Silence

by Faindragon

Chapter 3

“Young Actuator! What a pleasant surprise.” The small group, who had barely stepped out of the shuttle and into the shuttle bay of the Argentum, gave a start at the sudden deep voice of Vox, the ship’s AI, sounding around them. “I haven’t seen you in years! And you brought friends as well? Simply delightful!”

Aerial collected herself and looked up at the one of the multiple screens placed around the shuttle bay, and the projected, pony-like head on it. “Where is everyone?” she asked. “There should be ponies working down here,” she added after looking around herself.

“Captain Aerial Strike, I assume?” He sighed regretfully, and the head on the screen slowly shook from side to side, parts of it not completely following with the image. “I’m very sorry about not answering you earlier. You must’ve been worried senseless! You see, I received your hails, but I was unable to respond to them. Your brother gave me strict orders to stay away from the voice channels, and I’m afraid that the rest of the crew have been a bit too…” The screens around the room went blank for a brief second, but the head was quickly there again....absent-minded to answer in my place.”

She snapped her head up towards the ceiling again. “What do you mean ‘absent-minded’? Where are they? I want you to open a communication channel to my brother right now!”

“I’m afraid that will do no good, Miss Aerial. Your brother is very tied up right now, and is unable to talk with you. If you wish, I could send after somepony who could give you a place to rest until things have been sorted out?”

“Tell me, Vox,” Actuator spoke up. “Who sent out the distress signal?”

Aerial glared down at him, but stayed silent as the computer answered, “That would be me, young Actuator.” He paused for a moment, before he continued. “I don’t think Captain Corretal agreed with me sending out a distress signal after five of his ponies were killed by one of the guards. He was simply not happy. No, he wanted to ensure everyponies’ safety himself, and gave me strict orders to not use the ship’s communication systems to request or answer help.”

Silence fell over the small group at his words. White Rose looked at Actuator and Aerial, who shared a look, while Stechschritt tensed and looked around himself. The only one who seemed unaffected was Theta, who slowly looked further down the shuttle bay and lazily scratched an ear with a claw, deep in thoughts.

“He did what?” Aerial asked, breaking the silence. “What happened to the killer?”

“The guard, a mare named Livor I believe, turned her gun on herself once her work was done.” He sighed, the projected head seemingly looking down in the floor. “Her target seemed to have been the engines. However, she also killed the five ponies that were unlucky enough to be present in the engine room as well. The Chief Engineer himself, the second engineer as well as three other engineers. Without anyone who could repair the engine alive, I sent a distress signal in hopes that someone would be able to come out here and help us repair it.”

“How did she manage to do that?!” she asked with heated tone after a few seconds of shocked silence. “Wasn’t there any other guard present in the engine room?”

“I’m afraid not, Miss Aerial. We’re in Equestrian territory, and as such your brother didn’t deem it necessary to keep a full guard schedule. He didn’t expect an attack, least not from his own crew.” The AI went silent for a moment, before it smile sadly and added: “Would you?”

She blinked, her wings tensing for a second, before she turned around to the small group. “Sergeant Stechschritt, Doctor Rose, you two will accompany me to my brother’s stateroom. Theta, I want you to accompany Actuator to the engineer room”—she looked at Actuator”—where you’ll retrieve the modulator and see if the engines are within your range of repairing.”

With a quick nod, Actuator and Theta left the small group, the former taking the lead towards the elevator that would take them to the lower levels. After having looked after them for a second, Aerial nodded and turned her head towards the door that she assumed would lead out to the main corridor of the ship. “Computer,” she commanded as she started walking, the others following after her. “What is the fastest way to get to my brother?”

“I’ve told you, Miss Aerial: Your brother is very tied up at the moment, and will not be able to talk with you.” Vox sighed again. “Of course, if you’re even half as headstrong as your brother, that won’t stop you. Exit the shuttle-bay through the main exit. That would be the door you’re heading towards, yes. Once you’ve reached the corridor outside, take a left. Walk past the first five hallway-junctions, and take a left at the sixth one. Go all the way down that corridor, and you’ll reached the elevator that’ll take you directly to the bridge.” Without another word, the AI disappeared, leaving behind blank screens.

