Network Effect

Amena said, “It’s sealing the hatches, like it said it would.”

Ras looked frustrated and impatient, but didn’t argue.

The third hatch led to a connecting section which was a secondary pathway into the engineering module. This hatch was already closed and sealed, but I fused the manual control anyway. I’d lost all but four drone scouts in the rest of the ship: one (Scout One) was still locked in the control meeting area with the two dead Targets. Scout Two was in the foyer ceiling watching the Targets gathered at the sealed hatch, and Three and Four had tucked themselves up under supporting rib structures in nearby corridors.

I started back toward Medical, letting my surviving drone cloud spread out a little more. Bits of me hurt enough that I needed to tune down my pain sensors.

At the Medical corridor, I split my drones into two squads and positioned them at opposite ends of the access. I needed to clear this section and make sure I hadn’t trapped us in here with anything, but there were things I needed/wanted to know first.

When I stepped inside, Ras said, “What’s going on?” He glanced at Amena, still unsure who to talk to. “Are we safe here?”

I knew ART’s normal crew size; the command crew alone was at least eight members, with a rotating complement of instructors and students. I knew from my brief sweep that there was no sign anyone had been treated in the medical suite recently, no dead humans in cold storage. Which was good, except that the bodies could have been spaced. I knew how ART would have felt about that.

I said, “Where’s the crew of this ship?”

Again, Ras looked at Amena. Amena’s brow furrowed and she said to me, “I thought they were the crew.”

“No,” Eletra said. She seemed confused, too. “Our ship was a Barish-Estranza transport.”

Amena turned to Ras and Eletra. “So where are the crew of this ship?”

Ras shook his head in annoyance. “Look, I can see you’re young. I’m guessing this SecUnit was ordered to protect you but—”

Amena made a derisive huff. “It doesn’t even like me.”

Admittedly I am tired of the whole concept of humans at the moment, but that was unfair because she didn’t like me first.

“If you tell it to take orders from us,” Ras tried again, “this will be a lot easier.”

Eletra nodded. “It’s for the best. It doesn’t seem like you know how to control it—”

Amena waved her hands in exasperation. “Look, that’s not—”

I see I have some operational parameters to establish.

I crossed the room, grabbed Ras by the front of his uniform jacket and slammed him down on the med platform. I said, “Answer my question.”

Behind me, Eletra had flinched and backed away. Amena said, “SecUnit! My mother will be angry if you hurt him!”

Oh, we were going to try that tactic, were we. I said, “You obviously don’t know how your mother actually feels about Corporates.”

Eletra said frantically, “We don’t know where the crew is! Ras, just tell it we don’t know.”

Ras rasped out, “We don’t know!”

I said, “Is that the truth or is that the story you’re going with?”

“It’s the truth,” Ras managed. “We don’t know what happened to them.”

“We really don’t,” Eletra added, urgent enough to be convincing. “We haven’t seen anyone else since we were brought aboard. Just … those people.”

I let Ras up and he scrambled away from me, over to Eletra on the far side of the room. His expression was frightened, incredulous.

“Stop being so mean,” Amena hissed at me.

I lowered my voice and I sounded absolutely normal and not like I was upset at all. “I am trying to keep you alive.”

“I appreciate that, but—” She squinted up at me. “You look really bad. Are you sure you’re all right? That drone hit you really hard.”

Yeah, well, I can’t do anything about that right now. I said, “You need to take care of your leg. But do not activate the MedSystem. It was controlled by…” For nearly ten seconds, I’d forgotten. “By the bot pilot. It was compromised before it was … destroyed or it would have killed the intruders itself. Something is still running the ship, taking us through the wormhole, and whatever it is may have control of the MedSystem.”

Amena threw a worried look at the silent medical platform. So did Ras and Eletra. Amena said, “I didn’t know bot pilots could kill people.”

“They’re almost as dangerous as humans.” I know, of every argument I could try to start right now, that one is in the top five most stupidly pointless.

Amena gave me a baffled glare, but said, “Right, so no MedSystem. There’s got to be some manual med supplies here somewhere.”

“Use one of the emergency kits in that locker. I need to finish clearing this section.” I hit our private relay and added, I’ll leave you some drones. I cut a squad of eight out of my cloud and told them to stay with her.