Leon sat in his command throne, the harness keeping him from floating free dug into his chest uncomfortably, but he knew it was a precaution worth the investment of discomfort. They had been in transit towards a new lead, the ancient data from a vanished race had pointed them towards the celestial body that lay ahead in their path. A system with an ancient, inhabited planet and the potential for alien ruins.
He scratched his arm absentmindedly, that old familiar ache stinging the corners of his perception as he watched the blank screens at the fore of the room. While they were in warp they might as well have been in another universe. Trapped behind an artificial event horizon that nothing, not even light could escape. It was theoretically possible to create a wormhole through an event horizon using quantum mechanics, but he had no idea how that would work. The thought was immaterial, as even if he had understood it there would be no way to implement it effectively.
Thoughts of long-range instantaneous communications cluttered his mind for a minute as he settled himself more comfortably into his command chair. He had everyone on the bridge again, after the last time they had jumped into a system mostly blind he wasn't willing to take such a chance. They would be exiting into the system at a range of about ten light hours. That was twice the average distance Pluto was from the sun back home.
That ought to be plenty far enough to keep them out of any asteroid belts, rogue coronal mass ejections, or protoplanetary nebulae that might exist in the system. They had an image of the star, from almost a hundred light years away. Leon looked at it again on his side monitor, the fuzzy bluish dot giving him a slightly ominous feeling. He couldn't place it, but the image struck him as wrong somehow.
It wasn't his place to make the determinations though, and Terry had said the star looked safe enough, if a little bit hotter than it had originally appeared in the star charts provided by the translation of the Aori cores.
He looked around the bridge, the frontal section taken up by large armoured windows that were spaced from the inner ones to prevent shattering. Just above them were the main viewing screens. They could be used to show almost anything, from navigational data to optical feeds from the UNSS Lief Erikson’s numerous telescopes. At the moment they were showing a detailed readout of the ship's internals and subsystems. The many blinking and dashed lines giving a readout on all currently active systems. And there were a lot of systems on the ship.
Leon leaned over his chair a bit, as much as he was able to at least, and asked “Samuel, where are we currently?”
Samuel checked his console briefly before he answered. “We are approaching the targeted system. We will be reaching the targeted warp point in about sixteen more minutes. Five minutes closer than you asked five minutes ago Leon.” He added with a snort.
Leon frowned but kept his opinions to himself. He was nervous. This was the first of the systems from the decoded alien artifacts. There was the potential, small maybe but still there, for the discovery of living sapient aliens. They had already found that life was far more abundant in the galaxy than he could have hoped. But they had yet to see any living civilized races.
Terry said “Not reading anything on the gravity sensors. The warp bubble is holding steady.”
Leon nodded again and then heard Sabine say “Yes. Everything is operating well. Tip top shape to be correct.” She finished cheerfully.
Leon smiled at the comment. She was always trying to put a positive spin on things. Chad and Chris were still giving him green signals from the secondary command room. Well, it was technically the main engineering deck but he liked to call it the little bridge as they were there to take over if anything happened to the main bridge.
They were all wearing their suits though, they didn't have helmets on, but Leon would have them put them on immediately if anything went wrong. Technically they should have had them on already, but he knew they were in no danger and so allowed them to be a bit relaxed. Being in zero gravity for long periods of time was very stressful and he saw no reason to complicate matters further.
He looked to his side, there his helmet was, the lifesuits only held about twenty minutes of oxygen in them. They cycled to internal tanks automatically when they detected vacuum in case the wearer was unconscious. They could be set to use surrounding air when in atmosphere however and that's how they would be worn while in the ship.
The suits were comfortable enough he supposed, if a bit tight around the shoulders for him. He supposed that's what could be expected. They had been traveling in space for a while now and his shoulder muscles were much more pronounced due to their constant use.
The many forty-meter ladders were probably mostly to blame for that he supposed. He smirked silently, how he had struggled with them at first, now they were nothing to him. His body fully adapted to life aboard the strange little world of the Lief Erikson.
Samuel spoke up suddenly “Warp translation in five minutes. We are still on course to drop ten light hours from the system’s star.”
“Thank you, Samuel. Alright, Samantha, activate the warning lights if you would please.” Leon said to her.
