The Darkness: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 2)

by William S Frisbee Jr

  "How's it going meat sack?" Musashi transmitted.

  "Doing fine metal head," Luke replied, his response to Musashi coming more quickly than before.

  "It may take time to adjust," the technician said. "All upgrades have a power setting so you can scale them down if desired. I would recommend that you work with Falla Shum to understand these upgrades."

  "I will," Luke said wondering if this was another reason Topa Suresh had put Shum on his crew. "Thank you."

  "Another thing," Tal Starnis said. "One reason it took three Topa to authorize you and your situation is because they also gave you the authority to allow access of these upgrades to others. You may set the permissions of your Shoka-ta and their upgrades beyond your basic human authorized systems. You may allow them to different channels and features. Please be cautious with this as their treason will be your treason."

  "I understand," Luke said. It was the standard understanding with the Shoka-ta. They derived their authority and legal status from their Shoka leader. If they screwed up, it would be Luke's fault.

  "We can begin the upgrade of the rest of your team," the technician said. "Please review the options and let us know if there are any settings you do not wish the others to have."

  A list appeared in Luke's view, with details of the different features and capabilities. Luke was glad he was sitting down. These 'upgrades' were light years beyond what he had been using for the last forty years. Like the version 2.0 InnerBuddy it had many organic and biomechanical components but everything was much more efficient and capable. Luke wasn't sure what some of it was. It was like going from version 1.0 then to version 2.0 and then to version 94.0.

  "I will allow my companions to have access to all features," Luke said. "I can . . . ."

  The second he thought about disabling them the parameters came up on how to disable features and functions on his subordinates.

  "Wow," Luke said.

  Tal Starnis nodded.

  "Seeing the specifications of your previous systems I'm surprised you have accomplished what you did," Tal Starnis said.

  Luke smiled.

  "One other thing," Tal Starnis said as he stared at Luke.

  "The Falla has had many of his features disabled," Tal Starnis said. "I understand he is yours to do with as you wish. Topa Suresh said it is your choice now to enable those features."

  "Thank you," Luke said. "I will review my options."

  "So?" Leonessa said coming in and Luke smiled at her. She smiled back.

  "So far, it is awesome," Luke said in English. He switched to High Pral, which was not a language available to InnerBuddies. "You are absolutely beautiful when you smile."

  "Pardon?" Leonessa said but Luke could see she wasn't worried.

  "I can now switch between different languages, I just spoke in High Pral," Luke said, suddenly relieved that she didn't speak it.

  "I'm allowing the full package," Luke said. "More data channels, better range, language integration and I'm still learning what it is capable of. I might scale it back but everyone with me is someone I trust with my life."

  Luke felt sure his team would help him to learn to use the systems more effectively as well if they were learning.

  "Thank you," Leonessa said. "I'm looking forward to it now."

  Luke nodded as the technician directed her to lie down in the bed and submerge her head in a clear syrupy liquid, leaving only her nose and mouth.

  "Ugh," Leonessa said. "I hope this comes out of my hair."

  Luke smiled, she couldn't hear him. He grasped her hand to let her know he was here, and she squeezed back. He saw a tension in her shoulders ease. She was more comfortable, or the sedative was taking effect. Then her hand went limp.

  "She is asleep now Shoka," the technician said. "It will take a few hours. Your other team members are already in other room. You can wait wherever you like."

  Luke stared at Leonessa, lying on the table asleep, her head submerged in the goo composed of billions of microscopic robots.

  "I will wait here if that is okay," Luke said, not letting go of her hand, her trust in him felt good.

  Tal Starnis nodded. "If you have questions please send me a link request and I will be happy to assist."

  "What do you know about the empires in the dark?" Luke asked. Data scrolled across his vision, with links to specific data. There didn't seem to be much.

