“Boot sequence initiated.”
“Keep a running scan feed on one of the big monitors.”
A section of one monitor showed the satellite boot report. Rec watched the sequence for a while, then finished his shake and walked to the kitchen to wash the flask. As he did, his mind wandered to how he planned to spend what would likely be the rest of his life on this barren resource colony.
Before the shutdown order, he thought he would mine what resources he could and hopefully hitch a ride on a supply barge back to a settlement. Now that he knew there would be no supply barges in his future, mining seemed pointless, but it was a way to fill his days, which would be long with only Theta for company and the hab’s meager recreation facilities for fun.
An alarm sounded, bringing Rec out of his reverie. He placed the flask on the drying rack next to the one from the day before, dried his hands, and made his way to the control room.
“What now?”
“A vessel has been detected,” Theta said.
“That was fast,” Rec said. “Any idea what kind?”
“A heavy cruiser,” Theta said. “Registry ping indicates the Imperial starship Obedience.”
“That could be trouble,” Rec said. “We don’t have weapons by any chance?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“It’s times like this, I wish I was capable of derisive laughter,” Theta said.
“Funny,” Rec said. “Remind me again why I keep you online?”
“Because if you didn’t, you’d only have yourself for company, and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” Theta replied. “Incidentally, the cruiser is hailing us.”
“Put it through.”
A voice came over the comm speaker. “Attention, resource mining colony. This is Captain Remi Altair of the Independent starcruiser Opportunity. If anyone is receiving this message, please respond.”
Rec regarded the speaker with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged and toggled the microphone. “Captain Altair, this is Custodian Rec Valentine of the former Colonial Services. I am receiving. What can I do for you?”
“Good to hear a living voice, Custodian Valentine,” Captain Altair said, relief evident in her voice. “Who else is with you?”
“No one,” Rec said. “My transport bugged out after dropping only part of its cargo and before the arrival of the colony liner, which I’m assuming is not en route.”
“How have you managed to prevent shutdown? All the other resource colonies are on automatic response after going offline.”
Rec grinned, then grimaced at the thought of what that meant for the people who’d been living and working on those colonies. He said a brief prayer that at least some of them had managed to override their AI and were simply avoiding contact. “That’s a bit of a story, Captain, and one I’d rather not tell over an open comm. Care to join me for breakfast? I finally got the sequencers running properly, so there’s caffeinated nutrient slurry for everyone.”
Rec could hear the captain’s smile in her voice. “Tell you what, Mr. Valentine. I’ll bring some proper food along with my science officer. I hope you don’t take offense if I also bring a couple of guards?”
“Not at all,” Rec said. “It’s been an odd couple of days.”
“Putting it mildly, Custodian Valentine. We’ll see you soon. Altair out.”
Rec laughed and broke the connection. “Theta, put the kettle on,” he said. “We’re having company.”
Later, as they finished a breakfast composed of the first actual food Rec had eaten in a while, Captain Altair leaned back in her chair and sipped her coffee. She’d brought some down with the food as a gift for Rec, knowing the colony habs only had caffeine infusions. The security officers had returned to the ship after determining there would be no threat from Rec the captain couldn’t handle on her own.
“I guess it is desertion,” she said. “There was just the two of us, myself and Captain Rider of the Liberty, formerly the Unity. We couldn’t stomach the thought of the colonies being abandoned, so we disobeyed our orders to return and used the same back door you did to override remote control of our ships. He’s checking on the settlements, and I went to inspect the extraction colonies. You were the only one to answer my hails.” She looked into her cup, a deep regret in her eyes. “I hope that doesn’t mean you were the only one who survived the shutdown.”
“I had the same thought,” Rec said. “I’m telling myself they’re just hiding from what they suspect is a hostile Imperial force. Also,” he added as a thought occurred to him, “the longer a colony is active, even an extraction colony in this kind of environment, the less dependent it is on the central AI for survival.”
“That’s a good point,” Captain Altair said. “Maybe you’d be interested in returning to the other colonies with us, to reassure any survivors of our intentions?”
“Of course,” Rec said. “Most of the colonies out this way know who I am, and they should know I’d rather spacewalk in my underwear than betray any of them to the Central Oligarchy.” He smiled. “I’m curious, though. You said you and Captain Rider were willing to defy Imperial decree. What about your crews?”
“Crews of both ships were largely in agreement with the decision,” Captain Altair said. “Those who weren’t boarded shuttles back to Imperial space.”
“Aren’t you worried the Imperium will send someone after you?”
She shook her head. “I doubt they care enough.”
“Maybe not about you or your crew,” Rec said, “but I would think they’d want their ships back.”
Captain Altair’s science officer, a younger man named Valis, laughed. “Please,” he said. “They couldn’t care less about long-range cruisers. Most ships of this class are left to rot among the asteroid fields of the Outer Rim. They’ll strip one for parts now and then, but honestly, once the remote override failed, we stopped being worth the trouble. If you had any idea how hard it’s been to secure
