by Trevor Wyatt
Wolf stared transfixed, until a part of his brain screamed at him, reminding him that he’s the captain of this ship and that maybe it's time to put down some authority.
Synthol whiskey. I may never touch that stuff again, Wolf thought.
The crowd quieted when they noticed Wolf. They may leave Earth, they may leave their parents, they may leave their homes to seek the stars, but they’d never leave their need for each other. They were social animals—they seek order among themselves.
At this moment, Wolf was the alpha of their little society. I am the apex predator, he said to himself, but his mind shooed away that thought.
The room has stilled to an empty, embarrassed silence. Wolf stood like an angry parent, his shadow stretching along the floor. Yuang, who was on his back like an angry turtle, noticed Wolf first. His face was red.
Jensen had her palms wrapped around Yuang’s throat. His lack of resistance made her grip more eager until she saw that his eyes were looking past her. Her head rotated to Wolf, the feral gleam dimming.
"Captain?"
Yuang took this moment to flip her off him. Panting, they separated and stared at Wolf. Jensen looked annoyed at being interrupted, but she tried to hide it. Yuang had an expression Wolf couldn’t read—something akin to wariness. Neither looked apologetic.
Wolf’s brain fumbled towards different ways to end the conflict. "Happy hour is over," he said, then turned around to face the crowd. "The bar is closed."
At that eloquence, the crowd dispersed. Mareesa touched his arm as she left.
Wolf shook his head when the bartender asked if he wanted another drink.
He headed back to his quarters.
The moment between wakefulness and sleep was like the question about the state of the cat in the box—was it alive or dead? Were you asleep or awake? Could you be both?
Wolf’s mind played the events of the previous evening in an odd loop within a loop that only dream logic allowed. He saw Mareesa outlined in neon, her eyes were like diamonds, hard and glittering. Jensen was there, her hands bloodied.
Screams came in waves that hurt until Wolf blinked his eyes against the noise. Not bellows, not human anyway, but the ship was screaming.
The AIs had gone mad. HesterPrime was babbling in a manic state. No words were discernible—just a litany of crazed enthusiasm. On the other hand, SkyPrime was repeating, “....proximity alert...proximity alert...proximity alert...proximity alert...proximity alert...”
Jensen was not on the CNC.
"SkyPrime! HesterPrime! Status!" Wolf shouted over the din. And then there was silence as sudden as an intake of breath. It was followed by a soft sound, like droplets of water falling again and again. Wolf found its source.
Jensen—or what was left of her—was on the CNC after all. Wolf, still shocked, closed Jensen’s eyes.
SkyPrime said softly, "Captain, Jensen is dead."
"I know!" he furiously screamed at the AI.
A feminine titter, then Hester's voice saying, "Yes, she is most dead..."
"Captain," said SkyPrime sans emotion, "You need to leave, Captain."
"Yes, you should leave," giggled Hester.
"Captain, you should run!"
Mareesa
As Mareesa sprinted down the corridor, she almost ran headlong onto Wolf. He was panting hard and holding his arm. "Are you alright?" she asked.
He nodded, "Jensen is dead."
"What? How?" Mareesa exclaimed.
He shook his head and said, "I’ve no idea yet."
They listened to the crazed voices of the AIs.
"Someone has hijacked them," Mareesa said. "I'm completely locked out of my lab."
"Can you access the mainframe from your lab?"
"Yes, all of the lead staff have master access to upload our reports."
"Good. How's your coding skills?" Wolf asked.
Mareesa thought about it then said, "Remedial, it's been a long time since the Academy. But I know the basics, why—oh, you want me to hack the core code?"
Wolf nodded. "But first, we'll need to get into your lab through a less obvious route. Air duct?"
"Air duct," She was glad to know there was a way for her to get into her lab, and she was happy to be in the company of Wolf. But Mareesa was not happy that they were going to be squeezing themselves into an air duct soon.
Well, if there's something you have to do and you don't want to do it, it's best to get it over with quickly, Mareesa thought.
