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Chapter 7 – Expectation and Frustration
The room was tense. Everyone crowded in the room seemed tense.
Esna Toshka's computer core sat on a narrow table, its outer covering and booby traps stripped away to reveal the inner block of processors and memory storage inside. An array of wires and cables were plugged into various parts of the block, all leading to the many computer tablets and technicians sat around the table on which the core sat like a display item.
All the technicians, specialists in the field of analysing computer code, were hunched over their connected computer interfaces with determined frustration. Several of the technicians had two tablets running at the same time. The floor around them was littered with cabling, additional computer components, and pieces of the core's casing.
On the inside of the outer casing they had found some scribbled markings that might be instructions or reminders to those who might have worked on the core. The language appeared to be a strange random mix of symbols, possibly reflecting the unknown code Toshka had used for his unique computer. The problem was that none of it seemed to make any sense to the technicians, and their obvious frustration on the lack of any development was obvious in their tense hunched silence.
Stood to the left of the huddled mess of frustrated scientists was a line of watching Military Councillors. Oneakka knew most of them, had fought alongside a couple of them, and he understood the bored impatience expressed across their faces and body language. They had to be here to watch the decoding, but they weren't people used to being useless.
Oneakka felt useless as well, just stood watching. He was good with pieces of engineered tech, but his knowledge of coding was limited, and Toshka's coding was the work of some twisted genius, if Edfu's opinion was correct.
Oneakka glanced over at Edfu, one of the Elite Training Facility's two Security Leads. His fellow Lead was back in the facility, Maja, watching over their normal duties and no doubt as busy as usual. Edfu and Maja had demanding roles, and though not Elite themselves, they were as highly respected as any Elite in the Facility. It was unusual for one of them to be on a ship, but the situation apparently demanded it.
Edfu's presence didn't appear to be speeding along the decoding process however.
To Oneakka's left, Ronon huffed out a sigh of boredom. He had been pacing a lot, which had seemed to agitate everyone further. However, Nalla had said something quietly to the Satedan and Ronon had taken a seat since, perched on the corner of a table near Oneakka.
Everyone still looked tense.
It was an unusual situation really, because Oneakka was used to be being the one causing the tension, not watching it happen around him and being unable to do anything.
Actually, that was not true. He had suggested, several times, that they use Seeal. Clearly her skills would be useful in this situation, but everyone else thought it would be a bad idea.
He wondered how long it would take until they gave in to the suggestion, because no one appeared even close to breaking Toshka's code.
Ronon sighed heavily again and Oneakka shifted his eyes towards his friend.
Ronon looked up from under his brow and huffed theatrically. Satedan warriors were not known for their patience.
Oneakka thought having a newborn young would have maybe instilled some patience in Ronon, but clearly not. Unless he was in truth eager to return to his young – apparently the babe still had a cough.
"How long is this going to take then?" Ronon asked, for the eighth time by Oneakka's reckoning.
Further across the room, Halling was talking with the two other Councillors, Nalla having taken another away for some food. Oneakka wondered if he was supposed to distract or entertain Ronon.
"As long as it takes," Oneakka could only answer.
"Why don't we just blast it open?" Ronon asked.
"It's already open," Seifer answered this time from behind Oneakka's left shoulder. "They are breaking into electronic code to get to the data."
"Then they need to do it faster," Ronon complained.
Oneakka didn't bother to reply to that. Halling had given him a lecture earlier about "keeping his cool" with the Councillors. It was a phrase that Teyla had been using recently and apparently now Halling, but Oneakka understood its meaning, and that the honour of the Elite was apparently at stake with the High Council. Protocol had to be followed. If they didn't have the majority of their targets in Division hands already, Oneakka wouldn't be as calm has he currently felt.
The five criminals he had captured yesterday had all confirmed to him Toshka's involvement in underhand dealings, so what Oneakka needed had to be in that computer core. That belief was only further confirmed in his mind by the explosives that had been set inside the computer's casing. Toshka had been prepared to have his entire database destroyed rather than have it fall into enemy hands. Well, it was in Oneakka's hands now and clearly Toshka was shitting himself about it.
