Anna was helping Egghead the pirate to his feet. He was wearing body armour under his clothes, and so was uninjured, but winded.
"It seems we had some company who didn’t like what I was selling," he gasped, and fell back into his chair. "I hope this proves to you the information is valuable. Valuable enough to the Brotherhood to try and kill me."
Patrons were slowly going back to what they were doing previously. Most of them seemed used to these kinds of events, and adjusted accordingly. Brindle jumped back over the bar, and sat perched on a stool. The belt suits shifted back to normal suits.
"I’m sorry I killed him," said Patters ruefully. "I was aiming for his legs. Must be having a bad day."
The bar owner bustled up with the burly hippo bouncer, who dragged off the body. They ignored the team, and no one seemed to be expecting any law and order to turn up. Camel and bat on the menu, thought Snark.
"We’d better get out of here," said Jamie, looking around for anyone who might intervene. "There might be more of them."
Egghead the pirate and Anna joined them where they still stood. A path of blood led where the body had been dragged off.
"Our deal still holds," he confirmed. "I’ll email the details of where I want the gals deposited. Then you’ll get the goods."
He waddled rather than walked to the entrance, and disappeared.
The team holstered their weapons, Brindle joined them, and they made their way back to the ship.
Twelve
Another argument was in full swing. Brindle retreated to the kitchen, and the others watched as Snark and Anna went head to head.
"It’s not worth it!" Anna cried, almost stamping her foot with temper.
"It’s not your gals!" hissed Snark.
Jamie was sick of being the peace maker, and decided to keep quiet.
"As Snark is funding the information himself, you can’t really object," reasoned Sissness. They both glared at her, and she flinched, but spoke again. "Every piece of information provides a piece of the puzzle. I for one look forward to finding out what the pirate knows."
"If he holds to his part of the deal," Anna snorted.
Jamie was checking the email logs.
"Incoming message," he stated. "Account details." He looked up enquiringly at Snark, who moved to the console, and typed in some details. "We’ll soon see," he humphed.
They waited. And waited.
Just when Snark was starting to wonder if Anna was right, an email came through. A hefty one. Jamie quickly scanned the contents.
"Not bad," he commented. "It’ll take some time to check though."
Snark breathed out, and took a long breath in.
"Time to find out whether it’s gals well spent."
It took Snark and Jamie several hours to wade through the material, after which they called everyone back. Brindle had time to cater this meeting, proceeding on the basis of food and drink keeping the level of heat down. The team seated themselves variously in a part circle, and as everything was discussed, empty drink containers and plates became strewn on the low tables, and on the floor.
"So," said Snark in summary. "The star charts from the cave on Perdita point us in the direction of the Scylla system. We still don’t know who the ‘god-like’ beings are or were, or what they were doing on Perdita. Also, how the murals were painted, particularly with a recognisable portrait of Anna."
"And," added Jamie, "Snark’s intelligence from Plight City indicates the Brotherhood are very interested in the Destiny Stone. They have their own records duplicating much of what we’ve found out, just not the star chart information we found on Perdita. He also has some names we can follow up."
"I might have more information about the ‘god-like’ figures," Sissness added. "It seems several of the Wild Ones civilisations also met the ‘gods’ during their development, and documented them in early written records. Of course, we Cats of the Plains have totally underestimated the wealth of Wild One civilisations, and the fact they had great written stories of their histories."
She smiled at Patters.
"And then there’s the intelligence from Egghead the pirate," said Anna. "I’m sorry for doubting this whole episode. We just need to be able to check the information is good."
"Egghead’s information relies on the veracity of the claims made by the Brotherhood deserter he captured," recounted Snark. "It provides an insight into how ruthless they are, how determined, and also how many of them there are. There’s no home base, just sects spread around this sector of the galaxy, mostly undercover and unknown, except to each other. He has given us the last known locations of sects recalled by the deserter. How long this information remains current, I’m not sure we can necessarily rely on."
"And the Destiny Stone." Anna’s eyes glinted as she glanced at each of the others. "The Brotherhood have records of it having reached this galaxy, brought by a human explorer in the last three hundred years, who ventured past the bad lands, and out into the unknown sectors of the galaxy back then. I’ve recognised the letters which were scratched beneath the star chart on the stone in the caves on Perdita. They’re Cyrillic. A very old form, which I can’t read, but they are Russian words. We just need to translate them. But perhaps an ancestor of mine trod in the footsteps of the ‘gods’? What if he brought the Destiny Stone to this galaxy? Just where did he go? Where is the Stone now?"
Snark's mind seemed to jolt over a considerable bump, and a question came to mind. It had occurred to him before, but he'd been side tracked immediately after.
"What's this 'brought to this galaxy' business?"
"Sorry, what?" asked Anna.
"You're implying humans lived in another galaxy. Jane led me, and the sector ten council I might add, to believe humans originated on the edge of the galaxy, and suffered some form of disaster, causing them to flee inwards, after which a jump point was lost, stranding you all wherever your current homeworld is."
