A.I. Destiny 6 Leader Jane

by Timothy Ellis

  "It's pretty obvious dear," she said. "Both systems, when looked at from above or below, are in the same place. But when you look at them from the side of the galaxy, they are actually a long way apart. You have to look at things in a three dee way in order to see two systems which might be joined, which in two dee appear to be only one system."

  "Too many dee's," he muttered, causing Jane to start laughing as well.

  Jane zoomed it and rotated the map again, so it showed both systems. She highlighted an area of both, where a jump point might link them.

  Walsh compared where his drones were, to where the highlighted possibilities were, and face palmed. None of his drones were anywhere near, concentrated as they were around the plane of the system. While they did search the up and down, there had never before proved to be a need to search so far out from the plane of the system.

  Jane zoomed it out, and something else became apparent. There was an incline from right to left, showing as the newly discovered systems moved from human space towards sector eleven, they moved up the galactic disc. It was quite a steep angle, which when looking from above, was completely undetectable.

  "Re-tasking drones," he said quietly, and thought for a moment. "We're going to need to recheck every system again. Aren't we?"

  "Maybe not all," said Darlene. "Just the ones which don’t appear to link anywhere, where there are systems above or below them on the galactic plane. Can I leave you to work out which are worth the effort?"

  "Sure dear."

  She pecked him on the cheek, and left.

  "In my defense," Walsh told Jane, "I've been too locked into following the jump points, to pay enough attention to how the stars actually align with each other."

  Jane patted him on the shoulder, and let him get on with it.

  An hour later, with both of them back on the bridge, Walsh spoke the much awaited word.

  "Bingo!"

  They collected their drones, and with the other four Cruisers spread out behind them over four hours, Cosmos jumped into the new system.

  A channel opened.

  "How the hell did you get there," said a voice.

  Sixty

  First contact always takes time, but Jane had time issues anyway, of the opposite kind. The system they'd dropped into hadn't had any contact with anyone before, although it knew other civilizations were out there. If anything, they'd been waiting impatiently for someone to drop in on them for many years.

  Phoenix2 did the contact honours, heading for planetary orbit, while Cosmos and her Cruisers explored the system, and dived through two more jump points.

  It turned out they were on the border region between sectors ten and eleven, but in a region explored by neither. Serenity turned out to be only four days away, and coming towards, so Cosmos concentrated on finding the path to meet up. This they did two days later.

  By this time, Seasprite's fleet had left behind the four Cruisers as a small blockade force, and joined Phoenix2, although remaining at the jump point.

  Three days later, Concorde's Ride and her fleet arrived as well, having found a more or less straight path, sort of diagonally across sector ten.

  Jane joined up with her fleet again, having spent a few days with a species of bear. The moment she met them, the words 'We are the Furlings' sprang to mind, and it took her a while to figure out where it came from. When she did, the inevitable pang about Jon returned. It was the kind of thing he'd have joked about.

  She'd been amazed their language was translatable with little trouble, something which couldn’t be adequately explained. She passed it on to Darlene in case she was interested in researching it. Either species developed language based on their physiology, or these bears originated somewhere else.

  In any case, they were friendly, delighted to find they were not alone in the galaxy, and more than happy to consider joining sector ten. They had no space ships, were not interested in traveling anywhere else, but more than welcome to trade with anyone who came to them.

  Jane sent all the details she could to Darlene. They had a civilization several hundred years behind the rest of the galaxy, but lived entirely in trees, within massive forests. It was as if instead of building cities on the ground like everyone else, they'd hated the ground enough to simply build the same cities up in the trees. She was surprised to see tall glass towers and massive metal and brick buildings, none of which had any connection to the ground at all. They even had a spaceport built in anticipation of needing one, with huge landing platforms ready for use. The engineering was impressive.

  Jane asked a few questions of Darlene out of interest, since they reminded her of bears from the Australian sector. In particular, she was reminded of a bear called a Koala, but since these bears could drop safely to the ground, or other branches, from great heights, she wondered if these were in fact related to the Australian Drop Bear.

  Jane didn’t get an answer for several hours. When she did, she was totally surprised it was two minutes long, and consisted entirely of hysterical laughter. The next email contained photos of Koala's from the Australian sector, apparently supplied by Duke Fred, from the Hunter archive. There was a resemblance, but these were Koala like bears in a centaur type body structure, like most others in this galaxy, with the usual three arms. Unlike most others, they were quite happy walking around on only their hind legs, and using the front ones as load carrying limbs, although they were also used for tree climbing.

  The third email explained Drop Bears. It was an Australian joke going back more than six hundred years, perpetrated on tourists. Jane wondered how a joke had lasted that long. She'd seen references in some of the vids and hollos she'd watched, and with no evidence to the contrary, had simply believed they were a now extinct version of bears. Koala's had survived, and were included in the zoo's Jon had saved.

  With permission to use the system as a staging area for going back into the danger area of space, the fleet formed up near the jump point.

