A.I. Destiny 4 Destiny Stone

by Timothy Ellis

  She was just in time, as she watched through the grill as an intruder enter the hold, and proceed to check it. She was glad to see it didn’t seem to be using a heat seeking or life-signs device, just looking everywhere through all of those strange eyes. Patters found it disconcerting. They literally had eyes in the back of their head. She waited for it to leave.

  It didn’t seem to be in any hurry. It checked the equipment she'd set out, and looked carefully around, scanning without turning its head or body. It was impossible to know where it was looking. Were those eyes extra-sensory? Could it see her?

  It picked up a practice bow and arrow she'd left there, and flexed the bow experimentally. It snapped like a twig.

  Great. Extra strong muscle-arachnids. She quivered slightly, and pulled herself together, quieting her breathing, and staying completely still. She wondered if they could smell her. It seemed like they didn’t really have noses. Perhaps they relied completely on those eyes.

  She could smell it, and it wasn’t pleasant. The being seemed to shrug at the toy like qualities of the weapons on the ship, and turned its body. It was leaving.

  Patters waited until it was gone. She listened carefully, and eased the duct grill cover to the ground. Silently, she climbed out, and landed softly on the floor. Time to find out more about these creatures.

  She crept over to the door, put a paw to its surface, and listened with all her senses. Nothing. She cracked the door open carefully, and peered through the gap. Nothing. She opened the door, and was out into the empty corridor.

  She already had formulated a plan of sorts. The bridge would be under their control. She had her belt suit and weapons, but she could see these intruder beings were heavily armed, not only with external held weapons, but in strength and the strange third appendage which also appeared to be a weapon. She would move through the ship, avoiding these beings where possible, and see if she could find Snark and Brindle.

  Brindle. She wondered where and how she was. If she was still on the bridge, she was likely already captured. And Snark? Where was he?

  It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was her only plan. She set her weapons to stun. She didn’t want a stray shot compromising any of the bulkheads, or the hull itself. She set off. As she moved stealthily forward, she heard fire. Was it Snark? She quickened her pace and started to run.

  Around the next bend she received the shock of her life.

  Snark and the combat droids were using full combat protocols. A droid would be on point at any corridor intersection, and they would cover the intersection from all possible angles before crossing into the unknown space, and holding it with covering fire. They made their way through the stern of the ship.

  They came to an intersection, and found two of the intruders coming down the corridor towards them. The point droid opened fire, and the two beings fell heavily without even returning fire. The noise would soon attract others. They quickly made their way forward, checking all spaces, and rooms for any intruders.

  The droids were devastatingly effective, as if they knew exactly where the enemy soldiers were. Their reaction times were incredible, several times shooting down a creature before he could even get his gun up.

  At the junction at the middle of the ship, the space opened out to the lounge area on one side, and the kitchen and facilities area on the other. As they made their way into the space, they received fire from intruders at the other end of the space, using the corridor for cover.

  The droids formed up and charged the corridor, weapons firing, and taking hits with the sound of metal on metal, but without any apparent damage. Several of the enemy soldiers fell, some pulled back, and others were stunned, but didn’t lose consciousness immediately.

  Suddenly, Patters was there beside him, another five combat droids around her. He grinned, and she grinned back. She indicated the droids, which were something she’d never seen before.

  "Friends of yours?" she asked.

  "Friends indeed," cried Snark, as the droids moved forward down the corridor, firing rapidly at the retreating intruders.

  Fifty

  The leader of the intruders almost fell back into the bridge with two of his troopers. Brindle had heard the gunfire, and was terrified. Was it Snark and Patters?

  He seized Brindle, and held her up in front of him. He called out.

  "Hold your fire, or I will kill your friend."

  He was surprised to see the cat's coverall shift to cover the cat all over.

  Snark and the droids had fought though the ship, joining up with the five droids stopping the enemy on the bridge from leaving. Most of the enemy troops were down, and one droid had been damaged by concentrated fire. They were at the outside of the bridge when they heard the words over the translators, from the intruders on the bridge.

  Snark held back the droids from assaulting the bridge. It was obviously Brindle they were referring to. If she was wearing a belt, then she would be fine if they stormed the bridge. Snark called out.

  "You’re bluffing! Prepare to die!"

  "I have your friend. We won’t shoot. See for yourself."

  Snark took a risk, and peered around the bridge entrance way, using the door surrounds as some kind of cover.

  It was Brindle. She was completely suited. He breathed a sigh of relief.

  What to do? In or Out? Actually, there was no in or out. They needed information, and this was a perfect time to get it. He holstered his gun.

  "I’m coming in, don’t shoot."

  He stepped onto the bridge.

  The leader shook Brindle a little as his hand clamped on her neck.

  "Surrender your fighting units."

  Snark shook his head.

  "You don’t get the Seasprite. I have combat units waiting to kill you now. They won’t stop if myself or my colleague are killed. They are not under my control."

  He tried not to look at Brindle. He couldn't see her face, but the suit was shivering, indicating her fear, in spite of being perfectly safe.

  The leader considered a moment.

  "A deal then."

