Ep.#3.5 - Escape of the Free Fleet Page 3

  “Makes sense. Getting flooded out every few years would really suck. Any other surprises?”

  “Remember that creature that almost killed us?”

  “How could I forget,” Nathan replied.

  “Turns out he is safe to eat and is quite delicious.”

  Nathan couldn’t help but laugh. After a chuckle, he added, “I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. The ships, Libertara, the Korsan… Sometimes, it’s just all so unbelievable. We all should have died in the battle of Gamaze, but instead, we end up five centuries in the future, where, of course, we crash-land, which also should have killed us. And after surviving all that, do we set up camp and just live our lives in peace and quiet? Nope. We get knee-deep in pirates and grand theft, all while settling a new world halfway across the galaxy.”

  “I see your point,” Jakome replied. “You know that I’ve studied your life extensively.”

  “Yes, I am aware.”

  “Well, the two recurring themes I have found among your adventures are that one; you were always trying to do what you thought was right, and two; you have always managed to find a way to survive events that should not be survivable.”

  “That sounds about right,” Nathan admitted.

  “You have incredible luck, my friend.”

  “That’s what my sister Miri used to say.”

  “I wish I could have met her,” Jakome said. “I suppose you miss her.”

  “At times,” Nathan admitted. “Miri was really the only member of my family that I liked. Probably because we were only two years apart in age. I was the youngest, and everyone else was much older, so we never connected. Miri, on the other hand, was always looking out for me. At school, at home, on trips.”

  “She sounds like a wonderful woman.”

  “She was.”

  “Well, you should know that she was also a fine leader, as was her son, and his daughter, and her son… The Scotts continued being leaders for generations.”

  “I had no idea,” Nathan admitted. “You know, in a way, that makes me feel better.”

  “How so?” Jakome wondered.

  “I always felt guilty that I didn’t follow in my father’s footsteps.”

  “I think it’s safe to say that humanity is happy that you did not,” Jakome joked.

  * * *

  Kayci entered the Aurora’s medical department, unsure of what to expect. Not surprisingly, it looked very much as she had expected. After all, she had toured the small part of the Scott’s medical department that was on exhibit just out of professional curiosity.

  She immediately noticed the same differences her brother Teo had seen in the hangar bay. This was not an exhibit. This was a functioning medical facility and a very ancient one at that.

  The main treatment ward was simple enough. Eight beds, four on each side, and all equipped with standard bio-monitors and treatment carts.

  “Can I help you?” a man in uniform asked as he entered the ward.

  “I’m Doctor Barra,” Kayci replied. “I’m sort of your new doctor?”

  “Ah, yes. I’m Master Sergeant Jolan Baris. I’m your chief med-tech,” the sergeant introduced, offering his hand. “Captain Scott told me about you.”

  “A pleasure to meet you, Master Sergeant,” she replied, shaking his hand. “I’m Kayci Barra. Are you the only med-tech?”

  “There’s also Specialist Keenan Moss, but he’s not here at the moment. And Martina Balis, although she is still trying to catch up on the last fifteen hundred years of medical progress.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “I notice you have the latest Tordeck Bio-monitors,” Kayci said, pointing to the monitors by the beds.

  “Yes, we’ve managed to get a lot of upgrades in the past few weeks.”

  “But you don’t have a doctor?”

  “Doctor Chen has been away for a few weeks. She is studying at a hospital in Alliance space, catching up on the last five hundred years of changes in medical care.”

  “Five hundred? I’m really starting to get confused.”

  “It will all make sense eventually,” the master sergeant assured her. “Would you like me to show you around?”

  “Yes, please. After two days of being a hostage, working in a five-hundred-year-old medical facility will be a welcome change.”

  * * *

  Nathan entered Vladimir’s office in Engineering, finding him engrossed in something on his desktop view screen. “Where were you this morning?”

  “Huh?”

  “Breakfast?”

  “Oh, is it morning?” Vladimir wondered, looking up and around.

  “Have you been here all night?”

  “I suppose so,” Vladimir replied, his attention returning to his screen.

  “What is so important that it kept you from sleeping and eating?” Nathan wondered, coming around to look at the screen for himself. Doing so didn’t help because it was just a jumble of symbols and lines that meant nothing to him. “What is this, some kind of puzzle?”

  Vladimir tilted his head from side to side. “In a way. I may have a way to restore AI operations on all three ships. And without having to clone the Aurora’s AI and trying to hack her licensing key.”

  “That would involve restoring the AI backups on the other ships, though. And I thought you wanted to time it carefully and go through their core code base to look for back doors added by the Alliance after our disappearance?”

  “That is the beauty of this idea!” Vladimir exclaimed. “I don’t have to do any of that!”

  “Okay, now I’m interested,” Nathan admitted.

  “We let our AI manage all four ships,” Vladimir stated as if it were obvious.

  “She can do that?”

  “Of course, she can.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because she told me so.”

  “She told you?”

  “Nathan, the Aurora is capable of operating this ship, all her Dragon fighters, and both shuttles, with processing and memory to spare.”

  “That’s kind of hard to believe.”

