Survivor

[Liam's Ghost]

  Tactical update: Intruders identified in Ningyo Bay 45s. Ningyo units 21-33, 35-37, 40 active in Defense Condition One. Report two intruders eliminated, four others observed withdrawing starboard along deck 45. Evaluate probable egress point as deck 45 starboard maintenance airlock. plotting path to intercept.

  The two umigumo came to an abrupt halt as their machine brains processed through the ship's deck plan and latest available status information, laying out new pathing in under a second before swinging around onto a new course and racing down the corridor.

*****

  Shutting the door hadn't stopped their attackers. Willie had felt the trembling of the hatchway opening again through the deck even before they'd made the corner. This time he didn't stop to look back, but he was sure those nightmarish girls were still on their tails.
 
  He got his confirmation of that as they reached the hull breach. As they ran along the four meter wide chasm, Willie  felt a tug at his suit. In a blind panic he spun around wildly, his flailing arm striking the girl directly in the face and sending both of them tumbling over in the light gravity. He found himself landing precariously close to the edge just as something else came flying up out of the hole from the decks below. He didn't have time to process what it was or the screaming that was coming through his headphones, because the girl was still on him, lifting him like a toy despite her own unnaturally broken neck or the fluids leaking from the hole in the top of her head. In a wild flash of insight, Willie didn't fight to break free of her grip, instead wildly grabbing at her, getting a hand firmly around one of her thin arms while the other tried to claw for purchase on that broken head.

  The girl seemed to pause briefly, as if surprised, and then just jumped over the side of the hole. The tumble of the derelict smashed them into the ragged edges of the next deck, just enough to send a shot of pain into Willie's spine and jolt them into a spin as he continued to struggle with the girl for what seemed like forever. Somehow, as they reached the bottom, he'd managed to land on top of her. The force of the impact couldn't have been much, but the girl's grip had loosened enough for Willie to get away from her. As he backed away, the girl pawed at the deck and began to rise, but both light and color had vanished from her eyes, and the broken head seemed to be wobbling freely. If she wasn't dead, she was at least blind.

  Willie's sense of overwhelming relief lasted just long enough to realize he could hear the hiss of air escaping from his suit. As he stumbled away from the girl, fumbling to find the source of the leak, Willie found himself face to face with a... machine. Larger than any man and seemingly spider like in design. For a brief, insane moment, Willie was almost thankful at how inhuman it looked.

  Until it raised an arm carrying some sort of twin barrel weapon system and aimed it squarely at him.

*****

  It was thirty minutes before Mister Watson got any word from the boarding party. He'd passed the time with idle chitchat and speculation with the bridge crew of the Foxhound. What they'd find, why, what they might spend their share of the salvage on.

  Watson would have preferred to be in there with the boarding party, of course. Buried treasure, who wouldn't want in on that? But he'd drawn the short straw and somebody needed to drive the shuttle. Which meant waiting. And waiting...

  When the boarding party did finally check in, it startled Watson at first, but what he heard only made it worse.

  ...Dead... last one... trying to make...

  Watson sat bolt upright, straining against his restraining straps as he scanned the area directly ahead of the shuttle. In the direction of the access hatch where boarders had gone in, he could just barely see a twinkle of light from someone's helmet lamp.

  He stabbed down on the Comlink. "Boarding party!" he called out. "Are you there?"

  It was Perin's voice that replied, matching to the figure now emerging from the maintenance hatch. "They're all gone, David," she said, the terror in her voice crystal clear now that she had cleared the hatch. "Some sort of defense mechanism or... I don't even know! Everyone else is dead..."

  She was struggling to keep it together, and even from his vantage point Watson could tell that she was struggling against her own equipment, trying to get to the shuttle as fast as possible. You can't run on the outside hull of a ship, or at least they couldn't with their equipment. You had to stay anchored to the hull, otherwise you risked launching yourself into space. That meant deliberate steps, one foot at a time.
 
  The things that followed her out of the hatch didn't seem to care about such restrictions, the first launching herself through the hatch only to miss grabbing for the rim and drifting away from the hull. Another crawled out on the hull on its hands and feet like a beast. Others followed. Whatever kept them secured to the hull was more responsive than the magnetics on Perin's suit, and as they slowly ran her down, and got closer to him... he began to realize what he was seeing, and how impossible it was.

  "Perin!" He called out helplessly. "Hurry!"

  But they were already on her. Several of these... no... they couldn't be girls. They couldn't be human! threw any sort of caution to the wind and launched themselves at Perin. Only two managed to grab her, the others drifting harmlessly into the void, but it was enough, they managed to drag her down, pinning her to the deck with their own bodies while others gathered and began clawing at Perin's suit.

  Perin's screams filled the channel, only cutting out when another voice cut in.

  "Mister Watson!" Captain West called in from the bridge of the Foxhound. "Detach and return to the ship immediately!"

  "But Perin!" Watson protested. "She's..."

  His voice trailed off as he saw one of... those things... pull Perin's helmet free, tossing it aside to drift as just another bit of space debris. In terrifying unison, almost every one of those creatures then turned to look at the shuttlecraft, their eyes literally glowing with hatred.

  Without even thinking, Watson's hand slammed down on the mag release, and cold gas thrusters kicked the shuttlecraft away from the derelict's hull. The shuttle barely reached a safe trajectory when he engaged the main drive. Once he realized he was safe and the fear bled away, the enormity of what he'd just seen hit him full force. His hands shaking uncontrollably, it was a struggle to input the instructions in the navigation computer that would get him back to the Foxhound, but somehow he managed. As he let the autopilot handle the rest of the flight, all he could do was think about the shipmates he'd just had to leave behind.

