Black Swarm

by Ivan Kal

  “We are waiting,” Adrian said.

  “For what?”

  “Intel,” Adrian answered.

  Ryaana opened her mouth to ask more, but she closed it. Adrian had made it clear that he would not speak of it when she had asked before. She should be glad that she had gotten this much out of him.

  “Fine, don’t tell me then,” Ryaana said and stood up, heading back to their shuttle.

  Reluctantly, Adrian followed. It was not as if he liked standing around and doing nothing, but the Enlightened could not be defeated in the way that the others imagined. The galaxy was too large, and as they now had the ability to move through the access points, they would never be able to catch them and force them into some large, final battle. They did not know if the Enlightened had a base system, they did not know their plans, they knew nothing at all other than their vague desire to kill all life in the galaxy.

  And as insane as that sounded, Adrian believed that the Enlightened were anything but insane. They must know that they could not achieve their goal through conventional means. There was no way for them to exterminate the entire galaxy in such a manner. There were too many people in it.

  That meant that they had a different plan entirely—and Adrian had a way of finding out what that plan is.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Suvri stealth cruiser coasted slowly through the massive system. At the center of it was a black hole the size of a planet. A massive half-ring curved around it with massive stations attached all around, and countless ships of all sizes moved around the system. From the massive complex at the black hole to the outer system, every planet that had once orbited the lone sun of the system had been broken apart, and now massive chunks of the planets were being harvested by the black ships. The system was filled with more defense stations than the Suvri cruiser’s crew had ever seen in a single system. Massive stations covered with weapons were placed strategically around them, and sensor satellites pinged everything in the vicinity constantly. The only reason the Suvri stealth cruiser hadn’t been discovered was because of their cutting-edge stealth system.

  Their ship was not really in normal space. In fact, most of it had been pushed into subspace, while only a small sensor point the size of a needle was still in real space. The system was the greatest advantage that the Suvri had over the other races, and they had utilized it savagely to spy and gather information on their neighbors. Now, they were using their technology in service of the great galactic alliance. The crew itself did not know much on the particulars, except that they were one of many scouts across the galaxy searching for the black ships’ shipbuilding hub.

  There were four main sectors which their superiors believed were the most promising for the location of such a system, based on the data they had received from one of their new allies. Of course, they had restricted the secrecy of that data to the highest level. Their superiors had gone to a level of paranoia so high that they forbade the crews of even speaking about their mission while on their ship. Nothing they recorded was put in the ships’ systems, but instead was recorded directly to a closed system that was not connected to anything else on the ship.

  “Dear gods,” the Commander said as they looked at the recordings. The system’s defenses were insane, but what truly shocked them was the amount of ships in the system. The machine warships were spread across the system in such numbers that their sensors struggled to give them a count.

  “This must be all of them,” the second in command said as he swam closer to the screen. “The entire containment zone.”

  “Yes, and look at that,” the Commander said, pointing to the remnants of a planet and the constantly shifting cloud moving around it. The Swarm was disassembling the pieces and harvesting materials at a rate that the Suvri thought impossible.

  “It is at least twice the size it had been during the battle,” his second in command responded.

  “Yes, we found it. There, above the Swarm—do you see it?”

  “Right. It looks like it has been upgraded.”

  The AI had been housed inside a large spherical complex that had left the planet after it joined with the Enlightened. Now it looked like it had added more to its form. The sphere had four rings now, slowly rotating around it. And they could detect weapons on it. They could get much, but they got enough to know that it was the AI’s core.

  “We need to get this back right away. Set a course out of the system,” the Commander ordered.

  They were moving slower through subspace than they were capable of in real-space, but they were less likely to be detected doing so. Slowly, the Suvri ship moved sufficiently away from the system so that the AI’s sensors couldn’t detect them as they entered the skim. Once they had traveled out into dark space between the systems, they dropped out of the skim and entered hyperspace, heading for the Afar Group territory.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Year 716 of the Empire — Kenos system — Empire territory

  Laura sat in the shuttle as it transported them down to the planet. Once they had arrived in system she had expected for them to head for the Bastion to meet Adrian, But it turned out that he was down on the planet. There didn’t seem to be any facilities on its surface, so she wondered what he was doing down there.

  The Nomad Fleet had grown over the two years since their battle with the Enlightened in the control system. She saw the three Hephaestus mobile stations deployed and harvesting the asteroid belt, and one was configured into a large oblong mass of nanites that Laura knew was its shipbuilding mode. The Nomad Fleet hadn't recovered much of its strength in Titans, as those losses were not so easily rebuilt, and now they had just under six thousand of them. The number of nanoships had increased, however—there were around fifty thousand of various classes in system. She remembered when Gotu had come to her with the plans for the nanoships, and how she had refused the offer of those ships for the Fleet. She still agreed with that decision, but that did not mean that the nanoships were not just as good as Fleet main vessels.

