[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.”That wasn’t very illuminating.“Is it still in the aft cargo bay?”“Yes.”I hustled down two doors to the main airlock antechamber and quickly jumped into a suit, leaving the faceplate open.It would snap closed in case of pressure loss, and I wanted to not have to worry about my air supply.A Macro wouldn’t care.In fact, the smartest thing for it to do would be to rupture every chamber and bulkhead it encountered.Killing un-nanotized humans was easy for a machine.I wondered why it hadn’t done so already.Probably it had waited for the right time so we would just disappear with no evidence.We would be “lost in space.”“Greyhound, the anomaly is an intruder.Give me a report whenever the intruder moves to a different space or passageway.”“Command accepted.” The voice stopped, so I took that to mean the Macro remained in the aft cargo bay.I worked my way around the back of the ship and entered the engine compartment.The three high-performance motors were wedged in tightly with only enough room to squeeze among them for maintenance, but I managed to get to where I wanted.There was an access panel I could open and shoot through from here.“Greyhound, confirm; the intruder has not left the cargo bay.”“Confirmed.”“How is it armed?”“Please clarify question.”“Does it possess firearms of any sort?”“None detected.”“How about explosives?”“None detected.”It must be a low-grade model, maybe a worker that might only have pincers or tools as improvised melee weapons.All right, I thought I could handle that.Hell, my old man ate workers for breakfast with nothing but his bare hands, if you could believe the lurid documentaries I’d watched as a kid.When I was old enough for Dad to show me some of the raw, unedited footage of the carnage, misery, and death the Macros inflicted, I came to understand the truth.“How large is it?”“Approximately one-point-five meters in diameter.Mass: three hundred kilos.”That was much smaller than any Macro I had ever heard of.Maybe it was a miniature model, or perhaps it was damaged.“Greyhound, does the Macro intruder appear to be in good working order?”Greyhound replied, “The intruder appears to be damaged.Unable to fully evaluate.No such machine baseline in database.”“What’s it doing?”“The intruder appears to be reconstructing itself.”Shit.So a small Macro somehow sneaked aboard.It had managed to evade the brainbox’s sensors, gotten into the cargo bay, and was now cannibalizing our ship to add to its own capabilities.I couldn’t let that happen.Yet…I had to be smart.I’d already gotten one girl killed.If I lost another, I might just consider sticking this pistol under my chin and blowing my brains out, because I was obviously worthless as a Star Force officer.“Greyhound, can you immobilize the intruder?”“Yes.”“Then do it, for God’s sake!”“Command accepted.Intruder immobilized.”I sighed with relief.Greyhound would have used its cargo-handling tentacles to grab the thing just like the original Nano ships had done.This Macro must be small and weak.“Is there any chance it can break free?”“Yes.”I almost panicked, but… “How much chance?”“0.00958 percent over the life of this vessel.”Right.Machines were literal-minded.Even smart brainboxes took a long time to learn their masters’ quirks, and I was new to this one.“Greyhound, unless otherwise instructed, round all numerical answers to the nearest percent or digit, whichever is more precise.”“New parameters set.”“So now, is there any chance that it can break free?”“No.”Perfect.It had rounded down to zero.I had a Macro prisoner in my ship.“Make sure you notify me and Adrienne of any change in the intruder’s status.Oh, and keep it as immobilized as possible.Do not let it rebuild itself further or in any way access ship resources or systems.”“Command accepted.”That relieved me of the need to open the panel in the floor of the engine room and risk beaming the thing inside the ship.I had no idea what was stored in the cargo bay, but I could imagine there might be flammables or pressurized gases, and given our current unknown state of repair, I really didn’t want to start shooting up my own boat with no atmosphere outside.As I returned to the bridge, the brainbox said, “Star Force space control regulations require all emergency situations to be reported within one hour of the ability to do so.”I thought about that for a moment.Presumably a Macro encounter fit something on its list of parameters.“Do the regs specify what an emergency situation is?”“Emergency situations are defined by command personnel.”Like Dad had said, with machines, there’s always a workaround.“Okay, then I specify this is not an emergency situation.”“Command definition accepted.”Once I got to the bridge I asked Greyhound, “Are there any other anomalies or intruders nearby? Anything out of the ordinary for the programmed voyage?” I heard the brainbox hesitate, probably adjusting for my one percent rounding command, and then it said “no.” I was glad of that.At least there weren’t more Macros sneaking up on us.Just to make sure, I activated the radar and pinged once all around, finding nothing.Doing so was a slight risk as it could give away our position, but it wasn’t as dangerous as another surprise anomaly.“Let’s land this thing,” I said to Adrienne.“Keep heading toward Yale,” she said.“You said there is a Fleet ship out there, right?”“Yes, the battlecruiser Valiant, commanded by my uncle, Sir William Turnbull.”I cursed the stupid brainbox that hadn’t figured out we had something on board for days [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]