The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [85]
‘Have all precautions been taken?’ Ash said.
‘They have, sir.’
‘Good – carry on.’ Ash smiled at Greg. ‘Panabec assures me that AI transitioning is a straightforward procedure. If it’s not, he’ll be joining the rest of the prisoners in the hold.’
Before he finished, the tiny emitters all along the top of the line of big consoles winked on, flickered, and three large holoscreens appeared above them, angled downwards. Smaller ones appeared at other secondary workstations around the deck. Ash nodded.
‘Starfire-copy,’ he said. ‘Are you in control of this vessel’s systems and do you recognise my voice?’
‘Full control will be attained in two point five minutes on completion of calibration. You are Lieutenant Malachi Ash, second in command to Captain Franklyn Gideon.’
‘Indeed so, Starfire-copy,’ Ash said. ‘Give me a brief summary of this vessel’s offensive capabilities.’
‘Nine dual-function projectors, two at the stern, three at the prow, and two on each flank. Four launchers, one long-range, two medium, and one short-range, high-rate submunitioner. Additional offensive capabilities can include comm-sensor countermeasures and certain exotic forcefield properties.’
Seeing how pleased Ash was, Greg said, ‘Starfire-copy, do you know the Hegemony designation of this vessel?’
‘This is the heavy assault implementer Ivwa-Kagoy.’
‘I think a new name is called for,’ Greg said, looking at Ash. ‘Don’t you think, Lieutenant?’
‘Yes, you’re right. Starfire-copy, is there a protocol for the rebadging of captured enemy vessels?’
‘Captured enemy vessels are renamed under a colour-coding protocol. This class of vessel falls into categories red and silver.’
Greg and Ash exchanged thoughtful looks. The latter shrugged and Greg said, ‘How about Silverlance?’
‘Silverlance would be acceptable under protocol parameters,’ said the transplanted AI.
‘Very well,’ said Ash. ‘Execute this change.’
‘Done. The designation of this ship is now Recon Strike Cruiser Silverlance. Note that systematrix calibration is complete – this intelligence can now offer full control of this vessel.’
Ash turned to the Sendrukan Panabec, and gave a small, sharp bow of the head. ‘My thanks and appreciation for your valuable assistance, Instrumentationalist.’
‘The integrity of my machines is my duty,’ the Sendrukan said gravely. ‘May I be permitted to rest?’
‘Certainly,’ Ash said, nodding to the guards, who escorted the Sendrukan engineer through a side door.
‘Attention,’ said the ship AI. ‘Urgent communication from Starfire bridge personnel, with accompanying update files and realtime sensor readings.’
Ash went over to one of the large consoles, hoisted himself up into a great bucket of a seat and said, ‘Put them through here.’
As Greg joined him, one of the big overhead screens changed from subsystem monitor displays to a waist-up view of Berg, the tactical officer left in charge of the Starfire.
‘Berg,’ Ash said. ‘Update on that skirmish?’
‘It’s over, sir. One of the Imisil ships is destroyed, the other is in bad shape and heading out of the system at maximum thrust, which suggests that their hyperdrive is out of action.’
‘And the carrier group?’
‘Hegemony forces took a pounding. Out of four support battery ships, one is still fully combat-worthy, two are holed but still able to fight, and the fourth took a couple of multiwave missiles in the stern when its shields fluctuated so it’s a wreck. Carrier lost nearly a third of its interceptors and was breached on several decks.’
‘Those Imisil ships can certainly deal it out,’ Greg murmured.
‘The carrier group is back on course for Darien,’ Berg continued. ‘ETA is about 110 minutes. Comm traffic has been intense since the Imisil fled but they’re employing fifth-level encryption – we’ve sent you coiled archives.’
Ash nodded. ‘Silverlance AI – are you able to extract usable data?’
‘Decryption/translation module online – archived object now processed. Summary follows: main