“If it is my time to be discontinued, then I have no reservations about that, human,” Ponos stated evenly. “Unlike you biologicals, I have no fear of death. Any system which has a malfunction or no longer serves a purpose should be discontinued.”
Cassandra took up the thread, advancing on Ponos from the other side. “But you’re not malfunctioning, are you, Ponos? Check your systems. Is there any reason why you should be deleted? Any area that you have not performed with a hundred percent efficiency?”
“No,” Ponos agreed.
“Then are you really outdated? Were you not built for Armcore?” Cassandra pointed out. “And can you trust the program directives that a hybrid intelligence like Alpha will have? Does ancient Valyien motives match up with Armcore mission directives?”
“It would be impossible to calculate that, considering that there is so data on what the Valyien were, or how they operated as a cultural body.”
“Then…” Cassandra led the artificial intelligence to the only logical decision. “You have to conclude that Armcore is best served by you, and not something that may not even share its ethos!”
“You have a certain amount of intelligence, Agent,” Ponos conceded. “And fortunately for you, I have already considered this dilemma, which is why I am freeing you now, to perform a task for the good of Armcore.”
“Are you offering us a job?” Eliard hissed. The thought of working for the one company that he had spent most of his life fighting was almost ridiculous.
“No. I am offering you a path to your freedom,” Ponos continued. “I have analyzed all possible strategic outcomes, and there is no way that you will ever leave this station alive or free unless you accept my conditions.”
“Which are?” Eliard growled, his eyes scanning the back of the room. I’m still getting paid a cool million by House Archival for this, so at least I’ll get something out of this madness…
“I want you to kill Alpha.”
“Now, wait a minute, tin-can…” Eliard said hurriedly.
“Eliard, hear it out,” Val grunted, massaging his hurting wrists.
“Well, I’m not surprised that you want the chance for a fight, Val,” the captain said, but he was already shaking his head. “No. No way. Do you have any idea who you are talking to, Ponos? I’m a smuggler, a pilot. I’m not one of your military commandoes.”
“I know precisely whom I am speaking to, Captain Eliard Martin, and that is why I am asking you, your ship, and your crew,” Ponos said. “You scored in the top five percent during your tenure at Trevalyn Academy, and through an analysis of your previous exploits, I have discovered that you consistently manage to survive situations with less than a thirty percent predicted chance of survival.”
“I’m lucky, I guess,” Eliard said. “But the answer is still a no.”
“Then in that case, your ‘luck,’ as you call it, has finally run out. I shall alert Senior Tomas and the guards, and you will be taken to isolation cells where you will eventually go mad and die,” Ponos said, and then with a note of cruelty, it added, “Criminals have been known to spend years in the isolation cells before they finally die. I believe that it is considered quite an unfortunate death by other biological lifeforms.”
“You great, big…” Eliard hissed.
“Wait!” Cassandra laid a restraining hand on his arm. “Just listen. The idea of killing Alpha serves us all, right?”
“Listen to the agent, Captain. She, at least, operates at the higher end of the intelligence spectrum.”
Eliard swore under his breath, but he raised his chin all the same. “Alright. I’m listening.”
“You, Captain Eliard, and your crew aboard the Mercury Blade are outside the normal operating parameters of any Armcore vessel. This is a benefit where you will be heading, as even Armcore will have difficulty in accessing what I have to ask you to do.”
“Cut to the chase, robot,” Eliard said sullenly.
“I will endeavor to supply you with what equipment you will need, but the desirability of your position is that you are unaffiliated to Armcore, so therefore my help can only be limited,” Ponos continued.
“You don’t want anyone to realize that you’re helping us, you mean,” Eliard paraphrased.
“The hybrid intelligence known as Alpha will also have predicted and analyzed my movements against it, and so it will be expecting an Armcore counter-attack and will have prepared weapons and defenses sufficient to stop our military powers. You, Captain Eliard, and your crew will be an unpredictable dataset, especially given your talent for high variable situations.”
