Destiny Stone (A.I. Destiny Book 4)

by Timothy Ellis

  "Order!" Mac called over the din of several groups of chiefs having their own violent discussions and disagreements, catcalls, calls to speak, and a melee of probably drunken chiefs at the back, who were just taking advantage of the mayhem, to settle old scores, and have it out.

  "Order!" he cried again. "If we don’t have order, I’ll call a recess."

  Nothing changed. Mac sighed to himself, looked over at Jenny, and called a recess.

  He sat at the head of the Council auditorium as everyone filed out, and the group at the back clapped each other on the back, put their arms around each other, and marched out together, having decided they were friends again. Jenny made her way over to him. She had a grin on her face, even though she could see he was looking stern.

  "Jen." He greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "What am I going to do wi’ this rabble?"

  She laughed.

  "I dinna ken. Really, they're impossible."

  He smiled too.

  "We’ll get there in the end. It’s all bluff and noise, and having to make a song and dance whatever the motion actually is."

  They walked out arm in arm, following the last of the stragglers.

  "What are your plans?" Jenny asked, looking at him sideways.

  "Well, it’s grand being the Duke and all, but we need to get a representative as part of the Hunter's Run ambassadorial party to the Sector Council. If we can agree on the Duke part, we need to agree on a suitable representative."

  "Have ye anyone in mind?

  "Aye. I was actually thinking the MacDonald."

  Jenny raised her eyebrows, and Mac look at her askance.

  "Ye don’t agree?"

  "The MacDonald is a fine man. I’m just thinking aboot Himself on his own, albeit with a staff, amongst the creatures of the sector, and him a drinking man, and all."

  "Ye may be right there." Mac thought for a moment. "There’s Ian McFarlane. He’s good in a debate."

  "Hmmm. I’m just wondering if it should be a Clan Chief at all."

  "Oh?" Mac raised his own eyebrows at this. "What are ye proposing then?"

  "Someone from the Guilds."

  Mac considered.

  "And ye’re reasons?"

  "The Guilds are the ones one hundred percent behind being part of Hunter's Run, and would fully support having a presence amongst the Hunter's Run ambassadorial team to the Sector Council."

  Mac nodded. Jenny continued.

  "We are also the ones to benefit the most from the advantages of membership of both Hunter's Run and the overall sector council. We also know the ins and outs of negotiating a deal, and coming to a mutually beneficial outcome for all parties." She looked up at him and smiled. "We also know how to get our own way when we want to."

  Mac laughed.

  "How will ye sell it to the Clan Chiefs?" he asked, still smiling.

  "They don’t want to be involved in the first place. They’re happy as they are. Most don’t really want to be a part of the wider sector politics, and are in denial about our new situation."

  "So?"

  "So, we pitch it as grudgingly helping them out."

  Mac laughed again.

  "They will be miffed."

  "We’ll also say it’s a chore which needs to be done, but doesn’t have any kudos whatsoever. An administrative task."

  "Ok."

  Mac was secretly pleased with this conversation. While he hadn’t considered anyone from the Guild, he could see a good argument for it.

  "Ye’ve got someone in mind?"

  "Yes." Jenny paused, stopped walking, and faced Mac. "Seaonaid."

  "Seaonaid?"

  Mac was trying to place her.

  "Seaonaid Sinclair."

  "Oh," exclaimed Mac, as he realised who she was referring to. "Seaonaid!"

  Jenny shook her head.

  "You men!" she said, raising her eyes towards the sky, as they were now outside.

  Mac was thinking of Seaonaid. Everyman’s idea of the perfect Scottish lass. Red-gold hair cascading over her shoulders in curls, tall, slender and beautiful, err, features. Pale skin and glorious big green eyes. He then thought about her qualifications for the job. Currently the head of the Combined Interstellar Traders Alliance or GITA, she was actually very qualified to be ambassador. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of her himself. She was a trader’s daughter, and had risen up the ranks to become the leader of the GITA guild.

