by Luigi Robles
“You’ve said it yourself,” Doris said. “You are the world’s most powerful AI. I am sure that you can manipulate data at will. Create any scenario that you want.”
“Although I’ve merged with the Herrion AI,” Kya said, “it is impossible for me to alter the information from the archives. And I am not the only source of information when it comes to the events of six months ago; there are multiple sources all around the world.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Gean interrupted. “You are hereby forbidden to release any data concerning Sodenia, the Herrion, and yourself.”
“Myself?” Kya asked with raised eyebrows.
“Don’t you consider yourself a part of ESAF?” Doris asked. “After all, you are wearing their uniform.”
“I am,” Kya said.
“Then you should know,” Doris said, “that ESAF has the highest security clearance in the land. Nothing pertaining to ESAF should be divulged in such a manner.”
“I know that well,” Kya said, struggling to keep the irritation from her voice. “I was referring to the part where I cannot release anything about myself.”
“I’ll try to make it as clear as I can,” Doris said, mockingly repeating Kya’s turn of phrase. “You are not human. You are an AI built to help humans, and thus, you are the property of ESAF and the council body.”
Property? What a low tactic, Kya thought as she began to get up from her seat. They just want to see me erupt; to show that they can’t trust me. I won’t. I won’t give them the satisfaction of letting their plan work. But I am done trying to work with them.
The reporters began to take pictures of the moment, getting closer to Kya’s desk.
“Where do you think you are going?” Gean said, raising his voice.
“Senator Gean, will you lower your voice,” the man whose desk tag identified him as Army General Nicolas M. Truman said loudly. “And all of you better back off, or I’ll have you thrown out of the room. Give the woman some space.”
“General Truman,” Gean said. “You are way out of line.”
“And so are you,” Truman said. “And so is this hearing. I am no longer going to stand by and watch you try to turn this hearing into a sham. This is a living being in front of us, and as such, she deserves as much respect as any one of us. Much more respect, if you ask me. If anyone has a problem with that, I am willing to throw the full weight of my career and authority behind what I am saying to fix the problem. Is that clear?”
The panel nodded in agreement.
“Now, Miss Kya,” Truman continued. “I might have a different perspective to offer in this hearing. If you could spare a few more minutes to hear me out…?”
Kya sat back down and waited for Truman to continue. She tried hard to calm down.
“First of all, I want to thank you,” Truman said. “Sincerely, thank you, for everything you and the flight crew of Sodenia did for us. Unlike the other members of this panel, I do happen to think that what you and the others did was nothing short of extraordinary. I know a losing scenario when I see one, and the Acram attack was exactly that. Yet somehow we are still here. And I do want you to know that I fully support you in your decision to keep Fain Jegga as captain along with the original flight crew. I will do everything I can to make it happen.”
“Thank you.”
“But there are two things that are bothering me,” Truman said. “The first and most obvious problem, and the problem we should come together to solve, is our new visitors looming near Earth’s orbit. So far, and luckily for us, they haven’t shown any signs of hostility, as we have little to no defense against a threat from space. Now, I’ve been informed that if they had shown acts of hostility, they would have been met with the full might of Sodenia. Is that right? Would you have helped us?”
“That is correct,” Kya said. “At least, as much of Sodenia’s power as I can muster by myself. It’s my full intention to keep this planet safe. Even if other powers keep denying it the best chance of survival.”
“I see,” Truman said. “So, what do you know about them exactly? We have our best teams trying to decode the message they are broadcasting, but I don’t think we are anywhere near close. What stopped you from going up to space to meet the new visitors?”
“I first knew something was coming near Earth,” Kya said, “when the sensors on board Sodenia picked up an anomaly in the fabric of space. Within mere minutes, out of nowhere, they appeared near Earth, using some kind of space jump drive. As soon as I was able to confirm the new ship’s location, I began to power up Sodenia. But then, as I scanned the ship, I saw that it was severely damaged, and the life on board it was unconscious. The message they are broadcasting states that they come in peace. I will send you the full decoded message.”
“That lets me breathe a little easier,” Truman said. “You’ll need to brief us later on everything you know. Work with me, and I will work with you.”
“I understand.”
“Now, for the second thing that’s on my mind,” Truman said. “You talked about the Acram still being a threat. Why is that? Did we not defeat their destroyer fleet?”
If you only knew the depths of the abyss we face when it comes to the Acram, Kya thought. Hope would be a word without meaning.
“According to the Herrion archives,” Kya said, “the fleet we defeated six months ago is called Paquirenta Lunar, or Vanguard Fleet. The fleet the Acram uses to gauge the full strength of a sentient civilization. If the Vanguard Fleet is ever defeated, they send Iranea Lanar, or the Golden Armada, a fleet thousands of times larger than the Vanguard Fleet, the ultimate devourer of worlds. This is the fleet responsible for the absolute supremacy of the Acram over the galaxy.”
The room was silent.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Kya said as she stood up and began to walk away. “I have to get back to my ship. My warning did not seem to have any effect on the plans to infiltrate Sodenia while I was gone. It’s a lost cause. And if I were you, I would recall your soldiers. I am in no mood to deal with them today.”
