Whilst the urge to depart the med deck and find out exactly what was going on was almost overriding, Rhade's pragmatism won out, and he used the med deck facilities to shower away the gel first. He found and donned the pants, guns and boots he had been wearing when the Maru had crashed, all cleaned and neatly folded by the bed Beka had occupied.
Checking that the gun still had a full charge, Rhade opened the door out of the med deck and glided into the corridor. "Andromeda?" he called again, but as before he received no response.
As he made his way to Command, it was clear to Rhade that Andromeda was definitely dormant with life support at a bare minimum, low lighting and no power to any of the remote consoles. Whilst his Neitzchean senses did not pick up on anything specifically wrong, there was definitely a sense that he was not alone aboard Andromeda, and Rhade took every deck as if there were enemies lurking in the shadows.
When he eventually reached the Command Deck, there was the muted hum of powerful systems on standby, but no indication as to status or reasons for her dormancy. Moving to the Captain's console, Rhade hit the power pad and tried to raise the Core AI manually.
The big screen flickered to life and she appeared to look suspiciously at him.
"Where is my Captain?" she asked him bluntly.
"I don't know, Andromeda," Rhade said, "I was hoping you could tell me that."
"You are…" it seemed to take the AI some effort to try and recall his ID. "Rhade, Gaheris-"
"No, Andromeda," Rhade told her, whilst attempting to find more power for her. "Rhade, Telemachus out of Marjorum by Rhade. Recheck your files, what year is this?"
Andromeda paused. "I have a chronological discrepancy of over three hundred years. No, three weeks." She blinked, and repeated her first question. "My chronological files are corrupted. Where is my Captain?"
"I cannot answer that question. How many people are on board right now?"
Another pause. "Just one. You. What have you done with my Captain and crew?"
"I have done nothing, Andromeda. Can you reboot your chronographic programs?"
"I will not do so without a direct order from my Captain."
"Andromeda, think logically. There is no one else aboard. Is there any sign of the crew in the vicinity? Slipfighters, escape pods, the Eureka Maru?"
"No, there is not. We are alone in this sector of space."
"Then I claim the role of acting Captain. With Captain Hunt and Captain Valentine unavailable, that is my right."
"I do not believe you. One Rhade tried and failed to betray my Captain, how do I know that you have not done the same?"
Rhade growled in frustration. "Would you have me judge you by the actions of Pax Magellanic, or Balance of Judgement?"
The Core AI stared coldly at him, but did not reply, so he continued.
"As acting Captain my first duty will be to get you functional enough to assist me in my other duties. My second duty will be to find out what has happened to you and the crew over the last three weeks. My third duty will be to find whatever remains of your crew. If you cannot disassociate me from my ancestor, then judge me by my actions. You will acknowledge me as Acting Captain."
The was a long icy silence before The Core AI answered. "Very well, Acting Captain Rhade, I will judge you by your actions."
"Thank you, Andromeda. Now, reboot your chronographic programs."
It took a lot work and a lot of cursing for Rhade and Andromeda to realign the warship's memory banks and access enough power for the Core AI to activate remote consoles in order to assist Rhade, and to raise life support to a more comfortable level. It was acknowledged that there was some blockage in engineering that was preventing full access to the power that was there.
Although Andromeda was adamant that he was the only person on board, it was patently obvious that she did not have access to all areas and, with the exception of engineering, could not conclusively indicate which areas were out of touch.
Rhade was convinced, however, that there was someone or something else on board. There was the odd tiniest sound, right at the edge of his hearing where he could not be certain of it and the flit of a shadow at the furthest corner of his peripheral vision. Or sometimes it was just the hairs on the back of his neck rising, or his bone blades extending without any conscious thought.
As a precaution he took a periodic patrol around all the key areas.
"Commander," the Core AI interrupted one such patrol and appearing on a monitor nearby. "I have put together the last security footage available. Unfortunately it is quite sporadic and somewhat disturbing. Shall I put it through to your quarters?"
A few minutes later, Rhade had cleared his quarters of non-existent invaders and sat down with a cup of coffee in front of the screen.
XXXXX
Before
Hologram Andromeda waited for Captain Hunt to finish his shower. She always found that catching him just then was the most efficient method of ensuring that she had his full attention.
From the far side of the room, she craned her neck to see if she could get a glimpse of him in the shower. In order to ascertain how long he was likely to be, naturally. Dylan chose that moment to step out of the shower and spotted her looking. She averted her gaze to the ceiling and cleared her throat.
"Can't you wait until I'm dressed?" Dylan snapped, rather harshly in Andromeda's opinion.
"I'm sorry, Captain," Andromeda was not going to be fazed. "I simply thought you should be aware at the earliest opportunity that-"
"Andromeda," Dylan rounded on her, "I am getting seriously annoyed at your persistent invasion of my privacy. I will be on the Command Deck shortly. Whatever it is can wait until then."
"Captain," Andromeda began, because it really was important.
"That's an order!" Dylan roared, and the hologram blinked out of existence.