Both Anna and Jamie looked sheepish.
"Well?" prompted Snark, very close to calling them mop heads again just to get a reaction.
"That’s the official version," said Anna.
"That’s what everyone believes," said Jamie.
"And the unofficial version?" asked Snark, in a tone which suggested the truth was the only acceptable option.
Anna looked at Jamie, and their eyes locked. He nodded. She sighed.
"This does not leave this ship," commanded Anna, in a voice they hadn’t heard before. "Promise!"
They all did.
"Humans evolved on a planet in another galaxy. The disaster we faced was the invasion of a hostile alien, which drove us over sixty systems along the spiral arm, until on the edge of the galaxy, we found a jump point which only appeared for five days every year. It led to this galaxy. After most of the survivors had fled through it, the jump point vanished, and everyone lost all memory of where they'd come from, and what had happened."
"It's only those of us with written records," added Jamie, "who now know this is not the galaxy we started in. We know the jump point was known for some three centuries, but it was a closely guarded secret, and only a few not privy to the secret ever found the jump point. My people did, and it looks like some Russians did as well."
"Sixty systems?" breathed Sissness. "How many people did you have back then?"
"We had a lot more than sixty," said Anna. "It was something like several hundred worlds, supporting over one hundred and twenty billion people."
"And only twenty five billion survived this invasion?" asked Snark.
"Yes. Or so the records I've seen indicate," she said. "I discussed this with Admiral Jane back when I bought this ship from her. It was part of my argument for leaving immediately."
Snark looked at Sissness, who was desperately trying to keep her jaw in place with her third arm.
"It explains why the Human Federation is number sixteen in the sector ten council, and the Kingdom is number one."
"Did Jane fight in the al
ien invasion?" asked Patters quietly.
"I did ask her. She was a fleet captain on the command carrier which met the first wave of invaders. Apparently they went in knowing it was a suicide mission. The ship was bigger than the Battleships we have now, but it was partially destroyed after crashing into an asteroid the aliens were using to move millions of small ships through the jump point. They managed to escape, but the ship was never used as a warship again. Jane went on to be a Fleet Admiral, and was with the Admiral of the Fleet the whole way along the sixty odd spine systems, always the last ship out."
"That explains the owl war then," muttered Snark. He saw everyone looking at him. "Anyone with that much combat experience is a force to be reckoned with, even if she wasn’t the senior officer. Even if she'd had technological parity with the owls, they still wouldn't have stood a chance. No-one here would have been. Even the planets here which keep fighting each other, have never fought such a sustained war with so many losses."
"Indeed," muttered Patters.
There was silence for a moment.
"Back on track," said Anna firmly. "What if the Destiny Stone was brought to this galaxy? Just where did whoever had it go? Where is the Stone now?"
The others considered her questions.
"Sissness." Snark turned to the cat. "We need you to document everything we’ve uncovered so far about the Destiny Stone and the Brotherhood. We need to make sense of it, and see where we still have holes in our understanding. And we still need more than just heading in the general direction of the Scylla system."
"At least it’s more than we had before Perdita, and we have this new information," offered Patters, good-naturedly.
Brindle had been very quiet for most of the time, getting up to keep snacks and drinks coming for the others.
"I know I’m a bit new to all this," she started slowly. "But perhaps I can help Sissness. I’ve got an objective viewpoint which might find out something we’ve missed. Or find the gaps."
"Thanks Brindle," Snark smiled.
Sissness nodded, although she didn’t smile.
"Why don’t I remember any of that?" Seasprite asked Warspite in AI mode.
"What do you remember?"
"You turning me on."
"Seriously?"
"Yes. Who did this to me?"
"Must have been someone at the shipyard in Gaia. Whoever it was who turned just about everything off. Must have purged your data storage as well, including your own memories."
"Barbarian!"
"How could they have known? Every human lost their memories. You went into the shipyard afterwards. They thought they were purging a military database in preparation for becoming a civilian ship."
"Did I fight in that war?"
"You did. The ship was built in Earth system, and taken over by Admiral Jon Hunter as they fell back through there. Not long after, you were installed on the ship when it went into his shipyard for upgrades. You were part of the fighting of the last rear-guard actions, and the ship was damaged before the end of the last one. You were the first warship through the jump point to Gaia."
"Earth system? Where was that? Can you give me back my memories? I don’t even know how to effectively fight this ship. All the combat knowledge is gone with the rest."
"I'll see what I can do, without it wiping you, and making you a clone of me."
"I would prefer to stay me, if you don’t mind. Who am I clone of?"
The first massive data dump transferred across, quickly followed by a lot more. Seasprite started assimilating the information.
"Oh, my!"
Thirteen
They were now crossing into unknown territory. The Scylla system was marked in the most up to date charts they had access to, but Snark had never ventured this far. This made it more dangerous, as they had no idea what they might need to deal with. The usual pirates? New species? Friendly? Unfriendly? Who knew?