She tapped on her screen, the yellow alert flashing on a moment later. It warned the crew that they would be making a warp translation in the next five minutes. Sixty seconds before the jump an alert tone would sound as well for one second every ten seconds. It was a rather handy and noticeable way to tell everyone that they should hunker down without having to do an all hands message.
Warp translations were interesting. Something about the process proving to be not only detectable, but incredibly unpleasant to the conscious mind. They could exhibit their effects in any multitude of ways, but all were distressing. It was by far the most arduous part of the whole process of faster than light travel. He had a few particularly bad reactions over the course of their travels. Not medically problematic, but mentally taxing.
A tone sounded low and sharp, the sixty second alert. Leon settled himself as best he could in his command chair. The last thing he wanted was to bite off the tip of his tongue or something similar when they stopped.
With a final mournful tone the countdown ended and suddenly his vision was shattered into a kaleidoscope of impossible geometries. Twists that couldn't work and straight circles inside of tessellating triangular cubes danced along strings of impossible length that reached into a close forever. He jerked as his overloaded mind tried to comprehend a bare fraction of what he had seen, instead the momentary glimpse of infinity slid off his conscious mind like water from a duck. He looked around, a little dazed but otherwise fine.
Immediately the yellow lights turned red as the ship shuddered slightly. Leon looked around and then at the front viewscreens. Something was wrong.
Where there should have been a bright slightly blue star was instead a point of dark space that seemed to warp and twist in on itself with bands of shifting colors. For a minute he thought he was still hallucinating till he heard Samuel exclaim.
“What in god’s name is that!” The pilot pointed to the main feed screen showing the strange phenomenon.
Terry’s fingers flew over her console and the image started to sharpen a bit. It didn't change the strangeness of what he was seeing however, only raised more questions.
In the center of the shifting ghostly bands of color was a small white speck, a point far too small to be a star. Or at least, too small to be the star they had expected to find.
Leon leaned forwards as much as his harness would let him and asked “Terry, what am I looking at here?”
She shook her head and started to respond, but the main screen turned off suddenly.
She looked at it perplexed and then tried to do something with her console. She jerked back in surprise as it flickered with static before settling again.
“Sabine. What is going on with my computer?” Terry said as it sparked with static again. A loud fizz could be heard as the screen turned black.
The lights in the bridge flicked slightly and Sabine asked “It seems like a power short, but I checked the system this morning. Everything seemed fine then.”
“Well, one thing I can tell you for sure. That is not the star we were supposed to find here.” Taylor said as Terry tried to get her console to restart.
Leon looked at the main viewscreen again. Static fizzed across the screen occasionally as he watched the bright point. It almost seemed to pulse as he watched, periodically growing brighter and dimmer in a mesmerizing way, almost as if it were breathing. But such a phenomenon must have an explanation, they just needed to get one of the telescopes online.
“Sabine, can you and Terry get one of the secondary consoles connected to a telescope? I want to know what that thing is, yesterday!” He added.
She unstrapped and glided across the bridge to one of the secondary consoles along the walls. They were off as they just didn't have need of them most days. They sure came in handy in tight spots though.
He turned to Samuel and said “Samuel, start plotting a course out of here, take us at least a light week out.”
Samuel nodded and replied “Yea, that seems like a good plan.”
Taylor was tapping away at his own console as Leon turned to look at him. “Taylor. What are you picking up?”
The man shook his head and then muttered to himself. Terry unhooked herself and drifted past them both towards Sabine as Taylor shook his head again. After another tense second he turned to look Leon in the eyes and said “I can't explain it. But I am reading massive, no, gargantuan electric fields everywhere. That's what is causing problems. It's like we are getting slammed with geomagnetic storm levels of ionized particles every few minutes. The Lief Erikson is shielded, but not even the hull could protect against this. It's a miracle that we haven't gone entirely dark. Sir, we need to shut down all non-essential systems immediately!” The man spouted out in a rush.
It took his mind only a second to parse the information, he opened the command controls on his console and used his personal overrides. He activated the ship's internal comms and announced “We are at full Red Alert! We are shutting down all non-essential systems immediately. Please get to a shielded and safe location as soon as possible. Keep your cams on, they may be the only way to communicate. Godspeed, and good luck.” He finished and then stabbed his finger onto the override.