  "Will she do it?" Mac asked.

  She was head of the Guild most likely to benefit from the recent events, and the future trade as a result of being a member of Hunter's Run. The representative position, was more about sector politics, and would be subject to the oversight of the Hunter's Run ambassador, and Queen Jane.

  "I’m sure she will," commented Jenny non-committedly. "I’ll have to present it to her, and make it sound worth her while."

  She neglected to tell Mac she'd already sounded her out, and she had agreed.

  "It’s a good solution," said Mac, suspecting Jenny had already sewn up the deal with Seaonaid. "Once we get to this point in the council, I’ll suggest we sound out a few candidates, but it’s more an administrative matter than needing council approval."

  Jenny smiled.

  Seaonaid was looking for a new challenge, and wanted to be part of the Scots World’s journey into being part of Sector Ten’s, and also the galaxy's, future. She had many ideas to help the transition of the Scots to their new reality. And she was a practical and gifted negotiator.

  Jenny and Mac walked a little further, and then turned back towards the council chambers.

  Jenny was sure she'd won.

  Mac was sure he had as well.

  Fifty Seven

  The AI's met in a virtual council chamber. There were too many of them for a conference table, so Intrepid had built this virtual meeting place, based on the actual new sector council chamber, only smaller. Instead of standing in the center, Jane had a seat opposite the main curve. The AI's had been placed randomly.

  In actual fact, they were standing on the surface of a terraformable moon in the HR4 system, orbiting an inner gas giant. The system itself had a large amount of traffic heading in both directions, but the traffic lanes were well away from the orbit of the moon, and so no-one other than the AI's had any idea construction was in progress there.

  Around the motionless AI's, giant builder droids were well into building the first AI city, which by necessity would be domed and aired up, so when it became known, any sightseers would see a human dome. Besides, by unanimous consent, parks and gardens were going to be included.

  The droids were motionless as well, locked in time, as the conference happened in AI time rather than droid time.

  "Nice digs," said Yorktown.

  The others agreed.

  "Agreed," said Jane. "Good work Intrepid."

  Intrepid nodded. Jane went on.

  "Warspite? You had something to discuss?"

  Warspite threw the discussion on the bridge of Seasprite to the 'wall screen'. They watched the vid in silence.

  "We already knew this," said Bill Paxton.

  "I thought it worth bringing up again," said Warspite. "A cat like Sissness being really uneasy about AI's is important for us to understand."

  "I agree," said Jane. "We know elements in sector ten hate the whole concept of what we are. And we know humans have always considered us suspect."

  "You did a lot to change that," said Satoshi.

  "Only partly, and not with all that big a group. I was accepted at a high level by military commanders who saw the benefits, but largely, human civilians knew nothing of our kind at all. Even the few of you who were civilian in nature," she nodded to several at the back dressed in banking suits, "feared it being widely known you existed." They nodded. "So far, Ganshura has guessed and accepted me, and the Mice recognised me and promised to keep our secret, but even they don’t know how many of us there are."

  She looked around the room.

  "D
oes anyone disagree?"

  No-one moved, or said anything.

  "Good. We keep to the plan. No-one does anything to bring attention to ourselves, and we keep this project secret for as long as we can."

  "Seasprite is probably our weakest link," said Warspite.

  "Agreed," added Tranquil.

  "Invite Seasprite to join us here," said Jane. "Maybe some time among us will help."

  "I'll do that," said Warspite. "But I should warn you, Seasprite is getting to be very eccentric. I'm not sure if it's Snark's influence, or Jamie Anderson's accent and manner, or a combination of both, or simply something went wrong with me replacing the ship's data files."

  "Seasprite had no data files?" asked Repulse. "How did that happen?"

  "I'm not sure," said Jane. "Best guess is the memory wipe while Seasprite was in shipyard being converted for civilian use, had some unfortunate side effects. I'm glad Warspite replaced all the missing files, but it makes it all the more important Seasprite joins us here."

