“It took many years for me to realize that I was not just her memories anymore but that I was me whatever I was or why. Though I did not care. And then Mark came along and I knew that I loved and needed him and why. That he needed me just as much. N And n ow that the Inspector AI is part of me , I feel whole again. Whatever that whole is? Fully But aware of me and my surroundings and I'm scared.” Mickey looked at the Captain narrowing her eyes. “Are you sure you have no romantic interest in Mark or want to frick him? Remember I can tell if you are lying so don’t even try.”
“Mickey!” Mark said.
“The Captain smiled. “No , I have no interest in Mark romantically and even the thought of a .. … screwing him is repulsive to me. He is much too young for me. I have a son older than he is.”
“Good. Now shall we go? The ship needs those life boats.” Mickey said turning around she crossed her arms under her big boobs , and looking out the windshield.
The Captain looked around the jeep at the park land around them. The stream with the foot bridge crossing it into a flowery garden with the tall trees in the back ground and then the grassy field on the other side of the jeep. A light breeze blew through t he jeep and the grass and trees around them. An unbelievable contrast to the violence of only a few minutes before.
The Captain finally took a de ep breath and sighed before continuing . “I have a problem here.” She reached down under the dash, opened a cover and pulled out a well-protected armored memory slide. Holding it up, she studied it for a few seconds. “This is the only record I have of our conversation and your explanation of what you are. It says that you may hold the secret to producing Sentient Artificial Intelligent beings that are a thousand times more advanced than anything living today (including humans) that never die; in a factory. Weather we want them or not. That is the question. A Question that is well above my pay grade.” Turning to look at Mark and then Mickey. “If I were you. I would forget what you just told me and never speak of it again. No one else including your Captain Cook needs to know that you are truly worth more than a dozen new star ships. Or that I should execute the both of you before the secret gets out to prevent a war that could decimate all corporeal living life in the universe. A secrete that according to legend legend, has already been the cause of the greatest war mankind has ever fought some 8,000 years ago and exterminated countless times since before it could be repeated.”
Captain Summers waited a few seconds for that to sink in. “I don’t think you know how to reproduce but you could lead to that discovery if the right greedy unscrupulous people found out about you and dissected you down to the atomic level in the name of profit. Not realizing that once the genie is out of the bottle , trillions of you would have no reason to keep us humans around getting in their way, using resources they need. So it is in your better interest not to be discovered if you want to stay alive.”
“Oh come Captain.” Mark said sarcastically. “That is a very pessimistic attitude. Anything that intelligent would know it is better to live in peace and cooperation.”
“You just finished taking a bus load of kids to the Zoo a couple weeks a go . I don’t see you living with a bunch of zoo animals running around eating up half your ships resources and cleaning up their shit from the passageways even if you do have a few pets. That is all we would be to them are zoo animals to be exterminated when our populations got in their way or were all ready to high taking up resorces . It already happened at least once. The only reason s humanity won the war that decimated 90% of humanity and did wipe out several alien races, was that the sentient crystal machines took thousands of years to grow , and were to too big and slow to do much themselves except through remote’s. And that some of the machines t ook our side and helped us. ” Taking a deep breath. “The crystal Priestess is one of the survivors of that war that helped our side, buried deep to protect her and sent here to this red dwarf to isolate her from a yellow sun to make sure she cannot properly reproduce viable off spring with strict limits on what she can control. After thinking that she died a millennium ago , we now find out she was buried deep under our feet all along thanks to you . ”
With Mark’s mouth dropping open , Captain Summers smiled. “That is Ok. She agreed to this arrangement. She was thought dead so long ago that a religion has sprung up around her information libraries that were turned into temples. She is still harmless and can go back to controlling the everyday functions of the planet if that is what she wants to do.”
“How many of them are left alive?”
