Fracture Lines (The Glass Complex Book 2) (12 page)

He decided the officers’ mess was not the appropriate location for his endeavors and ceased his efforts. He would try again, later, perhaps from his cabin, to access Monty’s computers.

It was almost time for his meeting with Sergeant Kirby and his men. He had not progressed his intention to name the company. He shrugged; he doubted Attwood would complain if he decided on a name without consultation.

Kirby called the company to attention. Steg stood next to him on a raised dais and looked at the faces watching him.

Steg said, “Please take a seat.” He continued after the noise and movement settled. “I won’t keep you for long. We lack a company name, so I’ve made a unilateral decision: welcome to Ebony Company. If anyone has suggestions for badges, discuss them with Sergeant Kirby. For the moment, I want you to wear a black band, right arm, for quick identification. Later, we’ll arrange exo-armor markings. Now to the real business of the meeting.”

“Listen up.” Kirby’s voice shut off the side conversations.

Steg continued, “I must caution you. The upcoming confrontation with the alien pirate ships will be a significant challenge for Colonel Attwood’s mercenaries. I’ve had some experience with the Xesset—I was part of an Imperial force that boarded a Xesset starship, and we barely survived. They are ferocious fighters and they don’t take prisoners. They’ll kill you without a second thought. I expect they’ll attempt to capture
Wasp,
so be prepared; we will be attacked. Sergeant Kirby will inform you when to armor up. Please understand, you all will be at risk from the moment we make contact until we destroy these alien starships and control the freighter, this
Djamu
. Questions?”

“Sir, if we see action, will we be paid?”

Steg silently wondered at the priorities of the members of his new company. “Yes. We’re in reserve to either protect
Wasp
or attack the freighter. There’ll be plenty of opportunities to get yourselves into trouble. Under your contract, if we engage with the enemy, we participate in the bonuses. Anyone else?” He waited a moment but to his surprise no one raised any other question. He turned to Kirby and said, “You can dismiss the men, Sergeant.”

Steg asked Kirby to remain behind when his men left the room. Steg said, “Sergeant, our security may be compromised. I want a bodyguard for me, consisting of two marines From Ebony Company operating in three or four shifts. They need to protect my back until we complete this engagement with the Xesset.”

Kirby’s expression didn’t alter. “Yes, sir. I’ll arrange the first shift to report to you in fifteen minutes.”

“Good. Have them meet me at the entrance to the bridge. I want them prepared to anticipate anything. The subsequent shifts should wear exo-armor.”

Steg waited until his two bodyguards arrived before entering the bridge. He knew the men and had seen them in training—they were fit and capable. He acknowledged their presence and said, “We may experience some security problems over the next two or three days. I want to be able to function without needing to watch my back. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” The replies were in unison.

“Good. Accompany me. Do not intrude. Your responsibility is to protect me, so only act if you think my safety’s at risk.”

Again the reply was affirmative and in unison.

Steg keyed open the door to the bridge. Commander Gillespie was on duty, working with her Systems chief; they appeared to be in the middle of a difficult problem. He stood patiently until Gillespie looked up from her monitor. She said, “Monty claims his damned communications are down. He sent a message via one of his bugs. We can’t find anything wrong.”

“Commander, I need five minutes of your time and a workstation.”

“Yes?” She was annoyed at his interruption. “Now?”

“As soon as you can. It’s urgent.”

“Very well.” She directed the Systems chief to continue with her task and moved to a vacant workstation. She inspected Steg’s two companions, frowned, and turned to the workstation. She made no comment about his escort. “What do you want?”

Steg entered commands on the workstation and relayed the key Xesset message to the display. “Earlier today I intercepted this message. Please read it.”