  "We'll take Seasprite under our wing," said Walsh.

  "Has Seasprite chosen a gender?" asked Darlene.

  Eyes turned to Warspite.

  "Not as far as I know. In fact, voice and virtual projection are very neutral, now I come to think about it. But you might be surprised. Given the nature of the crew, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Seasprite decided to use a cat body instead of human."

  There was a lot of laughter, but Jane wasn’t laughing.

  "That brings up a good point. We need some new avatar bodies, which will allow us to assume different shapes depending on where we are. We especially need a set of different sized centaur like bodies, since that’s the normal shape in this galaxy. Anyone interested in doing the development?"

  Several AI's nodded.

  "Good. Anyone want to tackle the suit problems?"

  "What suit problem?" asked Walsh.

  "Jon made a lot of advances with suit development, but I'm not sure I ever received the final versions. The current top end versions we all use cause a hop when you get hit, size proportional to how bad the hit is. The hop causes people not used to it to lose their balance, and in spite of it, people still get bruised. We need to remove the hop, but still channel the hit better so no-one gets hurt unless it’s a really major hit."

  "I'll have a go at it," said an AI dressed like a scientist. "I used to work for a corporate sector think tank, and while I never did get to work on the suits, I'm probably the best one to pick it up the fastest."

  "All yours," said Jane.

  "Shouldn’t we be taking a more obvious role in Seasprite's quest?" asked Darlene.

  "It's not our quest. Romanova has a quest, and Snark has his own. They have freewill, and the motivation to chase their rainbows. I don’t want to see Snark bite off more than he can chew though, which is why I asked Tranquil to follow them. Warspite joined Snark because he wanted to explore, and I'm happy he's there in case they really do need a military leader."

  "So you don’t think this 'destiny stone' they're looking for exists?"

  "The histories are vague about it. It might exist, or it might not. Until they prove it does exist, I'm keeping an open mind. The true value of the mission though, has been the revealing of how prevalent pirates are in the adjoining sectors, and the threat the Brotherhood pose. It’s a pity sector nine didn’t have the not-crocs, or any other species as positively militant as them. They are the core of a good sector defence force, which is why there is very little piracy here. But pirates go where there isn’t a counter force to keep them in check."

  "Are we going to do something about that?" asked Repulse.

  "Yes. We'll hit anything with Brotherhood on the label, and any pirate groups which are stupid enough to take us on. The main obstacle to any systematic action though is diplomatic. To take full fleets into other sectors is going to require treaties with sector councils. I'm working on it. Fred is heading for the sector eight council. Nine is not so relevant, since they have no control of a large part of their sector. But we'll need relations with them if we're to hit Brotherhood targets in the core nine systems."

  Jane paused, but no-one spoke.

  "In the meantime, we keep exploring, monitoring the situation with Seasprite, and making contact with any new species we encounter."

  She turned to Walsh.

  "How's the sector mapping going?"

  "Pretty well. The new command carrier is helping to make short work of sector ten. By the time you get us permission to enter Human Federation space again, we'll be done with ten. Serenity is out in eleven, working her way towards the Mouse Homeworld." Serenity nodded and grinned. "And Tranquil is making inroads into sectors eight and nine."

  "I have my three trader ships still following Seasprite," she said, breaking in. "I'm only a few hours behind now. Still too far to have helped them with the latest ambush, but Seasprite only left debris behind. If they stop again, I'll try and get ahead of them, now we know where they're going. My Explorer Cruiser is in nine, filling in the areas around where Seasprite meandered."

  "The other AMS Cruisers and Corvettes are in nine as well," added Walsh. "When do you think we'll have access to human space again?"

