by M. D. Cooper
Strange, she thought, wondering why only one of the hard-Link connections was active.
It wouldn’t provide enough bandwidth for her deep control of the ship. Then she chuckled, remembering that Cary’s body only had one hard-Link port, and that the second one on the armor wasn’t connected to anything.
Utilizing flowmetal, nano, and her new extradimensional abilities, she quickly fashioned the second connection, and then felt the Link to the ship fully activate.
The sensation swept over her like a calming wave, reinforcing that she was no longer Lisa Wrentham, no longer Cary Richards.
She was A1.
She led the Widows, and she alone possessed the ability to take down General Garza’s operation and end the Orion War.
There was a brief pause, and then Faleena’s voice came again, the words delivered with deliberate slowness over their connection.
Cary pursed her lips.
She knew that Faleena was right. She was Cary. She also knew that Lisa Wrentham and A1 were two different people, that much was obvious. Her connection to the ship had reinforced that, filling her mind with the certainty of what she really was.
Faleena didn’t respond for what felt like an eternity. A1 knew that her sister was doubting her—which wasn’t surprising, given their current circumstances—but A1 was resolute. She’d killed Myrrdan when no one else could, and now she would become the Widow A1 and end the war with Orion.
It was all crystal clear to her
AN ENDING
STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Stellar Tower 3, Airthan Ring
REGION: Huygens System, Transcend Interstellar Alliance
It was the only response Sabrina got from her people. Neither of her other teams—both of whom had made it to their nodes—replied to her calls.
The voices all began speaking at once, insisting that she come to their aid, but only one thought could form in Sabrina’s mind.
Sera needs me.
Fusion engines ignited, and the cedar forest behind the starship burned to ash in an instant as the two-hundred-meter freighter lifted off the platform and boosted toward Stellar Tower 3, stasis shields brightly aglow as they shed beamfire from a dozen defense turrets.
I’m coming, Sera. I’m coming.
* * * * *
A screech seemed to come from all around Sera, and suddenly, the darkness was pushed back, the node chamber reappearing around her.
The first thing Sera noticed was Flaherty’s body, laying prone on the deck a few meters away. The second was a black figure flying through the air, shadowtron in hand, firing at Helen’s glowing form.
The ascended AI shuddered as the streams of sleptons hit it, but the creature didn’t back away. Instead, it turned toward Kara and streams of light leapt out from its amorphous form, slicing the woman’s arms and wings off.
Kara let out a shriek, and she tumbled through the air, hurtling toward the platform surrounding the node.
Sera clenched her fists in impotent fury, fearing the worst, when suddenly Kara’s free-fall slowed to a stop, and she settled gently onto the plas grating.
“Sorry I’m late,” Tangel said as she walked around the side of the node, her brow lowered as she regarded Helen. “But you know what they say….”
“Better late than never?” Sera asked as relief flooded through her, one eye on Kara as her armor deployed biofoam, sealing the now-unconscious woman’s wounds.
“No,” Tangel shook her head as she strode toward Helen. “I’m thinking something more like, ‘Time to kill this monster’.”
“Monster?” Helen asked, her voice filled with innocence. “I’m no different than you, Tanis…or should I say ‘Tangel’? I was human once, and then AIs messed with me, turning me into something else. Now I’m ascended, and I’m going to get revenge. Just like you.”
Tangel shook her head. “I’m not here for revenge. I’m just excising a cancer.”
Without another word, Tangel’s luminous limbs stretched out around Helen, encircling and compressing her, until the other ascended being was only a small ball of light.
“Shit,” Sera muttered. “That was easier than I thought…maybe we built Airtha up into something she’s not.”
“I don’t—” Tangel began to say, when soft laughter began to emanate from Helen.
“Oh, she knows. The new girl begins to understand what’s really going on.”
Tangel’s eyes met Sera’s and she shook her head. “This isn’t Airtha. I think…I think it actually is Helen.”
Sera’s mouth fell open as she turned to the strangely complacent ball of light that Tangel held in her grasp.
