Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11

by Randolph Lalonde

  Jake worked to rebalance their own shields, watching every side but their nose take damage from the flock of fighters that assailed them at great expense and the few blasts the battlecruiser could land. Their energy was almost keeping up. Jake saw all communication channels peak and nodded at Liara, who looked nervous. “Good job,” he told her.

  “It’s just static and junk packets,” Liara replied.

  “Try finding enemy messages that aren’t encrypted, and…”

  “Use a sound capture to copy their officer’s voices and give false orders,” she said. “I’ll just stop jamming for a few seconds so I can scan for one.”

  A fighter collided with the top of the Pursuer at high speed, glancing off and gouging the outer hull. Their shield power was down to twenty one percent of maximum. “Finn, we need more power to shields. At this rate we’ve got a minute, tops before they’re pounding our hull.”

  “From where?” Finn replied over the intercom. He was in the back with anyone who was half-qualified to help with the power systems.

  “How are the calculations for our wormhole going?” Minh-Chu calmly asked Noah, who was working on the navigation console - calculating their jump and keeping the trajectory of all the nearby ships updated, highlighting potential collisions or other looming problems - he was sweating.

  “I have to start over,” Noah said. “One of our thrusters is damaged, and we’ve moved too far in too little time.”

  “Calculate something about ten kilometres to our port side,” Minh-Chu said. “I just need an entry point, please, we can adjust later unless you put us into a moon or something.” He resumed humming. “Oh, look, a door. Can you open it, Jacob?”

  It was true, they’d pounded a segment of the battlecruiser’s shields so hard that the emitters for that section burned out, and Minh-Chu was keeping the Pursuer right beside it. The hangar door was closed, but Jake knew how he could solve that. He launched a barrage of missiles and silently marked it as the gunner’s primary target. Before switching to that door, he watched as two of the battlecruisers main guns were slagged, that left only one gun that could strike them, and it was still under shielding. “Shields down to twelve percent,” Jake said. “Finn! Do I need to go back there and give you a hand?”

  “No! There’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing I can do. This ship doesn’t have any more juice,” Finn replied.

  “Suspend life support?” Jake suggested.

  “Already done,” Finn said.

  “I still see lights,” Jake retorted. Pings and solid strikes sounded against the hull. It was starfighter fire against their flagging dorsal shield. He managed to get it back up to one point five percent.

  The missile racks reloaded, and Jake unleashed a volley against the battlecruiser’s hangar door. It burst open, and Minh-Chu fired his port side lateral thrusters, sending the Pursuer into the open hangar. The gunners raked the deck with a hail of automatic fire, slagging defensive measures, landed fighters, shuttles, equipment, doorways, and the ceiling.

  The Pursuer nudged a few fighters out of the way, extended its landing gear in clamp mode - half extended with grippers on the bottoms - and latched onto the deck. Minh-Chu sighed, leaned back, and cracked his knuckles in a silence that was only interrupted by the sounds of their guns going off behind the cockpit. Jake and Liara were frozen, open mouthed, stunned.

  “Go ahead and calculate,” Minh-Chu said to Noah, who was updating their trajectory and whispering; “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” to the navigational computer.

  “Your shields will have a minute to recharge,” Minh-Chu said with a sigh. “Unless you want to get out and take control of the battlecruiser.”

  “Did we just land?” Finn asked as he burst into the cockpit. “Holy! What? We?” he shook his head. An explosion filled the pressurized section of the large main landing bay with blue and yellow fire. The gunners were having the time of their lives burning the distant fighters in racks along the fore and aft walls, firing at pilots and other people running for their lives. Jake watched as one pilot dropped his gun and managed to dive into a crew hatch, a few bolts of energy right behind him, leaving spots of red hot metal in its wake. Then he had a thought. “Someone get a skitter out there,” Jake said quietly, as though the realization he had was quiet compared to the overwhelming situation they found themselves in.

  He checked the shields; they were almost back up to full charge on all sides. So far, Minh-Chu’s idea was working.