XXXXX
Rhade glanced at the Core AI who had a distinctly put out expression on her face. There were so many inappropriate comments he could make; however the last thing he wanted to do was alienate Andromeda.
"That was the last record I have of my hologram," she told him. "And my droids are not responsive."
"Explain," ordered Rhade, one eyebrow raised in question.
"I have ten days of records completely erased before becoming dormant and during that time my hologram aspect seems to have been erased. In fact, I only have one piece of security footage from that time period with associated files that seems to have been overlooked in my entire archive."
Rhade found this as puzzling as Andromeda. "Show me," he said.
XXXXX
Before
In the blink of an eye, Andromeda's Core AI scanned her entire being. It was noted that it was quite inefficient to keep life support on for just two individuals and that perhaps she could talk Harper into limiting himself to his quarters, or his lab or engineering since Rhade had been left hibernating and therefore only required the barest minimum.
A subroutine flagged up the fact that Harper had not yet fixed security in engineering, so she could not see what was going on in there. It was unfortunate that she no longer had an avatar or droids to send in remotely, however there had been a time when she had not had an avatar at all and she had functioned perfectly well. The lack of droids, however, was an inconvenience.
An alert signal informed her that someone was attempting to make changes to her programming. Her immediate conclusion was that Harper was doing something, and it was not related to the engineering problem. She had expressly ordered him not to tamper with anything unauthorised. She was perfect as she was and only the Captain could sign off on maintenance. There was no requirement, and there was no telling what damage unauthorised tampering might do.
"Mr Harper," she addressed the person at point of intrusion, except there was no one there. She reassessed her sensors, which confirmed that there was a human type warm blooded biped at the exact spot she was examining. Except that she could not seem to lock on to it with visual sensors. She tried infrared, sonic and facsim, but nothing visual showed.
The logical thing therefore, was to check on Rhade and Harper. Rhade was still in med deck, and Harper was –
XXXXX
"Where was Harper?" asked Rhade.
"I cannot say," replied the Core AI. "During the nanosecond it took to process the command, I was… switched off." Andromeda virtually spat the last two words out as they were clearly distasteful.
"Interesting. So you have no idea where the crew went."
"It would seem that they abandoned ship," Andromeda said. "With the absence of life pods, the Eureka Maru and several slip fighters it is the only logical conclusion."
"Agreed, we've covered this before." Rhade said, finishing his drink. "But I want to know why and where they went. Can you confirm that the transports were gone before you were switched off?"
Andromeda scowled slightly. "I can."
"Logically then, Harper must still be somewhere aboard."
"Logically, you are correct. However yours is the only lifesign – "
Rhade held up a hand. "I know, and perhaps Harper is dead. Explore all possibilities. Perhaps an airlock has been used or a transport came back for him. And Andromeda, we should factor in the fact that your sensors are not functioning as they should."
Andromeda drew herself up, the slightly superior look prefacing her assertions that she was in perfect working order, if underpowered and out of touch with engineering. "The only faults I have are those generated by someone trying to trick me." She told him, her glare leaving him in no doubt that she still harboured the hypothesis that it was he who was doing the tricking.
Once upon a time, before Seefra, he would have matched Andromeda's look with a well-practiced superior look of his own. Now, however, he was not that person and settled for a short chuckle and a deliberately patronising pat of the monitor as he stood to leave, earning himself an outraged look that he missed entirely.
XXXXX
Rhade had decided to check the transports manually. Not the life pods as there were literally hundreds and they had apparently all been ejected. However, only a few of the slipfighters and the Maru had gone and he did not trust Andromeda's sensors to be accurate.
An added bonus was that the slipfighter hangers retained codes showing who had taken each craft out, and alongside some of the junior officers and flight crews, there was Captain Hunt's flight code. Interestingly, the time stamp on Dylan's code showed that it had been taken out two days after the others.
Asking Andromeda to check the life pods, she confirmed that they had all ejected at the same timestamp as the majority of the slipfighters.
Entering the cargo bay where the Maru had last been, Rhade noted that it had been completely cleaned up with not so much as scratch indicating where the Maru had hit the deck. However, there was the faintest scent of rotting meat in the air, probably not strong enough for a human to smell, being only a hint to his more sensitive Neitzchean nose.
He asked Andromeda if she could detect anything in the air, but she could only confirm the residues of fuel, oil and the usual engine associated fumes. Nothing, she assured, that would account for such a smell.
Distrusting Andromeda's sensors, he conducted a thorough search of the bay and surrounding area. It was in the last place he looked, a flight locker, that he found Rommie.
She was completely lifeless, although she had nothing to do with the faint smell.
Amazed at how heavy she was for such a petite little thing, Rhade hoisted her over his shoulder and took her to Harper's lab. The place seemed dead without the energetic engineer, and Rommie looked like a young matriarch struck down in her prime when he laid her on the bench.
He was no engineer and had no hope of figuring out how to fix her. At least with Andromeda, the warship had been able to give him enough guidance to get her functional. Rommie, however was something else entirely. Only Harper or Doyle could help her now.
