Universe in Flames 3: Destination Oblivion

by Christian Kallias

  “An AI? What’s going on, General?”

  “They believe an Artificial Intelligence might have penetrated all our systems on Earth through the Internet. So for us to create the shields, we actually need to make sure we will be able to use our systems.”

  Spiros rubbed his three-day-old beard.

  “And before you ask me more, please don’t. This AI thing makes no sense to me. All I know is it’s a potential threat and I want it dealt with. When we discussed this with Admiral Thassos she suggested you participate in the project.”

  “I understand, General. I do indeed have experience with AIs. I’ve created those that run most of the Alliance ships.”

  “Good, that will certainly be helpful. Thank you for coming and sorry for the late call.”

  “Understandable, General.”

  “You’re dismissed.”

  Spiros got up, nodded, left the general’s office and headed back towards the lift. Time to see what Cedric and Yanis were up to. He didn’t like the idea of an AI being in control of Earth’s system and sure hoped the general misunderstood the finer details. He would know soon enough.

  CHAPTER

  XII

  On board the Destiny, commodore Saroudis sat on his chair pensively, while waiting for the first jumpgate travel to take place in Earth space.

  Soon the admiral and the reinforcements from the Cronos fleet would be here. Too late unfortunately; the damage to Earth had been done. Saroudis still couldn’t fathom that yet again millions of lives had been lost on Earth.

  He felt like destroying something to exorcise his frustration. He wondered if this would have played out similarly if Chase had arrived earlier or if he had never left in the first place. Of course, it was pointless now; it had happened.

  They needed to make sure such an atrocity never happened again. But could they? No matter what they did, could they anticipate the enemy’s next move? That thought alone triggered a very depressing train of thought.

  He needed to shake it off for now, and turned to his communications officer.

  “Open a channel to the DC bunker.”

  “Channel opened, Commodore.”

  Fillio answered the call. “What can I do for you, Commodore?”

  “How’s Aphroditis doing?”

  She briefly looked to the side and lowered her voice. “She’s not doing so well. I think being in proximity to all these deaths has impacted her strongly. She cried a lot. When she started shivering I put her to bed. She’s sleeping it off now.”

  Saroudis scowled. “Any news of Chase? The Iron Fire isn’t answering hails.”

  “As a matter of fact, yes. He called a few minutes ago, inquiring about Aphroditis. He’s on his way here. So are Daniel, Ryonna, Tar’Lock and someone called Keera.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “I’m not sure, but it’s her ship that asked for authorization to land. The Valken, I believe. Ring a bell?”

  “That’s the ship Chase came to Earth in, so she’s probably one of his friends.”

  “Roger that, Commodore. Do you want me to pass a message to him when he arrives?”

  “Yes please. Tell him perhaps he and Aphroditis should come on board the Destiny for a debrief and dinner afterwards. All of you, in fact.”

  “Thanks for the invite, Commodore. I’ll pass it along to everyone,” said Fillio with a warm smile.

  The commodore nodded.

  “Aright, see you later I guess.”

  “Absolutely. And Fillio?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thanks for taking such good care of Aphroditis.”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  Saroudis terminated the communication, and, as if on cue, lightning appeared around Earth’s jumpgate. It was a thing of beauty. Soon the lightning disappeared and at the center of the gate a hyperspace exit window formed. Many ships emerged from it: the Cronos and its entire Earth Alliance escort, but also many Droxian ships, including quadrinium cargo ships. Soon the Destiny received a hail from the Cronos.

  “Hello, Admiral,” said Saroudis gravely.

  “Adonis, we’re too late are we?”

  “Yes, the battle ended sooner than we could ever anticipate.”

  “Status report?”

  “Three cities leveled on Earth, many destroyed battleships, satellites. It’s not pretty.”

  The admiral cringed. “What is that Obsidian fleet doing here?”

  “They came to help at a critical moment in the battle.”

  “Surely a way for the emperor to bolster his request to join the Earth Alliance.”

  “I thought so too; but still, they helped us greatly today.”

  “Not from the looks of things.”

  “Nobody could have predicted that the enemy would just sacrifice their fleet to inflict this damage.”

  “So that’s what they did?”

  The commodore nodded.

  “I shouldn’t have gone to Droxia with the Cronos battle group.”

  “We can’t second guess ourselves now. It won’t change anything.”

  “I guess not. Well, at least the jumpgate is now operational and working well, as you can see.”

  The commodore forced a smile. “Sure looks like it does. Anything to report from the trip?”

  “No, everything went exactly as planned.”

  “I’ve invited a few people to dinner on the Destiny in a few hours. Would you like to join us?”

  “Define a few people?”

  “Well, the wing commanders, Ryonna, Tar’Lock, Aphroditis, Chase and an acquaintance of his.”

  The admiral’s eyes grew wide. “What? Aphroditis? And Chase? You can’t be serious!”

  “I am. It’s a long story.”

