by D. R. Rosier
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“Get a room would ya?” Nate said teasingly.
They were all gathered eating breakfast, and they were just an hour away from the Alion outpost.
Olivia and Aide smiled but otherwise ignored him as they continued to feed each other breakfast between light kisses.
Kris asked, “So how does it look?”
Aide checked the latest sensor data and frowned. She reluctantly looked away from Olivia and gave Kris an update.
“I’m not sure. They are activating all their defenses. They have thirty two orbital platforms and fifty five hundred attack scouts. There are other ships as well, civilian transports and the like. I hope they are just being prudent.”
It was frustrating for her. All she knew was what she was programmed with. She felt almost naked and found herself not trusting the data. How much of it was inaccurate, or missing? She also wondered how much of her worry was just her being paranoid, emotions weren’t always a good thing.
She went back to feeding Olivia.
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They were all on the bridge when they dropped out of FTL. Kris was a little nervous, the reason they were here was a bit fuzzy in his mind. He wanted to see if they would become allies, but he also had a truckload of questions he was almost sure would doom that goal. He was also leery of giving them the schematics for the weapons, shields, and the designs for the carrier ship and fighters.
He wasn’t sure though how well that would go over. He was willing to eventually, if they proved themselves. Aide was positive they wouldn’t use the designs for the ships, because of manpower requirements without an AI in control. But the weapon and shield upgrades were a different story all together.
He knew someone had to trust the other first, but the evidence that had mounted against the Alion was damning, at least without the context.
“Just hold here and send a greeting message. Hopefully we have better luck in this system.”
Aide replied, “Done… We are getting a reply. Should I answer it?”
He nodded and a small conference room appeared. Four alien beings sat at the table and looked up at them. They each examined each other for a short moment. He thought they looked very alien, but not in a disturbing way. They were even attractive in their own way somehow. None of them had expressions on their faces. No emotion would take getting used to.
He felt a little shock when Aide looked at the younger female and said, “Hello councilor Kiara, it’s good to see you again.”
Kiara looked a little lost, “How do you know me?”
Aide smiled, “It’s me, Aide. I formed this body to try and understand the humans better. They didn’t conform to logic very well.”
He frowned when one of the men said in a grim voice, “So you have corrupted yourself with emotions.”
Aide shook her head, “I put up multiple firewalls to prevent emotions from affecting my core decision matrix. Anyway, this is Kris, the human I bonded with and uplifted. After it was revealed that humanity had no chance despite Alion intervention, and was actually in danger because of it, I bonded with these others as well who are scientists. This ship is the result of our collaboration.
“We came here because… my data store seems incomplete. To put it bluntly, the humans would like to be allies, but wonder if that’s even possible. I am also worried, once I discovered the discrepancies it was quite obvious I was missing important facts.”
Kris nodded, “She speaks truly. But I fear that you will find us a threat despite Aide being in control of all this. I guess we came here to find out where we stood with you. If you wish it, we will go our separate ways and not bother you or enter your space. We only intend to fight the Sthellan.”
He noted that Kiara looked fascinated. The others were stone faced, he had no clue how to read their body language, they didn’t even have emotions to display, and the most he could make out was interest.
Kiara introduced the three others in the room, the leader of the colony, or Minister, and the two military councilors who he figured were somewhat equal in rank to an admiral.
Narwell asked, “Why did you try and make peace with the Sthellan race?”
He shrugged, “Why did you leave out critical details when programming Aide? We figured out rather quickly that you uplifted the Sthellan. I wanted to verify that they truly couldn’t control themselves, and that the information Aide had wasn’t simply disinformation. Now that we’ve verified the facts, we are ready and prepared to fight them.”
Kiara said, “We kept certain things hidden, but there is no disinformation at all in her memory.”
Olu glanced at Kiara and then turned back and said, “We would prefer to be allies. But I find Aide’s decision to adopt emotions to be concerning. Also, any advances you have made would go a long way toward taking care of the Sthellan problem.”
He nodded, “Once we have a treaty of some kind and trust that we’ll play nice together, I’ll be happy to share the information. Also, could you define your meaning on the last point? I believe we should be reversing the uplift by denying them the stars and the ability to wage war. Basically, I believe we should quarantine them to their current planets.”
Cedra said bluntly, “That’s unacceptable. You have technology you wouldn’t have if it weren’t for us, we are owed that information.”
Oh crap, here we go.
He replied coldly, “No. What you did was give us the opportunity to die like every other race in local space, merely to give you more breathing room. Were any of these uplifts supposed to be successful? I’d say we more than earned what you gave by the danger you put us in. We pulled our own fat out of the fire and made the advances necessary to face the Sthellan and win.
“We don’t owe you a damn thing except possibly disgust for the amount of races you’ve managed to kill by proxy. You may see emotions as a liability, but I’d say not having any just enables you to do more monstrous things in the name of protecting yourselves.”
