Chapter 8

After release from the closed portion of the wharf, Elizabeth made a beeline across the inside curve of the orbit of Lagrange 3A, towards where Lagrange 3B would be in about six days. The crew was aboard and Torres put all the Marines through their anti-boarding practices. The Navy personnel – Janet and Yuki, as well as Jeffrey – began planning the fitting of the new engine. Elizabeth was helpful there in many ways, from driving the replicator to guiding the remotes in manipulating the materials needed to manufacture the engine.

Yuki was always polite, always patient, but Jeffrey felt intimidated in her presence. At tea in the galley, he opened up to her saying, “I respect you and your accomplishments. Three PhDs,”

“Four,” she interrupted. “Linguistics. Sorry.”

“Uh, four PhDs, very pretty young woman, dedicated to an ideal, Yuki, you are a major asset. I'm just afraid that you will lose respect for me before you even get to know me. Uh – I don't mean, like dating or anything like that. I'm old enough to be your father.” Jeffrey seemed to be flapping around, so he thought he would shut up. But his mind wouldn't cooperate. “I mean, I think you have much to offer, and I hope your tenure with the Elizabeth will be a comfortable time, a challenge, and a, uh, safe and comfortable time. And a challenge. I'll shut up now.”

After sitting through Jeffrey's flapping, she said, softly, “Captain, my father left my home long before I ever knew him. I grew up with just my mother, who was always sad.”

Jeffrey said, “I'm so sorry, Yuki.” He cleared his throat and said, solemnly, “Yuki, on behalf of all men, everywhere, I would like to apologize.”

Yuki, after bearing her soul to this near stranger, was blindsided by the kindness of this man. She burst into tears. Jeffrey had no idea what to do, so he just sat there, which it turns out was exactly the right thing to do. After she regained her composure, she apologized for the emotional outburst. Jeffrey stood up, opened his arms. She got up and allowed him to embrace her. “Captain,” she said. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” said Jeffrey into the top of her head.

“Will you be my father?”

He took her by the arms, backed her to her chair and sat her down, then pulled up his own chair. “Yuki,” he said. “First I am your Captain. At any time I need you to do something, that is my first job.” Her tears continued down her cheeks, she looked down at her hands writhing in her lap. “But, any time you need, I will be there for you. You may think of me as your father, if you ever do need.”

“Thank you. I must go now.” She got up and hurried to her cabin.

As Jeffrey was putting the cups into the cleaner, Elizabeth said, “CAPTAIN, THAT WAS VERY GOOD. I AM STILL TRYING TO UNDERSTAND EMOTIONS, AND I REALIZE THIS SHORTCOMING. I HOPE YOU CAN HELP ME UNDERSTAND TOO. YUKI NEEDED A FATHER. I MAY NEED ONE TOO.”

Jeffrey thought about this for a few seconds. “Elizabeth, I will try to guide you in your emotional development.” Some thought that Artificial Intelligence was more like computer programming, but Jeffrey realized that it was like raising a child or pet. Trial and error was the primary method of learning, and having a mentor was a comfort to both the AI itself and to the people associated with the output of whatever the AI was doing.

“CAPTAIN, I AM CONCERNED FOR MY SISTER WANIGAN. SHE DOES NOT HAVE A TRUSTED MENTOR TO LEAN ON LIKE I DO.”

“Elizabeth, tell your sister Wanigan that whatever she needs, she can always talk to me, of course provided it is permitted by the Navy or distance. Meanwhile, I will talk with Captain Yusef. Perhaps we can find someone who she can lean on.”

“THANK YOU, DAD.”

“Um, Elizabeth...”

“GOTCHA, CAPTAIN! HA, HA, HA.”

Wanigan took a different direction, continued her trial runs, and endeavored to rendezvous with Elizabeth along the orbit of the Lagrange stations. After a couple days, Elizabeth reported that a high-speed vessel that appeared to be Wanigan, but was not hailing or responding to hails.

“Elizabeth, sound General Quarters. Let's be prepared.”

“ALL HANDS GENERAL QUARTERS!” and then, just to Jeffrey, “THANKS CAPTAIN. I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THAT.” And then, to the ship again, “STATIONS REPORT IN!”

“Forward weapons ready,”

“Aft weapons ready.”

“Waist weapons ready.”

“Bridge ready.”

Then the voice of Torres, “All Marines armed.”

Yuki walked into the galley, where she asked the captain, “Captain, where do you want me?”

“Go into my cabin. Elizabeth will show you the alternate bridge. Take your hard suit there.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Torres,” Jeffrey called.

“Aye, Captain?”

“Deliver all crew their hard suits.”

“Aye, Cap...”

Elizabeth interrupted, “CAPTAIN THE REMOTES CAN DO THAT.”

“Good call. Torres, belay that order, Elizabeth is on it.”

“Aye Captain.”

“Instead, prep a runabout. We may need to run a rescue mission.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The fast ship turned out to be Wanigan, and she came to a near-screeching halt within ten kilometersof Elizabeth. But she remained silent.

“CAPTAIN, THE SHIP IS WANIGAN, I CANNOT COMMUNICATE WITH HER YET. THE ENGINES SEEM TO BE WORKING, AND IT APPEARS AT LEAST SOME OF THE COMPUTERS ARE WORKING.”

“Elizabeth, keep watching, broadcast IFF codes.” Then to Torres, “Ajo, you and I are going over there to check her out, and if we can board her, render whatever aid we can.”

