Misjump Page 18

  Gregor nodded. “Da, we may be, but we have fallback. You let me worry about that. Give me three more months, yes?”

  Nitrauw nodded. “Yes, but I want to see some of the ships operational before then, the third that you don’t think will be jump capable perhaps. That shouldn’t affect the training schedule, I think.”

  Gregor grunted assent. “Actually, would help. Experience with real ship better than simulator.”

  Meilin raised a hand slightly before speaking. “Mr Nitrauw, I have a question that I hope that you wouldn’t mind answering. You seem very concerned about schedules and completion dates, but this base has been operating under much the same conditions for around a century. Is there some urgency that we are not aware of here?”

  Nitrauw picked up his coffee but didn’t take a drink. “Okay, that is a fair question. There are a coupla reasons. We look to have the attention of the greenies. They sent an attack a few weeks after you arrived. That was probably because you arrived. The situation is changing, and I want us to be the ones who are controlling that. Another reason is that we know that they are taking humans and co-opting them. We don’t know if they are breeding people to use or taking additional worlds, but they must be getting new humans from somewhere or they would have no hosts left. Those are damn good reasons, I reckon.” He paused to sip his coffee. “But there are more local reasons. We have a controlled population. We needed one in a closed environment. We would have reduced it further if we could, but the medical team were worried about genetic diversity. Everyone is working extra hours to support the shipbuilding, even the agricultural staff. We buy some of the required materials from independent miners who want payment in oxygen, food, and ship parts.

  “If we are working towards a goal and have results to show, I can keep people focused even when they are tired. I can justify running down stores. If I don’t have progress to show, then the staff will get unhappy, and I control the stalk for as long as I am allowed to do so by the staff. Another manager would be less sympathetic, especially if it looked like he was following the program that his predecessor had followed. We need a win of some kind to keep the project safe. I value my job, but I value what this means for the race much, much more. I’ll do what I can to make sure that we get any kind of progress at all against the greenies, but none of the things that I could do will keep people working when they have no faith in me. I would have to use coercion against the people that I am trying to protect. In short, I can’t afford for you to screw up and I can’t afford to stop, but there is a limit what I can ask people to do. If you screw up, I won’t be asking. I will be telling and that will be brutal. You’ll force that on me. Do you understand my position?” he asked.

  “Yes, Mr Nitrauw, I think that we understand you very well. We will see if we can adjust our priorities to give you what you need,” said Meilin.

  #

  The new ships formed a ring around the processor cluster like a mechanical vine fruit, cables takeingthe place of vines and girders taking the place of branches. Meilin looked at the diagram on screen and clicked the image of each in turn to see the status of the build. She knew that Fumi was monitoring the process more closely than she was, but it made sense to check and she would understand better if she experienced the process. In theory, each ship should be identical, and they were indistinguishable on a macro level, but the truth was more complex. The drive systems relied on quantum effects and these could not be chosen – the state that you got when the wavefunction collapsed was the state that you got. In a normal shipyard, the components that this affected were shipped in, well packaged and labelled with the observed values so that the engineers could adjust other parameters to suit. Components that were too far along the probability curve were remade or shipped off for other tasks that suited them better. While the nanite factory was a marvel of improvisation, they didn’t have any way to measure some of the values except by testing the resulting systems. That made the completion figures closer to an estimate than a reality and there was nothing that Meilin could do about it. She clicked onto the next ship in the ring and pulled up the AI console for testing. The complexity of the system meant that some of the behaviours were non-deterministic but deviations from the expected behaviour could normally be trained away with patience. In the rare cases where the AI was truly psychotic, it could always be overwritten with a fresh image and training restarted. She was more worried about the parts of the ship that couldn’t be tested in a sandbox. It was going to be another long day,

