“Yah the Tahrat uses an artificial singularity as its power supply. Because of the containment system, it emits a small T-wave signal that we can detect in the right environment,” he explained.
“T-waves? You mean electromagnetic waves in the terahertz gap are causing a gravity signal? That would be tough to detect. It’s close to the bottom of the infrared photon frequencies.”
“Yah, I’ve been thinking about that,” Ethan said. “Hypothetically, if there are gravito-inertial entanglements in the sub-100 femtosecond range, I wonder if that’s what we’re picking up. It’s possible that the Shan Takhu power plants all operate in that range specifically because the terahertz gap is a damned hard place to scan. It seems this might be an important aspect of their cloaking technology.”
Ammo and Rene both stared at him.
“If we can run a real-time Forrier Transform on the wave harmonics, we might be able to detect the entangled photons that are contained in the phase…”
“Uhm, when did you learn the physics of gravity wave entanglement in an electrodynamic framework?” Rene asked, shaking his head in disbelief.
“Considering what we’ve been playing against lately, it seemed like knowing something about it might give me a skill we needed, survival-wise.”
“I can’t argue with that, but last I checked that’s a deck or two above your air supply, isn’t it? When did you start studying theoretical astrodynamics?”
“After we left Earth,” he said, raising an eyebrow as he realized how absurd he sounded.
“A week ago?” Rene shook his head.
Ethan shrugged, tapping the side of his head. “It’s the brain damage, I guess.”
Kaycee had been ignoring the conversation but glanced at Ammo and nodded to confirm that she’d caught the significance of Ethan’s newly acquired skillset.
She went back to staring at the sensor display on the main screen. “Can you get a wide-field view of the subsurface structure of the Tacra Un itself? I need to see all of it.”
Ammo tapped her control console, and the screen zoomed back further until the whole Tacra Un appeared. “It’s easy to pick out the shape since the structure itself seems to be impenetrable to anything except high frequency gravity waves. I can’t tell what anything is, but we can image it through the ice.”
“It looks like a bunch of grapes,” Charleigh said as the clustered spheres of the main structure came into focus.
“To give it perspective, each spherical section is a kilometer in diameter,” Marti said.
“Do you see a tower structure anywhere?” she asked.
“It looks roughly uniform,” the AA said. “There are no major variations that would resemble a tower.”
Kaycee shook her head and said, “Then it has to be damaged.”
“Why do you say that?” Ethan asked.
“The Language Matrix is missing. It’s like something sheared it off.” She leaned forward to point at the area she wanted to see better, and Ammo zoomed the display in. There were several thin twisted strands that rose for several hundred meters and then ended abruptly. It didn’t appear to be enough to call it a tower
“Is there anything odd in the ice… above that location?” she asked.
The surface layers of ice reappeared over the image. A massive crater covered the entire area she’d indicated.
“That’s a problem,” she whispered.
“What’s the Language Matrix?” Ethan asked.
“It’s where the Jakob Waltz first contacted the Tacra Un in Zone One.” Nuko said. “Gateway Colony sits right on top of it.”
“You could say it’s the front door to the archive,” Kaycee added. “Without that I don’t think there’s any way in.”
“If you don’t go in the front door you can’t turn on the lights?”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“The Waltz crew had to complete the language matrix to get the main power to come on the first time,” Nuko said.
“There’s only one other way in, and that is… only accessible in special cases,” Kaycee said. “It’s a medical facility, and I’m not sure how to identify it from the outside.”
“You’re saying they’re digging this out and it won’t work for them, regardless?” Ethan asked.
“I don’t know. Nothing says it will stay that way if I go down there.”
Ammo turned around to look at him. Obviously, she’d come to the same conclusion as to why Jetaar wanted them here. With as much as the pirate knew about STI and its operations, he had to know Kaycee was tooled to fix his problem.
But now, if she couldn’t do it because of the cratered front door, their odds of finding an easier line out of Tortuga alive had just gotten a lot narrower.
Chapter Twenty-One
The Olympus Dawn held position ten klick above the surface of the ice and twenty klick from the docking stanchion. Below them, the sprawling complex of industrial fabricators spread out like concentric waves in a plasteel ocean. From this altitude, they could make out individual handler bots working their way along the narrow access roads between the structures with massive Argos in their arms. It was a stunning operation no matter how you looked at it, and the fact that it was operating entirely below the awareness of the Coalition made it even more shocking.
“We haven’t gotten docking instructions yet?” Ethan asked as he came back onto the ConDeck. He’d expected to have tied off already.
“We are sitting in a standard parking position however they have not yet acknowledged our presence,” Marti said. The standard procedure was to pull into place and wait for an automated system to pick them up and bring them in.
“A lot of traffic in the pattern?” he suggested, stepping forward between the front consoles and craning his neck to scan the blackness for other ships.
“It’s dead calm,” Charleigh said. “They’re just ignoring us.”
“Maybe they don’t use an Automated Docking System here,” he said, twisting to face Ammo. “Cut me in to Local Approach.”
She nodded.
“Olympus Dawn to Tortuga Approach. Is your ADS down? Requesting docking instructions.”