  The shuttle carrying her and Anessa made its way to a large canyon and Laura watched as the craft dropped down and into its depths. Then, as they entered a large cave system, she frowned. There were no signs of any secret base hidden here. But then they flew out of the cave and into the open space, and Laura thought that her mind was playing tricks on her for a moment.

  “This…this is not something that the Empire could’ve built,” Laura said.

  Anessa shook her head. “It is not.”

  Laura turned her eyes to the shuttle’s screens. The inside of the planet was hollow, with massive shipyards and structures that she couldn’t even recognize filling the void. Thousands of Titan-class ships were inside the yards, some even looking finished. The shuttle headed toward the massive pillar that stretched into the oblivion below them. It took them a while to reach it, and Laura realized that it was much larger than it looked from a distance.

  They landed inside and Anessa led them outside and into the facility.

  “What is this?”

  “It was Axull Darr’s facility,” Anessa answered.

  “But, how did you find it? The sphere he left behind did not say anything about this.”

  Anessa grimaced. “There are things that you don’t know. Axull Darr’s spheres were not really him. He had used them as relays of a sort. He had really been here all along.”

  “I know from what Tomas told me that Axull Darr had uploaded his mind into a core, but I still don’t understand what you mean.”

  “Yes, he had managed to upload his mind to a core, and he had been living here, where he built the Titans as a way to fight the Enlightened if we didn’t become what he needed.”

  “So he is here?” Laura asked.

  Anessa shook her head. “No. He is now truly dead.”

  “What do you mean? The sphere on Sanctuary still works.”

  “That is no longer him; it is just the program he left behind that acts based on his programming. It can access th
e data stored here, but it can’t give you answers or data that Axull did not want you to have. That part of the data is only available here.”

  “But how did he die if he was uploaded to a core?”

  “Axull Darr accompanied the Nomad Fleet inside an android body. He went to see his sister along with Adrian, and was there killed by Aranis.”

  Laura didn’t know what to say to that. She knew that Adrian had kept some things back, which was why Thomas was so frustrated with Adrian. But she did not think that he would have held something as important as this facility back. She didn’t speak again; instead, she opted to prepare herself for her meeting with Adrian.

  They rode an elevator for what seemed like a long time, until they eventually entered a large circular room. It was filled with floating holograms, and a large holotable was placed in the middle. The holographic representation of Iris was floating to the side in her humanoid fiery form, and Adrian stood next to her.

  He smiled and stepped forward, embracing Laura. “Mother.”

  “Son,” Laura responded, feeling a bit conflicted.

  “Come, I know what you wish to speak with me about.”

  “Oh?” Laura said as she stepped behind him as he led them to the holotable.

  “Tomas had sent me quite a few messages. I knew that, eventually, he would send someone in person.”

  “And? What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Adrian just gestured at the table and the many holos surrounding it. Laura allowed turned her eyes to them and truly studied them. The center piece of the room was the map of the galaxy, one that looked very familiar to Laura. It was almost exactly the same as the battle map in the war room on Sanctuary, only it had a few extra systems marked on it. It was the battle map of the Enlightened attacks and the movements of fleets in the galaxy—battles, sieges, everything.

  “So, you’ve been keeping track of the war?” Laura said.

  “I’ve been doing more than that,” Adrian said vaguely. “First, may I ask you a few questions?”

  Laura waved her hand at him.

  “Why do you think that we haven’t been able to engage the Enlightened in a battle?”

  Laura frowned. “Because they don’t want to fight a prolonged battle. They always retreat.”

  “Yes, yet we’ve not been able to trap even a single of their fleets to engage it. They always have a clear way to retreat. Almost as if they know that we are coming, as if they are prepared to run the moment we arrive in system.”

  Laura became thoughtful as she studied the various reports floating above her. They were reports of familiar engagements of the Alliance’s forces with the Enlightened. None had lasted long, and always the Enlightened managed to retreat. It was why they had been so frustrated. The Josanti League and its allies had been attacked far worse than the rest of the galaxy, and the galactic alliance wanted to be allowed to engage the Enlightened forces in the systems where they were already committed to sieges. But the Josanti League and the others were refusing them access. They had tried to go against their wishes and send fleets anyway, but such acts had not turned out as they had hoped. The Josanti League forces had actually attacked the fleets sent to help them, and threatened retaliation. Tomas, unwilling to provoke the Josanti League into doing something so monumentally stupid as starting a war with the other core powers now, halted such action indefinitely.

  “Are you saying that we have a spy in our midst?” Laura asked.

  “We have something worse,” Adrian said. “Have you been able to locate the AI?”

  Laura frowned. “The AI’s forces have been fighting alongside the Enlightened.”

