CROSSFIRE - Atlantis DSV - New Cape Quest

Ainsley walked around the desk again and sat down, accepting the routing request
being put through to his computer from Stewart‟s communications station on the bridge. The
spinning crest of the Commonwealth hung on the screen for several minutes, in which time
he stared at the mysterious numbers again, pulling them apart in his head to rearrange them
in different combinations, as if expecting an obvious revelation that he had missed.
He became so engrossed in them that he completely failed to notice the face of
Captain Katherine Hitchcock wink up on his monitor. Her stunning blue eyes, stared through
him for long seconds before she smiled lopsidedly. “Admiral Ainsley?”
He shot around and met her gaze, for a moment forgetting what it was he‟d been
doing. “‟Morning, Captain Hitchcock... I trust I haven‟t woken you.”
“Not in the least, Admiral. We run a ship‟s clock, not zulu time.”
“Good. So how‟s the South Atlantic this time of year?”
Hitchcock smiled a very peculiar and coy smile. “I can‟t say I‟m at liberty to say, sir.”
Ainsley smiled back, flexing his hands in front of him. “I‟ve got a favour to ask.”
“Favour? That‟s funny. Last I checked you finally accepted a promotion... You could
just order me.”
“You haven‟t heard the favour yet, Captain,” Ainsley suggested, giving her a knowing
and warning gaze, all at the same time.
“Anything you need, sir.”
“NSIS?”
“...Shit.”
Ainsley clicked his fingers. “Now you know how I feel.”
“What have they got you on this time?”
Ainsley picked up the page so Hitchcock could see it, gesturing to it before setting it
down again. “I‟d like you to run an encryption through your SOC. I‟m curious to see what
Descartes gets from it.”
That stopped Hitchcock, and she narrowed her eyes. “Admiral, out of curiosity, just
what kind of encryption needs an AI to decipher it?”
“That, Captain, is exactly what I‟m trying to find out.”
~
At the start of the day‟s second shift, the bridge of the Commonwealth was a flurry of
activity as dreary-eyed night-shift officers were relieved by a swarm of fresh faces that
nursed mugs of coffee and tea.
“It‟s been quiet all day,” said Callaghan, gesturing to the tactical plot with his free
hand. Swiping it over the holographic, 3D landscape, he shifted the map along to show the
approaches to Swordsman‟s Folly, and then pushed it away to zoom out, showing the entire
theatre. As he did so, the display flickered momentarily, and Banick shook his head. “These
new holo-displays are dicky,” he remarked flatly of the ship‟s new interactive holographic
monitors. “Try and get maintenance to take another look at it after second shift.”
Callaghan continued to stare at his Captain expectantly, and Banick sighed. “Sorry,
you were saying?”
Callaghan hesitated a moment before turning back to the plot. “...It‟s been quiet since
we took out that last attack yesterday. For what it cost us, it seems they‟ve given up trying
for the time being.”
“I doubt it,” put Banick bluntly, planting his hands on the guard rail and surveying the
board. “Their last one nearly had us, and they had to know we were hurt by it. Why aren‟t
they trying to finish us? They‟ve got us at three-to-one.”
One of the other combat specialists in Commonwealth‟s CIC looked up at that and
eyed the Captain. “There is a possible explanation, sir,” he offered.
“Enlighten me, Mister Jackson.”
“Traffic intercepted by SEWACS, sir,” Jackson elaborated, forwarding a report to the
display in front of Banick. “Caught it in the last half hour. Seems that explosion we caused
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