Nova Wars

The Officer's Mess was quiet as Hetmwit finished telling the Captain everything that had gone on, finishing up with "And then you stepped in and asked for my report."

The Captain had asked pointed questions, sometimes getting Hetmwit to recall bits and pieces he had forgotten or had not even known that he knew. He had only had to repeat sections twice, both times when Hetmwit had accidentally skipped over important details.

Finally, it was over and Hetmwit sipped at a box of juice through a straw.

The Captain was looking over his notes, tapping the datapad slowly with one finger.

The lights dimmed slightly and a faint noise of gears winding down could be heard in the distance.

"That was the secondary emergency backup emergency generators, Captain," Hetmwit said.

The Captain nodded, still staring at the datapad.

"We're back to the zero-point reactors," Hetmwit continued.

The Captain just nodded.

"So, we're basically back to where we were before," Hetmwit finished.

"Not quite," the Captain said.

Hetmwit frowned. "Why not?"

"We know how they're disabling the systems, by preventing any input to processors. We know the systems work once the parts are replaced or we figure out a way to undo the coding changes our intruders do," the Captain said. He tapped the datapad. "We know that the Yorktown jumped in-system, without any hyperspace energy flare, no jumpspace corona, no Hellspace portal, so it's using something more esoteric, and that somehow the Yorktown is bringing other vessels with it even as far as two point one million miles distant," he flicked the screen to show a drawing of a black robot. "We know that these robots go through the ships to clean up, doublecheck, and disable computer systems while putting the ship in storage mode."

He leaned back in his chair.

"The two large questions both, undoubtedly, have the same answer, based on what happened to me," the Captain said.

"What?" Hetmwit asked.

"The robots undoubtedly come from where they took me. I wasn't killed, I know that. Your forcing of the SUDS record to overwrite with last data lets me know that I wasn't killed," he shook his head. "It was mat-trans. I don't know how, but somehow I was moved somewhere else."

"Where?" Hetmwit asked.

The Captain shook his head again. "I don't know. It's like my memory was altered. I'm missing a section, like it didn't move from immediate memory to short term memory, much less long term memory or storage memory."

Hetmwit just nodded.

The Captain clapped his hands together. "All right. Our steps are obvious."

"They are?" Hetmwit said, frowning.

The Captain slid his empty bottle across the table to the reclamator, watching it disappear in a sparkle, then got up to get another bottle of fizzypop. He sat back down.

"All right. Here's our problem. We are stuck here. If we get the ship working, we might get caught up in a round of 'rescue' operations. But we're dealing with a time limit. If the Yorktown disappears and reappears, I'll get caught in the rescue sweep and everything you've done is undone," the Captain said. "So, what do we need to do?"

Hetmwit thought for a long moment.

"We need a smaller vessel. One that requires less crew, has less systems, and can be brought up to working order faster," he said. He thought a moment longer. "We need to identify how they block input to the CPU and SPU systems and prepare a counter-measure."

"And?" the Captain asked, taking a drink of Old Axle Grease & Dried Used Coffee Grounds.

"Use whatever means necessary to get clear of this area and hope the Yorktown or that system doesn't follow us," Hetmwit finished.

The Captain nodded. "Excellent," he took another drink, his other hand tapping the table three times rapidly to bring up the smart surface and activate the holoemitters in the table. "I'll find a ship, you figure out the other part."

Hetmwit nodded, taking the datapad out of his pouch.

"Let's get to work, Number One," the Captain said.

-----

Hetmwit looked at the data in the holotank.

The ships were in the cluster of sixty-two vessels surrounding the DJ's Ice Cream Locker that made it obvious that they were all taken as a single group. The highlighted ships were small, tiny compared to the three massive superdreadnought vessels that made up the center of the task force.

"This is a advanced system scouting team," the Captain said. He tapped the vessels and they got larger, a box showing how they looked from the outside, a wireframe replacing the vessel icons. "Six corvettes and a frigate."

