by Luigi Robles
“Have you checked our communication systems?” Fain asked as he got up from bed.
“Since the anomaly began, I have been running multiple tests on all our systems,” Kya said. “I have also run experiments to account for the possibility of magnetic or solar interference.”
“Do you think that us being so far away could affect the messages?” Fain asked, rubbing the back of his head.
“At our current distance,” Kya said, “any messages from Earth should take no more than ten minutes. There are other factors that could impede a signal, such as space debris, or a solar storm. However, I have already checked for those, and they do not appear to be playing a part in this.”
“We’ll wait another half hour before we start panicking,” Fain said as he walked to his kitchen. “In the meantime, bring the ship to a full stop. I don’t want to keep pulling further away from Earth.”
Kya did as Fain said, although the task was more complicated than it sounded, but she managed just fine. While Fain went about his morning routine, Kya continued searching for anything that she might have missed.
But there was nothing; at least, there was nothing wrong with the ship’s hardware or programming. Then she thought about one place that she hadn’t looked before: herself.
That’s going to be a problem. How am I supposed to know if I am malfunctioning? she thought. Because I could be. It could be that I just don’t want to see the reports for what they are, or that my subconscious is manipulating the diagnostics in order to be hopeful. That could be it. Ugh, I hate being an AI. It’s a lot of hard work. Now what? Could I be malfunctioning?
In order to perform the most accurate diagnostics on herself that she could muster, she needed to shut down most of her powerful AI mind. Her subconscious mind would be first, the part of her mind that handled all the tasks on board the ship. Then she would try to shut down more than half of her machine mind.
Here goes nothing, she thought as she shut two key parts of her mind down.
She felt a rush of leftover information flooding the side of her mind that was still active. She felt like screaming at the initial pain it caused her. But her mind was fast to categorize the information and put it into files for later use. Then the silence came. The world around her had become silent; things weren’t busy anymore. She only heard Fain as he walked from one place to another inside his quarters.
That must be what humans sound like up close, breathing, their hearts beating, and blood flowing through their veins. Whoa.
She snapped out of it and ran a self-diagnostic right away. The results were clear: it wasn’t her. She wasn’t malfunctioning.
So, if it’s not me, that can only mean one thing, she thought. At the very minimum, it has to be the Acram interfering with the communication system. This isn’t good. I thought it would be a bad idea to go this far away from Earth.
Kya reversed her mind’s temporary shutdown and went back to running as normal. Along with her augmented brain capacity came the noise. She had yet to decide which she liked best—being able to know everything or knowing just enough.
“Kya, is there still nothing from Green or Earth?” Fain asked.
“There are no incoming messages from Colonel Green,” Kya said. “The last inbound message from Earth came in sixteen minutes ago, and it was also scrambled. Other than that, the only noise coming from Earth is static.”
“This is not good. This is not good,” Fain said as he finished putting on his uniform. “I’m going to head to the bridge. In the meanwhile, can you try to pick up any kind of Earth communication? I need to know what’s happening over there: TV, news, messages, noises, whatever.”
“I will try my best,” Kya said.
Fain spent his time on the bridge pacing back and forth, while Kya tried every tool at her disposal to try and find out what was really going on back on Earth. But there was no luck. A little later, Pycca joined Fain on the bridge.
A short time later, one of Sodenia’s antennas picked up a noise. It was definitely not just static, but it was also not clear.
“I’ve found a communication attempt from Earth,” Kya said through the bridge’s speakers. “Should I play it?”
“Play it,” Fain said right away.
The noise coming from Earth was only a few seconds long, and there was a lot going on.
“Again,” Fain said as the noise stopped.
“Play it again,” Pycca said as the noise stopped for a second time. “But this time, keep it on a loop.”
The noise played in a continuous loop, but they still could not understand it.
“Slow it down to half speed,” Pycca said.
“Wait,” Fain said. “Go back and loop only the first half.”
“What is that?” Pycca asked as the noise played.
Kya tried to cross-reference with other noise patterns and words she had heard from human speech. After a few hundred tries, the noise began to form the shape of words before her.
“I believe I have deciphered the meaning of the message,” Kya said.
“What is it?” Fain asked.
“I believed that it’s saying, ‘help us,’ followed by many other people screaming in the background, along with explosions of some sort.”
“DEFCON 1, I need all hands on deck,” Fain said. “We are heading back to Earth immediately. Dammit. Those bastards.”
17
Battle Fleet
Fain didn’t think twice about reversing course and heading back to Earth at full speed. It was the first thing he did after hearing the noise that came from Earth. For the first time since he became captain of Sodenia, Fain was terrified.
“I need everyone at their stations now,” Fain said, trying not to shout.
People were coming in from all sides, rapidly populating the bridge.
“Kya and Pycca,” Fain said, turning to Pycca. “We are about three days away from Earth, almost at Sodenia’s top speed. We don’t have three days to get back. In three days, there will be no more humans left on Earth. What can we do?”
Pycca sighed and closed her eyes. With that, Fain knew the answer. But Fain wasn’t ready to give up.
