by Mark Wandrey
There was a considerable amount of data secreted in deep memory of the ship, and it accessed this next. Some were locked even from the second highest ranking program you would find on a ship of the line, but it didn't worry about that. The program knew this data would be tactical in nature, and not related to any medical issues.
Another self-aware program observed its conundrum from those firewalls. This situation provided a possible solution to one problem. A tiny file was created and saved in the data storage records accessible by the Medical Intelligence.
The Medical Intelligence continued on and scanned the rest of the data. There, in one file, was a hint. It concerned pregnancy among biological operators. “Every possible means should be taken to preserve the pregnancy.” The program was incapable of feeling upset that it terminated the pregnancy before reading this protocol. But it still wasn't enough to proceed. What else was possible? The on board files were exhausted.
Lacking a combat intelligence to consult with, the normal 'boss' of a Kaatan, the Medical Intelligence tried to reach out. Beyond the ship, way, way beyond. Ship to ship communications were activated, and a query was sent out in how to respond to the current situation. No ships answered. Another situation it didn't know how to deal with. The communications hail was widened to any available ship. The call echoed across the vastness of space from one side of the galaxy to the other and only received a handful of replies, and they were all from sleeping ships, unable to assist since their minds were in hibernation.
Communication with the High Command was discouraged for ships such as the Kaatan. It was normal that any inquiries go up the chain of command, but there was no chain of command. So a message was sent to high command, and at last a reply was received. The Medical Intelligence gratefully explained the situation, including the circumstances around its being brought out of hibernation and the seemingly untrained biological operators. It was not aware that another program from its ship sent another message piggybacked on that communication. Enormous seconds passed as the message was considered, and a reply formulated.
When the reply at last came it wasn't a simple order, it was petabytes of data. Large portions of the formerly empty computer memory were quickly filled. To the Medical Intelligence's annoyance, most of the data was worthless to it. Once the download was complete, the high command went silent once more and left the program to try and understand what it was left with. Hours of processor time slid by as it chewed over the data before the answer was found. The Medical Intelligence carefully considered the best way to proceed, all the time wondering why High Command didn't upload a Combat Intelligence and be done with it. The other program quietly watched and prepared further prods for the overly cautious and fastidious Medical Intelligence.
As it formulated a plan of action, it realized that command codes were included with the massive download. With those codes the Medical Intelligence wielded as much authority as a Combat Intelligence. The ship had all the files of any operational and crewed Kaatan now, but no way to properly use them. The program simply wasn't capable of integrating all of the subroutines needed for a Combat Intelligence, keeping itself intact and able to execute the job it was written to do. The program’s improvisation routine stepped in after noticing the main problem was a lack of a Combat Intelligence. A solution was suggested...and approved. It would never know that Medical Intelligences didn’t have improvisation routines.
Chapter 12
February 26th, 522 AE (subjective)
Deep Space, en route to the Rasa Leasehold, Galactic Frontier
Aaron stayed with her all night, snuggling next to Minu, holding her when she woke up and cried, stroking her hair and whispering to her. At one point when she was sleeping deeply he carefully fished his communicator from his pocket and sent a message to the team. Minu was okay, they needed privacy; please do not disturb them for a day or so. One by one they responded in understanding. With that he turned off his communicator, then found hers on the floor in her uniform and turned it off as well. The ship wasn't that big, they could knock if it was urgent.
Minu woke the next ship morning but was very desultory and looked tired. Aaron left just long enough to retrieve some food and a pitcher of ice cold water. She drank much of the water, and made a halfhearted attempt at the food. Afterwards she showered and climbed back into bed. “Do you want me to give you some time?” he asked her from where he sat at the room’s little desk and tapped on his computer, rather like a bored child pushes vegetables around a plate.
“No,” she said and reached a hand out to him, “please don't leave me alone?” He smiled, nodded, and went to join her. Late in that second evening she reached for him and whispered in his ear that she wanted him. He didn't do her the insult of questioning her desire. They made quiet and purposeful love until they were both satisfied. She cried again for a few minutes only, then drifted off to sleep once more on his arm.
Minu awoke in the middle of the night, feeling herself at last. She propped herself up on one arm, her eyes adjusted to the near darkness, she knocked a towel off the bed that gently fell to the floor. Almost immediately a little square white panel in the wall next to the shower came alight. She'd thought it was a floor illumination, but it never came on with the rest of the lights. Now under its light glow she watched in fascination as a trio of tiny translucent bots extruded from the surface like they were passing through an oily membrane.
They reminded her of centipede bots, but were much shorter in length and with longer legs. Under the dim illumination she observed them as they moved about the room, retrieving a discarded towel here, a pair of Aaron's underwear there, and finally the towel she'd just knocked off the bed. They were all fed into the cleaning system and then the bots returned to be absorbed by the white panel that then went dark again. The Kaatan never seemed to sleep around them. She decided to make a survey and see how many of those white panels were scattered throughout the ship. Probably quite a few.
