Dreaming of Atmosphere (21 page)

Zoe unclipped a plastic case, adorned much like the one my proto-chip injector came in. Inside were several wireless data chips. She picked them up and started reading them off.

“There’s the Ionize, Shield, Disassemble, Invisibility and Repair paradigm.”

“Invisibility?” I asked incredulously.

“Not what you think. It’s an electronic surveillance counter. Masks your presence from synthetics and electronic sensors.”

“And the others?”

“Disassemble uses your nanites to break down material at the molecular level. Apparently it turns stuff to dust. From the text that comes with it, the effect is impossible to use on living tissue and does take some time depending on the density and strength of the material. Strictly non-combat that one.” Fel gave me an apologetic look.

“This next one will probably be the one you use the most,” explained Zoe, “Repair allows you to rebuild tissue on living organisms, including yourself, and reassemble structural damage to non-living material.”

“It combines a blood nano-package effect with cellular grafting as well as a similar suite of packages like what Eric and Mal use to repair our hull.”

“So no more coming to me for stitches,” smiled Zoe, “You can do your own now.”

“But then I’d miss my chance to hit on the nurses!”

“Well, if you get seriously hurt you’ll still need professional treatment, and you can forget about using it on someone else who is hurt real bad too. The best it can achieve is wound closure, arrest haemorrhaging or pain relief.”

“Why is that worth the charge? Sounds like it only does what regular first aid would achieve.”

“True, except it can also increase sugar levels, stimulate adrenaline release, boost blood oxygen saturation and generally give you a quick energy boost.”

“So use it to catch my breath?”

“Instantly.”

“Okay, now I’m interested.”

“Don’t forget, Seth,” said Fel, “That it can also be used for quick repairs to materials as well.”

“Right. How do I start?”

“We’ll upload these paradigms one at a time, and start you training on each one. When you’re comfortable with their use we’ll load the next. During your travels, should you come across other paradigms I’d highly recommend you acquire them. They are expensive, however, so don’t expect to obtain a large of a cache as Maxine’s gotten for you here.”

“Yeah, I can probably get some through my mustering out doctor too. Doctor Shale. Next time I’m on Kanto Moon I should probably pay him a visit.”

“I’d like to talk to him as well.” said Zoe, “If I’m going to be maintaining your Augs, and your NP Implant, I’d like some insight into their installation.”

“He’s a good guy, I was a terrible patient though. I was so caught up in my injuries that I couldn’t see that he was trying to help me.”

We spent a few more minutes talking about how my first training regime was to be handled, and then we left for the forward cargo hold. When we arrived, I was treated to a surprise. Fel had repaired a few of the synthetics that Koveli-Xue had used on us. They were patiently awaiting instruction near the armoury. I turned to look at Fel’negr in question.

“Their cognitive units have been removed. I rigged up some wireless receivers and linked them to Tac. Figured you might need to actually hit something moving at some point and we kind of need Crege for the foreseeable future.”

“Good idea. I get to kill them again.”

“Try and not damage them too much, spare parts are limited.”

“No promises.”

Greetings, First Mate Seth.

“Hi, Tac. So you got some bodies to interact with now?”

Indeed. Do not be concerned, these synthetics have no weapons.

During the next few days, I blasted, electrocuted, dissolved and repaired these robots several times over. I was actually enjoying myself.

25.

Vengnashi was a giant ball of darkness ringed with an azure glow as we approached the night side. The dark continents, covered in cityscape, were interspersed with billions of lights marking the presence of civilisation. Hundreds of space stations and habitats sparkled in the orbit of the planet, and thousands of star ships drifted between them all. At this distance, they appeared to be moving at a crawl, and compared to us they were.

The equatorial mark was circumnavigated by a great steel ring. This was a great planet encircling habitat called the Ward. It drifted in geosynchronous orbit and hundreds of space elevators connected the habitat to the planet. Cheap and effective compared to uplifting cargo and equipment from the planet’s surface with rockets or space planes, the elevators moved their contents with efficient speed.

The population of Vengnashi sits around the twenty nine billion mark, although this only counts permanent residents. A transient population swells this number to well over thirty billion, many of whom reside in the Ward, or one of the other hundreds of habitats that service the many starships and fleets that frequent the planet.

We’d closed up on our stations in the command module for the last few hours before we hit periapse, and the chatter in the bridge was up to its usually quality.

“When was the last time you bathed, Crege?” I asked our pilot.

“When was the last time I cut you, human?”

“Was it that long ago? No wonder the bridge smells like old chicken.”

“Too many shifts on watch, human.”

“You can’t complain too much,” chided Maxine, “You stink like gym sweat, Seth.”

“I was finishing up a session down in the hold.”

“Let’s be honest,” offered Fel, “that session finished you.”

“No, I was getting the hang of it. I think Tec was cheating.”

