“A tot or two, I suppose,” Bast said, realizing Hon Ra had told him something interesting during their latest stagger. What was it, again? It had to do with—
“Yes,” Bast said.
“Yes, you’ve been drinking?”
“I have taken a long, pondering walk. I wonder if I might be so bold as to ask for a lift back to my chambers.”
“Sure. I haven’t flown for a while. Stay where you are. I’ll home in on your signal.”
“I believe you’ll want to hear my idea,” Bast said, couching what was really Hon Ra’s idea. He doubted the Ambassador would be in any state to explain it to Jon, though. And they were only hours away from dropping out of hyperspace. Yes. This could be critically important.
-2-
The captain flew his four-man flitter through one of the largest cybership corridors. He banked the small craft side-to-side, enjoying the wind whipping through his hair. He opened it up, as this was a straight section. The bulkheads whizzed past in a blur.
It had been over eleven days since they’d left the Roke System. The strike force had built-up a good velocity, keeping that velocity as they’d entered hyperspace. Once they arrived at the edge of the Allamu System, the five cyberships would race toward the battle station near the G-class star.
He had a reason for haste. He wanted to get married yesterday. He was finding it harder and harder to keep his hands off Gloria. Whenever he touched her, he wanted to remove every stitch of clothing and carry her naked to his bed.
Jon’s hands tightened as they gripped the flitter’s flight controls. He wanted to do this right. He wanted to wait until they were man and wife before he bedded her, but he was finding his resolve slipping with each passing hour.
What would it be like to be married? There would be problems along the way. That was the nature of being man and wife. After the problems were solved, though—
Jon laughed. He had a reason for picking up Bast. He was going to ask the big lug to be his best man. He knew Bast and Hon Ra had been drinking. A marine had found the Roke Ambassador snoring in a small hall. The marine had called that in, and the Centurion had taken several battle-suited marines to carry the huge, bearlike alien to his room.
If Hon Ra had been that drunk, it meant Bast must have been drinking with him. Jon hoped the Roke, as a people, could hold their liquor. He hated the idea of being the one to find and befriend the Roke, and possibly introducing them to hard drink that destroyed their culture because they all became raving drunks.
Hadn’t some Earth explorers used drink to destroy certain Stone Age primitives in North America? He’d have to read up on that when he found the time.
Ah. He saw Bast.
Jon slowed down, landing practically at Bast’s feet.
“Thanks,” Bast said, climbing in.
“Phew,” Jon said, waving a hand before his face. “A tot or two, is that what you told me?”
Bast looked down, shrugging defensively.
Jon laughed. “Don’t worry about it. We found Hon Ra.”
Bast nodded as he shut the flitter door.
Jon engaged the controls, lifting up, rotating the flitter in midair and shooting off the way he’d come. He didn’t fly as fast, though. Bast looked greener around the gills than normal.
They both tried talking at once.
Jon grinned and stopped. Bast shook his head.
“Please,” Bast said.
“Okay,” Jon said. “Bast, would you do me the honor of being my best man?”
“Is that in reference to your coming wedding?” asked Bast.
Jon gave the Sacerdote a quick rundown of the coming proceedings.
“It would be an honor, Captain. Yes. I will gladly be your best man.”
“Great,” Jon said. “Now, what were you going to tell me?”
Bast cleared his throat and became fidgety with his huge hands.
“You know that I spoke to Hon Ra…today?”
“You two went on a stagger. Yes. I know.”
Bast waved that aside. “It’s true we drank. But our drinking is not the same as humans drinking.”
“Really?”
“Your tone indicates your disbelief. So be it. I will not argue the philosophical reasons for our drinking. The issue today is that Hon Ra related an interesting Roke historical fact. Long ago, at the beginning of their climb into a technological age, the Roke detected large asteroid-sized objects. These objects produced comet-like tails.”
“Just a second,” Jon said. “What kind of sensing equipment did they have back then?”
“Telescopes.”
“Teleoptic sensors?”
“You misunderstand,” Bast said. “In that time, the Roke used ordinary telescopes that a man would point at the stars.”
“I think I understand. It was more like their Renaissance Period.”
“Hon Ra said it happened almost a thousand years ago.”
“Oh. Okay. Like Galileo discovering the telescope.”
“I am unfamiliar with this Galileo.”
“Never mind,” Jon said. “I get what you’re saying. Roke proto-scientists saw this event with a telescope. The big asteroid with a tail could have been an accelerating cybership. At one hundred kilometers, a cybership could have seemed like an asteroid to a telescope-peering Roke. The tail could have been the engine exhaust.”
“That is my own reasoning,” Bast said.
“So what happened? Why didn’t the cyberships obliterate the Roke?”
“Those were possible cyberships,” Bast said.
“Whatever. What’s the point?”
Bast looked ahead, and he seemed to choose his words with care. “Comets, incredibly swift comets, flew at these asteroids, destroying them. The comets appeared as if from nowhere.”
“Wait, Bast,” Jon said frowning, staring at the big lug. “Are you saying the Roke saw the five percent light-speed missiles?”
