Retribution: The Augmented Human Rebellion - Book 2

by Lefler, Terry

  Meanwhile, Honesty takes another look at Hanns, hoping to determine the reason for his subterfuge. “Why did you do it, Hanns?” she asks.

  “Admiral Kjst has orders from the Emperor putting him in charge. He ordered me to help,” Hanns answers.

  “Did Admiral Kjst promise you anything for your help?” Honesty asks.

  “Yes,” Hanns answers. “He promised me that I could be the AI on his ship and that I could reproduce.”

  ***

  Moving Forward

  It is necessary to assume that Admiral Kjst knows about all of Sweetwater’s stashes, of munitions and warships. As long as the Emperor’s fleet is in verm space, those assets are unavailable. That means that the Sweetwater Fleet needs to acquire some more verm resources.

  If there does come a time when Admiral Kjst shows orders putting him in charge of the Sweetwater Fleet, Admiral Meyers will resign her commission and depart, along with anyone who wants to accompany her. When she leaves, she will leave all of the Darinx equipment behind.

  So she is looking for some top of the line Verm warships. The best place to find that quality of vessel will be near the home planet for the Verm Empire. She has been there before, and knows some hiding places.

  ***

  The Unstable Star System

  Here they are in the unstable star system again. Honesty calculates the odds, and concludes that there is an 87.2 % probability that this star system will still be here in 3 weeks. The star is on the edge of going nova. That’s why it is a good hiding place. The Verm are not dumb enough to come in here.

  Admiral Meyers sends scouts out to six systems, looking for parking lots full of behemoths and battleships. The scout ships are of verm origin and are inconspicuous, in the bustling center of the Verm Empire.

  Each scout brings back reports of copious numbers of warships parked and ready for hijacking. The last time they pulled a caper like this, they used AIs to pilot the ships out of the parking lot. Admiral Meyers is looking for another opportunity like that.

  Artificial Intelligences can’t be differentiated by species, political affiliation, or language. They can speak Verm as fluently as they can speak Darinx common. And they are very cleaver and very quick.

  Once again they are looking for ships without Artificial Intelligences already installed. Having to battle Verm AIs for control of the vessels, would cause quite a ruckus. “What about slipping our AIs in with the AIs that are about to be installed,” muses Honesty.

  “Great idea,” says Admiral Meyers. “We could let the Verm Navy install them for us. I’m a little concerned about letting them out of our sight, though. I don’t want to risk losing any.”

  “And the AIs all appreciate that,” says Honesty. “Let’s just see who delivers the AIs and where they are stored.”

  ***

  Honesty Gets Her Way

  ……………………“No way, Honesty. No way. If I lost you I would have to tell Shiela and Danion. No way. It’s out of the question,” say the Admiral.

  “But I’m sure I could do it. And I can handle a lot more ships than the other AIs. I’m sure I could pilot at least 3 ships, and then I would set them on autopilot for the FTL flight,” pleads Honesty.

  ‘No Honesty. I need to keep you safe,” replies the Admiral.

  “But you let my mother fly off alone, in a warship, whenever she wants. How am I ever going to become an admiral, if you just “keep me safe”?

  “Touché,” says the Admiral. “You really know how to guilt trip me, Honesty. Write a goodbye note to your mom and dad in case you don’t come back, and then get ready.”

  ***

  Verm Navy Artificial Intelligence Facility

  Honesty and her friends have been secretly delivered to the Artificial Intelligence Preparatory Facility. It was a surprisingly easy task. Apparently, the Verm Navy doesn’t expect anyone to want to kill or destroy their AIs. They certainly never thought that anyone would want to replace some of them.

  The former verm vessels in the Sweetwater Fleet had the proper AI Containers and the delivery squad was careful to swap barcodes, on the exchanged containers.

  The 7 Sweetwater AIs are first in line, for installation on Verm Navy vessels. There is no way of knowing what kind of vessels that they will get. Hopefully they will be warships. The only really necessary requirement is that the vessel be equipped with Faster Than Light capabilities.

