Jacob sighed as Barry disconnected from the call. He had debated on whether or not to tell the man about Katherine’s head start, worried that it might dissuade him if he knew he was behind. Hearing the apathy in the man’s tone changed his mind. He had hoped that knowing would light a fire within Barry, but the reply the man gave him had been just as unenthusiastic as before.
Jacob didn’t know if a general disinterest in most things was normal for Barry or if the damage to Barry’s memories had changed him somehow. That was something he should know by now. They were his roommates after all. It wasn't like he was avoiding them on purpose. At least not all the time. Most of the time, he was actually busy.
It wasn’t that he disliked them. Not entirely. He wouldn’t say he liked them all that much either, especially Franky. It was mostly the fact that every time he looked at them, it was a reminder that he was dead. Living on as a digital construct didn’t really change that, no matter what Melody had claimed.
Jacob knew that wasn’t a healthy way to handle this trauma, but it wasn’t like he had a handbook called ‘How to deal with being turned into a virtual entity after being abducted by aliens.’
“You know what, that would make a good title for a Japanese light novel,” he muttered.
Jacob shook that thought away. He needed to focus; the most critical part of his plan was about to begin.
He suspected Chalto and his people would be hesitant to leave the safety of their ship, even with his ultimatum, so he had given the representative some extra incentive. His idea had caused more damage to the representative’s vessel, but that was unavoidable. He would just have to be quick, so the damage wouldn’t grow even worse. As long as his plan didn’t result in damage to the ship’s hull, he could make repairs before the judicator arrived.
The hangar door opened silently in front of him, and he approached the representative’s vessel. Four maintenance drones followed behind him, escorting a large octagonal tube with devices bolted to the top of it and an airlock seal on either end.
Jacob stopped near the ship’s airlock and waited. It took far longer than last time, but eventually the outer hatch opened. The ship rocked slightly as it did, making Jacob sigh in relief as he stepped into the airlock in his bipedal drone. If they had refused to allow him aboard to talk, the plan would have fallen apart before it even began.
The inner airlock opened, and representative Chalto was waiting once more with his imposing guards.
“Are you prepared to leave?” Jacob asked as Chalto and his two guards eyed him coldly.
“Do we have a choice?” Chalto asked in his deep voice.
“If you stay, I can’t guarantee the safety of your people,” Jacob replied curtly.
Chalto looked surprised by the comment. “Is that a threat?”
Jacob really needed to think before blurting out his words. He quickly replied before the misunderstanding could devolve any further. “No, that’s not what I meant. I meant because your ship is listing to the side, and if it lists too far, your people could be trapped without a safe way to exit.”
“Surely you could stabilize the ship.”
“I could,” Jacob confirmed, “but I won’t. Most of my maintenance drones are busy repairing the damage from the attack. By the time I can dedicate enough drones to stabilizing your vessel, your ship will have fallen over, making repairs difficult and escape impossible unless everyone aboard has access to a space suit. As it sits, your ship is tilting more and more each passing day. I estimate that it would be five or six days until the lean is too much to correct, but you don’t have to take my word for it; ask your captain.”
Jacob knew when he came up with this crazy idea that he needed to back it up with actual truth, or it wouldn’t get very far. That truth did require a bit of creative manipulation to make a reality, but he managed it.
At first, he had planned to have the drones further sabotage the landing strut, but Chalto’s crew couldn’t fail to miss that, and that action would color any further interactions. While it was true that Jacob was annoyed with Chalto and the Astryx’s heavy-handed actions, he knew that they would be more obliged to work with him rather than against him if he wasn’t seen actively trying to sabotage their vessel.
Instead of doing it in broad daylight, he hid his sabotage, taking a page from Franky’s book and using the maintenance tunnels. After reviewing the man’s logs, it quickly became clear how Franky had avoided being spotted doing anything suspicious. Apparently, the man also figured out how to tell when Jacob was watching him, which was concerning. He would have to look into that after the AI came back online.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The data the AI gathered also revealed Franky’s little conversation with Xing’che, which he would get to later, assuming he was still alive to care.
Unlike Franky, however, Jacob didn’t need to take roundabout routes to hide his actions. He had access to the entire station, which included certain maintenance corridors only known to upper management. Franky might have noticed them after he had tricked the AI into promoting him to management, but Jacob couldn’t say for sure. Not that it really mattered.
One such corridor ran below the hangar deck where the representative’s vessel was currently parked.
