AMP Siege, Page 4

  Thigs yelled out, “Channel to the core is down! We have isolation!”

  At that moment the Granger lost all forward propulsion. The ion engines fired in reverse, and we quickly slowed to a stop.

  Again, Thigs yelled out, “I no longer have control of the nav system, Captain! Controls are not responding to my commands!”

  York, Frost, and Rodriguez walked onto the bridge.

  York spoke. “What’s happening, Sir? The internal comm systems are down.”

  I replied, “Comms are all down, York. We have an intrusion of our computer systems. It has taken over the comm and the nav systems. We had to shut down to isolate the main core.”

  The Captain yelled to the lieutenant commander, “Kill the nav, Thigs. Perform a complete reset, and let’s see if that will clear out the bug that has us.”

  The lieutenant yelled as he continued to type, “I wouldn’t do that, Sir! With a reset, we lose all nav references that have been loaded into the system. We have a good idea of where the Grid sits, but we only have that because of the star maps we have loaded. Unless we have someone who can eyeball their way through space, we could easily send ourselves in the wrong direction!”

  The Captain replied, “The nav system can rebuild the maps, Lieutenant. That is what it does on first start anyway.”

  The lieutenant stopped his frantic typing and turned. “Captain, the nav system will indeed recreate a map. But unless we give it reference points of what is what, we run a big chance of heading the wrong way. We are in unfamiliar space, Captain. We can’t trust the nav logs to give us an accurate heading to send us on our way, because we don’t control the nav logs. This is an intelligent program we are dealing with, Captain. It can and probably will outthink us when it comes to controlling this ship. Mr. Thigs? How much practice have you had with manual navigation? Do you think you could get us home?”

  Thigs slowly turned. “Manual navs are no longer taught as part of our training. I don’t know if anyone on the Grid has that knowledge anymore. Captain, I’m sorry, I think the lieutenant is right. If we shut her off, we might not get her back.”

  Rodriguez stepped forward. “Mr. Grange, Captain. I’m familiar with manual nav. The lieutenant is right, though. They ended that training many years ago.”

  I replied, “So, Rodriguez, you think you can fly this thing? How much manual have you done?”

  Rodriguez spoke. “I took it as an elective in pilot school, Sir. I thought I was getting an easy grade since it was being phased out. It was anything but easy. I believe I can navigate this ship on manual and will take a shot at it if needed, Sir. Just say the word.”

  I looked at the Captain. “If she says she can do it, Captain, I believe she can.”

  The Captain turned to Lieutenant Commander Thigs. “Is there any way to salvage those star maps before shutting her down?”

  Thigs replied, “Not without bringing that bug with them, Captain. Besides, they may have already been altered, Sir. We have no way of knowing if they remain accurate or not.”

  I spoke. “Back on the Suppressor, Frig had a similar problem that he isolated to running on a single machine. He was eventually able to defeat the app that was running. Could we do the same?”

  The room was silent as everyone looked around at each other.

  The lieutenant spoke. “I’m sorry, Sir. I don’t think we have the personnel on this ship who could do that. The lieutenant commander and I are probably at the tops of our abilities when it comes to this ship’s systems; that is how we picked up these assignments. Computer and system security, however, are not our strong points, Sir. Had you not asked me to look for something specific, that virus, or whatever it is, would have taken over all the interconnected systems on this ship.”

  I replied, “OK, I’ll shut up, then. Captain? Rodriguez might be our only option.”

  The Captain spoke. “Thigs. Reset that nav system. Miss Rodriguez. When that system is restarted and the local maps are complete, please work with the lieutenant commander to get us home.”

  I turned to the lieutenant. “How is the core coming?”

  The lieutenant replied, “Processing cycles have dropped to 40 percent, and the second firewall has been reconstructed. Give it another hour, and that virus should be eradicated from the system. It’s trapped in a junction between the nav system and the main core, where it has limited processing power and memory available to it. Once the firewalls are intact, we can shut down that junction and it will be no more. I will program an alert that will let us know if the firewalls are under attack. There is no guarantee that we can stop it if it happens again, but we should at least know that it has started.”

