by Terry Mixon
Kelsey changed into a white smock before joining Doctor Stone at the exam table. The prisoner looked up at her, a disgruntled expression on his face.
“You really screwed me.”
“Did I?” she asked. “You seem to be breathing.”
“I won’t be when Lady Keaton gets ahold of me,” the man muttered.
She flicked her gaze over to Lily and caught the sleight shake of the other woman’s head. They hadn’t told him that his friends had killed themselves. Good to know. Kelsey wished they’d mentioned that up front.
It took her a moment to remember how to initiate a com call through her implants.
Any other subjects off limits for him, Doctor?
We’re not telling him anything at all about the other prisoners or who we are. We also aren’t asking him any questions. Who knows what might set him off? If he asks any questions, don’t answer them. If he states something, let it stand even if it’s not accurate.
“I’m going to fit a high-resolution scanner on your head,” Stone told the man out loud. “It will allow me to get a more detailed reading of the device in your head.”
“It won’t help,” the man said, resigned. “I tell you, the bomb is linked to my implants. It won’t go off unless they decide that I need to die because I’m going to talk or if you attempt to remove it. There isn’t anything you can do to change that.”
Stone didn’t answer him. Instead, she put a device over the man’s skull and tapped the control pad on it. The man’s eyes closed abruptly, as if he’d gone to sleep.
“Interesting,” Kelsey said. “I didn’t know scanners could do that.”
“I lied,” the physician said with a smile. “This is a somatic stimulator. It basically forced his brain to go into a deep sleep.
“The Old Empire used them in place of drugs when they wanted someone to be unconscious, say for a medical procedure. He won’t respond to anything, not even when I make the incision.”
“Won’t his implants still monitor what you’re doing?”
The Fleet doctor picked up an instrument. “They shouldn’t care, so long as I’m not messing with the bomb. Which I won’t be.
“Instead, I’m going to access his implants directly and overwrite his implant code.”
“I didn’t have an incision for that. You only knocked me out for the hardware upgrade.”
“And so it is here. I spoke with Admiral Mertz and he agreed that anyone we captured in the future needed to be made safe from being enslaved again.”
Kelsey considered that and slowly shook her head. “That’s not a good idea. If they escape and run home to Mommy, the AIs will know you can lock them out.”
“They’ll know if they ever capture any of us, too. It is a risk, but we believe it’s the right balance of protection for everyone.”
She was certain the doctor was wrong, but it wasn’t her place to argue. They’d made their decision.
“Why don’t you educate me about this new hardware?”
“The mechanism that allows for updating the implant code is in one of the sub cores surrounding the central implant. I’ll use a manipulator to remove the compromised core entirely and replaced it with one that’s more secure. It takes less than half an hour from incision to regeneration.”
“What prevents the AI from removing the new hardware and replacing it with compromised hardware?”
“Without the appropriate codes or the patient’s explicit prior permission, any attempt to remove the hardware will fry the implants themselves. It won’t harm the person, but the original wiring in the brain will be compromised. Replacing it is significantly more complex than the original installation. Perhaps even impossible.”
So, anyone captured by the AIs might never have implants again. Kelsey considered that a small price to pay for not becoming a Pale One.
Stone shaved a spot on the man’s skull the size of a fingertip and made a small incision. She staunched the blood and held the wound open with a small hand tool.
Once that was done, she inserted a device into the cut and spent about ten minutes removing a very small metal object and replacing it with another one. Then she reversed the procedure and closed the incision.
She used a handheld regenerator to quickly heal the minor wound. The only remaining trace of the procedure was a small bald spot.
“Shouldn’t you have updated his implant code before you did that?” she asked as the doctor started cleaning up. “Now you can’t, right?”
“Future updates now will require his permission, but I did it before I removed the old hardware. The process used to take hours, but we figured out we weren’t doing it correctly.
“The details are far too technical to get into, but Carl Owlet discovered a much more efficient method. Five minutes and it’s done. I overwrote his corrupted code while getting everything set up to make the hardware swap.”
This Carl Owlet was a most resourceful fellow. She knew that Scott Roche had already arranged to have him contacted and couldn’t wait to meet him.
She spent a long moment examining the unconscious man. “So you could’ve saved his companions.”
“I could have. If I’d known about the bombs, I wouldn’t have waited for them to wake up. Lesson learned.”
“Are you going to remove his explosives?”
Stone shook her head. “I’ll have to take those deeper scans I mentioned and let the tech people consider the options. If there is an antitampering device, we may have to leave it there.
“If so, a localized jammer implanted beside it might protect him, but might also affect him in other ways. Frankly, it’s just too soon to tell.”
Stone set another device on the man’s head and frowned at it. “This is my deep scanner. You can tap into its feed if you like.”
Kelsey found the data stream and drew it in. The core it was focused on was linked directly to the man’s implants. The details of the device were beginning to become clear as the scanner went across it again and again.