Only, Toshka's way of dealing with this situation was using the Alliance legal system, which apparently only gave the Military Council and the Elite a certain number of hours to present their evidence or the computer core would have to be returned.
Which was stupid.
If that happened, then Oneakka would take matters into his own hands – regardless as to the consequences. Toshka would not be allowed to get away with criminal activity and Oneakka would have his confirmation of the man's involvement with The Traitor.
Three of the captives he had spoken to had known about The Traitor, by her reputation rather than sight, but that was enough for Oneakka.
Everything was coming together, and Dreamstation's database, coupled with this computer would probably provide everything he needed to finally clean up The Traitor's mess.
"Oneakka," Seifer said quietly. "We need to talk about the goat."
Oneakka frowned over his shoulder at his fellow Elite. "Now?"
"Nothing else is happening," Seifer pointed out accurately enough. "It escaped the Hydropondics Bay again."
Oneakka looked back towards the core, though noticed that Ronon had overheard Seifer and was taking an interest.
"It is not a prisoner," Oneakka replied, more to annoy Seifer.
One of the technicians swore loudly across the room, to then look up apologetically. Edfu moved to the woman's side to see what had happened. The woman gestured to the computer tablet on her lap, clearly unhappy and Edfu nodded and then shook his head.
Things were clearly not progressing.
They needed to use Seeal. It was obvious. This code had been designed by criminals, she had been one and knew their coding, so it was obvious to use her.
"It cannot get onto other levels unless people let it in the transporters with them," Seifer continued to complain over Oneakka's shoulder.
"It could be climbing up the emergency ladders," Oneakka suggested and saw Ronon smile up at him, amused.
"Oneakka, take this seriously," Seifer pushed. "I know it is some sort of new project of yours, but we are already cleaning up your last project right here."
Oneakka took acceptation to that point. "This will be vital intelligence about The Traitor and perhaps about who planted the spy Karthig on this ship."
"But the goat will not. What if it eats its way through some cabling?"
"Then it'll electrocute itself and you'll be happy," Oneakka responded.
"I know you made some valid points about using it in the Bay, but it should be contained."
Oneakka had constructed a basic living hut for the goat in which it could sleep sheltered away from the Hydroponics Bay's rain cycles. The goat had appeared pleased enough with the soft bedding Oneakka had placed inside the hut, but clearly the creature liked to wander around the ship as much as around the Bay.
The Bay gardeners had been about as thrilled as Seifer at the goat's placement. Oneakka had left them with strict orders on how to train the animal, chasing it away from foods they do not want it to eat and placing the grasses and weeds it was allowed to eat in its own bowl inside its hut so it would learn. He had even started a new compost heap for the goat's dung for them; Dung which would make excellent fertilizer in the Bay.
"Its wild cousins cover wide ranging territories on Belkan," Oneakka considered out loud. "It probably thinks the entire ship is its territory."
"You said it was part domestic goat, shouldn't they do what they're told?" Seifer muttered. "It stares, Oneakka. Right into your soul."
Oneakka glanced round at Seifer again.
"Elite afraid of farmyard animals," Ronon chuckled.
"I'm not afraid of it," Seifer protested.
"Honoured Elite," Edfu interrupted softly as he crossed the room towards them.
"Progress?" Oneakka asked, trying not to sound too eager or aggressive. Halling had pointed out that such behaviour wasn't best in front of the stressed technicians.
"Little, I am afraid," Edfu confessed. "We have broken through the first layer, but to be honest it was perhaps more luck than skill."
"Make them do it faster," Ronon ordered.
"I would Councillor," Edfu replied. "But it will just take time, even with the computers analysing it all with us. It is an entirely new computer language to learn with no known technical vocabulary to guide us."
"Toshka knows the vocabulary," Ronon stated. "I say we beat it out of him."
"That is probably not going to enamour the High Council," Seifer replied.
"I don't care what the High Council think, they're protecting his backside as it is."
"Not all of them," Seifer argued back.
