Rumors of Wars: The Askirti Chronicles - Book 2

by Danny A. Brown

  The woman appeared older than Jackie, and older in fact than the salvaged video of her Jackie had seen on Wellington. It was uncanny the resemblance between the two of them. The frozen woman had scars that were visible. The left side of her face appeared to have suffered a burn, while there was a significant scar going down her forehead and her right cheek. Surely, they had the technology for such basic treatment? Or was the situation on the Freedom that desperate that even the leader forewent treatment?

  What else was found by visual examination just through the windows was that most of these people did not have the pure white hair and alabaster white skin Jackie had.

  Just what secrets will you share?

  ##

  “Daddy, I won’t leave you! Not again! Never again!”

  “You won’t have to, I promise!”

  “But I was told to serve on the High Queens flagship I had to go thru special training to be a marine! That training wasn’t happening on the ship!”

  “We will change that,” Rick said. “I promised you I would never send you away. I am not entirely happy to have you on a warship, but it is my part to stand by her in these dangerous times. I wished you could have a peaceful life away from the military.”

  “You know, it’s not all their fault I grew up to be like you,” Sylvia said. “You were always my hero. In surviving, I strove to be like the image I had in my head of you.”

  Both were tearful at this point. Most conversations between the two generally at this stage was heavily emotional. As a small child, she worshiped her father, and he adored his daughter. The last twelve years had scarred her deeply.

  Sylvia’s innocence was completely ablated, her heart thoroughly scarred. The one soft spot left was her father’s presence and his love. This was not unnoticed by Rick, and it killed him that so much had been stolen from his little princess, things she could never have again.

  He wanted her to have a safe life now that she was free. Should he have been surprised that his little girl was her father made over? He wanted to be with both her and Jackie. He just felt so guilty at the obvious solution of having his daughter join the Askirti military.

  “You’re better than me. I would not have survived,” he told his daughter.

  “There’s only two things that I want.”

  “Name them,” Rick said.

  “I want to be a marine, I want to be close to you, close to her. All the others feel the same. Help us to be the best of the best. We’re all survivors. We have received the gift of freedom, and wish to repay it by forming what I think you are missing. The queen's personal guard.”

  “Every marine and ACU on that dreadnought is her personal guard,” Rick said with a questioning look.

  Sylvia stopped talking for a moment, then continued thoughtfully. “Circles within circles,” his daughter answered. “Because of what we’ve been through, we can be some of the meanest bunch you’ve ever come across. Because of who freed us, we can be the most loyal bunch. Can’t we create an inner circle of special guards?”

  His daughter was asking for special training that would turn her into as effective a killer as he is or more. The thought chilled him, but he promised himself, promised her, he would not tell her no.

  “I will ask her.”

  ##

  “No!”

  “You’ve got to admit that it’s a great idea,” Rick said, not really feeling it.

  “Didn’t you just get your daughter back and now you want to turn her into a soldier!” Jackie exclaimed. “I-I’m sorry, Rick. I shouldn’t have said that. I just…think about the lost opportunities and dream those who were hurt would want to be far away from things like this.”

  “I’ve watched them spar. They’re good, really good.”

  “For being untrained.”

  “For being untrained, I agree,” he said.

  Jackie squeezed her eyes shut then opened them.

  “Pari, what are your thoughts?”

  “Well, I am SO glad you asked!” it answered over the speaker on the wall, “I think it is a grand idea.”

  The look of shock was on both their faces that the AI agreed.

  Jackie was pacing around the room, with a look of exasperation.

  “Okay, fine! Let’s do it,” she finally said. “I suppose the Queen’s Praetorian Guard will be worth rolling the dice on.”

  Rick was planting the palm of his hand on his face as this conversation did not go quite as planned. He had privately hoped she would deny his request and they would find another way to keep his daughter close.

  Jackie went on. “On a different topic, Pari, other sections of the dreadnought we recovered did show boarders. Robot boarders! They look suspiciously like your killer robots! Care to explain? And I don’t want that ‘my memory is corrupt’ crap!”

  After a few moments of silence, Pari showed up in hologram form instead of merely allowing its voice to be heard. The look on its face was one of pure guilt.

  Jackie felt her stomach tightening.

  “Um, it’s like this. The Homem’s enemy used a lot of automation.”

  “Hmm, are we opening ourselves to a problem here? Explain yourself!” Jackie said.

  Sighing, the AI said “I did say they were automations. I believe the ‘killer robots’ you saw were not AI’s. Our robots each have independent thought processes. Yes, they were ‘born’ from a template I created, but they then learned and improved on their own. They are each very independent entities.”

  “What about remote control? What about wireless updates?”

  “I can see nobody reads the instruction manuals I so carefully prepared,” Pari said, shaking his virtual head, at which point Jackie was growing impatient. “There is no remote control. There are no wireless updates. The Homem technology is flawless, in terms of being bug-free. Our ‘killer robots’ each have eyes, ears, nose, and touch. They receive input from their surroundings just like humans, not by wireless means. It has its downsides, but it is hack-proof.”

  “Okay, I feel a bit guilty about not reading up on them,” Jackie said squinting her eyes, “but only a bit. What about someone manually hacking them?”

