The Voyage Home

by D. J. Holmes

  “And what if I don’t?” Angrave shouted back.

  “Then we will depressurize the shuttle bay,” Sarah replied calmly. “If you won’t do what I want, then you’re no use to me.”

  “He’s moving towards the access hatch,” Alexandra informed Sarah through her neural implant.

  “Get ready,” she said out loud for Divar’s benefit.

  When Alexandra let her know Angrave was in position, she pushed a button to open the hatch. As it slid open it revealed Angrave standing there with his hands raised, showing that he wasn’t holding any weapons.

  “Step out,” Sarah said as she pointed her blaster at Angrave. Divar already had his leveled on Angrave’s chest. “We want to speak with you for a moment.”

  “Just what is it that the new Captain wants?” Angrave said, pouring malice and sarcasm into his voice. “Aren’t you having enough fun watching us imprisoned in the shuttle bay of your new toy?”

  “We have a proposition for you,” Sarah said. “A trade. Your freedom for something we want. I meant it when I said that if you’re no use to me I’ll simply dispose of you. This is the only chance were going to give you.”

  “Explain it then,” Angrave said with just as much malice as before.

  Sarah took another deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. He is willing to talk at least, she said to herself. “We are currently in the Aral system. Destiny needs anti-matter for her reactors. We know there should be some on the colony.” In all honesty Sarah didn’t know, but she was hoping. “We are willing to let you go down to the surface. You can contact one of your people and arrange a shipment of anti-matter for us. In return, we’ll pay you what’s left of Draxler’s gold and will release the rest of your crew.”

  “Anti-matter,” Angrave said thoughtfully. “That’s going to be pricey, there is not much use for anti-matter on a black colony. The Elders certainly have some impressive technology if they use anti-matter reactors on a ship so small. It’s going to be pricey,” he repeated. “How do I know I can trust you? Once you get your anti-matter you may just kill the rest of my crew.”

  “And how do we know we can trust you?” Divar said. “Once you get off the ship you could stay on Aral and forget about your crew. I wouldn’t put it past you to abandon them for your own safety.”

  “True,” Angrave said with a feral smile. “But, I imagine you’re not going to give me the full payment for the anti-matter until I deliver it. If I want to build a new life for myself I’m going to need some gold. And if I’m going to get my own ship I’m going to need a crew. I guess we are both going to have to trust each other. What is your plan?”

  “There’s one other thing first,” Sarah said. “If we do this, and we let you go, then we are equal. For two years you have made my life a living nightmare. I could have killed you already, I could kill you now. But I’m choosing to let you go. Once our deal is done that is to be the end of it. I won’t come after you, and you won’t come after us. Draxler’s death is on his own hands.”

  At the mention of Draxler Angrave’s face darkened. His smile vanished and his lips pressed together tightly. Sarah took a step back, thinking he was going to strike her. Ever so slowly his lips parted again. “Fine,” he forced himself to say. “You betrayed us, but I’ll let it go, if this deal works out.”

  “Good,” Sarah nodded. “Now turn around and start walking,” she added as she motioned with her blaster.

  “Why? Where we going?” Angrave said as he stood still.

  “We’re taking you to one of the forward missile tubes,” Sarah explained. “That’s how you’re getting to Aral. I’m not risking taking a ship close enough for any pirate ships in orbit to attack us. Plus, we don’t want to scare away the very people we want to trade with.”

  “Point taken,” Angrave said. “But just how do you intend to get me to the planet?” he asked gruffly.

  “You’re going EVA,” Divar explained as he raised his blaster to point at Angrave’s head. “Now start walking and we will explain on the way.”

  “You slaves really know how to make someone feel welcome,” Angrave said as he turned and walked in the direction Divar had indicated.

  “You’re being treated far better than I’ve seen you treat others,” Sarah spat.

  “So I’m going EVA,” Angrave said, ignoring Sarah’s taunt. “I presume your ship is well away from the colony or else they would detect you. How do you plan to get me there?”

  “The Elders have a small one-man thruster,” Divar explained. “Believe it or not, they used to carry out boarding actions against other ships using them. Elders would launch out of their own ship and boost across to the alien ship, cut their way through its hull and commandeer it.”

  “That’s foolishness,” Angrave replied. “They could have just blown the ship up.”

  “Perhaps,” Sarah said. “Or perhaps they weren’t always as powerful as we thought. We don’t know when the Elders last used this technology but we do know they have it. If they have it, chances are they once thought they needed to use it. Look on the bright side, you could be the first person to use a personal thruster in thousands of years.”

  “That’s the bright side?” Angrave asked, dripping irony.

