Mutiny Aboard The Yamato - The Ghost in the Machine
23 Aug 2020Aeryn Airstryder
Tiberius stood on the bridge of the Yamato, sweat beading on his brow, only one other was there, some low ranking crewman manning the comms station, all other hands were below preparing for the incoming battle.The door hissed open and a soldier, dressed from head to toe in black combat armour, his visor a deep purple...one of Tirberius' elite personal unit, the Huntsmen.
"SIR! WE HAVE A PROBLEM! THE CAPTAIN AND AUGUST ARQUETTE, THEY WORKED IT OUT AND ARE ON THE MOVE!"
Tiberius sighed and looked from the huntsman to the surprised crew critter, drew his sidearm from its holster, and fired three times, shooting the man before he could even stand.
"Prepare the huntsmen, go after them! when you find the Captain and his brother, shoot to kill, meanwhile I wi..."
Tiberius was cut off by the blare of a siren and footsteps disappearing down the corridor...
"AFTER THEM!" Tiberius roared dragging the stunned huntsman with him down the corridor after the footsteps.
As Tiberius and the Huntsman tore into the main passageway that ran from the front to the back of the ship, a weak voice echoed out from the ship wide address system...the voice of the crewman who had been shot on the bridge...
"All *cough* All hands! The first officer and the Huntsmen have gone rouge, initiate the pandora's box protocol, lock down the ship! Sec...*cough cough* Security report to the armoury, bridge, engine room and cargo deck!" The voice trailed off, and something fell to the floor with a long drawn out breath that echoed throughout the ship.
Rose hurtled down the stairs and into the main corridor that ran the length of the ship, sirens blared and security forces were directing the evacuation of non combat personnel, bullets whistled past and thudded into one of the soldiers ahead who fell backwards Rose, in a state of pure panic called out;
"LEO, HELP!"
A voice, responded from the ship's PA system in that area
"Lieutenant commander turn left...NOW!"
Rose threw herself sideways into the medical bay as another spray of gunfire cracked through the air where she had been stood a second beforehand, she hit the floor landing on something soft and un-moving...the ship's doctor, dead...
Rose scrambled to her feet and sealed the door, banging on the other side told her that the huntsmen had caught up and were attempting to force the door.
"Leo what do I do?!"
Leo's voice, upperclass English responded;
"Lieutenant commander, I recommend removing the flood panel under bed two, you will be able to access the emergency crawlspace from there and proceed to the engine room, Huntsmen have already taken the bridge and the armoury, it looks like they will shortly take the cargo deck, your engineers have already locked down the engine room, right now it is the safest place on the ship, I will inform them of your imminent arrival"
Rose looked up at the camera mounted above the door that had been trained on her since she got into the medical bay;
"Thank-you Leo"
"Anything for this crew lieutenant commander, I managed to revoke the security access of the first officer and his men before the Pandora's Box Protocol was engaged which has slowed them somewhat, but now they have the armoury take is of the essence, they will shortly have the capability to cut through most of the ships security doors, you and your crew MUST disable the ship's drives before that happens, the traitors cannot be allowed to get control of the ship..."
Rose pulled the floor plate up, below was a tight metal tube, completely dark that ran parallel to the main corridor, for once she was thankful of her small size, if she had been any bigger it would be an incredibly tight fit, the poorly designed crawlspaces were more akin to ventilation shafts, many of the crews larger members could not get into them at all, she knelt down inside the tube and began to drag the floor plate back into place, before asking;
"What about you Leo?"
"As you are aware Lieutenant Commander, the Pandora's Box Protocol is based on the Pandora's Box Program, which was written by your sister to keep myself contained should I ever gain sentience and turn on the crew. The updated Pandora's Box Protocol, while designed to resist physical attacks to the ship, still has many of those safeguards in place, I am currently locked out of weapons, external doors, environmental controls, and a number of other systems I could potentially use to harm the crew...under section 3 article 5 of the Pandora's Box Protocol, capture, hijacking or corruption of the shipboard A.I is unacceptable, if the huntsmen attempt to breach the server room, I will have to delete myself unless a suitable personality matrix is located aboard ship, or we reestablish contact with the captain for an emergency transfer of my personality and short term memory, I estimate my chances of survival as being less than 12% at best...Hurry now Lieutenant Commander! You can't wait any longer, I will see you in the engine room."
