Fleet Scout

"Damn, they really are that big," Finn said, glancing at the tree tops blurring past. "I figured someone got their meters and feet confused."

The massive forest abruptly ended as they crossed the border of the open grassland with the colony in its center.

"Wind shear!" Addie warned.

The ship began to bounce and rock, losing and gaining meters at a time. The roar of the engines had gotten louder in the thicker atmosphere and constantly shifted as Finn fought through the winds to get the ship down. Finally, the roar of the jets faded into a lower whine.

"Proximity," Atalanta said and a second later there was a hard thud they felt through the hull and the screech from the landing gear.

"Oof, contact. Attention: Minor damage to landing gear," Addie reported, sounding almost normal.

"Any landing you walk away from is a good one," Finn muttered.

"Oh, was that a landing? I thought we'd been shot down after all."

He rolled his eyes as she laughed. Outside, the landscape was rushing past, barely visible in the torrential downpour. Finn left the brakes alone, coasting along until they had slowed enough to turn out onto a the parallel taxiway. The sound of the engines spooled down and he sat quietly for a minute listening to the pops and clicks of the hull cooling down.

"Finn, I need to shut down external functions to complete the system purge," Addie said.

"Atalanta, cancel emergency manual, resume autonomous operations."

"Thank you for saving my life, Finn. Again."

The red lights shifted back to normal and after a second, the screens went offline. Finn realized hadn't informed operations that he was clear of the runway. He shrugged mentally as he walked back to the gear storage area and unlocked the armory. He pulled out his usual pistol, wrapped in its holster and fastened the belt around his waist and leg. He briefly considered the shotgun but the temptation to "upgrade" the landing system would probably be too much of a temptation.

Finn entered the code for the main hatch manually, Addie usually did it automatically but he didn't want to distract her. The hatch sighed and moved several inches outward before swinging open. He sat down on the deck, legs outside the hatch and then jumped the two meters down to the ground. It was still pouring but he'd been covered in far worse things than rainwater.

He began to slowly walk around the Atalanta, experienced eyes searching for any damage. There was hydraulic fluid on the ground and he saw that all three landing gear struts had damaged seals. He continued the post-flight inspection, enjoying the warm air. Gravity was .78 Hub normal, and .2 less than he'd grown up with on Earth. After the long transit using recycled air, the gravity and higher oxygen content was nice. The thicker atmosphere here carried a lot more humidity, but even that felt good right now.

There was the sound of bicycle tires on the wet plastcrete and he turned to see someone pedaling furiously down the runway towards the ship. Finn went back to his inspection, trying to get his temper cooled off before the welcoming committee arrived.

The man was waiting under the shelter of the portside wing when Finn finished the walk around. Ignoring him, Finn finished the last of his comments and closed the tablet before walking back to see who he was dealing with.

The man was average height and had thick, blonde, curly hair down to his shoulders and blue eyes. To Finn, the guy looked like a prototypical surfer dude. He was glaring at the hydraulic fluid on the ground.

"This drains down into our water supply, jackass." the man snapped.

"Then you should have put the runway somewhere else," Finn said. "She says I lost just under two liters. Most of that would have turned into aerosol. The little bit here looks bad because it's spreading on the top of the water."

The man swiped a foot through the rainbow sheen, dispersing it for a moment. "I know you rocket-jocks don't give a shit, but we're trying to respect the environment here."

Finn took a step closer to the man. "Look, California, that's nothing compared to the mess you would be dealing with if your fucking AI had managed to crash my ship. Quit your bellyaching and go fetch the outpost boss. I am, officially, clean out of diplomacy and I would just as happily kick your ass up and down the length of your shitty runway as look at you. But, right now, I got repairs to make, so piss off."

The surfer didn't back away from him, a lone point in his favor. "I am the Administrator here and we don't even have an AI. Take all the time you want to fix this thing because you're not taking off again anytime soon. We're under a medical quarantine and you're fucking grounded!"

The man's voice rose in pitch until he was all but screaming by the time he finished. Finn's rage abruptly evaporated, replaced by amusement. The guy sounded like an angry substitute teacher, going around grounding people. He fought to keep the grin off his face but Boss Surfer Guy had already noticed.

"Is there something funny about that?"

"Am I still allowed to watch TV?"