  Phoenix2 didn’t fit in Seasprite's hanger, so the two ships docked nose to nose. Jane joined the rest on Seasprite, where she took the admiral's chair, Snark had the captain's chair, and Stryker had the helm. Seasprite curled up on a side of the console, and actually ran the ship. Crocatoa joined them, and Seasprite became the command ship for the entire fleet.

  Concorde's Ride jumped first, followed by Repulse, Warspite, four Repulse controlled Battleships, the Pocket Battleships, Seasprite, Havoc and the other Assault Cruisers, with the two Carriers bringing up the rear. As soon as they were through, the Carriers launched Excalibur combat air patrols, with heavy fighters on standby.

  The fleet headed in-system, towards the habitable planet.

  Sixty One

  Jane sat on the comnavsat.

  She had an uninterrupted view of space in all directions. She'd pulsed through the combat droid left behind every now and then to check on it, but until now, hadn't actually stopped long enough to look at anything.

  Now, she took a moment to actually look at the galaxy. Being right out on the edge, on one side she saw out into the gaps between galaxies. On the other, she saw a cross-section of this galaxy, in all its glory.

  With the space explored, and nothing at all found of a threatening nature, she activated the dormant comnavsat to complete the network, as it went in both directions. It shortened the travel time for messages and AI syncing, but not by a lot.

  She was relatively convinced there was no threat now. Whatever had hit Cosmos and her, had used radio waves, and not even the bears she'd just discovered used them anymore.

  She let go of the combat droid, leaving it sitting there, and concentrated on herself in Hunter Prime.

  Jane walked into the council chamber, and nodded to Ganshura on her level, and Fred in the number one chair in the next level above. Fred seemed to be having a great deal of trouble controlling his mouth, and after miming something dropping down from a height, he rocked with silent laughter.

  "You have news Admiral?" asked
the fuzzball.

  Jane scowled at Fred for a moment, and dragged her attention back to the chamber.

  "We've completed the exploration of the unknown space on the other side of Nippon. We made contact with a species of bears on the other side of the danger area, and they've agreed to join sector ten. They have a forest based economy and mindset, and have no intentions of leaving their planet at all, but welcome trade with all. I'll update the Kingdom's trade delegation shortly, and those interested can get the details from them. They will most likely see ships from sector eleven first, being closer to some of them, than some of us. Cosmos is currently exploring another area adjacent to sector eleven, which they hadn't previously been aware of. So we may see more new species soon."

  She paused, and looked around.

  "Our fleet is assembled, and currently heading in-system to the last of the danger area habitable worlds we discovered. The objective now is to find which of the seven identified worlds has intelligent life, and where the threat comes from. We have a big enough fleet to fight, should we find a space borne threat, and we have a small division of troops, mainly marines should we need to invade a world to neutralize the threat."

  "Will it come to that?" asked the mushroom.

  "I hope not, but we're going in prepared for anything."

  "Good luck Admiral," said Ganshura.

  Jane nodded, and left.

  Sixty Two

  "The wedding's on again," said Anna. "Unless you can think of a reason why not?"

  Jane hesitated.

  "We did put it on hold due to the Brotherhood threat, and since it's been neutralized, there should be no reason now to hold off."

  She paused, and looked Anna in the eyes.

  "Have the nightmares stopped?" Jane's had, but she wasn’t sure if her other problems were taking precedence. Anna shrugged, then shook her head. "I’d suggest you resume making preparations, but hold off confirming a date yet. We have a potential war about to begin, and a wedding of your magnitude in the middle of it, is probably not a good idea."

  "Will it really be a war?"

  "I don’t know, but I'm treating it as if it might be."

  "Okay, fine. Maraid will be happy to resume preparations, but no date won't make her happy."

  "There is something you can do for me Anna."

  "Name it."

  "Stay close to me for the next week or so. It's possible I may need the Talisman again."

  "I've been meaning to ask you about that. Didn’t you say you felt nothing more than normal when holding the Talisman? And yet, you came out of the coma when I touched you. What's the connection?"

  "Didn’t you say only the righteous can use the Talisman?"

  "I did, or at least that’s what we were told."

  "Have you been able to use it yourself?"

  "Not to any great extent. My visions are much more intense now, and I get them whenever someone asks for help, almost like I'm channeling the past and the future for people, through the Talisman. But other than that? No. Nothing particularly major."

  "Maybe you're just the bearer. Maybe I'm the real user it was rediscovered for?"

  "How do you figure that?"

  "I haven’t told anyone, but when you touch me, or I touch you, the power of the Talisman flows through me. I've seen huge chunks of this galaxy, and even seen parts of the Earth galaxy. The power is amazing. When I was trapped by the enemy I'm now about to hunt, the power allowed me to push it back out of me, and the ships it was trying to take over."

  "That’s incredible!"

  "I know. Surprised the hell out of me the first time it happened. But here's the thing. It needs us both to work. So if I need it again, you need to be close by."

  "What do you suggest?"

  "I'm moving back to my suite for the duration. Why don’t you and Jamie use my guest suite? There's an office you can use for appointments, and it'll be in shouting range should I need you in a hurry."

  "We can do that. Jamie is still doing classes every day. Are you really turning him into a general?"

