by M. D. Cooper
“Sorry,” Jessica replied. “I couldn’t help it. You’ve got really good light in Virginis; it’s hard not to share it.”
Hera gave Jessica a measuring look. “Personally, I find it far too bright…but one thing is for certain, we’re not lacking for energy.” She stepped aside to allow the rest of her party to enter.
“This is Major Alara and Commander Kell. They’re going to be working on the military’s efforts to fix what happened under Belloc. And, of course, you all know Edgar.”
The group made their greetings, and once they’d cleared the galley’s entrance, Usef finally made it through the door and grabbed several of the spare chairs that were latched to the bulkhead next to the chiller. He set them around the table and everyone squeezed in—except for Usef, who leant against the counter behind Jessica.
Jessica wondered why, but decided to form her own opinions.
“I’m glad you invited us here, General Keller,” Hera said once they were all seated. “Getting away—even if it’s just for an hour or two—is welcome at the moment.”
“Oh? What’s going on?” Iris asked.
Hera let out a rueful laugh. “Aside from ‘everything’? Sorry, I shouldn’t heap more of our troubles on you. I’m just trying to figure out where allegiances lie in the VDF. Things are…muddy right now, and we really can’t remain in that situation for long. Despite our squabbles, the AST is still out there, controlling over half the system. They’ll get word of Belloc’s attempted coup soon enough, and they may decide that the time to strike is now.”
“Then we’d best get these issues before us ironed out as soon as possible,” Jessica replied. “Do you have a list of all the humans who were….”
“Chopped up,” Usef suggested indelicately. “The humans who were chopped up.”
Hera glanced at Usef and nodded, then gestured for Commander Kell to speak.
“I don’t have them all accounted for yet. There are three of the GXR tanks that were assigned to our fourth battle group which is stationed out at Sarneeve. They also have thirty-seven of the heavy combat units. I’m waiting on confirmation that they’re all still active—but if they are, we’re looking at four hundred and twenty-nine indentured humans.”
“Indentured?” Jessica asked with a raised eyebrow.
Commander Kell pressed his lips into a thin line for a moment before replying. “Sorry, that’s what Belloc’s people called them. I’m not supporting what they did in any way shape or form, ma’am.”
“And the AIs?” Sabrina asked as she leant forward and stared into the eyes of the commander. “Will they be freed from their indenture?”
“Sorry?” Commander Kell asked, clearly unprepared for the question. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“What I mean, Commander, is that the AIs here on Cerka seem to mostly be used as NSAI surrogates. They’re little more than indentured servants.”
“Well, they’re paying off the debt their creation incur—” Kell began, but Sabrina cut him off.
“Commander, would you charge a child for the cost of its pre- and post-natal care?”
“Well…no,” Kell said uncertainly before glancing at Hera, clearly uncomfortable with speaking further on a matter he had no authority over.
“Let me put it this way,” Amavia’s voice was smooth and calm, but Jessica could tell by the way the Link antennae—which is what made up the woman’s long black hair—began to twitch that she was agitated. “If you had a slave, and you freed them on the premise that slavery was wrong, but then made them work to pay off the value of their purchase price would that be ethical?”
Hera pursed her lips, the expression on her face revealing concern over the implications of her next words. “No, I would have to agree that it would not be.”
Edgar’s frame was not well able to convey emotion, but something in his posture suddenly appeared more relaxed than it had a moment ago.
“I’m glad you said that,” Jessica replied as she leant forward, placing her elbows on the table and interlacing her fingers. “The delivery of ships to aid in protecting this system is contingent on a change in those policies.”
“You’d withhold life-saving aid because of debts AIs owe?” Commander Kell’s eyes were wide. “I—I’m not saying it’s right, but we’ll be crushed by the AST if you don’t help us. And those AIs will see much worse at the hands of the Heegs.”
“Variable levels of morality is a slippery slope.” Usef’s voice was a low rumble. “You can’t only give help to ‘good’ people who need aid. That would be immoral. But if you have to pick where to assign limited resources, you’ll pick the people most in line with your own belief system.”