Hetmwit nodded. The 'frigate' was the size of a maxi-destroyer from his own navy and the corvettes were slightly larger than a mini-destroyer.

"According to the data I can access, they frigate has something called a 'rewind drive' that works over massive interstellar distances," he said. He tapped it and a bare minimum of data popped up. "This tells us that the crews were grabbed immediately. They weren't able to activate the drive."

"What does it do?" Hetmwit asked.

"It will pull that frigate and its accompaniment back to a previously determined point in an instant, effectively 'rewinding' them to that physical point," the Captain said.

Hetmwit nodded, taking out a pack of Treana'ad smoke sticks and opening them. He knew it was a terrible habit, one that would probably kill him, but he needed the calming effect of it. He puffed on one till it lit up and put the pack away.

"It activates in a split second, if the drive is warm, and might even have been strong enough to grab the whole Task Force," the Captain said. He tapped the corvettes, tracing a finger along the large tubelike sections at the back. "These appear to be additional rewind drives."

The Captain looked up.

"This also might explain how the Yorktown is pulling vessels to this location."

Hetmwit frowned. "Really?"

"According to what I've been able to access, a rewind drive can snatch vessels at a large distance and pull them hundreds, theoretically thousands of light years away from the activation point," the Captain said. He tapped the tube on a wireframe. "If, somehow, the Yorktown has a malfunctioning rewind drive, then that would explain how its getting the ships here."

"So that's our target, the frigate?" Hetmwit asked.

Captain Decken nodded. "That would have a minimal crew. Space will be tight, but we can probably run the ship just the two of us with robotic assistance," he tapped the frigate. "We'll need to board and prepare the corvettes, just in case."

The captain moved around the holotank, staring at it. "We'll need to figure out a way to bring the corvettes online while we are bringing online the frigate, so that the entire small flotilla is ready to go."

Hetmwit thought carefully. "OK, here's an idea," he said.

"Yes, Number One?" the Captain said.

Hetmwit brought up his own holotank. "OK, I return to the Star and get more robots. We then crew each of the corvettes with maintenance robots, all on standby and powered down in the bare minimum stations."

The Captain nodded. "Go on."

"We attach laser emitters and receivers to the hulls, wire it into the system. We get the frigate ready, manning stations with robots. When it's time to execute, we power up all the robots at the same time, synchronized, and that way all the ships come online at the same time. Light speed lag is less than a second at the distance between the corvettes and the frigates," Hetmwit said.

"It could work," the Captain said. "But, the problem is, how do we get the ships ready? Can the robots do it?"

Smiling, Hetmwit tapped an icon, showing a dense block of code.

"Because I found this," he said, proudly.

"What is it?" the Captain asked. "Looks like some kind of recursive data indexing."

"It is," Hetmwit said. "It's the code that the robots inject into the system so that the CPU and SPU don't get any data."

The Captain nodded slowly. "How did you spot it?"

"Smiley and Hefty," Hetmwit said. "I keep copies of their programming on my dataslate. I compared their active memory and scratch files to my originals and found that."

"Very good. How do we get around it?" the Captain asked.

"That's part of it. This is another important part," Hetmwit said, bringing up another block of code.

"What's that?" the Captain asked.

"That's the injector scripting. It's a terminate and stay resident program that performs code scanning and injection. If it sees an operating system or virtual intelligence or even a difference engine data stream, it injects the coding to that system, putting it on standby just as if the CPU and SPUs all failed," Hetmwit said.

"Can you bypass it?" the Captain asked.

Hetmwit nodded. "Easily. I did a mass delete test. I can clear the entire ship's system in seconds for the primary systems, minutes for the entire ship and all equipment. It picks up speed as more and more systems come online and can be used to launch the cleaning attack."

"What about the firewalls and anti-intrusion systems?" The Captain asked.

