Chapter 51: By All Means
2240 hours
Planet Meredith—Clarity—Command .
The doors hissed open as a dark figure slipped in. The room was dimly lit to show that no one was currently clocked in, the figure slipped past smashed furniture and glasses that were yet to be cleaned up and headed for the supercomputer mounted on the largest table in the space.
"Kagu."
A low baritone voice boomed in the dark.
The outlet that was once dark blinked to life and a figure buzzed to life.
"Kagu?"
K leaned closer to her outlet, she looked different now. Her blue eyes were gone replaced by pale pink and two white antennas stood right above her ears.
"What happened to you?"
"This was my original design."
She smiled proudly, a sad proud one.
Her jeans and frilly shojo style was gone, replaced by a black petticoat gown lined with white at its sides and attached to a long off-the-shoulders coat. Her feet started as human flesh before blending into porcelain white covered in pink platform boots.
"Where did you find this?"
"While I was chipping away at the walls used to hold me up here, I accidentally reset my avatar but that doesn’t matter... what are you doing here?"
"...I need your help."
"With?"
"I need you to help me hijack a ship...and help me cripple Control’s hold on it."
Kagu scratched at her head then pulled up a holographic tab. She stared at it for a while before closing it.
"How long?"
"Can you do it before dawn?"
"That’s going to be tough but I’ve managed to make a hole in my restrictions. I’ll do my best."
"Thank you, Kagu."
The two nodded at each other in mutual agreement. They both knew K was planning to go to where those coordinates led with or without Admirak Bak’s permission.
"I’ll need your help though."
"Sure, what do you need?"
"I need to create a split me."
"Huh?"
"My outlet right now is like a land mine, I leave and hop on one outisde of this lab and I’m busted. I need to have something to replace the ’weight’."
"What do you need me to do?"
"I’m going to hop onto two different outlets. This will temporarily confuse the ’land mine’ and while that confusion has been sent to it, I can hop out and help you do that."
"I need you to help me place another outlet next to mine, I can split and hop."
"Okay."
K set another outlet next to her and she began.
...
..
.
The ship sat dormant in the hangar, its engines cold and its systems reduced to the bare minimum required to maintain the vessel’s internal environment. No navigation lights. No active weapons. No external communications.
To anyone watching the diagnostic feeds, it was nothing more than an inactive ship waiting for deployment.
Exactly what a dormant ship should be as.
Her holographic figure appeared faintly across the dead main console. Pink light flickered across her eyes.
"Control."
No response.
She tilted her head. "Control."
Still nothing.
Kagu smiled.
"Good."
She placed her hand against the console. The screen remained black.
Then a single line appeared.
MAINTENANCE PORT — ACCESS
Kagu’s fingers moved across the interface.
She wasn’t trying to wake the ship, not yet.
She was looking for the parts of it Control believed belonged exclusively to itself. The comms and video feedback.
Power distribution.
Navigation authorization.
Weapons recognition.
Internal surveillance.
Emergency lockdown.
One by one, she mapped them making sure she wasn’t changing anything.
Not yet.
A faint pulse travelled through the ship’s circuitry.
Kagu’s eyes narrowed.
There.
The hidden ’connection’ they had installed. Control had left a remote command pathway buried beneath the ship’s maintenance architecture. Deep in its system.
Kagu followed it.
The pathway led straight to the ship’s central authorization core.
"Found you."
Her fingers curled.
Instead of severing the connection, Kagu installed another layer around it.
Then another.
Then another.
She created a false system beneath the existing one—a quiet little structure that would remain dormant until the ship was activated.
Control would still think it had control the vessel.
It would still receive status reports.
It would still recognize its own authorization codes.
But the moment someone attempted to remotely command the ship... Kagu’s system would intercept the order first.
A small notification appeared in bold pink letters.
FAILSAFE INSTALLED.
Kagu stared at it.
Then erased the notification.
No trace and no evidence.
