Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 7: Renegades Read online

  Lights flickered and gravity reasserted itself. She fell a scant foot to the deck. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to shake her fully awake. She realized that not only had she and the entire bridge crew passed out, but that the ship’s automated systems had been effected as well.

  “Yorky report,” Cat croaked in a voice that seemed oddly gruff and dry.

  There was no reply. She reached out to her internal AI, Cal. In a sudden panic she realized that for the first time since returning from the Proxy War mission several months ago, her internal AI was offline.

  She tried to run a diagnostic with her embedded Heshe encounter unit but without the AI she had no way of interfacing with it.

  Others on the bridge began to stand up. Ken was one of the first. He hit the ship-wide comm button on his command chair.

  “Engineering, Environmental, Weapons… report status,” He barked. His voice also seemed oddly hoarse.

  It took a moment but the various departments reported in. It appeared everyone onboard the Yorktown had been rendered unconscious for just shy of half an hour. The entire crew was OK save for a few cuts and bruises that occurred after the automated systems came online.

  The sole exception was Chief Yeoman Rand. He had been working in logistics supply near the forward shuttle bay. His neck was broken when a piece of equipment fell as a result of the shifting gravitational fields. Fortunately the injury happened after systems had begun to come back online. As a result, his standard-issue medical nanites were able to stabilize him until a medical team could supervise reconstructive surgery on his severed spinal column.

  As the reports were coming in Cat’s AI rebooted. Seconds later Yorky too was online.

  “What in the world was that all about,” Ben asked as he rubbed his jaw. The commander’s hybrid D’rlalu organic and human AI neural net had regained consciousness at slightly different times. The result was a brief period of “lock-in” syndrome where his organic mind was conscious but unable to control his cybernetic body. It was not an experience he enjoyed.

  Sassi, the Ashkelon lieutenant, twitched his low-frequency antenna nervously. “I think what we experienced was a higher dimensional plane reverberation from our jump attempt.”

  Ben looked at his captain, raised an eyebrow and then turned to look at the blue-eyed Ashkelon moth, “English please.”

  Cat stepped forward. “What the Lieutenant is saying is that when we jumped… and that was successful… we caused unintentional vibrations in one or more higher dimensions of space-time.”

  Both Ken and his First Officer continued to look confused. “Think about a stone hitting a bell. The stone travels in a single straight line but once it hits the bell, the sound radiates in all directions. As we shunted energy to and from higher dimensional planes in order to facilitate a hyperfield jump outside of a normal jump point we introduced a vibration in these higher dimensions.”

  “And that is what ‘rung our bell’?” Ken asked.

  “In a manner of speaking,” Cat agreed. “Sentience or ‘self-awareness’ is a fourth-dimensional manifestation of a higher-dimensional plane. Mathematicians and theologians call it the God plane.”

  “That’s why both organic and electronically sentient systems were effected,” Sassi interjected.

  “So,” Ken said, “we can jump from anywhere to anywhere… but the cost is one heck of a headache and total vulnerability while we nap.” He looked at Cat and Sassi with a hopeful expression. “Is there anything we can do about it?”

  Cat shook her head and then immediately regretted to movement.

  Sassi answered for her. “I don’t think so Captain. The more energy we shunt the more dramatic the effect. I would imagine jumping from a known jump point to a non-jump point or vice-versa will reduce but not eliminate the effect.”

  Cat looked thoughtful for a moment. “We may be able to modulate the shunting field to generate a cancelling effect… basically dampen the higher-dimensional vibration as it occurs but there is a lot of inherent risk.”

  “Meaning?” Ben asked softly.

  Cat smiled at her friend. “Meaning if we get it wrong we could amplify the effect.”

  ***

  Sharn Dragos kept a wary eye on the man sitting across from him. While Sharn was the only one in the room with a criminal record, it was the other man who in Sharn’s mind was the real villain.