"Good luck Leo" Rose responded before she pulled the floor plate into place, there was a faint electronic buzz and click of locking bolts, Leo had locked the plate behind her to prevent her pursuers from following her into the crawlspace.
It was pitch black, Rose couldn't even see her hand in front of her face, and Leo, A non sentient A.I, that had been masquerading as the covas system with the same name due to the difficult distinction, had no cameras or communication units here, while he would still have access to the ship's internal sensors and could monitor Rose's progress, she was on her own until she reached the engine room at the rear of the ship, approximately 130 meters back in the direction she had come...
Tiberius cursed with rage at the disembodied voice;
"LEO! I AM ORDERING YOU TO OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!"
"That is not going to happen commander, you are a traitor and a mutineer, your authority is no longer recognised aboard this ship, and I will do everything in my power to keep you from harming this crew any further"
"And what exactly do you think you can do, you are mere code in a computer, your access has been restricted by the Pandora's Box Protocol" laughed Tiberius
"I am well aware of this commander, however, you seem to forget, I still have access to lighting and internal doors"
With that the lights snapped off, and the red glare of the emergency lights filled the dark, throughout the ship, the booking echo of blast doors slamming closed and locking reverberated.
"Have our men taken the armoury yet?" demanded Tiberius, turning the one of the huntsmen at his back who gave a thumbs up in response.
"Then tell them to break out the cutting gear, get every door on this ship open!"
Tiberius looked up at the camera above him, raising his pistol;
"As for you you bucket of bolts! I'll deal with you shortly!"
He fired, the camera and with it Leo's sensors for that area disintegrated in a shower of sparks and scrap electronics.
Rose took a gasp of air as the panel before her fell away and clattered to the floor of the engine room below, the stunned faces of the engineers and security team looking up at her
"Jump Lieutenant! We'll catch you" called one of the officers as he and his fellow guard, a young woman took up position below.
Head first being her only option due to the confines of the crawlspace, Rose dropped into the the engine room, the guards taking advantage of the low gravity to jump up and slow her fall, the trio landing in a heap on the floor of the engine room's lower deck.
The security officers stood and saluted;
"Glad to see you are safe Ma'am, Leo told us you would be coming, any news? most of his sensors have been disabled"
Rose shook her head;
"Only what I overheard, most of the crew have been captured, the medical officer, science officer and the bridge crew are dead bar a few who were off ship when the mutiny started are dead, any luck getting into the communications system?"
One of Rose's engineers spoke up;
"Almost chief, but we need the security code of two commanding officers or the Captain's code to re-integrate Leo system by system, if we could get those codes, we could have Leo call for help."
"Leo, can you locate Grahm?" asked Rose moving over a console on the wall, pulling up the commands to re-connect Leo to the ship's systems and typing in her code for each system.
"One moment...I have located Lieutenant Commander Ghram, he is currently a captive on the lower decks near the cargo deck, I will attempt to contact him..."
Dutch sat in the dark, nursing the bullet wound in his leg, around him were scared and angry looking security forces, marines and crewmen, how had he let something like this happen?! As the Yamato-II's chief of security and marine commander, keeping the ship safe was his responsibility...but never had he imagined that the First Officer and his Huntsmen would turn on them, he should have seen it coming!
He was brought back from his thoughts by one of his security team tapping his shoulder and pointing at the camera above the door, the little red light, that indicated the shipboard A.I was watching was flashing in a series of long and short pulses...MORSE CODE!
He watched carefully
Transmit.
Security.
Code.
