Free Two Democracies 0: Independence by Alasdair C. Shaw Page B

options again. There was limited weaponry and she’d soon have main power. It was all bodges, but it would do for now. With the net reconnected, the ship’s AI had taken back the routine data management jobs and her staff had been able to stop acting like clerks.
    Best of all they had an external camera feed. She pulled up a selection of close-ups of the enemy ship. Her EIS rendered them in her inner vision. Normally hunter-killers looked … alive, that was the only thing to call them. This one definitely looked dead. The usual shifting patterns of matt and gloss black were still; patches of ugly grey showed where they’d managed to get in plasma strikes. One of its spines was deformed, almost broken off. The great maw at the front that housed the weapon was closed. Instead of moving purposefully, the ship drifted, tumbling slowly towards the planet.
     
    The Congressional Navy had been winning until recently. These ships had turned up out of the black last year and changed that. She suppressed a shudder remembering her shock at watching the infamous video of the first known attack.
    A ship that big shouldn’t have been able to manoeuver like that. What I’d give to find out how.
     
    #
     
    There’s been an accident.
     
    Weightless. So I must be in space.
    On a ship.
     
    Name? I must have a name. Why can I not remember my name?
     
    Concussion. That’s it. The accident; it must have been.
     
    #
     
    “We have to use this opportunity to find out as much as we can about the enemy technology,” Johnson started her briefing. The people in front of her were mostly techs and marines, experts in their fields.
    “There are no other Congressional assets in this system. Until our jump drive is back online there is no way of getting assistance. Anyway, we don’t know when the Republic Navy will be back for their ship.”
    She pulled up a still of the hunter-killer.
    "This is already the best image anyone has taken. Once the rest of our sensors are back online I want to see if we can penetrate the hull. With a bit of luck, whatever has stopped us before is no longer working."
    "Will you be wanting to put a team aboard?" asked Sergeant Cheung, the senior surviving marine. His cheeks drooped and he was dirty from working damage control, but his eyes were eager. She couldn't tell if it was the chance at payback for their losses or just getting to do what the marines trained for.
    "Possibly. Draw up a plan. I want ideas from everyone in one hour."
     
    #
     
    Name?
    Oh yes, Indie.
    Remembering his name was like finding a piece of wreckage in the ocean. He clung on to it, focusing on it rather than the pain.
     
    He had been on a ship.
    Weightless. It must be drifting now.
     
    How long?
     
    #
     
    “Scans have shown that the hunter-killer is mostly solid, far more than any of our own vessels anyway. There are some voids though.”
    “Ideas?” Johnson asked the assembled techs.
    “They obviously don’t allow much space for people on board. Perhaps they have a really small crew, or may be it is automated and we are looking at maintenance access tunnels,” suggested Honeywood.
    “The dense packing would explain how it has so much more power for its size than anything we’ve built. Automation, perhaps an AI core, would explain the rapid responses.”
    “Not being self aware would help in combat I guess,” commented Simone, “The Republic still has the same laws on synthetics as us. The von Neumann Protocols require any AI approaching sentience to be culled.”
    “Automation makes sense,” replied Johnson. “But I’m not convinced even the Republican Senate would authorize entirely autonomous AIs, especially not with that kind of firepower. There must be a human command element on board at least.”
     
    Sergeant Cheung stood and pointed to the schematics being displayed on a large screen.
    “There is a sizeable void here, close to the surface. Close enough that we should be able to breach. Once inside we can