  Adrian shook his head. “Those forces are nothing; a token there simply to ensure that the Enlightened can use the access points. The containment zone consisted of a far larger force than all of the Enlightened combined. The machine ships used to encircle the Enlightened completely, and we have seen nothing of those forces. There are no reports, nothing that indicates anything like the numbers that the AI has. And then there is the fact that the AI’s swarm and its core has not been seen since the battle in the control system.”

  “You are not joining in the fight because the AI is missing?” Laura asked incredulously.

  “No, I am not engaging the Enlightened for several reasons. For one, we have no idea what their plan is, and for all we know they want us to fight them like this, scattered across the galaxy. Secondly, our actions up until now have proven unsuccessful. The Enlightened know what we are doing, or they can anticipate our actions. Both of these problem come back to the AI.”

  “Explain,” Laura said.

  “We know that the AI had been interfering with Levisomaerni’s attempts to gather the summit, and we know that it then attacked that summit. It has the capability to interfere with our systems, communications and more.”

  “Is that why you haven’t wanted to speak about what you are planning? You are worried that the AI can get to that information?” Laura asked.

  Adrian nodded. “The only place where our plans are recorded are here in this facility, inside closed systems, and in our heads. I am certain that the AI is planning something. Its Swarm is a threat that rivals the Enlightened themselves.”

  “You really think so?”

  Adrian nodded. “This facility has the records of the People’s war against the first iteration of the AI and its Swarm. The Custodian AI is a danger far greater than you realize.”

  “Wait—first iteration? And what war?” Laura asked, confused.

  “Axull Darr did not share all of the People’s history with you. The AI, up until recently the Custodian of the containment for the Enlightened, is the second iteration of the AI the People created long ago. In its first, it went rogue and nearly wiped out the People. Now, its Swarm has improved relative to what it used to be, and I am certain that it is expanding rapidly. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to locate it yet.”

  Adrian looked at the galaxy map. “I know that Ullax Darr had a massive construction system dedicated to the building of the machine ships, and I have been looking for it ever since we left the control system. The Suvri stealth scouts have confirmed that the AI had left the planet and that it left the system along with its Swarm, but they haven’t been able to find it. We have a few leads, however, on which I am waiting.”

  “The Suvri did not mention that they had been looking for the AI for you,” Laura said slowly.

  “Because I explained to them my concerns about the AI monitoring our communications. The Suvri scouts delivering reports to the galactic alliance are their main units. The ones looking for me, however, have all gone dark—they don’t send anything via communications grids that they find, but rather send couriers through the Afar Group’s access point, which then deliver the messages to my people in Sol. The Suvri are really a very impressive race… For all of their physical limits, they are highly capable.”

  Laura narrowed her eyes. Sol had become the hub for all sort of traffic between the core powers and the Empire. Ever since they started unlocking the access points in the core and beyond, all traffic was being funneled through Sol and Shara Radum as their most defended systems. “And you found nothing?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Adrian replied coolly. “I have some suspicions, and there are strange reports of entire star nations just cutting contact with their neighbors out in the rim. The Enlightened are creating chaos with their attacks, generating noise, and so these irregularities have slipped the notice of most. But I am suspecting that it is the work of the AI and its Swarm.”

  “The AI might be a threat, but so are the Enlightened, and we need to face the one threat that we can see.” Laura took a deep breath. “Adrian, we have no time to wait.”

  “I’m not hesitating for no reason. We still don’t know the Enlightened’s plan, but I know how we can learn it. Once we know what it is, we will be able to execute a counter-attack designed to foil them.”

  “And how exactly do yo
u plan on gathering such information?” Laura asked.

  Adrian glanced at the floating form of Iris next to him. “We have been experimenting a bit with extending Iris’s core inside Moirai. She has been updating her protocols, and we are hoping that we might be able to steal the information from the Custodian. It sided with the Enlightened; I believe that that is because it agrees with their plan, or at the very least that it has the same short-term goal. Regardless, if the AI is allowing the Enlightened through the access point, then we will learn about their movements, if nothing else. If we manage to find the AI and then keep it occupied long enough to get past its firewalls, however, we might be able to recover that information.”

  “Adrian…” Laura said slowly, and she turned to look at the silent form of Iris. Her core was supposed to be situated inside Adrian’s ship, yet she was here. Having the capability to project herself from there, probably through a communication system, was something that the Empire forbade its AIs from doing. Yet they had known that Adrian had been doing things that skirted the AI laws of the Empire.

  Iris had most certainly moved beyond what she once was. When Adrian had integrated her core with the biological processing unit, when he had given her direct connection with the brain of a living being like the great beast that served as his ship, even then Adrian had broken the law. Tomas had known about it, of course, but as long as Iris showed no sign of going rogue, he had decided to ignore it. But now, Laura was certain that they had done more than he was telling her.