  Gregor rubbed his eyes and read the report again, aware that the numbers wouldn’t look any better for a second reading. He had estimated that one ship in three would be close enough to the required specs to pass an inspection in a decent shipyard but that had proved to be optimistic. His grasp on the theory was shaky but he knew that probable values for the components were semi-random. They would follow a bell curve but there was no way to select where in the curve. When multiple systems had to work together, they needed matched values and that came down to luck and that had been conspicuously absent lately. They would have to remanufacture half the drives or double ship production to meet the plan. Both would put them behind schedule and doubling production meant doubling the costs. Nitrauw was not going to like either option at all. Fumi was recommending doubling production, of course. That would be hard to sell but at least it would give Nitrauw something other than a delay to focus on. Reluctantly, Gregor sent him a meeting request. This was going to be an interview without coffee.

  #

  The second ring was slowly taking shape, metal girders being weldedinto place by nanites as work crews stripped them from the hulks that had been taken from the jungle of ships attached to the stalk. Nitrauw had not been pleased in any sense and Gregor had endured the criticism with difficulty. The stalk was ramping up mining operations, but it would take time to get mothballed systems back online and there would be a shortage of pilots, made worse by the number of rockhounds that were being trained to pilot the modified Camel ships. Many of the staff were complaining about the extended hours. Nitrauw was pushing some luxury items into the commissaries but a lot of the staff were not happy. According to what Jax had heard in the bar, the manual workers had just been reminded that the admin staff got perks that they didn’t. At least the newly trained pilots would be available to ferry ore once the mining got underway again.

  The first sign of trouble was when the door of their quarters in the admin section wouldn’t open in the morning. The control panel was dead and the heavy airtight door wouldn’t shift even with the manual override. Gregor punched the button on the comms panel next to the door with no more effect. He tried raising Fumi on the comms unit linked to the ship and got a reply at once.

  “Hey, Greg. Checking up on progress? We are on the revised, revised, revised schedule just fine,” said Fumi.

  “Is good but is not what am calling for. We are locked in apartment and cannot raise anyone to fix door. Can you check status with stalk, please?”

  “Sure,” said Fumi. “Hang on.”

  “Not having any other options here,” replied Gregor.

  “Uh, ok, hang on a bit more. The stalk isn’t answering, and the base network won’t let me attach. That is… not good. It is up but it is not letting me attach. What the actual… oh fuck. Gregor, the mass driver is pointing directly at me. I am heading towards the stalk. I don’t think that they will fire if it might hit them. You might want to prepare for trouble. Something isn’t right here,” said Fumi.

  Gregor turned to the rest of the crew. “We may have trouble. You remember I said not to bring weapons? Who brought anyway?” He was unsurprised when Jax raised his hand sheepishly. “What did you bring?”

  “Pistol with shot rounds, two clips. It is in my bunk.” Jax headed back to his room to get the weapon.

  “Anyone else?” asked Gregor.

  Meilin and Lori shook their heads, but Ivo spoke. “It isn’t a weapon but I brought a plasma torch. It should be more
than enough to get that door open.”

  “Good,” said Gregor. “Weld the door shut. We don’t know what is out there, but we know what is in here. Let us keep it so, yes?”

  “Kinda paranoid there. Good move,” commented Jax.

  Gregor spoke into the comm, ignoring Jax. “Fumi, is weapon tracking you?”

  “Yup. I think that I am accelerating a bit faster than they expected though. I should be lined up with the stalk in another eighteen seconds or so. You know what? I have an idea… Yup, they went for it! Ok, I cut thrust and spun the ship, applying reverse power. They got antsy and fired a round which missed by a good few metres. It will take them enough time to reload that I should be safe cuddling up to the stalk now,” replied Fumi, more excited than afraid.

  “Fumi,” said Gregor, “Confirm, they fired on Sarafina, yes?” He raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the plasma torch welding the door seam shut.

  “Aye-firm. They are definitely hostile. I thought that Nitrauw was an OK guy. What gives?” asked Fumi.

  “Don’t know but do not fly my ship into danger! Stay by stalk, you understand?”, said Gregor.