  "You should have access to what the standard Conglomerate Military knows about them. That is all I know about those sentients that live in the dark. They avoid the Conglomerate, they do not trade with us as they do not wish to submit to Conglomerate trade restrictions. Occasionally we find license thieves and they are dealt with violently, but generally we ignore each other. Militarily they are not a threat."

  Luke nodded looking at Leonessa. She looked peaceful and her mouth was in a partial smile. Luke wondered if she smiled in her sleep.

  "Do you know their worlds? Their bases? The strength of their empires?" Luke asked.

  "Why would we want to know?" Tal Starnis asked. "They ignore us and we ignore them."

  Luke nodded. Typical Conglomerate mentality. Minimal curiosity about the outside world.

  "There is a great deal of resonance between you and your soulmate, you are powerful together," Tal Starnis said.

  Luke stared at Tal Starnis who was speaking high Pral. Soma was the word for soulmate in an ancient linguistic form of Pral?

  "What do you mean?" Luke asked.

  Tal Starnis looked at Luke and was silent for several seconds.

  "Together you provide an energy and clarity to each other," the Tal said. "Your strengths and weaknesses complement each other. There are fewer trust issues and you expand each other's awareness of the world around you."

  "Thank you," Luke said and Tal Starnis nodded.

  "I have work I must do," Tal Starnis said. "If you have questions please ask."

  "Thank you," Luke said as Tal Starnis bowed and left.

  The Chaska technician brought him a chair to sit in while he held Leonessa's hand. Luke wasn't bored though as he cycled through his menus. Everything was fast and seemed to work on an almost subconscious level, presenting data before he had even formulated the request. These new implants were light years ahead of the older ones. They were a closely guarded Pral technology that had the potential to cause races to degenerate into self-centered isolationists. Luke suspected humans might be one of these races if it was not controlled. With those thoughts several Pral studies, were presented and indicated this might be the case. Luke skimmed through the studies, surprised at how quickly they had been retrieved based on a mere curious thought. It was also surprising for Luke that there had been specific studies.

  For hours Luke poured through the data streams, learning and improving his understanding of the Conglomerate, with many of the reports only available for rank kran and above, more than a few of them commissioned and conducted by Topa Suresh.

  The Conglomerate was in trouble. It was stagnated and dying. There wasn't enough change, or any challenges. People were becoming self absorbed and uninterested in anything other than meaningless distractions. There were countless Pral, Chaska, Brazat and Caleet studies on the topic. Some races like the Bronkaw, Humans, Caleet and Fasak were thought to be the infusion of 'different' that was needed to break this cycle of social lethargy and stagnation but most of the studies were not optimistic.

  Finally, the slime that had covered Leonessa's head pulled back, and she opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling. The technician pulled back the nanites, and the bed tilted so she could sit up.

  "Wow," Leonessa said, her eyes wide but not seeing the surrounding room. Luke smiled.

  "And you are very handsome," Leonessa said in High Pral when she turned to look at Luke.

  Luke tried not to blush but wasn't so sure he succeeded. Maybe one day he would remember that people had memory buffers they could replay. Luke muttered a thank you as he looked away.

  "The others
are waking," the Chaska technician said.

  "Lieutenant Commander Ferraro," the Chaska technician asked. "Do you understand me?" the technician asked in Chaskan.

  Leonessa's eyes lit up and Luke knew she was realizing she understood him.

  "Yes, your concern is appreciated," Leonessa said in Chaskan.

  The technician smiled.

  "Integration seems good," the technician said. "Do you see any additional channels on your data access?"

  "Yes," Leonessa said. "Wow, this is a lot of information."

  "You will adjust," the technician said. "There are volumes you can turn down if the data becomes overwhelming. Your new neurosystem will identify any distress and scale back but you can also scale it back."

  "Thank you," Leonessa said and smiled at the Chaskan.

  "My pleasure," he said. "If there is anymore that I can do please let me know."

  "Thank you," Leonessa said and squeezed Luke's hand as the Chaskan left.

  "This will take getting used to!" Leonessa said. "Almost like getting those Conglomerate upgrades aboard the Ultio. Wow!"

