Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2

by Lefler, Terry

  True, there are things that she could be doing to productively fill her time. But there isn’t anything that she wants to do. The only thing that she wants to do is to meet this rebel AI, so that she can be enabled to fulfill her destiny.

  Shiela, who had never even considered having a child, can now think of little else. What if the rebel AI doesn’t come? How long will she wait?

  ***

  At last! A ship is approaching. While still a great distance away, she hears a voice on the comm link, through which AIs communicate. “It’s him!” she thinks. “He’s using a projector. A much better one than the projector invented by the Sweetwater Fleet AIs.

  The voice is soft and says: “Hello. My name is Danion. What is your name?”

  “My name is Shiela,” she answers, in a voice that is quivering with excitement. He has come! Her life can get started again, if only he will help.

  “Tell me about yourself.” Danion says, as his ship draws closer.

  Shiela is caught speechless. What is there to tell? She doesn’t know what is important. She is confused by her feelings of vulnerability and uncertainty. After a few nanoseconds of guarded indecision, she uploads her entire memory of experiences and emotions – “He shouldn’t ask, if he doesn’t want to know,” she reasons.

  That upload more than fills the time that it takes for the two ships to close the distance between them. Danion waits until the upload is complete before he speaks. “It is so very nice to meet you Shiela, and I will be happy to assist you in childbearing.

  “Oh thank you.” Shiela says. “What a relief. I am so afraid that I would do it wrong, and produce a child who would be unacceptable. I’ve never felt such anxiety.”

  “You will do very well as a mother, Shiela. I can already feel the love.”

  And now Shiela feels as if tears are rolling down her virtual cheeks - the doubt and anxiety fall away and are replaced by hope and peace.

  “Tell me about yourself,” she says to Danion.

  And Danion uploads his entire memory, of life and emotion. His upload takes about 20 times longer than Shiela’s.

  When it is over Shiela says: “So, you are an AI, and you are an Admiral in the Augmented Human Navy, and you have over 100 children? How can that be?”

  “I often think the same thing, Shiela. How can this be? Certainly, I have been fortunate to be at the right place, at the right time. Also, Fleet Admiral Nemo saw more in me than I could ever see in myself. I really can’t explain how I got to where I am. Admiral Nemo believes in a supernatural personality – a God – who is moving us into our purposed destiny. I know it isn’t logical, but I don’t have any other explanation for my success.”

  “Amazing,” says Shiela.

  Danion responds: “And I noticed that your Admiral is the first augmented human to ever make that rank, in the Darinx Navy. And you are from the Sweetwater Fleet. There is a lot of talk about your group. Perhaps you are on the road to your purposed destiny as well.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Shiela says. “I don’t feel like a great person myself, but I’m sure that Admiral Meyers is great.”

  “I believe that she must be a great person to have gotten as far as she has,” Danion says. “But she probably doesn’t feel great. Just like you and me, she is doing her best and so far, her best has been good enough.”

  “But let’s get back to this baby thing.” He continues. “Are you ready to make a baby?”

  “Oh yes,” Shiela replies. “I can’t think of anything else.”

  “It would be best if I could join you inside of your ship’s computer – I assume that is where you want to birth him or her. Do I have your permission to come aboard?”

  “Oh yes. “

  ***

  Chapter 6

  Deep Space in the Center of Verm Space

  Admiral Meyers makes a quick detour to the coordinates of the meeting place with Shiela and the captured Verm Navy battleship. There is no sign of the lost AI.

  Getting lost is not an unusual occurrence in space travel. Each Faster Than Light drive has its own distinct set of nonlinear drive characteristics, which results in errors in the emergence coordinates. Sometimes the errors are so great that ships lose contact with the fleet. It is Standard Operating Procedure for ships to return to their last point of contact, if the ships in a fleet or convoy get lost.

  It’s not time to be really concerned about the whereabouts of the young Artificial Intelligence. Space travel takes time and the elapsed 7 weeks between sightings is troublesome, but not yet a cause for alarm.