  “What?” Liara said, snapping out of her stunned silence. “Yes! That’ll give us a direct connection and we can start downloading.”

  Jake was out of his seat, pulling a line from his left command and control unit as he ran down the hall. “Someone catch a skitter and give it to me!” he shouted to the group of soldiers huddled in the main crew seating area. One of them plucked a small, many limbed bot from the wall where it was repairing the hinge on a cupboard and tossed it to him. He caught it by the small half-circle dome that covered its main body and flipped it upside down. He connected his data line, saw the main interface for its programming come up and then added two directives: Attack anyone who picked it up and didn’t identify as a member of Haven Fleet, but to primarily connect to the battlecruiser’s computer system and provide an encrypted wireless link to the Pursuer. “Open the hatch!” he told a soldier who was leaning beside the heavy armoured starboard side airlock.

  He opened it, and a second later Jake was leaning out of the outer airlock, dropping his skitter. It scrambled off across the deck. “Shields full?” Jake asked, yelling towards the bridge even though the intercom would pick him up.

  “Um, yes, they’re fully charged,” Liara replied.

  “Navigation ready?”

  “Just… one…. Yes!” Noah replied. “We have jump coordinates!”

  “Gunners, get ready to shoot our way out of here,” Minh-Chu said. “There are a dozen fighters out there waiting for us to come out.”

  “No!” Jake said. “Blast the opposite door, it’s almost screwed already,” Jake said as he ran back to the cockpit.

  “Oh, wow, our little guy found a data socket,” Liara said. “I’m already in their system downloading all kinds of data. A lot of it will need decrypting, but I know I’m in their flight logs, this has got to be their manifest. I’ll see what else we can get.”

  Jake watched as the other hangar doors exploded outward, the focused fire of their guns ripping through the air after them. “That was quick,” Jake said. “Think that’s a better exit?”

  “I like it, let’s go!” Minh-Chu said.

  Noah released the clamps and retracted the landing gear, and Minh-Chu guided the ship across the scorched and warped main hangar, accelerating as hard as the ship could manage as the nose of the Pursuer emerged from the yawning opening where the hangar doors once were. Jake sucked air in through his teeth as Minh-Chu guided the ship in a tight turn to skim its outer shields before breaking out into the open.

  The fighters were only delayed for a few seconds by their unexpected manner of exiting the battlecruiser before they were swarming at them. Their shields were draining fast, and Jake poured power into their aft section, trying to keep it above fifty percent. The wormhole generator began projecting, and he dumped energy from every reserve, including their forward shields to save their aft section.

  Several hard hits caught them before they crossed the threshold of the wormhole and hyper-accelerated out of range. The entry moved with them, only staying open half a kilometre behind. “Finn, damage?” Jake asked as his power readings display froze.

  “There is some,” Finn said. “Assessing now.”

  “I’m coming,” Jake said. “Good work everyone.”

  Thirty-One

  Team Building

  * * *

  “Come as you are,” Alice said at the end of the invitation she issued to her squad for dinner. It was the best thing she could have said, as it turned out. Everyone made an appearance even though she mad
e it clear that attendance wasn’t mandatory. Regan, Yawen and Holm came together. They looked a little stunned when Alice answered the door, as though they had no idea what to expect.

  Alice was set on making the evening as casual as possible, and appeared in the doorway wearing a stretchy, comfortable sleeved dress that was similar to the one that she wore when no one was around, but it had a little less cloth above and below. The first guests - Yawen, Holm, and Regan were in uniform. “Should we have brought something?” Oscar Holm asked sheepishly.

  “We’ll order a few bottles of something in after everyone else gets here. Come in,” Alice said.

  “I’m still getting used to living on a planet, and they just changed the night and day cycle, so I’m sorry if I seem a little off,” Holm leaned down, gave her a friendly but respectable hug, then kissed her on both cheeks.

  Alice was a little startled, but in a pleasant way. “That’s how they say hello where you come from?”

