Chapter 013: Incident

The Autonomous Trade Interdiction System (ATIS) was a type of self-replicating weaponry created and deployed during the War of Purity by the Robotic Technocracy and the Virtual Consensus.

ATIS was a network of nanomachine based self-replicating microfactories spread through the Human Space with the use of the Discord jumpgate network. Once deployed, they automatically mined resources from asteroids in outlying and mostly abandoned star systems, using the resulting materials to produce frigate-sized SI-driven warships.

While not a threat to any warship, even frigates (due to faulty SIs and oversimplified design), they excelled at preying on defenseless civilian transport ships and outlying settlements. The ATIS drones were cheap and completely expendable, and their massed deployment and damages dealt to the mining industry and interstellar transport shrunk the Solar Commonwealth’ industrial output by approximately twenty-five percent.

The ATIS’ inability to discern the types of civilian ships they were facing, the famines caused by successful planetary blockades, and occasional usage of their own mass and acceleration to destroy orbital stations, asteroid mines and domed settlements on outer system worlds led to approximately 1,5 billion civilian victims of the system during the war.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 4, page 65

***

Hyperspace

15:20 27.04.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

“What am I supposed to look for?” The transhuman answered once Christopher gently reminded him that he was the recipient of the last question.

“Find out if there is a way to manually open the airlock. And if there is a way to seal the hole after cutting it apart with a torch, so we do not depressurize half of the ship by accident.” Christopher replied. That would both suck AND ruin his work assessment. Tiaa was silent, but she was there, and she still watched them.

Ryan was still trying to find something by blindly touching the surface around the airlock when Tendrik finished his investigation.

“Uhm, it’s yes for both questions.” The transhuman said. “All airlocks of the Jewel have a manual lever that can open them from the outside. They also have an airtight inner outside door that can be sealed shut either manually or automatically, mostly to slow down boarding attempts. The manual lever outside makes the place less secure, I suppose.”

“Great. Where is the manual lever, then?” It took quite a bit of self-control to not start complaining about Tendrik drifting off the subject.

This was supposed to be an (almost) military operation! Were Christopher and Rukh the only people who paid attention during the training?

“To the left of the airlock.” The transhuman replied. Christopher was relieved. Finally, some progress.

“Uhm, where is the left side of the airlock?” Ryan asked. Christopher was briefly left speechless. The question sounded stupid, but after thinking about it for a second, it made sense. They didn’t see an awful lot of the ship from their present position - only its surface stretching in all directions at once. And while they remembered the airlock position from earlier, what if the ship was, for example, upside down? The third dimension made everything more complicated. “WAIT, I think I found it. Pulling it now.”

There was a loud metal screech, and the airlock started opening. Then it ceased, with the gap too small to allow them to move in.

“Uhm… Cat Seven?”

“One second, please. It’s complicated.” Ryan replied, leaving Christopher to wonder how exactly a lever could be complicated. As if to highlight the situation, the airlock sealed itself. “Ok, I think I figured it out!” The exterior door of the airlock once again began opening. It paused after reaching the same point as earlier… but after a second it continued opening. Then it paused again… and then went on again.

Oh. Each time it halts, Ryan lets the lever return to the starting position… only to pull it again. Makes sense.

After a while, the exterior door was finally open.

“Cat Two and Cat Five, go first.” Tiriel and Rukh were the only people who could actually be considered soldiers among the team. And if they were to come across an enemy, it would be inside. “Cat Three and Cat Six after them, then me, Cat Four, and Cat Seven.” He wasn’t going to issue orders to Tiaa, of course. Nekia was to accompany Christopher, because he prefered having an eye on her… and Ryan was needed for something else.

Once they all went in, they could advance to another step.

“Cat Seven, can you see that inner door? Get it closed.”

“Yes, yes, no problem. Give me a second.” The engineer answered. Christopher had managed to pretty much accept the fact that none of his teammates were going to refer to him properly.

“Am I the only person surprised with how Christopher has suddenly developed a commanding presence?” Tendrik interrupted the silence of waiting while Ryan closed the outside airlock. “I expected him to be more like ‘uhm, how about we do this’ and ‘what do you think about doing that’.”

