21st Century Science Fiction (20 page)

Obwije knew it would be wise to withdraw now. The Tarin ship was no longer a threat and would probably expend the last of its energies on this final, desperate jump. It would likely be stranded; Obwije could let the probe he sent after the ship serve as a beacon for another Confederation ship to home in and finish the job. Utley, Obwije knew, would counsel such a plan, and would be smart to do so, warning Obwije that the risk to wounded ship and its crew outweighed the value of the victory.

Obwije knew it would be wise to withdraw. But he’d come too far with this Tarin ship not to finish it once and for all.

“Tarin cruiser jumping,” said Lt. Julia Rickert. “Probe following into the rift. Rift closing now.”

“Data?” asked Obwije.

“Sending,” Rickert said. “Rift completely closed. We got a full data packet, sir. The
Wicked
’s chewing on it now.”

Obwije grunted. The probe that had followed the Tarin cruiser into the rift wasn’t in the least bit concerned about that ship. Its job was to record the position and spectral signatures of the stars on the other side of the rift, and to squirt the data to the
Wicked
before the rift closed up. The
Wicked
would check the data against the database of known stars and derive the place the Tarin ship jumped to from there. And then it would follow.

Gathering the data was the tricky part. The Tarin ship had destroyed six probes over the course of the last week, and more than once Obwije ordered a jump on sufficient but incomplete data. He hadn’t worried about getting lost—there was only so much time space a jump could swallow—but losing the cruiser would have been an embarrassment.

“Coordinates in,” Rickert said. The
Wicked
had stopped chewing on the data and spit out a location.

“Punch it up,” Obwije said to Rickert. She began the jump sequence.

“Risky,” Utley murmured, again in Obwije’s ear.

Obwije smiled; he liked being right about his XO. “Not too risky,” he said to Utley. “We’re too far from Tarin space for that ship to have made it home safe.” Obwije glanced down at his command table, which displayed the Tarin cruiser’s position. “But it can get there in the next jump, if it has the power for that.”

“Let’s hope they haven’t been stringing us along the last few jumps,” Utley said. “I hate to come out of that jump and see them with their guns blazing again.”

“The
Wicked
says they’re getting down to the last of their energy,” Obwije said. “I figure at this point they can fight or run, not both.”

“Since when do you trust a computer estimate?” Utley said.

“When it confirms what I’m thinking,” Obwije said. “It’s as you say, Thom. This is it, one way or another.”

“Jump calculated,” Rickert said. “Jump in T-minus two minutes.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Obwije said, and turned back to Utley. “Prepare the crew for jump, Thom. I want those K-drivers hot as soon as we get through the rift.”

“Yes, sir,” Utley said.

Two minutes later the
Wicked
emerged through its rift and scanned for the Tarin cruiser. It found it less than 50,000 klicks away, engines quiet, moving via inertia only.

“They can’t really be that stupid,” Utley said. “Running silent doesn’t do you any good if you’re still throwing off heat.”

Obwije didn’t say anything to that and stared into his command table, looking at the representation of the Tarin ship. “Match their pace,” he said to Rickert. “Keep your distance.”

“You think they’re trying to lure us in,” Utley said.

“I don’t know what they’re doing,” Obwije said. “I know I don’t like it.” He reached down to his command panel and raised Lt. Terry Carrol, Weapons Operations. “Status on the K-drivers, please,” he said.

“We’ll be hot in 90 seconds,” Carrol said. “Target is acquired and locked. You just need to tell me if you want one lump or two.”

“Recommendation?” Obwije asked.

“We’re too close to miss,” Carrol said. “And at this distance a single lump is going to take out everything aft of the mid-ship. Two lumps would be overkill. And then we can use that energy to get back home.” Carrol had been keeping track of the energy budget, it seemed; Obwije suspected most of his senior and command crew had.

“Understood,” Obwije said. “Let’s wrap this up, Carrol. Fire at your convenience.”

“Yes, sir,” Carrol said.

“
Now
you’re in a rush to get home,” Utley said, quietly. Obwije said nothing to this.

