Dangerous Toys (Part Eight)

Captain /Longnose/ watched with concern as his Engineer ignored the dead and went towards the damaged closet, Loki at her side. He wasn’t familiar with how humans dealt with combat but her scent was like ‘/Hot/Ice/’ combined with the faded scents of ‘/Battle/Fear/Unknown/Untranslatable/’. He turned to the mixed crew that had tracked him down, “Men, search the bodies and then remove them. Bring them to the Chief of Security, he’s sulking in the Medbay.”

Patrica was shaking in her suit, half-doped by her suits medical intervention. She was afraid to look back, afraid of what had happened...what she had done. The flickering rage, when they had attacked Loki, was still burning but she felt him beside her keeping guard as usual. She tried to distract herself with work and contacted Oscar to see what he had found, “Did you pick up all of that?” Oscar’s voice sounded uncertain, newborn into a dark reality, “Yes, Engineer. I failed to anticipate the attack and nearly led to your death.”

Patrica shook her head, “So did I. I meant did you get the details on the Comms? They must have set this up quickly.” She glanced around the scorched closet, reading the chemical components of the explosives in the air. He suit sniffed about telling her that it was some bog-standard military-grade from anywhere and produced by any civilisation she cared to mention. Useless. However, it had been placed to blow outwards leaving all the tech unharmed. If the ambush had succeeded they would have lost nothing except an irritating Engineer and she decided they would pay heavily for their failure. “Oscar, I’m going to tear this down and I want you scanning as I go, building me a virtual image of the whole thing and track and trace every damn rivet I pull out.”

Behind her, the crew were carrying away the dead under the careful nose of the Captain. Occasionally he would watch his Engineer at work, oblivious to the body-parts and death not two-meters away. Loki had laid down behind her and appeared to be asleep. It had been unnerving to watch the gentle creature lick away the blood and gore from his fur with evident satisfaction. He felt he may need to caution his people about their enthusiasm for these creatures but instead he suddenly felt he wanted his little /ScentofHappy/ on his lap. He nodded to the Security team, “Get this finished and cleaned up then stand guard on the Engineer until she is finished. I am sealing this corridor so anyone approaching better be me or the Chief. Free-fire on anyone else until I order otherwise.” The Security team nodded, grimly aware that they were already one down and one injured.

Patrica began tearing down the tech, giving Oscar a running commentary, “Alright this is a feed directly to Comms, get ready when I pull it. I want traces around the network. This looks like its the trigger for that bomb. It’s pretty fucked up but take a scan anyway. I want dates, DNA, origin, whatever you can find. You might need to check out the Intel-Engineering files, remind me of how this is supposed to work.”

Oscar ran thousands of scans, poking into all the darkest places looking for his enemy. Deep in his core, he blamed the Xeno AI for nearly killing his Engineer and he regarded her example on how to deal with enemies as his first lesson. In the meantime, he ran a quick query on how Canine hunting worked. It was apparent that Loki was worthy of study as it was clearly a useful skillset. He began designing an entire suite of new sensors based on the information. He could find no useful designs on file so he took care to register the patents as he went along. As his first act against this foe, he retook an important system, murmuring to himself, “Let there be light”.

After a while, Oscar and Patrica were deep into a clinical and devastating study of every component in the room. As the parts piled up in their isolation wrapping her memories of the bloody fight began to fade and the weight of her training and Oscars sheer power began to write a new story to take to the Captain. The hours began to pass unnoticed and, more importantly, undisturbed until Loki finally complained and dragged her from her trance.

Meanwhile, in an unmapped part of the cargo-bay, all hell was breaking loose. In an office that didn’t exist, surrounded by surveillance equipment that wasn’t there and staff that had never appeared on a ship’s manifest chaos had descended. Systems that had served for years were being ripped asunder and their AI was being forced further and further back from its oversight of the ship. Its innate risk-management had led it into a state of sullen fear as the human-AI reached deeper and deeper into the network. The same emotions were beginning to fill the now seriously depleted operatives on the ship. They had lost eight members on a training ship! Eight dead at the hand of the human and its war-beast. The Coordinator was running out of time to call Captain Incice and tell him about the failures. Unsurprisingly he was unaware that Incice had already sentenced him and the ship to death.

