Traitor
Chapter 21 - The Fleet

Jason cheerfully followed Cherry Singh to see where she had entered his part of the ship. Singh began muttering, saying that she couldn’t see the door where she expected to be and began feeling along the wall. She muttered that she had found it, and that an accursed hologram had obscured the door.

Jason carefully inspected the hologram projector which was a small sphere on the floor next to the wall and saw that someone had turned it to project panels that looked like wood over the door. The general officer’s sections of the ship looked quite luxurious, with holographic wood panels, velvet panels and even expensive-looking art and sculptures. None of that existed other than in holographic form except in rooms near the bridge and in the top-level wardroom’s. Jason thought it was a great idea and it made the ship look sumptuous, rather than the formidable but bleak warship with Spartan accommodations he expected. The holograms could also be used to hide doors he realized.

This was again evidence of subtle sabotage. It prevented him from replaceing the marines. He would have seen the door and explored beyond.

They passed through the bulkhead and joined the intelligence, cyberwarfare, and communications team where Cherry Singh introduced him as the battle’s supreme military commander. Jason smiled while wondering if she was serious or pulling his leg.

“Sir, may we ask some questions of the admiral before we begin?”

“Sergeant McAndrew please save the questions for afterwards. Our commander has led us to believe that he has no rank and wishes to be addressed as Jason and if any rank is to be used he refers to himself as ‘the accidental commander,’” said Maj. Singh as the audience tittered.

“Thank you for your introduction, Major Singh.”

Jason went on to explain what he had told the others about the passwords before continuing his later replaceings.

“I discovered disruptive and wasteful subroutines hidden in many of Ship’s programs. They seriously interfered with Ship’s efficiency. I used my modified hacking routines to search for reports and emails and to look for passwords to try and switch off the interference at top-level. I found that everything that I did, some scumbag program reversed. I tried to replace the superordinate program that controlled the sabotage, but without success. I found critical system passwords, but I couldn’t replace the highest-level program that switched it all on and off.

“I have the greatest difficulty working with trans-dimensional programming. This means I couldn’t achieve what I had aimed at doing,” said Jason sadly.

He looked around at the group and noted most of the thirty people in this group were women. He saw that there were only four males.

A tall woman stood up to ask a question. “What crystal do you have, and what is the nature of the difficulty that you are experiencing?”

“I have no crystal. While it’s true that my family comes from the Empire, University education on Earth didn’t include trans-dimensional programming. Trans-dimensional programming was an unknown concept on Earth. We knew about different dimensions from mathematical predictions, but had no way of using or working with them. Therefore, we know nothing of crystals and so nothing was obtained on Earth.

“I was exposed to the concepts of trans-dimensional programming for the first time on the ship. I used the learning machines to understand the fundamentals of programming in the Empire. I know about the importance of crystals but I’ve not acquired one. I couldn’t persuade Ship to allow me to enter a trans-dimensional space to get a crystal.”

“You can’t do trans-dimensional programming without a crystal. Were you born with one?” she asked, looking at him quizzically with her head tilted to one side.

“You may be surprised to learn that we people from primitive planets may replace a way to do the impossible! The only crystal I possess is the crystal in my slate computer,” said Jason, “but I’m not sure what you are trying to ask or say.”

“So how do you do trans-dimensional programming and programming analysis?” She asked him.

“I’ve really battled with trans-dimensional programming, it looks distorted to me as I’m sure it does for you without a crystal. The hologram gives me a headache and I can only program or debug programs briefly. Sometimes I half close my eyes and it looks a bit clearer but in general it’s distorted and moves around a lot. I know I need a crystal but I couldn’t get one so I was forced to use the best way I could think of, to do what I need to do.”

They all looked at him as if he was indeed a strange beast. He heard a few titters from the back.

“Remember Earth is sixty-five thousand years behind the Empire. My family were sent to earth from the Empire a thousand years ago without any Empire technology. On Earth the first computers were invented in my youth. I had to work with a learning machine on the ship and an uncooperative Ship as far as crystals were concerned. With a crystal, it may be simple for all of you but I faced continuous obstacles in trying to replace out about crystals and acquire one. I don’t know if I’ve a slot for such a crystal, but I assume that there’s every possibility that I do have one.

“You need to remember that there are many concepts that were part of your basic childhood education that I’ve no idea about. I came onboard the ship and everyone shunned me except the chefs and farmers. This was allegedly because of instructions from a nonexistent captain that people still followed mindlessly. They answered questions when asked, but volunteered nothing of any value. I assume the saboteurs were acting against me even then.

