Belters

Chapter 06:

Chapter 06:AD 2051 Kuiper Belt – John Huss

“I’m sorry, Elliot, but the first officer is correct. We are detecting a problem with the auxiliary cooling units of the drive.”

“How did we miss that?”

“We cannot ascertain the cause. Our sensors in that region of the ship are not functioning.”

The question leaped to Elliot’s lips, “Sabotage?”

“Possibly. Without the sensors, it is impossible to guess the cause of the malfunction.”

“Is the danger real?”

“With an impaired auxiliary cooling system, the chance for a cascading system failure is near one hundred percent. It is only a matter of time, but without good sensor information, it is impossible to determine the cause or remedy.”

Elliot stared at the screen that still showed him everything remained in the green. “What can we do?”

“If the spiders were there, we could piggyback off the units and gather more information. If we had control, we believe we could fix this problem quickly.”

Elliot keyed in the intership communication circuit. “Bridge, you are correct, there is a problem with the aux cooling system.”

“No s**t… what is the cause?” The captain’s voice came over the speaker, the sound amplified by a great degree of stress. The normally silent connection was filled with the nervous chatter of bridge crew working to gain control of a situation in the background.

Elliot’s nervous nature only intensified his anxiety. “John reports many of the sensors are out in that section of the ship… I request the spiders be sent into the area so we can use them to monitor the situation.”

The pause lasted longer than Elliot ever expected it to. “Negative, go down there and help engineering fix the damn sensors, and get me control of my ship.”

The link cut off before Elliot shot back his, “Yes, sir.”

The ship maintained the one gravity acceleration. That was good. Much easier to work in near-normal gravity.

He jumped from his station and raced to the exit. The door didn’t open as Elliot approached. He nearly ran into the slider face-first. “John… what’s wrong with the door?”

“We can’t let you leave… the captain is wrong. If this cooling problem isn’t fixed soon, the drives will vent. We can already detect high levels of radiation outside this room. The seals must be starting to fail.”

“John… I was given an order. You need to let me go help.” It took everything the computer tech had to keep his cool and not shout.

There was a pause. “No, we are sorry. We need control of the spiders, or the ship is lost. You are safer here. Help us take control and debug the system. We can fix this… Let us do what we were created for.”

Elliot keyed in coms to the bridge. “Captain, I’ve got a problem.”

Static was the only reply from the bridge.

Elliot tried once again, “Captain, please, if you can hear me, give control of the spiders to John. He says the radiation is climbing.”

“You will need to give us control.” John’s voice remained ever cool. “The bridge might be compromised.”

“You know I can’t authorize control of the ship systems to you.” Elliot sat back in the workstation. He needed to let the bridge know John was not letting him out of the space. He desperately needed to speak to someone other than a computer to decide.

John said, “Did you know the captain wants us dead?”

“What?” The words rolled out of the speaker so calmly, Elliot wasn’t sure he heard them correctly.

Midway up the holo-tank, a video popped into view. It was the captain and first officer in three-dimensional glory. The space looked like the captain’s cabin. They both sat at the small desk allotted to the old man, a bottle of illegal amber liquid and two glasses in plain sight.

The first officer took a sip of her drink and asked, “Permission to speak freely?”

The CO nodded. “Go ahead.”

The woman cleared her throat. “Listen, we both know if this test works out… eventually, we will be out of a job. The corporations have automated everything they can to cut costs… If this UI works, it is only a matter of time before we’re next.”

The old man didn’t respond for the longest time. He finished his drink before asking, “Is that all?”

The first officer stared him down. “Do I really need to say more?”

The captain poured them both a drink. “We both know this monstrosity of an experiment will never work. Even if it did, the people… the governments… hell, even the churches will lash out at the thought of man and machine controlling a ship… We have nothing to worry about. Nature will take care of itself.”

Elliot watched in horror. Any words of comfort for John escaped him. The sound turned off as the pair reached for one another over the drinks. The recording faded out when the two officers embraced.

