Nemesis (29 page)

Mark skimmed a last stone across the water, brushed off his hands and jumped back to his home node. Icons and documents hung around the walls of the cave like a time-locked snowstorm. Mark grabbed the link for his personal security system and dived through it. If he was going to be held accountable for the patch Will had given him, he should at least find out what the hell it did.

Mark’s security subsystem resembled a deep, dark forest. He’d decided long ago that the more he made his virtual environment match the kinds of spaces people had evolved in, the more efficient he’d be. He hadn’t been proved wrong yet. A short hike through the underbrush revealed a new kind of pinkish vine growing on the tree for each subsystem in his interface. Its surface looked greasy and metallic, at odds with the rules for the visualisation around it.

Mark reached out and touched one. It dissolved into a hovering mess of quasi-sentient program diagrams before coalescing again. Will’s handiwork, without a doubt.

Mark followed the vines out of his interface hardware, down into the
Gulliver
’s metaphor-space. When viewed through the correct filters, the tinkering became obvious. It must have spread like a disease from the first moment he plugged himself in. The cavernous forest-space of the
Gulliver
’s command system was lousy with the stuff. Will had infected him with kudzu of the mind.

Mark groaned. He grabbed a handful of the digital weed and yanked. The vine dissolved in his hand again, this time triggering a readme.

‘Good luck, Mark,’ said a shivering avatar of Will, who popped into existence standing next to the tree. ‘I’ve tried to include everything you might need. There’s a hackpack, traffic blockers and analytics, an autonomous self-monitoring kit, viral templates and a complete submind support armature …’

Mark felt a surge of anger.

‘What about a packed lunch?’ he shouted. ‘Did you remember a fucking packed lunch? Or how about a letter for teacher to get me out of sport-sim, you asshole!’

Not only was this a gross intrusion into his own private mental space, but Will had fouled up the whole command hierarchy. No wonder Sam’s overrides hadn’t worked. Mark would be surprised if the ship responded to anyone else as captain ever again.

While Sam clearly shouldn’t have intervened, this had to be the most embarrassing way possible for it to have played out. Mark rubbed his eyes. He’d need to trace all this stuff down and make sure it hadn’t done any damage.

But first, he knew he needed to take ownership of this situation and try to square it with his passengers before the
Ariel Two
showed up. He jumped back to the helm-arena and clicked his fingers for a comms icon. It was time for an all-hands meeting.

Mark sat in his chair in the lounge, brooding and waiting for everyone to file in. Sam appeared first, climbing down the ladder with a heavy tread. Mark braced himself reluctantly for another fight. He felt more exhausted than angry. He dearly hoped Sam wasn’t going to start with more shouting.

To his surprise, Sam faced him with a sheepish expression.

‘I want to apologise,’ he said, before Mark could open his mouth. ‘I lost my head at Tiwanaku. I shouldn’t have tried to invoke an override. You were right, it was a mistake. I should have let it go after that vote failed the other day. It’s simply that I’ve trained with Ash and know what he can do, whereas you were an unknown. I hope you understand that I was just trying to keep us all alive. No hard feelings?’ He thrust out a hand for Mark to shake.

Mark regarded the hand warily. It was tempting to put it all behind them, but he wasn’t sure he trusted the gesture yet.

‘That’s quite a turnaround,’ he said.

‘It is,’ said Sam. ‘But I’ve had some time to think about it, and frankly, I’m embarrassed about the way I reacted back there. I was mentally ready to find a sect cover-up, not
that
, whatever
that
was. It threw me off. And while you might not be my captain of choice, there’s still no excuse for breaking Fleet rules. As it was, the ship threw it back in my face. I intend to be a lot more cautious in that regard moving forward. And I welcome your input. As it turns out, I could use the guidance. It happens to all of us from time to time, you know. Even Fleet executives make mistakes.’

Mark took Sam’s broad, warm hand and shook it, even though it felt weird doing so.

‘Apology accepted,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry things got as complicated as they did. I overreacted. That drone-shrapnel manoeuvre was dangerous. I should have just dropped it.’

Sam waved it away. ‘It’s in the past,’ he said. ‘We’re all alive. And besides, as you said, now we have extra research material.’ His face cracked into an ironic smile.

‘I guess,’ said Mark, relaxing a little.

The others started to file down the ladder, Ash first.

