“What do you mean ‘the secondary readings are inconclusive’?” Chris asked in exasperation. He took a deep breath and tried to hold on to his patience. He cast Morris a dark look and then held out a hand and clicked his fingers together rapidly until Morris finally got the message and handed the pad over to him. “They can’t be inconclusive if we’ve been able to detect a ship using them, now can they?” he said.
At that, Morris had the grace to blush. “I just mean that it’s unclear from the readings what exactly—”
“Enough,” Chris snapped, holding his hand up again to halt Morris’s babble midflow, his patience now at an end. “You’re making it impossible for me to concentrate. Now, let’s see here….” He hummed quietly to himself as he looked over the readings that the boosted sensors had picked up, ones that had highlighted something too small to be detected normally that appeared to be moving toward Argo. “These aren’t inconclusive; they’re simply not completely resolved,” he said, looking up to spear Morris with his gaze. “Rerun them, and this time make sure the resolution is complete before you bother me.”
As Morris scurried off, Chris swiped a hand over his face and then checked the time—it was only eight thirty, and already it felt as though he’d been in the lab for days. The first readings the enhanced sensors had picked up by accident had remained unchanged. Ominously, the further analysis did suggest that they were spaceships, as opposed to some kind of natural phenomenon, and that they were holding position just outside what would normally have been the outer limits of Argo’s sensors—seemingly attempting to avoid detection. To make matters worse, second readings taken a few hours later had presented a different trace—one that indicated something small and compact heading toward Argo.
“We have a problem, then?” Jason asked as he approached Chris, a couple of coffee mugs held in his hands.
Chris grabbed a mug and took a long, grateful swallow. “Looks like it,” he replied. “Although how big of one is yet to be determined.”
“We have implemented the new protocols across all of the sensor networks,” Jason said, gesturing over his shoulder to a team of scientists who were clustered around the main computer that gave access to the central CPU. “We now have full coverage, but it will take some time before the full expanse of new space we can now monitor is scanned and the readings are resolved correctly for interpretation.”
“Okay, good,” Chris said, nodding abstractly as he took another mouthful of coffee and headed back over to his desk with Jason at his heels. “What else is out there is the least of our worries at the moment. Our priority at the moment is figuring out what is going on here,” he continued, stabbing a finger toward the readings on his screen. “I’ve got Morris improving the resolution of the secondary sighting, so we should have a complete picture of that soon.”
“Both Rick and Jane are aware of the situation,” Jason said. “I’ve told them that we suspect that there are a number of ships holding place just outside Argo’s normal sensor range, and there is evidence of something below our normal levels of detection apparently moving toward the station. I said we’d let them know as we have more information.”
“And what about Major Harris…?” Jason asked as the main lab doors hissed open and the man in question entered the room.
Chris felt himself freeze involuntarily as Duncan approached them. He took a deep breath and willed himself to relax. After all, everything was going to be okay. Duncan wanted him and he wanted Duncan—it’d be easy, right? But then Chris noticed Duncan’s demeanor, and he felt his heart sink. Duncan looked cool and reserved—very much the major as opposed to the Duncan who had kissed Chris last night.
Duncan nodded to Jason in greeting before turning to Chris. “Can I have a word, Dr. Vabre?” he asked, his tone polite and distant.
Chris frowned. He recognized that tone. It was the one Duncan had used all those years ago when he’d essentially ended their budding friendship—the one that signaled that Duncan was trying his best to distance himself from the situation. Chris swallowed, wondering what it was he’d done wrong. He cautiously met Duncan’s eye, fearing he’d see the same cold indifference he had seen there before.
“Vabre?”
As Duncan asked again, Chris found himself frowning in confusion. The coldness was there in Duncan’s eyes, but there was an almost unnatural politeness to his tone. Then Duncan had been all polite indifference, whereas now he was… well, striving for the indifference perhaps, but failing somehow. As he considered Duncan more closely, Chris was shocked to find the coldness slowly giving way to something that looked an awful lot like desperation.
“Duncan, I… ah…,” Chris began, unsure of what to say, but hoping to bring something akin to normalcy into their conversation. From somewhere beside him, Jason coughed discreetly, obviously trying to bring Chris’s attention back to the problem at hand. “Oh, yes, right. The readings,” Chris said, turning abruptly to look at Jason before swinging his gaze back to Duncan. “Yes, we do need to talk.”
Duncan nodded once, his movements stiff and unnatural, and turned to head toward one of the smaller labs just off from the main lab. Chris paused for a moment, watching Duncan. Gone was any trace of ease in Duncan’s movements; instead he was holding his shoulders square and taut, his arms straight by his sides and his steps even and measured. Chris suddenly became aware of Jason at his side, his gaze also fixed firmly on Duncan’s retreating back.
