Chapter 15- Entry

  Jett looked through the window to see the glow as his sponsor and dragon appeared beside his ship. Castledrive and Layla were snug in the hanger, having hitched a ride.

  “Report,” Jett ordered. The screens flickered as scans and connection requests appeared on the myriad of screens. A moment later the a summarized report was generated.

  “The ship’s AI is active. No signs of movement, but there are areas of the ship my sensor cannot generate.”

  “What about life signs or the ship’s internal defenses?”

  “The damage is considerable. I am attempting a handshake with the AI. If it is willing to talk to me, I should have- I’m in. The ship’s AI is mad. All crew are reported dead, but it is insisting we stay away.”

  “Order the AI to comply. Let it know we have multiple dragon riders.”

  An indistinct humanoid hologram with vaguely female features appears on one of the screens. “Multiple dragon riders?”

  "It is technically true and should strengthen our case. Fewer defenses means a quicker and cleaner mission.”

  “The AI is rejecting, citing security concerns. Whatever is onboard, it doesn’t like it. The AI wants to terminate, but whatever is inside took a bite out of the engine.”

  “Terminate?” Ashley asked.

  “Some ship AI systems have a protocol to run the engine until it melts the whole ship. It’s technically illegal. Only warships are allowed to terminate, but you can’t hold accountable an AI that isn’t there, and the companies will pretend they didn’t install the program.”

  “Wait, this ship is going to try to blow itself up while we are on it?!” Bill asked.

  “No. Blowing itself up with no one on board is illegal, but authorities let it slide. If the ship tried to blow itself up with us on it, that would be on another level.”

  “And you trust the program will stall while we are there?” Bill asked.

  Jett shook his head, “Not a chance. Angie will confirm, and the AI has to allow Angie to verify. It’s by far the easiest way to backdoor into the ship’s system. Keep requesting clearance that the ship won’t blow, then brute force the firewall.”

  “Wait if it's so easy, why do the companies allow it?” Ashley asked.

  Jett shrugged, “I said easy, but it’s not quick. Normally, that method takes a few days. Plenty of time for the AI to alert the company and ships to recover the craft. Still, a few times Angie got lucky, and she cracked it in a few hours.”

  “Luck had nothing to do with it. It’s all skill. Speaking of, I got confirmation and slipped in a spider program. I won’t have control, but I will be able to alert you if the AI activates any of the defenses.” Angie replied.

  Jett unbuckled himself and turned to his friends. “The AI activating the defenses and the defenses operating on pre-existing protocol are two different things. Stay on guard.”

  Jett met the eyes of all his friends and made sure they understood before exiting the deck. Fifteen minutes later, they drifted across space into the freighter. The carrier came with a small space buggy for space to ground transport. The ship was in poor condition and not suitable for entering the atmosphere, but it was more than enough for a quick hop to another spaceship.

  Jett and Kyle flanked the space buggy on their dragons. Jett looked behind him to see his sponsor eying him. Angie would send him feeds so he could monitor, but he was going to stay outside in case anything big and bad flew by.

  Jett was the first to land in the freighter’s launch bay. He looked around to see a few transports and a lot of tools. It looked like everyone onboard was in the middle of their work before they just got up and walked away. As soon as everyone touched down, an alarm started buzzing, and lights flashed.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “Angie?” Jett asked.

  “The AI is still trying to ward you off. I can’t turn it off, but there should be a manual reset somewhere.”

  Drones released from all five suits and started flitting around the bay.

  “Bill, Ashley, go check out some of the shuttles. They look in better shape than ours, and I wanted every functional shuttle pointed to our ship.”

  “Planning on creating a fleet of buggies?” Bill nervously laughed.

  “It would earn us some credits, but I’m more worried about a quick escape. The carrier is nicer than what I had before in a lot of ways, but I don’t like how far away it is.”

  Jett turned to Kyle and Amanda. “Clear the area and see if you can find the off switch. If there are any security bots, maybe we can have Angie hack them before the AI activates them.”

  As his friends went to work, he took a more leisurely walk around, looking for any clues. “Angie, any video feed or recordings?”

  “No, the AI is being stubborn. Do you want to talk to them?”

  Jett shook his head. He learned his lesson long ago. Talking to an AI would be like talking to a brick wall. Worse. It would likely spend the whole time warning and yelling at him about safety protocols.