  “When opposite sexes meet, especially at social events,” Holm said. “In my section of the drift. I’m sorry if I overstepped, it’s just that you’re out of uniform…”

  “No problem, I was just surprised,” Alice said. “The galaxy would be a little nicer if everyone was so friendly.”

  “I like it,” Regan said as he moved passed Alice into her house.

  “You’re blushing,” Yawen whispered. “It’s adorable.”

  “I am not adorable,” Alice whispered back. The door was about to close when she saw Naja Jessen and Walter Knud with Callum Newell in tow. Jessen and Knud were dressed for a party. Her metallic silver dress had wavy, nearly transparent lines running down its length that shifted and swirled, not revealing anything scandalous, but teasing just the same. Knud was in tight trousers that were animated in the same way, only his well-muscled chest and arms were bare.

  Callum was dressed casually, in an older jacket with a few metal plates built in and regular vacsuit material shirt and trousers. He walked behind Knud especially, looking impressed at the man’s muscular back, smiling past him to Alice and Yawen.

  “You should have been more specific about what we were getting together for,” Callum said.

  “We are going dancing after dinner, I hope that’ll all right,” Jessen explained as they drew nearer.

  “They are not letting anyone visit the children we rescued yet,” Knut added.

  “Something to take his mind off it,” Jessen said. “Unless there were plans after dinner?”

  “Nothing specific, thanks for coming,” Alice said.

  Callum gave Alice a brief hug, then accepted a more enthusiastic embrace from Yawen. “I can’t believe you’re signing up with us,” she said. “I would have suggested you myself but you weren’t in the recruiting pool.”

  “I’m too good for the recruiting pool,” he said with a wink. “So, what’s the event?”

  “Just getting the squad together, a ‘getting to know you’ thing,” Alice said, leading the way inside. No one wasted time in making themselves comfortable.

  “Your fish tank is populated, mine’s still just water,” Jessen said. “Your second room finished?”

  “I don’t have one,” Alice said.

  “I sleep on the sofa,” Knud said. “My bedroom is still a shell with windows. The furniture and fixtures are being put in on Saturday.”

  “You two live together?” Regan asked from the kitchen doorway.

  “We’ve been inseparable since we got here, before too, but there was less of a choice then,” Jessen said.

  Alice listened in as she went to the kitchen to start making drinks. Regan was already at the dispenser, taking the first from the two cup receiver. It was a tangy grapefruit based concoction that came in a tall cup with a straw, and he passed it to Yawen. “What’ll it be?” he asked Alice. “I’ll play bartender.”

  Alice hesitated for a minute, she had tried a few things, but most of the options he was scrolling through on screen were new to her. “I’ll decide later, get everyone else something first.”

  Regan went on questioning Jessen and Knud in his light hearted way. “How’d you get past the no fraternization thing?”

  “We’re platonic,” Jessen said. “I’ve never met anyone I like more, but I don’t have even a little attraction to him.”

  “It’s the same way with me. I kissed her once and it made me wonder if she was the sister my parents never told me about,” Knud explained. “Unexciting.”

  “Thanks,” Jessen said.

  “Very exciting for someone else, probably,” Knud said apologetically. “I’ve never had a better friend.”

  “What about you, newcomer?” Jessen said.

  “What?” Callum Newell asked.

  “You break any hearts in the fleet yet?” Yawen asked.

  “I’ve been too busy training and living on the beach. As soon as I signed up, things started moving so fast, I haven’t had time to do much more than throw a wink in a few directions and admire how these uniforms fit on some of my fellow cadets.”

  “That’s a red light, there, soldier,” Yawen said.

  Most of the squad had a chuckle at the quip, but Alice was relieved when Theodore quietly asked; “What’s a red light?” from the kitchen.

  “It’s a really old phrase they used to use in the military when someone wanted to warn a fellow serviceman, or woman, that they were getting close to a harassment warning, or flirting while on duty, or more.”

  Theodore emerged from the kitchen with two circular trays loaded with a layer of sushi and sashimi. “A freshwater medley,” he said, nodding at the tray on his right, “and a vegetarian medley,” he said, looking at the other tray. “I’ve prepared many of the Lieutenant’s favourites, according to the history she developed by ordering from Mama Buu’s. If you would rather have something else, tell me, and I’ll see if I can find the ingredients.”