She slept some more and awoke at her customary time, rising fully rested and climbing into the shower. Aaron woke up halfway through her shower and asked how she was. “I'm okay,” she said as she washed her copper colored hair. It had grown several centimeters during the trip, and she decided to leave it as it was. Soon it would reach her shoulder blades.
“You want to go to the CIC and run some simulations?”
“Sounds good,” she said. “I'm fine, really. In a few more days I'll be perfect.”
“Glad to hear it. I love you, you know?”
“I love you too,” she said in the shower. Her voice held a smile, but her face was blank as the water poured out.
The CIC was fully staffed as she arrived, everyone working to continue increasing their knowledge of the ship. As Minu entered with Aaron right behind her, everyone looked up, some looking away nervously. Minu felt sure no one knew what had happened, but at the same time everyone had their own ideas. She took her seat and tried to pretend nothing happened for a few minutes. After staring at the command screens nearly unchanging displays, she realized it wouldn't work.
“You are all my friends, and you should know what happened.” All work came to a stop and eyes turned towards her. “The story starts four years ago during the trials. Some of you were there, at the end, and you know some of the truth, but none of you knows all of it. When we were attacked by Ivan and his group, one of his toadies raped me.” There were gasps around the room and a little cry from Cherise who put a hand to her mouth in shock. “His name was Alexis Krum, and he was listed as lost in action in the trials. Shortly after he raped me, I killed him. And then I waded into the fight between Cherise and Ivan, almost managing to get myself killed.” She put a hand on her abdomen. No tears only hurt. “Ivan stabbed me through the stomach, basically cutting my uterus in half. The blade severed an artery against my spine, and I came very close to dying. The Chosen council, for whatever reason, decided to not report the incident the way it really happened.
“After they s
ewed me up the best they could, they also installed a device to be sure I could never get pregnant. A few months ago it came loose, and again I almost died from internal bleeding. It was then I found out they'd implanted those things in every single unmarried Chosen female.”
“No,” Ted said, his eyes wide.
“True,” Cherise nodded gravely. Bjorn just shook his head in disgust.
“I've since told every female Chosen, and we've taken action to deal with that. The Council will answer for its sins, some day in some way. So move forward to our coming aboard the Kaatan. I was suffering from some burns, and the Medical Intelligence treated those wounds, and all my other older ones. It also dutifully removed the new birth control implant I'd had installed, with my consent this time. And it repaired my uterus, all without my knowledge.
“I'm sure most of you have noticed that I have not been sleeping alone.” She fought the blush and almost succeeded. “I appreciate your allowing Aaron and I our privacy, as I would do the same for any of you in a similar situation. In the course of this new...relationship, I managed to get pregnant.”
More gasps, and bugged eyes from Cherise. Minu quickly held up her hands and shouted for quiet. “I lost the baby a couple days ago.” She hated sharing the roller coaster ride, but there just seemed no other way. “It was a bad convergence of situations. The damage repaired to my uterus was not fully healed, and the Medical Intelligence reported I had almost no chance of carrying the baby, and also a good chance of not surviving as well.” Aaron's hand was in her own, lending her his strength. “We both decided that ending the pregnancy was the right decision.”
“Oh, god, Minu,” Cherise sobbed into her hands. To her embarrassment Bjorn had tears on his cheeks as well, while Ted just stared at the console in front of him. Of them all, only Pip seemed unaffected. He floated in his usual reclined place, face turned towards her, an understanding look on his face. Of course, plugged into the ship like he was, he'd probably followed along with them in the medical bay. There was hope for him after all, it seemed. Minu was sure no one had known as she told her story, their reactions said it all. She took a deep breath and let it out, the air clear between them all. She'd kept the secret far too long.
“So what now?” Pip asked; the most rational among them.
“Now...” she said and looked around the room at them all, “now life goes on. We continue to prepare for the relief and rescue operation at the Rasa home world. That's all I have to say. So, are we ready to start running the first simulations on our approach to target?”
Pip took it all in without comment. He'd seen everything that transpired in the medical bay, of course, but he lacked the access to the medical records to know details. And worse, a few minutes after she left medical, vast areas of the computer began to become inaccessible.
He tried to stop it and was all but powerless. The access needed was second to the highest; that which should have been possessed by the ship’s missing Combat Intelligence. Some ship’s systems were active that he also had no control over. In the two days since that he'd spent most of his brain power assaulting these new limits placed on his formerly unlimited computer access. There was only one possibility; the ship had somehow been accessed by an outside source. The kicker was that since that morning, he could no longer directly talk with the Medical Intelligence.
As Minu was giving her revelations, he was methodically going through the ship system by system seeing what he could access and what he couldn't. As he suspected, he couldn't access the ship’s communications, as well as any of the medical systems. However, he also couldn't get into any of the cameras or monitors in a cargo bay adjacent to the medical bay. The topper was that the number four shuttle was gone!
