“But to use a civilian as a helmswoman!” the chief inspector cast a dubious glance at Freya, who smiled serenely back at him. She looked incredibly out of place in her severe gray military uniform, her hair neatly braided in a long plait down her back. Freya looked like a fairy trying to pass as a creditor. “One with no recorded experience. What can you be thinking?”
“Freya Tarkson has a pilot's certification,” At least, she did now. “And I have seen her in action. She has a way with piloting that exceeds anything else I've ever seen.” Which was true. Adri had never seen such reflexes as the ones Freya had exhibited in the cruiser chase. “She's the only one I would entrust to steer us right.”
“And the chief technician?” the chief inspector waved her off before she could begin her defense of Floyd. “Never mind. Why don't I ask your ops officer,” he turned to Jericho. With a derisive lift of his brow, he asked, “Humacom, what is the name and rank of your chief technician?”
A hush fell over the room. Adri could feel the prickle of nerves, distant stirrings of adrenaline.
Humacoms were not programmed to lie. The minute Floyd's last name was spilt, there would be serious problems. Already Adri was trying to formulate a plan.
“His name is Floyd Tarkson, sir, a civilian commander.”
The old man sniffed, “and just what are his credentials?”
Jericho blinked. “He fulfils the job description, sir. He designs, repairs and maintains humacoms. He is also qualified in general technical development and repair.”
The chief inspector's eyes narrowed. “Is that so. Answer me yes or no. Is there anything illegal or of dubious legality going on aboard this ship? Is there anything the Galactic Commonwealth would be opposed to?”
Adri closed her eyes.
“No sir.”
Everyone turned to stare at Jericho, who continued to smile blithely. The chief inspector frowned again, then turned back to his holoboard. “Is that so? Very well then. Captain Rael, you will receive permission to launch from Navy Control in a matter of hours.” He saluted, although he continued to frown. “We'll be watching you, Captain.”
Adri kept her hand in salute as the inspection crew left the bridge. “I'll give you something to watch,” she murmured.
No one moved for several long minutes, until a junior officer announced that the inspection crew had left the ship. Then Floyd spoke. “Jericho…you…you lied.”
The humacom tilted his head. “Not really, sir. Your name is Floyd Tarkson at the moment.”
“No, I mean…” Floyd turned to the rest of the staff, who were all staring. “I mean about the legality. You know that Freya and I are working under a false name, and that we're smuggling two Belligerents in the warehouse, and that…”
“The Galactic Commonwealth wants peace for its citizens,” Jericho replied. “All legalities stem from that desire. So by fulfilling our mission, aren't we following that dictate?”
Silence. Gray and Adri shared a look.
“Jericho,” Floyd said, “Could you go down and check to see that all my material is where we left it?”
When Gray gave an approving nod, Jericho saluted and left the bridge.
“That was creepy,” Duane commented.
Floyd frowned. Turning to Adri and Gray, he said, “There is no way that his logic program would have let him say that. No way at all.”
“What does that mean?” Gray asked.
“It's a quirk from the damage. Somehow, he's able to reroute his logic to come to a conclusion that suites him.”
“What does that mean?” Adri demanded.
“It means that he is doing what humans do. Lie.”
Two hours later, Adri had shoved all thoughts of inspections, lying humacoms, and petty worries aside, and gave the order to launch. “Miss Tarkubunji, take us out,”
Despite her internal misgivings about allowing the young civilian to fly a frigate – her frigate – without any prior instruction, Freya engaged the controls and navigation system with no problems. Working in tandem with Duane down in Engineering, the young woman guided the sleek craft away from its docking station and out beyond the control of Halieth's gravitational pull. At last, the planet began to blur behind them, while all they could see ahead was the vast, dotted void of space.
Captain Adrienne Rael leaned back in her seat, listening with half an ear as all her staff communicated in. All systems go.
“Well, it looks like we're off without a hitch,” Gray said from beside her. Adri could hear the relief in his voice.
For Adri, there was no real sense of relief, only an exchange of one set of worries for another. “Gray, get a senior staff meeting scheduled. Make it…in an hour.”
“A staff meeting?” Gray frowned. “We've barely left the planet,”
Adri took a deep breath. “Yes, I know. An hour. And make sure the Kobanes come as well. They might as well make themselves useful.”
“Adri?” Gray frowned.
“Its time for the mission briefing, Gray.” Adri replied, her face a serious mask. “It's time for answers.”
Adversity breeds necessity. Necessity breeds invention. Invention breeds expansion. Expansion breeds adversity.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Adri watched tensely as her motley senior staff filed into the ship's War Room. The general feeling among them was curiosity. She wondered how long it would take before most of them changed to fury.
“What's the deal?” asked Duane, plopping into his seat at the far end of the table and leaning back. “We forget to have the brief on the use of space toilets or something?”
Floyd raised his brow at the paranthian sitting adjacent to him. “You mean your engineering requires a manual and mission brief in order for regular people to use the toilet?”
Duane scowled. “What did you say about my engines, techie?”
“Now, now,” Freya stepped into the budding conflict and placed a gentle hand on each one's shoulder. “Let's not bicker now. The captain has something to say.”