‘Thank you for coming,’ said Mark as they assembled. ‘I felt like we all needed to touch base.’

He glanced around at them. Sam still looked apologetic and Ash embarrassed. Zoe’s and Venetia’s faces bore similar expressions of haggard concern. Citra, though, regarded him with thinly concealed loathing. There was so much venom in her gaze that Mark was surprised the Casimir-buffers in the wall behind him weren’t crackling. He felt a renewed surge of guilt.

He cleared his throat. ‘This is a difficult time for everyone, but we’re going to do what’s been asked of us. And that means following the mission profile and rendezvousing with the other ships at Nerroskovi.’

Citra looked unmoved.

He addressed her directly. ‘Please believe me, nothing hurts me more right now than the fact that I couldn’t send that shuttle down for Yunus. Our mission profile forbade us from interacting with the Photurians in the event of conflict. That’s what the other ships are for. And it was my duty to protect
everyone
on this ship. I hope you understand that.’

‘I call again for the removal of Mark Ruiz from his position as captain,’ Citra said coldly.

Mark blinked at her vitriol. Her gaze drilled into him like a welding laser.

‘Citra, we’ve been over this,’ said Venetia quietly. ‘Why would you want to go there again?’

‘Are you kidding?’ Citra retorted. ‘Is there a reason to keep him? He was supposed to protect us, but he didn’t protect Yunus for a second when it actually counted. And he followed that up by risking everybody’s lives flying around after bits of debris.’ She smiled a vicious smile. ‘Oh yes,
Captain Ruiz
, I know all about that, despite the fact that you had me knocked out. I went and looked over the public logs.’

Zoe folded her arms uncomfortably.

Citra raised an accusing finger to point at Mark’s chest. ‘Worst of all, that man is only here for some nepotistic reason we don’t even understand. Monet put him aboard and we know he’s got some kind of agenda. We heard as much from his own lips. When Sam tried the override control, command should have gone straight to Ash and we all know it. He’s a
lifter pilot
, for crying out loud. And we have someone more highly trained with a better record sitting right in front of us. How much more proof do we need that something is badly wrong here? Monet has some sick, desperate plan, and this man is a part of it.’

Mark’s nostrils flared. The mention of Will had put his hackles up. He’d called them together with the intention of discussing their software problem but now he didn’t feel like admitting anything at all. He felt certain Citra would use it against him.

‘Citra,’ said Venetia slowly, ‘Sam shouldn’t have tried for control in the first place. I’m not blaming him – we were all a little freaked out back there – but it wasn’t Fleet-legal.’

‘Does that matter?’ said Citra. ‘It still should have worked.’

Venetia glanced across at Mark. ‘Can you tell us why it didn’t?’

Mark threw up his hands. ‘I’m here to do a job,’ he said defensively. ‘Maybe the control SAP recognised a dangerous transfer of authority and blocked it on safety grounds. The onboard ethics on this ship are all run by Vartian software, not Fleet code. Zoe, do you know its priority pattern?’

Zoe shook her head. ‘Not without checking the source.’

‘Look at him,’ Citra sneered. ‘It’s obvious he’s hiding something. I can see it all over his face. I want another no-confidence vote. Right now.’

Sam held up a warning hand. ‘Whoa there a moment. I have to remind you that Ash and I are military staff and this situation has definitely gone military. We can’t participate in something like that any more. It’s not Fleet procedure, and we can’t be counted as passenger-witnesses. It’s down to the rest of you, I’m afraid.’

Citra stared at Venetia. ‘All those in favour of removing Captain Ruiz,’ she said. Her hand snapped up.

Venetia’s stayed down.

Citra glared at the psychologist. ‘I don’t know why you’re protecting him,’ she said. ‘Do you hate my husband that much? If you don’t support me in this, I’ll have your actions investigated by an Earth court the moment we get home. How long do you suppose your funding will last then?’

‘Nice threat,’ said Venetia. ‘My hand is down because there’s no actual evidence of wrongdoing. Everything you’re saying is supposition and I’m not going to derail this mission on the basis of that. Bring your lawyers and see if I care.’

Zoe kept her hand down, too, though she looked reluctant about it. Mark could almost see the gears turning in her head as Citra turned to glare at her.

