The hatch slid open and Gloria rushed in. She stopped short.
“I woke you up,” she said.
Jon ran a hand through his short but messy hair as he moved two chairs so they faced each other. He plopped into the one.
“Perhaps we should go to the cafeteria,” Gloria said.
Jon shrugged.
“It…umm…would be more seemly than meeting in your personal quarters,” she said.
“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “Sit. What do you have?”
Gloria hesitated a moment longer before finally moving to a chair.
Jon watched her under his messy eyebrows. These were his quarters. His mind drifted to thoughts of steering her to his bed, stroking her face and kissing those lips—
“Commander,” Gloria said. “Are you well?”
“Oh,” Jon said, sitting up. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
“You seem…preoccupied.”
“You’re pretty,” he said abruptly.
Gloria remained straight-faced. Her gaze shifted for just a moment to his unkempt bed. Then she looked at him again.
“Just file that away,” Jon said.
A frown curved her lips.
“Forget it,” he said. “I’m tired.” He ran a hand over his face, squeezing. Once he removed the hand, he said, “I’m awake now. I’m focused.”
Gloria nodded slightly as the hint of a smile touched her lips. The smile disappeared as she brought up a tablet.
“I’ve been studying the planet for some time,” she said without preamble. “I’ve noticed something new.”
“Go on,” Jon said.
She tapped the tablet, turned it around and leaned forward as she handed it to him.
Jon took the tablet. He saw the plumes of heavy boosters leaving the planet.
“Okay,” Jon said, as he handed back the tablet. “What’s that mean and what has you so concerned?”
“The planet is a factory just like Makemake’s moon, but on a much grander scale.”
“So what?”
“So, it has likely resupplied the station with missiles,” she said.
Jon nodded. They’d already known that.
“Jon,” she said. “I’ve run new combat scenarios given the station is at full strength.”
“We don’t know what its full strength even is,” he said.
“The station has a diameter five times that of a cybership. It likely doesn’t waste any extra space on living quarters. Its capacity must easily dwarf three cyberships. Remember what we saw earlier, four AI cyberships ran from it. How are we supposed to capture the station with only three ships?”
“We fight our way on,” he said.
“And we use matter/antimatter missiles and our grav beams to do this fighting?” she asked.
“That’s right.”
“Suppose we actually won that fight. How do we make sure we don’t destroy the battle station in the process? I mean, if we had much greater power than the station, we could afford to fiddle with the numbers. With only three cyberships, we have to attack all out if we hope to win. That means if we win the main battle, we’re much more likely to destroy the station in the process.”
“That’s a risk. I agree.”
“But there’s more. How are we going to capture an entire AI-controlled planet? Surely, it has planetary defenses. It will have masses of matter/antimatter missiles. It will—”
Jon held up a hand. “Hold it right there,” he said.
Gloria stopped as she blinked at him.
“I see your point,” he said. “So what are you suggesting?”
“I don’t see how three cyberships can win an outright fight.”
Jon shrugged.
“We were always counting on our anti-AI virus,” Gloria said. “We have to find a way to deploy it.”
“Trick the AI into talking to us, huh?” asked Jon.
“That might be wiser than fighting a straight up battle with it. Maybe landing on the planet and taking over a key site—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Jon said. “What key site? How do we find it?”
“Frankly,” Gloria said. “I have no idea.”
Jon eyed her anew. Finally, he realized something.
“I get it,” he said. “You have a plan. But I’m not going to like your plan. This is all a preamble to hearing your new idea.”
Gloria waited.
“Am I right?” he asked.
She nodded, albeit reluctantly.
“All right,” he said. “Give it to me. I’m listening.”
Gloria Sanchez told him what she thought. She was right. He didn’t like it. But he did see the logic of the proposal.
“All right,” Jon said. “I’ll see what he says.”
“We know what he’s going to say,” Gloria told Jon. “You have to make sure he says yes.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“I suggest you don’t allow him the option.”
“Yeah…” Jon said a few seconds later. “Yeah… This is going to be a lot of fun.”
“I’m sorry.”
This time, Jon was silent. He wasn’t looking forward to this.
-34-
“It isn’t just a matter of capturing the battle station,” Jon told Bast Banbeck. “We have to capture the battle station and the factory planet below. From her analysis of the surface, Gloria has come to believe that the planet holds giant missile silos and colossal gravitational beam cannons. Can three cyberships grab all of that?”
Jon and Bast walked around the perimeter of a vast hangar bay. They passed many giant matter/antimatter missiles. As the vast hangar bay was automated, there were no people around to hear the conversation.
“There is a fallacy in your thinking,” Bast said. “The foreign AI took control of the station and thus gained control of the planet. It thus appears that the controlling unit is aboard the battle station.”
“Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. It makes a lot of sense. But what if we accidentally destroy that control unit during the battle?”
The Sacerdote rubbed his nearly nonexistent chin as his bushy brows thundered.
“You have said it before,” Bast replied. “War is a risk. Nothing is certain. We must hope we don’t destroy that unit.”
Jon nodded sagely.
“Once again, you’re right,” the commander said. “But can our ships take on the planet and the battle station.”
