by Michael Kan
Thirty years ago, however, the Destroyer had made a fateful choice. In one single moment, he had betrayed his masters and gained control over their power, including their fleets.
As a result, the Alliance had taken the precaution of banning him from the surrounding territory. But in reality, they could do nothing to the man. He would operate as he pleased, with an entire armada behind him.
Now he was here, ready to wage war.
The Destroyer even intervened at Alliance Command, the Sentinel went on.
I saw the report, Arendi replied. It mentioned a battleship out in pursuit of the Endervars.
Yes, a very large ship, flanked by many more drones. Have you contacted him?
She paused and sighed, scratching the bridge of her nose. The delay was pronounced.
So you have? her comrade assumed.
Mega detected her hesitation. He might have been an AI, but he had grown fluent in his interactions with organic life, especially humanity.
Yes Arendi said reluctantly. I have.
They both knew the controversial figure to a degree, but their opinions varied. Mega was more aware of the Destroyer’s questionable past, whereas Arendi was more familiar with the man he sought to be.
So she answered his question honestly, focusing on the present.
I know we’re not supposed to, Arendi said, but frankly, I don’t care about the regulations. I plan on rendezvousing with him after we’re finished here.
She didn’t mean any offense, but the situation was grim and desperate for change.
Good, he replied. We need him as our ally.
The AI was well aware of their plight. His ships were dwindling, and they had done little to contain the enemy. The other Sentinels in the region were faring no better.
Do what you have to, her comrade added. The galaxy is counting on us.
The Sentinel signed off and continued his patrol. The AI was technically her superior, but thankfully, Mega had supported her every action.
The Alliance, however, might not be so understanding. To them, they had potentially traded one enemy for another. But Arendi didn’t believe that. She massaged her troubled brow, trying to forget the thought. If she knew the Destroyer, the man had little taste for a squabble with the Alliance.
Rubbing the cold skin on her face, she lifted her right hand and looked at it. She let the palm open beyond its normal parameters. The flesh pulled back, and the fingers stretched as her hand became more like a mechanized claw.
Housed in the center was the specialized chip. It carried a code that not even Arendi fully understood but that the Destroyer did.
No doubt it had been a gamble, one that might jeopardize her career, but Arendi had risked it, breaking the regulations. She had placed another one just like it inside the Arcenian military command. She was still waiting for the result. If the Destroyer was in play, they might have a chance.
She flexed her hand, pulling her fingers and skin back in place, and activated the chip’s secret communication code. Still, there was no update. But at least the last message had seemed confident. She looked at it again. I’m close the message said. Very close.
Chapter 20
The machine was restless. He refused to accept this feeling. This repulsive sense of defeat.
Logic dictated that they retreat. The odds of victory were low. Their armada of six hundred Endervar ships had diminished in the face of a foe gaining in strength. The data and concluding analysis had all made it painfully clear.
Nevertheless the setback had been an aberration. It was a tactical upset; they should have crushed Alliance Command with relative ease, but still the station stood. The Enforcer was not pleased.
He had watched from the shadows, quiet but unsettled. Their vessel, the Unity’s mother ship, had remained afar, both monitoring the progress and seeking to undo the delay. Their army her army had for some reason fallen back and spared the target. The Endervars’ ships had nearly all stalled. He had assumed that her ally, Farcia, could easily intervene. Time and time again, she had demonstrated her power and her mastery over her kin.
Crush them, the Enforcer had thought, craving the onslaught. Annihilate them!
Although he was born of data, the machine was quite capable of emotion. In fact, these sensations, leftover from his infamous heritage, fueled him. He hated all that stood in their way. Ingrained in his being was his undying loyalty to his dead masters, and a persistent need to restore what was right. So he expected total destruction. They had so far succeeded at every turn.
The Enforcer could easily imagine the fire. This station Alliance Command exploding in a burst of embers. It was the blow that he yearned for. The Alliance would never forget this.
No, she had said. No
As much as the Enforcer had wanted it, her ally had refused. She had returned from her sudden visit saying little except stating her demand.
We’re leaving, Farcia had said, jumping through the fiery portal and entering the darkness. This doesn’t matter anymore.
The Enforcer noticed the change. Her diminishing armada was falling back and warping away at faster-than-light speeds. To where, he didn’t know.
Since then she had said little else, merely sulking in the shadows. For whatever reason, Farcia had altered her plans and sanctioned defeat. But that was not the worst of it. The worst had been the insult. It was a taunt that rattled him now. The Enforcer possessed no physical flesh, but the sting was still deep and twisting. The Unity’s mother ship had already left the battlefield for deep space. But before their departure, he had heard the message.
So you still hide it had said. You still fear me, don’t you?
The Enforcer remembered those words. They had come over the communication bands, as an open hail, and were distinct in their encryption. He knew who was behind them. The Enforcer had seen the new incoming ships. They had appeared out of hyperspace to protect Alliance Command. He knew who they belonged to.