The man looked surprised for a second and then he began laughing. "Sorry, sorry. Let's try this again. I'm Owen Lykos, Administrator of the Erewhon Outpost."

That didn't sound right to Finn and he took the tablet out of its pocket. It wasn't the right name and this guy didn't look like the file picture.

"Finn Morgan, Fleet Scouts. Sorry about the aggression, I'm very protective of my ship."

Owen looked up and the streamlined shape above them. "But why did you land here? System trouble?"

"Are you sure you're the Admin? I've got different names and pictures here," Finn said, holding up his tablet.

Owen took it out of his hand. "I'm sure, Captain. That's my wife, Lizzy MacLellan and my husband, Ryan Anderson. She was the second fatality, Ryan died three days later. Folks asked me to step up until things go back to normal."

Finn was a little surprised by the husband and wife comment but there were a lot of new family types since the emergency evacuation had scrambled, and then randomly thrown it all back together.

"I'm sorry as hell that happened to you, sir," Finn said, meaning it.

"Thank you, so am I. You don't need to call me sir or administrator, I'm just waiting for someone qualified to take over. Tell me what happened with your landing. A system down here tried to take control? Is that normal?"

"No. Landing guidance systems should just relay surface conditions and correlate different sensor data. But Addie told me there was an AI behind this one that attacked her."

Owen looked at him strangely. "We're missing a lot of the equipment we should have had, including the administrative AI system. But that was to keep track of day-to-day ops, run the farms, that kind of thing. I never heard anything about controlling the runway. When you say your ship told you..."

"He means exactly what he said, Administrator Lykos," Addie said from above them. "Finn, system purge completed. Malware has been shifted to the isolated storage drive and I am beginning analysis."

Owen blinked. "Your ship has an AI?"

Addie cleared her throat. "Excuse me. I am a Navigator Personality, not an Artificial Intelligence. I am fully self-aware and operate in autonomous and semi-autonomous functions."

Owen stared at the ship and then at Finn. "You don't have a partner up there messing with me?"

"He does, Administrator. But his partner is not a fully biological entity and I am not 'messing with you.' I am Atalanta but you can call me Addie."

Owen was surprised but recovered quickly. "I apologize for the mistake. I would also like to apologize for whatever happened while you were trying to land. I'll be looking into that immediately. Please call me Owen."

"Thank you, Owen. May I supervise Captain Morgan's period of incarceration?"

Owen was confused but Finn rolled his eyes. "There's no incarceration, he meant that we were not allowed to take off again."

The downpour abruptly stopped like someone had thrown a switch. Finn watched as the blue-gray curtain of water receded into the trees. In the distance, he saw another man getting on a bicycle at the far end of the runway.

"That's Mr. Jesse," Owen said. "He's on radio duty, you probably already spoke to him."

Atalanta cleared her throat again. "Threats were made against me and my pilot when we contacted your outpost."

"What? He wouldn't..."

Atalanta interrupted him with several seconds of recording. When it was finished, Owen rubbed his face.

"You must think we're a bunch of clowns down here. That's Craig talking. He was damaged during the Evacuation, hypoxia, I think. Normally he's not a problem. You two were in no danger, we don't have any weapons here."

"I understand that, Owen," Addie said. "However, the threats combined with a sophisticated electronic intrusion, created a War Shot event. It is a defensive automatic process all Navigators have, like an involuntary reflex. In short, we were given permission to open fire on your outpost."

Owen looked at the ship again. "Okay, but you're not really armed for that, right?"

"I will not comment on weapons capability."

"If this had been one of the allied Archreylen races, this would have had a very different ending," Finn explained. "Every Commonwealth ship uses those protocols, ours, the Gyr, Ulthiri, Elves, all of them. A warship would not hesitate to defend themselves after being threatened, especially after an attack by a hostile AI. Your outpost would be reduced to a memory and high energy particles."

"Dammit. And just like that? No warnings?"

Finn sighed. "You're aware that we're in the middle of a war out here? The Archreylen, those are the senior Commonwealth races, couldn't care less about humans. In fact, they'd probably be delighted to have the chance to thin us out."

Owen swallowed. "And those are our allies? How often can we expect Commonwealth ships?"

Finn stared at the man. "How do you not know this? This is the only landing between two long Slingshot transits. If there wasn't a quarantine, you would have met a few Gyr traders, at the very least."

