Noah - 25. Chapter 25

Date: 7th November 2419
Location: MMV Noah, Unknown

“According to Sii’nour, the Pallner society is made of two halves; the military and the civilians. The military monopolise every aspect of production and take the lions share, leaving the civilians to scavenge what is left. Understandably, the civilians harbour a lot of resentment to the military, but are unable to organise or fight back.” I informed her as we sat at the large table in her quarters.

“The way I see it, if we can covertly make contact with the more organised civilian groups; train them, plan with them, maybe even equip them, we can ingratiate the most technically valuable groups. The Pallner military seems to be strong, and would certainly be useful to have on side in a fight, but I think it’s unlikely that we would be able to get them to share any technology or expertise. The civilians might not be as good in a fight, but we’ve seen first hand what sort of technology they already possess; with their help we could probably reverse engineer a lot of their tech and incorporate it into our ships. In the long term, I think we would gain more from working with the civilians.”

The admiral nodded her agreement, waiting for me to continue.

“Sii’nour is confident that his nurse and the Lahstey’s third engineer would be willing to join us if we offered them a similar opportunity to the one we gave him. Obviously having the engineer on board would help salvage the Rolstan greatly and could teach our engineers how some of the technology works. As for his nurse, well, he isn’t incredibly useful to us as a nurse, but if we were to send him back to the Horstur with the rest of the Lahstey’s crew, he could act as a representative and make contact with any subversive elements both over there and on the Pallner city ship.”

“So you propose we play nice with their military, while aiding the rebels? I assume you will be able to string along the Ambassador or his replacement while this is going on?” She asked to clarify.

“I believe so. We continue to resurrect their dead, and perhaps send some Marines to assist in their defence, and in exchange they provide us undoubtedly limited and insufficient access to their technology and scientists. It should seem to the Pallner like a fair deal. While we feign happiness with what they give us, the most experienced Marines will be training the rebel groups and helping to plan attacks. As long as we occasionally lose a few Marines in the attacks, it shouldn’t appear too suspicious.”

“So the rebels will be putting pressure on the military, what will that really achieve?”

“Mostly a diversion while we seed operatives throughout their fleet. Every Pallner ship has a few rebels aboard, given time we should be able to implant them with a neural link and organise more serious damage. The eventual plan is to lure the bulk of their fleet to one place, have the operatives strike and cripple them, then finish them off ourselves. Without their fleet, the Pallner Military will be severely diminished, and we’ll be free to wipe out the rest of them. Without the military, the Pallner civilians will be ingratiated to us, and also dependant on us to help them rebuild. We’ll be able to get unlimited access to their scientists and technology.”

“Sounds like a pretty by-the-book revolutionary support. Don’t you think it’s a bit too by the book? I’d see through it pretty quickly.” the Admiral replied sceptically.

“The Pallner aren’t natural guerrilla fighters. They just don’t have the tactical understanding of how to make it work; right now the few organised groups that exist are limited to the occasionally planting computer viruses, or the odd small-scale raid. That also means that the Pallner Military isn’t used to fighting against an organised guerrilla opponent. What we consider to be old tactics and would see through easily, they have never even thought of. Even the oldest tricks in the book are useful again.”

“Even so, they aren’t stupid. If we arrive one day and suddenly the resistance movement adopts totally new and effective tactics, they’re going to put two and two together. What’s your timescale for this plan?”

“No less than five years; possibly up to ten, depending on what countermeasures the military puts into place. We’ll take everything nice and slow; nurture contacts with the resistance, train their leaders, who can then in turn train the rest of the groups. If we help them develop long-term plans, a gradual escalation of attacks, there should be nothing firm to trace back to us. As a backup, we can begin calculating our location and an emergency jump destination, just in case. If everything falls apart, we can just jump out to a distant star system.”

“And you believe that the technology we get in return would be worth the risk?”

“Definitely. We play the diplomacy game with the military, maybe get a few of their technologies, while assisting the guerrillas. Once the military is overthrown, we take their entire database, then decide what to do with the liberated Pallner.”

“OK, I’ll give your plan some thought. Now, what about the Rolstan?”

“SC Long has managed to repair the ship’s computer, but is still unable to access it. Right now, Sii’nour is busy with cloning the Lahstey crew. As I said earlier, he feels confident that the ship’s third engineer would be willing to join us. With the engineer’s assistance, the job would undoubtedly go much faster. The rest of the ship’s systems are right now completely beyond our understanding. Without assistance of some sort, we probably couldn’t move the damned thing even if it were in one piece. As it is, Bodgit feels that he can get one of the engines patched up, and the ship’s generator is now online, but is in such poor shape that he’s uncomfortable at the thought of pushing it.”

The admiral sat contemplating for a few moments before she responded.