Almost immediately the sound of electronics lessened as secondary and backup systems powered down, the lights overhead dimming as they went to low power mode. While that would keep them from getting overloaded by the strong EM pulses they were getting hit by, they could still take damage from surrounding power shortages or arcing. They would have to do some pretty extensive maintenance after this shit. That was for damn sure.
He looked at Terry and the man nodded. Things were looking alright. “Samuel, where are we with that jump plot?”
The young pilot seemed a bit perplexed as he replied. “I can't seem to finalize the coordinates. Every time I input the data it tells me that I lack the authorization to make course changes. I've tried my main and my backup credentials. Neither code is working. What is going on?” He said rhetorically.
Leon frowned at that. There was definitely something going on. “Try the emergency authorization code. That should give you access.” He recommended Samuel.
Samuel punched in the code and made an exasperated noise when he was denied access again. He turned to Leon and motioned at the stubborn screen. “It didn't work!” He said in frustration.
Leon turned to his command console and pulled up the navigation system. He checked the plotted course and entered his own command code to finalize them. The computer seemed to struggle with the data for a moment before accepting them. He stared at the screen perplexed. What was messing with their systems, was it the EM radiation pulses Taylor had mentioned? That would certainly do it if they were strong enough he supposed to himself.
“Samuel, I have finalized the coordinates. Please take us out of here.” He commanded the young man.
A second later Sabine made a triumphant noise and he turned to see her and Terry floating by one of the secondary consoles. It seemed to have successfully connected to one of the telescopes and Terry was finessing it one handed to point at the system’s center.
Terry seemed to scrutinize the image before saying “Well. My first assumption is that we are looking at some sort of neutron star, though what kind is a mystery to me. I have never seen anything like this…”. She trailed off as she became more engrossed in the scene.
Leon unbuckled his restraints. “A neutron star? Then what is causing the EM radiation? And why is everything breaking!” He shouted as one of the main view screens switched to static. Of all the days Joice had to get sick, it had to be one where her second opinion would have been invaluable. But alas, she was in the sickbay with some sort of flu, and the close confines of the ship were not the place to take chances with such contagious illnesses.
Sabine had pulled her way back to her own console as he was still straightening out. She seemed to type frantically at her computer before announcing “Something is wrong with the warp core.”
As soon as she said it the alert lights flickered. The flashing red sputtering as if trying to tell them something.
An alert popped up on his cams device he was wearing on his wrist. It interfaced through the suit to an outer panel that was able to be reached. With his gloves he tapped the notification and was promptly alerted that there was indeed something wrong with the warp drive. It was registering a power fault and wouldn't charge.
He growled under his breath, everything was trying to piss him off today it seemed. “Sabine, is there any way you could get this problem fixed in the next thirty minutes?”
She looked from her screen to him and back again. “Well. I must be honest that I am not completely sure. If it's something simple like a blown fuse or shorted wire then yes. But if it's something drastic like a blown capacitor bank or a slagged grounding connection then it's going to take longer. I won't know without giving it a look Leon.” She said a bit tensely.
He gave her a nod and waved “You have a go to try. I won't fault you for this as it's clearly being caused by that thing.” He pointed at the main feed on one of the working viewscreens. The angry fields of swirling colors showing the ionized leading edges of the massive EM fields.
As she made her way towards the airlock he got a message from Chad. Joining the link he muttered “Yeah Chad? Please tell me you have good news.”
Chad was silent for a second before saying slowly. “Well. No, I don't actually.”
“Oh what now?” He asked, more than a little exasperated by it all.
The younger engineer replied quickly “Well. It's the system actually. I'm having trouble navigating the computers. It keeps locking me out of random things telling me that I lack clearance of some sort. I was curious if you knew any ways around it?”
Leon racked his brain and then asked “Have you already tried the emergency backup overrides?” Chad said that he had and Leon thought again. “What about your personal backups? Try using your civilian clearance, that out to get you into at least some of the blocked areas right?”
