Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)(69)
Mason, E, LT 2nd: kady …
ByteMe: forget it. just shut up and i’ll concentrate on getting these security feeds flowing properly. whole sections keep cutting in and out, i don’t know what’s going on in the servers.
Mason, E, LT 2nd: kady this is nuts
ByteMe: I’M ON A FUCKING DERELICT WARSHIP ON THE RUN FROM THE PSYCHOTIC CREW AND AN INSANE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TRYING TO SAVE MY FUCKING BOYFRIEND.
ByteMe: goddamn right it’s nuts
ByteMe: next super helpful observation plz
Mason, E, LT 2nd: …
Mason, E, LT 2nd: ok
Mason, E, LT 2nd: ok i’m sorry
Mason, E, LT 2nd: the pistol is fine. the pistol is good
ByteMe: it’s the best i can do
ByteMe: i’m sorry too
ByteMe: u deserve a better rescue squad than me
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you’re doing great
Mason, E, LT 2nd: really
Mason, E, LT 2nd: i’m proud of you, you f*cking lunatic
ByteMe: u can tell me in person soon
Mason, E, LT 2nd: i hope so
Mason, E, LT 2nd: been thinking about you a lot. stuck in here. everything that’s going on. All of it
Mason, E, LT 2nd: and you’re the only thing on my mind
Mason, E, LT 2nd: is that crazy?
ByteMe: i think it’s completely appropriate, given i am at this moment hiding in a vent mid-rescue attempt
ByteMe: the very least i should get is to occupy a very large % of your thoughts
ByteMe: i really hope i at least make it far enough to see u
Mason, E, LT 2nd: i can see you. looking at your face right now
ByteMe: ?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: made something. i send you
ByteMe: well that’s a step up from hearts and flowers
ByteMe: when did u learn to do THAT?
Mason, E, LT 2nd: not just a pretty face
ByteMe: (v romantic btw. points 4 u)
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you like?
ByteMe: course. soon u can be admiring actual face through the vis screen in my hazmat suit
ByteMe: SO ROMANTIC
ByteMe: (Kades you are SO BAD AT THIS. see i know the lines and all.)
Mason, E, LT 2nd: it’s going to be okay you know
Mason, E, LT 2nd: you’re going to make it out of here
ByteMe: hope so
ByteMe: otherwise last thought will be how short-changed i was
ByteMe: wait no i mean last thought will be your face sorry
Mason, E, LT 2nd: lol you really ARE bad at this
Mason, E, LT 2nd: but at least you’re bad at it with me
ByteMe: always
ByteMe: u wait until we’re back on the Hypatia
ByteMe: we’re safe in these hazmats, they’ll quarantine us for a while but then let us in
ByteMe: then we’ll take the hazmats off
ByteMe: work out what i AM good at. seem to recall there was something …
Mason, E, LT 2nd: 0_0
ByteMe: program’s done running, time for me to move, before something gives and the stupid thing crashes again
ByteMe: see u soon, lover ;)
Mason, E, LT 2nd: not soon enough
Mason, E, LT 2nd: be careful
Surveillance footage summary,
prepared by Illuminae Group Analyst ID 7213-0089-DN
The surveillance footage is piecemeal at this stage. The damage to AIDAN’s core is escalating, which in practical terms means that I can’t use any one intellicam feed for long before it dissolves into a snow of static. If this is disjointed, it’s because I’m leapfrogging all over the place here.
Grant is extremely cautious when approaching the server core. The facility is huge, taking up whole decks of the ship, and there are a thousand places to hide, to be safe, to die.
She’s not what you’d call well camouflaged in her bright green hazmat suit, and to compound the problem, it’s too big for her. Ms Grant is not built like the average UTA Risk Specialist, and the arms and legs are too long, so she’s forced to grab at the plastic periodically and haul it up as she walks. There’ll be no quick getaway, if it comes down to a run for it.
Lieutenant Mason gave her a server coordinate, and she’s creeping toward it, pistol in her right hand, tablet in her left. In the distance there are screams, but it’s hard to tell from so far away whether they’re predator or prey. From closer, just a few towers up, there’s a periodic crashing, and the sound of a human—or what once was one—panting with exertion. She’s wary, keeping server racks between that voice and her bright green self.
Then the crashing stops, and the panting gives way to speech: “Let’s see you come back from that.”
Grant stops short, nearly dropping both pistol and tablet, juggling madly to grab them. It’d be funny, if you couldn’t tell from the way she presses herself against the server, trembling visibly even in that too-big hazmat suit, that she’s terrified.
The voice again: “Where next? What’s that? Nothing to say?”
And now, a different kind of stillness. She knows that voice. She’s heard it a handful of times before. She eases away from the shelter of her server tower, creeping up toward the speaker.
[Cut in footage, no available functioning intellicam. Gap 17 seconds.]
Byron Zhang hefts the axe—the same one from the emergency fire supplies cupboard where he hid, trembling—and swings it at the nearest core. There was strategy in his earlier strokes; life support, gravity, maneuvering, engines. Crippling the Alexander to set the Hypatia free. But now he’s frenzied. Tubby, sweating through his filthy Hypatia uniform, he’s no athlete, but a fountain of sparks spews from the metal tower as he strikes it.