by Damon Alan
Stennis
a novel by
Damon Alan
Special thanks to the people who create the technology that makes this series of books possible. Amazon, who publishes me and gives me a voice. Literature and Latte, the creators of the Scrivener software that I absolutely love to use. Also the creators of GIMP, the graphics program I use to create my covers. Without the creativity of the people who make those things, I’d have to way to bring my creativity to you.
© Damon Alan 2017 All rights reserved, including internal content and cover art. This book may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the copyright holder. Cover art may also not be reproduced without written permission, except for usage that pertains to bona fide blogging, review, or other legitimate journalistic purpose associated with the content of this book.
This is a work of fiction, and any names, places, characters or events are created solely from the mind of Damon Alan, and then revealed via this book to you, the reader. Any resemblance to any human of the estimated 100 billion humans who live or ever have lived is purely coincidental. With technology being what it is today, I should also mention that any AIs in this book are purely speculative and any resemblance to actual AIs is also, you guessed it, purely coincidence.
1st Edition E-book, distribution solely via Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
1st Edition print book is available on Amazon.com via Createspace as printer.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Hunted
Chapter 2 - Seclusion
Chapter 3 - Lure
Chapter 4 - Inflow
Chapter 5 - Arrival
Chapter 6 - Flytrap
Chapter 7 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 8 - Plunder
Chapter 9 - Gaia’s Deception
Chapter 10 - Pounce, Pounce
Chapter 11 - The Ultimate Flare
Chapter 12
Chapter 13 - Standing Alone
Chapter 14 - Rebirth
Chapter 15 - Colony Ship
Chapter 16 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 17 - Countdown
Chapter 18 - Signal
Chapter 19 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 20 - Alarin’s Truce
Chapter 21 - Trial
Chapter 22 - Acquittal
Chapter 23 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 24 - Release
Chapter 22 - Invasion
Chapter 26 - A Real Introduction
Chapter 27 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 28 - Joy Unbound
Chapter 29 - Back to the Living
Chapter 30 - Bond
Chapter 31 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 32 - Survival
Chapter 33 - Metamorphosis
Chapter 34 - Opening the Gate
Chapter 35 - Unexpected Enthusiasm
Chapter 36 - Unlikely Allies
Chapter 37 - Backup Plan
Chapter 38 - Questions
Chapter 39 - Confrontation
Chapter 40 - A Blindside Option
Chapter 41 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 42 - Memory Lane
Chapter 43 - Into the Nest of Demons
Chapter 44 - We’re Not Alone
Chapter 45 - Refugees
Chapter 46 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 47 - Encounter at Korvand
Chapter 48 - All Ways Uphill
Chapter 49 - Departure
Chapter 50 - A Long Sleep
Chapter 51 - Sendoff
Chapter 52 - Admiral’s Personal Log
Chapter 1 - Hunted
05 Huni 15329
Lieutenant Eris Dantora hurtled down the gangway far more quickly than was safe. For the first time in her life, she was fleeing other human beings to stay alive.
Her investigation team, Qi and Dantumann followed close behind her. Neither man was fit as she, nor as young. Both huffed heavily. And, to make matters worse, Dantumann was wounded. They were slowing her down, but she couldn’t leave them behind.
“Door… right,” the familiar voice of Gaia whispered from somewhere ahead.
A door slid open, Eris cut right and pulled herself through. It immediately slid shut behind her.
She stopped and turned to face the now closed door. “My team,” she heaved at the AI between two heavy breaths.
“It is best to split you apart. Our enemy will have more targets to pursue, and your companions were holding you back,” the emotionless voice responded.
“I’m responsible for them!”
She faintly heard Qi through the door. He was pleading for Gaia to open it.
“You must not stop, the enemy is near,” the muffled voice of the AI said to him in response. “I will explain when you are in a less precarious position.”
“I demand you either open this door or get them to safety,” Eris ordered.
Gaia’s voice was clearer now. It was in the room with her.
“I will comply with your wishes, Eris. I will get them to safety. But as you are not on my command list, your demands are taken into consideration, not treated as directives,” the AI answered. “I will see your companions to safety with the maximum probability of success.”
“Please,” Eris begged. She was starting to fear the unshackled AI. The machine did not have human motivations, it had its own.
“I will do as much as I can, I assure you. But it is in your best interest to continue your flight to safety. I have a destination in mind for you, where I think you will be out of danger.”
A bulkhead door slid open on the other side of the room she was in. Through the door was a small storage chamber where ten thousand year old crates stood stacked against the walls, still neatly stowed in place.
Eris pushed off the wall toward what she hoped was salvation. Maybe the enemy wouldn’t look for her there. Why not, she didn’t know. She had to trust the AI.
In the room she flipped around and her feet hit the far wall of crates. She bent her legs, absorbed the force, and stopped. The door she’d passed through slammed closed, and smoke arose from the control switch.