There was a pause of several seconds before the docking controller’s voice rolled out slow and silky over the comm. “Speak to me, mon. We make this go and you be happy. Cando yah? Is no ugly between us. Do no good, eh?”
Ethan shrugged. “Yah approach, we need tie off instructions and we’re wanting to make offloading arrangements with the Facilities Administrator, or the Operations Manager?” Ethan said.
“Is one and same. You speaking at Tanis Magabi, mon. I be none other. Who dis?”
“Ethan Walker.”
“Ah. You be the Walker-mon. Cap’n J like you good, he does. He tell me to set you up nice. Give you big money tour and cask of best rum to boot. Is good shit, yah.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow and then looked back at Ammo. She shrugged. Charleigh and Nuko both snickered.
“We’re just looking to unload and interview someone that Captain Jetaar said we could talk to,” he said.
“Yah-yah-yah. He give me the low. You and doc come down and talk to Crazy Cantos, no? He be a sad puppy, true beans. Need a good doc to fix him up smart-like, yah?”
“Fix him up?”
“Yah he got ugly mean voodoo. Mess his head right the fuck up. Walking dead but don’t fall down, ya scan?”
“Not a clue,” Ethan said. Ammo joined the others in snickering. “My doctor wants the survivor brought aboard while you’re unloading the container if that’s possible.”
“No cando mon. Bossman say you need to come see Tortuga and she can yak-up Crazy Cantos in Med-Center. See with her own eyes, ya scan?”
“Is there any way we can talk to his doctor on this?”
“Yah cando. CMO will comm you back in a sec. Hang tight, yah?”
“That’d be excellent,” Ethan said. Hopefully, he’ll speak something I can understand.
“Meanwise, you be tyi
ng off on collar twelve. Top tier, ass first. Eyeballs only. Is good, yah?”
“Copy that. Visual approach, dock twelve, stern tie off. Cando.” Charleigh said, grinning as she started bringing the ship forward and around for a manual docking.
“All good, stand by Walker-mon.”
“What planet is he from?” Ethan said, shaking his head in disbelief.
“More like what reality,” Nuko added. “I guess they do things differently here.”
He tapped into his collarcomm. “Kaycee report to the ConDeck.”
“On my way. Problems.” She said it as an assumption of fact and not a question.
“Not yet, but we’re pushing up the stack. I might need some help shoving against Tortuga’s CMO. They’re insisting you come down to interview Crazy Cantos.”
“Crazy Cantos, what’s that?”
“The survivor, I think,” he said.
She arrived on the ConDeck just as the comm opened again.
“Captain Walker, I’m Corvis Pettyjohn, CMO of Tortuga medical. What can I do for you?”
“Dr. Pettyjohn, we’re trying to make arrangements to interview someone who’s one of your patients,” Ethan said.
“I understand that, Captain. Captain Jetaar told me to expect you. Is there some kind of problem?”
“We’d prefer to have the patient brought here if possible,” he said.
“It would be much easier if your doctor came down here,” he said, his voice revealing his puzzlement. “There are some extant issues with transporting Cantos Vega out of our medical center.”
Ethan glanced at her and she shook her head. “What kind of issues?”
“He and the other survivors are in isolation,” the doctor said.
“Why are they quarantined?” Kaycee asked, jumping in on the comm.
“Dr. Smythe-Caldwell, I assume?” he asked. “The four patients all appear to be exhibiting symptoms of Trappist Syndrome Type-C. Disorientation, progressive peripheral fine motor disfunction, loss of speech control. Severe conscious episodic apnea.”
“Have you diagnosed it conclusively as TSS-C?” she shook her head. “It’s an extremely rare condition.”
“Not yet,” Pettyjohn admitted. “I’m sure if you looked over the manifest of your cargo, you know that the hardware we purchased will be useful in determining if that’s what it is.”
“I understand TSS isn’t contagious,” Ethan said.
“If that’s what it is,” the doctor said. “There are other potential diagnoses. Until we know for sure, Captain Jetaar has ordered they stay in isolation.”
Ethan sighed and shrugged. What now?
She shook her head. She didn’t intend to give in. “Put one of them in an EVA suit and bring them aboard. I’ve got the medical gear in my MedBay to do the diagnosis.”
“You do?” The skepticism in his voice was clear.
“I’m sure you know by my name I’m heir to the biggest biomedical tech company in the Coalition. You don’t think I’d be out here without the best tools I could get, do you?” she said, winking at Ethan. “It’s going to take weeks for you to get your new hardware set up, and I’m offering to get you an answer in a couple hours.”
“That’s a persuasive argument, Dr. Caldwell,” he said. “Give me a minute to run it uphill and I’ll see what the boss will let me do.”
“Do you really have the gear to diagnose it?” Ethan asked after confirming they’d closed the link.
“For the most part,” she said. “Between my micro imager and my hands-on advantage, I can get a lot closer to a real diagnosis than most labs would. I just can’t go down there. You know that.”
He nodded.
“It’s Jetaar,” Ammo said, nodding at the commscreen where the face of the pirate captain had appeared.