“Listen to the rest of the tale,” Bast said. “A dwarf planet also appeared. It, too, seemed to have come from nowhere. As the Roke watched with their telescopes, the dwarf-planet-sized object approached a regular planet.”
“The Roke homeworld?”
“No,” Bast said. “The object approached a different terrestrial planet in the Roke System.”
“Bast. There are no other terrestrial planets in the Roke System.”
“Not anymore.”
Jon stared at Bast in shock. “You mean these aliens… The dwarf-planet-sized vessel destroyed the terrestrial planet?”
“Destroyed and scattered the remains,” Bast said, “creating one of the system’s asteroid belts.”
“What? That’s crazy. You’re saying these mystery aliens wiped out AI cyberships and busted up a terrestrial planet hundreds of years ago.”
“No,” Bast said, “a thousand years ago. That historical event would explain the excessive number of asteroid belts in the Roke System, and it might explain why the Roke survived long ago. Might that also be a reason why Earth survived in the distant past?”
Jon mulled that over. “You’re saying these are good aliens?”
“No. But I am saying these are AI-killing aliens.”
“And they’ve come back?” asked Jon.
“As to that, I cannot say. Maybe they needed to tear apart the terrestrial planet to find the needed fuel for their ship.”
“Do you think the event in the Roke story really occurred?”
“Given what happened to us in the Lytton System, I do.”
Jon muttered a curse, shaking his head. “That’s an interesting story. If it’s true, it sure clears up a few things, but maybe it also makes things even more complex.”
“The AIs may have made it to this part of the galaxy before, only to have their attempt smashed by the hidden beings.”
“Why don’t these aliens contact us and make common cause with us against the AIs?”
“I have no idea,” Bast said. “But if we encounter the aliens again, I sugge
st we make every effort to let them know we are not AIs. It may be the difference between annihilation and survival.”
Jon thought that over, wanting to drop out of hyperspace this instant, in order to see if the Allamu Battle Station still existed. He also wondered something else. Just how old was the AI Dominion? How long had the machines been murdering flesh and blood races?
-3-
Several hours later, the strike force dropped out of hyperspace at the extreme edge of the Allamu System.
Jon was on the bridge as every cyberships’ sensors strained to scan everywhere at once.
“The planets are all where they should be,” Gloria soon announced from her station.
“And the battle station?” Jon asked.
“Alive and well around the second planet,” she said.
Jon sat back with relief. It was time to send a message to Premier Benz and tell him what had happened out there. In a few months, they would have to travel to the Solar System and take care of business. They would recruit more people and fill up these giant vessels with badly needed marines, techs and mechanics.
“Any sign of aliens?” Jon asked.
“Not yet,” Gloria said.
“No five percent light-speed missiles barreling at us?”
“That is part of the ‘not yet,’” Gloria said.
“Right,” Jon said. “Just checking. We don’t want them catching us by surprise this time.”
-4-
The five majestic cyberships sailed through the system at high velocity. According to Benz’s messages, nothing bad had occurred here. The factory planet still churned. The orbital repair facility was bringing the formerly damaged cybership into tiptop condition. Life aboard the battle station had proceeded smoothly, with only one death due to a fatal accident with the brain-tap machine.
“Maybe we should destroy those,” Gloria told Jon as they walked hand in hand down a corridor. “Why do the AIs have them, anyway?”
“The brain-tap machines are dangerous, no doubt about that,” Jon said. “They’re also a store of knowledge. Maybe we need to begin a systematic study of them so we can put that knowledge to better use.”
“Like I said,” Gloria replied gravely. “Destroy them. The brain-tap machines have caused much more heartache than help. Once we study them, the potential for misuse will grow exponentially.”
“That’s a pessimistic point of view.”
“I would call it realistic.”
Jon squeezed her smaller hand as he thought about what he’d liked to do just now. “Maybe we should worry about something else. We’ve had enough fear this year. Let’s relax a bit and enjoy ourselves. The coming battles will be here soon enough.”
Gloria gestured with her free hand. “There is danger all around us. To let down our guard for only a moment—”
“Maybe if we don’t let down our guard a moment here or a moment there, we’ll go mad,” Jon said, interrupting her.
“Better that than being dead,” Gloria said.
Jon stopped, pulling the tiny mentalist to him. He looked down into her gorgeous eyes. As he bent his head to kiss her, emergency klaxons began to blare.
Jon’s head snapped up as his heart squeezed with…worry. He had a feeling it could only be one thing.
“Come on,” he said, pulling her along. “Let’s find out what that is.”
-5-
Jon and Gloria hurried onto the bridge and slowed down as they saw what was on the main screen.
The Allamu System possessed a G-class star, four inner terrestrial plants—the second of them was the factory planet together with its guardian battle station. In the outer system, three gas giants held sway.
Leaving the fourth terrestrial planet while heading in-system was a huge vessel, a great spheroid over three-hundred kilometers in diameter. The thing had an outer rocky exterior, vast engine ports—
“Can you give me a close-up of it?” Jon asked.
The acting sensor tech glanced at Gloria. She nodded, as she had elected to remain near Jon. The tech fiddled with his console.