Magnus the Destroyer. So you side with the organics
The Enforcer spoke the name in his mind, wanting to break something. If there was a single man or being he hated the most, it was him the Destroyer, an insolent deviant. It was also why he existed. The Enforcer had been born to eliminate the Destroyer. His masters, the Unity, were gone, but the original protocol would always exist. It chafed him to recall the indignity.
Come, now. Let us play, the Destroyer had teased in his arrival. Let us annihilate each another. Let us finish this!
The Enforcer had stared at the incoming data, so tempted. His vessel, the mother ship, had remained cloaked. The Destroyer and his vessels, on the other hand, had been primed for battle.
No, Farcia had said. No
The Enforcer remembered this, and grew angry. He was enraged. This was a battle they should have won. It was his time to instill the fear. The Enforcer could easily have bombed Alliance Command with a portal and a payload of antimatter, but he could only assume that the base had been spared for a reason. He needed to know why.
Explain!
He shouted into the chamber, demanding an answer in his mechanical voice. To underscore his point, the Enforcer beamed a yellow light over her position.
Speak, Farcia!
The light was bright almost blinding. But despite his demand, she said nothing. She merely looked up and closed her eyes.
No longer content to remain in the shadows, the Enforcer took control over a combat drone in the room and activated its systems. The neon lights around the deadly machine burned. It came to her, humanoid in form but adorned in blades. The robotic soldier now acted as an extension of himself.
Explain yourself! he said, looming over Farcia. Why did you halt the assault? Why did you board Alliance Command?
She felt the heat from his plated exterior. The surrounding shadows had all but vanished. Her sole companion this machine would not relent. The combat drone’s singular eye glared at her.
It�
�s none of your concern nothing you would understand.
She looked away from him, trying to find an ounce of darkness inside the secluded lair. She staggered away, seeking the cold.
The Alliance is weakened, Farcia went on. We did what we sought to do.
She had seen the data. The estimated death toll was at least forty billion and possibly twice that number. Vital targets, including shipyards and weapon plants, had been erased.
But Alliance Command, he said, unconvinced. The station remains unharmed. The Alliance is the only force with the potential to stop our plans. It was our vision to destroy their seat of power.
She still looked away, dismissive of his claim. Her back was hunched, and her face was down.
It doesn’t matter. None of this does. We have what we want. We’re leaving.
She was exhausted and tired of this questioning. But her ally refused to stop.
I am concerned, the Enforcer said, following her at every step. Alarmed by your doubt. By this unexplainable change.
Don’t be, she answered. Nothing has changed. Just focus. Focus on the task.
The machine came face-to-face with her. She rubbed her throat and then clutched her chest. He could tell she was unwell. Her ailment had begun over a year ago, and still, it worsened.
Farcia had quietly admitted that she might be dying. She was in chronic pain. She complained of headaches and fatigue, and emotionally she was becoming both unfocused and volatile.
Leave me be! she screamed. Leave me alone! Her quiet resistance had turned into an outburst. She scratched at her cheeks, trying both to contain and to think past the agony. Her white hair fell over her face as she stammered in her now faint speech.
You don’t understand no one ever will
Her behavior was obviously not normal. They had known each other for almost twenty-one years, and she was changing. But as always, the alien woman refused his assistance. Although she never said it, Farcia had never entirely trusted the machine or his kind.
The Enforcer and his drone body stood still, analyzing. He was well aware of her deterioration. So he asked her the one question that perhaps mattered the most.
Do you still have control? Or are you losing it?
He wondered how long she would possess her sanity before her mind completely collapsed. In response, Farcia raged.
Do not doubt me! she shouted. This body is mine. My kin are mine.
The pain was enraging, but for now she needed to survive it. There was still too much to do. Undaunted, she looked up at the machine. Her hatred for everything, like the Enforcer’s, was real.
The Alliance she said. Let them come, if they dare. Soon this galaxy will die.
He heard the conviction in her voice. Farcia stiffened her stance. The Enforcer stared back, appeased for now. The blinding light dimmed, and the combat drone stepped away, fading from view.
Even with the reassurance, however, the machine remained unsettled. Farcia offered no explanation to her ally, only anger.
The Enforcer was impatient. He wanted to know more, rather than leave everything uncertain. He dared not make a mistake, not when his own masters had blundered decades ago and failed because of it. But despite all his calculations and effort, not even he could counter the unforeseen.
He felt his displeasure grow. His internal alarms went off. A disturbance had been discovered. It came from below, past the bulkhead of his own vessel, threatening the assets that lay against the hull. The automated systems compensated, and the mother ship activated its defenses.
Farcia heard the doors clamp into place. Large slabs of metal fell down, sealing the central lair shut.
What is this? she asked.
The combat drone reactivated and moved swiftly to protect Farcia. The machine arched into an attack stance.
A precaution, he said. Scans have detected a potential security threat.