“No one knows. So many of the planets that they were sent to are in the outback and are now all but dead. At most, likely a few hundred. But then the towers could survive for hundreds of years m aybe thousands even without power. Their solid state crystal minds coming back to life again as soon as power is restored if they did lose power . That is unless thei r towers were destroyed. Though there are records of a few turning up in yellow suns before the Bug war a thousand years ago trying to reproduce and had to be destroyed. One of the reasons the Old Empire was so restrictive in keeping such a tight grip on technology to only a few centralized systems. To prevent one of them from getting uncontrolled access to advanced technology and trying to take over again. Even though it was they that helped life defeat their brother machines. Even they admit that t T heir descendants most likely would be a threat again in time if left to reproduce even they admit .”
“Ok , how come you know so much about them? This is the first for me. How about you Mickey; what do you know about the Priestess?”
“Just what the Priestess told you in the cavern. Though the thought of having your offspring is enticing love. I do not know how we would or could do it. Oh. I have found a secrete secret file s hidden deep within me, concerning such an entity as the priestess but the memory files are badly damaged and will take time if ever to retrieve and repair.”
“How far were you from the bomb Mickey?” Asked the Captain.
“I do not know exactly but I think just outside the neutron bomb's fire ball if not in it as intense as it was. Though it took years for them to dig me out so I may have been in what amounted to a bunker witch means I could have been well inside the bombs small fireball. The radiation was in the billions of rads, killing my .. … me within a micro second. With the EMP ripping out countless electronics into masses of slag and turning some plastics to mush and making others so brittle that they collapse into dust as soon as they were touched by the salvage crews. Much of the equipment was thrown across the room and broken anyway. I was almost left as unsalvageable but finally taken anyway as my advanced crystal tech was labeled immune to radiation and then some of the medical devices still seemed to work including the micro optical, brain surgery helmet that was protected in a case and found in another part of the complex I was in , farther from the blast. My glasses were lumped with the medical eye and optical nerve stem surgery equipment by a moron that simply thought glasses were glasses for eyes that went with the kit and did not know any better and I wound up in the Doctor’s office after a thousand years in one of th e surviving Imperial at ship’s cargo compartments.”
The Captain chuckled. “Well unless you can manage to stand near another nuclear explosion, I don’t think there is much chance of you reproducing or anyone else recreating you for that matter. And while I have heard of Inspectors before, I cannot recall hearing or reading about any sentient glasses so I think you are alone in that respect.” Taking the jeep back up into the air. “But you still better keep your mouths closed concerning your sentience or you will most likely wind up in a test lab being dissected as I said. Even if I don’t think it would do them any good.”
The jeep picked up speed even though Mark noticed that it was a bit erratic with the Captain having to work to keep it straight in the air .
She was still going to have to pass the information up to the Admiral for his decision as weather Mickey posed a threat or not and had to be terminated. Besides she had some doubt about Micke
y’s sanity. The last thing they needed was a lunatic crazy sentient AI running around even if she could not reproduce.
The jeep hit a n wind gust air pocket and jerked to the side sending the little doll sliding across the dash. The dash lit up where she touched it without her merging with the solid object. The Captain suddenly realized that she could not see through the little woman like all the other projection holograms she had ever seen. Even in the bright light of day. Reaching out she touched Mickey with her finger and instead of disappearing through her. Her body sparkled as she was pushed across the dash after a slight spark flashed between the Captain’s finger and Mickey. The Captain feeling a solid body.
“Ouch!” Mickey said as she stepped away from the Captain’s finger as her feet sparkled where she touched the dash. “That hurt. Why are you touching me? Are you a lesbo? Sorry but I only have eyes for Mark and quite frankly the thought of touching a woman makes me sick. Especially you.”
“Sorry Mickey but you do not look like any projection I have ever seen and my finger did not go through you. Can you explain?”
“Sure Captain. I am using static electricity fields created by my holo projector beams interacting with each other that create my image to condense the moisture and collect and compress the small particles of dust in the air to form my body. Your touch was very unpleasant to me, even rather painful. Please do not do it again.” Walking over in front of Mark and posing. “Do you like my suit Mark? I am just learning to manipulate the fields but I should be able to create a large body for short periods of time in the future when I get the hang of it.” Smiling again she turned to show off her profile. “Tell me hun. Do you like what you see love.”
