Chapter 184: Chapter 184

The gangway outside the Artemis was empty. There weren't any armed guards or soldiers waiting to take me into custody. In fact there was nobody at all out there. Just a bare corridor, off-white in colour but with an illuminated red line on the floor.

After a moment I remembered the guy on the comm said something about following a red indicator, which seemed odd but at least explained what I was supposed to do next.

After another deep breath I stepped out of the Artemis airlock, then turned and hit the controls to seal and lock the ship behind me. I waited to verify the hatch was properly secured, then set off along the gangway.

There were two turns, first to the left, then about ten meters later a turn to the right. That led to another corridor, with that same glowing red line in the floor. And at the end of the hallway I found myself at the docking bay's airlock, with the first set of doors already open and waiting for me.

Those doors slid shut automatically as soon as I stepped through, then after the first doors were sealed the inner set slid open to reveal what looked like a sort of waiting room.

The room shared the same aesthetics as the gangway, with another mostly plain off-white interior. There were two small windows on the wall next to the airlock, which looked out into the hangar where the Artemis was trapped. The opposite wall was home to a couple deactivated display screens. There were a couple doors in the wall to the left and one on the wall to the right. And another of those glowing red lines on the floor indicated I should enter the room and go stand in the middle of it.

Finally I noticed one of those security sensor arches was built into the frame just beyond the airlock's inner doors. It looked like the sort of thing you'd see at almost any customs gate, set to scan for weapons or other contraband.

My back was straight and shoulders set, plus my ears were angled forward and my tail standing out behind me as I stepped through the sensor arch. It briefly lit up red as I entered it, but that shifted to green a split second later. I assumed that meant I was clear, since I definitely wasn't carrying any weapons. Or anything else for that matter.

After a moment the light shifted again, from green to light blue, and I had no idea what to make of that. I didn't get any more time to think about it though, as the two display screens suddenly came to life. They showed identical images, of an excited looking young man. He appeared to be in his early twenties, with short sandy blond hair and blue-grey eyes. His tan skin was clean-shaved, and the 'head and shoulders' view on the screen was just enough to see he was wearing a generic light grey jacket or coveralls.

"Oh my gosh I am so happy to see you!" the talking head on the screen exclaimed with a wide smile. "I have to say, you're the last person in the galaxy I thought was going to step out of that confed scout ship!"

His greeting caught me so off-guard I actually tilted my head to one side in confusion as I stared at the image on the screen. I recognized his voice, he was the same guy who'd been giving us orders over the comm a few minutes earlier. I had no idea what to make of his sudden change of demeanour though.

He could obviously see me, I assumed there were cameras or other sensors hidden in the room. And when he noticed my puzzled reaction he acted as though he was embarrassed by his own behaviour. Even though I could only see his head and shoulders his posture changed as though he'd come to attention, while his expression became a little more serious.

The young man cleared his throat in a 'starting over' way before addressing me, "Welcome back Major Ruud, it's a pleasure to see you again. I apologize for my outburst ma'am. It's been uh, a while since I had the opportunity to work with people, so I'm a little out of practice."

"I'm happy to report the outpost is still operational," he added. Then he grimaced slightly as he admitted, "Well, mostly. There's some outstanding damage I haven't been able to repair yet due to lack of replacement parts. Speaking of which, we're long overdue for a supply drop. I've been making do in the meantime, keeping the lights on and following my last set of orders to the best of my abilities."

After a brief hesitation he asked nervously, "Are you here with new orders ma'am? Or..."

His voice trailed off as his expression became a little more uncertain, "Actually I'm kind of confused about a couple things? Major Ruud, if I may ask, why were you flying a confederation scout ship?"

"And um," he hesitated again as his eyes sort of flicked up and down as if he was looking me over. Then his eyes seemed to lock on mine again while his cheeks warmed up, "It's none of my business ma'am but you ah, appear to be out of uniform?"

By that point my head was almost spinning as I quickly tried to figure out what was going on and how to respond. The guy obviously thought I was someone else, but that didn't make any sense to me. I was a small busty foxgirl, I wasn't exactly easy to misidentify. Then there was the whole military aspect, even if he didn't have any visible insignia he was addressing me as though I was his superior officer. And he was talking about orders and missions and stuff like that.

It only took me a moment to realize none of that mattered. This gave me a possible out. It was risky, but if I could pretend to be this Major Ruud person long enough I might be able to convince him to let me and the Artemis go.

I'd kept my back straight and shoulders set, my ears were still angled forward. The only thing I couldn't control well enough was my treacherous tail. Instead of standing out behind me it dropped a little lower and began slowly moving from side to side. I just hoped that wouldn't spoil the rest of my act. Google seaʀᴄh NoveI-Fire.ɴet

"I'm out of uniform because I was off-duty when someone caught my ship in a tractor beam and interrupted my sleep," I stated in what I hoped was a suitably official tone. "As for why I'm currently on that particular scout ship... That information is classified."

The young man's eyes widened slightly and his cheeks got a little warmer when he realized he'd got me out of bed. And by the end of my little speech he looked even more nervous. He nodded, "Of course, ma'am. I understand. Uh, undercover work I assume? I'm sorry Major Ruud, I didn't realize I was interfering with your mission."

I shook my head as if to say I wasn't angry, "No need to apologize for that. You had no way of knowing about my mission."

"Speaking of," I continued, "Seeing as you've got me here, I would like to hear a full report of your own mission status."