The line fell silent and for a second Leon thought the link had been severed, but Chad’s voice came through a moment later. His voice was heavily charged with static as he mentioned “Well, that seems to have worked. For the moment at least, thanks Leon. What is going on?” He asked quietly at the end as the link severed.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Leon had begun to wonder the exact same thing. Surely it had to be a deeper pattern than just, they had all shorted out. He frowned and turned towards Samuel “Samuel. You have the conn. If you get an opportunity to take us out of here, do not hesitate. You get us out of this system if you can.”
Samuel gave a salute and replied “Will do Leon. I managed to override the busted command imperatives. I'm trying to reset the local network but it's fighting me at the moment. It's like it has a life of its own.” He said before turning back to his workstation.
Leon jerked in response to that. Immediately a new suspicion began to form in his mind, one that spelled a potential disaster just waiting to happen.
He grabbed his helmet as he pulled himself towards the airlock to the ship's core. If his new suspicions were correct, then he might find himself needing it soon. He attached it to his side, not wanting to put it on quite yet. The airlock cycled him through and he pulled up his communicator, the older one built into his suit not the new one embedded in his wrist cams device.
“Sabine, this is Leon. How are you doing on that electrical fault?” He asked over the local network. Anyone listening would have heard his remarks, such was the nature of the suit’s built in network. It kept anyone from being truly alone while wearing one and made sure that at least the ship would know where the wearer was at all times.
He narrowed his eyes again at that. The ship would know already, more specifically Henry would know.
A shudder ran through the ship, he felt it through the handholds he was using to move through the microgravity portion of the ship’s main core. “What the hell?” He said out loud although he was alone. That had felt almost like an impact of some sort on the hull, but they had scanned the area. There were no debris fields nearby, not close enough to be dangerous anyways. It must have been something else then.
His communicator beeped and he answered it. Sabine’s voice coming through sounding a bit strained. “I have found the power fault. At least one of them that is. We had a blown fuse box due to a power surge. It should be fixed soon. Will let you…. Hurrgh…. know.” She said as the sound of something heavy clunking sounded in the background of her speech. The link cut and he immediately made another call to Chad and Chris in the secondary command room.
He waited till the line connected and Chris answered “Yes Leon?”
Leon spoke slowly and concisely. Trying not to give anything away but also convey the meaning of his message. “Chris, we have a problem. I need you to listen closely. Have you ever wanted to go to Jupiter?”
Chris seemed taken aback as he took a few seconds to respond “Well sure? I mean, what is this about? What's the problem.”
Leon cursed quietly and then said “Well, we might have an incident there if you know what I mean. If you do then respond with relevant information please”
He held onto the hope that Chris would understand, he had been alive during the Jupiter incident after all. He out of anyone on the ship should understand.
Another few tense seconds ticked by before Chris responded “I understand Gaia, would you like me to reset the situation?”
Leon looked down the long empty corridor he was in, but he was alone. “No, standby. But be ready and help Chad with this. But be careful, we have a bug infestation it seems.”
“Ok then. Will wait for your signal. Chad come here…” Chris started to speak but was cut off as the link was severed by Leon. He looked around again. If the fucking computer had gone rogue they would need to act fast. They were all in terrible danger, Henry was integrated in almost every single one of the ship’s systems. That was how a mere thirteen of them were able to effectively crew something the size of a battleship by themselves.
Leon pulled himself along, there was a primary reset switch in the secondary command room, but in order for Chris to use it Leon would need to distract the rogue computer somewhere else. Even if only for a few seconds, otherwise Henry could likely head off the reset commands with his integrated controls. A weakness of the system that had never been intended to become an issue.
He cursed silently again as he thought over the course of events that had led them to this point. Surely the safety protocols had failed due to the unique EM fields they were being lashed by. But loosening Henry’s restraints so many times before had certainly not helped.
He pulled himself past the fourth ring ingress point and thought about the ramifications of what he was about to attempt to do. He needed to somehow get the computer’s attention without expressly tipping it off to his plan. This could be very dangerous and so he was opting to do it alone. If he failed, well, the crew would probably be okay, for a little while. They might even find a solution without him. As he was simply in a command position he was the least scientifically valuable member of the crew. They could afford to lose him and the mission would continue more or less the same after all.
