Accelerating Universe: The Sector Fleet Book One Read online

  “What gave it away?” the captain asked, grinning.

  “Very funny, sir. But this is no joking matter. He’s insane.”

  “Well aware of that fact, Commander. But as yet, we’ve not found him, either. And I don’t like a renegade running around free on my ship. Do you?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Deck H,” Jameson said. “That’s Habitat Three; pay-for-passage berths only. Not much down there but shops and quarters.”

  Jameson met my eyes again. Was he remembering last night? The walk through Habitat Two’s hub and to my cabin. We’d been one deck away from Aunt Mara.

  “Lieutenant Chan,” Jameson called.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “Time to put our plan in motion.”

  “Yes, sir.” The security chief sounded eager.

  I also had no idea what the plan was. Clearly, something Jameson had cooked up after he’d left my cabin this morning and before I’d arrived here. That feeling of distrust swelled up inside me again; my head practically ringing with alarm bells.

  Chan left the bridge in a rush as Marshal played the message, now decrypted, for the captain. I watched on feeling removed from the situation and not quite sure how to deal with my anger.

  Without a backwards glance, I stood from my station and made my way off the bridge. Just outside, down the hall, was a bathroom. Cliched, of course, but I ducked inside and checked under the stalls. It was empty, so I shut myself inside one, closed the lid on the head, and sat down.

  “Pavo,” I whispered.

  “Why are you hiding, Ana? The captain is concerned.”

  “Is he coming in here?”

  “No. He is busy giving orders.” Then how did the AI know the captain was concerned?

  “What orders?” I asked instead.

  “All access ways to Habitat Three are being cut off. Security is converging on the location from various directions. Including the maintenance tubes.”

  “They’re tightening the net.”

  “Yes. That is the plan.”

  “Is Jameson going to meet Archibald?” I asked.

  “He has already left. Also part of the plan.”

  “Security’s for his back up,” I guessed.

  “Yes.” OK, nothing suspicious there at all. And I suddenly felt stupid for hiding away in the bog. I needed to be on the bridge so I could see what was happening. And keep an eye on the captain as he met up with Archibald.

  I took the opportunity to relieve myself and then washed my hands. I checked my reflection in the mirror, trying to settle my heartbeat and look like the unflappable soldier I once was. And then I walked to the door and pushed against the gel wall.

  Nothing happened.

  The gel coating turned red.

  “Pavo?”

  He didn’t answer.

  But outside I could hear plasma fire and shouting startup; loud thumbs against the wall followed. And the distant sound of a klaxon blaring overrode it all.

  “Pavo!”

  “Stay hidden, Ana. They are taking the bridge. Commander Torrence is dead.”

  Oh, God.

  “The captain. Where’s the captain?”

  Silence.

  I kept calling him. I kept talking to him. But Pavo didn’t reply.

  The shouting stopped. The plasma fire ceased. The walls stayed red.

  And Pavo remained quiet.

  Thirty-Two

  Fuck This

  Jameson

  My wrist comm chimed, and then flashed red. Once. Twice. Three times. Emergency on the bridge.

  “Pavo?” I said into the comms device.

  Nothing.

  “Torrence, acknowledge.”

  Nothing.

  I walked across the Habitat Three hub and pressed my hand to the gel wall. Several passengers watched me, but most went about their business. Keeping themselves occupied on their long voyage.

  “Jameson, John. Charlie-kilo-victor-one-eight-three. Status?”

  Nothing. Damn it.

  I searched the hub and spotted a security team member out of uniform. Waving him over, I tried to identify others. Some would be hiding behind the walls. But those that were dispersed along the crowded concourse would be watching. I gave a hand signal that universally conveyed “stand down/change of orders.”

  “Sir?” the security officer said.

  “Can you raise anyone on comms?”

  He tried but got the same silence as I had.

  “What is it, sir? Is it…Archibald?” He whispered the last.

  “I suspect so. On the bridge.”

