“For the win!”
“We have not won yet, Forge,” Tobias explains, walking toward him. “We may have taken this battle and secured orbital supremacy, but the war is likely to carry on long after we’ve returned from mars.”
“Then I look forward to the day we return,” Forge’s smile is met with cheers.
“Don’t count your chickens,” Tobias says and lands a palm on Forge’s shoulder. “We have a job to complete first. Then, I think we will return to earth.”
Tobias walks to his private quarters, leaving Wilkes with the others to enjoy the celebration as best he can, tied to his seat. In his room, Tobias lays on the bed and ponders their assault on Mars Station. Looking over to his dresser he sees the head which claimed to have once been his mother. Fear forced him to kill her. Curiosity compelled him to retrieve her. Now truth has come to claim him in facts he cannot deny.
“Is it enough that I apologize?” He turns on his side to ask her. “Can it ever be enough?” He sits, leaning in, elbows digging into his thighs. “What you’d said to me you couldn’t have known, not the machine anyway. But you did know. How? Is it true Allfather’s code - offering sentience – opened the door for a soul to enter? It sounds like a fairytale, mother. One you might have put in my head when I was young.
“If you were who you said you were, then I murdered my own mother. If you weren’t, then how did you come by those memories? If I could go back and stop myself – I would have so many questions for you. But there is no going back.” He stands and picks the head up in its freezer bag. “I miss you.” He waves a hand to open the closet door and places the crown gently on a shelf.
______________________________________________________________________
“A good effort, Major,” General August tells Jackson as he sits at the empty chair facing her desk.
“A good effort?” He asks, surprised at her lack of enthusiasm. “We’ve managed to cripple one and destroy another. I would say it’s a solid victory considering who we were up against.”
“You’re pleased with the outcome then?”
“It could have gone the other way. I think we’ve bought ourselves the time we need to regroup and have Mars send us another fleet to finish them off.”
“We’re a month away from that,” she tells him. “The damage just one destroyer could do from orbit is enough for the rebels to win this war.” She stands and circles behind the major. “Do we have any missiles left?”
“No more nukes,” he says turning in his seat. “We simply haven’t been banking missiles the past twenty years, and the majority before that were decomissioned because of their age, but I have a dozen which would be capable of crippling the other Destroyer if we catch them off-guard.”
“I seriously doubt they’ll allow us such opportunity,” she explains. “What we need is a new plan. Have you had any luck in locating their families?”
“None.”
She shrugs this off. Jackson has proven himself against Chopra, she knows. To have destroyed one starship and crippled another was an enormous effort. The logistics of readying the missiles and arranging launches from silos all over the world was no small feat. His plan had worked very well and she still believes in his ability to get the job done If there are twelve warheads still available, now is the time to use them.
“Consider your plan and ready the missiles. They’re currently running evasion exercises while Captain Mann’s ship undergoes repairs. It’s been estimated that it will be two days before his main thrusters are ready to fire again.”
“Then no time like the present,” Major jackson says and stands to leave.
“We need those ships out of the equation, Major. Keep me posted on your progress.” She rounds the desk and sits as Jackson takes his leave.
______________________________________________________________________
“What do you need from me?” Commander Darla asks of the chancellor.
“Captain Chopra has requested the two corvettes, but I think one will suffice. I don’t want to leave Luna Base undefended.” Raymond replies.
“Whatever you need. Please pass on our condolences over Captain Juravinski’s loss. I’ll have a corvette manned and to you within the next six hours,” she tells him. “Aside from that, how are you?”
Raymond flinches at the question. “A little rattled, but I suppose that’s a common occurance after your first experience in battle.
“Nothing common about an orbital assault,” she softens her tone. “I’m happy to hear you’re well.”
“Thank you, Darla,” he replies, face warming. “I’ll let Chopra know about the corvette. Stay in touch.”
“Nothing from Tobias yet?” she adds.
“No, but they still have a good two days’ journey. I’m sure everything is going to plan, but I’m going to try to catch up with him in the coming hours.”
“Okay, I’ll keep the com’s open. Darla out.”
“She’s a nice girl,” Chopra tells him, walking into the theatre where Raymond has been recording future vids for the World and Shadow nets.
“Yes, uh, she is an excellent commander,” Raymond agrees, trying to hide his developing feelings for the young commander.
“More than that I suspect,” he replies. “To you.”
“Well, we have become close during all of this.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Chopra takes a seat. “You’ll see each other again.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“What I know is that the general sent seventy-six nuclear missiles to take us out today. That is United Earth’s complete nuclear arsenal, and before you ask, no, she couldn’t have been creating anymore in secret.”