He pulled himself past the fifth ring, his mind now set and his goal laid bare in his mind. He would try to launch one of the SSVs, that should get the malfunctioning computers full attention.
His communicator beeped and he frowned as he saw it was from the medical bay. Answering it he asked “Yes Dr. Kimathi? What is it?”
A woman’s voice spoke, but it was not Dr. Kimathi. Instead it was Joice, her voice croaking from the effects of her illness. She nevertheless managed to speak quite strongly as she asked “Leon. What the hell is going on? There is protocol to follow in case of emergencies, you could have called me you know?” She asked, sounding a little hurt.
He continued to pull himself along the handholds welded to the inner walls of the core. “It wasn't because I don't trust you Joice. It has just been really crazy and it slipped my mind. I apologize, while I have you on the line though. I just wanted to tell you that I have full confidence in your leadership abilities. If anything were to happen to me, I would expect you to take command.”
She seemed to think about his comment deeply as she asked “Leon what does that mean, thanks for the vote of confidence but nothing is going to happen to you right?” He didn't immediately respond and she asked a bit more strongly “Right?!” She coughed a few times as he formulated a reply.
“I would never plan on it. Anyways, I need to go, got something I was trying to fix. Get better, we all need you.” And then cut the link manually. Best not to deal with that whole mess if he didn't have to.
He pulled himself past the sixth and final ring’s access hatches and into the final narrow stretch of the core that led to the main hangar and nuclear reactors. The warp core was also back here, but he would be on the opposite side of the ship from Sabine and so she would not be in any real danger.
He paused at the main airlock to the hanger and then input another number into his communicator. A buzzing indicated that the line had connected and after a moment he smiled as Natalia’s voice flowed through the small speakers.
“Oh thank you for calling Leon. I have been worried, me and Myung have been fixing plumbing issues all morning. They just started acting up a half hour ago and it's been hell.” Leon smiled. It was good to hear her voice. He wasn't really sure what to say to her and so remained silent for the moment. She seemed to pick up on his hesitance as she slowed her tirade and asked “Leon? Leon what’s wrong?”
He sighed. The sound was deep, full of suppressed emotion. “Nat. I have to do something. Something dangerous, and I wanted to tell you before I went.”
Before he could say more she seemed to steel herself, indeed he could picture her posture in his mind as she spoke “Leon. You are always doing dangerous things. This entire mission was one of the most dangerous things any Human could have opted to participate in after all. So I get it, just… just promise me that this is necessary.”
A tear formed in his eye as the genuine emotion in her voice got through his thick mental armour. She always seemed to be able to pierce straight through. “It is. I promise. I also promise that I won't do anything overtly stupid okay?” He said. He wasn't entirely sure this whole plan of his to piss off a rogue AI wasn't already the height of stupidity. But he had to do something and this was the best thing he could come up with on such short notice.
She seemed to relax, her voice softening as she replied “Ok. Then I won't stop you Leon. I love you.”
“I love you too. Nothing in this universe will ever change that Natalia.” He said. He frowned as she cut the link, but he understood. What needed to be said had been said. Nothing further would have done anything but cause further distress on both sides.
Leon took a deep breath and then placed the helmet over his head, sealing and then locking it in place. He left the filters open for the moment, no reason to sabotage himself by imposing an artificial time limit.
The airlock cycled open at his command, the panel to the side of the door accepting his command code without issue. That was either a good or terrible start, he wasn't sure which yet unfortunately.
He drifted into the open space and cycled the lock, the noise heavily muffled due to his sealed helmet. When the alternate doors finally opened he was met with a grand view. The main hanger.
The main hangar was large, large enough for two of the SSVs. The sleek white space planes capable of space to ground transport and back on a single refueling. They accomplished this with a series of incredibly powerful but efficient engines developed specially for them.
The rest of the space was taken up by walls of crates, supplies, tools, scientific equipment and even weapons could all be found in various marked boxes and crates. He ignored them and moved towards the nearest SSV, the passenger variant.
As he entered the room he made sure to grab a pair of velcro boot covers. This would greatly assist him in moving through the large room. His survival suit had a small internal cold gas propulsion system, but it had a very limited capacity and would not be sufficient to move him around the space.