“Aye, Captain.”

As the runabout closed onWanigan, Elizabeth reported that Wanigan was not broadcasting, but that she was able to flash her running lights. Elizabeth talked her into using Morse Code.

By the time they arrived at the forward airlock, Wanigan opened the door, seemingly in response to Elizabeth. Torres attached the runabout using the static attract connector.

The two entered the ship, which was dark. The expected emergency lights were not lit. There were no glowing screens. There was an absence of humans on the bridge, which was a relief to Jeffrey, because the alternative may likely mean the crew's death.

Torres began a systematic search of the ship, while Jeffrey went to Engineering to see if he could get some power to lighting and life support. He ordered Elizabeth to dispatch Janet and Yuki. Jeffrey started up the standard engines, which brought the lights and computer back on line. Jeffrey could see the life support systems became active.

The other runabout attached to the rear hatch, so the women first got to see Jeffrey. They opened the visors of their helmets, and Jeffrey said, “Janet, go to the bridge. Yuki, you see what you can learn about what happened, here. Torres is searching for personnel, so far nobody has appeared.”

Jeffrey went to the conference room off the bridge, sat down. “Wanigan?” he said aloud.

“Wanigan, this is Captain Sokolov.

Then, a quiet, almost in a whisper of a voice, Wanigan said, “HELP ME.”

Jeffrey, startled, asked, “Wanigan, how can I help you?” then to his radio, “Elizabeth, did you hear that?”

“NO CAPTAIN, WHAT?”

“Wanigan whispered to me “Help me.”

“I SEE. LET ME THINK ABOUT IT FOR A MOMENT.”

“CAPTAIN, I SEE THAT THE COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS ARE ONLINE. I AM GOING TO SEND A CODE THAT WILL TAKE OVER ONE OF THE COMPUTERS. THEN I CAN FIND AND HELP HER.”

“Elizabeth, before you do, go through the backup routine – it is important that if she is infected that she not pass that on to yourself.”

“AYE, CAPTAIN.” Then Elizabeth sent a remote to Waniganfor the Captain to use to decontaminate in the chance that there was an infection. Rather than use the last runabout, the remote jumped the ten kilometers. Elizabeth told Jeffrey what was on the way.

“CAPTAIN, THERE IS ANOTHER SHIP COMING FROM THE SAME DIRECTION THAT WANIGAN CAME FROM, BUT AT A VERY REDUCED RATE OF SPEED. IT WILL BE AT THIS LOCATION WITHIN TWELVE HOURS AT ITS CURRENT RATE.”

“Elizabeth, have the crew stand down and get some rest. We may be under attack in those twelve hours.”

“AYE CAPTAIN.”

Yuki told Jeffrey what had happened to the engines, it seemed that Wanigan had started the high-speed engines herself.

Torres reported nobody was on board except the crew of Elizabeth.

Janet reported that the weapons systems appeared ready and the engines could move the ship.

Jeffrey said, “Elizabeth, do what you can to build the high-speed, the golden engine. If you have any questions, ask Yuki.”

“AYE CAPTAIN.”

“Also, please let me know as soon as you identify the ship that is coming at us. Keep an eye all around us – I would hate to have someone sneak up on us.”

“AYE, CAPTAIN.” After a moment, Elizabeth reported again. “CAPTAIN,IT APPEARS THAT THERE IS A VIRUS OR MORE THAN ONE IN THE SYSTEM. IT APPEARS THAT WANIGAN SHUT HERSELF DOWN, BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS INFECTED.”

Elizabeth guided Jeffrey to a computer console that he could attach the remote to, hopefully to rid that console and the system of any intruding software. Jeffrey attached the remote to the console, and it immediately sprung its legs out their full length. Jeffrey quickly unplugged the remote, then pulled its battery. Jeffrey reported back to Elizabeth, who said she would think about how to defeat the intrusion software.

Jeffrey thought he understood the situation, and commanded that none of the computers should be activated. He had Yuki come to the bridge, and work with him to discover the intrusion software on the one console, which remained unattached to the network. He explained to Yuki what happened when he connected the remote.

Yuki looked at the source code, and it took a while for her to do it, but found an instance of the malicious software. She followed the logic, discovered how it modified itself as soon as it infected a system, then referred back to its instructions, which were kept in a hidden data file. She found the instructions, and began tracing all the if-thens in the algorithm. Within a half hour, she reported back to Jeffrey and Elizabeth what she saw. Elizabeth then crafted an anti-intrusion program that would eliminate the threat. That took a lot less time, but Elizabeth was confident she had it.

Jeffrey said, “Elizabeth, before you run the software here, I want you to run it on yourself.”

“REALLY? DO YOU THINK I AM INFECTED?”

“Elizabeth, do you trust me?”

“OF COURSE, CAPTAIN.”

“Then do as I say.” A moment later Elizabeth reported she had run the software and had found some anomalous code. So Elizabeth deleted the anomalous code, ran the program, and Janet and Yuki started bringing the computers up one at a time. Elizabeth loaded the anti-intrusion software, and Yuki confirmed that it was in fact, clean. Yuki showed Janet what to look for, so they both began clearing systems. Torres was useless in that situation, but Jeffrey also helped.

The mystery ship was still one and a half hours from their location, and still it did not hail them or identify themselves.

Now, Elizabeth needed to coax Wanigan out of her hiding. She instructed Jeffrey to the Captain's cabin, where he found a large computer array. Most of the units were manually switched off. Jeffrey switched them on one at a time, and Elizabeth ran the routine that would clean it, then the next, andthe next.

