Archangel by Scott Harrison

Author:Scott Harrison [Harrison, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Big Finish Productions, Ltd.
Published: 2012-02-28T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

It was cramped inside the cockpit of the shuttlepod, barely enough room for the three of them to work comfortably.

The deck-master in Hangar Bay two had assured them that it was the only one available at the moment.

‘All the rest are out ferrying guests between the platform and the carrier ships,’ the deck-master explained as he led them across towards the launch pads. ‘Those that aren’t are up in the docks having their quarterly refits.’

The shuttlepod had been sitting out on the end pad all by itself; an ugly, box-like contraption with unnecessarily long retro-burners that ran two-thirds of the length of its bodywork. It looked to Jenna like an old converted planet-hopper, a short-range transporter that had, at some time in its worryingly over-long life, been refitted with a MK VII Fireburner kit—presumably in an attempt to disguise its age. In her opinion the thing wasn’t really fit for anything other than rotting in a junkyard, so she was enormously relieved when Blake informed her that no-one would need to actually pilot the craft.

Programming the autodrive systems was relatively easy, even for a ship this old—once the navi-comp had been recalibrated all that was needed was to wire in the co-ordinates manually—it just took a surprisingly long time to do, that was all. No, the real problem was changing the ship’s transponder codes. She’d done it once before, a few months ago; with Vila’s help they’d changed the transponder frequency on a Federation cargo vessel called the Celestine, so that it would be identified by local detectors as a ship that had security clearance to enter a restricted planetary system. But that had been a large, interplanetary vessel and this was a tiny shuttlepod—there was quite a difference.

It took Jenna the better part of an hour to reprogramme the navi-comp. During that time, Vila and Avon were attempting to access the onboard computer without it shutting down. The trouble was, every time they tried to hack the system files the computer interpreted it as some form of corruptive virus attacking the entire system and would immediately shutdown and reboot.

Jenna paused for a moment, the dust panel still unlatched from the front of the navi-comp, her work all but forgotten. She tapped the phasic-wrench thoughtfully against her thigh as she thought the idea through. ‘I think there might be a way around this,’ she said. ‘If I’m right we can use the transmitter signal to cancel out the transponder altogether. That way we won’t have to touch the computer systems.’

‘Do you really know what you’re talking about or are you just trying to impress me?’ Vila asked.

There was silence for a handful of seconds. Then, at last, Avon’s head emerged from the place it had been buried for the past 60 minutes—the open panel beneath the computer terminal—his face smudged with dust and machine oil. ‘That would mean boosting the signal beyond the tolerance level of the equipment, it might not last very long. Judging by the age of the ship, it’s possible the whole transmitter array could short out within minutes, possibly less.

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