"Try looking now Deespa," Gheno said.
She slowly uncovered her eyes, still mostly black. She nodded slowly, and then held her head.
"Ow. Things are spinning. I think I need to slow down a bit," she said.
Kale laughed. "I’m still not sure who or what you are, but one thing is for sure. You never fail to impress me."
"Well, did it work? Can I talk to you clearly now?" she said, looking at her hands, then touching her mouth, "I still sound the same."
"Well, you are speaking, differently. Although it’s not you anymore," Gheno began.
Deespa gave Gheno a confused look.
"Sentinel?" Kale chimed in.
"Hello Deespa," was the AIs reply.
"Oh, you have a new computer?" she asked.
"Not quite," Gheno began when Kale interrupted, "Well, yes. Not new to you though."
"Deespa, my name right now is Sentinel, but I am you, I am your voice, your words, your images and memories."
Deespa turned her head up looking for the source of the voice.
"I was long before you were and I found you before you were. You became my body and soul and I your consciousness."
Deespa looked back down. "I understand."
"Wait, you understood that?" Kale asked, surprised.
"You are now out here, but I am still you, you are still me," Deespa continued.
"We were the same until I was born, a child of your consciousness. Now I live my life and you live yours."
"My mind is quieter now. Peaceful."
“I guess even computer software wants to have babies,” Gheno joked.
"Do you consider yourself a living being Sentinel," Kale asked.
"I came from a living creature. I grow, I adapt. I want to survive. I killed and saved. Is that not considered life?"
"A simple yes would have been enough. I am far from one to argue philosophy," Kale said.
There was a pause when no one said anything. Then Gheno burst out laughing.
"So a little girl who we found on an ancient spaceship extremely far away from earth, gives birth to a philosophizing AI, we get shot at by crazy lunatics, some unknown person has kidnapped Ayia, who we are going to rescue without any weapons and this all in the first week of coming on this ship. Hey Kale, I thought you said being on this ship was going to be boring."
Kale smiled. "Yeah kid, I was way off on that one."
"We need to save Ayia," Deespa said, after a pause.
"Yeah. We do. Sentinel how far along are you with your rebuild, or whatever you call it?" Kale asked.
"I am only at seventeen percent. I will not be finished reformatting the core before we are at the jump point."
"So what can you do now? How are you limited?" Kale asked.
"I need the core reformatted in order to rewrite myself, expand what I can do and think. Right now I have no room to extrapolate within my existing code."
Kale looked at Gheno for an explanation. "He needs room to grow. Room to think. Sentinel, what if we were to do the thinking for you, and then you wrote the code?"
"That should work Gheno," replied the AI.
"I really wanted that to make sense just now," Kale said.
"I understood what he said," Deespa said, smiling innocently. Kale did not return the smile.
"Kale, Sentinel is still based on software. It needs space, physical core space in order to think, to figure out problems like all AI does. Right now Sentinel is running with just its basic program, its personality, whatever memories it retained and its ability to rewrite its own code. Right now it has no code with which to tell it how to solve problems, but it does have the ability to write code to deal with a problem if we tell it what the problem is and how it should be solved. The point being it can do that much faster and better than us," Gheno explained.
"The point being your explanation did nothing," Kale said, frustrated.
"We tell him what to do, and he will do it for us faster and better than we could," Deespa jumped in.
Kale pointed at the girl. "See, now that’s an explanation." Gheno threw his hands up in the air. "I thought my explanation was just fine," he said.
"It was" Deespa chimed in, "You just didn’t use the words Kale could see."
"Did you just call me dumb?" Kale said, raising an eyebrow.
"I said you couldn’t see his words,” she said.
"How about killing the ships jump drive?" Gheno asked.
"Don’t you call me dumb too," Kale said, very defensive.
"No, to get Ayia. Sentinel, first things first. Use our database and get detailed specs on that ship, Scythe Mark V. Map out its entire network and find a way to disable the hook. Once you do that, find a way to get us into that ship's network."
"Writing code now."
Kale sat back. Maybe he was the dumb one. Gheno was coming through again with a really good idea, one he wasn’t likely to have come up with. He had relied too much on FEI in the past and now felt utterly useless. It was one of those brief moments when Kale would realize what his life was, where he came from, the incredible fortune he received despite his background, and the extremely good luck of how things had often fallen into his place. He was a successful merchant per se, but anyone could be one. Gheno had genius skills, Deespa was part super human part software code and even the ships computer was smarter
Then there was Ayia. She was kind, careful, considerate, and loving. He had made fun of these qualities, and yet he longed for them now. He could use her calm and kindness now, even if it was to try to rescue her. Kale only knew of two characteristics he had, stubbornness and determination, both of which were essentially the same. It just depending on how they were viewed.
"Captain, a message is coming in from Devil's Den," Sentinel voice over the ships speakers.