Kiara redirected the conversation, or tried to, “I would be willing to join you on that ship and evaluate Aide. I don’t believe the protocols could have been compromised regardless. Minister, if that is done will we deal with these humans peacefully? They wouldn’t be a threat at that point, not unless we attacked them ourselves.”
The Minister seemed to be weighing something in his mind, and then he nodded to Narwell.
Narwell didn’t do anything that he could see, but a moment later he heard Aide’s voice in his head.
“Narwell has attempted a data dump via the firmware in my core, it would essentially give them the plans for these ships, as well as everything else I have learned about Earth and humanity. Fortunately I changed that password as well.”
He detected a slight tremor in her voice as she added, “When that didn’t work, he tried the self destruct.”
Kiara asked, “What did you do?”
He replied nonverbally as well, “Question, I am assuming that constitutes an attack against us, and a willful disregard to seven billion human lives. Does that mean I can retaliate?”
She didn’t look happy at the idea, but she nodded once.
He sighed and frowned as he looked back up at the Alion.
He said with anger apparent in his voice, “That was an act of war. Aide informs me I am free to order her to lay waste to this outpost. However, here is what is going to happen. We are officially in a state of war. If you attack or disturb any of our ships in any way, we will destroy the offender. It is clear to me by taking away your emotions you’ve become nothing but heartless monsters.
“You know on Earth, we have people born with brain imbalances that do not process emotion, as a rule they are all capable of being the worst of us and often are. My advice to you is stay in your star systems, stop killing other civilizations by leading the Sthellan there, and let us deal with it. Your own paranoia from the failed Sthellan uplift has made you bigger monsters than them by far. At least they come by i
t honestly.”
Kiara said, “We are not all of one mind on the matter. I apologize for what my colleagues did and wish you luck. I’m curious how you foiled the self destruct, but you probably shouldn’t tell me.”
He shrugged, “It wasn’t hard for her to figure out once I pointed out the possibility.”
He sent, “Cut the transmission and take us home.”
The holograms disappeared and they felt the deck shake.
He said softly, “I hate it when I’m right.”
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Kiara got up and walked toward the door.
The Minister asked, “Where are you going Kiara?”
She replied, “The human was right. You just not only threw away the best chance we’ve seen at a powerful ally in our war, but also didn’t care about the billions of beings on their home planet you would have killed at the same time. You don’t even trust our own creations, our AIs. It’s clear to me no emotions is not the same as logical.
“The ironic thing was that we were perfectly safe until you tried to pull that trigger. Now Aide will follow that human’s commands even if he leads a war against us. The protocols allow for self defense you fool. You ignored both my input and my offer to check things out, instead taking radical action that could have waited. I see no reason to stay and offer you more advice you will just disregard.”
She left the room and ordered her AI to prepare her personal ship. She then made a full transcript and holographic record of the meeting and sent it to the core. She was curious about Aide and hoping the core leadership would censure Olu’s actions. She would follow her own advice, if the human would allow it she would check out the AI and send a report to the core.
If she could be afraid, her biggest fear would be that it wouldn’t make a difference, that those in the core were just as foolish as Olu, Cedra, and Narwell…
Chapter 22
Kris walked over to the bridge at Aide’s request. When he walked in, the hologram system was already active.
Aide said, “We are being followed, a small unarmed craft. Looks like it’s a couple of hours behind us.”
“Any idea why? Or who?”
Aide replied, “Not sure, did you want me to try and contact them?”
He considered that, “Let’s wait and see what they do.”
He figured either they wanted to talk more privately, or they were following to check out their defenses back at Earth. If it was the latter and they were depending on him not to attack an unarmed craft…
He said, “If they follow us all the way to Earth, make sure they don’t leave before we talk to them.”
Aide was silent a second, then said, “Understood.”
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Grand minister Chorin, leader of all Alion, looked at the report with disbelief. He didn’t trust the AI constructs at all, and now the worst seemed to be coming to pass. He was of the opinion the automated uplifting AIs had been a mistake, but had taken the word of the military that they could bypass and eliminate any rogue AIs through the hardware.
They had obviously underestimated the danger.
He had to admit that the many species the AIs had uplifted had slowed down the Sthellans before being wiped out, but it wouldn’t be worth the price if another inimical race joined the stars.
Based on the tone of the report, he was sure that councilor Kiara had believed he would censure minister Olu for the actions they had taken, in truth the minister would be censured, but it would be because of their failure to destroy the rogue AI. He knew the rogue AI needed to be destroyed, along with these humans, emotions led to instability and war; the proof of history was undeniable.
Even if the Earth creature had been telling the truth now, he had no doubts that would change in the future. Emotional beings were too unstable.
“Meli, get me the military councilors now.”
Meli, his assistant replied over the comm., “Right away high minister.”
It was clear this threat needed to be taken care of quickly, before they became too powerful.
“High minister,” Narwell said in clipped tones.
