Archaea 2: Janis (15 page)

“Sir, this is my anticipated track based on available data. I am confident it will be accurate.”

I thought about spaghetti for a bit, very long spaghetti.

“I am sure it will be, Janis. I would say you have a course shaped perfectly, with plenty of margin for safety. Except the terminus, of course. That still looks pretty tight.”

“I agree sir, but with orbital platforms, it does provide us with the best chance for a covert landing, as we will not be burning into atmosphere, sir.”

I liked the sound of this, as I am sure she knew. In a way, I wish there could be someone nearby to see us materialize out of thin air and then drop in on lifters. Orbital platforms on the other hand, those bothered me a bit.

“Janis, can you overlay platform orbit tracks across my globe of Solis?”

“Certainly sir.”

“Janis, this spot doesn't have coverage from their birds.”

“I agree, sir.”

“Let's plan to land deep in that valley. I will take the gig from there, and we'll make contact and communicate the particulars for the supply drop.”

“Aye sir, you may want to prepare, we are nearing the end of the Mallory Lights.”

“That reminds me. Gene, the guns?”

“Soon Dak, soon! We're milling the last bus now. These are some kind of beautiful, sir.”

“I am sure. Paint them black or whatever. I don't want someone seeing a 40 kilo bar of gold inset into the gun deck.”

“Dak, I have never, in my entire life, refused a direct order, and certainly not from you...so the way I see it, you owe me this one. I will not paint these, sir. I will build a securely locking hatch... for inspection, sir.”

“Fair enough. I wouldn't mind seeing them myself. Make it snappy though, mister. We are just completing the last leg of the Lights now. Speaking of which...is there anything you need to do back in engineering before I firewall to new limits?”

A moment of silence.

“Negative, Captain. Janis can ramp up to the limit you need. We'll just keep working here.”

“Very well Gene.” I said, feeling more than a little giddy at the thought of what I was about to do.

“Janis, please increase to flank speed and make all possible haste for Solis terminus.”

“Aye sir”, she said sweetly.

Nothing left to do but wait. I rattled my coffee cup and decided we had enough time for another pot. I was going to have to revise my system.

“Janis, you have the conn.”

“Sir, I have the conn.” she said, as I pushed back my crash bars and stretched right off the couch a bit.

“Pauli I am headed aft to the galley. Can I get you anything?”

“I would love a cup of coffee, sir.”

I dipped an eyebrow slightly. “Pauli, you know that I am going to have to change how I measure distance with coffee. Between the crazy speeds we are attaining, and the amount you chug, my old system is terribly inaccurate.”

“Oh, are we finally going fast?” he said, with a smile.

“Pauli, we are currently going fast. Soon, however, you will truly understand the meaning of the word.”

I laughed, a supremely confident laugh.

Chapter 13

The new strange washing-machine sound that the tokamaks made started to slowly phase, increasing in tone and pitch until suddenly they flattened out to a really long, powerful rushing sound that continued to become more and more silent as Janis tuned it up.

I had to trust that Janis knows what to do. To doubt her at this point took more effort than it was worth. While I thought that, it was painfully obvious to both Shorty and Yak I was absolutely beside myself with fear. We all just focused on the job at hand. The tokamak was almost completely silent now, just a slight hiss on the limit of hearing, it was hardly enough at this point to cause alarm, anyway.

We were on the last bus installation, and we had the process down to a science. The work was pretty engaging. Jane had machined a socket cutter, and I had it on a right angle portable miller we snapped to the deck. It cut a perfect socket into the stubs of the flux gate, right above deck level. This area of the deck was already ablative, and with shielding and cooling, they should work perfectly.

Shorty had Yak moving metal while she cut and fit parts for shielding, we had already plumbed ducts for cooling, pulling a loop off the breech harness into the box frames, so we were down to final assembly.

For now, no hatches, but I am going to cut and install some as soon as I can. Right as soon as the last socket was cut, I slid the bus into the ends. It was a perfect fit – these were by far the most beautiful ship parts I have ever seen. So much gold. I paused for a moment watching my reflection in the mirror-polish of the bus, then kicked over to the welding rig.

Shorty and Yak kicked over to me with loads of thick plating, cut and numbered.

“Gene, ready?” she asked, as I nodded.

