Starborne

Chapter 33

My first stop was the infirmary. I gathered up as much gauze, antiseptic, and med-Paks as I could hold. I knew that Jack would eventually look back at the log of where I'd been, and see that I was entering all kinds of suspicious and restricted areas. By the time he bothered to check, though, it would be too late to care.

I deposited all of the stolen medical supplies into my closet of a room, and set out for my next target. All I wanted to do was run to Stefin and Koryn with gauze and apologies, but I couldn't risk getting caught down there and risking the rest of the plan. They would have to hold on for a bit longer. 

I spiraled around the ship for a good 45 minutes, opening doors to the food storage room, the gym, and generally trying to confuse anyone who may have been keeping an eye out for me. Finally I reached my destination, the command center. 

The captured Pilots were more tech savvy than I'd anticipated, and we hadn't needed ALYX at all to build our radio. That was for the best, because it gave me more time to figure out the impossible, and get her in command of the mercenary ship. 

There are benefits and downsides to working with a sentient computer program. ALYX saved my life many times by being intelligent and free thinking, but it also meant that I had to actually convince her to go along with my plans. I knew that this was going to be a tough sell. 

The door to the command center opened immediately to Jack's key. I received barely a glance from any of the mercenaries running around in the ship's hub, they were all busy and borderline panicked as they barked orders and scurried from one screen to another. The invasion was in early stages, and people were scrambling to comply with their new orders.

"You're here to take a look at the wiring issue in the steering column?" The high pitched voice came from a tall, wiry, purple-skinned woman who held a clipboard and seemed stressed out of her mind. Small tentacles in her hairline escaped from a once rigid bun, waving around with abandon. 

"Yes, Sir, that's me." I fell into step beside her as we walked over to the row of pilot seats that commanded the massive ship. 

"Well thank goodness. We've been waiting all morning, we can't train on evasive maneuvers until this short circuit stops zapping anyone sitting third-chair."

These words meant little to nothing to me, but I bobbed my head along and repeated short phrases as she explained the technical error. 

"Ah yes, torque." The woman was looking at me with her head cocked, like she needed more reassurance. 

"Oh - on it, Sir! My tool bag is right outside the command center so, I'll get right on that."

She gave a short, relieved huff, and hustled off to tackle another item on her manic list.

I went over to one of the overstuffed navy blue chairs, third from the left, praying and hoping that this giant ship would share some of the same tech as the Terran cruisers I was familiar with. 

To my delight, in the long wraparound navigation screen there was an array of ports along a side panel, with one the perfect size for the hard drive tucked into my boot. I knelt down by the chair and wiggled open a panel close to the ground, yanking out some wires for show. After making sure no one was looking too closely, I pulled ALYX from her concealed spot and plugged the drive immediately into the screen.

I was relying completely on the intelligence of others to make sure that ALYX was at all compatible with this system, and that she would even know what to do when plugged into a random port. I didn't have to wait long before an irritated red light began blinking on the consol. No words, but I knew it was ALYX. 

The blinking continued and I sighed, recognizing Morse code. 

"F - U - C -"

"I get it." I whispered harshly, keeping my head down. 

"We are smack dab in enemy territory now, this is not the place for messing around."

"K - Y - O - U."

The blinking stopped, silent treatment. 

"We don't have much time, so I'm just going to have to assume you're listening."

There was no indication she heard me, but I kept going.

"I pulled you off of the cruiser they were scrapping, and you've just been plugged into the mercenary ship. Keep a low profile, they can't find out you're online."

"D - U - H."

"Oh, very nice. I know you're mad at me, but I didn't abandon you. This was supposed to be a temporary mission, until my handler went dark."

I fiddled around with the wires as a man walked passed, giving me a cursory if interested glance.

"There's too much backstory and not enough time, so you're going to have to trust me here. This ship is headed to Cynabar to attack a defenseless village. Obviously, we can't let that happen." 

I jumped a bit as a low, tinny, voice came out of the small speaker in the chair above my head. 

"Hm, I wonder whose fault that would be." ALYX was quiet enough only I could hear her, but was evidently unsatisfied with simply blinking her distaste towards me. 

"Let's blame the actual bad guys here, okay? I'll dissect my own guilt in the matter once we guarantee those people are safe."

"Sick of the new boyfriend are you, ready to try hero on for size again?"

"Snarky, and inaccurate. You're a shitty computer." Frustrated, I accidentally touched a frayed wire and yelped as it shocked me. 

The purple woman stalked back over, standing above me disapprovingly. 

"Where are your tools? Do you even know what you're doing? Who are you?"

"I -" before I could make up an excuse, lights flashed across the panel.

"Recalibration complete. No errors currently detected." A happy, pleasant ALYX confidently lied.

"Well then. Finish up and get out, you're in the way." Tentacle lady hurried away, and my heart rate returned back to normal. 

"Thanks for that."

"I'm not trying to get caught here, either."

Having struck a tenuous truce, I continued with my murmured explanation. 

"- which is why you couldn't come with me, and why you weren't let in on the mission."

"It's plausible, I'll give you that."

"I'll take plausible at this point, if you promise to help me. No, if not me - the other Pilots, they're imprisoned on the ship here, too."

"Just tell me what needs to happen."

"I had to give Jack the coordinates to the village, they're probably already locked in the navigation. I need you to go in and shift them a bit, just so we are a few dozen miles off course. Something they would buy as a calculation error, but that places us in the jungle."

"That's doable, anything else?"

"Oh, yes, plenty."