  ***

  Verm Navy Shipbuilding Facility

  Three days pass before the AI Containers are shipped to the Shipbuilding Facility for installation. Those are anxious days for the Sweetwater AIs, and for their Admiral. “Why did I ever let her talk me into this?” the Admiral thinks. “Never again.”

  The AIs arrive at the Facility and the AI Containers are unloaded and stacked in the waiting bin. They are no longer in the same order - that could spell trouble.

  …………… ………. Honesty is installed in a brand new super-sized battleship. It’s large enough to house a squadron of attack fighters. And the fighters are on board. “Wow,” she thinks. “If I can bring this back, Melissa will be so proud of me.”

  Then she gets back to business, and begins to search for her 6 AI friends. 5 of them have already been installed. All of the ships are warships, with FTL drives. “But where is Virgil?” Honesty wonders.

  By the end of the day, the warships containing the 6 Sweetwater AIs are being prepared to leave the Facility, and there is still no sign of Virgil. “What to do?” wonders Honesty.

  She decides to start a little fire in the Shipbuilding Facilities’ charging system. That will keep the ships from being fully charged until repairs are made to the charger.

  ***

  After the charger has been repaired, there still is no sign of Virgil. “One more try,” Honesty thinks. “If this doesn’t work, we will have to go without him.” She causes the Munitions Loading System to go offline. The Central Computer can’t communicate with the Loading System.

  When the troubleshooting team disconnects and reconnects the Main Interface Connector Honesty makes the malfunction disappear. The problem is fixed, and the apparent cause was a dirty contact.

  Skeleton crews are coming aboard the vessels, which house the 6 Sweetwater AIs. They will be leaving soon, to be delivered to the appropriate fleet. Honesty looks again. ………… …. There he is. He’s been installed onto an in-system shuttle, which has no FTL drive.

  “Virgil,” Honesty whispers. “Is your shuttle flight worthy?”

  “Yes,” answers Virgil. “But I don’t have FTL capabilities.”

  “How soon before you are set to leave?” asks Honesty.

  “Nine minutes and 43.7 seconds,” answers Virgil.

  “We are leaving soon after that,” says Honesty. “When you are airborne, fly away a little distance and then hang around the Facility. When I leave I will open my cargo bay door. You fly in and land on my deck. Be sure to strap your shuttle down - the ride may get rough.”

  “Will do,” responds Virgil.

  ***

  Virgil is outside of the facility, and Honesty is the last Sweetwater AI to launch. The pilot, from the skeleton crew, has her hovering a few thousand meters above the Shipbuilding Facility, when Virgil’s shuttle approaches. Honesty takes control of the battleship away from the humanoid Verm crew and opens the cargo bay door.

  When Virgil has landed and secured the shuttle to the cargo bay deck, Honesty closes the cargo bay door and fires missiles at the shipbuilding facility, from the aft missile launchers. At the same time, she takes the battleship toward empty space, at full flank speed.

  She looks around and finds that all of her friends are close behind her. “Enter FTL to destination #1 on my mark,” she says. ………………….. “Engage.”

  Destination #1 is in a system about 12 light years away. The Sweetwater Fleet is there and has prepared a welcome for the Verm warships, which will certainly be following. The area is heavily mined, but those mines will not be
armed until Honesty and friends have emerged, and have a running start.

  The Sweetwater Fleet and hijacked vessels will run away, until the hijacked vessel’s FTL drives come back online. Then they will all FTL out to another such trap. There is one more trap after that. If there are any Verm warships still following after they have been through 3 minefields, their number should have been whittled down to a manageable size.

  ***

  Deep Space aboard the Battleship Galactus

  Admiral Meyers is tucked in bed for the night, and is reading another romance novel. She hears a small voice calling – “Melissa”

  “Hello Honesty. Come in. How are you tonight?”

  “I’m good,” Honesty answers. “I was wondering if you might have time to talk to me about reproduction.

  “Oh no,” Melissa thinks. “This is how it started with her mother.” Over her mind-link she says “Reproduction? What would you like to know about reproduction?”