"It could be," Edfu put in, "that Toshka hired someone else to create this coding language, that it's not his own work."
Oneakka noticed that the other Councillors were listening in now.
"We should use Seeal then," he recommended again.
"She may be very useful for this work," Edfu agreed readily, which surprised Oneakka. "I had hoped to meet her following her report on the carry wave codes she shared with us."
"We cannot use one criminal to incriminate another," one Councillor put in.
"If that were the case, Honoured Councillor," Halling put in, "there would be no use in having informants or spies at all."
The woman inclined her head in reluctant agreement.
"Seeal is currently working for us," Halling continued. "She has put that former lifestyle behind her."
"So you say," Ronon muttered. "She might be in on this."
Oneakka had assumed they would think that. A week ago he might have thought the same. The woman had her own agenda, but he had seen no evidence that she had any ties to Toshka. In fact, she had very nearly refused to stop trying to hack into Toshka's computer in the man's office, even while Toshka's security had been firing at them from the doorway.
Regardless as to her history, she had proven that she had exceptional skills with coding. What was the point of having her on the ship if not to use her skills to their advantage? Besides, Edfu would keep an eye on her, making sure she wasn't secretly taping into anything she shouldn't.
"We have this computer core because of the information that she supplied us," Oneakka reminded them.
"Which only makes it more suspicious," a Councillor replied.
Oneakka frowned at that stupid logic. "Toshka wants this back, we have limited hours, and Seeal is highly skilled."
"Highly skilled at defying law," the same Councillor retaliated.
"Councillor," Edfu replied first, "I have seen Seeal's work and it is good, as good as our best people."
"What is the point of having a weapon available and not using it?" Oneakka asked bluntly.
The logic of the military argument registered across the Councillor's faces.
"I'll get her," Oneakka stated before any of them replied. It was obvious that she was needed now, and even if she too couldn't decipher Toshka's code, then they would have tried everything at least in the time they had. Oneakka could then move onto his own plans for Toshka.
He moved swiftly through the Sythus' corridors, enjoying moving again, not being cramped up in one room for hours and achieving nothing.
No doubt Toshka was spending his time more fruitfully, probably consolidating his position with the High Council and other powerful leaders in the Alliance.
If the man thought such things would keep him safe from Oneakka then he was very much mistaken, but having the needed evidence would make life much easier. If that meant using Seeal, then why not.
She had proven herself enough now for him to use her for this without concern. She had managed to keep up on the raids yesterday, even managing to work alongside Division personnel, for whom she had an understandable distaste. He had kept a close eye on her at first, aware that she could turn on them and/or disappear at any moment, but she hadn't. She had instead fought alongside him, Madesh, and Division like she was used to being on the right side of the law.
In the second raid of the day, he had glimpsed her standing over a fallen Division man, defending him in the battle, and that she had even turned the man over to protect him from choking in his unconscious state. After that, Oneakka had stopped watching over her. And she had kept up, and helped out.
He felt oddly discomforted by that fact, and he wasn't sure why.
It was good that she was proving herself, and that his own instincts about the woman were being proven, yet...
He reached one of the lowest levels in the Sythus and began heading in the direction of the strange "quarters" that Seeal had selected. She hadn't wanted to share the barracks with anyone, not trusting people, and when Tyoosi had suggested that the only place left on the ship with enough room was one of the Hot Water Regulation Chambers, she had taken up the offer.
Clearly Tyoosi had been annoyed at that sign of defiance, but he had allowed her to stay in the warm chamber. The room was littered with pipes, all converging into a massive central pipe, which was monitored closely for temperature, pressure, purity, and radiation exposure. Seeal had set her single thin sleeping mat behind that central collection, strategically using it as protection between her sleeping place and the single hatchway into the chamber. From there she could identify anyone who entered through the gaps between the pipes, and be able to slip away into the myriad of piping unseen.
It was the kind of thinking a warrior had, and perhaps one that a woman in particular was very concerned about. Oneakka understood that woman had to especially protect herself in a strange place filled with strange men who considered her the enemy.
