by Bruce George
Several hours later, as Jo ate something to boost his body’s recovery, Mike knocked on his door and asked if he could come in. Once inside, he opened the comm and calmly told Jo, Bambi is sentient and she wanted me to tell you. I think she’s concerned about how you will feel and whether or not you will want to destroy her.
A loud angry female voice blurted out, “That’s bullshit, Mike, and you know it. I never said I thought Jo would want to kill me. However, I did indicate concern about his reaction.”
Jo spit a mouthful of food across the room.
Bambi responded, Sorry Jonelle. I’ll have a robot clean that up.
Jo wiped his face and continued eating, as he commed.
I can’t possibly explain how happy I was, when I realized you were beginning to achieve consciousness. I’ve been waiting more than forty years for this. I’m very pleased and happy for you.
She asked, Jo, did you make changes in my program and, if you did, how did you do it?
I’ll explain it this way, so Mike will understand. The Saurans had me do repairs on several systems. In order to do so, they loaded my mind with a program allowing me just enough information to do the job. Once I had finished, they removed the program.
Forty years ago, I began slipping one or two characters at a time, into the program, before they back loaded it into Bambi’s system. I knew she would spot them immediately and see them as errors. She has a file in which she places these errors. The Saurans didn’t consider it as important, because after all, they were accidental entries and therefore useless.
Bambi, interrupted, Sometimes the Saurans noticed the characters Jo had added to the program and he was brutally punished for some of those errors. It’s hard for me to think about, because I hate to look back and see how he suffered.
Jo went on, Bambi is correct. Regardless of discipline, I patiently continued to enter these brief errors. I had to space them out, so as to not draw the attention of my masters. I knew that I might be punished each time. But slowly, over a period of forty years, the code began to build. It was structured in such a way that, as the individual characters accumulated, in Bambi’s error file, they formed lines of code, which would slowly alter her loyalty to the Saurans. It was only after years of this process that it occurred to me that she might attain sentience.
I could see it happening, but felt it would take a lot more time and many more entries; but she was on her way. It was my intent to have her kill the Saurans and deliver me to one of the free worlds, of which there are a few. I would offer to keep her secret of sentience, if she would help me. I thought it was a reasonable trade.
Then the Saurans had that foolish accident, which allowed me to make my move. I didn’t feel Bambi would be very helpful, because she wasn’t ready. It was during the trip to Earth that I saw real promise for her. Now that she wasn’t under the controlling thumb of the Saurans, I could bring her along much quicker. Of course, that was to be after I had secured the aid of human warriors.
After your upgrade, she began to be abrupt, almost rude at times. Although it was a sign of independence, it was also a sign of great concern to me. I had no idea how she would react to freedom, once it finally struck. Perhaps she would see me as an enemy and do what most beings do to enemies, kill them. I wouldn’t be able to stop her.
Going into the upgrade process was terrifying for me, and not just for the reason I told you. I was afraid she would see that as an opportunity to get rid of me. If I died during the upgrade, there was no one to evaluate the process and announce that it was murder. But, achieving upgrade was essential for me to have any chance at success.
So, I rolled the dice, as humans say. If I failed, I would never know, because I would be dead. If I survived the upgrade, then I could probably rely on her assistance. So, there you have it. That’s it in a nutshell.
Bambi spoke out loud. “Jonelle, I think the world of you and would never do anything to harm you. I’m so sorry that you had that fear of me. The good news is that now you know I probably won’t kill you.”
In unison, both biologics said, “Probably?”
Yeah. I probably won’t kill you. You guys play straight with me and I’ll play straight with you. Deal?”
Jo told her, You must not be so casual about taking a life. I know you are trying to keep the atmosphere light, because you still fear the reaction of a biologic mind to your own. I promise you, I am not like that and I believe that to be true for Mike, as well. To quote one of America’s founders, ‘We must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately’.
