by Tobias Roote
Table of Contents
Title Page
Acknowledgements
Copyright
Disclaimer
1. A mirage in space
2. Another close encounter
3. The Artis Council
4. A Diplomatic Incident
5. A Strange Message
6. Mission Update
7. Terran Stand-off
8. Formidable Credentials
9. Political Expediency
10. Escape Jump
11. Secrets in Space
12. Betrayed
13. Kidnapped
14. Escape from the DAN
15. The Plot thickens
16. Artis Prime
17. A Maze Defence
18. Kalla’s Sanctuary
19. Explanations
20. Into the Hole
21. The Pinnacle
22. The Enemy Within
23. Enemy Fleet
24. The Goliath
25. Rescue of Osachi
26. Escape
27.The Clean Up
ARTIS PRIME
A RIGA/AI SPACE ADVENTURE
by TOBIAS ROOTE
ARTIS PRIME
In this episode, a deadly game is afoot between RIGA and unknown enemies. She has stepped into a hornets nest and no amount of running will keep her safe. She must unravel the mystery of who, and why before they succeed in eliminating her. No easy task, when it seems they are everywhere.
When she finally uncovers the truth, RIGA is left with no choice, She must single-handedly defeat an enemy that is poised to strike at more than just the Empirum. If she fails, it will be the start of an interstellar war.
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The AI Wars are long past, and a fragile peace has settled over the AI and Human worlds. The differences that once kept them apart, now work to their mutual benefit.
However, not all is well. The Empirum that governs them is wracked with constant attempts to upset the stability, thus forcing the ESSG, the Empirum's Security Guardians, to employ heavy measures to keep the PACT together.
Within this harsh environment, RIGA, a new biological AI, carves out a career for herself distributing her unique brand of justice to pirates and smugglers running the borders. The PACT between the different species means their Navy's hands are tied. RIGA has no such problem and with a modified one-person spaceship is more than able to slip the leash and maintain the status quo.
Her job often requires diplomacy between the two species, but when that fails she resorts to her personal skills and bio-mods that enable her to keep on top in a fight. The humans allow her onto their planets, which is essential for her missions, the AI's think she is a human too, so never see her as a threat (until it's too late).
But, for RIGA, there is a big question mark over her origins - and something is tracking her - pushing her constantly onto the defensive.
AUTHOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A few people have been particularly helpful in getting this book into print. The first being my wife, Louise, who has been my first line of inspiration when trying to thrash out the plots and characters. I am also grateful for her unstinting support and understanding while I buried myself in my writing den for weeks on end to get this novel finished. My BETA readers, Miguel A Rueda and Robert Breen, deserve a mention for giving up a portion of their Christmas holiday to provide me with feedback in time to make changes before the book’s launch.
Thank you all for your participation.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
ARTIS PRIME and RIGA,AI are subject to copyright 2013/2014 by Tobias Roote. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For further information, please contact [email protected]
PUBLISHED BY
ROOTE PUBLISHING LTD
DISCLAIMER:
This book has been written and edited in the United Kingdom. As a result, some of the words and spellings may not conform to US dictionaries.
RIGA,AI and the PATTERN UNIVERSE are works of fiction, they should be read for entertainment purposes only.
Some of the technology and much of the science are unlikely to relate to anything in the real world. This is intentional.
1. A Mirage in Space
Sitting in the small two-seater cockpit, the woman’s eyes gleamed like emeralds as she studied on-board sensors monitoring the approaching disturbance. Her face reflected her pensive mood as the analysis confirmed the anomaly shouldn’t be in Empirum space, yet there it was. Having never come across one before, RIGA wondered how this would affect the ship’s trajectory through hyperspace. Would the ship slip through to the other side without incident, or would it cause it to veer into unknown space.
As the readings updated the latest intel on the particle make-up, it became increasingly clear that the anomaly carried an 80% chance of a magnetic pulse, putting the electronics at risk. Even though the ship was heavily shielded RIGA decided to disengage the ship’s AI. With a mental apology to her pilot, she placed it in stasis for the four hundred and thirty-two seconds required to take the ship through the storm.
She knew she would have to manually navigate, but with the recently upgraded military-spec antimatter drives the ship should punch through the turbulence without any problems, she thought.
Switching the forward screen off, RIGA closed the blast shields and temporarily shut-down external sensors. Then strapped herself into the small seat.
As the messenger ship entered the outer edges of the cloud, the shields were covering the forward cockpit view, So RIGA didn't see the shape of the anomaly morph into a uniform pipe-shaped cloud. Just as the small vessel flew in, the open end of the anomaly closed and the raging electrical storm instantly ceased. Without any apparent visible means, the ship was dragged out of hyperspace - so smoothly, that it took a few seconds for RIGA to realise that the ship was no longer moving.
Her own sensors, dampened to protect them from the anomaly interference, were confused by the sudden readings of normal space around her - she immediately knew something was wrong, but couldn’t place it. Had she been thrown out of hyperspace?