“Chris,” Jason said, shaking his head slowly. “Something happened last night, didn’t? Between you and Major Harris?”
Chris sighed and swiped a hand over his eyes. “I… well, I guess you could say that, yes,” he admitted reluctantly, turning to meet Jason’s wide-eyed stare at his revelation. “Look—it was nothing… I mean, he and I… well, it was just that…. Damn!” he snarled, feeling himself start to blush.
Jason’s eyes sparkled with mirth as he watched Chris continue to splutter. “Good,” he said. “It’s about time.”
“I… what?” Chris gasped in disbelief.
But Jason merely waved away his question, focusing instead back on the lab where Duncan was now pacing back and forth restlessly, waiting for Chris. “And to think, it wasn’t that long ago that we were having this conversation about me and Rick.”
“What?” Chris asked in shock, unable to compare what had happened between him and Duncan to the committed, loving relationship that Jason and Rick shared. “Don’t be ridiculous—it’s not even slightly the same.”
“Oh no?” Jason asked, his delight at Chris’s situation still evident.
“No,” Chris snapped in reply. “I mean, at least you and Rick were friends beforehand. With Duncan and I… hell, I don’t know what we are.”
Jason shrugged. “Then talk to the man,” he said, as if the answer were obvious.
Chris let out a whoosh of breath, aware that Jason was right but feeling anxious at just the thought. “No, I can’t, not yet,” he replied. “I….” But there he faltered.
Jason just grinned at him and shoved a pad into his hand. “Go on,” he said, waving Chris toward Duncan. “He’s second-in-command to Rick, isn’t he? Go tell him about the situation. And then see how things go from there.”
Chris frowned at Jason but did start walking toward the small lab. “And there are no things,” he insisted as he went.
Jason’s only reply was to snort and wave Chris away with a distracted hand as he turned his attention back to the computer on his desk. Chris shook his head in reluctant amusement before sobering abruptly as his attention became focused once again on Duncan, who was still looking far too serious. Taking a deep breath, Chris stepped into the room.
Duncan started talking the second the door to the small lab hissed closed behind him. “Look, Chris, I just wanted to say that I’m so—”
“No, there’s no time for that now,” Chris interrupted, waving his hand to beckon Duncan closer. “Come look at this.”
“Look at what?” Duncan asked, his tone suddenly wary.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, I’m not going to do anything to you, if that’s what you’re all antsy about,” Chris snapped in exasperation. “In case it has escaped your notice, we’ve got something of a situation developing here,” he said, waving a hand behind him at the busy lab. He took another deep breath and forced himself to finish. “And I need you.”
Duncan blinked at Chris for a moment, his face totally devoid of expression. But then he shook himself and walked straight over to where Chris stood, his datapad still clutched in his hands.
“And I’m here,” Duncan said, holding Chris’s gaze with both his tone and his expression deadly serious.
Chris swallowed thickly and nodded.
“So, what have you got?” Duncan asked, leaning a little closer into Chris and peering down at his pad. “Something to do with that not-really-an-artifact thing you and Jason were going on about last night?”
Of course, Chris’s brain chose that moment to go abruptly offline. Duncan was standing so close to his side that Chris could smell him, could feel the heat emanating off him. He shuddered and had to grip his pad tightly with both hands to prevent himself from reaching out and touching Duncan.
“Um…,” he said, blinking rapidly as he tried to regain his train of thought. “Yes, the artifact, right.”
Duncan raised an eyebrow at him in inquiry, tilting his head to one side in silent encouragement.
Chris took a deep breath and glanced down at his pad for a moment while he collected his thoughts. “Okay, well here’s what we know so far—” But before he could launch into his explanation, a somewhat frazzled-looking Jason burst through the room, cursing soundly under his breath, Colonel Tennant following closely on his heels.
“Fucking hell!”
“Ah, Jason?” Chris said, annoyed at the interruption but concerned enough by Jason’s tone to let him speak. “Is there something you want to share with the rest of us?”
Jason ran a hand through his hair, making it stand up in wild tufts, and thrust another pad into Chris’s hands. “Here—tell me that this is not what I think it is.”
Chris looked down at the pad’s display screen, eyes skimming the data as fast as he could. “Fucking hell,” he repeated as he reached the end of the report.
“Exactly,” Jason replied with a nod.
“Guys?” Duncan ventured, glancing at Rick and meeting the colonel’s gaze. “Mind letting us into this little secret?”
“No, but we need to call a senior staff meeting,” Chris replied as he headed back out to the main lab to collect his laptop. “And quickly. We don’t have much time.”
