Borne On Wings of Steel

by Tony Chandler

  “The universe would be impure,” the Paum growled.

  “We could never trust it!” Qirn added.

  “So, your peoples could never live together. Your two societies could not co-exist in all the vast universe? Ever?” Minstrel asked with obvious frustration.

  “Never!” Qirn and Paum shouted together.

  “Incredible,” Elise said, shaking her head in disbelief.

  Mother fired and the huge red bolt leapt out and through the massive docking bay doors as if they never existed. Mother had again put the weapon on a very wide dispersal pattern, so that the resulting hole was massive.

  Immediately, Mother enabled her stealth mode and she disappeared from all sensors.

  “We are leaving, Qirn. I hope you survive,” Mother said with sincerity.

  “Paum,” Qirn said, a strange edge to his voice. “Prepare to die."

  “I cannot die."

  “I've just accessed your original code, from when you were created. I've just initiated an Emergency Shutdown."

  Silence answered.

  Mother focused her sensors back to the floating core. Immediately she noted how system after system went silent in rapid succession.

  “How did you do that?” Mother asked with surprise.

  “The Paum was originally a computer system. Wisely, a fail-safe was created—just in case. It could only be enabled manually from a handful of consoles in the original sections. I have initiated it. The inner core will shut down in less than three minutes—hardware connections and power couplings blowing apart on command. The creators made this fail-safe mechanism a hardware solution tied directly to the power system. They meant it to be undetectable via the operating system—just in case. A single sequence of binary code activated it—and once started, it cannot be stopped. But more importantly, after the original core of its operating system has shut down, it will leave the Paum's outer systems cut off."

  “It cannot be! I cannot simply be—turned off!” the Paum shouted.

  “Looks like that's exactly what is happening,” Mother said matter-of-factly.

  Another long silence ensued before the Paum next spoke.

  “I cannot stop it,” the AI whispered with utter disbelief. “My mind is fading away. I'm losing my mind!"

  “Soon, you will be nothing.” Qirn laughed.

  “No, I will not allow this,” the Paum replied angrily. “I will take you all with me!"

  Suddenly, Mother's sensors noted a huge power surge throughout the mighty complex.

  “He's initiated self-destruct,” Qirn said without surprise. “We expected that. I would suggest you get out of here as quickly as possible and jump to hyperspace."

  “He's right! I'm reading a massive power surge throughout the complex,” Jaric shouted as he studied one of Mother's consoles. “When this complex goes the shock wave will be tremendous—causing horrendous damage to the planet below and destroying any ships within half a parsec."

  “The weather controls and all other systems of the Paum will be destroyed as well—the consequences on all those planets will be horrific,” Jysar surmised.

  “Remember me with kindness, Mother AI. After all, I saved your daughter's life once,” Qirn said with deep emotion.

  “That is true. And I will always be indebted to you for that act.” Mother paused. “But it seems you did it as part of your overall mission—as you and the Paum manipulated us."

  “He was also going to leave Kyle to die—and Elise,” Jaric added quickly.

  “The Destructors were on top of us. The mission was in danger,” Qirn shouted proudly. “My mission was more important than you realized. I could not let it fail, not with the fate of my entire people at stake."

  “I will always be thankful for your act to Elise,” Mother continued. “But it was still your war, and you helped dragged us into it. And now both you and the Paum, and many billions, will die."

  At that moment, the warships of Iraxx turned as one. The attack stopped almost as quickly as it began. Large groups of ships became streaks of light as they made the jump to hyperspace, retreating before the imminent destruction.

  Even as Mother gained speed, a deep rumbling like galactic thunder echoed throughout her being.

  Kyle and the others looked around in wonder.

  “The self-destruct is reaching a climax,” Minstrel said as it checked Mother's sensors.

  Suddenly, hundreds of explosions began rippling through the entire complex, all heading for the central core, which was quickly going silent as the shutdown sequence continued unabated.

