Azumangastar Galactica
Not-as-Thrilling-as-Advertised
5. Moments in Transition
Rated: T - English - Sci-Fi/Humor - Reviews: 12 - Updated: 06-21-08 - Published: 06-01-08 - Complete - id:4294345
Commander Yukari Tanizaki flipped the pages of the printout with a confused look on her face. She turned the paper sideways, then upside down. She viewed them up close, then at arm's length. She even tried unfocusing her eyes as if the lines of computer code were one of those images with a hidden picture. Finally she looked at the two Lieutenants standing on the other side of the plotting table. "What the hell is this?"
"It's part of the CNP's base code," Mizuhara said. "Do you see the parts we've highlighted?"
Yukari looked. Three whole pages were highlighted. "How many markers did you go through?" she asked.
Mizuhara looked down at the shorter girl standing beside her. Mihama realized it was her cue. "That seems to be an embedded virus," she explained. "Once activated it would have used our computer network to shut down systems across the ship and leave us completely open to attack."
Yukari shouted and flung the printout onto the table.
"...It's a computer virus," Kurosawa said beside her.
"I knew that, it was a joke," Yukari said as she tried to play off wiping her hands on her jacket as straightening her uniform before turning back to Mihama. "It's no threat now though, right?"
Her twin pigtails wobbled as she shook her head. "No, we haven't reactivated the CNP yet, so the virus can't be switched on."
"I was going to purge the program from our systems, with your approval," Mizuhara said. "I'd also recommend de-networking the computers so if the Cylons do manage to hack in they won't be able to shut us down."
Yukari glanced at Kurosawa, who nodded. "Okay, do it," she said then. "And good job finding this, you two."
Mizuhara shook her head. "Oh, no, it was Mihama who found the problem."
Yukari beamed down at the blushing Lieutenant. "We're lucky we have such a brilliant mind with us," she said, before her face suddenly turned threatening. "Don't get cocky, you little runt."
"Er . . . yes sir," Mihama said nervously.
Kurosawa was looking at the lines of code, though she couldn't make any more sense of them than Yukari. "Someone put this virus into the program?" she asked.
Mizuhara nodded. "It looks that way, sir."
"Then that would mean . . ." She looked up from the pages. "We were betrayed?"
Yukari couldn't decide whether to be shocked or angry. "Who the frakking hell would betray their own people like that?" she asked. "I hope when they catch this guy, they-"
"Who is 'they,' exactly?" Kurosawa asked.
Yukari shrugged. "I don't know, somebody?"
Mizuhara and Mihama looked uncomfortable.
Kurosawa shook her head. "Anyway, they're probably dead along with everyone else. I doubt the Cylons would have spared them." She turned to the Lieutenants. "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. You can go back to work now." As they nodded and returned to their stations she looked at Yukari. "What?"
"You dismissed them," she said.
"What, did you want to say something to them?"
"No, but I'm the Commander," Yukari said. "If anyone's going to be dismissing anybody, it's me!"
Kurosawa just nodded. "I'll try to remember that."
Captain Mai Kagura tapped her pen on the arm of her chair and looked over the pilot roster. With fewer pilots now, things would have to be shuffled around to fill the gaps. People would have to be moved from night rotation to day and vice versa, and others would have to be paired with other pilots they didn't usually fly with.
After a minute she wrote a pair of names on a sheet of paper. Static and Bug would definitely still fly CAP together, they always worked best when paired up. She could probably pair up Handlebarz and Crayon too, she thought as she wrote their names down. Numbnuts she'd probably better keep as her number two, nobody else seemed willing to fly with her. Well if she wouldn't fly like an epileptic mosquito . . .
Kagura sighed and rested her head on her hand. Man, being the commander of the Sea Slug's air group really sucked. When the Commander had given her the position she'd had her doubts that she'd be up to it, but when she heard that it was Colonel Kurosawa who'd recommended her she felt she owed it to her to give it her best shot. Before making Colonel and becoming the Slug's XO last year Kurosawa had been CAG, and she had acted as a mentor for Kagura and many others. As CAG Kurosawa had always put the pilots under her command before everything, and Kagura and many others had come to almost idolize her. If Kurosawa had recommended her to scrub out the waste reclamation system with a toothbrush Kagura would have had those tanks gleaming.