Adri watched as the young woman sat down across from the two griping men, giving them each a serene smile. Two seats over from Freya sat Blair. His eyes were half closed, and he appeared deep in thought. One seat separated him from Adri. On Freya's other side, between her and Duane sat the two Kobane sisters, arms folded, as though they were spectators watching a mediocre play. Adri was just glad that they had not as yet decided to wreak havoc. Two empty seats separated Floyd from Jericho. He was watching the malevolent glares that Floyd and Duane were giving each other with interest. In the chair between her and Jericho sat Gray, who watched her expectantly.
“This meeting is called to order.” Adri announced. Her fingers were clenched tight, but her face was impassive. She waited until everyone was looking at her. “The purpose of this meeting is to discuss our current assignment, and lay out our mission objectives.”
“It's about time you spilled…” at Adri's deadpan look, Duane hastily rephrased. “Er, what I meant Captain, is that I am glad you're going to reveal this information to us.”
“Quite. As you all may know, I received my mission assignment the same day I was promoted, which is highly unusual.” Adri flexed her fingers under the table to try to ease the tension, but they simply coiled back. “The information I was given at the briefing was very sparse, simply a set of coordinates which we were to travel to, and orders to pick up a SecureBox with top secret information. We were then to take this SecureBox to the satellite center on Toreth, before returning to base.”
“That sounds simple,” said Floyd.
“Wait, what do you mean, were to travel?” Duane asked. “Did the mission get changed?”
“Something has changed.” Jericho agreed.
“Yes, there is more to it,” Freya frowned.
Gray turned to his captain. “Adri?”
Adri's eyes flicked to Blair's then to Hildana's. “From my recent travels, I've discovered a lot of things, and not all of them about myself. Com
bining my knowledge of space coordinates, along with the rumors that have been flying around the border region, from both the Belligerent Coalition and our own people, I discovered where they are sending us.”
“To your WMD,” Hildana hissed. “Your genocide machine!”
There was a stunned silence throughout the room, broken at last by Duane. “You…you've got to be joking. The Commonwealth doesn't believe in genocide! Come on, Captain? Tell me you don't believe this,”
Adri's face was hard. “They tested it on Undaria.”
Gray said nothing, his face pale.
“What are you talking about?” Duane demanded, a little frantically. “Undaria rebelled against the Commonwealth!”
“Heard about that,” Hildana snorted. “Funny how they don't mention how, or why. And they never did say how they managed to quell an entire planet of legendary predators without enlisting the aid of the regular military, huh?”
“But,” Duane half rose out of his seat, his eyes entreating Adri. “But something big enough to destroy a planet would have to be huge! How could they keep something like that a secret?”
Floyd made a small cough. “Actually, it wouldn't have to be very big, more along the lines of a large battleship.”
Everyone turned to stare at the humacom designer.
“Dr. Tarkubunji, you'd better tell this next part,” Adri said quietly.
Floyd cleared his throat and began. “I have been working for West Cellutary Research and Technical Laboratories ever since I graduated from school. My father, Harriman Tarkubunji, worked there his entire life. We were both designers, working to develop humacom technology for the government. It was satisfying work.” He paused, and then sighed. “About two years ago, my father was called away to a special meeting of laboratory heads. Afterwards, he was away from the lab were we both worked often, leaving me to work alone. This didn't bother me at first. Eventually, I noticed that he came home less and less, until he never left the facility. He started to hole himself up in his private laboratory, only allowing his personal humacoms free entry. Whenever I asked him what was wrong, he would only say that his current project was causing him some problems, but that he would work it out. The only time I was able to spend with him was during the designing and construction of a new datacom for the facility. But once that project was complete, my father retreated even further. Even the follow up project – an exterior firewall system for the datacom – couldn't pull him out for more than an hour's time.
“Then, about five months ago, my father died in his laboratory. Everything in his lab was destroyed, including his humacoms. They told me that he had gone mad – ransacked his lab and then killed himself. It was hard to disbelieve them; their report was concise, and my father had been acting strangely for so long. But then little things began to crop up…things I had trouble putting together, but continued to nag at me. Then strange things began happening to me at my lab…well, in short, nothing made sense until I was at last able to go home. There, I found a number of messages that my father had sent from the lab. Most of them were garbled, coded text that only another humacom designer would understand. Even I had a hard time. When I was finally able to manage to decrypt some of it, I found that it was notes for something called the Apocalypse Project. But it wasn't a humacom. It was something else, something far more sinister. My father's notes were agitated, and in the end, incoherent.”
“What did they say?” asked Gray.
Floyd took a deep breath. Freya watched him supportively. “It would take me too long to explain in detail. In sum, I believe that someone high in the government approached my father to design a program for a…machine of some sort. Something along the lines of the artificial intelligence we make for humacoms. Only, this thing was for the AI of a ship. A ship built in total secret that had a weapon aboard that was deadly enough to destroy an entire planet. By poison.”
Hildana hissed again. “The Coalition heard rumors about it. They said that the Commonwealth had tested it on one of their own planets.”
“Undaria,” Adri said again.
