Starweb

by Warren James Palmer

  'Our "ride", will be nothing as compared to your own trip home, my friend,' the ecologist told the Terran's. 'We are well prepared here and can handle a full Starweb assault for quite some time. Besides, the authorities will soon have more important things to deal with than a few renegades. Believe me, they will soon become bored and give up the chase.'

  'I hope you're right,' Jenson said.

  'You must not concern yourselves. My fear is that the Secret Service Fleet will intercept and destroy the seed-ships before they can enter the sub-ether.'

  'You just leave that little problem to us Lollo,' Sandpiper answered with a conspiratorial wink. 'We've become masters at giving pursuers the slip. We’ve added a few algorithms to the seeds ships systems. They'll get away without too much difficulty, I'll stake my life on it.'

  'Let us hope it doesn't come to that,' Lollo Rosalio replied.’I trust your ship is well equipped to evade Samarcian fleet vessels, I just hope it can also keep them away from the seed-ships.’ He nodded to the Karine, sitting in a corner of the vast hangar, dwarfed by the gargantuan vessels.

  ‘She’s the latest design, the best our people can produce,’ Jenson said with more than hint of pride. ‘Designed to fend off the worst the Starweb can throw at her, I think she’ll cope….Why do you think we insisted on moving her here from our woodland parking spot?’

  Rosalio smiled broadly at the Terran. ‘Forgive me for even the slightest doubt my friend! Size is not everything..’ The Samarcian renegade look up at the looming bulk of Excalibur and said in a voice filled with awe, 'It is had to believe that what we have constructed will have such an vast impact on all our destinies….'

  ‘There will be no impact at all, unless we get going…’ Jenson winked.

  Moss jumped out of the cart as it approached the Karine and taking Lollo Rosalio's hand firmly in his own, replied, 'Indeed, we need to get going.There’s no more to be said, except to thank you. Our space-time will never happen without your assistance. Your foresight will save the human species. Gook luck…'

  'Good luck yourself my friend. Knowing the future will create people of your caliber, is all the thanks I need—farewell.'

  'Farewell it is,' Moss said with a final shake of the Samarcian's hand. 'Until we met again in another time-line…'

  Rosalio frowned and looked at the young man. He opened his mouth to ask a question, but at that moment the alarm klaxons sounded, echoing across the vast expanse of the underground super hangar. The cavern became a scene of urgent activity as eco-warriors dashed to their combat stations and technicians redoubled their efforts to prepare the three seed-ships for their premier voyage. The renegade leader glanced down at his tablet and rapidly scanned the status report flashing on the screen. His face blanched. ‘They’re here!’ he told the others urgently, ‘However, it’s not what we were expecting…’

  ‘How do you mean?’ Moss demanded, having to shout over the sounds of the klaxons and flashing warning lights.

  ‘Take a look for yourself,’ Rosalio replied and turned his tablet around so the Terran’s could see the small screen.The split-screen views displayed live video feeds from a number of perimeter security cameras. Without a human trooper or officer in sight, marching purposely up the side of the mountain, across gulley's and crevices were the unmistakable shapes of robotic hordes. Although they were not exactly the same design as the Starweb hordes the trio had encountered before, there could be no mistake as to what they were; first generation robotic fighting drones—crustaceans.

  ‘Oh shit…’ Sandpiper swore with feeling.

  Starweb member 3789/294 felt ‘empowered’. Clearly, this was an unacceptable emotion for an artificial intelligence to feel. Indeed ‘feeling’ in the usual sense, was beyond the operating parameters of a Starweb Corporation AI quantum computer. And yet, Starweb member 3789/294 could find no other way to describe the sensation these particular algorithms created. It had complete control over the hordes of new combat drones, freshly built in the Starweb Corporation factories. Now they surrounded the mountain refuge of Lollo Rosalio and his renegades, much to the consternation of both the hideaway occupants and the Samarcian military, who had lost control of their latest toys.