  “Yes, got it. I knew it would be a miss but sure. Anyway, four seconds until I am lined up and at least another eight before they can fire again with just the one flinger,” she replied.

  “Da but is not just one flinger that they are having!” Gregor gripped the comm tighter, the plastic creaking in his hand.

  “Yes, I know, but only one is tracking me. The others are still on… were still on station. One of them is turning but it doesn’t look to be targeting me. If they don’t change then they will be pointed at the flinger that fired on me,” said Fumi.

  “What are the base laser emplacements doing?” asked Gregor. “I am blind here.”

  There was a barely noticeable pause. “Ok, yes, they are tracking me. Fuck. Not what I wanted.”

  “Da, me neither. You can fight, run or maybe they will talk. I do not think that fighting here helping but you have con. What is your-“ A new voice broke into the conversation.

  “This is the new executive officer. Captain Solokov, you will tell your AI to shut down the Sarafina. If you do not comply, we will take your power systems offline. Is that understood? We have multiple lasers tracking and we can sever the power busses without taking out your jump drive. If you issue any other order then we fire. This is not a negotiation.” The voice didn’t sound like Nitrauw.

  Gregor allowed himself a moment to think, his face red but unreadable. “Fumi, shut down engines and weapon systems. Do not surrender and do not allow-“

  “Fire, weapons free!” ordered the new voice. Other voices could be heard but the words were blurred, beyond the range of the mic on the comms unit. “Are you sure?” asked the voice of the new executive, off to one side. After a moment, he spoke into the comm unit again. “Captain, I am sorry to say that your AI ignored your order and we were forced to disable the ship. We didn’t want to do that but we couldn’t allow the only ship with a functional jump drive to remain outside of the control of the colony. We will ensure that you get full credit for what you have done for us though. Please stay in your quarters while we finish up the change in control, for your own safety. Order will be resumed very soon.”

  Gregor ignored the voice. “Fumi, report status.” No answer came.

  The crew had no clearer plan after 20 minutes. There hadn’t been an attempt to enter the quarters but the sound of voices outside the door had been audible. Meilin was searching for some kind of audio monitoring without success, not least because she only had a standard issue PDA that was ill-suited to the task. The wireless network access had been disabled and the closest points of presence showed up intermittently at best. Ivo was still trying to get a connection without success when a notification icon appeared on the screen for a peer to peer text chat. It was a feature rarely used when there was a station or planetside network because it was slow and required line of sight, but it was sometimes useful when far from the beaten track because it didn’t require anything more than two comms units. He opened the chat window, the calling party being listed as Over-E-Z.

  “Who is this?” he typed.

  “Ezekiel, Zeek. We met near the jump point,” came the reply.

  “Not a wonderful time to chat. We have some problems here,” typed Ivo.

  “Yep, I know. Wouldn’t have called you else. You all still locked down in the executive suite there?” asked Zeek.

  “Uh, how would you know where we are? If you know that then you probably know that we are still locked down here,” typed Ivo, his fingers fumbling on the small screen.

  “Fumi called me and said. Well, kinda. Text only but you know what I mean. She wants me to act as a relay.”

  Ivo gestured Gregor over and showed him the screen. Gregor read but left the comm with Ivo. “Fumi and the Sarafina are offline. Taken out by stalk defences,” typed Ivo.

  “Yup, that is what Bakker and his boys think. Fumi says that only one of the power busses was taken out and she is just playing dead,” typed Zeek.

  “Bakker?” asked Ivo.

  “Mr so called chief executive Bakker. Used to be the peacekeeper leader, but apparently he wanted a promotion and was kinda informal in his approach. Anyhow, Fumi is beaming to the construction ring and that is beaming to me and I am sending on to you. Bakker has one, maybe a couple, of the flingers and seems have control of stalk. Folks don’t seem too happy about it from what is leaking out. The rest of Klondike system either doesn’t know about it or is waiting to see what happens next. Most of us don’t have much time for someone that would steal an independent’s ship, mind. You probably got more friends than enemies but that don’t help any too much when the ones closest ain’t friends,” replied Zeek.