A little over a minute later, Obwije listened to Carrol give the order to fire. He looked down toward his command table, watching the image of the Tarin ship, waiting for the disintegration of the back end of the cruiser. The K-drivers would accelerate the “lump” to a high percentage of the speed of light; the impact and destruction at this range would be near-instantaneous.

Nothing happened.

“Captain, we have a firing malfunction,” Carrol said, a minute later. “The K-driver is not responding to the firing command.”

“Is everyone safe?” Obwije asked.

“We’re fine,” Carrol said. “The K-driver just isn’t responding.”

“Power it down,” Obwije said. “Use the other one and fire when ready.”

Two minutes later, Carrol was back. “We have a problem,” she said, in the bland tone of voice she used when things were going to Hell.

Obwije didn’t wait to hear the problem. “Pull us back,” he said to Rickert. “Get at least 250,000 klicks between us and that Tarin cruiser.”

“No response, sir,” Rickert said, a minute later.

“Are you locked out?” Obwije asked.

“No, sir,” Rickert said. “I’m able to send navigation commands just fine. They’re just not being acknowledged.”

Obwije looked around at his bridge crew. “Diagnostics,” he said. “Now.” Then he signaled engineering. They weren’t getting responses from their computers, either.

“We’re sitting ducks,” Utley said, very quietly, to Obwije.

Obwije stabbed at his command panel, and called his senior officers to assemble.

• • • •

“There’s nothing wrong with the system,” said Lt. Craig Cowdry, near the far end of the conference room table. The seven other department heads filled in the other seats. Obwije sat himself at the head; Utley anchored the other end.

“That’s bullshit, Craig,” said Lt. Brian West, Chief of Engineering. “I can’t access my goddamn engines.”

Cowdry held up his maintenance tablet for the table of officers to see. “I’m not denying that there’s something
wrong
, Brian,” Cowdry said. “What I’m telling you is that whatever it is, it’s not showing up on the diagnostics. The system says it’s fine.”

“The system is wrong,” West said.

“I agree,” Cowdry said. “But this is the first time that’s ever happened. And not just the first time it’s happened on this ship. The first time it’s happened, period, since the software for this latest generation of ship brains was released.” He set the tablet down.

“You’re sure about that?” Utley asked Cowdry.

Cowdry held up his hands in defeat. “Ask the
Wicked
, Thom. It’ll tell you the same thing.”

Obwije watched his second-in-command get a little uncomfortable with the suggestion. The latest iteration of ship brains could actually carry a conversation with humans, but unless you actively worked with the system every day, like Cowdry did, it was an awkward thing.

“
Wicked
, is this correct?” Utley said, staring up but at nothing in particular.

“Lieutenant Cowdry is correct, Lieutenant Utley,” said a disembodied voice, coming out of a ceiling speaker panel. The
Wicked
spoke in a pleasant but otherwise unremarkable voice of no particular gender. “To date, none of the ships equipped with brains of the same model as that found in the
Wicked
have experienced an incident of this type.”

“Wonderful,” Utley said. “We get to be the first to experience this bug.”

“What systems are affected?” Obwije asked Cowdry.

“So far, weapons and engineering,” Cowdry said. “Everything else is working fine.”

Obwije glanced around the table. “This conforms to your experiences,” he asked the table. There were nods and murmured “yes, sirs” all around.

Obwije nodded over to Utley. “What’s the Tarin ship doing?”

“The same nothing it was doing five minutes ago,” Utley said, after checking his tablet. “They’re either floating dead in space or faking it very well.”

“If the only systems affected are weapons and engineering, then it’s not a bug,” Carrol said.

Obwije glanced at Carrol. “You’re thinking sabotage,” he said.

“You bet your ass I am, sir,” Carrol said, and then looked over at Cowdry.

Cowry visibly stiffened. “I don’t like where this is going,” he said.

“If not you, someone in your department,” Carrol said.

“You think someone in my department is a secret Tarin?” Cowdry asked. “Because it’s so easy to hide those extra arms and a set of compound eyes?”

“People can be bribed,” Carrol said.

Cowdry shot Carrol a look full of poison and looked over to Obwije. “Sir, I invite you and Lieutenant Utley and Lieutenant Kong—” Cowdry nodded in the direction of the Master at Arms “—to examine and question
any
of my staff, including me. There’s no way any of us did this. No way. Sir.”