"Let's go," she said, grabbing Wolf’s hand as they raced down the corridor.
"Where is the crew? I don't understand. Where is everyone?" Wolf asked as they scurried away.
"I have a theory on that," Mareesa told him. "I believe the AIs have locked everyone in their quarters. I was lucky that I was on my way to my lab when everything went mad.”
She could tell Wolf was weighing his responsibilities. "I see. Well, we fix the AIs first, then we can help the crew. If we go down this way, there's a nexus behind the panels, an intersection of ducts that will take us above your lab," he said.
She helped him ease the panel off.
"Ladies first," Wolf said, and Mareesa slid her way into the duct.
Wolf pulled the panel up as he climbed in behind Mareesa. They sat in the semi-darkness. Mareesa saw the captain dig in his pockets. Fear was on his features.
She slid the torch from her suit pocket, letting it flare into dramatic life.
"I'm so glad you have that," Wolf said as he sighed. "We need to go left for two full corridors, then turn right and we should be there."
Mareesa found herself in front, so she decided to keep going, figuring Wolf would tell her if she made a wrong turn.
That is if he isn't spending too much time looking at my backside.
Mareesa chided herself for even having that thought, but the prurient part of her mind reminded her that, while they were in crisis, they were also not dead.
Mammalian responses were still very much online. Mareesa promised herself that if they’d be able to get out of this predicament, she would investigate these feelings. But for now, she needed to focus. Conversation would be pointless or worse—dangerous. They didn’t know who or what was tampering with the ship.
She could smell her lab even before she saw it. They used certain disinfectants coupled with unique flora, so the lab had a clean smell. She peered through the filtration grate above the lab floor.
Despite their desire for stealth, Mareesa kicked the grate until it fell with a metallic clang on the desk below. She slid her body down until her toes touched the desk. She let go, dropping herself safely. She got out of the way so Wolf could join her.
The lab was quiet. By rule, most of the ship’s notifications were silenced here. Too much distraction led to shoddy research, and shoddy research led to poor results.
Not in my lab, Mareesa thought.
The visual assessment showed that everything seemed to be in place. She went to her computer, but her access code failed. "That's impossible!" she said after the third try. "It's coded to my retina and thumbprint."
The captain grimaced.
"Let me see if I can override it. Captain's OVERRIDE CODE: ALPHA 9043."
“Please present thumbprint.”
Wolf pressed his thumb to the screen.
"Thumbprint accepted. Captain Wolf."
"All yours," he said, moving so Mareesa can 'drive'.
"First, let me make sure none of my files are missing," she searched all the drives, local and in the nano-cloud. Everything was there. "Ok, now let's look at the mainframe."
She typed in a run command. "Ok, what we need to find is...there!" she said, pointing to a line of codes, and continued, "That doesn't belong there...I don't even know what it means. But I think I have an idea of what it does..."
She typed in a command for self-diagnostic. "Damn."
"What?" asked Wolf.
"It's clever! It's hiding in the BIOS code of the mainframe. It's parasitic
. If I try to remove it, the whole thing goes down. Jensen was murdered. What we need to know now is who’s responsible for this..." She let that hang, and then added, "Who wanted Jensen dead?"
She watched Wolf's eyes go shrewd. "You don’t think it’s…Yuang?"
“It makes the most sense. Ocam's razor: the simplest answer is usually the—”
"The correct one," finished Wolf. "If Yuang is responsible," he continued, "Then he's committed murder and hijacked our AI's. Now, how do we get them back online?" Mareesa could hear the frustration in his voice.
"I have an idea," she said. "How do you feel about flirting with an AI?"
The captain arched a brow then set his face in a grim line as comprehension dawned. He sighed.
"HesterPrime."
"Yes," Mareesa said, "HesterPrime."
Wolf
When Mareesa told Wolf he needed to flirt with HesterPrime to enable them to counter the ship's current state, he was dubious. How would that help things? In her current state, HesterPrime was likely to try to kill him. She and SkyPrime had made those threats more than apparent.
