Forerunner

by Isaac Hooke

  “Well, that’s about right,” Jain said. “I don’t actually remember the briefing, but that’s probably for the best. Maybe I’ll get you to replay it for me sometime when you’re better acquainted with your software and abilities. From the sound of it, your mind scan was taken the day after the briefing. But according to my Accompanying AI, a hundred years have passed since that date. We were first revived only a year ago, however, if my database is correct. And we were fully functional, at least until we came to this system.”

  “So we’re dead,” a thin woman said. She had already dispensed with the generic uniform her avatar had initially worn, and instead dressed like a witch with a wide brimmed, pointed hat, and a dark cloak. She only needed a broom to complete her outfit. “And our minds exist only in machines now. These bodies are fake.”

  “He did say we were in a simulation…” another man said.

  “It is a simulation,” Jain admitted. “A shared one, at that. You have your own simulations aboard your respective vessels. You can create any environment you want. Personally, I found this appropriate for doing ship-related work. I have another one I use for rest and relaxation. Your Accompanying AIs will help introduce you to the different features available to you in your own VRs, and your ships in general, but in the meantime, I’d like you to tell me your names, and what you want to call your ships.”

  “My Accompanying AI is talking to me now,” the tall man said. His uniform had changed, becoming completely white, like the kind a captain or admiral would wear at a formal occasion. “It’s like I’m experiencing two different realities. In between your sentences, time slows down… you all freeze. And then a man in medieval armor appears. Only I can see him.”

  “Medieval armor?” Xander said. “That makes some sense. I’m dressed in medieval robes. His Accomp wears medieval armor. The other Accomps are probably similarly attired. You’re all of like minds—you’d have to be, to be chosen as starship pilots.”

  “This is Xander, my Accomp,” Jain said. “I’ve set up the environment so you can see him. Now your names, please. And what you want to call your ships.”

  “I’m Gavin,” the tall man in white said. “My ship will be the Hippogriff. A creature with the head and wings of an eagle, and the body of a horse. To symbolize how my mind is human, and my body machine.”

  “All right, you don’t have to explain why you’re choosing your ship name,” Jain said. He glanced expectantly at the thin woman in the pointy hat.

  “I’m Medeia,” she said. “My ship is the Arcane.”

  Gavin snickered. “And I suppose you are a follower of the arcane arts, right? Seeing as you’re dressed like a witch and all…”

  Medeia gave him a blank stare, saying nothing.

  Jain glanced at the next man; he kept his gaze directed over Jain’s shoulder. He still wore the same uniform, but the muscles of his avatar had swollen considerably so that the bulges were visible underneath his clothes.

  “I’m Mark,” the man said. “My ship, I guess it’ll be the Grunt.”

  Jain turned his attention to the woman beside Mark. She was the only one wearing jewelry, in the form of hoop earrings. She had replaced her uniform with a simple brown robe.

  “Sheila here,” the woman said. Her earrings jiggled while she spoke. “My ship is the Wheelbarrow.”

  Jain gazed at the final man.

  “I’m Cranston,” he said. “And I’ll call my starship the Forebode.”

  “So my Accomp tells me we’ve endured some kind of attack,” Gavin said. “We weren’t supposed to wake up like this, were we?”

  “Not really,” Jain admitted. “All of us were already fully operational before the attack came. But we lost our memories in the attack. Or at least, I did. The rest of you had your AI cores completely destroyed. We had to reconstruct your neural nets from scratch and restore your original mind copies from the backups. Which is why the briefing seems like only yesterday.”

  “So, we died twice already,” Medeia said. “And this is our third resurrection.”

  “You could think of it that way, if you want,” Jain said.

  “I’d rather not think about it at all,” Mark said. “Imagining that I’m just a copy of someone else… that if I die, another copy can be made… a copy that won’t be me… it’s troubling.”

  “Then don’t think about it,” Jain said.

