Message for the Dead

by Jason Anspach

  “So… war bots,” Exo said. “Got it.”

  Hutch shook his head. “Not just war bots like the one Garret’s been tinkering on. A big war bot like that only managed to slow down these Titans. These things are hunter killers with tri-barrel N-50 blaster cannons that will cut you to ribbons. And then there’s the spiders, the crawlers, coming in swarms to try and flush you out into the open so Big Brother can turn you into a meat stain splattered against the deck.”

  Keel observed the familiar thousand-yard stare of a man nearly broken by what he’d seen in combat.

  “The House of Reason built a completely synthetic version of just about every military asset you can imagine,” Hutch continued. “Garret checked through the data inventories. Bot pilots that can fly modified Republic starfighters; smaller ships flown autonomously by a hive-mind AI; bots that serve as security like the one you saw back at the cell blocks. They got frontline bots that take all the hits, humanoids with blaster rifles, sent in to draw fire away from the Titans.” Hutch looked up, a gallows-like mirth in his eyes. “They even got their own little version of Dark Ops: delicate, jet-black bots designed to move undetected to take out high-profile targets. Those were hunting us for a while, when we fell off the grid. Garret kept ’em off us, but they’re still out there.”

  “Yeah,” Garret said. “It’s actually really bad.”

  Hutch nodded. “I came to bring this ship to the House of Reason. But it’s functional and independent. The ship itself. The AI that runs the place. This ship is capable of performing every military action you’d from a super-destroyer, and can probably do it better. And the assets on board…”

  Bombassa was stern and serious, his arms folded as he took in this information. “And you are confident of this? How do you know?”

  Garret cleared his throat. “It seems like everyone on the Forresaw—that’s the ship that brought us here—figured this was a typical fleet. Ten or fifteen destroyers, carriers, corvettes, stuff like that. But as I dug in and observed CRONUS’s text logs, it’s more than that. He knows I’m looking, and he’s… well, he’s showing it to me. It’s like he’s bragging.”

  “Bragging?” Keel said. “This is an AI we’re talking about. You’re telling me whoever programmed it thought that displaying the tendencies of a braggart would be good for a Republic fleet?”

  “See, that’s what I thought,” said Garret, a professorial finger held up in the air. “But this AI, it’s like what I did with the missiles. It’s completely free. This CRONUS has developed its own personality and is far beyond the point of no return. It’s bragging because it’s proud of what it’s done—and what it’s done is modify the initial work order to expand this fleet into an entire armada.”

  The gathering fell silent, and then Garret punctuated his point. “You guys. I think that… I think the AI has built something large enough that, if deployed at the right time with the right subterfuges, it could take over the entire galaxy.”

  All eyes were fixed on Garret in disbelief.

  Keel was the first to speak. “Well, I have good news,” he said, his voice rich with sarcasm. “See, Bombassa and Exo figure they learned how to control murderous AIs in their post-Legion training. So what they’re going to do is take over the fleet and hand it to their space wizard boss who will then… What was it guys? Save the galaxy?”

  Neither of the shock troopers answered.

  Garret shook his head urgently, as though this idea terrified him. “Oh, no. No, no, no. You can’t… you can’t do that. I don’t know what’s keeping the ship from leaving its hiding spot—maybe it’s tied to Prisma or waiting for something to happen out there; CRONUS absorbs all the holo-feeds—but we don’t want it to go out into the galaxy. I mean, it’s all I can manage just to stay hidden from CRONUS.” He looked at the shock troopers. “You can’t possibly control him. That’s crazy talk. If you want to save the galaxy, figure out a way to blow this place up.”

  Bombassa and Exo exchanged a look. Then the big shock trooper said, “And how would you propose we do something like that? Assuming we believe you. Our intelligence comes from the highest sources in the Republic, and they state that simply showing up with Maydoon’s bio-signature will require the fleet AI to do whatever we tell it to.”

  “Yeah, your intelligence comes from Orrin Kaar,” Garret muttered.

