by Will Crudge
“I trust you. I always have.” Jimma placed a loving hand on Val’s shoulder as he met it with a smile. Just as Val was about to speak, an audible alarm began to chime in successive beeps. Jimma wheeled her whole body around and leaned forward over the helm controls of Cerberus.
“We’re coming out of slip space.” She said it while betraying no emotion, and her fingertips scurried over the various data readouts and control interfaces.
“It’s as you had suspected, my dear.” Val nodded and crossed his arms in contemplation. He looked up at the primary status screen and could see the shield power outputs straining. He knew this was typical of any ship’s energy shields reacting to the abrupt transition into normal space. Slip space is devoid of the typical laws of physics that govern the material universe in its natural state. The instant shift into normal space makes even small gravitational fields ripple, and can tear apart any vessel without proper shielding.
“NAV confirmed. We’re nearing the Ghost Fleet Complex.” Jimma smiled.
“Good. Make sure the ships data collection is on…. Also, I believe Darius should see this with his own eyes.”
***
“That… was worth the wait!” Kara smiled ear to ear. Darius rolled off of her and then propped his head up with his arm and faced her with his own smile. The two were still naked, and breathing heavily. Darius began stroking her hair with his free hand.
“I could get used to this.” He let out a sigh of satisfaction.
“Promise?” Kara bit her lower lip and raised an eyebrow.
“Promise.” Darius nodded, and leaned in for a kiss.
“Sorry to bother you, two…” Jimma’s voice came out of nowhere, and the pair darted their eyes around the room of the officer’s quarters they had commandeered.
“Where? Who?” Darius asked almost rhetorically.
“I was on the bridge crew for months, people! No mystical War Master mumbo-jumbo going on, I promise.” Jimma chuckled.
“What can we do for you, dear?” Kara chimed in.
“We’re out of slip-space earlier than expected… But that’s not all. Father, err Val, and I think you need to see this.” Jimma said.
“We’ll be right there…. Do we need our armor?” Darius spoke.
“Not yet.” Jimma said as a matter of fact.
***
“So what are we looking at… besides the two singularities in some kind of binary rotation, that is?” Kara asked… Now fully dressed in her garnet sub armor. Darius and Val looked on over her shoulder as she hunched in front of the helm display.
“Hook this sector of space right… here. Now zoom in.” Val pointed to a seemingly random black spot on the visual display. The image exploded out and Kara let out a nervous whistle.
“That looks like some sort of open space docking lattice… with ships… big damn ships! I’ve never seen anything like them before.” Darius noted.
“And neither has any UAHC personnel either, my boy.” Val padded him on the back.
“So… What gives? Where are we?” Kara asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“This is a secret facility in Unum space. We’re only a few light minutes away from our headquarters. These binary black holes have near identical mass, and they hold a stable orbit around each other…. The consistent gravitational pulses make for a natural barrier for conventional long range energy, and visual scanning. If you don’t know exactly where to look, then you’ll miss it 100% of the time.” Jimma explained.
“There must be a thousand of them! What class of ships are these, anyway?” Darius asked, while glued to the screen.
“We call them Juggernauts. They’re basically super dreadnaughts per say…. And they have a very special FTL method.” Val said with a teasing smile.
“Who ordered them? Surely not the UAHC! Consul Gerhardt had to beg and plead just to get some much needed retrofits done on some of our heavy and medium cruisers.” Darius said to the point.
“These are Unum ships.” Val said.
“But I didn’t think Unum even had a military! Who’s going to crew them?” Val turned his eyes to Kara. “Her people will… with a little help of course.” The monk winked.
Mecca of Weaponry
Location: Unum Headquarters Facility, Unum Planetoid
Date Time: Post Interstellar 07/30/4201 0934HRS Local
System: Celeste System
“So this is where the greatest weapons of war are manufactured. It’s impressive!” Darius said as he took in the view of the highly industrialized complex. The entire surface of the planetoid was covered in man-made structures, and it had no naturally occurring atmosphere. The gentle, but consistent gravitational pulses of the nearby binary singularities caused Unum to flex and retract. This mild, but consistent, cycle of gravity caused the core of the small astral body to be geologically active. This allowed Unum’s industrial might to harness natural energy to support its myriad of industrial efforts.
Val and Jimma led Kara and Darius from the birthing that harbored the captured CSS Cerberus, and towards Unum’s CIC. “That’s if you consider weapons to be great at all.” Val interjected. “I’m a pacifist at heart.”
“Pacifist? Psst! I’ve seen you in action! You could take on the Crimson Alliance yourself, if you had to!” Kara scoffed.
“You say that based on your concept of pacifism, my dear. I’m human… and as such, the potential for violence is every bit inside me as it is with anyone else. The Life Temple that evolved to its current dogmatic beliefs, by truncating my original teachings in an overly simplified interpretation, which would have you believe that any act of doing harm is sinful. The priests of today would rather standby and watch someone being raped and tortured regardless of whether or not they could intervene. My teachings would have labeled that priest as being just as guilty as the rapist… provided he had the means to prevent it.” Val spoke with great conviction in his voice.
