Against A Rock Page 2

  Why? Floreina asked. What are you ordering him to do?

  I wanted him to cross back through the previous corridor. I told him Filmar was going to pick him up on the other side.

  Floreina groaned. Ethanial, he’s not an idiot. The whole corridor was contaminated with coolant. He’s well aware of how long it takes for it to cool to safe levels.

  Floreina pulled up the monitors from Milkeinos’ location, but Ethanial stopped her. Commander, I can handle it… I think it would be better for both of you if I took care of this.

  But she looked anyway, to see Milkeinos huddled against the wall near the hatchway leading back into the damaged corridor. The door hung half open. The stump of his right arm jutted hideously upward as he screamed Floreina’s name.

  “Commander Floreina, please!” he cried. “Lieutenant Ethanial is trying to kill me! Please, Lord… I can still work… Commander Floreina, please… I can still work… look at me… I’m still alive and talking… you know I can still be a productive member…” And his face collapsed to the floor, repeating her name, “…Commander Floreina!”

  And Floreina stopped short once again.

  Yeah… Ethanial started. He thinks you’re the one to spare him…

  And Floreina shot Ethanial a furious glare over the open channel. What do you think you’re doing letting him know?

  My apologies, Ma’am, replied Ethanial. That was a bad choice on my part… I was trying to get it done quickly. I figured he would be so disoriented that he would forget about the danger.

  He’s a Minmatar, Floreina reminded. He’s going to protect his own existence… and when this happens you risk contaminating the rest of the population.

  I’m sorry, Ma’am, he repeated. I know… that was my mistake.

  So what are you doing about it now? she asked as she pulled up the audio and visual records from the corridor to hear Ethanial’s demands and Milkeinos’ pleading arguments from just a minute earlier.

  Well, I allowed him to open the hatch back into the damaged area, and then he started refusing my orders, and now he refuses to close the hatch again. If I could get him to close that hatch I could vent the oxygen in the corridor… but he seems to have figured that out. So now I have a couple drones coming from outside. They should get to him in a couple minutes…

  Ethanial paused, and Floreina sensed his consciousness suddenly shuddering, as though hiding his own disgust. They felt each other’s minds for a moment and Floreina noted just how similar they were as they seemed to blend together into a single saddened and frustrated person, who simply had to do something they didn’t want to do.

  And she pulled away a quick moment later. I’ll take over, Lieutenant. I should have been handling this from the beginning.

  Yes, Ma’am, he replied, directing her toward the two drones, displaying their intended path on a three dimensional blueprint.

  Okay, copy that, Floreina replied. I’ll take it…

  You gonna be okay, Commander? asked Lieutenant Adran. There’s no shame in having spiritual issues with this…

  No, no, Floreina replied. This is my job; he’s already suffered too much because I didn’t handle it from the beginning.

  She waited for the bots to make their way through the service crawlways to the slave’s position. She watched Milkeinos, lying twitching on the floor, but from a distance, the vision blurred over with numerous other menial tasks like cleanup procedures and efficiency reports. And she shut herself off from the corridor’s audio feeds as his cries raised in pitch.

  Milkeinos’ face suddenly changed, and his body froze. He looked up, and stared into the camera, as though knowing exactly which one Floreina would be using. His lips moved, but Floreina refused to allow her interpreter application to process the motions.

  Milkeinos stared into the camera, his face growing flat, as though suddenly recognizing his real situation, and his mouth stopped moving. Five minutes earlier the thought that he would be refused medical attention would never have crossed his mind. Now, Floreina imagined his reality collapsing, seeing his Amarrian masters, his spiritual guides, as something completely different, something dark and twisted and evil. As false as it was, for a second Floreina could imagine that feeling, and understood.

  And Milkeinos began moving again, dragging himself to his knees and crawling forward toward the hatch. He forced himself over the divider, falling forward into the adjacent room. He stopped short at the blast of cold, then pressed on.

  Her first thought was that he had resigned himself to his fate, and was headed back toward the coolant as Ethanial had ordered, but a moment later noticed that he was not heading toward the main damage, and was instead turning toward his discarded pack of equipment.

  Did you send Milkeinos out with any communications in that bag? Floreina asked her father. Please tell me he won’t be able to contact his friends…

  Looks like he might have one, replied Miltein. A personal datapad. I can’t isolate it. I can’t prevent his connection unless I get an ID.

  Floreina forced her mind toward the first of the drones. It glided forward through the tight crawlway as magnetic strips along the walls and floor powered on and off at its command.

  She entered the robot, seeing the crawlway from its front mounted camera. The normally invisible propulsion strips dotted on all sides of her like tentacles, pulling and pushing her along the deck plating.

  She stepped up the motion, firing the magnetism faster and faster, envisioning them as a blur around her as the drone propelled down the crawlway.

  Ahead, she found an access hatch above Milkeinos.

  The drone slid to a halt as Floreina released the lock to open the hatch. Her unfamiliar mechanical body tumbled to the deck below. She fired the floor strips to break her fall and rolled back to her proper position on an invisible magnetic cushion.

