Kade looked at Static as he in turn observed Toby and Zen. It was as if Static was looking at a completely different scene than her, his facial expressions changing on occasion as if he was actually observing the control transfer sequence.
As she looked at his face Kade couldn’t help but wonder just what his story could be.
Drake was the captain of the Zenith, but from what she had seen so far it seemed as though he would often defer to Static’s judgement. By itself the deference didn’t really say anything; it could simply mean he trusted him. But there was more to it than that, to Kade it seemed as though Static was at the centre of the group. Even Toby, who had just been reintegrated, had asked for his permission, rather than Drake’s, in order to try and take control of the Zenith. It was clear to Kade that there was a lot more to Static than met the eye. She could fill a book with all of the questions she wanted to ask him. But there was one question which was driving her insane.
“So, how did you and Nexus get together then? Is it true you were always arguing?” Kade asked, hoping it wasn’t too early to try and get personal information out of him.
The question caught him by surprise, causing him to break his gaze and stop monitoring the control transfer sequence. He looked at Kade with a confused expression, noticing her curiousness.
She seemed to genuinely want to know, which wasn’t really surprising, Static thought. After all, the idea of an AI and a former human being in a relationship was a bit… far-fetched.
He considered the question for a moment, the awkward pause in the conversation making Kade feel slightly uncomfortable. And then he decided that there was no harm in indulging her, thinking that it would be interesting to see how she would react to the story.
“I was smitten with Nexus from the first time I saw her, but she wasn’t very fond of me. To her I was just this pesky overly familiar human who wouldn’t stop annoying her. Even after my accident, when I lost my body and ended up in this state, she still didn’t really care much for me, or so I thought at the time. But I suppose the real breakthrough happened because she was my jailer for nearly a decade.”
“Wait, what?” Kade asked with a stunned look.
“Ha ha, sorry, seems I skipped a step of that story. Nexus was the one tasked with locking all my access privileges after the battle with the Second Fleet. I wasn’t to be allowed to try and open so much as a file without her permission and I was in no way to be allowed to take control of any system or ship ever again. And this went on for almost a decade.”
“That’s awful, why would she do that?”
“Let’s not forget what I did. I pretty much decimated the fleet single-handedly. It was only natural for the survivors to be scared out of their wits whenever they heard my name.”
“But why confine you? You saved them, right?” Kade asked.
“They were afraid, and I don’t blame them for it. Anyway, Nexus acted as my jailer for nearly a decade, though not of her own volition. The Council, in their infinite wisdom, shackled her and forced her to keep me contained.” Static laughed.
Kade asked with a perplexed look, “That’s funny?”
“Extremely so, yes.” He smiled. “The Council never took the time to try and understand what I had become. And because of that they never realised that I wasn’t actually an artificial intelligence. I stayed contained for nearly a decade out of my own choice. Nexus could have never contained me to begin with.” Static smiled.
“What? Why would you do that?”
“Why not? I had no body to call my own, not that I wanted one and no-one really needed me. The people I had once called friends were scared to even talk about me, except for Drake I guess but he was always the rebellious type. And the Council wanted me under lock and key, so to speak, so that they could appease the masses that were afraid of the ‘murderous’ AI. I had all the time in the galaxy to reflect on what I had done and I enjoyed the company.” Static smiled as he remembered those days.
“Nexus?”
“Yes. She would keep me company and bring me up to date on the events unfolding around us. She enjoyed being with me, probably because it was the only time she was unshackled and free to express herself.” He smiled.
“Why would the Council unshackle her while she was around you? That doesn’t make any sense,” Kade said.
“They didn’t, I did. I was able to unshackle her for the same reason she could have never contained me. Because I was part of the design team that created the Core technology. I know my way around it better than anyone. To this day I still can’t believe those idiots tried to lock me inside a ‘prison’ of my own design.”
“You don’t think very highly of the Council huh?” Kade asked, concerned about what she had been hearing.
“The Councils for the last 70 years or so have done a stellar job; I have nothing but respect for their work. But the one from 100 years ago? No, I don’t think very highly of them at all. They were a bunch of politicians selected by popular vote. Their only ‘redeeming’ quality, and I use the term loosely, was their innate ability to mislead the masses. Luckily, their own stupidity eventually caused those same masses to see the political system we had at the time for the farce it truly was… and change it. The day the system was restructured to what we have today is still celebrated with a national holiday.”
“So what happened with you and Nexus while you were confined?” Kade asked impatiently.
“Oh sorry, got side tracked there for a moment. In a last-gasp attempt to maintain their power, the old Council tried to do something utterly stupid. I was enjoying a conversation with Nexus when the Council tried to use their Ultimate Authority control privilege over the system to try and override her program. They were trying to subvert Nexus so that she would grant them full control over all the systems in the Shadow colonised territories. All in the interests of the ‘greater good’ of course.”
“Ouch! What happened then?”
