Sentient

by D. R. Rosier

  She decided she needed to go a different way, and that meant schooling of sorts. She already had all the information in her head; she just needed enough grounding to make sense of it. Then maybe she’d be able contribute scientifically. She was certainly intelligent enough, but all her experience and knowledge was grounded in biology.

  So she’d gotten with Aide and now she was in virtual classes.

  As far as her personal life went, things with Kris had never been better, and she was excited at the thought she’d shortly be fertile. She knew some women would be horrified at the thought and accuse her of undoing years of hard work for women’s rights, but for her nothing could be more fulfilling than giving the man she loved a family. She yearned for it.

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  Aide was busy getting things ready. The first set of carriers was done and the second eight were coming along on schedule. She incorporated the weapons upgrades into the second carriers, and was implementing them on the built ones now. The computer system upgrade for the sensors worked, so she was doing those upgrades as well.

  She was also creating new protocols at Kris’s suggestion. His main concern with her idea had been absolute power corrupts absolutely. There would be clear cut issues, such as the Sthellan attacking another world. The right thing to do would be to protect that world.

  But what happens when they find a barbaric civilization that enslaves and kills its own citizens? Right now she knew it would be a mistake to interfere in the internal matters of a species, but it would be much harder to face that decision when it was an actual reality. She finally understood what he meant about what gives them the right to interfere. In a case like that, they wouldn’t have the right.

  So she was expanding her protocols to include first contact situations. Their aim would be to stop civilizations from oppressing other civilizations, and that was it. If a civilization was on a suicidal track, there would be nothing they could, or should do to stop it.

  She also added protocols for the ships, if they found a civilization to protect, they would automatically make three more ships locally to add to the protection force, that would mean all the ships being built in the asteroid belt could continue to be dedicated to searching out and fast responses, just in case they found a civilization in dire straits that couldn’t wait for a local build.

  She was also going to do experiments and testing. Instead of absorbing the thirty six craft for new builds, she decided to send them toward the black hole in the center of the galaxy. The Alion had mastered quantum science, but there were still things it didn’t explain. The universe was deeper than that, and the science didn’t explain what happened within black holes.

  If they could be understood and harnessed like the stars, what wouldn’t be possible? She theorized they would have much stronger shielding, energy weapons, FTL even inside a solar system, and more. What prompted her to do so was what if in their explorations they ran into an aggressive civilization which already had that technology?

  Their current ships would be like toys. Not able to survive a fight anymore than they could survive flying into a black hole. Still, she hoped she was wrong and they’d have a long time to figure things out. She believed the important thing was that they were ahead of their current enemies, and had the drive to keep pushing for more advances.

  She had a feeling the logical Alion stopped advancing because they thought they were at the apex of knowledge. It was the lack of emotions and drive she was sure, without the curiosity and desire to help others the idea of trying to harness the power of a black hole wouldn’t have occurred to her. If it had, she would have only shrugged it off as impossible.

  She even recalled how dismissive she was about it just a couple of weeks ago when Paula asked about the possibility. It must have planted a seed in her mind to give it a try. She may fail, but she had to try. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have time for it.

  As noble and compassionate as humans could be, she knew their selfishness and lust for power and control was just as prevalent. She got back to creating more protocols, just in case she wasn’t as immune to the draw of power as her humans believed her to be.

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  Kris was fighting against two thousand scout ships with just two carriers. The enemy fighters outnumbered his by over two to one. Between the shields, second weapons upgrade, and his experience he was kicking their asses. Of course, he might lose anyway. He’d managed to take out fifteen hundred of the ships as they passed through his lines without losing more than twenty of his, but now he was in deep shit.

  He’d gotten cocky and hadn’t redirected his ships fast enough, and now that the enemy was between his carriers and fighters and out of the fighter’s weapons ranges. He’d just proved how even with more advanced tech, there was no way to compensate for stupidity.

  He had his carriers in full retreat mode to give him space, but the enemy was matching his pace and in less than ten minutes he’d have to either stop and face them, or abandon the planet he was protecting. Either way would be a loss.

  His own ships followed behind the enemy but weren’t gaining any ground either.

  He had the second carrier slow slightly and routed all of the power from its assigned attack ships and rerouted the power to increase the carrier’s own shields and weapons. It wouldn’t last long against five hundred scouts on its own, but it should last long enough.

  As the scouts made it into weapons range the carrier reached out with its turrets and enemy scout ships started to be blown out of the sky. But they also managed to get some shots off first. As more and more came into range at a time he knew he was in deep shit. Finally fifty enemy scouts hit his shield at the same time. The shield fell and the outer hull turned to slag, two of the landing bays were damaged badly.

  But slowing down had in turn slowed the enemy enough for four hundred ships, still fully powered from the leading carrier, let loose into the four hundred enemies still remaining. His other four hundred fighters were right behind and the damaged carrier rerouted power back.

