ARTIS PRIME

by Tobias Roote

  “What we could do with this jump technology,” RIGA sighed. She thought about returning to Epsilon and having it removed so they could reverse engineer it. Osachi had said that it was sealed against interference, so it might take considerable time for it to be cracked open, but in the meantime they still needed to work with the Terrans to resolve this issue, as well as several others.

  “OK, we are ready. May I suggest you wear your battle-suit, RIGA? If there is an atmosphere blow-out you could get your synthetics frozen,” the AI warned her. She knew that whilst RIGA didn’t need to breathe, the cold would cause the synthetic blood and skin to freeze, with a real chance it could damage her cosmetically. That might mean a month, or longer, back in the growth tubes back at SciLab and she knew that there was no way RIGA intended to go there. Not now, not ever.

  RIGA put on the armoured additions to her suit and pressed the helmet over her head retracting her hair so it was short enough not to bother her. The helm’s overlays connected to her sensors providing additional tracking and monitoring devices to assist her in varied battle conditions.

  RIGA was ready. “OK, Gossie - chuck that RORI out as far as you can throw it and have it head into a distant sun as well, too much space junk flying around as it is.” She prepared to organise her own jump simultaneously, although Gossie would have to pull her back on-board as she would probably be too busy.

  Activating the jump using her internal link to the command structure on the ship, she landed hard against an uneven surface. Somehow she had misjudged the jump and landed in the corner of the room, not the centre. It was rough hewn stone this end. She was pleased she had indestructible bones, that impact would have damaged her otherwise. Wondering at the cause of her mis-jump she detected a magnetic interference she hadn’t taken into account. The internal rock face was coated in a type of shielding that Gossie had not mentioned.

  It was also intensely dark. The RORI obviously had no need of illumination. All well and good. She activated the helm’s infra-red lighting, then leaped the distance from the edge to the centre of the room. She landed squarely on one knee, one hand balancing her while the other had her blaster pointed at any possible danger. The interference only seemed to affect anything travelling through it, her readings inside the asteroid seemed fine.

  Surrounding her were dozens of digital relays. Riga knew that each would have its own set of coordinates it was aiming from and too. Every single one could be an enemy, or possibly a whole cell. She had landed right in the middle of a secret galactic switchboard.

  How did something like this exist so close to a populated system without being discovered? There had to be some form of security sweep that would pick this up on a normal scan, unless... unless there were deliberate efforts to hide it in plain sight. Like if it was listed as a ‘friendly’ or military installation.

  ‘Gossie, can you see a central interface here? There are too many connections. No wonder they had a RORI in-situ. This is a nightmare.’

  ‘Searching... Turn on your local relay it might assist me in tying down the switchboard’s core,’ the AI responded.

  RIGA’s helmet lamps picked up the relays. She was looking for common technology, but none of this was Empirum, it didn’t even look Terran. There were instructions on the fascia in front of her; a series of numbers. Moving swiftly to the next she saw the same layout, but the numbers were different. The third was different again. Coordinates? The grid references didn’t make sense, but they had to represent a position in space. It had to be another relay, or a planet.

  RIGA updated the ship. ‘I don’t believe this, Gossie. They have actually labelled the units. I am helmet recording, I don’t have time to read them all.’ RIGA went quickly round the room until she had all of the units on camera. It was then she noticed the red LED counter. So small she would have missed it without circuiting the room. ‘I see a timer. It's saying one minute and it's counting down.’

  ‘I have traced the core, RIGA. It is not in the room. It’s behind your current location.’

  RIGA, now aware that time was running out, and having no idea how big a detonation had been set for the secret comms centre, ran to the other end.

  There was a problem, there was no handle on the door. She pushed it to see if it had any impact. It didn’t move.

  ‘Gossie, how big is the room on the other side?’ she asked hurriedly.

  ‘Not enough to jump you in, if that is what you are thinking,’ the AI answered.

  RIGA scanned the wall in front of her. She could tell there were active motion detectors set into the door area. As she scanned deeper, she sensed pressure sensors. Likely there was a different atmospheric pressure within as well. Any change, without disarming first would set off the explosives. RIGA realised it was going to take too long to gain access. They were so close; it must be really important for such precautions to be taken. She was running out of time, again. It seemed a perpetual race that she was constantly losing. RIGA wasn’t emotional about the issue, self preservation had been heavily built into her system. Her makers knew how expensive she was to build and did not want to lose her by accident, or heroics.

  ‘Jump me out, Gossie.’

  As she reappeared in the cockpit, RIGA didn’t delay. She looked carefully at the sensor reading she was getting back from the asteroid. She could almost see the outline of the room. It was small, a large cupboard. The core appeared to be attached to four cylinders. They were lined with something that the ship’s sensors couldn’t penetrate.

  RIGA had that bad feeling again. She really needed to investigate if she had a sixth sense built into her firmware.

  Too much of this mission was designed to kill them, and she saw no exception here. The place was booby trapped and was, in any event, less than forty seconds from something they didn’t want to be a part of.

  “What if they are nuclear? Do these shields we have even protect us at this distance?” RIGA asked. She didn’t expect a response from the AI.