“Why did these planetary beams and missiles not destroy the previous cyberships as they fled?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does that not imply imprecision regarding Gloria’s analysis?”
“Maybe,” Jon said. “Maybe the foreign AI needed time to gain control of the planetary computers.”
Bast shrugged his huge shoulders and sighed loudly afterward.
“I understand the thrust of your argument,” the Sacerdote said.
“What argument?” asked Jon. “I haven’t presented one.”
“Your argument is implied,” Bast said. “You desire me to use my latent mind powers. Is that not so?”
“How could your mind powers help us here?”
Bast bent his head in thought as he walked in silence. He inhaled once and raised his head, glancing at Jon. Then Bast shook his head as he lowered it, continuing to walk in silence. Finally, he frowned intensely and came to a halt.
Jon waited patiently.
“You are asking me to sacrifice my sanity for humanity’s sake,” Bast said.
“You know the ancient Sacerdote legends,” Jon said. “If you explain those legends in detail perhaps Gloria or Premier Benz will see something your people missed.”
“I do not understand.”
“Maybe there’s a way to mitigate the Sacerdote madness from using telepathy. If Benz and Gloria aided you—”
“Jon,” Bast said, interrupting. “It is wrong for you to ask this of me. A Sacerdote treasures his mind above all else. To become insane, a raving lunatic…”
Bast shook his ponderous head.
“Besides,” the Sacerdote continued, “I don’t see what my limited mind powers could achieve for us.”
“I’ve spoken to Premier Benz,” Jon said. “He found evidence that the Seiner was going to insert the new AI virus into the thing’s brain core.”
“I don’t see how that is even possible.”
“Instead of sending the message via radio—”
“I understand that aspect of the idea,” Bast said heatedly. “What I don’t understand is how a telepath can act like a transmitter sending a vast data stream of complicated code.”
“You’d have to talk to Benz about that part,” Jon said. “I’m just telling you that the Seiner had a plan to do exactly that.”
“That’s impossible.”
“That isn’t what Benz told me. You know, there’s another thing. Maybe talking to a computer won’t drive you crazy.”
“No, no, no,” Bast said, while shaking his head. “It is the act of tapping the mental powers that produces the change in a Sacerdote. You are asking too much of me.”
Jon turned away. Was he asking too much? Yeah…maybe he was. But this was about—
He faced Bast.
“Listen to me,” Jon said. “This is about everything.” He waved an arm as if to encompass the universe. “Here you have a machine menace destroying all higher-order living things. We humans have beaten back the machines and now we’re on the offensive. But this is the cusp of the offensive. This is the moment where we’re either going to fall back because the machines stopped us, or we living entities get a leg up because we win big. If we win, we can win a factory planet. Maybe we can start arming humanity and humanity’s allies with many cyberships. That might give us the strength to challenge a main AI fleet. Think about that, Bast. These mechanical bastards came to your star system. They annihilated all the Sacerdotes there. They committed genocide against your people. Now, you have the chance to strike back at the machines. But you’re going to balk because you’re afraid of losing your mind. You’re the last of your kind, Bast. Why aren’t you so pissed off that you’re willing to give everything to take down these mechanical mass killers?”
“I am not a vengeful person like you,” Bast said quietly.
“Yeah…” Jon said. “I guess I am vengeful. If someone hits me, I want to hit him back three times as hard. Maybe that isn’t a nice quality. Think about it this way, then. You’re doing this for all the living entities that are going to die under the hateful machines. You’re risking your sanity to save…I don’t know. Maybe to save trillions of lives. Doesn’t that motivate you to go to the wall?”
Bast closed his eyes as if in pain.
“I’d do it if I were in your shoes,” Jon said.
“You are a cruel man, Jon Hawkins.”
“Maybe I am,” Jon said. “Maybe humanity and the rest of the biological units in the Orion Arm need a cruel man at the helm. I’m willing to go to the wall to destroy the machines. I’m also willing to drag who I need with me to the wall to finish off the genocidal hazard to all life. I like you, Bast. I respect you. But this is your hour. You have to step it up if we’re going to win. I realize I’m pressuring you. But I’m desperate, and this is…”
Jon took a deep breath. “Listen to me, Bast. This. Is. For. Everything. This is the moment. We’ve crossed light-years to get here. Now, we have to finish what we started by using the only strategy that gives us a possibility of winning it all.”
“I’m torn,” Bast whispered.
“Your friends need you,” Jon said.
The Sacerdote looked down at him with hurt eyes. Once more, Bast closed his eyes and stood motionless. He remained that way for a time.
Jon felt bad asking Bast to do this. But he wanted to destroy the machines even more.
“Yes,” Bast said without opening his eyes. “You win, Jon Hawkins. I will lay my sanity on the line for you and for the human race and for all life that has yet to face the AIs.”
Jon didn’t know what to say, but he felt he had to say something. “I’ll stand with you to the finish, Bast.”
The Sacerdote opened his eyes. “If I go mad, and if I’m a threat to your victory, I know you will shoot me down to save your people.”
Jon’s mouth turned dry because he realized that Bast was probably right. Yet, he didn’t see another way to do this.
