Hunter, Warrior, Commander

by Andrew Maclure

  Sah Lee was a bit taken aback by the appearance of the creature, but it was nowhere near as strange as the eight-legged, two armed thing that had rescued her from Aarn.

  Touren stepped forward. “Let me introduce you to Ker Din Ser Forn.”

  Sah Lee gasped, then snarled and in one fluid motion she pulled her knife from its sheath on her back and leapt at Ker Din Ser Forn. As she crashed her left shoulder into his chest, the knife slashed down to his throat and she reached round with her left arm to dig her claws into the back of his neck. The knife didn’t seem to have much effect - it flashed across her mind that Touren had tampered with it. She flung it to the floor and pushed her jaws to his throat to rip it out. His throat was hard but felt like it was slightly cushioned, a bit like soft wood, but she couldn’t bite into it. She felt the same thing with her claws as she tried to dig them in. After a few moments of struggle, she pushed herself back. Ker Din Ser Forn stood unmoving, making no effort to defend himself.

  As she stood in an attack position, claws extended and snarling at him, Ker Din Ser Forn spoke. “Sah Lee, it is good to meet you at last.”

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  Ker Din Ser Forn

  Sah Lee stepped back in a half crouch, ready to defend herself, picking up her knife. “You have powerful magic protecting you, demon.” Sah Lee spat at him.

  Ker Din Ser Forn tilted his head slightly to one side. “I am no demon Sah Lee. I brought the Ants to save your race, I am rescuing you and your ecology and making a new home for you on another planet. Why do you think I am a demon?”

  “Touren said you are all powerful, but you didn’t save my world and almost all my people are dead. All my friends, all my family. My way of life is gone. You could have stopped that, but you didn’t. You are not a demon like those who came to my world, you are the king of the demons. Satan!”

  “Meeting you was interesting Sah Lee. We will speak again. Are you ready Touren, Bekkreshan?”

  They both nodded. Sah Lee blinked, or thought she did, and felt the disorientation of suddenly finding herself back in her quarters.

  “Now I have met that thing I want to get off this ship as soon as possible. Anyway, that thing will want me off here after I attacked it.”

  “You can’t leave Sah Lee, you have nowhere to go.” Touren replied. “Ker Din Ser Forn does not want you to leave. He has just told me you can stay here for as long as you wish, and he wants you to learn as much as you can while you are here. He said you may come back to stay here any time you need, but you might have to wait for him to get you.”

  “How could he have told you that? We only left him moments ago.”

  “You have heard me talk about AI’s, Artificial Intelligences. What do you know about them?”

  “They are a sort of machine that can do lots of thinking things quickly.”

  “That’s a good start, but they are a lot more than that. They are just like living beings, except that they think much more quickly than we can, they can talk to us and to each other. They have perfect memories and can remember everything, so they know almost everything. if you need to know anything, you ask them, and they tell you the answer. So, how big do you think they are?”

  “If they know everything and I can ask them anything I want to know, why am I learning all of this stuff?”

  “So that you understand it. Think of it like this. If I were to ask my AI how to hunt for farun, it would tell me they are nervous and have a good sense of smell, so I need to approach from downwind, cautiously and quietly. They like to graze in open rocky areas with good all-round visibility, so I need to keep low and out of sight and as soon as I am in range, leap on it and bring it down quickly as I’ll only get one chance. My AI just told me all that. Now my AI has told me how to do it, do you think I could hunt and kill one?”

  Sah Lee laughed. “Of course not! You don’t have the skills to track, stalk and bring down a farun! They would be off over the horizon before you got within half a day’s walk from it!”

  “Exactly. It is the same for what you are learning. An AI could give you all the answers, but you’ll never understand things unless you learn them yourself. And you haven’t answered my question. How big do you think these AI’s are?”

  “Well, they must be pretty big to do all that. Much bigger than a train, ten times bigger?”

  Touren laughed. “No, they are about the size of a grain of sand. Some of them are even smaller. Almost all emergent races have one embedded in their inside their heads. These are like a friend who knows everything, who is always there to help you, never sleeping, never distracted, their only job is to keep you safe and look after you.”

  “Really? Inside your head? Do you have one?”

  “Of course, everyone does. That’s how Bekkreshan and I talk to each other when she’s not here, that’s how Ker Din Ser Forn spoke to me just now.”

  “Can I get one?”

  “Yes Sah Lee. I thought you might resist having something put inside your head.”

  “If I don’t like it, can I take it out?”

  “No, once it is in you it is there forever, but if you don’t like it, you can make it dormant, so it would be like it wasn’t there.”

  “Is there anything bad about it I need to know? Will it weaken me? What happens if it breaks and needs to be repaired? What about fuel? Can it do anything else?”

  Touren smiled. “You have a lot of questions. There is nothing bad about an embedded AI. It won’t weaken you. They don’t break, and they generate their own power. It can do an enormous number of things, but you will learn those over time. The important thing to remember is that it only has your wellbeing in mind. It is only there to help you and won’t do anything without your permission. Would you like to think about it for a few days? If you still want to go ahead, I will arrange for you to have one fitted.”