  I turned my attention to Rodriguez, who was now sitting at the nav console. “How are we looking?”

  Rodriguez replied, “The maps are under construction as we speak. Until that’s complete, I can’t say if I’ll be able to do this right, Sir.”

  I furrowed my brow. “I thought you just said you could do this.”

  Rodriguez turned around. “I said that I believe I can, Sir. Believing and doing are two different things entirely. If the maps come back, and if I can get my arm pad sensors to download their latest info, we might just get lucky with a few matches, Sir. If that happens, I should be able to get us in the general area of the Grid.”

  I shook my head in a sarcastic manner. “Well, how about we be a little more specific next time there, Ramrod. I don’t fancy us having to broadcast an omnidirectional signal out here so the Grid can signal us back with a location. I think we would have other visitors before that signal came back.”

  Rodriguez nodded and smiled. “You got it, Sir. No more volunteering!”

  I sat back in my chair. We were adrift in space while our fellow Humans were in need. I wondered if the Grid’s systems had been compromised like ours. They certainly had the personnel resources on the Grid to combat such an attack, but what if they were unsuccessful? The Grid could once again be at internal peril from an outside force.

  York placed her cybernetic right hand on my shoulder. “We’ll make it, Sir. If there is anyone that can fly us home, it’s her. Just give her a little time.”

  I replied as I gazed at the star maps building on the view-screen, “I hope you are right, York. I can’t say I like being out here by ourselves. Not with those Gonta ships running around.”

  Chapter 4

  Six hours of discussions between Rodriguez and the major had passed before the ion engines were powered up.

  I spoke. “We going home?”

  Rodriguez replied, “We are going somewhere, Sir. Let’s hope it’s home. We should know in about eight hours if the Targ system shows on the sensors.”

  The ride back towards the Grid had me on the edge of my seat. Were we headed in the right direction? Had Rodriguez made the right decisions with the mappings? I sat with my elbow on the armrest and a fist balled up under my chin. A countdown clock ticked away on the view-screen.

  Rodriguez spoke. “We have a system coming on the sensors now. Yellow sun. Multiple planets. We have a match, Sir!”

  Cheers rang out on the bridge. But our problems were far from over.

  Lieutenant Goddard spoke. “Captain! I have signal from the Grid. But we can’t answer it, Sir. Our comm remains offline. I have run the comm processors through a full reboot several times, but that virus has managed to somehow stay entrenched.”

  I replied, “Well, we should be able to get some techs from the Grid to clean it out, shouldn’t we?”

  Goddard shook his head. “We have a problem there also, Sir. Our beacon is part of the comm system. Those Grid guns will not recognize this ship coming in. And, if I was the captain of the watch, I would not let us dock without first establishing comm with us. You wouldn’t want a ship coming back with a load of hostiles on it, Sir. Having comm up is imperative.”

  I waved my hand in the air. “So, we pull up short of the guns and wait for them to send out a shuttle. If it takes an extra fifteen mi
nutes for us to get verification, we can spare that fifteen.”

  Again the lieutenant replied, “Sorry, Sir. Protocol requires comm. No comm, no shuttle dock either. We might sit there for days before they attempt to do anything.”

  I dropped my arm. “I don’t see that we have a choice, Lieutenant. Rodriguez, take us in just short of gun range while we figure this out.”

  Frost then spoke. “Sir, the Targ system is in between us and the Grid. Why don’t we stop there and see if we can get those harvesters free?”

  York stepped in. “We can’t talk to the harvesters without comm.”

  Frost frowned. “I guess that’s true. OK, how about we see if we can lure the Targs away so that the harvesters can leave on their own? Our main goal is to get those harvesters out, is it not?”

  The Captain spoke. “A diversion just might work, Mr. Grange. The discovery of those holes drew the Targs to the area. Maybe we can give them something more exciting to look at elsewhere.”

