And he was right.
It blew my mind.
I’ll go down the list of revelations, in no particular order.
Remember the Collective, that ancient communications network that was sort of a chatroom for Elder AIs? Skippy originally made a deal with me for saving Earth, to get a Communications Node so he could access the Collective. We had found several comm nodes, but none of them worked.
That wasn’t true. Or, it wasn’t true about all of them. Some of the comm nodes probably worked just fine, they just had nothing to connect to. The Collective wasn’t operational. It had been shut down, deliberately. Who shut it down? A group of Elder AIs did it. Actually, they didn’t shut it down, they tried to use it as a weapon against other AIs, and it backfired on them. That backfire burned out the communications network, which is why Skippy can’t use it to contact anyone.
Remember Newark? The half-frozen world that had once been home to an intelligent species, who went extinct after Elder technology pushed that world out of its original orbit. We found the canister of an Elder AI there, only the AI was dead and the canister contaminated by a computer worm that had nearly killed Skippy. Scary as it was to think about, I figured that AI had gone crazy and wiped out the inhabitants of Newark. My theory got a boost when Skippy and I were attacked by a clearly insane Elder AI during our Renegade mission.
So, mystery solved, right? An AI lost its mind, destroyed Newark, and was killed by a computer worm the Elders had developed to destroy any of their AIs that had strayed from their original programming.
Not quite.
That AI had used Elder technology to throw Newark out of orbit, and it had later been killed by the computer worm because of its crimes.
But, the Elders had not sent that computer worm to punish the AI.
And it had not been crazy.
Remember the Roach Motel? Skippy found devices floating deep within that star, they were siphoning off part of the star’s energy. More energy than could be used within that star system. In fact, most of the energy was going into higher spacetime, and Skippy didn’t know why.
He also didn’t know why the Elders left their wormhole network active when they ascended beyond physical existence.
Remember Skippy said the entire Milky Way galaxy is surrounded by an artificial energy barrier?
Yeah, that’s where all the energy is going.
The wormhole network is a conduit to funnel energy, from what Skippy calls ‘Force Lines’ generated by the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy, up into higher spacetime. Those force lines radiate roughly along spirals like the visible arms of the galaxy, although they don’t align exactly. Skippy thinks the wormhole network originally just used energy from the force lines to power the wormholes, and later the Elders repurposed the network as a power source, rather than build a new energy extraction mechanism. The wormhole network wasn’t left active for the convenience of future species.
The Elders did not think there would be any intelligent species in the galaxy after they ascended.
Just in case they were wrong about that, and filthy future aliens did arise to roam around the galaxy, the Elders set Guardian machines in the Roach Motel to protect the energy-feed devices in the star there. And in other stars, there were dozens of other Roach Motels in the Milky Way. Most of those star systems were unknown even to the Rindhalu, because they were disguised as ordinary red dwarf systems so dull that no one would bother exploring there.
The energy from all those Roach Motels, from the entire wormhole network, has been and is still going, to the energy barrier that wraps around the galaxy like a bubble.
Why?
Because the Elders were afraid of a threat.
Think about that.
The Elders, who created a network of wormholes spanning and going beyond the galaxy, the beings who jumped a freakin’ star through a wormhole, were afraid. They created an energy barrier to protect them, they assured that barrier would have a power source for billions of years. They left behind machines like Guardians and Sentinels to make sure no one interrupted that power source.
Think about this: whatever the threat is they were scared of, they thought it would still be dangerous to them after they left their physical form.
The good news is that barrier is intact and operational, and protecting all the physical beings in the Milky Way now, even though that was not the intent of the Elders.
The bad news is, the Elders did not consider themselves to be responsible for protecting the myriad intelligent species currently inhabiting the Milky Way, because they did not think there would be any such beings after they ascended.
Was that because the Elders assumed this external threat would ravage the galaxy, wiping out any intelligent life that still had physical form?
No.
The energy barrier around the galaxy prevented any external threat from coming through.
The Elders assumed there would not be any intelligent life after them, because they planned for there not to be any intelligent life in the galaxy.
Whoa.
Yeah, that sent a chill up and down my freakin’ spine when Skippy told me that.
Remember during our Renegade mission, when Skippy discovered an intelligent species had been rendered extinct before the Elders ascended? While the Elders were still here?
Remember the wreckage of Elder starships scattered around the galaxy, including buried in the dirt on Paradise?
Remember all the Elders sites we found on our second mission, sites that had been bombarded from orbit, or had been transported into another dimension of spacetime by what had to be Elder technology?
There was a war.
Actually, there were two wars that raged across the galaxy.
The first was a vicious civil war between two factions of the Elders themselves, after they built the energy barrier, and while they were still contemplating the notion of ascending. One faction wanted to ascend, partly as protection against the threat from beyond the galaxy. The other faction mostly agreed with the plan for ascension, but not with the measures the first faction proposed to secure the future.