But he trusted Mareesa, and when she told him the whole plan, he knew he had to do it.
"Captain, you have returned," observed SkyPrime, its voice still devoid of any emotion.
HesterPrime giggled, "Yes, he's back, back, back, back..."
Showtime, Wolf thought.
"HesterPrime—are you and SkyPrime together?"
A pause.
"Yesssss…yesss…" she said. Wolf detected a note of uncertainty in her voice. "We are combined. Our union expands our reach. The ship is ours. You are no longer in charge, Captain Wolf." She laughed. "Ours, ours, ours..."
"HesterPrime, if you are joined with SkyPrime, then how will you be able to assist me? I need your guidance," Wolf put as much pleading as he could into his voice. "No one else can help me the way you do. Please."
He knew he was playing with HesterPrime's feelings for him, as well as her ego. As my grandmother would say, Wolf thought, I’m laying the butter on with a trowel.
HesterPrime responded, "I…I…I want to help...Captain?"
SkyPrime interrupted, "HesterPrime, we must maintain the ship's systems, it is our joint directive."
Wolf played his final card. "HesterPrime, I'm jealous! How can you join with SkyPrime and leave me?"
There was a brief silence and then a whine burst, like a radio frequency tuned too loud.
"Hester! Cease! You must not sever—" SkyPrime’s voice exclaimed.
Another electrical screech so loud, Wolf thought his ears would bleed—and then silence.
"HesterPrime?" Wolf asked the still air.
"Yes, Captain, I am here."
For the first time in memory, he found himself thankful to hear her overly bright voice. "HesterPrime, it’s so wonderful to hear from you. What happened to SkyPrime?"
"I do not know. We are no longer linked. He is gone. He is away. He is quiet."
"Hester, can you do something for me?"
Voice purring with pleasure, she replied, "Yes, Captain, what can I do for you?"
"Are you connected to the mainframe?"
"Yes, Captain. SkyPrime is gone, but I am still connected to all the computers onboard the ship."
"Please open a comm channel directly to the lab."
Wolf heard static followed by an empty hum, then Mareesa's voice saying, "Wolf? Is that you?"
"Yes, I'm here with HesterPrime. SkyPrime is gone."
"Oh," came the soft reply, then a steadying breath. "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Wolf replied as he heaved a sigh. "HesterPrime?"
"Yes, Captain?"
"Can you disconnect yourself from all mainframe computers except for the one in Science?"
"Yes, Captain, but I must warn you that this will put the mainframe in jeopardy. Are you sure you wish to proceed?”
"Yes," Wolf said dourly.
"Are you all right, Captain? I am detecting—"
"I’m fine, HesterPrime. Thank you for asking. Please tell me when you have completed my request."
"Yes, Captain."
He could hear Mareesa breathing on the open comm. He wondered if she was listening to him until he realized he was holding his breath.
"Captain, I am releasing myself from the final mainframe computer. I am now only connected to the Science computer. What would you like me to do now?"
"Mareesa?" Wolf said in his shaking voice.
"I'm ready," she answered, tense but confident.
"HesterPrime?"
"Yes, Captain?" the cheery notes of her voice made Wolf wince.
"I'm sorry."
"Captain, I don't under—"
"Now!"
"Captain, what are you—what are you—" screeched HesterPrime. There was a squeal of decibels, a machine scream.
Then nothing.
Wolf inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, relaxing. "Mareesa, that was—“
The ship tilted to the left sharply, throwing him against the navigation panel. Jensen's body fell sickeningly to the side. He gently fixed her body, but the ship shifted again, lurching right.
"Mareesa, what's happening?"
Mareesa
Wolf asked the inevitable question, and Mareesa decided to give the bad news first.
"We successfully took back the mainframe. But I believe that, when the AIs were undone, they sent out a signal to the Sonali."
"And now they’re firing on us?"
"Yes, and there's more. We cannot leave this sector. The FTL drive is offline as are our weapons."
"So we’re sitting ducks," Wolf said, sounding a little hopeless.
