“Captain, there is a situation,” the station AI reported.
Jacob jerked to attention. “What sort of situation?”
“Maintenance Manager Franky D is attempting to depart the station.”
“What! How? Wait… did you say, maintenance manager? That’s not possible. I didn’t authorize that.”
“After scheduling a maintenance test on the hangar’s outer doors, he issued a lockout once they were fully open. When he began powering up the transport, it triggered the security alert you put in place. As for your second question, he was promoted to maintenance manager after applying for the interim role since the position was vacant. When the maintenance director didn’t reject the proposal, the position was made permanent.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jacob demanded.
What the hell was Franky thinking? Even if he took the transport, it wasn’t like he would be going anywhere. His consciousness was housed on board the station. Jacob was more concerned with the ship. The repairs hadn’t been completed on it, and Franky’s idiocy could destroy the vessel.
“No, Captain, I am not programmed for humor.”
Jacob wanted to rage at the AI, but it was just answering his questions. He couldn’t even blame it entirely. If he had done his due diligence when looking at how roles received promotions, instead of just skimming over them quickly so he could get back to his many other tasks, he could have easily stopped Franky from abusing the system.
“Revoke Franky’s access, then override the maintenance request and lock down the hangar.”
If he could keep the ship from departing, that would be the best option.
“I have revoked Franky D’s access, but I cannot carry out your second request, Captain. Shortly after the ship started powering up, Representative Chalto sent a diplomatic override, locking out any access to docking controls.”
That damn diplomatic access!
He knew it was going to be a problem the moment they landed on the station, but he hadn’t found any way to override it yet.
Why would he do something like that? And why now? It was a little too late to prevent Franky from leaving. Was he trying to help Franky escape? No, that didn’t make any sense. If Franky had gone anywhere near the representative’s hangar or the representative had spoken to him, Jacob would have been alerted.
“The document states that no entities may leave the station until a judicator arrives to determine the threat posed by Captain Jacob and the planetary conditioning vessel, operation of which is in direct violation of the Sovard Accords. It also lists Adjunct Xing’che as a possible accomplice or collaborator.”
Or the AI could just tell him.
Well, fuck!
Jacob was starting to get a picture of events. Something had tipped off Chalto that a ship was attempting to depart, and the man issued the order to stop it, probably assuming Jacob or Xing’che was aboard the vessel, only it was too late.
He also didn’t know who the hell Xing’che was, but he had a pretty good guess based on the information the AI had given him.
He pushed the annoyance he felt toward Chalto and the lockdown to the back of his mind. He could deal with that problem later. Right now, he needed to stop Franky from taking their only ship.
Jacob exited the bipedal drone he had been using to work outside the station and connected with the one he had left aboard the transport. When he entered the new drone, all he could see were stars. When his body rotated around, he spotted Franky standing at the edge of the ship ramp, only a few feet away, practically radiating smugness.
Jacob tried to contact the man, and when that failed, tried taking control of the drone for himself. It didn’t work. Franky had either ripped out the comm link or disconnected it from the drone. Jacob didn’t want to have to do this, but Franky was leaving him no choice.
“AI, shut down power to the data storage housing Franky D.” The representative’s document prevented anyone from leaving the station, but it didn’t prevent Jacob from controlling anything else. It was an oversight that he would gladly take advantage of. Once the ship was drifting, he could just retrieve the body floating off into space with one of the drone ships and bring it back aboard the transport to return the ship to the station.
“Task completed, Captain.”
Jacob smiled in victory, then frowned when Franky’s drone turned around and walked into the ship, closing the ramp behind it.
“Why is Franky still active?” he asked in panic.
“Unclear, Captain.”
He got a sinking feeling in his gut. “How many storage devices were affected by the shutdown?”
The AI confirmed the number, and it hadn’t changed from the day he set up the storage array. Franky hadn’t gone offline because he had transferred his consciousness to a different data archive. One that was probably aboard the transport vessel, because leaving it aboard the station after pulling this stunt would have been downright stupid.
As Jacob rotated in the void of space and watched the transport slowly move away from the station, he had to admit that Franky had played him. He thought the man had genuinely turned over a new leaf. Jacob hadn’t felt this physically ill about being lied to since his “date” with Shauna. Remembering that horrible incident right now only made things that much worse, and he wished Melody had purged those memories instead. Needless to say, Franky was a huge asshole, and this betrayal was a watershed moment that Jacob would never forget.
Jacob would make sure to thank Franky for teaching him this lesson, right after he made sure the man got what was coming for him.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
The ship vanished a few moments later, long before Jacob could direct the three drone ships to try to intercept it.
“AI, I want a full log of Franky’s activities since he started using the drone. I also want a log of any changes made aboard the station or with roles since Franky D, Katherine, and Barry have been given access.” He didn’t think Franky had sabotaged anything, but he never expected the man would steal a spaceship either.
He wanted to trust the other two because they were in the same boat as he was, and having to monitor their activities constantly sounded both exhausting and a good way to ruin any chance of building trust, but Franky had shattered that illusion. Unfortunately, he needed to verify if the others had been lying to him as well.
“Data log sent, Captain,” the AI cheerfully replied.
“I also want to be notified if anyone requests a promotion or a different job title.” He had assumed that nobody could move up in those roles without his say-so because those roles were empty, but he was obviously mistaken.
“I have noted your preference, Captain.” The AI paused for a bit, then continued. “Captain, we have a situation.”
Another one? He couldn’t seem to catch a break.
***
Chalto was surprised when he got called to the bridge, and a t’uk captain was on the console’s screen.
“Is there something you need from me, Captain?” Chalto asked.
“Kaelar,” the t’uk gentleman preened. “I’ve been told you might be in danger and sent to check on your safety as well as retrieve Xing’che on charges of conspiracy and sedition.”