Lykos' face was pale. "No, nobody ever told us. Ryan or Lizzy would have said something when they were working out cargo shipments."

"Good thing you didn't find out the hard way then."

Owen shook his head. "But why did you land here? You were going between the two gates?"

"Uh, no. The Resettlement Directorate relayed your request for help?"

"Seriously? Better late than never, I guess," Owen said. "And so our magnificent Fleet sent a single person?"

Finn ignored the dig, Fleet was always the bad guy when you were planetside. "No, I'm just the first one here. I was on Hub's orbital when the tasking came in. Pathfinder was getting underway and had an open spot to carry us. Scout ships don't have Slingshot capability, we hitch a ride on whatever ship can carry us."

"Then give me your bio-chip please," Owen said, pulling out his own tablet.

Finn held up the inside of his wrist. The RFID chip under his skin sent the pertinent medical records to Owen's tablet.

"I got a bunch of new shots," Finn said. "My arms and ass still hurt."

"Better than being eaten alive by bacteria," Owen replied, putting his tablet away. "Welcome to Erewhon, Captain."

Someone whooped from the cluster of buildings up the slope. Finn saw four people riding their bikes down the long slope. Two were weaving back and forth between the other two, laughing and shouting. Finn looked at Owen with raised eyebrows.

"Okay, so that's Annie and her people. They've been training as the new ground crew. We were all up at the hall sitting down with a beer when we heard you go over. They were probably waiting for the rain to stop before heading down here. I'll keep a close eye on them while they work, unless you want to get someone else."

Before Finn could say anything, there was an answering yodel from Mr. Jesse. The four ground crew arrived half a minute before the lone rider. Owen told them to wait until the other man was there. The four of them clumped together, grinning at the ship and each other.

Finn decided that yes, the clown convention had arrived.

"Mister Jesse, I need to talk to you," Owen called. "Soonest."

The lone bicycle's rider was an older looking man with a broad chested and long hair. He carefully put the kickstand down on the bike before walking over to them.

"Hey, Fleet, I'm really sorry about that," he said. "Maybe it was the lightning storm, I'm really not sure."

"Was it Craig? I heard him threaten to shoot them down. Is it possible he did something to the landing system?"

The other man shook his head. "Nah, you know that's way beyond him, Owen. The guy can barely figure out how to tie his shoes. I headed down here to ask for some help actually. You know all this tech ain't my thing. Maybe the humidity got to it?"

"Mister Jesse is one of our best carpenters," Owen said. "People are filling in wherever they can at the moment."

"Is the system still active?" Finn asked.

"No sir, I killed the power to the whole building, just in case."

"Thank you," Finn said. " I've got a tech background, I'll give you hand after I get Atalanta here squared away. She might be able to give me a hand."

Jesse looked relieved. "Tomorrow then. I really appreciate you, sir. I apologize for the way your arrival worked out. You've got my debt."

Finn glanced at Owen. He hadn't heard that one before.

"It's kind of a Arboreal way of saying 'I owe you one,' Owen explained. "Except we take it more literally. It's the basis of our economy here."

Finn didn't comment on that, just nodded his thanks to the man. "Then thank you for that, but it doesn't sound like it was your fault."

"Fault don't matter. I've got your drink tab whenever you like. I should get back Owen, water needs to be drained off all the flat roofs."

The administrator nodded and Jesse waved at the ground crew before setting off, back down the runway.

"What about the ground crew?" Owen asked. "Will they be any help?"

"Sure," Finn said, turning and walking back to the little group. Owen followed close behind him.

"Good evening, Pilot," the blonde woman at the front of the group said briskly. She wiped her tablet with a damp sleeve. "I'm Loren Thompson, Crew Chief. This is my partner Lal. There's my son Micah and his girlfriend Upasana. She also happens to be Lal's daughter."

Finn shook each of their hands. "The undeniable romance of spacecraft maintenance brought you all together?"

The four of them laughed and relaxed slightly.

"Not quite, sir," Loren said. "Back on...at home, my da raced bikes on the weekends, so I grew up around pit crews. That made me the best choice for a crew chief we've got. I dragged these other three in so I can boss 'em around sometimes. But I've never worked on a real shuttle before."

There was a sound of a throat clearing from behind Finn. They all looked past him but there was only the ship. He was grinning when they looked back at him.