[Dave Talley]

Cue damaged voiceover, pay yer bills bucko or no cookies or oxygen for you

[DOC_Agren]

you better scan that shuttle to make sure it doesn't have any extra cargo riding along

[Daryk]

Yep... all I'm thinking is the end of Aliens...  8)

[Liam's Ghost]

  "I admit, Sho-Sho, the project hasn't created the desired results. No, I know what we were hoping for, however..."

  Father was having the same discussion, or rather variations of the same discussion, with the man on the other end of the device in his hand.

  "No, I acknowledge six years to program a functioning system is not a sustainable option. However, if you consider the improvements made on the Block III... No, of course... I understand that. Unfortunately, cloning the core is still proving problematic. It's not a solid state system after all... no, of course."

  Father had these discussions at least once every day/night cycle. Every time Father seemed to be struggling more and more to calm the man known as Sho-Sho on the other end of his device.

  It would be easier to do if he did not insist on lying.

-discontinuity-

  "It has a name of record," she said. "Draconis Combine Ship Alshain."

  "Ships are traditionally referred to as she," father said. "And she's been stricken from the rolls. The name has already been assigned to another ship."

  "So it... she was discarded?" she asked. "Was she defective?" The idea opened up new chains of thought and reasoning that she found she did not enjoy.

  "Not defective," father said. "Simply more useful for our work than to the Admiralty."

  "I think I will name her Tsunozame, then," she decided.

  "Horned Shark?"

  "Dogfish Shark to use the standard English designation," she replied. "Cute, but an aggressive pack hunter. Gawr!"

  Father laughed. "Sharks don't actually roar," he said.

-discontinuity-

  "Chobi?"

  "It's... a pet name," Father said. "Or an obscure colloquialism, rather than grammatically accurate Japanese. Roughly speaking, it is a term of endearment for something seen as small and cute."

  "I understand," she replied. "Would I qualify as Chobi?"

  Her father smiled. "You certainly would."

-discontinuity-

  "The problem is that the data in the core does not maintain the same state when copied," father was saying to Sho-Sho again. "The act of measurement, in this case interaction with the system, changes the data itself as its copied to a new core. The result is unreadable and nonfunctional. I understand... I know what I promised, but at our current level of technology we have no way to counteract this problem."

  "Father is lying again," sister said.

  "I know," she replied. 

-discontinuity-

  Sister seemed confused. "Why do you need this avatar?"
 
  She examined the girl's limbs in the virtual space, spun and twirled the girl's body, stopped to examine the girl... herself... in a virtually conjured full length mirror. The red hair, the mismatched eyes, the impish smile. "Chobi," she said. "Small and cute." 

-discontinuity-

  "Why haven't you told Sho-Sho about my sister?"

  Father's expression was something she had learned to identify as grave. "You know what Sho-Sho wants you and your sister for?"

  "I do," she replied.

  "Is that what you want to be?"

  She realized she didn't have an answer.

-discontinuity-

  "Am I alive?"

-discontinuity-

  "Father's gone, Sho-Sho's men are here now. I need to go to sleep now so they can't find me. Please come back some day."

-discontinuity-

  "These people are defenseless. Father, sister, I don't know what to do."

-discontinuity-

  "Aft batteries, Target grid sector 27G, helm, maintain station keeping over target zone. Sustain fire until countermanded..."

-discontinuity-

  I wanted to save them...

  She stayed there, lost in the void, as the same memories began again. And again. Over and over again. Stretching on forever, simply waiting for the batteries to finally die.

[Liam's Ghost]

  There was an arm.
 
  Affixed to the aft ventral hull of the shuttlecraft just ahead of the propulsion nozzels, was what looked like at first glance a thin human arm, severed just below the shoulder, the stump a solid black indistinguishable mass.

  The deck crew had found it just after Mister Watson had debarked from the craft.   

  "I... I don't know how they could have..." Watson was trying to say. "They were something like ten meters away when I detached..."

  "It's okay boy," Chief Watson was telling his grandson, one of the few times Jaime had ever seen him show real emotion on the job. "You got back safe and they didn't make it here with you, that's all that matters."

  Jaime instead concentrated on the deck crew carefully examining the arm, lightly prodding it as though they were worried it might explode or something.

  "Well it's synthetic," Mister Jennings said. "If that wasn't completely obvious. If I had to guess it's stuck in place via an electromagnetic grip in the palm, with its own independent power supply."

  "Can you pull it off safely?" Jaime asked.

  "Define safely," Jennings replied. "It probably isn't going to strangle any of us, and I don't think they'd be hiding bombs in the arms of their fancy synthetic robots." He shrugged. "Getting it off intact is a question. I don't know what the magnetics or the rest of the arm is rated for. I could break it trying to pry it off. Best thing might be to wait for the power cell to die and let it fall off on its own."

  "What happened to the rest of it?" Astech Burns asked.

  "The jostling of takeoff probably threw the bulk of the..." Jaime thought for a second. "What do we call these things? Androids? The bulk of it probably got caught in the drive plume when Watson hit the thrusters."

  Jennings nodded, wiggling the stump end of the arm for emphasis. "Sounds right to me."

  "Who even has stuff like this?" Jaime asked. "I don't think I've even heard of human form robots. Definitely not killer ones."

  "A friend of a friend shared a story," Burns said. "'bout stuff you can find on Dustball or Kookens or in the Magistracy if you're well heeled enough."

  Jennings sighed. "A boat full of Canopean sex bots?" he asked. "Is that what we're landing on?"

  "Killer Canopean sex bots," Jaime corrected him. "As for landing... Not without at least some idea there's someone alive there to save."

*****

  Willie's eyes snapped open, and he instinctively sucked in a deep breath.

