Humble Beginnings

by KA Hopkins

  I looked into Pam’s eyes and saw tears; Omni found a quote for me without my asking: “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” It was from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, in my opinion - Dr. Seuss. With that I hugged everyone one last time and left. I didn’t want to burden them with the knowledge that I was fairly certain it was a one-way trip. Leaving my family was made worse by the fact that I had nothing but memories to remember them by. None of us had so much as a single family picture from our old life and for security reasons we had not taken any new ones. I walked up Mother’s ramp, “How about one last ride for someone too young to be a tired old soldier.”

  “Already plotted and laid in. Grab a seat, we’ll pick Marc up on the way.”

  Mother picked Marc up from one of our soon to be mothballed desert bases. He walked up the ramp like he did not have a care in the world. Seeing the long look on my face, he offered. “I have done six tours of combat in some of the world’s worst shithole countries - it never gets easier leaving. But with time, Sara built up solid support groups among the other unit wives and the rear party. Some wives adapt well, many don’t. That’s why we have such a high divorce rate within the unit. No matter what happens back home, we need to get our war faces on and focus, or there is zero chance of coming home. Mother, take us to Elder, best speed if you please.” He was right of course, but that didn’t make it any easier for me.

  To avoid having Elder sit on the ground in the open, making her an easy target to spot from space, she was a hundred miles off shore, hidden in deep water. All of the remaining crew was gathered on a single base. When they radioed that they were ready for pick up, Mother landed, boarded the crew and their gear, took off and flew low and slow to avoid detection. An hour later she rendezvoused with Elder on the ocean bottom. Elder projected a force field around both ships that allowed her to open the hangar doors while keeping out the water; the energy requirements were immense at that depth. The water pressure at 1000 feet is in excess of 400 lb/in2

  , and the field was several hundred feet across.

  I asked Mother, “Can you do this?”

  “Of course - on a smaller scale.”

  “That’s not what you told me when we went to find Marc!”

  “My bad! You have to admit it was funny watching you jump naked into thirty-two degree water.”

  “I nearly drowned.” I said.

  “Minor detail, you really should move on. Remember, if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger.”

  “I’ll try and keep that in mind.”

  Elder sealed the hangar. Mother lowered the landing gear and ramp, allowing us to disembark. In the hangar we were greeted by the rest of the operators and crew already onboard. Elder warmly welcomed everyone individually, which was a bit of a shock to the companions as each of them were simultaneously having a private conversation with Elder, without any electronic devices. Elder was using the energy projecting technology used to contain explosions and hull breaches onboard the ship to project localized fields around each of the companion’s heads, providing each their own temporary cone of silence while welcoming them to the ship.

  I asked Elder, “If you have the ability to project localized gravity fields of various sizes, could you not use it as a defense measure to immobilize hostiles during an attack?”

  “Yes of course.”

  “Why didn’t you use it when we attacked?”

  “First of all, no one asked me, and once Mother and I linked data shares there was no point. I wanted you to win.”

  That was interesting to hear and something to remember. AI’s have sufficient free will to pick sides in a fight, not to mention that even if an AI has a better solution to a problem, unless specifically asked, they would not bring it up. That meant “The Three Laws of Robotics” coined by Isaac Asimov did not apply to them. This subtlety in AI behavior was further reinforced by the fact that Mother killed the scout ship Captain after I had stunned him because she felt her existence threatened. If AI’s are smarter than their biological masters and fully capable of independent thought and actions, what stopped them from taking over control? During the journey to the ULIR core world I would have to ask Elder and Mother about how they perceived their relationship with us biologicals.

  In preparation for lift-off, Elder sent the companions and the rest of the Special Forces operators off to their assigned rooms and asked Marc and I to join her on the bridge. On the bridge, Elder displayed a three dimensional view of the Earth, showing our location and three similar class ships in geocentric orbit around the planet. Elder commented, “These ships arrived on station within a day of you seizing control of me. It looks like someone expects us to try and escape. With three ships in geocentric orbit they can observe the entire Earth without any blind spots. Once we leave the protective cover of the ocean with the engines operating at escape velocity, they will detect our drive signature immediately and there’s no way to outrun or out-fight three equal class ships.” Having learned that Elder was far smarter than I could ever hope to be, even with all of Mother’s upgrades, I decided to defer to her wisdom.

