Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Negasi went through the routine of a long-haul voyage feeling increasingly distracted and worried. Normally on those long days and nights he'd check systems, do routine maintenance, kick Jeridan's ass at chessboxing, and read up on xenoanthropology.

On this run, he found himself having difficulty concentrating. He was able to get through his work easily enough—the crew at Luna's Layover had done a good job and there wasn't much to take care of—but he found himself pacing the corridors more and more, wanting to do something but unable to concentrate on anything. He wished he had another Imperium artifact to test on an uninhabited planet.

At first, he thought he was worried about the con they planned to pull on Eridanus Delta. Soon he realized that wasn't it. They'd pulled off crazier stunts than and gotten away with it. The king was sure to go for the whiskey. They'd tested and retested their electronic disguises and found them to be invisible to anything except the most advanced scanners. The plan was as foolproof as they could make it.

No, after a few days he realized he was worried about something else, actually he was worried about something else in two ways.

They were finally going to visit the headquarters of the League of Concerned Archaeologists. That academic name hid a lot of sins, and yet it was also the only hope for saving the Orion Arm from the Rimscourge. The League had a team of experts that had spent years researching the Imperium jump gate system and had discovered the experimental station. They would recheck the analysis the Bradfords had made and help spread the news about how to get the jump gates back online with an entire fleet of comm probes.

But the League had lied and misled them from the start. It hadn't just been Nova, although she was currently paying for her latest stunt, it had also been the entire organization. Derren hadn't been honest with them, and neither had the team down on that dinosaur planet.

So he was worried about what would happen to them once they got to the headquarters and handed over their precious data and passengers. Their usefulness will have expired. What would stop the League from getting rid of them? He and Jeridan had evidence of the crimes the League had committed. Would the archaeologists, who had proven they would do anything in the name of saving the galaxy, make sure they were out of the way in order to complete the mission?

He wouldn't put it past them. He wouldn't put anything past them.

And yet here he was, flying straight to them.

Why? Because he wanted to save the galaxy too, and he was willing to risk his life to do it.

That didn't make him feel any better about the situation. Actually, it made him feel worse. It felt like he was putting his head on the chopping block.

Negasi found that his relentless wandering around the ship kept taking him past ZHI's quarters. The Imperium android fitted with an AI brain had been standing in the middle of his room for the entire voyage, processing the information the team had been feeding him.

What a fascinating discovery! A human mind from the Imperium days. Sure, ZHI had been wiped of his emotions and perhaps his soul, if that was a thing, but talking to him was the closest Negasi could get to time travel.

Negasi had resisted the urge to talk to ZHI for the past few days because he knew the android needed all its spare power for analysis. Now that the analysis was complete except for some final checks, Negasi decided to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Maybe it would shake that feeling of impending doom.

As he walked to ZHI's cabin, he smiled. Perhaps it wouldn't be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Perhaps the mission would continue and they'd get to learn everything they could from the android.

Assuming the League of Concerned Archaeologists didn't double-cross them. Assuming they'd be allowed to stay with ZHI. Assuming they could get the jump gates back online and defeat the Rimscourge.

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A lot of assumptions there, buddy.

Negasi rang ZHI's buzzer, waiting for it to turn on the vidscreen. It may be an AI in a robotic body, but any sentient being deserved the right to privacy.

A moment later, the vidscreen came on, focused on ZHI's blank metal face and glowing blue eyes.

"Hello, Negasi Gao."

"You can just call me Negasi. How are you doing?"

"All systems are functional, although I have not been able to recover any lost memory."

"You still don't remember the Rimscourge invasion?"

"Negative."

Negasi chewed on a knuckle. The fact that this ZHI and his twin sister back on the Imperium station both had memory lapses for such a major historical event was more than a little disturbing. Nova, Derren, and Helen all claimed they didn't know what was going on with that.

Yeah, right.

"Is there anything you need?" Negasi asked.

"Negative. The encyclopedia you provided has proven most illuminating, despite the extensive editing."

They had asked MIRI to edit out anything that might be compromising to planetary defense. Hardly fair to an AI who hadn't done anything bad to them, but they had to stay on their guard.

"Glad you liked it. I had a few questions … about the Imperium."

"I will try to answer to the best of my ability."

Will you?

Negasi wasn't so sure.

"I was wondering … "

Negasi realized he didn't know how to finish his sentence. He had been obsessed with the Imperium for most of his life. Lots of people were. It had been a vast empire that lived mostly in peace with more technology and plenty than Negasi could ever imagine, certainly more than he could imagine growing up on a hick farming world like he had.

He had studied every scrap of information that had come his way, and constantly hunted for more, but now that he was faced with one of the two only surviving minds from that long-ago era, he wasn't sure what to ask.

"I am listening," ZHI said.

Negasi laughed. "I have so many questions I can't think of one."

"It is difficult to prioritize?"

"You could say that."

ZHI waited. That was the good thing about AIs. They didn't get impatient.

"So … you were a jump gate researcher."

"Affirmative."

"How much did the average person use jump gates? I mean, people spent most of their time on their home world, right?"

"That is correct. Jump gates were primarily used by traders, the Imperium Navy, government officials, and tourists."

"How common were tourists? Did some average middle-class Joe get to travel to other star systems?"

"Interplanetary travel was within the means of the middle classes of the majority of worlds. The percentage of tourists for any given population depended on their distance from the nearest jump gate and what planets were nearest to them in the system."

"Explain."

"The jump gates were programmed into a network. A jump gate would send any ship passing through to the next planet in the network. From there, one could take another jump gate to another system."

Negasi had heard of this. "Right. So you fly to the jump gate in your system, go through, pop out in a system a hundred light years away, and then fly, say, three days to get to another jump gate and pop out two hundred light years further along."

"Correct."

"That slows things down. I've always wondered, couldn't you simply program a destination for each ship to come out any jump gate they wanted?"

"That is possible, but the calculations took a great deal of energy and some time. Given the volume of traffic passing through the most popular jump gates, that wasn't practical. Destinations would be varied for special trading convoys or emergency runs for Imperium naval ships."

"Ah! So they could be programmed."

Negasi immediately saw the possibilities.

"Correct. I suppose we will program any jump gates we get online to take our warships to the nearest jump gate to the Rimscourge."

"You took the words right out of my mouth. Do you think the jump gates will still be programmable after so long?"

"Impossible to say. From the data provided by your teammates, it appears that many have been preserved at least superficially intact. The larger question is how well-preserved the jump gate AI is."

"Is? There's only one?"

"There's a master AI for the entire system. The system is automated enough that an AI isn't required for each jump gate."

"I see. And where is this master AI?"

"That information is classified."

Negasi knew he'd say that. ZHI didn't trust them yet.

He couldn't blame the android. Negasi didn't trust most of his crewmates either.

"Will you be able to get in contact with him or her once we get the jump gates back online?"

"Insufficient data."

"If the master AI is unavailable, will you be able to perform the task yourself?"

"Insufficient data."

Negasi sighed. He should have known it wouldn't be this easy.

"So will you—"

His next question got cut off by a ship-wide announcement.

"This is your captain speaking. Everyone to stations."

Negasi rolled his eyes. Jeridan had been going pretty heavy on the captain thing ever since Nova tried to ditch them.

He was about to ask ZHI another question when the next thing Jeridan said got him running.

"We're receiving a distress call from a pilgrim ship."