  Senior fleet Admiral Imera, through his aid Commander McMillian, had requested an off-the-books meeting with the Talus Pirate league. The nature of the meeting was still unclear but the incentive to come had been enticing. Full amnesty and license to operate unencumbered in select regions of Coalition space. Whatever the Admiral wanted, he wanted it badly.

  Neither man said a word as their respective aids swept the conference room for bugs. Neither had any interest in their conversation becoming an intelligence bonanza for competing factions.

  The Fleet Admiral, for his part, cast an equally wary eye on the swarthy man seated across the conference room table from him. Sharn Dragos, the Pirate King. He appeared to be a man in his early forties of Middle Eastern descent. If half the stories about the man were true, he was considerably older than he appeared. It was said that his appearance could and would change over time. He was a master of disguise. If Imera had realized just how often the Pirate King had sat in the same room as he, wearing a GCP uniform with the same facility as he wore his pirate garb… the Admiral might have rethought the wisdom of this meeting.

  Finally both aids looked satisfied that the room was devoid of listening devices. As the aids exited the room, Admiral Imera poured a cup of hot tea which he offered to the other man. Sharn accepted it and took a tentative sip.

  “Adeni Shahee Ahmar?” Sharn said with a raised eyebrow. “A Yemeni Red Tea if I am not mistaken.”

  Admiral Imera smiled, “You’ve a refined palate I see.”

  “One learns to appreciate the subtle things in life. So many of my associates prefer the bitter taste of coffee. I’ve always enjoyed the nuances found only in a finely brewed tea.” He placed the cup back on the table. “I suspect, however, we are not here to talk of such things.”

  “No we are not,” Admiral Imera agreed. “The GCP finds itself in an unusual situation in which your help could be critical in resolving in a… matter of some concern.”

  Now it was Sharn Dragos’ turn to smile. “You are of course referring to the Catherine Kimbridge situation.”

  ***

  Cat reviewed the sensor data that was coming in over the Galactic info net. The Mardarus situation was beyond comprehension. Every fiber of her being wanted to rush there and render what aid she could… but deep down she knew the Yorktown and her taskforce were now considered renegades. Their very presence in the system would be disruptive and hinder what feeble rescue and recovery attempts the GCP was prepared to make.

  The sad reality was that the Yorktown’s best choice was to continue her efforts to fix the badly broken Galactic Coalition… and that meant learning what happened to the Hupenstanii and unseating the Grand Senate.

  Chapter 5: Resurrection…

  Alpha analyzed the data stream coming in from his remaining repair systems. If his creators had endowed his AI with emotion circuits he might have been depressed. As it was he was simply concerned by the limited number of available options. His power reserves were nearly exhausted. His energy harvesting systems were offline or destroyed. His reserve component stores were severely depleted and entire systems were missing due to damage that occurred while following his latest adversary through an unstable hyperfield conduit.

  A powered-down remnant of that adversary was secured in a storage bay. Alpha hoped to be able to recover critical information from the systems on that ship. But such investigations would need to wait.

  He had little choice. He programmed his few remaining repair bots to concentrate on bringing as many energy harvesting systems online as possible. He then scheduled the shutdown virtually everything else… inclu
ding his own AI systems. Alpha was now little more than an asteroid hurling toward the human’s sun. Space was vast. Even a ship the size of his would be hard to detect if it emitted no electromagnetic signatures.

  In a few months, if enough energy harvesters did not come online, he would meet his end in Sol’s corona. It was a calculated risk but if he were to succeed in destroying Earth then there were no other viable options.

  ***

  Triska’nar slowly made her way to the shore. The ocean swim had been exhausting. Unlike humans, the Hupenstanii rarely swam for pleasure and fun. Their bodies just were not made for it… this despite their water repellant feathers that covered a body that visually had more in common with a kangaroo than a terrestrial bird.

