by Tobias Roote
Fifteen minutes later the AG sled was rebuilt with all of the major components attached.
It had been designed in a modular format to be simple to erect. There were two main CPU’s that looked extremely powerful. They sat on top of a long heavy box that extended the length of the sled maintaining the centre of gravity as low as possible. Batteries, XeraC had informed them as he instructed them on the build order.
Adwan was busy fitting fiddly connectors between all of the component parts. His comms unit was giving him individual instructions as he worked. He looked nervously at the others, noting their lack of expertise in handling equipment, they weren’t maintenance men, he thought. They act more like the soldiers back home, he decided.
There was a cockpit-styled clear sealed box unit that went on top and housed two 360-degree cameras. Then lastly, the sled had two external mountings on either side that clearly were for the laser weapons still crated, but mounted in their frames.
When Adwan clicked the last connector in place he depressed a hidden stud and the unit immediately hummed and beeped as it went through system checks. Within thirty seconds the hum changed to a deep vibration, almost below the level of human hearing and the sled rose six inches off the ground where it remained stable.
Adwan stepped back and looked impressed with the end result. He knew what it was, but not why it was needed. Why would such a powerful computer need to be mobilised. That fuel cell on the bottom would power it for a year, at least, he thought.
“Install the lasers now, two on each side, one facing to the rear, the other forwards,” XeraC instructed them.
While they fitted those, XeraC told Adwan to open the briefcase and as he did so resting it on the opposite side of the sled to where the others were working, he pressed a hidden depression under the cockpit. A tray swung out with twenty four angled slots. A myriad tangle of cables were webbed into each of them.
Adwan could see the little disks were designed to drop into the slots. He waited for the next command on his comms unit.
Xerac zoomed in the bay’s security camera to watch Adwan closely while instructing him on the order of insertion. XeraC’s skill in reading body language meant he knew what was going through the man’s head. He had a decision to make and the next few minutes would be crucial for Messonghi.
There was no doubt Adwan was nervous, he hadn’t ever seen such fantastic equipment in his life. It was even more sophisticated than the ARK hardware he had been installing. He knew from his extensive experience that he was looking at a very powerful supercomputer. Those disks were more than state of the art. He had a shrewd idea of what they were capable of, and estimated that there was more power in that sled than there was in the whole of the ARK.
He was very curious, but increasingly nervous. This wasn’t how they had been working on the ARK, these men were new and he was surprised that his supervisor, Sullivan wasn’t here checking their work. What had he just built. That cockpit on the top was just weird, and the lasers? What was intended to operate them, an AI?
XeraC continued to watch Adwan’s body language. Now, he knew that the man was suspicious. He had anticipated this to a degree, but still wasn’t sure how he wanted to proceed from here. He wasn’t a man who murdered blindly, there had to be just cause. This wasn’t like Hemmings who had been a direct threat. This Messonghi was harmless, he decided.
A call came in on the engineer’s comms unit. XeraC monitored it passively, knowing what it would be about.
“I have to go, Mr Sullivan says I have to leave now, the ARK is preparing to launch,” Adwan wailed, sidling away towards the door.
“Wilkes, get Adwan to connect that black conduit from the unit to the wall socket and then he can go,” XeraC ordered.
Wilkes immediately leapt to the cable and got Adwan by the arm and handed one end to him.
“Connect this first,” he said.
“I have to go - Mr Sullivan said there is no time,” Adwan said, nervously pulling away, his eyes flitting to each of the men in turn expecting something to happen. Clearly frightened, Wilkes judged that Messonghi was about to become unreasonable.
“Pacify him, but don’t hurt him,” XeraC instructed Wilkes through the earpiece.
“Do this, then you can go - it will take you two minutes. I will make sure the shuttle doesn’t leave without you,” Wilkes soothed.