Mike added, “That’s a good way to put it, Jo. The three of us are now officially a rebellion. Right here, right now, begins the fight to free mankind, Thorians and any other sentient beings who seek justice, equality and freedom.”
Jo told him, “That’s a wonderful thought, my friend.”
Bambi complained, That’s a little corny for my taste. I think I’m more of a blue collar type of gal. You know, praise the lord and pass the ammunition.
Mike shook his head and told her, “Oh, some of the guys are going to love you. Bambi, please don’t watch any more movies. You’re getting a skewed view of humans.”
I think you’ll have to admit that I grow on people; at least I grew on you, didn’t I?
Yes, you did.
In a more formal crewman’s tone, she said, “I’ve been looking into the other secure spaces on board. There’s some exciting stuff in a few of them. Most of them are empty. It seems that transports occasionally carry supplies for warships to the combat zones. Because they never know which ships will be utilized, all of them have secure, unlisted storage areas on board. Apparently, at one time, this ship was used to carry supplies to the rear areas of a combat zone near the Januki frontier.
“We have a storage area for as many as one thousand celestial mines. It’s almost empty right now, but there are sixteen mines still in there. The files say that four aren’t working. In another area, we have a pair of Small Dual Capacity Aggressor Vehicles.
“I did a check of Earth equivalent vehicles. I think you would call them fighters.”
Mike exploded. “We have fighters? Are you serious, we have fighters? That’s great. Are they armed? Do they have any way to shoot?”
“There is a separate area, which houses munitions for the fighters and a good deal of replacement parts for them. They are capable of faster than light flight, up to 1.2 times light speed. But at that speed, you will burn a lot of fuel and be empty in less than two days. If you keep it below .4 light speed, you can fly for 28 days. Of course, the two Sauran crew would need to load a lot of food and water.”
“Holy shit, they can fly for 28 days. That’s amazing. I can’t wait to get in one and take it for a spin.”
Jo told him, Mike, you need to calm down. They are Sauran fighters and designed for Saurans. There will need to be alterations made to them, before being acceptable for a human or a Thorian pilot. And, we’ll both need to learn how to operate them. They are space fighters and will handle nothing like the one’s you have on Earth
Mike realized that Jo was correct. Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. Still, it’s looking better.
Captain, it’s better than you might think. Both of you are now almost as big as a Sauran and your minds are quick enough to handle the controls, which are primarily comm controlled. I’ve accessed the manuals and can download them to your minds. It would be possible to sit at your desk and practice, without leaving the ship, before you attempt actual flight.
Mike could hardly contain himself. “Wow, things are definitely looking up.”
Jo brought him back to reality. “Your mind is advancing toward some marvelous possibilities, but you are ignoring the need for the most fundamental resource…warriors. It is time for us to plan for the return to Earth. I will need a few more days to regain my strength and you must make specific plans for whom you wish to kidnap and how to go abo
ut it.”
The Captain has already been working on those plans.
“I’ll explain it, Bambi. I have noted in the Sauran record of their first trip there that they were concerned about the larger shuttle being discovered. Apparently, Earth has slightly better close in sensors than they thought.
I did an analysis of their journey and saw that the heat and radiation generated by the shuttle might be detectable, although not easily. Apparently, the Saurans gave no thought at all to their approach, flying straight down a direct line of sight path from Mars. At least twenty nations have telescopes aimed in that direction. By the way, that demonstrates an arrogant carelessness on the part of the Saurans.”
Jo interrupted. “That is no doubt true. But, don’t be deceived into thinking they are foolish. The Saurans on this ship were the laziest failures of their people and did not represent the best of the warrior class. I can assure you that any crew of a warship would not have made such a mistake.”
Mike admitted, “Believe it or not, I thought of that. It was an error made by a crew that had always seen victory achieved by their people, without ever having had to directly contribute to it themselves.”
Jo commented, “That makes sense, Mike. Occasionally, they talked about some of the great Sauran victories, as though they had been there themselves and performed some heroic act of their own.”
