Three days later. November 7th, 2266. 14:30 CNS Waukesha – Starboard Hangar
John was walking down the main corridor along the spine of the ship. His pace was quicker than normal. He didn’t bother looking out at any of the viewports either, gone was the happy-go-lucky attitude he normally exuded. Were that not enough evidence to suggest the captain of this vessel was in a foul mood, the near-homicidal look on his face was proof positive of that mood.
Second Lieutenant Brian O’Meara was jogging to catch up to John. He was due to replace John at the top of the hour. One of the bridge crew suggested he catch up to the captain and speak with him before he reached the hangar where their cargo was being sequestered in.
“Captain,” the first officer said, “Captain Lief.”
“You can speak while we’re on the move,” John responded tersely.
“Sir, they aren’t military. They don’t know how to behave or follow our protocols.”
“Oh, I am keenly aware of that. That one of those nerdy fucks thought it wise to directly access our computer core and siphon off resources isn’t something anyone should do without asking ahead of time,” John paused and looked back at his first officer, “And I damn well better expect whatever backdoor they used is shut permanently.”
“Engineering is already on it. They’ve identified how they breached our safeguards,” Brian couldn’t look his captain in the eyes and looked sheepishly around the corridor, “The terminals they used didn’t require any access to utilize its resources. They couldn’t access any data, but they were able to use the core’s computing capabilities to boost whatever they were doing.”
“Yes, but as they did that, they reduced our processing capabilities to the point that our helm was fucking flying blind in slip space. Need I remind you how dangerous a blind jump is?”
“No sir. Jumping into the atmosphere, or worse, of a planet or near a black hole would be quite bad.”
John turned and continued walking, “I presume we have eliminated their run times and our back on course?”
“That is affirmative.”
“Good. How about eliminating their ability to prioritize the core’s resources?”
“The work on that continues but engineering expects that to be completed within a couple of hours,” Brian still felt awfully uncomfortable about everything, “Sir, what are you planning on doing?”
“Setting some ground rules.”
“Oh, ok. Then we’re just talking then,” the smile forming on Brian’s face disappeared quickly, “Why do I get the feeling it isn’t just that?”
“Oh, it isn’t.”
“Captain, again, I must insist on not hurting the scientists.”
“I’m not going to hurt all of them,” John was grinding his teeth as he spoke.
“That…” Brian paused as he tried to match the uncomfortable pace that John was walking, “is not at all reassuring.”
“You needn’t worry so much. I can’t override the safeties and vent the hangar.”
Brian’s face bore the look of extreme worry, “That makes it sound like you actually looked to see if you can subvert the safety functions.”
John was puzzled by his first officer’s response, “You don’t do that on a regular basis? You know it helps to know what the ship can and can’t do.”
The pair continued to talk as they walked. Brian, to his credit, desperately tried to convince his captain not to take the path of violence. To an impartial observer, the efforts seemed to do little. If anything, they may have pushed his captain closer to choosing violence.
John however remained incensed. This was just the situation that broke the proverbial camel’s back. Multiple times throughout the day, and evening, the scientists were asking for this or that. Being woken up multiple times at night to ask for silly or nice-to-have things was no way to get an officer on your side. Much less the captain of the ship.
He was computing the calculus of just venting the damn hangar and washing his hands of their request. All signs pointed to a court martial and lengthy prison stay. Roughing up some of the scientists, maybe to make an example of them? Now that could work, and result in a light punishment hopefully. John wasn’t going to let the fear of an official write-up stop him from acting. These scientists needed to be put into their place.
They eventually walked the span of the spine and saw a stairwell leading down. They’d need to go down six decks to get to the nearest entrance into the hangar. John swiftly cruised down the stairs. Brian, who was panting and breathing loudly, tried to follow behind as quickly as possible.
The doors to the hangar then opened in front of the pair of officers. John strode forward and leaned on the railing as he looked down at the hangar. The side entrance was two decks above the main floor. John scanned the room.
He then began descending more stairs. When he got to the floor level he walked over to the main door. The Marine guards looked just as annoyed, or even more so than John did.
“Sound a general alarm in the hangar. Kill power to all their terminals. I need to have a word with our… guests,” John all but sneered that final word, “All of them at the same time.”
“With pleasure, sir,” the Marine closest to him smiled then looked back at another set of Marines sitting at a terminal.
A couple of quick hand gestures and the request were transmitted. Power was shut down to not only all of the scientist’s terminals but most systems within the barracks were shut off too. John began to walk towards the temporary barracks that were installed in his hangar. The general alarm sounded shortly thereafter.
Waves of scientists began filing out of the barracks. Those that were working were confused, even angry, at their terminals shutting down randomly. They began to file near where John was.
“That’s all of them, sir,” the other Marine said from behind John.
“Kill the alarm please,” John said calmly, “Who connected your systems to our ship’s central computer?”
Dr. Hamelin stepped forward and appeared to want to speak. John made a single gesture to him. Whatever he wanted to say was going to wait.
