Unexpected meeting. Chapter 5

Laer was expecting Lex to appear at the stern reserve command post. Having established observation of the corridors, she settled in a technical recess, from which it was possible to quickly leave behind the inner lining in case of a threat. According to Laera’s calculations, Lex should have come here a little later. But time passed, but he was not there. After waiting twice as long as expected, she realized that Lexa was not worth the wait.





"Or he decided not to go here," Laera decided, "or something happened to him." She left her hiding place, took out the tools, hacked the access system and unlocked the front door. The thick door slowly backed with a whistle and a screech, split into two parts, which swung open inwards, opening a passage, softly lit from the inside. Laera threw several video probes into the room and studied the situation for several minutes. Without finding anything suspicious, she cautiously entered the command post.
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The reserve command post was standard for this type of ships. Such items generally did not differ much from the standard. When training in the naval academies, officers were literally clogging up the location of the RFC on ships, their internal situation, equipment and work with it — memory and actions were worked out to the level of automatism. In extreme conditions, it saved lives, and perhaps the ship itself. In the case of a ship accident, any captain, having got into the RFP in complete darkness, knew what and where he was and could almost touch the ship. In all modern ships, the SCC were equipped with an autonomous AI, which greatly reduced the officers' requirements for the emergency control of the ship.

Not finding anything suspicious, Laer sat down in a chair behind the control panel and connected to the ship’s internal information network. After working with her for a while, she turned off and thought. It was not possible not only to get direct control of the hyper-transmitter, but also to gain access to at least some significant ship infrastructure. It seems that the centralized command-telemetry system was simply turned off along with most of the equipment on the ship. How, at the same time, the ship maintained stability was completely incomprehensible. The ship has a lot of equipment that needs to interact with each other. The equipment forms clusters. There are no problems with intracluster interaction - the equipment communicates with each other at the hardware level. But the modes of operation for clusters are set by the main ship control system, which collects data from all clusters and balances their work with each other. Some clusters may interact with each other in a limited way at low-level access in cases where this interaction is critical. For example, a system of energy converters and a cluster of generators - in the aggregate, this bundle will never allow to establish such mutually exclusive modes that would lead, for example, to the separation of generators. Everything that happened was similar to the infection of the ship with a very specific neuromorphic virus, but too little time passed to complete the incubation period for the full-scale deployment of such a virus, if the infection was made after the capture of the ship.

Without deciding anything, Laera left the room. She locked the door and carefully removed the traces of her presence in the command post system. Slipping into the vent and leaving the boundaries of the ship corridor communications, Laer ran towards the center of the ship.

“If Lex counted my actions and decided to play it safe and return to the bow RFC, then, surely, the same picture awaits him - thought Laer - what actions would he take? What does he want? Hyper communication and navigation. So he will try to connect to the site directly. Considering that he is a wagon, he doesn’t even need transmitter control units - he can connect to the receiving-transmitting complex directly. Invaders are unlikely to have calculated this. Surely closely control only the system nodes of the ship. But the complex must somehow get unnoticed. You need a place to be comfortable for quite a long time to work. What place meets these conditions? The most convenient place is the technological junction of the communications equipment behind the third level of the hull of the ship near the main control center - almost in the center of the ship. But getting there through the ship is a sure way to light up. It is relatively safe to get out of the ship on the trim and walk along it - that's exactly what no one will calculate. All gateways and process hatches are under control. ” Laera poorly imagined how it was possible without a technical robot to make a hole or remove pieces of multi-layered armor from the outer hull, but for some reason she was intuitively convinced that Lex would act in that direction. “Lex will surely gain access to the transmitter,” thought Laer, “and probably where I think it is.” I don’t even need to do anything - just use the situation to my advantage and get closer to the communications center. ”

***

Traveling on the outer skin was the easiest, it was harder to get on it or return back to the ship. Lex figured out and accessed the least secure technological hatch. Protection of the perimeter of the ship even on these ships was controlled and controlled independently of the protection of the interior space and Lex had to spend much more time than breaking into the RFK door. However, he successfully coped with this and got to the hull of the ship. The selected technological hatch was far from the desired place and Lex had to spend a lot of time for a walk under the open starry sky. The movement was hampered by “sticky shoes”, which did not allow their wearer to sail into space with inaccurate movement, and the platform of considerable size, which Lex dragged along. On the way, he tried to see traces of penetration of the ship, but he did not notice anything. “Perhaps the attack was on the other side of the ship,” Lex decided.

