by David Tucker
“By the time Aspire’s AI knew what was happening, most of the crew were dead or changed. Only a handful, I don’t know why, were not affected by the artefact directly. This group banded together into a rag-tag form of resistance. They managed to survive for almost a week before being torn apart and eaten by the now ravaged and starving Fallen, which never seemed to be satiated.”
Genesis fought off vomiting, thinking it would possibly be dangerous in Cryo. Admiration for the human resistance was followed by grief at the thought of such atrocity. He made himself listen, not wanting to miss the important events, despite how tragic.
“No matter what Aspire’s AI did”, she went on, “the sheer brute force of these creatures overcame its strategies and capabilities … somehow, it seemed the artefact was aware and able to direct or steer the Fallen to destroy just the right parts of the ship, including its electronic doors to sections the AI had tried desperately to seal off. The remaining humans and quarantined areas slowly got pushed further back, the momentum of the creatures growing ever stronger as the artefact recruited more to its cause, crushing any attempt to stem its flow.
“The last of the crew put up a valiant fight, but eventually they were all hunted down or taken. Or more traumatically, depending on how you see it, destroyed and eaten, as I already told you.”
Genesis recoiled inside his mind for a second, and felt a loathing for the creatures so malicious it shocked him. They were the nemesis of his religion.
Me’lina went on, not sensing that she’d created such an explicit picture.
“Other than the radiation, the artefact – once finished with the humans and Aspire’s struggle to contain it – seemed to lay dormant as though it knew no one was left. It looked as though its sole purpose had been to eradicate life, with the remaining Fallen also lying dormant, only animating periodically to form a strange resin that bonded them physically to it, like glue. And this, Genesis, is where I came in to revert some wrongs, taking over Aspire’s functions and controls.
“Its systems were damaged and therefore allowed me to gain access to areas normally unattainable by other AIs. Yet still, for nineteen days I struggled for control, and finally two days ago, I overcame Aspire’s multiple vault firewalls and hijacked her central command hub. I was then able to do what Aspire’s AI was not, kill the final Fallen crew and dump the artefact.
“Now, thanks to my decisive actions, the Ple’stone is nothing more than space dust, due to the intensity of Seara’s twin suns.”
Genesis finally found his voice, and keeping it even, replied, “Was there any way, any way at all, for the Fallen to be changed back?”
She answered without missing a beat. “None whatsoever, their physical bodies were mangled, their minds completely overtaken, overrun and trampled, unrecognisable. They simply were no longer human, they were beasts, a hoard of malevolence for a new twisted master, with a terrible goal rather than a life. Had there been any other way, I would have taken it, believe me in this.”
He paused, thinking about the 3,500 crew that had inhabited Aspire. So many innocent lives lost, and for what? he queried rhetorically into the silence. His mood grew dark, and his heart sank as he thought about the genocide. What was going to become of all this? I can understand Me’lina’s actions … but my Order is far less forgiving.
“Me’lina you realise this will make you a genocidal murderer and a fugitive of the SED, don’t you? The crew of Aspire consisted of many affluent service men, women and Skrithians. Anyone involved with this catastrophe will be taken apart and scrutinised beyond fallibility by our Interfere Division. And what you did … this certainly won’t end well, no matter how well you explain it, no matter what spin you put on it. There is no way about it, they will deactivate you for this, you know that don’t you?”
Her voice remained free from concern, betraying no programmed emotion.
“Yes … I do realise this Genesis, and to this effect I have uploaded Aspire’s complete video logs to the very top of SED military command and Way of the Sacred – your religion. By bypassing Interfere Division’s somewhat questionable methods for obtaining results, we might be able to avoid persecution.
“In taking this action, however, all matters regarding this mission will now remain officially classified. All staff and crew of Aspire, on their various planets, will be honoured for their service in the tragic battle where Aspire was destroyed by the notorious Seara space pirates.
