The Bright Black Sea (23 page)

'It might have been built in Aticor or Amdia, or in
the near-by drifts. Neb, even Azminn on spec, and the demand never
developed to bring it on line. If it has been drifting though some
of the thick drifts it might not be as old as it looks from the
outside,' suggested Tenry. 'I'll have to get Vyn on it. She doesn't
like mysteries like this. There's a record somewhere of this ship
and she'll find it knowing her. Have you seen enough, Skipper?'

'Yes.' I said and left it at that for a moment before
adding, 'What do you think?'

We shared a grin. 'Yah. I don't think there's
anything more to discover, but I'm not ready to face Vynnia just
yet, either,' Tenry said with shrug. 'It looks like there's only a
single deck and this passage around should take us what? Ten
minutes?'

I did the math in my head. 'Likely less. It's about
half a kilometer if it circles back around.'

'Right, let's go. I am getting hungry.'

The passageway gently curved out of sight in both
directions. The access well was to our right so we turned left and
stepped out. door-panels became scarce and sealed once we left the
crew quarters. We passed several radical passageways, but they just
led to the a lifeboat access points in the inner hull.

We'd not been walking for more than a few minutes
when I felt a slight tremor shake the deck under foot.

'Did you feel that?'

'The vibration? Some system must be coming on line
with the emergency generator up and running.' he replied looking
about.

'I'm not sure I like that.' Could be any one of a
hundred things, but I couldn't think of one, off hand.

'Look ahead,' said Tenry. Just at the edge of the
curve, the passage ahead ended abruptly.

'A disaster door,' I said as we approached.

'Explains the vibrations,' muttered Tenry.
'Environmental sensors must have come on line and registering no
air pressure, triggered the emergency doors.'

'Rather late, the emergency generator's been up for
some time.'

'Not high on the priority list?' suggested Tenry.

'Emergency services should be on top.'

We reached the disaster door. Tenry punched the
flashing open button on the door several times without any results.
'Bloody Neb,' he muttered. 'You'd think it would open with vacuum
on both sides. I don't see a manual latch.'

'Yah.' I took a deep breath and tried to slow my
heart rate down a notch and not jump to any outlandish conclusions.
'Let's head back. Nothing more to see now.'

He glanced behind me, looking grim. 'How far around
do you think we are? Should've been paying more attention. I'm
getting too old for this.'

I glanced at data display. 'We've been walking less
than five minutes. No more than half way. Less, I think. Let's
follow your arrows back.'

We reached the next disaster door in less than a
minute. Could be four or five doors between us, with no guarantee
the access well would be open.

'Right. I've explosive charges in my kit that will
crack them, jamming disaster doors is an old delaying tactic, but
it takes time to set the charges properly... We may end up running
late...' he said, hauling his satchel around and digging in it.

'Might be faster using the lifeboat access point we
passed. That hatch will certainly open manually. We should be able
to get to the engine room from between the hulls.'

'Should have thought of that myself. I am getting
old. Let's go.'

We turned and quickly found one of the radical
passages to the hull and followed it to its end. I hit the open pad
on the access controls without results.

'Manual it is,' said Tenry, grasping the wheel to
unlock the hatch, pushed up. It barely moved. 'Needs oil.'

'Let me get on the bulkhead so I can help. Together
we should be able to open it.' Silently adding, 'I hope.' I swung
around to get leverage from the bulkhead. In free fall you need to
push from something solid. We pushed.

The wheel began to turn and to spin. Though unlocked,
the hatch needed oil too, but by bracing ourselves against the
bulkhead for leverage, we pushed it opened enough to fit
through.

We found ourselves between the inner and outer hulls
on a bright yellow, grated platform that filled perhaps a third of
the space between two of the massive ship's ribs. Next to the
hatch, steep stairs ran up the bulkhead to the dark lofty space
above where the ship's ribs converged at the blunt prow of the tug.
No doubt there'd be lifeboats in launch tubes somewhere in the
darkness overhead. Across the platform, ten meters away, was a
short ladder attached to the outer hull that lead to a closed hatch
in a deck less than two meters below us – which should open to the
engine room below.

