The Communist Machinery

[zeta.foxtrot]

Stuart White, PhD in Robotics and AI psychology, Cambridge Research Institute, and right-hand man of Atticus Komm, stood aboard Zhukovski station: A place he never imagined he would, nor wanted to, ever set foot on. The place reeked of the sort of militarism and inefficiency he, as a scientist, despised. He spoke nothing of it, of course, both out of protocol and the rather extensive security the SCRA brought in.

Captian Breen stood next to him, watching the workers clear the deck. While he was not a scientist, he was a reliable captain an ran a tight ship. A necessity considering the nature of the cargoes they handled.

"These deck-rats make me nervous." Professor White noted, watching the Coalition dockworkers and security staff as they scrutinized the cargo they were to unload. "If there's going to be an 'incident', it will happen here. Do they have any idea how dangerous this thing is?"

"Of course not. This is the Coalition. They fetishize secrecy... get used to it." Breen replied. He was, of course, a by the book captian. Despite having no formal military background, the two certainly understood the coalition's rather aggressive nature. Professor Komm and briefed them extensively before this adventure began. But it was a mystery, where he got his information from.

All they could do was watch over the docking bay through the security cameras as the Coalition teams secured the 'package'. Professor White had insisted they allow his own staff to handle the package, but the Coalition security chief had refused, sequestering the crew on the Windhunter until the cargo was taken planetside.

In the center of the bay, sat a mangled mass of metal that was once a Consortium reconnaissance ship. Only it's main fuselage remained recognizable, wherein the ship's Drone Control Unit contained something. Something invisible and insidious that even the scientists at Cambridge couldn't handle. The wreckage was encased in an electromagnetic dampening field, though this could only suppress any communications hardware, not the code that lay within.

It was fortunate that the SCRA took the nature of the package just as seriously as Professor Komm laid it out. It didn't take a genius to know they had their own interests, and there was a certain bit of contempt for Komm for putting them in this situation.

After the 'contact incident' however, the Windhunters staff realized that what they possessed was something way over their heads.

The question remained if it would be over the heads of the SCRA as well...