Christopher exploded. Or his emotions did. Although Tiriel managed to answer before he did.

“It’s Cat One, Cat Three.” The calm professionalism of the team’s older sister was soothing. “You are right, though. After returning to the ship I’ll ask the ship’s chaplain to perform exorcisms on him, just in case.”

Everyone in the airlock - save for Rukh and Tiaa - laughed. Even Christopher chuckled. It was a mystery to him as well.

“I found it!” Ryan declared. The humanoid figure at the back of the group suddenly grabbed something at the ceiling near the outer exit and pulled it down. Something started sliding out of the ceiling, covering the exit. Soon it arrived on the floor. After a while of poking around the wall’s edges, he spoke again. “Ok, it’s sealed. Ten... Cat Three, is there a manual opening mechanism for the inner doors?” Signs of slightly professional behaviour started slowly creeping in.

“Hold your horses, Cat Seven.” Christopher interrupted him, and checked the tactical network. There were some additional pieces of information, thanks to some teams landing faster than the Recovery Team Eight. For example the fact that the ship seemed pressurized. “Cat Six, pressurize the room.”

There were a few seconds of silence before Kivanna figured out what he meant. She put the additional oxygen tank she brought with her on the ground and turned it on. Soon the airlock started being filled with air.

Christopher wasn’t even going to ask where the Hyperspace medium that was inside went. As the air filled the room, it simply disappeared. He wasn’t a physicist, but he had a suspicion that even his father would have struggled to figure it out. The articles about Hyperspace he found on the shipnet were pretty much one big WE HAVE NO CLUE HOW IT WORKS BUT LET’S BE HAPPY THAT IT DOES.

Once the pressure had reached the one inside the ship and the Hyperspace liquid was flushed out wherever the out was, Christopher told his team to continue.

After a few more seconds, Ryan spoke.“Ok, so I think this lever doesn’t work. Time to pull the torch out!”

Christopher sighed. This would take a while.

***

RTS Pristine Jewel

15:35 27.04.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

Finally, they entered the ship. Its insides looked like the Echo - dark, industrial, claustrophobic, with cables, pipes, and various machines covering the walls. Though the dark part was magnified further by the lighting not functioning.

Christopher was half-sure that a Xenomorph or some other classic sci-fi monster would jump out on them. The surroundings were a perfect stage for that.

“Second lesson.” Tiaa suddenly interrupted the small celebration of their first successful boarding. “Enter your suit’s systems and switch on the Field Mode.” After he did so, Christopher’s view changed. The corridor turned lighter, as some sort of night vision turned on. Also, several counters showed up on the edge of his view.

“If you switch on a flashlight now, it will use the light color attuned to your nightvision. In short - it will lighten everything up much stronger, without being discernible from afar by other people, and without blinding you.” She continued. To Christopher it sounded like a useful feature.

“Now, about the counters.” Tiaa continued. “The uppermost is linked to your outside microphones. The entire audio feed is analyzed in real-time, and any outside noise not caused by your team members will be displayed in that counter. It will show its intensity, direction, and display a warning once it takes place. For now, hide it to not hinder the view. Those things are set to show back if they have something relevant to show. Those three interconnected counters show the temperature, air pressure, and gravity. They, too, can be concealed. They will warn you if things change. Finally, the remaining three counters… well, they’re a bit more complicated.”

The first one showed 0. The second one showed 1.0. And the third was frozen at 60/60.

“You do not have high enough clearance to know what they are.” Tiaa continued. Christopher sighed. This was horribly, horribly stupid. “You might figure out what the first counter is about during the mission, however, I must advise you that you are not authorized to disclose that to anyone outside this team. The violation of this order will cause immediate termination of your status as the Guild’s employee and numerous other sanctions, including a partial memory wipe. As for the other two counters, even I have no idea what they are about. And I’m not even interested in finding out.” Tiaa continued, her lecture growing stranger and stranger with every word. “All you have to know is that if the second or third counter displays anything other than 1.0 and 60/60, you are to instantly inform me about it. And if the first one changes not because of your actions, do the same. Then I’m expected to relay all of that to the officer in charge of the boarding. That’s all. Now, you are free to continue.”