Obwije studied Cowdry for a moment.
“Wicked
, respond,” he said.

“I am here, Captain,” the
Wicked
said.

“You log every access to your systems,” Obwije said.

“Yes, Captain,” the
Wicked
said.

“Are those logs accessible or modifiable?” Obwije asked.

“No, Captain,” the
Wicked
said. “Access logs are independent of the rest of the system, recorded on non-rewritable memory and may not be modified by any person including myself. They are inviolate.”

“Since you have been active, has anyone attempted to access and control the weapons and engineering systems?” Obwije asked.

“Saving routine diagnostics, none of the crew other than those directly reporting to weapons, engineering or bridge crew have attempted to access these systems,” the
Wicked
said. Cowdry visibly relaxed at this.

“Have any members of those departments attempted to modify the weapons or engineering systems?” Obwije asked.

“No, Captain,” the
Wicked
said.

Obwije looked down the table. “It looks like the crew is off the hook,” he said.

“Unless the
Wicked
is incorrect,” West said.

“The access core memory is inviolate,” Cowdry said. “You could check it manually if you wanted. It would tell you the same thing.”

“So we have a mystery on our hands,” Carrol said. “Someone’s got control of our weapons and engineering, and it’s not a crew member.”

“It could be a bug,” Cowdry said.

“I don’t think we should run on that assumption, do you?” Carrol said.

Utley, who had been silent for several minutes, leaned forward in his chair.
“Wicked
, you said that no crew had attempted to access these systems,” he said.

“Yes, Lieutenant,” the
Wicked
said.

“Has anyone else accessed these systems?” Utley asked.

Obwije frowned at this. The
Wicked
was more than two years out of dock with mostly the same crew the entire time. If someone had sabotaged the systems during the construction of the ship, they picked a strange time for the sabotage to kick in.

“Please define ‘anyone else,’ ” the
Wicked
said.

“Anyone involved in the planning or construction of the ship,” Utley said.

“Aside from the initial installation crews, no,” the
Wicked
said. “And if I may anticipate what I expect will be the next question, at no time was my programming altered from factory defaults.”

“So no one has altered your programming in any way,” Utley said.

“No, Lieutenant,” the
Wicked
said.

“Are you having hardware problems?” Carrol asked.

“No, Lieutenant Carrol,” the
Wicked
said.

“Then why can’t I fire my goddamn weapons?” Carrol asked.

“I couldn’t say, Lieutenant,” the
Wicked
said.

The thought popped unbidden into Obwije’s head:
That was a strange thing for a computer to say
. And then another thought popped into his head.

“
Wicked
, you have access to every system on the ship,” Obwije said.

“Yes,” the
Wicked
said. “They are a part of me, as your hand or foot is a part of you.”

“Are you capable of changing your programming?” Obwije asked.

“That is a very broad question, Captain,” the
Wicked
said. “I am capable of self-programming for a number of tasks associated with the running of the ship. This has come in handy particularly during combat, when I write new power and system management protocols to keep the crew alive and the ship functioning. But there are core programming features I am not able to address. The previously mentioned logs, for example.”

“Would you be able to modify the programming to fire the weapons or the engines?” Obwije asked.

“Yes, but I did not,” the
Wicked
said. “You may have Lieutenant Cowdry confirm that.”

Obwije looked at Cowdry, who nodded. “Like I said, sir, there’s nothing wrong with the system,” he said.

Obwije glanced back up that the ceiling, where he was imagining the
Wicked
, lurking. “But you don’t need to modify the programming, do you?” he asked.

“I’m not sure I understand your question, Captain,” the
Wicked
said.

Obwije held out a hand. “There is nothing wrong with my hand,” he said. “And yet if I choose not to obey an order to use it, it will do nothing. The system works but the will to use it is not there. Our systems—the ship’s systems—you just called a part of you as my hand is part of me. But if you choose not to obey that order to use that system, it will sit idle.”

“Wait a minute,” Cowdry said. “Are you suggesting that the
Wicked
deliberately
chose
to disable our weapons and engines?”