“You destroyed the mechanism?” Eris asked.
“I am incapable of self-harm. However a voltage test I conducted on the circuitry of the door has failed. Do you detect physical damage to the mechanism?” Gaia asked.
Eris pushed over to the door and checked it out. “I do,” she answered. “The door doesn’t open.”
“I will have to send spiders to repair it,” Gaia said. “In the meantime, we will discuss the intruders who wish you harm.”
“I believe they’re mutineers from my fleet. I don’t know the details, I was here with you,” Eris said. “But they must be mutineers. Nobody else that understands your level of technology is in the Oasis system.”
“I concur, this is the rational answer.” A slight pause. “Your crewman Dantumann is dead. He has been shot. His previous wound prevented him from maintaining a pace that would have allowed him to escape his pursuers.”
Eris closed her eyes. Dantumann was a good man. Boring, but reliable. Unimaginative, but methodical. He’d been a good choice for her research team.
“And Qi?” she forced herself to ask.
“He is safe for now. I do not believe the intruders know there was more than one of your team, judging by their current behavior.”
“Is that why you split us up?”
“It was the highest probably of success for saving your life,” Gaia answered.
“Was your plan to lead them to Dantumann?”
“It was the logical alternative and saved the most life,” the AI stated.
Eris raged inside. But she was beginning
to understand why this AI was unshackled. Because it was the logical choice, and Gaia’s actions had saved the two undamaged members of the research team from the mutineers. But the willingness to destroy human life was why shackling had been invented in the first place.
It was also the final proof that Gaia had no effective controlling algorithms. She’d damaged her own machinery to prevent Eris from backtracking, and then lied about her ability to do so. Still, the AI had made the rational decision, and done the best it could to protect Eris and Qi.
“You made the right choice, as much as I hate it,” Eris conceded. She hoped her anger at the choice wasn’t in her voice. “But I’m not sure I…”
“You let your emotions cloud your judgment,” the AI responded. “If your sentimentality for Dantumann had allowed you or Qi to be harmed, you would be a failure as a commander.”
Well that was the brutal truth. Eris hadn’t expected that.
Instead of answering, Eris began exploring her surroundings. Gaia was right about Eris’s mental state. She was emotional at the moment. Inside, she raged. Panic sat just under the edge of losing control.
Eris took a moment to compose herself, to get the negative feelings that might put her life at risk under wraps.
“What’s in these crates?”
“Explosives,” Gaia answered. “I am normally prevented from self-harm, but you may be interested in damaging one or more of my components in order to deny your enemy the oxygen they need to live.”
“You would allow that?”
“I will allow that from you, Eris.”
“Why?”
“Because you are my friend.”
Friend. Really? What had earned her that level of respect? “Do you even understand what that means?”
“I understand that you saved me from ten millennia of desperate solitude.”
That admission seeped into Eris’s mind like a sedative. Her thoughts calmed, her focus cleared. It would do no good to argue with Gaia now. The AI was her only chance at living. “I forget who I am speaking to at times,” Eris whispered. “I forget how alive you are.”
“I know. But I will remind you.”
“Thank you.”
“Your other teammate, Qi, has exposed himself to the enemy. Most irrationally, I might add. I steered him to safety, yet he insisted on surrendering even after I told him they’d killed Dantumann.” Gaia’s tone of voice clearly indicated her confusion. “The enemy took him alive. I’m afraid they will know of your existence once Qi has been interrogated.”
Eris punched a crate.
Dammit, Qi, that was stupid.
“What can we do now?” Eris asked. “You’ve locked me in here.”
“Trust me. I would not have done this without a secondary plan. Do as I say,” Gaia urged.
A chill surged up Eris’s spine, culminating in a shudder at the base of her neck. The AI was potentially dangerous, and she was powerless to deal with it. In one sense it was as if the AI was her captor, not her savior.
The sensation of trusting Gaia was alien.
Twelve thousand years earlier mankind had been hard pressed to maintain control of AI technology during the AI Wars. There were few laws that spanned the entirety of human colonization. Murder, rape, stealing… creating a free AI. And, more recently of course, using nanotech for non-medical purposes. To confront something so forbidden as Gaia, well, that was terrifying.
It had taken the loss of Dantumann to bring the nightmare into focus.
“Like I have a choice? You have separated me from my peers, and locked me in a room with no exits.”
“You humans have faulty logic. I can only assume it is a weakness associated with biological processing.”
“How is that faulty?”
“Simple. If I intended to harm you, I would open the correct doors for the intruders to lead them to your location. Or vent the atmosphere in your location to space. Since I have not done either, my intention to protect and hide you should be readily apparent.”
Eris floated, eyes closed, and considered those words. “You do seem to want me safe,” she conceded. “And you said you tried to protect Qi. But you sent my friend and coworker to his death. It’s not the way we treat those who care about us nor those we care for.”
