Lerille looked puzzled for a moment, going back over the incident. Then he looked back and said, "No, we were en route to Sojuz, going steadily on hyper drive, when suddenly all the alarms went off. We fell out of hyper drive and got the warning about a failing reactor. That's when we made a run for the escape pods."
His first officer obviously had something to add and raised his hand, "Mon Capitain, I remember that our ship started accelerating after we had left. Oui?"
"Yes, I almost forgot about that. After we'd made it into the pods, the La Fleur suddenly fired up its engines. So much so that we had to cover our eyes and drop out in the pods immediately. We didn't think much about it at the time. We thought this might be a part of the standard safety procedure. Maybe to get the rogue reactor as far away from us as possible."
It did seem uncanny after the experiences of the day.
McCall explained, "Sorry Comrade, but Julien and I have done this drill, how many times when we were in the forces. The ship never accelerates away, the rescue pods do. They're the ones on a race to safety when you abandon ship."
"Right, we've had enough drills for that on the La Fleur, but never the real deal. Anyway, that's what happened. We were just glad to make it back here on the lifeboats – and then we were plus one."
"Plus one. Right, we can't forget that. And by the way, the La Fleur was drifting when we found her, not at full flank, she was drifting under light speed when we made contact with her. We should be taking notes of these idiosyncrasies." McCall had risen to speak and looked at everybody inside the sealed flight deck. The people in there were people he trusted. He knew Captain Lerille, his first officer Rosen, Lily and he'd of course known St. John for ages. So did Beaumont. He looked over at his partner.
"You sure the bitch can't hear us?"
Julien Beaumont made a brief gesture with his right hand signaling not to worry and answered, "She's offline. So are all the mics and other audio-visual systems. I switched all the breakers off just to be sure."
"Good ol' breakers! I love them!" McCall knew he could rely on Beaumont.
Ever since the incident during their war campaign he'd been mistrusting of any kind of AI. Even when it was in a toy or a seemingly innocent household appliance. The occurrences during the last few weeks had triggered this old fear again.
"Do you think you could fix the La Fleur too?" Captain Lerille asked.
"Of course. But we need to get up there and do it on site." Beaumont pointed upwards. Then he looked at McCall. "It'll take a few more hours here until the mainframe of the Buster K is fully cleaned and rebooted."
"And the Tin Lizzy, was it infected too?" McCall asked. The Tin Lizzy was the Buster K's dinghy, which was actually more like a lifeboat.
"Nope, she was offline and has been offline since we left Earth. Or let's say half way through our journey to Sojuz."
McCall nodded slowly and looked at the others. "Any ideas?" He asked.
"I can take you all up there on my Lady Rose." Lily suggested.
"Sure, but how can we be sure that it wasn't infected while you guys were knocked out?" McCall countered.
"I see the problem Mackie." Lily said.
"Alright, we can fit six people in the Tin Lizzy." McCall looked at Beaumont, with an inquiring look on his face.
"I'll stay here," Beaumont answered, "I want the Buster K fully functional. And I want to keep an eye on it until it's ours again."
"Right," McCall said, "Then I suggest that Captain Lerille, First Officer Rosen, and Captain Spector join me." He looked at St. John, "Will you make sure that no other ship leaves the colony until we're back?"
"Aye! Nae problem. And Lily and I are the only ones who have the keys and the codes for our shuttles. Nobody else."
"Good." McCall looked at Beaumont, "Can we get the Tin Lizzy out without the mainframe?"
"Yep, you just go down to the cargo hold, release her from the straps, and then pump the hydraulics for the main airlock 50 times."
"Hey, 50 times? But the cargo ramp is working. Are you shittin' me, buddy?"
Beaumont started laughing and said, "Sorry, but it's the truth. You have to override the deactivated system and do it the old fashioned way. But the electric winch is operating, and so is the main ramp. So you don't have to shove her down the ramp."
"Great, okay gang, let's go to work." McCall turned around to leave the flight deck.
"Ah, one moment, s'il vous plaît?"
McCall turned around again, and saw Julien waving a little communicator he held in his hand. "You'll be needing this. The active program on that will clean the La Fleur's mainframe."