  The crewman paled.

  “Come on, let’s go find out what’s happening.”

  We stepped toward the lift, but when he pressed the gel wall, the doors wouldn’t open.

  I started to get a very bad feeling about all of this.

  Chan appeared at my side. God alone knows where he came from.

  “Trouble, Captain?”

  “The bridge. Pavo’s unresponsive.”

  “Voluntarily?”

  “Unknown.”

  “We’ll have to take the emergency tubes,” he said, waving over some more of his team. “Three-pronged approach. I’d rather you were in the rear guard, sir.”

  “Not happening.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He quickly issued orders to his team and sent them off to various sealed access ways, that would eventually converge with our route up on the main deck. Deck A, where the bridge, Mayor’s offices and Archibald’s domain were located. It seemed fitting we’d have our showdown there.

  “Don’t suppose there’s anything in the AU manual about this, sir?” Chan asked as we exited one tube ten minutes later and then started climbing up another.

  “Crawling through the maintenance hatches or dealing with a renegade leaseholder?”

  “The latter.”

  “No. It wasn’t thought to be a potential hazard before we left Earth.”

  Chan grunted.

  “Pavo,” I said, as I pulled my body ever higher. “Any time now to offer an update would be good. What’s happening up there? Is my bridge crew OK?”

  Nothing.

  “Is Archibald on the main deck? Can you find him?”

  Nothing.

  “I can’t feel the main boost thrust engaging, so we’re still immobile,” I offered. “That’s good.” Maybe flattery would work. “Tell me you’re OK.”

  Chan looked over his shoulder at me but didn’t comment.

  Fuck this.

  “Is Ana OK?” If there was anything that would wake up the AI, it would be concern for Ana.

  Nothing.

  “That’s not good,” I muttered.

  “What, sir?” Chan asked.

  “Usually mention of Lieutenant Kereama gets a reaction from him.”

  “Why is that, sir?”

  “He’s taken a liking to her,” I said. So have I, I wanted to add.

  “Seems strange, Captain,” Chan mused. “Why her? She’s just a pay-for-passage.”

  “Why would being a pay-for-passage matter, Lieutenant?” There was a decided clip to my tone.

  Chan picked up on it immediately. Astute, our chief of security.

  “It's not what you think, sir,” he rushed to say. “It’s more the fact that out of everyone on board, the AI picks the lowest tier. Why? Is it because they, like him, are forced to work?”

  I stared at the back of Chan’s head.

  “I think you might be looking for answers in the wrong places, Lieutenant,” I eventually said. “No one forced the pay-for-passage passengers on board. And it’s hardly slave labour.” Despite their lower tier status. “I think there was something more personal to it.”

  “Personal? For an AI?”

  “Yes. Ana Kereama treats him like he’s a person, and I’d dare say she’s done so from the moment she boarded. She challenges him. She isn’t swayed by his position. His orders are only directives in her eyes, and definitely not worth following if they do
n’t align with her idea of what’s right and wrong.”

  And suddenly I wasn’t talking about Pavo and Ana, but about Ana and me.

  I shut my mouth.

  Chan remained silent.

  We climbed out of another emergency hatch and into another maintenance tube.

  The closer we got to the bridge, the more the gel walls throbbed a dark red. I tried calling Pavo several times, but he never replied. The comms unit remained offline as well. I started to really get worried about my bridge crew, capable though they were. And then I started to really get worried for Ana.

  I pushed those thoughts aside; she shouldn’t have been more of a concern than any of the others. But still, they dogged me as we climbed ever higher.

  By the time we made it to the main deck, I was exhausted. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. They hadn’t exactly run simulations for this sort of thing back on Earth.

  “Where’s your team?” I asked Chan, as we surveyed the silent central hub by the mayor’s offices.

  “They should be here, but I don’t see their signals.”

  “Then we assume we’re on our own.”

  I climbed out of the maintenance hatch and took a look around. No one jumped out at me. Chan threw me a disgruntled look when he clambered out at my back but said nothing.

