OMEGA Destiny

by Stephen Arseneault

  Go crossed his arms. "I just think we need to continue with other efforts, that's all. If this doesn't work, we've wasted valuable time."

  I replied, "I believe this to be a good plan, but Go is right, we need to continue our efforts to develop a contingency. As the colonel has said, the battlefield often offers up surprises."

  An AI ship was located and an AI captured from within. The virulent memory was inserted and the AI swept back.

  The colonel asked, "This is an isolated group of ships. Would anyone be opposed to a live test?"

  Frig replied, "I believe that to be a prudent step, one that I was going to suggest. As an afterthought, I added a QE tag to the AI before sending it back. We will be able to monitor the action without the need of a scanning portal. Quan? Would you please send the trigger command?"

  The holo-wall turned to an image of the generator room on an AI battlecruiser. Half a dozen bots stood at the ready should a need for them arise. Seconds after the command was sent, the bots came to life, exiting the generator room. The hisses from laser fire could be heard through the QE channel.

  Go pointed at the data coming back. "The ship just dropped from standard speed! And there go the others!"

  Frig nodded. "Sixteen ships in this group. All are coming to a stop but one. Interesting, that ship is now not only braking, but turning. It's powering up its weapons and... firing. An infected AI on the bridge must be in control."

  As we watched over the scan data, two other ships joined in the laser battle. The small fleet of sixteen was quickly reduced to three before the remaining ships turned on each other. A fierce battle ensued, with a single ship being victorious over the other two. A fermium bomb was then detonated, taking out the remaining battlecruiser."

  Frig nodded. "I believe that went as well as could be expected. We should begin the seeding process of all scanned AIs."

  The colonel added, "Start with any that are on ships. We take out their ability to move and the rest will come more easily."

  Quan said, "I've done a target analysis highlighting data segments containing ships. The list has been optimized and passed to the Garmon and the Destiny. We have twenty-six hundred eighty-five targets. Give the word and I will begin."

  I asked, "How long will it take to run through that many targets?"

  Quan replied, "The acquisition, insertion, and delivery of each AI will take approximately six minutes thirty seconds per target, yielding five and three quarter days of continuous infections while using both the Garmon and the Destiny."

  Garrett shook his head. "Is that the best we can do? Any way to speed things up?"

  Quan gave his standard stoic reply, "I am sorry, Mr. Rourke. I don't believe that process can be optimized any further."

  The Garmon and the Destiny began their tasks from the space docks orbiting above Dallex as we wandered around in the city below. After a long review of some of my Talisan's recent training, I met with Jack, Garrett, and Joni at Shipyard #1. The first of the new frigates was beginning to take shape.

  Jack asked, "When does it receive the sodium coating?"

  I replied, "I was told it comes after the ship is fully functional. Since the coating covers the entire exterior, it goes on last."

  Jack nodded. "I like the modernized bridge. A crew of four can handle every aspect of running that ship during a shift. That's a quarter of what it was taking."

  Garrett asked, "Any updates getting done to the Garmon?"

  Jack shook his head. "About the only thing they have is an extra generator to power that skin and two additional aft cannons that only function when the skin is inactive. I told them to forget it. We can't afford to have her offline for that."

  Garrett said, "I would take the generator at least. If it keeps one of those fermium explosions from taking you out, that seems like a valuable upgrade."

  Jack frowned. "I wish that were true. The analysis I was given said it would've only made a difference with 3 percent of the sentinel ships during that big fight we had. Doesn't seem worth the two weeks of downtime to get it installed."

  Joni added, "I would take it. We're probably going to be sitting here for two weeks anyway with these sweeps going on."

  Jack leaned on the rail in front of him. "Can't do it while the sweeps are going on. The ship has to be opened up to get that inside, which means being powered down."

  Joni replied, "Opened up? Why don't you just sweep it aboard?"

