Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion

by Christian Kallias

  “Well, you never know.”

  “That’s sweet, but I’m a big girl.”

  “You can drop the tough act with me. You’re a skilled bounty hunter but, you know.”

  She understood what he wanted to say.

  “I know, and yeah I don’t mind the backup at all.”

  “Good.”

  “Here we go.”

  The Valken jumped out of hyperspace near a station in orbit around a vibrant green planet. Keera maneuvered her craft towards the nearest docking bay after obtaining authorization to land.

  They left the ship together. Keera went towards the nearest engineer, ordered the refueling of her ship, and then called Chase over with a gesture.

  “What is it?”

  “Need your StarFury refueled?”

  “Do they have quadrinium here?”

  “Yes, that’s what the Valken runs on as well. But they pretty much have all the fuels used by most of the engines roaming the universe.”

  “Alright, then, yes. If you can afford it, that is.”

  “No worries there. I have credit here.”

  “How long will it take?”

  “We should be on our way in less than an hour. There’s a bar here if you’d like to wait there?”

  “Perhaps we should go together?”

  “Okay. Give me a minute here.”

  Chase nodded as he looked around. Soon she joined him and they went to get a drink at the bar. The place was quite deserted; only a few tables in the entire establishment were occupied.

  “Charming atmosphere,” said Chase sarcastically.

  “Not really a tourist attraction, but at least it’s here. Want a Ju’Ran’s Blackhole?”

  “That sounds good yeah, thanks.”

  “Sit at a table over there. I’ll bring the drinks.”

  “Alright.”

  As Chase sat where Keera gestured he noticed the table included controls. He waved his hand above the monitor inlaid into the glass table. It came on and displayed news from this sector of space, as well as a login to the intergalactic network, the equivalent of the Internet but on a larger scale. Then he saw a section called “Warrants.” He touched it and a list of warrants was displayed. Of course, the warrant for Argos was at the top, thanks to the insane amount of credits offered as a reward.

  That’s when it hit Chase: probably more than half the bounty hunters in the universe were after Argos. And he looked just like him. That sent a shiver down his spine. He looked around at other occupied tables. Most of the customers were either interacting with their own table-bound terminal or just chilling out, but one seemed to look at Chase funny; but as soon as their gaze met he looked away and started interacting with his own table terminal.

  That’s not good. We’ll have to stay on our toes.

  Chase scrolled through the warrants and saw Keera’s picture. A new warrant, apparently less than two days old. He opened it and looked into the details. Wanted dead or alive.

  What’s this about? wondered Chase.

  The warrant was proposed by an individual called Tor’Tak, probably a family member of Tron’Tak. Perhaps he should have just disabled the man. Now they would have bounty hunters after them as well. It couldn’t be helped now, but Chase decided to inform Keera.

  Where is she?

  She stood at the bar, her back turned to him, her body blocking Chase’s view of the barman. Something in Chase started to tingle.

  Crap! was the only thing he had the time to think before the shit hit the fan.

  The man who had eyed him earlier was already reaching for a blaster. He raised it and shouted, “Hand’s up. Make a move and I make a hole where your heart is supposed to be!”

  Chase smiled at the threat. “Holster this weapon if you value your life. I’m not Argos. I know I look like him, but we’re twin brothers.”

  “Sure, I believe you. Hands up now. Last warning.”

  Chase exhaled with frustration. He turned around and saw that the barman was also pointing a weapon at Keera. Her hands were in the air. So much for hoping things would go smoothly. Wishful thinking anyway. Ever since the Alliance fell, it had been one crap day after another. One more day of grinding in this damn universe.

  Chase turned back towards his aggressor and played along, raising his hands.

  “That’s better. Don’t you move!”

  “I don’t need to move to kill you from here; hope you realize that.”

  That seemed to catch his attention as he advanced between the tables separating them, never losing sight of Chase as he approached.

  He shoved the barrel of his blaster right under Chase’s nose.

