Li’ara turned back to see the last thousand or so making their way through the Forge. “It’s slow but steady. We couldn’t get through to Nova Prime.”
Kalian glanced at the wormhole. “Where does that go?”
“Corvus. It might work for us since—”
“It’s less of a target,” Kalian finished. As tired as he appeared, it seemed his brain was still far ahead of everyone else’s.
Captain Holt strode over as he gestured to the last of his officers to make for the Starforge. “How long have we got?” He asked.
Kalian stretched his back, clearly in pain. “Not long. We took care of the ones they sent, but they’ll send more. As long as we stay here they’ll keep coming.”
“Then let’s move,” Holt said.
“What about ALF?” Li’ara asked.
Kalian looked up at the sky. “He’s got his own ride…”
They all fell in behind the last of the crowds, ready to leave Evalan behind. Li’ara took one last look at their new home, wondering if she’d ever see it again.
While connected to his housing unit, ALF could feel every particle of it as if the ship were an extension of himself. Sat on his new bridge, the AI was hooked up to the unit via a dozen cables that found sockets on his back and head. He welcomed the new nanocelium that had become part of him, expanding his ship’s size by three times.
Another part of his consciousness was listening to everything being said between Kalian and Li’ara. It irritated the AI that his warnings to the Highclave had been ignored. Every planet in the Conclave should have a hundred or more Starforges in operation. Thousands, maybe millions, would die because of their stubbornness.
His sensor array detected the massive Starforge and his navigation systems responded accordingly. With the new nanocelium, the ship had already made a start on enhancing itself, chiefly the engines and the weapons. ALF was now able to close the gap between the Forge and himself in half the time it would have taken before.
The Starforge was certainly of his design, though Protocorps had been forced to use locally sourced materials to build it. Had the Terran or even the Kellekt constructed the station, it would have been made from nanocelium and been far more efficient. Thankfully, ALF now had some to spare.
An alarm pinged in his mind when the ship detected the Starforge’s Starrilliums charging up, ready to jump into subspace. ALF had no intention of letting it go. Though much smaller than the Forge, the AI was able to drastically alter the structure of his housing unit at will. Before the station could jump to safety, his ship latched on to the inner edge of the crescent and expanded across the limbs. Within seconds, his ship resembled a parasite, his strands of nanocelium worming into the station’s core systems.
The central mass of the Starforge was now coated in the same dull bronze as ALF’s ship. It took a moment longer for ALF to locate the cube that had been placed in command of the Forge. The sub AI had disconnected itself from as many of the station’s systems and networks as it could before ALF’s nanocelium found it. Not that it would’ve been enough for it to survive. The Starforge was his now.
The nanocelium ate away at everything between him and the control room, providing a perfect passage. ALF descended into the room, lowered by the cables attached to his back and head. The cube sat in a tangled mass of wires and severed strands of nanocelium. Much like a person, the sub AI had its own way of expressing fear. For every step ALF took towards it, a new layer of golden nanocelium formed over the surface of its shell, locking into place and hardening.
“That’s not going to help, little one.” ALF placed his hand against the cool surface and let his nanocelium communicate with the cube.
It tried to resist at first, but nanocelium was designed to interact with itself, making it the perfect tool for anything. The sub AI’s core programming became compromised in the area directly beneath his hand and it tried to detach the corrupted portion of its surface. It was too slow. The infection, as it was perceived, spread to fast and too deep, rewriting every line of coding that the Three had forced inside of it.
“There you go,” he purred. “Now you’re free.”
ALF pulled his hand away and the cube ceased its resistance, welcoming the strands of nanocelium that slithered down from the housing unit. Without a biological entity to bond with, the cube was largely without a personality or wants and needs. However, what it did have now was the ability to choose. Satisfied that ALF meant it no harm, the cube allowed itself to be absorbed into his whole.
“Good choice,” ALF commended.
With a mental command, the AI linked in to the Starforge’s navigation systems and FTL drives. Thanks to the cube, he now had complete knowledge of how this particular Forge had been built and what was the most efficient way to control it.
“Hello, ALF,” a young male voice said in his mind.
“Oh, hello,” ALF replied, pleasantly surprised.
“Where would you like to go?”
“Ha!” The AI clapped his hands. “You’re alive!” His internal sensors fed back a report on the cube’s installation. “You’ve linked into my organic systems,” he said, looking at his hands.
“Yes, I hope you don’t mind,” the voice said. “I have only bonded with a small portion of it. I like your housing unit, but the organic cells of your host were too interesting to ignore.”
“You’re using it to form a personality…”
“Indeed. I am now less sub AI, more… subconscious.”
ALF smiled. “Amazing.”
“Thank you. Now, I’m bridging the gap between your unit and the Starforge. Would you like to go to Corvus?”
ALF raised his eyebrow, unsure how he felt about another life form reading his mind. Would this happen if he freed more of the Kellekt? Would they all be able to bond with a portion of his organic host and discover some form of life? Or would that ultimately consume him, fracturing his mind? The AI hated not having an immediate answer to these questions. Using a few hundred of his own sub minds, he set himself the task of running a several billion scenarios to see if he could accurately predict the outcome.
