“I don’t need to move to kill you from here; hope you realize that.”
That seemed to catch his attention as he advanced between the tables separating them, never losing sight of Chase as he approached.
He shoved the barrel of his blaster right under Chase’s nose.
“I’m gonna tie you up now. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I thought my brother was more valuable dead.”
“He. . . You are. Stop trying to get out of this, Argos. You’re done and I’m rich.”
Chase started laughing uncontrollably.
“Stop that right now or I’ll shoot you in the face.”
Chase stopped laughing and fixed the bounty hunter straight in the eyes. “Do it. See what happens.”
Chase didn’t realize it, but his eyes were shining again. That gave the man pause and he took three steps back, still aiming at Chase. He took yet another step back, hit a nearby table and panicked, firing straight at Chase’s face.
Chase flicked a finger and deflected the fire to the ground. The man’s eyes opened wide, clearly shocked. He started madly firing at Chase, who simply put his palm in front of the shots and stopped them all. A little smoke rose from his palm once the man stopped firing. A little theatrics can’t hurt, thought Chase.
“Are you done?” he said casually.
“What the fuck are you?” said the man, terrorized.
“Not Argos, that’s for sure.”
“What now?”
“Now you either get the fuck out of my face or I show you what I do to people who shoot at me.”
That did it. The man started running in a zigzag between the tables and left the room. Chase walked towards the bar. The barman took a step to the side, clearly showing Chase he was aiming at Keera’s head.
“One more step and she di—”
Before he could finish his threat, Chase mentally snatched his blaster out of his hand and punched his lights out with a quick fist straight to his face. He crashed into the back of his bar, shattering the mirror wall behind him. He collapsed to the floor unconscious.
“Let’s get out of here. We’re clearly not welcome here.”
“I can see that. Why did they do this? Oh right! You look like him. I should have known.”
“That and there’s also a warrant on your head.”
“What? That’s not good. I could lose my license. Who is it from?”
“Tor’Tak. Probably a relative?”
“Yeah, his crazy father. How much am I worth?”
“Ten thousand.”
“That’s insulting!”
Chase smiled. “I’m sure it is. I think we should go now. Any way to get that warrant cancelled?”
“Only Tor’Tak can do that.”
“Perhaps once we’re done with the business on Earth we can take care of this as well.”
“We’ll see. I’m not worried. I’m well known in my field. I doubt other hunters will be dumb enough to go after me.”
“What about him?” said Chase, pointing at the barman on the floor.
“I don’t know. Looking for a quick buck or career change, perhaps.”
“Picked on the wrong crowd.”
“In his defense, he couldn’t have known. Thanks for the assist, by the way.”
“Sure. Should we go now?”
“Yeah, but let me pour you the drink we came for first.”
Chase sat on the nearest bar stool and put the barman’s blaster on the bar next to him. By the time Keera had prepared the Ju’Ran’s Blackhole, they heard heavy footsteps running on the other side of the room.
“We’ve got company,” she said, still pouring the drink.
“I heard. You don’t seem concerned.”
“Well, you’re gonna kick their asses, aren’t you?”
Chase got up and smiled at her. “Be right back.”
“Uh-huh.” She smiled back.
Chase turned and saw four men pointing blasters and rifles towards them. Chase raised his hands and tables started levitating around them. Surprised, they started shooting at them. With a swift motion of his hands he crashed a table into each of the newcomers. They grunted, shouted or shrieked, but it all went really quickly. In mere seconds, they were all out of commission.
One more set of footsteps could be heard, slower but much heavier than before. At every new step the ground shook. Soon a huge figure came into view. Moving out of the shadows was a tall, fat Radiok, probably five times Chase’s weight. He started running towards Chase without notice and everything in the room trembled heavily.
Chase levitated two tables in the Radiok’s path and smashed one into each side of him. He stopped, grunted, snarled and resumed running. Then Chase used another set of tables and then another. It barely slowed down the Radiok, who arrived in front of Chase and took a jab at him. Chase easily dodged, turned around and clocked the Radiok in the face with an elbow. The Radiok’s nose broke upon impact and started bleeding, and with a surprised stare locked in his eyes he fell like a log in front of Chase, making quite the commotion and breaking two more tables in the process.
Chase heard clapping from the bar.
He turned and gave Keera an amused look.
“Boy, sending that beast down with just one blow. I’m impressed.”
“I had to keep it together. Could have blown his head off otherwise.”
“Yeah, like in the fight pits, right? It seemed clear to me you were not using all your abilities. I wonder if I will ever see them.” Keera pushed the drink towards Chase as he sat down.
“Careful what you wish for. I don’t think it will be safe around me when that happens.”
“Right.” She took her own drink and winked at him.
They drank their beverages and left the bar shortly afterwards.
Yanis entered the commodore’s ready room on board the Destiny.
“What can I do for you, Chief?” said Saroudis, getting up and shaking Yanis’ hand.
“We may have a problem on Earth.”
Yanis frowned. “What kind of problem?”
