Jethro: First to Fight (37 page)

“And with the new construction coming
online, we're going to need some familiar faces in the hot seat. People with
experience, not fresh faces out of ROTC. Understood.”

“Are we still sending Firefly to Agnosta
sir?”

“Yes,” Horatio said curtly,
straightening.

“No offense sir. I'm a bit concerned
though about the defenses.”

“Well, let's see. Commander Vargess has
reported Fuentes at near ninety percent now, so she's our roving reserve. Well,
her Warthog,, and Damocles,” Horatio smiled ever so slightly.

“Captain Harris has Sun-Yat is on
defense at the southern Seti alpha 4 jump point,  Maya and Captain Tan'ash
are on station at the Agnosta jump point. Captain Naomi Samuels has just
returned to active duty and I'm handing her Centurion since she's in her
builders trials. She's sitting on the Gaston jump point. That leaves Hecate
about to launch without a Captain, and Wendigo on the beta 101a1 jump point.”

“Yes sir. Plus another 4 sublight
gunships, 2 corvettes, and 2 frigates back under construction sir. We'll need
crew and officers for each of them before they launch.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Horatio said
testily. Decius really was dropping the ball he realized as he checked the
personnel files. There was a lot of data on his people, but no one was tapped
for various positions coming available. There was no planning. The Centilian
might be keeping that in his head, but he wasn't sure. He'd have to have a
quiet talk with him.

“I'd prefer more weight on the beta jump
point sir. Is that why you want the first orbital fort there?” the Lieutenant
asked.

Horatio nodded. “And the second will be
at the Agnosta one. We're going counter clockwise, adding one fort to each jump
point in turn.”

“How many sir?”

“As many as we can afford,” Horatio
said. “They don't need drives and we can build them as big as we want. The
interior space can have parks, hell, anything we want in them. Manning them
will be a pain at first, but we'll figure it out.”

“Aye sir, I suppose we will,” the
Lieutenant said wryly.

“So, I'm confident we can handle
whatever the Horathians think they can throw at us. Hell, just towing Bismark
out of her berth would give us a major edge!”  He meant psychological
edge, Bismark was little more than a target. But only a handful of people knew
her true status and he was keeping it that way.

“Aye sir.”

“Firefly will be missed, but not for
long,” Horatio said. “She'll be back.”

“If you say so sir,” the Lieutenant
said.

“I do,” Horatio said, eying the younger
man before looking away and playing with his stylus. “But for now, let's get
this problem sorted out. Any word from Decius?”

“He's...” the Lieutenant cocked his
head, no doubt accessing his implants. Finally he nodded. “He just sent a text
message sir, he's detained at the Centilian colony on the other side of the
system for the next week sir.”

“Tell him he and I are going to talk,”
Horatio said and then held up a hand as the young man refocused on him. “No,
wait, I'll do it myself. But for now, tell him he's on leave. You are now his
second. Congratulations. Now, take a seat and let's get the manning table
sorted out. I want Hecate to have a Captain by the end of the shift.”

“Aye aye sir,” the Lieutenant said,
nodding.

Two days after passing his last final, Jethro
returned to the squad and Firefly. He felt a sense of relief, of being home.
Anvil had been his birthplace, but Firefly and his squad mates were his true
home and family. He had about a day before his next class started. He'd have to
return to Anvil for it, there was no correspondence allowed. The professor was
an ass, but Matilda allowed such antics since he was a good teacher.

The day after he returned, while testing
the latest generation of remote probes they ran into a rogue. The sphere darted
about in the corridor, totally out of control. The testers at first thought it
was a fault but Firefly pointed to a data stream between the little robot and
somewhere else. Streams were also going out to various cleaning robots nearby
but so far Firefly had firewalled them. They considered it a prank until the
transmission was tracked to the armory.

Jethro was about to enter the
compartment and paused at the door. “We've got a problem,” the SP said. They
had corralled the angry bot in a closet. Eventually it would run out of juice.

“Oh?”

“Yes. It seems you are sending a signal
to the remote.”

“I am? Jethro checked his implants. “No,
I'm not,” he said after a moment.

“It's not him I said,” the tech said.
“It's his
suit
.”

“Um, one problem, I'm not wearing it. Shouldn't
it be powered down?” Jethro asked. The tech looked at him, blinking. Slowly she
nodded.

The entered the armory. The suit was
there, ready to go. They look at the armorer who was working on the bear's
suit. The armorer looked up. “Running late?”

“Um, no, we've got a problem,” Jethro
replied. He turned to his suit. He could see the eye slits and the shield
emitters glowing faintly for a half second before they flickered out.

“The signal is gone,” the tech said in
confusion.

“Localized?”