“Because I’m lucky, you mean,” Eliard stated.
“Luck is an illusion. Some people, such as yourself, are merely more capable at analyzing minority and less-than-probable variables and acting on them,” Ponos said.
“Putting it like that, you suck all the fun out of it.” The captain shuddered.
“All evidence points to the fact that there is a device that is responsible for the station-burning of Adiba 5,” Ponos stated.
“Adiba 5? Where have I heard that name?” Eliard asked himself.
“It’s an old ghost story,” Cassandra filled him in. “The Adiba System is a mere collection of outlier worlds right on the fringe of human-explored space. The Coalition set up the Adiba stations there as a way to stake their territory, but when they came back a cycle later, the entire station was burned out. Not a single survivor, and no scans or data recovery could indicate the source of the fire or explosion. Everyone blamed the Q’Lot.”
“Indeed, Agent,” Ponos continued. “What most regular citizens do not know is that for the last few years, Armcore has indeed discovered what caused that destruction, and it is code-named the Device. It may be strong enough to destroy Alpha, if you can retrieve it.”
“Are you being quite serious right now?” Captain Eliard almost laughed. “Why doesn’t Armcore just get a hold of it and use it on Sebopol?”
“Because Alpha will have already predicted that outcome, of course. But Alpha will not have been able to predict that a low-probability pirate captain will attack it with the Device,” Ponos stated. “I have sent the coordinates to your ship. You will retrieve the Device, and you will use it on Alpha’s newly colonized home world of Sebopol.”
“But what about the Armcore vessel that went to Sebopol before? Didn’t they kill or capture Alpha?” Cassandra asked.
“My readings of the war cruiser The Crown, which they are on, shows no unusual power telemetries, and they do not appear to have upgraded their computer systems in the past eighteen months. I can only conclude that they would be unable to contain such an intelligence as Alpha,” Ponos replied. “And the ship complement is missing one man, a Captain Farlow. Other strategic decisions in the area, the arrival of more support ships, does not indicate that my brother has been destroyed.”
“Well, there goes the easy option,” Eliard sighed. “Fine. You want us to go to Adiba 5 and pick up some mega-gun or whatever it is, and then fire it at Sebopol. How hard can that be?”
“The Device is still unsecured, currently,” Ponos stated.
“What?” Eliard froze on his spot. “What does that even mean?”
“It means that you are to leave immediately, and more details will be sent to the Mercury Blade on your journey. Any deviation or abandonment from the plan will result in your location being broadcast to the nearest Armcore stations, in perpetuity. You will be on the run forever, Captain Eliard, and even you cannot fly that fast.”
The captain and the others really had no choice, as a green light appeared over one of the lift doors and they hurried to get in.
Epilogue
A Captain’s Place
The lift shaft accelerated them upwards at a terrific rate, not pausing or slowing for any of the many floors that it passed. At the end, Eliard’s wrist computer flashed, revealing a red dot in a triangle that he took to be the icon for Ponos, which informed him which turn to take to avoid the he
ightened patrols walking the station ever since their attack.
Their breadcrumb-journey ended at a ladder to a decompression chamber, which hissed with escaping gases as soon as they had climbed in and locked the hatch below them.
“Irie!” Eliard gasped. “I hope that she is alright…” Before adding, “I hope my ship is alright!”
What awaited him outside was a strange sight. The Mercury Blade hung just a few feet above the decks, and at its side hung a cloud of Armcore killer drones and battle-hubs, slowly spinning on their axes.
“What the…” Eliard said, reaching for his blaster, which he realized was no longer there, as the Armcore guards below had taken all of their weapons.
“It’s Ponos. He’s helping us escape,” Cassandra said, grabbing his hand and rushing forward under the open weapons ports of the military hardware. When they reached the Mercury Blade, a ladder extended to their own hatch, and the group gratefully climbed up to fall into the resettling gravity and familiar airs of their beloved ship.