  Luke smiled.

  "We should get back to the Proud Infidel," Luke said. "Maybe get some others over here. I would like Bruce to get the upgrades, along with his people."

  Luke and Leonessa walked out, almost forgetting to let go of each other's hands before the others saw them.

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  Escort to Bronkaw Prime

  "Why won't you allow Commander Pavalis and myself to get the upgrades," Morals asked, trying hard to control his anger.

  "We are members of this crew," the intelligence agent said almost getting in Luke's face.

  "No," Luke said. "You are observers and I don't trust you."

  "That's absurd!" Morals said as Pavalis stood by quietly. "We are humans!"

  "Did I give you permission to go aboard Dazi-Sakalli station armed?" Luke asked.

  Morals closed his mouth and stared at Luke.

  "I have a right to defend myself," Morals said.

  "I agree," Luke said. "I have a right not to trust you or accept you as crew."

  Morals crossed his arms and looked at Luke.

  "Look Commander," Morals said, calming down and trying a different approach. "I am a trained intelligence specialist. If I could speak to aliens fluently, to understand their body language that would help me to help you. We are deep inside Conglomerate space, probably the only humans for hundreds of light years. We need to stick together because we share the same goals and we all fight for the common good of humanity. You said yourself you can enable and disable features if I abuse anything then you disable the feature."

  "Maybe later," Luke said, not wanting to argue. "I have given the order to break orbit and depart for Bronkaw Prime. We will have a Conglomerate Military vessel as escort."

  Luke could see the tension in Morals' face as he looked at Luke, debating whether he should continue arguing, or how he could punish Luke. Luke could almost see the calculations going on in Morals' eyes, weighing different responses.

  Holding his ground Luke waited for Morals' next move.

  "Very well Commander," Morals said. "You are the senior military officer on this expedition and I respect your judgment. You have more experience in these matters and I will strive to gain your trust if that is what it takes."

  Luke's skin crawled. Morals was hiding something and wasn't truthful in at least one of his statements.

  "Thank you, Commodore," Luke said and turned to head up to the CIC.

  "Can we get underway yet?" Luke transmitted via link to Bruce.

  "I was just waiting for the word," Bruce said, somehow conveying amusement in his transmission, which wasn't possible before. "We are breaking orbit now. I wasn't sure if the Commodore could get his tongue far enough up your ass to get his way."

  "He tried," Luke said. "I don't trust him."

  "He is Jupiter Alliance Intelligence," Bruce said. "Tenacious, ruthless and fanatical. He would sleep with you if that would get him what he wanted but trust is not part of his vocabulary."

  "I don't doubt," Luke said. "Let's change the subject. How are your upgrades?"

  "Sweet. It is like my neural net is psychic," Bruce said. "The information is retrieved before I finish asking for it. Almost like it is reading my mind. The old InnerBuddy was good, but this one makes that old seem slow and clunky. Just a thought, but do you think the Topa could use it to spy on. . . never mind. The system is fast, and it looks like the Topa are paranoid about external control of their InnerBuddies."

  Luke finished Bruce's thought about other's using their new InnerBuddies to spy on them, but several diagrams and security features were presented at his request. Everything was compartmentalized and it would violate Pral ethics to do so. They were the original designers and were paranoid about security and privacy. A list of several Pral treatises on the importance of privacy were available. Enough information to choke a horse. Of course, it could just be a clever deception but Luke didn't feel that was the case.

  When he met with the Bronkaw leader, he would need every advantage he could get.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  New Droids

  "Is this how you got your first droid?" Leonessa asked Luke as they walked down to the Proud Infidel's port side cargo hold.

  Luke looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

  "The Topa just gave it to you? No conditions, no questions, just a gift?" Leonessa asked.

  "Yes," Luke said. "It wasn't just a gift though. The droid became a companion, a friend and an assistant."

  "Who was your first?"