  She propelled forward, through the open hatch and into the next corridor, where frost still coated the walls and Milkeinos dragged himself across the floor, the drone’s microphones picking up his deep throated whine.

  He sat up as he reached the pack, his head bobbing side to side. As he reached into the bag, he looked up to see Floreina in her sleek, mechanical form, hovering on her magnetic field a hundred centimeters above the deck plating. He stared at her, as though recognizing who was behind the indifferent robotic exterior.

  “No,” he said. “Please… Master Floreina… Karleen…Master Miltein… please…” But his voice faded away in resigned helplessness as Floreina extended and ignited her welding torch.

  He pulled out the datapad. “Can I please just contact my daughter…”

  And Floreina charged forward.

  He swung the datapad suddenly, and screamed as the back of his hand slammed into the cold metal and the torch connected with his arm, charring his uniform.

  The datapad dropped to the floor and the slave pulled his arm up to gain a grip on the drone’s head. As the magnetism fought against Milkeinos’ push, her welding torch floundered at chest level, too distant to make a connection.

  Her heart pumped, a loud, repetitive thud, echoing mechanically as though literally housed within this cold, hollow, device.

  “I’m sorry,” she said, unable to hold her tongue any longer. And she rocked, utilizing every strip to roll left and right.

  And Milkeinos’ hand faltered and slipped. Floreina fell against the slave, burying the torch in his belly and slamming her steel face against his. Her camera maintained a view of Milkeinos freeze-burned, tear streaked face, and as they tumbled to the ground Floreina could see nothing else.

  And for a moment, this Minmatar looked just like Mahran.

  Lying atop him for several long moments, the violent twitching registered on the many motion sensors throughout her body.

  And Floreina looked at a tiny dimple on the tip of his nose, blocking out everything else, the sounds, the vibrations, the cold of the room, and the warmth of the body. She focused on the dimple, as though that was all he had bee
n, and all his life had meant.

  Finally rolling off the body, she pulled back to look, just long enough to confirm the termination. And she wrenched her consciousness from the robot as though escaping from a tainted garbage bin and forced herself back into her human form.

  She looked out on the command center and her core crew as though they were figures in a diorama. They turned to gaze at her, one by one as she retreated from the network.

  Fumbling with her hair and the back of her turtleneck, she clutched the data connection, and just before exiting the system, she took note of the attitudes of her fellow crewmen.

  Perhaps they were not as attached to the slaves as their commander, but they understood her position. They watched, fascinated… but did not pass judgment.

  And she popped the connection from the back of her head, and felt the relief of an empty mind flood over her.

  Simplicity once more… just her and her personal implant.

  She fought the tears, as she saw the lieutenants momentarily neglecting their duties to gaze in her direction. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and quickly wiped them on the cuff of her sleeve. “My apologies, gentlemen.”

  “No need for apology, Ma’am,” Lieutenant Adran replied.

  She leaned into her seat to stare at the subtle light strips on the ceiling.

  “We need to pray for Milkeinos,” Floreina said.

  Several of the lieutenants looked up from their posts.

  “Will you join me in prayer for the lost crewman?” Floreina asked.

  And several of her crew looked around questioningly.

  “He disobeyed several direct orders, Commander,” Adran commented.

  “Only after finding out we wanted to kill him,” she replied.

  And her crew seemed to shrug in agreement.

  “Please Lord,” she started, “Grant our loyal slave your love and compassion as he crosses over…” Floreina continued carefully through her prayer, her speech applications processing everything she said.

  …death was as much a part of God’s vision as anything else… a cycle… a magical, rhythmic process that kept all existence in working order. And the Amarrian race had been chosen as the Lord’s overseers in that process.

  “Thank the Lord’s grace,” said each of the Lieutenants as she finished the prayer. “We thank the Lord’s grace,” repeated Captain Allihence through the command intercom. “We hope for this Minmatar’s salvation…”

  Floreina looked at her crew. “We also need to think about who’s going to replace Milkeinos…”

  “We were thinking of bringing Mahran up from engineering,” Adran said, turning to smile.

  “No jokes about my Minmatar!” Floreina replied playfully.

  “Why not?” Lieutenant Ethanial replied. “Why's he so different from the others?”

  “Because he's mine.”

  ______ ______ ______

  “Did you send Filmar straight to the discipline chambers?” Floreina whispered.

  Karleen nodded as she sipped her drink. “Absolutely. Class four disciplinary measure.”

  “Did he deserve that?” Floreina asked. “My heart wants to blame the captain more than Filmar.”

  “The master always shoulders the blame,” Karleen replied. “But the slave bears the punishment.”

  Floreina glanced around the bar, her algorithms directing her eyes, searching for individuals with body language betraying their eavesdropping. But these folks were here for drink, and knew how to mind their business.

  Slavery was technically illegal on this station, the result of various agreements signed with the Amarrian Empire, CONCORD and the local business community to facilitate international trade. In Amarrian territory, even in high security, CONCORD patrolled space, slavery laws were low priority for police, but still, it paid to be careful.