Soon, the image grew larger on the screen.
Jon sat down as he kept his eyes glued to the image. What had seemed like a mountain on the spheroid was actually a giant building, studded with what looked like windows. From here, it was impossible to tell what the mountain-like building did.
“Excuse me,” Jon said, indicating Gloria’s left arm.
“Oh,” Gloria said, taking her forearm off one of his armrests.
Jon swiveled his command chair to the sensor tech. “How long has the ship been in the system?”
“Our sensors picked it up—” the tech checked his board—“six and half minutes ago, sir. Given our distance from them…” The tech shook his head. “It can’t have been there more than several hours.”
“Let me see if I understand you correctly. You’re suggesting the giant vessel has moved cloaked through the star system?”
The tech’s eyes grew large as he shook his head. “I can’t see how that would be possible, sir.”
“Neither can I,” Jon said, swiveling back so he could study the alien construct.
“Jon,” Gloria said, sidling closer. “Do you think it appeared out of a reality rip?”
“What’s the simplest explanation?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t call that simple.”
“What fits best, then?”
Gloria stared at the giant spheroid vessel. She’d heard about Hon Ra’s legendry tale, of course. But this…
“Sir,” the sensor tech said.
Jon looked back, indicating that the man should speak.
“I believe the ship—the mobile asteroid—entered normal space on the other side of the planet from us. Whoever controls the spheroid, didn’t want us to see it coming through.”
“Could Benz have seen their entry from the battle station?”
“I doubt it, sir,” the tech said.
“Interesting,” Jon said, swiveling back, glancing at Gloria. “Why hasn’t it launched high-speed missiles at us?”
“Why did the ship enter normal space this time?” Gloria asked quietly. “What kind of space was it in before this? That wasn’t hyperspace we saw back in the Lytton System.”
“Another kind of space?” asked Jon.
“So it would appear,” Gloria said. “This other-space also allows them to travel near heavy gravitational bodies. Notice—if the sensor tech is correct—the ship entered regular space beside a terrestrial plant.”
“How is that even possible?”
“Whatever FTL propulsion or other-dimensional space they use—like our hyperspace—likely has different properties, different governing rules than hyperspace does.”
“I remember seeing the inky blackness before the missiles shot out of it.”
“We all saw the blackness,” Gloria said. She appeared thoughtful before giving Jon a penetrating glance. “Permission to leave the bridge, sir.”
“You want to study the Lytton System computer files?”
“Yes. And I want Bast and Hon Ra to help me.”
“The Roke Ambassador…” Jon said, rubbing his chin. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“Because you don’t want Hon Ra to know how afraid we are of the other-worldly asteroid-ship?”
“Among other things,” Jon muttered.
“I think any help Hon Ra can give us might be critical at this point.”
Jon cocked his head, finally nodding. He swiveled around to face the tech. “Has the ship made any hostile moves?”
“None that I can tell, sir,” the sensor tech said.
Jon turned back to study the giant vessel. “We’ll observe it for a time. I’m going to send a message to Benz.”
“That is a splendid idea,” Gloria said.
“Why?” Jon asked sharply.
“Anything we can do to show the…aliens over there—that we aren’t AIs—strikes me as critical.”
“You think they’
re studying us?”
“I do,” Gloria said. “And once they reach their conclusion, it may be there is nothing we can do about it.”
Jon looked up at the screen, feeling more than awe at the alien vessel, with a bad case of the nerves about what was going to happen next.
-6-
Twenty-three hours passed. At the end of that time, the giant asteroid-ship began accelerating toward the battle station, increasing its velocity.
It gave everyone in the strike force a vast sense of relief that the asteroid-ship used regular matter/antimatter propulsion. The aliens, as of yet, had not shown any super-technological motive power.
According to his messages, Benz had also spotted the ship. He didn’t like it. He also read the transcript of Hon Ra’s legend and listened to a battle report about what had happened in the Lytton System.
Benz’s conclusion was straightforward. “That alien ship is the one that attacked you in the Lytton System. I also give it high odds that that is the same kind of alien that the Roke saw a thousand years ago. If the aliens fought the AI cyberships back then but did not destroy the Roke, we can reasonably conclude that the aliens might be pro life-forms and against the thinking machines.”
Jon read the premier’s entire white paper on the subject. He also met with his brain trust, this time with Hon Ra and Walleye joining Gloria and Bast in the lounge area, with a computer-screen window to the stars.
“I don’t like sitting around waiting for an alien to decide whether we should live or die,” Jon said. “I propose contacting the aliens.”
“With a regular transmission?” asked Bast.
“Seems like the easiest way to do it,” Jon said.
“I find it ominous that the aliens haven’t tried to contact us yet,” Walleye said.
“I think they’re still studying the situation,” Gloria said. “I’ve watched and analyzed their vessel for hours. There are constant neutrino-sweeps emanating from it. I believe that is their form of sensor tech.”
“Any comments so far, Ambassador?” Jon asked.
A.I. Battle Fleet (The A.I. Series Book 5) Page 30