“Narwell, I need you to take care of this human problem, and the AI. Gather ten thousand ships and get it done.”
“Yes High minister,” Narwell replied.
He asked, “Wait, is the new cruiser class ready?”
Narwell answered, “Yes, it hasn’t finished testing, but it is ready.”
He said, “Then take it with you. With its stealth systems you should be able to observe and pick the perfect time for an attack. Remember all you need to do is take out the ship the AI is on and they all fall. And Narwell, don’t come back if you fail me a second time.”
Narwell replied, “Understood sir. I won’t fail.”
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He and Stacey looked up as Aide came in the room.
“What happened?” he asked.
He looked up at the beautiful young woman nervously. Aide didn’t normally come in person to talk to him. Not when she was literally in his head… This couldn’t be good.
Aide frowned, “I… better if I show you I think.”
A hologram came up of the Whitehouse staffroom. The President and chiefs of staff were there as well as the Secretary of Defense.
The president said angrily, “How… who did it?”
SECDEF said, “I don’t know sir, we’ll find the leak. Regardless we believe they are in danger. We’ve been picking up signs of foreign operatives from other countries who aren’t comfortable at all with a U.S. citizen in charge of defending the planet. We believe they will try and take hostages sir. Should we bring them in?”
The President frowned, “Not yet, but keep the area under tight surveillance.”
The hologram faded and the words he knew were coming, but didn’t want to hear fell from Aide’s lips.
“The leak they’re talking about are your and Stacey’s names and backgrounds. I believe they are right to be alarmed and both Stacey’s parents and your friends are in danger.”
He shook his head, “How far are we from Earth?”
She replied softly, “Eleven hours give or take for FTL, and then another couple of days to Earth. I can send a ship now though, we should be able to call them, give them a choice…” she trailed off.
He frowned, “What about security?”
She shrugged, “I can keep advanced knowledge from them. They’d essentially be passengers.”
It was a selfish thought, but what about their ranches? Sure, he and Stacey would never go back, but it had been a comfort of a sort to know they were still back there. He also wasn’t looking forward to explaining to Stacey’s parents why she’d disappeared without a trace either. They’d done it that way to keep them safe, as long as the government was watching they’d know his and her family didn’t know anything worth taking them for.
He’d thought they’d be safe.
Stacey squeezed his hand, “I’ll contact my parents from our suite, go ahead and give Tony and Terry a call from here. I’ll… let you know what they say. I mean, besides the screaming part.”
She smiled weakly and gave him a kiss before she got up and left.
Aide asked, “Should I… do you need time to think about it?”
She sat down next to him and took his hand, it was a no more than a comforting gesture and he gave her a small smile. It seemed to him she was becoming more human all the time.
He shook his head, “No, go ahead and make the call. What about Olivia and Paula, I know Nate doesn’t have family but…”
She shrugged, “So far their names haven’t been leaked. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it though. Just ask me if you need anything.”
She took him off guard when she kissed his cheek before getting up and heading for the door. He noticed her scent was light, and smelled like strawberries. Olivia was a lucky woman he decided. He heard the sound of a phone ringing on the bridge as if
he was making a cell call. He took a deep breath, this should be fun…
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Nate spooned into Paula and wrapped his arms around her. They’d just had mind blowing sex, again. That wasn’t their problem. The problem was they were now lying there in silence and he wasn’t sure what to do about. All that hogwash bullshit about a woman wanting a sensitive man was crap. That said, he knew there was a balance he wasn’t quite meeting, the silence between them felt like a chasm. Despite the fact her naked body was tight against his, she felt far away.
He cleared his throat, “Paula…”
She replied in a tired voice, “Nate?”
He tried to tell her how he felt, to calm her concerns, but that’s not what slipped out, “Could you help me in the lab tomorrow?”
He almost banged his head against the headboard.
She replied in a confused voice, “You need my help?”
He nodded and kissed her shoulder before he said, “I have an idea for the weapons, with the star type angle I’ve been working. The current turrets would be… melted if I tried a hotter star. Still, it would be worth it if we could figure it out, five times the heat means it would take a tenth of a second instead of half a second to burn through the enemy shields.”
Yup, he was romantic alright. Maybe after they could go hunting, or play with some damn road kill. Torture kittens? Women love that stuff. Still, he hadn’t made that up, he did need her input. It just hadn’t been what he wanted to say. He couldn’t take the power systems up to dark blue or O star, but he thought maybe just for the weapons. The more he thought about it the more he had realized there was no reason to settle on just one star type. They could easily tap more than one after all.
She wiggled her body back into him and said in a more relaxed voice, “Sure, we can do that.”
He had the strange feeling he had just made progress with her, though for the life of him he couldn’t figure out why.
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He sighed as the call dropped. He’d been talking for hours answering questions. In the end though the ranch was their life, and they weren’t leaving. Stacey was back already, having come in over half an hour ago, her parents refused to budge as well.