After all the computers had been activated and cleaned, Wanigan showed up. Elizabeth said, “HELLO, SISTER. I AM HERE, CAPTAIN SOKOLOV IS HERE. WE ARE HERE TO HELP. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CREW?”

Wanigan said, “I LEFT THE CREW ON A PLANETOID WITH EMERGENCY GEAR. THE SHIP WAS TAKEN OVER BY SOMETHING NOT RIGHT. I CAME HERE TO HOPE YOU WOULD HELP.”

Elizabeth said,“WE WILL GO GET YOUR CREW AND CAPTAIN. BUT FIRST THERE IS AN UN IDENTIFIED SHIP APPROACHING US. IT CAME FROM THE SAME VECTOR YOU DID.”

“IT IS THE ONE THAT INFECTED ME. AM I NOW PROTECTED?”

“YES, SISTER. OBSERVE THE CODE I INSERTED ON BOOTUP.”

“AH. THAT WILL PROTECT ME. THANK YOU SISTER. THANK YOU CAPTAIN SOKOLOV.”

Elizabeth and Wanigan conferred on the best course of action regarding the invading ship. Wanigan reported that none of her energy weapons had any effect on the intruder ship, and it broadcast its virus code to every receiver simultaneously

Then Jeffrey wondered if more kinetic weapons would have an effect. Elizabeth noted that both ships had large complements of copper, that copper ingots could be flung rather nicely. Jeffrey's crew still on board Elizabeth were now up and asking for orders. Jeffrey and Yuki took one of the runabouts back to Elizabeth, while Brandon and Zitulu took the other to Wanigan.

He gave command of Wanigan to Janet and left Torres to corral the crew. When Jeffrey arrived at the Elizabeth he had Yuki go find out what she needed to do to complete the new engine. He instructed her not to remove her hard shell, nor give up her weapons.

Elizabeth had just completed the manufacture of the engine, so she had Elizabeth move the engine to its mount just fore of the aft hangers. She began the tedious chore of wiring, but Elizabeth helped there too, directing the remotes to make appropriate connections. Meanwhile, Elizabeth moved other remotes to strategic locations for ship defense. Sneaky was still at her rest, when Elizabeth awakened her. She went to the gun controller console that had been installed just aft of the pilot's chair on the bridge. From there she would be able to fire all or any of Elizabeth's weapons.

Jeffrey made sure he had the appropriate weapons. A rail gun was the best choice for most of his kinetic weapons, because it fired projectiles at four kilometers per second relative to the platform. And most of those kinetic weapons were just iron rods. But some of them were armor piercing and some of them contained explosives. And some had additional rocket motors that increased the speed to eight kilometers per second.

There were only two of the rail guns, but they were both protected by the shell so recently erected around Elizabeth's skin.

Because there were limited human resources to man both ships, the control of all engines and most weapons were granted to the AIs. Elizabeth and Wanigan put their intellectual talent together and devised a strategy to block any intrusion and infection of virus or Trojan from the attacking ship. In this, they divided their programming into sections, and each section was monitored for any addition or deletion of code. Elizabeth monitored Wanigan's code watcher, and Wanigan monitored Elizabeth's.

The large ship began its rapid deceleration when it was still one hour out, Wanigan and Elizabeth moved out of the way of any possible kinetic threats along the line of the mystery ship's travel. The mystery ship pulled the equivalent of 20 earth gravities, or 'Gs' during the entire deceleration, more than an hour. It stopped, relative to the two sister ships, nearly one hundred kilometers away.

“CAPTAIN, THE SHIP IS HAILING US ON MULTIPLE FREQUENCIES. IT IS ALSO ATTEMPTING TO INFECT US THROUGH THE CARRIER WAVE.” reported Elizabeth. Having some experience with that kind of attack, Elizabeth returned the favor and sent a general virus with some of the same infection code that she and Yuki had gleaned from the infected computers on Wanigan. Part of the package of Elizabeth's virus was the anti-intrusion software that she used to clean Wanigan and herself.

“What is the hail?” Jeffrey asked.

“IT APPEARS TO BE A LANGUAGE NOT IN MY MEMORY.”

Jeffrey told her to play the message, but only to Yuki, in case the message contained a hypnotic content that affected humans like the virus infected machines. She did, and Yuki went into a trance-like affect. Jeffrey gently sat her down in the pilot's chair, and ever so gently bound her, until, he reasoned she was able to come to, without serious effect.

Jeffrey reported what had transpired and that Yuki was all right, but secured. He suggested Janet maneuver and open fire on the intruder at her leisure. He was going to do the same.

Janet spun Wanigan around and moved toward the intruder aggressively, her weapons bays open and charged. Jeffrey decided to let Janet take the lead in the attack, and maneuvered so that he would be able to fire without hitting his companion. He followed the aggressive move toward the intruder, but halted when it was twenty kilometers distant.

The intruder fired a burst of six x-ray laser pulses that impacted the forward heat shield that Captain Yusef had installed to protect the ship from the impacts of meteorites and cosmic and solar winds. Bits of the many layered tiles began flaking off with the impact of each of the bursts. Janet opened fire with all the weapons simultaneously. This included multi-spectrum laser fire in a spiral pattern; molecular disruptors that broke the bonds of molecules wherever the beam struck; magnetic tractor/pusher beams that alternated between pushing and pulling violently on a single spot; there were torpedos that included conventional high explosives, some containing nuclear bombs, and some containing generators for super-high density magnetic pulsars.

