Battle in the Stars (Marston Chronicles Book 4)

by D Patrick Wagner

  “No, Vidhee. We actually called them artificials. But I like synthetics better.”

  Sue picked up the conversation. “These Ballisonian synthetics. Are they autonomous?”

  “We actually had three types. The autonomous ones, with their individual processors and modules. These are self-aware, with full sensory and emotional matrixes. These cannot be differentiated from regular Ballisonians without inspection.”

  “Do they go through the same growth cycle that our level one synthetics experience?”

  “Yes. But they are limited in their areas of expertise. For instance, some are created for management. They will increase their management skills the longer they exist and interact with others. Some are professionals, such as doctors or barristers. Others are ship pilots. The same applies to them.”

  “Do these autonomous synthetics develop relationships?”

  “Yes, Doctor Roshnak. As I said, they are fully Ballisonian, with all physical attributes.”

  “Do they procreate?”

  “Although they are capable of all of the same physical and emotional experiences as natural Ballisonians, they cannot procreate, Doctor.”

  “Ya mean these Auto-Syns have sex?”

  ‘Yes, Mack. They have sex.”

  “Here that, Buster? Iggy. Could you make one for Buster?”

  “Yes, Mack. Since I have received the human data base from Griffin, I could construct a human, autonomous synthetic for Buster.”

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s postpone this discussion for a later time. Well, Keiko. Why are we eating on Griffin?”

  Í just felt like it,” Keiko answered while removing the crystal from her pocket and placing it in the center of the table.

  The four humans, Princess Analyn, Varrini, Gopai, the two doctors and Igaklay stared at it for a moment.

  “I see.”

  “Also, Igaklay can’t read this crystal, so I thought our people might be able to crack it.”

  “I’ll take a shot, Wee-One.”

  “I knew you would, you nosy man, you.”

  Krag pointed to Varrini, Mack and Sue then pointed down, at the Faraday room. All three nodded.

  “Work on it downstairs.”

  “We’ll get on it first thing, tomorrow morning.”

  “No. Let’s get started on Griffin. I don’t want anything interfering with getting her ready.”

  “Hear that, Iggy?”

  “Yes, Mack.”

  “That was an order from Cap. Now that you are part of the crew, that order is for you too.”

  “I understand. I will begin tomorrow.”

  “Nothing gets done without Master Varrini’s, Mack’s or Sue’s approval.”

  “Aye, Aye, Captain.” Igaklay saluted in a very human fashion.

  “The sooner we get Griffin ready, the sooner we can hit the road.”

  “Hit the road? More dirt references?”

  “It’s a euphemism, Syn-Gal. It means, going on a trip.”

  “I figured that out, Wrenchy.”

  “Sue, we need to talk about this ‘Wrenchy’ moniker.”

  “No we don’t, Wrenchy. You’ve got a name for me. I’ve got a name for you.”

  Krag, Keiko, Princess Analyn and the doctors sat and enjoyed the interplay.

  “Ya, Lassie. But no one else calls you ‘Lassie’.”

  “Get used to it.”

  Keiko winked at Krag. He understood her message. Sue now ran the Mack/Sue partnership.

  “Anyway, yes, the sooner we get Griffin up to snuff, the sooner we get back to Human space.”

  “But, Mack. I don’t want you to leave.”

  “We promised, Iggy. All of us promised. We’ll be back.”

  “You don’t want us worrying about our people, do you, Igaklay?”

  “No, Ambassador Suzume.”

  “We are helping you. And you are helping us so that we can help our people.”

  “I know.”

  “As Mack said, we promised. We will return.”

  “Ok. Tomorrow we start on Griffin.”

  “And, besides, now that you have your avatar, and you are part of Griffin’s crew, you can come with us.”

  “Really, Captain Marston? I thought you would leave me here.”

  “No, Igaklay. You may come.”

  “Great! Can I get started now?”

  “No, Iggy. Tomorrow. We all need our beauty rest.”

  “Oh, alright.”

  “Iggy.”

  “Yeah. No sulking.”

