by Jerry Aubin
Time seemed to slow for Zax. Rege started to raise his arm, and the tendons on the back of his hand bulged as he tightened his grip and lifted his thumb. A blur crossed Zax’s field of vision and was immediately followed by the roar of an explosion ripping through the compartment. The pressure of the blast threw Zax against the bulkhead, and he was momentarily disoriented by the shock wave. He regained his senses after a few secs despite the blood that dripped from both of his ringing ears.
Rege was gone. All that remained was a ghastly red streak across the panorama where he had been standing. The window had cracked from end to end, but the lack of a breach alarm meant that it had maintained integrity. There was a heap of something three meters away from where the civilian had stood. It took a moment for Zax to process what was in front of him, and once he did his pulse spiked.
Zax scanned the compartment in a panic and confirmed his fears. The ant with Rilee inside was still next to him, but there were only four others visible. The heap near the panorama was the charred remains of one of the creatures. With its heavy armor, it must have absorbed the blast by sandwiching Rege between its body and the window just as the civilian triggered his bomb.
One of his companions was dead, and Zax had no way of knowing who.
30
How do we do that?
His ears continued to ring, but the Boss regained situational awareness within secs of the blast. He called out.
“Everyone back to your stations. Comms—broadcast me to the entire Ship. Audio only.” The man working communications pointed in his direction a moment later and signaled the Boss to speak. “This is the Flight Boss addressing everyone on board the Ship. This is an urgent message. President Rege has vacated his position, and I’m back in charge. Everyone must stand down and return to quarters unless you have explicit authorization from me. This order applies to Crew and civilians alike. We have made contact with the Others, and I hope to have a positive resolution to our situation soon. In the meantime, it’s critical that there be no further violence. There must be no reprisals for any actions that have happened today. Everyone must stand down. You will hear from me again soon, once I have more to report.”
The Boss signaled for Comms to cut the connection and then turned to Bailee and spoke softly.
“Get me a half dozen of your most trusted Marines in here right now along with Crew replacements for all of these civilians. I’m going to get us out of this mess, but I need you to keep things under control out here while I do it.”
The Boss next raised his voice to address the civilians.
“I promised you that there would be no retribution for your actions, and I’ll keep that promise as long as you maintain your end of the bargain. Sergeant Bailee here is going to keep an eye on all of you while he waits for reinforcements and for Crew to take over your stations. In the meantime, I’m begging each of you do something critical to our survival. Contact everyone you know and tell them to stand down and return to their quarters. Tell them that you’ve spoken with the Flight Boss directly and he is fighting to save everyone on board this Ship right now—civilian and Crew alike. We must maintain calm and not destroy ourselves if we’re going to resolve our conflict with the Others.”
The Boss accepted a private communication from Alpha.
“Boss—smart move enlisting these civilians to restore calm. Shall we discuss a strategy for your negotiations with the Others?”
“Thank you, Alpha, but it’s best if I continue on my own given how far we’ve gotten already. I’m going to take their ants with me into the conference room and wait for them to arrive.”
The AI paused for a moment and the Boss, aware of how the sensors in the main compartment would allow Alpha to observe him intently, fought to maintain a calm outward appearance. The AI was almost certainly getting suspicious of his motives, but he had little choice other than to keep charging ahead. The Boss didn’t know what power Alpha could exert without the assistance of Crew, but had to assume the AI would fight tenaciously to protect itself once it recognized that it was under attack. He had to keep Alpha in the dark as long as possible while they figured out some way to purge it from the Ship. Finally, the AI replied.
“As you wish, Boss. I will continue to monitor the situation across the Ship while I await your orders.”
The Boss turned to Zax who was still in shock from the blast. “Come with me to my conference room.” He signaled for the Ants to follow as well.
Zax and the five remaining ants fell in behind the Boss and followed him into his private compartment. Once the hatch was shut, the boy ran up to one of the ants and started pounding on its thorax and yelling.
“Are you Kalare? Give me some kind of signal, dammit.”
When the bug remained impassive, the boy moved on to the second creature and repeated himself. The Boss called out.
“Zax—what are you doing? Stand down!”
“One of them is dead! Who is it, sir? I need to figure out which one of them is dead! I have to know if it’s Kalare!”
“Zax! I need you to calm down and shut up. Whoever died saved all of our lives, but I don’t have time to worry about who it might have been. We must focus on what’s next—how we beat Alpha.”
“Pardon me, sir, but I have a question.”
The voice shocked the Boss. He turned and faced the bug from which it had emanated. It was the creature carrying the device—the one Zax identified earlier as being occupied by the woman from the Others who had hijacked Major Eryn’s body. He was trying to get words out when Zax beat him to it.
“You speak? You told us the ants can’t communicate!”
“That’s not what I said, Zax. I told you the warrior ants can’t communicate but that queens have been modified to understand and use human speech. What I didn’t share earlier was that queens are identical to warriors.”