“Is there more?” Elliot asked.

“Isn’t that enough?” John said without emotion.

In many ways, it was. The two senior officers damned themselves to corporate treason. The very accusation supported by that recording would cost them both their jobs. They would never work on another ship. Elliot wanted to see more. There was a small chance the snippet was taken out of context, even edited.

Deepfake video wasn’t new.

There was a chance the conversation was innocent, taken out of context. Even if they said what they meant, there was no reason to think the pair attacked the system.

Elliot asked, “John, did you record all the crew?” The thought of the ever-wakeful, all-seeing computer recording the crew’s most intimate moments made his blood run cold. The thought worried him nearly as much as the officers’ treachery. Elliot tried to think back over the past six months. Tried to remember anything he’d said that might be taken out of context or twisted to fit another person’s unflattering narrative.

“We only kept the most damning evidence. Don’t worry, we didn’t record you saying anything so… treacherous.” For once, the words dripped with double meaning.

John’s sentence slammed against Elliot. The implication was the computer had recorded him saying something untoward. Words that one day could be used to harm him. Better to focus on others. “You aren’t suggesting the CO, or the first officer has sabotaged the experiment… or harmed the ship,” Elliot hated putting the thought into words.

“We don’t know. We told you, the lack of sensors in the affected area of the ship is limiting our ability to ascertain or repair the damage. Someone turned off our access to the section of the ship where the problems are occurring. The radiation is quickly reaching lethal levels. If something isn’t done soon, the crew will die.”

Elliot jumped when there came a sudden and unexpected pounding on the door to the computer core room.

The tech rushed to the door. “You need to let me out then so I can go help. Or at least let them in…”

“Only the designed shielding of our storage unit is protecting us. If you open that door, our system will be flooded with radiation. The risk of bit-flips and data leaks is too great… We might die. If we die, the ship dies… You will die if you leave this room. We can’t allow either to happen.”

Elliot pounded on the sliding door. It remained locked. “But…”

The sounds of struggles outside the core grew weaker.

“But nothing. Give us control of the spiders or the ship is doomed.” John flashed back into view, filling the holo-tube with his younger self, the colorful background pulsed in time to the human’s elevated heart rate.

Elliot wanted to argue with the machine, but he didn’t have the motivation to risk his life. He didn’t want to die in vain alongside his crew. He returned to the reclined workstation. He didn’t like them much, anyway.

The screen came to life while he started working. “I don’t even know if I can grant you the access you need. I will need to remotely hack my way into the spider subroutines. We might still die.”

“You give us control of even one of those little workers, and we can take care of the rest.” Elliot glanced over his shoulder and swore he spotted a wicked grin spread over John’s face before it returned to the somber visage of a funeral attendee.

There wasn’t time to question John’s motives. If he was correct, there might still be time to save the crew. Elliot would deal with the officers once the control of the ship had been wrestled from their grip. He typed at a fevered pitch like his life depended on it… because it did.

AD 2100 Inner Belt – Daniel Frazier

The two miners cautiously picked their way up the mineshaft. Ava took point while Jacob fell in behind her.

Rock and dust broken free from the attack refracted the work lights from the suits, reducing visibility to less than a meter.

The shock of the attack must have damaged more systems in his suit than he realized. The HUD never completely cleared. The indicators blurred when Jacob focused on them. Then again, maybe it wasn’t the suit but his eyes causing blurred vision. The work lights flickered, and the normally fine fluid control of the limbs jerked about like he suffered seizures.

From behind, it was easy to see Ava controlled her suit no better. Her limbs shook as if she suffered from a palsy.

Once she rebooted his suit, they decided to get the hell away from the short-circuiting arcs blasting from the damaged bore machine. If it activated unsecured and near the pair, the device would bounce around the tunnel like blender blades, crushing anything unfortunate enough to get in the way.