‘While I’m not impressed by his attitude or his flying style,’ Zoe said slowly, ‘removing him is wrong. So I can’t back the action, despite my respect for Ash. I mean Subcaptain Corrigan. And besides, I suspect that the drone remnants we picked up back there will prove critical to the success of this mission, so I can hardly fault Mark for collecting them.’

‘You
what
?’ said Citra. ‘He abandons my husband but picks up some trash for you on the way out, so that makes it okay?’

‘No,’ said Zoe, blushing. ‘It’s not like that.’

Citra regarded both women with disgust and stormed up the ladder.

‘Professor Chesterford,’ said Zoe, following closely behind. ‘Wait. Please.’

Sam shook his head. ‘Meeting adjourned, I guess.’

He and Ash left together. Just like last time, Venetia stayed behind.

‘We seem to be making a habit of this,’ said Mark. ‘Thank you. Again.’

‘Don’t bother,’ she replied. ‘Citra’s not acting rationally. There isn’t a captain in the Fleet who’d have gone back for Yunus under those conditions.’ She peered at him. ‘How are you coping?’

‘Okay,’ said Mark. ‘Freaked out, but okay.’

‘That was Will’s doing, wasn’t it? That override problem?’

Mark nodded.

‘Did you know he’d hacked the ship?’

‘No!’ said Mark, then realised it wasn’t quite true. ‘I knew he’d given me an update package but I had no idea he’d put anything so extreme in it. We had a minor security problem before we left. I assumed he just installed code to compensate for that. No more.’

‘Then why didn’t you say so?’

Mark gestured at the ladder, his expression incredulous. ‘To
her
? She’d have just turned it into another weapon.’

Venetia exhaled. ‘Probably, yes. But it doesn’t look good. Sam came to see me, you know, after we made it out of Tiwanaku. He’s very suspicious of you right now. Coming on the back of that whole no-confidence-vote business, he’s more convinced than ever that there’s something wrong about you being here. And he still thinks Will shouldn’t have waded in there with guns blazing. He’s convinced he had everything under control.’

‘That’s bullshit,’ said Mark. ‘Everyone could see he was flailing.’

‘Everyone but him. And claiming that you had no idea about the override isn’t going to cut it. He thinks there’s something fishy going on. He’s just not as vocal about it as Citra.’

‘Really?’ Mark said wearily. He didn’t know whether to be surprised or just disappointed. ‘He apologised to me just now, before the meeting. He said he was the one who made a mistake back there.’

‘He did,’ said Venetia. ‘But that won’t stop him snooping. Sam’s a cop, Mark. He’s going to put you at your ease while he builds his case.’

Mark rubbed his eyes, exasperated. The whole situation felt ridiculous.

‘Do you think I should just relinquish command, then? Give up the whole thing and let them do whatever they want?’

It would at least prove his good intentions. It’d go on his record as an abdication of command, which he wasn’t keen on, but arguably their mission was beyond such concerns at this point.

Venetia fixed him with a cool, penetrating gaze. ‘Do
you
?’

He shook his head. ‘No. For all his strengths, Ash would never have been able to get us out of that mess. If those things come after us, I’d rather have my hands on the controls. Once we’ve got the
Ariel Two
watching our backs again, I’ll happily hand off command if they still want that. But not before.’

‘For what it’s worth, I agree,’ said Venetia. ‘Particularly given that we’re not even sure you
can
hand off at this point. This is all conjecture anyway until we have our team back together. Until then, try to stay calm. I’ll talk to the others. Okay?’

Mark nodded.

‘You did good back there. Those manoeuvres scared the shit out of me, but you got us out alive. Thank you.’

Half a laugh escaped Mark’s throat. ‘You’re welcome.’

9.3: WILL

Will slid into the unknown system with his sensors on full spread and his quantum shield running. The first thing he noticed was what
wasn’t
there. Despite its proximity to Tiwanaku and the Fecund domain, this system didn’t appear to have any of the characteristic habitat ruins in its out-system. Or none close enough for him to see, at least. That in itself was surprising, given that the star was a G-type. Either the Fecund hadn’t come here, or the place had been cleaned out. Interesting.

‘What’re you looking for?’ Devi asked.

‘Fecund artefacts,’ said Will.

He felt duty-bound to at least keep them clued in as to what he was doing. It couldn’t have been easy sitting around in the nestship while he took them charging off into uncharted space.