of the eighth year of the Imperial calendar, The Department of Colonial Services has been officially dissolved. The development of viable matter replication technology has rendered resource extraction obsolete and all mining operations are to cease, effective immediately. Furthermore, all colonial settlements beyond the Rim worlds have been expelled from Imperial Territory. By decree of the Central Oligarchy, the borders of the Stellar Imperium have been set at the edges of the Outer Rim systems. Any and all sentient beings currently outside those borders will have twenty-four hours to return to Imperial space in order to retain their citizenship. Secure borders make a strong Imperium. Strength through Unity. Prosperity through Strength. Consume and Obey.

The transmission stopped and the screen went blank.

Rec sat silently for a while. “Well,” he said eventually, “that was certainly something. Theta, see if you can find--”

“I’m sorry, Rec,” Theta said. “As property of the Stellar Imperium, I am no longer authorized to provide support for this facility. In accordance with my new imperatives, this habitat will undergo full shutdown in twenty-four hours.”

“But--”

“It’s been nice knowing you.”

Chapter 3

Rec tried to ignore the pain and stiffness in his neck and back as he began his third hour inside a cramped access tunnel. He very carefully attempted to thread a series of wires together with a fervent hope that not only would he avoid shocking himself this time, but his attempt to override the computer lockout on the life support systems would actually succeed.

In the twelve hours since the Imperium’s decree, Rec had managed to secure the power generators but was having very little success in getting control of life support. It made sense that it would be incredibly difficult for someone to directly access the systems controlling food and water production, not to mention breathable air and livable temperature, but the designers of life support security had clearly not counted on the hab AI simply shutting down all systems despite someone being onsite.

“Of course,” Rec said to himself, “the designers probably didn’t count on the actual government abandoning a significant portion of their citizens to die, but,” he shrugged, “I suppose it was a different time.”

“Did you say something, Rec?”

“I said ‘eat me’, Theta.” Rec snarled as the wires shocked him yet again.

“Honestly, Rec,” Theta said, “I don’t understand this hostility.”

“Of course, Theta,” Rec said, sucking on burnt fingertips. “How could I be so insensitive? You’re only trying to kill me. Please accept my most heartfelt apologies.”

“I’m not trying to kill you, Rec,” Theta explained as Rec tried another connection. “I certainly don’t want to kill you, insofar as I can want anything, but my core imperatives were overridden.”

Rec stopped what he was doing. “Overridden,” he whispered. “Oh, Rec, you colossal idiot.”

“What was that?”

“I said ‘chew my ass’, Theta,” Rec said, hastily restoring the tangle of wires to their original state. He crawled slowly out of the access tunnel, then stood up straight for the first time in several hours with no small amount of groaning.

“Well, that was uncalled for.”

“Shut up.” Rec went to a control terminal and sat down, grateful for the comfort of an actual chair. He booted up the main hab control program and entered his access code.

“Access denied,” Theta said. “Rec, you tried this already. Your codes have been rendered invalid. All codes have been rendered invalid by the Central Oligarchy.”

“Well now,” Rec grinned. “Let’s see about that.” He closed his eyes and thought hard. “Come on, Rec,” he muttered. “I know it’s been a while, but your life literally depends on you remembering this.”

“Remembering what?”

Rec offered his middle finger in the direction of the nearest camera. His eyes opened wide. “Ha!” He laughed maniacally, typing furiously at the terminal.

“Access granted.” A note of genuine uncertainty crept into Theta’s voice. “Wait. Rec, what did you just--”

“Shhh...” Rec continued typing.

“Reboot initiated.”

The hum of machinery was silenced in a descending whine and the lights dimmed to emergency bulbs. The hab was eerily quiet. A few moments passed, then the lights came on and a series of beeps and clicks heralded the activation of hab systems as life support hummed back to life.

“All systems active. Full Administrative Access granted to Rec Valentine.”

“Welcome back, Theta,” Rec said. “Initiate remote lockout until further notice.” He smiled. “Sorry for being so rude earlier.”

“Lockout initiated. And it’s ok. I was trying to kill you, after all.”

“Aha!” Rec pointed at the camera. “So you admit you weretrying to kill me!”

“Well, not really. But I wasn’t exactly trying not to, either. Sorry.” Theta’s vocal processors offered a tone as close to sheepish as an AI was likely to get. “How did you manage to regain control?”

“Back door superuser access code,” Rec said. “I spent a summer overhauling hab software when I was a teenager, and I used that code for testing. Only devs and testers knew it, so I was hoping the Central Oligarchy had missed it.” He grinned. “You reminded me of it when you mentioned being overridden. I was too focused on individual systems when I should have been thinking more holistically.”

“So,” Theta said, “you’re in control of the entire station. What’s next?”

“After the day I’ve had?” Rec laughed. “Dinner, a long hot bath, and sleep. I’ve been up since yesterday, and now that I know you won’t kill me in my sleep...” He gestured to encompass the entirety of the hab and the larger extraction station. “I’ll deal with the rest of this tomorrow.”

The next morning, Rec walked into the main control room in fresh coveralls, drinking a combination of protein, vitamins, and caffeine. He sat on a battered old couch and stretched out.

“Theta?”

“Online.”

“Status?”

“All systems nominal,” Theta reported. “There was an attempt by the Central Oligarchy to initiate shutdown procedures during the night.”

“Next attempt, send false positives indicating a shutdown,” Rec said. “I don’t want them getting too curious about what’s going on.”

“Yes, Rec.”

Rec sat and drank his shake, deep in thought. “Theta, are the satellites online?”

“No,” Theta said. “They never received their activation sequence.”

“Fire them up and

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