  Onboard Wisdom Seeker

  Captain Kakkarna marched onto the bridge, followed by Commander Tarunga and two Royal Guardsmen. All eyes turned to see the resolute captain continue his march until he stopped at Sub-Captain Desinal, currently sitting in the Captain’s chair.

  “Sub-Captain Desinal, you are under arrest,” Captain Kakkarna proclaimed.

  “What? Why? On what charge?”

  “First, you, against my direct order, recorded the meeting between King and Queen Kaporine, Princess Analyn, myself, Captain Marston and Ambassador Suzume.”

  “King Kaporine will soon be replaced by his son, Prince Daruke. I recorded that message for the rightful heir.”

  “You disobeyed an order. Further, as you just stated, you distributed that recording for the purpose of undermining King Kaporine’s authority. That is treason. Under the powers invested to me by King Kaporine, I am stripping you of all rank and position.”

  “You can’t do that!”

  “Yes I can. It has been done.”

  “Well, King Daruke will reinstate me. And then we shall see who goes to prison!”

  “Commander Tarunga, please place Dame Desinal in custody and confine her to a cage.”

  “With pleasure, My Captain.”

  Stepping forward, the Commander of Wisdom Seeker’s Royal Guard waited while a chagrinned ex sub-captain rose from the Captain’s chair. He flicked an ear at the two guardsmen. They came forward, firmly grasped each arm and marched Desinal off of the bridge and down to the restraining cages.

  “My Captain, with your leave?”

  “Dismissed.”

  Commander Tarunga left the bridge and followed his guardsmen with their captive.

  “Lieutenant Banajin. You will assume the temporary position of Sub-Captain.”

  Lieutenant Banajin, previously the Lead Pilot, rose, came to attention and saluted his captain.

  “Lieutenant Nemoni. You shall be promoted to temporary Lead Pilot.”

  The Elonian Second Pilot mimicked Lieutenant Banajin’s show of respect and acceptance.

  Lieutenant Lumahani. You shall take over the responsibilities of Second Pilot while continuing as Communications Specialist. Will that be a problem?”

  The Elonian Synthetic rose from his chair and also saluted.

  “That will not be a problem, Captain. Second Pilot’s chair contains all of the communications equipment required and I have more than enough processing capabilities.”

  “Everyone! Back to your tasks!”

  Captain Kakkarna watched as the three he selected shifted seat assignments and settled in to their new roles.

  Chapter 10

  Onboard Heimdallr

  “We didn’t need to sneak in, Captain,” Lieutenant Torres stated as she threw her views up onto the large monitor.

  She, Lieutenant Brooks and Captain Scott saw a star system littered with the remnants of war. Brooks could only glance at the big screen as he needed to stay focused on not colliding with the floating junk, large remnants of dead alien ships and carcasses of dead human platforms.

  “I don’t see any human ship debris, Captain. Only the platforms.”

  “Number Three is smart. He boogied before he and his ships got chewed up.”

  “Take it slow, Brooksy. I want a lot of data. Toast, look for any energy readings. See if we can find anything alive.”

  “Searching, Captain.”

  Brooks crept Heimdallr through the debris field w
hile Torres worked her screens and Scott inspected the carnage and wreckage.

  “Got something, Captain. Looks like the remnants of an alien ship. One of the small ones. It’s got power. But it’s just drifting and spinning.”

  “Put it up.”

  The three watched the ruined alien ship slowly spin and drift through the debris field. Scott thought a moment.

  “Toast. Warm up the X-cannon. Target that wreck.”

  “If a bug’s alive, shouldn’t we capture it, Cap?”

  “I thought about that, Brooksy. But, we don’t have any place to imprison it. We don’t even know what to feed it. If we leave it, it will join the other bugs and kill more of humanity. Or it will die here in space.”

  “You’re the boss, Cap. I don’t like those bugs, either. I just thought someone should ask.”

  “Besides. We’ve never live-fired our new ray gun. This will be a good test. Toast, keep all sensors on that derelict. I want to record what happens.”

  “All set up, Captain. Ready to fire.”

  “Fire!”

