When Luck Runs Out

by Terry Mixon

  She tried to imagine how she could do that, particularly since the alien devices didn’t seem all that keen on sharing information with her directly. Nothing presented itself.

  “It’s not like it has a timestamp on it. I’m going to have to look at the Nova system and see if those artificial flip points exist or not.”

  Manipulating the map still felt strange to her, but it wasn’t overwhelmingly tricky now. Finding the area of space that they occupied was a lot more complicated, and she had to back up a number of times and have Carl give her directions of what areas to enlarge.

  When she saw the Nova system, it was whole. The sun was still there as well, as were all of its planets. This was obviously a view from the distant past. She’d have to alter the frame of reference to get to modern times.

  That was a little bit more difficult for her to figure out. It took a while to find a series of gestures that brought up what amounted to a curved scrollbar underneath the map that she could manipulate. She dragged her finger forward and saw the map slowly morph into a different series of linkages.

  “I think I figured out how to adjust the timescale, but how do we know when now is?” she complained.

  “I think for our purposes, dragging things forward to the very end might be the answer,” Carl said. “It’s unlikely to display a projection of what the flip point network would look like millions of years in the future.”

  Elise dragged the point on the scrollbar forward and kept her eye firmly placed on the Nova system. She saw the system progress until the sun swelled up and destroyed the worlds around and then collapsed into itself and was gone, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake after what must’ve been a titanic explosion.

  More time passed as she scrolled, and the two flip points appeared when she was almost at the end of the scrollbar. She had no idea how much time was left in the projection, but she suspected that the system was making some guesses about how the flip point network would look in the near future.

  What was frightening to her was that the map had known when the nova occurred and documented it. While the system had been inhabited, it was one in a sea of billions. How much data had the aliens collected, and how was it all stored inside her?

  There was no telling. In any case, she had work to do, so that was a mystery for later.

  She moved back to the section of the map with the Obelisk system. There was the ultra-far flip point that they’d been considering. She followed it to Alpha Centauri and saw the three stars that made up the system: a close binary and a distant third. The map showed several planets, but she knew from her own research that none of them were habitable, and none had any significant resources.

  With the Terran Empire being as large as it had been, Alpha Centauri had been an ignored adjunct to the Terra system.

  Now it possibly held the key to stopping the artificial intelligences that had murdered the Old Empire and enslaved humanity, if only they could figure out how to beat the damned thing.

  Well, as interesting as that was, it still didn’t tell them if the map was any different than the recording, so they’d best get to work and see if they could manipulate it in other ways. She wasn’t hopeful, but they wouldn’t know if they didn’t try.

  30

  Six days later, Jared sat in the center of his bustling flag bridge as they closed in on the ultra-far flip point that they’d finally localized. Elise had given them a general area to look in, but it had turned out that the projections were somewhat skewed. That was good to know.

  It hadn’t been a tremendous distance from where the prediction had placed it but far enough away that it required a bit of searching around. If they’d been in a hurry, they’d have been in trouble.

  Of course, it had been almost a week’s worth of travel, so that was the opposite of quick all on its own.

  As things sat, the master AI had no reason to expect them, particularly coming from the distance that they’d be coming in from. It knew that it was safe in the cul-de-sac. Of course, it would still be in an uproar about their intrusion into Terra, but they’d been gone for half a year. Even with that, he doubted that it suspected the true scope of the events that had taken place right under its electronic nose.

  The question now was going to be what they found at the other end of this flip. Carl had hypothesized that these ultra-far flip points were not restricted regarding the size of ships that they could carry. That meant that the entire fleet should be able to make the trip to Alpha Centauri, and they’d arrive so far away from the inner system that there was no reason to expect that the AI would have anything monitoring the area.

  A little bit of circumspection when they transitioned would make certain that they gave off no emissions that could lead to their discovery. Then, once they’d arrived, they could send stealthed probes into the system and look for any indication that the master AI had relocated there at their leisure.

  This assumed that the master AI hadn’t chosen to relocate to Proxima Centauri. While it was technically part of the Alpha Centauri system, it was roughly a tenth of a light-year away from the binary stars.

  In real space terms, that meant that the star was separated from the others by over four hundred and thirty times the orbital radius of Neptune. That meant that if they had to go all the way to Proxima Centauri in normal space, the journey would take over a year. One way.

  “We’ve arrived at the flip point, Admiral,” Marcus said from the overhead speakers. “The fleet is proceeding according to your orders. Persephone is advancing first and will relay tactical information back to us before the remainder of the fleet flips.”

  That wasn’t going to take very long, he knew. As soon as the strike ship transitioned to Alpha Centauri, it would take passive scanner readings of the area around the emergence point, and as soon as it was confirmed clear for their progression, the remainder of the fleet would go through. If there was going to be fighting, he wanted all of his ships and personnel ready to do their part.