Where?
From our acquisitions.
The Enforcer studied the problem, baffled by the anomaly. Over the last five days, he had examined the acquisitions intensely. The two secret Arcenian facilities remained in tow and sat seemingly secure next to the underbelly of the mother ship. He and his automated machines were still inside the two structures, performing one scan after another, completing the analysis. It had all occurred without complication until now. The drones had suddenly uncovered the threat: a self-destruct sequence that was about to go off.
I thought you had control, Farcia said. You told me the security systems were neutralized.
It was what the Enforcer had thought as well. He had meticulously decrypted the computing systems to both facilities and had assumed control.
I am resolving the matter as we speak, he replied, masking his anger.
He had begun another hack, this one more rushed than the last. His drones had found the problem at one of the facilities and had begun the data exchange. The result had established a direct connection between the mother ship and the Arcenian computing system.
Assuming full control, he said as analyzed the threat.
While he worked, Farcia crumpled in her stance. No, she said, bracing for disaster. This can’t happen!
They had fought for too long simply to lose everything now. She stared at the combat drone, nervous.
Stand by, the Enforcer said in his mechanical voice.
It all occurred in a matter of seconds. The danger of an explosion had arrived in a flash, only to dissolve in the face of the machine.
Commencing shutdown self-destruct sequence aborted.
The hack had been a success. The threat had been staved off.
Are you sure? Farcia asked. Do you know what caused it?
A failsafe, the Enforcer replied. Hidden within the security protocols.
To some degree, it was to be expected. The research inside the two facilities was secret for a reason. The Arcenian government had done everything in its power to keep the two facilities confidential and out of reach.
But now it was theirs. The Enforcer’s A.I. mind was embedded inside the Unity’s mother ship, and so he could feel it, resting against the hull. In his possession was not just secret research, but a weapon of world-ending power.
Knowing this, his displeasure lifted, along with the sting of defeat. He had nothing to fear.
Regardless, my analysis of the research is nearly complete, the machine concluded. Soon we can begin construction.
Chapter 21
Despite the recent scare, the two acquisitions were still considered safe. Following another battery of scans, the Enforcer had assured her that the original threat had been removed. The stolen secret facilities and their computing systems had been purged of any traps. Everything was normal and proceeding without incident.
Farcia was there now, touring the site. The tendrils from the Enforcer’s mother ship had burrowed deep into the interior of Depository A, the larger of the two facilities. She entered through one of the tunnels and eventually appeared on the other end. There was no oxygen and little gravity or light inside. For that reason, she had come prepared and wore her own environmental suit. With each step, the boots magnetically clamped to the floor. She activated her scans and followed the designated trail.
The depository and its sister base had both been state secrets, so few, if any, ever came here. The facility itself was sterile and tightly organized. Breathing through her helmet, Farcia walked past hallway after hallway and saw one sealed door after another.
Officially, none of this existed. At least not in any public or Alliance record. The research housed inside had been deemed highly sensitive or dangerous. It included many experimental technologies, all of which had been abandoned or declared defunct. Farcia, however, sought to revive one technology in particular. She came to the room where the research was housed and found that the sealed door had been pried off, leaving a singed hole in the middle of the wall.
She stepped through and found herself in the faci
lity’s largest section. It comprised almost 80 percent of the interior. As a precaution, all power had been cut. In order to see, Farcia activated her visual filters and gazed at her surroundings. The technology she desired to obtain was impossible to miss. It physically hung from the ceiling and consumed most of the room. The remaining parts had been held in the other facility. But the bulk of the technology was here, in her sights.
There was in fact little to see. The actual parts were encased inside a column of black. Except for its enormous size, the monolith was nondescript but decidedly mysterious. Farcia placed her fingers against a small part of the obsidian surface.
The secret, she thought. The potential will be mine.
No one knew of this. No one except for the highest leaders in the Alliance. That coterie had been small, and nearly all its members had originally dismissed the secret technology as a failed project.
Her ally, the Enforcer, however, recalled the significance; his masters, the Unity, were among those who had been briefed on the project. Once, decades ago, they had even sought to control the inventor behind the technology. From what Farcia had been told, the scientist was a brilliant man, one whose genius was nearly unmatched. But he was also a cautious figure. In spite of many invitations, he had refused to join the Unity and convert into a virtual state of existence. Tragically, he had died in the Unity’s failed attempt to integrate the man forcibly into the collective. But at least his research remained preserved, albeit clandestinely. She could tell why.
Farcia gazed at the stored technology. To some, it might have been considered a weapon, a mechanism for total destruction. But to her, it was salvation, one that might breathe new life into this universe. All her hopes now hinged on this.
She walked along the room, stretching out her hand. Her finger delicately traced the monolith’s exterior. But even as she was surrounded in silence, Farcia was not alone. She heard the message come from her suit. A repeating icon flashed in her vision. Then she saw the shadow from the corner of her eye.