Chapter 16: Clean Up

After lunch we returned to the main bridge.

“Ship, what is the status of Brian’s items?” asked Jem.

“Construction of the surrogate probe is complete, and the probe was launched. The new filters were tested using the surrogate probe, and they successfully blocked the virus. The filter is now incorporated throughout all AIs. That completes items one and two. The data port probe is deployed to the pirate vessel, and it is now under our control. Copies of the filtered station logs are available for examination. Defensive cloaked probes have been deployed around this vessel. That completes items four, five and six,” replied Ship.

“Excellent Ship! Koluna, please examine the logs and prepare a list of vessels believed to be attacked by the pirates, group the list by system of origin,” said Jem.

“Yes captain,” said Koluna.

“If the Ori Confederation has diplomatic ties with systems that lost vessels, we could ask for them to pass on a copy of the list,” said Laine.

“Good idea Laine. That could save us the time to contact those systems,” said Jem.

“Captain, I’d like to work on some projects with Ship,” I said.

“Please take Laine with you,” replied Jem. I looked over at Laine who smiled back at me. I’d expected this. I wasn’t supposed to go off on my own any more. Fortunately, she seemed to fit in with my way of working. I nodded to Jem and stood. Laine followed me and we left Jem and Koluna on the main bridge.

Laine and I went to the lounge area. We took a seat on the sofa, facing the large display.

“Ship, you said we have control of the pirate vessel. Have you looked through their logs yet?” I asked.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Please pull up a map of the systems in the area, highlighting the locations this vessel has visited recently,” I said. On the display there was a map of star systems with dots to highlight where the vessel had visited. Ship also drew a line to show the order in which it had travelled.

“Now, do the same with the logs from Tobis’ vessel. Use a different colour to highlight,” I said. The map zoomed out to include other star systems. The two lines intersected in several systems.

“Did you recover any movement data from the computer cores on the pirate vessels we destroyed? If so, add it to the map,” I said. More colours showed up on the map.

“Woah!” exclaimed Laine.

“What do you see Laine?” I asked.

“They all converge in this system here,” replied Laine as she pointed to an area on the map.

“Not only that, but they visited it more than once. They went somewhere else, then returned to this system. Why would they do that?” I asked.

“Could it be they used it as a base?” she offered. I nodded.

“Ship, zoom in on this system. Plot the navigation logs for the vessels that visited. Highlight which planet they visited. Pull up what we know about the system,” I said. We now saw the planets orbiting a star. The coloured lines all converged on an orbit around the fourth planet. The system did not have a designation on Ship’s database, I presumed it had not been visited before.

“Laine, I think we found our next destination. Ship, save these charts, we will show them to the captain later,” I said. Laine smiled.

“Confirmed,” said Ship.

“Brian, that was so amazing how you worked that out!” Laine gushed as she squeezed my arm. I looked down into her eyes.

“We did that together. You, me and Ship,” I replied.

“No, you were leading me to the conclusion,” said Laine.

“Rubbish! We each played a part. Do not underestimate your contribution,” I said. I wanted to get her focus off of me and onto the work at hand.

I smiled. “Next item, the improvements to our away team uniforms. I am sorry you did not get to see them in action with the pirates. You too Ship, I assume your interior video feed was down. They reflected the pirates’ blasters with deadly results,” I said.

“I am glad they worked well,” said Laine.

“Well, I have another cool idea. You want to hear it?” I said.

“Oooh yes!” gushed Laine.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship. I almost thought I detected enthusiasm from an AI.

“Ship, I know you can do some amazing tricks with holograms. I am a big fan of your dreadnought probes. I am thinking about a portable device that can project an animated image of an extra crew member. This is as a decoy, so it should look realistic. For example if an enemy were trying to shoot a weapon at us, we could get this extra crew member to walk out and draw their fire. When hit by weapons fire, the image could fall over as if they had been hit,” I said.

“I like it. Perhaps the image could have a bright red shirt so that an enemy will notice it. It could be programmed to put in some effort to avoid getting shot, to act more realistic,” said Laine.

“I like your idea of a red shirt. We should then avoid wearing red, so we know who is real. Ship, what is your assessment?” I asked.

“Chances of the away team survival increased,” replied Ship.

“Can you produce a prototype for us to test out?” I asked.

“Confirmed. Sufficient design parameters provided. I will inform you when it is ready,” replied Ship.

“Next item, what to do with the pirate vessel?” I had my own ideas, but I wanted to get her input.

“Ship, you can make it do whatever we tell it to do?” asked Laine.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship.

“Do we need to be here for that to work?” asked Laine.

“I can revise the protocols in the AI for autonomous function,” replied Ship.

Laine faced me. “I am guessing something like pirate decoy alpha?” she said.

“Excellent idea. But what if a friendly vessel is encountered?” I asked.

“It could relay a message explaining what happened here,” said Laine.

“For a friendly vessel, it could provide a copy of the list of known freighters that were attacked. I imagine several star systems will send vessels out here looking for missing freighters. Ship, can you handle all that? Designate the vessel pirate decoy beta, “ I said.

“Confirmed. Upgrading protocols on the pirate vessel AI,” said Ship.

“Fantastic Laine!” we both smiled.

“You think so?” said Laine as she smiled and looked up at me. I wasn’t falling for that.

“Next, we need to send the data that Koluna is preparing back to the Ori Confederation,” I said.

“As in a probe?” asked Laine.

“Yes. Ship, prepare a message probe with hyper drive to carry a message back to the Ori Confederation. It should be able to activate a transponder with our code, and some basic capacity to pass on the message to the patrol vessel that arrives to investigate,” I said.

“Confirmed,” said Ship.

“What should we do after the message is delivered?” I asked Laine.

“Return here, or self-destruct?” Laine asked.

“I think self-destruct is safest. I don’t want our tech to end up in the wrong hands. Ship, after the message is delivered, can you arrange a self-destruct protocol?” I asked.

“Confirmed,” said Ship.

“What else should we do before we leave here?” I asked. Laine looked at me like she did not have another idea.

“I was thinking we should attach hazard warning lights to the derelict station. It is big and dark and a lot of vessels come this way. I do not want a careless pilot to crash their vessel into it. Ship, can you handle that?” I said.

“Confirmed,” replied Ship. Laine nodded in agreement.

“I think that is enough for now. It is getting late. Let’s go back and join the others,” I said.

“Yes Brian,” replied Laine. We got up and wandered back to the main bridge.