It was awfully hard sometimes, though. Though she would be the first to admit she was a damn good pilot, Kagura had never had much of a head for paperwork, and the daily briefings bored her almost to tears. Ugh, it didn't help that she was still a little hung over from last night, either. Or that Tomo and Yomi had taken up their duty locker for nearly three hours, forcing her to wait until they were done before she could get some sleep. At least they'd remembered to hang a pair of boots outside this time. Kagura didn't have any objections to their relationship, but that didn't mean she wanted to walk in on them.
She had to admit though that all this tedious work kept her mind off what was going on around her. If she didn't have an air wing to manage she'd probably just be spending all her time in her rack mourning her lost family and friends, or in the rec room drowning those sorrows in alcohol. She wrote down a couple more names and stopped turning back and forth in her chair. I've just gotta look at this as a challenge, she thought. I can do this if I go all out. She leaned forward, forcing her mind clear of any reservations and mental blocks, and began dividing names by shift rotation.
Asagi leaned back from her console and rubbed her eyes. Ahh, this was boring. She put her feet up and looked across the cabin at the empty pilot's chair. She had to spend some time at the helm if Torako was going to get any rest, though. She suddenly felt very protective of her pilot; they'd been together all through high school and college, and now she was all she had left of her old life. Her family was gone, either vaporized by a nuclear blast or killed by the radiation. She hoped it was the former. Though she'd teased her family constantly, joked that their constantly working father was dead, antagonized her mother and her sister Fuuka, they were still her family, and now she'd never see them again. Mom and dad, awkward Fuuka and serious Ena, hell, even their weird neighbors the Koiwais. She was almost having trouble believing that they were all gone forever. Torako and Shimauu were the only family she had now; in fact, as far as she knew they were the only other humans left alive.
She heard footsteps coming up the gangway and turned to see Shimauu stepping through the hatch. She'd never really spoken to Fuuka's friend before she joined their crew; in fact, she'd always found her a little annoying, with her odd sense of humor and her obsession with coming up with little dances for every task. Funny how they'd probably be spending the rest of their lives together now. "How's that FTL coming?" she asked.
Shimauu walked forward to look out the window at the stars outside and stretched her back. "Ugh, our drive doesn't seem to like those parts we brought back," she said. "I'm probably gonna have to do some serious jerry-rigging if we want it to work."
Asagi sighed and leaned her head back. I hate Fireflies, she thought to herself. "So what are you doing up here?" she asked.
Shimauu crossed her arms and shrugged. "Taking a break. I've been working in the engine room ever since we left the Battlestar." That was nearly twenty hours ago.
Asagi rubbed at her face. Idiot, she thought, if you don't get that FTL running we're all dead if the Cylons find us. She looked at Shimauu though, standing there looking out at the star-studded black, and knew she couldn't tell her to get her skinny ass back to work. "How're you handling all this?" she asked instead.
Shimauu shrugged and turned to her. "I try not to think about it," she said. "I just pretend we're on another delivery run, and that everything's fine back home . . ." She looked back outside and Asagi could see she was fighting back tears.
"Hey," Asagi said as she took her feet off her console and sat forward. "We're going to be fine, you'll see. We'll get that FTL running and we'll find some nice planet to make a home on."
"A lot of room to get lost out there," Shimauu said in a shaky voice.
"You see those stars?" Asagi asked and pointed out the window. "How many are there? Ena told me once that there are hundreds of billions of stars in this galaxy alone." Asagi thought back to that night, when they had visited their grandparents out in the country and the three sisters had sat out on the back porch looking up at the night sky away from the city glare. "And of those hundreds of billions of stars, chances are good that a few billion of those have planets orbiting them. And of those billions of planets, there are probably millions capable of supporting life. We just need to find one."
Shimauu was gazing out at the stars with a new expression now, one approaching hope. "A new home . . ." she said quietly, almost to herself. "Just like the Great Exodus, when the Thirteen Tribes left Kobol." She laughed then, and turned back to Asagi. "Who knows, maybe we'll find Kobol itself, or even Earth!"
Asagi shrugged. "Who knows, maybe." Fat frakkin' chance. "For now though, I think you should get some sleep."
When Shimauu had retired to her quarters, Asagi returned to vegetating at her console. Then an idea struck her, and she hurried down the forward hallway to her own quarters. As soon as she'd found what she was looking for she returned to the helm and sat back down. Before settling in she leaned forward and placed a framed picture of her family on her console.