“We won’t be able to access the internal code,” Stone said. “I’m more concerned with the hardware. If it detects separation from his implants, it might detonate.”
She focused in on the diagram and tried to make sense of it. She wasn’t a tech, but her implants occasionally provided insight on things she didn’t directly understand.
A small window popped up in her vision and her implants started tracing the circuitry. This was something she’d asked Elise about days earlier. Apparently this was not something everyone could do. It was an enhancement provided by her Raider implants.
Almost as soon as it began, the window closed and another one opened. This one had data on the Raider implants themselves. This same circuitry was in her own head, though thankfully not attached to a bomb.
It was a kind of antitampering circuit, but in her case one that would wipe the classified intelligence stored in her implants if an unauthorized person attempted to access them.
She didn’t actually have any classified intelligence, but the design was there. A Raider was supposed to store secret stuff in a specific segment of internal memory for safety. Good to know.
Kelsey accessed the manual these people had provided for her and read everything about the antitampering circuit. There was a way to get around it, but it was very technical and seemed to require specialized equipment she didn’t have.
Maybe the New Terran Empire did.
In any case, the circuit was to prevent access to the hardware. Not to stop anyone from removing it. The man’s implants would probably have been monitoring for removal and triggered the explosives under those circumstances.
With the compromised code gone, it should be perfectly safe to remove it. Of course, it wasn’t her head she was talking about. The unconscious man would probably object. Strenuously.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to make that decision. She’d tell Doctor Stone and let her make the decision. And stand farther away for that procedure.
30
Jared walked into the prisoner’s room without knocking. That was rude, but he needed to set the tone for this meeting. He held all the cards and the prisoner needed to understand that on a visceral level.
The man wasn’t bound, though he was guarded. Two marines stood on either side of the hatch just inside the compartment. Two more stood in the corridor beyond. What’s more, they’d made certain the prisoner was aware of how thoroughly they were watching him.
Every angle inside his make-do prison cell was under observation at all times. Even the bathroom. What’s more, the man was never allowed to be alone. The marines inside the compartment kept him in their sight at all times.
That might seem like overdoing it, but Jared couldn’t take the risk that the man would find another way to kill himself now that Lily had removed the bomb from his head. The information he possessed was far too valuable to take chances.
The man sat on a small couch reading something on a handheld viewer. He set it aside as soon as Jared entered but didn’t stand.
Jared wondered what status this man had on El Capitan. Because he had implants, he was obviously a member of the higher orders. That was a certainty because there was no way he was a Fleet officer and those were the only other people allowed to have implants.
Well, there were nobles and then there were nobles. Austin Darrah was obviously very low in the hierarchy.
“Mister Darrah,” Jared said with a slight nod. “I regret having to keep you under close guard, so allow me to apologize for the necessity. I wish things could be different but until you answer some questions, I need to be certain that you’re safe. Even from yourself.”
The other man shook his head slightly. “We have different definitions of the word ‘safe.’ You know who I am. Might I ask your name and position?”
“Of course. My name is Jared Mertz and I command this ship.”
“Well, you certainly do now. What did you do before? Where are you from? What do you want?”
Without asking, Jared sat just across the coffee table from the man. He crossed his legs and tried to exude an air of confidence. It helped that he actually was confident.
“While this might be difficult to believe, I was in command of this vessel when it entered the El Capitan system. If you’re wondering, we didn’t sneak on board the ship while it was orbiting your planet. We were already here.”
The man looked bemused. “I can’t figure out what that’s supposed to mean. This is supposed to be an automated destroyer. Even these furnishings shouldn’t be here. At least I don’t think they should be.
“Why would you go to the trouble of sneaking aboard a vessel like this to get into El Capitan? You couldn’t possibly have known about our mission. What were you really doing?”
“Well, that’s quite a story. I might even tell it to you once we’re done finding out about you and what you were doing aboard my ship.
“Let me lay out a few salient facts for you. You brought aboard a number of cargo containers protected by plasma-based explosives. You and all your compatriots had bombs planted inside your heads. And, let’s not forget how you opened fire on my people with your weapons set to lethal force the moment you saw us.”
Jared leaned back in his seat and crossed his legs. He let his posture speak for him.
“I can’t tell you,” the man said in an exasperated tone. “Remember those bombs in the head that you mentioned? If I try to tell you anything, it will go off. But I will point out that I wasn’t armed.”
“True enough,” Jared said with a smile. “The bomb would be a factor if we hadn’t removed it during your little nap in our medical center.”
The man’s mouth dropped open. “Have you lost your mind? How could you possibly have thought it was a good idea to mess around with the explosives in my head? If you actually did.”
“Come now, Mister Darrah. Give me a little credit. I have a lot of questions for you so it doesn’t serve my purpose to have your head explode before you answer them.
“I realize that that requires taking a lot on faith when your life hangs in the balance, but run through the possibilities. Under what circumstances would I intentionally have you do something that so drastically curtailed my options going forward?”