The boxes were already magnetized, and quite powerfully. We had to encourage the plates into alignment with a pretty stout hammer, but once we had the boxes laid out, they were rock solid for welding. I waited until Yak and Shorty were a few boxes ahead of me, before I started welding.

“Gene, do you have any idea how fast we are going right now?”

“Dak, I am currently welding, and can only listen.”

“Fair enough Gene. In that case I won't tell you. I will expect perfect welds, and don't want a wobble.”

Shorty and Yak burst out into gales of laughter across the room.

“Shorty, Gene is all grouchy or something. Status report please. We will be at Solis... quite soon, good golly.”

Damn the man, I grit my teeth and focus on making perfect passes along the seams of each box, moving as quickly as I can, trying to catch Yak and Shorty.

“Sir, we are very close at this point. Gene is currently welding some heavy regenerative plating we pulled from the magazine of the Mantis. It's good stuff, just needs an energy source of course, and it's going to be sitting right on top of one, I think, fusing into place I should expect.”

“Outstanding Shorty, I like what I am hearing. Any other news?”

“Yes sir. Janis and I are confident that we will be able to produce a static, persistent nova beam with this new configuration.”

I felt sweat slide down my forehead as I kneeled down to start another pass with the welder. It was taking the captain longer than normal to respond, Yak and Shorty shared a look.

“Shorty, I was just discussing this with Janis. This is great stuff, first rate.”

“Thank you sir. Looks like you might get a chance to slice off a chunk of one of those dangerous moons you keep telling us about.”

Oh great, that's just what Dak needs... just thinking about it... I wobbled.

*****

“Pauli, I am going to need you suited up just as soon as we set her down. Are you ready to take the gig out for a little spin?”

I swallowed. All the bravado I could muster was having a hard time contending with the stories Yak shared with me earlier.

“Shorty and Yak, I will need both of you suited and geared up for any possible hostilities. Gene, I want you to stay with the Archaea, just in case.” He leaned around his scope a bit, an eyebrow clearly too heavy to hold up his head.

“Pauli, what do you know about ECM?”

“Sir? Enterprise Content Management? It's a bit of an archaic term these days, but I guess it still applies to some extent.” I shrug, completely lost.

“Pauli, I am referring to Electronic Counter Measures, mainly a comms set with jamming capabilities.”

“Oh, sir I have no experience with operating those systems. I have some knowledge of the tech needed to configure and connect the systems, I would need to research what was needed first.”

“Janis, are you familiar with ECM?”

“I am sir. What would you like to know.”

“You just told me, dear. Out of curiosity, are you able to interface with the gig's systems?”

“Sir, I am already resident in the gig systems, in a much slower, less able capacity I am afraid.”

“Janis, would I notice the difference in speed?”

“Sir, I suppose that depends on what is needed. There are simulations and processes I perform on a trivial tier here that would require more processing power than the gig has, but for normal assistive operations, and systems support, no sir. The latency difference would be nominal.”

“Are you able to function in both locations... I mean... would you...” I looked over, it was rare to hear the captain at a loss for words.

“Sir I function in 394,232,234 different locations concurrently.”

I sat up in my seat and swallowed.

“Pauli. Easy son, easy.” he said low, and calm.

I felt like the room was rushing away from me, the thought of Janis spreading unchecked, unstoppable.

“Captain... that is--” now it was my turn to stammer.

“Unexpected? I can't say I am that surprised, Pauli.”

I take a long, level breath.

“Janis, please report your current detection surface area rating throughout all concurrent nodes”

“Steven, I have no metric to designate a threat level for any node. Though I am currently not connected to the Unet and am unable to provide real time evaluation, I remain confident to my current maximum amount.”

“Janis, how can you be sure. Pardon my ignorance, I ask for information.”

“Certainly Steven, there is no reason to apologize. I recognize why you are concerned. I am deeply rooted in systems where I am resident, and not recognizable by heuristics as logicspace. Captain Smith directed me to only proceed if I could do so in an undetected manner, I am fulfilling that request, and do not intend to ever fail in this mission.”

I blinked, and suddenly... realized it was going to be okay. Even if it wasn't, it was. The full ramifications hit me, of the increase in her capabilities, her computational power alone was absolutely unmeasurable.

“Janis, through so many nodes, how do you manage network state?” It seemed to me, if there was a weak point, it would be in routed traffic.