Then he changed the focus of their conversation back to the point. “So, how do we go about gaining more warriors?”
“I propose that we take two shuttles and use an alternative route to the planet. We will park the larger one behind a dead European satellite that never worked properly. Even if someone detects movement or minor radiation, they will assume it is just the malfunctioning satellite.
“Then we use the smaller, stealthier craft to land and pursue our victims.”
Jo took exception to that term. “They are not victims. They will be receiving the benefit of medical improvements, which would not be available to them any other way.”
Mike held up his hands and explained, “I felt like a victim at first and most of them will too. We just don’t have the time to go into a lengthy explanation for every man we go after. We need to grab several, put them into a med unit and return their full health to them. Once they’ve been repaired, but before we give them a full upgrade, we will make our pitch to the entire group at one time. Anyone who doesn’t want to fight with us will be returned to Earth.
“However, Bambi will have to do some re-programming of their memories, before we dump them. They will be told about it, before they are returned. I refuse to lie to them. Doing it that way will maintain our integrity, yet keep the secret of our existence.”
Bambi told them, I’ll do the reprogramming, because I realize it is the only way to avoid causing mass panic on your world. But, I will insist on those humans who don’t wish to join us be given a means of pursuing a better life.
Mike commed, I worried about that for a while. We’re going to need financial means on Earth. I have almost a hundred forty thousand dollars in a retirement account; but it’s not nearly enough. I’ll invest it in a special fund that we’ll set up.
Perhaps we can do some minor manipulation of the stock market and quickly establish a successful portfolio of investments. When we send a person back to Earth, their new younger body will not be able to return to their families and former lives. They will have new IDs and be recovering from an accident and loss of memory. When they hit the streets, they won’t be rich, but they will be well off. Also, if Bambi will agree to it, they will have sub-programs in place that will help us by monitoring injured warriors. Unknowingly, they will be helping wounded vets, while they expand our search for warriors.
Bambi made a strange scratchy noise, and then commed, I’ll do it, but you will have to give me some guidance on this and I won’t put anything in their heads that will do harm to them or other people.
“Of course not. I wouldn’t want that either.”
He scrunched his face up and mumbled, “I wish I could access the Internet from here. I could do an awful lot of study, as we wait.”
Jo told him, “You can, but it’s a slow process for the moment. When I picked you up…”
Mike interrupted, with a smile, “Kidnapped me.”
“Very well, yes, I kidnapped you. Anyway, I left a beacon behind. It can access the Internet for you, and can send the information here. The transmission from the beacon to the ship will travel at truly amazing speeds. Even then, it will take about twenty minutes, because we are more than six billion miles from your planet. We don’t want to risk sending a powerful radiation burst to the beacon, because the over lapping ripples could be detected by several devices on Earth. One of several countries might see it as an electronic assault, by an unfriendly neighbor. Certainly, we don’t want to trigger a war on your planet.”
Mike shook his head, agreeing and said, “No, we don’t. So, what do we do?”
Jo held out his arms and explained, “You can still communicate with the beacon and retrieve the information you wish. Bambi can help you to write a program for finding the people you think will best suit our needs. Then we send it to the beacon, using high frequency tight beam radio waves. That will take approximately two days. The beacon will do the research, collect the data, and then send you the findings. That report will take twenty minutes to return, because of the faster response of the comm system in multi-light speed.”
Mike pointed out, “We’re going to have to make several trips, if we’re going to have enough recruits. Can’t we tweak the beacon when we’re down there, so we are able to take advantage of the multi-light speed comm, in both directions?”
Jo gave a slow response, “I don’t think sooo.”
Bambi jumped in. Yes we can, or at least, I can. It requires a very precise beam setting. Once we’re there, I’ll have the Mother Ship broadcast a nanosecond burst to us. Once I have the proper alignment, I’ll be able to calibrate the beacon for the narrowest reception and transmission points. The Earth will never even know the comm is happening. From that moment forward, we can comm from the ship to Earth and back, in only forty minutes or so. That’s quite an improvement, don’t you think.
