THE GHOST LINE: The Titanic of the Stars - Softcover

Gray, Andrew Neil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0765394979 ISBN 13: 9780765394972

Verlag: Tor.com, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

The Ghost Line is a haunting science fiction story about the Titanic of the stars by debut authors Andrew Neil Gray and J. S. Herbison that Lawrence M. Schoen calls "a delicious rush of the future and the past."

The Martian Queen was the Titanic of the stars before it was decommissioned, set to drift back and forth between Earth and Mars on the off-chance that reclaiming it ever became profitable for the owners. For Saga and her husband Michel the cruise ship represents a massive payday. Hacking and stealing the ship could earn them enough to settle down, have children, and pay for the treatments to save Saga’s mother’s life.

But the Martian Queen is much more than their employer has told them. In the twenty years since it was abandoned, something strange and dangerous has come to reside in the decadent vessel. Saga feels herself being drawn into a spider’s web, and must navigate the traps and lures of an awakening intelligence if she wants to go home again.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

ANDREW NEIL GRAY and J. S. HERBISON are partners in life as well as in writing. The Ghost Line is their first fiction collaboration, but won't be their last. They have also collaborated in the creation of two humans and preside over a small empire of chickens, raspberries and dandelions on Canada's West Coast.

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The Ghost Line

By Andrew Neil Gray, J. S. Herbison, Carl Engle-Laird

Tom Doherty Associates

Copyright © 2017 Andrew Neil Gray and Jennifer Herbison
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7653-9497-2

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Acknowledgments, 
Begin Reading, 
About the Authors, 
Copyright Page, 

CHAPTER 1

From fifty kilometers out they could finally see the ship they were going to break into. The Martian Queen gleamed in the sunlight, a brilliant white fleck in the darkness between Earth and Mars.

"This better be worth it," Michel said.

"It will be." Saga called up a magnified view on the big screen on the Sigurd's bridge. Even if her husband wasn't excited, she felt the familiar buzz of anticipation. It wasn't just the thrill of a new target. The liner before them was intact and untouched. Not holed, half-melted, or long since abandoned and stripped bare. This job felt like a luxury. Which was fitting, given the ship's history.

Everything about the Martian Queen was ostentatious, from her hull paint to the rows of windows that stitched her sides. If her designers could have found an excuse for funnels, propellers, and an anchor, no doubt they would have welded them on.

"Form should follow function," she said. "No wonder they went bankrupt."

"Ha!" Gregor, the Sigurd's pilot, had lived in the asteroid belt for twenty-five years, but his Russian accent was as thick as the day he left Novosibirsk. He rubbed the stubble on his chin. "You think it was just a way to get from one planet to other? Main function of this liner was to separate people from money."

"Point taken."

An old brochure glowed in Gregor's hands. "Two casinos. Two! Plus steam room and spa. Stage shows. Recreation ring. Even had Michelin-star chef."

Saga saw a line of dancing girls kicking up their heels. The narrator's voice issued from the brochure, followed by tinny orchestral music. She reached over and folded the bright rectangle, turning it off.

"Hey," Michel said. "I was enjoying that."

Saga snorted. "They're probably not even real. Who can kick that high?"

Gregor winked at Michel. "That is good thing. If dancers were synths then maybe they are still in storage. We could have party."

"No parties." Wei floated into the room. The woman who'd hired them wasn't much for entertainment, let alone slacking off. Wei was in her forties, her black hair cut in a belter bob, the short haircut favored by people who spent a lot of time in pressure suits. She wore simple grey coveralls and the strained expression of someone who had reached the limits of her patience. "You have to get inside to have a party."

"Problem?" Gregor said.

"Yeah, this is a worthless piece of shit." Wei threw a small object at Gregor. Surprised, he watched as it pinged off his shoulder.

Michel plucked it out of the air. He looked at the data stick that contained Wei's intrusion package. "We knew this was a possibility, right?"

