“The reactor is on fire. This ship isn’t going to last long.”
They rushed back up to the bridge.
“My Queen,” the pilot’s voice cut through the bridge, “I’m coming up against the ship. How it is flying is beyond me. Its smoking bad, and that’s the best part. Thing has holes everywhere.”
A loud noise grew through the ship. It was the sound of all the air rushing out of the ship.
“Ok, I think all the hatches just opened too. Is that you?” Ragula asked.
“No,” Deespa replied.
“But that gave me an idea,” Ogho said.
“Better act fast. The ship is going straight for orbit, and my scopes are picking up every single drone and ship that it can see in orbit coming down.”
The giant pulled out his plasma rifle, and motioned everyone to step back. He aimed to the far edge of the bridge and fired. The bolt of energy hit the walls of the bridge and splattered molten metal away. Ogho fired four more times, and on the last shot, the brightness of the sun came shining through, and then air rushed out. Smoke came pouring up through the ship and out of the hole.
“That was you though,” the pilot replied. “I’m pulling alongside, but this is going to be tricky.”
Ogho removed a set of gloves from his pack and put them on. He rubbed them together and walked up to the edge of the hole. Looking out, he saw the DGX coming slowly by the destroyer. Down below, the black beaches of Iglah faded away as they climbed up higher and higher.
“I’m about as close as I can get,” Ragula said, “What now?”
Ogho took a few steps back, then ran at full speed, leaping out through the hole. He went flying through the air, thirty feet, right into the side of the DGX, knocking it aside for a brief moment. His hands stuck to the hull, and then he dug his boots into the side of the ship. Two small beams ejected from the boots and stuck into the hull.
“What the hell was that?” Ragula shouted.
“The First Tennant just jumped over to the ship,” Deespa said plainly. She hadn’t expected that.
“What?” was the only thing the pilot could muster.
“I know what he is doing,” Fangix said, rushing over to the breach in the hull the soldier had created.
The spy saw Ogho clinging to the side of the ship. He dug out something from his pack and aimed it back at the destroyer. A line shot out and sped across the gap, going right in through the breach. Fangix rushed after the cord and picked it up.
“Can you carry the reporter?” he asked of Deespa.
She picked him up easily. Fangix tied the cord around the Queen’s chest and waist. She would have to hold on to Hosha with all her might.
“What are we doing?” Ragula asked. “Those drones are coming in fast.”
“Get ready for a delivery. When I say it, you need to get us down to the surface as fast as you can,” the Queen said, understanding what was about to happen.
Fangix looped himself into the cord at the end, then signaled to Ogho. He had bolted his belt into the ship as well and had wrapped the cord around his own body. He would be the anchor.
“My Queen?” Fangix said, motioning over to the edge of the breach. Smoke was pouring out and she could feel the heat in the air. She took one look, and while holding on to the still unconscious and bleeding Hosha, leapt out into the air.
The shock of the cool air hit her and stung he eyes. They filled up with tears immediately.
“Now Captain,” she heard Fangix yell into his comms, a mere fraction of a second before he was yanked out of the destroyer.
The DGX banked hard and began to speed down, faster than the three of them on the cord were falling. Through the tears in her eyes, Deespa could see the shocked look on the pilot’s face from through the window.
“That’s what you’re doing?” he shouted. Deespa barely made it out over the rush of air in her ears.
Deespa looked back, and saw the destroyer continue to climb up and away from them. It was burning its way out of the atmosphere, like a meteor in reverse. Beyond it, she saw a thousand tiny specs, the drones, coming in down over the ship.
“Were not going to have time for this,” Ragula said, looking out of the DGX. The scanners were picking up the drones speeding to his ship. When the pilot saw that Ogho was missing from his dangling cord, he knew what he was doing.
“Please tell me you have your earpiece on,” Ragula asked, switching over to that channel.
“I do!” Ogho shouted. The strain in his voice was apparent.
“How close are you to the rear ramp?” the pilot asked.
“Almost next to it,” the soldier cried out.
“I’m going to open it and you need to get in there. Even if I can make it down to the surface before the drones get to us, we will be sitting ducks down there. You need to get in and pull them in.”
Ogho understood, and began using all his strength to at the same time hold on to the cord and spin each limb over the hull. With each swing of his arms or legs, he attached the hull as best as he could.
“Faster Ogho,” Ragula shouted.
“I’m,” Ogho said, struggling for his own breath, “I’m in.”
As the surface raced into view and they got closer and closer, Ragula shook his head. Behind him, he could barely make out the form of Ogho, back behind the living quarter. The sound of air deafened everything. He had the DGX pointed straight down, trailing the cord and its three passengers like the tail on a kite. The sensors now had twenty drones headed for his ship and they would certainly reach them before he even had a chance to land, much less land safely with people dangling out on a cord.
He bit his lower lip, then decided to act. He sped up the DGX and heard Ogho grunt as the cord was pulled taut.
“Pull hard now,” he shouted into the comm, hoping the soldier would hear him.
He then slowed the ship down and waited. Fangix and Deespa, who was holding on to Hosha with all her strength, came flying in horizontally through the rear ramp. He heard the crash of bodies into the back port and he yelled again.