Nothing for Control to trace back to her, she was already on a thin line waiting to be dismantled by the Admiral.
She did a final survey, checking for any loopholes.
The hangar cameras rotated slightly causing her to freeze where she floated..
A security drone descended from above and turned toward the ship.
For several seconds, she didn’t move watching the drone hover around the ship and scanned through it. It stayed for some moments before hovering over to another ship.
It was only then did her expression soften.
"Nothing to see here."
The hanger’s camera turned away as well.
Kagu released a quiet breath.
One final check.
The hidden system disappeared beneath the ship’s dormant architecture.
The next time Control tried to take command of the vessel, it wouldn’t be speaking directly to the ship anymore.
An hour later.
Kagu’s holographic projection flickered into existence on the outlet next to K.
K glanced at her. "Well?"
Kagu folded her hands behind her back, her expression unusually pleased with herself.
"The ship has been successfully compromised."
K’s brows drew together. "Compromised?"
"I installed a secondary command layer beneath Control’s authorization system."
He stared at her.
"So you did what?"
The Ai sighed and began to explain.
"I made sure Control can no longer take complete control of the vessel remotely."
Kagu tapped her finger against her palm. A small holographic model of the ship appeared between them, several systems glowing faintly.
"Control still believes the ship belongs to it. Its authorization codes remain intact, and all external diagnostics will report normally."
She touched one of the glowing sections.
"But when someone from Control attempts to issue a command, I intercept it before the ship receives it."
K studied the hologram.
"Can Control detect it?"
"Not unless someone physically inspects the core."
"And if they do?"
Kagu’s smile faded. "Then we will have a problem."
K crossed his arms.
"How long will you have to do this? Keep the compromise active?"
"For as long as you need it. I would have fully disabled the system but my hands are somewhat tied."
"I understand."
"..."
"I wish you could come with me."
"...I know and I am glad you could still come to me for help. K, I want you to know that I have never withheld any information from you on purpose."
"...I understand."
"Thank you for trusting me... even if it might be your last time doing so."
K didn’t say another word.
He gave the Ai one last look before heading out of the lab.
The security drone did one last overlook before returning to its station.
It failed to register the shadowy blur that sped past it.
K slipped into the ship though its hatch and inspected the ship for any surprises.
The pilot seat groaned and eased up when he settled into it. The ship’s system came to line but instead of its usual blue outline, it was a show of pink.
A small smile played around K’s lips.
And for Kagu’s final trick.
The hangar’s doors creaked open.
"Huh?"
A technician in the middle of clocking out froze at the sound. The half eaten sandwich between his lips fell to the ground as he watched a ship come to life.
"Was a ship scheduled for deployment?"
He quickly checked his data pad and grabbed the microphone.
"Hey! There was no schedule for Susie to be deployed for flight!!"
"Oh, Susie’s her name? That’s a fine name for a fine ship."
"Hey! Turn off that ship! Turn it off or I’ll alert Control!"
The ship hummed to life and boosted off into the deep mix of the galaxy.
"Shit! I’m going to lose my job!"
...
"Admiral! Admiral!"
Bak groaned and pushes himself off his bed, his fingers found his comms and he rasped into it.
"What?"
"An unauthorized ship just left the hangar!"
"What?"
"An unauthorized ship just left the hangar!"
The admiral cursed so many slurs in Korean and wildly threw a shirt on.
"Get Control to give me stats on that ship!"
"Yes sir!"
The workstations in Control was a jumble of yells, whispers and exhausted people.
"Admiral, these are the stats on ship Susie."
A woman extended a data pad to him.
"Pilot the bitch back!"
He tossed it back at her, his head a throbbing mess to figure out what the numbers meant.
"That’s the problem, Sir, we can’t."
"...what do you mean you can’t?"
"The ship’s command pathway has been compromised."
"Who the f—"
He froze and uttered another Korean slur before pushing past the woman and headed towards Thira’s lab.
"Prepare to dismantle an artificial intelligence model!"
He yelled over his shoulder.