"Oh, right. The mainframe. Almost forgot." McCall grinned and took the communicator.
"You just have to set up contact with the ship's system, like we did earlier, and then press this button." Beaumont pointed to an executable icon on the touch screen. "But do me a favor and leave the Tin Lizzy's systems on manual!"
"You can bet your ass on that one! S'cuse my french!" McCall answered as he took the device and put it in his pocket.
"That wasn't french." Beaumont protested. "Good luck!"
McCall nodded with a bitter grin and waved for the others to follow.
St. John looked after them and pulled his bottle out. He took a big swig and offered the bottle to Beaumont.
"Why not!" He sighed and lifted the bottle to his lips.
"Mon dieu!" Captain Lerille exclaimed and First Officer Rosen's jaw dropped as they saw the Tin Lizzy for the first time. They had expected a working shuttle more on the small side. But what they saw looked more like a modern flight version of a Lamborghini. A bit over-sized and with wings and a tail fin.
"Just a small project we've been working on in our free time." McCall said and grinned.
"Yep, she's hot, like me! " Lily giggled.
"Let's get her on the tarmac." McCall went through the details of what each of them had to do. Then he started pumping the manual hydraulic switch to lower the ramp. He felt the strain in his muscles, but the ramp moved satisfactorily downward with each pump. Finally the ramp touched the surface and he jumped into the pilots seat. But when he started the flight computer, the familiar robot voice filled the cockpit.
"INITIATING LANDING PATTERN. INITIATING LANDING PATTERN."
McCall cursed, flipped all the breakers he could reach and grabbed his communicator.
"Julien! The Tin Lizzy's infected too!"
The response came back through the communicator right away: "Coming!"
A few seconds later Beaumont came dashing down to the loading bay, cursing.
"I thought it was offline, or at least disconnected from the mainframe, Mon Dieu!"
McCall pointed to one of the cables hooked up to the hull, „Have a look at that. I think the power was still hooked up. Look at the power cable. It's maintaining the batteries."
"Merde! I underestimated this little peace of digital junk. I'll take care of it."
"How long?" McCall looked annoyed.
But Beaumont just waved his free hand, "A few minutes at most. The systems were all shutdown, it's just the power. The bug is in the power controls. Give me some space, please."
McCall got out of the Tin Lizzy and approached the others. He shrugged and said, "I hope he's right. Let's see what he can do."
Lily offered, "What about my shuttles? We could use them."
McCall shook his head and said, "I don't think so. Can you tell me what was happening to them while the colony was unconscious?"
Lily looked at the Tin Lizzy and then back at McCall, but couldn't respond. She just nodded.
"Ok, I'm getting about as scared as Miss Spector looks right now." Captain Lerille said in a low voice, "Sacre Bleu, what about our ship? It is our life!"
"Ok everybody, just calm down." McCall said, "If Julien can fix the Buster K, he can fix your ship as well. He's a crack at this, believe me."
"C'est tu qui le dis!" Lerille mumbled and gave his first officer a worried look.
>
Rosen just shrugged. He understood his captain and tried to look more confident for his benefit. Then he said to Lerille, "Mon Capitain, trust him, please. It's the only chance we have out here."
"JACKPOT!" Beaumont yelled making all of them jump. "I got it. It hadn't reached the mainframe yet. The damn voice control was at it again!" He hit the breaker. "Ok, give me five minutes. I'm on it."
McCall looked over at Lerille and gestured toward the Tin Lizzy, as if to say "Am I right, or am I right?"
Lerille just waved his hand and said, "Merde!" But he had to admit there was light on the horizon.
A few minutes later Beaumont jumped out of the seat and looked at McCall, "She's all yours!"
"Really? You mean it's safe now?" McCall asked.
"Oui, mon ami. Have fun with her." Beaumont was grinning arrogantly.
"Okay, all aboard." McCall called to the others, to come in and take their seats.
He looked over at Beaumont again. "I know you're right, but be careful with the Buster K. I smell something around here."