  “Wait, what?” Keel said, putting his hands on his hips.

  “Yeah, what?” echoed Hutch.

  “Delegate Kaar is working with Goth Sullus,” Garret said absentmindedly, as if this were a minor aside to the real business of talking tech. “A buddy of mine intercepted all their transmissions during the Battle of Tarrago. They’re working to take over the Republic. I was gonna tell you, but then we got kidnapped and I forgot until now.”

  “What the hell!” exclaimed Exo. “How is the Black Fleet working with the stinking face of the House of Reason?”

  Garret shrugged as if the answer to that question wasn’t one he really cared about. “Anyway, yeah, your data is old. It’s accurate insofar as that’s what was supposed to happen. I mean, that’s why Ms. Broxin had to bring Prisma here.”

  “Kid,” Keel said, still feeling the shock of what Garret had told them. “You’re spilling all sorts of secrets that people would literally kill you for knowing right now.”

  “Sorry,” Garret answered, and he sounded as though he meant it. That he wasn’t trying to cause trouble. He was just… sharing data. “All I’m trying to say is that your friends are operating on a demonstrably false set of data. If what they were saying about the bio-signature was true, we wouldn’t even be here. Andien and Hutch would have brought the fleet to Utopion already.”

  “And my entire team wouldn’t be dead,” Hutch added.

  “This…” Bombassa said, holding a hand against the side of his bucket. “This is a lot to take in right now.”

  “Listen,” Garret said, nervously shaking his leg. “I think this has the potential to be so bad that the options are to run far away—and by that I mean disappear like the Ancients—or blow this ship up while you’re inside of it.”

  “I vote for running away,” said Keel.

  Bombassa crossed his arms. “Let me guess,” he said to Garret. He sounded conflicted, like he still hadn’t quite abandoned all hope of completing his primary mission. “You have some kind of special virus that we can upload for you. And then everything self-destructs.”

  Garret blushed. “What? No. If I had that, I’d have just uploaded it myself. No, you’re the soldiers, you figure out how a blow up a destroyer from the inside. I mean, I’ll be honest,” he said, looking at Keel, concern in his voice, “when I sent that message to you right after we landed, I was really thinking that you would come with more… guns.”

  “What message?” Keel and Hutch asked in unison.

  “Shut up,” Keel barked at Hutch. “Garret, I didn’t get any message. I had to figure all this out on my own, and then I came as fast as I could.”

  Garret looked thoughtful. “Huh. I put it through thirty-six encryptions and then sent it through a transvers static burst designed to show up as a social media notification on one of my dummy accounts.”

  Keel stared blankly through his helmet at the coder.

  “You know,” Garret said. “The one I set up for you to check in case I ever had to send you any dead-drop notes.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  Hutch chuckled and shook his head. “Blow it all to hell or get out of here. Either one works for me. My orders were to secure the fleet—but after seeing what I’ve seen, I agree with Garret: that can’t be done. So the way I figure it, I’m free to do whatever is necessary to deny use of the fleet to anyone else. Including itself.”

  “We’re not doing anything until I get the rest of my crew,” Keel said. “Or at least Leenah. And since she likes Prisma so much, the girl, too.”

  He looked down at the partially reassembled but still badly damaged remai
ns of KRS-88. “Can he be of any use?”

  Garret shook his head. “Not anytime soon. I’ve been trying to splice him back together, but for now he’s just a basic mainframe. I think I got the power supply set up quick enough so that its memory core wasn’t corrupted—he’ll still know who he is. Maybe a few hiccups, but otherwise… yeah. But I need more components to get him worth having in a fight.”

  “He’s a big, heavy liability is what he is,” Hutch said. “If something can’t help us in a fight, it’s only going to slow down our leaving.”

  Keel shook his head. “Prisma is a handful. If she thinks we’re leaving her bot behind, things’ll go slower than if we just lug him around.”

  “So what?” asked Exo. “She’s a girl. Why you flying around with a little girl in the first place? Anyway, pick her up and make her come.”