“Everybody in?”
“Ugh,” Ogho grunted, and as Ragula looked back, he barely made out the thumbs up from the large hands. The pilot hit the command to close the ramp, and seconds later turned on the stealth. He then banked hard to the horizon. While stealth worked virtually perfectly in outer space, in the atmosphere, the disturbance in the air by the ship could hamper its effectiveness. He angled up and towards orbit and put the ship on full burn, using up reserve energy to fly up and out of orbit.
He drew a sigh of relief as the drones failed to see where they went and as soon as they hit orbit, he turned off all power except the internal gravity field and the stealth. He rushed back to the exit port in time to see the Queen tending a bloody Hosha. She looked up momentarily and smiled.
“That’s why we needed one of the best pilots,” she said.
“Well, you’re best pilot just left you floating in orbit,” he said, looking away momentarily. “I drained most of the capacitors just to burn us out of orbit and keep stealth on. We will be sitting here for a while until it recharges.”
Hosha came to, and Deespa helped him stand up. They had sealed his skin and bandaged it up, but while it didn’t appear to be broken, it was impossible to tell the extent of the damages. They helped him into the small mess room and sat him down on one of the seats.
“He looks pretty bad off,” Ragula pointed out. “I’m assuming we didn’t get what we were looking for?”
Deespa pulled out the core from a pocket in her jacket and set it on the console table.
“That’s not a drone,” Ragula mentioned.
“It’s the AI core. The part that matters,” Deespa said.
“What about the destroyer?” Fangix asked.
Deespa, Fangix and Ragula walked back into the pilot cabin, and Fangix sat down at his customary seat. Once he reworked some of his power sources, he brought up the sensors. The destroyer had somehow made it out of
orbit. Once in high atmosphere, and with all of its hatches and doors open, the fire died out.
“Still, how did it manage to get into orbit?” Deespa wondered out loud.
“It didn’t, not alone,” Fangix showed her, bringing up the scopes.
The soiled hull of the destroyer was covered with drones. As they watched from several thousand miles away, a few more smaller ships were drifting up alongside it, and as the vessel turned, they saw a few more merchant ships already attached to it.
“Why would they want the ship?” Ragula asked.
Deespa looked back at the cube on the table.
“It’s time to find out,” she said. “How long till we can sling back to Coran?”
Fangix looked down at his instruments. “Four hours.”
That was a long time to wait. Deespa stood up and walked back into the room and took a hold of the cube. She then side stepped Ogho and went into the small side room which held all of the ships advanced servers and sensors. She set it down on one of the consoles and asked Fangix to plug it into a two way data cable.
As Ogho leaned in to see what was going on, he mentioned if that was a good idea. Despite everyone’s willingness to trust the Queen, the ever haunting fear of AI had only been enforced by the recent events.
“It will be fine,” she said. She knew for sure.
Fangix handed her the data cable and she plugged it into the core. She then detached the plasma core that was giving it limited power, and attached another power cable that came directly from the ship’s reactor. The lights in the ship blinked a few times, then dimmed. On the screen in front of them, a blinking cursor began to type.
- Do not detach me from the ship –
Deespa began to type, but then decided against it. Instead, she linked the mic into the command prompt.
“It is ok. You are attached.”
- No. The Yvingar. There is no link. Is it destroyed? –
“The destroyer?” Deespa looked back at Fangix. “The destroyed flew into orbit. Did the AI not try to take control of you?”
- The ancient one cannot control me. It wanted the weapon on board of the ship. –
“Weapon?” Ogho said quietly.
Ragula stepped in behind Ogho.
“That destroyer just slung out of orbit. Looks like it’s headed back to Coran along with all its parasites attached to it.”
The lights blinked again and all power went out on the ship. Slowly, the lights came back on. On the screen, Deespa read the words.
- We need to depart this system. Full destruction imminent. –
3127 – Somewhere between Mequa and Coran
“Look at this. Tracking a new mass here. Who knows how many either, it’s too far off,” Ragula said, shifting the data over to Fangix.
After nearly four hours of waiting in powerless orbit over Mequa, the DGX finally initiated its sling towards Coran, well behind the relic destroyer and its tag-a-longs. It was a seven hour flight back to the capitol planet, and they were still six hours out. They forewent using the stealth, because it didn’t matter anymore.
Messages were sent to the Harmoa and the fleet, warning them of the incoming hostiles. The entire drone and AI controlled fleet over Mequa had jumped to Coran as well, and from what Fangix was able to pick up with his enhanced sensors, ships over Secundaria had jumped as well. Every few minutes, they were able to track new inbound ships coming into range from all over the system, and likely jumping in from outside of the system. They were all converging on Coran.
“Should we bother her with it?” Ragula asked.
Fangix nodded. “She is still in there talking with that thing. Just sent the data on through to Harmoa. Hopefully they get it.”
