Archaea (6 page)

The primary purpose of our repeaters are point-defense. The repeaters are the standard smaller bore maglev railers used by most ships these days for close-in defense against smaller, softer targets. They fire a 3 centimeter plasticine round at hyper-kinetic speeds in excess of 10,000 meters per second - our turret gun is a decent model, with a reasonably high rate of fire.

B
ecause it uses the new type of plasticine rounds, ammunition can be cooked and molded on demand. At kinetic speeds, plasticine is more than enough to bring the hurt to the target, and with the weight savings, the velocity of the shot can be pushed even higher. With a kinetic weapon like this, speed is what causes the damage on impact as the round phase-shifts to a plasmic state.

One really nice thing about the repeaters on the Archaea, is the reaction time from the wire-control we get by using wetnet. There is no discernible lag between translation input, and weapon movement. There is a little bit of lag in the armatures and alignment and stepper motors for the turret mechanism, but it's pretty negligible.

Waiting for the captain to come on the 1MC and bring us up to speed on the current situation, my eyes automatically checked the various telltales and system diagnostics.

Suddenly, I was gasping for air like the lock was left open.

Graphs showing upper-limits for power amplification were changing in front of my eyes, already showing a significant increase in potential, and the limits I worked so hard to calculate over the past few weeks kept climbing as I watched in shock.

I keyed the comms to the bridge with a hand that felt like it belonged to someone else.

"Captain, I am seeing a significant trend upward of cooling system capabilities for our main gun, and it continues to climb. I am not at all sure what is causing these numbers to change, they haven't changed since Pauli first worked on this a few weeks ago", I paused, as I noticed graphs for other functions like amplification, focal length, and emissions start to shift. "Captain, I am seeing an across-the-board increase in optimization happening throughout my systems."

"Very well, Shorty. Stand by", he replied.

*****

The older I get, the worse I sleep. After a long shift
of climbing around on machinery, I ached in places I didn't know I had when I was younger. Lately, I've been pushing myself pretty hard, and paying the price. 

When the
klaxons started blaring, it was almost a relief, as I wasn't sleeping anyway. I slipped on my shoes, slapped off the light, and made my way for the ring ladder as fast as my tired joints would go.

I kicked past the cargo bay and through the stern hatch to engineering, right as Condition Zebra sealed the door. A quick glance at my holos and I posted a go-light on the Captain's panel.

We were good to go... But where were we going?

"Gene, I need you to take a look at your current limit values for all systems. Shorty is reporting some strange glitches and I need confirmation from your section ASAP."

"Aye Captain, stand by..." I said into comms with my head spinning. What could be happening here? Shorty's tolerances were very precise and both of us had worked so hard to set calibration.

Unfortunately, what she noticed sure seemed to be happening here as well. I was watching rate limiters move all across the board, from cooling capacity to power output, even an efficiency curve change on the klystron rampers, a system that is factory-sealed and balanced to that model.

"Captain, engineering. I can confirm trending in literally every system back here and ship-wide. Is this a glitch?" I asked.

"Pauli is working to get me an answer on that Gene, right now no one knows for sure. I need you to run through pre-flights and prep for launch. I may need reac-drive capabilities on the double-quick. Can do?"

"Aye Skipper, I'm on it", I stated as confidently as I could.

*****

It was time for me to earn my pay as captain. I had to come to grips with the situation my ship and crew were facing. Pauli was practically melting the keys looking through his code and systems for an indication as to what was happening, and I had both Shorty and Gene reporting wild changes throughout all of their systems.

While these seemed to be changes to the better, Shorty and Gene are consummate professionals, and they had worked very hard and crunched a lot of numbers to come up with safe maximums for their systems. If these changes are in fact created by Janis, and not something totally different, I am very concerned that Janis may not be using accurate settings.

I switched one holo to echo Shorty's main screen, and another to echo Gene's, so I could watch for myself what they were seeing. They had far more detail on their other screens, but I could barely understand the summary view of these systems, I would be lost trying to understand everything they were looking at.

"Pauli, I have confirmed both Shorty and Gene are seeing pretty significant changes here", I said, adding "do you have any idea what factors Janis is using to evaluate these numbers?"

"Well Captain, the logic of the rule-sets I had in place has all been changed, and it's changing as I watch it, in real time, actually faster than I can keep track of it. It seems like every time I look up, I am seeing something new here."

"Does it look like any of it makes sense? I am trying to get a feel for what has happened, and whether or not we're all about to die
- I hope you understand."

"Oh, it makes perfect sense from what I can understand, but Captain, I have to be honest here, there is a lot of this new code that I don't understand. It's written mostly in an extremely shorthand manner, in a very compressed form."

"Pauli, are we going to die?" I asked, with my finger on the switch for the 1MC, standing by to order my crew to abandon ship to the station, so we can go have a time-out, and think about what we just did. This seemed like the best course of action to my shrewd Captain's intellect.

"No Captain, nothing that I can see looks that grim. Most of the really lethal systems on the Archaea are still powered down, or in a low-power maintenance state."

From my station, Pauli looked pretty haggard, he was trying to sound calm and comforting, but his fingers were hammering the keys like some malevolent god punishing the sinful letters on the keyboard. I could see screens opening, scrolling, and folding into other screens, and then being tossed left and right across his holos. He was working hard, and while I hated to bother him while this was happening... someone had to, unfortunately.

