The Cold Steel Mind by Niall Teasdale Read Free Book Online Page B

something takes control of my body I won’t be able to go anywhere.’
    Both Ella and Cassandra frowned at her. ‘The last time you were on that bench they were cutting you open,’ Ella stated, worried.
    ‘It’s a good thing the arms with the cutting gear aren’t there then, isn’t it?’
    ~~~
    The ‘bench’ was roughly X-shaped, designed to stretch the occupant out for examination. Not trusting that the ship would not be able to control the metal bindings on it, Aneka had made them hold her down with the future version of duct tape; strips of high-strength, nanofibre reinforced setae strip were wrapped around her ankles, wrists, and waist. She felt very secure, and a little nervous. Despite her bravado, being back on the bench was not a thrilling experience.
    Ella had not been entirely correct. The last time Aneka remembered being in the Agroa Gar’s lab was just before the reactor accident. The Xinti aboard the ship had been trying to ‘condition’ her, whatever that meant. While better than having a circular saw carving her stomach open, it had not been a great experience.
    ‘Let’s get this over with,’ Aneka said to Al. ‘I want out of here as soon as possible.’
    ‘Initiating data link,’ Al informed her.
    ‘He’s going in,’ Aneka said aloud. Around the room, the other members of the team watched nervously. That was not really helping Aneka’s mood either.
    ‘Connection established,’ Al said. ‘Attempting to access basic interfaces…’ There was a pause which felt far too long. Aneka was about to say something when he continued. ‘Key systems held in static memory are intact. Atmospheric processing, internal gravity obviously, inertial compensation system, basic input-output mechanisms have all restarted normally. The core machine operating system is up and operating within parameters. Access to bulk data storage is operating, but there is extensive damage to the data across all sectors.’
    Tilting her head back to look at Gillian, Aneka said, ‘Al says the basic ship’s functions and the bottom-level operating system are functional. I think he said that those programs are held in some sort of solid-state storage system. The main memory of the thing is basically garbage at the moment.’
    ‘Can he fix it?’ Ella asked.
    ‘That was a reasonably accurate summary,’ Al commented, a touch of humour in his tone. ‘I am uploading a data recovery program to attempt to restore function. It will, however, take some time to execute. Probably several days.’
    ‘He’s set something to work,’ Aneka reported, ‘but we’re probably looking at a few days before it’s got back what it can.’
    ‘Program uploaded and initiated, connection severed,’ Al told her.
    ‘Now can someone get me off this thing.’
    Ella was grinning. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Just think of the possibilities.’
    ‘Yeah, I could freak out during bondage sex. You can tie me up in our cabin if you want, just get me off this damn bench!’
    Corax, 10.8.524 FSC.
    If Corax was a moon, it was a really big moon. Half the diameter of New Earth, it also had half the gravity, and it managed to hold onto a thin, entirely un-breathable atmosphere. With a surface temperature a bit over one hundred and twenty kelvin, it was a little cold for most people as well, so the facilities there were all underground or in surface domes. Primarily it was used as a research and military base. The Navy did hostile environment training there and there were various low-gravity research stations.
    There was also a small colony of Torem living there since the gravity was more suited to that race. Aneka, Ella, and Shannon were down there to collect one of them, but that was going to be happening the following day. First, with nothing much to do but wait for Al’s program to do its work, they were taking some shore leave.
    The spaceport could only handle small craft, nothing much bigger than the Hyde’s shuttle would fit in the landing