A.I. Destiny 5 Talisman of Tomorrow

by Timothy Ellis

  "James Anderson?"

  He nodded again.

  A hog police officer let the swan into the cell, locked it again, and they sat on the bench provided as a bed.

  "You've been charged with several counts of theft, desertion, and damage to military property."

  Jamie sighed.

  "I've admitted to the theft. But damage to military property and desertion is just ridiculous. They put a gun to my head, and made me fight superior air forces, and I was shot down. Any halfwit officer would have predicted that."

  The swan scooped its neck and head forward in acknowledgment. It typed into the tablet.

  "You'll be seen by the court today regarding the charges of theft. These are a civil matter. The military charges need to be handled by a military court. How will you plead to the charges of theft?"

  "What are my choices?"

  The swan put his head on one side, and looked at Jamie.

  "You've basically admitted guilt. You can plead 'guilty', and be granted bail, or not granted bail, depending on whether the judge finds you a risk to society, and then be held over to report back to court for conviction. Or you can plead 'not guilty', go through the same process for bail, and wait for a court date to fight your case in front of the judge."

  "What will I gain, from pleading 'not guilty'?"

  "Not much, apart from the police will have to gather more evidence, and there will more likely be more instances of guilt, and more evidence against you will count unfavourably for sentencing."

  "OK. I'll plead 'guilty', and get it over with."

  "Alright." The swan tapped into his tablet. "I'll be with you in court. Are you likely to be able to make bail?"

  Jamie shook his head.

  "I've nae assets to my name. I spent what I had getting here."

  "Hmmm." The swan shook its head, the long neck moving from side to side. "Then you'll be held for the sentencing session, probably in the jail here, but if not, in the main jail. Once sentenced, it will likely be a custodial sentence in the main jail." He looked at his tablet. "Although the military might want to extradite you to face a military court."

  Jamie nodded. If he was transported anywhere, he would escape. They had no idea he wasn't just wearing slinky clothes, and hadn't even thought to look for hidden weapons. He would make this work for him.

  "You've got a visitor."

  Jamie looked up. Patchet was there.

  "I'll leave you with your visitor. See you in court."

  The swan stood, and waddled over to the cell door, which was opened by the hog officer. The swan left, and the cell door was locked again. The officer called Patchet over.

  "Ten minutes."

  He walked over to the wall and stood on guard.

  Patchet looked through the bars of the cell.

  "I'm glad tae see ye," said Jamie.

  "Thanks for getting me out, mate," said Patchet, scratching under his armpit. "Sorry 'bout all of this."

  Patchet waved vaguely around the cells.

  "It's OK." He looked over at the hog, who didn't seem to have a tablet, and therefore no translator. "How's Dodgers?"

  "Worried. She wanted to come, but its best if she stays out of sight."

  "Tell her tae keep her heid down, and get on with her plans. She does nae need to get banged up like me."

  Patchet nodded.

  "I can get you bail."

  Jamie looked at him.

  "Thanks, but don't, it's nae worth it. They've plenty of evidence to convict and sentence me. A couple more days in jail won't make much difference."

  Patchet nodded again.

  "It might give you time to get away."

  "But you'll lose your boat."

  Patchet shrugged.

  "I've got a bit put away. I can always get another."

  Jamie was touched Patchet would go out of his way like this to help him.

  "As I said, thanks for that. But it's nae worth it. I'll look at finding a way tae escape."

  Patchet put his hands up in a gesture of defeat.

  "I'll see you after the court session."

  He held out his hand, and Jamie shook it. Patchet left, escorted out by the hog.

  Thirty Nine

  The court session was held in a small building. Jamie was brought from the jail, and held in a holding cell with a group of other prisoners, including hogs, ducks, swans, and hedgehogs. It seemed crime ran across all the species. They all looked at him curiously, and kept their distance. Prisoners were called to go into the court, and the group diminished slowly. Finally, Jamie was called.

