Good to go.
Next he checked the door: to his surprise, it was unlocked. He turned back and checked his communication channels. The normal communication channels were open, and he pinged Fang-Castro.
“Yes, David.”
“Shots fired, somebody’s hurt, the comm’s working and the doors are open.”
“Then I’m going to the bridge.”
“Get your sidearm, but stick it in your waistband. Don’t carry it in your hand.”
“Where are you going?”
“Don’t know yet, I’m looking at my personnel screen… hang there just one second, I can give you a reading…”
He pulled up the personnel screen, went to mapping. There were no Chinese heading to either his or Fang-Castro’s quarters. He could see two Chinese running away from the bridge. Barnes had armed himself and was setting up in the main hub intersection. Smart man. Francisco was still in his quarters, working his communications panel.
He tapped back to Fang-Castro. “You’re clear all the way to the bridge. I’d say we’ve got about half the ship back, but I don’t know the bridge status. Let me call Langers…”
Langers came up one second later: “Sir, we have the bridge. Summerhill’s… dead. The Chinese here have given up.”
“Hang on there, the admiral is on her way.”
To Fang-Castro: “Go. Go. We got the bridge.”
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“There’s a crowd of Chinese setting up opposite Barnes. I’m going that way.”
Before he went he called Greenberg and told her what had happened. “Jam the air lock. Don’t let anybody through.”
“Doing that now.”
He took one last look at the personnel screen. Where was Darlington? He tapped a couple of keys and Darlington popped up. The Commons: with four Chinese and a bunch of Americans. He didn’t bother to count them, just slipped out the door and ran toward the hub.
Everything froze. Armed Chinese and Americans faced each other, but nobody fired any weapons.
As Fang-Castro approached the bridge, she found a Chinese soldier standing outside. He started to draw his pistol, thought again, put it away. “I cannot get in.”
Fang-Castro’s slate was working again. She pinged the bridge and said, “I’m outside, with an armed Chinese soldier. His weapon is holstered.”
Langers replied: “We have control here. The Chinese have surrendered their weapons. Uh, ask him for his.”
Fang-Castro looked at the Chinese soldier, who’d overhead the call. The man scratched his face, and nose once, then said, “My commander is in the Commons. She wishes to speak to you. I have delivered the message, now I go back.”
He left, and a moment later Fang-Castro walked onto the bridge.
Sun kept her weapon fixed on the line of Americans; three or four minutes after she’d entered the Commons, she was pinged by Fang-Castro, whose image appeared on the large view screen. She said, “Lieutenant Cui, Lieutenant Sun, you have lost control of the ship. Please surrender your weapons to the nearest Americans and we will settle this amicably, as we should have from the start. This is not a situation we can really resolve at our ranks—”
Sun cut in. “You may call me Colonel Sun. You still have not understood the situation, Admiral. We cannot allow you exclusive control of this technology. We demand that you and the rest of the non-critical Americans return to your quarters, where you will be locked down until we reestablish control here.”
“We absolutely will not do that—”
“You had better,” Sun said. “I tell you this. We cannot allow you the tech. I will begin executing the people we have here, one every five minutes, until you are locked down again. If anyone attacks us, I will do what I can to destroy the ship. I know I can blow at least two holes in it. I doubt that you’ll survive. The five minutes starts… now.”
Everybody in the room looked at the clock at the corner of the Commons screen. Eight minutes after twelve, straight up.
Two minutes into the count, with no reaction yet from Fang-Castro—she’d asked to consult with her command staff—Bob Hannegan, the physicist, held up a hand. “Colonel Sun, I need to speak to you for ten seconds.”
Sun scowled at him. “Speak.”
Hannegan held up a gold stylus. “This is one of the kill trigger switches.” He gripped it and turned one side against the other. “And this is how it works.”
Sun said, “Wait!”
Hannegan snapped the stylus in half, and said, “Ouch, I cut myself.” And to Sun, “Now there’s no reason to shoot anyone. The QSUs are gone.”
As he said the last word, an alarm sounded, and he added: “There goes the fire alarm. There’s a three-thousand-degree fire in the burn box.”
Cui pinged the Chinese guard outside the strong room. “What is your status?”
“There are two Americans here, with guns, but they have not drawn them. My gun remains holstered.”
“We have been told that a kill trigger switch has been fired. Do you have any indication—”
“Yes. I heard a… boom… one minute ago, and I believe it came from the strong room. One moment, another American is running here.”
They waited and a few seconds later, the guard called again: “He has a fire extinguisher, which he says he needs to shoot on the outside of the burn box before the fire burns through. He says it will cool the box. Shall I allow him to open the door?”
Sun said, “Yes. Tell me what you see.”
The guard called again a moment later: “It is very hot in here. There is a steel box sitting on what looks like ceramic bricks. The box is glowing red at the top and white at the bottom. The American is spraying it with a freezing foam which does not stay on, but the box is cooling somewhat.”
Sun said, “I can’t believe it.”
She turned to Bob Hannegan and shot him in the head. Hannegan’s body simply dropped straight down; he might have had a surprised look on his face.
Sun looked up at the view screen, where Fang-Castro had reappeared. She shouted, “Admiral Fang-Castro. We demand that you return to your quarters. We have executed the first of your crew members, and will continue each five minutes until we are given access to the alien information.”
“The alien information has been destroyed,” Fang-Castro said. “Your own people can confirm this.”
“I do not believe this,” Sun shouted at her. “Even if so, you still have the I/O input. We demand that you return to your quarters, and return the ship to our control, so that we may access the datastore, or I will execute another crew member in”—she winked at her implants—“three minutes.”
Fang-Castro said, “Killing people won’t bring back the QSUs—”
“We can’t take the chance!” Sun shouted. “If you don’t believe me…”
She raised her gun, pointing it at Francisco.
Sandy shouted, “Wait, wait, wait… Colonel. I can fix this…. I promise you, I can fix this.”
Sun was wild-eyed: “And how would you fix this, Captain Darlington?”
“Let me…” He picked up his slate and unclipped his stylus. “A datastore switch.”
From the screen above him, Fang-Castro said, “Captain Darlington! Captain Darlington! Don’t do that. Don’t do that! That’s an order.”
Sandy looked up at the screen. “She’s crazy, ma’am. She’s going to kill Commander Francisco.”
Sun said, “Give me that switch.”
Sandy said, “No. Here. I’m going to fix everything.” He snapped the stylus in his hands, and said, “The datastore is gone.”
Sun shouted, “You are lying. You lie!” Spittle was flying from her lips as she looked around the room at the wide-eyed Americans. She pointed the gun at Sandy’s head and shouted, “Admiral, you have ten seconds to surrender the bridge—”