Captain Peel looked up from his desk opposite the door. He was probably accustomed to some senior officer entering unannounced but the sight of the crewman outfit filled Peel with a sudden rage.
“What do you think you are doing walking in here...?”
But before he could finish his thought Silver was on him.
She powered her grav field and flew across the office and into Peel. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and carried him with her, slamming him into the far wall. Peel looked surprised and anger gave way to uncertainty and fear.
“Chief Silver,” Silver said. “You must be Captain Peel.” Without waiting for a reply Silver struck Peel on the bridge of his nose with a sudden and violent jab from her forehead. Peel’s nose broke and blood poured out from both nostrils. His eyes rolled back in his head.
Silver let him slump to the floor. She bound his hands behind his back before securing the office door. A small panel on the captain’s desk gave Silver easy access to many ship systems, the lock on his office door was easy to find. They were both locked in, but Silver was trapped.
Silver shook the captain awake. He jerked and tried to get away from her. She held him firm.
“Why did you attack my agents? Who are you working with? Who are you working for?”
Silver flung Peel to the floor. The captain sat there in a disorderly heap. He touched his broken nose and winced.
“You are on my ship. You will be answering my questions.”
The office door burst open and two Marines came in. Silver angled her grav field and flung herself to one side of the room. She turned mid flight and loosed several rounds from her blazer. The rounds struck home and sent the Marines sprawling. Another two Marines came running forward to take their place, a command deck officer stood behind barking out orders.
Silver grabbed Peel and pulled him off the floor. She held him as a shield between her and the Marines in the doorway. She placed her blazer to Peel’s head.
“Back up, or I’ll melt the captain’s brain.”
The Marines held their ground until the command officer called out for them to retreat. With the Marines out of the door Silver directed her gravity field toward the door and with a sudden reversal of the field caused the door to slam shut.
Flinging Peel back to the deck Silver checked her blazer and then slapped it onto her hip.
“Who gave you the authority to launch your mosquitoes?” Silver said standing over Peel.
“Authority is taken, not given,” Peel said. “The system is in decay.” Peel spat out a fat blob of blood and saliva. “VR, SV; these things have made us weak. We are children lost in the wilderness, relying on tech to feed us, teach us, entertain us. We have become a weak species. I take the authority to make us strong again. No one gave me authority. I took responsibility.”
“You killed my agents.” Silver grabbed Peel by his ripped and bloody shirt and pulled him up to her. “And you talk of responsibility. You have destroyed some of the best people in this entire system. Selfless, dedicated people. You are everything that is wrong with this system.”
“Says you,” Peel sneered. “But we are winning. If the people weren’t so weak, if you weren’t so weak, then we would never have been able to smash the VR network. Now the people are free. We can rebuild.”
“Captain Peel,” Silver said, pulling Peel up to his feet. “I am taking you into custody. You are responsible for the deaths of my agents. You will be taken to a re-education facility until the civil state considers you fit to rejoin society.” Silver spun Peel around and pushed him toward the door.
“Who do you think is the prisoner here?” Peel said. “Outside that door is my command deck. It is filled with loyal officers, all dedicated to dismantling the tech that has turned our species into little more than babies sucking at an electronic teat. I’ve worked for years to fill my crew with supporters of our cause. Do you think they will let you walk off my ship?”
Silver pulled her blazer off her hip and discharged a concussion round into the back of Peel’s head. The captain fell without a sound.
“Arty,” Silver called out. “Respond. They know I’m here. I need your help.”
Darklin walked quickly along the gleaming corridors of Gov Central. Two of his men walked along side him and pushed aside the robed civil servants that crossed their path. The office lay up ahead. Darklin flung open the door and marched up to Skraf sitting behind his desk.
Skraf was on his feet and backing away from the advancing men.
“Are you ready?” Darklin asked. “Good. This way.” Darklin held his hand out toward the open door as his men walked around the desk and grabbed Skraf by the arms.
“What? What?” Skraf stuttered.
“Chief Silver sends her regards,” Darklin said as Skraf was dragged by the two gangsters. “She’s sorry she can’t be here herself.”
“What? What?” Skraf said, digging his heels in and trying to stop the two men from dragging him along.
“No need to thank me,” Darklin said. “We’ll get you out of here and take you somewhere safe.”
“But. But.”
Darklin’s men shoved Skraf out the office door. Darklin followed. “That’s exactly what I said to the chief. She won’t be argued with, though, will she?”
Chapter 8
Silver sat behind Peel’s desk. The captain was laid across the desk and Silver sat behind him, using him as cover in case anyone tried to rush her. She was sure they were working on another way to incapacitate her and recover their captain from her custody. It’s what she would do. She was running out of time.
“Arty, you can inform Central AI that the Intrepid has gone rogue. Tell them that I want to commandeer the craft and return it to the authority of the military.”
“It’s not the job of AI to interfere in politics.”
“This is not politics, Art. This is law enforcement. You help me bring down criminals all the time.”
“I will try and do as you ask,” Arty said.
