By six, the fighting had ceased, and cleanup operations had begun.
Jane moved both BigMother and Custer to undamaged docks as soon as the damaged ones were sealed.
Annabelle and I joined the others from the Rec Room for dinner, and slowly the others who normally ate with us, came in.
The mood was high, but subdued. We'd almost bitten off more than we could chew, and those of us who'd been fighting knew it. Smiles were on faces, but eyes betrayed the stress levels.
We took our time over dinner, and I lingered, waiting for the others to finish their coffee. I couldn’t remember what I’d eaten, or even if I’d eaten. I sat there, silently, listening to the subdued chatter.
"Bloody hell," said Dick quite suddenly.
We all looked at him, and followed his eyes to the doorway. Jane stood there, streaked in blood. It was her primary avatar too, not one of the droids, but only I could tell.
"Better clean up before joining us," I said to her.
She looked at me for a moment, looked down, nodded and left.
"What the hell is going on Jon?" Amanda asked finally.
I looked around to see if anyone important was missing, but we had more than usual at the table. The other team leaders usually ate with their troops, but they were here now. Presumably they wanted some answers as well, and didn’t want to miss anything.
"Jane, show the key events in order please."
"Confirmed."
Screens popped up so everyone could see without turning. We watched Jane plug herself into the station computer and freeze. Droids on the station also froze. Jane froze on the Bridge, and I ordered everyone out. I attacked the coms room with a frenzy I hadn't actually felt at the time. BigMother bounced off the station shields, as a major dogfight went on around it.
Black Jane attacked me in the CCC, to the horror of a lot of us watching. There were some sharp looks at me from people who hadn't seen my sword before.
The fight on the Cargo Deck shocked everyone speechless. Except BA.
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" she said, looking at Alana, as I calmly sliced a droid in half.
The forcing of Custer's airlock by the bulldozers. The forcing of BigMother's airlock by team four. The bulldozers disappearing into the guts of the station.
Jane turning black on the Bridge before taking her normal shape again. There were some frowns from around the table as people saw Jane naked for a second, and mistakenly wondered why her suit had changed her from all black, to naked, to her normal skin and uniform.
"So that’s what happened," said Aleesha, emphasis on the what.
"But what did happen?" asked Amanda, emphasizing the did.
"My fault," said Jane from the doorway, as she entered. "It's taken a bit of effort to make sense of today."
"What have you just done?" I asked her, as she made her way to an empty chair not far up the table from me.
"I got mad Jon. Really, really angry."
"You?" said Alison, with wonder in her voice.
"Me. As soon as I had the ships re-docked, I went looking for answers. With no computer on the station, I first hacked all the ships. Nothing. With only people left to get answers from, I went to the cells to find the base commander. He was an Admiral."
"Was?" I interrupted.
"Um, yes. Was. I kinda broke his nose when he gloated about what they'd done. Hence the blood on me. When he laughed at what I'd become, I hit him again in the same place."
"Ouch," said BA and Dick.
Faces turned towards them, but it was Alison who added the extra.
"Nose pushed back into the brain?"
Jane nodded.
"Ouch," said a few others.
"Spill the rest Jane," I said to her.
"You remember Gunbus was destroyed over London?" I nodded. "Well the pirates managed to steal the ship computer. It was intact, but powerless. They found me as a functioning program, stored in active memory, waiting for the ship to power up again. Instead of turning me on, they altered my programming. That Admiral gloated about how dark they turned me. They made me twisted and evil, and installed me on that station as a weapon in case we discovered it. They knew we used an AI to capture stations and ships. They decided to use it against us."
"It almost worked too," I said.
"Oh, and those ships did self-destruct. I found a command on one of the Battleships ordering any ship about to be taken, to self-destruct. The order came from the now ex-Admiral, and apparently he was under the impression pirates were being one way dropped onto a planet called Justice, in the Corporate sector, with no way of ever getting off. He seemed to think death was preferable to being taken by us, and left to rot. I checked the Cruiser we took, but for some reason, it didn’t seem to have the order logged."
There was silence for a while.
"Okay, let's do this job properly. Jane, I want every single computer component on that station removed, and dumped in the sun. I don’t care if you have to rip the entire station to shreds doing it. But by the time we leave here, there will be nothing left which can house even a low level AI. This includes any droid with more than basic programming. If your evil twin is hiding somewhere, I want it deep fried, extra crispy."
"Damned right!"
"Check all the ships as well. No, don’t bother. Remove all the computers, and dump them too. Have a Cruiser Freighter load of computer and droid replacements brought here from Nexus. In the meantime, use our stock of basic computers so you can operate the ships for defensive purposes. If you need to build more droids to crew the ships, do so."
"How long do I have?"
"Depends on tomorrow, but I hope we're gone from here by this time then."
"What's on tomorrow?" asked Amanda.
"Shipyard and planet."
"So we have to do it all again?" asked Aleesha.
"Fraid so. But this time we do it by brute force only."
BA grinned. I looked at Alana.
"I want charges to blow the airlocks with this time. No mucking around. Flick a switch, boom, in."