  “Again, nobody reads my stuff!” Pari was looking upwards, flinging its hands into the air. “They are hack-proof. The computer is sealed, and any breach will destroy the core instantly,” it said with a sigh.

  “Alright, what if the computer is destroyed and replaced with a computer not friendly to us?” Rick asked.

  “Well, that is very possible. But we would know instantly which ones are on our side. These AI’s know one another and will not blindly accept a new one. While I am sure that eventually they could be fooled, like any human, they go by vastly more markers that are harder to spoof. More likely, the enemy will eventually get the designs and put their own computer in there. By the way, San Agustin is now the only manufacturer of a compatible computer for the units. The cores are sealed before being shipped to the respective droid manufacturers. Are we done?”

  “Not quite. If the Homem’s rejected automation, why are we using it?” Jackie asked.

  “Again, it is not automation, my queen! These ACUs are individuals, not controlled by a collective intelligence or a remote machine. I chose them because it is cheaper to mass produce a good soldier than to train one. This is the strategy the winners in the Homem war used. I just tweaked it to avoid the obvious pitfalls.”

  “Let us hope these ‘winners’ are not still out there.”

  Jackie was leery about what her AI choose to tell her and what it did not. It was evident to her some of these details were facts that should have been shared up front.

  ##

  “I’ve spoken to Jackie...”

  “You mean the ‘High Queen’?” Sylvia said with a smirk.

  “Ha, she’s Jackie to me. And in private she is Jackie to you.”

  “Okay, what did she say?” Sylvia asked with the excitement of a kid about to receive her birthday present.

  “She s
aid she approves the idea!” Rick said, trying to put on a good face.

  At this point, Sylvia was squealing with excitement. Being there to witness it was a special memory Rick would never forget. He had never dreamed he would have another opportunity to bring happiness into his daughter’s life.

  “Daddy, I’ll make you proud!”

  “I’m already proud of you! But if you think you or any of yours are going to skate by, it isn’t happening. You asked to be the best of the best. That comes with price to pay. The dreadnought has its own Marine Country to complete your training should we ship out, but training starts today and on this base.”

  Her eyes got big. At first, Rick thought he was calling a bluff on Sylvia’s part, but then she started squealing again and hugging him.

  “Thank you thank you thank you!”

  ##

  “Ana, when do you think we can start waking some of them?” Jackie asked.

  Ana Novak was soon to be the chief medical officer on a new flagship Jackie was taking possession of in a few weeks and was down on the base to take however small a part she could have in an opportunity of a lifetime, examining the survivors of the Homem civilization.

  “I think the chances are great we can bring them all out of stasis today. But we don’t know. Personally, I would love to give the science team another month or two to study these pods to make sure it is safe. I mean, these people have been in stasis for a long time. Who’s to say we won’t have to wait another few dozen years to wake them up safely?”

  “Well, I say,” Jackie said. “Look, I’m not trying to be harsh, but the Zikars are plowing the Westerly’s into the ground. Any edge we can get may make a significant difference in the battles to come.”

  Indeed, the Zikars had invaded a few critical systems in Westerly Federation territory, with terrific battles ensuing. From an intel perspective, the Zikars mass-produced ships were not as good as the Westerly’s, and the Westerly’s were nowhere near as good as Jackie’s, nor the Reslorians, nor the Commonwealths. But with sufficient numbers, that problem became moot.

  “I know, and I’m very anxious to wake them too, but a few months will not make any difference in the war effort. These people are going to be in complete shock.”

  This was something Jackie knew. They went to sleep probably expecting to be woken up still in their time. Instead, they will awake to discover their once mighty civilization had long since been forgotten. It was only recently that archaeologists found hard evidence of their existence, and that was fifty thousand years later.

  “Well, until we ship out, you can play around with your popsicles,” Jackie quipped.

  Ana liked seeing this side of Jackie. It seemed the more she hung out with Colonel Amori, the more she came out of that cold, hard shell. She was a tough woman for sure, but at least she had a personality showing itself now.

  She felt a certain comradery with Jackie, both having been victims of Commodore Donners of the WFS Nemesis. Ana had been drugged and raped, and the recorded videos were edited to make it look like she was complicit. She was then blackmailed by him for years, using that video for more sex. He had also drugged Jackie, and attempted to rape her as well. She was injured badly during the ensuing struggle, but she cut his head clean off his body.

  “Jackie,” Ana was one of the few Jackie demanded to call her by her first name while alone. “I wanted to say thank you for getting us out of the Federation. For getting me out, and my family.”

  Jackie stopped for a moment, “I’m thankful your family was able to get to the embassy in time.”

  “They are enjoying making a new life on Avalon, it is a truly beautiful planet! We owe you everything! I’m serious when I say I want to repay you.”

  “Justice, Ana. Be an advocate for justice. Joining us as you’ve done. The Askirti Federation is a multinational force meant to stand against darkness in all its forms. My heart is families just get a chance to live happy lives. That vision is not complicated.