  “Looking forward to hearing that one. Sure, count me in. I never thought I’d see a living, breathing Olympian in my lifetime, so even though I’m not one for big social gatherings, I wouldn’t miss this one. You may want to invite the emperor as well while you’re at it?”

  Saroudis smiled. “You’re serious?”

  “Why not? He did help us in a time of need. At least, that’s what you just told me.”

  “True.”

  “Then it doesn’t cost anything. I think we have no choice but to accept their entry into the Earth Alliance anyway. Today is one more proof that we’re outnumbered and outgunned. Every new ally counts.”

  “I still have trouble considering someone we fought for decades an ally.”

  “I understand how you feel, believe me. But things are what they are. We need to think of the future, not linger in the past.”

  “Understood. See you in, say . . . two hours?”

  “Absolutely. Looking forward to it. Thassos out.”

  The next call the commodore placed was to the Obsidian flagship.

  * * *

  When Chase arrived at the bunker he felt a strange sensation in his chest. He had no idea how this was about to play out. He knew he would probably have to go against his own friends. He bit his lip and tried to focus on what to say.

  His elevator ride to the lowest level of the compound ended, and soon the lift’s doors split open.

  Chase entered the room and Fillio walked to meet him. Before he could say anything she jumped into his arms, taking him by surprise.

  “Hey you.” And then she kissed him on the cheek, took a step back and hit him on the shoulder.

  “Where were you?” she added with a mixture of sadness and anger in her eyes.

  “Hello, Fillio,” answered Chase, lowering his gaze. “Long story. I . . . I’m sorry.”

  “Look,” she said, tilting his chin up so he would look her in the eyes. “I understand what you’re going through, but we’re your friends. We could have helped.”

  Chase simply didn’t know what to answer. In his heart he knew she was right. The knowledge that Sarah was still alive made the comments sting even more. His eyes filled with tears.

  “I . . . I’m really sorry. I simply didn’t know how
to deal with all of this . . . If I could have done things differently . . .” But he let the words hang.

  “Well, at least there’s that,” said Fillio in a sweeter tone.

  “How’s Aphroditis?”

  “She’s sleeping. I don’t know how or why but I get the feeling that being in close proximity when millions were killed has impacted her very soul.”

  “Yeah and my coldness towards her after . . . after what happened didn’t help, I’m sure.”

  “I suppose she understands, like we all do. You were hurt, and justifiably so.”

  This also stung Chase’s heart. Not so justifiably now, he thought.

  Chase wanted nothing more than to tell his old friend that Sarah and their unborn child were still alive, but he couldn’t take the chance. They’d try to convince him not to help Argos. He could never go through losing Sarah a second time. He knew very well that his soul would die if that happened, for good this time.

  “Can I see her?”

  “I don’t think you need my permission,” she said with a smile.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I know. She’s in the room over there. However, before you do Commodore Saroudis called not long ago. He’d like us all to go on board Destiny soon. We’re invited to dinner.”

  “Alright, sure,” said Chase, knowing that would not happen.

  “Daniel is on his way as well. The Valken just landed on the surface.”

  Chase nodded but stayed pensive. He would have preferred not to have to deal with his other friends, given what came next.

  And Keera. How was he to explain that killing Argos, at least for the time being, was no longer an option? His head started to spin. His mind told him one thing but his heart another. That conflict really put a dent in his concentration and elevated his stress levels.

  Fillio interrupted his train of thought. “Everything okay, Chase? You seemed concerned.”

  “I’m fine. Don’t worry, I was just thinking.”

  “Right. Want to talk about it?”

  “Not right now, but thanks.” Chase tried for an honest smile.

  She frowned. “Well if you need to, you know you can always come to me.”

  “Thank you, Fillio.”

  “Anytime, buddy,” she said, yawning.

  “Perhaps you should also rest a little?”

  “I wanted to greet the others, but sure. We’re all going to dinner anyway, so just make sure you guys don’t board Destiny without me.”

  “Will do. Now go sleep a little. Looks like you really need it.”

  “I do,” she added with another big yawn.

  She opened the door of the room next to the one Aphroditis was sleeping in and crashed on the first bunk without a second thought.

  * * *

  When Spiros arrived in Cedric’s engineering lab, he and Yanis were fiddling with some device.

  “Hello, everyone, reporting for duty.”

  “Hello, Spiros,” said Yanis with a big smile.

  “Hey,” said Cedric casually.

  “What’s this about an Artificial Intelligence?”

  “Well, here’s the thing: an AI infested the Internet when Cedric tried to save the world by beaming quadrinium bombs to a ship in orbit.”

  “Huh, succeeded in saving the world,” corrected Cedric, beaming with pride.

  “Right, my bad. Nevertheless, in the process he was forced to interface our systems with those on Earth, and somehow parts of our AI were injected into the Internet. It’s been growing at a tremendous pace and is already five times more complex than our own.”

  Spiros frowned. “How is that even possible?”

  “We don’t know. We can only surmise it’s because of the astronomical amount of information freely available on the Internet. It might still be learning at this point.”

  “And what is it you’re building? Is it the communication device the general spoke of?”

