Misjump Page 19

  Gregor went over to help Ivo removing the panels. They could be disassembled neatly with the appropriate tool or quickly with the plasma torch. Ivo had decided that speed was more important. Exposed cable runs, air ducts and other less identifiable piping filled the gap between the outer hull and the passenger space. Tabs of tape with quick notes were attached to lines as Ivo identified them. Several were labelled with a question mark. There was a crawl space through the station guts that led to a hatch, presumably to the escape pod. Frost was forming on the metal confirming Zeek’s thoughts on the status of the pod. Gregor quickly rummaged in the toolkit that Ivo had brought from his room and grabbed a magnetic wrench to get more of the panels off. Even with care, he was sure that this would be noisy.

  After twenty minutes, they had a good candidate for the data line. It was an optical cable and it went into a connector in the hull. That was where the pod systems and explosive bolts would be. Ivo reached in and unscrewed the connector, peering into it before waving Meilin over. “Hey, do we have anything that uses the old optical standard? My PDA is from after they stopped using it.”

  Meilin shook her head and spoke quietly. “That was old tech even when this place was built but it is cheap and OK for low bandwidth connections.” She looked around. “The data terminal on the opposite wall probably supports it but there is nowhere near enough cable to reach.”

  Ivo nodded. “Ok, we can’t move the cable, but the terminal is going to be pretty simple to move, I think. Do you see a problem?”

  Meilin looked at the tagged cables. “No, if you can manage to get it power, I don’t see anything that would stop us.”

  Ivo nodded, took the wrench off Gregor and headed for the opposite bulkhead.

  Wiring the console into the outer wall had proved to be a simpler job than connecting the data line. The wall console had a port for a fibre optic cable but the end was physically different. Some poking around had found a second port under a blanking plate. Ivo glanced at his PDA and saw the operation had taken a little under fifteen minutes. The unit now sat on a chair, cables trailing back into the wall. Meilin sat at the keyboard, typing into the archaic text interface. She had found what looked like a shell access point on the expected port but she didn’t have any credentials. She called Ivo over and asked for his PDA.

  “Zeek, can you ask Fumi if she knows any credentials that might get me in?” she typed.

  “She says that she is working on it but I think that she is pretty busy at the moment. A crew is trying to board Sarafina. Want me to ask anyway?” replied Zeek.

  Meilin hesitated. “If she can without putting herself in more danger, yes, I think that we need it,” she typed.

  Several seconds later, Zeek replied with “OK, expect a file transfer over point to point. She’ll relay though one of the Sarafina copies. She says that she hopes that it will be a distraction and that she’ll be offline for a bit. Will help after if she can.”

  Meilin nodded and waited for the data transfer. The peer to peer comms network was always slow. After a long handful of seconds, a compound file arrived, and she opened the file. There was a block of text at the start:

  “Hey sister, sorry that I can’t be there to help out but you will do fine. I know that this is probably your first real hack but if the safety systems are anything like the main base, the odds are really on your side. Their security was crap. So, what I have done is gone through all the files that the guys brought back from Neuholme. The stalk was built in orbit around Ironstone and they probably followed local laws. They had a treaty with Neuholme so maybe some of the information applies. Only maybe though. I would give you better info if I had it. If there are any backdoors, that is going to be the place to look. If it is tagged with a ‘P’, it came from the police station. ‘H’ is the hospital. I’ll be happy to help when I have dealt with these rude gentlemen who are trying to open the front airlock. I don’t think that they know that I still have power and will have a nasty surprise in a minute. See what you can find in the stuff that I have copied and give it a try. If I am still around after I get rid of these scumsuckers then I will help. Good luck!”

  Meilin started to go through the file. It wasn’t in any particular order and seemed to be copies of anything related to emergency government access to systems. She scrolled through, making a first pass when a new chat message indicator appeared. She switched window and saw a new message from Zeek.

  “The three peacekeeper ships just launched from stalk. Those things have mining lasers and can take five crew. They are heading for them ships you all are building. If they get those, we are humped good. Want me to organise some folks and try to engage? Given the distances, not much if anything that we can get there in time ‘cept maybe one of the flingers could fire on ‘em. Advise!”

  Meilin called Gregor over. He read the message and nodded, his face grim. “Tell him that I have this. Is not problem.” Meilin relayed the message while Gregor pulled out his PDA and started sending commands to the AIs of the Sarafina copies. After sending the commands, Gregor turned back to Meilin. “If you can disable base weapons, we may get to keep ships that we built. If not, well, won’t be captured. Quick would be good, please.”

  Meilin went back to the file, looking for any kind of override or backdoor. She didn’t find quite what she was looking for but did find an access mechanism to ask for an account for emergency services that might be common to the two systems. There was an explanation with it that said it would trigger a system-wide alert when used and could be blocked by an administrator, but it seemed the best option for now. She followed the protocol, typing out the long numerical sequence into the re-purposed wall console. The system responded at once.

  “Request acknowledged. Waiting on admin lockout.

  ………………………………..

  Admin lockout timeout. Alert issued.

  Account access granted. Admin or user rights? (A/U)”

  Meilin typed ‘A’ and pressed enter.

