by Jay Allan
I wish only the very best for you…happiness, success, love. I hope that you think fondly of me, but also that you do so less and less often, as time softens your pain, and new joy replaces old sadness. And know somewhere in your soul that I will always love you…and never forget you.
AS Midway
In Orbit around X48 II
The Fleet: 107 ships, 25607 crew
They’d come to call the month-long running fight the Race down the slot. Compton had been amused at how quickly the campaign had acquired a title, as such things were wont to do. The fleet hadn’t fought a single titanic conflict, as it had in X2 or X18…just a series of short and bloody battles as it was driven slowly back toward X48. It had escaped the greatest battle of all, the one that had been intended to be its last, by a sequence of events Compton was still trying to fully understand.
The transit to X50 had gone off without a problem, and Compton immediately ordered the fleet to head for the first warp gate discovered in the new system. He didn’t know how many others there were, but he wanted to put as much distance as possible between the fleet and whatever was left in X48.
He’d kept everyone at battlestations for almost two days, unwilling to let his guard down, lest some previously undetected force blast out from an asteroid belt or behind some planet. But X50 truly seemed to be empty, as did the next system the fleet entered, the newly christened X59.
Only then, with an extra transit between the fleet and any potential pursuers, did he relax the alert status…to yellow from red. And then he called the meeting his officers had been waiting for, the one to fill them in on all that had happened, for no one seemed to know the entire story. Rumors had been flying around the fleet, but Cutter and Harmon hadn’t said a word, obeying Compton’s orders to remain silent.
Compton intended to issue a fleetwide bulletin, so all his spacers would know what had happened…and would understand the relationship they all had with the First Imperium. But first, he called together his top officers and comrades. They filled Midway’s large conference room and then some, the walls lined with temporary chairs to accommodate the overflow. And in that packed space Cutter told them all what had transpired in the underground complex on X48 II…and they learned of Almeerhan, the Regent, and of humanity’s place in the story of the First Imperium. And when he was done he took a seat, and Max Harmon stepped up to tell the story of how a First Imperium force had come and saved the fleet…and what that truly meant to them all.
“It was your virus, Hieronymus. That is what made the final battle possible.” Harmon looked across the table. “The Command Unit recognized the genetic connection between us and what it knew as the Old Ones. It didn’t fully understand, but it accepted me as one of the race that created it. Still, it was caught in a paradox, its programming requiring absolute obedience to the Regent…while older directives forbade it to cause harm to one of the ancient race. It was paralyzed, unable to determine what to do. Its fleets were already en route to X48, with orders to join with the Regent’s forces and crush us. But it wavered, unable to sustain such orders, yet incapable of rescinding them. In a manner of speaking it froze. And since the fleet already had orders, those remained in place. With no further directives, the Command Unit’s fleets would have proceeded to X48…and joined the Regent’s forces.”
Harmon could see the mental exhaustion in the eyes staring at him…Cutter’s story had been long, and for those hearing it for the first time, deeply shocking. The expression on Harmon’s face made it clear he understood…and sympathized. “‘Even if I was able to issue a directive for the fleet to disregard its orders,’ it said, ‘the Regent’s commands would supersede my own. The ship intelligences would cancel my orders and adopt those given to them by the Regent.’”
“So you used the virus?” Cutter looked surprised that his virus had been effective against so powerful an intelligence. “To take control of this Unit? How did you manage to introduce it into the system?”
“I didn’t do anything. It had scanned me…and everything I possessed. After it told me my DNA was almost identical to that of the Old Ones, I was confused, uncertain. I couldn’t begin to imagine what was happening…or to truly grasp what this machine was telling me. Remember, I didn’t know what you had found on X48 II. I just figured it was a mistake of some kind, a crazy fluke…maybe a bug in a very old computer. But it was my only hope to survive, so I played along.
“Then it asked me about the data chip…and the program it contained. After the shuttle, the ordeal in the examination room…I’d completely forgotten about it, and it took a minute for me to remember, to realize what it was talking about. My first thought was panic…it would see the chip as a weapon intended for use against it, and it would kill me immediately. But it showed no animosity…it just inquired about the design. And the purpose.”
The room was silent, every eye on Harmon. Cutter had told his story, everything Almeerhan had told him. It had shaken them all deeply, and now here was another of their people who’d had a close encounter with the First Imperium. One that in many ways confirmed what Cutter had spoken of.
“I decided to lie, to make up some story, anything. But something stopped me. I don’t know if it was intuition…or just a realization that there was no way I was going to fool this massive thinking machine. So I just blurted out…the truth. It was designed to control First Imperium systems, to prevent them from attacking us.
“‘Intriguing.’ That’s what it said. No hostility, no anger. Then it asked, ‘Have you tested it under field conditions?’” Harmon stopped and took a breath, looking around, as if he was hesitant to continue. Then he said, his voice becoming a bit halting, uncertain, “My mind was screaming at me to lie, to say no…or to make up some story. But I didn’t. I told it the truth. About the Colossus. About how Hieronymus took control of it with the virus.” He stopped, his eyes moving around the table, as if he expected recriminations for sharing data with the enemy. But there was nothing. Nothing but stunned silence…and rapt attention.
