Holly stored her training suit in her locker in Command and then walked to the Mess to discuss restoring the ship and follow up actions from the drill. Zhu was already present and she took a seat beside him. He looked perfectly at ease, which struck her as being out of touch. Things would never be the same on the Nineveh with a replicant aboard.
She watched a few more of the crew come in. Several of them got coffee or tea before sitting down. De Silva, Stocky, Patterson, and Chandna were accounted for in Sci-Med, but the rest were soon present. And many of them looked angry. Zhu told them about the ones who were predisposed.
“So what happened during the drill?” Ginting said. “Was Patterson told that her team could disable ship’s systems? And why did Stocky tear up the ship like a maniac?”
“How did he create the kinetic impact scare?” Qureshi asked.
The eyes of the crewmen all seemed to fix on her. She felt the negativity permeating the group. She wished the Captain was here. His bearing and demeanor screamed authority, with a reassuring effect. She didn’t possess the same presence. And she didn’t know how to explain Stocky’s behavior anyways. She guessed that he had simply underestimated his strength in a contact exercise. Fallen angels.
“And why did he knock out the Captain?” Soliman asked.
Several of them murmured at that remark. She felt their discomfort. Her stomach still felt queasy. She had watched Stocky storm the bridge while carrying De Silva as a piece of meat. Stocky was following his orders to win, but without any appreciable humanity. He had become a monster.
That’s what scared her, and likely everyone else. She didn’t understand the psychology of replicants. They were conditioned to avoid causing harm to humans. But what constitutes harm? If she ordered Stocky to slap her in the face then what was he going to do? Slapping her would cause harm, but so would disobedience to authority. What she had seen now was that he would work out the conundrum on his own. He had chosen the slap option knowing that Patterson would make things right. There was a twisted logic to it.
She was certain that he was trying to preserve the command authority. Outright defiance would undermine the command structure that they needed to operate the ship – and to survive. He couldn’t do that. But manhandling the Captain also undermined the authority structure in a roundabout way because it made people doubt it.
“I don’t think he hit him that hard,” Zhu said. “Patterson doesn’t think it’s serious, and you know that physical contact is allowed on the security drills. We’ll debrief this and learn from it. Stocky just doesn’t know how we do things sometimes…”
“That’s a bunch of garbage, Zhu, and you know it,” Soliman said. “We didn’t set this up properly.” His comment drew a lot of nods.
“Yeah, it doesn’t explain why he hit him at all or threw the air tank,” Ginting said. “Careful takedowns are okay, but he’s huge and could have killed someone with his actions. We should have better established the rules.”
You’re right. In hindsight, we should have done better. And we will.
She knew the fear they felt. They had all had time in the gym with Stocky and witnessed his incredible strength. She had once counted the weight as he stacked 2360kg on the incline bench press. Then she watched him do a whole set of eight or nine reps. And when he had finished, he simply took a sip out of his thermos, steadied his breath, and then started shifting the weights to the leg press.
Stocky could kill a man without meaning to, and they should have better recognized that danger before. They would somehow address it going forward. Hopefully Patterson had suggestions for this. It was a shame she wasn’t present to alleviate their concerns now.
“I don’t think he hit the Captain,” she said. “I don’t want any of you starting rumors here. We don’t completely know what happened. Don’t talk about what he may or may not have done to the Captain until we get all the facts. And the only fact we know is that he’s not seriously injured. Like ENG said, we’re going to learn from this.” She looked over them all. She didn’t see compliance. “This is an order.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Moussa said. The others followed his lead.
“Alright,” Ginting said. “But why isn’t Stocky here to clean up his mess?”
“He’ll be here shortly,” Zhu said. His voice now reflected agitation. He wasn’t calm anymore.
“Patterson said he got some laser light in his eyes. They’re examining him as a precaution. Again, it’s not a serious injury. Nobody was appreciably hurt. I know Robbie looks bad but none of us do.”
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“And even Robbie can be repaired easily enough,” Zhu said.
“Okay, true,” Moussa said, “but if he got shot in the eyes then how was he not killed?”
“I don’t know,” Zhu said. “The intensity of the light pulse probably wasn’t enough to register. I guess it was some kind of grazing shot. Maybe a reflection. He was recorded as a casualty in the drill.”
“A head shot isn’t a good way to kill a replicant anyways,” Samoylova said. “Most of them have skulls that are practically bulletproof. Don’t try to break his bones, you can’t. His skeletal system – including cartilage – is strengthened by carbon nanotubes. Shoot him in the neck, if you can, and wait for him to bleed out. Or shoot him in the gut, and keep shooting him there until he goes down. And don’t ever get close…even if you think he’s dead.”
Holly peered into her eyes. She had done this before. And it appeared that she had made the mistake of getting close before – or someone she knew did. She probably lost a close friend. Replicants very rarely went homicidal, but it happened. It occurred to her that she didn’t know much about Samoylova. The same was true with most of the others. She knew why.