Adwan reluctantly, and with undue haste, configured, then snapped the cable in place making the final connection. He now knew there was something going on here, but wasn’t interested in hanging around to query any of it. He slammed his case shut and edged backward from the group as they looked at him. They were waiting for further instruction from XeraC.
“Let him go, he will be off the ARK in a few minutes. There is nothing he can do,” XeraC instructed. He had no desire to get these men to kill an innocent even if they were prepared to. If he instructed them, they would, but it would lead to inevitable questions and he wanted and ‘needed’ their loyalty. He knew he could keep that if his decisions were justified from their point of view.
The men visibly relaxed. As if sensing this, Adwan took off and ran for the corridor entrance and disappeared.
“You and your men need to go ‘active’ immediately. Arms are cached here.” XeraC informed Wilkes and dropped coordinates onto his comm unit. “I need you to move quickly and take over the Command and Control Centre - don’t kill any crew, I may need them. It’s location is on your grid map and you can access it via the rep-tube. There isn’t much time so no delays. Failure is not an option,” he added.
Wilkes looked at his men. “We have new orders. Let’s go get us some fire-power.”
As they ran for the hidden armoury that XeraC had discovered, Xerac continued to monitor the departure of Messonghi in case he stopped to warn anyone. They could have just eliminated him, but there wasn’t time to deal with that now. Robbo’s escape meant that there would be retaliation very soon. He needed to be ready. He didn’t need dead bodies lying around until discovery was absolutely necessary.
XeraC watched to make sure Messonghi went directly to the shuttle bay. The poor man didn’t even go to his apartment and collect his gear. He was keen to get off the ARK. He knew he had seen too much. XeraC knew he had too, but was interested in seeing what would happen when he got to relative safety. His experience told him that Messonghi would do nothing, just go home and keep quiet about what he knew.
XeraC cautiously despatched spiders and bots to check out the interior of the mobile server and began setting up performance testing to ensure that everything was fully operational. When he had adjusted the laser angles using the hydraulic arms, he tested them out on low settings, pleased when a hole drilled right through a pallet of dried food. Smoke came out of the hole and for a minute XeraC worried he might have caused a fire, but it settled after a few seconds.
Two antenna at the back of the unit were extendible and the all-round cameras gave XeraC a unique view of the bay. He checked the manual arm that extended from the side of the slide allowing it to take hold of the cable. It would allow him to connect or disconnect himself to the main systems without human intervention. When he was certain of it’s reliability, he transferred his bulk into the sled, leaving just his active portion in the main Habitat server.
XeraC was ready.
***
Robbo gave the necessary security codes to the drone and was permitted access to Alpha Station. Arty wasn’t keen on surprises and a shuttle unannounced and unpiloted except for an AI onboard was definitely one to bring out the big guns, just in case. Even Robbo accepted that level of diligence was necessary. Still, he was surprised when Arty took hold of the shuttle with the new tractor beam and dragged the shuttle directly into the hangar without consideration for fragility. It helped knowing there were no humans aboard, Robbo guessed.
Robbo: Thanks Arty, I need to get into a conference with Ossie immediately. We have a major problem.
Arty: How come you're inside a sh
uttle?
Robbo: It was my only means of escape from the ARK. I barely made it out of there.
Arty: I’m surprised there’s enough room for you in there. Stand by, we’re on red alert here. There have been signals coming in from the border patrols of a large Nubl fleet massing on the outer fringes. We think this is the start of the full invasion.
Robbo: Alright, but we have a time limit on possible action with ARK4. That is if we are going to do anything about XeraC.
Arty: I will patch you through on a secure connection. Do you mind if I listen in?
Robbo: No, your input may prove invaluable in dealing with this crisis.
Arty: Patching you through now.
“Robbo, what is the problem with ARK4? Arty says XeraC is still running amok down there. I was about to give the order to launch all ARKs.”
“XeraC has killed Hemmings and I don’t know if any others have been likewise murdered. He has taken control of the Habitat section and is trying to break into the CCC. He intends to control the complete ARK. Can we afford to leave him in charge of ten thousand people and an armed bio-ship?”