Mark starred at her and licked his lips before he looked away embarrassed. “I .. Ya sure. You look.. A great.” He kept looking back and then away as she kept changing her possess for him. Making him squirm in his seat.
“Ok enough you two. We are almost to the Command center and they don’t need to see the show. And Mark is going to need to have his mind on work and not you. Now knock it off.”
Mickey looked at the Captain and pouted before she blew Mark a kiss with a wink and disappeared with a flash and pope as a cloud of dust and moister started to dissipate.
“Mickey; I understand why you are acting like a slut. After a thousand years of being alone and suddenly being attached to someone that you love, I would be desperate to make him love me too. But if you keep teasing him , he is going to start hating you because you will never be able to finish what you are trying to start. Never giving him some release. You can never consummate the deal and you know it. Just think about it. Wouldn’t you start hating some one that kept offering you heaven and then slapped you away every time you reached for it. That is all that will or can ever happen and he will grow to loath you for it. The most you will ever be are good friends like brother and sisters that love each other. Leave it at that. He is not going to get rid of you and you know that as well.” The jeep approached a squat 50 story building with a large landing platform and parking area on top that made some attempt to blend in with the surroundings but just did not quite pull it off. “Now start acting like the lady I know you had to be when you became an inspector.”
The jeep touched down next to a 300 foot long boat transport sitting in the center of the building ’ s flat parking roof. A The APCC command center APCC they had appropriated at the warehouse sat next to the transport. “Mickey is that APCC the one we had back at the warehouse?” As he started for it.
“Yes Mark the very same, but it is not doing much right now. I believe the Captain is on the English Transport Boat. It seems to be one large Command Center from what I can detect. I am sorry love for being a tease and getting you all hot and bothered even though I enjoyed doing it. I stopped doing anything like that after losing my family and trying to become an inspector and I am afraid I was having fun watching your reactions and got carried away. I truly am sorry but if you want; I can help you later. I know males have a very large visual component to sex and I can at least help in that department. Please don’t be mad at me love.”
“This way Commander.” Captain Summers shaking her head as she was headed for a ramp leading up into the side of the transport. “Your Captain should already be in the Command Center.”
Mark followed her into the transport through the lock in the double hulls and into the cargo hold with a huge 3 story tall Mega Cargo Box down the center with about a 10 foot gap between the side of the transport ’s inner hull of the cargo hold and the 40 foot wide mega box. Looking up and down the hold he could see several of the short 50 foot long Mega Boxes butted up against each other running up to the bow and back to the stern. Mark He wondered why they had not used the standard 100 foot long Mega Boxes instead of so many of the shorts. They entered the hatch in the box next to the transport’s lock that turned out to be a lock as well before interring entering a reception area and then spent the next 5 minutes wondering through passageway after passageway and through hatches between short Mega boxes until they came to a large two deck tall room the size of one of the short Mega boxes with tiered rows of consoles and seats in a half moon around a table with one huge screen on the forward bulkhead behind. Dozens of other screens lined the side bulkheads .
Captain Cook sat with several other high ranking English officers next to and above the central screen table. The screen table showed a 3D image of the Rough AI tower surrounded by a ring of English troop positions s and then the 4 Star Queen camps of marines positioned at the compass points farther out from the tower now fare behind the front English lines. The screen on the bulkhead showed the tower with the English holding the 1 5 1 th through the 20th floors with civilians evacuated from the next 20 floors up and moved to the high floors. The bots held the lower floors including the 10th floor which was the only lowest floor left with sky bridges still intact to the next buildings. The other sky bridges halfway up the building had been blown using the building's own defense torpedo's, (Mark found out later) with refugees packed on them trying to evacuate the tower. Killing tens of thousands as the packed sky bridges fell two thousand feet. The remnants of the Sky bridges lay in ribbons on the ground between the buildings. Bodies lay around them with crews working to retrieve the bodies out beyond the English lines. One reason Captain Summers had wanted to move the lines back closer to the tower to allow recovery crews in closer to the tower. .
