Ever since Dakota had brought the Shoal-member on board, Corso had made sure that a discreet but constant eye was kept on his yacht. Although the frigate's internal surveillance system had been directed to survey the main hold at all times, Corso wasn't taking any chances. Both Willis and Schiller made frequent trips to the bay to check on Trader's ship in person. Corso couldn't say exactly what he was hoping they might find, but he wanted to send the alien a message that he was under constant surveillance.
He shut the alarm off, and the silence that followed fell across the bridge like a heavy, smothering blanket. He next used a console to project a highly detailed schematic of the Mjollnir overhead. Red dots blinked on and off up and down its length, identifying the depressingly numerous systems failures.
A groggy-looking Martinez entered the bridge, pulling a jacket on. 'What the hell just happened?' he demanded, striding over to join him.
'Take a look for yourself Corso waved towards the console.
Martinez leaned over its glassy surface and quickly scanned the data Corso had just pulled up. His eyes widened, and then he glanced upwards at the schematic floating above their heads.
'I've never seen anything like this,' Martinez muttered, then peered over at the recently vacated interface chair.
'You're wondering if a machine-head could pull something like this off?' suggested Corso.
'Could they?'
'You told me yourself that the new security measures make it just about impossible for anyone with implants to take covert control without being directly plugged into the interface chair. And if either Ted or Dakota was responsible, the other would know.'
'That's the idea,' Martinez agreed. 'But the system's never really been tested properly, and I wasn't around when they carried out the most recent modifications. Do we have any idea where either Merrick or Lamoureaux are?'
Corso sighed. 'Right now I couldn't tell you where anybody is, Commander.'
'You do realize they're the first and most obvious suspects, regardless?'
Corso nodded irritably. 'Don't forget how hard we've been pushing the Mjollnir. We don't know what problems that might have caused. First that expedition to find the Mos Hadroch… then off again not much more than a week later. We're making longer, more frequent jumps than any human-built ship has ever performed before. We're having to carry out almost constant maintenance as it is.'
'No,' Martinez snapped. 'This is deliberate sabotage.'
'How can you be sure?'
'For God's sake, Lucas.' The Commander nodded towards the overhead schematic. 'Each and every subsystem has been targeted separately. Something like that takes conscious effort. Did you check the surveillance records yet?'
Corso opened his mouth and paused momentarily. 'No, not yet.'
Martinez leaned over the console, and Corso watched as he pulled up screeds of data, muttering while he worked.
'Take a look at this,' he said, moving to one side. Corso glanced at the data and saw that it was a series of logs.
'The past twelve hours of visual records,' explained Martinez. 'All of them wiped. You need high-level access to be able to pull off a trick like that – the kind of access only an interface chair gives you.'
Corso stared at the data. 'Before you start pointing fingers at the team, remember our passenger in the hold. Besides, the Mos Hadroch might have triggered some glitches early on as well.'
Martinez frowned. 'Trader's stuck inside his own ship. He surely can't pull off a trick like this from inside there, can he?'
'I don't know,' Corso replied. 'But then, I don't know if Ted or Dakota could have pulled this off either.'
Just then, Lamoureaux came on to the bridge, looking distinctly out of breath. 'I came straight back here as soon as I heard the alarm. What's happened?'
Corso ignored the look on Martinez's face as he turned to face the machine-head. 'We don't know yet,' he told Lamoureaux. 'I was hoping you might know something.'
Lamoureaux shook his head. 'Most of the data-space is down. Dakota would tell you just the same.'
'Where is she?' asked Martinez.
'She's on her way here.'
'Just to be clear about it, even with the ship's networks down, you can still talk to each other?'
'Sure.' Lamoureaux nodded. 'Machine-head hardware creates its own spontaneous networks, as long as you're reasonably close to each other.'
'Could you get in touch with any of the others by using your implants?' asked Corso.
Lamoureaux thought for a moment. 'Like use them to reroute some of the low-level comms? Yeah, maybe. The primary systems are down, but secondary and back-up seem to be rebooting spontaneously.'
'Go to it,' said Corso.
Lamoureaux headed back to the interface chair.
'All right,' said Martinez, just as Schiller and Perez entered the bridge, 'here's what we're going to do. We've got no idea if this is hostile action, but until we know otherwise we have to assume it is. We need to find out where everyone is and start piecing together how all this happened.'
'And if we can't find them?'
'Then we go looking,' Martinez replied. Dakota reached the hub twenty minutes after the alarm had shut off and found Nancy Schiller and Dan Perez already waiting there. Both were armed with pulse-rifles.
'That leaves just Driscoll and Olivarri,' Schiller observed to Perez, as Dakota approached.
'Any idea what's going on?' asked Dakota, grabbing a wall rung.
'We're assuming it's sabotage until we know otherwise,' said Perez. 'We're just keeping an eye out.'
'What for?'
'Can't rule out a third party,' Schiller growled, patting her rifle. 'Lots of places on board for a saboteur to hide in. That means we've got to be ready for any surprises.'
'But no word from Driscoll or Olivarri?'
Perez shook his head. 'Not yet.'
'Look, you're forgetting about Trader. I'll go back down to the stern and check he's still where he should be.' She started to head back the way she had come.
'No,' said Schiller, raising her rifle towards Dakota. 'You stay right here where we can see you.'
'Okay,' said Dakota, turning back slowly. 'If that's what you want.'
Perez put one hand on the barrel of Schiller's rifle and pushed it back down. 'Nancy, let's first work out what happened before jumping to any conclusions, okay?'
Schiller's mouth worked like she wanted to say something in response, but then she relented, lowering her rifle and muttering something foul under her breath.
'Look, right now we're just trying to figure out where everyone is,' Perez explained. 'Most comms are still down, so we've been sitting tight and waiting to see who makes it back here, assuming they've got the sense to head for the bridge. If Olivarri and Driscoll don't show, we're going to go looking for them.'
'In that case,' said Dakota, 'you're going to want to break out the spider-mechs, especially if you think there might be saboteurs on board. They're independent of the Mjollnir's control systems, so they probably won't have been affected by whatever's happened. Plus, they can move around the ship and report back a lot faster than any of us can. In fact, I could run a couple of dozen of them at once single-handed. That'd free you up to-'
'Goddammit, no,' snarled Schiller, clearly working up a temper. 'How do we know she's not the one who did all this?' she said, gesturing towards Dakota. 'Maybe if we lock up her and Lamoureaux, we won't have to worry about either of them sabotaging anything else until we have some idea just what the fuck is going on.'