A.I. Assault (The A.I. Series Book 3)

by Vaughn Heppner

  “Let me think about it.”

  “Sure. Anything else wrong?”

  Gloria began to tell him.

  -7-

  INTERLUDE: EARTH

  Premier Benz massaged his temples as he sat before a large screen. Vela Shaw sat beside him. They’d just finished watching Captain Hawkins’s message from the Nathan Graham yet again. This was the eleventh viewing.

  The room was in a deep underground fortress in Lima, Peru Sector. There were chairs, a wet bar, a fridge, the giant screen, computer consoles and an armored hatch.

  Special guards stood outside the room. Each had gone under the chair. Each would fight to the death to protect the Premier and the Vice Premier.

  Benz had debated giving Vela the role of Chief Arbiter. She’d refused. Thus, the same lean Chief Arbiter as had gone underground in the Colorado mine retained the post of first secret policeman.

  Earth’s cities no longer seethed with riots. Neither had true peace returned to the home planet. A lull had descended. At best, Benz had a shaky grasp of the Government Security Bureau. Worse, the Social Dynamism Party did not care for him. As yet, the Party members were not overtly chipping away at his authority. He believed that given time, they would. Perhaps half the military approved of him. Surprisingly, that half came from the space forces rather than the ground fighters.

  The greatest surprise to Benz was the difficulty of governing the Solar League. True, he hadn’t been at it for long. Even so, it was still harder than it looked. The trouble was the lack of loyalty in his underlings. Justinian had used fear to motivate them. Benz still hadn’t decided on his chief tool, and that was likely a mistake.

  “You’ve broken the system,” Vela said, rising from her chair. She wore a scarlet uniform with white braid. “The Party and the secret police used to hold the military in check. Now, the military has shaken off its collar. You frighten people in ways Justinian never could. They understood J.P. He ruled in the accepted manner. Your decrees—”

  Vela shook her head.

  “We need more time,” Benz said. “We’ve shaken the system, as you say. We need time for everything to settle.”

  “I’m not sure that’s right. I think our assumptions could be wrong. We can be as brilliant as can be, but if we begin with faulty assumptions…”

  “Garbage in, garbage out,” Benz quoted.

  Vela nodded.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Benz said. “The people want an iron heel grinding them into poverty. It makes them feel as if they understand the world.”

  “That’s not it,” Vela said. “They want what they know. They have illusions. If you break their illusions, they’ll hate you for it. They won’t rejoice that their chains might fall off.”

  Benz sighed as he massaged his temples again.

  “The cyberships could change everything,” Vela said.

  “By killing us,” Benz said moodily.

  “We could use the threat of the cyberships to whip Earth into a frenzy of action.”

  “We don’t have time for that,” Benz said. “The cyberships aren’t giving us time. Their appearance and swift approach—we have weeks to maneuver into position. The giant alien vessels will be anywhere they want in the Solar System by then.”

  “Correction,” Vela said. “The enemy vessels will be in any one place in the Solar System. They’re traveling at terrific velocity. We have to presume Hawkins is correct concerning their braking abilities. Once they brake, though, they lose the ability to be in any other place at that time. Opportunity costs—”

  “Yes, yes,” Benz said. “Of course that’s correct. My point is that we have little time to try to trap them. Perhaps the Nathan Graham can maneuver at great velocity like the robotic ships. Our warships cannot. I have just learned that not all of the Solar League’s warships have converted to lesser computers. Those unconverted ships can definitely not enter combat against the cyberships.”

  “I see.”

  “What if we maneuver everything we can to Mars for a giant confrontation, and the cyberships dash to Earth instead and obliterate the planet?”

  “If we stay at Earth, we risk having the cyberships infect all of Earth’s computers. Billions will die if those computers turn into murderous AIs.”

  Benz massaged his temples once more. “Whatever planet we use as a trap, we’re likely going to lose it during the battle.”

  “Maybe we should tell Hawkins we’ll agree to his alliance, but we’ll use the Saturn System as the fortress trap.”

