by C H Gideon
“Coordinates locked in,” Ria said. “Gate to Kartoni is open.”
“Make it so, Ensign,” Reynolds replied.
Kartoni was a double star with a dozen small planetoids and two huge gas giants. Kartoni Seven orbited at two standard astronomical units, but the two stars put out enough heat to make up for the distance.
“In fact,” Jiya said, peering at her scans, “it’s on the upper end of the habitable heat range. Lots of desert and not much else. Not as ugly as Muultar, and empty of recognizable technology or anything that resembles a sentient species. What’s the plan?”
“We’ll transport to the coordinates, grab some kartonisk, and come home,” Reynolds replied. “No fuss, no muss, no coconuts.”
“Way to jinx it,” Tactical said sourly. “Why are you in such a good mood, anyway?”
“Tactical’s just cranky because the captain has a girlfriend and he doesn’t,” Ria said.
Complete silence fell on the bridge. Ria turned slowly, eyes wide, face flushed, to look at Reynolds. “I—”
Reynolds laughed. “You’re right that my good mood is connected to Athena, but not for the reason you suggest. An AI ship for a girlfriend has possibilities, though, now that you mention it. But let’s stick to the task at hand, shall we?”
Everyone nodded, and Ria’s face slowly returned to its natural color.
“Asya, Jiya, you’re with me,” Reynolds said, striding across the bridge. “Maddox, you have the conn. Comm, send Ka’nak and Takal to the weapons locker. Five to beam down.”
The trip to Kartoni Seven went as smooth as silk. “So much for Tactical’s jinx,” Jiya said as they rematerialized inside the Reynolds. She set down the bag of rocks. “Where do you want this stuff?”
“I’ll have a couple of maintenance bots take it to the lab,” Takal said.
Reynolds handed his bag to Ka’nak. “Give him a hand with that, will you?”
“Picking up rocks is not what I call an exciting mission,” the Melowi warrior grumbled. “It wasn’t even hard to find the right ones. We could have sent a vacuum cleaner.”
“I miss all the fun missions,” Asya said, dusting her hands together. “This one was just dirty. I need a shower.”
“You can get a shower when we get back to Serifity,” Reynolds said, leading the way back to the bridge. “Next time, I’m going to transport directly to the bridge so I can skip all the post-mission griping.”
“Take planet dirt straight to the bridge?” Asya asked.
“Maybe not. We need a neutral place to decon before going back into the ship. Don’t want an alien bug getting inside our perimeter.” The captain looked from face to face. The People were revising their procedures to prevent outside contamination. Reynolds made a note to meet with his team and talk about it. It wasn’t a risk a superdreadnought was used to addressing.
Reynolds led the way to the bridge, where they took their places. XO walked them through the familiar pre-jump sequence. The Gate opened smoothly, and they sailed through the wormhole to Palentin. After a few minutes to lay in new coordinates, Ria opened the Gate again, and they arrived in Serifity.
Right in the middle of a firefight. Alarms blared.
“Bogies!” Maddox called. “Weapons are attempting to lock on!”
“Lasers are hot, railguns coming online,” Tactical said.
“Initiating evasive maneuvers.” Ria said.
“Who’s attacking?” Reynolds demanded.
“Looks like Terubine raiders,” Jiya said. “Six ships. They’re firing at Serifity defense and the two ships in orbit. One headed our way, weapons hot.”
“Tactical,” Reynolds said. “Try the authenticator first, then follow that with the lasers.”
“Ka…me…ha…me…haaaa!” Tactical yelled, activating the beam.
“Enemy weapons lock has failed,” Maddox said, looking up in surprise. “Geroux’s authenticator beam seems to work.”
“Hit the rest of them, Tactical,” Reynolds said.
“Done,” Tactical said.
The attacking ships went quiet. Serifity defense swooped on the raiders as they turned to run.
“Can I take them out?” Tactical asked. “Please? My railgun is rusting from lack of use.”
“Tear them from the skies, Tactical,” Reynolds replied.
