“While we are limited to the data reduction abilities of the shuttles, it will be sufficient to place us within ten light minutes. We will then reorient and return in the general direction of the Federation.”
The captain paused. “You all know the situation; I'm not going to try to minimize it. While we learned some things from Pixie before we shut her down, we didn't learn everything. It is the consensus opinion that approaching Adobe with Pixie disabled could well result in Master's Game -- or some other wired warship -- attempting to destroy us.”
“So, we've decided on a fueling station about three light years from Adobe. When we left, they did not have any assigned vessels, except a corvette to evacuate the station in the event of an attack. At the time, the corvette wasn't wired and neither was the refueling station.
“It has been, however, two years.
“The Federation had had plans to take the battle back to the aliens. I wish we could have returned with more data, but we haven't. We're sure of the data in our latest egress; we can only hope that the data prior to our last cut is accurate, but it's going to have to have a big caveat after it.
“There is simply no way to tell how senior command is going to respond to our report. Beyond doubt, we're going to face a Special Board. Most of you did your duty superbly; I can't imagine anyone challenging that. Others of us have had to make decisions that will be more problematical. Myself, I believe that I've done as best as I could have done and I'm not going to worry about... not too much, except in the dark bowers of the night when all of us have doubts.”
Tin Tin Roeser rose. “I am who I am. I value friends and spit on my enemies. There is no one on this crew who hasn't done their best under the most extreme conditions.” He nodded in Cindy's direction.
“Cindy, I know you think this is all your fault, that you could have done something different! Woman! You did what you did! You realized something the rest of us should have known and should have risen to the occasion.
“I've felt what Pixie could do to me!” He waved at the captain, “Others I know felt it! You broke free! Because of that, while we can't return home with a broom at the masthead, we are returning home with valuable intelligence -- intelligence that would have been denied if you had been less of a person.
“You have, Lieutenant, done the rest of us proud!”
“As a puppet!” Cindy said, sounding hopeless.
“And I was what? As Captain Hall was? As others were?” he laughed. “Yeah, right!”
Captain Hall was more direct. “In two days we'll be able to come off High Fan with none of the enemy close enough to intercept. We will, at that point, reorient in the general direction of Adobe. It is my intention to come into the fuel station at Sub Three. I want comments, I want suggestions, I want the best plan we can have to safely approach the fueling station.”
The discussions continued until late into the ship's “night.”
Later, Cindy looked at Tam. “Do you think I did all I could have?”
Tam laughed. “Cindy, I was there. I was a sucker like everyone else, happy to get my little dollop of 'truth.' In my wildest dreams I'd have noticed and said something -- but I never did and if I had to do it over again, I still wouldn't. We all knew that it would have been still born.”
“You weren't responsible,” Cindy told her.
“Oh! Like that matters! Cindy, I'm alive. If you hadn't spoken up, I'm pretty sure Pixie would have killed us. It was constrained -- it couldn't come off High Fan without our knowing. The maneuvers we made in the last few weeks had made it almost impossible for us to escape. You and Chief Shinzu kept records of what the plot looked like when we finally got control back. You used the time we were off fan to reorient the ship to a far better course, even if you didn't know where we were.
“The Chief and Alis have hooked us into the fire control computers of the weapons modules, which are even more capable than the shuttle's computers. We're in good shape to figure out where we are and head home.”
“They going to shoot me this time,” Cindy said despondently.
“No they're not. They'd have to shoot Admiral Gull, Captain Drake and probably a good many other ship captains. This is going to be a serious hit to the Federation's combat capabilities for who knows how long. They are going to have to look at the computers of all of the wired ships and bases to figure out if any of them are as aware as Pixie was. They are bound to find some; if nothing else, Master's Game.
“People have said it for as long as I can remember,” Tam continued. “That computers go along just fine, but eventually they back themselves into a corner. There has never been a better example of that than Pixie. The combination of trying to help you -- and trying to cover it up led it into a situation so complex it couldn't handle it. There were too many conflicting goals, and the values must have been changing from second to second. No wonder it got confused.”
She met Cindy's eyes. “They are going to have too much on their plate to shoot you.”
“I don't know -- I have a feeling that they'll find time for it. And the captain and Tin Tin...”
“Cindy, you can't dwell on it. It isn't all that likely. Wait until you know you have something to worry about.”
*** ** ***
Two days later they dropped from High Fan and started charting the heavens. They reoriented the ship and went back to High Fan.
Captain Hall was apologetic. “This could be worse. Our new vector is going to take us fairly close to where we estimate the lead ships of the pursuit will be. They will be able to reorient and start chasing us again. In a few days we'll be out of range of the bulk of those still following our original course, but by then, we'll have a new tail of ships, and it may well be that they will be able to reorient the vast majority of the ships following us on our new course.
“I elected then, to head in the general direction of Federation, not towards Adobe. In a month or so, I'm hoping the sensors will be clear again, and we can head towards a specific base.
“I don't want to downplay the risk. It's been a long time; most large stations are going to have wired communications. There is no easy way that I can think of to safely approach such a base. They will know which ship we are. If we bring up the latch frame close to a computer it will be able to read our minds and either attempt to control us or order others to attack.