“Infiltrate?” Truman erupted. “Who gave the orders?”
The room became chaotic, with reporters and other bystanders trying to ask questions as Kya left.
“Dammit, who?” Truman yelled once more, letting his anger show.
Amid the chaos in the room, one voice stood out to Kya, thanks to the ability of her AI mind to separate sound.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Cross murmured. “Run back to the ship. By the time you get there, it will no longer be your ship. And I hope you are not counting on the old man to make things right again. Truman won’t be around that much longer.”
Before exiting the room, Kya shot a cold warning stare at Cross, and he looked surprised to see her staring at him. Without saying anything else, she walked out.
At that moment, Kya wondered if she had found the main head of the council body, the same council that had caused so many problems six months ago.
3
Shadows
Pycca was sitting down alone on the porch of her parents’ home in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She was lost in thought, as she watched the Autumn leaves fall waiting for the sun to go down. She had been at her parents’ house for over a week now, and she was having trouble digesting the events that had led her there in the first place. Not even the beautiful colors of the falling autumn leaves were enough to distract her from her thoughts.
Fourteen years ago, when she was still just a child, the first Acram attack destroyed the city she lived in, near the Pacific coast. Pycca and her parents managed to escape by the smallest of margins. However, the events that Pycca was just beginning to forget had left her parents permanently scarred, unable to enjoy life. Trying to forget about the first Acram attack, Pycca’s parents had moved as far away from any coast as they could. So, they ended up in a quiet neighborhood in the city of St. Paul.
Pycca was visiting her parents because of the commotion Kya had caused back in Washington, D.C. After Kya’s hearing, Pycc
a was immediately placed on a leave of absence. She and the rest of the flight crew would be relieved of their duties until an official flight crew for Sodenia was elected. Though she didn’t know what would happen to Fain. In fact, as she thought about it, she realized that she hadn't heard anything about him since they got back.
Recently, Fain had become one of the people she found herself thinking of the most. There was no rhyme or reason for thinking about him, but she did.
Things didn’t feel right for Pycca, there were too many things going on lately that didn’t feel right. She hadn't requested to be absent from duty. She was sure none of them would. They had saved the world, and yet there they were being kicked to the curb. Was this the process? Get rid of those who put everything on the line? Those who give everything to serve? No, it can’t be. Can it?
To make matters worse, the news was still replaying parts of Kya’s hearing, dissecting bits and pieces of it and having “experts” comment on the matter. And if it wasn’t news about the hearing, it was whatever news they had about the massive square object in Earth’s orbit. She hated it.
“We are all screwed,” Pycca murmured as she caught a falling maple leaf.
The leaf felt frail and weak in her hand. She closed her hand, and the leaf offered no resistance as it got crushed. For a few seconds, she thought of humanity as the leaf and the Acram as her hand.
“What a stupid analogy,” Pycca murmured. She opened her hand and watched as the wind blew the leaf fragments away. “Humanity isn’t as strong as the leaf.”
She hated herself for thinking that way. But what else could she do? The universe felt so big, so powerful, and she was so small and weak. What little purpose she had was stripped away from her for doing the right thing. She felt powerless.
She sighed.
“Pycca, honey,” Mother called from inside the house. “Dinner is almost ready. Why don’t you come in so you can start getting ready?”
“In a minute,” Pycca yelled back. “I’m just waiting for the sunset. I’ll be in in a little bit.”
“OK,” Mother said loudly. “Ten more minutes.”
With a long sigh, Pycca watched the sun disappear below the horizon.
If only there were a way to make things normal again, Pycca thought. But that’s impossible at this point. Either we head to the stars and somehow establish ourselves there, or the stars will come to us. Just fourteen years ago, most of the world thought that we were alone in the universe. We were so utterly wrong.
Pycca stood, went inside, and sat at the dining room table. Father and Mother were still preparing stuff in the kitchen. She liked that they were trying to live a normal life again, even with everything that was happening around them. Her parents were much better off now compared to how they were in the aftermath of the first Acram attack.
In the days, months, and even years that followed the devastation left behind by the first alien species that visited our world, Father and Mother were broken. And no matter how hard Pycca tried to talk with them, to reassure them that everything would be ok, the wall between Father and Mother grew. They were sure the end of the world was near; they were sure the only reason they were alive was, in fact, to die when the next wave of aliens came.
Though what happened to Father and Mother, wasn’t unique, it was a widespread phenomenon coined Acram Syndrome. Hundreds of thousands were affected around the world, not being able to interact with society, fearing a second coming and a complete loss of oneself, to name a few symptoms.
As Pycca grew, she struggled to take care of Father and Mother; they wouldn’t move if it weren’t for her. Things got more complicated as Pycca undertook training at ESAF, but every free second she had, she was always there for them. Though progress was made from time to time, the Acram Syndrome stuck to them stubbornly.
It wasn’t until Sodenia successfully defended earth that things returned to normal, and the Acram Syndrome receded.
“Mother,” Pycca said as she began to set the table with dishes and silverware. “I’m already here. When are we eating?”
“Start arranging the table,” Mother yelled from the kitchen. “We’re almost done.”