  “I’m gonna tie you up now. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “I thought my brother was more valuable dead.”

  “He . . . You are. Stop trying to get out of this, Argos. You’re done and I’m rich.”

  Chase started laughing uncontrollably.

  “Stop that right now or I’ll shoot you in the face.”

  Chase stopped laughing and fixed the bounty hunter straight in the eyes. “Do it. See what happens.”

  Chase didn’t realize it, but his eyes were shining again. That gave the man pause and he took three steps back, still aiming at Chase. He took yet another next step back, hit a nearby table and panicked, firing straight at Chase’s face.

  Chase flicked a finger and deflected the fire to the ground. The man’s eyes opened wide, clearly shocked. He started madly firing at Chase, who simply put his palm in front of the shots and stopped them all. A little smoke rose from his palm once the man stopped firing. A little theatrics can’t hurt, thought Chase.

  “Are you done?” he said casually.

  “What the fuck are you?” said the man, terrorized.

  “Not Argos, that’s for sure.”

  “What now?”

  “Now you either get the fuck out of my face or I show you what I do to people who shoot at me.”

  That did it. The man started running in a zigzag between the tables and left the room. Chase walked towards the bar. The barman took a step to the side, clearly showing Chase he was aiming at Keera’s head.

  “One more step and she di—”

  Before he had finished his threat, Chase had taken both his blaster out of his hand and punched his lights out with a quick fist straight to his face. He crashed into the back of his bar, shattering the mirror wall behind him. He collapsed to the floor unconscious.

  “Let’s get out of here. We’re not welcome.”

  “I can see that. Why did they do this? Oh right! You look like him. I should have known.”

  “That and there’s also a warrant on your head.”

  “What? That’s not good. I could lose my license. Who is it from?”

  “Tor’Tak. Probably a relative?”

  “Yeah, his crazy father. How much am I worth?”

  “Ten thousand.”

  “That’s insulting!”

  “Sure. I think we should go now. Any way to remove the warrant on you?”

  “Only Tor’Tak can do that.”

  “Perhaps once we’re done with the business on Earth we can take care of this as well.”

  “We’ll see. I’m not worried. I’m well known in my field. I doubt other hunters will be dumb enough to go after me.”

  “What about him?” said Chase, pointing at the barman on the floor.

  “I don’t know. Looking for a quick buck or career change, perhaps.”

  “Picked on the wrong crowd.”

  “In his defense, he couldn’t have known. Thanks for the assist, by the way.”

  “Sure. Should we go now?”

  “Yeah, but let me pour you the drink we came for first.”

  Chase sat on the nearest bar stool and put the barman’s blaster on the bar next to him. By the time Keera had prepared the Ju’Ran’s Blackhole, they heard heavy footsteps running on the other side of the room.

  “We’ve got company,” she said, still pouring the
drink.

  “I heard. You don’t seem concerned.”

  “Well, you’re gonna kick their asses, aren’t you?”

  Chase got up and smiled at her. “Be right back.”

  “Uh-huh.” She smiled back.

  Chase turned and saw four men pointing blasters and rifles towards them. Chase raised his hands and tables started levitating around them. Surprised, they started shooting at them. With a swift motion of his hands he crashed a table into each of the newcomers. They grunted, shouted or shrieked, but it all went really quickly. In mere seconds, they were all out of commission.

  One more set of footsteps could be heard, slower but much heavier than before. At every new step the ground shook. Soon a huge figure came into view. Moving out of the shadows was a tall, fat Radiok, probably five times Chase’s weight. He started running towards Chase without notice and everything in the room trembled heavily.

  Chase levitated two tables in the Radiok’s path and smashed one into each side of him. He stopped, grunted, snarled and resumed running. Then Chase used another set of tables and then another. It barely slowed down the Radiok, who arrived in front of Chase and took a jab at him. Chase easily dodged, turned around and clocked the Radiok in the face with an elbow. The Radiok’s nose broke upon impact and started bleeding, and with his eyes locked he fell like a log in front of Chase, making quite the commotion and breaking two more tables in the process.