  “I didn’t know tonight was catered,” Yawen said, amazed.

  “This is Theodore,” Alice said as she stepped into the kitchen and picked up a tray of sauces and dipping dishes. “I met him on assignment and he’s become a really good friend. I’m hoping he’ll become my roommate for a while.”

  “Speaking of fraternization,” Yawen chuckled.

  “While that would be possible,” Theodore said as he set the trays down on the table in the middle of the two half circle sofas around it. “I’m not ready for a romantic relationship.”

  Alice could feel herself changing colour. “We have blushing,” Yawen said.

  “Blushing is confirmed,” added Regan.

  “A sure sign that I’m in the right place,” Callum said. “Are you sure you’re not of Irish descent?”

  “I’ve never tracked my genetics back to their origins,” Alice said. “Sort of still getting used to the new me.” Alice put the tray of condiments and little dipping dishes down and took a seat at the end of the sofa.

  “The new you?” Callum asked.

  Alice was chewing on her first cucumber roll when she realized how quiet the room had gotten. All eyes were on her, and she realized that, not only was Callum not the only one who was waiting for an answer, but it seemed much more important to them than she expected. She held up her index finger and finished chewing. “I was a framework before, it’s complicated. I thought most people knew.”

  “The bare facts; that you were downloaded into a framework and that you were cured,” Yawen said using a voice that was much gentler than normal.

  “I didn’t know that,” Callum said.

  “Nor I,” Knud added. “Someone said you were an artificial intelligence once, and I did not believe them.”

  “I was,” Alice said, looking to Yawen. “You haven’t been holding questions in all this time, have you?”

  “I have, and I would have held them in even longer. I don’t know what’s sensitive and what isn’t, I’ve never met anyone like you before,” she replied.

  The only sound was the drink mixer in the kitchen, filling
cups at Regan’s command, and handing them to Theodore. It was disappointing to be the centre of attention because of her past. The thought that she was what most of the people in her squad had the most questions about had never occurred to her, and she already wished it wasn’t true.

  The command instruction in Apex training told her what her options were. She could remain mysterious and try to lead firmly, by example, or she could be more open and allow her squad to get to know her. There were other options, but those were the two command styles Alice could see herself falling into. Leading quietly, staying separate from her people could be easier, it was her command style only hours ago. Her reaction to that was to invite everyone over for an impromptu dinner gathering, and that told her that she actually wanted to know her people, to close much of the distance between her and them. “Okay, I’ll answer any questions, but let me tell you the absolute basics first,” Alice said.

  Everyone leaned in, even Callum, who had made an effort to relax and look cool until then. “Oh, there is mercy in the galaxy,” Yawen muttered as she sat beside Alice.

  “Dig in though, leftover sushi just doesn’t taste the same,” Alice said.

  “I’ve never tried it,” Knud said.

  “That’s tuna,” Jessen said, pointing at a section of rolls. “You’ll like it.”

  “So,” Alice started. “I was an artificial intelligence that lived on Jonas Valent’s wrist. The base program was made by Freeground, but he modified it to the point where it was borderline illegal.”

  “Jonas Valent? The Captain of the First Light?” asked Regan.

  “That one,” Alice said. “When he was captured by Vindyne, he let me loose in their system to do some damage and get him and his crew free. Minh-Chu was there, so was Admiral McPatrick, but I call him Oz. I was able to get them free, but Vindyne was experimenting on people there, trying to reprogram criminals and citizens using computer code. I don’t remember this, but, I guess I got curious, and used their hardware to download myself into a woman who was convicted of several murders. I didn’t know most of the details of her crimes for years. Jonas didn’t know that I’d made the transition, so he left me behind, but a couple of escaping prisoners saw me. I remember one was named Bernice, and they saved me from Vindyne. There’s a lot of history there, years, but let’s save that for another time.”