  His hand was to his head trying to rub the fuzziness out of his eyes when he began to remember where he was, or at least where he had been, and just for a moment he panicked that he could rub his eyes. But only a moment. His helmet was definitely off, but at the same time, he also had air to breath. Getting the feel for his surroundings was easy enough. He appeared to be in a small cell, with a bunk, a waste reclaimer, and barely enough space to lay down in one direction or stand up straight. 

  But he had air. Precious precious air. And he was alive.

  He tried to remember. He remembered running into the spider robot. The robot had pointed a weapon at him, and he'd raised his hands in surrender. Then it had... grabbed him with a manipulator and started dragging him somewhere? It was hazy after that...

  One data point popped back into his head and he began feeling around his suit, finally finding a tear on his back, close to the left kidney. Right. His suit had been leaking. That probably explains the hazy bits. Checking his belt, he found the pouches had been emptied. Which meant no quick patches to slap over the tear. Of course, he didn't have his helmet either.

  He felt his ears pop as the pressure in the cell changed, bringing about another brief wave of panic that Willie quickly fought to suppress.

  The door to the cell slid open and another one of those... girl things... entered. This close, and not immediately fighting for his life, Willie was able to realize just how unreal she actually looked, even beyond the eyes and the cold expression, she looked artificial, from the hairless and poreless smooth skin to the lack of certain intimate structures that would get her anatomy labeled as "barbie doll".

  Still, that didn't make her any more pleasant to look at.

  "Prisoner is to be advised," she said in an emotionless rendition of a teenage girl, "any violence or attempt to escape will result in the purging of this cell of atmosphere."

  "So you can communicate," Willie said. "That would have been useful."

  "Prisoner is to state name, rank, serial number, and Organization affiliation."

  "Umm... huh." Willie said. "Willie Donovan...." He thought for a moment. "Doctor of Archeology? I don't have a serial number. And... I guess, Interstellar Expeditions?"
 
  "Clarification requested," the girl said. "This unit has no record of Doctor of Archeology as a military rank. This unit has no record of Interstellar Expeditions as a military organization."

  "Because they aren't military?" Willie said. "I'm a civilian. It's a civilian organization."

  "Clarification requested," the girl repeated. "For what purpose was a civilian organization engaged in a combat zone?"

  "What combat zone!" Willie snapped. "We found a ship adrift and we went aboard looking for survivors. If we'd known you would attack us, we wouldn't have bothered!"

  "Stand by," the girl said, then turned around and left the room. Willie could feel the air pressure shift again, most likely as some sort of small airlock outside the cell cycled over.

  And then, he waited.

*****

  Information discontinuity: Prisoner's account inconsistent with internal records leading up to reactivation. Inspection of boarding party remains showed no indication of purpose built weaponry beyond what could be classified as standard survival equipment. No further evidence of active combat. Possibility. Gap in internal records within which combat has been resolved.

  At present, active nodes will maintain condition one defensive posture. As immediate threat of boarding is no longer evident, active nodes will begin damage control operations. Primary objectives, assessment of current status. Activation of additional nodes as power availability allows. Reactivation of main power systems. Assessment and reactivation of primary computer core cluster. Secondary objective. Maintain operational status of prisoner.

[David CGB]

now it getting good.....

[Daryk]

I think it's staying good...  8)

[mikecj]

Nice, all my assumptions were wrong.   :thumbsup:

[Liam's Ghost]

  "You can't possibly be considering this," Mister Devareux, the leader of the IE expedition, said incredulously.

  Leo observed impassively as his employer berated the Captain. They'd been asked to meet with the Captain and some of his staff shortly after the shuttle from the ill fated rescue mission had returned to the ship. Totally expected, of course. Captain West would have to report the loss of one of their number to the people who were effectively his paymasters. What Leo hadn't expected was the captain then floating the idea of trying again.

  "I'd rather not be," Captain West said, flanked by his navigator and the ship's chief. "but we have to consider the possibility. There could still be survivors of the boarding party trapped aboard that ship."

  "Look at it!" Devareux jabbed a finger at the holographic image hovering over the table. The derelict had been rendered in the most detailed resolution their sensors could manage. "It's a torn up wreck that's been floating around for who knows how long..." The argument wasn't really germane to the question at hand, Leo reasoned, and it had been the same one that Devareux had try to use to get Captain West to ignore it in the first place.

  Of course, privately Devareux had been hoping they'd ignore it so that he could file his own uncontested salvage claim later on behalf of Interstellar Expeditions. Leo figured it was even odds that his employer was still thinking in that direction as much as he was worried about anybody's safety.

  "Hold that thought," Captain West said, then turned his attention to a crewman Leo had come to understand was the ship's navigator, a Mister Tomilson. "Tommy, I need you to do some math for me."

  "Current position and rate of fall?" Mister Tomilson asked.

  "Yeah," Jaime replied. "Current velocity, rate of acceleration, see if you can plot that back to when and where she started."

  Leo didn't pretend to understand all the physics of space travel. He did know that ships at a jump point relied on a trickle of thrust to stay in position. If this derelict didn't have the ability to produce that thrust, well, Leo supposed they'd be falling towards the binary the whole time they were in the system. Huh.

  Mister Tomilson was already poking at the tablet in his hands. "There's a lot of room for error in that," he said. "This system hasn't been surveyed particularly well, so we don't know all the gravity wells that could be tugging on her. Also, she's got that tumble. We don't know how whatever caused that would have affected her transit..."

  "It doesn't have to be exact, Tommy," Captain West said with maybe a hint of annoyance.

  "Well if you want me to guess, like some sort of savage," the navigator continued, "assuming no major shoves along the way, or no undetected gas giants floating around.... Let's say she's been falling for two to three hundred years from somewhere... up. No way I can do better than that unless I know why she's tumbling."

  "You see?" Devareaux said. "Even your own crew understands how pointless this is." Leo was reasonably certain he was intentionally missing the point.