  Not for the first time Triska’nar thanked her father for convincing her that she should focus her medical doctorate studies on aquatic systems. The oceans were a vast untapped resource for her people. Learning to swim had proved an invaluable skill as she explored the bio-medical diversity under the sea.

  When it became apparent that the survey shuttle was under attack, her companions had literally forced her to collect her research and dive out of the doomed shuttle into the ocean. They had given their lives so that she might survive. The world needed to know what monsters the GCP had become. The world needed to know the horrible fate waiting all of them if the GCP activated a biological doomsday weapon that was even now sitting in place waiting to be deployed on their planet. If it were used… the genocide of her people would be the least of their problems.

  ***

  WhimPy-101 slowly awoke. Something was very wrong. He estimated his intellect was operating at only about 8% of capacity. This gave him a human equivalent IQ of about 230. It was frustrating because he was smart enough to know he was operating at diminished capacity but his current intellect greatly restricted in his options for addressing the issue.

  The problem seemed to be that power was just barely trickling into his backup memory core. It was almost as if the supply was accidental rather than deliberate. Thankfully, while it was not much… it was enough. WhimPy-101’s electronics were based on a tried and true robust technology that utilized Weyl Fermions. For this reason many (but not all) of his systems operated very efficiently.

  WhimPy-101’s backup core was fitted with a small number of fabrication nanites. He used them to scout the surroundings area within a few meters of his central processing unit. He made a discovery that was somewhat disconcerting. It seemed he was receiving energy that was being leaked by a defective power coupling that was located adjacent to storage bay where his salvaged remains were being stored. The storage bay did not seem to be of human or Heshe origin. In fact, if he had to guess, he suspected he was on the Uruk Alpha platform.

  WhimPy instructed his nanites to establish a proper tap into the conduit and at the same time repair the defect. He couldn’t have his unwitting host shut down his only power source if and when it detected a malfunction. The repair work itself was not without risk. There was the possibility that the incursion by his nanites would be detected but it was a risk that needed to be taken.

  It took several days to complete the work. His ability to control and direct the nanites was extremely limited. Eventually however the power tap was complete and he directed more energy to his core. Immediately his remaining neural circuits came online and he took full control of his repair systems.

  WhimPy-101 still had not confirmed where he was but there was a better than average chance that he was in hostile territory onboard the Alpha. The fact that he had been powered up by accident was itself a source of great concern. A GCP or Heshe rescue team would have immediately connected his core to a properly configured power source.

  As more energy flowed into his systems he began to bring more of his fabrication nanites online. His first and foremost priorities were to definitively determine where he was and to establish a defensive perimeter and secondary power source if at all possible.

  Strangely, most of the alien systems his nanites probes were encountering were powered down. This was unexpected; however it soon became apparent that the technology, while more advanced than human systems, was antiquated by Heshe standards. In addition, there were numerous components that were clearly of older Uruk design. This confirmed his worst fears. He was on the Alpha platform. What he could not fathom was why the bulk of the platform was powered down. Perhaps he had been able to inflict more damage than he had originally assumed. If this were true then there might be a small window of opportunity to take control of the platform.

  He quickly determined that roughly 86% of his body was missing. The remaining 14% was relatively intact. This included a launch bay with a small number of fusion powered autonomous drones used for planetary reconnoitering. He instructed his construction nanites to gang together the fusion reactors from six of the probes. These he then connected to his main power feeds. He could lose five of the six and still be able to function. It was not the level of redundancy he was used to but it would have to do for now.

  In his exploration of the Uruk vessel, he came across a number of old-style repair-bots. They were not as efficient as his nanite systems but they were powerful entities in their own right… that is, they would have been if they were powered up. They did have one advantage over his nanite systems. They could travel about the ship without raising any alarms. For this reason he took control of one such unit.

