Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 25
"This is a security station for monitoring the people working around the powerplant as well as controlling access to the computer banks that are a deck below us," Fendra said. "It looks like the only stations that are active are one controlling the backup power cells and then two others that look like they access the secure banks directly."
"Someone has modified these stations to access the computer banks below us," Lucky said. "They have advanced search algorithms running and are copying data to a remote storage device."
"Doesn't look like anything useful here," Jason said. "Let's keep moving forward and up."
They moved on, the progress slow without access to the ship's lifts and moving walkways to whisk them to where they needed to go. It wasn't until they'd climbed up, into the area Jason would have called "Officer Country" if he'd been on a human ship, that they saw signs of life. The corridor lights here were dimly illuminated, and Jason's thermal optics could pick up the faint outlines of footprints where someone had recently walked. His adrenaline spiked as he followed the footprints. Before, it had been just an interesting excursion in what appeared to be an abandoned, dark ship. Now, he was an armed intruder, boarding a ship with a hostile party to take what he wanted by force. It was times like these he realized how badass his life would sound if he were describing it to his fourteen-year-old former self. Of course, the reality of that life was a bit bleaker.
"Who are you people? Are you with the security team?"
Jason spun and saw a bipedal alien holding a steaming mug of something and holding a tablet-style computer with data cables dangling from it.
"You're not supposed to be up here on the Ops Deck," the alien went on. "Who's your supervisor?"
"Apologies," Jason said, approaching and keeping his weapon down at his side. "We were turned around in the stairwells."
"Wait, that armor doesn't look like regular issue…who are you? That's it, I'm calling for—" He never got to finish as Jason walked up and thumped him in the forehead with his gauntlet. It was a solid hit that knocked him clean out but didn't even break the skin. The degree of fine motor control in the new armor was impressive.
"Thank God for oblivious tech nerds," Jason said. "You'd think if you were working on a captured enemy fleet hidden in deep space, you’d have a little bit better situational awareness about you."
"Let's move him into one of these side rooms," Fendra said. "You can gloat later."
7
"You figure out what's on his tablet?"
"His what?" Fendra asked. "Ah! That's an odd name for a miniproc."
"Miniproc? Short for miniature processor, I'm assuming?" Jason asked while they secured the tech to a chair and closed the hatch to the room they were in. Lucky stood watch by the door as they worked.
"Probably. That was actually the name of a product so popular it became what they were all known as," Fendra said. "There…he isn't getting out of that."
"A bit overkill for a tech geek…so, what're we going to do with him?" Jason asked. "If we question him, it'll be a bit tough to leave him alive. The whole point of this excursion is to get in and out without being seen."
"Leave that to me," she said, pulling a device from her kit and jabbing into the arm of their captive. "This will do a quick and dirty DNA scan and then synthesize the appropriate drug cocktail to keep him knocked out and erase his short-term memory. He'll wake up and just think he hit his head."
"That's technically true," Jason said, rapping the knuckle he'd cracked the engineer with on the table.
"While we are waiting for the drugs to take effect, perhaps I could scan through his handheld computer," Lucky said.
"We need to agree on one thing to call this," Jason said, waving the tablet at his friend and then tossing it to him. Lucky caught it without even looking and plugged one of the trailing data cables into a socket that appeared near his waist on the left side. Jason looked on with interest. Lucky's old body had no provisions for this sort of thing. In fact, not having any external data access was one of the major security features that prevented anyone from tampering with a Mk.1 battlesynth if it was ever rendered unconscious.
"Anything good in there?"
"Very much so," Lucky said. "This device is loaded with com protocols and encryption routines that are apparently critical to the operation of this fleet."
"Com protocols for what?" Fendra asked. "Command and control, or the more mundane stuff?
"Apparently both," Lucky said. "Judging from the correspondences I found, the technician's function is to reprogram the encrypted communication systems on this ship. There are access codes and decryption routines for telemetry, command and control, and tactical channels."
"Let's not worry about questioning this guy…just give him the knock-out juice and let Lucky download everything on that tablet," Jason said.
"Are you certain that's wise?" Fendra asked. "He could provide valuable context."
"Doubtful," Jason said. "He's a tech doing a job. He'll know enough to do that job and little else. The ConFed isn't going to brief low-level workers on all the details of whatever nefarious plan they've cooked up for this captured fleet. The less evidence we leave that we were here, the more useful these com protocols will be." Fendra looked unconvinced but adjusted her device to administer the appropriate drugs.
"This will leave a trace if someone does a full toxicology screen on him," she said. "It's unavoidable. Hopefully that souvenir you gave him with your metal glove will be as far as they investigate."
"Lucky?" Jason asked.
"Transfer complete," Lucky said, handing the device back to Jason after disconnecting it.
"Let's stage him in here and leave the hatch open," Jason said. "We need to move forward and see if there's anything else worth peeking in on. The