Interloper (The Askirti Chronicles Book 1)

by Danny Brown

  Jackie was still dressed in her crimson dress uniform and had Tabitha and Michael on her left, His Eminence and his aid on the right. She stepped up to the podium.

  “Thank you, Your Eminence, for the gracious introduction. Citizens of the Commonwealth, thank you for welcoming us to your world….”

  ##

  “Thank you for the speech!” the prime minister said in an excited tone as they were walking. “I am already receiving feedback on the nets that people’s nerves are calming down. Knowing that you are in here and that prophecy is coming true right now….the people needed to hear that you are on our side and not here to annihilate us!”

  “Annihilate? Sir, you can’t be serious,” Jackie said.

  “Oh yes, I am! There are cults, and aspects of our culture and even religion focused very much on you and your involvement.”

  Religion? Good Lord! Tell me they aren’t worshipping me!

  “Tell me people aren’t burning incense or praying to me?” The thought repulsed her she would be thought of in such a way. She believed strongly in the Creator, but there was only one, and He shared His throne with no one.

  “There are some who worship the figure you represent. In a nation our size, having billions across many worlds, there will always be fringes. Some think you are a god. Others believe that you are the devil. Most believe that you play a significant role in our future.”

  Jackie looked at him with a look of angst as they got into their motorcade.

  “And what do you believe?” she asked.

  “I think, If the prophecy is to be believed, you play a role for good against forces we do not understand. Whether it is you or what you represent, we will ally ourselves with you at any cost to be a force for good against evil in all forms we may find it.”

  At this, Jackie stopped and turned to regard him. “Thank you, and I mean that. It is my passion to stand in the gap between the innocent, and those who would oppress them, use them or destroy them. It is why I joined the Federation, that I can try my best to make a difference, be a force for the betterment of those around me.”

  “That is what I was hoping to hear. It is a genuine relief that you aren’t like my constituents!”

  They both laughed.

  “It takes much finagling and coaxing to gain and retain power in a nation such as ours,” he said. “Not everyone has the common man’s best interest at heart.”

  “I was raised in circles such as these, sir,” Jackie said. “I do know how to spot those who are users of the system and those who love the people. It isn’t hard to tell.”

  “True, but it always takes a face to face discussion like we are having now to make that determination. Let me ask you, what do you think about all of this?”

  “Sir,” she started, “I was groomed to be a leader from my early childhood. I was raised learning of prophecy. I always knew the Askirti were different, and in that difference, I knew I was more so than the rest. After Orlando, I will admit that it shook my faith. Once upon a time, I was softer and more light-hearted. Those days are long past.” She looked at him again. “These days, my passion is turning predators of men into dust.

  “Your Eminence, why did you gift those items to me? My understanding of them is they are beyond value, worth more than a fleet of ships.”

  “They are worth more than two fleets,” he answered.

  Jackie swallowed hard upon hearing that, and from a source other than that disgusting Michael Trahan.

  “They are a symbol,” the prime minister continued, “of justice, meant to be wielded by someone who is also a symbol of justice. But our gifting them to you is a symbol as well, a symbol of our commitment not just to the Federation, but to you. You have a destiny, where you lead, we will follow. The Commonwealth gave those items to you because in the hearts of the people, and my heart, they are yours.”

  Jackie pondered his words, remaining silent for the time being. She looked around, as the scenery changed. “By the way, sir, where are we going?”

  “To an ancient ruin. One that I believe relates to your heritage.”

  The motorcade sped to the nearest spaceport, at which the prime minister had a government shuttle waiting on their party. Once everyone had boarded, they left on what proved to be a short trip of several thousand kilometers to some site on an archeological dig.

  The party debarked the shuttle directly onto the dirt. Everyone was still in their dress clothes, but with the dizzying events of late, no one seemed to care.

  “We unearthed much of this recently, but the most interesting part was actually discovered a few decades ago,” said His Eminence.