Finally, Compton just said, “There would have been no point in lying, Max. The intelligence could have analyzed the virus itself. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Thank you, sir.” There was still doubt in his voice, but relief too. “Anyway,” he continued a few second later, “it downloaded the virus into itself, modifying it as it did. And it worked. It broke the impasse, Hieronymus. Your virus allowed the Unit to overrule the Regent’s directives at my command. Enabled it to turn its forces on the other First Imperium fleets…to defend ours.”
“But it told you the ships wouldn’t obey, that they would follow the Regent’s commands when they were received.” The quizzical look on Compton’s face gave way to a little smile. “The virus again?”
“Yes, Admiral. The Unit examined it, modified it…” He glanced over at Cutter with an apologetic look. “…improved it.”
Cutter laughed. “Don’t worry, Max. No offense taken there. I can’t even imagine how that intelligence could outdo my work.”
“I don’t know, Hieronymus,” Harmon said, shaking his head. “It was able to improve it perhaps, but for all the Unit’s sophistication, I don’t think it could have defied the Regent without your original code. Nevertheless, it was able to use the virus to disable the Regent’s override capability in its ships’ intelligences. The forces I led back to X48 were already…infected…when we transited into the system. The X50 forces had already been insystem, which is why they initially attacked our fighter squadrons. When I was communicating with Midway, I transmitted the virus to the X50 fleet under the Unit’s Command code. As those ships were under its command, they immediately downloaded it. And it worked perfectly. They not only refused the orders from the Regent’s fleet…they obeyed mine to attack and destroy the opposing forces.”
“That high-powered burst…that’s what you were doing.” Compton smiled. “I can’t tell you how many things went through my head, but I would have never guessed the truth.
”
“Yes, sir. And again…it worked perfectly. The X50 force that had been pursuing you immediately accepted orders to attack the Regent’s fleet.”
Compton leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hand over his face. The emotional and physical toll of the last few weeks was catching up with him, as it was with everyone else. “What of this Command Unit, Max? Should we go to its planet? Take it with us?”
“No, sir. I asked if it would come with me when it told me to join its fleet. But it is built into the planet, its vast data banks hundreds of kilometers below the rocky crust. It told me we must flee, escape the Regent’s pursuit in the lull created by the loss of its fleet. The imperium has even more forces, scattered along its ancient frontiers. The Unit told me the Regent would assemble another fleet, perhaps even a larger one, that it would never cease the pursuit. We have a respite, that is all. And when the Regent comes after us again, we must be ready.”
“The Regent will not allow the Command Unit to get away with what it did, will it?” Compton looked concerned. His feelings toward this mysterious artificial intelligence were complex. He hated it, for it had sent forces against his fleet for the past fifteen months, killed thousands of his people. And yet now it had saved them all, given them a chance when everything seemed hopeless. It felt wrong to abandon it, to leave it behind to the Regent’s wrath. Especially when its own forces had been wiped out saving the fleet.
“No, sir. The Command Unit knows the Regent will destroy it. Indeed, it told me it was likely this would be the Regent’s first course of action, and that it would extend the time before enemy forces were again in pursuit of us.” Harmon paused, his face pensive, as though he had considered all of this many times. “It is prepared for its end, sir. And there is nothing we can do to prevent it.”
Compton sighed and sat still for a few seconds. Then he said, simply, “No, I don’t suppose there is.” I can’t believe I am mourning a First Imperium artificial intelligence unit.
“Well, at least it gave us eight Leviathans. That doubles the fleet’s firepower.”
Erica West was sitting next to Compton. She turned and looked at the admiral. “Are we sure we can trust these things, sir? I mean there are fifty ways this could be a trick. They could attack us by surprise, track us and send back location data…”
“I know, Erica,” Compton said. “But we just saw the Unit’s fleets destroy hundreds of First Imperium ships…and get wiped out themselves in the process. If that doesn’t buy some trust, I don’t know what does.”
West didn’t say anything, but she still looked troubled. Trust came hard to her…and very slowly.
“And anyway, we need the firepower. We’ve lost too much of our strength, Erica. The chance that these ships save us in a fight far outweighs the possibility that the First Imperium sacrificed seven hundred ships to trick us into taking these eight vessels with us. Especially when they could have destroyed us in X48.”
West nodded grudgingly. “It will be nice to have those ships in the line if we have to fight again.”
“If?”
She nodded, the slightest smile slipping onto her lips. “You’re right, sir. When.”
Compton returned the grin. Then he turned toward Cutter. “Well, Hieronymus…what have you discovered in that device Almeerhan gave you?” It had only been a few days since the fleet escaped X48, but as far as Compton had seen, the fleet’s brilliant scientist hadn’t slept at all, hadn’t even left his lab until this meeting.
“It is a vast information storage unit, sir. I have only just begun to unlock its secrets, but I have been able to download a few things. A map for one.”
“A map?”
“Yes, sir…a map of the imperium, and all the warp gate connections within it.”
“I can’t imagine how useful that will be.” He paused, uncertain he wanted the answer to the question straining to pass his lips. “How big is it?”
