Cybernetic Soul

Chapter 2

Bryn sat in a hallway outside an office on the Federal Battle Carrier Galstar Spirit, the flagship for this sector of the Federation. The Starstrel was docked and just about ready to leave for some simple and honest mining work in the Brint-Onoven-B system. She was patched up, refuelled and fitted with a new Giga Forge plasma drill. The only issue left to fix was the cracked cooling pipe.

On the office door was a nondescript plaque with the words, Section 3. He did not know what section 3 was, but when he asked Central for directions he was sent to this office.

He hated the inaction of sitting and waiting in a chair with nothing to keep him busy. It gave him time to think. Think about the beating they had given the Kameren. The fighting had been ruthless. The show of strength had been sickening to watch. It left him feeling dirty and he had tried to literally wash away the stench of it. It felt like a crime had been committed and he and his crew were complicit. The responsibility was theirs together with a thousand other crews and a fleet of starships. But, however thinly spread the responsibility was, it still stank like bilge waste.

This whole part of the Galstar Spirit seemed to be made up of administration offices. People moved up and down the hall, paper or tablet in hand. Some gave Bryn an odd look. Others ignored him. None acknowledged him. He knew he looked odd on first glance. He was very pale and ever so slightly tinged blue. Apparently, it was a family trait. He thought it made him look ill. He had been tested and was assure that he was not tainted by xeno DNA. It was just an evolutionary trait from some dark-side planet or mining colony, or so they told him. Bryn had pressed the buzzer, but a broken speaker had told him to sit down and wait. Bryn had been summoned.

A clacking databot trundled by making squeaking noises all the way, its wheels in need of oiling. A computronic display on the opposite wall flickered and bent. It was a general ship's console, showing broken green lines and ticker text. It buzzed, ticked and hummed as computronics do. Occasionally a slip of paper was ejected from a slot only to be picked up by one of the passing admin staff.

"Hear this. Loose tongues lose ships," came a stern voice over the ships PA system. "Protect your share. If you hear anything, report it." It had been repeated multiple times while aboard the Galstar Spirit.

After the prisoner run, Starship Starstrel had been out of action, needing repairs. In that time the Kameren revolt had collapsed. Bryn, together with his chief engineer Gibsin and logistics officer Usan Gefrey, had gone over the entire ship making an exhaustive list of repairs to be made and parts to be procured. Bryn had spent a lot of time in engineering. He liked Gibsin's shelf of old paper ship's manuals, files, paperback novels, saucy romances, self-help books, pulp sci-fi and other publications. Most of them tatty and filthy with oily thumbprints. Gibsin liked to read. Bryn was not sure if the old copy of the Idiot's Guide to Fusion Drives was worrying or amusing.

"That just leaves the cooling pipe," Gefrey had said. It was her job to manage the credits. "Sir, we don't have the credit for that kind of purchase."

"I know," Bryn replied. "Gibsin will work it out."

"But, how?"

"The less you know, the better. He knows what to do."

It was then that Bryn got a message from Galstar Spirit Central to report to a Vice Marshal Verts the next morning. Bryn left Gibsin to find a pipe. He was a resourceful man when it came to finding spare parts, especially on a big ship like the Galstar Spirit. Got to love freelancing in the Federal Navy - teach you how to lie, steal, mug, drink and fight.

It was 08:34 standard time before the door clicked opened and the broken speaker told him to enter. Bryn did so.

The Captain found himself facing a female officer sat behind a desk. She had seen combat. The officer was severely burnt and scarred with a bald scalp and silver mechanical hand. "You may enter." She gestured to another door.