"Pauli, these lethal systems... you say they're powered down currently. Are the command and control mechanisms to our stations stable? Is there any evidence that you can see of these functions also being rewritten?"

"No Captain, I wouldn't really expect this to happen in any case, there's really no reason I can think of for this to be needed. Of course, I wouldn't have thought it possible to get this much more optimization for cooling systems on the main gun either..." he trailed off, slapping keys and hunching even further into his screens.

"Pauli, I hate to ask this... but did you expect any of this to happen?"

"Not really Captain, I am afraid much of this is really unexpected. I really don't think there's any cause for alarm...", he trailed off again, looking intently at some new flashing schematics.

"Pauli... What is that flashing there on your main holo?" I asked, but I knew the answer already.

"Captain, command and control systems are now routed through the core, rather than through the original station controller on the bridge. It looks like there is a significant improvement in latency for these systems now, and I am showing nearly all systems now have a direct hook for control to your helm..."

"Well, that is... good news... somewhat." I wasn't sure what to think of that to be honest. It sounded good, right? More efficient systems are better systems! More power means more speed, more cooling means more output.
More is better!

As Captain, I couldn't help but appreciate what Janis was thinking, as long as these numbers weren't going to blow up a sector of space with us in it.

As I was sitting there thinking about whether or not to scram everything and head out for a beer with my crew, a new alert showed up on my holo.

"All systems optimal and calibrated, Captain. The Archaea is r
eady for mission. Recommending condition X-Ray at this time. JANIS out."

*****

I really couldn't make sense of this code. I had what I would consider an excellent grasp of the syntax and structure of logicspace, but this was really next-level architecture. Everything appeared to be modular to a high degree, and cross-referential to an extent I didn't think I'd ever understand.

As I focused in on one block or section, I could see it mutating and adapting, reformatting and shifting. Functions I would normally associate with process handlers would extend themselves to include references to other functions that return state, and those were dynamically overloading and shifting output based on the process the original function was attached to.

It was like nothing I had ever seen. I am a devotee of elegant code, but this took elegance to places I didn't know existed. It was like watching a thought happen.

For better or worse, I think it is safe to say at this point Janis is awake. I exhaled, and hoped for the best.

*****

“Gene, what's the news, mister”, the captain called back as I worked to second-guess the changes that were happening throughout all ship systems.

As the values adjusted, I just about broke fingers punching numbers, to attempt to quantify the changes and make sense of the values. A change here, leads to changes there, and those changes affect other systems.

The more I double- and triple-checked the math, I was forced to admit the principles behind the changes were sound. Although capabilities were being upwardly configured beyond what I thought safe, I had to grudgingly admit that all things considered, the new values were considerably more balanced.

"Captain, engineering. I have done some preliminary checking here, and I can confirm that these new values are within reasonable parameters. I wouldn't have thought so initially, but I have to admit these new settings make more sense than what I originally came up with."

"Gene, don't beat yourself up over this. I think it's fair to say that none of us anticipated what Janis would do to the Archaea. To be honest, I trust your maths better than some machine, anyway. I'm not planning on firewalling the Archaea to these new limits."

What he and I both knew, however, that there would almost certainly be a time where he would need all we could get out of the Archaea, and maybe more. What was unsaid between us, what didn't need to be said, was that it was ultimately on my shoulders to make it all work.

As I was mentally building a checklist of the various steps I needed to take to re-certify all of the systems aboard the Archaea, the captain keyed the 1MC.

"All hands, power down and hibernate all systems. Prepare your stations for readiness and stand down. Report for a mandatory beer-and-steak break at Wu's Pub in 10 minutes. In light of recent changes, I am determined that should we become vaporized in the near future, we will not do so without a full stomach. That is all."

Chapter 6

Wu's Pub was a typical Darkside bar, hanging under the station like a growth. It may have been grotty, but it also had some of the best beer and vat steaks this side of Luna, just what I needed after a couple of terrifying hours doing math.

From our booth we all had a great view of the Archaea at her dock. Her Duron armor gave her a dark, brooding appearance, somberly reminding us that inside her lived something none of us understood. I noticed the captain looking at her as well, deep in thought.

"Well, we can't just sit here all day", said Shorty, "Hey Wu - beer and steaks all around please!" Her bravado cheered us all, I think, as none of us knew what to make of our current situation.

"Now that we're go for lunch, how about launch Gene?" the captain asked me, smiling.

"No, of course not Captain... But we're probably as good as I would have hoped, given our timeframe. I don't think we'll die, at least not in sight of the station", I added with a smirk of my own.

The Captain laughed, knowing as well as I did that the station master probably had a standing bet with his staff that we'd blow to cosmic debris the first time we lit the tokamak.

"I think Janis is probably on our side," added Pauli, "everything I've seen her do so far has been startling to be sure, but it all seems to be beneficial. I am not sure what the future holds, but I think--"

At that moment Wu floated over with a platter of frosty beers and sizzling steaks, and we all did the helpless drooling thing. You wouldn't trade a kick in the face for a proto steak earthside, but on Darkside Luna, you would gladly trade an arm for a bite. We've been eating canned rats for long enough now.

"Are you raising ship today Captain?" asked Wu, as he passed slabs of steaming meat around the table.