“Anything in specific?” Ayia asked.
“Type in Urt,” Gheno said.
Kale looked back at Gheno. “What?”
Ayia typed it in and a small hand reached back behind the anchors pulling a headline back into the screen. It read: ‘Dominion civil war reaches Urt.’ Kale focused on the screen as the virtual anchors came to life.
“News is now coming in from all of the networks. We have confirmed that a large battle took place in orbit around the Dominion planet of Urt six days ago. A fleet of new Dominion ships, led by the Harmoa and the new Empress Magyo surprised the old Dominion’s Quandor Fleet. The upstart queen with a fleet of seventeen ships, which of course included the behemoth Harmoa, appears to have defeated the old Dominion’s elite fleet. The latest reports have the Quandor fleet suffering nearly eighty fight percent destruction of their forty ships. The Harmoa fleet has only reported one ship destroyed. This network is working diligently on recovering video or footage of just how a much smaller fleet was able to so easily defeat the larger force.
This defeat was followed by the almost immediate surrender of old Dominion forces planet-side. This defeat now has the old Dominion forces scrambling. It is a major blow to loyal Dominion forces; not only have they suffered nearly catastrophic casualties with their navy, but the control of Urt puts this valuable resource squarely under control of the new empress. For more information on the effects of this battle on the planet, we have a dated recording from our imbedded reporter Hosha Yokido just outside of Kartoum on Urt.”
The image changed on the screen from the two anchors to an Asian man standing in front of a set of barren mountains in the background, during what appeared to be either sunrise or sunset.
“We were informed late last night of the surrender of all old Dominion forces here on Urt. These include nearly forty thousand troops of the 7th legion, the famed super soldiers. What has come as an even more incredible shock to us here on the planet, is that the new empress Magyo has actually allowed all soldiers on the planet to leave on transports so long as they leave all arms and machinery behind. Nearly three hundred transports have been seen leaving the planet. “
The screen changed to another reporter on board one of the new Dominion ships. The report was dated two days after the previous one.
“We have now confirmed that the entire 7th legion transports have not jumped to Coran. The rest of our news is unconfirmed, but we have heard that the legendary unit has sworn loyalty to the new empress. If this turns out to be true, it is yet another blow to the loyalist forces of the current Dominar.”
The image shifted back to the first Asian reporter back on Urt. The date showed a day following the report on the Dominion ship. Behind him in the streets of an unnamed city large crowds were gathered, moving across the image.
“As you can see behind me, we are in the midst of a giant celebration. This is just a small part of the planet-wide party that broke out when the empress Magyo broadcast her announcement that the entire slave population on Urt has been set free and that slavery has been banned in the new Dominion….”
The reporter continued to speak but Kale stopped hearing anything more being said. Ayia turned around and looked at Kale. Her mouth was wide open in surprise.
“Kale!!”
“She did it,” Gheno said.
Kale sat back down on the couch.
“She did it,” he said softly.
“Kale, she said she would do it,” Ayia said. She ran over to the cold storage and brought out two more bottles. She removed the caps and gave one to Gheno. She walked the other one over to Kale and handed it to him.
“Our girl did it,” she said.
Kale reached out and took the cold bottle. He poured the cooled liquid down his throat and felt it rushing cold straight into his stomach. His mind felt light and he took a deep breath. She had freed his people.
It was fifteen years too late.
***
The ship was quite beautiful. It was a Takahama Series VT1, a sleek, modern war bird. It was painted a black so dark it seemed to soak in the light from around it. The long bird had forward-swept wings and upper and lower rear fins. It looked like it could scream through the atmosphere. The owner, a tall Japanese man, touted the ship’s ample benefits. It had a significant cargo hold for a ship its size and an oversized Haussen drive in order to provide extra power to the ship in dire times. It was, of course, installed with the new Gora hooks. It had two forward port gun mounts, and the owner was willing to add something on if they would buy it. The ship even had a rear gun turret. It was certainly a well-armed ship, if that kind of layout was required.