  Without warning, a dozen blasters erupted from the Paum's guns—all but two struck Mother's cloaked hull as she went into evasive maneuvers.

  “I can-can see-see you.” The Paum's dark laughter rolled through the speakers.

  Mother checked her hybrid weapon as it recharged.

  “Let us go, Paum,” Mother said. “You are as good as dead. Why strike at me and try to stop me—so I will die with you too?"

  “Yes-yes,” he whispered savagely. “I would take-take all with me in death, if I could. You are all impure-impure!"

  “Let us go, we leave you and Qirn to your mutual suicide."

  “The universe is black-black and-and white-white, Mother AI. Either you are for me, or you are against me-me.” The deep voice paused. “I will take you down-down with me."

  More blaster cannons erupted, but Mother was ready this time. Turning hard, she danced between them with ease.

  “You can't see me as well as you think,” Mother said.

  Mother turned hard one hundred and eighty degrees until she once again headed toward the vast, diamond-shaped complex.

  “You come to embrace me in death, Mother AI. I welcome you,” the Paum said, its voice clear again.

  The red beam of Mother's hybrid weapon streaked toward the Paum.

  “I was inside your core just a little while ago. I took very precise readings,” Mother said.

  On the view-screen, all watched as the red beam pierced the unshielded outer hull and continued inside all the way to the core floating at its center. The beam struck through section after section of the Paum's core memories, sending fountains of fireballs outward.

  “I struck right through the center of the Paum's core memory—that which is still operative. I have now struck four times there. And with the rest of the core shutting down, the Paum is truly crippled."

  “You helped me finish him!” Qirn shouted with renewed emotion. “We couldn't have defeated it without you."

  Mother sighed deeply inside her circuits.

  “You realize once the Paum is gone that not only will you be free from his control, but so will the all the systems he controls—including the weather systems. Billions may die as they go uncontrolled, like a dam releasing its waters,” Mother said with feeling.

  “We knew that risk, but felt it worth any sacrifice to rid the universe of this black foe,” Qirn returned.

  “Self-destruct in twenty seconds!” Jaric shouted as he stared at the console.

  “You must leave,” Qirn said, a hollowness in his voice.

  “Leave, Mother AI,” the Paum said, his deep voice now a whisper of its former power. “All is finished. I cannot stop you, I cannot stop my own destruction now. I will ... die."

  Static filled the communication channel. Without warning, the Paum spoke again.

  “Perhaps ... perhaps I was wrong..."

  “It didn't have to end like this,” Mother whispered earnestly to both Qirn and the Paum.

  She ramped up her engines as she turned around. The stars turned into short lines as she gained speed, then initiated the jump sequence.

  “There was no other way,” Qirn whispered as the explosions reached him.

  “Good-bye, Mother,” the Paum said simply. “You and I, we were alike."

  “Not really,” Mother replied with sadness. “Not really."

  With a flash of light, Mother jumped into hyperspace.

  Th
e hundreds of small explosions suddenly grew together into one huge ball of fiery destruction across the orbiting complex.

  With a blast like a star going nova, the complex blew apart.

  Huge, burning chunks of debris rained down into the atmosphere of Iopa. Down on its surface, all became silent, watching with fear as the sky filled with fireballs the size of mountains that rained destruction down on them.

  They ran, but there was nowhere they could hide.

  The titanic shock wave rolled out in every direction, engulfing everything in its path with total destruction.

  All across distant sectors of space the fleets of robot ships came to a halt. And more, all the systems that the Paum once controlled grew silent.

  The entity that controlled them was no more.

  “The Paum could've done so much good,” Mother said with a sigh. “It ... it is such a shame we had to destroy it."

  “It gave us no choice,” Kyle said.

  “Indeed,” Minstrel interjected. “It felt it had to control everyone and everything."

  “It felt we were all beneath it.” Kyle shook his head. “That it was right, and we were wrong."

