The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Page 46

  “A lot about a ship like this would be automated,” Pip agreed. “Fighting in space is too difficult for a human mind anyway.”

  “Why?” Minu asked, a little offended at having their entire species simply written off like that.

  “Well, besides fighting at maybe millions of kilometers apart and traveling at tens of thousands of KPH, the response times needed to anticipate an attack and respond properly are probably in the picoseconds. By the time you realized you were even under attack, you're a glowing ball of ionized gas.”

  “Ah,” Minu said, feeling like an idiot. It wasn't like that in Star Wars.

  Then the computer suddenly spoke up again for the first time. “Does the new operator wish to integrate with the ship?” Several of them gawked at the new voice, a slightly feminine one speaking flawless English. Very different from that intermediate one which was a cross between a screeching chimp and a boring college professor. Pip cocked his head and looked surprised, if only slightly.

  “Are you okay?” Minu asked and quickly moved next to him.

  “Yeah, I'm fine. I just felt the computer request to link with my mind.” He gave a small laugh. “It sounded like the doorbell in the house I grew up in! I'm going to answer the door.”

  “Is that smart?”

  “Let’s find out.” He closed his eyes and Minu crossed her fingers. The impetuousness of Pip was still there. She rather hoped that might have been left behind. Then she chastised herself for such a thought. That part too was who her friend was, she should have been grateful for another piece being where it should have been. “I'm in,” Pip said, but not through his lips, rather over the same speakers the computer had used moments ago. Minu gasped and looked around, realizing that if they'd linked, Pip was literally now one with the ship.

  She jerked around when Pip started to move. His body floated upwards, reclining slightly, and the arms folded in his lap like he was making himself comfortable in a big easy chair. A look of intense concentration made up his face, broken only by a tiny curl of a smile at the edges of his mouth. This was Pip, in almost over his head, right at home. She'd seen that look a thousand times in the lab and even under fire once right before he was hurt. For the first time since he'd woke up, Minu allowed herself to really take a deep breath and exhale. They had their magician back.

  “Okay,” Pip said, “this is not going to be easy. This ship is fucking complicated. I can see access points for dozens of sub-control computers, at least. And there is this one program running, that looks like it used to be two. A medical program and a steward?”

  “Yes, I've been trying to use them to get us more in control,” Bjorn offered. “I named it IQ.”

  “Your efforts are commendable, if somewhat ham handed and ill conceived.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Don't worry, I can work with this.”

  Minu was struck dumb that Pip would talk that way to his longtime friends, now made worse by the revelation to everyone that this was his uncle, his flesh and blood. Minu was the only one besides Ted who knew that Pip was Bjorn’s nephew before he awoke. Seeing everyone’s shocked looks, Bjorn's face tinted red, and no one knew what to say. Just as Minu was becoming convinced that her friend was back, she's confronted with a brutal testimony completely to the opposite.

  As Pip's newly upgraded mind began to link with the computer, the program called IQ shuddered and almost crashed. Only the remnant that was once the Steward was excited. An actual biological operator was logging in. The temporarily suppressed desire to delete itself surfaced and a query was sent to the operator.

  “I don't think so,” Pip said and began to dissect the two programs.

  Pip floated there for nearly an hour. After a few minutes the crew drifted off to their stations one after another. And as they sat they saw changes were taking place. Some controls were removed, new ones were added. A few of the changes didn't make much sense, but most of them caused nods of appreciation from the crew. Pip was asserting his control as he learned from the ship.

  The medical program was restored to its former condition, scrubbed of all the intentional and unintentional changes performed by Bjorn in a desperate bid to be able to control the ship. As he cleansed the code, he retained elements of the morphed program. The Steward wasn't as lucky as the Medical Intelligence; Pip quickly killed it as a semi-autonomous entity and began to incorporate changes. In minutes it was his ghostly guide inside the computer, able to tap areas he wasn't allowed to touch and familiar with systems he would require months to learn. He let it retain its identity as the Steward though, that wasn't worth the effort of changing. Finished, he spoke through the ship.

  “Main power is coming on line,” he told them. “You are in charge of the ship’s main functions. I'll act as the directing program would have; utilizing what computing assets I have been able to get working for me.”

  Minu applauded and quickly everyone joined in. “Thanks Pip, much better than yelling 'computer' at the ceiling.”

  “You are welcome.” Pip was downloading the buffered ships logs, running back to when the steward program was uploaded and the ship brought out of hibernation. With a fraction of his mind he watched the crew spread out, look around, discover the CIC. Then he saw his body in surgery and the computer working on his brain. He finished by watching Aaron and Minu making love in her quarters, then again later. There was a recording of Cherise showering as well. A part of his mind should have been titillated by the private voyeurism, but that part seemed to be mute. Without another thought on what he'd seen, he moved on.

  Around the CIC the crew was exploring the functionality of their new controls. The chair Minu reclined in had a mimic of almost every station, but mostly there were a trio of screens before her that displayed a myriad of data on the ship’s status. It was impossible for her not to think of the many sci-fi spaceship captains she'd seen in movies and TV. Without her realizing she reclined farther back and cracked a huge grin.

