Contents
CHAPTER 33
Overview
Approaching Tines’ World, tensions aboard the OOB peak as Pham’s security hacks trigger cascading failures and a workshop fire, forcing fragile cooperation with the Riders. Pham covertly contacts a Sjandra Kei outflyer and learns Fleet Central is likely compromised. A colossal Zone surge plunges all parties into the Slow Zone, severing comms and stalling the interstellar chase while stakes on Tines’ World grow.
Summary
With less than two months to Tines’ World and three hostile fleets closing, life aboard the OOB turns into guarded collaboration. Pham locks down control, distrusts Rider automation, and booby-traps systems. Ravna tends Greenstalk, whose recovery reveals Blueshell’s fear of hidden infection. Pham insists on using Blueshell’s expertise but under tight constraints, vowing to deliver Old One’s purpose.
Pham’s security rewrites and the OOB’s unreliable Bottom automation collide: interlocking failures erupt, beamers slag checkpoints, water is lost, and a workshop fire detonates reactive armor. The crew saves the ship but loses half the water, most of the workshop, the landing boat’s higher automation, armor, and some thrust. Chastened, Pham cautiously expands Blueshell’s advisory role.
As fleets converge, Pham proposes contacting Sjandra Kei’s remnants without alerting others, using a third of a compromised cipher carried by OOB. A link is made to Group Captain Kjet Svensndot aboard Ølvira. Through narrowband relays to Fleet Central, Pham argues the Alliance and the Blighter fleet are both enemies; Central rejects aiding OOB and demands boarding. Visual anomalies and a pointed query about Riders aboard the flagship raise the alarming inference that Fleet Central is subverted, likely via Skroderiders onboard.
Before plans can form, communications degrade catastrophically. A titanic Zone surge sweeps sideways, first cutting Fleet Central, then Ølvira, then the OOB, plunging all into the Slow Zone and halting ultradrive jumps. Blueshell’s analysis of contact timings indicates a traversing “tsunami” of the boundary; the trailing edge may pass in hours to days, restoring the Beyond.
Stripped to Slow-Zone automation, the OOB’s systems become clumsy and limited. The crew plans for a brief “timeout,” hoping to coordinate with unperverted Sjandra Kei elements once the surge passes, but hours stretch toward days. With comm windows to Jefri missed and uncertainty mounting, the race stalls while danger on Tines’ World likely intensifies.
Who Appears
- Pham NuwenTightens control of OOB, triggers cascading failures, then cautiously cooperates with Riders; initiates covert contact with Sjandra Kei; suspects command subversion.
- Ravna BergsndotMediates tensions, supports Greenstalk’s recovery, proposes contact plan, negotiates with Kjet, and steadies crew after the Slow Zone surge.
- BlueshellAdvises despite Pham’s distrust; warns of automation risks; helps limit fire damage; analyzes surge geometry and Slow Zone implications.
- GreenstalkGradually recovers cognition; perceives Blueshell’s inner fear; urges risky comm attempt; confirms likely Rider presence at Fleet Central.
- Kjet SvensndotØlvira’s captain; hears OOB’s plea, suspects Fleet Central compromise, considers aiding despite orders before comms collapse.
- GlimfrelleDirokime officer handling signals; decrypts OOB link, notes anomalies, confirms bandwidth collapse into the Slow Zone.
- TirolleDirokime navigator; verifies Riders aboard Fleet Central; questions strategy; tracks systems failing during the surge.
- Owner LimmendeCommercial Security leader; refuses to aid without boarding OOB, likely speaking under compromised command.
- Jan SkritsFleet chief of staff; rejects Pham’s plan, issues restrictive orders as comm quality suggests possible subversion.