The image on the screen came to attention again. He nodded, "Yes ma'am. Interdiction Outpost Loke is operating at eleven percent efficiency. I know that number seems very low and I apologize for that, but it is the best I'm able to maintain due to the aforementioned damage and lack of supplies and replacement parts."

"In lieu of our regular supply deliveries I've been forced to scavenge materials from the surrounding asteroid field," he continued in that same nervous but professional tone. "Mostly that means mining metals from the asteroids themselves, but occasionally I get lucky and I'm able to salvage resources from wrecked vessels or other debris which drifts into range."

With a sigh he added, "At present the biggest impediment to my mission is lack of fuel. It takes approximately four hundred standard days to accumulate and process enough stray gas particles to launch a single self-propelled interdiction device."

"I see," I nodded slowly, while my mind continued to race. I tried to maintain my calm 'superior officer' act as I commented, "Obviously you've had some luck recently, when it comes to scavenging. I'm referring to the ship you're currently stripping hull plates off of."

The young man looked like he was holding back his excitement again as he nodded, "Yeah! That's been a huge boon to production. I hate to dishonour one of our own like that, but I couldn't let all that raw material go to waste. Since I got ahold of the Kára..."

His voice suddenly trailed off and his eyes widened, then he visibly gulped. He looked nervous and sounded remorseful as he apologized, "Major Ruud I'm so sorry. I just realized... I meant no offence or disrespect, ma'am. I know how you must feel seeing her like that."

"I'm glad you're ok though," he added. "I guess you got reassigned before she..."

By that point my heart was racing almost as fast as my thoughts, while the pieces all started falling into place. It seemed impossible, but it was the only answer that fit. And it explained why he thought he knew me, how he recognized me.

With my thoughts and emotions churning it got harder to maintain my composure. My ears drooped down to either side and my tail hung down low behind my ankles, but I managed to keep the rest of my act up. I figured my best bet to avoid blowing my cover was to try and steer the conversation away from the Kára and 'my mission'. Fortunately he'd already revealed enough to make that easy.

"You mentioned some damage," I commented in another firm 'officer' tone. "Could you elaborate on that? I don't need a detailed report, just the overview please."

The young seemed as grateful for the change of topic as me. On the other hand his own expression became a little sad as he responded, "Yes ma'am. The base came under attack by two confederation cutters. The number two docking gantry was rendered inoperable, along with most of our pulsed laser turrets. Life support was also compromised, and our Re/Gen unit was knocked offline. I suffered some minor damage myself, but as you can see I'm still operational. Finally, our communications equipment was also hit."

"I'm happy to report we were ultimately victorious in that engagement and both cutters were destroyed," he added proudly. He looked sad again though as he continued, "Unfortunately we also suffered a number of casualties during that action. And with our Re/Gen unit offline and our comm gear damaged, Commander Nils gave the order to abandon the outpost. He left me in charge, his final order was for me to maintain operations and continue executing our mission for as long as I could."

I found myself trying to keep control of my expression and my emotions yet again. I knew I was talking to an AI, potentially one of Jenny's siblings. And from the sound of it, he'd been running this place by himself for the last four hundred years. It was almost unbelievable. The thing I didn't understand was how he thought the war was still going on. Or how he thought 'Major Ruud' could even be alive after all those years.

Still, I did my best to maintain the act as I responded, "Very good. It seems to me you've been doing a fine job too. But back on the topic of damage, you mentioned some systems are offline pending replacement parts?"

"Yes ma'am," he nodded. "My communications suite is fully functional for local traffic, and I'm able to transmit FTL messages. But my FTL receiver was irreparably damaged, so while I've been sending all my normal encoded reports and requisitions I haven't been able to copy any replies to those transmissions."

The AI continued with another sigh, "Our Re/Gen unit is offline, but those repairs were de-prioritized after Commander Nils and the rest of the crew departed. Most of the damage to my own core was repaired, but there's still a few glitches I haven't been able to work around."

"I remain functional as you can see," he added quickly, "But there's a persistent glitch that causes me to reboot every so often. It kind of messes up my sense of time a little?"

He sounded almost embarrassed at that last point, but it left me wondering if maybe he didn't actually know how much time had passed. That would certainly explain a few things. On the other hand, I figured I had enough information to maybe try and finish bluffing my way out of the conversation, and the base.

I gave the AI what I hoped was a supportive but still official smile as I told him, "Like I said, you've done a fine job, and under difficult circumstances too. I'm glad we've had the opportunity to catch up , but I do have my own mission to fulfill. As I said, the details are classified, but I can guarantee my next report will include everything we've discussed here. And I'll do what I can to see about getting you some relief. You've certainly earned it."

His expression relaxed into a grateful smile, "Thank you Major Ruud. I really appreciate that. And like I said, it's been great to see you again."

"You too," I responded in kind. Then I hardened my expression as I sighed, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to return to the Artemis. I'm going to have cook up some sort of story to explain how I talked our way out of your clutches."

The young man grimaced as he apologized again, "I'm sorry I interrupted your mission ma'am. Is there anything I can do to help make it up to you?"

It was hard to keep my tail from wagging as another idea struck me. I asked, "I don't suppose you could feign a power loss, maybe in a few non-essential systems? And of course the tractor beam and docking clamps. That'll help me convince the confeds I actually escaped, so they don't think you just let me go."

"Oh yeah!" the AI nodded as he unsealed the airlock doors behind me. "That's a great idea! I'll try and make it look convincing. Good luck Major Ruud, I hope to see you again soon!"

When the lights started to flicker and dim I couldn't hold back any more, my tail began to wag. I gave the AI one last smile as I thanked him.

Then I turned tail and fled back down the gangway.