  “A lot goes with that, just look around at this system. A lot has been entrusted to me, and to a scary degree. That is why I am surrounding myself with people whom I trust and have a rapport with. People like you. I need my feet on the ground or held to the fire. This is not an empire unto a woman but is a weapon used to defend the innocent.”

  Chapter 12

  Somewhere in Westerly Federation Space

  Admiral Eigor Zobrist was an accomplished man. He was proud of his heritage coming from a mining family. Miners brought materials out of solid rock, materials that were used to make real things. This was an honorable profession, and his family were miners for generations.

  When he was young, Eigor had seen how the mining community worked to take care of one another, never esteeming one person as better than the other. “We all die for the rocks,” he would hear them say. Whenever one family had a need, other families would step in to help take up the slack. They would help each other as a community should. They lived the same, they learned the same, they mined the same.

  It was so unlike the Westerly filth. The greedy horde their wealth while others among them starved. It made him sick that the least among them were left to suffer. Their political system was famously corrupt, people gaining ranks on starships simply because of family connections. He was ill thinking about it. He earned his place on this starship, his flagship, the UZS Liberator, an appropriate name he thought. He would liberate the oppressed from the oppressors.

  It was a shame that so many others had to die, but such was the greater good. How can everyone appreciate equality if they had richly appointed lords over them with big houses and big bank accounts? More waste. So many families could be cared for in their communities if the wealth was not hoarded by the lucky few. No, Zikar people did not horde wealth, they distributed it. That is not to say they allowed laziness. Oh no, plenty of opportunities existed for those who wanted to work to do so. And those who didn’t? What was it scripture said? “Cast into the fire tomorrow”, yes that was it. There was no waste in Zikar society.

  The Zikars were especially proud of their women. They did not subjugate them as they were in the other empires. They were never forced to serve in the military, which is why the military was free of women! They were highly valued indeed, and cared for and nurtured. How else would they be productive in childbearing if they were unhappy? And a good Zikar woman was one who gave plenty of children to her husband, her master.

  Oh, they were free! Free to raise their children, free to visit one another, even free to work, so long as it did not interfere with their primary duties of family. Yes, the Zikar women were the best women, and he would make sure that women everywhere learned this freedom.

  “Had to teach my wife a lesson before we left,” he commented.

  “Sir?” his Number One asked.

  “Abdul, I was just thinking how much I hated leaving for war after having to give my wife a teaching lesson.”

  Captain Abdul Tyrance nodded knowingly.

  “I mean, here I am going to war to bring justice to the outlands, and she just complains and moans about the kids and how they irritate her!”

  “How did you teach her, that I might learn from your ways?”

  “First, I washed her mouth out with soap, for it was inappropriate to show a lack of gratitude for the blessing we have with our children. Then I spanked her so hard she would not be able to sit down for a week! She was black and blue down there, I made sure of that. After that, she said some unkind things to me, so I had to put her in her place. It did hurt me more than it hurt her.”

  “What did you do, sir?” Abdul asked.

  “Well, she’s done this before, this was the third time, I just couldn’t let it pass. Not for her sake, I love her too much. I stripped her naked in front of the children, which embarrassed me to no end! I just can’t believe she made me do it. Then I tied her to the wall, we have the blessing brackets in the family room. And I then called the priest to come and brand her. Because it was her f
irst branding, they put it in a place that was easily covered up, on her stomach. It was so humiliating what she put us through. The priest asked me which scripture I wanted to use, I told him ‘Stupidity will pass.'”

  “A wise choice, sir, and I hope she learned her lesson! It is unbecoming for a woman to speak out of turn, much less use harsh words towards her master!”

  “Too true, too true. I meant to ask you about your wife, Zora.”

  “Oh sir, it was a disaster. I thought I was doing a favor by taking in one of those orphans discovered after patrols captured a pirate ship. I was so happy to take her as my wife as I knew she had a grand opportunity marrying me! But she just would not shut up! And she would stand up to me constantly.”

  “I wasn’t aware of this, Number One,” his admiral said with a serious tone. “What did you do about it.”

  “The only thing I could do, sir, or so I thought. I tried so hard to go easy on her, delaying punishment, but she got so much worse. I only wish I had your wisdom sir, I called for the Overseer. She was purified and cleansed.”

  “Ah, painful indeed. But the Overseers, being advanced in the priesthood, we can rest assured they know what’s best.”

  “Yes, it hurt my heart so much watching her go through the ritual. I only wanted to help, but now the only help for her was out of my hands. When they took their knives and scarred her face, I was a bit excited, I’ll admit. I had hoped she would calm down at that point and submit to the rest of the ritual. But no, ever so awkward and embarrassing she kept crying and throwing insults at the Overseer. They had to brand her twenty-two times to get her to shut up! I was so deeply ashamed. It was a relief when she got to the cleansing. It was challenging to watch as they separated her skin from her body, as I’ve always wanted to do it. They wouldn’t let me participate, but it brought me great comfort knowing her soul had been saved, if only by another man’s hands.”

  At this point his admiral was facing him, put his hand on his shoulder and said softly, “And it should. You are a merciful and compassionate man, Abdul. Her passing is not a loss as her soul is safe and secure. You did your duty even though it left you without a helpmate.”