Omega Force: Rebellion (OF11), стр. 61

said when he got down to the galley. "I thought that was just your ham-handed way of saying you need to talk in private."

"It was both," Crusher said, already stuffing food in his mouth as he walked over with the tray from their new and improved food synthesizer. "Have you noticed something…off…about Lucky?"

"He's been off since those two morons decided stuffing his brain into a new and untested prototype body was a good idea," Jason replied, reaching across to grab one of the chips off Crusher's tray. He was rewarded for his trouble by a large fist slamming down on his hand. "Ow! Damn you!"

"Get your own." Crusher didn't even slow his gorging. "I'm not talking about the little bugs and quirks we've been seeing. I'm talking about a whole shift in his personality. Maybe personality is the wrong. What's the word for your overall philosophy in life? Does that make sense?"

"I swear to God, if you don't get to the point soon—"

"When we hit that parts depot, I got curious about why Lucky had bothered mimicking a security guard." Crusher's demeanor was somber enough that Jason gave him a chance to explain himself. "When you exited the building, I worked my way up to where he grabbed the part. Apparently, there was an admin office up in that area that was still staffed." He paused, looking off into space for a moment. "There were at least fifty bodies strewn about, and it was obvious that Lucky had killed them all. A few were armed security personnel, but most looked like they might have just been clerical workers trying to get out of the area."

"That's…quite a charge," Jason said slowly.

"It's why I'm only bringing it up now," Crusher said. "I've been going through it in my head again and again and there's no reason I can come up with to explain why he would have butchered those Eshquarians so savagely. We specifically planned the mission to minimize the risk to the depot workers."

"There's no moral or ethics subprocessor, Lucky's core values are a part of his primary processing matrix," Jason said. "Either you completely misinterpreted what you saw or Lucky did actually kill those people, but for good reason. We've been doing this job a long time together, so I'm not inclined to question your assessment of the situation, which means we're now left with a distinctly unpleasant possibility."

"That the most moralistic member of our crew has somehow been turned into a cold, amoral killer," Crusher said. "Back before Khepri, Lucky would have never harmed an unarmed combatant, even if it put him at risk. Even if the guards were using the office staff as shields, the old Lucky wouldn't have cut his way through them to get to the threat."

"Let's take it easy with the old Lucky, new Lucky talk," Jason warned. "For right now, we should keep this between the two of us. I want to be able to really sit and process this and there just isn't any time right now. We'll keep an eye on him, but if we tell everyone else, he may feel that it's an us verses him thing, and it could all go belly up."

"Agreed," Crusher said.

"Captain, better get your ass up here…something's happening."

"Finally," Jason grumbled, swiping a chip so fast of Crusher's tray he couldn't stop him and jogging for the command deck.

"New contacts appearing at an unauthorized mesh-in point, Admiral. Six ships so far, all capital class vessels not broadcasting any ident beacons."

"Thank you, Captain," Kellea said. "Please have Councilman Scleesz brought to the bridge. We may need him as a liaison soon."

"At once, Admiral."

Scleesz had been careful to feed her enough information, or at least a skewed representation of it, to sow seeds of doubt in her mind about Seeladas and the leadership within the Cooperative. What he hadn't provided, however, was the reason the Defiant sat deep in ConFed space at the behest of the Grand Adjudicators. So far, that had been no broadcast greetings or envoys from the surface to welcome her to the capital system.

"You summoned me, Admiral?"

"We have a lot of unknown ships popping into the system," Kellea said without turning to look at Scleesz. "Over thirty now have arrived in an unapproved mesh-in point. Care to fill me in now on what it is we're supposed to be doing here?"

"Admiral, I am not lying to you when I say I don't know what you're supposed to be here to see," Scleesz said.

"Okay, so why are you still here?" she asked, turning to look at him. "I assumed you would send for a shuttle or ask for one of ours to take you back to the surface."

"I-I haven't been summoned," Scleesz floundered.

"Summoned?" Kellea repeated, now fully turning and taking a step towards him. "You're a senior member of the High Council, chairman on two separate subcommittees, and widely considered one of the most influential people on Miressa…and you are waiting to be summoned?"

She hadn't fully believed his story about an all-powerful AI taking control of the ConFed. Her instincts had told her she was being manipulated by someone who was skilled at getting people to do what he needed them to do, so she took the story in stride and made sure she kept an open mind as to what she saw around her. But she had to admit that something had him spooked, and he was hiding out on a Cridal ship rather than returning to his home on the surface.

"Perhaps we could speak in private?" he asked, trying to maintain as much dignity as possible as the bridge crew now turned to stare at him.

"After you." Kellea motioned towards the small office directly off the bridge where she did most of her work.

"There have been some developments on the surface I've only now become aware of," Scleesz said when the hatch slid shut. "People loyal to me were able to send word that the capital's internal security force raided my offices