He sifted data records, expanding the scope of his investigation, looking for any signs of telltale tracks left behind by whatever program was now operating. Slowly, as the weeks went by, he began to find clues. He desperately wanted to try and be more like his old self, and not just say whatever he was thinking without first considering it. And it was for that reason that Pip kept quiet and instead continued to watch what the hidden program was doing. Even after he visually verified that shuttle number four was no longer on board the Kaatan.
Chapter 13
March 14th, 522 AE (subjective)
Approaching Rasa Leasehold
The ship dropped into the system faster than any element occurring in nature, with the only possible exception of some particles that existed for the barest fraction of a millisecond after the universe was born. They dropped through multiples of light speed and emerged into normal space only a thousand planetary diameters from the world, on the far side of the largest of its four moons.
All the Rasa were in the CIC at their duty stations, eyes locked on the displays as the first visuals of the world they'd lost access to three years ago first came into view. They spoke excitedly among themselves for several moments until the image cleared even farther and jubilation turned to horror. Even from half a million kilometers away, angry burning spots were visible on the planet’s surface.
“Pip,” spoke up Minu, “what are we seeing.”
“Some sort of massive explosions have detonated on the planetary surface,” he explained. Pip worked with the ship’s sensors to tighten the scans to one of the points. “The targets appear to have been cities. More detailed data from this distance is not possible due to atmospheric ionization.”
“I'm getting some signatures from radiation leakage through the atmosphere,” Ted told them. “It looks like the same stuff you found in the water table on GBX49881.”
Minu and Aaron exchanged looks. The world where she'd lost a man to the Rasa during one of their early encounters, and she later found out was once the Squeen home world. The radiation damage was so extreme that even hundreds of thousands of years later, the surface was still uninhabitable.
“Ted, try and find areas of surviving settlements.”
“I will assist,” Var'at told her.
“Please do. Aaron, bring us into orbit, nice and easy. We don't want to attract attention in case those weapons can reach space. The last thing we want to do is add to the damage.”
“A new detonation,” Pip told them, and refocused the display. Almost around the curvature of the world, a blast wave was widening out and climbing into the upper atmosphere. Part mushroom cloud, part ball lightening, the detonation climbed into the planet’s sky casting off vast globules of iridescent matter. It was death on an epic scale. Minu swallowed as she lost most of the feelings of superiority the starship garnered for these past few months.
The Kaatan coasted into orbit, expertly guided by Aaron with Pip's help. As they got closer one of Var'at's men brought the ship’s shields on line. They were beginning to pick up radiation from the surface strikes. Even thousands of kilometers away it was noticeable, and potentially dangerous. The misfits had slipped into the CIC and were quietly watching the images; scenes from a nuclear hell come to life.
“We have a surviving settlement,” Ted announced.
“It is my own nest,” Var'at jumped in excitedly, “the city nearby was atomized, but the nest is safe behind a small mountain.”
“Ionization is beginning to clear,” Ted told them. “I can detect multiple large military units moving on the planet’s surface. One is only a hundred clicks from Var'at's settlement.”
The Rasa leader turned both eyes on Minu, and even with his all but expressionless face she could see the pain and pleading. “Don't worry friend,” she told him, “we won't give the snakes an easy job of it.” She heaved a sigh, not wanting to send the Rasa soldiers down like this. But she'd lost an argument with the others of her team several hours ago. To the last they refused to be part of this, if she herself went down. It was an infuriating and unexpected mutiny of her fellow Chosen, made worse by Aaron siding against her. At that moment she'd expected at least he would back her up, but that was a mistake on her part. Turns out they'd decided her fate weeks ago.
“You're doing this because I'm a girl and what happened three weeks ago!” she flatly accused them.
“Bullshit,” Ted shot right back, “we're doing this because the god damn ship will only listen to you and Pip.”
“And I don't want to be in charge,” Pip told her, “I have too much fun playing rather than working. Besides, my judgment is arguably...impaired.”
“A captain belongs on her ship,” said Bjorn simply.
“Var'at and the Rasa can handle this,” Aaron agreed. “This is his dance. “Var'at, get ready to deploy. The Rasa nodded and gestured to his men, already fully equipped in field gear and weapons. A moment later they were out the door and heading to the shuttle bay.
The shuttle slid away from the ship and gracefully began to drop into the irradiated atmosphere. Minu sent a silent prayer to whoever might be listening to aid their passage, then she turned to business. “Pip, what can we do from here to slow those snakes up?”
“Most of the ground attack weapons are at your command. We're too close for some, according to the automatic controls.”
“Damn,” hissed Aaron, “what kinda nasty shit is unsafe at a thousand kilometers?”
“Very explosive, I would guess,” said Minu. “We don't want to nuke the continent, Pip, we just want to burn some snakes.”
“A series of shots from the A-PAWs, Anti-particle accelerator weapons, while being considerably reduced in energy yield by the atmosphere, would still deliver quite a punch on the planet’s surface.”
Minu nodded and inspected the controls. The ship’s weapons complement was very impressive, but also confusing. Many of them refused to provide details as to their function, and Minu didn't want to waste power and stores playing around. Now she wished they'd spent an hour in the asteroid belt sharpening their claws.