“Just over eleven thousand systems, sir. It stretches far off in every direction.”
There was a collective gasp around the table. Eleven thousand systems was vast, more immense even than the most aggressive estimates had been.
“There is something else, sir. The location of a specific system, one that lies beyond the far rim of the imperium…in the nearly uncharted space beyond.”
“The world Almeerhan told you about? The one that was prepared for us?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Can we even hope to reach so distant a place? Should we try?”
“Yes, Admiral. I believe we can reach it, that we must reach it. We know now the size of the imperium, the vastness of the resources available to the Regent. Only the technology, the secrets left for us by the Old Ones can offer us even a hope of success. Of survival. If we can reach this planet, we can truly unlock the technology of the First Imperium. And then…perhaps we can truly complete the task Almeerhan and his brethren prophesized we would.”
Compton looked back at Cutter, a questioning look on his face. “And what task is that, Hieronymus.”
Cutter stared back, his expression serious, deadpan. “Destroy the Regent, of course. Reclaim the imperium.”
* * *
“I wanted to tell you myself what an incredible job you did with the expedition. Despite everything that happened, you managed to produce a vast amount of usable food…and your decision to start the harvest early is the only reason we have anything. Food will be a problem again, certainly…but now we can concentrate on moving quickly…and getting back into hiding. At least for a few months.”
“Thank you, Terrance.” Sophie was sitting on the small sofa in Compton’s quarters, her shoes cast aside, her legs tucked under her body. “I think it was a good thing that no one of us knew everything that was going on. It would have been overwhelming. And things turned out better than we could have hoped.” The smile slipped slowly from her face. “Still, so many of James Preston’s Marines died. They stayed there when the rest of us left…they loaded the grain and stood guard while we fled. Then they turned around and manned the trenches…and fought everything the enemy threw at the camp. And more than two hundred of them never came back.”
Compton sighed softly. “I’ve been watching Marines die for fifty years, Sophie. It never gets easier. There is something about them, that steadfastness. I’ve led some brave spacers, no question. But the Marines are different. They always have been. They could hold the line in the middle of a holocaust…one in ten of them could come back, and when those few marched off their transports, they’d stand at attention and give a battle report. They have their ways of grieving, Sophie, but they are theirs, for no one else. They will die for the rest of us, fight while we escape, be the last to leave. But there are some things they keep to themselves. And we have to respect that.” He paused. “You know who told me that?” He looked at her as she shook her head. “Erik Cain. One night not long after another deadly battle. One where the Marines lost a lot more than two hundred of their number.”
She just nodded, and she reached down for the cup of tea she’d set on the small table. Not tea, not really…but the closest thing the lab had been able to whip up. She’d made a face the first time she’d tasted it, but she had to admit, it had grown on her.
“So, we are going to try and find this world Hieronymus speaks of…this Shangri La promised to us by that data unit?” Her voice was mildly doubtful, as if she didn’t yet trust what Cutter had found.
“What else can we do? Where else can we go?” Compton walked over and sat next to her on the sofa. “The Command Unit accepted Max as a member of the race of the Old Ones…that is independent confirmation of what Hieronymus discovered. And hundreds of First Imperium ships were destroyed fighting for us. That is further evidence.”
“That’s true,” she said leaning in toward Compton and resting her head on his shoulder. “And you’re right, there’s nothing else for us to do. I just feel so out of sorts…the whole thing feels so strange. I know we are still who
we were before, but to know we are the descendants of these…people…” Her voice tightened.
“The machines that attacked us, that killed so many people and caused us to be trapped out here…they are something different from the beings we are descended from. We are going to have to learn to make that distinction. They may have made mistakes, certainly they did in creating the Regent. But they, too, suffered for them. And while it feels as though they somehow violated Earth, the truth is, mankind might not even exist if they hadn’t. And if it did, it would be something neither you nor I would recognize. I understand where the anger, the resentment comes from, but I also think it is misplaced, pointless. All we can do now is move forward. We got a second chance in X48, an escape from certain death. Now it is up to us to use it.”
She turned and looked at him. “You are right. It is difficult, but I will try.” She paused, holding his gaze for a few seconds, and then she started to rise. “Well, it’s awfully late. I should probably…”
He reached up and took her hand, pulling her back gently. She turned and looked down at him. “Stay,” he said softly. “It is time for us look forward and not back.” His voice was soft.
She stood in front of him for a few seconds, returning his gaze. Then, she smiled warmly and slipped back onto the sofa and into his arms.
Epilogue
The Regent raged at the news of what had happened. It analyzed recent events repeatedly, but it still could not explain what had taken place. Command Unit Gamma 9736 was incapable of defying its orders…or at least it should have been. Yet the evidence was irrefutable. It had sent its forces to attack the Rim fleets the Regent had sent to system 17411. Even more inexplicable, the Command Unit’s vessels failed to respond to the system override codes. That was impossible, or at least the Regent had believed it to be. What could have caused such a grievous malfunction…and allowed vessels of the imperium to attack another imperial fleet? The Regent had no answers. Only confusion…and rage.