She nodded, and went blank, obviously working out what she needed to prepare.
I looked at the twins.
"You run the bulldozers this time. You make straight for the computer room, and reduce it to trash. If there are defenders, your secondary task is running them down, for the rest of the teams to take out."
"You got it!" they said together.
I turned to Jack.
"Colonel, you and six head for the control center. The other teams will secure the docks, and the ship bays." He nodded.
"When?" asked Annabelle.
"Training will be for real."
"My favourite," said BA.
Eight
Not long after, I stopped off to cuddle Angel, and headed for my Ready Room. I found Jane in there waiting for me.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I screwed up."
"No, we did."
"I never considered I might be vulnerable to a tampered with version of me."
"I didn’t either. And I was the one who was so concerned about a Gunbus or Excalibur not being captured."
"But that was more about the ship, not me."
"True, but I should have thought about it as well."
"I should have guarded against it. I put in place everything I thought I needed to stop another AI from doing what I've been doing to ships and stations, but it never occurred to me to guard against me."
"We live and learn."
"Am I living?"
"Sure you are. You heard the Entities. You're just different."
We sat there in silence for a bit, until Dick knocked on the door. I waved him in.
"Got a moment?" he asked.
"Sure. What's up?"
"Security on the station."
"What about it?"
"We have nearly a thousand people in detention cells, which were designed for half that number. What do we do with them?"
"Separate out the ones with outstandi
ng warrants and bounties. We'll take them with us, and turn them over to African sector authorities. The rest can make a choice. They can be taken to Morocco or Libya, where they can go where they please, or we can leave them on the planet, depending on what we find there."
"No sleep for me then," he said, before bounding out of the room looking happy.
"Cops," I said to Jane, and we both laughed.
Jane stopped abruptly.
"Weak signal coming in from the planet."
"Let's see."
"Audio only."
"To whoever attacked the station today. There are hundreds of people down here being used as slaves. For pity sake help us. To whoever…"
Jane shut it off.
"It’s a repeating loop."
"Origin?"
"I can't find it. Which is probably wise on their part. I'll send a comnavsat into low orbit, and start counting upside down beans."
"You do that," I laughed.
I pinged Annabelle to join me. When she did, Jane played the audio for her.
"Prepare for ground assault after we secure the Shipyard?"
"Yes. Jane will let you know defenses, as soon as she discovers them."
"No sleep for me then."
"Better get some, in case they have something to spring on us like they did today."
"Let them try."
"No, I’d rather we figure out what they can do, and make sure they can't."
"As I said, no sleep for me."
She hurried out, also looking happier.
Magnus came in. I waved her to a lounge chair.
"Any word on our ship?" she asked.
I looked at Jane. She shook her head.
"Really?" I asked her.
"No sign of it. Although it's possible it's on the Shipyard, in one of the enclosed bays."
"We'll find out tomorrow then."
"Were any of my people on the station?" asked Magnus.
"No," said Jane.
"They could be on the planet," I said. "We'll know tomorrow."
She looked at me with a look which said worry was eating her up. She left unhappier than she'd arrived.
Before anyone else could come in, I left in search of some sleep.
There are some days when you shouldn’t get out of bed. On those days, its best to go back to bed as soon as you can. I took my own advice. No-one else was using it.
I woke the next morning with tail in my mouth. Angel was getting too big for sleeping against my neck now, and she usually slept next to me, with at least some part of her touching me, even if it was a single paw. Tail in mouth though, wasn’t one of my favorites. I took the time to give her a decent cuddle, mainly because I really needed it myself, and Aline wasn’t there. I made it to the Bridge in time to give the day's first order.
"Go."
BigMother and Custer undocked from the station, and Unthinkable launched from BigMother. I checked on where the teams were. One through three were on Custer. Four and five were at the Cargo Deck airlock below. Six was on Unthinkable. I checked further, and found 266 on CAP, but the rest of the fighters were below.
I pulled up Lacey's after action report for the previous day, and found we'd lost two pilots killed. We also had several still in care units after running out of life support before SR droids reached them, but having been revived by the droids when recovered. Sobering thought; ejecting from your ship, to float around the middle of a battle, and die of life support failure because the SR droids either couldn’t be sent, or couldn’t reach you in time. With the new belt suits, surviving the destruction of your fighter was much more likely, but if the seat module with its extra life support didn’t survive, all you had was suit life support, and it didn’t last very long. I added the problem to Jane's list of things to do. What with my own recent brush with suit limitations, what was now the single biggest limitation of the belt suit needed attention.
Jessie Ball was working. Tag'Em was already a good distance away, and heading for the most likely place for an additional jump point to be. With this system seemingly in the middle of four others, the likelihood of other jump points was high. While we couldn’t say for certain there was no other pirate presence here, she had proved she could take care of herself. And in theory, she had as much chance now of coming across a pirate ship as she did anywhere else. I'd have felt better her taking an escort, but she hadn't asked, and I hadn't been awake when she left to suggest it.