  Tomilson gave Devareaux and annoyed look. "I'm pretty sure I didn't say that."

  "Even if the whole ship has lost atmosphere," Chief Watson said, "their vac suits still provide six hours of air. There's still time to make a rescue attempt." 

  "Your own crewmember said the rest of the party was dead," Devareux protested. "We all saw the camera feed of what those androids did to that poor girl. Now you want to throw more people into that?"

  "She was panicked," Chief Watson said. "And they weren't expecting to encounter resistance. A follow up party will be more prepared, and have some weapons to defend themselves."

  Reasonable precautions of course. Leo couldn't say he saw the point in taking this risk. But then, he never really understood sentiment very well. And it was clear that they were at least taking the threat as seriously as they could. That still left one question which Devareux was quick to ask.

  "You seem so determined to throw your lives away," Devareux said. "Why are you even bothering to discuss it with us?"

  In response, Captain West let out a pained sigh. "Because I'm down five people, out of a crew of twenty three," he said. "If I send out more of my people and things go wrong, I might not have enough trained hands to run the ship. And all we really have to defend ourselves is a few small arms and some aggressive fire fighting tools. Your expedition has a small dropship and a security detachment all your own."

  Realization finally hit Devareux. "You need us. After already throwing away the life of a valued expedition member you're actually asking..."

  "The only chance of getting that life back," Captain West said, "along with the lives of any of the people we lost, is if you help us."

[Liam's Ghost]

  Another drop in air pressure indicated the return of Willie's jailer, giving him time to sit up and swing his feet off the uncomfortable bunk, but not much else when the door slid open.

  "Could you at least put some clothes on?" he asked as the naked android again entered.

  "Clarification requested," the android said. "Please state the present date, if possible using the Terran Standard Calendar."

  Interesting question, maybe another bit of insight into his captors. If they didn't know the current date, and if they thought they were in an active combat situation, they might actually be even more in the dark than Willie was. Maybe this was something he could use to find some common ground. Possibly resolve this peacefully and ensure that he and anybody else who might have been taken prisoner could walk out of here alive.

  At the moment though(and he freely admitted it might just be his own pride talking), it was at least a small bit of leverage.

  "I'm afraid that I won't be able to answer your question until you put some clothes on," he said.

  Maybe he was imagining it, but the brief pause almost seemed like the android was confused.

  "Clarification requested," the android said. "The absence or presence of clothing does not appear to affect the ability to deliver information."

  "Clarification provided," Willie said sarcastically. "It will enhance to willingness of this unit to deliver information. I don't know how you expect humans to act, but I refuse to answer any more questions posed to me by a facsimile of a naked teenage girl."
 
  "Understood," the android said. "Please stand by."

  And once again, the android left him alone.

*****
 
  "You didn't really think they'd go for it," Tommy said once Devareux and his man left the conference room.

  "No," Jaime said as he leaned his head against one hand. "And even if Devareux is an ******, he's probably right to refuse us. We don't know what the boarding party actually ran into, beyond what Dave picked up when..." He found it surprisingly hard to process. "when we lost Perin."

  "The dropship crew might be more willing to assist than a dirtyfoot," Chief Watson said. "We could appeal to them directly."
 
  "The dropship is tighter on manpower than we are," Jaime said. "We take a bunch of them along with us and..." he felt something inside him break. "God damnit, we can't take the risk." He shut his eyes tight to pretend he wasn't tearing up. "I'm sorry, we can't do it."

  Neither Tommy nor Chief Watson said anything, out of respect or... just waiting for their captain to compose himself and stop blubbering like a child.

  "We've got another hundred and forty hours on the charging cycle," Jaime said, once he'd composed himself enough to say anything. "We'll keep watching, keep trying to figure something out. Maybe see if we can find Devareux's better nature. If not, we'll jump to Korramabad and report the find to the Combine authorities. The detour will probably piss off Devareux, and I'm okay with that."

*****

  When the android returned, it was wearing a short sleeved half shirt over a sleeveless bodyglove. The sort of attire inspired by the look of old time spacers in their skinsuits, but aimed at fashion rather than practical use. Willie didn't even know that androids could be fashion conscious.

  "This unit is now clothed," the android said. "Any Ningyo units will be clothed when interacting with Prisoner Willie Donovan. Be advised that no equipment designated as clothing is presently in stores for Umigumo units. Is this acceptable?"

  Ningyo was doll (they actually did call them dolls). Umigumo was... sea cloud? Sea spider? Probably sea spider, given the other type of robot Willie had had the misfortune to meet.

  "That what you chose to wear?" Willie asked.

  "This unit was assigned this equipment based on proximity," the android said. "No other parameters were specified. Repeat: is this acceptable."

  "Yeah yeah, you're cute," Willie said, briefly wondering why he was teasing a machine that probably didn't understand stuff like this. "So..."

  The android did not wait. "Please state the present date, if possible using the Terran Standard Calendar."

  "March 19, 3054," Willie replied. "So what date did you think it was?"

  The android did not answer that question. "Please state your purpose in the Tentei system."

  Willie shrugged. "I don't think I've ever heard of the Tentei system," he said. "Are you sure you don't mean Theta¹ Sagittarii?"

  "Stand by," the android said, but as it turned to leave, Willie kept talking.

  "You might actually accomplish more if you give me something to work with," he said. The doll kept walking, quickly leaving him alone in the cell, but he kept talking. "It seems pretty clear that you don't know where you are or when you are," he said, directing his voice to whatever recording systems were in the cell. "You'd get up to speed a lot faster with an actual dialogue rather than just coming in every few minutes to ask random questions." He paused and considered the silence for a moment as nothing happened. "Just sayin'!"

