Heliosphere 2265 - Volume 6: The Captain's Burden (Science Fiction) by Andreas Suchanek

Author:Andreas Suchanek [Suchanek, Andreas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Star Trek, Honor Harrington, The Lost Fleet, Spaceship, Heliosphäre, Solare Union, Solare Republik, Interlink Cruiser
Publisher: Greenlight Press (Andreas Suchanek)
Published: 2014-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

*

Executive Controller Christopher Johnston wore the face of a worried man when he left the command bridge. His conversation with Commander Noriko Ishida had done little to his ease his concern. Ishida was a competent and efficient officer, but her loyalty to Captain Cross ran deeper than he had presumed. Her order that Paramedic Pembleton monitor the captain's condition would prevent Branch from taking further action.

He's got one foot in the grave and he's still causing trouble.

He briefly considered approaching Syra Pembleton with the offer to free her brother, who was imprisoned on Pearl, if she injected Cross with a second dose. But the risk was too great – and unnecessary in any case. It was only a question of time before Jayden Cross was history. His body was fighting the serum, but it was a battle that he would eventually lose. Johnston couldn't help wondering why the nanobots hadn't killed him outright. Normally it was impossible to undo the damage they caused. And what were the chances of that lieutenant in the next room awakening at that precise moment? Everything had conspired against him.

Reaching his cabin, Johnston took a seat at his desk and tried to unwind. After a while, he noticed that his hand had wandered to the trigger switch in his jacket pocket. The trigger was his joker. His carte blanche. President Skolberg had personally approved of its use if all other options proved futile. Christopher hoped that he would not have to resort to such an extreme measure.

We'll see, he thought, savoring the sensation of power that its presence instilled. They'll never need to know of its existence if Alpha does his job right. And if not – then the entire crew will be in for a nasty surprise.

This newfound optimism faded when he opened his personal account to discover two warnings flashing at him on the display. Johnston had taken advantage of the HYPERION's recent overhaul to install an entire suite of surveillance software agents in a number of critical networks across the ship. According to the software an officer on board the ship had attempted to access footage from the medical bay camera feed.

He had taken the precaution of using an unregistered syringe and rerouting the camera feed to an encrypted database accessible only to himself and Alpha 365. Deleting the data was another matter however and required the confirmation of a second authorized officer. Of course, he could always turn to Alpha for help if needed it...

Johnston's temper flared when he checked the officer's signature. Lieutenant Commander Tess Kensington! Who else could it be?! Christopher cursed again under his breath. Couldn't she have waited a few days? No, of course not – she had to cause trouble now. President Skolberg had stressed that Kensington was a very real and capable threat – if anyone could access that data, then it was her. There is a weak point in every system, he mused. I guess the time has come to go for broke. There's not much to lose this late in the game anyway.

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