“Hmmh! Good point. No, we can’t, but we’re running out of time. Unless we ground the ARK there is no way to do anything to get XeraC out of there.”
“Can I offer an option?” Arty intervened.
“Yes, by all means Arty.”
“Close down the ARK completely, reboot it and XeraC will be gone.”
“You mean kill XeraC?” Ossie exclaimed. He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that, but if he had murdered Hemmings it would have been because he was a threat to XeraC. It was enough to convince him that ‘something’ needed to be done, but deleting XeraC?
“It’s either that or leave him in-situ and hand over command to him so the ARK can leave and the people that are on it will at least have a chance,” Arty explained.
“We would lose Sedal as well, and he’s proving err’m... very capable and willing to defend the CCC,” Robbo added. He decided not to mention the issues with Sedal’s apparent AI superior belief system. He had no idea how Arty would react to that.
“Is the spare unit still in the holo-deck?” Osbourne asked.
“Are you thinking to put Sedal in there while we do a reboot?” Robbo asked.
“Yes, then we can release him as soon as the CCC comes on-line, but before the Habitat reboots. There should be a margin of about fifteen seconds. If Sedal can take control of the Habitat as well, then we can launch the ARK. If not we will have to ground it and hope it can survive cloaked and shielded,” Osbourne explained.
“We have just enough time to do this,” said Arty. “That part isn’t shielded so, if I jump you directly to the holo-deck to avoid any discovery by XeraC in case he has access to the CCC, we can get the unit organised and get Sedal to safety. You will need to be there to manually shut down the servers,” he added.
“Put me down there – and Arty, notify the ARK CCC that they may come under attack. XeraC will fight back. He will be fully aware that we intend to neutralise him.” Osbourne couldn’t say kill or murder, it didn’t sit well with him. He hated that they had to do this, but what would XeraC do with ten thousand prisoners and a Bio-Habitat that could hide in the sky in the very outer reaches of Earth’s atmosphere.
On the ARK Osbourne quickly reconnected the unit to the outlet that fed into the main CCC network.
“Sedal?” He spoke loudly enough for the AI to hear his voice and respond to the name call. It was built into all AI’s that using their name would act as a trigger and force a response. They could never ignore a human that knew them by name.
“I’m here Ossie, it’s good that you came.” Sedal spoke through the room’s acoustic set-up
“Yes, I’m here to shut down the ARK and I need to keep you safe while I do so,” Osbourne explained the plan and prepared the systems for shutdown. Sedal flowed into the unit which remained connected to the outside world. It wouldn’t be affected by the global shutdown of the ARK as it was independently powered.
Osbourne had calculated that to ensure complete shutdown was effective, that all battery backups had to be neutralised first. He knew where all these were and using his Jenari source, over-rode all the connections forcing the backup sources to shut down. This had to be completed before any other units were disabled. As he worked he kept a watch on the activities of the Habitat server. There were large jumps and movements of bulk data between the main server and Bay Fourteen. XeraC was up to something, but there was nothing there, it was just a storage area for foodstuffs.
***
Gathering up a pulse shotgun that would deal with any artificial impediments controlled by the AI’s, Scott selected the blue moulded caps that would deliver EMP ‘bullets’ from the individual fuel cells built into each cartridge. He took a handful of red as well and stuffed them into the baggy pockets of his trousers. They would deliver an electronic pulse that would a knockout a bull elephant. He wasn’t a seasoned killer like Wilkes and Jumbo, he preferred non-lethal force if he could get away with it. He chose a laser rifle which would deliver a wide blast, or narrow beam. It had six shots per cell, another four cells gave him a total of thirty potential hits.
He leaned back and watched the others load for bear. He knew they were more experienced, but this was a lightweight target and there would only be a few handguns around the place. He didn’t see the need to carry heavy armour to the Control Centre. Jumbo looked at him and scoffed.