  “Menu or shell (M/S). Shell can be opened from menu.” appeared on screen.

  Meilin typed ‘M’ and new text scrolled on to the screen.

  “EMERGENCY SERVICES OVERRIDE MENU”

  Staff/Admin lockdown (ENABLED)

  Hull breech protocol (DISABLED)

  Fire protocol (DISABLED)

  Invasion protocol (DISABLED)

  Initiate system wide evacuation (NOT TRIGGERED)

  Main and secondary reactor shutdown (NOT TRIGGERED)

  Scuttle facility (NOT TRIGGERED, requires confirmation)

  Shell”

  Meilin looked at the options, trying to decide whether to ask for advice. She decided that there wasn’t time. She chose option 6.

  “Preparing for reactor shutdown. System wide alert sent. [WARNING! All users! Emergency Power shutdown in progress. Seek safety.]

  Waiting for admin override.

  …………………………………………

  Admin override timed out. Confirm shutdown of main and secondary reactors (Y/N)”

  Meilin punched the ‘Y’ key much harder than necessary.

  “ARE YOU SURE (Y/N)” appeared on screen. She punched the ‘Y’ key again. The word “goodbye” flashed on screen for an instant and the display went dark. The room dimmed, the battery powered emergency lights started by the loss of power. The red light started dimming almost at once as the units failed after more than a century of neglect. The sound of shouting filtered through the walls and Meilin felt her stomach lurch as the artificial gravity failed. Gregor looked over to her, clearly astonished.

  “Weapons systems offline, captain,” she said.

  Chapter 22

  The crew pieced together what happened after the reactors were shutdown in the days that followed. The first few minutes were chaotic outside of the executive quarters. The Klondike mining facility systems had not been designed for the jungle of ships and cargo containers that had been added as additional living space and storage. The power syst
ems of the jungle had been crudely integrated with the base systems and the loss of the base reactors had left several of the ships in the sprawl trying to supply the entire power network. Most had shut down almost at once, but some fires had broken out from cables operating at many times their expected rating. Fires in an enclosed environment were too urgent a threat for anyone to ignore and Bakker’s men and the rest of the staff suddenly found themselves on the same side. There had been fighting in other areas but the shock sticks of the peacekeepers that had supported Bakker couldn’t do lethal damage. The improvised weapons of the other staff could and there were fatalities. Several died from fumes from the fires and some from accidents that occurred with the sudden loss of gravity. In total, there were ninety-two deaths including the peacekeeper ships that tried to capture the Sarafina copies. The AIs had effectively coordinated weapons and destroyed the incoming ships at range. They had not been armoured or expecting resistance. Over the course of several hours, those that had supported Bakker were overcome or surrendered. The reactors that had been powering the construction rings for the ship factory were hurriedly repurposed to supply power to the stalk while the main reactors were brought back online. Within thirty-six hours, the state of emergency had been cancelled and order of a kind re-established.

  Nitrauw had been found in a cell in the station brig, Bakker having previously been head of base security. He was battered and bruised with one eye swelled shut but would recover without problems. He made a point of appearing on a station wide broadcast before his injuries had been treated in an adept bit of political theatre. He made sure that Bakker was looking his best, dressed in peacekeeper uniform. In the minds of the recovering staff and miners, it was very clear that Nitrauw was one of them and had bled along side them while Bakker had used his bullies for the attempted coup. The crew of the Sarafina had been surprised by the end of Nitrauw speech.

  “We have simple rules here for the benefit of all. I know that many of you have been asked to work extra shifts but that was for us all. There is one rule that we never break, that this colony has never broken before. That rule is that a ship belongs to its captain. Well, Bakker didn’t believe that. He tried to take the station and what is that if not a ship? They shot at and boarded the Sarafina, our great hope in the battle against the greenies. They tried to take the new ships that we are building to take the fight to the greenies. Now, maybe he claimed that he needed to take the ships because he would do a better job of it but I have a question for you, whether you are a rockhound in a single or a commissary worker. Who is the person that should command a ship? The captain! You elected me and I try to lead you wisely. The crew of the Sarafina elected Captain Gregor Solokov. We support our captains, be they single ship operators or experienced navy men. We must come together in this belief. This is stalk. This is how we do things. We support our captains and we will not let anyone take a ship from its rightful master. We must work together against the greenies and we will. We won the fight to keep what is ours when we put down the rebellion. That is a hell of thing. Now it is time to take back what used to belong to humanity. We will strike back. We will do what it takes. We will build Captain Solokov a fleet!”

  Nitrauw had been right when he said that Bakker’s men had boarded the Sarafina but he didn’t give the details. He had felt that no-one had needed to know. Fumi explained to the rest of the crew as soon as normal comms had been restored.