  A few seconds later, all the enemy ships were dead, but not until they had managed to severely cripple the carrier. The internal ring and shields were still fine and active, but much of the rest of the ship was damaged enough that it would take days to repair.

  He’d managed to pull out a win in the simulation, but only barely. He decided to take a break and hunt down Stacey. He promised himself he’d never be that cocky again, and thanked god it’d just been a simulation.

  Chapter 19

  With nine carriers in Earth’s orbit no one had any qualms about leaving the system. According to the new sensors, there were a thousand scouts en route to Earth, that was over three to one odds in their favor and as long as he didn’t get cocky again, Kris should be able to handle that.

  The other eight carriers headed for open space. The trip to the outer edge of the solar system would take a few days. In addition to their normal work, they all got language downloads for known alien languages, as well as cultures. Obviously this wouldn’t help with first contact, but it should make things go smoother when they met the Alion, and perhaps the Sthellan as well, but Kris wasn’t holding his breath on the second one.

  They dropped off the nanites on their way out at the asteroid belt which would supply matter for building for the foreseeable future. It would also have the ships closer to the FTL point although they’d still be much closer to Earth than Neptune.

  With the new enhanced sensors, they were able to backtrack the thousand scout ships to one of the Sthellan’s worlds. They weren’t sure how many worlds the Sthellan inhabited but they decided to go there first in an effort to make peace. They figured that would be more important than making friends with the Alion who after all weren’t attacking them… yet.

  The world was just over forty three light years away, which at FTL speeds would take them a little over a day. They were all a bit nervous; would the Sthellan even talk to them? Or would they simply attack? They de
cided when they came out of FTL they would hold at the perimeter of the system, so as not to appear aggressive, or so they hoped.

  Kris was on the bridge, connected to the ships back at Earth. It was only an hour or so before they reached the FTL perimeter and the Sthellan fleet was only a few hours away from Earth. They had considered intercepting the fleet, but the nine ships left behind were already beyond overkill. In fact they left two by the planet and only moved seven away from Earth toward Sthellan on an intercept course. That would make the odds 2.8 to 1.

  He launched the fighters, assigning two ships per enemy and left eight hundred in close proximity to defend the carriers in case something unforeseen happened and some of the enemy got through. He was fairly sure however the only way any of them would live would be if they turned around before coming in range with one of their ships.

  He wondered what the enemy was thinking, and then realized they had probably scanned the little ships and didn’t understand most of their power came from the carrier. Based on their size, they would be too weak to withstand one plasma round from the enemy. This was the first time the Sthellan would face these ships, so they had no clue it would take closer to ten shots to destroy the little ships, or that those little ships now had plasma beam weapons that will tear them apart in one sustained shot.

  He almost felt a little sorry for them. Almost.

  It was a complete slaughter. All the Sthellan ships attacked in ignorance of their updated systems and paid the price. He actually held his weapons fire for a few moments and made sure they were all in range before firing. He knew this would be the only freebie, no doubt their central command was monitoring the battle and would see the results.

  In one very short moment, two thousand beams of plasma reached out and obliterated all the enemy ships in .2 seconds. The enemy managed to fire at least twice before he did, since he waited for them to get in range, but he didn’t lose any ships at all. They hadn’t known they’d need to hit one of the little fighter ships with a large group of theirs to score a kill, and they hadn’t had time to figure it out.

  Kris blew out a breath and had the fighters return to the carriers and sent the carriers back to Earth orbit. He knew if they sent more ships, it would be a lot more than a thousand. Hopefully they would listen when they arrived at the Sthellan staging system in just over a day. Don’t mess with Earth.

  He got up and left the bridge with Stacey on his arm. He wasn’t really hungry after that slaughter, but it was dinner time and he knew he should eat if he could. It was something he had learned in the military. Food is strength.

  When they got to the lounge, they joined the others who were already eating. He didn’t taste anything when he took his first bite.

  Paula asked, “How did it go?”

  Stacey said softly, “The battle lasted five seconds… we didn’t lose any ships.”

  Aide added, “They weren’t cautious at all, next time, if there is a next time, will be harder.”

  A screen came on and he looked up while Aide said, “We’re about to pass the FTL barrier.”

  Aide said, “Engaging FTL drive.”

  The stars on the screen seemed to blur and then go out as they entered FTL space. He continued to eat without comment. He was the warrior in the group, it was his job to run the ships and defend Earth. He would do what he had to, but that slaughter hadn’t sat well with him. Intellectually he knew if he hadn’t billions of humans would die back on Earth, but that didn’t mean taking all those lives in a split second was any easier on his conscience.

  Or perhaps it was because he knew it was only the beginning.

  His mental spiral was broken by Nate.

  “I checked the power requirements of the battle, and I should have picked this up earlier. The beams use twenty percent less power than the plasma cannons.”

  He grunted, “What does that mean for the ship?”

