The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #1, Inception

by Andrew Beery

"Quick, fire the maneuvering thrusters... Put us into as fast a spin as you can... We can't out run them, but perhaps we can spread enough of their blast around that our meteor shielding can protect us."

  At about the same time the AI engaged the thrusters, the first alien craft fired. Fortunately it was nowhere near the 250 mega joule blast that had disabled her engines... But it was enough. Had she not been spinning, the shot would had breached her hull somewhere near environmental.

  Cat struggled to hold her seat as the Arizona spun wildly in her attempt to dissipate the energies being fired at her by the other craft. Suddenly the emergency klaxons, that had started the moment the ship had begun taking fire, ceased.

  Ben automatically fired reverse thrusters to stop the rotation.

  "What happened? Why did they stop firing at us?"

  The AI responded "The second ship intervened... Analysis would seem to indicate it instantaneously trans-located to a position just in front of the attacking ship and physically collided with it. The first ship has been destroyed. The second ship is in a rapidly decaying orbit... It does not seem to be under power."

  They sacrificed themselves to save us Cat mused. "Ben, do we have enough chemical thruster left to maneuver under them and push them into a stable orbit?"

  "Unknown. That calculation would require knowledge of their mass."

  "Get us in position... Speculate if their craft masses similar to ours for a given size... Will we have enough fuel?"

  "Within the parameters specified there is a 19% chance we will have enough fuel."

  "19% it is... As fast as you can maneuver us into position... Attempt to improve their orbit"

  The deck shook wildly as the two craft touched. Acceleration became negligible and so Cat began to float away from the flooring deck.

  "Ben, report! Are making a difference?"

  "Affirmative commander. The alien craft seems to be 43% the anticipated mass. There is now a 72% chance we will have sufficient fuel for their vessel to achieve a stable orbit."

  "Wonderful... What about us?"

  "The Arizona is considerably heaver that the alien vessel. We will not achieve a stable orbit. Calculations indicate we will impact near Olympus Mons in 36 minutes."

  Cat listened to Ben's cold and analytical assessment of their pending demise. In some ways, she envied his detachment. But Death was not an option she was willing to entertain.

  "If we ejected the LFTR power cores and VASIMR drive unit would our mass be sufficiently reduced to achieve orbit?"

  "Yes, however, the nanite mesh that repaired the port reserve tank failed during the engagement with the aggressive alien. Fuel reserves are now at 43%. There is no longer sufficient fuel to both save the remaining alien and this vessel."

  "Nuts..." Cat said under her breath. "Ben, new orders. Continuously calculate the orbital status of the vessel we are assisting. The moment it is in a likely stable orbit disengage thrust and attempt a controlled reentry into Mars. Eject the cores and main drive now."

  "Orders accepted. Please note the Arizona in its current configuration is not aerodynamic."

  "That's OK... We are not going to glide. I want you to time our reentry so we gently kiss the trailing slope of Olympus Mons... With any luck, we can dissipate our excess reentry energy in a controlled slide down the slope of Mons."

  "Shall I calculate the odds of success?"

  "Absolutely Not!"

  ***

  Yarin's consciousness came back online at 4352. It noted eye stalk seven was missing and instructed construction nanites to replace it at the earliest opportunity. To be honest, Yarin was amazed it was still alive. The collision with the D'lralu had resulted in massive system failures. It was unlikely the repair systems within its craft would have sufficient time to effect repairs prior to impact with the planet they were orbiting.

  Once the Heshe's external sensors and their associated system log came online Yarin had its answer. The human had sacrificed herself to save the Heshe!

  Remarkable. Yarin could not remember a time in recent memory when a non-Heshe had saved a Heshe's life... Certainly not while forfeiting the creator’s gift of one's own life. For all practical purposes, this forced Yarin's hand. For the first time in dozens of millennia, a Heshe would repay a life debt!

  ***

  "Ben... Give me all you have on reverse thrusters... We're about to hit, and we are coming in way too hot."

  "I'm sorry commander. Fuel reserves are depleted. Impact in 2.4 seconds"

  "It's been an honor Ben..." Cat began. Before she could finish, the ESX Arizona impacted with the north wall of Olympus Mons at six hundred and forty three miles per hour. It was December 7th, 2067. It would be the first time Lt. Commander Catherine Kimbridge would die... But certainly not the last.

  Chapter Two - The Awaking...

  Hesitant eyes opened. Light filtered in... 'In where' was the question. The room was stark white and sterile. It could be a hospital but for the fact that nothing was right. The walls were too short, and the light seemed to emanate from everywhere. The air, while fresh was... 'Wrong'.

  Sitting up on an oddly warm metal table she looked down at her hands... She was a 'she'. She knew that... But precious little else. Who was she? Why was she here? Why didn't she remember anything? She had a feeling she should but her existence prior to this room seemed just out of reach.

