Taking Space 2

- White Sun, Down -

Michael stood in the middle of Alf's command deck looking back and forth at twenty different view screens. He'd always been more or less the strategist of the family taking in all the details of everything before him and thinking of every angle and coming up with the best possible plan and Catherine ever since she had married Daniel had been essentially the tactician taking care of the minute aspects and exact timing of his plan. That had all been nothing more than games though this time however this was real and thanks to his blundering Catherine was now busy helping Steven trying to take over a hostile network which wasn't at all her forte and he was being forced to really think on his feet.

"I got it," Steven said at last. "But White sun's system without a doubt knows it's been hacked so I don't know how long I will have control."

"So, what exactly does that mean?" Michael asked

"The droids will stay ours, because there on a separate system," Catherine answered for Steven. "But all the other automated systems of the station like gravity some of the defense turret's, filtering systems and even the cameras while currently under our control they probably won't be for long."

"That's fine as long as I have the droids that's all I need," Stephanie said. "Just focus on finding who all is still on board the station and if at all possible find the assassin android."

Steven nodded. "Doing that already."

"Good," Michael answered. "Alf how's it going?"

"I have tagged seventy-three percent of all the fleeing vehicles with tracking devices and according to my calculations I will be able to tag another fourteen percent of them before they are too far into the gravity storm for my drones to follow them," the AI answered.

"Eighty-seven percent, that's not bad, but also not that great when you consider over fifty percent of them probably will discover the tracking devices," Michael noted and turned to Daniel. "How's it coming?"

Daniel shrugged and twisted his hands palm up in a halfhearted jester. "The starfighter has almost caught up with the biggest cargo ship fleeing the station, and I'll get to it with plenty of time before it enters the thick of the gravitational mess. But thanks to Catherine frying my weapons I don't have a clue what I'm going to do when I catch up I can't even fire a warning shot."

"Your Lord Maddog," Michael answered. "Just bluff your way through and get that ship back to the station."

"That's easier said than done," Daniel muttered. "Especially with the arch spawn lurking about it."

Michael reached up and massaged his temples with his thumb and index finger. The arch spawn, there was only four of them left, and only one of them was as big as a destroyer but they had no real way of dealing with them. "Cat what happened to our eyes on the arch spawn?" He said realizing that the view screen showing the arch spawn was gone.

Catherine's tapped on one of the holograms in front of her and looked it over. "They are destroyed. So is the last of the defense turrets on that angle of the station, that last gravitational attack from them must've got them."

Stephanie's eyes popped open. "I just realize I haven't had to steady any of the droids for the last twenty seconds. The tremors seem to have stopped so what are they doing now?"

"I'm not sure," Michael omitted. "But one thing is for sure we need eyes on them."

"Don't look at me I'm still trying to get this stupid cargo pilot to turn around," Daniel declared in frustration.