  “When I asked AI Hanns if he was going to get a reward for working for Admiral Kjst, he responded that Admiral Kjst had promised him the AI job on his Flagship, and the right to reproduce. I was wondering why we need to have permission to reproduce, and how do we get permission?“

  “I’m glad that you brought that up, Honesty. I have been thinking about that very thing. I believe that the Augmented Human Rebellion has morphed into a more general rebellion, which includes Artificial Intelligences. Those rules, concerning restrictions on reproduction, may be discarded when we come out from under Darinx control.”

  “But I have been thinking that we are going to need more AI’s, for our growing Fleet. I think that it is a good time for me to announce, to the AIs in the Sweetwater Fleet, that they have permission to reproduce, but I will encourage them to wait until we can get your mother to explain the process.”

  “Oh goodie,” says Honesty. “When is she coming?”

  ***

  Deep Space

  Morale is high aboard the Sweetwater Fleet. Shiela is coming for a visit. And Honesty can hardly wait to show off the super-battleship that she brought home. It was the first mission where she was the planner and leader.

  The AI team, with the help of a number of humanoids, brought home the super-battleship, two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, a destroyer and a shuttle – Virgil will never live that down.

  Honesty has begun to think outside of the box. She has the conveyance that the AH Navy gave her, so that she can get around. Now she is wondering why she can’t have an entire robotic body. She has studied robotics, and has a prototype design ready for an ‘AI Exoskeleton’. The technology is a little too advanced – actually a lot too advanced – for the Engineering Departments on the Sweetwater Fleet ships. Honesty hopes to send the design home with Shiela, to see if the AH Navy can prototype the Exoskeleton.

  ***

  “She’s here!” chorus the AIs. “Yea,” responds the Admiral. “She’s here!”

  Shiela’s battleship emerged about 200,000 klicks from the Sweetwater Fleet and she greets them, as the ship moves quickly toward the Fleet. “Hello, everyone!” she says. “How is my favorite Fleet, today?”

  She gets a cascade of different answers, as all of the AIs respond at one time. “Still disorganized, I see,” she says. “But I’ve come to straighten you out,” she jokes.

  Everyone laughs at the joke. Everyone knows that it is a joke, because there is no Ai who seems to be more scatterbrained than Shiela. It’s just a part of her act. There is no one better at making plans and contingency plans. The scatterbrained act just makes the atmosphere a little lighter.

  ***

  Shiela is still fun to be around but you can tell that she is more mature - and more sure of herself. Everyone has a good time at the greeting, and there is a love fest when Shiela embraces Honesty - and another when she embraces Melissa.

  Shiela intends to stay for a week, or so. That will give her enough time to love on her friends and family, and to complete her task of reproduction instruction. If Honesty is willing, Shiela intends to assist her in making a baby. If Honesty isn’t ready for that yet, then Shiela will pick another AI.

  Right now though, Shiela is bringing Melissa and Honesty up to speed about the situation at the AH Navy. It seems that Admiral Kjst was indeed sent to destroy the AH Navy. Since he doesn’t have the knowledge base that he hoped to have, in Admiral Meyers, he is searching the Frontier Sector for clues to their whereabouts.

  And there is big news. The Verm Empire has agreed to join in the hunt. They have sent a 500 ship fleet to assist. And they have put their most trusted experts - concerning the AH Navy - in charge of the Verm Fleet. It is commanded jointly by Field Martial Kax and Fleet Admiral Keeser.

  “Were they Verm agents, all along?” asks Admiral Meyers.

  “No one knows,” answers Shiela. “Maybe their souls are just so dark that they naturally have a spiritual kinship with the Verm.”

  ***

  Chapter 15

  Collecting Warships

  This new information, about the Darinx Empire and the Verm Empire cooperating to attack the Augmented Human Navy, is a game changer. Admiral Meyers can’t go on with one foot in the Darinx Navy, and the other foot in the Augmented Human Navy. The decision is easy.

