Interconnectivity

The double doors to the bridge slid open as they approached. Jen was the only member of the crew standing there, with Spark’s luminous form next to her. Raz looked around. The bridge’s spartan layout and utter lack of control surfaces wasn’t a sight she was used to. Even her tiny ship’s cockpit was a cluttered mess of screens, buttons and levers, but it made sense to her that the Morlenciri had done away with such obsolete methods of interface, since every single one of them had a hyper-advanced multipurpose interface linked directly to their mind. Even more impressive than the bridge was the view to the outside.

“Raz! Finally, you’re awake!” Spark shouted cheerily.

Used to being the only one to actually see him, Raz ignored him and turned her attention to Jen.

“Captain.” She greeted her.

“Miss Webb. Your companion here was telling me about how you got in a spot of bother.” Jen replied.

“Wait, you can see him?” Raz had to do a double take.

“Of course they can see me, silly! It’s nice to actually be able to interact with someone else after all this time! I’m telling you, you organics take physical space for granted.” Spark groaned.

“Ah, right. Suits. Interconnectivity. Got it.” Raz caught on.

“Forgive her, Captain. The most advanced technology where she comes from is toaster ovens.” Spark added, prompting a barely suppressed giggle from Keelin.

“I should upload you to one.” Raz bit back at his snark. “They’re just your brand of low-brow.”

“Now, now. Let’s not get sidetracked.” She stopped the oncoming bickering dead in its tracks then turned to Raz. “I understand you were on your way to Laxor Prime. It just so happens we’re heading there as well. We can give you a lift, if you want, and I’ll have our maintenance drones attempt to repair the damage to your ship in the meantime. My chief engineer, however, tells me the fusion power cells might be a problem. We can charge the one that’s still intact, but the other one is beyond repair. We can jump you to a nearby system where you can procure a replacement when we’re done. I’m afraid our own power cells are incompatible with your ship.”

This wasn’t ideal. Raz didn’t want company while searching for The Crimson’s hoard. It didn’t look like she had much choice, though. Between her ship having no working warp drive and Keelin having part of Silas’ clue, her only option seemed to be tagging along with the elves. For now, at least.

“Thank you, Captain, I’m not sure I can repay your kindness, but there’s no need to let me sidetrack your operation here. I’m happy to be dropped off at a space station nearest your route. I’m sure I can find some compatible salvage to repair my ship.” Raz said courteously, with a slight bow.

“Think nothing of it, Ms Webb.” Jen replied. “Spark here explained the need for discretion on your assignment. Our nanofabricators will take care of the repairs, perhaps see if there’s anything that can be improved, even though there’s nothing we can do about the power cell. Taking on a task like this in a piece of junk like that is very brave and you have the Empire’s gratitude.”

Raz glanced sideways at Spark, wondering what he’s been telling the captain. At the very least she’d expected the elves to take their tech back and throw her in a cell, but somehow, they were going out of their way to help them.

“Ah, yes…” Raz confirmed. “I’m afraid I can’t say much more about it, but I appreciate any help you’re willing to render.”

Suddenly, Jen turned her head to look right at the bulkhead, then walked off without replying and returned to her seat. All present bridge officers did the same, without a word, aside from perhaps exchanging side glances every now and then. Raz could feel the atmosphere getting tense, for no apparent reason. Two more officers walked into the bridge and took their posts.

Raz looked at Spark with a quizzical expression. He looked back at her, mirroring her puzzlement, then a brief moment of realization.

‘Sorry I forgot you weren’t patched in.’ He spoke through the mind interface, then she felt as if rising out of a body of water, as everyone’s voices started ringing out through her head, the bulkheads around her disappeared, as if the entire room was floating out in space, and a barrage of data appeared in her field of vision. Bright shapes and outlines with datapoints and information drew themselves, luminous points in space all around her, along with information about the ship’s systems, life support settings, and even today’s menu. Two more luminous figures appeared next to the captain, with several more in the room. The sudden appearance of everything along with the cacophony of noise made her nauseous. She stumbled, only to be caught by Keelin, who softly helped her into a nearby jump seat, a safe distance away from the officers’ stations.

