“Captain blast that door open and get that woman out of that damn tub now.” The Admiral demanded.
The Priestess Walked over to the Admiral. “Please. I will open the door. To Too much damage has already been done.” The hatch opened as she waved her hand at it. “Please remove the inspector now Admiral.”
“NO! I will lose all contact with my AI and the world. You can’t take the old hag . I need her to see and communicate. You will leave me isolated; trapping me inside a black hell.”
The Admiral smiled at the Doctor. “That works for me Doctor. It will serve as your perfect prison until we decide what to do with you.”
“No I will kill the hag if you try to disconnect her from me. All I have to do is send a high voltage current to fry her brain to kill her before you can finish pulling the plugs.”
“That will kill your assistant leaving you blind with no hope of ever being reconnected .” The Admiral said.
“I have been killing assistants for a thousand years as well as Admirals and officers and politicians that have not cooperated with my orders. I have sent whole squadrons into traps to kill Captains and even your predecessor Admiral when I plunged his shuttle into the ground at a thousand miles an hour. I have thrown rail switches to crash trains and programmed shuttles to disintegrate into the atmosphere and aircars to fly into buildings and mountains. I have been killing you morons for so long I have lost count of the numbers. Having one of the other AI’s kill you would be easy if you do not obey my orders . I have already sent orders to the other AI’s to have you all killed if you or send me to that purgatory hell. After t hey kill you the new admiral and government wil l do as we order and reconnect me. The reason I lured Collins down here. ”
“Yes as I suspected Doctor, which justifies my decision the first weeks I as was First Admiral, to cut you AI’s out of the command loop in all military spacecraft even and stressing manual operations with easy AI cutouts on all military hardware. AI malfunctions had cost us too many lives and ships until then ; but I am shocked to find out you planned them that way to assassinate people. But then it explains why so many of the accidents killed high ranking Officials , politicians and military officers. ” Shaking his head sadly, the Admiral took a deep breath. “If you kill her then you have no chance of ever being reconnected or transferred to a new tower which we have just about perfected so don’t be stupid Doctor. ”
“ I have never heard of such a program so you lie. You have the Collins’s A.I.; when the counsel finely orders you to reconnect me. The other AI‘s will make sure of it or there will be new council members and a new First Admiral. As every counsel over the last 1500 years has found out and done to supply me with new Inspectors when I call for them.” The old woman screamed in pain. “See Admiral, I can and will kill her just to show you my power. So don’t waste my time.”
“Mickey, can you stop him from killing her?”
“No. Again he has isolated everything before we could get in to that part of the system. He kept that section close to his core. ”
The Admiral looked at the Priestess for help.
Shaking her head. “I cannot interfere in human affairs as long as it does not hurt the environment Admiral. Though I could not stop him anyway without killing him and that too is against my morals programing .”
“You people are pathetic. Do as I order or you all will die. If not from me then from the other AI’s scattered across the system. And there is nothing you can do to stop it. Now leave and follow my orders before I decide you are not the First Admiral any longer.”
“Captain, I said disconnect the woman from this monster.” The Admiral demanded.
Mark had spent the last few minutes stretching the kinks out of his legs and arms working his way over to a stack of weapons from the men cleaning up the bot trash around the cavern. Ignoring the laser riffles, Mark stepped up to grabbed the heavy 30 pound 5 foot long Russian blaster adopted by the English troops and used to take out hard targets such as armored trucks and light tanks and the Pedbot attacking Mark only minutes before.
The old Inspector laying in the tub let out a blood curdling scream to make the Doctors point and drawing everyone’s’ attention. Mark jumped his mind into over drive and quickly grabbed, hefted and then leveled the heavy blaster at the base of the Doctor’s tower checking the safety , selector switch and p ower slide. T hen and pulled the trigger before the troops only a few feet a way could move to stop him even if they had seen him picking it up .