  Going directly to the bridge would be exactly what Archibald counted on. Not going directly to the bridge was also out of the question.

  I drew my weapon and started in that direction. Chan fell in behind me, covering my back. The silence was eerie; a ship this size should not be quiet. Where the hell were the mayor’s people? The mayor himself? I could only assume he was in on this with Archibald, but I wasn’t certain. Damon Archibald did not share his power base with anyone. The mayor would be a tool and little else.

  I suddenly felt a smidgeon of empathy for the fat fool.

  And then we were there.

  “Do we knock on the door?” Chan asked, eyeing the titanium strength bridge door at the end of the corridor.

  I peered around the corner on my side of the corridor; directly opposite Chan. The door had scorch marks on it. I thought perhaps I could see a smear of blood. My jaw flexed. He’d be waiting. He’d suspect I was here. But God willing, Pavo had shut himself down in an effort to thwart Archibald. I couldn’t see on the bridge, but hopefully, Archibald couldn’t see out either.

  We needed to know what was going on in there.

  And then before I’d made a decision on how to go about that, the hatch on a maintenance tube came loose partway down the corridor, and Ana Kereama peered out.

  She looked at the bridge door and then turned her head and looked back down the corridor towards us. Our eyes met. Hers widened. And if I wasn’t mistaken, she looked momentarily relieved to see me.

  I know I was feeling all kinds of warm and fuzzy.

  “Captain?” she whispered.

  “Yes,” I said simply. What the hell was she doing in there?

  “That’s the head,” Chan whispered to me.

  Of course. Ana had gone to the toilet right when the shit had hit the fan. No pun intended. And I was guessing Pavo had locked her inside before he went offline.

  She waved us forward. Forward meant exposing ourselves to the bridge door. The door was shut now, but would it stay that way?

  I stared at her. She scowled at me when I didn’t make a move to follow. Then she ducked back inside the toilet and disappeared.

  Fuck this. I sprang up and ran the length of the corridor; aware Chan was cursing me six ways to Saturn at my back. Diving through the hatch, I landed on my side, staring up into Ana Kereama’s amused eyes.

  “I can get you a visual of inside the bridge,” she said.

  And I replied with, “I think I might just love you, Lieutenant.” Just as Chan fell through the hatch at my side.

  Thirty-Three

  Later, Then

  Ana

  “How did you know it was here?” Jameson whispered as he lay on his side in the tight confines of the maintenance tube beside me.

  I stared out of the grilled hatch at Archibald sitting in the captain’s chair on the bridge and said nothing.

  “Lieutenant?” he pressed.

  By rights, no one knew this grille linked into a maintenance tube several metres behind the officers’ toilets on the main deck. I contemplated telling Jameson that I had crawled around aimlessly, trying to find a way out of the locked-down head and came across the hatch by accident.

  But the captain was too astute for that.

  “Is it Pavo?” he asked. “Is he communicating through your earpiece?”

  Pavo trusted me. He’d taken a huge risk in trusting me. But when Archibald had stormed the bridge, while the captain was distracted back in Habitat Three, he’d also somehow managed to get inside systems that were very close to where Pavo had hidden himself. At that moment, when the AI had realised he could be tracked, he’d removed himself completely from the ship’s functions, leaving only the most basic systems operating.

  If we were lucky, Archibald wouldn’t switch them off. But he also couldn’t switch anything else on, either. Not yet, anyway.

  I looked at the captain now. He met my gaze with a definite question in his eyes.

  I wanted to tell him. I wanted to trust him. But Pavo had made me promise.

  “He’s communicating with me,” I confirmed. “But I’m not at liberty to tell you how.”

  Jameson stared at me for a long moment and then nodded his head.

  “Is he safe?” he asked instead.

  “For now.”

  “Can you explain that?”

  I bit my lip. His gaze darted down and then back up again. A lightness seeped into his eyes when they met mine.