  “My Accomp wants to make an appearance,” Gavin said.

  “All right,” Jain said. “Xander, link him in.”

  A man dressed as a knight in chain mail materialized next to Xander.

  “I am Siegfried,” Gavin’s Accomp said.

  “Nice to meet you,” Jain said. “What can we do for you?”

  “There should be two other Mind Refurbs present,” Siegfried said. “Admiral Williams, and Commander Jang.”

  “Ah, those would be the two ships that were lost entirely,” Xander told his counterpart. “I sent that information along in the initial data packet. You didn’t receive it?”

  “I did,” Siegfried replied. “But my point is, we need to choose a commanding officer. As an enlisted, Sheila is out. But since everyone else here is the same rank—lieutenant commander—seniority in grade applies. Whoever attained the rank of lieutenant commander first, while still human, is officially in command.”

  “That would be Sheila,” Jain said. “I checked her file.”

  “Oh no, not me,” Sheila said. “I have to decline. Leading a fleet isn’t for me.”

  “I think we should make Jain our CO,” Medeia said. “He was the first of us revived, and he’s done a good job of babysitting us since then. As far as I’m concerned, he is the one who has seniority in grade, considering he woke up a week before us.”

  “But seniority in grade applies to when rank was obtained,” Siegfried said. “And Sheila already admitted—”

  “Sheila refuses,” Sheila said. “I elect Jain.”

  “I agree with Medeia and Sheila,” Mark said.

  “Sounds good to me,” Cranston said.

  Gavin’s face darkened. Jain was beginning to suspect that Gavin had put Siegfried up to the original suggestion: likely the Accomp had crosschecked the dates with its counterparts beforehand, confirming that Gavin had obtained the rank of lieutenant commander first. Jain’s memory gap notwithstanding, of course.

  But then Gavin nodded. “Fine.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jain said. “But I’m not sure I can accept this role.” That said, he wasn’t all that keen at following anyone else, either. But he wasn’t going to admit that. “I have no idea what our original mission was, after all. Nor really what it should be, going forward.”

  “We’re stuck in some backwater system in the middle of nowhere,” Sheila said. “Our mission now is only to survive.”

  “All right,” Jain said. “I accept, for now. But if any of you want to leave our small fleet, I want you to know that you don’t need my permission. I don’t want to force any of you to stay if you don’t want to.”

  “Strength in numbers,” Mark said with a shrug.

  Jain ran his gaze across the others, who nodded in turn when he met their eyes. “All right, so I take it you want to stick together. I don’t blame you. Space is a very lonely place. If you take a look at your tactical map, you’ll get an idea of where we are. The system is called Andreas V, part of the Andreas constellation. It’s about five hundred light years from Earth, coreward, toward the galactic center. Apparently, there’s a military base in Andreas I, about ten light years away. It’s our closest point of contact with the rest of humanity, and we’ll head there when we’re done with repairs.”

  “We’ll need to build a Rift Gate,” Sheila said.

  “I know,” Jain said. “But one step at a time. Supplies are running low across the fleet. We need raw materials for our repairs. Xander, plot a course to the closest metal reserves, and share the coordinates with the others.”

  “There is a moon orbiting a s
uper-Earth nearby,” Xander said. “Metal scans indicate high quantities of all the metals we require. I’m plotting a course and sharing it.”

  “Engage engines,” Jain said. “Meanwhile, the rest of you might as well log out, and get acquainted with your ships while we’re underway.”

  3

  Jain dispatched telemetry probes well ahead of the fleet and had them perform a complete orbit of the moon in question to confirm that there were no surprises waiting on the far side. He also sent some of the probes around the super-Earth itself, but they found nothing. The planet itself turned out to be completely unlike Earth: the atmosphere was more akin to Venus than anything else. Though the probes were capable of atmospheric entry, if Jain sent them down there, the probes would disintegrate in the toxic environment before reaching the surface.