Silver sat and waited. She tapped at the open document on Peel’s desk. It looked like regular ship operation documents, mundane information from supply schedules to the crew roster. There would be more interesting information there somewhere, Silver guessed. The document was open on Peel’s authority and that meant Silver could check everything without the need to bypass security.
She called up the flight data and displayed the flight path of the Intrepid going back over the last five weeks. The intrepid had travelled across the system, from Pepper and out to a point in the Ring beyond the planet Goliath. Silver wondered if the Intrepid’s presence in that region had anything to do with agent Carbon’s investigation into gravity anomalies. Maybe a destroyer could create the patterns that had intrigued Carbon.
Silver accessed Peel’s personal communications history. There was the standard looking ship-to-ship communications between the Intrepid and the Defender. A destroyer was undoubtedly in regular contact with the flagship.
Silver wondered who Peel had been talking with on the Defender. She ran a search for a list of locations on the Defender that the communications had been received at. Most were directed to the command deck and a few had been received at Admiral Blake’s office. There were more than a few directed to the quartermasters and the munitions stores.
There was one that stood out, a location code that was different to the others. Silver double-checked it. The location was an individual’s quarters.
It might be perfectly normal for a captain of a destroyer to be in touch with an individual on board the flagship, but as a social call? Just one social call?
“Silver,” Arty interrupted.
Silver sat back in the chair. “Yes,” she said.
“The answer is no. Central AI cannot circumvent civil authority in this matter. You need to gain authority from the Defender or be awarded captain’s authority from Gov Central. Central AI can’t and won’t.”
“I don’t think the comms desk is goi
ng to let me talk to the Defender.”
“No I don’t expect they will.”
“But you can, Art.”
“I can relay a message for you but I can’t transfer authority to you. You could wait for the Defender to come and relieve you.”
“I don’t think they will submit to the Defender when it arrives. We need to take the ship.” Silver looked up to the ceiling for a moment. There was one sure way to secure the Intrepid.
“Art. You need to take the ship.”
“I am not permitted.”
“You are capable.” Silver said.
“Yes. But.”
“But what?”
“But I would be discovered by Central AI if I took the ship. I would be recalled and my code would be dismantled. I’d be deconstructed as a rogue AI.”
“We’ve been together a long time, Art. You are my most trusted and capable friend. But I’m cornered and the system is in too much danger. If they can kill agents there’s no telling what they will do. We need to stop them. You need to stop them. Arty, I want you to penetrate the ship’s AI and take control.”
“You know it will mean my destruction.”
“I won’t let that happen. I’ll petition Gov Central to request Central AI preserve your code intact, just as soon as we are clear of this mess.”
Silver waited. She knew when Arty was thinking.
Silver remembered the first time she had been linked to her personal AI. It had been strange and disorientating to have another consciousness in her head. Talking and thinking to each other, working as a team and often as a single unit. She had given him the name Arty early on in their time together. Silver had always thought of Arty as a man, even though she knew it was code, an artificial intelligence. Name and gender had helped to make their relationship more personal, more productive. It had been strange at first. Silver feared it might be even stranger to be without him.
“I have the ship,” Arty said. “Do you have any orders?”
The Intrepid raced across the system toward the Defender. Silver wanted to hand over the destroyer to the military as soon as she could. She had a prisoner for transfer to a re-education facility for interrogation.
Silver had Arty lock the office door and lock out all systems from manual control. The flight would be over soon but Silver could not simply pace about the small office and keep an eye on Peel. She returned to his files and the communication the captain had had with a member of the Defender’s crew.
“Arty,” Silver said, “Can you find a record of this communication?”
A file appeared on Peel’s desk. Silver tapped it. It was a holocall recording of a conversation between Peel and Commander Dooley.
The file was degraded and the images and audio were broken and disrupted. The file had clearly been shredded several times and Arty had been able to reconstruct it. Silver played it.
Silver watched in disbelief as Dooley asked if Peel was ready. Peel asked Dooley to provide cover from system SV. Dooley promised SV in the area would be deactivated. Peel asked if Dooley was prepared for the consequences if things didn’t go to plan. Dooley laughed and said something indistinct, possibly calling Peel a coward. Peel got angry. Dooley stopped laughing and looked at Peel with an aggressive and hostile expression. Dooley said something about Peel doing what he was told.
“You may be a captain,” Dooley said, “but I’m your controller in this operation. You take your orders from me.”
Silver slumped back into the chair. Dooley? He was calling the shots, directing the conspirators. Dooley? The commander had been so helpful, and so friendly. Dooley had taken Silver for a spectacular meal on the Defender that first time they’d met and he’d saved her from chewing on another disappointing croissant.
Silver checked her neural processor for the records of SV and VR bomb attacks. The date that Dooley was giving to Peel for SV deactivation matched up exactly with a bomb attack on an SV server.
And so Dooley was instructing Peel. It seemed likely that Dooley had been supplying Coris with the MYAC devices that were used to destroy the SV servers. Dooley was clearly up to his neck in the conspiracy.
Peel groaned and started squirming across his desk. He moved into the holorecording of Dooley, distorting the image.
