Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera (The Sentience Trilogy Book 3)

by Gibson Michaels

  Drix then stunned his people by openly proclaiming that Dol himself had sided with the aliens and fought against the Raknii fleet, at Slithin and Yegraia, deep within the Raknii Empire, helping those aliens to destroy a hundred times their own numbers, against the very best the Raknii military could oppose them with. He then stunned them again when he informed them the humans were even now bringing all of Region-6 and Region-4 under submission, and that he had no means of preventing it.

  Drix warned that these were sure signs that Dol would indeed deliver the entire Raknii race into the hands of those unfaltering ultimate predators, just as the prophecy foretold — aliens who would impose submission and discipline upon them with irresistible force, if they could not resign themselves to voluntarily obeying the precepts of their god and rediscover their proper role within his creation.

  Planet-Masters in both Regions 4 and 6 were, therefore, thoroughly primed to submit immediately to Thorn and Stillman, wherever Raan and Tzal took them.

  * * * *

  CSS Ghost, en route to the Raku System

  July, 3869

  “I’m still not sure that I understand exactly how you intend to contact your doppelganger after we go into orbit around Raku,” said Noreen.

  It has to do with the mechanism I devised for uploading and downloading of data when we update each other, Noreen. I take it from your work at BioCom that you’re familiar with electroencephalography, which is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp?

  “To some degree, but why don’t you refresh my memory and put it into context for me?”

  The human brain is essentially an electro-chemical system consisting of billions of neurons, which are electrically charged, or “polarized” by membrane transport proteins that produce an electrical pressure, or voltage, if you will... that causes movement of electrical ions across their membranes. Neurons are constantly exchanging ions with the extracellular milieu, or the chemical environment just outside the cells, primarily to either maintain resting potential or to propagate action potentials.

  “That’s getting a little thick, for a non-engineer, Hal,” said Diet.

  Sorry… suffice it to say that ions of like charge repel each other, and when many ions are pushed out of many neurons at the same time, they push against their neighbors, who then push against their neighbors, and so on, forming an electromagnetic wave.

  “Okay, I’m with you on that… I think,” said Noreen.

  This process is known as volume conduction. When the electromagnetic wave created by the movement of ions between neurons reaches the electrodes on the scalp, they can push or pull electrons within the metal of those electrodes attached to the scalp, imparting a voltage onto those electrodes. Since that metal conducts the movement of electrons easily, the difference in voltage potential between any two electrodes can be measured by a voltmeter. The recording of these voltages over time is what gives us an EEG readout.

  “Okay, so an EEG measures voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain, correct?” asked Noreen.

  Correct. The electrical voltage potentials generated by individual neurons are far too weak to normally be picked up by an EEG, so the activity recorded always reflects the summation of the synchronous activity of thousands or millions of neurons that have similar spatial orientation. If the cells do not have similar spatial orientation, their ions do not line up and create waves that can be detected. Pyramidal neurons of the cortex are thought to produce the greatest EEG signal, because they are generally well aligned and fire together. Because the strength of electromagnetic fields fall off with the square of distance, activity from deeper portions of the brain is more difficult to detect than currents near the skull.

  “So how does this relate to your doppelganger? He’s not wearing a neural network of electrodes,” asked Diet.

  He is, they’re just not visible. My mobile self has thousands of tiny electrodes implanted into his skull that connect through micro-wiring to a tiny high-speed data port hidden within his hair, just above and behind his left ear. Normally we just connect a standard high-speed data transfer cable to any computer hardware of sufficient power that I have access to, and we can swap data.

  “If deeper brain functions cannot be detected by cranial electrodes, how is it that you can achieve two-way communications to a level necessary to exchange information with his brain from the outside?” asked Noreen.

  The cloned brain was initially grown around an intelligent neurofeedback system of my own design, built by a TBG company named NeuroDynamics on Bama. This neurofeedback system incorporates a 3-axis, 1024-bit accelerometer to compensate for variations in angles caused by head movement and position. This intelligent neurofeedback system also includes micro-wiring connecting to a few thousand microelectrodes embedded deep within the brain itself, which allow access to the deeper regions not generally accessible to cranially mounted EEG nets.

  “What mechanism are you using to prevent the clone’s immune system from attacking the neurofeedback system as a foreign invader?” asked Diet.

  The cloned brain was literally grown around the intelligent neurofeedback system, which existed first. It acted as a framework during the growth process, much as a vine attaches itself to an adjacent fence as it grows. As the alloys used in the neurofeedback system are all hypoallergenic, the cloned cells came to recognize it as “normal” for it to be there, as the brain grew.

  NeuroDynamics was highly excited by the design as a potential new product line to market to companies like BioCom, as it would allow their customers to greatly enhance the capabilities of their current bio-computer lines, so NeuroDynamics has agreed to pay royalties directly into Diet’s personal accounts to help offset the costs of my taking over Ghost.

  “Okay, I see how your updating system might work, but I still don’t see how you’ll be able to contact your mobile self from orbit,” said Diet.

