The Technician's Fight, Draft 1, CH43

Gralgiran punched and used Brel’s block to step into her space and slam his shoulder into her chest, then stepped back to catch his breath.

“I’m worried.”

She gave him a dismissive flick of the ear. “You always worry.”

“I’m the Alpha, it’s unbecoming of me to worry about what they’re doing to Jer.”

“He’ll be fine.” She attacked, keeping him from replying. Or even thinking as she struck quickly, then stepped back while he gasped for breath. He found that stamina management wasn’t as effective when his opponent knew him enough to time her attack while he sought to recuperate, and left him in the position of deciding if he used the time she caught her breath to continue, or take advantage of her building exhaustion.

He attacked with fists and palm strikes, pushing until he had a hand on her wrists and pulled her off balance. Then he had a knee on her chest and claws at her throat. “I win.”

“I expected you to wait.”

He helped her to her feet. “Which is why I pressed. I’m not sure how practical stamina management is when fighting someone who’s on the same level. We know how the engagements go.”

“Which is why breaking the rhythm can be an advantage.”

He nodded. “Or maybe I’m just distracted. It’s been four days.”

“Have faith in your Little Warrior, Gral. He’s tough.” She raised her fists.

He readied himself for the attack and did what he could not to worry.

*

“What am I looking at?” he asked, trying to make something of the diagrams projected in the center of the workroom.

“Insanity,” the Builder replied with a disgusted huff. “I can’t tell if whoever made this understands nothing of electronics work, or if their understanding is beyond anything I know.”

“And this is Earther Tech?” he asked. That was what he’d ask a report on. Where they stood on understanding how the machine used on Jer and the other test subjects worked.

“Maybe?” another Builder said. She brought up more diagrams. “That’s Earther tech. There’s no doubt about it. You can tell from the uniformity of the design.”

“And the fact this same circuits shows up across twelve different sections of the ship,” another added. “Which have nothing to do with each other.”

“That too,” she said. “Earther’s love of making everything the same is useful in that way.” She brought back the diagram. “And in making this stand out. There’s nothing like this anywhere on the ship.”

“A dedicated design for this function, then?”

“It’s a theory,” she replied.

“A bad one,” Builder Atarikna Drogdromar said. She brought up a new diagram. “Earther reactor anti-matter containment circuit. Not something that’s needed anywhere else on a ship or a station. Or anywhere. There is no reason for this to look so much like that.” A new diagram. “Life support manager circuit.”

They weren’t identical, that was easily noticeable, but even with his lack of technical knowledge, he saw similarities. Same size, same components in many of the same locations.

“Where did you get those?” he asked, counting the differences. Only seven.

“The containment circuit is from Jeremy’s drafting table. He gave me access when he asked for my help with his weight machine. Been poking in, asking him questions about the thought process behind some of his designs.” She chuckled. “I’d be careful he doesn’t start sleeping with Gezbiliam, some of the stuff in there is out there. But from talking with him, Earthers start a build with components that already exist, then change that as needed to get it to do however the different function works.”

“And that isn’t how you do it?”

“Only if what I’m making is nearly identical with what that other circuit’s doing,” the first builder said. “And that has nothing to do with that. Not even close. I checked with the Engineer. I wouldn’t have looked at anything I’ve previously built to make that containment circuit.”

“Maybe it’s the case with that?” Gralgiran asked.

“Except it contradicts how Earthers think,” the Builder said. “I’d expect to find aspects of some other circuit in there. Something I’d find a version elsewhere among all the scans we made of the ship.”

“Just like we can for everything else,” Builder Atarikna Drogdromar said. “Not everything links to everything else, but everything can be linked to something else.”

“Except that.” The first Builder said.

“Which means they took this tech from another species.” Gralgiran went over what he knew about the machine, and others like it. Bob had known a little from those used on him. “Isn’t one of them something the Earthers found on a Taournian ship? Is it their tech?”

“Leaving aside most of what Taournians use started as something stolen from someone else. This doesn’t match anything of theirs the Federation has on record.”

“Which species does it match?”

“That’s the problem. We had to be careful with the search, since we don’t have official access to this piece of tech, but we haven’t found anything matching this. Not even among Ridoshi tech, and if there’s one species who thinks nothing like we do, it’s them.”

“Like no one else thinks,” another Builder added.

“If this is like nothing anyone makes, even the Earthers, how can it work in their machine?”

“By them adding these.” Builder Atarikna Drogdromar zoomed out the diagram and seven other components became visible. Those, Gralgiran recognized as Earther Tech easily. “Those act as translators of sorts. Taking what that does and making it work with the rest of their tech.”

“How do they know how it needs to be translated?” he asked.

“Trial and error is the only way I can think of,” a Builder said.

“How do you trial-and-error something you know nothing about?” he asked, puzzled.

“You connect it to your test subjects and see what happens.”

Gralgiran stared at the Builder in horror. “That’s going to give you failures more often than successes.”

The male nodded.

And Bob had told him those machines had been used on the soldiers within the ship over and over, with various results.

He shuddered. “How did they manage to reproduce this if they don’t understand it?”

“Same way we’d do it,” a Builder said. “Feed the scan to a printer. All the information’s there. We recognize every molecule in it. We just don’t understand how the interactions produce what we’ve been told the end result is.”

