Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Jeridan leapt up and rushed to Helen's side.

Once he got there, he realized he had no idea what to do.

The cyborg seemed frozen, her limbs stiff, back ramrod straight, while an eerie blue glow shone from her eyes.

All three screens had gone blank.

"What do we do?" he cried.

"I don't know!" Negasi replied.

"It's taking her over. We should unplug her."

"That might kill her and the AI."

"Screw the AI. It just attacked her."

"It's defending itself. Maybe it realized we aren't Imperium employees."

"Unplugging her shouldn't kill them. There must be a safety program in case that happens."

"You're right." Negasi reached for the cable, then hesitated. "But this isn't a fully compatible system."

"Uh … "

Jeridan realized he should have something more intelligent to say. He couldn't think of a damn thing, though.

"A whole bunch of jump gate data is in that head of hers," Negasi said. "We need to protect it."

Jeridan turned to the screen. "Stop it at once or we won't give you any energy!"

No response. Not so much as a flicker on the screen.

"We'll let you run down and we'll never power you back up!" Negasi shouted.

Nothing.

The two friends looked at each other, the helplessness in each one's eyes reflecting the other's.

"Screw it," Negasi said, and yanked out the plug.

Jeridan cringed. Helen grunted, jerked back her head, and collapsed. Negasi just managed to catch her before she hit the deck.

"Easy now," he said, sitting her on the floor and holding up her back. There was no more blueish glow in her eyes. They had become the usual silver.

Negasi and Jeridan glanced at the screen. Nothing.

"Cack, did we kill it?" Jeridan asked.

"Dunno. Did we kill her?" Negasi shook her gently. "Helen?"

Helen groaned and raised a trembling hand to her face.

"Are you all right?" Negasi asked. "What happened?"

The cyborg rubbed her temples. The cable hung from the plug in her head like a dreadlock. "She … tried to speak with me. But she was so powerful, it overloaded by systems."

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, I think so. One moment." Her features went blank. Negasi tensed. Was she going to faint again? Then her face relaxed. "None of the data has been corrupted."

"What the hell were you thinking, plugging in like that!" Jeidan shouted.

"Easy, buddy. Can't you see she's hurt?"

"Yeah, she's hurt because she did something stupid, something we would have never allowed if she had asked, which is why she didn't ask."

"I just wanted to speak with her."

Jeridan snarled. "You could have done that after we gave it a bit of juice, and you could have done it by talking, not plugging in and endangering yourself and the mission. I'm sick of you people doing whatever the hell you want. I'm captain, and you follow my orders, got that?"

Helen hung her head. "I'm sorry, captain."

"Yeah, sure you are."

Negasi was still propping her up. "How are you feeling?"

"A bit woozy. I think I'll be all right."

"Did you get any sense of the AI when you were connected?"

Helen shook her head slowly, still rubbing her temples. "Not much. It came in such a rush. She's so powerful, more than any other AI I've ever linked with. I did get one impression, though. In her human life she was a leading scientist in jump gate technology."

"Makes sense that's she'd be assigned here then," Negasi said, glancing at the blank screen. "So she decided to download her mind and continue her research?"

"Yes. I learned something else too."

"What?"

A slow smile spread across Helen's face. "Her name. ZHI."

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Jeridan and Negasi exchanged a look. They had come across a lot of old names in their careers, the names of Imperium scientists and ship's captains and regular civilians, but they had never come across the name of an Imperium citizen who was still alive.

But was she after that surge of power?

"Can you sit on your own?" Negasi asked.

"Yes."

Negasi pulled out a scanner and did a reading on the bank of terminals.

"Whoa. Really low power. If we're going to save her, we need to do it now."

Jeridan looked at the reading. "Yeah, but we have to keep ourselves safe while we're doing it."

"ZHI only wanted to speak with me," Helen said. "Imagine how lonely she must have been. All those years in a dark, silent station … "

"I'm going to give it a bit of juice. Helen, stay away from the terminals. Negasi, take her cable so she doesn't get tempted while our backs are turned."

"Sorry, Helen, but you got too impulsive." Negasi reached for the end of the cable stuck in the shaved side of her head and hesitated.

Helen smiled and unplugged it for him. "You've been very good to me. I'm sorry I acted rashly."

She handed it over.

"Do you think you can stand? Let me help you up."

Negasi helped her to her feet. The cyborg was still a bit wobbly, so he led her to a chair and sat her down. He chose the chair furthest from the AI. Jeridan nodded his approval. The gunner may have been concerned about her, but he didn't trust her either.

"All right, let's disconnect the AI from the rest of the station," Jeridan said.

"ZHI might not have enough energy to last that long," Negasi said.

"Then we better hurry. I'm not giving her a millivolt until we've made ourselves safe."

While that made Jeridan uncomfortable, it was the only logical way to proceed. This AI had already acted in what could be interpreted as a hostile manner. Certainly an unpredictable one. There was too much at stake to risk themselves for the sake of her.

Damn, I'm thinking like Nova now.

They worked as fast as they could, Negasi checking the scanner every couple of minutes. The AI's power was waning. All three screens were blank now as the AI tried to conserve its last dregs of energy.