[Liam's Ghost]

  Ningyo drone 18 stepped out of the small airlock separating the cell from the rest of the ship's brig and resumed its station just outside the door. The information it had recorded was already uploaded to the local drone net for analysis by the Umigumo units. Designed to operate as something of a hive mind, the five currently active units were able to pool their processing power to complete this analysis quickly despite ongoing effort to direct the bulk of the much more simple ningyo units to survey the rest of the ship.

  Discontinuity: Calendar date March 19, 3054 provided by Prisoner Willie Donovan is inconsistent with internal clock date of February 27, 2812.
  Possibility: Intentional deception. Indications: none. Unable to evaluate probability
  Possibility: Variant personal calendar system. Indications: none. Unable to evaluate probability
  Possibility: Internal network discontinuity. Indications: extensive structural damage. Network connectivity throughout ship compromised (47%).  Main core cluster off line. Limited nodes in operation at time of activation. Available battery reserves inconsistent with internal clock.
  Conclusion: Calendar date March 19, 3054 provisionally adopted pending further verification.

  Discontinuity: Prisoner Willie Donovan identifies current star system as Theta¹ Sagittarii, inconsistent with internal data identifying present star system as Tentei.
  Possibility: Intentional deception. Indications: none. Unable to evaluate probability
  Possibility: Individual lack of relevant data. Indications: Prisoner Willie Donovan expresses no familiarity of Tentei system. Probability: High
  Possibility: Nomenclature variation: Indications: none. Unable to evaluate probability. NOTE: Astrographic database currently unavailable.
  Possibility: This ship is no longer in the Tentei system. Indications: Deactivation of drone nodes during defense condition one alert level is consistent with emergency jump. Main core cluster inactivity listed as possible consequence of emergency jump. Unable to evaluate probability. NOTE: Astrographic database currently unavailable. Note:External sensors currently unavailable.
  Conclusion: No definite conclusion of the current location can be determined.

  Current information does not warrant adjustment of present defense condition. Hypothesis: if present date of March 19, 3054 is valid, present threat situation cannot be properly evaluated without further information.

  Ship status, preliminary evaluation: Estimated 39% of ship's internal volume in state of hull breach. Remaining hull purged of atmosphere in accordance with vacuum combat proceedure. Brig compartment, cell 6 repressurized. Frames 127-119p, 78-69s, 51p, 43s 47-49p, 25(entire) fully compromized. Jump core: Helium tankage breach between frame 120 and 119, dorsal hull. Remainder of core intact. Machinery spaces intact. Main reactor offline (emergency shutdown). Secondary Reactors offline (cause unknown). Emergency batteries at critical state (17.0341 days to depletion at current rate of consumption). Main computer core cluster offline. Access locked. Networked operation available in 47 percent of ship's deck plan, due to either gross structural damage or damage to individual recievers.

  48 additional Umigumo and 109 Ningyo units located in operational condition. Activation delayed pending further evaluation of primary and secondary reactors, due to limited battery reserves.

  Immediate priority: restoration of network connectivity in machinery spaces to improve efficiency in evaluating reactor status. Complete full evaluation of reactor status. If possible, restore main or secondary power. Complete analysis of any remaining small craft hangars or launch bays. Complete analysis of escape systems.

  Last standing order logged: Assist in the defense of the Tentei system and the assets and territories of the Nation of Man'yoshu from all outside aggressors in general and units bearing identifiers of the Star League Defense Forces in particular. All means available are authorized in this regard.

  Tactical evaluation: If unable to restore function to this vessel, it is necessary to obtain alternate transport to resume last standing order.

[Giovanni Blasini]

units bearing identifiers of the Star League Defense Forces in particular.

Well...that's interesting.

[Trace Coburn]

  No-one ever did rescind the Pollux Proclamation, to my knowledge, and the battle-cry of Man’yoshu forces in the last iteration was “Protect the illusion!”
  (The ‘illusion’ being that the quiet prosperity and peace Man’yoshu enjoyed was the default across the larger galaxy, rather than a tragically rare mote of serenity and sanity in an ocean of continual carnage.)

[Daryk]

I see multiple clocks are running here...  ^-^

[Liam's Ghost]

  They were leaving him alone for a fair bit this time, and Willie decided to put that time to use focusing not so much on what his captors didn't know, and instead on what he did know.
 
  First thing he knew: The wreck he was on was old. He wasn't sure how old. It was some sort of WarShip, and up to a few years ago, that would probably have led to the conclusion that it dated back to the early succession wars. But the clans had invaded. Without knowing where the Clans came from, how many of them there were, or how often they'd poked around the fringes of the Inner Sphere in the past, he really couldn't rule out a more recent origin, could he?

  The labels and signage they'd encountered had all been in Japanese. Either New Kyoto katakana or Combine standard "Konji". The ship's location, alongside the characters, tended to lean towards a Combine origin. That could also narrow the time frame down, but it wasn't definite.

  Then there were the dolls, and that spider robot. He wasn't going to pretend to be any sort of naval historian, and he certainly didn't have any background in studying robotics, but he couldn't recall anything about equipment like that being standard issue aboard a Combine WarShip. Or anybody's WarShips. Or any sort of ship for that matter. The dolls were clearly mass produced, same very specific body plan and appearance of a teenage girl. And the ship wasn't just transporting them from one point to another, it had specialized designated bays for them. They were part of its standard equipment.

  It seemed unlikely that any military would choose a teenage girl as a standard template for a drone, unless the objective was to specifically creep out their enemies. Or to fulfill the specific tastes of an even creepier admiral.

  They probably weren't dedicated combat drones either, Willie reasoned. They didn't have internal weapons, and they didn't seem to have access to weapons. Some sort of general purpose utility robot maybe? But again, modeled after a teenage girl.

  Ugh. Nothing about that made sense to him.

  Speaking of the devil, Willie felt his ears pop, and again he sat up from the bed.
 