  No spectacular flashes or explosions occurred. To normal sight, nothing happened. The alien wreckage didn’t change vector or alter its spin.”

  “All energy signatures are gone, Captain. It’s now as completely dead as all of the other junk.”

  “Well, it seems that our new toy works, Cap.”

  “Good to know, if we need it in a pinch, Brooksy. Toast. Are there any active alien ships in Corrinar?”

  “I haven’t found any. They could be running silent, or behind the sun.”

  “Let’s stay stealth, Peeps. Toast, eyes, ears open. Brooksy, creep us to the Arium gate.”

  “One gate coming up, Cap.”

  Onboard Griffin

  “First thing we do is get rid of these engines and reactors.”

  “You keep saying that, Iggy. What’s the replacement?”

  “Ballison thrusters.”

  “And what are these Ballison thrusters, Igaklay?” towering over the diminutive Ballisonian, Master Varrini looked down and into the large ellipsoid eyes.

  “Let’s go to the factory. I will show you. You will see. You will love them!”

  “And, where is this factory?”

  “In the forest, Mz. Sue. Not far. We will take a scooter.”

  The two Humans and one Elonian followed the synthetic Ballisonian out of Griffin, across the tarmac and up to a tilted side of the governmental pyramid. Igaklay looked at the wall. An opening morphed into existence. A small, four-being vehicle floated out.

  “These seats are too small, Iggy.”

  “Not a problem, Mack.”

  As everyone watched, a mass of silver nanites swirled from the pyramid, enveloped the vehicle then swirled back to their point of origin. Now the transport had two human seats, an Elonian seat and the original Ballisonian one.

  “See? No problem.”

  Everyone climbed in. The vehicle levitated then moved down a well-maintained road.

  “This use a mass negator, Iggy?”

  “Yes, Mack. And small directional thrusters.”

  “Does it fly?”

  “It is not designed to fly. It just clears objects in its path.”

  “I wonder if we could get this rig in Griffin’s ground vehicle.”

  “Probably. But wouldn’t it be easier to build a new one?”

  “Ya, Lassie. Iggy. You have the specs on Griffin’s ground vehicle?”

  “Yes, Mack.”

  “Could you create something that looks like it, only with Ballisonian tech?”

  “Easy, Mack! It would be fun!”

  “But it needs to look exactly like the original. Tires and all.”

  “I will get right on the design, Mack.”

  “But, Cap wouldn’t want it to interfere with Griffin’s upgrades.”

  “I can do both, Mack.” Igaklay’s response sounded slightly offended.

  “We know you got the power, being moon-sized and all, Iggy. Just reminding you.”

  A short time later, Igaklay stopped the vehicle in front of another large pyramid.

  “We’re here!”

  Climbing out, Igaklay led his group over to the pyramid’s wall. Again, an opening morphed in the silvery side.

  “This way!”

  “He’s like a child showing off his toys,” Mack whispered to Sue.

  “He is.”

  “There. See?”

  Everyone saw the large, seemingly human, thruster resting under a ganglia of mechanical arms and nozzles.

  “That looks like the center thruster on Griffin.”

  “I did that intentionally, Mack.”

  “When did you build this?”

  “I started it last night.”

  “Cap told you that we weren’t going to start until this morning, Iggy.”

  “I know. But I wanted to do it.”

  “Igaklay!” Sue used her ‘mom’ voice.

  “Captain Marston told you not to start until this morning. He is our captain. He leads our Den.”

  “Ya, Iggy. When Cap gives an order, what we want doesn’t matter. We follow the order.”

  “But,”

  “No ‘buts’, Igaklay. Captain’s orders, Ambassador Suzume’s orders, must be followed. Do you understand me?”

  During the tongue-lashing from Sue and Mack, in a very human manner, the synthetic Ballisonian rubbed his three-fingered hands on his Griffin tunic and looked at his feet.

  “Yes, Mz. Sue.”

  “Listen, Iggy. If you don’t follow Captain Marston’s or Ambassador Suzume’s orders, you are not acting like a member of the Griffin Den. If you don’t follow orders here, Cap can pretty well think that you won’t follow orders out there. Got that?”