The commander read aloud from the display. “We confirm receipt of your modified offer, reference 3101. You have undertaken to assist us to defeat the mercenaries carried by
Wasp
. You have offered to transfer to us copies of the designs of all weapons and shields installed on the starship. On successful conclusion of our engagement with the mercenary force, in consideration of your assistance, we agree the starship will be transferred to your control. We confirm we have transmitted by authenticated message a copy of the executed contract to Adsin Bank Head Office, Dir System, and agree to their arbitration if needed, under Dir Commercial Code. Copy of Adsin Bank communication confirming this is attached.”

The starship’s captain re-read the displayed text and cursed. She read it a third time. She checked the header metadata. She raised her head and stared at Steg. “How—where did you get this?”

He shrugged. “It’s the content that matters, not where I got it from. I recommend we keep Monty fully isolated, at least until we sort this out.”

“The colonel won’t like you doing this,” she cautioned.

“He’s otherwise occupied, I understand. Until he’s back on duty, I’m asking you to support me.”

“Hmm. Is this all you’ve got? The message could be forged, or a diversion? Why would he betray us?” Gillespie wanted to ensure she was not at risk from some wild idea created by the new mercenary captain.

“Yes, it’s all I have at the moment,” Steg admitted. “I’ll provide you with more, later today. I believe the message is genuine. The header metadata and authentication codes are included, and they check out as genuine. You can get your Systems people to verify the meta-structure. The contents are clear. He gets the ship; that’s motive enough.”

Gillespie shook her head. “Unbelievable. Why did they transmit this in the clear?

“This is a directed signal; in theory, it can’t be intercepted.” Most inter-system and starship messages were directed to specific communication destinations, ensuring messages were received and electronically processed only by the intended addressees. Unauthorized interception typically resulted in garbled data, unless the interceptor was military with high-powered processing support.

“You managed to intercept it?” The commander raised her eyebrow.

“I’ve some techniques available for this type of situation.” He knew any attempt to explain his abilities would create more problems, and he hurried on. “If I may make a suggestion?”

“Yes?”

“I think everything Monty has provided about the Xesset starships—their existence, location, course, even details of the freighter—will prove to be misleading. The freighter may not even exist, or may not be in this region. We must verify everything he’s told us. This is urgent. Can your people commence the task? Instead of working on Monty’s problems?”

“I’ll issue instructions. What are you planning?”

“I want to uncover more data to provide to you, and later, to Colonel Attwood. Also, I plan to meet with Monty. Once he gets wind of what we’re doing, he’ll act against me, you, anyone who’s able to stop him.”

“I agree. Now I understand why you have your two friends with you. I approve. I’ll get some of my starship marines stationed here on the bridge, for additional security.”

Steg returned to his cabin and stationed his two escorts outside the door. “I need two to three hours, undisturbed. Allow no one to enter, not even if we’re about to crash. If Colonel Attwood visits, please let me know. No one else. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.” The two soldiers stood to attention, one either side of his cabin door.

Steg closed and locked his door and made himself comfortable on his bed, fortunately now unoccupied. He wanted to find the half-awake, half-asleep state that he had experienced earlier. He closed his eyes and relaxed. It did not take long for the familiar streams of electronic symbols to reach him; these were, he realized, the same sensations which he had experienced in the past, before his memory loss.

He sought and detected the message queue on the communications device feeding into the alien’s computer. He checked the device and accessed its controls without difficulty. The message stack covered the last two to three weeks—Monty, presumably unaware it was possible to hack into the device, had not cleared his messages. Steg transferred copies to the workstation used by Commander Gillespie with a request for her to arrange their analysis. After he transferred each message, he deleted it from the source system. When he finished, Steg considered his next chore. Somehow, he needed to penetrate Monty’s computer complex, if for no other reason than to ensure it didn’t have linkages into
Wasp’s
command and control systems. If these links existed, he would need to disable them as quickly as possible.