The man gave a sharp laugh. “I have no idea. All I know for certain is that I can’t trust anything you say. You could be anyone. Maybe you just want to record me exploding so that you can use the video to intimidate my companions. Frankly, I’m the most expendable out of our crew, so that makes sense.”
“You’re hardly expendable,” Jared disagreed. “Here’s where I give you a little bit more information to operate off of.
“The lady who was questioning you earlier had you segregated from the other prisoners. So, to your good fortune, you weren’t anywhere near them when your leader ordered everyone’s bombs to explode.
“You are my only prisoner. If you like, I can provide you some video of what happened to them. Allow me to warn you that it’s not pretty.”
Darrah considered Jared carefully for a long moment. “No, I’d imagine it isn’t. Let’s say for the moment that you’re telling me the truth. If I’m your only source of information about what we’re doing here, why in the world would I help you?”
“Do you really enjoy having these marines watching your every move? Observing you going to the bathroom? Watch you take a shower? Would you like to sleep in a room by yourself?”
The other man grunted. “There is something to that. Still, you’re obviously a man who is up to no good. I want to know who I’m dealing with before I start dropping secrets. The System Lord was very adamant about keeping our mouths shut.”
“That’s certainly true,” Jared agreed “Anyone that puts bombs in people’s heads really does intend for them to stay silent. Did it occur to you that once you were finished with your task it would set off the bombs to make sure you never spoke of this?”
“You don’t know that,” Darrah said. His tone indicated he wasn’t completely certain he believed his own words.
“Let’s try something simple, shall we? You were going to Terra, correct?”
The man clamped his lips shut for a long moment before sighing. “One way or the other, I’m going to regret this. Yes, we were supposed to deliver the special cargo to the System Lord at Terra.”
His expression said that he was waiting for his head to explode. When it didn’t, he sagged a little.
“See?” Jared asked. “Safe as houses.”
Darrah gave him a confused look. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Forgive my obscurity. It means there was no danger.”
“Ah. How odd. Before we see how far I’m willing to go, I need to understand what’s in it for me. I’m a dead man if the Lords find out about this. How can you protect me and still make it worth my while to be cooperative?
“And don’t tell me I should be glad I’m alive at all. Be realistic. You need what I know in a very short window of time if it is going to do you any good at all.”
Jared didn’t disagree. “And this is where I bring the woman you met before—Olivia West—back in to negotiate. She’s much better at this than I am.”
Olivia made a point of rapping her knuckles against the hatch when she arrived for her second interview with Austin Darrah. One of the marines inside the compartment opened the hatch for her. It wasn’t as if the prisoner had the option of refusing her entry. Still, it paid to be courteous.
Unlike the last time she’d seen him, the man wasn’t tied to a chair. Now he sat tensely on a small couch. He rose when she entered the room, but it seemed like an unwilling gesture.
“Mister Darrah,” she said with a genuine smile. “I’m pleased to see that you survived the recent unpleasantness. As you might recall, my name is Olivia West. Shall we sit? Perhaps you’d like me to order us something to eat?”
The man sat and gestured for her to take the place across from him. “Your food is one thing I have no
complaints about. Whoever does your cooking is quite excellent. None of my former companions had the talent. Meals were something of a chore during our hurried training.”
She nodded as she sat. “I’m not much of a cook myself, but I’ve picked up a few tricks along the way. We do have a few people with real gifts for the culinary arts though.
“Jared tells me that you’re willing to discuss working with us. What would you expect in return for your cooperation?”
While he was considering how to answer her question, she used her implants to send out an order for sandwiches, tea, and coffee. The crew manning the galley had been warned to expect her call. They’d be along shortly.
After almost thirty seconds of silence, Darrah grimaced. “While I have some leverage, I’ll confess that I’ve never been good at this sort of thing. You’re probably going to take advantage of me.”
“Allow me to let you in on a little secret about negotiation,” she said conspiratorially. “The best deals are the ones where everyone feels as though they’ve gotten something they want. If you take undue advantage, their cooperation with you will be grudging.
“We don’t want you feeling as if we have you over a barrel. We want you to cooperate willingly. So rather than worrying that I’m going to use some lapse or lawyerly clause against you, why don’t you tell me in very basic language what you see as the best outcome for you.”
He shrugged. “The bridges behind me are merrily burning, so I doubt I can salvage the life I had. It’s gone. I have to focus on what comes next.
“I don’t know which planetary system you people come from, but you can hide me. You can make it so the System Lords don’t know that I’m there. You can give me a good life where I’m not scrambling to survive. One that keeps me out of the public eye but lets me indulge in the things that I love.”
“That’s a reasonable request,” she agreed with a nod. “But I think we can do better. I can’t go into the details at this point, but I can assure you that once we have completed our mission, we can put you into a society where you don’t have to fear the System Lords. One where you can walk around and have as open a life as you choose.”