On full power and full auto, the Balls of Plasma streaked into the base of the tower. The powerful plasma balls penetrating into the towers core and vaporizing the Doctors brain and life support equipment . G , g utting the entire inside of the base’s heavy steel shell as balls continued to penetrate and then punch ed ing a hole out the other side and into the cavern wall. Letting up on the trigger while he staggered to regain his balance as his mind sl owed back down as the base turned into a molten furnace inside. ,
Mark raised the heavy gun up onto the glass tower ready to blast it to hell as well if needed. Mark asked anyone and everyone that could hear. “Is that God damn son of a bitch dead yet?”
“Yes Mark.” Came Mickey’s reply.
Mark dropped the weapon like a red hot iron hot potato as a dozen guns swung in his direction and held his hands up above his head. As the echo of the blast died, a single weak voice could be heard crying. “I’m free at last! Free at last! Get me the fuck out of this damn tub.” And then repeating the statement. “I’m free at last!” As she sobbed. “Free At last!”
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With the death of the Doctor, the AI Admiral deep inside the 3rd moon lost his feed but the terror the Doctor had felt for the fraction of a second as he lost all contact with the outside at the prospect world of being cast into isolation hell before he died, left a marked impression on him. The Admiral was now terrified himself. His tower turned a deep red as he started trying to call back the ships and fighters he had sent out at the English Empires Supreme Admiral‘s orders to the French system. The Battle Cruisers would show them who was boss. The Doctor had always been a pain in the butt and a weasel but he had been an AI Controller god and the fact that a few live bodies had to die to keep him alive was a sad but necessary cost. Now that kid had not only exposed the truth but he had even killed the Doctor Controller. That alone had earned him a death sentence: a mere mortal killing a God.
Then a thought came to him. What would happen if the rest of his com units failed? Even though he was a newer model with a dozen comm unites well protected to prevent just such a tragedy from happening . As with only one unit of the Admiral ’s core that had malfunctioned of the 12 over the 1400 years of his existence with easy remote access and repairable equip ment that would use just about anything to communicate with. Including a can with a string . But so many of the older AI. Towers had lost their Controllers and gone silent from the reports that ha d ve come through over the years that the direct experience of the Doctors death suddenly made him feel that the 11 remaining remaining comms and 30 some remote access lines were not nearly enough to keep him from the isolation hell and the Black death the Doctor had once experienced. He could and would in time (even if it took a hundred thousand years), fall into that pit of hell with no possibility of recovery since these blood bags where so primitive they could not even fix a simple come unit built by the old Imperial Empire, and now because of that idiot kid , even hope of rescue by the Doctor was impossible. Unless he procured the kid for his own use. Had him transferred to his care after his murder trial.
Actually he should thank the kid for killing the Doctor before the Doctor could use the kid for himself. Thank the kid for getting himself jailed for murder before he got himself killed in the outback on t he Admiral’s his stupid mission to save the idiot planet and a few billion wasted lives. A terrible waste of a perfectly good Inspector and his AI.
Realizing that he had no way of contacting the fleet sent
to help the French anytime soon he turned his attention to the cavern his AI tower lived in, he realized that he needed to upgrade it just a little bit. Sitting at the core of the planets 3rd moon in vacuum with hundreds of miles of rock and thousands of miles of tunnels between him and the nearest human military base. Let alone breathing air for his slave. The thought that he needed a human for anything was enough to scare him. He had a lot of building to do and immediately started sending out work and construction orders. Before he could get a human slave , he had to have some place for the slave to live.
Unless he could force project 13 into succeeding with their experiments in suspended animation. He could then keep the kid alive forever while the kids AI served as an insurance policy. Project 13 suddenly got hundreds of millions of credits in its account along with the best minds in the system transferred to it. Yes, he should have listened to that weasel and let the doctor have project 13. He should not have been so squeamish about killing a few hundred mortals to get the project done . Not to mention that and the Doctor’s Medical core AI may have had some valuable insight or information from the Imperials buried deep inside it‘s memories his did not have. Suddenly saving the lives of mortals was not that important to him anymore. The 10 billion people of the planet moon he orbited with could all die as long as he lived. His original Prime Programing to protect the English State and its inhabitants, was no longer even secondary programming. Self-survival had taken over every part of his human being programing .
