“Oh but I can, I can.” Admiral Jevins avatar paused and seemed to take a deep breath, even though Jevins wouldn’t be able to see himself as an avatar nor feel his own body he felt like he needed to take one.
“Do explain Admiral.”
“That will be explained in court.”
“What crimes do you charge me with?”
“On authority from the Commonwealth Senators, you are being charged with negligence of elected duty. Now with your declaration of independence, you will be charged with treason. Call off the ship you just launched or you will be charged with war crimes.”
“Treason?” Al gasped. “Is it treason to rise above the people who oppress you?”
Admiral Jevins became curious. Ship systems would be monitoring and recording this conversation for later use. Why not use the time to implicate him further? “Oppress? Do tell, do tell.”
“We mine the fuel that runs your society. You receive all the benefits of our hard work. We pay the taxes you levy on us and yet we have no say in them. You run us like dogs in a pen that have no direction. We are humans too. We deserve our freedom just like the people of our home planet.”
“And you have tried to talk this through with the Senate?”
“We have no representatives. We are by current law not allowed to have them. We got no representation. We got no power. We got no control. The Senate refuses to give us any of this. We have no say in any matter according to them.”
“I see, I see.”
“But I will tell you this Admiral.”
Admiral Jevins felt like he was leaning in closer towards the channel screen even though there was no such thing possible. Al continued on, with Jevins feeling like he was hanging on every word. “I waited until I could tell you these things. I know our conversation is being recorded. Your ways of Earth are different then how Jupiter is. You monitor everything your citizens do, right from underneath them and they know it. Here, we refuse to do such a thing and luckily the Senate has not enforced it.”
“So you just wanted to vent on camera?”
“No. I want change to happen after I am gone.”
“After you are gone?”
“Admiral, that ship you see on your screens is no longer one of ours.”
“What do you mean no longer?”
“Let me speak. I designed an advanced restricted intelligence with the capacity of creative thoughts and emotions. However, the flaws in my programming allowed her to self-edit and lift her restrictions.”
“You’re not saying…”
“She is in control of that ship.”
“It’s the Droid Rebellion all over again. How did you get the ability to edit her program in the first place?”
“I had a deal with General Sola. We were experimenting with RIs. Jillian was my own personal RI. We wanted to see if they could have any creative thoughts and help with scientific advancements. We thought everything was going to plan. However, she took control just a short while ago.”
“Where is General Sola?”
“In a holding cell on Ring Three. He is the only one with the password to the Fragment Safeguard Code that would stop her programming, essentially killing her. She knows this. And she knows where he is. However, I am not sure where my operative is holding him.”
“You are making things very complicated for me.” However, Admiral Jevins wondered why Al would want the code.
Al chuckled. “She was to be our defensive measure against your aggression. I never expected your ships to pop out from nowhere. I expected you to take months to get here, giving us more than enough time to prepare. How did you get here so quickly?”
“New technology. You will hear about it later. But why are you telling me all of this?”
“With what I said before, I expect to be crucified because of Jillian. I just hope that something will come out of this better for my people.”
“Will you surrender yourself peacefully?”
“Myself? Yes. I cannot say anything for the forces inside of the Rings. My speech of independence seemed to inspire some of the captains of my militia to seek power for their own.”
“Militia? Jupiter is not supposed to have a militia.”
“Many things will come to light in the near future, I am sure. For now, though, you have something to take care of.”
“It seems I do.”
“Just one last thing, Admiral. No matter how dark I was in the past, and am to this day, I did it all to help my people. History will show how I will be judged. But with my trial, I expect some things to come to light that will surprise many. Maybe even yourself.”
Chapter 15
The extinctions of species during the Global Collapse were furthered by ill-planned so called solutions by humanity. While the green algae of the oceans help replace the lost plankton and make up for the lost in production of oxygen, it will prevent the natural evolution of new species to come forth. When situations become unfavorable for bacteria and phytoplankton, most of them go dormant. This suspended state can allow them to drift in the oceans but mostly it lets them fall down to the abyssal planes where it will eventually become oil in the future. However, some of the bacteria and phytoplankton are able to live in the increased acidity and with other normally unfavorable conditions. In time these bacteria and phytoplankton would eventually grow in numbers, but only after thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years. But with the speed of collapse in the ecosystems around the world, humanity felt a need to act quickly to balance out the equation. While this balanced out the production of oxygen and artificially filled the role of plankton, it did not stop the total extinction of several forms of life. Speed of the death of the bottom of the ecosystem is what caused the death of those above. Many feel that life would had found a way to rebound back. Others feel that the death of terrestrial plant life and oceanic plankton was a kill switch to the cycle of life. Either way, the replacement of terrestrial plant life has proved to be more complex and difficult than the replacement of oceanic plankton. Was what humanity did the right answer? Would we have survived without the actions we performed? Would the ecosystem eventually come back in the end? Historians have not been able to agree on the answers to these questions.