  Chase heard clapping from the bar.

  He turned and gave Keera an amused look.

  “Boy, sending that beast down with just one blow. I’m impressed.”

  “I had to keep it together. Could have blown his head off otherwise.”

  “Yeah, like in the fight pits, right? It seemed clear to me you were not using all your abilities. I wonder if I will ever see them.” Keera pushed the drink towards Chase as he sat down.

  “Careful what you wish for. I don’t think it will be safe around me when that happens.”

  “Right.” She took her own drink and winked at him.

  They drank their beverages and left the bar shortly afterwards.

  * * *

  Yanis entered the commodore’s ready room on board the Destiny.

  “What can I do for you, Chief?” said Saroudis, getting up and shaking Yanis’ hand.

  “We may have a problem on Earth.”

  “What now?”

  “Well, perhaps nothing to alarm us just yet, but when Cedric teleported the quadrinium-enhanced bombs from the power plants, he may have created an AI within the Internet in the process.”

  “An Artificial Intelligence? How exactly?”

  “That’s the thing, we don’t know how. But it probably happened when he linked our systems with the computational power of Earth.”

  “What’s your assessment of the situation?”

  “That we must proceed with care. Hopefully if an AI was born because of the link of our two systems, perhaps it’s been born with our baseline code as a source.”

  “And that would be important why?”

  “Because we’ve hardcoded our own AIs to never hurt physical beings or, by their inactions, let human beings be hurt.”

  “Did you know the humans thought of that too?”

  “I don’t follow?”

  “Since we’ve arrived here I’ve taken upon myself to read many of their books. An author of the twentieth century called Asimov thought of the same thing: to hard code important laws into any artificial brain to make sure machines would never hurt the human race. Fascinating read.”

  “I see, and this is what, fiction?”

  “Yeah, in this case it is, even though robotics engineers on Earth are deeply aware of these rules and would always make sure to implement them, even if they were nowhere near a true working and thinking AI in the first place.”

  “Alright. Unfortunately, we can only hope this particular AI learned these. There’s no hardcoding to be made here, since it emerged on its own.”

  “Should we let it exist in the first place?”

  “I think for the time being it’s very important we don’t try to shut it down.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Well, if it’s fully conscious it could perceive us as a threat, and since there’s no hard code to protect us if it does, the last thing we want is to appear aggressive. There are simply too many things interconnected via the Internet on Earth. The result could be catastrophic.”

  “And if we wait and the AI decides to attack anyway?”

  “I know it’s a risk. For now, though, I recommend we don’t try shutting it down. Not only could purging it from the Internet plunge Earth into chaos, but I’m not even sure it’s doable at all; not if we want to keep basic things like electricity and water working down there. The fact that there are seven billion souls on the planet makes this a really difficult proposition, any way you look at it.”

  Saroudis put his hand on his chin.

  “I see. Clearly we can’t just ignore it and wait to see what happens.”

  “No, that is also too risky. I propose we monitor its code.”

  “What if that feels like prying eyes to it and it already categorizes us as a potential threat?”

  “I did not consider that angle.”

  “An AI is primarily digital. It lives and breathes in the data streams. Therefore I would think it would be inherently aware if someone was looking at its every move. I know it would make me nervous.”

  Yanis nodded.

  “Perhaps you should try to find a way to communicate with this artificial intelligence.”

  “That’s a good idea. Cedric proposed the same. We could whip up a way to communicate via audio or even holographic projection. Who will communicate with it, though? I can build all that is needed for this to work, but I’m not a diplomat, not by a long shot.”

  “Well, one problem at a time. Let’s first try to build a way to communicate with it and then we can see who will talk to it.”

  “Right. Perhaps you’d like to?”

  “Perhaps. I’m not sure a military man is the best face to present, but I’ll think about it. How long do you think you need to create a proper communication channel?”