“Give it back,” She finally said, greatly confusing me, “Have SC Long remove the computer system, along with anything else of interest, then give the hull back to the Pallner. Invite the engineer to join us, he can assist in developing an interface so that the computer can be analysed here, then can help in coming up with ways of implementing any technology we can salvage into new designs. That ship’s just going to be an energy pit and diplomatic thorn as long as we have it.”

“Yes, ma’am.” I obediently replied, noting down her orders.

“Thank you, Captain. Was there anything else you wished to discuss?” She rose to her feet.

“No, ma’am.” I stood to attention opposite her.

“Very well. I will contact you when I come to a decision on your plan. Dismissed.”

Nodding once, I turned and left the room.

Making a beeline for the nearest grav lift, I sent a message to Sii’nour, informing him that as long as the engineer’s memories showed that he would not betray us, he would be invited to join us.

The grav lift quickly took me to the deck where the Rolstan was docked. Unfortunately the ship had been docked near the very bow of the ship, as near as possible to the Marines’ barracks, and as the grav lifts only moved vertically, I was left with a walk of nearly 2km to reach it.

After a brisk ten minutes, I found myself once again at the airlock. Leaving the crisp black and grey of Noah, I stepped into the charred beiges of the Pallner ship. Even with the life support system online, the unpleasant odours remained.

I made my way through the vessel to the Engineering deck, where Bodgit was currently shouting out orders to someone on the opposite side of the room.

“Change of plans.” I said as I approached him. “How much usable tech do you think is left aboard?”

“Not a lot. With help we might be able to fix up one of the engines, but that’s about it.”

“Stop work on all repairs, have your teams scour the ship for anything we can use. However small, if it still works, take it. We’re giving the ship back to the Pallner, but I want to get everything we can out of it first.”

“Yes, sir.” He replied, then paused for a moment as he sent a message to all the repair crews aboard. “I’ll make sure every square inch of the ship is searched, if there’s anything useful left aboard, we’ll find it and take it.”

“Good, I also want you to have someone assist SC Long in removing the computer system. Have enough space on Noah cleared to house it, and ensure that wherever you set aside has a strong enough power supply available to run it.”

“Aye, sir. I’ll have a few empty crew quarters converted and energy rerouted.”

“How long will that take?”

“Maybe two days, depending on how quickly Long can figure out how to set up the system.”

“OK. What about the Spaceborer? When can we expect to have it online?”

“You’ll have to ask Commander Wye for details; he’s dealing with that.” Since Bodgit had done an excellent job of running Noah’s engineering crews, Wye had assigned him to take charge of the Rolstan refit, while he concentrated on getting the Spaceborer operational.

“Very well,” I nodded, “Carry on, Lieutenant.”

Heading back out of the engine room, I climbed back towards the middle deck. Unfortunately the ship’s elevator system had been trashed, and we were instead using hastily installed ladders in the shafts to get between floors. It was rather reminiscent of Noah a few months ago. Fortunately, given the Pallners’ wide stance, the shafts were large enough for the majority of our equipment to be moved through them without too much difficulty.

I felt much more comfortable once I passed through the airlock and back onto Noah. My link quickly resynchronised to the ship’s systems and keyed me back into the local communications channels. In order to facilitate efficient communication, the neural link functioned in several different communications channels simultaneously; a ship-wide channel, which would send the message to every person aboard, a section channel, which sent messages to everyone in the same section, a ranged channel which would send the message to everyone within a customisable range of the sender, and a private channel which would transmit only to specific people. The Rolstan was considered a separate ship by Noah’s systems, but didn’t have its own ‘net system, meaning the only ways link communication was possible aboard was via the ranged or private channels. This also unfortunately meant that there was no way for a person aboard one ship to communicate directly with someone on the other.

Within a few seconds of resynchronising, a message appeared before my eyes. It was a simple update from Sii’nour, stating that the second body was ready for processing and requesting permission to continue. I sent him authorisation and pinged Commander Wye’s link. A moment later, the system reported his location as being in the Spaceborer control room.

It only took five minutes to reach the control room. At the Colonel’s suggestion, I had agreed to allow a pair of Marines to be stationed on guard here at all times. They saluted smartly when I approached, remaining at attention after dropping the salute. The ship again required me to confirm my identity when I attempted to open the bulkhead to the control room, and obediently slid the heavy door open once it had confirmed I was authorised entry.

Commander Wye had been busy in here; the burnt out consoles had been ripped out, leaving the room virtually empty. Around a quarter of the lighting panels were operational, the rest were either now missing, showing the bare bulkheads and wiring looms or were black and burned out. The dividing wall between the control room and the Spaceborer device itself had been cleared up, the broken glass removed and the whole room looked much cleaner.

Currently, Wye was speaking with one of his crewmen, occasionally pointing at certain areas and referring to a holopad. He quickly spotted me standing in the doorway and after a couple more arm gestures set the crewman about his tasks and walked over to me.