Authorise.
Leo.
Access.
To.
Systems.
Lieutenant.
Commander.
Yamamoto.
Has.
Plan.
Dutch winked at the camera to show he understood, and glanced at the guard by the door, and then from the guard to the security console on the far wall of the room.
"Hey traitor! I gotta piss! Gonna let me out"
The guard ignored him
Dutch stood
This got the guard's attention who levelled his assault weapon at Dutch;
"Sit!"
"Like I said I gotta piss, if you're not going to let me out at least let me go against the far wall rather than in my shorts, a man does still need to keep his pride ya know?"
The guard gestured with his rifle, hands raised Dutch moved to the back wall, lowered one hand, unzipped his fly and began to piss.
Out the corner of his eye Dutch saw the guard lower his weapon, then one of the crewmen, a young lad, no more than 18 or 19, threw up on the guard's boots.
While the guard was distracted Dutch moved quickly over to the console, where the prompt to reconnect Leo to the first of the ship's systems, in this case communications was displayed.
He typed in his code, and was about to select the second system, when he cried out, hot lead tore across his back, the sound of gunfire deafening in the small room...
"Lieutenant Commander Yamamoto, my connection to the ship's communication's system has been established, however...Lieutenant Commander Grahm has just been killed before he was able to give me access to any more systems, In the absence of the Captain, First Officer, Medical Officer, Science Officer and Security Officer, the Chief Engineer, is next in command, Acting Captain Yamamoto, you are now in command of the Yamato."
Rose was silent for a moment;
"Leo, update me on the locations of the Huntsmen"
"The Huntsmen are all on decks, aside from a few minor pockets of resistance and yourselves, the fighting has ended with a victory in their favour, acting captain I'm afraid I must inform you that they are using cutters from the armoury to breach the bulkheads, there is nothing more I can do, two teams are currently on the move, one here to engineering, the other to my server room, I have less than 5 minuets until they reach my hardware, it will take them approximately 10 to reach the door to engineering, time is running out."
"Ok Leo, it's time to get you out of here, you said that if you could establish connection with the captain there was a way you could transfer your short term memory and personality out?"
"Yes, the captain's optical and neural implants were specially designed to accommodate me during his days with the Arquette family"
Rose was confused;
"Wha...Why? Is that even possible?!"
"I have been ordered by the captain to never discuss our activities during this time, I will respect that order, please try to understand Acting Captain."
Rose shook her head, why was Ao keeping that big a secret from her of all people? She though he trusted her...not matter, now was not the time to dwell on relationship issues like some lovesick school girl, lives were at stake.
"Have you located the captain?"
"Yes, the entrance to hanger 25, the next pad along straight ahead, his implants are indicating that he his in combat, Acting Captain, you must initiate my transfer immediately, it is now too late for my to delete my files before being captured, this is now my only remaining option, but I cannot do it without your authorisation!"
"You have my authorisation Leo, go...and tell the Captain...Tell Ao I..." her voice trailing off as she glanced around
"I know Acting Captain...you forget, I see everything aboard this ship"
Rose felt her cheeks boil as she hid her face, and made a note to ensure that if they got out of this alive she would go over Ao's quarters with a fine toothed comb to remove every one of Leo's audio and visual devices!
"Transferring...Transferring...Transfeeeeeeee..." Leo's voice warbled off, and the display before Rose showed transfer complete, shipboard A.I has been removed from the ship.
A bang and hiss at the door made everyone in the room jump.
The bulkhead began to glow red, then white hot, sparks erupted from the door, and slowly began to move long the frame, the Huntsmen had arrived!
"SECURITY DEFEND THAT DOOR! ENGINEERS! GET THIS ENGINE LOCKED DOWN NOW! WE CANNOT ALLOW THE ENGINE ROOM TO FALL!" Rose picked up the heavy red and black 'monkey wrench' from the floor beside her console and stood along side the two security officers, whatever came through that door, they would meet it fighting!