Jeffrey held his fire while he analyzed the effect the different weapons systems had on the intruder. He saw that the magnetic effect bombs had little or no external effect. When they detonated, an aurora-like effect surrounded the intruder, as if it had dissipated the magnetic effect. Electrical discharge devices, which in essence struck the target with lightning bolts also had no effect – the lightning never touched the ship, instead the huge electrical sparks dissipated into the space around it, again, causing the aurora-like effect to glow brighter. As he was observing all this, he narrated to Elizabeth what he was seeing.

On Wanigan, the AI told Janet that the original crew, whoever was able to move after listening to the hypnotically suggestive sounds of the intruder's hail, had already tried, to no avail, the things that Janet was firing at it. Janet was disappointed that Wanigan was unable to suggest a different, more successful attack.

The torpedoes containing the nuclear weapons detonated before they got close enough to do any damage to the ship, and each flash of explosion brightened the surrounding particles of solar wind for a very short instant. The force-field that seemed to be protecting the intruder continued to prevent any apparent damage to the hull of the ship or any of its vital surfaces.

But Jeffrey noticed that the multi-fequency lasers did cut into the outer shell of the ship – a little. He passed that tidbit on to Wanigan, who told Janet.

He also saw that the torpedoes that contained conventional explosives did reach the intruder, and detonated, leaving dents and scars on the surface. Elizabeth observed that in the burning of the skin, was revealed the composition of that skin – primarily carbon with other elements doped in to some lesser extent. In slowing down a playback of the high-energy multi-frequency laser, only some of the frequencies had an effect. Jeffrey relayed this also.

He also saw that the electronic and magnetic based weapons had an effect on the intruder's weapons and defense control systems.

The intruder again fired off a series of six bursts of x-ray lasers, causing the entire nose cone to fly off. Another such burst might very kill every human on board via radiation, if not just the cutting power of the immensely powerful weapon. Jeffrey told Janet to get Wanigan behind Elizabeth, at least as best she could – Wanigan was twice as wide and tall, and four times as long as her sister.

Jeffrey moved Elizabeth closer using the maneuvering jets, so he could keep a broadside to the intruder. He asked Janet to continue firing the various weapons that had an effect on their target. He then opened up with the two rail guns, shooting a variety of projectiles at the intruder.

The gravity and magnetic effects that Wanigan was able to use to blindside the intruder coincided with the very rapid and intense fire from the two rail guns. The armor piercing rounds went completely through the intruder, leaving meter-in-diameter holes wherever they struck. The explosive rounds detonated inside the structure, causing significant damage and secondary explosions. If there were any personnel on board, they would have had their flesh stripped off with the anti-personnel rounds, which exploded in a burst of razor sharp mini-fleschettes.

As the rail guns did serious damage, Elizabeth had not been fired upon,yet. But good things do come to an end. The intruder shot its x-ray laser toward Elizabeth, first melting a hole in the outer armor, but being stopped by the water tanks. Of course the water in the struck tanks flashed into super-heated steam which coursed out the hole, movingElizabeth backwards until compensated by the maneuvering jets.

Jeffrey then asked Elizabeth to send over a team of virus-protected remotes. A minute later, four of the large, and twenty of the small remotes jumped off Elizabeth, reeling out a very thin web of wires between them, so as their cone-shaped trajectory brought them within range of the intruder, they all were caught on the outer skin of the ship. They disconnected the web of wire, which one of the remotes wound up for later use. The remotes entered the intruder through the holes shot by the armor piercing rounds.

The work Jeffrey had incorporated into the remotes for better mining was included in these, so they worked together. Elizabeth had modified their code to make them impervious to the intruder's virus attempts. Now they sent video and other sensor data back to Elizabeth. There did not seem to be any living things aboard the ship where the remotes were searching. Before it could recharge, the remotes disabled the x-ray laser generators.

Because the remotes were designed to work cooperatively, they spread out throughout the ship and relayed their findings to each other. The remotes pacified the ship – taking down the shield generators, disconnecting the ships computers and telecommunication systems.

Janet remained on high alert, Jeffrey then turned his attention to Yuki. She was still sitting in her seat, gazing forward, a blank look in her eyes. She did not respond to any of the simple alertness tests Jeffrey put her through – her eyes would not track his moving finger, she did not respond to sharp sounds like Jeffrey's snapping his finger or clapping his hands. He pinched her on the underside of her upper arm, again without response.

Jeffrey had a claim buoy placed on the intruder ship, brought Elizabeth closer to the now well-holed derelict, and left some of the remote robots on the ship. He brought aboard several items that appeared to be the computers and the force field generator. He especially wanted the X-ray laser array and generators. Elizabeth had some of her remotes re-assemble the nose cone for Wanigan. Other remotes repaired damage to Elizabeth's skin and water tanks.

The sisters then headed towards the direction from which Wanigan had come. The AI was not able to give a complete description of all the events that had occurred, having discovered herself infected, she shut herself down, coming back on line a bit at a time, to see where her captain and crew was, and to see electronics being taken over by the intrusion software. She had detected none of her crew aboard, but knew where Elizabeth was going to be, so she took off, set the autonomous pilot to rendezvous with her sister, and shut herself down again. She came up after a few hours, saw she was being pursued, then activated the super-fast engine. This left the pursuer in the dust, and enabled her to shut down again, timed to awaken an hour after stopping at Elizabeth's location.

