Veil of Shadows (Book 2 of The Empire of Bones Saga) (20 page)

He left without another word. The plan was in motion. The Terrans wouldn’t know what hit them.

Chapter Twenty

Lieutenant Reese decided they’d use restored old Empire marine pinnaces for the boarding and planetary exploration. The stealth materials in the pre-Fall pinnaces made them much more difficult to detect and their scanner suites were substantially better than the ones made in the Empire today, even with the occasion glitches they still had.

They also had remote drones that would make searching the planet significantly easier. Those only interfaced with the pinnaces that launched them. That probably helped in making the decision.

Jared made the trip over to the shipyard absorbed by the scanner readings. It was even better than sitting in the cockpit during approach. There was nothing between him and the 360 display of everything around them. He quite literally had a ringside seat. He wasn’t certain exactly what a ringside seat was, but it must’ve been pretty good when they coined the phrase.

The approach was nerve-racking, but uneventful. The shipyard certainly looked like a Pale Ones construction. No paint had been used anywhere, the skin of the hull had very little uniformity, and it seemed like it would probably fall apart if he kicked it. That was probably due to the widespread damage from the fusion weapon.

Unlike Kelsey, he had absolutely no desire to get between the marines and any threats. Yes, they’d already done a quick search of the shipyard and found no living Pale Ones. Most of the equipment was offline. However, that didn’t mean that there were no dangers. Or that by powering on the systems they wouldn’t create some.

Sergeant Coulter was giving his team last-minute instructions. They’d begun a pass-through with the engineers to locate any self-destruct charges and disable them. They’d also disconnect any computer system from the networks. Only when those tasks were complete, could they be relatively certain that it was safe to start bringing systems back online.

When the Sergeant was finished giving his instructions, he turned to Jared. “Captain, do you have any changes to suggest?”

“I’m not going to interfere with your orders, Sergeant. You’re in charge of tactical operations. I’ll just tell you what I want done and you figure out how to do it. How long do you believe it will take to complete the search for self-destruct devices?”

Lieutenant Andrews, the leader of the engineering team, cut in. “At least an hour. Perhaps two. That’s not really something I’d like to rush.”

“Neither would I,” Jared said. “While your people are working on that, let’s see if we can locate the primary computer controls and start isolating it.”

The engineer, who was sitting across from them in a regular vacuum suit, nodded. “That’s going to be easy. The initial search teams located one major computer control center and a smaller annex. Both of them were disabled when the fusion device went off.”

Jared had known that from the reports he’d downloaded before the mission. He had a good idea of the layout on the shipyard as well. It was like a map in his head. That was one aspect of having implants that Kelsey had never mentioned. It made absorbing and reviewing data a lot faster.

“I also want a complete search done for other old Empire equipment. Especially anything that looks like the Pale Ones might interface with it, or if its purpose isn’t clear. I understand that’s somewhat vague, but you get the idea. If it feels odd, I want to know about it.”

The docking was just as anticlimactic as the trip over. Unlike the large space station they’d boarded to rescue Kelsey, they didn’t land in a bay. They picked one of the empty construction areas that had a retractable boarding tube. Several of the marines floated across to it and manipulated the exterior controls to extend it to the pinnace. The presence of the controls was another anomaly. Savages wouldn’t be in suits, so they’d never have access them.

There wasn’t any atmosphere in the facility. The explosion had breached every major hull. Which accounted for the lack of resistance when the search teams passed through the first time.

Gravity was also out, so they floated into the shipyard past the floating bits of equipment and Pale Ones corpses. Engineering teams accompanied by marines split off from the main party as soon as they came to a major intersection in the corridor. Jared let Andrews lead the way to the main computer, even though he knew exactly how to get there on his own.

It took them about ten minutes and one wrong turn to locate the large computer center. Andrews had his people do a cursory inspection for any booby-traps and then start pulling off access plates. Like most critical computers, the system used hard wires to interface with the station systems.

It took the engineering officer about half an hour to detach the computer from all outside contact and another half hour to repair the overloaded power lines that served it. The fusion plants were still online. Jared gave a nod when the engineer asked if he could power up.

There was a risk that the system would erase itself, but Jared considered that unlikely. However, he had Andrews ready to cut the power at a moment’s notice if he was wrong.

For such a major system, the room it was stored in looked very disused. Dust covered the consoles and there were very few footprints. He supposed there wasn’t much call for Pale Ones to come to a computer control center.

Jared knew the moment the system came fully back online, because he “saw” its presence. Jared attempted to access the computer. He more than half expected the computer to immediately reject him, or to discover that there was some type of built-in access code that limited contact to only Pale Ones.

He was half-right. He felt the connection take place, but the unit did not respond to him. It didn’t reject him outright, either. It was as though the system both allowed and disallowed him at the same time. Perhaps that was because his implants, though manufactured by the Pale Ones, didn’t have the required authority to communicate with their equipment.

That presented a particular set of challenges. He shifted his gaze to Carl Owlet. The graduate student was the only other man present who knew that Jared had implants. And he was also a computer expert. Admittedly, he didn’t fully understand the programming language the old Empire used, but he’d made great strides in learning about the systems and their uses in the last month.

Owlet casually pushed off from the main console and stopped adroitly beside Jared. He spoke when Jared touched their helmets together. “Yes, Captain?”

“It allowed me to connect, but it’s not responding. Could it be because I have the correct hardware, but I’m not on some authorization list?”