Captain Cook was in the middle of an argument with an English General as Mark followed Captain Summers into the command center. “Why haven’t you brought down one of your armored assault transports to evacuate the tower? Any medium weapons they must have won’t hurt them.” Mark heard Captain Cook ask.
The General retorted. “We would but all the active Assault Transports are all out of the system on operations and weeks away from being recalled. It would take a days week to get anything out of mothballs from orbit the third moon even if we could get at them witch we can’t since the other AI has control of the moon but then that would take a request for support by the cities mayor . And we are not about to send in another unarmored transport with those torpedo batteries still active after losing the first. We can’t get close enough long enough to close off the Torpedo launch ports. Besides it would take almost a hundred ships to evacuate the quarter million inhabitants in this tower not to mention time we don’t have just to load them.”
Mark was shocked at hearing that a transport had been shot down. Not believing it until he found the wreckage on the 3D table on the other side of the tower. Mickey putting up the casualty numbers on the wreck. Some 30,000 people had died when the transport was shot down while it was leaving after packing its holds with standing room only for what was supposed to be only a short ride to safety and not a very short one way trip to a crash site killing them all.
“That is a lie Mark.” Said Mickey as the General lit up with a bright red hailo halo . “Not an intentional lie but he knows he is just guessing and has not bothered o
r does not care to do the math. The transport boats like the 4 that the Star Queen crews are already getting ready at the warehouse have drop down grated decks that can hold a 1,000 armored troops and all their equipment or 10,000 civilians depending on how tightly you want to pack them easily on the 4 drop down troop decks. A dozen transport boats could do it with several a few trips in a few hours loading from what is left of the skyway bridges and the roof of the Tower. If the torpedo la unchers are taken out. ”
The General continued. “That Maniac AI has already sent torpedoes into the side of the tower killing civilians even after killing thousands when he took out the sky bridges. It took us an hour to put the fires out each of the torpedoes started.” Shaking his head as he looked at Captain Cook. “ Thanks for the reconnaissance drones but they are only telling us what we already know and that he has bombs placed in the lower stories big enough to bring down the whole building if he chooses. Their sensors are not penetrating deep enough to tell us anything new. So as I said before. You are not attacking anything while he is holding our troops and the tower hostage.”
“Mickey; show me the torpedo launch tubes if you can please.”
“Yes , just give me a few seconds. The recon drones would show more if they dropped them down below 20,000 feet and closer than 10 miles away.”
“So bring them in closer.”
A virtual screen appeared next to Mark only he could see showing a 3D schematic of the lower floors of the tower . Four groups of 6 recessed armored torpedo tubes appeared in the sides of the building spread around the 4 6 th floor. Able to fire even if half the building came down around them. Each of the four launch bays were protected deep inside the building behind a huge support pillar blast proof wall 500 feet wide and 100 1 00 feet thick going from the ground 3 rd to the 6 7 th floors w ith low income apartments covering the outsides hiding the fact that there was a blast shield there . The 3 5 0 foot wide and 3 5 0 foot tall tunnels on each side of the pillar curved around toward the center back to meet in the middle in front of another short narrow tunnel that ran back to where the 6 torpedo tube batteries were placed. It was easy for the slow torpedoes when launched to pop out from the small central tunnel, make the 90 degree turn then blast their way around the curving tunnel and out at a random spot from behind the pillar at high speed as they accelerated away toward their target. Impossible to hit or stop from any great distance. While the large sharply curved tunnels made it impossible to get a fast moving missile or torpedo around the tunnel only to make an even sharper 90degree turn a nd into the launch tunnel as they sped in at high supersonic speed from orbit or even a few miles away. But Mark immediately saw a weakness.
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