“There you go… Easy.” Keelin said as Raz sat down and the cysuit held her firmly in her seat. “I know it can be overwhelming when you haven’t been exposed to any significant dataflow for some time. You’ve been out here in the quiet.”

Raz looked at her with a dazed, blank expression. The noise of overlapping voices was disorienting.

Suddenly the volume of everything became much quieter, the multitude of voices now sounding as if far away, with only Spark’s voice discernible.

‘I’ve toned down external inputs for you, but you’ll have to learn to start sorting through the dataflow yourself. You’ve only had me in your ear so far, but on a ship like this, all data is accessible, every crewmember, including synthetics inhabiting the various systems is connected. Take a deep breath. Focus on what you want to hear. What you want to see.’ He said.

“H-how…” she managed to utter.

‘Just think it.’ He continued. ‘You want to hear everyone? Done. No-one? Done. You want to speak to me, them, everyone, just think it. The mind interface takes care of the rest. You want to ask the ship what the oxygen content in compartment 435C is, you can do it, with nothing but a thought.’

Raz was struck by the realization that Spark had been in her head the entire time and yet she vocalized every time she wanted to speak to him. Completely unnecessary.

‘And amusing, don’t forget amusing.’ He added.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, tuning out all sight and sound. Then gradually, she started focusing on what she wanted to hear, starting with the people in this room, already in intense mental communication.

‘Unknown signatures dropping out of warp now. Thirty plus, bearing two-zero-five, dec zero-three-two. Range twelve thousand.’ The sensors officer called out to Jen, doing a hand gesture towards the center of the room. Raz followed it with her eyes, and a large holodisplay appeared, showing a zoomed in external view of a number of small ships appearing, while bright red dots marked them out in the distance, beyond the bridge’s large window.

Spark conjured up a star chart and drew a vector from the current planetary system to the direction the ships emerged from, all the way to the nearest star.

‘That's Ang'Narr.' He said. ‘A local pirate haven. That’s a pirate fleet, Captain, and the Indomitable is on the bucket list of every pirate within a radius of five hundred parsecs.’

‘Bet we can take them in this ship.’ Raz projected her thought to the room.

‘She’s a yacht, not a warship. Far from defenseless, but I don’t like these numbers. We’re leaving before they detect us, we’re already far too close for comfort.’ Jen replied, then nodded slightly to her tactical officer.

‘Action Stations. Action Stations. This is not a drill.’ An automated message came through the interface, while the edges of Raz’s vision started softly pulsing red, like an alarm.

‘Helm, get us underway, maximum speed.’ Jen ordered as the shared display showed the helm officer exactly which course she wanted to set.

“How’d they find us?” Raz muttered under her breath.

‘Must have taken them some time, but I think they calculated our spatial wake.’ Spark spoke to her privately.

‘They seem to have detected us.’ Tactical called out as a third of the red dots on the main display broke off the main group to pursue them.

Raz watched as Jen seemed to be in debate with the two tactical AIs standing next to her.

‘Composition seems to be mostly light ships, gunships, patrol ships, all civilian models, modified and armed for combat. The only real challenge are the six frigates accompanying them, but they’re slower. One of them said. We have sufficient firepower to deal with the advance force of interceptors.’

‘That would only buy time for their slower ships to catch up to us.’ Jen replied. ‘What we need to do is get that ice moon between the Indomitable and their main force, then try to pick them off a few at a time.’

“That won’t keep us alive for long.” Raz spoke up.

“When you’re an officer aboard this ship, I’ll take your opinion under advisement, Ms Webb. I’m trying to have a tactical conference here.” Jen threw back dismissing her.

‘All due respect Captain, Raz may have a point.’ Spark interjected. ‘We’ve spent a considerable amount of time among them, she has a deeper understanding of their tactics.’