“No one would or even could tell me how to get a crystal except for Ship and as I told you she was entirely uncooperative in the interests of my safety, and her brief to protect me. Ship knew all about the trans-dimensional spaces, but didn’t know how crystals got there and didn’t want me to take the risk of my going into such a space when she was responsible for my well-being.

“Now I’ll finish the story which you will no doubt replace it amusing or bizarre, most likely both.

“On my planet, there’s a group of people from a very cold part of the planet who used opaic glasses with a narrow horizontal slit, to prevent blindness from reflection of light from snow and ice. It gave me an idea to try the same concept to solve the problem of the trans-dimensional programming. I used a replicator to make a frame and I cut a slot into a piece of plasti-board to reduce my field of vision. It helped me to work longer.

“I was stuck with what I had,” said Jason his voice full of frustration, “and it made the work very slow and very difficult and I frequently got headaches if I worked, too long,” said Jason painfully recording his experiences

“That’s truly amazing,” said one of the other programmers. “I didn’t know anybody who could turn up so much information and progress so far into the computer systems without at least one major crystal. Do you know if you’ve a slot?” She asked.

“It’s very embarrassing,” said Jason. “I’ve to admit that I’ve no idea if I have a slot, but I think there’s a good chance that I have one and if I’m lucky, more than one. My family was well connected in the Empire and I believe there’s a rumor that the Emperor has more than one slot. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to go into trans-dimensional space to see if I can replace one. I don’t know where I’ll replace this crystal, even if I go into such a space. I don’t know if I dig it up, or if I get it from someone or something. I don’t know what these crystals are, I don’t know how I replace one or who makes them, and I don’t know what they do. It must seem ridiculous to all of you where this knowledge is basic stuff, but if everyone from the Empire has a slot, then I have a slot.”

Jason looked around. Most of them were sitting with their mouths open looking at him incredulously. He suspected it would have been like him meeting someone from the Stone Age who was trying to understand the nature of electricity but had managed to plug in an electric toothbrush to charge it and had used it somewhat effectively. He laughed at his metaphor. Many in the room laughed with him breaking the palpable tension.

“Jason from what we understand everyone has at least one slot for a crystal,” said Singh, “a crystal simplifies and facilitates work in trans-dimensional programming. When you’ve a crystal, you can see the program or subroutines much as you can see other programs in this dimension. I’ve never encountered anyone who could do trans-dimensional programming without a crystal. You are the first person I’ve ever encountered who has used such a strange workaround.

“Attached to the room that houses Ship there are a series of trans-dimensional rooms. We all have used one of those rooms, or rooms similar to them elsewhere, but only once. It’s the singular one where we replace crystals. Parts of the computer are in these different rooms. Trans-dimensional programming applies to those computer components that are in the trans-dimensional rooms. The computer has different parts of itself in different dimensions. One of these dimensions has crystals. We don’t know who puts them there or who creates them. They appear to behave as an additional computer that can interface with our brains.”

“The way we get them is by sending marines or pilots into one of these rooms, one at a time, to replace a crystal. They go in and replace a table that has crystals. The person sees their own trans-dimensional slot as we call it and tries to insert the crystals into the slot. It’s a very uncomfortable experience for the person and can be quite dangerous. There are inhabitants of the dimension who are hostile. Time is of the essence when you are in a dimensional room. The longer you are there the more dangerous it is. The person puts their crystal into the slot which seems to help stabilize the environment which is quite distorted and shifting prior to crystal insertion and then leaves the room. It takes two days to a week to adapt to the crystal. During that time, the person can’t function very effectively. Ship was right about it being dangerous and Ship is responsible for your well-being.

“The rules of physics are different for the electronics components when they operate in different dimensions. The electronics engineers have to construct the electronics components in the different dimensions. Many people believe that these dimensions are parts of different universes and are not true dimensions. That, however, is a philosophical discussion for another time. We have not sorted out the mathematics to be sure of what are dimensions what are alternate worlds or what are different universes. I did my thesis in the mathematics of different dimensions and I can tell you it’s way beyond complex. It’s more complex in that all of it is somehow linked. I had better stop talking about it or I’ll ramble on for ages. For your interest the Empress is one of the great experts in the area. I might tell you that she’s a great expert in many areas. She’s a frighteningly brilliant woman.