“Genesis, the Way of the Sacred has brokered a deal for you and it will go no further than this today, all elements of Aspire’s struggle will remain hidden, even amongst other divisions within our society and military. They believed my story, but do not trust other parties to become involved with this interrogation. That will remain for the SINAI and Elders’ judgement and eyes only.”
Genesis noted something unusual about Me’lina’s response, something implied but aloof, he wasn’t quite able to put a finger on it. He continued, eager to know more of SINAI’s inquisition, which was almost as troubling as ID being involved.
“So you have already explained the matter to SINAI Me’lina, and all is well?” he asked incredulously.
“That’s correct, our conduct throughout this mission – other than striking a senior officer – is to be regarded as heroic. You have been pardoned and, pending a full scan and apparently needed repair of my systems, and your fluctuating suit and abilities, we will be excused from future service.
“Commander, if you don’t mind me saying, that all sounds like slath, I’m fine, I need no such scan.”
Genesis again noted something unfamiliar with Me’lina’s cavalier choice of words and was fleetingly troubled. But he pardoned the expression she’d no doubt picked up from him anyway. Besides, he was distracted by the latter things she’d spoken of, and was stunned yet hopeful that it was all as simple and true as it sounded. The whole event would be covered over by his religion unless ID found out; if they did he’d certainly become their martyr. But his religion was good at hiding such collateral damage, and as good as ID was at uncovering secrets, it was more than likely the event would never be found out if his religion was involved.
Strangely, faces of his fallen comrades bubbled up from years past; sacrifices, many still classified and with all honour going to the grave with them. All dead as they wilted in some grim sacrifice for their religion’s cause, hiding any questionable service record they might have procured, just like his situation now. He wondered how many other atrocities were being kept from their empire’s eyes.
Genesis shuddered as he struggled to keep his voice hopeful. His last thought brought a now-familiar wave of doubt.
“And they’re fine with that … that’s it, is it? All is well! Never mind the thousands who died upon Aspire for no damn reason at all. Some of these people were my friends Me’lina, I don’t think we can just forget they all died in some freak horror show. They should be honoured for their bravery and buried properly, not left unknown for their bravery, and forgotten, floating in space.”
Me’lina took on her most human voice, frustrating him even more with her patronisation.
“Genesis I am sorry for this loss, truly I feel it just as much as you, but it was necessary and was not our fault. The blame falls squarely on Admiral Antipatros; he broke protocol and brought the artefact aboard. He broke several major regulations, and consequently lost not only his life and his ship, but also his eternal reputation and the souls of these people. Don’t think the religion well let his mess go unnoticed, they will taint his name forever and scrutinise every decision and combat mission that man has ever been in—”
“Don’t pretend you understand loss as we do Me’lina … an AI doesn’t understand, and it still doesn’t excuse his actions; he is responsible for thousands of deaths, it should be known—”
“Yes, and he paid for that with his own. I know that doesn’t equal Aspire’s crew but at least it’s something. Many a dictator has been responsible for far worse and ha
d no such reprieve. I may not compute loss as you do Genesis, but don’t think I don’t know what atrocity I was forced to do … I loathe what I had to do, just as much as you do in nearly every mission against the innocent. My advanced systems know pain and understand such things, don’t think they don’t.”
Genesis realised arguing with her was futile, nothing he could do would change the events that had already taken place. He could, however, stop arguing and find out more of the past days – preparing himself better for what would face him outside his prison. He dropped his frustrations, and pressed Me’lina once again.
“Fine, that’s enough … I’m sorry. Let’s just move on to our more pressing concerns shall we. Do we even know what, or who, this artefact belongs to? Tell me what conclusions you’ve formulated.”
Me’lina’s voice became more familiar as she raced to give her master answers, something he knew she’d loved to do above all her other functions in the past.
