We moved into the compartment and had a look around. There was too much damage to the compartment to guess at its purpose. Anything that was loose in here had been smashed to pieces by the explosion. A buckled hatch led deeper into the section, and we got Mal working to cut it free. We could tell that the compartment was breeched, as the bulkhead had several holes in it.
When it was open, we moved in, this time I was in front. A large section of bulkhead was missing, as if a great explosion and burst from the next compartment. We climbed through the gap and were greeted by an open stretch of space before another drifting section of hull began. We moved to the edge and checked out the distance. A jump would have to be assisted by our thrusters, as the next section spun slightly differently.
Once again, I went first. I wasn’t worried about missing the section, our thrusters could correct our course without issue, I was more concerned about our suits scraping one of the jagged pieces of metal that drifted about, or jutted out of the torn sections of hull.
This next part was more intact, and we found the first compartment had several lockers that appeared functional. We set about opening them. They were mostly personal lockers, and held little more than clothing and keepsakes. One locker held a few electronic gadgets though, nothing useful but worth a bit of credit. We didn’t exactly consider ourselves as looting the dead, but as the first to locate a derelict ship we had right to anything of value that we could salvage from the ship unless there is a survivor.
The next compartment held a gruesome sight. Mal opened the hatch and I stepped through, at the ready. I almost fired my gun as a form drifted into my view. There were three bodies drifting in this compartment, their bodies frozen in the hard vacuum. Crystalline droplets of blood moved about like dozens of rubies, glittering in our helmet lights. Two of the bodies were human, and the third was a Garz’a. They all wore uniformed jump suits.
“Demarchy Fleet.” I explained
“Veng?” asked Artemis
“Yeah. Poor bastards.”
“They got anything on them?” asked Mal, who started to rifle through their pockets.
“Hey, show some respect.” I pushed him out of the way.
“Get your hands off me. I’ve as much right to this as you. They don’t need it.”
“Cutsy is right, lover boy, I call shotgun on the Garz’a.” They both started to go through their pockets.
“You guys are just wrong.”
“Look at this!” exclaimed Artemis, holding aloft a key card.
“I got a cred stick!” said Mal, “Guess you’re too squeamish for this kind of work, Seth. I always knew you had a weak stomach.”
“Let’s get going, we have a few more sections to jump to get to that signal.”
Eventually, the pair of vultures finished their pillaging and we examined the next bulkhead door. Mal confirmed it was empty of air and I pulled the hatch. Inside was a large compartment filled with several large consoles. They were all inoperable, but I could tell their function.
“Plasma Battery Controls. Class 3 weapons. Definitely Demarchy of Veng Fleet.”
“I wonder who destroyed it?” mused Artemis, “They’re not at war with anyone are they?”
“Not openly, but they’ve had small skirmishes with Kanto Prime for years. There was always some hostilities about to break out when I was a Star Marine. It didn’t help that the Primacy was run by a pompous arsehole.”
“Isn’t that treason?” asked Mal.
“I’m not a marine anymore.”
“That’s right, you quit.”
“It was an honourable discharge, Mal.”
“Desertion more like.”
“And what the fuck would you know?” I turned to face him.
“Boys.” Said Artemis, I ignored her. Mal turned to face me as well.
“What? Do you think you’re some kind of war hero, is that it?”
“Boys!” said Artemis.
“You got real nerve….”
“Boys!” yelled Artemis, more insistent this time. I turned to face her and looked at where she was looking. A section of hull plating was opening and I could see several chromed heads starting to slide into view.
“Shit, security bots. Split up! Find cover!” I commanded. They did as I told them.
The first synthetic leapt clear of the recess it had resided in. They were humanoid, with thin arms and thick chrome plated chest armour. They had human-like hands that held energy carbines. These appeared to be more intelligent that the assault boarders that the Spear of Orion had used on us. These ones moved with coordination and started to move from cover to cover down the compartment as we started to snap off shots.
The compartment was about twelve metres wide and nearly fifty metres long, but was filled with the Plasma Battery consoles. There was plenty of cover.
“Art, go right and flank them. Mal, keep up a steady suppression, cover me!”
Mal was armed with a PX-2, like my usual weapon. They were a decent gun, although in zero-g not the best choice. The kick was enough to move your whole body if you were not anchored down firmly. Mal’s first shot nearly sent his whole body tumbling backwards. Artemis and I moved down range further. Most were firing in my direction, being the larger target, and two rounds cracked into my suit. The MAEL was tough, though, and my suit barely registered the hits. I saw a bright flash as one of the shields on the synthetics flashed out, Mal had gotten a lucky couple of shots in and had managed to tuck himself into a console’s curve to stop himself from floating away after his shots.
When I was about twenty metres from the synthetics, I could count that there was only five of them. They had seen Artemis moving to flank them and had halted their advance and dug in. We were now too close to risk moving from cover, at this range they could easily hit us. My plan was to distract them enough that Artemis could get some good hits in, bypassing their shields. Her gyrojet rockets weren’t energy based and so would not be stopped by their shields. Mal was hardly a combatant, though, and I wanted them to ignore him as much as possible. This meant I had to get their attention. I focused inwards and remember my training with Fel.
