Starship Armstrong - Season 1

Part 12 - The Serfs of Al-Qaum (XII)

"Allow me to introduce you," said Dr. Kang "This is Commander Gibson, he's here to embarrass me and waste all of our time. Commander Gibson this is... my liaison with the rebels."

"My name is Mirvor Renfield. I don't know how many times I've told you," said the seneschal.

"Four," said Dr. Kang "Four times. One would think you'd have learned your lesson by now."

"We've met, actually," said Gibson.

"Have you?" asked Dr. Kang.

"Yes!" exclaimed the seneschal "We all met when you first came down to Manticore!"

"Alright, then introductions are unnecessary. I've brought down some equipment that's going to make setting up the relay station a great deal easier. I'll get to work on that with my assistants, and you two can waste each-other's time instead of mine."

Dr. Kang, McAfree and Wagner took off down the hallway, with McAfree and Wagner laden down with heavy equipment.

"Dr. Kang's abrasiveness aside," said the seneschal "I'd like to thank you all for helping us. I realize this is going to complicate your relationship with the Al-Qaum Empire. The patriots of Manticore won't soon forget this."

"Thank us when this is all over and you're still alive," said Gibson "I'm still not convinced that this kind of help won't get you all killed."

"I'd rather die a young martyr than an old slave," said the seneschal.

"Then you're in luck," said Gibson "Because you might get the opportunity to do just that. The Al-Qaum aren't going to sit back and allow you to peacefully secede, you know."

"We know," said the seneschal "We've been preparing for this day for decades."

"If you have then you know there's nothing any of us can do about their starfleet, even the Armstrong. If they decide to wipe out all life on Manticore there isn't a person in this sector who can stop them."

"If the people of Manticore put our minds to something," said the seneschal "Then there isn't a person in this galaxy who can stop us."

Fantastic, thought Gibson they're insane.

* * *

"You know," said McAfree, while she absent-mindedly flicked open and closed the screen case on her quantum field reader "We don't really need authorization codes to access the T-Net with a functioning tachyon relay station. We could just hack the next closest relay and steal their signal."

"How would you do that without T-Net access?" asked Wagner.

The two looked at Dr. Kang expectantly.

"She'd just have to build a secondary black relay that spoofed a starship ident code," said Dr. Kang "Then read the signal from the black relay. What have I told you about asking dumb questions?"

"So we wouldn't need civilian T-Net authorization codes," said Wagner "But we would need the military encrypted starship identity codes."

"Oh please," said Dr. Kang "The Foundation starship idents still use encryption software from the Reunification Wars. I could generate a valid identity code with an abacus."

"And unlike T-Net authorization codes there's no registry, since they're designed for use outside of Foundation space," said McAfree, her voice racing "So there's no way to tell a forgery from a legitimate ident."

"Yes, but what would be the point of all that?" asked Wagner, dramatically.

"Well," said McAfree "Hypothetically, if we had access to an unregistered T-Net connection we could contact Mars without the Armstrong being able to intercept. Or anyone could, really."

She grinned like a chechire cat.

"You manipulative little shits," said Dr. Kang "There may be some hope for you yet."