Edward Graves: Temporal Detective
Chapter 27: Battle-Stations

“Makes me nervous just sittin’ here like this, feels like we’re sittin’ ducks, is what it feels like.” Solomon Cain had been in plenty of fights during his life but they usually involved him hitting or shooting something, not just standing around in front of a computer monitor. It was making him antsy and it was making him nervous.

“Yeah well there’s not a whole lot I can do about it, so why don’t you just do me a favour and shut up?” Melanie Rain on the other hand had never been a fighter, not really. When she was younger she thought that she was. She’d mistaken anger and insecurity for a will to fight, but she’d soon learned her mistake. Edward Graves had seen to that. What she was good at however, was raising a defence. She’d kept her defences raised for as long as she could remember, never trusting anyone; never letting anyone in; always believing that only she could truly understand herself.

Maybe that was why she had been such a good systems operator, working with shields and security protocols, it was like keeping things out was what she did best.

Her eyes darted between the external feed showing the Wash Ships and back to the diagnostics readout with startling speed, matched only by her fingers as they entered commands, moved displays adjusted settings.

Solomon thought that she looked like a conductor, dragging and dropping holographic displays all over the place. Not that he’d never seen a five foot conductor with black and green hair and a nose stud before.

Suddenly the translucent displays began to flash red, with the word ‘Warning’ appearing in big block letters. Melanie cursed loudly before rubbing her head in her hands.

“What’s wrong?” asked Solomon.

“Somehow they’ve uploaded a virus to our mainframe and it’s deleting our security protocols. The shields have already shut down and in a few minutes the Intrinsic Field and the Temporal Analysis System will be gone too. And if you thought that was enough good news, I’ve got more because once those protocols are gone then there’ll be nothing stopping them from Fluxing straight onto the Watch.”

Solomon looked dumbfounded. “I didn’t even think that was possible,” he said incredulously.

Melanie ran her fingers through her hair in frustration. “Whoever designed this virus is smart, very, very smart and they must have had some knowledge of The Watch’s operating systems and protocols.”

Suddenly a klaxon began to ring out all over the Watch; it was a shrill and deafening; a warning.

“My god!”

“What?” said Solomon as he drew his six-shooters.

“They’ve disabled the turrets and some of the ships are getting through.”

A new holographic screen materialised to her right, giving a readout of some sort. Melanie’s eyes grew wide as she read the information. “Half a dozen people just Fluxed in. Now another half a dozen.” She turned to Solomon, panic on her face. “We’re being boarded!”

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