Network Effect

Ozone and smoke that the scrubbers couldn’t handle hung in the air and the lights fluctuated. Via my control deck drone, I saw Arada tell Ratthi, “With the feed and comm down we’re going to need a head count to make sure everyone’s accounted for after that hit.”

“Right, right, I’m on it!” Ratthi hurried out the hatch toward the living quarters.

From the bottom of the well I took the central ramp around and came out into the junction for the lower lab level hatch. The smoke here was thick enough for me to pick it up on visual. Specialist Rajpreet was already there, having climbed all the way down the gravity well from the baseship. She had a sidearm—there were a couple in the bridge emergency kit—ready to defend the hatch from a boarding attempt.

It’s always nice when a human looks relieved to see you.

Her voice was mostly steady when she said, “I don’t think we have much time.” I used one of my drones to add her to my feed relay, and she reported, Roa, Dr. Arada, can you hear me? SecUnit’s here at the lock.

I said, What’s our status?

Arada said, Overse has comm partially active. On cue, the comms emitted a burst of static and Overse’s voice said, “To all facility crew, comm and feed are not responding, please report to the facility crew lounge immediately and wait for further instructions.”

Roa said, SecUnit, I need to make an announcement, can you relay me through the facility comm?

Sure, I don’t have anything else better to do. I said, Go ahead.

Over the comm, Roa said, “The incoming transport has fired on us and is now making a docking maneuver aimed at the facility’s lower level. Station has dispatched an armed ship and two free merchant transports have broken off station approach and are responding as well, but they’re all eighty-four minutes out at best. SecUnit, can you—” The hesitation was long. “Can you repel a boarding attempt long enough for help to arrive?”

Every human on the baseship and the facility was listening.

It was a tricky question. It came down to how many raiders were violently determined to come aboard and what kind of weapons they had. (That scenario could turn out any way from “we thought this was an easy target, let’s run away” to Rajpreet making a desperate last stand with her sidearm over the pieces of what was left of my body.) If they sent an EVAC-suited boarding party down the outside of the hull and came in through one of the hatches in the baseship as well as this one— But that wasn’t what my clients needed to hear right now.

On comm, I said, “Yes.”

Rajpreet’s throat moved as she swallowed, and she muted her feed. She said aloud, “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

I would definitely do that, as soon as I knew. Assuming worse-case scenario (and coincidentally getting her out of my way so I didn’t have to worry about saving a human while I was trying to kill/maim/discourage a bunch of other humans), it was best for her to take up a guard position at the entrance to the gravity well, to at least buy the baseship some time. I was about to tell her to do that.

A jolt vibrated through the deck and a sudden uncompensated surge of acceleration knocked Rajpreet flat. I hit the bulkhead and slid down as my drones scattered. The lights fluctuated again and the life support cut out, then back in.

Oh, this is not good. My plan (make that “plan”) depended on holding the intruders back until the armed station responder or the angry raider-hating merchants got close enough to scare them off. But my bridge drone was reading displays that indicated the hostile had grabbed the facility with the tractors transports use to attach and detach modules. It was pulling us close, intending to clamp us onto its hull and drag us into the wormhole with it. From their frantic cursing, Roa and Mihail agreed.

I got upright and caught Rajpreet’s flailing arm to help her stand. The facility’s comm came back online with a static-obscured warning alarm. Yes, great, that’s really helpful right now.

A survey member, Adjat, staggered into the foyer from the corridor that led to the facility’s lowest storage and lab space. Rajpreet told them, “Get up to crew level, hurry!”

Adjat nodded, heading for the corridor. “Hatches are jammed to labs 3 and 4, I don’t know if anyone’s trapped—”

“They’re doing a headcount up there,” Rajpreet said, pushing them on toward the access.

I had an idea, though it had its downside. On the feed, I said, Roa, can the baseship jettison the facility?

The baseship itself was just a small carrier, with bridge, drives, and living space for the five-person crew. Most of its bulk was designed to be able to grab or deploy the facility module.