Free The Cold Steel Mind by Niall Teasdale Page B

compressed space ahead of the ship and expanded it behind. This allowed the vessel to travel at faster-than-light velocities as far as the wider universe was concerned, but at no time was the ship itself actually exceeding light speed within its frame of reference. Her brother had been very much into science fiction and she remembered him mentioning the idea that warp speed, just like in Star Trek, was possible. She seemed to recall that the problem was the amount of energy required.
    That problem, it seemed, had been solved, but the Agroa Gar’s drive apparently presented a different issue. ‘The synchronisation hardware between the two cores,’ Tosimna was saying, ‘must somehow be able to pass data from one core to the next at faster-than-light speeds.’
    ‘It wouldn’t have to be much faster,’ Wallace countered, ‘but I do agree. Some form of short-range tachyon system?’
    ‘I would suspect a coupled quantum entanglement mechanism. More reliable over such a short distance. The particles could be generated just prior to engaging the drive. I have a simulation program that could be adapted to this configuration. Perhaps we could work on that this afternoon?’
    Wallace grinned wolfishly. ‘Sounds fascinating. We’ll use the station labs, more comfortable for both of us.’
    Ella leaned over towards Aneka. ‘I think Doc Wallace is in love,’ she whispered.
    Aneka glanced at Cassandra who was looking on with an indulgent smile. ‘She’s rather enjoying his infatuation,’ Al commented.
    ‘More people watching?’ Aneka asked silently.
    ‘Everyone needs a hobby.’
    ‘Did you manage to look at that data we uncovered regarding the reactor failure, Abraham?’ Gillian asked. They had managed to find the computer’s logs and data recorders from the period leading up to the accident. There was nothing after it.
    ‘Cassandra has been analysing the data leading up to the explosion,’ Wallace said.
    ‘It appears that there were disruptions in the ship’s power systems for almost an hour prior to the eventual failure,’ Cassandra informed them.
    ‘I remember them saying something about that,’ Aneka said. ‘It’s why they paused my “conditioning” and stuck me in stasis.’
    ‘Yes. There were disruptions in control systems; the communications system went offline preventing them from calling for help. If I were to theorise, I would suggest that some of the damage Monkey and Delta attributed to a power surge actually happened prior to the reactor failure.’
    Wallace grunted. ‘That fits with the data from the actual explosion then. The data recorders suggest some form of violent heat burst immediately before the reactor blows and, obviously, nothing more was recorded.’
    Aneka frowned. ‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying?’
    ‘I’m proposing that the accident which trapped you in space was not an accident. Someone sabotaged the power systems on the Agroa Gar.’
    13.8.524 FSC.
    This morning the diagnostics showed no yellow lines; everything was, once again, optimal. Optimal aside from the time. Aneka frowned at the sequence of time displays as they appeared in the list, double-checking that she was reading them right before asking Al about them.
    ‘I was offline for two hours longer than normal?’
    When he answered the AI seemed as perplexed as she was. ‘That would be what the downtime figure would seem to indicate.’
    ‘Well, I don’t need the rest…’
    ‘Perhaps you did. If the optimisation routines failed to complete last time, they may have taken longer to run this time.’
    ‘Yeah… Except if that’s the case, why didn’t they run longer yesterday? I’d like you to supervise some diagnostic runs today, while I’m awake. Run through everything and keep an eye on the results. As detailed as you can go.’
    ‘That will mean some of your normal support functions will be offline while I’m doing it. Basic senses won’t be affected, but you’ll lose the wide-spectrum