suit. The sound was barely audible, but Gray could still pick up his voice on several occasions. He asked no questions, waiting instead to see what Adri was looking for.
Adri was quiet during the whole exploration of the apparently abandoned base. But when her voice, oddly tinny from the recording, shouted [All troops pull out!], she lurched forward. “Computer, freeze screen.”
Gray looked over at her. “What is it?”
She shook her head. “Computer, identify all Belligerent weaponry visible on current display.”
[Affirmative.]
As the computer began to outline, identify and list all the enemy weapons currently being displayed, Gray asked again. “What are you looking for?”
“Something out of the ordinary. Can you identify all these?” She nodded towards the list of weaponry the computer was displaying.
“Sure. They seem pretty typical for a Belligerent Advance Force, which is what they said they were.” Gray looked harder, determined to figure out what she was searching for. “I don't see anything out of the ordinary, Adri.”
“Neither do I.” With a look of intense concentration, Adri rested her chin on her palms, staring into the display screen. “Computer, continue replay.”
[Affirmative.]
Both Adri and Gray stared intently, following the scene of their squad attempting to escape from the base. Every time a Belligerent soldier came into the display scene, Adri would freeze the screen and study the weapon. This continued without any results until they reached the tail end of the recording; the last dash to the exit. “Computer, slow current display speed by point five,”
[Acknowledged. Reducing playback speed to point five.]
Gray watched as the display showed Adri's view of the hall. He saw the appearance of Hildana Kobane, heard her “caught you” before she fired. With Adri, he watched the blaster beam streak towards the screen at half the actual speed, and then disappear.
“What in Danwe's name?” Adri murmured. “Computer, replay last four seconds.”
[Acknowledged. Replaying last four seconds of display.]
Again, they both watched the beam race forward, and then simply disappear. He suddenly recalled seeing this exact scene play out in real life. The stress of the situation had caused him to forget about it until now. “What, by Danwe, was that?” Gray whispered. “Adri?”
“I have no idea. Have you ever seen a Belligerent weapon malfunction like that?”
“I've seen them malfunction before, but never like that.”
“Neither have I. Computer, identify Belligerent weapon currently on screen.”
[Affirmative. Weapons scan identifies current weapon as a Xandarisham Type II blaster rifle. Is further information required?]
“No,” Adri leaned back in her seat. “Computer, switch display to file two.”
[Affirmative.]
“I can see how this would bother you,” Gray said quietly as the computer hummed. “In fact, it bothers me too.”
“I need to know what happened here.” Adri replied. “This is important somehow. I can't just ignore flukes like this.”
“I'm with you.”
Adri didn't turn away from the display screen. “I'm really beginning to think that you are.”
Gray said nothing as the display screen popped on with the second file. He was a bit surprised to see that it was the recording from his own suit.
“You were the only one that was with me at that part,” Adri explained.
Together they quickly watched the mission from the beginning. Adri was determined not to leave a single stone unturned. Time passed, but n
either really noticed. When it reached the last segment, Adri again ordered the computer to display the screen at point five speed. The last scene unfolded again, but this time at an angle from Adri, to the right side and a little behind her. Again, the blaster beam raced across the corridor, only to stop inches from Adri and disappear.
This time, however, Adri noticed something different. “It flashed, like it hit something.”
“You're right.” It was Gray who ordered the replay. “It's like it hit your shield and dispersed.”
“How did it do that?” Adri hissed. “There is no way my shield could have withstood a frontal hit.” She shook her head again. “Computer, split screen and show file three on screen two.”
[Acknowledged. Splitting screen and displaying file three.]
Gray studied the schematics that popped up on the second screen. “These are your combat suit statistics.”
“That's right.” Adri ordered the computer to continue to replay the last four seconds of the contents of screen one before switching attention to the second screen. “These are my suit diagnostics taken right after we got aboard ship. Its standard procedure.” There was silence for a moment as both studied the information. “Do you see anything unusual?”
“The diagnostics states that you were breathing irregularly in the milliseconds the shot was fired,” Gray began. “No surprise there, you probably gasped. But here,” He pointed to another set of data. “It shows that your body temperature increased erratically as well. That's odd in of itself; the human body usually sweats during periods of stress, in an effort to cool down. Instead you heat up. But then, as soon as the beam is gone, you cool back down again to a normal combat temp.”
Adri opened her mouth and then closed it again.
“Spill it,” Gray demanded.
“I don't think that's so unusual, for me at least. Combat records show that in periods of crises my body tends to heat and cool at a rapid rate. I've always done that I suppose.”
“Hmm, an odd bird, are you?” Gray smiled at the wry face Adri made. “Don't worry, I still like you for it.”
Universe of the Soul Page 9