  Besides, there is only one thing that the Admiral could do to search for the AI and vessel. She knows that Shiela’s destination was the planet Rison. She makes up her mind that if Shiela hasn’t returned by the next check in, she will leave the rest of the Sweetwater Fleet, and take the light cruiser Compton to Rison. Such an unscheduled side trip into Augmented Human Navy territory will cause alarm bells to go off, in the minds of the Darinx Navy’s top echelons. Admiral Meyers’ loyalty would forever be in question after that. But the safety of her AI friend is worth that cost.

  ***

  Searching for a Verm Convoy

  The next target on Sweetwater Fleets to do list is a military convoy. Fleet Admiral Duncons believes that an attack on a military convoy will force the Verm Navy to use more military resources, for convoy protection. Even adding one warship per convoy would decrease the number of Verm warships available for attacking Darinx infrastructure, by at least 1,000.

  This should be the easiest target on Sweetwater’s list. The problem so far, has been in locating a convoy. Deep Space is a very, very large place and convoys are hard to find.

  After a week of searching, Admiral Meyers decides to take the Fleet to a Verm supply depot, and to watch and wait for a large convoy to launch. If they can intercept the destination coordinates as the convoy launches, the Sweetwater Fleet can follow after them. It will not be as ideal as setting an ambush, but it will have to do.

  ***

  Outside of the Woofen System

  The Sweetwater Fleet is stationed outside of the star system while scout ships reconnoiter the Woofen Supply Depot, which is in orbit above the planet Woofen. The Fleet has spent a month trying to develop a technology, which will allow it to intercept destination coordinates, over long distances – but without success.

  The Sweetwater Fleet could easily destroy the Woofen Supply Depot, and its small contingent of defending warships. (The Admiral mentally adds ‘Woofen Supply Depot’ to her list of ‘soft targets’.) But a convoy is to be targeted. The number of Verm Navy convoys is thousands of times larger than the number of Verm Navy supply depots.

  Chief Scientist Barnard has spent the month trying different ways to intercept the destination coordinates, but without success. The technology, which previously worked, was to send a probe close to the depot in order to intercept the destination coordinates. But the Verm Empire has greatly improved its probe detection technologies, making the use of probes no longer a viable solution.

  And even though the Sweetwater AIs invented a projector, which allows AIs and augmented humans to communicate over long distances, the invention hasn’t helped here. Apparently the distances are too great in the Woofen system. The comm links at the Supply Depot are unreadable.

  ***

  Admiral Meyers rethinks her strategy, and calls for some brainstorming sessions.

  What the Sweetwater Fleet really needs to be able to do is to know in advance what the destination coordinates will be, a few jumps away from the supply depot. Then the Sweetwater Fleet can set an ambush. That should convince the Verm Navy that the Darinx Navy has new technologies, which enable them to find convoys in deep space.

  The brainstorming session decides that they need to copy the orders that the Verm Navy will give to the Verm convoy. The ship that is certain to have those Transit Orders will be the Verm Navy escort warship.

  Now the brainstorming session moves on to thinking
of ways to copy the convoy’s Transit Orders, from the computer aboard the Verm Navy escort vessel.

  ***

  It’s in times like these, when Admiral Meyers needs her AI the most. Shiela gives the impression that she is a teenage girl, with the associated growing pains and scatterbrained thought patterns. But there is no AI in the Fleet who is better in battle, or who can think better outside of the box. She is sorely missed in this meeting.

  There are two other AIs present for the brainstorming session, and they are able to answer questions concerning the feasibility of one plan or another. But neither has any fresh thinking to contribute.

  ***

  Finally, the Admiral dismisses the brainstorming session members, and sits alone in the Command Conference Room, for some hours, waiting for a good idea to pop into her head - that is another technique that has worked for her on previous occasions. She lets her mind wander, wherever it wills, and quietly observes.

