Dreaming of Atmosphere (35 page)

41.

We were all gathered in the aft cargo hold in a semi-circle before Eric’s casket. We’d cleared space around the aft loading airlock, and the coffin rested on a wheeled trolley ready to be taken into the airlock when we were finished. Artemis has volunteered to remain on watch, diplomatically removing herself from the ceremony. We’d gathered a few minutes ago, and milled about making small talk until I cleared my throat and asked for silence.

“Chief Engineer Eric Thackeray was the oldest person I knew. I’d met older people, sure, but I’d never really known them. When I say I knew Eric, I mean it in every sense of the word. We never truly know someone until we’ve seen inside their souls, their very essence of what makes a man, or women, themselves. Knowing, as it stands, is very much the same as accepting them, for their good and their bad. When you really
know
someone this way, you can’t help but love them.

“I remember when I first began to
know
Eric. I was thirteen years old, and he was showing me how to strip down a catalyst module in Central Control. Only an hour ago I’d been told that my father had been gunned down in a bar fight in the station we were parked at. Everyone expected me to just run to my cabin and cry. I did, but I didn’t stay there. Eric came and got me an hour later. Just opened my door and walked in, telling me I was late for the day’s lesson. I’d raged at him, called him a bunch of names, but he just stood there and took it all then when I was finished he told me these words.

“He said ‘You’ve lost a father today, not the ability to do work. If he were here, he’d kick you in the arse and tell you to get on with your lessons’. I replied then that because he wasn’t here he couldn’t tell me to go. He smiled at me, put his hand on his heart and said ‘But he’s here. In you. And he
is
telling you.’

I placed my own hand over my heart. “Well now Eric is here, too. And he is telling me that we’ve only lost a friend, not the ability to finish what we started. The closest bonds we will ever know are the bond of grief, the deepest community one of sorrow. His passing has made us closer than ever, for we share the pain of his loss, we feel together his absence.

“We have a part of ourselves in here with Eric’s remains. A part of our life. How much we each invested of ourselves in this man we now send into the cold abyss of space. He has no home but the stars, and to the stars we send him. This casket will take Eric to the heart of this system, and there he will forever remain, but also, he will forever remain within our hearts.”

I nodded to Denno, who stood beside the airlock controls. He pushed a button and the inner airlock door opened. Fel and Denno then wheeled the trolley into the airlock, lowered the casket to the deck and returned with the trolley. When the airlock was sealed, they cycled the air out of the airlock.

“
We remember you, a friend

for we hold you in our hearts.

You live on, memory,

forever the Dreaming’s son

We give unto you, a son

for of the stars are we made

Our bodies, our form,

are but borrowed star matter.

We bid you farewell, a brother

for now we must part awhile.

Stars await, o’ Eric,

your journey lies before you.
”

With a solemn nod, I gave the signal for the outer airlock to open. Gravity was removed from the ‘lock and gradually the casket rose and drifted out into space. The small propulsion system fired, taking the casket away, and soon it was nothing more than a speck in the inky blackness of space. The casket would take years to reach the Eridani star, decades at least. One final grand tour of space before being consumed by the star.

I looked over at Maxine, she was standing tall, her proud bearing a testament to her enduring strength. She looked after the casket long after it was gone from sight, and then she turned to me and nodded. We all went around the compartment and hugged, or shook each other’s hands. Even Mal looked me in the eyes and took my hand. We retired to the mess deck, and spoke quietly amongst ourselves for a while, reminiscing about Eric’s life and where it intersected our own. I became aware of Mal acting very strangely. I could see that the ceremony had affected him deeply. I knew they were close. He kept glancing over at Maxine, he was pale and was visibly shaking after a while.

It was perhaps an hour later, just as we were thinking about parting and retiring for the night when he cracked. Fel, Zoe and I were talking together by the auto-chef when we heard a great sobbing cry escape Mal, as he virtually threw himself before Maxine.

“Forgive me!” he cried, “I have betray us!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing, no one said a thing as Mal continued his cry.

“I have lied, and drawn others into my schemes to undo us!”

“Tell me, now, what it is you have done.” said Max, a steely gaze upon him.

“I lied about the engines. I decoupled the converters in the starboard nacelle to make it look like we had damage. I thought that we were making a mistake in not surrendering to the Corporates! Honestly, I believed I was doing the right thing! I can’t continue to do this, Eric wouldn’t even dream about doing what I did. Please, you have to understand I did this to save us!”

“What else did you do?” she said.