Beaumont nodded. "I know what you mean, but don't worry. My senses are on high alert." They touched fists instead of shaking hands in a gesture of fighting spirit as Beaumont nodded to the device that was still in McCall's other hand. "Be careful with that thing."
"Oh, I will", McCall answered and then turned around to get into the pilots seat of the Tin Lizzy. He saluted briefly to Beaumont who returned the gesture.
Then, McCall glided the Tin Lizzy down the ramp, took it on a turn away from its mother ship and then brought it into a hovering position. At first he was hovering at only about fifteen feet. Then McCall triggered the boosters and shot it up into the sky like a bullet out of a rifle.
Beaumont looked down at the ramp. He rolled his eyes when thinking about pumping the hydraulics again to close the main airlock. The cleaning process wasn't finished yet on the Buster K.
"Need some help, Laddie?" St. John had come up so quietly behind him it startled him.
"Be my guest." Beaumont pointed at the pump handle. They spent the next few minutes together in silence pumping.
Up above the Sirius Colony, the Tin Lizzy was on its way up to a rendezvous with the La Fleur. McCall activated the scanners to search the area for the La Fleur, while Captain Lerille and Flight Officer Rosen checked their portable computing devices.
"Lily, can you please check the visuals? I'm flying completely on manual." McCall asked.
"Yup." She flipped a few switches and activated the screens in front of her. "Nothing so far, I only see a few of our own satellites."
Lerille said, "You probably can't see it yet. But I have the transponder on my system here. Ah, it's just coming over the horizon. Captain McCall?"
"Yes Captain?"
"I'll send you the position."
"Ok, but you are sure your lil' thingies are not corrupted?"
“Oui mon ami, they are. We are not stupid.”
Then McCall pushed some buttons on his console and opened the Tin Lizzy's navigation system for the coordinates.
"There it is", he said, "we're almost right in front of her. I'm going on a rendezvous course."
"Confirmed", Lily said, "got her on visual."
They could see the big ship on all the screens now as the La Fleur entered the daylight zone over Sirius. The ship looked peaceful, in one piece, and following along its programmed orbit. The Tin Lizzy decelerated to let the La Fleur catch up. After a few minutes the La Fleur was hulking over the Tin Lizzy. Lerille and Rosen, craned their necks out of the windows to check the outside hull of their ship.
"What now, I mean how do we get in? Any suggestions?" McCall asked the group.
"Well, if the system is corrupted, but there's no reactor leak. It would appear as if the ship is in perfect shape," Lerille looked at Rosen, who nodded and said, "Don't go into the docking bay."
Lerille looked over at McCall and asked, "Does your fancy shuttle have an air lock?"
"Of course, it's located just between or, let's say, over your heads." McCall pointed up and behind him. Lerille and Rosen looked in the direction his finger was pointing and saw the bulkhead.
"It's just one at a time, but the docking mechanism should fit into any state of the art system." McCall explained.
"Sounds good." Lerille was still looking at the bulkhead.
Lerille handed his tablet to McCall. A more detailed visual of the La Fleur was on the screen, showing all its bulkheads and airlocks. One bulkhead right next to the bridge of the La Fleur was marked red. „That one is manually controlled, no network connection. You'll just need a code that I will give you. We should use that one. Henry?" He looked at Rosen.
Rosen was looking over their shoulders at the tablet and said, "Oui, but if this one doesn't work, there are three others like it."
"You've come well prepared, I see, I like that. I guess you two don't trust robots either," McCall grinned.
Lerille and Rosen shrugged and grinned somewhat sheepishly.
Lily asked, "Who's going in?"
McCall and Lerille looked at each other and then McCall said, "Rosen and me. You and Captain Lerille stay put until the system update is in progress. D'accord?"
"Oui!“ Captain Lerille responded. „Henry knows as much as I do about the La Fleur. Right, Henry?"
Rosen had no complaints, just nodded and looked at McCall and said "Ok, let's go."
"Pooh!" Lily sighed as McCall patted her head like a kitten.
"Poor baby. But seriously, I need a good pilot here in case something goes wrong. And you're the only one here, other than me, who's flown this ship before."
