Star Thief

by T. Jackson King

  “That is acceptable.” She flared her shoulders, making her breasts sway. While they had yet to deliver blood to a child of her birthing, she enjoyed making this male feel conflicted. He clearly needed intimacy with a Human female. Yet no other Human was present within hundreds of light years. She smiled again. “You may depart my presence.”

  Vitades gave her a nod of his head, black curls glistening under the yellow-orange light she had chosen for the cabin. The cabin’s gravity, warmth, lighting and entertainment were all adjustable, as was common on most starships used by other species. Even the newcomer Humans had adjustable gravity and lighting in their Earth-built starships. Not that any other species cared. Being rich and surviving were the two primary objectives of all galactic species. And she felt certain this Harl ruin would help her achieve both. The cabin’s entry spiraled shut after the departure of Vitades. She turned and headed for the food tray. Mediocre copies of Mogelian food would do for now. Then she would lie on her rest bed, attach neural pads to her head, close her eyes and relive her mating with one of her male employees. Her recording had been done without his knowledge. All Mogelian females recorded such events. After all, males existed to serve.

  I sat in my cabin’s recliner seat, its leather-like skin vibrating slightly as it sought to relax my tense muscles. I’d been tense ever since taking Laserta onboard the Akantha. Arrogant Laserta was. Secretive to a fault. Foolish she was not. More than that I did not know. Her history on her Mogelian home world was limited to what her corporate agent had shared with me when he hired me on her behalf. That had been by way of the Dark Services Listing. When I’d arrived in orbit above her world of Nastura, she’d been in a hurry to get to this Harl world. Which meant I did not have the time to hire a local informant. In the days we had spent traveling through multiple Gates she had not added any personal history during our times together. Which was fine with me. My five crew beings were my family now. But I still wondered at her fixation on this particular Harl world.

  Your curiosity about your employer is straining your mind and body.

  Akantha knew me too well thanks to the brain implant. Curiosity is normal to humans. And to other species. Do you have any idea what is so special about this Harl world and its dead city?

  A mental sigh touched me. I wish I did. My revival upon your entry into this vessel did not include any memories of my time among the Harl. Irritation touched her. What I know of the Harl is what my sensors tell me and what I have learned through the Galactic Council records. And what I’ve seen during our visits to other Harl ruins.

  I found this puzzling. As I had the first time I heard her say it. Akantha, you are a self-aware artificial intelligence. You are part of this vessel. It is part of you. How can your memory nodes not have records of your prior life serving the Tessene?

  She held silent for a moment. Which for an AI is like an eternity. Perhaps the passage of 400,000 Earth years since my storage is responsible. Nodes could have lost power. Yet there was power enough to reawaken me upon your entry. It is a mystery I do not like.

  Nor did I. I passed her an image of me giving her a thumbs-up. Akantha, you are my partner. We will be successful in this job. And maybe your sensors will locate an active memory node in the ruins on the fourth world. Then you might learn something about your lost memory. An idea hit me. Could the disappearance of the Harl be related to a weapon that could wipe clean all memory nodes? And maybe do the same to living beings?

  She shivered mentally. I hope not. I have never heard of such a weapon during our years together. My covert entry into planetary data webs and archives has never produced any mention of such a weapon. But clearly something drastic happened 400,000 E-years ago.

  So I also thought. So I had thought while working on the Harl ruin with Professor Lik Sotomor. As his student I’d learned that all AIs and archive nodes were shielded against EMP radiation. Shielding was common on all worlds occupied by species who had developed fission and fusion power plants. And nuclear weapons. The mystery of what happened to the Harl was something that had made bearable my five years of indentureship with the professor. And I had earned a Basic Antiquity Science degree during those years. A Master level degree was equivalent to Earth’s Ph.D. I would have received such a degree at the end of my seven years of indentured service. But finding and bonding with a Tessene starship had upset those plans. Once I’d found and entered the starship everything changed for me. The bonding with Akantha by way of the implant she inserted into my brain had shown me I could be independent of being indentured. Independent of everyone, including my parents. That independence had meant I’d become a criminal according to the contract laws of the Galactic Council. But since there were no council fleets of combat starships, it was every thief for himself. Or herself. Or itself if an AI.

