Mitchell's Revenge

Fred Laine and his team returned to Mitchell’s Revenge satisfied that they had successfully updated and repaired the software installed on the Rubicon. Henri started undocking procedures as soon as they were aboard because Lucy was threatening to do it herself. The wait had seemed interminable to her. Her pacing gave way to stroking Em’s fur, until she could control it no longer and began pacing again. Henri was ready to throw her off the ship.

“Will you stop it!” he said. “You’re driving me crazy with your pacing.”

“I can’t,” said Lucy. “I just want to get going. We have to find Anja.”

Jake returned to the bridge clean shaven and looking rested. Unlike Lucy, he had managed to snatch several hours sleep while they waited for the tech crew to complete their tasks. He checked the list of ships they had to inspect and began to plot their path away from Tiberion.

“Monitor the incoming news feeds please Lucy,” he said, turning to her. “I want you to see if there’s any activity, anywhere, that might indicate where Anja could be.”

She screwed up her face at him.

“Let’s just go,” she said petulantly. “We’re not going to find her sitting here!”

“I know that,” he snapped back at her. “But I’ve got a business to run. You need to remember that. Tim’s instructions are to look for her while we work, not to go dashing off on some badly planned rescue mission. When Matt comes to the bridge I want both of you to monitor the feeds. The IGM can’t be too far away from the Karhu system just yet.”

“If they’ve got the latest FTL technology they may be,” Lucy replied.

“We’ll deal with that when we have to,” said Jake. “Let’s get ready for departure.”

He turned back to his control board and logged into the moons’ departure protocols. Jake and Henri worked quickly to get the ship undocked and on its’ way to their next inspection which was two standard days away. With the coordinates set, everyone relaxed. Except for Lucy.

She was riddled with anxiety as she concentrated on both her co-piloting duties and watching the incoming news feeds. Time dragged for her as Matt sat nearby, chuckling as he watched the mindless drivel that qualified for news on Tiberion.

“Would you look at that!” he said suddenly. Lucy sat bolt upright. She had seen it too.

“Spansion shipping lane attacked by Eridanian warship” ran the header. “Eridanian boarding vessel destroyed by a ship named Zond sparking retaliatory attacks on all craft in the area.”

The story went on to say that the Eridanians had jumped into the shipping lane and attacked the defenceless freighter. The Zond arrived shortly afterwards. Lucy had never heard of the Eridanian species so she quickly searched for more information. She soon found what she needed to know.

“Listen to this,” she said. “We don’t want to get mixed up with that lot. Apparantly they raid the Spansion shipping lane every few years. They use humanoids for their manufacturing workforce.”

“Nice,” said Matt sarcastically. “What else does it say?”

“If one of their tentacles latches onto you, you’re a goner, according to this,” Lucy went on. “They control their humanoid work force through some kind of mind meld.”

“Even nastier,” said Matt. “Why can’t they build their own stuff?”

“Don’t know yet,” Lucy replied. “Let’s see what else this tells us. They’re a highly intelligent race. They were planet bound until humanoid explorers landed on Eridan. Then the Eridanians took control of the explorers’ ship and began to travel the galaxy themselves. They’ve got no manufacturing skills of their own, that’s why they raid human space for workers.”

“So avoiding contact with them is the only way to stay safe,” said Matt. “That’s why the Zond jumped.”

“The news report says they left the other vessels at the mercy of the Eridanian warship,” she read from the news feed. Then Lucy sucked in a deep breath. “It collected the humans and destroyed everything, including the armed protection ships.”

“Bloody hell! They sound like a thoroughly bad lot, I hope we never come across them,” said Matt. He was much more interested in learning about the Zond. He searched for information and soon discovered that it was an IGM ship. Captain Maxim Volkov had a reputation for running from a fight. Lucy was quickly searching for details about the crew.

“Five crew, including the Captain,” she said. “Looks like the usual suspects plus two untitled members. Mercenaries, no doubt. Smallish ship, but powerful, looking at the evidence from the news feed. Could be the one that’s got Anja. The timing seems about right.” She looked at Jake.

“I think we should go after them,” she said. “We can jump from here.”

“And straight into the arms of an Eridanian warship,” he said sarcastically. “What do you want to do? Blow them up along the way? Start an intergalactic war?”

Lucy glared at Jake.

“How you survived as a mercenary I’ll never know,” she said. “You have no sense of adventure.”

“Exactly,” Jake replied. “And that’s how I survived. Researching, observing, planning, always a plan B and meticulous attention to detail. Any merc will tell you that if you bothered to ask. We are not going to hurl ourselves into the middle of that mess. Our instructions are clear, and the IGM are adamant that we are not to attempt a rescue.”

Lucy felt as if her head would explode. Her feet tapped and the back of her neck itched. She got up from her seat and crossed to where Jake sat. She grabbed his right bi-cep and squeezed hard. He yelped in pain and tried to prize her fingers away. She refused to let go and levered him up out of his chair and steered him towards the door.

“We need to have a little chat, in private,” she said quietly in his ear. Matt watched them move through the doorway, and was relieved to see Lucy release her grip on Jake’s arm as the door closed. Jake turned to face her in the access way. He rubbed his arm where he could already feel bruises developing.

“What on earth has gotten into you?” he hissed. “First you’re beating up security personnel on Tiberion and now you’re attacking your own Captain. What is the matter?”

“I don’t know,” Lucy hissed back. “I feel compelled to behave this way. I bet your precious U.S.E. bionics have something to do with it. You’ve written something into them that’s making me crazy. You’d better find a way to turn it off or I will hurt you. I’m barely in control of it as it is.”

Jake stared at her.

“But you are in control of it?”

She nodded.

“Maybe Matt can run some diagnostics and tweak a few things,” he said. “If you continue to behave this way it’s not going to help anything. I need you to be calm and focussed so that we can work out a way to get Anja back safely, without getting ourselves hurt in the process.”

“Logically I know all that,” said Lucy. “It’s very hard to explain how this feels. Whatever they’ve written in hasn’t taken into account my own logic and emotions. It’s as if my primary objective is to rescue Anja, regardless of the consequences.”

“Can you tap into it at all by thinking about it?” asked Jake. “If you’re saying you’ve got some level of control you might be able to try and access the imperatives yourself.”

Lucy shook her head.

“Don’t think so,” she said. “But I haven’t consciously tried. All I’ve tried to control is the urge to hurt you and the rest of the crew. Maybe Em can help me.”

“Help you what?” came Em’s voice in her mind. Suddenly the big cat was standing in front of Lucy, looking at her with wide emerald eyes. Jake looked at the panther.

“We think there may be an issue with Lucy’s bionics. She seems to have developed a compulsion to rescue Anja, even though we’ve been instructed not to.” said Jake. “As you two are mind melded maybe you can help Lucy control it.” He looked back at Lucy.

“And in the meantime I’ll brief Matt. See if he can find out from headquarters what they’ve done and how we can adjust it. OK?” Jake disappeared back onto the bridge.

“Let’s walk, shall we?” came Em’s voice. She trotted off along the access way. Difficult as it was, Lucy had no choice but to follow her.

Jake wasted no time in explaining to the rest of the crew what was happening. He felt they all needed to be aware that Lucy could become a danger to them at any time, until they found a fix. Jake pinged Tim for advice.

“I need your permission for Matt to talk to the engineer who wrote the code for Lucy’s bionics,” he said when his father answered the call.

Tim listened as Jake outlined the problem. He agreed immediately that Lucy would not be able to follow his instructions in her current state. The requisite permissions were swiftly arranged, and Matt got to work.