“I deactivated the deck seals when we got boarded and left all the hatches unlocked and then left my post so the synthetics could shut us down. I lied to Hergo, to get him to help us. He thought there was a calibration error in the nacelle, he was innocent in all this.”

“Why tell us now?”

“I can’t keep it up. Not now. Not continue and honour Eric, not this way. I cannot!”

Everyone just looked on, too stunned to speak. Even though I’d guessed what he was doing, to actually hear it confirmed was still a shock. Max just keep looking down at him, I could see she was trying to get angry at him, but in the end she just looked defeated.

“Get out of my sight. You’re confined to quarters.” And just like that, he left.

Hergo looked stricken. Denno was trying to tell him it wasn’t his fault, and Hergo was trying to apologise to Maxine, but she just walked out of the compartment and headed up to Deck 1. I thought about going after her, but Fel grabbed my arm and shook his head. We sat down at the table, where the two Argen were also sitting and gathered our thoughts.

“Seth, I would have never helped him if I knew what he was doing…” Hergo started.

“I know, Hergo. Denno vouched for you, we were giving you the benefit of the doubt.”

“You knew?”

“We suspected. A few things didn’t add up.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“We couldn’t, we had to get evidence first.” offered Fel.

“At least we can recover the scanner nanites, now.” I said.

“When it’s dark, look for stars.” said Fel.

Zoe spoke up for the first time, putting her hand on Hergo’s arm. “No one blames you. We still love you, just like yesterday, just like this morning.”

“I’ve betrayed you, my crew.”

“You had no way of knowing that.” I said.

“Regardless, the deed was done, despite my lack of knowledge of it being performed.”

“He feels he owes a debt, a result of our upbringing, I’m afraid.” said Denno, “We Argen are very hard on ourselves when we commit a wrong, knowingly or not.”

“What could I say or do to make it better?” I asked.

“Very little, but to offer penance for him to repay. Much as I disagree with this fault, I understand his reasoning.”

“Please, I will do anything to atone.” Hergo said.

“Okay, you can get Zoe, Fel, Denno and myself a coffee.”

“A what?”

“Oh, a tea for me, please.” piped in Zoe.

“And me, too.” smiled Fel.

“But…this is not enough.” he said.

Denno turned to face him. “They have made a request, are you to dishonour yourself further by refusing them?”

“I…no, but this does not make up for…”

“Are you also now wiser than they, for judging the level of their outrage at your betrayal?”

“No, but I…”

“You have been given a task to complete in penance for your wrong doings. Even now, you dawdle about like a newly hatched. Is the task too great for you? Should you beg for a lesser task, perhaps one more fitting to your grovelling?”

“I…” he sighed and stood, bowing low at the waist and wandered over to the auto-chef. He placed our orders and walked back with a tray of hot drinks.

“We forgive you.” I said, smiling and raising my mug in salute.

It was going to take a lot more than a cup of coffee to forgive Mal, though.

42.

We were saved from too much navel gazing by the announcement that the Blade of Xerxes had fired another shell. By now, the Corporate beast had closed to only sixty three minutes of lead time, and our sensor readings of the round were inconclusive, if not outright useless. We closed up on stations as soon as the call went out, all of us back to business in the command module, except Crege. The pilot’s chair sat empty, and as I entered the compartment Max gestured for me to take it.

“I don’t want you connecting with the ship, too soon since your last episode. Just fly us like normal.”

“Aye, aye, Captain.” I took the seat and adjusted it to suit my size. I flicked the controls and brought up additional displays. The default view simply shows the forward and rear optics as well as radar and a few other sensors. I could populate seven displays with data or views. Crege usually tried to give himself a wide view of the one hundred and eighty degrees forward of us, the rear view and a few sensors. He said that he trusted the rest of us to give him the bigger picture, that extra information was only a distraction. I preferred slightly more sensor data than he did, and less of a wide view. I configured my display to show me a wider rear view than forward, and populated the remaining displays with all the sensor data I could put up. I also made sure our beamer was charged and the controls were on my last display.

“Who’s in engineering?” I asked.

“Hergo.” replied Max.

“He know what he’s doing?”

“Not really, but he can plug any leaks and put out any fired back there, that should be enough. Tac will be monitoring power distribution this time.”

“We were lucky we found him, you know.”

“Tac? It’s a he now?”

“It’s easy to think of him as one of the crew,” offered Fel’negr, “We rely on him as much as any other.”

“I suppose you’re right. You hear that, Tac? You’re a boy.” said Max.

Applying a gender designation to me is unnecessary, but thank you.

“It means you get to stand up to pee.” I said, laughing.