Lily grinned, "Yeah, always practical. I'm good!"
"I see you got me, hon."
McCall turned around to Lerille and Rosen, "Ready to roll?"
They gave him a thumbs up and McCall turned back to the controls to steer the Tin Lizzy to the right position for docking next to the La Fleur. Inch by inch he got the Tin Lizzy closer, until a green light on the console showed the right angle and position. Then he activated the docking mechanism. A thud notified them that they had made contact.
"Docking confirmed, activate airlock." Lily said.
McCall nodded and pushed another button. A small hatch in the rear ceiling glided in to the fuselage revealing an opening. They could see the bulkhead of the La Fleur now. Through the fog in the enclosed space between the two ships the keypad on the outside of the bulkhead of the La Fleur was visible. Captain Lerille got up from his seat and put a glove on before tapping the code into the keypad.
HA-HA-HA-LECHE-MOI, he typed. A humming sound, and loud laughs filled the room as the bulkhead opened inwards.
"Man, that's so french!" McCall chuckled.
"You know, most of the A.I. can't deal with humor and dirty words." Lerille grinned.
McCall agreed and remembered how the Buster K's system had reacted to the name "Bitch".
"Let's get a move on." Rosen said and started climbing up into the La Fleur.
McCall followed quickly behind him and looked back down. "It'll take about 20 minutes to sanitize the systems enough to get back manual control. If we start moving down into the atmosphere or something, then we'll have to evacuate, fast. Keep the audio-link online."
"Just rescue our ship and come back, mon ami!" Lerille said anxiously watching them disappear through the opening.
Rosen called back down, "Bien sûr!"
As soon as McCall arrived inside the La Fleur he turned and looked down at his crew, gave thumbs up, and then closed the hatch on his side.
Lily secured the hatch of the Tin Lizzy and looked over at Lerille. She smiled and said, "Have you ever been to London?"
Lerille, somewhat surprised, tried to smile and ended up sighing.
It was just a short climb for Rosen and McCall until they arrived in one of the service corridors leading to the bridge. Rosen pointed in the direction of the bridge and they both walked down the corridor. Suddenly, several red lights
lit up and a female voice announced, "INTRUSION; ALERT. VIOLATION DE LA SÉCURITÉ."
That was something McCall understood. „Intruders, security violation“.
Rosen was startled, "Merde, I've never heard that before on this corridor. What's going on?"
"Mon ami, it's simple, even with my basic french knowledge. Red lights with a vocal warning. That means RUN!"
They ran toward the bridge as fast as they could. They had just reached the steps leading up to the bridge when they froze. A living nightmare, a being of some sort, stood on the landing above the stairs, hissing at them. It was a huge freaky mockery. Something between a spider and a giant ant, and it was blocking their way to the bridge. It was about 5 feet tall, stood on its lower legs, and held the other 4 legs up and ready for attack. It had 6 eyes and huge mandibles that looked as sharp as razor blades.
"Holy shit!" McCall burst out, " a friend of yours?"
Rosen shook his head in disbelief, "Never seen it before, No!"
"Cargo?" McCall suggested, but Rosen shook his head again.
Both men stood there, stunned, surveying the situation.
"Got your gun with you?" McCall asked.
Rosen nodded slowly, "Always in outer space, always." He gulped and pulled his 45 auto from his belt. McCall followed suit and pulled his 357 Highway Patrolman.
They both cocked the hammers of their guns very slowly, trying not to attract too much attention. The creature flexed the muscles in its 4 extended legs and gave off a hiss, louder and more forceful this time.
McCall noticed something on the side of the creature. The number 88 was tattooed on the side of its body. Then it let out a deafening screech and charged toward the two men.
McCall and Rosen fired without hesitation as the living nightmare tried to jump them, the bullets hitting it in midair. They kept on firing as it flew toward them. Finally it toppled, fell and rolled down the stairs. It was now laying there silently, not moving.
They remained as they were, pointing their weapons in silence. It took awhile until they were able to catch their breath and slowly begin to approach the dead being.
Jinks on Sirius 4 Page 7