“Like shooting fish in a barrel!” Tactical cried. “Take that, fucking pirates!” The Reynolds’ lasers burned away the fleeing pirates’ shields, and the railguns spat microparticles at hypervelocity across the void. Just before the projectiles reached their targets, the ships disappeared into a stable wormhole.
“Shit!” Tactical yelled. He trained his lasers on the free-flying missiles before they hit anything important. “We need to hunt those scum, and burn them out of existence,” he growled.
“Damage report,” Reynolds snapped.
“No damage,” Jiya replied. “Not to us, at least. Serifity defense is reporting significant injury to two of their ships and several casualties. And—” she broke off.
“What?” Reynolds demanded.
“Visuals show damage on Athena,” Jiya said, pointing at her display. “Atmosphere venting in several places. Scans show possible fires, but I’m not sure where since our system doesn’t report her internals accurately. No casualties, of course, but—” She broke off again.
“What?” Reynolds growled again.
“Athena isn’t answering hails.”
Chapter Twenty
“Comm, get Takal and Ka’nak. We need transport to Athena,” Reynolds said. “Maddox, Jiya, and Geroux, you’re with me. Full armor; some of her atmosphere vented. There shouldn’t be any enemy combatants, but we don’t know the pirates’ capabilities.”
The team dematerialized from Reynolds, reappearing on the bridge of Athena. Ka’nak and Takal appeared a few seconds later. Ka’nak still held a piece of kartonisk, which he promptly dropped.
“Clear,” Maddox called before pointing at Jiya and Ka’nak. “Let’s check the rest of the ship.” The trio made their way off the bridge, Ka’nak knocking his helmet into the door header as he went.
“Stupid tiny people,” he muttered.
“Athena,” Reynolds said, tapping a console. “Are you here?”
A thin voice issued from the speakers, almost unrecognizable. “Yes, and no,” she said. “I’m tracking the enemy.”
“Tracking them?” Takal asked. “How?”
“It’s hard to explain to a biological,” she said.
“Try us,” Geroux said. She raised an eyebrow at Takal.
“When they were attacking, I sent a signal to their ship and locked on,” she said. “Then I followed that signal to their mainframe. It’s pretty tight in there, but I found a place to hide a bit of myself.”
Reynolds nodded. “That sounds similar to what Gorad and I did when they invaded his programming on Grindlevik 3. But how did you make the first connection? We followed an established link.”
“I can show you,” Athena said. “When I get back.”
“But you’re still here,” Geroux protested. “We’re talking to you. What do you mean?”
“Splitting myself between two locations is not as easy as Reynolds makes it look,” the female AI answered. “And I must maintain the connection, so that’s where I’m focused right now. If I lose the connection, I’m not sure what would happen to the ship or the part of me that’s in the pirates’ computer. I can support a casual conversation at speeds biologicals can understand, but nothing more.”
“I think I feel insulted,” Geroux whispered.
Takal shook his head. “It makes sense. Ship-to-ship communications take more power and reach than talking to us on her bridge. And faster data transfer like she and Reynolds could probably manage would be out of the question.”
“We’ll assist your bots in physical repairs until you can report back to us,” Reynolds said, patting the console again.
“She’s an AI, not a dog,” Geroux muttered when s
he saw the gesture. “And if you’re trying to make time with her, a caress would be more appropriate than a pat.”
Reynolds ignored her. Maddox, I checked the internal scans. No one boarded. I’m sending you damage reports. See if Athena needs any help with damage control. She’s otherwise occupied.
Roger, Maddox replied. I can have maintenance send some folks over to help. Can Geroux come here? A couple of the bots are behaving oddly. We need an expert, and I think Jeranth coding might exceed our maintenance people’s’ skill sets.
She’s on her way, the captain replied. Reynolds, out.
Repairs were well underway when Athena finally returned to the bridge. “Reynolds?” she said, her voice rich and full again.
“I’m here,” Reynolds said, looking up from the maintenance logs he’d pulled. “You’re back?”