I am certain such advantages are lost on me, First Mate Donovan.

“And you don’t always have to be so formal, Tac. You’re part of the crew now. You get to give us all nicknames that we hate.”

“Like Donny.” said Max.

“Yes, like Donny.”

Very well, meatbags. I shall refer to you using names I have chosen to represent you.

“Er…meatbags?” Fel asked.

Too much, oh hairless one?

“Yeah perhaps tone it down a notch or two. Think terms of endearment, names that would mean something to us and we’d find amusing. Like when Crege calls Seth here human, and Ms. Ward little human.”

I believe I understand, sifu.

“Very good, your knowledge of ancient Earth languages is excellent, and I can see where you would refer to me as a teacher.”

Actually, I’m referring to the Garz’an word for a species native to their homeworld. The sifu is a small flightless bird that is prone to fainting during times of distress and emitting a foul odour to deter predators.

“I’m…er…”

“I think he’s joking with you, Fel.” Max said, laughing.

The Captain is correct, teacher. I have learnt much from you in my time on board the Dreaming of Atmosphere. It has been an honour to assist you in your mission.

“I wasn’t aware you were developing a sense of humour. That is great news.”

I have been observing the crew interact for some time. You are more jovial than my former crew, more familiar with each other. I find pleasure in listening to you joke with one another.

“Okay, so now that you’ve had time to watch us, and learn our personalities and so on, how would you recommend we deal with our betrayal?”

You are referring to Engineer Mal Cutler? Cuts? That is a difficult question. I believe the only wrong answer is one in which neither side walks away having gained anything.

“Explain.” said Fel.

It is undeniable that people make mistakes. The true wrongness in making a mistake is that people don’t always learn from it. They are doomed to make that mistake again, or at least something similar.

“What Mal did was hardly just a mistake.” I said.

I wasn’t referring to what Mal has done, I was referring to how we, as a crew, deal with it.

“Okay. How should be we deal with it, then. So that we don’t make a mistake.”

Whatever course of action you take, from here on regarding Mal Cutler, if it turns out to be the wrong action at least make sure you learn from it.

“I think I understand what he’s saying,” said Max, “He means that whatever we decide to do with him, it may still end up being a mistake. But so long as we take that on board, we won’t have actually done anything wrong. But back to your original comment, about gaining something, how would we gain something?”

Both the crew and Mal can gain something from this. First we must analyse Mal’s motives for his betrayal. He stated that he acted in order to save the crew, not destroy them. In light of his overt dislike of then Acting Captain Donovan, any decisions that were made would have been coloured by the fact that it was Seth who gave them, not you, Captain. Yet a crewman who doesn’t follow the chain of command is a liability. What Mal would gain from this is the wisdom of following the chain of command, regardless of who gave the orders. Respecting the position that gave the order is required, not respecting the man who fills the position.

“And what would we gain?” I asked.

A loyal crewman, for one. Showing mercy to Mal will allow him to learn from his mistakes, and solidify his loyalty to the crew. I do not believe he would attempt such actions again.

“You think we should just let him go back to work? A slap on the wrist?” asked Max, and I could tell she was finding that hard to swallow.

Negative, Captain. The man should be punished. That punishment should not deprive the Dreaming of Atmosphere of a skilled and loyal crewmember, however.

“Strip his shore leave from him, for one.” offered Fel.

“Dock his pay.” I said.

Extra duty shifts, is another.

“I see. Very well. Since you were Captain when he did all this, you’re going to hand it down to him.” she told me.

“Me? He already hates my guts.”

“So there’ll be no more damage to that relationship then. After you hand it down I’ll go see him and let him out of his confinement. A few days should be a good enough time to let him stew.”

Captain Cooper is very astute. He cannot be alienated by you any more than he already has, and but allowing the Captain to release him from his confinement she will endear herself to him even more. He will be grateful for the mercy, and act accordingly.

“You’re rather well versed in psychology, for a deep space exploration AI.” I said.

Ms. Ward allowed me to read her collection of resources on the topic, I have found them quite fascinating.

“Alrighty, kiddos. We have twenty minutes until the shell hits our nanite sensor net.” reported Max.

“Still nothing conclusive on sensors. We’re able to penetrate a few inches through the hull of the shell, awaiting the results from Tac’s analysis.” said Fel.

Readings show that the payload of the shell is comprised of complex electronics. It is definitely not a nuclear warhead or a kinetic round. This reduces the possible warhead types to one of the more exotic rounds.

“So we got the X-2, the Xendrite, the Type G…”

The Zero Point Null Field Warhead, the nano-spore and the exciter module.