“Well, perhaps nothing to alarm us just yet, but when Cedric teleported the quadrinium-enhanced bombs from the power plants, he may have created an AI within the Internet in the process.”
“An Artificial Intelligence? How exactly?”
“That’s the thing, we don’t know how. But it probably happened when he linked our systems with the computational power of Earth.”
“What’s your assessment of the situation?”
“That we must proceed with care. Hopefully if an AI was born because of the link of our two systems, perhaps it’s been born with our baseline code as a source.”
“And that would be important why?”
“Because we’ve hardcoded our own AIs to never hurt physical beings or, by their inactions, let human beings be hurt.”
“Did you know the humans thought of that too?”
“I don’t follow?”
“Since we’ve arrived here I’ve taken it upon myself to read many of their books. An author of the twentieth century called Asimov thought of the same thing: to hard code important laws into any artificial brain to make sure machines would never hurt the human race. Fascinating read.”
“I see, and this is what, fiction?”
“Yeah, in this case it is, even though robotics engineers on Earth are deeply aware of these rules and would always make sure to implement them, even if they were nowhere near a true working and thinking AI in the first place.”
“Alright. Unfortunately, we can only hope this particular AI learned these. There’s no hardcoding to be made here, since it emerged on its own.”
“Should we let it exist in the first place?”
“I think for the time being it’s very important we don’t try to shut it down.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, if it’s fully conscious it could perceive us as a threat, and since there’s no hard code to protect us if it does, the last
thing we want is to appear aggressive. There are simply too many things interconnected via the Internet on Earth. The result could be catastrophic.”
“And if we wait and the AI decides to attack anyway?”
“I know it’s a risk. For now, though, I recommend we don’t try shutting it down. Not only could purging it from the Internet plunge Earth into chaos, but I’m not even sure it’s doable at all; not if we want to keep basic utilities like electricity and water working down there. The fact that there are seven billion souls on the planet makes this a really difficult proposition, any way you look at it.”
Saroudis put his hand on his chin.
“I see. Clearly we can’t just ignore it and wait to see what happens.”
“No, that is also too risky. I propose we monitor its code.”
“What if that feels like prying eyes to it and it already categorizes us as a potential threat?”
“I did not consider that angle.”
“An AI is primarily digital. It lives and breathes in the data streams. Therefore I would think it would be inherently aware if someone was looking at its every move. I know it would make me nervous.”
Yanis nodded.
“Perhaps you should try to find a way to communicate with this artificial intelligence.”
“That’s a good idea. Cedric proposed the same. We could whip up a way to communicate via audio or even holographic projection. Who will communicate with it, though? I can build all that is needed for this to work, but I’m not a diplomat, not by a long shot.”
“Well, one problem at a time. Let’s first try to build a way to communicate with it and then we can see who will talk to it.”
“Right. Perhaps you’d like to?”
“Perhaps. I’m not sure a military man is the best face to present, but I’ll think about it. How long do you think you need to create a proper communication interface?”
“A few days, perhaps less.”
“Alright, I’ll let the admiral know about this problem when she comes back from Droxian space. In the meantime you have my go to assign as many resources as you need to this project. It’s top priority. I suggest you ask Spiros Malayianis for help on this.”
“Makes sense. He’s an expert on AI. Thanks, Commodore.”
Saroudis nodded. “You’re dismissed, Chief.”
The Iron Fire exited hyperspace near the fifth planet of the Aboris planetary system. A squadron of ships approached them shortly. Soon they received an incoming transmission.
“Please identify yourselves and state your intentions.”
“Daniel Tharraleos, captaining the Earth Alliance dreadnought Iron Fire. We would like to talk to someone in authority concerning the warrant placed on Argos Thanatos.”
“Request denied. Please let us escort you out of our system.”
“Look, I understand you don’t know us, but we’re currently looking for Argos as well. Perhaps if you let us in we can help.”
There was a minute of silence.
“Please follow us, but no funny business.”
“You have my word.”
“That means nothing to us. Just be warned that if you don’t follow our exact instructions, we’ll be forced to destroy your ship.”
You’re welcome to try, thought Daniel.
“Very well. We’ll follow you.”
Arriving in orbit of the nearest planet, the pilot from their escort opened communications again.
“You can take a shuttle down to the planet. Your vessel must stay in orbit.”
Daniel looked at Tar’Lock.
“What is it?”
“Well, I’ll take these.” He gestured towards the neuronal link interfaces. “If we need the Iron Fire I can remote control it; but if you don’t hear from us in one hour, you get out of here and come back with reinforcements.”
“I don’t know how to pilot the ship.”
“Iron Fire AINI? This is Daniel Tharraleos.”
“Identity confirmed. What can I do for you, Captain?” asked the onboard computer.
“Add Tar’Lock as secondary commanding officer and confirm.”
“Tar’Lock added. Status, secondary commanding officer.”
“AINI, if Tar’Lock is wounded or killed, return to Earth.”
“Command confirmed, Captain.”
Tar’Lock grimaced. “Charming.”
“Well, gotta think of all contingencies. However, now you can tell the ship what to do. Just don’t blow yourself up.”
