En Route

by Maksim Malik

  “I’m here now, sorry,” Nadani said. “It seems like the alien armada destroyed the station. Did you look starboard when we arrived?”

  “No, we did not. Park says there was something at the peripheral, but it is unknown,” Dr. Tysgan said. “Very upsetting, the station.” Once again, Nadani heard a sign of sadness in his voice.

  “Yes, it is,” Nadani agreed.

  A ship has appeared in firing range! Shields are at full already, taking evasive, Adan said, interrupting her.

  “Oh, shit!” Nadani said. “We’ve a hostile,” she added over the com before closing her end.

  Adan, let me know if they need me to say anything. I need to concentrate, she said. She found herself worrying more than usual.

  Nadani looked for the ship, and sure enough it was one of the alien ships. A smaller one, maybe a little smaller than Astromancer, but she bet it was suited for purely combat while with her multi-purpose ship it was a secondary role. At least she beefed up the weaponry and shielding since the last time she got into a scrape.

  This ship showed up out of nowhere, Adan said as Astromancer evaded fire. The alien weapons were beam weaponry, but different than hers in that they only fired in short bursts. The short bursts probably kept the weapon from overheating, allowing it to be used more frequently than the ones on Astromancer. Nadani’s ship also sported a railgun and single-fire missile launcher.

  So it stealthed or it folded back to deal with us, Nadani replied. She took over the ship controls to allow Adan to focus more efficiently at firing the beam weapons once the ship came into sights. The alien ship was a flat cylinder with a large notch out of the back of it for thrusters and several smaller notches around the ship for stabilizers.

  If you flip the ship, then I will pull the shield energy to the front. They’ll see it happening as it becomes opaquer, but it’ll give me a shot, Adan said.

  Okay, got it, she said.

  Just a second, Adan said. I’m going to try hacking that ship.

  Our shields are being eaten, Nadani announced calmly.

  Adan didn’t reply.

  Okay, now! Nadani said as she killed all thrusters and stabilizers, rotating the ship’s yaw 180 degrees before snapping on the stabilizers again. Before she even finished the flip, she picked a target on the alien ship and fired everything Astromancer had except for the missile. The hostile stayed on course and fired again and again, pounding their shields hard.

  Adan, the shields! she cried out.

  There was no response.

  Adan!

  At nearly the same time both shields were pierced. The alien ship hit Astromancer with two beam bursts causing some hull damage but no breaches. The ship AI aimed the two bursts and the railgun all at the same spot on the enemy ship, causing a breach which escalated into an explosion.

  Nadani paid little attention to the explosion or the fact her ship survived. All she cared about was Adan.

  Adan, please talk to me! she begged. Where are you?

  A Short Walk

  Nadani felt Adan’s presence return as she exited the pilot’s pit. Dr. Tysgan sat on one of the passenger seats in the bridge, oblivious to what happened.

  Where were you? Nadani asked. I was scared to death.

  The information I received from the ship overwhelmed me, Adan said. I’m sorry—I didn’t know it would be like that either.

  I’m so glad you’re okay, Nadani said with relief.

  “That was closer than I want to admit,” Nadani said. “We took some hull damage, but the shields are recharging now.”

  I couldn’t contain all the data at the rate I received it. Some of it is stored in the ship’s memory, Adan said.

  Wow, that much? Nadani replied.

  They left their information completely open to hacking, Adan said. Either they don’t care, or they don’t know it is a possibility.

  Interesting.

  “I am glad I came with competent pilot,” Dr. Tysgan said, his tone far less jovial than usual.

  He had a friend on the station, Nadani thought.

  A shame. For everyone on the station, Adan said.

  Yeah.

  “We must do a spacewalk,” Dr. Tysgan said.

  “What?” Nadani asked.

  “We need to know more data,” he continued, voice as steady as though he spoke on any normal sol.

  “I have quite a lot of information from hacking the ship,” Adan said through the ship’s com. “But I agree, anything we find will add value to the report we give authorities.”