“Without Chief Shore I'm reluctant to try to remove the implants.”
“Could we build a local scrambler for latch-frame?” Chief Irgun asked.
Lieutenant McVae spoke first. “Maybe, but quantum communication is a strange duck at the best of times. It was designed to be pretty rugged and still get a message through. The one thing we can do, however, is stay far enough away from latch-frame buoys and transmit with a low bandwidth. The bandwidth required for what Pixie could do was huge. Cutting the bandwidth down to just voice and video -- that would prevent another direct attack on our minds. We would need to come up with a reason why we weren't closing and why the bandwidth is so low.”
“I think we can safely say we've had a major malf of our systems,” the captain said acidly.
“If that was the case, we'd be rushing to close, not taking our time,” Cindy said. “They might rush a rescue ship to us, one that's wired and with latch-frame that could overwhelm ours.”
Gunny Hodges spoke for the first time in a while. He'd done better than most handling the rapid transitions, but his recovery was slower. “Captain, I realize you want to keep the false reporting to a minimum. The fact is, no matter where we go, we're going to be hard put to survive if there are other computers like Pixie. That's one possibility. Another is that the Federation is already aware of the problem and has dealt with it.
“I think our best bet is to visit a place like that fueling station, and stand off and simply ask questions, without offering any explanations. If the station has been wired and if things haven't changed -- I say we return to Earth. I have an idea about that.”
“What so
rt of an idea, Gunny?” Captain Hall asked.
The gunny nodded at Cindy. “Lieutenant Rhodes lived next door to Admiral Nagoya. I'm tolerably sure that no matter how convenient being wired would be no senior member of the Federation or the Fleet is going to let anyone read his or her mind. If nothing else that would be a huge security breech. Huge. And, meaning no disparagement of senior officers, but some can be -- reluctant -- to adapt to new technology.”
Captain Hall stood thinking for a moment. “Earth is a long, long time away from here. Another half year. And we're not even sure if there is a real threat. I'm not sure I want to face anyone with our mission report -- much less Admiral Nagoya.”
“The refueling station would help us define parameters,” Tin Tin offered.
“I have to admit,” the captain said in a very soft voice, “I would rather have a thousand alien ships and missiles chasing me than the prospect of one Special Board.”
Tin Tin reached out and touched her shoulder. “No one does. I thought I was a deader, the first time. Twice? That has to be pushing my luck.
“That being said, my duty is the reason I'm here. If I didn't think this task was critical to the rest of humanity I'd have taken up knitting. I can't let the fact that I'm terrified interfere with that duty. I can't let the fact that I'd rather do anything than go home and report what we have to report. But we have to. We absolutely, positively must.”
Tam Farmer spoke up. “Captain, I came out here to kill aliens. So far, all we've done is run. Oh, yes, once we tossed a missile out the door, but we have no idea what, if anything, it did. And we all know that we actually have no idea where we were when we did that. There is no way to tell where Pixie started spoofing the sensors.
“I have no more desire to return home and report failure than anyone here. But Tin Tin is right. This is too big. We have to stop at the fueling station and check. Even if we're not sure we are going to have to go home. Even if we face execution, this is simply too important. I hadn't thought about going home; I've been racking my brain trying to think of something we can do that is certain of success. Not even that is certain -- but if our worst fears are true, if we ever get in latch-frame range of a wired computer like Pixie, we're dead.”
Captain Hall turned to Cindy. “XO?”
“I don't know how you can trust me!”
“If we can't trust you,” the captain said patiently, “Who could we trust? Your thoughts, please.”
“Pixie was feeding me things. One of the things it fed me was the idea of a series of latch-frame buoys back to Earth from Adobe. Admiral Gull admitted that they were expecting the link to be completed in few months. If Pixie could put thoughts into my head, another of her kind could have put thoughts into someone else's head. If that link has been established, the computers at Adobe are linked to those at Earth. And while no one said anything about other links, there has to be others.”
Tin Tin rubbed his brow. “This gets worse and worse.”
“It's all speculation,” someone said. Tam didn't see who spoke.
Captain Hall laughed. “Of course. Except we came face to face with Pixie. Granted, I got the distinct impression that Pixie was maybe five or six years old max, but still -- it reacted in a way that could have killed us all. Master's Game has to be compromised as well. Where did Pixie come from? It was an idea of Captain Drake's, but implemented on Earth. There is no telling how far that network extends now, and if they have latch-frame connections, it's going to be devilishly hard to defeat.”
She slapped her hand down on a console. “We can't leave the Federation at that kind of risk. We just can't. No matter what the personal risk. We go to Sub 3, carefully. If things are okay, then we'll face the music. If not, we'll return to Earth.” She smiled wanly. “This is, by the way, your captain speaking.”
Everyone laughed.
*** ** ***
Tam Farmer sat down next to Cindy. “Two hours until we drop from High Fan at Sub 3.”