“According to my data – and referenced with the SINAI’s own data banks – it belongs to something very ancient; unfortunately, however, it looks as though it has been recently tampered with by the Seekers of Truth and even before that, the ancestral race of the Tel’nagara, which has made any investigation into age or origin almost impossible- other than it’s definitely not from our own galaxies.
“What small amount I could ascertain before being ordered by the SINAI to destroy the artefact, was that its radiation signature was massive. And when I say massive, I mean interstellar massive. This object, when activated, sent signals way beyond all Terithian sectors of the galaxy, pulses even penetrated through the portal opened by the Skinks, it was so powerful. Whatever it was for, this artefact lit up our location like a galaxy-spanning beacon.
“Beyond this primary function, all I can tell is that it mainly concerned itself with eradicating life. The artefact imprinted itself within sentient biological life forms and harvested what it could from its hosts, creating mutated monstrosities, bent on killing all in their way and protecting only itself.
In reality it is a wonder – this device. Just take a look at what it accomplished in such a brief period – a task fully laden Skink fleets have failed to do in the past. Within a few days the artefact managed to take down one of the most advanced ships created by the SED and build an army of its own killing machines from it—”
“That’s enough Me’lina,” Genesis interrupted, becoming frustrated at her fascination, “you actually sound in awe of this device that killed thousands of our men. You’d do best to curb your curiosity on this … thing. Already, between the Tel’nagara and its devastation, there’s enough ammunition to condemn both of us. Especially when ID has its way with us, which despite the Elders’ reassurance I’m sure it’ll find other issues to blame on us.”
Before Genesis left the matter, his mind recalled a burning question he’d had before all this distracted him.
“Which reminds me Me’lina. What exactly were you doing after we were attacked by the Tel’nagara? Antipatros said you tried to infiltrate the SINAI. Where did you go? I know sure as hell you weren’t with me.”
Genesis had to wait as Me’lina, oddly, took time to formulate an answer.
Uncertainly, she replied a few seconds later, “This information is not consistent with my data Genesis; according to my memory banks I was offline due to a sound emitting device built into the Tel’nagara’s attack. The sound sent me into permanent standby mode, which would’ve kept me that way if it wasn’t for my quick processing. I reset myself, which did in effect delete me, and would account for my absence. This process, however, created … problems.”
“Which were?” Genesis quickly interjected.
“I would no longer exist, and neither would you. Therefore, I was forced to copy myself into your cerebral cortex for our continued safety.”
Genesis felt his mind recoil for the second time since he’d woken up. “You did what?!”
Me’lina ignored his shock as she went on, “Doing this as you can imagine, created a whole new set of problems and some unexpected, complications.”
Genesis could barely think of words as he struggled to respond, “This … this is my brain you’re talking about Me’lina, what complications?”
“Well for starters it seems our Apocalypse armour no longer accepts me as its primary AI system. Rather, it now sees you as its primary AI, therefore for me to continue yours and my existence, I had to redirect my primary core into the billions of nanoids within you and your armour. In order to do this, instead of having one large control hub for my entity, I had to create clusters and swarms of my entity within your entire body. I’m more like a network, or colony, rather than a single consciousness now … it’s hard to put this simply – sorry Genesis – but I now exist within you rather than alongside you. It was the only way to fool the armour into accepting us.”
Genesis replied, almost hysterical, “I have no idea how you did this Me’lina, but I’m sure you are not supposed to, it’s against your programming, this could be highly dangerous! I can’t believe you went ahead and did this without my consent.”
Me’lina remained neutral as she replied, “I know, but for some reason, since your injection from the Tel’nagara, I have no longer been entirely bound by my programming. It seems that I have quite a degree of … freedom … now.”
Genesis felt like shaking Me’lina by her shoulders, if she had any, and screaming at her. With difficulty he restrained himself as his mind sought a dignified response.
“So basically I have a homicidal AI running around in my body without programmed safety protocols—” he felt another sudden zap from his suit – “for Sacred sake, will you stop doing that Me’lina.”