  I replied, “I like where this is going, but how do we draw them off without exposing ourselves? If they see another ship, the Gontas will not be far behind, and we are in no position to fight them.”

  York spoke. “Sir, what if we hijack a small asteroid and send it hurtling down to the surface in an unpopulated area?”

  Frost cut in. “Oh, that could be fun, Sir! A splashdown in one of those oceans would be cool.”

  I replied, “We aren’t looking for spectacular, Frost. Just something to grab their attention. Besides, if we drop something big in their ocean, it would probably cause a wave big enough to wipe out a few coastal cities. I think the Targs have suffered enough. Captain, I think we have our perfect distraction. When we enter the system, have your team search out a suitable rock to throw down at the planet.”

  The Captain directed her crew. “Goddard, since comm and nav are offline, why don’t you and Lieutenant Commander Thigs scan the system data for a suitable target. Calculate what we might use that would offer a substantial impact with only localized damage.”

  As Goddard and Thigs made their way to the sensor consoles, I walked to the cafeteria with York and Frost. After loading a magnetic tray with a load of slop from the twenty-four-hour chow line, I sat down at a metal table on a long bench. The food tray snapped down as it clung to the table underneath.

  I pulled up a forkful of clovette greens and turned to look at York. “I could sure use a red Brivad ale about now. A nice Borak steak would hit the spot too.”

  York replied, “On my last duty station, I had a small hydroponics cart that I kept as one of my personal items. I managed to keep a megeth root budding in there for almost two years. Put a little ground-up megeth on that clovette and you will soon forget what you are eating, Sir.”

  I chewed on the dense vegetation and spoke. “When I cook for Ashley, I cover just about everything with megeth. I know it’s expensive and always in short supply, but it is one luxury I am glad we sometimes have available to us, given that we are always on the run.”

  Frost took a swig of germus tea from her metal cup and replied, “You know, the hits we took from the Colossuns, they took out nearly three-quarters of the megeth growth in the Grid farms. Stocks were just starting to run dry when we left. The price went from four credits per gram to almost twelve overnight. I thought about going into business with York here, to open up our own hydro farm. She is the only one I know who has gotten that stuff to stay alive outside of the Grid. I bet we coulda made a small fortune!”

  York spoke. “Dear, when I go into the farming business with a plant killer like you, we will know our time in this galaxy is at an end. Sir, that woman has killed every plant I tried to set her up with.”

  York turned towards Frost. “Now, why would I risk my time and money on you, Frost? What would you bring into this business?”

  Frost grinned. “You grow the root. I’ll sell the root and give you 25 percent!”

  York shook her head. “You do realize that I scored extremely high on my math exams, don’t you?”

  Frost replied, “Please, not the math exams story again. Sir, I beg you, ask her to stop. She brings that…”

  Lieutenant Goddard stepped into the cafeteria. “Sir, Captain needs you on the bridge. Sensors picked up a Gonta ship in the Targ system.”

  I took a swig of my drink and hurried off to the bridge.

  When I arrived, an image of the Gonta ship was on the view-screen. “That looks like one of their bigger ships, Captain. Are we going to be able to approach the planet without being spotted?”

  The Captain replied, “I wish I could say, Mr. Grange. The last time they were here, we were sitting still. Motion makes us visible.”

  I looked intently at the view-screen. “Can we change course so that we slide in behind one of those planets? That would get us into the system at least.”

  Rodriguez spoke. “Already on it, Sir. Will add about twenty minutes to our journey. I can park us where we are in visual sensor range, just on the planet’s edge.”

  Several hours passed before we arrived at our observation location behind a gas giant. The planet had a debris ring that was teeming with asteroids of the size we were seeking. Goddard and Thigs got to work on selecting an appropriate rock to propel. After we came to a stop, the Targ’s planet, along with the Gonta ship, was in full view.

  Thigs spoke. “Sir, we have a rock picked out. It should give us about a two-kilometer crater. Anyone within five hundred kilometers will definitely feel the impact.”

