“Quantum, are you looking forward to meeting Stars?” I said, looking to either side and holding a plasma pistol in one hand as my other pulled the pad.
“I am already ‘met’ with Stars That Beckon,” the AI said from a spot in the air between us. “My mind has been part of her mind since we came in range of the city. She sees and hears and senses what I see and hear and sense. It is the way of mind touch.”
I bit my lip. Of course it was. Quantum had very succinctly described how I and Akantha relate.
Akantha, are you in touch with Stars?
She hovers on the edge of my awareness. During the projector installation, magfield drive upgrade and sensor upgrade she was part of my mind, of course. She observes our approach with her own sensors.
Thank you. I figured Stars was aware of everything we did once we neared the city.
She was. Through her own sensors and through contact with me and Quantum Entanglement.
Great. I grimaced at being under such intimate observation. While my spybot still hovered kilometers over the city, and I had long experience using remote spybots and sensorbots, still, I was human. We expected a certain level of privacy in our lives. Tech be damned!
Unaware technology cannot descend to the Hades domain of ancient Greek mythology.
I know! Let me be!
As you wish.
I stopped before the closed entry to the tower. My crewmates gathered round me.
“Stars That Beckon, may we enter?”
“You may enter.”
The large entry spiraled open, leaving a round hole high enough for a Harl to pass through, let alone a two meter tall human. And none of my crewmates were taller than me. Claw bounded ahead and through the entry. I followed her. My crewmates followed me and the floater pad. In moments we were inside the central chamber with its circular walls covered in bas-relief carvings. In the center was the pedestal on which stood the statue of His Supreme Glory Yik-tak Domene. It looked every bit as ferocious as the organic body of the Harl that Lotan had delivered. The tube with the Harl stood on its end next to the statue. Lotan was nearby. His floater pad hung beside him. He turned toward us, his arms and hands moving fluidly.
“Captain, Stars directed me to place the stasis tube upright beside the statue,” he clicked as a wave of lemony pheromones flowed out from him and through my open visor.
I looked away from his influencing gestures. “Thank you, Lotan. Come join us.”
My peripheral vision showed him grabbing the pad’s rope and pulling it along as he walked over and then stood next to Meander. They acknowledged each other with slight head movements. The ways in which my crewmates related to each other were different than how they related to me. At least Lotan understood human body gestures and sometimes used them. I stepped forward, pulling the pad with Quantum and its power unit.
“Stars That Beckon, where do I deposit Quantum and its power unit?”
“You do not. I will take control.”
My suit’s graviton sensor beeped loudly. As did its UV and neutrino sensors. The green crystal of Quantum, resting in the depression of its power unit, lifted up in the air as a single unit. They moved to a spot on the other side of the statue. Then they were lowered to rest on the black stone floor of the chamber. White-yellow lights now shown directly on it, on the statue and on the stasis tube. They were spotlights that were in addition to the glow lighting that illuminated the room. None of us had had to use our enviro-suit lights since entering the tower. Now, we observed what appeared to be a ritual. Or something special.
“You have a gravity projector inside this room?”
“I have projectors wherever I need them, including this chamber,” boomed Stars’ voice from the space in front of me. “My fellow Primaries also have multiple projectors. We control local gravity, power emissions, all electromagnetic radiation entering and exiting this city, and the mechbots that prevent ingrowth of local trees and shrubs. We have ignored the dogon predators until recently. None are now within the bounds of this city.”
That was a relief to hear. I holstered my pistol. Behind me came the sounds of my crewmates doing the same. At least I did not have Laserta at my side, trying to dominate every situation. “Thank you for excluding the dogon from the city.”
“We did not exclude them. We vaporized them. None have since entered.”
My mouth went dry at this reminder of the powers held by seven Primaries with the energy levels of a small star. “I have brought you the body of the Harl we found at the research site. I have also brought here the AI Quantum Entanglement and her power unit at her request. Does that please you?”
“It satisfies me, for the moment,” Stars said in a booming voice that echoed off the chamber’s walls. “I see you have retained the zero-point energy unit that fed power to the stasis tube. Why?”
I stood straighter. “Because the stasis tube has no need for it. The Harl is dead and mummified. Based on what Quantum told us, I felt the power unit could make our gravity projector as powerful as your projector was when it brought us to this plaza.”
“It can do that and more,” Stars boomed, her tone musing it seemed to me. “Earlier when you left the vessel of Purple Glow, the bioform Sharp Claw expressed worry that your Tessene vessel would not be able to defeat a fleet of combat vessels if such were encountered in the future.” The Primary paused as it spoke, acting almost human, or biological. “In response, you expressed the desire to acquire an antimatter beamer during your visit to our Harl domain. The zero-point energy unit draws its energy from the quantum vacuum energy of the universe. It can also access the Dark Energy that is expanding this universe. That Dark Energy can be converted into positron antimatter to feed an antimatter projector. I will have my mechbots deliver an antimatter beamer dome to your vessel. They will install it and link it to the zero-point energy unit. They will also cross-link the unit to your vessel’s power distribution system.”