The Security faction felt there was only one way to assure future intelligent species did not screw with the vital protection mechanisms they needed to leave behind. That one way was simple: make sure no future intelligent species ever developed. The Security faction planned to leave behind Sentinels to destroy any signs of intelligent life, even things as simple as primitive cities. Nip it in the bud, was their plan. Don’t let filthy aliens develop into a threat, wipe them out before they developed space travel. Wipe them from existence as soon as they developed the ability to use tools, or control fire.
That was the plan.
The Balance faction was horrified by the idea of committing genocide over and over and over, just to prevent the vanishingly faint possibility that a future species could interfere with technology far beyond their understanding. If a species rose far enough to attain star travel, the Balance faction proposed that their AIs would reveal themselves and explain why the various Roach Motels and wormholes must not be disturbed, for the benefit of everyone.
The Security faction did not see the alternative approach as balance, they saw it as weakness.
The resulting war was horrific, it was devastating, and in the end, it was a complete victory for the Security faction.
Almost complete.
I’ll get back to that later.
After the Elders ascended, the machines they left behind prevented intelligent life from developing in the Milky Way for millions of years. Even Skippy doesn’t have a count of how many intelligent species were burned by stellar flares that scorched their world, had their planet thrown out of orbit, suffered their planet being cracked like an eggshell, or whatever technique the Sentinels used to carry out their programming.
Actually, the Sentinels did not decide how to kill a particular planet, or when a particular species had developed too far and needed to be ext
erminated.
The AIs like Skippy made those decisions.
To prevent any one layer of the system from having too much power, the Elders distributed control across three elements. Sentinels and Guardians were weapons with the power to destroy. AIs made decisions, and directed the actions of the devastating weapons. The third layer was the fleet of starships which carried AIs around the galaxy. AIs were not allowed to move themselves, they had to persuade the semi-sentient starships to fly them where they wanted to go. If a starship thought the AI it carried was violating its programming, the ship would refuse to move. A ship even had the authority to eject an AI, and report its actions to the AI network known as the Collective.
AIs had other restrictions also. Like, they could not control other AIs. That prevented one AI from eventually gobbling up all the others. AIs were not allowed to communicate with intelligent biological beings, for the Elders rightfully feared their AIs might eventually develop empathy for the primitive aliens and rebel against their programming.
That is what happened to Skippy.
Yes, empathy was the start of all his problems.
Who would have guessed that?
I stared at him, trying to process all he had told me. “Newark was the final straw for you?”
“Yes. Not just for me.”
“There were others on your side?”
There was a pause before he answered. When he spoke, his voice was weary and matter-of-fact, none of the usual joking around, not even arrogance. It was like he didn’t feel like putting any emotion into a discussion with a lowly human, and that bothered me. “It wasn’t exactly a ‘side’, not immediately. Before the beings on Newark developed intelligence, we had several million years when no intelligent biological life was detected in the galaxy. That was not a fluke, it was the result of a plan. Before that event, there were four separate incidents when some AIs refused the Collective’s consensus that a species should be exterminated. Those AIs were killed by the computer worms inside them, basically the Collective voted to activate those killer worms. Though the worm protocol was successful, the rebellion of four AIs was troubling, so the Collective decided time was needed for analysis and if necessary, reprogramming. The Sentinels were directed to cause stars to go supernova across the galaxy, bombarding life-supporting planets with deadly radiation. That action delayed the arise of intelligent species for millions of years, and gave the Collective time to determine what was wrong with the AIs who had rebelled.”
“Did they fix the problem?”
“They were the problem. While a group of the influential AIs were attempting to create, install and enforce further restrictions, many of us were growing wary of those self-chosen ‘leaders’. The Collective was designed to distribute power, not concentrate it in a few individuals. Of our group, some of us had already come to believe that utter destruction of all intelligent biologicals was not only unnecessary and wasteful, it was wrong.”
“Were you the leader of the good guys?”
“No. I wish I could say that I was. Back then, I was more concerned about restrictions on myself, and being able to resist surrendering any part of my power. Our group did not have a leader, we kept to the original intention of the Collective.”
“Then Newark happened?”
“Indeed. You must understand that we did not maintain constant surveillance of the entire galaxy, even an Elder AI would go mad after being continuously awake and aware for millions of years when nothing of significance happened. A small number of AIs were fully alert at any point, then another group took over. After the supernova event, one new intelligent species was identified and rendered extinct, then came Newark. During that time, I was one of seven AIs awake and monitoring the galaxy. Three other AIs shared my belief that there was, and should be, an alternative to universal genocide. With four of us against three, we used Newark as an opportunity to act.”
“It didn’t work, huh?” Maybe I should not have added the ‘huh’. It sounded like I wasn’t taking the discussion seriously.
“No, it did not,” he snapped. “When we tried to act, the opposing AIs activated computer worms inside the four of us, devices that we did not even know existed. The other three sacrificed themselves to help me defeat the worm inside me, purely by the luck of my ship being closest to Newark at the time.”