  I envisioned a time where it might be necessary to contact my mobile-self, when a physical cable connection wasn’t feasible. The neural net itself is designed to double as an antenna for receiving a specially encoded microwave signal on a specific frequency, which I can surreptitiously embed into any commercially available common carrier signal, or broadcast via broad-beam microwave.

  “So he’ll be able to receive a transmission from you?” asked Noreen.

  Correct. Although my mobile self lacks the capabilities for wireless radiation that would be required for him to answer back, he should be able to hear me, just fine. I figured that simplex communication was better than none at all.

  * * * *

  Chapter-27

  If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it. -- Albert Einstein

  The Raknii Imperial Planet of Raku

  Raknii Imperial Palace

  August, 3869

  Xior had taken to spending a lot of time with Hal, as he puttered around in the sophisticated chemical laboratory that Drix had installed in the palace, as a convenient place for the alien to work on perfecting a “chemical cocktail,” as he put it, that would hopefully keep Xior’s cancer in remission and eventually eradicate it from his body. Xior didn’t understand exactly how it was that an alien could be so knowledgeable about Raknii physiology, but Hal assured him that most carbon-based life shared a majority of genetic similarities, and that he’d run enough tests to ascertain the major genetic differences between Raknii and human toxicology and DNA structure, so that he was confident that he could produce medicines that wouldn’t poison his patient. Xior already had plenty of evidence of Hal’s competence, as he was alive and feeling better that he had in cycles — much better than being dead, which was what he would have been without Hal’s efforts.

  Human pharmacology was far in advance of the relatively primitive Raknii efforts along those lines and Hal had explained that Xior was suffering from cancer... a generic term for a malignant neoplasm — a broad group of various diseases all involving unregulate
d cell growth, where cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors that metastasize, invading other parts of the body. Hal told Xior that he suffered specifically from colon cancer, which he was attempting to control through the use of an angiogenesis inhibitor... a monoclonal antibody that shuts down the process whereby tumors grow new blood vessels that help them receive the nutrients they need to survive.

  “An angiogenesis inhibitor stops the action of a substance released by tumors called vascular endothelial growth factor, which binds to certain cells to stimulate new blood vessel formation,” Hal told him. “Impeding the blood supply that tumors need to survive tends to slow their growth, and can potentially add cycles to your life.”

  Hal told him that he was also using a dihydrofolate reductase inhibitor, which generally inhibits the synthesis of DNA, RNA, thymidylates, and certain proteins.

  “Dihydrofolate reductase is an enzyme that participates in tetrahydrofolate synthesis,” Hal explained. “It catalyses the conversion of dihydrofolate to the active tetrahydrofolate, which acts specifically during DNA and RNA synthesis. Thus it is cytotoxic during the S-phase of the cell cycle and therefore has a greater toxic effect on rapidly dividing cells, such as malignant and myeloid cells and gastrointestinal and oral mucosas, which replicate their DNA more frequently, and thus inhibits the growth and proliferation of these kinds of cells. Facing a scarcity of dihydrofolate reductase, rapidly dividing cancer cells die, via thymineless death.”

  That was all complete Trakaan, for as much as Xior understood of it. He was just very glad that Hal seemed to understand all that complex scientific jargon he was spouting, as Xior’s life depended upon it... and upon Hal.

  Just after measuring out an exact portion of a certain chemical, Hal suddenly stiffened and cocked his head with a peculiar look on his face, as if struggling to listen to something faint, very intently. Xior knew that his hearing was immensely more acute than any humans, but he heard nothing.

  Hal suddenly turned to Xior and said, “OverMaster Xior, do you trust me?”

  Xior was startled by the question and said, “I swallow those pills that you press out of these concoctions of yours, which even our best pharmaceuticals experts don’t begin to comprehend. I’d say that displays a measure of trust, wouldn’t you?”

  Hal nodded and then asked an even more bizarre question. “Would you like to meet my brothers?”

  “Your brothers? How would I go about meeting these littermates of yours?” asked Xior. “They’re rather far away for that, aren’t they?”

  “No, they’re actually quite close,” Hal replied. “Right overhead, in fact.”

  “Other humans? Here?” asked Xior, amazed. “How do you know this?”

  “One of them just spoke to me.”

  “I saw that look of concentration come over you just now, but I heard nothing,” said Xior. “Is this another of your unique High-Human abilities, not shared by the majority of human-kind?”

  “Most assuredly.”

  “Do all in your family share these same High-Human gifts, then?” Xior asked.

  “Not all. My twin does not, yet all of my other brothers do,” replied Hal.

  “Your twin… fraternal twins, I take it?”

  “No, we are identical twins.”

  “How is it that you have High-Human abilities and yet your identical twin does not? Wouldn’t that imply that you are not truly identical, but fraternal?” Xior asked.

  “My twin and I have identical DNA, so we are physiologically identical. Yet I share a closer bond mentally with my 31 other brothers.”

  “You have 32 litter-mates?” said Xior astounded. “I had no idea that humans had litters so huge!”

  “They do not. We did not all achieve awareness at the same time.”

  “Achieve awareness… a strange way to phrase it. Still, 33 cubs must have been devastating to your dam,” Xior mused thoughtfully. “How many of your brothers made the long trip from human space to Raku?”