At last, they got the AI isolated. Jeridan grabbed an external power source, programmed it to only give a small charge, and plugged it in.

The blue face reappeared at the central terminal.

"Condition stabilized. I now have sufficient power reserves for 4.2 days at current expenditure."

I, Jeridan thought. This is the first time she's referred to herself as I.

He glanced at Helen, who remained in her chair. Good. Jeridan turned back and stood uncertainly in front of the terminal.

"Who am I speaking with?" he asked.

"I am ZHI, the AI for Research Station 37J. Identify yourselves."

AIs never used their former family name. When they were downloaded, they gave up all inheritance rights. Many opted to forget all personal details. They found it easier psychologically to move on.

"I'm Jeridan Cook. This is Negasi Gao."

"State current rank and posting."

Uh-oh.

Jeridan and Negasi looked at each other.

"Go on, answer," Negasi said to his friend.

"You answer."

"You're the captain."

"You're the xenoanthropologist."

"ZHI was human."

"And now she's an AI. That counts as another species."

"No, it doesn't!"

"Yes, it does."

"I'm the xenoanthropologist and I say it doesn't!"

"Perhaps you should just be honest with her?" Helen suggested.

Jeridan shot her an angry look. "Oh, honesty. There's a concept."

Helen looked at the floor.

Negasi gestured to Jeridan, who sighed and said, "ZHI, I have some bad news. It's been three hundred years since you were last active and—"

"Two hundred and ninety-seven years, forty-one days, six hours, and five seconds."

"Um, right. Anyway, there was a rebellion in the Imperium and … the rebels destroyed the jump gate network."

"I am aware."

"Do you know how they did it?"

"No. The entire system switched off and we were unable to reboot."

Jeridan felt a tingling throughout his entire body. They were actually speaking with someone from the Imperium! No tech scavenger had ever experienced this before.

"Did you and the crew come up with any working hypothesis?" Negasi asked.

"It was some sort of cyberattack that hit the entire system. It struck the gates and only the gates. Planetary and orbital systems were unaffected."

"Were you able to trace the cyberattack?"

"Negative. It entirely wiped the jump gate computers, thereby erasing any data on it."

Was that possible? He supposed back in the old Imperium days, pretty much anything was possible.

"Are you undamaged?" Helen asked.

Jeridan made an angry gesture to be silent. It was a valid question, though.

"I have experienced some corruption of files and memory from when I lost power. I came minutes away from a second loss of power that would have been catastrophic to my memory banks."

"You're welcome," Jeridan said. "Why did you zap Helen?"

"I was at critically low power and was unable to fully scan the interface between myself and her. I thought she was another computer and tried loading myself into her. Are you undamaged?"

"Yes. It's all right, ZHI. We're just glad you're alive."

The blue face remained expressionless.

"Why did you identify yourselves with the serial number for the scientific vessel Herschel 7? Is that ship still in operation?"

"Um, no," Jeridan said. "There's more bad news. When the rebels destroyed the jump gate network, the Imperium collapsed. Central worlds were left without crucial resources, and more marginal worlds ended up starving. Trillions are estimated to have died and many worlds ended up depopulated or slipping into barbarism. Even the highest-tech worlds of our time can't match the tech level the Imperium once had."

"So you are not from the Herschel 7."

"No. I'm sorry, but we needed to access the systems. We—"

"Are there any Imperium personnel left in this time?"

Jeridan took a deep breath. "No. The Imperium fell."

"So why are you on this station?"

"We want to restore the jump gates and restart the Imperium."

Restart the Imperium? Jeridan hadn't heard any of the crew put it that way, but it was essentially what they were trying to do. A galaxy unified by jump gates would need some sort of unified government.

The New Imperium …

This is getting crazy.

"Under what authority did you come here?" ZHI asked.

"The League of Concerned Archaeologists."

"Archaeologists?"

"Items dating to the Imperium have become archaeological artifacts," Negasi explained. "Archaeologists and tech scavengers search the Orion Arm for old artifacts to reverse engineer."

"Only the Orion Arm?"

"Transport is slow. Our ships are even slower than Imperium vessels not using jump gates. We can't go anywhere else." Negasi cocked his head. "Is there somewhere else to go?"

Instead of answering, the AI asked its own question. "What authority does the League of Concerned Archaeologists have to come to this station?"

"There is no central authority in the galaxy. There are a few groupings of habitable worlds that have a central government, but most planets are their own political bodies. We came on our own in order to save the galaxy. There's a threat … " Jeridan looked to Negasi. Should they really talk about this? His buddy shrugged. "A race called the Rimscourge that invaded Imperium space from beyond the rim of the Orion Arm many centuries ago has returned. If we don't get the jump gates back online, we'll never be able to defeat them."

"The Rimscourge? An invasion?"

Negasi's brow furrowed. "You must have data on that."

Pause. "I have no record of any invasion by a species called the Rimscourge, or any invasion from beyond the rim of the Orion Arm."

Jeridan sucked in a breath.

No. Not another lie!

They turned to Helen, who rose from her seat, took a step back, and began to tremble.