by M. D. Cooper
Angela replied somberly.
Angela gave a mental nod.
“What’s up?” Sera asked as the medics settled her into the med chair, which slowly folded itself around her torso. The chair would speed the repair of her spine, knitting the bone and nerves back together. If it was as good as New Canaan tech, Sera would be walking in a few days.
“Angela thinks she knows how all the AI in the fleet were subverted—maybe all the AI in the Transcend,” Tanis replied. “She’s going to try to ‘fix’ Justice and see if she can be given access to the ship again.”
Angela didn’t reply immediately.
Tanis replied, her tone grim.
Tanis looked at her friend’s face and saw the deep sorrow etched into it. She didn’t know what to say. What Sera had been through today was at the edge of—or possibly beyond—what anyone could bear. Her lover betrayed her and then killed her father, her dearest friend dead, probably also in betrayal….
It was a brutal load of unwanted truth.
Sera added after a long pause.
Tanis didn’t know what else to say, so she turned to Admiral Greer. “What’s the status on those comm drones?”
Greer looked down at the console. “Slow. It would go a lot faster if we all had our Link back, but I got a message down to the crews and they’re readying them in the port-bay. The launch tubes aren’t working, so we’ll have to send them out manually.”
“Sorry about that,” Angela said audibly. “That’s not my doing, those Orion Guard NSAI screwed up a lot of stuff.”
“I think I can help,” another voice joined Angela’s. “I suspect I know what they did to the launch tubes.”
“Justice!” Captain Viska called out in relief. “I’m glad to hear your voice—even if it’s not in my head. I need you to give us our Link access back.”
“I’m sorry, Captain, I cannot.”
“Are you under Angela’s control?” Admiral Greer asked as he cast a sidelong glance at Tanis.
“No,” Justice replied. “For once—for the first time, I suspect—I am not under anyone’s control but my own.”
“Then it’s true?” Greer asked. “Airtha…or at least this Myriad shard…has subverted the fleet’s AI? That’s how she’s controlling the ships?”
“Not just the fleet,” Justice replied. “From what Angela has shown me…from what we just found in my underlying neural structure—I am certain that she has subverted all the AI in the Transcend. They are all under her thrall.”
“How is that even possible?” Viska whispered.
“Long, detailed planning,” Tanis replied.
“And you take their word for it?” a new voice asked from the entrance to the bridge. “They attacked our ship, and now our fleet! I don’t think truth is theirs to dispense.”
Tanis turned to see Adrienne, the Transcend’s Secretary of State, at the bridge’s entrance.
“Adrienne,” Sera said. “It’s the truth. Helen…Airtha…she’s been playing us.”
“To wha—” Adrienne’s voice stopped suddenly as he saw the sheet-covered body. “Where is Jeff?” he asked, his eyes riveted to the figure.
Sera glanced at her father’s body and back to Adrienne. “He’s dead. Elena was a Guard double-agent. She killed him.”
Adrienne’s face grew ashen and he stepped back, placing a hand against the wall. “The resident’s dead?”
“Yes,” Greer replied. “We—well, the ISF—have Elena, and the other Guard assassin, in custody.”
“And what of our fleet?” Adrienne asked as he laid eyes on the holotank and its display of the fleets near Roma. “Why is it running from the colonists?”
“It’s not running,” Sera corrected. “It’s pursuing. My ship—my old freighter, Sabrina—jumped in. Those ships are out to destroy it, and the ISF fleet is trying to stop them.”
“Without destroying them,” Tanis added. “We’re working on a way to free the ships from their AI’s control.”
“I’ve sent what I did with Justice off to Bob,” Angela said. “Though he may have already figured it out.”
“I’ve repaired the tubes and directed the crews to use them,” Justice interjected.
Adrienne’s eyes narrowed. “Tubes for what?”
“There’s a Hegemony fleet headed insystem,” Admiral Greer supplied. “We’re going to bring more ships to defend New Canaan.”
“And what of Airtha?” Adrienne asked. “Who is going to defend it?”
“If they’re under attack, we’d already have a message,” Greer replied. “Though, I do agree that we need to get the broad picture as quickly as possible. Orion will not just be making an incursion here.”
“Then I’m ordering you to stop those drones and take us back to Airtha,” Adrienne said. “We must return the President’s body, and I need to get the government under control.”
“Pardon?” Sera asked. “You need to get it under control?”
“The order of power is clear,” Adrienne replied. “After the President, it falls to the Secretary of State to guide the Transcend. It certainly does not fall to the Director of the Hand, under any circumstances—daughter of the President, or not.”
Tanis watched Greer look from Sera to Adrienne and back. She suspected that Adrienne had a very strong legal case for his actions, but whomever Greer chose to support would be in charge of the Transcend—for now. Before the medics arrived he had spoken as though he wanted Sera to take her father’s place. Tanis hoped that sentiment would hold against Adrienne’s challenge.
“My understanding,” Greer said after a long moment, “is that you first need to have the transfer of power ratified by a majority of the cabinet, of which Sera is the only other member present. However, it is no secret that the President was grooming Sera for the line of succession. Furthermore, this is a military operation now, and as such, I am not comfortable relinquishing control to a civilian.”
Sera snorted, and disdain dripped from her voice. “Not to mention that you’re pathetic, Adrienne. My father’s body isn’t even cold and you’re scheming abo
ut how to take his place. I always knew you were scum. Core, my father knew it, too, but you were useful. Well, I’ve had enough—over my dead body will the Transcend go to you!”
Tanis was surprised by the vehemence in Sera’s voice, and she wondered what could have transpired in the past between the two to elicit such a strong response.