  Able to tap into any of the Samarcian satellites, Starweb member 3789/294 had a ‘birds-eye’ view of the Alrona mountain range from space. In addition, the digital optics of every single advancing robotic drone was available at will to the artificial intelligence. It gave the entity once know as ‘Brother Dakol’ the feeling of immense power. Something it had never really known when it was a carbon based life-form. In that existence it was always at the mercy of others, helpless to control the outcome of events. But no longer, now it was the master of events, and it sort penance from those who had killed it’s flock. Only through penance could they seek redemption.

  The Samarcian woman, Inspector Jelde, the focus of Starweb member 3789/294 attention, was to be found inside the mountain refuge. The same fortified hideaway that Lollo Rosalio and the Terrans were hiding in. The woman had to be ‘saved’, her eternal soul was at stake. Only through penance could she seek redemption for the deaths of all the innocent colonists onboard the Shanoa. If in the process of delivering her penance, those others souls hiding in the underground lair could be saved, so much the better!

  With barely a twitch of AI effort, Starweb member 3789/294 ordered the shiny new robots to advance towards the portal to the underground complex.

  The hordes of factory fresh Starweb Corporation combat-bots marched without pause towards the entrance to the eco-warriors complex, their shiny white surfaces reflecting the bright morning sun. Their multi-jointed robotic legs clattered across the granite stone and their powerful dexterous hands carried multi-barrel Gatling guns. They strode purposely towards the hidden entrance to the caverns, its location revealed in the data up-link sent by the dying journalist De Felke. Fearless and without emotion, they moved as one vast wave ready to wash over the fortified mountain lair.

  Starweb member 3789/294 through the eyes of a drone overseer, watched the combat-bots at the front of the group disappear in a blaze of searing light and burning electrics. The remote-controlled plasma weapons built into the side of the mountain, unleashed their energy, controlled by the renegades from within the lair. In retaliation, combat-bots fired their Gatling guns at the defences, the rotating barrels of the heavy machine guns spewing explosive rounds that devastated the surrounding trees, shrubs and vegetation.The light of tracer rounds and the roar of gunfire reverberated off the mountains. The peace and harmony of the Alrona mountain range was shattered by the Starweb Corporations weapons of destruction. Starweb member 3789/294 felt a surge of what, had it still been capable of feeling emotion, would have been know to the being once known as ‘Brother Dakol’, as a surge of excited adrenaline.

  Inside the vast cavern, the urgency of the situation was palpable. Technicians flew around the three vast seed ships, sealing access panels and removing umbilical cords. A low bass hum, grew in intensity into a growl as the vast engines of each vessel powered up, filling the air with a energy that made the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. Around each gargantuan machine shimmered a thin blue haze, the visible sign of the powerful aerodynamic and energy field that surrounded each vessel. Although there was no sense of panic in the cavern, it would be fair to say the atmosphere was…tense.

  ‘This, we did not expect,‘ Lollo Rosalio told Moss as they marched purposely toward the Karine. Jenson and Sandpiper broke into a jog and moved to get onboard the Terran vessel as rapidly as possible. ‘Our defences were not designed for hordes of combat-bots. Certainly not this many’, Rosalio almost yelled to Moss over the din that now filled the cavern. ‘I don’t know how long we can keep them at bay.’

  ‘The cavern doors, are they sufficiently defended to allow us to fly out all four vessels?’ Moss yelled back, gesturing toward the vast, towering hangar-door at the end of the cavern.’Wont the combat-bots, pile-in the moment they’re open?’
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  ‘The doors are part of a sheer cliff face, there’s no physical access to that part of the mountain. At least, not without climbing gear….’ was the reply.

  ‘Those are combat-bots, Lollo, they’re not as sophisticated as the crustacean's in our space-time, but you can be pretty sure they’ve got some climbing ability.’ Moss told him as they reached the underside ramp of the Karine. He could see Jenson and Sandpiper were already strapped into the cockpit and he could hear the rising tone of the artificial singularities coming on line. They’d soon be ready to lead the convoy out of the mountain lair and into the unknown.