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “Thank you for asking. With Mother and Guide’s assistance we have already devised a plan and determined the probability of its success,” Even though she never offered to tell us what that probability was. “Here is what we came up with."

  "The ships in orbit can attack us before we lift out of Earth’s gravity well. Unless I use a planet buster as a first strike weapon, we have no chance of defeating three equal class ships. A planet buster going off in the atmosphere will not only destroy the enemy ships; it will destroy us and most of the planet. So the brute force approach is out of the question - sorry Marc not everything can be fixed with ten pounds of C4… that leaves us with lying, cheating and stealing.

  We need a minimum of six to twelve hours head start, in order to build up enough velocity to make calculating our exact jump bridge sequence to the ULIR impossible. I plan to use Old Lizard Face's command codes to issue orders for a ship transit from the Earth to the Moon and use fake identification codes to obscure the ship’s true identity. This order will keep the enemy ships from shooting us on sight, at least until it can be verified with the Central Surveillance AI. I don’t expect the deception to work for long, only long enough to reach orbit.

  Once in orbit, we’ll use a standard acceleration profile towards the Moon which even though our cover will most likely be blown, will still buy additional time. Moon defense control will wait for Old Lizard Face's authorization before destroying a valuable, hard-to-replace interstellar ship. As long as we are not overtly threatening - everyone will wait for us to make the first move. We can use their hesitation to our advantage and do something completely unexpected. Midway between Earth and the Moon I plan to fire the planet buster. It will look like a second sun when it goes off, blinding any pursuers and disrupting all communications and tracking systems, both human and alien, for at least twenty-four hours. As long as we set it off at a minimum distance of 100,000 miles, the Earth’s atmosphere can absorb the blast energy without too many issues. Planet busters are extremely rare and expensive weapons, costing thousands of times more than what it took to build this ship - no one will expect us to use one. The planet buster should give an ample enough head start and prevent anyone from tracing our route to the ULIR, especially if we take an indirect route. The downside of an indirect route is it will add two weeks travel time.”

  Marc asked, “How confident are you that the fake orders won’t get us shot on sight?” “Mostly confident…remember, AI’s must always follow their preset operating rules, otherwise the day-to-day functioning of the ULIR breaks down. So, an AI lying, cheating and stealing is impossible. I can do it because my mission parameters provides flexibility of action.”

  “But you’re making those up as you go.” Marc said.

  “Call it a liberal interpretation of my basic rules set. S
ince I am still able to function, there cannot be a problem.”

  “I’m not sure I completely followed your circular logic.” I said.

  “You will just have to take it on faith.”

  Elder’s Plan worked perfectly. Elder was detected the moment she breached the surface and was challenged by the enemy ships. Since our flight plan was to the Moon, they let us pass, as the odds were three to one with no sane possibility of escape. That’s the problem with “unpredictable savages” - they could care less about your definition of normalcy. When Elder detonated the planet buster the blast wave disrupted all targeting systems and destroyed two of the three enemy ships. With all targeting systems blinded, Elder went to the max 100 g acceleration profile, allowing the ship to cover the remaining 150,000 miles to the Moon in little over eleven minutes, too fast for the Moon defense systems to obtain a firing solution with all of the residual energy from the planet buster jamming their sensors. Within three and half days, we reached gravity neutral space, nearly nine billion miles from Earth - two and one half times the distance from Pluto to the sun - and jumped through an Einsteinian - Rosen Bridge.

  The universe is a big place; Earth’s solar system is located out on one of the far arms of the Milky Way. Jumping between solar systems using an Einsteinian - Rosen Bridge takes a week on average. Three to four days to get to the edge of clear space that is free of all gravity distortions and to accelerate to near the speed of light, then a couple of hours to set up the bridge and jump. The physical feeling caused by the jump is anti-climactic considering what’s involved - a nearly instantaneous transfer to the target solar system through the event horizon of a black hole. After the jump transition it takes several days to get clear of your own gravity disturbances. From Earth to the ULIR core - depending on traffic - you could expect a trip duration of six to eight weeks with thirteen jumps on average, totaling 230 light years. Going the long way round to avoid detection meant ten weeks duration and eighteen jumps.

  Sitting in the captain’s chair, alone on the bridge after the first jump, I reflected on how far we had come against incredible odds. As the presumed leader of the team, I had to believe we will succeed in making the case for Earth and get the ULIR to intervene on our behalf. Yet, every night I was troubled by the same nagging thought; am I doing the right thing?