  Benz shook his head. Didn’t she understand? “We won’t be able to move enough SLN warships to Saturn in time.”

  “We’ll move what we can.”

  “And lose the war?” he demanded.

  Vela stroked her jaw.

  Benz stopped massaging his temples. He glanced sidelong at her. Vela had changed since going under the chair. She was no longer the innocent. She was no longer as kind as she used to be, as sweet.

  He shook his head.

  “Hawkins has it right,” he said, “the Asteroid Belt or Mars. The belt is no good, though. We need a powerful planetary system. Earth would be the best choice. It’s the strongest fortress, and we could get the most warships here in time. But I’m with you. We dare not risk the most populated planet in the system.”

  “Mars is the fighting point then?” Vela asked.

  “If so, we consign over a billion people to death,” he said. “We’ll probably lose the Mars—”

  “Frank,” she said, staring at him. “We’re going to lose heavily no matter what we decide. But will we lose more heavily than Hawkins? That’s the question.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “The space commanders aren’t going to agree to just hand Hawkins supremacy over us. They’ll want to know your plans on capturing the cybership.”

  “But—”

  “Hawkins is risking one vessel,” Vela said. “We’re risking hundreds.”

  “The Nathan Graham is the only vessel on their side that counts. It’s their source of power. The Saturn and Uranus fleets are weak compared to the Solar League. The Neptune fleet is a joke. No. Hawkins is risking everything by throwing the Nathan Graham into battle.”

  “I don’t fully agree—”

  “If I were Hawkins, I would take an entirely different approach. I’ve calculated the odds. It’s doubtful we can beat the three cyberships. I’ve studied the original invasion. The power of the giant vessels—it’s not even that. More cyberships will be coming. Once the AIs realize we’ve become a power base, surely they’ll send one hundred cyberships to crush us. It’s what I’d do in their place.”

  She gave him a worried look. “What are you saying?”

  “Hawkins wants to fight. I applaud that. But in the end, it’s a losing strategy.”

  “What else is there?”

  “That’s easy,” Benz said. “You fill the Nathan Graham with people, mostly women with some of the best men. You use the ship’s hyperdrive. You go far, far away. I’m talking about hundreds or maybe even thousands of light-years away. You find a star system and begin anew. You use those robot factories in the belly of his ship. Then, for one hundred years, you start getting ready. Then, and only then, you might have a small chance of defeating the AI Empire.”

  Vela blinked at him in astonishment. “Your great intellect has driven you mad.”

  “No,” Benz said. “I understand humanity’s real chances. They are slim to none, to quote an old saying.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “If what they are telling us about the AI Empire is true, our chances are almost zero. That there are no other stellar organizations out there battling the AIs means—”

  “Frank! Didn’t you listen to Hawkins? He has an alien on board.”

  “An AI alien captive he set free.”

  “Yes,” Vela said. “That means the cyberships fight others. Maybe all we need is a foothold. Once we go out there,” she said, gesturing outward, “we m
ight find other aliens fighting the cyberships. Maybe if we move fast enough out there, we can create a grand alliance of the living.”

  Benz frowned at her.

  “You can’t admit defeat from the start.”

  “I’m not. I’ve stumbled onto the one true path for victory.”

  Vela scoffed. “Your way would consign the majority of humanity to death.”

  “It would keep mankind going. That’s the bigger picture.”

  “I’m not sure it is,” Vela said. “We have to fight. We have to plant our flag against the AIs and say, ‘you are going no farther than here.’”

  He searched her face, and she returned his gaze. Finally, Benz looked away.

  “Ruling has been grinding me down,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be so hard. Looking in from the outside—”

  “I know,” Vela said. “But we’re in charge now, no matter how shaky our grasp is. We have to come up with something.”

  “Right,” Benz said. “You’re right.”

  “What are we going to tell Hawkins? We’d better come up with a plan soon.”