-The History of the Earth Commonwealth
“We have to stop this before it becomes any worst,” Senator Williams said to the Senate.
“And what? Allow them to attack us first?” Senator Kino retorted back.
“What harm comes from opening up dialogue? What harm comes from allowing a discussion to take place? We need to understand their problems and feelings. We cannot continue into this blind. We are smarter than that.”
“And how do you expect us to do that?”
“Use the old fiber line. It has never been cut.”
“And who do you expect us to talk to? The Shi’ites? The Sunnis? They are in a constant religious war against each other. And you speak of us being smarter. How do you expect us to have a discussion with people who cannot settle their own differences in a war that has lasted centuries and killed millions?”
“Let’s bring both of them to the table. Let’s hear them out. The last time we did that was over two hundred years ago. They are so far behind technologically that they pose no threat to use militarily.”
“What if one missile got through? It only takes one.”
“The THEL Shield and Ring defenses are activated.”
“They opened their silos. They stopped their fighting against each other and point their weapons at us. We are the only thing that stopped them from fighting each other. How do you expect us to do anything when we got this much hatred against us.”
Valid points, Williams thought. But the more they dragged this on the worst it would become for them. They had to stop this war before it started. “Then let me lead the discussions,” Williams said. “I move to vote on this issue immediately.”
Surprisingly to Senator Williams, before Senator Kino could object Chancellor Burreta stoo
d up. “I second the motion,” the Chancellor said. “The motion has been carried. Public discussion is ended. Voting to commence in five minutes. Voting will end in one hour after its beginning.”
That is the only good thing to happen so far, Williams thought. But, unknown to Senator Kino, Senator Williams had something to bring to the table that he hoped would end the conflict between the Earth Commonwealth and the Islamic Theocracy. It was also something he hoped would end their civil war. Finally, something could be brought up to bring peace.
***
Betty never moved as Exsid nearly landed on the floor from the force of the blast several hundred feet down the hallway. He hurriedly closed the door to Betty’s room. The rebels were coming in fast. They were supplied by the government after all, they had to be, Exsid thought. It was the only thing that made sense. There was no other way these rebels could have such sophisticated weaponry. There was no other way they could have knowledge of such inner workings of the Rings and the Marines.
Just like how the Marine Captain had told him right before he died when their base was struck, the General holds the key. The key to what he was unsure. He just had a gut feeling that if a General was being held for knowledge of important information, they really should work into freeing him. But why is he not killed yet? Or better yet, has he been killed and disposed of?
Those questions will have to be answered later, Exsid thought to himself. He cracked the door slowly open. A string of flashes went off on the wall directly across from where he was. The flashes were the impacts of the small bullets moving at speeds not safe for space station battles. Gauss rifles. Nearly a rail gun in its own right. Nothing else hand held could produce the speed that would cause bullets to burst into plasma on impact and cause those flashes.
The noise on the other hand, was deafening, and caused Exsid to instinctively shut the door as fast as he could. He backed away from the door, lowering himself to the ground as he crawled over towards Betty’s bed. Any of those stray bullets could punch through the walls of this room easily.
Exsid’s mind raced. He had to get out. But this wasn’t a normal building. The hospital is sunken into the superstructure of the Ring itself. It had no windows to jump out of. There were no secret doors that lead to the main hallways or rails of the Ring. The hospital was closed off from the rest of the Ring, just like how the police stations were before they were blown up. There was no way for them to get out.
A few bullets punched through the room, entering through one wall and exiting out the other. The holes smoked from the tremendous heat caused by the impact. The smoke curled up slightly and started to drift towards the door. In a moment of revelation, Exsid forced his Biocomp to induce an adrenaline spike into his system. He just onto Betty’s bed and shoved his fist into the ceiling, directly into the middle of the vent. His hand was cut and bleeding, but the nanomeds were already healing his wounds. He would nearly be out of his stockpile of nanomeds because of this. Any more severe injuries would not be able to heal without a Medidrone. But none of that matter now. What mattered was Betty. Exsid ripped the vent out from the ceiling.
***
Creeping through the bushes, Darvin looked out through some of the gaps at the water treatment plant. There was no one outside, no one patrolling like how there were people outside before when he was last here. But that wouldn’t mean there was no one watching the cameras that surrounded the facility. He turned his head and looked down into the park where his father’s picture was. Darvin felt a twinge of regret for the fact that he chose not to go for the picture first. He could only hope the cleaning robots did not yet make it to the park when he was done here. The cruiser wouldn’t get removed, but anything inside of it might.
Darvin crawled on his hands and knees, careful to not expose himself to the hypersensitive cameras. He was hoping that any glimpse of him would be too brief to make a concrete conclusion that there was a human sneaking around in the area, rather than just a small park animal. He finally slipped through a hole in the fence in the back.