“Very funny. Why am I not coming along with you?”
“I thought that was obvious. Someone needs to stay with the ship.”
“Can’t one of these”—he pointed to two of the ship’s android crew—“stay behind instead?”
“They aren’t programmed to make on-the-fly decisions.”
“Neither am I.”
“Tar’Lock!” growled Ryonna.
“Very well, I’ll stay here.”
“Good,” said Daniel. “See you soon, hopefully.”
“Yeah, make sure you come back. I’m not good with machines.”
The shuttle containing Daniel and Ryonna landed on a designated platform where a dozen armed guards asked that they relinquish their weapons before proceeding inside the nearest building.
“Nope,” said Ryonna coldly.
“Come on, give ’em your toys,” said Daniel nicely.
“This is a mistake.”
“This is how it has to be, so the sooner we comply, the better.”
Ryonna growled in disagreement and some of the guards raised their guns in response.
Daniel waved his hand to get their attention. “Don’t mind her. She hasn’t had breakfast yet, that’s all.”
Ryonna put her blaster and two knives and back blade on a bench nearby. She shot an angry look at the worker in charge of holding their weapons.
“I’d better get them back.”
“Move along,” answered the worker, clearly not afraid of her threats.
They were escorted to the highest floor of the building. Two giant doors opened, revealing a massive office with an amazing view of one of the purple oceans of this planet. There were two suns shining, one blue and one orange, as well as a stunning ringed moon, currently filling half the horizon. The office was nothing short of stunning, with waterfalls on each side of it, very pretty blue trees, with white and cyan flowers blooming, and a few birds singing on their branches.
At the desk sat a tall man with a tattoo on half his face. It looked like bio-electrical schematics, and gave the man a weird allure, considering the expensive suit he was wearing.
“Please come in. I understand you’re trying to locate Argos.”
“We are,” said Daniel.
“Yet I thought I had included all the information you needed for the job in the warrant. I’m not used to receiving strangers in here.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“Well, you guys have been featured quite heavily on the news. From what I’ve gathered, you are enemies of Argos and his Zarlack fleets. That alone gives us common ground.”
“How come you’ve placed such a heavy bounty on his head?” asked Ryonna, somewhat less politely.
“He double crossed us. We can’t tolerate such actions. Many of our best engineers died in the process. It sets a dangerous precedent. One we don’t want to inspire others in the future. By bringing him down and showing how much we’re willing to pay to make sure this never happens again, it protects our . . . interests.”
Ryonna snorted. She had no love for the DTs.
The birds suddenly stopped chirping.
“What is it I can help you with? You’ll understand my time is limit—”
But then the head of the man exploded and Daniel was splattered with pieces of bone, flesh and blood.
“What the hell?” he shouted in surprise and disgust.
Ryonna instinctively reached for her blaster, only to find her holster empty. She turned around, terror at what
she saw written on her face.
Daniel also turned and couldn’t believe his eyes.
Argos walked slowly towards them, smirking.
“He was right, though, his time truly was limited. Sorry for the mess,” he said, looking Daniel straight in the eyes. “Send me your dry-cleaning bill.”
Daniel froze in place. He remembered what had happened last time he attacked Argos, and Chase wasn’t here to resurrect him this time around. Ryonna, on the other hand, did not hesitate; she sprang into action, her instincts taking over.
She launched herself into the air and sent a flying kick towards Argos’ head; which didn’t budge upon impact. She landed on one knee in front of him. He simply looked at her, his expression unwavering. She rose and used the momentum to deliver one hell of an uppercut that threw Argos’ head back just for a moment. He put his head back into its original position, unharmed, and tilted it slightly.
Ryonna turned towards Daniel. “Run! Get back on board the Iron Fire. NOW!”
“I’m not leaving you here to sacrifice yourself. Besides, what makes you think he would let me go?”
“Listen to your friend, Ryonna,” said Argos, smiling.
She took three steps back to be level with Daniel.
“Why are we still alive?” she murmured.
“I’m asking myself the exact same question. Let’s ask him,” said Daniel nervously. “What do you want, Argos?”
“A couple of things. The first was that pathetic DT’s head on a plate, but I got carried away . . . obviously.”
“And the second?” inquired Daniel, not so sure he really wanted to know.
“I want to surrender,” he said, extending his arms in front of him, crossing his wrists.
“Right. We’re supposed to believe that?”
“Look, Daniel, you know very well that if I wanted you dead, it would only take a thought, so ask yourself this? Why else are you still standing?”
“Perhaps you fear what Chase would do to you if you hurt any of us?” said Daniel, not entirely convinced by his own argument.
“I will admit this only once: what happened aboard Damocles-3 was indeed quite unexpected. And I haven’t properly thanked you for stopping Chase from finishing me off. So, there you have it. Thank you.”
Daniel spat on the ground furiously. “Fuck you! I should have let him kill you. You were bluffing about Sarah.”
Universe in Flames – Ultimate 10 Book Box Set: An Epic Space Opera Adventure Page 97