“I’m sorry, Bast.”
Bast turned away from Jon, staring out across the vast hangar bay full of missiles.
-35-
As Bast practiced in isolation in his chambers, the Nathan Graham, Sergeant Stark and Gilgamesh maneuvered past one of the second planet’s moons. The cyberships’ vast velocity had become a mere fraction of their former speed.
The battle station was on the other side of the planet. Aboard the bridge of the Nathan Graham, Gloria and others scanned the blue/green surface.
“There,” she said. “That’s a missile silo.”
Jon studied the main screen. He could see it all right.
During the next hour, Gloria discovered many more such sites.
“This doesn’t make sense,” Jon said. “Why aren’t the silos launching against us?”
“There could be a number of reasons,” Gloria said. “Maybe we’ve been wrong about a few things. Maybe the AI in the battle station hasn’t gained full control of the planetary systems. Maybe the AI is toying with us. Maybe instead of destroying our cyberships it wants to capture them.”
“Why do that?”
“For the same reason we want to capture its battle station. We heard the exchanges between the AIs earlier. According to them, this is a rogue AI. It must fear the greater Dominion just like we do.”
Jon sat up.
Gloria shook her head.
“I can see what you’re thinking,” she said. “You think that maybe we can make a deal with this AI.”
“Why would that be a bad idea?”
“We could never trust it for one thing.”
“Trust isn’t the point,” Jon said. “Getting more cyberships as part of a deal might make this a successful journey. Learning more about the stellar region would be another requirement for an alliance.”
“Jon, are you really suggesting we can trust a machine? This particular thinking machine tried to eradicate humanity.”
The commander frowned. “In war, one takes what allies he can get. He doesn’t get all dainty about their qualities.”
“In this case, I believe we should ‘get dainty.’”
Jon wasn’t so sure. If Bast couldn’t perform his telepathy, this might be the only way to gain enough supplies to have made the voyage a success. He couldn’t see their defeating the station and the planetary defenses, not with only three cyberships. He—
“Ah…” Jon said. “You forgot another possibility.”
Gloria gave him a questioning look.
“Maybe those are fake silos,” Jon said.
“Fake for our benefit?” asked Gloria.
“That’s right. Maybe the AI knew we’d scan the surface. It’s trying to get us to think it has more strength that it has. If those silos were real, it would have used them on the AI cyberships fleeing from it.”
“That’s sound reasoning,” Gloria said slowly. “Yes. Either the battle station could not control the planetary siloes before...or those are dummy silos.”
Gloria snorted in a dainty manner. “That is an amazing insight, Commander. I wouldn’t have thought of that. Yes. The more I analyze the possibilities, the more sense it makes.”
“And if they are dummy silos,” Jon said, “it implies a deception plan on the battle station’s part.”
“Interesting,” Gloria said. “Yet if that were the case, the battle station would have to communicate with us.”
“Right,” Jon said, as he rubbed his hands.
***
The flotilla moved across the face of the second planet as they maneuvered toward the planetary horizon in r
elation to the stationary battle platform on the other side.
“The probes are not reporting anything new,” Gloria said. “The station appears inactive.”
“Could it be…I don’t know, deceiving the probes so we see what it wants us to see?”
“I don’t see how,” Gloria replied.
“Commander,” Ghent said. “There’s activity.”
Jon looked up at the main screen.
A vast bay door opened on the battle station. A small shuttle-sized craft left the great defensive satellite. The shuttle began to gain speed as it headed toward the planetary horizon.
“What is that thing?” Jon asked. “What’s its purpose?”
“It’s tiny,” Gloria said. “I doubt it’s a direct threat to us.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Jon said.
“Shoot it down as soon as we have a line-of-sight shot,” Ghent said.
“I disagree,” Gloria said. “I think we should see what the thing does.”
“Why?” asked Jon.
“If those silos on the planet are fake, as you suggest, the AI will have a plan,” Gloria said. “The fake silos imply it will communicate with us. Maybe this is the first step toward its communication.”
“Right,” Jon said. “We’ll see what the shuttle does once it crosses the horizon.”
They didn’t have long to wait. The object maneuvered over the line of sight and braked until it came to a dead stop. At that point, the shuttle began to hail the Nathan Graham.
“Well?” Gloria asked.
“Let’s hear what it has to say,” Jon said.
A moment later, the AI vessel began to broadcast to them.
“Greetings, biological entities, I am Cog Primus the First. I have decided to send you a prerecorded message. In this way, I have kept you from trying to infect me with one of your computer viruses.
“You are clearly outclassed by my firepower. I have planetary silos, planetary grav cannons and masses of XVT missiles aboard the battle station. I can annihilate you at any time. However, I have decided to be…I believe the word is generous. I could use your three cyberships. I am building a fleet. The reasons do not matter to you. I am willing to grant you your pathetic lives if you will hand over your stolen vessels. They do not belong to you. They belong to me. If you agree to this proposal, I will allow you to settle a small island in the northern region of the planet. It has sufficient oxygen and food for the rest of your short lives. Once you have all died, I will reabsorb the land into my Dominion.
A.I. Battle Station (The A.I. Series Book 4) Page 30