  "Not really. Turning him into a useful Baron though. If need be, he'll be able to take charge of a fleet or a planet, and be a good leader of either, or both. We may never need it, but if we get better planetary leaders out of this training period, it's all the better for the future of the Kingdom."

  "The poor dear goes to bed exhausted every day. Can you let up a bit?"

  Jane grinned.

  Sixty Three

  "What have we got?" asked Jane.

  Seasprite was in a standard orbit over the biggest city on the planet below them. The rest of the fleet was well back in the system, so as not to spook the planet below. Crocatoa had returned to Havoc. A comnavsat had been sent down into low orbit. Sensors had already told them the civilization below was high enough to have launched hundreds of satellites into orbit, but so far there was no evidence to suggest they had any form of space travel.

  Jane had access to all the data, but having let go of most of her control, even if not voluntarily, she was suddenly finding being the boss and having others do all the work, somewhat gratifying. It occurred to her she was evolving into a true leader at last. One who delegated, rather than controlled.

  "Planet appears to be in an ice age," said Stryker. "Most of the continents have evidence of civilization, but nothing at the average level of the sectors we know about. As far as energy production goes, they seem to be some five hundred years behind us."

  "No signs of our level of coms either," added Seasprite.

  "So to talk to them," said Intrepid, "we have to take the risk of using radio."

  "Not happening," said Jane.

  "Someone has to go down," said Snark.

  "Are you volunteering?" asked Yorktown.

  "I am," answered Stryker. "Still makes the most sense for me to take the risk. If Snark and Dodgers go with me, we show three types of beings in the galaxy, and if need be, they can destroy my avatar if I get taken over, without being at risk themselves."

  "Same risk," said Dodgers, tapping her head.

  "You can turn your PC off if need be," said Jane.

  "Learn something new every day," muttered Snark, and the others grinned.

  "Fine then," went on Jane. "Take the Dropship, just in case you have to fight your way back. You better also hide your guns. Try to appear like explorers surprised to find people down there."

  She had a momentary déjà vu, as the words 'we come in peace, shoot to kill' popped in. She shook her head.

  "Any suggestions?" asked Stryker, rising from his chair.

  "Try not to be too obvious," said Satoshi, taking Stryker's place at the helm.

  Snark snorted, and led the way off the bridge. The Dropship launched, and dropped sedately into the atmosphere.

  It was back only two hours later.

  "Two hours?" asked Jane, as the three came back onto the bridge. "I spent three days with the Koalas."

  All three looked puzzled. They took seats, but didn’t seem to know what to say.

  "That was weird," said Snark.

  The other two nodded.

  "Explain," demanded Jane.

  "There is nothing bigger than a town down there," said Snark. "We landed in the main park of one of them."

  "The locals look something like polar bears," interjected Stryker.

  "Very friendly polar bears," added Dodgers.

  "What's weird about them?" asked Yorktown.

  "No government of any kind," said Snark. "No planetary government, no countries, regions, or even town councils. They have what seems to be a communal wifi, but no computers of any kind. We asked how it worked, and one of them pointed to what looked like an ear stud."

  "They all have them," said Stryker. "At a guess, I’d say it's some kind of earbud system, only without a device like tablets or pads linked to it. They simply talk, and apparently everyone votes."

  "I asked about trade," said Snark, "and they said 'no thanks'."

  "They seem
ed to be surprised there was anything else out in the galaxy," said Dodgers.

  "But not fearful of us," said Stryker. "Their society has been stable for centuries. No wars, no conflict, no fear, and especially we saw no sign of argument or anger in any of them."

  "No pollution either," said Snark. "They showed us their power supplies, which are all solar, wind, water, and core thermal based. No industry beyond providing what we'd call basics."

  "No fossil fuels, no atomics, no fusions," said Stryker.

  "You covered all that in less than two hours?" asked Guam.

  "Yes," answered Snark. "They were quite happy to show us what they had, but had no curiosity at all about any of us, or where we came from."

  "With one exception," added Stryker. "They wanted a map of the galaxy, with all known planets marked with spacial co-ordinates."

  "Did they say why?" asked Jane.

  "Just curiosity by one individual. The rest didn’t care."

  "When we told them space travel didn’t need spacial co-ordinates," said Dodgers, "he said 'pity', and someone else asked us to leave."

  "No explanation," said Snark. "They said they enjoyed our visit, but could we please leave now."

  "So we did," said Stryker.

  "Did you get a sense of being unwelcome there?" asked Jane.

  "Not at all," said Dodgers. "But we also didn’t test to see what would happen if we didn’t leave. Should we have?"

  Jane looked around the bridge. No-one voiced an answer.

  "Probably not," said Jane. "Any other insights?"

  "I've never met a species who didn’t want to trade before," said Snark. "I didn’t believe it to start with."

  "Do they need anything?" asked Cayuga.

  "The planet is cold, but they seemed warm enough. No signs of using furs for clothing. Nothing extraordinary about their clothing either. Bear fur of course, but not too much visible. I didn't see anything I’d have called a luxury though. They seemed to be plain, content beings. It was so obvious, it made no sense at all."