A.I. Destiny 4 Destiny Stone

by Timothy Ellis

  Blood pooled from several wounds. The ground was wet and slippery with it. Vasily took out a knife, and cut into the thick hide of the beast where it’s chest was. It was hard going, but the knife was sharp. He opened the chest, cut around, and pulled out a giant heart. He leaned over to Anna, and wiped her across the cheek with his wet hand. She recoiled, and he laughed.

  One of the men shouted, and pointed at the sky. Several more dragons were appearing over the horizon. They were getting bigger very quickly.

  Vasily organised the men, and they ran from the clearing back the way they'd come. The creatures were closing in on them. One had landed in the clearing where the dead dragon lay in its own blood and gore. There came a keening, screaming cry which hung in the air, in its anguish and pain. Anna wanted to cry, but was too busy running to keep up with the others. Her progress was hampered by the shin length skirts she wore, and a ridiculous fur hat on her head. Her boots pinched her.

  They reached their shuttle, just as the dragons caught them. Creatures wheeled out of the sky, and the day suddenly seemed dark with their maddened bodies slewing through the air. Vasily and Anna got into the shuttle, but several men were attacked, being bitten, or thrown about by thrashing tails. Dogs barked and leapt at the dragons, being thrown across the landing site, or worried by the dragon’s teeth. Screaming filled the air, from men and dogs, and dragons filled with rage.

  Vasily ran to the cockpit, where the pilots were preparing for flight. The engines came on, and the back draught sent several dragons flying backwards through the air. They recovered and attacked the shuttle craft.

  "Take off, now!" shouted Vasily to the pilots.

  "There are two of our people still outside!"

  "Leave them! We need to go now!"

  The pilots looked at each other, and finished the launch sequence. The shuttle raised into the air, and sped upwards, dragons following. They could feel several bumps, and the pilots struggled to maintain their course, as the shuttle ducked and weaved with the impact of the dragons on the hull.

  One dragon clung to the shuttle, but as it picked up speed, it fell back. The dragons pursued the shuttle far into the air, until they could go no higher. The shuttle was gaining orbit, and headed for docking with their mother ship. The ship came into view. Anna felt relieved at their escape, but sickened at the same time.

  She couldn’t get the final scream of anguish out of her head.

  Twenty Four

  Anna came back to the room, slowly gaining awareness of her surroundings. She was no longer on the shuttle, she was on the bridge of Seasprite. Jamie was in front of her, his hands on her shoulders, looking into her eyes.

  "Anna, are ye with us?"

  She blinked, and smiled to see his familiar face.

  "It was a vision," she said.

  Jamie looked at her enquiringly.

  "The past, I think. I was Anastasia, my ancestor, with Vasily. The one from the pictures. Not a nice guy. We were hunting. Dragons."

  "Dragons?" scoffed Snark.

  "Dragons. Or at least that’s what they looked like."

  "Ok," said Jamie, "there were dragons."

  "It was horrible."

  Anna recounted a summary of her vision to the others.

  "What does it mean?" asked Jamie.

  "I don’t know," Anna replied. "But I don’t like this Vasily character. Or Anastasia. She just went along with it all."

  "Find the planet with the dragons, and we know we’re following in their footsteps?" suggested Brindle.

  "Was there any sign of the stone?" asked Snark, more practically.

  Anna shook her head slowly.

  "None."

  Snark sighed loudly. Anna blushed.

  "Perhaps, now I’ll have more visions. It’s been awhile since they last came."

  "Perhaps," sniffed Snark.

  Jamie took her hand.

  "Ye were gone there for a while," he said softly.

  Anna smiled into his eyes.

  "I’m back now."

  They looked at each other for a long moment, and then Anna stood up.

  "I need to lie down for a bit. I don’t feel so well."

  She left the bridge.

  "Dragons," smiled Jamie.

  "Dragons!" humphed Snark.

  "Dragons," said Sissness thoughtfully, disappearing into her tablet to search for dragon references.

