Renegades (Dark Seas Book 3)

by Damon Alan

  The lights went out. The AI went silent and emergency lighting kicked in.

  “Auxiliary power offline. Minimal batteries only,” Harmeen reported. “Two nukes, close proximity.”

  “At least the AI shut up,” Seto said with a sigh.

  That almost made Sarah laugh. She wasn’t the only one that hated the machines.

  “The nukes hit the decoy or we would be dead right now,” Sarah said. “Mr. Harmeen, I need you to get me the information I need from our… remaining decks. I need a count of survivors, supplies, and if you can, restore auxiliary power.”

  “Aye, ma’am,” Harmeen answered as he left.

  She wondered who was luckiest. Those of her crew already dead, or the ones she’d get to watch die slowly from radiation sickness and cold as the Hinden continued its cascade of systems failures.

  It seemed like a valid question as Harmeen slipped through the floor hatch uttering prayers under his breath.

  * * *

  Garrette Orson - Schein

  “Status?” Orson asked.

  “I think they’re broken in two,” Andersott reported.

  Heinrich pushed the sensor data to the front screen. “Broken in two and on emergency battery power,” she said. “We can expect they’ve fired their last volley.”

  “How long until we get hit by the ordinance in flight?”

  “Fifteen seconds.”

  They waited in silence.

  Then the hits came. Three. A three dimensional display on the main screen showed the impacts. One punched directly through an open railgun port, the explosion killing the gun crew before the projectile ripped a hole completely through the vessel. A red line streaked through the heart of the ship on the display.

  Orson knew that near the damage bulkheads had slammed shut as additional crew died of asphyxiation and exposure to vacuum. Those chambers flashed red on the display.

  “Ouch,” Orson said, wincing. “I’m running out of useful idiots.”

  The other two impacts were on cometary ice, which exploded violently, denting the hull. Slowed down by the ice, armor stopped those projectiles from penetrating.

  “We done?” Jace asked.

  Heinrich shook her head. “Almost. But not quite. They had us on weapons lock during part of their fire routine. We still have that to survive.”

  When that volley struck, the ship was penetrated in four places. The shuttle bay, a machine shop, and two cargo holds. Additional hits struck ice, creating an expanding cloud of gas and ice fragments around the Schein.

  “Nothing critical to our survival,” Andersott noted as he surveyed the automated damage control report.

  “She hit us better than we hit her, if we’re counting impacts. We just happened to hit a critical system,” Heinrich said. “Give me a supply list of what was in those holds. We might be dead yet if we lost anything vital.”

  Orson jumped on the PA. “Damage control, this is the Captain. As soon as our current situation is stabilized, remove the ice from the hull. We need to move.”

  “Hit Dayson again, fire the active missiles,” Jace urged. “She’s not a person you leave behind alive.”

  Orson leaned back into his gravcouch with his hands behind his head. “I don’t think so. Her ship is unable to maneuver. She has no power. She can’t fire back at us… If she’s still alive, let her die slowly.”

  “For once the idiot is right. Dayson’s a demon,” Heinrich said. “Neve—”

  “My orders stand,” Orson said, sternly. “I want her to suffer at my hands. Think about me every minute until hypothermia ends them.” He leaned forward and pointed at Heinrich menacingly. “And you will never countermand or question my orders again, under any conditions.”

  “Understood,” Heinrich responded. She keyed her mic. “Combat ops, secure missiles thirteen and eighteen.” She switched the PA to the full ship. “Stand down battle stations. Set condition three. Normal ops, begin repairs.”

  Orson smiled. She was a machine. His machine.

  With no tasks, Heinrich stared coldly at the main viewscreen. Now, with sensors at full, the battle scene was laid out in complete detail. It showed the forward half of the Hinden tumbling.

  “Heinrich and I are going to our quarters,” Orson said. “To celebrate. As soon as the ship is ice free, call us. We’ll return to the bridge to set course for our prize.”

  His slave unstrapped from her console and followed him from the bridge.