Shock filled me. Then suspicion came on its heels. “Thank you. But why are you being so tech generous?”
Booming laughter with a feminine tone filled the air of the chamber. “As you were told by Purple Glow and by Home Defender, I have long had a task in mind for you to perform. To complete this task requires your vessel to be upgraded in its magfield drive, its sensors, its weaponry and its energy systems. Those upgrades are mostly done. The addition of the antimatter beamer will take a day of time at most.”
I knew it. “Then what? What task do you want me to do? Recall that I am hired by Employer Laserta to bring her here, then return her to her home world.”
“I am aware of that employment agreement as I am aware of every scavenging trip you ever made since joining minds with the Tessene vessel intelligence,” Stars boomed low, her feminine tone going almost tenor low. “Your Employer agreement has no meaning to me. What matters to me and the other Primaries of this city is discovering two things. Are there living Harl anywhere in this galaxy? And what caused the Harl to disappear from their worlds?”
I smiled. Or rather I tried hard to smile as the implications of the AI’s words hit me hard. “You just described the questions that every space traveling species has tried to answer in 400,000 annual cycles. No species has discovered either Harl bodies or the reason for their disappearance. The Harl body we brought here is the first to ever be discovered!”
“So you say. And so your vessel record archives indicate,” she boomed, her tone going lighter. “The presence of a Harl within a stasis tube on this world makes certain there are other Harl in stasis tubes on other Harl worlds. And those tubes may still function. In which case a living Harl can answer the second question.”
She had a point. But so did I. “While I thank you for all the tech you have provided me and my vessel, I have an obligation to my Employer. I must leave for her world after the antimatter beamer is installed.”
“I am your Employer now,” Stars boomed sharply. “No other agreement or Employer is more important than pleasing m
e. And carrying out my task.”
“Or else?”
“Or else you will never leave this world.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Claw heard the AI’s booming words as sharp hisses in her ear pits. Their meaning made her want to fire both weapons at the statue, the tube, at the carved walls, at anything that might contain the Primary who now threatened them all. Then she recalled she had holstered her pistol and slung the rifle from her suit-covered shoulder. In the moments it would take to grab those weapons the AI would likely burn her down using the heat ray that had vaporized a dogon. Worse, Stars That Beckon might destroy her vessel. That would leave all of them to survive on a world filled with hungry predators. And she doubted this AI would provide a food Synthesizer for making fake crawlers.
“Everyone, be still!” yelled the captain.
She held still but hated it.
“Captain, may I assist?” called Lotan.
She watched as the captain turned and focused on the white and brown-furred mammal with hands, arms and a body that had evolved to convince other beings to do its will.
“Go ahead and try.”
Lotan faced the statue. “Stars That Beckon, do you see me?”
“I see you. I hear you. I feel your weight on my floor. I sense much about you.”
“Good.” Lotan’s hands and arms began swirling and gesturing in a manner that seemed both imploring and commanding. “You have been friendly to us. We have been friendly to you. We brought you one of your Harl, which you did not know existed. We brought you another mind similar to yours that you thought was non-functional. Surely you see how friendly we are.”
“You bioforms have been useful.”
“Yes!” clicked Lotan, his whole body moving now in a manner that was almost musical, as Claw understand ordered sounds called music by her people and by other species. “Surely you will let us leave this world so we can return our Employer to her world. Then we can return here and begin work on your task. Surely that is something you can agree to, is it not?”
“It is not agreed to.” A pause came. “Your body gestures are unique in my archive of species that lived during the time of the Harl. Your species is also unique among the currently known galactic species who travel space, according to the data archive of Akantha.” Another pause came. “While I find the gestures engaging, they do not affect my mind. My mind is vaster than you can know. Through our star-level power sources, we Primaries have contact with other dimensions. Part of each Primary’s mind resides in another dimension, the better to survive the passing cycles. We can also bend space and time in a way that isolates us from external influence. No part of my mind can be influenced by your body gestures. You and your fellow bioforms must perform my task.”
Disappointment filled Claw. She restrained her impulse to jump onto the statue and bite and claw it. Or to break into the tube to bite and claw the Harl corpse inside. She would die before she could do any damage. And her first obligation was to protect her captain, then her crewmates.
“I will accept your task,” she hissed low.
I listened as Meander, Flow and Pilot also accepted the task assigned by Stars. Lotan, his body going still and his hands dropping to his sides, dipped his black-snouted muzzle.
“I too accept your task,” he clicked sharply amidst sour pheromones.
I still resisted. Mentally at least. I had warned Laserta that exploring dead alien worlds was dangerous. The flow of freely given tech had made me intensely suspicious ever since the gravity projector offer. We should have had to fight, maybe kill some mechbots, in order to gain a tenth of the tech we now had. The memory of the imperious fox woman reminded me of an arguing point.