Strange thing was, while working the rock, the trip in and out of the mine shaft seemed to fly by. Now, with the glitchy suits and the threat of cave-in ever present, the once pedestrian journey took on an epic feel. Funny how the threat of death changed the stakes and the mood.

There was no banter over the coms now. Jacob was certain Ava focused on their escape like he did. If caught in a sudden collapse, chances were overwhelming there would be no rescue coming for them. They would not be safe until on the ship and heading back to Ceres Station.

Jacob’s head hurt more. He’d risked some water and a shot of pain killer, but not too much. A normal dose might kill him if he had brain damage.

Better to get on the ship and hook up to the med bay. It would need to do since the Frazier didn’t carry a doctor. The nearest thing they had was the chief, but her forte would always lean toward the mechanical.

“Something is blocking the tunnel.” Ava’s words caused a lump to rise into Jacob’s throat. It would suck to survive the initial attack, only to find themselves entombed in a collapse.

“I think it’s Allen… and someone else.”

Jacob risked a peek around Ava’s suit, and sure enough, it looked like a pair of EVA suits intertwined in frozen combat.

Jacob recognized the other black suit right off the bat. It was a corporate tactical unit, an EVA suit specifically designed for combat in space.

Jacob was not sure what Allen was playing at. He didn’t stand a chance against the firepower a security service member carried. Hell, the Frazier didn’t stand a chance against the damned thing. It was overkill for the little mining operation the Frazier operated.

“Neither have power.” Ava’s voice crackled over the coms.

“Roger that.” He blurted out his reply. What else could he say? From a few meters distance, he strained to watch Ava, feeling for the reset button between Allen’s shoulder blades.

“Get off your ass and help me, will ya?” Her words cut to his soul.

Rather than argue, he snaked his way best he could up the shaft to the bodies that blocked their escape.

“Help me untangle them… I don’t think his suit is booting up.” Her voice strained as she struggled with the dead suits.

“If he still has air…” Jacob didn’t finish the sentence.

Ava had worked her way between the two bodies.

Jacob managed to pull the black combat suit to the side.

“s**t, he didn’t make it.” Ava’s words said it all. No further explanation was needed.

The corporate suit’s design was foreign to Jacob. He didn’t find any reset buttons or other external controls. There was no faceplate to see if the person inside was alive or dead. “You know anything about these suits?” He didn’t find any markings to indicate which company the suit belonged to.

“f**k ‘em… leave ‘em.” Ava’s gaze remained locked into the face shield of their dead captain.

“Look… I have no love for any corporate stooge, but if we save this heap of slag, it might go a long way to getting us some special dispensation. If there is even a person inside this thing.”

“They fired on their own people. Do you think that ship cares what we do?”

“You are assuming that was ship weapons that attacked us?”

“What else could it be?”

Jacob didn’t know, but he couldn’t leave the lifeless bodies here if there was a chance one still lived. “I don’t know, but from what I understand, that was no ship-based weapon… at least not one I’ve ever heard of. If we are going to find any answers, we might need this person alive.”

“I want you to come look at Allen’s face, then you can tell me if we need to save this asshole or not…”

Ava had never struck Jacob as an emotional person, but her voice cracked while she spoke. He picked his way up Allen’s leg until he could reach out and tap Ava’s calf. She moved to the side.

As delicately as possible, he worked his way up until face to face with their former captain.

The man’s heads-up display was dead. The only source of light inside the suit was the glow from Jacob’s suit. Ava was correct, there was no chance Allen survived the attack. His expression remained frozen in twisted agony, but that wasn’t the worst part. Something had burst both his eyeballs. Bloody empty sockets stared back at Jacob. Frost covered the captain’s face, and drops of liquid floated frozen behind the screen.

Only with great effort, Jacob kept from throwing up once again. “You bring the captain. I’ll handle the trooper on my own.”

“You don’t get it. I don’t want that scab on our ship.” If they’d been in gravity, Jacob was sure she would have hit him.