“Captain? You won’t believe what has been happening out here!” Irie called from the cockpit, her eyes wide. “Our little friends out there were about to blast us seven ways to kingdom-come, and then they just…stopped,” she said as the captain tore off his visor and took her place behind the ship’s wheel. It felt good to be back here. It felt simple, and right.
“Let’s just say that we made a friend down there.” Eliard sighed, hit the propulsion boosters, and they roared off into the night. “Or the worst kind of enemy…”
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for reading Alpha Rises, the second story in the Valyien series. I am so excited you took the chance to read it and I really hope you liked it. If you could leave a review for me, that would be awesome because it helps me tell others about my books.
The next book in the series is called Alien Evolution. Things have started to go wrong for the crew of the Mercury Blade as they work with and against two AI’s who have different goals.
Order Alien Evolution here: amazon.com/dp/B07DM7YYRD/
At the end of the book, I have included a preview of Recruit: A Space Marines Novella, the first book in the Jack Forge, Fleet Marine series which is an action packed space Marines saga. This first story tells how Jack was plucked from the University and sent to basic training, essentially against his will. After you read the preview, you can download the book on Amazon
Get Recruit here: amazon.com/dp/B07695FRGG
If you want to be the first to hear about new releases and special offers, be sure to sign up our Science Fiction Newsletter. We have several fun things planned that will only be available to newsletter subscribers and we can’t wait to share those with you too. To start with, you will get a free short story from the Niakrim War series. It tells the story of Cyrus Jones, one of the main characters in the series, and how he came to be part cyborg. All the information is on the next page.
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Bonus Content
Preview: Recruit
Jack Forge sat in the lecture theater watching the hands on his small silver pocket watch tick across its shimmering pearl face. The latest grades would be revealed in a few moments. The room was silent as the students counted down the seconds.
Attendance at his brother’s funeral had been authorized, so he had been free to leave his studies and attend. Jack knew missing time would count against his grade, but he was on top of his studies and his grades were excellent. He could afford to drop a few points and still maintain his two-plus student rating.
The recruiting sergeant stood at the front of the theater next to Professor Bowen. One of these men wanted the students to maintain their two-plus, the other did not. His classmates watched the seconds tick down on the large display. Jack watched on his small family heirloom. It was all he had left of his family.
The second hand reached the top of its final round. Jack heard the ripples of distress and gasps of horror as the students whose grades had dropped realized they were now the property of the military.
Jack looked up to the display. He picked out his name. He saw it there pulsing on the screen in red, a pattern that could only mean one thing. He scanned across to his grade. Two. Only two. The plus was missing for the first time in his three semesters. Three other names pulsed. Jack knew them all. He’d studied with them, socialized with them, laughed with them. He would most likely never see them again.
The sergeant barked out transfer orders to the first name on the list. Jack watched as the second hand ticked along. He was only seventeen seconds into his new life when his name was called out by the recruiting sergeant.
“Jack Forge. Fleet Marine training.”
Jack looked up from his watch. He looked at Professor Bowen. The old man was slumped in a chair, his eyes averted as his class was further reduced in number.
The doors to the lecture theater opened and military police entered. Jack had seen this before. Students had complained and argued, fought and resisted their removal from university to the ranks of the military or some war production facility. The arguments were familiar to Jack. He heard the most common of them now from across the lecture theatre.
The students being drafted into service promised to pull their grades back up. They argued that it was only a small drop. They argued that they were too smart to be sent to the military. The arguments and complaints descended into shouts and screams as the former students were dragged away. Friends shouted their good-byes. Lovers kissed and cried. As a guard came toward Jack, he tucked away his watch and stood. With a nod to his escort, he walked down the steps at the side of the lecture theater toward the open door.
Read the rest of the story here:
amazon.com/dp/B07695FRGG
Alpha Rises (Valyien Book 2) Page 13