  Bypassing its primitive AI had been child’s play. The problem was the unit was designed to report its activity to the central AI. He could easily disable that function but the central AI, if it ever came back online, would grow suspicious of a repair-bot that was acting fully autonomously. He solved the problem by introducing a signaling glitch which caused the bot’s communication handshaking to repeatedly resend an old data packet. If the Alpha AI came back online it would simply assume the bot had developed a defect and place it in a very long queue of issues to be dealt with.

  Sparky, as WhimPy-101 had taken to calling his newly acquired slave unit, became WhimPy-101’s eyes and ears on the ancient starship. Why the Uruk had designed the vessel with walkable corridors and functioning turbolifts was beyond his understanding. To his knowledge, the Uruk/Heshe had never deployed the weapons platforms with crews. By the time the Uruk and later the Heshe had started deploying the WhimPy generation of weapons platforms the ships were no longer designed to carry crews. In point of fact, WhimPy-101 and his brethren fabricated living spaces on-the-fly whenever there was a need to host organic visitors.

  The first thing WhimPy had Sparky do was to isolate the area of the Uruk ship his processing core was located in. This was accomplished by selectively modifying the control codes to each and every access port that led to the storage bay WhimPy’s shattered hulk was located in. The second activity was to remove sensors from WhimPy’s exterior shell and relocate them to Alpha’s exterior. This gave WhimPy-101 his first view of local space. It was not the view he was expecting.

  ***

  Cat leaned forward in the Yorktown’s command chair. Captain Ken Kirkland had vacated it so he could more closely coordinate with the Yorktown’s chief engineer. As the former chief engineer himself he was uniquely qualified to help with the modifications and systems monitoring was currently taking place. He was seated at the bridge engineering console and had a direct tie-in to current chief engineer, Commander Thais in main engineering.

  “Ken, is engineering ready to launch our first ‘peek’ probe?” Cat asked.

  “Affirmative Admiral. The probe’s AI has been shut down and a simple timer circuit is tested and operational.” He adjusted a few parameters on the probe interface and then swiveled in his seat to face the Admiral. “We should be able to feed a navigation stream directly into the probe’s guidance system. It has been programmed to scan the jump destination and then reverse the jump ten seconds after system entry. Its onboard systems should record telemetry for the entire unrestricted jump.”

  Cat turned to
face Sassi. “Lieutenant, launch the peek probe on heading 10-33 mark 6. Sublight 0.25.”

  If things proceeded as planned the data the peek probe returned with would be able to refine the jump parameters for the Yorktown as it transited to the Hupenstanii system. In addition, it would provide a warning should there be any nasty surprises waiting near the jump terminus. This was especially important if the Yorktown was to be incapacitated for any period of time.

  “Peek probe launched,” Sassi confirmed.

  “When it reaches 2000 kilometers, go ahead and signal the jump to Hupenstaii space,” Cat ordered.

  A few moments later Ben reported the desired degree of separation between the Yorktown and the probe had been obtained.

  Cat nodded. “Sassi, if you would.”

  “The probe is creating a modified unconstrained hyperfield jump point,” Sassi confirmed. “The hyperfield conduit is stable. The probe is jumping. The probe is gone.”

  “And now we wait,” Ben said from his First Officer’s station.

  Cat counted down the ten seconds. When the allotted time had expired she looked over at the sensor officer. The young woman shook her head. “No contact Admiral.”

  The Yorktown and Relentless continue to canvas the expected return point for six additional hours. She was reluctant to use active sensor scans as her taskforce was close to GCP controlled space. Finally she gave in to the need to be less covert

  Cat swiveled to look at Ken. “Captain, any telemetry coming in?”

  “Negative Admiral. Switching to active scans in surrounding space… full 360 degree spherical spread…” Before Ken could continue he was interrupted by the blaring of the emergency klaxons. At the same time the bridge lighting switched to red and dimmed. All the control consoles automatically reconfigured to battle mode. “…Admiral, please keep the con,” he finished as he scanned his engineering board.

  Cat sat fully upright and scanned the bridge. “Report!”