  “Jump us out of here, Gossie, but only far enough to avoid the blast radius.”

  “Done,” the AI responded. The viewer remained focused on the asteroid as they jumped away to a safer distance, still actively cloaked and shielded. With only seconds remaining, RIGA decided to pull in her sensors and depend on the AI’s feedback.

  The result of the explosion was quite respectable although it didn’t appear to be nuclear. The debris field expanding out from its original position was small, there was little left of the asteroid, mostly dust. Gossie was still analysing when RIGA jumped them back inwards hoping to find some remains of the core. She had a good idea what she was looking for in terms of metals, alloys and other materials. Using her sensors, as well as Gossie’s, she managed to cover considerable area of expanding debris in a short time before she found it. Without hesitation, RIGA jumped it aboard to the storeroom; maybe the ESSG bods could retrieve something from the misshapen core.

  She was concentrating hard on picking up other retrievals, so didn’t notice the alarm from the newly installed detection system that would warn of incoming hyperspace anomalies. Gossie did.

  ‘RIGA, we have company,’ the AI announced on her link while at the same time showing RIGA the feed from the external sensors. It showed two battleships arriving at the scene of the explosion. They were both of unknown origin. A few seconds later another anomaly appeared. This time it was the Tesperadus.

  “So what do we have here, the Terran Navy investigating an unidentified explosion? Or the pirates checking on the loss of their communications array?” RIGA asked.

  “We might well find out if we remain hidden,” Gossie responded.

  As they watched from a distance, having jumped away from the immediate vicinity of the expanding debris field, they detected tractor beams emanating from two of the ships that were grabbing the remaining debris.

  “So, we can’t tell whether they are good, or bad ships at the moment.” RIGA summarised their observations.

  As they co
ntinued to watch, the Tesperadus suddenly made off at speed. As it gained distance from the other ships, a wormhole opened in front of it and the ship winked into hyperspace. Why had it come, and more importantly, why had it left - so quickly?

  “No, but they’re actively seeking something. They are expanding their search.” The ship AI pointed out the new directions. The two ships would pass either side of them in a few minutes. They could not afford to be detected, at least until they knew which side these ships were on.

  As the ships proceeded to scan the debris field, while moving closer to them, they monitored the scanning frequencies, trusting that the new equipment installed by Osachi’s crew was as good as he said it was. Just when they believed they might be in the clear, a new proximity alarm went off.

  “I’m reading more anomalies in the region around us. We are going to be in the thick of something in a moment,” Gossie advised.

  12. Betrayed

  RIGA looked at the sensor readings, they were off the scale. There must be at least a dozen incoming ships. What had they uncovered here, she wondered. “Hold our position,” she ordered, realising that they would possibly end up in the direct path of another ship if they moved. It seemed the safest option to stay where they were, within the shadow of the two existing ships.

  The first to arrive out of hyperspace was a single black hulk of a ship, easily twice the size of any Empirum Navy battleship. It was a real giant bristling with weaponry. RIGA had never seen so much armament on a ship, this was surely bad news. The Empirum had no ships like this and she hadn’t seen specifications for any Terran ship of such a size.

  “Gossie, check your database from the Tesperadus AI for any identification of the new ship. I think we are dealing with a new threat here. Take sensor readings on all levels. This information must be transmitted to the Empirum, as soon as we are clear of here,” RIGA commanded.

  “There is nothing in the Terran database that comes close to this ship’s description,” she responded after a minute.

  Other ships began to arrive, although none as large as the first. The sensors continued to monitor the drives and specifications. All of the new ships were heavily armed, and two had battle damage to their hulls, so must have seen action recently.

  “Two of those drive signatures tally with the ambush attempt at the Terran system arrival point,” Gossie informed her. “So, it’s safe to assume these are all hostiles.”

  “Does this mean we need to consider the Tesperadus hostile too?”

  “I detected no such subterfuge with Paris in any exchanges we had; I cannot compute any involvement of a Terran Navy ship in this scenario. It may have come to check the explosion which means the Terran Navy have sensors in the area. The fact it left as quickly is, admittedly, strange,” she said.

  As they watched, the large black battleship moved to one side in a command position. The remaining ships spaced out and began actively scanning. The first two ships that had been approaching their position maintained a steady scan as they drifted past. It was looking decidedly unsafe to remain where they were.

  The data coming off the Goliath ship was of major concern. It was easily capable of taking on four or five Empirum battleships. The Goliath, as RIGA had instantly named it, was fitted with twelve visible torpedo tubes as well as four large laser turrets. RIGA detected additional turrets and torpedo tubes at the rear, but couldn’t be sure because they seemed merged into the drive cowlings.

  “The ships are scanning local space on a wide range. I think they are looking for something, in particular,” Gossie commented.

  “Could they be looking for a cloaked ship, like us?” RIGA asked. True enough the sensors which had to remain passive were picking up emanations that could only imply they were searching out anomalies in the flux. Any differences, however minuscule, might imply something worth investigating. With that massive ship there, RIGA decided it was too dangerous to stay.

  “Record all of the the drive signatures and let’s jump out of here, and find a safe location while we decipher the video locations I took of the communication array,” RIGA suggested.