Oneakka did not think any of the Sythus' crew would be so dishonourable as to attempt to attack her, but he had still made it clear to Tyoosi that word was to be spread in the crew that Seeal was not to be approached.
He had no doubt that if anyone did attempt to attack her that they would probably not survive. If any did survive, then Oneakka himself would deal with them.
However, no such events had occurred and Seeal had so far been behaving herself. Oneakka was even considering including her in the ship rotation with Madesh, to see if she would behave herself when having to interact with the rest of the crew. Besides, she clearly needed to improve her stamina. She had looked exhausted by the end of the raids yesterday, though in fact everyone else had as well. Oneakka knew that Madesh had only just risen an hour ago, his reporting to Oneakka's side hurried and apologetic. Oneakka had found it amusing, but had hidden that fact from the young man. Madesh needed to prove himself on the Sythus, to be accepted, especially considering his gift.
The hatchway into Seeal's "quarters" was ahead, and Oneakka strode up to it and triggered open the door. He entered loudly, making sure his boots landed heavily on the floor and he hammered his fist on the inside of the frame.
"Seeal!" He called to her.
Sleepy noises of complaint rose up from beyond the large central pipes. He had woken her.
He hammered his fist against the frame again. "Wake up! No time to sleep," he ordered loudly, enjoying disturbing her.
He didn't move further into the chamber though, because he wasn't all that sure what she might wear to bed. If anything at all.
He suspected that she probably slept fully clothed, ready to make a run for it at any moment, but he didn't want to risk it.
A grumpy face appeared around the central pipes.
"What now?" She demanded, as usual uncaring about his Elite status. Any other crew member on the ship would have bolted awake, stood at sharp attention, and offered automatic words of appreciation for all the Elite did.
"Another raid?" She asked, as her head disappeared from view again. The scratch of what sounded like boots against the floor echoed around the pipes, as did the faint sound of fabric against bed mat.
"No. Toshka's computer," he informed her.
"They can't get into it, huh?" She asked, sounding faintly more awake.
She appeared around the pipes, upright and fully dressed, pushing one foot into a boot while simultaneously adjusting a dark jacket around her shoulders. He hadn't seen her wear this jacket before.
"They need an ex-criminal genius to break into it?" She asked smugly.
It was her latest technique at pushing him – to boast about her having saved the Sythus the other day. He suspected that she was not egotistical, but that it was a way to remind him of her value and to just plain annoy him.
"You know where I can find one?" He retaliated as she approached where he stood in the doorway.
She pulled a face up at him, clearly still sleepy, but he had learnt that she didn't need to be all that awake to get her mouth working. He suspected she could come up with a smart remark even in her sleep.
She wore a pair of tight black trousers and a very dark blue top under the short thin jacket. He considered that she had probably gone through most of her single bag of clothes during the messy missions yesterday.
He assumed someone had shown her where to take her clothes to get them cleaned.
She stopped in front of him. "It's going to very difficult to solve your computer problem if you don't let me leave the room."
He realised he was blocking her way out of the chamber. He held his position, as if he had intended to do just that.
"There will be councillors from the Alliance Military Council in there. You are not to insult them. They have the power to take away all the freedoms that we've given you here," he told her straight.
Her dark eyes held his and he saw her bite the inside of her lower lip. She had started doing that over the last couple of days, and it was probably because she was holding in some smart, sarcastic comment. That she didn't say whatever she was thinking was actually progress.
"Fine," she agreed with only the slightest of sighs.
"You are not to-" he began.
"I know," she interrupted. "I'm not to kill anyone and I'm not to break into your ship's computer again. Do we have to do this every day?"
The warning lecture had fast become an almost hourly mantra, which he was keeping up mostly to annoy her and to amuse himself.
"Yes," he told her. "Until it becomes second nature for you to behave yourself."
"When do you think that will kick in for you?" She asked.
He narrowed his eyes down at her, still blocking her way out of the chamber.
That annoying sensation of discomfort passed through him again as he held her stare. She had a way of getting to him, annoying him beyond tolerance far too easily, but he had become aware that mixed in with that annoyance was a sense of enjoyment too.