  “And what was that?” asked Commodore Summers, wondering where this all was going.

  “This area is thought to be where the planetary government under the Homem Empire resided. A few of these buildings are surprisingly intact,” he answered as they walked through the ruins. “Up here is what I wanted to show you. It is the office of the governor.”

  As she walked in, Jackie’s breath caught. She immediately recognized it. It was the Askirti throne room. The layout was identical to the one on Earth, the same dimensions, the throne, the altar, it was all here and in much better shape than the one in Orlando ever was. What was it called? The governor’s office? The power she felt at this planet seemed more concentrated here. Her skin was buzzing.

  Jackie felt so excited and alive! She smiled, truly smiled, almost in a daze looking around. On the way, she had heard someone telling stories about this place, The Dig, they called it. She did not care, didn’t care at all. This was her temple! And it was not destroyed!

  In her excitement, she remembered the ancient words… “non sedi novo regno conduceret.”

  She did not understand what those words meant but had just muttered them, as if subconsciously she was intended to do so…. suddenly, the sacred stones began the glow. They glowed with a greenish hue much brighter than the stones in Orlando did. The doors behind her immediately shut, locking her in. There were doors there? How did they close? She was here all alone now, the sacred mist pooled around her. Oh, how she remembers the mist during her father’s coronation! This one seems…thicker, more alive! The fog appeared to pour out of various spaces and followed Jackie as she approached the throne.

  As this point, she felt an elation not dissimilar to when she took the needle, but she had not done that the past few days. She smiled and twirled and even giggled. She was home. Her home. The Askirti throne room, only this one was more powerful! It was the buildup of power she felt the most with anticipation, at one point even biting her lip in anticipation.

  The sacred mist…it was moving with her, still pouring out of hidden places. It too danced about and swirled rhythmically. It was like…like it was waiting for her all this time. It was waiting on her and was rejoicing in her appearance. This was where she belonged.

  Sitting down seemed what she wanted, what the mist wanted, it seemed so natural. Even the sacred stones…they glowed brighter the closer she got. Then she turned, sat on the throne and happily said the words she remembered from her own father’s coronation.

  “Accipio solium meum et iuste et integritate.”

  At this, the ambient lighting dimmed, followed by a sound of a mighty rushing wind. The stones shined brighter and brighter while the mist rushed Jackie, seeming to pour into her! At this, she screamed in pain as the mist continued to come!

  The thunderous sound of the wind continued as the mist flowed into her body. The pain was excruciating, but after a few moments, it was over. The stones faded to a mild glow, and there sat Jackie, the veins under her skin turning bright green, an energy emanating from her, and her eyes mirrored that same glow.

  As soon as the wind stopped, a bright light appeared from overhead down to directly in front of the throne. Inside the light appeared a very distinguished man, looking very much like a relative of hers with the pure white hair, the bright green eyes, and the utterly pale skin.

  “Hello,” h
e said.

  “Hi,” Jackie replied, now very relaxed, now feeling very….powerful.

  “I’m Pari,” he said.

  “Hi Pari, why are you here?” she responded.

  “I’ve waited many years for you. Since the war, none of the royal family have come to accept their birthright. That is, until you.”

  “Birthright? You mean the glowy thingy?” she mused.

  “The glowy thingy, you mean the mist? Ah, I suppose you would call it that. Those were your nanites! As empress, you have nanites that are above the rest.”

  “Empress? What am I the empress of? Dust?” she asked quite shocked.

  At this, the man planted his face in his hand. “Only the whole Homem Empire!” He then started to pace and bite his nails.

  At first, Jackie was speechless. Then she came around. “I understand this Homem Empire died out more than fifty thousand years ago.”

  “Ha! Died out? No, it didn’t die out. Okay, perhaps it did. But some of it still lives on!”

  “Oh really, which parts?”

  “Well, there’s this building, there are a few outposts I’m able to contact still, but a lot of our links are down.”