  Chapter 32 - Captain’s Personal Log

  31 MAI 15329

  AI Lucy82A recording, Captain's personal log, personal archive: Galactic Standard Date 20:17:05 31 MAI 15329

  Personal log entry #1040, Captain Sarah Dayson, origin Korvand, Pallus Sector.

  Current Location: Oasis system, inbound to Refuge.

  I don’t know if anyone will ever read this. In an attempt to save battery power I’m saving the logs to holo-crystal, and shutting down all AIs on the ship except for the engineering systems. If we can get auxiliary power back up, we might last a little longer. Not that I’m holding my breath for rescue.

  I’ve refused to send a distress call. Orson may be sitting in wait until I draw in the rest of the fleet so he can take or destroy what he wants. If we get auxiliary power back up and the sensors are operational, then I’ll call for help.

  Otherwise, I won’t feed him anymore of my people.

  [A sigh.]

  If we don’t get our one relatively intact reactor back up and running, we freeze to death in a matter of hours. If it does fire up, then we have time to wait for rescue.

  I can’t stop thinking about the crew of the Yascurra after we dropped out of highspace post-Hamor... her crew frozen to death.

  [A thirty-two second pause.]

  Closing the log now, to save power.

  [Several sounds indicating operation of electronic systems.]

  _AI SHUTDOWN_

  Chapter 33 - Lessons

  31 MAI 15329

  Eris’s expedition team were working together studying a large plaque in a central gangway of the Gaia. It looked like the same language the AI spoke, but they were having a hard time making any sense out of it without any sort of linguistics computer available.

  “Go boots walk magnetiske floor behov,” Gaia said.

  Eris pointed to herself. “I.”

  Gaia repeated, “I.”

  Fingers pointed at boots. “Magnetic boots.”

  The repetition was perfect.

  “I need magnetic boots to walk on the floor,” Eris said, repeating the full sentence for the tenth time.

  “Go boots walk magnetiske floor behov,” Gaia said.

  Eris slapped her forehead as Qi and Dantulman laughed.

  “I’m not sure I’d laugh if I were you,” she told them. “I am starting to think this is an unshackled AI. You do not want to make her dislike you.”

  They both stopped and grins turned to frowns.

  “Unshackled?” Qi said, his voice quivering. “What makes you think that?”

  “Well, for starters it knew we wanted through bulkhead door number 171. Yet it defied our wants. That’s a violation of shackling protocols.”

  “Maybe the other side of the door is death, a deep vacuum or noxious fumes,” Dantulman said. “That would require the AI to ignore our orders.”

  He was right, of course. She didn’t have any proof of her statement. Just a deep gut feeling. She didn’t get that sort of thing a lot, and the urge to trust this one was pretty strong. “True, it’s just a suspicion I have.”

  “Why would anyone give an AI that sort of freedom?” Qi said. “This ship had to be made after the AI Wars fought on the origin worlds. Stars, even now people don’t use independent machines on the field of battle.

  Eris shook her head. Qi seemed to underestimate the human ability to screw up royally. “People do stupid things, don’t they? These were xenophobes, Qi. Maybe they felt the rules didn’t apply to them. Or they were desperate.”

  “N
onsense. The AI wars were, at most, a few thousand years before this ship was even dreamed about, weren’t they? They wouldn’t have forgotten how that went. Half of humanity died before the machines were put down. And we’d only colonized twelve systems at that point.”

  “And now we have the Hive,” Dantulman said.

  “The Hive was an accident,” Eris countered.

  “Still a result of greed and arrogance on the part of a few.”

  He was right. History had a way of repeating itself. Now that her team had brought it up, the AI Wars and the current fiasco with the Hive seemed all too similar. At least it had taken twelve thousand years to repeat. To be honest, she didn’t know her history that well, but his point sounded right. “Maybe so, but I have a feeling I can’t shake. Unethical criminals still occasionally create unshackled AIs, and that’s despite it being a mindwipe offense.”

  “Still—” Qi started.