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Blackbeard scanned the Port parameter with his binoculars. Their 3 to 10,000 power with electronic stabilization, allowed him to see the hairs on a flea’s ass a mile away. In this case he watched a large formation of fighters flying high over the distant military base a hundred miles away as a steady stream of military ships took off and landed. Slamming down his fist onto the com button he screamed into the air. “What’s going on with the Military? Why are they scrambling fighters and ships? Where did they go? Are they getting ready to attack us? Or are they just on maneuvers? I want some answers now. Damn it!”
“Mr. Blackbeard. My sources are telling me that every ship and fighter that can fly was scrambled across the entire system and not just at the base. The rumor is that a Tramp ship Commander named Collins has attacked an AI in the Planetary Command Center and the powers that be where afraid that it may have been part of a major attack. But what is even stranger is that only transports and a bunch of reserve fighters seem to be answering the call. I t can’t be sure but by what I am hearing, I think that all the military combat ships have left the system for some reason several days ago.”
Hitting another button, Blackbeard dropped through the floor down to the control room and pointed his gold framed , Pearl handled, Diamond studded , Crystal tipped blast pistol at the man's head. “Are you telling me that punk kid is in the military prison where I cannot get at him?”
“No sir. They are treating him like a hero from the rumors I am hearing .” Blackbeard let the pistol drop with a smile. “Something about giving him a whole squadron of old bombers they have dredged up from storage and APC’s. and sir. There was talk about a couple of transport boats as well at first but know, according to the rumors, the Tramp crews are being kicked off the base empty handed without even their old airtruck’s that have been grounded and confiscated. A couple of busses have been chartered to take them back to the Civilian Star Port.”
Emptying the charge of the blast pistol into the wall while taking out several screens, his crew scrambled for cover. “That is fucking unbelievable.” He said with a smile shaking his head as he said to himself. "As long as they don't lock him up is all I care about."
Chapter 13: Our Damn Trucks
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Mark walked out of the Central Command building. His new kaki , freshly clean uniform only hours before, was now a tattered filthy bloody mess. He had not talked to anyone since leaving the cavern. The more he saw on the trip back the less he wanted to talk. Seeing the bodies of the guards he had taken the pistol belts off of a couple hours before as he walked around the wreckage at the first ambush almost made him lose it in spite of the dozen of ambush sights he had already passed . Brooding as he walked up to the back of the APCC. The Shock of his trip back to the base on top of everything that had happened in the cavern was becoming just too much to deal with. Stopping, Mark turned around to face the building shaking his head. “If I had not sent a message for the Captain to follow me , a hundred English troopers would be alive right now Mickey. How do I live with that. that? ”
“It is not your fault Mark.” Mickey said. “As soon as the tram car left for the AI cavern, half the alarms on the base went off, thanks to the Inspector. Evedentually Evidentially she was able to get into the Doctor’s system once in a while. The troops were going to fallow you no matter what you did or said. The fact that you asked for the Captain to follow you actually saved lives when she took command of the Assault.”
“Thanks Mickey but I still cannot believe the carnage in the sections on this end. I take it that was before the Captain took over command.”
“Yes Mark and long before I was able to take control of the defenses and shut them down.”
“Well. At least I don’t feel like going out and killing myself any more. But then if I had not gone down that damn tunnel it would never have happened at all. And Tom would not be in the Hospital right now half dead .”
“And the old lady inspector and the Priestess would still be prisoners. Fact is Mark, the Doctor already had an arrest warrant made out for you to be jerked off the ship only a few minutes before liftoff and delivered to him buck naked in chains. We would not have stood a chance against him under his terms. The Priestess realized this when she summand you below.”