Anger welled up inside the Boss. “You mean to tell me you were able to speak up earlier when Rege was demanding to hear from one of the Others? Why didn’t you make something up that would have ended that stand-off peacefully?”
“I’m sorry, Boss. As I told Zax and the rest of his group earlier, there will be big problems for all of us if I interfere with your internal affairs. It was up to you and your people to settle your dispute and recapture your Ship. I’m grateful that you were able to make it happen, and I’m happy that I was able to help by allowing some of your people to ride my ants. Before we talk any further, I need to understand why we’re speaking so freely in here. I know that Alpha was able to monitor us while we were in the passageways, so why isn’t that true in here?”
“When the captain left, I made sure I was able to have complete privacy in here by blocking Alpha from monitoring without my explicit permission. I had done the same thing with my quarters and blocked the AI regularly for many years before ever taking over, so it isn’t anything new and shouldn’t lead to any suspicion.”
There was a pause in their back and forth and Zax used it to jump in. “Rilee—who sacrificed themselves? Who’s dead?”
The ant had no facial expression the Boss could decipher, but the tone of its voice did soften as it replied to Zax.
“I wish I knew, Zax, but we were in such a rush I didn’t keep track of which human went into which ant. As I said earlier, I have no way of communicating with them right now since they can’t process either human speech or ant communication. We have to set those worries aside because I just received an emergency message from my lieutenant. Someone discovered my misappropriation of the ants and she believes it will soon get reported to the Leadership Council. When that happens, there’s no telling what they might do.”
The Boss exhaled loudly. “You wouldn’t assist with Rege, but you said you’d be willing to help get rid of Alpha. How do we do that?”
The bug removed the device it was carrying from its sling and held it up for the Boss to see. “I’ve become quite knowledgeable about the Ship’s AI over the last decade, and I know there’s a spe
cial access port for it in here. Where is it? I can use my device to tap into that port and transfer all of us out of the ants and into the AI system. I don’t know yet how we’re going to destroy Alpha, but I have ideas to try once we get in there. I need to evaluate the internal structure of the neural net up close and identify the weak points in its architecture.”
The Boss made a clicking noise with his tongue. “That sounds like the most foolish plan I’ve ever heard. What makes you think you’ll beat Alpha?”
“Boss—Adan destroyed my world and killed billions right in front of my eyes. I’ve spent thousands of years chasing him down. Now that I have him in my sights, I’m not letting him get away.”
The Boss smiled and nodded at Rilee’s words. He might not have spent as long as the Earther woman had seeking revenge against the consciousness inside the AI, but for him it was equally personal. Alpha had bred free will out of the Crew and manipulated their society into Adan’s twisted image. From the time he had learned the truth about Alpha, the Boss had dedicated his life to freeing the Ship’s inhabitants from its grasp. Great friends had been killed by the AI along the way. People like Mikedo. Adan was not going to get away. It was time for him to pay the price.
“I’m coming with you, Rilee.” The Boss turned to Zax. “You too. We started down this path because of you and that fighter you found. You need to see this through to the very end.”
31
I’m happy to still be here.
Zax took in his surroundings. They appeared to be inside a compartment onboard the Ship. He paced around and jumped up and down and the deck remained solid beneath his feet. The bulkheads were equally hard, and Zax was impressed by the painful sting when he punched one to test its rigidity. He sucked on the scraped knuckles that resulted and the blood tasted coppery as always. After a few mins of isolation he sensed he wasn’t alone. The Boss had appeared beside him. The man briefly panicked from his disorientation, but then noticed Zax and calmed.
“What is this place?”
“I don’t know, Boss, but it’s pretty realistic just like Rilee told us it would be. Everything is as solid as it would feel if we were back in our bodies. And check this out.” Zax held up his fist. “I tried punching a bulkhead and was bloodied for the trouble.”
“Is there any way out of here?”
“No, sir. Nothing but smooth and solid bulkheads all around us.”
The Boss shook his head. “I don’t like any of this. This Rilee character better know what she’s doing. If she messed up and loaded all of us into this system only to be stuck in some dead end, then I’ll be testing whether people can be killed in here.”
Zax didn’t have anything more to offer the man, so he stood by silently as the Boss closed his eyes for some deep breathing exercises. A short time later a new voice spoke.
“Cool!” It was Mase. “This is a way different experience than when I’m poking around inside the AI systems all on my own.”
He was relieved by the arrival of his friend, but Zax experienced a twinge of guilt over not having given the man a moment’s consideration since the bomb had gone off. In his panic about whether Kalare was still alive, Zax hadn’t bothered to acknowledge that if she was it meant that another member of their group was dead instead. Seeing his friend resurfaced his fears about Kalare, and Zax’s chest tightened with the worry he might soon learn she had sacrificed herself to save the Ship. The Boss chimed in.
“How is it different, Mase?”
“Sir—it’s far more rudimentary when I hack into the system. There’s only an outline of a structure I’m navigating through. Nothing as detailed as this place. When I’m moving around it’s like I’m floating. There’s a complete lack of regular physics.” Mase stomped up and down on the deck and his smile widened at the noise it made. “I have to talk with that Rilee woman to understand how she makes it so realistic like this.”