  “Still nothing,” Eris interrupted. “The people who built this ship hated the rest of humanity so much they traveled twenty thousand light-years to be alone. Heck, more than that, colonized space was smaller then. Their goal to isolate worked out for ten thousand years, and it’s hard to argue with success like that. The builders and colonists aboard this vessel may have had no choice but to trust their machine far more than the civilization they left behind.”

  “Craziness,” Dantulman whispered.

  “No,” Gaia said.

  “She’s going to pick up more and more,” Eris warned. “I wouldn’t piss her off.”

  “No, unwise that,” Gaia said.

  “See? Does that sound like shackled programming?” Eris asked.

  Dantulman looked at the metal mesh floor under his boots. Qi shook his head.

  “I protect,” Gaia asserted.

  “Is that why you’ve isolated us?” Eris asked.

  “Krig,” the ship answered. “Atomkrig.”

  “Atom…” Qi said slowly. “I know this. The first term for nuclear energy was atomic energy, back in pre-star travel days.”

  “I had no idea you were such a history nut,” Eris said.

  “Not much to do in between battles but study what I want,” Qi answered. “Even in battle there wasn’t much use for a library technician until you came along.”

  Eris smiled. Qi was the very definition of a socially challenged intellectual, but she respected his mind a lot. “I’m glad I picked you for my team.” She gripped his shoulder. “And that you accepted.”

  He smiled. “As am I.”

  “More lessons.” She looked up at the gangway ceiling. “Nuclear war, Gaia.”

  “Atomkrig. Nuclear war,” she answered. “I protect.”

  “Well, that seals it,” Dantulman moaned. “The Hive must have found us.”

  “Can you control the movements of the ship yourself?” Eris asked the AI.

  “No. I unable access motorer.”

  “Engines.”

  “I unable access engines,” the ship said, correcting itself.

  “Well, that’s just great,” Eris said. “I guess we wait and hope Dayson pulls out another one of her magic hat tricks.”

  “What are the odds of that?” Dantulman asked.

  “Well, we have a handful of partially operational warships. If it is the Hive they probably brought a hundred or more.”

  They floated in silence for a few minutes, studying the inscription on the wall.

  “Do we still have a lot of that hooch from the Stennis?” Qi asked.

  “Enough to stay drunk for a week or two,” she responded.

  Qi shrugged, then looked back down the corridor toward their base. “Maybe we’ve worked enough for the day.”

  Eris chuckled uneasily. It made as much sense as anything else they could do for now. She activated her magnetic boots and gestured in the appropriate direction. “Let’s go.”

  “Magnetic boots,” Gaia commented.

  Chapter 34 - The Prize

  31 MAI 15329

  Jace pushed an AI projection of how Hinden’s destruction unfolded onto the main screen for the twentieth time. “It never gets old, I tell you.”

  Orson watched the video. Now that the Schein had shed her icy skin and was underway for Halvi, there wasn’t much to do. Bridge detail was more boring than he thought it would be.

  First mate Heinrich watched next to him. The lack of emotion on her face was disturbing. She showed neither regret nor elation at what was, in reality, Heinrich’s victory.

  “If she’s contacted the rest of the fleet, they’ll try to intercept us. I’m sure of that. The mighty darling of the Thirty-Third Battlegroup, Sarah Dayson, wouldn’t just surrender. So let’s make it clear to the rest of the Seventh just what we’ve done, and what we’ll do to them if we see them.”

  “The rest of the fleet, except for one small gunship, are not frontline warships. There will be no further attacks on us,” Heinrich responded.

  “Then we will taunt them on our way out,” Orson said, laughing. “Jace, prepare that video for transmission to the entire star system. Pirate’s mate Heinrich will deliver the narration for us.”

  She nodded her consent.

  “Here’s what you’re going to tell them.” Orson laid out the plan for Heinrich to relay.

  “It makes us look stupid, because, as I told you, there are no more cruisers to stand against us,” Heinrich restated.

  “I told you not to question my orders.” Orson’s eyes narrowed as his impatience grew.