  Benz sat down in a chair. He looked up at the blank screen. “Let’s listen to his message one more time. We might see something we missed before.”

  Vela seemed dubious, but she sat down near him. As the message began, she took one of his hands in hers.

  Benz seemed to relax a little. He knew he needed it. He needed the old breezy Benz, the confident genius. The approaching cyberships and what they represented had shaken his confidence in the future. He needed to restore his faith in humanity’s future in order for him to act in humanity’s best interest.

  But how could that happen when he knew they were going to lose?

  PART V

  APPROACH TO MARS

  -1-

  The Nathan Graham accelerated. It had already built up a good velocity and was halfway through the Kuiper Belt. The vessel’s speed wasn’t anything like the cyberships’ velocity, but it was faster than any other human-occupied ship

  The messages had sped back and forth between Captain Hawkins and Premier Benz. They’d agreed on one thing so far: lure the alien AI ships to Mars.

  The Nathan Graham sped for the Outer Planets. It still had a long way to go before it passed Neptune.

  At the same time, most of the SLN warships orbiting Earth or Luna had begun the journey for Mars. The swiftest—meaning the biggest, battleships and motherships orbiting Venus—also headed for Mars. There were a fair number of SLN warships already at Mars. None of the SLN warships in the Jupiter System headed for the Red Planet. Neither did any of the warships in the Asteroid Belt. The belt warships headed for the dwarf planet Ceres. In the old days, people had thought of Ceres as an asteroid. In the new solar lexicon, it had become a dwarf planet.

  As the various human-held ships headed for Fortress Mars, the warships and transports there began building a prismatic crystal field. The military term was P-Field.

  The prismatic crystals were tiny objects, the biggest the size of a person’s thumbnail. The crystals refracted light, particularly lasers. The alien gravitational beams did not refract upon striking the crystals. They melted and demolished them. Still, a P-Field acted as a sensor shield against approaching vessels. Sometimes, hiding from view was just as important as having heavy armor. If a beam missed, a ship didn’t need armor.

  According to the battle specs gained by fighting the original alien invader, cyberships had much greater beam range. Their missiles and drones also accelerated faster. The Nathan Graham had equal tech to the original cybership—everyone hoped so, at least. No one knew what kind of tech the three new cyberships actually possessed.

  The more humanity could turn this into a face-to-face battle, a close fight, the better their odds. The more the cyberships could turn this into a distance combat, the better for them.

  The alien AIs had one fantastic power at close range. They’d used it the first time. They could beam alien software into powerful computers, turning the human-built computers into traitorous and murderous enemies. This time, that wasn’t going to happen.

  “At least,” Gloria told Jon. “We don’t think it’s going to happen. They needed powerful computers as receptors for their software to work. Maybe they have other software that does other things to lesser computers.”

  They were walking together in a corridor, heading for Bast Banbeck’s quarters. Gloria wore her tan uniform. Jon wore shorts, running shoes and an exercise jacket. He’d been exercising more lately. His hair was still damp from hitting a heavy bag. He’d started practicing with a battlesuit again, just in case it came down to another boarding attack.

  “I’d be more worried about a software assault if the three had sent a cybership back home,” Jon said. “These AIs know we’ve beaten the first invasion. Likely, these AIs are similar to the first one. That would make them arrogant. Instead of going back with data about us, the three are plunging after us.”

  “It is strange,” Gloria admitted. “Perhaps no race has ever beaten three cyberships before. In fact, I deem that likely.”

  “Why?”

  “In the first invasion, one cybership attacked our Solar System. If other races frequently destroyed a single invading cybership, wouldn’t the AIs usually attack a new system with three?”

  “Oh. Yeah. I get your point. That’s interesting. Gloria, you surprise me. I’m often amazed by what you can glean from what seems like no data at first glance.”

  “I am a mentalist. We could glean data from a rock.”

  Jon laughed. “You’re in a good mood, I see. I like that.”