“Once the project was complete, my father must have been considered a liability,” Floyd concluded. His face was pale. “My guess is that he was caught destroying his notes.”
“Danwe,” Duane murmured, his eyes large. “How could…but why….” He turned to Adri. “What…what are we going to do, Captain? We can't…we can't condone this – atrocity!”
“You're right,” Adri replied. Once again all eyes were on her. “We can't.”
“What are your plans, Captain?” Gray asked formally.
Adri glanced at Blair. He gave her a slight nod. Taking a deep breath, she said, “We are going to find this battleship. And destroy it.”
“How?” Jericho inquired. “The feasibility of a positive outcome in a battle between a frigate of the Elegy’s class against this theoretical battleship are minute.”
“The thing must be armed to the teeth,” Hildana agreed. Both Kobane sisters were leaning forward, a dangerous glint to their eyes.
Adri opened her mouth to announce that she just so happened to have magic powers when a new voice called out, “I believe that I may be able to assist you.”
Everyone turned to see the man, wearing a ship's uniform, who was standing in the doorway. There was a long moment of bewilderment before Floyd shot off his chair with a startled, “Zultan!”
The humacom –for humacom he was – smiled and nodded to Floyd. “Good evening, sir.”
The humacom designer sputtered for a moment before saying, “How did you get here?”
“I let him aboard, with the last of the ensigns.” Jericho answered. “He gave a very credible argument as to his usefulness. Plus, he knew you personally.”
“Tarkubunji, who is this?” Adri demanded.
Floyd fell back into his seat, still stunned. “This is probably the most valuable data archive in the Galactic Commonwealth. My father and I designed and constructed him shortly before his death…”
“My name is Zultan,” the humacom said, turning to Adri. “My apologies for stowing away on your ship, Captain Rael. I found no other feasible alternative.” He turned to Floyd. “I assume you know why I am here, sir.”
“Yes,” Floyd rose from his seat. “Captain, if you would excuse me?”
Adri rose as well. “Wait, you said you could help us, Zultan?”
“Yes,” the humacom replied. “But before we get to that, there is something here that I want, and Dr. Tarkubunji needs to fetch it for me. I can't access the information you need for your mission without her.”
“Very well,” Adri recovered her authority. “Duane, head back to engineering. Make sure that we'll be ready to move fast if the occasion warrants it. Having a top-secret datacom stow away on our ship is not going to be easily explained if we're stopped by a patrol. Everyone else, back to your stations. Once we have more information, we can come up with a suitable plan of attack,”
As the others filed out, the Kobane sisters stepped forward. “Given the fact that our missions have crossed purposes now,” Hildana said quietly. “We find no reason to hinder your progress.”
“We want to help,” Giselle finished. “That thing is an abomination.”
Adri gauged their faces. They both looked fierce. “How do I know that you won't skip out when the time comes?”
“I guess you'll just have to trust that we want that thing gone,” Hildana replied with a quirk to her lips. “I make no promises about staying around once that's complete.”
“Fair enough. Danwe, this conversation is just wrong!”
Her old enemies grinned.
“Ask Gray for a duty roster. Make yourselves useful.”
“Yes, ma'am,”
Now the only people in the room were Adri, Floyd, and the humacom. “With your permission, Captain?”
Adri nodded to Floyd. Out of sheer curiosity, She followed the pair out of the War Room and down to a lift. Catching Gray in the hall, she jerked her
head for him to join them. “I want to see this thing that Zultan needs to get our information.” Adri whispered.
Gray nodded, but didn't speak. Both were trying to overhear the conversation that creator and created were having several paces ahead.
“I knew you hadn't shut her down,” Zultan was saying. “You gave the wrong code.”
Floyd nodded. “I couldn't do that to her. But why did you come after us? Weren't you given a replacement?”
“Yes, Eisha. Unfortunately, it was less than compatible, and had to be terminated.”
“I….see. By whom?”
“Myself. It was without a personality or learning program, very poorly constructed, and far too tall.”
Floyd blinked. “Too tall?” He shook his head. “Never mind. How did you reconcile destroying her and leaving the facility?”
Zultan sighed. “That, sir, is a very long dissertation. In a summary, I would have to say that current actions taking place within both the facility, and the information I was downloading led to a morality infraction in my hard drive. Because my orders went against the acceptable protocol, I concluded that they were invalidated. After all, if the orders were against my programming, through no fault of mine, then I am not bound to follow them.”
“Amazing,” Floyd breathed. “You must have thought about this a lot.”
Zultan made a very human-like gesture. “There really wasn't much to do, with both of you gone. Since Eisha was an inadequate firewall, I was forced to adopt my emergency security protocol. Which, as you know, is set to destroy all possibility of data hack, and to seek out an alternative firewall system.”
“And you knew I had her,”
“Of course, sir. I was able to read the hold for recycle command that you gave using a false code. I then deduced that you would bring her to where you were, at the Tarkubunji estate. Unfortunately, I was unable to reach the estate before you had relocated elsewhere. With the Peace Keepers everywhere, I backtracked and waited for your signature to reappear on the database.”
Adri and Gray looked at each other, shrugged, and kept listening. “I think we missed a lot,” Gray mouthed. Adri nodded.
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