  “Yes, Mack.” Igaklay moped his response.

  “If Cap can’t trust you to follow orders, what do you think he will do?”

  “Leave me behind?”

  “Ya got it, first time, Iggy. Get the picture?”

  “Yes, Mack. I follow orders. Or get left behind.”

  “Ya gonna do it, Iggy?”

  “Yes, Mack. Do I need to apologize to Captain Marston?”

  “Not this time, Igaklay. This time, and this time only, we keep this between us. But, not again.”

  “Ok, Mz. Sue.”

  “What’s done is done, Sir Igaklay. Enough has been said. Show us what we have.”

  Igaklay’s head snapped up and he pointed one of his two fingers at the engine.

  “That is a Ballisonian thruster, made to look like Griffin’s thruster. You don’t need the large expansion chamber, so the baffle and chamber are only a small part of it. Most of it is storage for the dark matter.”

  “Dark matter?”

  “Yes. It is both the fuel source and the mass displacement.”

  “There have been hypotheses about dark matter. That dark matter makes up almost eighty percent of all matter in the universe. But no one has ever been ever able to prove it.”

  “Same with us, Sir Mack. Elonian scientists have never been able to quantify what you and Sir Igaklay call dark matter.”

  “So, Iggy. You use dark matter as a propulsion material.”

  “Exactly! The front third of the thruster is the dark matter processor and energy generator. The rest, except for the small baffle and expansion chamber, is the dark matter storage.”

  “Ok. You’ve got a dark matter thruster. How do you collect the dark matter?”

  “Like you said, it’s everywhere. We coat Griffin in a collection coating and the ship just absorbs the dark matter.”

  Pointing at the Ballisonian thruster, “Is that enough storage? For the dark matter?”

  “Of course, Master Varrini. Since the engines are only used for initializing the thrust, to get the momentum going, that is all that is needed.”

  “Then travelling is a two step operation. First, a heading and acceleration vector is established. Then the mass negator activates, allowing the engine to shut dow
n.”

  “That is correct, Mz. Sue.”

  “Ok. I need to program the protocols for the controlling of the dark matter thrusters and the mass negator.”

  “That is correct, Mz. Sue.”

  “Well, we aren’t going to do any of this until both Buster and Vidhee sign off.”

  “But it’s perfectly safe! Ballisonians has been using this for thousands of years!”

  “That may be, Iggy. But I still want those two to check everything out.”

  “You’re so mean, Mack.” Everyone waited to see if the small synthetic would stamp its foot. It didn’t. It just made two, tiny fists and locked its arms, like any child holding back a tantrum.

  Onboard Odin

  Vice-Admiral Weiskoff wasn’t a monster. He cared about the ships and people he threw into battle. Their destruction and deaths weighed heavily. But he knew, to save as much of humanity as possible, he had to make the hard choices. He sat in his ready room, studying his monitor, mentally churning all ideas, trying to figure out a way to inflict maximum damage while incurring minimum losses.

  The freighters, two hundred and seventy-six, floated in Arium space, a ring of ship sterns pointing at the Corrinar gate, weapons hot, ready to fire. The exit corridor through the asteroids no longer existed. The space rocks spun and bounced off of each other as the mounted thrusters pushed the thousands of asteroids towards the gate.

  “Connors, get me Gregor!” the Vice-Admiral commanded over his intercom.

  “Yes, Admiral?” Weiskoff heard a few moments later.

  “Where are those fast-movers? I know you have done something with them.”

  “Stingers. Yes, Admiral, I have. They are hidden.”

  “They are needed in this fight!”

  “No, Admiral. They are not. Single shot, two missile ships with armor like paper are nothing but fodder. You threw away five of them. I will not allow the other eleven to be thrown away.”

  “This is treason!”

  “No, it is not, Admiral. It is forward thinking. If the remnants of Humanity lose all space-faring capabilities, where will we be when we rid ourselves of these aliens?”

  “And the freighter? Fairstar?”

  “Supply ship, Admiral. It is withdrawn from the coming battle, also.”

  “Damn you, Gregor!”