Inside Work
10 Nov 2023Kasumi Goto
Muchihiks systemGaffney Ring, Coriolis starport
November 8, 3309
The common areas of this starport were busy with people. Much more than I was comfortable with, but I stayed out of the crowds, hiding away in the shadows. Some still looked my way, mostly with suspicious gazes at an all-black, hooded appearance in a tight-fitting jacket highlighting the chest, with simple pants. A few approached, trying to get me to do some shady work, only to be quickly shooed away like an annoying insect.
I wasn't here for these people. Or to help them. Instead feeling... disdain. It was not my own feeling, yet felt like one, coming from the implant. It held no high regard for humanity, playing into my own feelings with that. And it was getting increasingly difficult to discern what was coming from me, or elsewhere. What made me, myself. Trying to hold on to those fragments of an increasingly shattered personality, tortured and coerced into doing the bidding of a species higher than it, forced to endure unbearable pain due to our own meddling with things we didn't, and don't, understand.
My presence was for a very specific purpose. One that I needed to get into restricted areas of the port for. I abandoned my spot in a dark corner and moved further in. Security standards weren't... perfect, yet, after recapture of the system and subsequent recovery efforts. It would make my task easier, though not simple...
It wasn't even my task. I didn't want to do this, but the Thargoids did.
... or did I? I had a hard time telling if it was my own hatred for the way this human society had turned out, what I had gone through because of it, and what I was continuing to be put through due to its shit, that was driving me to do this, or the forced submission from the will of the Thargoids, driven through pain conditioning. And how much were they playing into my feelings with it all? Even if I survived this ordeal, I wouldn't ever be the same again.
I noticed I'd stopped. Or rather, the thought train was pulled away by it, drawing me back to reality in disorienting, but at least painless manner, for once. I needed... an entry point. Somewhere discreet. There were still ongoing works to fix up internal damage. And station maps I had silently downloaded pointed to a maintenance hatch... not too far. Internal sensors reported it as open, with nobody inside the tunnels that it led to - for now. Locating it was easy from here, partly thanks to the equipment nearby.
Now I needed some kind of distraction. Didn't care what kind of trouble I caused, it wouldn't be drawn back to either Kira or Kasumi, but a completely false identity that didn't even actually exist. Pretending to take a call on my wrist computer near a doorway... I turned off the lights in the section completely by cutting off power, plunging it into darkness. Amidst the sudden panic, I slipped into the open hatch unseen, before emergency lights came on, also turning off camera systems as I did so - while keeping it disguised as a simple malfunction. A ruse that wouldn't fly for long, once someone checked the cameras and found they were in perfect order, but it'd be enough.
The path from here, to an access point to the station mainframe that would allow me to do what I needed, was relatively straightforward. Mostly straight, some right and left turns here and there. The voices encouraged me to go forward. Dim, blue-ish lighting illuminated the area, creating a somewhat eerie and moody atmosphere when coupled with the near-total silence.
Internal trains were disabled, so I wouldn't need to worry about those. But the people, I did need to take into consideration, as I found out when I heard some voices and footsteps coming from far away - further than a human normally would have, owing to the enhancements made by the Thargoids to my, already unusually sensitive, hearing.
That provided me with enough time to find a hiding spot in an alcove of sorts, seemingly there to stand in during vehicle passage. Not without inadvertently knocking into a box of tools with a foot - which prompted me to internally curse the box, as I pressed my body against the wall. The lighting conditions hid my presence pretty well, but I held my breath as two workers passed by.
"Seems like there's a power failure on deck 27. Should we check it out?"
"Might as well. Command hasn't sent anyone yet, but the cameras there decided to shut down for no reason too. So much for those independent power supplies."
One of the tools that had been knocked out of the box made contact with a wall, creating a dull thud as it hit, and connected via mag-lock - these tunnels passed through the low G areas of the port.
"Hey, you hear that?"
"Sure did. Probably just the station. Thing's been creaking like nobody's business ever since the Thargoids hit it. You get used to it."
"Are you sure? I could have sworn I heard footsteps earlier."
"You're just paranoid. If there were any looters in here, they'd have been found and given the boot already. Not like this place only just got recovered from those green bastards a day ago. Besides, they've been pushed well out from here, so they're not gonna attack any time soon. Now come on. Let's go fix that power problem, not chase ghosts."
The two workers walked off, letting me breathe again. Part of me really wanted to come out and tell them how wrong they were about believing the Thargoids wouldn't, or couldn't, attack again, but then I'd have had to knock them out and hide them until I was done. I ensured cameras in the area displayed a relatively static image as I walked through, which would look like a small hiccup to any operator, and generally not be worth reporting. I was glad to be out of the maintenance tunnels when I reached the exit door that I needed, feeling rather unsettled by their eerie quiet, only disrupted by fans, and the way those fans interacted with the dim lighting - especially if they, for some reason, were backlit.
I needed to hack this particular door open - not a problem by itself, but a security guard was right on the other side. Thankfully, facing away. I wasted no time in knocking them out with a well-placed blow, such that no alert was raised, and hid the body in an alcove as well as I could. With some luck, they'd only wake when I was off the station already.
I copied their security clearance and poked my head out. Nobody else to be seen anywhere, and the access point was... just across the corridor, in another room. Currently only occupied by a single technician. I entered quietly - attention was the last thing I wanted to draw here, in a restricted zone. I wouldn't be shot on sight, but getting arrested was very much something I wanted to avoid. Or, rather, they wanted me to avoid it.
I knocked out the technician while they were inspecting a server bank of sorts, then accessed a terminal with their security clearance. That would avoid triggering any alarms, at least, the easy way. Hacking the system was an option, too, but cost more time - time that I wouldn't have, once a patrol was sent to investigate the guard that didn't report in for a status check.
I uploaded a virus to the system that, once its time-delayed trigger went off, would cause malfunctions throughout the station by overloading power relays, randomly shutting systems on and off or stressing them past their operational limits, among a whole host of other ways it could disrupt functionality - but it avoided life support and orbital stabilization. No casualties, only interference. Until the activation, it would pose as a harmless piece of code disguised within the system. There was little chance anyone would notice its harmful nature until it was too late.
I slipped back out of the room after ensuring nobody was coming via the cameras, and dipped back into the maintenance tunnel, from where I returned to where I had come from - the commons area. Then, I went back to the concourse, but rather than take my ship, I ordered an Apex shuttle to the next station, in another system. Thankfully, my attire was drawing less attention than expected - as if people were used to those who have an identity to conceal walking around like this.
I stood near the elevators while I waited for the shuttle. A few more minutes until the program triggered. At some point, early after activation, it would reach the comms array and transmit to other ports within this system. So I had no need to be here any further, and didn't want to be. Ordering my ship to leave and follow to the next station once my signal appeared there, I ensured it would be gone before the trouble started, and it was locked down - if this was traced back to the false identity.
I'd use another if that did occur. I had several prepared, but if I did everything right, I would only need a few. If more than one, at all. And, eventually, I'd change my focus to the front around another Titan, too. Remaining limited to one area was not what they wanted from me, and it would make it too easy to be located and stopped. It took an hour or two to do this in a station, preferably a large starport with a powerful comms array, or a surface port in their absence... plenty of time to catch up to me if anyone did notice.
The notification that my shuttle was ready arrived. I hit the elevator button and stepped in. A Krait Phantom departed before the shuttle, almost certainly mine, going into supercruise. As my ride cleared mass lock, some of the lights on the port flickered briefly. It had begun.
But not a part of my mind was concerned with remorse. If this was what it took to begin showing humanity that they were still vulnerable, we would eagerly do so.