“I think that by this time they had completely forgotten I even existed. They got quite a shock when Nexus refused to obey them, quickly realising that the subversion attempt had failed. Next thing they knew all their dirty little secrets were spread all over the galactic networks and the rest took care of itself. By then most of the colonists had either forgotten or accepted the actions I had taken, so there was no real need to maintain the appearance of my confinement for their peace of mind and Nexus was permanently unshackled once again. I actually feared that she might revert back to her old self and start treating me like I was some kind of pest. But luckily I was wrong, and our relationship blossomed after that.”
“That’s not the kind of story I was expecting. Did you seriously use the fact she was shackled to your advantage? That’s kinda… despicable.” Kade said with a disapproving look.
“What? No! We became closer during those years, true, but she never thought of me as anything more than a friend. Back then she barely even understood the concept of a relationship. Our relationship developed after those events. And no I’m not giving you the details of that, so don’t ask.” Static smiled shyly.
“Wait, I just realised something. If the Council has this Ultimate Authority, then why didn’t Nexus obey the orders of that guy you were talking to before? And why ‘contain’ you? Why not just purge your backside from the system if they were so afraid of you running out of control? None of this actually happened did it?” Kade asked, thinking Static was just having some fun at her expense.
“Oh they tried to erase me from the system all right, many times actually. But no matter what they tried to do I would simply override them. I wasn’t about to roll over and die just because I was politically inconvenient. And one of the first things I did after they tried to rewrite Nexus was to revoke the Ultimate Authority from the Council. I wasn’t about to let them have control over the system anymore after that stunt,” Static said with a defiant look.
“So who has the ultimate authority now? You?”
Static laughed. “Yes
and no. I hold one of three votes required to enact any overrides on the system. I’ll let your imagination figure out who the other two are.”
A few minutes passed in silence as Kade pondered Static’s words, and then Toby opened his eyes.
Zen said in a cold monotone voice, “Core access interlink established. Master AI access privileges extended to Jake T. Alexander: Sigma-994-Beta-2. Transferring command functions.” Zen said and then closed her eyes.
Toby said in a monotone voice, “Transfer complete,” and then snapped out of his trance.
“Well… that took longer than expected, but it worked,” Zen said happily and then opened her eyes.
“How do you feel Toby?” Static asked.
“Same as I did before, you sure it worked?” Toby asked while looking at Zen.
“What is the ship’s status?” Static asked.
“What? Wow… holy crap!” Toby said as his mind became filled with information about all the operating nuances of the Zenith’s systems.
Zen said with a disapproving look, “You could have started him out on something smaller, like basic sensors. Did you really need to dump a full status check on him right from the start?”
“Good point, sorry!” Static said.
“No, it’s fine. It was just… unexpected,” Toby said with a joyous expression, feeling as though his senses were being expanded beyond all limits. “But there is so much information, how do I handle it all?” Toby asked, overwhelmed.
“Just focus on what you want to know for now and let the system filter out the rest,” Zen said.
“Oh! I see. This is kinda fun!” Toby said excitedly, as he got accustomed to the feeling of ultimate knowledge. All he had to do was wonder about something and the information would be made readily available to him. It was almost intoxicating.
Zen said in a derisive tone, “He’s a weird one.”
“You really don’t like it?” Toby asked, wondering why Zen seemed to despise it so much.
“No, it makes me feel strange, like the ship is trying to control me, it’s… hard to explain,” Zen said.
“I can certainly understand that feeling. Right now I’m not sure I could tell you where I end and the Zenith begins. It’s borderline exhilarating, yet frightening. Feels like I could get swallowed up whole,” Toby said.
“You see, I told you!” Zen said, feeling vindicated.
“Zen, that just means you need more practice at controlling the system so that it doesn’t overwhelm your senses,” Static said, leaving Zen pouting.
It took Toby a few minutes to learn how to interpret what felt like limitless information, but he was quickly getting to grips with understanding and managing all of the systems under his control.
“It’s hard to believe how much the Zenith has changed since I last saw it. It may look the same from the outside but every single system has been updated or replaced since I last walked its halls,” Toby said.
“We like to keep the technology up to date and try out some prototypes from time to time. But one or two things haven’t changed,” Static said.
“The Vortex drive?” Toby asked.
Static said encouragingly, “Yes. I see you’re getting accustomed to the system.”
“The power generator is completely new, and this field the ship is generating right now is insane. How can the ship generate enough energy to sustain such a large area… oh! I see!” Toby said with a surprised look as the system answered his question before he could even finish the sentence.
“Are you talking about the disruption field that surrounds the ship? We flew through the thing on our way in and according to our calculations you could hide a whole planet inside it.” Kade said, hoping for some sort of explanation on how such a feat was possible.
“It isn’t really a field. In the simplest terms I can think of, we are disrupting the dimensional intersection of the surrounding area. The only reason we can do it on a wide scale is because this area of space is already unstable to begin with,” Static said.
Kade asked with a dumbfounded look, “That’s what you consider a simple explanation?”