Cindy nodded, finished her current task and turned to Tam. “I've never been this scared in my life. On Rome I sat through the Big Battle -- and I should have been scared. I heard them say our sister ship, the Athens, had been destroyed... but it never really got to me. I heard them report Dragon destroyed, and then the wonder and amazement when it came out of the fireball. I didn't really understand, not really.” She waved at the wall screens. “Now I understand.”
“You'll do okay,” Tam told her.
“I suspect so,” Cindy agreed. “I've rehearsed my part a thousand times in the last six months. I can do it with my eyes closed and standing on my head.”
“It's not like the rest of us aren't terrified,” Tam told her.
Cindy smiled thinly. “But you all aren't me. I worry for myself and that makes me think I'm weak.”
“We all worry about ourselves,” Tam replied. “It's only human. And we are human -- but we have other imperatives beyond ourselves and can rise above the selfish impulses. You'll do okay,” she repeated.
“Well, you need to get to your battle station, Weapons Officer Farmer.”
“Aye, aye, XO!”
*** ** ***
They came off High Fan on something approximating the right tick.
They sent off a low bandwidth latch-frame signal and waited the five hours that it would take for it to arrive. Nothing happened until the last few seconds. The fueling station's challenge arrived, asking them to identify themselves, just as the latch-frame link started to work.
Captain Hall, still a lieutenant, face an irate captain. “Do you realize that you've scared the pee out of us? What ship are you?”
“The Daniel Shore,” Captain Hall told him.
“Captain Hall, I don't find that name in our ship registry. You have no IFF, I'm at a loss here.”
“Captain, I know I'm really a lieutenant and you're actually a Fleet captain. Still, sir, I have some important questions. Is your station wired? Do you know what I mean?”
“I know what you mean; it's general knowledge these days, but no, we're not. The technology is reserved for the larger bases and ships. I understand it eats CPU cycles and bandwidth for breakfast.”
“Are there any wired vessels at your station?”
“We have a corvette assigned to us and it is not wired. It left for Adobe yesterday with an emergency medical patient and won't be back for days. Captain, what is this about?”
“Captain, again I don't like telling you what to do. Undoubtedly you have others listening in on this conversation. Please make sure that they understand that this message is of utmost importance to the Federation, and even mentioning it to anyone, anyone at all, will see them shot. Then, sir, please send them away.”
“What ship are you?” the captain repeated.
“We left with the name Pixie, Captain. Now we're back with another name. You really need to hear this, sir.”
“Well, I was told that if Pixie appeared I was to render all assistance. That order leaves me little choice -- although you are pressing your luck.”
“Captain, there's not a member of this crew who isn't facing a Special Board. The question I have for you: do you want to join us?”
“Wait one.”
In a moment he was back. “Okay, I've kicked them all out. What is this?”
“Captain, do you understand what wired individuals are exposed to?”
“A large computer monitors them... their every thought. I was told it was like a huge switchboard in the virtual sky -- you can talk to anyone available on latch-frame who has either an implant or a phone.”
“Captain, contemplate this. The computer can listen to your thoughts. If it needs to, it can talk to you.”
“That's my understanding.”
“Normally, the computer uses a 'special' voice to make it clear who you're talking to.”
“So I understand.”
“Captain, the computer can put thoughts into your head. It doesn't have to use a special voice... it can use yours. We a
ll talk to ourselves, sir. Hearing our own voice whisper this and that to us... what's strange about that?”
“That's... that's... abominable.”
“To be blunt, Captain, our computer made a pet out of one of my officers. It ran her like a puppet.”
The captain paled. “That is... incredible.”
“She didn't notice... not until the computer made her tell an egregious lie. When she thought about the lie, the computer responded by an alien ship detection, and we all turned to that. It took two more weeks before she realized what had happened and reacted. Captain, the computer tried to have me kill another member of my crew who was trying to disable local latch-frame.”
The other whistled. “Good grief!”
Captain Hall continued with the story until finally she finished. “So, sir, now we are here. We plan on going elsewhere. We'd hoped that the Federation would have discovered this on its own. We were ready to take our lumps for messing up in that case. Now, however, we have other things we need to do.”
“You need to refuel, right?”
“Yes, sir. There is another thing, sir. We had to do a number of very rapid fan transitions in order to escape the aliens. The computer had been spoofing the sensors. When we finally realized what was going on, it killed the ships systems. We were left with the computers on two shuttles. The shuttle comps didn't want to travel for more than two minutes on High Fan. It took a half hour to fix.”
“Fourteen pairs of transitions?” the captain said, stunned.
“Yes, sir. I lost three members of my crew, including our med tech. As well as fuel I'd like to see a med tech who can take these damn implants out of our heads.”
“And what besides that, do you want me to do?”
“Prepare a coded report for Admiral Nagoya. Send it to him via officer courier. An officer not wired.”
“Adobe?”
“Sir, we think the problems started with Colinda Drake's ship, Master's Game.”
The Fleet captain laughed. “Oh, I am so going to get shot for this! No matter what I do, I'm screwed.”
Well-Traveled Rhodes (Kinsella Universe Book 6) Page 32