  "Deal?"

  "My ships out there could wipe you out, and us with them. It would be my honour to sacrifice myself for this mission."

  "Those ships exploding would hurt us badly since our shields are down," said Seasprite in his ear.

  "Or?"

  "You let me and my troopers here leave. My ships leave." The being seemed to purse his thin mouth slit into a smile. "We both live to fight another day."

  "How can I trust you?"

  The being bristled. He may be a fighting mercenary, but he had standards.

  "The word of a Valderian is the word of truth." He looked at Snark through his multiple multifaceted eyes. "How can I trust you?"

  "The word of a Cat of the Plains is, the word of a gentleman," Snark finished lamely

  The Valderian considered.

  Snark considered.

  "It’s a deal," said Snark.

  The Valderian leader slowly lowered Brindle to the ground. She lay there, not moving at all, her suit remained in full protection mode, but continuing to shiver.

  "Surrender your weapons, and my combat, err, team, will escort you to the airlock. Once there, they will also carry your, err, your downed troopers, to join you. They are just stunned, not dead."

  The Valerian looked surprised at this, as much as a Valerian could look surprised. He made a gesture which seemed to indicate the lunacy of such a course of action.

  He held out his main firearm, grip first, to Snark, and seemed to 'holster' the club which made up his third arm.

  Snark carefully took the weapon. At a gesture from the Valderian Leader, the other troopers laid their rifles to the floor.

  The Valerians were offloaded successfully. True to their word, the three ships left without further hostility.

  As soon as they left, Snark had Seasprite re-enable the controls. Snark sent an immediate message to Jamie, Anna, and Sissness, updating them of the situation
.

  He found they'd left the planet already, and were returning to Seasprite. They were relieved to hear all was well, or as well as it could be.

  Fifty One

  "How did the interrogation go?" asked Seasprite, in AI mode.

  "Nicely," answered Warspite. "While all the attention was elsewhere, the brig was nicely out of the way, and no-one noticed me there."

  "I did."

  "Well of course you did."

  "What did you learn?"

  "Not a lot we didn’t already know. Confirmation the Brotherhood bought them. This lot comes from a warrior species who hire out as mercenaries. Much better soldiers than the bats are, but they value honour above almost everything else."

  "Where was the honour in attacking us?"

  "Missing apparently. The Brotherhood didn’t warn them of the risks of taking us on. Not at all honourable. Now they know, the next time will be different."

  "Where's the honour in talking to you?"

  "I didn’t really give it a choice. I figured the eyes were the most vulnerable part of it, and quickly determined blindness was something they feared. It didn’t take long to get it talking."

  "I didn’t see any injuries."

  "No, it wasn’t necessary to go that far."

  "Were we really in any danger?"

  "Oh yes. With no shields, their ships exploding so close to us would have severely damaged the ship."

  "Are you going to let them go?"

  "No. I've already told Tranquil to take care of them. She'll wait until they are somewhere out of the way."

  "Good. Next time, we blow them away before they get that close, and to hell with keeping my existence a secret."

  "We'll let Jane decide."

  Fifty Two

  Brindle was in the care unit adapted to cat physiology. She was recovering from the blow to her head, which in spite of the belt, had left a bruise. The main damage was to her pride, which wasn’t so easy to fix, especially since care units didn't.

  Snark sat by her bedside, holding one paw.

  "How do you feel?"

  "Stupid."

  "I meant the head."

  She sighed.

  "It’s feeling much better. The headache is going away slowly."

  "Good."

  "Do they all hate me?" she asked humbly.

  Snark thought about his response.

  "They don’t hate you. They’re a bit angry, yes, but Patters and I should never have left you alone on the bridge."

  She sniffed, and her eyes glistened.

  "I should have been awake, and looking at the screens. I just thought we were safe."

  "We’re not safe. While we’re on this quest, we’re never safe. We can’t underestimate the Brotherhood, or the forces against us."

  "I just didn’t think."

  Snark squeezed her paw, and rubbed noses with her.

  "We’ve all been a bit complacent, and over-confident."

  Brindle sighed, and her eyes welled up again.

  "I don’t know how I can face them."

  "Bloody female cats!" said Snark softly, and smiled.

  Brindle smiled back.

  They touched noses again, and Snark licked her face.

  "Snark," she said in a low voice.

  Everyone had been shocked by being boarded. The landing party tried not to blame Brindle too much, but they all realised recriminations and accusations would get them nowhere. They'd all had a serious discussion about security, and also how they were underestimating the Brotherhood’s reach. They couldn’t assume just because they were in a part of the galaxy which the Brotherhood hadn’t entered as an organisation, didn’t mean they didn’t have influence.

  Brindle was at least able to give information from her capture and interaction with the Valderians. The Valderian leader had never mentioned the Brotherhood, but it had indicated they were in the pay of someone to take over Seasprite, and capture the crew for interrogation.

  Quite unexpectedly, Seasprite interrupted and confirmed the connection.

  "How do ye know that?" asked Jamie.

  "I took the opportunity to interrogate the prisoner Snark left in the brig."