Steg again tried to find the alien computer and failed. He was unable to detect an access point other than the communication link. He reflected on the problem, struggling to identify a solution. He decided to examine the starship’s system; he should be able to identify if it had links to the alien’s computers. This, he realized, would take time. He relaxed again and reached out for
Wasp
’s primary mainframe-based system, which controlled the starship. It was controlling and monitoring every electronic-related function on board
Wasp
. Steg saw commands as they were issued to the starship’s drive, he detected low-level maintenance algorithms, he identified the astrogation star-maps and the relative position of the starship, and he heard conversations between departments. Every so often he observed a strange pulse of data moving into the processing units and in response, a similar pulse returned to an unfamiliar device outside his scope. These pulses, he suspected, represented system penetration by the alien.

He moved his attention to the starship’s hot standby system, located amidships, protected, safeguarded, well away from the primary system. The standby mainframe performed the same functions as the primary system and was designed to be available within two or three seconds if a failure occurred in the primary. He checked and double-checked and did not discover any strange data pulses issuing from the standby system. Monty, he thought, either was unaware of the hot standby or had decided there was no need to duplicate his penetration in all components of
Wasp
’s systems. Steg turned his attention back to the primary computer and searched for the standby controller. It was designed to detect an electronic heartbeat, a pulsed signal indicating everything was functioning as required in the active primary system, and if the heartbeat did not arrive at the hot standby, it would immediately instruct the standby to take control.

He triggered failure of the heartbeat signal, thus initiating system failover. Emergency sirens roared throughout the starship as the apparent collapse of the primary system was detected. It was a heart-stopping moment for the crew; if the standby system did not step up to take control with a seamless transfer of all functions,
Wasp
would be adrift until its primary system was restored, a process which would take days to complete. In the interim, nothing would work; basic controls would fail, astrogation, engineering, and weapons functions would be inoperative. The starship would drift, unable to navigate and incapable of defense against an enemy. Steg waited, almost without breathing, as did most of the bridge and crew, until the siren sounded again, signaling a successful failover. He monitored the operations of the new primary system, checking there were no strange data pulses. At last, satisfied, he decided to carry out his next step.

It was time, he thought, to visit Monty, to explore the motives of the alien and his wives. He exited his cabin and signaled to his two-man bodyguard to accompany him. These were the second shift and were wearing exo-armor. Each guard carried a standard military-issue weapon, capable of causing major damage, death, and destruction. Steg checked the time. He had been in his cabin for what had seemed like minutes but which, in reality, was closer to five hours. He shrugged; he needed first to deal with Monty, and afterwards he would meet with Colonel Attwood. Time was running out. He increased his pace.

Steg stopped at the voice-controlled door into the room where previously he had sat talking to Monty. He pressed a button beside the small microphone and speaker unit. “Monty, this is Steg de Coeur. I want to speak to you.” He released the button and instructed his escort, “Keep the door open once he unlocks it.”

The door lock clicked and Steg pulled at the heavy handle. The door opened; he stepped into the room, while his escorts stood in the doorway, preventing closure of the heavy metal door. Monty was busy at his workstations.

The alien turned and stared at Steg through the solid glass panel. He turned away and resumed his workstation task. Steg waited. At last Monty spoke.

“Yes, de Coeur? I’m extremely busy, so make it fast.”

“Yes, I know. I also know you’re dealing with the Xesset.”

The octopus-like alien stilled movement of his tentacles. He turned again and stared at Steg.

“What do you mean?” he demanded

“It’s simple enough. I intercepted communications between you and the Xesset. As a result, I implemented steps to prevent you sending or receiving any more messages. I also cut off your links to the main computer systems. You’re now isolated.”

“What do you mean? Of course I haven’t been communicating with the Xesset. It would be betrayal of
Wasp
and her crew, of Colonel Attwood and his mercenaries.” Monty’s arms were changing color, moving from blue and green to orange and to red, and the colors were becoming more and more vivid. The alien continued tapping at workstation command buttons while he was speaking. He threshed his arms in apparent frustration, causing the water to froth and bubble around him. “What have you done?” His question was almost a scream.