Lightwave: Command Decision (Folding Space Series Book 6) by AM Scott

Author:AM Scott [Scott, AM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightwave Publishing LLC
Published: 2019-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“Katryn, you’ve been working on Hal’s code for five days straight,” Ruhger said, as unemotionally as possible. “It’s time to take a break. You need a new perspective.” So did he, but they were stuck here until something, anything broke loose in the negotiations between Saree and Gov Human.

“No, I need to find what’s hiding in the code. Hal is dangerous,” Katryn hissed at him. When she started forward, Tryon grabbed her hand.

Ruhger turned his attention to Tyron. “Do you see any need for concern at all?”

Katryn said, “Hey, I’m the net expert!”

Tyron sighed. “There’s something, I just don’t know what. There’s these…” he clamped his lips together in frustration for a moment “…pieces of code that seem harmless, useless, and inconsequential, but as soon as we go to dig into the substructure of the code, it self-destructs. Poof.” He brought both fists up and opened them abruptly, miming an explosion. “We don’t know what the code does, if anything, because we can’t look at it.”

“Hal?” Ruhger asked.

“For some reason, these bits of code escape my conscious knowledge, Captain. Once Tyron or Katryn point them out, I can see them. But I have the same problem. Looking into them causes destruction. I do not know what they may or may not do.”

Tryon said, “I think I have a tactic to figure it out. We’ll find more of these bits, then rather than trying to look at them, we’ll wrap them in surveillance, wait and watch. It might take a while, but we’ll get some idea of how and when they activate.”

“If they do at all!” Katryn spun to face Tyron. “What if the ones we find don’t do anything, but there’s some we miss that do?”

“Katryn,” Ruhger said, “you can’t prove a negative. We’ve had this discussion. Can you tell who created the code? Mermillod, Mensa, Sa’sa or human?”

“I had assumed this was core programming, Captain,” Hal said, his tone enthusiastic, “but perhaps it is tied to the Sa’sa programming. That would explain why I can’t see it and why it destructs. It’s not really destructing, it’s moving into the hive mind. Brilliant!”

Katryn’s mouth hung wide open. When she noticed Ruhger staring at her, she closed her mouth so hard he heard her teeth clash. “That actually makes sense.”

“Good. Then we need to go to Sextans A and the Sa’sa,” Ruhger said.

“I guess we do,” Tyron said. “If it’s not their programming, they’ll be able to tell us that at least.” He sighed. “And maybe this will hurry along the Gov Human politicians. All this stalling does nothing but put Saree and all of us at risk. Every day we delay is another day for knowledge of Saree’s profession to spread and the danger to increase.”

Ruhger nodded. Saree, Grant, General Kerr and the rest of them were all frustrated. Their frustration was turning to anger at each other as the days passed. His impatience increased too. He wanted Saree and Grant back on Lightwave, safe. So did Hal and the rest of the crew.

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