  “The only reason she doesn’t is that most of the time, Dragons and Shuttles are too far away to make remote AI management feasible.”

  “Then, how is she supposed to control all three ships?”

  “Four,” Vladimir corrected. “You have to include the Aurora.”

  “Of course. How?”

  Vladimir smiled. “Using AICC nodes.”

  Nathan was taken aback. Suddenly the solution did seem obvious.

  “We would have to install multiple nodes on each ship to be remotely controlled. At least two, preferably three or four…you know, for redundancy. And we would have to install dedicated nodes for each ship on the Aurora.”

  “Why can’t we just use the nodes we’re already using for communications and data telemetry?” Nathan wondered.

  “Technically, we could,” Vladimir admitted. “But each node only has so much bandwidth, and we would run the risk of reduced performance on comms and data, remote AI functions, or both.”

  “If we do this, does it mean the other three ships won’t need to be crewed?”

  “Nyet. They still need a crew. But the Aurora’s AI could monitor all systems and report any problems directly to each ship’s engineering team. She could run the service and tech droids and even plot the jumps for us, and far more accurately, I might add. But we would still need the same crew on board. This is too crazy of an idea to just turn over complete operations, including flight, of four ships, all to one AI.”

  “You’re right. It is a crazy idea, which I’m sure Cameron will remind us of repeatedly as we implement it.”

  “You don’t understand, Nathan. The AI can detect things that we would never even
notice unless we were closely examining it. And she can do so thousands of times per second…”

  “Vlad, I agree,” Nathan interrupted.

  “It could warn us of a potential catastrophic failure before the condition becomes irreversible…”

  “Vlad!” Nathan reiterated. “I said, I agree. Let’s do it.”

  “Oh. Why didn’t you say so?”

  “Because you wouldn’t shut up.”

  “It’s the implant,” Vladimir told him. “Sometimes, I get lost in her data feeds.”

  “Yeah, about that. Maybe you should consider turning that thing off?”

  “Only when I sleep,” Vladimir insisted.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Until all three ships have reached Libertara and the Aurora is fully operational again, I cannot afford to turn it off. There are still so many things to fix…”

  “Okay, I got it. It’s your call,” Nathan agreed. “Just be aware, and have Doctor Barra keep an eye on you.”

  “Doctor Barra?” Vladimir wondered.

  “New Doc. She was one of the hostages on the Scott,” Nathan explained.

  Vladimir looked confused. “How did you get her to volunteer to be our doctor?”

  “Her husband died recently. I think she needed a change. You know, starting over and all that.”

  “Oh, then, she is unattached?” Vladimir looked at Nathan. “Is she…you know?”

  “Behave yourself, Vlad. We don’t want you scaring her off. Besides, she’s got a kid.”

  “I love kids,” Vladimir insisted.

  “That’s an order,” Nathan stated, pointing at him. “How long to get this idea of yours working?”

  “Another day or two. Assuming you’ll let me use the nodes we’ve already made.”

  Nathan thought for a moment. “Those were supposed to go to Brodek worlds, but I suppose it’s for the best. I have a feeling a lot of those worlds aren’t going to want anything to do with us, anyway.”

  “Then I’ll get my people started.”

  “What about the energy banks and the mini ZPEDs?” Nathan wondered. “Aren’t those a higher priority?”

  “We finished those last night,” Vladimir replied with a dismissive wave of his hand.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I just did.”

  Nathan shook his head. “Get some food and take a nap, Vlad,” he said as he headed back out. “That’s an order, too.”

  “Nathan,” Vladimir called. “I should tell you that it wasn’t my idea.”

  “What, staying up all night and skipping breakfast?”

  “No. Using AICC nodes so that the Aurora could manage all three ships. It was Aurora’s idea.”

  “Really?”

  “Da. I think she is worried about me.”

  Nathan thought for a moment, then continued on his way out. “Food and sleep, Vlad,” he called out as he departed.

  “I promise,” Vladimir replied. As soon as Nathan was gone, he turned his attention back to his view screen, immediately becoming engrossed again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Robert had been searching the Scott for more than an hour, looking for Josh. It wasn’t like him to not answer hails over comm-sets. Usually, the kid was either asleep in his rack, in one of the VR suites experiencing historical reenactments of the Scott’s old battles, or stuffing his face in the mess hall. But Robert had been to all three locations and still had not found him. Without an AI to locate him, he had to hunt for his pilot the old-fashioned way…on foot. If it weren’t for the fact that it was probably the most exercise Robert had gotten since he had left Libertara, he’d be angry.

  Since he couldn’t find Tricia or Lannie, he checked the Dragon maintenance bay, where their only two functioning fighters were parked. After weeks of flying Dragons for twelve-plus hours per day, Josh was probably already missing them. The kid was not meant to pilot a large vessel. It just wasn’t exciting enough for him.

  The Scott’s Dragon maintenance bay had been converted into a museum exhibit, with four fighters lined up along each side, their noses pointed inward, and their canopies open. In the center were Tricia’s and Lannie’s working Dragons parked together on the main elevator pad so they could be raised up to the flight deck and launched simultaneously. But there was no one around. Then, Robert noticed something. The canopies on the first three museum Dragons on the port side were all closed.