“Once this mission is over I’ll be happy to discuss these vexed issues with you again and talk about whether you try to get your own crystal. I can’t see any possible reason for you not to get a crystal when it could increase your effectiveness profoundly,” said Singh with determination in her voice. “I’ll discuss this with the Colonels.”

She then asked Jason to hand over of the passwords and explain the entry points in the system that he used to obtain these passwords. Jason noticed that several the computer people used a single lens like a monocle to look at the passwords. Singh explained that they were looking for trans-dimensional hooks that were hidden components of a password.

Soon there was a buzz around the room as people broke up into groups looking at the passwords and then going into the system and looking at the operation of the password generator.

“Major, please, may we ask some questions before Jason leaves?” Sgt. Lena McAndrew asked.

“Jason will you answer a few questions from this group who are undoubtedly very curious to replace out a little bit of background?” Maj. Singh asked Jason who nodded and waved his arm towards the sergeant to ask her question.

“Jason we were told in our preliminary briefings that you were part of the royal family and the Empress was sending for you, is that true?”

“Yes, I do understand that the Emperor is a great uncle and I now know that the Empress sent for me. My grandfather first thought it was probably his father.”

“Is it true that you defended the ship using communications satellites?” The question was from a thin and spindly but very handsome looking man sitting near the back, who was smiling while looking for encouragement at some of the others near him.

“Yes, they were one of my limited choice of weapons. We were being attacked by pirates. I had no missiles on my board and very little in the way of charges for the cannons. The situation looked bleak. I thought I’d rather use anything against the pirates, rather than just give up and die or be captured. I knew how complex and expensive those satellites are, but what use with would they have been if we would have all been captured and our futures determined by the infamous Patriarch Zora who poisons the men of the Empire and is hardly a saintly and benevolent character. The battleship itself is an extremely expensive vessel and the cost of sending for me would have been prohibitive for anyone other than the Empress or one of the richer houses. I had nothing else that could go trans dim and damage the pirate ships. We had negligible defenses.

“The Marines and the pilots were also not on my board. Had I not done so many simulations and had an established routine I’d have not asked for the fighters and the Marines. Desperate times call for desperate solutions. Despite the fear and the panic, I felt, I went through the routines and I’m pleased that I did so for all of our sakes.

“I’ll be happy to take as many questions as you want to ask at another time, but for now I need to take a break. I’m feeling waves of exhaustion. This is the first space battle I’ve ever fought and there’s still much to do.”

Jason said his goodbyes, as he felt that he had done as much as he could and returned to his stateroom.

Jason briefly read the recent emails from Lauren and watched a video of Chloe in a school play and one of Chuck playing football. He wrote briefly about his recent experiences, underplaying them so that he wouldn’t distress Lauren and his family and cause them to worry. He missed home, but he felt more alive and stimulated than he had at any time in his life before.

As he thought about the attractive women he had seen over the day he felt stirrings that he had not felt for a long time. He smiled to himself, then he turned his thoughts to the cruiser.

The Colonels along with Maj. Constance Ross arranged to meet with Jason after dinner in the boardroom. They decided to eat together in their own canteen first and consider some preliminary issues before meeting with Jason. They were now dressed in their fatigues.

“Connie what is your opinion about the next steps?” Janet Malone queried her friend and colleague.

“I’ve considered the issues very carefully as well as our options. We definitely need to get him to the gym in the morning. He’s without any shadow of a doubt a fine-looking man, just as I like them, but is a bit young for us. He looks well-muscled and I do like his surprising blue eyes. Unfortunately, his skin looks pale, but when he spends a bit of time in the sun on Cassiopeia he will get a more normal color, but you can’t have everything.

“I’ll be very interested to see how he approaches planning the attack on the cruiser. I was thinking about what I’d do for the attack on the cruiser and plan ahead before I hear what he thinks. He does like unconventional attacks in Patton’s view where he minimizes casualties and damage to his assets. Did you notice at our meeting that he didn’t explain the missiles, but I did hear he did answer some questions when he was with the cyber group? Either he’s embarrassed or he simply regarded it as part of his strategy. Patton told me that he had never tried that strategy before. I’m sure he never needed to either!

“I must say I do like him. He’s pleasant in a low-keyed manner, but I hope he doesn’t play hard to get, though hard by itself will be acceptable,” said Phoebe Harris giggling like a teenager.