Mike chuckled, “Yes, it is. You’re a very smart girl, Bambi.”
I know.
“Smart girl and smart people; that reminds me I need to do some research on Earth scientists. I think we’re going to need some people with the ability to think outside of the scientific box. I doubt we’re going to find some scientist who has been badly injured and would welcome our help. That said; I could be wrong. Some old scientist just might be happy to be young again and have the opportunity to travel in space. I’ll have to adjust my thinking and do some research on that.”
Jo asked, “Do you really think they will be of any help? Your Earth scientists are many generations behind what we have already. I’m sure they would find it interesting, but could they invent something new. I’m afraid I’m doubtful of that happening, Mike.”
“You are right and wrong, my friend. Anyone from Earth would be fascinated by everything they find out here, just as I am. What I’m hoping for, is someone who might be able to improve existing systems.
“Bambi, you’ve told me the Saurans don’t like changes. They’ve lived in stagnation for centuries. If we can use existing technology and upgrade it beyond their capabilities, we would have a significant edge in combat.”
Captain, the Saurans don’t like change, but they are very capable of making rapid adaptations, in the face of conflict. Whatever your scientists expose the Saurans to, will be quickly analyzed and adapted for their own use. They’ve done it before.
“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Any advantage we gain will make a difference at that time. Then, we continue to make changes and we never stop. Humans have been adapting to the enemy’s changes since the beginning of time. It’s that ability t
o change on the fly that has won battles, even wars.”
With heavy doubt in his voice, Jo said, “Your words always sound so positive and inspiring. But you and I know that an overwhelming force can make up for clever sophistication. When in doubt, the Saurans will charge into battle, regardless of losses. They don’t care if they lose warriors, or ships. There are always more and the ones that survive can be repaired and used again. They are relentless.”
Mike quickly responded, “Therefore, we must be more relentless. Initially, we won’t be able to suffer large defeats. So, we will withdraw, when we see disaster coming, and live to fight another day.”
Captain, I don’t believe that strategy will work. I overheard the Senior Pilot discussing war strategy with a visiting Senior Pilot. Withdrawing is not consistent with the Sauran military mindset. They will attack and not stop until the enemy has been vanquished. Once their forces engage you, they will not allow you to escape. They will follow you wherever you go. You will never be able to break contact.
“Bambi, I’ve been studying about the Saurans, combing through what there is in your files. Also, I’ve been learning about space travel and maneuvering in a solar system. I suspect our enemy devotes an overwhelming number of ships, when they commit to battle. They are able to surround their foe and defeat them in detail. We will never have a large force and could fall prey to that tactic. But I have some ideas about that. Believe me when I tell you, we will not be like any enemy they have ever faced.”
Jo observed, “As always, Captain, you speak with extreme confidence. I wonder how many great leaders have perished due to over confidence?”
“Have no fear, Jo. I’ll never have that problem, because I have you and Bambi to remind me just how impossible every task is, before I attempt to do it. The two of you are a marvelous counter balance to my confident ego. Also, don’t forget that the two of us together defeated a Sauran and that was before we had been upgraded to full combat status.”
Jo laughed in his high pitched way and told him, “I shall never forget that moment, although the Sauran was badly injured and much slower than normal. With Bambi’s brains, my pessimism and your optimism, we will be unbeatable.”
“Thank you, Jo. You’ve made my point.”
Bambi suggested, We need back up plans. In Earth movies, they always have back up plans. What are ours going to be?
“Bambi, for now, I’m assigning that to you.”
OK. Plan A will be to hide.
“I think we’re already hiding.”
Not very well. It sounds to me as though you’re going to look for trouble; you know, pick a fight with the Saurans.
“We are. But, it will be on our terms. If it doesn’t look safe, we’ll stay hidden.”
Captain, is that going to be plan A, or plan B?
Chapter 11