He called in his aide, and had the coded message delivered to the courier. Then, dismissing the incident from his mind, he returned to his work.
Micah could only hope that he’d have time to complete his preparations before Cord’s announcement.
Chapter IX
“Okay, Kaleen,” I asked, “Exactly what did you accomplish?”
“I seized Nemesis’ command defense systems using Imperial overrides,” she said. “You heard the resulting broadcast. It will continue repeating, blanketing all frequencies in the system, until they shut down and reboot Nemesis ’ entire comm system. Weapons control comps have been infected with a virus that is deleting tactical controls. Nemesis should be able to neither fire on us, nor call in other vessels to attack.”
Kaleen's voice paused, and alarm bells began ringing in my head. A comp, hesitating? “Captain,” her voice resumed. “I must report that I took an action without direct instruction. But,” the voice added hurriedly, “you did instruct me to do anything that might increase our chances of escape without endangering human life, and I estimate that this action increased our chances of survival by 12.43729 percent.”
I began getting really frightened. How much did Kaleen know about what constituted danger to human life? Gods! What if she’d shut down life support? Nemesis carried over five thousand crewmembers! I kept my tone carefully casual.
“Exactly what did you do, Kaleen?” I asked quietly.
“I realized that Nemesis ’ comps were designed with large-scale redundancy,” she explained. “All of the functions of the main artificial intelligence can be assumed by one or another of the smaller comps spread throughout the ship. Though they lack full AI capability, all that it would take to get Nemesis operational would be for someone to shut down the main AI and bring the distributed systems online.
“Since I am not familiar enough with human capabilities to assess the time required for someone to realize that and take action, I deemed it desirable to add a confusion factor.”
Now I was really getting worried. A comp was temporizing, behaving like a child confessing a misdeed! “What did you do?” I demanded.
“At the moment that we blasted clear of Nemesis, a timed command executed, and the gravity generators shut down. They can be restarted only by shutting down and rebooting the main engineering comp. Rear Admiral Jonas is effectively isolated for a period I estimate to be a minimum of twenty-four hours. At maximum boost, this should permit our escape, though perhaps not that of the marine commando on the planet below.”
I began to relax, and then started guiltily. In all the excitement, I’d forgotten about Tor’s commando raid on Thaeron. Tor and his handpicked men had been huddling concealed in a rim tramp that grounded on Thaeron just as we were arriving in-system. The plan was for them to come out shooting upon a signal from Kaleen, penetrate the landing field’s security systems, and damage or destroy all the shuttles they could reach.
Since all of Jonas’ ships were too large to ground, all servicing and repairs had to be carried out at an orbital station. Virtually every tool, part, and supply had to be shuttled up from the planet. Tor’s mission had been to interfere with the servicing and even the staffing of Jonas’ ships by damaging or cutting their lifeline to the surface.
The escape plan for the commando had been as iffy as our own. After blowing Sheol out of anything that even resembled a shuttle, they were to regroup and reboard the tramp, where they would have mere seconds to don pressure suits while she lifted with her cargo hatch open, revealing the pair of heavy lasers welded to the hold deck.
Unlike us, there was a very good chance that the tramp would be pursued and attacked. Frankly, the lasers were more for morale than anything else. If Lubyloo couldn’t outrun any pursuers, there was little chance that the lasers could save the lives of the men aboard her.
“I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything from them?” I asked worriedly.
“I’m sorry, Captain. The only contact I’ve had was the acknowledgment of my signal as we entered Nemesis.”
“All right, Kaleen,” I began carefully. “In future, however, please inform me or whoever’s in command of any actions that you contemplate. I do not want you to underestimate a danger to human life. In this case, I approve. The confusion created by loss of gravity can only aid in our escape and that of Lubyloo. Just let me know before you do anything like that again, please.” I struggled to keep my tone even and calm.
“Yes, Captain,” Kaleen replied. Her tone was formal and grave. I could at least hope that she appreciated the importance of that instruction.
I was coming to realize that there were drawbacks to sentient ships.
Almost half an hour later Kaleen reported a ship lifting off Thaeron at a high gee. “From its size, I infer that it’s Lubyloo, Captain.”
I strained at the sensor screen. “Any pursuit?”
I could almost hear Kaleen shrug. “As we estimated, Captain, pursuit is not expected for a minimum of fifteen minutes. With communications blanketed by our announcement, the base has no way to inform the ships of the attack. Pursuit will require a ship to detect Lubyloo ’s departure, her captain to decide that something is wrong, and then give the orders. I will continue to monitor as long as we remain in sensor range.”
“Thank you, Kaleen,” I replied. “As I remember, Jonas didn’t think highly of initiative in his subordinates. Hopefully, fear of Jonas will keep any ships from going after Lubyloo — if they’re in any condition to pursue at all.”
“After all,” I continued, talking, as much to myself as to Kaleen, “Chu-Lo’s message has to have had some impact! With any luck, fighting has broken out on most of the ships, with half the crew believing the message, and the other half convinced it’s a fake. Is there any movement at all?”
“None of the ships have maneuvered. Gyrfalcon, the destroyer that escorted us from the jump point, began warming her inertial drives, but that effort has ceased.”
It was maddening, watching the ships of Jonas’ flotilla orbiting serenely, just as they’d been before we arrived. With our tape disrupting all communications, we had no way of knowing if anything was happening.
Our only evidence was negative. No ships broke orbit to pursue Lubyloo, which was boosting frantically for a secondary jump point, or us. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as we jumped.
“What about Lubyloo?” I asked Kaleen, “Is she going to make it?”
“As of the moment of our jump, no pursuit had been mounted,” Kaleen replied. “It is doubtful that even the fastest of Admiral Jonas’ flotilla could catch her, and nothing that could possibly catch her is armed. Barring accident, Lubyloo should escape.”
I sighed again. “Thank all the odd gods of the galaxy! I hope Tor’s casualties weren't too heavy.”
The trip back to Outback system was no less nerve-wracking than the trip out. We had no way to judge how much trouble, if any, we had caused, or whether we’d delayed Jonas’ attack sufficiently. As before, I occupied most of my time with Kaleen, who was becoming more human every day. By the time we emerged, I was seriously worried about how Cord was going to react to his newly sentient ship.
My return was cause for a surprisingly large and heartfelt party aboard Valkyrie. When I returned aboard, people held their positions just long enough for the military courtesies to be dealt with, and then I was mobbed.
Amazingly, the first person to rush up and grab me was Suli. Tears were streaming down those lovely ebon cheeks, but I barely had time to notice before she planted an enthusiastic kiss on my lips and hugged me tightly against her magnificent breasts. Then she released me and fled while I gasped for breath and struggled to regain my composure.