  “This shit is awesome!” Josh exclaimed as he pushed his fighter into a diving roll to port, coming out onto the tail of a Jung fighter. “Oh no!” he said, mocking the imagined panicked voice of his next victim. “Where’d he come from!”

  The Jung fighter before him jinked back and forth, bobbing up and down and rolling about as its pilot desperately tried to shake its pursuer. But Josh could not be shaken. He deftly maneuvered his Dragon, keeping his targeting reticle on the fleeing fighter. Several times, his systems flashed green, indicating that he should pull the trigger, but he did not.

  “This guy’s gotta be shitting his flight suit right about now,” Josh chuckled.

  “It’s a simulation, Josh,” Tricia reminded over helmet comms.

  “Okay, he’s shitting simulated shit right about now,” Josh replied.

  “Just put him out of his misery, already,” Lannie begged. “There’s like a dozen more targets ahead.”

  “Alright, alright,” Josh relented, squeezing the trigger on his flight control stick. A series of four red plasma bolts shot out from either side, slamming into the enemy fighter and blowing it apart. “This is too easy,” Josh exclaimed as pieces of debris struck his forward shields, causing them to flash with each impact. “How do you turn up the difficulty level on these things?”

  “It’s supposed to be an accurate portrayal of the great battles of the time,” Tricia pointed out.

  “Yeah, maybe Jung pilots just sucked back then?” Lannie said, laughing over comms.

  Josh heard a thumping sound. “Did you guys just hear that?”

  “Hear what?” Tricia wondered.

  The sound repeated.

  “A thumping sound.”

  “I didn’t hear anything?” Lannie stated.

  The sound repeated.

  “I think someone’s pounding on my canopy from outside,” Josh realized.

  “Maybe it’s the pilot of the fighter you just destroyed,” Lannie joked. “He probably wants to kick your ass!”

  “Don’t open your canopy, Josh!” Tricia teased.

  The thumping repeated a fourth time, more loudly than before. Josh suddenly got a bad feeling. He let go of his controls, drawing his sidearm as he activated the canopy.

  The canopy slid back, revealing Robert, who didn’t look happy.

  “Uh, time to bail, gang,” Josh stated over his helmet comms. “Hi, boss!” he greeted, putting his sidearm away before Robert could see that he had drawn it. “What’s up?”

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Just trying out these sims,” Josh explained. “They’re way better than ours. I think they do something to manipulate the gravity inside to make it feel more like you’re really flying. It’s cool. You wanna try it?”

  Robert looked over at the other two Dragons, whose canopies were now open. “Have you pre-flighted your ships today?” he barked at Tricia and Lannie.

  Both pilots immediately jumped out of their cockpits, leaving their helmets behind as they scurried down their boarding ladders.

  “I’ve been looking for you all over the ship,” Robert scolded Josh.

  “Why didn’t you just call me over comm-sets?” Josh wondered.

  “I have been.” Robert rapped his knuckles on Josh’s helmet a bit harder than expected. “You’re not wearing it.”

  Josh looked surprised. “You mean… These helmets must not be conn
ected to the comm-set systems. Huh…how about that?”

  “I suppose it never occurred to you to check if they did first?”

  “I just assumed…”

  “Yeah. Come on. We’re coming up on our next jump point.”

  Josh glanced at his wristwatch. “Oh shit, I didn’t realize,” he remarked as he climbed out of the cockpit.

  “That’s what I figured,” Robert grumbled as he walked away.

  “But seriously, boss, we’ve gotta save these simulators. They’re so much better than ours, and they have every battle in history programmed into them. I mean, the training possibilities are endless!”

  * * *

  Over the course of two days, Neli’s job had grown from feeding around fifty to feeding more than a hundred. At least she now had access to a much greater selection of food. Besides the Aurora’s fully stocked pantry, she also had access to the pantry on the Navarro.

  Unfortunately, the additional options only made her life more difficult. Several of the Aurora’s crew had tried to pitch in and help, but they had their own jobs filling their days. At least one of the technicians had managed to get a couple of the captured service droids working, to help her keep the galley clean.

  “Excuse me, ma’am,” a man called from the door from the mess hall.

  Neli turned around, surprised to see three people, a man with two women behind him. Even more surprising was that she didn’t recognize any of them. “May I help you?” Neli asked, wiping her hands on her apron as she moved toward them.

  “Captain Taylor suggested we speak to you about volunteering?” the man explained. “I’m Monte, this is Shashi, and this is Denice.”

  “Volunteering? Are you on the Aurora’s crew?”

  “I guess that depends on you,” Monte replied.

  “I don’t remember seeing any of you before.”

  “We were on the Scott,” Monte explained, “she was on the Navarro,” he added, pointing to Denice. “We all worked in food service, so I guess Captain Taylor thought we could be of help.”

  Neli felt a wave of relief. “Well, bless her heart. Yes, I could use the help. These people work hard, and they eat a lot.”