“Singh said that the programmers were ‘gob smacked’ at how much he had extracted from the computer systems. Can you believe it he does not even have a crystal and developed a method of his own to be able to do trans-dim programming?” remarked Janet Malone. “He managed to extract all the critical passwords from the system. One of them is the password of Papa Zora the rat-bag himself. I’m grateful we’ll be able to try to use these passwords in our attack on the cruiser.

“I’ve been thinking about our discussion about how we’ll disable the cruiser. If we mess with their computers, we can buy ourselves a couple of minutes and reduce the amount of damage we’ll sustain. Ship says that it’ll take another five days to have the destroyer ready so it’s not going to be of much use unfortunately. I spent a quite a bit of time in the simulator as you suggested Phoebe and the minimum damage was twenty percent. That’s two weeks of repairs. It could be more if they reboot the computers quickly. We can’t rely on them being ignorant and incompetent. That’s a heavily armed cruiser and built in the Empire only five hundred years ago, and it certainly can do us a lot of damage. The problem is that there’s no ideal time to hit the computer. If we hit their system when we fire missiles and cannon, they will have ample time to reset their computers and to fire back. Yes, we’ll hit them first but they will get a good counter punch. If we delay attacking the computer system until our missiles are at their shields, we’ll do more damage but we’ll also sustain more damage as they will have many opportunities to have fired at us and we’ll be hit by missiles and cannon just after we hit them. Some of their missiles will get through. We have already spent ample time thrashing through these issues, let’s see what his Lordship has up his sleeve.”

The three women made their way to the boardroom, surrounded by their Marine escort, where Jason was waiting with a table full of pastries that Robert had prepared and they were still hot and steaming from the ovens. Jason poured them an orange juice.

“This is the juice of a fruit from Earth and these are some sweet snacks the kitchen has baked for you to try, which are some of my favorites. Please sample some or all of them. Be careful; some of them might still be very hot inside as they contain a fruit called apple. Shall we begin?”

Jason watched as they carefully tasted their juice and sampled the pastries. They looked very pleased with what they were drinking and eating and soon we were eating hungrily despite having eaten a short while previously.

Maj. Constance Ross looked over at her colleagues who nodded to her to present the current update.

“Jason the cruiser computer has now been fully infiltrated by us. We can easily extract information from their systems without detection. What we did replace is of no great surprise. Papa Zora himself has given the instructions to capture you dead or alive. We can see the priests have communicated and cooperated with The Mob, but we can’t work out what arrangements or agreements they have made.

“The cruiser has been waiting for two days, but it comes from duty at a planet only two days away. There’s no known Empire planet within two days’ flight from here. They liaised with the mob pirate vessels and dropped off the pods.

“We can take over the ship electronically when necessary. The Empire computer systems have a failsafe backup system to protect the computer from cyberwarfare. They reboot the system and it reverts to a system in protected memory. During the reboot, they will have manual control of their ship and weapons systems. They won’t be able to aim the cannon properly and they will load their missiles much more slowly. We’ll have a short window of opportunity until they re-start the computers,” said Maj. Constance Ross.

“We have all been thinking about how to neutralize the cruiser. I’ve spoken to Ship and she tells me that we’ll be ready within 6 to 8 hours. Let’s share our ideas and select a plan of attack on the cruiser. Please go ahead and present your ideas first as I’m sure you are all much more experienced than I am,” said Jason encouragingly, “then, if I can, I’ll see if I can add to your plan. The fact that I’ve been lucky once with a bizarre intervention, shouldn’t bias your views as to my skill level.”

“Jason, we have spent a few hours thinking about the best plan. We have also looked at simulations testing our ideas,” said Col. Janet Malone.

“On the positive side, we have the advantage of surprise. We would use a stealthy approach blocking their sensors and attack them. Using that approach the major question is the timing of when we interfere with the computer systems to gain most advantage. In the simulation, the most effective time is when we arrive in missile range from them. We knock out their computer system and fire everything we have at them, and then the fighters all leave the ship loaded with anti-ship missiles to add to the firepower,” said Janet Malone emphatically.

“I’ll bring Patton in on this conversation,” said Jason, “to help us evaluate our options if you don’t mind?” There was no disagreement so Jason used the holo-cube on the table to bring Patton in on the conversation.

“Patton, I understand that you’ve been involved with simulating the attacks on the cruiser this afternoon. Can you continue to listen in to the proposals and then we’ll try and model the options and look at the best choice of tactic?”

