Resurgence: The Ship Series // Book Five

by Jerry Aubin

  “I’ve modeled this instance of the interface after the Ship’s physical environment to make all of you comfortable immediately. Of course everything in front of you is virtual, though your minds will believe it’s real. I may end up performing actions that appear to violate physics, and this is possible because I’ve learned how to override the virtual environment to suit my needs. This type of simulated reality is what all of us back on Earth call home for large stretches of time, so we’ve become adept at thriving within virtual worlds and bending them to our will. Given enough time all of you would become capable of the same tricks, but that usually takes weeks for people when they’re introduced to the system later in life. You pilots should adapt faster given your experience being loaded into a fighter, but it will still take days to become proficient in here.”

  Having built and spent so much time in a simulator himself, Zax was perfectly comfortable within the artificial reality. Among the others, Imair and Izak were indeed the ones who appeared most unsure of themselves. Zax pushed his mind to search for the seams in the interface while Rilee continued.

  “Boss—I learned earlier about a second consciousness within the AI system that you call Prime. What can you tell me about it?”

  “The short version of the story is that Prime has been acting against Alpha in secret for thousands of years. Prime has supported select members of the Crew and effected subtle changes over time that it hoped would eventually create an opportunity to destroy Alpha.”

  Rilee appeared puzzled. “If Prime has survived for so long, why hasn’t it been able to take care of Alpha all by itself.”

  “I’ve challenged Prime about that myself. What it told me was that it never identified a scenario where it was confident about a sufficient likelihood of success for it to take the chance. Its perspective has always been that there will only be one chance to remove Alpha. It would serve no one for Prime to take a big risk only to get destroyed and then leave Alpha entirely unchecked as a result.”

  Rilee still appeared dubious, but she nodded along regardless. “I’m guessing our best hope of success is to enlist Prime’s help. How do you contact it?”

  The Boss grimaced. “Unfortunately, that’s a problem. I have no way of contacting Prime. It has initiated all of our communications through the years.”

  An idea popped into Zax’s head. “Isn’t there something we can do inside here to cause a big commotion and catch Prime’s attention that way? Some means of sending up a virtual flare that it would notice?”

  Mase shook his head. “That’s not that smart, Zax. Anything you do to signal Prime will also catch Alpha’s attention.”

  Rilee ignored Mase and smiled at Zax. “That’s a great idea. Yes, it will attract Alpha as well, but we actually need Adan to be aware of our threat and worry that it’s a significant one. As it stands right now, I expect his consciousness is diffused throughout the AI system. We might encounter some shard of his mind that we’re able to defeat only to leave the majority of his consciousness still floating around in here. We need to present enough of a threat that Alpha gathers and concentrates all of his energy in a single location. If Adan does that and we’re still able to defeat him, then he’ll be well and truly gone.”

  Imair spoke. “What if we get Alpha’s attention but Prime never shows up?”

  Rilee’s smile vanished. “That’s quite possible and truthfully the most likely outcome. Part of why I wanted all of you in here with me was to help deploy a bunch of different weapons that will have a better chance of working if we hit him with them all at once. That said, I’m far from certain that my tools will be strong enough to defeat Adan all on our own. He was already brilliant and that was before he had thousands of years to build up his strength and become fully integrated with the system. Frankly, I don’t know what choice we have at this point. My best guess is that the Council will conclude that your asteroid must be destroyed. The only chance to save you from my people is if I deliver them Adan instead and make it clear he carries sole blame for everything that has happened, all the way back to nuking Earth.”

  The Boss slapped his hands together. “Let’s do it already, then, Rilee. I’m worried how we’ll accomplish anything useful at all given how you’ve loaded us into a compartment that doesn’t have any exit.”

  “Don’t you worry about that, Boss. I wanted to be sure we were shielded from observation by Adan, and the inside of this space should be invisible to him. As soon as we’re ready, I’ll create a hatch to access the main body of the AI. Boss and Mase—I need the two of you to come over here for a moment before we start. I have a few ideas and would value input about them from both of you.”

  Rilee led the small group to the other side of the compartment. Zax was a little upset to be left out of the planning, but he understood that Mase had more to offer than he did given the man’s years of experience hacking the AI. He laid down on the deck and closed his eyes to wait. He must have zoned out, because when his name was called it startled him.

  “Zax.” The voice called again. It was Kalare and she had knelt down next to him. Zax sat up and braced himself with both arms as he listened.

  “I’m sorry I pushed you away like that earlier. You were just trying to comfort me, and I should have been OK with that. I assumed you weren’t being genuine because I know how much you’ve always hated Aleron. I convinced myself that you were happy he was dead. I’m sorry.”

  Kalare leaned in and gave Zax a hug. He returned the embrace and was about to speak when Rilee called out from across the compartment.

  “Everyone get over here. We have a plan.”

  Kalare let go of Zax and stood up. She smiled down at him as she extended her hand to help him up off the deck. She was moving to walk away when Zax reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Kalare turned back and he spoke.

  “I can only imagine how much he meant to you. I’m sorry.”

  Kalare’s eyes welled up, and then she smiled and nodded before walking away.