  Jack shook his head. "I don't do the work. They're the experts, and I'm sure they took that into account. Anyway, it's not happening while that portal is in use, so—"

  A bright light flashed, spread out and shone down from the heavens above us.

  Seconds later, the colonel came over a comm to each of us. "Beutcher, get in a shuttle and get up there! The Garmon is gone!"

  Quan joined the comm. "A quick analysis shows the latest AI being swept aboard contained a small fermium bomb. The Garmon is a loss."

  Garrett asked, "Who was on there? Was Go still up there?"

  Go came over the comm. "I'm here. I was in the process of powering over to the Destiny. The blast almost overpowered my BGS, 78 percent. I wasn't at full activation like I should have been. And Jack, Mr. Jefferson was aboard her when I left."

  Jack leaned farther over the rail with his head down.

  I placed my hand on his shoulder. "He was a good man."

  Jack slowly looked up, taking a deep breath. "When is this war going to end? He didn't deserve to go out like that."

  I squeezed Jack's shoulder. "It was an honorable death. He gave his life doing what he wanted, fighting for our freedom."

  Jack took another deep breath. "I should have been up there. I asked him to review the repair logs to see how the automated repair was functioning. I should have done that myself."

  Joni huffed. "Look, Jefferson died fighting for what's right. We should all be so lucky when our time comes."

  I spoke over the comm. "Quan, tell me the sweeps by the Destiny have been shut down."

  Frig answered. "I made an adjustment to the capture sweep. We are now filtering for the presence of fermium, Mr. Beutcher. This was a difficult loss, but we must continue. We've managed to clear out 42 percent of the targets thus far. This will cause significant delay to that progress. However, I continue to believe it is a worthwhile endeavor."

  I sighed. "I hope you're right, Mr. Helgris. The Destiny is now our only way back to the Yallux. We can't afford to lose her."

  The colonel said, "Beutcher, we had a hundred twenty-eight Talisan Marines and other crewmen on there as well. I've notified Talisan Command of the loss."

  I replied, "Thank you, Colonel."

  I leaned on the railing next to Jack. "Why is it every time we begin to make progress we get punched in the gut?"

  Garrett replied, "It's the cost of freedom, Mr. Beutcher. Sometimes that cost is high, paid for with the blood of those who would fight."

  I looked back across the shipyard at the frigate under construction. "Let's hope we don't run out of those people before this is over. Past us, I don't think there is anyone willing or able to pick that standard up, no one to carry it forward. Until things get really hard, that is. By then the AIs will be unstoppable."

  Jack slowly nodded. "I guess that leaves it up to us then."

  Chapter 10

  * * *

  The following day a dozen new fermium loaded AIs were scanned and rejected. The day after, the number jumped tenfold. The AIs were on to us.

  The colonel said, "What I don't understand is how they are getting the word out so fast. Some of these ships are weeks away from any others."

  Go said, "They captured that Baldi ship. It could be they have the QE technology now."

  The colonel winced. "That would be a devastating blow to one of our few advantages."

  Go nodded. "Imagine every AI connected to every AI at the same time. They would become like this single spread-out entity that could see and know everything from everywhere at onc
e. How would you fight that?"

  Frig said, "If they have the QE technology, it could be a tremendous break for us with our current strategy. All AIs would be infected at once."

  The colonel replied, "Speaking of that, I think we should enable the trigger on the AIs we've currently infected. They're all performing work against us every day. I think putting an end to that work outweighs the benefit of waiting for them to infect other AIs. We should pull the plug on as many of them now as we can."

  I said, "I believe the colonel is right. We can continue with our campaign while not having to worry about the infected AIs figuring out how to remove the infection, and without them building more ships or bots."

  The colonel looked around the conference room. "Anyone else?"

  No one reacted.

  The colonel turned back to Quan. "Send the signal. We'll know how effective it was with tomorrow's scan."

  Quan said, "The trigger command is now being sent. This will delay our infection progress by approximately two hours."

