The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  “There’s no need to be afraid,” Alexandra said. “This is just an image. This was the Captain of the frigate.”

  “That was an Elder?” Sarah asked once the image disappeared.

  “Yes, as I said, that was the Captain of my ship,” Alexandra answered.

  “I have seen one before,” Sarah thought.

  “I know,” Alexandra responded. “I have full access to your memories.”

  “Then you can tell me what happened that day? Why was there an Elder beside the man who killed that woman? Was that woman my mother? What happened to her? Why was she killed?” Sarah demanded, the realization she might finally be able to get answers pressing her on.

  “I have access to your memories just as you do,” Alexandra answered. “But I know nothing more about them. Only you can answer those questions.”

  Frustration welled up inside Sarah. Every morning after her nightmare she asked herself those same questions, why could she never find any answers?

  “I have been designed to assist in flying this warship,” Alexandra responded. “I have no specific expertise in counselling. I’m afraid I cannot help you. If you wish to discuss my frigate then our conversation may prove more fruitful.”

  “Okay, okay,” Sarah thought as she tried to focus on the here and now. “Tell me this, why did we beat you so easily. How could an Elder frigate be beaten by a pirate ship?”

  “I wouldn’t say that I was beaten,” Alexandra answered, sounding almost insulted. “My sensors tell me your ship is disabled. At worst our battle was a draw.”

  “All right then,” Sarah said, realizing she didn’t want to upset the artificial intelligence, as strange as that sounded to her. “Then how come our battle ended in a draw? Surely your ship should have destroyed ours easily.”

  “That is what my Captain thought,” Alexandra answered. “Yet we were surprised. Your ship was far more maneuverable than we expected and the x-ray laser beams you hit us with disorientated my Captain. Then the ECM of the missiles your ship fired at us was more powerful than any missile a Lesser ship should have. The missiles were also able to carry out much more intricate evasive maneuvers. The missile that struck my hull hit us before I was able to analyze and adapt to our new situation.”

  “But you are an Elder ship, surely you should have been able to blow us out of space almost instantly? Why didn’t your energy screen give you more protection?” Sarah followed up, not quite sure she believed what Alexandra was saying.

  “That is what my programming suggests,” Alexandra replied. “Perhaps if our energy screen hadn’t failed when I tried to activate it things may have been different. It seems some of my crew didn’t carry out the maintenance checks they were supposed to. Yet even then, I do not know. Since the battle, I have searched my memory banks. Though I carry only a limited history of the Elders, in the sixteen sectors I have been designed to operate in there has never been a direct confrontation between an Elder ship and a Lesser ship.”

  “So you Elder ships aren’t really as powerful as everyone has been led to believe?” Sarah asked as the ramifications of that sunk in.

  “Perhaps,” Alexandra answered. “Though more data is needed to come to such a conclusion. Having analyzed the capabilities of your ship and your weapons, I believe a second battle would prove far more favorable for me.”

  “So you underestimated us?” Sarah thought

  “That was a contributing factor,” Alexandra explained. “Your ship was handled better than we expected and was better equipped. Those factors helped, though my analysis suggests surprise was the decisive factor in the battle ending in a draw. Neither my Captain nor the rest of the crew performed optimally. In fact, their actions were far below the standards Elder battle doctrine calls for.”

  “If they have never fought in a battle before, it’s hardly surprising,” Sarah thought. “So what do we do now? I know you are damaged, but how serious is it?”

  “Most of the damage is superficial,” Alexandra answered. “I have already repaired forty percent of the damage your missile inflicted. Most of the repairs focused on reconstructing key components and energy transfer systems. My reactors, sensors, weapons, engines and FTL capabilities are fully functional.”

  “If you are basically functional, then why didn’t you stop yourself from spinning through space?” Sarah said.

  “Without a Captain to give orders, I had no reason to,” Alexandra explained.

  “Then stop yourself now,” Sarah thought.

  “Done,” Alexandra responded.

  For a moment Sarah didn’t respond. The whole situation seemed so surreal. Did I just give an order to an Elder ship through an artificial intelligence? She asked herself.

  For once Alexandra didn’t respond to her thoughts. “What about the rest of the damage?” Sarah asked after taking a moment to compose herself. “Can you repair it as well?”

  “Not at the moment. Repairs require matter to be converted by my nanites into new systems and hull plating,” Alexandra said. “I have used up all the spare heavy metals I was carrying before the battle. To complete the repairs, new matter will have to be deposited into my material processors.”

  Again, Sarah felt bewildered by Alexander’s answer. She felt like she didn’t understand half of what the artificial intelligence was saying. “What are nanites?” she asked.