“That’s very possible. From what we’ve seen, the Pale Ones don’t utilize their implants to interface with old Empire equipment. The pilots on the ship that Princess Kelsey saw used the manual controls. Workstation Twelve also indicated that it received no direct control after the Pale Ones reprogrammed it. It may very well be that none of the Pale Ones’ equipment is set up for implant access.”

Jared watched the engineering team work on the manual controls for a minute while he thought. “No, that can’t be right. Kelsey changed the course on that asteroid through a direct link to its computer. It allowed her access. Yet this system will not. I might be able to answer the question of why, if we can get past whatever the problem actually is. Any ideas?”

“You say it didn’t reject your connection attempt. Let’s try a couple of direct commands. Instruct it to list the subsystems under its control. Don’t ask. Order.”

Jared sent a command. The computer responded with a long list of systems. The list seemed related to ship construction. He passed the results of the experiment back to the graduate student.

“That’s good,” Owlet said. “The system will obey you, but it won’t assist you. Perhaps they programmed it to be unhelpful. Why it would behave differently than the one on the asteroid, I don’t know.”

Andrews looked over at them. “I’ve got some access here, Captain. The systems seem mostly intact, but it’s looking for an outside connection. I think the smaller annex might direct this one.”

“Have your people continue to work with this system. We don’t know what it would do if we let it connect with the other computer, so we’ll keep them separated. While you do that, Mister Owlet and I will go look at the other one.”

The remaining computer system was located at the opposite end of the shipyard. It was immediately apparent when they entered this computer room that it was different. Jared accessed the video he’d taken of the other control center. This one’s bulkheads were thicker.

“Is it just me, or do these bulkheads look like they’re armored?”

Owlet stood in the entrance and nodded. “They’re definitely thicker. That’s interesting. Let me get the system disconnected and we’ll see what we can get out of it.”

By the time he finished disconnecting all the communication runs, the other teams had finished scouring the shipyard. They’d found and disabled half a dozen self-destruction charges. Jared ordered them to make a second pass just to be sure.

“Powering up the system now, Captain,” Owlet said.

Jared connected with this computer. It allowed him access, but with a twist.

Error. Authentication not recognized.

He smiled.
You are mistaken. My hardware is on your access list. Verify.

The computer did not respond for a few seconds.
Hardware serial numbers validated. Authentication denied. Serial number not in access file.

“It says my serial number needs to be in some file. Go see if you can find it and add me as an authorized user.”

After about ten minutes, Owlet gave him a thumbs-up. Jared supposed that was the benefit of having physical access. If you knew enough about the system, you could find the necessary files. “I’ve added you and the Princess to the command and control file. Try again.”

Jared attempted to connect again. This time, the computer granted him complete access. The first thing he looked at was the command and control file. There were half a dozen other entries in the file, however someone had excluded them from consideration. Jared wondered if they’d been users from before the Fall, or Pale Ones that Owlet had disabled.

He looked at the file history and was able to determine the exclusion had taken place around the time of the rebellion. That must’ve happened when the rebels had captured this computer. Which meant that they’d salvaged it from somewhere else to do the work here.

The next question was, what did this computer do? Jared wasn’t computer savvy enough to determine its function from its files. Why have two computers?

Computer, identify your function.

This unit directs the construction computer in what units to build and acts as an authorized controller.

So, basically, this computer acted in the place of the humans who would normally control the other computer. Why not just program the other computer to do so? It seemed needlessly redundant.

Where do your instructions come from?

This unit receives instructions and guidance from the system primary computer.

Jared frowned. He had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

Explain what the system primary computer is.

The system primary computer controls all equipment in this star system. This unit receives specific instructions on what ships to construct and on what schedule.

How often do you receive these instructions?

The instruction period varies from a few hours to several weeks. The most recent instruction was just over one standard month ago.

That would be from about the time
Athena
dropped the fusion weapon on this shipyard.

Where is the system primary computer located and what kind of computer is it?

The system primary computer is located on the planetary surface. This unit does not know its precise location. It is a class V computer.

Interesting. That was the same class of computer as the one on
Courageous
. While it was very capable, Jared had expected something larger to be in charge of the entire planetary system.

He’d send any data they acquired to the team exploring the surface. Then he’d spend a lot of time going over what commands the planetary AI had been sending. Somewhere in all this data was the key to defeating the Pale Ones. He just had to find it.

Chapter Twenty-One

Kelsey expected the marines to slip quietly down to the planet’s surface, but they surprised her. They picked an area away from the mountains or any ruins and plummeted toward it from orbit like a stone.

Lieutenant Reese went forward and commandeered one of the stations on the flight deck to be able to see the scanner readings directly, since they would not translate well to his armor. Senior Sergeant Talbot sat beside to her and kept an eye on the men while the pinnace dropped.

She switched to the private frequency they’d agreed to as she watched the planet’s surface grow rapidly closer. “Aren’t you worried about the Pale Ones spotting us? Shouldn’t we be slowing down?”

The grizzled marine grinned at her through his faceplate. “When somebody might have better scanners than you do, you don’t dawdle. The shortest amount of time to landing, the better chance we have of surviving. There’s a time for sneaking and a time for bold action. This is the latter.”

He rapped his knuckles on her faceplate. “It’s really spooky not being able to see your face. I understand about the increased structural integrity, but I’d like to see the person I’m talking to.”

She had to agree with him. Seeing faceless suits of armor would be intimidating, and perhaps confusing. She queried the armor and found a possible solution. The chameleon skin was high definition everywhere, but even more so on her faceplate. Perhaps she could control what it displayed.

Kelsey accessed the interior of the helmet and found a vid camera. She turned it on and directed the output to the helmet exterior.