  “What if they come back?” Nadani asked, knowing Adan could feel her fear.

  “They have likely sent this ship back from the main host and expect it to follow in foldspace,” Dr. Tysgan said. “They will not miss it until they reach their endpoint and wait a lengthy amount of time before realizing the ship is not coming.”

  “Oh,” Nadani said. “I guess that makes sense.”

  Remember I can take over if you need me to, Adan said.

  That’s true, Nadani replied, feeling a little comforted by the thought.

  “Do you have drones to assist?” Dr. Tysgan asked.

  “I forgot about buying those. The next time we’re at a decent station I’ll invest in some,” Nadani felt sheepish for forgetting about buying drones. They would be useful for many things—looking at the hull damage for example—and now she could afford them she should have some.

  I’ll remind you, Adan said.

  “Look for anything that might be a data storage device,” Dr. Tysgan said, unperturbed by the lack of drones. “Crystals, discs, drives—anything like that.”

  “Of course,” Nadani said. She felt certain between herself and Adan they would notice such devices. Nadani took a deep breath and sighed. “Okay, I’ll go suit up.”

  Nadani went to the back of the ship to a small closet. She opened it and inside were two spacesuits. They were both Nadani’s size so there was no way Dr. Tysgan could aid in the walk.

  “Many spacewalks you have done?” Dr. Tysgan asked. He must have followed her.

  “Well,” Nadani said as she shed her plugsuit. “They can all fit on one hand with some room to spare. It’s not something I have to do often.”

  “This time will be tetherless,” Adan said to both. “There is too much debris for a tether to be safe.”

  “Oh, joy,” Nadani said, and her stomach dropped as she started to put on the spacesuit.

  “The jets can get you back to the ship much faster than the tether can,” Adan said. “The debris is slow-moving, but if you were tied to a tether then some of it could hit the tether and cause you to go off-course.”

  “Yeah, okay, I’ll do it,” Nadani said, steeling herself. The body of the suit fit her perfectly, and it all seemed to be in the right place. It was top-heavy due to the air tank and main jets. There were also smaller jets at her knees and elbows which could be used for stabilization if she held herself in a certain position.

  Nadani slipped her helmet over her head and twisted it shut until the spacesuit’s UI showed a green status for everything.

  “Everything shows green,” Nadani announced, mainly for Dr. Tysgan since Adan knew from watching through Nadani’s eyes.

  “Good luck, Nadani,” Dr. Tysgan said, and reached up to pat Nadani’s shoulder.

  “Thanks,” Nadani said, biting her lower lip for a moment before she took a deep breath through her mouth and let it out in a long exhale, heading to the airlock.

  The small room finished decompressing and Nadani had Adan open the outer door. She could have pressed the button next to it, but when it could be done with a simple thought then why bother? And it certainly wasn’t a tough task for Adan to perform.

  “Okay, disable art-grav in this room,” Nadani said aloud. “I’m ready.” As soon as she gave the command, artificial gravity gave out and she found herself drifting upward. She tentatively used the jets to stabilize herself. The art-grav generator had recently been replaced too. Now it could change gra
vity per room, and even per grav tile if she wanted.

  Good, Adan said. If you don’t mind, then I’ll step in as soon as I see something going awry. Even something as simple as overshooting your target. Anything that increases your chance of flying out into space will be prevented to the best of my ability.

  Thanks, Adan, Nadani said, truly grateful. She had only done this sort of tetherless spacewalk—more of a space swim in her opinion—in full VR sessions. And in FVR there were no consequences for failure.

  Nadani carefully boosted out of the room and into open space. Astromancer lined up properly for her to boost straight to head toward the wreckage, the edge of which was 200 meters away. She increased her speed to close the distance faster but made sure to start slowing before she made it. The suit’s sensors needed her attention now, especially since Adan could not interface with the suit beyond taking over Nadani’s body.

