Seraph’s Gambit- Episode 37
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Ariana
The airlock slid open to reveal a massive Rokma. Ariana took an involuntary step back at the sheer size of him. The Rokma filled the entire hatch space and didn’t look like he would fit through the door.
“Captain Harkin, I am First Shield Cru. Welcome to Okem.”
Ariana recognized the voice and name from the earlier encounter. She narrowed her eyes, “You fired on my ship.”
“I did. You were violating our space.” Cru said without any hint of remorse.
“But then you didn’t fire again.”
“You did not alter your course, proving your commitment to serving the will of the gods. It is now my duty to help you.”
“What would have happened had I not shot the missiles down?” Ariana asked.
Cru just smiled enigmatically, “The will of the gods.”
Ariana frowned, but didn’t say anything in reply. There didn’t seem to be any point. She didn’t know much, anything really, about Rokma religion. No Rokma she had ever met, including Squee until a few days ago, had ever even hinted that they even had a religion. Though she admitted to herself, she hadn’t met very many.
Cru stepped back from the airlock hatch and gestured to some much smaller Rokma, “We have technicians standing by to assist with your repairs. Squee explained you had suffered greatly during your journey.”
Ariana nodded, “We’ve taken some damage. My engineer will want to oversee everything.”
“Of course.” Cru agreed, and then ordered the techs forward. They were small only compared to Cru, but Ariana still had to squeeze herself against the wall to let them past. Vlasa began speaking to the lead tech and escorting them to the environmental control room.
“Now, if you will follow me, the Elder Council wish to hear about your quest,” Cru said, and immediately turned and started down the corridor away from the airlock.
Ariana followed with Squee in tow. Once inside the station, she marveled at the scope of the design. Doors, corridors and chairs were all scaled to fit Rokma frames, which made them appear comically large to her human senses. She suddenly felt bad for Squee. None of the furniture on Seraph must have been very comfortable for him.
They walked down several corridors until they came to another airlock. Cru led them aboard a shuttle. The pilot undocked quickly and blasted away from the orbiting space station and down into the atmosphere of the planet below. No one said anything during the journey and Ariana’s seat did not give her much of a view.
After landing at a visually stunning structure made of well-crafted marble, they were taken into a large circular room. On raised platforms around her, Rokma sat staring down at them. These Rokma did not look as physically intimidating, though, compared to Cru, nothing did. They all were shaded grey and white compared to the shades of brown of most other Rokma she had encountered.
One of the elder figures spoke, but due to the echoing acoustics, Ariana had no idea which one, “Fifth Caleek Squee, you come before this Council under penalty of death for returning to Okem. Explain your presence.”
Ariana jerked a startled look at Squee. He had given no indication his life had been on the line. As usual, she could not read much from his expression.
“I return on a holy quest. Living my days in exile, I came upon Captain Harkin. She saved my life, and I pledged my service to her. I thought, at first, I would be merely repaying a debt. But as events unfolded, I came to understand the Gods had led me to Captain Harkin so that I could help complete her quest.” Squee said, his voice booming in the room.
He then gestured to Ariana, which she took as a request to speak, “My passenger, an old friend named Javi Wester, hired me to take him to Triask. He had learned of a plot by a terrorist group called Live Free or Die, LFD, to destroy PUG headquarters.”
“Noble, but hardly a holy quest. Many radical groups would love to see the PUG destroyed.” One of the elders said.
“I’m sure. But this group has the means to do so. They have engineered a new central AI and gathered the remnant drones under their control.”
“Nonsense. All of the central AI’s were destroyed in the war. The few remaining drones are scattered and without purpose.”
“I would like to believe that as well. But we’ve fought these ships. LFD has control over the drones. And they are coming.”
Incomprehensible voices sounded through the room as the elders talked amongst themselves in shock. After a few moments, a single voice rang out above the others, “How can we be certain she speaks the truth? Javi Wester is a known LFD agent and criminal. This could be a plot to discredit us.”
Ariana countered, “While Javi was once a member of LFD, he split with them over this plan. He stole the plans from them to stop them.”
“I find that uncompelling. Javi Wester founded LFD and has been a vocal leader among them. If he wished to stop them, he could merely order it. Indeed, he has participated in many of their more heinous crimes, such as the coup on Fumar which resulted in the deaths of more than a hundred people.”
“Javi would never engage in violence like that.” Ariana retorted, though she didn’t sound very convincing, even to herself.
“Perhaps you do not know this Slu as well as you believe. There is ample evidence, and the PUG has a warrant out for his arrest.”