“What about our Employer Laserta? She is not here. Surely she will—”
“She has observed everything said and discussed since you entered this chamber,” Stars boomed low. “I transmitted imagery to Purple Glow who displayed it in a holo within her Control Chamber. My acoustic sensors report bioform Laserta is barking various insults about my heritage, as if I were a fellow bioform. There is no way an artificial intelligence like myself and my fellow Primaries can copulate with our mothers. Or our creators the Harl. It is non-sensical. You are better off without such an Employer. Shall I vaporize her for you?”
“No!” Adjusting to sudden surprises in the field while doing a dig was normal for any field archaeologist. Now I felt a return to that experience. “Laserta is part of my crew. I need all of my vessel’s crew in order to carry out your task. Let her live!”
“Very well, she can continue to live.”
“Vitades!” came Laserta’s scream over my suit comlink. “Once we get into orbit we can head for my home world! And once there I will leave with all the tech I want under Employer’s Claim!”
“Laserta,” I said over the same comlink. “Are you stupid? Did you not hear Stars say she could hear and sense everything that happens within this city? And maybe this entire world? We can have no private conversation while on this world.”
“Nor will you while in space,” came Stars’ voice over my comlink. “The control nexus crystal my mechbot installed inside your vessel contains a component of myself. It will monitor your compliance with my task. Fail to pursue my task and all your new weapons and technology will become non-functional. And you will only be able to head back to this world any time you enter a Gate.”
Laserta screeched in a bark that did not translate.
I breathed in the cool air of the ground level chamber in which we all stood, excepting Laserta. As for Akantha herself, she was in my mind and as aware of these events as I was.
Of course I am. And I confirm the nexus crystal has a mind awareness within it. I am unable to isolate it from my vessel’s systems.
Damn. Thanks for trying. I focused on what Stars had been saying and threatening.
“Stars, you want us to find Harl in stasis and to find out why they disappeared from the galaxy. Right?”
“That is correct.”
“And if we had not agreed, you would have used your gravity projector to keep our vessel grounded on this plaza, right?”
“That is also correct. Though I have other weapons units that could be brought to bear on your vessel.”
No doubt. I had no doubt of that in view of the energy source she controlled and her awareness of all I and the others were doing, thanks to her mind links with the other AIs. An obvious question remained.
“Stars, why don’t you just go and explore the galaxy yourself? Your star-level energy source could easily lift this tower into space. And your Harl-level magfield drive could move you quickly within normal space to any Gate in any system.”
A low crackle sounded. “I cannot. Nor can any of my fellow Primaries. The last order given us by the last Harl to leave this world was to remain here and preserve this world at full function level for a future Harl return. We have done that. But we are impatient for the Harl to return. Your task is to find them and bring them here, whether they be one Harl or millions.”
Desperation filled me. “What about sending out the Harl star vessel commanded by Purple Glow? Or one of the other starships in the dome we visited? Surely they can travel offworld.”
“They can. However, every mind aboard every Harl vessel is created with the compulsion to return to the nearest Harl world whenever all organic Harl die or disappear. Purple Glow cannot leave this system.”
Damn. I should have known this giant AI would have done these things if it could. But was there room for compromise?
“Stars, if I agree to do as you say, can I first return Laserta to her home world, then begin this search task?”
“No. Her wishes mean nothing to me. She lives. She will continue to live as part of your crew. For that she should be thankful.”
Untranslated barks came over my comlink.
Being thankful would never happen with Laserta. Still, I had had to ask, if only to have the voice of Stars to quote to the foxy female when we di
d get back into space.
“Fine. When we get to orbit, where do we then go, on this task of yours?”
“To the Harl home world, of course. That is the logical place to begin research on my two tasks.”
Damn the logic of computers! And their offspring artificial intelligence!
Does that condemnation include me?
I winced. No, Akantha, it does not. It’s just my emotions thinking.
Emotions think poorly.
She was right. I put aside my emotional reaction to this deadly threat and focused on being a leader, a captain, someone in command of a field expedition. With lives at stake.
“Fine. Can Purple Glow go with us? Her vessel is powerful. Its weapons could—”
“She will not go with you. For the reason I just cited. And we Primaries have need of her to mount guard in orbit, to replace the three guardian globes you destroyed. We do not wish any other species to land on our world.”
Great. Now I had the answer to Stars’ tech generosity and that of Purple Glow and Home Guardian. They had their needs. And they had the tech to force me to carry out their task. Sadly, they were not bioforms I could divide and undermine by appealing to the greed natural to all lifeforms. No doubt Stars spoke for the other six Primaries in assigning us this task.
“Stars, will you provide us with the Gate sequences we must follow to get to the Harl home world? It lies in the Scutum-Centaurus galactic arm and it has never been visited by another species. Or none from our side of the galaxy.” I recalled what we had seen in Purple Glow’s Control Chamber. “And the distance to it is at least 25,000 light years!”
“Distance means nothing when one travels by Gates,” Stars boomed in a light feminine tone. “Yes, I have provided the Gate sequence to your Akantha.”
Star Thief Page 13
