The Vela: The Complete Season 1 by Yoon Ha Lee Becky Chambers SL Huang & Rivers Solomon

Author:Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, SL Huang & Rivers Solomon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Serial Box
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Episode 6

Fortress World

Rivers Solomon

Chances of making it planetside alive seemed about as close to zero as they could get without actually being zero, and so what? Refugees from the outer planets had suffered under Gan-De’s siege for decades. Whole families—whole lines, unbroken for how many millennia?—eradicated with a single missile. Niko didn’t deserve sparing because of where they’d been born in the system. Quite the opposite. If this was how they died, this was how they died. Gods be with them, here, in the thick of it, where shit actually mattered.

Niko inhaled, letting the last traces of fear wash over them, then dissipate. It had been over a month since this journey had begun, and it had been a crash course in bucking the fuck up. How many consecutive nights had they had fewer than four hours of sleep? How many days of being underfed on the most basic of ration packages? None of that mattered.

Niko booted up one of the offline console computers in charge of sub-auxiliary systems. It was one of three computers they’d need to work on to begin to handle the assault from the Gandesian drones.

They couldn’t flex and move properly while stuck in a chair, so despite the rockiness of the ship as Asala evaded attacks, they undid their harness to work standing up, one foot braced against a control panel wall.

Niko patently refused to look at the various monitors showing the assault, instead trusting Asala to take care of the navigation. She piloted the ship manually, not trusting the ship’s automatic defensive and predictive protocols to plot an effective escape. But for the subtle sheen of sweat over her face, she gave no hint she was fazed by the onslaught of defense drones. She sat with her back straight, shoulders tense enough to stabilize her but not so tight she wasn’t flexible enough to switch between the four joysticks in front of her. She bounced between them with ease.

“How much do you know about algorithmic maneuvering?” Asala asked.

Niko hesitated. They’d taken a few classes on the topic during their apprenticeship, but nothing beyond the required coursework. Hopefully they could manage it.

“Well, Niko?”

“Yes,” they said. “I got you.”

Niko tapped into the ship’s sensors, built to detect incoming fire and self-navigate to avoid contact. Asala’d been right to take over. That kind of defense didn’t make sense when there were that many attack vessels. Jumping out of the course of one missile meant jumping into the line of another. Sophisticated computers could do those calculations instantly, but this was a fairly basic ship and couldn’t handle such frequent bounces. Besides, they didn’t have enough fuel to do the series of mini jumps an algorithm like that would require.

Asala could move swiftly left, right, forward, and backward without jumping, which used less energy. Her instincts told her where to move, dodging each missile expertly.

But that didn’t mean algorithmic maneuvering didn’t have its place. If Niko could lock onto the signals of the various assault vessels (big if), they could maybe set up a program to predict their firing pattern (big maybe).

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