  “So, I had cut power to the airlock and I had the ship playing dead – the reactors were on minimum, no lights, no artificial gravity, dead in space for all that they knew. The manual override on the ‘lock wasn’t working. I had used nanites to do a hasty weld, but I didn’t dare keep the power on for too long. After they lost patience, they tried cutting their way in and I let them get the outer airlock open. I even helped them by opening the inner airlock but I didn’t wait until they had resealed the outer lock. That blew two of them clean off the ship, one of them minus a good chunk of his helmet. They were a bit more cautious after that and started using tethers in case I decided to open any other airtight doors. That suited me just fine. Did you know that the artificial gravity can be adjusted from minus point eight to just under positive two? It is not meant to be, but the limits are set in software. If you switch between those every second or so, anything not tied down bounces from floor to ceiling pretty impressively. It broke a lot of stuff that wasn’t fastened away but it also busted up the boarding party nicely. I don’t know what state they were in when the group from the stalk came to get them, but they weren’t moving much. As for the broken stuff, well, it will get fixed. All good!”

  Nitrauw made a few changes in policy after the attempted coup. The first of these was to relax population controls to replace the people that had died and an expansion program that would increase the colony size by eighty percent over forty years. The new manufacturing technology brought with the Sarafina had eased the pressure on life support significantly and he was confident that it could be supported if there were any success against the greenies. As part of the expansion, new farming asteroids would be brought online and one of these would be the new home of Bakker so that he could work for the well being of the colony. It was the end of the policy statement that caused the most immediate interest. As part of the planned population growth, there would be a lottery of candidates for a birth permit with those that exceeded their work quota being given an extra ticket. No-one had anticipated the number of people desperate to start a family. Morale and output both rose sharply.

  #

  The six ships approached the jump point in a line, the first two separated from the others by a gap of 10 KM. The vessels had been dubbed “Rockhammer” class in a competition, part of the attempt to raise morale. The schedule had slipped repeatedly as changes were made to the design of the ships and as holes showed up in the training of the pilots. Of the hopefuls, only four had met the required standard. The others could fly effectively but didn’t cope well with combat simulations or work together as a team. They were now manning the Rockhammers that were guarding the jump point. Gregor had discussed the need with Nitrauw and conceded the point. There was minimal risk that an enemy ship would jump in while they were jumping out, but it was a matter of pride and an effective endorsement of the governor. The guard ships were white while the ships that were jumping were black, invisible against space except for their lights and the occlusion of the occasional star. The lead ships were piloted by Gregor and Fumi. The second ship was technically a drone, but Fumi was in a simulation of the cockpit within the Sarafina’s expanded computer core. The second ship had been stripped of life support and stores and the space filled with energy cells and fuel. While the generators were no more powerful than the other ships, it could accelerate faster and run its weapon systems for a little longer than the others. The two ships approached the jump point, slowing as they approached the invisible place.

  Gregor opened up the comms, broadcasting, knowing that he was playing to the home audience. “Sarafina is in position for jump. Iron Maid is also in position ready for jump. Tromp, approach the jump point as soon as we have jumped followed by Nimitz, Fist, and Blade.” Gregor was not a fan of the names, but they had been chosen by poll again. “Defenders, please be vigilant and don’t forget that we are coming back. No friendly fire when we do, okay?” The pilots of the other Rockhammers had all been briefed, but Nitrauw had wanted a show. Dutifully, Gregor started a countdown. At zero, the two ships slipped without any fuss into hyperspace. The Iron Maid had been chosen as it had a calibration closest to the original Sarafina and should emerge in much the same position and orientation. The viewscreen in front of Gregor flipped from a starfield display to a readout of various ships systems.

  In her virtual environment, three of the consoles flashed multiple warnings in urgent red, two went dark, and the remaining console disappeared from the VR to be replaced by an error message hanging in space reading: “Object integrity check failed. Security service has stopped thi
s object.” Fumi sighed and started shutting down the cockpit simulation. There was no way to communicate while in jump and the AI on the Iron Maid would have to run things until they reentered normal space. There was a risk that the ship would hit a problem while uncrewed, but there was not much that could be done about that. Fumi pulled a saved configuration from storage and started to check the systems of the Sarafina against the record. The ship had changed a great deal in the last few months with additional power, processing, and most importantly weapons systems. It now massed seventy percent more than it had fully laden with cargo, but it still had most of its manoeuvrability, at least in a vacuum. Landing in an atmosphere was going to be tricky.

  One by one, the other jump ready Rockhammers moved into position and transitioned to Tau space. The jump was preprogrammed, but the pilots had been taught about many of the things that could go wrong with a transition. There had been no way to teach them all of the possible problems. Misjumped ships often never came back at all and there was no way to know what had happened to them. It would be a long week for all of them.

  Chapter 23

  Gregor sat in the cockpit, even more cramped than usual due to the addition of extra control panels and readouts. The styles of the consoles didn’t match, having been copied from any examples that could be found and brought to be scanned, but they all linked in to the ship’s central computer. He wondered again if he should have checked over the interface code, but he was probably happier not knowing. He flicked the switch to open a channel to Jax in fire control. “Comms check and status please.”

  “Hearing you five for five, status is bored. We are still in jump. What the hell do you think that I could be doing in here?” replied Jax.

  There was a pause from Gregor. “You know, is better that I don’t think about answer to that question. I have not long had lunch and do not want to see it again. Are you good to go when we drop into normal space?”