“Before you ask, not any time soon,” He pre-empted me, “There is some pretty major structural warping behind the funnel that I didn’t see on the first evaluation, the whole thing’s going to have to come down and be rebuilt from scratch. We’re looking at two months minimum for that alone, assuming that the warping was limited to that bulkhead.”

“What if you have more men? We’re gutting the Rolstan and giving it back, you’ll be able to re-task all the crews currently working aboard it within the next couple of days.” I asked, displeased with his estimates.

“Right now, I’ve got as many teams working on this as it needs. More guys won’t make any difference here.” He replied, shaking his head.

“There’s nothing you can do to speed the work up?”

“I’ve already got a temporal distorter being installed tomorrow, and there will be crews working around the clock. Four months is the absolute minimum to rebuild this properly. I can’t stress how lucky we’ve been in recovering the control programs. If we hadn’t, we’d be stuck here forever more.”

“OK, I guess we’ll have to find a way to keep the Pallner sweet a bit longer. How’s work elsewhere going?”

“Surprisingly well. The power distribution grid is pretty much completely repaired, the biggest jobs right now are rebuilding the borer and fixing that bloody great hole through the ship.”

“We’re going to be installing the Pallner computer core aboard Noah soon, Bodgit’s teams will be handling most of it, but I’d like you to have a couple more teams on hand to help them out if they need it. That computer’s the second priority, only after this.” I gazed around the ruined, empty room. Four months would be a long time to keep the Pallner happy, especially with the expected defection of the Lahstey’s Engineer; that was going to cause some problems.

Wye let out a frustrated sigh. His undermanned teams were already far overstretched, and though they were doing an excellent job, there were simply too few of them to do all the work needed. “I’m sure I can find a team from…somewhere.” He begrudgingly replied.

“They might not be needed, Bodgit’s crews should be able to handle it, but I want them to get anything they need to get that computer operational.”

“Yes, Captain, I understand. Computer important, got it.” Wye testily stated while rubbing his temples, then sighing before apologising, “Sorry, sir. I’ve just…is there anything else I can help you with?”

“No, Commander, that will be all. Tell me, how long have you been here?”

“I don’t know, twenty, thirty hours?”

“I thought as much. You’ve got five minutes to get someone else to take charge here, then you’re either going to head to the bar to unwind, or your quarters to sleep, that’s an order.”

“But…” He began to argue, no doubt about his indispensability to the borer and how nobody else could do what needed to be done.

“Order, Commander. Not a suggestion.” I interrupted.

“Aye sir.” He reluctantly agreed. From the corner of my eye, I saw him take out a holopad as I walked away and head over to another engineer.

Leaving the room, I turned around to see him pointing out alternately between the holopad and various areas of the room to the Engineer before the door slid closed. I began to walk away, but stopped after just a couple of steps and turned to one of the Marines on guard.

“Corporal.” I addressed the large, muscular man, causing him to immediately snap to attention.

“Sir, Yes Sir?” He clearly shouted, his eyes still affixed high on the opposite wall.

“If Commander Wye hasn’t left that room in ten minutes, I want you to go in there and, if necessary, drag him to his quarters.” I ordered, knowing that there was a fair chance that Wye would get lost in his work again.

“Yes, Sir,” he replied, remaining expressionless.

Checking the ship’s time, I headed back to the Command centre to complete my shift.

“Who is this?” The Ambassador asked, standing over the unconscious Pallner lying in the main medical bay. It had been a couple of days since the Lahstey’s Captain had been resurrected, and we were now onto the ship’s Third Engineer, his head previously identified by Sii’nour.

“The Third Engineer.”

The Ambassador nodded, looking at a small pad, similar to the hand scanners salvaged from the Lahstey in appearance, but more like a holopad in function.

“Are you ready to revive?” he asked the Doctor after looking up the Engineer’s records.

“Just a couple more scans. Shouldn’t take more than a minute.” He replied, tapping away at the computer a few more times before approaching the bed with a syringe, injecting the unconscious body then standing back with a holopad.

Just like the rest of the resurrected crewmembers, the Engineer suddenly awoke, his nasal passages hissing loudly as they attempted to suck in as much air as possible and his eyes snapping opening widely.

“Third Engineer Tarr’surn?” the Ambassador asked, “Ambassador San-louur, 75527791.”

The Engineer looked around frantically for a few moments before his eyes settled on the Ambassador and he realised that he was alive.

“80001828.” He replied, his breathing slowing as he calmed down somewhat.

“You have been revived using alien technology, how do you feel?”

“I…I’m not sure.” He reached around to the back of his head, around to where the neural link was implanted.

“That sensation is normal.” The Ambassador assured him. Every crewmember resurrected had acted in mostly the same manner so far. “Here, drink,” He instructed, passing the Engineer a cup of nutrient rich fluid. Obediently, the Engineer quickly absorbed the liquid without argument.

