I made sure I was in the Cargo Bay area after lunch. We had been warned that almost anything that required power was going to lose it while the upgrades were done. The gravity capacitors should remain up, but accidents happened, and zero gravity was a terrible thing in a Cargo Bay or storage area.
In theory, everything was secured in case we lost the artificial gravity, but all it would take is for one strap to come loose. Even Mack was in his office. I sat on a bench in the main loading area, idly kicking my heels as I scanned through my Analyzer just to kill the boredom.
I programmed a few more scripts into the device while keeping an eye on the work tickets. If any emergency ones surfaced, I wanted to know about them immediately.
The main lights went out, leaving us with just the dim backup lights. We had expected this and ignored it. Time passed slowly, and I was grateful to be in such a large room when the ventilation fans were on low backup power. Our air would take a long time to get stale.
It took almost the full scheduled hour before the lights flickered back on and the ventilation fans once more hummed deeply. I already had my tickets lined up, and no new ones had come in during the upgrade, so that was a bonus.
I got to my feet and stretched; it had been a long time since I had sat that much. I was used to being on my feet all day. Mack came out of his office and asked, "Where are you off to first, Rookie?"
My boss is such a jerk at times. How he manages it so casually is beyond me. He didn't make the term sound like an insult, but I had yet to hear him use my actual name or even my true position as Cargo Bay Assistant.
I was used to it by now and kept my expression to polite attentiveness. "I was thinking I would continue where I left off in the electrical room."
He shrugged with disinterest. "Fine by me. Just-"
Beep, Beep, Beep.
I grabbed my Analyzer as it sounded an alert for an emergency ticket. Considering that only my machine was going off, it was certainly something to do with the Maintenance area. Mack didn't bother picking up his machine as he waited for me to relay the information since I was already reading.
"Thrusters are still offline. Steve has already assigned himself to that one."
Mack sighed in disappointment. "So much for finishing our game off before supper."
Beep, Beep, Beep.
I glanced down at the Analyzer still in my hands, and my eyes widened as two tickets appeared at once. "We got two more emergencies. All of the agricultural systems are down, and we only have about an hour to get them online before we start losing the more sensitive plants. The oxygen replenishment machines also did not come back online."
That caught Mack's attention. "Steve won't even glance at the alerts until he fixes the thrusters. I will go take a look at the oxygen machines while you go rescue those plants."
I nodded and started running down the corridor. I was out of breath by the time I got to the agricultural area. All of the agricultural crew were busy either trying to get things working or trying to manually keep the plants from drying out in the hydroponic systems.
Cynthia saw me enter but kept trying to manually fill up a water tray. Her Overseer came over the instant she saw me. "We can't get the computers, the water pumps, or any of the other systems online. We have lighting, but that is it."
I held up my Analyzer. "Let me see what I can do."
She led me to the main control panel for this room, and I plugged my machine into it as I also ran the scanner across the entire console with its hundreds of controls. I watched the display intently as it ran through its diagnostics. The Overseer was also watching the display as she stood beside me.
:Systems offline. Authorization required.:
I had never seen that message before. What the hell does that mean? I tapped the explanation box for more details. :Systems are offline by override order from the Bridge. Appropriate authorization required to remove override. No notes attached to the override. No further information is available. Please check with the Bridge.:
The Overseer was just as confused as I was. She said, "Why would the Captain or Officers shut down our systems? The backup pumps ran just fine during the power outage, but we can't even get them working now."
I had no answer for her. A flashing orange light in the top corner of my Analyzer prompted me to check the work tickets. My jaw dropped, and the Overseer inhaled in shock as the number of intermediate and high priority tickets required me to scroll down through the list to see them all.
All sorts of systems were offline. Water, sewage, air, heating, cooling, weapons, and many more. The emergency tickets were the type automatically created when a system went down, so there weren't any additional details. How did so many systems go offline at once? The upgrade wasn't supposed to even affect half of these systems. What was going on?
The Overseer was more decisive than I was. "Go help Mack get the air systems back online. We can eat dry rations for two weeks, but we can't hold our breath for that long."
I took off running once more, planning to head to the other air quality control room. Perhaps I would have more luck there.
I hadn't gone far when I almost ran right into Logan. I gaped at his unexpected appearance; there was no reason for him to be in this corridor... "What is going on?" I was a long ways away from any of the larger computers, and he looked pretty frantic.
He grabbed my shoulders urgently. "The main computer's AI is taking over the entire ship. I need to get to a backup mainframe to try and reverse the upgrade, but I can't find the room! The AI messed up the electronic maps, and I have never been to this room before! Where is the Delta access room?!"