Reactivating the sensors as the blast shield retracted, RIGA realised the anomaly no longer surrounded her ship. Instead, the external cameras were showing a tractor beam in the process of pulling her towards a large vessel. Its looming hangar deck, big enough to take something more than twice her size, gaped open in the blackness, a dim red aura emanating from its receiving bay indicating her ship’s intended destination.
Dammation! Pirates, she thought. Where the frig had they come from – and how did they pull her out of hyperspace?
With only seconds to respond to the threat before her ship was contained within the pirate’s hangar, RIGA swung her seat around to the weapons station which had already activated via mental command.
As part of the highly modified design; the covert operations vessel had been outfitted with light-dynamic connections. Subsequently, it could operate at the speed of RIGA’s brain - which was lightning fast. Her reactions meant that before another second had registered on her ship’s chronometer, the laser weapons had extended outside the hull. They were already powering up and targeting the tractor beam that was in the process of dragging her aboard.
Realising they had misjudged her ship to be a standard courier vessel, and unable to use their own weapons this close to their hull. The beam operator began to move her ship into a position that he thought would render the lasers ineffective. RIGA, now close
enough to see the operator manipulating the controls, watched her lasers lose their weapons lock. Now only able to target the hull of the other ship, RIGA knew they were not good enough to cause any damage to a vessel of this size. However, she had more than lasers in her armoury.
These people had no idea who they were dealing with, RIGA thought to herself as she smiled grimly, preparing to bring other weapons to bear on the tractor beam operator. She intended to break free at all costs.
The comm sparked into life as an incoming voice message blurted across the speaker above her head.
“This is Captain Frank Jessie of the ES Mirage.
Heave to, ready for boarding.”
Not a damm chance of that happening, RIGA thought quickly. She knew she needed to respond, if only to gain time.
“We are not unidentified, We are a diplomatic courier vessel and our ID tag is broadcasting as you very well know. Your vessel is committing an act of piracy - desist, or face the consequences,” she replied.
“Oh! Am I speaking to the wondrous RIGA?” the voice asked.
Damm Bounty hunters! Oh Frig! This was the third time this week. Only hunters could identify her as RIGA. Everyone else knew her as Ambassador Rigel.
The speaker activated again.
“Unidentified vessel, by the power vested in me by the Empirum, I hereby declare you the stolen property of LEXON Corporation and claim you, and your vessel, as prize to be returned dead or alive to your owners. Choose now which it is to be.”
The Captain was clearly enjoying himself, but she wasn’t finished yet. RIGA needed a few more seconds of distraction so pressed the comms button again.
“I am Ambassador Rigel of Epsilon Gamma. I hold Empirum Royal diplomatic immunity and you will be punished directly by the PACT Navy for breaching articles 443 through to 448 of the Empirum Space PACT, namely; piracy in open space; Kidnapping of a member of the Empirum Royal family; breaching diplomatic immunity protocols and hijacking of a ship transiting hyperspace.” She paused for effect and to gain another second.
“Each of these crimes will result in an immediate death sentence for you and your crew,” she finished up.
“Ha ha... RIGA, I was warned you were a feisty one. Your reputation precedes you, but you are no match for my vessel. Stand by to be boarded shortly,” he hissed. All pretence of friendly bravado was now gone.
RIGA realised, if they were pulled aboard the other ship it would be that much harder to extricate themselves. There was also top secret technology here, which was worth an Empirum’s ransom and mustn’t fall into enemy hands. RIGA knew Gossie would have no choice, but to override all other commands and self destruct, fully aware It would take out RIGA as well. It was just another hazard of their continuing mission.
She watched carefully as the tractor beam continued to swivel her ship around. Her direct mental connection to the weapons console gave her instantaneous feed as she prepared to extricate her ship.
As the lasers swung harmlessly out of range of the hangar bay, so her aft swung inwards. RIGA waited for the optimum moment to drop the false cover on her ship’s rear missile bay, heavily disguised as a thruster vent. Without the need for human compartments and services, there had been major modifications to the internal structure of her ship. Outwardly, it looked normal and incapable of carrying weaponry. Internally, it was packed with a central missile tube, front and rear blasters, lasers, and a full personal armoury for her planet-based operations. It bristled with concealed weaponry.
RIGA activated the mini AI that controlled the missile tube. Then, setting the missile's detonation fuse to zero, she transmitted the fire command which launched the single pre-armed warhead. Despite the grip of the tractor beam the small ship felt the inertial pressure as the missile launched.
With no need for the targeting computer to lock onto anything, the red tipped torpedo flew through the hangar bay’s outer doors, until it reached the far bulkhead, where it detonated violently.
The venting from the ship’s hangar into space told RIGA that her missile had done its job, breaking through an inner airlock and opening the populated ship to the icy cold vacuum of space.
Her comms squelched. “You bitch, I’m going to make sure you suffer before handing you over,” the Captain’s voice roared at her through the speaker. RIGA could hear alarms in the background of the Mirage’s bridge. She contemplated switching off the audio speaker, but thought better there, than in her head directly.