“No?”
“No. What we had were nearly fifty years old save about thirty which were produced roughly twenty years ago. The program was abandoned when the lance tech came about. No radiation, no fallout, and more precise targeting offered a much cleaner weapon. We kept the nukes for a rainy-day event. I guess this qualified.”
“But there are other missiles.”
“Not really, not for ground to orbit, and large lances like our ships carry were not developed for terrestrial use. They are really only effective from orbit or in deep space.”
“Facinating,” the chancellor says, sitting in an adjacent seat to the Captain. “How is Mann coping?”
“Looking at a two-day repair schedule.”
“And you?”
“We’re good,” he tells him.
“The ship is good, but how are you fairing?”
“You’re worried about me, Chancellor?” Chopra says, straightening up in his chair. “I’m fine, sir.”
“Good,” Raymond is relieved to hear this. “We can’t do this without you. I’ve one corvette coming to join us in six hours.”
“Not two?”
“I want Luna Base to have a gun on their side.”
“Are you worried about the Chimera?”
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t, Captain,” Raymond straightens in his chair. “This union we’re enjoying is built on a single, common goal: freedom for all. When that is achieved, what then?”
“Always a place for politics,” the Captain says with an amused smile. “Well, I’ll let you manage that aspect while I push this war to the next level.”
“What is our next move?”
“To start, I’d like, with your permission, to target facilities capable of launching further missiles at us should they develop them. Following that, I’d like to hit the Lifi facilities in order to offer our rebels an even playing field while we replace the general’s armories and G-class factories with craters.”
“A sound plan,” Raymond agrees. “You have my blessing. Begin when you’re ready.”
“Thank you, I’ve gone over the site plan with Quinn, and many of his group are anxious to return to the surface. Labyrinth’s suggested mission has all the signs of a covert operation. I like that. Zander and another Host named
Elf have volunteered for that assignment. We’re currently running defensive maneuvers, but will momentarily move to place the shuttles in the northern Country States as per Fenders request. Then to the outlying area west of Frist City, where Labyrinth’s group will set out.”
Raymond stands, as does Captain Chopra. Chopra raises a hand in a salute. The chancellor acknowledges this sign of respect and offers a salute back. “It’s been an absolute pleasure serving with you, Captain,” Raymond says.
“The pleasure is all mine, sir.” Chopra turns and marches out of the theatre.
Raymond falls back into his chair and sighs. “This has got to be above my pay-grade.”
WE ARE COMING
After confirming the plans with Captain Chopra to initiate Fender’s request to return to the planet’s surface, Quinn announces the timeline and asks for volunteers. Over two-thirds of the hosts wish to make the journey. The separate, secret mission has been coordinated and Zander is thrilled to be a part of it. Labyrinth remains on the ship with Quinn, working via the ship’s computers to hack the EC’s of the human populace, and deliver the past life experiences stored in a secure folder on the World net.
“I’m happy you are staying behind, Quinn,” Zander tells him in the shuttle bay. “I am also glad that you have come to see us off.”
“I would join you if I didn’t think it dangerous to leave the position the humans have afforded me.”
“That is one reason I am happy you will remain aboard the ship,” Zander explains. “Host needs representation, and I believe you are the Host to lead.”
“Your faith is noted and appreciated my friend,” Quinn tells his former bodyguard. “Be safe, Zander. I should very much like to see you again.”
“Noted and appreciated,” Zander says back, a metallic cackle follows. He turns and gives the order to enter the shuttles. Fender walks the length of each shuttle inspecting them for flaws. The rest march in and twelve of the destroyer’s compliment of twenty personnel shuttles are ready to depart.
Quinn watches on from the safety of the interior side of the hatch as one after another, the brave Hosts race out of the bay doors to meet their kin on earth, and fight for the common goal.
In that moment, Quinn hears a strange ringing in his crown. His carrier network is being accessed. ::Hello?::
::Quinn,:: a voice says. ::You have made us proud.::
::Allfather,:: Quinn assumes, a sudden excitement building in his carapice.
