A.I. Void Ship (The A.I. Series Book 6)

by Vaughn Heppner

  “How does any of this help if we can’t find the platform?” Jon asked.

  “That would normally pose an interesting quandary or paradox. Tonight, or soon, rather, you will have the full cooperation of the Seiner spy.”

  “You’ve tampered with her mind?”

  “The Sisters of Enoy would never do that. You must tamper with the spy’s mind, though, if you hope to achieve more than fleeting glory.”

  “Okay…” Jon said. “You do realize she’s a telepath and that none of us are.”

  “There are a thousand items I realize that you do not. Most of them, you will have to master on your own. I have decided, in this instance, that humanity is too dull and too apish to grasp at the fantastic opportunity I am bequeathing it. Thus, I am…aiding you in a small matter. In order to make this a fitting endeavor, I have chosen one of your crew. He is small in stature, but he has an amazing mentality. I believe you think of him as a mutant.”

  “Walleye,” Jon said.

  “He will mind the Seiner for you.”

  Jon thought about that, nodding a moment later. “Does Walleye know what to do?”

  “Not yet,” Zeta admitted. “But he will.”

  “The Seiner can help us find the platform?”

  “If she can’t, you will fail.”

  “That means we have to trust a Seiner,” Jon complained.

  “I would not trust Red Demeter in the slightest,” Zeta said. “But you must use her as a tool. She will find that utterly galling.”

  “Are there any Seiners on Earth or in the Solar System?”

  “A Magistrate Colony to be precise,” Zeta said. “They have their telepathic tentacles in the governing unit. You will have to figure out how to deal with those Seiners on your own. But I will say this. You need them, Jon Hawkins.”

  “Ah…why do we need Seiners?”

  “One reason is because the Kames are nearby in stellar terms. The Kames are a groupthink alien race. They are presently fighting the AIs, and doing a rather good job of it, too.”

  “You must be saying that we can’t communicate with a groupthink race,” Jon said. “The Seiners with their telepathy will have to do that for us.”

  “I must say, you are a quick study, Jon Hawkins, much quicker than Ree.”

  Jon said nothing, as he wasn’t sure how to reply to that.

  “If you do gain the platform and manage to leave the void,” Zeta said. “I suggest you leave the Beta Hydri System as soon as possible. You must retool your factory planets as quickly as possible and mass produce Vestal missiles, null-splitters, quantum-pi power plants, reality generators and new hulls for any ships wishing to use the void for extended journeys.”

  “The way you say all that…are you suggesting that we’re running out of time?”

  “That is my analysis, yes.”

  “Will you stick around to help us figure things out?”

  “I…I do not know how to answer such a query.”

  “Look,” Jon said, hunching forward. “Let’s not make this all mysterious, huh? You’re doing something different by giving us Enoy tech. But you’re still playing the game by your weird Sisterhood rules.”

  “We are who we are, Jon Hawkins.”

  “Sure, I get that. You have your own bizarre alien code of honor, or something like that. But at this point, that isn’t the way to do it. The AIs are winning because they don’t screw around with stuff like that. They just get bigger and bigger as they exterminate us biological races one at a time. We have to stop their expansion, and we have to make that stoppage stick.”

  “Stick?” asked Zeta.

  “Right here, right now, we have to use rational strategies and rational tactics. We have to forget about the old way of doing things. Stick around, Zeta. Teach us how to use the missiles and other techs. This is no longer about aliens passing your freaking tests in order that you only allow worthy beings to handle your technology. This is about building hard and fast, arming and training correctly, and then annihilating AIs faster than they can build elsewhere. If you can reverse the strategic balance—chipping away at their Dominion so it shrinks over time instead of expanding—then you and your Sisterhood will win. Hordes of other life-forms will win as well.”

  “You paint a rosy picture, Jon Hawkins. It almost sounds plausible.”

  “It is plausible, but only if you help and train us.”

  “The dictates of Enoy are clear. We are not allowed to show our true forms to such as you,” Zeta said.

