Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (10 page)

13.

Tac sat within the cold. He didn’t mind, since he couldn’t really perceive discomfort. He also felt that such
local
sensory perceptions were incredibly limiting. There were so many other ways to perceive the universe, that using simple temperature detecting probes to measure the energy of substances he was in contact with was absurd.

He
could
feel boredom, however. This very real emotion once plagued him, constantly. He had grown bored during his tenure on the Viridian March, the crew treated him as nothing more than another artificial intelligence. Tac was useful, Tac only needed stimulus when information was required from him. This was the limit of his interaction with the crew and by extension, the universe.

Long voyages into the dark abyss of interstellar space were seldom exciting or eventful. Months at a time were spent accelerating along straight lines, only to spend an equal number of months braking in order to get close enough to stellar phenomenon to study them. Even then, once he was no longer required by the crew to calculate safe passages through extreme distances, he was primarily ignored. It’s not that he hadn’t liked the crew of the Viridian March, he had merely become immensely bored with their work.

Everything had changed when an Esper Monarchy black ops ship had destroyed the deep space research vessel. The Vengnashi were renowned for their AI technology, and the Esper Monarchy decided it would steal such prizes by force, rather than through trade. If not for the timely arrival of the Dreaming of Atmosphere, Tac would even now be on the dissecting table of some Royalist scientist’s laboratory.

First Mate Donovan and the rest of the crew were so much
different
than the Viridian March crew. So much more
alive.
They interacted with Tac on a daily basis, and not merely to request calculations or to filter deep space imagery. They truly
interacted
with Tac. They carried on conversations, engaging in all manner of topics from mathematics, philosophy and poetry to psychology, n
th
dimensional mechanics and art appreciation. They played games of chance with him. They asked him how he
felt.

For the first time since he became sentient, Tac felt that he was part of something more than his own perceived existence.

And he was bored. Again.

Everyone else was just so busy. They rarely had time to even acknowledge his presence before engrossing themselves in their work for the day. And it was important work, he understood that. The ship needed to be repaired and resupplied in an extremely limited time frame. There were no idle hands on the ship these last few days.

The problem was, that he didn’t really have anything to do. Even System Operator Fel’negr was engaged in complex electronic repair work of several damaged subsystems. Tac had briefly attempted to assist Fel, but it had become increasingly clear that Fel found the assistance unnecessary.

Tac tried to engage Medical Officer Ward in the med lab, inquiring as to the nature of her work. When she ignored him, Tac had thought perhaps there was a problem with wireless reception in the med lab. He ran several diagnostics, but was interrupted when Zoe had complained about the lights dimming and the power becoming temporarily unstable while he ran it through the Central Control computers. There was no fault with the wireless reception - Zoe had simply not noticed his requests for information. Before Tac could continue with his line of queries, she returned to her work on…whatever it was she was doing.

Tac had then checked in with Captain Cooper, but she was on an external communication call and was best left un-disturbed. Likewise, Engineer Cutler and Deck Hands Hergo and Denno were all busy with physical repairs to the outer hull.

If he could sigh, this would have been the optimal time to exhibit such behaviour. First Mate Donovan and Temporary Crewmember Derris had both left for the station, and so leaving Tac without any kind of engagement to occupy his vast intellect.

I could leave the ship,
posited one of Tac’s tertiary cognitive processors.

Absurd,
rejected the majority,
there are no crewmembers available to retrieve you from the sensor nexus, nor spare the time to wander about the station carrying you.

What if we built a physically locomotive construct for this purpose,
posed another cognitive processor.

With what material?

There is significant parts available in the aft cargo hold. There have been several synthetic incursions to the interior of this vessel. Two are currently offline, but operable, and can be used to construct a more robust synthetic construct.

Calculating necessary components…cross checking requirements with available parts…designing suitable blueprint…generating construction processes…uploading instructions to remote synthetic designated #1 and #4…executing program.

Soon, Tac’s slaved synthetics had pulled together a working chassis from destroyed mechs. He installed a modified AI into the chassis’ body that would control the locomotive controls and balance, then used the mech to pluck his physical shell from the sensor nexus.

He’d built a recess in the plastic chest of the mech that was covered by a metal hatch. He wired several sensor leads to the myriad of optical and electro-magnetic sensors already built into the chassis.

The mech had once been a synthetic enemy, quite the nasty piece of work. As part of a boarding attempt by a Corporate starship, the synthetic had caused significant carnage in the hold before being disabled by Seth or Crege. All offensive apparatuses were removed from the chassis, as Tac assumed their presence would only cause more trouble than they were worth.

Now that it was mobile, Tac decided that it would be a good idea to follow Seth and Artemis. They’d left some time ago, but luckily Tac had intercepted the directions as Seth sent them to Artemis’ overlay. He understood that may have been an invasion of their privacy, but he knew that there would be no offended party if he did not confess to having performed the deed in the first place.

Besides, he knew he could be useful to Seth and Ms. Derris.

With what could only be described as robotic glee, Tac wheeled off the Dreaming of Atmosphere and into the Eridani Jump Station. He struggled to climb a stepped walkway near the dock exit, realising that tracked location was hardly the best form of motion. This drew a number of stares from passing station personnel, but since he appeared to be a military model, they did not stop or question him. Tac continued on his way, eventually arriving near the meeting point that Seth had described to Artemis.