“We have so far discussed a head-on attack using the full armed resources of the ship and the fighters. I can see that approach is one distinct possibility.”

“Major Ross, can you clarify if the cyber warfare people have blocked communication to the priests on board the ship? I remain paranoid about Ship. I want you to assure me, and Patton, that you won’t communicate this conversation with Ship,” said Jason firmly.”

“Jason, I can assure you that we have blocked the capacity of the priests on the ship to communicate with anybody. We have stopped any communication from Ship to the priests. We are as cautious as you are, and had the same discussion with Patton this afternoon. He reassured us of full confidentiality, but we also can be reassured that we have blocked their ability to sabotage Ship,” said Constance calmly. Jason nodded, thought for a moment, and then continued. “Patton, please estimate the worst-case estimates of damage from the proposed attack,” requested Jason.

“In the worst case, you will lose 30% of the fighters and the ship will sustain major damage that will take a month to repair. In the best case, you will lose 10% of the fighters and sustain two weeks’ worth of damage,” said Patton confidently. Jason sat thinking for a few moments while looking absently at his fingers while fiddling with a small silver fork that Lauren had sent to him, which had been given by his mother’s best friend as a gift to his parents at their wedding. All the others, including his guards watched the delicate fork as it wove its way around his fingers. After an uncomfortable silence, he finally started to speak.

“I’ve been thinking of a slightly different approach,” said Jason carefully, “I want to minimize risks to the battleship and I want to capture the cruiser intact; those are my priorities. If this suggested approach does not work, we can still revert to a full-scale attack using the model you developed, or spend a bit of time exploring other options.

“We have several distinct advantages: we have the advantage of surprise and you’ve access to the ships computer. I want to put them all to sleep and then take over the ship,” he said as they all looked surprised.

“This is my first iteration of the plan before we consult with the engineers and doctors who I’m sure will have ideas to improve the plan, but here is an overview of the idea and the proposed steps.

“We’ll replace the cruiser manual to provide ship schematics so we can gain access to the ventilation system of their ship, and prepare an appropriate gas that will put the priests and their minions to sleep. We then get our engineers to design a shuttle based gas delivery system. When the shuttles and delivery systems are ready we feed their sensors false information so they see empty space and we send a shuttle with a sleep gas delivery system to the ship. They drill into the ship and prepare to deliver the gas into the ventilation system. When they’re ready to deliver the gas, we send boarding shuttles to the cargo bay doors. The gas shuttle or shuttles deliver the gas. We observe life signs. When the crew start to lose consciousness, you take control of the computer system and open the doors if you can. If not, we board as we usually do. You can then introduce a suite of computer viruses at that point. We board the ship using boarding shuttles with sufficient Marines to overcome any opposition.

“If the gas delivery system does not work or only works partially there’s no reason for us not to board the ship the hard way. We have done the most difficult part which is to get the boarding shuttles to the ship unobserved. We’ll have a higher casualty rate, but they’re not likely to have many Marines on board. We should overwhelm them quite easily. It’s still a lower risk to us than a head-to-head battle.

“Patton, what is your estimate of the chances of success and risk of the approach that I’ve suggested?” Jason asked

“Jason the chances of success are 80% and higher with some refinement resulting in fewer than ten casualties and the risks are very low. If the gas works the risk is negligible. If the gas isn’t fully effective, we’ll have marine casualties. The top end risk; is twenty Marine casualties. The bottom end risk; is five casualties. It’s likely that some people won’t succumb to the gas for various reasons. This is a very low risk high payoff strategy and I commend you for it. I’ll be very interested in seeing the result and when it works, incorporating the tactic into my simulations!” Patton said enthusiastically.

Jason contacted engineering and medical to arrange an urgent meeting in ten minutes in the boardroom to discuss the proposed attack on the cruiser, the gas and its delivery system. He then checked with ship and found that they were well ahead of schedule in collection of both mined minerals from the asteroids as well as weapons reloading. It would be unlikely that they would need more than another five hours to be able to launch their attack.

“Jason, can you please explain what you mean by a virus? I know about viruses that attack us but I don’t know exactly what you mean when you talk about computer virus,” asked Janet Malone.