  She was alone and yet she was not... There seemed to be another within her. It was confusing.

  ***

  The Yarin Prime construct watched the human construct awaken. The human, this construct had been based on, had been irreparably damaged fifty three of her years ago. Yarin Prime's progenitor had created a Yarin Prime construct in order to fulfill a life debt. It had taken Yarin Prime two Earth years to create a new shell for this human and the balance of the time to learn how to exactly transfer her progenitor's intellect. An exact synapse by synapse parallel was created, and the electrochemical potentials between those synapses duplicated exactly between the broken body in stasis and this new and improved doppelgänger.

  Her new body was infused with both repair and construction nanites that would continuously analyze her environment and adjust her physiology accordingly. All that remained was to transfer her previous memories into her new synaptic matrix.

  ***

  With a sudden realization, Catherine Kimbridge felt her memories rushing back like a floodgate opened. The feeling was overpowering, and she shuddered. She had been in a crash. She remembered most of her lower torso being crushed and the brief but intense fire that had rushed through the ravaged bridge of the Arizona. Why was she alive? Looking down at her legs she saw no sign of any injury... Nor did she see any sign of clothing. With a sudden start, she realized she was naked.

  A slight movement of air which raised the soft hairs on her arms was the first indication that she was not alone. Turning quickly, while using her arms to cover her exposed privates, she was startled to see what looked to be some type of land-based cephalopod with eight ridged legs and matching eyestalks. The legs appeared capable of working both for locomotion and manipulation. One of them held what appeared to be a soft white ball.

  "Greetings beloved of the creator"

  "Where am I?"

  The ball undulated colors wildly. Just as quickly the alien's entire body began to shift colors in an equally wild pattern. The ball in turn... spoke.

  "You are here."

  "Not especially helpful... Wait! You speak English?" Cat gasped in an utterly astonished voice.

  "Technically this is not correct. My race, the Heshe, do not have a spoken language. We can perceive sounds, but we have no apparatus to produce complex sounds."

  "So you can understand me, but you need to use that glowing ball in order to answer."

  "Again, technically not correct. My brain is, in your parlance, wired to perceive complex color patterns and process them for communication. While I perceive sounds, my ability to interpret them in any meaningful sense i
s quite limited. That said, my technology is able to bridge the communication gap my biology cannot."

  Cat watched the incredible light display played out between the Heshe, as it called itself, and the glowing ball that it carried. Suddenly she remembered that she was naked.

  "I seem to be missing my clothes"

  "Yes, regrettably your synthetic coverings were destroyed with your previous body."

  Cat blinked as she digested that comment. "I promise you... I'm going to want to come back to that one... In the meantime... Is there anything we can do about getting me some clothes?"

  The alien moved forward with astonishing speed and touched the glowing ball to Cat's skin. As Cat backed away in alarm, the ball quickly dissolved into her arm where it had touched. "What the hell!"

  "My apologies. It was necessary for me to manually program your encounter unit. It has been incorporated into your nanite systems... You will now be able to understand me directly"

  "How is this possible?" Cat asked. "I see your color flashes, but I'm hearing you as if you are speaking."

  "If you will follow me, I will show you to your quarters where artificial coverings are available. On the way, I will attempt to explain the events that have occurred since your death."

  "Now see... There you go again" Cat said with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "I most certainly don't feel dead."

  "I should hope not" the Heshe named Yarin Prime responded.

  ***

  Lt. Commander Catherine Kimbridge straightened her dress uniform. Technically it was a replica of her uniform created by her alien benefactor, a member of an octopedal race called the Heshe. Sometime over the last nine months she had taken to calling the alien "Cal" (short for Calamari) because it resembled a large 'land-walking' octopus.

  When Cat had first woken up in the alien's medical bay she had no idea who she was. Over the intervening months, she had fully recovered her memories and so much more.

  Cal was a nanite enhanced clone of a Heshe that the original Catherine Kimbridge had saved from certain death. That Heshe, along with the rest of its entire race, had fled this galaxy for reasons not fully shared with Cat.

  In her effort to save the alien Cat had lost her own life. Fortunately, for the highly advanced technology of the Heshe, the definition of death had become a somewhat nebulous term. In saving the life of a Heshe, at the cost of her own, the Heshe in question had become honor bound to repay the "Life debt" whatever the cost.

  Cat's body had been recreated and her memories fully transferred to her new shell. Every appreciable nuance of her intellect, including how her mind would evolve over time, had been painstakingly duplicated by her benefactor. In order to accommodate unknown variables and because the Heshe had never fully examined a fully functional human being, the decision was made to augment Cat's organic systems with a fully functional set of Heshe repair and construction nanites. These would allow her body to adapt to virtually any environment she found herself in.