“OK, you know the drill.” The Doctor interrupted, “Examination time. Out you go.”

The Engineer’s head snapped around, staring at the Doctor.

“It will be fine, they are friends. Comply with any requests they make.”The Ambassador said before leaving the room with me.

After a nod, the Ambassador and his Marine escort headed down the corridor a short way before entering a nearby Grav Lift. Once he was out of sight, I opened the door to the Cloning Facility and gestured to Sii’nour, who quickly emerged into the corridor.

“All is well?” He asked with some trepidation. There had been no problems so far, but from what I had gathered, he and Tarr’surn had been friends.

“No problems so far, the Doctor is just ‘examining’ him now.” I answered, leading him back into the medical bay, where the Doctor was fussing over the Engineer, taking various pointless readings in order to waste as much time as possible.

“Tarr’surn, my friend.”Sii’nour called, causing the Engineer to quickly look around behind him.

“Sii’nour? Is that you?”He sang in question. I had gotten rather good at identifying the nuances in Pallner speech that could be considered similar to inflections.

“The one and only.”Tarr’surn span around on the bed to face us, taking Sii’nour’s hand when offered. “How are you feeling?”

“Great. Apart from my head, it feels like there’s something in it.”

“That’s because there is.” Sii’nour replied with the equivalent of a laugh. “It’s called a neural link, it’s what let us resurrect you.”

“Us?” Tarr’surn asked, his inflection asking just who ‘us’ was.

“Yes, myself and my friends.”Sii’nour replied, putting an arm around my shoulder.

Tarr’surn glanced between myself and Sii’nour, and Sii’nour’s M uniform a few times before flushing a happy colour.

“You joined the aliens? You are free of the Military?”he asked excitedly.

“I did. They welcomed me with open arms, and,” Sii’nour looked at me for confirmation, which I gave him by nodding, “Would be happy to offer you the same.”

“This is true?”Tarr’surn asked, looking to me.

“We definitely have uses for your skills and knowledge, if you agree. If you wish to join us, however, we will have to scan your memories. Sii’nour believes you to be trustworthy, but we must be certain that if we do grant you asylum you do not betray us.”

Looking to Sii’nour for his opinion and receiving overwhelmingly positive signals, he agreed to the procedure.

“It will take just a moment to reactivate your neural link, this might feel a little strange.” The Doctor advised him, appearing from the back of the room.

Tarr’surn drew a sharp gasp as his mind was linked to the ‘Net, the neural link probing every memory he had, every intention and thought before switching to normal operating mode and delivering a report to the Doctor.

It took him a few moments to browse the results, but soon the Doctor’s nod confirmed that his intentions were sincere.

“Excellent, now, before I grant you asylum and induct you into the crew, you’ll need to understand a few things about us.” I began, Tarr’surn flushing his understanding. “Firstly, while we are maintaining diplomatic relations with the Pallner Military, we are not allied with them. Should it be a requirement, in joining with us, you agree to fight against your own people if necessary. Secondly, you will be expected to share any and all knowledge and experience you have of Pallner technology; any vows of confidentiality are considered void. Lastly, if you join us now, there is no way back. You will be an M Military citizen, and bound by our laws and customs.”

“I agree.”He replied without any hesitation. “I joined the Military to escape civilian life, I never truly felt any real loyalty to them.”

“From what Sii’nour has told me of your society, that is understandable, but if we were to assist your people in gaining fairer treatment, you would still be a crewmember of this ship, and would not be able to return to civilian life with them.”

Tarr’surn seemed slightly hesitant for a moment, before Sii’nour added his opinion;

“Believe me, I have no regrets at all in joining the crew of Noah. Admittedly I did so under different circumstances, but knowing what I do of these people, if I were in your position, I would take the Captain’s offer in an instant. We may not be able to rejoin civilian Pallner society, but without their help, our people will be stuck under the Military forever. With their help, we can free them. There is not one way that being here hasn’t been a thousand times better than being with the Military.”

Tarr’surn took a moment to consider Sii’nour’s recommendation,“I accept your offer. I will follow your laws and help you however I can. My knowledge is yours.”

“Excellent, then may I be the first to welcome you aboard Noah, Crewman Tarr’surn. I’ll have you assigned to the Engineering department, we already have need of your knowledge and abilities, but they can wait until you’re settled into your new body.”

“Thank you, Captain. I will not disappoint you.”He replied gratefully.

“If you need anything, or have any questions, Sii’nour will be able to help you. I’m sure he knows the answers to all your questions.”

“I’ll stick with you for the next day or so and show you around. I found these people to be nothing but friendly and helpful, you won’t regret joining us.” Sii’nour added, taking Tarr’surn’s hand. “With the help of the M Military, we will secure freedom for our civilians.”