Far Horizon (Juggernaut #4)

Thirty Three

Nina was at the back of the room. Malachi had expected the area to be less busy than this. They were mid-shift, so most people should have been working on their assignments. Instead the room was as busy at it was during a shift change.

Nina waved him over with frantic gestures. Malachi walked around the edge of the room. He sensed a peculiar energy in the conversation. People spoke quietly. There was an air of confusion, of mystery, and excitement. When he sat down, he could see that Nina personified all of these.

"What's going on? Why is everyone acting so strange?"

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"They closed the bridge. Not just the bridge either, they shut down sensors, comms, all the science stations, even those satellite scans I was working on. It's a blackout."

"Why would they do that? Is something wrong?"

"Remember those communication anomalies we talked about the other day? It was an object. A ship of some kind."

"Okay, but I still don't understand the secrecy. This is an inhabited system. There's old satellites and probes and abandoned ships out there."

"Right, but they would use Commonwealth codes, right? This thing uses something older."

"Older?"

"Pre war. Pre fall."

"Earth tech?"

Nina nodded, eyes wide.

"Are you saying it is more than a hundred and fifty years old, and still broadcasting?"

Nina nodded again. "It must be worth a fortune! And the best part is, I discovered it."

"You did?"

"Official logs show my work identified the signal so it could be tracked. You know what that means, don't you?"

"Salvage rights?"

"Salvage rights!"

"Wow, that's big news. Congratulations. So where is it now?"

"They're bringing it on board. All I know is they've isolated a forward cargo bay to store it in."

"That's great," said Malachi, but something was gnawing at his mind. "But why all the secrecy? Why did they end shifts early if it's just salvage?"

Nina shrugged, and leaned back in her chair, relieved that her secret was now out. "Who knows what protocols they have here? It's still a military ship. Maybe they have to follow different rules."

"Yeah, maybe," Malachi wondered.

Nina leaned forward again. "You don't seem as excited as I want you to be."

"No! I am, I am! It's a big find."

"But?"

"Maybe they do have special protocols."

"Or?" she pressed.

"Or there's something else going on."

"Right, which means...?"

He sighed. "There's a tech mystery on board."

"And what is it you don't like?"

"Being set up?"

"And?"

"Mysteries."

"See? You got there in the end."

"Once they release some data about the find we can take a closer look. It's going to be fascinating if that's pre-war tech."

Nina leaned back again and casually examined her fingernails. "Sure, once they do," she said.

Malachi looked at her, trying to read her thoughts, but was sure he already knew what she was planning.

"Or?" she prompted, still looking at her nails.

"Or nothing," he said.

"Mal, play along! Or...?"

He gave up, and gave her the answer she wanted. "Or we can take a look for ourselves," he sighed.

Nina jumped to her feet, planted her hands on the table, leaned over and kissed him.

"Why Malachi, what a wonderful idea you just had!"

He folded his arms and looked up at her. "Hmmm," he said. "How clever of me."

"Well," said Nina. "If there's work to do, I can't sit around here chatting. I need to see what pre war code they have archived on this ship and get my things together. You need to prepare some tools in case we need to hard wire an interface."

"Wait, what?" said Malachi. "I thought you wanted to go and look at it."

"No, silly. This might be one of a kind. I need to know all its secrets. I'm going to hack it!"