“Um, well, I don't know why but every year humans used to dress up as different fictional characters and famous people then go out collecting candy and small gifts. A lot of colonies still do it, even if it's just an excuse for a costume party.”
“A costume party, I've seen one in a movie. Yes, that would be fun.”
They arrived at the heavy hatch leading into the center of the main emitter systems that the engineering crew were rebuilding. Both of them sealed their vacsuits and made sure their tool boxes were firmly shut before opening the door.
“I can't wait to get the wormhole generator running again,” Finn said as he stepped through airlock's inner door. “I've never been through one before.”
“It is incredible. You can turn your inertial compensation systems off once you've finished accelerating. There is no turbulence and since there is a directionality to all force in a wormhole any debris or particles is normally drawn out before a vessel even enters. Very smooth travel, quite peaceful,” Price explained as he closed the first hatch behind them and looked over Finn's shoulder at the display showing the status inside.
“Well, the other teams finished all the work around the main chamber. It's about time we start reconnecting leads and checking the primary control systems. I hear a couple astronomers actually want to use the emitters to create micro wormholes so they can see further into the galaxy.”
“I hope Captain gives them the opportunity, I'd love to see the results,” Price said with mild enthusiasm.
“Thank you for coming along to lend a hand, by the way. I know you just finished a shift on the bridge.”
“Don't mention it. I'd rather be here getting a first look at one of the most interesting systems on the ship than in the Oota Galoona or getting extra sleep,” Price paused for a moment, taking a closer look at the display Finn was scrolling through. “Is that reading right?”
“I'm double checking it now but it says there's no pressure or gravity inside. Someone turned all the environmental systems off and opened the main access door.”
“When? Does it say?”
Finn shook his head as he finished rechecking the status of the room beyond the inner door. “Last night. Let's take a look,” he said as he started the decompression sequence inside the airlock.
“I'll send a note to security detailing what we found,” Price said as he highlighted the recording of the conversation he just had with Finn and sent a copy to Stephanie and another to the security office.
The depressurization sequence completed and Finn opened the inner door. The main control room for the primary emitters was lit but cold and empty. A few old parts had drifted up off the deck in the null gravity and the semicircular console in the center of the power management systems crowding it blinked lazily, waiting to be activated by an authorized member of the crew. There was enough space inside the main room for six to eight people. Three crewmen would work the main control station, and the rest would be entrusted with maintaining the delicate systems that transformed raw power from the ship reactors into gravity, energetic mass or other types of energy. The primary purpose of the main emitter was to create wormholes, but it could be reconfigured for other tasks if needed.
“I don't see anything that will cause damage if we turn the gravity back on and it were to fall to the deck suddenly,” Price said as he took a look around the space. “We might want to close the service aperture first though.”
Finn drifted towards the two and a half meter wide circular opening at the far end of the room and looked outside towards the distant nebula. It still dominated the view, he couldn't see past it to the left, right, above or below but he knew it was actually over two light years away. He was just about to turn away when something caught his eye. “Agameg, has the ship changed course since last night?”
“No, we're moving in a straight line in dead space.”
Finn magnified a section of his view using his command unit controls. “Then this makes sense. There's a body out there.”
“From the funeral? That doesn't make sense at all.”
“No, she's in a vacsuit, her headpiece isn't sealed.”
“I'll inform security. Good thing you noticed before we turned on the gravity, Stephanie will probably want to see the room undisturbed.”
“I think our work is going to be delayed a while,” Finn said, shaking his head. “My C and C unit's forensic package just confirmed that she was strangled before being tossed out the service hatch.”
Gabriel's Gift
“A loss of coordination is to be expected.”, Gabriel had told him as he passed him the high density storage chip. It was labelled simply; General Collins, Collected Intensive Neural Scan. Wheeler had looked to the scrawny, dishevelled fellow then and gave him an apprehensive look. “So you want me to become him?”
Gabriel laughed loudly, uproariously, shaking his head. It was obnoxious, the man didn't acknowledge half of what was going on with more than an absent nod most of the time and when he did it was some extreme, over exaggerated gesture that was so over the top that it was distracting. “Not at all. That information has been distilled by a computer system. Once a neural scan has been passed through a digital system it becomes reorganized into pure data. If you were to plug that into an AI it would be nothing more than a large database of what it would call; informative experiences. Sure, the AI would learn from it, most likely emulate Collins very convincingly, maybe even think it was the old General, but it couldn't be him. When you load that into your own cranial unit your organic mind will be able to search it, read it like memories but they will be static, look as though you were viewing them through a holographic projection or simulation that you could fast forward or rewind, search at your leisure.”
“Because a computer read and rewrote the data.”
“Exactly, that's why there's been so much research into reintegrating digital memory into an organic mind.”
“And why you pursue Alice.”
For a moment Gabriel's eyes lost focus, as though he was looking at something far distant, then his gaze fell back onto Lucius. “Yes, but even I am becoming convinced she's not necessarily the answer to the problem. Finding her, having a chance to communicate with her is something I believe may never happen, though I wish it would. For the time being, I would like you to take the next step forward.”
“Why me? I'm sure there are other frameworks around who you could just slip this into and have them work on it.”
“You're one of our successes, we took great pains to transfer memories into you that could properly inform your personality.”
“And yet I could dictate what I remember in about forty five minutes.”
“That's not the point; your essence, your behaviour is a ninety four point three percent match to the original Wheeler.”
“And look where that essence got him.”
“That's one of the very reasons why I want you to have access to General Collins' memories, his tactical thought processes. Free of an AI routine everything that made him who he was is yours to examine and comprehend. In trade I'd like to draw on you for insight…” Meunez stopped a moment, interrupted by something out of sight. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and for several seconds it looked like the man was about to fall over. “… Collins had information no one else had access too, founded projects that were so far off the books people didn't know who they were working for. With that kind of information your mission to make life very uncomfortable for Jacob Valance and his crew will be much easier and the rewards much higher. You could also become an integral component of the new command structure we're building for the West Watch initiative. We kept Collins at arm's length on many issues because we knew he never truly approved of using a religion as a method of control, but according to the personality profile we have on you-”
“I don't really care,” Wheeler interrupted. “Use grape soda, Saturday morning cartoons, whatever you want to get people to fall in line behind you, I'm happy as long as the cash keeps coming in and I know where I stand. I'll scan this in once I get back.”
“Good, I have to visit medical. They're implanting a few things that might help.”