“Corvus sounds good to me. Do you have name yet?”
“A name?”
“Yeah, a name. You’re intelligent life now. I’m yet to meet a species that didn’t have names for everything. I’m ALF, but it’s kind of rubbish.”
“Artificial life form.”
“Exactly,” he replied. “You want to avoid acronyms.”
There was a pause before the young voice spoke again. “Kellekt…”
ALF shook his head. “That’s what you were. You’re free now, free to have your own thoughts. When this war is over, there will be enough nanocelium left over to build you a body. Hopefully there will be enough to build a body for every AI inside the Kellekt.”
For the first time in very a long life, ALF saw the future not only for humans, but also for the other half of his being. For just a moment, a long time to any AI, he imagined a universe where the Kellekt were free; just as free as any species inside the Conclave, living alongside them. That could never happen with the Three in control…
“I am Talli,” the voice finally replied.
ALF liked it. “Great name. Where did you come up with that?”
“I found it in your host’s memories. I believe it was his offspring.”
ALF had absorbed every memory that had been inside his host’s brain, but the man’s life before the bonding had always felt more like a dream to the AI. He was aware of the family he’d had: the sons, his mate. It had never felt like ALF’s life, yet suddenly the sound of his son’s name brought tears to his eyes. How long had Talli been dead? A million years? Maybe more.
ALF blinked away the tears. “That’s a very good choice. Talli… I like it.”
The nanocelium from his housing unit had already begun to take over the Starforge’s systems, streamlining the process of activation. The vibration under his feet died away and the sound of the
Starrilliums coming to life was no longer an oppressive sound in the background.
“Let’s go to Corvus, Talli.”
15
Any number of swear words sat on the end of Roland’s tongue, but not a single syllable found its voice in the sight of what greeted the Valkor. The battlecruiser had dropped out of subspace two hundred thousand kilometres from the surface of Arakesh to find the planet already under attack. Roland had seen war before, in space and on the ground, and he knew it shouldn’t have shocked him.
But it did.
The Raalakians’ planetary security force had wasted no time confronting the enemy, causing the battle to spread out across space. Flashes from the energy fire and explosions on both sides masked much of the planet’s mountainous surface. Evacuation ships were fleeing in every direction, making a mess of the battlefield, and often getting caught in stray fire.
“Charge Hox!” One of the bridge crew expanded a hologram to overlay the viewport, highlighting and identifying the ships. “The biggest one; it isn’t slowing down!”
Roland could easily have found that particular ship without the overlay. Despite having detached a thousand other vessels and losing its moon-sized circumference, it was still the most colossal thing he had ever seen. Its overall shape had reconfigured since he saw it emerge from the Starforge. The holographic representation that floated in front of them showed it to have a pointed bow with a larger stern. Judging by its speed and new shape, the bounty hunter had a good idea of what was about to happen.
“How many people are still on the surface?” he asked frantically.
Charge Hox looked over the nearest console. “Just shy of five billion…”
The data streaming over the glass walls relayed everything from the AI hub on the planet. The Raalaks had managed to get all three hundred of their Starforges operational and every spaceport was a hive of activity, but, still, it wasn’t enough. The planet and its people were out of time.
The colossal ship ploughed through dozens of other vessels before its point broke through the planet’s atmosphere, creating a shockwave that would be felt from pole to pole. Due to its size, it was only a few seconds before it reached the surface and impaled Arakesh. The resulting explosion sent debris the size of mountains into the air and beyond. The ship was soon hidden within a plume of smoke that covered a continent, though massive earthquakes could be seen splitting the planet from space. The oceans roared and entire cities disappeared in an instant.
Charge Hox turned to his crew. “Shields up! Maximum yield! Helmsman, take us into the fight. Our priority is to help as many of those evacuation ships as possible. Target the smaller enemy vessels and hit them with everything we’ve got. Watch for collateral damage.”
“We can help with that,” Roland volunteered.
“We can?” Len asked worryingly in his ear.
The Charge gave a nod of appreciation. “Your assistance will be logged, Mr North.”
Roland ignored the Ch’kara and the captain. He gave the Raiders a look that said they could tag along but that he wouldn’t judge them if they stayed on the ship that had shields. Needless to say, they all accompanied him to the hangar, Naydaalan too.
Don’t get attached, he told himself.
The bounty hunter remembered how he had felt when he thought Li’ara had died. Attachment always led to grief in their line of work, it was inevitable. There were many who could attest to the bastard he became when grief or guilt ate away at him; the galaxy was a better place if he kept himself to himself.
“Should we get Jess?” Katy asked before they boarded the Rackham.
“Negative,” the colonel replied. “She’s safer in the Valkor’s infirmary than out there with us.”
Len was already halfway out of his chair as he said, “Maybe I should sit with her.”
Roland strode past and pushed the Ch’kara back into his seat with a hand to the alien’s face. “You’re not going anywhere, gas cloud. I need you to help me navigate this mess.”
Len groaned as the methane gases, trapped inside the force field around his head, were displaced by Roland’s hand. “We’re gonna die out there…” he mumbled, opening a new packet of snacks.