"That's the good part. It works in conjuction with those systems. It identifies the abberrant code as foreign code and lets the system itself do all the work. Once identified, it will then prevent the code from re-executing or being re-injected during the cleaning process," Hetmwit said. "Better to use the systems than try to bypass them or fight them."

"Very good, Number One," the Captain said. He stood up. "We'll prepare and then board the Star as soon as possible."

Hetmwit nodded. "I'll get Smiley and Hefty running and load them up."

"Can we take your dropship?" the Captain asked.

"I used it for testing on my people's computer systems. It's already clean and ready for use," Hetmwit said.

"Excellent, Number One," the Captain stood up. "I will meet you at maintenance airlock sixty-two in two hours."

He paused. "Get it done."

Hetmwit nodded.

-----

The heavy clonking noise made Hetmwit look behind him. He was crouched down, checking Smiley's feet to ensure the magnetic systems were working properly so that Smiley could walk on the hull of the Terran ship.

He froze at the sight of what was moving down the corridor at him.

Nearly three meters tall. Bipedal. Massive. Jet black, matte black, the color of empty space. It was all angles and thick plates. There was a long bar with a handle and a toothed blade on one hip, a 'small' weapon on the other hip. Across the back he could see the frame of a massive single-barrel cannon.

The face of the helmet was a skull. Jet black, with blank eyes.

It took him a minute to realize that there was a white stencil on the chest that said "CPT DECKEN" on it.

"I'd rather you wore an armored vac-suit, Number One," the Captain's voice was deep and booming.

"Uh..." Hetmwit said, staring.

"It is standard High Lord armor," the Captain said. "Standard shipboard armor."

"Uh... if you say so, Captain," Hetmwit said. He blinked. "I'm ready when you are."

The helmet nodded slightly. "Lead the way."

The size of the airlock made even more sense as Hetmwit and the Captain went through. Hetmwit realized that it would fit a dozen of the Captain, a half-dozen of the massive insectoid Treana'ad.

In vacuum, the Captain seemed perfectly at home, which filled Hetmwit with relief. He had been worried that the Captain would not be able to maneuver in zero-G.

Hefty flew the dropship back to the Star, with Hetmwit sitting next to him. The Captain was back in the rear hold/troop bay, massive in his armor.

Hetmwit tried not to flinch when the Captain clomped along behind him as he went to the Star's robotics maintenance bay. The armored up Captain stood there silently, the armor looking like it was breathing as the Captain watched Hetmwit. The whole three hours it took to get the robots programmed, the Captain just stood and watched the entrances to the maintenance bay.

"They're ready," Hetmwit said. "I programmed them to follow right now. There's enough to fully man each of the vessels."

"Excellent," the Captain said. He paused for a moment. "There is something I must tell you."

"What is that?" Hetmwit asked, moving up to the Captain.

"You are an excellent Number One. A skilled and dedicated seaman," the Captain said. "However, your people are not part of the Confederacy," there was another pause. "I must inform you that I will not allow the flotilla to fall into your people's hands. I will not turn over that wealth of technology and data to your star nation."

Hetmwit felt a cold chill run down his back.

"Your dropship has beacons on it and can keep you alive in comfort for nearly two weeks. I propose dropping you off close enough to be rescued by your people," the Captain said.

"What will you do then?" Hetmwit asked.

The Captain just stood there. "I will attempt to return to the Confederacy. Barring that..." he paused for a long moment. "I will order the ships to self-destruct with myself on board. I would prefer you left the ship aboard your dropship, but if I must, I will self-destruct the entire flotilla, regardless of whether not not you are onboard. I will tie my armor systems and my life signs to the ship's auto-destruct. Not out of fear of betrayal by you, but out of caution and standard operating procedure."

Hetmwit stood there for a long minute, thinking it through. Everything he had seen, the Confederacy was extremely protective of their technology and ships. Terrans like the Captain were known to be paranoid and extremely wary.

The Captain was willing to drop him off where he could return to his home.

It was the best he could have hoped for.

He looked up at the Captain.

"I understand."