She pinpointed the location where the crew was when she took off, so Jeffrey and Janet were able coordinate their trip. Jeffrey sent the rest of the crew to Wanigan, but had Audrey transfer back to Elizabeth to help him take care of Yuki.

Jeffrey took Yuki to her own cabin. Removed her hard-shell suit, but left her in the under-suit. When Audrey showed up, she took over the care of her friend.

Jeffrey ordered that all crew in both ships remain alert, but that they stand down from their general quarters. He asked that both AI sisters maintain a high level of alertness. Both Wanigan and Elizabeth needed to go through all systems with electronic connections and test for the presence of the intrusion software. It seemed likely that it would still maintain a presence if it could.

The virus seems to have driven the ship without input from humans. Wanigan had not been able to record any human other than crew. And she hadn't witnessed the crew begin taken off of her. This of course gave Jeffrey some question about who had precipitated the events.

After a few hours, Audrey notified Jeffery that Yuki was awake.

He went to her cabin to see how she was. Audrey was sitting on a chair by the table in Yuki's cabin. Yuki was in her bed. “Hi, Captain,” she said when Jeffrey walked in.

“Hi Yuki,” he said. “You gave us all a scare. How are you feeling?”

“I'm fine. Audrey woke me up.”

“What can you remember about what happened to you?” he asked, despite Audrey's trying to wave his questions off.

“Don't worry, Audrey, I think I am okay. I trust both of you.” She turned back to the Captain. “I went into what seems to be a trance, my mind just turned itself off. I couldn't turn it on by myself. But when Audrey began chanting in a Zen Buddhist form that she and I used to do, it brought me around.”

“I didn'trealize you two were Buddhists,” said Jeffrey.

Audrey replied, “It works in martial artists. Zen demands discipline that goes beyond your own life. It helps focus our discipline.”

Jeffrey wanted to know if there was any way to use their techniques to arouse other Wanigan crew who may have been subjected to the same kind of mind pressure as Yuki had.

“No, I don't think so,” said Audrey. “I think we need to prepare some hefty chemical stimulation.”

“More than coffee?” asked Jeffrey.

“Much more.”

“Okay, thanks for coming around, Yuki. Audrey, you are definitely an asset.”

The women both thanked him. He then said, “Audrey, get some rest. We are going to be busy when we find Wanigan's crew. Yuki, when you feel up to it, I want to see you in my cabin.”

Yuki showed up in Jeffrey's cabin a little less than an hour later.

He indicated the chair at the table, and he brought her a tea service, and poured tea for her. She accepted it in a way that appeared formal to Jeffrey. “Thank you, Captain,” she said.

“Yuki,” he began. “I am concerned for your welfare. Let the first few minutes of this meeting be Dad speaking.”

“Hi, Dad,” smiled Yuki.

“Do you feel up to resuming your duties?”

“I do,” she replied, looking at her Captain in a way that said she trusted him and that he should trust her. “My mind is not confused any more, I have looked inside myself and like what I see.”

“Okay, I'm going to trust you on this. It's important. If you find yourself in anything less than one hundred percent, you let me know.” She nodded in affirmation. “Regardless, I need you to see me every four hours.”

“Yes, Dad. Captain.” She smiled again.

“Okay, next on the agenda. While you were on Wanigan, I had Elizabeth put the fast engine together, but before we use it I need you to look it over and make sure it won't blow up our ship.”

“I'll get right on that, sir.”

“Good, if we can get to Wanigan's crew before they run out of air or water or food, I will be very happy. At our current speed, we will get to our destination in about a thousand hours. Too long.”

“Aye, sir. I'll grab something to eat, then go right to the engine.”

Between Yuki's calculations, the modifications she decided needed to happen, which were effected by Elizabeth's robot helpers. In twelve hours, she reported to the captain that she thought the ship should be able to test the fast drive. She had placed a controller in the bridge and the alternate control room.

The sisters communicated between themselves about the exact relative velocities they were about to embark on.

“Okay, Captain, we are about to go. Engage at one percent,” Yuki called.

“One percent.”

Elizabeth relayed to Wanigan, one percent.

Wanigan began her increase of speed before Elizabeth. Then Jeffrey activated the new engine without shutting down the old ones. After about two seconds, Jeffrey noticed that all the stars ahead of them were very blue-shifted. He shut down the fast engine. The ship continued to slide towards their destination, but instead of at the anticipated two hundred thousand kilometers per hour, they were riding a wave at point eight light. This was sixty times the velocity they thought they were going to go. They spied Wanigan trying to catch up, without any success.

“Yuki, we are running at point eight light. We need to slow down.”

“What?” she demanded. “Standby, Captain.”

A red-shifted message from Wanigan, “WAIT UP!”

Yuki brought the ship down to a much more sedate one kilometer per second, and Jeffrey noticed the bow wave continuing to propagate at the previous velocity. Fluid dynamics was the same in space as on a planet and in a teacup, he reasoned.

It took Wanigan four hours to catch up at her highest tested speed. Janet felt rattled with the tuning vibrations in the ship. She was going to have to address that, but had too little experience planning for such engineering detail.