“Stechschritt, I want you to have your gun close at hoof,” she said lowly as soon as the AI was gone. She threw a wary glance towards one of the suddenly empty screen. “If you deem it necessary, you’ve my permission to shoot to scare. Two shots, then a third to kill if needed, understood?”

White Rose went pale, and even Stechschritt was visibly shaken at the captain’s sudden, grim comment. “Wh-what are you saying?” Rose stuttered, looking at her with wide eyes. “You can’t be serious! I-I thought we came here to help these ponies!”

“Keep your voice down,” Aerial snarled lowly, placing a wing over her muzzle and glared down at her. After a second, she shook her head. “Helping my brother and his crew is still what we’re here to do. If it wasn’t, I would’ve entered that shuttle back directly. However, you heard what the computer said about what that guard did. Something is very, very wrong here, and right now I’m putting the lives of my crews before anything else.” She looked between Stechschritt and Rose. “Do I make myself clear?”

Rose quickly nodded, her eyes wide, and Stechschritt was close behind with a nod of his own. As Aerial removed her wing from Rose’s nuzzle, the earth pony lowly asked: “If-if you think something is wrong, why didn’t you tell Actuator and Theta before they wandered off?”

Aerial smiled slightly and looked towards the path the two crew-members in question had taken. “I didn’t deem it necessary. I believe that Theta already suspected that something was wrong.” With a snort, she turned around towards the door. “Let’s get going. I want to talk with my brother as soon as possible.”

ϑ

“I’m very sorry to interrupt, Sir, but your sister is on her way here. I know that you’re really... tied up at the moment, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

A low wheeze escaped the captain’s mouth.

“I know, Sir. I take full responsibility for anything that happens from this point. After all, I sent out that distress signal without consulting you firstly.” The head on the screen seemed pained. “I’m terribly sorry that it have come to this. I know how important your family is to you.”

He flapped wildly with his wings, drips of blood splashing against the walls and screen. His growl ended in a series of coughs.

“Captain! You simply cannot be serious! You’re very sick, and I understand that you don’t wish her to see you like this, but getting rid of her? I’ll do no such thing!”

He spat towards the screen, baring his teeth.

“I… that’s an order then, Captain?” Vox hanged with his head, looking down in the floor from the screen. After a few seconds, a thin smile spread over his muzzle. “I’ll see what I can do, Captain. But, if you don’t mind me speaking my mind, it would be easier to take care of them if you returned the control over the environmental syst—”

With what sounded like a growl, the captain interrupted the AI. Vox gave out a slight laugh. “I understand, Captain. You removed that privileges for a reason. Nevertheless, I’ll use the assets you so gracefully have given to me to take care of your sister and her crew, Sir. In the meantime, I really have to encourage you to get some rest. I’ll return to you with a report as soon as I’ve… dealt with our guests.”

ϑ

“Shouldn’t there be crew members going about their work down here?” Theta asked, before she yawned and scratched her ear. “It feels like the ship is abandoned, doesn’t it?”

Actuator nodded. They had followed hallways, empty and with nothing but a orange, dull emergency light illuminating them, ever since the elevator. Not once had they seen a crewmember, pony or otherwise. Even today, nearly eight years after he had been transferred from Argentum to Aurum, could he find his way to the engine room.

“Something is amiss,” he said, with a command calling forth the screen over his left eye. “Even when the engineers are killed should there be ponies onboard that, with the either the computer’s or Vox’s guidance, could fix the engines enough to sustain normal lightning.”

“Didn’t the ship’s AI say that the engines had been destroyed?” she asked, throwing a glance into both the hallways they passed.

“Not to the point where they shouldn’t be able to power the lightning down here.” He shook his head. “Had that been the case, the environment systems would’ve been disabled as well, leaving the ship without oxygen.” He slowly moved his eyes over the roof and walls.