“H-Helen?”
“Yes.”
She shook her head in disbelief. She’d mourned for Helen…she’d raged over Helen’s betrayal. And now here she was, an ascended being…and not just a manifestation of Airtha.
“It was a shard that your father killed,” Helen whispered. “Airtha preserved me before you went to New Canaan on that fateful mission. The mission where you should have come into your own, not handed the mantle off to Tanis.”
“But, if you’re not Airtha…”
Sera’s voice faded as Tangel gestured to the open space next to the platform, where a ten-meter-tall figure was forming in the air.
“Aw, shit…” Sera whispered, finally understanding that Helen was now an entirely separate being from Airtha.
“I’m sorry, Sera.” Airtha’s soft voice emanated from the roiling mass of light. “Things have not gone as I hoped. If it had not been for Tangel, you—”
“I feel the same way about you,” Tangel interjected. “If the core AIs win, the fault for their victory will be laid at your feet. You could have been humanity’s savior. Instead, you’re trying to orchestrate our destruction.”
“Oh, Tanis.” Airtha’s laughter echoed through the chamber like pealing bells. “Humanity is doomed. I’ve never been trying to save or destroy it. But I don’t mind destroying you. You’re something that Epsilon and I see eye to eye on.”<
br />
Airtha began to drift closer to Tangel. Sera glanced at her friend, and saw the woman’s eyes widen in alarm, but not fear.
-Steady, Sera,- Tangel said.
Sabrina’s voice cried out in their minds, the words followed by beams slicing through the chamber’s wall. They cut several wide swathes free, revealing the star freighter floating outside the tower, silhouetted in the soft glow of the Airthan night.
“You’re a brave little ship,” Airtha said with a laugh. “Though Helen never really had anything nice to say about you.”
The starship turned and began to boost away from the tower, when a limb snapped out from Airtha’s body, streaking toward it.
“I don’t think so, little starship,” the ascended being said with a note of triumph in her voice.
Before Airtha’s arm reached the starship, Tangel stepped toward Sera and wrapped an arm around her.
“Hold on,” she whispered.
Sera’s eyes were fixed on Sabrina as the ship boosted away, silently willing the ship to go faster, to outrun the ascended being chasing it.
Airtha was almost touching the ship’s hull, when a peal of thunder shook the tower and Airtha’s arm was gone. The platform rocked, and Sera gripped Tangel’s arm, realizing that the woman was laughing with a mixture of triumph and delight.
“What the hell?” Sera demanded, finally exhaling as she saw Sabrina disappear into the distance.
“Bob does like to make an entrance.”
Sera’s eyes grew wide as she saw the unmistakable form of the I2 drift into view through the hole Sabrina had made. As she watched, the opening grew wider, beams from the mighty warship cutting into the tower.
“Here he comes,” Tangel whispered. “Stars, I’ve been waiting to see this for so long.”
As she spoke, a luminous glow began to lift off the I2, first from the myriad gossamer arcs that encircled the vessel, and then from the body of the ship itself. The glow coalesced into streamers of light that drifted toward the opening.
They moved languidly, as though there was no rush, no reason to fear that Airtha might flee.
-I give you this one chance, Airtha.-
Bob’s voice filled Sera’s mind as his fingers reached the edges of the tower.
-Surrender.-
-Bob.- The single word from Airtha was laced with disdain. -If you think I’ll—
-OK. Good talk.-
A trio of beams fired from the nose of the I2, and Sera recognized them as the same type that the AI had used on Xavia at Lunic Station. The three streams of shadow particles cut into Airtha, trapping the core of her ephemeral body between them.
The ascended being shrieked and slashed at everything around it, streams of light impacting a shield that Tangel had somehow erected to protect them. Incoherent wailings escaped Airtha as the three beams drew together, pinching her body between them.
For a moment, it looked as though the ring’s former AI might break free, slip between the gaps and escape, but then three more streams of shadow particles shot out from the I2, trapping Airtha in their columns of unbridled energy.