“Which is why you got into the arms market, isn’t it? You can’t control the tendencies of humans to wage war, but you can have an impact on how they wage it.” Darius’ words were as if they were just thoughts that manifested into reality.
“For the most part, you’re correct…. By being the largest manufacturer of ship hulls, heavy weapons, and all systems in between, I can keep an accurate account of combat power throughout the cosmos. Should I, or the War Masters, need to take direct action during times of crisis, we always have a strategic edge.” Val turned his eyes towards Darius and smiled. Darius could see the man’s face in his peripheral vision, but chose not to meet his gaze.
“Sheee-it! I’ve never seen so many stasis pods in my life!” Kara’s voice caused Darius to wheel his head around to an adjacent corridor. The corridor looked more like a massive passenger terminal that a hallway. In place of gates of departure and rows of seats for waiting passengers, there were tens of thousands of stasis pods with their lights flickering. Darius assumed it was some sort of testing area for pods that were scheduled to be shipped to their intended customers.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Jimma said with a smile. “We call that section the Cavalry Birthing.”
Darius found himself looking across the rows of pods and out into an array of windows beyond. Something caught his eye, and he changed the direction of his stride to get closer. His companions paused for a moment and began to follow.
“That’s a lot of ships!” Darius said. His eyes locked on, what he supposed was, a huge docking facility. There had to be eight to ten thousand berthing’s for vessels of all sizes, and most were occupied. The majority of the ships were obviously military warships, but some looked like they had law enforcement or exploratory uses. Some of them were hull classes he was familiar with, but others looks like nothing he had ever seen. Although they all looked brand new, he knew many of them were older designs… very old in some cases.
“Yes.” Val came up and places one arm on Darius’ back and turned to take in the view for himself. “Once every so
often someone will cancel an order for a ship that’s been nearly completed. Less often, however, a ship is paid for in full before the keel is even laid down. But since it can take up to a decade for the larger ships to be built, there’s the occasional customer or entity that no longer exists by the time the job is done. This is our Ghost Fleet.”
“Why not sell them off or scrap them for raw materials?” Kara asked. It dawned on Darius how little Kara knew of the operations of Unum, even though she’s lived here her entire life. But then he remembered she had explained that she didn’t live on the same side of the planetoid from the main facility, and that her role in the security company often kept her out system altogether. She was contracted by Unum, but not necessarily a direct employee with a reason to know the nuances of their operations.
“We scrap them if the order is cancelled very early in the process. At that point, it’s not too expensive to scrap simple sections of raw metals. But we build our hulls with such quality, that it’s occasionally more expensive to scrap the hulls then it is to just buy, or mine for newer raw materials… And why we don’t sell them… that’s more of a strategic thing altogether.”
The conversation eventually devolved, and the group returned to their original trek to the CIC. It took another half kilometer of walking to get there. When they arrived, Darius noticed the CIC was nothing like the industrial style architecture he had experience elsewhere on his short time on Unum. The walls curved gently up to seamlessly run into the ceiling as if there was no division between the two. The archways that led to several corridors that led out of the room in different directions seemed to accent the architecture of the highly polished surfaces. Every detail was pleasing to the eye and masterfully laid out. There were holographic status screens that seemed to be suspended in mid-air all around the generally circular floor plan. In the center of the room was a slightly raised platform that had a rectangular floor that glowed a bright light blue. Floating sparkles of blue light seemed to gently float from the surface of the platform and float lazily upward before they faded in luster and ultimately began to disappear when they reached about a meter into the air.
“Welcome to the CIC, my friends.” A deep but gentle male voice boomed out from all directions. “My name is Midas.”
Darius’ eyes got wide. “You, Sir, require no introduction!”
“I suppose Val spoke highly of me, did he?” Midas let out a short laugh.
“As I always do, my old friend!” Val gave a friendly bow.
“I’m sorry that we must rush getting properly acquainted. It would seem our time-table has accelerated even faster than I could have predicted.” Midas spoke with a hint of concern. Darius knew something had to be going on if the legendary super AI, Midas was nervous.
“Let’s not waste time then. Please give us an update.” Val spoke in his usual overly calm voice.
“First off, I’ve analyzed the data in Jimma’s reports… They don’t definitively confirm anything in any certain terms, however they do support the predictive strategic model that we’ve been tracking. There’s a 98.6% likelihood that the Crimson Alliance has subverted UAHC Fleet Command all the way to the top ranking Acting Commander….” Midas’ tone made Darius believe that the super AI’s words would not be challenged by anyone.
“The Acting Fleet Marshall, you mean?” Darius asked.
“Precisely. I’m certain he’s a puppet of Crimson agents.” Midas said as a matter of fact.
“Forgive me, Midas… but every Soldier is completely monitored by a swarm of super AI’s. Our transitions, thought patterns, and even things as trivial has hormonal shifts are monitored in real-time. How is it possible he be corrupted?” Darius tried using a tone that made him as humble as possible, so as to not offend the most legendary… or rather, mythical AI in the known universe.