  Patters looked disgusted.

  "I can understand hunting, but not for sport. We always hunted for food. And only for what we needed. We respected the beings which gave us sustenance."

  "I wonder what dragon tastes like?" said Brindle, trying to break up the seriousness, and failing miserably.

  The look Patters gave her made her wish she hadn’t said it.

  Anna was in her room, when the second vision came. It was like the one she'd had in Mac’s hall at the dinner on the Scots World. A feeling of cold, a creeping coldness taking over everything in its path. Evil, sensing nothing mattered, everything was pointless. Slavery. Madness? She couldn’t quite sense it.

  It was over. She wondered what it meant. She just knew there was great danger coming. Soon? She didn’t have any sense of time.

  She would tell Jamie. She sat up and swung her feet over the bed edge, but suddenly felt dizzy. She lay back down.

  Often, visions would leave her weak and dizzy. She waited a few moments.

  At least she was having the visions again. She hoped they would be more useful. She just didn’t know how to control them. She wished she’d been able to spend some time with Maraid on the Scots world to learn and hone her skills. She knew Maraid would be able to teach her to have better control.

  She sighed. She could only do what she could do.

  She fell asleep.

  Maraid looked up from the scrying dish. She'd seen Anna, and the coldness had come again. She didn’t think Anna was linked to the coldness in any way, but she'd sensed Anna’s anguish and confusion. Perhaps she'd had a vision of the coldness as well?

  Maraid was concerned. She'd been following the adventures of the Seasprite, through her own visions, and also through her correspondence with the Grand Mother of the Cats of the Plains. Jamie had finally sent some news of their progress to Mac. But there was so much they didn’t know. Mac was in touch with Leader Jane, and Jane seemed to know everything, although Maraid was sure the Scots weren’t given half of the information Jane had access to. Jane was an enigma. Maraid had tried to sense her through her scrying, to learn more about her, and had come up with exactly nothing. Which was intriguing in itself. Jane didn’t seem to have a presence Maraid could sense. Or was Jane blocking her somehow?

  She knew Anna was an untrained Seer. She would not be able to call her visions, or manage their impact very well. She would also not be able to interpret them always very accurately.

  A large black cat came into the hut. Purring loudly, it jumped onto the table where the scrying dish was, and lapped up some water. Maraid picked it up, and cuddled it to her.

  If the Cats of the Plains could see her now! The fact humans had their cat cousins as pets, although less intelligent and smaller than them, was not something she wanted to broach with the Cats of the Plains any time soon. It would be awkward in the extreme. Cats had accompanied the original Scots to the Scots Homeworld, and had set up a sizeable population. They were great companions, and kept the local rodent population down, when they weren’t catching them to trade with cats like Snark. They'd been very careful to make sure Snark hadn’t seen one. While they thought, now, he'd understand, no-one actually wanted to have that conversation.

  Maraid thought to herself as she put the black cat down on the floor, and went to feed her.

  Anna needed help. She wondered how she could give her some support. Perhaps she could.

  She took the scrying bowl over to the sink, and threw out the water, and placed it back on the table. She poured new water in from the kettle at the hearth. She waited for the ripples to still, thought about
Anna, took a deep breath and then looked into the suddenly deep water.

  Nothing came for a while. The swirls in the water cleared, and she saw Anna. But it wasn’t Anna. It looked like Anna, but she was wearing clothes from another age. She was sad, and somehow, not allowed. Not able? Controlled. That was the word. She saw her walk forward into a large gathering, and she sparkled. No, the tiara in her swept-up hair sparkled. At the centre of the tiara glowed a stone. It wasn’t glittering, so it was uncut, but it, well, it glowed with an inner sense of power. Of lust. Of winning. It didn’t feel as if Anna was the centre of the power even though she wore the gem. Was this the Destiny Stone?

  There was a presence behind her, and the Anna in the scrying bowl, turned and frowned. The vision broke as the water returned to normal water.