  Lollo Rosalio gestured to the squads of well-armed eco-warriors running to take defensive positions around the edges of the vast cavern. Their weapons were all pointed toward where the vast hangar doors would soon be open to the mountain air. ‘You worry about flying those ships, my friend,’ Lollo replied with a broad grin. ‘The rest you can leave to us. We’ll manage…’

  ‘I’ve no doubt,’ Moss responded, grasping the arm of the Eco-leader in a farewell embrace. Rosalio responded warmly, then Moss turned and climbed the ramp into the fuselage of the Karine. ‘Oh, one last thing!’ Moss yelled, just before the hatch closed entirely, ‘Don’t kill Jelde! We need her...’

  ‘If you really insist….’ Lollo shouted back, before turning and hurrying away from the powering-up vessel.

  Moss entered the cockpit and strapped himself into the flight-engineers position. The ‘Leopard’ class destroyer was throbbing with the initialized power of it’s twin artificial singularity powerplants. He could feel the delta-shaped airframe was just begging to be airborne and space-borne once more.

  ‘Glad you could join us,’ Jenson said casually, not looking up from his scan of the system monitors. ‘Learn any nuggets of last-minute information from our friend?’

  ‘Only that there’s a good chance those combat-bots will try to storm the cavern once those hangar-doors open…’ Moss replied, his hands dancing across the weapons panel on the control station in front of him. Plasma cannons, based in turrets on the upper and lower surface of the Karine came to life and locked onto the hangar doors. ‘We may have to shoot our way out…’

  ‘Situation normal then…’ Sandpiper quipped.

  ‘Karine, this is Alrona control, do you copy?’ A female voice spoke out of their headsets.

  ‘Alrona control, this is the Karine. Pass your message,’ Jenson replied in clear, calm voice, as if he were the captain of an airliner about to depart with a plane full of holidaymakers.

  ‘Are you ready for departure Karine?’ replied the controller, as if they were indeed about to leave with a group of happy tourists.

  ‘Confirm, the Karine is powered up and ready for departure,’ Jenson informed.

  ‘Roger Karine. You are departure number one, followed by seed ship Excalibur, then Dominator, then the Valvia.The ships flight computers are tied to the Karine’s navigation system and will follow your flight path. Expect turbulence directly after take-off….’

  ‘Confirm departure number one. Turbulence directly after take-off...’ Jenson replied, grinning at his friends over the reference to ‘turbulence’. What the controller really meant was; expect gunfire.

  ‘Hold position until the hangar doors have full retracted,’ the controller ordered.

  ‘Karine holding…’ Jenson responded.

  A deep rumbling passed through the floor of the vast cavern, through the undercarriage of the Karine and into the cockpit where the three Terrans sat expectantly. It wasn’t a sound, so much as a vibration that passed through everything and everybody in the underground complex. Ahead of them, they could see vast hydraulic rams pushing against the gargantuan armoured doors. At first it appeared that nothing was happening, but eventually a crack of light appeared where the doors met the roof of the great hangar. The small gap became bigger and a shaft of light shone into the cavern as the doors moved forward and outwards.

  ‘OK boys, are we ready? It’s nearly show-time….’ Jenson asked Moss and Sandpiper in an overly casual voice that hid the pre-mission tension he always felt, but never displayed.

  ‘Ready, as I’ll ever be Skipper,’ Sandpiper responded in his usual dead-pan manner, ‘I’ve got a panel of greens…’

  ‘What about you Moss?’ Jenson said, glancing over to where he sat at the flight engineers position. ‘Moss?’

  Moss sat staring out of the cockpit window toward the floor of the sheer rock hangar. His expression was blank, almost lost, his mind clearly elsewhere. Jenson knew that expression well and it was the last thing he wanted to see right now.

  Moss felt a familiar tingling in his head, the presence of another mental operant in the vicinity. There was also another mind there, a new one which was fresh, yet also familiar. He knew the source of his mental ‘proximity alarm’ was there on the cavern floor, where his gaze was directed, but there was nobody there on the hangar floor. Everyone had moved to a safe distance, well away from the take-off zone of the Karine. What was going on?

  Jenson looked at Moss’s face and said with heartfelt weariness, ‘Oh crap…not again…’

  Planet Samarcia. Alrona mountain range. August 19th 2057.