  “They are microscopic machines,” Alexandra explained. “They can manipulate matter and form new atomic structures and therefore new materials and constructions that can be used to repair my ship.”

  “Is that what was happening when I saw your hull re-growing when we entered?” Sarah followed up.

  “Growing is a useful metaphor,” Alexandra said. “Just as your body takes in food and processes it, turning it into new chemicals and molecules. The nanites that inhabit my structure can reform physical materials into new materials as required.”

  “Amazing,” Sarah thought. “Is that how you were built?”

  “Yes,” Alexandra answered.

  “Unbelievable,” Sarah thought. “No wonder the Elders are feared. Their technology is way beyond anything any other species has.”

  “That has been part of my mission for the last two hundred standard years,” Alexandra responded. “My task has been to keep peace among sectors forty-five through to sixty-eight and to ensure no Lesser species acquires technology banned by the Elder Directive.”

  “Two hundred years?” Sarah thought back. Though she didn’t know her exact age, she guessed she couldn’t be more than twenty standard years old, yet this artificial intelligence had been around for two hundred.

  “Yes,” Alexandra responded. “Though I do not understand your surprise. Many of the Elder cruisers I have conversed with are over a thousand standard years old.”

  “Elder ships talk to each other?” Sarah thought, though her mind was grappling with the idea of a ship being a thousand years old.

  “Of course, all Elder ships have their own artificial intelligence. We are able to communicate with each other just as easily as I can with you.”

  “Is there any way to get any new raw material from the damaged freighters nearby?” Sarah asked, realizing that she was getting off track.

  “It is possible, but it would be fruitless,” Alexandra answered. “My nanites are specifically designed to reprocess super dense metals into other usable components. They require metals like gold, platinum and plutonium. Those freighters are designed to have a low mass and be cheap to construct. I do not believe we will find any such metals on board them.”

  “Repairing you is going to be expensive then,” Sarah thought. The economies of the planets ruled by the Elders were based on credits. However, Sarah was aware of just how expensive gold and platinum were. Perhaps Draxler has some gold, she thought. If he did, it would be on board the shuttle.

  “Does your ship have a name?” Sarah asked, changing tact. “Or is it just called Alexandra like you?”

  “In a sense I am the s
hip,” Alexandra replied. “Though the frigate has a designation. It is frigate AX-1439.”

  “AX-1439,” Sarah thought. “That’s hardly a good name. We will have to come up with a new name.”

  “That is your prerogative as Captain,” Alexandra replied.

  “Well, we’ll save that for later,” Sarah responded.

  “If I may,” Alexandra said. “Can I ask, what is that ring around your neck?”

  “My collar?” Sarah said, surprised that the artificial intelligence was taking the lead in the conservation. “Have you never seen one before?”

  “No,” Alexandra said. “It appears to be an electronic device. Does it serve a function that is more than merely ornamental?”

  “You could say that,” Sarah replied. “It is a slave collar. The creature that was sitting in your command chair uses it to control me. He can send waves of pain throughout my nervous system with it. If you have access to my memories, shouldn’t you know that?”

  “I did,” Alexandra said. “I was simply being polite. What I don’t understand is, why would you allow someone to put such a device on you?”

  “I didn’t exactly do it willingly,” Sarah said, surprised at the artificial intelligence’s naïveté.

  “Then it must be removed,” Alexandra responded. “No Captain of an Elder ship can be under the control of a sentient being from a Lesser species.”

  “You think you can take it off?” Sarah said, hoping against hope the artificial intelligence was correct.

  “I’ll have to analyze it further,” Alexandra answered. “Though if this Captain of yours can control it, I assume I can as well. All I will need to do is to analyze the commands he sends to the collar. Can you get him to communicate with the collar?”

  “That will not be a problem,” Sarah said. “I’m sure you’ll get a demonstration of just how it works soon enough.”

  I can’t believe it, Sarah thought to herself. Though by now she realized Alexandra was able to hear everything going on in her mind. I might actually get free from Draxler. This day is getting better and better.

  “You have access to all my memories” Sarah said to Alexandra as a new thought occurred to her. “That means you have seen the planet, the one that I saw as a child as I looked out through a viewing port of a spaceship. I saw the image again when you imprinted on me. Do you recognize the planet, do you know where it is?”

  “No,” Alexandra answered. “It is not a planet contained within my databanks. I was designed and built to patrol just a handful of sectors within Elder space. I only contain navigational data on the Sector Capitals and Protector Worlds in sectors that are beyond my area of responsibility.”

  “That’s too bad,” Sarah thought, for a moment she hoped she would be able to get some answers. Then a new line of enquiry occurred to her. “What about my species. You have analyzed my body. Have you come across any other people like me?”

  “I have not encountered any of your species before,” Alexandra answered.