  “Outposts?” Jackie asked.

  “Um, a few facilities, medical, a listening post, movie theater, stuff like that,” Pari answered.

  Jackie looked at him suspiciously, “stuff like that?”

  “Ok, the movie theater was a stretch, but the rest wasn’t! But after all this time, what do you expect! There isn’t much left! But we can rebuild it together! You’re the Queen!”

  “And what does being ‘The Queen’ get me?”

  “It unlocks all the goodies!” Pari responded enthusiastically, in an almost giddy manner.

  Jackie thought …. If she could find Homem Empire artifacts like computers, weapons or even ship designs, it could change everything! At this, her attention was fully attuned.

  “Let’s say I want to rebuild the empire. Why can’t you give me the designs?”

  “Um, memory corruption? It seems like I wasn’t designed to operate for this long. But also, those things aren’t transferred in by default, gotta load the modules you want!”

  Jackie’s eyes got bigger. “What are you?”

  “I thought that was obvious. I’m what you would call an artificial intelligence, an AI. Though I ask you not to make fun of the artificial part. I do have feels, you know. Hey, you don’t discriminate, do you? Some folks discriminate against AI’s.”

  Jackie released a sigh, “I can’t stay here, how am I going to talk to you when I leave?”

  “Um, well, this is just a projection. I’m inside of you, we just haven’t gone through the setup, and this is the ‘getting started’ section of the manual, the ‘meet and greet’ as they call it.”

  Jackie narrowed her eyes, “Inside of me? And just what ‘modules’ do you come with?”

  “Um, the standard royalty kit, you know, skeleton key stuff, healing, health, strength, combat, everything you need to run an empire. Some other odds and ends, but it’s all run of the mill.”

  She laughed slightly thinking about combat being part of leading an empire.

  “Okay, well, how come I have not heard of any AI’s?” Jackie asked. “Back on Earth, we had a room just like this! The stones didn’t glow as brightly, and the mist was much more muted, but there were no AI’s!”

  “The facility on Earth was severely damaged. It could be monitored, but not communicated with, and certainly not repaired remotely. It was terrible to watch coronation after coronation, for so many years, knowing how little of your true heritage was being passed on. If it wasn’t for the baby dedications, the royal bloodline might have fully diluted.”

  “An odd thing to say,” Jackie responded. “What of the baby dedications?”

  “The nanite infusions occurred during your ceremonies. It was the only way the AI on Earth could operate due to the severe amount of damage it received. A base regimen was applied that kept the royal markers in your DNA and in that of your children. The nanites were only the organic ones. Your technology may not ever detect them, but they are the source of what has made you different.”

  At this, Jackie thought of her appearance, her combat abilities, stealth abilities, learning abilities, all very unusual compared to everyone else.

  “I will say this,” Pari continued. “Doing a quick diagnostic, I do see the effects of what happened on Earth in you. I can help with the nightmares.”

  Jackie froze. “What do you mean you can help?”

  “It will take time, there are no ‘magic wands’ as you might say, but I believe I can eventually eliminate your nightmares. Given time, you will no longer need your needles.”

  She did not know how to respond. The nightmares were part of her, part of her drive. Remembering them so vividly….helped fuel her passion…her fury. And the drugs? He knew?

  “Ah, yeah, I knew. I do read thoughts you know, living in your brain and all! Um, discretion is the better part of valor, and your secrets, my Queen, are very safe with me.”

  “Will I forget?”

  “I am acutely aware of what happened. I have access not just to the records of the Earth ‘throne room’ as you called it, but also all of your memories. The human mind was fully mapped out many eons ago, and it was an easy process for me to review your life. What I propose to do will help resolve this pain. But if you ever want to access the memories, all you have to do is say so. I am not asking you to forget. It will be as you were there, but I will control your emotions so that you can retain a sense of detachment. You absolutely cannot lose yourself to the pain. The things you’ve endured will destroy you and you are currently the last of your line. But if you accept my help, I think you can be the queen you were meant to be and can help a lot of people.”