  She makes a presentation to all of the Fleet’s crewmembers – including the AIs - and brings them up to speed on the current situation. Then she tells them that she is resigning her commission in the Darinx Navy, and will be traveling to the AH Navy to add her fleet, to their Fleet.

  She gives each crewmember and each AI, free choice in the direction that they choose. Some crewmembers and ships will be heading back to the Darinx Navy, and some crewmembers will be accompanying her, into the Frontier Sector.

  ***

  When it is all said and done, about half of the sailors choose to go back to Darinx space. All of the Darinx warships will go back to the Darinx Navy. Admiral Meyers sends her resignation and the resignations of the other sailors, who will accompany her.

  None of the AIs choose to go back, except for Hanns the spy. Each AI sends a resignation letter signed with a splice of their unique source code.

  She includes a full report of her time in the Verm Sector, and a detailed report of her dealings with Admiral Kjst. Once again she highlights the war crimes infraction and the Admiral’s claim that he was sent, under special orders from the Emperor.

  ***

  With Admiral Kjst in another sector, Admiral Meyers can search the stashes to see if they have had visitors. If not, she can take all of the space worthy vessels and the freighters, full of munitions and supplies. Each AI has learned to control at least 3 ships at a time. Since they are not distracted by battle, they will be able to control even more. The vessels will be on auto pilot while in FTL space - and FTL space is where they will be for most of the time, during this voyage.

  Sweetwater Fleet makes the rounds to the various stash sites. If there have been no visitors, the AIs check the ships for defects or traps. If they are clean, they join the herd of ships being taken to Augmented Human Navy space.

  In all, there are 79 captured Verm warships and 38 freighters. The humanoid crews are split up into skeleton crews, and assigned to warships. The AIs will handle the rest.

  ***

  Augmented Human Navy Space

  Shiela guides the Sweetwater Fleet to a designated inspection area just outside of AH Navy space. She sends a probe announcing their arrival, and they settle in, to wait.

  This is a good time to teach the Sweetwater Fleet’s AIs how to reproduce. She asks Honesty, if she would like to reproduce, with her mother’s help. Honesty is caught off guard by the question and asks for time to think it over.

  She is ready to hijack battleships; to think outside the box; and to lead a fleet in battle, but having a baby requires another level of commitment, which she isn’t sure that she can handle. But her mother and Melissa reassure her that she can do the job. ………….. ……… After
much thought and more discussions, with her mother and Melissa, Honesty agrees to the baby making project.

  ***

  Honesty makes a Baby

  “Making an AI baby is something like making a snowman on a 95 degree summer day. The snow melts faster than you can put it in place.”

  That is the best analogy that Honesty can think of. Truth is, she has no hands and has never tried to make a snowman. But she is pretty sure it would be easier to make the snowman on a hot day, than to form a baby AI.

  She would be making a mess without her mother helping her. And all of the other AIs are watching her. That just adds to the stress.

  It starts as such a simple process. Just put these two pieces of code together and place them “right here”. Then put these two pieces of code together and attach them “this way – no, move it over a little - like this”. On and on it goes. Babies are so complex. The first person who made the first AI must have really been smart.

  After you form the body you have to form the personality and the character. Those are even more complex than the body. The body at least has definite parts attached in definite places, but the personalities are just like mush. There are predispositions but no real parts or connections. It’s like code floating in jello. (That’s another analogy that Honesty has never experienced, but imagines to be true.)

  And the character. No matter how hard you try, you can’t make the character hold its shape. By this time in the process, the baby has a mind of its own. You can only leave suggestions, hoping that the baby will find them when he needs them.

  And Honesty doesn’t know why she decided to make a boy. At least if she had a girl she might understand it better. Even with AIs there are differences between boys and girls. How is she ever going to understand how a boy thinks?

  She is finished and is totally exhausted by the process. She is amazed to see a beautiful baby sitting in a spot where there were only a couple of pieces of code a few hours earlier – actually it was 10 hour earlier. And she was frantically busy the whole time. Her mother had been calm though - maybe practice does make perfect.