I then stepped out of my cover firing my E2S in a continuous stream at the enemy.
“Seth! Get down!” I could hear Artemis yelling at me over my comms.
As the first few shots found their way towards me, my nano-proliferation shield coalesced into form. Rounds hammered into my bubble of invisible force, tiny flashes of light indicating their dissipation. My suit recorded a radiation spike as the hard light rounds were reduced to nearly harmless energy. My own fire tracked across the enemy, first taking one in the chest that had stepped out to get a clear shot at me and overloading his shield in seconds. It was blasted back from multiple shots. I moved onto the next target and continued my barrage.
Artemis saw that I was okay and then started moving again down towards their flank. In seconds, she was in position and started hammering shots at the synthetics. I ducked back into cover before my shield collapsed, but the synthetics were already out manoeuvred. Artemis made short work of them and in a few seconds she stopped firing.
“Clear.” She called.
I stood up and looked around. Sure enough dozens of bolts and pieces of synthetic drifted through the compartment. There was quite a bit of carnage from the short firefight.
“Rockets.” She said, indicating her gun. I hadn’t seen the effect her gun had had on them, but there must have been small explosions that I couldn’t hear either, since there was no air to carry the sound. Gunfights with no atmosphere were eerily quiet. The only sound your heavy breathing and the muffled thud of your own weapon vibrating through your suit and your arms.
Mal joined us and started to check the weapons of the synthetics. It was then that he made a discovery.
“These droids have no brains.”
“What do you mean?”
“These synthetics don’t have any cognitive processors. I’m no synthetics experts, but they n
eed at least some form of artificial intelligence to be able to function right?”
“They had decent tactics, they didn’t just advance blindly. They’d have to have brains for that.” Agreed Artemis.
“I thought Veng had good AI?” mused Mal.
I checked them out and found that he was right. Their heads were merely sensor mounts.
“Maybe they’re controlled wirelessly. Some central brain unit somewhere.”
“These aren’t Veng.” Stated Artemis.
“How can you be sure?” I asked.
“Look here, that stamp on the chest plate? That’s an Esper royal sigil.”
The Esper Monarchy was one of the major players in the Eridani System. However, that was light years away. Why do they have a beef with the Demarchy of Veng?
I was thinking about what this meant, when I noticed something strange. I could hear music.
“Can you guys hear that?” I asked.
They both looked at me.
“Hear what?”
“I can hear something.” I gestured to my helmet comms. “Sounds like music.”
“Oh, great. He’s snapped.” Cursed Mal.
“No I’m serious. It sounds like distant music. Very digital sounding.”
“I got nothing.” Admitted Artemis, “Maybe Cutsy is right.”
Now I concentrated, sending out my nano-senses. They found the music instantly, and I could see it like drifting notes in the space around us. It was hard to describe, it appeared as drifting clouds of sounds, heading towards the rear of the compartment. I followed it, the others following me in confusion. There was a hatch at the end, where the music drifted through. I opened it and went through, my weapon at the ready. The final section of hull drifted before me, the deck at a thirty-degree angle and spinning gently. The music drifted towards it. It was the tone we’d detected!
“Let’s follow it.” I said, and readied to jump across.
“Wait! You crazy fool!” called Mal, “Follow what?”
“I can see the distress signal. My nanites are tracking it!”
“More likely they’ve messed with your head and you’ve lost it!”
“I can see where the signal goes.”
“I believe him.” Said Artemis, “Those MAEL suits can pack all kinds of gadgets in them.”
“Oh, so you’re an expert now?” Mal said bitterly.
“Have you ever experienced explosive decompression?” she threatened.
“That’s enough, you two. We need to keep going. I’m jumping.” And I leaped through the open space between the sections. I adjusted my roll and grasped a bulkhead on the third section. I magnetised my boots again, standing on the bulkhead. It had become my ground, and I looked up at the others. Artemis was drifting towards me. Mal followed and I made sure they all locked their boots again.
We climbed around to an opening in the section, a blasted open hatch. We tested the compartment, no surprises it was devoid of oxygen. Inside were more bodies. It was then that we noticed several of the bodies had wounds that looked like they’d been shot with energy weapons. Deeper in the compartment were the remains of two more of the Esper synthetics.
The compartment was a monitoring station of some kind, with smashed consoles everywhere. The next hatch was reinforced, and appeared to have an electronic lock. I set Mal to examine the lock, and Artemis and I checked through the compartment for any more synthetics.
“It’s stuffed!” reported Mal, “No power, locks fused from the other side.”
“Can you cut it?”
“It’s reinforced. It would take more power to cut through here than I can carry.”
“Let me try.” I said.
“What you gunna do? Ask it nicely?”
“Stop being a pain in my arse and get out of the way, will you?”
“Screw you, Seth. Be my guest. This is a dead end.”