  “A few days, perhaps less.”

  “Alright, I’ll let the admiral know about this problem when she comes back from Droxian space. In the meantime you have my go to assign as many resources as you need to this project. It’s top priority. I suggest you ask Spiros Malayianis for help on this.”

  “Makes sense. He’s an expert on AI. Thanks, Commodore.”

  Saroudis nodded. “You’re dismissed, Chief.”

  * * *

  The Iron Fire exited hyperspace near the fifth planet of the Aboris planetary system. A squadron of ships approached them shortly. Soon they received an incoming transmission.

  “Please identify yourselves and state your intentions.”

  “Daniel Tharaleos, captaining the Earth Alliance Iron Fire. We would like to talk to someone in authority concerning the warrant placed for Argos Thanatos.”

  “Request denied. Please let us escort you out of our system.”

  “Look, I understand you don’t know us, but we’re currently looking for Argos as well. Perhaps if you let us in we can help.”

  There was a minute of silence.

  “Please follow us, but no funny business.”

  “You have my word.”

  “That means nothing to us. Just be warned that if you don’t follow our exact instructions, we’ll be forced to destroy your ship.”

  You’re welcome to try, thought Daniel.

  “Very well. We’ll follow you.”

  Arriving in orbit of the nearest planet, the pilot from their escort opened communications again.

  “You can take a shuttle down to the planet. Your vessel must stay in orbit.”

  Daniel looked at Tar’Lock.

  “What is it?”

  “Well, I’ll take these.” He gestured towards the neuronal link interfa
ces. “If we need the Iron Fire I can remote control it; but if you don’t hear from us in one hour, you get out of here and come back with reinforcements.”

  “I don’t know how to pilot the ship.”

  “Iron Fire AINI? This is Daniel Tharaleos.”

  “Identity confirmed. What can I do for you, Captain?” asked the onboard computer.

  “Add Tar’Lock as secondary commanding officer and confirm.”

  “Tar’Lock added. Status, secondary commanding officer.”

  “AINI, if Tar’Lock is wounded or killed, return to Earth.”

  “Command confirmed, Captain.”

  Tar’Lock grimaced. “Charming.”

  “Well, gotta think of all possibilities. However, now you can tell the ship what to do. Just don’t blow yourself up.”

  “Very funny. Why am I not coming along with you?”

  “I thought that was obvious. Someone needs to stay with the ship.”

  “Can’t one of these”—he pointed to two of the ship’s android crew—“stay behind instead?”

  “They aren’t programmed to make on-the-fly decisions.”

  “Neither am I.”

  “Tar’Lock!” growled Ryonna.

  “Very well, I’ll stay here.”

  “Good,” said Daniel. “See you soon, hopefully.”

  “Yeah, make sure you come back. I’m not good with machines.”

  The shuttle containing Daniel and Ryonna landed on a designated platform where a dozen armed guards asked that they relinquish their weapons before proceeding inside the nearest building.

  “Nope,” said Ryonna coldly.

  “Come on, give ’em your toys,” asked Daniel nicely.

  “This is a mistake.”

  “This is how it has to be, so the sooner we comply, the better.”

  Ryonna growled in disagreement and some of the guards raised their guns in response.

  Daniel waved his hand to get their attention. “Don’t mind her. She hasn’t had breakfast yet, that’s all.”

  Ryonna put her blaster and two knives and back blade on a bench nearby. She shot an angry look at the worker in charge of holding their weapons.

  “I’d better get them back.”

  “Move along,” answered the worker, clearly not afraid of her threats.

  They were escorted to the highest floor of the building. Two giant doors opened, revealing a gigantic office with an amazing view of one of the purple oceans of this planet. There were two suns shining, one blue and one orange, as well as a stunning ringed moon, currently filling half the horizon. The office was nothing short of stunning, with waterfalls on each side it, very pretty blue trees, with white and cyan flowers blooming, and a few birds singing on their branches.