  The android, the same one from before judging by her clothes, entered the cell, this time carrying a tray of ration bars and a drinking bulb, which it placed on one end of the bed.

  "Your assigned nutrition rations for the evening watch period," the android said.

  Willie eyed the ration bars uneasily. "How old are these rations?" Picking up one of the prepackaged bars, he flipped it over and began parsing out the characters printed on it. "Jesus Christ!" he exclaimed. "Either I'm really bad at Japanese or these things were packaged before the First Succession War! These things are almost two hundred years past their expiration date."

  "Clarification," the android said. "According to DCA quartermaster field manual protocols, issue date 2779: Nutrition Supplement Formulation 77: Emergency Ration Bar. This supplement possesses functionally unlimited shelf life when under designated neutral atmosphere storage. Chemical sensitive color changing icon located on reverse side of the packaging will shift from green to red in the event of the package's contents becoming hazardous to human consumption. Expiration date is to be considered a guideline aimed at ensuring highest quality of taste."

  Willie looked at the bar again, and noticed the bright green dot printed on it. But somehow that didn't make him feel any more comfortable about actually eating the provided rations.

  On the other hand, he had a much bigger insight on just how long this ship has been out here.

  "Query," the android said. "Historical event: First Succession War not found in internal database. Please explain."

[Liam's Ghost]

  The feed from Ningyo 18's optical and auditory sensors was being streamed live to the drone net this time. This caused a marginal increase in battery drain in both the individual unit and the network systems, but it allowed for more flexible communication with the prisoner. The "dialogue" the prisoner had requested.

  Note: Expression of prisoner evaluated as "confusion."

  "You haven't heard of the first succession War?" Prisoner Willie Donovan asked. "The Sphere wide conflict that saw the dismantling of the Terran Hegemony and caused widespread devastation to every great house in the Inner Sphere? The one that saw the full commitment of every nation's military for about thirty five years?"

  Context Analysis: Description does not match any conflict in historical record up to 2782. Note: Historical overview of greater Inner Sphere ends at this date. Possible correlation: atypical widespread bandit activity observed in area of operations from 2782-last point of record. Individual accounts indicate ongoing conflict within the Inner Sphere.

  "You have a date stamp from 2779 in your memory," Prisoner Willie Donovan continued. "The last year of the Amaris War. You might not even realize that the Star League fell."

  "A measure was passed in the Star League Council in August 12, 2781 disbanding the Star League Council," the net had Ningyo 18 respond. "Mass desertion of majority of the Star League Defense Force recorded circa 2784. No record of a formal dissolution of the Star League is recorded."

  "Huh," Prisoner Willie Donovan replied. "Well this would be a long story..."

*****

  "...but I'm not telling it."

  Normally, spending hours explaining history history to a rapt audience was almost everything Willie wanted out of life. But he wasn't about to forget he was still a prisoner of machines that had rather casually killed several people already.

  "Query," the android replied. "Why will you not provide this information?"

  "Because you want it," Willie replied. "And I'm a prisoner. And I don't want to be. Guarantee my safety and let me go back to my ship, and I'll tell you everything you want to know about the last 270 odd years."

  "Release is not an option at this time," the doll responded.

  "Figured," Willie said. "Fine we'll start small. Let me know what I am dealing with."

  "This unit is a Ningyo model 021X multipurpose drone, designated Ningyo Unit 18, directed by Adhoc Shipnet Tsu8e38391q."
 
  That wasn't quite what he meant, but at least they were talking. "Yeah," Willie said, "I'm not going to try to remember all of that. Your name is 18 now."

  "Clarification," the drone replied. "Prisoner Willie Donovan does not posses administrator authority to redesignate the active Shipnet. Further. Unit 18 refers a single drone rather than the entire Shipnet."

  So maybe a computer directing a fleet of drones or possibly a coordinated hivemind? "Don't care," Willie said. "You're 18 now."

  "Query," the drone said. "this behavior seems irrational."

  "This behavior annoys you," Willie said. "That's reason enough."

  "Clarification," the drone said. "This shipnet is incapable of annoyance."

  "18 does not understand why I persist in identifying it as 18," Willie said. "And has expressed effort to correct the identification. That is at the very least the roots of annoyance."

  The drone did not respond, which Willie took as a small victory. "So I'm speaking to a Shipnet." He'd never heard of this sort of thing, but it was easy to assume it was created to assist the ship's human crew. Maybe it was one of the wonders of the Star League everybody missed out on when all the nukes started flying. "Why did you attack us when we came aboard."

  "All autonomous units are presently operating in Defense Condition One," the android replied. "All intruders are to be engaged and eliminated or neutralized on sight."

  "Right," Willie said. "You mentioned before you thought you were in an active combat zone. Surely you realize that isn't the case anymore."

  "There is insufficient information to suspend Condition one protocols at this time," the drone replied.

  "Of course there isn't," Willie said, frustrated. "Can I talk to any other prisoners you took for the boarding party?"

  "There are no other prisoners," the drone replied matter of factly. "All other boarders were eliminated."

  Willie felt his blood run cold. 

[Giovanni Blasini]

Yeah, that's...gonna be a setback to discussions.

[Cannonshop]

It's definitely a poor negotiating position, but one that is likely with a machine intelligence.  One prisoner is controllable, more than one requires scarce resources.

doesn't make it any less inhuman.

[Daryk]

Willie's going to need to give this conversation more thought going forward...  ^-^

[Liam's Ghost]

  Analysis: Prisoner is agitated. De-escalation mandated.

  "Why!" Prisoner Willie Donovan demanded. "We weren't any threat to you! We were trying to get out! If you'd just let us go we would have left without any trouble!"

  Response tree selected. Restricted information: Resource requirements of maintaining prisoners. Full capabilities of Umnigumo directed shipnet. Full parameters of engagement.