“No, you can’t do that, not now,” Fain said with a softer voice. “I know that there’s something we can do. There has got to be something. It’s Earth. It’s everyone we know. It’s everything we’ve ever known.”
“Kya, how fast are we going now?” Pycca said, looking like she was trying to concentrate.
“We are traveling through space at 300,054 miles per hour and rising,” Kya said. “Without a speed limiter, we can reach Sodenia’s theoretical top speed of 350,000 miles per hour within the next ten minutes.”
“That won’t be fast enough,” Fain said.
Pycca nodded and pressed her lips together. “I need time to think.”
Larissa, August, and Eora came running onto the bridge at the same time, along with a slew of other crew members, who went straight to their stations.
“Double check everything,” Fain said, directing his words to the flight crew. “And prepare for the worst.”
“What’s happening?” August asked when he neared Fain and Pycca. “We came as fast as we could.”
“We are heading back. We think Earth is under attack,” Fain said. “We aren’t sure at this point; all we have is a recording. We are doing everything we can to find out what’s happening, but there’s radio silence.”
“Is there something blocking the coms between Earth and Sodenia?” August asked.
“We don’t know for sure,” Fain said. “But we aren’t getting any signal. Green told me last night that he would message me with new orders early in the morning, and I didn’t receive anything.”
“This is bad, this is really bad,” August said.
“Pycca, anything?” Fain asked.
“The problem is that we know so little about Sodenia’s quasar,” Pycca said. “I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do.” She pulled up a screen showing how th
e power in the ship was being distributed. “The quasar is a constant, distributing the same amount of power all over the ship. Now the propulsion system and maneuvering engines are consuming all the power being fed to them.”
“What if they had more power?” Larissa asked. “Would the ship be able to handle it?”
“I have no doubt about it,” Pycca said. “But the problem is where to get the power from. There is just so much that we don’t know about this ship.”
“The weapons’ battery modules,” Eora muttered.
Fain and the rest turned to look at her as if they had heard the one thing that would save them. Everyone, including Fain, was familiar with the massive battery modules around the ship’s vast weaponry.
“What are you saying?” Pycca said attentively.
“The weapons’ battery modules are always full,” Eora said. “Even back when we were fighting against the second of the Acram subspecies, we hardly made a dent in the battery modules. That’s because they are being constantly fed by the ship’s heart or quasar. They don’t have to be fed; they are battery modules.”
“Eora, that’s brilliant,” Pycca said. “But can we divert the power that’s going to the battery modules to the propulsion system? I’ve never thought about that before.”
“It won’t affect the weapon systems as long as we have power in the batteries,” Eora said.
“Kya, can we do this?” Pycca asked.
“It is possible,” Kya said. “However, I cannot guarantee that the gravity machines will function properly during the surge of speed.”
“How much more speed are we talking about?” Fain asked.
“If done successfully,” Kya said, “I calculate a twenty-eight- to thirty-one-fold increase in propulsion.”
“That will put us near Earth…” Pycca said and paused for a second. “Within a few hours.”
“Can we do it?” Fain asked, looking at Pycca.
“Yes, I just need a few minutes to adjust the gravity machines,” Pycca said. “Kya can start working on the power output reroute.”
“And Sodenia?” Fain asked. “Can she handle that kind of speed?”
“If there’s one thing in the solar system that can handle that speed, it’s her,” Pycca said. “She was built for this.”
“OK, let’s do it,” Fain said. “We have to get back to Earth as soon as possible. Hundreds of thousands, heck, even millions of lives are depending on that. Eora, I need you in the weapons bay. Get every weapon ready, and calculate how long they can fire without a power supply. Larissa, get everyone to strap up and hold on to something, just in case. August, I need you to have all stations ready to engage the enemy. All hands on deck.”
“Yes, sir,” they said at the same time and then went to their stations.
Fain reached over to the flashing blue button to communicate with the ship. “This is your captain speaking. It is our belief that our absence from Earth’s orbit has triggered an attack on our home planet. As of now, we have lost communication with Earth. We are not sure if it’s an attack or not, but until we find out for sure, we will treat the situation as a high-level threat. We will be heading back to Earth at around twenty-eight times our previous speed; it might be a bumpy ride. I need everyone on board this ship to cooperate to the best of your abilities with your commanding officers.”
Fain ran to the pilot’s command station and strapped himself in while it adjusted to him. The station quickly rose as the ceiling opened up to receive Sodenia’s pilot. The room began to light up within seconds with the view of the outside. He had a front-row seat to the vastness of space. The only thing he couldn’t see was a small spot below his seat. He could see the colossal ship in its entirety. All around his command station dashboard, an array of gauges appeared, letting him know the ship’s status.
“Captain,” Pycca’s voice said, a name tag appearing next to her voice on the station’s dashboard. “I believe we are ready for the speed surge. I’ve tried to adjust the gravity machines as best I could, but we might still feel a pushback. Kya can activate it at your command.”
“We’ll be leaving in t-minus ten seconds,” Fain said. “Kya, maximum power. Make it happen.”