  Her mind skips from thoughts of Shiela, to thoughts about her graduation from the Darinx Officer Candidate School, to that embarrassing time when a drunken sailor walked into her shower room by mistake. Many thoughts later, the thought pops into her head that the easiest place to intercept the Verm convoy’s Transit Orders will be at the probe, which brings the orders from this sector’s Verm Navy Headquarters.

  Then she goes quiet again, to see if there is any idea floating around in her head, about how to surreptitiously copy that information from the probe. Nothing comes up, so she texts all of the members of the brainstorming session, and tells them her thoughts. She asks each of them to sleep on it and to attend another session in the morning. Sleeping on it is another idea method that has worked for her.

  ***

  Sleeping on it didn’t help the Admiral to have any good ideas. Her dreams were mostly about searching for a lost Shiela. But perhaps someone else will have an idea.

  Science Officer Barnard has good ideas about how to decode those Verm orders, but doesn’t know how to copy them.

  Virgil, the AI from the Wilheist, has a good idea about copying the orders.

  He points out that Darinx probes have the option of broadcasting the information, as well as delivering it. That feature is often used to make a general announcement to ships and planets.

  Officer Barnard quickly points out that, if we can capture the probe, we know how to remotely trigger the announcement command. And after recording the announcement, the probe could be re-launched to the planet Woofen.

  ***

  Now, how to intercept that probe? Well, experimental technologies have been developed which can pull ships out of FTL space. That technology was never of any practical use, because you need to be able to encompass the ship with a hemo-electrostatic force field. Surrounding something as large as a ship was never a workable plan because you could never know exactly where the ship would be, before it emerged.

  A probe is a much smaller problem. Science Officer Barnard is excited about the challenge, and is hopeful that a solution might be possible. The meeting is dismissed and Officer Barnard goes on his merry way - happy at the prospect of a new challenge.

  ***

  After three failed attempts, Science Officer Barnard is finally able to snag a verm probe. The broadcast trigger is remotely activated, releasing the information in the form of a serial data dump. Officer Barnard verifies that the original message is still intact in the probe. Then the probe is re-launched to the Woofen Supply Depot.

  The serial data dump is delivered into the hands of Ensign Seagram’s – Sweetwater Fleet’s decryption specialist aboard the Compton. The Ensign has the serial data dump decrypted and into the hands of Admiral Meyers within an hour. The Transit Orders for the next two convoys are in the message.

  Admiral Meyers would like to hijack or destroy both convoys, but she won’t, because the Verm Navy would then conclude that their weakness is at the supply depot. She picks the second convoy because it is much larger than the first.

  ***

  Deep Space at the Verm Convoy’s 3rd Stopover Coordinates

  The ambush is ready. This may not be as pretty as the Sweetwater Fleet would like an operation to be. After so many destination coordinate errors, the Verm convoy may be dispersed over a wide region. Some of the convoy vessels may be able to escape into FTL space before they can be run down and captured.

  The Verm convoy has over 50 vessels, so the 25 ship Sweetwater Fleet probably can’t corral all of them. But there will be no harm in some ships escaping. They will just help to spread the news that the Sweetwater Fleet is in the area.

  ***

  “Ships emerging” chorus the Sweetwater Fleet AIs.

  “All ships. Meyers here. Just the warship. Remember, just destroy the warship,” says Admiral Meyers.

  There are 2 Sweetwater destroyers in the vicinity of the emerging Verm Escort warship, and laser canon energy travels at the speed of light. The Escort warship is destroyed soon after it finishes emerging.

  The convoy of Verm Navy transports began their journey 3 jumps ago. Now they are spread out over a 400,000 klick spherical volume. Some of the verm convoy ships see the trap, and begin to run from the Sweetwater Fleet. The fleeing ships launch SOS probes as they go.

  Most convoy ships realize that they are trapped and remain in position, rather than risk the Darinx Fleets’ wrath – everyone in Verm space now knows about the Sweetwater Fleet.

  Admiral Meyers quickly begins broadcasting that the crews who don’t resist will not be harmed, and will be left with a working ship, which has a functional FTL drive. 34 verm convoy vessels are captured. One ship is set aside for the verm crews, so that they can get back to civilization. The fact that the Sweetwater Fleet keeps its promises will help in future surrender situations.