  “Done,” the AI responded.

  A few seconds later they jumped. RIGA picked up on being in a different region of space. She checked the AI’s navigation monitor and saw they were in the midst of a large asteroid belt. Good enough, RIGA thought, not much would find them in here even without the shield and cloak. It would do for a few hours, she decided.

  They set about noting the coordinates of each of the arrays until they had a list of two hundred and seventy two addresses. To call them coordinates was probably a little premature as they didn’t look like anything the AI or RIGA had ever seen. They were obviously encrypted destinations.

  Using the location they had originally followed to the lone inhabitant on Vergent as the initial key, they set about trying to find which lock it fitted. As they didn’t know what the key actually consisted of and likewise the lock; it was going to take a while to narrow it down. They would know it when they found it, meanwhile they had a more important assignment.

  RIGA analysed the situation they had created with the destruction of the enemy communication centre. For so many ships to arrive so quickly, as well as the Tesperadus, the location must be regarded as important to the enemy, whoever they were. This meant they considered the loss of the core to be critically important, else why bring so many ships into the sector so quickly.

  They needed to get this piece of core back to Epsilon Gamma, RIGA decided. She realised that if there was any usable information on it that could help track down the origins of the pirate traders, they might stand a chance of eliminating them, or at least neutralising the threat.

  “I calculate a high probability of hostile interception at all Trade Empirum’s arrival points,” the ship AI responded gravely when RIGA informed Gossie of her findings.

  “Yes, well computed, Gossie.” RIGA admitted. “They don’t know that we didn’t secure the core, so might consider eliminating us their priority.”

  “Still, we need to find a way through this and quickly. It’s safe to assume they have our drive signature distributed. It is also fairly certain that they will anticipate our efforts to get the core back to Epsilon. We have to get past a blockade and whichever route we take, I also suspect any of the Empirums’ ships that attempt the run will currently be fair game for that large battleship we saw. If they have any more of those we are in serious trouble.”

  Something in what she just said sparked off QDE mode in RIGA. Perhaps the very act of thinking about the attempt to return to the Empirum had her shifting huge amounts of data around her memory banks. She was oblivious to everything including Gossie who was passively watching the massive data flow while RIGA’s full QDE mode was running.

  As the data crunching continued, the ship AI felt RIGA pulling files from her own memory core as it was sucked into the swirling black hole that RIGA was accumulating. The files from the Vergent operative, the ship, everything from the Paris download. All of the data from the beginning of the mission was thrown into the maelstrom that was RIGA’s brain. As it formed into a spectrum of possibilities, the unstoppable tide began to slow until the information coalesced around the possible outcomes.

  What RIGA began to see alarmed her. This was more than it first appeared; suddenly she understood the cause of the enemy ship’s concerns. “Get us to one of the comms nodes, we need to warn the ESSG.”

  Gossie tried to comply with RIGA’s request by calculating whether it could be achieved by the new jump system or a hyperspace hop.

  RIGA, meanwhile re-ran the encrypted coordinates, but this time added in Empirum planetary coordinates as well as the AI asteroids. She also pulled up all Empirum ship IDs and added them in.

  She had remembered the high activity of the RORI prior to them sending it on a one-way journey to the system’s sun. It had been sending an alarm and all of these ships had responded to it - including the Tesperadus.

  Did th
e Tesperadus leave quickly because Jennings realised they might be discovered, that something, or someone might be observing the scene, or was it something else?

  This was beginning to look like a conspiracy between Terran elements, unknown battleships and the Empirum. It certainly wasn’t simply black racketeering, or piracy. Something much more sinister was developing. The depth of involvement went far deeper than just these ships in space. There had to be political, or armed forces on the ground as well, for this level of organisation and no reprisal, perhaps even involving elements within the Empirum and Terran Councils.

  Was this some kind of potential coup in the making, or something bigger? RIGA didn’t know, but it would not be safe to return to the Empirum until she knew enough to keep her alive. At this moment she could walk straight into the arms of her enemies. She needed another option.

  Gossie teleported them, then jumped them twice more in succession, materialising, then de-materialising, at each point. The AI explained the moves to RIGA. “I decided it was too risky to use hyperspace, in case the anomalies were being monitored. The teleports do not appear to disrupt the space continuum, so remain undetectable.”

  They approached a system with an Empirum communication buoy. RIGA prepared her message to ESSG. She also copied in the GEN Vasta. Wherever they were, they needed to know about that Goliath battleship. If it was part of the conspiracy, they might come across it sooner, rather than later. RIGA didn’t want Xandarl to find out about it too late.

  The last message she sent was to Osachi. She hoped he would understand the cryptic comments she made, but not knowing where the message would find him, and how secure his comms channel was, she didn’t want to give too much away. She trusted that he would know what to do.

  RIGA believed, that for such a large clandestine force to exist, there had to be conspiracy at a high level. Her QDE abilities indicated that the likelihood of an imminent military coup was of the order of 85%. The trouble was, her abilities couldn’t tell her if it was an Empirum-backed, or a Terran coup. All she could be certain was, that it impacted both empires massively, and could well bring them to war with each other.