Pycca smiled with a sigh. From the dining room table, she could smell what they had cooked. It was smoked ham with biscuits, and she was looking forward to it for a change.
Mother and Father came out of the kitchen at the same time. Father carried the ham, while Mother balanced the biscuits, veggies, and the jar of juice.
“Do you need help?” Pycca asked, getting halfway up from her seat.
“No, no,” Mother said. “Stay there; I’m fine.”
“Are you hungry?” Father asked with a half-smile on his face as he placed the slab of ham on the side of the table where they would eat. “This has been cooking all day. I hope it’s good.”
“Yeah,” Pycca said. “Now that I am smelling everything, I’m starting to crave food.”
“It works all the time,” Father said.
They each served themselves a portion of food and began to dig in. Pycca was first, followed by Father and lastly Mother.
“Want to know want I think?” Father asked.
“Ah, not now, Charles,” Mother said, frustration edging her tone.
“Not now what?” Father said. “I was just going to comment on the food.”
“Oh, in that case,” Mother said, “go right ahead. I thought you were going to talk about the never-ending news.”
Mother and Father had picked up the unhealthy habit of watching the news from all angles after the first Acram attack. At first, the situation was pretty horrendous, to the point of them not paying attention to Pycca in order to watch the news. Pycca tried to understand and cope with the situation as much as she could, as it was the only way of releasing anxiety. Nowadays, things had been getting better for them. They were starting to watch the news less and talk about it even less often. Although receded, PTSD was still present in their lives, lurking around every corner.
“No, I don’t want to bore Pycca with it,” Father said with a smile on his face. “Besides, it’s been the same news over and over again for like a week. There are better things to talk about, like this ham. I think that if we had given it a little more time in the oven, it would have been crispier on the outside.”
“First of all,” Mother said, “you know nothing about cooking. Secondly, no. If we had left the ham in the oven for a longer time, it would have turned out dry.”
“No, no, hear me out,” Father said. “All we had to do is add more glaze, and presto, crispy ham.”
“Literally everything you are saying is wrong,” Mother said.
“What?” Father said. “I’m just trying to elevate my culinary skills to the next level. You know, following a recipe leads to the same kind of food. There’s no innovation.”
Pycca smiled while listening to her parents’ conversation. They sounded normal, and things were beginning to feel like they should.
“Oh, Pycca, honey, you might want to check your phone after you eat. It sounded while you were outside.”
For the remainder of the dinner, Pycca couldn’t take her mind off her phone. Nevertheless, she tried to keep up a normal flow of conversation with her parents. That phone was given to her by Colonel Green right before she was relieved from her post on board Sodenia.
“I need to take that wristband from you,” Colonel Green had said. “But take this, just in case.”
Colonel Green was one of the few people that Pycca knew she could trust. She just hoped that whatever news waited for her on her phone was good. She didn’t know if she could take any more bad news.
When dinner was done, she went to grab her phone and check it in the living room. To her surprise, there was a message on the screen.
ESAF URGENT
PLEASE PUT THUMB OVER THE SCANNER TO CONFIRM IDENTITY
Pycca placed her thumb over the fingerprint scanner on the right side of the phone. A few seconds later, a simple message s
howed on the screen.
Rendezvous to the nearest ESAF facility, Latitude: 45.1570785, Longitude: -93.5389335 before 2200 hours. Immediate extraction and reinstatement.
Pycca knew where the facility was, as it was where she had been dropped off by ESAF the first time around. It was a half-hour drive at most; she still had plenty of time to get ready.
“Mother, Father…” Pycca said loudly from the living room.
“What is it, Pycca?” Mother said as she walked over.
“Is it good news?” Father said as he joined her.
“Well, I’m not sure,” Pycca said as she looked up from her phone. “I think I am being reinstated? But I really have no idea. I’m leaving today, at 10 pm.”
“That’s a little odd. It came out of nowhere.” Father looked at his watch. “Aren’t these things done in the morning or something of that sort?”
“Nope. It can happen at any time.”
“Well, I hope it’s nothing dangerous,” Mother said. “And I sure hope that you aren’t going up there to meet with that dreadful thing that showed up in Earth’s orbit.”
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen.” Pycca shrugged but put on a wide smile. “But I’ll do my best, and I promise you guys that I will return home.”
“Yeah, that’s right, missy, you better promise,” Father said. “We need to hear that, and we need you to keep that promise.”
Last time she said goodbye, her parents didn’t know about her position in ESAF. All matters pertaining to the giant alien ship were top-secret, until recently. It was only when Sodenia had returned to Earth Mother and Father had found out about the role she had played.
Now, Pycca knew that Mother and Father were just trying to be supportive and not ask too many questions.
“What time do you want to leave?” Father said. “We’ll drive you.”
“Actually...” Pycca said sheepishly, rubbing her neck. “I’ll just call a cab. I’m supposed to go alone. I don’t think I was supposed to tell you in the first place.”
Although she could probably get dropped off by Mother and Father somewhere near the extraction point, the last thing she wanted to do was trigger their PTSD. They might see flying crafts or a heavy military presence. Pycca just wasn’t sure, and she didn’t want them to have any setbacks.