Her mind was very quick and in their exchange of arguments he had found a new form of combat. One that he wasn't all that sure he was winning, and that concerned him. It made him tense in a new way that he couldn't really describe. She both irritated him to the point of anger, and yet, hadn't he been just a little too eager to get here? To see her this morning?
"Just behave yourself," he warned her, falling on the fact that she was not to be fully trusted. "Be respectful," he added before turning and leading the way out of the dry heat of her "quarters".
"Should I remind you of the same?" She asked from behind him.
"I know my limits," he responded, walking fast, wanting to keep ahead of her.
He wasn't sure when exactly he had stopped worrying about turning his back to her.
His instincts had told him from the start that there was honour in her, but that didn't excuse her behaviours, such as breaking into the Sythus' security systems, blackmailing station owners, and so on.
Not that those tendencies of hers hadn't turned out to be useful, but she needed to learn to behave or she wouldn't last among 'normal' non-criminal people. It was all very well her eventually attained a 'clean record' if she was just going to get into more trouble again afterwards.
He reached the level's transport chamber and stepped in quickly. As Seeal stepped in as well, she turned quickly to face the closing doors, showing him her back. It was a pointed move on her part.
She smelt of something flowery. Probably a deodorant she had just put on.
"They gotten into the computer core at all?" She asked as the transporter arrived a few floors up.
"The casing is off, explosives removed, and they are through the first layer of data," he replied as he moved forward quickly as soon as the doors began to open. Doing so forced her to hurry forward or be trodden on. She glared at him as she moved aside quickly in the corridor, leaving him the way forward. He strode on, leading the way towards the working lab that had been set up for Toshka's computer.
"The first layer is just turning the thing on," she commented from behind him, her voice slightly winded, suggesting she was hurrying to keep up with him.
Good.
They reached the lab's closed door a few moments later and he triggered it open.
However, Seeal slid quickly around his shoulder and stepped into the lab first, ahead of him.
He followed hurriedly, annoyed at her swift move.
Faces turned towards them as they entered. Seifer looked even more bored than he had earlier, as did Ronon. Seifer had probably been whining about the goat again.
Halling approached.
"Anything new?" Oneakka asked him.
Seeal headed straight for the group of technicians around the core to the far right. Oneakka noted that, but focused on Halling.
Except, Seeal abruptly pulled up short. Oneakka snapped his attention round to see that Ronon had blocked her way and was aggressively looming over her.
The Satedan's shoulders were up, his nostrils flaring with clear intimidation. His jaw clenched, he glared down only the few inches between his height and Seeal's.
"I don't trust her," Ronon stated through his teeth.
"And you are?" Seeal asked with that bored dismissive tone Oneakka had not heard for a few days now.
Oneakka reached them in two strides, stepping up behind Seeal to face off directly opposite Ronon. He locked his eyes on his Satedan friend who was currently a very real and sudden threat.
"Seeal," Halling's voice drifted in from the left, calm and polite. "This is Military Councillor Ronon Dex of Sateda," Halling introduced. "He is one of the Council officially here to oversee the decoding of the computer."
Ronon had finally registered Oneakka's focus and the man's eyes lifted from Seeal to meet Oneakka's.
Oneakka held his gaze directly, his own strong determination flowing up through him. Ronon was being overly aggressive and Oneakka wasn't going to stand for it. He felt a new strong anger in his belly that had him holding his friend's equally angry gaze.
Oneakka had made a decision to bring Seeal in here and Ronon was defying that and not helping the situation.
And the Satedan wasn't backing down. His jaw was flexing at Oneakka's action.
"Ronon," Halling said calmly again, "Seeal has proven to have excellent coding skills."
"Hacking skills," Ronon corrected, his eyes still holding Oneakka's, but the aggression was fading. Something new was replacing it, a questioning consideration. Oneakka held his ground. This was his ship, his people, and his decisions.
"I read the reports," Ronon continued, his eyes suddenly breaking away to look down at Seeal. "You might have manipulated them with your 'good deeds'," Ronon said to her, "but I'm watching you, Dreamstation Lead."