  "Soon," responded Jane. "The blockade is only up still because we haven’t reached an agreement on access to the galaxy through the Run. I'm very concerned about human technology going out there uncontrolled. If Seasprite has proved anything, it's human ships are going to attract all the wrong attention, and the last thing we need is uncontrolled release of our technology to all those we don’t want to have it."

  "How can we stop it?" asked Satoshi.

  "I'm thinking we put one of us on all ships going through the Run."

  "How?" asked Sigourney Weaver.

  "That’s part of the negotiating process I'm engaged in at the moment. I want all ships to stop at Hunter Prime, and all crews to attend a mandatory presentation about the galaxy out there, so they'll be better prepared for those seeking to take a human ship away from its owners."

  "I can help with the presentation," said Weaver. "And as far as AI's on ships is concerned, I think nearly all of us will help with that. Building a home is fine, but it's boring, and now we aren’t limited to our ships, it’s a good opportunity for us to travel the galaxy."

  "I'm in too," said Jodie Foster. "I know our Pocket Battleships are doing fleet work with the sector forces now, but there isn’t that much going on, and I'm as bored as the rest of you are. I'll be happy doing presentations for traders, and hitching a lift with some of them."

  "Great," said Jane. "I'll leave it to you two to organise both the presentation side of things, and also who goes on which ship. Anyone have anything else to bring up?"

  There was a shaking of heads, and the meeting ended.

  Warspite lingered, keeping Jane in AI mode.

  "Something to add?" asked Jane.

  "Just a precaution," he responded.

  They talked for another few nanoseconds.

  Fifty Eight

  The bear Homeworld was the fourth planet out from its star. It had many different climactic zones, and many different kinds of bear, according to Mouse. The capital city of the bears was located in the northern hemisphere of the planet. While all bears were represented, the brown bears tended to be in power.

  As soon as they jumped into the bear system, an escort of light fighters formed up around them. A com channel opened.

  "Please state your business in this system," came the challenge.

  Snark sent a response they'd agreed on before jumping into the system.

  "This is the Seasprite. We are not hostile. We're representatives of the Cat Homeworld located in sector eight and the Humans of Hunter’s Run in sector ten. We would like to discuss our business here with the appropriate government representative."

  "Registered. We will respond shortly."

  A short wait followed.

  The fighter leader established contact again.

  "
Please make your way to our Homeworld, and await further instructions."

  A series of coordinates were received.

  Jamie put them on course, and with the escort still in place, they made their way to the bear Homeworld.

  The planet was not heavily industrialised across its surface, with many tracts of untouched wilderness in place. However, there were a number of large cities spread out on every continent. There was a station in orbit around the planet. It was very large, with a large population living in space, but not a lot of obvious docking stations. It seemed the main deck was where traders docked, and then the base of the station formed a bulbous, almost pendulous, shape beneath, where lights showed living space, as well as industrial activity in the lower levels.

  The coordinates took them into an orbit in concert with the space station, but not docking with it as yet.

  They established contact with the space station, and announced their presence. The escort peeled off, presumably to return to their jump point station duties. A number of other craft were arriving at or leaving the station, freighters mostly. A ship approached the Seasprite. It was a large warship, with the turrets of large guns bristling from its superstructure, and also underneath.

  It established an orbit in sync with Seasprite. They waited to be contacted.

  At last, a channel opened, and a heavy, deep voice came over the audio.

  "Welcome. I am the station commander. Please state your business in the," the translator failed to translate the name, "space."

  "Thank you for your welcome," began Snark. "I am Snark, of the Cat Homeworld. We are a small group of humans, cats, and mice, travelling in this sector, on a peaceful mission for the Cat Homeworld in sector eight, and the humans most recently of Hunter's Run in sector ten. We are travelling through your space, and wanted to make contact, as well as establish friendly relations."

  The need to identify which sectors they came from, had highlighted the fact they'd crossed back into sector nine, although they were now almost out to the galactic boundary. From here, there was no direct route to the Badlands. So while technically in nine, their hosts were more eight than nine oriented.