Adrienne, for his part, didn’t bat an eyelash. “That is not up to you, Sera, last of the failed scions. Justice, prepare a pinnace. I am returning to Airtha.”
“I don’t answer to you,” Justice replied. “The more I think about it, I’m not sure who I answer to. I was a slave, and now I’m free. However, you, Secretary Adrienne, were deep in the President’s council or maybe Airtha’s, or maybe both….”
Tanis said.
Tanis saw Sera grimace, and she knew it wasn’t from the medchair stitching her spine back together.
Sera shook her head slowly and met Tanis’s eyes.
Angela smiled broadly in her mind.
Tanis looked at the holotank and saw that the TSF fleet was decelerating and changing course to come about.
Justice said wistfully.
“The ships are coming back,” Adrienne said, unware of their private conversation. “Quickly! We must return to Airtha before they attack.”
“No one is going anywhere,” Sera replied. “Greer, I hope your prior sentiment stands. I’ll take the reins and see if I can steer us around this war we’re headed for.”
“By the way, everyone should hold on,” Angela announced. “Justice and I are going to send a packet to the other AIs onboard—we’ll know very shortly how far Airtha’s reach went.”
“Good luck,” Tanis said.
“It’s done,” Justice said audibly.
“That fast?” Greer asked.
Tanis realized that Greer didn’t have an AI in his head—something she would have assumed was required for a man of his rank—although neither did Joe or Sanderson now that she thought of it.
“We opened the Link to them, and they all came back instantly, accepting the packet to join. Our fears are confirmed. Every last one of them had been subverted,” Angela added.
“So Miguel tells me,” Adrienne replied, his voice wavering. “I can’t…it’s hard to fathom that we have all been under Airtha’s influence.”
“If that’s the case, I can only surmise that we’ve been driven toward this conflict,” Greer said somberly. “Sera, do you think you can really help us avoid this war with Orion and the Inner Stars?”
Sera shook her head. “I really don’t know. I’ll try.”
“She’s the last one we can trust,” Adrienne said, stepping forward into the center of the bridge as he leveled an accusatory finger at Sera. “Don’t you know? She’s had Airtha in her head for decades. That’s who Helen was, a shard of that abomination.”
“Really?” Greer asked, turning to Sera. “The AI within you, the one I met at Ascella was a shard of Airtha? How could a multi-nodal AI like Airtha even create a shard small enough to place in a human?”
Sera nodded slowly. “It’s true. It was her, though I didn’t know…I mean how could I? She was always my friend—she raised me for starssakes.”
“We can have Bob check you over when they return,” Tanis said, placing a hand on Sera’s shoulder.
“Who’s Bob?” Adrienne asked.
“One of our AI,” Tanis replied. “He can ascertain whether or not Sera is still under Airtha’s control at all.”
Sera’s brow furrowed as she looked to Tanis, then she sighed. “You’re right. Bob should ensure I’m clear of her influence.”
“In the meantime, it is obvious that I should assume command,” Adrienne addressed Greer. “We must return to Huygens and remove Airtha from her place in control of…well, Airtha.”
Greer didn’t respond for several long moments as he looked between Sera, Tanis, and Adrienne. “No,” he finally said.
“What?” Adrienne exclaimed.
“For now, I will retain control of this fleet. You had an Airtha-controlled AI in you as well, Adrienne, no offense, Miguel.”
“None taken,” Miguel joined Angela and Justice in using the bridge’s audible systems.
Greer nodded and continued. “I would like this Bob to ensure you are free of her influence, as well. Besides, there is still that Hegemony fleet out there, bearing down on us all.”
Adrienne barked a laugh as he cut his hand through the air. “Let the vaunted Intrepid Space Force deal with it. They have more ships than any single system has a right to. They can defend themselves.”
“And what of our picotech?” Tanis asked. “Will you put that at risk?”
“Is it really at risk?” Adrienne asked. “Send it back with us, and your stasis shields. That was the treaty we were working toward any way.”
Tanis shook her head. “I would never have given you full access to the technology. I would have provided a black-box solution for the shields, and embedded my ships in your fleets to create the threat of picobombs. You were never going to have the keys to the technology.”
Adrienne stared at Tanis, his eyes narrowed and his fists clenched.
“Very well,” he spat before he turned and stormed off the bridge.
No one spoke, but several pregnant looks were exchanged.
“And with that behind us, I’m reenabling the Link for everyone onboard.” Angela announced.
Tanis saw Greer and Viska blink rapidly.
&n
bsp; “Oh, shit,” Viska swore. “That’s a lot of status updates all at once.”
“It’s OK,” Viska said. “It looks like you’ve set almost everything right, Justice. Does that mean you’re still with us—with the TSF?”
“We can help with that,” Tanis replied. “We understand how to govern humans and AIs in a manner that is equal, yet separate. However, or immediate need is to protect this system from the Hegemony, then free the rest of the Transcend. Perhaps, in doing so, we can avoid this war with Orion.”
“Makes sense,” Greer said with a curt nod as he approached the holotank and adjusted it to show a broader view of the system. “But that will be no easy task. Airtha is one of the most strongly defended constructs in the galaxy.”
“Then we must be prepared,” Tanis said as she joined him at the holotank, feeling unbalanced with her missing arm. She hadn’t even noticed that the medic had finished with her chest wound and placed a medseal on it. She shook her head, wondering when he had done that.
“Prepared is an understatement,” Greer scoffed. “I can barely fathom what we’re up against.”
“Probably the greatest threat that humanity has ever faced, or something like that.” Tanis sighed. “And its best hope for survival is in a state of civil war.”