Dangerous Toys (Part Six)

Patrica began attaching her baby AI to the Engineering department, “Now, Oscar, I have been through most of these systems so I just want you to make yourself comfortable. I’ll be right here for questions or if you want me to pull something apart. Just keep an eye on the diagnostics while we work.”

The AI began stretching himself into the unfamiliar environment, picking up the unfamiliar programming and odd Xeno tech and peering into it. He was aware that this was his first day on a real ship with real consequences so he tried to be gentle. Patrica watched the AI begin to trace the connections in real-time and taking its first baby-steps. She had looked forward to this moment and under normal circumstances, this would have been a party. Today it was baby-steps in a minefield.

The Chief of Security was busy searching the corpses of the two insurgents that he had shot down outside his office. He found his dead security officers pistol and comms hidden on one of the creatures. So these were probably the ones that had arranged the murder and escape. He felt slightly better about events now. Unfortunately, he wasn’t watching his back as the two insurgents that had been tracking the Captain spotted him standing over the bodies.

The Captain had picked up speed as he realised that the attackers were about to creep up on his Chief of Security. They opened fire and he watched as his Chief fell tumbling back into the office. If Loki had been around to translate the emotions of the Captain it would have been a short story ‘/Rage/PackmateAttacked/Kill/’.

A long way from the distressed ship a deeply unfriendly and unhappy Xeno was grabbing information from the human’s idiotic Library Ship:

‘Patrica O’Neil, First Contact Appraisal. /Longshot/ Species name /FlowersEarly/ Capital planet /FlowersEarly/

TL/DR

“My discussions with the Captain have proved fascinating. To break it into some resemblance of our environments, this species has evolved from a mammalian type background that was trapped in an active volcanic era that diminished solar activity to the extent that only species capable of scent-based hunting could survive. With the fall of over ninety-five per cent of other species and a ‘dark age’ that persisted for over, by their count, three-hundred thousand years the /Longnoses/ thrived and eventually survived and adapted to the increasing solar radiation. To be blunt, if we had evolved from the platypus in a cave and not a rat. Some notable quirks are the raptor-like blades that are venomous and concealed in the same manner that a cats claws are. There is some social pressure not to display this attribute. I’ll leave that one to the specialists”

Of the many things that the Captain hadn’t disclosed about his people was that he was from a similar pack structure to the symbiotic dogs the humans were so proud of. It made him feel at home to have his /ScentofHappy/ close. Watching his chief shot down in front of him only increased the impact when he slammed his claws into the ‘/Unwanted/Traitors/ScentofMadness/CrewKillers/’ and felt them rip into their spines. He released his venom into the wounds and ripped the claws back out as he rushed to his Chief. It had taken only seconds before the intruders were bleeding corpses behind him, twitching as the venom burned out their nervous systems.

Patrica waited as Oscar slowly, well slowly for an AI, took control of her network. He found a single ‘blip’, a bit of trash software designed to lie about the power outputs of the engines. Nice if you wanted to take out a ship. He had removed it, stripped it from the system and displayed the remains like Loki the first time he had defeated a pillow. She smiled at the memory, “Nice work Oscar. When you are ready I want you to follow the Comms and find the problem. Don’t attack until I’m ready, I may need to back you up with…” She felt irrationally reluctant to mention violence to her AI. “With an active intervention.”

The Captain found his Chief hunched over with his pistol pointed straight at the doorway. He scented /burntFlesh/Pain/Blood/Courage/Battleready/Cold/ . He knelt down and sniffed deeply, “Nicely done Chief, you lined them up for me. I thought my time had come.” He hauled the man upright. “I think we are clear for the moment. Any idea where our Engineer is?” The Chief shook his head, “Loki warned me about those two but I haven’t seen her. Engineering I guess?” The pain stopped him from continuing. The Captain began carrying him towards the door, trying to read the air. So much death, blood and pain made it difficult. Loki had been close, as had the Engineer but the scent was older than the weapons fire. She must have retreated to her den when she realised that Comms were out. Humans weren’t exactly predators but anyone that tried to take advantage of their lack of natural weapons tended to find out really, really quickly why they were known for their engineering skills. He began hauling the Chief to the Med Bay, the Chief’s pistol in his hand.

Oscar came back with a map of the system. An unnamed closet two floors down was bottlenecking the Comms, presumably also acting as a check and input for the bad guy’s AI to interfere. After a moment she decided a rough plan. She assumed she was on her own until the Comms were back up. Loki seemed sure that her hunters had fallen so the coast was clear. Fuck it, she had her suit and her dog. Speaking of which…

“/Loki/here/Sit/”.

She had made it for fun, a light moment when her hands were free. She dug into her personal locker until she found it. Loki wasn’t a big fan of coats but she hoped he liked this one. She clipped it around him with minimal fuss, save for a little tail action. It was bright yellow with the words ‘Human Altered’ on both sides. She had meant it as a joke and had her own jacket with ‘Canine Altered’ for an occasion that hadn’t arrived yet. Loki’s coat was fireproof, impact-resistant and contained a rudimentary life-support system. Hers had pockets.

She sealed the Engineering department, having tied Oscar straight to her HUD. Comms might be fucked and she might not be able to bring them back but that link was unbreakable. She felt like a bad babysitter leaving him like that but needs must when the devil drives. “/Loki/Guard/Hunting/” She sealed her helmet and set off with Loki by her side. Loki was actually quite proud of his new coat, enjoying the scents of /Protect/Care/Love/ that were woven into it.

The darkness was keeping most of the crew pinned in place, a measure that worked until everyone fumbled their way to a torch, anything with a battery or in one case some scented candles. Now search parties were leaving the bridge to find their Captain. Former First Officer Wippene was ignoring his dismissal and waving a very large rifle around. “Find the Captain! Anyone you don’t recognise surrenders or dies!” Someone amongst the crew had carefully removed the power-pack from the weapon and everyone else just nodded and agreed. They wanted the Captain back, Wippene had obviously lost his mind.