  The colonel nodded. "Thank you, Quan. It's worth the delay. And as far as stats go, we've hit 52 percent of our initial targets. That constitutes about 90 percent of their ships. When our pace picks back up, we're only a couple days away from having shut down all AI ships that have shown on our scans."

  Quan added, "When the ship purge is complete, I would suggest we go after all factory construction. We have five hundred thirteen factories in various stages of construction. That will consume just over two days of sweep time."

  The colonel let on a half smile. "That would be a milestone for us. We take away their mobility and their ability to reproduce in numbers, and we turn this war back in our favor."

  Go raised a hand. "I have a question. What about the AI ships using the Baldi projection technology?"

  The colonel's half smile faded as he turned back to face the battlefield data on the holo-wall. "That's a huge shortfall on our part. Frig, have we made any progress at detecting the Baldi projection tech?"

  Frig replied, "I'm afraid not."

  The colonel stood silent for several seconds in thought. "For all we know there are just as many hidden ships out there as the ones we've destroyed. We need that Baldi method of detecting those ships."

  I shook my head. "They aren't talking to us, Colonel."

  The colonel replied, "Then I go talk to them. Quan, I need you to sweep me out to the Baldi command center."

  Seconds later a portal opened. The colonel disappeared from view as the portal swept over him. We patched the video feed from his helmet to the holo-wall. The Baldi admiral, Miratti, was standing in front of him.

  "Admiral…" the colonel said as he blinked in.

  Four Baldi guards quickly raised their plasma pistols. The admiral continued looking at the viewscreen in front of him.

  The colonel tried again. "Admiral, you need to talk to me. Us butting heads over something that has passed will not help us solve our current problems. We are in desperate need of your help. Talk to me."

  The admiral turned. "Colonel, we committed six thousand ships and what did we receive in return? Your condolences? Seems hardly fair now, doesn't it."

  The colonel nodded. "That it doesn’t, Admiral. But this is war. You've been fighting it your whole life. Sometimes engagements go exactly as planned, and sometimes the enemy does something new and out of the ordinary that costs you big. We lost most of our ships and crews in that fight, and believe me, I would give almost anything to have them back. But that's not possible.

  "We need your help, Admiral. We believe the AIs may be building ships using your projection technology. We have no way of tracking them and thereby no way of destroying them. We've managed to take out 90 percent of their ships in the past week, a huge accomplishment in itself.

  "Today, as we continue our push to rid this galaxy of the other 10 percent, we realized we had no method for detecting their ships which have your technology. And we know they have those ships, Admiral. Your own team helped us to eliminate some of them before that disastrous fight we lost. So please, Admiral, help us to finish what we've started. You can even provide us with a team that manages that device as before. We need to find and to destroy those ships. It's vital to the survival of both of our peoples."

  The admiral scowled. "I don't trust you, Colonel. You come in here at will, violating our space, demanding that we cooperate. That is not the Baldi way."

  The colonel replied, "You have my apologies, Admiral. But my apologies won't kill AIs. And with you deciding to not answer our comm requests, you left me little choice. We are not the enemy, Admiral. The enemy is out there. And they will be coming after you in numbers you can't defend against. Talk to your superiors, Admiral. You know what I'm saying here to be right. Don't let stubbornness or hurt feelings be the deciding factor in this war. Give us the help we ask for."

  The admiral stood silent, staring into the colonel's eyes for several seconds before turning back to face the display screen again.

  After another moment of silence, the admiral said, "I will talk to the Grand Committee, Colonel. If they reiterate 'no further contact,’ you will be allowed to leave. But you will be arrested if you come again."

  The colonel nodded. "Fair enough, Admiral. Consideration is all I ask."

  The colonel stood in silence for most of an hour before word from the Grand Committee was returned. We would have our team of Baldi with the detection device. In return, we would provide the full data from our portal gate scans that covered this quadrant of their galaxy. The colonel agreed.