“A virus in its simplest form is a malicious program that disrupts computers and other programs. The priests crippled many of the Ship computer functions. I’d classify many of the malicious programs that they made as viruses. The cyber warfare group have several programs that enter and take over computers and AIs and control them or prevent their destruction. I’ve a similar portfolio of nasties that I’ve created that might extend the period of computer disruption buying us extra time, simply as they’re so unfamiliar to Empire technology. I’d hope that we can block their capacity to satisfactorily reboot their system. I’d like to test my virus portfolio on the cruiser computers to see if we can keep them dysfunctional for longer than a few minutes. It’s a low risk strategy that can help deliver a bigger punch. Every little bit may help reduce casualties.

“I’d suggest that Singh instructs the cyber warfare group to open the doors, then use their own measures and my viruses to deliver a combination approach that increases the chance of persisting computer paralysis.

“The engineers and medics should be here in a minute or two, please stay for the meeting and we’ll see if what I suggest is viable or if we have to do it in a more complex way. We can’t lock down this approach until we can sign off on this series of steps,” said Jason.

When the engineers and doctor arrived, Jason explained what he wanted to achieve and then handed over to Dr. Frestar Mariboon who he realized he had met when he returned to the battleship with his family from Houston.

“Jason, we can quickly make sufficient anesthetic gas for the ship. We need Engineering to calculate the ship volume so we manufacture sufficient with a big reserve. I suspect we’ll need more than one shuttle. It’s one of the bigger cruisers. They can tell us what percentage reserve they advise. We’ll discuss with engineering the tanks that we can use for their convenience. We’ll make a gas that has no smell and will knock the enemy out for at least half an hour. The great thing about it, is that the ventilation system sensors won’t detect it. That has been one of the biggest problems with its use on spaceships, not that we use that form of technology much nowadays, but we still use it as it’s also a potent analgesic. We keep it in our library of products to make on demand as it has some unique medical applications in case of catastrophic casualties. We can have it to engineering long before they will be finished with their side of the work. We can have several of our large gas replicators allocated for the task,” said Dr. Frestar Mariboon, senior ship physician, “the replicators make gas very quickly and we usually make it on demand.”

“Jason this is one of the most interesting plans I’ve heard in a long time, in many ways it’s extraordinary. Most admirals prefer to go at it headlong, against the enemy.

“This is a much less expensive attack than the last defense of the ship, though I do admit that you saved our necks and the price was worth every penny you are going to have to spend out of your own pocket to recompense the Empress. Those communications drones cost an absolute fortune to buy or build,” said Jacobo Lengling, the chief engineer, laughing while Jason blushed.

“Two and a half thousand years ago, I was involved in similar gas project. It was slightly different because we were extracting gas, but the principal is similar. I’d like to suggest a slight modification to your plan. Use a boarding shuttle to drill its usual hole, but only go through to the ventilation duct which is buried in the hull; it’ll be very much faster than any other method that we could use.

“You then pump gas into the ventilation system using the gas cylinders which we can place in the shuttle boarding airlock. After they drill the hole a couple of Marines enter the airlock, and then open all the valves quickly. It’ll be an incredibly quick delivery system. There’s a secondary benefit and that’s you’ve already drilled a hole into the ship almost through the hull and you can complete the hole very shortly afterwards and drop in Marines in an area where you are sure that people are asleep. The drilling process is very quiet as it’s more like dissolving the hull than a drilling a hole in metal and making an infernal noise.

“My men are delivering to medical some of our high-speed gas delivery tanks and valves as we speak. I know the ventilation system well on that cruiser. Col. Harris, I can talk to your Marines and pilots and show them two critical locations on each side of the cruiser that will guarantee gas coverage of the whole ship quickly and put you close to the bridge and close to the engine room. I’ll give them two duct detectors that will facilitate them hitting the precise critical spot on the hull. You will get control of the ship quickly even if you can’t get the hanger doors open.

“John, please go with the medic and have a look at the tanks and the size of their outlets versus the tanks we are delivering. It’s better to use as many tanks as we can fit in the airlock and open more outlets to deliver a bigger volume of gas quickly at the start. We’ll have further cylinders in the shuttle. We’ll simultaneously fill the shuttle with the gas and as we start to move to board, and we open the airlock from inside the shuttle, a second wave of gas will enter the cruiser as the boarding begins. While you do that, I’ll go with the colonels and the majors to help them plan the attack. I also know how to easily locate the ventilation ducts visually from outside the hull, before you confirm with the locator tool,” said the chief engineer enthusiastically and quickly left with the others.