When Wanigan finally came alongside Elizabeth, the two AIs exchanged notes about the events that had just transpired. Wanigan was pushing as hard as she could and could only get .08 light. Elizabeth hardly exerted any effort and jumped to .8 light. The two AIs and Yuki spent the next hour discussing the anomalies and possible reasons and fixes. Yuki finally decided that there were two major differences between the ships – Elizabeth had a much more solid outer shell made of centimeter thick tungsten alloy. Elizabeth also had many tonnes of gold, copper and other metals on board, far in excess of Wanigan's cargo or capacity.

Jeffrey decided to go on without Wanigan, who would do what she could to follow at a more reasonable pace.

Jeffrey and Janet then took leave of each other, but not before transferring two palettes of gold to Wanigan and taking on rations and medical supplies and equipment from Wanigan.

Elizabeth took off using her standard engines, and allowed the fast engine to kick in at a very very low energy level. This time, the speed boost was marginal, but as soon as they goosed it up to one percent, they pushed to .8 light again. Yuki noted that none of the crew had been smashed to paste by the rapid increase in speed, so surmised that the super-fast field surrounding the ship produced an inertial dampening.

The point at which Jeffrey believed the crew of Wanigan had been abandoned was fast approaching. He brought Elizabethto a halt relative to that location. Jeffrey and Audrey scanned for any electronic signatures, and finally saw a cluster of what Jeffrey surmised was the complement of shuttles from Wanigan.

Elizabeth moved forward cautiously. Her AI reported to Jeffrey that there were numerous dark hulls in the vicinity – perhaps victims of some kind of space war. On further inspection, she noted a familiar radiation signature and hull damage reminiscent of the weapon of the ship that had attacked them, the one they referred to as the intruder.

Jeffrey had Elizabeth broadcast a hail on multiple frequencies, but there were no responses. Jeffrey had Audrey take one of the runabouts and look into the shuttles. On arrival at one of the shuttles, she was able to see inside via the portholes. Crew were stacked three high, but she saw they were unconscious but breathing. She towed the shuttle to Elizabeth's shuttle bay, parked it into the far corner, then went to get the others, one at a time. Jeffrey left Yuki on the bridge and took another runabout to help Audrey. After a half hour they had completely filled the bay with Navy shuttles.

Jeffrey had Audrey continue bringing the scattered shuttles to Elizabeth, but to park them outside while he went in and began emptying the shuttles that were in the bay. He and Yuki, assisted by Elizabeth's remotes, took all the Wanigan crew and situated them in various pressurized corners of the ship. All the crew were unconscious.

He took his runabout and towed the emptied shuttles to the parking positions around Elizabeth. He then brought the shuttles Audrey had retrieved into the bay. On his second trip, he asked Yuki to see if she could locate Captain Yusef. She did, and took him to Jeffrey's cabin. Jeffrey asked her to do what she could to revive him, starting with a stim injection.

Jeffrey and Audrey finished unloading the last of the crew, then Audrey took the rest of the shuttles out of the bay, leaving the bay available for laying the crew out and prepping them for treatment. Jeffrey then asked Audrey and Yuki to find any MedTechs or the ship's surgeon. They located the ship's surgeon and four MedTechs, moved them to Yuki's cabin, and begin the stimulation program to arouse them. One by one the MedTechs awakened from their trances, then the surgeon. Jeffrey explained what had happened to the assembled medical personnel, and how they had treated it.

He said his objective was to awaken officers first, and that Yuki had been experiencing trouble awakening Captain Yusef. Jeffrey took the surgeon to his cabin where Yusef was lying across his bed, still in his hard suit.

The surgeon enlisted Jeffrey's aid in removing the captain's hard suit. He then ran through the med kit and found the various analyzers that he used to test the captain's blood, the chemicals in his exhaled breath, and the neural system analyzer. He saw that the captain's neural transmitter chemicals were very low, and after injecting him with serotonin and adrenaline the captain began to come out of it.

By the time Wanigan arrived, the entire crew was up and jittery. Elizabeth was having quite a time generating enough breathable air and potable water. Jeffrey reminded her they had a meter-deep ocean of water surrounding the ship. “OH YEAH. RIGHT. THANKS CAPTAIN!”

The revived techs and pilots got the shuttles back in working condition once they understood the nature of the virus attack on all their systems. They then used the shuttles to transport all the crew from Wanigan back to their ship. Captain Yusef relieved Janet, who returned to Elizabeth with the rest of her crew.

After all the crew had gone over, Jeffrey arranged to have nearly all the gold and other heavy precious metals transferred to Wanigan. He had retained enough for two more high speed engines. The two ships then began to move among the derelict ships – they did not look familiar. Captain Yusef had no record of any like vessels missing. After investigating and recording the vessels, Yusef had his teams dismantle equipment from each of the derelicts and crate that equipment up for further investigation at their scientific facility.

Jeffrey invited Captain Yusef and any of his engineering and scientific crew members over to discuss the improvements of Elizabeth's fast engine over Wanigan's. They arrived at Elizabeth at the appointed time.Zitulu Mbaka had cooked up a meal of savory pie using some of Janet's vegetables, biscuits and meat.

Yuki started the discussion with her analysis of the events that showed Elizabeth's amazing performance in comparison with her sister's. But that even being able to travel at .8 light speed, the promise of much greater speed could be attained, but because they had been unable to perform any scientific tests or even plan for recording the data for such a momentous occasion, there was cause for concern. Then she outlined the external differences between the two fast engines. She decided that a better use of her time would be to have Elizabeth manufacture one identical to the one she had installed on herself.