  She smiled shyly. “I’ve been wanting to get to the bottom of the prince’s…duality for some time. We’ve covered everything we can for the coming battle—if the cyberships actually follow us all the way. Now, the three of us can finally take a break and solve the dilemma.”

  She meant the differences in personality between the Prince of Ten Worlds in Da Vinci and the prince in Eli Gomez.

  Soon, they reached the Sacerdote’s quarters. He had two chambers, an inner and an outer. Gloria pressed the outer hatch buzzer.

  The hatch opened immediately, and Bast stepped out.

  “Oh,” Gloria said.

  “Is anything the matter?” Bast asked.

  “Uh, no,” Gloria said.

  “I sense something is wrong,” the Sacerdote said. “Have I made another social blunder?”

  “Not at all,” Gloria said quickly.

  The seven-foot Sacerdote turned to Jon. “Please, Captain, could you explain her…I’m uncertain of the correct phrase.”

  “Disappointment,” Jon said.

  Gloria shot an elbow into his chest, and gave Jon a small headshake.

  “What is that?” Bast said, noticing. “Why did she just do that to you?”

  Jon glanced at Gloria before a huge grin broke out. “It’s nothing really, Bast.”

  “Then you can explain it?” the Sacerdote asked.

  Gloria turned away. She appeared embarrassed.

  “This is galling,” Bast said. “I’ve committed too many social blunders lately. It is frustrating.”

  “Oh, all right,” Gloria told Jon. “I hate to see him sulking.”

  Bast glanced from Gloria to Jon.

  “She’s disappointed,” Jon said. “She’d hoped to go into your outer chamber. She wanted to see the chalked-out pattern.”

  Bast’s eyes narrowed as he studied Gloria. “I see.” He considered and finally shook his head. “I cannot ask you into the outer chamber.”

  “Jon went in before,” Gloria said.

  “That is true,” Bast said. “But I can explain nothing more. It is not an insult. I simply cannot allow you inside.”

  “That’s it?” Gloria asked. “You’re going to stoke my curiosity like that and say no more?”

  “That is correct,” the Sacerdote said.

  Gloria stared at him for several seconds. “Fine. It’s of small import.”

/>   Bast grinned, exposing big teeth.

  Gloria wasn’t looking at him, but she did dart him a glance. “Why are you grinning like an ape?”

  “I shall tell you later,” Bast said. “For now, I am thoroughly enjoying your company. Let us go to the brain-tap machine and begin our combined investigation.”

  -2-

  Gloria and Bast had been in the chamber individually since Gorky the marine had been found dead on a table with a brain-tap helmet over his head. They had never gone together, though.

  Jon piloted the flitter that took the trio down a long ship corridor. They discussed the coming encounter, the destroyer at Senda and the Solar League warships heading for Mars. Finally, they reached the brain-tap area. Jon landed the flitter, and they walked the rest of the way. They discussed Methlan Rath, how different he seemed from the Prince when he had inhabited Da Vinci, the sheer cunning the first manifestation had shown.

  “They seem like two different beings,” Gloria said.

  “I have a theory concerning that,” Bast said. He told them how different brains had different capacities. Maybe the anchor personality subtly changed the alien brain pattern.

  “That’s certainly a reasonable possibility,” Gloria said. “The differences in Da Vinci versus Eli seem much greater, though.”

  “You’ve studied Methlan more than I,” Bast told her. “Is there something about him or the process that excites your interest?”

  “It’s simply that I abhor a mystery,” Gloria said. “My nature is to solve dilemmas, to explain why. The Prince of Ten Worlds has affected our situation more than once. My interest has been aroused.”

  “This manifestation has acted more like a warrior,” Bast said. “The other seemed—”

  “Like a ruler,” Gloria finished.

  They reached the main chamber, spoke to the guards on duty and entered the room.

  Jon had never liked this place. It gave him the creeps. All these machines held various brain patterns. It was like a hall of ghosts or maybe even demons. The process had always sounded too much like possession.

  Bast inspected the main controls. He opened up a panel.