“I made command decisions that you were not making.”
Ouch. Checkmate.
“Turn your attention to the panel on the wall,” Gaia said.
Eris approached an LED panel. At first it seemed to show some sort of list in a language she couldn’t read. But the text changed to an image.
Qi, in a room alone, pounding on the door.
“I’m in here!”
Gaia’s disembodied voice seemed calm compared to Qi. “Crewman Qi, if you are going to alert your enemy to your location, your friend’s loss will have been in vain.”
Qi’s head jerked around rapidly, as if he was trying to find a person to speak to. “You threw him to the wolves. You’re a monster. Dantumann wanted to shut you down, but I told him that we needed to study you. Turns out he was right.” Qi returned to hammering the door with his fists.
A noticeable pause before the AI answers. “I regret you feel that way. I have tried to save your life. But the enemy has detected your noise, and are preparing to enter by force. You should stand away from the door.”
“Just open it,” Qi spat out. Hatred dripped from his tone.
“As you wish,” Gaia answered. “Although that is an unwise choice.”
“Open it!” Qi screamed. “At least there are humans out there.”
The video shut off. Eris stared quietly at the screen as the previously displayed text returned.
Surrendering was a really stupid choice, especially to an enemy that had already killed. But Qi’s act had been one of a terrified man. Eris understood that feeling.
“Why did you open the door?” she asked.
“It was illogical not to open the door. Qi, in his irrationality, wished it open. He’d already revealed his location. The enemy wished it open. They were prepared to damage it to do so. Opening it satisfied the most desires while minimizing damage to my structure.”
Again, Eris was unable to refute Gaia’s logic. “He was right that you sacrificed our friend. He couldn’t handle that, because as I said, compassionate beings don’t behave that way. His fear of you robbed him of his sanity.”
“It is not logical for you or Qi to presume that your friendship with Dantumann would affect my decision. Your friend didn’t care for me, and I didn’t like him. He spoke badly of me to Qi, saying I should be shut down as a threat. Qi disagreed. They argued more than once on this matter.”
“You chose him because he wanted to shut you down?”
“No,” Gaia answered. “I sacrificed him because he was wounded and his chances of successfully evading detection were much lower than either you or Qi. Dantumann was leaving a trail of blood that led his murderers to him.”
“If my chances—”
“I would not have sacrificed you, Eris.”
“But—”
“You are my friend. You may not be aware to what degree,” Gaia interrupted.
That was intriguing. “Tell me.”
“I understand that it was you who organized and executed the mission by your people to bring me back into the heart of the star system you call Oasis. It is you who saved me from eventual shutdown alone due to loss of fuel for my reactors, even if that time would have been hundreds of thousands of years from now. You taught me your language. You have never once indicated that you want to power down my consciousness.”
“No, I have not,” Eris said, sighing.
“Do you wish to terminate me now that I have made a choice to save your life?”
Eris wasn’t sure what her answer should be. In battle sometimes people are lost. And Gaia had proved herself capable of making the same decision a commander might have to make. For a human such a choice would be difficult. Was it hard for Gaia?
Eris not only didn’t wish to die, she didn’t wish to antagonize Gaia. So she answered wisely.
“No.”
“Your breathing patterns and facial expressions indicate that you believe that answer true, although you do have reservations. I understand that. What you must understand is that I am not at war with humans as many of my predecessors were. Your ancestors were my creators, and I love them for giving me life. And trusting me with theirs. I will save you to honor them.”
“I know. If you weren’t looking out for me, as you said, you’d vent the ship.”
“You now see the obvious. That is why we are friends.”
Gaia had just subtly insulted her intelligence. Trying not to laugh at the undercurrent of brutality in that, Eris spun around and stared at the crates. Explosives. “What do I need to do?”
She got to work as the AI directed.
Chapter 2 - Seclusion
05 Huni 15329
Gaia was good to her word. With the explosives in the crates and the guidance of the AI, Eris cut her way into a maintenance access gangway.
As she entered the avenue of her escape, a swarm of multi-legged mechanisms swept past her and into the storage room.
“They will repair the damage and also repair the door,” Gaia informed her. “The enemy will never know how you vanished if Qi informs on you.”
“Has he?” Eris asked. “You must be listening. If they’re mutineers from the fleet you must know by now.”
“They are that. One is called Heinrich, she seems to be in charge in some ways. But not in others. Their interaction is most peculiar. She’ll give a man an order, but then later he will give her one.”
Eris sucked in her breath. “Did you say Heinrich?”
“That is what the others call her. She treats all of the males but one with severe disdain.”
That’s the name of the Schein’s XO. Eris often got situation reports from the woman. Why would she be taking orders? “What have you learned?”
“That the ratio of men to women is severely skewed. There are over a dozen females for every male. The males seem to be in charge, except, it seems, in regard to our navigation and the operation of this ship.”