  “Yes. We noticed,” replied Ivo. “Is there anything that you can do to help us?”

  “Kinda think that I am doing it. Fumi says that she can control the part-completed ships and they could attack stalk but it is going to be hard to do that without killing a bunch of folk. Now, this bit is just my opinion, but I reckon that you would be as popular as a fart in a two-man ship if you did that. She also says that the comms networks are mostly offline, but bits come and go, maybe because different people are trying to control them. When a node does come up, it seems pretty pissed off with Bakker.”

  “I can see why people would be unhappy, but we haven’t heard any signs of resistance here. They may be complaining but I don’t think that they are doing much about it,” typed Ivo.

  “Yeah, well, that would make sense given that the executive decks are designed to be secure against the lower decks. According to the plans that Fumi has, stalks like ours were supposed to be able to operate as penal colonies and the governor didn’t want random crims coming up to his office for a chat,” replied Zeek. “The upper decks can be sealed off, but the stalk has been patched up and around so often that it ain’t what you might call a good seal anymore.”

  Gregor set his PDA to playing music, loud and brassy before a whispered conversation with Ivo. “Is there any way to take control over the network again? Pls ask Fumi,” he typed.

  “She says not,” replied Zeek. “They probably locked most of it down and it is patched pretty well now. She says that you said to do that,” replied Zeek.

  “No backdoor?” asked Ivo.

  “She says no. They were inspecting changes. There will be holes in security but all the easy to use ones are gone. She will work on it but without network access, not much hope.”

  “Could we get to another area via airducts?” asked Ivo.

  There was a pause before Zeek’s answer. “She says that the ducts are twelve centimetres by ten. The only ways out are the door and the escape pod.”

  “Escape pod?” asked Ivo.

  “Yes,” replied Zeek. “Fumi says that there is a three-man pod. Now, it ain’t my call to make but I wouldn’t have thought that anyone had serviced that thing in … well, pretty m
uch ever. Anyhow, rock defence lasers would take you to bits if you launched.”

  “And there are four of us. I am assuming that the room would be open to vacuum at that point,” typed Ivo.

  “Reckon so. You all got vac suits in there?” replied Zeek.

  “No. Any idea how it is launched?” asked Ivo.

  There was another pause. “Fumi says that the schematics show a link to control, but she would expect there to be a manual override.”

  “Would that be a network link?” asked Ivo.

  “She don’t know,” replied Zeek. “Guessing it would have to be though.”

  Gregor leaned over to speak in Ivo’ ear. “Get the panels off, try to find network tap. Give me PDA, yes?” Ivo nodded and handed over the PDA.

  “Zeek, is Gregor. Have Ivo trying to get to network. Ask Fumi what controls escape pods. If we can reverse link, what can we control?” typed Gregor.

  There was a longer wait this time. “She don’t know. Nothing that she saw when she was in there. Not main system but a subsystem that operates independently. Safety stuff, life support, maybe some physical security. She will look back over her notes but ain’t exactly full of hope from what she says.”

  “Understood. Still best idea so far. Does she have way into system?” asked Gregor.

  “She says that she don’t even know what the system is yet but probably old. Old is good and bad, she says. Good because it has lousy security. Bad because she don’t have much experience with that,” replied Zeek.

  “Can she make a direct link to us? Thanks for great help but it go faster without relay, I think,” typed Gregor.

  “She sure can but it will be obvious to stalk that she is transmitting and she thinks that they will disable her for real if they know that. If they are monitoring you and me, ain’t much that they can do against a single ship without getting a heap of trouble. Got friends out here. Will ask her though,” replied Zeek. A minute or two later, he added “She has got an idea and is working on it. She said not to bother her unless it is urgent.”