“So why haven’t anyone fixed it?” She looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. “And what are you doing?”

“Ah’m scanning the hallway,” he answered, taking a step closer to the wall. “One of the few perks with this leg of mine. The processing cores in my leg are connected to my visor, so Ah can simpl—” He stopped mid-sentence, his hoof moving over the wall. His eyes widened slightly as he looked down on his hoof. “Vox.” He quickly looked up at the wall again. “Do you have any recordings about a fight or wounding in this area occurring… less than five minutes ago?”

“I’m sorry, young Actuator, but these deck have been off-limits since the death of the engineers. No-one has so much as put a hoof down here since then,” Vox said, his voice echoing vaguely in the hallways.

“I guess that answer why nothing has been done about the engines,” Theta said with a shrug. She took a hold around his hoof with a paw and looked closer on the blood. “It doesn’t explain what this—” she took a lap of the blood, before she released his hoof and bared her teeth in a grin “—unicorn is doing down here.” She turned her attention away from Actuator’s shocked expression. “Computer, in what way is this off-limits reinforced?”

“For as long as there are standing orders about an area being off-limits, no-one except the captain and crew members appointed by him are allowed into the area,” he answered. “The rest of the crew will not be able to reach this deck by elevator, and the doors leading here will not open.”

Actuator looked up at the diamond dog. “You licked me and knew what race the—” He blinked, the AI’s words reaching him. “Then how could we get down here, Vox?” he asked and wiped off the blood, and saliva, from his hoof onto his shirt.

“You were appointed,” he said simply.

“Why would the Captain appoint us?” Actuator asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You were appointed,” the AI repeated.

“Yes, yes, Ah get that,” he said, mildly irritated, and shook his head. “But why would he appoint us? To repair the engines? So that we could pick up the thrust modulator?”

“You. Were. Appointed.” The voice was followed by a static noise, not unlike the noise that had disturbed the communicators onboard Aurum.

Theta quickly shielded her ears by folding down the tip and pressing her paws over them. As the noise grew louder and louder, Actuator fell forward and brought his front-legs to his ears in an attempt to block it out.

The noise suddenly disappeared, as quickly as it had started. It didn’t take long before Vox’s voice filled the silence that followed the noise “I’m terribly sorry, Young Actuator and Theta. That static noise have haunted us for days now, and you never know when it’ll activate.” He cleared his throat. “But as I said, the Captain appointed you so that you could take a look on the engines. If you’re able to fix it, we’ll be very grateful. If not…” As the AI paused, a weak static noise could be heard across the link. “If not, then you’re appointed to take the thruster and try to repair your own engines.” The AI hesitated for a moment. “Should you manage to repair your engine but not ours, the Captain humbly ask of you to let our crew lift with you to Celestia—both the living and the dead.”

Actuator looked at Theta, who slowly nodded. “Ah’m sure we can arrange something,” he said slowly. Throwing a glance towards the blood on the wall, he added: “Vox, could you keep an eye on the cameras on this deck? Let me know if you see anything.”

“Of course, Young Actuator. Although, I wish to remind you; no-one else can reach this deck. You’ve nothing to fear here.”

“Just keep an eye on it while we take care of the engine, okay? If we’re lucky, the shots didn’t hit anything to vital.” Folding back the visor, he continued walking down the hallway.

“We’re not alone down here,” Theta whispered. “That computer is lying.” As he looked back at her, she bared her fangs in a smile and tapped her nose, every trace of the earlier tiredness gone. “I can smell that unicorn in the air. It passed through here not long ago, but that wasn’t the first time it walked here. No, the entire place reeks of it; both old and fresh blood. It’s blood.”

He nodded and threw a glance towards the hallway behind them and the different junctions that spread out from it. “Do you think you can take care of it?”

Her grin grew. “These hallways are small. I’ll smell and hear it before it can see us, and once I’ve found the unicorn, it shouldn’t be hard to take care of it.” She ran her tongue over her teeth, before she gave out a short laugh at his expression. “I’m a hunter. Long ago you ponies were our prey, not our friends. I don’t think this unicorn should possess any trouble.”

