John Sandford - Saturn Run

And, for the time being, the Nixon was her ship.

She didn’t expect that status to hold indefinitely. Once an accommodation was reached over the disposition of the alien information, she’d be happy to share the command with Fang-Castro. She would even consider handing it back to her entirely, as long as the Chinese retained control of the weapons.

It could work. It would be like one of those countries back on Earth whose civilian government was supported by a strong and independent military. As long as principles and goals were agreed upon, everything was fine, and if there was a disagreement, well… The real power did not lie with the government.

She turned to the American at the communications station who was by now sufficiently un-addled to be both alert and fearful. “Lieutenant, what is your name?”

She consciously copied Zhang’s command voice—low and soothing, but authoritative. “Don’t worry. Despite appearances, you are in no danger as long as you cooperate, and I will not ask you to do anything that puts your compatriots or your ship at risk.”

“Summerhill, ma’am, Albi Summerhill.”

Ma’am, that was good. He appreciated the situation he was in. “Thank you. Mr. Summerhill, I’m going to need you to operate the communications console according to my instructions. My people understand your systems well enough to engage simple operations, such as temporarily shutting down internal communications, but not how to operate it fully. You understand what I’m asking of you?”

He nodded.

“Very good. Open a ship-wide channel, so that I can make an announcement to your entire crew. Signal me when you’ve done that.”

Summerhill looked over the status board, pressed a few keys, and nodded to Cui. She nodded back in acknowledgment, and took a deep breath. The deepest one of her career; it felt like standing on the edge of a precipice, more exhilarating than terrifying, but some of both. Well, no turning back.

She leaped.

“Your attention, please. And good morning. I am Commander Cui Zhuo, of the People’s Republic of China, and former first officer of the Deep Space Vessel Celestial Odyssey . I and my fellow yuhanguan … astronauts… are in command of the Richard M. Nixon . We expect to return command to you as soon as some concerns are resolved. At present we have locked your quarters and blocked internal communications for security reasons.

“We expect to restore normal functioning shortly. Please be patient, and I personally apologize for any inconveniences we are causing you.”

She made a slicing motion with her hand, and then Summerhill killed the microphone. She nodded at him: “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Sun turned to the American sitting near the security station. “And you, what is your name? I’d like you to bring up some security information for me.”

“Uh, Langers, ma’am, Ferris Langers. I’m usually at Navigation. I’m a navigation officer. I don’t know a lot about this station.”

“Can you perform simple operations, like locating a particular crew member or locking or unlocking a particular door?”

He looked at the panel. “Yes, I can do that.”

“Please be sure, Mr. Langers. I would be very unhappy if you were to accidentally unlock all the doors or the communications system. The consequences could be tragic.”

Langers looked at her face and then at her sidearm. “I will be careful.”

“Are Commander Fang-Castro and Mr. Crow in their quarters? Can you open communications channels just to them and unlock only their quarters’ doors when Commander Cui requests it? And do you have vid surveillance of their quarters?”

Langers tapped the panel and pulled up a few data lines. “They are both in quarters—or somebody is. I can unlock the doors, but I can’t give you the vid. That’s locked for reasons of privacy and only the admiral can override the locks. I can give you audio to both quarters, although they both have the option to kill the audio, if they wish.”

Cui asked, “Lieutenant Sun, how is our complement?”

“Up to full strength, Commander.”

“Lieutenant Langers, please open links to Admiral Fang-Castro and Mr. Crow.”

Langers tapped the screen he was looking at, and then pointed a finger at Cui.

“Admiral Fang-Castro, Mr. Crow? This is Cui Zhuo. I would like to meet with both of you in the conference room. I’ll be sending escorts to accompany you. They will be armed. Please don’t attempt anything foolish.”

She didn’t wait for an answer, but gestured and Langers closed the channel. “Now, Mr. Summerhill, bring up the ship’s logs for the past three weeks. My lieutenant and I have some reading to do.”

Summerhill was sweating. “Some of the logs are encrypted, ma’am. I don’t have the passwords or keys for those. Honestly, ma’am.”

“Bring up what you can, Lieutenant.”

The first round of discussions between the Chinese and Americans went as expected: not well.

Sun had confirmed from the ship’s logs what the AI told Cui at the alien station, that the Nixon had received eight data storage units of some kind from the alien station, and eight readers for the QSUs. The details were in the encrypted files they couldn’t access.

She also divined, from the considerable amount of high-bandwidth data that had been beamed to the Nixon from the station, that a substantial store of information on the aliens or their technology must exist in the Nixon ’s own databanks. The details were also not evident in the unsecured files in the datastore.

Cui and Sun were waiting in the conference room when Fang-Castro and Crow arrived, escorted by two crew members who were also members of the Chinese special forces, the Zhōngguó tèzhong bùduì.

Cui gestured at the chairs, but Fang-Castro shook her head. “Naomi Fang-Castro, rear admiral, U.S. Navy, 756-487-8765.”

Cui shook her head: “Please. We need to talk this out. You are not a prisoner of war.”

“Naomi Fang-Castro, rear admiral, U.S. Navy, 756-487-8765.”

Crow said, “Admiral Fang-Castro would disagree about her status. She’s a prisoner of war, because your acts are certainly acts of war. That’s why she provides her name, rank, and serial number… in this case, her Social Security number. If you were not declaring war with your acts—”

“We were not,” Sun blurted.

“—then you’re pirates, for which the punishment in a critical situation like this, would certainly be death, for all the pirates.” He paused, to look at the two Chinese officers, then continued. “Admiral Fang-Castro’s reticence does not apply to me, of course, since I’m a civilian. I am willing to talk, and willing to report what you say to the President, although I warn you, it would be advisable for you to give this up right now. The admiral is a humane person and I doubt that she would order any executions. Once I speak to the President, then this is all on the record. You will have declared war on the United States. I don’t know if the chairman granted you the power to do that, but that’s where we are.”

Cui glanced involuntarily at Sun, then said, “Lieutenant Sun is our… new political officer. She would know more about the legalities than I do.”

Sun said, “We anticipate returning the ship to your control amicably and quickly. Before we can do that, however, we need to work out a way to share the alien data that you took from the planetoid, and which the aliens intended for all mankind, not for the exclusive use of the U.S.A. I am quite sure that all the regional blocs would agree with us.”

Crow smiled at her, shrugged.

“What?”

“We will give you what the President says we can. But I’m not going to do that on my own. If we’re in a state of war, then giving you that information would be treason, and I could be shot. I would not enjoy being shot by my own people. And you won’t get it from the admiral.”