  The judge was a black swan. Perhaps the species made a career out of the law. A large crowd of on-lookers were there, including media types, all wanting to see the human. Jamie was brought before the judge, and his advocate swan stepped up beside him, from chairs to the side.

  Jamie could see Patchet, and was dismayed to see Dodgers there as well. What was she thinking? He was chuffed, but also worried she might be recognised and arrested.

  "James Anderson?"

  Jamie nodded, and the judge looked down on him from the raised platform. His advocate nudged him and whispered.

  "You need to speak out loud."

  "Aye," Jamie affirmed.

  The judge checked his translator.

  "Is that a 'yes'?"

  "Yes," Jamie stated.

  "You are charged with three counts of theft of vehicles. How do you plead?"

  "Guilty," stated Jamie, in a firm voice.

  There was a rustle around the room, and a large collective "ooh" rolled around the on-lookers.

  "Arguments for bail."

  There followed a discussion by his advocate, a prosecutor, and the judge, about whether bail should be granted, and how much. The prosecutor was arguing for bail to be set very high, due to the dangerous nature of the prisoner. His advocate was arguing for bail to be set low due to the nature of the crime. At least they were talking about bail, Jamie thought, though he knew it was pointless.

  "Bail is set at ten thousand tors."

  Another collective noise echoed around the room, suggesting this was very high.

  "Next!"

  Jamie was ushered out to another part of the court rooms by a police officer, this time a brown duck. A form was thrust in front of him.

  "Sign here!" the duck ordered.

  He did. He was handed his backpack, which had been confiscated at his arrest.

  "You're free to go. Report back to the police station here every day at the same time, as part of your bail conditions. Any breach of conditions means you'll forfeit bail, and be held in jail until your sentencing date."

  He was given a pamphlet which explained bail conditions.

  Jamie had made bail apparently, which meant Patchet must have done it. He was glad, but appalled at the same time. He left the room, which led onto a common hallway area. Patchet and Dodgers were waiting for him.

  "I said not tae pay bail," started Jamie.

  "Wasn't me!" cried Patchet, shaking his head, and holding up his hands.

  "Then who?"

  "It was me."

  They turned to find a hedgehog standing behind them. It was flanked by a large hog, which looked like a bodyguard.

  Jamie looked carefully at the hedgehog. It seemed familiar, and had some bandages amongst its quills.

  "You were the one who rescued me from the car crash on the main road. I talked to the truck driver, and he said it was a human who'd pulled me out before both vehicles burst into flames."

  It had been dark, so Jamie wasn't sure. Hedgehogs all looked the same to him, mostly.

  "I owe you my life, so this is the least I could do. I wanted to find you to thank you in person."

  Jamie was at a loss for words. What had lost him his freedom, had also set him free.

  "I'll make sure I fulfil the bail conditions, so you get your money back."

  "There's no need." The hedgehog smiled. "I expect you to disappear, which would be a good outcome. I have
too much money, and no way to spend it all. This will be money well spent."

  Jamie smiled back.

  "Of course, as far as you know, I'll be fulfilling my bail conditions. Thank you."

  "It's me who needs to thank you. So, Thank You."

  With that, the hedgehog turned to the bodyguard, and they both left.

  Jamie smiled at the others.

  "Time to look at the ship."

  Forty

  The ship looked a wreck, what you could see of it half covered in a vine, wrapped in greenery, and blue flowers. It had come down in remote country, just by the lake, but there had obviously been times the lake had flooded, and it was also covered in mud. A long trackway could be seen, now under grass, where the ship had skidded on landing, and there was a lot of mud and dirt against the front of the ship where it had buried its nose.

  "It's still intact." Patchet was trying to paint a better picture, than he could see Jamie had. "I didn't break it too much when I, err, landed. Just some systems to bring on line, a bit of a clean, and she should be good to go."

  Jamie could see the form was an old style Corvette. A really old style one. The gun turrets on top showed through the vine if you looked hard enough, and the hull did seem to be intact, but would need to be tested.