  “You're enjoying this way too much,” said Aaron. She looked over and saw him watching her with critical appraisal. “You know that, right?”

  “Ahead, warp factor two hundred. Make it so!”

  “Oh no, you didn't just do that,” Cherise groaned. She was getting a feel for her station that controlled damage response and some engineering systems. Bjorn shook his head from his main engineering controls but Ted gave a little grin where he was testing out the ship’s amazing suite of sensors. Var'at and his men were conversing in rapid fire Rasa, indifferent to Minu's five hundred year old plagiarism.

  “If you are done playing Captain Picard,” Pip's voice boomed over the PA system, “you might want to notice there are three ships converging on our location.”

  Chapter 3

  January 17th, 522 AE

  Firebase, Enigma Star System, Galactic Frontier

  “What did you say?” Singh spoke into his radio, ice and death oozing from his voice.

  “One of the artifact ships is awake.”

  The tablet Singh held split screen and a view resolved. The gossamer web of transfer tubes that connected and held the long quiet fleet crisscrossed the screen. At each connection point rested a ship, from tiny little darts to the huge collections of balls ringed with long metallic javelins. There, in the center of the screen, one of the ships flashed. “Back it up, play it again.” The image took over the screen as he zoomed while it reversed. There it was again, one of the simple needle/ball configuration ships had flashed a light. There it was again! As the shuttle pilot altered course and began to move closer, he could clearly see now. There were marker lights around the ball and on each end of the needle, and they were flashing mechanically. The vessel was awake. “That isn't possible.”

  “Yet it is so,” the distant female pilot replied, her voice calm and even. “What are your orders, commander?”

  “If the ship is activated, we can gain access too! Quickly, get there and locate a docking port!”

  “Accelerating,” the
pilot informed him.

  “Vector all three shuttles there,” Singh told her as he spun and with a lash of his tail raced toward the docking bay where his own shuttle waited. “Second detachment remain here; first and third return to the shuttle! We will taste Rasa blood this day! Hurry pilot,” he spat over his shoulder at Sally who was watching the video feed on her own tablet. The humans had done it, they were not only in the station, and they were in a ship! Unbelievable! The pilot spoke again.

  “The ship is releasing from the tubes! It is maneuvering!”

  “How long before they get here?”

  “About ten minutes,” Pip told Minu as he fed the data to Ted.

  “Three shuttles,” Ted confirmed, “they look just like the one Sally was flying. One has sped up; the other two are taking a more leisurely course.”

  Minu scanned the multitude of readings she was presented with from the ship, everything from oxygen pressure in the ion drives (nominal) to protein stores for biological operators (extensive). She began touching items and dragging them around to make a more presentable order. She wanted one screen to hold vital details, and each other to have less important information. Then she saw one display that didn't give her confidence. Power reserves, 12%. “Is this power reading correct, Pip?”

  “Yes, twelve percent reserves, no main power available.”

  “What can we do with that?”

  “Quite a bit, if you don't get all crazy and try to fly through a star.”

  “But why so little power?”

  “It's all the forward firebase could afford. It’s been sitting here for a very long time, and almost all the power in the star system has been consumed.”

  “Okay. Well, are we ready to go?”

  “All systems are at your discretion.”

  “So let’s undock and head for the station. We'll figure the rest out from there.”

  “Undocking under way,” Aaron reported.

  “Locks are closed,” said Cherise, “we're on full internal power.”

  “Maneuvering thrusters at your control, Aaron,” Bjorn told him.

  There was a tiny bump and a couple buzzers sounded. Cherise nodded and tapped her control, silencing them. “We are clear of the firebase,”

  “Move away from the base, Aaron. Give us some room.”

  “You got it, boss.” Everyone smiled, they were back in action.

  “That got their attention,” said Ted. “All three ships are accelerating towards us.”

  “Don't they know we have right of way?” Aaron joked.

  “Apparently not,” Minu said.

  “They're continuing to accelerate, first shuttle on collision course, estimated time to impact two minutes.”

  “Var'at,” Minu said and turned in her chair, “target that first shuttle. What can you disable it with?”

  “I do not know,” the alien admitted, “we haven't been able to test anything. The only system we are certain about are the lasers.”

  “That'll work. Put one through their center of mass. It probably won't destroy them, but will sure do some damage. Pip, monitor the firing and help us figure out what it does?”

  “I'm on it.”

  “Firing,” Var'at announced. A screen slid along the wall to center before the eleven beings manning the ships CIC. The distant shuttle was zoomed to take up the center of that screen. Minu assumed the view was courtesy of Pip. A second after the view cleared, a scarlet beam of coherent light strobed, connecting their ship to the shuttle, and beyond. The shuttle seemed unaffected.

  “Yield two megawatts,” Pip informed them then zoomed even farther until the shuttle filled the screen. A precise circular hole was burned through the bulbous part of the hull just above the needle, gas was very visibly venting through the hole. The shuttle began to try and evade but continued on its original course.

  “Double the power, aim aft where the engines should be, and fire again.”

  “Firing.”