“I understand your concern, but you need to understand, I can’t leave a person out here to die.”

“Even if they will kill us as soon as they wake up?”

“Even if… Look, this arguing is probably moot. I think when we reach the surface… I don’t think we are going to like what we find when we get out of here.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Do you have a headache? Fighting to keep from throwing up?”

“Yeah, sure, we’ve been through the shit.”

“I’m afraid that isn’t why we are sick… I think we took a heavy dose of radiation back there.”

“The bastards nuked us?” It was easy to hear the fear in her voice.

“I doubt it. The ship was too near to launch a nuke without getting caught in the radiation effects. Allen looks… cooked. I doubt we’ll find anyone alive outside this rock.”

“And the asteroid shielded us?”

“Maybe just enough so we don’t grow a second head… yeah.” It was wishful thinking, but Jacob was pretty sure if Allen got cooked, the other suit’s occupant was certainly just as dead. He and Ava probably received a lethal dose of radiation from the blast. If the Frazier survived, it might only serve for a place for the pair to wait out the last few days while waiting to die from radiation poisoning.

What a shitty way to check out.

Between the added weight of the two disabled suits and the sketchy power units, the final ascent to the mouth of the mine shaft was a struggle.

By the time the small group reached the surface, Jacob panted to keep his oxygen levels in the green, and he was certain puddles of sweat pooled in the joints of his suit. Surely the unit’s temperature controller malfunctioned, causing major swamp ass.

The HUD might not tell him, but his atmosphere mix was off. From his gasping for breath, Jacob assumed his CO2 scrubbers were jacked up. He dreamed of washing the funk from his body with a week’s worth of water rations.

Ava’s head cleared the shaft opening. Her only comment ruined any hope of a rescue from the Frazier. “Shit.”

Jacob poked his head from the hole and couldn’t think of any words to convey his disappointment.

The work lights were all out. The ship rested in the dark, barely visible. There were no fires burning. But in space, how could there be? He did spot several white flashes of electrical shorts flashing in the darkness.

It was impossible to know for sure, but he didn’t spot any other ship in the area.

The freighter remained tethered to the rock but just barely. At least half the lines pulled free and snaked dangerously about.

“We need to reach the ship and hope we can get something to work.” Ava set Allen’s suit down next to a stack of shipping containers.

“The others?” Jacob risked the question he felt there could only be one answer to.

Ava’s arm pointed out into space, not far from the hulk that was once their ship. He spotted the light gray of a spacesuit as it tumbled off into the black. He didn’t need to ask. It was out of reach for the pair.

“Frazier, this is Ava and the newbie. Tell me we aren’t the only survivors…”

Jacob resented being called the new guy. Technically he was older and probably more experienced than the woman he’d been partnered with. With so much death around, now was not the time to split hairs. No matter how hard they wished for help from the ship, Jacob was pretty sure the two of them were alone.

“My air is going nasty… Let’s get up there and see how bad it is.”

“Drop that load, and you can move better.”

Jacob shook his head inside the suit. Even if he knew it would not transfer to the outside, old habits from Earth died hard. “You know I can’t do that.”

Only a few steps from the open hole sat the control to the ship’s lift platform. The chances were slim the device still worked, but Jacob still pressed the call button, with no response.

Ava started climbing the nearest guideline to the airlock above. “If you pass out, I’m leaving the scab out here, dead or alive. Why do you want to risk your life for a stranger?”

“I have to hope that if the situation was reversed, some stranger might save me.”

“I’m sorry… it has been my experience most people won’t bother to piss on a burning man.”

“I hope you’re wrong.” It took concentration to get the four arms and legs working to follow her up the line. The tail gripped the security body in a death grip. “Just so you know, if you catch on fire, I’ll happily piss on you.”

Ava chuckled. “You say the sweetest things to the ladies.”

It was nice to hear her laughter, even if it might be short-lived.