"And we did warn you," Saga added. When they'd first met her, Wei revealed she had the chance to buy a software back door into an unnamed mothballed ship, untouched for twenty years. They'd told her not to waste her money. Saga had sung her and Michel's praises, their ability to insinuate their way into the toughest systems.

But Wei had gone ahead and purchased the package anyway. She shot them a sour look, then pushed off and was gone, back to her room.

Saga looked at her husband. She grinned. "Care to do some hacking?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

* * *

The Sigurd slid under the belly of the Martian Queen. Up close, the sheer size of it was apparent. Their sleek cutter was like a lifeboat in comparison.

"Less than one hour," Gregor said. "How did you do it?"

"Just fly the damn ship," Wei snapped.

"Ship knows how to dock herself." Gregor turned to Michel. "I would like to know how you got in. I have all ears."

"We buy old data," Michel said.

"From auctions," Saga continued. "Bankrupt companies sell off assets to pay back creditors, right? Everybody wants marketing information and mineral surveys. Nobody cares about the maintenance logs and system manuals. We get them for almost nothing."

"Ah," Gregor said. "So you have your own back doors."

The Sigurd slowed as it reached the stern of the Martian Queen, aiming for the service docking port near the wedge of reactor shielding.

"We almost never find actual programmer back doors," Michel said. "Mostly it's just regular holes. We know every system, every subsystem. How often they were updated. The software hasn't been patched for years, so we had our choice of exploits."

"The one we used was a buffer overflow in the LIDAR sensors," Saga said. She looked at the display in her contact lenses, the interface to the liner floating in front of her face. Cracking the ship's software had been foreplay, a thrill that promised greater rewards to come. When she'd been back on Earth, it had been fooling alarm systems and picking locks. Either way, the goal was the same: breaking in. Turning an abandoned place into a playground.

The Sigurd slid closer, cautiously. A meter from contact the service port extended its clamps in welcome. A moment later, with a clunk heard through the ship's hull, they were docked.

"No need to explain more," Gregor said. "I would not understand anyway." He turned to Wei. "You have your ship now."

* * *

It was almost a day until they left the Sigurd. After all her hurry to get there, Wei seemed reluctant to take the next step. She ordered Saga and Michel to remotely explore the security systems inside the Queen, to make sure there were no hidden alarms. Then she spent several hours in her cabin, uncommunicative. When she finally emerged, Saga and Michel pushed, but she wouldn't budge. "You two have been exploring for years," she said. "You should know better."

"But you haven't even cleared our survey bots," Saga said. "The Queen's systems all say it has full pressure. We've told it to raise ambient to room temperature."

"We're ready when I say we're ready," Wei growled.

So they sat in the galley. Gregor came by once for a bulb of tea, which he slurped noisily, but otherwise they were alone.

"You could get started from here," Michel said. "With the Queen's internal cameras. You could put together a rough model in half an hour."

Saga shook her head. Long blond tendrils floated in front of her eyes with the movement. She'd taken a shower and washed her hair while they waited. "The resolution would be too low. And you know I need to see a place with my own eyes first. We spent two months getting here, we can wait a little longer."

Michel slapped the table in frustration. "Goddamn it; waiting is all we ever do." The motion pushed his slim body up and he floated toward the ceiling. He waved his arms, reaching for a handhold as Saga laughed. He shot her a look and pushed himself out of the galley.

She gathered her damp hair, fixing it into a bun at the nape of her neck with an elastic from her wrist. He'd be back eventually, apologetic. Of the two of them, he'd always had the shorter fuse, but his anger burned itself out quickly.

In the meantime, she would check her mail, which should have loaded by now. Since this was a dark mission, she'd had to route her request through several anonymous relays scattered around the asteroid belt. What should have been a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Tor.com
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0765394979
• ISBN 13: 9780765394972
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 144
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Procter & Gamble Service GmbH, Braun; https://in.pg.com/contact-us/; ; Sulzbacher Str. 40-50; Schwalbach/Ts.; 65824; Deutschland