“As you can see, I’m perfectly fine,” Chalto said in annoyance. “As for your other request, I must decline. Adjunct Xing’che is awaiting judgment.”
“I’m afraid I must insist,” the t’uk captain declared. “I cannot verify you are who you say you are without meeting face to face. Release the station lockdown and allow my ship to dock.”
“My orders come directly from the council head, and I will not be doing that, Captain.”
“Then you leave me no choice.” The t’uk captain made a gesture, and the comm call ended.
Chalto wondered what that was all about before his captain interrupted his thoughts.
“Representative, the t’uk security vessel is powering up its weapons. I am also detecting the station’s weapons powering up in response to the threat.”
“Is he insane?” Chalto asked in shock. His vessel wasn’t toothless or undefended, but they were just as stuck in the station as anyone else. “Order everyone back aboard immediately and power up the shields.” If he couldn’t fight back or leave, they could at least protect the people he had brought out here.
The station shook slightly as the vessel fired, and Chalto watched the security feed as panicked crew and passengers hurried back aboard. A few people were noticeably absent.
“Where is Adjunct Xing’che and her aide?”
“They departed the ship this morning, representative,” the captain confirmed.
The adjunct may be tied up in what was going on out here, but he didn’t want to see her die. There was nothing he could do, however, so he had to hope that she found a safe place to hole up.
***
Jacob popped into the security center drone and stumbled as the station shook.
“Captain, the warship has fired on the station. There is minor damage. I am returning fire.”
“What?”
Jacob hurried out of the security office to the control center. He could see flashing red warnings on some of the nearby consoles, but he ignored them as he quickly adjusted the cameras to show the battle on the massive three-story screen.
The vessel attacking them was not all that large, about half the size of the transport, but it had plenty of weapons. Jacob watched its normally invisible shields flicker in rainbow light as the station’s weapons smashed against it.
“Captain, it appears our void cannons cannot penetrate the enemy’s defenses. I do not know if I can overcome them before the enemy causes critical damage to the station.”
“Power up the shield generators!” There weren’t enough to protect the entire station, but the AI core and power systems were the first things he had covered, and they should be able to protect those. At least that’s what Jacob assumed.
As soon as the shields came online, he might as well have painted a target on those sections of the station. The ship redirected most of its fire to those areas, while still firing on the hangar containing the representative’s vessel.
“Shield integrity at ninety percent,” the AI stated after only two volleys from the ship.
“What the hell is going on?” Katherine demanded as she stumbled out of the elevator, only to fall flat on her face as the station shook once more.
“We’re being attacked.”
“What?” she asked in panic as she levered herself off the ground. “It’s the aliens, isn’t it? I knew they couldn’t be trusted. Can the station hold them off?”
“It’s not even the same aliens,” he replied in annoyance, “And I’m working on the problem, but the station’s weapons aren’t able to punch through the enemy’s shields.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“Why would I be joking about something like that?” Jacob demanded.
“This is rookie shit. What rank were you in Omacron Six?” she asked pointedly.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant to our current situation.”
“Answer the question!”
“I wasn’t ranked, okay. I wasn’t even supposed to be abducted. The AI that took us wanted my friend, but got me by mistake.”
Instead of commenting on that statement, Katherine took charge. “Move aside and let me handle this.”
Jacob did as he was asked, not sure what the woman planned on doing without access.
“AI, what weapons and mobile assets are at my disposal?”
“Katherine, you are not authorized to access those systems.”
The woman turned to Jacob, piercing him with a robotic stare.
“AI, give Katherine temporary access to all station defensive assets until this current situation has resolved itself.”
If the situation weren’t so dire and he didn’t feel so out of his depth, he wouldn’t have given her access. Especially not after the bullshit Franky pulled, but he needed all the help he could get, and it wasn’t like Katherine could make the situation any worse.
“Katherine, the station has sixty void cannons and ten launch tubes. There are three maintenance drone ships as well.”
“How many missiles do we have, and are those drones armed?” she asked as she moved the camera view around the enemy vessel like a pro, trying to get a better picture of what was going on.
“There are zero missiles in storage. The drones are unarmed.”
The station shook again, and the AI stated that shield integrity had fallen to eighty percent.
Katherine turned to him. “I don’t suppose you shielded the maintenance ships?”
“No,” Jacob replied. “It’s not like they have room to fit a shield generator inside them.” He tried. He even tried mounting a generator to the outside of the large van-sized drones, but their reactors weren’t happy with the modification. That drone had to be scrapped completely, because the changes he made rendered it inoperable. Maybe if he had access to a smaller shield generator, it might have worked, but building a shielded maintenance drone ship hadn’t really been a priority at the time he purchased the only unit available for sale at Vorlos.
The woman tsking before awkwardly turning back to the massive display.
“AI, I want you to send the three maintenance ships on a collision course with the enemy vessel from three different angles. Have them converge on the same point on the ship. Somewhere around the middle,” she said, gesturing vaguely to the massive projection.
Jacob stopped himself from protesting about such waste. It was hard to let go of those ships after all the effort he had gone through to build them, especially after spending so many months aboard Melody just trying to survive. He could replace the drone ships, though, but if they didn’t stop the vessel, they were all dead.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Katherine. The vessels you indicated are not defensive units under my control.”
Katherine turned to him once again.
Jacob got the message and plotted a course for all three ships to impact the enemy vessel about midship.
“A little farther back,” she said as he projected the impact point on the display.
“That’s good. Now give me a timer for when they are going to impact.”
Jacob applied the timer, and she looked at him once again.
“Can’t you make them go faster?”
“They are maintenance ships, not combat drones.”
“Fine,” she said in annoyance. “Better hope this works, because we aren’t going to get a second chance.”