The space was tight, meant only to allow power and other cables to run through, but Jacob had managed to wedge a bipedal drone into the space after removing the suit. Once he crawled to the area below the damaged ship, he weakened the supporting structures by cutting some of the beams. The drone was crushed as the ship’s weight shifted, and the experience was anything but pleasant, but he got the result he wanted.
“I already know you speak the truth,” Chalto said in resignation. “Is that why you’ve brought that strange tube with you today?”
“Yes, it’s a mobile airlock. It can fit five—” he started to say, then looked at the huge guards, “—up to five people at a time, depending on size. Then they will be brought to the nearest habitable section of the station. I suggest your people bring as many supplies with them as they can, because, as I said when you arrived, the station doesn’t have very many supplies.”
Jacob left out the part where the AI systems in that section had been disabled. He couldn’t afford to keep the AI off long-term, and he still didn’t have an answer for the diplomatic override.
The representative didn’t have a very expressive face, but Jacob was pretty sure he didn’t like what he was hearing.
“I’ll need time to decide.”
“Don’t take too long,” Jacob added. “If the ship tilts too far, I won’t be able to attach the mobile airlock to yours, and if the ship crashes into the hangar deck, the hull may crack from the strain. Maybe not much, but it could cause your atmosphere to leak.”
***
“He’s not lying about the ship,” the captain confirmed. “The shield isn’t going to do anything to protect us if the landing strut finally gives way.”
“No, he isn’t, and no, it won’t,” Chalto agreed. “Can you secure the ship so he can’t access it after we leave?”
The captain seemed to think about it for a bit, then nodded. “I can, but if he’s determined enough to get inside, it’ll only slow him down.”
“If Captain Jacob’s goal is to leave before the judicator arrives, that will have to suffice.”
Chalto returned to the airlock, where the suited figure of Captain Jacob still stood, entirely motionless. He hadn’t been looking for it before, but now it was hard to miss. There were no slight movements or nervous twitching as you might see in every species Chalto had encountered. That lack of motion further reinforced Chalto’s assumption that Captain Jacob was using some sort of remote drone to meet with them.
He would very much like to know where the man was hiding aboard the station. His ship had a bio-detector, but it was only designed to locate harmful substances within a hundred-meter radius around the vessel. It couldn’t even penetrate the hangar walls like some of the more powerful units used by mercenaries or the military. The mystery behind the captain would just have to wait until the judicator arrived with the task force.
“My people are ready to abandon the ship, Captain. Two of my guards will be the first to depart, so they can radio back to us to let us know that the destination is safe. I hope that is acceptable.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” Captain Jacob asked. “I don’t plan on harming anyone, but I can understand your trepidation. We’re not exactly on good terms at the moment.”
Chalto nodded in agreement. He had met people far less accommodating than Captain Jacob, but that didn’t mean he trusted the man.
***
Jacob knew Chalto was a politician at heart, but he seemed genuinely concerned about his people. It was honestly more than he could say about the politicians back on Earth. Most of them seemed to be in it for personal power and wealth.
Now that he thought about it, getting away from all that nonsense was probably the biggest advantage to having been abducted. He didn’t have to listen to all the bullshit promises or pay taxes anymore. At least he hadn’t seen any taxes so far.
Jacob would have to ask Sha’la about that after this fiasco was over. The last thing he wanted to do was get on the bad side of an alien IRS. The one in the US was bad enough. That thought led him to another question. Did his new status as a fully digital being mean he was legally dead back on Earth, or a dual citizen? He shuddered at the thought of having to pay the IRS back taxes on what he made out here.
The evacuation was going smoothly. The two guards had quickly confirmed that the space was safe, and Jacob had moved more than half of the ship’s crew to a living area aboard the station. It was on the far side of the damaged area, making it inconvenient to get to the control center. It also helped explain the AI outage in that area, not that anyone had asked about it. Jacob had chosen that area specifically so he could prevent any of the crew from entering the control center, as it was open to the public.
Having such a vulnerable area open like that was stupid, but it wasn’t like he had designed the station. High on his list of things to do was to add a security checkpoint. For now, the drones would have to suffice.
After a few hours, the last of the people were loaded aboard the portable airlock. Jacob was about to walk away, but he saw Chalto motioning from inside the tube while holding some sort of communication device. He activated the radio inside his helmet, and it didn’t take long to find the frequency Chalto was using.
“Yes?” he asked.
“I know we’ve had our differences, Captain, but I won’t forget how you helped my people,” Chalto said. “In fact, I will tell the judicator what you did here.”
“Um…thanks,” Jacob replied awkwardly.
What else was he supposed to say? ‘Oh, man, now I feel like a shit for taking your ship?’