“How are we as far as preparation goes?”

The polycrete lattice is completed, the mirror array and transmitter/receiver setup is functional. We are having some difficulty with getting our nanite net remaining undamaged with our gaps no further than 220m, there remains at least a dozen holes in our sensor spread due to minor alterations to our course. The nanites keep colliding and breaking apart. If we were to widen our spread by 43 metres there should be significantly less collisions reported by the nanites.

“We’d also risk letting a Type G warhead in as well.” I added.

“How long do the tears take to repair?” asked Max.

Approximately 47.2 seconds.

“Approximately? That sounds fairly precise.” I asked.

There are several variables to consider when making this estimate. This is the best I could come up with.

“How are Crege’s auto-manoeuvres looking?” asked Max.

I have 14 programed defensive patterns loaded by Pilot Crege. They are all sufficiently cunning to avoid the guided warheads that we are able to detect.

“How many of Mal’s metal debris chaff have we rigged with EM generators?”

They were able to construct 7 sufficiently sized debris devices. We only have 2 cryo canisters remaining, however. Hopefully, the Blade of Xerxes does not carry too many T898 Thermal Lancers.

“Don’t go jinxing us, Tac.” I added.

I am unfamiliar with the reference.

“Never mind. How about the nano-spore? Where are we with that.”

Medical Officer Ward, excuse me, Zoe has synthesised several inoculations and reports that the remaining nanite shots are still several hours away from completion.

“Tell her to give the command staff and herself shots right away, in fact get her up here with whatever she has and we’ll start them. If this round is a spore carrier, I was the ship functional and that means at least her and one of us has to remain un-afflicted.” ordered Max.

Zoe has been notified and reports she is on her way now.

“Run me by the Zero Point Null Field again?” asked Max.

The Zero Point Null Field affects an adjacent dimension, possibly a 7-brane that brushes against our own. The interaction causes massive loss of vibration at the quantum level, effectively bleeding energy from this dimension to the adjacent one. All forms of energy in the area of affect are reduced to almost zero. Kinetic, electrical, gravitational, nuclear, they all simply cease.

“What effect will that have on our ship?”

The Dreaming of Atmosphere will certainly be destroyed, Captain. There are several reactions occurring within our propulsion system alone that require delicate fields to prevent them from collapsing. Not to mention the electrical signals and impulses require to sustain thought and life in your own bodies. I do not believe I will survive the effect either.

“And you’re sure that the beamer will be able to stop the null field from expanding?”

If the Class 2 weapon is fired directly at the warhead during its initial phase of expansion, it should overload the field before it bleeds into the adjacent dimension.

“Should?” she asked.

There is a 13.7% chance that the energy will instead accelerate the field’s Zero Point effect, but it should still reduce the area of affect. There may also be significant visual effects to avoid looking at.

“Okay, Donny, just make sure you don’t miss. How quickly can we identify that field initialising?”

We will have approximately 7 seconds from the field’s initialisation to disrupt the effect before it enters stage 3 eruption.

“One shot. Think you can manage it?”

“With the amount of energy that thing will be emitting, sure. Just hope I won’t be in the middle of any fancy flying while I’m meant to be taking the shot.”

“Just flip controls onto one of Crege’s pre-programmed manoeuvres, the take the shot.”

“Roger.”

“And lastly the exciter module?”

Our shields should be able to withstand several pulses from the LN-12b Excelsior model variant, however the LN-12c will only take two pulses to overload our shields. The third pulse will start causing electrical issues with the ship.

“And we still haven’t come up with a solution to that?”

“Not satisfactorily, no.” reported Fel, “But we do have enough spare parts to replace most of our critical modules should they be affected.”

“My biggest worry is that they overload our shields then pop a nuke off on our arse.”

That is certainly a viable strategy for disabling our ship, Captain.

“Well, at least the radiation won’t kill us outright. We might be able to get Zoe to deal with radiation sickness before it becomes fatal. Is she wearing the personal shield generator all the time now?”

“She is when we close up at stations. She still insists the rest of us should wear one too.” I said.

“Don’t care. All that matters is that she stay out of the radiation if we get bombarded. She treats us and then we do a rad scrub with nanites. We simply don’t have enough shields to go around that will last long enough.”

Just then Zoe arrived at the command module, carrying a small case of syringes. Maxine made a point of checking she had her shield on.

“There are the nano-spore inoculations. Sorry I haven’t had time to make more.” said Zoe.

“Did you give yourself one?” asked Zoe.

“Yes, Ma’am. Right before I came up here.”