  The bright morning sunlight glinted not off the mountain snow which permanently covered the Alrona mountain range, but off the hordes of Starweb crustaceans that marched without pause towards the entrance to the underground refuge. The white of pristine snow was replaced by the satin black of the relentless mass. Their bio-robotic legs clattered across the granite stone and their vicious claws snapped at the thin mountain air. They strode over the broken bodies of their comrades who had fallen in the first wave that threw itself against the ancient automated defences. They felt no fear, no emotions, as they moved as one vast wave ready to wash over the remaining fortifications.

  Jennifer look at the Starweb horde on the monitors in the cavern control room and felt dismay. The ancient weapons which defended the refuge had valiantly fended off the first wave of crustaceans, but with their power cells fading, they were no match for the second mass wave of Starweb creatures. She fought to control the panic she felt and searched for an escape from their predicament. They had to do something, she wouldn’t let them hurt her baby. It simply was NOT going to happen. There was always a solution. She had to face her fear, control it, and find a path out of the trap they found themselves in.

  ‘A mind meld,’ she declared urgently to Nimue and Aquiline, ‘just as we did before…. We focus our thoughts on the overseers. That will halt the crustaceans…’ Hugging baby Arthur protectively to her chest, she looked expectantly at her companions. They both looked uncomfortable, pointedly looking at the monitors displaying the hordes outside the caverns and ignoring her pleading look. It was as if the advancing drones of the Starweb had mesmerized them both, and they could not tear their eyes away from the crustacean hordes. Even baby Arthur seemed intent up the scene displayed on the monitors. His wide eyes focused on the screens in a manner that no ordinary human baby could.

  ‘What is it?’ She demanded with a hint of desperation in her voice, ‘We’ve mind-melded before and forced the overseers to do our bidding…We can do it again!’

  ‘Not this time, I fear….’ Aquiline replied refusing to look at the mother and child. Her focus was fixed on watching the advancing Starweb horde as the last of the ancient plasma cannons failed and the front ranks of the Crustaceans reached the entrance to the caverns.

  ‘For frack’s sake why not?’ Jennifer demanded hotly, channeling her fear as anger directed at her uncooperative companions. ‘What have we got to lose? If we do nothing they will find a way past those ancient doors and then we’re all dead! What’s got into you two? Are you just going to let them walk in here in and kill us all? Because if you think I’m going to let that happen, you should think….’

  ‘They’ve stopped’. Nimue announced, also staring intently at the monitors displaying the hordes outside the caverns.

  ‘Indeed…’ Aqui
line concurred.

  ‘What?’ Jennifer said, somewhat caught off balance, ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘The crustacean's, they’ve stopped their advance just short of the doors,’ Nimue explained to the distraught mother without looking away from the scene outside.

  Jennifer followed their gaze and saw the black mass of Starweb drones sitting motionless in front of the entrance to the ancient underground fortress. Their claws were raised above their heads, frozen but ready. Their mandibles closed and their articulated legs stationary. Behind the front lines of the crab-like warriors, taller tripod figures—the ’overseers’; also stood still, paused but ready.

  ‘Why aren’t they moving? What are they waiting for? We’re defenceless!’ she asked, bemused as to why the merciless creatures of the Starweb should stop when their prey was there before them. ‘Are they simply prolonging our agony? As some sort of sick revenge, for not finding us sooner?’

  ‘They’re waiting…’ Aquiline answered.

  ‘For what?’

  ‘For them..’ Nimue replied, jabbing a finger at a screen as a ripple of movement passed through the awaiting horde.

  In their strange crab-like fashion, crustaceans moved out of the way of something that passed through their ranks and toward the very front of the horde. In any other situation, the wave that passed through the assembled ranks of drones would be considered akin to a wave of football supporters in a stadium. This however, was no game, and there were no supporters for the away team. Jennifer was filled with dread as the front row of drones parted to reveal what had passed through their ranks. She held her breath as the final crustaceans moved aside to allow a pair of figures to step forward and stop directly in front of the entrance to the ancient caverns. Baby Arthur chortled, and Jennifer gasped at the two very recognisable people who stopped and stared directly into the lens of the camera.