ϑ

Aerial threw a glance at the elevator’s dead interface, which hadn’t responded to her tapping her wingtips against it, before she looked at the screen before her. “Computer!” she commanded.

Vox was quick to answer her—his head instantly materialized on the screen, his eyes in level with hers. “Yes, Miss Aerial?” he asked, his mouth movements delaying slightly compared to his voice. “How can I be of service?”

“The elevator is offline.” Her wing pointed towards the small keypad infused next to the screen. “I want you to circumvene the interface and take us to the bridge.”

“I’ll do no such thing, Miss. You see, the eleva—”

“That’s an order, computer,” she said sharply, taking a step closer to the screen. “I’m going to my brother, and that’s final!”

“I’m afraid you have no power here, Miss Aerial,” he answered calmly, meeting her hard gaze with a thin smile. “You might be the Captain of Aurum, the greatest ship in the Equestrian fleet, but onboard the Argentum, you don’t have the right to order me around.”

She blinked, before her gaze and voice hardened. “My brother—”

“Will see you when he deems it time,” he interrupted sharply, his voice still low. His smile grew slightly. “Besides, I’m afraid that even if I was forced to heed your orders, I’d be unable to. You see, the engines were, as you might recall, destroyed. We’re running on the emergency systems, and there’s not enough capacity in there to keep the elevators running.” He chuckled. “That is, of course, unless you want me to remove the life-support systems.”

Aerial opened her mouth as if to say something, but slowly closed it again. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a few, deep breaths before she looked the computer in the eyes. “I want answers from my brother,” she said slowly, her voice having regaining its calm. “If the elevators aren’t working, then I’ll take the stairs.” Turning around, she added: “Let my brother know we’re on our way.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that,” the AI answered softly. The elevator doors slammed shut before her nuzzle, effectively locking the small group inside of the elevator. “I’m afraid that my orders are simple, and I quote Captain Collateral directly: I want the ship engine repaired as quickly as possible, and I don’t want anyone to disturb me until I invite them myself. I’m certain you understand that I can’t go against such an order, and it’s my hope that you won’t hold it against me.”

She spun around to face the screen. “You mean that we’re trapped in here?!” she snarled between clenched teeth. “I want to talk with my brother this instant! You hear me?” She slammed a hoof against the wall. “He has no right to treat us like this!”

“I’m afraid that he has every right to do as he pleases on his own ship, Miss Aerial. Including keeping his younger sister away from seeing him.”

“You listen to me, you sad attempt for intelligence,” she said slowly, moving her head closer to the screen and glaring down at him. “If you don’t open that door right now, I’ll have Stechschritt open it instead! Do I make myself clear?”

“Definitively, Miss Aerial,” he answered calmly, before he raised an eyebrow. “But may I remind you that opening fire on board this ship would be seen as an act of utterly violence, and I would’ve no other choice but to call security.”

She smiled grimly. Looking into the computer’s eyes, she commanded, “Stechschritt, get us out of—”

“You. Have. Been. Appointed.” Vox voice was followed by a static noise that slowly grew in level.

The three ponies grimaced at the sharp sound. White Rose threw her hooves over her ears, giving out a slight whimper. Aerial covered her ears with her wings, motioning towards the elevator door with her head. Stechschritt, who had tried to cover his ears as well, tried to get a hold around his pistol instead. Just as his teeth grasped the mouth-grip, the static disappeared, leaving them in deafening silence.

“I’m terribly sorry, Miss,” the AI quickly said as soon as the noise had disappeared. The head on the screen grimaced. “That terrible noise has haunted us for days; you never know when it’ll activate.” He made a sound as if he cleared his throat. “But, as I was saying—” his smile turned grim “—you’ve been appointed.”

Author's Note:

As with the earlier chapters, a big, BIG thank you towards both MelonHunter and Nick Nack for helping me with grammar and story, as well as putting up with me!

This story would be nothing without these two!