  “Is he able to help us at all?” he asked, not pressing his earlier suit.

  “He can give me directions, but only once we have Archibald and his men locked down.”

  Jameson stared through the grille at the bridge. Archibald had ten men with him. All mercenaries heavily armed. He hadn’t brought Aunt Mara here, and for that, I was equal parts thankful and concerned. Pavo had told me before the captain appeared, that he hadn’t been able to find her. He hadn’t even been aware of Archibald approaching the bridge, but I thought that the reason why was now obvious.

  Archibald and all his men were wearing matt black suits, that covered them from head to toe, including their faces when they brought the attached masks down. The masks were up now, allowing them an unhindered view of the bridge and any possible surprise attack. But Pavo had told me they’d been fully covered when they’d stormed the bridge earlier.

  I watched as Jameson shifted, better to see the flight crew tied up and sitting in the corner of the bridge away from any consoles. Torrence’s body lay off to the side, covered in his own uniform jacket. Jameson had stared at Commander Torrence for a good two minutes when he’d arrived.

  “Success?” Archibald suddenly said, breaking what had been an unnatural silence.

  “Everything has been locked down, sir,” one of the mercs said.

  “We could blow the bridge door,” another suggested.

  “And then we’d be vulnerable,” Archibald said mildly.

  “We’re pinned down here.”

  The look Archibald gave the man who’d spoken sent a chill down my spine. Jameson sucked in a soft breath of air beside me. But Archibald merely stared at the man until he looked at the ground. The rest of the mercs shifted uneasily.

  “You might as well give up,” Lieutenant Taylor said from the floor. “The ship’s useless to you now.”

  I expected Archibald to offer an argument; villains always liked to grandstand. But he simply said, “Shut him up."

  A merc walked over to the manacled flight crew and lifted his plasma gun. Before anyone could gasp, he lowered the butt of the rifle onto Taylor’s head. Hard. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d done permanent damage. The medic in me wanted to storm in there right away. The so
ldier in me started to calculate the odds of succeeding.

  They were slim.

  Jameson tensed, no doubt going through the same calculations as I had, and then closed his eyes as the merc walked away and Taylor’s body slumped into Lieutenant Marshal. I watched as Marshal tried to rouse him, quietly so as not to garner the attention of Archibald. She failed to do so.

  “Suggestions?” Jameson whispered.

  “We need more firepower,” Lieutenant Chan said from behind him. He could see into the bridge, but only partially from his angle. It was enough to know we were severely outnumbered.

  “Go back and locate the rest of your team, Chan,” Jameson instructed.

  “Yes, sir.” Chan made a quiet retreat back to the toilets. At least we knew they didn’t have visuals of outside the bridge yet. But they were working on it.

  “Does Pavo think they can get into the systems?” Jameson asked me as he continued to watch Archibald’s men working on the various consoles.

  “I don’t know.”

  The captain looked at me. I knew what he’d say next.

  “Can you ask him?”

  I could. But doing so would show Jameson exactly where Pavo had hidden himself.

  “Lieutenant,” he started. “Ana. We’re dead in the water and Archibald has the high ground.” I tried not to smirk at the number of tropes he was using. “If he gets into those systems, we’re screwed. We need Pavo’s insight.”

  I held his gaze but said nothing.

  But he was right, damn it. Pavo had led me here, but maybe there were other hatches we could use. The hatch for life support was in the ceiling of the bridge. There’d be a way to get to it, I was sure. But Pavo hadn’t told me about that one. This had been the closest hatch to the toilets. I didn’t know of any others.

  “If someone,” Archibald growled inside the bridge grabbing both our attention, “doesn’t tell me something useful in the next five minutes, I’ll start thinning out the ranks in here.”

  Somehow I didn’t think he was talking about knocking any more of the flight crew over the head.

  “The man’s mad,” Jameson said. “He’d cut down his own men, simply because they couldn’t do what he asked of them.”