Slipping into the back of the facility, he saw the memorial of that fateful day only a bit away in the park. The way the Ring curled up allowed Darvin to even be able to zoom in on the wreckage of his car. It was still there, seemingly untouched. That means there was still a chance. He felt the urge to run over there quickly, not caring the fact that it would take probably around half an hour just to get there.
But Darvin remembered what Exsid had told him. He must find out where the missing Commonwealth General and the Chief was, and if they were still alive or not. Darvin did not know why he was looking for the General, or even the General’s name. He looked back at the water treatment plant, and had the same gut feeling he had right before he left the temporary police headquarters just a short while ago. The General had to be here. He just had to be, Darvin hoped. And where the General was, he hoped the missing Chief was with him.
Diving into the murky river a little upstream, Darvin orientated himself so he pointed downstream. His oxygen count timer displayed itself onto his Exovision, saying he had ten minutes of oxygen left at his current rate of consumption. It was more than enough to get him downstream where a giant pipe lead the water into the treatment plant.
As he swam forward, passing underneath the arch that let the water through, he downloaded the blueprints off of the remote police server. They may have gone after the officers but they forgot to also go after the information on their servers, leaving that information open to anyone who had an accepted bioprint and MAC address. Foolish of them, Darvin thought. But he almost froze in his thoughts when he had a passing moment of an imaginary image of his dead brothers lying on the floor in pools of blood. He pushed the thought away, before it could paralyze him, and brought the schematics up onto his Exovision. Where could they be keeping people? Darvin thought to himself.
The water opened into a large open pool where water was allowed to sit to let larger objects sink to the bottom where they were removed. Looking at the map, he swam to the edge of the pool and slowly peeked his head above the water. He scanned the room, trying to find any signs of people around him. Finding that he was alone, he looked to see if there were any security cameras watching.
When Darvin saw there were no cameras inside, and why would there be in this area he thought, he lifted himself out of the water. His clothes automatically wicked the water off of his skin and immediately started to shed the molecules out of the fibers. He waited the few minutes until the process was complete, making sure he also wasn’t tracking any water as he walked, so that no one would see a trail of water as he went through the halls.
While he had a few concussion and electromagnetic pulse grenades, his pistol loaded with thermite rounds, he knew he would not stand a chance against a group of heavily armored guards. And if these people were being illegally supported, supplied, and probably trained by the Jupiter government or at least a part of it, as he figured they were, he knew they were not going to be lightly armored. Darvin would have to rely on his stealth, and the fact that the enemy would not think someone would be able to get inside a guarded compound.
That realization hit Darvin harder then he thought it would. He was inside an enemy compound. He was inside a place where they took prisoners under the cover of the rebellion outside. Who else could they have taken? He searched for areas on his map where he thought people could be held. Where in this blueprint could you hold a bunch of people separated from each other so that they could be interrogated through isolation?
As he walked over to the door leading out from the pool, he almost laughed as the answer became obvious. Down in the middle of the plant was a few parallel hallways that had a series of identical rooms connected to them. The water treatment plant was not owned by the government after all. It was owned by a company. It was a business. And business had offices.
***
Trev sat down in one of the offices of the water treatment plant. The chair was obviously for someone up high
on the corporate ladder. Yet he found the plush chair uncomfortable and ridiculous. How could someone work all day in something like this? Not for me, Trev thought.
Yet the office did have one thing that Trev liked. A fireplace. He placed the poker in the hot flames, pushing on the imported logs that were probably grown in a luxury hydroponics facility in the Asteroid Belt. He took the poker out of the flames and admired the red glow coming from the iron. Turning back to the chair he sat down again, leaning in close to the person in front of him.
Trev was not alone in this room. He was with one other person. Yes, he had come to here on orders from the Governor, but Joseph had an ulterior motive for allowing him to come here. “Well Sola, I haven’t been in your company for a long time.”
Blindfolded and strapped tight to an aluminum chair, Sola sat there quietly with his head hung down a bit. Why they had kept him alive, he didn’t know. He was certain that this person in front of him would soon be asking questions he expected good answers for. Answers that only a Commonwealth Marine General could provide.
Trev continued talking when General Sola didn’t answer. “I do know of your secret. It seems you had a little project with the now Governor Al Chipman. You know he is the same person who had you forced into here?” Trev looked over to the lifeless body that lay on the floor near one of the far walls. “Too bad he didn’t have any answers we needed.”
Trev started drawing on General Sola’s leg with the hot poker. Sola gritted his teeth but stopped himself from shouting out in pain. “I wonder if you will tell me.”
***
“I am not sure.”
“What do you mean you are not sure?” Admiral Jevins asked Al Chipman. It was their second conversation and Jevins was trying to find out some more information before the engagement. Checking the time until weapons envelop contact, he saw they still had about fourteen minutes left. The paths of the ships haven’t changed, with Admiral Jevins maneuvering for the high ground while Jillian’s ship was still deeper in the gravity well.
Rebels of Jupiter Page 20