  Because the Heshe had never attempted a human project of this magnitude the process took well in excess of fifty years. For the essentially immortal Heshe this timescale was a trivial matter. For Catherine Kimbridge, it was a real concern and a significant factor in her current unease.

  She had spent the last three quarters of a year in a hidden Heshe facility on Mars learning from her Heshe instructor how to fully control her nanite systems. In addition, she had spent as much of her time as possible reviewing the major events of the last fifty four years of human history. Today was the day she would reemerge into human society and she had no idea how that society would welcome her.

  She had been startled when Cal had said that the Heshe would be leaving soon and that it was time for her to return to her people. She had assumed that the alien would be with her when she returned to humanity. Absent Cal, and the instant creditably the Heshe's presence would represent, she was not altogether sure how believable her incredible tale would be.

  ***

  Ricky Valen rubbed the stubble of his three day beard. He looked at the calm and seemingly sincere woman sitting in the rear compartment of his quarry shuttle. The last thing he had expected when he started drilling for rare earth metals today was to hit a buried chamber with a human occupant.

  "Mars II, this is Prospector 49. Request permission to dock at first available gate. Over"

  "49, you are cleared for gate 3. Do you have any cargo to declare?"

  "You might say that. We have one passenger"

  "Roger that, 49, one passenger. What nationality?"

  "Deimos base, your guess is as good as mine. She claims she's Catherine Kimbridge, THE Catherine Kimbridge... As in the 'Lt. Commander' variety"

  "49, you know the penalty for drinking when flying"

  "Trust me Deimos base... You're going to want to share that drink when you see who this is."

  ***

  Rigel Kentaurus, a ternary star system roughly four light-years from Sol was the host to over a dozen large planetary masses. Only three of these masses contained the right conditions for life. The D'lralu named Third of Nine scanned each of the three for signs of intelligent competing life forms.

  Two had proto-viruses and primitive single-celled microbes. One was totally barren. None were the source of the radio transmissions detected by the D'lralu home defense network. The warrior scout would continue his search and destroy mission in the next star system... A yellow midlife star some 4.2 light years away. He began the calculations. It would take his massive onboard computers less than two weeks to make the necessary computations.

  ***

  "Enough... You have poked me and prodded me for two weeks. I have answered every question you have asked. I've taken more written tests in the last two weeks than during my entire doctorate program at Notre Dame!" Catherine Kimbridge was not a happy camper. She was dressed in the plain coveralls United Space Command had insisted she wear when they confiscated her United States Air Force uniform.

  Admiral Faragon steepled his hands. "Lady, I don't know who or even what you are but you most certainly are not who you say you are... Lt. Commander Catherine Kimbridge has been dead since I was a ten year old boy. I went to a high school named after her. She published exactly two papers in her brief career and they are still considered seminal works in hyper-field dynamics. You are most certainly not her... So just answer my questions honestly and we can all go home!"

  "Admiral, what can I say to convince you I am who I say?"

  "Frankly dear, not a damn thing"

  "Then Admiral, why am I even here?" Cat stood up and leaned over the table to face down a man for whom she was rapidly losing respect and patience. Her face was red with barely controlled rage.

  Admiral Faragon simply said dryly, "Sit down Lt. Commander."

  "Lt. Commander? In two weeks that's the first time you have acknowledged my previous rank."

  The Admiral looked at one of the recording cameras positioned in the corners of the interview room. She swore she saw him briefly smile as he said "Bring it in."

  Before Cat could ask what 'it' was, the solitary door to their room opened and a familiar looking man who seemed to be a forty year old version of Dr. Robert Kimbridge -her father- entered the room. Only after taking a close look at him did Cat realize this was a robotic android and not an actual human being. The level of detail and the sophistication on the animatronics was outstanding... if somewhat disturbing.

  "Lt. Catherine Kimbridge, allow me to introduce your father... Or rather what is left of him."

  "Hello Cat" the mechanism said. "I am Bob." Seeing her eyebrows rise and her lips twitch the robot anticipated her question and added "The essence of your father’s memories have been placed in this shell."

  "I don't understand. You're my father? You are able to transfer your consciousness into an AI now?"

  "Regrettably no" Bob responded. "I am at best a crude simulation of your father. I have a significant portion of his memories and handcrafted logic algori
thms that act on that data to provide a rough approximation of the response the real Robert Kimbridge would have made. Like any AI we can currently construct I lack the ability to fully intuit creative solutions. This is where I think you and I differ."

  Cat looked confused. "Why go to all the effort? If a total transfer was not possible then what was the reason for making what is at best a personality emulator?"

  Bob answered quite simply... "You… A chance for your father to say goodbye to you… He could never, in his heart, accept that you were gone."

  The Admiral leaned forward and put his elbows on the small round table that separated the three of them. "Your father, Robert Kimbridge and his team were working on a very important project when he suffer a massive heart attack..."