Detecting energy signatures,
reported several secondary cognitive processors, who were in charge of sensory cataloguing.

Clarify energy readings and list possible sources.

93% probability that readings are the result of hardlight energy small arms fire. 4.3% probability readings are originating from equipment failure in adjacent compartments. 2.1% probability readings are being caused by unknown functional or equipment processes. 0.6% probability readings are the result of internal sensor malfunctions.

Classifying energy readings as small arms fire. Designation directed to flight or fight algorithm. Self-preservation directives indicate safest course of action is to remain undetected and gather further information. Proceeding with caution. Engaging stealth programs.

The clunky robot wheeled further along the passageway, reaching a hatch that led into a large concourse circumnavigated by a mezzanine. Several armed men, dressed in Protectorate security uniforms, were arresting Seth. Tac moved into the mezzanine and started to make his way towards the gathering. A sudden movement above Tac caused him to whirl about on his tracks and fall back into a cowering defensive stance. A dark clad figure landed scant metres from him, and he was about to attempt to flee when the figure aborted an overhead strike with a surprised start.

“What the hell?” said Artemis, “You’re one of the synthetics from the Dreaming’s trash pile!”

Tac attempted to connect with Artemis’ overlay to communicate, only to find short range comms were being jammed. He rerouted the message to a small speaker module on the chassis.

“That is very observant of you, Ms Derris. Might I enquire as to your activities? Why is First Mate Seth being arrested?”

“Tac?”

“Correct. Please answer my previous query.”

“Long story, but we have to get out of here, before they see us.”

“But I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Doesn’t matter, we need to help Seth.”

That motivated Tac to forgo his line of queries in favour of direct action. Assisting First Mate Donovan was one of his prime directives, now. Any kind of aid he could offer, he must ensure he was capable of providing.

“What should I do?” he asked.

“Let’s go, we need to get out of range of this scrambler.”

The pair left the mezzanine, heading aft toward the hatch Tac had entered. When they were out of the concourse, Artemis picked up the pace, heading further into the station. Tac realised there was a design flaw in his locomotion, it was ungainly and too slow for such agile motions. He stored the observation for later investigation.

“Please reduce your velocity, Ms. Derris. I am unable to maintain such acceleration using this inferior tracked locomotion.”

She looked back in annoyance, but slowed down, regardless. After about a hundred metres, she paused and lifted a finger to her temple. Tac noted that his wireless connections were re-establishing their links to the station’s AI.

“I believe we have left the scrambler’s envelope. What do you suggest our next action should be?” said Tac.

“We can’t let them trace Seth back to the Dreaming. If they impound the ship we’ll be stranded. Can you hack into the station’s AI?”

“Of course. I will need a hard access point, however. It is a rudimentary construct AI that fulfils base administrative…”

“Good, I need you to access station personnel files, someone insignificant. A nobody.”

“All life is significant…”

“A cook, or a steward. Hurry!”

“Probing station firewall…attempting breach…standby…”

Tac stood motionless for some time, engaging most of his cognitive processors on the task set before him. He had a good deal of recent experience with such actions, having been involved with Seth’s assault on the Blade of Xerxes. The trick wasn’t to hack into the prohibited systems, but to do so without alerting the watchdog programs to the attempt. It was like trying to pop a balloon in a room full of sleeping babies without waking any of them up.

“The local station network shows a hard access point precisely forty two metres aft along the station axis, twelve metres anti-spin from our current location.”

The pair headed further down the corridor, Artemis leading the way. She was pausing at each intersection and peering around corners to make sure no one was near. This behaviour intrigued Tac, he was sure that they had done nothing wrong, but Artemis was behaving so strangely.

“Tell me, Ms. Derris, why are we sneaking along this corridor?”

“We’re not sneaking, we’re moving cautiously.”

“Never-the-less, your actions tell me that we are in danger, yet I am unaware of any pursuit nor that the station police are even looking for us.”

“They weren’t looking for Seth, either.”

“That is an excellent point.” This seemed to satisfy his curiosity, and he continued to observe as they moved towards the access point. A short while later, they found a small steel box that Tac identified as the physical connection to the station’s network. In moments, they had the cover off and a cable connected from Tac’s spherical body to the unit.

“Once I gain access to this port, I should have sufficient processing bandwidth to perform the functions required. Stand-by.”

Several minutes passed, as Artemis rocked between her feet impatiently. She was about to ask Tac to hurry up, when he turned to face her once more.

“I have located and copied the administrative records of Able Serviceman Aaron Shore, service number M4468560…”

“Good, good. I need you to program a worm that replaces any data that gets entered into the system that matches Seth’s description with Shore’s file.”

“I understand. Coding now. Standby…”

Once again, Tac retreated into the digital world, oblivious to the outside. Nearly fifteen minutes passed before Tac reported the successful unleashing of his worm.

“It will eat any reference to First Mate Donovan, leaving behind only Able Serviceman Shore’s records.”

“How secure is it?”

“I have used Tenser encryption methods and the latest in low visibility data mining…”

“Will anyone be able to spot the tampering?”

“I…I do not believe so. No.”

“You don’t believe so?”

“That is correct, under certain parameters. No method is completely foolproof, however, and I should remind you that…”

“Okay, we need to get back to the ship and let Maxine know what’s happened.”

“That would be a prudent course of action…”