  “I couldn’t even watch the recording,” Karleen said, shaking her head as she played with her ice cubes. “I’m glad I wasn’t in your shoes… that would’ve broken my heart.”

  Floreina nodded. “That was the saddest thing I’ve ever done…” she paused and looked up at her father, beer foam dangling from his moustache. “Except for that once…”

  Miltein nodded and sighed.

  “Would you two back me up if I made a petition to Allihence about reorganizing work orders so we don't put our subjects in danger unless the ship’s in danger?” Floreina asked.

  Karleen shrugged. “I've already sent my own official petition saying the same thing. I gave cost analysis, theories on worker morale… ”

  “Sign another one?” Floreina asked.

  “I'll put my name on it,” Miltein said.

  Karleen shook her head, ignoring the drink in her hand. “The captain was clear that I should drop it.” She set her glass back on the table. “I know… I agree with you on this… ”

  “… we were killing non-networked belt pirates,” Floreina continued, absently scratching the edge of the table with her fingernails. “The overclocking protocols were completely unnecessary… it's like Allihence has no concept of the way we think about death… ”

  “Immortality will do that to you,” Miltein said.

  “No, no… ” Floreina laughed, thinking of her crazy booster exploit idea from years earlier… and her ex, the only other person who knew of it. “Immortality's a lie,” she said. “Capsuleers only survive as long as the technology functions.”

  ______ ______ ______

  Floreina walked the station, searching, wandering to the upper gardens, amongst fruit trees growing under a massive dome.

  As she walked, Floreina scanned the faces of the people. With every face, her recognition software analyzed, connected with the station database, and returned their public files, name, history, criminal record… She saw each person from a distance, like they were characters in a computer game. And she knew everything about them.

  And they had no idea.

  Floreina found a spot on the grass. Her location made no difference for connecting to the network, but if she were to really search, and avoid getting caught, she would need to close her eyes and focus. The upper garden, under the fruit trees, was the most natural location.

  She lay on the grass, took a deep breath and allowed her gaze to wander before opening her police issued frequency scanner and powering up her internal transceiver.

  Careless criminals…

  This was just one of Floreina’s hobbies. New Eden was full of criminals in every angle of life, in every business, every culture. For the most part, the activities were successful, the police only having resources to catch and prosecute a small percentage.

  Floreina simply enjoyed finding them in the networks.

  The frequencies flowed through her mind, and the decoding algorithms went into effect, cross referencing the information with her array of encoding systems.

  She waited, and listened to the birds fluttering and chirping, ignoring most of the communications filtering through her mind.

  After a few minutes, the scanner began returning samples of the most notable conversations… prostitution, drug deals, cheating spouses, and domestic abuse cover-ups. After twenty minutes she came across a conversation that seemed to indicate a murder, scheduled to take place the next day, though the location and victim were not clear. She was careful in researching the source of the communication, fearful that local police would be monitoring. Coming up with no further information, she gave up. She preferred the soap-opera that was the lower-class, careless criminals, who would let their whole back-story slip out during a conversation, assuming their encryptions were secure, simply because a salesman had promised them so.

  Then, suddenly, some individuals popped to her attention.

  She was surrounded by stupid and careless criminals, and these criminals didn’t seem any different in that regard… but it was rare to see them dealing with anything more than a couple thousand ISK.

  These careless criminals, on the other hand, had hit it big, through
what must have been dumb luck. Three low-class drug dealers had ripped off a capsuleer for two standard Exile boosters.

  Sometimes things could be too perfect to be coincidence.

  ______ ______ ______

  It all felt different today as Floreina slipped the data link into the back of her head and settled into her command seat. Normally the operations felt like a work of art, but today they would be overclocking every turret until total shutdown. A foreboding shadow enveloped her moment of connection.

  I’ve reviewed your report on the effects of overclocking, said Captain Allihence through a private mental communication. I understand your concern, but I still wish to do more testing.

  I think we'll lose crewmembers…Floreina replied. I won’t be surprised if we lose half a dozen… I could see coolant ruptures spreading into the base…

  And that’s why we’re having these tests… real live training… with real lives…

  Floreina communicated, Captain, may I ask a frank question?

  The captain gave an inviting mental nod.

  It seemed as though you enjoyed the harm done to our slaves during the overclocking.

  Allihence paused. Is that a problem, commander?

  Floreina’s mind jumped at the response. Well… it seems… un-Amarrian to enjoy the suffering of others… even if they are Minmatar…

  Oh, yes, Allihence seemed to backtrack. I don’t take pleasure in simply watching them suffer… I enjoy watching the challenges they face… and watching them better themselves… and sometimes the weak must be weeded out, and when that's necessary, I think it’s okay to watch the drama unfold… You can’t tell me the excitement isn’t part of why you love this job.

  ______ ______ ______

  Heat level at sixty percent warned Lieutenant Adran. We have four minor coolant leaks, a cracked focus mirror, and a breach in the outer casing. About six more shots before we're incapacitated. Currently all repair drones and maintenance slaves have been dispatched.