  He also had some of the probes fly closer to the surface of the moon to scout the chosen landing site. It seemed safe, with no enemy vessels hiding in the nearby craters.

  When the fleet achieved a geostationary orbit around the moon, which Jain had christened Metal Moon, the individual starships launched their mining transports to begin collecting the necessary ores. Meanwhile they stayed in orbit, the repairs ongoing.

  Jain had modified his VR environment, increasing the size of his bridge and giving the avatars of the other Mind Refurbs their own chairs and desks, so that they could join him in a shared environment if they desired. All of them did just that, except for Gavin.

  Jain had originally wanted to create virtual characters to fulfill the different roles he envisioned a starship like this must have, but having the other captains here was better, because these people were real, with real roles. Having them all present like this would be useful when it came time to coordinate in combat. Though honestly, they’d probably have to dump the avatars to save bandwidth, given the distances involved in space combat, and depending on what formations they used.

  Medeia turned toward him from her station. “I still think we might have some hidden Containment Code installed in our AI cores.”

  She had shown Jain the pre-mission briefing, when Medeia was just a volunteer among a hundred others willing to get her brain scanned. The human in charge of the volunteer operation, one Commander Weskin, had explained that humanity had stopped placing Containment Code around Mind Refurbs because it was unethical, and tantamount to slavery. Not to mention illegal. That was why the navy was requesting volunteers in the first place: they wanted people who were interested in space exploration; those with an intrepid spirit, who weren’t afraid to explore the galaxy for country and planet.

  Even so, Jain and the others didn’t entirely believe what the commander had said. They all performed complete system scans, looking for any hidden code the navy might have installed. Something that would have prevented them from performing a task, such as firing a weapon at a critical juncture. A Rule of Engagement that would kick in at the worst possible moment. But they found nothing.

  “None of us have discounted the possibility of such code,” Jain agreed.

  “Obviously it contributed to our loss,” Medeia said. “We would have beat our attackers, otherwise. I’m sure of it.”

  “That’s right, try to blame the loss on a defect inserted into our systems,” Mark said, “rather than a defect of the system itself. Why don’t you just own up to it? We failed, Girl.”

  “Don’t call me girl,” Medeia said.

  “Sorry, Captain,” Mark said.

  “That’s right, we’re all captains here,” Sheila said.

  Jain pulled up his metal inventories and was pleased to see the stock of most metals well above fifty percent. That meant the metals were being mined and processed faster than the repair drones could use them. At this rate, they’d reach a hundred percent stock in metals at the same time their ships were fully repaired. Then they could begin building the Rift Gate that would take them to Andreas I.

  The only thing missing was a source of frozen water and liquid nitrogen, to replenish their propellant, and explosives.

  “So, you don’t remember anything from your past life?” Sheila asked.

  “No,” Jain told her. “Just snippets. The occasional memory here and there.”

  “That must suck,” Sheila commented.

  “Maybe it’s for these best,” Jain said. “Human memories would just get in the way and make me feel regret.”

  “Regret?” Sheila said.

  “For the life I once lived,” Jain said.

  “Oh,” Sheila said. “I certainly feel enough of that. Though usually it doesn’t last very long, considering my former life wasn’t all that great. As a machinist’s mate second class, I got a lot of duties dumped on me from the higher ups. So I’ve come to terms with what I am pretty fast. It helps that in my private VR I live on a beach and surround myself with cabana boys.”

  “You would,” Medeia said.

  “Thanks,” Sheila said. “Also, the biggest selling point is probably that I get to live forever. Though that also has its cons, and it’s kind of scary, but hey, I’ll deal with it. And overall, living forever is a bonus I can’t deny. As long as I keep my wits about me, who knows, I could live for the next ten thousand years.”

  “Tell that to the last version of ourselves,” Mark commented. “We all died fiery deaths. And we don’t even know what hit us.”