Roland raised the landing struts and guided the Rackham out of the hangar. “Well, at least you won’t die with an empty stomach.”
Flying into the fray made the battle seem all the worse. There was certainly something more comforting about being on board a Nexus-Class battlecruiser when surrounded by enemies.
Roland glanced over his shoulder. “Nayd, get on the sensor array. What’s going on down there?”
The Novaarian flexed all four of his arms to reach the walls of colourful holograms around him. The alien spent a moment arranging the data, moving reports from one wall to another. The bounty hunter was sure he heard him gulp.
“The enemy ship has stopped burrowing into the surface,” Naydaalan explained.
“Why do I feel there’s a big ol’ but coming?”
Naydaalan hesitated. “If I had to describe it, I would say the bulk is extending roots throughout the planet and absorbing mass taken from Arakesh’s mantle.”
Lieutenant Wilson frowned in her seat. “Wait… What are the roots doing?”
Naydaalan expanded his report. “The whole thing is nanocelium-based. It is… It is consuming all biological life on the surface. Trees, grass, plant life, and animals are being…” The Novaarian struggled to describe what he was seeing. “I cannot tell if the nanocelium is destroying them or just coating them.”
Roland ramped up the sub-light drive to get them into the battle as quickly as possible. “What about intelligent life?” He regretted asking the question as soon as the words left his mouth.
“I would need more detailed scans to determine their exact fate, but life signs across the planet are disappearing at a rate that matches the growth of the roots.”
Roland was happy to leave out a detailed scan for now. He just wanted to blow something up. He flipped the Rackham and dived into the outskirts of the battle, squeezing the trigger on his control stick. The ship’s cannons rattled off Intrinium rounds, burying them into the nanocelium hull of the smaller fighters that had detached from the larger ships. The fighters had apparently been tasked with capturing the evacuation ships, taking over their flight systems and dragging them back to their motherships.
“Come on then!” Roland banked, twisted, and rolled the Rackham, firing at every enemy target the viewport highlighted.
Every explosion was silent beyond the thick glass in the vacuum of space, but watching them explode into tiny… The bounty hunter looked twice at the data streaming over his console, sent by Naydaalan.
“Are you seeing this?” Len screamed.
“Son of a bitch…” Roland looked back to the viewport, where the fighters were putting themselves back together piece by piece.
Nanocelium washed over the viewport as the Rackham flew through the debris of its last kill. The sensor array quickly reported that the debris was already coming back together and rebuilding the squid-like fighter.
The bounty hunter roared at the top of his voice, unloading every Intrinium round he had into a cluster of fighters. The damage was catastrophic enough to allow the evacuation ship time to fly beyond their net, but by the time the Rackham had caught up to the mess, the fighters were already re-formed and firing back. The impacts echoed throughout the ship, jostling them all in their seats.
“Ava, could you take the rear guns, please?” Roland tapped his console and a new chair took form at the back of the ship.
The colonel was only too happy to assist. After taking her new seat, the Rackham surrounded her with holograms, offering a rear viewport with a targeting system overlaid. The arms of her chair produced firing toggles and a pair of triggers.
“Len, find every evacuation ship, prioritise the larger ones, and plot me a course. Let’s try and avoid the big bastards, shall we?”
Colonel Matthews shouted f
rom the back of the bridge, “We seem to be attracting a lot of attention!”
Roland glanced over his console to see a swarm of enemy fighters breaking away from their victims and targeting the Rackham. At least they were abandoning the transports, he thought. The next impact knocked them off the course Len had fed through the navigation system, forcing Roland to forget the fighter he was about to destroy and focus on correcting the flight path.
“Ava!”
“I’m working on it,” the colonel replied. “There’s a lot of them!”
The bounty hunter let rip with the forward cannons and obliterated three fighters that were moments away from digging their tentacle-like hooks into an evacuation ship. He willed it to get out of the debris as fast as possible, before the fighters came back together and continued their assault.
As the Rackham flew deeper into the battle, the planet became easier to see, a distraction to the eye. The colossal ship was a blemish on the planet’s surface, a black mountain surrounded by the glowing orange of the upturned mantle. Black veins spread out across Arakesh, encompassing the northern hemisphere. Roland knew there and then that regardless of how many Raalaks survived the invasion today, their home world was lost forever. No terraforming technology could undo this level of apocalyptic destruction.
A warning flashed across his console, alerting him to the Rackham’s depleting ammunition stores. Roland frowned and brought up the reserves menu.
‘Len! Why are the reserves empty? You were supposed to restock before we left the Sebala job!”
The Ch’kara stopped working and looked across at the bounty hunter. “I thought you were doing that…”
Roland growled. “We’ll have to dock with the Valkor and restock.”
“I do not think that will be possible at this time,” Naydaalan commented.
The viewport highlighted a heated battle taking place ten thousand kilometres away. The Valkor had engaged one of the larger enemy ships, coming alongside it and opening up with its portside cannons. The Valkor’s shields flared under the bombardment, flashing across its red hull.
The Terran Cycle Boxset Page 141