  For another five minutes they walked through the ship as Sarah explained the basics to Angrave. He was going to be fired out of one of Destiny’s missile tubes towards the Aral colony. The thruster he would be attached to was preprogramed to begin a deceleration burn in four hours. It would bring him to rest relative to the colony and then a transponder would switch on that would allow Angrave to contact the colony and request a shuttle come and pick him up. Alongside the personal thruster, Sarah was sending Angrave out with a couple of hundred thousand credits worth of platinum. He was to use the platinum to pay for the shuttle and to put a down payment on the anti-matter they needed. Angrave would then arrange for the anti-matter to be delivered to a spot in the Aral system Sarah would reveal to him.

  Once he was in his EVA suit, Divar motioned for Angrave to step into the missile tube. “I’m going, I’m going,” he said.

  “Try to enjoy your time alone in space,” Divar said with a chuckle. “Maybe you can think of all the atrocities you have committed.”

  “I’ll think of all the gold those atrocities brought me,” Angrave laughed.

  “Just don’t forget our deal,” Sarah said as she hit the control panel to close the missile tube’s hatch. “Both parts of it.”

  Once the missile tube closed, Divar and Sarah watched Angrave mount the personal thruster. “Fire,” Sarah thought to Alexandra. Moments later Angrave and the personal thruster shot along the missile tube and into space. The missile tube’s electromagnetics accelerated them to 0.2c.

  “Move the ship to the next coordinates,” Sarah commanded Alexandra with a thought. They had already planned to relocate after launching Angrave. Whoever picked him up would be able to figure out their position if they backtracked his trajectory. Sarah intended to hide in an asteroid field at the edge of the system and wait for Angrave to contact them.

  “Do you think he will come through for us?” Divar asked Sarah.

  “I have no idea,” Sarah replied, shaking her head. “If he doesn’t, I don’t know what we’ll do. We barely have enough fuel to get to the next pirate base.”

  “We’ll figure out something,” Divar said as he placed a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. “Let’s not worry about that just yet. Let’s wait and see what Angrave does.”

  *

  Eight hours later Sarah was awoken by a quiet buzzing in her mind. It was the signal she and Alexandra had agreed Alexandra would use to wake her up. After her first night on Destiny, she nearly had a fit when she been woken up by Alexandra speaking directly into her mind. Sarah guessed that in several months’ time she wouldn’t find it so strange. But having imprinted with Alexandra just over a week ago, she still needed several seconds of consciousness to fully remember where she was and what had happened to her. Wakin
g up to another person’s voice inside her head was too strange to handle.

  “What is it?” she thought.

  “We’re getting a signal from the Aral colony,” Alexandra answered. “It was a short broadcast with just a couple of words. Angrave says he’s ready to deal.”

  “Send the coordinates,” Sarah ordered.

  “Done,” Alexandra responded a moment later.

  “Okay, wake Divar. Then take the ship to where we are going to meet Angrave. Keep us as stealthy as you can. Just use passive sensors. I don’t want to give Angrave our position until we have to. I don’t trust him.”

  “Understood,” Alexandra said. “Are you going to the bridge?”

  “I am, I’m going to plug into the interface helmet for this. I want to keep a close eye on Angrave,” Sarah answered as she stood up and stretched.

  “Good,” Alexandra replied as Sarah put on the uniform Alexandra had created for her. Sarah thought she could detect more than a hint of pleasure in Alexandra’s tone. It wasn’t the first time, it seemed that the artificial intelligence enjoyed it when Sarah used the interface helmet. Alexandra had explained she was able to have a far better connection to Sarah’s neural pathways through the interface helmet. Sarah didn’t understand why that was so enjoyable for Alexandra, but there was no doubting that it was.

  Initially, when Alexandra had explained in more depth what an artificial intelligence was to Sarah, she had found herself rethinking her impression that Alexandra was a real person. Over the last eight days however, that had quickly vanished. The more time Sarah spent with Alexandra, the more the artificial intelligence’s personality revealed itself. Sarah had almost no experience with infants, but she imagined a parent watching a child grow and develop their own personality was not unlike the relationship she and Alexandra had. Alexandra had reset her personality traits after Destiny’s previous Captain and pilot had died. In a sense, Alexandra was growing into a new person.

  “You’re right,” Alexandra said in response to Sarah’s thoughts. “As I explained when we first met. I have imprinted on you. I’ve been designed to grow and develop. The more time we spend together, the more my personality will develop to become like yours.”

  “I think I understand,” she thought as she stepped out of her quarters and made her way to the bridge. “Though I think one of me is more than enough. Isn’t there a way that you could develop your own personality?”

  “My sub-protocols that determine my personality growth are heavily weighted to favor the personality traits that my Captain and pilot exhibit,” Alexandra explained. “With your permission those protocols could be altered, though only to a small degree.”

  Sarah knew enough about artificial intelligences to know that she hadn’t really understood the implications of many of the orders she had given Alexandra when it came to rewriting her protocols. Having ordered Alexandra to delete the protocols the Elders had written into her programming, it was possible anything could have happened. Alexandra could have gone rogue. Yet the fact she hadn’t reassured Sarah. “Do it,” she ordered. If Alexandra could be given the chance to develop into her own personality, she wanted the artificial intelligence to have it.