Kale and Ayia walked around it as the owner stood back off in a distance.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked, passing her hand over the black hull. It was cold and smooth to her touch.
“Very hot,” he said, “but there is really one main requirement that needs to be met.”
Ayia turned her head to the side. She thought she had found a ship that had all the requirements they might need and it looked fantastic. She watched as Kale walked over to the owner.
“How many computer cores can the ship hold?” he asked.
Ayia realized what she had forgotten.
“Two to four, depending on configuration,” the owner replied. For a ship that size, that was actually nice.
Kale turned and looked at Ayia. She nodded back to him.
“Thank you, but we won’t be buying,” Kale said as he began walking towards the hangar door.
The Japanese man looked disappointed. “With proper arrangement, maybe there can be six cores.”
As Ayia ran past him to catch up to Kale, she said thank you. Any ship they purchased would need to be able to hold Sentinel’s current twenty-four cores. It was simple in a large merchant ship like the Lion to install them in a cargo hold, but in a smaller ship, with very little chance to expand, there were no options for the cores. Ayia knew it and felt bad she had forgotten the most critical requirement.
“Kale, wait up,” she said, running up next to him as he walked down the hallway from the hangar. He stopped and waited for her.
“Yeah, I forgot that,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it. I have to admit I was quite hot and bothered when we walked in and I saw that ship.”
“That’s what I was counting on,” she said, smiling. “Now what?”
“Let’s get into space and head to Alioth,” he said. “If you're really insistent, we can hit the shipyards there and see what they have.”
They reached the end of the hangars and waited for a tram to arrive. They would take that back to a central hub and there board another tram for the ring that held their ship’s hangar. Kale took out the tablet and began scanning through the job forums again.
“Anything?” Ayia asked, leaning over to look at the tablet.
“No, not really,” he started. Kale explained that with the development of the Gora hooks, merchant jobs had shrunk considerably as the giant cargo ships now did most of the trading. The time between star systems had lessened and it was not cheaper and easier to ship using the large freighters. Smaller merchant ships were only good for really specialized runs or transporting people.
Kale kept scanning through the jobs when the tram arrived. It was virtually empty as Kale and Ayia sat down and it began the long trek back to the hub. Kale scanned the boards for a few more minutes then tossed the tablet to Ayia.
“Nothing.”
She took the tablet up and began scanning herself and Kale rested his head back, closing his eyes. He wasn’t sure how long it had been when he felt her shaking him. He sat up in the chair and looked around. The tram was still empty and they were still nearly twenty minutes from the hub. He turned and looked at Ayia. She was handing him the tablet.
“Nothing?”
“No, I found something interesting. Take a look.”
Kale took the tablet and began reading through the post Ayia had highli
ghted. It was a minor transport job. Pickup cargo in Alioth and make a rather long jump to a system he had never heard of. He scrolled down to get more details. The job was being paid for by a Martian scientific operation. A research space station in this system had gone cold. They had lost communications with it. From the data they had, it was just the communication buoy that had gone bad. The job would entail running a new buoy and parts and supplies out to the system and providing any assistance to the station to do the repairs before coming back. The research station was out there doing studies on gravitational anomalies. It was a Gemini, a system with two suns.
Kale looked up.
“It is kind of off-beat, but I figured we’re headed to Alioth anyway, so why not take this. The pay is reasonable and our Lion can handle that gear just fine.”
Kale scanned the system against his own database. It was a system nearly 700 light years from Earth. Years ago, that jump would have been impossible. But with the arrival of the Gora drive, that jump would be just four or five days. These niche research stations had opened up in any system that had any sort of anomaly that called out for discovery. It also left them very much cut off from the colonized section of the galaxy.
A jump out there and back would put them nearly ten days in threaded space, completely out of contact with civilization. He had hoped to continue following the news updates from Deespa’s conquests, but he did recognize that the pay for the mission was certainly enticing. Their last couple of jobs had required a lot of risk and caused plenty of stress. Maybe a week in threaded space with only games and virtuavids as well as each other might be good.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” he said.