“Oh it's definitely the suit. Someone
must be piggy backing it from there,” the tech said going to the suit. She
reached for it but the suit glowed to life. Her hand immediately paused. “Um,
is that supposed to be doing that?” she asked.

The SP had been staring at the armorer.
The armorer sucked in a breath and then nodded his chin to the armor. Slowly
the Marine turned to see the live suit. The optical sapphire slit of a visor
was glowing red and yellow like eyes.

“No. Something's going wonky,” the
armorer said. He looked at Jethro. The panther didn't look back, he was slowly
approaching the suit. It's head turned to him and he reached out and touched
it. He felt a zap and shook his hand off swearing. The suit's head turned back
and then the entire thing slumped and darkened once more.

“What the hell was that all about?”
Jethro demanded, shaking his hand paw.

“No idea,” the armorer replied. “But I
know one thing,” the armorer said grimly. “We're damn well going to find out
before it goes out again.”

...*...*...*...*...

They reported to Major Forth sometime
later. “The best we can think of is a ghost in the machine. It's not hacked,
we've ruled out a piggyback or a slave.”

“Fascinating,” the Major replied,
tenting his fingers together. “So in other words, you don't have a clue.”

“We know what it's not sir. That
eliminates the obvious.”

“A ghost though?”

“Remnant AI of some sort.”

“Firefly?” Jethro asked, looking up.

“I have been monitoring the situation
Corporal. I am not sure about the situation either. I can tell you that the
signals were erratic but indicative of some sort of intelligence. I don't know
the level though.”

“Whatever it is it's gone now. I mean,
we checked it. Ran compiling, even looked for AI machine code. Nothing that
would do this.”

“Then you are looking in the wrong
place,” Firefly responded. “And I will have to ask... no order you to stop.”

The armorer paused, now confused. “Oh?”

“You're investigation is treading into
classified territory. I can't permit you to breach that without proper
authorization. If there is another AI involved it won't either.”

“I'm surprised it has to this level.”

“I'm not sure why it has. I only know my
own programming. Stop. That's an order.”

“So what do we do if it does it again?
Or goes for a romp through your systems Commander?” the armorer asked.

“I have defenses against that Sergeant.”

“Ah.”

“Can we still use the suit? Should we?”
Major Forth asked carefully.

“I've used it before without problems
sir. What brought this on?”

“I'm not certain. I do know it's not a
threat,” Firefly responded carefully.

“Oh?”

“Sir it didn't kill anyone, just
explored. It was inquisitive. Had it wanted us dead it could have easily done
that,” Jethro said, rising to the defense of his armor.

“True.”

“I would prefer you didn't use the suit
but since it is an asset, a rare one at that, we have no choice. But I will
have to insist it be only used in extreme situations,” Firefly finally said.

“Combat usually is Commander,” Forth
replied dryly.

“That it is Major. I meant no more training
in the suit. At least not until... not until you know more.”

“You mean
we
know more. You know
what you know already Commander.”

“Unfortunately I can't and won't comment
about that Major.”

“All right. Put the suit away and find
another subject Riley,” the Major said, looking at the Sergeant. The armorer
nodded.

“I'd be more comfortable sir if the
Corporal was issued another suit,” the AI said quietly.

“Why? We can't make them easily you
know. We're limited on what milspec materials we have on hand. Once it is gone
we're down to using civilian grade,” the armorer replied indignantly. “It's bad
enough that only a half company has suits at all! That's all we can do right
now! I've been mixing in civilian and playing with skinsuit tech to try to
stretch the supplies I've got...”

Firefly cleared his virtual throat,
cutting the Sergeant off. “I... very well Major. I do wish to log a protest
however.”

“Log away,” the Major sighed, sitting
back and waving a hand. “We'll take what you said, no ordered and do our best
to follow it. That means no more stealth road tests for now.” he said looking
first to Jethro and then to the armorer. “And no more tinkering or probing to
reverse engineer the suit.”

“Yes sir,” both men responded.

“Good. You can still use the suit in
regular training however.” He eyed the AI. The AI remained silent. “Get out of
here. I've got to finish prep work for the exams coming up. Something both of
you should be concentrating on.”

“Yes sir.”

“Dismissed.”

When they were gone the Major looked up
to the ceiling once more and tapped his chin. Firefly's avatar appeared on his
desk. His eyes dropped down but he continued to tap his chin. Finally he
settled into looking at the AI. “Cadre suit?” he asked softly. They'd already
established that.

“Major...”

“We've established that much already. So
it's got an AI in it. Somewhere Riley hasn't looked. Probably microscopic since
He was thorough. In one of the boxes he couldn't hack or something else. Either
way it's moot.”

“Yes Major.”

“Except that it lets the Corporal use
the suit. I'm wondering if there is some sort of genetic link there. Could the
probe have been looking for Jethro? And if so why? Is there some sort of bond
forming?”

