Theirs was a patrol vessel. They originated from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and were known to themselves as the Enoy. The Sisterhood of Enoy had been waging war against the AIs for approximately twenty thousand years, as humans measured the passage of time.
Yet, the long war was not the topic of these two. In the interests of precision, the energy-crackling aliens could be conceived of as the alien Zeta and the alien Ree. Those were not their true names, but those names were beyond the scope of humanity at this point in time.
Because humanity was a sight-oriented species, it would be plausible to suggest that Zeta appeared as an upright bolt of lightning in a vaguely humanoid shape. She belonged to the Sisterhood and thus had the power to maintain this form for a time.
Ree was less organized, with less willpower and far less stamina. She had gained passive status in the Sisterhood, could not command a vessel but had gained notoriety as a rules stickler. As such, she was the ship rector, in charge of enforcing the Third Edict.
The Third Edict was short and to the point. The Sisterhood would not interfere in the development of inferior species. The various species in the galaxy must evolve on their own even if this led to their extinction.
Zeta had higher rank, and she had argued her latest idea from the Second Edict: that the Sisterhood shall destroy AI Dominion vessels and factory planets when convenient.
Several years ago (in Earth time units) Zeta had spoken to Jon Hawkins in the Allamu System. Ree had recorded the event and continued to insist it broke the Third Edict.
Concerning Ree, it would be plausible to suggest that she looked like a glowing, floating ball of energy with no precise outline, and prone to bleeding energy every time she crackled.
Zeta stood before a cloudy window. Ree floated beside the commander, also observing the doomed Confederation fleet making its last attack run.
Zeta had come to appreciate this Jon Hawkins, and she admired in a quaint way the dogged persistence of the apish humans. They had done much better against the AIs than thousands of other races recorded throughout the twenty thousand years of war.
“It is time to leave this place,” Ree said.
“First, I will launch a few missiles.”
“You would interfere in the battle?”
“I do not understand your objection.”
“The reason for my objection is obvious, is it not?”
“Not,” Zeta said.
“Commander, you wish to destroy the siege-ship so the humans and Roke can continue to exist. They will of necessity record the existence of our missiles and the void.”
“These two items they already know.”
“You will confirm it for them.”
“It has already been confirmed for them.”
Ree glowed more brightly. “We must allow them to perish as the siege-ship destroys them.”
“Perish because they are inferior to the AIs?” asked Zeta.
“Perish because that will be the outcome of their combined decisions,” Ree countered.
“The humans have courage. They have retaken AI factory planets. Their anti-AI virus was an ingenious maneuver.”
“To what end?” asked Ree. “The siege-ship can undoubtedly end the human race after he is done here.”
“Perhaps,” Zeta said. “Even so, I wish to run a species test on the humans.”
“But…but that is inconceivable,” Ree said. “The humans and Roke are substandard creatures. If either passed the test—this is a backward area of the galaxy, Commander. We cannot stay. If the humans gained our technology, it would only mean that the AIs would have it soon thereafter. Given such an expanded technology base, the AIs could prove deadly to our homeworld. This is standard doctrine.”
“I would test the aliens,” Zeta said.
“To what end?”
“Let us say…to test your theory.”
“You doubt the accuracy of my findings concerning the humans?”
“I would say it differently. I wish to hasten your exaltation to active rank.”
“Because of the results of a species test?” asked Ree.
“You have made a declaration concerning the humans and Roke. You claim that they are both substandard.”
“Do you claim otherwise?”
“Have you heard me suggest such a thing?” Zeta asked.
“The implications of your statements—”
“Ree,” Zeta warned. “Have a care what you say next.”
“I withdraw my former statement.”
“Noted,” Zeta said.
“If the humans and Roke passed the species test,” Ree said thoughtfully, “they could approach us by quoting the First Edict.”
“How would they learn of the edict?”
“They could not…unless someone broke the Third Edict to tell them.”
“That would invalidate the quote,” Zeta said.
“Then this is not an attempt on your part to aid the humans?” Ree asked.
“Are you directly questioning my motives?” Zeta asked with a hint of menace.
Ree lost some of her glow. “I do not withdraw the words,” the ball of energy said at last. “But I maintain them as a rhetorical statement rather than as a direct query to you.”
Zeta remained silent for a time.
They both must have known that Ree’s words were clever indeed. Having been stated, the Sisterhood could now judge Zeta’s actions against the query. But Ree had not needed to risk status by directly questioning her superior.
It would appear that Ree…hated the humans would be too strong of a statement. Clearly, she did not appear to like them. Zeta…what where her motives?
The two energy beings of Enoy continued to watch the Confederation suicide-run as Zeta caused the void ship to begin creating a rip in reality.
-17-
Jon led thirteen cybership-class vessels and sixteen Roke bombards around Hydri II. As the fleet prepared to engage the colossal super-ship, masses of XVT missiles accelerated out of the launch tubes.