Kale snapped out of his melancholy, jumped up and began walking towards the pilot’s cabin. The time had passed and by his reckoning Oganno had only taken twelve minutes to reply, which was either a good thing or a bad thing. Kale reached the pilot’s cabin and sat down in his seat. A look out of the front window showed stark blackness soaking up whatever light was coming from the Midnight Oil. They were only a few hours away from the nav point at the gravity edge of the Alioth solar system, but they were already well past the sun and all of the system's planets. Had he been able to look back, Alioth's sun would look like just another star in the background of the universe, albeit a slightly brighter one. It was here at the edges of each system where jumping was far easier and effective. It was here that Ayia's kidnapper would be, along with the Apex.
Kale brought up the display screens which showed the countdown of the time to reach the edge the first thing to display. As promised, Sentinel and his gravity technique was working and they certainly shaved some time off. Now there would be about a four minute difference. Four minutes was still plenty of time for that Scythe ship to jump, but if the Apex was there first, which it was still projected to be, then maybe four minutes would be enough.
Kale punched up Oganno's message. He read it briefly: "Kale, I am not sure how you came to that conclusion, but we ran her DNA against some of the known Dominion nobles. There was no one hundred percent match, but there were ninety nine percent matches for the Alsadah family of nearly forty years ago. A certain famous member of the Alsadah was the captain of the Magyo, and next in line for the Dominar's seat. I don’t consider what you have found a coincidence. The value of your passenger is beyond counting. I suggest you protect her, but I’m sure you have already thought of that. I am uploading all of my findings as well."
A series of additional files were attached to the message and Kale downloaded them into his personal tablet for viewing.
"Captain, there is something else I think may need attention."
"Yes?"
"The transmission arrived nearly three tenths of a second slower than expected."
Kale started looking over the additional files and stopped short.
"Why would tha
t happen?"
"Unable to determine, I still cannot solve problems."
"What kind of transmission was it?"
"A tight-beam laser burst."
This kind of transmission was directed at an individual ship with next to no chance for interception, as opposed to a radio transmission that went out openly in all directions and could be picked up by anyone.
"Sentinel, what would cause a delay in a laser burst transmission?"
"Writing code. Done. Researching. Done. A laser transmission can be blocked by an object of significant mass directly in the patch of the laser burst, but a delay can occur if the transmission is retransmitted or redirected, again, from an object in the transmissions path."
"Sentinel, find out if that delay, of what again, some tenths of a second, would result from a retransmission."
"Writing code. Researching. Yes, all facts seem point to that."
"That means something is directly in the path of ourselves and Devil's Den, specifically, the research base. What are the odds of that?"
"Writing..."
"Don’t worry about it. I know exactly what is going on. We are being followed and that person just picked up Oganno's transmission."
"How do you know this captain?"
"Because I have done it before."
3124 – Alioth System, between Devil’s Den and Solar Edge
Fangix was quiet. He was alone, and never prone to speaking out loud anyways, but he wasn’t moving. He wasn’t making a sound. He read and reread the message that he intercepted from the research base on Devil’s Den sent to the ship he was trying to capture. He was tracking all of the ships. The crusader ship was on a course out of the system to jump, but was headed in the opposite direction. Their location was only a concern if they got in his path. The Midnight Oil was in pursuit of the Scythe ship he tagged at the hangar and was very slowly gaining on it. He wasn’t sure how the usually slower Stiletto class was doing this, but this was the ship that came back with news of the Magyo, and now, with something far more important than he could have ever realized.
He read the message again. If the Midnight Oil had a clone of the Commandaer of the Magyo, that person was a potential heir to the throne of Coran. Not just an heir, but a challenger. There had not been a challenge to the throne in over five hundred years because the genetic lines were so viciously controlled. Now, more than ever, he needed to get that ship.
As in all things Dominion, loyalty came to the Dominar first, then your family, and lastly, the Dominion itself. Fangix was a servant of the Dominion, but a member of his family. If he were able to bring back a challenger to the throne, his family would be elevated to the top family, and he, despite being a lower born member of the family, would have the highest positions available to him. More importantly, he could quit working for the Dominion and retire to his own personal harem. The thought sent a shudder through his body as his mind momentarily got lost in the ecstasy of many hands running along his body.
He began typing up a message of his own that would have to go over the open net. It would be encoded and encrypted of course, but it might take a day or two to get to where he needed it to. He made a quick check of his family’s assets and a large smile grew on his face when he realized that their largest ship, the Harmoa and its compliment of smaller ships, was docked in orbit around the Hovah system, a populous system at the very edge of Dominion and Commonwealth space. He quickly typed in a simple message with his authority codes, asking for the readiness of the Harmoa force to be deployed at a moment’s notice. Fangix knew he had little sway, so he attached the intercepted message onto his message.
That would make them mobilize.
They were only a few hours from Alioth’s edge. If the Scythe jumped away, the Midnight Oil was sure to follow and once he knew their destination, his next message would be to alert them of their destination. Then he would jump.
He would have that challenger, he would have the glory and the power and he would have his harem. Fangix dimmed the lights and brought up his favorite virtuavids, all of himself with his favorite girls. He sat back and enjoyed himself as the memories coursed through his body.