  Yes, this must be a deployable combat ship, Adan said. Before Nadani could ask how it knew, it continued. There are no personal objects strewn about. If the alien lived in the ship, then there would undoubtedly be traces of it. Unless they live far stranger lives than any other alien we’ve encountered.

  That could be possible, Nadani said. But is there anything which looks like what we’re after?

  Boost more toward the center, but slowly, Adan said. And try to keep an eye on the scanner at the same time. What we’re looking for could be small.

  Nadani did as Adan asked, boosting once in the direction of the approximate center of the wreckage, and kept her eyes on the scanner. She felt grateful she had Adan. This was not her area of expertise and reading the scanner herself took a frustrating amount of time and effort. For Adan, she imagined, it was near instant.

  There’s something, Adan said. I’ve marked it on your nav map.

  Let me look, Nadani said, opening her nav map on her mental overlay. The mark pointed down relative to her current orientation and to the left. She slowed her movement and then changed direction to head toward the mark.

  Your heartbeat has quickened, and so has your breathing, Adan admonished her.

  I can’t help it, Nadani said, but tried to take a few calming breaths anyway. It looks like a green crystal, she said, both to change the topic and bring them back to the task at hand.

  It must be a data crystal of some kind, Adan said and paused for a moment. Nadani could tell Adan thought about something. I do not know how we will deal with reading it.

  Easy, Nadani said as she reached the crystal. We don’t deal with it. We let someone else deal with it. It fit in the palm of her hand and glowed with an eerie, green light. She fumbled around with the suit’s leg pouch until it opened and then she placed it inside, closing the pouch afterward.

  True, we do need to bring this to the attention of the authorities, Adan said. There hasn’t been a real war in at least a thousand years. Border disputes, yes, but not full-blown war.

  Maybe it won’t come to that, Nadani said. It could be a misunderstanding.

  Yes, well, we best get back to the ship, Adan said, sighing. I don’t know what to do with the crystal, but at least I can give a crack at understanding the data recovered from the hack.

  Yeah, good idea, Nadani said, boosting up—relative to the ship’s orientation—to clear herself from the wreckage before she headed back toward the ship. She made it back to the airlock, smiling to herself. She neither panicked, nor needed Adan to take over during the mission at all.

  The outer airlock door closed which made her more comfortable.

  Slowly ramping up the art-grav, Adan said in warning to her.

  Autostabilizers are off, jets off, Nadani reported.

  A curious tickle in her stomach started as the gravity increased. Her feet hit the ground softly and she felt herself grow heavier and heavier. The room still worked to compress and fill the atmosphere after the gravity hit one standard gravity, so she had to stand there waiting. Some pilots preferred less than 1sg—not by much, but maybe 0.95sg—claiming better reaction time in the pilot’s pit. Nadani didn’t know the truth behind it and found no research to back up their claims. Besides, she did well enough in 1sg.

  Once the inner door opened, Nadani found herself greeted by a happy Dr. Tysgan. He smiled widely as she removed her helmet.

  “I found something,” she told him.

  “Oh? What was it that you found?” Dr. Tysgan seemed even more excited.

  Adan, is the crystal safe to handle? she asked.

  Oh, yes, absolutely. Nothing harmful comes from it. The suit would’ve picked up on that, it said.

  “Here,” Nadani said and reached into the leg pouch. She handed Dr. Tysgan the crystal and walked toward the back of the ship, to remove the rest of the suit.

  “Oh, interesting,” Dr. Tysgan said turning the crystal over and around as he examined it. “Surely a data crystal. Maybe alien version of data core, or part of main computer. Fascinating. Park says there is no way to interface with it. We shall think on that.”

  Nadani spent the next few minutes getting out of the spacesuit. It was easier to manage than older models of suits, but it still took some time and a bit of effort. Dr. Tysgan stood there alternating between staring at the crystal and watching Nadani.

  When Nadani was down to her dermasuit, Dr. Tysgan turned his back to her and peered intently at the crystal.

  Nadani dressed; she wore her plugsuit again. They needed a destination.