"I'm not its Lead anymore, or is your intell so far behind?" Seeal responded.
Oneakka sensed Halling's disapproval without actually seeing it.
Ronon clenched his teeth again. If he thought using physical height and physical threat would work against Seeal, then he hadn't read her file. She had grown up among the giant Glisi who had hated her as a cursed, mutated weakling.
"Dex," she considered. "I've heard of you."
"Good," Ronon responded. Oneakka kept his eyes on the man, watching for any tiny hints that he might become violent towards Seeal.
"If I were you," Seeal told Ronon, not sounding in the least afraid of the massive Satedan. She should be though, Ronon was the best that Sateda had created, and all of their people were excellent fighters, albeit hot headed and somewhat unpredictable at times. "I'd look into what your mate's father's brother does in his spare time," Seeal continued. "Because it's certainly not spending time with his wife in Alliance territory."
Confusion pushed aside all of Ronon's former anger and doubt, and in that moment Seeal quickly moved around Ronon's shoulder. She walked calmly towards the table supporting the computer core and the staring technicians who had all been watching with horrid fascination.
They all immediately looked away as Oneakka glared in their direction.
He swiftly redirected his gaze back to Ronon. Ronon's confused frown remained, but he met Oneakka's eyes with questioning annoyance once more. Oneakka held it.
Ronon hated being challenged, as did most Satedans. The moment over now, he would step aside. But, he would watch Seeal very closely, which meant Oneakka would now need to watch him in turn.
Across the room, Oneakka was aware of Edfu stepping forward towards Seeal.
"Seeal? It is a pleasure to meet you," Edfu greeted her. "I am one of the Elite's Security Leads. I wanted to thank you for your report on the codes and carry waves."
The man's voice was soft, almost overtly cheerful. Oneakka slid his gaze momentarily away from Ronon to assess Edfu.
"Report?" Seeal asked, confused for a second. "I just wrote down my thoughts on the latest codes being used in and around Dreamstation, and some of the older ones." Her attention appeared to be directly on the computer core, not on Edfu, who had stepped up to her side.
"Yes, I noticed the relaxed style to your comments," Edfu replied with almost a laugh, his voice seemingly deeper. Oneakka frowned at the highly intelligent Security Lead.
"That's me," Seeal replied, glancing over her shoulder at Oneakka. "Relaxed, right at home here, behaving myself."
She looked away before Oneakka could come up with a response to that.
At least she had taken his instructions to heart. For now.
Ronon moved, drawing Oneakka's full attention back to him. The tension was out of the Satedan now, but his lips were pursed. As he stepped back, he glanced round at Seeal and Edfu and back to Oneakka.
"This is on your head," Ronon stated as he moved away finally.
As much as Oneakka respected Ronon, he wasn't going to be pushed around on his own ship. Ronon was younger by only a couple of years, but sometimes he could be impetuous if things didn't go the way he wanted.
"Perhaps you can help us with this enigma," Edfu was saying to Seeal as Oneakka returned his attention to them. "Use my pad, we have a basic interface established."
Seeal took the offered computer tablet and began tapping away on its interactive surface.
"As you can see," Edfu commented, moving closer to her side, almost touching her arm. Oneakka saw her notice the closeness, but hold her ground. "It is a tumbling code," Edfu told her almost eagerly. "It's changing at a frequency we have not seen enough yet to know how large the rotation will be. As you can see, the coding is in an entirely new language."
"It looks almost like something out of Ancestor code," Seeal muttered thoughtfully.
"I thought the same, but the computers haven't found any correlation," Edfu replied with a smile. "Have you seen anything like this tumbling spin?"
Oneakka frowned at Edfu, wondering if his tone was intended to soften Seeal after the confrontation with Ronon.
Or was it that the experienced Security Lead was focusing on more than Seeal's intelligence and required hacking skills?
Oneakka added Edfu to his list. Clearly he was going to have to watch over Seeal to make sure that everyone remained focused on the work at hand.
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TBC