  Anna, but not Anna. An ancestor perhaps?

  Wearing the stone, but not its controller. Not harnessing its power.

  So who was? And what did it mean? Was it the past, or the future?

  Maraid looked out of the window at the normal day, the sunshine filtering through the trees. She shivered, and pulled her shawl closer around her.

  Twenty Five

  "What do you want?" grumped Snark. "A sign on the map saying 'Here be dragons?'."

  Jamie shifted in the lounge chair.

  "I was just mentioning perhaps there’s some indications on the charts of what tae expect with the different places on our way to the Scylla system. It would be very cool to see a dragon or two." He grinned. "Celts like that sort of thing."

  "We’re not out on a jaunt, you know," sneered Snark.

  Jamie was a bit taken aback. He wasn’t the one who'd wanted to be cautious, and sniff out the systems on their way. It was the cats being their curious selves.

  Snark sensed his grumpiness had perhaps gone a bit too far. He felt even grumpier.

  "Mop heads!" he said to no one in particular.

  They were all sitting in the lounge. The plan was to check out a system which had habitable planets next, but they were in transit, and they were all a bit bored.

  Anna had shared her visions, and they were speculating about how it all fit in. Sissness had delved into the Russian archives for information about Vasily. She'd found some references to Vasily Nicholas Petrovsky. But this wasn’t the Alexander they had learned about before.

  She'd traced Petrovsky back to a group of Russians who'd been on the old Galactica when it found the jump point into Gaia, had taken an explorer vessel without permission, and disappeared at least three centuries ago. There was speculation in the records he'd stolen the Destiny Stone, as it disappeared again sometime after being found by Alexander. If so, perhaps he'd brought the Stone to where it now was?

  Brindle was intrigued by Vasily’s wicked streak. She liked to think it was him, in company with an ancestor of Anna’s, who'd brought the stone into the galaxy, and taken it to the Scylla system. It had to be at the Waterfall.

  Sissness was thinking hard. Snark could see her forehead wrinkling up, even more than normal, and knew this happened when she was deep in thought. She always looked worried, but was only trying to make sense of things.

  "What is it?" he asked.

  "I don’t know," started Sissness. "Something I can’t quite pinpoint. If the Russians were following the god-like aliens, why were they also pleasure seeking on the way? This Vasily character is too evil for his own good. It would take someone knowing about the god-like aliens to follow in their footsteps. But this Vasily just seems to be interested in pleasing himself."

  "We don’t even know if they have the Stone." said Anna. "After my first visions, which brought me here, I haven’t seen it again. It’s like I’m blind."

  She sniffed. Brindle turned up her eyes. She thought if Anna was going to cry again, she’d be off to the kitchen. The others looked sympathetic, but in varying degrees. Snark knew they needed her to come up with 'the goods', as he saw it.

  "So Sissness, what have you found out about the next system, Wallender?" asked Jamie, to change the subject.

  "The Wallender system is named after an explorer who came this way about a century ago. There are some habitable planets, but not a lot of information about what or who lives there."

  "And the Brotherhood. Any news received re their plans since we took them on at the goat-deer homeworld?" followed up Jamie.

  "I’ve been keeping an eye on the coms," said Patters. "We’ve had some messages from Mac and the Grand Mother, and Jane even. The Brotherhood seem to be already launching their expansion plans, by setting up sects in some areas they previously hadn’t influenced. But no news about us or the Stone."

  "They seem too quiet," said Snark grumpily. "Even after we totalled their ships in this sector, they should be fighting back."

  "Maybe no news is good news," said Brindle brightly.

  "Not where the Brotherhood is concerned," countered Snark.

  "The Brother who is leading the campaign to find the Stone…" started Jamie

  "Brother Paulus," interrupted Snark.

  "Aye, him. The intel we got from Snark’s contact in the City, and from the pirate, was he was particularly ruthless, and a career climber. Already in the inner circle, but wanting more. Ambitious and deadly."