“Do not make me ask again,” John said more sternly.
A young male scientist stood forward, “I did. We were running a simulation and the unexpected lag back to the servers made us need to use local resources.”
“Who ordered you to do that?”
“Dr. Jennings.”
“We had important work to do that was time sensitive. I do not understand what the concern is,” Dr. Jennings said.
“Corporal Martinez, escort this scientist and Dr. Jennings to the brig. They may not have any contact with anyone else, but I will allow them to bring some work with them to keep them occupied.”
“Captain, I must insist that these…” Dr. Hamelin was interrupted before being able to finish his sentence.
“Doctor, we need our core to assist us in navigating this odd dimension that we are in,” John said, “I presume the lot of you are aware of what a black hole is, or the kind of environment that exists deep within a gas giant. I’d prefer to not jump back into real space in either.”
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“We didn’t know something like that could happen,” Dr. Hamelin meekly protested.
“Ignorance is not an acceptable answer onboard a military vessel. The reason their stay is only forty-eight hours is that the Navy is partially at fault for allowing such a mess to happen in the first place. However, the fact that you decided to do something without asking for permission is why I’m so perturbed,” John stepped toward Dr. Hamelin and towered over the scientist, “You will no longer have access to the ship’s core. Whatever lag you are experiencing is what you’ll have to deal with.”
“That will slow our work down to intolerable levels.”
“If I so much as see any attempts to circumvent my order I will be changing course and dropping this three-ring circus off there. You can find someone else to get you into those bloody ruins.”
“Captain, this work could be revolutionary. We need every moment to work on this,” Dr. Hamelin said.
“Corporal, take them away. If they resist, use force,” John turned to speak to his Marines before looking back at Dr. Hamelin, “I have spoken. I will not brook dissent from my crew or passengers. Compliance with my orders is not only expected but demanded.”
John then gestured for Dr. Hamelin to walk over to the side and quietly spoke to him, “This is your final warning. I do not care about your research. I do not care about what you are trying to accomplish. I only care about this ship and her crew. You will not put them in danger again.”
“Lieutenant, we are on the precipice…”
“Of doom. Of the unknowing,” John rose to his full height, “Hell, of potentially nothing. But none of that matters if we are sent so far off course we don’t know where we are. The next one of your pukes uses the central core without explicit permission from me is going to understand what happens when I remove the kid gloves.”
“We will be days or even weeks behind,” Dr. Hamelin said meekly.
John slapped the doctor’s shoulder before speaking and walking away, “Y’all are smart folks, you’ll figure out an alternative that doesn’t utilize the military’s resources.”
John cared not for any rebuttal from the doctor. He was done listening to them. In fact, he was done with them in general. This was a military vessel, not a science ship, and this mission he had accepted was now wearing on him in an unpredicted way. His resentment for his command was growing for assigning him this mission. Things were more chaotic than they ought to be onboard his ship.
John gestured for the scientists to disburse and turned to face his first officer, “Brian, as you can see, I killed no one.”
“Yup, only locked up a division head of theirs and some random schlub,” Brian’s response dripped with sarcasm.
“Corporal, please double the Marine guards stationed inside the hangar. I also want someone from engineering here as well. They are to monitor all power and usage consumption. And to kill any connections to our core if they are idiotic enough to try that again.”
Brian nodded, “I’ll get someone assigned. You know we could probably assign them a certain percentage of our core use. Throw them a bone and all.”
John gestured for Brian to follow him, “There may have been a compromise had they asked the bloody question first. We may be able to get away with acting and then asking for forgiveness later. A civvy doing that shit on our ship has not earned the right to do so.”
“I’ll swing by engineering and have the chief get his team on it.”
“Good work,” John sighed, “Now, I need to get some rest.”
Two days later. November 9th, 2266. 09:15 CNS Waukesha – Bridge
Petty Officer Monique Lee was looking uncomfortable from her seat at the rear of the bridge. She was reading, yet another, message from the scientists onboard. Well, it was more like a request to access to utilize a portion of their central core’s processing capabilities.
“Captain, they are requested yet again to gain access to a portion of our computer.”
John grinned, “What was the justification they used this time?”
“No change, sir.”
Emily spun around in her seat and looked at John, “Do you think it makes sense to just approve it to shut them the hell up?”
John shrugged, “Inform them they’ll receive an answer in two hours after my shift ends.”
“Sir, I know they’ve contacted fleet relations about the, well in their words ‘intolerable’ conditions they are suffering through,” Emily said, “You know eventually we’re going to be told to give them some access.”
“Has Chief Olson determined what percentage of the core they can utilize safely?” John sighed as he rubbed his forehead.
“The scientists chafed at the percentage he gave from what I was told,” Monique said.
“What percentage was that?” John asked.
“Twenty-five percent. They had wanted sixty-five. Chief Olson didn’t sound thrilled with a quarter of our resources by permanently tied up,” Emily said.
Willy then interjected, “Fifteen percent was a safe number he tossed out. His justifications were well thought out.”