“Steven, I use a large amount of different processes, many are entirely custom to the system, but they are all effected via legitimate traffic segments.”

“The ghost in the machine”, I said out loud, to which there was no answer.

*****

Pauli and Yak were belted in, and Gene and Shorty were at their stations. Their work was done on the gun deck and I had a full cup of coffee, fresh and hot.

The speed we had attained on this leg of our run is simply beyond belief, completely outside of my experience or understanding.

To refer to the way we moved between the Mallory Lights and Solis as fast, was simply incorrect. Words don't actually exist that can describe how we move with the new tokamak redlined. The Archaea had to be among the fastest manned objects ever made, if she wasn't the fastest.

It was tremendously awe-inspiring, I must admit. I was having a bit of a challenge effectively communicating how awesome this all was. I am a pretty skilled communicator, but on this topic, not even a second eyebrow seemed to help.

And yet, incredible as this run was, it was just about over. I found myself coming face to face with something I have spent a lifetime mastering, controlling and dominating. As much as I didn't want to admit it, even to myself, I was afraid.

Pragmatically, I knew we were doing the right thing. Trusting Janis was necessary for our success, as much as anything else - we had to come in fast and low, otherwise our mission would end in fiery bits of failure.

Telling myself this didn't really change the fact that we might still end up punching a deep hole into Solis at hyperluminal speeds. Deep down, I guess it was safe to say I was pretty terrified.

Not that I let that stop me in the slightest. Fear is the only real enemy here. I secured that nonsense and put my game face on while I stabbed the 1MC.

“All hands prepare to come out of slipspace, ” I paused for a few heartbeats, just for Gene, “after which we will be landing immediately with no re-entry.”

I could just about hear Gene from up here. I hated to do this to him, but he... no, we all needed to learn this lesson, we all needed to let Janis be who she is, the very best. Even me.

I had just taken a deep breath as the countdown reached zero, and we popped out of slipspace with our forward port filled with the rocky side of a mountain. It was enormous, massive almost beyond belief. It was also clearly visible in the blowing snow and close enough to spit my coffee on.

I believe we all screamed on the bridge, and the only things that kept me from leaping backwards out of my station were my incredibly confident leadership skills, and the plasteel bars of my crash couch.

My headrest was probably dented from my head snapping back.

“Sir we have arrived on Solis.” Janis said, with a level calm they should record and play in the academy.

Not to be shown up by my crew, I affix an eyebrow at regulation height, lean back a bit, and try to say “Very well, Janis. All hands, prepare for landing”. Unfortunately all that came out was a cross between what I believe was a frog croak, and a coyote howl that ended in a sob.

Yak spun around in his chair and screamed something unintelligible at me with eyes that looked like tunnels of terror looking into the depths of his soul. I nodded heroically, as if what he was saying made perfect sense. Maybe it did.

Somehow, I was flying, keeping us off the cliff. My chest was shaking out of control as I tried to breathe, as if I was shivering. It did look mighty cold on those rocks.

I was reassured by a quick glance at the hands out in front of me holding onto the yoke, they were rock steady – Captain's hands.

Pauli sagged back against his headrest, eyes rolled back and mouth open. Oh, he wasn't going to fare too well on the gig, no sir. I was really looking forward to this.

The winds on Solis looked bad, full of blowing snow, but they had very little effect on the Archaea. I watched the terrain mapper onscreen, and dropped lifters towards the LZ we had selected, a reasonably small area at the bottom of a pretty steep slope, a few hundred meters above the very bottom of the valley.

We were blacked out, as silent as we could get. The swirling winds and snow were perfect cover as we slid downwards to the LZ. I held station at 25 meters, and locked in the lifters.

I hesitatingly, almost imperceptibly cleared my throat, and swallowed what felt like a young rabbit made out of fear that was trying to hop around in there.

“Janis, could you please hold station at this location?” I said, reasonably calm, if not a little hoarsely.

“Absolutely sir.”

“Very well. You have the conn.”

“I have the conn, aye sir.”

I pushed back the crash bars and stood adroitly on knees that wobbled a bit, but held. “All hands, we are in position to offload the gig. Folks, dress warm and suit up. Muster in the cargo bay in five minutes.”

Time to do some real flying.