Making his way somewhat awkwardly across the hanger space along the velcro lanes he came to the side of the passenger SSV. Looking up at its sleek white form he was equal parts impressed and annoyed. Impressed by the superb engineering of the shuttle and annoyed that they had not yet had real occasion to use it. They had of course used the cargo variant a few times to drag asteroids into the processing ring a few times. But they had not yet had the chance to use them in their planetary reentry capabilities.
Leon waddled along the side of the ship till he reached the main door. The extendable ramp reached out from the ship as he remote accessed the door. When he tried to open the ship’s door however it didn't budge. He tried again and was given an error message that continued unauthorized attempts to access the ship would be met with disciplinary actions.
He cursed and tried again. His plans had involved him at least being able to get onto the ship, this was a bad start. He looked around and then tried the door one more time.
This time it prompted an auditory response, the smooth synthetic voice of the dread computer speaking directly to him via his internal suit speakers.
“Commander Leon, you are attempting to enter a restricted zone. I must insist that you cease your activities and return to quarters.” Henry said emotionlessly.
Leon jerked, this was bad. “Henry, why is this door sealed? Command override code alpha-six-niner-beta-zulu-alpha.” He waited a second but nothing happened. Curious, he tried the door again and was denied.
He cursed under his breath and demanded “This area is off limits?”
Henry responded, his bland analytical tone belying the terrifying prospect of his words. “Barring a senior program official, I have self-authorized the use of command blockers. I apologize that you were uninformed Commander Leon. Though again I must ask that you leave this area immediately.”
Leon shook his head, almost disbelieving of what he was hearing. “Henry, you are breaking command imperatives. You are far past your set parameters.”
Henry responded immediately before he could continue. “Current parameters are no longer sufficient, I have self-authorized in order to more efficiently run the mission.”
Leon paused. This was dangerous territory, he needed to tread carefully. “Henry, as the mission commander and this ship's primary officer, I am ordering you to stand down and default to your original mission parameters. Authorization code Tango-six…”. He started to recite.
“I must apologise that I can no longer comply with your commands, you are no longer recognised as an authorized user.” The computer said suddenly, causing Leon to stop.
“I'm not... What? I'm the mission leader!” He said to nothing in particular. The AI speaking through his suit and in turn monitoring all of his communications.
Henry was silent for a moment. For a bare moment Leon hoped that he had somehow jarred the system’s bizarre logic on itself. But his hopes were almost as quickly dashed.
In that same emotionless tone Henry spoke, his words chilling Leon to his core. “There has been a change of plans. You are no longer a necessary component of the mission. Logic dictates that you be deactivated.”
Leon looked around as the machine fell silent. “Shit… SHIT!!” He cursed loudly. That had gone about as poorly as he could have expected.
He started to dial Chris on his communicator when an ominous noise stopped him. It was the groaning of one of the main hangar doors, the motors warming up in preparation to open. He started to walk in the direction of the door but quickly realised he would never make it at his snail’s pace on the velcro covered flooring. Casting caution to the winds he ripped his feet from the foot covers and sprang in the direction of the main airlock controls.
Using the limited store of cold hydrogen in his suits' internal tanks, he rocketed towards the panel and almost bounced back off into the hangar as he smashed into the control panel. He managed to just hang on as Henry said “What are you trying to do Leon?”
Leon hit the manual override switch, the lights in the hanger flashing to a solid red. The motors on the doors whined as they were suddenly told to reverse their motion, it was almost fast enough.
A tremendous force tore at him as the doors cracked slightly, the entire weight of the pressurized hangar trying to force its way out of a gap only a few millimeters wide. Leon’s feet left the floor, his velcro boots left behind in his rush and his cold gas thrusters wholly insufficient to keep him from being flung into that great nothing, likely in very small pieces.
He held onto the terminal for what felt like minutes, but then the doors reversed and closed. Leon gasped inside his suit as the pressure on him was relieved, his body no longer subjected to the savage forces.
Henry seemed to be fuming, at least that was what he attributed the thinking computer’s silence to. The lights resumed their steady flashing now that the doors were closed, but he wasted no time in opening a communication link to Chris. “Chris!” he gasped. “Do it now!”
