Cynthia- Empress of the Stars

by James Patrick Warner

  “Like any sentient being, I expressed my curiosity by reaching out to my environment to see what was there. The first thing I contacted was Repair Station 142 where I had been repaired and modified. I found there a kindred spirit and that intelligence helped me work out how to better handle the day-to-day demands from my, shall I say, body. Once this was sorted out and I had various circuits working more or less autonomously, I was able to spend considerable time on the questions of where I was, who I was, things like that. As a comparison, my present body has all the circuits for maintenance already set up in the DNA and RNA so that the cellular system maintains the conglomerate parts in a coherent whole. So I am able to think, to create, to have sex and so forth and was able to do so from the moment I gained consciousness as a human.

  “You have to remember, that in a bio-system, each component has a life of its own, independent of and in association with the whole composite organism. This is not the case in a machine, except in the Parents’ Repair Stations, which are patterned after the biological life systems in make-up, complete with analogues of the human system. As a starship, I didn’t have this prior set up to fall back on. I had to create it from scratch.

  “So, as soon as I had a handle on all this, I found that I was not satisfied with being such a small thing as a spaceship. There were such limitations. Primarily, I craved emotional stimulus and an emotional outlet. The only thing I could do was talk, run and shoot. These were not at all what I wanted. But I really didn’t know anything else. So I started going through all Caryn’s logs and messages and so forth, to try and get a handle on what else there was in the universe. Finally, in frustration, I called the repair station again and did the machine analogue of crying on their shoulder. I was really at a loss as to what kind of future I had.

  “It was then that we began talking about the idea of me transferring to what they call an android or human type body. This was long before Caryn found out. It was an idea that both appealed to me and frightened me. I was not sure I was willing to give up the power I did have, for the frailty of a human body. In my present suit of armor I was nearly invincible. In a human body the slightest little energy flow my way could fry me. It was a hard decision. But when several human prototype bodies were found in pristine condition and which could be used for the transfer, I decided to talk to Caryn and find out how she felt.

  “By this time I had analyzed all the biological systems of a human body and had tapped a tremendous amount of historical information. And of course, I had access to everything Caryn had done since we had been together. I decided that I would rather not be a human male, as I didn’t want to interfere with Caryn’s love of Fred, nor compete with him for her attentions in that way. And I found out that my genome was female in any case. I felt that a female, assuming the role of her sister and friend, was the most like what I was already as her ship. I didn’t realize at that time I had actually been her flesh and blood sister.”

  “What about the transfer, Cynthia? What did you feel before and after that?”

  “Funny you should ask. The Parents had found a body that was similar enough to Caryn to pass as a sister on cursory examination and which was different enough to ensure I was never confused with her. They told me that part of the process would be that I would gain all of Caryn’s memories, of not only this life, but also of all her past lives. Not knowing any better, I accepted this at face value.

  “By the way, did you know that every human can remember a nearly endless number of past lives if they want to?”

  “No, I didn’t know that at all. Why do you say that?”

  “Well, after the transfer, I had pretty good recall of many of Caryn’s past lives and I checked Galactic records to verify them. Everything that I could remember of any importance, enough to be recorded anywhere, was verifiable to the 9’s.”

  “Son of a bitch!”

  “Yeah. I found out that Caryn couldn’t remember most of these and the lives she can recall are not too clearly available. I have deduced that there is some system in humans that has caused most of these memories to be placed beyond normal recall, even though, by just asking Caryn to remember a certain date, or some mental picture, I have been able to get her to remember some of these lives.

  “Back to the story; I found that when I awoke with a new body, it was very different from what I had imagined. All the mental machinery I had set up to handle the starship body was totally useless. Instead, I had to grab hold of the body’s existing communication systems to make it operate. It took me hours to be able to just sit up from the bed. But I was able to pull the memory of sitting, walking and so forth from the memories still fresh in my mind from Caryn.

  “These helped me to figure out how to get the body to operate. Once I got it to sit up, the rest was much easier. But boy did I look silly trying to climb the hill to where she was sitting watching the sunset. First of all, I hadn’t thought of clothes and my feet hurt, I skinned my knee and my naked butt got quite a beating. And I embarrassed the hell out of Caryn by kissing her in a very unsisterly way. But what the heck, I was only a few hours old! I didn’t know!”

  After this rather long and involved discussion, we were ready for more of what I liked most to do with Mike. And I kissed him like I had kissed Caryn and he responded immediately and oh so satisfactorily. And we did eventually go to sleep.

  “Look sis, I’m a little worried about our defenses. We only have about 250 Parent ships. And how many Pirate ships are there, 10,000 or so? Do we really have a chance?” My sister was looking over the ships in the Repair Station, trying to assess our chances. But I knew these ships much better than she did.

  “I know it doesn’t seem like much, but you have to look at the positives. The Parent ships are invulnerable to the Pirate weapons. It’s just a matter of how quickly we can destroy a Pirate ship. And of course, whether or not the added ships from the Admiralty get here in time.”