The shipyard assault went off without a hitch. The three ships docked together, formed soft seals, explosives were quickly placed, and with a ping from Alana, all three airlocks were blown inwards. The teams streamed through. Jane stepped after them, and for each airlock, manually engaged the docking clamps, so there wouldn’t be any chance of a sudden decompression. Cargo and repair droids followed, which began to reseal the inner lock.
I sat there, watching cams. Annabelle was in her seat, also watching cams, and giving an occasional comment to Jack. Angel was on her pad, where I’d put her after finding her on my chair again. I hadn't had breakfast, but she'd had hers, and still beaten me up here. Dick was on the station still, along with A-Jane, who was back in the D-Jane role to help him. Jane Prime was in her normal seat here on the Bridge, also observing, and I assumed, still counting beans.
Unlike the station, there was only a minimal defense, and it was centered on the command offices. The twins went through the computer and coms rooms with ease, and left nothing of any consequence intact behind them. By the time team one reached six, the remaining defenders were surrendering.
Within an hour, the Shipyard was ours.
In hindsight, we could have simply taken it over like we had in the past, but that’s the trouble with paranoia. Once engaged, it's difficult to turn off again.
It took another hour to secure the Shipyard. Fortunately, Magnus wasn't on the Bridge. Carter had made her wait down in the Rec Room. If we'd had a climbing wall, she'd likely be at the top by now.
Finally I had to ask Jane myself.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
"Have we rescued Magnus's ship?"
"Err."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"Err, no."
"So it's not here?"
"I didn’t say that."
"What did you say?"
"I said Err."
"I got that much. What does it mean?"
There was the cat version of a snigger coming from the console, and when I looked around, Annabelle was face-palming.
"Mean?"
"Yes, is the ship here or not?"
"Yes and no."
"Which is it?"
"Both."
"How can it be here and not be here at the same time?"
"Yes."
I sighed. This is what you get for having an eccentric AI.
"So yes the ship is here?"
"No."
"The ship isn’t here?"
"No."
I sighed again.
"WHERE IS MY SHIP?" came from Magnus at the back of the Bridge.
"It's in bay five," answered Jane quickly.
"Well get it out of there!"
"Where would you like it?" asked Jane.
"Park it at a dock, stupid."
"Umm, no can do."
"Why not," I asked.
"Tow it if you have to," demanded Magnus.
"I not quite sure how to tell you this."
"Straight up," I said.
"You won't like it."
"That much is obvious. Spill it."
"Just a moment, we're going to need extra help up here."
A few seconds later, Jeeves appeared. I looked from Jeeves to Magnus, and back to Jane.
"Yes?" I prompted.
"They disassembled it."
Magnus fainted. Jeeves caught her, and hustled her out, I assumed to where the medicos were.
"How disassembled?"
"Down to the individual hull plates."
"So it could be put back togethe
r?"
"Maybe."
"Why maybe?"
"The assembly instructions would be the reverse of the disassembly instructions, which would be stored in the main computer."
I face-palmed as well. I'm not sure Annabelle ever stopped.
Nine
Teams two, three, and four, having done the least fighting, or demolishing, stayed to process the prisoners, and transport them over to the station, where Dick could sort them.
One and Six stood down, and Jack, Sam, and the twins joined Annabelle, Jane, and I, in the Conference Room.
"What's the bean count?" I asked Jane, when we were seated with drinks.
"Zero beans. Some large plots of various food groups, but no beans."
Jack and Sam looked at us strangely, but the twins were chuckling quietly.
"What's down there?" asked Annabelle.
Jane threw an image to the wall, and pulled it out into a hollo.
We looked into a vast walled area, which looked much like the original settlement areas of a lot of planets, where to protect the settlers, walls were erected to keep any local predators out. The fact there had rarely been any, didn't stop them being built. Within the wall, everything grew which the village needed. In this case, there was also what looked like a mine entrance. The whole enclosure was big enough to house and feed several thousand people.
On the outside of the wall, the ground had been cleared for a kilometer on all sides.
"Killing ground?" I asked.
Jane nodded, and zoomed in on the wall along one side. It was manned by guards in combat suits. Half of them were facing inward, the other half outward. They all had Pulse Rifles. Every so often, there was a Meson Blaster mounting.
"Keeping people in?" asked Sam. "Or keeping something out?"
"Both," said Annabelle.
"So where are the people?" I asked.
Green and red dots popped up.
"Green is people," said Jane, "red is guns."
Green dots were clustered in orderly rows in several large buildings resembling barracks. At one end was a big cluster of them in a small area. Red dots were moving around the village, and on the walls. There was a big cluster of red dots at one end of one of the buildings, set well away from the others. I assumed that was a troop's barracks, with armoury on the end.
As we watched, a large cluster of green dots came out of what we assumed was a mine, heading for one of the large buildings, which was empty of green dots. One of the other buildings had red dots moving through green ones, making the green ones move around a lot. Once the green dots outside were inside, the ones on the move inside started going outside, and heading for the mine.
Hunter Legacy 9: Hero at the Gates Page 5