"That's Atalanta. She'd probably like me to point out that she's an Inner System Short Range Survey Scout, not some stupid shuttle."

"I never called them stupid," the ship said. "Hi Annie, Lal, Upasana, and Micah. My name is Atalanta but you can use Addie for short."

The four colonists stared at the ship.

"Addie is a Navigator Personality, Navvi for short." Finn explained. "I've already done her postflight, but I'll show you around."

Finn led them, and Owen, around the ship, pointing out the various vents and servicing points. He stopped under the blunt nose of the ship when they were done.

"Biggest thing you need to remember is that Navvis are really alive. Addie will ask for what she needs, just listen to her. Atalanta?"

"Yes, Captain. No outside maintenance is recommended until ship systems are restored."

Finn looked back at the crew. "Easy pit this time, Chief."

She saluted. "Yes, sir. I'll get these jokers out of the wet then."

Owen wanted to take him up to meet everyone, but the idea of a crowded, noisy bar was the last thing Finn wanted right now. He asked for a raincheck and spent his first evening on the planet going over Addie's systems with her. Twice, hidden viruses spread when a disabled system was reconnected. Addie was able to deal with them on her own and Finn didn't find any other damage.

"It is still mid-evening, Finn. You have time to accept Owen's invitation."

Finn just nodded as he scrubbed his hands.

"You have been spending too much time alone lately," Addie said after a few minutes.

Finn pulled off his flight suit and pulled on shorts and a t-shirt. "I'm not alone, unless you're planning to go up for a few beers."

"Funny. Our interactions do not replace your need for human contact."

Finn sighed as he sat down. "I've had more than enough human interaction today, thanks. I can go for a walk if you're sick of me though."

"Try not to be an idiot, okay? If you stay here, I'm going to pester you to play a game."

Finn patted the bulkhead beside him. "That sounds like a pretty good evening to me, gorgeous."

She projected a Go board on the table in front of him.

"I'd like to win for once," Finn said. "How about Monopoly?"

There was a raspberry in response, but a Monopoly board replaced the empty grid.

"I call race car," Addie said. "You want the top hat again?"

"What can I say? I'm just debonair."

"Are you nervous?" Addie asked, after they'd been playing for a while.

"Not with Park Place and Boardwalk I'm not," Finn said, studying the board.

"No, I meant about Kitt's replacement."

"We're not going to call her that, remember?"

"Because then we'd compare them," the ship sighed. "And you're avoiding the question."

"I'm not really nervous, no. The Synthetic on Hub says that the three of us will be a good team. I'll wait and see but it'll probably be fine."

"Care to put your hand on a bio sensor and say that? I think you're lying."

Finn laughed. "No thanks, and maybe I am. It'll work out and I bet you'll love her just as much as you loved Kitt."

"Well, I'm nervous," Addie said.

Dice were projected on the board. Addie rolled and a double 4 came up.

"Ah-ha! That's your third double," Finn said. "You're off to jail, nervous girl."

There was another raspberry as the race car moved back to a corner.

Later that night, Addie woke Finn two hours after he'd fallen asleep to let him know that three more ships were getting ready to land.

"Who is it?"

"Fleet Pioneers. The ships names are Third Sparrow, Desert Rat, and Thunder-Sky. The ship Thunder-Sky is based at Long Axis Station and is a Ta'avi clan. Third Sparrow and Desert Rat are originally from Echo but are based on Hub now."

"Hmm. Anyone I know?"

"Sorry Finn, they don't have crew lists available and none are Navvi equipped. They did transmit a list of the incoming Scouts and their crews in transit. Most of them are piggybacking in aboard the Magellan."

"What ships?"

"Agamemnon, Xerxes, Viracocha, and Bunjil. ETA is between two hours and three days."

"Four scout teams? That's going a little overboard seeing as there's already a colony here. Anything from the rogue AI?"

"No. I warned the pilots about the situation and am providing real-time updates."

"You're a good girl, Addie."

"No Finn, I'm a fine young woman."

He chuckled. "My mistake. Anything else?"

"Yes. A Fleet Scout by the name of Leah Jones is aboard Third Sparrow. She has orders to transfer to me."

Finn reached out and put his hand on the bio-sensor. Originally these had been installed to help diagnose any problems the human crew encountered. Addie was aware of Finn's location within the ship but the sensor provided a closer connection for her.