She avoided conversations that could lead to questions about her own past. What would she tell them? She didn’t want to lie, but she also didn’t want to talk about growing up in the United States – the Triumvirate. The Triumvirate was a myth. There were fifty-thousand-member states in the United Nations and so there was no appreciable unity. But the people in the Outers believed in the conspiracy theory. And they didn’t trust the three. But she could talk about her past with Samoylova since she was from that same background.
“Is it better to shoot a replicant in the heart?” Moussa asked. He looked at Samoylova stunned, almost terrified. It wasn’t just the stress from what Stocky had done to them. Other ships also employed replicants. And they could be hostile.
“That’s difficult,” Samoylova said. “He’s got more ribs and vertebrae than we do. The gaps between aren’t large.”
“True,” Fuller said. “He’s got thirty-two ribs instead of our twenty-four, and that’s to keep the opening in between them small. He’s built for survival.”
Samoylova nodded. “If you’re lucky enough to get a shot in between his ribs, then maybe you can get through his connective tissues. But you aren’t shooting through a rib. Even the cartilage part.”
She got up to refill her coffee mug. “The neck is the sweet spot,” she said while pouring.
“Have you done this before?” Soliman asked Samoylova. “Because if he’s so hard to take down and he’s losing his mind…it’s gonna get serious!”
“Nobody has lost their mind! Nobody is going to lose their mind. Stocky did what he did because the Captain told him to win. And he did that because he wanted to show you what happens when you approach your job like it’s a game. You lose.
We’re going to board an alien ship. Everything on that ship should be dead and quiet. But we won’t know for sure until we get there. And, if we’re wrong, then there could be traps and defensive measures we’ve never seen before. This could be the most dangerous job we have ever attempted. Act like it.”
“Yes ma’am,” Moussa said. The others followed his lead.
She took note that the crew instinctively followed Moussa’s lead. De Silva had coached her before to lean on Moussa if she ever found herself in a bind. It seemed to be good advice to follow. She was glad that it ended things. Stocky wouldn’t intentionally hurt any of them and they didn’t need to be imagining that he would.
“So, are we going to just leave the ship trashed?” Soliman asked.
“No,” Zhu said with a sly grin. “Moussa will get a detail together to repair the doors and make sure they work.”
“C’mon, ENG,” Soliman said, “the aggressors made the mess. Can’t we wait until Stocky’s back.”
“No,” he said. “We’re on a spaceship. It must be able to seal off breached rooms. I want to know all the doors work within an hour. I don’t care about the lockers and the lighting panels, nor the debris in Hab. You can leave those for Stocky. Same with fixing Robbie.”
“Yes, sir,” Moussa answered. He mustered the crew up and led them away.
“And, Moussa,” Zhu added. “I want to hear you report that every door has passed its op checks sat within an hour. Each one of us must give our best every minute from now until we are deep on our outbound. That’s the only way we’re going to overcome the unknowns at work here.”
“Yes, sir,” he said. “Let’s make it happen, crew.”
Holly watched them leave, listening to Soliman complaining about how it was unfair that Stocky and Patterson were on the same team. Garvey called him a sore loser. Ain’t it the truth. True, the defenders had been humiliated. But that didn’t warrant sulking. She then turned to Zhu. “I figure the Captain will be LLD for a few days. Patterson will want him to rest. Have you logged that you’ve assumed command?”
He nodded affirmatively. “And you’re logged as the acting first officer. That was a good command presence you showed with them just now.”
“Thanks, I wasn’t really trying. I just thought they were losing focus.”
“Don’t try to force it. It comes best naturally. I think both sides did fine in the drill – and we learned more from it. Some still don’t have the proper attitude and focus for what’s coming. I’m going to cancel all system casualty drills for tomorrow…give the crew some time to blow off steam. Then we’ll ease into them again.”
“That’s probably wise. Do you think we’re getting a good idea of who will be on the away team?”
He smiled mischievously. “We’re getting there. We’re mostly where we need to be.”
He swiveled his chair to face her and reclined back in his seat. “Do you want to be on the away team? The Captain is only going to let one of us go. Heck, I’m sure he’d like to do it himself. He’s done it all – except board an alien ship. But he’ll stay aboard since we’re so far away from any chance of assistance. Safety of ship concerns. So, it’ll be either me or you.”
“Don’t you want to go?”
“Sure I would,” he said. “This is something that I’ll never get the chance to do again. And I think that my engineering background will be a great complement to the Sci-Med officer who goes. But we have to do what’s right for the Nineveh. Assess your desire and how your knowledge and experiences can support the operation.
Now if you don’t want to go, then say so. The people on the team must be focused and committed. The team lead especially.”
“You’re right. I’ll think about it.” She couldn’t argue with his reasoning.