  After a short delay for preparation, the colonel and the Baldi team were swept back to Dallex. Go walked with Quan and the team, taking them to a room where they would interface their detector with our scan sensors. The following day our eight-hour-long scanning process was begun. We waited patiently for results.

  Quan said, "Colonel, I suggest we follow a pattern similar to what we established yesterday. The day following, we should activate the trigger of the units infected the previous day, thereby removing those AIs from the fight. With the reduced number we will be dealing with, each activation period will bring with it an eight minute delay—a small price to pay for the assured elimination of the prior day’s infections."

  The colonel nodded. "Make it so, Quan. And thank you for the suggestion."

  The remainder of the day trudged by. When the new scan data arrived, we were surprised with good news. The AI had just under two thousand ships using the Baldi technology. They were in sixteen groups, and were made the priority targets. The Baldi and their device were moved to the Destiny and the process of infection was begun.

  Quan remarked, "If all proceeds as planned, the AI ship threat will have been eliminated by tomorrow afternoon, including the newly discovered projection ships."

  The colonel replied, "We still have a lot of work ahead of us. The coverage we are getting from those gates is tremendous, but it's also lacking. Until we've performed a dozen full scans with clean results, I won't be convinced we've been successful."

  I nodded. "We've made great progress, Colonel. Our small Talisan fleet now has enough ships to take on anything they can throw at us. We couldn't say that a week ago."

  A comm came in from the Baldi admiral. "Colonel, Mr. Beutcher. I've been authorized to offer our thanks. The data provided shows no AI ships in Baldi territory. This is the first time we've been able to say that with any certainty. And I would also like to take the time to apologize. Our losses in the previous battle had many of us upset. As you said, it was in our best interest to put the past behind us and to move forward. I can't say that was a call I would have made."

  The colonel offered a genuine smile. "We appreciate the help, Admiral. We're in the process of eliminating almost two thousand AI ships that are making use of your technology."

  The admiral hesitated and said, "Colonel, there is something I should tell you. Our detection device, it tends to only be right about 70 percent of the time. That leaves a genero
us margin for error."

  The colonel replied, "Understood, Admiral. We estimate our scans to be only 78 percent effective as well. I hope to have your team here for at least another month as we finish this up and verify the results. Has there been any talk of when they will be taken home?"

  The admiral returned a smile of his own. "With the results we are seeing, I have no doubt their assignment will be lengthened to accommodate whatever you believe your needs to be."

  The admiral paced in front of his comm camera. "Colonel, we've been looking over the data you provided. This quadrant of the galaxy … I would have expected more species. Counting us, we have evidence of eight species within the scans you have provided. Does that seem normal? You indicated your alliance has many more than that."

  The colonel thought for a moment. "That does seem low. Admiral, let me give you a brief data dump of what we know…"

  The colonel gave a quick accounting of our complex and storied history. The talk lasted all of twelve minutes. The admiral watched in fascination.

  As the colonel wrapped up his story, I said, "Admiral, the War of Wars he spoke of may be the reason so few species inhabit this large space. Within our own war here, we've seen the Doomlighters, the Moddles, the Odenta, the Grumar and the Grotus, torn from existence. We have the Tamarin, the Kergans, you Baldi, and the two other species you interact with as all that we know. That's thirteen total, with three that we have yet to meet. If we use that as an average, you'd have forty-two species occupying your entire galaxy. Our smaller galaxies have several hundred each. It could be that others were wiped out by the Duke long ago."

  The admiral nodded. "We have come across ruins on worlds where there are no sentient species. Perhaps your theory is correct."

  Quan said, "The Duke is responsible for the elimination of three hundred seventy-seven species from this galaxy. Of those species, five fought in the different War of Wars. Your own Gruntas, Mr. Beutcher, are one of those species. My records do not show evidence of the Baldi in those campaigns. Admiral, going back in Baldi history, when did your species first achieve space flight?"