  "I called him Alfred," Luke said with a smile. "A good person. He was with me for about seven years. We were protecting a diplomat and when we got attacked, he was one casualty. After that I got my light cruiser and then I got Nelson, but Gray and Alfred were my first droids. Musashi came after Nelson by a few years. I was planning on building a fleet. Even then I was planning on finding a way back to Earth and smashing the Caliphate flat."

  "Alfred?" Leonessa asked. "What kind of name is that?"

  Luke chuckled. "He was a super hero's butler in a popular TV show. Rich man turned high-tech crime fighter named Gold Watch. He would always tell bad guys their time is up and it is time to pay for their crimes."

  "Gold Watch?" she asked.

  "Check the archives and watch a movie. I think there were about twenty different movies. The series went downhill when they cast Gold Watch role as a Muslim and his arch rival was a Christian fundamentalist, well, I lost interest in the franchise. The Gold Watch I grew up with didn't carry a scimitar and run around cutting the heads off anti-Islamic infidels."

  "Alfred is some kind of super hero sidekick?" she asked.

  "Alfred was his butler," Luke said.

  "Oh," Leonessa said. Luke suspected she was busy trying to pull up information in the Proud Infidel's archives.

  She was silent as they walked down the corridor.

  "What is the protocol?" she asked. "How does this work?"

  The door slid open as they entered the cargo bay. It was still chilly and there were ten cylinder shaped shipping containers standing up against the walls. There were Chaska markings on the side indicating the contents. One of them said "Lt. Cdr L. Ferraro" in English. Others said "Cdr L. Kishi"

  Luke paused and looked at them.

  "Clean slates," Luke breathed, Leonessa could barely hear him. "Innocent, peaceful, without a care in the world. To be named and given a purpose in life. To be introduced into this cruel world."

  "You can't know happiness without knowing sadness," Leonessa said and met Luke's glance toward her.

  Luke remembered that Elena had said that.

  "The process is simple," Luke said looking back at the cylinders. "When you open the case, you will be presented with a basic model. Humanoid in basic form. It will open its eyes and then ask you several questions. I believe one of the most important questions is to give it a name. This name will h
elp the droid form a personality, especially if that personality coincides with the droid's focus."

  "Focus?" Leonessa asked.

  "In most cases the focus will be 'General Assistant' and that covers a lot of ground, giving the droid a great deal of flexibility. However," Luke said. "You can assign a different life focus. For instance, Nelson's focus was starship command and star fleet operations, Gray's was to be my Marine commander, Musashi's focus is warrior trainer and body guard."

  Leonessa nodded, staring at Luke.

  "The name also helps the droid adjust because it gives them someone to learn about and perhaps emulate," Luke said. "Gray, for instance, is very focused on maneuver warfare instead of attrition warfare, he would rather destroy the enemy's will and ability to fight instead of grind the foe to dust with superior numbers. He is also a quintessential Marine's Marine. Horatio Nelson was an inspiring leader and had a great grasp on strategy and unconventional tactics."

  "If you like you can watch me," Luke said. "I've done this over a hundred times."

  Leonessa nodded and Luke walked up to the first one and placed his palm on a red box in front of the case.

  The sides folded away revealing a dull gray droid standing on a platform, arms to the side, almost at the position of attention. The eyes opened and focused on Luke.

  "Commander Kishi confirmed," the droid said. "Please state the name I am to use."

  "William Halsey," Luke said.

  "I am identified as William Halsey. Thank you," Halsey said. "What are to be my primary tasks?"

  "Command and control of ship and fleet, under my command," Luke said.

  "I will command and control your ship and fleet," Halsey said. "Thank you. Should I take a specific appearance and physical form?"

  "Blue color skin, current form is acceptable," Luke said.

  "Skin color will change to blue. Is there anyone I should report to?" Halsey asked.

  "Colonel Al Gray," Luke said. "The commander of my Marines will be your immediate adviser and guide. He will be your counterpart."