The entire remaining complement of XVT missiles accelerated at high velocity ahead of the Confederation fleet. The distance between the faster accelerating missiles and fleet grew with every second. Scattered among the big matter/antimatter missiles were probes so they could see what happened.
The fleet’s gravitational cannons—the outer dishes—all began to glow with power.
It was different on the much smaller, triangular-shaped bombards. The bombards were closer in size to the regular human battleships of the Solar System than to cyberships.
Each of the bombards produced a railgun. When the moment came, the Star Lords would cause each railgun to flash with power. A projectile would spew at hyper-velocity from each one. Hyper-velocity was nothing like the speed of light, it was a term based on terrestrial speed. The great power of the mass driver was that its projectile did not dissipate over range like a laser or grav beam would. If the projectile hit the enemy, it hit with almost as much force as if it was fired at pointblank range.
Mass driver railguns were better at long-distance battles than short. Today, the Roke would get the chance—possibly—to fire them at nearly pointblank range and do the best they could.
Behind the leading XVT missiles were the assault craft holding raiders and extra space marines. The Centurion had elected to join his marines in a penetration attack against the monster ship.
The Confederation fleet had almost reached the planetary horizon that would reveal the colossal vessel to them.
Jon stood before the main screen, watching grimly.
The first wave of XVT missiles crossed the planetary horizon. Among them were many probes.
The main screen showed the titanic AI vessel readying hundreds of gravitational cannons. They speared from the armored hull, vaporizing one XVT missile after another, harvesting the entire first wave.
Gloria groaned.
As Jon watched, his fingernails dug into the meaty part of his palms.
The next wave of XVT missiles headed for the planetary horizon.
“Ignite the warheads the instant the missiles cross the plane of the horizon,” Jon said.
Soon, the next wave broke over the horizon and saw the AI vessel. Hundreds of enemy grav beams reached out, destroying almost all of the missiles.
A few warheads detonated, creating a spotty field of whiteout.
That allowed the third wave to reach a little farther over the horizon before the majority of them detonated. That created a larger whiteout zone.
Now, masses of tiny assault-crafts meant to penetrate the enemy hull-armor, and the thirteen cyberships and sixteen Roke bombards crossed the planetary horizon.
“Fire at will,” Jon said, the order going throughout the fleet.
Now, however, a curious event occurred.
“Commander,” Bast said. “I have spotted an anomaly behind us.”
“AIs?” asked Jon.
“Negative, Commander,” the Sacerdote said. “It appears to be a reality rip.”
Jon whirled around. “The void aliens are here?”
“That is the logical deduction,” Bast said. “Observe on the main screen.”
Jon turned to the main screen as Bast made it a split-screen.
A glowing area appeared several million kilometers behind them. As the glow intensified, the area between the glowing lines literally ripped apart reality. In that region was an inky, swirling blackness. Just like in the Lytton System several years ago, massive tubular missiles slid out of the void.
Back then, three such missiles had slid out. This time, twenty-two missiles ejected from the inky void. They were much larger than XVT missiles. Each of the void missiles was ten kilometers long and one wide. They had bulbous warheads with a forest of antennae on the nosecones.
Just like in the Lytton System, each void missile traveled at five percent light-speed. Their velocity was 15,000 kilometers per second. The missiles would reach the monstrous AI vessel in three and one third minutes.
“Why now?” Gloria asked in a choked voice.
“I don’t know,” Jon said.
The time for conjecture had ended, however, as the fleet burst through the whiteout zone and surveyed the full horror of the three thousand kilometer, spherical AI monster.
Behind them, the reality rip disappeared.
Now, in the low orbital region of Hydri II, began the face-to-face fight between the siege-ship and the Confederation vessels. A blizzard of golden gravitational beams flashed from the hull of Boron 10. The big beams smashed against cyberships, bombards and attack-craft alike.
At the same time, smaller grav beams speared from the Confederation’s cyberships while hyper-velocity ordnance flashed from Roke railguns.
For the Confederation, the battle was worse than a joke. It was slaughter pure and simple as cybership hulls glowed red and bombards began to pop with annihilating explosions.
Some of the Confederation grav beams struck the enemy hull, but to almost no effect. Perhaps the greatest surprise was invisible tractor beams reaching out and snatching tiny attack-craft. Instead of pulling them down onto the armored hull, the tractor beams yanked many of the attack-crafts to the sides, to bring them around to opening hangar bays.
It appeared as if the AI monster was collecting attack-craft and the space marines within.
In almost too short a time to describe the situation, the bombards ceased to exist. The Roke vessels were too small to resist the large grav beams for more than ten seconds.
It was not much better for the cyberships.
The matter/antimatter explosions of the first destroyed cyberships cluttered the battlefield with pockets of whiteout. That allowed quick-witted or lucky captains a few more minutes of life for them and their crews. But it hardly seemed as if any of that would matter.
So far, Boron 10 had sustained less than minimal damage to his forward outer hull.
Then the siege-ship must have sensed the incoming void missiles. It retargeted, and thousands of grav beams speared outward at the fast approaching void missiles.