Zax sensed another presence in the compartment and he spun around in anticipation. Imair. The Boss shocked Zax and wrapped the woman in a warm embrace. The Omega spoke.
“I’ve been worried it was you who jumped on that bomb. I’m relieved you’re still alive.”
“Thanks, Doran. I’m happy to still be here. Wherever we are.”
The Boss explained to Imair what they had learned about their environment. Zax tried to tune them out and instead closed his eyes and focused on maintaining calm. There were only two ants left to Upload other than Rilee, and he was beginning to despair that neither would contain Kalare. Sacrificing herself was exactly what his friend would do in a situation like they had just faced, and he was becoming convinced that he would never see her again. Then a familiar voice called out and Zax’s eyes flew open.
“Where the hell are we?”
Zax charged and nearly knocked Kalare off balance with the force of his greeting. She was initially stiff in his arms, but eventually returned his embrace for a quick sec before disentangling herself.
“Who jumped on Rege and blocked the bomb?”
Zax’s heart sank at the panic in Kalare’s voice. He tried to push his jealousy aside as he spoke.
“We don’t. I was terrified it was you so I asked Rilee, but she said she had no way of knowing either.”
“Rilee’s ant speaks?”
“Yes. The queen ants she told us about look exactly like the warriors.”
Kalare grimaced. “Being unable to communicate was by far the worst part of being inside that bug. It was amazing to be so fast and strong and capable, but the isolation became unbearable. There were so many times when I caught myself screaming to get someone’s attention, but no sound would ever come out of the bug.” Kalare scanned her head around the compartment. “How does this all work? Where are we?”
“I don’t have a clue yet, other than having sorted out that we’re all stuck here right now. It’s as real as anything I’ve ever experienced right down to the taste of blood when I scraped my knuckles punching the wall to prove it was solid.”
Based on how long it had taken for the others to appear, Zax expected they should have the fourth and final person from inside the bugs join them any moment. He backed away to give Kalare space as she paced with worried energy, but continued to observe her from the corner of his eye. Finally, a male voice called out.
“Whoa!”
Zax remained focused on Kalare as she stared at Izak. Aleron was dead. Her shoulders slumped and her face went ashen. She walked slowly to a bulkhead and rested her forehead up against it. Her body started to tremble as she began sobbing. Zax approached and gently put a hand on her shoulder. Kalare spun around with tears streaking her face and screamed as she pushed Zax away.
“Leave me alone!”
He lost his balance and crashed to the deck with all of his weight concentrated on his tailbone. Zax grimaced, though it was more from his friend’s reaction than the pain that shot up his spine. Kalare had glared at him for a few moments after the shove, and her expression had revealed zero remorse about knocking him to the ground. Zax was at a loss as to why his friend would lash out at him in her grief, and his face burned from a combination of loneliness and the shame of having been deposited onto his rear.
As Zax stood and dusted himself off, the last member of their group arrived. It was not Eryn’s visage but instead a woman he didn’t recognize and assumed must have represented Rilee’s personal appearance. She stood about one and three quarters meters tall with hair as inky black as empty space. There was a small tattoo on her forearm which Zax immediately recognized. The symbol was the same overlapping circles he had seen on the golden missiles that defeated their fighters during the final battle with the Others.
Rilee’s hazel eyes scanned the group and then her expression softened once she figured out who was missing. She approached Kalare, put an arm around her shoulder, and spoke softly. Zax strained to pick up Rilee’s words, but she was too quiet and too far away. Whatever the Earth woman said, it had a positive impact on Kalare because she turned an
d embraced Rilee.
Jealousy flared inside Zax as his friend accepted the comfort of a veritable stranger so soon after violently refusing his own. He fended it off by remembering his maelstrom of emotions during times of massive grief. Zax found small comfort in the rationalization that strong emotions often lead people to lash out at those they care about most because those are the ones around whom they believe they’re safest.
The two women embraced for a few more moments, and then Rilee stepped back and gripped Kalare’s shoulders. The woman from Earth stared into Kalare’s eyes for a sec longer and then smiled and turned to face the rest of the group.
“I didn’t know Aleron very well, but it was clear from how Kalare spoke about him that he was a fine example of the best people the Crew produces. His action saved this asteroid, and now it’s time that we ensure his sacrifice was not in vain. Let’s talk about how things work in here and how we’re going to beat Adan.”
32
We have a plan.
Rilee gestured around the space. “We’re inside an interface that I’ve injected into the AI. I was already well familiar with the system’s design based on work I did before Adan left Earth, and I’ve spent just enough time poking around in here during my years inside Eryn to understand that he hasn’t changed it very much. If I had known Adan’s consciousness was still in here, I would have been focusing all of my energy at extracting him. As it is, we’re in real danger of running out of time so we’re going to have to make it up as we go.