“At the top of the hour please do two things. Emily, send word to fleet command that as a result of their requests we are giving them access to the core, though they are receiving less than a third of their requested processing capabilities. That reduction is due to our safety and to ensure we can properly navigate in slips space. Monique, contact engineering and ensure that they have partitioned not more than twenty percent of the core for their use. Once they give you the green light on that you may let the scientists know that we are enabling some access to the core.”
“Understood,” Emily said as she spun back to her terminal.
“Yes sir,” Monique said from her station.
The two women followed John's orders precisely as ordered. Monique immediately contacted someone in engineering so that they could enable the scientist’s connection to their computer core. Emily sent a message to First Fleet command. If John was correct, any complaints the scientists sent to his leadership would now be ignored.
The rest of the shift passed by peacefully. The scientists complained, instead of thanking John, about the connection. Though that in truth wasn’t terribly surprising. If anything, the scientists met John’s expectations. At least now they had some additional processing power at their disposal, there’d be no more as John was not feeling charitable.
13:00 CNS Waukesha – Captain’s Quarters
John was sitting at his desk. A faint string of steam was wafting off his cup of tea. Data was quickly scrolling by on the screen. To the average person, the information was passing by far too quickly for anyone to comprehend. John was thankfully far from the average person.
“Eve, are Dr. Hamelin’s conclusions accurate?” John asked before picking up his teacup.
“With the available information, it is the same conclusion I would come to. However, it is still within the realm of possibilities that the scanner is doing something else or looking for a gene sequence that you do not have.”
“Or if there were additional more detailed scanners,” John said as he gently placed the cup back on its coaster.
“That is unlikely. The scan, which is far more advanced than anything we currently have access to, was able to scan everyone within a three-mile radius. Its resolution was at a level that is only theoretical for us at this time. Additionally, it left behind no traces of any residual radiation,” Eve continued to summarize the document the pair were reviewing, “Unfortunately, there was only a little review done on the device itself as it was activated by accident and ceased to be shortly after activation.”
“What can you surmise from the images taken within a structure?”
Eve shared several images. Inside each one, many things were highlighted. John leaned in and began looking at them one after another. She interrupted his concentration by
“The extinct race must’ve found something interesting in the shape of a parallelogram. The buildings are all shaped as one, as are the hallways,” Eve flashed several more pictures to show the alien architecture, “As you can see the city is set up in many ways that are not dissimilar to ours.”
John leaned his cheek into his right hand as he looked at the images, “Do we have any way of knowing what would be in this mysterious structure?”
“No, no one has interfaced with an alien computer system. We are going in blind.”
“Is there anything we can do to avoid failure or death?”
“Send drones in to thoroughly scan and map out the structure. How the structure is designed may let us know if it is a city, military installation, or a remote lab of some sort.”
John nodded, “Add them to the list.”
“I would also strongly recommend that should the scanner permit you entry that you, and you alone, enter the structure,” Eve paused for a moment and continued, “We do not know if the presence of the scientists will trigger their failsafe systems or not.”
“Understood,” John said before taking another sip of tea, “What in the hell have I gotten myself involved in?”
Eve didn’t provide an answer. She didn’t know it, but John was appreciative of the non-answer. Any sarcasm would not have been received well. John was entering the great unknown. And he didn’t like it one bit.
Being in the military meant putting one’s life on the line. There may come a time when John would have to even give up his life for the greater good. Those orders haven’t come down yet. No situation he’d been in had warranted such a sacrifice save the assault on the Alliance carrier while he was in the academy.
What he had gotten himself hooked into was something entirely different. He didn’t feel in control. The alien structures are well-known to atomize themselves and anyone or thing currently in them. There’s no cheating death or avoiding it if that happens. You just cease to be.
For the first time in his life, he had genuine concerns over his continued existence. It was unsettling. John’s life was full of life-or-death scenarios, but there was a calculus at play in the past. Each and every one of those situations had a clear pathway to success or a way to decrease the threat to his life.
This mission though? It had none of that. There wasn’t a clear pathway to success. No one, not even John, knew what an alien computer terminal looked like. Or what a security room looked like for that matter. Who, or what, the aliens were was also unknown to all. Knowledge is power as they say, but right now John felt like he knew nothing. He was at a distinct disadvantage, and no amount of studying or rereading the research was going to help him.
John’s hand switched the right screen to the communications window. His eyes controlled the cursor. A video message was selected. A curious set of conditions were selected before the screen switched to the camera view. The light on the camera built into his desk began flashing red.
“Hi, Alice. I love you, though I know you know that; but you always get on my case to be more expressive of that. It’s hard to do that though because, well I am me,” John grinned as he exhaled loudly, “Well I wanted to record this message in case shit goes sideways. You are receiving this message because my worst fears have been met. Which also means I’m dead. I think this is the second time I’ve recorded a message like this for you,” John grunted quietly, “Practice doesn’t make perfect because it hasn’t gotten any easier to say this. Anyways, where was I?”