  Three minutes after Persephone flipped, word came in via probe that the flip point on the other end was clear, and the fleet began transitioning. Invincible was about a third of the way back in the line but still arrived in Alpha Centauri within fifteen minutes of the all-clear.

  The screen updated with the view from the ultra-far flip point. They were about eight days out from where a regular flip point would be—plenty of space between them and anything inside the system.

  “Are we detecting anything inside the system?” he asked.

  “Parsing the data now, Admiral,” Cannon said. “Gravitic drives are operating inside the system, though our resolution is poor at this distance. It doesn’t appear that they’re attempting to conceal their presence. Perhaps they’re satisfied that the ships in Terra will give them enough warning to cut their drives before anyone else could arrive in the system.”

  “That’s excellent news,” Jared said, feeling some relief. “I was afraid we wouldn’t see anything and that we’d have to tear this system apart to find out whether or not the master AI was here. Worse, I was half afraid that it had only stopped here long enough to get set up at Proxima Centauri. That would’ve been a nightmare.”

  “It would’ve been a long trip,” Marcus said. “We’ll hope that isn’t the case. If we have to send the ship to explore Proxima Centauri, the travel times would be… egregious. For being so close at hand, it may be the most distant star in our area. I’m sure that there are other stars that mimic this behavior, but none are relevant to our mission.”

  About fifteen seconds later, Jared’s implants signaled an incoming communication. It was Kelsey over on Persephone. He accepted the call and had it put up on the main screen.

  His sister appeared standing behind Angela on the bridge. She was smiling.

  “It looks like we’ve found the bugger. I’ve launched a lot of stealthed probes, but you’ll probably want to send even more. We need to saturate this system to get a decent idea of what we’re looking at be
fore I leave on the assault.”

  He wasn’t happy that she was defying him, but there was little he could do about it other than locking her up. He’d be within his rights to do so, but the fallout would be… extreme.

  “You’re taking every one of the Marine Raiders, barring the core crew on Persephone, right?” he asked.

  His sister sighed. “Yes, Mother. Talbot and Angela will protect me as much as they can. We’ll finalize things once we know what we’re facing. We’ve got a week to sort this out while we get deeper into the system. There’s no need to rush. We’ll strike on our terms.”

  He nodded, hoping those terms would be equitable but not really believing that. The piper would have his price, and they had no choice other than to pay it.

  As Carl worked with Elise over the next week, an idea began to percolate in his brain. No matter how complex or secure the machinery that they had her interface with, given enough time, her alien nanites bypassed those impediments and gained control of the systems.

  That kind of behavior was driving Ralph crazy. As a hacker, he knew all about bypassing security to get what he wanted, and he said it was like she was cheating. She said he was just jealous. There was something to both points of view.

  She wasn’t doing anything other than directing the machines inside her to carry out her bidding—which, on its face, was scary.

  Since the devices responded to her general instructions, that had to mean that they could interpret her intent with far more accuracy than he felt comfortable with.

  Elise might not be able to understand anything in the alien control interface, but those devices certainly seemed to be reading her thoughts. He hadn’t broached that subject with her, because that was even worse than when Kelsey had had Ned Quincy living in her implants.

  The strange AI was a fully sentient being, unlike the alien devices, and Kelsey had come to an agreement with Ned. Still, she’d known that he could use her own implants to view the world around them, even under circumstances that she found dismaying.

  Having worked with Ned in getting him transferred to a portable holding unit while he worked on creating a permanent body for him, Carl believed that Ned was a man of honor and wouldn’t have utilized his power under circumstances that Kelsey had forbidden.

  The alien technology almost certainly wasn’t working under those same constraints. It might not be perfect at reading her intent, but it could do so well enough to know when she wanted a machine activated or hatch opened. It could then send the cloud of devices around her body into the target device, overcome any security or hardware lockouts, and carry out her instructions.

  So far as he could tell, the complexity of the task didn’t seem to be an inhibiting factor. He’d had Elise use the alien nanites to infiltrate a computer that he’d locked out. Her goal was only to remove the security that was preventing anyone from accessing the contents of the computer. Basically, she had to bypass the password.

  Considering that Imperial technology was absolutely nothing like what the alien devices worked with in their native existence, it was truly incomprehensible that they’d unlocked that computer in less than fifteen minutes. Following a hunch, he’d reset the password and had her do it again. The second time took less than sixty seconds.

  The alien devices had learned from their first experience, which implied a certain level of intelligence.

  Carl suspected that the alien tech understood everything they were saying. It had to be resident inside her implants and could access all of the data that she could. It was inside her brain and might even have access to her own memories and knowledge.

  The implications of that were chilling. Could the devices modify what she knew? Could they provide information that she’d never had? Right now, she couldn’t read the alien script that made up the control interface. With more experience, would the devices eventually be able to provide that knowledge for her?