  Nate replied, “Well, it means it can support another fifty fighters, or we can route that extra power to eighty plasma beam turrets and give the carriers a lot more teethe, or lastly, we can route that power and make the shields a lot stronger. It would be able to absorb a lot of hits; it would probably take close to a hundred hits to take the shields down in a short time period. Which would you rather do?”

  He frowned, he supposed he was the best one to make that decision. He thought back to his messed up battle the other day. His shields had been strong from the power reroute, the only thing that would have helped more was having more turrets.

  “Add the eighty turrets.”

  Aide chimed in, “Consider it done.”

  They all decided they should rest and try and get a good night sleep before they reached their destination.

  Chapter 20

  He’d gotten in a conversation with Aide and Olivia, he wasn’t sure why but Stacey had left before he could finish it up. It wasn’t like her; she was extremely social and it was usually him trying to call it a night so he hoped everything was okay. He’d find out in a few minutes as he made his way into the corridor and down the hall to their suite.

  He walked through the entry hall and through the living room. The back hallway had three rooms. He assumed the other two were for family; he hadn’t done more than glance in the two smaller bedrooms since that first day they’d moved onto the new ship. He didn’t give them a second thought tonight as he opened their bedroom door and walked in.

  He stopped and stared, after a few seconds he remembered to breath, but he was still frozen and silent.

  Stacey asked in an unsure voice, “You like?”

  She looked sinfully delicious. She was laying on her side holding her head up with her hand, the other arm laying down the side of her body. Her waist was slightly twisted and her long silky smooth legs were arranged in a provocative manner. She was wearing a dark red negligee that was sheer and sexy that barely reached her hips. It was just transparent enough that he could make out her hardened nipples beneath the silk. She had on silk panties of the same color. Her long raven hair was artfully arranged, some of it splayed along the front of her body.

  The slightly worried and insecure look on her face, and wide bright green eyes only served to make her look that much sexier. Now he knew why she’d left early, to get this all set up for him. God she was gorgeous. His mouth was watering a bit and he swallowed and finally spoke.

  “You look amazing love,” he barely recognized his voice, it was full of lust and hunger.

  She must have heard it, and saw the effect she had on him in his eyes, because she smiled brightly and looked a lot more confident as he started walking toward the bed. By the time he made it there he almost didn’t know what to do; he had a laundry list of ideas and wanted to do each one right in that moment.

  He couldn’t help but smile as he quickly stripped and joined her in the bed.

  “I love it,” he said as he moved in for a kiss.

  He had wanted to ravage her, all the ideas in his head involved taking her hard and fast in some way or another. It was almost a surprise to him when he kissed her not hungrily, but slowly, lovingly, barely touching lips as he put an arm around her and pulled her close. She was perfect and she was his. It blew his mind every time he realized how true that was.

  “I love you,” he said softly as they broke the kiss.

  He claimed her lips again, this time a little more passionately and she moaned deeply into his mouth while she scooted her body as tightly against his as she could. Her smooth skin felt so good against him, and the silk lingerie both felt good, but also blocked him from feeling the skin of her breasts and hard nipples on his chest.

  He could feel the warmth of her core against his thigh through the thin material of her panties, and his manhood strained against her smooth tight stomach as she moaned and rubbed her body against his.

  She smiled and broke the kiss, “I love you too, I’ll have to do this more if it gets this reaction.”

  He just nodded wordlessly and pulled her in and start
ed to nibble on her neck as he ran his hands along her curves, stealing a hand under and up her negligee he ran his fingertips in circles on her lower back and the top of her ass. He gasped as her hand found and squeezed him hard before she started to lightly stroke him.

  He moaned as the scent of her arousal reached him when he slid his hand underneath the panties. He found her wet and ready as he palmed her mound. Apparently wearing the lingerie turned her on too.

  He murmured as he kissed down her neck onto her shoulder, pushing the thin strap of the negligee off to the side, “What made you think of doing this?”

  She whispered in his ear, “I wanted to make tonight memorable, special, I’m hoping tonight is the night it happens.”

  His manhood jumped in her hand and he asked, “What makes you think that?”

  She gasped as his fingers split her apart, feeding her pleasure two long digits as he pushed down on her clit with his palm.

  She squeezed him tighter and said breathlessly, “Aide told me, nanites reported both the drugs out of my system, and I’m fertile.”

  He pulled back and sat up before he reached for her panties and pulled them down slowly. She lifted her butt and then her legs as he ran his hands slowly down her legs pushing her panties along.

  He wanted to taste her, she smelled so good, but even more than that he wanted to fill her. She was definitely ready for him; her swollen labia glistened in the dim light of their bedroom. He grabbed her legs and pulled them to either side of him. He lined himself up and then looked into her eyes as he slowly pushed into her heavenly bliss.

  Her tight swollen lips caressed his entire length with tight wet friction until he was buried deeply inside her. Her eyes widened in pleasure but he could also see the discomfort, he waited as her tight core hugged, undulated, and fluttered up and down his length as she grew accustomed to his invader.