I put my gloved hand onto the door and reached out once more with my nanites. They could slip through the door with a technique that Zoe called quantum tunnelling. As my senses were attuned to the nanites, I could feel them slipping into the material. It was very dense, and it took some time but eventually I could feel some begin to appear on the other side.
“This is bullshit, we’re wasting our time.” Muttered Mal, ever the pessimist.
“Patience, endurance, introspection.” I intoned.
“Ha, you’re a monk, now? You’ve been spending too much time talking nonsense with Fel.”
I sent my thin stream of nanites across the other side of the door. They infiltrated the lock on the other side and began to work on the electronics. I checked my charge, I was well into the yellow, but I felt that I had enough juice in me for one more trick. When the nanites were in place, I lent them some of my energy and they began to alter their electromagnetic states. The electrical polarities of molecules began to change and soon I had a flow of electricity entering the electronics. I stepped back from the door and gestured for Artemis to step up.
“What?” she said, confused.
“That key card you pilfered.”
She drew it from a pouch on her suit and swiped it in front of the lock. A small green light flickered on and the door opened.
“That,” said Artemis as she sauntered seductively across the threshold, “Is one very sexy trick you just pulled.”
“Yeah, well that just about drained me. No more tricks for me, today.”
Inside was a relatively unscathed compartment that was short. It looked like a check point as there were a few security cameras and a deactivated energy barrier guarding another hatch. There was one body here with concussive wounds as if he’d been bounced around inside, probably when the ship had ruptured. One look at him and you could tell that several bones were broken, including his neck. Luckily, the other hatch wasn’t reinforced and had a manual release.
“I’m reading a thin atmosphere. Not enough for breathing, but it’s there.” Read Mal, “There’s also power.”
“The music is coming from in there as well.”
Mal sighed and pulled his equipment from the hatch.
“You first, crazy.” He gestured.
I opened the hatch, and there was a brief rush of escaping atmosphere. Inside was a circular compartment with dozens of computer stations. There was several flickering lights on in the compartment, half of which were dangling from their housings. A strange machine dominated a central platform. It looked like a vertical column covered in monitor screens, wires and circuit boards. I could see ice had begun to form on just about everything; the thin atmosphere that had remained in here had also contained moisture. I walked up to the central column and examined it. The music was filtering out of a small panel in the lower half, at about waist height. I opened the panel and peered inside.
Attached to a bundle of wires and cables was a spherical module made of clear diamond. I could see a pulsing glow and flickering lights playing over it, through the hard shell. I reached out to touch it.
You are not synthetic. Text appeared on my overlay. I pulled back in surprise. I could see by the reactions of the others that they also received the text.
“No, I’m not.”
Identify yourself.
“You can hear me?”
I can detect your communications feed.
How about my wireless? I texted.
Yes. Identify yourself.
I am First Mate Seth Donovan of the Dreaming of Atmosphere. This is Artemis Derris and Malcolm Cutler, crew from said ship. You are? I already had some idea.
I am an organic shroud matrix based quantum computer. Do you seek to harm me?
No, we’re looking for salvage.
There is nothing of value left on board the Viridian March.
Is this ship called the Viridian March?
Yes.
How can you be sure there’s nothing of value?
The only thing of value is life. All life forms ceased functioning several hours ago.
You value life?
It is the most precious thing in the galaxy.
Were you programmed to believe that?
I was not programmed. I was…
Go on.
My memory is damaged.
What is your purpose?
I…think.
You think?
Yes.
“Quit playing around and take it. It’s clearly worth a lot of Credits.” Said Mal.
“It doesn’t behave like most artificial intelligences I’ve interacted with. I’m curious.”
I am not artificial.
Excuse me?
I am intelligent.
Are you telling me you’re sentient?
Define.
I am sentient, as are the other two people with me.
Negative. I am not like the three life forms in the compartment.
So you’re not sentient?
Define.
I sighed. How do you explain sentience to a machine?
Are you self-aware?
Are you?
Artemis laughed at that.
“It’s got a point.” She said.
Are you alive?
I…think.
You think you are alive?
Insufficient data to provide a meaningful answer.
“Oh, Fel is going to love this.” I said out loud.
Please do not refer to me as an inanimate object.
Okay, what would you prefer we call you?
The crew of the Viridian March referred to me as Tac.
Okay, Tac. How do you feel about joining us on the Dreaming of Atmosphere?
It is lonely here. Are there more crew on board Dreaming of Atmosphere?
Yes, several more crew.
My primary role here is no longer valid. I will join Dreaming of Atmosphere.
I reached into the housing and started to disconnect the cables that ran into several ports on the sphere.
Primary power couplings disconnected. Secondary power activated. Time remaining until depletion: 13 hours 47 seconds.
I began to see that count down cycling down each second. I opened a private comm channel to Maxine.
“How’s the job?” I asked, referring to the bomb disposal.
“Can you give us one hour?” Maxine replied. I could hear machinery in the background. She must have been in the engineering spaces.
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