  “Let’s go to the lounge,” Nadani said seriously. “We need to discuss where to go.”

  “Agreed,” Dr. Tysgan said.

  Dr. Tysgan sat in the lounge first on the far side of the couch. Nadani eased herself onto the couch on the opposite side. Her body felt weary.

  “Dr. Tysgan,” Nadani said. He turned his head with a start and nodded to Nadani. “We need to figure out where we’re going. We need to get this information to the authorities, but to whom, and where?”

  “Any government agency would likely work,” Dr. Tysgan said. “Do you have ties with any of them?”

  “Nadani does,” Adan said over the ship’s com.

  “I do?” Nadani asked, uncertain to what Adan referred.

  That incident with JUS Central Command Headquarters counts, Adan reminded her.

  “Oh, I do,” Nadani amended. “I had a brief dealing with Joined Union Systems Central Command Headquarters. What a mouthful. They probably remember my name there.”

  “Then the simple answer is to go there,” Dr. Tysgan said.

  Why not? They have the appropriate channels to do something about it there, Adan said.

  “Okay, to JUSCCHQ we go,” Nadani said.

  She turned and went to the bridge, sitting in the pilot’s pit, which closed around her.

  “One minute, twenty seconds until we start folding,” Nadani said over the com as she set the destination and instructed the FSS to start spooling. Adan could have done all this without her going to the bridge, but she liked doing it herself most of the time. Once the spooling began everything would work automatically, so she opened the pit and stood.

  They had no more options. Handing information straight to the government had to work.

  Awake

  Trisha awoke to darkness, gasping. Her head pounded like she recovered from a night of too much drinking without using a refresh pill, and her muscles ached all over. She laid there quietly on a cold, hard surface, and remembered what happened. Aliens attacked Sulai station while she walked to her apartment. She remembered fighting against them, and doing well, then nothing until suddenly waking up.

  They must have hit me with a stun blast, she thought after a few moments, her logical thought process took its time warming up after her time knocked out.

  After easing herself into a sitting position, she noticed her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Blue light came from somewhere, barely illuminating the area. What she saw caused her to swallow inadvertently, fear and confusion at the forefront of her mind.

  Laid out a
ll over the floor in rows and columns were people—humans, tetchnans, partons, and even some of the non-humanoids. The blue light came from collars they wore. Some other light came from a few of them who wore clothes with holograms on them. She touched around her neck and found she didn’t have a collar. About a third of the people didn’t have them.

  Curious though, she thought, taking a deep, calming breath. Why am I awake and they aren’t though?

  Suddenly she thought they might be dead and she the only survivor, only increasing her anxiety again, but upon checking the pulse of the person next to her she relaxed. The woman’s pulse strong, she imagined everyone else had a similar result.

  The nanobots she had far exceeded the average nanobot’s specifications. Nadani insisted on upgrading to the best of the best. Perhaps they were the reason why she woke from the stun so soon. The more she thought about it the more it made sense. Some people had no nanobots at all, so the stun would keep them out for a long time.

  She felt her clothes, specifically her pockets, and sighed with relief. They never searched her. She had her multitool—an engineer’s multipurpose tool for doing anything from repairing space ships to building parts on a near molecular scale. She never went anywhere without hers as it could become useful during any mundane activity.

  This was no mundane activity.

  Her bionetic eyes adjusted to low levels of light efficiently. She only had the surgery for them a few months ago, thanks to Nadani, so she still found herself surprised by what they could do compared to her biological eyes. Her vision was clearer, sharper, and the cybernetics worked with biological parts allowing her to zoom to see the tiniest of electronics. The augmentation helped her to find her orientation. It would surely help to find a route to escape.

  While scanning around the large room, she spotted a single doorway. It must be the only way in or out. Either the aliens were stupid, overconfident, or setting a trap: the door was open. No guards stood next to it either—though she could not see outside to see any posted guards there. Faint light came from the doorway. Whatever room or hallway out there had low light levels just as this room. Perhaps the bug-like aliens saw well with little light.