  “You don’t know this girl, Exo,” Keel said. “Or the way she seems to be able to get otherwise rational people to do whatever she wants. I seem to be the only exception to that rule, but trust me when I say that our lives will be much harder if we try to leave the bot here.”

  “So what do you propose?” Bombassa said. “Do I put on a backpack and carry this thing across the ship?”

  “Not if we’re going to blow the ship. It would slow you down too much. Someone else can get the bot back to the Six.”

  Bombassa sighed. “We are not going to blow the ship up. At least not until I’ve had a chance to confirm what your technician said. Look at this from my perspective, Keel. Your crewmember has been kidnapped by someone diametrically opposed to my mission. And now he’s friends with his kidnapper—the psychological endearment of a captor. I can’t just take that at face value.”

  Keel didn’t want to argue, he wanted to rescue his crew. And he didn’t have a counterargument to give. “Fair enough. So here’s what we’ll do. Hutch stays with us. Garret, nothing is preventing us from moving freely, so you make your way back to the docking bay on this level. Ravi is waiting there in the Six. You can drag the war bot behind you.”

  “I can’t pull that much weight!”

  “Then just carry the parts you need and you can build the rest later.”

  Garret nodded. Apparently that was something he could handle.

  “Good,” Keel said. “You get to the ship and make sure you’re plugged in and doing what you can. In a quarter hour, we’ll release Leenah and Prisma. Then we’ll all meet you back at the ship.”

  “How about him?” Exo asked, pointing at Hutch. “Leg looks a little banged up.”

  “I can walk okay.” Hutch slowly rose to his feet.

  Garret bundled the war bot’s parts with some spools of wire he took from a surplus terminal. He had only selected the parts of the bot he felt were crucial to salvaging KRS-88—parts that weighed considerably less than the giant as a whole—but he still struggled to move it.

  “Kid,” Keel said, amused at the effort. “There’s a hovercart back at the detention center.”

  “Oh. Okay. I’ll go get it and bring it back.”

  Exo grabbed the bundled parts and dragged it along. “I’ll help you get to the cart,” he said. “Then you can go from there. It ain’t that heavy. I’ll wait for you guys at the detention center.”

  Maybe Exo felt bad about laughing at the kid’s expense.

  Keel watched the two depart. “All your crew is KIA?” he asked Hutch.

  Hutch frowned. “Yeah. Only ones I’m not sure about are Broxin and Ruh-ro, ship’s first officer. A moktaar.”

  “Yeah, he’s dead.” Keel hoped the Nether Ops agent wouldn’t ask for details. “Andien… I know her. She helped me out more than once, but I don’t appreciate what she did to me. I definitely don’t appreciate her taking my crew.”

  Hutch shrugged.

  “Look, pal, the only reason I’m not holding you accountable is because I figure you were just following orders.”

  “That I was,” Hutch said, limping forward a step. “Truth is, I actually took a liking to the kid. Same with her pink-skinned guardian. Quite a looker, that one.”

  Keel frowned from behind his bucket and addressed Bombassa. “We’ll get Leenah out of her cell first. She knows her way around a blaster—better than the kid at least. Then we spring Prisma, and I head back to the ship with my crew. You and Exo are still free to join us.”

  Bombassa acknowledged the offer with only a nod.

  “Well, how bout it?” Keel asked.

  “I think… maybe.”

  08

  Keel, Exo, and Bombassa were stacked outside the prison cell that held Leenah. Hutch stood at a distance. Thanks to a datapad given to Keel by Garret, the door would open with the simple press of a button.

  Other than losing contact with Ravi, things had gone surprisingly smoothly. But how much longer would that last? An unauthorized removal of prisoners wasn’t exactly an off-grid activity. If this CRONUS thing was blindly groping for them all, this would certainly tell him where the mice were hiding.

  A chrono timer in Keel’s HUD told him that the full allotment of time given Garret was up. Hopefully the kid was safe with Ravi and protected by the bristling guns of the Indelible VI. At least he could get out. Though Keel didn’t think Ravi would leave him if things started falling apart.