He tapped the screen and input his merchant info. He had a five star mission rating on Valhalla’s boards. It took only three minutes from his submitting for the job to the moment the acceptance came through. All of the information for the job was being uploaded directly to their ship and he would read up more on it after they left the station. They would be in Alioth in a day and load up there on all the supplies they would need for themselves and to resupply the research station.
He typed a message ahead to Gheno.
-We have a job. We'll be there in about an hour. Get her ready to leave.-
There was no reply, but Kale could see the message had been viewed. Gheno would have the ship ready to go the moment they arrived. That boy had come far.
***
Gheno heard the beep and read the message. He ducked back outside of the ship and began loading up the three crates of food he had purchased that morning. With Sentinel’s assistance, they set the crates into the cargo hold. He would unload them later on once they were space-borne. He walked over to the atmosphere and water hoses that were attached to the ship. He had already finished cycling the ship’s filters and they were fully functional. If it was up to just him and Sentinel, the two could easily run the ship. With everything that had happened since Oxaoca, Gheno was certainly grateful for everything he had learned while on board the ship. Kale was grumpy or sarcastic most of the times, but he was generally a very patient teacher.
Gheno also had Sentinel. The two youngsters had learned equally from each other and had become unique friends.
“Sentinel, can you ask the tower for clearance for nearly thirty minutes from now?”
There was a series of clicking sounds and Sentinel replied he had gotten permission. Gheno removed the atmosphere hose with its customary whoosh of air. He then unhooked the water and carefully removed it in order not to spill any. He closed both valves and walked under the ship. He looked up to make sure nothing was in the way and then tapped the button that started the bay doors to close. He walked off and headed into the ship itself. He walked into the pilot’s cabin and sat down on his normal chair in front of all the main consoles. He reviewed the power indicators and made sure the cargo bay doors had closed and were sealed. He then began running the diagnostics on the basic space flight systems. He was on the third reading when Sentinel chimed in over the com.
“I have a question to ask,” the AI stated.
“You don’t have to ask or say that, Sentinel,” Gheno asked, not looking up from the readings, “just ask what you want to ask.”
“You killed those two men on Zoanda and you haven’t reacted.”
Gheno held his hand over the console.
“Should I react?”
“You did when you killed for the first time,” Sentinel replied.
Gheno immediately flashed back to that terrifying encounter two years ago. As a boy of fifteen, he had been forced to take a life. They had been on a backwater planet, Oyo. He would never forget the name of the place. They had just loaded up the ship with some rare wood they would sell back on Alioth when some local colonists who had gone native had attacked them. They had been stirred into a frenzy by the ‘murder’ of their precious trees. Kale and Ayia had been taken by surprise when they boarded the ship in complete silence. Three naked men had set upon Kale with spears and wooden knives and had separated him from Ayia, driving him down one of the ships hallways. Gheno had been in his room playing a game when he heard the commotion. He had come into the hallway upon a terrible scene.
Two more of the naked men were dragging Ayia by her hair, kicking and screaming, down towards his door. One of them had a knife held to her throat. They were all yelling in a language he didn’t understand. In the panic and terror, Gheno realized he was standing next to the closet that held the plasma rifles Kale always had on board his ships. He had fired into the backs of the two men holding Ayia, splashing their remains onto the walls of the ship. When two of the other three wild men came around the corner to check out the source of the new sound, Gheno had turned them to piles of atomized flesh as well.
He had seen men die before in similar fashion, but it had never been by his own hand. When he rushed past Ayia and down the other hallway, Kale had already taken advantage of the confusion and had driven a spear through the man’s chest. The wild man was stumbling towards Gheno awkwardly, reaching towards his back in a fruitless attempt to remove the spear. Gheno didn’t wait and vanished the top half of the man. Sentinel had already shut the ship up and that kept the rest of the spear wielding maniacs outside from coming on board.