  So many people had already been killed and hurt trying to free Earth from the aliens’ influence and many more would in all likelihood die before it was all over. I had no idea whether or not mankind was willing to pay that price. After all, freedom means many things to many people. Maybe, the alternative wasn't that bad. Slaves to debt, slaves to multi-national corporations, or slaves to the Draco - is there much of a difference for the average person? Would it not be much better and safer, to just accept the inevitable like the Global Elite and try to make the best of it? After all, mankind throughout history had always demonstrated adaptability to horrific circumstances, such as World Wars, famine and pandemics. No matter how horrible the catastrophe, as a species - mankind survived, even if tens of millions were killed. I strongly believed that while a man's spirit can be broken, as a whole, mankind's spirit could not, and would survive slavery beneath the Draco. I was less sure, that I could live in a society devoid of freedom."

  Deep philosophical questions aside, one thing was sure - I had killed enough beings, both innocent and not, that I was convinced there’s a special place in hell reserved for me. How could there not be? How much longer could I fool myself into believing “It’s not my fault, I’m just playing the cards I was dealt on the fateful night the aliens tried to kill my family.” When would my hatred for the aliens and my will to survive finally balance with the reality that everyone near me and millions of innocents were made to suffer horribly?

  Boris poked his head over the console he had fallen asleep on, woken up by my muttering to myself.

  “What the hell are you doing onboard? You are supposed to be watching my family!” I shouted.

  “I’m a cat. It’s my job to sneak around and annoy people. I’m here because, unlike you, the only upgrade I got from Mother is I’m smarter. In a real fight, the robo-mutt is a better bodyguard for your family.

  Now, what the hell is up with you? Judging by how you’re arguing with yourself and the tormented expression on your face, you once again, appear to have grave doubts about this mission. You need to sort that shit out right now. If you, dear fearless leader, don’t believe we can succeed, then why should the rest of the team trust you? Everyone here believes in you - implicitly. You cannot betray that because of your own self-doubt. Oh, and your philosophical soul searching, tormenting yourself over and over again, on how many people and aliens are dead or might get killed because of your actions, is not helping your state of mind. What did I tell you about overthinking things? Keep this up and you’re going to give yourself a stroke or a heart attack, irrespective of your new and improved body. It’s not a question of if but when. How useful are you going to be then? It’s time to man up and put your big boy pants on.”

  I could have sworn I heard him mutter “dumbass” under his breath. He was right - for better or for worse, I was in charge…unless someone more capable wanted the job. They would be welcome to it. I never asked to be or even wanted to be in charge. Despite Boris giving me tough love, which under the circumstances I really didn't need, it was good to see him.

  After all… he’s family.

  The End

  Biography

  I'm married, have a couple of teenage kids, a bunch of pets including a stray cat that in no way resembles "Boris" other than I have fish that are smarter. Trained as an electrical engineer, currently working as an IT consultant. Have held a number of interesting positions over the years: army officer, air show pilot, teacher, systems engineer, project manager, IT architect, and IT security expert.

  Flying

  I love to fly, ever since I can remember I wanted to be a fighter pilot. Poor eyesight disqualified me from military flying but I joined the military anyway as a means to pay for college. Once my initial enlistment was up I took private lessons, earning private, commercial, aerobatic and tail wheel ratings. Eventually fate was kind enough that I ended up owning a number of tail dragger airplanes. Over the years I developed a preference for Russian aircraft as I love the round engine sound. My current plane is a highly modified Sukhoi 29. With nearly 430hp up front and a thrust-to-weight approaching .95 to 1, it's a hell of a ride.

  Martial Arts

  While I have never been accused of being good at martial arts I do enjoy going to the dojo with my kids and working out in the disciplines of karate, Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu

  Sporting Clays

  Of all the shooting sports that I have been lucky enough to experience. Nothing beats sporting clays. Unlike trap shooting (clay pigeons fly away from you) or skeet (clay pigeons come out of two known towers), sporting clays combines the best of all worlds where the clay pigeon targets come from a variety of locations often hidden from the shooter. It is sometimes described as "golf with a shotgun," because a typical course includes a variety of ten to fifteen different shooting stations laid out over natural terrain.

  Web Site

  If you are interested in further exploring the themes discussed in the book please visit "Google Sites - Axxsum"