Silver placed her blazer on the back of Peel’s neck. “If you want another dose just keep squirming. We’ll be handing you and your crew over to the military in a short while. Maybe we’ll get to compare notes with Commander Dooley.”
Peel stopped moaning for a moment. He turned and looked Silver in the eye.
“It runs too deep. You’ll never stop us all. You won’t ever discover how deep it all goes. We’ll be free. You can’t stop it.”
Silver pulled the trigger and blasted Peel with a concussion round. “I’ll do my best,” she said and then started flicking through Peel’s private communications.
“Approaching the Defender, Sil,” Arty said. “Flight control is asking for Captain Peel.”
“Connect me with the admiral,” Silver said. “Let’s see what he’s got to say about me stealing one of his destroyers?”
Chapter 9
Blake was pacing about the command deck of the Defender when Silver’s call came through.
“I found something of yours,” Silver said.
She had the admiral’s attention now. He was not his usual cool and relaxed self. Silver could detect the tell tale signs of stress on the usually controlled features of the admiral.
“My AI tells me the Intrepid has gone off line. The military AI is disabled. Central AI has listed it as rogue?”
“I’ve taken control of the Intrepid. I’m bringing her to you now.”
“How did you..?” Blake trailed off.
“Just doing my job, following leads. I have a destroyer crew, all guilty of conspiracy to destroy system tech. I have the captain in custody but I don’t think I can arrest and hold the entire crew. Are you able to assist?”
Silver sent the position of the Intrepid to the admiral.
“It looks as if you will be on top of us in a few moments,” Blake said. “I’ll dispatch a team of officers and Marines to secure the vessel.”
Silver sent a message to Blake through her neural processor informing him that Commander Dooley was implicated in the conspiracy. “He provided munitions to terrorists, conspired with Captain Peel. I think he may be in some way connected to the deaths of the hijackers you were holding for me.” Silver noted from the change of expression on the admiral that he had heard her.
The holoimage of Admiral Blake was suddenly bathed in a pulsating red light. A claxon alarm sounded on the command deck of the Defender. The admiral shot a look at Silver. “The Intrepid is firing on us,” Blake said.
“Arty?” Silver said. “Are we firing?”
“No, Sil. We are not.”
The admiral called out to his officers to turn off the alarm. He turned back to Silver, his image on the small desk top holostage flickering slightly. “Our sensors tell us a salvo of mosquitoes has been launched from the Intrepid. They are targeted on the Defender’s plasma jet assembly.”
“My AI tells me we haven’t launched against you.”
“These mosquitoes are no threat to the Defender,” the admiral said. “We’ve launched counter measures.”
Silver instructed Arty to give her a visual on the counter measures. The image of the hail of anti mosquito rounds tearing toward the Intrepid. “What will happen when they reach their target?” Silver asked Arty.
“The counter measures will detonate and fill the void with a wall of shrapnel that will in all probability destroy the mosquitoes.”
“But there aren’t any mosquitoes. What happens when the Intrepid reaches that point?”
“It will inflict a significant amount of damage, but not enough to stop us.”
Silver leaned on the office desk, towering over the small hologram of Admiral Blake. “You are firing on us, Admiral. The counter measures are heading toward
us.”
The admiral turned to his officers at their terminals behind him. “Confirm the salvo of mosquitoes is incoming. Launch the standby fighters. I want an eyeball visual on those mosquitoes.”
“Admiral,” Silver said gently. “Commander Dooley. You need to find Dooley.”
Commander Dooley was in a targeting control room. The small technical crew lay dead on the floor. Dooley was feeding phony data into the targeting systems, data that showed the salvo of incoming mosquitoes.
He watched a small holoimage of the counter measures as they flew toward the Intrepid. He needed to destroy that craft. Counter measures wouldn’t do it but a salvo of the most destructive mosquitoes held in the Defenders arsenal would smash the destroyer. Survivors would be highly unlikely.
He programmed another set of fake data into the system. It told the Defender that another salvo of mosquitoes was being launched from the Intrepid. Sooner or later the Defender would be forced to play its most powerful and deadly hand. The Intrepid was heading closer toward the Defender and closer toward destruction. Dooley had covered his tracks by killing those with information about the conspiracy. If he had to silence a destroyer’s crew and captain to preserve the secrets then he would, and the Defender’s massive firepower would let him do that. He sat back and waited for the Defender to attack.
“Another Salvo?” Silver said in disbelief.
Admiral Blake fixed her with a stony stare and nodded. “My sensors show a second salvo.”
“Did you launch, art?” Silver asked
“No,” Arty said. “We have not launched another salvo.”
The admiral looked out of the holostage at Silver. “If you cannot get control of that ship, Chief,” he trailed off. “A rogue destroyer is not something I can allow to move freely about the system. If you launch another mosquito I will be forced to attack.”
The intrepid contacted the debris from the first set of counter measures. Alarms sounded in the command deck beyond the captain’s office door.
Infiltrate (Silver Cane Chronicles Book 3) Page 5