  He could probably test that, but all of his suspicions about how invasive the alien technology was would be laid bare. Still, she had to suspect. How couldn’t she?

  As little as he relished the prospect, he should probably check.

  Carl cleared his throat and gestured toward the computer they’d been working with. “Let’s try something different. I want you to tell the alien nanites to provide you with the password without unlocking the computer.”

  The princess opened her mouth to say something but then closed it again, staring at him with hard eyes. “Exactly how is that supposed to work?”

  “If I’m right, they already have access to your brain, including your memories,” he admitted. “What I think will happen is that you’ll suddenly just know the password. It’s like you’ll have a new memory that you won’t have a way of ever having gotten without their assistance.”

  She didn’t say anything for almost thirty seconds. When she did, her voice was low and flat. “That means they could change everything about me. They could erase all of my memories. They could write new ones that made me into a completely different person. Or they could just change specific parts that altered me in such a way that I didn’t even realize that I was being manipulated.

  “Carl, that scares the hell out of me. My people always worried about being forced to become Pale Ones, forcibly implanted with hardware that made us prisoners in our own bodies. This is far worse than that.”

  He held up a hand to slow her down. “Right now, this is only hypothetical. We’re only trying to see whether this is even technically possible. I’d guess that these devices have their own base programming that prevents them from doing anything as drastic as what you suggest. What kind of being would want to have devices inside them that could rewrite them?”

  Without waiting for her to respond, he used his implants to interface with the computer, changing its password again. Then he gestured for her to continue.

  Elise took a deep breath and held out her hand toward the computer. “I want you to get the password off that device and make it known to me. I don’t want you to change anything else about my brain or memories. I never want you to do that without my express and detailed instructions.”

  Carl wasn’t sure exactly how willing the alien devices would be to obey those kinds of strict instructions, but he couldn’t fault her for laying down the law. In her place, he’d certainly have done the same.

  Thirty seconds later, she grimaced. “And there it is, as if I’d known the password all along.”

  She used her implants to access the computer, and it unlocked for her, proving that the alien devices were by far the most frightening thing Carl had ever encountered.

  Still, that gave them options they hadn’t had before. These things could do tasks that were impossible for him and Imperial technology in general.

  They didn’t have another override to take out the master AI, but with this ability, Elise might not need one. It was possible that she could interface directly with whatever device the override was meant to plug into and have it behave exactly as if that was what had happened.

  He wasn’t going to raise that possibility with her until he’d done a lot more testing, but every tool they could bring to bear might make the difference between beating the master AI or being exterminated by it. He wasn’t going to leave any option on the table.

  “We’ve got a lot more things to try, but I think for this next part, we’re going to have to get Marcus to allow us some impertinence.”

  Proving her intelligence, her eyebrows both shot up. “You think I can act as an override and force the master AI to obey me? Is that even possible?”

  “My definition of what’s possible is being revised as we speak. I don’t know if Marcus is going to agree to what I want to try, but knowing if this has a chance of working may make a difference in what we plan going forward.”

  “I and all of my facilities are available for your use,” Marcus said. “I understand that you’re talking about potentially manipulating my hardware in a way that could destroy me. If
that means a chance to save humanity, I’m willing to risk my life and sanity. Come to the computer center, and let’s find out exactly what Her Highness can do.”

  31

  Talbot was no Fleet officer, but he could see that the ships and defensive installations in the Alpha Centauri system would be impossible to take in a direct assault. Even though it had been a trap, Twilight River hadn’t been this well guarded.

  Rather than a science station being the center of all the activity, there was a massive battle station in orbit around the binary star system. Its orbit was broad enough to circle both stars and undoubtedly had to use gravitic drives to stabilize its orbit.

  Arrayed around it were many other—somewhat smaller—battle stations, and a fleet of ships that dwarfed what they had with them. Hell, it dwarfed what the Clans had brought to the fight at Twilight River.

  The power of the computers was not to be underestimated. They’d planned for this moment. The master AI didn’t yet know that the trap had been triggered or that its substitute had been destroyed, but it would soon enough. Word would come traveling back through the flip point network and announce that humanity had made its move in only a few months.

  The AI’s response would undoubtedly be brutal, particularly now that it knew there was some other kind of flip point that humanity had discovered. It wouldn’t rest until it had scoured every square centimeter of every star system to locate these new pathways. Once it did, its forces would seek out the Clan worlds and crush them.

  The clock was ticking for humanity, and they didn’t have time to bring in more ships to help win this fight, even supposing there’d be enough back home to make a difference. They were going to have to use what they had at hand, which meant that most of them weren’t going to leave this system alive, even if they won.

  He was working in marine country aboard Invincible, but he had the leaders of every single marine contingent in a mixed-mode face-to-face/virtual conference. Their goal was to get themselves onto the master AI’s battle station and hold the line while his wife and the Marine Raiders did their very best to make the damned thing submit.