Midway: Chapter 34

  “You really think you’ll be able to override the door?” Alissa asked Dhika.

  “Honestly?  No,” she replied.  “Under ordinary circumstances no problem, but whoever is doing this has demonstrated an impressive technical capacity.  I can easily work around the ordinary security protocols, but I’d bet additional measures have been put in my way which I won’t be able to.”

  “Well, here we are,” Alissa declared.  They had returned to the sim-bay which, already being a secure area in order to protect the simulants, also doubled as the armory.   They needed to arm themselves before attempting to penetrate the bridge.  Alissa opened the weapons locker and cursed.  “Yeah… I figured as much.”

  “What is it?” asked Dhika.

  “Look, one of the shotguns is already missing; it means the hijacker already has one.”

  “I suppose…” considered Dhika, “but it could be much worse couldn’t it?  I mean, they could have taken all of them so we couldn’t arm ourselves, right?  At least now we can safely say that the sims aren’t totally armed to the teeth.”

  “Yeah… I suppose there’s that,”  Alissa grabbed a shotgun and handed it to Dhika, then grabbed one for herself, as well as pulling down one of the laser rifles.   She laid both down on the rectangular table in front of the locker.  “It’s too bad there are no small arms… a simple handgun would come in real handy right now...”  She pocketed a box of buckshot shells, and opened a second box of solid slug shells, and proceeded to load the six shell maximum into the first shotgun, then handed the box to Dhika who took it and loaded her own weapon.

  “You know, I could print you one…” Dhika offered as she loaded shells into her own shotgun.  “Something like that would only take like… half an hour or something.  These weapons were never intended for us to use against each other.  They were only ever brought onboard to be used as tools on Haven for hunting game or… defending ourselves against large predators or something.  The founders certainly never had a close quarters firefights on the ship in mind.  I’d bet that if they’d foreseen them being used in such a way they would have just taken the risk of not bringing any weapons on board at all.”

  “You’re probably right… but like you said we could just make them for ourselves anyway.  I’d like a handgun but we just don’t have the time.”  Alissa closed her eyes for five or six seconds then opened them and informed Dhika: “I just asked Nusrah to get the right people started on that, he’ll let us know when he’s got something.”  Alissa smiled at the sight of Dhika with a shotgun slung over her shoulder.  It struck her as a contradictory image somehow.  “You know how to use that?” she asked, gesturing towards the weapon with a dry smile.

  Dhika overdramatically looked it over.  “Point at what I want dead and pull the trigger?”

  “Right,” Alissa chuckled.  “But before you fire the first shot,” Alissa pulled out one of the two remaining shotguns, “you have to cock it,” which she then demonstrated, “and between each shot.”  She returned it to its stand and said, “but, don’t do it the first time until you’re ready to shoot, the risk of accidental fire and possible damage to the ship is too great.”

  “Right, of course…” Dhika replied, looking over the more high tech weapon on the counter between them.

  Alissa pulled a power cell from the weapons locker and loaded it into the laser rifle.  “Now this,” she explained as she picked it up and held it “this here is a whole other animal.  The power cell is good for hundreds of shots, but from cold it takes about three minutes for it to charge the capacitors.  Fully charged you can get a full five second steady burst but doing so completely depletes the capacitors.  If you’re careful though, you can use it repeatedly in short bursts for a long time before it finally depletes, as long as you don’t get greedy with it.”  She sighed slightly, “which is why having a handgun with you for when you run out of juice is handy…  Oh well, you want one?”

  “Oh I don’t think so,” Dhika responded.  “I think if things get that bad, I’ll have my hands full just trying to use just this thing.”

  “You’re probably right,” Alissa replied as she slammed the metal locker door shut.  “Come on, we’ve got to get going.”

   

  “So who do you think will run to be the next captain?”

  “Is this really the time Alissa?”

  “Probably not, but it’s on my mind…  I can’t help it.  I’ve been thinking about it, and there are actually very few other good candidates.”   Dhika didn’t answer.  She was trying to stay focused, thinking about how she would go about trying to override the door controls, and what countermeasures she might come up against.  It was hard to anticipate the defensive measures of someone you were pretty sure was at least as smart as you yourself were.

  “Are you going to run?” Alissa asked, getting right to the point.  Dhika stopped walking and stood still.  Alissa realized this after a few steps further, and then turned around to face her.

  “That’s… ridiculous,” Dhika uttered, “I mean, it hadn’t even occurred to me….”

  “Well why not?” Alissa asked, surprised she hadn’t thought about it.  She didn’t know how personal the loss of Anaru had been for Dhika.   “Well… you should be thinking about it, I’m sure someone will push you to when the time comes, whether it’s Johannes or your mother…”  She walked back to Dhika and spoke softly to her, seemingly for the first time as a friend.  “I want the job Dhika, I really do.  I’m not going to deny it.  If you don’t, well that may make you a better candidate than me, but if you run I’ll run hard against you and I’ll totally relish beating you if I can.  But I want you to know now ahead of time though, that if you run and win… I’ll support you.

  “Don’t be blindsided when somebody asks you to run though… you should think about it ahead of time.  Right now we’ve got to get moving though right?  We still have to pick up that plasma torch from Engineering.”

  “Right, right…” Dhika replied, then followed Alissa’s lead.  She followed slowly at first, then picked up her pace to catch up with her.