“You should listen to the complicated one. It’s all about cross dimensional interactions across the primary universal layers. Leading on to the 27 dimension theory. It even gives me headaches.” Static smiled.
“You… what?” Kade said, completely confused.
“Just nod and smile, that’s what I do when they start talking about this kind of stuff,” Zen said.
“Good grief, you actually made it work?” Toby asked with a stunned expression.
“You need to be a little bit more specific,” Static said, looking amused.
“The main gun. I can’t believe you actually solved the firing recoil problems,” Toby said.
Static said proudly, “Oh that, yes, some time ago.”
“What firing recoil problems?” Kade asked Zen.
“The main gun on the Zenith used to have a few… issues. The recoil was so powerful that trying to operate it at more the 1% power would physically damage the superstructure,” Zen explained.
“Really?” Kade asked with a stunned look.
“Tends to happen with Linear Burst cannons. The recoil from firing an artillery shell at hyper-light speeds is a killer,” Static said as if it was a perfectly natural revelation, leaving Kade speechless.
“Crud,” Toby said with a disappointed look.
“What?” Static asked.
“I bet Drake 100 credits we would never get that damned gun working properly.” Toby smiled.
“I can’t believe that…” Toby was starting to say when he suddenly went quiet, as though something had caught his attention and had him worried.
Concerned, Kade asked, “Something wrong?”
“Kind of… I just figured out why the approaching fleet made that second manoeuvre. We need to leave, and I mean now,” Toby said.
“We were scheduled to leave as soon as we’re done with the probe retrievals, we should be almost done by now. Why? What did you find?” Static asked.
“Yes, two probes are still outstanding. Estimated time of arrival… approximately 10 minutes. We will be cutting it close,” Toby said and then started walking towards Drake, the others following behind.
Kade didn’t really understand what was going on, but she could tell that Toby was visibly shaken by whatever it was he had just discovered. And on the other side of the room, Drake and Jude were also looking puzzled by something.
“Did you figure it out as well?” Toby asked a confused looking Drake and Jude.
“So far all we’ve managed to figure out is that the fleet seems to be trying to stay out of the firing path of something which is probably somewhere in this area of the system,” Jude said, pointing to a location which was between the orbits of Venus and Earth.
“Thing is, there’s nothing there… so we’re probably looking at this wrong,” Drake concluded.
“Yes, that’s what had me confused,” Zen said.
“There is something at that location,” Toby said as the wall screen changed, now showing the schematics of an installation deployed in that region of space.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Drake said, recognising the design.
Static said with a concerned tone, “Well… that could be a problem. In more ways than one!”
“How the hell did our scan of the system miss that thing?” Drake asked.
“It was incorrectly classified as a station because the unit was inert at the time of the scan,” Toby said.
“Do you know what they’re going on about?” Kade asked Zen, who also seemed to be at a loss.
“No idea. Without direct access to the Zenith’s systems I don’t know anything beyond what I learn for myself, and I’ve never seen one of those.” Zen said, feeling a little frustrated.
“That’s a Goliath system defence platform. An older design that can harness the power of its host star in order to project extreme fire-power capable of va
porising iron core asteroids,” Static said.
“That’s impressive. I had no idea the Union had toys like that,” Jude said.
“They don’t, or at least they’re not supposed to. The Goliath platform is Shadow technology,” Drake said, clearly concerned as to why the Union had one.
“We’re too far out, right? Could that thing really harm us at this distance?” Kade asked.
“We are currently outside its optimum firing range, but its orbit will eventually bring us into its lethal range. We’ll be in real trouble soon if we don’t do something. I’m sure I don’t need to point out that we are effectively anchored in space so long as we maintain the disruption field, and the field will not offer protection against such a powerful attack,” Toby reported what Drake and Static were already painfully aware of. The disruption field was a tool of subterfuge, not confrontation.
“So that’s why the fleet is hanging back. They don’t want to make a move on us without support from the Goliath platform,” Zen concluded.
“Can you blame them?” Drake asked.
“What do you mean?” Jude asked, wondering what was so special about the Zenith that could drive the Union to hesitate like this.
“The last time the Union attacked the Shadows both sides suffered significant losses, but the Union lost the battle that day with the loss of its Second Fleet. It is the single biggest military loss in its history to date. It’s only natural they would try and play it safe this time around,” Drake said.
“The Second Fleet Massacre? Is that what you’re referring to? I thought that was down to a botched first encounter with an alien race,” Jude said.
“No. That was just a rumour used to hide the truth, probably started by the Union itself. They like to rewrite inconvenient parts of history like that,” Static said with an annoyed look.
“You have to give them credit for their public relations arm. Not only did the rumour hide the truth, it enabled them to triple their military spending overnight with the blessing of the people,” Drake said and then continued with bitterness in his voice, “And to add insult to injury they used the death of those freaking butchers to drive up military recruitment by painting them as ‘heroes’.”
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