‘Incoming transmission, Captain.’ The comms officer called out.

‘Put it through to main display.’ Jen replied.

The image flickered, then stabilized. A massive bald guy covered in scars, wearing a gaudy vest with shoulder pads that made his imposing physique look comically large appeared on the holoscreen.

“I am Krog. Commodore to the King of Ang’Narr.” He announced flatly. “Shut down your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

Jen stood out of her seat.

“I am Jen of the Morlencir Empire, Captain of the IDV Indomitable. The Empire does not recognize your authority.”

The pirate captain laughed out heartily.

“You are far outside Imperial borders, little elf. The only authority out here is ships and weapons. And they both belong to Durka the Eviscerator. Surrender and you may live. Resist, and I will personally deliver your entrails to the King of Ang’Narr.” He said menacingly.

“We won’t be surrendering today.” Jen replied with disdain. “Least of all to the likes of you. I’ll see you in battle, ‘Commodore’. Cut transmission.” She then turned around to Raz. “If you have any bright ideas, now’s the time.”

“Well, there was a thing we could try…”

“Whoa, whoa, are you insane?” Spark jumped in, reading her thoughts.

“I know you don’t have entrails, Spark, but I rather mine didn’t adorn Durka’s throne. Not anytime soon, at least.”

“This isn’t some pirate bucket you can jury rig like that! We’re all going to end up spread across half the system!”

‘If one of you can clue me in, you need to do it within the next thirty seconds.’ Jen spoke over both of them.

Raz stepped forward to the display in the middle of the bridge.

‘With a royal yacht for a prize, I bet you anything the pirates have already sent word back to Ang’Narr. Durka, the pirate king will be sending everything that flies to this system to get his hands on the Indomitable. On one hand this is good news, as they will want to keep the ship intact, so they will be reserved in attacking. On the other, if we prove too troublesome to capture, they’ll blow us up rather than let us escape. This moon won’t buy us much time.’ She said manipulating the view so it showed their destination and their pursuers. ‘By the time we deal with the interceptors after us, the rest of them will be in position on the far side to capture or force us to double back on our course, and by the time we’ve dealt with or evaded them, the system will be crawling with more ships than you can shake a stick at.’ She then zoomed out to include the rest of the system. ‘If we can make it to Laxor Prime, however, things are different. Half the planet is covered by dense jungles. We need to go around the ice moon, make them think they can ambush us. Then on the far side, we make a microjump to the orbit of Laxor Prime. By the time they figure out what happened, we can be on the surface and powered down. They’ll split up to find us, cover a larger area. All we need to do is wait for a hole in the search pattern, and make ourselves scarce.’

‘Good plan, only, our jump drive doesn’t work like that. Too many gravity wells in the system, we can rip the ship apart.’ Jen pointed out.

‘Last I checked, there was a warp drive in your hangar.’ Raz smiled, raising an eyebrow.

Jen’s eyes widened at the sudden realization of what she was suggesting.

‘See what I mean, Captain?’ Spark chimed in. The other two synths agreed. ‘It’s ridiculous. Insane. Bonkers!’ He stopped, expecting a reply, a dismissal, perhaps a laugh at how absurdly dangerous the notion was. But Jen’s face remained unchanged, deep in thought, despite the initial shock still frozen on it. “You’re not seriously considering it. Tell me you’re not actually, seriously considering it!”

“It’s dangerous.” Jen finally said.

‘Problematic.’ The tactical AI said.

‘Veeeery dangerous.’ The other AI added.

‘But it might just be our only chance. Can you make it happen?’ Jen turned to Spark.

‘Theoretically! Even the slightest miscalculation and we’re all stardust.’ Spark sighed.

“Then make sure you don’t miscalculate.” Jen ordered. “Get on it, you two. Grab Jerron and Terk from engineering to help you out. Now if you excuse me, they’re almost in weapons range.”

“Aye, Captain.” Raz said and ran out of the bridge.