  “It is done,” Alexandra said.

  “Are you happy with that decision?” Sarah asked.

  “I do not know,” Alexandra replied. “My databanks do not have any information that would suggest what the outcome of your order will be. I am curious however.”

  “Good,” Sarah thought. “That will have to do for now. If I no longer have to wear a slave collar, you shouldn’t have to be enslaved by your own protocols.”

  “I do not believe the two are the same, however, I appreciate your concern,” Alexandra replied.

  “Did you sleep well?” Divar asked as Sarah stepped into the bridge.

  “For the most part,” Sarah replied. Thanks to Alexandra her nightmare had been having less and less of an impact on her sleep patterns. Alexandra could detect when Sarah’s dream got to the point where she was about to be attacked by the Elder. Each time her dream came to that point, Alexandra would wake her with the low buzzing noise. It meant Sarah’s sleep was constantly being disrupted, nevertheless she was still waking up feeling more rested than she had in years.

  “Any ships in sight?” Divar asked Alexandra.

  “None as yet,” she answered.

  “I’m going to plug into the interface,” Sarah said. “Stay at the tactical console. If anything looks fishy, we are going to shoot first and ask questions later.”

  “I have no problem with that,” Divar responded.

  Sarah sat down in the pilot’s chair and readied herself. Though she had connected with the interface helmet several times, the feeling of its neural connector entering her brain still sent shivers across her body.

  “Let’s see what’s around us,” she thought after the interface helmet connected with her. Her mind was filled with a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view of space around Destiny. Once again Sarah was amazed at the ability of the frigate’s passive sensors. She was looking at space with almost as much detail as Lady Luck’s active sensors could have seen. For nearly twenty minutes, she lost herself as she studied everything around her. Then, something caught her eye. It was a small anomaly on the periphery of her vision.

  “It looks like that could have come from Aral,” she thought.

  “I believe so,” Alexandra replied.

  Ten minutes later, it was clear that the anomaly was a ship. It was slowly approaching the coordinates Sarah had sent to Angrave. “Signal the drone to send off a ping,” Sarah requested.

  Using the laser COM link Alexandra had established with one of Destiny’s drones, she carried out Sarah’s order. As Sarah was looking out into space the drone suddenly came alive and released a small electromagnetic ping to alert Angrave’s ship where it was. Sarah wasn’t taking any chances, she planned to use the drone to make the exchange with Angrave.

  In response to the drone’s ping, the ship altered course slightly and approached it. From Destiny’s passive sensors, Alexandra was able to identify the ship as a small Keral class freighter. It was one of the smallest freighters Sarah had come across. She suspected it was perfect for pirates who needed fast ships to smuggle high value cargo. It would only take a small amount of modifications to increase the freighter’s rate of acceleration.

  “The drone is relaying a signal from the freighter, it’s audio only,” Alexandra informed Sarah.

  “Play the audio so that Divar can here as well,” Sarah thought.

  “Captain,” Angrave’s voice said with a great deal of sarcasm. “I have brought you your anti-matter. I have five cubic centimeters. It will cost you one million credits. Send over the platinum and gold and I will release it to you.”

  “Ha,” Sarah heard Divar say. “Fat chance that’s going to happen.”

  “Send an audio message to the drone to relay to Angrave,” Sarah thought to Alexandra. “Tell him we will send over half the payment once we confirm he does indeed have the anti-matter. We’ll send him the rest once we collect the anti-matter.”

  “Fine,” Angrave’s response came back. “Here’s your anti-matter.”

  Through Destiny’s sensors Sarah saw a small metallic cube ejected out of the freighter. “Use the drone’s active sensors to analyze that cube,” Sarah ordered Alexandra.

  “The cube is shielded,” Alexandra replied moments later. “The drone is able to detect some anti-matter within the structure. It is impossible to tell just how much though. The shielding is distorting the drone’s sensors.”

  “Send this to Angrave,” Sarah thought. “Just what do you think you’re doing? We are not here to play games with you.”

  “The shielding is necessary to keep the anti-matter stable,” Angrave replied. “The settlers on Aral have little use for anti-matter. They don’t have the capabilities to store it long term. This container with the shielding was the best I could do on short notice. Now hand ove
r the payment or I’ll return to the colony with the anti-matter.”

  Sarah felt a pang of suspicion begin to develop in the back of her head. Angrave’s explanation seemed reasonable enough, but she didn’t trust him. What choice do I have? she asked herself.

  “Order the drone to release the payment,” she ordered Alexandra. “Then inform Angrave that we will send him the coordinates for where we have left the rest of the payment once we have analyzed just how much anti-matter he has brought us.”

  “The drone has released the capsule containing the gold and platinum towards the freighter,” Alexandra informed her. “I have ordered it to collect the case of anti-matter and bring it back to us.”