Beside her, Squee cut off her next reply, “Regardless of his history, he now strives to make amends. I have seen the drone AI ships with my own eyes. We have among our crew, a drone formerly under their control. The fleet is coming. It will destroy PUG. It will bring war to the galaxy once again.”
The Elders murmured among themselves for another few moments, “Caleek Squee speaks well. It is clear he is speaking on behalf of the Gods. We will consider and decide if we are meant to heed his call.”
Ariana stomped into engineering immediately after returning to the ship. Vlasa and Olivia were both half buried in maintenance hatches, wires and pieces of equipment scattered at their feet. She tried to wait patiently for them to come out, but her patience ran out after only a few seconds.
“Vlasa,” Ariana said, her tone short. She chided herself for it.
Slowly, Vlasa and Olivia wormed their way out of the hatches. Grease-covered their hands and faces. Burn marks marred Olivia’s face behind the grease. Ariana put her frustration aside.
“What the hell happened?”
“The hack surged more than we expected,” Vlasa said, his tone careful.
“Surged?” Ariana said turning to him, “And it burned her?”
“It’s pretty minor,” Olivia said quickly.
“It’s swelling.”
“That’s just the burn cream,” Vlasa said.
“So Mesu’s looked at it already then?”
“Um, no. Not yet.”
“Not ever.” Olivia snapped.
“It really was just a minor burn. Mesu wouldn’t have had to do anything more than apply the cream and commentate on how fragile biologicals are.” Vlasa emphasized.
Olivia looked like she wanted to say more, but kept her mouth shut at a glance from Vlasa. Ariana decided Olivia would live, and whatever they weren’t saying didn’t matter enough to pry. She shifted back to why she had come.
“What’s the status of the FTL?”
“In pieces.” Vlasa said, gesturing to the parts on the floor.
“I can see that. How long to put it back together?”
“A few hours.”
“Can you safely remove the hack?”
“I could,” Vlasa said leaving something unsaid.
Olivia filled the silence, “By that, he means he doesn’t want to.”
“Why the hell not?”
“That’s what I’ve been asking him.”
Vlasa kept his gaze level at her despite her eye contact, something he normally avoided. Olivia glared at him as well. That Vlasa did not avert his gaze worried Ariana.
“Out with it.” She finally said.
“I believe I can hack the hack,” Vlasa said simply. He paused, and Ariana gestured for him to go on, “Right now, the hack does not have control over our FTL system. But it does have a basic connection giving it power and access to the internal network. Which includes the subspace transceiver.”
“That sounds bad.”
“Not as bad as you might think.” Vlasa explained quickly, “Our transceiver is pretty weak. We can only transmit a relatively short distance. But we can receive signals from much farther.”
“Which means the hack can get commands from its AI overlord from pretty far away,” Olivia said.
“Which we can intercept.” Vlasa said emphatically, “Which means, when it receives AI signals, we know. Which means we know there are AI ships within a few light years.”
Ariana frowned as she considered this information. Her first reaction was to feel about how Olivia looked; terrified and disgusted. No small number of crews had met an untimely end due to an AI hack.
After a moment, she said, “Can you get distance and bearing from this intercept?”
“I believe so.”
“So, we could use this as an AI early warning system?”
“Essentially.”
“Captain,” Olivia said, suddenly frantic, “You can’t seriously be considering this? This thing could kill us.”
“We have already ensured it has no control over any ship systems,” Vlasa said confidently.
“I’m sure that’s the same thing that the engineer on my parent’s ship said right before they were all vented out to space,” Olivia said.
Ariana tried to rest a comforting hand on Olivia’s shoulder, but the girl shook it off, “One of those drones boarded our ship. Killed my mother. She died right on top of me. Then it left one of these hacks behind. The engineers said we were fine. Fortunately for me at least, the families were put on the escape pods before he learned how wrong he was.”
“Olivia, you saw the connections yourself.” Vlasa said soothingly, “We’ve severed feed lines and wireless antennae. We’ve jammed its data port. The only thing the hack has access to is the transceiver. Next, we’ll even physically separate the transmit and receive functions, so there is no physical way for it to send a message.”
Vlasa turned to Ariana before she could say anything and held up his hands, “And, yes, that is going to make talking with anyone kind of a pain.”
“Just put the FTL back together.” Ariana said with a sigh, “I’ll think about leaving the hack in. But be ready to yank it.”
“Captain…” Olivia started.
“I’m sorry about your family, Olivia. I am. My first inclination is like yours, to just rip it out. But we need some advantage here. We can’t just pass it up out of hand. I have to consider it, at least.” Ariana said, forestalling any more arguments, “Now, where’s Javi?”
Continue to Episode 38
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