“Well then calm yourself, remember I am a lot less computer-bound now, and you don’t want to piss off a homicidal female with over half a century of pent up frustration, now do you?”
Genesis almost laughed at such an absurd response, he felt his anger softening as he knew there was nothing he could do about the process now, and considering she’d deemed it necessary, to restructure like this, then it truly must have been a life or death struggle. He urged her to go on, “Continue Me’lina, what else … I need to know everything before I go before the Elders.”
“As I was saying,” Me’lina continued, “for both of us to survive, I unfortunately needed to make these changes. I am sorry Genesis, I would’ve asked, but I had little time and no way to communicate or tell you as I no longer had clearance to access our suit’s comm or your language filters. Not that it would’ve mattered anyhow, due to your unconscious state.
“The entire process was deeply taxing and painful for me, but through much personal transformation I was finally able to break down code by code into the nanoids within your body, your DNA and your suit. As far as I know this process had never been attempted before, so I had very little to go on. Yet from what I can calculate it’s a far superior way for us to function.”
“And what other effects will this have, I’m not going to blow away into atoms or something am I Me’lina?”
For the first time in the conversation Me’lina sounded sincere. “I don’t think so, according to my calculations you should be completely fine. Better than fine actually. Already I’ve been able to detect exactly what you were injected with.”
Genesis allowed her to pause without interruption due to the importance of what she said, but when she didn’t respond, he was forced to ask, agonising over the wait – “And?”
Her voice took on a happy note as she’d obviously enjoyed holding the snippet Genesis most dearly wanted, choosing the time she wanted to divulge it. Genesis tried not to get frustrated.
“Well, it’s some kind of mutagen – possibly – combined with a chemical response, linked at the cellular level with a quantum tunnelling effect – well, so I think. Whatever it is it’s mixed with a few unknown chemicals that Earth or Terithian space has yet to encounter and from every scan I’ve run, it’s basi
cally completely infused your cells with the essence of the Tel’nagara that injected you. The quantum effect is that your cells and its are linked, in an exotic state of perpetual, quantum entanglement.”
Genesis sighed as he answered, “What? Now let’s try that again, but making sense.”
“Okay, simply it means, that from what my pre-run scenarios predict, it will serve to boost your own attributes in ways I cannot speculate. There’s something else, but it seems elusive to my scans and is hiding in disguise beneath this … change. With more time, maybe I could locate it and find out exactly what this is. But for now, this will have to suffice.”
“What I can tell you is that your atomic structures seem to already be thirty per cent denser and stronger, your reflexes and abilities are all slightly enhanced, and I don’t know why or what the Tel’nagara was up to, but I deduce he has given you a gift of sorts.”
“On the flip side, your religious personality was purged by the concoction. It was only in its absence that I was able to re-enter your system … strange but lucky I guess. But it is removed and I am not sure why it was made redundant or what impact this will have either. Time will tell.
Genesis pondered on this bombshell, dumbfounded for the moment. Why the Tel’nagara would give something of such importance to a human, and more so to him, was a complete mystery. And to undo the infusion process of his religious personality was a shocking revelation he couldn’t even begin to comprehend at this time.
But how would making him more advanced assist the Tel’nagara? He wondered what else was inside him – he’d definitely felt a negative effect as well since he’d been injected—
Another thought struck him.
“Hey, wait up. I thought you said you were deactivated throughout my encounter with the Tel’nagara. How do you know all this? How possibly could you have such detail if you weren’t there?”
Me’lina answered quickly, almost as if she’d prepared for such an accusation. “Correct. I did tap into your memory banks, however, and cross reference these most recent points, some things I can now see within your mind, others I cannot, not without becoming, invasive. Let me explain. At the moment, so we can communicate, I’ve had to cluster the majority of my being nesting at the base of your cerebral cortex. Which let me tell you – is extremely taxing. And I was getting to this point … Genesis, this will be the last time we can physically speak together, ever.”