  I am not an IT!

  Damn. Akantha, my apologies. It is a term I’d learned while still a student in my Edessa lyceum school. Humans applied the term to their own self-learning AIs.

  She sniffed. Or so the action registered in my mind. Human AIs are barely aware. AIs like me and those that serve on empire and corporate starships are fully independent personages.

  I tried deflection. Oh? Then why did you name yourself after my lyceum girlfriend Akantha?

  She giggled. Or rather she imitated the giggle I’d sometimes heard while my Akantha was chatting with her girlfriends.

  Your Akantha made love with you. And she pestered you about many things. Is that not the same as our relationship?

  I licked my lips. And controlled my reactions. Akantha, yes, you and I are very intimate. Yet you respect my privacy, most of the time. But we have never been physically intimate. Right?

  A sparkle of humor touched my mind. That was not for my lack of trying. Stimulating your mind’s pleasure centers was something I offered early on. And I could make a physical simulacrum of your Akantha that would contain part of me. Shall I do that? We still have six days before we arrive at the fourth planet.

  I winced. Then did my best to block my mental reaction to having sex with a simulacrum. Years ago such programmed simulacrums had been all the rage among rich humans. Now they mainly worked in space on orbitals, power units and in heavy rad environments. A few other species, I’d heard, had also made copies of themselves. Some used them for sex, privately or in groups. Others used them as a means to torture living beings. I’d always stayed away from those systems. The offer of a simulacrum reminded me of how I’d been sold into indentureship. My parents had said my frequent trips to visit ancient ruins like the Roman walls and colonnades south of Edessa made me perfect for a job working on alien ruins. It was not something I wanted. Akantha wanted me. I wanted her. But Greek tradition said sons did as their parents demanded. And while my father earned drachmas as the town’s assistant librarian, they were not enough for a one child household. So I’d been sold to work for Sotomor. A day later I left, having missed any chance to say goodbye to Akantha. But the memory of her and how we’d made love remained with me.

  No, thank you. I prefer real biological flesh for intimacy.

  Then why not accept the offers of Laserta? Or be intimate with Sharp Claw? She has sought body bonding with you.

  I closed my eyes, shutting out the wall vidscreens, potted plants, poster of Earth from the Moon, my skyphos drinking cup and my holo cube of Akantha. My Weapons master has two breasts and curving hips with an entry slit at the base of her groin. While she is covered in silvery scales and has no head hair, she is beautiful in a deadly way. Her yellow cat-eyes are ferocious any time we face danger. Yet those eyes could also be tender and comforting to me. Denying Sharp Claw what she needed was far harder for me than denying Laserta her sex demands. And this discussion of my sex needs, my need for true intimacy with a human woman, was only reminding me how alone I was.

  You are not alone. You have me.

  When an AI constantly reads you thoughts there is no way to hide those thoughts. Yes, I have you. With you I can be mysel
f. With my crew beings I cannot be all that is me. Most of them would not understand why I thought, felt or made the choices I make. Yet they are my family now. And I am happy with that.

  So I see.

  I shrugged in my vibrator recliner. Akantha, have your sensors picked up anything in orbit above the fourth world? Or any powered installation anywhere else in this system?

  Intent focus came from her. There are three small orbitals currently in high orbit above the fourth world. They are cold and not radiating any heat or other EM emissions. They may still be functional. I do not detect anything artificial in orbit above the gas worlds. The inner three worlds are small and my vessel’s light scope cannot see details other than their round forms. I will keep guard and monitor this system as we close with the fourth world.

  I smiled, my eyes still closed. My mind filled with the physical image of the vessel which contained this ancient AI. It was a long triangle with a bulbous stern. Laser mounts lay at the nose, port and starboard sides and atop the stern. Missiles that were launched by internal railgun magnetics could exit through six rear launch tubes. Plasma beamers adorned the top middle and belly middle of my 150 meter long starship. An oval hangar hatch in its middle served to allow the launch of the ship’s space-to-ground shuttle for those worlds which did not allow starships to land. Such was not the issue with dead alien worlds.