“SO LET me see if I understand this correctly,” Jane said, her tone measured as she spoke, her gaze darting from Jason to Chris. “When you were testing your new ideas of increasing the station’s power flow, you inadvertently managed to boost the range of our sensors.”
Chris glanced over at Jason and saw that he returned the look, the question clear in his eyes. Nodding slightly, Chris agreed, knowing without words that Jason would want, and should be the one, to explain the situation to Argo’s leader.
“Well, not exactly, you see, we—” Jason started to explain, only to be forestalled by Jane’s quietly raised hand.
“And these boosted sensors,” she continued, “were able to pick up the traces of a number of unidentified vessels holding position on the edge of our normal sensor range?”
Jason stayed quiet, apparently waiting to see if she had finished. When Jane quirked an eyebrow at him, he nodded. “Yes. You see, Chris and I have been working on a way to realign the power matrix to improve the efficiency with which all systems on Argo operate.”
“Based on Zenoid tech,” Corrin interjected, glowering at Chris for a moment.
Jane turned a questioning gaze to Chris. “Yes, I will admit that the original inspiration behind the project did stem from our analysis of how their colony ships are powered,” Chris said. “But,” he continued, looking pointedly at Corrin, “I assure you that the practical application is entirely our own work.”
“Besides which,” Jason added, “if we hadn’t attempted the upgrades, we wouldn’t even know about this attack.”
Corrin hmphed to himself as Jane asked, “It is an attack, then? You are certain of this.”
Chris sighed. “Well we weren’t at first, but I’m afraid to say that we are now.” He motioned toward Jason.
“Yes, you see we first stumbled across the indication that something was wrong completely by accident,” Jason said. “I was uploading Chris’s completed protocols for the new power matrix into an isolated testing area of the CPU and somehow managed to upload a portion of the protocols into the live system—the long-range sensors, to be precise,” he explained, leaning forward in his chair toward Jane as he spoke.
“Now the readings we got weren’t immediately useful,” Chris said, picking up the explanation. “You see, at such great distances, even with the new power-flow model, we can only get the broadest of indications. Therefore, the results of these scans have to first be run through an extrapolation program before we can reasonably interpret them. And, even then, there is still an element of guesswork involved.”
“So we ran the scans again,” Jason added. “And, unfortunately, we got the same results.” He then nudged Chris, indicating toward his laptop with a wave of his hand.
Chris nodded and tapped a few keys, bringing up the sensor trace, before swinging it around so Jane and the rest of the table could see. “You see this cluster here,” he said, pointing toward a grouping of points displayed in a background of open space. “We’re pretty sure now that this is a group of at least five ships.”
Jane nodded tightly, the lines bracketing her mouth deepening. “Colony ships?” she asked.
“We can’t be certain,” Jason admitted. “Perhaps they are Zenoid, but they might equally be some other species—we simply can’t tell. However, that they are dangerous, we have no doubt.”
“You see,” Chris explained, “their position is suspicious, for a start. They’re holding just outside our normal sensor range. It’s like they’re waiting for something.” He felt the nerves tangle in his belly at the mere thought—possibly hundreds of Zenoid—or some other dangerous foe—just lurking out there, watching, waiting.
Duncan leaned forward in his chair at Chris’s words, moving so his shoulders grazed Chris’s lightly. Chris took a deep breath, drawing strength from the light contact even though he doubted Duncan had intended to even touch him.
“So what are they waiting for?” Colonel Tennant asked, speaking for the first time.
“Ah, well,” Jason said, snapping his fingers together once and pointing at Rick. “That’s the question. And this,” he said, spinning Chris’s laptop around and calling up a new image, “is what we believe is the answer.”
He turned the laptop around, scooting back in his chair so Jane, Rick, Chris, and his teammates could all see the screen.
“Another ship?” Jessica asked as she leaned forward to get a better look at the display. “But it appears much smaller than the others.”
“Yes,” Chris replied, grinning over at her. “It is much smaller—and that’s the next suspicious thing. This trace,” he continued, tapping the screen with a finger, “is tiny—I mean, miniscule really—we’re talking something about a third of the size of a standard Union satellite here.”
“So small, it is very unlikely that we would have detected it with our normal sensor settings,” Jason added. “Even though it is within our normal sensor range, the sensors would just pass over it as some kind of space debris.”
“And that’s the thing,” Chris continued excitedly, feeling the thrill he always got as the pieces of the puzzle finally started coming together. “Like the group of ships, this too seems to have been specifically designed to evade detection. It’s like someone has purposefully put together a plan that they know could not possibly be picked up from Argo.”
“Except they didn’t know they’d be up against you guys,” Duncan said with a small smile.