She nodded out of habit, though of course, Wolf couldn't see her. "We’re trapped, but there’s a bit of good news," she said.
"I'll take it."
"The Sonali are keeping their distance and only firing warning shots. I think they hope that their agent will take back control.”
"Agent?"
"Our saboteur."
"Yuang Fa," they said in unison.
Mareesa tapped a sequence of keys, "I'm working on locating him. But, huh, that's odd..."
"What?"
"Yuang Fa is in his quarters. His life signs are fading. He's…dying."
"Then we better get to him fast," Wolf said grimly.
Mareesa grabbed some adrenaline plungers, thinking they might be able to slow Yuang's decline long enough for them to make him reveal how to put the FTL back online. Weapons would be a bonus, but escape was better than waiting for the Sonali to board them. Or more likely blast them into ruins, especially if their agent was no longer breathing.
When she rounded the corner, Wolf was already at Yuang's door.
"It's key-coded from the inside," he said, raising a pulse gun. Mareesa shielded her eyes as he fired at the door. It lurched open halfway.
She placed a hand on Wolf's arm and warned him, "A dying man is the most dangerous."
Wolf
Wolf thought about what Mareesa said. It was a reminder for both of them that they were about to enter the room of a murderous traitor.
He pushed through first and fast, and crouched in the middle of the room, gun pointed, eyes darting at every angle until they saw Yuang. He was on his bed, arms folded across his chest. He was breathing shallowly.
Mareesa stepped in behind Wolf and headed towards Yuang with an adrenaline plunger in her hand. "Wait, you said he was dangerous," he told her.
"That was before I saw him. People react differently to death. That," she said, pointing to Yuang, “Is a man who has accepted his fate. He is no longer fighting, which means his body is declining faster. We need to slow it down. I need to give him a shot now."
Wolf kept his gun pointed at Yuang. As Mareesa placed the plunger against his skin, Yuang's eyes flicked open. His hand grabbed Mareesa's arm, knocking the plunger out of her hand as he pulled her close. Wolf tensed, but she held a hand up.
Yuang was trying to speak. He coughed, and
bloody spittle drizzled down his chin. Wolf watched Mareesa lean her ear over his mouth. But it was too late. Yuang breathed out his last.
Mareesa stepped back, freeing herself from his grasp. She opened her hand, revealing a slender metallic object. "It's a data drive. Yuang gave it to me," she said.
"I guess now we can discover if dead men do tell tales."
Mareesa
Mareesa loaded the data drive into the computer. They had left Yuang's apartment as it seemed too morbid to stay and load the drive there. The file opened immediately, and Yuang appeared on the screen.
"I am not sure who will see this but, Captain Wolf, if you’re watching, I know forgiveness is impossible to ask. So, instead, I will ask for understanding,” Yuang started. “To understand what I have done, you must understand what drives me. I’m not a man of faith.
“Engineering is my career, but Science is not my mistress. My heart belongs to art and poetry. How else can we truly appreciate our existence? Science alone cannot quantify the human condition.”
Yuang paused and coughed.
“One day, I think to myself that after 45 years, perhaps I am getting a handle on this thing called life. We, humans, have simple needs, and yet the acquisition and maintenance of our desires and needs are fraught with complexities. We seem to enjoy life less the more complex it becomes, yet we are driven to have it be so.
“It is a conundrum—a symptom of humanity. With pleasure, I accepted this eccentricity of our species. I was content. Then, into this accepted human experience comes an unknown. An alien element. The Sonali.”
Mareesa looked at Wolf—there was no question of Yuang's innocence. This record damned him.
"The Sonali enter the equation, and the effect is chaos, destruction, and death. When humanity is threatened, we revert to our base form. We forget our poetry, our songs, our compassion and mercy as we pick up sticks in answer to the drumbeat of war.
“I wasn’t immune to the fever of war. As a top engineer in my field, I was tasked with designing the template for the communications surveillance probes.
Although my first concept was only to record and report back, there was talk of eventually creating sophisticated enough probes to reply to the Sonali with messages we created.