Chapter 29

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I was shocked out of my reverie, a loud clang jolting me into reality on the mechanics level. I used the time walking there poorly, full of melodramatic musings of the past, and was little prepared for the sharp pang that accompanied seeing the now empty carcass of the Terran ship. Guilt wormed its way into my stomach, feasting on the remains of my conscience.

Jack wanted me to supervise the demolition, whatever that entailed, but instead I slinked past the workers, mostly captives, who worked doggedly at removing every last shred of scrap metal from the frame. 

I will always remember the very first time I saw a fighter ship, already deep into my training with the Terrans. From the moment I stepped onboard, I felt at equilibrium. Every element, from the shiny metal floors to the bright flashes of the control panel, was a medley of sensory delight. And when I first felt the weightlessness that comes after takeoff, when gravity releases its final grasp of control on your body, I was hooked.

Flash forward a decade, and I watched dryly as the wings were ripped off the mighty aircraft, with a horrific rending clang. Upsetting as it could be, regret wasn’t what I was here for. I’d been tested a lot the past few months, and thought I passed with flying colors. What was becoming clear to me however, was that my greatest test was yet to come. My loyalty was still up for debate, and Jack was going to do everything in his power to force me to turn on him. No way it was a coincidence that the ship we hijacked was controlled by ALYX. All of this was designed to throw me off balance; he wanted to see whether I would trip right back into the Terrans’ arms. 

Unfortunately for Jack, I was stronger than he gave me credit for. Or, maybe not, but certainly smarter.

I moseyed around the base of the ship, and began climbing up some of the scaffolding. I gave every person I passed a cursory assessment, keeping my gaze protracting and apathetic to their work. I walked along the corridors, eyes smarting from the harsh smoke billowing up around the welding tools, taking a long and winding route towards my goal destination.

The palm-sized hard drive I kept tucked into the waistband of my pants felt all too conspicuous. I took a huge gamble when I swiped it from some lab on my way over, and an even larger chance when I took the time to wipe it clean and delete any record of its previous contents. Precious minutes of waiting for someone to interrupt me, ready to lie or punch my way out of their resulting interrogation.

Thankfully, nobody came. I smuggled it out of the lab and through the ship corridors, everyone I passed none the wiser. Unfortunately, I knew that would be the easy part.

There were five or six workers hacking diligently away in the control room when I entered. It would be nearly impossible for me to do what I needed while they were present, and even more difficult to empty the room without drawing suspicion. Whether or not these poor people were dedicated to the mercenary cause, ratting on others was highly rewarded on the ship. Anyone here would turn me in for an extra slice of bread, and I didn’t quite blame them. 

“Everything going well here?” I put on a haughty tone, looking down disapprovingly as a small man cut wires from underneath the Pilot’s chair.

“Yes, sir. We are on schedule.” 

“Hm. Seems like you still have quite a bit to do.” I actually had no idea what they were doing, and no way to possibly tell what stage they were in.

“Well, yes. Um- the ship - it is making things difficult.” He didn’t meet my eyes, and continued clipping away at the base of the chair.

“The operating system.” I wasn’t asking, I knew all too well how difficult she could be.

“Yes. But we will break it. I- I promise.”

“Hm. Let me see if I can be any help.”

“I’m sorry, Sir, that’s against protocol. You really shouldn’t be in here while we work, the-” I cut him off sharply.

“I say what the protocols are. If you want to question me being here, go ahead. It’s your demotion. And your head on the line when this doesn’t get completed on schedule.” 

I paused for effect.

“You know what, maybe I’ll just report back now, and let them know this is too much for you…”

The man looked up in complete fear, and I felt the guilt build again in my lower stomach.

“Um no, I’m so sorry, go right ahead. No need to notify anyone, please, do whatever you need to do.”

“That’s what I thought.” 

I turned to the main control panel, which they had already unlocked. The last line of defense was ALYX herself, but to remove her from the equation would be to remove all the truly important information from the ship, anyway.

“I see.” I mumbled aloud, cognizant that they were all closely watching to see what I would do. “We just have to remove the AI program.” 

“Sorry, remove?” An older woman cut in, eyeing me suspiciously. “As I understand, removing the AI in the ship’s computer would make the software basically useless.” 

“If you plan on interrogating the ship like it’s a human, maybe so. But that’s a stupid, if not impossible task. You need to get rid of the ‘personality.’ Just throw it out. You’ll still be left with important locations and anything hard wired into the ship’s memory.”

I worked while I talked, aware that I wouldn’t have much time to do this before they called for backup, or tried to verify my actual security clearance for this project.

I pulled the drive out, hiding it from their sight with my back turned as I hunched over the screen. Slipping it into the drive, I sweated nervously as it emitted a harsh whirring sound. I talked over the noise, hoping that my unwelcome presence was distraction enough from what I was actually doing.

“See, the thing is that this AI presence is all just for user comfort. The AI doesn’t hold any information itself, it’s just a way of presenting it. If you delete the program, you can still go in and access everything manually. The biggest mistake would be to act like this thing has a brain of its own. It’s a computer, the personality is just another type of firewall. Delete it out and…” 

I drew out the word for drama, keeping my eye on the rapidly spinning loading icon, as I panicked waiting for the transfer to load.

I clapped my hands together loudly, giving everyone a start, and successfully masking the small beep that was emitted when I pulled out the drive. Slipping it back against my lower stomach, I turned around with a flourish. 

“There you go. Full access. You’re welcome by the way. Be sure to tell the boss I was here, and did this for you. I want the credit.”

I waited until they huddled around the machine and verified that they did, in fact, have full access into the mainframe, before I made my exit. The information this would bring to the mercenaries would probably decimate some of the Terran plans, maybe even give away some relatively important locations. 

In the grand scheme of things, however, I had saved a lot of people. If, and when, they wrote a program to break ALYX, they would have discovered something much more deadly. The AI computers had memories: of their recent locations, conversations, even stores of past missions and their outcomes. The Terrans were prepared for captured ships to be hacked, and information was encoded and dispersed accordingly. This, they could anticipate, but who knew what information the Pilots had revealed to ALYX. I, personally, had told her enough to get me killed.

I climbed back down the scaffolding after doing a last walk around the ship. Everything in my body was yelling for me to get out of there with my loot, but I knew I couldn’t arouse any suspicion. The workers in the control room would fight over their right to claim the hack as their own work. They would claim they deleted the AI program themselves, and I would be a forgotten participant as they strove for credit that could massively improve their position on the ship. 

After several hours of pacing back and forth, yelling out generally poor advice to the workers and thoroughly solidifying my place as unhelpful management, I left. I took my time heading back to my room, knowing that my every move was likely being monitored. Just a few steps away from the turn that would lead to my door, the ship’s intercom crackled to life with an unwelcome chime.

“Holly, to the interrogation room. Holly, to the interrogation room, now.”

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