“Yes, well,” Chris replied, feeling flustered at the apparent compliment.
“So now that we do know,” Jane said, “what do you suggest we do about it, gentlemen?”
Rick shrugged. “Send out a missile,” he said, glancing over at Duncan and receiving a nod of agreement. “Blow that thing heading toward us, whatever it is, out of the sky.”
“Ah,” Jason said, his head buried in his own laptop. “It won’t be as easy as that, I’m afraid.”
“It’s finished?” Chris asked, reaching out a hand to swing Jason’s laptop screen toward him so he could see it properly.
“Yes, yes,” Jason replied, making a final few keystrokes before turning the laptop fully toward Chris and scooting his own chair closer so they could look at the screen together. “It’s what I was afraid of. Look,” he said, pointing urgently toward the screen before running a hand through his hair.
Chris was aware of Duncan leaning in closer on his other side as Duncan tried to see the screen too. He could feel Duncan’s shoulder press up against his own and he had to give himself yet another mental shake—he couldn’t afford distraction. Forcibly turning his mind to the screen’s display, he started scrolling through the readouts. Jason was right—it didn’t look good.
“We need to run an internal diagnosis,” he said abruptly as he got to the end of the report, his hand already reaching out to pull his own laptop toward him. “See how far it’s gotten.” His fingers flew over the keys, connecting to Argo’s CPU, checking the status of the firewall before initiating the scan. “The firewall doesn’t appear to be breached,” he said, glancing toward Jason. “But that isn’t necessarily proof positive that our systems are unaffected by the virus.”
“Infected?” Jane said sharply while, at the same time, Duncan said, “You mean by a computer virus?”
“Just… give us a minute,” Chris said, waving a hand toward them both as his attention flicked between his laptop and Jason’s as he attempted to lock down the critical systems before they could become infiltrated. Jason picked up on what he was doing, and soon they were both working as fast as they could to protect Argo. Chris was vaguely aware of Jane, Rick, and Duncan talking together in the background, but he couldn’t spare the attention to discern what they were actually saying. As he meticulously worked his way through each of the station’s subsystems—shields, weapons, communications, air, water—he felt his sense of unease growing.
Naturally, Argo’s systems had extensive protection against infiltration of this kind, but no system was ever completely secure. Jason had a team of programmers working on updating their internal security whenever they learned more about how the Zenoid coded their systems, but they were still very much in the dark about the intricacies of Zenoid programming. Chris’s fear was that this virus was insidious in the extreme, working its way steadily through each of Argo’s systems in turn before starting to carry out its programming. Such a virus could render Argo’s defenses useless until it would be practically too late. As if to underline his fears, the internal scan he had set running in the background pinged and started to flash a warning.
“Shit,” he hissed under his breath. It was too soon, this could only be bad. He felt Jason look over and start when he too saw the flashing icon. With bated breath, Chris clicked on it, opening the scan results.
“We’ve been compromised,” he said, his gaze still locked on the stalled internal scan. “And, yes, it is a virus of some kind—possibly Zenoid, but it’s hard to tell because the structure is not something we’ve come across before. The Zenoid would be the most likely source of an attack, but in reality we don’t have enough information to know for sure. It could be by anyone.”
Jason nodded in agreement before turning back to his own laptop. “We have been tracking this smaller trace since we identified it as a possible threat moving toward the station,” he said. “We detected that it produced a burst of radiation just before this meeting was called.”
“And the analysis on that has just been completed—showing that the object was, in fact, a weapon,” Chris finished, shaking his head. He wondered what he could have done to avoid the situation, but came up with a blank. After all, he couldn’t possibly prepare for every single potential scenario. All he could do was work to contain it once it had manifested itself.
“So, now what, gentlemen?” Jane asked, the lines around her mouth tight with tension.
Chris sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “We need to get back to the lab,” he said. “I’ll get an engineering team together to start shutting down all nonessential systems, and the programmers can work on manually debugging as much of the CPU as they can, but it’ll be touch and go.” He’d risen to his feet as he spoke, gathering his gear together in preparation for heading down to the labs. “I don’t think we’re at evacuation point yet, but it’s probably coming,” he added. “It’ll take a while for the virus to work its way into all our systems, especially as we’re now actively fighting it, but we can’t be sure it won’t do so eventually anyway. We’ll also try to get a breakdown of its programming, see if we can get an antivirus program up and running to capture potentially viral software before they have a chance to execute.”
“Do we know what it will do once that happens, Chris?” Jessica asked, her eyes large and troubled.
“No,” Chris said, his voice cracking just a little. “I’m afraid we won’t know that ’til it hits us.”