  Jett’s comm chirped, “See anything?”

  Jett knew Dragon Rider Franklin had access to all the feeds. He saw as much if not more, than Jett. “Not yet.”

  As he answered, he looked down to see a trail of black goo. At first, he thought it was oil, but upon second inspection, it appeared to have the wrong texture. He tried to follow the trail leading to and from the doors, but it was smeared all over the place. He even found it smeared in corners, like something was hiding.

  Then he looked down and saw a few drops of dried blood. He blinked. It was strange. If someone died here, he would expect a lot more. He looked again at the goo and wished he had an analyzer. This reminded him too much of the research vessels and the strange monsters he found aboard.

  “Clear!” “Clear!” Jett heard his friends call out. He looked around to find Layla and Castledrive wearily eying the bay. Something had their hackles up, but they couldn’t put their paw on what.

  He decided to check on Ashley and Bill.

  “Hey! How do the ships look?”

  “I’m not much of a mechanic, but Angie says they are in good shape,” Bill replied.

  Angie chirped on his comm, “Two were in the process of a tune-up, but one looks like it's ready. I can walk Ashley and Bill through the process, but it will take an hour.”

  Jett sighed, “Go ahead and start. Just keep the drones running. I don’t want anything sneaking up on us.”

  The alarm went out, and Jett looked over to find Kyle with his hand on a lever. Jett waved in thanks and headed to the door from the bay.

  Layla and Castledrive were too big to fit into the narrow hallways. They reluctantly stayed while Kyle and Amanda lined up behind him.

  “Alright, Angie, open.”

  The door opened, and he saw more faint traces of the black goo with a shoeprint. Amanda noticed it too, “What do you think happened? Leaky robots?”

  Jett shook his head, “I don’t know, but I get the feeling we are going to find out.”

  Jett and Kyle started clearing rooms. There was a supply room full of spare parts, tools, and other repair parts. Once they cleared the area, Jett had Ashley and Bill transport a few crates over to the carrier. It might not sell for much, but it would save a small fortune in future repair parts.

  Ashley took one of the buggies over full of supplies. Bill took a buggy too, but he came back. “Ashley, I want you to stay in the captain’s chair. Get ready to charge up the engine at a moment’s notice. Billy, keep the buggy on and ready. There's something nefarious here, and I don’t want us to be caught flat-footed.”

  Ashley and Bill reluctantly agreed.

  “I can’t believe our first mission is going to be moving parts and sitting in a buggy.” Bill sighed.

  Jett shrugged, “Next time we will have better training, more prep time, and I will use at least some of the money to upgrade Angie. I can install remote operators, but this time I need to make sure our exit is clear.”

  After securing the rooms adjacent to the launch port, Jett started following the trail deeper into the ship. As they cleared corners and investigated rooms, they found more cases of the black goo and footsteps going deeper into the ship. Jett noticed a few areas where picture frames or books were thrown on the floor, but only a spot or two of blood.

  As he turned another corner, his radio chirped, and he froze.

  “Watch out, Jett, you are nearing the area where my scanners can’t penetrate,” Angie reported.

  Jett nodded. With the increasing goo and signs of footsteps, he had hoped they were getting close. He turned into a side room. A security room and saw a different story. There were scorch marks on the wall. The security team had put up a fight, but in the end, they had left like the others.

  Interestingly, they had left their guns. Not left them in a pile or locked up. Just put them on the ground and walked away. Jett looked through the weapon, grabbing a couple of side arms and putting them in holsters. A nice souvenir. Kyle and Amanda followed his lead, grabbing a few discarded weapons.

  The real money would be in the security force’s suits, but none were to be found. There might be an armory elsewhere, but this was clearly just a post.

  “This creeps me out,” Amanda said, but didn’t stop scanning the hallways.

  “Yeah, it feels like something went around, hitting people over the head and knocking them out. How did they do that to a whole ship?” Kyle asked.

  Jett exited the post and started scanning around, “Wherever they went, they walked. They weren’t knocked out, and they went empty-handed.”

  “Do you think it was pirates?” Amanda asked.

  Jett turned the corner and grimaced, “No, something way worse.”

  Amanda and Kyle followed behind him.

  “What is that?” Amanda asked.