When Lex reached his goal, the worst case scenario was confirmed - there was no opportunity to gain technological access to the hatch control system - the neural network could not connect to the equipment using technological interfaces and service access codes. A safe man setting up a ship to counteract external grip is a definite plus, thought Lex. “But inside he was too lazy — it could complicate access to all command posts.” After thinking a little about his further actions and analyzing the protocol exchange between himself and the ship when he worked in the RFP, Lex came to the conclusion that the integrity control system of the outer skin was turned off. In any case, there was nothing left to do but how to make a hole in the upholstery of the ship near the place where he planned to get back on the ship. This option Lex had foreseen in advance and everywhere dragged along a lightweight engineering multifunctional complex, stuck in the ship's workshops, which Lex had specially visited, making his way to the point he needed under the skin. "Though I suffer with you for nothing, it would even hurt to leave you just on the skin, as I thought," thought Lex, unkindly looking at the heavy cubic unit moving on an autonomous platform, which, although it had micromotors, but because considerable size greatly hampered the movement of Lex.

At the selected location, Lex installed and detonated plasma charges. Armor cracked, forming shallow cracks. In the case entered the laser cutter mode cutters, which Lex began to remove the armor. After a while, Lex repeated the blast again and again deepened the small hole with a cutter. The power of the cutter was clearly not enough for effective work on cutting armor, even taking into account the violation of its integrity, but the work moved slowly. Cutting off a considerable layer of armor from an area of ​​about a square meter, Lex made a recess in the center, placed in it the only plasma charge of a narrowly targeted explosion that he had and, moving away to a safe distance, activated the charge. Much to Lex’s dismay, the explosion could not penetrate the hull. "It was well built before," thought Lex, "modern armor is thinner and, although its strength is much higher, it is still more quickly erased in dust clouds." He decided to take care of the remaining few charges and worked the next couple of hours with a cutter. A flat square window was formed on the ship-chipped hull of the ship, which, by a four-sided ladder with steps of half a centimeter height, went deep into the ship. After cutting off the next layer, Lex carefully tried to drill a hole in the center of the pad, waiting for the hull to break. Finally, he waited for this and began to cut a through hole in the body. In the end, he was indoors. Unlocking the access hatch with the next room, he moved into it. From it - in the next. And so on, until I was at the transitional gateway leading to the next level. Successfully hacking the floodgates on his way, Lex went through three levels until he got to the level with the atmosphere. Finding a suitable technical room, Lex unlocked and wearily took off his spacesuit for outdoor work, walked to the nearest wall, sat down, and leaned back against it. “There are probably more levels and rooms on this ship than on modern ships of the entire second fleet,” a tired soap flashed through Lex’s head.

***

Without going deep inside the ship, Lex quickly made his way through the technical level. He had to go through several rooms to his goal. He moved quietly and slowly, waiting for every turn of surprise. For reconnaissance of the space in front of him, he used a complex, which is a set of soft robot balls, which silently rolled ahead of him, transmitting to him a picture of the space in different spectra. The neural network “on the fly” analyzed the video stream from the scouts, and, taking into account the ship’s typical layout, suggested and showed Lex the route and analyzed its safety.

There were no problems. Lex unlocked the last door, behind which were switching devices with low-level receiving and transmitting equipment. The door began to open and scouts rushed into the gap formed. Lex was still waiting for the results of intelligence, after a few seconds there was a powerful explosion that threw him on the floor of the corridor. Lex did not have time to group in the fall, so at the end of the corridor he rolled back with a delay of a couple of seconds. With a delay that could not have happened if he had landed successfully. Already at the end of the corridor, Lex saw a flash in the doorway that was clouded with smoke, and reflexively made a jerk around the corner of the corridor. There was an explosion in the corridor. Fragments pierced all the walls of the corridor, a few fragments clicked on Lex's suit. One of the fragments was able to penetrate the defense, Lex's suit immediately sealed the gap, the neural network automatically entered the combat drug into the blood. Lex took a grenade from his EMP equipment and threw it around the corner. After a soft cotton Lex leapt into the corridor. On the move, he threw the plasma grenade into the switching chamber and pressed into the bulkhead at the door. An explosion thundered, Lex, spinning, flew inside, holding pulse guns at the ready. The blood pounded in the temples, in the head it gave way to weight because of the grenades that exploded in the immediate vicinity of the EMR. Lex's neural network worked in combat mode and, after Lex’s complete turnaround, after analyzing data from his senses, Lex showed no threats.

