Of Men and Ghost Ships, Book 2: Chapter 61
Concept art for Sybil
Of Men and Ghost Ships, Book 2: Chapter 61
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As they approached the door to the bridge, Carter could see an odd combination of melted edges and violently twisted metal, indicating a combination of brutal force and high-powered weapons. From back in his security days, Carter knew the standard operating procedure would be for him to power in first, using his armor and weapons to lay down suppressive fire while Erik and Vanessa ran in behind him to shore up any openings he couldn't pin down. Unfortunately, the bots they were facing lacked the self-preservation that suppressive fire relied on to be effective. Instead, they agreed just to rush in and deal with any issues that arose. It wasn't so much a plan as improvisation, but that had worked for them so far.
As Carter burst through the door, he opened fire on the first bot to catch his attention, hosing it with a burst of fire that knocked it back several paces. At the same time, Erik and Vanessa ran in next to him, charging the next closest bot, and tearing into it even as Carter shifted his aim to another.
As the third bot fell to the deck, Carter slowed his assault and stopped, looking around in confusion that was reflected on Erik and Vanessa's faces. None of the bots were resisting or fighting back. They were all just standing around, as if waiting for orders. Off to one side worked the last living naval officer, ignoring their presence as he typed away on a terminal for some reason. Finally, Carter noticed a familiar old man sitting in the captain's chair, though his face was lax, as though he was asleep...or dead.
That was when a single person clapping came over the ship's speaker system. One of the screens turned on, and the old man's face looked back at them, appearing to applaud, the apparent source of the clapping sound, before addressing them. "Quite the entrance! Very impressive in both speed and force! If you'd been here a mere five minutes earlier, you might even have been a threat to my plans! Sadly, for you, you missed your opening, and you are too late to stop me now."
Carter shot the screen without replying as he spoke to Epitaph. "Hey, think you could infect the computer, and maybe set off a self-destruct or something?"
The naval officer turned and spoke to them. "No, he's right, that won't work..."
Carter glared at him. "Will the ship blow up or not?"
The man hesitated. "Yes, but..."
Carter cut him off. "That's all we need to know. Epitaph?"
The girl seemed to stop and think for a moment. "Perhaps. It is possible, though, assaulting a position when he'd had time to prepare would be difficult. However, if Scarlett were to assist me, it should be doable..."
Erik, speaking with Scarlett's intonation, answered. "Well, I suppose I could set up a subroutine to enable Erik to sustain essential systems, such as breathing and beating his heart, without my direct assistance, but he would be unable to act in any appreciable way without my connection, leaving him quite vulnerable."
Cater half expected Erik to complain, but he just seemed to shrug as he responded in his own voice. "Eh, I got Carter and Vanessa watching my back. I'll be fine."
The old man appeared on another screen and spoke again. "That won't work. You're wasting your time."
Carter shot that screen as he and Erik moved over to examine it. "So what, do I just hook Erik up to my suit, then hook it into the system here?"
The girl answered. "That would be the quickest way. Also, you might want to have Erik lie down or something, just to avoid any possible injury from losing control."
As they got into position, another screen lit up with the old man speaking again. "You're going to regret..."
Carter shot that screen, too, as they began transferring the two AIs into the ship's system.
After a few moments, Epitaph showed up on one of the remaining screens. "Well, this ship is ours. He didn't put up much of a fight."
That only confused Carter more. "Then what the hell is he doing? You didn't capture, kill, delete, or whatever you all do to other AI, did you?"
The girl shook her head. "No. He got away clean...ish. There was some semblance of him left in the system, and they've been purged, but not enough to have any appreciable impact. Instead, he retreated to the other ships in the fleet. I think he's spreading himself throughout the entire fleet, which is a problem."
The naval officer spoke up again. "That's what I was trying to warn you about. Our ships were linked together to spread the wear on the shields, provide more efficient firing solutions, and deliver countless other benefits from having all the ships' systems working in concert."
Carter sighed, rubbing his temples to fight off the oncoming headache this was all becoming. "And let me guess, you had one AI linked up to all the ships at once, for better efficiency..."
The man nodded. "Exactly."
Carter turned to Epitaph. "So, can we put a hard lock on the system, preventing him from coming back and trying to take over?"
Epitaph waggled her head from side to side. "Kind of? But we'd need to leave Scarlett or me behind to adapt it on the fly; otherwise, he could eventually overcome any protections we put in place."
Carter nodded. "Then we fall back to the original plan and blow the ship up."
The officer looked appalled as he objected. "You can't do that! This is a state-of-the-art flagship of the core navy! It's worth more than any backwater planet out here in the fringe regions!"
Carter glared at him. "And that state-of-the-art flagship has been taken over by a rogue AI bent on the extinction of all organic life in the galaxy. I suppose we could tell him his actions are illegal and ask him to turn himself in, but I suspect it would be more effective to deny him another asset to use in his genocidal plans. Also, you lack the power to back up your demands. You'd be better off shutting up and hoping we take you with us rather than leaving you to go down with the ship like some glorified old earth captain!"
That made the man pause as Carter turned to Epitaph. "So? How bout it?"
The girl nodded. "We can make it happen, though we'll need to keep the countdown relatively short so we can be sure he doesn't break back into the ship in time to stop the self-destruct."
The officer looked back and forth between Carter and the girl. "Who are you people anyway? Pirates? Are you from the trader alliance?"
Carter shook his head. "Do you want answers to stupid questions or get out of here alive? Wait, never mind. You don't get a vote." Turning back to Epitaph, he continued as if the man had never spoken. "Sounds good, so long as we have enough time to get back to our ship to get the hell out of here."
The man spoke up once again. "What about my men left on the ship?"
The girl answered. "I've re-enabled all the life pods, so they should be able to make their escape." Then, turning back to Carter, she continued. "We should have enough time, and I'll add a little extra time, just in case. A lot of the bots on the ship have stopped doing anything anyway. I guess the Boss is the kind to just toss his toys aside once he's done playing with them."
Erik coughed and sat up as Scarlett returned to him and reconnected his various biological systems. At the same time, a countdown appeared on every screen on the bridge, and likely everywhere else, and the girl spoke up in Carter's suit once again. "Alright, let's go!"
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Well, things are starting to get interesting!
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