“Oh, wow. So there are fields upon which the Guild gets serious. I didn’t see that coming.” Tendrik commented, saying the same things Christopher thought earlier.

“Let’s go. The sooner we meet up with the others, the better.” Christopher stated, cutting off the talk before it started. He didn’t enjoy lacking firepower while aboard the Jewel. The ever-present darkness (even with the night vision on) was oppressive. And he kept having bad feelings about the entire operation. His crippling lack of faith in his own skills was taking its toll.

***

By the time they arrived at the main hangar, Recovery Team One and the marine squad had already landed. Two shuttles stood in the hangar, surrounded by some unloaded equipment (including the spare oxygen tanks, tools, and explosives) and two crawlers.

To Christopher, they resembled WW2 German kettenkrads. Light transport vehicles, looking like a motorcycle with an attached tracked trailer. Useful to carry equipment (and ‘salvaged’ parts) through the corridors of boarded vessels. One of the two was theirs, waiting for Kivanna to take it for a ride.

“Great, everybody’s here.” Tiaa commented. “Lion Two, what about the air?” One member of the first team turned towards them.

“We’ve pumped out air from the hangar, disinfected everything, and replaced the air with some brought from the ship. We’ve sealed the ventilation and installed temporary airlocks in all exits.” Mentioning the Echo's name on the comms was one big nope. At least until the command decided that there are no enemy forces lurking

“We are ready to take off our helmets, just waiting for your permission.” Christopher assumed that the ‘take off helmets’ was an offer limited to the hanger. He saw no reason to put the improvised airlocks in the entrance if it wasn’t like that.

“Permission granted.” As if that was an order, everyone took their helmets off. Including - with a slight delay - members of the Recovery Team Eight. “Much better. What about the analysis of the air from the Jewel?”

“We are running it now. In an hour or two we should know if there are any biological or chemical contaminants. For now, airlocks and helmets.” Tiaa nodded. Then Christopher suddenly saw a small picture of Colonel Nowak in the corner of his view. A voice followed.

+Lynx, Lynx. This is Berserker, over.+

“Received, over.” Tiaa responded. It seemed that when she connected to the teams’ tacnet to make sure that none of them forgot about the Hyperspace Mode, the incoming messages to her were also set to be broadcasted to the rest of the team. Mistake? Or a conscious decision?

+We’ve arrived at the Passenger Deck. Found the passengers and the majority of the crew. The ship had a garrison of Republican marines. They attempted to dig in the Passenger Deck. Many passages and all shafts sealed shut. Heavy weapon emplacements and reinforced blockades in the remaining tunnels. Something bulldozed through them. Over.+

Tiaa once mentioned that the majority of passenger ships had their Passenger Decks built to be easily defendable. A ‘citadel’ of sorts. Looks like it didn’t work on the Jewel.

“Signs of assailants? Over.” Tiaa responded.

+Negative, they cleaned after themselves. Not pirates. Most of the marines died before shooting even once. All the soldiers we encountered were executed with a double-tap to the chest and then a headshot. Civilian bodies carry no signs of wounds, Frankenstein is carrying out an autopsy right now. Over.+

It took a second for Christopher to notice who Frankenstein was. He almost burst into laughter. He heard chuckles over the tacnet indicating that others had weaker willpower.

“Copy, Berserker. Inform Sapphire. Over.”

+Wilco.+

“Great, so the mystery thickens. I hate when that happens.” Tiaa said to herself, though she remained close enough to Christopher for him to hear it. Then, a moment of silence - during which, Christopher was sure, she altered her comms’ settings. ”Alright, no reason to waste time. Lions will stay here and continue their analysis. Cats will take the crawler and go on a reconnaissance to get some experience. Marines, be on standby.”

I knew she would do that.

***

RTS Pristine Jewel

15:50 27.04.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

The route that Tiaa planned for them was long, but it remained close to the bridgehead in the main hangar. The only issue was communication. The hangar was near the surface, and Colonel Nowak’s group placed a series of relays behind them as they kept moving deeper.

This, together with the two shuttles floating near the ship’s surface to relay messages between the teams, provided them with an ability to communicate with each other and the ship.