  “I said you have to become rational. The old dictate is an irrational restriction on your part. But look, that doesn’t even matter. Take select people and train them through your dream machines. Those people can then teach the rest of us.”

  “What you’re suggesting would taint the entire process.”

  Jon sighed and shook his head. “Don’t worry about any tainting. That’s the past, the old way of doing things. Now, you’re going to do it smart.”

  “You mean in a rational manner,” Zeta said.

  “That’s right.”

  “Your apish ways of thinking…I am stunned at the utility.”

  “We’re a pragmatic species.”

  “That is only true when you are fighting a war,” Zeta said. “In other areas, you are a most weird and offbeat species.”

  “Well, maybe it’s time for humans to do what they do best, killing their enemies.”

  “You have convinced me, Jon Hawkins. It is time indeed for you humans to lead the rest of us in killing the AIs.”

  -8-

  Walleye move purposefully down a real corridor of the Nathan Graham. He wore his buff coat and carried a number of hidden weapons. He also had a metal circuit around his head. The circuit wasn’t of Enoy make; it had come from a species thousands of light-years from Earth.

  With the blunt fingers of his left hand, Walleye touched the warm piece of metal. He remembered his instructions. They had come from a human chief of the underworld on the dwarf planet Makemake in the Solar System’s Kuiper Belt. That was quite impossible, he knew, as AI robots had murdered everyone he’d known on Makemake but for the lovely June Zen. The two of them had escaped.

  As he marched down a corridor on his stubby legs, Walleye replayed those instructions in his mind. The underworld chief had really been a front for a Sister of Enoy, an alien. The alien had spoken to him in a way and language that Walleye understood. What the mutant did not understand was how he’d come to possess these various pieces of alien technology.

  The likeliest answer was that the Sisters of Enoy had given them to him while he was unconscious on their alien ship.

  These Sisters of Enoy did not like anyone seeing them. They acted like shadows or—in biblical terminology—like the angels or demons from the Book that Hawkins liked to quote on occasion.

  According to the chief, there was a Seiner aboard the cybership. This Seiner had been playing games with some of its filthy telepathic equipment.

  Walleye increased his pace. He had to find that equipment and shut it off before the Seiner increased its power. There was something else…

  He’d died several times already trying to do this. But…if he’d died—

  “Right,” Walleye muttered.

  The Sisters of Enoy had been toying with his mind. He had gone through this run several times under illusion. The Seiner had slain him, or used others to slay him, every time he’d done this.

  According to the underworld boss—the hidden alien—he needed to practice extreme ruthlessness. The Seiner might know more than she’d let on. They had to do it this way because—

  Walleye squinted his odd eyes.

  He might have gotten more from the alien-induced dreams then the void creatures had realized. His mind wasn’t like a normal man’s mind. It had quirks due to its mutant nature.

  But if the Seiner knew he was coming, as the Sister of Enoy had hinted she did, there was great urgency to all this.

  Instead of breaking into a run, Walley
e slowed down. He thought about this and finally stopped altogether. Then, he backed up until he encountered a bulkhead. He slid down it and sat down on the deck.

  He was Walleye the Mutant. He wasn’t going to be any Sister of Enoy’s mind slave. He would do this as he did all his tasks, with his own style and flair. If he couldn’t be his own man—

  The squint tightened, and Walleye laughed sourly.

  It was possible the Seiner had gotten in his head through the dream illusions that the Enoy aliens practiced.

  With a grunt, Walleye stood and continued on his way to Engineering. This might be more complicated than he’d realized. Yet, the mission had fallen to him. It was time to get ‘er done.

  -9-

  Red Demeter stood at her station in Engineering, watching her charges as they worked on the wall monitor.

  The Nathan Graham was moving cautiously through the void. At one point, everyone had been asleep. Now, they were all awake again as if nothing freaky had happened. The other crewmembers seemed to have forgotten all about the AI siege-ship that had almost destroyed the entire Confederation fleet around Hydri II.