  “I”m not questioning anything. I indicated I would comply with your orders. I’m merely stating that they’re stupid.”

  “Kill her,” Jace urged. “We have other women you can make yours.”

  Orson pulled himself closer to Heinrich, then squeezed one of her breasts. Hard.

  She flinched and cried out quietly.

  When he let go her expressionless demeanor returned.

  Andersott had certainly earned his keep.

  “She will not be killed, she will not be harmed. Step by step she’s giving me the clues I need to contain her responses,” Orson replied to Jace.

  He whispered into Heinrich’s ear as he rested a hand on her bare midriff. “While I really like the uniforms we had altered for you, I don’t think the fleet will take you seriously if you’re dressed to my requirements. Do you have any unaltered uniforms left?”

  “I do,” she answered.

  “Put one on for your transmission. I want our fellows to know how completely you are on my side, and I don’t want your,” he paused to admire her body, “assets to distract from the message.”

  Again there was a certain deadness in Heinrich’s eyes that Andersott hadn’t been able to explain. It sometimes annoyed Orson, but the drug was close to perfect otherwise.

  “Should I prepare this message now, Captain?” she asked.

  “Plot our braking course into Halvi orbit first, and wait for my order to start the burn. I want Gaia under our control and ready to jump within forty-eight hours of our arrival.”

  “Our engines are heavily damaged. It will be some time before we arrive at Halvi,” Heinrich stated.

  “I get that. Do as you’re told and work with what we have.”

  “I’ll plot our course, change uniforms, then contact Dayson,” Heinrich said, repeating Orson’s orders.

  “Then change back into this.” He caressed her again. “Anything else would be an injustice to all the years you spent perfecting that ass.”

  Heinrich nodded.

  Jace looked puzzled. “I don’t get it. Why do you still have only her, Orson? We have enough of the drug now for you to have more women.”

  Orson paused to think a moment, before appraising his prize once again. “Because this trophy is such an amazing victory.”

  Heinrich didn’t respond to the remark in any way.

  Shaking his head, Jace sighed. “She’s dangerous. I hope you realize what risk you’re taking.”

  “If it makes you happy, Jace, when we
find a new world, I’ll take my share of the women. A captain’s share. A lot of kids are going to have my eyes,” Orson said. He pointed at Heinrich. “But I want some of them to look like her, as well.”

  The bridge went quiet. As Heinrich plotted the burn, Orson used the ship’s security camera system to look over the women onboard. He pushed an image to the main screen. “I’ll take my pick from the new volunteers. You and the men help yourself to the ladies of the Schein’s crew, since there is enough drug to tame a few more.”

  The image on the screen showed a darkened room. Figures struggled in shadow, against a wall black in the dim light. Makeshift shackles held numerous women in place, chained by their wrists and ankles by makeshift restraints welded to the bulkhead.

  The lights in the room flickered on and three of Orson’s men entered the room. They released one woman’s arm from her bindings, then gave her food to eat. She wolfed it down, using her one free hand to eat like an animal.

  Twice a day the women were escorted to sanitary facilities near the cargo hold for hygienic purposes.

  Maybe he should up their rations, but he wanted them, and others, to know there was a price to pay for siding with Sarah Dayson.

  Heinrich’s eyes were particularly dull looking at the moment.

  Maybe there was something in her inner core that didn’t like what it saw. It didn’t matter.

  The women who had chosen mutiny with Orson knew nothing of this, that would not be wise.

  “There will be plenty of women, Jace. Andersott’s drug works and he has promised me an adequate supply by the time we take the colony ship. Our future is looking bright. And busy.”

  “Is there such a thing as too much for one man?” Jace asked.

  Orson looked at the screen and the captive women.

  “Never.”

  Chapter 35 - Landfall

  Late Secondday

  As was often the design of the gods, the meat from the great beast was almost gone as the hulk of the fishing vessel ran aground. The water situation might have been better as well, but just as Eislen expected, Faroo saved him and his new friends before things got desperate.