“Alright Walker, in the interests of establishing some trust between us, I’ll let my doctor bring one of the survivors aboard.”
“That will make it easier for her to get you a diagnosis, and to conduct her interview,” he said.
“I’m sure it will,” he said, his face leveling into a flat lack of expression. “I also understand that you may be concerned for your crew’s safety while you’re in Tortuga, so while she’s examining the survivor, I want you to come down and look around. Contrary to what you think, things are solid between us now and it’s important that you see that.”
“I don’t know if I feel fuzzy on that yet, but I’m willing to keep an open mind,” Ethan said.
“That’s all I need from you,” Jetaar said, smiling sidewise. “I’ll have Tanis meet you at the boarding ramp and he can show you around. Once you’re done with your tour, we’ll have some milk and cookies and we’ll be best friends. Right?”
“Like I said. An open mind.”
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a stubborn flatch, Walker?”
“You mean since breakfast?”
Jetaar laughed and cut the comm from his end.
“You think he’s being square?” Nuko asked, looking at Ethan over her shoulder and shaking her head.
“Nah, I think it’s a hostage exchange, pretending to be an overture of niceness, but we came out here to get some answers, and if we want to talk to the survivor, then I’ve got no choice.”
He drummed his fingers on the back of her seat for several seconds and then turned toward Kaycee. “It will also give me a chance to find out if it’s possible for you to risk going into their base at all.”
“Just because you can use an Urah Un doesn’t mean you can access Shan Takhu tech,” she said. “Institute built tools don’t require the same level of ability.”
Charleigh glanced at him, but Nuko turned around in her seat, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s that damned brain damage thing,” he said, shooting her a fast wink.
Kaycee shook her head. “I know you felt the piece of hardware in the cabana too, but that wasn’t Shan Takhu.”
“If they’ve got anything lying around down there, I’ll just see if it calls to me. I promise I won’t try to work the toys, but if we don’t look around, we won’t know where they are with this whole process.” He shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve got a choice, anyway.”
She let out a slow sigh. “I guess that should be safe enough. Take Nuko with you. She’s been in the Gateway colony and that should give her some hope of recognizing any Shan Takhu items.”
“Good idea. We’ll take Angel too,” he said, spinning and heading out.
“Wait! I’m still stuck at the idea that you can work the toys,” Nuko said as she jumped up to follow him out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Two
To their credit, they did have the patient in a space suit when they brought him aboard. That surprised Kaycee because she had expected that their professed fear of him being contagious was an act to get her into Tortuga. When he showed up suited and tied down to a medical roll-chair, she was more concerned with the potential for quarantine crisis.
The two massive orderlies escorting Dr. Pettyjohn, who wasn’t small in his own right, were obviously there to be nothing but meso. Quinn met them at the airlock and led them through the container and into the middeck. Because of the possibility for things to go sidewise when you were dealing with pirates, Marti stood watch across the hall with her new body. Even without the big guns, she looked intimidating enough to make up for the brute force potential of the orderlies.
“My MedBay is too small for everybody to be in here,” Kaycee said as the orderlies tried push their way through the door with the doctor.
“You two can wait over there,” Quinn said, pointing to a table that was close enough to still give them a line of sight on the proceedings. It also meant that they’d be in reach of Marti’s arms if they tried to start trouble.
It wasn’t until the doctor nodded that either of them backed away.
“What can you tell me about the patient?” Kaycee asked.
He handed her a thinpad with the man’s medical record.
“Our background on him is sketchy and based on what we could pull off of his Coalition Citizenship records,” Dr. Pettyjohn said. “We did a genotype to establish his name since he’s mostly non-communicative. With that we were able to get some environmental history put together.”
She raised an eyebrow. “May I upload his file to our AA and see if we can get anything more?”
The doctor shrugged. “Good luck with that, but you’re free to try.
“Minimum response to an inquiry will be twenty-two hours to the node in Cygnus Deep Two,” Marti said over the commlink.
“Upload it anyway,” she said. “The more we can get on his situational background the better we can address his treatment requirements.”
“What we know so far is that his name is Cantos Vega,” he said. “He’s thirty-six standard years old, and he was one of the founding colonists of the Tamilis Two colony. He’d been there for fourteen years.”
“Did he work in smelting or mining operations?”
“Apparently not,” he said. “He lived in the village of Eastgate. My understanding is that was an agricultural and food processing area.”
“So where would he have had exposure to transuranic materials?”
“They didn’t mine anything like that on Tamilis,” Pettyjohn said.
“Then why are you leaning into it being TSS-C?”
“It’s a diagnosis of last resort,” he admitted. “We’ve got four patients that all present with the same symptomology but only one of them might have worked in a field that would have provided any exposure to anything toxic.”
She set the thinpad down on the counter behind her and scratched her ear for several seconds. “You’ve done all the toxicology studies?”
“And the standard viral and epidemiological tests.” He nodded. “He came back clean. We also did a deep Encephalogram. He shows moderate stress-related deformation, but nothing severe enough to present what we’re seeing behaviorally.”
Wings of Earth- Season One Page 95