  "Stop," said Sissness. "You’re making me scared."

  "We all should be," said Snark. "He won’t have given up. He’s onto us somehow. I can smell it."

  "Long range scanners show nothing," said Jamie.

  "It’s not ships. Somehow he’s got a plan, and has a presence this far out."

  "All we can do is keep going," said Jamie, a bit lamely.

  "And be ready," added Snark.

  Twenty Six

  "Ambassadors," said Jane, from where she stood on the rostrum in the center of the council chamber.

  Duchess Sarah sat in the number one position, where Jane should have been sitting herself, where Ganshura had once led the council from. But Jane preferred to lead the council from the middle, where she could see them all, and where she could 'conduct' the council. Sarah looked uncomfortable being there, but she was taking Fred's place until he returned from the Cat Homeworld.

  "I trust you are all settled in now?"

  The council had spent months moving from the original council station over the ice planet no-one had wanted, several jumps beyond the end of Kingdom space. While the council itself had moved quickly enough, moving entire embassies had taken a lot longer. The city in space the council and its embassies now occupied, was brand new. Catering for the diversity of creatures which were part of the council of sector ten, had been a challenge. Not everything had been solved to everyone's satisfaction, but Jane was happy with the overall outcome, and still working on some of the teething difficulties.

  There was a general positive mutter in response to her question.

  "I have news from sector eight I wished to share with you all."

  She waved an image of two dozen ships onto the main screen-wall, and waited until the muttering died down.

  "Yes, that's a Battleship in the lead."

  "Whose fleet is this?" asked the not-croc. "Who dares to build Battleships?"

  "No-one in sector eight," said the fuzzball. "Like us here, Cruisers are the largest ships we can build."

  "The owls built bigger," said the mushroom.

  "Only for seeder ships," yelled the owl. "We never built warships that big."

  "Those are Brotherhood," said Jane, and the chamber went silent.

  "This is confirmed?" asked the fuzzball.

  "I'm afraid so."

  "Please tell us this is a good news, bad news situation," said Ganshura.

  "It is. The fleet you see here was destroyed. This image was taken before the battle."

  "Who by?" asked the not-croc, with some wonder in its voice.

  Jane was not surprised, since the not-crocs had undertaken most of the sector defence duties up until recently. A Battleship was something they'd have been hard pressed to deal with.
<
br />   "A Human Federation ship. The same one involved in several previous skirmishes with a crime lord and the Brotherhood, one of which some of my own trader ships was involved with."

  "How did the ship fare?" asked the fuzzball.

  "Well. I had the ship's computer system upgraded to combat level over the Cat Homeworld in sector eight."

  "You have ships there?" asked the mushroom.

  "The cats requested an ambassadorial visit from the Kingdom. I took the opportunity to send additional forces with Duke Fred, and while he was there, a permanent presence was negotiated, both for their protection, and so my exploration units will have a base when they reach that far away."

  Jane swept her gaze around the room rapidly.

  "A cat ambassador will be coming here soon. While the diplomacy is at Kingdom level, I'm sure many of you will take advantage of forming your own official ties with the cats, and establishing your own trade treaties with them."

  She saw many nods. The owls had long standing trade agreements with the cats, she knew. But Snark had negotiated new ones which had more or less replaced the old ones. She suspected the mushrooms had deals going with them as well. She didn’t know for sure, but it was a pretty safe bet, as the mushrooms traded with everyone.

  "My real reason for establishing ties with them however, was an intelligence one. Between here and the Cat World, lies a section of sector nine, which since the demise of owl control over the region, has become lawless, and subject to piracy."

  "Whose fault is that?" muttered the owl, loud enough to be heard, and the whole chamber laughed.

  Jane let them settle down, before going on.

  "Pirates are not my concern. If they come this way, we'll deal with them. You all received a copy of the fleet disposition changes. All the routes into this sector now have some of my ships attached to the defence fleets. If pirates come through in force, they will regret it."