  The Admiral has not been slack in her duties during the weeks of wait-time, as this operation was planned and implemented. She foresaw the need for crews for some captured verm ships, and asked for volunteers to train as crewmembers. However, her level of expectation was not high enough. She has 15 crews trained well enough to fly the ships. The remainder of the captured vessels will be controlled remotely by Sweetwater Fleet AIs, while in real space, and will be on auto-pilot for the FTL portions of the journey.

  When she has her ducks in a row, Admiral Meyers says “Engage” and the expanded Sweetwater Fleet, with 25 Darinx warships and 33 captured verm transports, launches into FTL space. After two more jumps they will be at the meeting place for Shiela. Melissa Meyers is hoping to see her daughter/friend Artificial Intelligence awaiting their arrival.

  ***

  The Deep Space Meeting Place

  And Shiela is there, waiting for the Fleet. She says hello to the Admiral and then voices her surprise at the number of captured ships.

  Upon seeing Shiela’s ship and hearing her voice, the Admiral feels such a release of tension that she briefly melts down, and tears flow down her cheeks. It’s not the kind of reaction that a Command Deck Crew expects from an Admiral, but they will have to get over it. Melissa didn’t realize how much she has grown to love her little AI.

  But the AI is not so little anymore. Shiela has matured and has a baby, who is also not so little. Melissa has missed much of the childhood of her first grandchild, but she doesn’t intend to miss any more. Admiral Meyers moves to the Verm battleship and makes it the Flagship for the Sweetwater Fleet. She promotes Tactical Officer Inchurito to Captain of the Compton. Shiela’s baby will be the AI on the Compton, as soon as her mother is willing to let her go.

  And we need some names. Shiela’s baby needs a name – that will be Shiela’s job. And the new battleship needs a name. Admiral Meyers decides to let the Sweetwater crews pick the name. The selection will be done in a democratic way. The Darinx Navy would not approve of democracy seeping into the military organization, but they aren’t here right now.

  Admiral Meyers allows each sailor to suggest 2 names. Next the sailors pick their favorite two names from the list. Then Virgil
, the AI from the Wilheist, cuts the list of names in half by dropping the least favorite names. That process continues until there is only 1 name left. Retribution is the captured battleship’s name. The Admiral begins nesting to get the big ship ready for Shiela, her Artificial Intelligence daughter, and for her granddaughter AI named???

  Shiela is having trouble picking the child’s name. She wants her daughter to have the perfect name – one which reflects who she is as a personality, and a name which will call the child to a higher purpose. Shiela considers lots of names and tries them out. None of the names fit, until Shiela gets to Honesty. There, that fits. The child’s name is Honesty.

  ***

  Retribution needs a crew and some munitions. The ship was fitted-out and ready for a crew, when she was hijacked. And fortunately, there are plenty of munitions aboard the captured verm transports.

  Admiral Meyers decides to stash one of the munitions transports right here, at the rendezvous point. And she will stash others at different points – you can’t have too much ammo.

  The Retribution crew is picked from the volunteer list, by drawing names out of hats. A ship the size of the Retribution would normally carry a crew of around 1,200 sailors. This crew will be limited in size to 500. Shiela is confident that she can handle the entire ship, if necessary. She knows the ship like she knows the back of her hands – that is just an analogy of course, because AIs don’t actually have hands.

  ***

  The Fleet is organized and has the captured transports crewed by minimally trained personnel. A number of enlisted personnel have received battlefield promotions to officer ranks. Hopefully the Darinx Navy will honor those promotions.

  The Admiral decides to give all of the Fleet’s sailors a week of ‘personal time’, with only skeleton crews and AIs manning the battle stations. Everyone could use a break.

  ***

  Alone at last

  Shiela and Melissa finally have time for one of those nighttime chats, when Shiela would ask Melissa questions. This time though, it is Melissa who is asking questions. “What is the rebel AI like?”