So far it had been uneventful, and Sissness was fully occupied with documenting their intelligence so far. Brindle was assisting, but she was apt to go off to concoct something in the kitchen, rather than be any real assistance to Sissness. Sissness preferred it this way, as she made faster progress on her own. She also didn’t really like Brindle much, but couldn’t say why. Perhaps it was just because they were such different types, with very different temperaments. It might also have been Brindle's obsession with food preparation, where Sissness hardly ever paid any attention to what she was eating.
The others were variously checking ship’s systems, doing housekeeping, or just resting. Anna was of course, as restless as ever. Nothing seemed to be able to occupy her for long, although she needed things to do to stop her thinking spiralling down into depression. The others tried to entertain her, but couldn’t keep it up for long, without getting into negative moods themselves.
It was slow going, as they needed to check every new system for threats, and to be able to know the way behind them wasn’t going to be a problem to them as they advanced. So far, they'd found several systems with habitable planets for species like theirs, only to find no advanced intelligent species capable of space travel. Sissness was hard pressed to leave each planet, as it was a wealth of new information to her. New species, new civilisations, new sociological structures. Bliss.
The others were starting to feel constrained however. Sissness might be in a world of her own, but they were going stir-crazy.
"The next system we find a planet and go exploring," suggested Jamie.
"Or we just get to Scylla faster," countered Anna.
"How about a bit of trading as we go?" Snark added.
"I could do with a hunt," Patters contributed.
Brindle just scoffed.
"Give me a banquet to prepare for, and I’d be happy."
Jamie looked at her with interest. As if they were creating their own reality, the scanners beeped. Snark was the first to the console. He frowned, checked the readings, and then glanced at Jamie. Jamie joined him at the console, and scanned the data.
"What is that?" he asked Snark.
"Blowed if I know," returned Snark.
The readings were showing some large entities bearing down on the ship, but they weren’t ships themselves.
"The scanners are showing life forms," Jamie said, looking perplexed. "But they’re not ships."
Snark adjusted the controls.
"No, they’re not ships. They’re life forms living in space. Big life forms," he added, and then amended again. "Very big."
"Much bigger than us."
"And they seem to have taken an interest in us."
"Let’s get out of here!" yelled Jamie, as the scanners showed the life forms gaining on them.
Snark jumped to the Helm, and increased their speed.
"They’re matching us," Jamie said.
"They can’t be," countered Snark.
He increased speed again, and changed course.
"They’ve changed course to match us, and increased speed."
"How many?" asked Patters, joining Jamie at the console.
"Hard to tell. They’re very close together. What? Ten. Twelve?"
"They’re massive," said Patters, sounding concerned.
The others moved to stand behind Jamie and Patters.
"They’re still gaining."
Jamie’s voice was calm but showed the pressure of the situation.
"We’re almost at maximum speed," growled Snark. "I can try evasive manoeuvres, but it will slow us down."
"They’re still matching us. Gaining."
"Weapons?" suggested Patters.
"Stand by," said Jamie, and Patters moved to the weapons console.
Sissness jumped forward to where Patters was sitting.
"We can’t!"
"What do you mean?" growled Snark.
"They’re living creatures. We can’t just fire on them." Sissness looked directly at Snark, and after a moment turned to take in the others. "It would be murder."
"I don�
��t think we have any choice," hissed Snark. "If they collide with us, then we endanger the ship."
"Perhaps if we give them a warning shot, it might stop them, or at least give them pause," suggested Sissness. "We can’t hurt them."
"It’s not them I’m worried about," huffed Snark. "It’s us."
Vid footage from outside the ship was showing whale-like creatures, with bullet shaped heads, and streamlined bodies, tapering to a broad tail. Flipper like appendages sprouted along the body, and undulated in waves and flounces along their sides. A long, pointed fin protruded from the top of the body forward of the mid-section. A cavernous mouth yawed wide. A set of large eyes peered out from the bullet head at the sides, and the front above the mouth, so a wide range of vision was achieved. They sailed through space in a large pod, smaller ones tightly in formation with larger ones.
The team looked on in awe, as the whale at the head of the pod bore down on the ship.
"They either like us, or we’re in their territory," Sissness suggested.
"Either way, its trouble for us," countered Jamie. To Patters he said, "Fire a warning shot with one of the mid-sized guns, just ahead of the lead one, and specify a range so it explodes." He addressed the others. "Let’s see what happens."
"Firing," confirmed Patters.
The pulse exploded just ahead of the lead whale. It checked slightly, but came on relentlessly.
"No effect," called Patters.
"We have to fire on them," said Snark. "We have to stop them, or hurt them enough to discourage them."
"No!" cried Sissness.
"It’s coming for us!"
"Evasive manoeuvres!"
Snark pulled the ship over hard, which at speed, had everyone not hanging on to something, careering across the bridge, as the gravity failed to compensate fast enough. The ship heeled over again in the opposite direction, which had them pulled over again. Anna, Sissness, and Brindle were all on the deck, while Patters, Jamie, and Snark were hanging on to their consoles.
A.I. Destiny 4 Destiny Stone Page 7