  Zax followed and was the last to reach the group who had formed a semicircle around Rilee. The woman from Earth spoke.

  “Thanks to Mase, we’ve established a good technique for attracting the attention of both Prime and Adan. There’s a couple of things I need everyone to be aware of. First, once I open the hatch, you should assume we’re being monitored by Adan. He’ll be aware of our presence, and I expect he’ll be able to hear anything we say to each other. To get around that, I’ve configured all of us to have Plugs for private communication. Of course they’re simulated, but just think about accessing them like you’re already used to and everything will work fine. They establish a highly encrypted communication channel that Adan won’t have access to. He’ll crack the encryption eventually, but if we don’t manage to beat him we’ll all be dead long before that happens.”

  Rilee’s mention of death caught Izak’s attention, and he stared wide-eyed at the woman from Earth. The Boss noticed and addressed the civilian.

  “You heard her correctly. This may be a simulated environment, but your consciousness is physically present inside the AI system. If we don’t manage to defeat Adan, then he’ll purge all of us. That means real, permanent death. Does anyone have any questions?”

  There were none, so Rilee gestured towards a hatch that hadn’t been present a moment earlier.

  “It’s time to end this. Let’s go.”

  33

  Stay frosty, everyone.

  Zax was the last person through the hatch. The opening disappeared behind him and was replaced with smooth bulkhead. They had all moved fifty meters down the passageway when a voice boomed as if from loudspeakers overhead. It sounded vaguely like Mase.

  “Alpha—there is a group of Crew who are prepared to destroy you. You cannot hide from us and we will find you soon.”

  The announcement repeated five more times before going silent and then repeating the pattern one min later. Imair was in front of Zax and she called out to Rilee on the group channel of the
ir virtual Plugs.

  “Didn’t we just light up a giant target on ourselves with that message?”

  “It’s all part of the plan to appear threatening so Adan will coalesce the entirety of his consciousness to deal with us. Remember, our mission fails if we leave behind any piece of him large enough to regenerate within the AI.”

  Imair appeared worried, so Zax opened a private channel to the civilian.

  “Are there any questions I can answer for you, ma’am?”

  “I don’t understand how any of this works, Zax, but I guess it’s not important that I do.”

  “The most critical thing to remember, ma’am, is that none of what you see is real. It’s all a simulated environment that has been crafted to be as realistic as possible. Our minds process what’s going on and our virtual bodies take action as if we were out in the physical world, but it’s all just signals being propagated through the AI. Right now your existence is nothing more than a series of energy impulses somewhere inside the trillions of trillions of neurons that form the AI.”

  “Thanks for trying, Zax, but I don’t think that makes me feel any better.”

  Zax smiled at the civilian and she turned back around to focus on their forward progress. He didn’t understand all of it either, but he was comfortable enough placing his trust into the virtual hands of Rilee and Mase. What was most unclear was what would happen once they caught up with Prime and Alpha—hopefully in that order. Zax was about to open a private channel to ask Rilee some questions when a blaster materialized in his hands and he received a group message from the woman.

  “Everyone—my sensors are detecting a massive energy movement ahead. Given its size, I’m guessing this is Adan and not Prime. Be prepared for battle.”

  “What?” It was Izak. “Why do we all have blasters? Didn’t you say we would all use different weapons? What is this consciousness even going to look like?”

  “Don’t overthink things. When he appears, it will be clear we’ve encountered Adan. All you have to do is shoot at him as if you were back in your body. You’re not really shooting, of course, but the blaster represents one of the different weapons I said we would deploy. They’re not all the same even though I’ve represented them that way, but all you have to worry about is aiming and firing. Just don’t shoot until I do. Stay frosty, everyone.”

  They turned a corner in the passageway and came face to face with Adan. Zax recognized the man’s physical representation from what he had seen in the log files. Rilee, walking at the front of the group, put her hand up to call a halt to their movement. Everyone raised their blasters and waited for Rilee to start firing.

  Adan grinned at the group arrayed in front of him. “What an interesting collection we have here. I recognize everyone except you there in front. What’s your name? How have I never seen you before?”

  “My name is Rilee. You don’t recognize me, but I surely recognize you.” The woman’s voice was calm, but there was a sharp edge to her tone. “I visited this asteroid a long time ago. In fact, it was the very first time that you loaded your consciousness into one of your new fighters and took it out for a test ride. Later that day I was nearly killed by one of your people. I didn’t wake up until a year later when I was forced to watch in agony while you broke your word and nuked our home and billions of people into ash.”

  An expression of horror crossed Adan’s face and he lurched backward as if he had been struck off balance. He stared wide-eyed at Rilee and his mouth struggled to form words. Finally, he spoke.

  “Impossible. You’re all dead! There’s no way any of you survived after the number of nukes I threw at you. You’re the ones who fixed the planet? You’re the ones who led us back here? It wasn’t one of our colonies? I don’t believe you.”

  “I don’t care whether you believe me or not. I’m here on behalf of the Leadership Council of Earth to arrest you for genocide. Surrender and come peacefully to beg for mercy, or be destroyed right here, right now.”