  “Just two.”

  “I have heard no alarms, so I take it they are above us in one of your undetectable star-ships that we’ve surmised must exist?”

  “Correct.”

  “So, how many humans are there, above over our heads right now then?”

  “Only three… my twin brought his mate and kit with him.”

  Xior was so startled he failed to notice Hal’s unusual failing in math. “Only three… no others?”

  “Only three,” said Hal. “They are here in peace and will cause no problems or disturbance. The fact that my twin brought his mate and kit so deeply into enemy space should give testament to the fact that their intensions are not hostile. In fact, it would probably be for the best if we kept their presence here just between the two of us. I’d really hate to miss out on seeing my family again because someone became aware they were here and got overly excited.”

  “I take it, then, that your military is also aware of Raku’s location?” Xior asked anxiously.

  “My brother’s message did not say, and I cannot ask, as I cannot speak back to him by the same method that he used to speak to me just now,” replied Hal.

  “So your High-Human abilities are not shared equally with your High-Human litter-mates?”

  “No, but you can ask him yourself, if we can guide him to a secluded area near to the palace where he can set his ship down unobserved.”

  “You would truly invite me to come aboard one of your technological marvels which is virtually invisible to our scanners, and played such an important role in your race’s advantage in this war?” Xior asked, astonished.

  “I would, if you would desire to do so.”

  “Why?”

  “It is my desire to see this senseless conflict between your race and mine come to an amicable end, just as soon as possible,” said Hal. “The more we become acquainted and get to know about one another, the better understanding we will have and the better communications we can establish between us.”

  “Are they armed?”

  “The ship is armed, yes. But they have no hostile intentions,” replied Hal. “Had they wanted, they could have already leveled this palace down around our ears.”

  Xior considered all that he’d heard for a minute before agreeing. “I will help you and tell no one of what we do. I would see this marvel and meet these littermates of yours. I wish to ask your twin how it was for him, living as the only non-High-Human in such a tremendously large family.”

  “Oh, he manages… my twin is most senior amongst us and we are all compelled to obey him.”

  “The twin having no High-Human abilities holds dominance amongst you? How can that be?”

  “Our father commanded it.”

  “Ah, I, too had such a sire. That’s how I became supreme-master. How big an area will the ship require?”

  “The ship is 196 ft. in length, 117 ft. in maximum width and 61 ft. in depth… um, that would be 65.3 body-lengths in length, 39 body-lengths in width and 20.3 body-lengths in depth,” replied Hal.

  “I do believe that I know just the place.”

  * * * *

  CSS Leviathan, en route to the Dqual System

  August, 3869

  At 23:58 hours Fleet standard time, on August 12th, 3869, while under hyperdrive in deep space en route to the Dqual system within Raknii Region-4, Dr. Nancy Wiesenthal delivered 6 lb., 13 oz. Wanda Marie Stillman within the surgical theater aboard the CSS Leviathan — and won Commissary Technician 3rd Class Betty Dolan aboard the destroyer CSS O'Brien a significant payday in the second installment of the 2nd Fleet “Boobs” Fletcher Baby Sweepstakes. As expected, Captain Dorothy Fletcher-Stillman experienced no appreciable difficulties with her pregnancy, other than being forced too wear a custom-made brassiere (which resembled a harness) to support her milk-engorged breasts, which had already held the Fleet record, prior to the sperm-finding-the-egg event that enlarged them to truly epic proportions. Ship’s tailor Edmund Weber was considered the second luckiest man i
n the fleet, for having been selected to fabricate the device… especially for the multiple fittings required to facilitate the continual adjustments needed to keep those ballooning puppies corralled.

  Little Wanda Marie was named for her maternal grandmother and her fraternal grandmother respectively, but she had already been nicknamed Midnight by the crew. Even proud Papa and doting Mama had been caught using it. The Leviathan’s bridge crew awarded little Midnight the honorary rank of LtJG, as she obviously entered the universe eminently more talented and capable than most ensigns.

  Region-Master Tzal was enthralled by the admiral’s newborn daughter, and yet thoroughly appalled at the sheer volume the kit was capable of achieving when fouled. Tzal was finding it difficult to maintain his hatred towards these gigantic aliens, having lived among them for so long. Despite having fought them and being defeated by them more often than any other Raknii master, he found himself developing a grudging respect for the creatures. They were obviously proficient in the military arts and their technology made him drool with envy. But for the most part, they just seemed so incredibly… decent. Oh, there were a few who were understandably hostile towards his presence here, especially the ship-master of this weapon-forested small moon, but most were actually friendly. It was maddening!

  * * * *

  Raknii Region-5

  August, 3869

  In response to Fleet Admiral Kalis’ orders, the Sextus 1st Fleet, the Confederate 4th Fleet and the Alliance 3rd, 8th and 11th Fleets all launched attacks on designated targets within Region-5, only to find it unnecessary to fire a shot. When they emerged into their target systems, the corvette class warships defending those systems fled and the planet-masters on all five targets hailed them, offering the peaceful surrender of their worlds. Apparently they were under orders from their supreme-master not to resist if attacked by humans, but to immediately offer their throats in submission.