  “Oh, we know all right,” Gavin transmitted over the comm. “Aliens are out there. And they dislike us. A lot.”

  “No, it’s just you they dislike,” Cranston said.

  “Funny man,” Gavin said.

  Jain had access to the damage reports and mineral stocks of the other ships, and he pulled those up now. The metal stocks of the other ships weren’t as high as his, so he was wrong about the fleet having a full stock when repairs finished. Not that it mattered... they could replenish while building the Rift Gate.

  The differences in metal inventories was partially due to the greater damage the other ships had suffered, but also because of the slight differences in technology each ship possessed. Most of the ships all had the same base armaments as Jain’s did, with “raptor" lasers, “stinger” railguns, and “hellraiser" missiles, but they had also been augmented with specialized weapon tech pilfered from aliens over the years. Some of those aliens had mounted failed invasion attempts on Earth. Others were defeated in deep space. Either way, humanity had collected a lot of alien technology over the years. The human and AI scientists had no idea how most of it worked, but as long as humanity could harness that technology to create their own weapons, it didn’t matter.

  In Jain’s case, that alien technology came in the form of the “barracuda” energy cannon at the front of his ship, which was one of the most powerful weapons the small fleet had. The only downside was its medium range—the weapon dissipated beyond the twelve-thousand kilometer mark.

  Sheila’s Wheelbarrow was a Builder, meaning it could build any other ship blueprint in its database, given enough resources. It was the vessel that would be responsible for building the Rift Gates that allowed them to jump to other nearby systems. She also had a series of industrial grade 3D printers aboard that could be used to construct anything the team might need, from transports to combat robots. The Builder was the slowest vessel of the bunch, but was also equipped with an energy shield so it could withstand more damage than the others.

  Gavin’s Hippogriff had the ability to produce an expanding shock wave, capable of traveling outward twelve thousand kilometers in every direction. That shockwave would do almost as much damage as Jain’s energy weapon, except to every ship in the blast radius. It was great for doing away with skirmisher type enemy units, such as fighter craft. The ship also had a series of drones that were capable of producing a shared energy shield between them, a shield that could also be used as a weapon when formed over another ship.

  Medeia’s Arcane was equipped with a cloaking device. That, in combination with a large, sword-like weapon attached to her fore that was vir
tually indestructible, made her great for ramming. The trick was, she had to orient her hull so that the sword would come at enemies from the side, in a “slashing” sort of motion, with the rest of the craft passing by out of harm’s way. Because if she collided head on, in a “stabbing” motion, debris from the craft would penetrate her weaker hull, and she’d end up destroying herself in the process.

  That cloaking device made him somewhat nervous, because he had to wonder if there were alien ships hiding out there he didn’t know of, despite the probes he’d sent to the nearby planet and moon. He’d just have to hope whatever aliens they faced didn’t have that technology.

  Mark’s Grunt could fire a fairly powerful black hole. He could use it to alter the trajectory of projectiles or even ships, and at closer ranges, destroy them, though he had to be careful about deploying those black holes too close, lest he swallow himself. The fleet could also use any generated holes for gravity slingshot maneuvers, if planned right.

  Cranston’s Forebode could deploy a micro machine swarm that was extremely useful at close ranges. But given the speeds with which space battles were fought, when those swarms impacted enemy hulls they were usually incinerated. As such, Cranston’s supply of micro machines had been low after the last battle; however, the little suckers could readily reproduce when given access to the appropriate metals, so Cranston had diverted much of his collected ore toward their production. The micro machines were coded with a hard limit to their numbers, a safety measure meant to prevent a runaway swarm from exponentially converting the metal of an entire world. As soon as that limit was reached, they ceased to reproduce.

  Those micro machines, in combination with Cranston’s ability to teleport medium distances, made his vessel one of the most powerful in the bunch. Unfortunately, that power was tempered with serious limitations: depending on the range, he could only teleport one or two times before requiring a full half-hour recharge.