  I turned to the Captain. “Can you call a couple of your ship’s engineers up here, Captain? I have a few questions for them.”

  Several minutes passed before the engineers arrived on the bridge. “Guys, do you have the ability to construct a small shield that we can apply an image projector and engine to? We used a strategy against the Milgari where we built a shield of sorts, with an image projector to hide its visible signature. And we then cruised in behind it in our ships. If we can build one big enough for the asteroid we want to send in, I think we can surprise them with it. The Gontas would want to know how that got so close without it being detected, so they would investigate.”

  The lead engineer spoke. “We will see what we can do, Sir. I believe we would have the materials on board needed to put that together.”

  I thanked them as they left the room to begin their work.

  I paced about in front of the view-screen and then spoke. “Wow, that projector shield brings back some memories. I was just getting into the thick of it with the Milgari when we came up with that. What an outstanding team I had. If this works out, the Gontas will be scratching their heads.”

  The shield was prepared and deployed. Rodriguez piloted the Granger through several tricky maneuvers, and the one-hundred-twenty-meter-diameter rock was soon on its way towards Targ. We moved back into position on the back edge of the planet that protected our location and watched intently on the view-screen.

  The officer at the sensor console spoke. “Everything looks good, Captain. I’m not detecting any type of sweep signals, and there has been no movement from the Gonta ship.”

  I sat back in my chair. “How long to impact, Captain?”

  The Captain replied, “Three hours, twelve minutes. The rock and shield are going in hot, but we will be applying some ion braking through the shield just before it hits the atmosphere. At its current speed, it would likely cause severe damage. We had to send it out at high speed, or we would be sitting here for months waiting for it to travel from here to there. Let’s just hope they don’t pick up on any signals from the braking.”

  The sensor officer spoke. “Approaching final speed, Captain. Shield is lifting away. We have atmospheric entry. Impact in… thirteen seconds.”

  Frost spoke. “Can we zoom in on the impact point? This should be exciting!”

  I replied, “Mr. Hobbs. Let’s give Frost her zoom, please. We wouldn’t want her to be disappointed.”

  As the image enlarged, an alarm sound
ed. “We have another Gonta entering the system, Captain! We are in full view with our camera systems active. We aren’t putting out much of a signal, but…”

  The Captain yelled, “Rodriguez! Get us out of here! They have a lock on us!”

  The Granger began to accelerate as the Gonta ship closed.

  Rodriguez spoke. “Better get those weapons online!”

  I stood and turned. “Rodriguez! Bring us to a halt and turn us to face the Gonta. It’s time we find out if they can be dealt with.”

  The Gonta ship slowed to a halt as it closed to five thousand kilometers’ distance. The sleek black ship had a wide oval base with a long, thin neck that jutted from the center and ended in a fore bridge that undoubtedly gave a clear view of all but the back side of the vessel.

  The sensor officer spoke. “Sir, we are receiving a hail signal from the Gontas.”

  I replied, “Tell them we are explorers and mean no harm. Let’s see if they are reasonable.”

  Frost cut in. “Holy moly, Sir! That impact is spectacular! If I was to guess, they already have a trajectory figured out and will take that as a hostile gesture.”

  Hobbs spoke. “Sir, our comm remains offline. We have no way to respond. They are continuing their hails. I’m detecting ion activity, Sir. It looks like they are bringing their weapons online!”

  I turned to the Captain. “Any ideas? I don’t want to just be sitting here if they decide to start blasting.”

  The Captain replied, “Mr. Emmers! Bring the Yacabucci online. Start a web forming in between us and them. Rodriguez, get ready to pull back on my command.”

  I spoke. “What are you thinking, Captain?”

  The Captain replied, “We can’t hit them with the web without it taking time to build. If we put it between us, we might have enough time to ramp it up to full strength. At that point, we start to move away with the hope that they will follow and move into it. Of course, we have no assurance that it will work. And we do have the issue of that other Gonta ship. Given the speeds we have seen them traveling, it could be on us in about four or five minutes.”