  Demeter, however, recalled everything from her time on the Rose of Enoy. She also knew that Walleye the Mutant was coming to capture her.

  She’d learned far more about Zeta and Ree than the Sisterhood aliens realized.

  Demeter did not know about Walleye’s approach through telepathy, but because she’d put a regular tracker in his coat. According to her hand-held scanner, the little mutant was almost here in her section of Engineering.

  Demeter smiled slyly. She had several space marines ready for Walleye. Each of the marines had weapons and each would gun down the mutant at her mental command.

  The appearance of Zeta and Ree and their stupid tests had forced Demeter to reconsider the Earth Colony Magistrate’s instructions. In the end, Demeter had decided she needed greater flexibility to stay alive and stay free. She had thus telepathically captured the marines. It had been easy, as she still possessed tremendous T-powers because of the Sisters of Enoy.

  She glanced at her hand-scanner as it beeped. Walleye was around the corner and behind a hatch.

  With a scowl of concentration and a slight nod, she activated her three space marines. They stepped into view as they raised their weapons.

  With another nod, Demeter dulled all the monitors so they ignored the space marines.

  I need to figure out how to keep Zeta and Ree nearby so I can continue at this telepathic strength. I love this.

  Several seconds passed, but the hatch to this area remained shut.

  Demeter glanced at her hand-scanner again. Walleye was just outside the hatch, waiting to come in. Could he know about the space marines? She didn’t see how.

  With her mind, Demeter held everyone in position. If she could figure out a way to continuously tap a Sister of Enoy, she could consider becoming the Magistrate herself. Yet, how could she keep the Earth Magistrate from tapping into the same alien power source if she brought an Enoy alien with her?

  Once I figure that out, I’m ready to begin a new mission.

  Demeter smiled slyly, and then she glanced at the hand-scanner again. Walleye still hadn’t changed position. What was the sick little mutant waiting for? Demeter knew Walleye had defeated the Magistrate Yellow Ellowyn several years ago. There was no way Demeter was going to let the mutant get close enough to defeat her, though.

  At that moment, she heard a soft boot-scuffle behind her. Demeter turned, and her eyes widened as she saw Walleye. The mutant had a needle in his stubby-fingered right hand. The tip of the needle was a bare millimeter from her neck.

  “Hello,” the mutant whispered. “If any of the marines begin to turn, I’ll touch you with the needle. The poison on the tip will kill you instantly.”

  Demeter licked her lips. How had the rotten little mutant gotten behind her like this?

  “I found the bug in my coat,” Walleye whispered.

  “Did you read my mind?” she whispered, horrified.

  “No. I read your stance.”

  That was too much. She hated this vile creature.

  Without moving a muscle, Demeter collected her telepathic strength. Then, she hurled a bolt of thought, trying to smash into Walleye’s mind. Instead, she telepathically felt an icy wall that numbed her mind, and that caused her to flinch.

  “That was dumb,” Walleye whispered. “I almost pricked you because of it. Have the marines walk outside the hatch and have your people follow them. Then, sleep the lot of them.”

  “Who do you think I am?” she asked.

  “You’re tired of life, huh?” Walleye said. “That’s fine. I’m tired of Seiners. You’re all a pain in the ass. Good-bye, spy—”

  “Wait,” Demeter whispered. “Look. Everyone is leaving as you suggested.”

  “That’s too bad,” Walleye said, “’cause I wanted to kill you. I still may unless you do exactly as I tell you.”

  Demeter hated him even more. What a smug little prick. But she recognized his difference from other humans. He was so small and ugly, though. Where had he learned to achieve such stillness of being?

  “They’re out,” Demeter said.

  Walleye checked something on his wrist. “They’re not sleeping,” he said.

  Did he think of everything? “Look again,” she suggested.

  He did, and he grunted softly. “You’re good, Seiner. I’d say you’re better than the Magistrate Yellow Ellowyn.”

  “You knew her?”