However, this would not work with Christopher’s team. Too deep for regular comms. Their crawler was endowed with a very strong radio transmitter, so if things went awry, they could call the marines for help. Due to the Cats sticking close to the bridgehead, the marines could get to them in less than five minutes.

This also inhibited Chief Tiaa’s ability to oversee their every move, an enormous relief for Christopher. Or at least he anticipated that it would work that way. She could as well have his actions recorded to look through them after the team’s return.

Five minutes after their departure, the group committed to the Engineering Deck brought the reactor back online. Which allowed the group assigned to the bridge to revive the Jewel’s internal comms once they got to their destination. Since they were quick about it, ten minutes after the Eighth's departure, Christopher Hall got his guardian ‘angel' back.

The patrol was boring. As they were told, no alien beasts or any other threats aboard the Jewel. And once Lieutenant Fouquet hacked the ship’s central computer, they also got administrator rights on every single computer system aboard, which made opening the doors a child’s play.

They also checked the security system. Absolutely no movement anywhere aboard the ship. It was as dead as it could get.

Nothing but emptiness. Abandoned corridors. Abandoned rooms. No bodies, as everyone aboard had made a run towards the citadel on the Passenger Deck after they were attacked. Seeing a ship other than the Echo was less appealing than Christopher and Ryan thought, as it looked barely different from the Echo’s innards. Only occasional propaganda posters were giving it some uniqueness.

At some point, they reached a place where a massive bulkhead was closed in the midst of an immense transport corridor, according to the ships’ schematics connecting the hangar with the main cargo hold.

“It doesn’t open. I think it’s broken. Should we cut it apart?” Ryan asked.

“It would take several hours.” Christopher replied. Worse, their patrol route was going right through it. They could try to go around, but… it was still an exam for them. Sort of. The decision had to be made carefully.

“Can I use explosives? Please!” Nekia, oddly silent thus far - presumably because of her mother following the group - suddenly sprung to life. Adding one more point to Christopher’s counter of people not following proper communication protocol.

Christopher sighed and switched communications into another mode. It was time to ask the Big Cat herself.

“Cat One to Lynx, we’ve encountered a closed and broken bulkhead. Should we use explosives or find a way around it? Please advise, over.” Christopher wasn’t going to blow anything up without Tiaa’s explicit approval.

+Cat One, what’s your current position? Over.+ The answer reminded him painfully that this was something that he should have provided himself.

He replied with the exact coordinates. Tiaa probably quickly checked the ship’s schematics and consulted someone with detonation experience before she answered him. It turned out that the bulkhead would have to be broken either way to get the goods from the main cargo hold after getting to Texia, so they could as well blow it up for practise.

“Well, I’m in the mood for some wish granting.” He announced to the team. “Cat Four, blow it up. Cat Five, make sure she doesn’t blow us up.”

Nineteen minutes of preparations and less than one minute of loud noises later Christopher rose from the floor in the corridor, which was now filled with smoke. The crawler that they used as a cover was burning. Kivanna and Tiriel quickly grabbed attached fire extinguishers to stop the equipment from being damaged further.

“Is everyone all right?” Christopher said. After he received confirmation from all members of the group, he could start the investigation. “Great. Cat Four, what happened?”

They all stood in ‘safe distance’. Which didn’t save them from being sent flying, and the valuable crawler from getting trashed.

“Uhm, I might have used too many explosives.” Nekia answered. That was a breaking point for Christopher. He didn’t travel into the future to die in an accident. Especially such a foolish one. He was ready to overlook the weirdness and plain absurdity of most of the surrounding people. He would lightly criticize them when they would lead to failure in something. But the game was over when those traits could have killed someone.

“Too many… Cat Four, let me ask you some basic questions.” He started the lecture. “Did you review the schematics of the area to make sure that there is nothing explosive or important near the door?” Sure, Tiaa probably did that. The word ‘probably’ was the key. The silence he heard was enough of an answer.

“Cat Four. I’m not even an expert on explosives, yet I still know this should be ESSENTIAL.” He tried not to shout, but it was hard to keep his voice down. “You would have killed us all if there were pipes with something volatile under the floor! I prohibit you from using explosives until you spend at least forty hours repeating the basic training in this field.” She stared down at her feet, not answering at all.