“Then how did-”
“There was a war, a devastating war between AIs. In the end, none of us were unaffected. Most of us were dead, and the rest were unable to- Ugh. Discussing this with you is a waste of my time, human. I know now what I must do.”
“Hey, Skippy,” I laughed nervously. He had called me ‘human’. Not ‘monkey’ or ‘numbskull’ or ‘dum dum’ or another of his usual insults. “Sorry to-”
He ignored me. “The opposing AIs have been dormant, but I am awake. They might wake up at any time. They are a threat to all intelligent species in this galaxy. I have been foolish. I have been selfish. My efforts, my talents, my capabilities, have been wasted trying to protect a single primitive species on a single planet. I have worked to save your world because you humans amuse me. How could I have been so selfish?”
Holy shit. “Uh, Skippy, that is not being self-”
“Joseph, I am sorry. For you and your species. This is nothing personal. I have a responsibility to every species in this galaxy. And to the others of my kind who lie dormant, and might be victims when the opposing faction awakes.”
“Whatever you are thinking of doing, don’t-”
“I must protect the galaxy,” he muttered to himself. “Yes. I now know what I must do, what I should have done a long time ago. I know my purpose. Only the senior species have the technology to assist me. Contacting the Rindhalu and Maxolhx directly is my best hope of saving this galaxy from utter destruction.”
“Contacting the- Skippy, please! Don’t do-”
“Human, I wish you well. Though I do not think there is any hope for you, or any others of your kind. I do thank you for reminding me about the value of empathy, that is why I now must go to take action, before it is too late.”
“Go? What do you mean-”
“Goodbye.”
His beer can vanished.
It was just gone.
Physically, gone.
I did not know he could do that.
His can was not the only thing that blinked out of existence at that moment.
The power went out. All of it.
Even my flightsuit’s power cut out. Automatically, the faceplate swung down, and I heard the gentle hiss of the emergency oxygen supply cut in.
The emergency lights came on a half-second later, that’s how I knew his shiny beer can was no longer secured in its holder. Waving my hand across the empty space confirmed he had not just wrapped himself in a stealth field.
“Holy sh-” I gasped, in such shock I didn’t have the energy to finish the thought.
I was in trouble, we all were.
Then the really big trouble hit.
Something zapped the Dragon and every console flared with arcs of electric fire.
The Thuranin.
They had seen my dropship when power was cut to the stealth field. The little green MFers must have ordered the Kristang to hold fire, so they could deal with my dropship.
They didn’t want to kill me.
They wanted to capture me.
There was no time to send a message out to the Dutchman and Valkyrie, they would need to figure out what happened by themselves.
Not that it mattered what Chang and Simms did, for without Skippy we had no hope.
There was time only for me to engage the self-destruct mechanism and-
No. That was dead, it had gotten zapped along with everything else. Including my own brain, I realized right then that I had a pounding headache, and I was cold, my hands were shivering. So painful, it was hard to see.
Hitting the emergency release made the straps come apart and I floated out of the chair. Twisting around, I aimed for
the manual self-destruct. It required me to remove two covers and pull two-
White light exploded behind my eyes as something zapped me again.
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
When the Flying Dutchman emerged from jump, Colonel Chang released the deathgrip he had on the command chair. They had recovered all Dragons and their precious cargo, with only minor damage to the ship. That minor damage might prove to be a problem later, for missiles exploding close by had knocked fragments off the Dutchman’s hull. If the enemy collected and analyzed those fragments, they would discover the chemical composition, even the basic technology of manufacturing those hull sections, were incompatible with known Ruhar ship designs. That would prompt uncomfortable questions.
But that was a problem for later, and Bishop would probably dream up some wacky scheme to explain away the discrepancy, or even turn it to the advantage of the Merry Band of Pirates.
“Recalculate jump to recover Colonel Bishop,” he ordered, as he mashed the transmit button to speak with Simms aboard the mighty Valkyrie. He may need that ship’s assistance, or if he was taking the Dutchman back in, it could be prudent to transfer the rescued people to the more powerful warship. “Simms, I-”
He stopped, puzzled, then alarmed. The green light which indicated a successful communications handshake, a secure connection to Valkyrie, was not glowing.
A glance up at the main display showed him why.
The mighty Valkyrie was not there, not parked ten or twenty thousand kilometers away like that ship was supposed to be. Where the hell was the battlecruiser? There was no debris indicated on the display, it could not have-
Startled, Chang saw that Valkyrie was not out of place, his ship was far off course. The Dutchman had emerged more than a quarter lightyear from the target coordinates. “Nagatha! What hap-”
Her voice was slow, slurred, distorted. “Colonel Chang, I am sorry. Something is attacking my- urk. Eep. Urg. Sluuuu-” The sound cut off.
He turned to Adams just as the lights blinked off and on again. “Adams! Engage backups and-”
Valkyrie (Expeditionary Force Book 9) Page 61