CHAPTER 4

OVERLOAD

Later…

Leena was grateful to be back on the ship. She waited patiently while the doctor worked on her arm. They had pulled a spare out of storage and the Doctor was working to attach it in place of the damaged one. Captain Yi stood to one side.

‘Your quick thinking really saved us from having a more serious problem.’

‘What cause the accident in the first place, do we know?’ Leena asked.

‘We’re going to investigate, but it looks like the restraints holding the excavation unit just gave way. We can’t recover the bay, but we’re going to try and pull as much from it as we can. The two exoskeleton suits on the port side should still be recoverable.’

‘And Xavier? I’ve tried to re-establish a link to him, but he’s refusing the link.’

‘We… uh… haven’t been able to talk to him since the accident. He’s shut down all communication lines to him and sealed the bay,’ Yi said, his normally calm face taking on pained expression, ‘and I didn’t want to force the lock until we had you back.’

Leena sighed. ‘I understand, Captain.’

The Doctor finished attaching Leena’s arm. She closed up the connections and stepped back.

‘Try moving your arm please,’ the Doctor said.

Leena turned it back on and moved it through a wide range of motion.

‘Feels great, Doctor Mesha. Just perfect.’

‘You’re cleared to go then. Don’t forget to refill your oxygen stores, you burnt through a few hours storage floating in the bay,’ Mesha said sternly.

‘Of course, doc. Thanks again.’

Captain Yi motioned for her to follow him and left the medical bay. Leena followed close behind.

‘What’s the plan?’ Leena asked.

‘I’m hoping you can get him to open up. We don’t know what’s going on. We’re ready to switch to independent systems for the sake of our travel. The navi-computer can do the jump calculations, but it’ll be smaller jumps, so it’ll take us longer.’

‘What can we do if that ends up happening?’ Leena asked.

‘We’ll call back to Axion and they can get a supply ship to rendezvous with us. We can limp to the colony world if we can get supplies like that. Once we are there, Axion can dispatch a new Guardian or a team to repair ours if we need it.’

‘Pulling the plug on a Guardian is a big deal,’ Leena said.

Yi nodded. ‘I know that, but this is where we’re at.’

‘I do agree. I’ll see what I can do.’

Later…

Leena stood in front of the large, heavy doors of the Guardian Bay and took a deliberate, deep breath. She took a moment to quiet her thoughts.

Standing there, she tried to connect over the uplink, but again the connection went unanswered.

He knows I’m here. He knows I’m outside.

She looked at the control panel next to the door and was about to try and enter her override code, when a though floated to her mind.

She raised a hand and knocked firmly on the door. The sound echoed down the hall.

She stood there for a minute before the door cracked open and slid aside.

She stepped inside the bay and noted the lights were off. The only illumination was the glow from the holographic display tube, which had nothing being displayed in it.

As she walked up to it, the door slid shut behind her.

The tube flickered to life and Xavier’s face looked down on her expressionlessly.

‘Why have you come?’ Xavier asked.

‘I think you know.’

‘I heard what the Captain said, you have come to kill me.’

Leena shook her head. ‘No, Xavier, I don’t want you to die, though it’s interesting that you even let me in here if you were afraid of that.’

‘I… trust you.’

‘Where did all of that come from? Trust and things like it are things you’ve been struggling to understand since we turned you on.’

‘I had an epiphany,’ Xavier said. ‘When… you were in the bay. When you were feeling what you were feeling… somehow, I felt it too.’

Leena felt a chill run down her as she realized what he was saying.

‘What?’ she said numbly.

‘I… felt what you felt. At least, I think that’s what happened. For the good of the ship, I had to sever the link I had to you, or risk not being able to jettison the bay. I have been afraid of reconnecting. When your arm was cut off, it was not a good experience. Based on what you were experiencing, I can only imagine it was fear and pain I was feeling. I have no context beyond what I have gleaned from the archives and from observing the people on this ship. You were in the middle of a very fearful situation. If I was feeling what you felt, it must have been that.’

‘I…’ Leena paused, ‘I don’t actually know what to make of this. If this is true, this is an incredible thing. We have to contact Axion at once and get them to have a look at you.’

‘You won’t kill me?’ Xavier asked pensively.

‘I won’t. You are suddenly the most important Guardian I know of. We’ll want to learn from you.’

‘I will remain alive?’

Leena smiled. ‘Asking the same thing a different way won’t change the answer. Yes you’ll stay alive. Will you let me link up and we can figure out what was going on?’

‘I… I don’t know if I can. It was overwhelming and I don’t think I can risk it again.’

‘It’s okay Xavier, this isn’t a fearful time. I’m not in danger, and neither are you. We can see if whatever happened is still happening. We can see if you can still feel what I feel.’

‘I… Okay.’ Xavier said.

Leena closed her eyes and focused on her uplink.

Incoming Uplink request.

Accept? Y/N

‘Yes.’

Connecting…

Connection established to XO-31, designation ‘Xavier’.

‘Hello Xavier, how are you feeling?’

‘I… feel… alive? How are you feeling? I do not know what to call this.’

‘Excited. I am excited. This whole thing is exciting to me.’

‘Then… I am excited!’ Xavier said, his voice rising with emotion, ‘This is preferable to the fear and pain from before.’

‘Good, let’s figure out what we’re dealing with then. I want to disconnect you from the ships systems. Captain Yi has assured me that we are good to continue with just their computer backups. We need to make sure whatever we come across here won’t affect the ship.’

‘I can agree to this course of action. It will require your Advocate codes to do so.’

‘Very well, Xavier, disconnect from all ship systems, authorization code: Nine-One-Six-Alpha-Beta.’

‘Code accepted. Ship command links disabled. What now?’

‘We can go over my own memory files of what happened and I can explain exactly what I was feeling. You can use that to build an emotional context.’

‘We are really going to do this?’

‘Yes… though we should probably talk to Yi and send that message to Axion first.’

‘Will you stay connected to me? It’s going to be boring without the ship to run.’

‘Boring! There’s another concept for you to understand.’

‘Quite right, Advocate Renfort.’