“I am, and I have the coordinates of the pirates’ base.” Satisfaction thrummed through her tone. “They’re operating from a base on the moon orbiting Reichof Five.”
“As we suspected,” Reynolds said. “I knew Titus and his council were hiding something.”
“They’re not happy with that beam you blasted them with.” She chuckled. “What did you do?”
Reynolds explained the authenticator. “Not having an override for that is quite the oversight on their part.”
“There’s one more thing,” Athena said. “They have another base—a place they use for convenience.”
“Where’s that?” Reynolds asked.
Athena dropped her voice to a whisper. “The seventh planet of this system.”
“What? They’re right under our noses?” Reynolds’ voice grew louder.
“There is crew in the corridor,” Athena cautioned. “Let’s keep this between ourselves until we decide how to handle it.”
“Anyone on this ship is my crew, and I trust them implicitly,” Reynolds said reprovingly. “However, I recognize the need for security. I will discuss this information with my trusted core team and speak to you again before making any moves.”
“I wish I had a crew worthy of such trust,” Athena said.
Reynolds gathered his team on the bridge of the Athena. He had decided to hold his discussion there, so Athena could see that biologicals could be trusted and respected. Jiya, Takal, and Geroux sat on the half-sized chairs. Maddox and Ka’nak chose the floor. “I don’t want to break any furniture,” Ka’nak said, visually comparing his broad, two-meter-tall body to the tiny seat.
“It’s like playing tea party,” Maddox agreed.
“We’ve found the pirates,” Reynolds said, gathering their attention. “They have a base in this system.”
“They’re here?” Jiya cried. “How could the pride have missed them all these years?”
“Serifity Seven is a tiny rock in the far fringes of the system,” Athena said. “It has an elliptical orbit of extreme eccentricity.”
Jiya looked blankly at Geroux.
“It’s a long, skinny oval instead of a circle,” Geroux explained. She tapped her computer. “Seven’s orbit is more like a comet’s instead of a planet’s. Its orbital period is fifty-three Serifity years. The planet reached aphelion—the far end of the orbit—about seven years ago. By the way,” she said to Athena, “Serifity is the name of the fourth planet, not the system.”
Jiya blinked. It wasn’t like her friend to condescend to anyone, let alone an artificial intelligence.
Reynolds held up a hand. “For simplicity’s sake, let’s call the whole system Serifity. Our System Seven is too confusing.”
“But surely Serifity Defense would have noticed anyone coming or going, even way out there,” Jiya said. “Are their scans deficient?”
“That’s the question,” Reynolds replied. “Athena and I believe someone in Serifity Defense is helping the raiders. It would have to be someone fairly high in the food chain.”
“Athena and I?” Geroux said privately to Jiya.
Jiya shook her head.
“It could be a computer tech who knows how to write a camouflage string,” Geroux said aloud. All eyes turned to her. She shrugged. “You write code that tells their system to ignore data originating from a specific location. You’d have to set the code to hide and rewrite itself after updates and maintenance, but it’s not hard to do.”
“Maybe not for you,” Maddox said. “If you saw the code, could you tell who installed it?”
“I’d need full access to their system. I can’t see Bonnerel giving me that unless we tell her why,” Geroux said.
“We can’t tell her,” Jiya objected. “She might be the double agent.”
“Why would she do that?” Geroux asked. “She represents the pride, and she practically runs this planet.”
“Power? Blackmail?” Maddox suggested. “Perversity? There are lots of reasons people go to the dark side.”
“I could use some cookies,” Ka’nak grumbled, but perked his ears at the conversation. Subterfuge from trusted agents made his blood boil.
“I can’t get into Serifity Defense without their help,” Geroux said. “Well, I suppose I could hack in if you’re okay with hacking our allies.”
“It’s not ideal,” Reynolds started.
“Hey, what about Athena?” Geroux interrupted. “Could she do that trick she used on the pirates?” She looked at Reynolds. “Did she show you how she did that?”
“We haven’t had time,” Reynolds said. “Would that work?”
