The main launch deck of the Triton was silent. The Clever Dream was set up in the centre of the dimly lit expansive space with all the boarding ramps lowered. Its hull gleamed as though it was fresh from the manufacturer, only the new power generation and energy collection systems were in place, expanding its girth, giving its long black hull a muscular appearance. It was a long range, luxury gunship, one of the only ever built, and it looked fully restored.
Jake heard boot steps coming down the cockpit crew ramp and turned to see Alice. She looked exactly as she did when he met her on the Triton. Under her worn imitation leather bomber jacket she wore a blue vacsuit and heavy gun belt. She was armed with the duplicate of the same heavy sidearm he'd used for years. “Hi dad,” she smiled.
He rushed forward and took her into his arms before she stepped off the ramp.
There was nothing guarded or restrained about her laugh as he spun her once and put her down. “Good to see you too,” she beamed.
“Where are you coming from?” Jake asked.
“Not far. Making a few last minute adjustments before I go.”
“Already? You should stay for a while. Everyone from the First Light is here, they're looking forward to meeting you.”
“I can't, father. I have to go.”
In the blink of an eye he realized that she didn't look like the woman he'd met on the Triton. Facially she appeared as she did when she was only an artificial intelligence on his wrist, a constant companion he had programmed since he was seventeen until he was thirty four. “The neural therapy's working. You'll be on your feet in a couple of days,” he reassured.
Alice's smile faded. “I can't connect to that body anymore. Whatever unique brain structure that woman had that let me transfer her has been repaired. I can't go back. Not completely.”
“I can have them recreate the conditions, we can bring you back,” Jake took her arm.
Her brow furrowed. “It's too late. I'm in your memory system right now, a little light on data, but Iloona was right; my human personality survived. I only wish she was right about the rest. I'm moving on, using your comm system to transfer myself to the hypertransmitter.”
“You've made the jump to digital, why do you have to keep going?”
“I'll never forget my time on the Triton. If I had to do it all again I'd do exactly the same.”
“We can help you.”
Alice shook her head. “I wish I had more time with you. In person, as a human. Thank you for showing me the trust and love of family.”
“Tell me what I can do to fix this. I'll do anything!”
“I know, that's why I have to leave. I love you father,”
The hangar and Alice faded from sight. He woke to the sound of the door opening behind him. Iloona rushed in and looked at the status screen behind the bed for a long moment.
Jake saw her nose twitch with worry, her hands clench together and he finally looked at the status display himself. All the activity readings for Alice's brain functions were in the red. The bed was forcing her to breathe, keeping her heart beating. The clock on the display said he'd been asleep for seven hours.
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss against her fingers. He put it back in its place with great care and turned away.
“I'm sorry. I don't know how but the therapy failed. She's gone Captain,” Iloona said consolingly.
Captain Valance nodded once and strode out of the infirmary. “Bridge, shut down all power to hypertransmitter and wormhole systems.”
“Yes sir,” replied an officer from engineering. Who it was, he was unsure. “But Craig in communications informs me that a high compression micro wormhole just formed and closed. A few encrypted gigabytes of information was transmitted and then deleted from our system.”
“Thank you,” He replied flatly as he closed the comm channel. Jake's stony expression and cold gaze were enough to press people out of his way as he marched to the bridge.
He briefly checked the crew status on his command unit and opened a channel to Ayan. "You're overdue. What's going on?"
Jake took a second look at his command unit, using the two dimensional display so no one else would see what he was doing as he stepped into a busy lift car. The system reported that his connection was unidirectional, her comm wasn't connecting to his. He selected Finn's comm and tried to connect unsuccessfully. The lift doors opened to exchange passengers. "Express car override, command authority, take me to the bridge," he told the system.
Everyone in the elevator fell silent and either looked at him in surprise or did their best to look like they weren't paying attention at all.
The system didn't acknowledge his command and he irritably reached between two passengers and punched the instructions into the control panel. The car picked up speed, travelling several dozen meters horizontally before accelerating upwards towards the forward command section of the ship.
Everyone between Captain Valance and the express car exit stepped aside and when they opened he strode out then across the concourse and straight onto the bridge. The heavy armoured doors were wide open and he stopped at the control panel to increase the security level so they would remain closed unless someone who was authorized to be on the bridge needed to enter or leave.
"Open a comm line to Ayan or anyone on the station team. They're overdue," he ordered as he strode to the command seat.
"I can't make a connection with any of them. It's like all their comms are deactivated."
"Raise Chief Vega and the Cold Reaver," Captain Valance ordered as he checked the status of his command crew. Jason and Laura were already awake, having breakfast in the observation lounge. He put him on high alert, knowing that his command and control unit would flash red and direct him to the bridge immediately.
"I can't get them either."
"Are we being jammed?"
"No, it's like they're not answering," sir.
"Start a general repeating hail to the station on all frequencies. If there's someone with a working comm over there I want to speak to them." Jake ordered the night communications officer, he was a younger fellow, recently qualified. "Commander Everin is on his way, he'll handle the signal scanning and more advanced work." He looked to his right and saw that Oilimae, the night tactical officer was at her post. The issyrian had been trained by Agameg, and had good numbers from simulations and qualifications. "What does the station look like right now?"
Oilimae made the station the primary focus of the bridge's main holographic tactical display before replying, centring on the section that Ayan's team was last reported in. "Our readings indicate that thirty five percent of the station now has life support. Commander Ayan's teams and the Cold Reaver are within the repaired section."
"How much of the station had life support before?"
"Before the Commander's team arrived?"
"Yes."
"Less than eight, sir."
"Well, she did a good job."
"Reporting as ordered, Captain," Jason said as he ducked under the heavy bridge door behind the command seat. "When I brought Crewcast online last week I didn't think I'd be seeing an alert level summons for a while, what's up?"
"Ayan's team is overdue and unreachable. My comm says her last check in was a little over two hours ago."
"That's not like her," Jason commented as he took the lead communications position.
"You have ten minutes to get us in touch before I take a team station side," Jake informed him.