The one thing that Andromeda was able to help him with, was diagnosing the fact that whoever had caused Rommie to shut down, had known exactly what they were doing, and hit her with a signal that had literally stopped her in her tracks.
XXXXX
Back in his quarters, Rhade massaged his temples as he reviewed the information he had so far gathered. Andromeda had told him to sleep, but he'd slept enough in the med deck, and did not need very much. At least that was his excuse, but the reality was something was not right aboard Andromeda and he trusted her as much as she trusted him, which was not very much. Someone or something had altered some of Andromeda's programming, of which the security blind spots could simply be the outward manifestation of something much deeper. The bottom line was, he could not be certain of waking up alive again. His stamina meant that he could stay awake for considerably long periods, but doing so would eventually take its toll.
Creative thinking was not his strongest point. Not counting Trance, whose mind seemed to him to be a labyrinth, Dylan was the one who could think completely laterally. Rhade was good with logic, and excelled at strategy, applying logic in its most convoluted form in order to achieve what seemed to the uninitiated to be creative. But true lateral or creative thinking was beyond him which in his current situation left him stumped. With Andromeda at less than half power, or perhaps it was her way of demonstrating her disapproval of the situation, she was not voluntarily being helpful. He was quite certain that she had abilities that he was not automatically aware of that she would have volunteered to Dylan, or maybe even Beka.
Thinking of whom, it seemed a given that both had abandoned ship. Dylan in a slipfighter and presumably Beka in the Maru. He'd found no trace of Trance or Doyle yet, and Harper had to be on board somewhere still.
A thought then occurred to him. If Andromeda could not find any life signs, then perhaps she should look for biological signs, like blood for instance, or plasma, or some fluid that might generate some clue. He asked her, and the Core Ai looked slightly surprised, as if the idea had not occurred to her, and confirmed that she would scour the ship for a variety of biological fluids.
XXXXX
"Rhade, wake up!" Andromeda's impatient tones startled the Neitzchean from the catnap he wasn't taking.
"What!" he demanded, wiping hand down his face as he blinked himself awake.
"I have completed my search," she said, "and have found only one instance of unaccounted biological fluid. I have discounted hydroponics as certain fluids are replicated by some of the plants, and until my programming is restored, engineering remains out of bounds, as do-"
"I know, I know," Rhade said irritably. "What is this instance?"
"There is a significant area of organic coolant on deck twelve near the central junction. It is not a substance that I carry, however I believe that the android known as Doyle utilises organic coolant."
Rhade pushed himself up from the floor where he'd been checking a junction box with a view to short circuiting a way into engineering. Somehow staring at the jumble of wires had sent him to sleep, and he wondered if Harper had planted sleeping gas in his domain in order to stop others meddling. A clever move on the midget's part if that was so, he thought.
Locating the splash of coolant on deck twelve, Rhade soon found tiny spots of more coolant leading a trail into one of the kitchens. They petered out, but he had enough reason to believe that Doyle might be in there that he searched every nook and cranny he could find. Working systematically, he found Doyle part way through the kitchen. Unlike Rommie who had been placed carefully in the locker, Doyle had been crammed into an oven. Fortunately that oven had not been switched on at any time she'd been in there, but the fit was small, and Rhade had some difficulty in pulling her out.
Eventually, however, he laid her out on the floor, straightening her limbs and trying not to be put off by the blue eyes following his every move. There was a hole burned straight through her chest, which told him that some of his suspicions were confirmed. There had to be someone or something on board that was out to get the crew of the Andromeda.
He had been devising a hypothesis that Harper was behind all this given the disposal of the three Andromedas. They had all been taken care of neatly and at least with Rommie and the Core AI, in a manner that did them no significant damage. But Harper would never have done this to Doyle, not if he'd been taken over by the Abyss itself.
Slowly, Rhade became aware of Doyle vibrating gently. Her mouth was working and it became clear that she was trying to say something.
"R-Rommie," she finally breathed, "wanted me de – de-activated."
Rhade was taken aback. "Rommie was trying to deactivate you?"
Doyle's face suddenly went blank, and then clicked and whirred. "No… She wanted…. Trance did…." She went blank and limp, and when it seemed unlikely that there was any more life in the android, Rhade hoisted her up and took her to Harper's lab.
As soon as he set foot inside the lab, he dropped Doyle unceremoniously on the floor and drew his guns in one fluid motion.
"Andromeda, where's Rommie?" he asked, scanning the area for her.
"I don't know," replied Andromeda. "I cannot detect her presence on board."
"But she didn't leave the ship," Rhade said.
"Confirmed," said Andromeda sounding as puzzled as Rhade felt. "I have no explanation. Perhaps I should run a full diagnostic."
"No!" said Rhade quickly. "Not yet. A full diagnostic would take too long. This is simply another riddle inside a mystery." A full diagnostic would take Andromeda offline for what could be days, and he needed her even if he didn't trust her.
He picked Doyle up and laid her where Rommie had been.
Ensuring his guns were fully charged, he left the lab and headed to command, always watchful for unexpected adversaries leaping out of nowhere.