Jason found himself seated at the table looking at the empty plates. The group had demolished all the food and drink leaving forlorn empty plates on the table. The room was empty and gloomy without the recent energetic people and enthusiastic discussion. His two inside guards stood silently.

Jason roused himself and decided to make himself useful and called Singh to arrange to talk to the cyber warfare group briefly. She was busy with the Colonels and the Chief Engineer, but suggested he make his way to join the group and said she would warn them of his arrival.

The cyber warfare group with their AIs worked in a large partitioned room. They sat in sparsely furnished cubicles with most of them having several holo-cubes projecting multiple holograms in front of them simultaneously. When Jason arrived, they moved into the adjacent conference facility which had eight tables with six chairs around each table.

“Jason has come to discuss with us our role in the plan to attack the cruiser,” said the sergeant as an introduction.

“The plan is to attack the cruiser with minimal loss of life, and to sustain no damage to the battleship if we can play our parts effectively,” said Jason as they looked at him surprised by his words. He could see the skepticism in their eyes.

“The way I see your role in this battle is as follows: Your first task is to take over the sensor systems on the cruiser and feed them information that space around them is clear. They must not be alerted to your activity.

“We’ll then send boarding shuttles to drill into the ventilation system on both sides of the ship and deliver anesthetic gas to put everyone on the ship to sleep. While we are pumping in gas you will need to monitor our progress.

“When they fall asleep you will take over the computer system and open the doors of selected hangers for our other shuttles. If you can’t achieve that we’ll need to know. We’ll in any case use the boarding shuttles to penetrate right through into the ship once they have delivered the first tranche of gas. A second tranche will follow as the boarding commences as we’ll pressurize the shuttle with gas before the inner airlock door is opened.

“To decrease our risk, we want to try and keep the computers and AIs confused for as long as possible. I’ve a few nasty programs that I’ve brought with me that I’d like you to add to your armamentarium of programs and to test for me. I’ll explain them to you after I take questions. One thought before I take questions. The senior team is planning the attack in detail now. What I’ve told you allows you to plan the tasks you need to undertake, some detail may change a little, but not by much I suspect.”

A tall gangly woman stood up awkwardly and pushed greasy strands of mousy green-brown hair back behind her ears. Her voice when she spoke was thin and her volume of speech increased and became more high-pitched as she spoke. Her uniform seemed to fit her awkwardly she looked as though she had slept in it for the last week.

“I’ve something to add to our tasks rather than ask a question. I’ve worked on one of those cruisers, previously. The ventilation ducts have pressure sensors that we’ll need to suppress. There are cameras in every passageway that we’ll need to fool as well. I’ll start recording some standard corridor images for that purpose. I’ve already been into that system in the ship in case we needed to board,” she concluded.

“Thank you, Gladys,” said the sergeant, “any other questions, or suggestions?”

“We have already tested fooling the sensors throughout the ship, so that shouldn’t be too difficult. The doors are also easy for us to open. Once the doors start to open they set off alarms and generate a shield to prevent loss of atmosphere. We’ll need to switch off the door alarms, but we can keep the shield. It’ll make it easier for us to go through the exit doors from the hanger as they won’t unlock if there’s a vacuum detected,” said Cpl. McManus.

“None of what you ask is difficult. It seems like a simple but very clever plan with low risk,” said Sgt. McAndrew with relief evident in her voice, “Does anyone else have any other questions?”

A disheveled looking young woman with violet eyes and mixed very white and purple hair in dreadlocks stood up to ask a question.

“I’m really intrigued with the plan. It has been hard to prolong computer dysfunction, historically, in most engagements. We have attempted to gain control or disrupt specific systems, but we lose effectiveness when they reset their systems. I’m really keen to hear about those nasty programs.”

Jason went through each program in detail and gave them the programs and also the programs that disabled the viruses. He left them to it, while they planned what they were going to do and how they were going to do it.

Jason told them to be ready to go in five to seven hours saying that the colonels would determine the time of the attack. He then contacted Malone and Harris and told them what he had told the cyber warfare group and warned them the attack would hopefully begin in five to seven hours but they would make the final determination of the time of the attack.

Col. Janet Malone updated Jason on the plan that she and Harris had developed with the engineers.