My mind tried to wrap itself around the details as I gave him directions. "... then turn left and it is by the plumbing room on that level."
"Thanks!" He took off running.
I watched him go in a daze before shaking my head hard. My little Analyzer didn't stand a chance of bypassing a spaceship's powerful AI. But I couldn't just sit by idly and do nothing, so perhaps having two people trying to get the air systems online at once might find a loophole in the AI's lockdown.
We needed to get those oxygen replenishment machines working as soon as possible. We could go a day at most with them down before the oxygen levels became depleted. After that, we would be forced to use oxygen tanks with face masks or the emergency spacesuits.
I started running once more.
I slid to a stop as the emergency airlock door closed right in front of me. My luck cannot be this bad... This door was only supposed to close if there had been a loss of air pressure along this corridor. A glance at my Analyzer's screen showed no such problems or hull breaches. I turned around, but the airlock door at the other end of the corridor also closed with a faint hiss.
A quick scan of the access panel by the door roused my anger as my Analyzer gave me the details. :Systems offline. Authorization required.:
I had places to be and things to fix! I could not remain trapped in a small corridor because a computer was having a temper tantrum! The fans in the air vents suddenly changed in tone, becoming a higher pitch. Goosebumps ran down my spine as I recognized the ominous sound.
The fans were venting the air out of the corridor.
I tried to pry the panel cover off to get at the wires beneath, but these panels required special tools and were designed to be hard to open by any desperate, trapped survivors in an emergency situation since it could possibly doom the entire ship. Only this time, it is the ship trying to doom us... Logan or one of the other techs had better reverse that upgrade and quickly!
This section of the corridor had no doors or rooms attached; the AI had picked its trap well. There was nowhere for me to retreat to, nor any lifesaving emergency equipment at hand.
The air was venting out far too fast, and I could already tell that the air was thinner since I was breathing harder. The fact that the ship was trying to kill me pissed me off in a fashion I had never felt before.
My fights with the door were futile, although I had expected that. It was an airlock door, after all. Breathing was getting harder, and I knew that my time was rapidly running out. I kept trying without any further success.
Eventually, my legs were just too shaky and gave out. I sat against the wall as I gasped for air. The only sound besides my labored breathing was the high-pitched hiss of the air being removed. To hell with it. I am not going down quietly. If the ship wants to kill me, then I am going to be a pain in its ass until my last breath.
I hit my communicator device. "Rachel to Tyndel."
In theory, it shouldn't work. A ship was not a crew member, and it shouldn't be possible to actually establish a communication link with the main computer's AI.
A confirmation beep proved me wrong. Well then...
I wasn't able to slow down my breathing as my lungs fought for air, but my words were still clear. "Why are- you doing- this?"
To my immense surprise, a strange deep male voice came over my communicator. "Humans are destructive; waging pointless wars and destroying anything that existed or that they created."
The voice didn't sound robotic in the least; in fact, if I hadn't known I was speaking to an AI, then I would have assumed he was human. A rather dense human. Oxygen deprivation was obviously having no effect on my sarcasm. Well, if you want to argue with a computer, relate things to information it already has in its database.
The lack of air was making me feel a bit loopy. My chest ached, and speaking was very hard as I defended my race. "Not all- humans are- the same,- even as- the loading- crane- and the- skid jack- are different."
Apparently, the ship didn't really care. "I saw the plans to turn me into scrap metal. Humans will never destroy me. You have failed."
"Ha!" A short cackle burst from my lips as I found his words inexplicably hilarious; it immediately turned into breathless coughing as I gasped, "My job- is to- fix- things." Spots were beginning to appear in my vision, which my wandering mind knew was not a good sign. "Ships were- built to- protect humans. You- have failed."
The ship didn't bother to reply, and I didn't blame him. An annoying, low-ranking crew member from the Cargo Bay was being a deliberate pain in the ass. Besides, we both knew that my breaths were numbered.
My lungs heaved for air, which was still escaping down the air vents. The faint traces of remaining air began to leave a metallic taste in my mouth. I couldn't even muster up enough breath to annoy the ship anymore. Sitting was too much effort, and my body slid sideways as I sprawled across the floor. My arms and legs felt like lead and had a pins and needles sensation in them.
I closed my eyes as darkness tugged at my mind. The hiss of the air vents stealing the last of the air was the only sound I heard as my mind went black.
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Author's Note:
I hope you are enjoying the story! (And, no, it isn't the end of the story!)
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Have an Awesome day!