  “I don’t need to think about it. How soon can I have one?” Sah Lee asked impetuously,

  “Just a moment.” Touren paused. “If you are sure, I can arrange it now.”

  “I’m sure. Where do we need to go?”

  “It’s quite simple, but I’ll get a medical bot to do it. Lay on your bed and I will tranquilize you. It’s painful while it settles in so it’s best to be asleep, but you’ll still have a headache when you wake up. I’ll give you a painkiller then. The AI won’t work at first, it takes a while before it will be able to talk to you. Go and lay down, the medical bot will be here soon.”

  Chapter Twenty Eight

  Life With An AI

  Sah Lee blinked awake and sat up. The pain hit her like a hammer. She leaned forward and retched a small amount of fluid from her stomach onto the bedsheet. Feeling no better she carefully got out of bed and leaning against the wall to hold herself up, slowly walked to the door. It slid open as she approached it and she stood leaning against the wall. Touren was sitting in the room and as soon as she saw Sah Lee she jumped up and half carried her back to her bed, flinging the soiled sheet on the floor.

  “Stay there, I’ll get a painkiller.”

  She rushed out and shortly came back with an injector tube, which she pressed against Sah Lee’s neck. Within moments, the pain in her head ebbed away.

  “Can I have a drink, please?” she whispered.

  Touren fetched her water and helped her sit up and drink it.

  “You reacted badly to that. You’re the first Aarnth to have received an implant, so now we know to tranquilize your race for a lot longer.”

  “Why am I the first?”

  “We don’t think you are ready yet. The Aarnth, that is, not you. I checked with Ker Din Ser Forn, he thought you should have one as soon as you wanted.”

  “What’s it got to do with him?”

  “It’s a People’s AI. He is preparing AI’s for you, your race, that are of a similar level that a newly emergent civilization would have. I didn’t think they would be ready for many more days.”

  “What! I’ve got that things technology in my head
! Take it out, take it out!”

  “I told you, once it’s implanted, you’ve got it forever. You should be pleased; the People’s technology is billions of years ahead of any other civilizations. The AI won’t be as advanced as the ones they use, but there is no better hardware and the underlying AI technology will be more advanced than you could expect from anywhere else. The best thing you can do is get used to it and be grateful if not to Ker Din Ser Forn then to your god or gods for arranging for you to get one of the People’s.”

  “Can he control me with it?”

  Touren burst out laughing. “No, he can’t control you with it. When it starts communicating, try it out. If you really don’t want it, make it go dormant. I know you’ll find it so useful that you won’t want to.”

  “I trust you Touren, so I’ll try it, but if it starts off making me feel like this, it will take a lot to make me feel better about it.”

  “Let’s go for a walk. It will take a day or two for your system to fully recover from the shock of the AI implant while it settles in. We’ll take a break from your learning until your AI can provide you with VR learning.”

  Sah Lee, Touren and Bekkreshan left their quarters and walked along the corridor. Sah Lee broke the silence “Tell me about yourself Bekkreshan, about your world, how you came do what you are doing now.”

  “I come from a civilization called Imperious.” She grinned, showing large, wide teeth. “It is an ancient name. We used to be very warlike. We had lots of small nations, always fighting with each other. After thousands of years of fighting the Imperious nation finally defeated all its enemies and ruled the entire world. After a long period of infighting and political struggles, we started to look outwards and developed the technology to leave our solar system. We immediately ran into the People, and with our history, we declared war on them. After an embarrassingly long time while they kept coming back and doing nothing while we attacked them with increasingly powerful and completely ineffectual weapons, we sent them a message asking for a peace treaty meeting.” She grinned again. “We felt pretty stupid when they agreed and told us they didn’t realize we were at war.”

  “Was that Ker Din Ser Forn?” Sah Lee asked.

  “No, it was Ast Tor Ren Sal. We felt even more stupid when we found out our futile attacks had been on a single craft with just one person in it.”

  “Craft? You mean a ship?”

  “Yes, a People’s star ship. They call them craft, they don’t like them called ships. They are a strange race.”

  “What happened then?” Sah Lee asked.

  “Ast Tor Ren Sal explained that the galaxy was peaceful and that emergent civilizations had normally put aggression behind them and lived in peace with others. My race were proud that we had kept our warlike heritage and ignored what he told us. The next civilization we came across were the Krendor and we attacked them. Have you heard of the Krendor?”

  “No, apart from what was on my world, all I know are the demons, or outcasts, you, Touren, Ker Din Ser Forn and Arrussmer. She is really scary.”

  Bekkreshan laughed, a low rumbling coughing sound. “Arrussmer is not esthetically pleasing to most people, but she and her race are gentle, peaceful creatures. They only use their stingers in self-defense. Best not to attack one of them. Anyway, the Krendor are reptiles…”

  “Like Touren?” Sah Lee asked.