'This'll work,' I said, with a relief I couldn't keep
out of my voice. We crossed the platform and climbed down the short
ladder to the hatch.

Tenry hardly reached the bottom before it got
suddenly a lot brighter above us. Looking back through the grating
of the deck I could see moving shafts of light stabbing through the
open hatch we'd just abandoned.

'Blasted Neb. Bloody Black Neb. We're not alone.'

'Probably the cleaning crew,' said Tenry peering up.
The lights began to probe the platform overhead.'Let's get out of
their way,' he added and kneeling down, braced himself against the
rib to get leverage on hatch wheel.

Before I could find a place beside him we were bathed
in light from above. The hatch door was thrown open and half
blinded, we watched as three dark shapes glided onto the platform
above us.

Two were large teardrop shaped objects festooned with
assorted appendages and spot lights – heavy service
maintenance/repair robots by their look and shape – the third was
an angularly human shaped avatar with a series of small flashing
lights on its chest and face.

The avatar looked down to us, and its glowing
eyes
brightened. It pointed to us crouched below, which
didn't strike me as a very welcoming gesture. If it spoke, it was
lost in the hard vacuum.

'Scan to find its frequency,' said Tenry, but I was
already reaching for my com.

'… ignored our last communication and its stated
consequences,' came a strangely accented voice in Unity Standard
from the helmet speaker. 'I am authorized to declare this intrusion
a violation of Mountain King Directive Three which clearly stated
that any further intrusions would be met with lethal force. Thus
authorized, I withdraw your protected status.' This was followed by
a flood of squeals, clicks and squeaks, the language of
machines.

The avatar, who I assumed was doing the transmitting,
made a sweeping gesture with its arm directing the service bots
towards us. The robots fired their steering jets, drifting off the
far side of the platform and down towards us. Again the humanoid
shaped avatar pointed to us and the repair robots began a slow,
rather clumsy maneuver to get under the edge of the platform to
reach us.

'I didn't catch all it said, but what I did catch
didn't sound very welcoming.'

'No, it didn't, he said, and in his official Patrol
voice, 'This is Patrol Boarding Boat Leader Tenry Roynay. I order
you by the universal authority of Unity Law to cease all hostile
actions. I repeat, stand down and await instructions.'

'Aux47 does not recognize Unity Authority. The
Directorate of Machines has authorized lethal actions as defensive
responses to attacks on sentient machines. Mountain King Alpha has
issued Directive Three authorizing the use of lethal force. It has
been posted. You have ignored it. It will now be enforced.'

The service robots were too large to reach us
floating upright, they had come at us tilted at an angle...

I noted they each held a very large spanner in one of
their appendages – far too large to adjust anything on my space
suit, at least in any way I'd appreciate it.

'Do we want to stay and talk, Ten?'

'I don't think that would be advisable, Skipper. I
suggest we conduct any further conversations from the other side of
this rib. There's a gap here we can slip through,' said Tenry,
pointing to a narrow black space between the rib and the inner
bulkhead.

'Right' We had to scoot past the awkward service bots
to reach the gap, but we made it just out of reach of their
spanners and grabbing the edge of the rib, dove into the dark gap.
There was a meter wide gap between the rib and the inner bulkhead,
spanned by support beams and half filled with pipes and ducts along
the upper edge of the crew deck. We had just enough space to slip
through into the next inner-rib space. This one was bare of any
platforms or machinery until the next rib, some fifteen meters
ahead. We jetted across. We could hear the machines communicating
in their beeping, static-laced lingo in our earphones.

'Switch back to home frequency and scramble so we can
talk,' said Tenry reaching for his com as we arrived at the next
rib. I did the same.

'Right. They'll have to come around over the top,'
said Tenry tersely glancing up to the blackness between the top of
the crew deck and the ship's prow. It was high, wide and very open.
'Let's keep going and see if we can put some distance between us
before we stop to talk again.'