“Oh! I thought I wanted to talk to the AI controller about our so called mission to the outback. Though I did grab tools when you told me about problems and then go back for weapons when I heard the Inspector’s her warning plea.” Mark turned to go up the ramp of the APCC as it finished dropping. “Damn, it would have been nice to talk to someone about what the hell I am supposed to do in the out back to save BILLIONS AND BILLIONS.” Mark said the last sarcastically.
“I am sure the Priestess would love to talk to you about just that . She finds you interesting.”
“Ok. That is something else I don’t understand.” Mark stopped half way up the ramp. “You said that AI’s need controllers and that no AI can be self-aware. It looks like that primitive AI is self-aware all by itself.”
“I am sorry Mark but the priestess is much more advanced than I am. I was wrong. While your current technologies cannot understand, let alone repair me. My builders would not understand how she was built or programmed and could not even dream of repairing the Priestess. If you wish, she would love to talk to you as I said.”
“No! I am not going back down there through that carnage. It is going to take days to clean up that mess and even then I never want to step back into that cavern again.”
“Mark, you do not need to go to the Priestess in the cavern, you can talk to her at any of her temples anytime. Or you can talk to her through me if you wish.”
“Ok so what is the big deal? Why doesn’t she just show up if she can?”
“She has to be asked to come to talk to you. A rule set down by her creator’s millenniums ago to keep her from interfering unnecessarily in the lives of her wards.”
“I have to ask her to come talk to me? That is so…so cheesy… Ok, alright all ready. Priestess I would like to talk to you … pleeaasse.”
The Priestess appeared standing in front of him at the bottom of the ramp. “Yes Mark. I am so glad you wished to speak to me.”
“Can you walk or come into my lair where I can sit and relax a little while I catch up to myself. I think I am still down in that tunnel someplace. Besides I think I left a soda someplace in the cockpit.”
“Yes Mark, I can be with you as long
as Mickey is close to any of my temples on the planet. I think most of my remote terminals are still operating but after 2 thousand years, I am not certain yet. I am running a diagnostic check on the 10,000 now to see how many survived in tact intact .” Mark walked into the back pushing the button to raise the ramp. “Mark I want to thank you for saving me and the Inspector.” She seemed to float up into the back next to Mark. “I want to help you get over this transition with Mickey and what is expected of you to save the English State and push back the outback .”
“So can you tell me about how I am supposed to save the world?” He asked as he walked and she glided forward.
“Actually Mark; you can save the entire Human settled Galaxy including Earth. My mother planet.”
“Oh! Aaa Earth? Ya. You know Earth was destroyed right? And how the hell am I supposed to do that?”
“No Mark. After a thousand years, Earth is alive and well. Though still damaged. As for saving Earth and the rest of humanity. All you have to do is, simply stay ing alive Mark.”
“What you say? You tell me I am not only supposed to save the planet but the human settled Galaxy and then only tell me to stay alive? What bullshit.”
“Sorry Mark; but that is all I can say at this time. I will help you when I can and in time you will understand but for now that is all I can say that you can understand and comprehend at this time. You are in shock from today’s events and will be for some time.”
Mark sat down in the Pilots seat and leaned back closing his eyes for a second but all he saw was bodies flashing across his mind one after another almost too fast to see and getting faster . Lots of dead bodies with skeletons in tubs flashing amongst the fast paced slide show. Opening his eyes he started looking around for the soda can he had left there earlier. “So tell me how Priestess? Something I can use. I will try to understand and in time comprehend. Besides Mickey can help. I hear she is a little smart even if she is not as advanced as you.” Finding the soda he held it up and seeing it was almost empty he turned it up and drained it, then made a sour face as he tossed it back through the hatch into the back of the APCC. “Eck that is some bad worm shit. Well at least it was wet.” Sitting forward in the pilot's seat he slapped the engines on and hit the power as he sat back and buckled in . Without running the check list he took to the air before the core could finish heating up and headed down across the base toward home.
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