  “Okay, and open those doors, my people are getting worried. Oh yeah, turn off this freaky green glowing stuff I’ve got going on.”

  ##

  “This is an AI from the Homem Empire?” asked Rick Amori.

  “Ahem, AI over here, and can hear you! And the answer is yes!” replied Pari.

  “Amazing!” said the prime minister. “Were these AI’s standard?”

  “No,” responded the AI. “There were few like me. I am meant only for royalty.”

  Everyone glanced at Jackie.

  “But I know you are curious if everyone in the empire had an AI of some sorts,” Pari continued. “The answer to that is no. Not a full-blown AI, but more of computer assisted helpers, or bots. Sentient AI’s were restricted to government, military and upper echelons of private business.”

  “And you’re the ‘deluxe edition’?” asked Tabitha.

  “Why yes, the best of the best!” AI answered.

  “Did you say ‘sentient’?” asked Captain De Vitis.

  “Yes, like you. I am considered ‘alive’ by the empire with rights and privileges, not that you all would care. You probably think I’m only good for setting the timer on the coffee pot.”

  Jackie smirked. “Commodore, and Your Eminence. I feel it is my duty to recommend this development to be classified. I’m not comfortable with this becoming common knowledge. It will take a long time to get used to, and to figure out just what all of this means.”

  “Agreed,” they both said simultaneously.

  “Can Pari give us any indication as to locations of advanced technology caches?” asked the Mr. Trahan.

  “You figured out how to make fire yet?” quipped Pari.

  “Stop that!” said Jackie.

  “Look, it’s been a while, and my data banks are not showing much of anything in the past ten thousand years. Before then, there was still a lot of stuff around, but the purge before last, it seems those disappeared.”

  “Purge? What purge?” asked De Vitis.

  “You see the ruins of past civilizations almost everywhere. Someone destroyed them,” said the prime minister. “We believe this ‘destroyer’ from prophecy destroys
civilization once it reaches a certain level of technology, not far more than where we are.”

  Everyone was quiet for a moment.

  Pari broke the silence. “He is correct. But it is not the destroyer, you would know about him… he kinda’ smashes worlds like you would make mashed potatoes. No, there is another force at work there.”

  “And you have no idea?” asked Jackie.

  “My data is incomplete, I’m afraid. Not everything that should be available is available. There’s a lot I know but seems there is a lot I have forgotten. Perhaps we will find a data cache, and I can synchronize my memories.”

  “Is there any caches that you are aware of that still exist?” asked Jackie.

  “Why yes, it is located in the space you now consider the Zikar Empire,” Pari said happily.

  “Wow, couldn’t be in a closer system?” asked Tabitha.

  “There could be ones that are closer,” Pari responded. “But there is hardly anything left of the network. It will take a data sync to find potentially inactive sites.”

  “Is there perhaps a map of locations within spaces friendly to the Commonwealth or the Federation?” asked Jeri.

  “Those would be inactive sites, and that data is not available to me.”

  Going into Zikar space was not an option. That empire was not even on speaking terms with the neither the Commonwealth nor the Federation. Even connecting to a Gate inside of Zikar space could result in missiles coming in from across the event horizon within moments.

  Tensions with the Zikar Empire were running high, and the no one wanted to risk increasing tensions with them.

  What was unspoken, but understood by those present was that Jacqueline Campo had become the most important person alive. She was the catalyst that brought the coveted treaty to past, she was the glue to hold it together, and she was now in possession of ancient technology, an AI, that surpassed all known knowledge by a very wide margin.

  Chapter 22

  Dennaway Star System

  In orbit above the planet Wellington

  Jackie was working out in the officers’ gym on the Nemesis. She was very frustrated as this new AI thrust upon her would just not shut up.