“There is always a gestalt between
organic and machine, suits are no exception to that rule Major,” the AI
responded carefully. He knew he was treading on very thin ice. “We have to
establish a rapport with those we work with after all.”

“True. The suit did accept him though,”
the Major said. “And I'm guessing this has to do with those growths.”

“I can't say.”

“The suit already did. Otherwise he
would have been very dead,” Major Forth replied dryly. “Keep an eye on things
please,” he said.

“I already am.”

“I know that. But you can be a little
less obstructionist and a little more helpful in this case. A little more
carrot, and a bit less stick. If he gets enough information he may accept it
and then move on.”

“Very well,” the AI replied with a nod.
“But I can't help him. Not actively. I can't even say that he's looking in the
wrong direction in his studies. Or where to look for instance.”

“Right,” the Major said absently.

“Like oh, implant tech,” the AI said.
“Did you know the history of implant technology Major? Quite fascinating.”

The Major frowned slightly. “Hm... no,
now that you mention it, I have been reminisce there. But I've been rather
busy, and will be for some time. I'll have to make a note of it though,” he
said. He rubbed his chin. “Or, delegate it,” he said, putting a call in.

...*...*...*...*...

Captain Pendeckle bumped into Jethro on
Anvil. Jethro was surprised to see the Captain out of uniform in the mess hall.
“How is it going Corporal? I heard you've gotten good grades,” the Captain said
casually, getting a tray.

“Fine sir,” Jethro replied politely.

“You're taking what again?”

“A leadership class right now sir.”

“How is it?”

“It's mostly civilian crap sir. I'm not
sure why we're required to take it, but it's required for the next grade,”
Jethro replied. “I've almost finished my basics. English and math were hard
until I let my implants take the load for me,” he said. He like others who had
implants had figured out how to use the computers and calculators built into
their implants to do the math for them. After all, they were a tool, and the
important thing was to let the tool do the job while he focused on the next
step.

“Cheating,” The Captain teased with a
half smile.

Jethro flicked his ears in amusement.
“You know the saying sir...”

“If you aren't cheating you aren't
trying hard enough. And the computers are there to be used. Yeah, I got you.”
He nodded. “Say, did you ever get into the history of implants?”

“History of implants?”

“Yeah, implant tech. I'm curious about
it myself. There is all sorts of stuff in there. Like Betas,” the Captain said,
finishing with his tray. He turned as the cashier rang him up.

“Beta's sir?”

“Yes, I just read about them. Genies.
Synthetic biology. People, humans, Veraxins, Neo's, whatever species, they were
genetically modified to be better. Just minor things for some, but also better
able to accept grafts and implants.”

“Really sir?” Jethro asked, ears forward
in interest.

“Yes. And since it's written in their
DNA, they passed it on to us their kids. I envy some of the people who have those
genes. Better than a poor schmuck like me who had to make do with all original
parts.”

Jethro wasn't sure what to say about
that.

“It's really fascinating reading. You
should check it out sometime son. All sorts of neat things in there. At the
very least it may put you to sleep.” His tone sounded odd, making Jethro wary.

Jethro heard the not quite order in that
statement. He wasn't sure why the Captain was telling him this, but he'd go
along with it. He nodded. “Yes sir.”

“Good hunting Corporal,” the Captain
said, giving him another nod since neither men were in uniform before he exited
the galley.

...*...*...*...*...

Jethro looked into implant tech history
later after he finished his homework assignment. He was bored with it for a
while until he remembered the Captain's comment about betas and genies. He
looked that up and then found links about synthetic biology. Cross referencing
that material with the genies led him to organic computers. Suddenly he sat up
straight, making connections. Connections that apparently he and Doctor
Standish hadn't seen before. Right under his nose...

“Well, I'll be damned,” he murmured, now
fascinated. Now he understood what the officers had been driving at. Someone in
the chain of command had figured out something, and then decided to pass it on
to him. And here was the something. Organic computers, built into the nervous
system of a host. Grown through synthetic DNA sequences, with the DNA also
serving as the computer code. Multiple redundant strands to prevent data or
structural loss. The listing went on and on, he barely understood half of the
headers but he now bet they were all relevant, relevant to him and Letanga. It
made for baffling but fascinating reading.

...*...*...*...*...

Major Forth held promotion exams since a
class  of one hundred new recruits had been assembled and were about ready
to be trained. They needed to free up space to let them train, so the recruits
in the pipeline were being passed on early. Jethro scowled at the very idea of
moving recruits through training so fast. That shouldn't be what they were
doing, but they were doing it anyway. No crucible, minimum training. He tried
to check the records but was rebuffed, he didn't have the clearance. He sighed
in frustration, massaging his brow.