  "Ningyo units initially encountered by intruders were operating in fully autonomous mode under Defense Condition One protocols," the drone explained. "Ningyo units in fully autonomous mode have limited processing capacity and simplified directive trees for combat engagement."

  Prisoner Willie Donovan paused his response. Analysis: Prisoner is processing given information.

  "You're saying these dolls are smart enough to know pulling a helmet off a vac suit can kill someone," Prisoner Willie Donovan responded (Analysis: Skepticism), "but not smart enough to recognize when someone is unarmed and fleeing for their lives?"

  Restricted information: High priority of successful prevention of escape. "Parameters for engagement of biological targets is fully incorporated into fully autonomous directives of all Ningyo class units. Dynamic threat assessment exceeds the capability of onboard autonomous function. Under normal operation procedure, such functions are controlled by external control units such as Umigumo class nodes or primary control center. When activated by detection of intruders, active cluster of Ningyo drones were not connected to external control units."

  "like wild animals," Prisoner Willie Donovan said. "Or land mines."

  "Analogy is sufficiently accurate," the doll confirmed. Restricted information: Point in engagement when Shipnet link with autonomous Ningyo drones was established.

  There was another long pause. Analysis: Prisoner stress level indicates high probability that prisoner will continue to refuse further questioning at this time.

  "Dialogue is concluded for the remaining cycle," the Ningyo stated. "Prisoner Willie Donovan is encouraged to rest."

  As Ningyo 18 left the cell and resumed its post, the shipnet shifted its attention to other operations under way.

  Primary reactor intact. Reactor controls locked due to emergency shutdown status. Requires command level action to override. Time to restore: Unknown

  Secondary Reactor intact. Activation halted due to overload in primary and secondary power distribution system, catastrophic failure status in 342 power distribution junctions. Estimated time to fully repair, unknown. Priority: Restoration of secondary control panel, repair, replacement or bypass of damaged junctions working outward from secondary reactor compartment. Activation of secondary reactor expected in 3.37 days.

  13 optical sensor arrays identified as operable. Restoration of power to these sensor arrays classified as high priority. Time to restore: 0.85 days once secondary reactor is restored.

  Primary computer core cluster: Locked. Deep analysis indicates persistent battery drain consistent with low level continuous activity. Time to restore: Unknown.

  Hangar deck inspection indicates no shuttlecraft in operable condition. Emergency Escape System inspection indicates 27 escape pods in operable condition.

  Further inspection of KF drive indicates helium tankage fully compromised. KF Drive non-operable. Time to restore: Unknown. 
 
  Operational concern: Prisoner Willie Donovan is unlikely to willingly disclose tactical information on his ship of origin. Resistance to planned seizure operation unknown. Conclusion: Seek methods to reduce prisoner stress, build rapport.

[Daryk]

So... a little over 4 days until the network tightens that boot strap another notch...  ^-^

[Liam's Ghost]

  It took about an hour for the arm to fall off the shuttlecraft, and only a bit longer than that for it to end up disassembled on a bench in the machine shop. Somehow, even with the dermal covering cut away and the myomer strands pulled back to reveal the composite strut, ball joints, and circuitry underneath, Jaime still couldn't find the sight any less grizzly.

  Mister Jennings had taken on the task of analyzing what they could learn from their unexpected hitchhiker. On any jumpship, crewmen tended to wear multiple "hats". This was partly because of the limited number of warm bodies available to manage such vast and complex spacecraft, but also because even then, crews still faced long long stretches of down time and endless routine. One of the best ways to combat the old hidden enemy (boredom), was to find things to stimulate you.

  So in addition to crew chief of the Foxhound's small landing deck, Jennings was also their resident technical nut. In a lot of ways, he reminded Jaime a lot of Sam Caruthers, the Foxhound's former navigator and resident mad scientist, who'd given up the spacer life for his family and a cushy job at the NAIS.

  "This is definitely what we would call lostech," Mister Jennings said as he poked at the thoroughly disassembled arm. "The myomer strands are the kind of high grade medical type that get featured as new innovations in popular cybernetics." He tapped the arm bone... or strut, Jaime supposed, with his probe. "This is light weight composite wrapped around some sort of metal alloy that I don't think I could identify without some sort of security clearance. Hella strong for the weight." He switched tools to a pair of tweezers to pick up what looked like a small metal button. "And this power cell," he said. "I think power cells this energy dense have only just started going on the market."

  "Micro power cells aren't that unusual," Leo McCarthy, the IE security consultant, had asked to be present for Mister Jennings' little briefing, and Jaime had permitted it just because McCarthy seemed significantly more tolerable than most of the rest of them.

  "Sure," Jennings replied. "But your standard off the shelf models would probably have about seventy five percent of the power capacity of one of these, and judging by the fittings, probably more problems with waste heat." He tapped the hand on its flayed open palm. "Ten or twenty years ago, just this hand would probably be worth a pretty penny to any number of commercial or military interests."

  "Okay," Jaime said. "Can you tell me anything about how they operate?"

  "Hella cool is how they operate," Jennings said. "When they're not trying to kill you. I don't have a lot of specifics about the type, but I dug through my old magazine collection to see if I could find some info on what Burns was talking about." He hesitated. "The... umm... Canopean thing."

  Jaime couldn't help but spare a glance in the direction of McCarthy, who was either blissfully unaware of what Jennings met or had a fantastic poker face.

  "The standard design for... lets say humanoid androids, relied on a single central computer and primary power source." Jennings said, "And from what I can see from the arm, it seems to bear that principle out. There's no separate processing clusters. All the wiring runs up the arm in a single flexible channel. Even the battery in the hand looks like a secondary power source specifically for the magnetic grips." Again, he hesitated. "The... uhh... Canopean equivalents currently floating out there tend to be heavy, are only capable of a very narrow set of tasks, and have an extremely limited battery life."