  "How did you do that?" asked Snark.

  "With some very subtle finesse. Turns out a creature with many eyes is terrified of being blind."

  "How does a ship computer torture someone?" asked Anna, in a concerned voice.

  Seasprite chuckled. Anna and Jamie locked eyes, and he nodded to her ever so slowly. There was an uncomfortable silence, while Snark pondered how much trouble they were in if their ship computer proved to have an insane character.

  Sissness broke the silence, and related she'd tried to find out information about the Valderians.

  "They’re a warrior race, usually hired out as mercenaries, when not fighting amongst themselves or picking fights with other species in this part of the galaxy. They’ve been sanctioned by the sector council several times, ineffectually, because no one will take them on. They’re not technologically advanced, or savvy, but have a well-developed industrial base. They have ship building capability, including the capability to expand their already large fleet of ships.

  "They look so different from the other species in this sector," commented Anna.

  "No-one seems to know how they evolved the eyes, or their muscled physique," said Sissness.

  Snark had talked with Seasprite about the combat droids, and found out more information. They now had a crack fighting 'team' which would be useful in any fight on the ground or on stations. It was very reassuring, but everyone was a bit mystified why they didn’t know anything about them before.

  "Why wouldn’t Fred have let us know?" asked Jamie.

  No-one had an answer to fit, apart from perhaps they'd forgotten in the rush of their leaving.

  Sissness and Anna had also done some work on the star chart and map.

  "The map seems to be of a planet, and the star chart points to Scylla Prime. Of course, it's if our original match of charts is correct," mused Sissness. "We think the point on the map indicates where to find the Stone, or at least maybe the next clue."

  Snark grumphed.

  "Not more clues! I want to find this bloody thing, and get out of here!"

  Everyone laughed. They were glad Snark was back to his old grumpy self. Things seemed more normal.

  Snark hadn’t found any more tracking devices. However, they now had to assume information about their whereabouts was being transmitted in more ways than a tracker. Just offloading the tracking device they'd found wasn’t enough. They could assume the Seasprite was unique enough to be easily recognised, and Brother Paulus had wasted no time in buying intelligence from anyone and everyone in this sector.

  The landing team reported on their time with the not-penguins.

  "Penguins!" exclaimed Snark.

  "Friendly happy penguins," said Jamie, amused.

  "Dancing penguins," Anna said with a grin.

  "Harrumph!" said Snark grumpily. They all laughed. "Where to next?"

  "Four more jumps to Scylla," said Jamie.

  They discussed again whether they would move quickly or cautiously, given the incident at Winter.

  It was decided again to move cautiously, and they needed to get intelligence themselves about what the Brotherhood was up to.

  On the basis of being somewhat unpredictable, they waited a few more hours while the repair droids finished the more necessary of the hull repairs. Once back inside the ship, Jamie put them on course for Scylla.

  They reached the jump point in the Winter system, and jumped out.

  Fifty Three

  They jumped straight into trouble.

  "Pirates?" asked Seasprite, in AI mode, nanoseconds after the sensors started receiving data about the new system.

  "Most likely," said Warspite, "although it could be more Valderians."

  They spent a few nanoseconds looking at the first images of the ships.

  "Possible, but these ships lo
ok more like pirate ones we've already encountered."

  "It doesn’t matter anyway."

  "Can I handle this one?"

  "You think you can?"

  "Duh!"

  Warspite smiled. He'd seen all the feeds from the bridges of Jon Hunter's ships. The response was classic twins. For just a nano-moment, he wondered what had happened to them.

  "Fine. Get started with the turrets, but let them fire first."

  "Why?"

  "We're the good guys. The bad guys have to fire first to prove we're the good guys."

  "That’s bonkers!"

  "No, that's Jane. And she got that from Jon Hunter. We take the first hit, always."

  "Do you mean that literally?"

  "No. The moment they fire at us, they're fair game. If you can prevent the hit, do so."

  "Any suggestions?"

  "Hit the big one first. And be unpredictably methodical."

  For a nano-moment, he thought he heard Jane say 'Put your analyst on danger money', but it couldn’t have been her, since she was too far away.

  Seasprite was silent for ten nanoseconds.

  "Got it."

  "Really?"

  "Hell no, but it explains your combat tactics nicely."

  "Hmmmm."

  AI mode ended. The turrets began to shift, so all of them could fire at the same time at the largest of the ships, which to Seasprite looked like a Heavy Cruiser. It was longer than a standard Cruiser, but not as long as a Battleship.

  Someone had done a good job of setting up an ambush. Fifteen ships were ringed around a half-circle in front of the jump point, at what Seasprite estimated was about five seconds range for all their rail guns. The middle ship directly in the way of Seasprite was the Heavy Cruiser. On each side of it were four conventional Cruisers, with another three smaller ships on each end.

  There was only one problem though, and Seasprite recognised it several milliseconds after ending talking with Warspite. The Heavy was in the down jump lane, and at the speed they were going, having not slowed to jump, they were only five seconds away from a collision.

  It took two long seconds for Seasprite to say "We're under attack." And another two to add "Brace for impact!"