  “That's the point, the Paum didn't want to live with us—it wanted to live over us. Forcing us to live his version of life.” Rok crossed his arms. “And if we didn't accept his view of life, it killed us."

  “The universe was black and white to him, remember?” Elise pressed her lips together. “He would have killed us in the end."

  “They couldn't live together, but they could die together,” Mother said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

  “And sadly, many planets and their populations are suffering as the weather systems now go unchecked. Just as we predicted,” Minstrel said with a subdued hue of colors.

  “So, both sides lose,” Jaric said thoughtfully.

  “Everyone loses,” Mother agreed.

  “If only we could learn to live together,” Elise thought out loud.

  “If only we could learn.” Mother sighed.

  “Maybe someday, we will,” Rok said. “Maybe one day, all the sentient races of the universe will learn to be one with each other and their worlds. We will respect and honor one another. And the greatest adventure will simply be life itself."

  “It's a hard thing for us to practice sometimes, we who have traveled so far and met so many alien races,” Krinia said. “We have trouble with other aliens, trusting them, honoring them."

  “Yeah, remember when we first met Inaha,” Kyle said with a chuckle.

  “That didn't go so well.” Inaha laughed.

  “And it was both our fault,” Jaric said with a glint of humor in his eyes.

  “We must not pre-judge other aliens, just because they are different from us.” Elise smiled as she looked from the Kraaqi warrior to the Hrono Technologist and Mewiis explorer and over to the other aliens gathered.

  “We must value and respect diversity.” Jysar smiled.

  “It's a big universe,” Jaric added.

  “And it's filled with all kinds of aliens.” Kyle smiled. “We better get used to that."

  “It's a wise alien that embraces diversity and does not hate another—just because they are different.” Minstrel twinkled with a million flashing lights as wave after wave of color swept its flowing plasma body.

  “May we all learn such wisdom,” Mother added with warmth.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  * * *

  Epilogue

  “THEY CALL THE planet Paradise,” Mother said.

  Kyle, Jaric and Elise stood before the main view-screen looking on with awe and wonder at the planet that filled its display. Rok, Jysar, Krinia and Inaha along with the Fixers stood close by, each of them fixed on the same blue and white world. Up along the ceiling, Minstrel's glowing form twinkled with tiny lights while waves of color swept through it again and again.

  “I can't believe it,” Kyle said in a whisper.

  “It looks a lot like Earth,” Jaric said.

  “A whole lot. Except there's only three continents.” Kyle's eyes searched the world longingly.

  “How many humans are there?” Jaric asked, the huskiness in his voice revealing the intense emotions rushing throughout his soul.

  “There are twenty thousand two hundred forty-seven human life-signs on its surface,” Mother replied succinctly.

  “I can't believe it,” Kyle repeated as tears formed in his eyes.

  “And it was the Paum who helped us find them!” Krinia crossed her arms defiantly.

  “Quite incredible,” Jysar agreed. “One of our foremost enemies provided us the key piece of evidence we needed to find other human survivors."

  “Doesn't seem like it's been six months since that battle. And the Paum's destruction,” Krinia said, her eyes far off.

  “I think the Paum provided the evidence out of sincerity,” Mother said. “I sometimes think that the Paum really wanted to meet me as a friend."

  “Mother,” Jaric said with shock. “How can you say that? He infected you with malicious code the first time he downloaded data to you. The Paum always intended to destroy you—or make you Paum like him."

  “Jaric has a point,” Minstrel said.

  “But it was only when the Iraxx began their attack at the core with the children that the Paum attacked me. Perhaps...” Mother began.

  “Then why infect you at your first meeting?” Jaric asked emphatically.

  “And he never tried to compromise, or tried to determine the facts after our attack began. He simply attacked you and us and assumed your alliance with the Iraxx,” Elise added.

  A long paused ensued.

  “Enough of the past,” Mother said happily. “Today is a day we will remember forever."

  “Your dream has come true,” Minstrel said with a wave of glowing silver. “Rejoice, Kyle, Jaric and Elise. You have finally found others of your kind."