  Indecisiveness washed across Adan’s face. Zax wished more than anything the man would give up. He had no faith they would defeat the AI if force was required and desperately hoped his surrender could be achieved without violence. Then, the muscles in Adan’s cheeks tensed and he let loose a bloody scream as he charged at them.

  Rilee began to shoot and an instant later she was joined by the rest of their group. Blaster fire rained down on Adan as he charged forward. He held his arm outstretched with his palm up and somehow deflected the first few shots. As the firing intensified, shots began to land on his body. Adan kept moving, but started to visibly slow. His hair began to smolder and blood dripped from both of his nostrils. Then, with a final step, he dropped to a single knee. Rilee kept firing and everyone followed her lead. Scorch marks appeared all over Adan’s body and then bones started to peak out through charred flesh.

  Finally, Rilee stopped and raised her fist for everyone to do the same. She carefully closed the distance between herself and Adan while signaling for Izak to accompany her. They moved within two meters with Rilee on Adan’s right and Izak on his left. The smell of cooking flesh combined with the man’s desperate whimpers turned Zax’s stomach. And yet, Adan remained on a single knee and refused to keel over.

  Zax blinked and when his eyes reopened the scene had completely changed. Adan was no longer on the verge of destruction but had been restored to the same appearance he had when they first encountered him. The man’s grin overflowed with pure malice. Rilee’s finger was pulling the trigger, but her blaster had gone inert. Zax attempted to fire his weapon and was met with the same outcome. Everyone’s blasters had failed simultaneously.

  Adan started to laugh and the noise drew Zax’s attention back to the man. He stood and turned towards Izak and moved his hand as if he was brushing away an insect. Izak’s weapon flew away and crashed to the deck in pieces. Adan waved his hand once more and Izak’s clothes flew off and left him naked. The muscles in the man’s arms strained as if he wanted to use them to cover himself out of modesty, but Izak was frozen in place.

  With one final wave of Adan’s hand, Izak was transformed into something out of a nightmare. In the same way that his clothes had been flung away a moment earlier, all of his skin from the neck down separated as if along invisible seams and flew off to hit the deck with a sickening, wet glop. Izak’s eyes went wide in horror and after a sec of shock he began to scream in what was unmistakable agony.

  Zax was pained by the scene in front of him, but he was somehow unable to move his neck or avert his gaze. By straining his eyes sideways he saw the others were similarly frozen. Imair stood next to him and tears cascaded down her face to spill unimpeded to the deck. After what seemed an eternity, Adan’s laugh became much louder and the hairs on the back of Zax’s neck stood straight up. When the man spoke a moment later, his voice was perfectly calm despite the scene of abject horror in front of him.

  “Did you fools really believe you would come into my home and somehow beat me? I should end this right now, but some of you deserve to suffer utter agony at my hands.”

  Adan waved his hand at Izak once more. One second the man’s mouth was wide open and unleashing bloodcurdling screams, and the next it had been wiped off his face and replaced with solid skin from his chin to his nose. The muscles in Izak’s jaws still worked furiously in an effort to scream, but there was no longer a mouth to open and only muffled groans escaped. Adan spoke again.

  “That’s better. His howling was useful at first to be sure I had your full attention, but it was starting to become bothersome. Look at the poor creature. Imagine how much he must be suffering with every nerve ripped apart and exposed like this. I’m not even letting him bleed because I want to be sure he stays alive throughout our conversation. It was helpful of your friend Rilee to spec this interface with full human sensory inputs because I’m having so much fun with his pain. Forcing you to watch the torture of others generates such wonderful terror while you helplessly wait your turn. I sense
Rilee trying to take the interface over again to make it all stop, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Or ever.”

  “Adan—stop!”

  The voice came from behind Adan. His face registered surprise that someone had snuck up on him and his expression transformed into shock once he glanced back over his shoulder. Zax was certain he had heard the voice before, and when he followed Adan’s eyes he recognized the man he had previously known only from the log files. A man who was supposed to have died five thousand years ago.

  Markev.

  34

  We did our job.

  Adan faced his former bodyguard with his mouth agape for a moment before sputtering. “Wh-where did you come from? I dumped your body out the airlock myself!”

  The giant man remained silent and strode confidently as if he was simply going to approach his former boss for a handshake. When Markev moved within five meters, Adan raised his arms and called out.

  “Don’t come any closer!”

  Movement caught Zax’s attention out of the corner of his eye, and he discovered he was capable of moving his neck. The weapon in Rilee’s hand had transformed from a blaster into one of the throwing blades carried by the ants. The distraction of Markev must have loosened Adan’s grip over all of them. She cocked her arm and sent the weapon through the air and into its target with a solid thwack. The blade landed dead center between Izak’s eyes and the compartment became perfectly still once his gurgling moans ceased as if a switch had been flipped. Zax exhaled a deep sigh of relief at the mercy killing, and his legs finally ceased the shaking which had threatened to topple him over.

  Adan spun back around with his face twisted in rage. He flicked his hand and Izak’s lifeless body flew through the air towards Rilee. She moved in a futile attempt to dodge it, but just before impact the corpse halted for a moment in midair before descending softly to the deck at her feet. Markev spoke.