  I know you will. Now, let me rest.

  Rest, my young Human.

  Sleep finally took hold of me.

  Lotan stood in the Green Chamber that partly occupied the rear of the Tessene vessel. Trees, grass meadows, flowering shrubs and trickles of water glowed nicely under the white-yellow light of the room. Colors ranging from green to orange to purple adorned the plant lifeforms that filled his view. They provided all the oxygen needed by the captain and crew and the employer. What he saw reminded him of the wide expanse of prairie that surrounded his clan’s homestead on Calitot. A dense green forest filled with tree trunks that stored water lay close by the homestead. The memory of those trees reminded him of his research on the world of Earth. Its equatorial lands held similar trees, called baobabs. The Earth trees dominated a dry landscape. His homestead was not arid. It was quite lush compared to some temperate zone landforms he had seen in his travels. He missed the white snow cap of Mount Lork, which overlooked the clan homestead. That peak lay to the north of the many domes that housed the 9,234 members of his clan. He missed them. He missed not being around other Torsen, inhaling their pheromones, understanding their emotions at a glance and feeling connected in ways beyond language. He shook himself. Perhaps he should ask the AI Akantha if he could plant a shrub or tree. Maybe that would help.

  Behind him the entry portal swished open.

  “Are you lonely?” hissed a voice.

  He turned. It was Sharp Claw. The bipedal reptile’s stance was almost relaxed, compared to the aggressive stance she’d shown earlier during the encounter with the contractor vessel. The pheromones she emitted were alien but pleasant. At least she did not sweat like Vitades did. His sweat yielded a pheromone that was unpleasant. No Torsen sweated. Other star beings did, especially those without full body fur or chitin skin or scales. The fact the captain was the only being on the vessel who sweated made Lotan’s presence within the vessel tolerable. And the captain’s location easy to determine. The Weapons being blinked her yellow eyes.

  “Yes. I miss my fellow Torsen. Do you not miss your own Notem people?”

  The silver-scaled reptile walked slowly toward him. The walk quickly became a hunter’s approach. He knew it was instinctive to the Lotem. Just as control gesturing was normal to her people. There was no attack intention in Sharp Claw’s approach.

  “Yes I do miss them,” hissed Sharp Claw, stopping to dip a clawed toe in a trickle of water that wiggled across the grassy soil. Her two hands clenched, driving four clawed fingers into each scaled palm. Pink dots showed around the claws, telling him the claw tips had penetrated, allowing red blood to well out. The Notem reptile looked over at a cluster of trees. “I need something to fight. For my people, fighting is survival.”

  He knew that. Just as he knew the species heritages of every being onboard the Akantha. “Perhaps one of the three orbitals above the fourth world will attack us. Then you will have a true threat to fight.”

  Sharp Claw dug both clawed feet into the grassy dirt. “I hope so,” she hissed. “The Weapons Chamber holo simulators have no physical feel to them. I need to feel flesh ripping open under my claws.”

  Lotan felt mild surprise. His years aboard the vessel with Sharp Claw had made clear the reptile’s violent and aggressive nature. If she needed physical fighting contact she must be feeling terribly deprived. “Perhaps the fourth world will have land creatures you can rip open. If they attack us.”

  Claw swung her oval head toward him, her jaw opening to show sharp incisor teeth. “I hope so. I miss the taste of blood. And the thrill of fighting for my life.” The Weapons master gave a low sigh and looked away. “I depart for practice in the Weapons Chamber. At least there I can feel a kind of danger. May your fur remain clean.”