“So we have a piece of technology that’s alien to anything we have on record that they—”

“Not just one.” The Builder brought up ten other schematics. “And that’s not even the most interesting part.” She brought up another schematic. Something more complex. “That’s the scan of the machine used on your Heart. These eleven pieces are found inside that section.” It highlighted. “With everything else attached to the whole.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” a Builder said.

“Everything,” said another.

“Anything we say is conjecture,” Builder Atarikna Drogdromar said. “Our guess is that what was used on Jeremy was something closer to the original device.”

“But that was less than a year ago. How did the Earthers go from that to something this complex in that little time?”

“Two possibilities. The first one is they did a lot of tests, and they have I don’t know how many citizens with their brains hollowed out.”

Gralgiran shuddered. “The other one?”

“They gave an older version to those who used it on Jeremy.”

“Why would they do that?”

The Builders exchanged uncomfortable looks.

“Speak up before I order you.”

“We work with machines, not people,” a Builder said.

“But we can’t help thinking what would lead us to do what this hints at.”

“And what did you decide?” he demanded.

“The only reason I’d hand over older tech is if the goals of the person I’m handing it to don’t align with mine, but he’s important enough I still want to keep him on my good side.”

“You’re saying the Earther Government isn’t behind Jer’s kidnaping and the use of the machine on him?”

“We don’t know. That’s just how we’d approach the situation.”

“If not them, then who?”

The Builders all shrugged.

*

“And who is this?” Gralgiran asked Batrix, looking at the image of the Earther.

“The files identify him as a doctor named Omar Seywan. The name is mentioned in the Hunters’ report, including your Heart’s. From what the Earther said, he intended to use one of the machines on him, and that it would fix him completely.” He looked at his tablet. “Hunter Karidem Dronical Oshal got the sense there was a ‘this time’ implied. This could mean the Earther was involved in what happened to your Heart before.”

“Did Jer mention him at any point during that investigation?”

“The Federation files on it indicate that he didn’t know anyone involved.”

Gralgiran nodded. “So, this might be something else. Where is the male now?”

“Unknown. He isn’t one of the prisoners. Which means he was able to escape the hunters when they swept the station for stragglers.”

The thought didn’t sit well. His hunters had training, tech, and their senses. But the station was large, and a section blocked from scans, and they had been short on time. Someone with prior knowledge of it, like someone who lived and worked there, could know where to hide to prevent discovery.

“Any reason to think he isn’t directly supported by his government?”

“Nothing that’s been decrypted at this point indicates his government is behind the station, or the male’s research. He claimed the research was part of his justification to continue looking for your Heart, but the wording doesn’t indicate it was to his government. Names of corporations and extensive families have been found in the data, but we don’t have access to Earther databases to find out if they have ties to their government.”

“How does the data show you the families are extensive?”

“Surnames. Earthers attach importance to their lineage, so use a name to identify that lineage. Bradshaw is your Heart’s lineage. The census we collected at the Earther station Einstein gives us a sense of family sizes. Kennedy, Rockerfel, and Barbosa, as three lineages the data show were involved in paying for the station. Each lineage counts its numbers in the billions within the Earther territories.”

The number was more than Gralgiran could fathom as the size of a family. He doubted any Kelsirian families could approach those numbers. Not that he knew how they’d go about finding out. He could name two dozen of his family members. His parents and their parents. His brothers and sisters, a few of their mates, all their children. He knew two of his father’s siblings, one of his mother’s, as well as her Kreseric, but he was aware they had more. Everyone else would be able to name more. But how quickly would it be impossible to know who was related to whom? Short of comparing genetic material.

“So, as far as anything your pack has sniffed out as part of the investigation, this was funded by private parties, who this doctor Omar Seywan might have lied to so he could continue hunting Jer. Any link between them?” He would have remembered the name if Jer had said it.

“The male was your Heart’s doctor on Einstein. There were no personal files in what was gathered, so there’s no way to know if that is the limit of their connection.”

“If he’s going as far as using technology even they might not understand in an attempt to ‘cure’ the entire Federation, just to reach Jer, there has to be something there. I’ll ask him once he’s done with his training.”

“I’d suggest giving him time to heal from it, Alpha. I don’t know if you remember, but that first session is…difficult.”

*

Gralgiran rolled onto his back, nudging Toom, and making Brel grumble on his other side, and stared at the ceiling. Five days, and no way to know how many more until Jer returned to him. He’d hoped that having all his friends in his bed for the night would keep him from worrying.

What state would Jer be in?

The whimper escaped, and Brel shifted, turning. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m scared for him,” he whispered. “What if he breaks down?”

She forced him to look at her, and he turned. Behind him, Toom moved and put an arm over his side. Others rumbled as they adjusted.

“He will break. You know that. That is the point of what they are putting him through. Just like you, and me, and every other hunter. They’re showing him that no matter how strong-willed he thinks he is. How much he believes in protecting you, us. In the end, he will break and tell them everything they want to know. It’s the only way to then teach us how to make sure it won’t happen again.”

“What if I made a mistake?” He couldn’t keep that fear away. What if Jer still didn’t understand why? That Gralgiran wouldn’t think less of him for what he’d revealed to his trainers?

She nuzzled him. “If you can’t trust the gods, trust your Little Warrior. No matter what he looks like when you see him next, he will be stronger still by the time it’s over.”

Toom nuzzled the back of his neck. “We’re all going to love him just as much, nothing will ever change that.”

And the others reached over one another to touch him and reassure him he and Jer weren’t alone. And with their comforting, Gralgiran was able to sleep