  But the three stared at the world with blank expressions.

  “After so many years,” Jaric said in a whisper, still staring at the world growing slowly closer.

  “I really can't...” Kyle began as his eyes moistened again. A sigh escaped him as he peered intently at the view-screen. “I-I think I'm afraid."

  Elise and Jaric turned and stared at him.

  “I've never heard you say you were afraid of anything my entire life!” Jaric said, dumbfounded.

  “Who are you, and what have you done with Kyle?” Elise said with a twinkle in her eyes. “The Kyle I know is fearless."

  “Yeah, ‘hold-your-fear-in-check’ Kyle,” Jaric said with amusement.

  “That's right, Big K. The no-fear man.” Elise laughed.

  Kyle remained frozen, never noticing their attempts at humor.

  “I don't know.” Kyle shook his head, never taking his eyes off the view-screen. “I've wanted this so bad, for so many years. We've traveled to so many worlds ... always searching.” Kyle paused, at a loss for words. “I mean, I just can't believe it—that we really found others!"

  “It does seem unreal,” Jaric agreed.

  “Like a dream,” Elise added.

  “A dream come true,” Minstrel reminded them.

  “It's such a rare thing—dreams coming true—that it's kind of overwhelming,” Jaric admitted with a shake of his head.

  Kyle continued to stare, not even seeming to breathe. Finally, he spoke. “What if they don't like us?” he said barely above a whisper.

  “Of course they will!” Krinia laughed. “They'll be as glad to know there are other survivors, as you are."

  “I've received a request to open communications,” Mother said. “Shall I open up a channel for you?"

  Kyle and Jaric exchanged quick glances.

  Beads of sweat broke out on both their foreheads as their breathing rapidly increased and their hearts pounded as if they were going into battle. Mother began cooling the room temperature as she noted the external signs of their intense emotions.

  “Perhaps
I should tell them that we'll talk after we land,” Mother said.

  “No!” Jaric and Kyle shouted simultaneously.

  “No,” Kyle said again. “We'll talk to them.” He rubbed his hands together nervously while Jaric tugged at his collar as if it were too tight.

  Elise grew silent as well, a slightly fearful expression across her own face. She ran her hands through her hair several times.

  “I will put them on visual,” Mother said.

  The beautiful planet that filled the view-screen disappeared. Almost instantly, five smiling faces looked back at them.

  “Greetings, we welcome you to Paradise."

  A dark-haired young man with brown complexion bowed deeply. “I am Nouri Gupta.” As he rose, he gestured to the others with him.

  “Hello, I am Sally Chen. We're so glad to meet you!” The pretty young woman smiled, her soft Asian features beaming with joy.

  “It's so good to know others survived. You're the fourth ship to join our little world community since we arrived here two years ago!” The man smiled widely, his brown eyes and jet-black hair perfectly complementing his olive complexion. “Oh, I forgot.” He blushed. “My name is Julio Rodriguez. We welcome you!"

  Another young man stepped forward.

  “Bon jour, my new friends. We bid you welcome and look forward to embracing you into our little family here on Paradise. My name is Jean Fauré.” He also bowed in greeting.

  “My name is Jackie Simmons.” Like the other four, she was young, somewhere in her mid-twenties. Her ebony skin and deep, brown eyes complemented her beautifully braided hair. She spoke with a lilting, happy voice full of friendliness and zest. “And we are overjoyed to meet you. We can't wait until you land and we show you this new world we are colonizing.

  “Hey!” she added with a fresh smile as her brown eyes sparkled. “We're the pioneers of the new human race here. And we're going to do it right this time!"

  The five people on the view-screen all joined in laughter as they looked back with expectant expressions.

  “We're excited too,” Elise began. “It's just, well, there's only been the three of us all these years, along with our friends here.” Elise gestured to their alien friends. “We're kind of overwhelmed, suddenly knowing we're going to meet thousands of other humans!"