  “A bit, only they are much bigger, stronger, faster and have big, sharp ripping teeth and big sharp claws on their hands and feet. And they are very aggressive. While they were shredding our fleet - they had already wiped out our ground troops, Ast Tor Ren Sal appeared and suggested to the Krendor that they might want to stop while we still had a few ships left and have a peace treaty meeting with us. The Krendor, who knew all about the People of course, immediately stopped. We signed a peace treaty with them and we haven’t fought another race since. That was almost two hundred thousand years ago, and we are now a peaceful race.”

  “Are you friendly with the Krendor now?”

  “No, they hate us, but we don’t care. We’re just careful to keep away from their space. I have met some in my travels, I got on with them as well as I would with anyone else. What were you asking? I forgot.”

  “I asked you to tell me about yourself, but what you said was interesting. Are all of your race peaceful now?”

  Bekkreshan smiled. “Our civilization is peaceful, my people aren’t. Most of us spend part of our life in an army. That’s where I met Touren, when we were both in the Rarrak Militia, we’ve been together ever since. We were both ground grunts. That’s where all the action is. Fighting in space is all about firing on targets you can’t see, usually at where you think they’re going to be by the time your munitions get there, which is boring, and you can explode into atoms at any time without any warning because your enemy worked out where you would be by the time their munitions reached you, which is stressful.”

  “Who did you fight against if your races are peaceful?”

  “Outcast scum like the ones that invaded your planet. There were a lot that invaded Aarn and they were well organized. Usually there are only a handful, sometimes hundreds, occasionally thousands. Sometimes as many as invaded Aarn. The rumor is that a psychopathic reptile organized it. He has been trouble for a long time but between the armies and the Ants he’s been kept under control - sorry, it may not seem to you he is under control, but he wants to take over the whole galaxy.”

  “I’m going to join an army and get revenge!” Sah Lee could feel an emptiness inside and the cold fury building up again. “How do I join one?”

  Touren stopped dead in her tracks. Bekkreshan stopped too. Sah Lee carried on for a few paces lost in her thoughts before she noticed her companions weren’t by her side. She turned to them.

  “Don’t try to stop me. I’ve made my mind up.”

  Touren spoke first. “Sah Lee, we are not here to shape your future, our role is to help you fulfill what we thought was your role, to become a leader of the Aarnth.” She looked at Bekkreshan. “This isn’t what was planned. We need to consult.” Turning to Sah Lee, she said “Go back to our quarters, we’ll be back soon.” She and Bekkreshan stood a moment, then they were gone.

  Instead of returning to their quarters, Sah Lee broke into a run. The pain in her head came back, but she carried on running as hard as she could.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Change Of Plan

  After several hours, Sah Lee returned to their quarters, exhausted and dripping with sweat. She walked in and found the room empty. She thought Touren would have returned by now. Perhaps she wouldn’t be back again, now that Sah Lee wasn’t going to do what they wanted. “It’s my life, I’ll do what I like!” she thought.

  She went straight into her room and flung herself on the floor. She was more comfortable there than on the bed. She lay panting, savoring the feeling of tiredness in her muscles and the sweat dripping down her skin. After a few minutes she got up. She needed a drink but couldn’t get one herself. Touren had always got everything she needed from the synthesizer. Sah Lee didn’t know how to use it. She could get water to drink out of the shower but didn’t want to wash off the sweat she had worked up, so she knelt and scooped up handfuls of water from the toilet. It was just like drinking from a pool, except the water was cleaner.

  While she was drinking, she heard Touren and Bekkreshan come in. She recognized the sound of the steps on the soft floor. She got up and joined them in the main room.

  “Sah Lee,” Touren said, “you've had time to think. Do you want to reconsider joining an army?”

  “No. It’s what I want, it’s what I must do. I will track down this reptile and kill him!”

  “It won't be that easy, but we will help to get you ready to become a soldier if that’s what you really want.”

  “You will? I don’t know much about them, but I didn’t think that was what the Boran Medical Emergency and Recovery Group did.”

  “It isn’t. We’ve left th
em.”

  “Who are you working for now?” Sah Lee asked with a puzzled look.

  “We don't work for anyone, we do as we please, and it pleases us to stay with you. You’ll get training when you join an army, but you have a lot to learn first. You need to know how to use your AI, get stronger and learn some basic unarmed combat and self-defense. And you need to learn about a lot of technology, the sort of stuff a member of an emergent race would learn growing up.”

  “I am strong and fight well enough! How soon can I learn enough to join an army?”

  “Sah Lee, you are fit and healthy, but not strong and can’t fight well. You will start in a custom gym tomorrow. Bekkreshan and I will teach you how to fight. You need to rest now, and we’ll start you on a high protein balanced diet. Make the most of it, from tomorrow all you’ll do is exercise, train and learn. There will be no down time until you are ready.”

  “I’ll show you how I can fight when you try to teach me! What is a balanced diet? What I have been eating is fine!”

  “My AI has access to all the physiological, biological and biome information we have on the Aarnth. I have asked the medical AI for an optimized diet for you to build muscle and strength. That means lean farun meat - cooked, and some vegetables.”

  “Yuck! I hate vegetables. Did you rescue enough farun for us to eat them? There were never many of them.”

  “It won’t be meat from a live animal, it will be like the raw imaya you have been eating, made in the synthesizer.”