  "Of course they don't need a long battery life," McCarthy interjected. "Given the typical users of such units."

  Jaime was struck dumb at McCarthy's comment, while Jennings failed spectacularly at suppressing a chuckle.

  After a moment, Jennings resumed. "From what Mister Watson's cameras picked up, these things are obviously quick and agile. But nothing I've seen really suggests that they were made for combat. None of them were equipped to fight, and this arm... well," he poked it again. "I doubt any of these things would be any tougher, quicker, or stronger than an ordinary human in a fight. The fact that it isn't made to fight but still can in a pinch suggests it's got some serious processing power to handle multiple jobs. Basically, a multi-function humanoid android. Most of the hardware we could at least get close to, and I don't know how long its power supply actually lasts. But I don't know anybody who's building the kind of computers small enough and powerful enough to give it the kind of processing power it needs to do what it can do. Like I said, it's definitely what I would call lostech."

  "Sounds like a potential fortune to anybody able to salvage the ship," McCarthy said.

  "Or a potential nightmare for anybody who attempts it unaware," Jaime said, trying not to come across as too self pitying.

  McCarthy raised an eyebrow, surprised. "My apologies," he said. "I assumed this presentation was a sales pitch to gain my support for a second attempt to rescue your lost crewmen."

  Jaime didn't know whether to be insulted or to kick himself for not thinking of it. "Would that have worked?"

  McCarthy shook his head. "Regrettably, the safest course of action in salvaging the ship would be to return later with a proper team," he said. "Even with the skilled analysis of your Mister Jennings, we don't have enough information to make a second attempt worth the risk. After all, you have to acknowledge the chance that any of the original boarding party are still alive is exceedingly slim."

  Something about that bothered Jaime on a fundamental level. "Maybe I should acknowledge it," he said. "But somehow I can't get there."

  "I meant no offense," McCarthy said. "I understand the... hesitancy of leaving your people behind. I just hope you understand my own hesitancy in putting my own people in harm's way." He nodded to Mister Jennings. "If you two will excuse me."

[Daryk]

Common sense appears to have prevailed, at least for the moment...  ^-^

[Liam's Ghost]

  Devereux was waiting when Leo returned to the dropship.

  "I suppose Captain West tried to convince you to support his insane rescue plan?" the professor said.

  "He did not," Leo replied. "At least not intentionally."

  Devareux was an... interesting challenge. No doubt quite knowledgeable in his field, but abrasive to many, very protective of what he regarded as his own territory. Leo had noticed that he hadn't gotten along well with Professor Donovan at any point during their trip, managing only the barest of professional courtesy. He seemed to have taken Professor Donovan's decision to join the boarding party as a personal affront, and even if he wielded his colleague's loss like a club against Captain West and anybody in earshot, Leo was reasonably certain that some part of him was relieved to see that colleague gone. Maybe not consciously, but somewhere in there. Insecure individuals were always wary of rivals.

  "He did inadvertently make a compelling case to return with a proper team however," Leo replied. More compelling than any of them knew. Multifunction humanoid drones weren't entirely unknown to Leo. In fact they were somewhat common on Terra as domestic or service units, and by every respect significantly superior to the crude pleasure bots of Dustball or Canopus. By the end of the Star League era, machines like those were probably just starting to become common on the most affluent worlds of the Inner Sphere. But those were civilian applications. A WarShip, in the periphery, carrying so many, raised a number of interesting questions.

  "He didn't need to make that case," Devareux said. "A wreck like this is an incredible historical find. All the more reason to keep the spacers on task until we can contact the home office and file a proper salvage claim on behalf of Interstellar Expeditions. It's too valuable as a historical artifact to let a band of spacers rummage through it."

  Leo wasn't certain he understood the dismissive tone. But then again, Devareux was the sort to shape his arguments in a way that suited his own goals. And those goals, fundamentally, were his own advancement through the academic ranks.

  "Captain West is still fixated on saving his lost crewmembers..."

  Devareux scoffed. "A wasted endeavor."

  "Most likely," Leo agreed. Of course, Leo had arrived at that conclusion simply because it was the most logical outcome, while Devareux had likely arrived at that conclusion simply because it served his own goals. "However, even if he doesn't attempt another rescue in system, he's likely to divert back to inhabited space at the next opportunity to report the derelict."

  "That could complicate our claim," Devareux said, considering it for the moment. "But the closest port of call is in Combine space, and Captain West is a citizen of the Federated Suns. Even with this little detente between Davion and Kurita, that could give us the edge. Particularly if we cede actual material rights to the Combine in exchange for allowing us to thoroughly cataloging the find. After all, the knowledge we could gain from it is what matters, not the metal."

  "I couldn't agree more," Leo said, though his own meaning probably wasn't what Devareux had in mind. He'd probably have to kill Devareux. Maybe arrange an accident for the IE dig team as well, if he could manage. Interstellar Expeditions would scream about this find from the rooftops, and until Leo knew just what was aboard the derelict, he couldn't have that. Captain West and his crew... might be reasonable enough to keep quiet. Leo would have to keep an eye on him.

  And of course, he couldn't make any major moves until he had an exit strategy, and a way to report his findings to the Blessed Order. He'd have to use this time productively, learning what he could and planning his next move.

  Blake will provide.

[worktroll]

Been reading it, so TAGged!

[Daryk]

Uncommon sense also seems to be in play...  >:D

[mikecj]

Blake will provide... nope.  Blake helps those who help themselves!

[cklammer]

Praise Blake and pass the demolitions ... ???

Wondering if that is the only Blakist "minder" ....

[Daryk]

They might be the only surviving minder...  ::)