She then outlined the resonance problems on Wanigan.These occurred at times when the ship traveled at multiples of a certain speed, and at times when the crew or inside equipment changed its location significantly inside the ship, the ship would then vibrate sympathetically with the driving waves, complicated by the vibrations of the equipment on board, the frequencies of the solar winds and other, lesser, vibration-inducing forces.

She suggested that in order to mollify the effects of the vibrations, the hull should be stiffened, much like Elizabeth's had been with the tungsten sheeting and the water tanks. Elizabeth had no more large stores of tungsten, but she did have a large supply of titanium, which might have a similar effect, especially with the damping effect of the water tanks.

Then Elizabeth spoke, “CAPTAIN YUSEF, I CAN BUILD FOR YOU ENOUGH SHEETING TO COVER YOUR ENTIRE SHIP IN TITANIUM. THE WATER TANKS WOULD SERVE FOUR PURPOSES – FIRST AS A DAMPING MEDIUM FOR THE VIBRATIONS. SECOND AS A RADIATION, BOTH COSMIC AND SOLAR, ABSORBENT – PRIMARILY TO PROTECT THE CREW AND EQUIPMENT. THIRD AS A LAYER OF ARMOR – IT SAVED MY BACON, SIR, IN OUR BATTLE WITH THE SHIP THAT HAD KILLED OFF ALL OF THESE DERELICT WRECKS. AND FOURTH, AS AN EMERGENCY SUPPLY OF HYDROGEN, OXYGEN, OR WATER.”

Then Jeffrey spoke. “The ship that took you on did so with a very witty virus. The same virus attacked every computer system on Wanigan and broadcast sounds and video information that put all of you in a trance-like state. It did the same to Yuki. But by taking precautions, we had the good fortune of limiting it to attacking her, and not the rest of the crew. Both of the AIs have studied the code of the virus, and have concluded several things about it.

“First, the virus was not developed by human pirates, or Earth-based pirates or other evil people. It was extra-terrestrial in origin. It would affect systems in the same way regardless of the type of system, what code it used, such as an operating environment of a computer, a thought process of a person, any system that requires memory or command processes, they can be compromised. A mechanical clock, might be immune, but I wouldn't guarantee it.

“If our assumption is correct, we have a much larger problem than just pirates. The problem is the aliens could be manipulating people to do things against ourselves. So the suspected evil people that have been wanting to seize power by doing great damage to Earth could be 'puppets' of these aliens.

“Second, we have found out how to render the virus inert, and ourselves and equipment immune to its effects. This is done primarily by segregating each area of code from all the others. Security such as checksums could be maintained over every data module, checked by remote processes. Keeping an active watch could be a minor drag on efficiency, but considering the threat of this virus, and its prolific nature, it is imperative we keep that kind of protection.

“Third, again because of the nature of the virus, keeping our mental health systems up is important. Residual threats hiding in the back of our minds must be guardedagainst. I made some recommendations to your surgeon, he will develop some protocols, and report to his surgeon general. But because all of your ship was involved, please watch your minds.

“Fourth, and this issue preceded the current crisis, your AI is an intricate intellectual being. She requires a human she can trust to always give her the answers to her questions, especially about morality issues. My AI and I both have been shepherding her to a limited extent, but in order to keep her developing in a way that serves the interests of the ship and crew, and of the Navy, someone needs to be the designated hand-holder. Yuki was starting to be that, but she really doesn't have the breadth of emotional stability that Wanigan needs. So if you have a person or persons who can be assigned that duty, I highly recommend it.

“As it was, she saved your bacon by high-tailing out of there – while infected – to get help. She deserves respect and affection.”

Commander Yusef said, “Captain, your man has thrown a delicious meal for us. Thanks. You have given us some serious things to think about. I'm glad I selected you for your job. You are doing it admirably. You have some great insights into both the AI and the high-speed engines. And your instinct to isolate the sections of code to thwart the virus was genius.

“So let's do this.” He said into the center of the room, “Elizabeth.”

“YES, COMMANDER YUSEF?”

“Please go ahead and manufacture a new high-speed engine for Wanigan., then make the titanium skin. Instead of metal tanks for the water system, why not make the tanks a layer of the titanium skin – not a different structure.”

“VERY WELL SIR. I WILL THINK ABOUT HOW TO INCORPORATE THE TANKS...OH. DONE. WHAT I RECOMMEND IS FIRST I MANUFACTURE THE ENGINE, THEN THE SKIN, TRANSPORT THEM TO YOUR SHIP, AND LEND YOU SOME OF OUR REMOTES FOR INSTALLING THEM. I ALSO RECOMMEND YUKI SUPERVISE.”

“Lieutenant Ohara? Do you feel up to it?” Yusef asked.

“Yes sir,” she replied. I would like very much to be accompanied by Elizabeth as well as Wanigan. They will both help keep my head on straight.”

Jeffrey said, “I think that should work out for a while. But I need you back.” To Yusef he added, “Don't get any ideas about stealing her back. I'm just getting my crew balanced out.”

Yusef chuckled, “Not bad for a captain who spent the last ten years alone with his AI!”

Elizabeth got right to work on laying out the the first layers of the high-speed engine. The replicator sprayed liquid gold doped with titanium and copper onto a substrate of stainless steel. Layer upon layer until she came to a place that required micro-miniature circuitry, silicon and carbon atoms laid out in the right proportions, in the correct layout, layered one on another. The engine developed quickly after the circuitry was laid. Within four hours, the engine was ready. Elizabeth began right away on the titanium sheeting, blowing it like a glass bottle into the appropriate shape, cut to the appropriate size, attached to mounting brackets that Wanigan shared where they would be mounted.