  There was a lot of work to do.

  It was going to be difficult, as he needed to show up every day to meet bail conditions, and keep them from arresting him again. But to get here every day by boat, work on the ship, and get back to town again, meant he'd be left with little actual time to work on it. The alternative was to break bail, and hide out here. There weren't any settlements nearby, but birds still flew overhead.

  He could make this work, though. He knew he could.

  "Wha' do ye say, Patchet? If I get her going, will ye lend her to me fir a wee while?"

  Jamie grinned widely.

  "Bleedin' Scots git," Patchet returned, scratching an armpit, and running a hand back over his head, despite the lack of hair. "I'm a right galah. Alright. Get her going, and I'll think about it."

  Dodgers looked at the ship in awe. She could see how large it was, and how alien. Heli-craft were a novelty to her, something new and amazing. But this was in a different scale of amazing altogether. To think it could fly in space, was unbelievable.

  "I can help," she said.

  Jamie looked at Dodgers, and grinned again.

  "I dinna ken why ye'd want to. But I'd be grateful for the help." He frowned. "Don't ye want to get on? Meet up with the white swans?"

  Dodgers shook her head. A momentous opportunity was opening before her.

  "Get it going, and I'd like to come too."

  Jamie was surprised, but knew he shouldn't be.

  "Sure ye want to?"

  "Yes."

  "Then I'd be happy tae have ye."

  Jamie grinned at Dodgers, the human smile showing teeth, and Dodgers grinned back, the duck's open beak and shining eyes a mirror of the human's emotion.

  Patchet thought the duck wouldn't be much use, given this world had no idea about the kind of technology on his ship. He would have to do some graft to get it going, but he'd found being stuck on this world, while a quiet retirement, with plenty of fishing, alcohol, and peaceful contemplation, wasn't all it was quacked up to be. He lacked a purpose. Perhaps getting the ship going could be a purpose for a while.

  "Bloody Scots git, and a duck thing," he muttered under his breath, but still audible.

  The others laughed, and they got to work at once, starting to clear away the vines around parts of the ship they had to get to, using some large knives Patchet had on board. It was tough going, but they managed to get a good lot done, before returning to the boat for a rest, and then to sail to the town.

  The following day they realised it was taking too much time in travel. Dodgers on her own managed to get little done, and between them they'd only managed to clear the engines, top turrets, and the main airlock on the front.

  Jamie decided to break bail, saying a prayer of thanks to the hedgehog, and preparing to stay at the ship. With the main airlock now accessible, they moved inside. She was dusty, and had Patchet's usual standard of cleanliness, but seemed fine to live in. There was evidence of severe pressure on bulk heads and internal walls from the impact with the ground, but who knew what the systems were like.

  He and Dodgers camped in the ship, keeping the main airlock open for ventilation until they could test ship's systems for lighting and air circulation. Patchet was happy to go to his pub for supplies, and spend the rest of his time helping get the ship ready, living on his boat as usual.

  When they'd managed to have a look at the front of the ship internally, and the rest of the ship externally, it was determined there was no hull damage of any structural kind which couldn't be repaired by Patchet's repair droids. The patches would be rough, given the materials available, and the limitations of the droids, but she'd be space worthy. She essentially was now, but Jamie wasn't inclined to take unnecessary risks.

  Jamie helped Patchet repair the lighting and air circulation, and they both checked life support systems. There was some work needed to get them functioning properly. Dodgers did a lot of the manual work, mainly cleaning, and helping clear up damage, where equipment had broken free on landing, and crashed into internal walls.

  Slowly, but surely, taking a long three days, they got her into basic working order.

  "What's she called?" Jamie asked Patchet.

  Patchet rubbed the stubble on his chin.

  "Never gave her a name." He scratched his armpit. "It was called 'Harvest Moon' by its previous owners, but I ask you. 'Harvest Moon'? Doesn't exactly inspire you." He looked at Jamie, with a wicked glint in his eye. "We could always call her, 'Seasprite Two'."