That is incorrect. I relayed the feed I had received from Unit 3 to you to prove I could see you.

“You saw
something
. There’s no way you could make out it was me.”

I could clearly see Fel’negr and Zoe, the shape I could not identify on visual sensors alone had to be you by elimination. Therefore, I could see you.

“You didn’t have to shoot me, though.” I rubbed my side where Unit 3’s stun gun had shot me.

“It was your idea to arm the synthetics, Seth.” said Fel, “What did you say?”

“I believe he said ‘The fear of pain is a great motivator’ or something like that” said Max, laughing.

Consider yourself motivated.
Texted Tac, prompting a round of laughter from the command staff. Was the AI developing a sense of humour?

“Yeah, well, next time I won’t be so easy on the synthetics, I might accidently break one.”

That would neither be productive nor demonstrative of your superiority over me.

“No, but it would make me feel better.”

“You go making more work for my command staff, First Mate, and I’ll be finding chores for you that are better left to our deck hands. Hergo and Denno could use some help cleaning the auto-chef this week.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Veng Control are hailing us.” Reported Fel, and we were all instantly professionals again.

“This is Dreaming of Atmosphere, go ahead Control.” Replied Maxine.

“Your approach vector is correct. Please confirm powered gravity assist manoeuvre coordinates.”

“Sending key package.”

“Received. Standby for verification.”

We waited for several moments while Vengnashi Control compared our calculations with our current vector and the scheduled corridor we were to use.

“Verification complete. You are in the pipe. Proceed with Oberth manoeuvre. Enjoy the view, Dreaming of Atmosphere.”

“Thank you, Control. Dreaming of Atmosphere out.”

Maxine leaned back and gave Crege a quick squeeze on the shoulder.

“You did good, Crege.”

“The honour is mine,
kitrak,
and Tac.”

I am happy to be working with a pilot of your calibre, Pilot Crege
.

Max turned on the PA and addressed the crew. “In two hours we will pass into periapse and begin our powered slingshot through Vengnashi’s gravity well. We’ll encounter significant gee forces, some of which will be too high for the stabilisers to counter. At twenty minutes to burn time, I’ll sound the general alarm and I want everyone to close up at their station and secure themselves in for a bumpy ride. Hergo and Denno, please ensure Decks 2 and 3 are secured for high gee thrust. Eric, give us all the juice you can to the manoeuvring thrusters. Tac will be relaying the external optics to the local network so feel free to link up and enjoy the sights. I’m told it will be a magnificent show as we skim the atmosphere of Vengnashi. Captain, out.”

“We’ll be letting the ship do more than dream of atmosphere today.” I said to Max.

“The significance of that isn’t lost on me. Your father would have loved to see this ship in action like this.”

“Captain, I think our arrival has attracted some media attention.” Reported Fel.

“What have you got?”

“I’m tracking several vessels that have begun scanning our approach.”

“Are they transmitting identity codes?”

“They are, they all appear to be civilian low orbit craft.”

“I know what they are,” I said, “They’re news crews.”

“Someone at Control must have leaked our manoeuvre details.” Explained Max, “Well, Crege. This is your chance to shine, my friend.”

As we neared periapse Crege brought up a heads up display on his main view screen. Concentric circular holograms appeared, along with dozens of data points. The rings expanded out in a great curve that disappeared behind the terminus of the planet. This was our programmed path. At the periphery of several of the rings were dozens of ships marked with blue squares and small identification codes beside each.

“Increasing soft zone to 12 percent.” Reported Crege. He was reducing the effect that the ship’s inertial stabilisers had on us.

“Very good,” came Max, “Make sure they get put back up before we hit burn.”

“Aye aye,
kitrak
”

The ship began to shudder every now and then as Crege applied minute adjustments to our course. A large count down appeared on Crege’s screen, our time until we switch to the manoeuvring thrusters for our burn.

“Captain,” said Fel, “I’m detecting a transmission originating from the Dreaming.”

“What kind of transmission?” She asked.

“It appears to be an encoded data package. We just received one in return, from a location on the planet’s surface.”

“To who?”

“Unsure…”

“Who do you think?” I said.

“Artemis. What is she up to?”

“Probably giving a status update.”

“Can you beat the encryption, Fel?”

“Maybe, although I’d need Tac to help process it. Looks military. Tac, I’m sending you a data package. Please analyse it for estimated time to decrypt it.”

Receiving package. Standby.

Just then the hatch to the command module opened, and Artemis walked in.

“Don’t bother decrypting it. I’ve a gift for you.”

We all turned to face her, except Crege.

“What are you talking about?” Max said.

“I have something for your man child here.” She gestured at me.

“Hey! I’m not a man child…”

“What is it?” asked Max, giving her a stern glare.

“A small token of my appreciation. For saving our lives on the Viridian March. Here.” She held out a wireless data card. I reached out and tentatively took it from her, turning it over in my hand.