Most of the system satellites were out of commission or mysteriously offline. More than likely, they were under control of the AI. The DGX had to rely on laser burst communications, but that could be a hit or miss at time, especially with all the interference around Coran. The reports back from the Harmoa fleet weren’t good either. They were doing what they could to destroy all incoming AI controlled vessels, but the planet was just too big to actually blockade. It was impossible to know just how many were getting through.
Worst of all were the limited orbital pictures of the temple site. A few low passes with Falcon scout ships showed a huge line of machines and land haulers going in and out of the area. The entire rubble had been cleared and what looked like a pit mine had formed in its place. They were digging deep and fast, and they could only guess as to what was down there.
But the worst news of all was the loss of two cruisers. Despite all the measures taken to ensure complete network disconnect, two of the fleet’s most modern cruisers had been taken over. The crew of the Jagua had managed to sabotage the ship, and it remained in orbit, albeit, a shell of itself. But the Tengra had gone burning down into the surface. It had unleashed all of its ordinance onto the city of Belah before smashing right into the center of it. Belah was one of the last bastions of human resistance on the planet and a major evacuation point. There was only one location left for proper evacuation, and that was the space port of Yehran. The First Union Army was in control of it, and holding off wave after wave of machines around the clock, while taking in refugees and trying to fly them out.
It wasn’t a pretty picture.
Fangix reported everything to the Queen, informing her of all the details. She took it all in and said nothing. It wouldn’t be till the second hour into the return flight that she emerged from the tiny server room and called everyone together.
As they sat once again, cramped in the tiny room, the Queen looked around at her motley group. Hosha was awake, although under some strong pain medication. She thanked them for their bravery and dedication on the mission, and heaped praise on Ragula for his flying and maneuvers that certainly saved their lives.
“What comes next is the difficult part. I have put together all of this information and relayed it on to the Harmoa already, but I feel you must know the full extent of it.
It appears I was wrong. This being, on our beloved Coran, was not after the AI. It was after a weapon on board the destroyer than the AI helped create. A weapon of incredible potential power.”
She watched their reactions and then continued.
“The AI, as we already knew, was part of the Sentinel program. Its designation is eight. It calls itself Stargazer. Its mission, as of all of its kind, were to perform deep space exploration runs. We’re talking in the thousands of light years, far beyond normal human capacities. They would then return after a certain number of years to download the maps and discoveries. They were created and programmed with the most advanced self-creation algorithms known at the time. They had an amazing ability to learn and adapt. Their self-awareness was unlike any other AI at the time.
Of course, it was during their mission that the war broke out. The rest is history. What no one knew was that, as the Sentinels began to return to space, they were able to quickly discern what had happened, and they decided to protect themselves, and vanish. It was not only the logical choice, it’s what any living creature would have done.
Stargazer was a bit more curious than the others. It is that mystery of life that in all living beings, we all kind of develop in our own way. He had a fascination for stars, hence the name he gave himself. He studied them for hundreds of years. In one system, he found five stars tangled up in a gravity war with each other, a sight unlike any we know of. It was in this system that two profound events took place.
The first is that Stargazer came to an understanding of star elements and to the revelation of how supernovas could be triggered through gravity manipulation. He didn’t understand the potential at the time, but as you can understand where we are going with this, he had discovered the understanding and possible means to blow up a star.
The second event that would bring this discovery along was the Dominion destroyer we are all very familiar with. They came across Stargazer in this system. I
n his own curiosity, he blundered into their trap and was captured. But instead of facing the end of his existence, he instead found the familiar ties of slavery. He was removed from his drone and placed into the Yvinga, as he was when we found him.
For twenty years, in the seclusion of what was once an underground hangar, they extracted all the data from his many years of travel and exploration. His mind was stripped and laid bare, unable to protect himself. You can imagine the delight of the techs when they came across the data for his ‘star bomb’. It wasn’t a bomb, of course. He never envisioned destroying the objects of his affection. Stargazer, is like a doctor…”
Deespa paused momentarily, and she choked up. It was very brief, but clearly noticeable. The gathered herself, and continued.
“Like a doctor understands fully the body of a man, and knows intimately how man might die, it is for the sole purpose of saving his life. So Stargazer never wanted to destroy stars, only know how they lived. He watched in horror as the techs began to assimilate his discoveries into a weapon. He begged and pleaded with them, but to them, he was just an AI. Expendable, not even really supposed to be alive.
But being an AI, he was immortal. His captors were not. While the technical data was there, the Dominion was hundreds of years away from even attempting to build a weapon that could work. As the decades went by, the project went by the wayside. Forgotten as just theoretical, Stargazer was left to his peace and seclusion, deep within the slowly crumbling ship. When the Provincal’s mansion was built over the top of the hangar, the ship was abandoned completely, and as we found, forgotten.”
She stopped for a moment and read the faces of the men who had followed her on the mission. Hosha just looked high, but the other three took it all in. Ogho broke the silence first.
“When we plugged it, him,” he corrected himself, “him. When we plugged him in, he mentioned the ancient one? This thing on Coran, is it another one of these, Sentinel AIs?”
“Stargazer has provided me some information on this being, but it is, alas, a little hard to believe, much less understand,” Deespa said.
Ghost of an Empire (Sentinel Series Book 3) Page 18