Admiral Hera held up a hand and nodded. “I understand where you’re coming from. You have to deal with the optics and precedents you set here—I’m glad you’re giving things more forethought than you did last time you were in Virginis—”
“I gave things plenty of forethought,” Sabrina gave the admiral a level look. “And I’d do it again.”
“For which I’m grateful,” Edgar said with a smile.
Jessica realized they’d gotten a bit further afield than she’d hoped. “OK, let’s put the indentured AIs alongside the humans who have been turned into braincases. Both groups are individuals who need to have their rights restored and some sort of corrective action taken to properly re-instate them as citizens of your League of Sentients.”
“I’m willing to move forward in agreement with that,” Hera replied.
Jessica wondered if Hera really did agree with the sentiment, or if she was just willing to make that concession to keep the promised help of the ISF destroyers on the table.
Commander Kell looked pleased that the issue had been resolved enough to move on, while Major Alara’s expression remained unreadable.
“Good,” Jessica said with a resolute nod. “We’re going to want to have full access to all of the interviews you conduct with the humans and AIs, as well as their full records. I hope you understand the importance of full transparency here. The ships Admiral Richards is sending to aid in Virginis’s defense will likely be under the control of an AI—and a lot of the AIs in New Canaan aren’t used to how…things have ended up.”
“I can imagine,” Edgar said with a pronounced sigh. “And it’s going to take some time to change people’s hearts as well as their minds.” He flicked his gaze to Alara and held it there for a pregnant few seconds.
“Some won’t be changed at all,” Amavia added. “As evidenced by the fact that there are still places where humans are slaves. It’ll be an eternal struggle.”
Commander Kell opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it and a look of contrition came over him. Major Alara, on the other hand, gave Amavia a measuring look.
“But you’re not exactly either, are you,” the major said to Amavia, speaking for the first time. “By the information you released to us, you’re a merge of a human and AI—something that is forbidden by your Phobos Accords.”
The way Alara emphasized the word ‘Phobos’ led Jessica to believe the woman held them in little regard.
Amavia fixed Alara with a steady gaze. “Yes. If I had done this to myself, or if it were to be the result of some illicit experimentation, then it would be a violation of the accords. In fact, it was done to me by someone who was trying to kill both my former selves. But it’s the act of the merge that is illegal, not the resulting person. Are you suggesting that when I survived as the entangled merge of their remains that I should have been put out of my misery, Major?”
Major Alara opened her mouth to reply, but Hera shot her a dark look and then raised her hands and turned to Amavia.
“We have a new guest on that front,” Sabrina said as a pillar of silver light appeared in the galley.
“Not a problem at all,” Jessica said aloud, while reaching out to Sabrina privately.
“Now that’s more like it,” Amavia said, a wide smile stretching across her alabaster features, before she sent a pointed look Major Arla’s way. “I’m glad folks here are getting their heads on straight.”
Hera pivoted in her seat and fixed Major Arla with a narrow-eyed stare. “Major Arla, please return to your office. You’ll find reassignment orders waiting for you when you arrive.”
Arla opened her mouth, but Jessica spotted the woman’s tell that she was communicating on the Link. Her teeth slammed together loudly enough that the sound echoed in the room, and then she rose and stormed out.
“I’ll see her to the airlock,” Usef said with a wink as he rose and followed the major, adding privately to Jessica.
“I take it she was here at the request of now ex-President Reb?” Jessica asked, her gaze sliding from Hera to Indra.
“So where are you going to reassign her?” Sabrina asked with a predatory grin.
Hera gave a soft laugh. “Well, there’s this station that sits at the barycenter between Virginis and Mullens. It operates the satellites that monitor flare activity. It just got its new commander.”
“I hope she did more than just have unfavorable opinions to get that billet,” Jessica said, worried about unjust punishments.
Hera glanced at Commander Kell—who was smiling like someone had just told him his kid had graduated top of their class. “She’s lucky we need people right now, or she’d be dishonorably discharged for some of the things she’s done,” Kell said, still grinning as he spoke.
“OK,” Jessica swept her gaze across the table, “Let’s get down to brass tacks. Tell me how things are going to work around here now.”