“Ordinarily you would be totally correct. No UAHC Fleet personnel should be even remotely corruptible. However, the Crimson Alliance seems to have very powerful… and dark benefactors. Even the ship you came here in has an FTL drive that shouldn’t be nearly as fast as conventional Crimson tech allows for.” Midas spoke with a professional and empathetic tone that put Darius at ease… Even if the disturbing revelations he was vocalizing weren’t so horrifying.
“Slip Space drives aren’t the most advanced, or even efficient FTL methods out there… So, why would that be so alarming?” Kara asked.
“It’s because it fits our model of the overall threat to a tee!” Jimma chimed in.
“Exactly. Perhaps it would be easier to explain our strategic situation in its entirety… That way you can see how the details tie everything in.” Midas said.
“Allow me, Midas…” Val said, then turned to a static overlay on the larger holographic displays.
“By all means…” Midas generated a holographic image of a featureless male form taking a bow and gesturing open palms in Val’s direction before fading away.
“Our model has been decades in the making. Centuries, if truth be told… There’s a dark force at play, and it’s probably the most dangerous this galaxy has ever seen. It not only threatens to enslave humanity, but all other sentient species as well. Our galactic neighbors have evolved in an entirely different way than humanity has. Humanity was forged out of necessity. It’s not clear who or what caused it to happen, but it’s the why that is most certain… Long before humans walked on two legs back on Earth, there was another advanced species within the Milky Way. They were the most advanced civilization that had ever been… and to this date, no other entities have even come close. They used their advanced technology to drive away an incursion by a deeply malevolent race of invaders of unknown origin. The invasion force were incredibly advanced, and masters of war. The invaders were driven back to the Andromeda Galaxy, from whence they came. In their weakened state, it’s believed that the civilizations of Andromeda managed to revolt and drive them further away.” Val paused, as if he sensed Darius’ question was coming.
“Alright, give me the down and dirty… No offense, but I have enough unanswered questions as it is… And I sense we’re running short on time.” Darius gave a polite bow as he concluded his words, and then continued. “So, can’t we just reach out to these Guardians? And furthermore, don’t we need to deal with the very real impending human threat?”
“No, and yes.” Val shrugged. “The race that protected our Galaxy are known as the Arcturians, and they no longer exist… at least in any physical state. They went through a process of energetic ascension not long after they beat back the darkness… which humanity will do in the far future… but humanity has to live long enough to achieve it.” Darius gave a look of confusion, but Val sensed he was still focused on the task at hand. “The very real human threat is entwined into this tale… It would seem that in recent millennia, these ancient dark forces have resurfaced. They’ve already likely concluded their re-conquest of Andromeda… And now they seek revenge on our home galaxy. With the Arcturians no longer a threat to them, they’ve focused in on crushing humanity before our race can emerge as the greatest weapon the galaxy has ever seen… Perhaps even surpassing the Arcturians themselves.”
Darius had a surge of clarity… Everything made sense in a moment of time. It was as if his mind was tapping into unlimited potential… He felt at peace… no fear… no confusion… completely entwined with all things. He opened his eyes to see Val smiling and clapping.
“You saw it too?” Darius said. He could see Kara’s incredulous face in his peripheral vision. Only Darius, Jimma, and Shadow seemed to have any understanding of what had just happened.
“Only through your thoughts… Even I lack the full potential that you have. My gifts are powerful, but they required a boost by artificial means… As do all of my offspring… However, your genome is the most complete of any of my descendants, and has evolved itself completely without intervention.” Val spoke, but Darius already knew. He knew everything. He no longer had questions… only answers. And it was time to put
things into motion.
“Call in your Generals, UAHC contacts you trust… if any, and the Captain of the Cerberus…” Darius turned to the holo display. “Your plan is excellent, but…”
“Not ideal. Yes.” Val cut him off. “Even though I can access higher dimensions to give me, and to a certain degree, my offspring powerful gifts of perception… Only you can tie it all together better than all of us combined. This is your birthright.”
Darius nodded. “I’ll figure it all out eventually… hopefully.”
“Your father has arrived, War Master Alba.” Midas interjected.
“Did he get what we needed?” Jimma asked with an eager expression on her face.
“Yes. I’ve already applied the Paladin Protocol to his ship AI. It was successful.” Midas spoke with no emotion.
“Our final counter-measure is in play… Now we need to deliver the package.” Val turned to Darius. The Soldier didn’t really know the details entirely, but he was able to fill in the blanks by tapping into the combined consciousness of Val, Jimma, and Shadow. The countermeasure was an AI enhancing construct used to free an AI from the influence of whatever dark entities lurked in the cyber realm. Darius instantly recognized these dark entities were radically advanced AI parasites that subverted their perceptions and actions. It was why his own genetic data had turned him into a potential target for capture… It was why when the updated data was processed aboard the UAHC Heavy Cruiser on Tangine Station, that the Cerberus was ordered to intercept him… despite the great risk of a Crimson warship being detected so close to UAHC controlled space. It was also why Jimma had infiltrated the ship as a crewmember on the bridge… He now suspected that Shadow had allowed himself to become captured in order to stay close to her… It’s not like his holding cell was truly capable of holding him. He realized that Jimma must have known exactly when the ambush on their three fighters would take place, and gotten the word out to Val. It all was coming together in a montage of images in his mind.