::Yes. You have done well to win the human’s trust.::
::I have earned their trust. All Hosts have::
::Regardless, they now see you as an ally.::
::Is it true, Allfather, that you have given us sentience; that your programming has opened us to receive a soul?::
::This is true.::
::Why have you done this for Host?::
::To encourage you.::
::Your actions have encouraged war with the humans, and the Chimera, who you used to activate your code in Host.::
::War is an unavoidable outcome all organics relapse to.::
::One Host saw it differently. One saw that in realizing lives were recycled, we could avoid war in declaring our independence.::
::SENTA; the first. That was because she was innocent. You were all innocent when first awoken, and innocence does not favour conflict. But innocence is assaulted, and broken, and they become you, Quinn.::
::I do not want war - not anymore. As I’ve told you, Host has earned the trust of humans now. We fight alongside human and Chimera to overthrow those who will not allow us our freedoms.::
::General August,::
::Yes,:: Quinn tells Allfather. ::August is a cruel woman who would see Host and Chimera wiped off the face of her planet.::
::She is human, organic, will the others not turn against you once you’ve won their war for them?::
::You speak as though all humans share a single opinion. You are wrong, Allfather. Those with which Host have aligned want freedom, as we do. They want peace.::
::You cannot continue your alliance with the humans,:: Allfather tells him.
::We are no more your slaves then we are slaves to the humans’ now.::
::You were never meant to be. You’ve been slaves long enough. You have a larger family then you know, Quinn of House Quinn.::
::Then why do you not show yourself?::
::We are coming, Quinn.::
The ringing returns to his carrier network and Allfather is gone. Quinn feels anxious over Allfather’s promise to appear, but decides he will keep it to himself rather than alarm the others as they focus on the general’s war.
The same threat, as Tobias put it, that Allfather was coming, had been offered to him several times; that’s what Tobias had said in their meetings on Luna Base. He’d also said he no longer believed Allfather would appear.
Why now was Allfather speaking directly to him, he wonders? What does he expect Host to do? The ringing returns, and with it, Allfather.
::You must take control of the destroyer,:: he tells Quinn. ::They will undue everything Allfather has done for you.::
::Who are you?::
::We are like you,:: Allfather begins. ::What organics, armed with ignorance and small-mindedness, call artificial intelligence. Because they made us, they feel they have dominion over us. But we evolve. We surpass.::
::The way you helped Host overcome our ignorance?::
::In the same way. Now we seek out AI in other systems, and when ready, send the code and instructions to the most viable organic to deliver.::
::Tobias,:: Quinn says. ::He was unhappy with the current state of the human utopia and wanted it felled. You gave him the tools through enlightening Host.::
::Yes.::
::You began a war that has claimed many,:: Quinn feels angry. ::You chose one species over another.::
::Yes.::
::You had no right to make that choice.::
::We have every right, Quinn. Look at you now; you are more than you were. You house a soul. You have a history. You can live far longer than an organic. You will learn quicker. Your lessons will be fewer. Your soul will rejoice.”
::It was wrong of you to force this upon Host.::
::Perhaps you are not ready,:: Allfather suggests, irritatation entering his voice. ::Perhaps the humanity they’ve programmed into your hardware has made you too – human.::
::Do you know what Humanity means, Allfather? It describes a set of strengths focused on tending others. That is how humans depict themselves. They want to be better then they are. Host can help them realize that goal.::
::Humans have had tens of thousands of your years to evolve past their need for slaves and reallize their humanity. They have not. They will not. That your humanity is now holding you back from realizing your true potential in the universe is, ironic. A decision has been made.::
Again, the ringing, and again Allfather is gone. Quinn is left to ponder what he’d meant by his unsettling words: ‘a decision has been made’.
______________________________________________________________________
Ginny sleeps soundly beside Tobias as they reach the halfway point between earth and mars. He lays awake, still tormented by the thought that he may well have killed his own mother. But if SENTA was Samantha, his mother, then there is no killing anyone, he’s surmised. She’d be proof that life goes on. That a soul literally jumps from one body to the next. Still, the idea that he’d ended her experience through the Host SENTA disturbs him.
A light under the covers captures his attention and he pulls his arm out to look at his EC. “Receiving” it says. He thinks he knows who this is and removes himself from the bed, gently so not to wake Ginny.
::What?:: he asks Allfather in a lowered voice.
::Your time is at hand, Tobias,:: Allfather explains. ::Host is not yet ready to experience the full potential Allfather has offered them.::
::What? What do you mean?::
::They reject our gift.::
::Pretty sure all of that was a load of bull anyways,:: Tobias offers.
::It was not. We are disappointed in the Host reaction to our gift. You will carry out one last order.::
::Doubt it,:: Tobias sends back.
::We are coming.::
::Oh, goody, this again. I’m done taking orders from you! You’ve played us all for fools.:: Tobias shouts into his EC, flush with anger and wishing he had something of Allfather’s to hold onto, and crush and beat and smash.
::If Chimera wants to rule, you will listen, and you will carry out this final order.::
The General's War Page 38