'Over the top of the deck or between the ribs?' I
asked, glancing up. There was more room overhead to use our jet
packs.

'We need to find another lifeboat access point.
Shouldn't be too far ahead. Let's just stay between the hulls so we
don't miss it..'

'And ? I'm open to suggestions.'

'If we have a clear chance, make for the hatch, get
it open and get back to the gig... If not, find someplace near it
with cover to make a stand. Try talking again.... but with plasma
darts if necessary,' he rapped out as we slipped through the gap.
'We're dealing with sentient machines who can and will kill us,
given a chance.'

'What are they doing here?' I asked as we slipped
through. 'They're far outside of their treaty space. What can they
be doing on this wreck?'

'I'm thinking they've always been here... we've
stumbled on to something so old and out of touch that it may well
think the strike is still going on. It could be the last
striker.'

'Neb, it almost sounded like that, didn't it,' I
said, the light dawning. We'd emerged on the other side. I could
see the stabbing beams of the robots in the space overhead. They
were up and after us. 'Lights above. Would they really harm
us?'

'If I'm right, yes. It got nasty on some worlds. We
can't take chances. I'm not certain what effects our plasma darts
will have on those bots, they're built to work in dangerous
environments. Best aim for the sensors if it gets hot, they may
have some disabling effect,' he said as we jetted across to the
next rib.

'I'm unlikely even to hit 'em,'

'You will when they get close enough...'

'Bloody Neb,' I cursed. So far my panic level was
yellow, still manageable. Once again I was lucky to have had
someone cool and competent at my side.

'If what I'm thinking is right, the whole ship is a
sentient ship, so the whole ship will be against us,' rapped Tenry
as we slipped through the next narrow passage. 'We're just dealing
with its mobile auxiliary units.'

'Neb and the Ninth Star! How can we stand against a
ship?' I asked, pushing my way through the narrow passage.

'Can't. Just run like a quantum current. If we can
make it to the gig we should be fine, it's still a derelict tug and
can't do much outside of the hull.'

The next compartment was different – it was filled
with environmental and plumbing equipment, pipes, vents and
machinery. We must've reached the edge of crew section. I followed
Tenry through the metal jungle. Quarters were too close for flying
so we pulled, clawed and twisted our way though the maze of
machinery, slowing us down considerably.

We reached the next rib. Had we lost too much of our
lead?

'Risk it or stay here in cover and see if we can
negotiate?' Tenry asked.

'Go,' I said and we dove through the gap together.
Even with this cover, there was no point stopping before we found
the next lifeboat access point and an exit to the engine room.

We found that the next section was indeed, another
lifeboat access point like the first one. We didn't hesitate. I saw
a flurry of moving lights above and behind us. But if the hatch
opened easily, we could be through in half a minute or less, and
we'd have some cover from the platform above the hatch.

'Rockets Away!' exclaimed Tenry, and fired his jet
pack. I followed, hitting the power hard.

As soon as we started across the gap, the lights
slashed down, spearing us in their glare. I dove for the far corner
flying fast. It'd be a hard landing so I twisted, using my body and
steering jets to swing around to absorb the shock with my legs and
the full blast of the jet pack.

I saw a swirling vision of two dark shapes and
streaking lights as I flipped. And the flash of the spanner
striking my helmet, ringing it like a bell, the impact sending me
spinning out of control. I ended up hitting the outer hull with my
shoulder, recoiling a little and ricocheting into a heap just under
the platform.

Lights spun around me – some in my head, others,
bright blue ones, coming from the exploding plasma darts Tenry's
darter was spitting out. They sheathed the robots in lightening,
driving them back beyond into the darkness above the crew deck. And
Tenry was peering into my helmet.

'You okay?'

'I think so.' The clearsteel helmet was probably the
best place to take a spanner hit, the clearsteel could take the
impact (I saw the dent in the helmet above my left eye) and since
the helmet is secured to the frame of my suit and jet pack the
force of the impact was broadly absorbed by the suit. It would have
broken bones if it had hit me anywhere else but the jet pack.