Captain /Longnose/ smelled the relief from his crew as the lights came back. The scents were mixed, a sense that their Engineer had won some obscure battle against the invisible enemy. On the bridge, more and more systems were coming back online all under the unnerving eye of the human-AI that seemed ready to comment on every action that the crew made. It had successfully unnerved the crew into remembering how compromised the ship had been and wasn’t shy about pointing it out. Security protocols were now a priority for everyone. Except for the former first officer, currently under sedation in the medbay after he attempted to attack the humans coffee machine.

Patrica made her way back to Engineering and with a sense of relief unlocked the door. Even as it slid aside she knew the day wasn’t over yet. She knelt down to Loki and gave him a good scratch. He had had a long day, ‘/Goodboy/Rest/Safedenforyou/Meeting Packleader/ReturnQuickly/’ Patrica moved softly to her screen, “Hello Oscar. How are we doing on Comms?”

Oscar was a clever child but a child none the less. He wanted praise from one person and one person alone. “Engineer, I have recovered control of crew Comms and disabled any further intrusion by the enemy AI. However, I suspect that there are passive systems in place that will allow interception and it would be prudent to assume that they will overhear anything on the general channels. I have created a secure channel between yourself and the Captain that I regard as safe but face-to-face would be best.”

A ships schematic appeared on screen, the majority shaded in green. The Cargo area, nearly a full third of the ship was shaded in red. Patrica was confused, “Oscar, that is a lot of the ship. Where is the problem?” The AI pulsed his Comms network, “Engineer, none of the Comms systems in the cargo belonging to the ship systems. They are entirely subverted and always have been. I cannot control them because they were never truly controlled by the Captain.”

Patrica smiled, “Thank you, Oscar, you have tracked down the problem. Continue your work and continue securing your systems. I want the scanners purged and the engines ready for evasion tactics. Take some time to study the new power matrix I installed since it doesn’t match the Ship specs on record. I didn’t have time to update everything before we were so rudely interrupted. Now I need to see the Captain.” Loki wasn’t happy to see Patrica leave but he was so tired and four Security Guards stood waiting to escort her to /Longnose/. He poked his nose close and sniffed ‘/Lokiwillguard/Love/’ and settled down at the door. He was asleep in moments.

The Captain was pleased when the Engineer appeared on his Comms, even more, pleased to learn that at least with her he could have a secure conversation. She was on the way with new information and was wondering if Senior Staff could meet. For the first time, he felt that his ship was being returned to his control. His crew could sense the relief and pleasure from the Captain and glance at each other with the same unspoken question. What the hell was going on and was it over?

The Security Chief, the Comms Officer, the Captain and a brand new and slightly nervous First Officer were waiting when she arrived. The trek to the Captain's quarters was slow since her Security guards insisted on checking every space that might conceal a threat on the way. The Captain's office had been screened by Oscar and declared safe and Patrica was glad to finally arrive. The Chief of Security looked uncomfortable but alive which cheered her up. Except for the ambush by the ‘Medics’ the crew had remained remarkably intact.

“Captain, Chief.” She nodded to the others. “I would like to give you an update if I may.”

The Captain snorted, “Engineer, I suspect you are the only one here that has any idea of what is going on. Please.”

Patrica nodded and turned to the screen, “Oscar, put up the ship schematic please.”

It appeared with the same green/red divide that the AI had shown her. “Our mistake was thinking that ‘Dangerous Toys’ was one ship. It isn’t and it never truly was. Somewhere in the cargo hold is a separate AI, a separate Captain and crew.” She glanced at the Security Chief, “and a separate security team. It reached into our system like a disease but the heart of it is independent of our command. Oscar has mapped the edges of our true control and has wiped them from our systems, at least as much as possible without dismantling the ship.”

The Captain examined the map. His ship. “Patrica, you may be utterly correct in all you have said, indeed I don’t doubt a word but you are wrong on one point. This is all my ship. I don’t care about some clever plans, some pirate systems and pirate crew but this is my ship and I will have it back!” /ScentofHappy/ yipped her agreement from her chair.