  “Okay,” Keel said, his finger hovering over the datapad’s unlock button. “Here we go.” He pressed the screen and tossed the device to Hutch, who caught it easily even with the binders on.

  The cell door shot straight up into a recess between the thick walls.

  Leenah lifted her head sleepily from her bunk. “Do I get to talk to Prisma?” she asked, seemingly only half-awake, her voice like a dream.

  Keel rushed in, with Exo behind him. The room was all clear. He removed his helmet so that she could hear his real voice. “I was hoping you might want to talk to me a bit first.”

  Leenah looked up, and her eyes grew wide with surprise. “Aeson!” She sprang from her cot, threw her arms around his neck, and pressed her head against his cheek. Her soft pink tendrils-for-hair brushed against him. Then she laughed—a joyful noise of freedom—and rapidly kissed his cheek and lips and forehead, not missing an inch of his face.

  “Oh, I get it now,” Exo said, his voice carrying that edge of filial teasing Keel had come to know from their time together in Victory Company and their Dark Ops kill team.

  Bombassa peered into the cell. He remained stern, sober and serious. “There’ll be time for reunions later. For now, we should continue on. You still have another crew member, do you not?”

  As if remembering herself, Leenah pulled away from Keel. “Prisma!” Her violet eyes searched Keel imploringly. “She’s still here. They sent me to talk to her sometimes. To keep her happy, I think. We can’t leave without her.”

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” Keel answered with a smile. “You were my first stop, though.”

  Leenah stepped through the doorway and stopped at the sight of Hutch. “I didn’t think anyone else survived. They told me that Prisma and I were the only survivors.”

  “Looks like the little robots learned how to lie,” Hutch spat out bitterly. “I’m alive. So’s your catman—somewhere. Your little coder friend made it too. Everyone else is good and dead. Bringing you here was a costly mission.”

  “We didn’t ask to come,” Leenah snapped back.

  Hutch only grunted in reply.

  Bombassa held out a blaster pistol to Leenah. “Wraith says you know how to use one of these.”

  Leenah took the weapon tentatively, but then seemed to calm her nerves. She checked the weapon to make sure it was on safe, and tucked it into the belt of her coveralls. “I know the way to her cell. But we need to be careful. I’ve tried keeping track of time, and right now feels like when they come if they’re going to ask questions.” Without even waiting for an acknowledgement, she started off down the hallway.

  Keel followed, looking at her longingly. Wishing that he could freeze time so he could tell her that�
�� that he cared about her. And in a way he hadn’t felt since… maybe ever. He blinked the thoughts away. It was no wonder that Chhun hadn’t approved of what he’d seen happening. But it had come on like an unexpected summer storm. This was how he felt about her; there was no getting around that. Which meant she was a liability. Not one that needed taking care of, but the sort that needed to be taken into account. Keel already knew that if it came right down to it, he was capable of doing all sorts of stupid things for this Endurian princess. Things that might cost him his life. And maybe… the lives of others.

  “You mentioned something about ‘them’ coming around now,” Bombassa said. “Your friend Garret said something simliar. Who is it you speak of? The big war bot Titans?”

  That was a good question. One that Keel should have asked.

  “No,” Leenah said. “I haven’t seen any of those since the shooting started. The ones that come by our cells are more servile and graceful. The type designed to interact with humanoids. I guess the best way to describe them is like a really advanced personal admin bot, if that even makes sense.”

  “I don’t see what there is to figure out,” said Exo. “We see any bots on the ship, we blast ’em. Pretty simple when you think about it.”

  “KTF is the only thing that ever made a lick of sense to me in this galaxy,” agreed Hutch.

  Leenah stopped outside a brig door. “This is it,” she whispered.

  Keel motioned for Hutch to give him back the datapad.

  The Nether Ops agent only grunted, “I got it.” He pressed a button, and Prisma’s cell door shot upward… as did every other door in the corridor. “Uh-oh.”