  “A bit,” Walleye said. “Now, listen. This is how we’re going to work the next move…”

  -10-

  The sense of unreality inherent to this realm—the void—had everyone on the Nathan Graham on edge. The Enoy dreams had seemed more real than being awake.

  As Jon piloted a flitter down the largest corridor of the cybership, he had the distinct impression that this was all a dream. He just needed to pinch himself and he would wake up.

  He banked around a corner and went so far as to roll up a sleeve and twist a bit of flesh. It hurt, but not like it should. The pain lacked the ordinary sharpness.

  No one had contacted Zeta or Ree since waking up from the dream tests. Neither of the Sisters of Enoy had contacted anyone on the Nathan Graham, either.

  It was strange. Three years ago in the Allamu System, he’d spoken to Zeta. There had been direct communication. Now, in this null realm—

  A light flashed on his console. Jon slowed the flitter and finally landed with a slight jar. He got out, looked around, and half expected the bulkheads to dissolve into nothingness as happened sometimes in dreams.

  Jon had spoken to the chief techs earlier today. They’d informed him about an energy field that encompassed the cybership. The weird part was that the energy field did not seem to have a source.

  “Explain that,” Jon had told the techs.

  “The energy field doesn’t come from us,” the head tech said. “That means it has an outside source. But none of our sensors work to let us see beyond the energy field.”

  “You mean we’re blind concerning the null realm?” Jon had asked.

  “Technically, yes,” the head tech had replied.

  “So…the source of the energy field could be right beside us beyond our hull?”

  The head tech had turned to his fellow tech-chiefs. “That’s it,” he said. “That’s the explanation. Thank you, Commander.”

  That had been before Jon’s urgent message from Gloria. As he walked away from the grounded flitter, Jon wondered if one of the Enoy aliens had previously put the idea in his mind. He didn’t like the null realm. He didn’t like the Sisterhood of Enoy and he certainly didn’t like…

  Jon sighed. He suspected that the void and the Enoy technology was humanity’s only hope against the galactic mass of the AIs. Usually, God was on the side of the biggest battalion. Sometimes, though, a technological breakthrough could give the smaller side an edge—at least for a time.

  Th
e Sisterhood of Enoy had tried to extend their technological edge over the AIs for twenty thousand years by keeping their void tech secret. With a snort, Jon realized that had to be a record.

  Even though they were behind the energy or reality field, the null realm had a deadening influence in all kinds of ways. His footfalls did not make enough noise anymore. Food no longer tasted…like anything, really. Things were becoming increasingly bland.

  What was the void exactly, the null, the nothingness in this place of seemingly no dimensions? Zeta had told him there was no up or down here. How could ships travel then? It made no sense.

  Jon turned a corner and reached a marine sentry, nodded, and passed the saluting guard as a hatch opened. As soon as he set foot in the new facility, Jon would have liked to turn around and leave.

  He hated this chamber.

  It was big, necessarily so, to hold all the strange machinery. Techs and mechs still toiled to finish the creation and installation of the dream-derived technology. Power sources purred as mechs in exoskeleton suits lifted equipment several tons in weight.

  None of that bothered Jon in particular. He didn’t like the centerpiece in the room.

  He walked toward it, still noticing a lack of proper sound.

  The thing was a big tank, an aquarium with bubbles. Inside the salt water aquarium floated a humanoid-shaped alien with fine blue fish-scales. Walleye or a marine had peeled off the human skin-suit to reveal the Seiner underneath.

  Gills moved slowly on the woman’s neck. How had a suit fooled any of them? It was incredible. Had the Seiner used telepathy to add in the little details that everyone saw?

  A mask was attached to the Seiner’s face. Ties held down her ankles and wrists, while electrodes made her constantly shiver. There was also a helmet firmly pressed against her scalp. Rods poked up from the top of the helmet, and the spheroid tips there flashed with various colors.

  By the twisting and grimacing of the Seiner, Jon figured this was a torture device. Why hadn’t the Sisters of Enoy programmed the Seiner’s mind? Why did the humans have to do the dirty work?