  Lotan smiled to himself. Sharp Claw had clearly studied his Torsen people. As he had studied her Notem. It was a task he had performed shortly after joining the captain’s crew years ago. Every being aboard the vessel was smart enough to understand the need to research the home world and culture of other crew beings. Such knowledge made long association possible. It even allowed him to accept the captain’s portrayal of Lotan as a giant meerkat. While the Earth creature showed proper family allegiance, based on digital videos he’d watched, the creature was always at risk of sudden death from African predators. No Torsen feared any creature on their world. He turned away from the calming trees and plants to head for the entry portal. It spiraled open at his approach. He stepped into the central hallway and sniffed. There were pheromones from the employer and four crew beings.

  “AI Akantha, please transmit your sensor images of the fourth world to my cabin. I wish to study them.”

  “It will be done,” the AI said in her sing-song voice.

  Lotan turned right and headed for his cabin. To be in control of any situation required frequent preparation. He would do his study of the fourth world, any orbitals above it, and prepare to join Vitades on his entry into the Harl city. Danger would likely be present. It might be mechanical in the form of defender devices, organic in the form of animal scavengers or interesting in the form of a Harl AI. He would be ready for whatever type of being appeared.

  CHAPTER THREE

  I sat in my accel seat in the middle of the Control Chamber. Ahead of me my five crew beings stood or sat in front of their control pedestals. To my right sat Laserta, impatient in mood. As usual the visitor seats at the rear of the chamber were empty. The front vidscreen showed the green, blue and white-clouded world that occupied the fourth orbit about the F-class main sequence star. A white-gray moon one-fourth the size of Earth’s Moon orbited at 100,000 klicks distance. Like the Moon its inner face was tidally locked and always kept the same face toward the fourth world. We now approached at one psol which meant they covered 3,000 kilometers every second. Soon we would be within the local moon’s orbit.

  And if we had to make a sudden stop, the Akantha could do so thanks to the vessel’s inertial compensator field. Gravity control had brought with it many abilities, one of them being protection from sudden inertia changes. Briefly I wished some species had developed projectible gravity beams. But the archives secretly searched by Akantha had never found such tech. However the hope for such tech was one reason so many beings wished to visit Harl ruins. Harl tech had delivered x-ray lasers, ship-conformable gravity and cross-dimensional neutrino communications to prior explorers of Harl ruins. No doubt Laserta hoped to find something equally valuable.

  “Captain, I am moving us inside the moon’s orbit,” chirped Flow as her wing-hands touched a pedestal control panel. “Close-up image of the world is now on the r
ight side of the vidscreen.” She looked down at her panel. “The world below is similar to your Earth. Gravity is nine-tenths gee based on the orbital speed of the local moon. The Harl world’s geomagnetic field is 0.65 gauss. The world is tilted at nineteen degrees relative to the ecliptic plane of this system. Ocean to land percentages are 65 and 35 percent. Multiple continents are present, along with polar ice caps.” Flow looked up suddenly. “Captain! Artificial satellites are present.”

  As the Akantha’s ship scope zoomed in on the world below, three gray-white objects sparkled in the system’s white-yellow sunlight. The orbitals. Mentally I gave thanks that we had arrived on the day side of the world. The outline of a large continent showed below the puffy white clouds, while the blue of oceans showed on either side. The continent was the size of Eurasia. Smaller continents occupied other parts of the world, according to scope imagery acquired by Akantha during our approach.

  “Pilot, thank you. Engineer, reduce our speed to the amount Pilot provides for a planetary orbit at 30,000 klicks.”

  “Slowing by way of our thrusters, then our magfield drive,” Draken honked.

  Flow tapped the panel atop her pedestal. “Orbital speed should be 4,125 kilometers per hour.”

  “Adjusting,” said the armor-plated walking worm.

  Mentally I once again gave thanks this vessel and all other starships had a magfield space drive. While weaker than our thrusters, it allowed any vessel to lock onto the local star’s magfield and use that magfield to either pull one to a higher speed, or push a ship away. I felt the vibration of the thrusters end as they shut off. Using our magfield drive the Akantha now pushed sideways from the local star’s magfield. Our thruster slowing from one psol had brought us into a geosync orbit above the large continent and far above the three orbitals, which were clustered in an equilateral triangle formation at 900 klicks above the world.