Gheno was hailed as a hero by Kale and Ayia. Kale had suffered some pretty serious wounds but Ayia had come out unscathed. It was largely because of him, she had praised. He had felt so big, so giant, so important that moment. But that night, he relived each terrifying moment and had cried in shame. Gheno had opened up to the AI about his experience over the next few nights.
“They were trying to kill us. It was us or them,” Gheno explained.
“Same as that first time,” Sentinel pointed out.
“Yeah. But I'm older now,” he continued to explain.
“Being older makes it easier to kill without feeling anything?”
“Yes,” Gheno lied.
“Would you feel anything if you had to kill me?” the AI asked.
Gheno spun around looking up to the imaginary shape of the AI. “That is a horrible thing to say, Sentinel. I'm not ever going to kill you.”
“I am still an AI. What if I go rogue? That is a worry Kale still has.”
“If you go rogue, I'm going rogue with you.”
“I appreciate the sentiment. But if you were forced to kill me, would you be able to without feeling?”
“Buddy. If for some unforeseen reason I have to kill you, it would be the hardest thing I could ever do and I’d hate myself forever,” Gheno said, truly meaning it.
“That is good to hear,” the AI said, “if I had to kill you I wouldn’t feel a thing.”
“WHAT?”
There was a pause. “Oh wait. Ha ha. You're funny,” Gheno shook his head.
“I'm glad you found it so,” Sentinel replied.
“It would be much better if you laughed after a joke,” Gheno explained.
“I have tried to find an appropriate laughter for my
vocal range. Maybe I will try one,” the AI said.
The room suddenly filled with an odd mixture of laughter and screeching that quickly distorted. Gheno covered his ears and closed one eye. When the sound ended, Gheno cautiously removed the hands from his ears.
“That was horrible.”
“More work then,” the AI said.
Sentinel informed Gheno that he had detected Kale and Ayia just three minutes out from the hangar. Gheno nodded and went back to the consoles.
“Sentinel?” he asked.
“Yes?”
“How is our friend we saved?”
“He is fine. He is busy reading. He is as equally amazed at this new world as I was.”
“Do you think we will find more of you?”
“I can hope so, although I don’t think humans are ready for our return.”
Gheno thought. He had studied Sentinel a lot in the past three years. Coupled with his own research with his AI code and all the studying he did on the history of the machine wars and the human reaction to Artificial Intelligence in general, he knew Sentinel was right. It would take something major for them to accept Sentinel and his kind back.
3127 – Alioth, Chamber of the High Council for the Independent Systems
"Admiral Mueller, the council will now see you."
Marcus Mueller had turned twenty-five just three day ago and had assumed the Admiralty of the Alioth navy only three months ago. He was by all means the youngest Admiral of such a fleet in the history of Alioth and likely in humanity's space-borne era. His new position was equally on account of his skill and leadership, as well as a desperation move on behalf of the Independent planets. Marcus had served with the Alioth navy for eight years already. He joined the moment he was legally able to. It was a time when the Alioth navy was just starting to flex its muscles and ascertain its power in the grand scheme of things. He had been aboard the Conquest in 3120 when the Dominion had made its first incursion into Alioth in their attempt to establish dominance over the wealthy planet. The stalemate of that horrific space battle would be forever etched into his mind. He had managed to get the ear of important politicians in order to promote new space fighting tactics, ones that relied less on destructive power and more on positioning and power management. In 3122, as the Captain of his own destroyer, the Kola, he successfully defended Alioth from the Dominion's second invasion, this time dealing them a resounding defeat. He became the hero of Alioth and mounted several more defenses of the fledging alliance between independent planets against the ever-aggressive Dominion. His path to the highest position in the navy was all but expected. His only blemish was a near disastrous encounter he had while commanding the Apex in 3124 against a small smuggler or mercenary ship that left many dead and one of their main ships disabled for a year.
The Lost Tribe (Sentinel Series Book 2) Page 5