Eternity, Book 0 "Gone with the Sun"
Chapter 6 Buster
Flower
"Joker. It's time to go."
"Jeff, I am leaving the copilot seat now. This body will be in the AI core facility when it is all over, if you wish to see me."
"No! EDI, we may need your remote up here!" But EDI's blue-clad remote was already making its way to the lift.
"It will be in the way, Jeff. I will shortly be non-functional."
"Yeah, well so will we all."
"No. Quantum Grid Shock Front in three minutes twenty-eight seconds–", EDI said in his ear – the blue toy was back! "Not funny EDI!"
"I am sorry Jeff. We waited a little too long jumping to the Arcturus Prime relay. Please concentrate, the survival of this craft depends on it. Prepare for full military power in two minutes, twenty-six seconds."
"What? Okay. Buster in one forty-two seconds, aye. EDI, we've only done emergency power to flank speed twice in trials. Can't keep that up more than eight minutes."
"Thank you Jeff. I am in conversations with eight different people right now and I will not be able to spare much processing power for jokes. I project arrival one fifth of a second before the grid strikes the relay and deranges all automatic systems. You must make the transitions from relay wormhole to Minkowski space to FTL in not more than point four of a second. Manually. Run the preset after which you will be on the far side of a system within orbital thruster range. I will not be able to help, but I know you can do this."
"Jesus! I don't know! FTL will have to be a blind jump!"
"You must try, Jeff. The prekeyed co-ordinates point to a system in the Arcturus stream with unsurveyed planet and moons in the Goldilocks zone, showing chlorophyll spectrum. Local director and telegraph are up now."
"Shit." That meant EDI was preparing for a war scenario where all automated systems were either fried or offline due to cyberwarfare hacking. "Acknowledged. Commander's wire, please."
"Engineer Adams will be awaiting your word, Jeff."
In retrospect, Jeff thought he should have asked what those six people were doing. Other than himself and Adams, of course.
Adams
"EDI, why the hell are we on commander's wire?!"
"I will shortly be disabled, Greg. Please tell Gabby and Kevin to hurry with their stasis projectors. Impact in ninety seconds. Advisory, core is up to charge. Expect order for flank in twenty-five seconds–"
"Sugar! Well I guess we get to see if the thermal pipe works!"
"You will be fine, Greg. But Kenneth and Gabby must be in the AI core while the front passes. They will not be able to assist you."
"That will be fine, EDI, I've drilled them but they haven't used telegraph like me."
"So I surmised. Greg. It has been an honor and a privilege."
"Wait, what?! Oh, no, buster!"
"Eighty seconds".
Tali
"Campbell, Westmoreland. We will need them over the fabs, please, don't remove your armour, disassemble your guns and carry lock and chambers. Quickly now. EDI, status!"
"Seventy seconds."
"Just time. Ladies, I'm outta here. In case I don't get the chance – "
"That's crap, ma'am."
"Sarah!"
"Can it, Bethany. Ma'am, we'll be fine. So will you. Ready on your mark, EDI."
Liara
"The projector's over the archive, EDI. Should I turn it on?"
"Sixty seconds, negative Dr T'Soni, it is self-powered for only ten minutes maximum, please start on my mark, for the active comm matrix you have clamped the crash limiters, that will have to suffice, you must send Glyph to my AI core NOW please."
"But why!"
"Fifty seconds, Dr T'soni, please trust me."
"Glyph, go."
"I will return shortly, Dr T'Soni." But EDI contradicted this:
"No, Glyph, it will be a while, you're electro-optical and must enter stasis. Forty seconds."
Liara swallowed hard. She had a vague idea what might be happening but it was completely unknown territory. EDI though seemed if not confident then very definite. "Hurry, Glyph. Ready on your mark, EDI."
"Thirty seconds."
Williams
"Okay, EDI, I'm in the cabin on the bed, what's this all about?"
"Twenty seconds, Lieutenant Commander, crash webbing you are the ranking officer and a Spectre, in effect the Number One. You must command fifteen seconds in Shepard's absence – "
Adams
"Ten seconds, Lieutenant, crash webbing–"
"I'm secure, EDI, do you mind–"
"Two nanometre quantum grid front, Greg, superluminal, spectral analysis says something is manipulating the Planck substrate and if we still had the Susskind supercollider we might know how, but anynearfivenanometrescalequasi-crystallinesemiconductornotinstasiswillgetitsbandspermutedthatwouldbeme! Three seconds. Dumping core. Two. MARK."
– Next chapter will be #7, "Alone in the dark" –
Wednesday, July 15, 2015