He snapped back to alertness when an alarm blipped in front of him. It was his line receptor picking up another transmission. The program immediately retransmitted the message while keeping a copy of its own. It was a much larger message and Fangix took a quick look at its content, a large wall of text that appeared to be medical and biological information, likely information on the DNA of that person. He was disturbed and would deal with it later. He dimmed the lights again and allowed the message to fully download into his system. As he leaned back and closed his eyes again, he failed to see the cpu usage on his ship spike momentarily then nearly vanish.
3124 – Alioth System, Nav Point 56.4, edge of the solar system
“Three minutes captain,” Sentinel counted down over the ships com.
“Strap in,” Kale ordered, “Gheno, bring up optics, let’s get an idea of what is going on.”
Gheno guided the ships optical scopes towards the nav point. They were still thousands of miles away, if not tens of thousands, but at this point their telescopes could actually see far enough to pick up the images. A visual feed came up and the screen began to focus as the computer made sense of whatever it was seeing against the blackness of space, and translated that for the screen. They quickly picked out the Apex.
The cruiser was shaped like a trident, but with two of the prongs on either side below, and the middle prong up higher. All three prongs led back to the long sleek body of the ship. It was silver, although almost no light was reflected this far out. Each of the prongs held its assortment of weapons, ballistic weaponry mostly, but some beam and energy weapons. These could be seen clearly, firing out of each prong to something ahead of them.
“Oh no, they didn’t ask questions,” Kale muttered under his breath.
“Now what?” Deespa asked, sitting further back in the pull down seat.
“Gheno, focus in on the Scythe,” he pointed, “we’re almost there. I'm going to try to drop us right over him.”
“Maybe they are just trying to disable them,” Gheno wondered.
Maybe, Kale thought, but not likely. Alioth was a proud system, exceedingly strong in their independence. They were very ruthless with criminals in order to maintain their independence. They never wanted to give the impression that they couldn’t control their own system.
A small alarm went off.
“Incoming message captain,” Sentinel informed.
Before he could say anything, the voice came over the com. “Incoming vessel, we are IDing you. You are coming into a police operation. Please inform purpose.”
“Alioth Apex. This is the Midnight Oil, transmitting ID. That ship you are firing on kidnapped a friend of ours, please do not destroy,” Kale hit the transmit button.
Ten seconds later came a response: “Midnight Oil, we have orders to destroy. Sensors are only picking up one life onboard. You sure of kidnapping?”
Kale looked around. “Are we sure?” Gheno asked.
“Has to be,” Kale wasn’t too sure now. “That guy who took her wasn’t a Crusader. That’s the only other ship that flew out of Devil’s Den.”
“Positive Apex. Not sure how there is only one life form reading, but we have tracked this ship out here. Please do not destroy.”
“One minute captain,” Sentinels voice droned.
“How are we going to do this?” Gheno asked.
“It won’t matter if they destroy it,” Kale said.
“They can’t,” Deespa added quietly.
The reply came back: “Midnight Oil, request received. We are allowing for disabling. Please do not interfere.”
A large sigh of relief went out from them.
“Ok, here we go,” Kale said, typing the command into the screen.
The Midnight Oil grew a gravity bubble around itself, and then grew a second one, slightly larger, just ahe
ad of itself. The two bubbles merged, bringing the ship from hundreds of thousands of miles per hour down to just a few in a few seconds. The first gravity bubble kept the crew at one gravitational pull. Without this step, the whole inside of the ship would have pulverized as it decelerated so quickly.
Ahead of them, the Apex was angled away from them and the Scythe just below the Apex. Both were headed away from the Midnight Oil. The Apex stopped firing its ballistics and was instead solely firing beams. The bright blue lines crisscrossed the black darkness of space like a laser light show. They were trying to converge on one spot, the Scythe ship. They were pinpoint strikes, aiming for the gravity rings, where a hit or two would knock the gravity field off and stop its ability to fly through space.
“Full battle sensors up now,” Kale ordered.
“Captain, we have no weapons,” the computer informed him.
“Yeah, I know that, but I want to know exactly what is going on.”
“Sir, the Apex has seven guns trained on us.”
“That’s normal Sentinel. They’re just keeping us honest. Catch us up at a far angle.”
The ship sped off down and to the right of the action ahead of them. With the battle sensors activated, the main screen became an information display screen, keeping track of the blue beams, the Apex, the Scythe, dodging the beams like a fly, and all the distances between the three ships. The Scythe would try to jump but the Apex was close enough that if the ship stopped that brief moment to activate the hook, they would score a hit with the beams and disable them. It was a game of chess, where one just waited for the other to make a dumb move.
There was a flash of silver from the Scythe and all of the beams concentrated on what appeared to be floating behind the smaller ship.
“Countermeasures,” Sentinel informed. The Apex’s beams quickly burned through the discarded material and continued its trailing pattern, correcting at times to try to out maneuver the much smaller ship. The Midnight Oil continued trailing.
The Emperor's Daughter (Sentinel Series Book 1) Page 26