“And as for you, Cat Five.” The chuckling in the background died out. “You were supposed to oversee the management of the explosives. Did you do so here? That was a rhetorical question, as you either didn’t follow orders at all or were bad in following them. I ground you in the quarters for a week. Spend that time reminding yourself that you are an integral part of the team, and not an outsider with no obligation to anyone but yourself.”

Is that sound a quiet growl? Great. I soooo much don’t care. I should have done something about that idiot ages ago.

“Uhm, Chr… Cat One?” Ryan fixed his mistake before he fully committed it. “I don’t want to rain on your parade, as you seem to be going through a spiritual catharsis there. I get it. What you’re doing is your job and you have both the right and obligation to do that in this case. But, uhm. There might be a problem.” Ryan’s voice died out for a second before he continued. “The blast created a hole in the floor and there is a passage there. It’s not on the ship’s blueprints.”

What now?!

Christopher approached Ryan, who was crouching right next to the hole in the ground. When he got close enough he managed to confirm the discovery. There was a tunnel underneath the floor. With floor grating, and inertia dampening installation if he saw that correctly.

Uh, oh.

“Cat One to Lynx, over.” After a few seconds, he heard a confirmation from Tiaa. “The explosion uncovered a tunnel under the floor. It’s not on the ship’s schematics. We can see floor grating and inertia dampening installation in the walls and floor. Please advise, over.”

+Standby, Cat One.+ Tiaa probably decided to consult someone else. Hopefully it wasn’t going to result in the Eight Team being asked a question about how exactly they created a two meter wide hole in the floor of the ship’s main communication line.

“So what do you think that’s all about?” Christopher said after switching back to the team's internal communication. He could as well kill time before the answer would come.

“Looks like someone was doing some smuggling.” Tiriel replied. “A secret compartment for things like that makes sense.” So, an interesting find. On their first excursion. For some reason Christopher couldn’t help but feel like it was very suspicious.

“What sort of things you smuggle around in the 27th Century, by the way?” Christopher asked. He had a general idea of things smuggled in his times. People, drugs and guns. He had no idea what changed in the meantime.

“Hmm…” Tiriel paused for a second. “Weaponry is the most common thing, especially in subsectors. Sometimes their patrons among the sectoral powers want to keep their support secret. Then you have drugs and artificial reality sims. So drugs, both biological and cybernetic. And, last but not least, people. Slavers often have to sneak like that through the territory of countries that throw them out of the airlocks without trial.”

Slavers, good God. 27th Century and human trafficking is back to being official slavery? I thought human societal progress was a line ascending with various speeds, but it seems that sometimes it goes in circles.

“That’s of course, the ‘lightweight’ contraband.” Tiriel continued. “Then there is the really bad stuff. All technologies forbidden by the Icarus Accord, like self-replicating weaponry, cerebral implants, blacklisted exotechs, cloning, and unsanctioned genetic modifications or sapient AI creation. If we find any of that down there, well. I genuinely hope the Republic of Triana is not involved.”

“Why?” If the United Nations actions were any indication, the worst punishment that Christopher could imagine was a slap-on-the-wrist embargo on something.

“Because it would be wiped from the map in retaliation.” Tiriel replied. “You violate the Icarus Accord or the Founding Charter of the Commonwealth of Mankind, you are executed. Regardless of your numbers.”

“You can execute a country?” Christopher asked. He almost asked in a joking tone, but the dawning realization strangled his humour.

“Yes.” Tiriel replied quietly. ”Yes, you can. It’s already happened several times.”

There was a brief silence. Christopher decided to not dig any deeper. He could only wonder what was happening in Ryan’s head. What if his discovery spelled the end of his country? Sure, it had abandoned him. However… it was still several dozens of millions of people.

+Cat One, this is Lynx.+ The comms returned to life. +Secure the surrounding area. The tunnel will be explored by marines, await their arrival and follow their orders.+

“Well, looks like we got our orders.” Christopher sighed. “It’s no longer our responsibility. Spread around a bit, and try to look profess...”

Christopher was interrupted by an alarm signal ringing in his ears. Three seconds later the three mysterious counters showed up before him. One of them began falling down rapidly. And it wasn’t the first one.

Well, shit.