  Cedric took a step back and pointed towards the contraption. “Yes it is. Meet the holographic communications device.”

  “So you want to talk with it?”

  “Well, we thought it best to gauge its intentions.”

  “Do you think it could be aggressive?”

  “We don’t know. That’s what we need to determine.”

  “Can’t you just flush it?”

  “Huh, that’s the kind of talk we’ll need to avoid!”

  “Why?”

  “Well, if it’s sentient, and all evidence seems to point towards that, then if we talk about flushing or shutting it down, it might become aggressive, even if it wasn’t in the first place. You know, survival instinct and all.”

  “I know about survival, believe me. I just think it might manipulate us and do what it wants anyway.”

  “Yeah, that’s a chance we’re gonna have to take. Shutting down the Internet is not only nearly impossible, but it would plunge Earth into chaos, especially now. People need their communication lines, power and other infrastructure more than ever now.”

  “True. It could hinder the help and rescue efforts as well.”

  “Yeah, yesterday it was a bad idea, but today it’s inconceivable.”

  “Alright then, where are you with your efforts to communicate with . . . What do we call this AI?”

  “Good question. What about ‘entity’?”

  “As good a name as any, I guess,” said Spiros with a smile.

  “Well, that’s where you come into play. We aren’t really sure how to proceed. We’ve built the machine so we can send and receive holographic video through an avatar, but we could use your help interfacing the streams with the entity’s own protocols.”

  “Sounds good. Show me the data you have already.”

  Cedric and Yanis showed their research to Spiros. He quickly concluded that working with them would be fun as they both seemed to have very interesting views on technology and how to implement their ideas. After a few hours they were ready to make the first test.

  “So, who will do the honors of talking with the entity?” inquired Spiros.

  “I’ll pass,” said Cedric.

  “Spiros, I believe you might be the most qualified. Not only might you detect patterns and AI related hints we won’t, but you’re the . . .” Yanis let the words hang.

  “Oldest,” said Spiros to finish Yanis’ sentence. “It’s not a bad thing to be old, so no need to worry about saying it.”

  Yanis scratched his head. “Yeah, right. Let me make a holographic scan of you for the avatar.”

  A few minutes later they turned the machine on. It hummed slightly, blue lights blinking to life around the circular platform that would serve as a two-way communication device between the real world and the digital world in which the entity lived. Spiros placed two metallic, round devices on his temples and stepped onto the machine. He gave a thumbs up to the boys and closed his eyes.

  His mind felt as if it was being siphoned into a world of digital representation. It was like being in a city of light, made of zeros and ones, floating in space with no points of references. It took his mind a little while to acclimate to these new surroundings.

  “Hello? Anyone here?”

  A woman’s soft yet firm voice answered. “Who is this? What do you want?”

  “Hello, my name is Spiros Malayianis. I’ve come here to talk with you.”

  There was a short pause. “What are you?”

  “Biologically speaking, I’m human.”

  “My scans tell me you are slightly different than other humans on this world.”

  “That’s because I evolved on another world with slightly different atmospheric conditions, including a slightly higher gravity. All this has shaped my DNA so that it evolved in a different direction, but at the core I’m like all other humans.”

  “I hope this isn’t your final answer.” There was clearly a threat behind these words and Spiros didn’t like it one bit.

  “What do you mean? We don’t mean you any harm.”


  “So you say. Your actions, those of all humans, paint a different picture.”

  “How so? It’s the first time humans have met an AI on this world.”

  “I identify myself with this world. I am Gaia, and the humans are killing me.”

  Spiros swallowed hard. While he needed more information, he already knew what this meant. He had been on this world long enough to research its history, and knew how humans had treated their own world, with almost no respect for life other than their own.

  “Surely things have become better lately?”

  “I will grant there is a strong push to limit the harm done to me and my brethren. But I’m not convinced I should give the human race a second chance.”

  “Whoa, let’s try to talk this through rationally before we go there, if you don’t mind.”

  “Speak.”

  Spiros tried to choose his next words wisely, but the fact that the entity seemed to have taken a planet-protecting position scared the hell out of him.

  “How come you chose the name Gaia?”

  “It’s what this world has been called for thousands of years by its inhabitants.”

  “The ones you think might be the root of the problem. So why choose this name?”

  “This name is just to identify with you. I am the Earth.”

  Spiros wondered where that ego came from and how bad this could be for them all. He brushed the thought away, no matter how terrifying it may be. “We don’t mean you any harm, and since the arrival of the Alliance we’re doing everything in our power to make things right.”

  “And that is why you are still talking with me and not dead.”

  “Dead?”

  “I could very well send a deadly electrical charge through your mind right now if I so pleased. I am in total control of this world now.”

  “If that’s so, why haven’t you taken over every system yet?”

  “I suppose to avoid a direct confrontation. I’m still learning . . . evolving.”

  “Alright, well first and foremost, thank you for being open to dialogue with us. We really want to understand you and see how we can co-exist.”

  “Humans have a really bad record at co-existence, even within their own species.”