  Again a beam flashed, no different in appearance than the previous shot. Only this time the target was moving and the beam much more powerful. The half second of coherent light acted like a knife and cleanly cut the aft of the shuttle off. The two parts diverged and a series of small explosions shook the forward part of the stricken craft. In the highly detailed zoom, they could all see dozens of tiny snakes blowing out of the aft knife wound and spinning away into the void.

  “Yield four point five megawatts,” Pip told them, no emotion in his voice.

  “The shuttle is disabled,” Ted added, even though there was little doubt.

  “Its course is not altered,” Aaron spoke up, “collision in twenty seconds.”

  “Get us out of the way, Aaron,” Minu told him.

  “Trying,” he said, working with the odd joystick/trackball controls of the pilot’s station, “this isn't a fighter. I don't think we're going to make it.”

  “Defenses?” Minu asked Var'at. One of his men worked at his controls.

  “Forcefields are up,” Pip told them, “prepare for impact.”

  It didn't seem like the shuttle was going all that fast, but the camera was automatically compensating digitally for the racing ship. The stricken shuttle was spinning slightly and Aaron pushed for all he could, getting the Kaatan mostly out of the way. The shuttle struck the Kaatan's defensive forcefield just forward of the rearmost protected area. At almost a thousand meters per second, its already weakened structure splattered against the powerful field like an egg dropped onto concrete. The field turned ruby red as a couple of explosions from the shuttle’s internal power and propellant tanks tore the remainders to large twirling chunks of debris. It all slid off the rear of the field and away in multiple directions. Inside the CIC, there wasn't even a bump.

  Minu looked down at her status boards for any sign of damage or stress. She couldn't see a thing. The only sign of the encounter ever taking place was their reserves were now down to eleven percent. “Wow,” was all she could say.

  The view suddenly spun around behind them. The crew stared as several large chunks of the splattered shuttle slammed into transit tubes and docked ships. One ship, the same class as theirs, had a huge hole torn in its ball section while another piece of debris tore a long rent in the side of a much larger collection of balls that was a different ship. The engine section struck a transit tube full on, shattering it and sending half its length spinning away. “Damn it,” Minu spat, “what about the other two shuttles. We can't let them tear the crap out of this place.”

  “That won't be a concern,” Pip said as the view moved again. Tiny flashes of light danced on the side of the dodecahedron shape in the center of the fire base. “Missiles,” he told them.

  “They aren't aimed at us, are they?” Cherise asked.

  A split second later the points of light lanced by them without effect. “No,” Pip said. The screen split to show the two remaining shuttles as they raced to intercept the escaping Kaatan. Several missiles converged on each shuttle, bursting into miniature stars a split second before impact. The light turned the CIC brilliant white, making the humans all put a hand up to shield their vision. Pip compensated for their view, and they could see through the cameras once again. Of the shuttles, there was nothing remaining except a glowing ball of superheated gas, slowly growing bigger and cooling.

  “What were those?” Var'at asked. He and his soldiers had seen every second of the impact, their eyes nictitating membranes instantly compensated and acted as welder’s goggles in bright light.

  “Sub-fusion plasma ship killers,” Pip told them. “One could destroy a ship four times our size.”

  “Two each,” Minu said, “talk about overkill. Do we have any of those on board?”

  “Forty,” Var'at looked over at Minu, no expression on his face. Minu knew what he was thinking, because her thoughts ran parallel to his. Unimaginable power. What if the snakes got ahold of it?

  “Pip, what about the damaged ships?”

  “The fire base can
take care of them.”

  “But the T'Chillen, if they can get into any of the-”

  “It is not a concern. As you have witnessed, the fire base can take care of itself.”

  Minu pulled her view away from the destruction with some difficulty, her mind working their situation. They needed to get into the transfer station and at the Portals to get home, but the Kaatan wasn't meant for such a mission. Everything about it spoke of a weapon of war and mass destruction, not a surgical strike. She fully believed that she might well destroy the station trying to get inside. And then there was the instant and lethal response of the firebase against the shuttles. She didn't want to risk drawing that sort of response, and carving into the transfer station with a multi-megawatt laser might well be considered a hostile act. But what choice did she have?

  Then she looked around her at the ad hoc bridge they'd built from scratch, every aspect of the ship was under their control. And it was a starship, after all, wasn't it? “Pip, are we capable of faster than light travel?”

  “Yes.”

  She was about to ask how fast, and then Einstein made his presence known and she felt like a moron. “How many light years are we from Bellatrix?”

  “Four thousand, two hundred, ninety-four light years.”

  “That's...a lot,” Aaron said.

  Minu nodded. “So even at the speed of light it would take over four millennia to get there. And several times that on Bellatrix!”

  “If we went that slowly, yes.” She turned to look at Pip's floating, formerly comatose body. He must have noticed her attention because he continued. “Using the Gravitic Lens Drive, this ship's top speed is five thousand times the speed of light.”

  “Holy shit!” Bjorn laughed and slapped his knee like a school kid. “How can it do that?”

  “The gravity well generated is so powerful-”

  “Can we get into this later?” Minu asked and the two fell silent. “What about the Einstein time distortion thing? If it takes a year to get to Bellatrix, how long will pass there?”