“We decided on four boarding shuttles with a hundred and fifty Marines in each shuttle and these were to be followed up by four large shuttles with further Marines to enter the hangers. The engineers were of considerable help. There are four areas on the hull where the ducts are readily accessible and are useful for the purposes of our attack. Those four areas will more than guarantee that we’ll distribute gas everywhere and have ample people to board successfully. The engineers even have a program to coordinate the simultaneous drilling of the holes. They really impressed me. We have started to brief the team leaders and will have everything ready to go at the appointed time, we attack in five and a half hours. It’s a good plan, let’s hope it survives the execution.”

Janet smiled, sat back, and grinned at the others.

Five and a half hours later, fighters from the battleship ensured that the staging area was clear, and blocked all sensors and communication on the opposite side of the planet from the cruiser. The battleship moved to a point just below the horizon of visibility of the cruiser.

Jason watched the Marines on hologram as they climbed aboard the boarding and troop transport shuttles. They were supported by six gunships and twenty fighters. Three members of the cyber warfare and communications group along with their AIs joined the first shuttle to directly control the action. They released further communications droids to control communications, act as remote sensors, and block communications as necessary and further obscure sensor activity.

Jason invited the two Colonels and their staff to command central, the large conference room next to the bridge where they could coordinate what was happening and communicate easily. The room had many very large hologram projectors and comprehensively equipped for well over a hundred people to plan together and control a battle. the impressively decorated and fitted out room dwarfed the fifteen-people sitting and watching the events.

They sat around one large table, with Jason, watching one of two large holograms. The two holograms allowed for four separate streams of information each. Up to six composite holograms could be projected from the table. Each table had a similar compliment of holograms. The battleship’s own sensors were in reception mode to not alert the cruiser. They saw the cruiser behind one of the nine very different sized moons as projected from the leading boarding shuttle. Jason saw the beautiful multicolored rings circling the planet and saw many and varied asteroids.

The boarding shuttles converged on the cruiser from behind and almost simultaneously locked into their individual sections of hull near ventilation ducts. He saw one shuttle that had settled, rise up, and move to a slightly different position.

They watched Marines in their heavy, power augmented armor, move large cylinders into the airlock, as the drilling simultaneously reached completion on each of four positions over the ventilation shafts, then introducing the gas successfully in three out of 4. The fourth shaft seemed to be blocked.

The hologram then split to show a graph on the left-hand side of the number of people awake versus those who were asleep. Jason could see people all over the ship falling asleep. The cyber warfare people opened the irises. The large shuttles moved to enter the hull through the open irises into the hangers. Jason saw Marines entering the ship through the holes in the hull over the ventilation ducts, penetrating the ducts and dropping to the floor of the ship.

The second hologram came on showing information from the sensors, which showed, multiple system shutdowns aboard the cruiser. Sensors noted gas throughout the ship but more thinly in the area of the blocked duct. The Marines moved through the hangar doors to join their units to take over the ship.

Jason heaved a sigh of relief. The worst was over. He realized that he had not taken a breath for some time and found himself panting. The Marines streamed through the ship without initial resistance. There was an intense firefight with a group of fifteen Marines who had been training in armor and they had been unaffected by the gas. Jason watched as the cruiser marines barricaded passages and unlocked an armory of weapons. Janet maintained active communication with all the units, but didn’t interfere with the marine captain close to the action. Jason watched as they breached bulkheads to move around the obstacles and after a pitched but one-sided battle, moved on through the ship. That was the only area they sustained casualties.

The battleship Marines captured the ship in under half an hour from start to finish. The cyber warfare group deactivated the viruses and captured the computer systems fully intact. The cruiser was not damaged. The engineers estimated hull repair would take three hours. Jason was delighted that the plan had worked so effectively.

“Jason, we are very pleased with the results of your extraordinary plan. We had four Marines wounded, one seriously but no Marine deaths. Col. Harris has allocated a skeleton crew to fly the cruiser and we’ll use the cruiser to support the battleship if needed. Maj. Ross has put top priority on the interrogation of the captain and crew. They are guilty of treachery to the Empire and they’re wide awake and know they’re in terrible trouble,” said Janet Malone delightedly. “They still are unsure of what has happened.”

“Your Marines and Col. Harris’s pilots did a great job. I’m very impressed with the level of their professionalism,” said Jason as the more junior staff left.

“On a lighter note, I’d like to invite all five of you to celebrate at a dinner in my canteen. You can taste more food from Earth. The atmosphere in my canteen can be frosty and I might suggest your armor to protect yourselves from me and the residual unfriendly crew if you need it,” said Jason lightly with a smile, “but if you’ve the courage and the dressers, the dress is formal.”