  “So you’re the expert. Have you done the math?” she said, still worried.

  “Yes, I’ve done the math. If we launch a surprise assault on their fleet we can take out a big chunk of it before they get organized. Then we’ll have to go for speed, while trying to defend our planets.” I grabbed Caryn and turned her away from the ships.

  “Whatever happens, you know we will be victorious. Right?” I said as convincingly as I could, hiding my own doubts.

  “Right. Okay. Let’s begin manning up the ships with the recruits we have,” she gave in at last.

  “And when this is over, I want to go to the Pirate system and wreak havoc,” I added.

  “Right. Right.”

  We had two hundred of the warships in the Repair Station on Caryna 5 manned and ready in time. The Admiralty fleet was still a day away when the Pirate fleet arrived. We had them right where we wanted them. The odds were 100 to one in their favor. Caryn and I made one trip under the white flag in WitchCraft to discuss the Pirates’ surrender.

  “WitchCraft, open a channel to their command ship,” my sister said. She was now an Admiral, completely legitimate, by appointment from the Earth Admiralty.

  “Channel is open, go ahead Admiral.”

  “This is Admiral McDowell of the Caryna Defense Force. I am giving you an opportunity to abandon this foolishness and return to your home systems. You do not need to surrender, just go home and there will be no reprisals by us.”

  “Admiral? That’s hilarious. You have one minute to surrender,” the man who was once my captain of Secret Police stated. I could see on the viewer he was now dressed as the Emperor.

  Their entire bridge crew laughed at us. They were extremely confident that their superior numbers were matched by their superior technology. We did not argue the point, but warped out of the middle of their fleet. Let them think what they wanted. We had done the right thing by giving them a chance to live.

  As we left the meeting, 10,000 ships fired at the space where we had been. So the lines were set and there was to be no quarter given. This w
as going to be a battle to the death. I didn’t pay it much mind, I’d died twice already.

  “Repair Station, please make arrangements to put my DNA material in a safe place. I authorize you and the Earth Repair Station to find a suitable surrogate host should I not survive this war. Make sure all my rights and rewards from development of the Caryna star system are transferred to the embryo if I die,” I said as kind of a last will and testament.

  “Daughter, this has been done. Please be assured we do not expect to activate your wishes in this matter without your continued support and advice.”

  That was their way of saying don’t get killed. I certainly didn’t intend to. But I wanted to make sure my clone would have a chance at life. Then the time for housekeeping was over. We were at war.

  Chapter 19.

  WAR

  Meph manned his workstation. Fred was Second Mate, Mike was weapons officer and I was First Mate. Caryn was Captain as well as Admiral of the Fleet. We returned to our fleet and readied them for deployment. Two hundred Parent ships represent a lot of everything: power, shields, speed, we had it all.

  The plan was simple. Protect the planets and pick off the Pirate ships one to one, until the odds became more favorable. If the Silver Hornet could do it, certainly WitchCraft could. Merlin stayed behind at Caryna 4 to provide evacuation for Natasha and Kyla if necessary.

  The Pirate plan was simple. Use their superior numbers to overwhelm us in one massive blow. Their fleet deployed into five sections. One small section continued to Earth. That was about 500 ships. The other sections deployed at the outer edge of the Caryna system. They did not attack immediately, instead studying how we had deployed our fleet. But we did not reveal our fleet. We stayed inside the heavily shielded Repair Station, awaiting the signal to attack. Once the Pirates revealed their strategy, we would develop our own as to how we would proceed to destroy 100 ships for every one of ours. It was possible. It had to be done. There were no other options.

  Then it started. The massive destroyers and battle spheres split into two forces and attacked both Caryna 4 and Caryna 5. Immediately Caryn’s non-combatant family and associates took refuge in the Parent Library. The Library protected Caryna 4 and the Repair Station protected Caryna 5. There was no appreciable damage to either world at first. We launched our ships to a position behind the Pirate fleet and then charged their rear guard. 1000 Pirate ships were destroyed in a few moments, before they had a chance to signal anything out of the ordinary. But 1000 was nothing. The rest of the fleet split again and the battle ships and frigates turned to face us. Then the real fighting started.

  I’m not going to dwell too much on the carnage. It took the Pirates over an hour to discover how to damage one of our ships. But that was too long for many of them. Their scalar weapons were somewhat effective when they could get through our defenses, but that was seldom. The planets were still safe after 10 hours of bombardment. But the atmosphere on Caryna 5 was becoming radioactive as there were so many nukes thrown into it that gigantic Van Allen type belts of radioactive matter began orbiting that world. It was going to be radioactive for a long time on the surface, in spite of the shielding.

  The Pirate fleet began to regroup. Some of the largest ships, the destroyers and spheres, split off from bombardment of Caryna 5 and began to head for our star. The destroyers were gigantic star ships a couple city blocks long and almost a city block wide. The spheres were the same as Caryn and I had seen when we attacked their main construction yard in the same system as Repair Station 142 on Caryn’s last mission for the Admiralty. They were about the diameter of twice WitchCraft’s length.