Inside, almost everything was destroyed as a result of previous explosions. At the far wall only an armored lining looked through, which covered the signal inputs and outputs for the equipment, which, five minutes ago, worked here, and now represented a pile of useless metal. “It's a trap,” Lex literally felt. He rushed back to the exit, having managed to throw a couple of balls at the end of the corridor. Intelligence quickly gave a picture in which two silhouettes were drawn in heavy suits with KIR guns. The broadcast was interrupted just at the moment when Lex disappeared into the switch again. In a few shots, he was at the second door, which turned out to be tightly welded. The same thing happened with the third. The wall with the door through which Lex entered the room turned into a sieve - rotary guns entered the battle. “This is a trap for me,” Lex realized, causing a pattern of ventilation tunnels in this part of the ship. The fact that the ventilation holes are also blocked, he had no doubt. Unfortunately, there were no ventilation tunnels or technical tunnels in the immediate vicinity. Yes, even if they had had Lex, he still didn’t have any charges of a directional explosion to open them, nor time. Lex rolled over to the next wall, hid behind an armor pad and prepared plasma grenades. “Two heavy sleeves with KIRPs will now enter this tin can,” thought Lex. He really didn’t like what he had to do now, but he didn’t see any other way out. As soon as the pad began to shake from a swarm of small steel blanks falling into it, Lex with a force threw grenades at the wall in front of him, then repeated the same with another pair. Grenades ricocheted loudly and flew away towards the door. Lex clumped. The explosions thundered, the temperature around him rose sharply to unbearable, Lexa threw up and threw forcefully against the wall, small fragments scattered randomly around the room. Lex got it, but the suit and neural network quickly corrected the damage.

“Why the hell did they do a circus? - thought Lex. “You could have just thrown some grenades here!” Not more than five minutes had passed since the beginning of the battle. His temples pounded. The suit and equipment were in disrepair. Lex knelt down. In my head the thought turned with difficulty: "We must go." He struggled to his feet and walked out of the corridor with a wobbly gait. When he reached the corner and came out into a wide corridor, he stopped, leaning on the wall. From the opposite end of the corridor, a dozen different-sized barrels looked at him, in the center stood a man in an assault space suit with a rotary cannon.

“Hey, uni,” came a voice from the opposite end of the corridor, “something is not that cool.” Although, I confess, overwhelm the two tyazhov and get out alive - I am impressed. But you have a finger - poke a finger and die.

Lex grinned crookedly. They will take time. Enjoy being able to play with a generalist, like a cat with a half-dead mouse. A professional from an amateur is always distinguished by full commitment to work. If there is a task, then you just need to perform it. Quickly. Qualitatively. For sure. Gently and without any problems. Any obstacles in the path are quickly bypassed or quickly removed. All this leaves an imprint on the behavior and personality of the person. It does not matter whether he is a wagon or a narrow specialist in some field. Real professionals rarely combine the process of working with emotions. Panic Lex at the sight of two heavyweights in the brewed compartment - and you would probably already be dead. Yes, there was little such situations in his life? But, if all life consists of this, then it becomes its style. When a task was developed and carried out for a very long time and systematically, the result of its implementation is taken for granted. A person stops experiencing strong emotions. It remains only a discreet satisfaction from the realization of what and how you can. The people standing in front of Lex were definitely living this strong moment — they caught the wagon. Alive. Everyone has now turned on the recording circuit of the neural network and is ready to perpetuate first-person personal participation in the process. "We must improvise - we will try to play at the moment of an interesting death," Lex decided. He broke away from the wall, swayed and stood on his legs wide apart.

- And you come and try to poke, - Lex squeezed out a hoarse giggle, - or can you only run with Quicks?

The crowd cheered approvingly, but no one hurried to get out of it. The pause dragged on. Finally, a short, broad-shouldered man stepped forward in an apparently customized special suit, armed with a pair of short blades. The man took a step toward Lex, then another. Suddenly, between Lex and the crowd, right in the middle of the corridor, a metal cylinder rang out from somewhere in the ceiling. Smoke began to rapidly sweep the corridor even before the cylinder touched the floor. Lex fell and, as far as he could, quickly rolled back, trying to hide around the corner of the corridor. A steel swarm of bullets bite into the wall of the corridor just above it. At the opposite end of the corridor, the explosions of plasma grenades swelled and the sound of gunfire immediately subsided. Lex fumbled and pulled the impulse pistol from the fuse, when around the corner there was a characteristic sound of exploding EMR grenades and the corridor was momentarily flooded with a bright light. “Where did they get the EMICs?” Flashed the soap in Lex's fading consciousness.

***

Lex woke from the sensation of the injection. All the details of the incident quickly scrolled through the memory. He jerked and realized that he was tightly bound. Catching peripheral vision, Lex craned his head and saw Laeru with an automatic injector.

- Well, hero, wake up?

- What are you doing? Why am I connected?

Laer began to unleash Lex.

- I tied you up, because I don’t know what tricks you can expect from you in this state. Yes, and in the corridor you could just shoot me with a reflex - I had to spend a whole EMR to get you out quickly and safely for yourself. I introduced you support for the neural network. , . , , , . . , . .

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***

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Unexpected meeting. 5.
: 1.0.1.
: 03.02.2017.
: 01.09.2017.

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