  Jamie looked disgusted. Then, he saw Patchet cackling to himself, and laughed.

  "Stupid name for a ship," he guffawed, and they both fell about laughing.

  "We can call her something heroic," Jamie announced finally. "Venturer, or Vanguard,"

  "How about Quest," suggested Dodgers.

  They spent some rest time coming up with names, getting sillier and sillier. It remained unresolved as they finally went back to work.

  "'Seasprite Two'" mumbled Patchet under his breath, giggling.

  "Over my dead body," yelled back Jamie, from on top of the ship.

  Jamie went to sleep that night, dreaming of ship's names, and Anna, who was trying to tell him something important, but he couldn't hear her. He woke up in a sweat. He would find her, he knew it.

  He went back to sleep.

  Forty One

  Repairs were finally finished.

  Internal systems had been repaired using what spares and equipment were aboard. Being an engineer, Patchet had made sure there was enough redundancy and spares of everything, to be able to make repairs anywhere. Externally, the hull had integrity, and scans had revealed no real issues. The upper weapons turrets were fine, just having needed cleaning out since they'd been open to the weather, and were clogged with vines, debris, and mud. The engines had also been tested, with all indicators in the green.

  Jamie had finally found out where he was in the galaxy, when the ship's systems came on line. Patchet showed him the planet's location on the navigation charts.

  They were further out than he'd hoped, quite a distance from the Cat Homeworld, and nowhere near Hunter's Run. Jamie explained to Patchet how the Seasprite team had found ancient star charts, and had matched them using a special program to current star charts, and had been able to plot a location from them. He showed him the images of the star chart he'd found at the Standing Stones when he'd arrived on the planet.

  Patchet was stoically un-impressed with the explanation Jamie had given him for how he'd arrived on this planet. Strange things happened in the galaxy, and he was not surprised there were ancient powers which enabled beings to move themselves instantly from one place to another. Look at jump points. Just because humans hadn't
discovered this other form of transportation, didn't mean it wasn't possible.

  Dodgers on the other hand had ascribed Jamie's arrival to magic, except the longer she was around this strange new form of technology, the more in awe of all of it she became, and the less likely magic was involved in anything, no matter how farfetched it sounded.

  How to plot the ancient star chart onto current ones? Here was something Patchet could put his mind to. It was nice having a challenge for a change. Fishing was all very well for relaxation, but full-time? He'd started to get a bit sick of it.

  Dodgers had steadily been cleaning up the interior of the ship. It was entirely utilitarian, with few creature comforts, as Patchet's approach was minimalist. As long as there was alcohol, and his favourite chair, which he'd brought with him, and was on the boat, who needed anything else?

  There were signs the war between the black ducks and white swans was heating up. Heli-craft could be seen over the lake, and there had been some dog-fights in the distance. The Brotherhood, if it was them, had supplied the white swans with the same technology.

  Jamie felt under pressure to get going as soon as they could. Who knew what would happen if the war came to them? He also knew he'd been here for a long time. He needed to get back to civilisation. He had to find Anna. If he couldn't find the system indicated by the star chart from the Standing Stones, he'd head back to the Cat Homeworld, and hope his friends there knew where Seasprite and Anna were. The ship and team could be anywhere. Jamie felt the enormity of the task ahead of him.

  First things first. Get this ship into space.

  They downed tools as night came on, and retreated to the boat, where Patchet pulled out some beers for Jamie and Dodgers, and the local fire-water for himself. Watching the sun set, the three friends sat in companionable silence for some time.

  "I've thought of a name," said Jamie.

  "A name?" asked Patchet.

  "For the ship."

  "Oh."

  The others looked at him expectantly.

  Jamie paused.

  "Patchet's Workshop."

  They considered this for a while, sipping drinks.

  "Nice," said Patchet.