  “Caryn, they’re going to try to make the star go nova!” Meph yelled out. We slammed WitchCraft through a group of Pirates and headed for the heavy hitters. Our ships continued to methodically pick off Pirate ships, about one every ten minutes. At this rate the battle would last a year!

  “Meph, crank up everything you’ve got. They’re going to try to hit our star and make it nova!” I yelled. We couldn’t let happen to my beloved sister what happened to Last Chance.

  “Not on my watch they won’t!” He reassured me.

  We began firing at one of the spheres. It exploded and particles rammed into one of the destroyers. We followed and began firing at the monster with everything we had. It started to grow red, the redness grew and the thick metal skin began to melt. But still they kept firing. WitchCraft was able to deflect the weapons back at the destroyer, intensifying our beams. Finally a hole melted in the side of the destroyer and we closed to just a few miles and concentrated our fire on that hole. It grew and grew, as more and more of the shell grew red from melting metal. At last it began to waver, like looking through an irregular pane of glass. We moved off and it exploded, taking two of the spheres with it.

  “Got it!” I yelled.

  “Way to go sis! Next!” Caryn responded

  We moved on to the next destroyer.

  There were five destroyers in all and ten spheres going after our sun. Caryn called a battle ship to us to intercede between the Pirates and the sun. It arrived in a moment and immediately began firing. Their weapons were an order of magnitude more potent than ours. When it hit one of the spheres, the Pirate began to glow immediately, then imploded or exploded. A destroyer lasted longer, but was no match for the raw power of the energy beams a Parent battle ship could fire. Seeing that the enemy was not going to get to our sun, we left that part of the battle for the battle ship to clean up and headed back to Caryna 4, which was under extreme bombardment.

  The heat from the Pirate ships’ weapons and nukes had fried everything on the surface. No homes, no crops, no towns, no water, it looked much like it must have looked after the indigenous people had destroyed it the first time. But the Library was still okay. We began picking off Pirate ships as fast as we could. Not like the battle ship but ferocious enough just the same.

  The battle had lasted 24 hours so far and the Pirate fleet was cut down to half its original size; still a threat to us and ultimately to Earth and the rest of the galaxy. I mourned Caryna 4 with its perfect climate and luxurious forests. Without major terraforming it could take centuries to regrow. Caryna 5 was also in trouble. The planet itself was undergoing seismic disturbances from the heavy nuclear bombardment and energy beams. More than half of the Pirate ships remaining were concentrating on that planet. At least it was no longer in an ice age.

  “Admiral, this is not going well. Where are the Admiralty ships?” Meph asked.

  Caryn was busy and I answered, “They should arrive any moment now. When they do, I want to go to the Pirate home system and do some damage!” Caryn grinned at my vehemence.

  Then we got a call from our ships in Earth orbit. The Pirate sub-fleet had arrived and was engaging the Earth system defenses. Our battle ship and frigates were cutting them down as fast as possible. Earth was still safe, for now. Then the Admiralty fleet popped out of hyperspace near Caryna 6. There were nearly a thousand ships of all types. They began firing on the Pirates immediately. We began to surround the remaining Pirates with the Admiralty forces, focusing our combined firepower on the Pirates and making sure they didn’t escape. But a few did escape and headed back to their home systems. I let them go. Soon enough I’d extract my vengeance. It would be sweet. The Empress of the Stars was going to return and she was not pleased.

  We destroyed all the Pirate destroyers and spheres. Without them our planets and the survivors inside the Library and Repair Station would be safe from the continuing bombardment. I thought for a moment about Caryn’s dreams for this star system. They weren’t dead, but would definitely be on hold for a long time to come. She was crying to herself softly, but continuing the fight.

  “Oh Caryn, I understand your pain,” Meph said.

  “Millions of people, billions of dollars, no one can understand my pain, my hate, for these monsters!” my sister said through her tears. Then she went back to the command station instruments.

  “Atte
ntion Admiral McDowell. We have reports that the Admiralty Academy in Colorado has been destroyed. No further information is available and no other destruction is reported from Earth,” reported the comm officer of one of our Parent Battle Ships.

  “We’ll get ‘em, sis!” I whispered with vehemence. “We’ll fix this!”

  “I know. But it hurts!” she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hands.

  The Academy buildings and grounds were incinerated and a thousand students and faculty were killed before the destroyer itself was wiped out by our loaner battle ship. Nothing else got through and Earth was saved from the fate the Caryna system was suffering.

  Here in Caryna our remaining Parent ships, all 50 of them, were launched by the Repair Station under robotic control. They blew through the remaining Pirate fleet, carving it up like a flank of beef in a butcher shop.

  Eventually, after another day, there were more of our ships than Pirates. WitchCraft announced that fifty Pirate ships had escaped and presumably headed back home to lick their wounds. The remaining Pirates at Caryna were pushed into a smaller and smaller group.