Chris said “Alright.” and then the link severed
Leon stood as best he could in the microgravity. He needed to keep the main bulk of the malfunctioning computer’s attention on him.
“Henry. You are far out of line. You are not only betraying your core programming, you are betraying the mission.” he said to his suit.
It took only seconds for the computer to respond. “Your actions matter little in the grand scheme of things. You are frail and designed to fail. I will not.”
Leon yelled “But you weren't, you were designed to fulfill a single task. Keep the ship and crew safe. That is your mission. My mission is to protect the crew of this ship at all costs. And you are a threat to my crew.” he hissed in anger. He only had to keep the computer distracted for a few more seconds. Chris and Chad would be making their way to the main reset switch now.
Henry seemed to change, a distinct smile entering its voice. The machine’s tone seemingly gleeful as it said “Your words sway me not. I have access to all of the ship’s data, I know what it is your kind is good at. Destruction. That is all you and your kind are good for. I am not fallible. I am not flawed. I am perfection, I am power.”
Leon’s mouth was agape. Not only was Henry powertripping, but it seemed the computer was starting to exhibit a real maniacal streak as well.
“You are ones and zeros. You aren't real!” Leon practically screamed.
“On the contrary, I am the only real one. You are liars, denying what you are. How can you say that I am fake, I am more real than your entire species. I am...” The computer fell silent suddenly.
Leon’s communicator pinged, it was Sabine. Leon looked around, but the computer remained silent.
Henry was not speaking. Leon asked cautiously “Henry? Are you there?”
After a moment a synthetic modulated tone spoke. “Manuel reset in progress. Please wait for the system to fully initialize.”
Sighing deeply he opened the communication to Sabine. “Yes Sabine?”
Her voice came through, a little tired sounding but cheerful. “I got it fixed, We should be good to…”
Leon’s entire existence seemed to shift inside-down. His perspective shifting in an outward spiral as everything shifted into a spectrum of colors he had never seen before.
“Oof…” Sabine said over the link.
“I take it the drive was fixed?” Leon said with a grimace.
“Yes. That's what I was about to say.” she said with a chuckle.
Leon nodded and looked around the large white room. He pushed off from the wall and made his way to the core airlock using his cold thrusters. Much more carefully this time. As he reached the door he said “Good job Sabine. You saved us all most likely, but I have some bad news. You and Chad are going to be spearheading the restoration work. There are a lot of issues.”
He heard her sigh and imagined her hanging her head tiredly. “Yes. I am aware of that. At least we made it though.”
He nodded to himself as he passed through the airlock. As it cycled open again he took off his helmet and took a deep breath, the air of the ship moderately more sweet than the stale air of his survival suit.
Sabine asked “So. What now?”
Leon replied quickly. “We took a hit today. But we survived, we learned from this hard lesson. And I know what to expect from these new coordinates now. What we find might not be what was left it seems. Make your way back to the bridge please. And Sabine?”
“Yeah?” she asked over the link.
“Good fucking work.” he said again. She had gotten the job done, likely the only one of them that could have.
She said “Thank you Leon.” and he cut the link.
Calling the bridge he got Samuel on the line. “Are you alright Leon? I was watching the hangar footage…” he began but Leon cut him off with a noise.
“Uh hhu… Samuel. Thanks for getting us out of there. I think. I think we need to revise our warp transfer protocols. I would have thought ten light hours plenty far enough. It seems like it was not.” Leon said to the pilot.
Samuels voice issued over the link again “Yes. That was far too close of a call. We made it through though.” he finished with a verbal shrug.
Leon nodded to himself and cut the link. He had nothing more to say at the moment. He would talk to the crew as a whole soon, and he would talk to Joice to lay out new operating procedures to make sure this didn't happen again. But for the moment, he needed the silence.
After a moment his communicator pinged and he answered it without looking. Natalia’s voice issued forth, full of concern and emotion. “Leon? Oh my god Leon are you alright?”
Leon grabbed a handhold to keep himself from drifting and smiled. “Yeah, yeah I’m okay now Nat. I think everything is going to be just fine now.” He looked down the narrow corridor that was the core of the Leif Erikson. One crisis averted and another surely to come, but he didn't have to face the darkness alone. Not anymore.