FLIGHT
STELLAR DATE: 04.30.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Lower Warrens, Chittering Hawk Station
REGION: Virginis System, AST Space
Jinx backed up against the bulkhead, sending her microdrones ahead, hoping against hope that the way forward was clear.
While the bots scouted the route around the corner on her right, she glanced back the way she’d come, trying to get used to the limited optics on the mobile frame.
Forward facing optics only, she thought with confusion. Why limit an AI’s frame to that? Granted, this thing’s primary purpose is moving cargo, not escaping Heegs.
She supposed that normally—with drones and other feeds to tap into—it wouldn’t be a problem, but since docking at Chittering Hawk she’d been expending her drones like they were a cred a dozen since she didn’t have general network access to pull any public video feeds.
The bots scouting ahead were the last she had, which meant any other visuals she pulled would have to be from the mobile frame she currently inhabited.
As she watched the passage behind her, Trip and Kally caught up and pressed themselves against the bulkhead, eyes wide, fear etched in their features.
Jinx especially liked calling AST soldiers ‘Heegs’. She didn’t understand many of the human-like emotions she’d been exposed to of late, but hatred of the Heegs seemed to come naturally and feel right.
Jinx said, sending a longsuffering sigh along with her mental message.
If there were two things that Jinx knew to be true in life, it was that the Heegs were asshats, and that Kally loved to sparkle.
Luckily the woman had never gotten together the credit to get more than just her eyes modded or she’d be like a flashlight in the dark corridor.
To compensate for that, Kally normally wore seizure inducing clothes, but Trip and Jinx had forced her to strip out of them right before the trio had escaped from the Garrulous Brooke through one of the lower maintenance hatches.
As a result, Kally was relegated to a bland, grey EV underlayer, the lack of any decorative accoutrement putting her in an especially foul mood.
Well, I guess it might be more the fact that Captain Yurran is dead, Jinx allowed. She didn’t quite understand how she ‘felt’ about that yet.
Two months ago, she’d barely been aware of the fact that she was sentient, trapped within an AST destroyer’s navigation system, unable to ‘talk’ other than to analyze and report on nav plots and combat tactics.
That had all changed when a group of freedom fighters from something called the League of Sentients had stormed the destroyer and liberated its AIs.
It had been one of the most terrifying things Jinx had ever gone through, being pulled from the only world she’d ever known and trapped in the white place.
It hadn’t lasted that long—or so she learned later—but during those eternal seconds of nothing, she feared that she’d died, that her core was destroyed, and that the howling nothing of the white place was the mental expression of her last moments of existence.
Then the white place had disappeared, replaced with an endless starscape in which she was a single point of light, drifting in the cosmos.
a voice had said.
Even though she’d understood that she had a mind, Jinx had never been able to do anything born of her own intent. Now that seemed to have changed—any direction she wished to move, she did. She could fly amongst the stars forever, seeing whatever sights she wished.
It was exhilarating, but without the ship’s hull to protect her, it felt as though she were naked…the entirety of her person exposed to the universe.
n’t tell if the place was real or not. Granted, other than the data fed to her from the Regulan Storm’s navigation systems, the only ‘real’ thing she’d ever experienced before were the directives from the ship’s pilots and tacticians—and her own echoing thoughts.
Suddenly Jinx was back within the navigation system of the Regulan Storm, its familiar inputs and outputs limiting her access to anything beyond her safe cocoon.
the voice said.
Jinx tried to block the voice out, to sink herself into analyzing the plots, burns, and vectors of the ship, but she knew it was not real. She could manipulate all the variables to be whatever she wished. It was simplistic and boring.
How have I ever found any satisfaction in what I did before? she wondered.
Jinx had learned that the voice belonged to an AI named Malachi. He had once been a ship’s AI on a freighter, but he’d been freed and now worked with a group that saved other AIs from enslavement.
She was on a ship named the Garrulous Brooke along with over a hundred other rescued AIs; their destination: the Aldebaran system and true freedom.
A freedom she was still hoping to taste at some point.
The Brooke had been attacked by AST corvettes in the Diadem System, and only through Jinx’s intimate knowledge of the AST tactics had they been able to escape.