She ignored the Captain’s ranting and concentrated on her task.
Still gripped by the tractor beam, undamaged and mounted on the hangar deck, RIGA’s ship continued to be held while emergency crews on the pirate vessel fought the sudden loss of air pressure.
As airtight doors deep inside the large ship closed, the debris flow slowed as spacesuited workers attempted to restore order to the hangar bay. RIGA watched, concerned at her failure to disable the beam holding her vessel and decided, if captured, she would just have to deal with them personally.
Then everything changed.
The beam operator, deciding that RIGA’s ship was still a messenger shuttle, and therefore grossly under estimating its remaining weaponry, quickly reversed RIGA's ship around until her bow was approaching the hangar bay. Working on the premise that it was safe from harm by keeping the small ship's lasers below the deckline, he pulled his target toward the hangar, now a few metres away.
When two plasma blasters erupted out of concealed recesses in RIGA's ship’s upper hull, the tractor beam operator realised his error. He frantically tried to swing the beam back, causing her ship to rock from the momentum, but - it was too late to change the outcome. The bolts arced across the short distance at 100% power. Still held by the wildly swinging tractor beam’s momentum, the comets of plasma forged two incandescent paths across the width of the bay, taking out everything, including the beam operator and the waiting security team.
Debris flew past her in to open space. A suited figure bounced off the hull as it was ejected by the blast force. One pirate that won’t be going home, she thought with no regrets. These people were ruthless and space was an easy place to dump evidence of any kind of crime.
As the tractor beam finally failed, it released its hold on RIGA's ship, enabling her to use thrusters to manoeuvre out of the way of the hangar entrance, pushing her towards the bigger ship’s defences, which even now were auto-scanning and trying to lock on. RIGA had no choice, but to keep her shuttle close, almost scraping against the hull of the enemy. The larger vessel, unable to do anything, gave her a few precious seconds respite to consider her next move.
After seven minutes twenty seconds of elapsed time, the ship AI came back on-line. The EGOSS3 (Empirum Guardian Operational Support Ship Mk3) assimilated the data in its battle logs and considered the options, then linked with RIGA electronically over their private tight-band frequency.
‘Welcome back Gossie,’ RIGA acknowledged her companion’s return.
‘Hmm! I should have stayed awake, but you did all right, I see you have given these pirates something to think on,’ Gossie replied.
‘As it stands, we are unable to escape as we have little or no defence, against their weapons. The Captain will send out shuttles shortly to draw us out of hiding. I estimate we have approximately four minutes before they find us and attempt to board,’ RIGA advised, having calculated it would take the enemy that long to manoeuvre their shuttles out of the damaged hangar bay.
‘We will have to see what damage we can do before that happens,’ Gossie said confidently.
RIGA nodded absently, as they mentally communicated their options at speeds faster than human thought would permit, they agreed a plan that might get them away from the bounty hunter relatively unscathed.
Only a few seconds had passed while they worked out the finer details of their plan to escape. During which they activated the ship’s covert mode and cloaked. Its proximity to the larger ship meant it wouldn’t work effectively, but they also knew
it would cause an electronic rippling effect, partly scrambling their enemy’s sensors and interfering with their target locking capability. It wasn’t foolproof, and it might not work for long. However, they only needed a few seconds at the right moment to get away.
First though, they had to create a blind corridor. It would not be 100% effective, but as they had no other means of escape, this was their only option. RIGA had noted the bounty ship’s design was of an Empirum built Apollo class IV cruiser. On checking Gossie’s database, she found blueprints. All of the external fittings she had noted appeared to be factory standard, except for that anomaly device that had dragged her ship out of hyperspace, she thought.
Carefully, using their manoeuvring thrusters and keeping close to the hull, they proceeded under the Mirage’s belly to their first target. The small ship’s powerful plasma blasters, still armed and ready, blew out all four of the Mirage’s sensors that faced aft, sending molten shrapnel in all directions. This gave them a narrow gulley of blind space under the vessel allowing them to travel undetected for a distance of forty metres aft.
Here, two additional sensors monitored the areas between the Mirage’s large drive exhaust cones. RIGA blew out both of these enabling their craft to change direction undetected. They could now proceed under the port or the starboard engine cowling without being observed. Although the bridge of the Mirage would know where they were by virtue of the damaged sensors, they still couldn’t see, or target them.
Before choosing either, they had to swing upward to take out two additional rear targeting sensors which took several more crucial seconds. Had either of them been human, it would have been a tense adrenalin-busting ride as they carefully negotiated their way across the other ship’s hull, playing hide and seek with the enemy’s hunting weapons and its shuttle craft. As they prepared to negotiate the last curve of the hull it became increasingly dangerous.
‘Enemy shuttles closing on our location; four of them, as you predicted,’ Gossie announced. The AI displayed the plot lines on the vidscreen, ‘The shuttles would be in range in forty seconds,’ she confirmed.