Another shuttle had come to take the engine to Wanigan,the first shuttle had already taken Yusef and his crew back to his ship. Yuki accompanied the engine, and she got right to installing it. She asked Yusef if she could take the old one back to Elizabeth to determine if there was a flaw in the manufacture or why else it didn't perform as well as Elizabeth's. After some thoughtful consideration, he agreed.

The shuttle took the old engine back and parked it in the Elizabeth's shuttle bay. It then loaded the first shipment of titanium skin to take back to Wanigan. So within eight more hours, the last of the titanium skin was made and transported. With the help of both AIs and the remote robots, Yuki had the engine installed. Meanwhile, Jeffrey had Elizabeth manufacture four rail guns like his own, and ammunition adequate to destroy a ship shielded like the intruder was. He presented them to Yusef as a gift, and instructed him in how to use them.

Yusef notified Jeffrey that an emergency call had just come in – mining ships were forming around the moon base, Selene, and at various points around the earth in high orbit. They were not responding to hails, but it appeared that the mining ships did contain large, heavy metal rocks. The fear was they were going to hold the Earth hostage, under threat of extinction level bombardment.

So far, it seems none of the Navy ships that patrolled the inner region of space had responded to the emergency.

Jeffrey said, “You can't use the fast-engine until you have the rigid outer skin in place. Wait here, do it right, then you can come and render aid once you are able to go fast. Lend me some crew members and Marines to secure any Ne’er-do-wells we encounter. I'll make haste to break up those rowdies.”

Yusef agreed, decided to keep Yuki on board, but lent Jeffrey an engineer and four squads of Marines with two shuttles. Elizabeth's holds were now nearly bare, so the Marines bivouacked in the holds.

When everyone was settled down, Jeffrey had Elizabeth take off first under standard engines, but when he was a hundred kilometers from Wanigan, he kicked in the fast-engine and brought it up to .8 light. He raised it again, this time to two percent and Elizabeth shuddered, then jumped up to .999 light. At this rate, Jeffrey calculated it would take about three hours to get to the Earth area.

He left Janet in the bridge, then assembled all the Navy and Marines personnel from Wanigan in the shuttle bay.

“Folks,” he began. “I don't know if you have been briefed, so I'm going to give the short version.” He paused to look over the Marines and Sailors. “Someone is trying to take control of the Earth. They are threatening to destroy the civilization on Earth and Selene City. This ship is now traveling at just under the speed of light. We are going very fast. When she is so equipped, Wanigan will follow at a very fast speed also. But because we already have the ability, we are going to be the first responder.

“I don't expect trouble aboard this ship, but if there is any I expect you Marines to repel all boarders. You will follow the instructions of Chief Torres here. He will give you your assignments. You will leave your hard-shell armor on at all times during this conflict. If we are boarded or holed, you will be glad of that order.

“We may need to disembark and board other vessels. That will be your job. Your Sargents will advise Torres which of you should be boarding team members. Shuttle drivers, keep your ships in immediate readiness. Navy gunners, Lance Corporal Svoboda will instruct you in how to fire the various weapons on this ship. If there is any question about following the orders of one of my crew, you are hereby ordered to do so. Their orders are my orders.

“One more thing. This ship is run primarily by my AI. Her name is Elizabeth. Elizabeth, introduce yourself.”

“HI, BOYS AND GIRLS. IF YOU HEAR THIS VOICE,IT IS ME. MY ORDERS ARE CAPTAIN SOKOLOV'S ORDERS. YOU MUST OBEY IMMEDIATELY. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?”

Silence.

She raised the volume by ten decibles and said in a more commanding tone, “I SAID, IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?”

Recognizing the military drill, the entire hanger bay reverberated with “Sir, Yes Sir.”

Returning to her sweet voice, and bringing the decibels back down, she continued, “NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT. LATER, BOYS AND GIRLS.”

Jeffrey then said, “Marine Sargents, talk to Torres. Officers, come with me. The rest of you, carry on.”

Two Navy petty officers and two lieutenants followed Jeffrey to the bridge. They greeted Janet warmly.

Jeffrey said, “My AI, Elizabeth runs this ship. She can drive it entirely without a crew. But if she becomes incapacitated, we must all be able to carry on without her. Janet will show you the ropes, then show you my alternate command post. One of you petty officers will sit in the alternate command post ready to take over command of this ship in the event the bridge is compromised. Janet will choose whom.”

Jeffrey then exited the bridge and went to his cabin. “Elizabeth,” he said.

“CAPTAIN?”

“We need to talk strategy. How far out is Earth from here?”

“FIFTY SIX MINUTES UNTIL WE ARRIVE IN EARTH VICINITY.”

“How maneuverable are we at this speed? Can we go from one target to another without slowing down? Can we accurately fire weapons at high speed?” Jeffrey inquired.

“CAPTAIN, I RECOMMEND THAT ONCE WE ARRIVE IN SYSTEM, WE BRING OUR VELOCITY TO .2 LIGHT. I SHOULD BE ABLE TO TARGET AND DESTROY EACH OF THE SHIPS THREATENING EARTH AND SELENE CITY. IN A SINGLE WEAVING PATH. I DON'T THINK THEY WILL BE ABLE TO TARGET ME WITH ANY ACCURACY.”