“Break off, break off!” Jon said. “Helm, get us out of here.”
The message might have gotten through the static or interference of hard radiation, but likely did not. The massed and crisscrossing grav beams created even more interference. Other captains must have reached the same or similar conclusion as Hawkins, however, because most of the surviving cyberships sought to escape.
Then, the first void missile vaporized into nothing from many grav beams hitting it at once. During that time, some Confederation cyberships accelerated faster, turning slightly. Others tried to streak all the way across the battlefield in order to escape.
Boron 10 destroyed more incoming void missiles but not all of them. He gave a pulse command. From his great curved hull, tens of thousands of point-defense guns began to fill the area with massed although tiny projectiles.
The leading void missile ignited its huge matter/antimatter warhead. The shape-charged detonation swept the PD particles out of existence. The wash of the heat, EMP and radiation destroyed or crippled five Confederation cyberships. The explosion also created a whiteout zone for the following void missiles. Some of those shredded into pieces against debris. Some “died” from the EMP, heat and hard radiation.
Four continued the five percent light-speed run and hit the siege-ship. At that point, three of the warheads detonated.
Like a great earthquake on a planet, the kinetic energy and the matter/antimatter explosions caused giant ripples across the robot hull armor.
Another wave of void missiles struck the stricken vessel. The kinetic impacts and the detonations of yet more matter/antimatter warheads were too much for even the colossal, Moon-sized siege-ship. Entire areas of the hull exploded outward like great volcanos. At the same time, the great impacts literally stopped the forward momentum of the three thousand kilometer super-vessel. The siege-ship began to sink back toward Hydri II.
Boron 10 was not yet dead, though. The rearmost areas of the siege-ship yet functioned. The old brain-core reached several quick conclusions, and he began to act on them immediately.
Most of the Confederation fleet had been vaporized or destroyed. Several cyberships yet existed. One of those was the Nathan Graham. In the static, whiteouts and hard radiation and EMPs, no one on the Nathan Graham had any idea if any of the rest of the fleet had survived this holocaust of destruction.
This had been a disaster.
***
“Jon,” Gloria said. “We’re headed the wrong way.”
Hawkins looked ten years older. He had seen some of what had happened out there and knew the Confederation had lost its largest fleet. The void missiles had shocked him to the core.
Why had the void aliens struck now? Why couldn’t the aliens have destroyed the AI monster-ship before he began the attack run?
“Did you hear me?” Gloria shouted.
Feeling old, Jon slowly turned toward her. To see his dreams dissolve before him—
“What are you talking about?” he asked hoarsely.
“We’re headed toward a reality rip,” Gloria said.
“What?” he asked, his downed spirits making his mind sluggish.
“We’re going into the void,” Gloria said.
Jon looked at the main screen. It was blank due to a malfunction. Jon shoved up to his feet and managed to reach her station. She moved aside for him.
He looked down at her still working screen, and he saw the inkiness of the void. It was in front of the cybership, which was in orbital space around Hydri II.
“How is this possible?” he asked.
“That’s not the question,” Gloria said. “Why is it there? Do the void aliens mean to capture us?”
That was too much. Jon scowled. How could everything have gone wrong so fast?
“What are we going to do?” Gloria demanded.
“What can we do?”
“You’re the captain. You have to
think of something.”
He looked at her, and he nodded. He was the captain, and they were still alive.
“Right,” Jon said. “It’s time…” He didn’t know how to finish.
At that point, the Nathan Graham slid out of normal time and space and disappeared as it entered the void. They did not know it, but the reality rip closed behind them, hiding them from view from anyone in the Beta Hydri System that might have been looking.
For those aboard the Nathan Graham, the Battle of Beta Hydri was over. For some of them, a new war was about to begin.
PART III
THE VOID
GINNUNGAGAP
[gin-oong-gah-gahp]
noun Scandinavian Mythology
a primordial void, filled with mists, existing between Niflheim and Muspelheim.
That was the age when nothing was;
There was no sand, nor sea, nor cool waves;
No earth nor sky nor grass there,
Only Ginnungagap.
--The Poetic Edda. Voluspa, stanza 3
-1-
Jon Hawkins became aware of his surroundings in a sharp and unpleasant manner. For a moment, he seemed to be asleep or unconscious or stretched out in an alien laboratory. It was very strange and unsettling, and he did not remember how this had occurred.
The next moment, he was panting, and his side ached. He realized with a shock that he was splashing through dirty puddles in dim lighting. It did not make any sense whatsoever.
Clarity came to his rescue as a hot liquid drop struck the back of his neck. He looked up, still sprinting—he knew not why—and discovered that crisscrossing tubes were several meters overhead.
They were the city’s waterworks—the city being New London on Titan, a moon of Saturn. He was in the second-lowest level.
New London was a domed city, with the rich and government employees living under the dome that allowed the first level people to view beautiful Saturn and the surrounding stars.
A.I. Void Ship (The A.I. Series Book 6) Page 12