“What’s on it?”

“Nothing malicious. I think you’ll find it useful.” She turned on her heels and left the compartment. When the hatch closed behind her, I turned back to Maxine.

“What should I make of this?”

“I can run it through an isolated node if you want, give you an idea about what it is.” Offered Fel.

“Do it.”

Fel took it from me and started punching out commands on his console, then pulled out a small tablet from his bridge locker. After a few minutes, he handed the tablet to me. I read over the display a few times and handed it to Max. Crege was getting anxious.

“Well, human?” he said over his shoulder, “What is it?”

“It’s a nano-proliferation paradigm. Is this effect even possible?” I asked Fel.

“It would appear so.”

“What does it do?” asked Crege.

“I don’t know, but it’s called Spatial Translation.”

“I know what it is,” said Max, “It’s short range teleportation.”

We all just leaned back in our chairs and thought about it for a few moments.

“I don’t even know how to begin teaching you nanites how to do this.” Admitted Fel.

Spatial translation is similar in principle to shroud matrix technology. I believe I may be of some help. Should I prepare an interactive document for to educate you, First Mate Seth?

I looked over at Maxine, who was still reading through the tablet’s contents. Eventually she looked me in the eye. After a few seconds of thinking she nodded.

“Yes please, Tac.”

I could see the data start to appear in my overlay, and I filed it away for later.

“Just promise me one thing, Seth. Don’t load this in unless you have Zoe on hand.”

“I promise.”

We spent the next hour and a half just chatting amongst ourselves, watching Crege at work. He was getting tired, I could tell, but he was too proud to admit it. Even so, he was performing admirably. Hergo and Denno had both reported in earlier that all decks were secured, and everything seemed to be in order. Vengnashi now blocked our screens, but we could make out the terminus at the upper edge of our optical feeds. Max had already called the ship to close up at stations, and everyone reported that they were strapped in. Crege’s count down was about to enter single digits, and Max felt it was time to make an announcement.

“We’ve come a long way, this trip. I know a lot of you are not used to travelling so far on a job, but this time we had no choice. It’s not often that someone gets the drop on me, and for that I’m sorry. We’re not being paid for this run, but I can promise you I’ll make it up to you guys. The good news is that after this sling shot we’ll only have another eight days before we hit the Eridani Jump Gate, and the Gossamer Jump Gate is only nine days out from there. Should be a straight run, no hazards. I mean who does runs to Gossamer these days, right?” She paused for a moment and thought hard. “The next few jobs are going to have to be tight. We’ll be behind on ship repayments, something that no Captain likes to admit, but there you have it. Hopefully, you’ll go easy on me and wait a few more jobs before I get you back for this one, but I will understand if you want off after this. I promise you’ll still be compensated once I get the capital.

“As we transit the Eridani System, I’ll be putting out requests for job tenders. Hopefully we can get ourselves employed as soon as we’re done in Gossamer. If you do intend to leave us after this trip, I ask that you let me know before we leave Eridani so that I can add a few notifications of intent to hire to the broadcasts. If anyone has any contacts they think might have jobs for us, I’d love to hear from you.

“Whatever happens in Gossamer, I want you all to know that I’m proud of you, you have all served the Dreaming of Atmosphere well, especially these last few weeks. No Captain could ask for a better crew. I love you all. Captain out.”

When she’d hung up the PA mic, she looked at me, her eyes were red rimmed. I smiled at her and tried to be supportive.

“We’re going to be okay, Max.”

“For once,” added Fel, “Seth is right.”

“This warrior is proud to serve with his
kitrak!”

“You’re not going to cry, are you?” I joked. This earnt me a punch in the arm from Max. I also got a smile.

“It’s the air filters. I think they need cleaning.”

“Uh huh.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Prepare for burn!” barked Crege, “Inertial stabilisers at maximum. Deactivating Ion Drives. Switching to manoeuvring thrusters in 5…4…3…2…1…engaged!”

The whole ship was silent for almost a full second, then the loudest roar I’d ever heard rocked the command module. It sounded like one long continuous explosion, which in effect it was, and we were all thrown into our webbing. My neck was straining to remain upright, and my whole body was being pressed into my seat.

“Periapse achieved!” reported Crege in a strained voice.

Powered gravity assist manoeuvre initiated. Enjoy the view.
Came Tac’s text on all our overlays.

I could make out the atmosphere of the planet above us as we skirted along just outside its reach. The Harakiwa star was just starting to appear over the terminus, and the light from the sun was colouring the upper exosphere a pale blue green. Another screen began to show our wake as we shed ions from out hull into the magnetic field surrounding the planet. We must have seemed like a comet, trailing an aurora effect. We’d be putting on quite a show for the news people in their ships. I was betting that we’d be visible from the planet’s surface as well.