Then the six beams drew together, collapsing into one shrieking stream of energy. A shockwave blasted through the chamber, flinging Tangel and Sera against the side of the node.
“Shit,” Tangel muttered as the two women slowly picked themselves up. “That was…intense.”
Sera nodded mutely as she stumbled toward the half-melted railing at the edge of the platform, staring out at the space where Airtha had been just a moment ago.
“Is she…?”
-She’s gone,- Bob said. -I’ve killed my fourth person.-
The remorse in the AI’s voice was unexpected, but Sera didn’t even know how to ask why it was there.
“Helen got away,” Tangel said as she approached Sera. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t protect us and hold her at the same time.”
Sera’s head whipped around searching for Helen, and then her gaze fell on Flaherty.
“Fuck! Flar!”
“He’s OK,” Tangel said as she ran a hand through her hair. “Kara, too. But the others…”
“Others?”
Tangel’s gaze met Sera’s, and she shook her head.
“Your sisters….”
THE FOLLOWING
STELLAR DATE: 10.10.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Falconer
REGION: A1 System, Spinward edge of PED, Orion Freedom Alliance
“What the hell!” Joe exclaimed, his mind reeling from the information Faleena had just sent.
Every person on the bridge turned to stare at him as he placed a hand on the edge of the holotank.
“Sir?” Captain Tracey asked as she approached.
“They’re jumping to some place called Karaske.” Joe gestured impotently at the view on the holotank, which showed the Perilous Dream shifting to a higher orbit and accelerating toward the system’s jump gate.
Captain Tracey swallowed as she looked from the holodisplay to Joe. “Do we follow?”
He closed his eyes, reaching out to Faleena over her direct QuanComm connection.
[Get me the gate control codes and the coordinates to this Karaske.]
[I have comm control. Sending tightbeam.]
Faleena’s comm beam hit the Falconer’s receiver, and he established a Link connection with his daughter.
Faleena didn’t reply for a moment, but when she did, her tone was businesslike once more.
Joe nodded.
His daughter gave a soft laugh.
Joe joined in her laughter, shaking his head as the bridge crew stared at him questioningly.
As he spoke, one hundred and seventy ships appeared on the holotank, dozens w
ithin firing range of the Falconer.
“Shit…uh, sir. That’s a lot of ships.”
“It sure is, Captain. And the moment the Perilous Dream jumps, they’re going to fire on us, so we need to activate the stasis shields before they strike.”
Captain Tracey nodded. “We can weather their attack, sir, but we can’t jump with our stasis shields active.”
Joe’s eyes met Tracey’s. “I’m activating the Gamma Protocol. Ready a full spread of pico missiles. We don’t have time to dick around with these Orion ships.”
Captain Tracey snapped off a crisp salute. “Yes, sir!”
Joe couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm, though he knew that there’d be hell to pay later for using the pico without authorization.
Not that he cared. He’d move the stars themselves if it was what it took to protect his daughters.
Now I just have to explain this to Tangel.
* * * * *
Terrance Enfield stood next to Earnest Redding as they reviewed the survey data that had been sent back from the drones roving around Astoria.
“Just like old times, eh?” Terrance asked.
Earnest gave him a sidelong glance. “Old times? I feel like we’ve never stopped doing this sort of thing. Scouring star systems, searching for something or another.”
“Good point,” Terrance replied. “Though I’ve been doing it for longer.”
“No need to show off,” Earnest replied with a laugh. “This is nuts, though. How can they produce enough drones to make a dyson swarm around a star the size of Astoria, yet we can’t find where they made them?”
Terrance shrugged. “You know what they say, space is—”
“Seriously. Don’t.”
Earnest bent back over the holotank, and Terrance let out a sigh, nodding in understanding.
“I know. I’m worried too. It’s an important strike.”
“I feel like I should be there,” Earnest replied. “It was as much my plan as Finaeus’s.”
“It’s his ring. He had to go, and you’re needed here. If the core AIs are doing what we think they’re doing, it’s a lot more dangerous than Airtha’s war.”