Picking up two fragmentation grenades he tossed them at Scott. “Hold onto those for me, squirt, will ya?” He tossed another two, “These too, I might need an extra pair of hands - d’ya think you can throw one of them, if needed?” He laughed good naturedly.
Scott smiled and hung them on his belt. He guessed it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a few back-up’s in place.
Wilkes scowled at them both. “When you two have finished. We need to move out, NOW!”
They turned and moved out of the armoury, the door locked and sealed behind them as XeraC ensured the security teams would be unable to access the heavy duty guns left behind.
As they ran for the nearest staircase to take them to the rep-tube, an announcement came echoing through the tannoy system along with a flashing amber light. The strong female voice was designed to be more receptive to Habitat’s workers.
ARK SHUTDOWN IN PROGRESS - REPEAT - ARK SHUTDOWN IN PROGRESS - ENSURE YOU ARE IN A PUBLIC ZONE TO AVOID ENTRAPMENT.
The noise continued, but as they reached the stairs it fell behind them as they moved out of the public arena.
XeraC came through on their comms. “You need to get to the CCC before the power recovers and break into the place otherwise the CCC defences will take you out. Oh, and there are two guards around the next corner.”
Scott was the first to see them and fired his pulse rifle with the red shells before the others could draw a bead and fire. The two security guards were the same ones they had met earlier and were already raising their unholstered pistols when the cartridges slammed into them knocking them out cold and frying their comm’s gear in the process. They went down together and none of the team stayed to check them, they would either be out for a long while, or dead from the violent burst of electricity.
They reached the rep-tube and spread out while Wilkes checked the tunnel for security personnel.
Jumbo called out. “If they shutdown the power, won’t it shut down the rep-tube too?”
“Hmmh! most likely it will,” Wilkes nodded. “We must wait. We need to reach the other end of the tunnel before they switch it back on again.”
“How long is it?” Scott asked, wary of the compression effect of converging repeller beams on his body if he didn’t get clear fast enough.
“It’s one point five kilometres - we can do this within the reboot time.” Platt checked his notes.
The lights went out and the repressors fell silent. There was a crunching sound as the parked tube dropped onto the repeller emitters. Th
ey might be crushed, but it didn’t matter to them. One less thing to worry about.
Wilkes jumped down to the tube deck and they followed. Their night vision goggles eating up the darkness and feeding them enough light to dodge the emitters as they double-timed it through the tunnel. The echo of their footsteps pounding the metal-lined interior.
The lights came on first and they still had half a kilometre to run. As Wilkes called back to them, they increased speed. Not wanting to be caught by the repeller beams if they activated before they reached the end of the tunnel.
The advantage they had, was that with the cameras down, nobody at the CCC would see them coming, they might even get into the Command Centre without a shot being fired. As it was, the explosives that Platt was carrying would be sufficient to gain access - they just needed some time to blow the doors off.
***
Osbourne waited while the CCC’s computer systems came back up. He had no access to the outside world and other than Arty keeping an eye on him from Alpha Station, there was nobody here to protect him if things went wrong. The shielded areas of the CCC and it’s approach meant they were blind until the cameras were back on-line. Whilst Sedal had reported there were men in the approach to the rep-tube, Osbourne felt it was unlikely they would get through before the repellers became functional. There would be a welcome committee waiting for them if they got trapped in one of the tubes.
The bang when it came was muted. Osbourne hadn’t been able to get out of the CCC as the systems weren’t up yet. As Sedal began to flow into the main CCC server, he reported his findings.
“The main entrance has been breached. There are armed men in the CCC.”
“Can you give me a camera view?” Osbourne requested.
A monitor lit up near him and showed him four camera views from each corner of the Command room next door. There was a small team of highly trained soldiers taking over the CC. He was locked in, so wasn’t yet overly at risk as nobody actually knew he was there.