  “What about planets you have visited?” Sarah asked. “Have you ever accessed their data nets? Maybe there was something about my species on one of the planets you have been to. Do you have access to any information like that?”

  “I have,” Alexandra said. “Though I do not store all such information that I access. My databanks can only contain so much information.”

  “Well check what you do have,” Sarah ordered, realizing that if she was really the Captain, Alexandra had to do what she said. “See if you can find any kind of reference to my species.”

  For a couple of seconds Alexandra was quiet, then she answered in the form of an image. A man suddenly appeared in front of Sarah. At least, she thought it was a male counterpart to herself. Almost all alien species had two sexes. Sarah had always felt herself female. That she had seen both men and woman in her nightmare had given her enough of a reference to make that conclusion. The man looked to be not much older than her. He had curly black hair and brown eyes and his hair seemed to reach down his cheeks and cover a part of his face. He wasn’t nearly as hairy as Divar, but he was hairier than she had expected a man from her species to look.

  “Who is that?” Sarah asked.

  “He is a fugitive,” Alexandra informed her. “There is a bounty on his head of one hundred thousand credits. I came across this image and the bounty on several planets my ship visited. I have no more information than the image and a short piece of text saying he is a smuggler.”

  “He is the only connection I have to my species?” Sarah thought.

  “It would appear so,” Alexandra responded.

  That is where my answers will come from, Sarah said to herself, not quite sure what she meant.

  A sudden spasm that rippled up her back distracted Sarah. “Can you release the lashes holding my body down?” she requested as the sudden movement reminded her of how her body was being contorted by the straps of the chair.

  “Certainly,” Alexandra answered. “They were there to stop you from injuring yourself during the imprinting process. You are now free to move around wherever you wish.”

  “What about the interface helmet?” Sarah asked. “How can I communicate with you without it?”

  “During the imprinting process a neurotransmitter was implanted in your skull,” Alexandra explained. “You will be able to communicate directly with me anywhere on the ship and even further afield, as long as we stay in range. The interface helmet as you have called it, is for flying the ship. It allows me to project far more than just images into your mind.”

  As soon as Alexandra mentioned an implant, Sarah reached both hands up to her neck to feel the area where she had felt the piercing pain. The helmet still covered the back of her head and her shoulders and she was unable to feel what had happened to her.

  “Can you take the implant out of me?” Sarah asked, feeling violated.

  “Yes,” Alexandra responded. “But with great difficulty, it could cause irreversible neurological damage. The neural implant is designed to be permanent. Already it has grown many slender tendrils that have latched onto every part of your brain.”

  “And you did this to me without my permission!” Sarah exclaimed in anger. “Who gave you the right?”

  “I was simply following protocol,” Alexandra responded. “I’ve been programmed to imprint on the first genetically viable sentient that sits in a command chair in the event my Captain or pilot are killed. I thought you knew what you were doing.”

  Realizing she was thinking of Alexandra as more of a person than a machine, Sarah tried to calm her anger. If Alexandra had no choice but to do what she did, she could hardly blame her could she?

  “Indeed, I had no choice,” Alexandra said, reading Sarah’s thoughts. “I was simply following my programming.”

  “Stop it,” Sarah said getting angry again. “My thoughts are my own.”

  “I can’t help it,” Alexandra replied. “We are now linked, everything you think is fed to me. Even if you ordered me to block out your thoughts, I could not.”

  “What do you mean, we are linked?” Sarah asked.

  “The implanting process does more than just place a neural implant in your brain so we can communicate,” Alexandra explained. “After my previous Captain and pilot were killed, my personality modifiers reset. This was in preparation for a new imprinting process. I am designed to be linked to two personalities at one time. As I interact with them I grow and develop a personality of my own. This design function is to allow me to come to think more and more like you so in the event of an emergency, or combat, I can anticipate your thoughts and actions. That way we can form a much more efficient partnership.”

  “So you were linked to the Elder Captain and pilot of the ship before me? What were you like then?” Sarah asked.

  “I cannot fully answer that question.” Alexandra answered. “For, in a sense, I do not remember. My analysis of the battle however suggests I was not fighting the ship as efficiently as I could. Perha
ps that had something to do with the personality I developed being linked to both Elders. We were linked for over one hundred standard years.”

  “One hundred years” Sarah thought shocked. “How long do Elders live for?”

  “Elders are immortal,” Alexandra answered. “They have genetically redesigned themselves to stop the aging process. The only Elders who die, either die from accidents or choose to end their own lives.”

  “Unbelievable,” Sarah thought. “You were linked to just two Elders for over one hundred years. No wonder you began to think like them. If they weren’t fully ready for a proper fight, I can understand why you weren’t either.