T-minus ten seconds appeared on the command station dashboard. Fain watched intensely as the timer counted down. As it neared zero, he gripped the pilot’s controls. Then Sodenia began to roar to life with the full unleashed power of the stars. Fain felt the rapid acceleration pressing him deeper and deeper into the pilot’s seat. It was unlike anything he had felt before; he had trouble breathing, and every inch of his body felt a hundred times heavier.
As the ship settled into her new, extreme speed, the effects of the acceleration began to die down. Although Fain’s body still felt heavier than usual, it was merely an annoyance.
“Pycca, talk to me,” Fain said.
“Aside from almost having the gravity machines overheat on us, it went better than we thought, although we have a few people on the bridge who blacked out.”
“Keep me informed,” Fain said. “And keep an eye on those machines; the last thing we need is to be turned into puree before we get to Earth.”
“I’m on it, Captain,” Pycca said.
“Kya, how many people blacked out during the acceleration?” Fain asked. “Is there anyone who needs immediate medical attention?”
“There was a total of 506 blackouts,” Kya said. “One person needs medical assistance, but I have already alerted the medical bay.”
“Good call,” Fain said.
Sodenia was moving through space at a staggering speed of 10,822,000 miles per hour. At its current rate, they would reach Earth in less than two hours. Fain knew that he had to be ready for the worst.
“Eora,” Fain said. “I need you to look for visuals of the enemy at all times; even traces will do. Keep all weapons at the ready, fingers on the trigger if possible. We are going to fly in guns blazing.”
“You can count on me, sir,” Eora said.
“Kya, keep scanning all radio frequencies,” Fain said. “If you hear something, I want to know about it.”
“I will continue trying all channels,” Kya said.
Fain traveled through space for one hour and twenty-four minutes straight, trying to look for the enemy, trying to read its mind. There was the occasional interruption from Kya, letting Fain know what she had found, but it was more of the same. Explosions and a call for help. But still, he kept focused.
Two bright dots appeared next to each other on Fain’s surrounding view screen, then seconds later, they were highlighted as Earth and the moon.
“Eora, anything?” Fain asked.
“Negative,” Eora said. “We are still too far away.”
We should be able to at least hear them by now, Fain thought. What the hell is happening?
“I have been able to determine that there’s a powerful signal jammer in place,” Kya said. “And I believing it’s orbiting around the moon.”
“Make sure of it. Keep on trying to track it,” Fain said. “If we know where it is, then we can destroy it.”
Wait a minute, Fain though. Orbiting? What if whatever is attacking Earth is not on the side of the planet that is visible to us?
“Hold on tight,” Fain said. “We are going around Earth to take a look.”
Fain began steering Sodenia sixty degrees portside; the maneuver was tough on the human body. His body felt like it weighed a ton as he maneuvered the speeding ship. But once they were going in a semi-straight line, things normalized.
Earth was coming rapidly into view, but Fain did not want to slow the ship down until he saw the enemy. He knew that if they were to survive this, there had to be no holding back and no hesitation.
“Several enemy ships spotted.” As Eora said it, they appeared tagged on Fain’s screen. “They are near Earth’s atmosphere.”
“I see them,” Fain said as he kept Sodenia turning. “Can you fire now?”
“They are still too far away,
” Eora said.
“Keep the weapons hot,” Fain said. “Everyone else get ready.”
As he kept turning the ship, more ships kept appearing on screen, quickly reaching the hundreds. As the ships came into view, Fain realized with a sinking feeling that they weren’t small. Judging by the size of the smaller ships that were buzzing around them like flies, Fain could tell they were massive.
“Get the Fate cannons ready. Full power,” Fain said as the mother of all ships came into view. “Fire everything when we get a clear shot.”
Sodenia’s Fate cannons began to extend and separate themselves from the ship in order to fire. Fain took the speed down to a tenth of what it was when he saw the entirety of the alien battle fleet. It looked like a downpour of rain over Earth, but instead of rain, it was the alien fleet, and instead of a storm cloud, their flagship loomed threateningly over the planet. Their flagship was crimson, with a rounded, eight-limbed trucker sticking out of it like a giant claw.
“Kya, revert all unused power back to the battery modules,” Fain said.
“We have a clear shot,” Eora said.
“Fire, fire, fire,” Fain shouted. “Don’t hold anything back.”
Sodenia’s Fate cannons fired, unleashing a slew of energy on the enemy fleet. For a few seconds, Fain was engulfed in a bright orange light as the ship recoiled from the shot. When the bright light finally cleared, Fain saw that the cannons had ripped a clear circular hole through the fleet and its flagship. But the flagship did not look compromised, as the hole that the Fate cannons had made was in a limb of the ship. All the cannons that could reach the fleet were actively firing.
Fain’s screen lit up with dozens of warnings of incoming enemy fire. Without thinking, he began to maneuver through them as best he could while not losing sight of the alien fleet. His years of combat training in the simulator were paying off. Sodenia responded like a dream to Fain’s commands, almost instantly moving from one place to another.
“Eora, when can we fire the Fate cannons again?” Fain asked as he kept maneuvering away from the incoming fire.