Athena hesitated. “If I understand Geroux’s terminology, what I did was essentially ‘hack’ into the pirates’ ship. Their defenses were not robust. I could undoubtedly hack into the Serifity Defense system. How long that would take… Oh, that was easy.”
“You’re in?” Geroux demanded. “Already?”
“Oops, I think I set off an alarm,” Athena said. “I’m out. Clearly, doing it surreptitiously would take more finesse.”
Reynolds, message from Serifity Defense, Comm said.
If it’s not an emergency, tell them I’m busy, Reynolds replied.
They say we hacked into their system, Comm replied, his tone affronted. If I hacked into their system, they would never know I was there!
Reynolds looked at the command seat on the Athena, where he imagined Athena would sit if she had a body. “You bounced your signal through the Reynolds?” he asked. Did you know she did that? he asked Comm.
“Sorry,” Athena said. “Habit. I try to maintain a low profile at all times.”
I did not detect her using us as a relay, Comm replied, slowly. I’m starting a full system review right now. I should have seen that.
“Do we care who’s helping the raiders?” Ka’nak asked. “Let’s go blow them away. Bonnerel can point fingers later. If they’re all dead, who cares?”
“Spoken with a true warrior’s laser-like focus,” Maddox said with a grin. “Let’s kill people and break their stuff.”
When they returned to the Reynolds, Geroux grabbed Jiya and pulled her into sickbay. “Girl stuff,” she told Maddox in reply to his questioning look. His face turned pale, and he hurried away.
“’Girl stuff?’” Jiya scoffed. “Right. What’s going on?”
“Doc, we need your help,” Geroux said to the room.
“What can I do for you?” Doc Reynolds asked. “The Pod-doc has a full gyne—”
“No, not that,” Geroux cut him off. “I’m worried about Reynolds. I think Athena is up to something, and he seems to be falling for it.”
Doc sighed. “I’m a little worried, myself.”
The two females blinked. “Really?” Jiya asked.
“We’re all a little concerned,” Doc said. “I don’t want to spread gossip…”
They waited.
“What?” Jiya demanded.
“I don’t want to spread gossip,” Doc replied.
“Will you help us keep an eye on her?” Jiya said. “Reynolds likes to think he’s infallible, but we’ve seen him make mistakes. Not often, but it happens. We don�
�t want him—or any of us—to get hurt.”
“Yeah,” Geroux agreed. “Athena is hiding something. She said she likes to keep a low profile. Who’s she hiding from? Wasn’t she alone for hundreds of years? And her hacking skills are scary—if that’s what they are. What if she’s in league with the pirates? Doesn’t the fact that she could get into their system so easily seem suspicious?”
“I thought we were worried about Reynolds getting duped? If you think she’s working with the raiders, we need to tell the captain,” Jiya said. “Come on, we’ll go together.”
Jiya dragged her friend from sickbay to the bridge. “Reynolds, can we talk to you?”
“Is this about Athena?” he asked.
The females exchanged a look. “Yes,” Geroux said. She took a deep breath. “I think she’s in league with the pirates.”
“That thought crossed my mind, too,” Reynolds said. “I suppose we’ll know for sure if we fly into a trap. Let’s go see.”
The SD Reynolds dropped into space just outside the Reichof heliosphere. “All systems green,” Ria reported. “Gate functioning perfectly.”
“Excellent,” Reynolds said. “Jiya, Maddox, Geroux, you’re with me. The rest will meet us at the Pods. Asya, you have the conn.” Reynolds strode off the bridge, the rest at his heels.
“Does Reynolds seem a bit, uh, short?” Ria asked.
“We’re going into battle,” Asya said reprovingly. “He’s focused.”
“Yeah, but he seems tight and angry,” Ria persisted.
“Focus on the mission, Ensign,” Asya snapped.
I think he’s a little off, too, XO whispered to Comm. He feels betrayed by Athena, but he won’t let emotion override reason. One of the advantages of being an AI.
I’m not sure that “human” body isn’t messing with his logic, though, Comm replied. Emotions aren’t logical, but we all have them. Where’d they come from?